Robin Tremayne Part 54

"'For Thou only art holy, Thou only art the Lord! Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of G.o.d the Father!'"

Note 1. There were several prisons which bore this name, one of them in London. The most horrible of all was that at Woburn, and was, I believe, the only one constructed on this cruel principle.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

APPENDIX.

HISTORICAL NOTES.

BERNHER, AUGUSTINE.

By birth a German-Swiss, probably from the neighbourhood of Basle. In contemporary notices often called Latimer's servant; but if the meaning of the word at that time be borne in mind, and the kind of service noted, it will be seen that he was only a servant in the sense of being in receipt of a salary from his employer. He was ordained in or before the reign of Edward the Sixth; and during the persecution under Mary, no man was more fervid and fearless than he. At many martyrdoms we find him consoling the martyr; visiting the condemned prisoners, and forming the recognised means of communication between them. His safety through all can only be attributed to the direct interposition of his Almighty Master. "Mine own good Augustine," wrote Bradford, "the Lord of mercy bless thee, my dear brother, for ever... The keeper telleth me that it is death for any to speak with me, but yet I trust that I shall speak with you." (Foxe's Acts and Monuments, eight 262). At the commencement of the persecution, Bernher lived at Baxterley, near Mancetter; but for a time during its height, he was minister of a small London congregation, which a.s.sembled secretly, sometimes in very curious places, and often on board some vessel in the Thames. Bernher was a married man. After the accession of Elizabeth, this Christian hero was presented by the Crown to the rectory of Southam, county Warwick (Richings' Narrative of Sufferings of Glover, etcetera, pages 10-12).

But only for a very few years did Bernher survive the persecution. The scaffolding had served its purpose, and was taken down; the servant of G.o.d had done his work in aiding the brethren at risk of life, and the summons was issued to himself, "Come up higher." On April 19, 1566, Bartholomew Greene was presented to the rectory of Southam, "vacant by the death of Augustine Barnehere." (Dugdale's Warwickshire, page 339).

BONNER, BISHOP EDMUND.

This coa.r.s.est and most cruel persecutor of the Protestants, whose anger was particularly rife against married priests, was himself the illegitimate son of a priest, George Savage, the illegitimate son of Sir John Savage of Cheshire. His father was parson of Dunham; and during his earlier years he was known indiscriminately as Edmund Savage or Bonner, which last appears to have been his mother's name. The only punishment which this monster received at the hands of men lay in the refusal of Elizabeth to permit him to kiss her hand when the Bishops met her on her coronation progress, and the restriction of his residence for the remainder of his life. Probably he might even have been spared the last penalty, had he not had the cool effrontery to take his seat in the House of Lords as Bishop of London in Elizabeth's first Parliament.

This provocation was too much for the patience of that determined Princess, and Bonner speedily found himself in the Marshalsea, where he was not uncomfortably accommodated until his death.

Elected Bishop of Hereford, December 17, 1539, but translated to London before consecration; consecrated Bishop of London, in the Bishop of London's Palace, by Stephen Gardiner of Winchester, Richard Sampson of Chichester, and John [? William] Skippe of Hereford, April 2, 1540; deprived, October 1, 1549; restored, August 5, 1553; re-deprived, May 29, 1559; died September 5, 1569; buried in the churchyard of Saint George, Southwark.

FERRIS, GEORGE.

This worthy is sometimes called George Ferrers. He was born at or near Saint Albans, educated at Oxford, studied at Lincoln's Inn, wrote poems much admired in his day, and translated Magna Charta from French into Latin. He was patronised by Cromwell, and was "Master of the Revels in the King's house" in 1552 and 1553. Ferris died at Flamstead, in Hertfordshire, in 1579.

GREY, LADY JANE.

The opinion which her contemporaries formed of this lady, and which is to a great extent shared by their posterity, was not the true view of her character. She was by no means the meek, gentle, spiritless being whom novelists, and even historians, have usually depicted under her name. On the contrary, she was a woman with a very decided will of her own, and with far more character than her husband, who had set his weak mind on being proclaimed King. This Jane bluntly refused, though she was willing to create him a Duke. Through all her letters now extant there runs a complaining, querulous strain which rather interferes with the admiration that would otherwise be excited by her talents, character, and fate. My business in the story is to paint Lady Jane as the Protestants of her day believed her to be; but it is hardly just not to add that they believed her to be made of softer and more malleable material than she really was. The fact of her having been persuaded, or rather forced, to accept the Crown, has given this erroneous impression of her disposition. It was the only point on which she was ever influenced against her own judgment; the instigator being Lord Guilford, who in his turn was urged by his ambitious, unprincipled father, and his equally ambitious and unprincipled mother, in whose hands his weak, affectionate, yielding temperament rendered him an easy tool. The probability is, that had Jane been firmly established as Queen, she would have shown a character more akin to that of Elizabeth than is commonly supposed, though undoubtedly her personal piety was much more marked than that of her cousin. It seems rather strange that the child of parents, morally speaking, so weak as Dorset and Frances, should have displayed so strong and resolved a character as did Lady Jane Grey.

