of his court, he acquired almost despotic authority over both peers and people; and became at length so cruel as to make bloodshed his pastime. He married six wives; 1. Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand of Spain, and widow of his brother Arthur, whom he divorced, and by whom he had Mary I.; 2. Anne, daughter of Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire, whom he beheaded, and by whom he had queen Elizabeth; 3. Jane Seymour, sister of Somerset, the protector, by whom he had Edward VI., and who died after the birth of her son; 4. Anne, daughter of John, duke of Cleve, whom he divorced; 5. Katherine, granddaughter of John Howard, duke of Norfolk, whom he beheaded; and 6. Katherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, who survived her tyrannical husband. Political History. No prince could succeed to a throne under happier circumstances than Henry, possessing an undisputed title, a full treasury, and a kingdom flourishing in the bosom of peace. He began by establishing a council, consisting of his father's ablest ministers; and put to death as traitors Empson and Dudley, whose extortion had deservedly excited popular odium. His turn for magnificence soon dissipated the hoards of his parent; and his openness and vanity made him the easy dupe of foreign artifice. Instigated by pope Julius II. to attack Louis XII., his only rewards were the trifling success of his troops at the battle of the Spurs (so called from the flight of the French at Guinegate, wherein spurs were more used than swords), and the taking of Tournay.

But while Henry was thus wasting time in France, his general, the earl of Surrey, obtained the important victory of Flodden over the Scots, 1513. And here it should be observed that the Scots, from the time of our second Henry, had been in constant alliance with the French; insomuch that whole regiments of that people were to be found in the armies of the latter, and no war could commence between England and France, without an immediate invasion of Northumberland by the Scots.

The career of Wolsey, however, is the most striking feature of this reign, productive as it was of the most important consequences to the kingdom. This talented man, whose father had been a butcher, had been rapidly elevated by Henry to the highest honours in church and state; and neither the king of France, the emperor of Germany, nor the king of England, appear to have proceeded with any great measure, in their respective states, without his advice and interference. The pope made him a cardinal, and the emperor promised him the popedom. At his solicitation, Henry crossed over to Calais to hold a conference with Francis I., for the purpose of cementing an eternal amity between the nations, 1520. The field whereon they met was ever after called the field of the cloth of gold,' as well it might; for very many of the English nobles were ruined by their extravagant expenditure amid the tilts and tournaments, the spectacles and feasts, which consumed day after day.

But however disposed the mind of Henry might be to court foreign alliances, and extend his dominions, a matter of domestic interest interfered to turn the current of his thoughts. His plan of education had made him a great casuist; and, delighted at the thought of entering into the religious disputes then raging in Germany, he wrote boldly in defence of the Romish church against Luther, and was rewarded by pope Leo X. with the title of defender of the faith. While engaged in this controversy, however, something occurred to make him consider his union with his brother's widow an unlawful act. As Clement VII. entered into Henry's scruples, Wolsey was employed to debate the matter with other casuists; but when, after considerable delay, the king's inability to procure a divorce was declared, the royal ire fell upon the cardinal, who was accused of leaguing with the pope, deprived of his offices, and threatened with an impeachment. His death of a broken heart put an end to his calamities

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soon after; and Henry, in despite of papal injunctions, married Anne Boleyn 1532, after his separation by archbishop Cranmer from Catherine. Clement's excommunication of Henry having closely followed this proceeding, the infuriated king at once broke with Rome, and declared himself supreme head of the church in England.

This began the Reformation; but the monarch still adhered to the Roman catholic faith; and while persecuting even to death such excellent characters as bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More, for denying his supremacy, he not only displayed a rooted aversion to the Lutherans, but brought a great many of them to the stake for heresy. The rupture of Henry, therefore, with Rome, affected only church-government in temporal matters; and what we understand by the term reformation, referring as it does to the change of religion from catholic to protestant, is by no means applicable to the schism which he originated. To his son Edward, and the counsellors of that prince, belongs the full meed of praise for the glorious labour of laying the foundation of the English church; the superstructure of which was the meritorious work of Elizabeth.

