Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [105]
On December 1, Mary wrote to the emperor:
I would begin this letter by offering my excuses for not having written before … and would repeat in detail all my conferences with your Majesty’s ambassador, were it not that your letters show that he has omitted nothing, so I feel sure that he has explained all and freed me of the necessity.
He assures me that he has sent you accounts of the progress of the marriage negotiations he has conducted with me, telling you of my reply and professions of goodwill and affection for the Prince, my good cousin; the reasons founded on my zeal for my kingdom’s welfare, towards which I have the duty your Majesty is aware of, that moved me to give my consent; my belief in the Prince’s excellent qualities, and confidence that your Majesty will ever remain my good lord and father, and will offer terms in accordance. He also avers that he has not forgotten to transmit to your Majesty my most humble and affectionate thanks for the honour you have done me by proposing so great an alliance, for the mindfulness of my kingdom and myself and constant care for all my interests and concerns.12
As a token of the new accord, Charles had sent Mary “a large and valuable diamond”—“in witness of the fact,” he told his ambassadors, “that beyond our old friendship and in respect for her position, we now consider her as our own daughter in virtue of this alliance.” Their union saw the climax of Mary’s long-standing relationship with the emperor and the revival of the Anglo-Spanish entente established by Mary’s mother on her marriage to Prince Arthur, fifty-three years earlier.
On January 14, the terms of the treaty were officially proclaimed at Westminster “to the lords, nobility, and gentlemen” by the lord chancellor. As Gardiner explained, Mary had made her decision to wed Philip “partly for the wealth and enriching of the realm, and partly for friendship and other weighty considerations.”13 They should, he continued, “thank God that so noble, worthy, and famous a prince” would “humble himself as in this marriage to take upon him rather as a subject than otherwise; and that the Queen should rule all things as she doth now; and that there should be of the counsel no Spaniard.”14
It did little to allay fears. After Gardiner’s declaration of the terms of the marriage treaty, one chronicler described how the news was “very much misliked … almost each man was abashed, looking daily for worse matters to grow shortly after.”15
CHAPTER 45
A TRAITOROUS CONSPIRACY
The King of France … is fitting out his best ships, so that before Easter arrives there shall be such a tumult in England as never was seen.1
—RENARD TO THE EMPEROR, DECEMBER 11, 1553
IN LATE NOVEMBER 1553, A GROUP OF CONSPIRATORS, LED BY SIR Thomas Wyatt, a Kentish gentleman and the son of the poet of the same name; Sir James Croft, the head of a Marches family; and Sir Peter Carew, a soldier and Devonshire landowner, met to discuss the overthrow of the Marian government. Their plan would see a four-pronged rising in Kent, the Midlands, the Southwest, and the Welsh Marches, followed by a march on London. Mary would be deposed and the Spanish marriage thwarted; Elizabeth and Edward Courtenay would be married and both placed on the throne.
The rising was timed for Palm Sunday, March 18, to coincide with the start of Philip’s journey to England. It was a scheme backed by the French in what was a final attempt to thwart the Spanish marriage. As Henry II wrote dismissively, the conspirators “have to do only with a woman who is badly provided with good counsel and men of ability, so it should be easy for them to guard against discovery if they are prudent enough and have blood in their nails.”2
By the new year reports had spread of a “traitorous conspiracy” fostered by “certain lewd and ill-disposed persons.”3 Sir Peter Carew’s return to Devon during the Christmas festivities raised