113 Some Notice of William Herbert, 



Disappointment was the result all round. The conference came to 

 nothing, the queen awoke to the melancholy consciousness that she 

 was suffering from a mortal diseasCj and Philip began to tire of his 

 bride and his newly-adopted country. 



All the energies and revenues of the queen had been so exclusively 

 directed to the wants of the Church, that the fortresses of Calais 

 and Guisnes had been neglected and allowed to fall into disrepair. 

 Since the taking of Boulogne the French had never ceased to regard 

 the expulsion of the English as a feat to be accomplished, sooner or 

 later. In a letter written in cipher from Michieli, Venetian Am- 

 bassador to the Doge and Senate, dated March 12th, 1555/ he says 

 " The king having sent in haste last week for the Earl of Pembroke, 

 one of the chief noblemen of England, who, as usual with him, was 

 livirg in retirement at his country seat, 60 miles hence ; ^ his sudden 

 appearance in London caused a very general report of its being in- 

 duced by war with France." He afterwards finds " that the object 

 of Pembroke's mission was to superintend the fortifications of 

 Guisnes, and to give advice to the deputy at Calais ; Lord Went- 

 worth's youth and inexperience might encourage the French to 

 attack those places, should the queen's confinement terminate in- 

 auspicially.^' 



Five days after this, Frederico Badoer, Venetian Ambassador with 

 Charles Y., writes to the Doge and Senate : ^ " The Earl of Pembroke 

 who is considered the chief personage in England, having more 

 followers there than anybody, has arrived at Calais with only six 

 servants, bringing letters from the king and queen for the warder, 

 desiring him to obey the Earl's orders. He has not said a word 

 about the cause of his coming, which there and here has caused 

 much comment. Many suppose, that to facilitate the peace with 

 his most Christian Majesty, the emperor induced the queen to send 

 Lord Pembroke because the French hold him in great esteem." On 

 his way from Wilton, to execute his commission at Calais, he assisted 



> State Papers, Venetian, 1555-1556, No. 24. 

 ^ Not sixty miles, but eighty-three ; this mistake, however, is not remarkable 

 in a foreigner living in England at that time. 



3 Venetian State Papers, 1555-1556, No. 31. 