Born at Bradgate, 1536-7; married at Durham House, London, May 21, 1553; beheaded on Tower Hill, February 12, 1554.

HOLLAND, ROGER.

As much as is known of the history of this last of the Smithfield martyrs will be found in Foxe's Acts and Monuments, eight, 473-479.

There is much difficulty, however, in deciding from what branch of the great Holland family the martyr came. All accounts tell us that he was a Holland of Lancashire; yet his name does not appear in any pedigree of the numerous Lancastrian lines. All these families are descended from Sir Robert de Holand, who died in 1328, and his wife Maude, heiress of La Zouche. Nor is it any easier to trace the relationship between Roger Holland and Lord Strange, or Mr Eccleston, both of whom Foxe calls his kinsmen. More than one branch of Holland married into Eccleston; and the Derby connection has eluded all my researches. Roger's wife was named Elizabeth, but her surname does not appear: they were married in "the first year of Queen Mary," 1553-4, and had issue one child, s.e.x and name unknown. His martyrdom took place on the 27th of June 1558, or "about" that time; Foxe speaks doubtfully as to the exact day. Nothing further is known of his wife and child.

MONKE, THOMAS.

Son of Anthony Monke of Potheridge and Elizabeth Woode of London; born in 1516. He was twice married after the death of Lady Frances,--first, to Elizabeth Powell of Stroud, and lastly, to Katherine Hawkes. The third wife was childless; by the second he had one daughter, Dorothy.

The male line of Monke failed in Christopher, only son of George Monk, Duke of Albemarle. In the female line the blood of the Plantagenets descended to many very obscure families. The wife of Colonel Pride, who conducted King Charles the First to his trial, was Elizabeth Monke of Potheridge, the eventual representative of the family. (Ancient Compotuses of Exchequer, Devon, 37-8 H. eight; Harl. Mss. 1538, folio 213; 3288, folio 50.)

NORTHUMBERLAND, JOHN DUDLEY, DUKE.

In some respects, this was the most remarkable man of his age. He may be said to have risen from nothing, for though his mother was Elizabeth, eleventh Viscountess Lisle in her own right, his father was Edmund Dudley, the mean and avaricious favourite of Henry the Seventh. The marriage of Dudley and Elizabeth was apparently forced upon the Viscountess, then a mere girl of some twenty years of age or under; and when she was left free, she re-married Sir Arthur Plantagenet (Viscount Lisle), to whom it seems probable that she had been originally betrothed. John Dudley was the eldest child of this ill-matched pair, and was born in 1502. The solitary object of his love was John Dudley, and the one aim of his existence was to advance that gentleman's fortunes. From a worldly point of view, he succeeded remarkably well.

He pa.s.sed gradually through the several gradations of Knight, Viscount Lisle (March 12, 1542), Lord High Admiral (1544), Governor of Calais (about 1545), Earl of Warwick, (February 17, 1547), Duke of Northumberland (October 11, 1551). The last t.i.tle placed him at the very summit of his ambition. There were only two other Dukes in England, Norfolk and Suffolk: and had he been proclaimed King, his power could scarcely have been any greater than it was. "Yet all this availed Haman nothing, so long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King's gate;" and so long as Edward Seymour drew the breath of life, there was bitterness in all the honours of John Dudley. He stooped to the lowest and vilest means of destroying his rival, and he effected his purpose; himself to be destroyed in his turn by the accession of Mary, not two years later. His attempt to make his daughter-in-law Queen was his last and most aspiring effort at his own aggrandis.e.m.e.nt. When that failed, all failed; and he sank "down as low as high he soared." Through life he was the acknowledged head of the Lutheran party; but in respect of personal religion he was a By-ends, adopting the creed which he thought would best advance his interests; his own proclivity being towards Popery, as he showed in the last days of his life,--unless it be thought that this, his latest act, worthy of the life which had preceded it, was a mere attempt to curry favour with Queen Mary. Bad as the man was, I do not like to think that his dying act was a lie. He suffered on Tower Hill, August 22, 1553. Northumberland was but once married, though he left a large family. His wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Edmund Guilford; a fitting wife for such a husband, being as ambitious and unscrupulous as himself. His children were thirteen in number, of whom only two left issue--the famous Earl of Leicester, and Lady Mary Sidney.

