553]

When Edward died on July 6, 1553, Northumberland had taken such
precautions as he could to ensure the success of his project. He had
gathered his own men at London and tried to secure help from France,
whose king would have been only too glad to involve England in civil
war. The death of the king was concealed for four days while
preparations were being made, and then Queen Jane was proclaimed.
Mary's challenge arrived the next day and she (Mary) at once began
raising an army. Had her person been secured the plot might have
succeeded, but she avoided the set snares. Charles V wished to support
her for religious reasons, but feared to excite patriotic feeling by
dispatching an army and therefore confined his intervention to
diplomatic representations to Northumberland.

[Sidenote: Accession of Mary]

There was no doubt as to the choice of the people. Even the strongest
Protestants hated civil turmoil more than they did Catholicism, and the
people as a whole felt instinctively that if the crown was put up as a
prize for unscrupulous politicians there would be no end of strife.
All therefore flocked to Mary, and almost without a struggle she
overcame the conspirators and entered her capital amid great rejoicing.
Northumberland, after a despicable and fruitless recantation, was
executed and so were his son and his son's wife, Queen Jane. Sympathy
was felt for her on {318} account of her youth, beauty and remarkable
talents, but none for her backers.

The relief with which the settlement was regarded gave the new queen at
least the good will of the nation to start with. This she gradually
lost. Just as Elizabeth instinctively did the popular thing, so Mary
seemed almost by fatality to choose the worst course possible. Her
foreign policy, in the first place, was both un-English and
unsuccessful. [Sidenote: Marriage of Mary and Philip, July 25, 1554]
Almost at once Charles V proposed his son Philip as Mary's husband,
and, after about a year of negotiation, the marriage took place. The
tremendous unpopularity of this step was due not so much to hostility
to Spain, though Spain was beginning to be regarded as the national foe
rather than France, but to the fear of a foreign domination. England
had never before been ruled by a queen, if we except the disastrous
reign of Mathilda, and it was natural to suppose that Mary's husband
should have the prerogative as well as the title of king. In vain
Philip tried