wisdom, no power of compromise, and small insight into public opinion. He failed in his foreign policy, when he sought to carry out the ideas of Henry VIII., but he was equally unsuccessful at home when he strove to repudiate all that Henry had striven for. After less than three years he fell utterly from power.

3. England was at peace with France and Scotland when the new reign began, and a prudent ruler would have steered clear of foreign complications during the troubles of a minority. But Somerset, though his hands were full with the reform- Foreign Politics, ing of the English Church, was unpractical enough to

1547-1550.

Battle of Pinkie

Sept. 1547.

think the moment come when he could carry out Henry VIII.'s old plan of uniting England and Scotland by the marriage of the little king and queen. Religion also moved him in the same direction, for he hoped for the support of the Scots reformers, whose stronghold at St. Andrews had recently been captured by the French auxiliaries of the Scots government. Though there was an opening for prudence and diplomacy, the means taken by Somerset to unite the kingdoms made union impossible for another two generations. He talked of reviving Edward I.'s claims of overlordship over Scotland, and on 4th September 1547 crossed the Borders at the head of a great army, a large proportion of which was cavalry, to carry out his policy by sheer superiority of strength. All Scotland united to oppose foreign invasion, and a numerous Scots army took up a strong position on the left bank of the Esk, over against Musselburgh, hoping to protect Edinburgh, which had previously suffered so severely from Somerset's hands. On 8th September Somerset occupied the heights on the right bank of the river, while the English fleet, anchored close ashore in the Forth, threatened the left flank of the Scots. For two days the armies watched each other, but, early on the roth, the Scots in their eagerness to attack Cleugh, 10th Somerset, abandoned their strong position, crossed the Esk over Musselburgh bridge, and marched against the English posted on the high ground beyond. This led to the decisive battle of Musselburgh or Pinkie Cleugh. The English moved down to meet the enemy, and the Scots pikemen, standing in dense array, after the ancient fashion, valiantly withstood the shock of Lord Grey's cavalry, which charged them downhill. The English horse broke and fled, but the pikemen were powerless to pursue them uphill, and halted in a dangerous position, where their columns were soon broken up by the merciless fire of the English from their higher quarters. The military skill of Warwick, who led the middle portion of the English army, now changed the fortunes of the day. He poured fresh masses of English cavalry down the hill, and this time the pikemen were at their mercy. The Scots army fled in disorder, and the English, with insignificant losses.to themselves, utterly destroyed it. Leith was burned, and Scotland again ruthlessly plundered. But the military triumph of the Protector was more than outbalanced by his political failure. Indignant at the armed wooing of the English king, the Scots renewed their treaty with France, where Henry II. had just succeeded his father, Francis I., as king. In 1548 the little queen was sent

beyond sea to be educated as a Frenchwoman and a Catholic, and the destined bride of the future French king, Henry's son Francis. Her mother, Mary of Guise, henceforth ruled Scotland in the French and Catholic interest, and for more than ten years the cause of the Reformation seemed utterly eclipsed. French troops were sent to Scotland, and effectually prevented a renewal of the policy of invasion. In revenge for the attack on Scotland, the French assailed Boulogne, and after a long struggle won it back. After Somerset's fall peace was made with both countries on conditions that reversed all the successes of Henry VIII. (1550).

4. Somerset threw himself heartily into the work of reforming the Church, and giving up Henry's idea of a

middle way, strove to make England Protestant after the German fashion. Cranmer entirely agreed with him, having long been secretly influenced by the The Reformation German Lutherans, though he soon went under Somerset, beyond their teaching. The archbishop was a 1547-1549: wretched politician, his weakness of character and deference to the great making him the tool of all factions in succession, but he was a man of some learning and much refinement of feeling, possessing a singular power of writing good English, a power he was now able to employ to the great advantage of the Church. His delicate scholarship and timidity combined to make him a lover of ancient forms, even when he was fast departing from their spirit, and did something to prevent him from utterly deserting the ways of Henry VIII. Too weak to withstand the greedy courtiers, who soon outvied Somerset in their pretended zeal for reformation, he was still able to go on working quietly to establish the new system on sound lines. It is largely due to the influence of Cranmer that, amidst the fierce passions and fiercer self-seeking of the reign of Edward VI., some solid results remained, that permanently affected for good the course of religion in England.

