With many children by you: if, in the course
And process of this time, you can report
And prove it too, against mine honour aught,
My bond to wedlock, or my love and duty
Against your sacred person, in God's name
Turn me away; and let the foul'st contempt
Shut door upon me; and so give me up
To the sharpest kind of justice. Please you sir,
The king your father was reputed for

A prince most prudent, of an excellent

And unmatched wit and judgment; Ferdinand
My father, king of Spain, was reckoned one
The wisest prince that there had reigned by many
A year before it is not to be questioned
That they had gathered a wise council to them
Of every realm, that did debate this business,
Who deemed our marriage lawful wherefore
I humbly beseech you sir, to spare me till I
Be by my friends in Spain advised; whose counsel
I will implore: if not; i' the name of God
Your pleasure be fulfilled !"

may

The monastery of the Black Friars proved as unfortunute for cardinal Wolsey, as it had been for the oppressed and innocent queen. The month of October, of the same year, witnessed the assembling of that Parliament which condemned him in a sentence of Præmunire.

As though this pile had been marked out for misfortune, Henry dissolved the monastery in the 30th year of his reign, when its revenues were valued at £104. 15s. 5d.

In the 4th year of the reign of Edward VI., the whole house, site, circuit, compass, and precinct, amounting to a yearly value of £19. was granted by him to sir Thomas Cawarden, knight; but the hall, and the site of the prior's apartments within the precinct, had been sold in the first year of this reign to sir Francis Brian, at the yearly value of 40s.

On account of the spaciousness and conveniency of this building, it was, in the time of Elizabeth, frequently appropriated as the residence of persons of distinction and quality.

The monastery of the Black Friars, like other religious houses, obtained privilege of sanctuary, but the nuisances afforded to the peaceable inhabitants on that account becoming notorious, government interfered, and exchanged their right of extending protection to felons for a more beneficial one, that of incorporating the district within the city of London, and forming it, as it now stands, into a part of the ward of Farringdon Within.

On the dissolution of the grand church of the priory, and the other buildings by Henry VIII., the parishioners thus deprived of a place of worship, made great complaint in the reign of queen Mary, and it being decided that sir Thomas Cawarden was obliged to furnish the inhabitants with a church, he allotted them a large chamber in the priory, which fell down in the year 1597. After this, the parishioners purchased an additional piece of ground to enlarge their church, which they rebuilt by subscription. This edifice was consecrated and dedicated to St. Anne, December 11th, 1595, and was henceforward ordained to be styled, "the church or chapel of St. Anne, within the precinct of Blackfriars." This precinct increased so much with inhabitants, that in the year 1613 'they found it necessary to enlarge their church, which was accomplished by purchasing of sir George Moore a large piece of ground, situated on the south side.

This church sharing in the general conflagration of 1666, and not being rebuilt, the parish was united to that of St. Andrew Wardrobe; and the spot of ground formerly occupied by the church of St. Anne's, is now used as a burial place for the inhabitants of the precinct of Blackfriars.

After this place had risen to great repute as the residence of many persons of quality and fashion, queen Elizabeth honoured lord Herbert, son of William earl of Worcester, with her presence, in 1600, on occasion of his marriage with the daughter and heiress of John lord Russell, son of Francis earl of Bedford.

"Her majesty was met by the bride at the water-side, and carried

to her house in a litter by six knights, there she dined and supped in the same neighbourhood, with lord Cobham, when there was 'a memorable maske of eight ladies, and a straunge dawnce new ininvented. Their attire is this; each hath a skirt of cloth of silver, a rich waistcoat, wrought with silkes and gold and silver; a mantell of carnacion taffate cast under the arme; and there haire losse about there shoulders, curiously knotted and interlaced. Mrs. Fitten leade; these eight lady's maskers chose eight ladies more to dawuce the measures. Mrs. Fitten went to the queen and wooed her dawnce; her majestly (the love of Essex rankling in her breast,) asked what she was? Affection,' she said; 'affection,' said the queen, affection is false.' Yet her majesty rose up and dawuced.” Pennant remarks on this occasion, that "at this time the queen was 60." We must not omit to mention, that in her passage from the bride's to lord Cobham's, the queen went through the house of Dr. Puddin, and was presented by the doctor with a fan. We frequently see her majesty represented with a feather fan in her hand.

During the period that count de Tillier, ambassador from France, resided at the Blackfriars, a dreadful accident, named from the circumstances" the fatal vespers," took place. A celebrated Jesuit preacher, named father Drury, was delivering a sermon to a large congregation of English subjects in a spacious room three stories high, in the midst of the discourse a rafter gave way, the room fell, and 94 persons besides the preacher perished. The intolerant and uncharitable spirit of the times was fully exercised upon the present occasion. "The Protestants," says Pennant, looked upon the calamity as a judgment on the Catholics for their idolatry; while the Catholics attributed it to a plot of the Protestants to bring destruction on their dissenting brethren.

This precinct is likewise famed for the residence of sir Anthony Vandyke, the inimitable painter, who died here, and was buried in St. Paul's cathedral; sir Samuel Luke, who furnished the original of Butler's Hudibras; sir Symonds; Dr. Ewes, an emiuent col-* lector of history and state papers; sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, afterwards the famous earl of Shaftesbury; that excellent divine