but contrariwise professing and giving out strongly that he meant to proceed with that Match And that for the Duchess of Britain he desired only to preserve his right of Seigniory and to give her in Marriage to some such Allie as might depend upon him When the three Commissioners came to the Court of England they delivered their Ambassage unto the King who remitted them to his Council where some days after they had Audience and made their Proposition by the Prior of the Trinity who though he were third in place yet was held the best Speaker of them to this effect MY Lords the King our Master the greatest and mightiest King that reigned in France since Charles the Great whose Name he beareth hath nevertheless thought it no disparagement to his Greatness at this time to propound a Peace yea and to pray a Peace with the King of England For which purpose he hath sent us his Commissioners instructed and enabled with full and ample power to treat and conclude giving us further in charge to open in some other business the secrets of his own intentions These be indeed the pretious Love-tokens between great Kings to communicate one with another the true state of their Affairs and to pass by nice Points of Honour which ought not to give Law unto Affection This I do assure your Lordships It is not possible for you to imagine the true and cordial Love that the King our Master beareth to your Sovereign except you were near him as we are He useth his Name with so great respect he remembreth their first acquaintance at Paris with so great contentment nay he never speaks of him but that presently he falls into discourse of the miseries of great Kings in that they cannot converse with their Equals but with Servants This affection to your King's Person and Virtues GOD hath put into the Heart of our Master no doubt for the good of Christendom and for purposes yet unknown to us all For other Root it cannot have since it was the same to the earl of Richmond that it is now to the King of England This is therefore the first motive that makes our King to desire Peace and League with your Sovereign Good affection and somewhat that he finds in his own Heart This affection is also armed with reason of Estate For our King doth in all candour and frankness of dealing open himself unto you that having an honourable yea and a Holy purpose to make a Voyage and War in remote parts he considereth that it will be of no small effect in point of Reputation to his Enterprize if it be known abroad that he ulin in good peace with all his Neighbour Princes and specially with the King of England whom for good causes he esteemeth most But now my Lords give me leave to use a few words to remove all scruples and miss-understandings between your Sovereign and ours concerning some late Actions which if they be not cleared may perhaps hinder this Peace To the end that for matters past neither King may conceive unkindness of other nor think the other conceiveth unkindness of him The late Actions are two that of Britain and that of Flanders In both which it is true that the Subjects swords of both Kings have encountred and stricken and the ways and inclinations also of the two Kings in respect of their Confederates and Allies have severed For that of Britain The King your Sovereign knoweth best what hath passed It was a War of necessity on our Masters part And though the Motives of it were sharp and piquant as could be yet did be make that War rather with an Olive-branch than a Laurel-branch in his hand more desiring Peace than Victory Besides from time to time he sent as it were Blank-papers to your King to write the conditions of Peace For though both his Honour and Safety went upon it yet he thought neither of them too precious to put into the King of England's hands Neither doth our King on the other side make any unfriendly interpretation of your King 's sending of Succours to the Duke of Britain for the King knoweth well that many things must be done of Kings for satisfaction of their People and it is not hard to discern what is a King 's own But this matter of Britain is now by the Act of GOD ended and passed and as the King hopesh like the way of a Ship in the Sea without leaving any impression in either of the Kings minds as he is sure for his part it hath not done in his For the Action of Flanders As the former of Britain was a War of Necessity so this was a War of Justice which with a good King is of equal necessity with danger of Estate for else he should leave to be a King The Subjects of Burgundy are Subjects in Chief to the Crown of France and their Duke the Homager and Vassal of France They had wont to be good Subjects howsoever Maximilian hath of late distempered them They fled to the King for Justice and deliverance from Oppression Justice he could not deny Purchase he did not seek This was good for Maximilian if he could have seen it in people mutined to arrest Fury and prevent Despair My Lords it may be this I have said is needless save that the King our Master is tender in any thing that may but glance upon the Friendship of England The amity between the two Kings no doubt stands entire and inviolate And that their Subjects swords have clashed it is nothing unto the publick Peace of the Crowns it being a thing very usual in Auxiliary Forces of the best and straitest Confederates to meet and draw blood in the Field Nay many times there be Ayds of the same Nation on both sides and yet it is not for all that A Kingdom divided in it self It resteth my Lords that I impart unto you a matter that I know your Lordships all will much rejoyce to hear as that which importeth the Christian Common-weal more than any Action that hath hapned of long time The King our Master hath a purpose and determination to make War upon the Kingdom of Naples being now in the possession of a Bastardship of Arragon but appertaining unto his Majesty by clear and undoubted right which if he should not by just Arms seek to recover he could neither acquit his Honour nor answer it to his People But his Noble and Christian thoughts rest not here For his Resolution and Hope is to make the Re-conquest of Naples but as a Bridge to transport his Forces into Grecia and not to spare Blood or Treasure if it were to the impawning of his Crown and dis-peopling of France till either he hath overthrown the Empire of the Ottomans or taken it in his way to Paradise The King knoweth well that this is a design that could not arise in the mind of any King that did not stedfastly look up unto GOD whose quarrel this
