EDWARD VI. AND MARY
EDWARD VI., 1547-1553. MARY, 1553-1558.
LEADING DATES
Somerset's Protectorate 1547
First Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1549
Fall of Somerset 1549
Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1552
Death of Edward VI. and accession of Mary 1553
Mary's marriage with Philip 1554
Submission to Rome and re-enactment of the heresy laws 1554
Beginning of the persecution 1555
War with France 1557
Loss of Calais and death of Mary 1558
1. =Somerset becomes Protector. 1547.=--The new king, Edward VI.,
was but a boy, and Henry had directed that England should be
governed during his son's minority by a body composed of the
executors of his will and other councillors, in which neither the
partisans of change nor the partisans of the existing order should
be strong enough to have their own way. The leading innovators,
pretending to be anxious to carry out his wishes, asserted that he
had been heard to express a desire that they should be made peers or
advanced in the peerage, and should receive large estates out of the
abbey lands. After gaining their object, they set aside Henry's real
plan for the government of the realm, and declared Hertford (who now
became Duke of Somerset) to be Protector. A council was formed, from
which Gardiner and the Lord Chancellor Wriothesley were excluded as
likely to take part against them.
2. =The Scotch War. 1547-1548.=--Somerset was as greedy of Church
property as the greediest, but he was covetous also of popularity,
and had none of that moderating influence which Henry, with all his
faults, possessed. He had always too many irons in the fire, and had
no sense of the line which divides the possible from the impossible.
His first thought was to intervene in Scotland. For some time past
Protestant missionaries had been attempting to convert the Scottish
people, but most of them had been caught and burnt. Cardinal
Beaton, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, had lately burnt George
Wishart, a noted Protestant. In =1546= the Cardinal was murdered in
revenge by a party of Protestants, who seized on the castle of St.
Andrews. A French fleet, however, recaptured the castle, and
Somerset, who had sent no help to the Protestants in St. Andrews,
marched into Scotland in the hope of putting an end to all future
troubles between the kingdoms by marrying the young Queen of Scots
to Edward. He carried with him a body of foreign mercenaries armed
with the improved weapons of Continental warfare, and with their
help he defeated and slaughtered the Scotch army at Pinkie Cleugh,
burnt Holyrood and Leith, and carried destruction far and wide. Such
rough wooing exasperated the Scots, and in =1548= they formed a
close alliance with Henry II., who had succeeded Francis I. as king
of France, and sent their young queen across the sea, where she was
married to Henry's eldest son, the Dauphin Francis. Somerset had
gained nothing by his violence.
3. =Cranmer's Position in the Church of England. 1547.=--Somerset's
ecclesiastical reforms were as rash as his political enterprises.
Cranmer had none of that moral strength which would have made some
men spurn an alliance with the unscrupulous politicians of the time.
He was a learned student, and through long study had adopted the
principle that where Scripture was hard to understand it was to be
interpreted by the consent of the writers of the first ages of
Christianity. As he had also convinced himself that the writers of
the first six centuries had known nothing of the doctrine of
transubstantiation, he was now prepared to reject it--though he had
formerly not only believed it, but had taken part in burning men who
denied it. It is quite possible that if Henry had been still alive
Cranmer would have been too much overawed to announce that he had
changed his opinion. His exact shade of belief at this time is of
less importance than the method by which he reached it. In accepting
the doctrines and practices of the existing Church till they were
tested and found wanting by a combination of human reason and
historical study of the scriptures, interpreted in doubtful points
by the teaching of the writers of the early Church, Cranmer more
than any one else preserved the continuity of the Church of England,
and laid down the lines on which it was afterwards to develop
itself. There was, therefore, a great gulf between Cranmer and the
advanced Protestants, who, however much they might differ from one
another, agreed in drawing inferences from the Scripture itself,
without troubling themselves whether these inferences conformed in
any way to the earlier teaching. This gulf was constantly widening
as time went on, and eventually split English Protestantism into
fractions.
