Simancas: June 1559

Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), Volume 1, 1558-1567. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1892.

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'Simancas: June 1559', in Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), Volume 1, 1558-1567, (London, 1892) pp. 78-81. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/simancas/vol1/pp78-81 [accessed 4 May 2024]

June 1559

25 June. 37. The King to Bishop Quadra.
The collar of the Golden Fleece worn by Henry VIII. has not been restored. He is instructed to apply for it and send it with all care, and if it cannot be obtained to inform the King thereof so that another collar can be made before the chapter of the order to be held at Ghent in the beginning of July.
Document endorsed : "To Bishop Quadra from Brussels 25th June 1559."
25 June.
Simancas B. M. M. S. Add. 26056a. 		38. The Count De Feria to the Bishop Of Aquila.
My only consolation is that I see the Queen and her councillors will be turned out and treated as they deserve and that God will strike for his own cause. As for us the devil himself may fly away with us if that is brought about.—Brussels, 25th June 1559.
27 June. 39. Bishop Quadra to the King.
On the 14th instant I wrote to your Majesty that Scotch affairs had somewhat calmed down, and I now hear that they have again become disturbed. An Englishman called Cuthbert Vaughan (fn. 1) (Coubertraham) has arrived with this news and relates that the Queen Regent after the first encounter between her people and the heretics, in which some Frenchmen were killed, was pleased to pacify the country by giving a general pardon, leaving religious questions to be dealt with at the next meeting of Parliament. This divided people and somewhat tranquillised affairs. The Queen Regent afterwards learnt that the heretic preachers and some of the leaders were assembled in a certain place in order to take council about their affairs, and as she considered this a breach of the agreement she determined to catch them when they were together. She had troops secretly prepared for the purpose, but the others nevertheless got wind of it and gathered so many men of their own that the Queen who had sallied from Edinburgh to fall upon them was obliged to fly back again for safety. It is said that when she arrived at Edinburgh she found the castle closed against her, and she was then forced to retreat towards the English frontier and throw herself into one of the fortresses that were to be demolished. They say too that the heretics were either coming against her or would remain before Stirling. The gentleman says that affairs remained in this state and troops were expected from France with the Duke D'Aumale. The news has been received here with great pleasure by the Queen and her friends and it is publicly said that the Scotch heretics are acting with the favour and accord of this Queen who has instigated them and allowed them to receive help. They say it is also with the countenance of the duke of Chatelherault, who is a great heretic and a comely young fellow of twenty-two, with whom this Queen might think of marrying if by any means he were to become king of Scotland, which they hope, not only because the Queen Dauphiness is suffering from a certain incurable malady, but also by means of a rising of the people who conspire against the French and make the question of religion their pretext. This is quite current here, and the heretics and adherents of the Queen affirm it publicly. They are making extraordinary preparations besides ordering the harquebusses and field pieces lately, as I advised your Majesty some time since, and they assert that they are to raise 2,000 men as a body guard for the Queen, but I am not sure of my authority for this. They are also fitting out certain ships to go in search of the pirates called Strangways and Wilford, who have made some important captures from Portuguese merchants in Antwerp.
The news is that in the neighbourhood of Winchester they have refused to receive the church service book, which is the office which these heretics have made up, and the clergy of the diocese had assembled to discuss what they should do. No mass was being said, whereat the congregations were very disturbed.
Last week they summoned five bishops to the Council and proffered them the oath with great promises and threats as well, but none of them would swear and they were ordered yesterday to return to the house of the sheriff of London whither they brought also the two bishops from the Tower (fn. 2) and again tried to persuade them to swear, but they would not. They were greatly insulted and mocked at, and at last were ordered not to leave London until after September, and to go no further away than Westminster under pain of 500l. each, and they had to find bail for this amount. The two were taken back to prison and both they and the others deprived of their preferments de facto, since by law the doctors are still of opinion that they cannot be deprived for refusing to swear to the laws of the country. They themselves (i.e. the doctors) refuse to swear. They summoned the bishop of Ely with the other five and afterwards sent to say that he need not come until they sent for him again. It is said that he is steadfast. Dr. Wotton was summoned by the Queen the other day and was with her a long time. They say he took the oath although it has not been made public, and I do not know for certain. It has been suspected for some time that he would do so. The displeasure of the people with the Queen is still increasing, and the causes of it go on the same as ever, especially now that they are demanding with great rigour the taxes which were to be payable at the end of July.
On Wednesday she (the Queen) went to Greenwich, where she is very solitary, as many of them have gone to their estates. She has ordered Pickering, with whom she had long conversations lately, to be given lodgings in the palace, and they say she has made him a member of the Council.
They are as usual caressing the Emperor's ambassador, whereat the French have been, and are, somewhat jealous, and the German hearing of it, and that they invited and feasted him for the purpose of getting something out of him, I advised him to speak to the Queen about it to see what she would reply. He says that as soon as he began to speak about it the Queen answered that she knew full well that there were many reasons why the French should be annoyed at this marriage being discussed, and they were right in dreading it ; and she informed him that not only had they set spies about him, and bribed the people of her own chamber to learn what was being done, but they had actually discussed the matter with the members of her Council in a most barefaced way, saying that they were much surprised that the Queen had so soon forgotten the signal services her subjects had recently rendered her, and that she would not now condescend to marry one of them. The ambassador says she was very vexed at this, and again said to him that she would die a thousand deaths rather than marry one of her subjects, but for all this he does not seem to have got any further than usual with his master's affair.
Since then the Marquis de Nesle, who is one of the hostages, said to the ambassador that if they thought this marriage of the archduke would result in prejudice to their King they could not fail to oppose it by every means in their power although the forces of the King of France had little reason to fear those of any other nation, and other things, with what foundation I know not. They, the hostages, are doing their best here to make friends and take great care to find out everything that is going on all over the country. The Queen knows this well and dissembles with them although she and hers are vexed enough at it and understand the object with which it is all done.— London, 27th June 1559.
28 June. 40. The Bishop Of Aquila to the King.
Last night I despatched a courier with news of the tumults in Scotland and afterwards the Emperor's ambassador returned from audience with the Queen at Greenwich, and he tells me that certain things passed between them which I think well to send your Majesty an account of at once. He says that in his business she put him off with the usual excuses and delays, and that he understood from her that she was not really thinking of this marriage, and if she thinks of any it is that with the duke of Chatelherault, with whom, she told him, her father wished to betroth her when she was a child, but that she never liked him, and other things about the business with which the ambassador thinks she is pleased.
At last she told him that the duke was already out of the hands of the king of France, and had escaped notwithstanding that the King had sent his portrait to many of the ports that they might prevent him from getting away. She said the King thought the Duke was hidden in England, but she believed he was mistaken, or at least if the Duke was here she did not know it, but she knew well that he was lately in a certain kingdom, and thereupon, the ambassador says, she smiled and looked archly. She afterwards appears to have repented for saying so much, and begged him earnestly not to repeat it to anybody, (fn. 3) as she knew the King of France was bursting with rage at this and she did not wish to make him burst any more. I would not dare to write such a thing as this if I had not received it from this German, who is a worthy man, and seems to act straightforwardly. The public talk is that she (the Queen) will marry this Duke and will help him to get possession of the kingdom of Scotland, and all this to subdue the Catholics and spread her sect. She has heresy so implanted in her very bones that it is certainly to be feared that the devil may make her his instrument for doing great evil. If what she now says, that the Duke is in this island, be true it would be well to devise some remedy and look well ahead. If it be a joke nothing more can be said than that this woman has not much sense. Your Majesty will be better able to judge what there is in it, and I only send news of what occurs here and what can be gathered from the public talk. The Queen's own manner of speaking, as related by the ambassador, seems to confirm the vulgar rumour.— London, 1st July 1559.