is and from whom cometh both the will and the Deed. But yet it is agreeable to the Person that he beareth though unworthy of the Thrice-Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church Whereunto he is also invited by the Example in more ancient time of King Henry the Fourth of England the First Renowned King of the House of Lancaster Ancestor though not Progenitor to your King who had a purpose towards the end of his time as you know better to make an Expedition into the Holy Land and by the Example also present before his eyes of that Honourable and Religious War which the King of Spain now maketh and hath almost brought to perfection for the Recovery of the Realm of Granada from the Moors And although this Enterprize may seem vast and unmeasured for the King to attempt that by his own Forces wherein heretofore a Conjunction of most of the Christian Princes hath found work enough yet his Majesty wisely considereth that sometimes smaller Forces being united under one Command are more effectual in Proof though not so promising in Opinion and Fame than much greater Forces variously propounded by Associations and Leagues which commonly in a short time after their beginnings turn to Dissociations and Divisions But my Lords that which is as a Voice from Heaven that called the King to this Enterprize is a Rent at this time in the House of the Ottomans I do not say but there hath been Brother against Brother in that House before but never any that had refuge to the Arms of the Christians as now hath Gemes Brother unto Bajazeth that reigneth the far braver man of the two the other being between a Monk and a Philosopher and better read in the Alcoran and Averroes than able to weild the Scepter of so warlike an Empire This therefore is the King our Master 's memorable and heroical Resolution for an Holy War And because he carrieth in this the person of a Christian Soldier as well as of a great Temporal Monarch he beginneth with Humility and is content for this cause to beg Peace at the hands of other Christian Kings There remaineth only rather a Civil Request than any essential part of our Negotiation which the King maketh to the King your Sovereign The King as the World knoweth is Lord in chief of the Duchy of Britain The Marriage of the Heir belongeth to him as Guardian This is a private Patrimonial Right and no business of Estate yet nevertheless to run a fair course with your King whom he desires to make another Himself and to be one and the same thing with him his Request is That with the King's Favour and Consent he may dispose of her Marriage as he thinketh good and make void the intruded and pretended Marriage of Maximilian according to Justice This my Lords is all that I have to say desiring your pardon for my weakness in the delivery THus did the French Ambassadors with great shew of their King's affection and many sugred words seek to adulce all matters between the two Kings having two things for their ends The one to keep the King quiet till the Marriage of Britain was past and this was but a Summers-fruit which they thought was almost ripe and would be soon gathered The other was more lasting and that was to put him into such a temper as he might be no disturbance or impediment to the Voyage for Italy The Lords of the Council were silent and said only That they knew the Ambassadors would look for no answer till they had reported to the King and so they rose from Council The King could not well tell what to think of the Marriage of Britain He saw plainly the ambition of the French King was to impatronize himself of the Duchy but he wondred he would bring into his House a litigious Marriage especially considering who was his Successor But weighing one thing with another he gave Britain for lost but resolved to make his profit of this business of Britain as a quarrel for War and that of Naples as a Wrench and mean for Peace being well advertised how strongly the King was bent upon that Action Having therefore conferred divers times with his Council and keeping himself somewhat close he gave a direction to the Chancellor for a formal Answer to the Ambassadors and that he did in the presence of his Council And after calling the Chancellor to him apart bade him speak in such language as was fit for a Treaty that was to end in a Breach and gave him also a special Caveat that he should not use any words to discourage the Voyage of Italy Soon after the Ambassadors were sent for to the Council and the Lord Chancellor spake to them in this sort MY Lords Ambassadors I shall make answer by the King's Commandment unto the eloquent Declaration of you my Lord Prior in a brief and plain manner The King forgetteth not his former love and acquaintance with the King your Master But of this there needeth no repetition For if it be between them as it was it is well if there be any alteration it is not words that will make it up For the Business of Britain the King findeth it a little strange that the French King maketh mention of it as matter of well-deserving at his hand For that Deserving was no more but to make him his Instrument to surprize one of his best Confederates And for the Marriage the King would not meddle in it if your Master would marry by the Book and not by the Sword For that of Flanders if the Subjects of Burgundy had appealed to your King as their Chief Lord at first by way of Supplication it might have had a shew of Justice But it was a new form of Process for Subjects to imprison their Prince first and to slay his Officers and then to be Complainants The King saith That sure he is when the French King and himself sent to the Subjects of Scotland that had taken Arms against their King they both spake in another Stile and did in Princely manner signifie their detestation of Popular Attentates upon the Person or Authority of Princes But my Lords Ambassadors the King leaveth these two actions thus That on the one side he hath not received any manner of satisfaction from you concerning them and on the other that he doth not apprehend them so deeply as in respect of them to refuse to treat of Peace if other things may go hand in hand As for the War of Naples and the Design against the Turk the King hath commanded me expresly to say That he doth wish with all his heart to his good Brother the French King that his Fortunes may succeed according to his hopes and honourable intentions And whensoever he shall hear that he is prepared for Grecia as your Master is pleased now to say that he beggeth a Peace of the King so the King will then beg of him a part in that War
Attendance of the Earl of Northumberland who with a great Troop of Lords and Ladies of Honour brought her into Scotland to the King her Husband This Marriage had been in Treaty by the space of almost three years from the time that the King of Scotland did first open his mind to Bishop Fox The Summ given in Marriage by the King was ten thousand Pounds And the Joynture and Advancement assured by the King of Scotland was two thousand Pounds a year after King James his Death and one thousand Pounds a year in present for the Ladys Allowance or Maintenance This to be set forth in Lands of the best and most certain Revenue During the Treaty it is reported that the King remitted the matter to his Council And that some of the Table in the Freedom of Counsellors the King being present did put the Case that if God should take the King 's two Sons without Issue that then the Kingdom of England would fall to the King of Scotland which might prejudice the Monarchy of England Whereunto the King himself replied That if that should be Scotland would be but an Accession to England and not England to Scotland for that the greater would draw the less And that it was a safer Union for England than that of France This passed as an Oracle and silenced those that moved the Question The same year was fatal as well for Deaths as Marriages and that with equal temper For the Joys and Feasts of the two Marriages were compensed with the Mournings and Funerals of Prince Arthur of whom we have spoken and of Queen Elizabeth who dyed in Child-bed in the Tower and the Child lived not long after There dyed also that year Sir Reginold Bray who was noted to have had with the King the greatest Freedom of any Counsellor but it was but a Freedom the better to set off Flattery Yet he bare more than his just part of Envy for the Exactions At this time the King's Estate was very prosperous secured by the Amity of Scotland