er the great
seal; and whether those who were involved in the same guilt with himself
could sit as his judges. Being told that the great seal of a usurper was
no authority, and that persons not lying under any sentence of attainder
were still innocent in the eye of the law, and might be admitted on any
jury,[**] he acquiesced, and pleaded guilty. At his execution, he made
profession of the Catholic religion, and told the people that they
never would enjoy tranquillity till they returned to the faith of their
ancestors: whether that such were his real sentiments, which he had
formerly disguised from interest and ambition, or that he hoped by this
declaration to render the queen more favorable to his family.[***] Sir
Thomas Palmer and Sir John Gates suffered with him; and this was all
the blood spilled on account of so dangerous and criminal an enterprise
against the rights of the sovereign. Sentence was pronounced against
the lady Jane and Lord Guildford, but without any present intention of
putting it in execution. The youth and innocence of the persons, neither
of whom had reached their seventeenth year, pleaded sufficiently in
their favor.

* Burnet, vol. ii. p. 239. Stowe, p. 612. Baker, p. 315.
Holingshed, p. 1088.

** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 243. Heylin, p. 18. Baker, p. 316.
Holingshed, p. 1089.

*** Heylin, p. 19. Burnet. vol. iii. p. 243. Stowe, p. 614.

When Mary first arrived in the Tower, the duke of Norfolk, who had
been detained prisoner during all the last reign, Courtney, son of the
marquis of Exeter, who, without being charged with any crime, had been
subjected to the same punishment ever since his father's attainder;
Gardiner, Tonstal, and Bonner, who had been confined for their adhering
to the Catholic cause, appeared before her, and implored her clemency
and protection.[*] They were all of them restored to their liberty, and
immediately admitted to her confidence and favor. Norfolk's attainder,
notwithstanding that it had passed in parliament, was represented as
null and invalid; because, among other informalities, no special matter
had been alleged against him, except wearing a coat of arms which he and
his ancestors, without giving any offence, had always made use of,
in the face of the court and of the whole nation. Courtney soon after
received the title of earl of Devonshire; and though educated in such
close confinement that he was altogether unacquainted with the world,