The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (227 page)

The king’s favour to Cromwel, and his acquiescence in the marriage with Anne of Cleves, were both of them deceitful appearances. His aversion to the queen secretly encreased every day; and having at last broken all restraint, it prompted him at once to seek the dissolution of a marriage so odious to him, and to involve his minister in ruin, who had been the innocent author of it.

The fall of Cromwel was hastened by other causes. All the Fall of Cromwel.

nobility hated a man, who, being of such low extraction, had not only mounted above them by his station of vicar-general, but had engrossed many of the other considerable offices of the crown: Besides enjoying that commission, which gave him a high, and almost absolute authority over the clergy, and even over the laity, he was privy seal, chamberlain, and master of the wards: He had also obtained the order of the garter, a dignity which had ever been conferred only on men of illustrious families, and which seemed to be profaned by its being communicated to so mean a person. The people were averse to him, as the supposed author of the violence on the monasteries: establishments, which were still revered and beloved by the commonalty. The catholics regarded him as the concealed enemy of their religion: The protestants, observing his exterior concurrence with all the persecutions exercised against them, were inclined to bear him as little favour: and reproached him with the timidity, if not treachery, of his conduct. And the king, who found, that great clamours had on all hands arisen against the administration, was not displeased to throw on Cromwel the load of public hatred; and he hoped, by making so easy a sacrifice, to regain the affections of his subjects.

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But there was another cause, which suddenly set all these motives in action, and brought about an unexpected revolution in the ministry. The king had fixed his affection on Catherine Howard, niece to the duke of Norfolk; and being determined to gratify this new passion, he could find no expedient, but, by procuring a divorce from his present consort, to raise Catherine to his bed and throne. The duke, who had long been engaged in enmity with Cromwel, made the same use of her insinuations to ruin this minister, that he had formerly done of Anne Boleyn’s against Wolsey: And when all engines were prepared, he obtained a commission from the king, to arrest Cromwel at the council-table, on an accusation of high treason, and to commit him to the Tower. Immediately after, a bill of attainder was framed against him; and the house of peers thought proper, without trial, examination, or evidence, to condemn to death a man, whom, a few days before, they had declared worthy to be vicar-general of the universe. The house of commons passed the bill, though not without some opposition.

Cromwel was accused of heresy and treason; but the proofs of his treasonable practices are utterly improbable, and even absolutely ridiculous.
u
The only circumstance of his conduct, by which he seems to have merited this fate, was his being the instrument of the king’s tyranny, in conducting like iniquitous bills, in the preceding session, against the countess of Salisbury and others.

Cromwel endeavoured to soften the king by the most humble supplications; but all to no purpose: It was not the practice of that prince to ruin his ministers and favourites by halves, and though the unhappy prisoner once wrote to him in so moving a strain as even to draw tears from his eyes, he hardened himself against all movements of pity, and refused his pardon. The conclusion of Cromwel’s letter ran in these words:

“I, a most woful prisoner, am ready to submit to death when it shall please God and your majesty; and yet the frail flesh incites me to call to your grace for mercy and pardon of mine offences. Written at the Tower with the heavy heart and trembling hand of your highness’s most miserable prisoner and poor slave, Thomas Cromwel.”

And a little below, “Most gracious prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy.”
w
When brought to the place of execution,

he avoided all earnest protestations of his innocence, and all 28th July. His

complaints against the sentence pronounced upon him. He knew, execution.

that Henry would resent on his son those symptoms of opposition to his will, and that his death alone would not terminate that monarch’s vengeance. He was a man of prudence, industry, and abilities; worthy of a better master and of a better fate. Though raised to the summit of power from a low origin, he betrayed no insolence or contempt towards his inferiors; and was careful to remember all the obligations, which, during his more humble fortune, he had owed to any one. He had served as a private sentinel in the Italian wars; when he received some good offices from a Lucquese merchant, who had entirely forgotten his person, as well as the service, which he had rendered him. Cromwel, in his grandeur, happened, at London, to cast his eye on his benefactor, now reduced to poverty, by misfortunes. He immediately sent for him, reminded him of their ancient friendship, and by his grateful assistance, reinstated him in his former prosperity and opulence.
x

The measures for divorcing Henry from Anne of Cleves, were King’s divorce from

carried on at the same time with the bill of attainder against Anne of Cleves.

Cromwel. The house of peers, in conjunction with the commons, PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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applied to the king by petition, desiring that he would allow his marriage to be examined; and orders were immediately given to lay the matter before the convocation. Anne had formerly been contracted by her father to the duke of Lorraine; but she, as well as the duke, were at that time under age, and the contract had been afterwards annulled by consent of both parties. The king, however, pleaded this precontract as a ground of divorce; and he added two reasons more, which may seem a little extraordinary; that, when he espoused Anne he had not
inwardly
given his consent, and that he had not thought proper to consummate the marriage. The convocation was satisfied with these reasons, and solemnly annulled the marriage between the king and queen: The parliament ratified the decision of the clergy;
NOTE

[O]
and the sentence was soon after notified to the princess.

Anne was blest with a happy insensibility of temper, even in the points which the most nearly affect her sex; and the king’s aversion towards her, as well as his prosecution of the divorce, had never given her the least uneasiness. She willingly hearkened to terms of accommodation with him; and when he offered to adopt her as his sister, to give her place next the queen and his own daughter, and to make a settlement of three thousand pounds a year upon her; she accepted of the conditions,

and gave her consent to the divorce.z
She even wrote to her brother (for her father was now dead), that she had been very well used in England, and desired him to live on good terms with the king. The only instance of pride which she betrayed was, that she refused to return to her own country after the affront which she had received; and she lived and died in England.

