MARY.—1553 to 1558.
How Sir Thomas Wyat rebelled against Queen Mary, but was overcome,
and he and many others were put to death; how she offended the people
by marrying the King of Spain; and how a great many people were burnt
for being Protestants.
Mary, the daughter of Henry the Eighth, and of Catherine of Arragon,
his first wife, was so cruel that she is always called BLOODY MARY.
She was at Hunsdon when her brother died; but instead of going
directly to London to be made queen, she went first to Norwich, for
fear of the Duke of Northumberland, and afterwards to London, as you
read in the last chapter.
One of the very first things she did was to order the heads of
the Duke of Northumberland and several other gentlemen to be cut
off. She then offended the people by forbidding them to say their
public prayers or to read the Bible in English: she ordered all the
clergymen to send away their wives, and she determined to restore
the Roman Catholic worship again.
Many now began to be sorry that Mary was queen, and a number of
people collected under the command of Sir Thomas Wyat and the Duke
of Suffolk, to try to drive Mary out, and release Lady Jane, for
this was before she was put to death. At one time Mary was in great
danger, but Wyat’s men fell away from him, and he was taken and put
to death.
The hard-hearted queen determined to be revenged on those who had
been with Sir Thomas Wyat. Besides beheading Lady Jane, as I have
told you, she ordered the heads of the Duke of Suffolk and of many
more gentlemen to be cut off, and stuck up the heads on poles all
about the streets. She had fifty-two gentlemen hanged, all on the
same day, and the people called the day Black Monday. She soon sent
to fetch her sister Elizabeth from her house at Ashbridge, and on
her coming to London sent her to the Tower. For two months Elizabeth
was kept close in prison, whilst her enemies strove hard to have her
beheaded. At last her friends prevailed, and she went to live at
Hatfield.
The next thing Mary did to offend the people of England was to marry
the Spanish prince, who was soon after Philip the Second, King
of Spain. He was as ill-tempered and as cruel as the queen, and
encouraged her in hating the Protestants, and in trying to make all
the English people Roman Catholics again.
The queen’s cousin, Cardinal Pole, was soon sent from Rome by the
Pope. And one day Queen Mary and King Philip, with the nobles and
commons, knelt before the Cardinal, and confessed the wickedness of
England in casting off the power of the Pope. So the Cardinal forgave
them, and received England back to the Romish Church.
The persons who helped Mary most in her cruelty were Gardiner, Bishop
of Winchester, and Bishop Bonner. These two men were the most cruel I
ever heard of, and determined to burn everybody who would not agree
with the queen in her religion.
The first person Gardiner ordered to be burnt alive was one of the
clergymen belonging to the great church of St. Paul in London; his
name was Rogers. That good man would not do what he thought wrong
towards God to please either Gardiner or the queen, so they sent him
to the great square called Smithfield, and there had him tied to a
stake, and a fire lighted all around him, so as to kill him. As he
was going along to be burnt, his wife and his ten little children met
him, and kissed him, and took leave of him, for Gardiner would not
let them go to him while he kept him in prison before his death.
The next was Dr. Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester. He died saying
prayers, and preaching to the people round about him, and thanking
God for giving him strength to speak the truth, and keep His
commandments.
Altogether, there were nearly three hundred men and women burnt by
Queen Mary’s orders; but I will only tell you the names of three
more, for I hate to write about such wicked doings.
You remember I mentioned Bishop Latimer among the good men who were
Protestants. He had come to be a very old man in Mary’s reign; but
she would not spare him, but sent him with another bishop, a friend
of his, as good and learned as himself, named Ridley, to Oxford,
where they were burned together, only because they were Protestants.
At last Mary determined to order the death of the wise and good
Archbishop Cranmer. He had always been very gentle and rather
fearful, and he wrote to Mary, and tried by every means to get her to
allow him to live. They made him hope to be spared if he would give
up his religion, and promise to be a Papist. As soon as he had been
so weak as to do this, she ordered him to be burned at Oxford. When
he was taken to be tied to the stake, he stretched out his right hand
that it might burn first, because it had written through fear what he
did not mean. He took off all his clothes but his shirt, and with a
very cheerful countenance he began to praise God aloud, and to pray
for pardon for the faults he might have committed during a long life.
His patience in bearing the torment of burning, and his courage in
dying, made all the people love him as much as it made them hate the
queen and Bonner.
Nothing did well in this cruel queen’s reign. She went to war with
France to please her husband the king of Spain, and in that war the
French took Calais from the English, who had kept it ever since
Edward the Third’s reign.[2]
Queen Mary died the same year in which she lost Calais, after being
queen only five years.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Little Arthur should look back, and read the story of the taking
of Calais, and of the good Eustace de St. Pierre.