CHAP. for Queen or Chancellor to question any thing which it contained. XXXIV. A parlia ment. Succession to Crown. On the 14th of January, 1544, began the last session of parliament which Audley ever saw; for, though not advanced in years, he was now pressed with infirmities, and he was threatened by an inexorable King bearing a dart for his sceptre, whom no prayers or artifice or subserviency could appease. The Chancellor's opening speech is no where to be found, so that we have lost his felicitations to the King on this occasion, and we know not to what Saint or Hero he compared him for the extraordinary proof his Majesty had given of his love for his people in marrying a sixth time. After a bill had passed ordaining that the royal style should be "King of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England and Ireland in earth the Supreme Head," the Chancellor, by the King's orders, introduced a measure of very great importance to regulate the succession to the Crown. As the law stood, the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth were both excluded as illegitimate, and it was highly penal to say that the mother of either of them had ever been lawfully married to the King. In default of his exercising his power of appointing a successor by deed or will, after Prince Edward the right would have been in the issue of the King's elder sister, Margaret, married to the King of Scots, and then in the issue of Mary, his younger sister, married to the Duke of Suffolk. The bill now introduced, without saying any thing expressly of the King's first two marriages, enacted, that in default of Prince Edward and the heirs of his body, and of heirs by the King's present marriage, the Crown should go to the Lady Mary, the King's eldest daughter, and the heirs of her body; and then to the Lady Elizabeth, the King's younger daughter, and the heirs of her body, the power of appointment by deed or will being still reserved to the King;- with a proviso that an oath should be required to maintain the King's supremacy and the succession according to this act under the penalties of treason, and that whoever should say or write any thing contrary to this act, or to the peril or slander of the King's heirs limited in the act, should be adjudged a traitor. It immediately CHAP. passed both Houses, and was a suitable conclusion to Lord XXXIV. Chancellor Audley's performances in the legislative line, as in one moment he made it high treason to deny that which the moment before it was high treason to assert, respecting the legitimacy of the King's children and their right to succeed to the crown, he himself having brought in the bill which bastardised Mary, and settled the Crown on Elizabeth, and the bill which bastardised Elizabeth as well as Mary, and made it treason to assert the legitimacy of either. Great Seal. On the 20th of March, the day when the session was Audley's closed †, Audley was on his death-bed, and the closing speech last illness. was made by the Duke of Norfolk, who referred to the Lord Chancellor's illness, and regretted the necessity imposed upon himself of dissolving the parliament in the King's name. Audley's disease gaining upon him, and the business of Resigns the Easter term in the Court of Chancery requiring despatch, on Monday the 21st of April, 1544, he (if we may believe all that is said in the entry in the Close Roll) spontaneously sent the Great Seal to the King by Sir Edward North and Sir Thomas Pope,- humbly praying that his Majesty would deign to accept the resignation of it, as, from bodily infirmity, he was no longer able to perform the duties of the office which, by his Majesty's bounty, he had so long held. His resignation was graciously accepted, but out of delicacy to him, and holding out a hope that he might recover and be reinstated in his office, the Great Seal was delivered to Sir THOMAS WRIOTHESLEY merely as Lord Keeper, and to be held by him as Lord Keeper only during the illness of Lord Chancellor Audley.‡ * 35 Hen. 8. c. 1. † 1 Parl. Hist. 559. Mem. qd vicisemo primo die Aprilis, &c. Thomas Audley Miles Dns Audley de Walden tunc Cancellarius Anglie infirmitate corporis debilitatus et considerans se ipm ex occone non valere excere et facre ea que ad officium suum tam in ministrando leges dei Dmni Regis justiceam qm in supervidendo pcessum per magnum sigillum deti Dni Regis sigillandum deum sigillum in manibus ipsius Thome, Dmni Cancellarii adtunc existens prfto Dno Regi per Edwardum North Militem et Thomam Pope Militem misit. Qui quidem Edwardus et Thomas Pope sigillum illud in quadam baga de albo corio inclusum et sigillo dei Dni Cancellarii munitum regie Majestati apud novum palacium suum Westm. in camera sua privata circa horam terciam post meridiem S S VOL. I. CHAP. XXXIV. His death. His career. His character. On the 30th of April following, Audley expired in the of his age. 56th year He is a singular instance of a statesman, in the reign of Henry VIII., remaining long in favour and in office, and dying a natural death. Reckoning from the time when he was made Speaker of the House of Commons, he had been employed by Henry constantly since the fall of Wolsey,— under six Queens, — avoiding the peril of acknowledging the Pope on the one hand, or offending against the Six Articles on the other. He enjoyed