Introduct. that time forward he held her in the same rank with the rest of his children; gave her her turn in the succession of the kingdom; assigned her portion of ten thousand pounds, to be paid at her marriage, and in the interim three thousand pounds per annum, for her personal maintenance. And more than this he did not do for his daughter Elizabeth, notwithstanding the esteem and affection which he bare to her mother-for bringing whom into his bed he had cancelled all the bonds of his former Her position marriage. Little or nothing more occurreth of her in the time of Edward. of King Henry, because there was little or nothing altered in the face of religion, which might give her any cause of public or personal dislike. But when the great alterations happened in the time of King Edward, she then declared herself more openly, (as she might more safely), in opposition to the same: 13 concerning which she thus declares herself in a letter to the 183 Lord Protector and the rest of the council, dated at Kenninghall', June 22, anno 15492: in the reign "MY LORD, "I PERCEIVE by the letters which I late received from you, and other of the King's Majesty's council, that you be all sorry to find so little conformity in me, touching the observation of his Majesty's laws; who am well assured I have offended no law, unless it be a late law of your own making, [for the altering of matters in religion], which in my conscience is not worthy the name of law, both for the King's honour's sake and the wealth of the realm, and giving the occasion of an evil bruit throughout all Christendom, besides the partiality used in the same, and (as my conscience is very well persuaded) the offending God, which passeth all the rest. But I am well assured that the King his father's laws were all allowed and consented to, without compulsion, by the whole realm, both spiritual and temporal, and all the executors sworn upon a book to fulfil the same, so that it was an authorized law. And that I have obeyed, and will do with the grace of God, till the King's majesty my brother shall have sufficient years to be a 1 The lordship and manor of Kenninghall, with the impropriate rectory and its appurtenances, were granted to the Lady Mary by Edward VI. May 17, 1548.-Strype, Eccl. Mem. ii. 99. 2 Fox, vi. 7. Heylyn has not given the whole of the letter. judge in this matter himself. Whereunto, my Lord, I was Introduct. plain with you at my last being in the court, declaring unto you at that time whereunto I would stand; and now do assure you all that the only occasion of my stay from altering of mine opinion is for two causes. One principally for my conscience; the other, that the King my brother shall not hereafter charge me to be one of those that were agreeable to such alterations in his tender years. And what fruits daily grow by such changes, since the death of the King my father, to every indifferent person it well appeareth, both to the displeasure of God and unquietness of the realm. "Notwithstanding, I assure you all, I would be as loth to see his Highness take hurt, or that any evil should come to this his realm, as the best of you all; and none of you have the like cause, considering how I am compelled by nature, being his Majesty's poor and humble sister, most tenderly to love and pray for him, and unto this his realm (being born within the same) wish all wealth and prosperity, to God's honour. And if any judge of me the contrary for mine opinion's sake, (as I trust none doth), I doubt not in the end, with God's help, to prove myself as true a natural and humble sister, as they of the contrary opinion, with all their devices and altering of laws, shall prove themselves true subjects. I pray you, my Lord1, and the rest of the council, no more to unquiet and trouble me with matters touching my conscience, wherein I am at a full point with God's help, whatsoever shall happen to me,-intending, with his grace, to trouble you little with any worldly suits, but to bestow the short time I think to live in quietness; and I pray for the King's majesty and all you, heartily wishing that your proceedings may be to God's honour, the safeguard of the King's person, and quietness of the whole realm. And thus, my Lord2, I wish unto you, and all the rest, as well to do as myself.” 23. Upon such passages of this letter which seemed most to pinch upon them, the Lords returned their gloss or comment, but such as had more in it of an animadversion than an expli 1 The word "I" is omitted in Fox, as if "pray" were in apposition with "live." 2 Edd. Heyl. "Lords.” 1550. Introduct. cation1. They signified withal how well they understood their own authority; how sensible they were of those inconveniences which the example of her inconformity to the laws established was likely to produce amongst the rest of the subjects. No favour being otherwise to be hoped for from them, the Emperor is moved to intercede in her behalf by his Ambassador, then residing about the court. Upon whose earnest solicitation, it was declared by the King, with the consent of his council, (as appeareth by their letters to her, of the 25th of December), "that for his sake, and her own also, it should be suffered and winked at if she had the private mass used in her own closet for a season, until she might be better informed; but so that none but some few of her own chamber should be present with her, and that to all the rest of her household the service of the Church should be only used2." For the abuse of which indulgence, in saying mass promiscuously (in her absence) to her 14 household servants, Mallet and Barklay, two of her Chaplains, 181 are seized on, and committed prisoners, which first occasioned an exchange of letters betwixt her and the King, and afterwards more frequently between her and the council; for