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same time after, was sent for my Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and chiefest of the crafts of London and divers of the Council, and there was said Mass before the Duke and the rest of the prisoners." Nor was this recantation enough. It had to be repeated, perhaps under false hopes of pardon, on the scaffold itself, where the apostate declared himself to have been in reality always a Catholic. Thus, with a lie upon his lips, he passed from the world, perhaps the worst and most simply selfish statesman who had ever ruled England.

But while Renard advised Mary as a politician, her conscience was assailed by the repeated instances of Cardinal Pole, son of Margaret Plantagenet, the Duke of Clarence's daughter. He had been abroad when Henry VIII. abolished the authority of the Pope in England, and, refusing to return when summoned, had been proclaimed a traitor and attainted. Since that time he had devoted himself wholly to the interests of the Roman See. The conspiracy of his brothers in England (in 1538) had destroyed any hopes of his return. He had been one of the Presidents of the Council of Trent, and had incessantly planned and intrigued with all his energy for the restoration of the Papal authority in England. On the accession of Mary he seemed on the point of seeing his hopes realized, and, wholly regardless of the political crisis, constantly insisted upon the immediate reconciliation of the kingdom with Rome. But the Emperor could not afford to risk his influence in England, or to suffer his plans to be destroyed by the inconsiderate haste of the eager Churchman. Much against his will, Pole was compelled to postpone his triumph, while Charles tried more politic measures to attach England to himself. With this object Renard had been instructed to suggest to Mary that Philip, Charles's heir, would be a desirable match for her. The suggestion had been so well received that the Queen was herself willing for a time to lay some restraint upon her religious zeal. The ambassador had shown her Philip's portrait, and her solitary and forlorn heart had been seized with an overpowering passion for him, so that before everything, before even the re-establishment of orthodoxy, she desired this marriage to be arranged. Anything which could in any way prevent it was studiously to be avoided. As Pole's return and the accompanying restitution of the Abbey lands would be most distasteful to her subjects, and risk the failure of the marriage she had so much at heart, the Queen felt that it must be for the present postponed. Still the reconciliation was postponed only; every care was taken to render it at some future time possible and

Proposed marriage with Philip.

1553]

PROPOSED SPANISH MARRIAGE

449

easy. She cleared the way for Pole's future reception by getting her first Parliament, which assembled for a brief session early in October, to pass an Act repealing all treasons except those mentioned in the Statute of Edward III. (exempting from it however all who had been arrested before the end of the preceding month), and offences falling within the case of Præmunire. More than this she could not venture to do. She was obliged to allow the Parliament during its second session, later in the year, to declare her legitimate, thus acknowledging the competency of previous Parliaments which had declared the contrary. She even suffered the same Parliament to restore the Church to the position it had occupied on her father's death, and to accept the title of Supreme Head of the Church, though she evidently thus trenched upon the prerogative of the Roman See.

Extreme care was indeed necessary to avoid all fresh causes of unpopularity, for the idea of the Spanish marriage, implying as it did a close connection with the Roman Catholic powers of Europe, and the probability that it would draw England Unpopularity of into the whirlpool of rivalry between France and Spain, the marriage. had excited great anger. The Commons petitioned the Queen strongly against it, but were met with a peremptory rebuff. Her conduct to her sister also gave deep offence. The Act which had declared the Queen's legitimacy had not removed that stain from her sister. Mary had still further shown her feelings by refusing to acknowledge Elizabeth as her heir. Lady Lennox, the daughter of Margaret of Scotland, had even been allowed to take precedence of her. The Protestants, and a large proportion of the national party, thought they saw in these two things-the marriage and her treatment of the Princess-a threat of a reactionary policy so violent as to be intolerable. They determined to take arms. The conclusion of the treaty of marriage and the arrival of Count Egmont, who was to represent the Spanish Prince at the forthcoming marriage ceremony, brought matters to a crisis. There was to to be a concerted rising in Devonshire, on the borders of Wales, in the Midland counties, and in Kent. The management of these was intrusted to Sir Peter Carew, Sir James Crofts, Suffolk and Wyatt respectively. Courtenay and Elizabeth were, if possible, to be married and placed upon the throne. This young man, son of the Marquis of Exeter beheaded in the Pole conspiracy in 1539, had since that time been a prisoner in the Tower, and was thus, as was natural, ignorant of the ways of the world, and ill-fitted for a conspirator. He was in fact a silly, vain lad, who by his folly allowed Gardiner to

Consequent risings in

different parts

of the country.

1554.

obtain full information of the plot. Carew, summoned to London, was driven to a premature rising, and upon his immediate failure was compelled to fly to France. This drove Wyatt into arms, while Suffolk hurried off to raise the Midland counties (Jan. 1554). He could there do little more than issue proclamations in Leicester and several other places against the Spanish marriage. He found but little sympathy, and, being compelled to hide, sought safety in a hollow oak in his own park at Astley, where he was betrayed by his keeper. Wyatt meanwhile had advanced towards Rochester, having with him a considerable body of the men of Kent. He procured cannon from the Queen's ships in the river, and was ready with a fairly equipped army before any troops had been sent against him. Indeed the Council threw great obstacles in the Queen's way, having but little favour themselves for the Spanish marriage. Five hundred Londoners were however placed under the command of Norfolk, and marched towards Rochester. The Duke, persuaded by the treacherous advice of Sir George Hopper, advanced directly upon Wyatt. In presence of the insurgents the Londoners immediately changed sides, with their commander, Brett, at their head. Thus supplied with cannon, Wyatt advanced to Dartford with a considerable force, trusting chiefly to the disaffection in London, a proof of which he had so lately seen. The crisis was becoming very dangerous. Even Renard began to think that the marriage must be given up. But the energy of the Tudor Queen rose with the difficulty. She contrived to gain some time by a futile negotiation with Wyatt. In his answer he demanded the custody of the Queen's person and the Tower of London. Armed with these arrogant demands, the Queen threw herself upon the good feeling of the Londoners. She rode in person to Guildhall, and there addressed them in a spirit-stirring speech, declaring that she would never marry except with leave of Parliament. Her bravery won the hearts of her audience. 25,000 men were enrolled the next day (Feb. 3), and before Wyatt reached London Bridge the City was prepared, under the command of the Admiral Lord William Howard, and the bridge impassable. Wyatt's opportunity was gone. Had Suffolk been able to second him things might still have gone well, but he was already a captive. To reach London Wyatt had now to go up the river as far as Kingston, to bring his troops across in boats. Time, which was enabling the Queen's party to strengthen and organize their defence, had already begun to thin his ranks. With such forces as he had he marched along what is now Piccadilly, coming down the river from Kingston. Delays occurred upon the way, and his army was broken and worn

