Philip and Renard did their best to smooth ruffled susceptibilities. All acts of clemency were ostentatiously coupled with Philip’s name, and the King surpassed himself in amiability and generosity.[153] Mary, in the meantime, was perfectly infatuated with her young husband, and he was kind and gentle to her, as he was to each of his wives in turn. ‘Their Majesties,’ writes a Spanish courtier, ‘are the happiest couple in the world, and are more in love with each other than I can say. He never leaves her, and on the road is always by her side, lifting her into the saddle and helping her to dismount. He dines with her, publicly sometimes, and they go to mass together on feast days.’ Then the same writer continues: ‘These English are the most ungrateful people in the world, and hate Spaniards worse than the devil. They rob us, even in the middle of the city, and not a soul of us dares to venture two miles away for fear of molestation. There is no justice for us at all. We are ordered by the King to avoid disputes and put up with everything whilst we are here, and to endure all their attacks in silence.... We are told that we must bear everything for his Majesty’s sake.’[154] Spanish nobles were openly insulted in the streets of London, and Spanish priests stoned in the churches: but this was not the worst. What galled most was the growing conviction that all this humiliation was in vain. Instead of a submissive people ready to bow the neck to the new King and his countrymen, the Spaniards found a country where the sovereign’s power was strictly circumscribed, and where a foreigner’s only hope of domination was by force of arms. ‘This marriage will, indeed, have been a failure if the Queen have no children,’ wrote one of Philip’s chamberlains. ‘They told us in Castile that if his Highness became King of England we should be masters of France ... but instead of that the French are stronger than ever, and are doing as they like in Flanders. Kings here have as little power as if they were subjects; the people who really govern are the councillors, who are the King’s masters.... They say openly that they will not let our King go until they and the Queen think fit, as this country is quite big enough to satisfy any one King.’