Mary Tudor (46 page)
Authors: Linda Porter
The reminder that there was a substantial and vocal foreign element in London was unnecessary. Mary was already thinking about the international situation and the importance of diplomatic affairs. There was a flurry of activity about the appointment of an ambassador to France at the end of July, before Mary reached London.This indicates the queen’s determination to establish her authority with the French, who had been too close to Northumberland, and to take the initiative in Anglo-French relations in a positive way. Sir Anthony St Leger was sent on a special mission to announce Mary’s accession to the French court. When he arrived at Compiègne he found the French willing to play their part in observing the diplomatic niceties, reporting that Montmorency, the constable of France, ‘received her majesty’s letter very joyously’.
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The French government was keen to extricate itself from any suspicion of having backed the wrong claimant; Henry II sent new credentials to Antoine de Noailles on 29 July.The day after her triumphant entry into London, Mary received Noailles, together with the French ambassador to Scotland. Noailles, with a charming touch of Gallic gallantry, duly reported in his account of the meeting that Mary and her ladies had been grandly dressed in cloth of gold and bright colours, with very large sleeves in the French fashion. His comments show that Mary knew how to look like a queen, as well as act like one. A few days later, the French ambassador was invited to dine at the Tower with the council. He evidently appreciated these attempts to include him, but though he may have welcomed assurances from Gardiner and Paget that Mary wanted peace with France, he was less convinced by their pronouncement that she would not favour her Habsburg relatives over France.
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The French government was keen to extricate itself from any suspicion of having backed the wrong claimant; Henry II sent new credentials to Antoine de Noailles on 29 July.The day after her triumphant entry into London, Mary received Noailles, together with the French ambassador to Scotland. Noailles, with a charming touch of Gallic gallantry, duly reported in his account of the meeting that Mary and her ladies had been grandly dressed in cloth of gold and bright colours, with very large sleeves in the French fashion. His comments show that Mary knew how to look like a queen, as well as act like one. A few days later, the French ambassador was invited to dine at the Tower with the council. He evidently appreciated these attempts to include him, but though he may have welcomed assurances from Gardiner and Paget that Mary wanted peace with France, he was less convinced by their pronouncement that she would not favour her Habsburg relatives over France.
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Noailles himself had been in England only since May 1553, but though his position might seem difficult, he was well provided for by his government, with plenty of money at his disposal and a network of spies and messengers who kept him informed. He was also in close touch with d’Oysel, the ambassador to Scotland, who could give moral support and supply information from his own sources. He clearly was not in a position to influence Mary, nor was he expected to; the main part of his brief was to protect French interests, particularly if they were threatened by closer ties between England and the empire. And he could, through careful management of his agents, influence what was happening in England. As the autumn turned to winter in 1553, his ability to manipulate would become much more apparent.
French concerns over Mary’s preferences in Europe were understandable, and her partiality for the imperialists has been noted ever after. The queen’s dependency, so the argument runs, started in her formative years when Charles V became her putative father, continued under various imperial ambassadors, notably Eustace Chapuys and Simon Renard, and reached its height when she married Philip of Spain. In this interpretation, Mary appears as a woman constantly being used by others, trapped by her own emotions and inexperience in a pattern of behaviour that deprived her of any independence of thought, and out of tune with the interests of England. While it cannot be denied that the emperor’s main interest in Mary had always been political rather than personal, she was still a member of his family, and dynasty was a concept that overrode everything else with Charles V. He treated his sisters and his daughters in the same way, as extensions of his own power and surrogates for him in the government of his huge territories. And it was true that he had been the only figure outside her household who took a sustained interest in Mary’s life and whose views, particularly on religion and society, matched her own. Theirs was a shared heritage and it was inconceivable that Mary should have wanted to distance herself from it. It is equally a mistake to dismiss her as having no background in international affairs. Much of her life had been spent on the European stage, as the discussions about her marriage ebbed and flowed over the years. She did not take any direct part in the conduct of diplomacy until she became queen but she was a well-informed, if not impartial, observer.
The Anglo-Habsburg alliance, so often described as being damaging to England’s international prospects and emerging nationhood, was nothing new. In fact, it was a key element of the foreign policy of Henry VII, Mary’s grandfather, and though Henry VIII had stretched imperial patience, he fought wars with England’s traditional enemies, France and Scotland, never with Charles V. Mary’s desire to align herself with her cousin was a product of continuity, not of regression. But it did also have, for her, a very strong element of loyalty and gratitude. Though a monarch in her own right, she clearly never thought of herself as his equal. She was thrilled when he wrote her letters in his own hand, which apparently he had seldom done before.
