Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/347

Mary I sent her brother from Newhall a kindly note, 'scribbled with a rude hand,' congratulating him on a reported improvement in his health. It was her last communication with him. On 6 July he died, but for some days she was left in ignorance of the event.

Northumberland had contrived that Edward on his deathbed should disinherit both his sisters in favour of his own daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, and as soon as the throne was vacant it was Northumberland's intention to seize Mary's person. The council sent her a deceitful message at Hunsdon, bidding her visit the king, who was very ill. According to the somewhat doubtful story of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, she was met at Hoddesdon by her London goldsmith, who had been secretly despatched by Throgmorton to warn her of the king's death and of her personal danger (Chron. of Queen Jane, p. 1, notes). Easily convinced of the council's deceit, she resolved to make for Kenninghall. The night was spent at Sawston Hall, the house of Mr. Huddleston; but the citizens of Cambridge, strongly puritan in feeling, soon sallied forth to attack the house, and Mary set out in the early morning, disguised, it is said, as a market-woman. She was well received at Bury St. Edmunds, where the news of the king's death had not yet arrived, and she reached Kenninghall the same night. On 9 July she forwarded a remonstrance to the council, declaring that she knew their enmity, but offered an amnesty if they proclaimed her queen forthwith. The council next day proclaimed Lady Jane, informed Mary that she was a bastard, and advised her to submit to the new régime. Accompanied by the tenantry of Sir Henry Jerningham and Sir Henry Bedingfield, Mary thereupon proceeded to the castle at Framlingham, once the property of the Duke of Norfolk. The castle could stand a siege if necessary, and at the worst she could escape thence to the continent. Her standard was set up over the gate tower, and the gentlemen of Suffolk with their attendants flocked round her. Thirteen thousand men were soon encamped about the castle. On 13 July Mary was proclaimed queen at Norwich, and the corporation 'sent men and weapons to aid her' (Chron. p. 8). But it was not only in the eastern counties that the tide rapidly turned in her favour. On 16 July a placard posted on Queenhithe Church asserted that Mary had been proclaimed queen everywhere except in London. The same day the Earls of Sussex and Bath, seceding from the council, arrived at Framlingham at the head of an armed force. On the 18th rewards were offered to any one taking Northumberland prisoner. On the 19th she was proclaimed in London amid 'bell ringing, blazes, and shouts of applause,' Northumberland was arrested at Cambridge, and many of his supporters went to Mary to make their submission. On 31 July Mary broke up the camp at Framlingham, and began a peaceful progress to London. At Wanstead, on 3 Aug., she disbanded all her army except a body of horse, and was met by her sister Elizabeth. With a great escort of ladies and gentlemen, including all the foreign ambassadors, she rode into London, arriving at Aldgate, where she was received by the lord mayor. She went direct to the Tower. The prisoners detained by her father and brother, including the old Duke of Norfolk [see, 1473–1554], the young Edward Courtenay [q. v.], son of her early friend the Marquis of Exeter, and Stephen Gardiner [q. v.J, were at once released. On the day of the king's funeral (8 Aug.) she attended mass in her private chapel.

Mary had adhered to her faith at the cost of much persecution in her earlier life, and now the opportunity had come of making it finally prevail among her countrymen. She at once announced her intention to Henry of France and her cousin Charles V, and with the imperial ambassador, Simon Renard, she soon placed herself in very confidential relations. Gardiner and Bonner were restored to their sees (Winchester and London). The former was made chancellor and practically became her prime minister. The powerful Marquis of Winchester was allowed to retain his post of treasurer, but comparatively few of her brother's advisers remained members of her council. She invited the Duke of Norfolk and the Earls of Derby and Shrewsbury to join it, and gave a greater preponderance in it to members of the old nobility than either her father or brother had done. But she unfortunately made it inconveniently large, and it quickly split into hostile cliques whose quarrels caused her grave embarrassments (cf. Acts of Privy Council, 1552–4, p. xxxii). Of the work of government Mary resolved to take her full share. In the first two years of her reign she rose at daybreak and transacted business incessantly until after midnight. She was always ready to give audiences to the members of her council and to others of her subjects, and required every detail of public affairs to be submitted to her (Venetian Cal. 1534–64, p. 533). But Gardiner, like Renard, saw more clearly than the queen the need of caution in her religious policy. As early as 13 Aug. a riot had broken out at St. Paul's Cross, when the preacher, Gilbert