monarch

"Everyone out," Edward said to the attendants in his room.The attendants bowed to the prince and stepped back out of the gate, leaving only the prince and Robert in the room.

"This is really unfair." Robert Dudley poured himself a glass of wine, pulled an armchair and sat opposite the prince, "Everyone could see the situation at that time, the king should be proud of you yes."

Edward played with the empty glass in his hand, "Your Majesty is the king, so he has the right to be unfair to anyone."

"Maybe I have gone too far. Power is like air, water or food to monarchs. No one would like others to get involved in these things, even their own sons."

"But you didn't have a choice, did you?" Robert looked at the crown prince. "At that time, no one but you could order everyone. You had status and bargaining chips... If it wasn't for you, disaster might have happened."

"No, it won't." The prince looked at Robert with a strange look in his eyes, "You can see clearly that the rebels have absolutely no chance of capturing this castle. So if I don't care about anything, but let He Teford and Gardner are going to argue, of course there may be the queen, the rebellion will subside, and of course more people will die... But the king will not think about me, on the contrary, he will try his best to weaken those ministers, lest they override me in the future."

"But you didn't do that, did you?" Robert said softly, leaning closer to the prince.

"Yes, I haven't."

"Then why not? Why bother with this?"

Edward looked up and looked into Robert's eyes.They were so close that Robert looked into Edward's blue eyes, as clear as the waters of a Scottish Highland lake.

"Because it is right," said the little prince.

Like a devout believer, Robert Dudley gently kissed the prince's forehead.

"You'd be a good king." His eyes were burning with feverish fire.

……

Efficiency was the first priority in the trial of the rebels, so while the ruins of Edinburgh were still smoking, the entire conspiracy of the Earl of Surrey had been exposed to the world.

The plan of the Norfolk father and son is really very bold: to use gunpowder to wipe out the English court and capture the city of Edinburgh when the English crowd has no leader, thus triggering a collective rebellion among the Scottish nobles. What must have been a chaotic landing in the south of England.What's even better is that the first heir to the throne of England at this time is the niece of King Henry VIII and the new wife of the great-grandson of the King of France, Mary Queen of Scots.The remnants of the Privy Council in London will open the city gates to welcome them, and the parliament will declare the French king's grandson and Queen Mary as the co-ruling monarchs of England, Scotland and Ireland, and their descendants will become the masters of the British Isles and France in the future.The Earl of Lennox will be named Vice-King of Scotland, and will issue orders in Edinburgh in the name of Queen Mary.The Church of England would be dissolved, and the representatives of the Pope would return, with the Inquisition and the stake.Protestant nobles would be executed or exiled, and their titles, property and lands would be distributed to Queen Mary's supporters.The Duke of Norfolk and his son, as the founding fathers of the new dynasty, will undoubtedly become the Queen's First Minister and Speaker of the Privy Council respectively.

Undoubtedly, this insane plan angered everyone but the rebels: at court in Edinburgh or Parliament in London, condemnation of traitors dominated the agenda.In London, the seats of the Duke of Norfolk and his son in the House of Lords were smashed to pieces by angry MPs, dragged to Tyburn Market and burned to ashes.St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle is adorned with the coats of arms of all recipients of the Order of the Garter, with the coats of arms of members of the Howard family completely wiped off with lime.The nobles were terrified of the threats to their lives, while the lower classes were out of simple patriotic enthusiasm and disgust for the French. At the same time, the Duke of Norfolk became an enemy of the whole people. It seems that even Judas' actions are not so odious compared with him.

In such an environment, focusing on dealing with the rebels has become a certainty.The Duke of Norfolk and his son fled to France as the culprit, but others did not have such good luck: the former Scottish regent, the Earl of Allen, sneaked back to the country to try to restore, but was shot in the jaw during the rebellion and fell into a coma. fell into the hands of the English; the Earl of Lennox, the King's nephew, who had lost the King's confidence by attempting to become Vice-Prince, and thus conspired with rebellion; and Lady Elizabeth Holland, mistress of the Duke of Norfolk, apparently the Duke Your Excellency didn't bother to think about her future... Hundreds of arrest warrants were issued, some of them were indeed related to the rebels, and some of them were just noncommittal about the rebellion and did not report the secret to the king.Their property and lands were confiscated, which made the Crown the largest landowners in Scotland in an instant, and these properties and lands were quickly distributed to Anglophiles. These upstarts, as ardent supporters of English rule, became the new Kingdom of Scotland. the backbone.

The speed of the king's action shocked the whole of Europe. His iron fist stabilized the situation in the Kingdom of Scotland in the shortest time, which surprised those critics on the European continent who thought he had become a rich man.As in the previous thirty years, magnanimity has never been the virtue of King Henry VIII. Only a week after the end of the rebellion, the king declared war on France, and His Majesty's messengers also went to Madrid and Rome. The relationship between Spain and the Pope of Rome was restored, even going back to the old path of Catholicism in order to build an anti-French alliance.

In front of St. Giles Church, craftsmen began to build the execution platform. A total of hundreds of people were sentenced to death, and the most core traitors will be executed here in front of the king.In order to satisfy the king's desire for revenge, these people were designated as heretics in addition to treason, so they would be burned at the stake and burnt to ashes in front of the king.

……

February 1546, 2, exactly one month after the rebellion.

In what used to be St. Giles' Church, the stake was erected.A few black pillars stood where the church gate used to be, and behind them, three of the four large pillars that supported the cathedral stood alone in the ruins, and the place where the altar was originally has become A large pit filled with rainwater, and the cellar below has been flooded.The sky was overcast, the same leaden gray it had been a month earlier, making the scene look like a copper engraving.

