Mary Tudor: The First Queen

by Linda Porter

  The ruling elite in London were not alone in their astonishment at Mary’s stand. The imperial ambassadors, marooned in uncertainty, were equally amazed. On 7 July, Renard and his colleagues were more concerned about Mary’s survival than anything else. They gave her no chance of success whatsoever, assuming that she had retired to Kenninghall as a defensive measure only. Mary, they said, felt safer there, local people were devoted to her and she ‘hopes she will be able to shelter herself … and not be as easily arrested as if she were near Court’. But there was no anticipation that she would fight for the throne and the ambassadors foresaw ‘small likelihood of being able to withstand the duke’s designs … her promotion to the crown [will] be so difficult as to be well nigh impossible in the absence of a force large enough to counterbalance that of her enemies’.

  In fact, they became irritated by what they saw as sheer wrongheadedness in Mary’s approach to her predicament. Although they had not managed to see her, clearly information was exchanged and they did not like what they heard:‘She came to the conclusion that, as soon as the king’s death should be announced, she had better proclaim herself Queen by her letters; for thus she would encourage her supporters to declare for her … My Lady has firmly made up her mind that she must act in this manner and that otherwise she will fall into still greater danger and lose all hope of coming to the throne.’ Such a course seemed to the ambassadors hopelessly unrealistic: ‘We consider this resolution strange, full of difficulties and danger,’ they sniffed.13

  Their advice thus far was to do nothing until she was absolutely certain of Edward’s death. They remarked: ‘The actual possession of power was a matter of great importance, especially among barbarians like the English.’ They did not allude to the fact that family history could already have taught Mary such a lesson. The grandmother she and Charles V shared, Isabella of Castile, needed no such admonishments when she deprived her own niece, the rightful heir, of the Castilian throne. No one had ever dared to call her barbaric, except perhaps the Jews and Moors whom she persecuted with such single-mindedness. Needless to say, the ambassadors did not advocate lifting a finger to help Mary, mindful as they were that Charles V had instructed them ‘to avoid throwing England into confusion to the disadvantage of your majesty and your dominions’. But it was important to avoid giving Mary the impression that they had abandoned her entirely,‘for then she might take opportunity to put the blame for disaster upon us’. And with this honest assertion of the importance of watching their own backs, they sat on their hands and waited to see what would happen.

  Councillors William Petre and William Cecil came to see them on 10 July to announce the king’s death, though the ambassadors knew of it three days earlier. A polite stand-off ensued, though they did feel moved to ask the council to ‘remember my Lady Mary, cousin german to your majesty, to receive her under their protection and shelter her’. The council could scarcely help remembering her and would have very much liked to shelter her, as a closely guarded prisoner, but she was out of their reach by then. Ever cautious, the trio merely noted to the emperor that, if they were summoned to the new royal presence - and they naturally assumed that Guildford Dudley would be king and it would be to him, not Jane, that they would address themselves - they would say nothing in support of Mary’s claim to the throne.14

  The following day Charles wrote underlining his general support for their handling of the crisis in England. He wanted them to ‘recommend’ Mary and to dispel any notion that he wanted to marry her to a foreigner, or that she might introduce radical changes into religion or government. But beyond that he would not go, ‘because our hands are full with France’. And he dismissed the value of private persons professing loyalty to his cousin: ‘unless a number of the most powerful nobles took her side it would be impossible to undermine the carefully prepared course of action that Northumberland is working’.15

  The duke thought so, too, until reports of Mary’s growing army convinced him otherwise. He then faced a difficult decision. Should he take the fight to Mary himself or entrust the task to others? If he left London he would no longer be able to direct the process of government and he had reason, good reason, as it turned out, to suspect that there might be defections from the council once he had gone. He mistrusted his colleagues. Paget and Arundel, whatever they might say to his face, held grudges against him for his treatment of them in recent years, and Arundel had refused to sign a personal undertaking to uphold the succession as laid down by Edward VI. Northumberland’s initial preference was to put the duke of Suffolk in command. Jane was his daughter and it was in his interests to fight for her.The Grey family, however, had other ideas.