strengthned by that of Spain cherished by that of Burgundy all Domestick Troubles quenched and all Noise of War like a Thunder a-far-off going upon Italy Wherefore Nuture which many times is happily contained and refrained by some Bands of Fortune began to take place in the King carrying as with a strong Tide his Affections and Thoughts unto the gathering and heaping up of Treasure And as Kings do more easily find Instruments for their Will and Humour than for their Service and Honour He had gotten for his purpose or beyond his purpose two Instruments Empson and Dudley whom the people esteemed as his Horse-Leeches and Shearers bold men and careless of Fame and that took Toll of their Master 's Grist Dudley was of a good Family Eloquent and one that could put Hateful Business into good Language But Empson that was the Son of a Sieve-maker triumphed always upon the Deed done putting off all other respects whatsoever These two Persons being Lawyers in Science and Privy Counsellors in Authority as the corruption of the best things is the worst turned Law and Justice into Wormwood and Rapine For first their manner was to cause divers Subjects to be indicted of sundry Crimes and so far forth to proceed in form of Law But when the Bills were found then presently to commit them And nevertheless not to produce them to any reasonable time to their Answer but to suffer them to languish long in Prison and by sundry artificial Devices and Terrours to extort from them great Fines and Ransoms which they termed Compositions and Mitigations Neither did they towards the end observe so much as the Half-face of Justice in proceeding by Indictment but sent forth their Precepts to attach men and convent them before themselves and some others at their private Houses in a Court of Commission and there used to shuffle up a Summary Proceeding by Examination without tryal of Jury assuming to themselves there to deal both in Pleas of the Crown and Controversies Civil Then did they also use to enthral and charge the Subjects Lands with Tenures in Capite by finding False Offices and thereby to work upon them for Wardships Liveries Primier Seisins and Alienations being the fruits of those Tenures refusing upon divers Pretexts and Delays to admit men to traverse those False Offices according to the Law Nay the King's Wards after they had accomplished their full Age could not be suffered to have Livery of their Lands without paying excessive Fines far exceeding all reasonable Rates They did also vex men with Informations of Intrusion upon scarce colourable Titles When men were Out-lawed in Personal Actions they would not permit them to purchase their Charters of Pardon except they paid great and intolerable summs standing upon the strict Point of Law which upon Out-lawries giveth Forfeiture of Goods Nay contrary to all Law and Colour they maintained the King ought to have the half of mens Lands and Rents during the space of full two years for a Pain in Case of Out-lawry They would also ruffle with Jurors and enforce them to find as they would direct and if they did not Convent them Imprison them and Fine them These and many other Courses fitter to be buried than repeated they had of Preying upon the People both like Tame Hawks for their Master and like Wild Hawks for themselves in so much as they grew to great Riches and Substance But their principal working was upon Penal Laws wherein they spared none great nor small nor considered whether the Law were possible or impossible in Use or Obsolete But raked over all old and new Statutes though many of them were made with intention rather of Terrour than of Rigour having ever a Rabble of Promoters Questmongers and leading Jurors at their Command so as they could have any thing found either for Fact or Valuation There remaineth to this day a Report that the King was on a time entertained by the Earl of Oxford that was his principal Servant both for War and Peace nobly and sumptuously at his Castle at Henningham And at the King 's going away the Earl's Servants stood in a seemly manner in their Livery-Coats with Cognisances ranged on both sides and made the King a 〈◊〉 The King called the Earl to him and said My Lord I have heard much of your Hospitality but I see it is greater than the speech These handsom Gentlemen and Yeomen which I see on both sides of me are sure your Menial Servants The Earl smiled and said It may please your Grace that were not for mine ease They are most of them my Retainers they are come to do me service at such a time as this and chiefly to see your Grace The King started a little and said By my faith my Lord I thank you for my good Cheer but I may not endure to have my Laws broken in my sight My Attorney must speak with you And it is part of the Report
not knowing what course to run And this is thought to be the cause of his so extraordinary liberality toward the French The King being then in progress and hunting at Waltham it happened that Stephen Gardiner Principal Secretary of Estate after Bishop of Winton and Fox the King's Almoner after Bishop of Hereford were billeted in the house of a Gentleman named Cressey who had sent his two Sons to be brought up at Cambridge under the tutelage of Thomas Cranmer Doctor in Divinity a man both very learned and virtuous The Plague then spreading it self in Cambridge Cranmer with his two Pupils betook himself to Mr. Cressey their Father his house Where Gardiner and Fox among other table-talk discoursing of the King's Suit concerning his Divorce which had so many years depended in the Court of Rome undecided Cranmer said that he wondred the King required not the opinions of the most famous learned men that were any where to be found of whom the world had many far more learned than the Pope and and followed not their judgments What Cranmer had as it were let fall by chance they report to the King who suddenly apprehending it said that this fellow whosoever he was had hit the nail on the head and withal demanding his name caused Cranmer to be sent for whom he commended for his but too late advice which course if he had taken but five years before he should now have had an hundred thousand Pounds in his Purse which he had unprofitably in this Suit cast away on the Court of Rome he commands Cranmer to write a Tract concerning this Question wherein having drawn together what Reasons he could for the confirmation of his advice he should conclude with his own opinion Cranmer did it very readily and is thereupon with Sir Thomas Bolen lately created Earl of Wiltshire Carne Stokesley and Benet Doctors of Law with others sent on an Embassie to Rome Cranmer's Book is to be presented to his Holiness and they are commanded to challenge the Court of Rome to a Disputation wherein the Contents of that Book should be maintained the Argument whereof was That by the authority of holy Scripture ancient Fathers and Councils it was utterly unlawful for any man to marry his Brother's Widow and that no such marriage could be licensed or authorized by the Pope's Dispensation This being done the King's intent was they should procure the opinions of all the Universities throughout Europe by whom if he found his former Marriage condemned then without farther expecting the approbation of the See of Rome he was resolved to run the hazard of a second To this the amity of the French seeming very conducible the King had by his former liberality sought to oblige him The Ambassadors came to Rome had audience were promised a publick Disputation whereof