The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (254 page)

The chief part of government, to which she attended, was the The queen’s

extorting of money from her people, in order to satisfy his extortions.

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demands; and as the parliament had granted her but a scanty supply, she had recourse to expedients very violent and irregular. She levied a loan of 60,000 pounds upon a thousand persons, of whose compliance, either on account of their riches or their affections to her, she held herself best assured: But that sum not sufficing, she exacted a general loan on every one who possessed twenty pounds a-year. This imposition lay heavy on the gentry, who were obliged, many of them to retrench their expences, and dismiss their servants in order to enable them to comply with her demands: And as these servants, accustomed to idleness, and having no means of subsistance, commonly betook themselves to theft and robbery, the queen published a proclamation, by which she obliged their former masters to take them back to their service. She levied 60,000 marks on 7000 yeomen, who had not contributed to the former loan; and she exacted 36,000 pounds more from the merchants. In order to engage some Londoners to comply more willingly with her multiplied extortions, she passed an edict, prohibiting, for four months, the exporting of any English cloths or kerseys to the Netherlands; an expedient which procured a good market for such as had already sent any quantity of cloth thither. Her rapaciousness engaged her to give endless disturbance and interruption to commerce. The English company settled in Antwerp having refused her a loan of 40,000 pounds, she dissembled her resentment, till she found, that they had bought and shipped great quantities of cloth for Antwerp fair, which was approaching: She then laid an embargo on the ships, and obliged the merchants to grant her a loan of the 40,000 pounds at first demanded, to engage for the payment of 20,000 pounds more at a limited time, and to submit to an arbitrary imposition of twenty shillings on each piece. Some time, after she was informed, that the Italian merchants had shipped above 40,000 pieces of cloth for the Levant, for which they were to pay her a crown a piece, the usual imposition: She struck a bargain with the merchant adventurers in London; prohibited the foreigners from making any exportation; and received from the English merchants, in consideration of this iniquity, the sum of 50,000 pounds, and an imposition of four crowns on each piece of cloth which they should export. She attempted to borrow great sums abroad; but her credit was so low, that, tho’ she offered 14 per cent. to the city of Antwerp for a loan of 30,000 pounds, she could not obtain it, till she compelled the city of London

to be surety for her.o
All these violent expedients were employed, while she herself was in profound peace with all the world, and had visibly no occasion for money but to supply the demands of a husband, who gave attention only to his own convenience, and showed himself entirely indifferent about her interests.

Philip was now become master of all the wealth of the new The emperor resigns

world, and of the richest and most extensive dominions in his crown.

Europe, by the voluntary resignation of the emperor, Charles V.; who, though still in the vigour of his age, had taken a disgust to the world, and was determined to seek, in the tranquillity of retreat, for that happiness, which he had in vain pursued, amidst the tumults of war, and the restless projects of ambition. He summoned the states of the Low Countries;

and seating himself on the throne for the last time, explained to 25th Oct.

his subjects the reasons of his resignation, absolved them from all oaths of allegiance, and devolving his authority on Philip, told him, that his paternal tenderness made him weep, when he reflected on the burthen which he

imposed upon him.p
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study of his people’s happiness; and represented how much preferable it was to govern, by affection rather than by fear, the nations subjected to his dominion. The cool reflections of age now discovered to him the emptiness of his former pursuits; and he found, that the vain schemes of extending his empire, had been the source of endless opposition and disappointment, and kept himself, his neighbours, and his subjects, in perpetual inquietude, and had frustrated the sole end of government, the felicity of the nations committed to his care; an object which meets with less opposition, and which, if steadily pursued, can alone convey a lasting and solid satisfaction.

