ally put down; its suppression being signalised by the executions of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey and her husband the Lord Guildford Dudley, of her father the duke of Suffolk, and finally, of Wyat himself.

On the 25th of July, Mary was married in the cathedral church of Winchester to the prince of Spain, afterwards Philip II, the son of the emperor Charles V. ; and the reunion with Rome was speedily completed by a parliament which assembled in the beginning of November, and which passed acts repealing the attainder of Cardinal Pole, who immediately after arrived in England with the dignity of papal legate, restoring the authority of the pope, repealing all laws made against the see of Rome since the 20th of Henry VIII., reviving the ancient statutes against heresy, and in short re-establishing the whole national system of religious policy as it had existed previous to the first innovations made by Henry VIII. By one of the acts of this session of parliament also Philip was authorised to take the title of king of England during the queen's life. All these acts appear to have been passed with scarcely any debate or opposition in either house, except occasionally upon mere points of detail and form.

The remainder of the history of the reign of Mary is occupied chiefly with the sanguinary persecutions of the adherents to the reformed doctrines. The Protestant writers reckon that about two hundred and eighty victims perished at the stake, from the 4th of February, 1555, on which day John Rogers was burnt at Smithfield, to the 10th of November, 1558, when the last auto-da-fé of the reign took place by the execution in the same manner of three men and two women at Colchester. Dr. Lingard admits that after expunging from the Protestant lists "the names of all who were condemned as felons or traitors, or who died peaceably in their beds, or who survived the publication of their martyrdom, or who would for their heterodoxy have been sent to the stake by the reformed prelates themselves, had they been in possession of the power," and making every other reasonable allowance, it will still be found that in the space of four years almost two hundred persons perished in the flames for religious opinion." Among the most distinguished sufferers were Hooper bishop of Gloucester, Ferrar of St. David's, Latimer of Worcester, Ridley of London, and Cranmer archbishop of Canterbury. Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and lord chancellor, was Mary's chief minister till his death in November, 1555, after which the direction of affairs fell mostly into the hands of Cardinal Pole, who after Cranmer's deposition was made archbishop of Canterbury; but the notorious Bonner, Ridley's successor in the see of London, has the credit of having been the principal instigator of these atrocities, which, it may be remarked, so far from contributing to put down the reformed doctrines, appear to have had a greater effect, in disgusting the nation with the restored church than all other causes together.

At the same time that the new opinions in religion were thus attempted to be extinguished by committing the bodies of those who believed in them to the flames, the queen gave a further proof of the sincerity of her own faith by restoring to the church the tenths and first-fruits, with all the rectories, glebe-lands, and tithes that had been annexed to the crown in the times of her father and brother. She also re-established several of the old religious houses, and endowed them as liberally as her means enabled her.

Tired both of the country and of his wife, Philip left England, in the beginning of September, 1555, and continued absent for about a year and a half. The bond however by which this marriage attached the English court to Spain and the Empire remained the same as ever; and when, after a short cessation of hostilities, war recommenced in the spring of 1557 between Spain and France, Mary was prevailed upon to join the former against the latter power. The principal consequence of this step, in so far as this country was concerned, was the loss of the only remaining

English continental possession, the town and territory of Calais, which surrendered to the duke of Guise, in January, 1558, after a siege of a few days. This event, which was regarded as a national disgrace worse than any mere loss, excited the bitterest feelings of dissatisfaction with the policy of the court; and Mary herself is said never to have recovered from the blow. Some ineffectual efforts were made to retaliate upon France by force of arms; but at last negotiations for a peace between the three beiligerent powers were opened at Cambray, in the midst of which queen Mary died, worn out with bodily and mental suffering, on the 17th of November, 1558, in the forty-third year of her age and the sixth of her reign. She is affirmed to have said on her deathbed, that if her breast should be opened after her decease, Calais would be found to be written on her heart. Mary left no issue, and was succeeded on the throne by her half-sister Elizabeth.

169.-THE DEATH OF LADY JANE GREY.

