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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #50427 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50427)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey, and
-Her Times, by Richard Davey
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey, and Her Times
-
-Author: Richard Davey
-
-Editor: Martin Hume
-
-Release Date: November 10, 2015 [EBook #50427]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NINE DAYS' QUEEN, LADY JANE GREY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by MWS, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Note
-
-
-Superscripts are indicated by “^” as in “w^thout”. Multiple-letter
-superscripts are enclosed in braces, as in “maj^{tys}”. Italics text is
-indicated by _underscores_, and small-caps text has been converted to
-upper-case. Additional notes will be found at the end of this eBook.
-
-
-
-
- ROMANTIC HISTORY
- GENERAL EDITOR: MARTIN HUME, M.A.
-
-
- THE NINE DAYS’ QUEEN
-
-
-
-
- BY THE SAME AUTHOR
-
- THE PAGEANT OF LONDON
- THE SULTAN AND HIS SUBJECTS
-
-[Illustration: LADY JANE GREY
-
-FROM THE PAINTING BY LUCAS DE HEERE AT ALTHORP]
-
-
-
-
- THE
- NINE DAYS’ QUEEN
-
- LADY JANE GREY
- AND HER TIMES
-
- BY
- RICHARD DAVEY
-
- EDITED, AND WITH INTRODUCTION, BY
- MARTIN HUME, M.A.
-
-
- WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
- METHUEN & CO.
- 36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
- LONDON
-
-
-
-
- _First Published in 1909_
-
-
-
-
- TO
- MY DEAR WIFE
- ELEANORA DAVEY
-
-
-
-
-AUTHOR’S NOTE
-
-
-My object in writing this book has been to interest the reader in
-the tragic story of Lady Jane Grey rather from the personal than the
-political point of view. I have therefore employed, more perhaps than
-is usual, what the French historians term _le document humain_ in my
-account of the extraordinary men and women who surrounded Lady Jane,
-and who used her as a tool for their ambitious ends. The reader may
-possibly wonder why in several of the earlier chapters Lady Jane Grey
-plays so shadowy a part, but I deemed it impossible for any one who
-is not very familiar with our History at this period to understand,
-without having a complete idea of the chain of conspiracies that
-preceded and rendered possible her proclamation, how a young Princess,
-not in the immediate succession to the Crown, came to be placed, if
-only for nine days, in the towering position of Queen of England. These
-conspiracies were four in number. The first was that of the Howards
-and the Catholic party against Queen Katherine Parr. The second, the
-conspiracy of the Seymours against the Howards, which ended in the
-downfall of the great House of Norfolk, whereby Edward Seymour was
-enabled to proclaim himself Lord Protector of the Realm. The third
-plot was that of Thomas Seymour to cast down his brother Edward from
-his high station, and, if possible, to usurp the same for himself--a
-strange story of folly and intrigue and overvaulting ambition which
-ended in one of the most terrible fratricidal tragedies to be found
-in the history of the nations. Fourthly, the removal of the brothers
-Seymour from the scene enabled John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland,
-to work his own will and to prepare the way, during the last days of
-Edward VI, for his daughter-in-law, much against her will, to usurp the
-throne.
-
-I have consulted every available document, as well in our national
-archives and private libraries as in those of foreign countries,
-concerning Lady Jane and her friends and foes, the better to paint as
-vivid a picture as possible of the times in which they lived.
-
-I need scarcely add how greatly I appreciate the honour Major Martin
-Hume has conferred upon my work by his scholarly Introduction, which
-gives so succinct and deeply interesting an account of our foreign
-politics at a most momentous period of English history. To him, to Dr.
-Gairdner, to Earl Spencer, to Earl Stamford and Warrington, and to many
-other gentlemen and friends, including the officials at the State Paper
-Office and the British Museum, I beg to tender my sincere thanks for
-their courtesy and for the valuable information with which they have
-helped me to complete my picture of one of the most interesting periods
-in our national history.
-
-I cannot, moreover, allow this opportunity to pass without recording,
-with sincere gratitude and affection, the aid which I received, when I
-first thought of writing this life of Lady Jane Grey, from the kindness
-of my old valued and lamented friend, Dr. Richard Garnett.
-
- RICHARD DAVEY
-
- 200 ASHLEY GARDENS, LONDON, S.W.
- _5th September 1909_.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
- PAGE
- INTRODUCTION xiii
- CHAP.
- I. BRADGATE HALL AND THE GREYS OF GROBY 1
- II. BIRTH AND EDUCATION 14
- III. THE LADY LATIMER 28
- IV. THE KING’S HOUSEHOLD 42
- V. MRS. ANNE ASKEW 58
- VI. THE HOWARDS AND THE SEYMOURS 73
- VII. HENRY VIII 100
- VIII. CONCERNING THE LADY JANE AND THE QUEEN-DOWAGER 115
- IX. THE QUEEN AND THE LORD HIGH-ADMIRAL 136
- X. THE LADY JANE GOES TO SEYMOUR PLACE 147
- XI. THE EDUCATION OF LADY JANE 168
- XII. JOHN DUDLEY, EARL OF WARWICK 190
- XIII. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF SOMERSET 208
- XIV. THE LADY JANE MARRIES THE LORD GUILDFORD 221
- XV. ON THE WAY TO THE TOWER 238
- XVI. THE LADY JANE IS PROCLAIMED QUEEN 249
- XVII. THE NINE DAYS’ REIGN 256
- XVIII. THE LAST DAYS OF NORTHUMBERLAND 289
- XIX. THE TRIAL OF QUEEN JANE 310
- XX. THE SUPREME HOUR! 328
- XXI. THE FATE OF THE SURVIVORS 348
- APPENDIX 359
- INDEX 365
-
-
-
-
-LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
- LADY JANE GREY _Frontispiece_
- From the Painting by LUCAS DE HEERE at Althorp.
- (Photograph by HANFSTAENGL)
-
- FACING PAGE
-
- HENRY GREY, DUKE OF SUFFOLK 12
- From the Painting by JOANNES CORVUS, in the National
- Portrait Gallery
-
- QUEEN KATHERINE PARR 30
- After the Painting formerly in the possession of
- Horace Walpole
-
- HENRY VIII IN 1547 48
- From an old Engraving
-
- ROGER ASCHAM’S VISIT TO LADY JANE GREY AT BRADGATE 172
- After the Painting by J. C. HORSLEY, R.A.
-
- JOHN DUDLEY, DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND 192
- From an Engraving by G. VERTUE
-
- EDWARD SEYMOUR, DUKE OF SOMERSET 208
- From an Engraving after the Painting by HOLBEIN
-
- SUPPOSED PORTRAIT OF LADY JANE GREY 224
- Formerly in the Collection of Col. Elliott of Nottingham,
- and now at Oxford University. From an Engraving after
- the Painting by HOLBEIN
-
- EDWARD VI 246
- From an Engraving by G. VERTUE
-
- LADY JANE GREY BY WYNGAERDE 270
- The earliest engraved Portrait of her, from a Picture
- said to be by HOLBEIN, now lost
-
- QUEEN MARY AT THE PERIOD OF HER MARRIAGE 322
- From the Painting by ANTONIO MOR, in the Prado Museum.
- (Photograph by R. ANDERSON)
-
- PORTRAIT OF THE LADY FRANCES BRANDON, DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK,
- AND HER SECOND HUSBAND, ADRIAN STOKES, ESQ. 352
- Probably by CORVINUS, property of Col. Wynn Finch
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTION
-
-
-The tragedy of Lady Jane Grey is unquestionably one of the most
-poignant episodes in English history, but its very dramatic
-completeness and compactness have almost invariably caused its wider
-significance to be obscured by the element of personal pathos with
-which it abounds. The sympathetic figure of the studious, saintly
-maiden, single-hearted in her attachment to the austere creed of
-Geneva, stands forth alone in a score of books refulgent against
-the gloomy background of the greed and ambition to which she was
-sacrificed. The whole drama of her usurpation and its swift catastrophe
-is usually treated as an isolated phenomenon, the result of one man’s
-unscrupulous self-seeking; and with the fall of the fair head of the
-Nine Days’ Queen upon the blood-stained scaffold within the Tower the
-curtain is rung down and the incident looked upon as fittingly closed
-by the martyrdom of the gentlest champion of the Protestant Reformation
-in England.
-
-Such a treatment of the subject, however attractive and humanly
-interesting it may be, is nevertheless unscientific as history and
-untrue in fact. An adequate appreciation of the tendencies behind
-the unsuccessful attempt to deprive Mary of her birthright can only
-be gained by a consideration of the circumstances preceding and
-surrounding the main incident. The reasons why Northumberland, a weak
-man as events proved, was able to ride rough-shod over the nobles
-and people of England, the explanation of his sudden and ignominious
-collapse and of the apparent levity with which the nation at large
-changed its religious beliefs and observance at the bidding of assumed
-authority are none of them on the surface of events; and the story
-of Jane Grey as it is usually told, whilst abounding in pathetic
-interest gives no key to the vast political issues of which the fatal
-intrigue of Northumberland was but a by-product. To represent the
-tragedy as a purely religious one, as is not infrequently done, is
-doubly misleading. That one side happened to be Catholic and the other
-Protestant was merely a matter of party politics, and probably not a
-single active participator in the events, except Jane herself, and to
-some extent Mary, was really moved by religious considerations at all,
-loud as the professions of some of the leaders were.
-
-Mr. Davey has given in the vivid pages of this book a striking picture
-of the Society in which the drama was represented and of the persons
-who surrounded Lady Jane Grey in the critical period of her unhappy
-fate; and this of itself enables a wider view than is usual to be taken
-of the subject. But, withal, I venture to think that an even more
-extended prospect of it may be attained and the whole episode fitted
-into its proper place in the history of England, if supplementary
-consideration be given to international politics of the time, and
-especially to the part which England aspired to take in the tremendous
-struggle for supremacy which was then approaching the end of its first
-phase on the Continent of Europe; a struggle in which not only the two
-most powerful nations in Christendom were engaged and the two greatest
-monarchs in the world were the leaders, but one in which the eternally
-antagonistic principles of expansion and repression were the issues.
-
-It is too often assumed that the system of political parties in
-English Government dates only from the rise of Parliament as the
-predominant power in the State in the seventeenth century, since, by
-the open opposition and the public discussion of rival policies in
-the Legislature, the existence of different groups of statesmen then
-became evident to the world. But at least it may be asserted that,
-from the time when the two first Tudor kings sought the aggrandisement
-of England by placing their power in the balance between the great
-Continental rivals, two schools of English politicians surrounded
-their sovereign, each intent upon forwarding the alliance which
-seemed to them wisest in the interests of the country and their own.
-When, however, the political rivalry of France and the Emperor was
-accentuated by the introduction of religious schism in the contest, by
-the bold defiance of Luther and the spread of the reformed doctrines,
-the political parties in the English Court were divided more distinctly
-than ever by the new element introduced; and, despotic as the Tudor
-sovereigns were, the apparently personal and fickle character of
-their policy, which proves so puzzling to students, really arose in
-nearly every case from the temporary predominance in their counsels
-of one or the other school of thought represented in their Court. It
-is only by recognising this fact that the strange and sudden changes
-which took place in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI can be made
-comprehensible, and by it also the rise and fall of Lady Jane Grey can
-be seen in its true light.
-
-During the last twenty years of the reign of Henry VIII his bewildering
-mutations of policy and of wives were the result of efforts on the
-part of rival sets of politicians to utilise his brutal sensuality
-and inflated pride to their respective ends. With him, as with the
-most of them, religion was a mere stalking horse for other interests.
-The traditional and more Conservative party, which usually leant
-towards the imperial alliance, naturally took the Catholic side,
-the established nobility such as the Howards backed by the Catholic
-bishops being contrasted with the more recently ennobled men, aided
-by bureaucrats like Cromwell and by the reforming churchmen. Thus it
-came to be understood before the end of Henry’s reign that the men in
-the English Court most favourable to emancipation from the Papacy were
-generally speaking the advocates of a French alliance, whilst those
-who clung to the orthodox view of religion favoured the traditional
-adherence to the house of Burgundy. It is true that the men on both
-sides were equally eager to participate in the plunder of the Church
-and in filching the commons from the people of England; and that both
-parties included men who were ready to profess themselves faithful
-Catholics or ardent reformers as their interests demanded at the time.
-But the political aims of the respective parties were quite distinctly
-divided, notwithstanding religious affinities, for the Emperor was
-just as desirous of having Protestant friends in England as the King
-of France was willing to accept Catholic support there. The object of
-the English sovereigns, it must be recollected, was usually somewhat
-different from that of their bribed councillors who had their own
-interests to serve. The aim of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and especially
-of Elizabeth, who alone was successful in attaining it, was so to
-distribute the weight of England’s influence as to avert any coalition
-of the two great Continental powers against her, rather than to become
-the permanent tool of either; the efforts of Charles V, and his French
-rival being respectively directed towards preventing England from
-throwing in her lot with their enemies.
-
-Until religious bitterness infinitely complicated the question, and
-finally led to the long state of war with Spain, the side which
-commanded most sympathy amongst the English people at large was
-unquestionably that which favoured a cordial understanding with
-the sovereign of Flanders and Spain. The country had been in close
-antagonism with France on and off for centuries, the proximity of
-the coasts and the aspirations of the French to dominate the Channel
-represented a constant danger and source of anxiety, and it was
-instinctively felt in England that the time-honoured policy which
-bound her to the monarch who was able when he pleased to divert the
-aggression of the French by threatening any of their land frontiers,
-was the safest friend of this country. The English merchants who found
-their richest markets in Flanders and Spain, and who were in chronic
-irritation at the French piratical attacks upon their commerce, were
-equally anxious for a friendship which they looked upon as the best
-assurance against a war which they dreaded; so that the chief English
-advocates of the French connection were usually those whose adherence
-to the reformed religious doctrines overbore their political interests,
-and the newer nobility and politicians who found themselves at enmity
-on social and other grounds with the traditional conservatives.
-
-It must not be forgotten that both France and the Emperor strove
-ceaselessly to gain friends amongst the English councillors. Immense
-bribes found their way into the pockets of ministers and secretaries
-of State, in many cases regular yearly pensions being settled upon
-influential political supporters, and by means of flattery, social
-attentions, and promises, the ambassadors in England of the rival
-powers became centres of intrigue to influence English policy in
-favour of one or the other. The goal to which both the rivals directed
-their eyes was one in which, curiously enough, England had no interest
-whatever, namely, the hegemony over Italy; but England which by
-activity on the northern coasts of France or on the Scottish border
-could weaken the French power for harm in other directions, could
-enable the Emperor at any time to check his enemy’s Italian ambitions;
-whilst with England as her friend France could brave the imperialists,
-certain that she would not be taken in the rear, especially when, as
-she usually managed to do, she had enlisted on her side the Turks on
-the Hungarian frontier and the Lutheran princes and towns of Germany.
-
-The marriage of Henry VIII with Jane Seymour was looked upon by the
-Imperialist Conservative party in England as a victory for their cause.
-Her brother, Sir Edward Seymour, had been in the Emperor’s service,
-and Jane had supplanted the hated Anne Boleyn, whose sympathies were,
-of course, entirely French. It is true that later Seymour, a parvenu
-noble, be it recollected, was driven into the anti-papal camp mainly by
-the antagonism of Norfolk and the older nobles who led the Conservative
-party, but, notwithstanding his Protestantism, he never wavered in
-his attachment to the imperial alliance and his opposition to French
-interests.
-
-When the death of Henry VIII made Seymour, as Duke of Somerset and
-Protector, virtually ruler of England with Paget as his principal
-minister, both of them were almost servile in their professions of
-devotion to the cause of the Emperor; and made no secret of their
-distrust of France with which a hollow and temporary peace had only
-been recently patched up. Somerset harried the Church and changed
-religious forms ruthlessly; his greed was insatiable and the devotional
-endowments were looted without compunction, the Catholic bishops were
-treated with stern severity, and even the schismatic Catholicism of
-Henry VIII was cast aside in favour of an entirely new creed and
-ritual. Norfolk was kept in the Tower, Wriothesley was disgraced
-and the Catholic Conservative nobles were warned not to stand in
-the Protector’s way. But through it all Somerset and Paget were
-politically the sworn servants and friends of the Emperor, pledged
-to discountenance any attempts of the French to injure him: whilst
-Charles V on his side, much as he deprecated the religious changes,
-could no more afford to quarrel with Somerset than he could with
-Henry VIII, twenty years before when he contumeliously repudiated his
-blameless Spanish wife and scornfully threw off the papal supremacy
-which was the keystone of the imperial system.
-
-Submissive as were the words of Somerset and Paget to their imperial
-master[1] not by words alone but by acts also they sought to serve
-him as against France. The strong policy adopted by Somerset towards
-Scotland, and his defiant attitude at Boulogne, then temporarily
-held by the English against the payment of a great ransom, served
-the Emperor’s turn excellently at a period when he was at grips with
-his Lutheran subjects, at issue with the Pope and faced by a series
-of dangerous French intrigues in Italy. That the French themselves
-understood this perfectly well is seen by the desperate efforts they
-made to conciliate Somerset and win him to their side. Early in July
-1547, only five months after his accession to power, Somerset told
-the imperial ambassador in strict confidence, when the latter was
-complaining of his religious innovations, that the special French
-envoy, Paulin--“immediately after the death of King Henry had striven
-to win him, the Protector, to the side of France by means of a large
-annual pension, which, as was only right, he had always declined.
-Notwithstanding this, however, Paulin, the last time he came hither,
-was instructed to offer him the assignment of the pension, which
-he had brought with him already signed and sealed. But with all
-these offers and grand promises of the French to divert the English
-Government from their alliance with your Majesty (the Emperor), he
-said he would always remain constant and loyal to you, knowing well
-that the strict preservation of the ancient alliance was so important
-for both parties.” Even a month previous to this Somerset had informed
-the ambassador that the French had greatly scandalised him by offering
-him as an inducement to join France, in an offensive and defensive
-alliance, the cession of the Emperor’s Flemish province to England when
-it had been conquered by the allies, Boulogne at the same time to be
-restored to France.
-
-What wonder that the Emperor’s reply to this was to send flattering
-autograph letters to Somerset, assuring him of his unalterable regard,
-but saying not a word about his Protestant proceedings. “Of course,”
-continues the Emperor, writing to his ambassador, “the Protector would
-naturally refuse to accept the pension from the French, if only in the
-interests of duty and decency. The goodwill he displays towards us
-must be encouraged to the utmost by you on all occasions, and you must
-lose no opportunity of confirming the Protector in these favourable
-sentiments.” Somerset and Paget were therefore from first to last
-“Emperor’s men” and opponents of French interests, that is to say
-advocates of the same policy as that identified with the older nobles
-and Catholics, most of whom were now under a cloud in consequence of
-their religion or in consequence of their personal enmity to Somerset
-whom they regarded as a greedy, unscrupulous interloper.
-
-From the first days after the death of Henry VIII, it had been
-seen by close observers that personal and not political rivalry
-alone was likely in the future to bring about a split in Somerset’s
-Government. The imperial ambassador, writing less than a fortnight
-after Henry’s death, says that whilst Hertford (Somerset) and Warwick
-(Northumberland) would apparently be supreme in authority, “it is
-likely that some jealousy or rivalry may arise between them because,
-although they both belong to the same sect, they are nevertheless
-widely different in character: the Lord-Admiral being of high courage
-will not willingly submit to his colleague. He is in higher favour with
-the people and with the nobles than is the Earl of Hertford, owing to
-his liberality and splendour. The Protector, on the other hand, is not
-so conspicuous in this respect, and is looked down upon by everybody
-as a dry, sour, opinionated man”: the sequel to this being that both
-these nobles with Paget and Wriothesley should, in the opinion of the
-ambassador, be “entertained” by the Emperor “in the usual way.”
-
-Before many months had passed, as we have seen, it was recognised by
-the Imperialist party that Somerset and Paget were their fast friends
-and that the rising personal opposition of Dudley had adopted, not
-unnaturally, as its policy that of a _rapprochement_ with France. It
-would, of course, be untrue to say that Dudley’s attack upon Somerset
-had for its sole object the substitution of one international policy
-for another. Dudley, like his rival, was in the first place ambitious
-and self-seeking; but it was necessary for both of them, in order
-to serve their ends, that they should obtain the cooperation and
-support of one or other of the two main currents of public opinion,
-the adhesion of both rivals to the advanced Protestant practices in
-religion being dictated in the first place by their need for the money
-and patronage that the religious confiscations provided, and, secondly,
-by the great predominance of the reformed doctrines in and about
-London. But Somerset having embraced the Conservative or Imperialistic
-policy, and infused, under the influence of Catholic Paget, some
-consideration for the professors of the old faith into his reforming
-zeal, it was incumbent upon Dudley, who wished to overthrow him, to
-adopt in both respects an entirely opposite policy.
-
-It is the fate of most Governments to be judged by results, and it was
-a comparatively easy matter for Dudley to pick holes in Somerset’s
-management of affairs. The debasement of the coinage and the consequent
-dislocation of business and the terrible distress it caused, the
-enclosures of the commons and the process of turning customary
-copyholds into tenancies at will, had reduced the people of England to
-a condition of misery such as they had never seen before. The cruel
-confiscation of the monastic properties had deprived the sick and
-the poor of their principal source of relief, the drastic changes in
-religion had produced indignation in the breasts of many citizens,
-whilst slackening the hold of authority generally and promoting
-lawlessness. When to all this is added the grasping selfishness of
-Somerset personally, and above all the success of the French arms
-before Boulogne, attributed to the parsimony of the Protector, it
-will be seen that Northumberland had a large area of discontent upon
-which to work for support against his unpopular rival. But even so, it
-is improbable that he would have ventured to take so bold an action
-against the Protector as he did, but for the consciousness that he had
-behind him the support, moral and financial if not military, of France
-and the Lutheran enemies of the Emperor.
-
-When the loss of the English forts protecting Boulogne made
-negotiations for peace necessary, a French Embassy was sent to London,
-and a keen observer present at the time[2] thus records what was
-evidently the public impression of events--“It was suspected that the
-principal object of this embassy was to bribe them (_i.e._ the English
-Government) to make war on the Emperor. Whilst these ambassadors were
-there they were greatly feasted by the Earl of Warwick (Northumberland)
-and the Grand Master (Paulet, Marquis of Winchester) much more than any
-other of the lords; for it appears that the French ambassadors could
-not gain the ear of the others--The King of France found out from his
-ambassadors which of the English lords showed more leaning towards
-France and against the Emperor. These were the Earl of Warwick and the
-Grand Master (of the Household), and it is believed that the King (of
-France) wrote to them warning them against the Protector and the Earl
-of Arundel who were plotting their destruction.” If this contemporary
-belief was well founded, as it probably was, the overthrow of Somerset
-is proved to a great extent to have been an international intrigue
-promoted and probably well paid for by France.
-
-As the observer already quoted remarks, the sequel of the Embassy
-which thus ensured Northumberland’s neutrality in favour of France was
-the almost immediate declaration of war by the French King against
-the Emperor, and the wholesale plundering of the imperial subjects at
-sea. Seen in this light, therefore, Northumberland’s complete change
-of England’s policy, his truckling to France, his merciless measures
-against Catholics, although, as events proved he was a Catholic at
-heart himself, his imprisonment of Paget the Emperor’s humble servant,
-and his ostentatious disregard for the imperial friendship, his whole
-attitude indeed, assumes a new aspect. His ambition was boundless for
-himself and his house; but it must have been evident to him that it
-could only be successfully carried into effect if he had behind him a
-strong body of public opinion in England itself, and the countenance of
-one of the great continental powers. Both these desiderata he had in
-the earlier months of his domination; and if Edward VI had died or had
-been despatched late in 1551, or in the earlier weeks of 1552, it is
-quite possible that Northumberland might have carried through his great
-conspiracy successfully.
-
-But the eighteen months that elapsed between the execution of Somerset
-and the death of Edward were fully sufficient to prove to the people
-of England that they had cast off the yoke of a King Log to assume
-that of a King Stork--Northumberland’s overbearing arrogance and
-roughness had offended everyone with whom he came into contact: his
-colleagues dreaded and hated him, especially after the marriage of his
-young son Guildford to a lady of the Royal house in the direct line of
-succession had to some extent opened the eyes of men to the magnitude
-of his aspirations. The condition of the country, moreover, instead
-of improving under his rule was considerably worse even than it had
-been under Somerset. The coinage had now reached its lowest point of
-debasement, the shilling containing only one quarter of silver to three
-quarters of copper, and even was ordered by decree to be only valued
-at half its face value. The gold had all left the country and foreign
-trade was killed by the lack of a decent currency. Labour, driven from
-the land by the wholesale conversion of the estates from tillage to
-pasture, crowded the towns clamouring for food, and the disgraceful
-treatment of the Princess Mary by the ruling minister had aroused a
-strong feeling against his injustice and tyranny.
-
-The Emperor was at war with France and the Lutherans, and was obliged
-to speak softly to Northumberland. Again and again he tried to win
-him over to his side, and the ruler of England knew full well that,
-whatever he might do he was safe from any overt interference from the
-imperial power. But for this fact it is certain that Northumberland
-would not have attempted the bold stroke of disinheriting Mary and
-placing Jane Grey and his own son upon the throne of England. When
-Edward VI was known by him to be sick beyond recovery Northumberland,
-with an eye to the near future, endeavoured to conciliate the Emperor
-somewhat and to bring about peace upon the Continent. His object in
-doing so was twofold--first to persuade Charles that he was still a
-potential friend; and, secondly, to set his French friends free from
-their war with the Emperor, and so enable them at the critical moment
-he foresaw to come to his aid in England if necessary. The English
-trading classes were by this time in a fever of indignation against
-the French for their piratical interference with English shipping, and
-Northumberland must have known that with this and the fear aroused by
-the French successes in the Emperor’s Flemish dominions--always the
-key of English policy--even he could not for very long withstand the
-demand of the English people to help the Emperor against his enemies.
-It was Northumberland’s misfortune that he was obliged to deliver
-his blow against the legitimate English succession in this state of
-public affairs. The Emperor and his ministers were keenly alive to
-the situation, and although they were of course not yet aware of the
-details of Northumberland’s intended _coup d’état_, they feared that
-the Princess Mary might by his influence be excluded from the throne.
-This of course would have been a serious blow to the imperial cause;
-for it would in all probability mean the permanent adhesion of England
-to the French alliance. But Charles had swallowed so much humiliation
-to keep England friendly in the past that he was not disposed now to be
-too squeamish. He did not know how far his enemies the French had gone
-in their promises of support to Northumberland when Edward should die,
-but if by blandishments and conciliatory acquiescence he could win the
-friendship of England he was willing to smile upon any occupant of the
-throne or any power behind it who would keep to the old alliance and
-turn a cold shoulder to the French.
-
-As soon as it was known in the imperial court that Edward was
-approaching his end the Emperor’s ambassadors hurried over to England
-with instructions to conciliate Northumberland at all costs, and to
-assure him that the Emperor’s affection for England and its young King
-was much greater than that of the King of France. “But,” continues the
-Emperor’s instructions, “if you arrive too late and the King is dead,
-you must take counsel together and act for the best for the safety of
-our cousin the Princess Mary, and secure, if possible, her accession
-to the Crown, whilst doing what you judge necessary to exclude the
-French and their intrigues. You must endeavour also to maintain the
-confidence and good neighbourship which it is so important that our
-States should enjoy with England ... and especially to prevent the
-French from getting a footing in the country, or of gaining the ear
-of the men who rule England, the more so if it be for the purpose of
-embarrassing us.”
-
-News had already reached Flanders of Northumberland’s intention to
-exclude Mary from the throne on her brother’s death, and although
-the Emperor saw that in such case the life of his cousin would be in
-grave peril, especially if French aid, as was feared, were given to
-Northumberland, the principal efforts of the imperial envoys were
-to be directed to assuring the English government in any case that
-the Emperor was their friend and not France; Northumberland was to
-be persuaded that the Emperor had no thought of proposing a foreign
-husband for Mary; and that any match chosen for her by the ruling
-powers in England would be willingly accepted by her imperial kinsman.
-In short, the envoys were to promise anything and everything to secure
-the throne for Mary, even to endorsing the religious changes effected
-under Edward. But failing success in this it is made quite clear that
-the Emperor was willing to accept Jane Grey or any other sovereign who
-would consent to regard him as a friend and exclude French influence
-from the country.
-
-The French were just as much on the alert to serve their own interests,
-and Northumberland, knowing how unpopular the French were at this
-juncture, and how much his supposed dependence upon them was resented,
-was extremely careful not to show ostensibly any leaning towards
-them. But as soon as he heard, late in June, that the imperial envoys
-were coming to London he came specially from Greenwich to the French
-ambassador’s lodging at the Charterhouse to inform him that the Emperor
-was sending an embassy. “I doubt not,” writes the French agent to his
-King, “that they will do their best to interrupt the friendship that
-exists between your Majesty and the King of England. I will keep my eye
-upon them and will leave no effort untried to subvert them.”
-
-Edward died on the very day that the imperial ambassadors arrived in
-London, though the death was kept secret for some days afterwards, and
-it soon became evident, both to the French and the Imperialists, that
-Northumberland had prepared everything for the elevation of Jane Grey
-to the throne. At this juncture, which called, if ever one did, for
-prompt and bold action, only one of the several interests took a strong
-course, the Princess Mary herself. It is quite evident that everyone
-else had deceived himself and was paralysed in fear of action by
-another. Again and again the French ambassador expressed a belief that
-the coming of the imperial envoys portended an active interference on
-the part of the Emperor in favour of Princess Mary; and Northumberland
-and his council, notwithstanding all the protestations of the imperial
-envoys, were of the same opinion; whereas we now see that the Emperor
-was quite willing to throw over Mary, and even the Catholics, if only
-he could persuade Jane Grey and her government to join him against
-France.
-
-When Mary’s bold defiance of the usurper was announced, the Emperor’s
-envoys, whom many believed to be forerunners of a strong foreign armed
-force to aid her, had nothing but shocked condemnation for her action.
-They considered her attitude “strange, difficult and dangerous”;
-and predicted her prompt suppression and punishment. In reference
-to the suggestion of her Catholic friends, that imperial aid should
-be sent to her, the envoys, who were supposed to be in England for
-the purpose of forcing her upon the throne, could only say to their
-master, “Considering your war with the French, it seems unadvisable
-for your Majesty to arouse English feeling against you, and the idea
-that the Lady will gain Englishmen on the ground of religion is vain.”
-Serious remonstrances were sent to Mary herself by the imperial envoys,
-pointing out the danger and the hopelessness of her position in the
-face of Northumberland’s supposed strength, and they laboured hard to
-dissuade the Duke from his idea that they had been sent to England to
-sustain Mary’s cause.
-
-Nor was the Emperor himself bolder than his envoys. He instructed the
-latter to recommend Mary, “with all softness and kindness,” to the
-mercy of Jane’s government, but they were to make it quite clear that
-he would strike no blow in her favour, and would receive with open
-arms any sovereign of England who would not serve French interests.
-Mr. Davey has indicated in the present book the eagerness with which
-the great imperial minister, Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, greeted
-Guildford Dudley as King of England. That Mendoza, one of the most
-trusted and ablest of the Emperor’s councillors, could take such a step
-without knowing that it would not, at least, be against his master’s
-policy is inconceivable: and all through it is clear that, if Mary had
-waited for effective help from her imperial cousin, Jane Grey might
-have reigned for a long lifetime.
-
-Just as the Emperor was paralysed in his action by the fear that he
-might alienate England from his side, so France allowed discretion
-to wait upon valour for fear of driving the English government
-irretrievably into the arms of the Emperor. When the news of Mary’s
-rising came to London the French ambassador bitterly deplored
-Northumberland’s want of foresight in not having seized the person of
-the Princess in time to prevent it. He confessed that Northumberland
-was excessively unpopular, but believed that his possession of the
-national forces would enable him to crush Mary and her malcontents. But
-he took care not to pledge himself too deeply to Jane, and whilst full
-of sympathy and good wishes for Northumberland’s success always kept in
-touch with some of Mary’s friends. Neither the French ambassador nor
-the English council really understood the Emperor’s attitude. When the
-council communicated to the imperial ambassadors Jane’s succession,
-they haughtily told them that it was known they were here to force Mary
-upon the throne, and that a new sovereign now having been successfully
-proclaimed, the sooner they left England the better. The French
-ambassador, writing to his king at the same time, remarked that the
-imperial ambassadors had informed the English council, that rather than
-submit to Jane’s wearing the crown to Mary’s deprivation his master
-would make friends with the French on any terms and would deal with
-Jane in a way which she would not like.
-
-It is almost amusing, now that we have the correspondence of all
-parties before us, to see how they all deceived themselves. The
-Emperor, as has been said, would not lift a finger to help Mary, even
-when she was in the field with a strong armed force, for fear of
-alienating hopelessly the sovereign of England whoever he might be;
-the King of France, whilst giving the same sort of hesitating implied
-support to Northumberland and Jane as Charles held out to the Princess
-Mary, would give no effective help for the same reason that tied the
-Emperor’s hands. Both sides, indeed, were waiting to greet success
-without pledging themselves to a cause which might fail.
-
-But the person who miscalculated most fatally of all was Northumberland
-himself. He had been during the whole time of his rule the humble
-servant of France. He had violated the treaty of 1543, by which England
-was bound to side with the Emperor in case his territory was invaded by
-France, and he stood between the throne and Princess Mary who it was
-known would serve the cause of the Emperor and her mother’s country to
-the utmost. He was obliged, as has been shown, to cast his hazard when
-the public opinion was strongly against him, the commercial classes
-of England well nigh ruined, the labourers in a worse condition than
-had ever been known before, and the nobility jealous and apprehensive.
-Knowing this, as he did, it is difficult to believe that he would
-have dared to take up the position he assumed unless he had persuaded
-himself that, as a last resource, French armed aid would support him.
-That such a thing was not remotely probable is now evident from the
-correspondence of the French ambassadors. They were only full of sorrow
-for “this poor Queen Jane” and feared for the fate of their unfortunate
-friend the Duke of Northumberland. And yet London itself was in a
-panic, born of the conviction that 6000 French troops were on their
-way to keep Jane upon the throne; Northumberland, in fact, presumably
-believing that his past services to France had deserved such aid, had
-actually sent and demanded it of the King. If it had been afforded in
-effective time the whole history of England might have been changed.
-
-We know now, although none knew it then, that the Emperor would have
-greeted with smooth assurances the victorious Jane and Northumberland,
-and would have deserted his cousin Mary until a turn of the wheel gave
-her hopes of success again. There was, indeed, nothing to prevent
-Henry of France, but groundless fear of his rival, from sending to
-England the small force necessary to keep Jane upon the throne and
-defeat Mary. But time-serving cowardice ruled over all. The edifice
-of Northumberland’s ambition crumbled like a house of cards under
-the weight of his unpopularity alone, and when Mary the victorious
-entered into the enjoyment of her birthright, the Frenchman who had
-plotted and intrigued against her in secret, vied with the imperial
-ambassadors who had stood by, unsympathetic in the hour of her trial,
-in their professions of devotion to her and her cause. The people of
-London, overwhelmingly Protestant as they were, greeted the Queen with
-effusion and had few words of pity for poor Jane, not because they
-loved the old observance but because they dreaded the French, and hated
-Northumberland the tyrannous and unjust servant of France. In the
-country districts, too, where Catholicism was strong, the enthusiasm
-for Mary was not so much religious, for all the people wanted was quiet
-and some measure of prosperity, as expressive of joy at the hope of a
-return to the national policy of cordial relations with the sovereign
-of Flanders, which in past times had ensured English commerce from
-French depredations and the English coast from French menaces, with
-freedom from the arrogant minister who had harassed every English
-interest and had reduced to ruin all classes in the country.
-
-The unhappy Jane, a straw upon the rushing torrent, was not raised
-to her sad eminence that the Protestant faith might prevail, though
-that might have been one of the results of her rule, nor was she
-cast down because Catholicism was triumphant, but because the policy
-which her dictator, Northumberland, represented was unpopular at the
-time of Edward’s death, and the English sense of justice rebelled at
-the usurpation and its contriver. Mary, in addition to her inherent
-right to the succession, which was her strong point, had only her own
-boldness and tenacity to thank for the success which she achieved. The
-Emperor, notwithstanding all his sympathy and the enormous importance
-to him of her success, did nothing for her until she was independent
-of him, and only promised her armed aid then in case the French should
-attempt to overthrow her by force.
-
-Northumberland fell, not because the country at large and London above
-all, was yearning for the re-submission of England to the Pope, but
-because the eighteen months of his unchecked dictatorship had made him
-detested, and because he overrated the boldness and magnanimity of the
-King of France. The English public, by instinct perhaps more than by
-reason, believed in the ideal policy of Henry VII: that of dexterously
-balancing English friendship between the rival continental powers,
-making the best market possible for her moral support, keeping at
-peace herself and adhering mostly to the more prosperous side without
-fighting for either. Such a policy required statesmanship of the
-highest order, and Elizabeth alone was entirely successful in carrying
-it out. Somerset and Northumberland both failed because they were
-unequal to it. Each of them took the minister’s view rather than that
-of a monarch. They were party leaders, both of them, and incapable of
-adopting the view above party considerations which marks the successful
-sovereign. They pledged themselves too deeply to the respective foreign
-alliances traditional with their parties; and in both cases, as a
-penetrating statesman would have foreseen, their allies failed them at
-the critical moment.
-
-Mary’s tragical fate was the result of a similar short-sighted policy.
-When she determined against the wishes of her people and the advice
-of her wisest councillors, Catholics to a man, to hand herself and
-her country, body and soul, over to Spanish interests, she ceased to
-be a true national sovereign; the nice balance upon which England’s
-prosperity depended was lost, the love and devotion of the people
-turned to cold distrust, and failure and a broken heart were the
-result. Not until Elizabeth came with her keen wit and her consummate
-mastery of the resources of chicanery was England placed and kept
-firmly again upon the road to greatness which had been traced for her
-by the first Tudor sovereign.
-
- MARTIN HUME
-
-
-
-
-THE NINE DAYS’ QUEEN
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-BRADGATE HALL AND THE GREYS OF GROBY
-
-
-There is no more picturesque spot in England than Bradgate Old Manor,
-the birthplace of Lady Jane Grey. It stands in a sequestered corner,
-about three miles from the town of Leicester, amid arid slate hillocks,
-which slope down to the fertile valleys at their feet. In Leland’s
-_Perambulations through England_, a survey of the kingdom undertaken
-by command of Henry VIII, Bradgate is described as possessing “a fair
-parke and a lodge lately built there by the Lorde Thomas Grey, Marquise
-of Dorsete, father of Henry, that is now Marquise. There is a faire and
-plentiful spring of water brought by Master Brok as a man would judge
-agyne the hills through the lodge and thereby it driveth a mylle.” He
-also informs us that “there remain few tokens of the old castelle,”
-which leads us to believe that at the time of Lady Jane Grey’s birth
-Bradgate was a comparatively new house. The ruins show that the
-mansion was built of red brick and in that severe but elegant form of
-architecture known as the “Tudor style.” Worthy old Leland goes on to
-say that Jane’s paternal grandfather added “two lofty towers at the
-front of the house, one on either side of the principal doorway.” These
-are still remaining.
-
-In Tudor times the park was very extensive and “marched with the forest
-of Chartley, which was full twenty-five miles in circumference, watered
-by the river Sore and teeming with game.” Another ancient writer
-tells us, in the quaint language of his day, that “here a wren and
-squirrel might hop from tree to tree for six miles, and in summer time
-a traveller could journey from Beaumanoir to Burden, a good twelve
-miles, without seeing the sun.” The wealth of luxuriant vegetation in
-the old park, the clear and running brooks, that babble through the
-sequestered woods, and the beautifully sloping open spaces, dotted
-with venerable and curiously pollarded oaks, make up a scene of sylvan
-charm peculiarly English. Here cultivation has not, as so often on the
-Continent, disfigured Nature, but the park retains the wild beauty
-of its luxuriant elms and beeches that rise in native grandeur from
-amidst a wilderness of bracken, fern, and flags, to cast their shadows
-over heather-grown hillocks. On the summit of one of the loftiest
-of these still stands the ruined palace that was the birthplace of
-Lady Jane Grey. The approaches to Bradgate are beautiful indeed,
-especially the pathway winding round by the old church along the banks
-of a trout-stream, which rises in the neighbourhood of the Priory of
-Ulverscroft, famous for the beauty of its lofty tower. When Jane Grey
-was born, this Priory had been very recently suppressed, and the people
-were lamenting the departure of the monks, who, during the hard winter
-of 1528, had fed six hundred starving peasants.
-
-Bradgate Manor House was standing as late as 1608, but after that
-date it fell into gradual decay. Not much is now left of the original
-structure, but its outlines can still be traced; and the walls of the
-great hall and the chapel are nearly intact. A late Lord Stamford and
-Warrington roofed and restored the old chapel, which contains a fine
-monument to that Henry Grey whose signature may be seen on the warrant
-for the execution of Charles I.
-
-A careful observation of the irregularities of the soil reveals traces
-of a tilt-yard and of garden terraces; but all is now overgrown by
-Spanish chestnut trees, wild flowers, nettles, and brambles. The
-gardens were once considered amongst the finest in England, Lord Dorset
-taking great pride in the cultivation of all the fruits, herbs, and
-flowers then grown in Northern Europe. The parterres and terraces were
-formal, and there was a large fish-pond full of golden carp and water
-lilies. Lady Jane Grey must often have played in these stately avenues,
-and there is a legend that once, as a little girl, she toppled into the
-tank and was nearly drowned--a less hideous fate than that which was to
-befall her in her seventeenth year.
-
- “This was thy home, then, gentle Jane!
- This thy green solitude; and here
- At evening, from thy gleaming pane,
- Thine eyes oft watched the dappled deer
- (Whilst the soft sun was in its wane)
- Browsing beside the brooklet clear.
- The brook yet runs, the sun sets now,
- The deer still browseth--where art thou?”
-
-These sentimental lines were written in the eighteenth century, when
-deer still browsed in Bradgate Park, whence they have long since
-departed. Many curious traditions concerning Lady Jane are even now
-current among the local peasantry. Some believe that on St. Sylvester’s
-night (31st December) a coach drawn by four black horses halts at the
-door of the old mansion. It contains the headless form of the murdered
-Lady Jane. After a brief halt it drives away again into the mist. Then
-again, certain strange[3] stunted oaks are shown, trees which the
-woodmen pollarded when they heard that the fair girl had been beheaded.
-The pathetic memories of the great tragedy, reaching down four slow
-centuries, prove how keenly its awful reality was felt by the poorer
-folk at Bradgate, who, no doubt, had good cause to love the “gentle
-Jane.”
-
-The Manor of Bradgate was settled upon the Lady Frances Brandon, Henry
-VIII’s niece, when she espoused Henry Grey. It had been inherited by
-the Greys of Groby, Lady Jane’s paternal ancestors, from Rollo, or
-Fulbert, said to have been chamberlain to Robert, Duke of Normandy, who
-gave him the Castle of Croy in Picardy, the ruins of which are still
-to be seen not far from Montreuil-sur-Mer. It was hence he derived
-the surname of de Croy, afterwards anglicised to de Grey. This Rollo
-accompanied William the Conqueror into England, and was settled, soon
-after the Conquest, at Rotherfield, in Oxfordshire. The first of the
-family to be noticed by Dugdale is Henry de Grey, to whom Richard
-I granted the Manor of Grey’s Thurrock, in Essex, which grant was
-confirmed by King John in the first year of his reign. The descendant
-of this nobleman, Edward de Grey, was summoned to Parliament in 1488
-in right of his wife’s barony of Ferrers of Groby, and his son John,
-afterwards Earl Rivers, who was slain in the battle of St. Albans,
-married the beautiful daughter of Sir John Woodville, subsequently the
-Queen of Edward IV. Bradgate is thus associated with two of the most
-unfortunate of England’s Queens: Elizabeth Woodville, who passed much
-of her life in its leafy glades; and Lady Jane Grey, who first saw the
-light in the stately red brick Manor House of which the crumbling ruins
-are now so beautiful in their decay.
-
-Jane Grey’s grandfather, Thomas, the eldest son of Elizabeth Woodville,
-was summoned to Parliament on the 17th October 1509 as Lord Ferrers
-of Groby, his mother’s barony, and to the second Parliament in 1511
-as Marquess of Dorset. He was a man of great note. In the third year
-of Henry VIII’s reign he had charge of the army of 10,000 men sent
-into Spain to assist the forces invading Guyenne under the Emperor
-Ferdinand. This force returned to England without doing service. We
-next hear of the Marquess figuring at the jousts with Charles Brandon,
-Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane’s maternal grandfather, on the occasion
-of the latter’s adventurous journey to France to bring back Mary
-Tudor, widow of Louis XII of France, whom he subsequently married.
-The Marquess was also sent to Calais to attend Charles V to England;
-indeed, he was very conspicuous throughout the early years of Henry’s
-reign. King Hal paid him the compliment of calling him “that honest
-and good man”--a title which he thought he richly deserved, since he
-signed the celebrated letter to Pope Clement VII touching the King’s
-divorce. He died in 1530, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry,
-Lady Jane’s father. The inheritance of this nobleman included the
-Marquisate of Dorset and the baronies of Ferrers,[4] Grey, Astley,
-Boneville, and Harrington, besides vast estates in Leicestershire and
-other parts of England. Henry Grey, though his portraits show him to
-have been a very good-looking man, did not enjoy a good contemporary
-reputation for ability or strength of character. During the brief
-reign of Edward VI he became the patron of the Swiss Reformers and was
-adulated by Bullinger and Hill. His name will be found attached to many
-of Henry VIII’s anti-papal decrees, and so long as that monarch lived,
-he was a staunch “Henryite” or schismatic, professing belief in all
-the doctrines of Rome save and except papal supremacy. In 1531, when
-the clergy were threatened with _præmunire_ and mulcted in a fine, as
-a punishment for their too close attention to pontifical interests,
-young Henry of Dorset, who had just come to his own, displayed great
-energy in carrying out the King’s wishes and supporting his attempt to
-get himself acknowledged supreme head of the English Church. He also
-evinced considerable courage in connection with Henry VIII’s resistance
-to the excommunication of the Pope, launched against him after his
-marriage with Anne Boleyn. Such zeal in his sovereign’s service
-undoubtedly led to his advancement and paved the way to his marriage
-with the King’s niece, the Lady Frances Brandon. He may have owed much
-to the counsels and influence of Cromwell, to whom he carried a letter
-of introduction from his mother,[5] when he first went to London as a
-lad of seventeen, immediately after his father’s decease. The Dowager
-recommended her son very earnestly to “Master Cromwell,” pleaded his
-youth, and besought that worthy, then all-powerful, not to take heed
-of certain ill-natured reports concerning alleged wilful damage to the
-priory buildings of Tylsey, where she was then residing.[5]
-
-The good lady couches her letter in very humble terms, but does not
-enlighten us fully about the nature of the “damage” to which she
-refers, or by whom it was done. She seems, at any rate, to be in
-a terrible fright lest the tale should injure her son’s prospects
-with the all-powerful Chancellor. Some little time afterwards the
-Marchioness wrote another letter to Cromwell complaining of her son’s
-undutiful behaviour to her. It is dated from the “House of Our Lady’s
-Passyon”[6] (the Priory of Tylsey), and begins:--
-
- “MY LORDE,--I beseeche you to be my good lorde, consyderyng me a
- poor wydo, so unkyndly and extreymly escheated by my son.”
-
-This curious epistle, now in the British Museum, is much defaced and
-in parts illegible. The name of the person to whom it is addressed
-is undecipherable, but, taken in conjunction with two other letters
-previously addressed to Cromwell by the same correspondent, there can
-be little doubt as to its destination. Her son had evidently withheld
-some property intended for her under her husband’s will. Whether he
-mended his manners and paid her the money, we know not; but as the
-Dowager is occasionally mentioned as attending Court functions in
-company with her daughter-in-law, it seems probable that the ultimate
-issue of the difficulty, whatever it was, was satisfactory to her.
