reclaimed into the Church of S. Frideswide, where he supplied the rest that lacked of hys plenarie penance.
This section was introduced in 1570, as Foxe's work moved towards becoming a chronologically complete narrative, and concentrated on public events. It draws chiefly on one of Foxe's most regular sources of information, and of chronological confusion: Edward Hall and Richard Grafton, The vnion of the two noble and illustrate famelies of Lancastre & Yorke (STC 12721: London, 1548), supplemented by a few more specific documents.Alec Ryrie
[Back to Top]Marginalia1541.
Aug.
The Ladye Anne of Cleue diuorced frō the kyng.THe same yeare and moneth nexte following, after the apprehension of the Lorde Cromwell, whiche was an. 1541
1540.
In the same moneth of August, and the same yeare, I finde moreouer in some recordes
There are somewhat conflicting accounts of this episode. On 4 August 1540, a group of men were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn: as many as thirteen people. They included (1) Giles Heron, Thomas More's son-in-law; (2) William Horne, a former Carthusian lay brother (a separate individual from Giles Heron), condemned for denying the royal supremacy along with Thomas Abell, Richard Featherstone and Edward Powell; (3) Clement Philpot, a servant of Lord Lisle, the deputy of Calais, attainted for treasonable adherence to Cardinal Pole, but hardly an exemplary Catholic, for he had readily denounced a priest named Gregory Botolph for papalism earlier the same year; (4) Charles Carew, a bastard of the recently executed Sir Nicholas Carew, Charles now being attained of felony for committing a robbery, and as a result merely hanged; and (5) Thomas Epsam, whose case Foxe summarises from the account in Hall and Grafton, The vnion of the two noble and illustrate famelies of Lancastre & Yorke, part II, fo. 243v. Heron, Horne, Philpot and Carew, along with some of the other victims, had all been attainted in the outgoing parliament. So too had Laurence Coke, prior of Doncaster, for his role in the Pilgrimage of Grace. However, Coke survived to be pardoned in October, although Foxe was not alone in assuming that he had met his end. The sources for Foxe's account, which does not follow any other surviving account precisely, are unclear, but there was certainly more than one. Foxe's account of Epsam, at least, is taken entirely from Hall and Grafton's chronicle, but Epsam is the only victim whom Hall and Grafton list. Stanford E. Lehmberg, The Later Parliaments of Henry VIII (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 109-11, 126-7; National Archives, SP 1 / 160 fo. 128v (LP XV 727); LP XV 953; Charles Wriothesley, A Chronicle of England during the Reigns of the Tudors, ed. William D. Hamilton, vol. I (Camden Society ns XI, 1875), p. 121; 32 Henry VIII c. 49 (Statutes of the Realm, vol. III (1817), p. 812).
[Back to Top]Nicholas Harpsfield, Dialogi Sex contra ... Pseudomartyres (Antwerp, 1566). Foxe's decision to reveal the existence of a group of Catholic martyrs of whom Harpsfield had not known may appear quixotic. It did, however, help to establish his impartiality and credibility as a historian, as well as emphasising none too subtly that it was he, not Harpsfield, who had the best access to documents.
[Back to Top]Marginalia1542.Now as touching the late mariage betwene the kyng and the Ladye Haward, ye heard how thys matrimonie endured not long: for in the yeare next following. 1542. the sayd Ladye Katherine was accused to the kyng of incontinent liuing, not onely before her mariage with Fraunces Direham, but also of spousebrech sith her mariage, with Thom. Culpeper. For the which both the men aforesayd, by acte of Parlament were atteinted and executed for high treason, and also the sayd Ladye Katherine late Queene, with the Lady Iane Rochford widow, late wife to George Boleine Lord Rochforde brother to Queene Anne Boleine, MarginaliaIt is reported of some, that this Lady Rochforde forged a false letter against her husband, and Queene Anne hys sister, by the which they were both caste away. Which if it bee so, the iudgement of God then is here to be marked.were beheaded for their desertes within the Tower. Ex Hallo, & alijs.
[Back to Top]After the death and punishment of thys Lady hys fourth wife, the kyng calling to remēbraunce þe wordes of the Lorde Cromwell, and missing nowe more and more hys olde Counsailler, and partlye also smellyng somewhat the wayes of Winchester, beganne a litle to sette in his foote againe in the cause of religion. And although hee euer bare a speciall fauour to Thomas Cranmer Archb. of Canterburye (as you shall heare more hereafter God willing, in the lyfe of Cranmer) MarginaliaThe kings minde inclining to reformatiō of religion.yet now the more he missed the L. Cromwell, the more he inclined to þe Archbishop, & also to the ryght cause of religion. And therefore in the same yeare
In fact the previous year, 1541, while Henry VIII was on his northern progress.
