THE COMING OF THE QUEEN.
1553.
The hereditary enmity between Charles V. and the King of France, which
in its earliest stages had deluged Europe with blood, and had made of
the city of Rome a shambles, was in its later developments the cause of
most of the troubles of Mary’s reign. Scarcely was it whispered that
Edward lay dying, when England became at once the political battlefield
of their conflicting interests.
Charles opened the campaign by sending over from Brussels three envoys
extraordinary, ostensibly to visit the King, but really to watch
Mary’s case in the interest of the empire. These envoys were Jean de
Montmorency Sieur de Corrières, Jacques de Mornix Sieur de Toulouse,
and last, though by no means the least, Simon Renard, who was destined
to play an important part in Mary’s future. France too was immediately
in the field, and Henry II. despatched two envoys to the coast, with
instructions to remain at Boulogne till further orders, while de
Noailles, his ambassador in England, made overtures to Northumberland
of French aid in the event of foreigners attempting to disturb the
tranquillity of the realm.
Charles’s aim was to bring about a marriage between his son and his
cousin, as soon as Mary might be sure of reigning, in the hope that
their issue would exclude the next legitimate heir to the throne of
England, the young Scottish Queen already betrothed to the Dauphin. On
the other hand, Henry’s object was of course to defeat this project,
to prevent Mary Tudor if possible from succeeding to her inheritance,
to place obstacles in the way of any marriage that might be proposed,
and above all to hinder by every means in his power, her union with the
Prince of Spain.
Mary was no politician. The diplomacy under which she had suffered had
not taught her to meet treachery with dissimulation and fraud with
cunning. She could arm herself at all points for defence, but she
was not a good dissembler. “To be plain with you,” was an expression
natural to her, and all her words and actions were plain, clean-cut
and unmistakable. Her letters are a distinct contrast to Elizabeth’s
monuments of mystification, framed to confuse, if not altogether to
mislead. Perhaps Mary’s greatest misfortune was that she was born fifty
years too late. Her virtues and her faults were those of a past, or
rapidly passing, age. She belonged by every fibre of her nature to the
old order, while the world about her was holding out eager arms to the
Renaissance, to the new life that was so well worth living, the new
learning that added a fresh impetus to intellectual pursuits, to the
new religion that was to lead men away from the purgative into the
illuminative way, abolishing good works as snares of the Evil One. The
world was advancing; Mary with a few kindred spirits was reactionary,
and if for a while, her popularity was as great, the nation’s love for
her as enthusiastic as ever, it was because people were still more
than half unconscious of the new forces at work among them. England
was not yet Protestantised. The legislation of five or six years had
not overcome the habits of thought formed by nine centuries, and
although a new generation had sprung up since the rupture with Rome,
believing that Pope spelt arch-enemy, the greater number of Englishmen
were in all other respects Catholics by choice. But as strong as their
particular fear of Rome was their general distrust of all foreigners,
and especially of Spaniards; and the French ambassador took care to
keep that distrust alive, and to increase it by every means in his
power.
Edward lay dying, but no sign was allowed to transpire of the
revolution that was intended. The Council Registers are a blank, save
for significant entries concerning the removal of artillery from the
ships and forts to the Tower. But these ominous if silent preparations
did not escape the notice of the imperial envoys, who kept close watch,
to prevent a surprise.
The young King breathed his last on the evening of the 6th July, but
it had been arranged that the event should be kept secret, till all
was in readiness for the great stroke. The guards were doubled in the
palace, and every care was taken that the outer world should still
ask anxiously for news from the sick chamber. Nevertheless, that same
night, Mary was informed of her brother’s death. She had ridden from
Hunsdon, where she was then residing, towards London, and was expected
by the conspirators at court, whence she would have been at once
transferred in safe custody to the Tower.
