In late April 1555 London erupted with pleasure on the hearsay that Queen Mary I – ‘Bloody Mary’ – had lastly given beginning to a son. The entire metropolis celebrated. In accordance with the Venetian ambassador Giovanni Michiel, retailers had been shut, church bells had been rung, inns handed out wine and meals ‘to whoever needed’, and bonfires had been lit on the street.
It was the information everybody had been ready for. Since coming to the throne two years earlier, Mary had been determined for an inheritor. For the Tudors, succession had at all times been a fear. Her father, Henry VIII, had famously struggled to have a son – a lot in order that he had torn England aside within the course of. And even then, it hadn’t been sufficient. Mary was solely queen as a result of her sickly brother, Edward VI, had died in his teenagers. However for her, it had an added significance. Mary wanted a son to safe not simply her throne, but in addition her religion. As a Catholic she was bitterly against Edward’s non secular reforms and was decided to revive the pope’s authority. Until she produced an inheritor, the crown would go to her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth.
The challenges had been simple. At her accession Mary was 37 years previous, single and – by all accounts – a virgin. The very first thing she wanted was a husband. However who? Mary and her counsellors agreed that she wanted somebody able to defending her. Because the historian David Loades emphasised, the ‘conventional imagery of monarchy’ was nonetheless so certain up with militarism that it was not possible to think about her ruling successfully with out
a person fulfilling that position. However she couldn’t take the danger of marrying somebody too highly effective or assertive both. She was acutely conscious that the dominion had been entrusted to her, and her alone. She wouldn’t see it wrested from her in marriage. The risks had been clear. There was no precedent for a king consort. Nobody was certain what the position would entail, nor what an bold man would possibly make of it.
There have been loads of candidates. There was the Infante Luis, brother of King John III of Portugal, an amiable and clever man. There was Edward Courtenay, the dashing earl of Devon. Some courtiers even prompt that Cardinal Reginald Pole would possibly make a superb husband. By far essentially the most interesting, nevertheless, was a Habsburg. Some years earlier than, Mary had been engaged to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He supplied a pure defence towards France, England’s conventional enemy, and was a vehement defender of Catholic orthodoxy. Disappointingly, he felt he was now too previous for such a match. However he did have a son, Philip, who was younger, energetic, and – better of all – widowed. Though Charles had been compelled to vow that Philip would by no means be elected emperor, he had settled on his son the dominion of Spain and its territories. Philip would even be named ruler of the Spanish Netherlands. This was a troublesome prospect: the Dutch had been a restive folks, not averse to rise up. With England in his pocket, Philip could be nicely positioned to place down any risings.
Harmful liaisons
Philip was not with out his opponents. In late 1553 Parliament expressed its opposition to any international marriage. The next yr Sir Thomas Wyatt even led a rise up in Kent in an try to pressure the queen to repudiate her betrothal. Mary was too strong-headed to bow to their calls for. However she was shrewd sufficient to see they might not be ignored. When the wedding contract was drawn up, care was taken to specify that, whereas Philip would ‘get pleasure from collectively with the Queen her type and kingly title, and assist her in her administration’, he would haven’t any position within the distribution of places of work or revenues and would haven’t any proper of succession if Mary predeceased him. She granted him no estates in England and appointed no Spanish nobles to her Council. She additionally refused to grant him a coronation – simply in case he used it to grab the throne in his personal proper.
The precedence was to supply an inheritor. This was simpler stated than finished. Though Mary was reportedly delighted to lose her virginity (on the age of 38), Philip was much less thrilled. Eleven years youthful than his bride, he had vigorous appetites and located Mary disappointing. Nonetheless, he did his responsibility. For a time, he even steered away from the ‘bakers’ daughters and different poor whores’ with whom he often amused himself.
When Mary fell pregnant in August 1554 the aid was palpable. Any doubts in regards to the fecundity of the match had been eliminated, the succession appeared safe, and the bond between husband and spouse was strengthened. Nevertheless it introduced its personal risks. Philip resented being denied any formal position within the kingdom. He seized on the being pregnant as a possibility to strengthen his hand. His brokers in Parliament pressed for him to have a coronation. They supplied a compromise. Philip would repudiate any proper of succession, however within the occasion of the queen’s demise he could be made guardian of any kids – in impact granting him the power to rule England via his offspring.