  Tradition has it that Jane, frightened by the danger and loss of her father’s protection, implored him not to go. This story fits in well with the view of a child-woman at the mercy of events beyond her control, but Robert Wingfield in the Vita Mariae Reginae states that it was the duchess, not her daughter, who became hysterical at the thought of Suffolk’s departure; Jane, he asserts, encouraged her father to go.16 Perhaps Henry Grey, a blusterer who achieved high rank and office through trading on his wife’s family connections, was privately less than keen to go himself. Northumberland reluctantly accepted that his hand had been forced. One of his sons was already in the field and a kinsman, Henry Dudley, was about to set off for France to seek help there if it should prove necessary.There seemed no alternative but to lead a force against Mary in person. It was a decision he took with notable reluctance.

  In the late morning of 13 July, the duke gave a sombre speech to his fellow-councillors, betraying a lack of confidence in the situation which did little to steady their nerves. He commended his family and fortune to their safe-keeping and pointed out that Jane was entirely dependent on them.The queen, he said, was ‘by your and our enticement … rather of force placed therein [meaning on the throne] than by her own seeking and request’.Then he issued a stark reminder that they were all in this together-a theme to which he would return at his trial. ‘Consider’, he warned them, ‘also that God’s cause, which is the preferment of his words and the fear of papacy’s re-entrance, hath been as ye hath heretofore always alleged, the original ground whereupon ye even at the first motion granted your goodwills and consents thereunto, as by your handwritings evidently appeareth.’

  An unnamed councillor hastened to convey their collective loyalty: ‘My lord, if ye mistrust any of us in this matter, your grace is far deceived; for which of us can wipe his hands clean thereof? And if we should shrink from you as one that were culpable, which of us can excuse himself as guiltless? Therefore herein your doubt is too far cast.’ Northumberland replied, with less than total conviction: ‘I pray God it may be so; let us go to dinner.’17

  He left the next morning, noting as he rode by the silent citizens of London that no man wished him Godspeed.There were still little hard fact about Mary’s rebellion and he had left Suffolk in charge in the heavily fortified Tower, with instructions to keep the council there in a form of unspoken detention.There was every prospect that he would prevail. But his political sixth sense already told him that he had gambled and lost.

  At Framlingham, meanwhile, a substantial host was gathering below the castle’s stout walls, commanded by the elderly earl of Sussex. There was also welcome news on 16 July from Sir Edmund Peckham, the treasurer of the Mint, who had been instrumental in the Thames Valley rising. Mary’s cause was prospering west of London and reports began to circulate that Peckham had 10,000 men ready to march on London, to seize the Tower and it armaments. All this increased Mary’s confidence, even as Northumberland’s began to waver.The duke reached Cambridge on 16 July and was joined by Sir Edward Clinton and the earl of Hunting-ton. But no further troops came from London, where the rumours of Peckham’s host caused consternation. The duke’s force set off towards Bury St Edmunds, sacking Sawston Hall in revenge for Huddleston’s sheltering of Mary. It was an ineffective gesture; the men began to desert and Northumberland wa
s forced to turn back to Cambridge.There he waited and hesitated, uncertain whether to make the push to confront Mary’s troops. His eventual decision to refrain from causing bloodshed was crucial. At the time, he was given no credit for it, but Northumberland, despite his prickliness, was not, at heart, a bloodthirsty man. As in 1549, he did not relish the prospect of civil war.

