Events now set in a new current. The month of May of this year witnessed the trial and execution of Queen Anne—in less than six months after the death of her predecessor, Catherine of Aragon—and the marriage of the brutal king, the very next morning, to Jaue Seymour, the new beauty, his passion for whom must be regarded as the true motive that had impelled him to the deed of blood. Queen Jane dying on the 14th of October 1537, a few days after giving birth to a son, was succeeded by Anne, sister of the Duke of Cleves, whom Henry married in January 1510, and put away in six months after— the subservient parliament, and the not less subservient convocation of the clergy, on his mere request, pronouncing the marriage to be null, and the former body making it high treason "by word or deed to accept, take, judge, or believe the said marriage to be good." Meanwhile the ecclesiastical changes continued to proceed at as rapid a rate as ever. In 1536 Cromwell was constituted a sort of lord-lieutenant over tho Church, by the title of vicar•general, which was held to invest him with all the king's authority over the spirituality. The dissolution of the monasteries in this and the following year, as carried forward under the direction of this ener getic minister, produced a succession of popular insurrections iu different parts of the kingdom, which were not put down without great destruction of life, both iu the field and afterwards by tho executioner. In 1533 all incumbents were ordered to set up iu their churches copies of the newly-published English translation of the Bible, and to teach this people the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandment., iu English; the famous image of our Lady at 1Valsiughaueaud other similar objects of the popular veneration, were also under Cromwell's order removed from their shrines and burnt. In 1539 the parliament, after enacting (by the 31 Henry VIII., c. 6) that the proclamation of the king in council should henceforth have the same authority as a statute, passed the famous act (the 31 Henry VIII., c. 14) known by the name of the 'Six Articles,' or the ' Bloody Statute,' by which burning or hanging was made the punishment of all who should deny that the bread and wine of the sacrament was the natural body and blood of the Saviour—or that communion in both kinds was not necessary to salvation—or that priests may not marry—or that vows of chastity ought to be observed —or that the mass was agreeable to God's law—or that auricular confession is expedient and necessary. This statute, the cause of numerous executions, proceeded from a new influence which had now gained an ascendancy over the fickle king, that of Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, the able leader of the party in church and state opposed to Creamer and Cromwell. (GARDINER, STEPHEN.] This new favourite was not long in effecting the ruin of the rival that was most in his way : Cromwell, who had just been created earl of Essex, and made lord chamberlain of England, was, in the beginning of June 1540, committed to the Tower on a charge of treason, and beheaded in a few weeks after.
On the 8th of August this year Henry married his fifth wife, the Lady Catherine Howard, whom ho beheaded on the 13th of February 1542. During this interval he also rid himself by the axe of the exe cutioner of a noble lady whom he had attainted and consigned to a prison two years before on a charge of treason, Margaret, countess dowager of Salisbury, the daughter of the late Puke of Clarence, and the last of the York Plantageucte. Her real crime was that she was the mother of Cardinal Pole, who had offended the tyrant, and who was himself beyond his reach.
In the latter part of the year 1542 war was declared by Henry agaivat Scotland, with a revival of the old claim to the sovereignty of that kingdom. An incursion made by the Duke of Norfolk into Scotland in October, was followed the next month by the advance of a Scottish army into England, but this force was completely defeated and dispersed at Solway Moss, a disaster which is believed to have killed King James, who died a few weeks after, leaving his crown to a daughter, the unfortunate Mary Stuart, then only an infant seven days old. The failure of the efforts of the English king to obtain possession of the government and of the young queen, owing to the successful resistance of Cardinal Beaton and the Roman Catholic party, led to a renewal of hostilities in the spring of 1544, when Scotland was invaded by a great army under the Earl of Hertford, which penetrated as far as Edinburgh, and burned that capital with many other towns and villages. In the preceding year also Henry had concluded a new alliance with the emperor against the French king; and in July 1544 he passed over with an army to France, with which he suc ceeded in taking the town of Boulogne. Ou this however the emperor made a separate peace with Francis; and on the 7th of June 1546 Henry also signed a treaty with that king, in which he agreed to restore Boulogne and its dependencies in consideration of a payment of two millions of crown. • Ile had some years before found a sixth wife, Catherine Parr, the widow of the Lord Latimer, whom he married on the 10th of July 1543. As the infirmities of age and disease grew upon him, the sus piciousness and impetuosity of his temper acquired additional violence, and the closing years of his reign were as deeply stained with blood as any that had preceded them. One of his last butcheries was that of the amiable and accomplished Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, who, being convicted, after the usual process, of treason, was executed on the 19th (other aocounts say the 2let) of January 1547. "Already Ilenry," says Holinshed, "was lying in the agonies of death." Surrey's father, the Duke of Norfolk, was also to have suffered on the 28th; but was saved by the death of the king at two o'clock on the morning of that day.
The children of Henry VIII. were—I and 2, by Catherine of Aragon, two sons who died in infancy ; 3, Mary, afterwards queen of England ; 4, by Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth, afterwards queen ; 5, a son still-born, 29th of February 1535; 6, by Jane Seymour, Edward, by whom he was succeeded on the throne.
The most important changes made in the law during this reign were those affecting ecclesiastical affairs, of which the principal have been already noticed. Along with these mate be mentioned the statute defining the degrees within which marriage should be lawful (25 henry VIII., c. 22), which, in regard to that point, is still the law of the land. The law of real property was also materially altered by the Statute of Uses (27 Henry VIII., c. 10), and by various statutes per mitting the devise, which was not before allowed, except by the custom of particular places, of real estates by will. To this reign is also to bo assigned the origin of the Bankrupt Laws. Wales was first incorporated with England, and the laws and liberties of the latter country granted to the inhabitants of the former, in the 27th year of Henry VIII.; and Ireland, which before was styled only a lordship, was in 1542 erected into a kingdom.