This was defeated, however the prospect of an inheritor meant that the unresolved situation of Philip’s position couldn’t be ignored. As Mary withdrew from the observe of presidency in preparation for confinement, she left extra day-to-day issues to Philip. Expectation – and hazard – grew.
Phantoms
Regardless of the rumours spreading in London, April 1555 got here and went with no little one. Mary’s docs unexpectedly adjusted their calculations. The infant would are available June, they declared. Or perhaps July. However, moreover a number of cramps, Mary confirmed no signal of labour. It was not possible to staunch the doubts that swirled across the courtroom. Relatively unkindly, Giovanni Michiel opined that Mary’s being pregnant would ‘finish in wind and nothing else’.
By August, it was clear that Mary’s being pregnant had been a phantom. There could be no inheritor. Her well being – each bodily and psychological – was shattered. The political fallout was much more devastating. As Loades put it, ‘the entire regime had out of the blue misplaced credibility’. The succession, which solely weeks earlier than had appeared assured, was now broad open.
This put Philip in a bind. It appeared seemingly that Mary may be unable to conceive. With out a little one there was no probability that Parliament would formalise his place. Ought to he repudiate the wedding treaty and attempt to seize the throne himself, regardless of the danger? Or ought to he settle for that Elizabeth would rule after Mary, and attempt to handle as finest he may? Not sure, he left England to take up his obligations within the Spanish Netherlands.
This upset Mary significantly. Nevertheless low the possibilities, her entire reign hinged on conceiving. Her moods swung violently. At some point, she would write plaintive letters, begging him to come back house. The subsequent, she would kick his portrait in a rage.
Philip knew what he was doing. No matter how unlikely a toddler was, right here was a possibility to enlarge his affect whereas he nonetheless may. Understanding how a lot Mary needed him again, he successfully compelled her to take heed to his views on crown appointments – and even persuaded her to hitch the Habsburgs’ warfare towards France.
His return, in March 1557, was transient. He stayed solely so long as was wanted for the ink to dry on the declaration of warfare. By July he was already again on the Continent. What – if something – occurred within the marriage chamber is unclear. However six months later, Mary was satisfied that she was pregnant once more. The signs appeared credible. Everybody held their breath for a supply in February or March.
A misplaced empire
It was in useless. By Could 1558 even the queen needed to admit that there could be no child. It was apparent to her docs that one thing was severely mistaken. There have been too many signs for a mere phantom being pregnant. It was most probably a pituitary tumour. There was no remedy and little hope.
With out a little one, Mary had no alternative however to recognise Elizabeth as her successor. Nevertheless firmly the queen believed that Elizabeth was a bastard, and thus ineligible to inherit, she was the one practical inheritor. The one different, Mary, Queen of Scots, had simply married the longer term king of France, which neither Mary nor Philip may countenance.
This threatened what Mary held dearest of all: the Catholic religion. Though Philip was happy that Elizabeth was religious sufficient to inherit – and should have already got been desirous about marrying her after the queen’s demise – Mary was satisfied that she wouldn’t hesitate to return England to Protestantism. Mary was proper. After her demise, on 17 November 1558, England’s final ties with Rome had been severed, and the final flickering flames of the English Counter-Reformation had been snuffed out.
It’s the nice tragedy of Mary’s life that she died realizing that her religion – and her kingdom – had been misplaced. However her sense of loss was maybe mitigated by her ignorance of what may need come to go had she really had the son she craved. Clearly, the boy would have inherited the English throne. He would have most probably saved England Catholic and – had he lived lengthy sufficient to marry – excluded Elizabeth from the succession. However what Mary couldn’t have guessed is that he may have inherited much more. Philip already had a son, Don Carlos, who was inheritor to Spain. By the point he married Mary, Carlos was already exhibiting indicators of psychological sickness. After he tried to kill Philip’s half-brother Don Juan of Austria in 1568 he was imprisoned. Inside months, he was useless. So, had Philip and Mary had a son, he might have stood to inherit Spain as nicely. He may have gained the entire of the Spanish Empire within the Americas – and the primary English abroad colonies too. The long run that this may need produced is vertigo-inducing. An empire vaster than any the world had ever seen.
Alexander Lee is a fellow within the Centre for the Examine of the Renaissance on the College of Warwick. His newest guide is Machiavelli: His Life
and Occasions (Picador).
