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1554

even to the Catholics, whose patriotism was stronger than their bigotry, and who reprobated a measure which would place a foreign, despotic prince on the English throne.

riage of Mary

The intended marriage, however, soon became known, and the Commons, in alarm, sent a committee to remonstrate, in The marstrong terms, against it, on which parliament was dis- Philip and solved, 6th December, 1553. On the 2nd of January, agreed upon. 1554, the Queen received the imperial ambassadors, and on the 12th the marriage treaty was drawn up and agreed upon.

The treaty.

It stipulated that immediately upon the marriage, Philip and Mary should reciprocally assume the styles and titles of their respective dominions; that Philip should aid the Queen in the government of the realm, saving its laws, rights, privileges, and customs: that no Spaniard or other foreigner should enjoy any office in the kingdom; that the Queen should never be carried abroad without her free consent, nor any of her children without the consent of the nobility; that Philip should settle upon the Queen £60,000 a year as her jointure; that the male issue of the marriage should inherit Burgundy and the Low Countries; and the general issue Spain, Sicily, Milan, and the other Spanish dependencies, in the event of Don Carlos, Philip's son by his former marriage, dying without issue. These articles were drawn up by Gardiner, who deserves praise for the solicitude with which he thus guarded the liberties of the nation against the possible attempts of a foreign prince on the throne. When Queen Elizabeth thought of marrying the Duke of Anjou, she ordered her ministers to take this treaty as the model of their

* own.

12. Wyatt's Rebellion. When these conditions were published, they did not appease the national discontent. The Emperor, it was said, had obtained a footing in England for his son, who could and would despise the observance of the treaty, at the head of a foreign army; England would lose her ancient constitution, and become a province of the most despotic state in Europe; the Inquisition would be established, and the country would be exposed to the rapacity of those veteran mercenaries and hardened adventurers who had become inured to blood and rapine amidst the extirpation of the natives of America. These complaints being spread everywhere, prepared the people for rebellion; and a plan of revolt was resolved on which had in its first outline some chance of success.

Sir Thomas Wyatt, son of the poet of that name, was to raise Kent, and Sir Peter Carew, Devonshire; the Duke of Plan of the Suffolk was to raise his tenants in the midland counties, rebellion. and Sir James Croft, the borderers of Wales. Henry II., King of France, who dreaded the aggrandisement of Charles V., gave hopes of aid to these malcontents, and Noailles, his ambassador, entered eagerly into all their projects. Courtenay, also, was beguiled into the conspiracy by the prospects of a marriage with * Lingard, VII., 148.

L

CHAP. IV.

the Princess Elizabeth, and thereby, of being placed upon the throne. The conspirators had at first decided to postpone their rising till the arrival of Philip, in April, should raise the unpopularity of the marriage to its highest point. But their designs were discovered in January; yet, surprised and unprepared as they were, they took up arms. Carew, after vainly endeavouring to excite the citizens of Exeter, fled to France; Sir Jams Croft was captured in bed, after being hotly pursued to the Welsh borders; and the Duke of Suffolk was equally unfortunate. He left Shene suddenly for his estates in Warwickshire, in the company of his brothers, Lord Thomas and Lord Leonard Grey. But the people nowhere rose at his summons, and after his followers had been routed near Coventry, by the Earl of Huntingdon, he was betrayed by one of his own park-keepers. His brothers were taken soon afterwards.

