Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/41

1551.] by the advocacy of Somerset; and Warwick was supported by the powerful phalanx of able and dangerous men whose interest committed them to the Reformation—those who had shared, or hoped to share, in the spoils of the Church or the State—those who had divided among them the forfeited estates of the Percies, the Howards, the Courtenays, and the Poles, and would support any men or any measures which would prevent reaction.

The Princess was at Copt Hall, in Essex. On the 14th of August three of the officers of her household, Sir Robert Rochester, Sir Francis Englefield, and Sir Robert Waldegrave, were sent for by the council: the King's letter was put in their hands, with a charge to deliver it to their mistress. They were instructed to inform the chaplains that the mass must cease, and to take care, for their own part, that the order was obeyed. At the end of a week they returned to say that the Lady Mary was 'marvellously offended.' She had forbidden them to speak to her chaplains; if they persisted, she said she would discharge them from her service, and she herself would immediately leave the country. She was subject to a heart complaint, and her passion was so violent, that they were afraid to press her further for fear of the possible consequences. They had approached the subject only once afterwards, 'when they not only did not find her more conformable, but in further choler than she was before.' They could, therefore, go no further. She had written to her brother, and they had brought the letter with them.