and held both their revenues and fpiritual office by a very CHA P. precarious tenure.

TONSTAL, bishop of Durham, was one of the most eminent prelates of that age, ftill lefs for the dignity of his fee, than for his own perfonal merit; his learning, moderation, humanity, and benificence. He had oppofed, by his vote and authority, all the innovations in religion; but fo foon as they were enacted, he had always fubmitted, and had conformed to each fyftem of religion, which was established. His known probity had made this compliance be ascribed, not to an interested or time-ferving fpirit, but to a fenfe of duty, which led him to think, that all private opinion ought to be facrificed to the great concerns of public peace and tranquillity. The general regard, paid to his character, had preferved him from any fevere treatment during the protectorship of Somerfet; but when Northumberland gained the afcendant, he was thrown into prifon; and as that rapacious nobleman had formed a defign of appropriating the revenues of the fee of Durham, and establishing to himfelf a principality in the northern counties, he was refolved, in order to effectuate his purpofe, to deprive Tonftal of his bishopric. A bill of attainder, therefore, on pretence of mifprifion of treafon, was introduced into the houfe of peers against that prelate; and it paffed with the oppofition only of lord Stourton, a zealous catholic, and of Cranmer, who always bore a cordial and fincere friendship to the bishop of Durham. But when the bill was fent down to the commons, they required, that witneffes fhould be examined, that Tonstal should be allowed to defend himself, and that he fhould be confronted with his accufers: And when thefe demands were refused, they rejected the bill.

XXXV.

1552.

THIS equity, fo unufual in the parliament during that age, was afcribed by Northumberland and his partizans, not to any regard for liberty and juftice, but to the prevalence of Somerfet's fa&tion, in a house of commons, which, being chofen during the adminiftration of that nobleman, had been almost entirely filled with his creatures. They were confirmed in this opinion, when they found, that a bill, ratifying the attainder of Somerset and his accomplices, was alfo rejected by the commons, tho' it had paffed the upper houfe. A refolution was therefore 15th Apr.

7

X

taken

CHA P. taken to diffolve the parliament, which had fat during XXXV. this whole reign; and foon after to fummon a new one.

A new

parka.

ment.

NORTHUMBERLAND, in order to enfure to himself 1552. a house of commons entirely obfequious to his will, ventured on an expedient, which could not have been practised, or even imagined, in an age, when there was any idea or comprehenfion of liberty. He engaged the king to write circular letters to all the sheriffs, in which he enjoined them to inform the freeholders and voters, that they were required to choose men of knowledge and experience for their reprefentatives. After this general exhortation, the king continued in thefe words: "And "yet, nevertheless, our pleasure is, that where our pri"vy council, or any of them, fhall, in our behalf, re"commend, within their jurifdiction, men of learning " and wisdom; in fuch cafes, their directions thall be "regarded and followed, as tending to the fame end "which we defire, that is, to have this affembly composed of the perfons in our realm the best fitted to give "advice and good counsel " Several letters were fent from the king, recommending members to particular counties, Sir Richard Cotton for Hampfhire; Sir William Fitz-williams and Sir Henry Nevil for Berkshire; Sir William Drury and Sir Henry Benningfield for Suffolk, &c. But tho' fome counties only received this fpecies of conge d'elire from the king; the recommendations from the privy council and the counfellors we may fairly prefume, would extend to the greatest part, if not to the whole, of the ktngdom.

1553

66

IT is remarkable, that this attempt was made during the reign of a minor king, when the royal authority is ufually weakeft; that it was patiently fubmitted to; and that it gave fo little umbrage as fcarce to be taken notice of by any historian. The painful and laborious collector above-cited, who never omits the most trivial matters, is the only perfon that has thought this memorable letter worthy of being transmitted to posterity.

THE parliament anfwered Northumberland's expectaft. Mar. tions. As Tonftal had been deprived of his bishopric after a very arbitrary manner, by the fentence of lay commiffioners, appointed to try him, the fee of Durham was by act of parliament divided into two bishoprics, which

Strype's ecclefiaflical memorials, vol. ii. p. 394.

had

had certain portions of the revenue affigned them. The CHA P. regalities of the fee, which included the jurifdiction of a XXXV. count palatine, were given by the king to Northumberland; and it was not to be doubted but that nobleman had alfo propofed to make rich plunder of the revenue, as was then the ufual practice of the courtiers, whenever a bishopric became vacant.

THE Commons gave the miniftry another mark of attachment, which was at that time the moft fincere of any, the most cordial, and the most difficult to be obtained: They granted a fupply of two fubfidies and two fifteenths. To render this prefent the more acceptable, they voted a preamble, containing a long accufation of Somerfet, "for involving the king in wars, wafting his "treasure, engaging him in much debt, embafing the "coin, and giving occafion for a most terrible rebel"lion R

T

THE debts of the crown were at this time very confiderable. The king had received from France 400,000 crowns on delivering Boulogne; he had reaped profits from the fale of fome chantry lands; the churches had been defpoiled of all their plate and rich ornaments, which, by a decree of council, without any pretence of law or equity; had been converted to the king's ufe : Yet fuch had been the rapacity of the courtiers, that the crown owed about 300,000 pounds ; and great dilapidations were, at the fame time, made of the royal demefnes. The young prince fhewed, among other virtues, a difpofition to frugality, which, had he lived, would foon have retrieved these loffes: But as his health was declining very faft, the prefent emptiness of the exchequer was a fenfible obftacle to the execution of those projects, which the ambition of Northumberland had founded on the profpect of Edward's approaching end.