At Hoddesden, however, she was met by a secret messenger, bringing the
fateful news. Putting spurs to her horse, she rode into the eastern
counties, with the intention of gaining Kenninghall, a house in Norfolk
left to her by Henry VIII., the gift being confirmed by a grant of
the second year of Edward VI. On the way, she stopped to rest at the
house of Mr. Huddleston of Sawston, and in consequence of her prompt
action, while she was under this hospitable roof, the bubble blown by
Northumberland burst sooner than had been intended. On leaving Sawston,
Mary looked back from the summit of a neighbouring hill, and saw smoke
rising from the house that had sheltered her. The rebels had set fire
to it, thinking that she was still there. It was burned to the ground,
but after the rebellion, the Queen granted to Mr. Huddleston the
materials from the ruins of Cambridge Castle, with which to rebuild
his home.[287] Hengrave Hall was the next halting-place, whence John
Bourchier, Earl of Bath, accompanied her with a considerable force
to Kenninghall.[288] From thence, she sent proclamations into all
parts of the country, announcing her accession, and calling her loyal
subjects to her aid. Among the muniments of Condover Hall, Shropshire,
is a letter from Mary dated six days after Edward’s death, and
addressed to the Mayor of Chester, summoning the inhabitants of that
part of the county to raise as great a force as possible, and repair to
her at Kenninghall, or elsewhere in Norfolk, “wherefore right trusty
and well-beloved, as ye be true Englishmen, fail ye not”.
With her were the Earl of Sussex, the Lord Mordaunt, Sir William Drury,
Sir John Shelton, Sir Henry Bedingfeld, Sir Henry Jerningham, besides
the Earl of Bath and his contingent. As her whereabouts became known,
numbers flocked to her standard. In two days, she found herself at the
head of 30,000 men, and while the conspirators were taking possession
of the Tower, of the Crown, of the Crown jewels and the revenues,
Mary without a single accessory of royalty, without arms or money,
was gathering round her the flower of the nobility, and was issuing
manifestoes to the whole kingdom, as calmly as if she were already
undisputed mistress of the realm. When it became known that the Duke
of Northumberland was advancing with an army, she removed her quarters
to Framlingham, a strongly fortified house belonging to the Duke of
Norfolk, who had been a prisoner in the Tower ever since 1546.[289]
A report was circulated that the Council was about to execute him,
together with the rest of the State prisoners, Gardiner, Bishop of
Winchester, deprived for religion, and Edward Courtenay, son of the
Marquis of Exeter who was beheaded in the same cause in 1538.[290] On
the 10th July, Jane was proclaimed Queen.
“Item the x. day of the same month, after vii. o’clock at night was
made a proclamation at the Cross in Cheap by three herolds and one
trumpet, with the King’s Sheriff of London, Master Garrard, with
divers of the guards, for Jane, the Duke of Suffolk’s daughter to be
Queen of England (but few or none said ‘God save her’) the which was
brought the same afternoon from Richmond unto Westminster, and so unto
the Tower of London by water.”[291] At the same time, the Lady Mary
and the Lady Elizabeth were declared illegitimate, and all estates and
degrees were called upon to be obedient to their lawful sovereign,
Queen Jane. A vintner’s boy in the crowd ventured to protest against
the usurpation, and for his temerity was nailed to the pillory by the
ears, both of which were amputated before he could be set free.[292]
Earlier in the day, the demise of the Crown had been announced in
London, and when the Lady Jane arrived at the Tower, she was surrounded
with as much state as was possible. The Lord Treasurer presented her
ceremoniously with the Crown; all knelt as she passed by; her train
was carried by her mother, the Duchess of Suffolk. But the space
at the disposal of the new court was extremely limited, the Tower
being crowded with prisoners, as well as with the members of the new
government, who were all lodged there for safety.
In spite of the lack of enthusiasm, and the silence with which Jane was
received, even in Protestant London, the imperial ambassadors thought
Mary’s determined attitude “strange, difficult and dangerous,” fearing
that in four days she would be in the hands of the Council. Though
the people hated Northumberland for his ambition, and dreaded him for
his tyranny, and though they gave credit to the rumours that Edward
had been poisoned,[293] even Mary’s friends were of the opinion that
it would be necessary to appeal to the Emperor to place her on the
throne. This, the ambassadors thought, would in no wise diminish the
affection of the country for her, so entirely was she beloved by the
people.[294] Their view of the desperate character of her resistance
was strengthened by the information that Northumberland had sent his
son Lord Henry Dudley into France, to solicit troops, and that 6000
French soldiers were expected shortly to embark at Dieppe and Boulogne.
