ENGLAND. 



Trial and 



Anne Bo- 

 Icynr.liS6, 

 19th May. 



The king'* 

 third mar- 

 riage. 



bout the same time, severe blow in the fate which lx> 

 tcl their great patroness Anne Boleyne. Her attachment 

 to the Protestant opinions created her many inveterate 

 enemies, who only waited for a favourable occasion to 

 destroy Ler influence witli the king. Henry's love to 

 this lady, during the hii-li were employed in 



procuring his divorce from Catherine, seemed to increase 

 by every obstacle which was thrown in the way of his 

 5 ; but he had not long obtained possession of his 

 object, when his affection (anguished, and his heart be* 

 came estranged from hi.- consort. As she h:ui been de- 

 livered of a dead son, which disappointed his extreme 

 desire of male issue, his violent lumper wns ready to re- 

 pml her MS answerable for the misfortune ; and her ene- 

 inics took occasion, from her levity of behaviour, to in- 

 ^ M1}C l ^ c king's j< '.'lousy, by putting the worst conbtruc- 

 l ' on upon the harmless, but unbecoming lil>crties to which 

 she was addicted. Her sister-in-law particularly, the 

 \ miners of Rocheford, a woman of most profligate 

 chaiactcr, regardless of cither truth or humanity, insi- 

 nuated the most cruel suspicions iuto the mind of Henry ; 

 and even went the length of suggesting, that the queen 

 was engaged in a criminal correspondence with her own 

 brother. The king's jealousy became more unrelenting 

 and more ready to lay hold of the slightest circumstance, 

 in consequence of his love being already transfened to 

 another object, Jane Seymour, one of the queen's maids 

 of honour. The queen's innocence cannot reasonably be 

 questioned ; and even though she had been more guilty, 

 Henry's own notorious infidelities as a husband might 

 have restrained him from exacting the punishment of 

 death. But his cruelty was as insatiable as his lewdncss ; 

 and the unhappy object of his rage, being tried for adul- 

 tery and incest, was condemned, without any legal evi- 

 dence, to be burned or beheaded at the king's pleasure. 

 Wlien this dreadful sentence was pronounced, she dis- 

 i overed no emotions of terror ; but lifting up her hands 

 towards heaven, she said, " O Father ! O Creator ! thou 

 who art the way, the truth, and the life, thou knowest that 

 I have not deserved this fate." She continued to the 

 last to make the most solemn protestations of her inno- 

 cence; and behaved, at her execution, with the utmost 

 decency and resolution. Henry himself gave the best 

 proof of the queen's innocence, and of the sentiment by 

 which he hail Iwen actuated in her condemnation, by 

 celebrating, on the very day after her execution, his mar- 

 riage with Jane Seymour ; but his new consort died in 

 the following year, after having been delivered of a son, 

 who was named Edward. 



Having summoned a parliament and convocation, he 

 found both assemblies completely subservient to all his 

 views ; anil having acquired, by their enactments, the 

 most absolute authority, he proceeded, without restraint 

 or remorse, to gratify the savage and selfish passions of 

 his heart. The tyrannical nature of his measures, and 

 particularly the destitute condition in which die monks, 

 f.\|)elled from the suppressed monasteries, were left to 

 wander about the country, at length excited strong dis- 

 contents among the people, which in many places broke 

 out into formidable insurrections. These, however, ha- 

 ving been repressed, and their principal leaders put to 

 leath, his authority at home, and his influence with fo- 

 reign powers, having been confirmed by the birth of a 

 *on, he resolved to seize the present opportunity for ac- 

 complishing the entire destruction of the monasteries. 

 To tbrt measure he was impelled, at once by resentment 



against some of the abbots, who were suspected of having History, 

 encouraged the recent disturbance*, and by his rapacious ^~~~s~ i ~' 

 desires to supply the means of his profusion. In conse- 

 quence of the kind's unlimited power, and the progress ill nionu- 

 ol the Reformation even among those who had taken the teric* 

 vows, his design was so successfully conducted, that, in 

 less than two years, he got possession of all the monas- 

 tic revenues. He had now suppressed, at different times, 

 <Jl.~. monasteries, (of winch 28 had abbots possessed of 

 seats in parliament,) <)0 colleges, 23? ! chantries and free 

 chapels, and 110 hospitals. The whole annual rev 

 of these establishments amounted to L. Mil, 100 ; a 

 which, contrary to what has In en generally apprehended. 

 did not i-xeeed the twentieth part of the national income. 

 In order to reconcile the people to these severe measures 

 anil extensive innovations, the most detestable stories 

 were propagated respecting the immoral lives of the 

 monks; their rcliqucs, and olhei superstitions, wen 

 posc.l to ridicule ; and their pretended miracles openly 

 disclosed: (See REFORMATION). The nation was also 

 made to understand, that the king would henceforth have 

 no occasion to levy taxes, but would be able, from the 

 abbey lands alone, to defray, both during ]>cace and war, 

 the whole charges of government ; while, at the same 

 time, he interested the higher orders in his measures, by 

 giving in presents, or selling at low prices, the revenues 

 of convents, nnd even the benefices of the regular clergy, 

 to his favourites and courtiers. 



By all these act* of violence, the pope was at length Henry tx- 

 incited to publish the bull which had been passed against cummuni- 

 the king of England ; and having hopes, from the recon cai*d,_ 

 ciliatton which had now taken place between Charles and 

 Francis, that they would unite in the execution of the 

 sentence, he publicly delivered Henry's soul to the de- 

 vil, and his dominions to the first invader. Libels were 

 dis|tcrsed anew, denouncing him as worse than all pre- 

 ceding persecutors, and particularly reproaching him with 

 his resemblance to the Emperor Julian, whom he was 

 said to have imitated in his learning and apostacy, while 

 he was much interior to him in point of morals. In 

 some of these publications, Henry discovered the |>cn of 

 his kinsman Cardinal Pole, whom he had originally dis- 

 tinguished with his favour, but who had taken a violent 

 part against the king in support of the papal claims. Se- 

 veral of the nobility wejc brought to trial, and condemn- 

 ed to death for having joined in a conspiracy with tin- 

 cardinal, in the design, as was suspected, of raising him 

 to the throne by a marriage with the Princess Mary. 



Though Henry had greatly changed the theological 

 sentiments in which he had been educated, he was ex- 

 tremely bigotted and dogmatical in the support of those 

 which he retained ; and so much had his native arro- 

 gance been inflamed by the flattery of his courtiers, that 

 he thought himself entitled to regulate, by his own pri- 

 vate standard, the religious faith of the whole nation. 

 He particularly rested his orthodoxy upon the most ab- 

 surd of all the popish tenets, namely, the doctrine of 

 ti.insuhstiinliation ; and determined to maintain, in this 

 essential article, the purity of the Catholic faith, he de- 

 nounced all departure from the belief of this point as he- 

 retical and detestable. In his vanity and eeal, he even 

 held a public disputation on the subject with one Lam- 

 bert, a schoolmaster, who had appealed to the king's Sub 

 judgment ; and who was cruelly burned at the stake, for c . v of tbe 

 his opposition to this favourite test. In the parliament 

 a bill was passed, called by the Protestants the " bloody 



