The Faerie Queene: «A shoot shall sprout from the Tudor's stump»

Urbanus VII · Mar 6, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Prologue[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Tudor Period: age of intrigues and plots.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The roughly eighty years of the Tudor period have not made substantial changes, period, instead, that marked in Europe the end of the feudal system and the birth of the modern age. In essence, the Tudors followed a composite of Lancastrian (the court party) and Yorkist (the church party) policies.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Tudor family rose to power in the wake of the Wars of the Roses, which left the House of Lancaster, to which the Tudors were aligned, extinct. Its first monarch was Henry VII, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Henry Tudor was able to establish himself as a candidate not only for traditional Lancastrian supporters, but also for the discontented supporters of their rival House of York, and he rose to capture the throne in battle, becoming Henry VII. His victory was reinforced by his marriage to Elizabeth of York, symbolically uniting the former warring factions under a new dynasty.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Kingdom of England, devastated by continuous dynastic wars, needed a period of stability and peace inside. Henry VII Tudor, skilled diplomat, put an end to the infidelity of the nobles, to feudal wars and to general corruption of the institutions of the country.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]England had never been one of the wealthier European countries, and after the War of the Roses this was even more true. Through his strict monetary strategy, he was able to leave a considerable amount of money in the Treasury. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]All hopes of peace and prosperity posed into the reign of Henry VII, were dispelled into the reign of his son, Henry VIII, starting with the question of the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, that had many implications on the history of entire kingdom.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The policy of attack and disintegration of the English Catholic Church had inevitable repercussions on the kingdoms of the successors of Henry VIII, causing a sort of civil war that lacerated again the country .[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The afflux of New World gold and a rising population, determined the spread apart the situation between the different social classes. The rich became richer and the poor get derelicts.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Gradually the farming method commune was replaced by a more individual sistem and particularly increased demand for English wool. That request led landowners to replace the cultivation of cereals with sheep farming because the latter brought greater gain. The earth itself became very precious: this would explain the royal action resulted from schism with Rome of the suppression of the monasteries in order to confiscate the properties and various cultivable areas. With the increase of textile industry, it has also developed a great system mercantile and professional craftsmen. The birth of the industry had resulted in the development of the city, among which the most important was London.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]All these changes contributed, however, to the increase of poverty.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The low fertility of the Tudor dynasty has determined their end as reigning house within three generations.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A rare blood group and a genetic disorder associated with it may provide clues.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A new study chalks these mystifying contradictions up to two related biological factors. Writing in “The Historical Journal,” bioarchaeologist Catrina Banks Whitley and anthropologist Kyra Kramer argue that Henry’s blood group may have doomed the Tudor monarch to a lifetime of desperately seeking—in the arms of one woman after another—a male heir, a pursuit that famously led him to break with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s. A disorder that affects members of his suspected blood group, meanwhile, may explain his midlife physical and psychological deterioration.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The researchers suggest that Henry’s blood carried the rare Kell antigen—a protein that triggers immune responses—while that of his sexual partners did not, making them poor reproductive matches. In a first pregnancy, a Kell-positive man and a Kell-negative woman can have a healthy Kell-positive baby together. In subsequent pregnancies, however, the antibodies the mother produced during the first pregnancy can cross the placenta and attack a Kell-positive fetus, causing a late-term miscarriage, stillbirth or rapid neonatal death.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The survival of the three firstborn children (Henry FitzRoy, Elizabeth and Edward) is consistent with the Kell-positive reproductive pattern. As for Catherine of Aragon, the researchers note, «it is possible that some cases of Kell sensitization affect even the first pregnancy». And Mary may have survived because she inherited the recessive Kell gene from Henry, making her impervious to her mother’s antibodies.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]After scanning higher branches of Henry’s family tree for evidence of the Kell antigen and its accompanying reproductive troubles, Whitley and Kramer believe they have traced it back to Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the king’s maternal great-grandmother. «The pattern of reproductive failure among Jacquetta’s male descendants, while the females were generally reproductively successful, suggests the genetic presence of the Kell phenotype within the family», the authors explain.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The historian David Starkey has written of «two Henrys, the one old, the other young». The young Henry was handsome, spry and generous, a devoted ruler who loved sports, music and Catherine of Aragon; the old Henry binged on rich foods, undermined his country’s stability to marry his mistress and launched a brutal campaign to eliminate foes both real and imagined. Beginning in middle age, the king also suffered leg pain that made walking nearly impossible.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Whitley and Kramer argue that McLeod syndrome, a genetic disorder that only affects Kell-positive individuals, could account for this drastic change. The disease weakens muscles, causes dementia-like cognitive impairment and typically sets in between the ages of 30 and 40. Other experts have attributed Henry VIII’s apparent mental instability to syphilis and theorized that osteomyelitis, a chronic bone infection, caused his mobility problems. For Whitley and Kramer, McLeod syndrome could explain many of the symptoms the king experienced later in life.[/FONT]

-o§o- -o§O§o- -o§o-

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]We take this opportunity to tell a little of truth, comfortably and cunningly unsaid by the Protestant propaganda Elizabethan and Victorian, and by the historiography anti-clerical of the nineteenth century.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Much has already been written about Henry VIII, the Vicar of Hell.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Today we want to do justice to Mary I, Queen of the heart, unhappy, driven by the desire to love, with an unflagging faith, who, however, has been able to reign for a short time and has been unfairly demonized.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Today we want to dispel the deceptive and misleading myth built around Elizabeth, a queen surrounded by murderers, criminals, whom she clothed of titles and riches to make them acceptable in the eyes of society, a despot who, not having a faith, she has left the her people in the hands of madmen exalted Protestants, who thought they were better than God.[/FONT]
STAY TUNED.

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Urbanus VII · Mar 6, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter I[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Under the reign of her brother, Edward VI, she was subjected to severe trials, which at one time made her seriously meditate taking flight and escaping abroad. Edward himself indeed seems to have been personally not unkind to her, but the religious revolution in his reign assumed proportions such as it had not done before, and Mary, who had done sufficient violence to her own convictions in submitting to a despotic father, was not disposed to yield an equally tame obedience to authority exercised by a factious council in the name of a younger brother not yet come to years of discretion[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On 3 August 1553 Mary Tudor arrived in London to stake her claim to the English throne. The journey was not an easy one, After years of uncertainty as princess, the exile of her mother Catherine of Aragon, the religious upheavals towards the end of her father's reign and the Protestant reforms under her younger brother Edward VI, Mary as the next reigning monarch was prepared to lead her country back to Catholicism[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][2][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]But the country was really devoted to her cause, as indeed her right in law was unquestionable, and before many days she was royally received in London, and took up her abode within the Tower.[/FONT]

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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Triumphant entrance procession of Queen Mary[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]into London on 3 August 1553[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] with great popular support.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] She was accompanied by her half-sister Elizabeth.
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Her first acts at the beginning of her reign displayed a character really benevolent. She was far from cruel; her kindness to poor people is undoubted. Her clemency towards those who had taken up arms against her was altogether remarkable.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Her conduct, indeed, was in every respect conciliatory and pacific, and so far as they depended on her personal character the prospects of the new reign might have appeared altogether favourable. But unfortunately her position was one of peculiar difficulty, and the policy on which she determined was far from judicious. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Inexperienced in the art of governing, she had no trusty councillor if not Stephen Gardiner[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][3][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]; every other member of the council had been more or less implicated in the conspiracy against her.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Her conduct as queen was certainly governed by the best possible intentions; and it is evident that her very zeal for goodness caused most of the trouble she brought upon herself.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary, we are traditionally informed, was the first Tudor to prefer devotees to experienced advisers. A woman ruler required female attendants, but Mary’s approach to Court appointments was exclusive. The staff of her privy chamber were Catholic loyalists or familiars, some of whom went back to the days of her princely household, or were the wives of her Court officials or servants. Typical choices included Susan Tonge, Mary Finch, and James Basset. Susan, the widow of the herald Thomas Tonge, had been in Mary’s service for twenty years when she was appointed mistress of the robes, a hybrid between groom of the stool and yeoman of the robes. Mary Finch had been keeper of Mary’s jewels in Henry VIII’s reign. James Basset had served Stephen Gardiner for fifteen years before entering Mary’s service as a gentleman of her privy chamber. He also served in Philip’s privy chamber and married Mary Clark alias Roper, one of the queen’s gentlewomen and the grand-daughter of Sir Thomas More. Their son was named Philip after the king, who stood godfather by proxy.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary’s leading Court officials were also loyalists or personal devotees. The earl of Oxford recovered his hereditary position of lord great chamberlain from the marquis of Northampton. The earl of Arundel, the earl of Southampton’s ally against the duke of Northumberland in the winter of 1549-50, was appointed lord steward. He had arrested Northumberland at Cambridge and was chosen to act as high constable at Mary’s coronation. Sir Edward Hastings was appointed master of the horse.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Most prominent among Mary’s personal following were Sir Robert Rochester, who was appointed comptroller of the household; his nephew, Sir Edward Waldegrave, who was appointed keeper of the great wardrobe; and Sir Henry Jerningham, who was named vice-chamberlain and captain of the guard. When Sir John Gage, who had abandoned Northumberland in favour of Mary and was rewarded with the office of lord chamberlain, died in the summer of 1556, he was replaced by Hastings, who was succeeded by Jerningham, who was in turn succeeded by the Framlingham loyalist Sir Henry Bedingfield. When Sir Robert Rochester died in the autumn of 1557, he was replaced by another loyalist, Sir Thomas Cornwallis.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The household was the sanctuary of loyalism, the Privy Council the platform of the professional politicians, with a lukewarm commitment in the re-catholicization.[/FONT]

