Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [79]
Mary treated their authority with contempt. She would hear no service than that left by her father, though when the king came of age and maturity of judgment he would find her conforming to his laws. Her chaplains might do as they wish, but if they read the new service she would leave her own house. Again Mary stated that she was prepared to die for her faith:
First she protested that to the King’s Majesty she was, is and ever will be his Majesty’s most humble and most obedient subject and poor sister, and would most willingly obey all his commandments in any thing (her conscience saved); yea, and would willingly and gladly suffer death to do his Majesty good, but rather than she will agree to use any other service than was used at the death of the late King her father, she would lay her head on a block and suffer death.6
Mary lamented, “You give me fair words, but your deeds will always be ill towards me.”
The commissioners then called the chaplains and the rest of the household and gave them “straight commandment upon pain of their allegiance, that neither the priests should from henceforth say any Mass or other Divine Service than that which is set forth by the laws of the realm.” As their subsequent report to the Council stated, “Her chaplains, after some talk, promised to obey all the King’s Majesty’s commandment signified by us.” As the men were leaving, Mary called out that she needed her comptroller, Robert Rochester, to be returned to her, adding that since his departure “I take the account myself of my expenses, and how many loaves of bread be made a bushel of wheat … my father and mother never brought me [up] with baking and brewing, and to be plain with you I am weary of mine office, and therefore, if my Lords will send my officer home they shall do me pleasure.”7 But the Council ignored Mary’s plea and sent Englefield, Waldegrave, and Rochester first to the Fleet and then to the Tower.
With the situation at a deadlock, security around the princess was tightened. Edward recorded in his journal that “pinnaces were prepared to see that there should be no conveyance overseas of the Lady Mary, secretly done.” Meanwhile, the lord chancellor, the lord chamberlain, the vice chamberlain, and Secretary Petre “should see by all means they could whether she used the mass, and if she did that the laws should be executed on her chaplains.”8
IN OCTOBER 1551, Henry II of France declared war on Charles V with the intention of recapturing Italy and securing European supremacy. The renewal of Habsburg-Valois hostilities brought an increased fear of imperial intervention in England. Mary of Hungary, Charles’s sister, was certain that England would join France in the war and so proposed an invasion of England to gain a strong port from which to defend the Netherlands and to place Mary on the throne.9
With her fortune ever tied to events in Europe, pressure eased on Mary. When Mary of Guise, the dowager queen of Scotland, visited Edward for several days in October, Mary was invited to court “to accompany and entertain” her, while Edward sent his own message, that he would enjoy the pleasure of Mary’s company. Once again Mary pleaded ill health to avoid being put under religious pressure by her brother.10 Over the next few months the conciliatory overtures continued. In March 1552, Rochester, Englefield, and Waldegrave were released from the Tower and returned to Mary’s household. Two months later, Mary rode through London to St. John’s “with a goodly company of gentlemen and gentlewomen” and went by barge to Greenwich to visit her brother.11
In April, Edward had written in his chronicle, “I feel sick of the measles and the smallpox.” He made a quick recovery, but by the winter of 1552 he was seriously ill once more, his body racked by a hacking cough. It was clear that the king was suffering from “consumption”—tuberculosis. The Council made no further overt attempts to suppress Mary’s Masses. With Edward’s health deteriorating, it was prudent to conciliate one who stood so near to the throne.
CHAPTER 34
MY DEVICE