History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume III Part 33

[Sidenote: He had ama.s.sed a fortune by bribery,]

7. By bribery and extortion he had obtained vast sums of money; and being thus enriched, he had held the n.o.bles in disdain.

[Sidenote: And had menaced the n.o.bility.]

8. Finally, being reminded of his position with respect to the lords, and of the consequences which he might bring upon himself, he had said, "If the Lords would handle him so, he would give them such a breakfast as never was made in England, and that the proudest of them should know."[582]

[Sidenote: Were the accusations true?]

[Sidenote: And if true, was his escape or acquittal possible?]

The amount and character of the evidence on which these charges were brought we have no means of judging; but the majority of them carry probability on their front; and we need not doubt that the required testimony was both abundant and sound. The case, of course, had been submitted in all its details to the king before the first step had been taken; and he was called upon to fulfil the promise which he had made of permitting justice to have its way. How was the king to refuse? Many a Catholic had gone to the scaffold for words lighter than those which had been sworn against Cromwell, by Cromwell's own order. Did he or did he not utter those words? If it be these to which he alluded in a letter which he wrote from the Tower to the king,[583] Sir George Throgmorton and Sir Richard Rich were the witnesses against him; and though he tried to shake their testimony, his denial was faint, indirect--not like the broad, absolute repudiation of a man who was consciously clear of offence.[584] Could he have cleared himself on this one point, it would have availed him little if he had suspended the action of the law by his own authority, if he had permitted books to circulate secretly which were forbidden by act of parliament, if he had allowed prisoners for high treason or heresy to escape from confinement. Although to later generations acts such as these appear as virtues, not as crimes, the king could not antic.i.p.ate the larger wisdom of posterity. An English sovereign could know no guidance but the existing law, which had been manifestly and repeatedly broken. Even if he had himself desired to s.h.i.+eld his minister, it is not easy to see that he could have prevented his being brought to trial, or, if tried, could have prevented his conviction, in the face of an exasperated parliament, a furious clergy, and a clamorous people. That he permitted the council to proceed by attainder, in preference to the ordinary forms, must be attributed to the share which he, too, experienced in the general anger.

[Sidenote: Cranmer declares his confidence in Cromwell's integrity.]

Only one person had the courage or the wish to speak for Cromwell.

Cranmer, the first to come forward on behalf of Anne Boleyn, ventured, first and alone, to throw a doubt on the treason of the Privy Seal. "I heard yesterday, in your Grace's council," he wrote to the king, "that the Earl of Ess.e.x is a traitor; yet who cannot be sorrowful and amazed that he should be a traitor against your Majesty--he whose surety was only by your Majesty--he who loved your Majesty, as I ever thought, no less than G.o.d--he who studied always to set forwards whatsoever was your Majesty's will and pleasure--he that cared for no man's displeasure to serve your Majesty--he that was such a servant, in my judgment, in wisdom, diligence, faithfulness, and experience as no prince in this realm ever had--he that was so vigilant to preserve your Majesty from all treasons, that few could be so secretly conceived but he detected the same in the beginning!--I loved him as my friend, for so I took him to be; but I chiefly loved him for the love which I thought I saw him bear ever towards your Grace, singularly above all others. But now, if he be a traitor, I am sorry that ever I loved or trusted him; and I am very glad that his treason is discovered in time; but yet, again, I am very sorrowful; for who shall your Grace trust hereafter, if you may not trust him? Alas! I lament your Grace's chance herein. I wot not whom your Grace may trust."[585]

[Sidenote: But inasmuch as he had broken the law openly and repeatedly,]

[Sidenote: And inasmuch as the law in a free country is the only guide to the magistrate, his condemnation was inevitable.]

The intercession was bravely ventured; but it was fruitless. The illegal acts of a minister who had been trusted with extraordinary powers were too patent for denial; and Cranmer himself was forced into a pa.s.sive acquiescence, while the enemies of the Reformation worked their revenge.

Heresy and truth, treason and patriotism! these are words which in a war of parties change their meaning with the alternations of success, till time and fate have p.r.o.nounced the last interpretation, and human opinions and sympathies bend to the deciding judgment. But while the struggle is still in progress--while the partisans on either side exclaim that truth is with them, and error with their antagonists, and the minds of this man and of that man are so far the only arbiters--those, at such a time, are not the least to be commended who obey for their guide the law as it in fact exists. Men there are who need no such direction, who follow their own course--it may be to a glorious success, it may be to as glorious a death. To such proud natures the issue to themselves is of trifling moment. They live for their work or die for it, as their Almighty Father wills. But the law in a free country cannot keep pace with genius. It reflects the plain sentiments of the better order of average men; and if it so happen, as in a perplexed world of change it will happen and must, that a statesman, or a prophet, is beyond his age, and in collision with a law which his conscience forbids him to obey, he bravely breaks it, bravely defies it, and either wins the victory in his living person, or, more often, wins it in his death. In fairness, Cromwell should have been tried; but it would have added nothing to his chances of escape. He could not disprove the accusations. He could but have said that he had done right, not wrong,--a plea which would have been but a fresh crime.

