Chapter XXIX - England Under Edward the Sixth

by Charles Dickens

　　Henry the Eighth had made a will, appointing a council of sixteento govern the kingdom for his son while he was under age (he wasnow only ten years old), and another council of twelve to helpthem. The most powerful of the first council was the Earl ofHertford, the young King's uncle, who lost no time in bringing hisnephew with great state up to Enfield, and thence to the Tower. Itwas considered at the time a striking proof of virtue in the youngKing that he was sorry for his father's death; but, as commonsubjects have that virtue too, sometimes, we will say no more aboutit.

　　There was a curious part of the late King's will, requiring hisexecutors to fulfil whatever promises he had made. Some of thecourt wondering what these might be, the Earl of Hertford and theother noblemen interested, said that they were promises to advanceand enrich them. So, the Earl of Hertford made himself Duke ofSomerset, and made his brother Edward Seymour a baron; and therewere various similar promotions, all very agreeable to the partiesconcerned, and very dutiful, no doubt, to the late King's memory.To be more dutiful still, they made themselves rich out of theChurch lands, and were very comfortable. The new Duke of Somersetcaused himself to be declared Protector of the kingdom, and was,indeed, the King.

　　As young Edward the Sixth had been brought up in the principles ofthe Protestant religion, everybody knew that they would bemaintained. But Cranmer, to whom they were chiefly entrusted,advanced them steadily and temperately. Many superstitious andridiculous practices were stopped; but practices which wereharmless were not interfered with.

　　The Duke of Somerset, the Protector, was anxious to have the youngKing engaged in marriage to the young Queen of Scotland, in orderto prevent that princess from making an alliance with any foreignpower; but, as a large party in Scotland were unfavourable to thisplan, he invaded that country. His excuse for doing so was, thatthe Border men - that is, the Scotch who lived in that part of thecountry where England and Scotland joined - troubled the Englishvery much. But there were two sides to this question; for theEnglish Border men troubled the Scotch too; and, through many longyears, there were perpetual border quarrels which gave rise tonumbers of old tales and songs. However, the Protector invadedScotland; and Arran, the Scottish Regent, with an army twice aslarge as his, advanced to meet him. They encountered on the banksof the river Esk, within a few miles of Edinburgh; and there, aftera little skirmish, the Protector made such moderate proposals, inoffering to retire if the Scotch would only engage not to marrytheir princess to any foreign prince, that the Regent thought theEnglish were afraid. But in this he made a horrible mistake; forthe English soldiers on land, and the English sailors on the water,so set upon the Scotch, that they broke and fled, and more than tenthousand of them were killed. It was a dreadful battle, for thefugitives were slain without mercy. The ground for four miles, allthe way to Edinburgh, was strewn with dead men, and with arms, andlegs, and heads. Some hid themselves in streams and were drowned;some threw away their armour and were killed running, almost naked;but in this battle of Pinkey the English lost only two or threehundred men. They were much better clothed than the Scotch; at thepoverty of whose appearance and country they were exceedinglyastonished.

　　A Parliament was called when Somerset came back, and it repealedthe whip with six strings, and did one or two other good things;though it unhappily retained the punishment of burning for thosepeople who did not make believe to believe, in all religiousmatters, what the Government had declared that they must and shouldbelieve. It also made a foolish law (meant to put down beggars),that any man who lived idly and loitered about for three daystogether, should be burned with a hot iron, made a slave, and wearan iron fetter. But this savage absurdity soon came to an end, andwent the way of a great many other foolish laws.

　　The Protector was now so proud that he sat in Parliament before allthe nobles, on the right hand of the throne. Many other noblemen,who only wanted to be as proud if they could get a chance, becamehis enemies of course; and it is supposed that he came backsuddenly from Scotland because he had received news that hisbrother, Lord Seymour, was becoming dangerous to him. This lordwas now High Admiral of England; a very handsome man, and a greatfavourite with the Court ladies - even with the young PrincessElizabeth, who romped with him a little more than young princessesin these times do with any one. He had married Catherine Parr, thelate King's widow, who was now dead; and, to strengthen his power,he secretly supplied the young King with money. He may even haveengaged with some of his brother's enemies in a plot to carry theboy off. On these and other accusations, at any rate, he wasconfined in the Tower, impeached, and found guilty; his ownbrother's name being - unnatural and sad to tell - the first signedto the warrant of his execution. He was executed on Tower Hill,and died denying his treason. One of his last proceedings in thisworld was to write two letters, one to the Princess Elizabeth, andone to the Princess Mary, which a servant of his took charge of,and concealed in his shoe. These letters are supposed to haveurged them against his brother, and to revenge his death. Whatthey truly contained is not known; but there is no doubt that hehad, at one time, obtained great influence over the PrincessElizabeth.