they were held so long in expectation that perceiving their stay there to be to little purpose they all returned into England except Cranmer who with the same instructions that he had formerly been sent to the Pope was to go to the Emperour whose Court was then in Germany There this good and learned man hitherto no friend to Luther while he defends his own Book and the King's Divorce against the most learned either of Protestants or Papists is thought to have been seasoned with the leaven of that Doctrine for which after he had been twenty years Archbishop of Canterbury he was most cruelly burned While Cranmer thus laboured abroad the King at home deals with Langey the French Ambassador by whose means with the forcible Rhetorick saith one of some English Angels he obtained of the Universities of Paris with the rest throughout France Pavia Padua Bononia and others this Conclusion That the Pope who hath no power over the Positive Law of God could not by his Dispensation ratifie a Marriage contracted between a Brother and a Brother's Widow it being forbidden by the express words of Scripture The eighth of December the King graced three noble and worthy men with new Titles of Honour Thomas Bolen Viscount Rochfort the King 's future Father-in-Law was created Earl of Wiltshire Robert Ratcliff Viscount Fitz-Walter of the noble Family of the Fitz-Walters Earl of Sussex in which honour his Son Thomas his Nephews Thomas first then Henry Brother to Thomas and now Robert the Son of Henry have succeeded him And George Lord Hastings was made Earl of Huntingdon who left it to his Son Francis Father of Henry who deceased without issue and George Grandfather to Henry the now Earl by Francis who died before his Father ANNO DOM. 1530. REG. 22. VV Illiam Tyndal having translated the New Testament into English and procured it to be printed at Antwerp had secretly dispersed many copies thereof thoughout England Whereat the Bishops and Clergy especially those that were most addicted to the Doctrine of Rome stormed exceedingly saying that this Translation was full of errours and that in the Prefaces and elsewhere it contained many things contrary to the Truth The King being angry with the Pope had long since determined to free himself from his usurped power And therefore admonished the murmuring Clergy to correct this Book not to suppress it for it was a most profitable work and very necessary for the discovery of the deceits of the Court of Rome the tyranny whereof was become intolerable to all the Princes of Christendom Whereupon he giveth order to the Bishops and some other learned men to set forth a new Translation which his Subjects might read with safety and profit The hope of prevailing with the Pope by the French King's means had drawn Henry to send on a second Embassage to the Pope the Earl of Wiltshire Doctor Stokesley Elect of London and Edward Lee Wolsey his Successor in York They found the Pope at Bononia with the Emperour but had no other answer to their demands than that his Holiness when he came to Rome would endeavour to do the King justice Till then he could do nothing Fair means not prevailing the King runs another course By publick Proclamation throughout the Kingdom he forbids all commerce between his Subjects and the Bishop of Rome commanding that no man should receive any thing from or send any thing especially money unto him either by exchange or any other means calling him Tyrant the Harpy of the World the common Incendiary and deeming him utterly unworthy of that glorious title which he had vaingloriously usurped Christ's Vicar This in September But the wealth of the Clergy being very great and considering how they had in the Reigns of his Predecessors strongly sided with the Pope the King was somewhat jealous of them To curb them he condemns the whole Clergy throughout the Kingdom in a Praemunire for that without licence from his Majesty they had been obedient to the authority of the Pope in acknowledging Wolsey for his Legate The Clergy of the Province of Canterbury being assembled in Convocation buy their
the Church And to add more majesty to their act by some devout Solemnity they go in Procession to Pauls singing that admirable Hymn of those holy Fathers St. Ambrose and St. Augustine commonly known by its first words Te Deum Then they dispatcht away some Companies to seize on the Tower and command the Duke of Suffolk to render himself The Duke as easily dejected at the news as he had formerly been elevated by vain hope entring his Daughters Chamber forbad the farther use of Royal Ceremonies wishing her to be content with her return to a Private fortune Whereto she answered with a setled countenance Sir I better brook this message than my forced advancement to Royalty out of obedience to you and my Mother I have grievously sinned and offered violence to my self Now I do willingly and as obeying the motions of my Soul relinquish the Crown and endeavour to salve those faults committed by others if at least so great an errour may be salved by a willing relinquishment and ingenuous acknowledgement Having spoken thus much she retired into a withdrawing-room more troubled at the Danger she had incurred than the defeasance of so great hopes The Duke himself presently repaired to the rest of the Council and subscribed to their Decree This Proclamation was on the nineteenth of July published and entertained with such Acclamations that no part of it could be heard after the first mention of Queen Maries Name The Earl of Arundell and the Lord Paget having thus ordered this weighty Affair accompanied with thirty Horse rid post that night unto the Queen to certifie her of the gladsom tidings of her Subjects loyal intentions In the mean time the Lords of the Council certifie Northumberland of these Passages commanding him withal to subscribe to the Decree and dismiss his Army But he out of the Presage of his own Fortune had before the receipt of their Letters proclaimed her Queen at Cambridge where in a counterfeit joy he threw up his Cap with the sincerer multitude Then he cashiered the rest of his wavering Companies and almost all the Lords who had hitherto followed him with a Legal Revolt passing over to the Queen and making Northumberland the sole author and cause of these disloyal Distractions were upon their Submission pardoned Lady Jane having as on a Stage for ten days only personated a Queen was committed to safe custody and the Ladies who had hitherto attended her were commanded each to their homes The Duke of Northumberland was by the Queens command apprehended by the Earl of Arundell and committed to the Tower The manner of his taking is reported to have been thus After so many checks uncertain what course to take resolved to flie but not knowing whether the Pensioners who with their Captain Sir John Gates had followed him in this Expedition while he was pulling on his Boots seised on him saying that It was fit they should excuse themselves from the imputation of Treason by his testimony The Duke withstanding them and the matter being likely to grow to blows at the very instant came those Letters from the Council which commanded them all to lay aside their Arms and peaceably to repair to their homes These Letters took up the matter and set the Duke at liberty which notwithstanding lasted not long For the next morning as he was ready to take Horse the Earl of Arundell intercepted him and with him apprehended the Earl of Huntingdon the Earl of Warwick Northumberland's eldest Son and two others