On the 11th, a letter from Mary, addressed to the Lords of the Council
was brought to the Tower. It ran as follows:—
“MY LORDS,
“We greet you well, and have received sure advertisement that our
dearest brother the King, our late sovereign lord, is departed to
God’s mercy; which news, how woeful they be unto our heart, he
only knoweth, to whose will and pleasure, we must and do, humbly
submit us and our wills. But in this so lamentable a case, that is
to wit, now after his Majesty’s departure and death, concerning
the crown and governance of this realm of England, with the title
of France, and all things thereto belonging, what hath been
provided by act of Parliament, and the testament and last will
of our dearest father, beside other circumstances advancing our
right, you know, the realm and the whole world knoweth; the rolls
and records appear by the authority of the King our said father,
and the King our said brother, and the subjects of this realm; so
that we verily trust that there is no true good subject that is,
can or would pretend to be, ignorant thereof. And of our part we
have of ourselves caused, and as God shall aid and strengthen us,
shall cause, our right and title in this behalf to be published
and proclaimed accordingly. And albeit this so weighty a matter
seemeth strange, that our said brother, dying upon Thursday at
night last past, we hitherto had no knowledge from you thereof,
yet we consider your wisdom and prudence to be such, that
having eftsoons amongst you debated, pondered, and well weighed
this present case with our estate, with your own estate, the
commonwealth and all our honours, we shall and may conceive great
hope and trust, with much assurance in your loyalty and service;
and therefore for the time, interpret and take things not to the
worst; and that ye will like noblemen work the best. Nevertheless,
we are not ignorant of your consultations to undo the provisions
made for our preferment, nor of the great bands and provisions
forcible, wherewith ye be assembled and prepared, by whom, and to
what end, God and you know, and nature can but fear some evil.
But be it that some consideration politic, or whatsoever thing
else hath moved you thereto; yet doubt you not my lords, but
we can take all these your doings in gracious part, being also
right ready to remit and fully pardon the same, and that freely,
to eschew bloodshed and vengeance against all those that can or
will intend the same; trusting also assuredly, you will take and
accept this grace and virtue in good part, as appertaineth, and
that we shall not be enforced to use the service of other our true
subjects and friends, which in this our just and right cause, God,
in whom our whole affiance is, shall send us. Wherefore my lords,
we require you and charge you, and every of you, that of your
allegiance, which you owe to God and us, and to none other, for
our honour, and the surety of our person, only employ yourselves,
and forthwith, upon receipt hereof, cause our right and title to
the crown and governance of this realm to be proclaimed in our
city of London, and other places, as to your wisdom shall seem
good, and as to this case appertaineth; not failing hereof, as our
very trust is in you. And this our letter signed with our hand,
shall be your sufficient warrant in this behalf.
“Given under our signet at our manor of Kenninghall, the 9th of
July 1553.”
This display of courage made no impression on the conspirators, and
they made answer:—
“MADAM,
“We have received your letters the 9th of this instant, declaring
your supposed title, which you judge yourself to have, to the
imperial crown of this realm, and all the dominions thereunto
belonging. For answer whereof, this is to advertise you, that
for as much as our sovereign lady queen Jane is after the death
of our sovereign lord Edward the 6th, a prince of most noble
memory, invested and possessed with the just and right title in
the imperial crown of this realm, not only by good order of old
ancient laws of this realm, but also by our late sovereign lord’s
letters patent, signed with his own hand, and sealed with the
great Seal of England, in presence of the most part of the nobles,
councillors, judges, with divers other grave and sage personages,
assenting and subscribing to the same. We must therefore of most
bound duty and allegiance assent unto her said grace, and to
none other, except we should, which faithful subjects cannot,
fall into grievous and unspeakable enormities. Wherefore we can
no less do, but for the quiet both of the realm and you also, to
advertise you, that forasmuch as the divorce made between the King
of famous memory Henry 8th and the lady Katherine, your mother,
was necessary to be had, both by the everlasting laws of God,
and also by the ecclesiastical laws, and by the most part of the
noble and learned universities of Christendom, and confirmed also
by the sundry acts of Parliament, remaining yet in their force,
and thereby you justly made illegitimate and unheritable to the
crown imperial of this realm, and the rules and dominions, and
possessions of the same, you will, upon just consideration hereof,
and of divers other causes lawful to be alleged for the same,
and for the just inheritance of the right line and godly order,
taken by the late King our sovereign lord King Edward the 6th,
and agreed upon by the nobles and great personages aforesaid,
surcease by any pretence, to vex and molest any of our sovereign
lady Queen Jane her subjects, from their true faith and allegiance
unto her grace: assuring you, that if you will for respect, show
yourself quiet and obedient, as you ought, you shall find us all
and several ready to do you any service that we with duty may, and
be glad with your quietness, to preserve the common state of this
realm: wherein you may be otherwise grievous unto us, to yourself
and to them. And thus we bid you most heartily well to fare.