HUME.

[Lady Jane Grey, born in 1537, was of the blood royal of England, being the great-granddaughter of Henry VII., whose daughter Mary married first Louis XII. of France, secondly Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by whom she had a daughter, Frances Brandon, married to Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset. Of this marriage Lady Jane Grey was the eldest daughter: there was no male issue. She was distinguished from childhood by her talents; and her acquirements were certainly, for her age, very unusual. Greek, Latin, Italian, and French, she spoke, and wrote with correctness and fluency; and she understood Hebrew, Chaldee and Arabic. Great beauty, sweetness of temper, piety, and skill in the usual female accomplishments, combined to render her the delight of all, except her parents, whose severity would in modern times be termed brutal, yet did not alienate her willing obedience. Filial obedience proved her ruin. Her father, then created Duke of Suffolk, presuming on his own power and favour, and the declining health of Edward VI, undertook in concert with the powerful Duke of Northumberland to transfer the crown into their own line. With this view a marriage was concluded between Lady Jane Grey and Northumberland's fourth son Lord Guilford Dudley, in May 1553; and Edward VI. was persuaded by his interested advisers to set aside the rights of his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, and his cousin Mary of Scotland; and, in consideration of her eminent virtues and royal descent, to settle the crown upon Lady Jane Grey, or Dudley. The king died July 6th: and it was not until the 10th that this unfortunate lady even knew of the plot in which she was involved. She was very reluctant to accept the crown; but was at last overpersuaded by the importunities of her parents, and the entreaties of her husband, whom she tenderly loved. The two dukes had no party among the people; and ten days placed Mary in undisputed possession of the throne. Lady Jane and her husband were confined in the Tower, apparently without intention of taking their lives in the first instance. But Wyat's insurrection determined their fate.]

The violent and sudden change of religion inspired the Protestants with great discontent; and even affected indifferent spectators with concern, by the hardships to which so many individuals were on that account exposed. But the Spanish match was a point of more general concern, and diffused universal apprehensions for the liberty and independence of the nation. To obviate all clamour, the articles of marriage were drawn as favourable as possible for the interest and security, and even grandeur of England. It was agreed that though Philip should have the title of king, the administration should be entirely in the queen; that no foreigner should be capable of enjoying any office in the kingdom; that no innovation should be made in the English laws, customs, and privileges; that Philip should not carry the queen abroad without her consent, nor any of her children without the consent of the nobility; that sixty thousand pounds a year should be settled as her jointure; that the male issue of this marriage should inherit, together with England, both Burgundy and the Low Countries; and that if Don Carlos, Philip's son by his

former marriage, should die and his line be extinct, the queen's issue, whether male or female, should inherit Spain, Sicily, Milan, and all the other dominions of Philip. Such was the treaty of marriage signed by Count Egmont, and three other ambassadors sent over to England by the emperor.

These articles, when published, gave no satisfaction to the nation: It was universally said that the emperor, in order to get possession of England, would verbally agree to any terms; and the greater advantage there appeared in the conditions which he granted, the more certainly might it be concluded that he had no serious intention of observing them: That the usual fraud and ambition of that monarch might assure the nation of such a conduct; and his son Philip while he inherited these vices from his father, added to them tyranny, sullenness, pride, and barbarity, more dangerous vices of his own: That England would become a province, and a province to a kingdom, which usually exercised the most violent authority over all her dependent dominions: That the Netherlands, Milan, Sicily, Naples, groaned under the burthen of Spanish tyranny, and throughout all the new conquests in America there had been displayed scenes of unrelenting cruelty, hitherto unknown in the history of mankind: That the inquisition was a tribunal invented by that tyrannical nation; and would infallibly, with all their other laws and institutions, be introduced into England: And that the divided sentiments of the people with regard to religion would subject multitudes to this iniquitous tribunal, and would reduce the whole nation to the most abject servitude.

