James Gairdner

“ He had drawn up a paper of advice which was to be pressed upon the queen as if in her own interest, apparently by her own counsel, if not by the legates who were to try her cause, in which they were to warn her that some ill-disposed persons seemed to be conspiring in her behalf against the king and Wolsey, and that she ought to be on her guard against giving them any countenance. If she did not act more discreetly, it was urged, the king might not only feel it right to abandon her company himself, but also to withdraw the princess from her mother's society. ”

“ Owing to the fog Warwick's men fired upon those of the Earl of Oxford, whose badge, a star with streams, was mistaken for 'the sun of York,' and Oxford with his company fled the field, crying 'Treason!' as they went. At length, after great slaughter on both sides, Edward was completely triumphant, and Warwick and Montague lay dead upon the field. The Earl of Oxford escaped to Scotland. ”

“ The main point established in the reign of Henry VIII was simply the principle of royal supremacy-that the church of England, like the state, was under the constitutional government of the king. To this principle minds like those of Bonner and Gardiner saw -at the time, at least-no reasonable objection. But the point which Somerset and others sought to establish under Edward VI was that church and state alike were under the uncontrolled authority of the privy council during a minority, and that it was in vain to plead constitutional principles against the pleasure of the ruling powers. ”

“ The same timidity of Cranmer's which made him too readily become an instrument of tyranny gave rise to the popular saying, preserved in Shakespeare:—‘Do my lord of Canterbury a shrewd turn, and he is your friend for ever.’ He was always anxious to conciliate those who liked him least. Even in the exercise of his authority as archbishop his lenity towards opponents was such as sometimes to provoke contempt. ”

“ Altogether he showed himself so gracious on this occasion that next day Catherine asked him to allow the princess to see them; but Henry answered with a rude rebuff, telling her she might go and see the princess if she wished, and also stop with her. The queen replied in gentle tone that she would not leave him for her own daughter or any one else in the world. But things now were coming to a climax. The king was using every art to delay the cause at Rome while refusing to put in any appearance, except by allowing an 'excusator' to plead for him that he was not bound to appear there at all. ”

“ It was, in fact, to interrupt the French interview, or, at least, to prevent an Anglo-French alliance, that Charles had been induced to think seriously of visiting England. The friendship of Henry was to him of the utmost importance, and to secure it he had become a suitor for the hand of the Princess Mary, although she had already been affianced to the Dauphin. There is no doubt that the nobles and the people generally were with the queen in preferring greatly an alliance with him to the friendship of France. ”

“ When all was ready Edward crossed to Calais at the head of a splendid army, consisting of fifteen hundred men-at-arms, fifteen thousand archers on horseback, and a large body of foot, another expedition being arranged to land at the same time in Brittany to strengthen the Duke of Brittany against an attack from France. Before embarking at Dover Edward sent Louis a letter of defiance in the approved style of chivalry, so elegantly and politely penned that Commines could hardly believe an Englishman wrote it. ”

“ Henry, too, had reasons of his own, quite apart from the political advantages of such an alliance—which in themselves were very great indeed—for desiring to make as much of it as possible; and in July he sent Wolsey over to France, with a splendid train, as his lieutenant, to cement the new alliance by arranging with Francis the terms to be offered to the emperor, and communicating to him a very precious secret—the possibility of the king's divorce from Catherine of Arragon. ”

“ It is well. I shall talk with them by-and-by.’ When Cranmer exhibited the ring, and said he appealed to the king, the lords, ‘as the manner was, went all unto the king's person both with his token and the cause,’ and received a severe rebuke for their treatment of him. ‘I would you should well understand,’ Henry added, ‘that I account my lord of Canterbury as faithful a man towards me as ever was prelate in this realm, and one to whom I am many ways beholden.’ After that day no man durst say a word against him so long as Henry lived. ”

“ Nor would Henry perhaps have done much to disturb the relations between Charles and Francis by a mission of the Duke of Norfolk to France immediately after, but that the emperor, having reached his own countries, repudiated some important pledges to his ally and won the friendship of the Duke of Cleves by offering him the Duchess of Milan in marriage. Thus Henry's great object of keeping the two rivals on the continent at variance was attained once more, the policy of Cromwell was no longer serviceable, and within England itself a catholic reaction grew stronger every day. ”

