more than precise in the law, yet I think ye would be very loth to yield to the extremity of such advantage as might be gathered against your proceedings in the law as ye have sometimes taken upon you in place of justice; and if it were well tried, I believe ye should not be well able to stand honestly thereto.” "Hales, J.-"My Lord, I am not so perfect but I may err for lack of knowledge. But, both in conscience, and such knowledge of the law as God hath given me, I will do nothing but I will maintain and abide in it; and if my goods, and all that I have, be not able to counterpoise the case, my body shall be ready to serve the turn, for they be all at the Queen's Highness's pleasure." Lord Chancellor."Ah, sir, ye be very quick and stout in your answers. But as it should seem that which you did was more of a will favouring the opinion of your religion against the service now used, than for any occasion or zeal of justice, seeing the Queen's Highness doth set it forth as yet, wishing all her faithful subjects to embrace it accordingly; and where you offer both body and goods in your trial, there is no such matter required at your hands, and yet ye shall not have your own will neither." Hales, J." My Lord, I seek not wilful will, but to show myself, as I am bound, in love to God, and obedience to the Queen's Majesty, in whose cause willingly, for justice sake, all other respects set apart, I did of late, as your Lordship knoweth, adventure as much as I had. And as for my religion, I trust it be such as pleaseth God, wherein I am ready to adventure as well my life as my substance, if I be called thereunto. And so in lack of mine own power and will, the Lord's will be fulfilled." Lord Chancellor." Seeing you be at this point, Master Hales, I will presently make an end with you. The Queen's Highness shall be informed of your opinion and declaration. And as her Grace shall thereupon determine, ye shall have knowledge. Until such time, ye may depart as you came without your oath; for as it appeareth, ye are scarce worthy the place appointed." Hales, J.-" I thank your Lordship; and as for my vocation being both a burden and a charge more than СНАР. XLI. CHAP. Judge committed to prison by Chancellor. Suicide of Judge Hales. Execution of Lady and her husband. the Queen's Highness to ease me thereof, I shall most humbly, with due contentation, obey the same.' In this witty rencontre it must be confessed that the Chancellor had the worst of it; but the poor Puisne ere long had reason to regret his triumph, for not only was he dismissed from his office of Judge, but in a few days after he was committed to the King's Bench prison, where he remained in close custody till Lent in the following year, when he was transferred to the Compter in Bread Street. sent to the Fleet, where he was frightened to by stories which the keeper told him of the torments in preparation for those who denied the supremacy of the Pope, that he attempted to commit suicide by stabbing himself, and when he was at last discharged, his mind was so much weakened by the hard usage he had undergone, that he drowned himself in a river near his own house in Kent.† He was then such a degree Gardyner incurred greater odium by advising, as a discourJane Grey agement to the reformers, the execution of the Lady Jane Grey and her youthful husband, Lord Guilford Dudley, a cruelty not palliated by Wyat's rebellion, with which they had no privity. He behaved generously, however, to the Princess Elizabeth, and procured her release from the Tower, perhaps because she had, about this time, been induced to conform to the Catholic worship. Gardyner's cruel administration. Where religion was not concerned, Gardyner showed himself a wise and even patriotic statesman. When the important se, * Somers' Tracts, 2 Coll. vol. xcv. 1 St. Tr. 714. †The coroner's jury very unjustly brought in a verdict against him of felo de which gave rise to the famous question whether, "if a man kills himself, the crime of suicide is to be considered as complete in his lifetime or not?" He held an estate as joint tenant with his wife, which it was contended was forfeited to the Crown by his felony. The Counsel for Lady Hales argued ineffectually that a man cannot kill himself in his lifetime. The legal reasoning in Judge Hales's case (which is reported in Plowden ) is copied almost word for word in the dialogue between the gravediggers in Hamlet upon the parallel case of Ophelia :1st Cl. 66 Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life." 2d Clo. "But is this law?" 1st Clo. "Ay, marry is't, crowner's quest law." 1 Hales v. Patit, Plowd. 253. question of the Queen's marriage came to be discussed, he strongly recommended to her choice a handsome Englishman, Courtenay Earl of Devonshire, so that the liberties and independence of the nation might not be endangered by an alliance with a foreign prince. Mary was at first inclined to take his advice, till piqued by the preference which Courtenay showed to Elizabeth, and alarmed by his dissolute character, she formed a determination to marry her cousin, Philip of Spain, from which Gardyner in vain laboured to divert her. She declared that "she would prove a match for all the cunning of the Chancellor ;" and having sent for the imperial ambassador, kneeling at the altar, she, in his presence, pledged her faith to Philip, and vowed that while she lived she never would take any other man for her husband. CHAP. XLI. Gardyner contrived to get an address voted to her from the Mary's House of Commons, which, after earnestly pressing her to marriage. marry, expressed strong apprehension of a foreign