Volume III Part 17 (1/2)

At this conjuncture the abbey lands were a fortunate resource. They were disposed of rapidly--of course on easy terms to the purchasers. The insurrection as we saw had taught the necessity of filling the place of the monks with resident owners, who would maintain hospitality liberally, and on a scale to contrast favourably with the careless waste of their predecessors. Obligations to this effect were made a condition of the sales, and lowered naturally the market value of the properties.

Considerable sums, however, were realized, adequate for immediate objects, though falling short of the ultimate cost of the defences of the country. At the same time the government works found labour for the able-bodied beggars, those st.u.r.dy vagrants whose living had been gathered hitherto at the doors of the religious houses, varied only with intervals of the stocks and the cart's-tail.

Thus the spoils of the Church furnished the arms by which the Pope and the Pope's friends could be held at bay; and by degrees in the healthier portion of the nation an English enthusiasm took the place of a superst.i.tious panic. Loyalty towards England went along with the Reformation, when the Reformation was menaced by foreign enemies; and the wide disaffection which in 1536 had threatened a revolution, became concentrated in a vindictive minority, to whom the Papacy was dearer than their country, and whose persevering conspiracies taught England at no distant time to acquiesce with its whole heart in the wisdom which chained them down by penal laws as traitors and enemies to the commonwealth.[311]

[Sidenote: Increasing ill-health of the king.]

[Sidenote: September. Approach of the queen's confinement.]

[Sidenote: October 12. Edward Prince of Wales is born.]

[Sidenote: General expressions of delight.]

[Sidenote: Latimer's letter to Cromwell.]

Meanwhile, the event to which the king, the whole of England and the Continent, friends and enemies, were looking so anxiously, was approaching near. The king's health was growing visibly weaker; his corpulency was increasing, through disease and weakness of system; an inveterate ulcer had settled in his leg; and the chances of his death in consequence of it were already calculated.[312] The whole fortune of the future seemed to depend on the issue of the queen's pregnancy. Yet, notwithstanding his infirmities, Henry was in high spirits. At the end of the summer he was with a hunting party at Guildford, and was described as being especially affable and good-humoured.[313] In September he was at Hampton Court, where the confinement was expected at the close of the month, or at the beginning of October. Strange inquiries had been made by Pole, or by Pole's secretary,[314] on the probable s.e.x of the child. On the 12th of October the question was decided by the birth of a prince, so long and pa.s.sionately hoped for.

Only a most minute intimacy with the condition of the country can make intelligible the feelings with which the news was received. The crown had an undoubted heir. The succession was sure. The king, who was supposed to be under a curse which refused him male posterity, was relieved from the bane. Providence had borne witness for him, and had rewarded his policy. No revolution need be looked for on his death. The Catholics could not hope for their ”jolly stirring.” The anti-Papal leaders need not dread the stake for their wages. The insurrection was crushed. A prince was born. England was saved. These were the terms which many a heart repeated to itself. The Marchioness of Dorset wrote to Henry that she had received the most joyful news that came to England these many years; for the which she and all his Grace's subjects gave thanks to Almighty G.o.d, for that He had remembered his Grace and all his subjects with a prince, to the comfort, universal weal, and quietness of the realm.[315] Latimer, in a letter to Cromwell, was still more emphatic. ”There is no less rejoicing,” he said, ”for the birth of our prince, whom we hungered for so long, than there was, I trow, _inter vicinos_, at the birth of John the Baptist. G.o.d give us grace to yield due thanks to our Lord G.o.d, the G.o.d of England. For verily He hath shewed Himself the G.o.d of England; or rather an English G.o.d, if we will consider and ponder his proceedings with us. He hath overcome our illness with his exceeding goodness, so that we are now more compelled to serve Him and promote his Word, if the Devil of all devils be not in us. We have now the stop of various trusts and the stay of vain expectations. Let us all pray for his preservation.”[316]

