Still there remained untouched two mighty pillars of Protestantism
that Gardiner and Wriothesley had to overthrow. These were the queen
and Archbishop Cranmer.
Still there were two powerful and hated enemies whom the Seymours
had to overcome; these were the Duke of Norfolk and his son, the
Earl of Surrey.
But the various parties that in turn besieged the king's ear and
controlled it, were in singular and unheard-of opposition, and at
the same time inflamed with bitterest enmity, and they strove to
supplant each other in the favor of the king.
To the popish party of Gardiner and Earl Douglas, everything
depended on dispossessing the Seymours of the king's favor; and
they, on the other hand, wanted above all things to continue in
power the young queen, already inclined to them, and to destroy for
the papists one of their most powerful leaders, the Duke of Norfolk.
The one party controlled the king's ear through the queen; the
other, through his favorite, Earl Douglas.
Never had the king been more gracious and affable to his consort--
never had he required more Earl Douglas's presence than in those
days of his sickness and bodily anguish.
But there was yet a third party that occupied an important place in
the king's favor--a power which every one feared, and which seemed
to keep itself perfectly independent and free from all foreign
influences. This power was John Heywood, the king's fool, the
epigrammatist, who was dreaded by the whole court.
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