For the moment master of the field, Northumberland addressed himself sedulously to the task of strengthening and consolidating the position he had won. In the Council he had achieved predominance, but the King’s minority would not last for ever, and the necessity of laying the foundation of a power that should continue when Edward’s nominal sovereignty should have become a real one was urgent.
The lad was growing up; nor were there wanting moments causing those around him to look on with disquietude to the day when the nobles ruling in his name might be called upon to give an account of their stewardship. A curious anecdote tells how, as Northumberland stood one day watching the King practising the art of archery, the boy put a “sharp jest” upon him, not without its significance.
“Well aimed, my liege,” said the Duke merrily, as the arrow hit the white.
“But you aimed better,” retorted the lad, “when you shot off the head of my uncle Somerset.”[125]
It was a grim and ominous pleasantry, and in the direct charge it contained of responsibility for the death of Edward’s nearest of kin another shaft besides the arrow may have been sent home. The Tudors were not good at forgiving. Even had the King seen the death of the Duke’s rival and victim without regret, it was possible that he would none the less owe a grudge to the man to whom it was due; nor was Northumberland without a reason for anticipating with uneasiness the day when Edward, remembering all, should hold the reins of Government in his own hands.
Under these circumstances it was clearly his interest to commend himself to the young sovereign, and the system he pursued with regard to his education and training were carefully adapted to that purpose. Whilst the Protector had had the arrangement of affairs, his nephew had been kept closely to his studies; Northumberland, “a soldier at heart and by profession, had him taught to ride and handle his weapons,” the boy welcoming the change, and, though not neglecting his books, taking pleasure in every form of bodily exercise;[126] not without occasional pangs of conscience, when more time had been spent in pastime than he “thought convenient.”
“We forget ourselves,” he would observe, finding fault with himself sententiously in royal phrase, upon such occasions, “that should not lose substantia pro accidente.”[127]
It had been the Protector’s custom to place little money at his nephew’s disposal, thus rendering him comparatively straitened in the means of exercising the liberality befitting his position; and part of the boy’s liking for the Admiral had been owing to the gifts contrasting with the niggardliness of the elder brother. Profiting by his predecessor’s mistakes, Northumberland’s was a different policy. He supplied Edward freely with gold, encouraged him to make presents, and to show himself a King; acquainting him besides with public business, and flattering him by asking his opinion upon such matters.[128]
The Duke might have spared his pains. It was not by Edward that he was to be called to account. But at that time there were no signs to indicate how futile was the toil of those who were seeking to build their fortunes upon his favour. A well-grown, handsome lad, his health had given no special cause for anxiety up to the spring of 1552. In the March of that year, however, a sharp and complicated attack of illness laid him low and sowed the seeds of future delicacy.
“I fell sick of the smallpox and the measles,” recorded the boy in his diary. “April 15th the Parliament broke up because I was sick and unable to go abroad.”