  The final boost for Marian supporters, and the one that probably assured her success, was the decision made by John de Vere, earl of Oxford, to declare for Mary on 18 July. The story was told at the time that he had been persuaded to change his mind only by a spirited household rebellion among his servants, but that may have been a convenient cover.18 The 16th earl, a Protestant sympathiser and notorious womaniser, was a complex man. He could hardly be considered a natural ally but, as he controlled most of Essex, his defection was of paramount importance. No doubt it was military prudence rather than personal distaste for someone with a very irregular private life which caused Oxford’s troops to be sent off to bolster the defence of Ipswich, rather than join Mary at Framlingham. She did not need him there, in any case. Convinced now that success was hers, she issued a memorable proclamation the same day. It was signed: ‘Marye the quene’.

  The original document, on a large square leaf of paper, has been in the possession of the Bedingfeld family for over 450 years, but has been overlooked by Mary’s biographers until now. In it, Mary announces her succession on the death of Edward and makes very clear that she is speaking with regal authority, true dynastic right and from a position of military strength. It begins:‘By the Queen. Know ye all good people that the most excellent princess Mary, elder daughter of King HenryVIII and sister to King Edward VI, your late sovereign Lord, is now by the grace of God Queen of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith and very true owner of the crown and government of the realm of England and Ireland and all things thereto justly belonging, and to her and no other ye owe to be her true Liege men.’

  Having asserted her legitimacy, she makes clear her strength of arms. She is, she says, ‘nobly and strongly furnished of an army royall under Lord Henry, Earl of Sussex, her Lieutenant General, accompanied with the earl of Bath, the Lord Wentworth and a multitude of other noble gentlemen’. And she goes on to attack Northumberland and his ambitions without even deigning to name her cousin Jane Grey or mention her claim to the crown - her wrath is squarely aimed at the man she knows has sought to deprive her of her right: ‘… her most false traitor, John, duke of Northumberland and his complices who, upon most false and most shameful grounds, minding to make his own son king by marriage of a new found lady’s title, or rather to be king himself, hath most traitorously by long continued treason sought, and seeketh, the destruction of her royal person, the nobility and common weal of this realm’.The contempt for the Greys as claimants and the political opportunism that has made them usurpers of the true succession is very clear in these carefully chosen words of condemnation.

  The proclamation ends with a rallying cry:‘Wherefore, good people, as ye mindeth the surety of her said person, the honour and surety of your country, being good Englishmen, prepare yourselves in all haste with all your power to repair unto her said armies yet being in Suffolk, making your prayers to God for her success … upon the said causes she utterly defyeth the said duke for her most errant traitor to God and to this realm.’

  More, however, than just defiance is thrown at Northumberland. Mary is implacable in her determination, as she puts a price on his head: ‘Anyone taking him, if a noble and peer of the realm, to have one thousand pounds of land in fee; if a knight, five hundred pounds in lands, with honour and advancement to nobilitie; if a gentleman under the degree of knight, five hundred marks of land in fee and the degree of a knight; if a yeoman, 100 pounds of land in fee and the degree of a squire.’ The tone makes it quite clear, though it does not say so explicitly, that Northumberland’s fate, if he is taken, will be death.19

  Still, no one in Mary’s camp knew whether there would be a military engagement and the mustered forces grew slightly restive with inactivity and anticipation. It was decided that a personal appearance by Mary was required. On 20 July, her splendid white horse was saddled and she rode out to make an inspection at four o’clock in the afternoon. An inspiring sight awaited her. The standards were unfurled, the military colours set up and battle lines divided into two, under Wentworth and Sussex. For the first time as queen, Mary saw her forces arrayed, ready to fight and die for her. But the press of men and arms was too much for her horse and it became frisky. She was a fine horsewoman but she could not afford the ignominy of being unable to control this nervous animal, so she dismounted and continued her inspection on foot. Moving among her men, she spoke to them ‘with an exceptional kindness and with an approach so wonderfully relaxed as can scarcely be described … she completely won everyone’s affections’. After she inspected these divisions, a large detachment of cavalry streamed forth, making a splendid sound. ‘The queen was much delighted with this show and spent three hours there before returning to the castle.’20