As Henry advanced in years, his temper grew more stern; and his reign was at length that of a despot, who sacrificed without scruple every obstacle of his capricious will. As the monks and friars were necessarily the most direct advocates of papal authority, he suppressed the monasteries; and seizing their revenues, divided them between the crown and his courtiers, giving small pensions to the abbots; he also ordered the Scriptures to be translated into English, though the gentry alone were permitted to read them. Tiring of his wife, Anne Boleyn, he listened to the reports of her indiscreet conduct in petty matters, and after sacrificing several who had been noticed by her, brought her also to the scaffold 1536. On the day after her execution, he espoused Jane Seymour. The utmost rigour was, at this juncture, exercised by him towards the remaining catholic institutions. Stories were by royal authority propagated respecting the detestable lives of the friars; the reliques of the monasteries were exposed to public ridicule; and the shrine of Thomas-à-Becket, which had been an object of reverence for centuries, was pillaged hy command, the bones of the saint burned, and the ashes scattered to the winds.

As queen Jane died soon after giving birth to a son, Henry took for his fourth wife the sister of the duke of Cleves; but immediately after the marriage, he accused the earl of Essex of treason for having proposed the match, put him to death, divorced his consort, and married Catherine Howard. As the Howard family was inimical to protestantism, the most determined persecution of the protestants followed; and crowds were daily brought to the axe, of such as had been only supposed to deny the king's supremacy. It was no uncommon thing now to see a rigid catholic and a firm protestant tied together, and so brought to execution, for the one great offence: even the aged countess of Salisbury, the mother of cardinal Pole, and the only relique of the Plantagenets, was on this account put to death. Charges of infidelity were soon after brought against Catherine Howard; and she was summarily beheaded, 1542, and her uncle, the duke of Norfolk, and his son, the accomplished earl of Surrey, who had so distinguished himself at Flodden, were sent to the Tower. In the same year, Henry sent a force northwards, which put the Scots to flight near Solway, and, without a blow, made many of their nobles prisoners; a disaster which caused king James to die of grief for his dishonour. In 1543, Henry married his sixth and last wife, Katherine Parr. In 1544 he crossed over to Calais with 30,000 and took Boulogne: but nothing of greater moment was effected, and in 1546 peace was made both with France and Scotland.

men,

The king began now to feel his health decline: he had become immensely

HISTORY.]

HENRY VIII. 1509-1547.

corpulent, and so extremely irritable, that no one either of his court or family dared to thwart him in any way. It was at this juncture that he put to death the earl of Surrey, for having quartered the royal arms with his own coatarmour; and he expressed a hope that he might not himself die before he had brought that nobleman's father also, the duke of Norfolk, to the scaffold. His end, however, approached so rapidly, that he could not carry his bloodthirsty design into execution; and Sir Anthony Denny, after much hesitation, took the resolution of assuring him he had not long to live. Sending for archbishop Cranmer, the king had barely strength to press his hand, in token of dying in the Romish faith. His disorder was dropsy; and he had long dabbled in medical recipes, with the hope of curing himself, unaided by physicians. He was buried at Windsor, in a vault near the altar in St. George's chapel, near his queen Jane. His age was fifty-six.

CHIEF DOMESTIC EVENTS.

England freed from Papal Supre-rity of the king and council to decide The result was in favour macy. The king's supremacy in ec- the matter. clesiastical matters, and the consequent of the catholic, or ancient mode. abolition of papal power in England, effected by king Henry, 1531. Thus was at least the foundation laid of the Reformation in England.

Two great sicknesses prevailed: the one a sweating disorder, wherein the sufferer died in less than twelve hours, 1517; and the other a diarrhoea, occasioned by heat of weather, 1542. The Thames at the latter date was so shallow, that the sea flowed up to London bridge.