Footnotes

  • 1. Captain Cuthbert Vaughan had been sent back from Berwick by lord Eure for insubordination of which he had been guilty on former occasions also, but he had friends at court and was soon allowed to rejoin the forces with a grant of 200l. for his expenses.
  • 2. White bishop of Winchester and Watson bishop of Lincoln.
  • 3. The earl of Arran to whom this referred had not arrived in England at the time although the Queen and her friends were busy devising means for his safe coming hither. Randolph and Killigrew were successively sent to Throgmorton in Paris to plan with him how best to rescue Arran from the French King who had ordered his capture dead or alive. The Queen writes to Throgmorton under date of 17th July 1559. "Touching the earle of Arrayne as their hearers can declare unto you we be desyroose that he should be helped from Geneva into this realme or into Scotland and for that purpose our meaning shall better appear in the memorial in ciphre sent you." The memorial contains the following : "The sauff conveying of the earl of Arrayne hither unto this realme or Scotland seemeth here a thing both proffitable and needful. The doing of it cannot be here prescribed but is referred to your discretion wherein you shall deserve great commendation." "It must be done secretly as well in respect of the Emperor's subjects and friends and the King Catholique's as of the French's." "Ye must needs take chardge to appoint one for the expedition of the earl of Arrayn from Geueva."—Forbes. The Queen writes to Throgmorton again on the 19th July "Common charity, the honour of the partye and our own experience of such lyke calamities moveth us to have compassion, and therefore we wold that ye should employ your wisdome how he might be safely councilled to preserve himself from the danger of the Frenche king and the Guises. Wherein although there may be many other wayes devised yet we see not presently if he should be forced to depart thence (which we would not without evident necessity) than ether persona dissimulata to goo to Geneva and there to remain untill tyme shall reveale him furder counsell ; or els to come into our ile of Jersaye, and so to Plimmouth or Hampton and so to pass into Scotland."—Forbes. Killigrew arrived in Paris on the 22nd July but Throgmorton had already sent Randolph to Chatelherault to convey the Earl, disguised, in all haste to Geneva or Zurich. They travelled as merchants and visited Peter Martyr at Zurich and started from Lausanne for England on the 6th July, Arran travelling under the assumed name of M de Beaufort, and in a letter from Sir Ralph Sadler to Cecil dated 16th September 1559 (Sadler papers) the writer says "He was safely delivered in Teeydale into one of his friends hands that undertoke to convey him surelye and secretlye to his father, and we have now certain advertisement that he is safely in Hamilton Castell with his father."
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