[Illustration: Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1533-1556:
from a painting dated 1547, at Jesus College, Cambridge.]
4. =Ecclesiastical Reforms. 1547-1548.=--In =1547= a fresh blow was
struck at the devotions of the people. In the churches--by the order
of the Government--there was much smashing of images and of painted
glass bright with the figures of saints and angels. Gardiner, who
protested that the Government had no authority to alter religion
till the king was of age, was sent to prison as the easiest mode of
confuting him. As Parliaments were usually packed in those days, it
does not follow that the nation was eager for changes because
Parliament ordered them. There was, however, no difficulty in
filling the benches of the House of Commons with men who profited
by the plunder of the Church, and when Parliament met, it showed
itself innovating enough. It repealed all the statutes giving
special powers to Henry VIII. and all laws against heresy. It also
passed an Act vesting in the reigning king the whole of the
chantries and other like foundations which Henry had been permitted
to take, but which he had left untouched. Cranmer, indeed, would
have been glad if the money had been devoted to the relief of the
poorer clergy, but the grasping spirit of the laymen was too strong
for him. So violent was the race for wealth that the Act decreed the
confiscation even of the endowments of lay corporations, such as
trading companies and guilds, on the excuse that part of their funds
was applied to religious purposes. It was soon, however, found that
an attempt to enforce this part of the Act would cause resistance,
and it was therefore abandoned. In =1548= the Government issued
orders abolishing a great variety of Church practices, and, in
consequence of the opposition offered by the clergy to these sudden
measures ordered that no sermons should be preached except by a few
licensed preachers.
5. =The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1549.=--In =1549= Parliament
authorised the issue of a Prayer Book in English, now known as the
First Prayer Book of Edward VI. The same Parliament also passed an
Act permitting the marriage of the clergy.
6. =The Insurrection in the West. 1549.=--Somerset's own brother,
Lord Seymour of Sudley, was sent to the block by this Parliament. He
had spoken rashly against the Protector's government, but it has
been thought by some that his main fault was his strong language
against the rapacity with which Church property was being divided
amongst the rich. That rapacity was now reaching its height. The
Protector had set an evil example in order to raise the palace
which, though it has since been rebuilt, still bears the name of
Somerset House. He had not only seized on a vast amount of
ecclesiastical property, but had pulled down a parish church and had
carted off the bones of the dead from their graves. The Reformers
themselves, men of the study as most of them were, had gone much
farther than the mass of the people were prepared to follow. In
=1549= an insurrection burst out in Devon and Cornwall for the
restoration of the old religion, which was only suppressed with
difficulty.
7. =Ket's Rebellion. 1549.=--Another rising took place in Norfolk,
headed by Ket, a tanner. Ket's rebellion was directed not so much
against ecclesiastical reforms, as against civil oppression. The
gentry, who had been enriching themselves at the expense of the
clergy, had also been enriching themselves at the expense of the
poor. The inclosures against which More had testified were
multiplied, and the poor man's claims were treated with contempt.
Ket gathered his followers under a tree, which he called the Oak of
Reformation, on Mousehold Hill, outside Norwich, and sent them to
pull down the palings of the inclosures. The Earl of Warwick--the
son of that Dudley who, together with Empson, had been the object of
popular hatred in the reign of Henry VII. (see p. 357)--dispersed
the insurgents with great slaughter; but it was noted that both here
and in the West the Government was driven to use the bands of German
and Italian mercenaries which Somerset had gathered for the war in
Scotland. It was the first time since the days of John (see p. 182)
that foreign troops had been used to crush an English rising.