-
-Margaret, Dowager Lady Dorset, became one of the greatest ladies of
-the Court in the latter years of the reign of Henry VII and during a
-part of that of Henry VIII. She was in much request, it seems, at royal
-christenings, for not only was she specially invited to that of Mary
-Tudor, afterwards Queen Mary I, but she enjoyed the signal honour of
-carrying the infant Elizabeth to the font. She was invited to perform a
-like office at the baptism of Edward VI, but this time she was unable
-to be present, and wrote to make her loyal excuses, pleading that
-some of her household at Croydon had been attacked by the “sweating
-sickness.” It is probable that she had no desire to attend, for she had
-been the intimate friend of Anne Boleyn, and could hardly have felt
-kindly towards Jane Seymour.[7] Her place was filled by the Marchioness
-of Exeter, who eventually, after the execution of her luckless husband,
-was sent to the Tower on a flimsy charge of treason, and kept there
-until Mary I’s time.[8]
-
-A singular point in the history of Jane Grey’s forbears is that her
-father, in his hot haste to marry into the royal family, set aside,
-without the slightest scruple, his legitimate wife, Lady Katherine
-Fitzalan, daughter of the Earl of Arundel. Some writers say he was
-simply “contracted,” not married, to this lady, who never demanded
-her marriage rights, but retired into a dignified obscurity. None the
-less her family resented the affront offered their kinswoman, and it
-was Thomas, Earl of Arundel, this discarded lady’s brother, who acted
-as Dorset’s Nemesis, and at last betrayed him into the hands of his
-enemies.
-
-Lady Jane Grey’s maternal grandfather was, as he wrote himself in the
-famous quatrain referring to his marriage with the King’s sister,
-descended from “cloth of frieze.” He was the grandson of a London
-mercer who had married a lady allied to the great houses of Nevill,
-Fitzalan and Howard, and his father had fought and fallen at Bosworth
-Field in the cause of Henry VII. In recognition of his services, Henry
-attached young Charles Brandon to the person of his younger son, Prince
-Henry, who was of similar age to himself. Thus began a friendship which
-was only severed by death. In appearance the Prince and his comrade
-were singularly alike: both were tall and stalwart, both with red hair
-and fair complexions, and they were equally skilful and agile in sport
-and manly pastimes. Charles was more intellectually gifted than Henry,
-but there was little to choose between them as regards their execrable
-views of moral responsibilities and their laxity in respect of their
-marriage vows.
-
-As this last characteristic of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk,
-touches somewhat upon the legitimacy of Lady Jane Grey’s descent, a
-short summary of his matrimonial vagaries may be pardoned here. He was
-contracted in marriage early in life to Anne Browne, a daughter of
-Sir Anthony Browne, Governor of Calais, by his wife Lady Lucy Nevill,
-daughter of George Nevill, Duke of Bedford, brother of Richard, Earl
-of Warwick, “the King maker.” In 1513 he was bold enough to flirt most
-outrageously with, and seek in marriage, one of the greatest ladies
-in Europe, Margaret of Austria, the widowed Duchess of Savoy, aunt
-of the Emperor Charles V. But though Margaret fell in love with him,
-such a match was soon seen to be impossible, even by the lady herself,
-and Brandon came out of the affair most ungallantly. For this or some
-other reason never clearly explained, Brandon set aside his contract
-with Anne Browne, notwithstanding that by the laws of the period it
-was considered as binding as the completed marriage ceremony. We
-next learn that a probable reason for his unchivalrous conduct was
-a chance that suddenly offered itself to him of marrying the Lady
-Margaret, the rich widow of Sir John Mortimer of Essex. Charles and
-his mature consort--there was a difference of nearly thirty years
-between them--did not abide long together, for he presently endeavoured
-to annul this marriage on a plea of consanguinity, the Lady Margaret
-being sister to the mother of his neglected bride, Anne Browne, and
-consequently her aunt, a complication which surely ought to have been
-discovered at an earlier stage of the proceedings. Having settled this
-matter for the time being to his own, but certainly not to the lady’s,
-satisfaction, he remarried his discarded wife, Anne Browne, in the
-presence of a great concourse of relations and friends. By this lady
-he had two daughters: Mary, who became the wife of Lord Mounteagle;
-and Anne, who married a connection of the Greys, Viscount Powis. Their
-mother died in 1515, and Brandon soon afterwards contracted himself
-in matrimony with the Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter and heiress of
-Viscount de Lisle. Whether through the interference of Lady Mortimer
-or not it is impossible to say, but it is certain that Lady de Lisle
-refused to carry out her side of the contract, and the match was broken
-off. Brandon, with the consent of Henry VIII, filched from the poor
-lady her title of Lisle, which he forthwith assumed. In due time the
-lady gave her hand to Edmund Dudley, father of the fateful Duke of
-Northumberland. It was probably when in France, and in attendance upon
-King Henry, at the time of the negotiations for the marriage of the
-King’s youngest and most beautiful sister, Mary, to the prematurely
-aged Louis XII, King of France, a hideous victim to elephantiasis,
-that Charles made so strong an impression upon that ardent Tudor
-princess that she swore by all the saints that she would not wed the
-French King unless it was thoroughly understood she was to marry whom
-she chose after his death, which took place within eighteen months
-of the marriage. The romantic story of how Brandon, now created Duke
-of Suffolk, wooed and married the royal widow within a fortnight of
-the King’s death, and whilst she still wore the white widow’s weeds
-of a French King’s Consort, is too well known to need recapitulation
-here, nor need we enter into the details of the gorgeous ceremonies
-of remarriage that took place at Greenwich, in the presence of King
-Henry, Queen Katherine of Aragon, and their Court, soon after Mary
-and Suffolk had landed in England. The Duke of Suffolk took his bride
-to spend their honeymoon in his magnificent mansion in Southwark,
-known as Suffolk Place, which he had recently inherited by the death
-of his uncle, Sir Thomas Brandon. It must have been about this time
-that the friends of the Lady Mortimer, and probably that lady herself,
-began to spread rumours abroad that made both Charles and his consort
-anxious as to the validity of their marriage and the legitimacy of
-their offspring. Indeed, even at the time of his clandestine wedding
-in the Chapel of the Hôtel de Cluny (now incorporated in the Museum of
-that name), he had felt very uneasy about the matter, and, foreseeing
-his peril, wrote to Wolsey, beseeching his assistance and advice on
-a matter of such vital importance, which, however, was not decided
-so easily as Charles expected. It was not until 1528 that Wolsey
-dispatched a somewhat garbled account of the matter to Pope Clement
-VII, then in exile at Orvieto, where he received Cardinal Campeggio
-and the English envoys who came to him with the first negotiations for
-the divorce of Henry VIII from Katherine of Aragon. Trusting in the
-evidence which Wolsey sent him, the Pope, by a special Bull (dated 12th
-May 1528), annulled the marriage of Brandon with the Lady Mortimer,
-on the plea of consanguinity, and at the same time declared valid
-that of her niece, Anne Browne, and legitimized her two children. The
-Bull further stated that Lady Mortimer and her friends were “liable
-to ecclesiastical censure if they made any attempt to invalidate
-the decree” making valid Brandon’s marriage to Anne Browne and Mary
-Tudor. The importance of this decree, which was first read out to the
-people in Norwich Cathedral in 1529 by Bishop Nyx, can readily be
-imagined when we remember that it was not delivered until after the
-Queen-Duchess had given birth to two children. Her only son, the Earl
-of Lincoln, died in infancy, and the Lady Frances became in due time
-the Marchioness of Dorset and mother of Lady Jane Grey. On the other
-hand, the legitimacy of the Lady Eleanor Brandon, the younger daughter,
-who was born after the publication of the papal decree, was never
-disputed, and moreover, before she entered upon her sorrowful career,
-the Lady Mortimer was dead. That considerable doubt was entertained as
-to the validity of Brandon’s marriage with the Queen-Dowager is proved
-by a variety of facts too numerous to be detailed, but one of which is
-very significant. Late in the first half of Queen Elizabeth’s reign,
-the validity of the claims of the Lady Mounteagle and her sister, the
-children of Brandon and Anne Browne, to be considered legitimate,
-was ventilated in the Court of Arches, and after much deliberation
-confirmed. Although the legitimacy of these ladies, both of whom were
-long since deceased at the time of this trial, had nothing to do with
-the legal position of Mary Tudor as the wife of the Duke of Suffolk, it
-was none the less an indirect test of the right to the throne of her
-granddaughters, the Ladies Katherine and Mary Grey.
-
-From these briefly resumed facts it is not difficult to understand that
-although King Henry VIII highly approved of his bosom friend’s conduct,
-his subjects held Charles to be an arrant rascal. His treatment of
-his beautiful royal wife was on a par with his low conception of his
-moral obligations. He neglected her, spent her money, and lived openly
-with a notorious woman known as Mrs. Eleanor Brandon, by whom he had
-an illegitimate son, Charles, who is said to have been the well-known
-jeweller to Queen Elizabeth, and whose son, or grandson, Gregory
-Brandon, was, according to tradition, the headsman who executed Charles
-I.
-
-Lady Jane’s grandmother, Mary Tudor, was a most amiable and
-long-suffering princess, who after a somewhat secluded life in
-Southwark withdrew to Westhorpe Hall. Here she died on 24th June
-1533. Her two daughters--the Lady Frances, who had recently married
-the Marquess of Dorset; and the Lady Eleanor, soon to be the bride of
-Henry, Lord Clifford, eldest son of the Earl of Cumberland--were with
-her at the time of her death, but the Duke was absent in London, and
-so too was the Marquess of Dorset, her son-in-law, attending at the
-coronation of Anne Boleyn. The Queen-Duchess was interred in Bury St.
-Edmunds, Henry VIII and Suffolk paying the expenses of a gorgeous
-alabaster monument to her memory, “full of little saints and angels,”
-which was destroyed soon after, during the wreck of the glorious Abbey
-Church at the time of the suppression of the monasteries. The remains
-of the Queen were then removed to the parish church, where they still
-rest, a marble tablet put up in the early nineteenth century being the
-only memorial of Mary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France and Duchess of
-Suffolk.
-
-Within three months of the Queen’s death (September 1533) Suffolk
-married a fifth wife, the Lady Katherine Willoughby d’Eresby, who,
-it seems, was his ward and only fifteen years old. She was a great
-heiress, and what made her marriage all the more singular was the fact
-that she was a daughter of that Doña Maria de Sarmiento who, as Lady
-Willoughby, was the friend and attendant of Queen Katherine of Aragon.
-It must also be remembered that Queen Katherine had no more bitter
-enemy than Suffolk. This Duchess developed into a very pretty woman, of
-great wit and character, and a staunch supporter of the doctrines of
-the Reformation.
-
-The Lady Frances Brandon was born at Hatfield, then a palace of the
-Bishop of Salisbury, who had afforded her mother hospitality; for it
-seems that the Queen-Duchess was obliged to halt here, for reasons
-easily understood, on her way to Walsingham Priory, whither she was
-bound on a pilgrimage. There is still extant a very curious account
-of the baptism of the Lady Frances in the parish church of Hatfield,
-which was hung with garlands for the occasion. The Lady Anne[9] Boleyn,
-aunt of the ill-fated Queen Anne of that ilk, stood proxy for Queen
-Katherine of Aragon as sponsor.
-
-In 1533-4 the Lady Frances was married, notwithstanding his
-afore-mentioned “contract” to the Lady Fitzalan, to Henry Grey,
-Marquess of Dorset. The wedding took place at Suffolk Place, Southwark,
-and the religious ceremony in the Church of St. Saviour, now the
-cathedral of the new diocese. No very great pains seem to have been
-taken with the lady’s education, except in the matter of what we
-should call “sports,” in which, it seems, she was very proficient.
-
-The Lady Frances was a handsome woman, however, but somewhat spiteful
-and wholly unscrupulous. In a well-known portrait, dated after
-her second marriage, she is represented as a buxom, fair-haired,
-well-featured matron, with a very sinister expression in her light
-grey eyes. Her eldest child was a son who died of the plague when a
-baby, and the three children who survived were all girls--the Ladies
-Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey. Lady Jane Grey, as we shall see, had
-little cause to feel deep affection for either of her parents, but
-least of all for her mother. The Lady Frances seems to have been
-cast, so far as her heart went, in a mould of iron. Even the bloody
-deaths of her husband and her eldest daughter, and the wretchedly
-precarious existence of her two remaining children, did not affect
-her buoyant spirits, since she enjoyed her life to the end. It would
-be difficult to define her religious opinions. She was a schismatic
-under Henry VIII, and under Edward VI she appeared a zealous Protestant
-and so intimate with the famous Reformer Bucer that when he died she
-petitioned Cranmer to obtain a pension for his widow. She became a
-pious Papist in Queen Mary’s time, and died a prominent member of the
-Church of England as by law established, under Elizabeth.
-
-The Lady Eleanor Brandon, Henry VIII’s niece and Lady Jane Grey’s only
-maternal aunt, married, as we have said, Henry, Lord Clifford, to whom
-she was united in 1537 at the Duke of Suffolk’s palace in Southwark.
-The Lady Eleanor gave birth to two sons and a daughter. At the time
-of the Pilgrimage of Grace (in 1536) she was staying at Bolton Abbey,
-which Henry VIII, after confiscating it from the Church, had presented
-to Lord Clifford; and had it not been for the chivalry and bravery of
-Christopher Aske, the rebel leader’s brother, she would have suffered
-at the hands of the infuriated “pilgrims.” By dint of a bold night
-ride, Aske aided Lady Eleanor to fly from Bolton Abbey and reach a
-place of safety. In 1542 her husband succeeded to the Earldom of
-Cumberland on the death of his father, and five years later (November
-1547) Lady Eleanor passed away at Brougham Castle and was laid to rest
-in Skipton Church.
-
-[Illustration: HENRY GREY, DUKE OF SUFFOLK
-
-FROM THE PAINTING BY JOANNES CORVUS IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY]
-
-It will be seen by this rapid sketch of her forbears on both sides
-that Lady Jane Grey might, without exciting surprise, have developed a
-character strongly sensual and unscrupulous. That she did not do so,
-apart from the fact that her early death perhaps prevented the full
-development of her character at all, was probably owing to the rigid
-and severe nature of the education to which she was subjected. The
-influence of Erasmus and the fashion of the newly revived classical
-learning had in the childhood of Jane Grey firmly seized upon the
-higher classes of England; and the ladies of royal and noble birth,
-schooled in the stern pietism of _The Instruction of a Christian Woman_
-of Luis Vives, which they all studied in Latin or in English, and,
-steeped in the classic moralities, they became prim and self-suppressed
-in expression and behaviour. It is likely enough, indeed, that in
-most cases this prudishness of attitude was but skin deep; but in the
-case of the hapless Jane, who was little more than a child when she
-was sacrificed, no other impression of her personality than this was
-left upon the world. We may picture the tiny demure maiden pacing the
-green alleys and smooth sward of Bradgate, with her Latin books and her
-exalted religious meditations, a fervent mystic, with no knowledge of
-the great world of greed, ambition, and lust, of which she, poor child,
-was doomed to be the innocent victim.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-BIRTH AND EDUCATION
-
-
-Lady Jane Grey was born at Bradgate Old Manor[10] in October 1537, most
-probably in the first days of the month, for Prince Edward, her cousin,
-came into the world on the 12th,[11] St. Edward’s Eve, and three days
-later Henry, Marquess of Dorset, attended the royal christening, which
-he would scarcely have done if his own wife, a member of the royal
-family, had not been safely delivered. His presence in London can be
-traced in the State Papers from the date of Prince Edward’s birth until
-the first week in November. Lady Jane’s christening took place, as was
-then the custom, within forty-eight hours of her birth, in the parish
-church, with all the ancient rites. Some writers state that the babe
-was carried to the font by her grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness;
-but this good lady, as we have already seen, was unable at the time to
-leave her sick household at Croydon. She sent her new granddaughter a
-rich bowl with a chiselled cover. It was the custom at that time, when
-a baptism took place, for the whole family, godfathers and godmothers
-and guests, to walk in procession from the mansion to the church. As
-is still the case in Catholic countries, the number of sponsors in
-pre-Reformation times was unlimited. All these worthy people brought
-gifts of more or less value, according to the nearness of their kinship
-and the length of their purses. The Marquess, if he was present, would
-certainly have worn his robes of state and “carried the salt.” At
-the church door the christening company was met by the clergy, and
-after a short prayer the child was named.[12] The officiating priest
-on this occasion was either Mr. Harding, then chaplain at Bradgate,
-or else Mr. Cook, Rector of the parish. After being named, the child
-was carried to the font, which stood in the middle of the church
-under an extinguisher-like canopy, richly carved and painted, which
-pulled up and down, so as to keep the holy water clean. In those days
-the back of the head and the heels of the infant were immersed in
-the water,[13] the present ceremony of sprinkling having only been
-introduced into this country from Geneva by the Reformers during
-Elizabeth’s reign. The infant was also anointed with chrism on the
-back and breast, a very ancient ceremony, the abolition of which
-caused considerable controversy and some persecution in the reign of
-Henry VIII. This anointing, or unction, which was performed within
-the sacred edifice, was followed by the presentation of the gifts of
-the various sponsors.[14] Abundant hospitality in the shape of sweet
-wafers, comfits, spiced wine, or hippocras was dispensed in the porch,
-not only to the invited company, but to the promiscuous village crowd
-that elected to attend the function; and at last the procession, with
-the infant wrapped in a sort of shawl of rich brocade, returned to the
-mansion, where a dinner was served to the guests and to the members of
-the household.
-
-The life of an English child in olden times, especially in the upper
-classes, was by no means the ideal existence it has now become. A
-careful study of contemporary records proves that the barbarous
-and filthy system of swathing or “swaddling” an infant was almost
-universally practised. We may take it for granted that the baby
-Jane Grey was swathed or “swaddled” according to the prevailing
-English fashion, from her armpits to her knees, and was thus able at
-all events to move her tiny hands and feet, a privilege denied her
-infant contemporaries on the Continent. So late as 1684, Madame de
-Maintenon, writing to Madame de Présné, who had just been delivered
-of a son, beseeches her to “adopt the English method of allowing her
-infant’s limbs free play,” and stigmatises the French custom of “tight
-swaddling” as “abominably dirty and unhealthy.”
-
-The Lady Frances certainly did not nurse her own baby; it would have
-been considered most indecent for a woman of her rank to suckle her
-offspring. A foster-mother was engaged, and it is likely enough that
-the good woman who supplied little Jane Grey with the sustenance
-nature had intended her to derive from her parent, was that Mrs. Ellen
-who, seventeen years later, attended her beloved foster-child on the
-scaffold.
-
-In her eighteenth month the child was weaned, and this was attended
-by some considerable ceremony. In the morning Mass was said in the
-presence of the whole family, including the foster-mother and the
-child, who was blessed with holy water. This finished, the company
-returned in procession to the hall and forthwith sat down to a copious
-banquet.
-
-The archives of Sudeley Castle contain an interesting description of
-an aristocratic nursery in the first half of the sixteenth century.
-Queen Katherine Parr, having married Admiral Lord Thomas Seymour, lived
-at Sudeley, where she died in September 1548, after giving birth to a
-child, for whom was provided an apartment very elaborately furnished
-with tapestry, and containing everything a modern infant of the highest
-rank could possibly want, all in silver or pewter, and, moreover, a
-“chair of state” hung with cloth of gold.
-
-The Lady Frances’s nursery was, no doubt, fitted up quite as
-luxuriously as that prepared for the infant of Queen Katherine Parr;
-but no inventory of its contents has been handed down to us. Nearly
-all the toys commonly used in England at this period were made either
-in France or Holland, and closely resembled those grotesque playthings
-which were our grandparents’ delight: wooden dolls with roughly painted
-heads and jointed limbs, hobby horses, hoops, and even toy soldiers
-mounted on movable slides. Jane must have had an abundance of these
-nursery treasures, besides an oaken cradle with rockers and also a
-sort of little perambulator, wherein she might be carried to take the
-air in the park and gardens. She had a complete household, consisting
-of Mrs. Ellen, two under-nurses, a governess, two waiting women, and
-two footmen. Sometimes, but very rarely, the voice of nature may
-have prompted her mother and father to play with her and enjoy those
-exquisite moments of purest love common alike to prince and peasant.
-Her babyhood may have been fairly happy, but when that ended, the stern
-training which prevailed in every aristocratic family of the period
-began in all its severity: long prayers, tedious lessons, and that
-terrible “cramming” system which as often as not engendered premature
-physical decline and even imbecility. The tiny princess, from her
-third year upwards, was dressed like a little old lady, in miniature
-reproduction of her mother, coif and all complete, an exceedingly
-irksome garb for so very small a child. Even when full-grown, Jane,
-like her sister Katherine, was of very diminutive stature; and their
-youngest sister, Mary, was an actual dwarf, “not bigger, when over
-thirty, than a child of ten.”
-
-The greater part of the Lady Jane’s[15] infancy was spent at Bradgate
-with her little sisters--Katherine, two years her junior; and Mary,
-six years younger than herself. A Mrs. Ashly, sister or sister-in-law
-to the Mrs. Ashly, or Astley, who acted in the same capacity to
-Princess Elizabeth, was appointed to attend as governess upon Jane and
-her sisters; but of this lady little is known, whereas Elizabeth’s
-governess is, of course, frequently mentioned as a woman of great
-importance. It was evidently not until the Lady Jane had been named
-in Henry VIII’s will as a possible successor to his throne that any
-particular attention was paid to her instruction, and then only for
-purely political purposes. Her two sisters received but an ordinary
-education, and Jane herself must have been between nine and ten years
-of age when she was handed over to Queen Katherine Parr to begin her
-more important studies. No doubt the Dorsets secretly intended their
-eldest daughter to become Edward VI’s consort and to rule the kingdom
-through her, and her education therefore became a matter of great
-importance to them, as they wished her to be thoroughly equipped to
-hold the high station they desired her to occupy. In religion she
-was to be exceedingly Protestant, but in social matters her training
-was most varied, including music and classical and modern languages,
-even Hebrew and, if we may credit some of her enthusiastic eulogists,
-Chaldee!!
-
-The royal birth of the Marchioness of Dorset and the great wealth of
-her lord placed their family in a very exceptional position in the
-county. Here, as also in London, they maintained semi-regal state. No
-one could compete with them, and although they received much company,
-especially at Christmas time, they rarely mixed with their neighbours,
-and when they did so condescend, they were invariably received with
-all the ceremony due to royalty. When, for instance, the Marquess of
-Dorset and his lady visited Leicester, they were entertained with great
-ceremony. In the archives of that city for 1540 there is a charge of
-“two shillings and sixpence for strawberries and wine for my Lady
-Marchioness’s Grace, for Mistress Mayoress and her sisters.” Also,
-on the occasion of another visit, “Four shillings” were paid “to the
-pothicary for making a gallon of Ippocras,[16] that was given to my
-Lady’s Grace, Mistress Mayoress and her sisters, and to the wives of
-the Aldermen of Leicester, who gave the said ladies, moreover, wafers,
-apples, pears, and walnuts at the same time.” From another record, of
-the city of Lincoln, we learn that the Dorset family when on its way
-to London frequently put up at the White Hall Inn for the night, their
-expenses being paid by the town. There is also an entry specifying the
-expenses for entertaining the Lady Jane Grey when on her way to London
-and on her return journeys through Leicester to Bradgate in 1548 and
-1551.
-
-There was much in the stately mode of life led by our great aristocracy
-in the sixteenth century which has not even now passed altogether out
-of fashion. At certain seasons of the year, it appears, the family
-resided in the main building of the mansion and kept up a state almost
-equal in magnificence to that of a royal Court. A great number of
-servants--as many as eighty or a hundred--were maintained, and these,
-being very ignorant, often formed a rather disorderly crew. They
-received very small wages; but as they wore brilliant liveries, and
-served as an escort to their masters when they went abroad, they made a
-highly picturesque appearance. Few people, even in the upper circles of
-society, could read or write with ease; and as there were no newspapers
-and scarcely any books, no correspondence, and but few visits to fill
-up leisure time, the men’s sports were mainly those of the field, so
-that large hunting and hawking parties were the general order of the
-day. The ladies were frequently invited to share these pursuits; and
-the Lady Frances was well known in Leicestershire in her day as a great
-huntress and a skilful archeress.
-
-Hospitality, if barbaric, was none the less sumptuous. Tablecloths
-and napkins were already in use, and “damask” was pretty generally to
-be seen in the houses of the wealthy; while the plate belonging to
-the great nobility was not only very costly, but exceedingly artistic
-in design. Then as now, it was the custom to pass the winter months
-in the country and the summer in London. During the hunting season
-Bradgate was thrown open to a throng of guests, and since the mistress
-of the house was niece to the reigning sovereign, many of these were of
-princely rank, including Princess Mary, who was on very friendly terms
-with her cousin Frances and her children. It is not at all unlikely
-that when the family gathered in the great hall of an evening, dances,
-masques, and other pastimes of a more boisterous kind, described as
-“romps and jigs,” were indulged in. On occasion, players were summoned
-from London, and displayed their skill in representing those rough and
-unformed plays which delighted our ancestors until the more shapely
-Elizabethan drama came into being.[17]
-
-People rose and retired to rest earlier in Tudor days than we do
-now, especially in summer, when breakfast was served as early as six
-o’clock, dinner at ten, and supper at five. Tea and coffee were as
-yet undiscovered, and light home-brewed ale was the usual breakfast
-beverage. Such very young ladies as Lady Jane Grey would be served at
-this meal with a cup of hot milk and sometimes with a sort of mead, or
-barley water, heated and spiced. During Lent breakfast consisted of
-bread, with salt fish, ling, turbot and eels, fresh whitings, sprats,
-beer and wine. At other seasons there were chines of beef, roast
-breast of mutton or boiled mutton, butter, cooked eggs, custard, pies,
-jellies, etc., as well as chickens, ducks, swan, geese, and game.[18]
-Dinner came at noon, and it was customary in large country houses to
-close the gates while the whole establishment sat down, according
-to rank, in the great hall. Sometimes a slight alteration was made,
-two tables being set in the dining-room, at the first of which sat
-the lord and his family, with such titled guests as they might be
-entertaining, while the second was occupied by “knights and honourable
-gentlemen.” In such a case the tables in the great hall were generally
-three, the first for the steward, comptroller, secretary, master of
-the house, master of the fish-ponds, the tutor--if one was attached
-to the family--and such gentlemen as happened to be under the degree
-of a knight. In a very large household it frequently happened that as
-many as a hundred and fifty or two hundred people would sit down to eat
-at one and the same time, but in most castles, halls, and manors the
-ladies of the family, excepting on state occasions, ate apart from the
-men, a separate table being laid for them, and for the chaplain, in
-the ladies’ chamber, while two others were laid in the housekeeper’s
-room for the ladies’ women. The Lady Frances usually partook of her
-dinner in solitary state, waited upon by young gentlewomen and, when
-they were old enough to do so, by her two elder daughters, who stood on
-either side of her until she had finished, when they in their turn sat
-down and were served by gentlewomen. In their infancy, the children,
-attended by their nurses and gentlemen and women, dined with the
-housekeeper in her chamber.
-
-All meals were somewhat disorderly, for, forks not being in general
-use, it was the custom for the gentlemen to pick the daintiest scraps
-out of the common dish with the tips of their fingers, and place them
-gallantly upon the platters of the ladies seated nearest them. It was
-considered ill-bred to lick one’s fingers after this act of courtesy.
-Proper behaviour was to wipe them daintily upon a sort of napkin or
-serviette, sometimes, as in Japan, made of tissue paper.
-
-Grace was said both before and after meals, and as most large houses
-had several chaplains and a choir for the service of the chapel,
-it was usual for one of the priests, accompanied by three or four
-of the choristers wearing their surplices, to enter the hall and
-solemnly chant the _Benedicite_ or Grace, which until Edward VI’s time
-invariably concluded with a petition for the release of the souls in
-Purgatory. It was considered impolite to talk during a repast unless
-addressed by the master or mistress of the feast. The chaplain was
-employed to read aloud either the Gospel of the day or a chapter from
-that enlivening work _The Martyrology_. Occasionally a minstrel was
-invited to sing an interesting ballad or tell a story; otherwise the
-clinking of the knives was the only sound heard during meals, which,
-however copious, were invariably dispatched with the utmost speed.
-In proportion to the amount of meat very little bread was consumed.
-“The English bolt their food in dead silence,” remarked the Venetian
-Ambassador Giustiniani, “and, bread being dear, eat very sparingly
-of it. They throw their chicken bones under the table when they have
-sucked them clean.”
-
-When supper, a meal which corresponds with our late dinner, was over,
-evening prayers were said, and soon afterwards, on ordinary occasions,
-everybody retired to rest. It should be remembered that artificial
-light was exceedingly costly and inadequate, as indeed it remained
-until the beginning of the later half of the nineteenth century. Many
-who are still in the prime of life can remember the rush tallow dips
-made and used in old-fashioned country houses and farms in their
-childhood. In the sixteenth century these were the only lights to be
-had, except oil lamps and wax candles imported at immense expense from
-France and Italy, and only kindled on high days and holidays.[19] Resin
-torches were burnt in the great hall; but many complained of the stench
-and smoke, so that an early departure to bed was not only wise but
-necessary.
-
-It may perhaps be concluded that we who live at the beginning of the
-twentieth century would have found life in an English manor in Tudor
-days insufferably dull and monotonous. Yet there were compensations.
-Outdoor exercises were many and various. There was the tennis-court,
-bowls and quoits were much in vogue, and our forefathers practised
-many other excellent sports, some of which we might well revive. There
-was hawking, then in the zenith of its popularity; hunting, archery,
-slinging, mase or “prisoner’s bars,” wrestling, tennis, of which game
-Henry VIII was exceedingly fond; fivestool ball, football, and golf.
-Cricket does not seem to have been known, at all events under its
-present name; but there were a score or so of other popular games
-and sports, some of which, such as duck-hunting, dog-fighting, and
-cock-fighting, were exceedingly barbarous. The cruel sport of trying
-on horseback to pull off the greased head of a living duck or goose
-suspended by the legs from a cross beam was exceedingly popular at
-this time.[20] Edward VI, in his _Journal_, mentions it in an entry
-dated 4th June 1550: “Sir Robert Dudley, third surviving son of the
-Earl of Warwick, was married this day to Sir John Robsart’s daughter,
-after which marriage there were certain gentlemen on horseback that did
-strive who should first carry away a goose’s head that was hanged alive
-on two cross-posts.” Can we imagine the whole Court of England, King
-included, assisting at this childish and cruel spectacle?
-
-The Marquess of Dorset and his family did not spend the whole year at
-Bradgate; political and social duties brought them a great deal to
-London, especially in the early spring and summer months. In London
-they inhabited a mansion at Westminster, not far from Whitehall Palace.
-The town residence of the Marquess of Dorset was not, as usually
-stated, situated in Grey’s Inn. At no time did his branch of the family
-of Grey possess property in or near the Inn which bears their name;
-it belonged from a remote period to the house of Grey de Wilton, who
-sold it, in Edward IV’s time, to the Carthusians of Sheen, from whom
-it was confiscated at the Dissolution and subsequently granted by the
-Crown for the purpose which it still serves. Thus Grey’s Inn did not
-fall to Lady Frances, although she was presented by her uncle the King
-with nearly all the other property owned by the Carthusians in and
-around London. It has also been said that the Marquess of Dorset had
-a house in Salisbury Place, Fleet Street, but this is another popular
-error. This property passed to the _Earls_ of Dorset in 1611 and is
-connected, not with Lady Jane and her family, but with many worthies
-of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Henry, Marquess of Dorset,
-had his town residence on the Thames above Whitehall,[21] precisely
-where stood, until quite recently, Dorset Place--the name by which the
-house was known in Lady Jane’s time. After the execution of Suffolk
-it was seized by the Crown and eventually, in the last days of the
-sixteenth century, cut up into three separate houses, one of which was
-inhabited by John Locke the philosopher, who died in it. By a curious
-coincidence, Locke had previously lived at Salisbury Square. Dorset
-Place must have been a very large house; we know from contemporary
-evidence that it had a fine garden and a broad terrace overlooking the
-Thames. Here Lady Jane Grey certainly lived for a good many months
-of her life, and here she formed the acquaintance of the Reformers
-Bullinger and Ulmer, or ab Ulmis. She may also have lived for a time in
-yet another house owned by the Marquess, near the Temple, of which no
-trace now exists.
-
-The Dorsets were in the habit, especially in the winter season, of
-paying country visits to their numerous relatives--to Princess Mary
-at Newhall; to the Lady Frances’ stepmother, Katherine, Duchess of
-Suffolk, at Wollaton; to Dorset’s sister, the Lady Audley, at Walden;
-to his orphan wards and cousins the Willoughbys, at Tylsey; and to Lady
-Jane’s paternal grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Dorset, either
-at her house at Croydon or at Tylsey, where at one time she presided
-over the household of the young Willoughbys.
-
-The entertainment of such important personages must often have been a
-doubtful pleasure to hosts of limited means, for they never stirred
-abroad without a numerous escort of male and female servants and a
-guard of thirty or forty retainers mounted on horseback and armed
-to the teeth. Carriages were but little used as yet, and people of
-quality had to journey from place to place on horseback, the elderly
-ladies being provided with the quaintest but most inconvenient and
-perilous of side saddles, while the young girls and children rode
-pillion either in front of or behind their nearest male relatives or
-some trusty yeoman. In cold or damp weather the ladies and children
-and their female attendants travelled in a huge and very heavy covered
-vehicle[22] not unlike a Turkish _araba_ or a modern omnibus in shape.
-This was furnished with leathern curtains and lined with mattresses and
-cushions, and could often contain as many as twelve persons, six on
-either seat facing each other. To protect themselves from the cold the
-ladies wore cloaks and vizors, or “safeguards.”[23] The first genuine
-statute for repairing roads dates only from 1668. Before that the roads
-were, like those of modern Turkey, universally execrable, and over them
-this ponderous vehicle, with its enormous wheels, moved at a snail’s
-pace: it is not surprising that most people preferred the hackney,
-even in winter time. Yet in spite of all its inconveniences, this
-old-world fashion of travel was not without charm, especially in genial
-weather, when the passage of a lordly cavalcade added much to the life
-of our highways and verdant lanes and lent to the ever lovely English
-landscape a picturesqueness and a gaiety which modern civilisation
-can never hope to restore. On the other hand, delicate folk must have
-dreaded these excursions, and it is not surprising to learn that on
-one occasion, in 1550, after a ten hours’ ride in very bad weather to
-Newhall, on a visit to Princess Mary, the Lady Jane was taken very ill,
-and kept her room for many days.
-
-The Dissolution of the monasteries and the general troubles of the
-Church had no doubt greatly attenuated the quaintness of English life
-on the high roads by the time Jane had attained girlhood. No longer did
-the Lord Abbot or Prior, with his princely train of ecclesiastics on
-their gaily caparisoned horses and mules, pass through the leafy lanes
-on their way to pay visits of duty or ceremony. Lady Jane can never
-have seen the Abbot of Leicester, for instance, he who attended the
-death-bed of Wolsey, go forth with all his monks to pay his respects
-to the Prior of the rich house of Ulverston, for both abbeys were
-suppressed before she was a year old. She was not familiar with the
-begging friars, with their sacks and their jokes; and the pardoner, the
-palmer, and the pilgrim had also faded into the near past long before
-she began to toddle on the green slopes of Bradgate. Still she must
-have often witnessed the procession on Corpus Christi, when her own
-native village was enlivened by garlands of flowers and on every house
-front hung a linen sheet decked with bunches of bright flowers. She may
-even have walked with the rest of the children of high and low degree
-in the annual procession of Our Lady on Assumption Day, for throughout
-the reign of Henry VIII this festival was observed.
-
-The roads were still full of colour in the summer months, with packmen
-and peddlers, troops of armed men--not unfrequently dragging along
-between them some poor wretch, tied by the wrists, to his fiery doom
-at Leicester or London--with travelling caravans, with itinerant
-mountebanks and jugglers, and occasionally with a troop of showmen
-hastening to exhibit dancing bears or learned dogs and pigs at some
-neighbouring village fair.
-
-The suppression of the monasteries had a disastrous effect on
-travelling in Henry VIII’s time, comparable only to what would happen
-nowadays if all the first-class hotels in the country were suddenly
-closed. The Marquess and Marchioness of Dorset, as they journeyed
-with their children from Bradgate to London, must have heartily
-regretted the hospitality they had enjoyed in their own young days at
-many a lordly abbey and wealthy priory now laid in ruins. The inns
-were picturesque enough, but none too luxurious; still the beds were
-generally comfortable, and the cooking, according to the taste of the
-day, was excellent. Conti, an Italian traveller who visited England
-some few years after Henry VIII’s death, was much struck by the
-cleanliness of the parlours and the softness of the feather beds he met
-with in our country hostelries. The fare, too, he found abundant, and
-the wines, “sack,” and beers often of superlative quality--facts to
-which Shakespeare has not failed to allude. The innkeepers were great
-gainers by the Dissolution, for such rich travellers as did not care to
-trouble their peers looked to them for board and lodging now that they
-were no longer able to put up at a religious house. We may be sure that
-the Dorsets and their people were familiar and welcome guests at all
-the chief inns along the roads they travelled.
-
-Aylmer, who became Bishop of London in Elizabeth’s time, is usually
-described as Lady Jane’s earliest tutor. This is a patent error,
-for Aylmer, who was born in 1521, would have been far too young, in
-Jane’s infancy, to be appointed tutor to the children of the Marquess
-of Dorset. It is more likely that Dr. Harding, who was chaplain at
-Bradgate when Jane was born, had the honour of teaching his patron’s
-daughters their alphabet. He was reputed a learned man, and posed
-at one time as a staunch Protestant; but he resembled his employers
-in having a chameleon-like facility for changing the colour of his
-opinions according to the state of the religious barometer in regal
-quarters. Under Henry VIII he was a schismatic and a firm believer
-in transubstantiation and in the wisdom of invoking saints; when
-Edward came to the throne he turned _quasi_-Calvinist. Very early in
-Mary’s reign he became, much to the unspeakable horror of Lady Jane,
-a penitent Papist. Aylmer, a far more estimable man and a greater
-scholar, appeared on the scene at Bradgate as tutor after the accession
-of King Edward, when Jane was in her twelfth year and ripe to receive
-his learned instruction in theology and classic lore.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-THE LADY LATIMER
-
-
-No task is more congenial to the earnest student of history than that
-of tracing the origin of some important event, and following its
-gradual development from a trivial incident to its culmination in
-a great matter destined to alter the fortunes, and even change the
-faith, of an entire nation. If we would reach a thorough comprehension
-of the chain of events which led up to the proclamation of Jane Grey
-as Queen of England, we must now leave her to pursue her Greek and
-Latin studies and broider her samplers at Bradgate, while we trace
-the earlier fortunes of those who so ruled her destiny as to compel a
-simple-hearted and naturally retiring girl to accept a station which,
-by the time she was constrained to relinquish it, brought her to the
-lowest depths of misfortune and transformed the regal diadem which she
-herself had never coveted into a crown of martyrdom.
-
-The Lady Latimer, better known in history as Queen Katherine Parr,
-influenced the fortunes of Lady Jane Grey more than is usually
-imagined, for it was to her care that the ten-year-old child was
-committed (after it had been proposed by the Seymour faction that she
-should become Queen-Consort of Edward VI and head of the Protestant
-party in England), in order that her education might be directed
-and her mind bent towards “the new learning” of which Katherine was
-secretly a supporter.
-
-Born in 1513 at that lordly Kendal Castle whose ruins still command one
-of the loveliest prospects in Westmoreland, Katherine Parr, though a
-simple gentlewoman, could boast royal blood--that of our Anglo-Saxon
-kings, inherited from her paternal ancestor Ivo de Talbois, who married
-Lucy, the sister of the renowned Earls Morcar and Edwin. She was also
-of Plantagenet descent through her great-great-grandmother Alice
-Nevill, sister to Cicely Nevill, Duchess of York, a lineage that made
-her cousin four times removed to King Henry VIII himself. We will not
-enter in detail into the many alliances of the Parr family with the
-Nevills, Stricklands, Throckmortons, and Boroughs, but we are safe in
-describing it as a wealthy and honourable county stock, much looked up
-to in those days.
-
-Katherine’s father, Sir Thomas Parr, married, when his bride was but
-little over thirteen, Maud Green, daughter of the rich Sir Thomas Green
-of Boughton and Greens-Norton in Northamptonshire. Lady Parr had a
-sister, Mary, who, when a mere child, married Lord Vaux of Harrowden,
-and, dying without issue, left her splendid fortune to her sister Maud.
-Lady Parr’s eldest son, born before his mother was fifteen, was the
-celebrated Sir William Parr, ultimately Earl of Essex and Marquess of
-Northampton. Her next child mated with Mr. William Herbert, who was
-raised to the peerage in 1551 by Edward VI as Earl of Pembroke six
-weeks before the death of his wife. Katherine, the third and youngest
-child of Sir Thomas and Lady Parr, was destined to occupy the perilous
-position of sixth Queen-Consort to King Henry VIII. When she was a mere
-child, the proverbial gipsy-woman predicted that “she should one day
-wear a crown, and not a cap; and wield a sceptre, not a distaff.”[24]
-Sir Thomas Parr died in London in 1517, leaving very scant provision
-for his two daughters, the bulk of his fortune having been settled
-upon his wife and son; but both young ladies married wealthy men, and
-thus were not seriously affected by their lack of means. Anne married
-at fifteen; and Katherine, long before she was fourteen, was led to
-the hymeneal altar by Lord Borough of Cantley Hall, Gainsborough,
-Yorkshire. The bridegroom had already been twice married, and so great
-was the disparity of age between the couple that Lady Borough was wont
-to call her eldest stepdaughter “little mother.” Two years after her
-marriage Katherine became a widow with a very handsome dower. Much
-of her time of mourning was spent at Sizergh Castle in Westmoreland,
-the seat of her kinsfolk the Stricklands, where she left several fine
-specimens of her skill as a needlewoman--notably a gorgeous white satin
-quilt embroidered with gold--which are still preserved in an apartment
-known as Queen Katherine’s Room.
-
-We are fortunate in possessing a good many portraits of this lady,
-and at least one wonderful miniature, formerly in the Strawberry
-Hill Collection, and which now belongs to Mr. Brocklehurst-Dent of
-Sudeley Castle. This contains a likeness of Henry VIII painted in a
-space not bigger than a pin’s head, on a tiny medallion suspended
-round the Queen’s neck. A strong magnifying glass is required to do
-justice to the beauty of this microscopic miniature within a miniature,
-probably the smallest ever executed. Judged by all these portraits
-and by contemporary descriptions, Katherine Parr must have been a
-pretty little woman with delicate features, an intellectual brow--too
-amply developed for beauty--fox-coloured eyes, and a rather cunning
-expression about the thin yet flexible mouth. When her body was
-disinterred in 1786[25] it was found not to be decomposed, and measured
-exactly five feet and three inches. The hair, very long and curling
-naturally, was of a fine golden auburn.
-
-[Illustration: QUEEN KATHERINE PARR
-
-AFTER THE PAINTING FORMERLY IN THE POSSESSION OF HORACE WALPOLE]
-
-History does not record the names of the tutors who assisted
-Katherine Parr to acquire her remarkable education and numerous
-accomplishments. We may suppose that some priest or monk chaplain at
-Kendal or Sizergh instructed her in Latin and Greek, in both of which
-languages she was proficient. She may have learnt French from Mr.
-Bellemain, French tutor to Prince Edward, a pronounced Huguenot, who,
-notwithstanding his unorthodoxy, was in high favour at Henry’s Court,
-received a pension from Edward after he ascended the throne, and walked
-in the young King’s funeral procession. She mastered the language
-sufficiently to be able to write it and speak it correctly, and even
-to record her sentimental impressions in tolerable verse. Amongst the
-MSS at Hatfield there is a curious French poem, partly written by
-Katherine and partly by another, probably her teacher. It opens with
-the following verse in the Queen’s handwriting:--
-
- “Considerant ma vie miserable
- Mon cœur marboin, obstine, intraitable,
- Outrecuide tant, que non seullement,
- Dieu n’estimoit ny son commandement.”
-
-The concluding verse runs:--
-
- “Qui prepare vous est devinement
- Ainsi que le monde eust son commencement
- Au Pere au Filz au Saint Esprit soit gloire
- Loz et honneur d’eternelle memoire. FINIS.”[26]
-
-Katherine’s handwriting, though clear and legible, is not to be
-compared with that of Elizabeth, King Edward, and Jane Grey, who very
-probably took lessons in the then much esteemed art of caligraphy from
-Dr. Cheke, chief tutor to the Prince, or from Ascham, both famous for
-the beauty of their penmanship.
-
-Although very worldly, Katherine Parr was much preoccupied with
-theological disputations, and a distinctly evangelical tone pervades
-her literary remains; it is nevertheless certain that during the
-lifetime of her second husband, Lord Latimer, she was, or pretended
-to be, a Catholic, and that during the few years of her married life
-with Henry VIII she was a schismatic or “Henryite.” Tact and prudence
-were her leading characteristics, and she was both amiable and
-conciliatory, though she could, when angered, be extremely vindictive.
-Thomas Cromwell’s downfall, usually attributed to the machinations of
-Katherine Howard, was in reality mainly due to those of Katherine Parr,
-for she it was, as we shall presently see, who opened Henry VIII’s eyes
-to the prodigious rapacity and unpopularity of his favourite chancellor.
-
-Lord Latimer, the lady’s second spouse, like Lord Borough, had been
-twice married, and when he took her to wife was already the father
-of several children. The date of this marriage has not been handed
-down to us, but as Latimer lost his second wife in 1526, it could
-not have taken place earlier than 1527. He was a staunch Catholic
-of the belligerent sort, and a prominent leader of the Pilgrimage
-of Grace, an insurrection that broke out in the North of England in
-1536 in consequence of the popular displeasure at the suppression of
-the monasteries and sequestration of church property. The peasants,
-suddenly deprived of the monks’ accustomed charity and driven
-to desperation, began a local crusade, which soon assumed large
-proportions, their ranks being joined by a great number of noblemen
-and gentlemen belonging to the old faith, amongst them the Archbishop
-of York, Lord Nevill, Lord Darcy, Lord Latimer, Sir Stephen Hamerton,
-Sir Robert Constable, a certain mysterious individual who called
-himself the “Earl of Poverty,” and Robert Aske, who though of mean
-extraction was nevertheless considered by the rest of his party as
-their nominal general. These motley pilgrims increased in numbers
-as they swept southwards in picturesque confusion; but despite the
-enthusiasm of their members, they seem to have been ill-disciplined
-and badly organised, and were presently dispersed at Dunstable, thanks
-to the conciliatory attitude of the Duke of Norfolk, whom the King had
-empowered to treat with these rebels and disband them. Latimer, who had
-been elected their spokesman, withdrew almost immediately and returned
-to London, where he soon afterwards resumed his post as Comptroller of
-the King’s Household. After this excursion into open revolt against
-his sovereign, Lord Latimer evidently deemed it prudent to keep himself
-very much in the background: he did not join the second Pilgrimage of
-Grace, which broke out in the following February (1537) and terminated
-in the execution by sword and fire of some seventy of its more
-prominent members, among them old Lord Derby, who was over eighty-three
-years of age.
-
-When in London, Lord Latimer inhabited a house situated in the
-churchyard of the Charterhouse. The Chartreuse, as it was then called,
-was rather a fashionable place of residence, being not far distant
-from Clerkenwell, which in King Henry’s time was a sort of Court
-suburb, such as Kensington became in the eighteenth century. From a
-letter still extant, it would appear that Lord Latimer, like many a
-modern nobleman and gentleman, was in the habit of letting his mansion
-furnished when he himself was absent at Snape Hall, his country seat
-in Yorkshire. Sir John Russell, Lord Privy Seal, who looked meek
-enough[27] but was popularly known as “Swearing Russell” on account
-of his profane language, wrote in January 1537 requesting Latimer to
-allow a friend of his to have the loan of his house in the “Chartreuse”
-during his absence. Latimer dared not refuse, but his answer betrays
-his reluctant compliance with the request and some temper at the favour
-having been asked:--
-
- “RIGHT HONOURABLE AND MY ESPECIAL GOOD LORD,--After my most
- hearty recommendations had to your good Lordship. Whereas your
- Lordship doth desire ... [effaced] of your friends my house within
- Chartreuse churchyard, beside so ... [effaced] I assure your
- Lordship the getting of a lease of it costs me 100 marcs, besides
- other pleasures [_i.e._ “improvements”] that I did to the house;
- for it was much my desire to have it, because it stands in good
- air, out of press of the city. And I do alway lie there when I come
- to London, and I have no other house to lie at. And, also, I have
- granted it to farm [_i.e._ “have let it”] to Mr. Nudygate,[28]
- son and heir to serjeant Nudygate, to lie in the said house
- in my absence; and he to void whensoever I come up to London.
