CHAPTER XXVI.

THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND'S FATE DECIDED.

ONE of the first acts of the new Government was to issue a special Commission for the trial of Northumberland, Lord Warwick, Lord Ambrose Dudley, Lord Northampton, Sir John Gates, Sir Thomas Palmer, and others of less note. On the 18th of August, 1553, Northumberland and his companions were arraigned in Westminster Hall, the Duke of Norfolk presiding. The trials occupied a short time. Northumberland confessed his guilt; Lords Northampton and Warwick came next. The former said he had been amusing himself in the country, and had nothing to do with giving away the Crown, but acknowledged that he was a rebel to his lawful Sovereign." The young Lord Warwick declared that he acted on his father's instructions, and that he would now share his fallen fortunes. Seven were condemned to death on this occasion, but only three sufferednamely, Northumberland, Sir John Gates, and Sir Thomas Palmer.*

The Duke of Norfolk passed sentence of death upon Northumberland, who protested against the "haste" with which the Government acted in his case.

Harleian MSS. 284; Queen Jane and Queen Mary, pp. 18, 19; Froude's History of England, vol. vi. pp. 68, 69.

"No matter what you may protest," said the President of the Court, “ you must die on the scaffold the death of a traitor; a perjurer and a rebel."* An unfeeling address.

Upwards of seventy rebels, the unfortunate followers of Northumberland, were found guilty and executed. The Queen pardoned four hundred others who were led into her presence by the public executioners, each carrying a rope in his right hand-an old device of King Henry.

In a conversation with Sir Anthony Browne, in the brief interval between his fall and death, Northumberland said that he was naturally inclined to belong to the olden religion of England, but when he saw the great change at hand, he was under the impression that it would be better to adopt the new order of things; that still he hesitated, but ultimately embraced in full the principle of siding with the strongest, explaining in his own quaint candid avowal, 'Pull dog, pull devil,' whoever succeeded should have his adhesion."+ This ambitious man was known in Edward's reign to have no other religion than interest; and it is stated that on one occasion he spoke with such contempt of the merits of the "new learning," that Archbishop Cranmer "challenged him to a duel." Cranmer's "challenge to a duel ". originated with his secretary, Morrice, or Roger Ascham, both friendly gossippers. Apart from his clerical office, altogether, Cranmer was not the man to fight duels. He was too fond of his family and the social comforts of Lambeth Palace to

* State Papers of Queen Mary's reign.

+ Letter of Sir Anthony Browne; Strype; Tytler; Queens of England, vol. v.

Parker, Ant. Brit., p. 341; Strype's Memorials. vol. i. p. 430.

risk his life for, of all things, a religious controversy, after having escaped so many storms in the former reign. But there was no disagreement of action between the Archbishop and his now fallen co-conspirator; and whatever difference of opinion existed between them as to the merits of creeds, they both pulled steadily together to overthrow the olden religion. It was likewise an established understanding between both never to quarrel where their worldly interests were concerned.

When in power, Northumberland offered the bishopric of Rochester to John Knox in order to silence that fanatic, perhaps lunatic agitator, but Knox declined his favour, declaring him to be "a hypocrite in religion, and that if he had any real sentiments of Christianity in his heart, he was still attached to the fabric of Rome."* The sequel proved that Knox had formed a correct estimate of the Duke. Whilst under sentence of death in the Tower, Northumberland was visited by Bishop Gardyner, to whom he solemnly declared that he was a Catholic-that he had always been one in his heart, and that he did not believe in any one of the doctrines that he professed and enforced in Edward's reign. He besought Gardyner on bended knees to spare him. "Alas, alas," he mournfully ejaculated, "is there no help for me? Oh, good bishop-oh, anointed servant of God, let me live a little longer to do penance for my sins! Oh, spare me-spare me, good father! Tell the Queen that I will be the most humble and faithful of her subjects, and that I will go forth to proclaim her titles and virtues in every end of the realm." Strype avers that

*Burnet's Reformation; Letter of John Knox, to Bishop Horne.

Northumberland's supplications to Gardyner "partook of an abject condition of mind." "Alas, alas!" let me live a little longer, though it be in a mouse-hole." Dr. Gardyner replied that "he wished it were in his power to give him that mouse-hole, but it should be the best palace he possessed."* Bishop Gardyner was moved to pity; he promised to intercede with the Queen, and found Mary inclined to mercy; but it is alleged that Northumberland's implacable personal enemy, Renaud, boasted of his having overcome the Queen's clement tendencies, and hurried on the execution. The confidential despatches of Renaud are at variance with these statements, for he laments the spirit of retaliation and vengeance which disgraced the English character at this period. We have also the statement of Commendone, the Legate of Julius the Third, who alleges that he was about leaving London, when the Queen "insisted on his stopping two days longer that he might have the pleasure of witnessing the execution of the traitor Dudley." Some historians deny that Mary ever said so; but, forgiving as she might be-even when under the influence of religion--she was every inch a Tudor, and although the report may be surcharged, it is not improbable. Northumberland had, however, sinned deeply against her as religionist, woman, and Queen. It was not in human nature that she could forget and forgive the too recent message he had sent to her, reminding her " that she was illegitimate, old, and deformed, belonging to an idolatrous religion, a person unfit to be a Queen, and should there

State Papers of Mary's reign; Gardyner's letter to the Queen on the "grief of Northumberland for his treason."

fore submit to her sovereign lady Queen Jane."* This was not language for a Tudor to forget. When the first Council of Lady Jane Dudley's short-lived Government was summoned, the Duke of Northumberland spoke of the Princess Mary in these words :-" His late Majesty (Edward) had prayed on his death-bed that the Almighty God would protect the realm from false opinions, and especially from those of his unworthy sister, Mary. The King reflected that both the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth had been cut off by Act of Parliament from the succession as illegitimate. The Lady Mary had been disobedient to her father; she had again been disobedient to her brother; she was a capital and principal enemy of God's Word, and both herself and her sister Elizabeth were bastards."+ This speech of Northumberland was duly repeated to Mary three days subsequently by one of Northumberland's own Council-one of his personal friends. Tytler, and other recent authorities, are of opinion that there can be little doubt that, "from the first, the Queen's resentment was so strong that she had determined to strike off Northumberland's head." In fact, he was the enemy of the Tudor family, and those who applauded his treason to Mary must have known that he was also as great a traitor to Elizabeth.

Gregorio Leti states that the Princess Elizabeth wrote to the Duke at this period "full of indignation for his treason to her sister and herself." She likewise denounced Lady Jane Dudley as a rebel; and subsequent circum

* State Papers of Mary's reign; Tytler's Edward and Mary; Queens of England, vol. v. (first edit.)