Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603 -- Fiction; Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction
This matter of religion was dividing the kingdom. Henry had called
himself a Catholic, but he would not admit the Pope's authority.
Edward and Elizabeth had been brought up in their father's belief. The
Duke of Somerset was one of the men chosen to carry out Henry's will,
and he was so decided a Protestant that he was almost as determined
to make every one accept the Protestant faith as Henry had been to
make all his people agree with himself. In spite of all King Henry's
declarations that neither Mary nor Elizabeth should ever wear the
crown, he had finally willed that it should descend first to Edward,
then to Mary and then to Elizabeth. The Catholics were eager to have
Mary come to the throne, because she was of their own faith; but the
Duke of Somerset had been chosen Protector, that is, he was really to
govern the kingdom until Edward was old enough to rule, and he meant to
oblige the people to become Protestants.
There was even more scheming going on around the boy king, for
his councilors were already planning for his marriage. A little
five-year-old girl in Scotland was the one whose hand they meant to
secure for their sovereign. Her name was Mary, and she was the Queen of
Scots. This plan had been one of King Henry's favorite schemes, but it
had never pleased the Scotch. The Protector led an army against them,
a most remarkable fashion of winning a bride for the young king, but
the Scotch would not yield.
"What greater honor do you expect for the queen?" demanded the English
council. "How can Scotland gain more sure protection than that of the
king of England?" The Scotch knew very well that if Edward married
Mary, it would be for the purpose of gaining a surer control of
Scotland, and they refused in spite of the Duke of Somerset and all his
army. They betrothed the little queen to the son of the French king,
and sent her to France to be educated. "The Scotch are a perverse and
wilful people," then said the English.
Besides the difficulty in gaining a wife for the king and the religious
persecutions, there was trouble from other causes, especially among the
poor. Part of this arose from what was called "enclosing." On every
great estate there had always been land that the poor people living
on the estate could use as a common pasture for their cows. The rich
landowners were beginning to "enclose," or fence in these tracts of
land and to use them either for private parks or for sheep pastures.
The poor had no longer any way to feed their animals, and they were
in great distress. Somerset tried to forbid this enclosing, but the
owners of land were too powerful for him, and the enclosing went on in
spite of the strictest laws against it. Indeed, the laws caused a new
difficulty, for now that the poor people had a decree in their favor,
they revolted in several districts, and tried to seize the land. A
writer who lived in those times says, "The poor people swarmed in the
realm."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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