A few months after, he resigned to Philip his other dominions; 1556.

and embarking on board a fleet, sailed to Spain, and took his journey to St. Just, a monastery in Estremadura, which, being situated in a happy climate, and amidst the greatest beauties of nature, he had chosen for the place of his retreat. When he arrived at Burgos, he found, by the thinness of his court, and the negligent attendance of the Spanish grandees, that he was no longer emperor; and though this observation might convince him still more of the vanity of the world, and make him more heartily despise what he had renounced, he sighed to find that all former adulation and obeisance had been paid to his fortune, not to his person. With better reason, was he struck with the ingratitude of his son Philip, who obliged him to wait a long time for the payment of the small pension which he had reserved; and this disappointment in his domestic enjoyments gave him a sensible concern. He pursued however his resolution with inflexible constancy; and shutting himself up in his retreat, he exerted such self-command, that he restrained even his curiosity from any enquiry concerning the transactions of the world, which he had entirely abandoned.

The fencing against the pains and infirmities, under which he laboured, occupied a great part of his time; and during the intervals, he employed his leisure either in examining the controversies of theology, with which his age had been so much agitated, and which he had hitherto considered only in a political light, or in imitating the works of renowned artists, particularly in mechanics, of which he had always been a great admirer and encourager. He is said to have here discovered a propensity to the new doctrines; and to have frequently dropped hints of this unexpected alteration in his sentiments. Having amused himself with the construction of clocks and watches, he thence remarked how impracticable the object was, in which he had so much employed himself during his grandeur; and how impossible, that he, who never could frame two machines that would go exactly alike, could ever be able to make all mankind concur in the same belief and opinion. He survived his retreat two years.

The emperor Charles had very early, in the beginning of his reign, found the difficulty of governing such distant dominions; and he had made his brother Ferdinand be elected king of the Romans; with a view to his inheriting the imperial dignity, as well as his German dominions. But having afterwards enlarged his schemes, and formed plans of aggrandizing his family, he regretted, that he must dismember such considerable states; and he endeavoured to engage Ferdinand, by the most tempting offers, and most earnest solicitations, to yield up his pretensions in favour of Philip.

Finding his attempts fruitless, he had resigned the Imperial crown with his other dignities; and Ferdinand, according to common form, applied to the pope for his coronation. The arrogant pontiff refused the demand; and pretended, that, though, on PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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the death of an emperor, he was obliged to crown the prince elected, yet in the case of a resignation, the right devolved to the holy see, and it belonged to the pope alone to appoint an emperor. The conduct of Paul was in every thing conformable to these lofty pretensions. He thundered always in the ears of all ambassadors, that he stood in no need of the assistance of any prince, that he was above all potentates of the earth, that he would not accustom monarchs to pretend to a familiarity or equality with him, that it belonged to him to alter and regulate kingdoms, that he was successor of those who had deposed kings and emperors, and that rather than submit to any thing below his dignity, he would set fire to the four corners of the world. He went so far, as, at table, in the presence of many persons, and even openly, in a public consistory, to say, that he would not admit any kings for his companions; they were all his subjects, and he would hold them under these feet: So saying, he stamped on the ground with his

old and infirm limbs: For he was now past fourscore years of age.q

The world could not forbear making a comparison between Charles V. a prince, who, though educated amidst wars and intrigues of state, had prevented the decline of age, and had descended from the throne, in order to set apart an interval for thought and reflection, and a priest, who, in the extremity of old age, exulted in his dominion, and from restless ambition and revenge was throwing all nations into combustion. Paul had entertained the most inveterate animosity against the house of Austria; and though a truce of five years had been concluded between France and Spain, he excited Henry by his solicitations to break it, and promised to assist him in recovering Naples, and the dominions to which he laid claim in Italy; a project which had ever proved hurtful to the predecessors of that monarch. He himself engaged in hostilities with the duke of Alva, viceroy of Naples: and Guise being sent with forces to support him, the renewal of war between the two crowns seemed almost inevitable. Philip, though less warlike than his father, was no less ambitious; and he trusted, that, by the intrigues of the cabinet, where, he believed, his caution and secrecy and prudence gave him the superiority, he should be able to subdue all his enemies, and extend his authority and dominion. For this reason, as well as from the desire of settling his new empire, he wished to maintain peace with France; but when he found, that, without sacrificing his honour, it was impossible for him to overlook the hostile attempts of Henry, he prepared for war with great industry. In order to give himself the more advantage, he was desirous of embarking England in the quarrel; and though the queen was of herself extremely averse to that measure, he hoped, that the devoted fondness, which, notwithstanding repeated instances of his indifference, she still bore to him, would effectually second his applications. Had the matter indeed depended solely on her, she was incapable of resisting her husband’s commands; but she had little weight with her council, still less with her people; and her government, which was every day becoming more odious, seemed unable to maintain itself even during the most profound tranquillity, much more if a war were kindled with France, and what seemed an inevitable consequence, with Scotland, supported by that powerful kingdom.