The charity of the good Queen Mary

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1] Besides, the cause of the Pope was naturally her own. When Edward's parliament passed an Act of Uniformity enjoining services in English and communion in both kinds, the law appeared to her totally void of authority, and she insisted on having Mass in her own private chapel under the old form. When ordered to desist, she appealed for protection to the emperor Charles V, who, being her cousin, intervened for some time not ineffectually, threatening war with England if her religious liberty was interfered with.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][2] The most recent study of Mary’s reign, Eamon Duffy’s «Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor», authoritatively demonstrates that England at her accession remained a Catholic country at heart and was relieved to return to the practices of the old faith, which had not been abandoned out of mass apostasy but only in obedience to the personal policy of Henry VIII, enforced by terror.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][3] At the accession of Queen Mary I, Gardiner was restored to his Bishopric and appointed Lord Chancellor, and he placed the crown on the Queen's head at her coronation. He also opened her first parliament and for some time was her leading councillor. After the appointment of Cardinal Pole, and the reconciliation of the realm to the see of Rome, he still remained in high favour. He approved the act, which passed the House of Lords while he presided there as chancellor, for the revival of the heresy laws. In his diocese no victim of the persecution is known to have suffered till after his death; and, much as he was already maligned by opponents, there is much to show that his personality was generous and humane. In May 1555 he went to Calais as one of the English commissioners to promote peace with France; but their efforts were ineffectual. In October 1555 he again opened parliament as Lord Chancellor, but towards the end of the month he fell ill and grew rapidly worse until he died.[/FONT]

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Urbanus VII · Mar 7, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter II[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On the morning of 1st October 1553, Mary made the short walk from Westminster Palace to Westminster Abbey across the street for her coronation. It was nearly 5 o'clock before the ceremony was finished and the court made it's way back to Westminster Palace for the banquet in the Great Hall.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In Mary’s speech at the Guildhall, London, in 1554, Mary referred to herself as «wedded to the realm», with her coronation ring being her «spousal ring» signifying the enduring bond between herself and the people.[/FONT]

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Parliament met four days after the coronation and in the second session (three days later), Mary began to introduce the legislations that she had long hoped for. First, there was an act proclaiming Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon valid and legal. This act passed with little resistance. However, the other main act was to repeal all the religious laws passed in the reign of Edward VI, and this didn't pass as easily.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The next step for Mary was to begin searching for a suitable husband. One of the possibilities was Edward Courtenay, who had spent most of his life in the Tower. He was younger than Mary, but he was one of the last descendants of the House of York and one of the most obvious choices for a husband. One of Courtrenay's greatest attractions in the view of the people was that he was an Englishman, not a foreign Prince.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]However, only four days later the coronation, Simon Renaud, the ambassador of Emperor Charles V formally had suggested the Prince Philip of Spain as Mary's best choice of husband. After much thought and prayer on the matter, Mary accepted the proposal. Negotiations of the contract began, although the public sentiment was not in favor of the match.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Though Philip was less-than-thrilled with this idea, he knew that it was a good match politically, and he agreed to the marriage, despite being ten years Mary's younger.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary, on the other hand, was excited to marry Philip. She had seen his portrait and considered him to be very handsome, and with Charles V's blessing, she must have felt perfectly happy and comfortable with such a match. For a woman who did not wed until she was 37, this was a big event for her, and one that she had no-doubt thought about for her whole life.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]During this time, plots were being hatched to depose Mary and place Elizabeth and Edward Courtenay on the throne. It turns out that there were a total of four plots at hand.[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 7, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Interlude: Queen Mary I’s coronation ceremony [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Rejoice! [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary I became England’s first crowned queen regnant with her coronation in Westminster Abbey. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Her contemporaries were evidently amazed at the sight of a woman being crowned as monarch. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here are five facts about this momentous occasion.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1. Mary did not wish to be anointed with the holy oils consecrated by Edwardian ministers, men whose views she deemed as heretical. So, she asked that the bishop of Arras in Brussels send ‘untainted’ oils. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The bishop sent three lots though apologised about «the rather plain vessels encasing them. Had I longer than three weeks to send them I would have commissioned some nicer vessels», it told the Imperial ambassador Simon Renard.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2. Mary’s coronation was naturally unique given: she was first woman crowned as monarch in her own right. So during the ceremony she held, as Gianfrancesco Commendone recorded, «in her hands two Sceptres; the one of the King, the other bearing a dove which, by custom, is given to the Queen [queen consorts]». It would have been the same dove-topped sceptre of her mother, Katherine of Aragon, who held during her coronation alongside husband Henry VIII in 1509.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3. Mary’s Crown was carried in Westminster Abbey by the aged Thomas Howard, 3rd duke of Norfolk (who had recently been released from the Tower). His steward was his grandson and heir, Thomas. The duke’s estranged wife, Elizabeth, helped carry the train of Mary’s magnificent coronation robes.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]4. Mary progressed to the Westminster Abbey under a «rich canapye of Bawdkyn» carried «by the barouns of the V ports» (i.e. the Barons of the Cinque Ports). This was completely in line with tradition and was identical to the one used in her father’s coronation in 1509.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]5. Mary was the second (not the first as sometimes stated) English monarch to be crowned with three crowns. They included St Edward the Confessor’s crown, the imperial crown commissioned by Henry VIII, and a crown «purposlie made for her grace». The first monarch crowned in such a manner was her predecessor, and brother, Edward VI.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary I’s coronation ceremony is based on Anna Whitelock’s description in the chapter “God Save Queen Mary” of her book “Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen”.[/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]"[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Sunday 1st October 1553, Mary I was crowned Queen at Westminster Abbey by Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]At 11am, Mary processed into the Abbey, dressed traditionally, as a male monarch would be, in the usual state robes of crimson velvet. Before her, processed the Bishop of Winchester, gentlemen, knights and councillors, the Earl of Arundel carrying the ball and sceptre, the Marquess of Winchester carrying the orb and the Duke of Norfolk carrying the crown. A canopy carried by the barons of the Cinque Ports was carried over the Queen as she processed along a raised walkway to the coronation chair.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Gardiner opened the ceremony with the following address:[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Sirs, Here present is Mary, rightful and undoubted inheritrix by the Laws of God and man to the Crown and Royal Dignity of this realm of England, France and Ireland, whereupon you shall understand that this day is appointed by all the peers of this land for the consecration, injunction and coronation of the said most excellent Princess Mary; will you serve at the time and give your wills and assent to the same consecration, unction and coronation?[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]To which the congregation replied: [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Yea, yea, yeah! God save Queen Mary![/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As was usual for the monarch, Mary then prostrated herself before the altar on a velvet cushion while prayers were said over her. Afterwards, the Bishop of Chichester, George Day, preached a sermon on the obedience owed to a monarch and then Mary made her oaths before lying prostrate once again in front of the high altar while the Abbey choir sang [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Veni Creator Spiritus[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]. Accompanied by her ladies, Mary then went to change in preparation for her anointing. Dressed in a petticoat of purple velvet, she lay in front of the altar and was anointed with holy oil on her shoulders, breast, forehead and temples by Gardiner. Once again dressed in her robes of state, Mary then received the sword, the sceptre and orbs, and was crowned with crown of Edward the Confessor, the Imperial Crown and then a specially custom-made crown. The ermine furred crimson mantle was then put about her shoulders and she then sat in the coronation chair as nobles paid homage to their new queen.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Finally at 4pm, Mary walked out of Westminster Abbey, processing to Westminster Hall for the coronation banquet, where she was joined by her half-sister, Elizabeth, and her former step-mother, Anne of Cleves. There was much to celebrate. Mary was now the recognised queen of the realm, the first crowned queen regnant of England. Mary Queen Mary I".[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 7, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter III[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In March, 1554, Mary acted in a proxy betrothal, with the Count of Egmont standing in for Prince Philip.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]He eventually set sail for England on 12 July, arriving at the Isle of Wight a week later.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Philip landed at Southampton on 20 July 1554, from the start heavily handicapped by the prejudice against him - especially from Londoners, whose hearts he attempted to win.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On 23 July, he arrived at Winchester where he would meet his bride for the first time in the Bishop's Palace, where the prince wore a French grey satin surcoat, «and very gallant he looked».[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The marriage took place two days after their meeting, in the cathedral church of Winchester, The marriage ceremony at Winchester was full of pomp and ceremony, and regardless of what Philip might have thought of his bride it would appear that they lost little time in trying to conceive a child. On wednesday 25 July, the day of St. James, saint patron of Spain.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]After dancing and dinner, the couple was put to bed in accordance with the ancient blessing ritual.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In a post-wedding letter to Philip's sister Juana, he reported that he had been welcomed to England with «great demonstrations of affection and general joy». Things seemed to be going well for the newlyweds immediately following their wedding, when they arrived in triumph by barge to the city of Westminster on 18 August, and then spent several days in London before heading off to Hampton Court for the remainder of the Summer.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Now, all eyes were on Mary, or rather, her midsection. An heir was a crucial detail in a royal marriage - and for Mary especially, it was absolutely necessary to supply England with a proper Catholic male heir. Unfortunately, even she would have known that her age would be a struggle, and that the chances of bearing a healthy child at this point in her life were slim. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In September, one of the Queen's physicians announced that she was pregnant. In fact, she did seem to show many of the signs including nausea and an enlarging belly.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In describing her daily routine in August 1554, Giacomo Soranzo merely wrote «she rises at daybreak, when, after saying her prayers and hearing mass in private, she transacts business incessantly until after midnight...»[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In November 1554 the Pope returned Cardinal Reginald Pole to England for the country's submission to the Holy See, and on the very day of his arrival it was announced that the Queen was with child.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In his sermon at the start of Advent, Cardinal Pole absolved the kingdom from schism. The Cardinal's sermons spoke in themes of national penitence for the sin of heresy, which the people greeted with great remorse, although the following Advent and Christmas celebrations were splendid, and for a short period the citizens of London put aside their differences towards the Spanish to welcome a much hoped for heir to the Tudor throne.[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 8, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter IV[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The marriage of queen Mary and Philip prince of Spain[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The cathedral church of Winchester was richly hanged with arras and cloth of gold; the altar was all richly prepared with cloth of gold, and on each side of the altar were other two rich red traverses.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Queen made her entry into the city of Winchester with a very rich apparel, on saturday 21 July, and was lodged in the Bishop's Palace, and prince Philip made his entry into the said city the monday after, 23 July; at the entrance's cerimony the mayor delivered him the keys of the city, which he received, and delivered them back again, being lodged at the dean's house.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On wensday 25 July, St. James's day, the prince, with a rich apparel of cloth of gold, embroidered[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif], with a great company of the Spanish nobles[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][2][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif], in such sort that had never seen, proceded to the church, all the way on foot, and he has entered, preceded by a Sword of State, through the cathedral's west door.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Then came the Queen, preceded by another Sword of State, accompanied with a great number of the nobility of the realm and a great company of ladies and gentlewomen very richly dressed. The Spanish and English nobility and leading courtiers were carefully intermingled in order of their degrees on the steps of the throne. Large numbers of standards, banners, streamers, and other heraldic devices emblazoned with Spanish regalia were commissioned for the occasion[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][3][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The bishop of Winchester, lord chancellor of England, did the divine service, assisted by the bishops of London, Duresme, Chichester, Lyncoln, and Ely.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary was placed on the right and Philip on the left during the service – a reversal of the typical positions for bride and groom – and that Mary sat on a larger throne. The positioning of Philip and Mary in the church was designed to underline Mary’s continuous precedence over Philip as English sovereign, even in the context of her marriage to him, by placing her in the space traditionally reserved for a king and Philip in that of a queen consort. Nonetheless there were similarities in their dress leading to the theory that a kind of equality between them in terms of power.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Then, the Imperial envoy, Don Juan Figueroa, presented to the prince with a solemn oration a patent (sealed and enclosed in a cover of silver gilt)sent from Charles V to his son, with which he surrender at the kingdom of Naples, freely he given to him and his heirs. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Then the Lord Chamberlain made a goodly oration to the people, in which he said how that the emperor had given openly unto his son the kingdom of Naples, , for the solemnification of their highness's marriage. So, if it was thought that the Queen should marry but with a prince, now, it was manifested that she should marry with a king; and so had proceeded to the espousals; and with a loud voice said that, if there be any man that knoweth any lawful impediment between these two parties, that they should not go together according to the contract concluded between both realms, that then they should come forth, and they should be heard; or else to proceed to celebration of the said marriage, which was pronounced in English and Latin; and when it was asked who have to give the Queen, the marquess of Winchester, the earles of Derby, Bedford, and Pembroke, gave her Majesty, in the name of the whole realm. Then, all the people gave a great shout, praying God to give them joy.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Concluded the ceremony the trumpetes sounded; the Queen and the King crossed the cathedral, before them the earl of Pembroke with the Great Sword of State, and immediately the heralds published and proclaimed their titles in Latin, French, and English; and so they returned to the Bishop's Palace under one canopy, where they both dined again under a canopy of state.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]At the banquet, the earl of Arundel presented the ewer, the marquess of Winchester the napkin; none had the right to seated, except the King and Queen. The dinner lasted till six in the evening, after which there was a spectacle of music; and before nine all had already retired.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By the marriage it was stated that Philip would rule alongside Mary, rather than being a step below her. Once they were officially joined in matrimony, he was created "King of England"[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][4][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]. Of course, he still needed to run things by Mary before acting (which he wasn't pleased about), but they were, for all intents and purposes, joint rulers - and Mary was fine with that. She was a traditional woman who believed that a wife should be obedient to her husband, and that Philip should be given every respect and priviledge that she was given as the monarch. Of course, some of this could have stemmed for her deep affection for him, but it is thought that after only a few months, it was clear to both parties that love was not the basis of their marriage.[/FONT]

