The last objects of llenry's cruelty and injustice, were the Duke of Norfolk, and his son the Earl of Surrey ; the former the most faithful of the king's ministers, and the latter the most accomplished of the English nobility. Their greatness, and not their guilt, excited the workings of the tyrant's violent and jealous spirit. The great power of Norfolk, his attachment to the ancient religion, and his alliance to the throne, suggested to Henry's mind that, during his son's minority, great danger might arise, both to the public tranquillity, and to the new ecclesiastical system, from the attempts of so potent a subject. These suspicions were increased by some unguarded expres sions used by Surrey, when he was recalled from the government of Boulogne, by his refusal of all matrimo nial connections that had been proposed to him, and by an apprehension that he entertained the ambitious view of espousing the Princess Mary, as a step to the crown. Disgusted also with the whole family, on account of the conduct of Catherine Howard, he yielded the more rea dily to his vindictive feelings, and, determined upon the ruin of the two noblemen, he gave private orders to ar rest and commit them to the Tower on the same day. Surrey, accused of entertaining Italian spies in his family, of holding a secret correspondence with Car dinal Pole, and of manifesting his aim at the crown, by having the arms of Edward the Confessor on his scut cheon, was without proofs, and in defiance of his able defence, condemned and executed for high treason. No greater crime could be discovered against Norfolk, than his once saying, that the king could not hold out long, and that the kingdom was likely to fall into disorders, through the diversity of religious opinions ; but a bill of attainder nevertheless was passed against him in the House of Peers, without any species of trial ; and the king hastening it through the House of Commons lest his victim should escape, issued the death warrant with all possible expedition. But his own death on the evening preceding the clay of execution, procured a re prieve to the noble prisoner ; and it was not thought ad visable to commence a new reign with the sacrifice of the greatest subject in the kingdom. Though the king's end had for several days been evidently'approaching, none of his attendants dared to inform him of his condition. But Sir Anthony Denny having at length ventured to make the solemn intimation, Henry expressed his resignation, and ordered Cranmer to be brought to him. The king was speechless before that prelate arrived ; but, being de sired to give some sign of his dying in the faith of Christ, he pressed the hand of the Archbishop, and immediately expired, in the 56th year of his age, and 33th of his reign.
. Henry was very tall, strong, stately in his air, and in his youth uncommonly handsome, excelling in all manly exercises, fond of magnificence, and full of personal cou rage. He possessed great vigour of mind, and was dis tinguished by an extensive capacity. He was skilled in music, and spoke with fluency several foreign languages, particularly Latin and French. He was sincere, frank, liberal, and capable at least of temporary friendships and attachments. But his vices were of the darkest hue, and comprehend all the worst qualities of human nature. A violent impetuosity of temper, and insatiable love of plea sure, and a radical cruelty of disposition, were the dis tinguishing features of his mind, and the sources of his greatest crimes, of his profusion, rapacity, injustice, ob stinacy, arrogance, caprice, bigotry, and tyranny. He was filled with an extraordinary conceit of his own supe rior wisdom, and fond of flattery ; tmcontroulable in his desires, and inflexible in his purposes ; never known to yield or to forgive ; and never cc sparing," as he said of himself, man in his anger, or a woman in his lust." Yet, in spite of his cruelty, extortion, and arbitrary go vernment, his exterior qualities so captivated the multi tude, that he not only acquired the regard, but in sonic degree possessed to the last the affection of his subjects. He had indeed so completely subdued their free spirit, that, like °astern slaves, they admired those arts of ty ranny which degraded themselves ; and had he not, by promoting their liberation from papal oppression, provi ded a corrective for his own despotism, it may be fairly questioned, whether the English constitution would ever have recovered from the repeated checks which its radi cal principles sustained in his reign.
Edward VI. succeeded his father as king of England when he was only nine years of age ; but, by the will of Henry, the government of the kingdom, till the Prince should have completed his 18th year, was intrusted to sixteen executors and twelve counsellors, whom he him self had expressly nominated, and whom he seems to have expected to prove equally obsequious after his death as they had been during his life. Their first act, however, was to choose a protector of the realm, who might re present the royal majesty, and the choice fell upon the Earl of Hertford, who was the young king's maternal uncle, and naturally interested in his nephew's safety, while he himself possessed no claims to the throne, which could endanger the Prince's person, or the public tran quillity. Created Duke of Somerset, he procured a pa tent from the young king, by which he overturned the will of Henry VIII. and secured to himself as regent the full regal power. He had long been regarded as secret
ly favourable to the principles of the reformers ; and, as soon as his authority was established, he openly avowed his intention of correcting all the abuses in the former system. The alterations, indeed, made by Henry, were rather acts of separation from the Pope, than of reforma tion from Popery ; but now the errors of Rome began to be actually removed, and the history of Edward's reign becomes rather a detail of the methods employed by his governors for reforming religion, than a description of political measures, or warlike events.
