The Earl of Devon remained at court closely watched, presenting a pitiable figure, but stoutly maintaining his loyalty and devotion to the Queen.
In spite of the determination, boldness and assurance with which the plot had been laid, the conspirators were mistaken in the measure of the national discontent. Even the Devonshire men, supposed to be staunch adherents of Courtenay’s house, were apathetic, and when it became apparent that the young Earl would fail to come himself and lead them, their last spark of enthusiasm died out. The Earl of Bedford, who was sent against them, took a few of the leaders prisoners, Carew with some of his companions escaping to France. Sir James Croft was closely pursued, when he left London to spread revolt among his tenantry on the banks of the Severn, and before one seditious word could be uttered, his designs were nipped in the bud. He was arrested in his bed and conveyed to the Tower.
The part taken by the Duke of Suffolk was particularly odious. If he displayed a less craven spirit than Courtenay, his ingratitude for past favours was far more glaring. The principal mover after Northumberland, in the plot to deprive Mary of the Crown, he had been freely and frankly forgiven, after only three days’ imprisonment, being permitted to suffer for his treason neither in body nor estate. So great moreover was the distinction accorded to his wife by Mary, that the Queen sometimes gave her precedence over her own sister; and if his daughter and her husband were still captives, it was owing to the fact of the disturbed state of London, and its neighbourhood, the direct result of his own and his friends’ treachery. There is little doubt that there had been no further movement to raise the Lady Jane to the throne, and had her father remained faithful, although sentence of death had been passed on her, she would shortly with her husband have regained complete liberty. None suspected Suffolk’s fidelity, for with consummate deceit, the Duke feigned the deepest attachment to the person of the Queen, giving repeated assurances of the same, and of his approval of her marriage. So entirely was Mary deceived, that it was thought she contemplated placing him at the head of her troops.[395] The following account of his departure for the Midlands shows how little she doubted him:—
“The 25th day of January, the Duke of Suffolk, the lord John Gray and the Lord Leonard Gray fled (from his house at Sheen). It is said that the same morning that he was going, there came a messenger to him from the Queen, that he should come to the Court. ‘Marry,’ quoth he, ‘I was coming to her Grace. Ye may see, I am booted and spurred, ready to ride, and I will but break my fast and go.’ So he gave the messenger a reward, and caused him to be made to drink, and so thence departed himself, no man knoweth whither. Sir Thomas Palmer, servant to the Earl of Arundel said on the morrow following, to a friend of his, that the complot between the French king and the said Duke of Suffolk was now come to light.”[396]
Suffolk went into Warwickshire with his brothers, and about fifty followers, and was accused of having proclaimed the Lady Jane at Leicester, and in other places, but according to Holinshed, he only called on the inhabitants of the towns through which he passed, to rise and fight for their liberties, which were at the mercy of Spain.[397] But as in the first rebellion, the people listened to him in stolid and indifferent silence, even refusing the money which he scattered in profusion among them. The Earl of Huntingdon, who was sent in pursuit as soon as Suffolk’s intentions were known, encountered the Duke near Coventry, and after a slight skirmish obliged him to fly for his life. He was betrayed by one of his own tenants, with whom he had taken refuge, and delivered over to his pursuers.
Thus the triple cord was utterly broken in less than a fortnight, and Mary and her advisers might now concentrate all their energies on the only one of the chief plotters who seemed likely to prove dangerous. This was Sir Thomas Wyatt, whose name has become identified with the rebellion. In courage, skill and enterprise he far exceeded the other conspirators, and when it was known that he had risen, furnished with arms and ammunition by the Venetian ambassador, consternation filled the hearts of the loyal. Fifteen thousand Kentish men gathered round his standard, in the fields bordering the great highway that runs from London to Dover. They harassed the Flemish and Spanish merchants, travelling from the coast inland, in such sort, that those who escaped with their lives thought themselves fortunate.
So great was the terror which he inspired, that if Wyatt had at once pushed on to London, the city would have fallen resistless into his hands.
“The 26th day of January,” says Machyn, “began watching at every gate, in harness, for tidings came the same time to the Queen and her Council, that Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir George Harper, Sir Hare Isseley, Master Cobham, and Master Rudston and Master Knevett, and divers other gentlemen and commons were up, and they say because [of] the Prince of Spain coming in to have our Queen, for they keep Rochester Castle, and the bridge and other places.”[398]
By six o’clock in the evening, a small force of about five hundred men had been collected at Leadenhall, and the next day marched towards Gravesend, under Captain Brett, as if to fight the Kentish men, while the Earl of Huntingdon set out with another company “to take the Duke of Suffolk”. The Duke of Norfolk, lieutenant of the army, was supported by the Earl of Ormond, and Sir Henry Jerningham, Captain of the Guard, with a considerable number of men under him. But the loyalty of Brett and his men was feigned, and the following account relates the story of their treason:—