On the 24th June Sir Philip Hoby, one of the English envoys in Brussels, received a visit from Evered, “the King’s jeweller dwelling at Westminster,” who had just come from Antwerp. In that city, he reported, it was current, and wagers laid on it, that King Edward was already dead, and that Mary had succeeded. To make matters more threatening for Northumberland’s friends, it was further stated that the Emperor was sending to England with all speed three Catholic Flemish statesmen to be councillors of the new Queen of England. Well might Hoby in his private letter to Cecil, written the next day, exclaim in dismay: “Pray God that England’s wickedness may not be the cause of His taking away the King”; for if the country was to be guided by Charles’s councillors, of whom Hoby held but a poor opinion, then goodbye to Northumberland’s ambitions and to the prosperity of all his friends. “England would go to utter ruin,” he said, “if ruled by such men.”[3] The three envoys sent by the Emperor to capture England for Spanish ends when Edward should die had indeed received their instructions two days before Hoby wrote his letter to Cecil. They were all men of mark—Jean de Montmorenci, Lord of Courrières, Jacques de Marnix, Lord of Tholuze, both members of the highest Flemish nobility, and one of the Emperor’s Masters of Requests, a keen, sagacious lawyer named Simon Renard. Charles had maintained a minister resident in London, one Schefyne, who became Chancellor of Brabant, but for so important a mission as that now in hand he was considered inadequate; and in right of his experience and ability Simon Renard, though inferior in point of rank to his colleagues, became the real leader of the embassy. The envoys were to seek audience of Northumberland and Edward, and to say that, as the King of France had sent a secretary to visit him on account of his sickness, the Emperor, whose affection for him was infinitely greater, could do no less. All sorts of assurances of friendship and goodwill towards England were to be given, and care was to be taken in any case to conciliate Northumberland. “But,” continue the instructions, “if you arrive too late, you must take counsel together and act for the best for the safety of our cousin the Princess Mary, and secure, if possible her accession to the Crown: whilst doing what you see necessary to exclude the French and their intrigues. You must endeavour also to maintain the confidence and good neighbourship which it is so important that our Flemish States and Spain should enjoy with England for mutual trade and intercourse; and especially to prevent the French from getting their foot in, or gaining the ear of the men who now rule England, the more so if it be for the purpose of troubling us.”[4]