younger Lord Ambrose and Lord Henry Dudley Sir Andrew Dudley the Duke's Brother Sir Thomas Palmer Sir John Gates his Brother Henry Gates and Doctor Edwin Sands who on the five and twentieth of July were brought to London and presently committed to the Tower The Earl of Huntingdon was not long after set at liberty but his Son was presently Sir John Gates whom Northumberland accused to have been the contriver of all this mischief and Sir Thomas Palmer were after Executed The Earl of Warwick died in Prison The Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley were Pardoned Henry was afterward slain with a shot at the Siege of St. Quintin but Ambrose finding Fortune more propitious out-lived Mary and by Queen Elizabeth created Earl of Warwick long flourished in the happiness of her Favour Sir Andrew Dudley after his Condemnation was also Pardoned Doctor Sands being then Vicechancellour of the University of Cambridge had by Northumberland's command in the Pulpit publickly impugned Queen Maries Cause and defended that of Lady Jane but with that Wisdom and Moderation although upon the short warning of some few hours that he abundantly satisfied the Duke and yet did not so deeply incur the displeasure of the adverse part but that his Friends prevailed with the Queen for his Pardon So that after a years Imprisonment he was set at liberty and presently fled over into Germany After the death of Queen Mary returning from his voluntary Exile he was Consecrated Bishop of Worcester from which See he was translated to London and thence again to the Archbishoprick of York A man for his Learning Virtue Wisdom and Extract very famous but most especially happy in his Issue whereof many were admirable for their Endowments both internal and external and of whom we have in our Age seen three honoured with Knighthood On the six and twentieth of July the Marquis of Northampton afterward Condemned and Pardoned Doctor Ridley Bishop of London who two years after was Burned at Oxford and beside many others Lord Robert Dudley that great Earl of Leicester under Queen Elizabeth were brought to the Tower On the seven and twentieth the Duke of Suffolk to whom the Queen with admirable Clemency within four days restored his liberty Sir John Cheeke King Edward's Schoolmaster Sir Roger Cholmley Chief Justice of the King's Bench and Sir Edmond Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas were committed to the same place who were all on the third of September set at liberty On the thirtieth of July the Lady Elizabeth accompanied by a great train of Nobles Knights Gentlemen and Ladies to the number of five hundred some say a thousand set forward from the Strand through London and so to Wansted towards the Queen to congratulate her happy Success in vindicating her Right to the Crown Who on the third of August having dismissed her Army which had not yet exceeded the number of thirteen thousand attended by all the Nobility made a triumphant entrance through London to the Tower where the Duke of Norfolk Edward Courtney Son to the Marquis of Exceter Beheaded in the year 1538 Gardiner late Bishop of Winchester and Anne Duchess of Somerset presented themselves on their Knees and Gardiner in the name of them all spake a congratulatory Oration which ended the Queen courteously raised them and kissing each of them said These are all my own Prisoners and gave order for their present discharge Edward Courtney she restored to his Father's honours making
the King remits himself to your grave and mature Advice whereupon he purposeth to rely This was the effect of the Lord Chancellor's Speech touching the Cause of Britain For the King had commanded him to carry it so as to affect the Parliament towards the Business but without engaging the King in any express Declaration The Chancellor went on FOR that which may concern the Government at home the King hath commanded me to say unto you That he thinketh there was never any King for the small time that he hath reigned had greater and juster cause of the two contrary Passions of Joy and Sorrow than his Grace hath Joy in respect of the rare and visible Favours of Almighty GOD in girting the Imperial Sword upon his side and assisting the same his Sword against all his Enemies and likewise in blessing him with so many good and loving Servants and Subjects which have never failed to give him faithful Counsel ready Obedience and couragious Defence Sorrow for that it both not pleased God to suffer him to sheath his Sword as he greatly desired otherwise than for Administration of Justice but that he hath been forced to draw it so oft to cut off Trayterous and disloyal Subjects whom it seems God hath left a few amongst many good as the Canaanites among the People of Israel to be thorns in their sides to tempt and try them though the end hath been always God's Name be blessed therefore that the Destruction hath faln upon their own Heads Wherefore his Grace saith That he seeth that it is not the Blood spelt in the Field that will save the Blood in the City not the Marshal's Sword that will set this Kingdom in perfect Peace But that the true way is to stop the Seeds of Sedition and Rebellion in their beginnings and for that purpose to devise confirm and quicken good and wholsom Laws against Riots and unlawful Assemblies of People and all Combinations and Confederacies of them by Liveries Tokens and other Badges of Factious dependance that the Peace of the Land may by these Ordinances as by Bars of Iron be soundly bound in and strengthned and all Force both in Court Countrey and private Houses be supprest The care hereof which so much concern eth your selves and which the nature of the Times doth instantly calls for his Grace commends to your Wisdoms And because it is the King's desire that this Peace wherein he hopeth to govern and maintain you do not bear only'unto you Leaves for you to sit under the shade of them in Safety but also should bear you fruit of Riches Wealth and Plenty Therefore his Grace prays you to take into consideration matter of Trade as also the Manufactures of the Kingdom and to repress the bastard and barren Employment of Moneys to Usury and unlawful Exchanges that they may be as their natural use is turned upon Commerce and lawful and Royal Trading And likewise that Our People be set on work in Arts and Handy-crafts that the Realm may subsist more of it self that Idleness be avoided and the draining out of our Treasure for Foreign Manufactures stopped But you are not to rest here only but to provide further that whatsoever Merchandize shall be brought in from beyond the Seas may be employed upon the Commodities of this Land whereby the Kingdoms stock of Treasure may be sure to be kept from being diminished by any over-trading of the Foreiner And lastly because the King is well assured that you would not have him poor that wishes you rich he doubteth not but that you will have care as well to maintain his Revenues of Customs and all other Natures as also to supply him with your loving Ayds if the case shall so require The rather for that you know the King is a good Husband and but a Steward in effect for the Publick and that what comes from you is but as Moisture drawn from the Earth which gathers into a Cloud and falls back upon the Earth again And you know well how the Kingdoms about you grow more and more in Greatness and the Times are stirring and therefore not fit to find the King with an empty Purse More I have not to say to you and wish that what hath been said had