England -- Social life and customs -- 18th century -- Fiction; Epistolary fiction; Essays
This Monarch soon after his accession married the Princess Elizabeth of
York, by which alliance he plainly proved that he thought his own right
inferior to hers, tho’ he pretended to the contrary. By this Marriage
he had two sons and two daughters, the elder of which Daughters was
married to the King of Scotland and had the happiness of being
grandmother to one of the first Characters in the World. But of _her_,
I shall have occasion to speak more at large in future. The youngest,
Mary, married first the King of France and secondly the D. of Suffolk,
by whom she had one daughter, afterwards the Mother of Lady Jane Grey,
who tho’ inferior to her lovely Cousin the Queen of Scots, was yet an
amiable young woman and famous for reading Greek while other people
were hunting. It was in the reign of Henry the 7th that Perkin Warbeck
and Lambert Simnel before mentioned made their appearance, the former
of whom was set in the stocks, took shelter in Beaulieu Abbey, and was
beheaded with the Earl of Warwick, and the latter was taken into the
Kings kitchen. His Majesty died and was succeeded by his son Henry
whose only merit was his not being _quite_ so bad as his daughter
Elizabeth.
HENRY the 8th
It would be an affront to my Readers were I to suppose that they were
not as well acquainted with the particulars of this King’s reign as I
am myself. It will therefore be saving _them_ the task of reading again
what they have read before, and _myself_ the trouble of writing what I
do not perfectly recollect, by giving only a slight sketch of the
principal Events which marked his reign. Among these may be ranked
Cardinal Wolsey’s telling the father Abbott of Leicester Abbey that “he
was come to lay his bones among them,” the reformation in Religion and
the King’s riding through the streets of London with Anna Bullen. It is
however but Justice, and my Duty to declare that this amiable Woman was
entirely innocent of the Crimes with which she was accused, and of
which her Beauty, her Elegance, and her Sprightliness were sufficient
proofs, not to mention her solemn Protestations of Innocence, the
weakness of the Charges against her, and the King’s Character; all of
which add some confirmation, tho’ perhaps but slight ones when in
comparison with those before alledged in her favour. Tho’ I do not
profess giving many dates, yet as I think it proper to give some and
shall of course make choice of those which it is most necessary for the
Reader to know, I think it right to inform him that her letter to the
King was dated on the 6th of May. The Crimes and Cruelties of this
Prince, were too numerous to be mentioned, (as this history I trust has
fully shown;) and nothing can be said in his vindication, but that his
abolishing Religious Houses and leaving them to the ruinous
depredations of time has been of infinite use to the landscape of
England in general, which probably was a principal motive for his doing
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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