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

[Urbanus VII]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARGARET I (1562-1578)[/FONT]



[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Chapter I[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox (8 October 1515 – 7 March 1578)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]
In 1528, when Lady Margaret was thirteen, she was considered of sufficient lineal importance to be brought to London to be educated with her cousin and contemporary Mary Tudor, becoming her close confidante and Henry treated her like a royal princess. Yet, like her mother, she remained adamantly Catholic.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon resulted in Mary Tudor being declared illegitimate, and this promoted the Dowager Queen of Scotland and her children as potential heirs to the English throne. Although James V was technically debarred having been born outside England, the glamorous Margaret Douglas had not. With her father Earl of Angus’s rising influence, she was considered [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]beautiful and highly esteemed[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] at Henry’s Court, becoming first lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn and Lady-of-Honour to Princess Elizabeth.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Her mother, who remained in Scotland, was already worried that her daughter might also be branded as illegitimate, given her divorce from Angus and re-marriage to Lord Methven. Yet, when Margaret became secretly betrothed to Sir Thomas Howard, Anne Boleyn’s uncle and Norfolk’s youngest brother, Henry, on 8 June 1534, placed them both in the Tower. Despite suffering from an intermittent fever, her mother had to intercede so that she was moved to the Abbey of Sion. Although she was released on 29 October 1537, still only twenty-two, Sir Thomas died in the Tower two days later.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Queen Dowager in Scotland had already separated from Methven, who had taken a mistress. To protect her daughter’s legitimacy, she now sought a reunion with Angus, who was in England, and asked Methven for a divorce. Yet James V, who trusted Methven as an adviser, would not agree, particularly as his mother was now aged forty-nine. The Queen Dowager bowed to the inevitable and was reconciled to Methven, but died at Methven Castle of the palsy on 18 October 1541.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Given doubts within the Catholic Church over Prince Edward’s legitimacy, Henry declared Margaret illegitimate, on the grounds that her mother’s marriage to Angus lacked Royal approval. Having protected his son by barring her from the throne, he returned her to favour, appointing her as first lady-in-waiting to both Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. Yet she formed another attachment, this time to Sir Charles Howard, brother of Queen Catherine, and was again disgraced to Sion. From here, on 13 November 1541 she was moved to Kenninghall, Norfolk’s country residence, to make way for Queen Catherine, who was by then in even worse trouble. It was Angus, who now came to her rescue after returning to influence in Scotland. Despite Angus’s vacillating loyalty, Henry saw him as his means to restoring his flagging influence and continued to pay him a pension. Angus continued to provide Henry with military intelligence to assist an English invasion, including the deposition of Scottish troops. The Douglases could provide a strong military presence in Scotland and Henry needed them on side. Such was her political importance to that Margaret acted as a bridesmaid to Catherine Parr.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In 1544, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox had realised that his suit to marry Marie of Guise, in expectation of being recognised as heir to the Scottish throne, was not going to succeed[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]. He set off for England and, in a complete volte face, offered to support Henry VIII, if permitted to marry Margaret. Her strong dynastic connections suited his ambitions every bit as well, despite her headstrong reputation. Notwithstanding his French upbringing, Lennox would espouse whatever religious persuasion suited his objectives. He adopted a Reformist stance with Henry, portraying himself as a foil for her Catholic excesses, and commended himself as the Protestant claimant to the Scottish throne. Henry was enthusiastic, as it offered a means to thwart the Earl of Arran, the Scottish Regent, whose legitimacy was being questioned, and it linked the Scottish and English royal families. Lennox was soon dominated by the astute Margaret, who compensated for his lack of political finesse. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]With Catherine Parr as his Queen, on 6 July 1544, Henry attended Lennox’s and Margaret’s wedding ceremony at St. James’s Palace[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]This created a connection [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]sufficiently gratifying to her ambition and followed by a mutual affection[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]. As a dowry, he provided the valuable Templenewsam estates in Yorkshire and is reputed to have told her that, if his own children should die childless, he [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]should be right glad if heirs of her body succeeded to the Crown[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Henry immediately sent Lennox north on a series of military expeditions and Margaret moved from Stepney Palace in London to Templenewsam.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]She had never made any secret of her Catholicism and, out of sight of the English Court, became a catalyst for Catholic intrigue among local families. When Henry learned this, he excluded her from the English succession under his will[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]