An act of barbarity was this year exercised in England, which, Execution of

added to many other instances of the same kind, tended to render Cranmer.

the government extremely unpopular. Cranmer had long been detained prisoner; but the queen now determined to bring him to punishment; and in order the more fully to satiate her vengeance, she resolved to punish him for heresy, PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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rather than for treason. He was cited by the pope to stand his trial at Rome; and though he was known to be kept in close custody at Oxford, he was, upon his not appearing, condemned as contumacious. Bonner, bishop of London, and Thirleby of Ely were sent to degrade him; and the former executed the melancholy ceremony with

all the joy and exultation, which suited his savage nature.r
The implacable spirit of the queen, not satisfied with the eternal damnation of Cranmer, which she believed inevitable, and with the execution of that dreadful sentence, to which he was condemned, prompted her also to seek the ruin of his honour, and the infamy of his name. Persons were employed to attack him, not in the way of disputation, against which he was sufficiently armed; but by flattery, insinuation, and address; by representing the dignities to which his character still entitled him, if he would merit them by a recantation; by giving hopes of long enjoying those powerful friends, whom his beneficent disposition had attached to him during the course of his prosperity:
s
Overcome by the fond love of life, terrified by the prospect of those tortures which awaited him; he allowed, in an unguarded hour, the sentiments of nature to prevail over his resolution, and he agreed to subscribe the doctrines of the papal supremacy and of the real presence. The court, equally perfidious and cruel, were determined, that this recantation should avail him nothing; and they sent orders, that he should be required to acknowledge his errors in church before the whole people, and that he should thence be immediately carried to execution.

Cranmer, whether that he had received a secret intimation of 21st March.

their design, or had repented of his weakness, surprized the audience by a contrary declaration. He said, that he was well apprized of the obedience which he owed to his sovereign and the laws; but this duty extended no farther than to submit patiently to their commands, and to bear without resistance whatever hardships they should impose upon him: That a superior duty, the duty which he owed to his Maker, obliged him to speak truth on all occasions, and not to relinquish, by a base denial, the holy doctrine, which the supreme Being had revealed to mankind: That there was one miscarriage in his life, of which, above all others, he severely repented; the insincere declaration of faith, to which he had the weakness of consent, and which the fear of death alone had extorted from him: That he took this opportunity of atoning for his error, by a sincere and open recantation; and was willing to seal with his blood that doctrine, which he firmly believed to be communicated from Heaven: And that as his hand had erred by betraying his heart, it should first be punished, by a severe but just doom, and should first pay the forfeit of its offences. He was thence led to the stake amidst the insults of the catholics; and having now summoned up all the force of his mind, he bore their scorn, as well as the torture of his punishment, with singular fortitude. He stretched out his hand, and without betraying, either by his countenance or motions, the least sign of weakness or even of feeling, he held it in the flames, till it was entirely consumed. His thoughts seemed wholly occupied with reflections on his former fault; and he called aloud several times,
This hand has offended.
Satisfied with that atonement, he then discovered a serenity in his countenance; and when the fire attacked his body, he seemed to be quite insensible of his outward sufferings, and by the force of hope and resolution to have collected his mind altogether within itself, and to repel the fury of the flames. It is pretended, that, after his body was consumed, his heart was found entire and untouched amidst the ashes; an event, which, as it was the emblem of his constancy, was fondly believed by the zealous protestants. He was undoubtedly a man PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)