A.D. 1553.

T The royal standard of England had not floated many hours over the towers of Framlingham Castle before the knights and gentlemen of Suffolk flocked around Queen Mary, bringing their tenants with them, all completely armed. About five days later six ships-of-war sailed along the Suffolk coast towards Yarmouth Roads, with the intention of besieging Mary's castle.

Sir Henry Jerningham, one of the gentlemen who had attended her from Norfolk, happened to be at Yarmouth when the fleet entered the harbor, pretending that they were forced to do so on account of stormy weather. Sir Henry boldly went out in a boat to hail them. The soldiers on board the ships asked him what he wanted. "Your captains," replied the courageous knight; "who are rebels to their lawful Queen Mary."

"If they are," said the men, "we will throw them into the sea, for we are her true subjects."

The captains surrendered themselves, and Sir Henry took possession of the ships.

At the same time Sir Edward Hastings was sent to two counties to raise four thousand men for Queen Jane. As soon as he had secured them, he proclaimed Mary as his rightful queen, and thus placed a large force at her disposal, close to London.

Jane Grey's council, headed by Northumberland, were terrified when they heard of these two events, and still more so when placards were posted on the churches a few days later, stating that Mary had been proclaimed Queen of England and Ireland in every town and city excepting London. A revolution was the result, which ended in the arrest of Northumberland, who was sent to the Tower. Then several of his party hastened to Framlingham to excuse themselves to Mary. Among these were Dr. Sandys, Bishop Ridley, Northampton, and Lord Robert Dudley, all of whom were arrested.

On the last day of July Mary broke up her camp, and began her triumphant march towards London. Her sister Elizabeth, at the head of a cavalcade of nobility and gentry, amounting to a thousand persons, rode out to meet her.

Queen Mary travelled slowly and stopped many times, not arriving at her seat of Wanstead until August 3. From thence she proceeded with great pomp to London.

One of Mary's first acts after she ascended the throne was to forbid the lord mayor to allow any reading of the Scriptures or preaching by the curates unless licensed by her. This was the first blow aimed at the Protestant Church in England by her.

The trial of Northumberland, and others of his party, took place August 18, when eleven were condemned to die, though only the earl and two others were really executed. Then the ambassadors from Rome urged Mary to bring Lady Jane Grey to trial, but she replied that she could not find it in her heart to put her unfortunate kinswoman to death, for she had been merely a tool in the hands of others, and her existence could be no possible danger to herself.

Queen Mary continued to love her sister Elizabeth, took her with her wherever she went, and never dined in public without her. She was extremely kind to her Cousin Courtenay too, and appointed a nobleman to instruct and guide him. About the middle of August she had an interview with the Pope's envoy, and told him that she had concluded a league with the Emperor, and had made up her mind to marry his heir, Prince Philip. She also expressed a wish that her kingdom might be reconciled to Rome, and that Cardinal Pole be sent to her.

Violent struggles were constantly taking place between the two church parties for possession of the various churches and pulpits, many of which were determined by hand-to-hand fights.

Mary was anxious to restore the supremacy of the pope, but Bishop Gardiner was opposed to it, and wanted her to retain her title as head of the English Church. She replied to him: "I have read in Scripture that women are forbidden to speak in the church. Is it then proper that your church should have a dumb head?"

Mary felt the full weight of the responsibility that her father had assumed for himself, and imposed upon his successors by separating the Church of England from the authority of Rome, and feared to undertake it. The party that sided with her was the weakest in numbers of the three that then existed in England. The other two consisted of the Catholics opposed to the pope, established by Henry VIII., which was the strongest, and the Protestant Church of England, established by the regency of Edward VI.

Mary's ministers belonged to the party of Henry VIII., and had aided him in his religious persecutions and his other acts of cruelty, but they had been long used to governing, and she had no other choice than to retain them.

