OF THE PRINCESS MARY, THE ELDEST DAUGHTER OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH, BEFORE HER COMING TO THE CROWN; With A Brief Narrative Of Her Mother’s Misfortunes, From The First Agitating Of The Divorce Till The Time Of Her Death; And That Which Followed Thereupon. 1. MARY, the eldest daughter of King Henry the Eighth, and of Katherine his first wife, daughter of Ferdinandand Isabella Kings of Spain, was born at Greenwich on the 18thday of February, anno 1516. Her mother had before been married to Arthur Prince of Wales, the elder brother of King Henry; but whether bedded by him or not, (more than as to some old formalities of court on the like occasions), was not commonly known. But he dying within few months after, King Henry the Seventh, the father of the deceased Prince, was secretly dealt with by the agents of the said Ferdinand and Isabella, to proceed unto a second marriage between Henry Duke of York, his now only son, and their daughter Katherine. To which King Henry readily condescendeth, upon divers reasons; partly to be assured of the assistance of the Kings of Spain against all practices of the French; and partly that so great a treasure as the rents and profits of the Princess’s jointure might not be carried out of the kingdom, as needs must be, if she should be married to a Prince of another nation. This being agreed on by the parents of either side, Pope Julius the Second is solicited for a dispensation: to the grant whereof he willingly yielded, knowing how necessary it was to the peace of Christendom that those Kings should be united in the strictest leagues of love and amity. Which coming to the knowledge of the Princess Katherine, who understood her own condition better than her father or mother, she caused those words vel forsan cognitam to be inserted into the bull or dispensation; and this she did for the preventing of all such disputes as might arise about the validity of the marriage, in case the consummation of it should be openly known; though afterwards those words were used as the shrewdest argument for the invalidating of the marriage, when it came in question. And some such thing was thought to have prevailed with King Henry the Seventh for deferring the advancement of Henry, his second son, to the style, title, and dignity of Prince of Wales; that he might first be well assured that no child was likely to be born of the former marriage, to whom that title might more properly and of right belong. 2. The dispensation being thus granted, Prince Henry, being then eleven years of age or thereabouts, is solemnly contracted to the Princess Katherine, who must needs have a very great stock, as well of Christian prudence as of virgin modesty, to wait the growing up of a husband being then a child, and one of whose affection to her, when he should come to man’s estate, she had no assurance; and so it proved in the event. For Henry had no sooner finished the fourteenth year of his age, when, either by the compunction of conscience, the persuasion of some that wished him well, or upon the consideration of the disproportion of age which was then between them — (the Princess being eight years the elder) he resolved upon the breaking and annulling of the said contract in which his parents had engaged him. To which end, making his address to Doctor Richard Fox, then Bishop of Winchester, he openly renounceth the said contract, not by word only, but by subscription of his name to a legal instrument, containing the effect of that renunciation, his resolution never to proceed any further in it, and his reasons for it. Which instrument he published in the presence of John Read, a public Notary, (the Bishop sitting then at Richmond, as in court or consistory), and witnessed unto by Giles Daubeney, Lord Chamberlain to King Henry the Seventh, and father of Henry Earl of Bridgewater; Sir Charles Somerset, Banneret, created afterwards Earl of Worcester; Dr Nicholas West, after Bishop of Ely; Dr Thomas Rowthall, after Bishop of Durham; and Sir Henry Marhie. The instrument itself, extant in the history of John Speed, may be there consulted. And in pursuance of this act, he waived the consummation of the marriage from one time to another, till the death of his father, which happened on the 22nd of April, anno 1509, he being then within two months of the age of eighteen years. But, being now come unto the crown by the death of his father, reason of state prevailed so far beyond that of conscience, that he consented to the consummation of the marriage which before he had solemnly renounced, and did accordingly celebrate those unhappy nuptials, (the cause of so much trouble both to him and others), on the second of June, and caused her to be crowned with him on the 24th of the same month. This marriage was blest within the year by the birth of a son, whom the King caused to be christened by the name of Henry; and five years after with another, who lived not long enough to receive his baptism. 3. But Henry, the first-born, not living to be two months old, the King remained childless till the birth of this daughter Mary, the presumptive heir of his dominions; committed in her infancy to the care and charge of the Lady Margaret, daughter of George Duke of Clarence, and by the King, (in reference to her descent from the house of the Montacutes), advanced unto the style and title of Countess of Salisbury, anno 1513. And herein it was thought that the Queen had a particular aim beyond that of the King, and that she rather chose to commit her daughter to the care of that lady than of any other in the kingdom; to the end that, some affection growing to her by any of the Countess’s sons, her daughter’s title to the crown might be corroborated by the interess of the house of Clarence. And so far her design succeeded, that the Princess Mary always carried such a dear affection to Reginald Pole, her second son, (best known by the name of Cardinal Pole in the following times), that when she came unto the crown, she would have made choice of him for her husband before any other, if the necessity of her affairs, and some arti-rices used to illude that purpose, had not changed her mind. She had scarce lived to the third year of her age , when she was promised in marriage to the Daulphin of France, with a portion of 333,000 crowns to be paid by her father, and as great a jointure to be made by the French King Francis as ever had been made by any King of that country. And so far did the business seem to be acted in earnest, that it was publicly agreed upon, in the treaty for the town of Tournay, that the espousals should be made within four months by the said two Kings, in the name of their children; in pursuance whereof, as the French King sent many rich gifts to some leading men of the court of England, to gain their good liking to this league, so he sent many costly presents to the Princess Mary, the designed wife (if Princes could be bound by such designations) of the heir of France. 