Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/393

1548.] own daughters, Henry VIII. had named the daughters of his niece, Frances, Marchioness of Dorset. Lady Jane Grrey, the eldest of three children, was made over by her father to Seymour, who promised him that she should marry the King; while over Edward himself he gained influence by bribing his attendants, by secretly providing him with money, and suggesting insinuations against the parsimony of the Protector in his allowance. He made a party at the same time among the Lords and Commons. The Marquis of Dorset was 'so seduced and aveugled by the lord admiral, that he promised him that, except the King's Majesty's person, he would spend his life and blood on the lord admiral's part against all men.'

So passed the time when Somerset was in Scotland. The invasion, Seymour told Edward, 'had been madly undertaken, and was money wasted in vain.' When the Protector returned in triumph, he whispered in Edward's ear, 'that he was too bashful in his own affairs; why did he not speak to bear rule as other kings did?' As the meeting of the first Parliament approached, he complained to various persons, 'that the late King had not intended that there should be a Protector; that there ought not to be a Protector, or, at least, that if one uncle was regent of the realm, the other should have the custody of the King's person.'