been better exprest But that your Wisdoms and good Affections will supply GOD bless your Doings IT was no hard matter to dispose and affect the Parliament in this Business as well in respect of the Emulation between the Nations and the Envy at the late growth of the French Monarchy as in regard of the Danger to suffer the French to make their approaches upon England by obtaining so goodly a Maritim Province full of Sea-Towns and Havens that might do mischief to the English either by Invasion or by interruption of Traffick The Parliament was also moved with the point of Oppression for although the French seemed to speak Reason yet Arguments are ever with multitudes too weak for Suspitions Wherefore they did advise the King roundly to embrace the Britons Quarrel and to send them speedy Ayds and with much alacrity and forwardness granted to the King a great rate of Subsidy in contemplation of these Ayds But the King both to keep a decency towards the French King to whom he 〈◊〉 himself to be obliged and indeed desirous rather to shew War than to make it sent new solemn Ambassadors to intimate unto him the Decree of his Estates and to iterate his motion that the French would desist from Hostilitiy or if War must follow to desire him to take it in good part if at the motion of his People who were sensible of the cause of the Britons as the ancient Friends and Confederates he did send them Succours with protestation nevertheless that to save all Treaties and Laws of Friendship he had limited his Force to proceed in ayd of the Britons but in no wise to war upon the French otherwise than as they maintained the possession of Britain But before this formal Ambassage arrived the Party of the Duke had received a great blow and grew to manifest declination For near the Town of Saint Alban in Britain a Battel had been given where the Britons were overthrown and the Duke of Orleance and the Prince of Orange taken Prisoners there being slain on the Britons part six thousand men and amongst them the Lord Woodvile and almost all his Souldiers valiantly fighting And of the French part one thousand two hundred with their Leader James Galeot a great Commander When the news of this Battel came over into England it was time for the King who now had no subterfuge to continue further Treaty and saw before his Eyes that Britain went so speedily for lost contrary to his hopes knowing also that with his People and Foreiners both he sustained no small Envy and disreputation for his former delays to dispatch with all possible speed his Succour into Britain which he did under the Conduct of Robert Lord Brook
Exactions having lived Two and Fifty Years and thereof Reigned Three and Twenty Years and Eight Months being in perfect Memory and in a most Blessed Mind in a great Calm of a Consuming Sickness passed to a better World the Two and Twentieth of April 1508. at his Palace of Richmond which himself had Built THis King to speak of him in Terms equal to his Deserving was one of the best sort of Wonders a Wonder for Wise-men He had parts both in his Virtues and his Fortune not so 〈◊〉 for a Common-place as for Observation Certainly he was Religious both in his Affection and Observance But as he could see clear for those times through Superstition so he would be blinded now and than by Humane Policy He advanced Church-men he was tender in the Priviledge of Sanctuaries though they wrought him much Mischief He built and endowed many Religious Foundations besides his Memorable Hospital of the Savoy And yet was he a great Alms-giver in secret which shewed that his Works in publick were dedicated rather to God's glory than his own He professed always to love and seek Peace and it was his usual Preface in his Treaties That when Christ came into the World Peace was sung and when He went out of the World Peace was bequeathed And this Virtue could not proceed out of Fear or Softness for he was Valiant and Active and therefore no doubt it was truly Christian and Moral Yet he knew the way to Peace was not to seem to be desirous to avoid Wars Therefore would be make Offers and Fames of Wars till he had mended the Conditions of Peace It was also much that one that was so great a Lover of Peace should be so happy in War For his Arms either in Forein or Civil Wars were never Infortunate neither did he know what a Disaster meant The War of his Coming in and the Rebellions of the Earl of Lincoln and the Lord Awdley were ended by Victory The Wars of France and Scotland by Peaces sought at his hands That of Britain by accident of the Duke's death The Insurrection of the Lord Lovel and that of Perkin at Exceter and in Kent by flight of the Rebels before they came to Blows So that his Fortune of Arms was still Inviolate The rather sure for that in the quenching of the Commotions of his Subjects he ever went in Person Sometimes reserving himself to back and second his Lieutenants but ever in Action and yet that was not meerly Forwardness but partly Distrust of others He did much maintain and countenance his Laws which nevertheless was no Impediment to him to work his Will For it was so handled that neither Prerogative nor Profit went to Diminution And yet as he would sometimes strain up his Laws to his Prerogative so would he also let down his Prerogative to his Parliament For Mint and Wars and Martial Discipline things of absolute Power he would nevertheless bring to Parliament Justice was well administred in his time save where the King was Party Save also that the Council-Table intermedled too much with Meum and Tuum For it was a very Court of Justice during his time especially in the Beginning But in that part both of Justice and Policy which is the Durable Part and cut as it were in Brass or Marble which is The making of good Laws he did excell And with his Justice he was also a Merciful Prince as in whose time there were but three of the Nobility that suffered the Earl of Warwick the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Awdley Though the first two were instead of Numbers in the Dislike and Obloquie of the People But there were never so great Rebellions expiated with so little Blood drawn by the hand of Justice as the two Rebellions of Black-heath and Exceter As for the Severity used upon those which were taken in Kent it was but upon a Scum of People His Pardons went ever both before and after his Sword But then he had withal a strange kind of Interchanging of large and inexpected Pardons with severe Executions Which his Wisdom considered could not be imputed to any Inconstancy or Inequality but either to some Reason which we do not now know or to a Principle he had set unto himself That he would vary and try both ways in turn But the less Blood he drew the more he took of Treasure And as some construed it he was the more sparing in the One that he might be the more pressing in the Other for both would have been intolerable Of Nature assuredly he coveted to accumulate Treasure and was a little Poor in admiring Riches The People into whom there is infused for the preservation of Monarchies a natural Desire to discharge their Princes though it be with the 〈◊〉 charge of their Counsellors and Ministers did impute this unto Cardinal Morton and Sir Reginold Bray who as it after appeared as Counsellors of ancient Authority with him did so second his Humours as nevertheless they did temper them Whereas Empson and Dudley that followed being Persons that had no Reputation with him otherwise than by the servile following of his Bent did