might sign, if he wished it, without breach of the law. He returned, still hesitating, to the King's bed-side. Edward told him he hoped that he would not stand out alone, 'and be more repugnant to his will than all the rest of the council;' and at this last appeal the Archbishop yielded. Others signed with mental reservations, of which, in their subsequent defence of themselves, they made the most. Cranmer made no reservations, and pretended to none. When called to account by Mary, he said frankly that, when he signed at last, 'he did it unfeignedly and without dissimulation.'[1]
The letters patent were thus completed; but the Duke still felt himself insecure, and those who might be suspected of equivocating were compelled to bind themselves with a second chain. An engagement was attached to the scheme as drawn by the King, by which all the council, except Lord Arundel, promised that they would maintain the succession as it was there determined, 'to the uttermost of their power,' and 'never at any time during their lives would swerve from it.'[2]
The last precautions were thus taken, and the conspirators had then to sit still till the King's death, which was now every day expected. Since the 11th of June
- ↑ Strype's Life of Cranmer.
- ↑ Queen Jane and Queen Mary, p. 90.—Montague subscribed to this, with Baker and the Attorney- and Solicitor-General, although they had assured the council to the last that the letters patent were valueless, and had, as they said, resolved to move no step, after the King's death, to carry them into effect. I suppose that the bond was devised to catch those who might have signed with reservations, and the judges having given their names once, could not help themselves.
