nstantly determined to make the
countess of Salisbury, who already lay under sentence of death, suffer
for her son's offences. He ordered her to be carried to execution;
and this venerable matron maintained still, in these distressful
circumstances, the spirit of that long race of monarchs from whom she
was descended.[*] She refused to lay her head on the block, or submit
to a sentence where she had received no trial. She told the executioner,
that if he would have her head, he must win it the best way he could:
and thus, shaking her venerable gray locks, she ran about the scaffold:
and the executioner followed with his axe, aiming many fruitless blows
at her neck, before he was able to give the fatal stroke. Thus perished
the last of the line of Plantagenet, which, with great glory, but still
greater crimes and misfortunes, had governed England for the space of
three hundred years. Lord Leonard Grey, a man who had formerly rendered
service to the crown, was also beheaded for treason, soon after the
countess of Salisbury. We know little concerning the grounds of his
prosecution.

* Hertert, p. 468.

{1541.} The insurrection in the north engaged Henry to make a progress
thither, in order to quiet the minds of his people, to reconcile them to
his government, and to abolish the ancient superstitions, to which those
parts were much addicted. He had also another motive for this journey:
he purposed to have a conference at York with his nephew the king of
Scotland, and, if possible, to cement a close and indissoluble union
with that kingdom.

The same spirit of religious innovation which had seized other parts
of Europe had made its way into Scotland, and had begun, before this
period, to excite the same jealousies fears, and persecutions. About the
year 1527, Patrick Hamilton, a young man of a noble family, having been
created abbot of Fene, was sent abroad for his education, but had fallen
into company with some reformers; and he returned into his own country
very ill disposed towards that church, on which his birth and his merit
entitled him to attain the highest dignities, The fervor of youth
and his zeal for novelty made it impossible for him to conceal his
sentiments and Campbell, prior of the Dominicans, who, under color of
friendship, and a sympathy in opinion, had insinuated himself into
his confidence, accused him before Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrews.
Hamilton was invited to St. Andrews, in order to main