The Reign of Mary Tudor | Page 4

cherished the vain dream of giving birth to the saviour of England and
the champion of the faith.
But Froude dwells with malicious irony on the frustration of the poor
woman's hopes. He covers the incident with a ridicule which must jar
on all sensitive minds. The fact that Cardinal Pole encouraged her
belief adds zest to Froude's satisfaction. No purer soul ever set himself
to right the world than Reginald Pole; no one failed more completely in
his cherished plans. He and Mary died on the same day; the bells that
tolled their knell rang out the order for which they stood. But the utter
failure of their hopes roused no emotion save that of bitter contempt in
Froude. He saw no merit in the "hysterical dreamer" who had sacrificed
his all for his religion; he saw no pathos in the life of that lone woman
who was condemned, almost from her cradle, to a loveless existence
and a forlorn death. His final epitaph on her is that "she had reigned
little more than five years, and she descended into the grave amidst
curses deeper than the acclamations which had welcomed her
accession." The only excuse he can find for her is that she was
suffering from "hysterical derangement" akin to insanity, which placed
her absolutely under the domination of Gardiner and Pole. When we
remember her magnanimity towards Lady Jane Grey at her accession,
when we contrast her conduct towards the formidable Elizabeth with
Elizabeth's subsequent conduct towards Mary Queen of Scots, her

generosity to the causes she had at heart with Elizabeth's unfailing
parsimony, and her open and straightforward dealings both in matters
of Church and of State with her sister's mean and tortuous subterfuges,
we may well extend not only our pity to the woman, but some tribute of
admiration to the Queen. At least we may agree with Froude that "few
men or women have lived less capable of doing knowingly a wrong
thing."
W. LLEWELYN WILLIAMS. February 3, 1910.
{p.xiii} Bibliography
The following is a list of the published works of J. A. Froude--
Life of St. Neot (Lives of the English Saints, edited by J. H. Newman),
1844; Shadows of the Clouds (Tales), by Zeta (pseud.), 1847; A
Sermon (on 2 Cor. vii. 10) preached at St. Mary's Church on the Death
of the Rev. George May Coleridge, 1847; Article on Spinoza (Oxford
and Cambridge Review), 1847; The Nemesis of Faith (Tale), 1849;
England's Forgotten Worthies (Westminster Review), 1852; Book of
Job (Westminster Review), 1853; Poems of Matthew Arnold
(Westminster Review), 1854; Suggestions on the Best Means of
Teaching English History (Oxford Essays, etc.), 1855; History of
England, 12 vols., 1856-70; The Influence of the Reformation on the
Scottish Character. 1865; Inaugural Address delivered to the University
of St. Andrews, March 19, 1869, 1869; Short Studies on Great Subjects,
1867, 2 vols., series 2-4, 1871-83 (articles from Fraser's Magazine,
Westminster Review, etc.); The Cat's Pilgrimage, 1870; Calvinism:
Address at St. Andrews, 1871; The English in Ireland, 3 vols., 1872-74;
Bunyan (English Men of Letters), 1878; Cæsar: a Sketch, 1879; Two
Lectures on South Africa, 1880; Thomas Carlyle (a history of the first
forty years of his life, etc.), 2 vols., 1882; Luther: a Short Biography,
1883; Thomas Carlyle (a history of his life in London, 1834-81), 2
vols., 1884; Oceana, 1886; The English in the West Indies, 1888;
Liberty and Property: an Address [1888]; The Two Chiefs of Dunboy,
1889; Lord Beaconsfield (a Biography), 1890; The Divorce of
Catherine of Arragon, 1891; The Spanish Story of the Armada, 1892;
Life and Letters of Erasmus, 1894; English Seamen in the Sixteenth

Century, 1895; Lectures on the Council of Trent, 1896; My Relations
with Carlyle, 1903.
Edited:--Carlyle's Reminiscences, 1881; Mrs. Carlyle's Letters, 1883.

{p.xv} CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. Queen Jane and Queen Mary 1
II. The Spanish Marriage 79
III. Reconciliation With Rome 147
IV. The Martyrs 201
V. Calais 260
VI. Death of Mary 305
Index 321

{p.001} MARY TUDOR
CHAPTER I.
QUEEN JANE AND QUEEN MARY.
On the 7th of July the death of Edward VI. was ushered in with signs
and wonders, as if heaven and earth were in labour with revolution. The
hail lay upon the grass in the London gardens as red as blood. At
Middleton Stony in Oxfordshire, anxious lips reported that a child had
been born with one body, two heads, four feet and hands.[1] About the
time when the letters patent were signed there came a storm such as no
living Englishman remembered. The summer evening grew black as

night. Cataracts of water flooded the houses in the city and turned the
streets into rivers; trees were torn up by the roots and whirled through
the air, and a more awful omen--the forked lightning--struck down the
steeple of