Devotional portraits of Philip II of Spain and Mary Tudor

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1] His breeches and doublet were white, a rich collar of the doublet exceeding, and over all a mantle of rich cloth of gold, a present from the queen, who wore a similar one; this robe was ornamented with pearls and precious stones; and wearing the collar of the Garter.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][2] The narrative of Edward Underhill provides us the list of the Spanish Grandees who visited England on this occasion. Don Cesar de Gonzaga, eldest son of Don Ferdinando, governor of Milan; the duke of Alba, and his wife; the duke of Medina Celi; the admiral of Castille, don Antonio de Toledo; the marquis of Pescara; the marquis de Savia; the marquis de los Valles; the marquis d'Aquillara; the marquis de las Naves; the conde de Feria; the conde de Chinchon; the conde d'Olivares; the conde de Saldanha; the conde de Modica; the conde de Fuensalida; the conde de Castellar; the conde Landriano; the baron of Cuença; Don Diego de Mendoça; the grand commander of the cross of Calatrava; the major of Valladolid; the major of Vallefiguiere; Rui Gomez de Silva, grand chamberlain of the Prince Philip; the count of Egmont; the count of Hornes; the marquis of Berghes; the sieur de Martini.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][3] These purchases continued in 1555, when new liveries and artifacts were quartered with the king’s arms. Confusion later arose as to who exactly was entitled to Philip’s liveries, and it was eventually decided that they should be restricted to his own servants.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][4] Shortly after Philip’s arrival, the lord privy seal, then the earl of Bedford, was instructed to «tell the king the whole state of the Realm, with all things appertaining to the same, as much as ye know to be true’ and to declare his mind on any matter the king wished ‘as becometh a faithful councillor to do». Philip was England’s first king-consort. Yet he was also refused a coronation, faced numerous limitations on his powers.

