benevolence was, however, raised with difficulty, and two instances of despotism occur in this part of our history, which shew to what a pitch. the arbitrary power of Henry was carried. In the city of London, two aldermen having refused to pay the contributions; one of them, Read, though sixty years of age, and unaccustomed to military exercises, was forced to serve in the army against the Scots, by whom he was taken prisoner, and to whom he was obliged to pay a high ransom and another man, named Roach, was confined on account of misconduct before the king's council, imprisoned for some months, and was at last forced to pay a considerable fine in order to obtain his liberty.

CHAP. X.

The King begins the War with Scotland. - Success of his arms. Henry prepares to cross the seas. New Chancellor. The Queen appointed Regent. Success in France. Boulogne taken, 1545. French Fleet attempt to invade England. - English Fleet sails to Normandy. The King's arms in Scotland receive a check: defeated at Ancram. Treaty of Peace between France, England, and Scotland. - Proceedings at home; meeting of Parliament. Religious Institutions entirely surrendered to the King; his speech to Parliament. - The irritability of his temper. Anne Askew. - Danger of Queen Katharine Parr.- Trial of the Duke of Norfolk, and the Earl of Surrey; death of the latter. The decline and death of the King.

1544.

HENRY began his military operations this year by an unsuccessful invasion of Scotland. The general appointed to take the command of the troops was Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, afterwards protector of the realm, and Duke of Somerset. The progress of this nobleman to the eminent station which he now held, both in the council, and in the field, until the marriage of the king with Jane Sey

mour had been gradual, and almost unpromising; but the elevation of his sister to the throne, immediately influenced the fortunes of Seymour. Yet the merits of this celebrated statesman and general might have entitled him to distinction from his sovereign, independent of adventitious circumstances. The education of Seymour had been liberal, and, notwithstanding the assertion that he could neither read nor write, he had profited by his studies at both the universities, as far as his military pursuits, in which he engaged at an early period, permitted him.* Greater, according to Burnet, as a soldier than as a statesman, the abilities of Seymour in war were fully displayed during the life of Henry: his merits, or his errors of administration were not manifested until the succeeding reign. For the equanimity of his temper, and the humility and moderation of his deportment, Seymour, like his sister, was commended and esteemed; and it was to these qualities that Seymour probably owed the unremitting confidence and favour of Henry, who had never evinced towards him that caprice which many greater but less prudent men had experienced from the king.

The military operations which Seymour now commenced were, in some respects, remarkably successful. As it was determined to invade *Wood's Athen. Oxon, vol. i.

Scotland by sea, Hertford set sail early in May, the fleet being under the command of Dudley, Lord Lisle *, Admiral of England; and the troops were landed at Grantham Crag, to the north of Leith. After some days spent in disembarkation, the English army entered Leith and Edinburgh, and despoiled and burned the towns, but were unable to gain possession of the Castle of Edinburgh. His army being reinforced, Hertford continued his course to Berwick, with the same destructive measures, and by this conduct irritated the Scots, without effecting a permanent conquest. Either through insufficiency on the part of the general, or from want of sagacity in the government which directed his steps, Hertford committed a great error during this campaign, in neglecting to leave a garrison in the town of Leith, which, together with his inability to possess himself of the Castle of Edinburgh, prevented Henry from becoming entire master of Scotland.

Henry had scarcely leisure to reflect upon the success of his arms in Scotland, or the possible consequences of their operations, for, he was engaged in preparations to pass over to France,

* This Dudley, the son of the notorious agent of Henry the Seventh, was made lord chamberlain in the reign of Edward the Sixth, and had a grant of Warwick Castle, formerly the seat of his ancestors. Lodge, vol. i. p. 92.

and in arrangements for the security and welfare of his kingdom in his absence. Thomas Audley, the Lord Chancellor, had died during the Spring *, and the catholic party hailed with joy as his successor, Lord Wriothesley, formerly secretary to the king, and created Baron Tichborne during the year 1543. But Henry, whose policy it was, during the later years of his life, to preserve an equilibrium between the two factions, diminished the exultation of the papists by appointing Sir William Petre, the friend of Cranmer, Secretary of State; and the queen was constituted regent, during the absence of the king in France, and was to hold that office in conjunction with the primate, the chancellor, and the secretary. Lord Hertford, who had returned from Scotland, and who was a known favourer of the Reformation, was de

The epitaph upon the tomb of Audley is instanced by Fuller as a lamentable proof of bad taste: this chancellor, says the same quaint historian, took care that better poetry should be written in future by founding Magdalen College in Cambridge. The lines are as follows:

"The stroak of death's inevitable dart,

"Hath now! alas, of life bereft the heart

"Of Sir Thomas Audley, of the Garter Knight,

"Late chancellor of England under our prince of might

"Henry the Eighth worthy of high renown,

"And made him Lord Audley of this town.

He was buried at Saffron Walden in Essex. Fuller's Worthies, vol. i. p. 367.