not give way only as the first did but shape him way to those Extremities for which himself was touched with remorse at his Death and which his Successor renounced and sought to purge This Excess of his had at that time many Glosses and Interpretations Some thought the continual Rebellions wherewith he had been vexed had made him grow to hate his People Some thought it was done to pull down their Stomachs and to keep them low Some for that he would leave his Son a Golden-fleece Some suspected he had some high Design upon Forein parts But those perhaps shall come nearest the truth that fetch not their reasons so far off but rather impute it to Nature Age Peace and a Mind fixed upon no other Ambition or Pursuit Whereunto I should add that having every day Occasion to take notice of the Necessities and Shifts for Money of other great Princes abroad it did the better by Comparison set off to him the Felicity of full Coffers As to his expending of Treasure he never spared Charge which his Affairs required and in his Buildings was Magnificent but his Rewards were very limited So that his Liberality was rather upon his own State and Memory than upon the Deserts of others He was of an High Mind and loved his own Will and his own Way as One that revered himself and would Reign indeed Had he been a Private-man he would have been termed Proud But in a wise Prince it was but keeping of Distance which indeed he did towards all not admitting any near or full Approach neither to his Power or to his Secrets For he was governed by none His Queen notwithstanding she had presented him with divers Children and with a Crown also though he would not acknowledge it could do nothing with him His Mother he reverenced much heard little For any Person
have been given for the King Henry having I know not how conceived some hope of the Legates good intents caused a seat to be placed for himself behind the hangings under the covert whereof he might unseen hear whatsoever was spoken or passed in Court The Cardinals being seated the King's Advocates earnestly requiring that sentence might be given on their side Campegius made this Oration well beseeming the constancy of a man not unworthy of the place he supplied I have heard and diligently examined whatsoever hath been alledged in the King's behalf And indeed the arguments are such that I might and ought pronounce for the King if two reasons did not controll and curb my desires of doing his Majesty right The Queen you see withdraws her self from the judgment of this Court having before us excepted against the partiality of the place where she saith nothing can be determined without the consent of the Plaintif Moreover his Holiness who is the fountain and life of our authority hath by a messenger given us to understand that he hath reserved this cause for his own hearing so that if we would never so fain proceed any farther peradventure we cannot I am sure we may not Wherefore which only remaineth I do here dissolve the Court Other than this as the case stands I cannot do and I beseech them whom this Cause concerns to take in good part what I have done Which if they will not although it may trouble me yet not so much as to regard the threats of any one I am a feeble old man and see death so near me that in a matter of so great consequence neither hope nor fear nor any other respect but that of the Supreme Judge before whom I find my self ready to appear shall sway me How the King was pleased at this you may easily conceive It is reported that the Duke of Suffolk knowing the King to be present and conscious of his infirmity in a great rage leaping out of his Chair bountifully bestowed a volley of curses upon the Legates saying It was never well with England since it had any thing to do with Cardinals To whom Wolsey returned a few words saying That it was not in his power to proceed without Authority from the Pope and that no man ought to accuse them for not doing that whereto their power did not extend But the King 's implacable anger admitted of no excuse Wolsey himself must become a Sacrifice to appease it As for Campegius he tasted nevertheless of the King's bounty and had leave to depart But at Calais his carriages were searched by the King's command The pretence was that Wolsey intending an escape had by Campegius conveyed his treasures for Rome But the Bull was the Treasure so much sought after The King could not believe it was burned and if it were found it was enough to countenance his second Marriage But found it was not no nor scarce so much money in all the Cardinal's carriages as had been given him by the King Wolsey his rising and his fall were alike sudden neither of them by degrees but as the Lion gets his prey by leaps Shortly after the departure of his Collegue upon the eighteenth of October the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk in his Majesties name commanded him to surrender the Great Seal But he pleaded That the King had by Patent made him Lord Chancellour during term of life and by consequence committed the custody of the Great Seal to him Nevertheless he would resign his place if his Majesty so commanded But he thought it not fit having received the Seal from the King to deliver it to any other but upon especial Command The Lords returning to Windsor where the Court then was the next day brought the King's Letters whose Mandate the Cardinal forthwith obeyed In this Dignity the six and twentieth of October Sir Thomas More succeeded whose admirably general Learning is so well known to the world that I shall not need to speak any thing of it Wolsey being removed from the Chancellorship is presently after accused of Treason and that which hath been seldom seen in the Parliament that so without hearing he might be condemned by Act. But he perceiving the drist of his Adversaries procured one of his attendants Thomas Cromwel he who afterward became so potent to be elected a Burgess of the Lower House The Cardinal being daily informed by him what things were laid to his charge did by Letter instruct him what to answer Cromwel although no Scholar was very wise and eloquent Which good parts he so faithfully employed in the defence of his Lord that the House acquitted him and himself became famous opening withal by these means a way to those Honours to which the current of a few years advanced him Even they who hated Wolsey honoured Cromwel whose wisdom industry but above all fidelity in defending his dejected Lord was admirable Now the Cardinal because he would not be found a Traytor is faln into a Praemunire Whereupon he is thrust as it were naked forth his own house his great wealth is seized on by the King's Officers and he fain to borrow furniture for his house and money for his necessary expences Judges are sent into the house whereto he was confined to take his answer to the objected crime which was that without leave from the King he had dared so many years to exercise his power Legatine To which calumny for can any man believe it to be other he made this answer I am now sixty years old and have spent my days in his Majesties service neither shunning pains nor endeavouring any thing more than next my Creatour to please him And is this that heinous offence for which I am at this age deprived of my Estate and forced as it were to beg my bread from door to door I expected some accusation of a higher strain as Treason or the like not for that I know my self conscious of any such matter but that his Majesties wisdom is such as to know it little beseems the constancy and magnanimity of a King for a slight fault to condemn and that without hearing an ancient servant for so many years next his Person greatest in his favour and to inflict a punishment on him more horrid than death What man is he who is so base minded that he had not rather a thousand times perish than see a thousand men so many my Family numbreth of whose faithful service he hath had long tryal for the most part to perish before his eyes But finding nothing else objected I conceive great hope that I shall as easily break this machination of combined envy as was that late one against me in the Parliament concerning Treason It is well known to his Majesty of whose justice I am confident that I would not presume to execute my power Legatine before he had been pleased to ratifie it by his Royal Assent given under his Seal which
