BOOK "kindness bindeth me unto; that is, that I may witht

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your Grace's favour wish and pray for her, that she may declare herself inculpable and innocent. And "if she be found culpable, considering your Grace's goodness towards her, and from what condition your "Grace of your only mere goodness took her, and set "the crown upon her head; I repute him not your "Grace's faithful servant and subject, nor true unto "the realm, that would not desire the offence without mercy to be punished, to the example of all other. "And as I loved her not a little, for the love which I

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judged her to bear towards God and his Gospel; so; "if she be proved culpable, there is not one that loveth "God and his Gospel that ever will favour her, but "must hate her above all other; and the more they "favour the Gospel, the more they will hate her: for "then there was never creature in our time that so "much slandered the Gospel. And God hath sent "her this punishment, for that she feignedly hath pro"fessed his Gospel in her mouth, and not in heart "and deed. And though she have offended so, that "she hath deserved never to be reconciled unto your "Grace's favour; yet Almighty God hath manifoldly "declared his goodness towards your Grace, and never "offended you. But your Grace, I am sure, know

ledgeth, that you have offended him. Wherefore I "trust that your Grace will bear no less entire favour "unto the truth of the Gospel, than you did before: "forsomuch as your Grace's favour to the Gospel was "not led by affection unto her, but by zeal unto the "truth. And thus I beseech Almighty God, whose

Gospel he hath ordained your Grace to be defender "of, ever to preserve your Grace from all evil, and give you at the end the promise of his Gospel. "From Lambeth, the third day of May.

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"After I had written this letter unto your Grace,

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my Lord Chancellor, my Lord of Oxford, my Lord BOOK "of Sussex, and my Lord Chamberlain of your Grace's house, sent for me to come unto the Star-Chamber; " and there declared unto me such things as your "Grace's pleasure was they should make me privy "unto. For the which I am most bounden unto your "Grace. And what communication we had together, "I doubt not but they will make the true report "thereof unto your Grace. I am exceedingly sorry "that such faults can be proved by the Queen, as I "heard of their relation. But I am, and ever shall be, your faithful subject.

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"Your Grace's most humble subject, and chaplain,

"T. Cantuariensis."

But jealousy, and the King's new affection, had quite defaced all the remainders of esteem for his late beloved Queen. Yet the ministers continued practising, to get further evidence for the trial; which was not brought on till the twelfth of May; and then Norris, Weston, Brereton, and Smeton, were tried by a commission of Oyer and Terminer in Westminster Hall. They were twice indicted, and the indictments were found by two grand juries, in the counties of Kent and Middlesex: the crimes with which they were charged being said to be done in both these counties. Mark Smeton confessed he had known the Queen carnally three times; the other three pleaded, Not Guilty: but the jury, upon the evidence formerly mentioned, found them all guilty; and judgment was given, that they should be drawn to the place of execution, and some of them to be hanged, others to be beheaded, and all to be quartered, as guilty of high treason. On She is the fifteenth of May, the Queen, and her brother the brought to Lord Rochford, (who was a peer, having been made a Viscount when his father was created Earl of Wilt

a trial.

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BOOK shire,) were brought to be tried by their peers: the III. Duke of Norfolk being Lord High Steward for that occasion. With him sate the Duke of Suffolk, the Marquis of Exeter, the Earl of Arundel, and twentyfive more peers, of whom their father, the Earl of WiltSee Adden-shire, was one. Whether this unnatural compliance was imposed on him by the imperious King, or officiously submitted to by himself, that he might thereby be preserved from the ruin that fell on his family, is not known. Here the Queen of England, by an unheard-of precedent, was brought to the bar, and indicted of high treason. The crimes charged on her were, That she had procured her brother, and the other four, to lie with her, which they had done often; that she had said to them, that the King never had her heart, and had said to every one of them by themselves, that she loved them better than any person whatsoever: which was to the slander of the issue that was begotten between the King and her. And this was treason, according to the statute made in the twenty-sixth year of this reign, (so that the law that was made for her, and the issue of her marriage, is now made use of to destroy her.) It was also added in the indictment, that she and her complices had conspired the King's death: but this, it seems, was only put in to swell the charge; for if there had been any evidence for it, there was no need of stretching the other statute; or if they could have proved the violating of the Queen, the known statute of the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Edward the Third had been sufficient. When the indictment was read, she held up her hand, and pleaded Not Guilty, and so did her brother; and did answer the evidence was brought against her discreetly. One thing is remarkable, that Mark Smeton, who was the only person who confessed any thing, was never confronted with the Queen, nor was kept to be an evidence against

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her, for he had received his sentence three days be- BOOK fore, and so could be no witness in law; but perhaps, though he was wrought on to confess, yet they did not think he had confidence enough to aver it to the Queen's face; therefore the evidence they brought, as Spelman says, was the oath of a woman that was dead: yet this, or rather the terror of offending the King, so wrought on the Lords, that they found her and her brother guilty; and judgment was given, that she should be burnt or beheaded at the King's pleasure. Upon which Spelman observes, that whereas burning is the death which the law appoints for a woman that is attainted of treason; yet, since she had been Queen of England, they left it to the King to determine, whether she should die so infamous a death, or be beheaded but the judges complained of this way of proceeding, and said, such a disjunctive, in a judgment of treason, had never been seen. The Lord Rochford was also condemned to be beheaded and quartered. Yet all this did not satisfy the enraged King; but the marriage between him and her must be annulled, and the issue illegitimated. The King remembered an intrigue that had been between her and the Earl of Northumberland, which was mentioned in the former book; and that he, then Lord Piercy, had said to the Cardinal, "That he had gone so far before witnesses, "that it lay upon his conscience, so that he could not

go back" this, it is like, might be some promise he made to marry her, per verba de futuro, which though it was no precontract in itself, yet it seems the poor Queen was either so ignorant, or so ill-advised, as to be persuaded afterwards it was one; though it is certain that nothing but a contract per verba de præsenti could be of any force to annul the subsequent marriage. The King and his council, reflecting upon what it seems the Cardinal had told him, resolved to

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BOOK try what could be made of it, and pressed the Earl of Northumberland to confess a contract between him and her. But he took his oath before the two archbishops, that there was no contract, nor promise of marriage, ever between them; and received the sacrament upon it, before the Duke of Norfolk, and others of the King's learned council in the law spiritual, wishing it might be to his damnation, if there were any such thing: (concerning which I have seen the original declaration under his own hand.) Nor could they draw any confession from the Queen, before the sentence: for certainly if they could have done that, the divorce had gone before the trial; and then she must have been tried only as Marchioness of Pembroke. But now, she lying under so terrible a sentence, it is most probable that either some hopes of life were given her, or at least she was wrought on by the assurances of mitigating that cruel part of her judgment, of being burnt, into the milder part of the sentence of having her head cut off; so that she confessed a precontract, and on the seventeenth of May was brought to Lambeth: and in court, the afflicted Archbishop sitting judge, some persons of quality being present, she confessed some just and lawful imconfession pediments; by which it was evident, that her maris divorced. riage with the King was not valid. Upon which confession, her marriage between the King and her was judged to have been null and void. The record of the sentence is burnt: but these particulars are repeated in the act that passed in the next parliament, touching the succession to the crown. It seems this was seeretly done, for Spelman writes of it thus; It was said, there was a divorce made between the King and her, upon her confessing a precontract with another before her marriage with the King; so that it was then only talked of, but not generally known.

Upon an extorted.