[Footnote 264: _Statutes of the Realm_, iv., 110.] [Footnote 265: Ridley ordered the altars in his diocese to be taken down, as occasions of great superstition and error; and tables to be set in their room, in some convenient place in the chancel or choir. The Catholics ridiculed the tables as “oyster-boards” (Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_, p. 355).] [Footnote 266: _Acts of the Privy Council_, new series, vol. ii., p. 312, edited by John Roche Dasent.] [Footnote 267: Lansdowne MS. 1236, f. 28, Brit. Mus.] [Footnote 268: Lemon, Dom., _Edward VI._, vol. i., p. 22, art. 51.] [Footnote 269: _Acts of the Privy Council_, vol. ii., p. 291, new series.] [Footnote 270: Foxe, vol. vi., p. 12.] [Footnote 271: _Journal of King Edward’s Reign_, 21.] [Footnote 272: Turnbull, _Cal. State Papers_, Edward VI., Foreign, 1547-53, p. 75.] [Footnote 273: Turnbull, _Cal. State Papers_, Edward VI., Foreign, 1547-53, p. 137.] [Footnote 274: Turnbull, _Cal. State Papers_, Edward VI., Foreign, 1547-53, p. 137.] [Footnote 275: _Acts of the Privy Council_, vol. iii., p. 239, new series.] [Footnote 276: _Ibid._] [Footnote 277: _Ibid._, p. 240.] [Footnote 278: _Ibid._, p. 329.] [Footnote 279: Harl. MS. 352, f. 186. Ellis’s _Letters_, vol. ii., p. 176, 1st series.] [Footnote 280: _Acts of the Privy Council_, vol. iii., p. 336 _et seq._, new series.] [Footnote 281: _Acts of the Privy Council_, vol. iii., p. 348 _et seq._] [Footnote 282: Turnbull, _Cal. State Papers_, Foreign, p. 53. Strype, _Ecclesiastical Memorials_, vol. ii., pt. i., p. 457.] [Footnote 283: Lansdowne MS. 2, f. 141.] [Footnote 284: Foxe, _Acts and Monuments_, vol vi., p. 354, Cattley’s ed.] [Footnote 285: _Ecclesiastical Memorials_, vol. ii., pt. i., p. 444.] [Footnote 286: Sharon Turner, _History of England_, vol. xi., p. 325 note.] CHAPTER IX. THE COMING OF THE QUEEN. 1553. The hereditary enmity between Charles V. and the King of France, which in its earliest stages had deluged Europe with blood, and had made of the city of Rome a shambles, was in its later developments the cause of most of the troubles of Mary’s reign. Scarcely was it whispered that Edward lay dying, when England became at once the political battlefield of their conflicting interests. Charles opened the campaign by sending over from Brussels three envoys extraordinary, ostensibly to visit the King, but really to watch Mary’s case in the interest of the empire. These envoys were Jean de Montmorency Sieur de Corrières, Jacques de Mornix Sieur de Toulouse, and last, though by no means the least, Simon Renard, who was destined to play an important part in Mary’s future. France too was immediately in the field, and Henry II. despatched two envoys to the coast, with instructions to remain at Boulogne till further orders, while de Noailles, his ambassador in England, made overtures to Northumberland of French aid in the event of foreigners attempting to disturb the tranquillity of the realm.