Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/385

A.D. 1554.] to the marriage. He therefore called Alva and Egmont to him, in great consternation, and consulted what was to be done; but a nobleman, who overheard their discourse, dissipated their alarm by telling them in French that the queen had sent her loving greeting, and prayed him not to commence his journey to Winchester in such weather. The message was intended to reach him before setting out.

All fears being dissipated, the prince resolved gallantly to go forward, and the procession proceeded with true Spanish gravity; so that, although Winchester is only ten miles from Southampton, it was betwixt six and seven o'clock when they arrived.

The queen was not favoured with any better weather when three days afterwards she arrived and took up her abode in the episcopal palace. The wedding ceremony took place in the cathedral with great state and much magnificence. The chair on which Mary sat, which was said to have been sent from Rome and blessed by the Pope, is still preserved in the cathedral. After the marriage came great banqueting; but however the king and queen might harmonise, there was many a feud and frown amongst their followers. One of the most singular men of the age, Edward Underhill, called the "hot gospeller," who, though a most independent and undaunted Protestant, was always one of the most chivalrous attendants of the queen as gentleman-at-arms, had been strongly objected to by the Earl of Arundel as being included in the cortége. He was not the less coolly looked on by his old enemy, Norreys, now queen's usher. Norreys, coming into the presence-chamber, and seeing Underhill, fixed his eyes on him, and demanded what he did there. "Marry, sir," replied the bold Protestant, "what do you do here?" Norreys, confounded at this address, vowed to report him to the queen, when another of the gentlemen-at-arms condemned the language of Norreys, declaring that Underhill was one of the most devoted and respected servants of Her Majesty, and was only discharging his proper office.

By slow degrees the new-married monarchs approached their capital. They went first to Basing House on a visit to Paulet, Marquis of Winchester, and thence to Windsor Castle, where, on the 5th of August, was held a grand festival of the Garter, at which Philip was admitted, and immediately took his place as the sovereign of the order. On the 9th they removed to Richmond Palace, where they remained till the 27th, embarking then on the Thames, and being rowed in great state to the City, where they were received with the usual pageantry and quaint devices, amidst which the citizens did not omit a hint of their regret at the change in religion. Amongst the figures stood one of Henry VIII. holding a book, as if he would present it to the queen, inscribed,. The queen was indignant at the reminder, and had the words so hastily painted out, that they obliterated her father's fingers with them.

The most grateful sight to the citizens, and the best calculated to make the presence of the Spaniards tolerable, was that of ninety-five chests of bullion, each chest a yard and a quarter long. This goodly load was piled in twenty carts, and conducted to the Tower with all befitting ostentation.

Having held their Court at Whitehall and received the visits of their nobility and gentry, Philip and Mary took the occasion of the death of the old Duke of Norfolk to put a stop to the festivities, to dismiss the courtiers, and to retire to Hampton Court, where they remained for some time in great seclusion, so much so that the public found cause of great complaint in the new Spanish custom. "Formerly," the people said, "the gates of our palaces were open all day long, and the faithful subject could have access, at least, to a view of his sovereign;" but now, since the Spanish marriage, the gates were closed, and no one could be admitted without stating his identity and his business.

If Mary, however, shut out her people, she did not close her heart to her guilty sister. She sent for Elizabeth, who was brought under a strong guard from Woodstock. On arriving at Hampton Court she had her admitted to her bed-chamber, where Elizabeth fell on her knees, and protested as firmly as ever her innocence. If the statements of the intercepted letters are to be relied on, Mary had too convincing proofs in her own hands to allow her to give credit to Elizabeth's asseverations, and to cut the matter short she replied, putting a valuable ring on Elizabeth's finger, "Whether you be guilty or innocent, I forgive you." Mary, however, without making Elizabeth a prisoner, thought it necessary to place a trusty person in her house under the character of comptroller of her household, and Sir Thomas Pope was chosen for this office. Subsequent events showed the prudence of this arrangement, for though Elizabeth was repeatedly tempted to listen to artful plotters, such a guard was maintained over her that she never again fell under disgrace with the queen.

On the 11th of November the third Parliament of Mary's reign was summoned, and she and her Royal husband rode from Hampton Court to Whitehall to open the session. The king and queen rode side by side, a sword of state being borne before each to betoken their independent sovereignties. The queen was extremely anxious to restore the lands reft from the Church by her father and brother to their ancient uses, but she must have known little of the men into whose hands those lands had fallen, if she could seriously hope for such a sacrifice. The Earl of Bedford, than whom no one had more deeply gorged himself with Church plunder, on hearing the proposition, tore his rosary from his girdle, and flung it into the fire, saying, he valued the abbey of Wobern more than any fatherly council that could come from Rome. All the rest of the council were of the same way of thinking as Bedford, and Mary saw that it was a hopeless case to move them on that point, though she set them a very honourable example by surrendering the lands which still remained in the hands of the Crown, to the value of £60,000 a year.

Though Mary could not recover the property to the Church, she resolved to restore that Church to unity with Rome. She expressed her earnest desire to have the presence of her kinsman, Cardinal Pole, in her kingdom, and he now set out for England, from which he had been banished so many years; and he rendered this return the more easy, by bringing with him from the Pope a bull, which confirmed the nobles in their