4. But war beginning to break out between the French and Spaniards, it was thought fit by Charles the Fifth, being then Emperor of Germany and King of Spain, to court the favor of the English; for the obtaining whereof his nearness to Queen Katherine, being sister to the Queen, his mother, gave him no small hopes. Upon this ground he makes a voyage into England, is royally feasted by the King, installed solemnly Knight of the order of the Garter, in the castle of Windsor, and there capitulates with the King, amongst other things, to take to wife his daughter Mary, as soon as she should come to the years of marriage. It was also then and there agreed, that as soon as she was twelve years old the Emperor should send a proxy to make good the contract and espouse her per verba de proesenti in the usual form; that in the meantime the King of England should not give her in marriage unto any other; that a dispensation should be procured from the Pope, at the charge of both Princes, in regard that the parties were within the second degree of consanguinity; that within four months after the contract the Princess should be sent to the Emperor’s court, whether it were in Spain or Flanders, at the sole charge of the King of England, and married within four days after her coming thither,in the face of the Church; — her portion limited to 400,000 crowns, if the King should have no issue male, but to be enlarged to 600,000 crowns more, if the King should have any such issue male to succeed in the kingdom; a jointure of 50,000 crowns per annum to be made by the Emperor, the one part thereof to be laid in Flanders, and the other in Spain; and finally, that, if either of the said two Princes should break off this marriage, he should forfeit 400,000 crowns to the party injured. 5. And now who could have thought but that the Princess Mary must have been this Emperor’s wife, or the wife rather of any Prince than one that was to be begotten by this Emperor on another woman? though in conclusion so it happened. As long as Charles had any need of the assistance and friendship of England, so long he seemed to go on really in the promised marriage, and by all means must have the Princess sent over presently, to be declared Empress and made Regent of Flanders. But when he had taken the French King at the battle of Pavia, sacked Rome, and made the Pope his prisoner, he then conceived himself in a condition of seeking for a wife elsewhere, which might be presently ripe for marriage, without such a tedious expectation as his tarrying for the Princess Mary must needs have brought him. And thereupon he shuts up a marriage with the Lady Isabel, Infanta of Portugal, and daughter to another of his mother’s sisters. For which being questioned by the King, he lays the blame upon the importunity of his council, who could not patiently permit him to remain unmarried till the Princess Mary came to age; and who besides had caused a scruple to be started touching her illegitimation, as being borne by one that had been wife to his eldest brother. King Henry thereupon proceeds to a new treaty with the French, to whom his friendship at the time of their King’s captivity had been very useful; which is by them as cheerfully accepted as by him it had been frankly offered.

She had before been promised to the Daulphin of France, but now she is designed for the second son, then Duke of Orleance, who afterwards, by the death of his elder brother, succeeded his father in the crown. But whilst they were upon the treaty, the former question touching her legitimation was again revived by the Bishop of Tarbie, one of the commissioners for the French; which, though it seemed not strong enough to dissolve the treaty, which the French were willing to conclude (as their affairs then stood) upon any conditions, yet it occasioned many troubles in the court of England, and almost all Christendom besides. 6. For now the doubt, being started a second time, and started now by such who could not well subsist without his friendship, began to make a deep impression in the mind of the King, and to call back such passages to his remembrance as otherwise would have been forgotten, He now bethinks himself of the protestation which he had made in the presence of Bishop Fox, before remembered, never to take the Lady Katherine for his wife; looks on the death of his two sons as a punishment on him for proceeding in the marriage; and casts a fear of many inconveniences, or mischiefs rather, which must inevitably befall this kingdom, if he should die, and leave no lawful issue to enjoy the crown. Hope of more children there was none, and little pleasure to be taken in a conversation which the disproportion of their years and a greater inequality in their dispositions must render less agreeable every day than other. In this perplexity of mind, he consults his confessor, by whom he was advised to make known his griefs to Cardinal Wolsie, on whose judgment he relied in most other matters; which happened so directly to the Cardinal’s mind, as if he had contrived the project. The Emperor had lately crossed him in his suit for the Popedom, and since denied him the Archbishoprick of Toledo, with the promise whereof he had before bound him to his side. dal now the Cardinal resolves to take the opportunity of the King’s distractions, for perfecting his revenge against him. In order whereunto, as he had drawn the King to make peace with France, and to conclude a marriage for his daughter with the Duke of Orleance; so now he hopes to separate him from the bed of Katherine, the Emperor’s aunt, and marry him to Madam Rhenee, the French Queen’s sister, who