retainers certain Italians suspected of being spies in the service of Rome. Pope swore that Surrey had visited Cardinal Pole in Italy; another person that he was conspiring against the independence of the country. Surrey indignantly refuted these charges; if he had quartered on his escutcheon the arms of Edward the Confessor, he had done so in accordance with the decision of the king's heralds ;(a) his Italian retainers were painters, of whose talents he was a great patron ;(b) he had never visited Cardinal Pole, and rather than see his country fall under a foreign yoke, he was prepared to shed the last drop of his blood. All these facts were admitted by the jury assembled at Guildhall, for an attempt was made to treat the prisoner as a plebeian, and Surrey, found guilty of high treason, was condemned on the 19th of January. Six days after, his head feil on the scaffold;(c) but in silence and without witnesses, or the general preparations of an execution,(d) so that doubts were entertained as to whether the order had been signed by the king.(e)

Although the inhabitants of London had been for fifteen years accustomed to these bloody scenes, they could not restrain their tears on beholding that noble Surrey falling under the axe of the executioner in the prime of life. The women remembered his beauty and his youth, the soldiers his courage, the literati his poetical talents, artists his passion for paintings and statues. Never again, said they, would he see that cottage which he had built at Norwich, the first attempt at Grecian architecture in England, a purely Italian dwelling, embellished by the pupils of Petro d'Udine, after the walls of the Vatican. What was now to become of Churchyard, the poet laureate, whom he had taken into his service, and Adrian Junius, the great physician, whose talents he had so generously rewarded? The nymph Geraldine had now lost her knight and bard. He would see her no

more with the magic mirror of Cornelius Agrippa, lying carelessly on a carpet of flowers, and reciting the poet's verses.(f) How many beautiful songs had he commenced which death was now to interrupt! More than one young maiden repeated, with tearful eyes, that sonnet in which Surrey imitated and surpassed his master, Petrarch (8)

The innocence of the Duke of Norfolk was, if possible, still more evident than that of his unfortunate son, and the services which he had rendered to his king even more important. His wife, one of the highest ladies of the court, and his mistress, Elizabeth Holland, denounced to the council, the one her husband, the other her lover, relating all those little incidents and secrets with which they had become acquainted through their intimacy with the old duke, or which they had accidentally discovered. His great crime was that of having said: If the king should die, who but myself could undertake the guardianship of heir to the throne? The king is sickly, and has not long to live; the day is coming when this country will inevitably become the prey of serious contentions." He was further accused of having left one quarter of his escutcheon vacant, intending no doubt to introduce into it the arms of Edward the Confessor, which his ancestors had never borne. And as if his enemies could not be satisfied with imputing to the old duke crimes of which he had never even thought, they attempted to cast a stain on the conqueror of Flodden by making of him a procurer, who, after having married his daughter to the Duke of Richmond, placed her with the king as a concubine or

(f) Nott.-Edinburgh Review, 1816, p. 300.
(g) The soote season, that bud and blooms forth brings
With green heth clad the hill, and eke the vale;
The nightingale with feathers new she sings,
The turtle to her mate hath told her tale;
Summer is come, for every spray now springs;
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in bracke his winter coat he flings;
The fishes flete with new repaired scale;
The adder all her slough away she flings;
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale;
The busy bee her honey now she mings;
Winter is worn that was the flowers' bane;
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs,

courtesan. Such, however, was the position which the duchess, enleagued with the Seymours, accused her father and her brother of assigning to her-the mistress of a monarch eaten up with ulcers. The king himself, whose hand was already almost benumbed with the cold of death, took care to insert in the act of accusation the depositions of the degenerate daughter and sister.(a)

Norfolk imagined for a moment that a soldier would listen to the voice of a soldier, and wrote two letters to his former companion in arms, in which he said: "God knows that in the whole course of my long life I have never been unfaithful either to your majesty or to your family. What have I done? I know no more than the child that was born last night. My noble sovereign, in consideration of my past services, be so merciful as to order my accusers to be confronted with me before your majesty, or, at least, if you refuse me this favour, let us appear together before the council."(b) He waited in his dungeon for a reply to his petition, hoping that the king, whose throne he had saved at Flodden. would reward him by granting him his life but the king sent him neither letter nor message. Norfolk wrote again, entreating the same favour, for he dared not claim it as an act of justice; conscious of his loyalty he wished to be confronted with his accusers; but the king persisted in his silence.(c) The examination was

(a) The act of impeachment was written by the Chancellor Wriothesley.-State Papers, I., 891. The editor informs us that the original contains a few additions and corrections inserted by the trembling hand of the king. He adds: " Of these charges, which undoubtedly formed the ground-work of the impeachment, the most singular is the following, suggested probably to the king by the jealousy of Hertford: "If a man, compassing with himself to govern the realm, so actually go about to rule the king, and should, for that purpose, advise his daughter or sister to become his harlot, thinking thereby to bring it to pass, and so would rule both father and son as by the next article doth more appear: what this importeth." If a man say these words: "If the king die, who should have the rule of the prince but my father or I, (Surrey), what it importeth.” The words in Italics are the king's.