　　All this while, the Protestant religion was making progress. Theimages which the people had gradually come to worship, were removedfrom the churches; the people were informed that they need notconfess themselves to priests unless they chose; a common prayer-book was drawn up in the English language, which all couldunderstand, and many other improvements were made; stillmoderately. For Cranmer was a very moderate man, and evenrestrained the Protestant clergy from violently abusing theunreformed religion - as they very often did, and which was not agood example. But the people were at this time in great distress.The rapacious nobility who had come into possession of the Churchlands, were very bad landlords. They enclosed great quantities ofground for the feeding of sheep, which was then more profitablethan the growing of crops; and this increased the general distress.So the people, who still understood little of what was going onabout them, and still readily believed what the homeless monks toldthem - many of whom had been their good friends in their betterdays - took it into their heads that all this was owing to thereformed religion, and therefore rose, in many parts of thecountry.

　　The most powerful risings were in Devonshire and Norfolk. InDevonshire, the rebellion was so strong that ten thousand menunited within a few days, and even laid siege to Exeter. But LordRussell, coming to the assistance of the citizens who defended thattown, defeated the rebels; and, not only hanged the Mayor of oneplace, but hanged the vicar of another from his own church steeple.What with hanging and killing by the sword, four thousand of therebels are supposed to have fallen in that one county. In Norfolk(where the rising was more against the enclosure of open lands thanagainst the reformed religion), the popular leader was a man namedRobert Ket, a tanner of Wymondham. The mob were, in the firstinstance, excited against the tanner by one John Flowerdew, agentleman who owed him a grudge: but the tanner was more than amatch for the gentleman, since he soon got the people on his side,and established himself near Norwich with quite an army. There wasa large oak-tree in that place, on a spot called Moushold Hill,which Ket named the Tree of Reformation; and under its greenboughs, he and his men sat, in the midsummer weather, holdingcourts of justice, and debating affairs of state. They were evenimpartial enough to allow some rather tiresome public speakers toget up into this Tree of Reformation, and point out their errors tothem, in long discourses, while they lay listening (not alwayswithout some grumbling and growling) in the shade below. At last,one sunny July day, a herald appeared below the tree, andproclaimed Ket and all his men traitors, unless from that momentthey dispersed and went home: in which case they were to receive apardon. But, Ket and his men made light of the herald and becamestronger than ever, until the Earl of Warwick went after them witha sufficient force, and cut them all to pieces. A few were hanged,drawn, and quartered, as traitors, and their limbs were sent intovarious country places to be a terror to the people. Nine of themwere hanged upon nine green branches of the Oak of Reformation; andso, for the time, that tree may be said to have withered away.

　　The Protector, though a haughty man, had compassion for the realdistresses of the common people, and a sincere desire to help them.But he was too proud and too high in degree to hold even theirfavour steadily; and many of the nobles always envied and hatedhim, because they were as proud and not as high as he. He was atthis time building a great Palace in the Strand: to get the stonefor which he blew up church steeples with gunpowder, and pulleddown bishops' houses: thus making himself still more disliked. Atlength, his principal enemy, the Earl of Warwick - Dudley by name,and the son of that Dudley who had made himself so odious withEmpson, in the reign of Henry the Seventh - joined with seven othermembers of the Council against him, formed a separate Council; and,becoming stronger in a few days, sent him to the Tower undertwenty-nine articles of accusation. After being sentenced by theCouncil to the forfeiture of all his offices and lands, he wasliberated and pardoned, on making a very humble submission. He waseven taken back into the Council again, after having suffered thisfall, and married his daughter, Lady Anne Seymour, to Warwick'seldest son. But such a reconciliation was little likely to last,and did not outlive a year. Warwick, having got himself made Dukeof Northumberland, and having advanced the more important of hisfriends, then finished the history by causing the Duke of Somersetand his friend Lord Grey, and others, to be arrested for treason,in having conspired to seize and dethrone the King. They were alsoaccused of having intended to seize the new Duke of Northumberland,with his friends Lord Northampton and Lord Pembroke; to murder themif they found need; and to raise the City to revolt. All this thefallen Protector positively denied; except that he confessed tohaving spoken of the murder of those three noblemen, but havingnever designed it. He was acquitted of the charge of treason, andfound guilty of the other charges; so when the people - whoremembered his having been their friend, now that he was disgracedand in danger, saw him come out from his trial with the axe turnedfrom him - they thought he was altogether acquitted, and sent up aloud shout of joy.