​

 

[Urbanus VII]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]QUEEN MARGARET I (1562-1578)[/FONT]



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

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When Edward VI died of consumption on 6 July 1553, the Catholic Mary Tudor became Queen of England, and Margaret[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] returned to Court to luxuriously furnished apartments in the Palace of Westminster. Margaret was in high favor during the reign of her old friend and she was given precedence at Court over of Princess Elizabeth. She treated Princess Elizabeth badly during this time, who remained illegitimate in Catholic eyes, making her the Catholic heir to the English throne. There were rumors during the time Mary had Elizabeth sent to the Tower that Margaret was urging Mary to execute Elizabeth.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On Mary Tudor’s death and Elizabeth’s accession, despite the animosity between the two women, Lady Margaret brought her sons to court to greet the new Queen and she participated in Elizabeth’s coronation. Soon after Margaret retired again to Yorkshire, but was closely watched by Elizabeth’s advisers, who gathered evidence against her.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By this time, Margaret was forty-six, and the birth of eight children had taken its toll on her good looks. But she was matured herself into a political operator to match her great-grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, who had helped plot her son Henry VII’s rise to the throne.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Lady Margaret continued to negotiate on his behalf and appears to have come to an understanding with the Guises in France, that if Mary were to die childless, Lennox would inherit the Scottish Crown. She also petitioned Mary in France for the restoration of the Lennox estates in Scotland.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]With the death of Henry II of France in a jousting accident, Margaret took the opportunity to send her thirteen-year-old son, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, with his tutor John Elder to offer his condolences to Mary Queen of Scots, who has become Queen Consort of France.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]He delivered a letter from Lennox petitioning for the restoration of the Lennox estates in Scotland. Yet again the request was turned down[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][2][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif], but Mary gave Darnley 1,000 crowns and invited him to attend Francis II’s coronation.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Following Francis II’s death, the wily Margaret again sent Darnley, now aged fourteen, with her condolences.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]She plied Mary with the advantages of a marriage to her son, which would combine their close claims to both the Scottish and English thrones. She even suggested that they should replace Elizabeth[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][3][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]. She now focused all her considerable skills on promoting Darnley as heir to both the Scottish and English thrones.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]From 1561, Margaret and her husband were under suspicion by the Elizabethan government.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The young Queen Elizabeth had invited Margaret to Court to celebrate the Christmas season of 1561, and in order to keep an eye on her cousin. Elizabeth had discovered Margaret was plotting to marry her eldest son, Henry, Lord Darnley, to Mary, Queen of Scots. Under the terms of Henry’s VIII will Elizabeth’s heir was her Protestant cousin, Lady Catherine Grey. But some considered this unsigned document invalid, even forged, making Mary, Queen of Scots Elizabeth’s heir, as the senior in blood. If she were to be married to Darnley his English birth, combined with his Tudor blood, would greatly strengthen her claim.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A nervous Margaret insisted to the Spanish ambassador, Alavarez de Quadra, that securing the succession for Mary, Queen of Scots was her duty, for it would protect England from a civil war on Elizabeth’s death. But as the ambassador noted, Elizabeth based [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]her security on there being no certain successor should the people tire of her rule[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]. Margaret was in danger of being returned to the Tower, and by 2 April she was imprisoned at the former Carthusian Abbey of Sheen, near Richmond, west of London, house of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Richard Sackville (c. 1507 – 21 April 1566), while her husband Matthew was in the Tower.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In May Margaret’s interrogators complained she was being extremely obstinate in her replies to charges that included treason in the recent war in Scotland, and secret communications with a foreign monarch, (Mary, Queen of Scots) as well as the French and Spanish ambassadors. There were also said to be "proofs" that Margaret did [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]not love the Queen[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][4][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]There was even an attempt to accuse Margaret of planning to kill the Queen with witchcraft, a smear Cecil had used successfully against several Catholics the previous year. Margaret often heard Mass said [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]by one little Sir William[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] and it was being alleged that she was in contact with [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]witches and soothsayers[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif], even that she had conjured the lightening that had burned down of the steeple of St. Paul’s in 1561 on the feast of Corpus Christi.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile, with fear of witchcraft being stoked in Parliament, where the parliamentarians were making it an offence in common law, Cecil had been busy seeking information in Scotland to [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]prove[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] Margaret illegitimate. This concerned Margaret still more than the wild claims of treason and occult practises, which the Earl of Lennox characterized as the lies of, [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]exploiters, hired men and other fantastical persons[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]. When Margaret learned that she had been described as [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]a mere bastard[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif], she fired off a furious missive, reminding Cecil, [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Even as God hath made me, I am lawful daughter to the Queen of Scots [Margaret Tudor] and the Earl of Angus which none alive is able to make me other[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]It cannot be supposed that Elizabeth became satisfied of the sincerity of her friendship, but Lady Margaret wrote her letters with so skilful a savouring of flattery that gradually Elizabeth exhibited symptoms of reconciliation. Lady Margaret's protests that [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]it was the greatest grief she ever had to perceive the little love the queen bears her[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif], and that the sight of [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]her majesty's presence[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] would be [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]most to her comfort[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In the end, Queen Elizabeth chose to leave Margaret’s life unharmed and her legitimacy intact. Margaret’s royal claims remained a useful counter balance to those of the Protestant Catherine Grey. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile Margaret was attempting to send her son, Henry Lord Darnley, to France, it began to arrive at Sheen to her the letters from the Secretary of State Cecil, who informed her, first, of the Queen's disease, and then, of the death of Elizabeth.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Secretary of State, a two-faced Janus, a skilled diplomat, who knew to take the side stronger (and more profitable), now he saw and worked to make his ancient enemy/victim, the new sovereign legitimate[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif][5][/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Immediately, just died the Queen Elizabeth, Matthew Earl of Lennox was released from the Tower and joined to his family at Carthusian Abbey of Sheen accompanied by the Cecil's brother-in-law Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and Lord Robert Dudley, tolerated for the time being.[/FONT]



