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CHAPTER XIII.

TRIAL OF EDWARD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

DWARD STRAFFORD, Duke of Buckingham,

was nobly descended, of large fortune, and great and powerful alliances; all of which could not save him from the destruction which the malice and revenge of Cardinal Wolsey brought upon him. The first seeds of discontent were sown in 1520, on the occasion of the interview between Francis of France and Henry VIII., when the Duke complained of the extravagance of the expense, and laid the blame on the cardinal, which his vindictive nature would not forgive.

The cardinal omitted no opportunity to whisper in the King's car surmises of the Duke's unfaithfulness and disaffection to his majesty; that the Duke had been heard to say, that he should arrange matters so as to obtain the crown for himself in case the King died without issue, and that he had. had conference upon the matter with George Nevil, Lord Abergavenny, and that he had threatened to punish the cardinal for being his enemy without a cause.

Being warned of the danger he was in from the wicked designs of the Duke, the King ordered his arrest. He was committed to the tower, and indicted upon several articles of high treason, in substance as follows:

That the said Duke, intending to exalt himself, and to usurp the crown and regal dignity, and to deprive the King's majesty of it, that so he might take the same upon himself against his allegiance, had on the 10th of March, in the second year of the King's reign, and at several other times, both before and after, imagined and

compassed the King's death and destruction at London and at Thornbury, in the county of Gloucester; and in order to the accomplishment of his wicked designs and purposes, he sent one of his chaplains, John De la Court. by name, on the 24th day of April, in the fourth year of the King's reign, to the priory of Henton, in the county of Somerset, which is a house of Carthusian monks, the substance of whose message was, to know of one Nicholas Hopkins, a monk of the same house, who was reputed to have the foreknowledge of future things revealed to him, what should happen concerning the matters he had entertained in his imagination, causing the said De la Court first to swear to him he would never divulge the words to any person whatsoever, except the Duke himself; and that Hopkins, in reply, did declare, that the Duke should have all, advising him, the better to accomplish his ends, to engage the affections of the people to him; that De la Court returned with this. answer, which he reported to the Duke next morning, being the 25th of April, at Thornbury.

That the Duke on the 22d of July, same year, sent De la Court with letters to the same monk, to be further informed in the matter. The monk answered again, he should have all, by the grace of God.

The third time the Duke sent to the monk, in the fifth year of the King's reign, desiring to know what would be the issue of the wars in France, and whether the King of Scots, during his majesty's absence, would invade the realm or not; that the monk among other things said that the King would have no male issue.

That on the 20th February, he said to the Earl of Westmoreland, "Well, there are two new dukes in the kingdom, but if the King should in any way miscarry, the Duke of Buckingham would be the next in blood and succession to the crown." That the monk afterwards