The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (249 page)

unqualified for the bustle of a court, and the hurry of business.c

The queen, therefore, dropped all thoughts of that alliance: But as she entertained a great regard for Pole’s wisdom and virtue, she still intended to reap the benefit of his counsel in the administration of her government. She secretly entered into a negociation with Commendone, an agent of cardinal Dandino, legate at Brussels; she sent assurances to the pope, then Julius III. of her earnest desire to reconcile herself and her kingdoms to the holy see; and she desired that Pole might be appointed legate

for the performance of that pious office.d

These two marriages being rejected, the queen cast her eye towards the emperor’s family, from which her mother was descended, and which, during her own distresses, had always afforded her countenance and protection. Charles V who a few years before was almost absolute master of Germany, had exercised his power in such an arbitrary manner, that he gave extreme disgust to the nation, who apprehended the total extinction of their liberties from the encroachments of that monarch.
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Religion had served him as a pretence for his usurpations; and from the same principle he met with that opposition, which overthrew his grandeur, and dashed all his ambitious hopes. Maurice, elector of Saxony, enraged that the landgrave of Hesse, who, by his PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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advice, and on his assurances, had put himself into the emperors hands, should be unjustly detained a prisoner, formed a secret conspiracy among the protestant princes; and covering his intentions with the most artful disguises, he suddenly marched his forces against Charles, and narrowly missed becoming master of his person. The protestants flew to arms in every quarter; and their insurrection, aided by an invasion from France, reduced the emperor to such difficulties, that he was obliged to submit to terms of peace, which insured the independency of Germany. To retrieve his honour, he made an attack on France; and laying siege to Metz, with an army of a hundred thousand men, he conducted the enterprize in person, and seemed determined, at all hazards, to succeed in an undertaking which had fixed the attention of Europe. But the duke of Guise, who defended Metz, with a garrison composed of the bravest nobility of France, exerted such vigilance, conduct, and valour, that the siege was protracted to the depth of winter; and the emperor found it dangerous to persevere any longer. He retired with the remains of his army into the Low-Countries, much dejected with that reverse of fortune, which, in his declining years, had so fatally overtaken him.

No sooner did Charles hear of the death of Edward, and the accession of his kinswoman Mary to the crown of England, than he formed the scheme of acquiring that kingdom to his family; and he hoped, by this incident, to balance all the losses which he had sustained in Germany. His son Philip was a widower; and though he was only twenty-seven years of age, eleven years younger than the queen, this objection, it was thought, would be overlooked, and there was no reason to despair of her still having a numerous issue. The emperor, therefore, immediately sent over an agent to signify his intentions to Mary, who, pleased with the support of so powerful an alliance, and glad to unite herself more closely with her mother’s family, to which she was ever strongly attached, readily embraced the proposal. Norfolk, Arundel, and Paget, gave their advice for the match. And Gardiner, who was become prime minister, and who had been promoted to the office of chancellor, finding how Mary’s inclinations lay, seconded the project of the Spanish alliance. At the same time, he represented, both to her and the emperor, the necessity of stopping all farther innovations in religion, till the completion of the marriage. He observed, that the parliament, amidst all their compliances, had discovered evident symptoms of jealousy, and seemed at present determined to grant no farther concessions in favour of the catholic religion: That though they might make a sacrifice to their sovereign of some speculative principles, which they did not well comprehend, or of some rites, which seemed not of any great moment, they had imbibed such strong prejudices against the pretended usurpations and exactions of the court of Rome, that they would with great difficulty be again brought to submit to its authority: That the danger of resuming the abbey lands would alarm the nobility and gentry, and induce them to encourage the prepossessions, which were but too general among the people, against the doctrine and worship of the catholic church: That much pains had been taken to prejudice the nation against the Spanish alliance; and if that point were urged, at the same time with farther changes in religion, it would hazard a general revolt and insurrection: That the marriage, being once completed, would give authority to the queen’s measures, and enable her afterwards to forward the pious work, in which she was engaged: And that it was even necessary previously to reconcile the people to the marriage, by rendering the conditions extremely favourable to the English, and such PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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as would seem to ensure to them their independency, and the entire possession of their ancient laws and privileges.
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The emperor, well acquainted with the prudence and experience of Gardiner, assented to all these reasons; and he endeavoured to temper the zeal of Mary, by representing the necessity of proceeding gradually in the great work of converting the nation.

Hearing that cardinal Pole, more sincere in his religious opinions, and less guided by the maxims of human policy, after having sent contrary advice to the queen, had set out on his journey to England, where he was to exercise his legantine commission; he thought proper to stop him at Dillinghen, a town on the Danube; and he afterwards obtained Mary’s consent for this detention. The negociation for the marriage meanwhile proceeded apace; and Mary’s intentions of espousing Philip became generally known to the nation. The commons, who hoped that they had gained the queen by the concessions which they had already made, were alarmed to hear, that she was resolved to contract a foreign alliance; and they sent a committee to remonstrate in strong terms, against that dangerous measure.

To prevent farther applications of the same kind, she thought 6th Dec.

proper to dissolve the parliament.