  It was there, in the old Howard fortress on the evening of 20 July, that Mary received Lord Paget and the earl of Arundel, who had ridden post-haste from London.They brought her the news that she and her advisers had been hoping, praying and working for all summer. The privy council had proclaimed her queen the previous day and Northumberland had surrendered without even drawing his sword at Cambridge. After two weeks of confusion and intrigue not one drop of English blood was shed in bringing Mary Tudor to the throne of England. In London, bonfires were lit and church bells rung in one of the greatest spontaneous outpourings of joy that had ever greeted the accession of a new monarch. ‘Men ran hither and thither, bonnets flew into the air, shouts rose higher than the stars, and all the bells were set a-pealing,’ wrote an anonymous Italian in London, adding, with a fair infusion of hyperbole,‘from a distance the earth must have looked like Mount Etna. The people were mad with joy, feasting and singing, and the streets crowded all night long. I am unable to describe to you, nor would you believe, the exultation of all men. I will only tell you that not a soul imagined the possibility of such a thing’.21 Nor, until the last couple of months, had Mary, but now, suddenly, the distant dream of her childhood was reality. The sorrow, the suffering, the fears of a life spent in uncertainty were all part of her past. She instructed her chaplains at Framlingham to give thanks to God for her bloodless victory, saying that she ‘wanted the realm cleansed of divisive parties’.With God’s help, she had triumphed against all the odds. She took this as a sign that He would bless her through all the years of her reign.

  What had happened back in London, that brought Paget and Arundel to Mary with letters full of contrition and assurances of unswerving devotion? The simple answer is that, without a firm hand at the centre, there had been a collective loss of nerve. Northumberland himself had given voice to fears of such a development and it had come to pass, almost as if he had, perversely, willed it into existence. Suffolk was no war leader, and though he might lock his fellow-councillors in the Tower, as a protective measure, this form of polite imprisonment made it easy for doubts and resentments to fester.The duke was also an ineffective jailer. The marquess of Winchester managed to get out on 16 July but was brought back. He was clearly unhappy with the restrictions placed on him and it seems highly likely that he was already moving towards Mary. His example, allied to the highly disturbing rumours reaching London that Peckham’s forces were coming to invade the capital and that Mary had 30,000 men under her standard at Framlingham (in fact, she probably had no more than 6,000), provided the impetus for others to take more direct action.

  There were also signs that the mood of the population of London as a whole might be shifting. Despite the growth of Protestantism in the capital, there was no outpouring of support for Queen Jane, who was not seen by anyone after her arrival at the Tower on 10 July. As the days went by, the upholders of Mary’s claim became more vocal. On 13 July a
tract was printed and distributed in London by one ‘Poor Pratte’ which tells us a great deal about how public opinion could be influenced in the days when no other mass media existed.

  Pratte wrote his epistle to Gilbert Potter, a drawer (the 16th-century equivalent of a barman) at the St John’s Head tavern, within Ludgate. Then, as now, public houses were places where political opinions were voiced and Potter had spoken too freely for the liking of the authorities. He had been pilloried and lost both his ears for saying that the Lady Mary had a better title to the throne than the Lady Jane. His beliefs, whether spontaneously expressed or coached as part of wider effort to discredit Jane at popular level, provided Potter’s defender with the ammunition for a stunning piece of propaganda. In a positively biblical style, Pratte warmed to his theme:What man could have shown himself bolder in her grace’s cause, than thou hast showed? Or who did so valiantly in the proclamation time, when Jane was published queen (unworthy as she was) and more to blame, I may say to thee, are some of the consenters thereunto. There were thousands more than thyself, yet durst they not (such is the fragility and weakness of the flesh) once move their lips to speak that which thou didst speak.Thou offerest thyself amongst the multitude of people to fight against them all in her quarrel, and for her honour did not fear to run upon the point of the swords. O faithful subject! O true heart to Mary, our queen.