“I have received your letters, whereby it appeareth you be in great discomfort, and do desire that I should find the means to speak with you. For answer whereunto, ye shall understand, that how great so ever your discomfort is, it can be no greater than mine, who hath upon your letters spoken so much of your repentance for your wilfull obstinacy against the King’s Highness, and of your humble submission in all things, without exception and qualification, to obey to his pleasure and laws, that knowing how diversely and contrarily you proceeded at the late being of his Majesty’s counsell with you, I am both ashamed of that I have said, and likewise afraid of that I have done; in so much that what the sequel thereof shall be God knoweth. Thus with your folly you undoe yourself, and all that hath wished your good; and yet I will say unto you, as I have said else where heretofore; that it were great pity ye should not be an example in a punishment, if ye will make yourself an example in the contempt of God, your natural father and his lawes, by your own only fantasie, contrary to the judgements and determinations of all men, that ye must confess do know and love God as well as you, except you will show yourself presumption. [Hearne says: “Evidently a mistake for presumptuous as in the margin of Dr. Smith’s copy”.] Wherefore, Madam, to be plain with you, as God is my witnes, like as I think you the most obstinate and obdurate woman all things considered, that ever was, and one that so persevering, well deserveth the reward of malice in extremity of mischief: so I dare not open my lips to name you, unless I may have such a ground thereunto, that it may appear you were mistaken, or at least that you be both repentant for your ingratitude and miserable unkindness, and ready to do all things that ye be bound unto by your duty of allegiance, if nature were secluded from you, and in a like degree planted in the same, as it is in every other common subject. And therefore, I have sent unto you a certain book of articles whereunto if you will sett your name, you shall undoubtedly please God, being the same conformable to his truth, so as you will in semblable manner conceive it in your heart without dissimulation. Upon the receipt whereof again from you, with a letter declaring that you think in heart that you have subscribed with hand, I shall eftsones adventure to speak for your reconciliation. And if you will not with speed leave all your sinister counsells, which have brought you to the point of utter undoing, without remedy, and herein follow mine advice, I take my leave of you for ever, and desire you never to write or make mean unto me hereafter. For I will never think you other than the most ungrateful, unnatural and most obstinate person living, both to God and your most dear and benign father. And I advise you to nothing, but I beseech God never to help me, if I know it not so certainly to be your bounden duty, by God’s laws and man’s laws, that I must needs judge that person that shall refuse it, not meet to live in a Christian congregation; to the witness whereof I take Christ, whose mercy I refuse, if I write anything unto you that I have not professed in my heart and know to be true.”[186]
We are indebted to Chapuys’ letter to the Emperor, dated 1st July 1536, for a detailed account of the matter that had excited Cromwell’s ire.
“When the Princess, having written several good letters to the King her father and to this Queen, expected to be out of her trouble, trusting to the hope held out to her, she found herself in the most extreme perplexity and danger she had ever been in, and not only herself, but all her principal friends. The King, seven or eight days after the departure of the man whom I sent to your Majesty, took a fancy to insist that the Princess should consent to his statutes, or he would proceed by rigour of law against her, and to induce her to yield, sent to her the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Sussex, the bishop of Chester and certain others, whom she confounded by her wise and prudent answers, till they, seeing that they could not conquer her in argument, told her that since she was so unnatural as to oppose the King’s will so obstinately, they could scarcely believe she was his bastard, and if she was their daughter, they would beat her and knock her head so violently against the wall, that they would make it as soft as baked apples, and that she was a traitress and should be punished, and several other words. And her gouvernante was commanded not to allow any one to speak to her, and that she and another should never lose sight of her, day or night. Nevertheless, the said Princess found means to send me immediate information of everything, begging me not to leave her without counsel in her extreme necessity.
