Volume III Part 48 (1/2)

[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.