“From the Tower of London, in this 9th July 1553.
“Your ladyship’s friends, showing yourself an obedient subject.”
Then follow the signatures of all the members of the Council, thus:—
“Thomas Canterbury, the Marquis of Winchester, John Bedford, Will.
Northampton, Thomas Ely, chancellor; Northumberland, Henry Suffolk,
Henry Arundel, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Cobham, R. Rich, Huntingdon,
Darcy, Cheney, R. Cotton, John Gates, W. Peter, W. Cecill, John Cheeke,
John Mason, Edward North, R. Bowes”.[295]
The confident tone of the above letter concealed the real sentiments
of the conspirators. The Duke of Suffolk had been commissioned by
Northumberland to march into Norfolk, seize Mary’s person, and bring
her a prisoner to London. But Jane besought her father with tears not
to leave her, and Northumberland reluctantly took the command of the
rebel troops himself. As they marched through Shoreditch, he observed
to Sir John Gates, “The people crowd to look upon us, but not one
exclaims God speed ye!”[296]
He had no illusions about the attitude of the citizens, and trusted
more to an eloquent and fiery appeal to their Protestantism, than to
the hope of overawing them with the shadow of a sovereignty, for which
they evinced undisguised contempt. Before leaving London, therefore,
he charged the ministers of religion to expatiate in their sermons on
the benefits to be derived from the reign of a Protestant queen, and
thus work on their religious feelings. Ridley, Bishop of London, was
the preacher at Paul’s Cross on the 16th July. He declaimed violently
against Mary, and sought to persuade his hearers that she would
bring in foreign power, and subvert all Christian religion already
established. He stigmatised her religion as a “popish creed,” and
herself as “the idolatrous rival” of Queen Jane. He related the story
of his visit to her at Hunsdon, and remarked on the significance of her
refusal to listen to his preaching, adding that “notwithstanding in
all other points of civility, she showed herself gentle and tractable,
yet in matters that concerned truth, faith and doctrine—so stiff and
obstinate that there was no other hope of her to be conceived, but to
disturb and overturn all that which with so great labours had been
confirmed and planted by her brother afore”.[297]
The people listened in unwonted and unsympathetic silence. They had
not yet learned to associate the claims of inheritance with those of
religious convictions. It would have seemed to them preposterous, that
Mary should forfeit her right to reign, because she professed the
religion practised by every one of her predecessors, with the single
exception of Edward, who had died before escaping from tutelage.
Ridley’s language was reported seditious, and when, after Mary’s
proclamation, the Bishop of London hastened to Framlingham to stultify
all that he had said, by laying his homage at the Queen’s feet, he
was arrested at Ipswich, deprived of his dignities, and sent to the
Tower.[298]
The Duke of Northumberland, meanwhile, reached Bury with an army
of 8,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, only to find that he had been
declared a rebel, and that a price had been put upon his head. He would
have pushed on towards Framlingham, but disheartened by the hourly
desertion of his followers to Mary’s standard, he ordered a retreat
to Cambridge. Six ships, fully armed and manned, had been sent to lie
in wait off Yarmouth, in order to intercept Mary should she attempt
to fly the realm. Sir Henry Jerningham, who was raising troops in her
behalf, boarded them each in turn, and would have taken their captains
prisoners, the whole of the crews declaring for Mary, and expressing
themselves willing to deliver them up:—
“Then the mariners axed master Gernyngham what he would have, and
whether he would have their captains or no, and he said ‘yea marry’.
Said they ‘ye shall have them, or else we shall throw them to the
bottom of the sea’. The captains, seeing this perplexity, said
forthwith they would serve Queen Mary gladly, and so came forth with
their men, and conveyed certain great ordinance, of the which coming
in of the ships, the lady Mary and her company were wonderful joyous,
and then afterward doubted greatly the Duke’s puissance.”[299]
Scarcely had Northumberland left the Tower, when the news was brought
that Mary had been proclaimed at Norwich, that Sir Edward Peckham and
Sir Edward Hastings, Lord Windsor and others were out proclaiming
her in Buckinghamshire, and worst news of all, that the ships had
surrendered instantly to Jerningham. “Each man then,” says the
_Chronicle of Queen Jane_, “began to pluck in his horns,” and when a
messenger arrived from Oxfordshire, with tidings that Sir John Williams
was holding the county for Mary, the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Thomas
Cheney tried to get out of the Tower to feel the pulse of London. But
Suffolk kept all the members of the Council in a sort of honourable
captivity,[300] and the matter required some nice handling. The Council
Registers, which contain no entries relating to the Lady Jane’s brief
reign, certify that on the 16th July, Queen Mary’s friends in four
counties, numbering in all 10,000, assembled at Paget’s house at
Drayton, and marched to Westminster, where they took possession of the
arms and ammunition stored in the palace, “for the better furnishing
of themselves in the defence of the Queen’s Majesty’s person and her
title”. Money was so scarce that no regular pay could be given to the
soldiers, the captain of each band being charged to relieve at his own
discretion those who were plainly necessitous, “but in such sort that
it appear not otherwise but to be of his own liberality”.[301]
Paget, it appears from the above, though shut up in the Tower, was
in friendly communication with the loyalists; and it is evident from
Cecil’s own account of his submission, that the moment Northumberland
had left, the various members of the Council began to plot against him.
