Cranmer desired him to give some sign of his dying in the faith of Christ.

He squeezed the prelate's hand, and immediately expired, after a reign of thirty-seven years and nine months; and in the fifty-sixth year of his age.
* Burnet, vol.i.p.

348.

Fox.
** Lanquet's Epitome of Chronicles in the year 1541.
The king had made his will near a month before his demise; in which he confirmed the destination of parliament, by leaving the crown first to Prince Edward, then to the lady Mary, next to the lady Elizabeth: the two princesses he obliged, under the penalty of forfeiting their title to the crown, not to marry without consent of the council which he appointed for the government of his minor son.

After his own children, he settled the succession on Frances Brandon, marchioness of Dorset, eldest daughter of his sister, the French queen; then on Eleanor, countess of Cumberland, the second daughter In passing over the posterity of the queen of Scots, his eldest sister, he made use of the power obtained from parliament, but as he subjoined that, after the failure of the French queen's posterity, the crown should descend to the next lawful heir, it afterwards became a question, whether these words could be applied to the Scottish line.