Wyatt's

Wyatt was more successful at first, and the insurrection he excited, assumed a formidable appearance. On the 15th operations. of January, the day on which Suffolk left London, he raised his standard at Maidstone. He fixed his head quarters in the old and ruinous castle of Rochester; a squadron of five sail in the Thames, under his secret associate Winter, supplied him with cannon and ammunition; and batteries were erected to command the bridge and the opposite bank of the river. After several skirmishes, with various results, the Duke of Norfolk was sent to quell the insurrection. He arrived at Stroud, a suburb of Rochester, on the 27th. As he was about to force the bridge, Bret, who led the van, which was composed of Londoners, halted his column, and harangued his men in favour of the rebels, to which they replied with shouts of "A Wyatt! a Wyatt!" and then faced about to oppose the royalists. At this moment Wyatt joined them with his cavalry, and Norfolk, apprehending a general defection, fled towards Gravesend, with his chief officers. Such was the terror spread by this event, that all the imperial ambassadors fled from London, and the court opened an ineffectual negotiation with Wyatt, who, at the head of 15,000 men, had now advanced to Deptford. The Queen alone appeared firm and collected at this critical moment. She went to the Guildhall, and addressed the citizens of London with much of the spirit of her race, and promised them, on the word of a Queen, that she would abstain from the marriage if the parliament did not approve of it. This concession brought 20,000 men to her standard; and Wyatt's imprudent halt at Deptford saved her throne. That leader did not enter Southwark till the day after the Queen's

1554

speech (February 3rd); his followers had dwindled to 7,000 men, and were hourly diminishing; no succours had arrived from France; intelligence came of the failure of the other risings; and the royal army was daily strengthened by reinforcements. The Tower batteries compelling Wyatt to leave Southwark, he marched to Kingston, and passed the bridge at that place (February 6th). He had still numerous friends in the city, with whom he concerted a plan to surprise Ludgate, an hour before sunrise. But again he procrastinated, and his friends abandoned him in despair. On the 7th of February he arrived at Hyde Park Corner, marched to Charing Cross, and attacked the Queen's forces which were drawn up there. The latter opened their ranks to receive him; they allowed about 400 men to pass, and then closed. Thus cut off from his main body, Wyatt advanced through Piccadilly to Ludgate, which, to his great disappointment, he found closed against him. Disheartened and confounded, he fought his way back with only 80 men, and surrendered to Sir Maurice Berkeley, at St. James's, after performing deeds of prowess worthy of his name.* Four hundred persons are said to have suffered for this rebellion; four hundred more were conducted before the Queen with ropes about their necks, and were pardoned. Wyatt, Suffolk, and Lord Thomas Grey were condemned and executed (February 23rdApril 17th), and Courtenay was imprisoned in Fotheringay Castle. Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, another of the conspirators, made so good a defence, on legal grounds, that the jury acquitted him, for which several of them were heavily fined, according to the custom of that age.

13. Execution of Lady Jane Grey. This rebellion proved still more fatal. On the 8th of February, the day after the action at Charing Cross, Mary signed a warrant for the execution of “Guildford Dudley and his wife," at the end of three days. On the fatal morning, the Queen sent them permission to take a last farewell of each other; but Jane refused the indulgence, saying, that in a few hours they should both meet in heaven. From the window of her cell she saw her husband led to execution, Execution and beheld his bleeding corpse brought back to the chapel. husband. Her own scaffold was made upon the green within the Tower, the council dreading the pitying eye of the people. As she proceeded to the place, Sir John Gage, the constable, asked her for, some memorial. She gave him her note-book, on which she had written three sentences, on seeing her husband's dead body, in Greek, Latin, and English. The last was as follows:-"If my

Lingard, VII., 158-160; Hume, IV., 388-390.

of her

on the

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CHAP. IV.

