[508] Lord Russell to Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. Cleopatra_, E 4.
[509] Ibid.
[510] Pollard to Cromwell: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 261.
[511] Henry Fitz Roy, Duke of Richmond, died July 22, 1536.
[512] "Animadvertens sua clementia quod maxime hoc convenerat parliamentum pro bono totius Regni publico et concordia Christianae religionis stabilienda non tam cito quam propter rei magnitudinem quae non solum regnum ipsum Angliae concernit verum etiam alia regna et universi Christianismi Ecclesias quantumvis diversarum sententiarum quae in eam rem oculos et animum habebant intentos, sua Majestas putavit tam propria sua regia diligentia et studio quam etiam episcoporum et cleri sui sedulitate rem maturius consultandam, tractandam et deliberandam."--Speech of the Lord Chancellor at the Prorogation: _Lords Journals_, Vol. I. p. 137.
[513] Brother of Jane Seymour; afterwards Protector.
[514] "I am as glad of the good resolutions of the Duke of Cleves, his mother, and council, as ever I was of anything since the birth of the prince: for I think the King"s Highness should not in Christendom marry in no place meet for his Grace"s honour that should be less prejudicial to his Majesty"s succession."--Hertford to Cromwell: Ellis, first series, Vol. II. p. 119.
[515] "I find the council willing enough to publish and manifest to the world that by any covenants made by the old Duke of Cleves and the Duke of Lorraine, my Lady Anne is not bounden; but ever hath been and yet is at her free liberty to marry wherever she will."--Wotton to the King: Ellis, first series, Vol. II. p. 121.
[516] Ellis, first series, Vol. II. p. 121.
[517] "The Duke of Cleves hath a daughter, but I hear no great praise, either of her personage nor beauty."--Hutton to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 5.
[518] Stow.
[519] Butler to Bullinger: _Original Letters on the Reformation_, p.
627.
[520] Partridge to Bullinger: Ibid. 614.
[521] The Elector of Saxony to Henry VIII.: Strype"s _Memorials_, Vol.
II. p. 437.
[522] See a correspondence between Cranmer and a Justice of the Peace, Jenkins"s _Cranmer_, Vol. I.
[523] "I would to Christ I had obeyed your often most gracious grave councils and advertis.e.m.e.nts. Then it had not been with me as now it is."--Cromwell to the King: Burnet"s _Collectanea_, p. 510.
[524] _MS. Cotton. Cleopatra_, E 4.
[525] He required, probably, no information that his enemies would spare no means, fair or foul, for his destruction. But their plots and proceedings had been related to him two years before by his friend Allen, the Irish Master of the Rolls, in a report of expressions which had been used by George Paulet, brother of the lord treasurer, and one of the English commissioners at Dublin. Cromwell, it seems, had considered that estates in Ireland forfeited for treason, or non-residence, would be disposed of better if granted freely to such families as had remained loyal, than if sold for the benefit of the crown. Speaking of this matter, "The king," Paulet said, "beknaveth Cromwell twice a week, and would sometimes knock him about the pate. He draws every day towards his death, and escaped very hardly at the last insurrection. He is the greatest briber in England, and that is espied well enough. The king has six times as much revenues as ever any of his n.o.ble progenitors had, and all is consumed and gone to nought by means of my Lord Privy Seal, who ravens all that he can get. After all the king"s charges to recover this land, he is again the only means to cause him to give away his revenues; and it shall be beaten into the king"s head how his treasure has been needlessly wasted and consumed, and his profits and revenues given away by sinister means." "Cromwell," Paulet added, "has been so handled and taunted by the council in these matters, as he is weary of them; but I will so work my matter, as the king shall be informed of every penny that he hath spent here; and when that great expence is once in his head, it shall never be forgotten there is one good point. And then I will inform him how he hath given away to one man seven hundred marks by the year. And then will the king swear by G.o.d"s body, have I spent so much money and now have given away my land? There was never a king so deceived by man. I will hit him by means of my friends."--_State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 551. It is not clear how much is to be believed of Paulet"s story so far as relates to the king"s treatment of Cromwell. The words were made a subject of an inquiry before Sir Anthony St. Leger; and Paulet meant, it seemed, that the "beknaving and knocking about the pate" took place in private before no witnesses; so that, if true, it could only have been known by the acknowledgments of the king or of Cromwell himself. But the character of the intrigues for Cromwell"s destruction is made very plain.