afterwards was wife to the Duke of Ferrara. About which time the picture of Madam Margaret, the sister of King Francis, first married to the Duke of Alanzon, was brought amongst others into England, by Thomas Bollen, Viscount Rochford, at his return from the French court, where he had been Ambassador for the King of England: which first occasioned a report in the common people, and afterwards a mistake in our common chronicles touching this lady’s being designed by Wolsie for a wife to his master; whereas she was at that time actually married to the Count of Albret, King of Navarre in title, and in title only. 7. But Rochford brought with him out of France another piece, which more excelled the picture of the Duchess of Alanzon than that Duchess did the ordinary beauties in the court of France; that is to say, his daughter Anne, whom he had bred up for a time in the house of the Duchess, which rendered her an exact ntistress of the gaieties and garb of the great French ladies. Appearing in the court of England, she shewed herself with so many advantages above all other ladies about the Queen, that the King easily took notice of her. Whether more captivated by the allurements of her beauty or the facetiousness of her behavior, it is hard to say; certain it is, that he suffered himself to be so far transported in affection towards her, that he could think of nothing else but what might tend to the accomplishment of his desires; so that the separation from the bed of Katherine, which was but coldly followed upon case of conscience, is now more hotly prosecuted in the heat of concupiscence. In the meantime the King adviseth with the Cardinal, and the Cardinal with the most learned men in the realm of England. By whom it was modestly resolved, that the King had a very just ground to consult the Pope, and to use all lawful means for extricating himself out of those perplexities in which this marriage had involved him. The Pope had been beholden to the King for procuring his liberty when the imperialists held him prisoner in the fort of St Angelo, and was in reason bound to gratify him for so great a benefit.

But then withal, he neither was to provoke the Emperor, nor hazard the authority and reputation of the see apostolic, by running on the King’s errand with more haste than speed. He therefore goes to work like a Pope of Rome, and entertains the King with hopes, without giving the Emperor and his adherents any cause of despair. A commission is therefore granted to two Cardinals, that is to say, Cardinal Thomas Wolsie, Archbishop of York, and Lawrence Campegius, whom Henry some few years before had made Bishop of Salisbury; both beneficiaries to the King, and therefore like enough to consult more his interest than the Queen’s contentment. 8. Of the erecting of a Court Legantine in the convent of the Black Friars in London, the citing of the King and Queen to appear before them, the King’s pathetical oration in the bemoaning of his own misfortunes, and the Queen’s appeal from the two Cardinals to the Pope, I shall now say nothing; leaving the reader for those passages to our common annals. Suffice it in this place to note, that, while the business went on favorable in the King’s behalf, Wolsie was given to understand of his desperate loves to Mistress Bollen; which represented to him two ensuing mischiefs, not to be otherwise avoided than by slackening the course of these proceedings. For, first, he saw that if the King should be divorced definitively from his present wife, he should not be able to draw him to accept of Madam Rhenee, the French Queen’s sister, which was the mark he chiefly aimed at. And secondly, he feared that Mistress Anne had brought so much of the Lutheran with her as might in time become destructive to the Church of Rome. Of this he certifies the Pope; the Pope recalls Campegius, and revokes his commission, — leaving the King to cast about to some new ways to effect his purpose. And at this time it happened, that Dr Thomas Cranmer (who afterwards obtained to the see of Canterbury) discoursing with some of the King’s Ministers about the intricateness and perplexity of this great affair, declared for his opinion in it, that it were better for the King to govern himself therein by the judgment and determination of the universities beyond the seas, than to depend upon the shifts and artifices of the court of Rome. Which being told unto the King, he dispatched Cranmer unto Rome, in the company of Rochford, now made Earl of Wiltshire, to maintain the King’s cause by disputation; and at the same time employs his agents to the universities of France and Italy, who, being under the command of the French King or the power of the Pope, gave sentence in behalf of Henry, condemning his marriage with the Lady Katherine, the relict of his brother, to be simply unlawful in itself, and therefore not to be made valid by a dispensation from the Popes of Rome. 9. The putting the King upon this course proved the fall of Wolsie; who, growing every day less than other in the King’s esteem, was brought within the compass of a proemunire , and thereby stript of all his goods, to an infinite value; removed not long after unto York, and there arrested of high treason by the Earl of Northumberland, and committed to the custody of Sir William Kingston, being then Lieutenant of the Tower. By whom conducted towards London, he departed this life in the abbey of Leicester: his great heart not being able to endure so many indignities as had been lately put upon him, and having cause to fear much worse than his former sufferings. But the removing this rub did not much smoothe the way to the King’s desires. The Queen’s appeal unto the Pope was the greatest difficulty, from which since she could not be removed, it must be made unprofitable and ineffectual for the time to come. And thereupon a proclamation is set forth on the 19th of September, 1530, in these following words, viz.: “THE King’s Highness straitly chargeth and commandeth, that no manner of person, of what estate, degree or condition, he or they be of, do purchase or attempt to purchase, from the court of Rome, or elsewhere, nor use, nor put in execution, divulge or publish, any thing heretofore within this year passed, purchased, or to be purchased hereafter, containing matter prejudicial to the high authority, jurisdiction, and prerogative royal of this said realm, or to the let, hindrance, or impeachment of his Grace’s noble and virtuous intended purposes in the premises; upon pain of incurring his Highness’s indignation, and imprisonment and farther punishment of their bodies, for their so doing, at his Grace’s pleasure, to the dreadful example of all others.” 