Queens of old SpainHume, Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp)
Philosophy
Queens of old Spain
Hume, Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp)
Queens -- Spain; Spain -- History; Women -- Political activity
Already it was seen that the Queen must marry. She had been betrothed
times out of number as an instrument of policy, but of her own will she
desired no husband; and when Renard, in a long private chat with her at
New Hall on the 1st August, broached the subject, she told him that she
knew her duty in that respect and would do it, but prayed for the
guidance of the Emperor in her choice of a husband. She was no longer
young, she said, and hoped that too youthful a husband would not be
recommended to her. Renard knew that already English people had chosen
as the Queen’s prospective bridegroom young Courtenay, still in the
Tower as a prisoner; and that failing him, some had thought of Cardinal
Pole; but he knew well, as did the Emperor, that Mary was too proud to
marry a subject, and looked to her marriage as a means of strengthening
her throne; and soon afterwards even Noailles saw that Courtenay had
spoilt his chance by dissoluteness of life, though he continued to make
use of him as a tool for conspiracy against Mary and her Spanish
friends.
On the 3rd August the new Queen, dressed in violet velvet, and mounted
on a milk-white pony, came to her city of London through the gaily
decked portal of Aldgate, and so to the Tower, where she released those
who had lain there in prison to suit the policy of the men who had ruled
Edward VI. Events moved apace. Gardiner from a prison was suddenly
raised to the post of chief minister. Bonner, the hated Bishop of
London, came from the Marshalsea to his throne in Saint Paul’s; and
everywhere, though yet illegal, the mass was already being introduced.
The Emperor kept warning Mary to be moderate, and to walk warily; whilst
the churchmen, burning with zeal to come upon their own again, were
obstinately shutting their eyes to all that had happened since bluff
Henry’s death. Renard it was who almost daily saw the Queen with these
messages of modern counsel from his master; and the subject of marriage
was mentioned more than once. Noailles and Gardiner were pushing as hard
as they might the suit of Courtenay; but on the 7th August Mary told
Renard that she saw no fit match for her in her own country, and had
decided to marry a foreigner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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