Volume III Part 48 (2/2)

[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 lords.h.i.+p 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.

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