by Parliament was still unreversed, and the evident expediency of reassuring those who now held the alienated Church lands as to his intentions with regard to their restitution, sufficed to justify a slight further delay.
In the meantime, the reaction which ensued after the insurrection had been suppressed had enabled Mary to make known her policy, and to carry it into effect with less reserve. In March, Egmont returned from Brussels, and in his presence and that of the Earl of Pembroke the Queen formally betrothed herself to Philip. Every effort was now made to diffuse throughout the country the belief that the marriage would prove conducive to the stability of the realm and to the increase of its prestige. Wotton, writing to Noailles from Paris, pointed out, at some length, that the involved alliance with Spain was England's indispensable rejoinder to the danger which menaced her through the conjunction of France with Scotland; while he further maintained that it was as a means of defence against this ominous combination that Charles desired to bring about a union between England and Flanders, between the House of Tudor and that of Habsburg; as for the intention with which France credited him,—the subjugation of the country and the disarming of its population,—such designs had no place in the imperial breast. In support of these views he adduced the fact that large numbers of the English malcontents were daily arriving in France, seeking service under Henry, "in order to carry on the war against the Emperor by sea."
The assembling of Mary's second Parliament (April 2, 1554) at Westminster also served, from the contrast it presented to its predecessor, to emphasise a new departure in public affairs. Not more than seventy of the members of the former House reappeared in the new; and the entire body evinced a spirit of far more ready compliance with the royal wishes. The leading members accepted gratefully the pensions which Mary, aided by the imperial liberality, was able to offer them; and the marriage bill, as it came down from the Upper House, received a ready assent. The necessity for discussion, indeed, was diminished by the fact that the conditions already agreed upon between Charles and Gardiner were now restated with explanatory clauses to obviate misinterpretation. It was also expressly stipulated that the royal match should not in any way " derogate from the league recently concluded between the Queen and the King of France, but that the peace between the English and the French should remain firm and inviolate." Some opposition was offered, however, to the proposal to repeal the two Acts for the dissolution of the bishopric of Durham, the measure being carried by a majority of only 81 in a House of 321.
Her main objects thus attained, Mary dismissed Parliament on May 5; and for the next two months her energies and attention were mainly concentrated on the preparations for the reception of Philip, who arrived from Corunna in Southampton Water on July 20. He was escorted
