Great Britain -- History -- Mary I, 1553-1558; Mary I, Queen of England, 1516-1558
"At last," however, "the evil savours, great
unquietness, with over many drafts of air," threw
the poor gentleman into a burning ague. He shifted
"his lodgings," but to no purpose; the "evil
savours" followed him. The keeper offered him his
own parlour, where he escaped from the noise of the
prison; but it was near the kitchen, and the smell
of the meat was disagreeable. Finally, the wife put
him away in her store-closet, amidst her best
plate, crockery, and clothes, and there he
continued to survive till the middle of September,
when he was released on bail through the
interference of the Earl of Bedford.--Underhill's
Narrative: _Harleian MSS._ 425.]
{p.035} Edward's body was meanwhile examined. The physicians
{p.036} reported that without doubt he had died of poison, and there
was a thought of indicting the Duke of Northumberland for his murder:
but it was relinquished on further inquiry; the poison, if the
physicians were right, must have been administered by negligence or
accident. The corpse was then buried (August 6) with the forms of the
Church of England at Westminster Abbey; the Archbishop of Canterbury,
who had so far been left at liberty, read the service; it was the last
and saddest function of his public ministry which he was destined to
perform. Simultaneously, as Mary had determined, requiems were chanted
in the Tower Chapel; and Gardiner, in the presence of the queen and
four hundred persons, sung the mass for the dead with much solemnity.
The ceremony was, however, injured by a misfortune; after the gospel
the incense was carried round, and the chaplain who bore it was
married; Doctor Weston, who was afterwards deprived of the deanery of
Windsor for adultery, darted forward and snatched the censer out of
the chaplain's hand. "Shamest thou not to do thine office," he said,
"having a wife, as thou hast? The queen will not be censed by such as
thou."[82] Nor was scandal the worst part of it. Elizabeth had been
requested to attend, and had refused; angry murmurs and curses against
the Bishop of Winchester were heard among the yeomen of the guard;
while the queen made no secret of her desire that the example which
she had set should be imitated. Renard trembled for the consequences;
Noailles anticipated a civil war; twenty thousand men, the latter
said, would lose their lives before England would be cured of
heresy;[83] yet Mary had made a beginning, and as she had begun she
was resolved that others should continue.
[Footnote 82: Strype.]
[Footnote 83: Noailles, vol. ii. p. 111.]
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