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By September this dream was rudely dispelled. Norfolk was summoned to Court, roundly abused—Elizabeth, as one of her courtiers writes of her, could “storme passinglie”—and poor Shrewsbury received a severe snub. The Queen practically declared him a useless gaoler: “I have found no reliance on my Lord Shrewsbury in the hour of my need, for all the fine speeches he made me formerly, yet I can in no wise depend on his promise.” Therefore she added two guards—the Earl of Huntingdon and Viscount Hereford.

More household complications, more goings and comings, more trouble for Earl and Countess! Afflicted with chronic gout and irritated in every direction, Shrewsbury decided to make for Tutbury again. A tactless royal order addressed to Huntingdon (whom Mary also hated) over the head of Shrewsbury bred fresh discomfort and annoyance in the Castle. Things were, however, gradually smoothed over. The jealousy between Mary’s gaolers was allayed on the one hand by the news that the Queen’s apprehensions were justified by the disappearance of the Duke of Norfolk from Court, while the alarm of Mary was increased fourfold by the cross-questioning to which she was subjected and the news of the sudden arrest of her ducal lover.