The carriage carrying the prisoners set off from the castle and drove towards the church along the Royal Mile where the king was crowned.Spectators stood on both sides of the road, and they watched all this in silence.

The black carriage stopped in front of the church, and the rebels were led off the carriage.Earl Allen's jaw was shattered by a bullet, and now his whole face is covered with dirty gauze covered in blood and mud, making it almost impossible to see his appearance clearly.

The ex-Regent had a high fever, his wounds were in fact infected, and even with the king's pardon he would have died of sepsis soon.Two soldiers carried him up to the execution platform, and one of them stretched out his hand and seemed to be groping for something on his face.Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his wound, and the gauze on the wound was torn off, he could hear the audience in the front row gasped, the count wanted to laugh, but the pain on his face made him almost Can't make any expression.The soldiers pressed him weakly on an oiled post, and someone tied him up with a rope. The rope was tied extremely tightly, and the count coughed in pain.

The soldiers finally finished their work, Earl Arlen looked up to his side with difficulty, Earl Lennox was struggling so hard that the soldiers had to calm him down with their rifle butts.His face was covered with tears and snot, and he frantically begged the soldiers for mercy, and finally the leading officer had to gag his mouth with a cloth.Farther away was the Earl of Eglinton. The gray-haired old man pushed away the soldiers who tried to help him, and walked steadily to the stake.Farther away was Mrs. Elizabeth Holland, the mistress of the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Arlen, who had also met once, but was too far away for the Earl to see her situation clearly.Earl Arlen turned his head slightly again, and erected a canopy directly opposite him, with the king's throne under it. Obviously, King Henry VIII would never give up on such an occasion that must have made him very happy.

There was a blast of horns from the band in the square, and a royal carriage drawn by six white horses, surrounded by cavalry, drove into the square.The carriage stopped in front of the throne, and the servant sitting in front of the carriage jumped out of the carriage and opened the door.

With the help of two attendants, His Majesty the King slowly moved out of the carriage, and all the nobles and courtiers hurriedly bowed down to salute. What the King did during this time more than doubled his level of terror, perhaps in other Sometimes there are people who want to attract the king's attention, but on today's occasion, everyone can't wait to dig a hole in the ground, as long as they don't let the king notice themselves.

His Majesty, leaning on a cane, limped towards the throne with the help of his servants.His weight made the poor chair creak and groan.The king slumped in his chair, panting violently, and his attendants hurriedly brought him silver cups filled with mulled wine.

In the second carriage came the Queen and the Crown Prince.They all looked a little pale, and the king's madness made those closest to him shudder.Without a word they went behind the king and took their seats.

In the third carriage came the King's daughters.The newly crowned Princess Marie tugged at her sister, Princess Elizabeth, who looked equally distraught.Behind them were the adults of the Privy Council. They were all silent, and stood on both sides of the king's throne with their heads down according to their status.Normally, the position closest to the king would often attract open and secret fights between adults with similar status, but today it has become a hot potato. Everyone wishes to stand as far away from King Henry as possible.

The judge began to read out the verdict, which was written for a long time. King Henry snorted a few times in dissatisfaction. The judge felt the cold sweat on his back had soaked his underwear.He read the lengthy document as fast as he could, to the point where he couldn't speak clearly.

Earl Allen looked at the King of England on the opposite side. He looked really ridiculous, a fat man who couldn't even walk, but the people around him were genuinely afraid of him.Earl Allen had seen a portrait of this tyrant before, but now that he actually saw this person, he felt a little disappointed in his heart.The count lowered his head slightly, and a soldier was lighting the firewood used to start the fire at the stake.He tried to think of something to say, but his wounds left him with only meaningless sounds, and the mouths of the rebels who suffered with him had been gagged by the king's order.

Some of the damp fagots gave off so much smoke that the Count felt himself almost suffocating.The hot air builds up over time, mixing with the smoke upwards, enveloping the Earl.Earl Allen coughed violently, and he couldn't help thinking about the process of making ham.

There was a burst of laughter from the crowd, it seemed that the Earl Lennox next to him peed his pants.

The surrounding area became hotter and hotter, and Earl Allen couldn't even tell whether he was in hell or the world. There was a sharp pain in his feet, and then he went higher and higher. His clothes began to burn, and the air was filled with a kind of he The disgusting stench that he had never smelled before, he raised his head and looked up, as if he felt something falling on his face.

Fine rain began to float in the sky, but this did not affect the combustion.There was silence in the square, and the screams on the burning platform were especially terrifying in such a quiet environment.The disgusting stench filled the air, and many people began to vomit.

The king sat there with no expression on his face, as if he was waiting for the audience to finish at a boring performance, while the faces of the people around him were already pale, and some people covered their mouths, obviously unwilling to be in front of the king. gaffe.

After a long time, the screams became weaker and weaker, and finally disappeared, but the firewood and oil on the stake were still burning.

The king looked around, he looked at the crowd in the square, felt their fear, great, he thought.He looked at his courtiers again, they didn't look any better than traffickers and pawns.There was a smell of urine in the air, it must have come from some guy who hadn't seen the world.The king smiled disdainfully, and that was all they should be, they were rightly afraid.

His Majesty waved his hand, and the attendants hurried forward and carried His Majesty back to the carriage.The nobles followed silently, like a group of people sleepwalking.

The rain became heavier and heavier, and soon the drizzle turned into a torrential rain, and the people in the square scattered.The still burning flames became weaker and weaker in the rain, and finally completely extinguished, leaving only some scorched black things, which stained the rainwater and flowed across the square.