Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [70]
Yet as Edward wrote to Mary in August:
We have somewhat marvelled, and cannot but still marvel very much, what grounds or reasons have or do move you to mislike or refuse to follow and embrace that which, by all the learned men of our realm, hath been so set forth, and of all our loving subjects obediently received; and knowing your good nature and affection towards us, we cannot think any other matter in this your refusal than only a certain grudge of conscience, for want of good information and conference with some goodly and well learned men for remedy.18
Mary would receive corrective instruction. Such men would be chosen and sent to her, after which it was expected that her attitude would improve. Both the king and the lord protector clung to the hope that in time Mary would come to embrace the religious reforms.
Mary’s conscience had driven her into a position of direct opposition to the government. The girl who had been broken down and forced to yield her soul and the honor of her mother in fear of her father was now a mature woman of thirty-three. She was a landed magnate with a following of her own and the support of Emperor Charles V. Her brother, the king, was a child. She would not succumb again.
CHAPTER 29
THE MOST UNSTABLE MAN IN ENGLAND
“MATTERS IN THIS REALM ARE RESTLESS FOR CHANGE,” VAN der Delft wrote on September 15, 1549. Somerset’s handling of the rebellions and the continuing war with France and Scotland had lost him the confidence of the nobility and gentry. “The people are all in confusion, and with one common voice lament the present state of things.”1
It was the beginning of the end of Somerset’s protectorate. Dudley and the conservative nobles, Thomas Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, and Henry FitzAlan, earl of Arundel, were plotting against him and the country was drawing close to civil war. Matters came to a head on Saturday, October 5, when Somerset issued a proclamation commanding men to come to Hampton Court “in most defensible array” with harness and weapons, to defend the king against “a most dangerous conspiracy.”2 Dudley and his supporters immediately took up arms riding through the city, their retinues following behind “attending upon them in new liveries to the great wondering of many.”3 Letters were sent to other members of the nobility across the country, ordering them to ignore Somerset’s proclamation and repair to London armed. Somerset moved Edward to Windsor as chaos engulfed the capital. Four days later, faced with overwhelming opposition among the ruling elite, Somerset surrendered. On October 14, he was arrested and sent to the Tower, charged with treason.
Dudley and his allies had asked Mary to support the coup against Somerset, but on the advice of the emperor she had declined to get involved. “As for certain councillors’ machinations against the Protector, it does not for the present seem opportune that such an important change take place in England,” wrote Charles; “it would be exceedingly hazardous for the Lady Mary to take any share in such proceedings.”4 There now developed a struggle for power on the Council, raising hopes among Mary’s Catholic supporters. Van der Delft cautiously rejoiced, for “religion could not be in a worse state, and that therefore a change must be for the better, and that it was not made by the enemies of the old religion.”5 Wriothesley reassured the ambassador that Mary would be allowed to hear Mass, saying “those who have molested her will do so no more, and even though they were to begin afresh she has many good servants of whom I hold myself to be one.”6 How they were deceived. Dudley emerged as leader of the government and lord president of the Council and, despite earlier indications of conservative