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CharlesV was ruler of much of the Western world in 1553, and Mary’s unexpected accession offered him unforeseen possibilities for shoring up his influence in north-western Europe. Yet his cousin’s success was a cause for relief rather than unbridled enthusiasm. It removed the threat that England would side with the French, a cause of concern when EdwardVI was king, and it opened up the possibility that both the queen and her sister might make useful marriages. Precisely how this might be taken forward would have to wait until after the coronation, but the manoeuvring had already begun.There were candidates both in England and in his own family but, for the moment, the emperor was content not to reveal his hand fully, to anyone. His attention to matters of state depended on his health; more than 30 years of the inescapable demands of warfare and government had reduced him to a physical wreck. The onset of autumn made those around him anxious, knowing the dismal prospects he faced in the cold winters of Brussels. He had gout in every limb, nerve and joint of his body, even the back of his neck. Catarrh meant that he often could not speak and, when he did, he could hardly be heard. Haemorrhoids, it was reported, ‘swell and torment him so much that he cannot turn without great pain and tears’. He might be the most powerful man in Europe, but he longed for respite from all these afflictions and the severe depression that accompanied them.This had ‘altered his character’, and he was often sunk in a melancholy that neither of his sisters, Mary of Hungary and Eleanor of France, could alleviate.
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Their cousin, who had suffered much herself, was now queen of England, and this provided some small comfort. But it could not disguise the fact that the Habsburg family endured, rather than enjoyed, power.
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Their cousin, who had suffered much herself, was now queen of England, and this provided some small comfort. But it could not disguise the fact that the Habsburg family endured, rather than enjoyed, power.
Mary was aware that Charles suffered from gout, but she probably did not know the full extent of his woes or that business ground to a halt when his health was especially bad. Her memory of him was that of her early childhood, when he was young and vigorous. He was her family and her natural ally; their interests were not always identical but in matters of international importance she was always likely to follow his lead. She needed no encouragement from his ambassadors. Yet Simon Renard, who did not set foot in England till early July and who had no knowledge of the country other than that gleaned from conversations with Scheyfve, was never shy of giving advice to the queen on every aspect of her policy, both national and European. Just how much faith she put in him is not easy to determine, since he was very good at self-promotion and it suited his interests to represent Mary as leaning heavily on him for all sorts of guidance and information. It is clear from the evidence of her own handwritten notes that she did talk to him frequently during the autumn of 1553. These meetings were often, but not exclusively, private, and this has led to the assumption that he was leading her rather than the other way round, but then this is the impression that he wanted to convey when he wrote back to Brussels.There is probably very little that he introduced into their conversations that did not match the way her own thoughts were already developing, even when these encompassed Tudor, as well as Habsburg, family matters. And it was here that he probably did the most lasting damage.
Simon Renard’s suspicions of the queen’s sister, still not officially given the title of princess, were voiced early and often. It is easy to understand his fears. Elizabeth did not share Mary’s religious beliefs and her status as ‘second person’ in the realm, even if never officially recognised by Mary, meant that she would always be attractive to disaffected persons, whether the French (in whose camp she might already be) or to home-grown rebels. She was young, carried herself with supreme confidence, and was good-looking. But it was mostly her cleverness which worried Renard.Within two weeks of Mary’s entry into London, he reported that he had raised with the queen ‘the presence at court of the Lady Elizabeth, who might, out of ambition or being persuaded thereto, conceive some dangerous design and put it to execution, as she was clever and sly’. Elizabeth’s position had actually been mentioned as part of a wider discussion about what to do with Lady Jane Grey, whose own fate was now in Mary’s hands.The queen told Renard ‘that she was about to send the Lady Elizabeth away, as the same considerations had occurred to her’.
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No doubt they had, yet Elizabeth did not leave court for more than three months. Mary seems to have had mixed feelings about letting her go, and her attitude towards her sister remained inconsistent. The part of the queen that had always sought to dominate her brother Edward felt that it was better to have the young woman at court, where she could be supervised. This proprietorial view was accompanied by the hope that Elizabeth could be genuinely brought back to Catholicism and that she was not ill intentioned.
