Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/96

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Fitzalan
90
Fitzalan

knew of it ;' and concluded by urging her to retire to a position of safety. Mary followed his advice ; while Arundel continued during more than ten days to concur in Northumberland's schemes with a view to his betrayal. He attended the meetings of the council, he signed the letter to Mary denouncing her as illegitimate, and asserted the title of her rival ; he accompanied Northumberland and others when they informed Jane of her accession to the crown, and attended her on the progress from Sion House to the Tower preparatory to her coronation. Arundel and the other secret partisans of Mary persuaded Northumberland to take the command in person of the force raised to attack Mary, and assured him of their sympathy when he started. His speeches strongly betrayed his distrust of Arundel (Stow, Annales, ed. Howes, 1615, pp. 610, 611 ; Holinshed, Chronicles, ed. Hooker, 1587, iii. 1086).

Arundel lost no time in endeavouring to sound the dispositions of the councillors. They were still under the eyes of the Tower garrison. Their first meeting to form their plans was within the Tower walls, and Arundel said 'he liked not the air.' On 19 July 1553 they managed to pass the gates under pretence, says Bishop Godwin, of conference with the French ambassador, Lavall (Annals of Queen Mary, pp. 107, 108), and made their way to Pembroke's house at Baynard's Castle, above London Bridge, when they sent for the mayor, the aldermen, and other city magnates. Arundel opened the proceedings in a vehement speech. He denounced the ambition and violence of Northumberland, asserted the right of the two daughters of Henry VIII to the throne, and concluded by calling on the assembly to unite with him in vindicating the claim of the Lady Mary. Pembroke pledged himself to die in the cause, amid general applause. The same evening Mary was proclaimed queen at the cross at Cheapside, and at St. Paul's. Pembroke took possession of the Tower, and Arundel, with Lord Paget, galloped off with the great seal and a letter from the council, which he delivered to Mary at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk (tjie draft of this letter is printed in Sir Henry Ellis's 2nd series of 'Original Letters,' ii. 243, from Lansdowne MS. 3). He then hastened to Cambridge to secure Northumberland. Their meeting is described by Stow (p. 612) and by Holinshed (iii. 1088). In Harl. MS. 787, f. 61, is a copy of the piteous letter which Northumberland addressed to Arundel the night before his execution (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 213).

In reward of his exertions Mary bestowed on Arundel the office of lord steward of the household ; to this were added a seat at the council board, a license for two hundred retainers beyond his ordinary attendants (Strype, Memorials, iii. 480), and a variety of local privileges connected with his possessions in Sussex. He was also appointed to act as lord high constable at the coronation, and was deputed to confer on any number of persons not exceeding sixty the dignity of knighthood (Hardy, Syllabus of Rymer's Fœdera, ii. 792). Though favoured by the queen he deemed it politic to make some show of resenting her derogatory treatment of Elizabeth. In September 1553 he was a commissioner for Bishop Bonner's restitution (Strype, Memorials, iii. 23). On 1 Jan. 1553-4 he was nominated a commissioner to treat of the queen's marriage, and on 17 Feb. 1554 he was lord high steward on the trial of the Duke of Suffolk. He bore, too, a part in checking the progress of Wyatt's shortlived rebellion. On Philip's landing at Southampton, 20 July 1554, Arundel received him and immediately presented him with the George and Garter (Speed, Historie of Great Britaine, ed. 1632, p. 1121). Along with William, marquis of Winchester and others, he received from Philip and Mary, 6 Feb. 1555, a grant of a charter of incorporation by the name of Merchant Adventurers of England for the discovery of unknown lands (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Addenda, 1547-65, p. 437 ; the grant is printed in Hakluyt, i. 298-304). In May 1555 he was selected with Cardinal Pole, Gardiner, and Lord Paget to urge the mediatorial offices of the queen at the congress of Marque, and to effect, if possible, a renewal of amity between the imperial and French crowns. He accompanied Philip to Brussels in the following September. In the same year (1555) he was elected high steward of the university of Oxford. When the troubles with France commenced, the queen appointed Arundel, 26 July 1557, lieutenant-general and captain of the forces for defence of the kingdom (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547-80, p. 93). The following year he was deputed with Thirlby, bishop of Ely, and Dr. Nicholas Wotton to the conferences held by England, France, and Spain, in the abbey of Cercamp, and was actually engaged in arranging the preliminaries of a general peace, when the death of Mary, in November 1558, caused him to abruptly return home in December (cf. MS. Life, f. 53; also the letter addressed by Arundel and Wotton to their colleague, the Bishop of Ely, which is printed, from the original preserved at Norfolk House, in Tierney's 'Hist. of Arundel,' pp. 335-7.