“ The Spanish ambassador thought so, but there is no evidence that even he entertained the strange suspicions that it has pleased some persons in our day to attribute to him. Catherine had been used for years as a political agent by her father, and being a really devout woman, it was natural that she should take frequent counsel with her confessor. It was equally natural that the ambassador, under the circumstances, should find the confessor to be a nuisance, that he should write to Ferdinand to complain of him, and that Catherine should stand firmly by him. ”

“ ANNE of Bohemia (1366–1394) , first queen of Richard II, was the eldest daughter of the Emperor Charles IV by his fourth wife, Elizabeth of Pomerania. She was born at Prague on 11 May 1366. Her father was the son of that blind king, John of Bohemia, who was killed at the battle of Cressy, and was king of Bohemia himself as well as emperor. The place he fills in history is peculiar. Educated at Paris, his leanings all through life were French and papal. He was not too well loved by the Germans, and was only accepted as emperor because no rival candidate could be induced to stand. ”

“ The truth was that Henry himself secretly favoured the project, and only wished for some such letter from Francis to make it more acceptable to the old nobility, who regarded Suffolk as an upstart. Wolsey, too, then at the commencement of his career as a statesman, was doing his best to smooth down all obstacles. But the precipitancy of the two lovers nearly forfeited all their advantages. Mary was by no means satisfied that, although Henry favoured her wishes to some extent, he might not be induced by his council to break faith with her and sacrifice her to political considerations again. ”

“ Catherine nursed his ulcerated leg and also conversed with him occasionally on the new theological questions that arose. On one occasion she had the misfortune to take a different view from the king. ‘A good hearing it is,’ he exclaimed afterwards, ‘when women become such clerks; and a thing much to my comfort to come in mine old days to be taught by my wife!’ We know not at this day what was the knotty question, and we need not take Foxe's word for it that Gardiner and Wriothesley conspired the queen's death. ”

“ It was Lady Willoughby, formerly Maria de Salinas, one of her maids of honour, who came with her from Spain, now mother-in-law to Henry VIII's favourite, the Duke of Suffolk. She appeared before the gates of Kimbolton Castle, saying she had travelled in haste fearing she would be too late to see Catherine again alive. She begged leave at once to come in and warm herself, as she suffered bitterly from the cold, and also from a fall from her horse. It was impossible to disoblige a lady of such high social position. She was admitted to the hall, and even to Catherine's chamber ”

“ Elizabeth threw herself into the sanctuary at Westminster, taking with her her second son and her five surviving daughters, and conveying thither in great haste a mass of personal property and furniture, to make easy entrance for which her servants actually broke down the walls which separated the palace from the sanctuary. While this removal was going on. Archbishop Rotherham came to her and endeavoured to allay her fears, assuring her that if they set aside young Edward he would crown his brother, the Duke of York, whom she had with her in the sanctuary. ”

“ The evidence on which she was condemned, however it may have satisfied public opinion at the time, would probably not have impressed men in our day even with a general belief in her guilt, much less have justified her execution. No one of her alleged accomplices except Smeaton appears to have made any confession; and the queen herself, even when desiring earnestly the consolations of religion to enable her to prepare for death, protested in the most emphatic terms to Kingston, the constable of the Tower, that she was innocent of criminal intercourse with any man whomsoever. ”

“ There is no reason to doubt that for some years after their marriage Henry felt real affection for her, and she was a thoroughly devoted wife. 'The king, my lord, adores her, and her highness him,' was the opinion of Catherine's confessor in 1510. Ferdinand seems to have relied partly on her influence over him in procuring a league against France; and for two or three years, whether from natural impulse or from policy, Henry was a very firm ally of his father-in-law. ”

“ To keep on good terms with the imperial ambassador, and plausibly answer his remonstrances after the king had repudiated the emperor's aunt and married another woman, required more delicate diplomacy than the titled members of the council could command, and Cromwell became from this time the constant medium of communication between the king and Chapuys. The crisis, indeed, seemed at first so dangerous that English merchants withdrew their goods from Flanders, and Cromwell himself, fearing invasion, got the most of his valuables conveyed into the Tower. ”

