The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (231 page)

These penalties were lighter than those which were formerly imposed on a denial of the real presence: It was, however, subjoined in this statute, that the act of the six articles was still in force. But in order to make the king more entirely master of his people, it was enacted, that he might hereafter, at his pleasure, change this act, or any provision in it. By this clause, both parties were retained in subjection: So far as regarded religion, the king was invested, in the fullest manner, with the sole legislative authority in his kingdom: And all his subjects were, under the severest penalties, expressly bound to receive implicitly, whatever doctrine he should please to recommend to them.

The reformers began to entertain hopes, that this great power of the crown might still be employed in their favour. The king married Catherine Par, widow of Nevil lord PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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Latimer; a woman of virtue, and somewhat inclined to the new doctrine. By this marriage, Henry confirmed what had formerly been foretold in jest, that he would be obliged to espouse a widow. The king’s league with the emperor seemed a circumstance no less favourable to the catholic party; and thus matters remained still nearly balanced between the factions.

The advantages, gained by this powerful confederacy between Henry and Charles, were inconsiderable during the present year. The campaign was opened with a victory, gained by the duke of Cleves, Francis’s ally, over the forces of the emperor:
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Francis, in person, took the field early; and made himself master, without resistance, of the whole dutchy of Luxembourg: He afterwards took Landrecy, and added some fortifications to it. Charles, having at last assembled a powerful army, appeared in the Low-Countries; and after taking almost every fortress in the dutchy of Cleves, he reduced the duke to accept of the terms, which he was pleased to prescribe to him.

Being then joined by a body of six thousand English, he sat down before Landrecy, and covered the siege with an army of above forty thousand men. Francis advanced at the head of an army not much inferior; as if he intended to give the emperor battle, or oblige him to raise the siege; But while these two rival monarchs were facing each other, and all men were in expectation of some great event; the French king found means of throwing succour into Landrecy, and having thus effected his purpose, he skilfully made a retreat. Charles, finding the season far advanced, despaired of success in his enterprize, and found it necessary to go into winter-quarters.

The vanity of Henry was flattered, by the figure which he made Affairs of Scotland.

in the great transactions on the continent: But the interests of his kingdom were more deeply concerned in the event of affairs in Scotland. Arran, the governor, was of so indolent and unambitious a character, that, had he not been stimulated by his friends and dependants, he never had aspired to any share in the administration; and when he found himself overpowered by the party of the queen-dowager, the cardinal, and the earl of Lenox, he was glad to accept of any terms of accommodation, however dishonourable. He even gave them a sure pledge of his sincerity, by renouncing the principles of the reformers, and reconciling himself to the Romish communion in the Franciscan church at Stirling. By this weakness and levity he lost his credit with the whole nation, and rendered the protestants, who were hitherto the chief support of his power, his mortal enemies. The cardinal acquired an entire ascendant in the kingdom: The queen-dowager placed implicit confidence in him: The governor was obliged to yield to him in every pretension: Lenox alone was become an obstacle to his measures, and reduced him to some difficulty.

The inveterate enmity, which had taken place between the families of Lenox and Arran, made the interests of these two noblemen entirely incompatible; and as the cardinal and the French party, in order to engage Lenox the more in their cause, had flattered him with the hopes of succeeding to the crown after their infant sovereign this rivalship had tended still farther to rouze the animosity of the Hamiltons. Lenox too had been encouraged to aspire to the marriage of the queen-dowager, which would have given him some pretensions to the regency; and as he was become assuming, on account of the services which he had rendered the party, the cardinal found, that, since he must chuse between the friendship of Lenox, and that of Arran, the latter PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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nobleman, who was more easily governed, and who was invested with present authority, was in every respect preferable. Lenox, finding that he was not likely to succeed in his pretensions to the queen-dowager, and that Arran, favoured by the cardinal, had acquired the ascendant, retired to Dunbarton, the governor of which was entirely at his devotion; he entered into a secret correspondence with the English court; and he summoned his vassals and partizans to attend him. All those who were inclined to the protestant religion, or were on any account discontented with the cardinal’s administration, now regarded Lenox as the head of their party; and they readily made him a tender of their services. In a little time, he had collected an army of ten thousand men, and he threatened his enemies with immediate destruction. The cardinal had no equal force to oppose to him; but as he was a prudent man, he foresaw, that Lenox could not long subsist so great an army, and he endeavoured to gain time, by opening a negociation with him. He seduced his followers, by various artifices; he prevailed on the Douglasses to change party; he represented to the whole nation the danger of civil wars and commotions: And Lenox, observing the unequal contest, in which he was engaged, was at last obliged to lay down his arms, and to accept of an accommodation with the governor and the cardinal. Present peace was restored; but no confidence took place between the parties. Lenox, fortifying his castles, and putting himself in a posture of defence, waited the arrival of English succours, from whose assistance alone he expected to obtain the superiority over his enemies.

While the winter season restrained Henry from military

1544. January 14. A

operations, he summoned a new parliament; in which a law was parliament.

passed, such as he was pleased to dictate, with regard to the succession of the crown. After declaring, that the prince of Wales, or any of the king’s male issue, were first and immediate heirs to the crown, the parliament restored the two princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, to their right of succession. This seemed a reasonable piece of justice, and corrected what the king’s former violence had thrown into confusion; but it was impossible for Henry to do any thing, how laudable soever, without betraying in some circumstance, his usual extravagance and caprice: Though he opened the way for these two princesses to mount the throne, he would not allow the acts to be reversed, which had declared them illegitimate; he made the parliament confer on him a power of still excluding them, if they refused to submit to any conditions, which he should be pleased to impose; and he required them to enact, that, in default of his own issue, he might dispose of the crown, as he pleased, by will or letters patent. He did not probably foresee, that, in proportion as he degraded the parliament, by rendering it the passive instrument of his variable and violent inclinations, he taught the people to regard all its acts as invalid, and thereby defeated even the purposes, which he was so bent to attain.