The entire Dudley race is now extinct, except in the female line.

PALMER, SIR THOMAS.

In early life a great gamester and a notorious libertine, known as Long Palmer, on account of his height, and Busking Palmer--a term about equivalent to the modern "dandy." He generally signs his name as above, but upon one occasion, "Thomas de Palmer." He was at one time in the service of the Lord Privy Seal, Cromwell; and was one of the "gentlemen ushers daily wayters" at Court, before 1522; for three years he was knight porter at Calais. The part he took against the Gospellers during the Calais persecution is alluded to by Foxe (A. and M., five, 497, 505, 506, 520), and will be found fully detailed in my previous volume, "Isoult Barry of Wynscote." At the sorrowful time of Lord Lisle's arrest, his friend Palmer was jousting at Court. Edward Underhill names him as one of those "companions" with whom he was "conversant a while, until I fell to reading the Scriptures and following the preachers." In the army of Boulogne, 1544, Palmer was one of the captains of the infantry, and was taken prisoner by the French. We meet with him next, October 7, 1551, when "Sir Thomas Paulmer" writes Edward the Sixth (and another hand has interlined, "Hating the Duke and hated of him"), "came to the Duke of Northumberland to deliver him his cheine... whereupon, in my Lord's garden, he declared a conspiracy," evolved out of his inner consciousness, of which Somerset was the supposed inventor and real victim. On the 16th, conspirators and informer were impartially arrested, Palmer "on the terrace walking there." To Somerset, Palmer had denied every word he had uttered, when the Duke sent for him and charged him with the uttering: on the trial he was the princ.i.p.al witness, though the Duke denied his accusation, and "declared all the ill he could devise of Palmer." It was not necessary to "devise" much.

It was soon plain that Palmer's arrest was a mere farce. He was not only released, but was appointed, March 4, 1552, one of the commissioners to treat with Scotland. In 1553 he proved true to his friend Northumberland, and shared his fate. Two versions of his dying speech are given, in the Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, pages 22-24.

Lisle Papers, two, 125; nine, 10; seventeen, 94;--Cott. Ms., Nero, c.

ten, 40, 41, 44-46, 51;--Harl. Mss., 69, folio 50; 283, folio 3; 425, folio 93;--Rutland Papers, page 102.

PEDIGREES.

The story will be scarcely intelligible without some elucidation of the pedigrees of the three families whose members are constantly meeting the reader--Barry, Ba.s.set, and Lisle. I have tried to put them into a form at once as short and as easy of reference as possible.

_Barry of Wynscote_.--Richard Barry, descended from the Lords Barry of Ireland, died June 2, 1462. _His son_:--John, died September 16, 1510.

_His son_;--John, born 1473, died July 25, 1538: married Anne, daughter of Patrick Bellewe of Aldervescot, and Anne Dennis of Oxleigh, county Devon (and half-sister of Anne and Margery Ba.s.set. See below). _His issue_:--1. Henry, born 1514, died 1566; married Margaret, daughter of Nicholas Specott (she died March 14, 1580) 2. Hugh, of Bindon, married Alice, daughter and co-heir of Richard Wikes. 3. Elizabeth, married John Dennis of Matcott (branch of D. of Oxleigh). 4. Isoult, married John Avery of Bradmond, Badmond, or Bodmin, county Cornwall. _Issue of Henry Barry_:--1. Michael, married 1566, Jane, daughter of George Pollard of Langlough (issue, Thomasine, born January 5, 1570). 2.

William. 3. Henry. 4. Lawrence. 5. Anne. _Issue of Hugh Barry_:--1.

Alexander, died S.P. 2. Giles, married--(issue, Eleanor and Giles). 3.

John, married Grace, daughter of Richard Oliver of Barnstable (issue, John, born 1604; Levi, born 1607; John, born 1610; Patience, born 1613; Philip, born 1615). 4. Margaret. 5. Anne. _Issue of Elizabeth Dennis_:--1. William, married Lucy, daughter of John Cloberie, and left issue. 2. Nicholas. 3. Ellen. 4. Anne. 5. Henry. 6. Giles. 7.