(b) Herbert. (c) Burnet.

commenced, and the members of the council allowed him no repose. He was asked whether he had not written letters to certain individuals in cyphers; addressed to the Bishop of Hertford a letter which the Bishop of Durham has since thrown into the fire, and maintained that the Pope had the power of annulling treaties concluded between two sovereigns.(d)

One of the Seymours, however, introduced himself into the Tower, and feigning an hypocritical pity for Norfolk, advised him to have recourse to the king's clemency, by signing an acknowledgment of the crimes attributed to him by his enemies. The captive, terrified at the idea of the scaffold, consented to sign the confession required, in presence of the Lord Chancellor; an act of weakness which his great age may account for but not justify. The duke therefore acknowledged, in the terms that were dictated to him, that on divers occasions he had confided to persons interested in knowing them the secrets of the state; that he had concealed the fact that the Earl of Surrey had adopted the arms of Edward the Confessor which the king alone was entitled to bear; that he himself, since the death of his father, had placed in his escutcheon the arms of England with three labels of silver, which, by hereditary right, belonged exclusively to Prince Edward; crimes of treason, according to the laws of the kingdom, and of which he acknowledged himself guilty and implored pardon for them.(e) This confession, far from exciting the king's commiseration, only served to precipitate the catastrophe of the drama prepared by the Seymours. Norfolk's rivals had already anticipated the division of his spoils among them. To the Earl of Hertford was allotted an income of £666. 13s. 4d. from the land rental of the victim; to Sir Thomas Seymour, £300; to Sir William Herbert, £266. 13s. 4d.; to Sir Anthony Denny, and to Lords Lisle, Saint John et Russell, £200 each; to the Chancellor Wriothesley, £100. Such was the price of the blood divided beforehand among the enemies of the conqueror of Flodden; and history

relates that they were even dissatisfied with their share of the Judas-pence. (a) Norfolk, either with a view to disappoint the cupidity of his accusers, or what is more probable, to purchase his pardon, begged the king to settle on Prince Edward and his heirs the splendid property which he possessed in the vicinity of London. Henry accepted the legacy of his victim, and promised to compensate his favourites for any loss they might thereby sustain; imagining, no doubt, that he had still length of days before him, and new victims whom he might despoil.(b)

Deceived in their expectations, the Seymours were so much the more active in working out the destruction of Norfolk. Parliament had assembled, and the House of Lords, without examining the prisoner, without the semblance of a trial, and upon a mere written confession, passed against him a Bill of Attainder,(e) which they lost no time in sending to the Commons. Twenty-seven peers of the realm voted for his death.(d) Having arrived at this stage of the proceeding, Protestant historians would fain have us believe that Cranmer, although he had long belonged to a party that was hostile to Norfolk, retired to his house at Croydon, that he might not have any share in the minister's condemnation.(e) But this is a point which we cannot concede to them, for the journals of the House of Lords() show clearly,

that instead of absenting himself, as Burnet asserts, the archbishop occupied his seat during the three readings of the bill.

The king's health was visibly on the decline. Henry, fearful that the duke might escape him, ordered the Commons to accelerate the reading of the bill, under pretence that Norfolk being invested with the dignity of Lord Marshal, it would be necessary to appoint another to fulfil the functions of that office at the approaching coronation of Edward.(g) The Commons obeyed; and the king having given his assent to the act of conviction, an order was transmitted to the lieutenant of the Tower to have the prisoner executed. On the following day every thing was ready for the bloody sacrifice; the priest summoned, the axe sharpened, the executioner at his post, the victim at his prayers, when it was announced at the Tower that the king had just breathed his last.-Norfolk was saved.

What a frightful history is that of Henry VIII., in which the reader is obliged to be continually on his guard lest he should shed a tear over those abominable victims, who, like Cromwell suffered, it is true, contrary to all human laws, but who had nevertheless transgressed every Divine precept; lest he should be induced to sympa. thise with a man whom a miracle seems to have rescued from the sanguinary rage of the Prince, when that man, like Norfolk, had shown himself a heartless parent, a pitiless judge of misfortune and often of innocence.

287, 289.-Cranmer, it appears, was present in the House of Lords when the Bill of Attainder passed through it."-Todd. (*) Hume.

ON the 26th of December, 1546, Henry, during one of the few intervals of repose that he experienced, ordered his will to be brought to him. It had originally been drawn up under the eyes of the Chancellor, but Henry wanted to make some alterations. Around his bed stood the Earl of Hertford and fifty witnesses. The king took the parchment and erased the names of several Catholics whom he had at first selected as his testamentary executors. Gardiner, said he, was a perturbator;(a) the Duke of Norfolk a traitor; Thirlby, Bishop of Westminster, a disciple of the Bishop of Winchester.(b) He confirmed the disposition made by Parliament leaving the crown to Prince Edward; in case of his son's death, it was to descend to the Princess Mary, and from her to the Princess Elizabeth. His two daughters could not, under pain of forfeiting their right to the crown, marry without the consent of the Council of Regency whom he nominated. This council was composed of sixteen noblemen, six of whom were peers or bishops; Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury Wriothesley, the Lord Chancellor; Lord St. John, the Grand Master; the Earl of Hertford, Lord Chamberlain, and uncle to the young king; Lord Russell, Keeper of the Privy Seal; Viscount Lisle, Lord High Admiral; Tonstall, Bishop of Durham; Sir Anthony Brown, Master of the Horse; Sir Edward Montague, Chief (a) Burnet. (b) Fox's Acts, &c.