- Nevertheless I am contented if it can do your Lordship any pleasure
- for your friend, that he lie there forthwith. I seek my lodgings
- at this Michaelmas term myself. And as touching my lease, I assure
- your Lordship it is not here; but I shall bring it right to your
- Lordship at my coming up at this said term, and then and alway I
- shall be at your Lordship’s commandment, as knows our Lord, Who
- preserve your Lordship in much honour to His pleasure. From Wyke,
- in Worcestershire, the last day of September.--Your Lordship’s
- assuredly to command,
-
- “JOHN LATIMER”
-
- “To the right honourable and very especial good lord, my Lord Privy
- Seal.”[29]
-
-Lord Latimer died in February 1543, a twelvemonth after the execution
-of Queen Katherine Howard, leaving his widow the manors of Nunmonkton
-and Hamerton for life, and his mansion in the Charterhouse for as
-long as she should remain a widow. As soon as her husband was safely
-buried in St. Paul’s Churchyard, Katherine began to indulge her leaning
-towards what was then known as the “new learning”; and her house
-became the resort of the leaders of a movement which was eventually
-to complete the Reformation in England. These gentlemen were wont,
-it is said, to assemble at regular intervals and hold conferences
-on religious subjects in the presence, not only of Katherine and
-her household, but of a select circle of great ladies, among them
-Katherine’s sister, Anne Herbert, and the charming Katherine, Duchess
-of Suffolk, the fourth wife of Lady Jane’s singular grandfather, who
-were only too willing, notwithstanding the risk they ran, to sit at
-the feet of a Coverdale, a Latimer, or a Parkhurst. Religion, however,
-sat lightly on this clever Duchess, who--so brilliant, witty, and
-amusing are her letters--might well claim to be the precursor in the
-epistolary art of Madame de Sévigné. To these pious gatherings of the
-widow Latimer came likewise the haughty and turbulent Anne Stanhope,
-Countess of Hertford, who in due time, as wife of the Protector,
-was to be Duchess of Somerset and Katherine Parr’s arch-enemy;
-Lady Denny,[30] wife of Sir Andrew Denny, Privy Councillor to Henry
-VIII; the Lady Fitzwilliam,[31] wife of Sir William Fitzwilliam, and
-acknowledged to be one of the ablest women of her time; and the Lady
-Tyrwhitt,[32] who came very near martyrdom for her heretical opinions,
-in the last year of Henry’s life. The Countess of Sussex,[33] second
-wife of Henry Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, was likewise one of Lady
-Latimer’s _intimes_. This lady’s alleged familiarity with the black
-art eventually led to her being charged with witchcraft, in 1552, and
-imprisoned in the Tower, from which durance she was delivered six
-months later by order of the Duke of Northumberland. The Marchioness of
-Dorset may also have assisted at Lady Latimer’s religious exercises,
-which, although noticed by her contemporaries as matters of general
-knowledge, seem to have temporarily escaped the unpleasant attention of
-King Henry’s chief heretic-hunters. The Lady Frances was certainly on
-the most friendly terms with Lady Latimer, and so too was Princess Mary.
-
-Another guest there was at the Charterhouse who probably came when the
-house was quiet, the voices of the preachers hushed, and the great
-ladies returned to their respective domiciles. This was Sir Thomas
-Seymour, the late Queen Jane’s second brother, who was considered the
-Adonis of the Court. Lady Latimer seems to have been deeply enamoured
-of his good looks and stalwart figure; but it is not unlikely that it
-was her rich dower, rather than herself, that tempted Sir Thomas. Be
-this as it may, the intimacy which began about this period, paved the
-way to the tragic close of the handsome courtier’s chequered career.
-Seymour appears to have proposed to the widow three months after Lord
-Latimer’s death, and she seems to have rejected him “pleasantly,”
-saying “some one higher than he had asked her to be his wife.” For all
-that, Sir Thomas had certainly made a deep impression on her heart, a
-fact all the more remarkable since he was in every way the opposite to
-herself: she was learned and sedate--he was gay and profligate; the
-lady loved rich but sober attire--the gentleman blazed with brilliant
-satins and silks and cloth of gold and silver, setting his brother
-courtiers the fashion as to the wearing of their jewels and the number
-of feathers they should sport in their caps. Still, the advantage of
-the alliance was obvious, for though not a rich man, he was a great
-favourite with the King, his potent brother-in-law, and further, he
-was the second member of the rising house of Seymour, which many
-predicted--in the event of any accident happening to His Majesty,
-whose health was fast declining--would at once assume a preponderating
-position at his successor’s Court.
-
-But although Lady Latimer must have been acquainted with every
-detail of the conspiracy organised by the Seymours against the
-house of Howard, of which the first fruit was the revelation of the
-unfortunate Queen Katherine Howard’s misconduct, she does not seem
-to have hesitated for a moment in her determination to become Queen
-of England, even at the sacrifice of her passion for Thomas Seymour,
-which, all-absorbing as it was, never diverted her from the two
-great objects of her ambition: her own political influence, and the
-ultimate advancement of the Reformation. She cannot be described as a
-Protestant, for in her time that word was not yet coined. During her
-second husband’s lifetime she must have concealed her “advanced views,”
-and when she became Queen she was--outwardly at least--a schismatic,
-who attended as many as three and four Masses daily. Henry VIII rarely
-heard less than three, and sometimes as many as five Masses every day,
-and what is more, obliged every official of his Court and household,
-high and low, to do the same. How she first attracted his attention
-has never transpired; but as a great Court lady she must have been in
-frequent and immediate relations with the sovereign. The first mention
-of her personal dealings with King Henry is connected with trouble in
-the Throckmorton family. Owing to some dispute over their respective
-country seats, Coughton Court and Oursley, which were contiguous to
-one another, her maternal aunt’s husband, Sir George Throckmorton,
-had incurred Cromwell’s ill-will. Cromwell, with a view to ruining
-his opponent, went so far as to accuse him of conspiring against the
-King’s supremacy in ecclesiastical matters. According to an MS. ballad
-still preserved in the Throckmorton archives, Lady Latimer interceded
-with His Majesty for her uncle, and obtained full justice for him. At
-the same time she contrived the overthrow of Cromwell, whose title of
-Essex was eventually conferred upon her brother, Sir William Parr, who
-married Anne Bourchier, only daughter of the last Earl of Essex of the
-original branch.
-
-The divorce--based on the futile plea that the King did not find Anne
-of Cleves physically attractive[34]--which followed six months after
-Henry VIII’s pompous marriage with that lady was accepted by the
-philosophical Dutchwoman in a spirit that proved her practical sense
-to be stronger than her sentiment. A noble mansion in the country, a
-dower of £4000 a year, and precedence over all the great ladies of the
-Court, the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth excepted, struck her as more
-desirable than an anxious and uncertain struggle to retain the crown
-matrimonial which, under somewhat similar circumstances, had proved so
-sorry a possession to Queen Katherine of Aragon. None the less, the
-Reformers took Anne’s humiliation--she was a Lutheran princess--in much
-the same spirit as that which possessed the Catholics at the time of
-the momentous divorce of Queen Katherine. The accommodating “daughter
-of Cleves,” as she now styled herself, continued to receive friendly
-visits from the King even in the halcyon days of his brief matrimonial
-alliance with Katherine Howard, and shortly after that wretched
-woman’s execution an influential party appears to have been bent, in
-Reformation interests, on reconciling King Henry with his repudiated
-spouse. Anne herself seems to have been not at all averse to the
-scheme; and Marillac, the French Ambassador, who favoured it, found her
-on one occasion quite hopeful--“in the best of spirits,” and “thinking
-only of amusing herself and of her fine clothes.” But when the matter
-of a reunion between the King and his discarded wife was formally
-proposed to Cranmer by the Duke of Cleves’ Ambassador, it met with a
-flat refusal. The Archbishop knew the good-natured lady’s character
-too well to doubt that she was never likely to influence the King or
-be of the least use in furthering the Reformers’ interests. In the
-meantime, Parliament had urged Henry, for his “comfort’s sake,” to take
-unto himself another wife; and at the same time, as if to keep him out
-of the way, Sir Thomas Seymour was sent on an embassy to the Queen of
-Hungary, and did not return to London until some days after Katherine
-Parr’s wedding.
-
-The earliest intimation in the State Papers of the King’s connection
-with Katherine is in a letter from Lord Lisle, afterwards Duke of
-Northumberland, to Sir William Parr, dated Greenwich, 20th June 1543:--
-
-“My lady Latymer, your sister, and Mrs. Herbert be both here in the
-Court with my Lady Mary’s grace and my Lady Elizabeth.” Quite a
-friendly party!
-
-On 22nd June 1543 the gorgeous State barges streamed up the Thames from
-Greenwich to Hampton Court. On 10th July Cranmer issued a licence for
-the King to marry Katherine, Lady Latimer, “in any church or chapel
-without issue of banns,” and two days later Henry VIII led Lord
-Latimer’s widow to the altar of an upper oratory called “the Quynes
-Prevey closet” at Hampton Court Palace. After Low Mass, said by Bishop
-Gardiner, the consent of both parties was pronounced in English. The
-King, taking the fair bride’s right hand, repeated after the Bishop
-the words: “I, Henry, take thee, Katherine, to my wedded wife, to have
-and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse (_sic_), for
-richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death us do part,
-and thereto I plight thee my troth.” Then, unclasping and once more
-clasping hands, Katherine likewise said, “I, Katherine, take thee,
-Henry, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward,
-for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health
-to be bonayr and buxome in bed and at board, till death us do part, and
-thereto I plight unto thee my troth.” The putting on of the wedding
-ring and offering of gold and silver followed, and after a prayer the
-Bishop pronounced the nuptial benediction.
-
-At the wedding were present, amongst others, Lord Hertford and his
-Countess; Sir Anthony Browne; Joan, Lady Dudley; Katherine, Duchess
-of Suffolk; Lord John Russell; the King’s niece, the Lady Margaret
-Douglas; Mrs. Herbert, the Queen’s sister; and last but not least, the
-Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, to whom their stepmother made handsome
-presents of money. There is no mention of the Dorsets attending the
-wedding, though both were in London at the time. Everybody seemed
-delighted, even Wriothesley, who went so far as to write to Suffolk,
-then with the army in the north, that “on Thursday last the King
-had married the Lady Latimer, a lady in his judgment for virtue and
-winsomeness and gentleness most mete for His Highness, who never had
-such a wife more agreeable to his harte than she is.” Katherine herself
-informed her brother, Sir William Parr, that “it had pleased God to
-incline the King’s heart to take her as his wife, which was to her the
-greatest joy and comfort that could happen.” Wriothesley enclosed this
-letter in one of his own in which he entreated Parr to make himself
-worthy of such a sister as the new Queen. Chapuys wrote to the Emperor
-on 27th July: “My lady of Cleves has taken great grief and despair at
-the King’s espousal of this last wife, who is not, she says, nearly so
-beautiful as she, and besides that there is no hope of issue, seeing
-that she has been twice married before and no children born to her.”
-Richard Hills, “Heretic Hills,” as they called him, in a letter to
-Bullinger, the Swiss Reformer, who subsequently became the friend of
-Lady Jane Grey, and dated from Strasburg on 26th September, makes the
-following very characteristic comments on the King’s sixth marriage:--
-
- “No news but that our King has, within these two months as I have
- already written to John Bucer, burnt three godly men in one day.
- In July he married the widow of a nobleman named Latimer, and,
- as you know, he is always wont to celebrate his nuptials by some
- wickedness of this kind.”
-
-The victims alluded to are known as the “Windsor martyrs.” They were
-men in humble circumstances named Parsons, Testwood, and Filmer.[35] A
-fourth, John Marbeck, who was organist at St. George’s Chapel Royal,
-was, it is said, reprieved at the instance of Dr. Casson, Bishop of
-Salisbury, and of the Queen, who is also credited with having saved
-the life of Dr. Haines, Dean of Exeter, of Sir Philip Hoby and his
-wife, and of Sir Thomas Carden, who had been denounced by Dr. London as
-spreading heresy even within the precincts of the palace. The result of
-the Queen’s action was that London and Simmonds, his coadjutor, were
-condemned for perjury, and sentenced to ride round Windsor with their
-faces to the horses’ tails--a humiliating punishment which is said to
-have caused Dr. London’s death--no great loss to humanity.
-
-To save human life and to alleviate suffering is a meritorious act
-that brings its own reward; but in spite of this, and although the
-newly made Queen was thus enabled to realise her own influence, she
-must have found her honeymoon a season full of dread, revealing as
-it did the terrible insecurity of lives dependent on the fiat of so
-capricious a tyrant as her royal mate.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-THE KING’S HOUSEHOLD
-
-
-Not Solomon in all his glory--nor Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent of
-Istambul--was lodged more sumptuously than Tudor King Henry VIII of
-England. When Katherine Parr espoused the much-married monarch, she
-found herself mistress of a score of royal palaces, each furnished in
-a manner not unworthy of the splendour of Aladdin after that fortunate
-youth had gained possession of his magic Lamp, and served by the most
-numerous retinue ever brought together in this ancient kingdom of ours.
-The Venetian envoys, accustomed to the luxury and artistic elegance
-of the Queen of the Adriatic, were fairly dazzled by the sight of the
-treasures Henry gathered about him. Although within the space of a
-few brief years he suffered vandal hands to rob his country of more
-noble abbeys, churches, libraries, and works of art than had been
-destroyed by time and foreign and civil war combined since William’s
-Conquest, the King’s own artistic sense was highly developed, and he
-revelled, with a glee that sometimes verged upon the childish, in pomp
-and luxury and all things rare and beautiful.[36] To the confiscated
-collections of Wolsey he added the spoils of a hundred monasteries, and
-the Inventory of his effects, taken a few days after his death,[37]
-fills two enormous folio volumes preserved among the Harleian Papers
-in the British Museum. It is written in a round, legible hand, on the
-finest paper of the period, and a glimpse of its contents cannot fail
-to excite the longing of the _virtuoso_ and to stir the imagination
-as effectually as any brilliant page of description in the _Arabian
-Nights_. A perusal of these bulky tomes facilitates some partial
-conception of the extraordinary magnificence of the Court at which Lady
-Jane Grey figured as a child, and whence, no doubt, she derived that
-taste for “costlie attire, music and other vanities,” which was to
-evoke the unfavourable criticism of her Puritan friends at Zurich and
-Strasburg, who exhorted her, if she really desired to save her soul,
-to forswear all such trash, and imitate “the simplicity in dress and
-modesty in demeanour” practised by her cousin the Princess Elizabeth.
-We find hundreds of entries touching bedsteads, tables, card or playing
-tables, chairs, couches and footstools of carved ebony, cedar-wood,
-walnut, or oak, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, ivory, or rich metal
-wirework, and upholstered in silk, satin, velvet, or Florence brocade,
-fringed with gold, and even with strings of seed-pearls. Persian and
-Turkish carpets, silks and woollen, covered every available space in
-corridor, gallery, hall, and bedchamber, and there is mention of one
-especially wonderful carpet “of silk,” probably Persian, “nine yards
-long by two and a half wide.” One chamber was decorated with “101 yards
-of white satin embroidered and fringed with gold,” while the walls of
-another were panelled with purple cloth of gold, _i.e._ purple silk
-shot with gold.
-
-There must have been some hundreds of complete sets of the costliest
-tapestries and arras in the various royal palaces. Wolsey, whose
-passion for tapestry as a mural decoration became quite unreasonable,
-collected scores of the finest specimens the looms of Italy and
-Flanders could produce and lavish outlay secure. After his fall these
-remained as he had left them at Hampton Court, where we still admire
-the splendid series representing the “Story of Abraham,” designed
-by Raphael’s pupil, Bernard van Orly, and another of yet earlier
-date illustrating the “Triumphs,” of which three, those of “Death,”
-“Renown,” and “Time,” occupy their original positions in Henry VIII’s
-Great Watching or Guard Chamber. As we gaze on their faded beauty,
-we should remind ourselves that the immense quantity of gold thread
-wrought with infinite care and taste into their composition, and now
-tarnished, glistened in King Henry’s time in all the glory of its
-freshness. In the Audience Chamber at Whitehall many a great Ambassador
-may have envied the arras hangings, representing the “Acts of the
-Apostles,”[38] from designs by Raphael presented to the King by Pope
-Leo X when he gave him the proud title of “Defender of the Faith.”
-
-The walls of three State rooms at Hampton Court were hung “with cloth
-of gold, blue cloth of gold, crimson velvet upon velvet, tawny velvet
-upon velvet, green velvet figury, and cloth of bawdekin,” a regal
-material woven partly of silk and partly of gold. Some of the chief
-tapestries at Whitehall represented the “History of Our Lady,” the
-“Story of Ahasuerus and Esther,” the “Crucifixion,” the “Story of
-Apollo and Daphne,” “St. George and the Dragon,” “Hawking and Hunting
-Scenes,” the “Siege of Jerusalem,” and many other like episodes in
-sacred and profane history and in mythology. The King would order a
-score of sets of tapestry at once, and would spend a sum equal to
-£10,000 or £15,000 of our money upon them. The overflow of tapestries,
-“picture-hangings,” Oriental silks, Genoa velvets, Florence and Venice
-brocades, curtains of French lace, Chinese silks, and costly furniture,
-went to the State rooms of the stern old Tower; to Windsor--where a
-few remnants of Henry VIII’s belongings still remain; to Woodstock,
-to Richmond, to Greenwich, to Oatlands in Surrey--where Prince Edward
-often lived; to Newhall to Havering atte Bower--the chief country
-seat of Princess Mary; to Hatfield and Enfield Chase--where Princess
-Elizabeth spent her girlhood; to the Queen’s dower-houses at Hanworth
-and Chelsea; and above all, to that marvel of the age, the new Palace
-of Nonesuch, which Henry had built him at Cheam, Surrey.[39] At
-Whitehall there were scores of cupboards crammed with gold and silver
-plate, and there were ivory and ebony cabinets with crystal doors, in
-which glittered strange Italian jewels, and curiosities from all parts
-of the then known world. In none of Henry’s palaces does there seem
-to have been a gallery exclusively devoted to pictures, such as would
-be found in most contemporary Italian and French royal and princely
-residences; but there were plenty of pictures or “painted tables,” as
-the Inventory quaintly calls them, in nearly every chamber. In 1540
-Holbein’s great fresco in the King’s Privy Council Room at Whitehall,
-representing King Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth of York in the
-background, with Henry VIII and Jane Seymour standing in front, was a
-comparatively recent work. The illustrious artist, who died in London
-of the plague in 1543, had also designed the ceiling of the “Matted
-Gallery,” and covered the walls of the Chapel Royal with frescoes and
-arabesques.
-
-The King’s appearance, as he developed from boyhood to manhood and
-middle age, might have been studied in scores of presentments of him,
-to be met with at every turn: here, a plump little boy, by Mabuse;
-there, a singularly handsome fair-haired young man by Paris Bordone;
-and yonder, a full-length portrait by Hans Holbein, in which it was
-evident that His Majesty was beginning to “put on flesh.” In the
-Audience Chamber was a “table” of the monarch painted by Bartolomeo
-Penni, wherein the “peepy eyes” and the bloated cheeks of his latter
-years were only too faithfully portrayed. Though there were portraits
-of nearly all the King’s contemporaries, including one of Charles VIII
-of France and another of Charles V, besides a round dozen of Francis
-I, the likenesses of the five queens who preceded Katherine Parr
-had all been carefully removed, or, as in the case, of Anne Boleyn
-and Katherine Howard, destroyed. A cabinet full of relics of Queen
-Jane stood, however, in the anteroom of the King’s bedchamber at the
-Tower; and at Westminster, in a picture-book, there was a portrait of
-this Queen with another of the King facing it on the opposite page.
-Among the great “tables” at Whitehall were the “Virgin and Child,” by
-Leonardo da Vinci,[40] given to the King by Francis I in exchange for
-a picture by Holbein; “St. George and the Dragon,”[41] by Raphael;
-“Christina of Denmark,”[42] by Holbein, full length; a portrait, “Like
-unto Life,” of “Thomas, Duke of Norfolk,”[43] and “one table of the
-King’s Highness trampling upon the papal tiara, whence issues a serpent
-with seven heads snorting fire. In the King’s hand is the Bible, and a
-sword whereon is written _Verbum Dei_.”[44]
-
-If the art of painting was well represented in the King’s many palaces,
-that of music was even more cherished. Page after page in the Royal
-Inventory is devoted to “double” and “single” virginals, with cases
-inlaid and encrusted with ivory and mother-of-pearl or adorned with
-arabesques of gold, studded with gems; while of lutes and flutes,
-rebecks and viols, there seems to have been a perfect arsenal. Then
-there was a library of over a thousand precious volumes, a sort of
-perambulating feast of reason, for in the Household Expenses we find
-various sums of money disbursed from time to time for the removal
-of boat-loads of books from one palace to another. The number of
-gold, silver, bronze, crystal, and glass chandeliers, sconces, and
-candlesticks distributed among the royal residences baffles belief.
-Each of the two hundred and eighty-four guest-chambers at Hampton
-Court boasted a bedstead hung with the richest silk and satin, with a
-gorgeously embroidered and wadded counterpane to match, an Oriental
-carpet, and a toilet set, ewer, basin, and candlesticks complete,
-of massive silver; while one closet at Whitehall was stored with an
-immense collection of the choicest German and Venetian glass. Such, in
-fact, was the King’s mania for collecting things rich and rare that,
-in spite of the hopeless and suffering condition of his health, he was
-still “buying,” down to the ultimate week of his life, and some of his
-last purchases seem never to have been paid for by his successors.
-
-These contemporary accounts of the Household of Henry VIII strike the
-student by their marked resemblance to similar descriptions, by such
-writers as Sagrado and Knowles, of the quaint and numerous population
-of the Seraglio in the palmy days of the Ottoman Khaliphats. The Tudor
-King, like the Grand Turk, had four battalions of pages--pages of the
-Outer and of the Inner Court, of the King’s Antechamber, and of the
-King’s Presence Chamber; and yet a fifth contingent was attached to
-the service of the Queen. These lads, some hundreds in number, had
-their captains and even their school-masters; they were mostly of good
-family, and were apparelled, according to their rank, in wondrous
-State garments either of satin, green and white, the colours of the
-house of Tudor, or else of royal scarlet and gold. There was a legion
-of Grooms of the Wardrobe, Keepers of the King’s Horse, Sports and
-Pastimes, of his Harriers and Beagles, Sergeants-at-Arms, Sergeants
-of the Woodyard, Sergeants of the Bakehouse, Sergeants of the Pantry,
-Sergeants of the Pastry, Sergeants of the Trumpeters, Yeomen of the
-Wardrobe, Yeomen of the Armoury, Yeomen of the Buttery, Yeomen of
-the Chamber, Yeomen of the Chariots, of the Cooks, of the Henchmen,
-Stables, and Tents. The Royal Chapel was served by a full complement
-of chaplains, sub-chaplains, organists, and choir-boys. There were
-apothecaries, physicians, astronomers,[45] astrologers, secretaries,
-ushers, cup-bearers, carvers, servers, singing-boys, virginal players,
-Italian singers and English madrigalists, and a perfect orchestra of
-players on the lute, the flute, the rebeck, the sackbut, the harp, the
-psalter, and all manner of instruments.
-
-Full fifty cooks and twice as many scullions worked in the spacious
-kitchens, and in 1544 we hear of a French pastry-cook of good repute
-who rejoiced in the very pleasing and appropriate name of M. Doux. A
-regiment of gardeners and under-gardeners trimmed the pleasaunces and
-kept the King’s orchards in order.
-
-The dresses and costumes of this army of picturesque, though often
-quite useless, folk, numbering some thousands or so, were sufficiently
-costly to account in part for the straits of the Royal Exchequer. Their
-wages and silks and satins cost the nation, in the last year of Henry
-VIII’s reign, £56,700--against £17,280 in the last year of that of his
-father; a prodigious increase--when we take into consideration the
-relative value of money--and sufficient to explain the depletion of the
-coin.
-
-[Illustration: HENRY VIII IN 1548
-
-FROM AN OLD ENGRAVING]
-
-Scarlet, or rather deep red, was the predominant colour of the garments
-of King Henry’s retainers, but dark blue and orange, with the white
-and light apple green of the house of Tudor, were not lacking, and
-added to the kaleidoscopic aspect of the courtyards and staircases,
-galleries and audience chamber, in the stately residences of “bluff
-King Hal.” One Venetian Ambassador, commenting on the order kept
-at the English Court, declared that “everything is regulated as by
-clock-work, and no one ever seems to be out of his place.” When the
-King condescended to walk abroad, he was attended by a host of superbly
-attired courtiers, by his grand equerries and chamberlains, the
-Grand Master of his Horse, his almoners, ushers, and physicians; his
-fool--Will Somers[46]; his pages, and even by a favourite musician or
-so. In the last years of his life, owing to his increasing infirmity,
-Henry was sometimes carried upon the shoulders of six sturdy noblemen,
-in a kind of _sedia gestatoria_ like the Pope’s. At His Majesty’s
-approach every knee was bent, and many who particularly desired to
-conciliate his favour “grovelled” face downward as Orientals before
-some Eastern despot. The officials and serving-men who prepared the
-table for His Majesty’s meals made an obeisance each time they passed
-the vacant chair wherein the monarch was presently to seat himself. The
-Queen-Consort, and the Princesses, his daughters, knelt whenever they
-addressed him. In brief, King Henry, having filched from Peter some of
-Peter’s pontifical prerogatives, exacted the same sort of homage as
-that paid to the Roman Pontiff, and turned himself from mortal into a
-sort of demigod or idol. But foreigners and Catholics noted that though
-people knelt as he rode past, His Majesty bestowed no blessing upon
-them. This slavish etiquette continued throughout the reign of Edward
-VI,[47] but was modified when Mary renounced the titular position of
-Head of the Church. Elizabeth, however, demanded, and, what is more,
-received, _quasi_-divine honours from her subjects.
-
-Yet another point of resemblance between the Courts of England and the
-Ottoman at this period: Whitehall, like the Seraglio, was gay and
-brilliant on the surface, but in each case there was an undercurrent of
-terror and suspicion. The Tudor Court swarmed with spies and informers,
-and often a thoughtless jest, a careless remark, spitefully retailed
-at headquarters, would send men or women to the Tower, or even to
-the stake. Folks went in fear and trembling lest what they had said
-overnight in their cups might be brought home to them with appalling
-consequences in the morning. This state of abject and habitual fear
-engendered habits of whispering and talking apart and an atmosphere of
-mystery, in spite of which the gossip and rumours of the King’s own
-chamber passed to the pages, grooms, and serving-men in the courtyards
-below, and thence to the general public, as rapidly as news flies
-nowadays by telephone and telegraph.
-
-There can be no doubt that Jane Grey, the daughter of one so closely
-connected with the throne as was the Marchioness of Dorset, must often
-have mingled in the gaudy crowd that thronged her grand-uncle’s palace.
-Henry was as “fond of children as he was of pastry,” although, for
-obvious reasons, he did not display any overweening affection for his
-own offspring. This engaging little niece, now about six years of age,
-is likely to have found favour in the monarch’s sight, and Jane Grey,
-for all we know, may even have throned it on her dread relative’s
-august knee. Cranmer’s hand, too, must have rested in benediction
-upon her head, and she may, perchance, have won the smile of Gardiner
-and of Bonner. She must often have heard the sick King, who had lost
-his own fine voice, accompany his favourite fool, Will Somers, on
-the lute, in some song or hymn of his own composition. She must have
-been familiar with the two Seymour brothers; with the dreamy face and
-austere manner of the Earl of Hertford, and the bluff good-nature of
-Sir Thomas. She may even have been tossed in the strong arms of John
-Dudley, at this time Lord High-Admiral of England and Viscount de
-Lisle, reputed a “magnificent gentleman,” but otherwise of secondary
-importance. Wriothesley, Rich, and foredoomed Surrey and his father,
-old Norfolk, must often have watched her run along, clinging to her
-portly mother’s trailing brocades as she passed on her way to and from
-the King’s cabinet, and may even have whispered one to the other that
-the little damsel would surely be as good a match for young Prince
-Edward as the Scottish Queen’s daughter, Mary Stuart. In the apartment
-of her grand-aunt the Queen, where that busy little lady nestled like
-a sultana among her innumerable soft pillows and cushions,[48] encased
-in cloth of gold and silver, the child Jane must have heard much
-evangelical counsel from the erstwhile widow Latimer, who found some
-consolation in the gorgeousness of her thraldom for the loss of her
-handsome lover, Sir Thomas Seymour.
-
-The Queen’s lodgings were parted from the King’s by a short corridor,
-and nearly all her windows overlooked the Thames. Here Katherine Parr
-played the housewife, and in the midst of her tapestries and brocades
-and her “stretches” of silver and gold cloth, made poultices for
-Henry’s ulcered legs, wrote her pious treaties on probity and prayers,
-and probably counted the hours till the Lord in His mercy should
-deliver her royal spouse from his sore sufferings. In these rooms,
-perhaps, Jane Grey sat for her miniature to Lavinia Tyrling; Bartolomeo
-Penni may here have limned her diminutive but very pretty features; and
-we fancy we can see Mr. Crane or Mr. John Heywood, His Majesty’s chief
-virginal players, teaching her the notes upon the King’s “favourite
-virginal,” the one “enlaid with gold and mother-of-pearl.” In the last
-months of Henry’s life, when Lady Jane is known to have been much with
-Katherine Parr, the little girl may have listened with delight to the
-wonderful warbling of the King’s Italian singers, Alberto of Venice,
-Marc Antonio Galiadello of Brescia, or Giorgio da Cremona, as they
-vainly endeavoured to soothe the sufferings of the dying monarch by
-their elaborate _cadenze_.
-
-Queen Katherine soon made her influence felt at Court. She could not
-control the violent passions of her wayward lord, but she did in a
-measure modify them, and steered her own course amid the shoals of
-regal existence with consummate skill. No breath of scandal ever
-sullied her fair name, though Thomas Seymour, back from his convenient
-mission to Hungary, was appointed her Chamberlain, and must have been a
-good deal in her company. Even her worst enemies never ventured on that
-track. When at a later date they planned a blow, which they hoped would
-prove fatal to the Queen, they selected her religious leanings, not her
-love affairs, as their fell weapon. Katherine Parr, to her credit, lost
-no time in reconciling the King with his hitherto neglected daughters.
-Princess Mary was near her own age, and had been intimate with her when
-she was Lady Latimer. The Emperor’s Ambassadors praise “the new Queen
-for her kindness to the daughter of Katherine of Aragon,[49] who now
-takes her proper place at Court.” Elizabeth, too, was summoned from her
-suburban retreat, but had not been many weeks under her father’s roof
-ere he became so exasperated by her pert obstinacy that he summarily
-ordered her back to Enfield. In a few weeks, however, Katherine patched
-up the quarrel, and on 24th July 1544 Elizabeth wrote Her Majesty, in
-Italian, a most graceful letter of thanks for her good offices.[50]
-Edward was too delicate to be much in London, but none the less his
-stepmother looked after his health with so much “gentleness” that she
-soon won his sincere affection and lasting goodwill. He wrote her
-letters in Latin, French, and Italian, addressed to his _charisima
-Mater_, and full of praise for her beautiful penmanship, which, on
-comparison, proves greatly inferior both to his own and to that of
-either Elizabeth or Jane Grey. Katherine induced her stepdaughter Mary
-to assist in the translation of Erasmus’s _Paraphrase of the Four
-Gospels_. The Princess selected that of St. John, and when the work
-was finished, an amusing correspondence ensued as to the propriety of
-the future Queen of England placing her name, as translator, on the
-frontispiece. “I see not why you should reject the praise deservedly
-yours,” argued the Queen; and the Princess at last allowed the editor
-of the work, the learned Dr. Udall, to allude to the fact that “the
-most noble, the most virtuous and the most studious Lady Mary” had a
-hand in its success.[51]
-
-To occupy her own leisure, Queen Katherine devoted herself to the
-composition of a quaint book entitled _The Lamentations of a Penitent
-Sinner_, a pious work which gives us, at least in one passage, a lucid
-idea of the methods employed by Her Majesty to keep her hold over her
-extraordinary husband, among which gross flattery was by no means the
-least. A copy of this work was once in the possession of John Thelwall,
-and was sold at the death of his second wife. It contained a curious
-autograph, indicating that it had been given by the Queen to her “dear
-cosyn, Jane Grey,” who no doubt read it with veneration and delight.
-In this tiny volume Henry had the satisfaction of being likened unto
-Moses leading the Children of Israel out of bondage. “I mean by Moses,
-King Henry VIII, my most sovereign favourable lord and husband, one (if
-Moses had figured any more than Christ) through the excellent grace
-of God, meet to be another expressed verity of Moses’ conquest over
-Pharaoh (and I mean by this Pharaoh the Bishop of Rome), the greatest
-persecutor of all true Christians than ever was Pharaoh of the Children
-of Israel.”
-
-As may well be imagined, Queen Katherine Parr did not fail to use her
-influence to obtain prominent positions about the Court for her own
-kith and kin. Her uncle and Chamberlain, Sir Thomas Parr, was created
-Lord Parr of Horton; her brother was raised from the rank of Baron
-Parr of Kendal to be Earl of Essex, in lieu of the lately decapitated
-Thomas Cromwell; and her brother-in-law, William Herbert, was knighted.
-These gentlemen received their new dignities in the Chapel Royal, but
-were not entertained in one of the apartments spread with Persian
-carpets. Their dinner was served in the choir-boys’ mess-room, in
-which a fresh litter of rushes was strewn for the occasion--a curious
-fact, which leads one to conclude that the acting master of ceremonies
-expected the party to indulge in libations which might result in some
-injury to Oriental rugs but were not likely to do much damage to
-fresh rushes costing 3s. 6d. the litter. Parr had to pay 40s. for his
-new paraphernalia, and the choir-boys got 10s. for singing after the
-dinner.[52]
-
-On 14th July 1544 King Henry sailed from Dover for France to
-superintend in person the approaching siege of Boulogne. He left our
-shores in a vessel with sails made of cloth of gold, the glitter of
-which does not appear to have added to the ship’s speed, for the King
-did not get to Calais for nearly twenty-four hours, although the
-weather was fine, and the sea calm--probably too calm. The last time he
-had crossed the Channel, on his way to the Field of the Cloth of Gold,
-Henry had acted the part of pilot, garbed in nether garments of cloth
-of gold, and had blown the pilot’s whistle as loud as any trumpeter.
-This time he was too anxious and enfeebled to play at all. His Majesty
-was attended by his brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk, also a very
-sick man; by Sir William Herbert, who acted as his spear-bearer, by the
-Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Surrey, the Spanish Duke of Alberqurque,
-John Dudley, the Lord High-Admiral, afterwards Duke of Northumberland,
-and half the English nobility. Before his departure he appointed the
-Queen Regent of England and Ireland, with power to sign all official
-and State documents, this being almost the first occasion on which a
-Queen-Consort of England held so responsible a position. The Earl of
-Hertford was to be Her Majesty’s constant attendant, but should he
-chance to be temporarily absent, Cranmer was to remain with her, and
-with these two, Sir William Petre and Lord Parr of Horton, her Grace’s
-uncle, Wriothesley, and Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, were to sit in
-council.
-
-During this regency Katherine kept aloof from politics and occupied
-herself principally with assisting the University of Cambridge and with
-the royal children, who were left in her charge. Princess Mary, who
-was an almost constant guest during the King’s absence, and Princess
-Elizabeth, were both invited to join the circle at Oatlands, where
-Prince Edward was residing, and whither, owing to an outbreak of the
-plague, the Queen herself soon retired. From the various suburban
-palaces in which she was residing, Katherine addressed letters almost
-daily to the King, giving him accounts of the health and the doings
-of his children; and the monarch vouchsafed in return to write most
-approvingly of all she did. Towards the middle of August the Lady
-Dorset and her daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, came to Oatlands for a
-few days’ visit. This was perhaps the first and probably the only
-time spent by Lady Jane and Prince Edward under the same roof. The
-royal kinsfolk may have lived a very quiet life, spending their days
-in the gardens and park, and their evenings either listening to the
-singing of Princess Mary, who is reputed to have had a magnificent
-contralto voice, or to Princess Elizabeth’s playing upon the virginals,
-an art in which she already excelled. The Queen may perchance have
-favoured the company with a chapter or so from some one or other of her
-remarkably dull theological compositions. There is no evidence that
-she was a musician, and she does not seem to have been infected with
-the prevailing Court vice--gambling--in which even the pious Princess
-Mary indulged, frequently losing much more than she could pay--as
-demonstrated by the Household Books of Henry VIII.
-
-Boulogne capitulated to Suffolk on 16th September, after a lengthy
-siege, and on the 18th, the King, accompanied by the Duke of
-Alberqurque, representing his ally the Emperor, received the keys of
-the city from his brother-in-law’s hands, and made what he was pleased
-to consider his triumphal entry into the town. But he rode through a
-city untenanted and in ruins; even the magnificent Cathedral had not
-been spared, and the townsfolk, who had fled for security, as they
-hoped, to Hardelot and Etaples, were massacred, man, woman, and child,
-by the allied Spanish, German, and English troops. English historians
-have been reticent in dealing with the siege of Boulogne,[53] and
-the majority have passed very lightly over the disagreement which
-soon broke out between our King and his ally the Emperor.[54] Charles
-now urged Henry to join him and march on Paris. Henry, who knew his
-troops to be enfeebled by hardship and suffering, and moreover felt
-himself far too ill to supervise fresh military operations, would go
-no farther, more especially because he feared to infuriate the French
-King, who might at any moment ally himself with his former enemy
-the Emperor Charles, and thus form a Catholic coalition absolutely
-inimical to the policy of the English King. Henry’s hesitation
-undoubtedly saved the city of Paris. Seeing the Emperor’s troops
-approach the capital, Francis roused himself for a moment from the
-lethargy in which he had been plunged, and once more became the hero
-of Marignano. The King’s attitude and the bravery of the Dauphin,
-who was covering the capital with 8000 men, stimulated the drooping
-spirits of the Parisians, and, with their usual heroism, they prepared
-to offer a stout resistance to their foes. They even made merry at
-the expense of their two arch-enemies, ridiculing the gouty Emperor
-and caricaturing the corpulent English King--a proof, if one were
-lacking, that the fatal diseases destined eventually to carry Henry
-off had already made sufficient progress to excite general attention.
-Queen Eleanor, the neglected wife of Francis I, foreseeing the horrors
-to which the capital and its inhabitants were exposed, determined,
-without consulting her husband, to plead personally with the Emperor.
-Accompanied by a Spanish monk named Guzman, she proceeded to the
-Imperial tent, and casting herself upon her knees before Charles, then
-writhing in agonies of gout, obtained terms from him, thus averting a
-siege which must have cost rivers of blood. The peace then concluded
-was none too satisfactory, so far as England was concerned, since
-it stipulated that Boulogne was to be restored in the space of six
-years, during which time the place lost us in money and men far more
-than it was worth. Never, indeed, was there a more futile expedition
-than this, nor a greater waste of money. The much-talked-of sails of
-cloth of gold wafted the King home on 1st October 1544. In London he
-was received with little enthusiasm, or none at all. The nation was
-disappointed by the terms of the peace, the army was disorganised,
-Norfolk already out of favour, and Surrey, accused of insubordination,
-was openly disgraced. Boulogne was left in the hands of Jane Grey’s
-future father-in-law, Lord High-Admiral John Dudley.
-
-The health of Lady Jane’s maternal grandfather, Charles Brandon, Duke
-of Suffolk, failed him completely soon after his return to England.
-He seems to have suffered from a complication of disorders not unlike
-those which were afflicting his brother-in-law, the King. After the
-siege of Boulogne, he appears to have been of very little use, and
-eighteen months later he retired with his Duchess to Guildford Castle
-“in much suffering and pain.” There is a portrait extant of Charles
-Brandon, taken at this time, which represents him seated in a large
-armchair, his head bound up in a sort of nightcap, and his swollen and
-gouty feet, one of which rests on a stool, enveloped in bandages. The
-bloated face bears a weird resemblance to Henry VIII. Brandon died at
-Guildford in 1546 after a long illness, during which he was nursed by
-his Duchess and his two daughters, the Ladies Frances and Eleanor, the
-former of whom brought her eldest daughters, Jane and Katherine, with
-her. By his will Charles Brandon left, after deducting a rather meagre
-dower for his wife, the bulk of his vast fortune to his two sons,
-with remainder to his daughters in unequal shares, the Lady Frances,
-in the case of the death of her two brothers, inheriting considerably
-more than two-thirds of her father’s lands and money. He desired to be
-buried in Lincolnshire, but Henry, overlooking this request, caused
-his body to be conveyed to Windsor, where it was interred with great
-pomp in St. George’s Chapel, in the presence of his family and of a
-multitude of courtiers.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-MRS. ANNE ASKEW
-
-
-It was in the latter years of Henry VIII’s reign that Stephen Gardiner,
-Bishop of Winchester, conceived his scheme for the reconciliation of
-England and England’s monarch with the Roman Pontiff. Although a less
-astute intriguer than his powerful opponent Cranmer, Gardiner, who was
-apt to lose his temper and blurt out things best kept to himself, was
-a man of marked ability, one of whom his crafty master made frequent
-use, playing him off against the Archbishop, and so retaining the
-balance of power in his own jealous hands. Cranmer was at this period
-using his influence with Henry to abolish the use of Latin in the
-Mass, preparatory to the eventual introduction of the Book of Common
-Prayer and the early and total abrogation of the Eucharistic Service
-in the Roman sense. Yet the wily Churchman knew right well that so
-long as the King lived there was but faint hope of this change. For
-His Majesty clung to the doctrine of Transubstantiation closer than to
-any other tenet; not so much on account of his faith--did he believe
-anything?--as because, in the days of his youth, he had indited a work
-in defence of the Catholic doctrine of the Sacraments, which, so his
-clergy had averred, proved him wiser than Solomon himself, and which
-Pope Leo X had favourably compared with the writings of St. Augustine
-and Gregory the Great, rewarding the royal author with that title of
-“Defender of the Faith” which is still a cherished appanage of British
-royalty. Henry had even made belief in the Sacrament of the Altar a
-principal Article amongst the famous Six, any denial of which was
-punishable with death. Yet, if the King had searched Cranmer’s study
-at Lambeth at the very moment when that wily prelate was professing
-to accept his beliefs from his King, as submissively as though the
-monarch had possessed the infallible powers of his own Maker, he might
-have laid his hand on a bulky correspondence between the Primate and
-every Lutheran and Calvinistic leader in Germany and Switzerland--with
-Calvin, Bullinger, Œcolampadius, Osiander, Dryander, Bucer, and the
-rest. Gardiner, on his side, was in communication with Cardinal Pole,
-Charles V, the Pope, and the entire papal party at home and abroad.
-This duel between the papal leader and the Reformers, then, was the
-true basis of all political undertakings at this momentous crisis. The
-rival parties were really preparing themselves for the departure of
-the dying King, and aimed at controlling the inevitable Protectorate,
-necessitated by the minority of his successor, a lad of nine summers.
-Had Gardiner, the Howards, and the Catholic party won the day, history
-would have had little, perhaps nothing, to record concerning Lady Jane
-Grey. Her name, like that of her accomplished friend Lady Jane Seymour,
-daughter of Lord Hertford, would have been lost, buried in the spent
-sands of the past.
-
-The decline of the King’s health began in the summer of 1541-2, when he
-was attacked by a dangerous tertian fever, from which, thanks to his
-powerful constitution, he partially recovered.
-
-At the time of his marriage with Anne of Cleves he was again in poor
-health, and during the proceedings for the King’s divorce from his
-Dutch consort, Cranmer laid great stress on the fact that although
-she had shared his chamber for six months, the bride was still to all
-intents and purposes unwed. At the siege of Boulogne, as we have seen,
-Henry was terribly altered, and the French ballad-writers jested about
-_le cercle de fer_, which, they averred, kept his ungainly carcass
-together. Queen Katherine was probably espoused rather as a skilful
-nurse than as a wife, in the ordinary acceptance of the term, and a
-most assiduous attendant she proved, kneeling for hours at a time
-rubbing his swelled legs and dressing his many ulcers. It would be
-unjust to the Queen’s memory to attribute this wifely devotion to none
-but selfish motives. But her contemporaries shrewdly guessed that,
-while fulfilling her wifely duty, she did not fail to work in her own
-interest, and that of her friends, with her own peculiar skill and
-tact. She certainly wished to be appointed Regent during Edward’s
-minority, and would gladly have excluded the Howards, Wriothesley,
-Gardiner, Rich, and the whole Catholic element from the King’s
-sick-room, while doing all she could to strengthen the hand of the
-Seymours, maternal uncles of the future King, who were intent on ruling
-his kingdom for him on strictly anti-papal lines. In the spring of the
-year 1546 the King had a bad relapse, and day by day the grey shadows
-of approaching death deepened on that broad and bloated countenance.
-He would not have the grim word mentioned in his presence, and any
-courtier who appeared before him dressed in mourning[55]--even for
-the nearest kin--was driven in fury from his sight. None the less,
-he realised that he had not many months to live. It was imperative,
-therefore, if any reconciliation with Rome was to be effected before
-the new reign began, that no time should be lost, and that some sharp
-and decisive blow should overthrow the influence of the Queen, now the
-chief intermediary between her sick spouse, Cranmer, and the Seymours.
-But Katherine, in spite of the notoriety of her intimate friendship
-with Sir Thomas Seymour, was far too clever to give her enemies any
-chance of blasting, or even smirching, her reputation. With respect
-to her religious opinions, which were distinctly heterodox, she was
-less guarded, however, and her enemies had good reason to believe that
-if they could convince the King, beyond any doubt, that she was in
-correspondence with those whom he was pleased to term “heretics,” she
-would never be able to weather the storm her treachery must inevitably
-raise in the King’s resentful breast.
-
-Henry, whose brain remained astonishingly active, notwithstanding his
-infirmities, had never been so irritable and ferocious as during the
-last few months of his life. He was like a half-dead rattlesnake, which
-may recover life and spring afresh upon its prey at any moment. Never
-were the fires at Smithfield so active as in 1546. Early in this year
-six poor wretches were sent to the stake--three Catholics; the other
-three, Reformers. To demonstrate the impartiality of their merciless
-judge they were all chained together. People scarcely knew what they
-must believe or what disbelieve, to escape execution. The King’s
-informers were always at work, spying upon the sayings and doings of
-people in every rank of life; and the wonder is that the Queen and
-her ladies were not caught in some imprudent admission or other, and
-convicted. At last, however, in the early spring of 1546, an incident
-occurred which brought Katherine’s foes their longed-for chance of
-effecting her downfall.
-
-Anne Askew, second daughter of Sir William Askew, or Ayscough, of
-South Kelsy, Lincolnshire, was born at Stallingbrough, near Grimsby,
-in 1521. When about fifteen years of age, she was married, without her
-consent, to Mr. Thomas Kyme, a Lincolnshire squire and neighbour, who
-had been previously “contracted” to her elder sister. During her early
-wedded life Mrs. Kyme appears to have been happy enough, and became
-the mother of two children. She presently occupied herself in studying
-the newly translated Scriptures, and shortly after imagined she had a
-divine mission to preach the gospel and correct what she deemed the
-theological errors of her neighbours, especially on the subject of the
-Lord’s Supper, concerning which she held Genevan views.
-
-After a few years of discomfort, Mr. Kyme, who, according to the
-latest researches, entertained contrary religious opinions to those of
-his wife, began to complain of the scanty enjoyment he derived from
-her society. She was perpetually “gadding up and down the country,
-a-gospelling and a-gossiping, instead of looking after her children.”
-Anne is described as a handsome and daring young woman with a good
-deal of native wit and ability, and was evidently the prototype of not
-a few ladies of our own time, who prefer public life and controversy
-to domestic duty and retirement. She even took upon herself to read
-and comment on the New Testament in the nave of Lincoln Cathedral,
-where she was often to be found surrounded by an interested or amused
-group of priests and people. This state of things no Dean or Chapter
-could be expected to endure, and one fine day Mrs. Kyme found herself
-forcibly ejected from the sacred edifice. After this incident, she must
-have had some unusual disagreement with her husband, for her relations
-persuaded her to leave the town, and she travelled to London, where
-she soon made herself conspicuous as a preacher of the new learning,
-and secured several distinguished converts. She lodged in a house near
-the Temple, and one of her neighbours, Mr. Wadloe, a hot Catholic, who
-began by deriding her behaviour, ended by admiring her “godliness”; to
-use his own expression--“At mydnyght when I and others applye ourselves
-to sleape, or do worse, Mrs. Askew” (she had resumed her maiden name),
-“begins to pray, and ceaseth not in many howers after,” doubtless to
-the edification of such of her neighbours as suffered from insomnia.
