CHAP. IV. Romanists, who, now that they came forth from their concealment, were found to be still a powerful party; and only those adherents of the Reformation who were ready to sacrifice all for it, supported Northumberland in this crisis. Conspicuous among these was Bishop Ridley, who, on the 16th of July preached a sermon at St. Paul's Cross in support of Jane's title, and severely animadverted on Mary's religion. The Mary's pro A In the meantime Mary had been proclaimed at Norwich, where she was joined by the Earls of Oxford, Bath, and Sussex, Princess who had seceded from the council, and by most of the ceedings. neighbouring gentry, together with their tenants. squadron of six war vessels, which had been sent round to Yarmouth to intercept her expected flight to Brussels, acknowledged her authority, and in a few days she found herself at the head of more than 30,000 men, all volunteers in her cause, and most of whom came from the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, the two most Protestant counties in England. berland In this emergency, doubt and distrust unnerved the mind of Northumberland. He was desirous of watching over the capital himself, while Suffolk undertook to act against Mary. But he was persuaded to alter this arrangement; and leaving Jane and the council to Suffolk, he marched from London, accompanied by his son the Earl of Warwick, the Marquess of Northampton, the Earl of Huntingdon, and the Lord Grey. His force only consisted of 10,000 men, but they were all veterans, and far superior to Northum. their opponents. As he advanced, however, the people marches showed no enthusiasm in his cause; and hearing that he against her. had been declared a rebel by Mary, in a royal proclamation, and that a price had been fixed on his head, his heart failed him, and he suddenly began to retreat. His absence from the capital had given Mary's concealed friends the opportunity of acting openly in her favour. They assembled at Baynard's Castle, the residence of the Earl of Pembroke; the mayor and aldermen of London joined them, and after violent speeches had been made by Arundel and Pembroke, they proclaimed Mary at Paul's Cross, having first surprised the Tower, and compelled Suffolk to join them. The next day (July 20th) Lady Jane retired to Sion House, and Northumberland, having heard at Cambridge of these proceedings, there proclaimed Mary himself. On the following And sur- morning he was arrested by the Earl of Arundel, and renders. conducted to the Tower. Accompanied by her sister Elizabeth, who for a moment had a common interest with her, Mary made her triumphant entry into London, on the 3rd of 1553 August, at the head of 2,000 horse, and in the afternoon she went to the Tower and released the aged Duke of Norfolk, Gardiner, Tunstall, Bonner, Day, and Heath; the haughty Duchess of Somerset; and her kinsman Edward Courtenay, son of the Marquess of Exeter, whom she soon after created Earl of Devonshire. Their places were soon occupied by twenty-seven others, eleven of whom suffered death, only three, however, on account of their rebellion against Mary. These were, Northumberland, who on the scaffold publicly declared that he was a Roman Catholic; Sir Thomas Palmer, and Sir John Gates, who were executed August 22nd. The Earl of Warwick, the Marquess of Northampton, Sir Henry Gates, and Sir Andrew Dudley, the brother of Northumberland, were tried and convicted of treason at the same time; but their execution was reserved. The Duke of Suffolk was released, an indulgence which he owed to the contempt entertained of his capacity. SECTION II.-THE REIGN OF QUEEN MARY. 1553-1558. MARY. Reigned five years and four months, from 6th of July, 1553, to 17th of November, 1558. Born 18th of February, 1516. Married Don Philip, son of Charles V., 25th of July, 1554. Died at St. James's Palace, 17th of November, 1558. I. RELIGIOUS REACTION. 9. First reactionary proceedings of Mary's Council. In the hour of her danger, Mary had promised her people not to interfere with the newly established religion; and she was not yet so firmly seated upon the throne as to be able to set her promise at nought. By the advice, therefore, of the Emperor, and of Gardiner and Paget, she issued a proclamation, declaring that "she could not hide her religion; but that she mindeth not to compel any of her said subjects thereunto until such time as farther order, by common consent, shall be taken therein."* But she was restored and imprisoned. impatient under the existence, for a moment, of rites and usages which she abhorred;" and in nine days after the publication of this document, the Latin liturgy was Latin restored; Gardiner, Bonner, Tonstal, Day, Heath, and liturgy Vesey, were reinstated in their sees; the married clergy Protestants were expelled from their livings; a most rigorous censorship of the press was established; all persons were prohibited from speaking against the Queen or her council; and many Protestant ministers were thrown into prison for no other crime than their religion and all this before any change had been * Mackintosh, II., 292, + Hallam's Const. Hist., I., 41. Cranmer and Latimer CHAP. IV. made in the established laws.* Among those imprisoned were Holgate, Archbishop of York; Coverdale, of Exeter; Ridley, of London; and Hooper, of Gloucester: Cranmer followed them soon after. A report had spread that, in order to pay court to the Queen, he had promised to officiate in the Latin service. To defend himself from this aspersion it is said that he published a manifesto, in which he boldly professed his Protestant faith, and spoke in the bitterest terms, of the abominations of Rome. For this publication, which it is by no means clear imprisoned that he ever issued, he was thrown into prison, and condemned of high treason for the part he had taken in opposing the Queen's accession. Latimer was committed a few days afterwards. As he passed through Smithfield, on his way to the Tower, he exclaimed, "Smithfield has long groaned for me." The liberty of speech, for which he resigned his bishopric under Henry VIII., was now treated by the council as "insolence," and alleged to be the ground of his imprisonment. Peter Martyr, who had been invited into England by the late government, was generously protected by Gardiner, and allowed to return to the continent. The greater part of the foreign Protestants followed him; but the bones of Bucer, and others, were taken out of their graves, and committed to the flames.t The Queen, in fact," says Hallam, "and those around her, acted and felt as a legitimate government restored after an usurpation, and treated the recent statutes as null and invalid." But although there can be no doubt that Mary was sincere in her convictions, that she was an honest fanatic who considered that the re-establishment of the Romish religion was an act of service to God, and that regard for it was her sacred duty to avenge on the reformers the tution. wrongs and sufferings of her mother; it is due to her memory, odious as it is, to remark that she was conscientiously averse to encroach upon the privileges of the people; and she herself threw into the fire a wretched book written to exalt her prerogative, and affirming the ridiculous doctrine that, as a Queen she was not bound by the laws of former Kings.