But, in the deafening storm of denunciation which burst out, the hastiest vengeance was held the greatest justice. Any charge, however wild, gained hearing: Chatillon, the French amba.s.sador, informed his court that the Privy Seal had intended privately to marry the Lady Mary, as the Duke of Suffolk had married the king's sister, and on Henry's death proposed to seize the crown.[586] When a story so extravagant could gain credence, the circular of the council to the amba.s.sadors rather furnishes matter of suspicion by its moderation.

[Sidenote: The attainder pa.s.ses.]

[Sidenote: The quarrel with the Emperor is at an end.]

The attainder pa.s.sed instantly, with acclamations. Francis wrote a letter of congratulation to the king on the discovery of the "treason."[587] Charles V., whose keener eyes saw deeper into the nature of the catastrophe, when the news were communicated to him, "nothing moved outwardly in countenance or word," said merely, "What, is he in the Tower of London, and by the king's commandment?"[588] He sent no message, no expression of regret or of pleasure, no word of any kind; but from that moment no menacing demonstrations or violent words or actions ruffled his relations with England, till a new change had pa.s.sed upon the stage. His own friends were now in power. He knew it, and acknowledged them.[589]

[Sidenote: Triumph of the reactionaries.]

The barrier which had stemmed the reactionary tide had now fallen.

Omnipotent in parliament and convocation, the king inclining in their favour, carrying with them the sympathy of the wealth, the worldliness, and the harder intellect of the country, freed from the dreaded minister, freed from the necessity of conciliating the German Protestants, the Anglican leaders made haste to redeem their lost time, and develope their policy more wisely than before.

[Sidenote: The Bishop of Bath is despatched to the Duke of Cleves.]

[Sidenote: July 1. Improvement of the machinery for the enforcement of the Six Articles.]

[Sidenote: July 6. Parliament discusses the marriage.]

Their handiwork is to be traced in the various measures which occupied the remainder of the session. The first step was to despatch the Bishop of Bath to the Duke of Cleves, to gain his consent, if possible, to his sister's separation from the king; Anne, herself, meanwhile, being recommended, for the benefit of her health, to retire for a few days to Richmond. The bill of attainder was disposed of on the 19th of June; on the 22d the bishops brought in a bill for the better payment of t.i.thes, which in the few years last past certain persons had contemptuously presumed to withhold.[590] On the 1st of July a bill was read enacting that, whereas in the parliament of the year preceding "a G.o.dly act was made for the abolishment of diversity of opinion concerning the Christian religion," the provisions of which, for various reasons, had not been enforced, for the better execution of the said act the number of commissioners appointed for that purpose should be further increased; and the bishops and the bishops' chancellors should be a.s.sisted by the archdeacons and the officials of their courts.[591] This measure, like the attainder, was pa.s.sed unanimously.[592] On the 5th a general pardon was introduced, from which heretics were exempted by a special proviso.[593] The new spirit was rapid in its manifestation. The day after (for it was not thought necessary to wait for a letter from Germany) the Cleves' marriage was brought forward for discussion; and the care with which the pleadings were parodied which had justified the divorce of Catherine, resembled rather a deliberate intention to discredit the first scandal than a serious effort to defend the second; but we must not judge the conduct of a party blinded with pa.s.sion by the appearance which such conduct seems to wear in a calmer retrospect.

[Sidenote: Speech of the Lord Chancellor not to the purpose.]

The chancellor, once more reminding the lords of the wars of the Roses, and the danger of a disputed succession, informed them that certain doubts had arisen affecting the legality of the king's present marriage.

The absence of a prospect of issue was the single palliative of the present proceedings. The chancellor injured the case, so far as it admitted of injury, by dwelling on the possibility of an issue of doubtful legitimacy. The questions raised, however, belonged, he said, to the canon law, and he proposed that they should be submitted to the clergy then sitting in convocation.

[Sidenote: A delegacy of the two Houses waits upon the king.]

[Sidenote: The queen consents to accept the judgment of convocation.]

When the chancellor had ceased, the peers desired to communicate with the other House. Six delegates were sent down to repeat the substance of what they had heard, and returned presently, followed by twenty members of the House of Commons, who signified a wish to speak with the king in person. The lords a.s.sented, and repaired in a body with the twenty members to Whitehall. The formality of state interviews may not be too closely scrutinized. They requested to be allowed to open to his Majesty a great and important matter, which his Majesty, they were well aware, had alone permitted them to discuss. His Majesty being confident that they would make no improper demands, they laid before him the proposition which they had heard from the woolsack, and added their own entreaties that he would be pleased to consent.[594] The king was gracious, but the canon law required also the consent of the queen; for which, therefore, the Duke of Suffolk, the Bishop of Winchester, and other n.o.blemen were despatched to Richmond, and with which they soon returned.[595] Six years were spent over the affair with Queen Catherine: almost as many days sufficed to dispose of Anne of Cleves.