-
-By dint of perseverance, and also, it may be, through her connections,
-Anne Askew formed the acquaintance of several great ladies of the
-Court, and is said to have obtained, through the offices of the Duchess
-of Suffolk, an interview with the Queen, to whom, in the presence
-of her ladies, notably Lady Tyrwhitt, Lady Lane, Lady Denny, and
-the little Lady Jane Grey,[56] she offered some copies of Tyndale’s
-version of the New Testament, and certain tracts arguing against
-Transubstantiation, which were subsequently found in the Queen’s own
-closet and in the possession of the King’s “Suffolk nieces.”
-
-It was in March 1545 that Mrs. Askew was first arrested on a charge
-of heresy and taken to Sadler’s Hall, where she was denounced to the
-civil authorities and taken before the Lord Mayor, who in the course
-of his examination questioned her as to the probable changes in a
-consecrated wafer after a “mowse” had swallowed it, whereupon she
-“made no answer but smiled,” and was committed to the Counter. That
-much-abused man, Bishop Bonner, appears to have taken an interest
-in her case, and endeavoured to save her from an awful fate. He
-granted her a private interview and drew up a form of recantation
-which she signed in the following ambiguous terms: “I, Anne Askew,
-do believe all manner of things contained in the Catholic Church and
-not otherwise.” On this, Bonner, whose patience had been severely
-tried,--for Anne was very sharp-tongued and uncompromising,--waxed
-wroth, and taking her by the shoulders, pushed her out of the chamber.
-Her next friend was Dr. Weston, afterwards Bishop of Westminster, who
-got her liberated on her own security; and for some months we hear no
-more about her, except that she was busy preaching and distributing
-her tracts secretly. On 10th May 1546 both Mr. and Mrs. Kyme received
-a summons to present themselves within a specified time before the
-Privy Council, then sitting at Greenwich, and they accordingly appeared
-on the 19th of the following June before the Chancellor of the
-Augmentations, Sir Richard Rich, the Bishops of Durham and Winchester
-and a number of other noblemen and gentlemen, and were put through a
-severe cross-examination.[57] Anne, we learn, received this summons in
-London, but her husband came to town on purpose to attend. Kyme got
-off with a caution, on his promise to return forthwith to Lincoln,
-and remain there. His wife, in open court, declared she would never
-again recognise him as her husband. He went back to Lincoln, and we
-lose sight of him. All we know is that he died, where he is buried, at
-Friskne in 1591.
-
-Anne Askew was eventually arraigned before the King’s Justices at
-Guildhall for speaking against the Sacrament of the Altar, contrary to
-the Statute of the Six Articles. This time she appeared with two other
-“heretics,” one of them that singular personage Dr. Nicholas Shaxton,
-ex-Bishop of Salisbury, whose pupil she is said to have been. Shaxton,
-a Norfolk man by birth, was one of the Commission appointed by Gardiner
-in connection with the divorce of Katherine of Aragon, and during the
-proceedings he so favoured the King’s view that he eventually became
-almoner to Anne Boleyn and Bishop of Salisbury. At a later date he
-preached Zwinglian doctrines concerning the Eucharist, got himself
-into serious difficulties with Archbishop Cranmer, and was forced to
-relinquish his see. After a time he became a notorious “gospeller,”
-and was finally arrested with Anne Askew and a man named Christopher
-White. The lady and White were both sent to Newgate; but the former
-recanted, and so escaped a fiery ordeal. Shaxton did the same, obtained
-his pardon, and was actually ordered to visit Anne in prison, and
-persuade her to follow his example. But, weak woman though she was,
-Anne was made of sterner stuff than the ex-prelate. “It were better for
-you you had not been born than do that which you have done,” cried she;
-and, crestfallen, her former friend and tutor left her presence. Her
-condemnation followed immediately afterwards. It was presently noticed
-that Anne enjoyed more creature comforts in prison than the customs
-of Newgate allowed. She explained the matter by saying that “her maid
-went abroad into the streets and made moan to the prentices and they
-did send her money!” But her persecutors refused to believe this story,
-and so one afternoon, not long before her martyrdom, she was conveyed
-to the Tower, taken to the torture chamber, and there racked in the
-presence of Lord Chancellor Wriothesley, Sir Richard Rich, Sir John
-Barker, and Sir Anthony Knyvett, Constable of the Tower. Hitherto no
-one had been tortured in England for conscience’ sake, this terrible
-resource being solely employed to extract information from persons
-suspected of treasonable practices. Wriothesley, exasperated at his
-failure to elicit direct information or satisfactory answers from his
-victim, turned the screws himself, after Knyvett had refused to order
-her to be further tormented by the official executioner. Sir Richard
-Rich lent his hand to the Chancellor in this merciless task, and so, to
-use poor Anne’s own words, she “was nigh dead.”[58]
-
-Dr. Lingard and other historians have cast doubt upon the veracity of
-this horrible story, but the scene is described by Anne herself in
-her “Narrative,” dictated a few days before her death, and published
-at Marburg, in the Duchy of Hesse, in 1547, with a long running
-commentary by John Bale, afterwards Bishop of Ossory. In his _Three
-Conversions of England_, the Jesuit, Father Parsons, who had access
-to much information and evidence long since destroyed or lost, not
-only confirms the truth of the torture episode, but adds that it was
-ordered by the King himself, who, hearing of the intercourse between
-his Queen and Anne, “caused her to be apprehended and put to the rack,
-to know the truth thereof. And by her confession he learned so much of
-Queen Katherine, as he had purposed to burn her also, if he had lived.”
-Parsons goes on to say that “the King’s sickness and death, shortly
-ensuing, was the chief cause of her escape.” Mrs. Askew bravely endured
-the most horrible torments rather than betray her friends’ trust, and
-only yielded so far as to admit that whilst in prison she had received
-ten shillings, delivered by a man in a blue livery. She thought the
-money had been sent her by the Countess of Hertford, but was not sure.
-She had a further sum of eight shillings at the hand of a footman in a
-purple livery, and believed it was a gift from Lady Denny. Questioned
-if she knew Lady Fitzwilliam, the Duchess of Suffolk, Lady Sussex, or
-any other great ladies of the Court, she evasively answered that she
-“knew nothing about them that could be proved.” She does not seem to
-have been questioned point-blank as to whether she had ever had any
-direct dealings with the Queen. Wriothesley may have thought he had
-already obtained sufficient information for his purpose. However that
-may have been, the stout-hearted lady was sent back to Newgate, there
-to spend her last three days of life, which she occupied in writing and
-dictating the “Narrative” to be found among Dr. Bale’s writings.[59]
-
-On the eve of her execution Anne Askew and three men who had been
-condemned for heresy at the same time as herself were visited in the
-little parlour at Newgate by George Throckmorton and his brother, who
-were kinsmen of the Queen--a rather suspicious circumstance. They
-were cautioned in time, and thus escaped being arrested on a charge
-of heresy, which might have proved fatal to themselves and their
-royal cousin. John Louthe, the Reformer, who has left us an account
-of the meeting, also came, at great risk to himself, to encourage
-the unfortunate Anne. Mrs. Askew, with an “Angel’s countenance and
-a smiling face,” talked “merrily” with her unhappy companions, John
-Laselles, who had been a gentleman in attendance upon the King, and
-is supposed to have been the individual who betrayed the secrets of
-Katherine Howard; Nicholas Bolenian, a priest from Shropshire; and
-John Adams, a tailor. They talked on religious subjects until it was
-time to separate. The next day, 16th July, Mrs. Askew and her three
-fellow-prisoners were taken from Newgate to Smithfield. So dislocated
-were the poor lady’s limbs that she had to be carried to her doom in
-a chair. Cranmer, seeking to throw the full odium of the horrible
-business on Gardiner, kept much in the background in the whole matter
-of Anne Askew. He did not attend the ecclesiastical commission which
-condemned her to the stake; but for all that his signature is affixed
-to her death-warrant. Six years later, another martyr, Joan Bocher,
-one of the last of his many victims, reminded the Archbishop that he
-had martyred her friend Anne Askew for teaching more or less the same
-doctrines he now preached himself.
-
-In the 1563 edition of Foxe’s _Martyrs_ there is a most curious
-engraving, probably after an original drawing, representing the burning
-of Anne Askew and her companions. The spectators are kept back by a
-ring fence within which we see the stake, and a quaint pulpit, from
-which Dr. Nicholas Shaxton, duly restored to grace, preached a sermon,
-supporting the very dogma for denying which he had been prosecuted but
-a few days previously. Anne is shown dressed in white; one side of the
-pyre is entirely devoted to her, while the three men, apparently naked
-to the waist, are bound together, on the side opposite the pulpit.
-The concourse of people appears enormous; the mob seems to seethe
-round the scaffold, loll out of the surrounding windows, and even
-swarm on the opposite roofs. On a raised bench, under a canopy, sit
-Wriothesley, Rich, the Dukes of Norfolk, Surrey, “Swearing Russell,”
-and the Lord Mayor. These worthies, it appears, were sorely perturbed
-by a rumour that there was an unusual amount of gunpowder on the spot,
-and were very much afraid of a dangerous explosion. Their terrors were
-swiftly allayed when Bedford informed the company that the explosive
-in question was merely a number of small bags of gunpowder concealed
-about the persons of the victims with the object of shortening their
-sufferings.
-
-At the very last moment Mrs. Askew was offered a pardon on condition
-that she recanted and gave up the names of her high-born friends. She
-refused: the Lord Mayor shouted _Fiat justitia_, and the faggots were
-lighted. Presently the fire crackled. A quick succession of explosions
-followed, the smoke concealing the wretched victims from sight. When
-the flames and smoke died down only the charred and blackened remains
-of four human beings could be descried. Clouds had been gathering; a
-peal of thunder rolled, and heavy drops of rain soon dispersed the
-throng. The show was over, and the home-returning spectators chatted as
-they went, blaming or praising the deed, according to their individual
-view. The horror of it does not seem to have affected them much,
-although among the Reformers and the better classes of all creeds
-expressions of hearty indignation were not lacking. But the masses
-were accustomed to such sights of horror, and so, indeed, were our
-own immediate forbears, until public executions ceased and the death
-sentence was carried out in the courtyards of the prisons. We have
-indeed progressed in these matters since 1546 and even since 1868.
-
-A few days after the burning of the unfortunate Lincolnshire lady,
-Foxe tells us, Wriothesley, Gardiner, and Rich waited on the King, and
-so persuaded him that Anne had made damaging revelations concerning
-the Queen’s intercourse with heretics that Henry “proposed to burn
-her also.” His Majesty, in his rage, actually signed a warrant for
-the arrest of his offending Consort and handed it to Wriothesley.
-That worthy let the paper drop in a corridor or gallery close to the
-Queen’s apartment. One of her servants picked it up and carried it to
-Her Majesty, who was so terrified by its contents that she fell into
-violent hysterics. Her apartments were close to the King’s, and Henry,
-overhearing the outcry, and probably disturbed by the noise, sent to
-inquire what was amiss. The Queen’s physician, Wendy, informed the
-messenger that Her Majesty was dangerously ill, and her sickness, to
-his reckoning, caused by sudden and extreme distress of mind. Whereupon
-the King sent word that she was not to trouble herself further, as no
-ill was intended to her. Greatly comforted by this reassuring message,
-Katherine presently felt herself sufficiently recovered to receive a
-visit from her husband, who, at great personal inconvenience, caused
-himself to be conveyed into her apartment in his chair. Nothing could
-have been better calculated to revive the drooping spirits of the
-scared Consort than the sight of her august spouse in a good humour.
-The following evening she was well enough to return the King’s visit.
-She was accompanied by the Lady Tyrwhitt, her sister the Lady Herbert,
-by the King’s niece the Lady Jane Grey, and by the Lady Lane, who bore
-the candles before Her Majesty. The King welcomed the Queen and her
-company very courteously, and, bidding her be seated, in a cheerful
-tone entered into a controversial conversation with her. He possibly
-wished to “draw” his Consort upon certain theological questions; but
-she shrewdly observed that “since God had appointed him Supreme Head
-of the Church it was not for her to teach him theology, but to learn
-it from him.” “Not so, by St. Mary,” said the King, “you are become
-a doctor, Kate, to instruct us, and not to be instructed of us, as
-oftentimes we have seen.” “Indeed, indeed, Sire,” quoth the Queen,
-“if your Majesty so conceive, my meaning has been mistaken, for I
-have always held it preposterous for a woman to instruct her lord.”
-“If,” she continued, “I have occasionally ventured to differ with your
-Highness on religious matters, it was partly to obtain information, and
-also to pass away the pain and weariness of your present infirmity with
-arguments that interested you.” “And is it so, sweetheart?” replied His
-Majesty, “then we are perfect friends,” and thereupon he kissed her and
-gave her leave to depart.
-
-The day appointed by her foes for the Queen’s arrest chanced to be fine
-and the sun shone brightly. The King sent for her to take the early air
-with him on the garden terrace overlooking the Thames. Katherine came,
-attended as before by her sister, the Lady Herbert, the Lady Lane,
-the Lady Tyrwhitt, and the little Lady Jane Grey. They had not been
-long walking up and down in the sunshine before the Lord Chancellor,
-with forty of the guard, entered the garden, expecting to carry off
-the Queen to the Tower--for no intimation of the change in the King’s
-intentions had reached him. Henry received his minister with a burst
-of furious invective. Bidding the Queen and her ladies stand apart, he
-called up Wriothesley and cast every evil name he could think of at
-him, commanding him, finally, to “avaunt from his presence and never
-show his face again till he was summoned.” Wriothesley, crestfallen and
-humbled, was about to withdraw, when the Queen advanced and interceded
-for him: “Poor soul, poor soul!” quoth the King; “thou little knowest,
-Kate, how ill he deserveth this grace at thy hands. On my hand,
-sweetheart, he hath been to thee a very knave!” So the disappointed
-minister departed, and Henry walked up and down the terrace again,
-leaning on his Queen and followed by her escort of ladies. Although
-Wriothesley’s part in this tragi-comedy seems to have been overlooked,
-the King is said never to have forgiven Gardiner his share in the
-matter. A little later, notwithstanding the royal prohibition, both
-conspirators presented themselves with their colleagues. The King
-forthwith reminded Wriothesley in his most forcible manner that he had
-ordered him never to show his face again, and above all never, on any
-pretext whatever, to bring “that beast Gardiner” along with him. “My
-Lord of Winchester,” replied the cunning Wriothesley, “has come to
-wait upon your Highness with an offer of benevolence from his clergy.”
-The King being as usual in great need of money, began to listen
-more benignly, allowed Gardiner to present the address, and finally
-accepted the bribe.[60] But he took no further notice of the Bishop,
-and is said to have struck his name off the list of his executors
-within the next few days. He also cancelled that of Thirlby, Bishop of
-Westminster, because, said he, “he is too much under the influence of
-Gardiner.”[61] Queen Katherine may have had a hand in this affair, and
-after the revelation of the treachery which would fain have destroyed
-her she very likely took the opportunity of letting the King know more
-concerning the machinations of Gardiner and Wriothesley than was good
-for their credit or likely to serve their influence.
-
-The details of this formidable but abortive plot against Katherine
-Parr rest mainly on the authority of Foxe. But it must be remembered,
-by those inclined to doubt the “Martyrologist,” that at this time he
-had attained his thirtieth year, he was in touch with most of the
-personages named, and was consequently in a position to obtain the
-information which he wove into his famous narrative--not, we admit,
-without considerable embellishment and exaggeration, introduced to
-suit the taste of his readers--from living witnesses. Foxe also made
-liberal use of Paget’s statement during the proceedings for Gardiner’s
-deprivation, which took place early in Edward’s reign. All the
-Elizabethan and Jacobean historians of Henry VIII--Herbert, Parsons,
-Holinshed, Strype, Speed, Oldmixon, and others--reproduce the story
-with slight emendations and additions from Foxe. No direct confirmation
-of it is to be found indeed in the State Papers, but this is not
-surprising, for such matters were not usually set down in writing.
-Nevertheless, it is hinted at.[62] Nor do the Ambassadors seem to have
-known anything about it. Father Parsons, who, like Foxe, obtained
-much of his information at first hand, introduces the incident in his
-_Three Conversions of England_, a book written to refute some of Foxe’s
-errors, and adds that although Foxe lays “all the cause of the Queen’s
-trouble upon Bishop Gardiner and others, and though the King did kindly
-and lovingly pardon her, the truth is that the King’s sickness and
-death were the chief causes of her escape, for had the King found her
-guilty he would have commanded her also to be burned.”
-
-Speed, possibly mistaking Lady _Lane_ for Lady Jane, introduces
-the King’s little niece on this occasion, not only as a witness of
-the reconciliation of the royal couple, but in the character of a
-candle-bearer before the Queen. Jane Grey, being a Princess of the
-Blood, could never have been in _attendance_ upon the Queen, and
-she was too small a child to be laden with a pair of heavy branch
-candlesticks. Lady Lane, on the other hand, was certainly in the
-Queen’s Household at this particular juncture. She was Her Majesty’s
-cousin-german, being the daughter of her uncle, Lord Parr of Horton,
-and wife of Sir Ralph Lane of Orlingby, Nottinghamshire. Still,
-since the fact of her being present is mentioned by so many almost
-contemporary writers, we may conclude that Lady Jane was a witness
-of the dramatic scenes that took place between King Henry and his
-terrified Consort, and may herself, in after life, have narrated the
-incident to some friend of Foxe or immediate forbear of Parson’s
-informant. Gardiner’s disgrace does not seem to have been quite as
-complete as Foxe has been pleased to represent it, and he was in close
-enough contact with those in power to be selected as chief celebrant at
-the King’s Requiem.
-
-That the King was completely reconciled to his wife is proved by the
-conspicuous part he assigned her in the splendid series of festivities
-in honour of the French Envoy, who arrived in August, when the Court
-had removed to Hampton Court. Not only was her apartment refurnished
-with sumptuous tapestries, but her wardrobe was renewed, and the King
-presented her with a quantity of magnificent jewellery, which, after
-his death, gave rise to considerable misunderstanding and trouble.
-
-These festivities in honour of Monsieur d’Annebault, Francis I’s
-special Envoy, were the last flicker of the pageantry of Henry VIII’s
-reign, and revived for a week something of the brilliance of the
-Court of England in the great days of Wolsey. For the first and only
-time, Prince Edward, as heir-apparent, played a conspicuous part. On
-Monday, 23rd August, the boy-prince rode out towards London to meet
-the Ambassador, attended by the Archbishop of York and the Earls of
-Hertford and Huntingdon, and by a retinue of “five hundred and forty
-persons in velvet coats, and the Prince’s liveries wore sleeves of
-cloth of gold, and half the coats embroidered also with gold, and there
-were the number of eight hundred, royally apparelled.” D’Annebault,
-who came to ratify the peace recently concluded between the sovereigns
-of France and England, was accompanied by a suite of two hundred
-gentlemen, who were all lodged at the King’s expense and entertained
-in the most hospitable manner. His Majesty was not well enough to
-receive the Ambassador on his arrival, but he received him in audience
-on the following day, after which monarch and Ambassador proceeded
-to the Chapel Royal, where, during Mass, they solemnly received the
-Host together.[63] Then followed six days of banqueting, hunting, and
-merry-making, masques, and mummeries, “with divers and sundry changes,
-inasmuch that the torch-bearers were clothed with gold cloth, and
-such like honourable entertainments, it were much to utter and hard
-to believe.” On these occasions the Marchioness of Dorset and her
-daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, were present, and Prince Edward danced
-with his little cousin, who also tripped it with young Lord Edward
-Seymour, the Lord Hertford’s eldest boy. When the Ambassador took his
-leave, Henry made him a present of silver plate to the value of £1200.
-After his departure the dying King seems to have led a very quiet life
-at Hampton Court and Whitehall. The end was visibly approaching. His
-feet and hands were abnormally swollen; dropsy had set in, and he was
-probably also suffering from an internal tumour. Even his most fervent
-admirers were obliged to confess that in appearance, at least, he had
-assumed somewhat of the aspect of a monster; but music still charmed
-the suffering monarch, and the last Household Books of his reign
-contain various items of payments to musicians and madrigal singers.
-
- NOTE.--Dr. Gairdner makes the following comments on this subject in
- his Preface to vol. 21, part i. of the Calendar of State Papers for
- 1546 (published in 1908): “But one word may be permitted here about
- that dreadful incident, the racking in the Tower. It took place
- _after_ her (Anne’s) condemnation, the object being to elicit from
- her information about persons at the Court who it was suspected had
- been her allies in promoting heresy. Besides others whose names
- are given, against whom she positively refused to utter a word,
- she was probably expected to accuse Queen Katherine Parr herself;
- for Parsons (_Three Conversions of England_, ii. 493) is no doubt
- perfectly correct in saying that the well-known incident related by
- Foxe, about this Queen, when she stood in real danger from a charge
- of heresy, was connected with the affair of Anne Askew. But Parsons
- is certainly wrong in saying that the King would have burned
- Katherine Parr also if he had lived. For though her heretical
- propensities were no secret, she survived the King, and he himself
- for fully six months survived Anne Askew. More probably the Queen
- was saved by Anne’s refusal to commit anyone except herself.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-THE HOWARDS AND THE SEYMOURS
-
-
-The collapse of the conspiracy against Katherine Parr led to an
-immediate counter-plot on the part of the Seymours and their allies
-to compromise the Duke of Norfolk and his son, Surrey, and thereby
-frustrate the aspirations of the Catholics, of whose party Norfolk was
-the acknowledged chief. A previous attempt to inflict irretrievable
-damage on the credit of the Howards had partially failed, though the
-unsavoury revelations connected with the arrest and execution of
-Queen Katherine Howard had covered the illustrious name with obloquy,
-and almost every conspicuous Howard in England had been sent to the
-Tower,[64] on the charge of having concealed the Queen’s previous
-immorality from the King’s knowledge when he proposed to marry her. At
-that moment Norfolk and his son only escaped by taking Henry’s side
-against their miserable kinswoman. But the Duke never regained his full
-influence over his master, and, despite his great services, both as
-statesman and warrior, lived on, to use the expression of one of his
-contemporaries, “like the bird that is wounded i’ the wing.” Yet he was
-a great power in the politics of those days, for though the Catholic
-party was of but small account at Court, a good two-thirds of the
-people remained firmly attached to the ancestral faith; this was the
-case more especially in the rural districts, where the vast majority
-clung to the dogmas and ceremonies of the ancient Church, and only
-awaited an opportunity to assert their preference. For the matter of
-that, it was shown very early in Queen Mary’s reign that the Protestant
-fervour of the official world, being a matter of policy rather than of
-conviction, was not to be relied on. The majority of that aristocracy
-which had so eagerly accepted the extreme reforms assented to by Edward
-VI was to be seen, a few weeks after his death, parading the streets of
-London, taper in hand, in the wake of the revived processions of Corpus
-Christi and Our Lady.[65]
-
-Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, was one of the most conspicuous
-figures in Henry’s reign. He may not, perhaps, have been as astute a
-statesman as has been asserted, but he showed remarkable qualities
-as a capable peacemaker on the occasion of the Pilgrimage of Grace;
-while as a warrior he had no rival, and proved himself a hero on
-Flodden Field. If anything, he was excessive in his loyalty to the
-King, and he would even seem to have sunk all sense of his own
-dignity and importance, humbling himself utterly before the monarch
-whose assumption of _quasi_-divine attributes he had aided and
-abetted. Thus, when his niece Anne Boleyn was tried and executed for
-misdemeanours she was certainly not proved to have committed,[66]
-he, at her royal assassin’s command, pronounced the death sentence,
-and with his son, the young Earl of Surrey, who sat at his feet,
-holding the Earl Marshal’s baton in his hand, was actually present
-at her execution. When, some few years later, Norfolk’s other niece,
-Katherine Howard, was proved guilty of many serious offences, both
-before and after marriage, Norfolk sat in judgment upon her and would
-have witnessed her death too but for an attack of gout which kept him
-a prisoner. Two days after the execution he penned an abject letter
-to the King apologising for “the naughtiness of his said niece, the
-late Queen.”[67] In person, Norfolk was a dark, handsome man, of
-moderate stature, with piercing eyes and an exceedingly intelligent
-countenance. Holbein has left us several magnificent oil portraits of
-him, and at least one noble drawing, now in the Windsor Collection. He
-was fairly educated, a good Latin scholar, and a patron of art. His
-first wife, Princess Anne Plantagenet, the King’s aunt, died young in
-1512. The day on which he espoused his second,[68] the handsome Lady
-Elizabeth Stafford, was an evil one for him. The alliance was one of
-convenience on his side and of compulsion on hers. His duchy had been
-greatly impoverished by the attainder of his father, the second Duke,
-after Bosworth, and the luckless Buckingham’s daughter was possessed
-of a handsome fortune in money and wide lands. She had been previously
-contracted to Ralph Nevill, afterwards Earl of Westmoreland, to whom
-she was greatly attached and with whom she kept up a correspondence
-till the end of her life. Although she bore her husband five children,
-the Duchess of Norfolk suffered some neglect at his hands, her rival
-being a certain Bess Holland,[69] a gentlewoman in her service. The
-mortification caused by this outrage drove the poor Duchess to the
-verge of distraction. She seems to have been a naturally conscientious,
-if narrow-minded, woman, of an exceedingly high-strung and excitable
-temperament. We should describe her nowadays as an “impossible” person,
-whose lack of tact and outbursts of uncontrollable rage not only
-alienated her husband’s affections, but deprived her of her children’s
-love as well as of her servants’ respect.
-
-Of all the men of his time, Surrey, this ill-used lady’s son, was the
-most accomplished. He was an excellent Latin, French, and Italian
-scholar, and well versed in ancient and modern literature. No one could
-excel him in tourney or joust--not even John Dudley, afterwards Duke
-of Northumberland, who had exceeding skill with the sword and spear,
-and than whom scarce one could pull a bow with surer aim. Surrey danced
-more lightly than Thomas Seymour, who prided himself on the “altitude
-of his pirouettes,” and the King himself in his singing youth did not
-warble a sweeter note. No Englishman since Chaucer had so enriched our
-literature with verse all redolent of those sweet-scented fields and
-lanes, meadows and gardens amid which the poet’s muse loved best to
-linger. An Elizabethan critic well described him as “a poet new crept
-out of the school of Dante, Petrarch, and Ariosto,” and “coming nearer
-to Ariosto” than to either the prophet of Florence or the inspired
-singer of Vaucluse. Though of but medium height, Surrey was so graceful
-and well-proportioned as to seem taller than he really was. There is a
-portrait of him at Hampton Court, most probably by Guilliam Streete,
-which gives us a fair idea of this prince for a fairy-tale. The face is
-full of youthful charm: the eyes hazel, frank, and winning; the cheeks
-rounded and flushed with rosy health; the hair a darkish chestnut; the
-slight moustache of the colour of ripe corn. His costume is superb. The
-young Earl stands before us garbed from head to foot in red velvet,
-softened by bands of brocade and sarsenet, the only white spot visible
-being the silk shirt open at the neck, and even that enriched with a
-dainty arabesque wrought in gold stitchery. On his well-shaped head
-rests a jaunty cap of crimson velvet with a feathered plume of the same
-tint.
-
-There was much that was purely personal in the violent animosity
-displayed by the Seymours against the Howards in general and against
-Surrey in particular. The Seymours, although of far more ancient and
-well-ascertained lineage than either the Brandons or the Boleyns,
-were not of the great aristocracy, but, in a sense, what the modern
-French would call _arrivistes_. Had it not been for the accident which
-raised their sister Jane to the towering position of Queen-Consort,
-the Seymours would probably have remained what they originally were,
-mere country squires of excellent lineage, reputed to be remotely
-connected with royalty. Their father,[70] Sir William St. Maur, or
-Seymour, of Wolf’s Hall, Wiltshire, had on one occasion entertained
-King Henry VIII; and their mother, Lady Seymour, by birth a Wentworth,
-and a lineal descendant of Edward III, was highly connected; but
-otherwise there was nothing in their antecedents to distinguish them
-from scores of other equally respectable and wealthy country gentlemen.
-The sudden[71] elevation of their sister Jane brought them a rapid
-promotion, which first dazzled them and then turned their heads.
-Honours and positions were heaped upon them. Edward, the eldest son,
-was first created Viscount Beauchamp, and, after the birth of Prince
-Edward, Earl of Hertford; the second, Thomas, was knighted. The
-youngest, Henry, seems to have preferred obscurity and security to rank
-and risk, and lived the life of a country gentleman, married young, and
-merely accepted knighthood on Edward VI’s accession.
-
-The ranks of the old aristocracy had been thinned by the prolonged
-civil wars and the plague, and towards the middle of the century the
-Court was so full of new men that at the time of Henry’s last illness
-there were only two dukes in the peerage--Norfolk, then seventy-two;
-and Suffolk, a lad of seventeen. The new peers, whose fortunes were
-mainly derived from confiscated church property, were eager to obtain
-recognition from the few of the old aristocracy who yet remained,
-and more especially from the Howards, a sturdy race, full of sap and
-vigour, and conspicuous in Court and State. The Duke of Norfolk was
-too experienced a man, both socially and politically, to permit his
-inborn pride of birth to display itself out of season. With Surrey it
-was otherwise. In his case, pride of ancestry was something more than
-a mere matter of vulgar boast. He regarded it with a poet’s eye and
-imagination, and took delight in remembering that through his veins
-flowed the blood of emperors and kings who had founded realms and
-dynasties, and built up the glory of a great nation. In the beginning
-of the fifteenth century a marriage between Robert Howard and the Lady
-Margaret Mowbray had brought the illustrious house into alliance with
-royalty. His father’s first wife had been the reigning King’s aunt,
-and his mother, Elizabeth Stafford, had a right to quarter Royal Arms
-on her escutcheon. With such a pedigree, and in an age when rank was
-paramount, Surrey conceived himself sufficiently powerful to hold his
-own against the encroachments of a new peerage only too eager to claim
-a fellowship which offended his sense of propriety.
-
-When the Seymours first came to Court, in the heyday of their youth and
-good looks, they sought young Surrey’s society, just as in our day new
-people seek that of a leader of the “smartest set.” So long as they
-kept their place, Surrey consorted with them willingly enough; but
-their rapacity and arrogance jarred on him at last, and he resented
-their many attempts at over-familiarity. He himself, on occasion, was
-apt to transgress the bounds of good behaviour, and once upon a time,
-being in lodgings in St. Lawrence Lane, Old Jewry, and leading what he
-himself is pleased to call a “racketty life,” went brawling about the
-streets at midnight with young William Pickering[72] and young Wyatt,
-the poet’s son, casting stones into peaceful citizens’ windows, and
-frightening them out of their wits. One night the party rowed over in
-a boat to Southwark, where dwelt in those days that gay and facile
-sisterhood whose representatives, in this year of Grace, 1909, patrol
-more central parts of our great city. In this fast company, our young
-gentlemen, evidently in their cups, behaved disgracefully. On Surrey’s
-part such conduct was all the more unseemly since he was already
-married to the plain-faced, but wealthy, Lady Frances Vere,[73] Lord
-Oxford’s daughter, to whom he declared himself devotedly attached.
-These escapades ended by attracting public attention, and their heroes
-were arrested for disorderly conduct. Thanks to their rank, they were
-brought before the Privy Council,[74] instead of being haled before
-an ordinary justice, though, as ill-luck would have it, Edward, Lord
-Hertford, was presiding at the Council board. The opportunity of paying
-off a few old scores was too much for him, and he swiftly resolved to
-give Surrey good cause to remember him in future. A very comical and
-characteristic scene ensued.[75] Surrey, mimicking Hertford, who was
-nothing if not puritanical in his mode of expressing himself, “having
-ever God on his lips,” assured the Council that if he had done what he
-had, it had been for the good of the souls of the wicked citizens of
-London, who were behaving more abominably than the men of papal Rome.
-Had he not seen them sitting round tables and playing at cards in the
-late hours of the night?--and was it not a godly thing to whizz a stone
-or so at their windows, which stone, passing silently through the air,
-fell with all the greater suddenness among them, thereby recalling
-them to a proper sense of their duties to their God, their King, and
-their country?[76] Mrs. Arundel, a woman of good family but greatly
-impoverished, who kept a sort of boarding-house for bachelors of rank
-in St. Lawrence Lane, Old Jewry, was the Earl’s landlady, and imparted
-a very different colour to the episode. “Her young gentleman,” she
-said, had frankly admitted to her that he considered these pranks good
-jokes: but she herself disapproved of them, especially the shooting
-at the windows of women of light character, or “bawds,” in Southwark,
-which the Earl, it seems, was addicted to, going by boat close to their
-quarters and firing off petards at the “trolls”! There was nothing for
-it, therefore, but to pronounce sentence. Surrey was committed to the
-Fleet, the most abominable of all the many vile prisons of those days,
-while Wyatt and Pickering, though of much inferior rank, were sent
-to the stately Tower, whence they were delivered in a day or two on
-payment of a heavy fine and promising good behaviour. How long Surrey
-remained in durance it is difficult to say--long enough certainly for
-him to compose his “Satire on the Citizens of London” and several other
-poems. He never forgave Seymour his share in the business, and never
-failed to annoy his enemy openly or covertly whenever opportunity
-occurred. It was quite in keeping with his character to address amatory
-verses with this intent to Hertford’s handsome and very proud wife,
-who took his lines in very bad part, as so many insults to her honour.
-The Countess once made a scandal by deliberately turning her back upon
-the poet-Earl when, in August 1542, at a ball in his own father’s
-house,[77] he ventured to ask her permission to lead her out to dance.
-
-Late in the summer of 1542 a very serious quarrel broke out between
-Seymour and Surrey, over an incident which took place in Hampton Court
-Park. Seymour, it was alleged, had reported against Surrey that he had
-openly approved of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Surrey, coming face to
-face with his antagonist in a glen in the park, instantly challenged
-him. Coats were off in a moment, and the two were in the midst of a
-hearty boxing-match when the guard arrived and took both into custody
-for violating the royal privilege and fighting within the precincts
-of the King’s palace. The punishment for this offence, as readers of
-_The Fortunes of Nigel_ will recollect, was loss of the right hand. All
-the diplomacy and influence of the Duke of Norfolk had to be exerted
-to avert the infliction of this terrible penalty; but, thanks to his
-efforts, both the hot-headed young gentlemen escaped with a sharp
-reprimand. Scores of similar curious instances might be quoted from the
-chronicles and letters of the time, to prove the depth and bitterness
-of the social animosity between the Howards and the Seymours. The Duke
-himself resented the cruel manner in which Hertford had behaved in the
-matter of His Grace’s niece, the unhappy Katherine Howard. There can be
-no doubt that at one time both Cranmer and the King wished to spare her
-life, and would have spared it had not Hertford, in his hot haste to
-ruin the Howards’ credit, prematurely dispatched letters to the King’s
-Ambassadors abroad containing full details of the Queen’s disgrace,
-with orders to hand them to the sovereigns to whose Courts they were
-accredited. This publicity rendered the royal clemency impossible.[78]
-
-Early in the summer of 1546 the Duke of Norfolk made up his mind, in
-what he held to be the interests of himself and his family, to bring
-about a reconciliation, if that were possible, between his house and
-Seymour’s. He fully realised that, ageing as he was, he could no longer
-be a match for two unscrupulous and very able men, then reaching the
-prime of life, and already holding the King’s complete confidence.
-Further, he felt Surrey to be hopeless in all business calling for
-tact and diplomacy, and was convinced the persistent animosity between
-his son and Hertford would lead before long to some awful catastrophe.
-Surrey’s bravery as a fighting soldier was undisputed, but as a
-commander his lack of reticence and his rashness had led the King’s
-troops in France into more than one disaster; he himself had paid the
-penalty of his rashness before the walls of Montreuil, where he was
-seriously wounded and only saved from certain death by the gallantry
-of Sir Thomas Clere. He had then been recalled, and Hertford had been
-sent to take his place, a bitter humiliation to the proud Howards and
-one which more than anything else rankled in Surrey’s soul. Yet the
-old Duke recognised that Hertford’s bravery and tact as warrior and
-diplomatist had soon ended the war and obtained peace with honour for
-the English forces, thus raising his popularity to the highest pitch;
-for there was nothing the nation then desired so much as peace, at home
-and abroad. Hertford’s brother, Sir Thomas, was, if anything, still
-more popular, for he had so successfully scoured the seas in quest of
-French galleons laden with provisions that suppressed monasteries had
-been converted into storehouses. The magnificent ex-church of the Grey
-Friars had become a wine-vault, crammed to the roof with barrels of
-Burgundy and other wines of the best French vintages. In Austin Friars
-such a stock of cheeses was stored that there was no moving in that
-erstwhile beautiful priory church, and the huge and splendid church of
-the Black Friars was literally packed with salt herring and dried cod.
-Wherefore the people had good reason to be well pleased with brother
-Thomas.
-
-The Duke, then, without consulting his son,--and here his disastrous
-mistake,--obtained an interview with Hertford, and, skilfully playing
-on his well-known vanity and social ambition, suggested at length that
-a betrothal should be forthwith arranged between Hertford’s eldest
-daughter and Surrey’s eldest son, and a similar contract entered into
-between Lord Thomas Howard[79] and Seymour’s youngest daughter, the
-Lady Jane Seymour. His Grace, apparently in a match-making mood,
-gave his paternal sanction to the wooing and wedding of his beautiful
-daughter, the widowed Duchess of Richmond, by Sir Thomas Seymour.
-With all these suggestions the Seymours gladly closed, making but one
-condition, that Surrey should accept a slightly subordinate position
-under Hertford’s command, virtually tantamount to a tacit apology for
-his repeated slights, covert and open, in the past. On Tuesday in
-Whitsun week 1546, then, the Duke, well pleased with his own diplomacy,
-presented himself at Whitehall and laid his rather complicated scheme
-of alliances before His Majesty. Henry was graciously pleased to
-approve it, and willingly agreed that his daughter-in-law of Richmond
-should become the bride of the handsome Thomas Seymour, with whom,
-according to Court gossip, she was already much in love. But in all
-these schemes the Duke had reckoned without his host, for when he put
-the matter before Surrey, that impetuous poet flew into a towering
-rage. He would “sooner see his children dead in their coffins than
-married to Seymour’s brats,” he said. Then, turning furiously on his
-sister, the Duchess of Richmond, who had accompanied her father, he
-cried,--at least, according to that dangerous Court gossip, Sir Gawen
-Carew,--“Go, carry out your farce of a marriage. My Lord of Hertford
-is in full favour, I grant; but why not do yet better for yourself
-and follow Madame d’Estampes’ example with King Francis. Get you
-into the same sort of favour with King Henry, and rule through him.”
-This sinister advice was evidently dictated by that vein of bitter
-sarcasm usual with Surrey when the uncontrollable temper which he
-inherited from his mother mastered his common sense. It could not
-have been seriously meant, for nobody knew better than Surrey that
-the King was already more than half dead, utterly unable to trouble
-himself about new mistresses, and in any case not likely to select
-his own daughter-in-law to replace his excellent Queen-Consort and
-nurse, Katherine Parr. The Duchess of Richmond, however, took the jibe
-seriously, replied that she “would sooner cut her throat” than do “any
-such vile thing,” and left her irate brother to his own reflections,
-which, when he cooled down, cannot have been particularly agreeable. He
-knew his sister well; she was an exceedingly beautiful woman, to whom
-Holbein, in his exquisite drawing, has given the expression of one of
-Ghirlandajo’s sweetest Madonnas. But at heart she was a little fiend,
-capable, when her passions were roused, of working dire mischief. She
-said little at the time, but she nursed her grievance and exaggerated
-its importance. She may also have felt not a little embittered against
-Sir Thomas Seymour, who had ungallantly refused her hand because it
-was not accompanied by her brother’s submission. Be this as it may,
-“the Duchess of Richmond from that day forth hated her brother as much
-as she had previously loved him,”[80] and when the hour for revenge
-came at last, forgetful of her obligations as sister and woman, she
-scandalised even that unsentimental age by appearing at her brother’s
-trial as one of the principal witnesses for the prosecution.
-
-Meanwhile the Duke of Norfolk was at his wits’ end to know how to make
-Hertford aware of the unfortunate results of his negotiations with his
-son. He was possessed of a perfect mania for putting pen to paper on
-any and every pretext, although, as every one who has waded through
-his correspondence knows, there has never been a statesman, before or
-since, who could indite more indiscreet and exasperating epistles.
-If then, as is likely, he conveyed the unpleasant news by letter, he
-was not the man to improve matters by a tactful manner. The breach
-between the Howards and the Seymours was now complete. Hertford, hurt
-in pride and vanity, would accept no apologies from the Duke, and the
-feud between himself and Surrey soon grew more bitter than ever. To
-make matters worse, the Duchess of Richmond made a confidant of her
-friend, Sir Gawen Carew, who detested her brother, and was the most
-inveterate gossip of the Court, as is well known to those who have read
-the State Papers connected with the tragedy of Katherine Howard; it
-was, indeed, the gossip of Sir Gawen that did most to ruin that Queen.
-Presently young scions of the nobility, courtiers who hated the Howards
-for their airs and graces and forgot the old Duke’s well-known kindness
-to the youthful, buzzed about the King, and did their best to set him
-against the luckless Earl. Hertford and his brother afforded them ample
-assistance, supplying all necessary instructions and information; and,
-for all we know to the contrary, the Queen may have lent a helping
-hand. In fact, the whole Protestant party was now roused against the
-Howards, the representatives of the Catholics, and determined to bring
-about their ruin or perish in the attempt. It had hoped the folly of
-Katherine Howard would have sufficed for this purpose, but the great
-house of Norfolk was firm enough to resist even that storm. Another
-pretext had to be found, and the impolitic behaviour of the poet-Earl
-supplied it.
-
-Poor Surrey was no match for the low and cunning intrigues amongst
-which “Fate and metaphysical aid” had thrown him. Somewhere in June
-1546 he was summoned before the Privy Council, severely reprimanded
-for what he could not possibly help, and imprisoned in Windsor Castle,
-where he consoled himself by writing one of his most exquisite poems.
-This was his “Swan Song”! By August, however, he was certainly out
-of durance, and apparently once more in favour with the King, for
-he figured as Earl Marshal at the entertainments given in honour of
-the French Envoy, Claude d’Annebault, taking precedence of everyone
-excepting members of the royal family.
-
-Early in September he left London, and returned to his wife and
-children at Kenninghall, accompanied by Churchyard the poet, who was
-his secretary, and an extremely numerous and miscellaneous retinue,
-which included several Italian painters, musicians, and jesters. One
-of the artists, Toto, was soon engaged upon a portrait of him, which
-was later used to his great disadvantage; in the left-hand corner of
-it appeared his escutcheon, bearing among its numerous quarterings the
-arms of England, but so arranged that a slide could be drawn, when
-necessary, over the coat-of-arms. The Duke of Norfolk and my Lady of
-Richmond came to Kenninghall Palace about this time; but the mansion,
-of which not a vestige now remains, was so enormous that every member
-of the ducal family had a separate dwelling. The Duchess of Richmond
-had a whole wing to herself, which she shared with her friend Mrs.
-Holland. The society of those days was not so dead to all sense of
-propriety as not to be scandalised by this singular intimacy between
-the Duke’s daughter and his mistress. Most people agreed with the
-Duchess of Norfolk “that her dater’s abiding ever with that drab
-Holland” was a “scandayul and most unnatterall.” Owing to the huge size
-of the mansion, not much inferior to that of Hampton Court, the Duchess
-and Mrs. Holland may never once have come into contact with Surrey and
-his family; otherwise, it is difficult to account for the fact that we
-have no record of any fiery scene between brother and sister. The Duke
-seems to have spent his time very quietly, reading the books he most
-affected, such as Plutarch’s _Lives of Illustrious Men_, Josephus’s
-_History_, and _The Confessions of St. Augustin_.[81]
-
-Whilst the Howard family was thus peacefully rusticating in Norfolk,
-gossip and slander were making headway in the metropolis and preparing
-poor Surrey’s ruin. Sir George Blagg, the “my Blagg” of one of his
-finest poems, had picked a quarrel with him in the summer, and was
-busy as a bee spreading evil reports against him. Sir Gawen Carew had
-confided to every one what the Duchess of Richmond had related to him
-anent her brother’s advice to hasten and become the King’s mistress.
-His enemies had even pressed the Court astrologer into their service,
-and this functionary had actually warned the King that unless he was
-careful, his successor’s monogram would, like his own, be “H.R.” The
-Duke himself was not spared: he had been seen to enter the French
-Ambassador’s house late at night and to leave it again in the small
-hours of the morning. A letter of his to Gardiner, then on a mission
-to Brussels, was intercepted--and vague though its terms were, it was
-held to be proof positive of Norfolk’s adherence to Gardiner’s scheme,
-as planned with Cardinal Granville, to restore the papal supremacy in
-England. At last, truth and lies together rolled themselves up into
-an ominous storm-cloud, which burst when Surrey was called to appear
-before the Council in London on a charge of high treason.
-
-Some writers have attempted to extenuate Henry VIII’s share in the
-_dénouement_ of this tragedy. They plead that he was too ill at this
-time to know exactly what he was doing, and that, in consequence of the
-swollen state of his hands, he was compelled to use a stamp to sign his
-letters. With regard to this, we know that as far back as 1st August
-1546 he had commissioned Sir Anthony Denny, Sir John Gates, and William
-Clere to sign documents for him with a dry stamp, the signature thus
-made being filled in with ink. And even this is not the first time
-Henry had recourse to a mechanical contrivance for signing letters
-and State Papers. Lord Hardwick has a letter of the King’s signed
-with a stamp and dated as early as the seventh year of his reign.
-Moreover, the official documents, which were drawn up by Wriothesley,
-are carefully annotated and corrected in pencil by Henry himself, with
-very full marginal notes and numerous interlineations. The handwriting
-is very shaky, but it is the King’s none the less, and proves that if
-the monarch’s body was infirm, his brain was as clear and his feelings
-as vindictive as ever. The death-warrant of the Earl of Surrey is also
-scribbled over on the margin with certain pencil notes in the King’s
-own writing, proving that Henry must have retained the use of his hands
-to the end.
-
-Sufficient evidence having been gathered, and Surrey being summoned
-to London, he left Kenninghall[82] in the last days of September, and
-appeared before the Privy Council in Wriothesley’s house in Holborn,
-not far from Chancery Lane, on 2nd October. His first accuser was
-Sir Richard Southwell, at one time in his mother’s household at
-Kenninghall, who hated him heartily. He averred that Surrey had placed
-the Royal Arms of England in the first quartering of his escutcheon,
-thereby claiming the crown. When confronted with Southwell, Surrey,
-with his foolish impetuosity, and to the consternation of the Council,
-proposed a sort of trial by battle after the mediæval fashion.
-Southwell and he were there and then to divest themselves of their
-upper garments, descend on to the floor of the court, and indulge the
-Lord Chancellor and the Council with the spectacle of a boxing-match,
-the winner of which was to be declared innocent. The Council, needless
-to say, did not see fit to accept the fiery Earl’s suggestion, and
-both Surrey and Southwell were temporarily detained--the Earl being not
-yet formally charged.
-
-The examination of the other witnesses took place privately a few days
-later, before the Council but not in the presence of the prisoner.
-Sir Edmund Knyvyt, a son of the Lady Muriel Howard, the sister of
-the Duke of Norfolk, and therefore a cousin of Surrey, out of sheer
-spite, and also perhaps to give himself importance, accused the Earl
-of harbouring Italian spies in his house at Kenninghall, of affecting
-foreign airs, of wearing foreign costumes, and, gravest of all, of
-entertaining persons suspected of correspondence with Cardinal Pole and
-other “traitors” abroad. Then came Sir Gawen Carew with an exaggerated
-version of the Duchess of Richmond’s story that her brother advised
-her to become the King’s mistress, and had spoken lightly of the
-King’s illness, and speculated as to what might occur in the event of
-his death; and before the week was out a score or so of other venal
-witnesses had concocted sufficient evidence to send fifty men to the
-block.
-
-The Duke, meanwhile, tarried at Kenninghall, wondering what had
-happened to his son, and never imagining how bitter and relentless was
-the suddenly, and indeed inexplicably, developed hatred of the King,
-which we, however, know was stimulated by the Seymours and Cranmer for
-their own ends. Instead of coming up to London to help the Earl out
-of his difficulties, he set himself, as usual, to write confidential
-letters to those members of the Council upon whom he thought he could
-rely. These effusions were promptly shown to Hertford, with the result
-that His Grace himself was ordered to London with the utmost dispatch.