On the 19th July, the Lords Treasurer, Privy Seal, Arundel, Shrewsbury
and Pembroke, with Sir Thomas Cheney and Sir John Masone succeeded,
under pretext of receiving the French ambassador, in getting out of
the Tower, and having communicated with the Lord Mayor, were at once
joined by that dignitary, the Recorder, and a deputation of aldermen.
They assembled at Baynard’s Castle, and the Earl of Arundel opened the
proceedings by censuring Northumberland’s ambition. As he finished
speaking, Pembroke, drawing his sword, exclaimed: “If the arguments of
my lord Arundel do not persuade you, this sword shall make Mary queen,
or I will die in her quarrel”. Shouts of applause answered him, and
the Duke of Suffolk, who had been sent for, signed the proclamation.
The summons had convinced him that all was lost, and he ordered his
men to leave their weapons behind them. He proclaimed Mary on Tower
Hill, before joining the other members of the Council. They then all
rode through the City, and proclaimed her at Paul’s Cross, after which
Arundel and Paget were despatched to lay the submission of the Council
at her feet.[302]
According to the _Grey Friars’ Chronicle_, “The choir sang _Te Deum_
with the organs going and the bells ringing, as most parts all. And the
same night had the [most] part of London to dinner, with bonfires in
every street of London, with good cheer at every bonfire; and the bells
ringing in every parish-church, for the most part all night till the
next day to None.”
A newsletter in Ralph Starkey’s collection says, “Great was the triumph
here at London; for my time I never saw the like, and by the report of
others, the like was never seen. The number of caps that were thrown
up at the proclamation were not to be told. The Earl of Pembroke threw
away his cap full of angellettes. I saw myself, money was thrown out
at windows for joy. The bonfires were without number, and what with
shouting and crying of the people, and ringing of the bells, there
could no one hear almost what another said, besides banquettings and
singing in the street for joy.”[303]
Even Foxe, Mary’s bitterest enemy, admitted that “God so turned the
hearts of the people to her, and against the Council, that she overcame
them without bloodshed, notwithstanding there was made great expedition
against her both by sea and land”.[304]
Jane, having left her apartments in ignorance of what was happening, to
stand sponsor at the baptism of the child of Edward Underhill in St.
John’s Chapel, found on her return that the cloth of estate, and other
insignia of royalty had disappeared from her presence chamber, by order
of the Duke of Suffolk himself. The Crown had passed for ever from her,
and there was no alternative but a hasty retreat into that private
life, from which it would have been well for her had she never been
drawn.
So much extravagant language has been employed by the partisans of the
Lady Jane Grey, in describing her virtues and accomplishments, while
her youth and tragic end make her so interesting a figure, that it is
scarcely wonderful if we find it difficult to form a sober opinion
of one, who appeared for a moment in our annals, and as the price of
that appearance, laid her fair young head upon the block. The charm
that failed to draw even a murmur of applause from her contemporaries,
when she was thrust upon them as Queen has been potent ever since, and
there are few who do not unconsciously canonise her on account of her
misfortunes.
She had been educated severely, in the same kind of intellectual school
as that, in which the daughters of Henry VIII. and the learned family
of Sir Thomas More had also distinguished themselves. She was a good
Latin and Greek scholar, and was further well versed in the doctrines
of the Genevan Reformers. The instrument of Northumberland’s ambitious
schemes, she had passively acquiesced in the dignity conspired for
her, but once raised to the throne, the timid girl of sixteen had
suddenly displayed the obstinacy which she had inherited from her
Tudor grandmother, and had evinced spirit and determination enough to
refuse to share her supposed title with her husband.[305] Had the bold
stroke succeeded, which placed the Crown for a moment in her hands, her
father-in-law might have lived to repent his temerity.
