Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [69]
When Paget arrived at the imperial court in late July, Charles expressed “great astonishment” at the pressure that had been put on Mary to accept the changes in religion. He stressed that, even if she were inclined to accept the reforms, he would do his “utmost to dissuade her, our close relative; for we and those to our blood would grieve exceedingly if she were to change.” He repeated his request for an assurance “in writing or otherwise, that she should not be included in the regulations made by Parliament about religion or be kept in suspense on the matter.”10
THE DAY AFTER the Prayer Book was introduced at Sampford Courtenay in Devon, local villagers petitioned the priest to defy the government. As John Hooker described it in his contemporary account of the rebellion, the priest “yielded to their wills and forthwith ravessheth [clothed] himself in his old popish attire and sayeth mass and all such services as in times past accustomed.”11 The news spread; a considerable force of Cornishmen angry at the religious changes gathered at Clyst St. Mary near Exeter. “We will,” the manifesto of the western rebels demanded, “have the mass in Latin, as was before”; “we will have holy bread and holy water made every Sunday, psalms and ashes at the times accustomed, images set up again in every church, and all other ancient, old ceremonies used heretofore by our mother the Holy Church.” The rebels insisted that the Act of Six Articles of 1539 be reintroduced until Edward came of age and described the new Prayer Book as a “Christmas game.”12
There was violence too in Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, as the rural poor protested against the economic hardships brought about by Somerset’s policy of land enclosure. Fences were pulled down and deer killed, and chaos engulfed the countryside. In Norfolk, rebels led by Robert Kett called for all bondmen to be free and emphasized that Thomas Howard, the third Duke of Norfolk, who had been imprisoned in 1547, “had used much more extremity than his Ancestors did towards them.” Since many of the rebellions occurred in East Anglia, near Mary’s estates, suspicion naturally fell on Mary.
On July 18, the Council warned her that certain of her servants were reported to be “chief in these commotions.” One of her staff had been active among the rebels at Sampford Courtenay in Devon, and another, Thomas Poley, was declared to be “a captain of the worst sort assembled in Suffolk.”13 Men spoke of her complicity and of her plan to overthrow the present rulers of England. In a letter to the secretary of state, William Cecil, Sir Thomas Smith disguised his accusations not only by writing in Latin but also by referring to Mary in the masculine form: “Marius and the Marians; the fear which torments me to the point of destruction.”14
Mary replied immediately, denying all charges made against her. The uprisings, she countered, “no less offend me, than they do you and the rest of the Council.” As for her chaplain being at Sampford Courtenay, “I do not a little marvel; for, to my knowledge, I have not one chaplain in those parts.” Poley had remained in her household, she claimed, and “was never doer amongst the commons, nor came in their company.”15
IN THE MIDST of rebellion and as the French king declared war, Mary was able to continue to flout the law. As Somerset noted, “whereas she used to have two masses said before,