The Tudors for Dummies (AvaxHome Download) (24 page)

her on the throne, and so any attack on her faith was a personal attack on

her (treason) and an attack on God (heresy). Either way, the punishment

was death. Her view of Wyatt's Rebellion (see Chapter 9) was that it was a

Protestant revolt, and so heretics and traitors went hand in hand.

Measuring Protestantism

Simon Renard, Charles V's ambassador, believed that the Protestants were

still a strong political force and must be watched. The country couldn't easily Chapter 10: Returning to the Old Faith: Mary I 173

forget all that had happened during Edward VI's reign � the events of that

time weren't just a flash in the religious pan.

Mary's view was that:

Ordinary people were simple folk who'd been deluded and misled.

Protestant leaders were wicked people whose religious views were

wrong and they were clearly in it for money or power.

The Protestants most likely figurehead might be sister Elizabeth, but

she was in prison after Wyatt's Rebellion and had been told to keep the

Catholic faith.

Lord Chancellor Gardiner's view was that:

Ordinary people were idiots. They'd do as they were told.

Protestant leaders were hoping things would go their way. Put a few of

them on trial, threaten them with the stake and watch them grovel and

recant.

Making martyrs

Gardiner gave the Protestant preachers in prison in London a straight choice:

recant or die. They all turned him down. John Hooper, John Rogers and John

Cardmaker were earmarked for the flames on 29 January; Cardmaker cracked

and recanted. Rogers was one of those whose charred remains were found at

Smithfield (see the nearby sidebar `Fanning the flames'); Hooper died in front

of his own cathedral in Gloucester. Worse was to come.

By the summer of 1555, high profile Protestants Rowland Taylor, John

Bradford, Laurence Sanders, Robert Farrer and Edward Crome were all

charged with heresy. Crome recanted; the others died. John Cardmaker,

wracked with guilt, withdrew his recantation and was burned on 30 May.

Fanning the flames In 1849 excavations at Smithfield near St Inquisition throughout Europe. In Spain the Bartholomew's Hospital in London uncovered public burnings were called Auto da Fe and the charred oak posts, an iron staple and ring and first thing Philip did when he left England for the burnt human remains. This was all that was left first time was to watch 14 people killed in this of 43 people burned alive on the orders of Mary. way. In the heat of Spain, especially when the Burning was specifically the punishment for `spear of mercy' was thrust into the mouth first, heretics (including, everywhere except England, death was relatively quick. In a damp, foggy witches). It was widely used by the pope's Holy London, it could take two hours. 174 Part III: Remembering the Forgotten Tudors: Edward VI and Mary

Something was going wrong in Gardiner's and Pole's plans. Protestants

weren't recanting; they were becoming martyrs � the last thing Mary's

Government wanted.

Gardiner's death (from natural causes!) in November did nothing to stop the

persecution.

When bishops Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer were burned in Oxford in

October 1555, an enterprising London waterman took a day trip of ghouls up

the Thames to watch the spectacle. They got good value for their money �

Ridley was fully conscious for 45 minutes and he roasted in agony from the

feet up.

Taking responsibility

The Church was, by law, not able to shed blood, so even though Cardinal

Pole's fixed show trials found men guilty they had to be handed over to the

secular authorities for the actual punishment.

Mary, of course, was comfortable with the burnings: she was doing God's

work and her duty as queen. The Council, however, could have stopped her �

they weren't afraid to take her on over other matters � but they didn't. Philip

wasn't happy with the persecutions, simply because he could see the whole

thing was counter-productive. He knew the English would blame him and he

kept a low profile throughout.

Cremating Cranmer

Thomas Cranmer crops up in plenty of previ- Cranmer had been behind her father kicking

ous chapters. He was vital to the creation her mother out (see Chapters 5 and 6) and was

of Henry VIII's Church (see Chapter 6) and a responsible for every bad thing that had hap-

powerhouse when it came to the Edwardian pened since 1533!

Reformation, prayer books and all (see Chapter

On the stake in March 1556, Cranmer had no

8). Mary hated him because in religious terms

more to lose. He withdrew his recantation

he was a traitor. She had Cranmer put on trial

and died a martyr after all, thrusting his right

in September 1555 and his dilemma was obvi-

hand into the fiercest of the flames � `This hath

ous. As long as Mary was supreme head of the

offended,' he shouted above the fire's roar, `Oh,

Church, he backed her, but he wouldn't say the

this unworthy hand.'

mass or follow the pope.