10. This was the prologue to the downfall of the Pope in England, seconded by the King’s taking to himself the title of Supreme Head of the Churches of England and Ireland, acknowledged in the convocation, and confirmed in parliament, and ending finally in an Act intituled, “An Act for extinguish- ing the Authority of the Bishops of Rome.” And in all this the King did nothing but what he had example and authority for, at that very time; for in the year 1520, (being but ten years before the setting forth of this proclamation), Monsieur d’Lautreth, governor for the French King in the dukedom of Millain, taking a displeasure against Pope Leo the Tenth, deprived him of all his jurisdiction within the dukedom. And that being done, he so disposed of all ecclesiastical affairs, that the Church there was supremely governed by the Bishop of Bigorre (a Bishop of the Church of France) without the intermeddling of the Pope at all. The like we find to have been done by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who, being no less displeased with Pope Clement the Seventh, abolished the papal power and jurisdiction out of all the churches of his kingdom in Spain; which though it held but for a while (till the breach was closed) yet left he an example by it (as my author noteth) that there was no necessity of any Pope or supreme Pastor in the Church of Christ. And before either of these acts or edicts came in point of practice, the learned Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris, (when the Pope’s power was greater far than it was at the present), had writ and published a discourse, entituled De Auferibilitate papoe, touching the total abrogating of the papal office. Which certainly he had never done, had the papal office been found essential and of intrinsecal concernment to the Church of Christ. According unto which position of that learned man, the greatest Princes of those times did look upon the Pope, and the papal power, as an excrescence at the least in the body mystical, subject and fit to be pared off as occasion served. And if they did or do permit him to retain any part of his former greatness, it is permitted rather upon self ends or reasons of state, or otherwise to serve their turn by him as their need requireth, than out of any opinion of his being so necessary that the Church cannot be well governed or subsist without him. 11. But leaving these disputes to some other place, we must return unto the Queen. To whom some Lords are sent in the end of May, anne 1531, declaring to her the determinations of the universities concerning the pretended marriage betwixt her and the King. And therewith they demanded of her, whether, for quieting the King’s conscience and putting an end to that debate, she would be content to refer the matter to four Bishops and four temporal Lords. But this she absolutely refused, saying, she was his lawful wife, that she would stand to her appeal, and condescend to nothing in that particular, but by the counsel of the Emperor, and the rest of her friends. This answer makes the King more resolute, more open in the demonstration of his affections to the Lady Anne Bollen; whom he makes Marchioness of Pembroke, by his letters patents, bearing date the first of September, 1532; takes her along with him to Callis in October following, there to behold the glorious interview betwixt him and the French King, and, finally, privately marrieth her within few days after his return, the divorce being yet unsentenced betwixt him and the Queen. Not long after which, it was thought necessary to the King to call a parliament, wherein he caused an Act to pass, that no person should appeal for any cause out of this realm to the Pope of Rome; but that all appeals should be made by the party grieved from the Cormmissary to the Bishop, from the Bishop to the Archbishop, and from the Archbishop to the King, as had been anciently observed amongst the first Kings of the house of Normandy. It was also enacted in the same, that all causes [of] ecclesiastical cognisance, in which the King himself was a party, should be determined finally in the upper house of convocation, without being bound to make recourse to the court of Rome. During the sitting of which parliament it is declared by proclamation, that Queen Katherine should no longer be called Queen, but Princess Dowager, as being the widow of Prince Arthur, not the wife of King Henry. 12. Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the meantime dying, Cranmer is designed for his successor in that eminent dignity; which he unwillingly accepts of, partly in regard that he was married at that time, and partly in reference to an oath which he was to take unto the Pope at his consecration. But the King was willing, for his own ends, to wink at the one, and the Pope was not in a condition, (as the case then stood,) to be too peremptory in the other. So that a protestation being admitted, of not being otherwise bound to the Pope than should be found agreeable to the word of God, and the laws and statutes of the realm, he takes his oath, and receives the episcopal consecration, the 30th of March, 1533, the parliament still sitting which before we spake of. At his first entrance into the house of convocation, he propounds two questions to be considered and disputed by the Bishops and Clergy; the first was, whether the marrying of a brother’s wife, carnally known, though without any issue by him, be so prohibited by the will and word of God, as not to be dispensed withal by the Pope of Rome. The second was, whether it did appear, upon the evidence given in before the Cardinals, that Katherine had been carnally known by Prince Arthur, or not. Both questions being carried in the affirmative, though not without some opposition in either house, — in the first especially; — it was concluded thereupon in the convocation, and not long after in the parliament also, that the King might lawfully proceed to another marriage. 