It would be obviously unfair to hold Jane responsible for all that was
done in her name, but although Mary’s temper showed itself the reverse
of vindictive, it must have cost the Queen an effort, to forgive the
nine days’ usurper the letter which purported to have been written
by her to the Marquis of Northampton, announcing her accession, and
requiring his allegiance and defence of her title, against “the feigned
and untrue claim of the Lady Mary, bastard daughter to our great-uncle,
Henry the Eighth of famous memory”. The draft of this letter, in
Northumberland’s hand, and endorsed by Cecil “First copy of a letter
to be written by the Lady Jane when she came from the Tower,” is in
the British Museum, as is also the copy made by a clerk and signed by
Jane. This second copy was afterwards endorsed by the Duke “_Jana non
Regina_”.[306] On the news reaching the Duke of Northumberland that
the Council had submitted to Mary, and that immediately the troops had
testified their satisfaction in a volley of artillery, he saw that
further resistance would be suicidal. He threw up his cap and shouted,
“Long live Queen Mary! so laughing that the tears ran down his face
with grief”.[307] In less than an hour, he was summoned to disband
his army, and commanded not to approach London within ten miles. He
remained at Cambridge, and when that place, following the example of
Great Yarmouth, Colchester and Bury declared for Mary, he was arrested
by the municipality, but released on the Queen’s proclamation, ordering
every man to go to his own home, till further orders. Scarcely however
did he breathe freely, when the Earl of Arundel arrived to apprehend
him on a charge of high treason. Over and above the guilt which he
shared with the whole Council, he had borne arms against his lawful
sovereign, and was suspected of having offered Calais to the French as
the price of their support. At once guessing why Arundel had come, he
fell on his knees, and with a craven spirit begged him to be good to
him for the love of God. “And consider,” he added, “I have done nothing
but by the consent of you all, and all the whole Council.” He went to
the Tower, guarded by 4,000 soldiers, and was lodged in the Beauchamp
Tower, whence he wrote abjectly to Arundel: “Oh that it would please
her good Grace to give me life, yea the life of a dog, if I might live
and kiss her feet; and spend both life and all in her humble service,
as I have the best part already, under her worthy brother and most
glorious father”.
Northumberland was, justly enough, the scapegoat; but as he had said,
no member of the Council came out of the matter with clean hands. All
had signed the will which the Duke had dictated to Edward, enfeebled
by his mortal disease, and dexterously worked up to a pitch of
fanaticism that made him oblivious of justice. But Cecil’s proceedings
were, by his own showing, perhaps the most despicable. In his written
submission[308] to Queen Mary, after beseeching her clemency, he went
on to confess that his conduct throughout the plot had been guided by
the one consideration of saving his skin whole. He had shuffled as
long as he dared brave the Duke’s irritation, and had given in only,
when the odds in favour of the conspirators seemed overwhelming. But
when Northumberland had charged him to proclaim the Lady Jane, he
had shifted the responsibility of the act on to Throckmorton, “whose
conscience I saw was troubled therewith, misliking the matter”. The
document ends with the pious invocation:—
“_Justus adjutorium meus Dominus qui salvos facit rectos corde._ God
save the Queen in all felicity.
“W. CECILL.”
Sir William Petre had also tried to make compromises with the Duke, but
had succumbed, on being told that unless he agreed to the whole plan
he could no longer retain his office of Secretary of State. Each day
brought Mary fresh conquests. After a nine days’ rebellion, without
a single blow having been struck in her defence, she was proclaimed
Queen in every town in England. Her journey to London was a triumphal
progress. Antoine de Noailles, the French ambassador, who had so lately
conspired with Edward’s Council, and who was to be the evil genius of
the new reign, rode twenty-five miles into the country to meet and
congratulate the Queen in his master’s name, offering her the whole
of the French forces, in support of her right. At Wanstead, she was
joined by the Lady Elizabeth, who had prudently abstained from taking
sides, till it should be clear where success lay. She had declined
Northumberland’s overtures, and offers of large sums of money, but
had equally avoided moving a finger in Mary’s cause, pleading an
illness, which however allowed her to recover opportunely, when the
Queen was about to take possession of her capital. Mary greeted her
affectionately, embraced all her ladies, and assigned her the next
place in the royal cortège after herself.[309] Together they entered
the City of London at Aldgate, on the 3rd August, and rode through the
densely crowded streets, the multitude rending the air with shouts
of joy. Elizabeth was too clever not to estimate at its real value
the contrast presented by the two sisters on this striking occasion.