Courage of the Queen.

1554]

WYATT'S REBELLION

451

out as it approached Hyde Park Corner. It was there cut in half by a charge of cavalry. Wyatt continued to advance with the leading portion; the other half dispersed. He went down in front of St. James's Palace, and so on to Charing Cross. The guard, with whom was Courtenay, broke and fled, and Whitehall, where the Queen was watching the fortunes of the day, was in great danger. Wyatt however passed on up the Strand; the troops opened to let him pass, and he reached Ludgate. This was the end of his march. His troops were scattered and had fallen from him, and he found himself with twenty-four men only. He fought back as far as Temple Bar, but there surrendered to Sir Maurice Berkeley, and his insurrection was at an end (Feb. 3).

Lady Jane Grey and others.

Feb. 12.

The failure of Wyatt's insurrection sealed the fate of the prisoners in the Tower. The Queen had hitherto been mercifully Execution of inclined; she was now ready to listen to the constant advice of Gardiner and of Renard, and to rid herself of her late rival, perhaps even of her sister Elizabeth. On the 12th of February Lord Guildford Dudley was executed on Tower Hill. His young wife saw him led forth, and saw his remains brought back, and then went calmly out to suffer death herself upon the scaffold on the green within the Tower. She said briefly that she had been wrong in taking the Crown, but was guiltless in intention, and then with perfect calmness got ready for the fatal stroke, Fakenham, the Queen's confessor, had been in vain trying to shake her Protestant faith. She was even able to write a beautiful letter to strengthen her father, and thus, at the age of seventeen, passed away -a remarkable instance of precocious talent wedded to a most pure and high-minded disposition. "On that same day was made," says a contemporary diarist, "at every gate in London a new pair of gallows-two pair in Cheapside, two pair in Fleet Street, one pair in Holborn," and so on; and he continues his catalogue of the numbers hanged on each, in all some forty-eight. Stowe says that eighty were hanged in London, and twenty-two in Kent. On the 23rd the Duke of Suffolk suffered.

Thus, then, the Queen's rivals, the Greys, were disposed of, and Gardiner believed that her sister, her more formidable rival,

Imprisonment

Elizabeth.

was also within her grasp. A copy of a letter of hers had of Princess been found among some treasonable correspondence with France, and it was hoped that Wyatt might be induced by torture to implicate her in some way or other in the conspiracy. When, just before the insurrection, she had been sent for to London, she had

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pleaded ill-health. She was now peremptorily ordered to appear there, and ill as she was, she was brought by Lord William Howard, Sir Edward Hastings, and Sir Thomas Cornwallis, to London by easy journeys. But although every measure was taken to induce Wyatt to accuse her, and although some little evidence was gained, the Court could not venture beyond sending her to the Tower; and even in doing this, Gardiner was strongly opposed by Paget, Sussex, Hastings and others. They knew what was likely to be the end of such a committal. But Elizabeth formed a sort of centre round which was gathered the liberal part of the nation. The same division of parties as existed in England generally, existed also in the Council, and the best statesmen in that body-Paget, Sussex, Lord William Howard, Winchester, and Hastings-although Catholics, and so far reactionary as to wish to undo the revolutionary measures of the last reign, were yet in distinct opposition to Gardiner, who, with Petre, Rochester, and others, was desirous not only of establishing the Roman Catholic religion, but of establishing it by means of persecution. The moderate party, and among them chiefly Lord William Howard, whose influence as Admiral was very great, rendered it impossible to persecute Elizabeth further. The judges, too, declared that there was no case against her, and thus, in spite of the protests of Gardiner and of Renard, she was at length allowed to retire to Woodstock.

As Wyatt's witness was no longer of use, he was executed, denying with his last breath any accusation he might have made against the Princess. The liberal party of the Council were not alone in thinking that vengeance had gone far enough. Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, the next of the prisoners to be tried, was, after a brilliant defence of himself, acquitted. The jury which acquitted him was at once imprisoned, but the Court had learnt the lesson intended, and the remaining important prisoners escaped with their lives.

the Spanish

The failure of Wyatt's insurrection against the Spanish marriage Second Parlia- of course removed all opposition to it, and in the second ment authorizes Parliament of the reign, which was summoned in April, marriage. the Bill necessary for the marriage was passed. Gardiner's next step, however, met with less success. He insisted upon introducing three Bills for the persecution of heretics. These were defeated with great difficulty by Paget in the Upper House, and the dispute between the different sections of the Council ran so high that an outbreak seemed imminent. Mary's mind had meanwhile begun to be shaken by the wild craving which possessed her for a

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