-On 12th December the Duke of Norfolk appeared before Lord Chancellor
-Wriothesley at his house in Holborn, near the present Southampton
-Buildings, and, to his unutterable amazement, found himself formally
-charged with high treason. He was immediately committed to the Tower,
-but on account of his rank and age, and to spare him the humiliation
-of being paraded as a prisoner through the city streets, he was
-conveyed down the hill, put on board a barge in the Fleet, and so to
-the Thames, through the arches of London Bridge, and onward to his
-ominous destination in the ancient fortress. Later in the same day
-Surrey too was conducted to the Tower, but he had to go on foot and
-through a dense multitude. To the consternation of his enemies, he
-was cheered all along the road, and grave fears were entertained of a
-rescue.[83] Three commissioners were now dispatched to Kenninghall to
-bring the Duchess of Richmond and her friend Mrs. Holland up to town.
-Another embassy rode to Redbourne, to fetch the Duchess of Norfolk, who
-was only too delighted to come to London and blurt out all she could
-to the detriment of her hated spouse. By this time London could talk
-of nothing but the Surrey trial. In the palaces of the rich, in the
-hovels of the poor, in all the little taverns and drinking-houses down
-by the Thames, in the parlours of the great inns in Southwark and the
-Cheape, the conversation turned upon no other subject, and even the
-all-absorbing topic of the King’s illness was forgotten for the time
-being. A touch of horror was added to the general excitement when it
-became known that Norfolk’s wife and his daughter and mistress were to
-be the chief witnesses against him and his son. The Duchess did not
-spare her husband. Snatching at the welcome chance of avenging her
-wrongs, the half-witted lady grew garrulous, and confirmed everything
-_suggested_ by those who desired to damn her lord’s cause. She had
-but little to say, however, concerning her son, for the simple reason
-that she had not seen him for many months and knew nothing about his
-affairs. He was very “unnatturell” towards her, she declared, and so
-was her daughter, but nevertheless she “loved her children dearly.” Her
-husband, she said, had leanings towards Popery, and caused his children
-to be brought up to deny the King’s supremacy.
-
-Mrs. Holland behaved with great discretion, considering her position
-and antecedents. It was true, she said, that the Duke of Norfolk had
-on one occasion told her that “if he had been young enough he would
-like to go to Rome to venerate the Veronica, an image of our Lord
-miraculously impressed upon a handkerchief which He had given to
-certain women on His way to Calvary.” The Duke had bidden her lay
-aside some needlework upon which she was engaged, to oblige the Earl of
-Surrey, and in a corner of which were his arms, one quartering of which
-was to be left blank, “probably for the introduction of the Royal Arms
-and monogram.” She had obeyed the Duke’s behest and never set needle
-into the work again. Before concluding her evidence, she, perhaps
-not unnaturally, seized the opportunity to try and clear her own
-reputation, and informed the Court that “the Earl detested her because
-she was so friendly with his sister.”
-
-The appearance of Mary, Duchess of Richmond, must have created a
-sensation. Her angelic beauty contrasted strangely with her spiteful
-and bitter nature. Like her mother, when she was once started there
-was no stopping her, and in her excitement she materially damaged
-her brother’s cause, exaggerating every point against him suggested
-by the prosecution. With telling and dramatic effect she related the
-scene when he advised her to become the King’s mistress. Her brother,
-she said, had been reading the book about Lancelot of the Lake, and
-had introduced that hero’s arms, together with those of Anjou, into
-his own. He had recently had his portrait taken by an Italian artist,
-as already related, and had caused the arms of England to be painted
-into the left corner, with the monogram “H.R.” surmounted by a crown,
-which she thought was a closed crown, like the King’s. He had also
-appropriated the Confessor’s arms, which belonged by right to the King,
-and the King only; he had spoken irreverently of His Majesty, and had
-speculated upon what might happen after his death; and, she added, “my
-lord of Hertford is particularly hateful to him because he superseded
-him at Boulogne, and indeed he detested the new nobility in general.”
-The Council, to its credit, discarded the Duchess’s evidence concerning
-Surrey’s alleged infamous advice to her. They held it too abominable to
-be even probable, and it was not included in the indictment; but the
-rest of her evidence was considered very compromising.
-
-On 13th January 1548 Surrey was brought on foot from the Tower to
-the Guildhall, which was packed to suffocation, and the charges of
-treacherously conspiring, together with his father, either to usurp the
-throne or seize the protectorate, were read over to him. He made an
-eloquent defence, and, while denying every other item of the charge,
-said he had a right, in accordance with a grant made by Richard III
-to his grandfather, the first Duke of Norfolk, to use the arms of the
-Confessor; which was perfectly true--“Herald-at-Arms knew this, and
-was content he used them.” As to his ever “having dreamed of usurping
-the throne,” that was “mere chatter.” He owned he bore Hertford no
-goodwill, but the fault rested with that gentleman, and was “not of
-my making.” He was innocent on all points, he said, and called God to
-witness his loyalty to his King and country. In spite of all, sentence
-was passed upon him, and he was condemned to die on the following
-morning. The breathless silence with which the verdict had been awaited
-gave way to tumultuous protests from all sides of the Court, and it was
-only with great difficulty, even danger, that the hall was cleared. As
-the condemned Earl passed from the Guildhall to the Tower every cap
-was lifted, and the utmost sorrow and sympathy were displayed when
-the result of the trial was revealed by the sight of the executioner
-walking in the procession, the sharp edge of his axe turned towards the
-prisoner’s person.
-
-The next morning, 14th January, rose bright and frosty. A huge
-multitude had assembled on Tower Hill to witness the closing scene.
-Surrey, dressed in black velvet, looked very handsome, as with brave
-and elastic step he mounted the scaffold. He delivered the usual
-speech--a part of the grim pageant which no prisoner, male or female,
-ever missed--in a clear voice. He eloquently declared his innocence,
-forgave his enemies, and avowed his loyalty to his sovereign. He begged
-the prayers of all the company, and himself prayed aloud while the
-final preparations were being made. These done, in the midst of an awed
-silence, Surrey knelt to receive the fatal stroke, and with the sacred
-name of “Jesus” on his lips, his brave soul passed into eternity. Thus
-was the Court of England robbed of a gallant and magnificent gentleman,
-and the country of a man of genius, who, had he lived into the calmer
-and fostering atmosphere of Elizabeth’s reign, might have left a name
-in literature equal, if not superior, to that of Spenser.
-
-The Duke of Norfolk escaped trial, but not attainder. His dignities and
-estates were confiscated and distributed among his enemies. On the 27th
-of January his death-warrant was brought to the King; but Henry was
-too far gone, by this time, to be able to affix his autograph, and Sir
-Richard Gates stamped the document with the Royal Seal only. The deed,
-however, never reached its destination. Possibly it was detained by the
-Seymours, who may have thought that age and infirmity would soon spare
-them the blood-shedding of an old man. If so, they were mistaken, for
-Norfolk survived them both. A few hours later the King’s death saved
-the aged Duke’s. He remained, however, a close prisoner throughout the
-reign of Edward VI, but at the accession of Queen Mary he was liberated
-and all his dignities restored.
-
-The most pitiable part of this strange episode in the history of an
-epoch which was one long series of domestic and political tragedies is
-that the Duke, in the hope of saving his life, was induced to address
-a shameful confession to the King. This confession His Majesty never
-read. It is still in existence, and must be described, even by the most
-merciful critics, as a very foolish and impolitic effusion. Yet that
-the Duke of Norfolk and his son were both conspiring--not, indeed, to
-usurp the throne, but to obtain the protectorate--is beyond dispute.
-The Seymours, on their side, though with much greater skill and
-diplomacy, were doing precisely the same thing.
-
-Among our national archives and those of Norfolk House are full
-inventories of the estates, goods, and chattels of the Duke of Norfolk
-and his son, and also of the Duchesses of Norfolk and Richmond and of
-Mrs. Holland. Norfolk’s list is valuable as affording a fair idea of
-the contents of a great English nobleman’s house and wardrobe in the
-first half of the sixteenth century. In his desire to save them, the
-Duke had presented his vast landed estates to the Prince of Wales,
-who, needless to say, never got an acre of them; they were made over
-to the Duke of Somerset, a title assumed by Hertford on becoming Lord
-Protector, to Paget, and to other members of the new Government. His
-wearing apparel, which consisted of many garments, mostly of black or
-russet velvet or satin richly furred, and “much worn,” or even “very
-much worn,” was also seized. The Countess of Surrey was allowed one of
-her father-in-law’s “coats” of black satin much worn, and furred with
-coney and lamb, which was delivered to her “to put about her in her
-chariot.” This is probably the first mention of a carriage rug in the
-domestic history of this realm. All the rest of the Duke’s effects,
-including “three broad yards of marble cloth and two pairs of old
-black slippers,” were given to the Duke of Somerset for his use. The
-Protector also obtained possession of the magnificent jewelled collars
-belonging to the various Orders of which the Duke was a member. Paget
-had a “George, set with diamonds and one ruby,” and Lord St. John
-had poor Surrey’s “Order of St. Michael with its chain, studded with
-pearls and diamonds.” The Duke left many pictures, all of a sacred
-character, and an enormous quantity of gold and silver plate, which
-was divided into equal parcels, and delivered to Somerset, Princess
-Mary, the Duchess of Norfolk, the Duchess of Richmond, and Surrey’s
-widow. Somerset seized a collection of thirty-two splendid rings, but
-Mrs. Holland claimed the finest table diamond as her private property.
-His Grace had also some fifty sets of rosary beads, some of coral with
-paternosters in gold, others of pearl, agate, gold studded with little
-jewels, black enamel, and even of glass. A great quantity of these
-were presented to Princess Mary, to whom also went much of the altar
-furniture of the Duke’s private chapel.
-
-Surrey’s wardrobe was as magnificent as that of any prince. There was
-“a Parliament robe, of rich purple velvet lined with ermine, and with a
-garter set with jewels upon the shoulder,” and a gown “of black velvet
-curiously figured in gold pasmentary”; “a coat and cassock of crimson
-velvet, wrought with satin in the same colour, with a cloak, hat and
-hose to match,” was most probably the identical costume in which he was
-represented by Streete in the picture still at Hampton Court. We read
-of dozens of gorgeous suits, one more splendid than the other. Somerset
-chose the finest for himself, and handed over the rest to his brother
-Henry, who had come up to town to be knighted, and who doubtless
-ultimately paraded his Wiltshire market town, decked in poor Surrey’s
-finery, looking very much like the fabled jay in peacock’s feathers.
-The furniture of Surrey’s country house, St. Leonard’s, near Norwich,
-which he had built after designs of John of Padua, was given to his
-widow, but some of the altar furniture went to Princess Mary at Newhall.
-
-Seals had been placed on the goods and chattels of the Duchesses
-of Norfolk and Richmond and of Mrs. Holland, but they were lifted
-immediately, and the ladies received all their several properties
-intact.
-
-The name of Sir Thomas Seymour does not figure in any connection, even
-remote, with this tragedy, and he did not receive a single coat or
-“night-gown,”[84] whether of velvet, satin, or common cloth, belonging
-to either the Duke or to his son. It may be that by the time the
-distribution of the confiscated property took place the feud between
-the ambitious brothers had already begun. It was destined amply to
-avenge Surrey’s untimely fate.
-
-Readers may fairly ask what the story of the poet-Earl’s end has to
-do with Lady Jane Grey? It may be replied that his death and his
-father’s imprisonment affected her very nearly. They cleared the way
-for the temporary triumph of the Protestant party, and enabled Seymour
-to proclaim himself Protector unopposed. The close intimacy between
-the families of Howard and Dorset is easily traced through at least
-three generations in the household books of Thomas, Earl of Surrey,
-afterwards Duke of Norfolk.
-
-When the Earl entertained company, the ladies and gentlemen, it seems,
-all dined together in the “great chamber,” and there were often as many
-as twenty to fifty guests staying in the house. Their names include
-nearly all the leading aristocracy of the time, among them being Lady
-Jane Grey’s father and mother, the Lord Marquis of Dorset and the Lady
-Frances; Brandon, Duke of Suffolk; the Lady Wyndham, the Lady Parker,
-the Lady Essex; Mrs. Brian, afterwards governess to the Princesses
-Mary and Elizabeth; the Lady Vere, the “old” Lady of Oxford,[85] etc.
-The ladies attending on the visitors[86] dined at my Lady’s mess,
-the gentlemen in the hall. When Mr. Thomas Reddynge, a gentleman of
-the Duke’s household, brought his bride to Tenderinge Hall for her
-honeymoon, “all the company dined and supped in the bride’s bedroom.”
-The little Lord Thomas Howard, afterwards Earl of Surrey, dined in the
-nursery.
-
-Hospitality was exchanged between the Howards and the Dorsets almost to
-the end of the Duke’s life. The Marquis and Marchioness of Dorset (the
-Lady Frances Brandon), Lady Jane Grey and her sisters, were certainly
-at Hunsdon[87] on more than one occasion, and when the two families
-were in town there was, doubtless, constant visiting between them. It
-must be remembered that the Duke of Norfolk, being uncle-by-marriage
-to the King, was also uncle to the Lady Frances’s mother, Mary Tudor,
-the royal Queen-Duchess of Suffolk. Little Lady Jane must often have
-sat perched on Surrey’s knee and listened with delight as he whispered
-in her ear those tales of fairy enchantment he himself loved so well.
-Owing to her tender age, Jane may never have been told the details of
-the closing scenes of her gallant kinsman’s life, but she must surely
-have noticed that on a certain day in January 1547-8 the curtains of
-her father’s house were drawn, as for a family in mourning; that her
-parents moved about with pale and saddened faces; and that the servants
-stirred noiselessly and spoke under their breath. The shadow lay
-everywhere, and the various chronicles of the period afford abundant
-proof that there was a genuine sorrow felt in the city on the day of
-Surrey’s death.
-
-And there is yet another link between Lady Jane Grey and the unhappy
-Surrey. The name of her kinswoman, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the “fair
-Geraldine,” must ever be associated with that of the poet-Earl, for
-she is as indissolubly connected with him as is Laura with Petrarch,
-or Leonora with Tasso. A daughter of Oge, Earl of Kildare,[88] by his
-wife, the Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter of the first Marquis of Dorset,
-the fair Fitzgerald was a not distant cousin to Lady Jane Grey, and
-there were but a few years between them. She was born in Ireland,
-probably at Maynooth Castle, somewhere in 1528, and was brought to
-England whilst yet an infant. In 1533 her father died in the Tower,
-broken-hearted at the news that his son, whom the Irish cherished as a
-patriot and the English hated as a rebel, had been captured and brought
-to London. A few days after his father’s decease, the young man was
-hanged at Tyburn with some seventeen other Irishmen. Henry VIII appears
-to have pitied the widowed Lady Kildare, who was reduced to the verge
-of starvation after her husband’s death. A small pension was granted
-her, and her children were dispersed among the leading families of the
-aristocracy, to receive an education worthy of their rank. Elizabeth,
-“the fair Geraldine,” an extremely beautiful child, was placed under
-the guidance of the Princess Mary.[89] It was probably in the year
-1542, whilst attending Her Highness on a visit at Hunsdon, that she
-first fell under the notice of Surrey, who, though already married,
-became desperately enamoured of her. The young lady cannot have been
-more than fourteen or fifteen at this time, but in those days this was
-quite a marriageable age. We have Surrey’s own word for it that it was
-at Hunsdon he first beheld the “fair Geraldine”--
-
- “Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyen:
- Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight.
- Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine;
- And Windsor, alas! doth chase her from my sight.
- Her beauty of kind; her virtues from above.
- Happy is he that can obtain her love!”
-
-They appear to have met again at Hampton Court, and we seem to have
-evidence that the “fair Geraldine” yielded to some extent to her
-suitor’s prayers. They danced together, no doubt, in the Great Hall,
-which still delights us with its lofty beauty and rich arras. They sat
-side by side in the oriel windows, or romped among the flower-beds
-of the palace garden. But the lovely Irish girl, true to her race,
-was chaste as snow, and when Surrey’s ardour grew too hot for modest
-endurance, he was firmly repulsed. One thing is quite certain,
-that “Geraldine” was very beautiful, with Irish sea-green eyes[90]
-and glorious fair hair. She seems otherwise to have been a very
-matter-of-fact young lady, who presently bestowed her hand on the rich
-old Sir Anthony Browne.[91] After his death, in 1548, she re-entered
-the household of her royal mistress, and as the Lady Frances and her
-daughter paid several visits to their cousin, Princess Mary, in 1551,
-Jane Grey must often have seen the _bella ma fredda innammorata_ of
-poet Surrey. After Queen Mary’s death the “fair Geraldine” consoled
-herself with a second husband, in the person of Clinton, Earl of
-Lincoln. An account of her funeral still exists, according to which
-sixty-one old women walked in the procession, each wearing a new suit
-of clothes and carrying a loaf of bread, their number recording the
-fact that the lady they mourned had reached sixty-one years at the time
-of her decease.
-
-The Duchess of Richmond seems ultimately to have repented to some
-extent of her wickedness. At any rate, her father left her £500 in his
-will--a considerable sum of money in those days--in acknowledgment of
-the expense and trouble she had borne to obtain his liberation, and of
-her care of her brother’s children. She died of the plague in 1556.
-
-It is curious that Surrey’s children should have been placed under his
-sister’s charge, since their mother, an eminently respectable woman,
-was living, and they were with her at the time of their father’s
-death. She was, however, a Catholic, whereas the Duchess had for some
-years past rather ostentatiously proclaimed herself a Protestant.
-Somerset’s religious opinions may have had something to do with this
-transaction, concerning which there is a strange legend. Three days
-after the Earl of Surrey’s execution, Foxe, the martyrologist, was
-sitting in St. Paul’s Cathedral, pale, haggard, and almost dying of
-misery and starvation. Presently a gentleman approached him and placed
-a considerable sum of money in his hand, bidding him be of good cheer,
-for that “luck was coming to him at last.” A few days later Somerset
-appointed him tutor to the children of the late Earl of Surrey, then
-under the charge of their aunt, the Lady of Richmond. Notwithstanding
-his ardent Protestantism, Foxe was never able to completely detach the
-future Duke of Norfolk from the older faith; but he gave his pupil a
-sound and virtuous education, and won his enduring affection. This Duke
-shared his father’s fate; he was beheaded, in the reign of Elizabeth,
-for espousing the cause of Mary Stuart. From him the present Duke of
-Norfolk is descended in a direct line.
-
-The Countess of Surrey resided for many years at Kenninghall, but,
-as usual in those days, she presently took a second husband, in the
-person of Mr. Thomas Steyning, of Woodford, Suffolk, most likely her
-steward or secretary. She lived to an advanced age, and is buried in
-Framlingham Parish Church, under the elaborate monument she erected to
-the memory of her husband, whose remains, however, are by some believed
-to be still lying in the interesting church of All Hallows’, Barking,
-near the Tower, where they were certainly interred immediately after
-his decapitation.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-HENRY VIII
-
-
-On the night of Wednesday, 27th January 1547, Henry Tudor lay dying on
-that huge fourpost bedstead which Andrea Conti, an Italian traveller
-who visited Whitehall a few years after the King’s death, described as
-“looking like a High Altar,” so costly were its hangings of crimson
-velvet and cloth of gold, so dazzling its rich embroideries.[92]
-The vast apartment was hung with rare Flemish tapestry glistening
-with gold thread; the furniture, of carved oak and inlaid ebony, was
-upholstered in glorious Florentine brocade. Curtains of “red velvet on
-velvet” draped the numerous windows overlooking the Thames, and the
-Eastern carpets that covered the floor muffled the sound of footsteps
-cautiously moving about the mighty couch.
-
-The once puissant and magnificent Henry VIII, King of England,
-France, and Ireland, and Defender of the Faith, was now a mass of
-deformed flesh, eaten up and disfigured by a complication of awful
-disorders--gout, cancer of the stomach, rheumatism, ulcers, and dropsy.
-So swollen were the miserable man’s hands, arms, and legs that he could
-only move with great pain, and then only with the aid of a mechanical
-contrivance. But his immense head tossed restlessly from side to side
-and he groaned piteously, often praying those about him to cool his
-parched lips with a drop of water. Though little over fifty-six years
-of age, the dying monarch’s hair had turned quite white, and his
-beard, formerly so well trimmed, had grown scant and straggling. His
-steel-grey eyes looked as small in proportion to the broad, bloated
-face as those set in the elephant’s enormous mask, but they still
-retained their ophidian glitter.[93]
-
-The dying King had been unusually irritable throughout the weary day.
-At times indeed he was delirious, but on the whole his mind remained
-fairly clear. At about six o’clock in the afternoon he awakened out of
-a deep sleep or lethargy and asked for a cup of white wine, which was
-given him. Presently he wandered again,--the result, perhaps, of the
-draught of wine,--and shouted, “Monks, monks!” imagining, so it would
-seem, that he saw cowled forms hovering about his bed. Three times,
-too, and very distinctly, he cried out the name “Nan Boleyn.” After
-that he kept his eyes fixed on a certain spot near his bedside, where,
-it may be, his fancy showed him the menacing wraith of his murdered
-wife. This outburst of feverish excitement was followed by a lull, and
-presently the King grew calmer and fell into a profound slumber.
-
-The principal persons about the death-bed were the Earl of Hertford
-and his brother, Sir Thomas Seymour; Henry’s Chief Secretary, Sir
-William Paget; and his Master of the Horse, Sir Anthony Browne, the
-only non-schismatic present. The physicians in attendance upon the King
-were Dr. Wendy and Dr. Owen, who had brought the Prince of Wales[94]
-into the world, and who subsequently assisted at the death-beds of
-Edward VI[95] and Mary. With them was Dr. John Gale,[96] the King’s
-surgeon-in-ordinary, who had waited upon Henry and his army when
-in France. Notwithstanding the number of priests attached to the
-Chapel Royal, there were no clergymen in the room. The Catholic party
-afterwards declared they had been purposely kept out of the way lest
-the King, whose hatred of the Papacy was purely political, might
-recant and make a death-bed submission to Rome. The elimination of
-the clerical element from the death-chamber is significant, and we
-have no certainty as to whether the King, who clung so tenaciously to
-the theory of the Church as to her Last Sacraments, ever personally
-received them.
-
-Another very remarkable fact is that neither in the State Papers nor
-in any other contemporary accounts of the death of Henry VIII is there
-any mention of the Queen’s presence at this time. Her Majesty had
-certainly been her husband’s assiduous nurse until early in January,
-but after that we hear no more of her, and except for one or two hints
-to the contrary in documents connected with the household effects of
-the King, we might almost conjecture she had left the palace before
-the King passed away. The _Spanish Chronicle_, introduced to English
-readers by Martin Hume, which contains a great deal of what would now
-be called back-stair gossip, informs us, however, that Katherine Parr
-was summoned to the King’s bedside the day before he died, and that “he
-thanked her for her great kindness to him,” adding that he had “well
-provided for her.” The good Queen, falling on her knees, burst into
-such loud sobbing that she had to be removed and conveyed back to her
-apartments. From the same source we learn that Princess Mary saw her
-father three or four days before the end, and received his blessing. Of
-these statements there is no confirmation in the English State Papers;
-they are confirmed, however, by documents in the Simancas archives
-and in a pamphlet published at Valladolid some three years after
-Queen Mary’s death entitled _La Muerte de la Serenissima Reyna Maria
-d’Inglaterra_ (Valladolid, 1562).[97]
-
-The last we hear of Katherine Parr as Queen-Consort is in a letter
-addressed to her from Hertford on 10th January by her stepson, Prince
-Edward, in which he thanks her for a New Year’s gift.[98]
-
-If we trust the _Acts and Monuments_, there is direct evidence that
-Henry VIII deliberately omitted Gardiner’s name from his testament. In
-the afternoon of the day before his death, Sir Anthony Browne asked
-him directly if “My Lord of Winchester was left out of His Majesty’s
-will by negligence or otherwise?” He was kneeling at the moment by
-the King’s bed and endeavouring to recall to him the Bishop’s long
-services. The broad face of the dying King turned towards him, and he
-said angrily, “Hold your peace. I remember him well enough, and of good
-purpose have I left him out; for surely if he were in my testament
-and one of you, he would cumber you all and you should never rule
-him, he is of so troublesome a nature.” If this be a truthful account
-of the scene, there can be no doubt that Henry realised the omission
-of Winchester’s name from the will, which would imply a truckling to
-the Seymour faction; for there was now no one left to oppose their
-influence or expose their intrigues.
-
-Between seven and eight in the evening of 27th January, Sir Anthony
-Denny, who had been watching his master very closely, thought he
-perceived signs that the end was approaching. Stooping over him, he
-whispered into the dying ear a message especially dreadful to one who,
-like Henry, held the mere mention of death in horror, warning him
-that his hour was very near, and that “it was meet for him to review
-his past life and seek God’s mercy through Jesus Christ.” The King,
-although in great agony, evidently understood what Denny had said,
-and is reported to have answered that he would suffer no ecclesiastic
-near him but Cranmer, who was immediately sent for. The Archbishop
-was at Croydon, but, being an excellent horseman, he galloped up to
-London, and reached Whitehall about one o’clock in the morning of
-Thursday, 28th January.[99] He found the King almost speechless but in
-full possession of his faculties, and exhorted him, in a few words, to
-repent him of his sins and “to place his trust in Christ only.” Henry
-pressed the Churchman’s hand, and muttering the significant words, “All
-is lost!” immediately expired.
-
-So passed into eternity Lady Jane Grey’s great-uncle and the most
-extraordinary of all our kings. Even at this date it is impossible
-to define his true character, for whereas, on the one hand, his
-cousin Pole, who knew him well, likened him unto Nero and Tiberius,
-that painstaking historian Froude has endeavoured to prove him a
-well-intentioned man, whose political and whose domestic troubles
-especially were not of his own making, but the result of circumstance
-and of Court intrigues beyond his control. Between these two
-appreciations the truth doubtless lies. Henry VIII was beyond question
-a wonderful being--in whom were reflected, nay, absorbed, all the good
-and evil qualities of the subjects whose very Church he contrived to
-dominate. With all his treachery, his lust, and his cruelty, he may
-well have been a necessary evil, a tool in the guiding Hand that has
-shaped the destinies of the British Empire. He tore down the last
-vestiges of the Middle Ages; and if the light so suddenly admitted was
-too dazzling for the eyes that first beheld it, in due time it mellowed
-into the slowly developed liberty and progress that have placed our
-country at the forefront of civilisation. Our eighth Henry was the
-tyrant who inadvertently forced open the gate whereby Freedom was to
-enter.
-
-Much as we loathe his sensuality and his cruelty, his personal
-extravagance that emptied the overflowing treasury left by his father
-and led him to debase the coin of the realm in order to replenish it,
-much as we may deplore his iconoclasm that destroyed a thousand abbeys,
-priories, and noble churches and dispersed the art treasures of ages,
-as Englishmen we still entertain a surreptitious liking for Bluff King
-Hal. His magnificent appearance and the Oriental side of his nature,
-his six wives, his fantastic and gorgeous pageants, his outbursts of
-bad language, his masterfulness, his love of art and music, all appeal
-to the imagination and help us to convert a monarch, a very weak and
-poor specimen of humanity, who really had much of the vile criminal
-about him, into a hero of romance, and cast over his strange career
-something of the legendary glamour that so fascinates all students of
-the reign of the illustrious daughter who inherited so many of his good
-and evil qualities and carried on much of his chosen policy. To King
-Henry we owe the formation of our Army and the creation of our Navy. He
-abused his Parliament, but he was its first and greatest organiser. He
-shaped it to his own will; and it eventually shaped itself to the will
-of the nation.
-
-Earlier in the evening of that momentous 27th of January Hertford and
-Paget had spent slow hours pacing up and down the long corridor outside
-the King’s chamber, and consulting as to what it would be best to do
-as soon as the monarch was dead. Parliament, then in session, had been
-busy with the alleged treasonable transactions of the Duke of Norfolk,
-now lying in the Tower under sentence of death. His Grace, therefore,
-was one of the only three members of the Privy Council absent from the
-death-chamber: the other two were Dr. Thirlby, Bishop of Westminster,
-then resident Ambassador at the Court of Charles V; and Dr. Nicholas
-Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, recently dispatched on a diplomatic mission
-to France. Gardiner, whose name had been erased from the Council list,
-had lately returned from Brussels, and must have been communicated with
-at once, for to him were eventually entrusted all the arrangements for
-the late King’s obsequies. An improvised Council was held immediately
-after Henry’s death, and decided that the event should be kept a
-profound secret until the Prince of Wales was brought to London. This
-was cleverly managed by putting all the immediate attendants in the
-King’s private apartments under oath; and the multitudinous household
-in the outer rooms performed its usual vocations as though Henry, who
-had long been absent from his general courtiers’ sight, were still
-alive. The sentinels were changed, and everything at Whitehall went
-on with clockwork regularity, as if nothing unusual had happened. At
-about four o’clock in the morning of 28th January Hertford and his
-brother, Thomas Seymour, stole out of the palace, took horse, and
-galloped towards Hertford, where the young heir was then residing. By
-an oversight--or was it done purposely?--Hertford put in his pocket the
-key of the coffer in which the King’s will was kept, and Paget had to
-ride out into the dark after him to obtain possession of it. At about
-dawn the Seymours were joined by Sir Anthony Browne, an accession which
-greatly elated them, for he was one of the most important leaders of
-the Catholic party. They reached Hertford[100] a little after daybreak,
-and the boy Edward was instantly roused from his slumbers. They did
-not at once inform him of his father’s decease, but rode with him to
-Enfield Chase, where his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, was residing
-with her governess, Mrs. Ashley. Here they broke the news to both of
-the dead King’s children, who burst into tears, the Princess Elizabeth
-holding her young brother’s hand the while. The company stayed all
-Sunday at Enfield, their suite being in the meantime reinforced by a
-numerous bodyguard, attended by which they started on the following
-morning for London, the boy-King riding on a milk-white palfrey between
-Lord Hertford and Sir Anthony Browne. As the procession passed through
-the villages on its way to London, the inhabitants were informed of
-King Henry’s death. We have proof, however, that it was not known in
-the metropolis on the Sunday. On that day the Grey Friar’s Church,
-which had been closed for some years and converted into a wine-vault,
-was restored to public worship by order of the late King, and his
-“munificence and generosity” were fulsomely eulogised by the preacher,
-who, however, never alluded to the sovereign’s demise. Towards evening,
-the fact that the King was dead began to circulate among the upper
-classes, and next morning it was pretty generally known all over London.
-
-At three o’clock on the Monday afternoon King Edward VI entered the
-capital through Aldgate, where he was met by the Lord Mayor and a great
-assembly of the nobility and gentry. Cranmer greeted him at the Bridge
-and read him an address, after which he was conducted in state to the
-Tower, being only fairly well received by the populace. Meanwhile, his
-father’s body, still at Whitehall, after being “spunged,” cleaned,
-disembowelled, and embalmed with spices, was exhibited, covered with a
-silken garment, to the great nobility. This done, it was sealed up in
-a leaden coffin and brought down into the Privy Chamber, where it lay,
-“with all manner of lights thereto requisite, having divine service
-about him with Masses, obsequies, and prayers,” until 3rd February,
-when it was conveyed into the Chapel Royal, where Mass was said between
-nine and ten in the morning.
-
-The _Chapelle Ardente_ was hung with black cloth and with banners of
-St. George and England. Eighty huge silver candlesticks with tall wax
-tapers in them were ranged on either side of the catafalque. On the
-Tuesday, and for five following mornings, Norreys stationed himself
-at the entrance to the chancel and cried out at intervals to the
-congregation, “Of your charity pray for the soul of the most high and
-mighty Prince Henry VIII, our late Sovereign Lord and King.” Watch was
-kept day and night by the chaplains and gentlemen of the Privy Chamber.
-Then began the saying of Masses for the benefit of the King’s soul, and
-these were “as numerous as they were on the occasion of the funeral of
-his father, Henry VII.” They were continued until the 13th February.
-Tens of thousands of Masses were said throughout the country, both in
-the capital and the provinces, in the cathedrals as well as in the
-parish churches.[101] The ritual was everywhere absolutely Latin. In
-London Gardiner was the celebrant at High Mass each day, assisted by
-the Bishops of Durham, London, Ely, St. David’s, Gloucester, Bangor,
-and Bath. Archbishop Cranmer was present but did not officiate. Low
-Masses were said in the chapel at Whitehall, at an altar erected at
-the foot of the catafalque, from four o’clock in the morning until
-ten, when High Mass was chanted, the Marquis of Dorset acting as chief
-mourner. In the evening there were Vespers for the Dead and Dirge and
-“a great attendance of noblemen and gentlemen mourners.” The Queen and
-the King’s nieces, the Marchioness of Dorset and her daughters, the
-Ladies Jane and Katherine Grey, the Lady Eleanor Brandon, Countess of
-Cumberland, the Lady Margaret Lennox, the Duchess of Richmond, the
-Duchess of Suffolk, and all the great ladies[102] of the Court, were
-present, not only at High Mass, but at countless other Masses in the
-Chapel Royal. They were, however, not in the body of the Chapel, but
-in an upper gallery overlooking it--mourning cloaks being provided for
-them out of the Wardrobe.
-
-Queen Katherine may have left the palace somewhat hurriedly,[103] for
-in the inventory taken immediately after the King’s death there is an
-account of the seals being on one chamber described as full of female
-attire of the most sumptuous description, presumably belonging to
-the Queen, who certainly left behind her the jewels given her by the
-King to wear at the reception of M. d’Annebault, the French Envoy--an
-oversight that gave rise to terrible subsequent dissensions between
-Sir Thomas Seymour and his eldest brother.
-
-Lord Chancellor Wriothesley dissolved Parliament early on Monday,
-1st February, in a neatly turned speech declaring that “their most
-puissant master was dead.” The eventful news was received with every
-demonstration of sorrow, some members even bursting into tears, or
-pretending to do so. Then followed the reading of that portion of the
-King’s will which concerned the Royal Succession.
-
-By this famous testament[104] Henry provided that in case Edward died
-childless, and Henry himself had no other children by his “beloved
-wife Katherine or any other wives[105] he might have hereafter,” King
-Edward was to be succeeded by his eldest sister Mary; and if she in
-her turn proved without offspring, she was to be succeeded by her
-sister Elizabeth. Failing heirs to that princess, the crown was to
-pass on the same conditions to the Lady Jane Grey and her sisters
-Katherine and Mary Grey, daughters of the King’s eldest niece, the
-Lady Frances Brandon, Marchioness of Dorset. In the eventuality of the
-three sisters Grey dying without issue, the throne was to be occupied
-successively by the children of the Lady Frances’ younger sister, the
-Lady Eleanor, Countess of Cumberland. The Scotch succession was set
-aside, from no personal ill-will, however, to Henry’s eldest sister,
-the Dowager Queen of Scotland, Margaret Tudor, for he left her daughter
-a handsome legacy. Henry most probably omitted the name of the young
-Queen of Scots as heiress to the throne, and gave his preference to the
-daughters of his two nieces, because, although at war with the Regent
-of Scotland, he still hoped that the betrothal of his grand-niece,
-Mary Stuart, then only six years of age, to his son Edward might be
-arranged, and thus eventually bring about the desired union of the two
-crowns in a natural manner. Moreover, there was the religious question
-to be considered. The Regent, Mary of Guise, was an ardent Papist,
-using all her influence, both in England and in Scotland, to thwart the
-English King’s anti-papal policy.
-
-Henry VIII mentioned Queen Katherine in the following eulogistic
-manner: “And for the great love, obedience, chastity of life, and
-wisdom being in our forenamed wife and Queen, we bequeath unto her
-for her proper life, and as it shall please her to order it, three
-thousand pounds in plate, jewels, and stuff of household goods, and
-such apparel as it shall please her to take of such as we have already.
-And further, we give unto her one thousand pounds in money, and the
-amount of her dower and jointure according to our grant in Parliament.”
-Henry appointed the Earl of Hertford Protector of the Realm during the
-minority of his son, and mentioned as his colleagues all those persons
-who were interested in keeping him in power in order to share it with
-him. Gardiner’s name was omitted, as already stated. The provisions of
-the will opposed a serious obstacle to the Earl of Hertford’s ambition,
-for they made him fifth in order of precedence, thus placing him on a
-footing of equality with other executors; recognising no claim arising
-out of his kinship to the young Prince. Sir Thomas Clere declared
-that the original will was stamped, a fact which inclined so careful
-a writer as Mr. Pollard to conclude that the idea that a stamped will
-was illegal must have flashed across somebody’s mind, and suggested the
-hasty drawing up of another, for the King to sign in autograph. The
-form now in the Record Office is doubtless this second one. It displays
-no trace of a stamp, and the two signatures at the beginning and end
-are not sufficiently uniform to have been impressed mechanically. In
-the last the up-strokes are very unsteady, and on comparing them with
-other signatures of Henry VIII one is justified in thinking that both
-were forged. It must not be forgotten, however, that the King was very
-ill, and failing; his hand may well have trembled.[106]
-
-In those days the funeral of a sovereign and the coronation of his
-successor took place almost simultaneously, occasionally with strange
-results, considerable confusion arising as to the arrangements for
-the two ceremonies: the sombre preparations for the obsequies of King
-Henry, for instance, clashed weirdly with the festivities organised
-for the accession of his son. Matters became so confused at last that
-Bishop Gardiner found himself obliged to appeal to “My Lord of Oxford’s
-Players,” who were already at Southwark preparing to act a pageant and
-a comedy. It would be more decent, His Lordship pointed out, to sing
-a solemn Dirge for their master than to perform a merry play, and he
-besought them to desist until after the King’s funeral.
-
-In the end the Bishop had his way, and the grandeur of Henry’s
-obsequies suffered nothing from the counter-attractions of the “green
-men,” “morris dancers,” and “mountain for the gods,” which were among
-the items promised by the players, who produced their performance in
-the hall of the ex-monastery of Blackfriars immediately after Edward’s
-coronation--doubtless to their own satisfaction and that of the public,
-albeit they seem to have had hard work to get the necessary cash for
-their “properties” out of Sir William Carwarden or Carden, the official
-in charge of such matters, to whom they had to frequently apply for
-payment.[107]
-
-On Monday, 31st January, the young King entered London, and passed
-direct to the Tower, where, in accordance with traditional etiquette,
-he was to remain in semi-seclusion until after his coronation. The next
-day, Tuesday, 1st February, the late King’s executors assembled in the
-great hall of the Tower, and having heard the will read from beginning
-to end, took the oath for the King, and Hertford[108] was proclaimed
-Protector during the coming minority. On 4th February the Protector
-proceeded in state to Westminster Hall, where he assumed the offices
-of Lord Treasurer and Earl Marshal, rendered vacant by the attainder
-of the Duke of Norfolk. He subsequently relinquished his post as Lord
-Great Chamberlain to John Dudley, Viscount de Lisle, who in his turn
-surrendered his place as Lord High-Admiral to Sir Thomas Seymour.
-
-On Sunday, 13th February, High Mass was again sung in the Chapel Royal
-by Gardiner, assisted by the Bishops of London and Bristol, and the
-royal coffin was removed “from the Chapell to the Chariot; over the
-coffin was cast a pall of rich cloath of gold, and upon it a goodly
-ymage like to the Kyng’s person in all poynts, wonderfully richly
-aparrelled with velvet gold and precious stones of all sorts, holding
-in ye right hand a Sceptre of gold, in the left hand the ball of the
-world with a crosse; upon the head a crown imperial of inestimable
-value, a collar of the Garter about the neck and a garter of gold about
-the leg, with this being honourably conducted as aforesaid, was tied
-upon the said coffin by the Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber upon rich
-cushions of cloath of gold and fast bound with silk ribands to the
-pillars of the said Chariot for removing.” It seems, however, that this
-image was not quite complete, for it had presently to be removed and
-“touched up.”
-
-The gorgeous funeral procession, which is said to have been four miles
-long, left the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, at about eleven o’clock on 14th
-February for Sion _en route_ for Windsor. The weather was very fine,
-and immense crowds lining the streets, people of every class, holding
-lighted candles. Over a thousand “lights,” or torches, were held by
-the mourners who preceded or followed the hearse containing the King’s
-body and upon which was placed the waxen image already described.
-This hearse was drawn by eight black horses emblazoned with the Arms
-of England and of the house of Tudor, and surrounded by noblemen and
-knights in mourning robes, some on horseback and others on foot,
-holding lights and banners, images of saints, and other glistening
-devices and symbols. The procession passed through the streets of
-London by Charing Cross, Knightsbridge, Hammersmith, Chiswick, and
-Brentford, and, owing to its enormous length, did not reach Sion until
-twilight. It is gratifying to note that the vast assemblage of nobles
-and gentry was plentifully supplied with refreshments, wine, and beer
-throughout the whole of these very elaborate and costly obsequies, to
-the tune of about £10,000 of our money.
-
-At Sion the coffin stood all night within the ruined walls of that
-erstwhile monastic house which had been the prison of Katherine Howard,
-the second of Henry’s murdered consorts. The ravages of ruin to be
-seen there were now hidden by hangings of fine black cloth and by two
-great altars blazing with lights and jewels. By a curious coincidence,
-the body arrived at Sion on the day after the fifth anniversary of
-the Queen’s execution, a fact which lends additional horror to the
-following story, related in a contemporary document now in the Soane
-Collection: “The King’s body rested in the ruined Chapel of Sion,
-and there, the leaden coffin[109] being cleft by the shaking of the
-carriage, the pavement of the church was wetted with Henry’s blood. In
-the morning came plumbers to solder the coffin, under whose feet, I
-tremble while I write it,” says the author, “was suddenly seen a dog
-creeping and licking up the King’s blood. If you ask me how I know
-this, I answer, William Greville, who could scarce drive away the dog,
-told me so, and so did the plumber also.”
-
-The coffin had most likely been abandoned by the mourners, who had
-retired to rest for the night, and probably some gaseous explosion led
-to this uncanny incident, the report of which greatly increased the
-superstitious terror in which the late King’s name was held. Thus was
-fulfilled, so the people said, Friar Peyto’s denunciation from the
-pulpit of Greenwich Church in 1553, when that daring friar compared
-Henry to Ahab, and told him to his face “that the dogs would in like
-manner lick his blood.”
-
-This horrible occurrence, if it really took place, does not seem to
-have made any very deep impression on Bishop Gardiner, for no more
-fulsome sermon was ever preached than that delivered by him at Windsor
-on 16th February. He took for his text, “Blessed are the dead who
-die in the Lord,” and, enlarging on the virtues of the late monarch,
-lamented the “loss both to high and low by the death of this most good
-and gracious King”; for whom, Sir Anthony Browne declared, “there was
-no need to pray, for he was surely in Heaven.” Queen Katherine Parr,
-the King’s nieces, the Lady Frances, Marchioness of Dorset, and the
-Lady Eleanor of Cumberland and their daughters and other noblewomen
-attended the obsequies at Windsor from a closet or chamber looking into
-the chapel, much such a one as Queen Victoria used in the Chapel Royal,
-Windsor, on similar occasions.
-
-Some weird stories of supernatural apparitions were circulated all over
-London, especially among the Catholics. The “old King” had appeared,
-wreathed in flames, to an ex-Carthusian friar. Folks at Windsor had
-beheld him fleeing along the battlements and corridors of the castle,
-blazing like a meteoric ball; and he had even, so it was rumoured, paid
-a warning visit to his widow in the still hours of darkness.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-CONCERNING THE LADY JANE AND THE QUEEN-DOWAGER
-
-
-The will of Henry VIII conferred upon the houses of Seymour and Grey
-a towering position in the State which naturally brought forward
-into extraordinary relief the hitherto ignored name of Lady Jane.
-A few weeks earlier she was but the eldest daughter of the rather
-weak-minded Marquis of Dorset, a man whom no one seems to have held
-in any great consideration, notwithstanding his royal alliance and
-rather showy past career as a soldier under Henry VIII; to-day she
-was almost as prominent in the matter of the succession as the King’s
-two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom could easily be set
-aside by an ambitious faction: the elder on account of her religion,
-the younger on that of her somewhat doubtful legitimacy. It is not
-surprising, therefore, that the intrigues which were to culminate in
-the ruin of the unfortunate Lady Jane began almost immediately after
-the accession of her cousin, Edward VI; for it was at this time that
-the newly made Lord Sudeley, desiring to possess “two strings to his
-bow,” embarked in a most imprudent intrigue to obtain possession of the
-person of the Marquis of Dorset’s daughter, who, as the reversionary
-heiress of England, was justly regarded by both parties as a most
-valuable asset. The intermediary employed in this transaction was
-one William Sharington, a gentleman in Seymour’s confidence, who was
-his equal in the conducting of tricksome intrigues: it will become
-apparent as we proceed that whenever Sudeley had any particularly
-difficult and dangerous matter to deal with, he invariably got some
-subordinate to share the danger with him. One morning, very soon after
-King Henry’s death, Sharington appeared at Dorset Place, Westminster,
-to open negotiations with the Marquis about the transfer of his
-eldest daughter into Sudeley’s charge. He began by informing Dorset,
-apparently one of the most credulous of mortals, that the Admiral, as
-uncle to the King, “was like to come to great authority, and was most
-desirous of forming a bond of friendship with him.” On the following
-day Sharington returned, and after assuring the Marquis that “the Lord
-High-Admiral was very much his friend,” insinuated that “it were a
-goodly thing to happen if my Lady Jane his daughter were in the keeping
-of the said Lord Admiral.” He said he had often heard his master say
-“that the Lady Jane was the handsomest lady in England and that the
-Admiral would see her placed in marriage much to his (the Marquis’s)
-comfort.”
-
-“And with whom will he match her?” inquired Dorset.
-
-“Marry,” replied Sharington, “I doubt not but you shall see he will
-marry her to the King, and fear you not, he will bring it to pass, and
-then you shall be able to help all the friends you have.”
-
-After this visit the Marquis held a consultation with the Lady Frances,
-which resulted in his accepting a personal interview with Lord Sudeley.
-
-Thomas Seymour does not appear to have had any fixed London abode in
-his bachelor days, but probably lived, on occasion, as Surrey did, in
-what we should now call chambers, somewhere in the Strand. But when he
-became Baron Sudeley and Lord High-Admiral, he conceived it incumbent
-upon him to live in a style commensurate with his increased rank, and
-solicited a suitable mansion from his brother, the Protector. Somerset
-forthwith filched Bath House, Strand, from Bishop Barlow, and presented
-it to his brother. This house, which must not be mistaken for Bath
-House, Holborn, was built in the fourteenth century and considerably
-enlarged and embellished in the beginning of the sixteenth; it was
-one of the finest mansions in London, and, with its gardens, occupied
-the whole space now covered by Arundel, Norfolk, and Suffolk Streets,
-Strand. The mansion stood on the approximate site of the present Howard
-Hotel. It commanded an extensive view of the Thames, and there was an
-orchard extending to the Strand.[110]
-
-To Seymour Place, Strand, therefore, rode my lord of Dorset, to
-find Sudeley walking in his garden. The two gentlemen held a most
-confidential conversation, in the course of which Sudeley persuaded
-Dorset not only to hand the wardship of the Lady Jane over to him, but
-to send for her then and there, and allow the young girl to take up her
-abode under the roof of one of the most notorious profligates of an
-exceedingly degenerate Court.
-
-The Lady Jane did not arrive at Seymour Place _in formâ pauperis_. She
-was attended by her governess, Mrs. Ashley, by four waiting women and a
-number of male servants of various degrees. Sudeley’s household was at
-this time ruled over by his mother, the Dowager Lady Seymour. Since the
-death of her husband, Sir John Seymour, in December 1536, this lady had
-kept house for her younger son, who brought her for that purpose either
-from Hertford or from a suburban house on a site now crossed by Upper
-and Lower Seymour Street, Portman Square.