In spite of their loyalty and enthusiasm in realising the reward of
their long devotion, the people could not fail to observe, that the
Queen at thirty-seven, worn with trouble and sickness, was eclipsed by
Elizabeth’s twenty years.
Elizabeth was tall and majestic, more gracious than beautiful, pale
of complexion, with fine eyes, and hands that were admired for their
whiteness and elegance. It was noticed that she knew how to use them
effectively.[310]
At the Tower, where according to custom, the Queen was to reside
pending her brother’s obsequies, the State prisoners of the two
preceding reigns were kneeling on the Green, in front of the scaffold.
These were the Duchess of Somerset, who had been in captivity since the
execution of her husband; the aged Duke of Norfolk; Edward Courtenay,
son of the Marquis of Exeter, beheaded in 1538; Tunstal and Gardiner,
the deprived Bishops of Durham and Winchester. Gardiner, in the name of
them all, congratulated Mary on her accession, and without complaining
of the injustice of their detention expressed their joy at seeing her
victorious over her enemies.[311]
“Ye are my prisoners!” exclaimed the Queen, bursting into tears.
Embracing them all, she ordered them to be released at once, and took
them with her to the royal apartments. Their goods, their rank, their
sees were restored. The next day, Gardiner was sworn a member of the
Privy Council, and three weeks later, was made Lord Chancellor of
England.
The names of twenty-seven persons concerned in the rebellion were
handed to the Queen. Of these she struck out sixteen, leaving eleven to
be tried. These were again reduced to seven—the Duke of Northumberland,
his son the Earl of Warwick, the Marquis of Northampton, Sir John
Gates, Sir Henry Gates, Sir Andrew Dudley and Sir Thomas Palmer.
The law then took its course, and they were condemned to death. But
Mary again intervened; four were reprieved, and three only of the
ringleaders, the Duke of Northumberland, Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas
Palmer, his chief advisers, were executed. The Emperor urged her in
vain to include the Lady Jane in the number of those to be tried for
high treason. The Queen spoke warmly in her defence, and declared that
she was less guilty than he believed her to be. Usurper though she had
been, she was but a tool, and Mary would not have her punished for
another’s crime. She had returned to the Tower as a prisoner, along
with her husband, but was allowed great freedom within its precincts.
The danger of her pretensions was, Mary declared, imaginary, but every
precaution should be taken before she was restored to liberty.[312]
With unprecedented mildness, the Queen had been inclined to pardon
even Northumberland, but Charles put pressure on her to sign his
death-warrant. The Duke made no defence at his trial, and on the
scaffold admitted his crime, expressed penitence, and declared that he
died a member of the Catholic and Roman Church.[313]
Whether Mary was persuaded of Jane’s innocence on the ground that
the girl was scarcely a free agent, or whether the letter which Jane
wrote to her as a prisoner,[314] turned the balance in her favour, is
not clear, but it is certain that the Queen’s treatment of her rival
at this time was magnanimous to imprudence, as the sequel showed. As
for the other delinquents, no rebellion had ever been quenched with
so little effusion of blood. Far otherwise had been Henry’s reprisals
after the northern rising, far other the crushing of the insurgents in
Edward’s reign. Had the punishment of the rebels rested entirely with
Mary, she would have signalised her advent with a full and general
amnesty. The Duchess of Suffolk had thrown herself at the Queen’s feet,
imploring the pardon and release of her husband, both of which she
obtained immediately; but strange as it appears, it is not on record
that she even attempted to plead for her daughter.[315]
More stringent measures at the outset would no doubt have averted the
serious disturbances of the following year, and afterwards; and the
opinion of Charles V., that to punish the authors of sedition was to
nip the revolution in the bud, was justified in the event. He had
insisted on the execution of Northumberland and his lieutenants, but
more than this he had not obtained. The people had little respect or
gratitude for a clemency which they did not understand.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 287: “He (Mr. Huddleston) was highly honoured afterwards by
Queen Mary, and deservedly. Such the trust she reposed in him that
(when Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen) she came privately to him to
Salston, and rid thence behind his servant (the better to disguise
herself from discovery) to Framlingham castle. She afterwards made him
(as I have heard) her privy councillor and (besides other great boons)
bestowed the bigger part of Cambridge Castle (then much ruined) upon
him, with the stones whereof he built his fair house in this county”
(Fuller, _Worthies_, i., p. 168).]
