Copy 1, Volume 1

A selection of curious articles from the Gentleman's magazine / By John Walker.

Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A selection of curious articles from the Gentleman's magazine / By John Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cession might possibly depend upon it: a point which this king ever kept in view, having, though not a personal, yet a bleeding remembrance of the broils that so lately had de- populated the kingdom during the long contests of the two houses of Lancaster and York. Henry takes particular no- tice of this affair of the succession in his speech at the Black Friars ;* and it is well known that the remote issue of this very match, in the person of that accomplished lady, the. lady Jane Grey, was very near creating this king’s daughter Mary much trouble at the time of her accession. Brandon himself, though a prime favourite, was still but a subject, and though the king afterwards might be induced to pardon him, and did so, yet it is not likely that he either intended or approved of the match: nay, I must think it impossible but that the marriage being solemnized aad consummated without his leave, he, or indeed any other prince, would be highly offended at it; and if he had pro- ceeded to take off the duke’s head for it, it would have been far from being the most arbitrary, or most unjustifiable measure of his but too bloody reign. Both Brandon and the young queen were sensible of the danger they were incurring: she, for her part, interested Francis ]. king of France, to use his good offices with her brother before the celebration of the nuptials; and the duke in his letter to the Cardinal upon the occasion says, he told the king of France “‘ He was like to be undone if this matter should come to the knowledge of his master,” and yet he ventured to marry without obtaining his hard-ruledt master’s leave, or even without acquainting him with his design. It was certainly an act of great presumption, and the duke accord- ingly in one of his letters to Wolsey expresses his fears, that “‘ when the king comes to be acquainted with the mar- riage, he will be displeased,” and so he desires liim to me- diate in his favour f. | 3 After the marriage, Suffolk and the French queen wrote to the king to implore his pardon; and one is obliged to sup- pose, from the natural impetuosity of Henry’s temper, that he was incensed enough at first. and that there was the ut. most need for some powerful friend to interpose between the duke and danger: Wolsey was that friend: Wolsey was then but archbishop of York, neither cardinal nor lord high chancellor, and consequently his greatness was but just * Cavendish, p. 90, + So Shakespeare makes Wolsey style Henry VIIE.~
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