alliance. When told of it, she said she would answer it with her own mouth. Accordingly, when the Speaker had read the address, and it was expected that the Chancellor, as usual, would answer in her name, she herself replied, "that for their expressions of loyalty, and their desire that the issue of her body might succeed her on the throne, she sincerely thanked them; but in as much as they pretended to limit her in the choice of a husband, she thanked them not. The marriage of her predecessors had always been free, nor would she surrender a privilege which they had enjoyed.' Finding her immovable, Gardyner took care that the articles of marriage should be as favourable as possible for the interest and security of England, by stipulating, that though Philip should have the title of King, the administration should be entirely in the Queen; that no foreigner should be capable of enjoying any office in the kingdom; that no innovation should be made in the English laws, customs, and privileges; and that Philip should not carry the Queen abroad without her consent, nor any of her children, without the consent of the nobility. As soon as the treaty was signed, the Chancellor CHAP. April 5. 1564. Chancel lor's speech to parliament. July, 1554. Recon ciliation with Rome. called a meeting of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and citizens of London, at Guildhall, and, in an eloquent discourse, explained to them the many and valuable benefits which he anticipated from an union between their Queen and a Prince, the apparent heir of so many rich and powerful states. Parliament assembling, the Chancellor opened the session by a speech in which he dwelt on the Queen's hereditary title to the Crown, maintained her right of choosing a husband for herself, -observed how proper a use she made of that right by giving the preference to an old ally descended from the house of Burgundy, and, remarking the failure of Henry VIII.'s posterity, of whom there now remained none but the Queen and the Lady Elizabeth, added, that in order to obviate the inconveniences which might arise from different pretenders, it was necessary to invest the Queen by law with a power of disposing of the Crown, and of appointing her successor, which had belonged to her father. Both Houses ratified the articles of marriage, but they refused to pass any such law as the Chancellor pointed out to them, and it is supposed that he made the suggestion only to please the Queen; for the power might have been used not only by setting aside the Lady Elizabeth, at which he would have rejoiced, but by appointing Philip to succeed, to which he never would have consented. The royal bridegroom at last arrived at Southampton, and in the cathedral church of Winchester the Lord Chancellor himself celebrated the marriage between him and Mary, which he had done all in his power to prevent, and which turned out so inauspiciously. His power, however, was if possible increased; for the Emperor Charles, having the highest opinion of his wisdom, had strongly exhorted Philip in all things to be guided by his councils. The passionate wish of the Court now was to consummate the reconciliation with Rome, and for this purpose a parliament was summoned to meet in November. To ensure a favourable House of Commons, Gardyner sent circulars in the Queen's name to the Sheriffs, who were all Catholics, desiring them to use their influence that no favourer of heresy might be elected. XLI. On the day of meeting there was a grand procession to West- CHAP. minster Abbey, led by the Commons,-the Peers and Prelates following, the Chancellor being last; then came Philip and Mary, in robes of purple, the King on a Spanish genet, richly caparisoned, attended by the Lords of his household, the Queen on a litter surrounded by her ladies of honour. A religious ceremony after the ancient fashion being performed, and all being duly ranged in the Parliament Chamber, the Chancellor from his place in front of the throne addressed the two Houses. "The Queen's first parliament," he said, "had re-established the ancient worship,-the second had confirmed the Articles of her marriage,- and their Majesties expected that the third, in preference to every other object, would accomplish the re-union of the realm with the universal Church." cellor's The bills brought in for this purpose passed the Lords Nov. 1554. unanimously, and were opposed only by two Members of the House of Commons. Cardinal Pole, whose attainder had been reversed, having been appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and legate à latere from the Pope, had a few days before arrived in England, and on his landing had been received with great distinction by the Chancellor. His attainder being reversed, he was now introduced into parliament, and the King and Queen being present, the Chancellor spoke as follows: My Lords of the Upper House, and you my Chanmasters of the Nether House here present, the right Re- speech, inverend Father in God, my Lord Cardinal Pole, Legate à troducing latere, is come from the Apostolic See of Rome as ambassador Pole. to the King's and Queen's Majesty upon one of the weightiest causes that ever happened in this realm, and which pertaineth to the glory of God and your universal benefit. The which ambassade their Majesties' pleasure is to be signified unto you all by his own mouth, trusting that you receive and accept it in as benevolent and thankfulwise as their Highnesses have done, and that you will give attentive and inclinable ears unto his Grace, who is now ready to declare the same.' The Cardinal, after saying that "the cause of his repair Cardinal |