Delft wrote to the emperor, the councillors are now of a different aspect, and much inclined to please and entertain the earl and the admiral [Dudley], neither of whom have ever been very favourably disposed towards your Majesty's subjects. This being the case. . . these two have entirely obtained the favour and authority of the king, . . . nothing is done at court without their intervention, and the meetings of the Council are mostly held in the Earl of Hertford's house. It is even asserted that the custody of the prince and the government of the realm will be entrusted to them, and the misfortunes that have befallen the house of Norfolk may well be said to have come from the same quarter. As regards the diversity of religion, the people at large are to a great extent on their (Seymour and Dudley's) side, the majority being of these perverse sects and in favour of getting rid of the bishops.' The ambassador continues later, 'I have always found the king, personally, strongly in favour of preserving the friendship with your Majesty, and I understand he will never change in this respect: but it is to be feared, if God take him, which I trust will not be the case for many years, the change will cause cause trouble and plunge everything here into

confusion.'

A few days later Chapuys, the other Imperial ambassador, wrote to the queen dowager of his fears that, in the coming parliament, the bishops would be divested of their property and authority, and receive nothing but certain pensions from the king's coffers. This plan he thought the Earl of Hertford had first conceived through the teaching of Cromwell, who, as soon as he doubted his ability to reconcile the emperor with the king, adopted the expedient of entering into this heresy, and so to place the whole of the realm at issue with his Imperial Majesty.' 'If,' he adds, ‘(which God forbid) the king should die, which would be more inopportune for us than it would have been twenty years ago,

it is probable that these two men (Seymour and Dudley) will have the management of affairs, because, apart from the king's affection for them and other reasons, there are no other nobles of a fit age and ability for the task.' The king's death came sooner than either Chapuys or Van der Delft expected. On the night of Thursday, the 27th of January 1547, while the Duke of Norfolk lay in the Tower, a condemned prisoner awaiting execution, Henry lay in his palace at Westminster, the victim whom Death had chosen in the other's stead. As, overcome by weakness, the king slept a little through the night, outside in the gallery there paced the Earl of Hertford and his ally Sir William Paget, the king's chief secretary, watching each moment for the momentous change to come. At two o'clock in the morning Henry passed away, and, as the reins of authority fell from his hand, Hertford and Paget concerted together outside in the gallery to secure the handling of those reins for themselves. Handing over the king's will to Paget, Hertford himself set off to secure the person of Edward VI., then at Hertford, deciding meanwhile to keep secret the news of the king's death. On Monday he was returning to London with the young prince, and on that day Henry's death was announced in parliament by the Chancellor, while Paget read aloud the greater part of the king's will. At three o'clock in the afternoon the kinges maiestie . . . rode in at Algate and so along the wall by the Crossed Friars to the Towre Hill and entred at the Redd Bulwarke where Sir John Gaze, Constable of the Toure, and the Lieutenant receaved his maiestie on horsebacke, the Erle of Hertforde ryding before the king and Sir Anthonie Broun riding after the kinge.' 'Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!'

Turning back to consider what those last years of the reign of Henry VIII. had meant in the life of Sir Thomas Seymour, one gains some idea of the capacities and character of the man who was to be so deadly a rival to

the kingly pretensions of his brother. He had, as we have seen before, been frequently employed on embassies,1 and thus, in the spring of 1542, he was despatched on a mission to Ferdinand, King of Hungary, to ascertain the state of that country and its possible attitude to England in the event of a war between England and France. He seems to have been well received in Vienna, where he found Ferdinand engaged in preparations for an attack on Buda and Pesth. Writing from the thick of the preparations early in July, Sir Thomas gave an account of the forces of the King of Hungary, and also mentioned the delivery of Henry's missive concerning the engagement of troops to Baron Heydyke, a pensioner upon England, 'who,' he states, friendly doth offer us all the pleasure that in hym ys.' 'It may plesse Your Heynes,' he continues, to hold me exkewsed with this elle hand and grosse indytyng of this letter, for this tyme and I trost shortly, for lake of a better to trobell Your Heynes with the lieke thereof.' Six days later he wrote the king a full account of the strength of weapons and men of the King of Hungary and his chances in the coming expedition against Buda. Of the attitude of the country to the French he writes, "Here hath ben a proclamation made that all Frenche men do forth with avoyde the camp, and that if any be founde within the presynk of the same that he shall losse hys hede. I assure Your Heynes, as ferre as I can perseve, that never nashon was worse beloved in a camp than they be here.' Early the next month he reported to Henry that the news concerning the approaching attack on Buda was so unserten ' that he was in fere to wreyght them' to the king lest what he should wreyght shuld prove contrarey.' In effect the preparations of Ferdinand were fruitless, as the attack on Buda and on Pesth failed utterly, and the Turks