[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 8, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter V[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile, Mary began to act on her intention to restoring the Catholic faith in England. The nobles were allowed to keep the lands gained in the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, but the Queen encouraged returning former Church property (mainly furniture and plate) and set an example by doing so herself.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The heresy laws (abolished by the Protector Somerset for the express purpose of promoting changes of doctrine which did violence to what was still the prevailing Catholic religious sentiment) were restored by Parliament, which meant that heretics could be killed and their property and holdings given over to the Crown: now the old religion required to be protected from insult and fanatical outrages.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Christmas Day 1554 was celebrated in St Paul's Cathedral, where a great musical feast was enjoyed by all in attendance. It featured Philip's Capilla Flamenca, whose musicians included the organist Antonio de Cabezón, Philippe de Monte and possibly Pierre de Manchicourt (c.1510-1558) and Thomas Tallis (c.1505-85).[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In January 1555, the arrests began. For the John Foxe's «Acts and Monuments of the English Martyrs» in all about 275 people died[1]. Estimates of the number of executions carried out by Henry VIII ranged from 57,000 to the 72,000 claimed in Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles (the mass murder following the Catholic rising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace should be taken into account), which is likely to be an underestimate. The troops of Edward VI massacred more than 5,500 Cornish Catholics in the wake of the Prayer Book Rebellion[2].[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As Mary's pregnancy progressed, Philip began to make plans for the succession if the Queen were to die in childbirth, a relatively common occurrence in Tudor England. Mary would most likely want to exclude Elizabeth from the throne, which meant that the crown would then fall to Mary Queen of Scots, who was about to marry the son of the King of France and was unacceptable for Spanish interests. Philip suggested marrying Elizabeth to a Catholic (and ally of the Holy Roman Emperor): Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary had refused to allow Philip and Elizabeth to meet, but in April when the Court moved to Hampton Court Palace Elizabeth was brought there as well (she had still been at Woodstock until then). She had few visitors and had not been granted an audience with the Queen, since she was still in disgrace. However, one evening the Queen sent over a rich dress to Elizabeth with the message that she was to wear it that evening. She met the King and was later brought into see the Queen. At the end, Mary agreed to welcome Elizabeth at court.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary had retreated into privacy awaiting the birth of her child, as was customary. She waited for the labor pains to begin, but her due date came and went without the birth of a child. The doctors predicted the child would come on 6 June, then 24 June, and then finally 3 July... but none came to pass.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When it had become clear that the Queen had experienced some sort of phantom pregnancy, and the rogations and intercessions of England's clergy for the safe delivery of a prince were discontinued. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]It is thought that Mary did in fact suffer what is called a 'phantom pregnancy' arising from her great wish to have a child. She may have actually been pregnant at some point, but miscarried, or the child died and was not properly expelled. Whatever the case, it became quite clear that the Queen was not going to give birth, since it was now nearly a year after she was first reported to be with child.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]After a while, the signs of her "pregnancy" disappeared and Mary began to receive again her subjects.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile the country was full of faction, and seditious pamphlets of Protestant origin inflamed the people with hatred against the Spaniards. The Philip's Spanish followers met with ill-usage everywhere, and violent outbreaks occurred.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1] Cardinal Pole, like Sir Thomas More and all good catholics of the old school, he thought the propagation of false opinion an evil for which no punishment was too extreme. Three condemned heretics in the Bonner's diocese, Bishop of London, were pardoned on an appeal to him. He merely enjoined a penance and gave them absolution.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][2] In the reality, Elizabeth I was more sparing of formal executions, though St Margaret Clitheroe was pressed to death at York and Mary Queen of Scots beheaded; but the butchery in Ireland was appalling. Edmund Spenser, author of «The Faerie Queene», supported a policy of extermination by artificial famine on a scale that was not exceeded until Stalin in the 1930s.[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 9, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Interlude: why [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy?[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]What was really important for Philip, was not «who» would marry Elizabeth, but «how» to keep the England in the orbit of Spain. The coordinated interest, was the future of Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, first cousin of Philip, future inextricably linked with his marriage.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]This is because the situation of the young Savoy was the center of interest of many.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Dead the duke Charles III, father of Emmanuel Philibert, on the night between 16 and 17 August 1553 in Vercelli, there was remained almost nothing of the Savoy state. The inability policy of Duke Charles III had generated a very serious political crisis, and at that time became more rapid the dissolution of the Savoy state: in 1508 and in 1511 the duke had been forced to recognize two false donations to the cantons of Bern and Fribourg, produced by his chancellor and notary ducal Jean Dufour, a refugee from the Swiss; in 1530 Geneva refused the military and temporal power of the Duke, who exercised in the name of the bishop, and the city is tied with the cantons of Bern and Fribourg, embracing the Lutheran heresy before, after the Calvinist. And the military intervention of the other cantons led to the occupation of the ducal lands in the Vaud and Haute Savoie; the same sister of the Duke, Louise of Savoy, mother of King Francis I of France, began to make demands on many ducal lands, as paternal inheritance, encouraging his son in the French demands of Asti and Ceva; the duke, overwhelmed by the struggle Franco-Spanish,in 1536 he had to undergo the French occupation, the territories annexed to the Kingdom of France, while he took refuge in Vercelli; he did not get by the Emperor the award of Monferrato, passed to Federico Gonzaga; and with the truce of Nice (18 June 1538), confirmed on the basis of «uti possidetis», he has seen the duchy almost all in French hands (the territory was ruled sensibly and with satisfaction of the population, by Charles de Cossé, comte de Brissac).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In addition, on 25 December 1536, the Crown Prince Ludovic, educated at the Court of Spain together with his cousin Philip, had died suddenly, and Emmanuel Philibert had become so Prince of Piedmont and the sole heir.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In 1538 Emmanuel Philibert was betrothed to Margaret (1523 – 1574), daughter of Francis I, and then, by the turn of events, he was engaged to Magdalena of Austria (1532 – 1590), daughter of Ferdinand, the future emperor (25 July 1541). Finally, he was sent to Charles V in July 1545. In Brussels he has forged a strong bond with his cousin Philip and he was proclaimed lieutenant general in Flanders and supreme commander of the imperial armies (27 June 1553).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Convinced that only on the battlefield could find salvation of the Savoy state, Emmanuel Philibert participated in the various military exploits of his uncle Emperor Charles V. However, were those years of needs and economic necessities almost humiliating, to which little could cope sacrificed the ducal finances. He was forced to restrict his personal expenses to a minimum and its already small court.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A year after his father's death, on 15 July 1554, Emmanuel Philibert was officially invested by Charles V of the Duchy of Savoy, an investiture only formal, since almost all of the Duchy in the hands of the French. The estates still in the hands of the Savoy were few and isolated from each other: Vercelli, Asti, Ceva, Fossano, Cuneo, Nice, Ivrea and the Val d'Aosta.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Three weeks later, at Arras, the new duke made his will. The indications were very precise and binding: the Emmanuel Philibert indicated his cousin Jacques, duke of Nemours, as the heir of all its states «provided that, however, he leaves the service of the king of France [...] and submit himself to the good graces of the Emperor, from which depend his states, and pay due obedience; if he does not fulfill the provisions above within a month, he [Jacques] will be private [of his inheritance and rights] and will be invested as heir Philip of Austria, son of the Emperor, Prince of Spain». Equally, if Jacques died without heirs, Philip would be the heir. This will clearly reveals the political and diplomatic pact there is under: in case of death of Emmanuel Philibert, Spain would have secured all the rights of succession on the Savoy state. Thus, Emmanuel Philibert linked the future of the house of Savoy exclusively to its military capabilities on the one hand, and to a future marriage, on the other.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here, then, the importance of the marriage of Emmanuel Philibert.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When Philip became King of England thanks to his marriage to Mary Tudor, Emmanuel Philibert was received by his cousin in London and Queen Mary gave him the Order of the Garter. And behold, there was talk of a possible marriage between Emmanuel Philibert and sister of queen, Elizabeth. There was still, however, the "promise marriage" entered into with the Archduchess Magdalena, daughter of King of Romans Ferdinand , which Emanuele was believed bound.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Philip thought that with this marriage, and a not remote possibility of becoming King of England, his cousin would have been amply repaid of the loss (or waiver) of its Italian states, and would have preserved, in any case, England in the orbit of Spain.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The death of Queen Mary of England had put an end the brief period of Philip on the English throne, however, did not put an end to the ambitions of Philip on the Savoy state of his cousin, reconstituted and re-integrated with the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The terms of peace had reconstituted the Duchy of Savoy in its entirety, King Philip of Spain, now a widower, would married the fourteen year old Princess Elizabeth of France, daughter of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici, and also Emmanuel Philibert would married a French princess.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]While Emmanuel Philibert would wanted to marry the other daughter of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici, the eleven year old Princess Claudia, he had to accept, instead, the thirty-six marry Princess Margaret, Duchess of Berry, sister of Henry II, and five years older than Emmanuel Philibert. The mature Margaret would could make problematic to have offspring. What that Philip wanted, to pave the way to its Italian ambitions.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Margaret would have retained, anyway, the enjoyment of the Duchy of Berry and received 300,000 scudos in dowry. She had among the members of his entourage, many Calvinists, and were known her sympathies for Protestant , like those of aunt [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Renée [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]of France, Duchess of Ferrara, with whom she had a close relationship epistolary.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Emmanuel Philibert arrived in Paris on 21 June and the wedding, set for 9 July 1559, they lost solemnity and joy for the mortal wounding of Henry II (30 June) during the tournament organized after the wedding of Elizabeth and Philip (22 June). The wedding was finally celebrated privately in the night of 9 July, a few hours before the death of the king, ending its excruciating agony.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«You can't choose your family».[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 9, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter VI[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]With no prospect of a male heir to the English throne, Philip's hopes as Regent of England were dashed: he left England and went to Brussels to receive from his father the government of the Low Countries (25 October 1555) and afterwards the kingdom of Spain (16 January 1556). On 29 August Philip took leave of his English bride at Greenwich. The Queen, her eyes overflowing with tears, bade her king farewell. She was not to see him again until the spring of 1557, by which time the crowns of Spain were transferred to Philip.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Queen was overcome with sadness at his departure and wrote to him almost daily.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Philip showed Mary great kindness, though there is certainly a difference between "kindness" and "love," or even "affection". Mary, on the other hand, would always carry her heart on her sleeve and yearn for the love that would always be denied her by her beloved husband. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Philip eventually returned to England in March 1557.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Hostilities with France were inevitable, because France had encouraged disaffection among Mary's subjects, even during the brief Truce of Vaucelles (5 February 1556). Conspiracies had been hatched by English refugees in Paris, and an attempt to seize Scarborough had been made with the aid of vessels from the Seine, by Thomas Stafford, who had been in exile. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The French King Henry II denied initiating the raid.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Shortly afterwards, England declared war against France (7 June 1557). [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Philip led forces into France and took the town of St. Quentin (10 August 1557) and surrounding lands: the French forces under Marshal Anne de Montmorency are decisively defeated by the Spanish and English under Duke Emanuel Philibert of Savoy. Montmorency himself is captured, Henry II of France had lost his best captains and the road to Paris was open to invasion, but Philip II refuses to press his advantage, and withdraws to the Netherlands.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In these circumstances, to avoid the intervention of an English expeditionary force, King Henry II recalled to Picardy Francis, Duke of Guise, who had raised an army and prepared to lead it in Italy, and arranged, in great secrecy, to attack Calais in the winter with 30,000 men assembled at Compiegne, Montreuil-sur-Mer, and Boulogne-sur-Mer. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The French attack captured the outlying forts of Nieullay (1 January 1558) and Rysbank (3 January) and Calais was besieged. In the absence of any natural defence, continued English control of Calais depended on fortifications maintained and built up at some expense. Lord Thomas Wentworth, Baron Wentworth, completely overwhelmed by a lightning attack, handed the keys of the city to the French on 7 January. The booty taken by the French was more than they had hoped for: food for three months and nearly 300 guns. Calais had been in English hands since 1347.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In England there was shock and disbelief at the loss of this last territory in France. The story goes that a few months later Queen Mary, on her death bed, told: «When I am dead and cut open, they will find Philip and Calais inscribed on my heart».[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]With this loss came some good news, however. The Queen was sure she was pregnant again, now at the age of 42. She entered seclusion in late February 1558, thinking her confinement for labor would come in March. Those around her seemed to have doubts about the validity of this pregnancy after the earlier incident.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On 30 March, Mary drafted her Will and it is worded in such a way to portray that the Queen thought she was indeed with child. But, by April, no child had come and the Queen knew that she was once again mistaken. After the symptoms began to fade, Mary was left quite ill. From then on, she became progressively worse. In late October, she added the codicil to her will but did not expressly name Elizabeth as her heir in it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Queen drifted in and out of consciousness, but at one point was lucid enough to agree to pass the crown to her half sister, adding that she hoped Elizabeth would maintain the Catholic faith in England. It was around this time that Philip learned of the death of both his father and his aunt.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On 16 November 1558, Mary's will was read aloud keeping with custom. She was lucid during the Mass held in her chamber the next morning. But whereas her father Henry VIII, for all his reservations about purgatory, had requested the celebration of no fewer than 30 000 Masses for the repose of his soul, his pious and orthodox daughter did no such thing. The priest performed the Last Rites at St. James Palace just before midnight, and a few hours later, between five and six in the morning the Queen died.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Sadly, Philip was not even in England; he was in Brussels after learning of the death of his father, and while there he was informed of the death of his wife. Upon hearing of it, Philip wrote in a letter: «You may imagine what a state I am in. May God have received her in His glory! I felt a reasonable regret for her death. I shall miss her, even on this account»... Not exactly the heartfelt, regretful statement you would expect of a surviving spouse, but it was all Philip was willing to give.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The marriage between England and Spain was dissolved.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Elizabeth gave her sister a royal funeral and she was interred in Westminster Abbey in the chapel built by her grandfather, Henry VII. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A magnificent tomb was built for both sisters. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A plaque on the marble reads, translated from the Latin:[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«Partners both in throne and grave,[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] here rest we two sisters,[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] Elizabeth and Mary,[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] in the hope of one resurrection».[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]

