Mary Tudor - Anna Whitelock [84]
The following morning, Northumberland set out from Durham Palace with munitions, artillery, field guns, and more than 6,000 men. The imperial ambassadors wrote to Charles V, “We believe that my Lady will be in his hands in four days’ time unless she has sufficient force to resist.”14 Yet as he rode eastward Northumberland noted, “The people press to see us, but not one sayeth God speed us.”15
Within days Richard Troughton, bailiff of South Witham, Lincolnshire, who was attempting to win support for Mary in Lincolnshire, had submitted a petition to the Privy Council stating that Northumberland had poisoned King Edward and would now “go about to destroy the noble blood of England.” He was confident that “over a hundred thousand men would rise” in support of Mary, believing “her grace should have her right, or else there would be the bloodiest day … that ever was in England.”16
CHAPTER 36
TRUE OWNER OF THE CROWN
This attempt should have been judged and considered one of Herculean rather than womanly daring, since to claim and secure her hereditary right, the princess was being so bold as to tackle a powerful and well-prepared enemy, thoroughly provisioned with everything necessary to end or to prolong a war, while she was entirely unprepared for warfare and had insignificant forces.1
—ROBERT WINGFIELD, VITA MARIAE
FOR FIVE DAYS MARY STAYED AT KENNINGHALL, RALLYING FRIENDS and supporters among the East Anglian gentry and commons. The core of her support was her household. Many, like Robert Rochester and Edward Waldegrave, had served her throughout Edward’s reign and had consistently defended her and her right to hear the Catholic Mass. Now they moved to defend her right to the throne. As Robert Wingfield, an East Anglian gentleman, wrote, they “did not hesitate to face an untimely death for their Queen.” Each played an important role in mobilizing members of the local gentry and their tenants. The first gentlemen to arrive at Kenninghall, Sir Henry Bedingfield, Sir John Shelton, and Sir Richard Southwell, were from the same group of conservative East Anglian magnates as the men in Mary’s household. The arrival of Southwell and Henry Radcliffe, earl of Sussex, with money, provisions, and armed men would greatly expand Mary’s meager forces. Southwell was a knight, the wealthiest of his rank in Norfolk, and his commitment did much to raise the morale of Mary and her supporters.
On July 12, with her forces growing, Mary moved southeast to another of her principal houses, Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, the ancient seat of the Howard family. It was far larger than Kenninghall and, as the strongest castle in the area, an ideal place from which to defend against, or indeed engage, a determined enemy. Built by the old duke of Norfolk, it had come into her possession only a few months before. Now it would witness Mary’s stand against the might of central government. As she journeyed to Framlingham, many of the local gentry and justices, together with a crowd of country folk, gathered in the deer park adjacent to the castle to await her arrival. “A great concourse of people were moved by their love for her to come and promise to support her to the end and maintain her right to the Crown, bringing money and cattle as their means enabled them.”2
Finally, at eight in the evening, she arrived. Her standard was unfurled and displayed over