1 See Cal. S. P. Dom., vols. xvii.-xx., for letters written by Sir Thomas Seymour.

were left in possession. Sir Thomas, who had gone with the army to Pesth, was recalled by Henry in the following autumn, being finally commissioned to ascertain what force of mercenaries could be put at the disposal of England. Further, the king bade him to conduct and hier there for Us at such wages as you shall think mete, ten taborynes on horsbak after the Hungaryons facion; and if it be possible, whatsoever we pay for them, to get oon or two of that sorte that can both skilfully make the sayd taborynes and use them and likewise we wolde you shuld provyde us of ten good dromes and as many fifes.' Seymour wrote back to England that he would do his best to arrange for the hire of mercenaries, and had already sent a man with all delegence to the campe to provyde the dromes and fyffes.' As for the drums and fifes he wrote, as I passe throw the contre I shall inquyre for the ketell dromes that you wolde have provyded, for in the camp thar warre but 2, the on was with the Hongeryns and the other with the Generall.'

:

In the following December Seymour was despatched to Nuremberg to treat for the hire of mercenaries, but the negotiations fell through, and he was recalled in January 1542-3. In the following May, as a result of his treaty with the emperor, Henry decided to send ambassadors to reside with the Queen Regent of Flanders, and chose Sir Thomas Seymour and Dr. Nicholas Wotten for the express purpose of communicating to her matters and things respecting the said closer friendship and alliance.' Chapuys himself wrote to the Queen Regent in favour and commendation of 'Mons. de Semel,' as he styled Sir Thomas, 'both out of respect for the king, who sends him to reside at your majesty's court as on account of that gentleman's qualifications and honourable parts, for this king's satisfaction, and the many obligations under which I stand towards him and his brother, the Earl of

Hertford, lord high chamberlain of the king.' In June the queen wrote to Chapuys telling him how the English ambassadors, by that time resident at her court, had earnestly requested her to exempt the English merchants from the duty of 1 per cent., saying they had a mandate to that effect from the king their master. Though unwilling to sustain the loss such an exemption would bring, the queen, by their persuasion and considering the present state of affairs and fearing that if we went on refusing the application they (the English) might delay the settlement of matters of greater importance' decided to postpone the collection of the duty from English merchants until some further agreement should be made with the king.

Early in the next month, before the matter was settled, Sir Thomas Seymour was recalled. War had been declared against France by the King of England, and Sir Thomas Seymour was appointed marshal of the army sent to Calais under Sir Thomas Cheyne. Dr. Nicholas Wotten, who was now left alone to represent England at the Queen Regent's court, wrote to Henry 'His (Sir Thomas Seymour's) departure hence must nedis be most discomfortable to me, for that burden of the whiche hitherto I have supporttide the lesse parte, now by his departure restithe holelye yn my necke, the whiche to sustayne I knowe and knowledge my self moste insufficient.' Meanwhile the command of the army in France had been transferred from Sir Thomas Cheyne to Sir John Wallop, and Sir Thomas Seymour was made second in command. On the 24th of July, Seymour was sent in command of a strong force against the Castle of Rinxent in the Boulonnais. The siege was successful and the castle was destroyed. Next, he attacked another castle called 'Arbrittayne,'' one of the strongest piles within Bullonoiz,' with the same success. Thence he marched towards Ligne, and Wallop reported