[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][1] The Lennoxes were showered with gifts. Margaret received two cloth-of-gold gowns. Lennox was given a large pointed diamond, a gold belt set with rubies and diamonds and Edward VI’s best horse. Darnley, already known to be musical, received Edward VI’s lutes, and three suits of clothing. Such was the enthusiasm for them that Margaret had hopes that Darnley would be named as Mary Tudor’s heir. It was during this period that Margaret provided a gift to her husband of the Lennox Jewel, a locket confirming their enduring love.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][2] Margaret seems to have developed a close rapport with the Guises as a result of these efforts. In February 1560 she confided to the Bishop of Aquileia that, should Mary die without children, Lennox and she would be placed on the Scottish throne by the French.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][3] Elizabeth got wind that Margaret was involved in [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]secret compassing of marriage betwixt the Scottish Queen and her son[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]. Margaret had to use all her guile with flattering letters to redeem Elizabeth’s mistrust. She denied any treasonable intent, claiming [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]it was the greatest grief she ever had to perceive the little love the queen bears her[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]. Without concrete evidence against her, Elizabeth eventually rehabilitated them to Court, where Darnley was [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]«[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]made much of[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]»[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] by the Queen for his proficiency with the lute and was kept in daily attendance by her presumably to ensure that the scheming was stopped.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][4] It was claimed that Margaret had persuaded Mary I to imprison Elizabeth in the Tower in 1554 ( which was believable as Mary I had wanted to leave Margaret the throne). Also that Margaret often referred to Elizabeth as a bastard and she would roundly mocked Elizabeth and the queen favourite Robert Dudley, called as a pox-ridden wife-murderer.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][5] There is no doubt that Cecil saw which way the wind was blowing: at the accession of Queen Mary, he made no scruple about conforming himself to the Catholic reaction. He went to Mass, confessed, and in no particular official capacity went to meet Cardinal Pole on his return to England in December 1554, again accompanying him to Calais in May 1555. Margaret even became godmother to Cecil’s baby daughter in 1564, and named the child Elizabeth.[/FONT]

​

 

[CalBear]

[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]

​

There is no question that at least portions of this T/L have been plagiarized, specifically from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) and/or the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) .

You are kicked for a week.

Plagiarism at this scale is a one strike offense. Next time you do it will be the last time you do it here.

Please keep this in mind when you return.