Mary had reasons enough to dread worse treatment, in spite of her humble expressions of submissive obedience. After the first flush of her reconciliation and return to court, and more especially after the death of Queen Jane, who had always befriended her, Henry’s irritation broke out afresh. At Easter 1538, the mourning for the Queen being over, Lady Kingston sent to Wriothesley, Keeper of the Wardrobe and Cromwell’s Secretary, “to know the King’s pleasure whether my Lady Mary’s grace should leave wearing of black this Easter or not”. She received the ungracious reply that the Lady Mary might wear “what colour she would”. Nothing daunted, Lady Kingston again wrote, “My Lady’s grace desireth you now to be a suitor to the King’s grace, for her wearing her whiten taffety edged with velvet, which used to be to his own liking, whenever he saw her grace, and suiteth to this joyful feast of our Lord’s holy rising from the dead”.[224] There is no answer to this letter, but about the same time there is a warrant in Cromwell’s _Remembrances_, written in Wriothesley’s hand, “for apparell for my Lady Mary”.[225] During the whole of this year, although supposed to be in favour, Mary was not only in an uncomfortable, but in a more or less dangerous position. She was virtually a prisoner in her own house, and was not even allowed to take the exercise which her health needed. Henry saw her occasionally and dined with her at Richmond in May; but she was closely watched, and scarcely ever permitted to appear in public, while the sums allowed for her household expenses were painfully inadequate. On the 14th September, Mendoza wrote to Charles V., that when he last saw her, she was in good health, but he had heard, that she had been unwell for the last few days, and that he thought the cause of it was to be found in the confinement in which she lived, “for nowadays she is kept much closer, and more poorly than before”. This new piece of persecution had for its sole object to force her to give up her only powerful friend, the Emperor, whose advice to her Henry felt was continually getting in the way of his own particular affairs. He could not apparently convince her that Charles’s friendship was not disinterested, but at least he could keep her a constant “suitor,” and in the humble position of a beggar, at his own royal and sacred feet. The letter which she wrote to Cromwell, in her urgent need for money, was entirely after the despot’s heart. “MY LORD,