CHAPTER 53
UPON HIS ARRIVAL AT WHITEHALL ON NOVEMBER 24, CARDINAL Pole had addressed Mary with the opening words of the Ave Maria: “Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women,” the words by which the Angel Gabriel had heralded the Virgin Mary’s conception of Jesus. Pole’s greeting was, it seems, equally prophetic. Shortly after he left, Mary sent a messenger after him. She had felt her child stir when Pole greeted her; she knew she was pregnant.1
It followed weeks of rumor and fevered speculation. Renard had written in his dispatch in mid-September, just two months after the wedding, that one of the queen’s physicians had told him that the queen “is probably with child.” The English ambassador in Brussels, Sir John Mason, reported weeks later, in response to the emperor’s question “How goeth my daughter’s belly forward?” that although he had heard nothing formally from the queen, others had told him “her garments wax very strait.”2
With the pregnancy now seemingly confirmed, letters were sent from the Council to bishops ordering Te Deums to be sung and special prayers offered for this “good hope of certain succession” and to give thanks for her “quickening with child, and to pray.”3 The news was proclaimed across Europe. “The Queen is with child,” announced Ruy Gómez; “may it please God to grant her the issue that is so solely needed to set affairs right here and make everything smooth … this pregnancy will put a stop to every difficulty.”4 Every aspect of Mary’s appearance was scrutinized and reported on. Writing to the emperor in November, Renard told him, “There is no doubt that the Queen is with child, for her stomach clearly shows it and her dresses no longer fit her.”5 And later the same month: the “lady is well with child. God be thanked! For she has felt the babe and presents all the usual signs on her breasts and elsewhere.”6
In the days before Christmas, Mary wrote to her father-in-law:
As for that child which I carry in my belly, I declare it to be alive and with great humility thank God for His great goodness shown to me, praying Him so to guide the fruit of my womb that it may contribute to His glory and honour, and give happiness to the King, my Lord and your son, to your Majesty, who were my second father in the lifetime of my own father, and are therefore doubly my father, and lastly that it may prove a blessing to the realm.7
Charles responded with enthusiastic expectation: “Be it man, or be it woman, welcome shall it be; for by that we shall be at the least come to some certainty to whom God shall appoint by succession the government of our estates.”
It was a sentiment shared by many. As long as Mary remained childless, there was grave anxiety in the kingdom, as John Mason explained during his audience with the emperor: “It maketh all good men tremble to think the Queen’s highness must die, with whom, dying without fruit, the realm were as good also to die.”8 The future of the Catholic restoration would depend on the fruitfulness of the marriage.
MARY WAS EXPECTED to give birth on or before May 9. The chamber and nursery were made ready, the chief gentlewomen of the kingdom summoned to witness the birth, wet nurses and rockers put on standby, and the royal cradle “sumptuously and gorgeously trimmed” and a Latin verse and English translation inlaid upon it:
The child which thou to Mary, O Lord of might! hast send,
To England’s joy, in health preserve, keepe, and defend!9
A series of letters announcing the baby’s safe arrival was prepared and signed by Mary herself, ready to be sent to the pope, the emperor, the king of France, the doge of Venice, and the queen regent of Flanders. In most, the sex of the child and date of delivery were left blank to be filled in by clerks at the last minute, but the letter to the pope specifically informed “his Holiness” of the “happy delivery of a prince.”10
Because of the dangers of childbirth, provision was made in the event of Mary’s death for Philip to be made guardian of the realm during the minority of the expected child. He would still be confined within the limits of the marriage treaty and could not call Parliament, declare war, or arrange for a marriage of his heir without the consent of a council of eighteen peers.11 The final bill of regency justified the need to avoid the “dolorous experience of the inconstant government during the time of the reign of the late King Edward the sixth.” For this and other reasons, the king was to have charge of “the rule, order, education and government” of any children and the “rule, order and government (under such issue or issues)” of the realm during the minority of the heir.12
Finally, at the beginning of April, the king and queen moved to Hampton Court in advance of Mary’s confinement. Mary preferred Windsor, but it was considered too far from London for her to be secure. At Hampton Court she would have the protection of her full guard and have closer access to the troops from the city and the arsenal at the Tower.
Two weeks later, Mary underwent the usual ceremonies in advance of “the lying-in” and withdrew to her chamber with her ladies and gentlewomen. On Saint George’s Day, April 23, she showed herself at a window of the palace as she watched Philip lead the celebrations of the Garter, in which the king, Gardiner, the lord chancellor, knights and lords, and numerous clerks and priests, dressed in copes of cloth of gold, processed with three crosses, singing “Salve Festa Dies.” As Mary looked out from her chamber she turned side-on to show off her great belly—“that a hundred did see her grace.”13
While Mary prepared for the birth, Elizabeth was summoned to court from Woodstock.14 She arrived in late April and repaired to the prince of Wales’s lodging, which had been built for her brother, Edward. It was more than two years since the sisters had seen each other, but after arriving at court Elizabeth was kept waiting three weeks before Mary agreed to see her. Then, at ten at night, Elizabeth received her summons. With guards bearing torches, she was escorted through the garden to the privy lodging and, accompanied by Susan Clarencius, Mary’s favorite woman, was ushered into the queen’s presence.
Elizabeth knelt while Mary spoke over her, chiding her for her refusal to acknowledge her offense in Wyatt’s rebellion. “You will not confess your offence, but it stands stoutly in your truth. I pray God it may so fall out,” she told her. “If it doth not,” Elizabeth answered resolutely, “I request neither favour nor pardon at your Majesty’s hands…. I humbly beseech your Majesty to have a good opinion of me, and to think me to be your true subject, not only from the beginning hitherto, but for ever, as long as life lasteth.”15
As Mary and Elizabeth were finally reconciled, the country held its breath for the birth of its heir.
AT DAYBREAK ON Tuesday, April 30, bells rang out the news that Mary had safely delivered. Henry Machyn wrote in his diary, “the Queen’s grace was delivered of a prince, and so there was great ringing through London and divers places, Te Deum laudamus sung.”16 Soon after midnight, “with little pain and no danger,” she had given birth to a son.
The news was received with unadulterated joy. Shops were shut as people rushed to church. Bonfires were lit and tables of food and wine set up as spontaneous street parties erupted all over London.17 “How fair, how beautiful and great a prince it was as the like had not been seen,” as one preacher noted.18 Reports quickly spread to courts across Europe. Thomas Gresham, the English ambassador to the Netherlands, reported how news had reached Antwerp that “the Queen was brought to bed of a young Prince on 30th April,” and the city’s great bell was rung in celebration. The English merchants fired their guns across the water, and the regent sent the English mariners 100 crowns with which to celebrate the news.19 By the evening of May 2, the imperial court was “rejoicing out of measure” to hear of the prince’s birth.