-
-There is some unexplained mystery connected with Lady Seymour which
-the present writer does not pretend to have fathomed. No explanation
-is discoverable of the strange fact that the mother of a Queen and the
-grandmother of a King of England seems to have been almost ignored by
-her son-in-law Henry VIII, by her young grandson Edward VI, by her
-own son the Protector, and indeed by all the great people with whom
-her high position must have brought her into contact. Her name is not
-once mentioned in connection with that of her daughter, Jane Seymour,
-after she became Queen. She did not figure at the christening of the
-baby Edward, and did not present the customary gifts offered by near
-relations on such occasions. She has left no correspondence, and there
-is only one allusion to her in the Household Books of Henry VIII,
-and none at all in those of Edward VI, which contain some reference
-to almost every lady of importance of the period, as receiving or
-presenting gifts from or to the sovereign, either personally or through
-attendants. We only know that her banner of arms figured, close to that
-of her daughter, Queen Jane, at the obsequies of Henry VIII and Edward
-VI; and that Henry, in 1537, during the year of his marriage with Jane
-Seymour, when he raised his brother-in-law Edward Seymour to the rank
-of Baron Beauchamp, granted him a pension of £1100 per annum, out of
-which he was to pay his mother an annuity of £60[111]--but beyond the
-papers connected with this pension there is only one other existing
-document in which her name figures, and this deals with an incident
-that arose after her death, in 1551, when her grandson the King was
-induced by the Privy Council, and by her own son, the Duke of Somerset,
-to countermand the wearing of official mourning for her. Beyond the
-fact that Lady Seymour was by birth a Wentworth, and therefore highly
-connected, and that in one of his letters to Lady Jane’s mother Seymour
-represents his own as a fitting person to take the young girl under
-her maternal care, Lady Seymour may be said to have lived and died
-as much ignored as though she had been a woman of no birth and no
-importance.[112]
-
-Of the sort of life lived by the Lady Jane during the weeks she spent
-at Seymour Place we know nothing, but from the alacrity with which she
-consented to return there at a later period we may feel justified in
-believing she was very happy under the charge of the mysterious Lady
-Seymour and her erratic and wilful son. Miss Strickland says, but
-without naming her authority, that Lady Seymour was one of the earliest
-Englishwomen of rank to adopt the tenets of the Reformation. If this
-was the case, Lady Jane Grey probably met at her house some one or
-other of the numerous foreign Reformers who began to invade England
-shortly after the death of Henry VIII. It is, however, likely that
-Sudeley undertook the charge of this young lady at the instigation
-of Katherine Parr, and that whilst at Seymour Place her education
-was continued under the direction of the scholarly Miles Coverdale,
-afterwards Bishop of Exeter, who had been appointed chaplain to the
-Queen-Dowager. There is some little resemblance between the handwriting
-of this divine and that of Lady Jane, which leads one to think he had a
-considerable share in directing her studies at this period.
-
-If the Dorsets imagined they were doing themselves and their daughter a
-service by placing her under the guardianship of Thomas Seymour, they
-made a terrible mistake, for this incident was certainly at the root
-of that fatal animosity between the two brothers which led up to one
-of the most appalling tragedies in our history. In the first place,
-it revealed to Somerset that Sudeley was fighting for his own hand,
-and further, entirely upset the Lord Protector’s domestic schemes and
-arrangements. Both Somerset and his wife had been very intimate with
-the Marquis and the Marchioness, his royal consort, and the young
-Earl of Hertford,[113] their eldest son, was a constant visitor at
-Westminster and at Bradgate. He was an exceedingly handsome youth,
-described by Norton, his tutor, as “singularly like his father,” who,
-judged by his portraits, was one of the finest-looking men of his day.
-So fond was the Lady Frances of the young Earl that she would call
-him “her son,” and undoubtedly looked on him as a welcome suitor for
-her eldest daughter; and if there was any love romance in Lady Jane’s
-brief life, it was certainly in connection with this youth, and not
-with Guildford, whom she eventually married, but whom she slighted
-rather than loved. The Somersets, moreover, had made up their minds
-that if the proposed marriage between Mary Stuart and Edward VI came
-to nothing, Edward should be contracted as soon as possible to their
-youngest daughter, the very pretty and highly accomplished Lady Jane
-Seymour.[114] Under these circumstances it may well be imagined that
-the Duke and Duchess were not only furious when they learned that Lady
-Jane Grey was already comfortably installed under their brother’s roof,
-without their knowledge and consent, but firmly resolved that the young
-lady should see as little of her cousin the King as possible.
-
-Brother Thomas had yet a greater surprise and vexation in store for
-Somerset and his Duchess, and even for King Edward VI himself, than
-the matter of the wardship of Lady Jane Grey. He was, if the truth is
-to be honestly told, about the most extraordinary scamp of his time.
-Physically he eclipsed his elder brother, the Protector, himself
-considered a very handsome man. In addition to a fine figure, Thomas
-possessed beautiful features, just escaping the long thin nose which
-characterised his brother’s face and ruined Queen Jane’s pretensions
-to beauty. He was dark, with a full beard, a ruddy complexion,
-and full brown eyes. In a word, a very fine fellow indeed, and
-exceedingly attractive to the fair sex, who found it hard to resist his
-blandishments, a cruel fact of which he was apt to boast. He danced
-to perfection, was first in all sports, could turn pretty verses when
-it suited him--and even godly ones, on occasion. His love of dress
-was proverbial, and in that brilliant Court of Henry VIII Sir Thomas
-Seymour never failed to hold his own for extravagance and magnificence.
-Like his brother Somerset, he could be kindly when it suited his
-purpose, and liberal enough to his inferiors when he desired to create
-a good impression. He seems to have even been a dutiful son, for, as
-we have said, his mother lived with him to the end of his life, and he
-spoke well of her.
-
-These comparative virtues were outweighted by his evil qualities, for
-not even in that age of rascality and of wickedness in high places did
-there exist a greater ruffian than this seemingly polished gentleman.
-Thomas was one of those men who are born without a conscience.[115]
-Henry VIII had not long been dead and the elder Seymour scarcely
-proclaimed Protector of the Realm when Sudeley began to realise that
-his own part at the Court of his nephew, Edward VI, must be quite
-secondary unless he could forthwith contract some royal alliance and
-thereby make his position equal to his brother’s. So it fell out that,
-before the late King’s body was cold, Thomas Seymour had made up his
-mind to marry one of the royal princesses; and ere it was buried
-he had offered his hand to the elder of the King’s widows, Anne of
-Cleves. That cautious Princess promptly refused the dubious proposal,
-preferring her independence and present comfort to the probable
-sacrifice of a handsome income paid by the State for the poor pleasure
-of espousing a cadet of the house of Seymour. Nothing daunted by this
-refusal, the undismayed suitor aimed higher yet, and offered his hand
-and heart to Princess Mary, who thanked him, in a courteous letter, for
-the honour he paid her, and assured him that she had not the slightest
-intention of changing her state, especially so soon after her father’s
-death. Baffled again, my Lord of Sudeley now addressed himself to the
-youthful Princess Elizabeth, who, according to Leti, answered him in a
-most becoming manner, reminding him that her father was just dead, and
-that it would ill become her to think of marriage at such a moment or
-for at least two years after so sad an event. She had not, she said,
-had time to enjoy her maidenhood, and wished to do so for that period
-at least, before embarking on the stormy seas of matrimony. Elizabeth’s
-letter, if she really wrote it,--one can never quite trust Leti, though
-he lived near enough to the time to have access to papers and documents
-long since destroyed,--was a model of _finesse_ and good taste.
-
-The rejected, but undejected, Seymour now turned his attention to his
-old love, Katherine Parr, whom, as we know, he first courted when
-she became the widow of Lord Latimer. He must have been a good deal
-in her company in the last months of King Henry’s life, and on her
-own admission she had not lost any of her old love for him; for in a
-letter, written presumably within a fortnight of the late King’s death,
-she says, “I would not have you think that this, mine honest good will
-towards you to proceed from any sudden motion of passion; for, as truly
-as God is God, my mind was fully bent the other time I was at liberty
-[that is, after the death of Lord Latimer], to marry you before any
-man I know. Howbeit God withstood my will therein most vehemently for
-a time, and through His grace and goodness made that possible which
-seemed to me most impossible; that was, made me renounce utterly mine
-own will and follow His most willingly. It were long to write all the
-processes of this matter. If I live, I shall declare it to you myself.
-I can say nothing, but as my Lady of Suffolk[116] saith, ‘God is a
-wonderful man.’” In March, after Henry’s death, the Queen removed to
-Chelsea Manor, a mansion which Henry had built as a nursery for his
-children and settled on her as a dower-house. Princess Elizabeth had
-joined her within a few days for the purpose of finishing her education
-under the auspices of the learned Queen. At the very time, therefore,
-that Seymour was intriguing to secure possession of Lady Jane Grey,
-he was clandestinely spending his evenings with Katherine Parr either
-at Whitehall or, later, when she finally removed with her household
-to Chelsea, at the Manor House, coming there by a lane that led from
-the Bishop of London’s house up a path which, until a few years ago,
-was still in existence and associated by tradition with the names of
-Katherine Parr and Thomas Seymour. Some authorities assert that the two
-were secretly married about three weeks after the King’s death, and
-that the Lord Admiral prolonged his visits, not leaving his wife till
-dawn, when she would let him out by the garden wicket, and then steal
-back to her room unobserved (at least, so she hoped).[117] According
-to Edward VI’s _Journal_, however, the marriage was not officially
-celebrated until May, and it was certainly not made public before the
-end of June 1547. The intrigues of Lord Thomas to induce the young
-King, his nephew, to sanction his marriage with his stepmother began
-by his poisoning the King’s mind against his brother Somerset, and,
-taking advantage of the Protector’s absence in Scotland, he did all
-in his power to make himself agreeable to Edward VI by lending him
-considerable sums of money. Somerset kept the royal lad very short of
-petty cash, so that at times he had none to distribute to such folk
-as strolling musicians, servants who brought him presents from his
-relatives, and other persons who had obliged him. Seymour, who had
-isolated the King, employed a man named Fowler as intermediary between
-himself and Edward.[118] Flattered and cajoled by his uncle Thomas and
-well disposed by his natural affection to his stepmother, the poor
-little King was at length induced to write a letter advising the Lord
-Admiral to marry the Queen-Dowager. This extraordinary missive, which
-is still extant, was penned a few days after Edward had received a
-very curious epistle from his stepmother, then on a visit to him at
-St. James’s Palace, in which she had dilated upon her extraordinary
-affection for the memory of his late father. The letter was written in
-Latin, and the young King’s answer was in the same dead language. The
-King’s letter is full of advice, which comes oddly from a lad not yet
-ten to a woman verging upon forty. He hopes to do what is acceptable in
-her sight because of, firstly, “the great love you bear my father the
-King, of most noble memory; then your good-will towards me; and lastly,
-your godliness, and knowledge and learning in the Scriptures. Proceed,
-therefore, in your good course; continue to love my father, and to show
-the same great kindness to me which I have ever perceived in you. Cease
-not to love and read the Scriptures, but persevere in always reading
-them; for in the first you show the duty of a good wife and a good
-subject, and in the second, the warmth of your friendship, and in the
-third, your piety to God.”[119] Very soon after writing this letter
-he wrote another to Her Majesty, this time in English, in which he
-assured her that, far from being vexed with her for marrying his uncle,
-he promised to aid her in the hour of need, should the alliance prove
-offensive to those who were in power.
-
-In June the marriage was made public. The indignation of the Duke and
-Duchess of Somerset knew no bounds. They had been greatly angered
-over the matter of Lady Jane Grey, but no words could express their
-exasperation at what they were pleased to consider their brother’s
-fresh exhibition of “indecency and wickedness.” The first practical
-expression of their wrath was the sequestration of the jewels the
-Queen had left behind at Whitehall after King Henry’s death. She had
-applied for them several times, and now wrote in a more determined
-strain; only, however, to receive a haughty refusal and the startling
-information that the jewels belonged to the Crown, whereas they really
-were a personal gift to her from the King at the time of the visit of
-the French Envoy M. d’Annebault. These jewels were never returned to
-Katherine Parr--a matter which roused the Lord Admiral’s wrath to a
-culminating pitch. “My brother,” he said, “is wondrous hot in helping
-every man to his right save me. He maketh a great matter to let me have
-the Queen’s jewels, which you see by the whole opinion of the lawyers
-ought to belong to me, and all under pretence that he would not the
-King should lose so much, as if it were a loss to the King to let me
-have mine own!”[120]
-
-Then came another unpleasant incident, in the course of which the
-Queen-Dowager was subjected to unfair treatment on account of her
-marriage. Somerset determined to force her to lease her favourite
-manor of Fausterne to a friend of his named Long. Katherine refused
-point-blank to receive this gentleman as a tenant, especially at
-a ridiculously low rent, and in a letter to her husband expressed
-her scornful indignation at the “large” offer for Fausterne which
-his brother had made her. Yet in the end she was obliged to accept
-Somerset’s terms. Fausterne passed from her hands into those of Long,
-and was never restored to her.
-
-It is not surprising that she felt a little “warm,” as she expresses
-it, at the manner in which the Somersets handled her. Her position had
-been recognised by the King and Parliament, and yet her brother-in-law
-and his wife refused to acknowledge her right to precedence: the
-Duchess of Somerset declared that she was herself as good as Queen,
-since she was the consort of the King’s Protector, “who was virtually
-the head of the Realm.” Whenever Katherine went to Court, if the
-Duchess of Somerset chanced to be present, there was sure to be
-trouble. According to Lloyd, the Duchess not only refused to bear up
-the Queen’s train, but actually jostled her so as to pass first. “So
-that what between the train of the Queen, and the long gown of the
-Duchess, they raised so much dust at Court, as at last put out the
-eyes of both their husbands, and caused their executions.” Heylin says
-the Duchess was accustomed to inveigh against her royal sister-in-law
-in her coarsest manner. “Did not King Henry VIII marry Katherine Parr
-in his doting days, when he had brought himself so low by his lust
-and cruelty that no lady that stood on her honour would venture on
-him? And shall I now give place to her who in her former estate was
-but Latimer’s widow, and is now fain to cast herself for support on a
-younger brother? If master admiral teach his wife no better manners, I
-am she that will.”
-
-Historians who, for political and religious purposes, have exaggerated
-the virtue and accomplishments of Edward VI, and endowed Lady Jane Grey
-with charms and gifts which that modest young lady never possessed,
-have woven a legend around her and Edward VI which would lead the
-uninitiated to believe that she was the constant sharer of his
-juvenile tasks and pastimes, whereas in reality it was only in the
-last few months of his life that she became in the least prominent at
-his Court. Immediately after his birth and the death of his mother
-Prince Edward was handed over to the care of Lady Brian,[121] formerly
-governess to his two sisters, by whom she was greatly beloved and
-respected, and also to that of his dry nurse, Mrs. Sybilla Penn.[122]
-His infancy was spent at Chelsea Manor House and at the country seats
-of Ampthill and Oatlands. In these places he was frequently visited
-by his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, and presumably also by his little
-cousins of the house of Grey; but when he attained his sixth year, in
-accordance with the peculiar views of his father on the subject of
-education, all female influence was withdrawn from him, although Lady
-Brian continued to preside over his household. A number of very young
-noblemen were selected to be his constant companions and playfellows.
-Among them were his cousins, the two sons of Brandon, Duke of Suffolk;
-the Lord Edward Seymour, afterwards Earl of Hertford; and his great
-friend, the one being he seems to have really loved, young Barnaby
-Fitzpatrick, sometimes mentioned by the Swiss Reformers as Earl of
-Ireland.[123] His principal tutors were the extremely Protestant Dr.
-Richard Cox, who became Dean of Westminster in 1549 and subsequently,
-in Elizabeth’s reign, Bishop of Ely; the learned Sir John Cheke,[124]
-Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and his first schoolmaster;
-Sir Anthony Cooke; M. Jean Bellemain, his French master; and Roger
-Ascham, who taught him caligraphy. He also received lessons in the art
-of writing in the Italian or Roman type, which most nearly resembles
-the modern, from Dr. Croke, who had taught this art at an earlier
-period to the young Duke of Richmond and Queen Katherine Parr. Dr.
-Christopher Tye was his music master; and Philip Van Wylder taught him
-to play upon his father’s favourite instrument, the lute. Lady Jane was
-certainly not among his circle of intimate associates, which did not
-even include his two sisters, although the Lady Mary was at one time
-officially appointed his guardian, and Elizabeth passed the greater
-part of the year 1546 with him at Hatfield. So little intercourse had
-he with his sisters after his accession to the throne that he actually
-only met Princess Mary three times, and Elizabeth five. As to Lady
-Jane, he scarcely ever saw her, unless indeed she spent a few days with
-him at Whitehall some weeks before his death. As soon as the Somersets
-were thoroughly acquainted with the true motive that had induced the
-Dorsets to part with their daughter, they took every precaution to
-prevent its accomplishment; and so little was the Lady Jane seen at
-the Court of King Edward that she is only once casually mentioned by
-that monarch in his _Journal_ as being present at the great functions
-arranged in 1550 in honour of the Dowager of Scotland when she passed
-through London on her way to her northern dominions; and this was at
-the time that Northumberland was in favour and Somerset in disgrace.
-
-On Thursday, 18th February 1547, the temporal Lords assembled at the
-Tower in their robes of estate to witness a solemn and significant
-ceremony. The young King having ascended his throne, and the officials
-of his Court taken their allotted positions about him, the doors were
-thrown open, and Edward Seymour, Lord Protector and Earl of Hertford,
-was led from the Council Chamber and conducted before His Majesty.
-Garter bore his letters-patent, the Earl of Derby his mantle, the Earl
-of Shrewsbury his rod of gold; my Lord Oxford carried his cap of estate
-and coronet. The Lord of Arundel bore the sword, and walked immediately
-before the Protector, who was supported by the young Duke of Suffolk
-and the Marquis of Dorset. After the usual ceremonies, Hertford knelt
-and was invested by his royal nephew, who put on the mantle, girded on
-the sword, placed the coronet upon his uncle’s head, and delivered him
-his rod of gold. Then the trumpets sounded, and the Herald proclaimed
-Edward Seymour to be no longer Earl of Hertford, but now and hereafter
-Duke of Somerset.
-
-After the Protector came the Lord William Parr, Earl of Essex, brother
-to the Queen-Dowager, who was created Marquis of Northampton and of
-Essex. Then appeared John Dudley, Lord de Lisle, who had not assumed
-full importance at that time, but who was presently to become the
-protagonist of the ominous tragedy already in preparation. The future
-father-in-law of Lady Jane Grey, and the Nemesis of Somerset, was a
-man of splendid presence, exceedingly tall, with regular and majestic
-features, rendered even more striking by his long beard and sweeping
-moustache. He entered led by the Earls of Derby and Oxford, and was
-presently created Earl of Warwick. Dudley was followed by Wriothesley,
-who was raised to the peerage as Earl of Southampton.[125] Immediately
-after him came the majestic Sir Thomas Seymour, whom the King created
-Baron Seymour of Sudeley, at the same time delivering to him his patent
-as Lord High-Admiral of England. Sir Richard Rich, Sir John Sheffield,
-and Sir William Willoughby followed in succession and were created
-barons by the same names they had borne as knights. When the elaborate
-ceremony was over, a grand banquet, at which the King was not present,
-was offered to the new peers in the Tower. His Majesty, who was far
-from strong, had fainted from fatigue, and no wonder!--the function had
-lasted from seven in the morning till nearly midday!
-
-In the evening of the same day (18th February) three of the handsomest
-men of the English Court--Somerset, Sudeley, and Warwick--rode with a
-small escort from Whitehall through the Strand to Baynard’s Castle, the
-residence of Sir William Herbert, Queen Katherine’s brother-in-law, one
-of the wealthiest men in England, served by not less than a thousand
-men, who wore his liveries. Here these three gentlemen were hospitably
-entertained at supper. There was much to talk over, and the party,
-elated by the honours so recently showered upon its members and heated
-by Herbert’s good wine, became “right merry”--little dreaming that
-within two years’ time Somerset would condemn his own brother Thomas to
-death, and that a few months later Warwick, as Duke of Northumberland,
-would sign the death-warrant of Somerset, only to be beheaded in his
-turn for high treason a year or so later by Queen Mary’s command.
-The Marquis of Dorset may have been of the company, and his presence
-would add an additional note of tragic significance--for Warwick was
-to become the direct cause of the deaths both of Lady Jane and of her
-father!
-
-King Edward, in the meantime, remained at the Tower until his official
-progress thence to Westminster for his coronation. Although Somerset
-and his brother were in office, and the Marquis of Dorset in great
-favour with them, it is not probable that his cousin, the Lady Frances,
-or her daughters were brought to see him. His boyish Majesty was left,
-according to custom, in complete isolation, seen and influenced alone
-by his uncles, the Seymours, and by his numerous tutors (for even after
-his accession his lessons were continued with curious punctuality), so
-that, what with State functions and his education, the unfortunate lad
-had very little or no time for physical exercise or recreation.
-
-On 19th February His Majesty rode from the Tower in the usual
-procession to Westminster before the coronation which formed a part of
-our regal ceremonial until the reign of James I, when it was omitted on
-account of the plague. Edward, garbed in silver, with a white velvet
-waistcoat and a cloak slashed with Venetian silver brocade, embroidered
-with pearls, cantered on a milk-white pony under a white silk canopy
-edged with silver. On either side of him rode his two uncles, the Lord
-Protector and the Lord High-Admiral, whilst Cranmer, dumbly riding with
-the Emperor’s Envoy, went between him and the Venetian Ambassador. They
-passed through streets gay with tapestry and cloth of gold; whilst
-at the Conduit in Cornhill white and red wine ran free for the people
-to drink at their will, and children dressed as angels sang a quaint
-greeting:--
-
- “Hayle, Noble Edward, our Kynge and soveraigne,
- Hayle, the cheffe comfort of your communaltye:
- Hayle, redolent rose, whose sweetness to reteyne,
- Ys unto us all such great comodity,
- That earthly joy no more to us can be.”
-
-At the Standard in the Chepe an erection, “like unto a tower,” and
-hung with cloth of gold, was surmounted by trumpeters, who, after a
-flourish, recited the following poetic (!) effusion:--
-
- “Ye children that are towardes, sing up and downe,
- And never play the cowardes to him that weareth the crowne,
- But always doo your care his pleasure to fulfyll,
- Then shall you keep right sure the honour of England still.
- Sing up heart, sing up heart,
- Sing no more downe,
- But joy in King Edward that wereth the crowne.”
-
-Outside the Metropolitan Cathedral there was an acrobatic display: “An
-argosine [Ragusan] came from the batilment of Saint Poule’s Church,
-upon a cable, beyng made faste to an anker at the deane’s doore, liying
-uppon his breaste, aidyng himself neither with hande nor foote, and
-after ascended to the middes [middle] of the same cable, and tumbled
-and plaied many pretie toies [tricks], wherat the Kyng and other of the
-peres and nobles of the realme laughed hartely.” In Fleet Street the
-King was met by Faith, Justice, and Truth, the first holding a Bible
-conspicuously in her hands: each of these damsels recited a long poem
-in His Majesty’s honour. Temple Bar having been “new painted in dyvers
-colours,” was garnished with cloth of arras and standards and flags,
-and seven French trumpeters “blew sweetly” to the singing of an anthem
-by a group of children. The customary banquet was served in the Great
-Hall, Westminster, and was attended by Archbishop Cranmer, most of the
-bishops, the ambassadors, and envoys, the nobility, the Lord Mayor,
-aldermen, and sheriffs.
-
-King Edward stayed at Westminster Palace until the coronation, which
-took place on the following Sunday in Westminster Abbey. On account of
-the King’s poor health, the service was slightly abridged, otherwise
-the old Catholic form was throughout adhered to; for though Cranmer
-preached a sermon in refutation of Petrine claims and urged the young
-monarch to abolish “idolatry,” he celebrated High Mass, and the
-incongruous function concluded with the King’s “offering,” as had
-always been done in Catholic times, at St. Edward’s shrine! After the
-coronation there were public jousts and tournaments; and the King and
-Court attended at Blackfriars those very performances by the “players”
-which had roused the ire of Bishop Gardiner and had been postponed at
-his request.[126] We may be certain that the Marchioness of Dorset
-witnessed the procession and coronation, together with her two elder
-daughters, Jane and Katherine, from some place of vantage set apart for
-the ladies of the royal family, who, however, took no active part in
-either the procession or the actual ceremony, it not being customary
-for ladies to be officially present at the coronation of a bachelor
-King.
-
-Notwithstanding that Edward VI is always connected in the popular mind
-with Protestantism, and notwithstanding Cranmer’s attack on “Popery”
-at the coronation, for quite eighteen months, if not two years, after
-Henry VIII’s death the Church in England remained exactly as he left
-it. True it is, that the first Book of Common Prayer was issued in
-1548, but, on the other hand, Mass was said daily in the Royal Chapel
-(Low Mass every day and High Mass on festivals) for the first two or
-three years of Edward’s reign; an MS. account book of “the Treasurer
-of the Chamber” in the Trevelyan Papers reveals the fact that the
-boy-King himself heard Mass almost daily until 1549. There is every
-reason to believe that Mass continued to be said or sung in the parish
-churches also until the same year; certainly the old feasts were still
-observed for the first two years of King Edward’s reign, especially in
-London. These feasts were much more numerous than those retained by the
-Established Church; there were the first three days in Easter Week,
-Corpus Christi,--when there was the usual procession with the Host
-through the streets,--the “Days” of St. John, SS. Peter and Paul, St.
-Mary Magdalen, St. James the Apostle, the Annunciation, the Nativity,
-the Conception, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, All
-Hallows’ Day, All Souls’ Day, St. Edward Confessor, Christmas Day, and
-the three following holy-days. High Mass of the Holy Ghost was said
-in St. Stephen’s Chapel when Parliament met for the first time after
-Henry’s death, the King and both Houses attending in State. All the
-same, things ecclesiastical were not as they used to be; there was in
-different churches much diversity in the matter of details--one priest
-would use incense, another not, and so on. In 1548, however, Compline
-was sung in English and the Litany of the Saints also in the vernacular.
-
-So soon as the news that King Henry was dead was authenticated
-abroad, an army of foreign Reformers--Swiss, German, French, and
-Italian--poured into England, as a secure refuge from the persecution
-they endured in their respective countries. These worthies held
-the most varied opinions, some even casting doubt on the Divinity
-of Christ, and the Lutherans hating the Calvinists as cordially
-as they both detested the Papists. The Londoners in general, who,
-when not Catholics, were mostly schismatics and ever jealous of
-foreigners, did not relish this sudden invasion; but the leaders of
-politics and religion in England welcomed the Reformers with open
-arms, even overlooking their doctrinal shortcomings for the sake
-of their hatred of “the Scarlet Lady.” Some of them--for instance,
-Bucer, Peter Martyr, and perhaps Paul Fagius--were awarded chairs
-at the Universities; whilst others, such as John ab Ulmis, Conrad
-Pellican, Oswald Geisshaüsler (better known as Myconius), Bullinger,
-Martin Micronius, Bartholomew Traheron, John Stumphius, Christopher
-Froschover, Bernardine Ochinus, Peter Bizarro of Perugia,[127] etc.,
-were received into the houses of some of the aristocracy to teach
-their children “the new learning.” The Marquis of Dorset, as already
-noted, welcomed these foreign Reformers with enthusiasm, and we shall
-presently learn more concerning his relations with them. He did not
-confine his intercourse to a mere empty display of hospitality, but
-kept up a regular correspondence with many of them after their return
-to their homes. Letter-writing seems, indeed, to have been a passion
-with the Reformers, and their voluminous correspondence, arranged,
-translated, and published by the Parker Society,[128] throws much
-valuable light on their private characters, their politics, and their
-singular theological opinions. It is mostly addressed to their brethren
-in Basle, Zurich, Geneva, and Strasburg, or to their English patrons.
-According to some authorities, there were from ten to twenty thousand
-foreign adherents of the “new learning”--or as we might still better
-say, new learnings, so many and diverse were their opinions--in England
-during Edward VI’s reign, but the former figure is the more likely to
-be correct. Very many of these learned men scattered themselves abroad
-again when the Catholic reaction set in under Mary; but doubtless a
-few remained, whose descendants to this day worship in the Église
-Reformée Française, l’Église Protestante Suisse, the Dutch Church, and
-in the other foreign Protestant churches which are sprinkled over the
-metropolis, but whose congregations were materially increased after the
-Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-THE QUEEN AND THE LORD HIGH-ADMIRAL
-
-
-At the time of the much-discussed clandestine marriage between Thomas
-Seymour and Katherine Parr, the Princess Elizabeth was a precocious
-girl of fifteen, not beautiful, but tall for her age, well developed,
-and of elegant figure. The aquiline features, which age was to harshen,
-were softened at this early period by the roundness of youth; and the
-brilliant complexion stood in no need of the artificial assistance to
-which the Queen so freely resorted in her later life. The splendid
-auburn hair--its colour may have owed something to a touch of
-henna--considerably heightened charms not the least striking of which
-were a pair of small but black and penetrating eyes, inherited from
-her mother, Anne Boleyn.[129] Unmindful of the fact that a girl of
-fifteen is not precisely a baby, the Queen had encouraged the Admiral
-to romp with “our Eliza” in the garden and even in her bedroom. Seymour
-was notoriously devoid of any sense of delicacy or chivalry, and
-there can be very little doubt that the object of his play with his
-illustrious stepdaughter was to kindle a passion which might serve his
-purpose in case the Queen, already advancing in pregnancy, should die
-in childbirth--a not improbable contingency, considering her age and
-the fact that she had never borne a child before. At a much later date
-Mrs. Ashley, the Princess’s governess, deposed as follows before the
-Privy Council: “At Chelsea Manor,[130] after my Lord Thomas Seymour
-was married to the Queen, he would come many mornings into the said
-Lady Elizabeth’s chamber before she was ready, and sometimes before she
-did rise, and strike her familiarly on the back, and so go forth to his
-chamber, and sometimes go through to her maidens and play with them.
-And if the Princess were in bed, he would put open the curtains and bid
-her good morrow, and she would go further in the bed. And one morning
-he tried to kiss the Princess _in_ the bed and I was there, and bade
-him go away for shame. At Hanworth, for two mornings, the Queen was
-with him, and they both tickled my Lady Elizabeth in her bed. Another
-time, at Hanworth, he romped with her in the garden, and cut her gown,
-being of black silk, into a hundred pieces; and when I chid Lady
-Elizabeth, she answered, ‘She could not strive with all, for the Queen
-held her while the Lord Admiral cut the dress.’ Another time, Lady
-Elizabeth heard the master-key unlock, and knowing my Lord Admiral
-would come in, ran out of her bed to her maidens, and then went behind
-the curtains of her bed and my Lord Admiral tarried a long while, in
-hopes she would come out.” Upon Mrs. Ashley’s begging the Admiral to
-be more circumspect, because his tomfooleries were giving the Princess
-a bad reputation, he answered, with an oath, “I will tell my Lord
-Protector how I am slandered; and I will not leave off, for I mean no
-evil.” “At Seymour Place,” continues Mrs. Ashley, “when the Queen slept
-there, he did use awhile to come up every morning in his night-gown
-and slippers. When he found Lady Elizabeth up and at her book, then he
-would look in at the gallery-door, and bid her good morrow and so go
-on his way; and I did tell my Lord it was an unseemly sight to see a
-man so little dressed in a maiden’s chamber, with which he was angry,
-but left it. At Hanworth, the Queen did tell me ‘that my Lord Admiral
-looked in at the gallery-window, and saw my Lady Elizabeth with her
-arms about a man’s neck.’ I did question my Lady Elizabeth about it,
-which she denied, weeping, and bade us ‘ax all her women if there were
-any man who came to her, excepting Grindal.’ [This gentleman was her
-tutor.] Howbeit, methought the Queen, being jealous, did feign this
-story, to the intent that I might take more heed to the proceedings of
-Lady Elizabeth and the Lord Admiral.”[131] Mr. Ashley, husband of the
-above deponent, and also in Princess Elizabeth’s service, concurred
-in his wife’s opinion that the Admiral was going too far, and that
-the Princess was “inclined” towards him, for whenever the Admiral was
-mentioned “she was wont to blush to her hair-roots.” That Elizabeth
-herself was alarmed is proved by the fact that she told Parry, her
-cofferer, “that she feared the Admiral loved her but too well, and that
-the Queen was jealous of them both; and that Her Majesty, suspecting
-the frequent access of the Admiral to her, came upon them suddenly
-when they were alone, he having her in his arms. The Queen was greatly
-offended, and reproved Mrs. Ashley very sharply for her neglect of duty
-in permitting the Princess to fall into such reprehensible freedom of
-behaviour.” The scandalous conduct of her husband at last roused not
-only the jealousy but the apprehensions of Queen Katherine. She feared
-some misfortune might befall the Princess at her tender age, and felt
-that in such a case the blame very naturally, and not unjustly, would
-be cast on her; and she would be generally regarded as the author of
-her stepdaughter’s ruin. Very quietly, therefore, Her Majesty suggested
-the departure of the Princess, who was forthwith sent back to Hatfield,
-attended by her governess and servants. Elizabeth seems to have borne
-her late hostess no ill-will on account of this banishment, and a few
-months later we see her affectionately concerned about Her Grace’s
-health, and greatly rejoiced at the news that she had been safely
-delivered. Evidently a letter from the Admiral, received some days
-before the event, had assured her the expected child would be a boy,
-and it must have been on receiving this expression of opinion that the
-Princess indited the following quaint epistle to her stepmother:--
-
- “Although Your Highness’s letters be most joyful to me in absence,
- yet, considering what pain it is for you to write, Your Grace
- being so sickly, your commendations were enough in my Lord’s
- letter. I much rejoice at your health, with the well liking of the
- country, with my humble thanks that Your Grace wished me with you
- till I were weary of that country. Your Highness were like to be
- cumbered, if I should not depart till I were weary of being with
- you; although it were the worst soil in the world, your presence
- would make it pleasant. I cannot reprove my Lord for not doing your
- commendations in his letter, for he did it; and although he had
- not, yet I will not complain of him, for he shall be diligent to
- give me knowledge from time to time how his busy child doth; and
- if I were at his birth, no doubt I would see him beaten, for the
- trouble he hath put you to. Master Denny and my lady, with humble
- thanks, prayeth most entirely for Your Grace, praying the Almighty
- to send you a most lucky deliverance; and my mistress [Mrs. Ashley]
- wisheth no less, giving Your Highness most humble thanks for her
- commendations. Written, with very little leisure, this last day of
- July.--Your humble daughter,
-
- ELIZABETH”
-
-The phrase, “If I were at his birth, no doubt I would see him beaten,
-for the trouble he hath put you to,” is as quaint as any metaphor in
-Shakespeare. This letter was dispatched some six weeks before the
-Queen’s confinement. About the same time Katherine received a friendly
-missive from the Princess Mary, congratulating her on the rumour she
-hears concerning her good condition, and assuring her she will pray
-Almighty God to help her in her hour of hope and danger.
-
-The unpleasant rumours as to the behaviour of “my Lord Admiral” and
-Elizabeth were soon well known all over London, and caused much
-spiteful gossip. It was currently reported that when the Princess
-left the Queen’s house she had betaken herself to some out-of-the-way
-dwelling at Hackney, where a mysterious infant had been born.[132]
-This story was so generally believed that it had an echo even during
-the great Queen’s reign. In the twenty-first year of Elizabeth (1579),
-a youth who appeared at Madrid asserted himself to be the Queen’s son
-by the Lord Admiral, and was accepted as such by the Spanish King and
-Court. The Lord Admiral certainly made a great impression on the young
-girl’s heart, for long after her accession, Elizabeth, very reticent,
-as a rule, concerning events connected with her childhood and youth,
-would, in the privacy of her closet, confide to the ladies she admitted
-to her intimacy that “the Lord Admiral had been the only man she had
-ever loved; and the handsomest she had ever seen.”
-
-Perhaps the departure of Princess Elizabeth left the Queen more leisure
-to look after her other charge, the Lady Jane Grey, who had been
-removed from Seymour Place to the Manor House, Chelsea. Katherine,
-on account, it may be, of the restlessness sometimes observed in
-ladies in her condition, moved about a great deal during this period.
-Sometimes she addresses her letters from Hanworth, sometimes from
-Oatlands. Then, as political events rendered her husband’s position
-less and less secure, she determined to retire to Sudeley Castle,
-Seymour’s lately acquired seat in Gloucestershire, and to lie-in there.
-The journey from Hanworth must have been a troublesome one for a woman
-in her state of health. She travelled with her husband, Lady Jane
-Grey,[133] Lady Tyrwhitt, six other ladies, and two chaplains. She
-herself was in a waggon, comfortably lined and cushioned, no doubt,
-and with every possible precaution to ensure her comfort, but the
-roads were atrocious, and the journey lasted six days. Yet the weary
-traveller’s patience must have been amply rewarded, for Sudeley Castle
-in those days was one of the most splendid houses in England--a gem
-of Gothic architecture, furnished in the most sumptuous style. The
-Queen’s apartments had been fitted up with as much magnificence as
-she would have enjoyed if she had still been Queen-Consort of England
-and about to present the realm with an expected heir. Her bedchamber
-was hung with costly tapestry, specified, in an inventory still
-preserved at Sudeley, as consisting of “six fair pieces of hangings
-illustrating the history of the Nymph Daphne.” The bed had a tester
-and curtains of crimson taffeta, with a counterpoint of silk serge.
-There was another bed for the nurse, hung with “counterpoints of
-imagery to please the babe”--probably some stuff such as was common in
-those days embroidered with animals, birds, and little men. The outer
-chamber had been arranged as a day nursery, and was hung with “a fair
-tapestry” representing the twelve months of the year. In it was set a
-“chair of state” covered with cloth of gold--all the other seats were
-stools--and a bedstead with tester curtains and rich counterpoints, or
-counterpanes, as they are now called. There is still a lovely oriel
-window of Tudor architecture at Sudeley popularly called “the nursery
-window,” but this cannot be the window of the nursery that was prepared
-for Katherine Parr’s babe, for the inventory distinctly says “carpets
-for _four_ windows in the nursery.” This other “nursery window” looks
-out upon one of the most lovely scenes in England--the chapel where
-Katherine Parr sleeps in peace after her chequered life, the garden in
-front of it, while beyond, the lovely green of the famous woods of St.
-Kenelm soften into the haze of the distant horizon.
-
-Lady Jane’s room, beyond Queen Katherine’s, was also splendidly
-furnished, and adorned with tapestries representing the history of St.
-Catherine. The bed was hung with blue silk, and a large piece of Turkey
-carpet[134] covered the floor.
-
-Queen Katherine’s life at Sudeley must have been very quiet and
-peaceful. Local tradition tells us that she was wont, with her young
-charge and her ladies, to visit the poor and take an interest in her
-gardens. Divine service according to the rites of the Church of England
-was said regularly twice a day in the beautiful chapel by one of her
-chaplains, Coverdale or Parkhurst, and sermons were preached at least
-three times a day. The Lord Admiral’s ostentatious absence from these
-pious exercises was a matter of great vexation to the Queen, and gave
-rise to a report that his Lordship was an atheist.[135]
-
-The return of the Lord Protector from his campaign in Scotland boded no
-good for the Lord Admiral; the brothers had a bitter quarrel, and on
-this occasion it was that Seymour departed with the Queen for Sudeley.
-Edward had been writing to Somerset, calling him “his dearest uncle”
-and saying that he was well pleased with his many victories, and on
-the warrior’s return the Admiral found himself quite driven into the
-shade. However, about a month before the Queen’s confinement, he made
-a hurried journey to London, hoping to induce the young King to write
-a letter complaining of the treatment his younger uncle and the Queen
-were receiving from the Protector. Edward was easily persuaded to write
-the letter, but before the plot was thoroughly matured it was betrayed
-to the elder Seymour, and Thomas, arrested by the Lord Protector’s
-order, was taken before the Council to answer for his behaviour.
-Threatened with imprisonment in the Tower, he made a sort of submission
-to Somerset, and a hollow reconciliation took place, the Protector
-adding a sum of £800 per annum to Sudeley’s appointments in the hope
-of conciliating his unruly brother, who hurried back to Sudeley, where
-he felt himself comparatively safe; for so long as the Queen lived he
-could defy his foes, his wife’s great rank and the well-known affection
-entertained for her by the boy-King sufficing to screen him even from
-the vengeance of the infuriated head of the house of Seymour.
-
-On 30th August 1548 Queen Katherine bore the infant for whom such great
-preparations had been made. The parents had fondly hoped it would
-be a boy, but, alack! it was a puny girl, destined to be a child of
-misfortune. She cost her mother her life, and grew up to suffer the
-bitter pangs of poverty and neglect.
-
-My Lord Sudeley, who had been consulting fortune-tellers and palmists
-about the expected child, was bitterly disappointed, for they had
-predicted the birth of a son. This did not prevent him from writing
-a very flattering account of his infant daughter to his brother the
-Protector. The Duke had quite recently sent his brother a very severe
-letter complaining of his intrigues; but the birth of the child seems
-to have had a softening effect, and the following letter was far more
-friendly, containing a courteous message to the Queen, and continuing:--
-
- “We are right glad to understand by your letters that the Queen,
- your bedfellow, hath a happy hour; and, escaping all danger, hath
- made you the father of so pretty a daughter. And although (if it
- had pleased God) it would have been both to us, and (we suppose)
- also to you, a more joy and comfort if it had, this the first-born,
- been a son, yet the escape of the danger, and the prophecy and good
- hansell of this to a great sort of proper sons, which (as I write)
- we trust no less than to be true, it is no small joy and comfort to
- us, as we are sure it is to you and to her Grace also; to whom you
- shall make again our hearty commendations, with no less gratulation
- of such good success.
-
- “Thus we bid you heartily farewell. From Sion, the 1st of Sept.
- 1548.--Your loving brother,
-
- “E. SOMERSET”
-
-It is a curious fact that the child was born on 30th August, and
-that Somerset’s letter is dated the 1st of September, proving that
-communication was much more expeditious in those days than we are apt
-to imagine.
-
-Lady Tyrwhitt, who attended on the Queen, has left a very touching
-account of her last hours.[136] Everything seems to have gone well
-until about six days after the child’s birth, when the Queen suddenly
-became delirious, and conceived a great dread and a burning jealousy
-of her husband. Lady Tyrwhitt says that “two days before the death of
-the Queen, at my coming to her in the morning, she asked me ‘Where I
-had been so long?’ and said unto me ‘that she did fear such things
-in herself, that she was sure she could not live.’ I answered as I
-thought, ‘that I saw no likelihood of death in her.’ She then, having
-my Lord Admiral by the hand, and divers others standing by, spake
-these words, partly, as I took, idly [that is, “in delirium”]: ‘My
-Lady Tyrwhitt, I be not well handled; for those that be about me care
-not for me, but stand laughing at my grief, and the more good I will
-to them, the less good they will to me.’ Whereunto my Lord Admiral
-answered, ‘Why, sweetheart, I would you no hurt.’ And she said to
-him again, aloud, ‘No, my lord, I think so’; and immediately she
-said to him in his ear, ‘But, my lord, you have given me many shrewd
-taunts.’ These words I perceived she spoke with good memory, and very
-sharply and earnestly, for her mind was sore disquieted. My Lord
-Admiral, perceiving that I heard it, called me aside, and asked me
-‘What she said?’ and I declared it plainly to him. Then he consulted
-with me ‘that he would lie down on the bed by her, to look if he
-could pacify her unquietness with gentle communication,’ whereunto
-I agreed; and by the time that he had spoken three or four words to
-her, she answered him roundly and sharply, saying, ‘My Lord, I would
-have given a thousand marks to have had my full talk with Hewyke [Dr.
-Huick or Huycke[137]] the first day I was delivered, but I durst not
-for displeasing you.’ And I, hearing that, perceived her trouble to
-be so great, that my heart would serve me to hear no more. Such like
-communications she had with him the space of an hour, which they did
-hear that sat by her bedside.”
-
-Little Lady Jane Grey was no doubt near the afflicted Queen throughout
-these trying scenes; but she would almost certainly have been excluded
-from the bedchamber when the Queen’s condition became alarming. Just
-before the end Katherine seems to have rallied, for on 5th September
-she was able to make her will, leaving everything to her husband,
-and “wishing it had been a thousand times more, so great was her
-love for him.” The witnesses to this will were Dr. Huycke, already
-mentioned, and Dr. Parkhurst, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, both men
-of unimpeachable integrity, who would not have signed the document if
-there had been anything illegal about it. Katherine Parr died on 7th
-September, the second day after the date of her will and the eighth
-after the birth of her child. She was in her thirty-sixth year, and
-had survived Henry VIII just one year, six months, and eight days. Her
-funeral took place at Sudeley Castle, according to the rites of the
-Church of England, on Friday, 8th September, and was the first royal
-funeral so celebrated in England. Dr. Coverdale was the officiant at
-the Queen’s burial. A procession was formed of “conductors” (_i.e._
-leaders) in black, gentlemen, Somerset Herald, torch-bearers, Lady Jane
-Grey, acting as chief mourner, her train borne by a young gentlewoman,
-then more ladies and gentlemen; finally, “all other following.” The
-Lord Admiral, according to custom, did not attend his wife’s funeral.
-The ritual was somewhat curious, and is described in the following
-terms in an MS. entitled “A Booke of Buryalls of Trew Noble Persons,”
-now in the London College of Arms:[138] “When the corpse was set within
-the rails, and the mourners placed, the whole choir began and sung
-certain psalms in English, and read three lessons; and after the third
-lesson, the mourners, according to their degrees and that which is
-accustomed, offered into the alms-box.... Doctor Coverdale, the Queen’s
-almoner, began his sermon ... in one place thereof he took occasion to
-declare unto the people ‘how the offering which was there done, was
-(not) done anything to benefit the corpse, but for the poor only; and
-also the lights, which were carried and stood about the corpse, were
-for the honour of the person, and for none other intent nor purpose’;
-and so went through with his sermon, and made a godly prayer, and the
-whole church answered and prayed with him.... The sermon done, the
-corpse was buried, during which time the choir sung the _Te Deum_ in
-English. And this done, the mourners dined, and the rest returned
-homewards again. All which aforesaid was done in a morning.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-THE LADY JANE GOES TO SEYMOUR PLACE
-
-
-All Thomas Seymour’s schemes and conspiracies and political and
-domestic intrigues were brought to nought by his wife’s death, and
-he swiftly realised that the danger of his position was immeasurably
-increased by her decease. She had been an effective barrier between
-himself and his foes, for nothing could persuade the King to consider
-her otherwise than with great affection, as one of the only two persons
-he really loved (his young companion Barnaby Fitzpatrick being the
-other). Sudeley was now, metaphorically speaking, at sea in a storm,
-and seeking safety in any port he could discover. For a few days his
-troubles seem to have dazed him. He may, indeed, have loved his wife
-and have sincerely mourned her. There is not the slightest reason
-to believe that there was any solid foundation for the accusations
-brought against him of having ill-treated and even poisoned the Queen.
-A few weeks before her death, on the contrary, he swore, with one of
-his horrible oaths, that if any man “speak ill of his Queen in his
-presence, he would take his fist to his ear, be he of the lowest or of
-the highest.” After his wife’s death, Sudeley was at first inclined to
-break up his household and throw himself once more into public life.
-He even went so far as to dismiss some of his servants, and returned
-to Hanworth, the late Queen’s dower-house in Middlesex, taking Lady
-Jane and her attendants with him. Hence he wrote to Dorset to say that,
-broken-hearted as he was at the departure of the Queen, his wife, he
-could not keep the Lady Jane any longer,[139] and begged him to send
-for her. By 17th September, however, he seems to have cheered up
-considerably, for he dispatched another letter to Bradgate, which runs
-as follows:--
-
- “My last letters, written at a time when, partly with the Queen’s
- Highness’s death I was so amazed that I had small regard either
- to myself or my doings, and partly then thinking that my great
- loss must presently have constrained me to have broken up and
- dissolved my whole house, I offered unto your Lordship to send my
- Lady Jane unto you whensoever you would send for her, as to him
- that I thought would be most tender on her. Forasmuch, since being
- both better avised of myself, and having more deeply digested
- whereunto my power [_i.e._ property] would extend; I find, indeed,
- that with God’s help, I shall right well be able to continue my
- house together, without diminishing any great part thereof; and,
- therefore, putting my whole affiance and trust in God, have begun
- anew to stablish my household, where shall remain not only the
- gentlewomen of the Queen’s Highness’s privy chamber, but also
- the maids that waited at large, and other women being about Her
- Grace in her lifetime, with a hundred and twenty gentlemen and
- yeomen, continually abiding in the house together. Saving that now,
- presently, certain of the maids and gentlewomen have desired to
- have license for a month or such thing, to see their friends, and
- then immediately to return hither again. And, therefore, doubting
- lest your Lordship might think any unkindness that I should by my
- said letters take occasion to rid me of your daughter, the Lady
- Jane, so soon after the Queen’s death, for the proof both of my
- hearty affection towards you, and my good-will to her, I am now
- minded to keep her until I next speak with your Lordship, which
- should have been within these three or four days if it had not been
- that I must repair to the Court, as well to help certain of the
- Queen’s poor servants with some of the things now fallen by her
- death, as also for mine own affairs, unless I shall be advertised
- from your Lordship to the contrary. My lady my mother shall and
- will, I doubt not, be as dear unto her [_i.e._ Lady Jane] as
- though she were her own daughter; and for my part I shall continue
- her half-father, and more, and all that are in my house shall be as
- diligent about her as yourself would wish accordingly.”[140]
-
-To this letter Dorset replied as follows, in a particularly fine
-specimen of the strange orthography of those days:--
-
- “My most hearty commendations unto your good lordship not
- forgotten. When it hath pleased you by your most gentle letters to
- offer me the abode of my daughter at your lordship’s house, I do
- as well acknowledge your most friendly affection towards me and
- her therein, as also render unto you most deserved thanks for the
- same. Nevertheless, considering the state of my daughter and her
- tender years, wherein she shall hardly rule herself as yet without
- a guide, lest she should, for lack of a bridle, take too much the
- head, and conceive such opinion of herself, that all such good
- behaviour as she heretofore hath learned, by the Queen’s and your
- most wholesome instructions, should either altogether be quenched
- in her, or at the least much diminished, I shall, in most hearty
- wise, require your lordship to commit her to the governance of her
- mother, by whom for the fear and duty she oweth her, she shall most
- easily be ruled and framed towards virtue, which I wish above all
- things to be most plentiful in her; and although your lordship’s
- good mind, concerning her honest and godly education be so great,
- that mine can be no more; yet weighing that you be destitute of
- such one as should correct her as a mistress, and admonish her as a
- mother, I persuade myself that you will think the eye and oversight
- of my wife shall be in this respect most necessary.”
