and at her wish the marriage was put off till Philip should return from Flanders, so that the ceremony might be invested with all the importance possible. But before Philip was ready to return, Mary died, and Jane Dormer went back to her grandmother, now lodging in the Savoy. The Count of Feria, who was in England at the time, having been sent by Philip when he heard of the queen's sickness, strongly urged an immediate union, and accordingly the marriage took place on 29 Dec. 1558. The reason for this haste was the count's anticipation that the catholic supremacy was now at an end, and that consequently his stay in England would not be long. His fears were justified, and on learning that Elizabeth's coronation ceremony would not be in strict accordance with catholic usage, he refused, notwithstanding the queen's personal entreaty, to be present on the occasion, and at Philip's command prepared to leave the country. After arranging for his wife to follow him, he set out for Flanders in May 1559. At his wife's suggestion he obtained leave of the queen, in face of much opposition, to take with him the members of certain religious orders, including the Carthusian monks of Sheen, the nuns of St. Bridget of Sion, and the Dominican nuns of Dartford. The Countess of Feria remained at Durham House till the end of July, when Don Juan de Ayala arrived to escort her to Flanders. After a fare well interview with Elizabeth, who is variously stated by catholic and protestant writers respectively to have rudely slighted her and to have received her with marked affection, she started on her way to the continent, accompanied by her paternal grandmother, Alvara de Quadra, bishop of Aquila, and six attendant gentlewomen, among whom were included Lady Margaret Harrington, a sister of Sir William Pickering, Mrs. Paston, and Mrs. Clarentia, the favourite waiting-woman of Queen Mary. The journey was a triumphal progress. At Calais, Gravelines, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp the English party were officially received by the governors of the towns, and in each case the military were ordered out to salute them. Finally at the end of August the Countess of Feria rested at Mechlin, at the invitation of Philip's sister, the Duchess of Parma, and there on 28 Sept. she gave birth to a son, who was christened Lorenzo. She stayed at Mechlin till March in the following year (1560), when her grandmother left her to settle at Louvain, where she remained till the end of her life (July 1571). The countess started with her husband to their home in Spain. Among their attendants on this occasion was Sir William Shelley, grand prior of England. The sum of fifty thousand ducats was borrowed by the Count of Feria for the expense of the journey, which was conducted in regal state. Easter was spent in Paris with the Duke of Guise, and thence the count and his wife proceeded to Amboise, where Francis II and Mary of Scotland were residing. Between the latter and the Countess of Feria a strong attachment was formed, which, though they never saw one another again, lasted till Mary's death. They corresponded frequently, Mary signing herself ‘your perfect friend, old acquaintance, & dear cousin.’ In 1571 Mary endeavoured to persuade the countess to leave Spain for Flanders, to be nearer England. The count, at the instigation of his wife, had previously sent the queen of Scotland when in distress twenty thousand ducats. From Amboise the Ferias proceeded by easy stages to Spain, arriving in August at Toledo, where they were publicly received by the king and queen, and a few days later at Zafra in Estremadura, the count's principal estate. Here they settled down to domestic life, varied only by visits to other estates and by residence at court. They constantly corresponded with members of the catholic party in England on matters connected with the prosecution of their co-religionists, but they did not openly break with Elizabeth. A letter, dated August 1568, from the queen to the Duchess of Feria (her husband's rank had been raised in the preceding year), rebukes the latter for being forgetful of her duty, in not writing. In 1571 the Duke of Feria was appointed governor of the Low Countries, but immediately afterwards he died suddenly. He was one of Philip's council of state, and was captain of the Spanish guard. Like his wife he was an earnest supporter of catholicism, taking an especial interest in the Jesuit movement (De Backer, Bibl. des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, iii. 154, ed. 1871). He seems to have entertained a strong personal dislike to Elizabeth, and when she refused to allow Jane, lady Dormer, his wife's grandmother, to return to England to collect her rents, he vainly urged Pius IV to excommunicate the queen, though his wife strongly opposed his action. The duchess had the stronger character of the two, and her husband, in his will, left her sole guardian of their son and manager of his estates. At the time of his death he was in debt to the extent of three hundred thousand ducats, the whole of which she had cleared off before her son came of age and entered into possession of his estates. As a widow she continued to further the papal cause with unexampled zeal.
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