besieged Exeter, and when Russell came up with some German troops, whom the government had hired as a standing army, so stoutly did they hold their ground that it was only after a fiercely fought battle at St. Mary's Clyst, in which the English Battle of St. Mary's Clyst. peasants astonished trained soldiers by their steadiness, that the Devonshire men were put down. In the fighting not less than four thousand men were killed. Of late Revolt of the eastern counties. The insurrection in the west was religious; in the east it was the enclosure of the commons that drove the people to revolt. years the peasants had had a hard time. Prices had risen, owing to the base coinage issued by Henry VIII. and by Edward VI.'s council; at the same time, there was less demand for labour, for sheep-farms were the fashion, and these required far fewer labourers than arable lands. Commons had been largely enclosed, and though this added to the wealth of the landowners, it was hard for the villagers, who used to turn their pigs and geese to graze on them. Everywhere there was indignation at the conduct of the new landowners, who were seeking to make fortunes out of their lands, instead of keeping to the customs of their steady-going predecessors. Exasperated by their grievances, the peasantry of Norfolk rose under Ket, a tanner, and formed a camp on Mousehold Hill, close to Norwich. There they had the obnoxious gentry of the neighbourhood brought before them, and after conviction imprisoned them in the camp; but they did no murder, and all their proceedings were perfectly orderly. Somerset sympathized with their complaints, and would have liked to redress their grievances. A pardon was offered, but through some misunderstanding was refused. Then the council appealed to arms. The Earl of Warwick was sent against the insurgents, and, as at St. Mary's Clyst, undisciplined valour fell before the skilled coolness of the foreign mercenaries. More than three thousand rebels fell in the fight, and the insurgent counties were severely punished. The credit of the suppression of these rebellions fell, not to the protector, but to the council. They had acted while he had hesitated; and, despite his personal popularity, there The protector's could be no doubt that his rule had been a failure. rule a failure. Little by little the French king Henry II. had been allowed to make himself master of the outposts of Boulogne, and, much against their will, the council had been forced to declare war against France. The finances were in complete disorder; in all parts of the country there had been riots, and in some insurrections. The protector could not point to anything in which he had achieved solid success. The council, therefore, headed by Warwick, determined to take away the powers which Somerset, despite Henry's intentions, had taken upon himself; and though he made what resistance he could, and even thought of an appeal to arms, he was eventually forced to give way, and the councillors again became the sole authority. The protector deprived of power. The actions of council. Among them the leader was Dudley, Earl of Warwick.1 He was an able, unscrupulous man, who aimed at making Dudley and the the fortunes of himself and his family. The first care of the council had to be given to the finances. Unfortunately, they were ignorant of much that is now known about money, and they therefore foolishly debased the coinage in order to increase their funds, made new loans to pay the interest on. old ones, and attempted to stop the rise in prices by fixing a maximum rate at which goods should be sold. They, however, wisely made peace with France, and restored Boulogne in return for a sum of money. Warwick To keep his power, Warwick found it needful to ally himself with the advanced reformers. Had he not done so, obliged to ally he must have called in the help of the old nobility, who were totally opposed to the new ways of the with the reformers. 1 GENEALOGY OF THE DUDLEYS AND THE SYDNEYS. Edmund Dudley (minister of Henry VII.) executed 1509. 1542; John Dudley (Viscount Lisle, 1542; Earl of Warwick, 1547), council. This alliance led him to quarrel with the Princess Mary, whom the reformers in the council wished to prevent from hearing mass. Mary, however, was firm, and the council, fearing to get into trouble with Charles the emperor, desisted. Warwick becomes Duke of land. In 1551 Warwick had himself made Duke of Northumberland. He now began to be suspicious of his old rival, Somerset. It was not to be expected that this nobleman would be contented with his fall; but he probably Northumberhad not advanced further than to form a general plan to change the government in his own favour, when Execution of Warwick had him arrested for treason, tried by his peers, convicted of felony, and executed. His popularity was shown by the