The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (226 page)

and this banner, he affirmed, was found in the countess’s house.o
No other proof seems to have been produced, in order to ascertain her guilt: The parliament, without farther enquiry, passed a bill of attainder against her; and they involved in the same bill, without any better proof, as far as appears, Gertrude marchioness of Exeter, Sir Adrian Fortescue, and Sir Thomas Dingley. These two gentlemen were executed. The marchioness was pardoned, and survived the king; the countess received a reprieve.

The only beneficial act, passed this session, was that by which the parliament confirmed the surrender of the monasteries; yet even this act contains much falsehood, much tyranny, and were it not that all private rights must submit to public interest, much injustice and iniquity. The scheme of engaging the abbots to surrender their monasteries had been conducted, as may easily be imagined, with many invidious circumstances: Arts of all kinds had been employed; every motive, that could work on the frailty of human nature, had been set before them; and it was with great difficulty that these dignified conventuals were brought to make a concession, which most of them regarded as destructive of their interests, as well as sacrilegious and criminal in itself.
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Three abbots had shown more constancy than the rest, the abbots of Colchester, Reading, and Glastenbury; and in order to punish them for their opposition, and make them an example to others, means had been found to convict them of treason; they had perished by the hands of the executioner, and the revenue of

the convents had been forfeited.q
Besides, though none of these violences had taken place, the king knew, that a surrender made by men, who were only tenants for life, would not bear examination; and he was therefore resolved to make all sure by his usual expedient, an act of parliament. In the preamble to this act, the parliament asserts, that all the surrenders, made by the abbots, had been, “without constraint, of their own accord, and according to due course of common law.” And in consequence, the two houses confirm the surrenders, and secure the property of the abbey lands to

the king and his successors for ever.r
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sat in the house of peers; and that none of them made any protests against this injurious statute.

In this session, the rank of all the great officers of state was fixed: Cromwel, as vicegerent, had the precedency assigned him above all of them. It was thought singular, that a blacksmith’s son, for he was no other, should have place next the royal family; and that a man, possessed of no manner of literature, should be set at the head of the church.

As soon as the act of the six articles had passed, the catholics were extremely vigilant in informing against offenders; and no less than five hundred persons were in a little time thrown into prison.

But Cromwel, who had not had interest to prevent that act, was able, for the present, to elude its execution. Seconded by the duke of Suffolk, and chancellor Audley, as well as by Cranmer, he remonstrated against the cruelty of punishing so many delinquents; and he obtained permission to set them at liberty. The uncertainty of the king’s humour gave each party an opportunity of triumphing in his turn. No sooner had Henry passed this law, which seemed to inflict so deep a wound on the reformers, than he granted a general permission, for every one to have the new translation of the Bible in his family: A concession regarded by that party, as an important victory.

But as Henry was observed to be much governed by his wives, Henry’s projects of

while he retained his fondness for them, the final prevalence of marriage.

either party seemed much to depend on the choice of the future queen. Immediately after the death of Jane Seymour, the most beloved of all his wives, he began to think of a new marriage. He first cast his eye towards the dutchess-dowager of Milan, niece to the emperor; and he made proposals for that alliance. But meeting with difficulties, he was carried, by his friendship for Francis, rather to think of a French princess. He demanded the dutchess-dowager of Longueville, daughter of the duke of Guise, a prince of the house of Lorraine; but Francis told him, that the lady was already betrothed to the king of Scotland. The king, however, would not take a refusal: He had set his heart extremely on the match: The information, which he had received, of the dutchess’s accomplishments and beauty, had prepossessed him in her favour; and having privately sent over Meautys to examine her person, and get certain intelligence of her conduct, the accounts, which that agent brought him, served farther to inflame his desires. He learned, that she was big made; and he thought her, on that account, the more proper match for him, who was now become somewhat corpulent.

The pleasure too of mortifying his nephew, whom he did not love, was a farther incitement to his prosecution of this match; and he insisted, that Francis should give him the preference to the king of Scots. But Francis, though sensible that the alliance of England was of much greater importance to his interests, would not affront his friend and ally; and to prevent farther solicitation, he immediately sent the princess to Scotland. Not to shock, however, Henry’s humour, Francis made him an offer of Mary of Bourbon, daughter of the duke of Vendome; but as the king was informed, that James had formerly rejected this princess, he would not hear any farther of such a proposal. The French monarch then offered him the choice of the two younger sisters of the queen of Scots; and he assured him, that they were nowise inferior either in PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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merit or size to their elder sister, and that one of them was even superior in beauty.

The king was as scrupulous with regard to the person of his wives, as if his heart had been really susceptible of a delicate passion; and he was unwilling to trust any relations, or even pictures, with regard to the important particular. He proposed to Francis, that they should have a conference at Calais on pretence of business; and that this monarch should bring along with him the two princesses of Guise, together with the finest ladies of quality in France, that he might make a choice among them. But the gallante spirit of Francis was shocked with the proposal. He was impressed with too much regard, he said, for the fair sex, to carry ladies of the first quality, like geldings, to a market, there to be chosen or rejected by the humour of the purchaser.
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Henry would hearken to none of these niceties, but still insisted on his proposal; which, however, notwithstanding Francis’s earnest desire of obliging him, was finally rejected.

The king then began to turn his thoughts towards a German alliance; and as the princes of the Smalcaldic league were extremely disgusted with the emperor on account of his persecuting their religion, he hoped, by matching himself into one of their families, to renew a connexion, which he regarded as so advantageous to him.