which, consult the Acts and Monuments, fol. 1213-12143. A proposition had been made, about the surrendry of Bulloign, for a marriage betwixt her and the Prince of Portugal; and the like motion made in favour of the Duke of Brunswick, whilst the other treaty was depending1. But neither of the two succeeding to the wish of the party, a plot was laid to pass her over into Flanders; shipping provided to transport her, some of her servants sent before, and a commotion practised in the county of Essex, that in the bustle she might be conveyed away without any discovery. But this plot being happily prevented by the care and diligence of Sir John Gates, one of the captains of the gens d'armes, (then lately ranged under the command of the Marquess of Northampton), she was by him conducted, much against her will, to the Lord Chancellor's house at Leez3, from thence to Hunsdon, and at last to Westminster. Much troubled at her coming thither upon the apprehension of Sir Robert 1 Fox, vi. 8. 3 Fox, vi. 10-22; sup. i. 217-220. 2 Fox, vi. 14. See i. 219. 5 Edd. 1, 2, “Leezdi ;" ed. 3, "Leezdy." I have substituted the form of the name which is usual in the work. Rochester, Sir [Edward] Walgrave, and Sir Francis Inglefield', servants of special trust about her, and all suspected to be privy to the design for conveying her over into Flanders. Introduct. attempts to from 24. Much care was taken, and many endeavours used by Vain the King and council, to win her to a good conceit of the convert her Reformation. But her interest was so bound up with that of Romanism. the Pope, that no persuasions could prevail with her to desert that cause on which her own legitimation and the validity of her mother's marriage did so much depend. As much unprofitable pains was taken by the Emperor's agents, in labouring to procure for her the exercise of her own religion; mingling some threats with their entreaties, in case so great a Prince should be refused in so small a suit. Which when it could not be obtained from the King by the Lords of the Council, nor by the mediation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, (whom the Lords employed to move him in it2), the Emperor laid aside the prosecution of a cause which he perceived he could not carry. And the King slackened by degrees his accustomed diligence in labouring by persuasions to work on one who was resolved beforehand not to be persuaded. So that, being weary of the court, and the court of her, she was permitted for a time to remain at Hunsdon, in the county of Hartford. To which place, (being in the diocese of London), Bishop Ridley had recourse unto her, and at first was kindly [About Sept. entertained. But having staid dinner at her request, he made 1552. an offer of his service to preach before her on the Sunday following; to which she answered3, "that the doors of the parishchurch adjoining should be open for him, that he might preach there if he listed; but that neither she nor any of her servants 1 Rochester and Waldegrave do not appear to have been Knights at the time in question. 2 Sup. i. 219. 3 Mary:-"My lord, as for this last matter, I pray you make the answer to it yourself." Bishop: Madam, considering mine office and calling, I am bound in duty to make to your Grace this offer, to preach before yon." Mary:-"Well, I pray you, make the answer, (as I have said,) to this matter yourself; for you know the answer well enough. But if there be no remedy but I must make you an answer,—the door of the parish-church shall be open, &c."-Fox, vi. 354. 8.] Introduct. would be there to hear him." "Madam," said he, "I hope you will not refuse to hear God's word." To which she answered, that "she could not tell what they called God's word; that which was now called the word of God not having been accounted such in the days of her father." After which, falling into many different expressions against the religion then established1, she dismissed him thus-" My Lord," said she, "for your gentleness to come and see me, I thank you; but for your offer to preach before me I thank you not." Which said, he was conducted by Sir Thomas Wharton, one of her principal officers, to the place where they dined, by whom he was presented with a cup of wine; which having drank, and looking very sadly on it, "Surely," said he, "I have done amiss, in drinking in that place where God's word offered was refused. Whereas if I had done my duty, I ought to have departed immediately, and to have shaken the dust from off my feet, in testimony against this house, in which the word of God could not find admittance." Which words he spake with such a vehemency of spirit, as made the hair of some of those which were present to stand an end, as themselves afterwards confessed2. Her accession. 1553. 25. Of this behaviour of the Princess, as the Bishop much complained in other places, so most especially in a sermon preached at St Paul's Cross, on the sixteenth of July; in 15 which he was appointed by the Lords of the Council to set forth 185 the title of Queen Jane, to whom the succession of the crown had been transferred by King Edward, at the solicitation and procurement of the Duke of Northumberland, who served himself of nothing more than of her obstinate averseness from the reformed religion, then by law established. The cunning contrivance of which plot, and all that had been done in pursuance of it, hath been laid down at large in the Appendix to the former book. Suffice it in this place to know, that, being secretly advertised of her brother's death, she dispatched her letters of the ninth of July to the Lords of the Council3, requiring them not only to acknowledge her just title to the 1 "After many bitter words against the form of religion then established."-Fox. 2 Fox, vi. 354. 4 "it" omitted in Edd. 1, 2. 3 Sup. p. 31. 5 Sup. p. 18. |