Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

XIV.

confined in its castle. The nobility and gentry con- CHAP. tinued to emigrate; " and many were ready, from patriotic feelings, for another commotion." What an accusing picture of the desolation and misery of a nation, solely caused by the royal bigotry to the Romish slavery!

She was kept in the Tower till 19th May; when, Noailles says, 'being purgée et trouvée innocente' of all that had been charged against her, she was taken to Richmond, without being allowed to see her sister (p. 226,) and thence to Woodstock Castle. He sent a person with a present of apples to her, on her way-an apparent civilitybut intended to learn, if he could, what the emperor was negotiating about her. The guards stopped, stripped, and examined his messenger to his shirt; but found nothing except the apples. p. 238. At Woodstock she was confined as closely as in the Tower: sixty soldiers all day guarded within and without the walls, and forty all night outside; but she obtained at length permission to walk in the gardens, with the doors fast locked, being at least five or six locks between her lodging and the walk, sir Henry keeping the keys. Foxe, 1898.

While here, she wrote with a diamond on one of the windows-
Much suspected by me
Nothing proved can be,

Quoth Elizabeth, prisoner. Her feelings were so discomforted on being left so desolate in the hands of her enemies, that in her garden walk, hearing a milk maid singing pleasantly near, she wished she could exchange conditions with her, as her case was better, and her life more merry. Foxe 1899.

"The French despatch on the 9th April was, 'A great number of the nobility are in the habit of going to France. Every day they run over with such eagerness, that half this kingdom seems to be in motion to go there. Noail. 155. On the 17th the statement was, Nothing is ordinarily spoken of here, but of gentlemen stealing over into France. He esteems himself to be best off who can sell his property, and pass thither without danger.' ib. 169. The same fact is mentioned in the despatch of 15th April, from Bourdeaux: Many persons of various qualities have left these parts, with all their goods, to settle at Geneva. Every day great numbers, with the money for which they have sold their lands. The [English] parliament is trying to stop them.' 2 Ribier, p. 519.

"Such was the despatch of the 13th April: "There are many others like Wyatt. There would be found an infinity who would risk their lives to preserve the liberty of their country.' No.155. On 29th April we read, The common language of the greatest part, expressed assez haut, is, that before Midsummer there will be 50,000 men in arms to get rid of this prince.' ib. 185. The London schoolboys, to the amount of three hundred, dividing into two parties, fought on this subject; and

BOOK

II.

Altho the queen bound herself to the marriage with Philip, by every solemnity that could assure the emperor of her sincerity," yet the indications of the public disposition were so unsatisfactory, that he was afraid of trusting his son among a people so adverse.93 When he had become sure of the marriage, he permitted cardinal Pole to come to his court, on his way to England;" till, finding that he was

Philip and raised him on a gibbet, where he would have perished if he had not been rescued from their hands. The French envoy thought this to be an indication of the general feeling. Noailles, p. 130. Mary had the younger severely punished, and the elder imprisoned. Ren. p. 177.

92 In addition to her former oath, she received the Spanish ambassadors afterwards in a room where the Eucharist was exposed, and there, kneeling down, protested that she had consented to marry the prince from no personal motive, but solely for the benefit of her kingdom, and that this marriage should never cause her to violate her coronation oath. The ratifications were then exchanged, and presents given; and the Spanish count presented to Mary, from the emperor, a ring of great value. She then again knelt down, and implored Heaven to enable her to fulfil all the promises she had given, and to make the marriage happy to her and to her people.' Greffet, 161-3. It might have been so if she had not meddled with their religion; but, resolving to change that, she frustrated her well-meant prayer.

93 On 7th March the emperor wrote, that provision must be first made for his son's safety, and that it would be difficult to give him assurances of this strong enough to dissipate his alarms. The language of his envoy's answer, on 14th March, will best shew the state of the nation, as he observed it to be: When I consider the confusion which reigns about religion; the continual quarrels of the ministry; the particular interests which divide it; the character of the nation, who love change and revolutions; who make it a sport to break their oaths and betray their masters; the natural aversion they have for strangers, and especially for Spaniards; and the difficulty of relying on their promises or regard,—my mind is so troubled that I cannot give your majesty any perfect assurances on the subject. Yet things are too much advanced to draw back, and we must act on hope, without exacting guarantees which cannot be obtained.' Renard, 180-2.