[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 9, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Interlude: The Queen is Dead: The Death and Burial of Mary I

By 1558, she was a broken woman.
As Mary lay in her bed in St. James Palace, the halls echoed with silence. The court had abandoned her as well, flocking to her sister Elizabeth, who would soon wear the crown. It was something Elizabeth never forgot[1].
Mary slept longer and longer hours as her illness sapped her strength, and toward the end, her moments of lucidity were few. But she was able to make her will. In the end, Mary couldn't quite bring herself to name her sister as heir, saying only that the throne should pass as the law dictated.
Jane Dormer's account[2] says Mary gave her ladies pious exhortations, and had pleasant visions of angelic little children playing around her bed and singing:

«Her sickness was such as made the whole realm to mourn, yet passed by her with most Christian patience. She comforted those of them that grieved about her; she told them what good dreams she had, seeing many little children like Angels play before her, singing pleasing notes, giving her more than earthly comfort; and thus persuaded all, ever to have the holy fear of God before their eyes, which would free them from all evil, and be a curb to all temptations. She asked them to think that whatsoever came to them was by God's permission; and ever to have confidence that He would in mercy turn all to the best.
From the time of her Mother's troubles, this queen had daily use of patience and few days of content, but only those that she established and restored the Catholic Religion to her kingdoms. While she was queen, in those few years, she suffered many conspiracies, and all out of malicious humours to God's truth. She gave commandment to all, both of her Council, and servants, to stand fast in the Catholic religion ; and with those virtuous and Christian advices, still in prayer and hearing good lessons, receiving the holy Sacraments of the Church, left this world, which was the 17th day of November 1558.
That morning hearing Mass, which was celebrated in her chamber, she being at the last point (for no day passed in her life that she heard not Mass) and although sick to death, she heard it with so good attention, zeal, and devotion, as she answered in every part with him that served the Priest; such yet was the quickness of her senses and memory. And when the Priest came to that part to say, Agnus Dei, qui follis peccata mundi, she answered plainly and distinctly to every one, Miserere nobis, Miserere nobis, Dona nobis pacem.
Afterwards seeming to meditate something with herself, when the Priest took the Sacred Host to consume it, she adored it with her voice and countenance, presently closed her eyes and rendered her blessed soul to God. This the duchess hath related to me, the tears pouring from her eyes, that the last thing which the queen saw in this world was her Saviour and Redeemer in the sacramental species; no doubt to behold Him presently after in His glorious Body in heaven. A blessed and glorious passage».

Reality probably wasn't so. Mary was given last rites just before midnight on Wednesday, 16 November 1558 and mass was celebrated in her chamber for the last time at dawn the following morning. Afterwards, Mary fell asleep and died somewhere between five and seven AM. One account says she passed so quietly that no one noticed for a while, which is why we don't know the exact time of her death.

The few remaining courtiers scattered, everyone hoping to get to Elizabeth first with the news. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton pulled a ring from Mary's finger (some sources say it was her coronation ring; others say it was her betrothal ring) and took it to Elizabeth as proof of the queen's death, but was crushed when he arrived and discovered that his news was already rendered "stale" by the arrival of the council.

Mary's body was left with the handful of loyal household attendants who would prepare her for burial. They didn't have undertakers in the Tudor era. It was Mary's own physicians and household officers that embalmed her, rendering their final services to their queen. Her mother, Katharine of Aragon was embalmed by her chandler, the household officer in charge of candles and soap.

Mary was disemboweled by her surgeons and her heart and lungs were removed. The Clerk of the Spicery and the chandlers packed body's cavity with spices and herbs before wrapping it in cerecloth, a wax-coated white cloth used for burial shrouds.

The cloth-wrapped body was enclosed in sheets of lead by the "serjeant plummer," and then was placed inside a coffin. It was covered in purple velvet and decorated with lace and gold gilt nails - exactly the kind of coffin that Mary would have wanted.

As was common, the organs that had been removed were buried separately. Mary's heart was placed in a silver casket lined with velvet and buried in the Chapel Royal of St. James. Her entrails might have gone to Westminster Abbey.

For over twenty days, Mary lay in state inside St. James, candles flickering around her bier. Elizabeth had ordered the highest respects be paid to her sister, modeling the services on those performed for her father. With one difference, however: Mary's rites were fully Catholic.
Her ladies prayed around the clock beside her coffin, while masses were said for Mary's soul.

On 13 December, the funeral began. Mary's coffin was placed on a magnificently bedecked hearse and drawn to Westminster Abbey. On top of the coffin lay a wooden effigy, dressed in one of Mary's own gowns, holding a scepter and wearing a crown. Embalming being as primitive as it was, the wooden or wax effigy would lie in view for the month-long duration of the funeral instead of the actual body, so they felt it was important for it to be as lifelike as possible.

«First, the Chapel was hanged with black cloth and garnished with scutcheons. The Altar was trimmed with purple velvet, and in the Dean's place was hanged a canopy of purple velvet, and in the midst of the said Chapel there was made a Hearse 4 square of 46 great Tapers, the which did weigh 20 lbs. weight, the piece being wrought with Crowns and Rosses of the same, and beneath the same Tapers a Vallance of Sarcenet, with the'Queen's worde ' written with letters of gold, and a fringe of gold about the same Vallance, and within that Vallance a Vallance of Buckrum with a fringe of black silk. The said Hearse was richly set with 'penceles and Seochins of Arms in metall.' There was under the said Hearse a Majestie of Taffeta with a Dome gilded, and 4 Evangelists in the 4 Corners of the said Majestie.
The 6 posts were covered with black velvet, and on every post a 'scochin' of sarcenet in fine gold, the rayle of the same hearse within was hanged with a broad black cloth and the ground within both railes covered with black cloth, also the other side of the stools, which was instead of tbe rails on each side, was hanged with black. At each end there was made a Rail over what the said Chapel, which was also hanged with black and garnished with seochins ; within the rayles stood 15 stools covered with fine black cloth, and on the same 15 cushions of purple velvett, and under the feet 15 cushions of black clothe, at the head of the Hearse, without the rayle, there was made an altar, which stood on the left-hand of the Choir, covered with purple velvet, which was richly garnished with ornaments of the Church, which Chapel being thus furnished, order was given to the Serjeant of the Vestry for the safe keeping of the same till such time as the said Royal corpse was brought down unto the said Chapell»[3].