In Latimer's words, the joy and the especial causes of it are alike transparent; but a disaster followed so closely as to show that the mysterious fatality which pursued the king in his domestic relations had not ceased to overshadow him, and to furnish food for fresh superst.i.tion and fresh intrigue. The birth took place on the 12th of October. The queen continued to do well up to the 22d or 23d,[317] when it seems that, through the carelessness of her attendants, she was allowed to indulge in some improper food, for which she had expressed a wish. She caught a cold at the same time;[318] and although on the evening of the 23d she appeared still so well that the king intended to leave Hampton Court on the following day, she became in the night alarmingly worse, and was in evident danger. In the morning the symptoms had somewhat improved, and there were hopes that the attack would pa.s.s off; but the unfortunate appearances soon returned; in a few more hours she was dead.[319]

[Sidenote: The queen dies on the 24th of October.]

A worse calamity could scarcely have befallen the king (unless the loss of the child had been added to that of the mother) than the death of Jane Seymour. Although she makes no figure in history, though she took no part in state questions, and we know little either of her sympathies or opinions, her name is mentioned by both Protestant and Catholic with unreserved respect. She married the king under circ.u.mstances peculiarly agitating, without preparation, without attachment, either on her part or on his, but under the pressure of a sudden and tragical necessity.

Her uprightness of character and sweetness of disposition had earned her husband's esteem, and with his esteem an affection deeper than he had perhaps antic.i.p.ated. At her side, at his own death, he desired that his body might be laid.

[Sidenote: The king shuts himself up in the palace at Westminster.]

When he knew that she was gone, he held a single interview with the council, and then retired to the palace at Westminster, where ”he mourned and kept himself close a great while.”[320]

[Sidenote: Wild rumours afloat of the causes of the death.]

In the country the rejoicings were turned to sorrow.[321] Owing to the preternatural excitement of the public imagination, groundless rumours instantly gained currency. It was said that, when the queen was in labour, a lady had told the king that either the child must die or the mother; that the king had answered, Save the child, and therefore ”the child was cut out of his mother's womb.”[322] Catherine's male children had all died in infancy. This child, it was soon believed, was dead also. Some said that the child, some that the king, some that both were dead. The Caesarian birth pa.s.sed for an established fact; while a prophecy was discovered, which said that ”He should be killed that never was born, and nature's hand or man's had brought it to pa.s.s, or soon would bring it to pa.s.s.”[323]

[Sidenote: November. Anxiety felt for the child's life.]

[Sidenote: Regulations of the royal nursery.]

These were the mere bubbles of credulity, blown by the general wind; but the interests which now depended upon the infant prince's life caused to grave persons grave anxiety. He was but one--a single life,--between the king's death and chaos, and the king was again a widower. The greater the importance of the child's preservation to one party, the greater the temptation to the other to destroy it; and the precautions with which the royal nursery was surrounded, betray most real alarm that an attempt might be ventured to make away with him.

Instructions to the grand chamberlain were drawn, by some one in high authority, with more than the solemnity of an act of parliament.

[Sidenote: Inasmuch as all good things have their opposing evil,]

[Sidenote: The Prince it is likely lacks not adversaries.]

”Like as there is nothing in this world so n.o.ble, just, and perfect, but that there is something contrary, that evermore envieth it, and procureth the destruction of the same, insomuch as G.o.d Himself hath the Devil repugnant to Him, Christ hath his Antichrist and persecutor, and from the highest to the lowest after such proportion, so the Prince's Grace, for all his n.o.bility and innocency (albeit he never offended any one), yet by all likelihood he lacketh not envy nor adversaries against his Grace, who, either for ambition of their own promotion, or otherwise to fulfil their malicious perverse mind, would, perchance, if they saw opportunity, which G.o.d forbid, procure to his Grace displeasure. And although his Majesty doubteth not, but like as G.o.d for the comfort of this whole realm hath given the said prince, so of his providence He will preserve and defend him; yet, nevertheless, heed and caution ought to be taken, to avoid the evil enterprises which might be devised against his Grace, or danger of his person.”

[Sidenote: No person therefore to approach the cradle except the regular attendants. All food to be a.s.sayed.]

[Sidenote: All clothes to be perfumed.]