for a time, the
king's affection and care.

Still, the hostility which the king had felt for these queens in
succession was owing, as has been already said, to his desire to remove
them out of his way, that he might be at liberty to marry again; and so,
after the mothers were, one after another, removed, the hostility
itself, so far as the children were concerned, gradually subsided, and
the king began to look both upon Mary and Elizabeth with favor again. He
even formed plans for marrying Elizabeth to persons of distinction in
foreign countries, and he entered into some negotiations for this
purpose. He had a decree passed, too, at last, reversing the sentence by
which the two princesses were cut off from an inheritance of the crown.
Thus they were restored, during their father's life, to their proper
rank as royal princesses.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF EDWARD VI.]

At last the king died in 1547, leaving only these three children, each
one the child of a different wife. Mary was a maiden lady, of about
thirty-one years of age. She was a stern, austere, hard-hearted woman,
whom nobody loved. She was the daughter of King Henry's first wife,
Catharine of Aragon, and, like her mother, was a decided Catholic.

Next came Elizabeth, who was about fourteen years of age. She was the
daughter of the king's second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn. She had been
educated a Protestant. She was not pretty, but was a very lively and
sprightly child, altogether different in her cast of character and in
her manners from her sister Mary.

Then, lastly, there was Edward, the son of Jane Seymour, the third
queen. He was about nine years of age at his father's death. He was a
boy of good character, mild and gentle in his disposition, fond of study
and reflection, and a general favorite with all who knew him.

It was considered in those days that a king might, in some sense,
dispose of his crown by will, just as, at the present time, a man may
bequeath his house or his farm. Of course, there were some limits to
this power, and the concurrence of Parliament seems to have been
required to the complete validity of such a settlement. King Henry the
Eighth, however, had little difficulty in carrying any law through
Parliament which he desired to have enacted. It is said that, on one
occasion, when there was some delay about passing a bill of his, he sent
for one of the most influential of the members of the House of Commons
to come into his presen