　　But the Duke of Somerset was ordered to be beheaded on Tower Hill,at eight o'clock in the morning, and proclamations were issuedbidding the citizens keep at home until after ten. They filled thestreets, however, and crowded the place of execution as soon as itwas light; and, with sad faces and sad hearts, saw the oncepowerful Protector ascend the scaffold to lay his head upon thedreadful block. While he was yet saying his last words to themwith manly courage, and telling them, in particular, how itcomforted him, at that pass, to have assisted in reforming thenational religion, a member of the Council was seen riding up onhorseback. They again thought that the Duke was saved by hisbringing a reprieve, and again shouted for joy. But the Dukehimself told them they were mistaken, and laid down his head andhad it struck off at a blow.

　　Many of the bystanders rushed forward and steeped theirhandkerchiefs in his blood, as a mark of their affection. He had,indeed, been capable of many good acts, and one of them wasdiscovered after he was no more. The Bishop of Durham, a very goodman, had been informed against to the Council, when the Duke was inpower, as having answered a treacherous letter proposing arebellion against the reformed religion. As the answer could notbe found, he could not be declared guilty; but it was nowdiscovered, hidden by the Duke himself among some private papers,in his regard for that good man. The Bishop lost his office, andwas deprived of his possessions.

　　It is not very pleasant to know that while his uncle lay in prisonunder sentence of death, the young King was being vastlyentertained by plays, and dances, and sham fights: but there is nodoubt of it, for he kept a journal himself. It is pleasanter toknow that not a single Roman Catholic was burnt in this reign forholding that religion; though two wretched victims suffered forheresy. One, a woman named Joan Bocher, for professing someopinions that even she could only explain in unintelligible jargon.The other, a Dutchman, named Von Paris, who practised as a surgeonin London. Edward was, to his credit, exceedingly unwilling tosign the warrant for the woman's execution: shedding tears beforehe did so, and telling Cranmer, who urged him to do it (thoughCranmer really would have spared the woman at first, but for herown determined obstinacy), that the guilt was not his, but that ofthe man who so strongly urged the dreadful act. We shall see, toosoon, whether the time ever came when Cranmer is likely to haveremembered this with sorrow and remorse.

　　Cranmer and Ridley (at first Bishop of Rochester, and afterwardsBishop of London) were the most powerful of the clergy of thisreign. Others were imprisoned and deprived of their property forstill adhering to the unreformed religion; the most important amongwhom were Gardiner Bishop of Winchester, Heath Bishop of Worcester,Day Bishop of Chichester, and Bonner that Bishop of London who wassuperseded by Ridley. The Princess Mary, who inherited hermother's gloomy temper, and hated the reformed religion asconnected with her mother's wrongs and sorrows - she knew nothingelse about it, always refusing to read a single book in which itwas truly described - held by the unreformed religion too, and wasthe only person in the kingdom for whom the old Mass was allowed tobe performed; nor would the young King have made that exceptioneven in her favour, but for the strong persuasions of Cranmer andRidley. He always viewed it with horror; and when he fell into asickly condition, after having been very ill, first of the measlesand then of the small-pox, he was greatly troubled in mind to thinkthat if he died, and she, the next heir to the throne, succeeded,the Roman Catholic religion would be set up again.

　　This uneasiness, the Duke of Northumberland was not slow toencourage: for, if the Princess Mary came to the throne, he, whohad taken part with the Protestants, was sure to be disgraced.Now, the Duchess of Suffolk was descended from King Henry theSeventh; and, if she resigned what little or no right she had, infavour of her daughter Lady Jane Grey, that would be the successionto promote the Duke's greatness; because Lord Guilford Dudley, oneof his sons, was, at this very time, newly married to her. So, heworked upon the King's fears, and persuaded him to set aside boththe Princess Mary and the Princess Elizabeth, and assert his rightto appoint his successor. Accordingly the young King handed to theCrown lawyers a writing signed half a dozen times over by himself,appointing Lady Jane Grey to succeed to the Crown, and requiringthem to have his will made out according to law. They were muchagainst it at first, and told the King so; but the Duke ofNorthumberland - being so violent about it that the lawyers evenexpected him to beat them, and hotly declaring that, stripped tohis shirt, he would fight any man in such a quarrel - they yielded.Cranmer, also, at first hesitated; pleading that he had sworn tomaintain the succession of the Crown to the Princess Mary; but, hewas a weak man in his resolutions, and afterwards signed thedocument with the rest of the council.

　　It was completed none too soon; for Edward was now sinking in arapid decline; and, by way of making him better, they handed himover to a woman-doctor who pretended to be able to cure it. Hespeedily got worse. On the sixth of July, in the year one thousandfive hundred and fifty-three, he died, very peaceably and piously,praying God, with his last breath, to protect the reformedreligion.

　　This King died in the sixteenth year of his age, and in the seventhof his reign. It is difficult to judge what the character of oneso young might afterwards have become among so many bad, ambitious,quarrelling nobles. But, he was an amiable boy, of very goodabilities, and had nothing coarse or cruel or brutal in hisdisposition - which in the son of such a father is rathersurprising.