Likely taken from Lambeth Palace Library, Register of Thomas Cranmer, fo. 21r.
MarginaliaThe kings letters to the Archb. for reformyng of Idolatrye.RIght reuerend father in God, right trustie and welbeloued, we grete you well, letting you to witte, that wheras heretofore vppon the zeale and remembraunce, which we had to our bounden duetie towardes almightie God, perceauing sondrye superstitions and abuses to be vsed and embrased by our people, wherby they greuouslye offended hym and hys worde: we dyd not onely cause the Images and bones of such as they resorted and offred vnto, with the ornamentes of the same, and all such writinges and monumentes of fained miracles, wherwith they were illuded, to bee taken away in all places of our realme, but also by our iniunctions cōmaūded that no offring or setting vppe of lightes or candels, should be suffred in any Church, but onely to the blessed Sacrament of the altar: It is lately come to our knowledge, that thys our good intent and purpose, notwithstandyng the shrines, coueringes of shrines, and monumentes of those thinges do yet remaine in sondry places of this realme, much to the sclaunder of our doinges, and to the great displeasure of almightie God, the same being meanes to allure our subiectes to their former hipocrisie and superstition: and also that our Iniunctions bee not kept as appertayneth. MarginaliaShrines and monumentes of Idolatrie abolyshed by the kyng.For the due and spedie reformation wherof, we haue thought meete, by these our letters, expresly to will and commaund you, that incontinently vpon the receite hereof, you shall not onely cause due search to bee made in your Cathedrall Church for those thynges, and if any shrine, coueryng of shrine, table, monument of miracles, or other pilgrimages, doe their continue, to cause it so to bee taken away as there remayne no memorye of it, but also that you shall take order, with all the Curates & other hauyng charge within your dioces, to doe the semblable, and to see that our Iniunctions bee duelie kept as appertayneth, without fayling, as we trust you, and as you will aunswere for the contrarye.
[Back to Top]
Geuen vnder our signet at our towne
of Hull, the 4. day of October in the 33.
yeare of our reigne.
Furthermore, the next yeare after this ensuyng, which was. 1543. in the moneth of February folowed an other proclamation giuen out by the kynges authoritie, wherin the Popes law forbiddyng white meates to be eaten in Lent, was repealed and the eatyng of such meates set at libertie, for the behoufe of the kings subiectes. The copie of which proclamation I thought here good also to be remembred.
[Back to Top]This reproduces the proclamation printed by the King's Printer, Thomas Berthelet (STC 7800; cf. Paul L. Hughes and James F. Larkin (eds.), Tudor Royal Proclamations 1485-1553 (New Haven & London, 1964), no. 214, p. 309). Foxe apparently did not know that the Lenten fast had been relaxed in identical terms at least twice before, in 1538 and 1542: Hughes and Larkin, Tudor Royal Proclamations, nos. 177, 209, pp. 261, 309.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaAn. 1543.
The eating of white meates in Lent set at libertie.FOr asmuch as by diuers & sondry occasions, as well herynges, lynges, saltfishe, samond, stockefishe as other kyndes of fishe ben this yeare scant and also enhaūced in prices aboue the old rate and common estimation of their valour, so that if the kynges louyng subiectes should be enforced onely to bye and prouide heryng and other salte store of fishe, for the necessarye and sufficient sustentation and maynteinaunce of their housholdes and families all this holy time of Lēt, accordyng as thy haue bene wont in tymes past to do, and should not bee by some other cōuenient meanes, releued therin, þe same might and should vndoubtedly redound to their importable charge and detriment: and for somuch as hys highnes considereth how this kynde and maner of fastyng, (that is to say) to absteyne from milke, butter, egges, cheese, & other white meates, is but a mere positiue law of the Church, and vsed by a custome within this realme, and of none other force or necessity, but the same may be vpon good considerations & groundes, altered & dispensed with from tyme to time, by the publicke authority of kynges & prynces, when soeuer they shall preceaue the same to tend to the hurt & damage of there people: The kynges hyghnes therefore most graciously consideryng & tenderyng the wealth and commoditye of hys people, hath thought good for the considerations aboue rehearsed, to release & dispence with the sayd law and custome of absteynyng frō whyte meates this holy tyme of Lent, and of hys especiall grace and mere motion geueth and