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impregnable right to the throne. But independent of her, manipulated by skillful men at home or abroad, he might represent a new threat to Mary’s security—above all if his claim were to become linked with that of the heir presumptive Elizabeth.
    Through the autumn of 1553, as the cheers of welcome died away and the first mutters of discontent became audible, Elizabeth remained at court. Mary treated her with determined affection at first, holding her hand when they appeared together in public, but at heart the queen was filled with suspicion of the dignified twenty-year-old girl who was the heretical daughter of Anne Boleyn—“of whose good fame I might have heard,” the imperial ambassador recorded Mary as saying to him sarcastically. As “contention for religion” spread like a stain across the already frayed fabric of English affairs, Elizabeth’s policy of keeping her own colors pale but true became increasingly difficult. To embrace Catholicism, and secure Mary’s favor, would be to forfeit her precious position as the shining hope of the numerous Englishmen who inclined towards the reformed religion. But to remain defiantly Protestant would be to declare herself an open threat to the Catholic queen’s security, inviting loss of her status as heir apparent, courting disposal by marriage, imprisonment, or even death.
    The nets were spread in every direction. While the French ambassador courted Elizabeth’s favor, hoping to use her as a divisive force in the interests of France, Renard was doing his utmost to set Mary against her, uttering repeated warnings about her intentions, seeing in her a dire threat to Mary and Catholicism and the interests of his emperor. Beneath Elizabeth’s caution and subtle quietness he glimpsed something powerful that disturbed him profoundly. “She is a spirit full of enchantment,” he wrote resentfully.
    Not surprisingly, Elizabeth was anxious to leave court for the seclusion of the country. It seemed that allegations against her must always involve talk of a marriage. Renard and his fellow imperial ambassadors warned Mary:
    Many persons are saying that if Courtenay were able to come to an understanding or arrange a marriage with the Lady Elizabeth, the result would be dangerous to Your Majesty as he already has a following, and it is said that Elizabeth’s eyes are fixed on him and she also has partisans. The French ambassadors have feasted him in their lodgings.
    Courtenay’s moment of success was passing. Though Mary had restored him in blood, with the title of Earl of Devonshire, she treated him with nothing more than the indulgent tolerance of an aunt, endeavoring to protect him from his own folly by appointing a gentleman to accompany him everywhere, as a combined social tutor and guardian. However, it became increasingly obvious that his long captivity had left him with graver defects than the mere inability to ride a warhorse or joust like other young nobles. He gave himself exaggerated airs at court and showed off in the streets; he shook off his escort and headed enthusiastically for the stews, dishonoring his rank in the company of London’s whores as though hectically determined to make up for his lost years in the Tower. Renard now described him in very disapproving terms, and he informed the emperor that Courtenay had made himself “odious and insufferable to the whole court.” Elizabeth especially was making a point of snubbing the young earl in public. “Courtenay is in disgrace with the Lady Elizabeth for having spoken otherwise than she had looked for about amourettes said to have passed between them,” Renard sneered, though instead of passing on the circumstantial explanation that gossip had supplied he might have guessed the truth—that Elizabeth, harassed and anxious, was trying to show the court and the world that there was no question of any alliance between Courtenay and herself.