litics or religion, but
by his own personal judgment; and this time he found the peace which he
desired.

The great event of 1542 was the signal victory of the English over a
Scottish army of ten thousand men at Solway Moss. King James of Scotland
had undertaken, at the instigation of the pope and of the King of France
to attack the English as heretics. The Scottish clergy were ready to
proclaim a pilgrimage of grace. But the English borderers, though only
shepherds and agriculturists, as soon as they mounted their horses, were
instantly the finest light cavalry in Europe. They so disastrously
defeated the Scots that all the latter either perished in the morass by
the Solway, or were captured.

Henry died on January 28, 1547. He was attended in his last moments by
Cranmer, having sent specially for the archbishop.

The king did not leave the world without expressing his views on the
future with elaborate explicitness. He spent the day before his death in
conversation with Lord Hertford and Sir William Paget on the condition
of the country. By separate and earnest messages he commended Prince
Edward to the care both of Charles V. and of Francis I. The earl, on the
morning of Henry's death, hastened off to bring up the prince, who was
in Hertfordshire with the Princess Elizabeth, and in the afternoon of
Monday, the 31st, he arrived at the Tower with Edward. The Council was
already in session, and Hertford was appointed protector during the
minority of Edward. Thus, the reforming Protestant party was in full
power. Cranmer set the willing example, and the other prelates
consented, or were compelled to imitate him, in an acknowledgment that
all jurisdiction, ecclesiastical as well as secular, within the realm,
only emanated from the sovereign. On February it was ordered in council
that Hertford should be Duke of Somerset, and that his brother, Sir
Thomas Seymour, should be Lord Seymour of Sudleye; Lord Parr was to be
Marquis of Northampton; Lord Wriothesley, the chancellor, Earl of
Southampton; and Viscount Lisle was to be Earl of Warwick. The Duke of
Somerset was the young king's uncle, and the real power was at once in
his hands. But if he was ambitious, it was only--as he persuaded
himself--to do good.

_Edward's Guardian_

Under his rule the spirit of iconoclasm spread fast, and the reformation
proceeded to completion. Churches were cleared of images, and crucifixes
were melted into coin. Somerset gave the pop