The History of Mary I, Queen of England / as found in the public records, despatches of ambassadors, in original private letters, and other contemporary documents

by J. M. Stone

CARDINAL REGINALD POLE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
From an engraving of a portrait painted by Sebastiano del Piombo.

The money, consisting chiefly of the bullion brought over from Spain by Philip, was, on the discovery of the plot, secretly removed from the Tower; but the conspirators were left unmolested, and carefully watched. When the affair seemed ripe, the ringleaders were caught in the act and arrested. But even then, the whole extent of the plot, which had been far more carefully planned than that of Wyatt and his accomplices, had still to be discovered. The Queen was, however, sufficiently alarmed not to allow Cardinal Pole, who had been preconised Archbishop of Canterbury, to leave her for the ceremony of his consecration, which was to have taken place in his Cathedral Church, on the 25th March.[600] He was therefore consecrated in the Church of the Grey Friars at Greenwich, with great solemnity, and in presence of the Queen and of the whole court, and in spite of his anxiety to begin the exercise of his spiritual functions, the State burden which the King and Queen had placed on his shoulders pressed daily more and more heavily. The conspiracy, as it was discovered piecemeal, resolved itself into a vast network composed indeed of the usual meshes, spread by the French King, his ambassador, Elizabeth, and her confederates throughout the country, but it was bolder in design than anything that had been hitherto conceived against Mary. Its object, like Wyatt’s, was to depose and murder the Queen, raise Elizabeth to the throne, and marry her to the Earl of Devon. The charge to conduct it was entrusted by de Noailles to Sir Henry Dudley, an offshoot of the disaffected Northumberland family and faction, to whom the King of France granted a considerable pension, in return for his services. Elizabeth’s willing co-operation was brought to light by the instructions sent to de Noailles from France, one of the letters implicating her containing the following passage: “Above all, you must prevent Madam Elizabeth from making any sort of move to undertake what you have written to me, for it would spoil everything, and lose the advantage which they may expect from their plans, which must be conducted carefully and slowly”.[601]

In order to arrange the final coup, Dudley, followed by three other conspirators, sailed for France and landed in Normandy. The moment was unfavourable, Henry II. having but just concluded his truce for five years with Philip, and little as considerations of honour and chivalry had ever entered into his dealings with Mary, he shrank from the odium he would incur, in appearing as an accomplice, in a conspiracy against a prince with whom he had sworn even a temporary friendship. He therefore ordered Dudley and his friends to remain quiet, and to counsel their allies in England to do the same, feigning loyalty, until a more convenient season. The above-mentioned instructions which he wrote to de Noailles concerning Elizabeth’s part in their schemes, and the necessity for her quiescence belong to this juncture. Dudley, and the three conspirators who had followed him into France, continued to reside there, and the discovery of the plot was the result of precisely the same want of combined action that had impelled Wyatt to break out into open revolt, six weeks before the time originally agreed upon. The impatience of the plotters in London brooked no delay; they disregarded the advice of their royal ally, and their dark sayings in connection with the comet, chronicled in Michiel’s despatch of the 17th March, first roused the suspicion of the Government, and led to the arrest of Sir Anthony Kingston, Throckmorton, Udal, Staunton and others, about forty in number. Kingston had been sent to the Tower some months previously, for seditious words, but had been released by the Queen’s prerogative, Mary believing him to be loyal at heart, in spite of his intemperate language. Now, for the first time in her life, her courage seemed to be unequal to the demands made upon it. She was greatly troubled, and would no longer appear in public, and her depression communicated itself to her friends. A panic among the loyalists was however prevented, and confidence in a great measure restored by the public appearance of Cardinal Pole, who on the 25th March, preached in the church of St. Mary of the Arches, on the occasion of his consecration and reception of the pallium, “to the edification of many souls”. Alluding to the cause of his return to England, he explained the meaning of the pallium, and dwelt on the peace which he had come to offer to his fellow-countrymen. He told his hearers that they ought not to be slow to receive so great a benefit, offered to them by the Divine mercy, lest there be said of them those words uttered by Christ concerning Jerusalem, when drawing nigh to and weeping over the city He said: “If thou didst know the things which belong to thy peace; but now are they hidden from thine eyes”. His voice failed with emotion; he remained silent for a moment, and then continued in a low tone: “You know what has passed; I pray you guard against the future,” and those words, says the chronicler, “if thou didst know,” he pronounced with such tenderness, that not one of his congregation remained unmoved.[602]