notwithstanding I cannot now produce that and all my goods as you well know being taken from me Neither indeed if I could would I produce it For to what end should I contend with the King Go therefore and tell his Majesty that I acknowledge all that I have but alas what speak I of what I have who indeed have nothing left me or whatsoever I had to be derived from his Royal Bounty and do think it good reason that he should revoke his gifts if he think me unworthy of them Why then do I not remit my cause to his Majesty's arbitrement at his pleasure to be either condemned or absolved To him then if you will have me acknowledge my fault behold I will make short work with you I confess it The King knows my innocency so that neither my own confession nor the calumnies of of my adversaries can deceive him I am therefore content to confess my self guilty His Majesty from the fountain of his natural Clemency doth often derive the streams of his mercy to the delinquent And I know though I should not desire it He will regard my innocency Upon his confession the penalty of the Law was forthwith inflicted only he was not as the Law requires committed to perpetual imprisonment The furniture of his house of infinite value incredible store of Plate and great Treasure had been already seised to the King's use There remained nothing but the Lands wherewith he intended to endow his Colledge the greatest part whereof were his own purchase the rest were the demesnes of the demolished Monasteries These Lands amounted to above four thousand pounds per annum and were all confiscated But God would not suffer so brave a work to perish The King afterward bestowed on the Colledge in Oxford called Christ-Church revenues for the maintenance of a Dean eight Prebendaries a hundred Students twelve Chaplains and Singing men and four and twenty Alms-men for which this Colledge acknowledgeth Henry the Eighth for its Founder But the King arrogated to himself what was truly to be ascribed to the Cardinal who was now in the case of the poor Mouse whom the Cat intends to devour The King had marked him out for destruction yet permitted him to live but so as that he could never escape and yet never despair of escaping Scarce any day throughout those few months passed wherein he endured not something or other that would have animated a sensless thing with anger neither was the Cardinal composed of patience yet did he never despair His sorrows were always tempered with some mixture of joy For he was often visited from the King but that very secretly and commonly by night often certified of the King's affection towards him in token whereof the Visitants did sometimes from the King present him with a Jewel or some such thing willing him to be of good comfort for that shortly they would assure him he should be raised to his former degree of favour and power Adversity at length prevailing he fell into a disease from the extremity whereof few expected his recovery And the King demanding of one of his Physicians whose patient the Cardinal was what disease Wolsey had the Doctor replied What disease soever he hath if you desire his death you may be secure for I promise you he will not live to see the end of three days more The King striking the table with his hand cryed out I had rather lose twenty thousand Pounds than he should dye Make hast therefore you and as many other Physicians as are about the Court and by all means endeavour his recovery The Physician then certifying him that he was sick more in mind than body the King dispatched away a Gentleman with a Ring which Wolsey had formerly given to him willing him withal to tell the Cardinal that the King's anger was now past who was sorry that he had so long given ear to detraction and that he should shortly find that the King's affection towards him was no less than when he flourished most in the sun-shine of his favour The same comfortable words being again and again ingeminated by divers others sent for that purpose the Cardinal in a few days recovered his former health At Court each one aspired to rise by Wolsey his fall But now jealous lest the King intended a real and sincere reconciliation and fearing revenge from him whom they had injured work all their wits to supplant him At or about London he was too near the Court some trick must be had to send him farther Winchester the Bishoprick whereof he held in Commendam was not far enough off Why then should he not said they being not detained at London as Lord Chancellor betake himself to the government of his Archbishoprick of York So having a thousand Pounds assigned him by the King whose Council thought Marks sufficient about the end of March in the ensuing year he set forward towards York Of all his Livings they leave him only the Archbishoprick of York wherewith to maintain him the revenues whereof might be valued at four thousand Pounds per annum The speech of Seneca concerning Apicius why may I not apply it to the present state of Wolsey How great was his Luxury who deemed the income of four thousand Pounds poverty And now it were requisite that we should proceed to the year 1530. But let us first behold the end of this great Cardinal That Summer he spent at Cawood a Mannor-house belonging to the See of York where by his mildness justice and liberality he did so win the hearts of his Diocesans that he was both admired and loved He seemed to be much delighted with this solitary confinement for that having hitherto been tossed in the Court to and fro as in a tempest he had now escaped not from shipwrack to a Rock but to his desired Haven of repose Yet notwithstanding upon any the least hope of recovering his former power although he professed that converted by an Anchorire of Richmond he had bid adieu to the vanities of the World he could not conceal the greatness of his joy That he failed of his hopes which indeed were none of the least I cannot assent to them who impute it to the importunity of his potent Adversaries For to what end served so many messages full of gracious and reconciliatory promises but ever intermixed with insufferable disgraces the forerunners of a dire Catastrophe Certainly to no other than that he might be wrought one way or other to approve of and give sentence for the King's Divorce at least as Archbishop Cranmer after did But this course not prevailing they intend a second accusation of Treason To this purpose the Earl of Northumberland is sent to apprehend and as he was amazed at this sudden change bring him to his answer to London But by the way he fell sick of a disease which at Leicester-Abbey secured him from all other Being near his end it is reported Sir