-
-Then follows a mention of the proposed scheme for uniting the Lady Jane
-to the King; and the letter concludes thus:--
-
- “My meaning herein is not to withdraw any part of my promise to
- you for her bestowing; for I assure your Lordship, I intend, God
- willing, to use your discreet advice and consent in that behalf
- and no less than mine own; only I seek in these her tender years,
- wherein she now standeth, either to make or mar (as the common
- saying is), the addressing [the forming] of her mind to humility,
- soberness, and obedience. Wherefore, looking upon that fatherly
- affection which you bear her, my trust is that your lordship,
- weighing the premises, will be content to charge her mother with
- her, whose waking eye in respecting her demeanour, shall be,
- I hope, no less than you as a friend and I as a father would
- wish. And thus wishing your lordship a perfect riddance of all
- unquietness and grief of mind, I leave any further to trouble your
- lordship. From my house at Bradgate, the 19th of September.--Your
- lordship’s to the best of my power,
-
- HENRY DORSET”[141]
-
- (Endorsed)
-
- “To my very good Lord Admiral: give this.”
-
-With this precious epistle was enclosed another, from the Lady
-Frances:--
-
- “And whereas,” says she, “of a friendly and brotherly good will
- you wish to have Jane my daughter, continuing still in your house,
- I give you most hearty thanks for your gentle offer, trusting,
- nevertheless, that, for the good opinion you have in your sister
- (Lady Frances herself), you will be content to charge her with her
- (_i.e._ charge Lady Frances with Lady Jane), who promiseth you, not
- only to be ready at all times to account for the ordering of your
- dear niece [Lady Jane], but also to use your counsel and advice on
- the bestowing of her, whensoever it shall happen. Wherefore, my
- good brother, my request shall be, that I may have the oversight
- of her with your good will and thereby shall have good occasion to
- think that you do trust me in such wise, as is convenient that a
- sister be trusted of so loving a brother. And thus my most hearty
- commendations not omitted, I wish the whole [or holy] deliverance
- of your grief and continuance of your lordship’s health. From
- Bradgate, 19th of this September.--Your loving sister and assured
- friend,
-
- FRANCES DORSET”[142]
-
- (Endorsed)
-
- “To the right Honourable and my very
- good Lord, my Lord Admiral.”
-
-It will be noted that the Lady Frances evinces a quite sisterly
-affection for the Lord Admiral, adopting him as her brother; and her
-daughter, therefore, was to be considered as his niece.
-
-After this correspondence, the Lady Jane was returned to Bradgate,
-whither she proceeded with a semi-regal escort consisting of not less
-than forty persons, including Mr. Rous or Rowse, controller of the Lord
-Admiral’s household, and Mr. John Harrington, afterwards prominent at
-Queen Elizabeth’s Court. On taking their leave of the young Princess,
-these gentlemen assured her that all the maids at Hanworth were
-expecting her back again. The wily Dorsets themselves had, indeed, made
-up their minds she should return, though in their heart of hearts they
-had something besides Lady Jane herself in view. It was somewhere about
-20th September that Lady Jane arrived at Bradgate. On or about the 23rd
-of that month the Marquis and his spouse journeyed to London, where
-they met Sir William Sharington,[143] Seymour’s _âme damnée_, and the
-Lord High-Admiral himself. These gentlemen had a very secret business
-to discuss, the nature of which must now be described. The Dorsets,
-not then wealthy people, were deep in debt. Now Seymour was known to
-be rich, for, in addition to his own fortune, he had just inherited
-that of the Queen, and, so far, his brother had given no signs of any
-intention of confiscating it. The Dorsets, therefore, intimated to
-Sharington that he would do well to make Sudeley understand that if
-he desired to renew his guardianship of the Lady Jane, he must agree
-to give her parents £2000, £500 to be paid down at once, on account.
-It should be here remarked that Sudeley, by voluntarily relinquishing
-the care of the Lady Jane Grey, had given up his guardianship, which,
-by the custom of those times, gave him more than parental rights over
-her. It was his desire to renew his official charge that enabled the
-Dorsets to make this extraordinary proposal to sell him their child
-for what in those days was considered a large sum of money. When the
-game was up and Sudeley in prison, the Dorsets threw the blame of this
-transaction on everybody but themselves. The Lord Admiral, asserted
-Lady Jane’s father in his deposition before the Privy Council, “was
-so earnestly in hand with me and my wife, the Lady Frances, that in
-the end, because he would have no nay, we were content that Jane
-should return to his house.” Indeed, Sudeley, not content to treat
-so important a matter only through the medium of Sharington, himself
-appeared at Dorset’s town house and interviewed the Marquis, who
-admitted in the above-mentioned deposition that, “At this very time and
-place he renewed his promise unto me for the marrying of my daughter to
-the King’s Majesty, and he added, ‘If I may get the King at liberty, I
-dare warrant you His Majesty will marry no other than Jane.’”
-
-Whilst Sudeley was thus pretending, if nothing more, that he was
-able to marry Jane to the King, could he but get possession of her,
-the Marquis of Dorset was inditing a letter to the Lord Protector
-which contained a passage referring to some negotiations he was
-conducting with His Highness for the marriage of Lady Jane to the Earl
-of Hertford, Somerset’s eldest son! “Item, for the maryage of your
-graces sune to be had with my doghter Jane, I thynk hyt not met [meet]
-to be wrytyn, but I shall at all tymes avouche my sayng.” Dorset’s
-cunning must have nearly matched Sudeley’s! Young Hertford was the
-lad mentioned in the papers of the time of Queen Mary as “contracted”
-to Lady Jane Grey: in later years he married her sister Katherine.
-Jane probably made his acquaintance in her childish days, when the
-Seymours lived at Whitehall and she was in residence at the “Bluff
-King’s” Court under the wing of Katherine Parr. Hertford was also one
-of the band of young noblemen selected as companions for Prince Edward
-under the tutelage of the learned Dr. Cheke; and probably had many a
-romp with Jane, then a merry little girl. Later on he paid one or two
-visits to Bradgate, the Lady Frances conceiving such a strong affection
-for him that she was wont to call him her son. Here again the young
-people must have been much together, and their childish friendship may
-have inspired the Marquis of Dorset with the idea of uniting them in
-marriage. However that may be, he certainly got as far as corresponding
-with Somerset--though in the profoundest secrecy--about the matter.
-Was his caution due to a fear of displeasing Sudeley? What is more
-than probable is that the Lord Admiral got wind of the scheme, and
-that his desire to get Jane away from her father and his own brother
-and nephew was at the bottom of his readiness to pay so heavy a price
-to resume her guardianship, for which object he used the likelihood
-of her marriage with the King as a bait to catch the Marquis--who was
-eventually “jockeyed” by both the Seymours, for no marriage with either
-the King or Hertford ever took place.
-
-Whilst Seymour was personally negotiating with the Marquis, the task
-of persuading the Marchioness fell to Sharington. “Sir William
-[Sharington] travailed as earnestly with my wife,” says Dorset, “to
-gain her good-will for the return of our daughter to Lord Thomas
-Seymour as he [probably Seymour is meant in this case] did with me; so
-as in the end, after long debating and ‘much sticking of our sides,’ we
-did agree that my daughter Jane should return to him.”[144]
-
-Their bargain with the Admiral struck, the Dorsets hurried back to
-Bradgate, whence they incited the dispatch of the following ingenuous
-letter:--
-
- “To the Right Honourable and my singular good lord, the Lord
- Admiral.
-
- “My duty to your lordship, in most humble wise remembered, with
- no less thanks for the gentle letters which I received from you.
- Thinking myself so much bound to your lordship for your great
- goodness towards me from time to time, that I cannot by any means
- be able to recompense the least part thereof, I purpose to write
- a few rude lines to your lordship, rather as a token to show how
- much worthier I think your lordship’s goodness, than to give worthy
- thanks for the same, and these my letters will be to testify unto
- you that, like as you have been unto me a loving and kind father,
- so I shall be always most ready to obey your godly monitions and
- good instructions, as becometh one upon whom you have heaped so
- many benefits. And thus fearing I should trouble your lordship too
- much, I most humbly take leave of your lordship.--Your most humble
- servant during my life,
-
- “JANE GRAYE”
-
- (Endorsed)
-
- “My Lady Jane, the 1st of Oct. 1548.”
-
-With this letter the Lady Frances sent Sudeley another, in which she
-again calls him her “very good lord and brother”: Jane considers him as
-“a loving and kind father,” and her mother signs herself, “Your assured
-and loving sister, Frances Dorset”--most friendly!
-
-It was near Michaelmas when the Lord Admiral, with a numerous retinue,
-including several ladies, arrived at Bradgate to carry the girl back
-with him to Hanworth. Traces of his return journey may be found in
-papers preserved in the Public Library at Leicester, which inform us
-that “beer, cold meat, and ale was provided by the Mayor for my Lady
-Jane and her escort, proceeding from Bradgate with the Lord Thomas
-Seymour, to London.” Sudeley brought the £500 with him and gave it to
-the father who, for the sake of filthy lucre, had not scrupled to hand
-over his young daughter to a notorious profligate. Thomas treated the
-matter jovially, saying “merrily” he would take no receipt for the
-money, for “the Lady Jane herself was in pledge of that”; the Marquis,
-on the other hand, sought to endue the affair with a more respectable
-appearance by declaring the cash was “as it wer for an ernst peny of
-the favour that he [Sudeley] wold shewe unto him [Dorset].” To our
-eyes, there is, and can be, but one redeeming feature in the whole of
-this sordid transaction--the fact, proved by sufficient evidence, that
-Lady Jane Grey whilst under the Lord Admiral’s roof was treated not
-only with respect, but with much kindness, and that, even allowing for
-the fact that letters such as that already quoted were inspired by her
-parents, she seems to have been genuinely attached to both Sudeley and
-his mother.
-
-Had Thomas Seymour contented himself with achieving eminence in any
-one legitimate direction--the Navy, for instance--he might have
-succeeded in winning both fame and honour. But he lacked the clearness
-of judgment and power of reticence necessary to carry any one of his
-more nefarious schemes to completion, and so ended in pitiable failure.
-Whilst his brother was away fighting in Scotland, he had striven, and
-with some success, to ingratiate himself with the young King. To this
-end, as we have seen, he lent him various sums of money. He seized
-every opportunity of belittling and even calumniating his brother, the
-Protector, openly accusing him of conspiring against Edward’s liberty,
-all of which the poor little King was only too eager to believe; for
-Somerset, with his puritanic views, had not made the boy’s existence
-very pleasant to him, persistently treating him as a little old man,
-and suppressing all those amusements and sports which lads, even sickly
-lads, love so dearly. It is said that, on one occasion, when he came
-upon the King and Barney Fitzpatrick playing cards, he seized them in
-a fury and threw them into the fire. He had striven, in a word, to make
-Edward look at life as he saw it himself, through smoked Calvinistic
-glasses that robbed it of all brightness.
-
-The Duchess of Feria relates that Queen Mary once told her Edward VI
-had confessed to her that he was very tired of sermons--not to be
-wondered at, since the poor child had to hear one at least daily on
-some dogmatic controversy or other, and these dull homilies often
-lasted a good two hours. In fact, the royal lad was bored and “prayed”
-to death. For more than a year after his accession to the throne he was
-compelled to hear a daily Mass, celebrated according to the old rites
-but with the Epistle and Gospel said in English. Interpolated into
-this Latin service was the inevitable lengthy sermon preached by men
-well known for their Reforming zeal, such as Canon William Barlow of
-St. Osyth’s, in Essex, who became Bishop of Chichester in Elizabeth’s
-reign; Dr. John Taylor; Dr. Redman, a violent opponent of the doctrine
-of Transubstantiation; Dr. Thomas Becken; Dr. Giles Ayre, a bitter
-enemy of Gardiner; and the extremely Protestant Dr. Latimer. John Knox,
-who came to London in 1551, also preached before the King; but by that
-time the Mass had been replaced by the services of the first Book of
-Common Prayer. Knox was in a very bad temper with the Protector at the
-time of his visit, and accused him of paying more attention to the
-building of his new house in the Strand than to his (Knox’s) sermons.
-As time went on, poor Edward had to listen to controversies in which
-Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, Ridley, Bishop of Rochester, and
-“that most zealous Papist,” Heath, Bishop of Worcester (afterwards,
-under Mary, Archbishop of York), “debated and disputed” on such grave
-subjects as Transubstantiation, the Intercession of Saints, Worship of
-the Virgin, Prayers for the Dead, Purgatory, etc., and attend sermons
-preached in the courtyard of Whitehall Palace, where Gardiner delivered
-his last discourse on papal supremacy, which sent him to the Tower.
-Contemporary evidence shows exactly how the audience was grouped round
-the improvised rostrum built close to the walls of the palace, so
-that the King might hear the preacher from an open window, where he
-generally sat, notebook in hand, in the company of the Lord Protector,
-and of Dr. John Cheke, his tutor. Aged people of both sexes were ranged
-on benches close to the palace, whilst the general congregation,
-standing, filled up the courtyard. The learned Nicholas Udall often
-sat at a desk under the pulpit, taking shorthand notes of the sermon,
-and by his means many of the more notable of these orations have been
-preserved to this day. John Knox preached his last sermon before Edward
-VI from the pulpit at Whitehall Palace. At many, if not at most, of
-these pious exercises Lady Jane Grey, her mother and sister must have
-assisted, for it was expected that all the great ladies of the Court
-should attend; and consequently, in one or two old engravings of these
-interesting functions, we behold them, wearing their “froze pastes” or
-coifs, seated in rows, looking exceedingly sanctimonious, not to say
-bored. There are numbers of young children among them, one or two of
-whom have evidently fallen into a deep sleep.
-
-Edward, extremely delicate from his birth, slightly deformed, with one
-shoulder-blade higher than the other, weak eyes, and occasional attacks
-of deafness, suffered terribly, we are told, from headaches, a fact
-which causes little surprise, considering the number of sermons he was
-forced to attend. The Lord Admiral, during the brief time he held the
-King’s favour, altered all this. The sermons were reduced, the sports
-and pastimes multiplied. No wonder, then, that of his two uncles Edward
-VI preferred Thomas to Edward!
-
-Hardly was Lady Jane installed at Seymour Place, whither she was
-removed from Hanworth as soon as the weather grew cold, than her
-guardian set himself to weave not one but half a dozen fresh intrigues.
-Once more he planned to marry the Princess Elizabeth, or, failing her,
-a little later on, his young ward, Lady Jane. He even endeavoured
-to open a fresh correspondence with the Princess, and met with some
-success; but the astute damsel made him a very politic response.
-However impressed she may have been by the Admiral’s good looks, she
-was well aware that he had compromised her once, and was resolved
-there should be no second edition of the Chelsea business. Yet she
-had the imprudence to send his Lordship letters through her servants,
-and, thus encouraged, the Admiral began to make minute inquiries as to
-her fortune and the management of her affairs. He also endeavoured
-to find out the amount of the fortunes owned by Lady Jane Grey and
-Princess Mary, and, in short, of all the marriageable ladies of the
-royal family, not excluding Anne of Cleves. A report of these inquiries
-coming to the knowledge of John Russell, the Lord Privy Seal, that
-functionary thought it his duty to look into the matter, and seized an
-opportunity when riding with the Admiral through the streets of London
-to ask him his object point-blank. As they rode past Westminster Hall,
-Russell turned to Seymour, saying, “My Lord Admiral, there are certain
-rumours bruited of you which I am very sorry to hear.”
-
-“What rumours?” demanded Seymour.
-
-“I have been informed,” replied Russell, “that you mean to marry either
-the Lady Mary or the Lady Elizabeth, or else the Lady Jane.”
-
-Sudeley remained silent, and his interlocutor proceeded: “My Lord, if
-ye go about any such thing, ye seek the means to undo yourself, and all
-those that shall come of you.”
-
-Sudeley, shaking his head, denied ever having had any such intention;
-he “had no thought of such an enterprise.” And so, for the time being,
-the conversation dropped. But a few days later, when the Lord Admiral
-was again riding with his Lordship, he said to Russell, “Father
-Russell, you are very suspicious of me; I pray you tell me who showed
-you of the marriage that I should attempt, whereof ye brake with me the
-other day.”
-
-Russell answered, “I will not tell you the authors of the tale, but
-they be your very good friends”; and he advised Seymour “to make
-no suit of marriage that way”--meaning with Elizabeth or Mary, or
-eventually with Lady Jane.
-
-Nothing daunted, Seymour replied, “It is convenient for them to marry,
-and better it were that they were married within the realm than in any
-foreign place without the realm; and why might not I, or another man
-raised by the King their father, marry one of them?”--in allusion to
-the fact that Henry VIII had passed a law legalising the marriage of a
-Princess of the Blood with a subject.
-
-Russell warned him honestly, “My Lord, if either you, or any other
-within this realm, shall match himself in marriage either with my Lady
-Mary or my Lady Elizabeth, he shall undoubtedly, whatsoever he be,
-procure unto himself the occasion of his undoing, and you especially,
-above all others, being of so near alliance to the King’s Majesty.”
-Then, bearing in mind the Lord Admiral’s love of money, Lord Russell
-straightway asked, “And I pray you, what shall you have with either of
-them?”
-
-Here Seymour was on his own ground: “He who marries one of them shall,”
-he said, “have three thousand pounds a year.”
-
-“My Lord,” responded Russell, “it is not so, for ye may be well assured
-that he shall have no more than ten thousand pounds in money, plate,
-and goods, and no lands; and what is that to maintain his charges and
-estates who matches himself there?”
-
-“They must have three thousand pounds a year also,” said the Lord of
-Sudeley.
-
-Thereupon Russell lost his temper, and with some strong expressions
-retorted “they should _not_.”
-
-Seymour, likewise with an oath, asserted “that they _should_, and that
-none should dare to say nay to it.”
-
-Russell answered that he, at least, dared “say nay” to the Lord
-Admiral’s greed, “for it was clean against the King’s will.” And so
-they parted.
-
-These inquiries about the royal ladies’ fortunes became known to the
-Protector, possibly through Russell, and thus the whole intrigue was
-brought to light.
-
-Lady Jane at Seymour Place and in the possession of the Lord Admiral
-was already a stumbling-block in the way of Somerset’s own matrimonial
-schemes for his own son, and the discovery of the underhand manner in
-which Thomas had endeavoured to supplant him in the King’s affections
-goaded the elder man to fury. But Sudeley had grown reckless, and he
-openly defied his all-powerful brother, and vaunted his determination
-to oust him at any cost from his high seat.[145] He boldly set about
-ingratiating himself with the yeoman class, which was embittered
-against Somerset on account of his exactions; and Dorset, now his
-willing tool, also strove to secure a following among the farmers and
-gentlemen, on bad terms with the existing Government. The ladies of
-the Court, who hated the arrogant Duchess of Somerset, were flattered
-into a friendly feeling for the Lord Admiral and what he was pleased
-to consider his just cause. To keep up his influence, he had secretly
-bought over a hundred manors and stewardships, and he had arranged
-with his scoundrelly friend, Sharington--who, to save his skin, turned
-traitor--to secure sufficient ammunition and arms to store Holt
-Castle, to which fortress he intended to convey the King. Thanks to
-this man’s frauds on the Bristol Mint, my Lord of Sudeley got together
-money enough to raise an army of 10,000 men. In addition to all this,
-he was in league with no less than four distinct gangs of pirates or
-privateers, and had established a sort of dépôt for stolen property
-in the Scilly Isles, whither the cargoes of sea-plundered vessels
-were taken to await removal to London. Here, then, was an array of
-crimes and treasons enough to hang any man, even if he was the Lord
-Protector’s brother! One fatal day Thomas made the egregious mistake of
-approaching Wriothesley on the subject of obtaining the Protectorship.
-He told him Dorset and Pembroke were on his side. “Beware what you are
-doing,” replied Wriothesley gravely; “it were better for you if you
-had never been born, nay that you were burnt quick alive, than that
-you should attempt it.” Sudeley, somewhat dashed by this rebuff, next
-sought the Earl of Rutland, and spoke to him in much the same impudent
-and imprudent fashion. Rutland, when his visitor departed, went
-straight to Wriothesley and told him what he had learnt. Both agreed to
-reveal all they knew of the conspiracy to the Council. Several meetings
-were held to inquire into the matter; and at length Somerset summoned
-his brother to appear before him. Sudeley sent a flat refusal. Early in
-the forenoon of 17th January 1549 Sir Thomas Smith and Sir John Baker
-proceeded to Seymour Place, and there arrested the Lord Admiral, who
-was conveyed by water to the Tower, after a passionate leave-taking
-with his aged mother.[146]
-
-To Lady Jane the trial and subsequent execution of her guardian must
-have been a matter of intense and painful interest. She was still
-his guest at Seymour Place when he was arrested, and she must have
-witnessed the tragic parting of the unhappy mother from the son so
-remorselessly torn from her aged arms to meet his doom. Whatever his
-crimes and faults, the Lord of Sudeley had been a good son, and the
-old Lady Seymour mourned him deeply till she died of her sorrows, on
-18th October in the following year. She was buried with scant pomp. The
-King, her grandson, and his Court did not even put on the customary
-mourning, on the plea that black gowns did not really signify respect
-to the dead, who were best remembered in the hearts and prayers of
-those who survived them--certainly not a popular or contemporary
-belief, for on the day following Lady Seymour’s death two State
-funerals were celebrated with all those honours which were denied to
-the remains of the grandmother of the reigning sovereign. There was
-probably a political motive at the back of this want of respect, which
-may perhaps be ascribed to the evil influence of Warwick, who, in his
-desire to humiliate the Somersets, refused the honours due to the
-corpse of the Protector’s mother.
-
-Meanwhile, the destruction of Thomas Seymour was being prepared with
-skill and secrecy. Whilst the foredoomed Admiral had been boasting all
-over London of his immense influence, his foes, now that he was in
-their power, subtly compassed his ruin by buying witnesses against him
-and securing the goodwill of his numerous and venomous enemies. They
-had long been spreading a rumour that he had poisoned the late Queen
-Katherine in order to make an even higher alliance with one or other of
-the heiresses to the throne. His scandalous proceedings with regard
-to the Princess Elizabeth at Chelsea and Hanworth, and the unbecoming
-manner in which he had regained possession of Lady Jane, were brought
-up against him. Lady Tyrwhitt, one of the bedchamber ladies of the late
-Queen his wife, was called to give certain damaging evidence, pointing
-to a strong suspicion that Seymour had not only been most unkind to the
-deceased lady, but had actually poisoned her food during the last few
-days of her life, and set up the fever which carried her off within a
-week of her child’s birth. Lord Latimer stated that Seymour, when Queen
-Katherine had prayers said in his house morning and afternoon according
-to the order of the Reformed Church, would get out of the way, and
-swear on his oath that “The Book of Common Prayer was not God’s work
-at all.” There was a merciless raking up of misdeeds, true or false,
-of the man’s earliest youth--as, for instance, “that, in 1540, a woman
-who was executed for robbery and child-murder had declared that the
-beginning of her evil life was due to her having been seduced and
-desolated by Lord Thomas Seymour.” The Dorsets were summoned from
-Bradgate to give evidence in the matter of the wardship of their
-daughter, and other witnesses were fetched from different parts of the
-kingdom to give damaging testimony.[147]
-
-During, though not at, Seymour’s trial, Elizabeth was subjected to a
-private inquiry at Hatfield, and personally asked whether Mrs. Ashley
-had encouraged her to marry the Admiral. This she declared she had
-never done, adding that she did not believe Mrs. Ashley had said the
-things attributed to her. The Princess also wrote the Lord Protector
-a letter, dated from her house at Hatfield, saying she had learned
-that vile rumours regarding her chastity were in circulation, and that
-people had even gone so far as to spread abroad that she was confined
-in the Tower, being with child by the Lord Admiral. The story, she
-protested, was an outrageous slander, and she demanded that she might
-be allowed to proceed to Court to disprove these evil reports. On this
-momentous occasion, Elizabeth, considering her youth, displayed no
-small amount of sagacity and also of that leonine spirit for which
-she was afterwards celebrated. When confronted, however, with Mrs.
-Ashley’s written evidence, she blushed to the roots of her hair, and,
-abashed and breathless, returned the letter with trembling hands to her
-inquisitors. Curiously enough, Elizabeth does not seem to have resented
-Mrs. Ashley’s outspoken condemnation of her conduct with the Lord
-Admiral. On the contrary, hearing of her arrest, she set to work to
-save her from the clutches of the law, declaring the lady had been in
-her service many years, and had exerted herself diligently to bring her
-up in learning and honesty.
-
-Elizabeth told Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, who was sent by the Council to
-examine her on the subject of her intimacy with the Lord High-Admiral,
-“that voices, she knew, went about London that my Lord High-Admiral”
-should marry her, but added, with a smile, “It is but London
-news”--evidently London was as much a centre of gossip in those days as
-now. A little later she asserted that “she did not wish to marry him,
-for she who had had him [meaning Katherine Parr] was so unfortunate.”
-
-It would appear that Lady Browne (Surrey’s “fair Geraldine”) was also
-a friend of Seymour’s, and that he went to her and asked her to break
-up her household and come to stay with the Princess Elizabeth, so that
-she might keep him posted as to what was going on in that Princess’s
-circle. This the lady had agreed to do, but she was prevented by the
-sudden illness and death of her old husband, the famous Master of the
-Horse, Sir Anthony Browne. Parry, Elizabeth’s comptroller, seems also
-to have favoured the Lord Admiral, although it was mainly owing to him
-that the revelations concerning his mistress’s conduct with Seymour
-were made public. On one occasion, when Parry was advising the Admiral
-to leave off his attempt to court the Princess, he replied that “it
-mattered little, for, see you, there has been a talk of late that I
-should marry the Lady Jane,” adding, “I tell you this merrily--I tell
-you this merrily.”
-
-As for the said Admiral, all the world now turned against him,
-excepting the late Queen’s brother, the Marquis of Northampton, his
-other brother-in-law, Lord Herbert, and his deceased wife’s two
-cousins, the Throckmortons, one of whom wrote the following homely
-lines on the wretched man’s piteous plight:--
-
- “Thus guiltless he through malice went to pot,
- Not answering for himself, not knowing cause.”
-
-No better proof can possibly be quoted in his favour, so far as the
-accusation of his having murdered Katherine Parr is concerned, than the
-fact that his wife’s closest connections remained his only friends in
-his trouble.
-
-Still Thomas Seymour stood out boldly for his innocence. He did not
-deny his flirtation with Elizabeth; it was a mere romp between a man
-and a child, with no harm in it beyond such as his enemies chose to
-impute. But the poor man’s foes proved too much for him, and on 23rd
-February he was brought face to face with his accusers, and condemned
-by the Council without hearing or defence. The King, his nephew, seems
-to have made some effort to save him, but the Council forced the boy
-to sign the fatal warrant, which he delivered with a trembling hand,
-the tears standing in his eyes, and this despite the fact that the
-reference to Seymour’s death in the King’s _Journal_ contains not a
-word of regret. Seymour had done him, personally, no great ill, and
-appears to have shown him kindness on more than one occasion. Cranmer,
-who ever ran with the hare and hunted with the hounds, hastened to
-affix his signature to the document ordering the Admiral’s execution,
-and this, as Hume observes, “in contravention of the Canon Law, and in
-sheer spite.” The Bishop of Ely informed Seymour that his earthly life
-was shortly to be ended, and a Catholic priest was sent to confess him;
-but he is said to have refused these ministrations, as well as those of
-a Protestant clergyman. He contrived, according to Latimer, to write
-letters to the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth denying the accusations
-against him, which letters he hid between the leather of one of his
-servants’ shoe-soles. Suspected of serving his master too well, the
-poor faithful creature was arrested, the letters discovered, and the
-unfortunate man hanged without trial.
-
-Without entering into any controversy as to the magnitude of Thomas
-Seymour’s guilt, it may be admitted, in fairness to his brother
-of Somerset, that, if the misdemeanours of a personal character
-attributed to Sudeley rest on the gossiping evidence of women, the
-graver charges of collecting stores of arms, raising an army to strike
-a blow against his brother, and unscrupulously attempting to obtain
-funds even through pirates and notorious swindlers, do in a measure
-justify the severity of his punishment and excuse the infliction of an
-apparently unnatural and fratricidal sentence of death. Somerset, with
-all his faults, had a high sense of justice and of the responsibility
-of his exalted office. His brother had offended not only as an ordinary
-subject of the realm, but as a trusted servant of the nation, and his
-treason and unscrupulous abuse of his position were beyond all pardon.
-The voice of nature was stifled in the heart of the statesman, and thus
-the Duke, with a tolerably clear conscience, signed a death-warrant
-which must at the time have cost him a pang of horror and which has
-since branded him as a merciless fratricide.[148]
-
-The Lord of Sudeley’s rage against the Council, his brother, and his
-enemies in general, when he heard himself condemned, knew no bounds and
-admitted of no Christian forgiveness or resignation. He cursed them
-one and all with every terrible oath his tongue could utter. He was
-beheaded on Tower Hill on 20th March 1549, six months and some days
-after the death of Queen Katherine Parr. His demeanour on the scaffold
-caused great scandal: he refused to listen to the pastor deputed to
-minister to him, and the attendants had much difficulty in forcing
-him to kneel to receive the fatal stroke. He wrestled hard with the
-executioner, who, being a strong man, hurled him down on the scaffold
-and struck off his head at last, after a cruel hacking, due to his
-desperate struggles.
-
-For nearly a week after the death of the Admiral, Lady Jane remained
-alone with her attendants in the desolate house in the Strand. Then
-her father, Lord Dorset, came to London to take her back with him to
-Bradgate.
-
-On the Sunday after the execution, Hugh Latimer preached a sermon at
-Paul’s Cross which for bitterness and uncharitableness has never been
-surpassed. “This I say,” he remarked, “if they ask me what I think of
-the Lord Admiral’s death, that he died very dangerously, irksomely, and
-horribly.” “He shall be to me,” he furiously exclaimed, “Lot’s wife
-as long as I live. He was a covetous man--a horrible covetous man. I
-would there were no mo’ in England. He was an ambitious man. I would
-there were no mo’ in England. He was a seditious man--a contemner of
-the Common Prayer. I would there were no mo’ in England. He is gone. I
-would he had left none behind him.”
-
-The worst charge that posterity can bring against Somerset is not that
-he signed his brother’s death-warrant, but that he seized the dead
-man’s estates and even his wearing apparel, and despoiled his orphaned
-child, the infant daughter of Katherine Parr.[149]
-
-Princess Elizabeth learnt the death of the courtier she “loved most”
-with a composure singular for so young a lady, simply remarking that he
-was over clever--“a man of the greatest wit and the least judgment.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-THE EDUCATION OF LADY JANE
-
-
-The extraordinary revival of letters in Italy, France, and Germany at
-the close of the fifteenth century did not fail to influence English
-education, and especially that of high-born women. In this department
-the exclusively classical culture then in vogue, which barred many
-subjects now held of far greater importance, would undoubtedly be
-deemed unpractical and excessive for women nowadays. Modern literature,
-however, was then in its infancy, and apart from the classics there
-was little to read but crude if noble poetry, and some historical,
-theological, and legendary works of a very primitive sort. These soon
-palled, whereas, to the cultured mind, the classic authors presented,
-then as now, an ever-varying and delightful fund of information and
-amusement. Science, in the modern acceptation of the word, was in
-its infancy, and, in the opinion of the most learned persons of the
-day, the secrets of theology and Nature, and those of art as well,
-were embodied in the works of the ancients, and above all in the
-Holy Scriptures. A knowledge of Greek and Latin was thus supposed to
-give the key to all science. It was the fashion, too, for princesses
-and women of noble birth to be, or to pose as being, learned; and
-notwithstanding the political and religious convulsions of the reign of
-Henry VIII, a number of English ladies of the highest rank, following
-the example of their French and Italian sisters, devoted their leisure
-to studies usually left nowadays to that class of pedantic females
-whom we somewhat scornfully dub “blue-stockings.” This practice was
-not confined to women who had embraced the Reformed tenets. Many
-Catholics,--the daughter of Sir Thomas More and her learned friend,
-Margaret Clement, for instance,--deeply versed in studies of this
-description, enjoyed the dialogues of Plato, and may have laughed
-over the scorching epigrams of Martial and the stinging satires of
-Juvenal in the original, and even recognised their applicability to the
-society of their own times. Most of the women who surrounded Lady Jane
-Grey were pedants, and even her shallow-hearted mother had presumably
-acquired a fair knowledge of classical literature.
-
-But it was not till the young girl returned to Bradgate, after the
-death of Thomas Seymour, that the system of “cramming,” which was
-to give her, at the age of seventeen, a reputation as a marvel of
-erudition, began in grim earnest.
-
-Dorset, who had been summoned to London to attend the trial of his
-quondam friend, the Admiral, as a witness against him, retired to
-Bradgate in some despondency after its fatal termination. He and
-his wife felt they had been wasting their time over Thomas Seymour;
-they were conscious, too, that they were living under a cloud,
-for the revelation of their pecuniary interest in the transfer of
-their daughter to so notorious a scamp had produced a most damaging
-impression on the public mind. But the failure of their plans had not
-quenched their ambition. They took their luckless child back with them,
-and straightway set about preparing her to occupy the towering position
-they felt assured she would sooner or later be called to fill.
-
-Her education was forthwith entrusted to the celebrated Aylmer, a
-native of Leicestershire, whom Elizabeth made Bishop of London, to
-reward him for his scathing answer to John Knox’s pamphlet, _The First
-Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment_ [_i.e._ regimen =
-régime or government] _of Women_. Aylmer, at this time a good-looking
-man in his early thirties, was, so Bacon tells us, engaged as tutor to
-the daughters of the Marquis of Dorset at Bradgate. The new preceptor
-was in close correspondence with the Genevan Reformers, and it must
-have been through him that Jane became acquainted with the celebrated
-Bullinger and with John ab Ulmis, better known as Ulmer, a learned but
-destitute Swiss Calvinist, who visited Bradgate as early as the summer
-of 1550. He mastered the English language, and having been sent to
-pursue his studies at Oxford at the Marquis of Dorset’s expense, he
-spent his summer vacation at Bradgate, giving lessons in Greek and
-Latin to Lady Jane and her younger but less talented sister, Lady
-Katherine, and together with John Aylmer and Dr. Harding the Rector
-of Bradgate, superintended her classical and theological education. A
-somewhat crafty young man was Ulmer, skilled in the art of flattery,
-and much addicted to repaying solid benefits by empty compliments. He
-it was who urged Bullinger, his master, to dedicate his book, _The
-Holy Marriage of Christians_, to the Lord Marquis of Dorset, a rather
-venturesome act, seeing this nobleman was publicly credited with
-bigamy![150] Bullinger also presented the Marquis and the Lady Jane
-with a copy of his book, dedicated to Henry II of France, on Christian
-Perfection, for which the latter wrote to thank him in her father’s
-name on 12th July 1551. Her epistle is written in Latin, and may have
-been suggested and even edited by Aylmer: it also contains a Biblical
-quotation in Hebrew. The following extract from it gives a fair idea of
-how this child of fourteen addressed one of the most learned men of his
-time:--
-
- “From that little volume of pure and unsophisticated religion,
- which you lately sent to my father and myself, I gather daily, as
- out of a most beautiful garden, the sweetest flowers. My father
- also, as far as his weighty engagements permit, is diligently
- occupied in the perusal of it: but whatever advantage either of
- us may derive from thence, we are bound to render thanks to you
- for it, and to God on your account; for we cannot think it right
- to receive with ungrateful minds such and so many truly divine
- benefits, conferred by Almighty God through the instrumentality
- of yourself and those like you, not a few of whom Germany is now
- in this respect so happy as to possess. If it be customary with
- mankind, as indeed it ought to be, to return favour for favour,
- and to show ourselves mindful of benefits bestowed; how much
- rather should we endeavour to embrace with joyfulness the benefits
- conferred by divine goodness, and at least to acknowledge them with
- gratitude, though we may be unable to make an adequate return!
-
- “I come now to that part of your letter,” continues Lady Jane,
- “which contains a commendation of myself, which as I cannot claim,
- so also I ought not to allow; but whatever the Divine Goodness may
- have bestowed on me, I ascribe only to Himself, as the chief and
- sole author of anything in me that bears any semblance to what is
- good; and to Whom I entreat you, most accomplished sir, to offer
- your constant prayers in my behalf, that He may so direct me and
- all my actions, that I may not be found unworthy of His so great
- goodness. My most noble father would have written to you, to thank
- you both for the important labours in which you are engaged, and
- also for the singular courtesy you have manifested by inscribing
- with his name and publishing under his auspices your Fifth Decade,
- had he not been summoned by most weighty business in His Majesty’s
- service to the remotest parts of Britain; but as soon as public
- affairs afford him leisure he is determined, he says, to write to
- you with all diligence.”
-
-Here follows an urgent request for a scheme for the study of the Hebrew
-language. She concludes:--
-
- “Farewell, brightest ornament and support of the whole Church of
- Christ; and may Almighty God long preserve you to us and to His
- Church!--Your most devoted
-
- “JANA GRAIA”[151]
-
-Besides these visitors, the Lady Frances appears to have been the
-friend and patroness of a learned Protestant, Nicholas Udall, the
-famous stenographer. She was even guardian to his daughter, for a
-letter from her to Cecil still preserved at Hatfield begs she may be
-relieved of this responsibility, as the young lady is about to be
-married.
-
-Late in the autumn of 1549, within six months of Seymour’s execution,
-the celebrated Roger Ascham came on a visit to Bradgate. He too has
-been described as tutor to Lady Jane, but this is a mistake; he was
-preceptor to the Princess Elizabeth. As one of the leading lights of
-his time, he was already well known to the Marquis of Dorset, and
-passing through the neighbourhood on his way to attend Rutland and
-Morysone on an embassy to Charles V, conceived it his duty to pay his
-respects to the great man’s family.
-
-Walking through the beautiful park at Bradgate, on his way to the
-Hall, the visitor came upon the Marquis and his lady, with all their
-household, out hunting. When the cavalcade halted to greet him, Ascham
-inquired for the Lady Jane, and was told she was at home in her own
-chamber. He begged leave to wait upon her, a favour readily granted,
-and found her in her closet “reading the _Phædon_ of Plato in Greek,
-with as much delight as gentlemen read the merry tales of Boccacio.”
-Much surprised, he asked the young student “why she relinquished such
-pastime as was then going on in the park for the sake of study?”
-
-With a smile, Jane replied, “I think all their sport in the park is but
-a shadow to that pleasure I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never
-felt what true pleasure means.”
-
-“And how attained you, madam,” inquired Ascham, “to this true knowledge
-of pleasure? And what did chiefly allure you to it, seeing that few
-women and not many men have arrived at it?”
-
-[Illustration: ROGER ASCHAM’S VISIT TO LADY JANE GREY AT BRADGATE
-
-AFTER THE PAINTING BY J. C. HORSLEY, R.A.]
-
-“I will tell you,” replied Lady Jane, “and tell you a truth which
-perchance you may marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that God
-ever gave me, is that He sent me, with sharp, severe parents, so gentle
-a schoolmaster [Aylmer]. When I am in presence of either father or
-mother, whether I speak, keep silent, sit, stand or go, eat, drink,
-be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else,
-I must do it, as it were in such weight, measure and number, even as
-perfectly as God made the earth, or else I am so sharply taunted, so
-cruelly threatened, yea, presented sometimes with pinches, nips and
-bobs and other things, (which I will not name for the honour I bear
-them), so without measure misordered, that I think myself in Hell,
-till the time comes when I must go with Mr. Aylmer, who teacheth me so
-gently, so pleasantly, and with such pure allurements to learn, that
-I think all the time of nothing whilst I am with him [that is to say,
-“the time passes pleasantly when I am with him”]. And when I am called
-from him, I fall to weeping, because whatever I do else but learning is
-full of great trouble, fear, and wholesome misliking unto me. And this
-my book, hath been so much my pleasure, and bringing daily to me more
-pleasure and more, that in respect of it, all other pleasures in very
-deed be but trifles and troubles to me.”
-
-Poor solitary little girl! We of this matter-of-fact age can but feel
-more of pity than admiration, as down the long vista of four and a half
-centuries we picture her sitting alone, poring over the _Phædon_--dull
-reading, one would imagine, for a child, even to one so harried by the
-ill-temper of her weak father and her sharp-tongued mother, “whether
-she stood still or moved about, was merry or sad, sewed or played,”
-that she felt herself “in Hell” until Mr. Aylmer called her to her
-studies!
-
-Ascham’s story throws a very unpleasing sidelight on the conduct of
-Lady Jane Grey’s parents and their harsh treatment of the child, and
-proves, moreover, the sort of forcing system to which she was being
-subjected. Ascham tells us that he mentions this interesting interview,
-which he introduces into his _Schoolmaster_, because it was the last
-time he ever saw “that sweet and illustrious lady,” and also as a
-protest against the exceeding severity of the teaching of those times.
-It is curious to note, as her historian, Howard, observes, that whilst
-her parents were handling her like a froward child, this extraordinary
-young lady was in active correspondence with such famous men as Ascham,
-Conrad Pellican, Bullinger, and Sturmius, who all treated her with the
-respect due to a grown-up woman of uncommon sagacity and experience.
-The only explanation of this fact is the supposition that these
-worthies, foreseeing Lady Jane might possibly occupy the throne, and
-anxious to promote the cause of the Reformation in every possible way,
-may have placed her on a higher pedestal than her immature talents
-deserved. They certainly flattered her father, of whom they spoke and
-wrote as being well-nigh apostolic in zeal and sanctity, and a marvel
-of light and learning to boot.
-
-At the age of fourteen, then, Lady Jane was fairly conversant with
-Latin and Greek,[152] and with or without the aid of a dictionary
-managed to derive some entertainment from Plato. But when we are told
-that she had mastered Hebrew, and at the age of seventeen was forming
-the acquaintance of “the tongue of Chaldea” and “the language of
-Arabia,” we are inclined, with Sir Harris Nicolas, to be sceptical.
-Her Greek and Latin may have been, and very likely were, thoroughly
-mastered. Several letters in these languages are attributed to her and
-are possibly of her own unaided composition, but even in these we note
-that her style and phraseology in many cases closely resembles that
-of Demosthenes or Cicero, whom she evidently imitated. In one of her
-letters, written on 12th July 1551, to Henry Bullinger, she says, “I
-am beginning to learn the Hebrew tongue,” and asks him to give her a
-method whereby she may pursue her course of study in that language to
-the greatest advantage. Bullinger sent the plan, and in another letter
-she thanks him and says she will enter upon the study of the Hebrew
-language in the method which he so clearly directs. As this letter is
-dated July 1552, and her brief career ended in the following year,
-her proficiency in the language of the prophets was probably not very
-considerable.
-
-That poor Jane Grey was “crammed” there can be no question, and the
-wonder is her weak health did not collapse altogether under the strain.
-The figurehead of a party she was to be, however, and it was necessary
-that extravagant reports of her learning should be spread throughout
-her own country and among the Protestants in foreign lands.
-
-Lady Jane Grey at this period, surrounded by learned men and women
-so much older than herself, appears strained, even artificial, but
-later, in her culminating misery, she displays a dignity, a sweetness
-of nature, and a pious sincerity which render her worthy of her fame.
-Her few compositions which have come down to us, most of them written
-during the last days of her life,--her prayer, for instance, the letter
-to her sisters, and the lines which, according to tradition, she
-scratched on the walls of her cell,--are full of feeling, and lead us
-to regret that so fine a nature should not have been spared to adorn
-mature womanhood as perfectly as its unaffected simplicity graced her
-short maidenhood. Yet there was a strain of obstinacy and even of
-coarseness in Jane’s character which leads one to think that after all
-she might, had she remained Queen, have displayed in later life many of
-the less pleasing peculiarities of her Tudor ancestors.
-
-A very curious letter, written to Lady Jane Grey by Ascham early in
-1552, while he was still at the Court of Charles V, throws considerable
-light on the subject of her studies; it has also led some authorities
-to imagine the learned man had actually fallen in love with his fair
-pupil. “In this my long peregrination, most illustrious lady,” says
-he, “I have travelled far, have visited the greatest cities, and have
-made the most diligent observations in my power on the manners of the
-nations, their institutions, laws, and regulations. Nevertheless, there
-is nothing that has raised in me greater admiration than what I found
-in regard to yourself during the last summer, to see one so young and
-lovely, even in the absence of her learned preceptor, in the noble hall
-of her family, in the very moment when her friends and relatives were
-enjoying the field sports, to find, I repeat--oh, all ye gods!--so
-divine a maid, diligently perusing the _Phædon_ of Plato, in this more
-happy, it may be believed, than in her royal and noble lineage.
-
-“Go on thus, O best adorned virgin, to the honour of thy country,
-the delight of thy parents, the comfort of thy relatives, and the
-admiration of all. Oh, happy Aylmer! to have such a scholar, and to
-be her tutor. I congratulate both you who teach and she who learns.
-These were the words to myself, as to my reward for teaching the most
-illustrious Elizabeth. But to you too I can repeat them with more
-truth, to you I concede this felicity, even though I should have to
-lament want of success where I had expected to reap the sweetest fruits
-of my labours.
-
-“But let me constrain the sharpness of my grief which prudence makes
-it necessary I should conceal even to myself. This much I say, that I
-have no fault to find with the Lady Elizabeth, whom I have always found
-the best of ladies, nor indeed with the Lady Mary, but if ever I shall
-have the happiness to meet my friend Aylmer, then I shall repose in his
-bosom my sorrows abundantly.
-
-“Two things I repeat to thee, my friend Aylmer [Aylmer was evidently
-at Bradgate at this period], for I know thou wilt see this letter,
-that by your persuasion and entreaty the Lady Jane Grey, as early as
-she can conveniently, may write to me in Greek, which she had already
-promised to do. I have even written lately to John Sturmius, mentioning
-this promise. Pray let your letters and hers fly together to us. The
-distance is great, but John Hales will take care that it shall reach
-me. If she even were to write to Sturmius himself in Greek, neither you
-nor she would have cause to repent your labour. [The “neither you nor
-she” points clearly to collaboration.]
-
-“The other request is, my good Aylmer, that you would exert yourself
-so that we might conjointly preserve this mode of life among us. How
-freely, how sweetly, and philosophically then should we live! Why
-should we, my good Aylmer, less enjoy all these things, which Cicero,
-at the conclusion of the third book, _De Finibus_, describes as the
-only rational mode of life? Nothing in any tongue, nothing in any
-times, in human memory, either past or present, from which something
-may not be drawn to sweeten life!
-
-“As to the news here, most illustrious lady, I know not what to write.
-That which is written of stupid things, must itself be stupid, and, as
-Cicero complains of his times, there is little to amuse or that can be
-embellished. Besides, at present, all places and persons are occupied
-with rumours of wars and commotions, which, for the most part, are
-either mere fabrications or founded on no authority, so that anything
-respecting Continental politics would neither be interesting nor
-useful to you.
