February 17, 1547), Duke of
Northumberland (October 11, 1551). The last title placed him at the
very summit of his ambition. There were only two other Dukes in
England, Norfolk and Suffolk: and had he been proclaimed King, his power
could scarcely have been any greater than it was. "Yet all this availed
Haman nothing, so long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King's
gate;" and so long as Edward Seymour drew the breath of life, there was
bitterness in all the honours of John Dudley. He stooped to the lowest
and vilest means of destroying his rival, and he effected his purpose;
himself to be destroyed in his turn by the accession of Mary, not two
years later. His attempt to make his daughter-in-law Queen was his last
and most aspiring effort at his own aggrandisement. When that failed,
all failed; and he sank "down as low as high he soared." Through life
he was the acknowledged head of the Lutheran party; but in respect of
personal religion he was a By-ends, adopting the creed which he thought
would best advance his interests; his own proclivity being towards
Popery, as he showed in the last days of his life,--unless it be thought
that this, his latest act, worthy of the life which had preceded it, was
a mere attempt to curry favour with Queen Mary. Bad as the man was, I
do not like to think that his dying act was a lie. He suffered on Tower
Hill, August 22, 1553. Northumberland was but once married, though he
left a large family. His wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Edmund
Guilford; a fitting wife for such a husband, being as ambitious and
unscrupulous as himself. His children were thirteen in number, of whom
only two left issue--the famous Earl of Leicester, and Lady Mary Sidney.
The entire Dudley race is now extinct, except in the female line.

PALMER, SIR THOMAS.

In early life a great gamester and a notorious libertine, known as Long
Palmer, on account of his height, and Busking Palmer--a term about
equivalent to the modern "dandy." He generally signs his name as above,
but upon one occasion, "Thomas de Palmer." He was at one time in the
service of the Lord Privy Seal, Cromwell; and was one of the "gentlemen
ushers daily wayters" at Court, before 1522; for three years he was
knight porter at Calais. The part he took against the Gospellers during
the Calais persecution is alluded to by Foxe (A. and M., five, 497, 505,
506, 520), and will be found fully detailed in my previous volume,
"Isoult Barr