Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/505

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
1549.]
FALL OF THE PROTECTOR.
485

them. His objections, had he made objections, would have gone for little; but he seems at no time to have felt strong personal attachment to his uncle. Sir Thomas Smith was expelled from the council, and with Stanhope, Thynne, and Wolf, 'the principal instruments that the Duke did use in the affairs of his ill government,' was sent to the Tower, where the Duke followed them on the ensuing Monday.

So ended the Protectorate. The November session of Parliament was approaching. The interval was spent in examining the public accounts, and remedying the more immediate and pressing disorders of the administration. On the 18th of October, 'the lords receiving daily advertisements, as well from the Borders against Scotland, as from Boulogne, Calais, Ireland, Scilly, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and the Wight, of the misery that the poor soldiers were in for lack of payment of their wages; and besides, of an universal want, grown in the time of the late Protector—who, being continually called upon by the council for redress thereof, would not give place thereunto—of victual, armour, ordnance, and of all kinds of munition and furniture, did immediately give order for the supply thereof to all those places aforesaid.'[1]

The debts due to the Crown, and the more considerable debts due by the Crown, were inspected, with the disposition of the chantry lands, and of the other properties of all kinds which had passed through Somerset's

  1. Privy Council Records, MS.