Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/228

Rh confidence in his fidelity seems to have been re-established.

Pembroke's religious views inclined to Calvinism. He had stood godfather to a son of Edward Underhill, 'the hot gospeller,' and he never pretended to sympathise with the Roman catholic revival. According to an improbable statement of Aubrey, Wilton Abbey was restored by Mary, and the nuns reinstated there, to Pembroke's disgust. In the council he was avowedly opposed to Gardiner, Petre, and the ardent catholic party, but his political principles were pliant, and he assented to the queen's marriage with Philip. The gift of a pension of two thousand crowns from Charles V's envoy Egmont seems to have dispelled some early misgivings. He introduced into the royal chamber the Spanish ambassador, who came to represent Philip at the formal betrothal of the queen (6 March 1553-4). Even then Gardiner expressed a fear that Pembroke was playing the queen false, and Mary was advised to arrest him. But the suspicions of his foes were finally lulled when in June he sumptuously entertained at Wilton Philip's ambassador, the Marquis de las Navas. On 19 July he met Philip on his arrival at Southampton, and attended him with a large retinue to Winchester, where the queen was awaiting him. Pembroke was one of the four peers who gave Mary away at the wedding in Winchester Cathedral, and carried the sword of state before Philip after the ceremony (25 July). He rapidly secured the prince's favour, and when Mary sought to arbitrate between France and the empire, Pembroke was sent early in 1555 to Calais with Pole, Gardiner, and Paget in order to discuss terms with the French envoys. The negotiations failed, and Pembroke on his return tn England retired to Wilton. In March Philip hastily summoned him to London, and ordered him to Calais to superintend the fortifications of Guisnes, and to advise the warden of Calais as to the action to be taken in case of a French attack. On his journey Pembroke attended Pole's consecration as archbishop of Canterbury at Greenwich. The Venetian ambassador at Charles V's court reported at the time that Pembroke was the chief personage in England, and the French, with whom he had served in early life, are stated to have held him in esteem. But in May he was recalled from Calais, according to some writers, because Philip desired his society and counsel; according to others, because his inability to speak any other language but his own rendered him nearly useless. On 4 Sept. 1555 he accompanied Philip to Brussels, where Philip introduced him to Charles V. He was nominated governor of Calais in November 1556, and resumed the office of president of Wales for the years 1555-8. In March 1557 Philip paid a last visit to England to organise an English expedition in aid of the Spanish troops who were fighting against the French in Flanders. Pembroke was appointed captain-general of the English army, and arrived two days after the defeat of the French outside St. Quentin, but took part in the storming of the town, and made prisoner Duke Anne de Montmorency, constable of France. The armour worn by the constable, as well as that worn at St. Quentin by Pembroke himself, is still preserved at Wilton.

Immediately after Mary's death Pembroke travelled to Hatfield and attended Elizabeth's first privy council. He and Cecil were, with two others, appointed a committee to discuss the ecclesiastical situation with the queen. Pembroke zealously supported a protestant revival. On 25 April 1559 the queen, supped with him at Baynard's Castle. When Cecil went to arrange peace with Scotland in May 1560, Pembroke maintained his interests at court, and afterwards welcomed the Scottish ambassadors who were sent to negotiate Elizabeth's marriage with the Earl of Arran. In July Pembroke was taken seriously ill at his house at Hendon, and for a year his recovery was doubtful. In 1561, when Cecil was much embarrassed by rivalries at court and disturbances in Ireland, he declared that in Pembroke's absence he was without a supporter in the council. Late in 1561 Pembroke again attended the council, advocating the policy of alliance with the Huguenots. In 1562 he agreed to support the claims of the Earl of Huntingdon [see ] to the throne in succession to Elizabeth, who was at the time seriously ill. In September 1564 Pembroke's health was again failing, and for some years he took a subordinate part in politics. The distressed merchant-staplers of Calais, which had fallen to the French in January 1558, petitioned him to secure relief for them, and he invited to England oppressed protestant weavers from the Low Countries, arranging for the settlement of some at Wilton. In March 1563 the queen lent him, Dudley, and others a ship known as the Jesus of Lambeth, which they fitted out for a voyage to the coasts of Africa and America, and two years later he was interesting himself in the hydraulic inventions of one Daniel Hochstetter.

In 1568 Pembroke was appointed lord steward of the royal household, but in the next year he compromised his reputation by supporting the scheme for the marriage of the Duke of Norfolk with Mary Queen of Scots.