y it by choosing a protector; who, though he should possess all the
exterior symbols of royal dignity, should yet be bound, in every act of
power, to follow the opinion of the executors.[**]

* Strype's Memor. vol. ii. p. 457.

** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 5.

This proposal was very disagreeable to Chancellor Wriothesely. That
magistrate, a man of an active spirit and high ambition, found himself
by his office entitled to the first rank in the regency after the
primate; and as he knew that this prelate had no talent or inclination
for state affairs, he hoped that the direction of public business
would, of course, devolve in a great measure upon himself. He opposed,
therefore, the proposal of choosing a protector; and represented that
innovation as an infringement of the late king's will, which, being
corroborated by act of parliament, ought in every thing to be a law
to them, and could not be altered but by the same authority which had
established it. But he seems to have stood alone in the opposition. The
executors and counsellors were mostly courtiers who had been raised by
Henry's favor, not men of high birth or great hereditary influence; and
as they had been sufficiently accustomed to submission during the reign
of the late monarch, and had no pretensions to govern the nation by
their own authority, they acquiesced the more willingly in a proposal
which seemed calculated for preserving public peace and tranquillity. It
being therefore agreed to name a protector, the choice fell, of course,
on the earl of Hertford, who, as he was the king's maternal uncle, was
strongly interested in his safety; and possessing no claims to inherit
the crown, could never have any separate interest which might lead him
to endanger Edward's person or his authority.[*] The public was informed
by proclamation of this change in the administration; and despatches
were sent to all foreign courts to give them intimation of it. All those
who were possessed of any office resigned their former commissions, and
accepted new ones in the name of the young king. The bishops themselves
were constrained to make a like submission. Care was taken to insert in
their new commissions, that they held their office during pleasure:[**]
and it is there expressly affirmed, that all manner of authority and
jurisdiction, as well ecclesiastical as civil, is originally derived
from the crown.[***]

The executors, in their next measure, showed a more submissi