Queen of Scots. Her earlier years opened in the gay court of France, and
was full of sunshine, but shadows gathered, and she was--

"A sad prisoner, passing weary years,
In many castles, till at Fotheringay,
The joyless life was ended."

Henry VIII. was a great king, but his cruel attitude towards his queens
will ever diminish his glory; two of them were executed at his
instigation at the Tower, namely, Anne Boleyn, on May 19th, 1536, and
Katherine Howard, on February 13th, 1542. In the death at the block of
Lady Jane Grey, "the nine days' queen," the scene is more pathetic and
picturesque. On February 12th, 1553-4, she and her young husband, Lord
Guildford Dudley, were executed at the Tower, the former on the Green
within the ancient stronghold, and the latter on Tower Hill. The story
of her unhappy fate is one of the most familiar pages of English
history. Fuller said of this noble woman: "She had the innocency of
childhood, the beauty of youth, the solidity of middle, the gravity of
old age, and all at eighteen; the birth of a princess, the learning of a
clerk, the life of a saint, and the death of a malefactor for her
parents' offences."

[Illustration: THE TOWER OF LONDON, SHOWING THE SITE OF THE SCAFFOLD.]

Amongst the notable men who have suffered at the Tower, we must mention
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, beheaded on Tower Hill, June 23rd,
1535. He had nearly reached the age of four score years. The Pope, to
spite Henry VIII., had sent the prelate a cardinal's hat, but the aged
bishop had suffered death before it reached this country. Sir Thomas
More was executed on July 6th, 1535. Like his friend Fisher, he refused
submission to the Statute of Succession and to the King's Supremacy. The
devotion of Margaret Roper to her father, Sir Thomas More, forms an
attractive feature in the life story of this truly great man. After
execution his head was spiked on London Bridge, and she bribed a man to
move it, and drop it into a boat where she sat. She kept the sacred
relic for many years, and at her death it was buried with her in a vault
under St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury.

George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, was beheaded on May 17th, 1536, two
days before the execution of his sister, Queen Anne Boleyn; and his
wife, Jane, Viscountess Rochford, was beheaded at Tower Hill, with
Katherine Howard, on February 13th, 1542, on the charge of having been
an accomplice in the queen's treason. On July 28th,