Mary I’s fear for her throne had risen to such a pitch that her Chamberlain felt threatened by a three-year-old child.
In the Spring of 1554, Queen Mary I was in tense negotiations to marry the King of Spain. Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, had been widely expected to wear the crown beside her, but now she charged him with conspiring with rebel Sir Thomas Wyatt and threw him in Tower; and on March 17th, he was joined by Mary’s half-sister Elizabeth, rumoured to be Edward’s new love. Yet Mary’s minders did not feel safe.