“ His rise into the king's favour appears to have been somehow connected with a violent quarrel with Sir John Wallop, just after Cardinal Wolsey's death. ‘Wallop,’ according to Chapuys, ‘attacked him with insults and threats, and for protection he procured an audience of the king, and promised to make him the richest king that ever was in England.’ A master of the art of money-making himself, he knew what might be done in that way if the crown would use its authority to the utmost. ”

“ It was, in fact, a novelty in those days for a bishop to be a king's confessor; and it exposed him to the further criticism that if he was the king's confessor and an influential member of the council he was responsible for everything that was done amiss. Nothing but covetousness, it was believed, could have reconciled him to the atmosphere of the court if he had given the king good advice without effect. ”

“ A no less ineffectual appeal was made to the citizens the next Tuesday at the Guildhall, when Buckingham made an eloquent speech in support of Richard's claim to the throne. But on the following day, 25 June, on which parliament had been summoned to meet, and when there actually did meet an assembly of lords and commons, though apparently not a true parliament, a roll was brought in setting forth the invalidity of Edward IV's marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, the evils which had arisen from it, and the right of the Duke of Gloucester to the crown. ”

“ She might, no doubt, learn English soon, for she was very intelligent; but at that time (within five months of her marriage) she knew not a word of it, and, worse still, she could not sing or play upon an instrument. Henry was devotedly fond of music; but in Germany it was thought unworthy of a great lady to have any knowledge of the art. The only thing in which she was at all proficient was needlework, and with that she occupied most of her time. The prospect of her union with Henry was certainly far from satisfactory. ”

“ Spiritual men were but half his subjects; they took an oath of obedience to the pope as well as to himself, and the two oaths were inconsistent with each other. He had already taken one step the day before to remedy the matter by laying before the convocation of Canterbury certain articles designed to deprive the church thenceforth of all power of synodical action without his express permission. And as the House of Commons was thus instigated to interfere with their liberties the clergy saw that it was useless to resist. ”

“ In 1539 was passed by parliament ‘An Act for Abolishing Diversity of Opinions,’ as it was strangely entitled, more commonly known as the Act of the Six Articles. A strong reaction was setting in against innovation in doctrine; and six weighty points of theology were referred by the House of Lords to a committee of bishops presided over by Cromwell as the king's vicegerent. Cranmer used every effort on the side of freedom, partly, no doubt, from interested motives, as one of the articles touched the marriage of the clergy. ”

“ There is also preserved an elegant Latin inscription which he wrote on a young man, named Polydorus Casamicus, who was the pope's usher, and died at the early age of twenty-four. He was a man of high taste in art as well as in letters. He was known at Rome as ‘the rich cardinal,’ and built a fine palace there, in front of which he inscribed the name of his patron, Henry VII, willing that it should go after his own decease to that king and his successors. ”

“ Gairdner's independence of mind and deep religious convictions led him to join a small body of unitarians at a time when that sect was very unpopular, especially in Scotland. There is no doubt that, although he had a fair professional practice, this step was a considerable bar to his progress, yet personally he was universally respected. He took an active part in the setting up of a new unitarian chapel in Edinburgh; but after many years, failing to find in that sect what he considered to be pure christianity and freedom, he returned once more to the church of Scotland. ”

“ That a man like Cromwell should have been very generally hated will surprise no one. When the great rebellion in the north broke out in the latter part of this year, one of the chief demands of the insurgents was that Cromwell should be removed from the king's council, and receive condign punishment as a heretic and traitor. ”

“ Christopher Mont, a German himself, was the king's agent at that court, and wrote to Cromwell in a very different vein from what Hutton had done some fifteen months before. Every man, he said, praised the lady's beauty. She as far surpassed her sister, the duchess, ‘as the golden sun did the silver moon.’ The Duke of Saxony, however, put off sending her portrait, alleging that his painter, Lucas Cranach, was ill, till the king commissioned his own artist, Holbein, to do the work, who painted likenesses both of her and of her sister Amelia, which seem to have given great satisfaction. ”

“ Her marriage with Edward was a romance in itself, but we may safely dismiss the story of her fascinating the Earl of Warwick, and being used by Margaret as a lure to entrap him.
There is preserved in the Record Office a letter signed by Elizabeth when she was queen consort and addressed to Sir William Stonor, warning him against interfering with the game in her forests, even under colour of a commission from the king, her husband. It certainly conveys the impression that she was a woman who did not easily forego her rights. ”