These complaints being diffused every where, prepared the people for a rebellion; and had any foreign power given them encouragement, or any great man appeared to head them, the consequences might have proved fatal to the queen's authority. But the king of France, though engaged in hostilities with the emperor, refused to concur in any proposal for an insurrection, lest he should afford Mary a pretence for declaring war against him. And the more prudent part of the nobility thought that as the evils of the Spanish alliance were only dreaded at a distance, matters were not yet fully prepared for a general revolt. Some persons, however, more turbulent than the rest, believed that it would be safer to prevent than to redress grievances; and they formed a conspiracy to rise in arms, and declare against the queen's marriage with Philip. Sir Thomas Wyat proposed to raise Kent, Sir Peter Carew, Devonshire; and they engaged the Duke of Suffolk, by the hopes of recovering the crown for the Lady Jane, to attempt raising the midland counties. Carew's impatience or apprehensions engaged him to break the concert, and to rise in arms before the day appointed: He was soon suppressed by the Earl of Bedford, and constrained to fly into France. On this intelligence Suffolk, dreading an arrest, suddenly left the town, with his brothers Lord Thomas and Lord Leonard Gray; and endeavoured to raise the people in the counties of Warwick and Leicester, where his interest lay; but he was so closely pursued by the Earl of Huntingdon, at the head of 300 horse, that he was obliged to disperse his followers, and being discovered in his concealment, he was carried prisoner to London. Wyat was at first more successful in his attempt; and having published a declaration at Maidstone in Kent, against the queen's evil counsellors, and against the Spanish match, without The Duke of mention of religion, the people began to flock to his standard. Norfolk, with Sir Henry Jernegan, was sent against him, at the head of the guards and some other troops, reinforced with 500 Londoners commanded by Bret: he came within sight of the rebels at Rochester, where they had fixed their headquarters. Sir George Harper here pretended to desert from them; but having secretly gained Bret, these two malcontents so wrought on the Londoners, that the whole body deserted to Wyat, and declared that they would not contribute to

any

And

enslave their native country. Norfolk, dreading the contagion of the example, immediately retreated with his troops, and took shelter in the city.

After this proof of the dispositions of the people, especially of the Londoners, who were mostly protestants, Wyat was encouraged to proceed; he led his forces to Southwark, where he required of the queen that she should put the Tower into his hands, should deliver four counsellors as hostages, and, in order to ensure the liberty of the nation, should immediately marry an Englishman. Finding that the bridge was secured against him, and that the city was overawed, he marched up to Kingston, where he passed the river with 4000 men; and returning towards London, hoped to encourage his partisans, who had engaged to declare for him. He had imprudently wasted so much time at Southwark, and in his march from Kingston, that the critical season, on which all popular commotions depend, was entirely lost. Though he entered Westminster without resistance, his followers, finding that no person of note joined him, insensibly fell off, and he was at last seized near Temple bar by sir Maurice Berkeley. Four hundred persons are said to have suffered for this rebellion. Four hundred more were conducted before the queen with ropes about their necks: and falling on their knees received a pardon and were dismissed. Wyat was condemned and executed. As it had been reported, that, on his examination, he had accused the lady Elizabeth and the earl of Devonshire as accomplices, he took care on the scaffold, before the whole people, fully to acquit them of having any share in his rebellion.

The Lady Elizabeth had been, during some time, treated with great harshness by her sister; and many studied instances of discouragement and disrespect had been practised against her. She was ordered to take place at court after the countess of Lenox and the duchess of Suffolk, as if she were not legitimate. Her friends were discountenanced on every occasion; and while her virtues, which were now become eminent, drew to her the attendance of all the young nobility, and rendered her the favourite of the nation, the malevolence of the queen still discovered itself every day by fresh symptoms, and obliged the princess to retire into the country. Mary seized the opportunity of this rebellion; and hoping to involve her sister in some appearance of guilt, sent for her under a strong guard, committed her to the Tower, and ordered her to be strictly examined by the council. But the public declaration made by Wyat rendered it impracticable to employ against her any false evidence which might have offered; and the princess made so good a defence, that the queen found herself under a necessity of releasing her. In order to send her out of the kingdom, a marriage was offered her with the duke of Savoy; and when she declined the proposal, she was committed to custody under a strong guard at Wodestoke. The ear of Devonshire, though equally innocent, was confined in Fotheringay castle.