It was Cranmer, aided by Somerset, who, after the death of Henry, established a church on Protestant principles, and then began the intense hatred between the leaders of the two parties. If Lady Jane Grey had succeeded to the throne. Cranmer would have remained in power as Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Protestant religion would undoubtedly have gained the upper hand; but the Catholic Mary deprived him of his office, and put Gardiner in power instead. This bishop changed a prison for the seat of lord-chancellor in an astonishingly short space of time. Then Cranmer was requested to retire to his house at Lambeth and live there privately. The Protestants misunderstood this move, and accused him of joining the ranks of the enemy, whereupon he published an explanation of his creed. The queen's council regarded this as an attack on the government, and sent him to the Tower, where he remained for three years, only to suffer horrible martyrdom at last.

On one point all parties were agreed, and that was disapproval of the queen's engagement to the Prince of Spain. The Emperor Charles, knowing how strongly Cardinal Pole would oppose it, stopped him on his journey to England and detained him in a German convent until after the marriage had taken place.

Philip was only twenty-six years old, and would have preferred a younger wife, but his father thought political power of far greater importance than domestic happiness, so he made Mary a formal offer in writing of his son's hand on the 20th of September, which took place with a great deal of regal splendor, magnificent festivities, etc.

Meantime the queen occupied herself in forming her household, and rewarding the personal friends who had been faithful to her by placing them in high office. She also indulged her fondness for music by selecting the best singers and performers that could be found for her royal chapel.

Four days after the coronation Mary opened her first parliament in state, and Bishop Gardiner as lord-chancellor made an oration showing causes "wherefore the virtuous and mighty Princess Mary, by the grace of God, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, and head of the church, had summoned her parliament."

They found plenty of work to do in repealing old laws and establishing new ones. Mary retained her power as head of the church of Henry VIII. for a year and a half, but the cruelties of her reign did not begin until she ceased to have that control.

While parliament sat Lady Jane Grey was brought to trial and sentenced to death on a charge of high treason. The same sentence was passed on her husband and Cranmer.

Gardiner's influence over the queen was so powerful that he induced her to burn the Protestant translations of the gospels. Thus, one of Queen Mary's first acts as head of the church was the destruction of her own learned work.

Considerable pains were taken by Mary's enemies to create ill feeling between her and Elizabeth, but without success, and when the young princess went to live at her palace at Ashbridge the two sisters parted in the most friendly manner.

After Elizabeth left, the queen had a severe spell of illness that confined her to her bed for several weeks.

Early in January Count Egmont came to England as ambassador from Spain, to conclude the marriage treaty between Mary and Philip. He was almost torn to pieces when he landed in Kent, so opposed were all the British subjects to this union. But the queen was determined to marry whom she pleased, and after an interview with the count she told him that he might confer with her ministers. On the 14th the articles of the queen's marriage were communicated to the lord-mayor and the city of London.

They agreed that each sovereign was to govern his kingdom separately. None but natives of England were to hold offices in the queen's court or even in the service of her husband. If the queen had a child it was to succeed to her dominions. Her majesty was never to be carried out of her dominions without her special request, and Philip was not to engage England in his father's French wars, nor to appropriate any of the revenue, ships, ammunition, or crown jewels of England.

A.D. 1554. The week after these articles became public three insurrections broke out in different parts of the realm. Two of them were soon suppressed, and their leaders, who had proclaimed Lady Jane Grey queen in every town, fled; but the third was headed by Sir Thomas Wyatt, a young man of twenty-three, who was not so easily managed. He was a Catholic, but when a boy he had accompanied his father on an embassy to Spain, and remembered how nearly that parent had become a victim to the inquisition. This made him fear and detest the Spanish government, and his motive of revolt was to prevent similar tyranny from being established in England, by the marriage of the Queen and Philip of Spain.

Wyatt's rebellion began in Kent, whither Mary sent the aged Duke of Norfolk with her guards and artillery, accompanied by five hundred of the London trained companies of soldiers, commanded by Captain Brett. This person was secretly in league with Wyatt, and actually went over to his side when they met at Rochester. This treasonable act caused the loss of the queen's artillery, and gave such encouragement to the rebels that Wyatt advanced to Deptford with fifteen thousand men. There he dictated his own terms, which were that the queen and her council were to be surrendered into his hands. Mary had too much pluck and determination to listen to such an absurd demand, and prepared for open war.

