In the Shadow of the Crown - By Jean Plaidy Page 0,152

would worship in my own way, and I knew from his response that he would be afraid to take drastic action against me. Once more I thanked my cousin, the Emperor.

I was told that my Comptroller, Sir Robert Rochester, and my chaplain, Hopton, were to return with Rich and his men that they might answer certain questions which the Council wished to put to them.

I felt defiant, for I sensed in Rich a desire not to offend me. The times were uncertain. Edward did not look as though he would live to maturity. I was after all the next in succession. It was true that there were many powerful men who would try to prevent my coming to the throne, but who could say what would happen? So … Rich was determined not to upset me too much.

I said, “I am afraid my Comptroller is much too busy to leave the household at present; as for my chaplain, he has been sick and is not yet recovered.”

I was amazed at his meekness. He and his party accepted my word and left.

But that was not the end of the matter. There was a further summons, this time from the Protector himself. Rochester's and Hopton's presence was requested by the Council.

I realized that I could not refuse to send them, for if I did their next move would be to come and take them away; it was better for them to go of their own accord rather than as prisoners.

I wondered whether they would be put into the Tower. There would be an outcry if they were. I myself would protest, and I would make sure that it was known that I did. The trouble all over the country must have made them pause for thought, for Sir Robert Rochester and Hopton returned shortly. They were to try to persuade me to forsake my old ways in religion and consider the enlightened form.

Van der Delft was very alarmed when he heard my servants had been taken for questioning. He went to see Somerset and told him his master would be dismayed if he came to the conclusion that I was being forced to act contrary to my beliefs.

The ambassador came to me to tell me the result of that meeting.

“The Protector has said that you may continue as you wish providing you make no great noise about it. In private, there is no objection. ‘She may hear Mass privately in her own apartments,' he said.”

It was a reprieve.

LIFE WAS NOT RUNNING smoothly for Protector Somerset. The exchequer was low, and there was no money to pay the German mercenaries who were fighting for him on the Scottish border. Consequently the Scots had gained one or two important victories, and the French were taking advantage of the situation. There was rebellion throughout the country on religious grounds, on account of the depreciation of the currency and the enclosure laws. Landowners were against him no less than the common people.

Warwick's star was rising, and Warwick was a very ambitious man who wanted to rule alone. Wriothesley, who had become Earl of Southampton, had never been a friend. He was at heart a follower of the old religion, though that was something he did not stress at this time. Warwick had scored a military success when he had put down the rising in Norfolk and was regarded as the better man by many people. Somerset, they said, had become Protector merely because he was the King's uncle. Warwick was organizing secret meetings, the object being to turn men against Somerset.

Realizing what was happening, the Protector sought to rally his friends and to his dismay found that few were loyal to him, and when the City of London turned against him he knew there was little he could do to save himself.

It was not long before he found himself in the Tower.

My brother Edward surprised me. He was supposed to be fond of his uncle but he made no move to speak for him. He accepted the imprisonment of his Uncle Edward as he had the death of Uncle Thomas—his favorite, I remembered.

Somerset put up little fight to defend himself. He had come to understand that governing a country was not as easy as he had thought. His listlessness suggested that he was eager to give up the thankless task, for he accepted all the complaints against himself, admitted failure and threw himself on the mercy of the Council.

The result was that he was deprived of