fault deserved punishment, my youth, at least, and my imprudence were worthy of excuse. God and posterity will show me favour."* Her speech On the scaffold she made a speech to the bystanders, in scaffold. which the mildness of her disposition led her to take the blame wholly on herself. She said that her offence was not the assumption of the crown, but her not rejecting it with sufficient constancy; but that she had erred less through ambition than reverence to her parents, whom she had been taught to respect and obey. She now willingly received death as the only satisfaction she could make to the injured laws, and she hoped that the story of her life might be useful in inculcating this lesson-that innocence excuses not great misdeeds, if they tend anywise to the destruction of the commonwealth. After uttering these words, "she tied the kercher about her eyes; then feeling for the block, said 'What shall I do? Where is it?' One of the standers by guiding her thereto, she laid her head down upon the block, and stretched forth her body and said, 'Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.' And so she ended." The insurrection of Wyatt no doubt made the fate of these two young people almost certain; but it is very probable that such a bigoted government would never have forgiven the unshaken constancy of the heroic Jane. It was hardly likely that she would ever be pardoned, who could boldly say to the priest sent to examine her, four days before her death, I ground my faith upon God's Word, and not upon the church. For if the church be a good church, the faith of the church must be tried by God's Word, and not. God's Word by the church."+

66

14. Treatment of the Princess Elizabeth. The position of the Princess Elizabeth was most difficult under these trying circumstances. The Protestants all turned their eyes to her with trembling hope, and from her alone the Catholics dreaded an adverse administration. With such prospects, therefore, both parties were prone to spread, and to believe every rumour ascribing to her projects of aggrandisement, which, in her case, seemed to offer the sole chance of safety.§ Urged incessantly by those whose importunities were threats, to conform to the ancient religion, she had yielded compliance only to save her life; but she was incensed at the sentence of bastardy which had been virtually pronounced against her; and she was impatient of the importunities which had beset her, and indignant at the necessity of purchasing life by hypocrisy. Whether she possessed, at this * Mackintosh, II., 306. + Hume, IV., 393. Knight's Pop. Hist., III,, 66. § Mackintosh, II., 295.

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time, that consummate prudence which distinguished her future
conduct, so as to curb her natural feelings, and decline all suspi-
cious intercourse and dangerous propositions, we cannot say; but
she was suspected of holding secret interviews with Noailles and
Croft, and receiving letters from Wyatt, informing her of all the
schemes of the conspirators. The execution of Wyatt Elizabeth
was delayed for a month, in order that information might implic
be extracted from him against the princess. But the rebellion.
government could obtain nothing from him. She was at this
time residing at Ashbridge, in Buckinghamshire, whither she had
been allowed to retire in December, 1533; but on the allegation
that Wyatt had accused her of being one of his accomplices, she
was arrested on the 8th of February, and conducted to London
under a strong guard. Her entrance into the capital was more
like that of a queen, than a prisoner. Two hundred gentlemen
rode out to meet her; and crowds of people lined the waysides,
and flocked anxiously about her, weeping and bewailing her
aloud. This open countenance given to her by a formidable
party in the metropolis itself, seems to have disconcerted the plans
of Mary and her advisers, and they contented themselves with
retaining her in a kind of honourable custody at Whitehall.*
Here she underwent a strict examination; but so steadfastly
protested her innocence, that she was allowed to return to her
house at the end of a fortnight. But on the 15th of March she
was again arrested, and taken to Hampton Court; and on Palm
Sunday, while all the people were at church with their palms
(strict orders having been issued to that effect), she was sent to the
conveyed to the Tower under the charge of the Earl of Tower.
Sussex and another nobleman. She was again harassed by
examinations, which could have been prompted only by a desire
to discover some means of satisfying the bloody policy of Charles
V. The imperial ambassador was constantly urging upon the
Queen, that it was of the utmost consequence the trials and execu-
tion of Courtenay and of the Princess Elizabeth should be concluded
before Philip's arrival; and the ferocious ambassador was seconded
by the crafty chancellor, who said, that as long as Elizabeth Debate in
was alive there would be no hope that the kingdom would the council
be tranquil. But "the lawyers could find no matter for her disposal
her condemnation;" great agitation pervaded Mary's council on
the subject; and Mary's "natural kindness" very likely saved her
from the perpetration of an atrocity, to which Gardiner and Renard

* Aikin's Memoirs, I., 141; Strickland's Lives, IV., 76-78.
+ Knight's Pop. Hist., III.. 71; Strickland's Lives, IV., 92.

concerning

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