Notwithstanding Anne’s moderation, this incident produced a great coldness between the king and the German princes; but as the situation of Europe was now much altered, Henry was the more indifferent about their resentment. The close intimacy, which had taken place between Francis and Charles, had subsisted during a very short time: The dissimilarity of their characters soon renewed, with greater violence than ever, their former jealousy and hatred. While Charles remained at Paris, Francis had been imprudently engaged, by his open temper, and by that satisfaction, which a noble mind naturally feels in performing generous actions, to make in confidence some dangerous discoveries to that interested monarch; and having now lost all suspicion of his rival, he hoped that the emperor and he, supporting each other, might neglect every other alliance. He not only communicated to his guest the state of his negociations with Sultan Solyman and the Venetians: He also laid open the solicitations, which he had received from the court of England, to enter into a

confederacy against him.a
Charles had no sooner reached his own dominions, than he shewed himself unworthy of the friendly reception which he had met with. He absolutely refused to fulfil his promise, and put the duke of Orleans in possession of the Milanese: He informed Solyman and the senate of Venice of the treatment, which they had received from their ally: and he took care that Henry should not be ignorant how readily Francis had abandoned his ancient friend to whom he owed such important obligations, and had sacrificed him to a new confederate: He even poisoned and misrepresented many things, which the unsuspecting heart of the French monarch had disclosed to him. Had Henry possessed true judgment and generosity, this incident alone had been sufficient to guide him in the choice of his ally. But his domineering pride carried him immediately to renounce the friendship of Francis, PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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who had so unexpectedly given the preference to the emperor: And as Charles invited him to a renewal of ancient amity, he willingly accepted of the offer; and thinking himself secure in this alliance, he neglected the friendship both of France and of the German princes.

The new turn, which Henry had taken with regard to foreign affairs, was extremely agreeable to his catholic subjects; and as it had perhaps contributed, among other reasons, to the ruin of Cromwel, it made them entertain hopes of a final prevalence over their antagonist.

The marriage of the king with Catherine Howard, which

8th Aug. His marriage

followed soon after his divorce from Anne of Cleves, was also with Catherine

regarded as a favourable incident to their party; and the Howard.

subsequent events corresponded to their expectations. The king’s councils being now directed by Norfolk and Gardiner, a furious persecution commenced against the protestants; and the law of the six artycles was executed with rigour. Dr. Barnes, who had been the cause of Lambert’s execution, felt, in his turn, the severity of the persecuting spirit; and, by a bill, which passed in parliament, he was, without trial, condemned to the flames, together with Jerome and Gerrard. He discussed theological questions even at the stake; and as the dispute between him and the sheriff, turned upon the invocation of saints, he said, that he doubted whether the saints could pray for us; but if they could, he hoped, in half an hour, to be praying for the sheriff and all the spectators. He next entreated the sheriff to carry to the king his dying request, which he fondly imagined would have authority with that monarch, who had sent him to the stake. The purport of his request was, that Henry, besides repressing superstitious ceremonies, should be extremely vigilant in preventing fornication and common swearing.
b

While Henry was exerting this violence against the protestants, he spared not the catholics who denied his supremacy; and a foreigner, at that time in England, had reason to say, that those who were against the pope were burned, and those who were for him were hanged.
c
The king even displayed, in an ostentatious manner, this tyrannical impartiality, which reduced both parties to subjection, and infused terror into every breast. Barnes, Gerrard, and Jerome had been carried to the place of execution on three hurdles; and along with them there was placed on each hurdle a catholic, who was also executed for his religion. These catholics were Abel, Fetherstone, and Powel, who declared, that the most grievous part of their punishment was the being coupled to such heretical miscreants as suffered with them.
d

Though the spirit of the English seemed to be totally sunk under the despotic power of Henry, there appeared some symptoms of discontent: An inconsiderable rebellion broke out in Yorkshire, headed by Sir John Nevil; but it was soon suppressed, and Nevil, with other ringleaders, was executed. The rebels were supposed to have been instigated by the intrigues of cardinal Pole; and the king was instantly determined to make the countess of Salisbury, who already lay under sentence of death, suffer for her son’s offences.

He ordered her to be carried to execution; and this venerable 27th May.

matron maintained still, in these distressful circumstances, the

spirit of that long race of monarchs, from whom she was descended.e
She refused to PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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lay her head on the block, or submit to a sentence where she had received no trial. She told the executioner, that, if he would have her head, he must win it the best way he could: And thus, shaking her venerable grey locks, she ran about the scaffold; and the executioner followed her with his ax, aiming many fruitless blows at her neck, before he was able to give the fatal stroke. Thus perished the last of the line of Plantagenet, which, with great glory, but still greater crimes and misfortunes, had governed England for the space of three hundred years. Lord Leonard Grey, a man who had formerly rendered service to the crown, was also beheaded for treason, soon after the countess of Salisbury. We know little concerning the grounds of his prosecution.

The insurrection in the North engaged Henry to make a progress thither, in order to quiet the minds of his people, to reconcile them to his government, and to abolish the ancient superstitions, to which those parts were much addicted. He had also another motive for this journey: He purposed to have a conference at York with his nephew the king of Scotland,

and, if possible, to cement a close and indissoluble union with 1541.

that kingdom.

The same spirit of religious innovation, which had seized other State of affairs in