Never were details of conspiracy so slow to unfold themselves, even long after the scheme had collapsed. When it at last dawned upon the Government, that the traitors had a special understanding with the King of France, the idea did not even then present itself to their minds, that Elizabeth was in any way implicated, and it was not till June, that attention was turned to her household. But as early as the 14th April Lord Clinton was commissioned, when Henry’s share in the matter had become apparent, to proceed at once to France, ostensibly to congratulate the King on the conclusion of his truce with Philip, but he was also the bearer of instructions from the Council, to demand Dudley and the other fugitives at his hands, as “traitors, heretics and outlaws,” and to complain of the harbour which it was understood he gave to English rebels, “contrary to the agreement and express treaty between the two crowns”. The envoy was compelled to set out in such haste, and so suddenly, and in such confusion, that neither he nor his attendants had time to provide themselves with many necessary articles of apparel, which “for the sake of dispatch were supplied them from the Queen’s wardrobe”.[603] Henry affected ignorance of the case in point, and to Lord Clinton’s representations, answered that his kingdom was so large and free to every one, that he could not know so particularly, either who entered it, nor who went out of it, but that he heard with regret of the commotions in England. “Notwithstanding which,” continued Sorranzo, Venetian ambassador in France, in his letter to the Doge, “since several days, there are several Englishmen here at the court, who were subsequently outlawed from England, and are said to have come to ask favour from his most Christian Majesty.”[604] To Sorranzo, speaking of the complaint made by Clinton, that he harboured the Queen’s rebels, and listened to their proposals, Henry said:—

“I answered him that the malcontents of that kingdom were in such number that they had already filled not only France but the whole of Italy, and that it was true that they came to me and proposed the most extravagant things possible, but that I had never given ear to any of them; and to tell you the truth, ambassador, I know the English well, and that they are not to be trusted by any one. I have also heard, that in England, they plotted to make Courtenay go back, but my ambassador at Venice writes to me, that by no means will he go thither.”[605]

Describing a former audience with Henry, Sorranzo says: “The King added that he supposed I had heard of the disturbances in England, and when I replied that they were known to me in part, he continued: ‘They wanted to rob the Queen’s treasury, and plotted to put her to death, so that kingdom is more upside down than ever, and the Queen wishes for her husband, who cares but little about it, but through the coming of these ambassadors, whom the Queen is sending, the future will be made manifest,’ and with this the King closing the discourse, I thanked him again in your Serenity’s name, and took leave. When speaking about English affairs with the Constable, he said: ‘Ambassador, I will tell you a thing privately, and do not forget it, as for my own part, I believe it will certainly come true. I am of opinion that ere long the King of England will endeavour to dissolve his marriage with the Queen, and should this come to pass remember then this prophecy.’”[606]

The embassy mentioned by Henry was the sending of Lord Paget to Philip, according to Badoer, to find out the true reason of his not coming, for he declared, “the said Queen is beyond measure exasperated by what she considers this well-nigh contemptuous treatment”. The astute Venetian went on to say: “It is very evident, from the language of the chief Spaniards of these two Courts [the Emperor’s and the King’s] that neither the arguments adduced by Paget nor the adroit means employed by him to make the King go to England, will take effect, unless he has a certain promise from the Queen that she will crown him, in virtue of such authority as, it is said, she might legally exercise, and with the support of those who may be dependent on their Majesties, by reason of offices and benefits received from them. The French ambassador uses all diligence to ascertain whether his Majesty will go to England or not, and according to news-letters which he says he has received from thence, he shows that the coronation may take place, and that Queen Maria of Hungary is the person who well-nigh daily writes autograph letters on this subject to the Queen of England, exhorting her to put aside every consideration, and her timidity, and to crown her husband, assuring her that otherwise she will fail in what is due to herself, and to right, and that consequently she will not have him with her. It is said that Queen Maria acts thus by reason of the extreme desire she has to resume the Regency of Flanders, in which she cannot succeed, unless the King depart hence.”[607]

In a subsequent despatch, the same authority relates: “The report also of King Philip’s going to England still continues, but neither the ministers nor his Majesty himself any longer assert that it will take place at the beginning of next month, as he told Lord Paget, who went about assuring everybody of this, and that he should go back with his Majesty; but by taking leave of the Emperor yesterday, to depart in three days, he has surprised everybody. Some persons believe that the King has rather cooled about going so immediately as was promised by him, owing to the confession made to the Queen by one of the prisoners, that he had determined to kill her consort; and some are of opinion that King Philip has sent Lord Paget back, in order that he may return subsequently with the Earl of Pembroke, and other English noblemen, to conduct him with more positive arrangements. Don Juan Manrique, a member of the Privy Council, having said that although the Queen professes here to resign herself to the King’s will, it is nevertheless evident that she either allows herself to be biased by her ministers, or that Paget has promised more than he was commissioned to do. Others say that his Majesty’s departure for England is delayed by the hope of the coming hither of the King of Bohemia.”[608] Whatever the Emperor and his son may have thought and intended, all they did was to buoy Mary up with delusive hopes and polite assurances, as before, and she gained nothing more from the embassy that was to have done so much.