The whole city was filled with consternation when the desertion of the Duke of Norfolk's forces was known, for every one was aware that the defences of the royal residence at Westminster were weak. All the queen's council, chaplains, and bishops went about with a complete suit of armor underneath their customary clothing, prepared to fight when the time came.

The queen remained calm and collected. She ordered her horse, and attended by her ladies and councillors, rode to London, where she made such an eloquent speech, encouraging the citizens to stand by her and put down the rebellion, that the crowd who filled Guildhall and its court shouted, "God save Queen Mary and the Prince of Spain!".

She was then rowed to Westminster, where she held a council, appointing the Earl of Pembroke general of her troops, then gathering to defend St. James's Palace and Whitehall.

In the meantime Wyatt, finding the city too strongly defended on the river side, decided to move his forces, but before doing so Winchester House was plundered, and Bishop Gardiner's books so torn to pieces as to leave not a single one in his whole library fit for use.

At two o'clock one morning a deserter from the rebels arrived at the palace of Whitehall with the information that the enemy would be at Hyde Park Corner within two hours. The bustle and alarm that ensued may be better imagined then described. Barricades were raised at the points liable to attack, guards were stationed at the queen's chamber-windows and private apartments, and the palace echoed with the sobs and cries of the ladies. But Mary did not lose her presence of mind for a moment, and when her ministers and councillors crowded around her imploring her to take refuge in the Tower, she answered: "That she would set no example of cowardice; and if Pembroke and Clinton proved true to their posts she would not desert hers."

At four o'clock the drums beat to arms, but the rain was pouring in torrents on that cold winter's morning, and delayed the rebels until nine o'clock. Wyatt divided his army into three parts, and a desperate battle was the result of their attack. Queen Mary stood at a window, whence she not only saw the struggle, but spoke brave words to the soldiers who came near enough to hear her, and scouted at any one who approached her with a discouraging report.

Within the palace the utmost terror reigned, the women running from place to place shrieking, banging doors and windows, and keeping up an uproar dreadful to hear.

Just before Pembroke made the final charge, which decided the fortune of the day, the queen actually came out of the palace and stood between two armed men within range of the enemy's shot.

At last Wyatt sank down in the street exhausted and discouraged; he was taken prisoner and locked up in the Tower. Thus ended the rebellion; but the consequence of it was that the queen was beset from all sides with requests for the execution of Lady Jane Grey, who had been the innocent cause of it. Those who demanded this execution said that such scenes of fighting and bloodshed would occur again and again unless the unfortunate Lady Jane were put out of the way. Mary yielded at last, and signed the death warrant of "Guildford Dudley and his wife," to be executed on the 9th of February, two days later. To Dr. Feckenham, the queen's chaplain, fell the duty of preparing poor Lady Jane for this hurried death. He did not succeed in turning her mind from the Protestant faith, but he won her friendship and gratitude, and her last words were of the kindness she had received from him.

When told that she was to die so soon, she said: "That she was prepared to receive her death in any manner it would please the queen to appoint. She shuddered at the thought, as was natural; but her spirit would spring rejoicingly into the eternal light, where she hoped the mercy of God would receive it."

The execution of this lovely, innocent young woman and her husband is a frightful stain on Mary's name, even though she was urged to it in order to prevent further civil wars.

The city presented a ghastly spectacle at that time; for the deserters under Brett were all hung, many of them at their own doors, so that dangling corpses met the eye at every turn of the street.

The prisoners of Wyatt's army, amounting to five hundred, were led to the tilt-yard at Whitehall, with ropes about their necks; then the queen appeared in the gallery above and pronounced the pardon of all. This is a proof that Mary was far more merciful than her ministers, who wanted them brought to trial. She was very lenient in her conduct towards her sister, Elizabeth, too, when Sir Thomas Wyatt's confession gave her notice that the princess was quite as much a competitor for her crown as Lady Jane Grey had been.