The protector took care, that all who were entrusted with the education of the young king should be attached to the principles of the Reformation ; and, in all his schemes for correcting the errors of popery, he had re course to the counsels of Archbishop Cranmer, a person of the greatest moderation and prudence. They expe rienced considerable opposition from Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, which at length drew upon him the in dignation of the council ; and he was committed to the Fleet-prison, where he was treated, not, indeed, with the cruelty of popish persecutors, but with very unbecoming severity. Visitors, consisting of ecclesiastics and laymen united, were sent to all the dioceses, with power to cor rect the irregularities of the clergy, to abolish ancient superstitions, and to bring the worship and discipline of the church nearer to the practice of the reformed. Or de, s were issued to restrain the monks, who had been placed in the vacant churches, from preaching in defence of the old abuses ; and twelve homilies were published, which the clergy were enjoined to read to the people, instead of addressing them in discourses of their own production. The protector, having made due provision for the stability of affairs at home, resolved to prosecute the war with Scotland, in order to accomplish the pro ject of the late king, for uniting the two kingdoms by the marriage of Edward and Mary ; and, with an army of 18,000 men, attended by a fleet of sixty sail, he advan ced within sight of the Scottish capital. flax ing routed the army of the Scots at l'inkcy with great slaughter, and appointed conunissioners at Berwick to treat of a peace, he returned to London, with that increase of po pularity and power, which a conqueror, it has been ob served, is always sure to acquire with the English na tion. To this character, however, he added more esti mablo and amiable virtues; was humble, affable, and ac cessible to the meanest subject ; and was obviously in fluenced in his general conduct by the principles of reli gion and honour. Ilaving summoned a parliament, he abated the rigour of many former statutes, and particu larly abolished the law, by which the king's proclama tion was made of equal force with an act of parliament. The dawn, both of civil and religious liberty, began to rise upon the English nation ; and the gradual t eforma tion of papal corruptions continued to be carried on with prudent perseverance. Various superstitious prac tices were abolished ; all images removed from the churches ; private masses prohibited; and auricular con fession, hitherto accounted an indispensible duty, and always one of the most powerful engines of a corrupted church, was pronounced a matter of indifference, which the people might observe or omit, according to their own choice. The government of the kingdom became in a great measure aristocratical, in consequence of the late increase of possessions which the nobles had acquired; and great distractions prevailed in the state. Lord Sey mour, a man of insatiable ambition, and possessed of dis tinguished abilities, had recently married the queen dow ager, and by this alliance became the rival in power of his brother the protector. A contest between their wives, on the subject of precedency, created a breach be tween them, and the whole court and kingdom were di vided by their opposite cabals and pretensions. Sey mour discovered his intriguing spirit and ambitious views, by the most rash and criminal conduct, by using unwarrantable means, during the protector's absence in Scotland, to captivate the affections of the young monarch, by making a direct attack upon his bro ther's authority as unconstitutional, in as much as he was both protector of the kingdom, and governor of the king's person ; by engaging the young prince to write a letter to the parliament, desiring that lie might be in vested with the latter office ; by paying his addresses, after the decease of the queen-dowager, to the Princess Elizabeth; by holding a secret corregpbnclence with the king, in which he decried the protector's administration; by forming partizans among the principal nobility and most popular persons of inferior rank ; by collecting, in short, arms for the use of his numerous retainers, te nants, and servants. Somerset, aware of all these cir cumstances, endeavoured, by the most friendly expe dients, to draw him away from such dangerous coun sels; but, finding all his endeavours ineffectual, he was obliged, in defence of the public peace, to employ se verer remedies against his brother's rebellious schemes. Seymour was committed to the Tower, and his accom plices examined. Full discoveries were said to have been procured of his treasonable practices ; a bill of at tainder was passed against him by both houses of par liament, and he was soon after beheaded on Tower-hill.