13. These preparations being made, the marriage pre-condemned by convocation, and all appeals to Rome made ineffectual by Act of parliament, the new Archbishop (upon his own desire and motion, contained in his letters of the 11 th of April) is authorised by the King, under his sign manual, to proceed definitively in the cause. Who thereupon, accompanied with the Bishops of London, Winchester, Wells, and Lincoln, and divers other persons to serve as officers in that court, repaired to Dunstable in the beginning of May; and, having a convenient place prepared in the form of a consistory, they sent a citation to the Princess Dowager, who was then at Amptill, (a manor-house of the King’s about six miles off), requiring her to appear before them at the day appointed. Which day being come, and no appearance by her made, either in person or by proxy, (as they knew there would not), she is called peremptorily every day, fifteen days together; and every day there was great posting betwixt them and the court, to certify the King and Cromwell, (a principal stickler in this business), how all matters went. In one of which, from the new Archbishop, extant in the Cottonian library, a resolution is signified to Cromwell for coming to a final sentence on Friday the 18th of that month, but with a vehement conjuration both to him and the King, not to divulge so great a secret, for fear the Princess Dowager on the hearing of it, either before, or on the day of passing sentence, should make her appearance in the court. “For,” saith he, “if the noble Lady Katherine should, upon the bruit of this matter, either in the mouths of the inhabitants of the country, or by her friends or counsel hearing of this bruit, be moved, stirred, counselled, or persuaded to appear before me, in the time or afore the time of sentence, I should be thereby greatly stayed and let in the process, and the King’s Grace’s counsel here present shall be much uncertain what shall be then further done therein. For a great bruit and voice of the people in this behalf might perchance move her to do the thing which peradventure she would not if she hear little of it. And therefore I pray you to speak as little of this matter as you may, and to move the King’s Highness so to do, for consideration above recited.” But so it happened to their wish, that the Queen, persisting constant in her resolution of standing to the judgment of no other court than the court of Rome, vouchsafed not to take any notice of their proceeding in this cause.

And thereupon, at the day and time before designed, she was pronounced to be contumax for defect of appearance; and by the general consent of all the learned men then present, the sentence of the divorce was passed, and her marriage with the King declared void, and of none effect. 14. Of all these doings, as the divorced Queen would take no notice, so by her officers and attendants she was served as in her former capacity. Which coming to the King’s knowledge, he sends the Duke of Suffolk and some others in the month of July, with certain instructions given in writing, to persuade her to submit to the determinations of the King and state, to lay aside the title of Queen, to content herself with that of the Princess Dowager; and to remove her from the Bishop of Lincoln’s house at Bugden, where she then remained, to a place called Somersham, belonging to the Bishop and Church of Ely. To none of which when she would hearken, an oath is tendered to her officers and the rest of her household, to serve her only in the capacity of Princess Dowager, and not as formerly in the notion of a Queen of England. Which at first was generally refused amongst them, upon a resolution which had been made in the ease by Abel and Berker, her two Chaplains; that is to say, that, having already took an oath to serve her as Queen, they could not with a good conscience take any other. But in the end, a fear of losing their said places, but more of falling into the King’s displeasure, so prevailed upon them, that the oath was taken by most of them; — not suffered from thenceforth to come into the Queen’s presence, (who looked upon them as the betrayers of her cause), or to perform any service about her person.

Some motives to induce her to a better conformity were ordered to be laid before her; none like to be more prevalent than that which might concern the interest of her daughter Mary. And therefore it was offered to her consideration — “That chiefly and above all things she should have regard to the honorable and her most dear daughter, the Lady Princess; from whom, in case the King’s Highness, (being thus enforced, exagitated,and moved by the unkindness of the Dowager), might alsowithdraw his princely estimation, goodness, zeal, and affection,it would be to her no little regret, sorrow, and extreme calamity.” But the wise Queen knew well enough, that if she stood, her daughter could not do amiss; whereas there could be nothing gained by such submissions, but the dishonor of the one, the bastardizing of the other, and the excluding of them both from all possibility of being restored in time to come to their first condition. 15. Finding small hopes of any justice to be done her in the realm of England, and not well able to endure so many indignities as had been daily put upon her, she makes her complaint unto the Pope, whom she found willing to shew his teeth, though he could not bite. For presently hereupon a bull is issued, for accursing both the King and the realm: the bearer whereof, not daring to proclaim the same in England, caused it to be set up in some public places in the town of Dunkirk, (one of the haven towns of Flanders), that so the roaring of it might be heard on this side of the sea, to which it was not safe to bring it. But neither the Pope nor the Queen Dowager got any thing by this rash adventure, which only served to exasperate the King against them, as also against all which adhered unto them. For in the following parliament, which began on the 15th of January, and ended on the 30th of March, an Act was passed, inhibiting the payment of firstfruits to the Bishop of Rome, and for the electing, consecrating, and confirming of the Archbishops and Bishops in the realm of England, without recourse unto the Pope, [25 Hen. VIII.] cap. 20.

Another Act for the attaindure of Elizabeth Barton, commonly called “the holy maid of Kent.,” with many other her adherents, for stickling in the cause of the Princess Dowager, cap. 12, and finally, of establishing the succession in the crown imperial of this realm, cap. 22. In which last Act, the sentence of the divorce was confirmed and ratified, the Princess Mary declared to be illegitimate, the succession of the crown entailed on the King’s issue by Queen Anne Bollen, an oath prescribed for all the subjects in maintenance of the said statute of succession, and taken by the Lords and Commons at the end of that parliament, as generally by all the subjects of the kingdom within few months after. For the refusal whereof, as also for denying the King’s supremacy, and some suspicion of confederacy with Elizabeth Barton, Doctor John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, not many days before created Cardinal by Pope Paul the Third, was on the 22nd of June beheaded publicly on the Tower-hill, and his head most disgracefully fixed upon a pole, and set on the top of the gate on London-bridge. And on the sixth of July then next following, Sir Thomas Moor, who had succeeded Wolsey in the place of Lord Chancellor, was beheaded for the same cause also. But I find him not accused, as I do the other, for having any hand in the conspiracy of Elizabeth Barton. 16. The execution of which great persons, and of so many others who wished well unto her, added so much affliction to the desolate and disconsolate Queen, that, not being able longer to bear the burden of so many miseries, she fell into a languishing sickness; which more and more increasing on her, and finding the near approach of death, (the only remedy now left for all her sorrows), she dictated this ensuing letter, which she caused to be delivered to the King by one of her women, wherein she laid before him these her last requests, viz.: “MY MOST DEAR, LORD, KING, AND HUSBAND; “ (for so she called him.) 17. “THE hour of my death now approaching, I cannot choose but, out of the love I bear you, advise you of your soul’s health, which you ought to prefer above all considerations of the world or flesh whatsoever: for which yet you have cast me into many calamities, and yourself into many troubles.

But I forgive you all, and pray God to do so likewise. For the rest, I commend unto you Mary our daughter, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I must entreat you also to respect my maids, and give them in marriage, which is not much, they being but three. And to all my other servants a year’s pay, besides their due, lest otherwise they should be unprovided for. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes have desired you above all things. “Farewell.” 18. Within few days after the writing of which letter, that is to say, on the eighth of January then next following, she yielded her pious soul to God at the King’s manor-house of Kimbolton, in the county of Huntington, and was solemnly inferred not long after in the abbey of Peterborough. The reading of her letter drew some tears from the King, which could not but be much increased by the news of her death. Moved by them both to such a measure of commiseration of her sad condition, that he caused the greatest part of her goods, (amounting to 5000 marks), to be expended on her funeral, and in the recompensing of such of her servants as had best deserved 2, Never so kind to her in the time of her life, as when he had rendered her incapable of receiving a kindness. 19. The Princess Mary is now left wholly to herself, declared illegitimate by her father, deprived of the comfort of her mother, and in a manner forsaken by all her friends, whom the severe proceedings against Moor and Fisher had so deterred that few durst pay her any offices of love or duty. Of any proceedings in the match with the Duke of Orleance we hear no more news, all further prosecution of it being at a stand by the misfortunes of her mother; nor was she sought in marriage by any other Prince in the life of her father, but only by James the Fifth of Scotland; but finding himself deluded in it by King Henry, he thought it best to strengthen himself by a match with France, where he was first married to Madam Magdalene, the first daughter of King Francis, and afterwards to Mary, daughter of Claude of Lorrain, Duke of Guise, by whom he had one only daughter, called Mary also. In which condition, the poor Princess had no greater comfort than what she could gather from her books, in which she had been carefully instructed by Doctor John Voisie, alias Harman, appointed her tutor by the King, and, for his good performance in that place of trust, advanced by him to the see of Exon, anno 1529 , and afterwards made Lord President of Wales: which fell out better for the tutor than it did for the pupil; who, being left destitute of the counsel of so grave a man, began to give way more and more to her grief and passions, which brought her at the last to such an averseness from the King, and such a manifest disaffection to his person and government, that he was once upon the point of sending her prisoner to the Tower; and had so done, if Cranmer had not interposed some powerful reasons to dissuade him from 2, 20. During which time of her averseness, the King sent certain of the Lords to remove her to Hatfield; who, having no authority to treat her by the name of Princess, but only to execute the King’s commands, gave her occasion thus to signify her discontentments, “My Lords (said she) as touching my removing to Hatfield, I will obey his Grace, as my duty is, or to any other place that his Grace will appoint me: but I protest before you, and all other that be here present, that my conscience will in no wise suffer me to take any other than myself for Princess, or for the King’s daughter born in lawful matrimony; and that I will never wittingly or willingly say or do whereby any person might take occasion to think that I agree to the contrary. Nor say I this out of any ambition or proud mind, as God is my judge; but that, if I should do otherwise, I should in my conscience slander the deed of our mother, the holy Church, and the Pope, who is the judge in this matter, and none other; and also should dishonor the King my father, the Queen my mother, and falsely confess myself a bastard, which God defend that I should do, since the Pope hath not so declared it by his sentence definitive; to whose final judgment I submit myself?” In pursuance of which claim to the title of Princess, together with the privileges and pre-eminences thereunto belonging, she writes this following letter to the King her father, on a like occasion: “IN most humble wise I beseech your Grace of your daily blessing.

Pleaseth it the same to be advertised, that this morning my Chamberlain came and shewed me that he had received a letter from Sir William Paulet, Comptroller of your house: the effect whereof was, that I should with all diligence remove unto the Castle of Hartford. Whereupon I desired him to see the same letter, which he shewed me; wherein was written, that the Lady Mary, the King’s daughter, should remove to the place beforesaid, — leaving out in the same the name of Princess. Which when I heard, I could not a little marvel, trusting verily that your Grace was not privy to the same letter, as concerning the leaving out of the name of Princess; forasmuch as I doubt not in your goodness, but that your Grace doth take me for your lawful daughter, born in true matrimony. Wherefore if I should agree to the contrary, I should in my conscience run into the displeasure of God, which I hope assuredly that your Grace would not that I so should. And in all other things your Grace shall have me always as humble an obedient daughter and handmaid as ever was child to the father, which my duty bindeth me to; as knoweth our Lord, who have your Grace in his most holy tuition, with much honor and long life, to his pleasure. “By your most humble daughter, “MARY , Princess. “From your manor of Beaulieu, Octob. 2.”

And on these terms she stood from the divorce of her mother till the attaindure of Queen Anne Bollen, against whom she thought it did concern her to bear up to the highest, as she did accordingly. 21. But growing into better hopes by the death of the said Queen Anne, the annulling of the marriage also, and the bastardizing of the Princess Elizabeth, her only daughter, she began to cast about again, writes her submissive letters to the King her father, and humbly craves some testimonies of his love and goodness. Which so prevailed, that the Duke of Norfolk is sent to treat with her upon certain instructions, — so necessary to the knowledge of her affairs in this conjuncture, that they deserve a place here, and are these that follow: “Certain articles and injunctions given by the King’s Highness to his right trusty and right entirely beloved cousin and Counsellor, the Duke of Norfolk; whom, with certain others in his company, his Majesty sendeth to the Lady Mary his daughter, for the purposes ensuing.. “FIRST, whereas the said Lady Mary hath sundry ways, with long continuance, shewed herself so obstinate towards the King’s Majesty, her Sovereign Lord and father, and so disobedient to his laws, conceived and made upon most just, virtuous, and godly grounds, that, as the wilful disobedience thereof seemeth a monster in nature, so, unless the mercy of his Highness had been most abundantly extended unto her, by the course of his Grace’s laws, and the force of his justice, she endangered herself so far that it was greatly to his Highness’s regret and hearty sorrow to see and perceive how little she esteemeth the same — extending to the loss of his favor, the loss of her honor, the loss of her life, and undoubtedly to the indignation of Almighty God; — for that she neither obeyeth her father and Sovereign, nor his just and virtuous laws aforesaid. And that of late nevertheless, calling to remembrance her transgressions and offenses in this part towards God, [and] her father and Sovereign Lord, the King’s Highness, she hath written to the same three sundry letters, containing a declaration of her repentance conceived for the premises, with such an humble and simple submission, as she appeareth not only to submit herself wholly and without exception, (especially by the last letter,) to the laws, but also for her state and condition, to put herself only to his Grace’s mercy — nothing desiring but mercy and forgiveness for her offenses, with a reconciliation to his Grace’s favor: — “Albeit his Majesty hath been so ingrately handled and used by her, as is afore declared, that the like would enforce any private person to abandon for ever such an unkind and inobedient child from their grace and favor; yet such is his Majesty’s gracious and divine nature, such is his clemency and pity, such his merciful inclination and princely heart, that, as he hath been ever ready to take pity and compassion of all offenders, repentantly calling and crying for the same, so, in case he may throughly perceive the same to be in the said Lady Mary’s heart which she hath put in pen and writing, his Highness, considering the imbecility of her sex, — being the same is frail, inconstant, and easy to be persuaded by simple counsel, — can be right well contented to remit unto her part of his said displeasure: and therefore hath at this time, for the certain knowledge of her heart and stomach, sent unto her his said cousin, with others, to demand and inquire of her certain questions. Her answers whereunto his pleasure is they shall require, and note in writing; which shall throughly decipher whether she be indeed the person she pretendeth, or for any respect hath with general words labored to cloke the special matter, which is repugnant and contrary to that which his Majesty hath gathered and conceived of the same. “(1) And first, after their access and declaration of the premises, they shall for their first question demand of her, Whether she doth recognize and knowledge the King’s Highness for her Sovereign Lord and King, in the imperial crown of this realm of England, and will and cloth submit herself unto his Highness, and to all and singular the laws and statutes of this realm, as becometh every true and faithful subject to do. “(2) Also, whether she will, with all her power and qualities that God hath endued her withal, not only obey, keep, and observe all and singular laws and statutes of this realm, but also set forth, advance, and maintain the same, to the utmost of her power, according to her bounden duty. “(3) Also, whether she will recognize, accept, take, and repute the King’s Highness to be supreme head in earth, under Christ, of the Church of England, and utterly refuse the Bishop of Rome’s pretended power and jurisdiction, heretofore usurped in this realm, according to the laws and statutes of the same, made and ordained in that behalf, and of all the King’s true subjects humbly received, admitted, obeyed, kept, and observed: and also will and do renounce and utterly forsake all manner of