Then the Bishop of Worcester and other bishops, with the Queen's Chapel went up to fetch the said coffin, and, while the Chapel stayed in the Great Chamber, the Bishops went into the Chamber where was the coffin, and after they have said several prayers, the coffin was raised up by eight Gentlemen while all the others were arranged in order, that is to say the Cross and on each side a white branch (carried by boys in surplices), then the Chapel, then all the Gentlemen and Squires with the Chaplains of no dignity, and on each side the foresaid officers with torches and also the Guard.

«Then all Knights and after them Councillors—then Barons, Bishops (not in pontificalibus), then the Overseers, then Earls, then the Executors, then the Kings of Arms; then the Corpse covered with a Pall of Cloth of Tissue of Gold (with the Crown of Cloth of Tissue) on each side the Corpse two Noblemen, that is to say, the Marquis of Winchester, the Earl of Westmoreland, Earl of Shrewsbury, and the Earl of Derby which touched the Corpse with his hands, and over the said Corpse was borne a canopy of purple velvet with 6 blue 'knopes' borne by 6 gentlemen. Then after the Corpse the Chief Mourner the Lady Margaret Countess of Lynnoux assisted by the Earl of Huntingdon and Viscount Montague, her train born by the Lady Katherine Hastings assisted by the Vice-Chamberlain, and after her the other (14) mourners, two and two: after them the other Ladies and Gentlemen, then after followed the Garde, and in this order went into the Chapel where the Corpse was placed within the Hearse, and Mourners, on each side seven, and at the head the Chief Mourner, kneeling at the Stools and Cushions as is aforesaid»[3].

The services were elaborate and lengthy, as Tudor royal funerals always were. Finally, after all of the ceremonies, Mary was buried in the chapel built by her grandfather, Henry VII.

Mary's widowed husband, Philip II of Spain wrote to his aunt about his wife's passing at the end of a letter describing his peace negotiations with France:
«The queen, my wife, is dead. May God have received her in his glory. I felt a reasonable regret for her death. I shall miss her even on this account».
He instructed his agent in England to represent him at the funeral and make sure to collect an extensive list of jewels he had left behind in England when he last departed. He was given back La Peregrina, the massive pearl he had given to Mary for their wedding.

Mary's will specified that her mother, Katharine of Aragon, was to be exhumed from her humble tomb in Peterborough Cathedral and brought to lie beside Mary, and an honorable tomb be erected in memory of the both of them.

[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] «May they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage under these restless skies».[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]

[1] How Mary had been abandoned by the fickle court as she lay on her deathbed, it was one of the reasons Elizabeth always resisted naming her heir, delaying unto the last moments of her life.
[2] Henry Clifford, Edgar Edmund Estcourt, «The Life of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria», 1887.
[3] Edgar Sheppard, «Memorials of St. James's Palace», 1894.[/FONT]

The head of Mary's funeral effigy.

SenatorChickpea · Mar 9, 2015

Well, the Tudors are always an interesting lot- I'll be curious to see how this proceeds.

Urbanus VII · Mar 10, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter VII[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Queen Mary's Court.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Queen Mary never attended the Privy Council. It follows that she was distanced from ‘majority’ opinion. While her early propaganda hyped the model of a ‘consensus’ government, the reality was that a structural crack between Court and Privy Council disabled her régime. The ‘proof’ of a dysfunctional régime is that Mary had to dictate policy to her Privy Council. That assertion, however, is predicated on the premise that advice in policy matters was properly restricted to the ‘formal’ Privy Council and that if policy was not being determined in the Privy Council, then something had gone wrong.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The point of entry is the Court, where the king and queen resided and the Privy Council met. Not only did Philip and Mary have separate households, but Philip in August 1555 established a conciliar nexus at Court that went beyond the Privy Council. Mary’s household was located in what, during her father’s and brother’s reigns, had been the king’s side; Philip’s in what had formerly been the queen’s or consort’s side.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Philip’s entourage must have had difficulty in accommodating itself within the available space. The king brought a full chamber staff with him from Spain only to find another waiting for him in England complete with a guard of 100 archers. The the final compromise was that in his household Philip used Spaniards almost exclusively in his privy chamber, leaving his English servants to perform outer chamber and ceremonial duties. He had no patrimony as king of England and was required to meet the costs of his chamber and privy chamber service out of his own revenues[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Public ceremonies also reflected Mary’s aspirations. The opening of Parliament was preceded by Masses and processions, and requiems were held for Philip’s grandmother, Juana, queen of Castile, in June 1555, and for John III, king of Portugal, in October 1557. Mary revived the ceremony for the blessing of cramp rings on Good Friday, the Royal Touch for the Scrofula (known as the King's Evil), and she eagerly participated in the ceremonies for Maundy Thursday in which she washed the feet of a number of poor women corresponding to her age.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary’s honour required a newly-refounded religious houses at Greenwich and Syon, re-equipped with albs and other artifacts taken from stock held in the great wardrobe. The Queen's chapel was liberally supplied with albs, surplices, altar cloths, crossbearers, towels, tapers, cruets etc. Likewise, the costs of building restorations at the Observant Friary at Greenwich were directly billed to the account of the Queen’s Works.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]At the requiem for Queen Juana at St Paul's, the Spanish and English nobility led the solemn procession, walking side by side, headed by the count de Feria and the marquis of Winchester. There followed the imperial, French, Venetian and Portuguese ambassadors, the clergy, and a small army of mourners carrying banners and escutcheons wrought with fine gold and silver in oil upon buckram. A magnificent hearse was constructed of wax over a timber frame with an ornamental dome and gilded canopy. The event was reminiscent of no lesser an event than the funeral of Henry VIII.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Privy Council continued to meet at Court in the Council chambers which lay off the long galleries at most of the royal houses. These Council chambers were within the queen’s privy lodgings and were approached from the privy gallery. There was no automatic egress from the Council chamber to the queen’s presence, and Mary tightened the arrangements for access.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]There is no evidence that Mary or Philip attended the Privy Council. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary was something of a loner; she usually dined alone in her withdrawing chamber, attended by four or five of her servants with two grooms to carry away the dishes. Like Henry VII, and more obviously so than Henry VIII, she disliked uninvited visitors. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1] By August 1554, over eighty Spanish noblemen and gentlemen had sought and obtained leave to withdraw, leaving behind the duke of Alba, the counts de Feria and Olivares, and Philip’s privy chamber establishment. His English service was headed by Sir John Williams, lord chamberlain, and Sir John Huddlestone, vice-chamberlain. Seven gentlemen of the privy chamber had been pre-selected: the earl of Surrey and the eldest sons of the earls of Arundel, Derby, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Sussex and Huntingdon. A further thirty or so gentlemen were deputed to act as cupbearers, carvers, sewers, gentlemen ushers, gentlemen waiters, sewers of the chamber, or harbingers. Eleven grooms and pages were appointed, plus three or four interpreters whose services were not used, since Philip addressed his English household and councillors through Spanish and not English intermediaries. Finally, there were some 100 yeomen ushers plus the guard of 100 archers. Many of these servants or their replacements were on Philip’s payroll in 1558, but few seem to have been performing duties that were more than titular.[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 10, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter VIII[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The most important Tudor pioneering voyages of all time: the search for the fabled North East passage.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]English voyages of exploration begun at the time of Henry VII by Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) continued under Queen Mary.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In Tudor era the ships were evolving, and becoming better suited to long distance navigation.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]With the suggestion for the discovery of a north-east passage to Cathay, with Sir Hugh Willoughby as captain-general of the fleet, and Richard Chancellor as pilot-major, by the Society or Company of Merchant Adventurers this voyage was undertaken. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Richard Chancellor, chief pilot in 1553, was the first of a new breed: an English sailor who was practical and intellectual. Not only was he literate, he studied maths and astronomy, and he built instruments to measure the sun and the stars. Although he died young, his influence lived on, not least in the persons of men like Stephen and William Borough, who sailed with him.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Often ships were stuck at port, and the men of 1553 knew the window of the Arctic summer was narrow, and they desperately wanted to head north. But for weeks they were pinned to the east coast of England, for the adverse winds.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]They sailed in May 1553, but Willoughby and all his crew perished in a harbour on the Lapland coast. Chancellor, however, was more fortunate. He reached the White Sea, performed the journey overland to Moscow, where he was well received at the court of Ivan the Terrible (25 August 1530 – 28 March 1584), and may be said to have been the founder of the trade between Russia and England, and helped to build cultural and diplomatic relations. He returned to Archangel and brought his ship back in safety to England.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On a second voyage, in 1556, Chancellor was drowned; and three subsequent voyages, led by Stephen Burrough, Pet, and Jackman, effected an examination of the straits which lead into the Sea of Kara.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Also, new trade routes for English cloth were opened in Africa, especially Morocco, which provided sugar and saltpeter, and Guinea, a source of gold.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary's government had good relations with England's merchants, and were able to increase both the level of custom duties and the number of commodities on which duty was assessed. The new «Book of Rates» was introduced in 1558 (a boon for Elizabeth, but too late to benefit Mary).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Queen Mary, in continued efforts to restore the currency to purity, issued fine silver coins and devised a plan to withdraw debased coins that came to fruition in 1560-61.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Unfortunately, the years 1555 and 1556 saw very bad weather (floods in Fall 1555, followed by drought in Spring 1556). This caused extremely poor harvests. The debilitated population was also hit by an epidemic of influenza that killed about in twenty of the population.[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 10, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter IX[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Church of Mary Tudor[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary’s opposition to the religious policies of her brother’s governments is notorious, but requires careful examination. Her objection was to the replacement of the Mass by the Prayer Book Communion service. The Mass was in Latin and the Communion in English, but that was not the real issue. The issue was the abandonment of transubstantiation – the real and corporeal presence of Christ in the elements.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By the summer of 1547 it was clear that Protector Somerset was moving in a Protestant direction. The Royal Injunctions, and Cranmer’s homily on justification were indicators of what was afoot, and provoked speedy protests from conservative bishops such as Stephen Gardiner. Mary reacted rather similarly; she increased her devotional exercises, and her household began to be noted as a conservative stronghold. A mild remonstration seems to have been attempted, but entirely without effect. By the beginning of 1549 Mary was gearing up for a fight, and when the new Prayer Book came into use on Pentecost 1549, she has wanted Mass celebrated with especial pomp in her chapel at Kenninghall.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]What Mary wanted was the freedom to celebrate the traditional rites of the Church, particularly the Mass, without interference. She took refuge in arguments of authority merely to defend that position. There was no intention to challenge the legitimacy of the government in any general way, or even to challenge the royal supremacy. The papal authority was not an issue, and there were no disputes over doctrine, except by implication. This dispute went through several phases between 1548 and 1552, and was never really resolved. Neither side backed down completely, because by 1552 Edward’s conscience was as offended with his sister’s behaviour as hers was with his.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The stalemate was only ended by Edward’s death, and it does not tell us as much about Mary’s beliefs as might be supposed. Presumably her household kept all the traditional feasts and used the full range of sacraments, although we have no specific information to that effect.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]
Her accession was a miracle, wrought by God for the specific purpose of restoring England to the true faith, the faith in which her mother had lived and died.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In spite of the width of her reading and her exposure to the evangelical intellectuals around Catherine Parr, for Mary the heretics were people who had led her father astray, ruined her mother, plundered the Church and destroyed the godly peace of England.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In a sense Mary was an enlightened Christian, well read in the Bible, the Latin fathers and not ignorant of pagan antiquity. From her childhood, her faith could have developed in several different ways, but it was steered in a conservative direction by loyalty to her mother. Most of the traditional teachings and practices of the Church were second nature to her, and how much she ever thought about them we do not know. She found a congenial soulmate in Reginald Pole, one of the most subtle and learned churchmen of his generation, and a man whose true convictions still defy lucid reconstruction. However, her belief in the Sacrament of the Altar was a different matter altogether. This was a profound faith which could not be compromised, either in adversity or prosperity. All the emotional frustrations of her life were channelled into the devotion of the Holy Host, true Body of Christ. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]She was persuaded to allow her brother to be buried with the Protestant rites to which he had been loyal; but insisted on celebrating a requiem Mass.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]