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Death of Anne Boleyn, 1536. On the morning of her execution, she sent for Kingstone, the keeper of the Tower, and said, Mr. Kingstone, I hear I am not to die till noon, and I am sorry for it; for I thought to be dead before that time, and free from a life of pain.' The keeper attempting to comfort her, by observing that the suffering would be little, she replied, 'I have heard the executioner is very expert; and (clasping her neck with her hands, Suppression of the Monasteries, 1536; smiling) I have but a little neck!' when 10,000 English friars and nuns When upon the scaffold, from a conwere driven from their places of seclu-sideration of the welfare of Elizabeth sion, and left, in a majority of instances, without the means of support. Lands let, of the best kinds, in England, for one shilling per acre, 1544.

Wolsey The Oxford Disputes. having founded the first chair in this university for teaching Greek, the students divided themselves into Greeks and Trojans; and sometimes fought with as great animosity as did those hostile nations. The catholics favoured one mode of pronouncing the language, and the protestants the other: and bishop Gardiner employed the autho

her child, she refrained from speaking against her prosecutors, but contented herself with saying she was innocent, but had come to die according to the law. She prayed heartily for the king, calling him a merciful and gentle prince; and after some encomiums on his former kindness to her, laid her head upon the block. The expert executioner of Calais decapitated her at one blow; and her corpse was interred in the Tower, without any funeral ceremony whatever.

CHIEF FOREIGN EVENTS.

The Pontificate of Leo X.-Leo X., | a man, than by any thing he effected as who received the tiara at the age of thirty- a ruler. He had been taken prisoner seven, may be considered the pope who hurried on the Reformation; and that rather by his general character as

by the French at Ravenna, when acting for pope Julius as commander of the Roman troops; and had escaped from

the marshal Trirrelzio, who had been present at eighteen pitched battles, affirmed that every engagement he had seen was child's play to it. The action of Marignan,' said he, 'was a combat of heroes.'

Egypt made tributary by the Turks. Selim I., 1518, compelled the Mamluk rulers of Egypt to act with the title of beys (mere governors of provinces), to collect the tribute which he levied upon it; and this order of things continued till nearly the close of the eighteenth century.

durance, to the joy of his family at | It was one of the most furious and Florence, of which city he overthrew well-contested battles on record; and the popular constitution. Now seated in the papal chair, he made Rome the centre of European civilization. Never was its court so lively, so agreeable, so intellectual, as under his sway; no expenditure was too great to be lavished on religious and secular festivals, on amusements, theatres, presents, and marks of favour. Foreigners of all grades crowded to the capitol; but, when they beheld the splendour of its court, so opposed in character to the rude and coarse habits of their own countries, the greater portion, whose views were religious, took umbrage, Seizure of Algiers by Barbarosa. and gladly joined the ranks of the On the expulsion of the Moors from enemies of the hierarchy. Although Granada, they commenced a piratical what is luxury to some is but civiliza- life on the opposite coast; and well tion and refinement to others, and knowing each creek and inlet of the though the morals of Leo's court were Spanish shore, continually carried off perhaps less questionable than they parties of their enemies into slavery. had been reported, the intelligence of Cardinal Ximenes headed a force the mode of life practised at Rome, against them, and took Oran and darkening of course as it spread, reached Algiers: whereon the king of the latevery part of the Christian world, and ter applied for aid to Aronje Rasis, greatly loosened the hold of popery or red beard (barba-rosa), the son of on the general veneration. The minds a potter, the most skilful corsair of of men, therefore, were prepared to cavil at the bull which Leo issued 1518, claiming his right to sell indulgences; and as the announcement was regarded as a prelude to the dissolution of all moral restraints, the result to the hierarchy was fatal.

Rise of modern Persia. Neither the descendants of Jenghiz Khan, nor of Tamerlane, possessed Persia either as an integral or independent state; but in 1510, Ismael, called the Sage, of a Mahometan sect, reduced most of its provinces and took Bagdad. With the title of shah, he attacked Selim I. of Turkey; but being defeated by that monarch, he contented himself with the conquests he had made, and died 1523, transmitting the throne of Persia to a long line of posterity.