[526] Foxe"s _History of Cromwell_.
[527] A paper of ten interrogatories is in the Rolls House, written in Cromwell"s hand, addressed to a Mr. John More. More"s opinion was required on the supremacy, and among the questions asked him were these:--
What communication hath been between you and the Bishop of Winchester touching the primacy of the Bishop of Rome?
What answers the said Bishop made unto you upon such questions as ye did put to him?
Whether ye have heard the said Bishop at any time in any evil opinion contrary to the statutes of the realm, concerning the primacy of the Bishop of Rome or any other foreign potentate?--_Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30, fol. 67.
In another collection I found a paper of Mr. More"s answers; but it would seem (unless the MS. is imperfect) that he replied only to the questions which affected himself. The following pa.s.sage, however, is curious: "The cause why I demanded the questions (on the primacy) of my Lord of Winchester was for that I heard it, as I am now well remembered, much spoken of in the parliament house, and taken among many there to be a doubt as ye, Mr. Secretary, well know. And for so much as I esteemed my lord"s wisdom and learning to be such, that I thought I would not be better answered, because I heard you, Mr. Secretary, say he was much affectionate to the Papacy."--_Rolls House MS._ first series, 863.
[528] "The Bishop of Winchester was put out of the Privy Council, because my Lord Privy Seal took displeasure with him because he should say it was not meet that Dr. Barnes, being a man defamed of heresy, should be sent amba.s.sador. Touching the Bishop of Chichester there was not heard any cause why he was put forth from the Privy Council."--Depositions of Christopher Chator: _Rolls House MS._ first series.
[529] "Then said Craye to me, there was murmuring and saying by the progress of time that my Lord Privy Seal should be out of favour with his prince. Marry, said I, I heard of such a thing. I heard at Woodstock of one Sir Launcelot Thornton, a chaplain of the Bishop of Durham, who shewed me that the Earl of Hampton, Sir William Kingston, and Sir Anthony Brown were all joined together, and would have had my Lord of Durham to have had rule and chief saying under the King"s Highness. Then said Craye to me, It was evil doing of my lord your master that would not take it upon hand, for he might have amended many things that were amiss; for, if the Bishop of Winchester might have had the saying, he would have taken it upon hand. Well, said I, my lord my master is too good a lawyer, knowing by his book the inconstancy of princes, where there is a text that saith: Lubricus est primus locus apud Reges."--_MS._ ibid.
[530] "There was an honest man in London called Dr. Watts, which preacheth much against heresy; and this Dr. Watts was called before my Lord of Canterbury, and Dr. Barnes should be either his judge or his accuser."--_Rolls House MS._, first series.
[531] "There was an alderman in Gracechurch-street that came to my Lord of Canterbury, and one with him, and said to my Lord of Canterbury: Please your Grace that we are informed that your Grace hath our master Watts by hold. And if it be for treason we will not speak for him, but if it be for heresy or debt we will be bound for him in a thousand pound; for there was ten thousand of London coming to your lordship to be bound for him, but that we stayed them."--_MS._ ibid.
[532] Butler to Bullinger: _Original Letters on the Reformation_, p.
627.
[533] "As to the matter concerning the d.u.c.h.ess of Milan, when his Highness had heard it, he paused a good while, and at the last said, smiling, "Have they remembered themselves now?" To the which I said, "Sir, we that be your servants are much bound to G.o.d, they to woo you whom ye have wooed so long." He answered coldly: "They that would not when they might, percase shall not when they would.""--Southampton to Cromwell, Sept. 17, 1539: _State Papers_, Vol. I.
[534] "There should be three causes why the Emperor should come into these parts--the one for the mutiny of certain cities which were dread in time to allure and stir all or the more part of the other cities to the like; the second, for the alliance which the King"s Majesty hath made with the house of Cleves, which he greatly stomacheth; the third, for the confederacy, as they here call it, between his Majesty and the Almayns. The fear which the Emperor hath of these three things hath driven him to covet much the French king"s amity."--Stephen Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 203.
