The Reign of Mary Tudor | Page 8

for
the welfare of his people.[11]
[Footnote 11: Mr. John Gough Nichols, the accomplished editor of so
many of the best publications of the Camden Society, throws a doubt
on the authenticity of this scene, being unable to find contemporary
authority for it. It comes to us, through Baoardo, from Lady Jane
herself.]
So passed Sunday, the 9th of July, at Sion House. In London, the hope
of first securing Mary being disappointed, the king's death had been
publicly acknowledged; circulars were sent out to the sheriffs, mayors,
and magistrates in the usual style, announcing the accession of Queen
Jane, and the troops were sworn man by man to the new sovereign. Sir
William Petre and Sir John Cheke waited on the emperor's ambassador
to express a hope that the alteration in the succession would not affect
the good understanding between the courts of England and Flanders.
The preachers were set to work to pacify the citizens; and, if Scheyfne
is to be believed, a blood cement was designed to strengthen the new
throne; and Gardiner, the Duke of Norfolk, and Lord Courtenay[12]
were directed to prepare for death in three days.[13] But
Northumberland would scarcely have risked an act of gratuitous
tyranny. Norfolk, being under attainder, might have been put to death
{p.007} without violation of the forms of law, by warrant from the
crown; but, Gardiner was uncondemned, and Courtenay had never been
accused of crime.
[Footnote 12: Edward Lord Courtenay was son of the executed Marquis
of Exeter and great grandson of Edward IV. He was thrown into the

Tower with his father when a little boy, and in that confinement, in
fifteen years, he had grown to manhood. Of him and his fortunes all
that need be said will unfold itself.]
[Footnote 13: Scheyfne to Charles V., July 10: MS. Rolls House.]
The next day, Monday, the 10th of July, the royal barges came down
the Thames from Richmond; and at three o'clock in the afternoon Lady
Jane landed at the broad staircase at the Tower, as queen, in undesired
splendour. A few scattered groups of spectators stood to watch the
arrival; but it appeared, from their silence, that they had been brought
together chiefly by curiosity. As the gates closed, the heralds-at-arms,
with a company of the archers of the guard, rode into the city, and at
the cross in Cheapside, Paul's Cross, and Fleet Street they proclaimed
"that the Lady Mary was unlawfully begotten, and that the Lady Jane
Grey was queen." The ill-humour of London was no secret, and some
demonstration had been looked for in Mary's favour;[14] but here,
again, there was only silence. The heralds cried "God save the queen!"
The archers waved their caps and cheered, but the crowd looked on
impassively. One youth only, Gilbert Potter, whose name for those few
days passed into fame's trumpet, ventured to exclaim, "The Lady Mary
has the better title." Gilbert's master, one "Ninian Sanders," denounced
the boy to the guard, and he was seized. Yet a misfortune, thought to be
providential, in a few hours befell Ninian Sanders. Going home to his
house down the river, in the July evening, he was overturned and
drowned as he was shooting London Bridge in his wherry; the boatmen,
who were the instruments of Providence, escaped.
[Footnote 14: Noailles.]
Nor did the party in the Tower rest their first night there with perfect
satisfaction. In the evening messengers came in from the eastern
counties with news of the Lady Mary, and with letters from herself. She
had written to Renard and Scheyfne to tell them that she was in good
hands, and for the moment was safe. She had proclaimed herself queen.
She had sent addresses to the peers, commanding them on their
allegiance to come to her; and she begged the ambassadors to tell her
instantly whether she might look for assistance from Flanders; on the

active support of the emperor, so far as she could judge, the movements
of her friends would depend.
The ambassadors sent a courier to Brussels for instructions; but,
pending Charles's judgment to the contrary, they thought they had
better leave Mary's appeal unanswered till they could see how events
would turn. There was one rumour current {p.008} indeed that she had
from ten to fifteen thousand men with her; but this they could ill
believe. For themselves, they expected every hour to hear that she had
been taken by Lord Warwick and Lord Robert Dudley, who were gone
in pursuit of her, and had been put to death.[15]
[Footnote 15: Renard to Charles V.: Papiers d'État du Cardinal
Granvelle, vol. iv.]
The lords who were with the new queen were not so confident. They
were in late consultation with the Duchess of Northumberland and the
Duchess of Suffolk, when, after