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The English Exile Community in Italy and the Political Opposition to Queen Mary I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Kenneth R. Bartlett
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Extract

Since the publication of Christina Garrett's The Marian Exiles in 1938, historians have had to look outside the confines of England and into the structures of the various exile communities on the continent in order to comprehend fully the significance of the reign of Mary I. Garrett's argument was that the large number of Englishmen who emigrated to the continent in 1553 and 1554 represented not a headlong flight from persecution but an organized migration of English Protestants seeking a more felicitous religious climate with the tacit approval of the queen's government. These men and women functioned as a church in exile, responsible only to their own governors, and cut off from the traditional authority of the Crown. Thus, on returning to England after the accession of Elizabeth, this group constituted a coherent faction, the Puritan opposition, which was hostile to the conservative nature of the Elizabethan settlement and dedicated to the establishment of a Calvinist polity.

However, instructive as this theory may be for the emigre communities in Germany and Switzerland, it does not answer a number of important questions which arise from the political activities of the Marian exiles; nor does it adequately investigate the composition and conspiratorial policies of the two other major groups of Marian exiles, the French and the Venetian. Indeed, Garrett does not even discuss the existence of a separate company of expatriates resident in the Venetian Republic, even though in terms of political and intellectual history this community of exiles played by far the greatest role in the organized opposition to the rule of Philip and Mary.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , Fall 1981 , pp. 223 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1981

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References

1 I do not agree with Garrett's contention that a party or faction was forged from the shared experience of exile under Mary. See Bartlett, K.R., “The Role of the Marian Exiles, ” in Hasler, P.J., ed., The History of Parliament Trust: The Parliaments of Elizabeth (London, 1981), Appendix 12:102–110Google Scholar. There have also been strong doubts raised about the thesis as a whole. See Loades, D.M., The Reign of Mary Tudor: Politics, Government and Religion in England, 1553-1558 (London, 1979), p. 339.Google Scholar

2 Those Englishmen certainly resident in Italy were: George Acworth; Francis Alford; John Ashley; Richard Bertie; John Brome; John Brooke (alias Cobham); Sebastian Bryskett; Matthew Carew, Sir Peter Carew; Roger Carew; Sir John Cheke; Sir John Chichester; Sir Anthony Cooke; Henry Cornwallis; Edward Courtenay; Earl of Devonshire; Sir John Cutts; Thomas Dannett; Anthony Denny; Charles Denny; Henry Denny; William Drury; John Eustace; Roger Fitzwilliams; Thomas Fitzwilliams; William Fyneux; William Godolphin; John Hamby; Sir Philip Hoby; Thomas Hoby; Henry Killigrew; Henry Kingsmill; Humphrey Michell; William Mono; John Morley; William Morley; Sir Henry Neville; John Oprhin-strange; William Page; John Pelham; Sir William Pickering; Walter Prune (Pryne); Thomas Rayme; John Rugge; Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford; William Soccus (Zouche?); Francis Southwell; John Tamworth; Michael Throckmorton; Thomas Toylson (Trytson); Edmund Tremayne; Nicholas Tremayne; Anthony Trulo; Francis Walsingham; Thomas Wilson; Sir Thomas Wrothe; Edmund Wyndham; Thomas Wyndham. Of these men, at least 48 were Protestant, 46 gentlemen or noblemen and 20 university men. For a detailed discussion of this community, see Bartlett, Kenneth R., “The English Exile Community in Italy Under Queen Mary I” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1978).Google Scholar

3 There had been close cultural and intellectual relations between Italy and England since Pope Gregory identified Angli with angeli. After the accession of Henry VIII these contacts become more frequent and intimate and the culture of the Italian Renaissance began to influence deeply the style and substance of English life. See Gasquet, Cardinal, Cardinal Pole and his Early Friends (London, 1927)Google Scholar; Parks, G.B., The English Traveler to Italy, 1 (Rome, 1954)Google Scholar; Lees-Milne, J., “Tudor Travellers to Italy, ” The Month n.s. 5 (1951): 15–23Google Scholar; Parks, G.B., “The First Italianate Englishman, ” Studies in the Renaissance 8 (1961):197–216CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tedeschi, J., “Italian Reformers and the Diffusion of Renaissance Culture, ” Sixteenth Century Journal 5 (1974):79–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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16 Carew had not supported Northumberland in his attempt to alter the succession. He had declared immediately for Queen Mary, but later joined in rebellion against her because of his strong opposition to her marriage to Philip of Spain.

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29 Foscarini had met Carew in England when the Venetian had been attached to his country's embassy there. Vannes was an Italian by birth, but long resident in England in various capacities before taking up his place in Venice as English agent.

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32 Cal. For., Mary, 58.

33 Public Rccords Office, SP 69/6, no. 383, 6 June 1555.

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35 Ibid., p. 505, 2 June 1556.

36 Ibid., p. 80, 13 May 1555. See Loach, J., “Pamphlets and Politics 1553-8, ” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 48 (1975):38.Google Scholar

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44 Ibid., p. 279, 19 June 1554.

45 Ibid., p. 269, 7 June 1554.

46 The epithet is Renard's (see Loades, D.M., Two Tudor Conspiracies [Cambridge, 1965], p. 131).Google Scholar

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48 Cal. Span., 12:130, 1 March 1554Google Scholar. For a detailed discussion of Courtenay's last years, see my “The Misfortune That Is Wished for Him: The Exile and Death of Edward Courtenay, Eighth Earl of Devon, ” The Canadian Journal of History 16 (1979): 1–28.Google Scholar

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51 Ibid., p. 187, 3 April 1554; ibid., p. 230, 1 May 1554.

52 Ibid., 13:167, 25 April 1555.

53 Cal. Ven., 6:248, 15 October 1555.Google Scholar

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55 Powell, , Thomas Hoby, p. 126.Google Scholar

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60 Cal. For., Mary, 73, 23 November 1555.

61 Cal. Span., 13:258–9, 20 March 1556Google Scholar; Cal. For., Mary, 73, 23 November 1555.

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63 Ibid., p. 440, 30 March 1556.

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70 B.L. Cotton Vespasian CVII, no. 49, f.200. Mason's reply to Vannes' request for recall was answered on 12 October 1556. Thus, Vannes must have informed the queen and the Council of his desire to return almost immediately after Courtenay's death. Mason, although he expressed sorrow at the earl's passing, also remarked that he was “sure the Frenchmen be never a whit discomfited with the matter.”

71 Richards, S.R., ed., Secret Writing in the Public Records, Henry VIII to George II (London, 1974), p. 9.Google Scholar

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73 Cal. Ven., 6:706, 16 November 1556.

74 Ibid., p. 708, 17 November 1556; ibid., pp. 710, 716, 729, 20 November 1556.

75 Ibid., pp. 730 and 731, 26 November 1556; ibid., p. 736, 28 November 1556.

76 Ibid., p. 818n.

77 Ibid., p. 274, 11 November 1555.

78 Ibid., p. 316, 16 December 1555. See also Loades, , Mary Tudor, pp. 273–4.Google Scholar

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81 Cal. Span., 12:176, 27 March 1554Google Scholar. These ships were given to the English rebels by the king of France in order to intercept Philip of Spain in the channel and to incite them to acts of piracy.

82 Loades, , Two Tudor Conspiracies, p. 187.Google Scholar

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85 Richard Tremayne later married a daughter of Sir Peter Courtenay.

86 Ibid., p. 169, 31 July 1555.

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89 Neale, J.E., Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments, I, 1559–1581 (London, 1953), p. 24Google Scholar. Other members of the “dining club” were Kingston, Sir John Pollard, and Sir William Courtenay.