The mode of conducting the proceeding, and the nature and value of the evidence produced against the Duke, we shall notice particularly in our remarks at the close of the trial. He appears to have always admitted the justice of his condemnation, though he steadily denied all intention of using force against the Government, or violence to the Queen's person. In a letter* to his children, written after his trial, he says, with reference to the evidence against him, Surely Bannister dealt no way but honestly and truly; Hickford did not hurt me, in my conscience, willingly; nor did not charge me in any great matter that was of weight otherwise than truly; but the Bishop of Rosse, and especially Barker, did falsely accuse me, and laid their own treasons upon my back.' Shortly after his condemnation, being pressed by the Queen to declare his accomplices in this treason, he assures her that he 'knew no more than that he had been charged with, nor much of that; but that although of his own knowledge he knew no more than he had particularly confessed, if he had been before his conviction, when he would have been believed, brought face to face with the shameless Scot and Italianified Englishman (alluding to Rosse and Barker), something might have bolted out which remained undiscovered, and which would have shown that he was not such a traitor as he had been suspected to be. God knows (he said) whether this snare was laid for me upon further practice than yet appears, and God knows whether, when they found I was not fit for their traitorous intents, they thought me an obstacle to some new-forged practices.'†

Immediately after [the trial he was formerly degraded from the order of the Garter by the Queen's command; but Elizabeth showed great reluctance to consent to his execution. Warrants were repeatedly + Murdin, p. 170.

* Harl. MSS., No. 787. VOL. XVI.

12*

signed by her, and as often revoked. To all the remonstrances made by Cecil and her Council, she suggested his near relationship to herself, his former intimacy with her, and his numerous good qualities; and it was not until four months afterwards, when warmly urged by the Parliament, and at length, perhaps, convinced by the frequent and formidable designs made to rescue him from the Tower and to liberate the Scottish Queen, that his life was inconsistent with the security of her own government, that she suffered the execution of his sentence to proceed. The following account of what passed at his execution is taken from Camden, who was present on the occasion.

'On the 2nd of June [1572], at eight o'clock in the morning, the Duke was brought to a scaffold erected upon Tower Hill; whereon when he was mounted, Alexander Nowel, Dean of St Paul's, who was there as his ghostly comforter, desired the multitude that stood round to keep silence; after which the Duke said, ""Tis no new thing for men to suffer death in this place; though, since the beginning of our most gracious Queen's reign, I am the first, and God grant I may be the last. I acknowledge my Peers have justly sentenced me worthy of death; nor have I any design to excuse myself. I freely confess that I treated with the Queen of Scots in things of great moment, without my sovereign's knowledge, which I ought not to have done; whereupon I was cast into the Tower. But I was afterwards set at liberty, having made an humble submission, and promised upon honour to have nothing more to do with her; yet I confess I acted contrary, and this in truth disturbs my conscience. But I neither promised nor sware it at the Lord's table, as is commonly reported. I once conferred with Rudolphi, but not to the Queen's prejudice. For there are several which know I had to do with him about money-matters,

upon bills and bonds. I found him to be one who envied the peace of England, and forward to contrive any villany. Two letters from the Pope I saw, but by no means approved of them, nor of the rebellion in the North. I have never been Popishly inclined ever since I had any taste of religion; but was always averse to the Popish doctrine, embracing the true religion of Jesus Christ, and putting my whole trust in the blood of Christ, my blessed Redeemer and Saviour. Yet I must own that some of my servants and acquaintance were addicted to the Romish religion. If in this I have offended either God, the Church, or the Protestants, I pray God and them to forgive me."

Then, after the reading a psalm or two, he said with a loud voice, "Lord Jesus, into thy hands I cominend my spirit." After this, he embraced Sir Henry Leigh, and whispered something to him; and Dean Nowel, turning to the people, said, "The Duke desires you would all of you pray to God to have mercy on him, and withal keep silence, that his mind may not be disturbed." The executioner asked him forgiveness, and had it granted. One offering him a handkerchief to cover his eyes, he refused it, saying, "I am not in the least afraid of death." Then falling on his knees, he lay prostrate with his mind fixed upon God, and Dean Nowel prayed with him. Presently after, he stretched his neck upon the block, and his head was immediately cut off at one blow, and showed by the executioner to the sorrowful and weeping multitude.

