Chapter 835: Self-immolation
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, "England's stupidest and proudest boy", does have the capital to show off to the world. He was even imprisoned several times for his reckless behavior, once for beating a court minister, and again for wandering the streets of the city of London and breaking the windows of other people's houses.
From Thomas Cromwell (promoted to the Privy Council by Henry VIII in 1531. For nearly a decade, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord of the Seals, and Chief Minister of State, and was named Earl of Isaacs, becoming the first minister of Henry VIII's side. Up to the powerful Seymour family, the Earl of Surrey did not look at these "newcomers" to the court with the same caution as his father, the Duke of Norfolk III. Instead, he showed a contempt in front of these new court ministers, which made him many enemies in the court.
The Earl of Surrey thought that Henry VIII would reprimand him and forgive him for anything that was contrary to his status and position. However, the current Henry VIII is no longer the beloved king who brought about great changes in the socio-economic conditions, political system, culture, ideology, and religion of England, and finally made England a unified and centralized modern nation-state.
In the last years of his life, Henry VIII became more and more brutal and suspicious, and the wound on his thigh was rotten and covered with gangrene, and he could no longer walk on his own. He no longer believed the words of dozens of court doctors, but smeared his wounds with his own secret recipe and bandaged them.
Henry VIII's personality, devoured by a growing illness, also changed greatly, and while gradually becoming a paranoid, he imagined in his mind a vision of the Earl of Surrey trying to usurp the crown of his son Edward. The condition is getting worse, and the illusions in my mind are gradually becoming real. At this moment, Henry VIII had already determined the "fact" that the Earl of Surrey intended to usurp the throne, and all he had to do was find a charge suitable to sentence the Earl of Surrey to death.
Unfortunately, at this time, the Earl of Surrey still did not know how to handle his relationship with the court ministers carefully, but because of his royal blood, he constantly showed his pride and conceit to the world. After failing to command a battle in France, he did something on his estate that he thought was common, but enough to have his head cut off.
The heraldic design of Thomas Mowbray (Duke of Norfolk), the ancestor of the Earl of Surrey, indicated that he had the right to include the coat of arms of Edward the Confessor (Anglo-Saxon monarch, reigned 1041-1066) in his noble coat of arms, an act that seemed to be a sign of pride at the time.
The Earl of Surrey, having lost the favor of Henry VIII, was living in a very boring earl's manor and planned to design an earl's coat of arms for himself. Before designing the coat of arms, he had no intention of informing the heraldic institute (whose father was also the hereditary director of the heraldic institute) about his idea. When the coat of arms was designed, he wanted to make his new coat of arms visible to all the nobles.
The new Earl of Surrey coat of arms takes the form of a widened shield divided into twelve equal parts, from top to bottom, in three rows, each with four coats of arms arranged horizontally. At first glance, all the coats of arms come from the coats of arms of different ancestors and descendants of the Norfolk family.
However, a closer look reveals that the first motif on the left side of the second row will be the coat of arms of the king of Edward the Confessor. The new design features a silver bar at the top of the king's coat of arms, and three silver labels in third quarters below the bar. The symbol of the silver bar and three silver labels appeared in the coat of arms of the Duke of Norfolk I. However, the Duke I of Norfolk did not place this motif on the coat of arms of the king.
Perhaps, the Earl of Surrey simply wanted to distinguish his coat of arms from those of his ancestors, and he never had the intention of usurping the throne of treason. However, he never imagined that Henry VIII would use this as an excuse to sentence him to death. Henry VIII charged him with adding the royal coat of arms without the permission of His Majesty the King.
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At this moment, in the courtyard of the Durham house, Lady Frances Howard of Surrey spoke clearly to Isabel about the whole story of the heraldic incident. When Mrs. Surrey finished telling her husband's new coat of arms, Isabel Walton felt that the matter was a little complicated but a little simple.
The simple reason is that since the Earl of Surrey has already designed the new earl heraldic design, he should submit the design to the officials of the heraldic court for review as soon as possible. After all, the heraldic court is a state institution of the kingdom, and the main duty of the heraldic officer is also to deal with aristocratic affairs.
Even if the House of Heraldry did not approve of the new coat of arms, the Earl of Surrey could go directly to Whitehall with a sample of the design and ask for permission from Henry VIII. Because he is the eldest son of the Duke of Norfolk III, and has royal blood, he can completely say his thoughts openly. Assuming that Henry VIII did not allow the Earl of Surrey to use the new coat of arms, he would not have been guilty of any crimes.
As for the complicated side, Isabel simply did not know what rules should be followed when designing the pattern of the noble coat of arms. For example, one-third is an animal, one-third is a geometric pattern (mainly refers to the shield shape is divided into a certain number of oblique bars and lattices), and the remaining one-third is also more or less geometric (such as a circle, hollow circle, diamond, star, rectangle, etc.) and other design principles.
Isabel stood up and walked to the courtyard near the wall on the Thames side, thinking and then turning to look at Mrs. Surrey, "Frances, did your husband mention this to His Majesty?" ”
Madame Surrey blinked, recalled, and shook her head, "Probably not, Henry often shut himself up in his study when he came back from France. In recent days, I have rarely seen him go to the court. ”
Isabel pondered for a moment and did not speak, and finally said cautiously, "Frances, I don't know what the consequences of this matter will be for your husband. However, you must be careful whether the enemy will use this to accuse your husband. ”
"Enemies? Charge? Isabel, this is just a new heraldic pattern. Frances quickly stood up, walked over to Isabel's side, and said suspiciously, "I know that my husband and some court ministers don't get along well. It's just that these court ministers use heraldic patterns to accuse him, and I'm afraid they won't get His Majesty's support. ”
Isabel certainly could not have known what had become of Henry VIII by this time. However, from the examples she knew of several queens and court ministers who had been executed, Henry VIII was often moody.