tered the Great Chamber fresh from his
new bridal. He took his seat upon the throne; and then Audeley, the Lord
Chancellor, rose and spoke:[615]

[Sidenote: The Lord Chancellor's speech at the opening.]

[Sidenote: The succession must be reconsidered.]

[Sidenote: And the king desires the parliament to name an heir
apparent.]

"At the dissolution of the late parliament, the King's Highness had not
thought so soon to meet you here again. He has called you together now,
being moved thereunto by causes of grave moment, affecting both his own
person and the interests of the commonwealth. You will have again to
consider the succession to the crown of this realm. His Highness knows
himself to be but mortal, liable to fall sick, and to die.[616] At
present he perceives the peace and welfare of the kingdom to depend upon
his single life; and he is anxious to leave it, at his death, free from
peril. He desires you therefore to nominate some person as his heir
apparent, who, should it so befall him (which God forbid!) to depart out
of this world without children lawfully begotten, may rule in peace over
this land, with the consent and the good will of the inhabitants
thereof.

"You will also deliberate upon the repeal of a certain act passed in the
late parliament, by which the realm is bound to obedience to the Lady
Anne Boleyn, late wife of the king, and the heirs lawfully begotten of
them twain, and which declares all persons who shall, by word or deed,
have offended against this lady or her offspring, to have incurred the
penalties of treason.

[Sidenote: The Lord Chancellor's advice to the Houses.]

"These are the causes for which you are assembled; and if you will be
advised by me, you will act in these matters according to the words of
Solomon, with whom our most gracious king may deservedly be compared.
The "wise man" counsels us to bear in mind such things as be past, to
weigh well such things as be present, and provide prudently for the
things which be to come. And you I would bid to remember, first, those
sorrows and those burdens which the King's Highness did endure on the
occasion of his first unlawful marriage--a marriage not only judged
unlawful by the most famous universities in Christendom, but so
determined by the consent of this realm; and to remember further the
great perils which have threatened his most royal Majesty from the time
when he entered on his second marriage.

[Sidenote: The gratitude du