[Sidenote: July 7. The convocation undertake the investigation.]

[Sidenote: Evidence is given in.]

On the Wednesday morning the clergy a.s.sembled, and Gardiner, in "a luminous oration,"[596] invited them to the task which they were to undertake. Evidence was sent in by different members of the Privy Council whom the king had admitted to his confidence; by the ladies of the court who could speak for the condition of the queen; and, finally, by Henry himself, in a paper which he wrote with his own hand, accompanying it with a request that, after reviewing all the circ.u.mstances under which the marriage had been contracted, they would inform him if it was still binding; and adding at the same time an earnest adjuration, which it is not easy to believe to have been wholly a form, that, having G.o.d only before their eyes, they would point out to him the course which justly, honourably, and religiously he was at liberty to pursue.[597]

His personal declaration was as follows:[598]--

[Sidenote: The king makes a declaration of his own conduct.]

"I depose and declare that this hereafter written is merely the verity, intended upon no sinister affection, nor yet upon none hatred or displeasure, and herein I take G.o.d to witness. To the matter I say and affirm that, when the first communication was had with me for the marriage of the Lady Anne of Cleves, I was glad to hearken to it, trusting to have some a.s.sured friend by it, I much doubting at that time both the Emperor, and France, and the Bishop of Rome, and also because I heard so much both of her excellent beauty and virtuous behaviour. But when I saw her at Rochester, which was the first time that ever I saw her, it rejoiced my heart that I had kept me free from making any pact or bond before with her till I saw her myself; for I a.s.sure you that I liked her so ill and [found her to be] so far contrary to that she was praised, that I was woe that ever she came into England, and deliberated with myself that if it were possible to find means to break off, I would never enter yoke with her; of which misliking both the Great Master (Lord Russell), the Admiral that now is, and the Master of the Horse (Sir Anthony Brown) can and will bear record. Then after my repair to Greenwich, the next day after, I think, I doubt not but the Lord of Ess.e.x will and can declare what I then said to him in that case, not doubting but, since he is a person which knoweth himself condemned to die by act of parliament, he will not d.a.m.n his soul, but truly declare the truth not only at that time spoken by me, but also continually until the day of the marriage, and also many times after; wherein my lack of consent I doubt not doth or shall well appear, and also lack enough of the will and power to consummate the same, wherein both he and my physicians can testify according to the truth."

[Sidenote: The clergy deliberate for three days, and on the fourth deliver their sentence.]

Nearly two hundred clergy were a.s.sembled, and the ecclesiastical lawyers were called in to their a.s.sistance. The deliberation lasted Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.[599] On Sat.u.r.day they had agreed upon their judgment, which was produced and read in the House of Lords.

[Sidenote: Owing to the imperfectly cleared pre-contract,]

The contract between the Lady Anne of Cleves and the Marquis of Lorraine was sufficient, they would not say to invalidate, but to perplex and complicate any second marriage into which she might have entered.

[Sidenote: Conditions unfulfilled,]

Before the ceremony the king had required the production of the papers relating to that engagement with so much earnestness, that the demand might be taken as a condition on which the marriage was completed. But the papers had not been produced, the uncertainties had not been cleared ... and thus there had not only been a breach of condition, but, if no condition had been made, the previous objection was further increased.

[Sidenote: The enforced consent of the king,]

Consent had been wanting on the part of the king. False representations had been held out to bring the lady into the realm and force her upon his Majesty's acceptance.

The solemnization of the marriage was extorted from his Majesty against his will under urgent pressure and compulsion by external causes.

[Sidenote: The absence of consummation,]

[Sidenote: And from other causes affecting the interests of the kingdom,]

Consummation had not followed, nor ought to follow, and the convocation had been informed--as indeed it was matter of common notoriety--that if his Majesty could, without the breach of any divine law, be married to another person, great benefits might thereby accrue to the realm, the present welfare and safety whereof depended on the preservation of his royal person, to the honour of G.o.d, the accomplishment of His will, and the avoiding of sinister opinions and scandals.

Considering all these circ.u.mstances, therefore, and weighing what the Church might and could lawfully do in such cases, and had often before done,[600] the convocation, by the tenor of those their present letters, declared his Majesty not to be any longer bound by the matrimony in question, which matrimony was null and invalid; and both his Majesty and the Lady Anne were free to contract and consummate other marriages without objection or delay.

[Sidenote: They declare the marriage dissolved.]

[Sidenote: The continuance of the marriage could not have been desired.]

[Sidenote: But the scandal was great and inevitable.]