But this rebellion proved still more fatal to the lady Jane Grey, as well as to her husband. The duke of Suffolk's guilt was imputed to her; and though the rebels and malcontents seemed chiefly to rest their hopes on the lady Elizabeth and the earl of Devonshire, the queen, incapable of generosity or clemency, determined to remove every person from whom the least danger could be apprehended. Warning was given the lady Jane to prepare for death; a doom which she had long expected, and which the innocence of her life, as well as the misfortunes to which she had been exposed, rendered nowise unwelcome to her. The queen's zeal, under colour of tender mercy to the prisoner's soul, induced her to send divines, who harassed her with perpetual disputation; and even a reprieve for three days was granted her, in hopes that she would be persuaded during that time to pay, by a timely conversion, some regard to her eternal welfare. The lady Jane had presence of mind, in

those melancholy circumstances, not only to defend her religion by all the topics then in use, but also to write a letter to her sister in the Greek language; in which, besides sending her a copy of the Scriptures in that tongue, she exhorted her to maintain, in every fortune, a like steady perseverance. On the day of her execution, her husband, lord Guilford desired permission to see her; but she refused her consent, and informed him by a message, that the tenderness of their parting would overcome the fortitude of both, and would too much unbend their minds from that constancy which their approaching end required of them. Their separation, she said, would be only for a moment; and they would soon rejoin each other in a scene where their affections would be for ever united, and where death, disappointment, and misfortunes, could no longer have access to them, or disturb their eternal felicity.

It had been intended to execute the lady Jane and lord Guilford together on the same scaffold at Tower-hill; but the council, dreading the compassion of the people for their youth, beauty, innocence, and noble birth, changed their orders, and gave directions that she should be beheaded within the verge of the Tower. She saw her husband led to execution; and having given him from the window some token of her remembrance, she waited with tranquillity till her own appointed hour should bring her to a like fate. She even saw his headless body carried back in a cart; and found herself more confirmed by the reports which she heard of the constancy of his end, than shaken by so tender and melancholy a spectacle. Sir John Gage, constable of the Tower, when he led her to execution, desired her to bestow on him some small present, which he might keep as a perpetual memorial of her. She gave him her table-book, on which she had just written three sentences on seeing her husband's dead body; one in Greek, another in Latin, a third in English. The purport of them was, that human justice was against his body, but divine mercy would be favourable to his soul; that if her fault deserved punishment, her youth at least, and her imprudence were worthy of excuse; and that God and posterity, she trusted, would shew her favour. On the scaffold she made a speech to the bye-standers, in which the mildness of her disposition led her to take the blame wholly on herself, without uttering one complaint against the severity with which she had been treated. She said that her offence was not the having laid her hand upon the crown, but the not rejecting it with sufficient constancy. That she had less erred through ambition than through reverence to her parents, whom she had been taught to respect and obey. That she willingly received death as the only satisfaction which she could now make to the injured state; and though her infringement of the laws had been constrained, she would show, by her voluntary submission to their sentence, that she was desirous to atone for that disobedience into which too much filial piety had betrayed her. That she had justly deserved this punishment for being made the iustrument, though the unwilling instrument, of the ambition of others; and that the story of her life, she hoped, might at least be useful, by proving that innocence excuses not great misdeeds, if they tend anywise to the destruction of the commonwealth. After uttering these words, she caused herself to be disrobed by her women; and with a steady serene countenance, submitted herself to the executioner.

170.--THE PROTESTANT MARTYRS.

GOLDSMITH.

The enemies of the state being thus suppressed, the theatre was now opened for the pretended enemies of religion. The queen, being freed from apprehensious of an insurrection, began by assembling a parliament, which upon this, as upon