Editing Mary I of England (section)

===Foreign policy===
[[File:Mary1 by Eworth 3.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait by [[Hans Eworth]] ({{circa|1555–1558}})]]
Furthering the [[Tudor conquest of Ireland]], English colonists were settled in the [[Irish Midlands]] under Mary and Philip's reign. [[County Laois|Queen's]] and [[County Offaly|King's Counties]] (later called Counties Laois and Offaly) were founded, and their [[Plantations of Ireland|plantation]] began.<ref>Tittler, p. 66.</ref> Their principal towns were named, respectively, Maryborough (later called [[Portlaoise]]) and Philipstown (later [[Daingean]]).

In January 1556, Mary's father-in-law the Emperor abdicated. Mary and Philip were still apart; he was declared king of Spain in Brussels, but she stayed in England. Philip negotiated an unsteady truce with the French in February 1556. The next month, the French ambassador in England, Antoine de Noailles, was implicated in a plot against Mary when [[Henry Dudley (conspirator)|Henry Dudley]], a second cousin of the executed Duke of Northumberland, attempted to assemble an invasion force in France. The plot, known as the Dudley conspiracy, was betrayed, and the conspirators in England were rounded up. Dudley remained in exile in France, and Noailles prudently left Britain.<ref>Porter, pp. 381–387.</ref>

Philip returned to England from March to July 1557 to persuade Mary to support Spain in a [[Italian War of 1551–1559|renewed war against France]]. Mary was in favour of declaring war, but her councillors opposed it because French trade would be jeopardised, it contravened the foreign war provisions of the marriage treaty, and a bad economic legacy from Edward VI's reign and a series of poor harvests meant England lacked supplies and finances.<ref>Whitelock, p. 288.</ref> War was only declared in June 1557 after Reginald Pole's nephew [[Thomas Stafford (rebel)|Thomas Stafford]] invaded England and seized [[Scarborough Castle]] with French help, in a failed attempt to depose Mary.<ref>Porter, p. 389; Waller, p. 111; Whitelock, p. 289.</ref> As a result of the war, relations between England and the Papacy became strained, since [[Pope Paul IV]] was allied with Henry II of France.<ref>Whitelock, pp. 293–295.</ref> In August, English forces were victorious in the aftermath of the [[Battle of St. Quentin (1557)|Battle of Saint Quentin]], with one eyewitness reporting, "Both sides fought most choicely, and the English best of all."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/spain/vol13/pp308-318 |pages=308–318 |title=Spain: August 1557 |date=1954 |series=Calendar of State Papers, Spain |volume=13, 1554-1558 |editor-first=Royall |editor-last=Tyler |publisher=London |via=British History Online |access-date=1 December 2021}}</ref> Celebrations were brief, as in January 1558 French forces [[Siege of Calais (1558)|took Calais]], England's sole remaining possession on the European mainland. Although the territory was financially burdensome, its loss was a mortifying blow to the Queen's prestige.<ref>Loades, pp. 295–297; Porter, pp. 392–395; Whitelock, pp. 291–292.</ref> According to ''[[Holinshed's Chronicles]]'', Mary later lamented (although this may be apocryphal), "When I am dead and opened, you shall find 'Calais' lying in my heart".<ref>Porter, p. 393.</ref>