A convocation had been summoned at the same time with the parliament; and the majority here also appeared to be of the court religion. An offer was very frankly made by the Romanists, to dispute concerning the points controverted between the two communions; and as transubstantiation was the article, which, of all others, they deemed the clearest, and founded on the most irresistible arguments, they chose to try their strength by defending it. The protestants pushed the dispute as far as the clamour and noise of their antagonists would permit; and they fondly imagined, that they had obtained some advantage, when, in the course of the debate, they obliged the catholics to avow, that, according to their doctrine, Christ had, in his last supper, held himself in his hand, and had swallowed and eaten himself.
g
This triumph, however, was confined only to their own party: The Romanists maintained, that
their
champions had clearly the better of the day; that their adversaries were blind and obstinate heretics; that nothing but the most extreme depravity of heart could induce men to contest such self-evident principles; and that the severest punishments were due to their perverse wickedness. So pleased were they with their superiority in this favourite point, that they soon after renewed the dispute at Oxford; and to show, that they feared no force of learning or abilities, where reason was so evidently on their side, they sent thither Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, under a guard, to try whether these renowned controversialists could find any appearance of argument to defend their baffled

principles.h
The issue of the debate was very different from what it appeared to be few years before, in a famous conference, held at the same place, during the reign of Edward.

After the parliament and convocation were dismissed, the new 1554.

laws with regard to religion, though they had been anticipated, in most places, by the zeal of the catholics, countenanced by government, were still more openly put in execution: The mass was every where reestablished; and marriage was declared to be incompatible with any spiritual office. It has been asserted by some writers, that three fourths of the clergy were, at this time, deprived of their PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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livings; though other historians, more accurate,i
have estimated the number of sufferers to be far short of this proportion. A visitation was appointed, in order to restore more perfectly the mass and the ancient rites. Among other articles, the commissioners were enjoined to forbid the oath of supremacy to be taken by the clergy on their receiving any benefice.
k
It is to be observed, that this oath had been established by the laws of Henry VIII. which were still in force.

This violent and sudden change of religion inspired the

Queen’s marriage

protestants with great discontent; and even affected indifferent with Philip.

spectators with concern, by the hardships, to which so many individuals were on that account exposed. But the Spanish match was a point of more general concern, and diffused universal apprehensions for the liberty and independance of the nation. To obviate all clamour, the articles of marriage were drawn as favourable as possible for the interest and security, and even grandeur of England. It was agreed, that, though Philip should have the title of king, the administration should be entirely in the queen; that no foreigner should be capable of enjoying any office in the kingdom; that no innovation should be made in the English laws, customs, and privileges; that Philip should not carry the queen abroad without her consent, nor any of her children without the consent of the nobility; that sixty thousand pounds a year should be settled as her jointure; that the male issue of this marriage should inherit, together with England, both Burgundy and the Low-Countries; and that, if Don Carlos, Philip’s son by his former marriage, should die and his line be extinct, the queen’s issue, whether male or female, should inherit Spain,

Sicily, Milan, and all the other dominions of Philip.l

Such was the treaty of marriage signed by count Egmont, and 15th Jan.

three other ambassadors sent over to England by the emperor.
m

These articles, when published, gave no satisfaction to the nation: It was universally said, that the emperor, in order to get possession of England, would verbally agree to any terms; and the greater advantage there appeared in the conditions which he granted, the more certainly might it be concluded, that he had no serious intention of observing them: That the usual fraud and ambition of that monarch might assure the nation of such a conduct; and his son Philip, while he inherited these vices from his father, added to them tyranny, sullenness, pride, and barbarity, more dangerous vices of his own: That England would become a province, and a province to a kingdom which usually exercised the most violent authority over all her dependant dominions.

That the Netherlands, Milan, Sicily, Naples groaned under the burthen of Spanish tyranny; and throughout all the new conquests in America there had been displayed scenes of unrelenting cruelty, hitherto unknown in the history of mankind: That the inquisition was a tribunal invented by that tyrannical nation; and would infallibly, with all their other laws and institutions, be introduced into England: And that the divided sentiments of the people with regard to religion would subject multitudes to this iniquitous tribunal, and would reduce the whole nation to the most abject

servitude.n

These complaints being diffused every where, prepared the people for a rebellion; and had any foreign power given them encouragement, or any great man appeared to head them, the consequences might have proved fatal to the queen’s authority. But the king PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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of France, though engaged in hostilities with the emperor, refused to concur in any proposal for an insurrection, lest he should afford Mary a pretence for declaring war against him.
o
And the more prudent part of the nobility thought, that, as the evils of the Spanish alliance were only dreaded at a distance, matters were not yet fully prepared for a general revolt. Some persons, however, more turbulent than the rest, believed, that it would be safer to prevent than to redress grievances; and they formed a conspiracy to rise in arms, and declare against the queen’s marriage with Philip.

Sir Thomas Wiat purposed to raise Kent, Sir Peter Carew,

Wiat’s insurrection.

Devonshire; and they engaged the duke of Suffolk, by the hopes of recovering the crown for the lady Jane, to attempt raising the midland counties.
p

Carew’s impatience or apprehensions engaged him to break the concert, and to rise in arms before the day appointed: He was soon suppressed by the earl of Bedford, and constrained to fly into France. On this intelligence, Suffolk, dreading an arrest, suddenly left the town, with his brothers, lord Thomas, and lord Leonard Gray; and endeavoured to raise the people in the counties of Warwic and Leicester; where his interest lay: But he was so closely pursued by the earl of Huntingdon, at the head of 300 horse, that he was obliged to disperse his followers, and being discovered in his concealment, he was carried prisoner to London.
q
Wiat was at first more successful in his attempt; and having published a declaration at Maidstone in Kent, against the queen’s evil counsellors and against the Spanish match, without any mention of religion, the people began to flock to his standard. The duke of Norfolk with Sir Henry Jernegan was sent against him, at the head of the guards and some other troops, reinforced with 500 Londoners commanded by Bret: And he came within sight of the rebels at Rochester, where they had fixed their head-quarters. Sir George Harper here pretended to desert from them; but having secretly gained Bret, these two malcontents so wrought on the Londoners, that the whole body deserted to Wiat, and declared that they would not contribute to enslave their native country. Norfolk, dreading the contagion of the example, immediately retreated with his troops, and took shelter in the city.
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