[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 10, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter X[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Church of Mary Tudor[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Her priority was, first and foremost, the restoration of the Latin rite in all its richness, and particularly the Mass; where there is no longer a priest, there is no Sacrifice of the Eucharist, and where there is no more Sacrifice, there is no religion. The priest, «in persona Christi», renews the same sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of souls and of poor sinners to snatch them from the snares of the devil and from the pit of hell. The Mass for the priest is everything: it has been ordered for this. The Sacrament of the Altar was the focus of her spiritual life. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]That same commitment to the Sacrament of the Altar, which had brought Queen Mary to defy her brother and make celebrate four Masses a day with «unusual splendour», also gave her a profound hatred for those who rejected it. It was not the denial of the papacy, or the English Bible or even justification by faith which was the crime against the Holy Ghost, but the rejection of transubstantiation. Over and over again, this was the issue which sent heretics to the capital sentence. It was the issue which touched Mary to the heart: to eradicate such a virus, which threatened the souls of all whom it infected, no measures were too extreme. To punish such heretics was not a policy, but a duty solemnly enjoined by God.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By contrast, there are few references to other devotional practices. It would have been natural for her to have a particular regard for her namesake, but the evidence is very slight.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]She was assiduous in her private devotions, and no doubt this would have involved many prayers to the Virgin and other saints, but she took no steps to restore any of the great Marian shrines, which might have been expected to feature among her first priorities. She dutifully kept all the major feasts of the Church, but there is no sign of favouritism there, either.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]But whereas Mary restored the old nobility, she did not restore the shrines. St.Thomas of Canterbury, St.Cuthbert and Our Lady of Walsingham remained desolate. Neither did Mary ever undertake a pilgrimage as queen.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]However, beyond of this distinctive preoccupation, there is much less evidence of Mary’s personal piety than might be supposed. She received innumerable dedications of works of Catholic devotion or polemic; but they tell us nothing beyond the fact that she was famously orthodox. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The queen’s devotional practice was normal. She approached the sacrament of confession and received absolution whenever she felt the need, but received the Holy Host only at Easter. Several detailed descriptions of her wedding, for instance, do not suggest that she received it then, despite the special and sacramental nature of the occasion.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]All the information which can be recovered about Mary’s personal piety suggests two things: the intensity of her devotion to the Sacrament of the Altar, and the learned and reflective humanism in which she had been reared. Mary’s emotions were engaged by the Mass and by the memory of her mother, but we have very little idea of what she thought about such controversial issues as justification by faith, purgatory or the priority of scripture.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]She felt strongly about the honour and respect due to the clergy ( that was a consequence of her feelings about transubstantiation) and her strong views on clerical celibacy were partly a consequence of that. She deplored the English liturgy because it was not the Mass, but there are strong hints that she continued to read her Bible, and the English translation which her father had approved was never withdrawn. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mary’s marriage to Philip put her in touch, probably for the first time, with the mainstream Catholicism of the Counter Reformation, but it does not appear to have had much impact. Philip brought his own chaplains and confessors with him, so that Mary must have been frequently in communication with them. She listened to their sermons, and no doubt talked to them in private, but it is not apparent that they had any influence on her actions. The king himself was a deeply pious man, but we do not know whether they normally shared their private devotions. In public, and particularly on important festivals, if Philip was in England, they attended Mass together; but if they shared their religious experiences, neither of them ever spoke of it to a third party. Philip, for all his orthodox zeal, had a much less emotional approach to his faith than Mary. Most particularly, he was prepared to regard heresy as a political problem, as his father had done in similar circumstances. However, Philip had been reared, and lived all his life in a climate of Catholic orthodoxy, whereas Mary’s faith had, in her own eyes at least, been tested in the fire.[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 11, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]XI[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Cardinal Reginald Pole[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The news of Edward VI's death, soon followed by that of Mary's bloodless triumph over the factious attempt to prevent her succession, reached Cardinal Pole in early August 1553. He at once wrote to the Pope of the hopeful prospect of recovering England from disorder and schism. Julius III had already taken action, and sent to Pole briefs and a commission constituting him legate to Queen Mary as well as to the Emperor and to Henry II of France, through whose territory he might pass on his way to England. On this Pole wrote to the Queen congratulating her on her accession, and asking directions as to the time and mode in which he might best discharge his legation and restore papal authority. The Queen shared his anxiety, but in other quarters the opinion prevailed that England was far too unsettled to receive a legate yet. That Pole when he went to England would at once have the first place in Mary's confidence was generally anticipated. The Emperor held that Mary ought to be married to his son Philip before the relations of England to the see of Rome could be satisfactorily adjusted, and deemed it prudent to keep Pole out of the way till that marriage was accomplished. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pole wrote to the Emperor of the great importance of immediately reconciling England with Rome. But Pope Julius III, in order to preserve Pole's mission, made over to him the unpromising task of endeavouring to make peace between the emperor and Henry II. With this further mission, Pole decided to visit the Emperor at Brussels, and on his way arrived on 1st October at Trent. Thence, in a second letter to Mary, he protested against the delay of the religious settlement.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]At Dillingen he received Mary's reply to his first note, stating that she could not restore papal authority offhand.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A few days later, when three leagues from Dillingen, he was met by Don Juan de Mendoza, who told him that the Emperor thought both his missions untimely, and wished him to come no further till a more favourable opportunity. Pole remonstrated, but returned to Dillingen to await the Pope's commands.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Pope endeavoured to meet the difficulty by granting Pole permission, if he found it expedient, to go to England as a private person, resuming the legatine capacity when he could do so with prudence. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On 22 December the Charles V invited him at Brussels, and he gave him a magnificent reception. A rebellion in January 1554 justified at once such an opinion that England was not 'mature' for a legate.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pole was driven to occupy himself with his second mission, the peace between the Emperor and France. The French king received him at Fontainebleau on the 29 March. He remained there till 5 April, and made a public entry into Paris on the 8th. He met with a very gratifying reception in France. Personally he produced a most favourable impression on Henry II; but the conferences, though encouraging, held out slender hopes of peace.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In the realm of England numerous bishops and married clergy had already been deprived, and as their places could only be filled by recourse either to the papal legate or to the pope, and the Queen had presented twelve bishops to Pole, of whom six were consecrated on 1 April.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pole was in despair. He wrote a powerful letter of expostulation to Philip, declaring that he had been a year knocking at the palace gates, althdugh he had suffered long years of exile only for maintaining Mary's rights to the succession.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The position of affairs rendered Polo's presence in England absolutely necessary, and the Pope gave to the legate a large dispensing powers, so that holders of church lands might not be disturbed, and urged the Emperor not to keep Pole away any longer. The general and immediate restitution was clearly out of the question, and he at length consented to leave the matter in abeyance, in the hope that the king and queen and other holders of church property would as a matter of conscience restore what and when they could. At Rome it was believed more practical decide that the alienation of church goods was justifiable, if it proved the means of restoring a realm to the faith.[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 11, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]XII[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Cardinal Reginald Pole[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The queen prayed him to come not as legate, but only as cardinal and ambassador. On 12 November Parliament overruled his attainder for sentence of treason (January 1539). Received at Calais on 19 November with many peals of bells and salvoes of artillery, the next morning he reached Dover in a royal yacht, where he received a letter from the queen, to which Philip had added a few words in his own hand, thanking him for coming.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Attended by a large company of noblemen and gentlemen, Pole rode on to Canterbury, which he entered by torchlight.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]At Rochester a request that he would come to her as legate reached Pole from the Queen. A patent had already been granted him on the 10th, in advance of his coming, to enable him to exercise legatine functions in England.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]At Gravesend his cavalcade had increased to five hundred horse. There the Earl of Shrewsbury and Tunstall, bishop of Durham, presented him with letters under the great seal, certifying the repeal of all laws passed against him in the two preceding reigns.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]From Gravesend he sailed up the Thames in the queen's barge, with his silver cross fixed in the prow (24 November). The King and Queen received him most cordially at Whitehall, and in the presence chamber he, under a canopy of state, formally presented to them the briefs of his legation. He then was conducted by Gardiner to Lambeth Palace.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Three days later (27 November) Pole delivered a long oration to the two Houses of Parliament, in which he said he was come to restore the lost glory of the kingdom. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On the feast of St. Andrew (30 November) Lords and Commons presented a joint supplication to the King and Queen, who thereupon publicly interceded with the legate to absolve them from their long schism and disobedience. Pole, who was seated, uttered a few words about the special grace shown by God to a repentant nation, then he rose and pronounced the words of absolution. And again on Thursday 6 December.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Second Statute of Repeal, for restoring the Pope's supremacy, was passed in January 1555.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Julius III published a jubilee to celebrate the restoration of his authority in England, but he died on 5 March following. Marcellus II was elected on 9 April 1555. He survived his elevation only three weeks, dying on 30 April. On 23 May Cardinal Caraffa became pope as Paul IV. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pole himself, meanwhile, was more concerned about the re-establishment of peace in Europe. Peace conferences were presently arranged to take place at Marck, near Calais, on the borders of the two hostile countries of France and the empire, and he crossed to Calais in the middle of May to act as president. The prospect, however, did not improve, and within a month the conferences were broken off, and he returned to England.[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 11, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]XIII[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Cardinal Reginald Pole[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Before Philip left England for Brussels, in October 1555 he placed the queen specially under the care of the cardinal, who thereupon took up his abode in Greenwich Palace; and he paid a private visit to Pole himself to induce him to undertake a supervision of the council's proceedings. Pole acquiesced, apparently so far as to receive reports of what was done in the council, and to be a referee when matters of dispute arose; but otherwise he declined to interfere with secular business. He seems never to have attended the council.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The church's affairs were all-absorbing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On 1st December he was raised from the dignity of cardinal-deacon and created cardinal-priest «pro illa vice».[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When the sentence of deprivation was pronounced against Cranmer, the imprisoned archbishop of Canterbury, the administration of the metropolitan see of Canterbury was committed on 11 December to Pole. When Thomas Cranmer was crumbling under the threat of burning in the winter of 1555–56 and busily recanting all he had ever stood for, the Queen was unmoved. She hated Cranmer, both as an «arch eretic» and as the destroyer of her mother’s marriage, and had reprieved him from a traitor’s death only specifically to face the fire![/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pole was finally ordained priest on 20 March 1556[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] and, because the Queen designed him to succeed Cranmer at Canterbury, consecrated archbishop[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][2][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] two days later.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]He would have gone to Canterbury to be enthroned, but as the queen desired his presence in London, he deputed one of the canons to act as his proxy there, and received the pallium in great state on the feast of the Annunciation at the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow. On entering the church a paper was handed to him by the parishioners, requesting that he would favour them with a discourse, which he did extempore and with great fluency at the close of the rite.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]With the Bull appointing him to Canterbury, Pole received a Brief that confirming him in his old office of legate for the negotiation of peace. Immediately afterwards Pole rejoiced to find that, without his intervention, a truce of five years was arranged between the French king and Philip, now king of Spain, at Vaucelles (5 February 1556).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On 4 November 1555 Pole, having a warrant under the great seal for his protection, had caused a synod of both the convocations to assemble before him as legate in the chapel royal at Westminster. Stephen Gardiner's death on the 12th deprived Pole of very powerful aid in that reform and settlement of the affairs of the church which was the great object of this synod. It continued sitting till February following, when it was prorogued till November, the results of its deliberations being meanwhile published on 10 February 1556, under the title «Reformatio Angliae ex decretis Reginaldi Poli, Cardinalis, Sedis Apostolicae Legati». [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In the first of these decrees it was enjoined that sermons and processions through the streets should take place yearly on the feast of St. Andrew, to celebrate the reconciliation of the realm to Rome.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1] He celebrated his first mass the following day. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][2] in the Franciscan Church of Greenwich, by Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, assisted by Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, and five bishops of the Canterbury province, Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Ely; Richard Pates, Bishop of Worcester; John White, Bishop of Lincoln; Maurice Griffith, Bishop of Rochester; and Thomas Goldwell, C.R., Bishop of St. Asaph (Wales).[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 11, 2015

