Edward VI’s was a short reign, but a terrible amount of blood was shed on the scaffold, through the machinations of evil counsellors.
CHAPTER V
THE TUDOR QUEENS
Grave Difficulties as to the Right of Succession—Statement of the Various Claims—Duke of Northumberland’s Selfish Scheme—Its Failure—His Arrest and Execution—Lady Jane Grey—Triumph of Mary—Her Coronation—Sir Thomas Wyatt’s Rebellion—Execution of Lady Jane and her Husband—Execution of Duke of Suffolk and Sir Thomas Wyatt—Accusation against the Princess Elizabeth—Her Imprisonment and Liberation—Death of Mary and Accession of Elizabeth—Her Coronation—Religious Troubles—Lord and Lady Hertford—Plots in Favour of the Queen of Scots—Hopes of the King of Spain—Hatred of Spain in the English Nation—Execution of the Duke of Norfolk, the First for Fourteen Years—Fresh Prisoners owing to the Jesuit Activity against the Queen—Execution of the Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay, and Results—Sir Walter Raleigh’s Imprisonment and Liberation—Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex—His Prosperity, Folly, Downfall—Death of the Queen.
There had been no doubt about the succession when Henry VIII died. Jane Seymour, the mother of Edward, was Henry’s lawful wife beyond question, for Queens Katharine and Anne were both dead when he married Jane. But on the death of Edward the matter looked very complicated in many eyes. Let us take the possible claimants in order. First, there were the two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, who had both been declared illegitimate on the ground that their mothers had never been lawful wives. King Henry, it is true, in his later years, had received them as his daughters, and as possible heirs, though the Statute disqualifying them had not been repealed. Next, Henry VII had left two daughters. The elder, Margaret, married James IV of Scotland, who was killed at Flodden. His son, James V, was father of Mary Queen of Scots, but she was excluded from right of succession by the Alien Act, having been born on a foreign soil. But further, Margaret, within a year of King James’s death, had married the Earl of Angus, and a wretched marriage it was. He had a wife already, but a papal brief decreed that, as she had married in good faith, her child Margaret was legitimate.
Henry VII’s second daughter, Mary, married Louis XII of France, but he died in his honeymoon. She then married Charles Brandon, afterwards created Duke of Suffolk, he having a wife alive. Their eldest daughter, Frances, was given in marriage to Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, the greatgrandson of Sir John Grey, first husband of Elizabeth Woodville. Edward IV, on marrying her, made her son a peer. It is a miserable fact to have to record that the Marquis of Dorset, who now married the daughter of Brandon and Queen Mary, had put away his lawful wife in order to do so, the Lady Catherine FitzAlan, sister of the Earl of Arundel. No wonder that the latter, who had been an affectionate brother-in-law, became Dorset’s fierce enemy, and nursed his wrath in secret. Grey was created Duke of Suffolk on account of his royal spouse, and perhaps thought that the injury he had done was forgotten in his prosperity. His wife Frances, a lady of amiable temper, brought him three daughters, the eldest being the Lady Jane Grey, and out of all this crooked dealing came a great tragedy.
The Duke of Northumberland, who had risen victorious over the Seymour family, and was apparently in the plenitude of power at King Edward’s death, was an able, bold, and unprincipled man. He had wedded his fourth son, Lord Guildford Dudley, to the Lady Jane, and caused the dying Edward to declare her his legitimate successor. Obviously this was not the case, for her mother was yet alive, and would under any circumstances have had first claim. The poor girl was only sixteen years old. All accounts agree in making her both learned and amiable. She had no ambitions, but was told that duty lay upon her. The Duke for some hours kept the King’s death secret, while he took measures for securing the person of Mary, and brought the Lady Jane to the Tower, and also a large number of influential peers, to swear homage to her. But the Londoners were silent, “not a single shout of welcome or Godspeed was raised as they passed through the silent crowd on their way to the Tower,” writes Machyn in his diary. The Duke was hated for his arrogance, and the interference of France and Spain was to be looked for if Mary’s rights were interfered with. And Jane’s husband, a poor, wretched, selfish creature, whined and sulked because he had expected to be declared King Consort. Northumberland, having had Jane duly proclaimed, went forth to encounter Mary, and soon saw that the game was up. The fleet off Yarmouth had declared in Mary’s favour, so had the soldiers which he had sent against her. And so in the street at Cambridge he threw his cap up in the air with the cry, “God save Queen Mary!” But it availed him nothing. The Earl of Arundel, who had been forced by Northumberland to offer allegiance to Jane, but who waited his opportunity, came forward with a warrant for his arrest, signed by Mary, and on July 25, nineteen days after Edward’s death, he was brought a prisoner to the Tower; on August 18 he was tried and condemned for high treason in Westminster Hall, the Duke of Norfolk presiding as Lord High Sheriff. He was taken back to the Beauchamp Tower, and inscriptions which were cut by him and his sons may still be read on the walls. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, had been a prisoner there under King Edward; he was now restored to his dignity, and he paid a visit to Northumberland, who, in the hope of saving his life, declared himself a Catholic. Gardiner naturally took the opportunity; Mass was celebrated in the White Tower Chapel, and the Duke received after making recantation. Next day he was beheaded on Tower Hill, still clinging desperately to the hope of life, and making profession all the way to the scaffold of the fervency of his faith. Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer, both implicated in the same treason, perished with him.
Meanwhile the “nine days’ reign” of the hapless Lady Jane was at an end. She was consigned to the Lieutenant’s Lodging, called the King’s House, and her husband to the Beauchamp Tower, where the one word “Jane,” carved on the wall by him, is still to be seen. All through the month of September Jane was allowed to walk in the garden, and her husband and his brother Henry to promenade the outer walk on the wall which leads from the Beauchamp to the Bell Tower.
Queen Mary was crowned with great splendour on October 1. She was accompanied by her half-sister Elizabeth.