Battle of Marignan, near Milan, between Francis 1. of France and the Swiss, 1515. The field was strewn with 20,000 slain on both sides, the victory being gained by the French.

his day. The barbarian attacking Algiers with 5000 men, took it 1516, and having murdered the rightful prince, usurped the dominion. Although Ximenes attempted to dispossess him, his army was defeated, and his ships dispersed; and the pirate in the sequel possessed himself of all the neighbouring states. The troops of Charles V., however, killed him in battle 1518, but were never able to overthrow his brother and successor, Heyreddin, who scoured the Mediterranean, and, in a series of years, carried off thousands of Christians into slavery.

Origin of the Protestants. Charles V. and pope Clement VII. having, at the diet of Spire, 1529, rescinded the decrees of a former diet, which gave to each prince of the German empire a discretionary power over ecclesiastical affairs in his own state, John of Saxony, and other independent rulers, entered a solemn protest against the

measure, and appealed to a general power, and flattered Wolsey; but council. Hence all the supporters of Francis, inviting the monarch to a the Reformation were called protest-grand conference on the French soil, ants, as adherents to the principles of the protesting princes.

Rise of the Anabaptists. The anabaptist tenets had existed in Germany before the Reformation; but no decided sect had been founded before Munzer and others commenced what they called the new and perfect church. Anabaptists (or re-baptizers) consider the mode of infant-baptism ineffectual, and re-baptize any that have been so sprinkled, by immersing them in water; and to be efficacious, the rite must be performed, say they, when the party is of mature age. The Baptists hold the same opinions; though many of the latter allow of infant baptism, provided it be with immersion; and in other | respects they greatly resemble the Lutherans, being in fact the main branch of the Waldenses.

Rise of the Antinomians. John Agricola taught, 1538, that the law is not necessary, now that the gospel has been promulgated; and that repentance is not to be preached from the decalogue, but from the gospel. As his opinions were calculated to supersede the necessity of good works and a virtuous life, Luther warmly attacked them; and it was he who gave them the appellation of antinomian, or against the law. France under Francis I. He succeeded his uncle Louis XII. 1515, and died in the same year with our Henry VIII. Trained to chivalry by his mother, the ardent desire of his heart, on ascending the throne, was to display his talents in war. The conquest of Milan was effected by the battle of Marignan; soon after which his taste for contest was still further evinced by the spirit with which he laid claim to the German empire, in opposition to Charles, afterwards known as the Fifth. The latter was successful; but, as our Henry was considered to have in his hands the balance of European power, each party applied for aid against the other. Charles visited England in person, threw himself into Henry's

met him at Ardres, on the field of the cloth of gold.' Charles, however, eventually obtained the favour of Henry; and the pope joining them against Francis, all his Italian conquests were wrested from him, and himself taken prisoner at Pavia. Francis was rigorously confined, and was removed to Spain, where Charles resided. By a treaty at Madrid he was eventually released, on giving up his two sons as hostages; and on re-entering his own dominions, he mounted a Turkish horse, and putting it to its speed, waved his hand, and cried aloud several times, I am yet a king!' Soon after, Francis combined with pope Clement VII., Henry VIII., and other powers, by what was called the Holy League, to force Charles to deliver up his sons; whereon the emperor again marched into Italy, and sacked Rome with the most savage violence. The pope himself was made prisoner; and such horrors were perpetrated by the soldiery on defenceless women and venerable prelates, as eclipsed the former barbarous deeds of Huns and Goths and Vandals. Francis being at last dis[couraged, and almost exhausted, by so many unsuccessful enterprises, began to think of gaining the release of his sons by concession; and this he effected 1529, by yielding Flanders and Artois, and paying two millions of crowns to the emperor. During these commotions, females of rank, especially Louisa, the mother of Francis, and the duchess of d'Estampes, were chief actors in the government of France. Francis was the first monarch who introduced ladies at court, observing that a drawing-room without women was like the spring without flowers.'

Scotland under James V. He was only two when his father died, 1513; and the duke of Albany was elected regent. A series of violent disputes instantly commenced between the regent and the earl of Angus, who had married the queen-mother, sister of our Henry