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARY I (1553-1558)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]XIV[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Cardinal Reginald Pole[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]After Gardiner's death Pole was elected chancellor of the university of Cambridge. He acknowledged the compliment in a graceful letter, dated from Greenwich 1 April 1556.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On 26 October following Oxford paid him the same honour, on the resignation of Sir John Mason. He had previously issued a commission for the visitation of both universities, and he soon manifested his activity in revising the statutes at Oxford. Ignatius Loyola had invited him to send English youths to Rome for their education, but Pole, much occupied with the reform of the English church and universities, apparently found no opportunity to accept this invitation. He was interested in Loyola's new Society of Jesus, and Loyola on his part followed with admiration Pole's work in England.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]But Pole had to face difficulties in an unexpected quarter.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Paul IV, a hot-blooded Neapolitan, longed expel the Spaniards out of Naples. War broke out between him and Philip in Italy, and Pole found that his sovereign had become the pope's enemy. He strongly urged Philip that was unseemly of making war on Christ's Vicar. But the storm extended itself; the Pope made alliance with France, and the war so recently suspended between France and Spain was again renewed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pole now has urged Mary to not declare herself against France on account of her husband's quarrel. But Philip came back to England in March 1557 with the express object of implicating her in his struggle with France.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pole himself retired to his metropolitan see, explaining privately to Philip that the Pope's legate could not visit the Pope's enemy.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In April Paul IV withdrew all his legates from the Philip's dominions and cancelled the legation of Pole. Sir Edward Carne, the English ambassador at Rome, remonstrated: England was neutral, and the specially condition of the country required a legate. The pope recognised his error, and lamely directed that the legateship always attached to the see of Canterbury should not be included in the act of revocation.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The clouds did not disperse. England was dragged into the war.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A Brief was sent to Pole by the Pope for relieving him of his legateship, and requiring his presence at Rome: Paul IV wanted all his cardinals, to consult with him in those difficult times.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The fortunes of war had just compelled Paul IV to conclude a peace with Philip, and he found it expedient to be conciliatory.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In the course of the summer Pole fell mortally ill of a double quartan ague [malaria] at Lambeth Palace.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]At seven in the morning of 17 November, Queen Mary, who had been long ill, passed away; at seven in the evening of the same day Pole, too, died (so gently that he seemed to have fallen asleep). The cardinal's body remained at Lambeth till 10 December, when it was carried with great pomp to Canterbury. There it was buried on the 15th, in St. Thomas's Chapel. The place was only marked by the inscription: «Depositum Cardinalis Poli».[/FONT]

Urbanus VII · Mar 11, 2015

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