movements. The Princess deferred compliance under the plea of illness; but on February 22 she arrived in a litter at St James'. Here she remained, a virtual prisoner, until March 18, when the order was given for her removal to the Tower. Thence, on May 18, she was removed to Woodstock, where she continued to reside until the following April, under the custody of Sir Henry Bedingfield, closely watched and deprived of writing materials, but allowed to have service performed according to the English ritual. After the conspiracy had been crushed Charles strongly urged that the Princess should be executed, on the ground of her connivance at Wyatt's plans. Wyatt himself, indeed, in his last words on the scaffold, completely and emphatically exonerated her. It was asserted, however, that there was documentary evidence of her guilt, but that it was destroyed by Gardiner, to whose exertions she was, at this crisis, probably indebted for her life.
The gain to the imperial power which would accrue from the marriage between Mary and Philip had been regarded by Venice with an apprehension scarcely less than that of France; and it was an ascertained fact that a Venetian carrack, anchored at the mouth of the Thames, had supplied Wyatt with arms and a cannon. Suspicion fell upon Soranzo; but on being interrogated before the Council he stoutly denied all knowledge of the transaction, although complaints against him continued to be urged, and the charge itself was formally preferred by Vargas in Venice. On March 27, accordingly, Soranzo's letters of recall were drawn up, and Giovanni Michiel was appointed his successor. On May 22 the latter arrived in England. It probably attests his impartiality in the discharge of his functions that, both by Renard and Noailles, he was subsequently reproached as favouring the opposite party. He appears in reality to have conducted himself throughout with discretion and probity; and, while gaining the esteem of the most discerning judges with whom he came in contact in England, he continued to command the undiminished confidence of the Venetian Council.
In March, Pole had arrived at St Denis, and shortly after had an audience of the King, by whom he was received with marked cordiality. The question of Mary's marriage was naturally one on which the expression of his views was invited; and he was unable to conceal his personal conviction that, Courtenay's political career having now terminated, it would be better that the Queen of England should remain unmarried. In any case, he admitted that her marriage with Philip appeared to him undesirable. That such was his opinion soon became known at the imperial Court; and, on his return to Brussels in April, he not only received a sharp rebuke from the Emperor, but shortly after learned that Charles had urged in Rome the desirability of his recall. He continued, however, to reside in the monastery of Diligam, near Brussels; for Pope Julius could not but feel that his presence as Legate in England would soon be indispensable. But for the present the fact that his attainder
