hundred horsemen. Next year he became earl marshal (20 April 1551), warden of the marches towards Scotland (27 Sept.), and on 11 Oct. duke of Northumberland. The contest was being renewed in vain by Somerset, the fallen lord protector, who was now charged with plotting against Northumberland's life. Northumberland attended his rival's trial (1 Dec. 1551), and, baffled by superior ability, Somerset was brought to the scaffold (22 Jan. 1551–2). The ascendency of Northumberland was thus complete. All who were suspected of hostility were roughly dealt with. On 22 Dec. the duke took the great seal from Lord-chancellor Rich, and on 22 April caused the degradation of William, lord Paget, from the chapter of the Garter. In June he went to take up his office in the north, and to repress disturbances. He was royally entertained on the journey, stopping with the Cecils at Burghley, near Stamford. He was in London again in July, having appointed Thomas, first lord Wharton, his deputy in the north. In order to increase his reputation he had a genealogical tree compiled, proving his descent from the baronial house of Sutton, alias Dudley, and purchased the family's ancestral home, Dudley Castle, Staffordshire, of John, sixth baron Dudley (Twamley Castle, Dudley Castle, 1867). The illness of Edward VI early in 1553 prompted to Northumberland's aspiring mind the design of altering the succession in favour of his own family. He procured from Edward letters patent ‘for the limitation of the crown’ (Nichols, Queen Jane, App. i.), by which the king's sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, were set aside in favour of any heir male that might be born, during the king's lifetime, of the Lady Frances, duchess of Suffolk, and aunt of the king; failing whom the crown was to go to the Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the said Frances, to whom Northumberland married (21 May 1553) one of his own sons, Guildford Dudley [q. v.] In furtherance of this scheme Northumberland showed the most furious violence, declaring himself ready to fight for it in his shirt, browbeating the judges, and compelling them and most of the council, including Cranmer, to sign the instrument (21 June). On the death of the king, 6 July 1553, he caused the Lady Jane to be proclaimed queen, and himself took the field (12 July) on her behalf against Princess Mary, whose supporters quickly gathered together in the eastern counties. The total failure of his attempt through the desertion of his forces was followed by his arrest at Cambridge, where, abandoning hope, he made proclamation for Queen Mary with the tears running down his face. On 23 July he was brought to the Tower; on 18 Aug. he was arraigned for high treason and condemned; and on the 22nd of the same month he was executed on Tower Hill, most of his confederates being pardoned or dismissed with fines. On the scaffold he blamed others for his own acts, avowed himself a catholic, and attributed all the recent troubles in England to the breach with the papacy. Extraordinary importance was attached at the time to this declaration, of which many manuscript versions are extant. It was printed officially in London by ‘ John Cawood, printer to the Quenes highnes,’ soon after his death, under the title of ‘The Saying of John, Duke of Northumberlande, vppon the scaffolde.’ Latin and Dutch translations were issued at Louvain in the same year. In 1554 there was published, without name of place of publication, a French ‘Response a la Confession du feu Duc Iean de Northumbelãde,’ from a reformed point of view.
Dudley was the ablest man of the time after the death of Henry VIII. He was a consummate soldier, a keen politician, and a skilful administrator. His nature was bold, sensitive, and magnanimous. His conduct at Norwich and Dussindale, where, before the action, he bound his hesitating officers to conquer or die by the knightly ceremony of kissing one another's swords, and where, after the fate of the day was determined, he stopped further resistance and slaughter by riding alone into the ranks of the enemy and pledging his word for their lives, is to be admired. He was as lenient after as on the day of the victory; and the severities exercised on Ket's followers were against his advice or in his absence. In the same way he spared the life of his rival, Somerset, as long as he could. On the other hand, when his own life lay under forfeit, this brave soldier manifested painful despair. He was a great man, but his character was spoiled by avarice, dissimulation, and personal ambition. He pillaged the religious houses, the chantries, and the church as unscrupulously as any, heaping on himself a vast accumulation of their spoils. He went with the Reformation merely for his own advantage. Bishop Hooper and John Knox were for a time his protégés. The latter was often in his society, and in October 1552 he endeavoured to obtain for him the bishopric of Rochester. But on 7 Dec. 1552 Northumberland wrote that he found Knox ‘neither gratefull nor pleaseable.’ Bale dedicated to him, 6 Jan. 1552–3, his ‘Expostulation … agaynste the blasphemyes … of a papyst of Hamshyre.’ Northumberland sought to foist Robert Horne into the bishopric of Durham after the deprivation of Cuthbert Tunstall.
His recantation on the scaffold destroyed