8. =The Fall of Somerset. 1549.=--Somerset no longer pleased any
single party. His invasion of Scotland had led to a war with France,
and to carry on that war he had found it necessary to debase the
coinage still further than it had been debased by Henry VIII. All
the disturbance of trade, as well as the disturbance of religion,
was laid to his door. At the same time he was too soft-hearted to
satisfy his colleagues in the Council, and had shown himself
favourable to the outcry against inclosures. Accordingly, before the
end of =1549= his colleagues rose against him, and thrust him into
the Tower. The Protectorate was abolished. Henceforth the Council
was to govern, but the leading man in the Council was Warwick.
9. =Warwick and the Advanced Reformers. 1549.=--Religion was a
matter to which Warwick was supremely indifferent. It was an open
question when he rose to power whether he would protect the men of
the old religion or the advanced reformers. He chose to protect the
advanced reformers. Even before Somerset's fall Cranmer had been
pushing his inquiries still farther, and was trying to find some
common ground with Zwinglian (see p. 399) and other reformers, who
went far beyond Luther. Foreign preachers, such as Bucer and Peter
Martyr, were introduced to teach religion to the English, as foreign
soldiers had been introduced to teach them obedience. Bishops were
now appointed by the king's letters-patent, without any form of
election. Gardiner and Bonner, refusing to accept the new state of
things, were deprived of their sees of Winchester and London, and
Ponet and Ridley set in their places. Ridley's moral character was
as distinguished as Ponet's was contemptible. Hooper was made Bishop
of Gloucester. For some time he hung back, refusing to wear the
episcopal vestments as being a mark of Antichrist, but at last he
allowed himself to be consecrated in them, though he cast them off
as soon as the ceremony was over.
[Illustration: Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, 1550-1553: from
the National Portrait Gallery.]
10. =Latimer's Sermons. 1548-1550.=--Latimer had refused to return
to the bishopric from which he had been thrust by Henry VIII., but
he lashed from the pulpit the vices of the age, speaking plainly in
the presence of the court of its greed and oppression. It was not
enough, he said, for sinners to repent: let them make restitution of
their ill-gotten gains. In =1550= the courtiers became tired of his
reproofs, and he was no longer allowed to preach before the king.
11. =Warwick and Somerset. 1550-1552.=--In =1550= Warwick was
compelled to make a peace with France, and gave up Boulogne as its
price. In =1551= he was very nearly drawn into war with the Emperor
on account of his refusal to allow mass to be celebrated in the
household of the king's sister, Mary. Finally, however, he gave way,
and peace was maintained. There was a fresh issue of base money, and
a sharp rise of prices in consequence. Now that there were no
monasteries left to plunder, bishoprics were stripped of their
revenues, or compelled to surrender their lands. Hooper was given
the ecclesiastical charge of the see of Worcester in addition to
that of Gloucester, but he was driven to surrender all the income of
the bishopric of Gloucester. The see of Durham was not filled up,
and before the end of the reign it was suppressed by Act of
Parliament, and ceased to have a legal existence till it was
restored by Edward's successor. So unpopular did Warwick become that
Somerset began to talk as though he might supplant his supplanter.
His rash words were carried to the young king, who had for some time
shown an interest in public affairs, and who now took the part of
Warwick, whom he created Duke of Northumberland, against his own
uncle. Somerset was arrested, and in =1552= was tried and beheaded.
12. =The Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1552.=--In =1552=
Parliament authorised the issue of a revised Prayer Book, known as
the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. The first book had been framed
by the modification of the old worship under the influence of
Lutheranism. The second book was composed under the influence of the
Swiss Reformers. The tendency of the two books may be gathered from
the words ordered to be employed in the administration of the bread
in the Communion. In the first Prayer Book they had been: "The Body
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy
body and soul unto everlasting life." In the second they were: "Take
and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on
Him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving." There were some who
urged that the Communion should no longer be received kneeling. It
was significant that their leaders were foreigners--John Alasco, a
Pole, and John Knox, a Scot, who was hereafter to be the father of a
Scottish reformation more drastic than that of England. Cranmer
withstood them successfully. The dispute marked the point beyond
which the spirit of the Renascence refused to go. In the midst of
his innovations Cranmer preserved not only a reverent spirit, but an
admiration for the devotional style of the prayers of the medieval
Church, which he therefore maintained even in the midst of the great
changes made, mainly at least by himself, in the second Prayer Book.
