ended on the scaffold. Henry had still some years to live. He married a fifth wife, Catharine Howard, but she, too, lost her head. His sixth wife, Catharine Parr, actually lived longer than he did. Of the last years of Henry's reign there is not much to tell. There was a war with France, and a war with Scotland. The Protestants were kept down by the Six Articles, but some slight changes took place in the services of the Church. The Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Commandments were translated into English, then the Litany was sent forth in English, and this was accompanied by other prayers to be used in English. The Mass, or service of the Holy Sacrament, was still said in Latin. When at last the king died, he had prepared the way for a greater change.

CHAPTER XIX.

EDWARD VI. AND MARY.

(EDWARD VI., 1547. MARY, 1553.)

1. The War in Scotland, and the new Prayer Book.-Henry's son, Edward VI., was only a child when his father died. The country was governed by the young king's uncle, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, who was called the Protector. Somerset was not a wise man. He had so many schemes in his head that he had no time to do anything properly. He went to war with Scotland, in order

to make the Scots give their young queen Mary in marriage to Edward VI. He beat the Scots in a battle at Pinkie, near Edinburgh, and burnt and destroyed a great number of houses. The Scots naturally grew angry, and sent their young queen

to France, where she was married to the king's eldest son. Somerset had also plenty to do at home. He had the images which Henry had left pulled down in the churches. In less than two years after Henry's death, parliament ordered a new Prayer Book in the English language to be read in all the churches, and gave permission to clergymen

to marry, which had not been allowed before. All these changes shocked many people, and there was a rebellion in Devonshire and Cornwall, which was only put down with great difficulty.

2. Seizure of Church Property.-Somerset was not a man likely to gain the confidence of the people. He seems really to have wished to do what he thought right, but he was also very anxious to make himself and his friends rich. Henry VIII. had set the bad example of dividing the lands of the monasteries amongst the lords whom he favoured. When the lands of the monasteries had been divided, the next thing was to take what belonged to the churches. Somerset was building for himself a great house in the Strand in London, which was called Somerset House from his name. In order to make room for t he pulled down a church and blew up a chapel with gunpowder. At the same time, he dug up part of a churchyard and carried away the bodies of the dead to make room for houses and shops.

3. Somerset's Fall. It was not long before the Protector had fresh difficulties to meet. The rich landowners went on inclosing land to keep sheep on, and turning out the people who used to be busy in ploughing and sowing for corn. There was great ill-feeling, and in Norfolk there was a rebellion headed by Ket, a tanner. His followers pulled down the palings of the inclosures in all the country round. Somerset pitied the men in rebellion, but he did not know how to help them, though he did not like to attack them. The other great men who were about him had no pity at all for the poor,

They sent soldiers to Norfolk under the command of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who had no pity, and soon put down the rebellion. Then they took the protectorate away from Somerset, and not long afterwards they accused him of trying to get power again. He was convicted and executed.

4. Northumberland's Government.-The government fell into the hands of the Earl of Warwick, who was soon afterwards made Duke of Northumberland. He was a selfish, wicked man. He pretended to be very pious and to do all he could. for the Protestants. A second Prayer Book was sent out which was much more Protestant than the

one prepared at the beginning of the reign. He and his friends plundered the country. They put money into their own pockets which ought to have been used to pay the men who had worked for the king. Their evil example was widely followed. The people of this country,' said a preacher at this time, say that their gentlemen and officers were never so full of fair words and ill deeds as now they be.' To numbers of men in England Protestantism seemed to have brought nothing with it but the villainy and rascality which stained the greedy men who were in power. Yet even in this evil time the new faith was bearing better fruit. Latimer, a bold. preacher of righteousness, told great lords to their faces that they ought not only to be ashamed of their wickedness, but that they ought to make restitution to the poor of all that they had taken from them by trickery or violence. In many towns the merchants and shopkeepers gave money to found schools, which should be open freely to the poor.

5. Death of Edward VI., and Accession of Mary.Edward VI. was a sickly lad. He died of consumption before he grew to be a man. Before he died, Northumberland persuaded him to leave the crown to his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, who was a Protestant, He had no more right to leave it to her than Edward the Confessor had had to appoint William of Normandy as his successor. The whole people rallied round Edward's eldest sister Mary. When Northumberland went out to oppose her in the name of Queen Jane, his own men threw their caps into the air and shouted, God save Queen Mary!' Mary

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