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Queen Mary at the instance of Simon Renard affiancing herself to Philip of Spain
George Cruikshank
July 1840
Steel-engraving
11.9 cm high by 10/4 cm wide, framed
Illustration for Book II, Ch. XV, of William Harrison Ainsworth's The Tower of London, p. 219.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"Meet me at midnight in Saint John's Chapel in the White Tower," continued the queen, "where in your presence, and in the presence of Heaven, I will solemnly affiance myself to the prince."
"Your majesty transports me by your determination," replied the ambassador. And full of joy at his unlooked-for success, he took his departure.
At midnight, as appointed, Renard repaired to Saint John's Chapel. He found the Queen, attended only by Feckenham, and kneeling before the altar, which blazed with numerous wax-lights. She had changed her dress for the ceremony, and was attired in, a loose robe of three-piled crimson velvet, trimmed with swansdown. Renard remained at a little distance, and looked on with a smile of Satanic triumph.
After she had received the sacrament, and pronounced the "Veni Creator," Mary motioned the ambassador towards her, and placing her right hand on a parchment lying on the altar, to which were attached the broad seals of England, addressed him thus:— "I have signed and sealed this instrument, by which I contract and affiance myself in marriage to Philip, Prince of Spain, son of his imperial majesty, Charles the Fifth. And I further give you, Simon Renard, representative of the prince, my irrevocable promise, in the face of the living God and his saints, that I will wed him and no other."
"May Heaven bless the union!" exclaimed Feckenham.
"There is the contract," pursued Mary, giving the parchment to Renard, who reverentially received it. "On my part, it is a marriage concluded."
"And equally so on the part of the prince, my master," replied Renard. "In his name I beg to express to your highness the deep satisfaction which this union will afford him."
"For the present this contract must be kept secret, even from our privy councillors," said the queen.
"It shall never pass my lips," rejoined Renard. [Chapter XV. — "By Whose Instrumentality Queen Mary became convinced of Courtenay's Inconstancy; And How she Affianced Herself to King Philip of Spain," pp. 218-19]
The thirty-seven-year-old Queen's catching Courtenay in the very act of proclaiming his love for the Princess Elizabeth has precipitated Mary's arranging this hasty, ill-conceived marriage contract that will prove vastly unpopular with the Protestant population of England. In fact, even the majority of the Council will, as Mary suspects, be opposed the match to the King of Spain on the grounds that it would make England a satellite state in the Hapsburg Empire. Thus, Mary subsequently had to negotiate a marriage treaty that would limit Philip II's power: although in name he would be King of England, that title would be legally validonlyas long as Maryreigned. Philip would not be permitted to take his wife or children from the kingdom without the approval of Parliament. Most of the authority was reserved for Mary, though acts would be issued jointly in their names, and they would open Parliament together.
On 25 July 1554, Queen Mary I of England married Philip II of Spain, as arranged by Mary's cousin (and Philip's father), the Emperor Charles V through his ambassador. Mary did not stage the wedding in the modern capital of England, but in the old, Anglo-Saxon capital, Winchester. Because Philip could not speak English, the wedding mass was conducted in a combination of French, Spanish, and Latin. When in November 1558 Mary died childless, her husband was not even in England, but in Brussels after learning of the death of his father, the Emperor Charles V. Upon being informed of his wife's death, Philip wrote in a letter, "I felt a reasonable regret for her death." The line bespeaks little passion, let alone much "regret."
Cruikshank creates the impression of hastiness and impermanence through the makeshift Catholic chapel that Mary has had her chaplain, Feckenham, erect in St. John's in the White Tower. Moreover, he juxtaposes the painting of the chapel's patron saint, John the Evangelist (right), with that of Saint Mary, immediately above Queen Mary's head. Mary's blank gaze, directed off right, as if into the future, suggests neither happiness nor resolve, but rather resignation, as if Philip is the only reasonable choice, now that a prince of the blood has rejected her in favour of her younger — Protestant — sister. Whereas Cruikshank has associated the plainly-dressed, young Queen Jane with the English Bible, here and elsewhere he associates the mature Mary with excessive ostentation in dress, with gowns lined with fur and bedecked with jewels. Her emphasis on ornamentation is reflected in the richly decorated altar, with trappings, gold candelabra, and the rich vestments of the priest. This is a rare instance of Ainsworth and Cruikshank's providing two steel-engravings for a single chapter, as if the pair of illustrations have a cause-and-effect relationship, so that the one is really the extension of the other.
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Last modified 16 October 2017