Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/346

Mary I 22 June Mary addressed a protest to Somerset from Kenninghall. In matters of religion, she told him, she was resolute. She declined to recognise the Mate law,' She would give ear to no one who should try to move her contrary to her conscience, but hoped to prove 'a natural and humble sister to the king' (, vi. 7-8). Somerset's fall in October caused Mary a short respite. Warwick, his victorious rival, addressed to her and to Elizabeth a detailed narrative of their quarrel. Warwick had been falsely credited with a design to make Mary regent of the realm. He now invited her to stand with his party. But Mary showed no sign of interest in the quarrel, and Warwick, as soon as his power was established, pursued Somerset's policy towards her. As in former difficulties, she appealed to the emperor. Early in 1550 his ambassador brought the matter before the council. Some promise seems to have been given in April that while the open celebration was forbidden the private exercise of her religious observances would be permitted. Charges, however, were soon brought against her that she invited any who would to attend the services in her chapel, and that she filled the neighbouring pulpits with her chaplains. She was ill in November 1550, and about the same time Edward complained that she refused to meet him on his invitation at Woking. In the winter the Duchess of Suffolk, with her daughters Jane, Catherine, and Mary, paid her a visit in state.

But Mary still chafed under the refusal of the council to allow her full religious freedom. On 16 Feb. 1550-1 she reminded them of their promise, and asked that the permission should be continued till Edward reached 'years of more discretion' (Acts of Privy Council, 1550-2, p. 215). On 15 March 1551 she took the bold step of travelling from Wanstead with a numerous retinue, ' every one having a pair of beads of black' (, p. 5), to lay her case before Edward at Westminster. She appeared with her brother in the council chamber, and declared that 'her soul was God's, and her faith she would not change, nor dissemble her opinion with contrary words' (Journal, p. 308). She denied that her 'good, sweet' brother was responsible for her persecution, and the wording of his 'Journal' fails to imply that he took any active part in her interview with the council.

On 18 March 1550-1 the imperial ambassador plainly told the council that were she further molested he would quit the country and war would be declared (ib. p. 309). The king's ministers hesitated to risk the danger and for the present did nothing beyond arresting her chaplain, Mallett, and dismissing Rochester, the controller of her household. These steps called forth an earnest protest from Mary, and Charles V was ill inclined to let the dispute end thus. In June he said to Dr. Wotton, the English ambassador at his court : 'My cousin the princess is evil handled among you ... I will not suffer it. ... I had rather she died a thousand deaths than that she should forsake her faith and mine ? (Cat. State Papers, For. 1547-50, p. 137). In August he sent a member of his council, Scepper, to make preparations for bringing Mary to Antwerp, to join his sister the queen of Hungary. Ships arrived off the east coast, and Sir John Gates was sent to watch the route between Newhall and the sea, in order to intercept Mary and her friends if they endeavoured to escape. On 14 Aug. 1551 the council informed her that her religious rites must cease altogether. The king's forbearance had not reduced her to obedience ' of her own disposition,' and his long sufferance of her insubordination was a subject of great strife and contention. She sent the messengers back with a passionate letter of remonstrance to the king. The mass, she reminded him, had been used by his father and all his predecessors. The council had promised the emperor to leave her in peace. Death would be more welcome than life with a troubled conscience (19 Aug.) The council made further efforts with the same result. She offered to lay her head on the block rather than submit. In the heat of the moment she taunted the members of one deputation from the council with having been made by her father ' almost out of nothing.' For practical purposes the final victory lay with her.

Mary paid a visit in formal state to Edward at Greenwich in June 1552, and next month Lady Jane Grey again visited her at Newhall. On 8 Sept. Bishop Ridley came to see her as her diocesan when she was at Hunsdon. She received him with perfect courtesy and invited him to dinner with her household, but sternly declined his offer to preach before her next Sunday (, vi. 354). In February of the new year, 1553, she paid a third state visit to Edward at Westminster, riding through the city, attended by many noblemen and ladies (, Diary). The king's friends declared that he grew melancholy in his later years whenever he saw his sister, while Mary's supporters insisted that he always showed delight in her society, and was so gentle in his demeanour towards her that she confidently anticipated his conversion to her opinions. The former view seems the sounder (Clifford, Life of Jane Dormer, p. 61). But on 16 May she