Though Mary’s death had long been foreseen, Feria was distracted when it came, for change was on all sides, and each change unfavourable to Spanish interests. “It is very early,” he wrote, “to talk about marriage yet; but the confusion and instability of these people in all their affairs make it necessary for us to be the more alert, so as not to lose the opportunities that may offer, and especially in the matter of marriage.... The new Queen and the people hold themselves free from your Majesty, and will listen to any ambassadors who may come to treat of marriage. Your Majesty understands better than I how important it is that this affair should go through your hands, which will be difficult except with great negotiations and expenditure.” He continues by urging Philip not to allow the Emperor Ferdinand to offer the hand of either of his sons to Elizabeth, and opines that the English would not favour Savoy, whilst, he says, the nobles recognise that it would be impossible for the Queen to marry an Englishman. This was, of course, preliminary to the suggestion of Feria that Philip should marry Elizabeth himself. “The more I think of this business the more certain I am that everything depends upon the husband this woman may take. If he be a suitable one, religious matters will go on well, and the realm will remain friendly with your Majesty; but if not, all will be spoilt. If she decides to marry out of the country she will at once fix her eyes upon your Majesty, although some of them here will be sure to pitch upon the Archduke Ferdinand.”[137] Feria, who had lorded over Mary’s Council, found the members now sorely changed. They had mostly been bribed heavily by him, and the ambassador roundly abuses them for their ingratitude. They were indeed, such of them as were included in Elizabeth’s Council, too anxious to clear themselves from the odium of the past to smile upon the unpopular Spanish connection; though secretly Lord William Howard, Clinton, and Paget promised their services to Feria. As for the people at large, the death of Mary was to them as if a crushing weight had been lifted from their hearts. Even as she lay dying, the sacred things—the images, relics, and the like—of which she had enforced the veneration, were openly slighted; and Feria wrote a few days after her death: “The people are wagging their tongues a good deal about the Queen’s having sent great sums of money to your Majesty, and that I have sent you 200,000 ducats since I came. They say that it is through your Majesty that the country is in such want, and that Calais was lost; and also that through your not coming to see the Queen she died of grief.”