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No doubt they had, yet Elizabeth did not leave court for more than three months. Mary seems to have had mixed feelings about letting her go, and her attitude towards her sister remained inconsistent. The part of the queen that had always sought to dominate her brother Edward felt that it was better to have the young woman at court, where she could be supervised. This proprietorial view was accompanied by the hope that Elizabeth could be genuinely brought back to Catholicism and that she was not ill intentioned.
But Renard would have none of it. His dislike of Elizabeth leaps off the pages of his dispatches, and he was determined to poison the relationship between the sisters. Maybe he saw a potential rapprochement as a threat to his own influence. He was a man who trusted no one and saw plots everywhere. Elizabeth had her own following and the danger she posed should not be discounted.The safest course was to assume the worst:
It would appear wise in your majesty not to be too ready to trust the Lady Elizabeth and to reflect that she now sees no hope of coming to the throne [a dubious assertion], and has been unwilling to yield about religion, though it might be expected of her out of respect for your majesty and gratitude for the kindnesses you have shown her, even if she had only done so to accompany you. Moreover, it will appear that she is only clinging to the new religion out of policy, in order to win over and make use of its adepts in case she decided to plot. A mistake may perhaps be made in attributing this intention to her, but at this early stage it is safer to forestall than be forestalled, and to consider all possible results …
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Whatever the queen’s doubts, she was not immediately swayed by Renard’s advice, and Gardiner believed that Elizabeth would come round in religious matters. Aware that the imperialists were depicting her in a very bad light, Elizabeth appealed directly to Mary: ‘Perceiving that the queen did not show her as kindly a countenance as she could wish … she besought the queen to grant her a private audience … the queen did not do so at once; but two days later … the Lady Elizabeth approached the queen and knelt down on both knees; weeping, she said she saw only too clearly that the queen was not well-disposed towards her, and she knew of no other cause except religion.’ She went on to point out that she had ‘never been taught the doctrine of the ancient religion’, and she asked Mary to send her books and ‘a learned man … to instruct her in the truth’.
This sounded very promising, but, as always with Elizabeth, there was equivocation. She would undertake this study so that ‘she might know if her conscience could allow her to be persuaded’. Renard believed that this was all an act and reported that when Elizabeth did attend mass, she ‘complained loudly all the way to church that her stomach ached’ and ‘wore a suffering air’.
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He does not say whether he personally witnessed this display of reluctance, but his reports of what passed between the Tudor sisters in private are either based on detailed revelations from Mary herself, or fabricated. The former interpretation seems the most likely, but the level of detail sometimes given by Renard may at least be embroidered. Nor was he winning the battle against Elizabeth at this point. He believed that she had ‘converted’ because some members of the council, presumably Gardiner and Paget, had warned her that to do otherwise would mean that she had to leave court. Mary does seem to have been persuaded, even if Renard continued to stoke her own misgivings. There was no question of Elizabeth being sent away before the coronation, in which she was given a prominent role.
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He does not say whether he personally witnessed this display of reluctance, but his reports of what passed between the Tudor sisters in private are either based on detailed revelations from Mary herself, or fabricated. The former interpretation seems the most likely, but the level of detail sometimes given by Renard may at least be embroidered. Nor was he winning the battle against Elizabeth at this point. He believed that she had ‘converted’ because some members of the council, presumably Gardiner and Paget, had warned her that to do otherwise would mean that she had to leave court. Mary does seem to have been persuaded, even if Renard continued to stoke her own misgivings. There was no question of Elizabeth being sent away before the coronation, in which she was given a prominent role.
Some of the ambassador’s dark suspicions may have had to do with his feelings of insecurity about his own position, which he was desperate to regularise. His anxieties would have struck a chord with many in the diplomatic fraternity, though imperial stinginess over financial provision was worse than most. Whatever impression he tried to give Mary and Paget, the minister with whom he had the most direct dealings, he was far from happy when the instruction came from Brussels in late September that he was to continue in the London posting alone. No one had thought about his family and his salary was woefully inadequate. He had, he pointed out, been sent to London suddenly, suffering from ill health, and ‘did not provide myself with a secretary, servants or furniture’ because he had thought, at the time, he would be gone only for four to six weeks. ‘I have a wife and children at Brussels and did not set my private affairs in order before leaving,’ he wrote to the emperor.‘Besides which I owe a great deal of money having received no payment for 16 months as your majesty’s councillor … Moreover, Sire, I have no money here, and no means of getting any as I possess no credit or friends; … your majesty’s letter makes no mention of pay, stipend or any provision whatsoever.’
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