remedy, interess, and advantage by the said Bishop of Rome’s laws, process, or jurisdiction to her in any wise appertaining, or that hereafter may by any title, color, or mean, belong, grow, succeed, or appertain, or in any case may follow or ensue. “(4) And whether she will and doth, of her duty and obedience towards God, her allegiance towards the King’s Highness, and the laws of this realm, and also of the sincere love and zeal that she beareth towards the truth, freely and frankly recognize and knowledge, without any other respect, both by God’s law and man’s law, the marriage heretofore had between his Majesty and her mother to be unlawful. “(5) Also, be she inquired or examined, for what cause, and by whose motion and means, she hath continued and remained in her obstinacy so long; and who did embold or animate her thereto, with other circumstances thereto appertaining? “(6) Also, What is the cause that she at this present time, rather than at any other heretofore, doth submit herself?” 22. To these six articles she was required to give a plain and positive answer; which plainly shews the doubtfulness and uncertainty of her present condition, in being either forced to confess herself to be illegitimate, or running on the last hazard of the King’s displeasure if she should do otherwise. But, wisely considering in herself whom she had to deal with, she thought it safest to strike sail, and to submit herself to him, with whom it was not lawful for her to dispute that point, if she had been able. She therefore makes a clear acknowledgment of the four first articles, by the subscribing of her name ; but craved leave to demur on the two last, because some persons were concerned in them whom she was not willing to discover. And by this means she gained so far upon the King, that from that time forward he held her in the same rank with the rest of his children; gave her her turn in the succession of the kingdom; assigned her portion of ten thousand pounds, to be paid at her marriage, and in the interim three thousand pounds per annum, for her personal maintenance.

And more than this he did not do for his daughter Elizabeth, notwithstanding the esteem and affection which he bare to her mother — for bringing whom into his bed he had cancelled all the bonds of his former marriage. Little or nothing more occurreth of her in the time of King Henry, because there was little or nothing altered in the face of religion, which might give her any cause of public or personal dislike. But, when the great alterations happened in the time of King Edward, she then declared herself more openly, (as she might more safely), in opposition to the same: concerning which she thus declares herself in a letter to the Lord Protector and the rest of the council, dated at Kenning-hall, June 22, anno 1549: “My Lord, “I PERCEIVE by the letters which I late received from you, and other of the King’s Majesty’s council, that you be all sorry to find so little conformity in me, touching the observation of his Majesty’s laws; who am well assured I have offended no law, unless it be a late law of your own making, [for the altering of matters in religion], which in my conscience is not worthy the name of law, both for the King’s honor’s sake and the wealth of the realm, and giving the occasion of an evil bruit throughout all Christendom, besides the partiality used in the same, and (as my conscience is very well persuaded) the offending God, which passeth all the rest. But I am well assured that the King his father’s laws were all allowed and consented to, without compulsion, by the whole realm, both spiritual and temporal, and all the executors sworn upon a book to fulfill the same, so that it was an authorized law. And that I have obeyed, and will do with the grace of God, till the King’s majesty my brother shall have sufficient years to be a judge in this matter himself.

Whereunto, my Lord, I was plain with you at my last being in the court, declaring unto you at that time whereunto I would stand; and now do assure you all that the only occasion of my stay from altering of mine opinion is for two causes. One principally for my conscience; the other, that the King: my brother shall not hereafter charge me to be one of those that were agreeable to such alterations in his tender years. And what fruits daily grow by such changes, since the death of the King my father, to every indifferent person it well appeareth, both to the displeasure of God and unquietness of the realm. “Notwithstanding, I assure you all, I would be as loth to see his Highness take hurt, or that any evil should come to this his realm, as the best of you all; and none of you have the like cause, considering how I am compelled by nature, being his Majesty’s poor and humble sister, most tenderly to love and pray for him, and unto this his realm (being born within the same) wish all wealth and prosperity, to God’s honor. And if any judge of me the contrary for mine opinion’s sake, (as I trust none doth), I doubt not in the end, with God’s help, to prove myself as true a natural and humble sister, as they of the contrary opinion, with all their devices and altering of laws, shall prove themselves true subjects. I pray you, my Lord, and the rest of the council, no more to unquiet and trouble me with matters touching my conscience, wherein I am at a full point with God’s help, whatsoever shall happen to me, — intending, with his grace, to trouble you little with any worldly suits, but to bestow the short time I think to live in quietness; and I pray for the King’s majesty and all you, heartily wishing that your proceedings may be to God’s honor, the safeguard of the King’s person, and quietness of the whole realm. And thus, my Lord, I wish unto you, and all the rest, as well to do as myself.” 23. Upon such passages of this letter which seemed most to pinch upon them, the Lords returned their gloss or comment, but such as had more in it of an animadversion than an explication. They signified withal how well they understood their own authority; how sensible they were of those inconveniences which the example of her inconformity to the laws established was likely to produce amongst the rest of the subjects. No favor being otherwise to be hoped for from them, the Emperor is moved to intercede in her behalf by his Ambassador, then residing about the court.