by ignorant people, or fanatical mobs, but by order of the King's Council, composed of such men as the Earl of Warwick, Sir William Paget, Archbishop Cranmer, and Chancellor Riche. "It cannot be denied," writes Dean Hook, "that by the precedent set through Cranmer's timid concessions to the civil power, he bequeathed to us an ecclesiastical atmosphere so charged with Erastianism as to render it difficult at certain times to extricate the religious from the political element. In doctrine, Cranmer drifted from Erasmus towards Luther; but a Lutheran he never became; he is described in a Lutheran publication of the present day, as having lacked the central living principle of justification by faith only, and a clear perception of other gospel truths."*

"Unfortunately for the Church and the realm," observes Dean Hook, "Canonical principles together with Zwinglicanism, were found to be more prevalent in England among the learned few than was expected or desired. Men at the head of affairs, like Somerset and Cranmer, had found no definite principles of their own, and were easily moved by every wind of strange doctrine. Not content with the verdict of learned Englishmen, they invited to this country foreign teachers, who, although they did not agree amongst themselves, were accustomed to find fault with everything, and they too soon taught our people to join them in assailing the Book of Common Prayer. It was contrary to the policy of some of the leading statesmen to permit the Reformation to be conducted quietly and peace

Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. vii. p. 418; Bamberger's Protestant Encyclopædia,

ably. It was by the quarrels of Churchmen that they preferred to obtain possession of the property of the Church, and in a desire to have a scramble, the lower orders united with them."*

Very candid admissions on the part of a fervid advocate of Cranmer and his coadjutors. Let the reader, however, remember that amongst the foremost in the "scramble" for the Church lands was the great lay Reformer, Edward Duke of Somerset, to whom, as I have already quoted, Miss Strickland ascribes the primal honour of establishing the Protestant Church of England.

CHAPTER XV.

THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH.

THE attention of Somerset and his Council was suddenly turned to the mysterious rumours afloat respecting the Princess Elizabeth and Sir Thomas Seymour. Katharine Ashley, the governess to the Princess, in one of her depositions before the Council, stated her conviction that had Henry VIII. lived, he would have given Elizabeth in marriage to Thomas Seymour. Leti, in his history of those transactions, gives the correspondence which passed between the Princess and Thomas Seymour a few weeks after Henry's death. Elizabeth was then only fourteen, and must have been more terrified than rejoiced, when Seymour asked her "at once to marry him." The frightened fawn" trembled at the contemplation of so serious an engagement, and in her refusal informs her lover "that she has neither the years nor the inclination to think of marriage at present, and that she would not have any one to imagine that such a subject had ever been mentioned to her at a time when she ought to be wholly taken up in weeping for the death of the King, her father, to whom she owed so many obligations, and that she intended to devote at least two years to mourning for her late father, and sorrowing for his loss; and that even when she shall have arrived at

"

years of maidenly sense, she wishes to retain her liberty, without entering into any matrimonial engagement."* Α very sensible statement from a girl of fourteen years old. Great as the prize appeared then, and immeasurably greater as it proved to be, Seymour's rejection by the Princess seemed far from breaking his heart. He soon transferred his addresses to the still blooming Catharine Parr, whom her last perilous venture in marriage did not deter from accepting a fourth husband, and within a few weeks of Elizabeth's refusal, the Dowager Queen and the Lord Admiral, as Seymour was styled, were married. In "high circles" this marriage was the subject of censure. In the first instance, the nobility did not approve of the late King's last espousal, and they were indignant at the "short widowhood" of the Queen; besides, the name of Seymour was hateful to the members of both Houses of Parliament, and the laity in general.

The known Protestantism of Seymour's bride caused the Council to place young Elizabeth under her guardianship. But the Council were deceived in their estimate of her prudence. "The demure Catharine actually held the Princess Elizabeth in the garden, at Hanworth, while Seymour cut her black cloth dress into a hundred pieces, and when Mrs. Ashley came up and chid Elizabeth, she answered, 'she could not strive with all, for the Queen held her while the Lord Admiral cut her cloths.' At another time, Elizabeth heard the master-key unlock, and knowing my Lord Admiral would come in, ran out of her bed to her young maidens,

Correspondence between the Ladye Elizabeth and the Lord Admiral, modernised and summarised.

and then went behind the curtain of her bed, and my lord tarried a long time in hopes she would come out. Mrs. Ashley could not tell how long."* The governess of Elizabeth having heard stories of other flirtations with a young page, reproved her in rather harsh words. "Elizabeth wept bitterly, and assured Mrs. Ashley that those tales, like many others, were quite untrue." Very possible.

It is necessary that the reader should understand that the Court dames of those times indulged in a system of

romping," not very becoming in ladies; and they dealt largely in scandalous gossip of one another; swearing and gross language were also frequent at Henry's Court, when Katharine of Arragon and Anna Boleyn retired from the scene. The upper classes in Edward's reign were remarkable for the hypocrisy of their religious professions, and their disregard of all moral restraint.† The Princess Elizabeth was placed under the guardianship of persons who had small regard for the "proprieties;" Admiral Seymour and his wife proved by their conduct that they were not fit guardians for the young Princess.

The Throckmorton MSS. pretty clearly show that at an early age Elizabeth "swore like a dicer."

In case Seymour's projects respecting Elizabeth failed, he intended to marry Lady Jane Gray, which proves that he contemplated an alliance with royalty at any hazard.‡

.

On the occasion of the Seymour scandals, Elizabeth wrote

Haynes' State Papers; Ellis's Royal Letters; Tytler's Edward and Mary; Miss Strickland's Queens of England, vol. v.; Lingard, vol. v.

See Camden, Strype, Burnet, Pomeroy, and Gilpin, on the condition of society in Edward's reign.

Sir Harris Nicolas's Memorials of Jane Gray, p. 18.