Happily, amidst these disputations, there was one point on which
both parties could combine--namely, on the encouragement of
education. The reign of Edward VI. is marked by the foundation of
grammar-schools--too scantily carried out, but yet in such a measure
as to mark the tendencies of an age which was beginning to replace
the mainly ecclesiastic education of the monasteries by the more
secular education of modern times.
[Illustration: King Edward VI.: from a picture belonging to H. Hucks
Gibbs, Esq.]
13. =The Forty-two Articles. 1553.=--Edward was now a precocious
youth, taught by much adulation to be confident in his own powers.
He had learnt to regard all defection from Protestant orthodoxy as a
crime. The statute which repealed the heresy laws did not altogether
stop the burning of heretics, as the lawyers discovered that heresy
was punishable by the common law. In =1550= Joan Bocher was burnt
for denying the Incarnation, and in =1551= Van Parris, a Fleming,
was burnt on the same charge. The persecution, however, was much
more restricted than in the preceding reign. Few persons were
punished, and that only for opinions of an abnormal character. In
=1553= forty-two articles of faith, afterwards, in the reign of
Elizabeth, converted into thirty-nine, were set forth as a standard
of the Church's belief by the authority of the king. So completely
did the reforming clergy recognise their entire dependence on the
king, that by a slip of the pen Hooper once wrote of 'the king's
majesty's diocese of Worcester and Gloucester.'
14. =Northumberland's Conspiracy. 1553.=--A religious system built
up solely on the will of the king, was hardly likely to survive him.
By this time it was known that Edward was smitten with consumption,
and could not live. Northumberland cared little for religion, but he
cared much for himself. He knew that Mary was, by Henry's will
sanctioned by Act of Parliament, the heiress of the throne, and that
if Mary became queen he was hardly likely to escape the scaffold. He
was daring as well as unscrupulous, and he persuaded Edward to leave
the crown by will to Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Mary,
Duchess of Suffolk, the younger sister of Henry VIII. He secured (as
he hoped) Lady Jane's devotion by marrying her to his own son, Lord
Guilford Dudley. As Lady Jane was a convinced Protestant, Edward at
once consented. His father, he thought, had left the crown by will
in the case of the failure of his own heirs (see p. 411), and why
should not he? He had been taught to think so highly of the kingship
that he did not remember that his father had been authorised by Act
of Parliament to will away the crown in the case of his children's
death without heirs, whereas no such authority had been given by
Parliament to himself. He forced--by commands and entreaties--the
councillors and the judges to sign the will. Cranmer was the last to
sign, and was only moved to do so by the sad aspect of his suffering
pupil. Then Edward died, assured that he had provided best for the
Church and nation.
15. =Lady Jane Grey. 1553.=--On July 10 Lady Jane Grey, a
pure-minded, intelligent girl of sixteen, was proclaimed queen in
London. She was a fervent Protestant, and there were many
Protestants in London. Yet, so hated was Northumberland, that even
Protestants would have nothing to say to one who had been advanced
by him. Lady Jane passed through the streets amidst a dead silence.