[Footnote 288: “A sketch of Hengrave Hall, Suffolk,” by Sir Henry
Rookwood Gage.]
[Footnote 289: Henry had confiscated the place on the attainder of
the Duke of Norfolk. The Duke requested pathetically that he would be
pleased to bestow it on the royal children as it was “stately gear”.
Mary restored it to its rightful owner.]
[Footnote 290: _Papiers d’Etat du Cardinal de Granvelle, d’après les
manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de Besançon_, publiés sous la direction
de M. Ch. Weiss, tom. iv., p. 31.]
[Footnote 291: Cotton MS. Vit. F. xii., Brit. Mus. Printed in the
_Chronicle of Queen Jane and Two Years of Queen Mary_, p. 110,
appendix.]
[Footnote 292: Holinshed, 1084.]
[Footnote 293: This was so generally believed, that the Emperor told
Mary that she ought to put to death all the conspirators who had any
hand in the late King’s death (Renard _apud_ Griffet, p. 11).]
[Footnote 294: _Papiers d’Etat du Cardinal de Granvelle_, p. 39.]
[Footnote 295: Foxe, vol. vi., p. 385.]
[Footnote 296: Stow, 610, 611.]
[Footnote 297: Foxe, _Acts and Monuments_, vol. vi., p. 389. Burnet,
vol. ii., p. 384. Holinshed, 1087. Bishop Godwin says that “he
was scarce heard out with patience” (_Life of Ridley_ by the Rev.
Gloucester Ridley, LL.B., p. 415).]
[Footnote 298: According to Foxe he “had such cold welcome” at
Framlingham, “that being despoiled of all his dignities, he was sent
back on a lame, halting horse to the Tower” (vol. vi., p. 390).]
[Footnote 299: _Chronicle of Queen Jane_, etc., p. 8.]
[Footnote 300: De Noailles, _Ambassades_, i., p. 222.]
[Footnote 301: _Acts of the Privy Council_, vol. iv., p. 297.]
[Footnote 302: Harl. MS. 353, f. 139 _et seq._, Brit. Mus.]
[Footnote 303: _The Chronicle of Queen Jane_, etc., p. 11.]
[Footnote 304: _Acts and Monuments_, vol. vi., p. 388.]
[Footnote 305: “Dissi loro che se la corona s’ appetava a me, io sarei
contenta di fare il mio marito Duca ma non consentirei di farlo Rè]”
(Pollini, _Istoria ecclesiastica della rivoluzione d’Inghilterra_, p.
357).]
[Footnote 306: The draft is the Lansdowne MS. 3, f. 24, the copy with
Jane’s signature No. 1236 in the same collection.]
[Footnote 307: De Noailles, _Ambassades_, vol. i., p. 225.]
[Footnote 308: “A Brief Note of my submission and of my doings,”
Lansdowne MS. 102, f. 2, Brit. Mus.; printed by Tytler, _England under
the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary_, vol. ii., p. 192.]
[Footnote 309: The Ambassadors of Charles V. to their Master, 6th
August 1553, Record Office.]
[Footnote 310: Armand Baschet, _La Diplomatie Vénitienne au Seizième
Siècle_, p. 128. The Venetian ambassador Sorranzo describes Mary about
this time as “d’une taille plutôt petite que grande, d’une carnation
blanche, mêlée de rouge, et très-maigre; elle a les yeux gros et gris,
les cheveux roux et la figure ronde, avec le nez peut-être un peu bas
et large: en somme, si par suite de son âge elle ne commençait un peu
à marcher vers son déclin, on pourrait plutôt la dire belle que laide”
(_ibid._, p. 121).]
[Footnote 311: De Noailles, _Ambassades_, vol. i., p. 228.]
[Footnote 312: Harl. MS. 284, f. 127, Brit. Mus.]
[Footnote 313: Foxe says that he was induced to make this profession
by a promise of pardon; but this assumption appears to be purely
gratuitous.]
[Footnote 314: Pollini, p. 355. For the text of this letter see
Appendix C to this volume.]
[Footnote 315: It is remarkable that active as the Duchess of Suffolk
had been in the usurpation, she was always treated by Mary with
consideration and even confidence.]