Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/182

162 converted, by erasure and an insertion, into 'the Lady Jane and her heirs male.' Her mother, Lady Frances, was but thirty-seven years old and might still bear a son. This contingency was anticipated by a provision that the son, to succeed, must be born while Edward was alive. Thus altered, the weak, incoherent, impracticable arrangement was submitted to the Lords as the King's desire.

The reception of it was not favourable. The Marquis of Winchester, Lord Bedford, Sir Thomas Cheyne, Lord Shrewsbury, and Lord Arundel made the obvious objections that the power of bequeathing the crown had been granted exceptionally to Henry VIII., for peculiar reasons; that the disposition which had been made by Henry had been confirmed by statute; and that it was grotesque to suppose that a prince under age, and unauthorized, could set aside an Act of Parliament at his own pleasure: the French, too, whatever present face they might please to wear, would be as little satisfied as the Emperor; if the late King's daughter were to be set aside in favour of another queen, they would, sooner or later, insist on the prior claims of Mary Stuart. The resistance was so decided that, on the 15th of June, it was believed that Northumberland would be driven after all to take possession of Elizabeth and try his fortune thus.

But the indispensable consent of Elizabeth herself, perhaps, could not be obtained; or else among the many