Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/517

1550.] against the Duke of Somerset. The offences, the substance of which was contained in the letter to the Emperor, were drawn out into twenty-nine articles, in which, after allowing for legal harshness of form, his errors were not exaggerated. A committee of council carried the articles to the Tower, where they were submitted to the Duke for signature. He made no difficulty, but threw himself on the mercy of the Crown; and the accusations, with his signature attached to them, were laid before the House of Lords on the 2nd of January. The Lords did not affect to doubt that the subscription was authentic, and had been freely given; but in a matter which might be used as a precedent, too great caution could not be observed, and the Earls of Bath and Northumberland, Lord Cobham and Lord Morley, with four bishops, went to the Tower to examine him in the name of the House. He pleaded guilty to each separate article. On the 14th of January he was deposed by Act of Parliament from the Protectorate, and sentenced to be deprived of estates which he had appropriated to the value of 2000l. a year. On the 6th of February he was released from confinement, giving a bond for his good behaviour, and being forbidden to approach the Court without permission.

Had the full penalty been enforced, it would scarcely have been severe. In three months, however, such of his lands as had not in the mean time been disposed of, were restored; Somerset himself returned to the privy