his work, or seeking safety in flight, as some of his friends advised, openly spoke and wrote against all these retrogade proceedings, but was for so doing, thrown into prison, and the management of affairs given to his opponent Gardiner: but the latter was prudent enough to see that it was easier to force upon the people some subtle doctrines than to accustom them again to the Papal power, or to effect the restoration of the Church lands. Even Mary herself confessed in a letter, that the abolition of the ecclesiastical laws of Edward, had not been accomplished without a severe struggle and contest, and only by the greatest exertions of the faithful; nay, Pope Julius III. said, Mary is a woman, her power is not secure, and the zeal of her adversaries is great;— therefore it is advisable by no means to proceed with precipitation, but to act with prudence. However, the Pope, conformably to the wishes of Mary, appointed Cardinal Pole for his plenipotentiary; but he was detained under various pretences, and almost by violence, in the Netherlands. For Gardiner, perhaps fearing his influence, had written to the Emperor, that the people were by no means sufficiently prepared to receive a Papal Legate, and and Pole, like Mary, would desire to change all matters relative to religion at once, and thereby spoil all! Charles V. not only participated in this conviction, but feared also that Pole might oppose the plan of marrying Mary to Philip II., or perhaps

even think of renouncing the ecclesiastical profession, and marrying the Queen himself.

Some persons had wished she might marry the Earl of Devonshire, the grandson of a daughter of Edward IV., but he was imprudent and licentious, and Mary too thought that a marriage with one of her subjects could neither do her honour, nor add to her reputation. Besides this, Charles V. to whom Mary had, from the beginning, secretly left the decision respecting her marriage, had very different plans. His Ambassadors therefore negociated during the night with the Queen, without the knowledge of her Counsellors, and, by their very able conduct, at length led her eagerly to enter into the secret wishes of the Emperor, and almost to express them first herself: nay, she was so impatient, that on the 30th of October, 1553, she sent for Charles's Ambassador during the night, and solemnly gave him her promise for Philip II., before any public negociation had taken place on the subject.(70) But scarcely was the news of this plan published, when manifold objections to it arose. Philip, it was alleged, was proud, impetuous, superstitious, hated even in his hereditary dominions, and would attempt to introduce Spanish and Italian slavery into England; the marriage seemed equally liable to objections if it were concluded with or without the permission of the Pope, and it might lead to great differences with France. These well-founded

or exaggerated apprehensions were to be removed, such was the wish of the Emperor himself, by a marriage contract, the terms of which appeared extremely reasonable. But the more he and Philip granted, the less, in the opinion of those who were indisposed to the plan, did they intend to keep.— The marriage contract declared; the Government remains in the hands of the Queen, she decides with respect to offices, lands, revenues, &c.; no change shall be made in the laws, no foreigners hold any office, and no foreign language be employed in public transactions. The Queen is not to leave the kingdom without her free will, her children not to leave it without the consent of the nobility. They are to inherit Burgundy and the Netherlands, nay, in case Prince Charles should die, the whole Spanish Monarchy.

ment.

Meantime discontent at ecclesiastical matters, and the Spanish marriage, rose so high that many considered it as their duty openly to oppose the GovernDisturbances arising from this circumstance were not suppressed without bloodshed, and, from the cruel temper of the Queen, gave occasion to numerous executions. Thus, on the 14th and 15th of February, 1554, fifty persons were hung, in London alone, on twenty gallows; and on the 12th, Jane Grey, her husband, and the Duke of Suffolk, were executed. At all events, the Lady Jane had not the slightest share in the late insurrection ;—

she suffered death in the Tower, that public sympathy might not be excited, and bore her fate with the greatest resolution, declaring on the scaffold, that she was guilty for not having more strenuously opposed her elevation, and having thereby troubled public tranquillity and order.

The Queen was very desirous to involve her sister Elizabeth, whose brilliant qualities began to attract all eyes, (") in the same ruin. She also, already indicated Mary Stuart as her legal successor. On the 15th of March, 1554, Elizabeth was arrested, and so rigorously treated in the Tower, that she was not even permitted to walk out into the open air. She was convinced that she should be executed, but the strictest investigation proved that many of her adherents had indeed known of the troubles, and had thought of placing her upon the throne, but that Elizabeth, as she herself also positively afirmed, had never participated in such a plan. Even Bishop Gardiner, though at first the most zealous accuser of Elizabeth, is said to have finally declared, that there was no reason to condemn her. (72) Philip, and the Spaniards, affirmed the same, partly from a sense of justice, partly for fear of insurrections, and partly because they apprehended that Mary Stuart might one day become Queen of France, Scotland, and England. On the 19th of May, 1554, Elizabeth was set at liberty, but still kept under strict superintendence; a plan to send her to Brussels, or to

marry her in Savoy, was not executed, in consequence of her firm resistance.

The new Parliament, which sat from the 2d of April to the 5th of May, 1554, did indeed assent to the marriage contract, but at the same time came to various resolutions, to prevent the influence of Philip. A motion to grant to the Queen the right of determining the succession, was negatived, from fear of the Spanish dominion and of the exclusion of Elizabeth; nor were laws proposed against the pretended heretics agreed to; whereupon Mary dismissed the Parliament in high displeasure. The plan for the Queen's Spanish marriage caused such a general excitement, that even schoolboys divided into parties and fought, and, in their anger, hung the boy who had personated King Philip, so that it was with great difficulty that he was cut down and restored to life. Mary, on the other hand, desired to see her bridegroom with an eagerness that amounted to silliness, and mingled with fear that the affiance might no more end in a marriage than nine others had done before, or that Philip, a young man of twenty-seven, might not think her, who was thirtyeight, either handsome or amiable, and in fact she was neither. Mary also declared, when she was married to Count Egmont, as proxy for Philip, that she contracted this marriage for the honour and advantage of her kingdom, and Gardiner made a speech to the Parliament, arguing that if the meanest