All England thought as London. In a few days Mary was at the head of
30,000 men. Northumberland led against her what troops he could
gather, but his own soldiers threw their caps in the air and
shouted for Queen Mary. On the 19th Mary was proclaimed queen in
London, and the unfortunate Jane passed from a throne to a
prison.[9]
[Footnote 9: Genealogy of the Greys:--
HENRY VII. (1485-1509)
|
+--------------+----+------------------+
| | |
HENRY VIII. Margaret = James IV. Mary = (2) Charles
(1509-1547) of Scotland m. (1) | Brandon,
Louis XII. | Duke of
of France | Suffolk
|
+------+
|
Frances = Henry
| Grey,
| Marquis of
| Dorset and
| Duke of
| Suffolk
|
+----------------------------------+----------+----+
| | |
Jane Grey = Guilford Dudley Catherine Grey Mary Grey]
16. =Mary restores the Mass. 1553=.--Mary, strong in her popularity,
was inclined to be merciful. Amongst those who had combined against
her only Northumberland and two others were executed--the miserable
Northumberland declaring that he died in the old faith. Mary made
Gardiner her Chancellor. Some of the leading Protestants were
arrested, and many fled to the Continent. The bishops who had been
deprived in Edward's reign were reinstated, and the mass was
everywhere restored. The queen allowed herself to be called Supreme
Head of the Church, and at first it seemed as though she would be
content to restore the religious system of the last year of Henry's
reign, and to maintain the ecclesiastical independence of the
country.
[Illustration: Queen Mary Tudor: from a painting by Lucas de Herre,
dated 1554, belonging to the Society of Antiquaries.]
17. =Mary's First Parliament. 1553=.--By taking this course Mary
would probably have contented the great majority of her subjects,
who were tired of the villainies which had been cloaked under the
name of Protestantism, and who were still warmly attached to the
religion of their fathers. She was, however, anxious to restore the
authority of the Pope, and also to marry Philip, the eldest son of
her cousin, the Emperor Charles V. It was natural that it should be
so. Her mother's life and her own youth had been made wretched, not
by Protestants, but by those who, without being Protestants, had
wrought the separation from Rome in the days of Henry, at a time
when only the Pope's adherents had maintained the legitimacy of her
own birth and of her mother's marriage. In subsequent times of
trouble Charles V. had sympathised with her and it was by her
intervention that she had been allowed to continue her mass in her
brother's reign. Mary also wished to restore to the Church its
lands. On the other hand, when Parliament met it appeared that her
subjects wished neither to submit to Rome, nor to surrender the
property of which they had deprived the Church, though they were
delighted to restore the worship and practices which had prevailed
before the death of Henry VIII. Parliament, therefore, authorised
the re-establishment of the mass, and repealed the Act allowing the
clergy to marry, but it presented a petition against a foreign
marriage. Although the hatred of Spain which grew up a few years
later was not yet felt, Englishmen did not wish their country to
become a dependent province on any foreign monarchy whatever. Mary
dissolved Parliament rather than take its advice.
18. =Wyatt's Rebellion. 1554.=--The result was an insurrection, the
aim of which was to place Mary's half-sister, Elizabeth, on the
throne. Lady Jane's father, the Duke of Suffolk, was to raise the
Midlands and Sir Thomas Wyatt to raise Kent. Suffolk failed, but
Wyatt, with a large following, crossed the Thames at Kingston, and
pushed on towards the City. His men, however, were for the most part
cut off in an engagement near Hyde Park corner, and it was with only
three hundred followers that he reached Ludgate--to find the gate
closed against him. 'I have kept touch,' he said, and suffered
himself to be led away a prisoner. Mary was no longer merciful. Not
only Suffolk and Wyatt, but the innocent Lady Jane and her young
husband, Guilford Dudley, were sent to the block. Elizabeth herself
was committed to the Tower. She fully believed that she was to die,
and sat herself down on a wet stone, refusing for some time to
enter. In many ways she had shown that she bore no goodwill to her
sister or her sister's plans, but she had been far too prudent to
commit to writing any words expressing sympathy with Wyatt. Being
far too popular to be safely put to death on any testimony which was
not convincing, Elizabeth was before long removed from the Tower and
placed at Woodstock, under the charge of Sir Henry Bedingfield, but
was after a few months allowed to retire to Hatfield.
