377 



HENRY I. (OF GERMANY). 



HENRY IV. (OP GERMANY). 



373 



that the proclamation of the king in council should henceforth 

 have the fame authority as a statute, passed the famous act (the 

 31 Henry VIII., c. 14) known by the name of the 'Six Articles,' or 

 the ' Bloody Statute/ by which burning or hanging was made the 

 punishment of all who should deny that the bread and wine of the 

 sacrament was the natural body and blood of the Saviour or that 

 communion in both kinds was not necessary to salvation or that 

 priests may not marry or that vows of chastity ought to be observed 

 or that the mass was agreeable to God's law or that auricular 

 confession is expedient and necessary. This statute, the cause of 

 numerous executions, proceeded from a new influence which had now 

 gained an ascendancy over the fickle king, that of Gardiner, bishop of 

 Winchester, the able leader of the party in church and state opposed 

 to Cranrner and Cromwell. [GARDINER, STEPHEN.] This new 

 favourite was not long in effecting the ruin of the rival that was 

 most in his way : Cromwell, who had just been created earl of Essex, 

 and made lord chamberlain of England, was, in the beginning of 

 June 1540, committed to the Tower on a charge of treason, and 

 beheaded in a few weeks after. 



On the 8th of August this year Henry married his fifth wife, the 

 Lady Catherine Howard, whom he beheaded on the 13th of February 



1542. During this interval he also rid himself by the axe of the exe- 

 cutioner of a noble lady whom he bad attainted and consigned to a 

 prison two years before on a charge of treason, Margaret, countess 

 dowager of Salisbury, the daughter of the late Duke of Clarence, and 

 the last of the York Plantageuets. Her real crime was that she was 

 the mother of Cardinal Pole, who had offended the tyrant, and who 

 was himself beyond his reach. 



In the latter part of the year 1542 war was declared by Henry 

 agaiust Scotland, with a revival of the old claim to the sovereignty of 

 that kingdom. An incursion made by the Duke of Norfolk into 

 Scotland in October, was followed the next month by the advance of 

 a Scottish army into England, but this force was completely defeated 

 and dispersed at Solway Moss, a disaster which is believed to have 

 killed King James, who died a few weeks after, leaving his crown to a 

 daughter, the unfortunate Mary Stuart, then only an infant seven days 

 old. The failure of the efforts of the English king to obtain possession 

 of the government and of the young queen, owing to the successful 

 resistance of Cardinal Beaton and the Roman Catholic party, led to a 

 renewal of hostilities in the spring of 1544, when Scotland was 

 invaded by a great army under the Earl of Hertford, which penetrated 

 as far as Edinburgh, and burned that capital with many other towns 

 and villages. In the preceding year also Henry had concluded a 

 new alliance with the emperor against the French king ; and in July 

 1544 he passed over with an army to France, with which he suc- 

 ceeded in taking the town of Boulogne. On this however the 

 emperor made a separate peace with Francis; and on the 7th of June 

 154ij Henry also signed a treaty with that king, in which he agreed to 

 restore Boulogne and iU dependencies in consideration of a payment 

 of two millions of crowns. . 



Ha had some years before found a sixth wife, Catherine Parr, the 

 widow of the Lord Latitner, whom he married on the 10th of July 



1543. As the infirmities of age and disease grew upon him, the sus- 

 piciousness and impetuosity of his temper acquired additional violence, 

 and the closing years of his reign were as deeply stained with blood 

 as any that bad preceded them. One of his last butcheries was that 

 of the amiable and accomplished Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, who, 

 being convicted, after the usual process, of treason, was executed on 

 the 19th (other accounts say the 21st) of January 1547. "Already 

 Henry," says Holinshed, " was lying in the agonies of death." Surrey's 

 father, the Duke of Norfolk, was also to have suffered on the 28th ; 

 but was saved by the death of the king at two o'clock on the morning 

 of that day. 



The children of Henry VIII. were 1 and 2, by Catherine of Aragon, 

 two sons who died in infancy ; 3, Mary, afterwards queen of England ; 

 4, by Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth, afterwards queen ; 5, a son still-born, 

 29th of February 1535; 6, by Jane Seymour, Edward, by whom he 

 was succeeded on the throne. 



The most important changes made in the law during this reign were 

 those affecting ecclesiastical affairs, of which the principal have been 

 already noticed. Along with these may be mentioned the statute 

 defining the degrees within which marriage should be lawful (25 

 Henry VIII., c. 22), which, in regard to that point, is still the law of 

 the land. The law of real property was also materially altered by the 

 Statute of Uses (27 Henry VIII., c. 10), and by various statutes per- 

 mitting the devise, which was not before allowed, except by the 

 custom of particular places, of real estates by wilt To this reign is 

 aUo to bo assigned the origin of tho Bankrupt Laws. Wales was first 

 incorporated with England, and the laws and liberties of the latter 

 country granted to the inhabitants of the former, in the 27th year of 

 Henry VIII.; and Ireland, which before was styled only a lordship, 

 was in 1542 erected into a kingdom. 



HKNUY I. surnamed the Fowler, Emperor of Germany, was tho son 

 of Otho, duke of Saxony and Thuringia, and was born in A.D. 876. 

