LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP and Other Early Works also spelled LOVE AND FREINDSHIP

shall of course make choice of those which it is most necessary

for the Reader to know, I think it right to inform him that her

letter to the King was dated on the 6th of May. The Crimes and

Cruelties of this Prince, were too numerous to be mentioned, (as

this history I trust has fully shown;) and nothing can be said in

his vindication, but that his abolishing Religious Houses and

leaving them to the ruinous depredations of time has been of

infinite use to the landscape of England in general, which

probably was a principal motive for his doing it, since otherwise

why should a Man who was of no Religion himself be at so much

trouble to abolish one which had for ages been established in the

Kingdom. His Majesty’s 5th Wife was the Duke of Norfolk’s Neice

who, tho’ universally acquitted of the crimes for which she was

beheaded, has been by many people supposed to have led an

abandoned life before her Marriage–of this however I have many

doubts, since she was a relation of that noble Duke of Norfolk

who was so warm in the Queen of Scotland’s cause, and who at last

fell a victim to it. The Kings last wife contrived to survive

him, but with difficulty effected it. He was succeeded by his

only son Edward.

EDWARD the 6th

As this prince was only nine years old at the time of his

Father’s death, he was considered by many people as too young to

govern, and the late King happening to be of the same opinion,

his mother’s Brother the Duke of Somerset was chosen Protector of

the realm during his minority. This Man was on the whole of a

very amiable Character, and is somewhat of a favourite with me,

tho’ I would by no means pretend to affirm that he was equal to

those first of Men Robert Earl of Essex, Delamere, or Gilpin. He

was beheaded, of which he might with reason have been proud, had

he known that such was the death of Mary Queen of Scotland; but

as it was impossible that he should be conscious of what had

never happened, it does not appear that he felt particularly

delighted with the manner of it. After his decease the Duke of

Northumberland had the care of the King and the Kingdom, and

performed his trust of both so well that the King died and the

Kingdom was left to his daughter in law the Lady Jane Grey, who

has been already mentioned as reading Greek. Whether she really

understood that language or whether such a study proceeded only

from an excess of vanity for which I beleive she was always

rather remarkable, is uncertain. Whatever might be the cause,

she preserved the same appearance of knowledge, and contempt of

what was generally esteemed pleasure, during the whole of her

life, for she declared herself displeased with being appointed

Queen, and while conducting to the scaffold, she wrote a sentence

in Latin and another in Greek on seeing the dead Body of her

Husband accidentally passing that way.

MARY

This woman had the good luck of being advanced to the throne of

England, in spite of the superior pretensions, Merit, and Beauty

of her Cousins Mary Queen of Scotland and Jane Grey. Nor can I

pity the Kingdom for the misfortunes they experienced during her

Reign, since they fully deserved them, for having allowed her to

succeed her Brother–which was a double peice of folly, since

they might have foreseen that as she died without children, she

would be succeeded by that disgrace to humanity, that pest of

society, Elizabeth. Many were the people who fell martyrs to the

protestant Religion during her reign; I suppose not fewer than a

dozen. She married Philip King of Spain who in her sister’s

reign was famous for building Armadas. She died without issue,

and then the dreadful moment came in which the destroyer of all

comfort, the deceitful Betrayer of trust reposed in her, and the

Murderess of her Cousin succeeded to the Throne.—-

ELIZABETH

It was the peculiar misfortune of this Woman to have bad

Ministers—Since wicked as she herself was, she could not have

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