94 Noailles, p. 187. The emperor had some reason to fear Pole, for the French ambassador, on 17th April, reported, that the nobility and populace fully believed that the cardinal had been proclaimed at Paris duke of York and Lancaster, and would soon make a descent on England, and that persons were going over to him to see their king, and to be the first to do so. 169. Renard apprized his court, that some theologian in Pole's suite had written a long reasoned letter to the queen, advising her not to marry, but to live in celibacy; and to deter her,

XIV.

dissuading the pope from granting Mary's request, CHAP. to be allowed not to force back the church lands from their present lay possessors, he desired the pontiff to recal him.95 But Julius III. liked the compulsory restitution too much to do so. Philip at last arrived in England; and the marriage was completed with all the magnificence which an emulous court and rich nobility could exhibit.9 To appease the mistrust of her people, she assumed the title transferred by her father from the pope to the English crown, 'Supreme head of the Church of England and Ireland."" An attempt to make the people believe that Philip was her rightful successor, failed of its impression; and the future supposition of Mary,

added, that at her age she could not have children without great danger of her life. Ren. P. 183.

95 Noailles' lett. 13th May, p. 217.

Noailles, on 29th March, described to his court the preparations made to receive the prince, p. 137-141; and on 31st the equipment of the fleet to fetch him, p. 144; the meeting of parliament on 9th April 1554, p. 151; its proceedings, p. 166; the execution of Wyatt on 13th April, p. 154; the proceedings against his accomplices, p. 172; the execution of sir Thomas Gray and others on 29th April, p. 183; the pasquinades published and circulated even in her palace, on the marriage, p. 211; the further preparations for the prince, p. 245; his arrival on 19th July at Hampton-court, p. 283; and the marriage on the Spanish saint, St. James's day, 25th July 1554, p. 290.

[ocr errors]

The Frenchman thus expresses this Machiavellian policy: Elle n'a eu honte de reprendre ce tiltre de blaspheme.' p. 175. On 18th August a singular petition, drawn by Ascham, was presented to Philip, for his aid, from 30 prisoners in Ludgate, who stated that they had been merchants who had lost their property by the frequent depravation of the coinage, by French piracies, by shipwreck, by heavy usuries, and by fraudulent debtors; and that they were confined for 10,000í. but that 2,0007. would free them. Asch. Ep. 275.

98 To please her husband, and reconcile the people, a genealogy was made out, deducing him from John of Gaunt, p. 186; and a request was made in parliament to publish in the churches, that he was the true heir and next successor to the English crown. 192. This not satisfying, another was fabricated, and the first forbidden to be

II.

BOOK that she was likely to give to the nation an heir from herself, was treated with insulting derision."

99 She had a Te Deum chanted on the expectation, and to procure its realization, Noailles, 141; which was ridiculed by a placard attached to her palace gate: Shall we be so stupid, O noble English! to believe that our queen is pregnant? With what could she be, but with a monkey or a bull-dog?' Greffet, 193.

CHAP. XV.

POLE'S ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND, TO RE-ESTABLISH THE PAPAL
SYSTEM AND SUPREMACY-THE PERSECUTION, MARTYRDOMS,
AND CHANGES WHICH ENSUED.

To detail minutely the measures by which the com-
pulsory re-establishment of popery in England was
effected, is unnecessary here, because they form the
usual portion of our Ecclesiastical History, and have
been frequently narrated by those who have appro-
priated their works to that separate subject. A glance
at the most marking and characteristic features of
the transaction will be sufficient for the object of the
present composition; and especially as the forced
mutation was as transient, as all that is iniquitously
projected and done, deserves and is repeatedly expe-
rienced to be. Neither the deed, nor its chief pro-
ducers, long survived its accomplishment. It lasted
scarcely four years; and within that time its great
authors, Julius III., Gardiner, Mary, Pole, and
Charles V., successively departed, without even
enjoying their triumph at the success of their achieve-
ment; for each lived during the short interval, and
died, with the companionship of much personal
misery, from sickness, lost reputation, hostilities, and
disappointment.

The attachment of Mary to her religious system was unquestionably sincere and fervent,' and would

[ocr errors]

Cardinal Bellay wrote to his prime minister, on 26th December

CHAP.
XV.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »