s; and in the fifty-sixth year of his age.

* Burnet, vol. i. p. 348. Fox.

** Lanquet's Epitome of Chronicles in the year 1541.

The king had made his will near a month before his demise; in which he
confirmed the destination of parliament, by leaving the crown first to
Prince Edward, then to the lady Mary, next to the lady Elizabeth: the
two princesses he obliged, under the penalty of forfeiting their title
to the crown, not to marry without consent of the council which he
appointed for the government of his minor son. After his own children,
he settled the succession on Frances Brandon, marchioness of Dorset,
eldest daughter of his sister, the French queen; then on Eleanor,
countess of Cumberland, the second daughter In passing over the
posterity of the queen of Scots, his eldest sister, he made use of the
power obtained from parliament, but as he subjoined that, after the
failure of the French queen's posterity, the crown should descend to the
next lawful heir, it afterwards became a question, whether these words
could be applied to the Scottish line. It was thought that these princes
were not the next heirs after the house of Suffolk, but before that
house; and that Henry, by expressing himself in this manner, meant
entirely to exclude them. The late injuries which he had received from
the Scots, had irritated him extremely against that nation; and he
maintained to the last that character of violence and caprice by which
his life had been so much distinguished. Another circumstance of
his will may suggest the same reflection with regard to the strange
contrarieties of his temper and conduct: he left money for masses to be
said for delivering his soul from purgatory; and though he destroyed
all those institutions established by his ancestors and others for the
benefit of their souls, and had even left the doctrine of purgatory
doubtful in all the articles of faith which he promulgated during
his later years, he was yet determined, when the hour of death was
approaching, to take care at least of his own future repose, and to
adhere to the safer side of the question.[*]

* See his will in Fuller, Heylin, and Rymer, p. 110. There
is no reasonable ground to suspect its authenticity.

It is difficult to give a just summary of this prince's qualities: he
was so different from himself in different parts of his reign, that, as
is well remarked by Lord Herbert, his history is his best character and
d