Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [140]
In the midst of such uncertainty, Mary grew ever more anxious for Philip’s return, as Michieli related:
For many months, the Queen has passed from one sorrow to another, your Serenity can imagine what a life she leads, comforting herself as usual with the presence of Cardinal Pole, to whose assiduous toil and diligence, having entrusted the whole government of the kingdom, she is intent on enduring her trouble as patiently as she can. 21
Two months later, he wrote:
The Queen’s face has lost flesh greatly since I was last with her, the extreme need she has of the consort’s presence harassing her … she having also within the last few days lost her sleep.22
In the middle of March, on the queen’s instructions, the English ambassador, Sir John Mason, asked Philip “to say frankly in how many days he purposed returning” to the kingdom. Mason gently suggested that the king would “comfort the Queen, as also the peers of the realm, by his presence, saying that there was no reason yet to despair of his having heirs.”23 In April, Mary changed tack, sending Lord Paget as her envoy. As Badoer wrote, “I understand that the chief object of his discourse was to inspire the King with that hope, on his return to England, of being crowned, which has never yet been given him by the Queen his consort.”24 In a letter to the emperor on July 15, Mary made clear her despair and disillusionment:
It would be pleasanter for me to thank your Majesty for sending me back the King, my lord and good husband, than to dispatch an emissary to Flanders … However, as your Majesty has been pleased to break your promise in this connection, a promise you made to me regarding the return of the King, my husband, I must perforce be satisfied, although to my unspeakable regret.25
Mary now spent her time in “tears, regrets and writing letters to bring back her husband,” oscillating between a sense of anger and abandonment.26 Increasingly she became frustrated with Philip and was reported to be “scratching portraits of her husband which she keeps in her room.”27 Finally, she wrote to the emperor once more, pleading that he hasten his son’s return and arguing that it was for the safety of the realm:
My Lord and good father, I wish to beg your Majesty’s pardon for my boldness in writing to you at this time, and humbly to implore you, as you have always been pleased to act as a true father to me and my kingdom, to consider the miserable plight into which this country has now fallen…. Unless he [Philip] comes to remedy matters, not I only but also wiser persons than I, fear that great danger will ensue for lack of a firm hand, and indeed we see it before our eyes.28
CHAPTER 60
OBEDIENT SUBJECT AND HUMBLE SISTER
ON MAY 26, MORE THAN TWO MONTHS AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF Dudley’s conspiracy, two of Mary’s most trusted servants, Sir Henry Jerningham and John Norris, were sent to Elizabeth at Hatfield with a posse of troops. An armed guard was put around her house, and her lady mistress, Katherine Ashley, her Italian teacher, Giovanni Battista Castiglione, and three other women of her household were arrested and taken to London. A search of Ashley’s chambers at Somerset House found incriminating anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish literature. According to the Venetian ambassador, all confessed to knowing of Dudley’s plot. Mary’s courier Francesco Piamontese was sent to Philip in Brussels to seek his counsel with regard to Elizabeth.1
The advice Mary received was heavily influenced by Habsburg interests. Although there was evidence that Elizabeth had been involved in treasonous activity, any action against her would threaten her succession. In default of Elizabeth as heir, the English throne would go to Mary, queen of Scots, who was betrothed to the dauphin of France. If Philip were to triumph in the Habsburg-Valois struggle, this was something he had to prevent. Once again, English dynastic interests were to be subsumed to Habsburg