Robert. 8. Philip. _Issue of Isoult Avery_ unknown; but the following, who appear in the Bodmin Registers, may have been her sons:--Edward Avery (son baptised, 1562); Thomas (_ibidem_. 1563); Walter (children baptised, 1585, 1595); Michael, buried September 28, 1569.

_Ba.s.set of Umberleigh_.--Sir John Ba.s.set, died January 31, 1528; married (a) Anne, daughter of John Dennis of Oxleigh, and Eleanor Gifford; widow of Patrick Bellewe of Aldervescot; (b) Jane, daughter of Thomas Beaumont of Devon; (c) Elizabeth, family unknown; (a) Honor, daughter of Sir Thomas Grenville of Stow, and Isabel Gilbert; born circa 1498, married circa 1515, died circa 1548. (See Lisle, below.) _His issue_:--a. 1.

Anne, married Sir James Courtenay (issue unknown). 2. Margery, married Sir John Marres of Cornwall (issue, Margaret, married George Rolle). b or c (uncertain). 3. Jane, apparently died unmarried: born circa 1505.

4. Thomasine, born circa 1512; died unmarried, March 19, 1535. (d) 5.

Philippa, born circa 1516, apparently died unmarried. 6. Katherine, born circa 1518, married Sir Henry Ashley, of Ashley and Wimborne (Shaftesbury family: issue, Henry and Edward, both S.P.) 7. John, born October 26, 1519; died at Crowe, April 3, 1545; married Frances, eldest daughter of Arthur Lord Lisle (see Lisle, below). 8. Anne, born circa 1520, married after 1554 Francis Hungerford (issue unknown). 9. George, born circa 1522; died in London, 1580: married Jaquit, daughter and heir of John Coffyn of Portledge, county Devon (she re-married Henry Jones, and died November 25, 1588). 10. Mary, born circa 1525, married John Wollacombe of Combe, county Devon (issue, John, Thomas, and Honor). 11.

James, born 1527, servant of Bishop Gardiner, and afterwards Gentleman of the Chamber to Queen Mary; died November 1558; buried Black Friars'

Church, London: married Mary, daughter of William Roper. _Issue of John Ba.s.set_:--1. Honor, born at Calais, 1539, apparently died young. 2.

Sir Arthur, born 1540, probably at Calais; married Eleanor, daughter of John Chichester of Rawley:--issue, 1. Anne, 2. Robert, who claimed the Crown as lineal descendant of Edward the Fourth, in 1603, and was compelled to fly to France; he married, at London, November 21, 1591, Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Sir William Perjam:--issue, 1.

Arthur, died young; 2. Arthur, born circa 1597, died January 7, 1672; married--Leigh: 3. William, born March 28, 1602: 4. Anne, married Jonathan Rashley of Fox: 5. Ellen, married George Yeo of Hushe: 6.

Eleanor. 7. Mary. _Issue of George Ba.s.set_:--1. James, born 1565, died at Illogan, February 8, 1604; married Jane, daughter of Francis G.o.dolphin: left issue. 2. Katherine: 3. Blanche. _Issue of James Ba.s.set_:--Philip, married -- Verney, and left female issue; died after October 1, 1583.

_Lisle_.--Sir Arthur Plantagenet, son of Edward the Fourth and Elizabeth Lucy, born at Lille, circa 1462, created Viscount Lisle at Bridewell Palace, April 26, 1523; Governor of Calais, March 24, 1533; arrested May 17, 1540; died in the Tower, March 3, 1542; buried in the Tower.

Married (1) Elizabeth, eleventh Viscountess Lisle, eldest daughter of Elizabeth Talbot, eighth Viscountess, and Sir Edward Grey of Groby; born circa 1480, married circa 1515, died 1527:--(2) Honor, youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Grenville of Stow, and Isabel Gilbert; born circa 1498, married circa 1530, died circa 1548. (See Ba.s.set, above.) _His issue_:--a. 1. Frances, born circa 1516, married (1) at Calais, February 17-22, 1538, John Ba.s.set of Umberleigh; (2) circa 1547, Thomas Monke of Potheridge; died circa 1560. Issue: (1) see Ba.s.set, above; (2) 1. Anthony, died May 9, 1620, married Mary, daughter of Richard Arscott, and left issue; 2. Katherine, married Jeremy Meo of Borrington; 3. Margaret, died unmarried; 4. John; 5. Francis or Frances; 6. Mary, (died unmarried). 2. Elizabeth, born circa 1518, married Sir Francis Jobson, of Monkwich, county Ess.e.x, who died June 11, 1573; she was living in 1560 (issue, 1. John, married Ellen, daughter of Sir Richard Pepsall, and left female issue; 2. Edward, of West Doniland, married Mary Boade, and left female issue; 3. Henry; 4.

