Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/371

A.D. 1553.] not reach England, gave the queen the soundest advice by letter, namely, not to marry at all; and his advice was earnestly seconded by his friend, Friar Peyto, tho same plain speaker who had so startled Henry from his pulpit at Greenwich by denouncing his seizure of the monastic church, and whom Cromwell had therefore threatened to sew up in a sack and fling into tho Thames. Peyto had retired to the Continent and resided in the cardinal's house. He now wrote to Mary with as much honest plainness as he had spoken to her father. "Do not marry," he said, "or you will be tho slave of a young husband. Besides, at your age tho chance of bringing heirs to tho throne is doubtful, and, moreover, must be dangerous to your life."

Nothing, however, could move Mary from her project of matrimony. Giving up Courtenay, who was the slave of low vices, she now consulted her great relative, the emperor, her invariable counsellor in all serious matters. The advice from such a quarter could only be of one character. Mary, as a child, had been betrothed to Charles himself, but she then appeared so distant from the throne that he had cavalierly given her up. He now wrote in a strain of the most delicate flattery, which, without saying that he repented of his conduct, expressed it. He fully approved, he said, of the reasons which induced her to relinquish all idea of Courtenay, and only regretted that Pole, so worthy of her, declined all worldly distinctions for the sacred duties of the Church. Were he of fitting age, ho would himself aspire to the honour of her hand, but that not being suitable, whom could he offer her more dear to him than his own son? The advantages of such an alliance, he said, were too prominent to need pointing out, but he would not say a word to bias her judgment; on the contrary, he entreated her to reflect seriously, but without any restraint, on the proposition, and then inform him of the result.

But though Charles put on such a paternal and disinterested air, his ambassador, Renard, was at the queen's elbow to give all the colouring of his rhetoric to the scheme, to expatiate on the beauty and accomplishments of Philip, and on the splendour of the position which such a union of crowns would confer on them above all the world. Mary listened to the proposal with unconcealed pleasure, a pleasure far from reciprocated on the part of Philip, who was only twenty-six years of age, and earnestly entreated his father not to marry him to a woman eleven years older than himself. The union was privately and quickly agreed upon. The wary emperor, however, advised Mary to keep the contract secret for the present, as some of her ministers were desirous that the queen should wed the archduke, his nephew, and all were opposed to the Spanish alliance.

Such secrets, however, soon transpire at Courts, and rumours of this proposed alliance soon spread abroad, creating great alarm and anxiety. The first to remonstrate with Mary on the subject was Gardiner, her chancellor, who boldly pointed out to her the repugnance of the nation to a Spanish marriage; that she would be the paramount authority if she married a subject, but that it would be difficult to maintain that rank with a Spanish king; that the arrogance of the Spanish had made them odious to all nations, and this quality had already shown itself conspicuously in Philip. He was greatly disliked by his own people, and it was not likely that he would be tolerated by the English; that alliance with Spain meant perpetual war with France, which would never suffer the Netherlands to be annexed to the Crown of England. The rest of Mary's Council took up the same strain, with the exception of the old Duke of Norfolk and the Lords Arundel and Paget. The Protestant party out of doors were furious against the match, declaring that it was meant to bring the Inquisition into tho country, to rivet Popery upon it, and to make England the slave of taxation to the Spaniards. The Parliament took up the subject with equal hostility, and the Commons sent their Speaker to her, attended by a deputation of twenty members, praying Her Majesty not to marry a foreigner.

Noailles, tho French ambassador, was delighted with this movement, and took much credit to himself for inciting influential parties to it; but Mary believed it to originate with Gardiner, and the lion spirit of her father coming over her, she vowed that she would prove a match for the cunning of the Chancellor. That very night she sent for the Spanish ambassador, and bidding him follow her into her private oratory, she there knelt down before the altar, and after chanting the hymn, "Veni Creator Spiritus," she made a vow to God that she would marry Philip of Spain, and whilst she lived, no other man but him. Thus she put it out of her power, if she kept her vow, to marry any other person should she outlive Philip, showing the force of the paroxysm of determination which was upon her. The effort would seem to have been very violent, for immediately after she was taken ill, and continued so for some days.

It was on the last day of October that this curious circumstance took place, and on the 17th of November she sent for the House of Commons, when the Speaker read the address giving her their advice regarding her marriage; and, instead of the Chancellor returning the answer, as was the custom, Mary answered herself, thanking them for their care that she should have a succession in her own children, but rebuking them for presuming to dictate to her the choice of a husband. She declared that the marriages of her predecessors had always been free, a privilege which, she assured them, she was resolved to maintain. At the same time, she added, she should be careful to make such a selection as should contribute both to her own happiness and to that of her people.

The plain declaration of the queen to her Parliament was not necessary to inform those about her who were interested in the question; they had speedy information, of her having favoured the Spanish suit, and Noailles was certainly mixed up in conspiracies to defeat it. It was proposed to place Courtenay at the head of the reformed, party, and if Mary would not consent to many him, to assassinate Arundel and Paget, the advocates of the Spanish match; to marry Elizabeth to Courtenay, and raise the standard of rebellion in Devonshire. It appears from the despatches of Noailles that the Duke of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey, was in this conspiracy. But the folly and the unstable character of their hero, Courtenay, was fatal to their design, and of that Noailles very soon became sensible. It was proposed by some of the parties that Courtenay should steal away from Court,