The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (251 page)

desire or apprehend the arrival of Philip.n

At last came the moment so impatiently expected; and news was 19th July. Philip’s brought the queen of Philip’s arrival at Southampton.
o
A few arrival in England.

days after, they were married in Westminster; and having made a pompous entry into London, where Philip displayed his wealth with great ostentation, she carried him to Windsor, the palace in which they afterwards resided. The prince’s PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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behaviour was ill calculated to remove the prejudices, which the English nation had entertained against him. He was distant and reserved in his address; took no notice of the salutes even of the most considerable noblemen; and so entrenched himself in form and ceremony, that he was in a manner inaccessible:
p
But this circumstance rendered him the more acceptable to the queen, who desired to have no company but her husband’s, and who was impatient when she met with any interruption to her fondness. The shortest absence gave her vexation; and when he showed civilities to any other woman, she could not conceal her jealousy and resentment.

Mary soon found, that Philip’s ruling passion was ambition; and that the only method of gratifying him and securing his affections, was to render him master of England.

The interest and liberty of her people were considerations of small moment, in comparison of her obtaining this favourite point. She summoned a new parliament, in hopes of finding them entirely compliant; and that she might acquire the greater authority over them, she imitated the precedent of the former reign, and wrote circular letters directing a proper choice of members.

q
The zeal of the catholics, the influence of Spanish gold, the 12th Nov.

powers of prerogative, the discouragement of the gentry,

particularly of the protestants; all these causes, seconding the intrigues of Gardiner, had procured her a house of commons, which was, in a great measure, to her satisfaction; and it was thought, from the disposition of the nation, that she might now safely omit, on her assembling the parliament, the title of
supreme head of the church,
though inseparably annexed by law to the crown of England.
r
Cardinal Pole had arrived in Flanders, invested with legantine powers from the pope: In order to prepare the way for his arrival in England, the parliament passed an act, reversing his attainder, and restoring his blood; and the queen, dispensing with the old statute of provisors, granted him permission to act as legate. The cardinal came over; and after being introduced to the king and queen, he invited the parliament to reconcile themselves and the kingdom to the apostolic see, from which they had been so long and so unhappily divided. This message was taken in good part; and both houses voted an address to Philip and Mary, acknowledging that they had been guilty of a most horrible defection from the true church; professing a sincere repentance of their past transgressions; declaring their resolution to repeal all laws enacted in prejudice of the church of Rome; and praying their majesties, that, since they were happily uninfected with that criminal schism, they would intercede with the holy father for the

absolution and forgiveness of their penitent subjects.s
The request was easily granted.

The legate, in the name of his holiness, gave the parliament and kingdom absolution, freed them from all censures, and received them again into the bosom of the church.

The pope, then Julius III. being informed of these transactions, said, that it was an unexampled instance of his felicity, to receive thanks from the English, for allowing them to do what he ought to give them thanks for performing.
t

Notwithstanding the extreme zeal of those times, for and against popery, the object always uppermost with the nobility and gentry, was their money and estates: They were not brought to make these concessions in favour of Rome, till they had received repeated assurances, from the pope as well as the queen, that the plunder, which they had made on the ecclesiastics, should never be enquired into; and that the abbey and church lands should remain with the present possessors.
u
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to these promises, the parliament took care, in the law itself,
w
by which they repealed the former statutes enacted against the pope’s authority, to insert a clause, in which, besides bestowing validity on all marriages celebrated during the schism, and fixing the right of incumbents to their benefices, they gave security to the possessors of church lands, and freed them from all danger of ecclesiastical censures. The convocation also, in order to remove apprehensions on that head, were induced to present a petition to the same purpose;
x
and the legate, in his master’s name, ratified all these transactions. It now appeared, that, notwithstanding the efforts of the queen and king, the power of the papacy was effectually suppressed in England, and invincible barriers fixed against its reestablishment. For though the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastics was, for the present, restored, their property, on which their power much depended, was irretrievably lost, and no hopes remained of recovering it. Even these arbitrary, powerful, and bigotted princes, while the transactions were yet recent, could not regain to the church her possessions so lately ravished from her; and no expedients were left to the clergy for enriching themselves, but those which they had at first practised, and which had required many ages of ignorance, barbarism, and superstition, to produce their effect on mankind.
NOTE [T]

The parliament, having secured their own possessions, were more indifferent with regard to religion, or even to the lives of their fellow-citizens: They revived the old sanguinary laws against heretics,
z
which had been rejected in the former parliament: They also enacted several statutes against seditious words and rumours;
a
and they made it treason to imagine or attempt the death of Philip, during his marriage with the

queen.b
Each parliament hitherto had been induced to go a step farther than their predecessors; but none of them had entirely lost all regard to national interests. Their hatred against the Spaniards, as well as their suspicion of Philip’s pretensions, still prevailed; and though the queen attempted to get her husband declared presumptive heir of the crown, and to have the administration put into his hands; she failed in all her endeavours, and could not so much as procure the parliament’s consent to his