An act passed, declaring that the king’s usual stile should be “King of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, and on earth the supreme head of the church of England and Ireland.” It seemed a palpable inconsistency, to retain the title of Defender of the faith, which the court of Rome had conferred on him, for maintaining its cause against Luther; and yet subjoin his ecclesiastical supremacy, in opposition to the claims of that court.

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An act also passed, for the remission of the debt, which the king had lately contracted by a general loan, levied upon the people. It will easily be believed, that, after the former act of this kind, the loan was not entirely voluntary.
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But there was a peculiar circumstance, attending the present statute, which none but Henry would have thought of; namely, that those who had already gotten payment, either in whole or in part, should refund the money to the exchequer.

The oaths, which Henry imposed for the security of his ecclesiastical model, were not more reasonable than his other measures. All his subjects of any distinction had already been obliged to renounce the pope’s supremacy; but as the clauses to which they swore had not been deemed entirely satisfactory, another oath was imposed; and it was added, that all those who had taken the former oaths, should be understood to

have taken the new one.n
A strange supposition! to represent men as bound by an oath, which they had never taken.

The most commendable law, to which the parliament gave their sanction, was that by which they mitigated the law of the six articles, and enacted, that no person should be put to his trial upon an accusation concerning any of the offences comprized in that sanguinary statute, except on the oath of twelve persons before commissioners authorized for the purpose; and that no person should be arrested or committed to ward for any such offence before he was indicted. Any preacher, accused of speaking in his sermon contrary to these articles, must be indicted within forty days.

The king always experienced the limits of his authority, whenever he demanded subsidies, however moderate, from the parliament; and, therefore, not to hazard a refusal, he made no mention this season of a supply: But as his wars both in France and Scotland, as well as his usual prodigality, had involved him in great expence, he had recourse to other methods of filling his exchequer. Notwithstanding the former abolition of his debts, he yet required new loans from his subjects: And he enhanced gold from forty-five shillings to forty-eight an ounce; and silver from three shillings and nine pence to four shillings. His pretence for this innovation, was to prevent the money from being exported; as if that expedient could anywise serve the purpose. He even coined some base money, and ordered it to be current by proclamation. He named commissioners for levying a benevolence, and he extorted about seventy

thousand pounds by this expedient. Read, alderman of London,o
a man somewhat advanced in years, having refused to contribute, or not coming up to the expectation of the commissioners, was inrolled as a foot-soldier in the Scottish wars, and was there taken prisoner. Roach, who had been equally refractory, was thrown into prison,

and obtained not his liberty but by paying a large composition.p
These powers of the prerogative (which at that time passed unquestioned), the compelling of any man to serve in any office, and the imprisoning of any man during pleasure, not to mention the practice of extorting loans, rendered the sovereign in a manner, absolute master of the person and property of every individual.

Early this year the king sent a fleet and army to invade Scotland. The fleet consisted of near two hundred vessels, and carried on board ten thousand men. Dudley lord Lisle commanded the sea-forces; the earl of Hertford the land. The troops were disembarked near Leith; and after dispersing a small body which opposed them, they PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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took the town without resistance, and then marched to Edinburgh. The gates were soon beaten down (for little or no resistance was made); and the English first pillaged, and then set fire to the city. The regent and cardinal were not prepared to oppose so great a force, and they fled to Stirling. Hertford marched eastward; and being joined by a new body under Evers, warden of the east marches, he laid waste the whole country, burned and destroyed Haddington and Dunbar, then retreated into England; having lost only forty men in the whole expedition. The earl of Arran collected some forces; but finding that the English were already departed, he turned them against Lenox, who was justly suspected of a correspondence with the enemy. That nobleman, after making some resistance, was obliged to fly into England; where Henry settled a pension on him, and even gave him his niece, lady Margaret Douglas, in marriage. In return, Lenox stipulated conditions, by which, had he been able to execute them, he must have reduced his country to total servitude.
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Henry’s policy was blamed in this sudden and violent incursion; by which he inflamed the passions of the Scots, without subduing their spirit; and it was commonly said, that he did too much, if he intended to solicit an alliance, and too

little, if he meant a conquest.r
But the reason of his recalling the troops so soon, was his eagerness to carry on a projected enterprize against France, in which he intended to employ the whole force of his kingdom. He had concerted a plan with the emperor, which threatened the total ruin of that monarchy, and must, as a necessary consequence, have involved the ruin of England. These two princes had agreed to invade France with forces amounting to above a hundred thousand men: Henry engaged to set out from Calais: Charles from the Low-countries: They were to enter on no siege; but leaving all the frontier towns behind them, to march directly to Paris, where they were to join their forces, and thence to proceed to the entire conquest of the kingdom. Francis could not oppose, to these formidable preparations, much above forty thousand men.

Henry, having appointed the queen regent during his absence, 14th July. Campaign

passed over to Calais with thirty thousand men, accompanied by in France.