imously by
Parliament.

In July 1554 Don Philip reached England with a numerous fleet, divided
into three squadrons, with a brilliant suite on board. At Southampton
the leader of one of the two parties, the Earl of Arundel, received
him; Bishop Gardiner, the leader of the other, gave the blessing of
the church to the marriage in Winchester cathedral. The day before the
Emperor had resigned the crown of Naples to his son, to make him equal
with the Queen in rank. How grand it sounded, when the king-at-arms
proclaimed the united titles: Philip and Mary, King and Queen of
England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, Ireland! A title with an almost
Plantagenet sound, but which now however only denoted the closest
union between the Spanish monarchy and the Catholics of England.
Philip was solicitous to gain over the different parties and classes
of England: for he had been told that England was a popular monarchy.
He belied his Spanish gravity and showed himself, despite the
stiffness that was his natural characteristic, affable to every man:
he tried to make the impression, and successfully, that he desired the
prosperity of England. One of the chief resources of the time, that of
securing the most considerable persons by means of pensions, he made
use of to a great extent. Both parties were provided for by annual
payments and presents, Pembroke and Arundel as well as Derby and
Rochester. We are assured that this liberality exercised a very
advantageous influence on the disposition of the country.[166]
Gardiner looked on it as a slight, that he was passed over in the
list, for these pensions were considered at that time an honour, but
this did not prevent him from praising the marriage in his sermons as
ordained by heaven for the restoration of religion.

All now depended on whether the King's influence would be sufficient
to carry at the next meeting of Parliament in November, the proposals
which had been rejected in the last session.

But for this, according to the view not merely of the English lords,
but of the imperial ambassador and of the Emperor himself, a previous
condition was indispensable. The English nobles must be relieved from
all apprehension lest the confiscated ecclesiastical property should
ever again be wrested from them. Cardinal Pole had been already for
some time residing in the Netherlands: but he was told that his
arrival in England would be not merely fruitless but detrimental
unless he brought with him