BIRTH OF EDWARD VI.
About the middle of October, 1537, an event occurred which was of great importance for the triumph of the Gospel. There was at that time great rejoicing in the palace of the Tudors and in all England, for Queen Jane (Seymour), on October 12, presented to Henry VIII. the son which he had so much desired. Letters written beforehand, in the name of the Queen, announced it in every place, and congratulations arrived from all quarters. This birth was called 'the most joyful news which for many years had been announced in England.' Bishop Latimer wrote: 'Here is no less joying and rejoicing in these parts for the birth of our prince, whom we hungered so long, than there was, I trow, inter vicinos at the birth of St. John Baptist.'[215] (Luke i. 58.) Princeps natus ad imperium! exclaimed the politicians. 'God grant him long life and abundant honors!' they wrote from the Continent. Henry was anxious that people should believe in this future. 'Our prince,' Cromwell sent word to the ambassadors of England, 'our Lord be thanked, is in good health, and sucketh like a child of his puissance, which you my lord William can declare.'[216] It was all the more important to declare this, because the very contrary was asserted. It was even reported by some that the child was dead. As Henry feared that some attempt might be made on his son's life, he forbade that any one should approach the cradle without an order signed by his own hand. Every thing brought into the child's room was to be perfumed, and measures of precaution against poison were taken. The infant was named Edward; Archbishop Cranmer baptized him, and was one of his godfathers. The king created him at the age of six Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. Sir Edward Seymour, his uncle by the mother's side, was created earl of Hertford. It was alleged that a spell had been thrown upon the king to prevent his having a male child; and behold, he had now an heir in spite of the spell. His dynasty was strengthened. Henry VIII. became more powerful at home, more respected abroad.
This great rejoicing was followed by a great mourning. The queen took cold; the women in attendance were indiscreet in their management;[217] the queen was seized with acute pains. She was very ill during the night of October 23, and died on the following day.
What would Henry do? He had not a tender heart. Far from rejecting the thought of a fresh marriage, he gave an order, as we find in a letter written on the very day of the queen's death, requiring his ambassadors, the bishop of Winchester and Lord William Howard, to seek another wife for him. Cromwell pointed out to them two among others, Margaret, daughter of Francis I., afterwards duchess of Savoy, and Mary of Guise, widow of the duke of Longueville, who was the mother of Mary Stuart. The secretary of state, even before the body of the deceased queen was quite cold, wrote: 'In the ensearching out of which matter, his majesty desireth you both to exhibit that circumspection and diligence that may answer to His Grace's expectation conceived of you.'[218]
Voilà l'extrême deuil dont son âme est atteinte!
Other agents besides these took part in the search. Hutton,[219] the envoy in the Netherlands, offered several spouses to the king. He might make his choice. There was a daughter of the Sire de Brederode, fourteen years of age; the widow of Count Egmont, who was forty, but did not look so old; the princess of Cleves, but of her there was not much to be said in praise either of her mind or her beauty; the young widow of the duke of Milan, Christina of Denmark, niece of the emperor, who was said to be very beautiful, of agreeable conversation and dignified in person. The king resolved on this last alliance, which would reconcile him with the emperor. For some time nothing was thought of but the making of marriages in this direction. The princess Mary was to marry Louis of Portugal, Elizabeth a son of the king of the Romans, and Edward was to be betrothed to a daughter of the emperor.
SWITZERLAND AND ENGLAND.
The birth of the young prince had, however, another kind of significance. The hopes of the partisans of the Catholic Mary disappeared, and the friends of the Reformation rejoiced at the thought that the young prince was godson of the archbishop. Many circumstances contributed to their encouragement. They witnessed the formation of unlooked-for ties between the evangelicals of England and those of Switzerland; and the pure Gospel as professed by the latter began to exercise a real influence over England. Edward, during his very short reign, was to fulfil the best hopes to which his birth had given rise, and the triumph to which his reign seemed destined was already visibly in preparation.
Simon Grynaeus, the friend of Erasmus and Melanchthon, and professor at the university of Basel had, as early as 1531, held intercourse with Henry VIII. and Cranmer.[220] Afterwards Cranmer and Bullinger, successor of Zwinglius at Zurich, had also become acquainted with each other; and, as early as 1536, some young Englishmen of good family had betaken themselves to Zurich, that they might drink at the full fountain of Christian knowledge and life which sprang forth there. Some of them lived in the house of Pellican, others with Bullinger himself. These young men were John Butler, who had a rich patrimony in England—a sagacious man and a Christian who persevered in prayer; Nicholas Partridge, from Kent, a man of active and devoted character; Bartholomew Traheron, who had already (1527 and 1528) declared at Oxford for the Reformation, and had been persecuted by Doctor London; Nicholas Eliot, who had studied law in England, and who afterwards held some government office; and others besides.[221] Bullinger was strongly attached to these young Englishmen. He directed their studies and, in addition to his public teaching, he explained to them in his own house the prophet Isaiah.
ENGLISH LETTER TO CALVIN.