Notes on Books.
Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain, preserved in the Archives at Vienna, Simancas, Besancon, and Brussels.—Vol. XI. Edward VI. and Mary, 1553. Edited by Royall Tyler. (H.M. Stationery Office, 10s.)
This is one of the most deeply interesting of the invaluable Calendars now being issued under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. Its date, indeed, and the fact that these are documents drawn from Imperial and Spanish archives, of themselves sufficiently vouch for that. We know at once that we are to consider English affairs during a critical twelvemonth in their broader relation to the general affairs of Europe, and also to have the most important of them treated of by the pen of Simon Renard.
Mr. Royall Tyler, at the beginning of an excellent Preface, reminds us that this year is one of those upon which the attention of historians has been most minutely bestowed, and that the State Papers belonging to it have been searched for all over Europe, and diligently studied. A portion of them have been included in one or two publications, of which the principal are Gachard's 'Voyages des Souverains des Pays-Bas' (vol. iv.—Appendix) and Weiss's 'Documents Inédits' (Papiers d'État du Cardinal de Granvelle); but out of some three hundred documents which compose the volume before us not much more than a third has been printed before. Not only so, but the texts here offered for those already printed are taken, for the most part, from the Vienna archives, and are both better preserved and more trustworthy than the collections at Brussels and Besançon utilized by the editors named above.
Jehan Scheyfve is Imperial Ambassador in England at the beginning of the year, and the whole of his letters—not that these contain anything of fresh interest—are now accessible in print for the first time. Dull and fretful though he is, he faithfully warns Charles V. of the plots against Mary's succession, and has his share in the credit for the step taken by Charles for her support, the sending of three ambassadors extraordinary into England almost at the moment of Edward VI.'s death. Of these, as every one knows, Renard was one, and when Mary—not, it must be said, through any help from these ambassadors, but chiefly through her own courage—found herself seated on her father's throne and crowned queen, it was he of the four who remained with her as ambassador in ordinary, and conducted the delicate negotiations for the Spanish match. The best of the Reports he wrote to his Imperial master are already known to students—such as his account of the scene on that Sunday evening in October when Mary, after nights of tears and prayers, sent for him in haste, and, alone with him and Mrs. Clarentius in a room where the Blessed Sacrament was, knelt down and recited the 'Veni Creator,' and then, rising, pledged her word to marry Philip; or the description of Mary's queenly and vigorous behaviour towards the deputation from Parliament imploring her to marry within the realm. Yet among the papers now printed for the first time there are several scarcely less striking—that, to take but one example, dated Sept. 30, which relates how the Queen summoned all the members of her Council to meet her at the Tower, and moved them all to tears by the passionate expression of her resolve to do her duty by the realm. "No one knew how to answer," says Renard, "amazed as they all were by this humble and lowly discourse, so unlike anything ever heard before in England, and by the Queen's great goodness and integrity."
These pages add little in the way of detail to the figure of Mary as she appears fixed in English history, in the English imagination; but they reinforce the impression of her unalterable disinterestedness and exalted religious honesty by witnessing to the strength of the same impression among her contemporaries. Renard tells Charles of her surprising inexperience, and it is plain that he thinks her lacking in practical wisdom, thinks her what a modern Frenchman might describe as par trop simpliste; but he takes for granted, as does every one else, that, in dealing with her, it is of no use to appeal to any but the highest motives. With the terrible error of the persecution as yet uncommitted, gazing at Titian's portrait of Philip—"the one in the blue coat with white wolf-skin, which is very good"—in a strange dream of half-incredulous hope, tremblingly eager not to fail in her great and difficult task of the reconciliation of England with the Holy See, this most tragic of our English sovereigns stands here invested with a melancholy charm.
As its elements were presented to English politicians in 1553, it was no bad scheme to draw into closer connexion the fortunes of England and Spain. Renard, an acute enough observer, thought that in the matter of religion the bulk of the English people were not extravagantly inclined to innovations, that they were rather excited and played upon by foreign refugees. At any rate, the return of the Mass was accepted without difficulty. As everyone knows, the rock on which the reconciliation between England and the Pope came to grief was the restitution of the plundered Church lands; and we may be tempted to wonder how the religious question in England would have been settled if a Pope with an original turn of mind had directly forbidden any interference with the status quo for the sake of preserving the practice of the old religion in its entirety among the simple folk.
Renard occasionally hits off traits of the English character rather happily; thus it is both amusing and true of him to say—about the marriage articles—"The English usually consider prudence in negotiation to consist in raising as many objections as they can think of, so it is probable that every one of the councillors will mention some, in order to prove himself a good servant to the Queen and zealous for her interests, however ample and clear the articles may be." This reminds us of what we once heard was the method by which a living statesman is wont to arrive at his decisions—taking the course which as not the greatest or most numerous advantages, but the fewest or least important disadvantages.
There is a good deal worth commenting on in the papers relating to Edward VI.'s illness and the Northumberland conspiracy, and besides documents relating to high matters of state, there crop up two or three minor topics of no