'It is incredible how dearly the people loved him; whose good-will he had gained by a munificence and extraordinary affability suitable to so great a prince. The wiser sort of men were variously affected: some were terrified at the greatness of the danger, which, during his life, seemed to threaten the state from him and his faction. Others were moved with pity

towards him, as one very nobly descended, of an extraordinary good-nature, comely personage, and manly presence; who might have been both a support and ornament to his country, had not the crafty wiles of the envious, and his own false hopes, led on with a show of doing the public service, diverted him from his first course of life. They called likewise to father, a man of extra

mind the untimely end of his ordinary learning, and famous in war, who was beheaded in the same place five and twenty years before.'

The Trial of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, in the Court of the Lord High Steward of England, for High Treason. Jan. 16th, A. D. 1571-2.

THE Duke was brought early in the morning to the Three Cranes by land, as the tide would not allow the passage on the water through the bridge; and he was thence conveyed up the river by the Lieutenant of the Tower, and Sir Peter Carew. He was then conveyed

*The report of this trial, as published in the Collections of Hargrave and Howell, is extremely imperfect in many respects; in consequence of the omission of the most material examinations, and several letters and papers, many parts of it are wholly unintelligible. In the following account of the trial, most of these documents are supplied from various published collections of State Papers, and from manuscripts in the British Museum ; the statement of the charges against the prisoner by the counsel for the prosecution has been compared with some manuscript notes preserved in the Harleian Collection, which appear to have been written previously to the trial by one of the counsel (probably Serjeant Barham), for the purpose of arranging his own thoughts, and enabling him to apply the evidence to the indictment so as to be clearly understood by the peers. We have also added from Camden, who was present, and from several authentic sources hitherto unpublished, such circumstances relating to the proceeding as appeared likely to add to its interest. The increased length of the trial will be compensated by exhibiting for the first time a complete and accurate picture of by far the most important state trial in the reign of Eliza

to the Lord Treasurer's chamber, where he remained till he was brought to the bar.

In Westminster Hall a large scaffold was prepared, about a foot distant from the Chancery Court; and to the same scaffold a long passage, about six feet broad, and high built all the way as far as to the Common Pleas bar. In the middle, on the south side of the scaffold, was erected a chair, somewhat higher than the rest, with a cloth of state; whereupon was seated the Lord High Steward of England, who, for that day, was George Earl of Shrewsbury. On both sides of the Lord High Steward sat the Lords who were appointed to be his triers, namely: Reginald Grey, Earl of Kent; Thomas Ratcliff, Earl of Sussex; Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon; Francis Russel, Earl of Bedford; Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke; Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford; Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick; Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; Walter D'Evereux, Viscount Hereford; Edward Lord Clinton, Lord-Admiral; William Lord Howard, of Effingham, Lord-Chamberlain; William Cecil, Lord Burleigh;* Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton; James Blount, Lord Mountjoy; William Lord Sands; Thomas Lord Wentworth; William Lord Burroughs; Lewis Lord Mordant; John Powlett Lord Saint John of Basing; Robert Lord Rich; Roger Lord North; Edmund Bruges Lord Chandois; Oliver Lord Saint John of Bletsho; Thomas Sackville Lord Buckhurst; William West Lord de la Ware.

On a lower form, at the Lords' feet, sat the Judges, viz. on the right hand Sir Robert Catline,† Lord Chief Justice of England; Sir James Dyer, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; and Sir Edward Saunders, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. On the left hand beth, originated by the greatest statesmen, and conducted by the most eminent lawyers of those days with unusual care and deliberation.

*In one of the manuscript reports of this trial, Lord Burleigh is said to have taken his rank at the head of the Peers of his own degree of nobility, by virtue of his office of principal Secretary.

† Sir Robert Catline, who succeeded Sir Edward Saunders as Lord Chief Justice, when the latter was removed to the