 In hu father's lifetime he distinguished himself as a warrior against 

 the bordering Slavonians. In 912 he succeeded his father aa duke, 

 and had to defend bis territories against the emperor Conrad I. This 

 he effected, and Conrad on his death-bed in 918 recommended his 



former adversary as the most worthy to bo his successor. Henry was 

 elected, and by his power and influence restored the disturbed empire 

 to a state of internal peace. He was however soon afterwards engaged 

 in a war against the Hungarians, who had invaded and ravaged the 

 empire. His first efforts against them were unsuccessful, but he at 

 length succeeded in obtaining a truce, and devoted the interval to 

 fortifying the towns of Germany for the protection of the inhabitants, 

 and by granting municipal privileges was the originator of the 

 Germanic corporations. He afterwards prosecuted the war against 

 Hungary with such success, that after the victory of Keuschberg, near 

 Merseburg, the empire was freed for upwards of twenty years from 

 any attack by the Hungarians. Henry the Fowler died in 936, and 

 was succeeded by his son Otho I. 



HENRY II., the great-grandson of Henry I., and the last emperor 

 of the House of Saxony, was born in 972, the son of Henry, duke of 

 Bavaria. He succeeded his father in 995, and accompanied his cousin 

 the emperor Otho III. in his expedition to Rome. Otho died in Italy. 

 Henry possessed himself of the crown jewels, and by some intrigue, 

 and by the exercise of force against some of his competitors, suc- 

 ceeded in procuring his election, and was crowned emperor at Mainz 

 in 1002. His reign was disturbed by domestic wars. His brothers 

 revolted against him in Germany, and Harduin, marquis of Ivrea, 

 assumed tbe iron crown in Italy. Though Henry succeeded in 

 repressing these outbreaks, with the assistance of the pope, they were 

 continually recurring. He and his wife were great upholders of the 

 Church. His wife, Cunegunda, lived with him in a state of continence, 

 and died in the convent of Neuberg in 1033. They were both 

 canonised after their deaths as saints. Henry died on July 13, 1024, 

 at Grona, near Gbttingen, and was succeeded by Conrad II. 



HENRY III., the son of Conrad II., was born in 1017. In 1026 he 

 was elected King of the Romans, and succeeded his father in the impe- 

 rial dignity in 1039. Possessed of great talents, well educated, and 

 of a firm and dignified character, he became one of the most powerful 

 and most respected of the emperors of Germany. He repressed tho 

 turbulence of the more powerful vassals of the empire, and made 

 great advances towards its consolidation. He governed the church 

 with a stern hand, and humbled the Roman see by deposing three 

 successive popes on account of their gross immoralities, and at length 

 causing Clement II., who had been bishop of Bamberg, to be chosen. 

 The celebrated Hildebrand outwardly appeared to aid the emperor in 

 his attempts to purify tho Church, but secretly took such measures as 

 insured his own election to the papacy on a future vacancy, by which 

 all the labours of the emperor were rendered useless. Henry was 

 successful in his wars agaiust Bohemia, took Prague, and forced the 

 Duke of Bohemia to sue for a peace, and to hold the duchy by feudal 

 servitude. In Hungary he twice restored Peter to the throne, when 

 expelled by his subjects, and when Andrew became filially successful 

 over Peter, he united himself to the conqueror by giving him his daughter 

 in marriage. In Italy the Normans, who had conquered Apulia and 

 Calabria, were induced to become his vassals. In the midst of his 

 power he died, not without suspicion of having been poisoned, in 

 1056, leaving a son by his second wife, Agnes of Poitiers, to succeed 

 him. His first wife had been Margaret, daughter of Canute, king of 

 England. 



HENRY IV., the son of the preceding, was born in 1050, and had 

 been chosen king of the Romans in 1054. His mother Agnes under- 

 took the care of his education, and the diet chose her as regent during 

 his minority. But the strong hand and will of his father were 

 wanting. The great princes of the empire were soon in open revolt. 

 The custody of the young emperor's person was shifted from one 

 powerful subject to another, with little advantage to the realm, and 

 great detriment to the monarch, who became licentious, extravagant, 

 and careless of all but his pleasures. He commenced a war against 

 the Duke of Saxony, in which he displayed much courage and some 

 military talent ; but in the course of it he was induced to seek the 

 intervention of the pope, which was sought also by his opponent. 

 This pope was now Gregory VII. ; the former Hildebrand, who 

 decided against him. Henry assembled a diet at Worms, who pro- 

 nounced the deposition of the pope for presuming to constitute himself 

 the judge of his sovereign. Gregory however excommunicated him, 

 and declared his subjects absolved from their allegiance. Henry at 

 length saw himself compelled to submit to the haughty primate ; he 

 crossed the Alps with his wife and child in the depth of winter, arriving 

 at Cauossa, where the pope was residing, in January 1077; and was 

 compelled to stand for three days in the open court-yard before the 

 excommunication was removed. While Henry was in Italy, Itudolph 

 of Suabia had been elected emperor in Germany, but on his return 

 Henry levied an army, and a devastating contest took place, which was 

 only partly ended by the death of Rudolph in battle, on October 15, 

 1080. Gregory, who had excited much discontent among a great 

 portion of the clergy by rigidly insisting on their celibacy, had been 

 blockaded in Cauossa by some Italian partisans of Henry; but had 

 been released. He sent Rudolph a crown, and placed Henry anew 

 under the ban of the church. Henry, now a conqueror, retaliated by 

 summoning a fresh council at Brixen, who deposed Gregory, elected 

 Clement III. aa pope ; and Henry entered Italy with an army, forced 

 Gregory to take refuge in the castle of St. Angelo, and had himself 

 and wife crowned by Clement in 1084. 