Cromwel joyfully seconded this intention; and proposed to him Anne of Cleves, whose father, the duke of that flame, had great interest among the Lutheran princes, and whose sister, Sibylla, was married to the elector of Saxony, the head of the protestant league. A flattering picture of the princess by Hans Holben determined Henry to apply to her father; and after some negociation, the marriage, notwithstanding the opposition of the elector of Saxony, was at last concluded; and Anne was sent over to England. The king, impatient to be He marries Anne of

satisfied with regard to the person of his bride, came privately to Cleves.

Rochester, and got a sight of her. He found her big, indeed, and tall, as he could wish; but utterly destitute both of beauty and grace; very unlike the pictures and representations, which he had received: He swore she was a great Flanders-mare; and declared, that he never could possibly bear her any affection. The matter was worse, when he found, that she could speak no language but Dutch, of which he was entirely ignorant; and that the charms of her conversation were not likely to compensate for the homeliness of her person.

He returned to Greenwich very melancholy; and he much

Dislikes her.

lamented his hard fate to Cromwel, as well as to Lord Russel, Sir Anthony Brown, and Sir Anthony Denny. This last gentleman, in order to give him comfort, told him, that his misfortune was common to him with all kings, who could not, like private persons, chuse for themselves; but must receive their wives from the judgment and fancy of others.

It was the subject of debate among the king’s counsellors, whether the marriage could not yet be dissolved; and the princess be sent back to her own country. Henry’s situation seemed at that time very critical. After the ten years’ truce, concluded between the emperor and the king of France, a good understanding was thought to have taken place between these rival monarchs; and such marks of union appeared, as gave great jealousy to the court of England. The emperor, who knew the generous nature of Francis, even put a confidence in him, which is rare, to that degree, among great princes. An insurrection had been raised in the Low-Countries by the inhabitants PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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of Ghent, and seemed to threaten the most dangerous consequences. Charles, who resided at that time in Spain, resolved to go in person to Flanders, in order to appease those disorders; but he found great difficulties in chusing the manner of his passing thither. The road by Italy and Germany was tedious: The voyage through the Channel dangerous, by reason of the English naval power: He asked Francis’s permission to pass thro’ his dominions; and he entrusted himself into the hands of a rival, whom he had so mortally offended. The French monarch received him at Paris, with great magnificence and courtesy; and though prompted both by revenge and interest, as well as by the advice of his mistress and favourites, to make advantage of the present opportunity, he conducted the emperor safely out of his dominions; and would not so much as speak to him of business during his abode in France, lest his demands should bear the air of violence upon his royal guest.

Henry, who was informed of all these particulars, believed that an entire and cordial union had taken place between these princes; and that their religious zeal might

prompt them to sail with combined arms upon England.t
An alliance with the German princes seemed now, more than ever, requisite for his interest and safety; and he knew, that, if he sent back the princess of Cleves, such an affront would be highly resented by her friends and family. He was therefore resolved, notwithstanding his aversion to her, to complete the marriage;

and he told Cromwel, that, since matters had gone so far, he must 1540. 6 January.

put his neck into the yoke. Cromwel, who knew how much his own interests were concerned in this affair was very anxious to learn from the king, next morning after the marriage, whether he now liked his spouse any better. The king told him, that he hated her worse than ever; and that her person was more disgusting on a near approach: He was resolved never to meddle with her; and even suspected her not to be a true maid: A point, about which he entertained an extreme delicacy. He continued, however, to be civil to Anne; he even seemed to repose his usual confidence in Cromwel; but though he exerted this command over himself, a discontent lay lurking in his breast, and was ready to burst out on the first opportunity.

A session of parliament was held; and none of the abbots were 1540. 12 April. A

now allowed a place in the house of peers. The king, by the parliament.

mouth of the chancellor, complained to the parliament of the great diversity of religions, which still prevailed among his subjects: A grievance, he affirmed, which ought the less to be endured; because the Scriptures were now published in English, and ought universally to be the standard of belief to all mankind.

But he had appointed, he said, some bishops and divines to draw up a list of tenets, to which his people were to assent; and he was determined, that Christ, the doctrine of Christ, and the truth, should have the victory. The king seems to have expected more effect in ascertaining truth, from this new book of his doctors, than had ensued from the publication of the Scriptures. Cromwel, as vicar-general, made also in the king’s name a speech to the upper house; and the peers, in return, bestowed great flattery on him, and in particular said that he was worthy, by his desert, to be vicar-general of the universe. That minister seemed to be no less in his master’s good graces: He received, soon after the sitting of the parliament, the title of earl of Essex, and was installed knight of the garter.

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There remained only one religious order in England; the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or the knights of Malta, as they are commonly called. This order, partly ecclesiastical, partly military, had, by their valour, done great service to Christendom; and had very much retarded, at Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Malta, the rapid progress of the barbarians. During the general surrender of the religious houses in England, they had exerted their spirit, and had obstinately refused to yield up their revenues to the king; and Henry, who would endure no society that professed obedience to the pope, was obliged to have recourse to parliament for the dissolution of this order. Their revenues were large; and formed an addition nowise contemptible to the many acquisitions, which the king had already made. But he had very ill husbanded the great revenue acquired by the plunder of the church. His profuse generosity dissipated faster than his rapacity could supply; and the parliament was surprized this session to find a demand made upon them of four-tenths, and a subsidy of one shilling in the pound during two years: So ill were the public expectations answered, that the crown was never more to require any supply from the people. The commons, though lavish of their liberty, and of the blood of their fellow-subjects, were extremely frugal of their money; and it was not without difficulty so small a grant could be obtained by this absolute and dreaded monarch. The convocation gave the king four shillings in the pound to be levied in two years. The pretext for these grants was the great expence, which Henry had undergone for the defence of the realm, in building forts along the sea-coast, and in equipping a navy. As he had at present no ally on the continent, in whom he reposed much confidence, he relied only on his domestic strength, and was on that account obliged to be more expensive in his preparations against the danger of an invasion.