Henry now caused to be
shed. [Footnote: During the king's reign, and at the instigation of the
clergy, twenty-eight hundred persons were burnt and executed, because
they would not recognize the religious institutions established by the
king as the only right and true ones.--Leti, vol. i, p. 34.] But all
this did not yet suffice to appease the blood-thirstiness of the king,
and his friends and counsellors, and his priests.

Still there remained untouched two mighty pillars of Protestantism that
Gardiner and Wriothesley had to overthrow. These were the queen and
Archbishop Cranmer.

Still there were two powerful and hated enemies whom the Seymours had
to overcome; these were the Duke of Norfolk and his son, the Earl of
Surrey.

But the various parties that in turn besieged the king's ear and
controlled it, were in singular and unheard-of opposition, and at the
same time inflamed with bitterest enmity, and they strove to supplant
each other in the favor of the king.

To the popish party of Gardiner and Earl Douglas, everything depended on
dispossessing the Seymours of the king's favor; and they, on the other
hand, wanted above all things to continue in power the young queen,
already inclined to them, and to destroy for the papists one of their
most powerful leaders, the Duke of Norfolk.

The one party controlled the king's ear through the queen; the other,
through his favorite, Earl Douglas.

Never had the king been more gracious and affable to his consort--never
had he required more Earl Douglas's presence than in those days of his
sickness and bodily anguish.

But there was yet a third party that occupied an important place in the
king's favor--a power which every one feared, and which seemed to keep
itself perfectly independent and free from all foreign influences. This
power was John Heywood, the king's fool, the epigrammatist, who was
dreaded by the whole court.

Only one person had influence with him. John Heywood was the friend
of the queen. For the moment, then, it appeared as if the "heretical
party," of which the queen was regarded as the head, was the most
powerful at court.

It was therefore very natural for the popish party to cherish an ardent
hatred against the queen; very natural for them to be contriving new
plots and machinations to ruin her and hurl her from the throne.

But Catharine knew very well the danger that threatened her, and she was
on her guard. She watched her every look, her ev