[535] "There is great suspicion and jealousy to be taken to see these two great princes so familiar together, and to go conjointly in secret practices, in which the Bishop of Rome seemeth to be intelligent, who hath lately sent his nephew, Cardinal Farnese, to be present at the parlement of the said princes in France. The contrary part cannot brook the King"s Majesty and the Almains to be united together, which is no small fear and terror as well to Imperials as the Papisticals, and no marvel if they fury, fearing thereby some great ruin."--Harvel to Cromwell from Venice, December 9.
[536] _Epist. Reginaldi Poli_, Vol. V. p. 150. In this paper Pole says that the Duke of Norfolk stated to the king, in a despatch from Doncaster, when a battle seemed imminent, "that his troops could not be trusted, their bodies were with the king, but their minds with the rebels." His information was, perhaps, derived from his brother Geoffrey, who avowed an intention of deserting.
[537] "The said Helyard said to me that the Emperor was come into France, and should marry the king"s daughter; and the Duke of Orleans should marry the d.u.c.h.ess of Milan, and all this was by the Bishop of Rome"s means; and they were all confedered together, and as for the Scottish king, he was always the French king"s man, and we shall all be undone, for we have no help now but the Duke of Cleves, and they are so poor they cannot help us."--Depositions of Christopher Chator: _Rolls House MS._ first series.
[538] Sir Thos. Wyatt to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 219 &c.
[539] Southampton"s expressions were unfortunately warm. Mentioning a conversation with the German amba.s.sadors, in which he had spoken of his anxiety for the king"s marriage, "so as if G.o.d failed us in my Lord Prince, we might have another sprung of like descent and line to reign over us in peace," he went on to speak to them of the other ladies whom the king might have had if he had desired; "but hearing," he said, "great report of the notable virtues of my lady now with her excellent beauty, _such as I well perceive to be no less than was reported, in very deed my mind gave me to lean that way_." These words, which might have pa.s.sed as unmeaning compliment, had they been spoken merely to the lady"s countrymen, he repeated in his letters to the king, who of course construed them by his hopes.
[540] Deposition of Sir Anthony Brown: Strype"s _Memorials_, Vol. II. p.
252, &c.
[541] Those who insist that Henry was a licentious person, must explain how it was that, neither in the three years which had elapsed since the death of Jane Seymour, nor during the more trying period which followed, do we hear a word of mistresses, intrigues, or questionable or criminal connexions of any kind. The mistresses of princes are usually visible when they exist, the mistresses, for instance, of Francis I., of Charles V., of James of Scotland. There is a difficulty in this which should be admitted, if it cannot be explained.
[542] Deposition of Sir Anthony Denny: Strype"s _Memorials_, Vol. II.
[543] Cromwell to the King: Burnet"s _Collectanea_, p. 109.
[544] Deposition of the Earl of Southampton: Strype"s _Memorials_, Vol.
II.
[545] Questions to be asked of the Lord Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. t.i.tus_, B 1, 418.
[546] Compare Cromwell"s Letter to the King from the Tower, Burnet"s _Collectanea_, p. 109, with Questions to be asked of the Lord Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. t.i.tus_, B 1, 418. Wyatt"s report of his interview and the Emperor"s language could not have arrived till the week after. But the fact of Charles"s arrival with Brancetor in his train, was already known and was sufficiently alarming.
[547] Cromwell to the King: Burnet"s _Collectanea_. The morning after his marriage, and on subsequent occasions, the king made certain depositions to his physicians and to members of the council, which I invite no one to study except under distinct historical obligations. The facts are of great importance. But discomfort made Henry unjust; and when violently irritated he was not careful of his expressions.--See Doc.u.ments relating to the Marriage with Anne of Cleves: Strype"s _Memorials_, Vol. II.
[548] Hall.
[549] The discharge of heretics from prison by an undue interference formed one of the most violent accusations against Cromwell. He was, perhaps, held responsible for the general pardon in the summer of 1539.
The following letter, however, shows something of his own immediate conduct, and of the confidence with which the Protestants looked to him.
"G.o.d save the king.