great power, amassed immense wealth, was raised to the highest honours and dignities, and reaped what he considered a full recompence for his "infamy." Such a sordid slave does not deserve that we should say more of his vices or demerits. It has been observed, that the best apology for Wolsey was the contrast between the early and the latter part of Henry's reign; and Audley's severest condemnation must be a review of the crimes which, if he did not prompt, he abetted. He might have been reproached by his master, in the language of a former tyrannical sovereign of England, "Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made a pause, Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face, Deep shame had struck me dumb." But no eunuch in a seraglio was ever a more submissive tool of the caprice and vengeance of a passionate and remorseless master than was Lord Chancellor Audley. in presentia Thome Heneage, &c., presentarunt et obtulerunt humiliter suppliantes ex parte dei Thome Dni Cancellarii eandem regiam majestatem quatenus idem Dns Rex sigillum suum prdm recre et acceptare dignr Qui Dns Rex sigillum illud per manus ipsorum Edwardi et Thome Pope recepit et acceptavit et penes se retinuit usque in diem proxm. videlt, &c. Quo die circa horam terciam post meridiem prftus Dns Rex sigillum suum prdm apud palacium suum prdm in cama prta in presentia Antonii Denny, &c. Thome Wriothesley militi, Dno Wriothesley custodiendum et exercendum durante infirmitate dei Thome Dni Audley Dni Cancellarii comisit ipsumque Thomam Dn Wriothesley magni sigilli regii durante infirmitate dei Dni Cancellarii ibidem constituit et ordinavit cum auctoritate excendi et facdi omnia et singula que Dus Cancellarius Angle prtextu officii sui prdci facre et exre potuisset et valeret, &c. The circumstantiality of the Close Roll historiographer of the Great Seal is very amusing, as he not only tells us the day, the hour, the house, the room in the house, and in whose presence the transfer was made, but the colour of the leathern bag in which the Great Seal was contained. According to a desire expressed in his will, he was buried in a chapel he had erected at Saffron Walden, where a splendid monument was raised to him, with the following epitaph, which there is some reason to suppose that, in imitation of his immediate predecessor, he had himself composed : "The stroke of Death's inevitable dart, Hath now (alass!) of life bereft the hart Of Sir Thomas Audley, of the Garter knight, Late Chancellor of England under our Prince of might, And made him Lord Audley of this town.' (Added by another hand): "Obeit ultimo Aprilis, A. Dom. 1544. Hen. 36, Cancellaratus sui 13. Aetat. 56."* CHAP. XXXIV. His epitaph. scendants. He was highly connected by marriage, having for his wife His deElizabeth, daughter of Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset, and his daughter and heiress, after having been married to a younger son of Dudley Duke of Northumberland, becoming the second wife of Thomas Duke of Norfolk ;-their son being the ancestor of the Howards, Earls of Suffolk and Berkshire;-"famous in his day," says Dugdale, "for building on the ruins of the abbey of Walden that stately fabric now known by the name of Audley End (in memory of this Lord Audley), not to be equalled, excepting Hampton Court, by any in this realm." † * Dugd. Bar. tit. " Audley." Baronage, 383. Grandeur of the Law, 33. CHAPTER XXXV. LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR WRIOTHESLEY FROM HIS BIRTH TILL CHAP. THE new Chancellor displayed very different qualities from XXXV. his predecessor, being a man of principle; but he was, if possible, a worse minister; for, when invested with power, he proved narrow-minded, bigoted, and cruel. Fortunately, he was likewise rash and headstrong, so that his objects were generally defeated, and his political career was short. Character of new Chancellor. His descent. Renounces heraldry. the bar. Obtains Thomas Wriothesley was sprung from a family long distinguished in "Arms," for they were Heralds. John, his grandfather, was Garter King at Arms to Edward IV. Thomas, his uncle, filled the same office under Henry VII. William, his father, was Norroy King at Arms to that Sovereign. Thomas, the future Peer and Chancellor, early initiated in heraldic lore, was not contented with the prospect of wearing a tabard, making visitations, examining pedigrees, and marshalling processions. He therefore abjured the Heralds' College, Is called to took to the study of the common law, and was called to the bar. He was a diligent student, and made considerable proficiency in his legal studies, but he does not seem ever to have risen into much practice as an advocate; and he showed a preference of politics to law. In 1535, having recommended himself to Lord Chancellor Audley,-through his interest an office of considerable emolument was conferred upon him in the Court of Common Pleas. Three years after he was made Secretary of State, a post beginning to be important, but still very inferior to its present rank, as then the Lord Chancellor conducted foreign negotiations, and attended to the internal administration of the country. He was a warm adherent of the old faith, to which Henry himself was sincerely attached, office in Common Pleas. Made Secretary of State. |