ntle
prince; and acknowledged that he had always been to her a good and
gracious sovereign; and if any one should think proper to canvass her
cause, she desired him to judge the best.[*] She was beheaded by the
executioner of Calais, who was sent for as more expert than any
in England. Her body was negligently thrown into a common chest of
elm-tree, made to hold arrows, and was buried in the Tower.

* Burnet. vol. i. p. 205.

The innocence of this unfortunate queen cannot reasonably be called in
question. Henry himself, in the violence of his rage, knew not whom to
accuse as her lover; and though he imputed guilt to her brother, and
four persons more, he was able to bring proof against none of them. The
whole tenor of her conduct forbids us to ascribe to her an abandoned
character, such as is implied in the king's accusation: had she been so
lost to all prudence and sense of shame, she must have exposed herself
to detection, and afforded her enemies some evidence against her. But
the king made the most effectual apology for her, by marrying Jane
Seymour the very day after her execution.[*] His impatience to gratify
this new passion caused him to forgot all regard to decency; and his
cruel heart was not softened a moment by the bloody catastrophe of a
person who had so long been the object of his most tender affections.

The lady Mary thought the death of her step-mother a proper opportunity
for reconciling herself to the king, who, besides other causes of
disgust, had been offended with her on account of the part which she had
taken in her mother's quarrel. Her advances were not at first received;
and Henry exacted from her some further proofs of submission and
obedience: he required this young princess, then about twenty years of
age, to adopt his theological tenets; to acknowledge his supremacy; to
renounce the pope; and to own her mother's marriage to be unlawful and
incestuous. These points were of hard digestion with the princess; but
after some delays, and even refusals, she was at last prevailed on to
write a letter to her father,[**] containing her assent to the
articles required of her; upon which she was received into favor. But
notwithstanding the return of the king's affection to the issue of his
first marriage, he divested not himself of kindness towards the lady
Elizabeth; and the new queen, who was blessed with a singular sweetness
of disposition, discovered strong proofs of attachment towards her.