“On this I wrote to her very fully, telling her among other things, that she must make up her mind, if the King persisted in his obstinacy, or she found evidence that her life was in danger, either by maltreatment or otherwise, to consent to her father’s wish, assuring her that such was your advice, and that to save her life, on which depended the peace of the realm, and the redress of the great evils which prevail here, she must do everything, and dissemble for some time, especially, as the protestations made, and the cruel violence shown her, preserved her rights inviolate, and likewise her conscience, seeing that nothing was required expressly against God, or the articles of the Faith, and God regarded more the intention than the act; and that now she had more occasion to do thus than during the life of the Concubine, as it was proposed to deprive the Bastard, and make her heiress; and I felt assured that if she came to Court, she would by her wisdom set her father again in the right road, to which the intercession of your Majesty through the reconciliation and establishment of amity would conduce.”[187]
The King suspected that Mary was advised to hold out by certain of her attendants, and made strict inquiries. Several of her ladies were called before the Council, and made to swear to the statutes. The wife of her Chamberlain, whom Chapuys designates as “one of the most virtuous ladies in England,” was sent to the Tower, while Mary’s chief confidential servant was detained for two days in Cromwell’s house. The Council sat for six or seven days from morning till night without intermission, deliberating on Mary’s fate. Cromwell, suspected of having shown himself too favourable to the Princess, was not free from danger. He told Chapuys that for four or five days he looked upon himself as a lost man and dead. The Marquis of Exeter and the Lord Treasurer, Fitzwilliam, were dismissed from the Council as Mary’s friends, and the new Queen, Jane Seymour, was rudely repulsed for speaking in her favour. Continuing the above letter, Chapuys said:—
“The judges, in spite of threats, refused to decide, and advised that a writing should be sent to the Princess, and that if she refused to sign it they should proceed against her. The Princess being informed from various quarters how matters stood, signed the document without reading it. For her better excuse, I had previously sent her the form of the protestation she must make apart. I had also warned her that she must in the first place secure the King’s pardon, and, if possible, not give her approval to the said statutes, except so far as she could do so agreeably to God and her conscience, or that she should promise only not to infringe the said statute, without expressing approval. I have not yet ascertained how the thing has passed, but, in any case, she never made a better day’s work, for if she had let this opportunity slip, there was no remedy in the world for her. As soon as the news arrived of her subscription, incredible joy was shown in all the Court, except by the earl of Essex, who told the King that was a game that would cost him his head, for the injurious language he had used against the Princess. After the Princess had signed the document she was much dejected, but I immediately relieved her of every doubt even of conscience, assuring her that the Pope would not only not impute to her any blame, but would hold it rightly done. Since the Princess subscribed the said document, the King sent back the above commissioners with others, among whom was Master Cromwell, who was charged by the King to carry to her a most gracious letter, and also, according to the custom of the country, another with the paternal blessing, and they all offered her the highest possible honour, addressing her almost continually kneeling upon the ground, especially asking her pardon for their previous conduct. The Princess remains very happy, especially on account of the goodwill Cromwell bears her in the promotion of her affairs. She is only anxious as to how your Majesty will be satisfied with what she has done. And now that she has done it, on my assurance that it was the will of your Majesty, yet it would be a marvellous consolation to her to know it by letters from you. She has also desired me to write to your Majesty’s ambassador at Rome, to procure a secret absolution from the Pope, otherwise her conscience could not be at perfect ease.”[188]
The document to which Henry finally summoned his daughter to affix her signature was drawn up in the following terms:—
“The confession of me the Lady Mary, made upon certain points and articles under written, in the which as I do now plainly and with all mine heart confess and declare mine inward sentence, belief and judgment, with a due conformity of obedience to the laws of the realm; so minding for ever to persist and continue in this determination, without change, alteration or varyance, I do most humbly beseech the King’s Highness, my father, whom I have obstinately and inobediently offended in the denyal of the same heretofore, to forgive mine offences therein, and to take me to his most gracious mercy. First, I confess and knowledge the King’s Majesty to be my Soveraign Lord and King, in the imperial Crown of this realme of England, and do submit myself to his Highness, and to all and singular lawes and statutes of this realm, as becometh a true and faithfull subject to do; which I shall also obey, keep, observe, advance and maintain, according to my bounden duty, with all the power, force and qualities that God hath induced me, during my life.
”Item.—I do recognize, accept, take, repute and knowledge the King’s Highness to be supream head in earth under Christ of the Church of England, and do utterly refuse the Bishop of Rome’s pretended authority, power and jurisdiction within this Realm heretofore usurped, according to the laws and statutes made in that behalf, and of all the King’s true subjects, humbly received, admitted, obeyed, kept and observed. And also do utterly renounce and forsake all manner of remedy, interest and advantage which I may by any means claim by the Bishop of Rome’s laws, process, jurisdiction or sentence, at this present time or in any wise hereafter, by any manner, title, colour, mean or case that is, shall, or can be devised for that purpose.