Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/610

590 Papacy, and belonged to a third French party, opposed to the Empire, but opposed equally to the Queen of Navarre. The situation is too intricate to be explained with the existing materials; and it is of the less importance, since—although it was not, perhaps, without its effect at the time—another singular incident neutralized at the same moment the Norfolk influence.

The speculations on the succession to the crown had " for some time past been succeeded by speculations on the regency. The Prince was likely to live, but the King grew yearly more infirm. His death was certainly at no great distance; and who was to govern England during the minority? Lord Hertford was most likely to be named. He was the prince's uncle—able and ambitious. But Hertford, though of respectable family, was one of 'the new-raised men'—in patrician eyes, an upstart insolent, little better than a Cromwell; and for Hertford to be playing the part of a sovereign was a thought which, to the nobles of the old blood, was intolerable. The young Lord Surrey especially found the prospect unpleasant to him; and, although the full extent of his imaginations remained for three years longer concealed, an accident in the present winter made it known that he was encouraging perilous expectations.

In the middle of January a party of gentlemen, of whom Surrey was one, amused the long hours of a winter night by a riot in London. They paraded the streets with 'stone bows'—they broke the windows of houses and churches, and shot 'pellets' among 'the