She sent her own litter for Elizabeth, who had been ill, and had her brought to Whitehall, where she was appointed a suite of apartments in a secure corner of the palace.

Elizabeth had deceived her sister, and had carried on a secret correspondence with Wyatt and the King of France. Mary knew this, but remained her friend, although she would have no communication with her whatever until she could clear herself of having taken part in any act of treason.

Courtenay was in disgrace, also, because he had corresponded with Wyatt, and was locked up in the Tower. The Spanish ambassador informed Mary that the marriage treaty between her and Prince Philip could not be concluded until both Elizabeth and Courtenay were punished; but the laws of England required an open act of treason to be proved before a person could be sentenced, and Mary was determined to abide by them.

However, as no nobleman could be found willing to undertake the dangerous office of watching Elizabeth, she was imprisoned in the Tower also.

In March Count Egmont returned to England, bringing Mary an engagement ring from Philip, which he presented before her whole court. She received it with thanks, and sent a kind message to the prince, who, she said, had not yet written to her.

Renaud, the Spanish ambassador, kept continually calling her attention to the fact that Philip would not be safe in England until the rebels, especially Elizabeth and Courtenay, had been punished. But Mary put him off with some general remark each time, and thus dismissed the unwelcome subject. She had loved her sister from infancy, and was too constant in her affection to destroy her now. Gardiner was accused of protecting the princess; but it was only because of his friendship for Courtenay, with whom she was implicated in the rebellion, that he refrained from showing enmity towards her. He was really a friend to Courtenay, whose family had been martyrs to Catholicism, and for some time had been his fellow-prisoner in the Tower, where their attachment had been strengthened.

On the 5th of May the queen, having recovered from a very severe spell of illness, dissolved parliament in person, and made such an eloquent address that she was interrupted five or six times by loud shouts of "Long live the queen!" and many persons wept.

A couple of weeks later Elizabeth was removed from the Tower to Woodstock, where she was closely watched by part of the queen's guard, and Courtenay was sent to Fotheringay Castle, also under guard.

The same week a Spanish grandee arrived in England to prepare for the reception of Prince Philip, to whom Queen Mary had written a letter announcing the consent of her parliament to their marriage.

The prince embarked for England July 13, and meantime Mary retired with her council to Richmond Palace to decide what station her husband was to occupy. She considered it her duty to yield implicit obedience; and this notion was the cause of many crimes of which she was guilty later in life.

When she asked whether her name or Philip's should be placed first in the legal documents, Renaud replied, indignantly, "that neither divine nor human laws would suffer his highness to be named last." She next wished to know whether he was to be crowned as king. Her council objected very decidedly, but agreed that the moment he touched English ground he should have a collar and mantle of the Garter worth two thousand pounds.

When the news arrived that the combined fleets of England and Spain, amounting to one hundred and sixty sails, had made the port of Southampton, the queen was at Windsor Castle. Next day she set out with her bridal retinue for Winchester, where she intended her marriage to be celebrated.

Don Philip landed July 20, 1554. A crowd of noblemen received the prince and presented him with the Order of the Garter, which was buckled below the knee, and the blue velvet mantle, fringed with gold and pearls. He mounted a horse presented by his royal bride, and rode straight to church, where he returned thanks for his safe voyage. Then he was conducted to the palace prepared for him.

He was dressed simply in black velvet, his cap being trimmed with gold chains and a small feather. The shape of his head denoted ability; but his complexion was yellowish, his hair thin and sandy, and his eyes small, blue, and weak, which, added to a most disagreeably gloomy expression of countenance, rendered Philip of Spain anything but a handsome man.

The following day being Friday. Don Philip went to mass, and the English nobles who attended him were much pleased with his courteous manners.

On Sunday morning, Ruy Gomez de Silva, Philip's Grand Chamberlain, was sent to Queen Mary with a present of jewels valued at fifty thousand ducats. After mass the prince dined in public, and was waited upon by his newly-appointed English officers. He tried to make himself popular, told his attendants in Latin that he had come to live among them like an Englishman, and praised their ale, which he tasted for the first time in his life.