Immediately after the young king's accession, the bishops were compelled to take out new appointments by letters patent, in order to emphasise the fact that they were mere officials of state, with no independent power or divine right. Then a general royal visitation of the whole country was held to enforce the Royal Supremacy, and remove images and other superstitious" emblems from the churches. The bishops of the old school, headed by Gardiner and Bonner, struggled in vain against the visitors. A book of English Homilies was next set up, as a sort of authorised sermons, which the clergy were to read to their flocks. Parliament ordered that the Holy Communion should be administered in both kinds, repealed the Six Articles, and the other Acts of Henry creating new treasons and heresies. A new Act was passed granting to the king such colleges, chantries, and free chapels as had escaped confiscation under Henry VIII., and the councillors made haste to make themselves rich with the spoils. A mere fraction of the proceeds was kept for national purposes. Some schools and hospitals which the ancient ecclesiastical colleges had maintained, were "refounded," and perhaps a few new ones set up. These measures have given Edward VI. a very undeserved reputation as a

Book of

founder of grammar schools and patron of learning. This credit is not much better merited than the cheap fame won in the same way by Henry VIII. In other ways the Church was impoverished. Somerset himself pulled down churches and bishops' houses, to build himself a palace in the Strand. Cranmer was little more than a reed in his hands, and powerless to protect the Church. The clergy obtained a grudging permission to marry, and had their tithes secured to them. But they shared in the growing demoralisation, and many sought to make a little harvest on their own account. A few strenuous preachers of the new faith strove to kindle the sluggish zeal of a people who had grown careless of the old order, without any real enthusiasm for the new. Conspicuous among these was Hugh Latimer, who, refusing another bishopric, preferred to work as a simple preacher. He lamented that things were worse than in the "old days of Popery," and in plain homely language sought to make men ashamed of their greed and selfishness 5. The most important change now brought about was the abolition of the Latin services, and the setting up of a The First Prayer new English Prayer Book. Some steps in this direction had been already taken under Henry VIII., and, since 1543, Cranmer's committee had been hard at work. In 1547, when Communion in both kinds was ordered, an English form of receiving that Sacrament was drawn up. At last, in 1549, the Act of Uniformity was passed, enjoining the reading in all English churches of the form of service known as the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. It was a very careful and reverent translation of the medieval Latin services into the vulgar tongue, with a few omissions and additions, and the putting together of the numerous short forms of service of the ancient Church into the order for Morning and Evening Prayer, but with great care shown not to wound the feelings of lovers of old ways. This was especially seen in the Communion Service, which taught the Real Presence and the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and carefully kept most of the ancient ceremonies. Such a little way did it go that the ardent reformers were dissatisfied with it, and those who hated the changes, like Bonner, could still try to carry on the new services in the old spirit, and with the old ceremonies. Accordingly, another royal visitation was held to enforce the new service book. Bonner was deprived of his bishopric, and imprisoned for the rest of the reign.

Edward VI., 1549.

6. Besides the religious revolution, the social and economic changes that had caused so much misery under Henry VIII. were still far from having run their course. The only remedy that Council and Parliament could find for poverty was a severe law that any "vagabond" might be seized and kept as a slave for two years, being forced to work on bread and water and liable to be beaten at his master's pleasure, while if he escaped, he became a slave for life.

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Somerset had let loose powers that he was not strong enough to control, and the quarrels of the councillors further distracted the realm and weakened the government. Pirates plundered the coasts, and the government could only pay its way by coining bad money, and forcing people to receive it as good. Somerset's brother, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, a man of much wit and very little judgment," strove to rise into power as the mouthpiece of the prevailing discontent. He married Henry VIII.'s widow, and on her death sought to marry the Lady Elizabeth. He used his position as Admiral to make friends with the pirates whom he was sent to put down, and supplied himself with funds by obtaining the control of the Bristol mint.

Execution of

But he was too headstrong and rash to play Lord Seymour his part properly. In March 1549 he was of Sudeley, 1549. executed as a traitor, being condemned by Act of Attainder. But his brother's death gave Somerset only a short respite.

7. Disgust at the Prayer Book led to a new Pilgrimage of Grace in the south-west, where the first reading of the English service on Whitsunday 1549 was fol- The risings of lowed by a riot that soon grew into a wide- 1549. spread popular insurrection of the conservative western counties. The rebels denounced the new Prayer Book as "like a Christmas game," and demanded the restoration of the Mass and the Six Articles, and the recall of Cardinal Pole.

While the Devonshire men rose to uphold the ancient order, bad government and social grievances led the men of Norfolk, where the reforming spirit was strongest, to take up arms against the Protectorate. The eastern counties had suffered terribly from the enclosure of commons, which had deprived the poor man of his rights of pasture, and by the turning of plough-lands into sheep-walks, against which More had long ago lifted up his voice. While the poor found it harder to get work, a few rich men made unhallowed gains at their expense. The new