206

EDWARD SEYMOUR,

DUKE OF SOMERSET.*

[****—1552.]

3

THIS powerful statesman was the son of Sir John, and the brother of Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII. and mother of Edward VI. No mention of him however occurs in history, till after the death of the Queen his sister; when the King, in honour to her memory, and anxious that the Prince should always have so near a relation about his person, created him Earl of Hertford in 1537.. He had previously, indeed, been made a Peer by the title of Viscount Beauchamp; but he enjoyed no important office at court, till his second creation. Even then, the interest of the Duke of Norfolk prevented him from possessing any considerable share of the royal confidence till after his own disgrace, when he was appointed Lord Chamberlain.

As Edward VI. at his accession was not quite

* AUTHORITIES.

Baker's Chronicle, Hayward's Life of Edward VI., Biographia Britannica, and Burnet's History of the Reformation.

ten years old, his father had appointed sixteen executors, to whom during his non-age was entrusted the regal authority. But upon it's being suggested, that it must be extremely troublesome, especially for foreign ministers, to be under the necessity of applying to such a number of functionaries, it was proposed that some one should be appointed president of the body, with the title of Protector.' This motion was vigorously opposed by the Chancellor Wriothesley Earl of Southampton, who correctly anticipated that the new dignity, to the great diminution of his own power, would be conferred upon the Earl of Hertford. The Earl, however, had so strong a party in the council, that the question was carried in the affirmative; and it was resolved, on account of his relationship to the King, and his experience in state-affairs, that he should be declared Regent and Governor of the King's person. This was, accordingly, done; but with an express condition, that he should not undertake any thing without the concur rence of all his brother-executors.

The jealousy, which subsisted between the Protector and the Chancellor, now speedily burst into ac tion; and the nation being at this time divided be tween the Romanists and the Reformers, Hertford (who was, shortly afterward, created Duke of Somerset) placed himself at the head of the latter party, and Wriothesley at that of the former. The Chancellor however quickly, by his imprudence, gave his adversary the advantage over him. Resolving to apply himself chiefly to state-affairs, he had put the great seal into commission, directed to the Master of the Rolls and three Masters in Chancery, and empowering them to execute his office in as ample a

manner as if he himself were present. This being done by his own authority, without any warrant from the Protector and the Co-regents, it was ordered that the judges should give their opinions concerning the case in writing. Their answer was, that the Chancellor, holding his office only as a trust, could not commit the exercise of it to others without the royal consent; that in so doing, he had by the common law forfeited it to the crown, and that he was farther liable to fine and imprisonment during the King's pleasure. When this opinion was delivered in council, Wriothesley told the Protector, that he held his office of Chancellor by an undoubted authority, since he held it from the King; whereas it was greatly to be questioned, whether he himself were lawfully Protector.' But his haughtiness only accelerated his disgrace: he was, immediately, confined to his house. It was then debated, what his punishment should be: and as it was judged inexpedient to divest him of his share in the Regency, in order to render it useless to him he was placed under an arrest, and the great seal was transferred to Lord St. John, till another Chancellor should be appointed. From this confinement, however, he was released, upon entering into a recognisance of four thousand pounds, to pay whatever fine the court should impose upon him.

After Somerset had thus got rid of his troublesome rival, he resolved to usurp the sole administration of the government. With this view he represented to the Regents and the council, that it had been controverted by several persons, whether or not they could by their sole authority create a Protector; and that the French embassador, in particular, had suggested his

fears of treating with him, as his title might be contested upon the ground of defective authority in those by whom it had been conferred. To obviate this difficulty, a petition was presented to the King, requesting him by a commission under the great seal to authorise their proceedings. This measure, with some subsequent ones of a similar nature, drew down upon him the ill will of many among the nobility, who eventually made him feel the effects of their resentment. But their intrigues were suspended, for the present, by national concerns of a more important description.

Henry VIII. had earnestly recommended to his successor to realise, if possible, his project of uniting the two portions of the island, by claiming the hand of the young Queen Mary, daughter of James V., afterward so well known in history by her crimes and her misfortunes. The treaty for this marriage, which had been ratified by the Regent and the parliament of Scotland, had through the influence of Cardinal Beatoun, who was in the interest of France, been suddenly renounced. In resentment of the perfidy, Henry, two years before his death, declared war against it's authors. This the Protector now prepared to carry on with vigour, and having raised an army of 18,000 men, marched northward, accompanied by the Earl of Warwick (afterward Duke of Northumberland) as his Lieutenant-General. Upon his arrival in Scotland, he published a manifesto, urging the fulfilment of the contract, but unhappily without effect.

The Earl of Arran had collected the whole of the Scottish force, to oppose the invading army: but, though he brought nearly double the number of

troops into the field, he lost to the English the cele brated battle of Pinkey or Musselburgh, on the tenth of September, 1547. After this, the Protector marched to Edinburgh, which he took and burned; and having made himself master of Leith, with several other places of inferior note, he left the Earl of Warwick fully empowered to treat with the Regent's commissioners, who now. sued for peace. This however was only an artifice, to gain time for the arrival of succours from France.

Somerset's political talents were by no means equal to his ambition, or to his high station; and his enemies had seized the opportunity of his absence in the North to form cabals against him. The intelligence, which he received of their intrigues, increased the errors of his conduct in that expedition; for, instead of pursuing his advantages by proceeding to Stirling, where he might have gained possession of the young Queen, and thus have terminated the war, he precipitately hastened back to England, leaving his army under the command of a nobleman indisposed to wish success to any enterprise, which might increase the power or the popularity of the Protector.

In his own family likewise his adversaries, unfortunately, found a proper tool to co-operate in effecting his ruin. Sir Thomas Seymour his youngest brother, a man of an envious and haughty disposition, mortified that he himself should only be a Privy-Councillor while his brother was one of the Regents, though at his nephew's coronation he had been created Lord Sudley, and in the same year constituted Lord High Admiral of England, found his discontent still unsubdued. He had discovered his aspiring temper in