Justice of the Common Pleas; Mr. Bromley, the judge; Sir Edward North, Chancellor at the Court of Augmentation; Sir William Paget, Chief Secretary,; Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Herbert, First Gentlemen of the Bedchamber; Sir Edward Wotton, Treasurer of Calais, and Dr. Wotton, Dean of Canterbury and York. They were almost all advocates of the new doctrines. In one of the clauses of his will, the king ordained that a certain number of Masses should be offered up for the deliverance of his soul from purgatory, although. he had destroyed all foundations of a similar nature instituted by his ancestors, and had even left the belief in purgatory a doubtful matter in the formulary of faith which he published in the latter part of his reign (c)

The physicians, perceiving that the fatal crisis was at hand, felt anxious that some friendly voice should whisper into the king's ear that his last hour was approaching; but no one dared undertake so dangerous a mission, for all persons were aware that there was an act of Parliament which condemned to the block any one who should predict the king's death.(d) In a paroxysm of fever, Henry might raise himself up on his seat, and point out to the sheriff with his finger, the servant who should have been bold enough to warn his master of his approaching end.(e) The

"the

dying monarch's room was deserted and silent. At length, Sir Anthony Denny, less cowardly, or more religious than the other courtiers, approached the king, and with a faltering but intelligible voice, informed his majesty that all human hope was at an end, and that he had better turn his thoughts towards his salvation, lift up his eyes to heaven, and implore the Divine mercy. The king listened to his final doom with great resignation, appeared to repent of his faults towards his Creator, protested by mute signs and inarticulate words his hope in the goodness of God, and murmured the name of Anne Boleyn. Denny asked him if he wished to see a priest. "Yes," replied Henry; Archbishop Cranmer; (a) but not yet; I want to sleep a little." After sleeping for an hour, he awoke, and feeling the shiverings of death, he desired them to send in all haste for Cranmer, who was then at Croydon. The primate, on his arrival, found the king speechless; but he had still sufficient strength to raise his hand, which he offered to the archbishop. Cranmer entreated him to show by some visible sign that he died in the Christian faith; the fingers of the dying man contracted, and he expired. He was in his fifty-sixth year, and had reigned nearly thirty-eight; his death took place on Friday, the 28th of of January, 1547, at two o'clock in the morning.(1)

Such is the history of Henry's last moments, as related by an historian whose veracity has never been called in question. According to the Anglican Bishop Godwin, the king refused the last consolations of religion until his tongue could no longer give utterance to the answers to the archbishop's questions. Should any of our readers feel astonished at a tyrant like Henry dying so calmly, we would, in the language of Bossuet tell them, that they are not acquainted with all the ways of God, and that they do not sufficiently reflect on the mortal supineness and false peace in which He sometimes leaves his greatest

(a) With no other but the Archbishop Cranmer, and not with him yet; I will first repose myself a little.-Todd.-Burnet. (b) Ellis II., 137.

enemies.(c) Observe what Saunders relates: "At the approach of death, Henry once more thought of a reconciliation with the Church, and here we may remark the severity which the Eternal exercises towards those who wilfully and premeditatedly offend him, or who have lost all consciousness of crime. The cruelties which he had practised on his subjects prevented any of his courtiers from telling him the truth. One of the bishops whom he consulted, fearing that he might be led into some snare, replied that his majesty's wisdom was the admiration of the whole world; that he had been induced to throw off the yoke of Rome through Divine inspiration; that his conscience might be perfectly at ease, since Parliament and the laws of the country had authorised the schism." Gardiner, however, on being consulted, advised him to assemble his Parliament and communicate to its members this project of a reconciliation; observing, that if death should cut him off before he had completed this great work, God, who is the Searcher of hearts, would give him the merit of so pious an intention, if any insurmountable obstacle should prevent its accomplishment. Saunders adds, that after the bishop's departure, the courtiers, who were trembling in anticipation of the loss of their ecclesiastical spoils, the reward of their servility to the king, and of which they must have been deprived had the kingdom been reconciled with Rome, persuaded Henry not to allow himself to be alarmed at so vain a scruple.(d)

Harpsfield, as well as Saunders, mentions the desire which the dying monarch evinced to be reconciled with the Church of Rome which he had so cruelly persecuted, and Gardiner refers to it in a sermon, preached by him in London.(e) But Bossuet says, with reason: Although it may be true that Henry consulted his bishops on this subject, what could be expected from a man who had placed the Church and truth itself under the yoke? However desirous Henry may have felt on this occasion of receiving sincere advice,

(c) Bossuet Hist. des Variations. (d) Saunders, de Schismate Angliæ. (e) Le Grand.