coronation.c
All attempts likewise to obtain subsidies from the commons, in order to support the emperor in his war against France, proved fruitless: The usual animosity and jealousy of the English against that kingdom, seemed to have given place, for the present, to like passions against Spain. Philip, sensible of the prepossessions entertained against him, endeavoured to acquire popularity by procuring the release of several prisoners of distinction; lord Henry Dudley, Sir George Harper, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, Sir Edmond Warner, Sir William St. Lo, Sir Nicholas Arnold, Harrington, Tremaine, who had been confined from the suspicions or resentment of the court.
d
But nothing was more agreeable to the nation than his protecting the lady Elizabeth from the spite and malice of the queen, and restoring her to liberty. This measure was not the effect of any generosity in Philip, a sentiment of which he was wholly destitute; but of a refined policy, which made him foresee, that, if that princess were put to death, the next lawful heir was the queen of Scots, whose succession would for ever annex England to the crown of France. The earl of Devonshire also reaped some benefit from Philip’s affectation of popularity, and recovered his liberty: But that nobleman, finding himself exposed to suspicion, begged permission to travel;
e
and he soon after died at Padua, from poison, as is pretended, given him by the Imperialists. He was the eleventh and last earl of Devonshire of that noble family, one of the most illustrious in Europe.

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The queen’s extreme desire of having issue, had made her fondly give credit to any appearance of pregnancy; and when the legate was introduced to her, she fancied, that she felt the embryo stir in her womb.
f
Her flatterers compared this motion of the infant to that of John the Baptist, who leaped in his mother’s belly at the salutation of the virgin.
g
Dispatches were immediately sent to inform foreign courts of this event: Orders were issued to give public thanks: Great rejoicings were made: The family of

the young prince was already settled;h
for the catholics held themselves assured that the child was to be a male: And Bonner, bishop of London, made public prayers be said, that Heaven would please to render him beautiful, vigorous, and witty. But the nation still remained somewhat incredulous; and men were persuaded, that the queen laboured under infirmities, which rendered her incapable of having children. Her infant proved only the commencement of a dropsy, which the disordered state of her health had brought upon her. The belief, however, of her pregnancy was upheld with all possible care; and was one artifice, by which Philip endeavoured to support his authority in the kingdom.

The parliament passed a law, which, in case of the queen’s 1555.

demise, appointed him protector during the minority; and the king and queen, finding they could obtain no further concessions, came unexpectedly to Westminster, and dissolved them.

There happened an incident this session, which must not be 16th Jan.

passed over in silence. Several members of the lower house, dissatisfied with the measures of the parliament, but finding themselves unable to prevent them, made a secession, in order to show their disapprobation, and refused any longer to attend the house.
i
For this instance of contumacy they were indicted in the King’s-bench after the dissolution of parliament: Six of them submitted to the mercy of the court, and paid their fines: The rest traversed; and the queen died before the affair was brought to an issue. Judging of the matter by the subsequent claims of the house of commons, and, indeed, by the true principles of free government, this attempt of the queen’s ministers must be regarded as a breach of privilege; but it gave little umbrage at the time, and was never called in question by any house of commons, which afterwards sat during this reign. The count of Noailles, the French ambassador, says, that the queen threw several members into prison for their freedom of speech.
k

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[Back to Table of Contents]

XXXVII

Reasons for and against Toleration — Persecutions — A parliament — The queen’s
extortions — The emperor resigns his crown — Execution of Cranmer — War with
France — Battle of St. Quintin — Calais taken by the French — Affairs of Scotland —

Marriage of the Dauphin and the queen of Scots — A parliament — Death of the
queen

The success, which Gardiner, from his cautious and prudent 1555.

conduct, had met with in governing the parliament, and engaging them to concur both in the Spanish match, and in the re-establishment of the ancient religion, two points to which, it was believed, they bore an extreme aversion, had so raised his character for wisdom and policy, that his opinion was received as an oracle in the council; and his authority, as it was always great in his own party, no longer suffered any opposition or controul. Cardinal Pole himself, though more beloved on account of his virtue and candour, and though superior in birth and station, had not equal weight in public deliberations; and while his learning, piety, and humanity were extremely respected, he was represented more as a good man than a great minister. A very important question was frequently debated, before the queen and council, by these two ecclesiastics; whether the laws lately revived against heretics should be put in execution, or should only be employed to restrain, by terror, the bold attempts of these zealots? Pole was very sincere in his religious principles; and though his moderation had made him be suspected at Rome of a tendency towards Lutheranism, he was seriously persuaded of the catholic doctrines, and thought that no consideration of human policy ought ever to come in competition with such important interests. Gardiner, on the contrary, had always made his religion subservient to his schemes of safety or advancement; and by his unlimited complaisance to Henry, he had shown, that, had he not been pushed to extremity under the late minority, he was sufficiently disposed to make a sacrifice of his principles to the established theology.

This was the well-known character of these two great counsellors; yet such is the prevalence of temper above system, that the benevolent disposition of Pole led him to advise a toleration of the heretical tenets, which he highly blamed; while the severe manners of Gardiner inclined him to support, by persecution, that religion, which, at the bottom, he regarded with great indifference.
l
This circumstance of public conduct was of the highest importance; and from being the object of deliberation in the council, it soon became the subject of discourse throughout the nation. We shall relate, in a few words, the topics, by which each side supported, or might have supported, their scheme of policy; and shall display the opposite reasons, which have been employed, with regard to an argument that ever has been, and ever will be so much canvassed.

The practice of persecution, said the defenders of Pole’s opinion, Reasons for and is the scandal of all religion; and the theological animosity, so against toleration.