It's not much to his credit that Cranmer recanted,

but Mary wasn't buying it. She believed Chapter 10: Returning to the Old Faith: Mary I 175

An inconsistent approach The Marian burnings followed a peculiar pat- given plenty of time to do it. For example, the tern. On the one hand, Pole went so far as to duchess of Suffolk, taking the kitchen sink with have dead heretics' remains dug up and burned her, took five days to reach Gravesend from in public. On the other, some people weren't London (less than one hour by car today). only allowed to leave the country, but were

Punishing the people

By 1557, with most high profile targets dead or in exile, the government set

its sights on the rank and file. Brief rigged trials of several people at once

took place to save time, and pardons were usually turned down. Public

burning was abandoned and victims were put to death early in the morning

to avoid the crowds. Ordinary people went to the stake as bravely as the

preachers and bishops.

Between 50 and 60 of the total 300 burned were women. In one particularly

ghastly incident in Guernsey, Perotine Massey gave birth at the stake and her

baby was delivered and burned too. In another instance, the stake wasn't used

and `loose women' were running around screaming and on fire.

Public reaction to the burnings was mixed. Protestants weren't always popular

with Catholic neighbours, who felt a sense of justice about what was happen-

ing. On the other hand, a lot of people couldn't get worked up about heresy as

a crime and thought burning was over the top. The more ordinary the victims

were, the more support they got � hence the move to early morning burnings.

Most of what we know about Mary's burnings comes from biased Protestant

accounts like Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Some of those who died were fanatics

who'd probably have been burned by the Protestants had Edward VI lived.

Some of the `spontaneous' demonstrations were actually carefully staged

Protestant propaganda.

Looking on the good side

Mary only became `Bloody Mary' in the 19th century, when attitudes had

changed completely. Some good things were going on in her reign:

Books of spiritual guidance were published.

Pole spent a lot of time improving the education of the clergy.

Pole promised a new Bible translation in 1556.

Bishop Bonner of London wrote homilies like Cranmer's (see Chapter 8).

The bottom line, however, was that everybody saw the burnings as the work

of the pope, the Inquisition and Philip. So the huge natural reconversion to the

old faith that Mary had planned never happened.

Planting Rebellion in Ireland

The burnings that took place in England just didn't happen in Ireland. That

was largely because Ireland had so few Protestants that when Mary became

queen they either gave up and went back to Rome or got out of the country.

The unpopular and not very competent Anthony St Leger was governor

between 1553 and 1556 and he had no new ideas.

When St Leger was recalled from Ireland in disgrace at the end of May 1556,

he was replaced by Thomas Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, who was about to

become the earl of Sussex.

The key feature of Sussex's deputyship on Mary's behalf was the setting up of

plantations run by Englishmen with farming experience who usually happened

to be ex-soldiers. At a stroke, these men could form their own military gar-

risons (saving the government money) and would hopefully make the country

more stable.

What's your poison, Ormond?

Back in December 1546 Governor St Leger had when everyone became ill and 17 of them

held a dinner party at his home in Limehouse in (including Ormond) died. Poisoning everybody

London. James Butler, the earl of Ormond and was a very neat solution to St Leger's immedi-

Ossary, was in the capital to settle a dispute ate problems, but it seems a rather high-risk

between him and St Leger over Irish affairs, strategy. Maybe it was just the dodgy fish from

which was to be arbitrated by the Privy Council. Billingsgate . . .

It was generous of St Leger to invite his rival

round for a bite, but it all turned sour (literally)

The targeted counties were Leix and Offaly, renamed King's and Queen's coun-

ties. In some cases, the Englishmen removed the landlords only from the estates,

setting up the system that would cause bitter resentment three centuries later �

Irish tenants paying rent to English landlords who didn't even live in Ireland.

Securing Succession

Philip and Mary were two minds with one thought � they both wanted a son.

The boy would be king of a Catholic England and a foreign territory � Spain

and the Spanish Netherlands (Low Countries) � would be thrown in.

But their union wasn't plain sailing:

Philip couldn't take Mary out of England (even for a honeymoon),

because the law at the time said that, by doing so, Mary might lose her

claim to the English throne. Unlike today, when foreign visits by heads

of state are an important part of what they do, leaving the country in the

16th century usually involved leading an army in the field.

Philip had to abide by English law.

England wouldn't take part in the ongoing war between the Holy Roman

Empire and France.

The marriage was unpopular with Philip (because his father had done

the deal).

Some people resented a foreigner on the English throne.

Settling into the role of king

In public, Philip was very attentive to Mary and she, increasingly plain and

frumpy, was besotted. She was an old fashioned romantic in some ways and

had a plain gold wedding ring because `that was how maidens were wedded

in olden times'. She kept out of sight at Court after the wedding (as was the

custom) while Philip went sight-seeing and tried to find himself a separate

palace.