§ She was surrounded by wicked councillors, renegades of every faith, and ministers of every tyranny," to whose advice we must attribute the arbitrary measures of her reign, though not her persecution of heresy, which she counted for virtue.|| Mary's the 66 66 10. Parliamentary proceedings. Acts of Reformation abolished. On the 5th of October a parliament assembled at Westminster. * Hallam's Const. Hist., I., 41; Hume, IV., 375. † Hume, IV., 378. Const. Hist., I., 41. § Ibid. || Ibid, 42. 1553 Its very first act was decisive. Both peers and commoners, according to the usage of ancient times, accompanied the Queen to a solemn mass of the Holy Ghost, and the men who, a few years before, had voted such an observance to be damnable, all fell on their knees at the elevation of the host. Nevertheless, when the council brought in a most comprehensive bill, which repealed at once all the acts that had been passed in the two last reigns, affecting either the marriage of the Queen's mother, or the exercise of religion as it stood in the first year of Henry the Eighth's reign, the Commons condemned it as an insidious attempt to restore the papal authority; and the ministers, in alarm, caused the Queen to prorogue the parliament at the end of sixteen days. In this brief session three acts were passed; one for the abolition of all the treasons and felonies constituted in Henry's reign; one for the restoration in blood of Gertrude, Marchioness of Exeter; and another for the restoration of her son, Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire. On the 24th of October, parliament re-assembled, and continued sitting till the 6th of December; during which it passed several momentous and memorable laws. The first confirmed the marriage of Henry and Catherine, pronounced their divorce to be void, and repealed the statutes which declared the Queen to be illegitimate. Although this bill was equivalent to a statute of bastardy, in respect of Elizabeth, not a voice was raised against it in either house of parliament. The next bill was so framed as to elude the objections of those who were hostile to the pretensions of Rome. Without referring to the alienation of the church lands, or the royal supremacy, it simply provided that religion should be restored to the state in which it was in the last year of Henry VIII., and that all the acts of Edward VI., respecting religion, should be abolished. Several other bills were passed; one making good and effectual in law all deeds and documents bearing date during Lady Jane Grey's brief usurpation; another, abolishing all treasons created since the 25 Edward III.; and a third, confirming and extending the statute of Edward VI. against riotous assemblies. Besides these, several private bills were passed, restoring in blood many who had been attainted in Henry's reign; and one was passed attainting Cranmer, Lord Guildford Dudley, "Jane Dudley, his wife," and their brother, Sir Ambrose Dudley. 11. Mary's marriage treaty with Philip of Spain. But that which chiefly interested and agitated the public mind at this time was, the projected marriage between Mary, and Philip of Spain. There were three propositions of marriage concerning which, it was proposed tions with the Emperor. CHAP. IV. supposed, Mary had deliberated after her accession. The first The Queen's who was proposed to her was Courtenay, Earl of husbands. Devonshire, whose youth and beauty seem to have pleased for a moment, the stern and gloomy Queen. Gardiner endeavoured to promote this match with all the influence of his station: but the earl neglected the overtures that were made to him, and he soon lost the Queen's affections, either by the immorality of his conduct, his suspected attachment to the Reformation, or, as it is said, his preference for the Princess Elizabeth.* The second person proposed to the Queen was Cardinal Pole. But his age (53) was an insurmountable objection; and he had contracted those habits of study and retirement which disqualified him for the bustle of a court, and the hurry of business. The Queen, however, resolved to secure the benefit of his council in the administration of her government; and she entered into a secret negotiation with Pope Julius III., who appointed Pole his legate to the Queen, for the reconciling of herself and her kingdom to the Holy See. (August.) These Negotia- two marriages being rejected, Mary turned her eyes towards the Emperor's family. In fact, she had already referred herself entirely to his judgment in this matter. It was obviously the interest of Charles that Mary should prefer his son Philip. Some years before, the Emperor had made himself absolute master of Germany, by the defeat of the Protestants at Mulhausen (1547). The Union of Smalcalde was dissolved; and a diet was held at Augsburg, where Charles gave the greatest disgust to the nation, by the arbitrary manner in which he exercised the power of a conqueror. The Protestants, aided by France, again flew to arms; and the Emperor became reduced to such difficulties, that he was obliged to submit to terms of peace, at Passau, which established the liberty of the Protestant worship, and insured the independence of Germany. To retrieve his honour, Charles made an attack upon France, and besieged Metz. But the Duke of Guise bravely defended the place, and the imperialists were forced to retire, with heavy losses. These reverses made Charles exceedingly anxious to unite his son Philip to the Queen of England, and thereby balance all the losses he had sustained in Germany. After some negotiations, the Emperor proposed, and Mary accepted Don Philip, his son, as her affianced husband. This engagement was kept concealed for some time; for it was well-known that the match was exceedingly odious, * Burnet's Reformation; Lingard, VI., 129-130; Hume, IV., 380. |