1541.]
SOLWAY MOSS.
455
clear himself—whereof we would be very glad—then to be admitted to our presence, and so entertained as his accusation should not tend to his slander.'[1] Wyatt was for some reason sent to the Tower; but he, too, like Sir John Wallop, was informed privately of the charges against him, and had an opportunity of sending in his explanations.[2] In both instances the defence was accepted readily and warmly. March.After a few weeks' inconvenience, the late ambassador was at his post in command of the garrison at Guisnes, and Wyatt was indemnified for his brief imprisonment by the grant of an estate from the Crown.[3] Justice was
- ↑ Henry VIII. to Lord William Howard: State Papers, vol. viii. p. 530.
- ↑ The scruple which was so careful of the reputation of a probably innocent gentleman has in Wallop's case prevented even the nature of the accusations from surviving. Sir Thomas Wyatt's supposed crimes are known only from his own defence. He was charged with having communicated secretly with Pole; with having said, when the pacification of Nice was concluded, that 'he feared the King should be cast out of the cart's tail, and by God's blood, if he were so, he was well served, and he would he were;' and, again, with having spoken against the Act of Supremacy. The first point was the misinterpretation of Bonner's malice. He had 'practised' to gain intelligence from Pole of the intentions of the Pope. He supposed that he had but discharged his duty in doing so. He had spoken loosely of the prospects of the King, he admitted. It was a fashion of speech, and not a good one; but that he had expressed his expectations in the form of a hope he denied utterly. Of the Act of Supremacy he allowed that he had said it would be sore rod in evil hands; and he supposed he had been right in saying so.'—Nott's Wyatt.
- ↑ The privy council, writing to Howard an account of this aifair, said that Wallop at first denied having given any ground for suspicion; 'Whereupon the King's Majesty of his goodness caused his own letters written to Pate, that traitor, and others, to be laid before him, which when once he saw and read, he cried for mercy, knowledging his offences, with refusal of all triai, and only yielding himself to his Majesty's mercy; whereupon his Majesty, con-