The bridegroom and his suite mounted their horses and set out in a drenching rain on Monday morning for Winchester. He was escorted by the Earl of Pembroke, with two hundred and fifty cavaliers, a hundred archers, and four thousand spectators, who formed a procession.

Don Philip was dressed as usual in black velvet, but on account of the rain he wore a large red-felt cloak, and a black hat. About a mile from Winchester two noblemen from the queen met the bridegroom, attended by six royal pages, dressed in cloth of gold, and mounted on large Flemish horses. Between six and seven o'clock, the procession reached the city-gate, where the aldermen and mayor presented Don Philip with the keys of the city, which he returned. A volley of artillery greeted him, and twelve men, dressed in red and gold, conducted him to the Dean of Winchester's house, where he lived until after his marriage.

Having changed his dress for a superb black velvet robe bordered with diamonds, he went to the cathedral, and after prayers held his first interview with Queen Mary, who received him very lovingly.

The next afternoon at three o'clock the queen held a grand court, gave Don Philip a public audience, and kissed him in the presence of a large company. Then after they conversed for a while under the canopy of state, the prince was conducted to his residence by a torchlight procession.

The marriage was performed next day. One of the Spanish grandees delivered a solemn oration, in which he announced that the emperor had resigned the kingdom of Naples in favor of his son, so that Mary married a king, not a prince. Then the ceremony proceeded in Latin and English, after which the royal pair returned hand in hand from the high altar and seated themselves until the mass was concluded, when they walked together under the same canopy to the hall where the banquet was spread.

The seats for Queen Mary and her husband were on a dais under a canopy, where their table was laid. Below the dais were various tables for the queen's ladies, the Spanish grandees, their wives, and the English nobility. Bishop Gardiner dined at the royal table. A band of musicians played throughout the meal, and four heralds entered between the first and second courses and pronounced a Latin oration in praise of matrimony.

After the banquet King Philip returned thanks to the council and nobles, and the queen spoke very graciously

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in Spanish. At six o'clock the tables were removed and dancing began, which lasted until nine.

The Spanish fleet sailed for Flanders next day, having first landed eighty of the most superb horses that ever were seen for Philip's use. Four of five hundred Spaniards, among whom were a number of fools and buffoons, were permitted to remain in England; but the queen's marriage articles forbade the presence of a large number, so the rest were obliged to return home.

Within a week of their marriage the royal couple gave a sumptuous festival of the Garter at Windsor Castle to celebrate King Philip's admission to that order. Later there was a grand hunt, and a large number of deer were slaughtered.

The usual pageantry attended the public entry into London, which was made with an imposing retinue of English nobles and Spanish grandees. Philip had brought over enough gold and silver to fill ninety-seven chests, each a yard and a quarter long. This treasure was piled on twenty carts and drawn through the city so that everybody might see it before it was taken to the Tower to be coined.

Festivities were kept up until the Duke of Norfolk died, when, as Mary had loved him very much, the whole court was ordered to go into mourning. The queen retired to Hampton Court, where, with her husband, she lived very quietly until the opening of her third parliament, in November. Then she rode in procession, King Philip at her side, to her palace at Whitehall. She was very anxious that the lands her father had taken from the church should be restored, but her council would not consent because they declared she could not support the splendor of her crown if she deprived herself of these sources of revenue. She replied, "that she preferred the peace of her conscience to ten such crowns as England." Her reason for requesting the restoration of the church property was that Cardinal Pole was on his way to visit her, and she desired to be prepared for whatever instructions he might bear from the pope.

Every mark of honor was bestowed on Pole when he arrived. He was rowed up the Thames to Whitehall, Bishop Gardiner received him at the water-gate, King Philip at the principal entrance, and Queen Mary herself at the head of the grand staircase.

On the day appointed for Cardinal Pole's mission to be made known to parliament the queen was so ill that the proceedings took place in the audience chamber at Whitehall. Her majesty was carried to the throne, where King Philip sat at her left hand and Cardinal Pole at the right.

