HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [259 



Jane Grey had thus been invested with regal dignity and power 

 with the concurrence of the Council, the submission of the Princess 

 Mary was considered indispensable to prevent the evils of civil war. 

 The Council therefore wrote to her requiring her to resign her 

 claims, but they were informed that she had retired to Norfolk, 

 where many of the nobility and their adherents had taken up arms 

 in support of her right to the Crown. It was then resolved to sub- 

 due her party by force, and for that purpose the Duke of Northum- 

 berland marched from London on the 14th of July, with 2000 cavalry 

 and 6000 infantry. The Duke seems to have felt a presentiment 

 of his fall, for as he marched through Bishopsgate-street, he said to 

 Lord Grey, " The people press to see us, but no one says God 

 speed us/' 



The Duke advanced to St. Edmundsbury, in Suffolk, but was de- 

 serted by part of his army on the march, and not receiving the ex- 

 pected reinforcements and supplies from London, he retired to Cam- 

 bridge. In the meanwhile, the Council, unwilling to be any longer 

 the tools of his inordinate ambition, and convinced that Queen Jane's 

 assumed authority was unconstitutional, had Mary proclaimed 

 Queen. When the news of this event reached the ears of the Duke 

 of Northumberland, he joined in the popular sentiment, and throw- 

 ing up his cap, cried " God save Queen Mary !" and caused her to 

 be proclaimed at Cambridge. But his submission arid affected loy- 

 alty were unavailing, for he was soon afterwards arrested, tried for 

 high treason, and condemned. August the 21st, 1553, was the day 

 fixed for his execution, and a vast concourse of people assembled 

 upon Tower-hill to behold the tragical spectacle of a great man's 

 fall ; but after waiting some hours, the people were ordered to de- 

 part, for the criminal had received a respite. But this semblance 

 of clemency was only for the purpose of persuading the Duke to 

 make a formal recantation of the Protestant religion, that he might 

 be received into the bosom of the Catholic Church, a common trick 

 in that age, by which malignant Papists at once insulted and de- 

 ceived their victims. Accordingly, the Duke of Northumberland, 

 a man once famed for his heroism and political abilities, was in- 

 duced by the love of life to gratify his treacherous enemies by 

 the abjuration of his religion for the superstitions of Popery. This 

 he did in the presence of a temporizing Lord Mayor of London, 

 the Aldermen, and some of the Council; and next day he was be- 

 headed ! At the place of execution he made a long speech in favour 

 of Popery, and behaved with great firmness and composure. Such 