19. =The Queen's Marriage.=--A Parliament which met in April =1554=
gave its consent to Mary's marriage, but it would not pass Bills to
restore the old statutes for the persecution of heretics. Though it
was now settled that the queen was to marry Philip, yet never was a
wooer so laggard. For some weeks he would not even write to his
betrothed. The fact was that she was twelve years older than
himself, and was neither healthy nor good-looking. Philip, however,
loved the English crown better than he loved its wearer, and in July
he crossed the sea and was married at Winchester to the queen of
England. Philip received the title of king, and the names of Philip
and Mary appeared together in all official documents and their
heads on the coins.
20. =The Submission to Rome. 1554.=--After the marriage a new
Parliament was called, more subservient than the last. In most
things it complied with Mary's wishes. It re-enacted the statutes
for the burning of heretics and agreed to the reconciliation of the
Church of England to the see of Rome, but it would not surrender the
abbey lands. Only after their possession had been confirmed did it
give its consent to the acknowledgment of the Pope's authority. Then
Cardinal Pole (see p. 399), who had been sent to England as the
Pope's legate, was allowed to receive the submission of England. The
queen, the king, and both Houses knelt before him, confessed their
sin of breaking away from the Roman see, and received absolution
from his mouth. To Mary the moment was one of inexpressible joy. She
had grieved over the separation from Rome as a sin burdening her own
conscience, and she believed with all her heart that the one path to
happiness, temporal and eternal, for herself and her realm, was to
root out heresy, in the only way in which it seemed possible, by
rooting out the heretics.
21. =The Beginning of the Persecution. 1555.=--It was not only Mary
who thought it meet that heretics should be burnt. John Rogers, who
was the first to suffer, had in the days of Edward pleaded for the
death of Joan Bocher (see p. 419). He was followed to the stake by
Bishop Hooper, who was carried to Gloucester, that he might die at
the one of his two sees which he had stripped of its property to
enrich the Crown (see p. 418). He and many another died bravely for
their faith, as More and Forest had died for theirs (see pp. 394,
398). Rowland Taylor, for instance (a Suffolk clergyman), was
condemned in London to be burnt, and sent to his own county to die.
As he left his prison in the dark of the early morning he found his
wife and children waiting for him in the street. He was allowed to
stop for a moment, and knelt down on the stones, repeating the
Lord's Prayer with his family. "Farewell, my dear wife," he said, as
soon as he had risen from his knees; "be of good comfort, for I am
quiet in my conscience. God shall stir up a father for my children."
"Thanked be God," he exclaimed when he at last reached the village
where his voice had once been heard in the pulpit, and where now the
stake rose up amidst the faggots which were to consume him, "I am
even at home!" After he had been tied to the stake a wretch threw a
faggot at his face. "O friend," he said gently, "I have harm enough:
what needed that?" The flames blazed up around his suffering body,
and Rowland Taylor entered into his rest. Ridley and Latimer were
burnt at Oxford, in the town ditch, in front of Balliol College. "Be
of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man," cried Latimer,
when the fire was lighted at his feet. "We shall this day light such
a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put
out."
[Illustration: Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, 1535-39, burnt
1555: from the National Portrait Gallery.]
22. =Death of Cranmer. 1556.=--Cranmer would have accompanied Ridley
and Latimer to the stake, but as he alone of the three had been
consecrated a bishop in the days when the Pope's authority was
accepted in England, it was thought right to await the Pope's
authority for the execution of his sentence. In =1556= that
authority arrived. Cranmer's heart was as weak as his head was
strong, and he six times recanted, hoping to save his life. Mary
specially detested him, as having sat in judgment on her mother (see
p. 389), and she was resolved that he should die. Finding his
recantation useless, he recovered his better mind, and renounced
his recantation. "I have written," he said, "many things untrue; and
forasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, my
hand therefore shall be the first burnt." He was hurried to the
stake, and when the flames leapt up around him held his right hand
steadily in the midst of them, that it might be 'the first burnt.'