Thomas; 5. Mary). 3. Bridget, born circa 1520, married Sir William Carden, of Cawarden, Cheshire; living January 1, 1558 (issue, 1.

Thomas, who left issue; 2. John), (b) 4. Infant, still-born or died soon after birth, at Calais, September 1537.

PROTESTANTS.

The Protestants in England, as on the Continent, were early divided into two great parties, known as Lutherans and Gospellers, or Consubstantiaries and Sacramentaries. These were nearly equivalent to the modern High Church (not Ritualistic) and Evangelical parties. There was yet a further division, at a later period, by the formation of a third sect known as Hot Gospellers, the direct ancestors of the Puritans. Without bearing these facts in mind, it is scarcely possible to enter into the politics of the period. Many who began as Lutherans ended as Gospellers: e.g., Cranmer, Somerset, Katherine d.u.c.h.ess of Suffolk. Some remained Lutherans for life, e.g., Queen Katherine Parr, Queen Elizabeth. And there were a few who never were Lutherans at all, of whom the representative is Latimer. The enmity between Somerset and Northumberland had a religious origin, Somerset being a Gospeller, and Northumberland professedly a Lutheran. It may be added that the Gospellers were as a rule Calvinists, the Lutherans Arminians.

ROSE, REVEREND THOMAS.

I do not think it needful to recapitulate the history of Rose, which may be found at length in Foxe's Acts and Monuments, eight, 581 _et seq_; and I only propose to add a few particulars and explanations which are not to be found in Foxe. It is only probable, not certain, that Mrs Rose was a foreigner, her name not being on record; and the age and existence of their only child are the sole historical data for the character of Thekla. I must in honesty own that it is not even proved that Rose's wife and child were living at the time of his arrest; but the contrary is not proved either. The accusation brought against him is extant among Foxe's Mss. (Harl. Ms. 421, folio 188); from which we find that he was detained at the Cross, in the Green Yard, near the Cathedral, Norwich; and that he was accused of having publicly held and taught "that in the eucharist, or sacrament of the altar, the true, natural, and real body and blood of Christ, under the forms of bread and wine, are not; but that after consecration the substance of bread and wine remaineth; and that whosoever shall adore that substance committeth idolatry, and giveth divine honour to a creature." (Foxe's Mss., Harl.

Ms. 421, folio 188.) "Sir Thomas Rose, clerk, saith that he hath so preached, and _will_ so preach" (Ibidem folio 146). On the 12th of May 1555, "Mr Thomas Rosse, preacher, was by the counsailles letters delyvered from the tower to the shrief of Norfolk, to be convayed and delyvered to the Bishop of Norwiche, and he either to reduce hym to recante or elles to precede against hym accordinge the lawe." (Diary of the Council's Proceedings, ibidem, Harl. Ms. 419, page 153.) And four days later,--"16 May. A letter to the Lord Treasourer, signifyinge what the 11 [Lords] had done for Rosse, and that order should be given according his Ls [Lordship's] request for letters to the Busshopps."

(_ibidem_) Rose is by many of his contemporaries called Ross or Rosse, but he appears to have spelt his own name Rose. I say _appears_, because his autograph has been searched for in vain; the narrative of his sufferings, written by himself, and printed in the Acts and Monuments, is not extant among Foxe's papers. When Rose returned to England after the accession of Elizabeth, he took possession again of his old vicarage, West Ham; but resigned it when he was presented by the Crown to the vicarage of Luton in Bedfordshire. This was on November 4, 1562; and the living was vacant by the death of the Reverend -- Mason.

It formed a quiet retreat for the old age of the persecuted preacher.

At Luton he spent nearly thirteen years, dying there in 1574; for on the 18th of June in that year, William Home was presented to the vacant living. (Rot. Parl. 5 Elizabeth, part 4; 16 Elizabeth; Bibl. Topogr.