A.D. 1532. It was not until after the birth of Elizabeth that the king disinherited his daughter Mary, and declared her half-sister his heiress. Then orders were sent to her to lay aside the name and dignity of princess and remove to Hatfield, where the nursery of her infant sister was about to be established.
Mary was but seventeen at this time, but she showed a good deal of courage, when she told the messenger that she should not take the slightest notice of the order unless it were delivered to her in the king's own hand and bore his signature.
Then she wrote a private letter to her father, asking him whether he really meant to deprive her of her title. He did not condescend to reply, but a couple of months later her household, consisting of no less than three hundred and sixty persons, was suddenly broken up, and the poor girl was separated from the Countess of Salisbury and others, to whose society she had been accustomed during her whole life.
This was a blow far more bitter than being deprived of her title. Another trial it was to find herself no more than a dependent in her sister's household, which was fitted up with the magnificence she herself had just been robbed of. The comparison that she was daily forced to draw between the position of her infant sister and her own was enough to make her hate the child, but, strange to say, her affection for it was strong; and good Margaret Bryan, who had been her nurse, and was now performing the same service for Elizabeth, did all in her power to soothe the mind of her former charge, and encourage kindly feelings for her little sister. Mary spent two years of sorrow and suffering at Hatfield Castle, where her stepmother treated her with extreme unkindness, and during that time several persons were sent to the Tower for calling her "Princess." This no doubt added greatly to her unhappiness. Besides, she was closely watched, and although allowed to read and study, writing was forbidden until after the death of Anne Boleyn, when in one of her letters she apologized for her bad penmanship on the ground that she had had no practice for two years.
A.D. 1535. Her position was so dreadful that most people pitied her, and the king was heard to mutter such harsh threats against her that it would not have occasioned much surprise if her head had been brought to the block. Her dying mother begged that she might have the satisfaction of knowing that Mary was near her, even though she were not permitted to see her, but the tyrant Henry refused, though the poor girl's health was suffering for want of her mother's tender care and affection. Even the sad satisfaction of a last farewell between the dying queen and her only child was forbidden, and Katherine of Arragon departed from this world without laying eyes on her daughter.
Mary wrote her father a congratulatory letter when he married Jane Seymour, but he took no notice of it, nor addressed her in any way until she was requested through his privy councillor to sign a paper renouncing all right to the throne. She could not have been induced to do this while her mother lived, but she was so broken down from sorrow and ill health that she no longer had the power to resist.
Then she was settled again in a household, with her little sister, at Hunsdon, which, though comfortable and peaceful, was poor and humble compared with what she had enjoyed at Ludlow Castle. Mary was her own mistress there for three years, and spent most of the time in study, dividing off her day as she had been taught to do when under her mother's care. She studied astronomy, geography, natural philosophy, and mathematics, as well as Latin and Greek authors; read the church service daily with her chaplain, did a good deal of needle-work, and practised on three musical instruments. Latin was the universal language, so she spoke it with ease, and could read and write French, Spanish, and Italian besides.
A.D. 1537. She was not admitted to her father's presence until 1537, when, strange to say, although her tastes were refined, and her life a busy one, her journal contained items of high play at cards, and a fondness for betting and gambling, which was one of the vices of Henry's court, he himself being one of the greatest gamblers that ever wore a crown.
A.D. 1538 The year 1538 was filled with horrors on account of the serious insurrections of the Catholics, who in every case of disturbance demanded that the Princess Mary should be restored to her royal rank. This certainly placed her in a dangerous position, and it is rather surprising that she did not have her head chopped off in consequence, for the most dreadful executions took place; people were burnt alive or butchered in cold blood, and members of some of the noblest families in England perished on the scaffold.
The aged Countess of Salisbury, Mary's beloved friend, was locked up in the Tower, and all her property taken from her. She was not spared sufficient means to purchase warm clothing to shelter her infirm limbs, and the Marchioness of Exeter, with her little son, shared the same fate, though the boy was too young to have committed any offence. The chief crime of these ladies was their friendship for Reginald Pole, who was accused of supporting the claims of Katherine of Arragon, Mary's mother. The existence of the young princess was rendered miserable by the wretched fate of those she loved, yet she was powerless to render them the slightest assistance.