ENGLAND. 



II. 



Aececsion 

 of Edwud 

 VI. 



Hertford 

 chosen pro- 

 tector. 



n.formi- 

 liun com- 

 peted. 



that prelate arrived ; but, being desired to give some sign 

 of his dying in the faith of Christ, he pressed the hand 

 of the Arrhbisliop, and imtnetliiitely expired in the 5(>th 

 year of his age, and S8th of his reign. 



Henry wag very tall, strong, stately in his air, and in 

 his youth uncommonly handsome, excelling in all mnnly 

 exc-rri-.es, fund of magnificence, nncl full of personal cou- 

 rage. He possessed great vigour of mind, and WHS dis- 

 tinguished by an extensive capacity. He was .skilled in 

 music, and spoke with fluency si-vc-r;d foreign langi: 

 particularly Latin and French. He was sincere, iiank, 

 liberal, and capable at least of tem|>orary friendships and 

 attachments. -But his vices were of ilu- darkest hue, -uul 

 comprehend all the worst qualities of human nature. A 

 violent impetuosity of temper, an insatiable love of plea- 

 sure, and a radical cruelty of disposition, were the dis- 

 tinguishing features of his mind, and the sources of his 

 greatest crimes, of his profusion, rapacity, injustice, ob- 

 stinacy, arrogance, caprice, bigotry, and tyranny. He 

 was filled with an extraordinary conceit of his own supe- 

 rior wisdom, and fond of flattery ; uncontroulablc in his 

 desires, and inflexible in his purposes ; never known to 

 yield or to forgive ; and never " sparing," as he said of 

 himself, "a man in his anger, or a woman in his lust." 

 Yet, in spite of his cruelty, extortion, and arbitrary go- 

 vernment, his exterior qualities so captivated the multi- 

 tude, that he not only acquired the regard, but in some 

 degree possessed to the last the affection of his subjects. 

 He had indeed so completely subdued their free spirit, 

 that, like eastern slaves, they admired those arts of ty- 

 ranny which degraded themselves ; and had he not, by 

 promoting their liberation from papal oppression, provi- 

 ded a corrective for his own despotism, it may be fairly 

 questioned, whether the English constitution would ever 

 have recovered from the repeated checks which its radical 

 principles sustained in his reign. 



Edward VI. succeeded his father as king of England 

 when he was only nine years of age; but, by the will of 

 Henry, the government of the kingdom, till the Prince 

 should have completed his 1 8th year, was intrusted to 

 sixteen executors, -and twelve counsellors, whom he him- 

 self had expressly nominated, and whom he seems to 

 have expected to prove equally obsequious after his 

 death as they had been during his life. Their first act, 

 however, was to choose a protector of the realm, who 

 might represent the royal majesty, and the choice fell upon 

 the Eai 1 of Hertford, who was the young king's maternal 

 uncle, andjiaturally interested in his nephew's safety, 

 while he himself possessed no claims to the throne, which 

 could endanger the Prince's person, or the public tran- 

 quillity. Created Duke of Somerset, he procured a pa- 

 tent from the young king, by which he overturned the 

 will of .Henry VJII. and secured to himself as regent the 

 lull regal power. He had long l>een regarded as secret- 

 ly favourable to the principles of the reformers ; and, as 

 soon as his authority was established, he openly avowed 

 his intention of correcting all the abuses in the former 

 system. The alterations, indeed, made by Henry, were 

 rather acts of separation from the Pope, than of reforma- 

 tion from Popery ; but now the errors of Rome began to 

 be actually removed, and the history of Edward's reign 

 becomes rather a detail of the methods employed by his 

 governors for reforming religion, than a description of 

 political measures, or warlike events. 



The protector took care, that all who were -entrusted 

 with the education of the young king should be attached 



to the principles of the Reformation ; and, in all hii 

 schemes for correcting the enors of popery, he had re- 

 e to the counsels of Archbishop C'rnnmer, n person 

 of the Jin-litest moderation mul prudence. They expe- 

 rienced considerable opposition from Gardiner, Bishop 

 i'f Winchester, which at length drew upon him the in- 

 dignation of the council ; and he was committed to the 

 i), where he was treated, not, indeed, with the 

 cruelty of popish persecutors, but with veiy unbecoming 

 severity. Visitors, consisting of e< c'usi.istics and la\mcn 

 united, were sent to all the dioceses, with power to cor- 

 rect the irregularities of the clergy, to abolish ancient 

 MipciMitions, and ti> bring the worship and discipline of 

 the church nearer to the practice of the reformed. Or- 

 dels were issued to restrain the monks, who had Inc. 

 placed in the vac-ant churches, from preaching in defence 

 of tin- old abuses; and twelve homilies were published, 

 which the clergy were enjoined to read to the |x.-c'ple, 

 instead of addressing them in discourses of their cwn 

 production. The protector, having made due provision 

 lor the stability of affairs at home, resolved to prosecute 

 the war with Scotland, in order to accomplish the pro- 

 ject of the late king, for uniting the two kingdoms by the 

 marriage of Edward and Mary ; and, with an army of 

 18,000 men, attended by a fleet of sixty sail, he advan- 

 ced within sight of the Scottish capital. Having routed 

 the army of the Scots at Pinkey with great slaughter, 

 and appointed commissioners at Berwick to treat of a 

 peace, he returned to London, with that increase of po- 

 pularity and power, which a conqueror, it has been ob- 

 served, is always sure to acquire with the English na- 

 tion. To this character, however, he added more e.sti- 

 mable and amiable virtues ; was bumble, affable, and ac- 

 cessible to the meanest subject; and was obviously in- 

 fluenced in his general conduct by the principles of reli- 

 gion and honour. Having summoned a parliament, he 

 abated the rigour of many former statutes, and particu- 

 larly abolished the law, by which the kind's proclama- 

 tion was made of equal force with an act of parliament. 

 The dawn, both of civil and religious liberty, began to 

 rise upon the English nation ; and the gradual reforma- 

 tion of papal corruptions, continued to be carried on 

 with prudent perseverance. Various superstitious prac- 

 tices were abolished ; all images removed from the 

 churches ; private masses prohibited ; and auricular con- 

 fession, hitherto accounted an indispensiblc duty, and 

 alwavs one of the most powerful engines of a corrupted 

 church, was pronounced a matter of indifference, which 

 the people might observe or omit, according to their own 

 choice. The government of the kingdom became in a 

 great measure aristocratical, in consequence of the late in- 

 crease of possessions which the nobles had acquired ; and 

 great distractions prevailed in the state. Lord Seymour, 

 a man of insatiable ambition, and possessed of distin- 

 guished abilities-, had recently married the queen dowa- 

 ger, and by this alliance became the rival in power of 

 his brother tlie protector. A contest between their wives, 

 on the subject of precedency, created a breach be- 

 tween them, and the whole court and kingdom were di- 

 vided by their opposite cabals and pretensions. Sey- 

 mour discovered his intriguing spirit and ambitious 

 views, by the most rash and criminal conduct, by using 

 unwarrantable means, during the protector's absence 

 in Scotland, to captivate the affections of the young 

 monarch, by making a direct attack upon his bro- 

 ther's authority as unconstitutional, in as much as he 



Hiitorr. 



Progress of 

 the war 

 with Scot- 

 land. 



Cabals ami 

 execution 

 of Lord 

 Seymour. 