Philip had a real problem learning English (see the sidebar `Tudor-speak') but

his pre-nup had said he had to have English servants. So he came out with a

compromise: English servants in public; Spanish in private. This, of course,

was the worst of both worlds: Englishmen complained they had no access to

the king; Spaniards felt dishonoured in the eyes of the world. 178 Part III: Remembering the Forgotten Tudors: Edward VI and Mary

Tudor-speak

Philip couldn't speak English. Mary could As far as dealing with the Council goes,

understand Spanish up to a point, but probably Gardiner and a few others spoke fluent Latin.

couldn't speak it. Mary spoke good French; Some of the nobility outside the Council, how-

Philip didn't. So we can't be sure how the ever, only spoke and wrote English and some

couple communicated. Maybe Mary spoke were illiterate. Interpreters must have been

French to Philip and he answered in Spanish? on hand, and it may be that some gentlemen of

Maybe they canoodled in Latin (after all, thou- the king's Privy Chamber did that job from time

sands of Romans did for centuries!)? Even so, to time.

misunderstandings must have been common.

What's Latin for `I've got a headache'?

Some of Philip's Spanish and Italian courtiers had nothing to do after the

wedding and found themselves at daggers (literally) with their English coun-

terparts. To avoid further embarrassment, Philip packed them off to the Low

Countries.

From then on, Philip's life was oddly semi-detached.

He played war games for the benefit of the nobility, went to the state

opening of Parliament (the equivalent Cortes in Spain had nothing like

the power of the Lords and Commons) and went to mass in St Paul's

Cathedral.

Much of his time he spent closeted away with his Spanish advisers, chat-

ting about European politics. He probably shared few of his political

ideas with Mary.

Only on the issue of the new Rome/England understanding (see the earlier

section `Furthering the Faith') was Philip truly open.

Expecting great things

Mary was sexually very naive. When she overheard the lord chamberlain call

a lady-in-waiting a whore, she thought that was a compliment and started

using it herself until the lady in question explained that the lord chamberlain

was a foul old *&^%$�, which presumably Mary didn't understand either.

Luckily, Philip knew which end of the bed was which, so it came as no sur-

prise to anybody when Mary thought she was pregnant. Some of the Spanish

courtiers thought `it would take God himself to drink of this cup', but events

seemed to be about to prove them wrong. Chapter 10: Returning to the Old Faith: Mary I 179 The early weeks of 1555 were Mary's high water mark. She was pregnant, the old faith was back (so was Cardinal Pole), hubby was attentive and nasty noises came from Scotland or France. Then everything went pear-shaped.

Waiting for nothing Early in April Mary retired from Court (which was usual for a pregnant queen). She tired easily and her abdomen was swollen. A nursery was decorated at Hampton Court (the same room where Edward VI was born), a cradle set up and an army of nurses and midwives were on hand. They even brought a set of triplets, newly born to a little woman as old as Mary, to encourage the queen.

But nothing happened. Her doctors wondered whether their dates were wrong, but rumours in and out of Court were (as always) far wilder:

The queen was bewitched/ill/dead.

A substitute child had been smuggled into the palace (writer John Foxe

recorded that a woman who'd just given birth was asked to give the boy

up by Court agents, no questions asked � but then the arch-Protestant

John Foxe would say that, wouldn't he?).

Mary's child was born on 30 April. This was so widely believed that

people in London began to celebrate.

People prayed for the queen's safe delivery, but in late July everything was scaled down. Mary hadn't been pregnant after all. The royal nursery was dis- mantled and Mary, emotionally shattered, went back to her normal duties.

By now, Mary was flat-chested and thin with a deep, rasping voice and a bad complexion. She'd always had problems with her periods and it was irregular periods that had led her to believe she was pregnant. Her weight loss led her doctors to believe that the baby's head (there was, of course, no doubt that it was a boy) had engaged inside the pelvis. Two years later, Mary would go through this deeply traumatic faux pregnancy experience a second time (see Chapter 11). Today, the symptoms sound like an ovarian cystic tumour or pos- sible cervical cancer.

Whatever the cause of Mary's illness, nothing could be done, and to all who knew her it was obvious that Mary wasn't well. Not only could the queen not conceive, but she didn't have long to live. For the Protestants, the lack of an heir for Mary and Philip was good news. The old faith might die (again) with the queen.

Charles V now realised that empire-building with the Tudors (at least this one!) wasn't going to happen. At least he'd got Philip into the Low Countries with English backing (see the following section), and if the queen was barren, that was good reason enough for the pope to grant a divorce.