Lord Chancellor Gardiner made the opening address, introducing the cardinal, who spoke eloquently of his own sufferings and exile, and pleaded the cause of the Roman Catholics and of the queen with such good effect that a petition for a reconciliation with the pope was prepared on the spot, and duly signed by each of the peers.

This was presented to the royal couple next day, who, in the presence of parliament, delivered the document into the hands of the Roman ambassador, who thereupon solemnly pronounced absolution and benediction on all present.

During this ceremony Mary's illness returned; but she was better by Christmas, which was celebrated with unusual splendor on account of the royal marriage and of the recent reconciliation to Rome. The Princess Elizabeth was enjoying the most friendly relations with her sister at that period, and took part in the festivities. She sat beside the queen at the state supper which was given in the great hall of Westminster, and attended by an assembly of English, Flemish, and Spanish nobles. The queen's illness had rendered her incapable of governing, so she can scarcely be held accountable for the cruel executions that took place, though she certainly took on measures to prevent them. Philip was the real sovereign, and viewed the burning of the two or three hundred martyrs of the Protestant Church with remarkable complacency.

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Fortunately for Bishop Coverdale, the translator of the English Bible, the King of Denmark wrote Queen Mary a letter claiming him for a subject, otherwise he too would have died at the stake.

A.D. 1555. The sudden and unexpected abdication of the Emperor Charles V. called King Philip to Spain to receive the sceptre, and before he left Queen Mary removed from Hampton Court to Greenwich Palace. But whether in England or out of it, Philip was certainly ruler so long as his wife lived, and minute accounts of all church and state affairs were submitted to him during his absence. No power was legally given to him by parliament, but he coolly took it, and gave important orders without so much as consulting the queen.

When not under her husband's bad influence Mary restored some wise laws, and the fact that insurrections ceased in her reign proves that the poor were not so destitute as they had been during the lives of her father and brother.

Queen Mary was so ill throughout the rest of the year 1555 that she remained quietly at Greenwich, sometimes making excursions to the country, when she would enter the cottages of the poor and relieve their wants without revealing her identity. This was during Philip's absence; he returned for a short time in 1557 for the purpose of trying to involve England in a war with France. But Mary's finances were at a low ebb, and she did not feel justified in involving her kingdom in the expenses of a war. Philip's army was mustering near Calais, and in order to gratify him with as little cost as possible, she pardoned all the rebels in her prisons on condition that they would join it also. She raised money by borrowing small sums from those of her citizens who had any to spare, and paying them an enormous interest. Philip left England in the summer and never saw his wife again. He succeeded in taking possession of Calais, but the French gained it back a few months later. Queen Mary was in a most feeble condition when the Scotch made an invasion in the north of England, nevertheless she expressed her determination to head her army in person. She had all the energy required for such an exploit, but was soon convinced that her bodily health forbade it. Her troops, under Northumberland and Westmoreland, repulsed the Scotch and gained a decided victory over them.

The rest of Queen Mary's life was filled with schemes for the recovery of Calais, a town highly prized by the English, because it was such an excellent spot for them to land whenever they desired to invade France. So many disputes were the result that, in her perplexity, Mary declared, "that should she die Calais would be found written upon her heart if her breast were opened."

A.D. 1558. Her death was nearer than she suspected, for she contracted a malarial fever in the autumn of 1558, from which she did not recover. King Philip sent a message and a ring by Count de Feria when he heard of his wife's illness, and proposed that she should take measures for the recognition of her sister Elizabeth as her successor. Mary complied; and no sooner had she done so than her whole court flocked to Hatfield, anxious to prove their devotion to the princess who was soon to become their sovereign.

While the last services of the church were being performed for her, on the morning of November 17, Queen Mary raised her eyes to heaven and expired.

Her devoted and early friend, Cardinal Pole, died two days later.

The queen's body was embalmed, and, after lying in state for a month, was interred at Westminster Abbey, on the north side of Henry VIIth's Chapel.