1553.

THAT nobleman reprefented to the prince, whom Succeffion youth and an infirm ftate of health made fufceptible of changed every impreffion, that his two fifters, Mary and Elizabeth, had both of them been declared illegitimate by act of parliament; and though Henry by his will had reftored them to a place in the fucceffion, the nation would never bear to see the throne of England filled by a bastard: That

R

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s Heylin, p. 95, 132.

7 Edw. VI. cap. 12. Ecclefiaftical Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 344.

CHAP. That they were only the king's fifters by the half-blood; XXXV. and even if they were legitimate, could not enjoy the

crown as his heirs and fucceffors: That the queen of 1553 Scots flood excluded by the king's will; and being an alien, loft by the law all the right of inheriting; not to mention, that, as fhe was betrothed to the dauphin, she would, by her fucceffion, render England, as the had already done Scotland, a province to France: That the certain confequence of his fifter Mary's fucceffion, or that of the queen of Scots, was the abolition of the proteftant religion, the repeal of thofe laws enacted in favour of the reformation, and the re-eftablishment of the ufurpation and idolatry of the church of Rome: That fortunately for England, the fame order of fucceffion, which juftice required, was alfo the most conformable to public intereft; and there was not on any fide any just ground for doubt or deliberation: That when thefe three princelles were excluded by fuch folid reafons, the fucceffion devolved to the marchionefs of Dorset, eldest daughter to the French queen and the duke of Suffolk : That the next heir of the marchioness was the lady Jane Gray, a lady of the most amiable virtue, accomplished by the best education, both in literature and religion; and every way worthy of a throne: And that even, if her title by blood were doubtful, which there was no juft reason to pretend, the king was poffeffed of the fame power, which his father enjoyed; and might leave her the crown by letters patent. Thefe reafonings made impreffion on the young prince; and above all, his zealous affection for the proteftant religion made him apprehend the confequences, if fo bigotted a catholic as his fifter Mary fhould fucceed to the throne. And though he bore a tender affe&tion to the lady Elizabeth, who was liable to no fuch objection, means were found to perfuade him, that he could not exclude the one fifter, on account of illegitimacy, without alto giving an exclufion to the other.

NORTHUMBERLAND, finding that his arguments were likely to operate on the king, began to prepare the her parts of his fcheme. Two fons of the duke of Suffelk by a fecond venter having died, this feafon, of the weating sickness, that title was extinct; and Northumberland engaged the king to bestow it on the marquis of Dorfet. By means of this favour and of others,

which he conferred upon him, he perfuaded the new CHAP. duke of Suffolk and the dutchefs, to give their daughter, XXXV. the lady Jane, in marriage to his fourth fon, the lord Guilford Dudley, In order to fortify himself by farther 1553: alliances, he negociated a marriage between the lady Ca therine Grey, fecond daughter of Suffolk, and lord Herbert, eldelt fon of the earl of Pembroke. He alio married his own daughter to lord Hastings, eldeit fon of the earl of Huntingdon . Thefe marriages were folemnized with great pomp and feftivity; and the people, who hated Northumberland, could not forbear expreffing their indignation at feeing fuch public demonftrations of joy, during the languishing state of the young prince's health. EDWARD had been feized in the foregoing year, first The king's with the measles, then with the fmall-pox; but having fickness, perfectly recovered from both thefe diftempers, the nation entertained hopes, that they would only ferve to confirm his health; and he had afterwards made a progrefs through some parts of the kingdom. It was fulpected, that he had there overheated himself in exercife: He was feized with a cough, which proved obftinate, and gave way neither to regimen nor medicines: Several fatal fymptoms of a confumption appeared; and though it was hoped, that, as the feafon of the year advanced, his youth and temperance might get the better of the malady, men faw with great concern his bloom and vigour insenfibly decay.. The general attachment to the young prince, joined to the hatred borne the Dudleys, made it be remarked, that Edward had every moment declined in health, from the time that lord Robert Dudley had been put about him in the quality of gentleman of the bedchamber.

THE languishing ftate of Edward's health made Northumberland the more intent on the execution of his project. He removed all except his own emiffaries from about the king: He himself attended him with the greateft affiduity; He pretended the most anxious concern for his health and welfare: And by all these artifices he prevailed on the young prince to give his final confent to the fettlement projected. Sir Edward Montague, chief justice of the Common Pleas, Sir John Baker and Sir Thomas Bromley, two judges, with the attorney and folicitorgeneral, were fent for to the council; where, after the

U Heylin, p. 109. Stowe, p. 609.

minutes