23. =Continuance of the Persecution. 1556-1558.=--Immediately after
Cranmer's death Pole became Archbishop of Canterbury. The
persecution lasted for two years more. The number of those who
suffered has been reckoned at 277. Almost all of these were burnt in
the eastern and south-eastern parts of England. It was there that
the Protestants were the thickest. New opinions always flourish more
in towns than in the country, and on this side of England were those
trading towns, from which communication with the Protestants of the
Continent was most easy. Sympathy with the sufferers made these
parts of the kingdom more strongly Protestant than they had been
before.
24. =The Queen's Disappointment. 1555-1556.=--Mary was a sorrowful
woman. Not only did Protestantism flourish all the more for the
means which she took to suppress it, but her own domestic life was
clouded. She had longed for an heir to carry on the work which she
believed to be the work of God, and she had even imagined herself to
be with child. It was long before she abandoned hope, and she then
learnt also that her husband--to whom she was passionately
attached--did not love her, and had never loved anything in England
but her crown. In =1555= Philip left her. He had indeed cause to go
abroad. His father, Charles V., was broken in health, and, his
schemes for making himself master of Germany having ended in
failure, he had resolved to abdicate. Charles was obliged to leave
his Austrian possessions to his brother Ferdinand; and the German
electors, who detested Philip and his Spanish ways, insisted on
having Ferdinand as Emperor. Charles could, however, leave his
western possessions to his son, and in =1556= he completed the
surrender of them. Mary's husband then became Philip II. of Spain,
ruling also over large territories in Italy, over Franche Comté, and
the whole of the Netherlands, as well as over vast tracts in
America, rich in mines of silver and gold, which had been
appropriated by the hardihood, the cruelty, and the greed of Spanish
adventurers. No prince in Europe had at his command so warlike an
army, so powerful a fleet, and such an abounding revenue as Philip
had at his disposal. Philip's increase of power produced a strong
increase of the anti-Spanish feeling in England, and conspiracies
were formed against Mary who was believed to be ready to welcome a
Spanish invading army.
25. =War with France and the Loss of Calais. 1557-1558.=--In =1557=
Philip was at war with France, and, to please a husband who loved
her not, Mary declared war against Philip's enemy. She sent an
English army to her husband's support, but though Philip gained a
crushing victory over the French at St. Quentin, the English troops
gained no credit, as they did not arrive in time to take part in the
battle. In the winter, Francis, Duke of Guise, an able French
warrior, threatened Calais. Mary, who, after wringing a forced loan
from her subjects in the summer, had spent it all, had little power
to help the governor, Lord Wentworth, and persuaded herself that the
place was in no danger. Guise, however, laid siege to the town. The
walls were in disrepair and the garrison too small for defence. On
January 6, =1558=, Guise stormed Calais, and when, a few days
afterwards, he also stormed the outlying post of Guisnes, the last
port held by the English in France fell back into the hands of the
French. Calais was now again a French town, after having been in the
hands of strangers for 211 years.
26. =Death of Mary. 1558.=--The loss of Calais was no real
misfortune to England, but it was felt as a deep mortification both
by the queen and by her people. The people distrusted Mary too much
to support her in the prosecution of the war. They were afraid of
making Philip more powerful. Mary, hoping that Heaven might yet be
gracious to her, pushed on the persecution, and sent Protestants in
large numbers to the stake. Philip had visited her the year before,
in order to persuade her to join him against France, and she again
fancied herself to be with child. Her husband had once more deserted
her, and she now knew that she was suffering--without hope--from
dropsy. On November 17 she died, sad and lonely, wondering why all
that she had done, as she believed on God's behalf, had been
followed by failure on every side--by the desertion of her husband
and the hatred of her subjects. Happily for himself, Pole too died
two days afterwards.[10]
[Footnote 10: The 19th is the date of Machyn's contemporary diary;
but other authorities make it the 17th or 18th.]