sympathizing crowd which attended at the scaffold. Somerset. Acts of the 1552. In 1552 Parliament again met. It issued a revised version of the Prayer-book, which is commonly called the Second Prayer-book of Edward VI., and coupled it with a new Act of Uniformity. An act was also passed about the trial Parliament of of persons accused of treason, declaring that in future the accused must be convicted on the evidence of two witnesses at least. Parliament also took in hand the miseries caused by the agricultural changes. It enacted that alms were to be collected for the poor of each parish; and commissioners were to see what could be done for promoting tillage. Under a false conception of its nature, usury or interest was forbidden as "odious and detestable." Candition of the countiv Meanwhile the state of the kingdom was going from bad to worse. The lands of the abbeys, the property of the guilds, the bells and plate of the churches, had been seized, and yet the government was deep in debt; the coinage had been debased and its value regulated by government, and yet prices rose and goods were scarce; the Church had been reformed, and yet immorality flourished; the rapacity of the landowners, the greed of merchants who sold badly made goods and destroyed English credit, won little esteem for the new ways. Henry VIII., arbitrary as he was, had always been in sympathy with the people. The councillors had shown themselves to be mere greedy self-seekers, who, under the guise of religion, robbed God and the poor to fill their own pockets. Illness of the king. land's plot. Much was hoped from Edward's rule. Though delicate, he had given much study to affairs of state; his aspirations were noble, and on many points his views were sound. Unfortunately, however, all these hopes. were blasted by the news that the young king was likely to fall into an early grave. No one knew what was the nature of his malady, but a terrible cough racked his body, and his strength steadily declined. His condition filled Northumberland with fear. The next sovereign, according to the will of Henry VIII., was to be Mary, and her Northumber- accession meant his ruin. In his extremity Northumberland attempted a bold game. Though Mary's accession was the wish of the nation, he formed a plan to set her aside; and as the council held the executive power, had under their command a guard of one thousand men, and would have the opportunity of acting first, he had some chance of success. His plan was to replace Mary by her cousin, Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Mary of England, Duchess of Suffolk. Her he married to his fourth son, Lord Guildford Dudley. Edward's consent was won to this arrangement, and he illegally made a will leaving the crown to his cousin. After this the king grew rapidly weaker, and in July, 1553, he died. Death of Edward VI. CHAPTER IV. MARY, 1553–1558 (5 years). Born 1516; married, 1554, Philip of Spain. Chief Characters of the Reign.-Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester; Bonner, Bishop of London; Renard, Ambassador of Charles V.; Cardinal Pole; Sir Thomas Wyatt; Cranmer; Hooper; Ridley; Latimer. Chief Contemporary Sovereigns. to Norfolk.: Lady Jane No sooner was Edward dead than Northumberland, concealing the news, sent his son, Lord Warwick, to seize Mary. This precaution should have been taken before, and was Flight of Mary now too late; for Mary had early intelligence of her brother's death, and was on her way to Norfolk, where the Howards were expecting her coming. When the king's death could no longer be hidden, Northumberland proclaimed Lady Jane Grey as queen. The people listened in respectful silence, but made no demonstration of joy, and one lad boldly shouted, "The Lady Mary has the better title!" for which he was put in the pillory. Jane herself took no delight in her new dignity, but she showed Northumberland that she had no idea of being merely a puppet in his hands, by refusing to allow her husband to be crowned with her without the consent of Parliament. Grey proclaimed queen. people to Northumber land. Having settled matters in London, Northumberland was forced himself to go in pursuit of Mary. As he left London not a voice cried, "God bless him!" and his advance showed Attitude of the him how much he had miscalculated the wishes of the nation. Among the great mass of Englishmen Northumberland and his friends had made themselves thoroughly disliked by the scandalous rapacity which they had shown under the late king; the changes in religion were not at all popular, and the harassed country looked back with regret to the rule of Henry VIII. Of that rule Mary seemed to be the embodiment; she was the true heir according to the natural laws of succession and by Henry VIII.'s will, and the English people had not the least idea of setting her aside |