-
-“The general Council of Trent is to sit on the first of May,” continues
-Jane’s correspondent, “Cardinal Pole, it is asserted, is to be the
-president. Besides there are the tumults this year in Africa, their
-preparation for a war against the Turks, and then the great expectation
-of the march of the Emperor into Austria, of which I shall, God
-willing, be a companion. Why need I write to you of the siege of
-Magdeburg, and how the Duke of Mecklenburg has been taken, or of that
-commotion which so universally, at this moment, afflicts the miserable
-Saxony? To write of all these things, I have neither leisure, nor would
-it be safe; on my return, which I hope is not far distant, it shall be
-a great happiness to relate all these things to you in person.
-
-“Thy kindness to me, oh! most noble Jane Grey, was always most grateful
-to me when present with you, but it is ten times more so during this
-long absence. To your noble parents, I wish length of happiness, to you
-a daily victory in letters and in virtue, and to thy sister Katherine,
-that she may resemble thee, and to Aylmer, I wish every good that he
-may wish to Ascham.
-
-“Further, dearest lady, if I were not afraid to load thee with the
-weight of my light salutations, I would ask thee in my name to salute
-Elizabeth Astley, who, as well as her brother John, I believe to be
-of my best friends, and whom I believe to be like that brother in all
-integrity and sweetness of manners. Salute, I pray thee, my cousin,
-Mary Laten, and my wife Alice, of whom I think oftener than I can here
-express. Salute, also, that worthy young man Garret and John Haddon.
-
-“Farewell, most noble lady in Christ.
-
- R. A.”
-
- “Augustæ”
-
- “18th January, 1551”
-
-When we consider that this letter was addressed to a girl who was not
-yet fifteen years of age, making due allowance for the high-flown style
-of the times, we can only conclude that there was some politic motive
-for a mode of address so injudicious in its flattery, so fulsome and so
-extravagant even for that age of courtly adulation.
-
-Lady Jane Grey spent the better part of the years 1550-1551 and 1552 at
-Bradgate, improving her mind by hard study, and patiently submitting
-to the “nips” and petty tyranny of her mother. At one time she seems
-to have commenced the study of such music as was then in vogue. This,
-Ascham promptly assured her was a frivolous occupation, unworthy of
-a godly maiden. In a very curious letter, dated 23rd December 1551,
-Aylmer writes from London to Bullinger concerning the Lady Jane,
-begging him to write to her direct and seek to influence her to give up
-practising music so zealously.
-
- “It now remains for me,” writes the worthy Reformer, “to request
- that, with the kindness we have so long experienced, you will
- instruct my pupil in your next letter as to what embellishment
- and adornment of person is becoming in young women professing
- godliness. In treating upon this subject, you may bring forward
- the example of our King’s sister, the Princess Elizabeth, who goes
- clad in every respect as becomes a young maiden; and yet no one is
- induced by the example of so illustrious a lady, and in so much
- Gospel light, to lay aside, much less look down upon, gold, jewels,
- and braidings of the hair. They hear preachers declaim against
- these things, but yet no one amends her life. Moreover, I would
- wish you to prescribe to her (the Lady Jane) the length of time
- she may properly devote to the study of music. For in this respect
- also, people err beyond measure in this country, while their
- whole labour is undertaken, and exertions made, for the sake of
- ostentation.”
-
-We can see by this letter, presumably written with a view to the great
-object all these men kept in their hearts,--that of influencing Jane in
-the event of her becoming Queen,--that they were endeavouring to make a
-narrow-minded bigot of her, and it is equally certain that the Princess
-Elizabeth was just then playing the part of the discreet and modest
-maiden. It is very amusing to find this wily Princess, whose reputation
-was already the reverse of good, held up as an example to innocent Jane
-Grey. The unhappy child was not even to practise on her virginals in
-peace, or dress as she chose, but to follow the example of Elizabeth,
-forsooth! Could Ulmer and Pellican have seen in a vision the three
-thousand dresses and the sixteen hundred wigs which were to adorn the
-wardrobe of the lady they were setting up as a model to their simple
-music-pupil! Even in matters of religion, Elizabeth at this early stage
-of her career showed a remarkable discretion, neither siding with nor
-offending either party. She was a pious Catholic in the company of her
-sister Mary, and an equally edifying Protestant at the Court of her
-brother, Edward VI.
-
-In June 1551, after a lengthy absence, the Dorsets returned to their
-town mansion. They came to London for the purpose of examining the
-vast estate which the Lady Frances had inherited from the two sons
-of her father, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by his fourth wife,
-Katherine Willoughby. These two brothers died at Bugden Hall, Cams., of
-the sweating sickness, within four hours of each other, and the bulk of
-their wealth, excepting the Duchess’s dower, fell to the Lady Frances,
-whose husband, in September of the following year (1552), was raised
-to the rank of Duke of Suffolk. The Dorsets now lived very sumptuously
-in London, and with a view, perhaps, of pleasing the King and pushing
-forward the interests of the Lady Jane, whom they still fondly hoped
-would become Queen-Consort, they invited a number of English and
-foreign Reformers, at this time living in exile in London, to their
-house.
-
-The Marquis, who was an enthusiastic admirer of Conrad Bullinger, had
-on more than one occasion exhorted him to correspond with his daughter,
-Lady Jane. In a letter addressed to that eminent Reformer in December
-1551, he says: “I acknowledge myself also to be much indebted to you
-on my daughter’s account, for having always exhorted her in your godly
-letters to a true faith in Christ, the study of the Scriptures, purity
-of manners, and innocence of life, and I earnestly request you to
-continue these exhortations as frequently as possible.”
-
-A letter of another Reformer--namely Ab Ulmis--gives us some
-interesting glimpses of the Reformation movement in England. He says:
-“You will easily perceive the veneration and esteem which the Marquis’s
-daughter entertains towards you, from the very learned letter she has
-written to you. For my own part, I do not think there ever lived any
-one more deserving of respect than this young lady, if you regard her
-family; more learned, if you consider her age, or more happy if you
-consider both. A report had prevailed, and has begun to be talked of by
-persons of consequence, that this most noble virgin is to be betrothed
-and given in marriage to the King’s Majesty. Oh! if that event should
-take place, how happy would be the union and how beneficial to the
-Church.... Haddon, a minister of the Word, and Aylmer, the tutor
-of the young lady, respect and reverence you with much duty and
-affection. It will be a mark of courtesy to write to them all as soon
-as possible. Skinner is at Court with the King. Wallack is preaching
-with much labour in Scotland,” and so on. Ascham, in a letter to
-Sturmius, describes Jane as excelling in learning Lady Mildred, Cecil’s
-accomplished wife. She is, says he, the most learned woman in England.
-“I hear you have translated the Orations of Æschines and Demosthenes
-into Latin. I pray you dedicate the work to this peerless lady.”
-
-These and other letters still extant prove, if proof were needed,
-that Aylmer, Ulmer, and Ascham, assisted by Pellican, Sturmius, and
-Bullinger, were at this time hard at work, preparing their future Queen
-and patroness for the position they fondly hoped she would one day
-occupy. Hales, too, was assisting them,--“Club-footed Hales,” as he
-was called--an English lawyer who had visited Switzerland and adopted
-the tenets of the Geneva sect; he is described as “fanatical, learned,
-and ill-tempered.” He was a frequent visitor at Suffolk House and
-Bradgate, and in after times was much involved in the troubles of poor
-Lady Katherine Grey, Jane’s youngest sister. Further quotation from
-these letters is unnecessary; they are all written in the same style
-of pedantic flattery, and throw more light on passing events than most
-people would imagine, although the epistolary literature of this period
-is verbose, and as a rule uninforming. We can imagine, however, that
-the meetings at Suffolk House were exceedingly picturesque, and many
-will marvel that only one painter of note, M. M. P. Comte, has ever
-given us a picture of the youthful Lady Jane Grey seated among the
-doctors of the Reformed faith, in the noble Gothic hall of a mansion
-second to none in the old city for its architectural magnificence.[153]
-
-The monotony of Jane’s life of close study was frequently interrupted
-by long journeys on horseback, or in cumbersome waggons, to pay
-various country visits. Late in 1551, the Greys established, for some
-reason or other, a close intimacy with the Princess Mary, and this
-notwithstanding their religious differences. With increase of wealth
-and station, Jane’s parents became more worldly than ever. Perceiving
-that Edward VI, who began to show signs of consumption, might not live
-long, and that the Crown might after all pass to her Catholic Grace,
-they wisely considered it prudent to be on the right side of a lady who
-was probably destined to become their sovereign. Accordingly they paid
-the Princess as many as four visits in a single year.
-
-In the summer of 1551, Jane came very near losing her mother, Duchess
-Frances, who fell ill of a violent fever. The sick lady, who was at
-Richmond, sent for her daughter Jane from Bradgate, “to help nurse
-her.” Suffolk describes her illness in the following quaint terms
-in a letter explaining her absence from Court addressed to the Duke
-of Northumberland’s secretary, Cecil, whom he styles his “cousin
-Cycell”: “This shall be to advertise you, that my sudden departure
-from Court was for that I have received a letter of the state my wife
-was in, and I assure you she is mo’ like to die than not. I never saw
-sicker creature in my life. She hath three sicknesses, the first is
-a hot burning nague [ague] that doth hold her four and twenty hours,
-the other is the stopping of the spleen, the third is hypochondriac
-passion. These three being enclosed in one body, it is to be feared
-that death must needs follow.” But it did not “follow”; by the
-beginning of October, the Lady Frances was better, and in November she
-was sufficiently convalescent to attend the entry into London of the
-Scottish Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, and be present at the festivities
-consequent on that rather unexpected royal visit.
-
-Early in November 1551, Jane appeared at King Edward’s Court for
-the first time, and took a prominent part in these merry-makings.
-The Scottish Queen-Regent, Mary of Guise, had recently arrived at
-Portsmouth from France, on her way to the dominions of her unfortunate
-daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, and wrote begging the English King’s
-licence to pass through his dominions. This was readily granted; and a
-pressing invitation to visit the Metropolis was sent to the Regent, and
-willingly accepted. On 2nd November, she proceeded by water to Paul’s
-Wharf, and thence rode in great state through the City. She lodged in
-the Bishop of London’s house, where she was entertained with regal
-hospitality, and, according to Stowe’s _Annals_, was supplied with
-“beefs, muttons, veales, swans, and other kinds of poultry meates, with
-fuell, bread, wine, beare, and wax.”
-
-The first interview of King Edward VI with the Scottish Queen took
-place on 4th November, at Westminster Palace. She rode in her chariot
-from the City to Whitehall, attended by the Lady Margaret Douglas,
-cousin to the King, and Countess of Lennox, the Duchesses of Richmond
-and Suffolk, the Lady Jane Grey, and many other noble ladies, including
-the Duchess of Northumberland.
-
-The Queen and the King dined alone together; but the Duchess of
-Suffolk, the Duchess of Northumberland, and the Lady Margaret Lennox,
-together with the Ladies Jane and Katherine Grey, dined, we are told,
-in the Queen’s hall, and were sumptuously entertained. Neither the
-Princess Elizabeth nor the Princess Mary attended these festivities.
-They were not in favour at this time and had not been invited.
-
-The banquet must have taken place at the hour we usually devote to
-luncheon, for at four the Queen, having visited the galleries and
-state apartments of the Palace, then considered “show places,” left
-Westminster, and, accompanied by her escort of nobles and ladies, rode
-once more through the City to her lodgings in the Episcopal Palace.
-
-On the following day (5th November), she made a solemn progress through
-the City, riding from St. Paul’s, through Cheapside and Bishopsgate, to
-Shoreditch, whence she took the high road for her own dominions. She
-was accompanied by a great train of nobility, among them the Duchess of
-Suffolk and her daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, and that fateful Duke of
-Northumberland who was destined to bring ruin on the unfortunate Jane
-and her father. Northumberland had in his train one hundred horsemen,
-of whom thirty were gentlemen clad in black velvet, guarded with white,
-and wearing white hats with black feathers.
-
-As soon as this state visit, mentioned with considerable delight by
-King Edward in his _Journal_, was over, the Lady Frances and her
-daughters returned to Bradgate.
-
-In the middle of November the Ducal party set out again for Tylsey,
-the seat of Suffolk’s young cousin and ward, the heir of Willoughby
-of Woollaton. From here they went on a visit to Princess Mary. A very
-curious MS. account book, still in the possession of the Willoughby
-d’Eresby family, shows that, on 20th November 1551, “ten gentlemen came
-from London to escort my Lady Frances’s grace to my Lady Mary’s grace,
-and they all left Tylsey after breakfast, the Lady Frances, accompanied
-by her daughters, the Lady Jane, the Lady Katherine and the Lady Mary,
-and repaired to my Lady Mary’s grace.” Whilst on this visit to Princess
-Mary, who was then at her town house, the former Priory of St. John
-of Jerusalem, in Clerkenwell, the Dorset family received handsome
-gifts, as appears from the Princess’s expense book: “Given to my cousin
-Frances beads (_i.e._ ‘rosary’) of black and white, mounted in gold”;
-“To my cousin, Jane Grey, a necklace of gold, set with pearls and small
-rubies.” In return, the Lady Jane presented Mary with a pair of gloves.
-
-In the first days of December, the two younger daughters returned to
-Tylsey, but the Duchess and Lady Jane stayed on in London, for the
-Lady Jane, we are told, remained with the Princess at her house in
-Clerkenwell.
-
-On 16th December, the Duke came to Clerkenwell to escort Jane and her
-mother back to Tylsey. There they seem to have spent a merry Christmas
-in the company of the Lords Thomas and John Grey. The Duke of Suffolk,
-in honour of his young wards the Willoughbys, and in their name, threw
-open the gates of Tylsey to all such of the county gentry as chose to
-seek hospitality within them. A company of players was ordered from
-London, together with a wonderful boy, who “sang like a nightingale,”
-besides a tumbler and a juggler. These were presently supplemented by
-another band of players, belonging to the Earl of Oxford, who acted
-several pieces. Open house was kept until 20th January 1552, when the
-whole family proceeded to Walden, to spend some days with the Duke’s
-sister, Lady Audley,[154] whose husband, Lord Audley, or Audrey, was
-created Lord Chancellor by Henry VIII and presented with the house
-and property of the London Charterhouse, as an acknowledgment of his
-infamous treatment of Anne Boleyn. The record of the doings at Tylsey
-is in an account book kept by “old Mr. Medeley,” husband of the heiress
-of Willoughby’s grandmother and a trustee. This book was lent to Miss
-Agnes Strickland, who says--in her _Tudor and Stuart Princesses--Lady
-Jane Grey_--that Medeley “kept a very thrifty notation of all that
-was spent in ‘man’s meat’ and ‘horse’s meat’ on these journeys;
-likewise the payments of the players who were to assist in spending
-the Christmas with the ‘godliness and innocence’ dwelt upon with such
-unction” by Suffolk and by the Reformers.[155] After the visit to
-Walden, the Lady Frances and her brood went back to Tylsey for about a
-week, at the end of January 1552.
-
-These cross-country journeys, even if sometimes broken by two or three
-days’ stay in one place, must have been extremely fatiguing to so
-young and delicate a girl as Lady Jane. The Duke of Suffolk and the
-Lady Frances being of the blood royal, travelled with a great escort,
-as many as a hundred to a hundred and fifty horsemen, scouts, etc.,
-preceding and following their horses and waggons, otherwise called
-“chariots.” If the weather was fine, equestrian travel was exceedingly
-pleasant: the canter through the leafy lanes, the midday picnic under
-the greenwood tree, and the evening meal in some picturesque inn,
-full of Shakespearean character, the bustling, bowing and curtseying
-host and hostess, the rustic waiters and grooms, the flicker of
-lamp and candle light, the glowing wood fire, the sanded floor, the
-shining pewter, and the savoury baked and roasted meats, all combined
-to make up a scene of primitive comfort, entirely absent from the
-great and sumptuous hostelries of our own time, in which luxury often
-predominates over more solid qualities of entertainment. But when
-pouring rain turned the ill-kept roads into quagmires, when the nipping
-airs of autumn and winter whistled through the skeleton branches of
-the trees, or the snow lay feet thick on the ground, and the keen
-wintry winds whistled over the frozen rivers and streams, then must
-the welcome glow cast by the crackling fires within the inn parlours
-have made them, however humble, appear so many havens of celestial
-refuge to the Lady Frances, her husband, her daughters, and her
-merry men and women. Since there were no other means of locomotion
-in those days, a specially swift and steady steed, or a particularly
-well-cushioned waggon, must have been considered with much the same
-sense of satisfaction as we bestow now on a new type of motor-car or
-a specially well-appointed railway train. Our immediate forbears were
-by no means dissatisfied with the old stagecoaches that transported
-them from one end of the kingdom to another in a week or ten days;
-sailing in luxurious airships which will have so reduced the bulk of
-the globe that from being “a vastie sphere” it will have become a mere
-overgrown orange--“from London to Rome in less than an hour; London
-to New York in three!”--our descendants will try to imagine how it
-was ever possible for us to travel by train and motor--so slow and
-uncomfortable! And thus we and our civilisation may presently come to
-be looked upon with the same sort of good-natured disdain we now bestow
-upon the social conditions and travelling arrangements of the days of
-“My Lord à Suffhoke.”
-
-It may well be that all this hard riding in bad weather and the
-unwonted dissipations of Christmas at Tylsey proved too much for Lady
-Jane, for in February 1552, Ab Ulmis writes to his friend Bullinger:
-“The Duke’s daughter has recovered from a severe and dangerous illness.
-She is now engaged in some extraordinary production, which will
-very soon be brought to light, accompanied with the commendation of
-yourself. There has lately been discovered a great treasure of valuable
-books: Basil on Isaiah and the Psalms in Greek, ... Chrysostom on the
-Gospels, in Greek; the whole of Proclus; the Platonists, etc.... I
-have myself seen all these books this very day. The Duke of Suffolk,
-his daughter, (the Lady Jane), Haddon, Aylmer, and Skinner, have all
-written to you.”[156]
-
-These literary treasures were probably found in several parcels of old
-books purchased about this time by the Marquis from an Italian merchant.
-
-In March 1552, Lady Jane, then at Bradgate, sent Bullinger’s wife a
-present of gloves, and a ring. A month later, Ulmer returned from
-Switzerland, whither he had been sent on a mission, and brought with
-him a letter from Conrad Pellican, which Jane immediately answered. In
-Pellican’s _Journal_, still preserved at Zurich, we find the following
-marginal note: “June 19th, 1552-3, I received a Latin letter, written
-with admirable elegance and learning, from the most noble virgin, Lady
-Jane Grey, of the illustrious house of Suffolk.” This letter is lost.
-
-Early in July 1552, Lady Jane went with her parents to Oxford,[157]
-and, almost immediately afterwards, repeated her visit to Princess
-Mary, now at Newhall--a visit fraught with much evil, if we may believe
-the accounts which have come down to us, from, it must be admitted,
-rather suspicious sources; that is to say, from Aylmer and Ascham, both
-eager to represent Jane as even more Protestant than she really was.
-
-Newhall Place, Princess Mary’s chief country seat, had formed part,
-in days gone by, of the possessions of Waltham Abbey, and had been
-exchanged with Sir John de Shadlowe by the monks in the reign of Edward
-III for three other properties. Its most illustrious occupant in
-pre-Reformation times had been the unfortunate Margaret of Anjou. After
-her capture by the Yorkists it was confiscated by the Crown, and was
-eventually granted by Henry VII to Bottler or Butler, Earl of Ormond,
-who fortified the mansion and enlarged it. It passed, as a dower, to
-Sir Thomas Boleyn, grandfather of Queen Anne Boleyn, and he exchanged
-it with Henry VIII, who took a great fancy to the place, and changed
-its name to Beaulieu. The monarch stayed here on one occasion, at
-least, with Anne Boleyn, so that Mary Tudor may have found a few of the
-personal belongings of her mother’s chief foe, when she took possession
-of the house which Henry bestowed on her towards the end of his reign.
-She made it her favourite abode, principally on account of its gardens,
-which are often mentioned in the Household Books of the period, as
-supplying the royal palaces of London with fruit and vegetables--the
-cherries and grapes being considered particularly fine. Elizabeth, who
-did not care for Beaulieu,--its association with her mother and sister
-must have been painful to her,--presented it to Radcliffe, Earl of
-Suffolk. He sold it to “Steenie,” Duke of Buckingham, who let the place
-fall into such ruin that its value so decreased that Cromwell was able
-to buy it for “five shillings and no more!”
-
-In Mary’s day it was still a fine old Gothic mansion of the
-ecclesiastical type, with three lofty towers and a magnificent hall,
-containing a huge chimneypiece and a broad staircase leading to the
-upper apartments. In the chapel was that famous window made at Dort
-in Flanders by order of Henry VII, and now the chief ornament of St.
-Margaret’s, Westminster. The furniture at Newhall, the inventory of
-which is still extant, was extremely magnificent, and included many
-sets of costly tapestries, hangings of velvet and Florentine brocades,
-Turkey carpets and inlaid bedsteads and chairs. The chief artistic
-treasure of the house, however, was a superb portrait of Mary herself
-by Holbein, and another of the King her father by the same great
-painter. These two portraits remained at Newhall until the beginning of
-the seventeenth century, when we lose trace of them, but the portrait
-of Mary is not improbably the one now in the possession of the Duke of
-Norfolk, and that of King Henry, that which is in the possession of
-Lord Leconfield at Petworth House.
-
-A state visit to Newhall must have been conducted on similar lines
-to such a function at Sandringham or Windsor in our times, being a
-singular mixture of extreme simplicity and extreme stateliness. The
-Princess herself, who, had her life been cast in a less exalted
-sphere, would have been a kindly woman, had a deep hearty voice and a
-cheery welcome, which endeared her to all who approached her; yet an
-observation made by Lady Jane Grey to Lady Wharton proves that every
-time anyone passed before her Grace, they made obeisance by falling on
-one knee, as if she had been the Host on the altar. Meals were served
-somewhat after the French fashion: a very light breakfast at what we
-should consider an unearthly hour--six in summer, seven in winter--a
-heavy dinner at eleven, and supper at eight. All sorts of sports and
-pastimes--hawking, tennis, horse-riding, hunting--served to pass
-the intermediate time, and in the evenings there was card-playing,
-boisterous games, and dancing. Before retiring for the night, prayers
-were said, and a loving cup full of spiced wine was passed round, the
-Princess putting her lips to it before passing it, with a blessing, to
-her guests. We may take it for granted that during the visit of the
-Marquis and Marchioness, notorious Protestants, religious controversy
-did not enter into the conversation at Newhall. To do her justice, Mary
-at this time at least was very free from bigotry; two of her favourite
-ladies, Lady Bacon and Lady Brown, were Protestants, and her friendship
-for the imprisoned Duchess of Somerset and her daughters never failed
-so long as she lived--and yet the Duchess was an ardent “Gospeller.”
-That the Princess enjoyed a little “flutter” at cards is proved by her
-household books, and as the Marquis was an excellent card-player, no
-doubt “Ombre”--a game introduced into England by the Spaniards whilst
-Katherine of Aragon was Queen--served to pass the evening, together
-with “Gresco,” “Mountsaint,” “Newcut,” and “Lansquenet.” Lady Jane and
-her little sisters may have joined in the romping game of “Trump,” a
-noisy round game like our “Old Maid,” in which, on the appearance of
-a certain card, everybody slapped their right hand on the table and
-cried out “Trump!” those who failed to do so paying a trifling fine.
-“Gleke,” a primitive sort of whist, was also greatly in fashion; and at
-this game, we may be sure, the Lady Frances was prudent enough to lose
-fairly large sums to her august cousin, whose hot Spanish temper was
-apt to be ruffled when the tide of fortune turned against her.
-
-It was during this visit that the Princess Mary presented the Lady
-Jane with a rich dress, and Jane, willing to practise some of the
-precepts which she had received from Zurich, asked the lady by whom
-her cousin sent the gown, what she was to do with it? “Marry,” replied
-the lady, “wear it, to be sure!” “Nay,” replied the Lady Jane, “that
-were a shame, to follow the Lady Mary, who leaveth God’s Word, and
-leave my Lady Elizabeth, who followeth God’s Word.” This anecdote was
-recorded by her tutor, Aylmer, long years after this world had closed
-on Jane--at a moment, in fact, when Elizabeth did not thank him at all
-for reminding her subjects of the Puritan style she had affected in her
-youth. Another incident, which may be more certainly placed during this
-Newhall visit, shows the cousins at issue on those points of belief
-then so hotly debated. Lady Wharton, a fervent Catholic, crossing the
-chapel with Lady Jane Grey when service was not proceeding, made her
-obeisance to the Host as they passed the altar. Lady Jane asked “if the
-Princess were present in the chapel?” Lady Wharton answered that she
-was not.
-
-“Then why do you curtsey?” demanded Jane.
-
-“I curtsey to Him that made me,” replied Lady Wharton.
-
-“Nay,” retorted the Lady Jane, “but did not the baker make him?”
-
-Lady Wharton repeated this remark to the Princess, “who never after
-loved the Lady Jane as she did before.”
-
- NOTE.--The London residence of the parents of Lady Jane Grey was,
- in her early days, the house in Whitehall overlooking the Thames
- and known as Dorset Place; but, after the death of the two sons
- of the Duke of Suffolk, the Lady Frances inherited Norwich House,
- Strand, which Henry VIII had confiscated from the Bishops of
- Norwich, and exchanged with his brother-in-law for Suffolk Place,
- Southwark, which he converted into a mint. Norwich House now became
- generally known as Suffolk House. Here the Greys lived in great
- state, possibly abandoning their other residence in Whitehall for
- the larger and more sumptuous residence. The Lady Frances, after
- the execution of her husband, sold Suffolk House to the Percys and
- it presently became known as Northumberland House, and, altered
- from a Tudor to a Jacobean mansion, it remained a prominent feature
- of London street architecture until early in the second half of
- the last century, when it was pulled down for the improvements at
- Charing Cross.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-JOHN DUDLEY, EARL OF WARWICK
-
-
-Immediately after the execution of Thomas Seymour, John Dudley steps
-forward on the lurid stage of this history. If Seymour was a rascal,
-Dudley, son of a rascal, was even worse. Divested of his magnificent
-habiliments and picturesque surroundings, this man was a far meaner and
-more sordid ruffian than was ever my Lord of Sudeley--more devilish in
-his cunning and, if anything, more unscrupulous.
-
-John Dudley was the son of that notorious Edmund Dudley who, under
-Henry VII, had remorselessly plundered the public coffers, and so
-earned the execution which fell to his lot in the first years of Henry
-VIII’s reign--on 28th August 1510, to be precise. In common justice,
-it is fair to say that this Dudley of evil repute was highly esteemed
-by his most illustrious contemporary, Sir Thomas More; and we may
-believe him to have been much calumniated, like many other men of his
-time. Dugdale says Edmund Dudley was the son of a carpenter,[158] and
-the assertion is somewhat supported by the fact that although he was
-born twenty years before the death of the Lord Dudley whom he asserted
-to be his grandfather, that gentleman would never acknowledge him.
-His real patronym was Sutton, but he assumed that of Dudley after his
-acquisition of the ancient castle of that name, and the expulsion of
-its rightful owner, who fled abroad. On the gates of the Castle, Edmund
-affixed his own arms, together with those of the ancient houses of
-Someries and Malpas, from which he claimed descent. He was at one time
-Sergeant-at-Law and at another Speaker of the House of Commons, and
-married Lady Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Edward Grey, Viscount
-Lisle, a collateral of the great house of Grey, and the same young
-lady to whom Charles Brandon was contracted and who, as we have seen,
-refused to carry out her side of the engagement.
-
-The John Dudley of these pages was born about 1502, the eldest of three
-brothers, who, after their father’s ignominious death, were placed
-under the guardianship of Sir Edward Guildford. The latter fought
-valiantly to obtain some part of the father’s ill-gotten property for
-his wards, and their possessions were further increased at the death of
-their mother, a considerable heiress. Being a handsome, dashing young
-fellow, the father’s bad reputation was soon forgotten, and his gay
-son John, as Viscount Lisle, was a prominent figure at Court in the
-last half of Henry VIII’s reign. In his early years he was a good deal
-in France with Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, the Lady Frances’s
-father, who knighted him at Vian, in Normandy. John Dudley’s wife, Jane
-Guildford, whom he married when he was a mere lad, contrived to absorb
-his affections so completely that his domestic life was remarkably
-respectable. She was a very beautiful woman, and part heiress of his
-former guardian, Edward Guildford, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
-She bore him a numerous and handsome family, and her behaviour in
-clinging to her husband during his hour of danger, and making desperate
-efforts to save him, was rare at this strange period. With all her good
-qualities, however, she was cordially disliked by Lady Jane Grey, whom
-she treated with consistent harshness.
-
-As Viscount Lisle,[159] John Dudley worked his way up legitimately
-enough until he was nominated Lord High-Admiral and Master of the Horse
-(1542) to Henry VIII. Although at heart a Catholic, he sided with the
-Seymours against the Howards, and thus--for ambition’s sake--came to
-be numbered among the chiefs of the Protestant party at Edward VI’s
-coronation, and was then created Earl of Warwick. His ambition was now
-well fired--he must become _aut Cæsar, aut nullus_, and this he could
-only achieve by ousting the two Seymours and taking their place. Like
-most of his contemporaries, he was essentially an opportunist--_un
-arriviste_, as the French would say. For some years he worked like a
-rat in the dark, waiting his opportunity: first he nibbled at Thomas
-Seymour’s good fame--what there was of it!--and then cunningly set
-brother against brother. Patiently, subtly, he gnawed on till he
-saw Thomas ascend the scaffold; then he promptly undermined Edward
-Seymour’s credit with King and people. His aim was to become Lord
-Protector himself, to reach at supreme power by fair means or foul.
-
-[Illustration: JOHN DUDLEY, DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND
-
-FROM AN ENGRAVING BY G. VERTUE]
-
-Soon after the death of his brother, Thomas, Somerset began to totter.
-The Admiral’s execution had produced a bad effect. Hardened as men were
-in those ferocious times, there were yet certain ties of consanguinity
-which might not be violated with impunity; and so, although
-Elizabeth did write to her sister Mary, that “had the brothers met,
-the Lord Admiral would have been saved,” it was none the less the hand
-of Cain that signed his death-warrant. The people said so openly. They
-had not forgotten the dreadful carnage that had marked Edward Seymour’s
-return, through Scotland into England, on the occasion of his first
-Scotch expedition.[160]
-
-If the horrors perpetrated by Somerset himself during that expedition
-were execrable, those committed with his knowledge and connivance in
-the same forlorn country under Edward VI were even more atrocious. That
-“varmint” Lennox, the husband of the Lady Margaret, niece of Henry
-VIII, was his chief agent. Reeking corpses of men, women, and little
-children marked the passage of the English troops to and from the
-Border lands. Thus the Lord Protector’s reputation in the North was of
-the worst--“his very name stank of blood.”[161]
-
-Dudley had not, therefore, so much difficulty as might be thought in
-undermining his formidable rival’s position, towering though it was. In
-many ways, Somerset had proved himself a failure, and he had already
-lost much of his popularity, even among Protestants, who were none too
-sure of his loyalty--was he not the friend of Mary and the avowed enemy
-of Elizabeth? By the large Catholic party he was, of course, entirely
-and heartily detested.
-
-He was not a Calvinist, although he maintained an active correspondence
-with Calvin, but a Church of England man of the “Low Church”
-description, a hater of ecclesiastical ritual and formality, and,
-incidentally, a born iconoclast. The statement that no man or woman was
-persecuted or burnt for religious opinions under his rule, is hardly
-exact. There are more ways than one of killing a dog--or of persecuting
-an opposing faith. True, the fires of Smithfield were quenched for
-the time being, but Catholics and Anabaptists were made to feel they
-were outside the law, and the prisons were crowded with men and women
-of those persuasions, and of every social grade.[162] The cathedrals
-and parish churches were cleared of their sacred images, their plate,
-their rood-lofts, and their art treasures; even their frescoed
-walls were whitewashed. Stained glass was smashed, because it bore
-“idolatrous pictures,” and replaced by plain glass or horn. Even dead
-men’s tombs were overthrown, and the bodies cast “into filthy ditches
-and fields beyond the city.”[163] In a word, the artistic treasures
-of centuries were within a few months dispersed, destroyed, or sold
-to a throng of Jews, who flocked to England to seize so splendid an
-opportunity. Somerset pulled down three or four episcopal palaces, the
-beautiful North Cloister of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Churches
-of St. Mary-le-Strand and St. John’s, Clerkenwell, for the sake of
-their building materials, which he used for his own new and almost
-royal residence in the Strand. He gave orders for the demolition of
-St. Margaret’s, Westminster, and but for the angry protests of the
-indignant parishioners, his command would have been obeyed. There
-was another cause of discontent, which has been much neglected
-by historians, namely, the doctrinal changes, which necessarily
-greatly altered outward observances, much to the disgust of the older
-generation, who saw the destruction of the cherished traditions of a
-thousand years, and the desecration of their most sacred social usages.
-Their pageants, pilgrimages, and processions were now paralysed; and it
-was an offence deemed worthy of imprisonment, ay, even of burning, to
-pray for the dead, or to retain the rosary the dying mother had given,
-with her last blessing, on her death-bed.
-
-The average Englishman is apt to think of the Sixth Edward’s reign
-as an era of peace and plenty, during which, to the applause of the
-entire nation, the Book of Common Prayer was formulated by Cranmer,
-and the churches emptied of “hated and idolatrous images and symbols.”
-In reality, it was one of the most disastrous epochs in the whole
-of our history. Froude, in a passage of uncommon brilliance, sums
-up the appalling effect, after a lapse of fifteen years, of Henry
-VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries and hospitals. With singular
-vividness he depicts the extreme misery to which the lower orders
-were reduced; the high roads and country lanes rendered dangerous
-by hordes of starving and half-naked men and women, who a few years
-previously had been in fairly comfortable circumstances, earning a
-living wage from the now banished masters of abbeys and priories.
-Now the poor wretches roved in fear and trembling, begging food and
-shelter; or, driven desperate by want, committing deeds of violence.
-Dr. Latimer, in his _Royal Sermons_, puts his unfailing finger on the
-right spot when he remarks that “the misery the people were enduring
-was entirely due to the new order of things. My father,” he continues,
-“was a yeoman who lived comfortably, educated his children, served
-the King, and gave to the poor, on a farm the rent of which has been
-increased fourfold since, so that his successor in the farm has
-become a pauper in consequence.” Then, turning upon the Seymours,
-the Pagets, and others of their kind, who had enriched themselves
-out of the ecclesiastical spoils, he thundered: “I fully certify you
-as extortioners, violent oppressors, engrossers of tenements and
-lands, through whose covetousness villages decay and fall down; and
-the King’s liege people, for lack of sustenance, are famished and
-decayed.... You landlords, you rent-raisers, I may say, you step-lords,
-you unnatural lords, you have for your possessions yearly too much!
-The farm that was some years back from £20 to £40 by the year, is now
-charged to tenants at from £50 to £100.... Poor men cannot have a
-living, all kinds of victuals are so dear. I think, verily, that if it
-thus continue, we shall at length be obliged to pay twenty shillings
-for a pig. If ye bring it to a pass the yeomen be not able to put their
-sons to school, ye pluck salvation from the people, and utterly destroy
-the realm.”... “In those days,” he says in another sermon, “they [the
-monks] helped the scholars. They maintained and gave them living. It is
-a pitiful thing to see schools so neglected; every true Christian ought
-to lament the same. To consider what has been plucked from abbeys,
-colleges, chantries, it is a marvel that no more is bestowed upon this
-holy office of salvation.... Scholars have no exhibition. Very few
-there be who help poor scholars, or set children to school to learn the
-Word of God, and make provision for the age to come. It would pity a
-man’s heart to hear what I have of the state of Cambridge.... I think
-there be at this day [1550] one thousand students less than were within
-twenty years, and fewer preachers.”
-
-The enclosure, too, by their new owners, of the vast tracts of lands,
-which had formerly belonged to the abbeys and priories, for the
-purpose of cattle rearing, instead of corn growing--as hitherto--(wool
-being at a premium) had thrown thousands of agricultural labourers
-out of employment; and soon the large cities, London, Bristol, and
-York, were crowded with poor creatures seeking work, only to meet
-with flat refusal from the citizens, who were angered and alarmed by
-so considerable an addition to that pauper population whose hapless
-descendants still form the bulk of the very appropriately styled
-“Submerged Tenth” of our times. This rapid increase of an undesirable
-class soon resulted in a marked debasement of the lowest orders, and so
-bad did the state of morals in the capital become, that Ridley, Bishop
-of London, preached more than one sermon on the subject, and, in a
-book entitled _The Lamentation of England_, gives a hideous picture of
-the rising tide of “immorality, crime, drunkenness, hatred and scorn
-of religion and its ministers amongst the people.” Domestic chastity
-was held at a discount and reviled, and adultery was so common, even
-in the highest ranks, that the Privy Council spoke of bringing the
-question of prohibitive measures before Parliament. The Protector
-himself had set aside his first wife, Catherine Ffoliot, although she
-had borne him a son, on no valid pretext, legal or otherwise, in order
-to marry the higher born Anne Stanhope--the temper of this Stanhope
-lady was so peppery that he went in fear and trembling, and this led
-his contemporaries to say “he had got rid of a dove to saddle himself
-with a scorpion.” Henry, son of William, Earl of Pembroke, divorced
-Katherine, daughter of Henry, Duke of Suffolk (Lady Jane’s younger
-sister), to marry Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Sydney. The Earl of
-Northampton, Katherine Parr’s brother, divorced Anne, daughter of the
-Earl of Essex, when he married Lord Cobham’s daughter Elizabeth. Even
-Lady Jane Grey’s own legitimacy was disputed; and the matrimonial
-adventures of her grandfather Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, have already
-been mentioned.
-
-The wickedness of the upper classes[164] spread downwards, and, coupled
-with intense poverty, made “London worse than Babylon of old.”
-
-Well might honest old Latimer cry out to the King, in one of his most
-interesting sermons (preached in 1550 at Paul’s Cross), “For the love
-of God take an order for marriage here in England.” Cecil also protests
-against the prevailing looseness of morals: “Sacrilegious avarice
-ravenously invaded Church livings, colleges, chantries, hospitals,
-and places dedicated to the poor, as things superfluous. Ambition and
-emulation among the nobility, presumption and disobedience among the
-common people, grew so extravagant, that England seemed to be in a
-downright frenzy.” Hear Bishop Burnet also on the same subject: “This
-gross and insatiable scramble after the goods and wealth that had been
-dedicated to good designs, without applying any part of it to promote
-the good of the Gospel, and the instruction of the poor, made all
-people conclude that it was for robbery and not for reformation that
-their zeal made them so active. The irregular and immoral lives of many
-of the professors of the Gospel gave their enemies great advantage
-to say that they ran away from confession, penance, fasting, and
-prayer, only to be under no restraint, and to indulge themselves in a
-licentious and dissolute course of life. By these things, that were but
-too visible in some of the most eminent among them, the people were
-much alienated from them; and as much as they were formerly against
-Popery, they grew to have kinder thoughts of it, and to look on all
-the changes that had been made, as designs to enrich some vicious
-characters, and to let in an inundation of vice and wickedness upon
-the nation.” To stem this rising tide would have been a task for a
-great statesman; Somerset was not a great statesman, for, though many
-of his intentions were good, his methods were primitively violent. He
-thought himself capable of repressing the inevitable result of the evil
-wrought by Henry VIII and his followers by force of arms, and by laws
-which, even in those days, chilled men with horror. To put down the
-vagabondage in the country districts,--a consequence of the disbanding
-of the great crowd of abbey retainers,--he signed a decree whereby “Any
-man or woman found suspiciously near any house, or wandering by the
-highways, or in the streets of any city, town, or village, for three
-days together, without offering to work, or running away from their
-labour, may be brought by the master, or any other person, before two
-justices of the peace [these] having the power of the statute law to
-exercise the said power by burning into his or her breast with a hot
-iron the letter V, and to adjudge him or her to be the slave of the
-informer, to have and to hold the said slave to him, his executors or
-assigns, for the space of two years, only giving the said slave bread
-and water.” The “slave” was to be made to work by blows or chains. In
-the event of his disappearing for the space of fourteen days without
-leave, he could be punished by chaining up and beating, “and if he [the
-owner of the slave] chose to prove the fault by two witnesses before
-the justices, they shall cause such slave to be marked on the forehead,
-or the ball of the cheek with a hot iron, with the sign of an S, that
-he may be known for a loiterer, and [the justices] shall adjudge the
-runaway to be the said master’s slave for ever.” The penalty of a
-second escape from slavery was death by hanging “from the nearest tree,
-if violent.” Any one was permitted to take children between five and
-fourteen years of age from any wanderer, whether they were willing or
-not, and if the child ran away from his master the latter had the power
-“to keep and punish the said child in chains, or otherwise, and use him
-or her as his slave in all points,” up to the age of twenty at least.
-The master of a grown-up slave had the right, under section 4 of this
-law, “To let, set forth, sell, bequeath, or give the service of such
-slaves to any person or persons, whatsoever.” The law further empowered
-an owner of slaves “to put a ring of iron about his neck, arm, or leg,
-for a better knowledge and surety of keeping him.” Aiding a slave to
-escape was punished by the forfeiture of ten pounds by the person so
-doing. These and other evils too numerous to detail helped to fan the
-flame of popular discontent.
-
-Presently the counties began to rise, the people of Devonshire and
-Cornwall flew to arms to vindicate the rights of conscience. They
-would have back the religion which their forefathers had held for a
-thousand years. They demanded that the “Six Articles” should be put in
-force. The men of Cornwall refused the Book of Common Prayer, because,
-they alleged, they could not speak English, and could not understand
-it, while they were accustomed to the Latin Mass, which they had been
-trained from infancy to comprehend. Down into the West went Lord
-Russell (“Swearing Russell”), dispatched by the Lord Protector. He
-behaved “more like a wild beast than a human being”--as abominably as
-Lennox in Scotland. Hooper, who went with him to preach to the rebels,
-describes his massacres as “the most horrible butcheries of brave men
-that ever did happen in this world.” Russell’s dispatches do not in
-any way minimise the horrors he perpetrated, and “our men,” he says,
-“are daily supplied with large numbers of sheep and fowl from the
-places where the farmers and squires forfeited such property by their
-obstinate adherence to the Popish Mass, and other superstitions.” Some
-three thousand men and several hundreds of women are said to have
-suffered death in the fight for freedom of conscience in Devonshire.
-The central counties rose too, and there were terrible riots in
-Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Derbyshire, and Huntingdonshire.
-
-But it was in Norfolk that the grandest demonstration against the
-tyranny of the central Government occurred. It commenced at Aldborough,
-and at first seemed a matter of little consequence; but the rumours
-of what had happened in Kent, where new enclosures had been broken
-down, greatly inflamed the people from one end to the other of the
-eastern counties. There was little of the religious element in the
-revolt, although two-thirds of the people, at least, still adhered
-to the old faith, but now religious differences were set aside, and
-Catholics and Protestants stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight for
-what we should call liberty. At first the mass of the people were
-without a leader, but they soon found one in the person of an honest
-tanner, named Robert Ket.[165] It fell out on the 6th July 1549, at
-Wymondham, near Norwich, where many folk were watching, on a small
-stage erected in the market-place, a sort of “mystery,” that the
-actors touched sarcastically upon the leading events and scandals of
-the day. Ket, who was present, leapt on to a barrel, and delivered a
-rough and ready oration on burning topics, every word of which told,
-and roused the enthusiasm of his audience to a very delirium. In a
-surging, motley crowd, his hearers followed him from Wymondham to
-Mousehold Heath, near Norwich, a desolate sweep of country commanding
-glorious views, immortalised in later times by a Crome or a Vincent.
-Hereabouts, on an elevation, grew a stalwart oak, beneath which Ket and
-his men encamped, and where he held Courts of Justice, of Common Pleas,
-Chancery and King’s Bench, “even as in Westminster Hall.” With a high
-and generous sense of freedom, he allowed the orators, not only of his
-own, but of the opposition party, to harangue the multitude from this
-tree of liberty, which was now called “the Oak of Reformation.” The
-venerable tree had become a rostrum, and all who had anything to say
-scrambled into it. Aldrich, Mayor of Norwich, preached thence against
-the iniquities of Somerset’s rule. Clergymen and priests, parsons
-and ex-monks, made a rough pulpit of it. Matthew Parker, afterwards
-Archbishop of Canterbury, climbed into its branches one day, and
-harangued the mob “on the unwisdom of their attempt,” and the ruin they
-were sure to bring on themselves and their families. He would have done
-better to hold his peace; no one listened to him. So great was the
-crowd on Mousehold Heath, it looked on occasions like a surging sea of
-heads, and sometimes, as in Hyde Park in our times, separate groups of
-lecturers and hearers formed at a distance from the tree.
-
-Suddenly, on July 31st, a glittering figure bearing the Royal Arms of
-England, rode into the midst of Ket’s camp--his white horse sheathed
-like himself in steel, a plume of white feathers nodding on its head.
-In a loud voice the man in the “coat-of-arms” proclaimed a free
-pardon to all present in that multitude, if they “would depart to
-their homes.” Some, weary of the business and only seeking an excuse,
-turned their backs on the oak, and trudged citywards; but Ket and the
-larger mass held their ground, saying they wanted no pardon, having
-committed no offence--they only craved justice, and that was the
-right of every Englishman. They were true subjects of the King, they
-said, and had done him no harm--all they needed was justice, justice!
-Turning his back on the tanner and the ancient oak, the glittering
-herald scattered the people right and left, as he galloped away across
-heath and common, dissolved into the mist like a meteor. When he had
-vanished, Ket, fearing a treacherous surprise, called his merry men
-together, and marched into Norwich, where they once more encountered
-the royal messenger, who again offered them his master’s pardon. Ket
-replied as disdainfully as ever, and the gorgeous official departed,
-whilst the rebels, having seized all the arms and ammunition they
-could find, returned to their camp on Mousehold Heath. To Court sped
-the herald, and the Protector, alarmed at the turn of events, sent a
-force of fifteen hundred horsemen, under the Marquis of Northampton,
-and some Italians led by a _condottiére_ named Malatesta, against the
-malcontents. These troops entered Norwich, but Ket and his men were
-able to drive both Northampton and the Italian out of the city, in a
-fight in which “fell Lord Sheffield and several gentlemen; so that now,
-blood being up on both sides, the town was set fire to and plundered.”
-Hearing this news, the Protector ordered another army of eight
-thousand men, two thousand of whom were Germans, who were on their
-way to Scotland under the Earl of Warwick, to turn southward, march
-on Norwich, and disperse the rebels. After some resistance, Warwick
-entered the city, only to be so fiercely assailed on every side that it
-was as much as he could do to hold his ground. Ket galloped off towards
-Dossingdale; but Warwick’s troopers came after him, and 3500 of his
-men were cut to pieces. Yet another massacre followed, in which many
-of the royal forces were killed. Ket was captured at last, and hanged
-without ado, on the walls of Norwich Castle, his brother William (who
-had been a black monk of the Hospitallers of St. John)[166] was swung
-from the steeple of Wymondham Church, and nine of the ringleaders of
-the rebellion were hanged on the “Tree of Reformation.” In the course
-of this expedition, Warwick saw enough to convince him that every town
-and village, farmstead and cottage, from the borders of Cambridge to
-the sea, was a hotbed of rebellion, and that the names of Somerset and
-Warwick had become loathed bywords.
-
-Such a state of internal strife, combined with foreign defeat, made up
-an aggregate of confusion which only a statesman of the highest genius
-could attempt to quell. Somerset, a man of indifferent education, even
-if of the best intentions, was quite unequal to the task. His natural
-defects of character--his love of power and money, his contempt for the
-ancient traditions of the country, his hatred of the religion of his
-ancestors, his prejudices and his inveterate habit of scheming, now
-began to occupy the malicious attention of his enemies, who felt the
-time for striking the decisive blow, which should crush his power for
-ever, was drawing nigh.
-
-Their plans were served by Warwick’s reception in London as a
-conquering hero, recognised by the metropolis as a successful and able
-leader. His ambitious views were well seconded by old ex-Chancellor
-Wriothesley, who had a personal grudge against Somerset, and who now
-took up his would-be rival as a promising instrument for his revenge.
-Durham House presently became the rendezvous of a great number of the
-older nobility, who were discontented with the new régime; and here
-they plotted and schemed, with one great object in their hearts--the
-overthrow of Somerset and the exaltation of Warwick. The Londoners,
-too, were against the Protector. Boulogne had been lost mainly through
-his blundering policy, and the French war had been notoriously
-unsuccessful. Moreover, when Warwick demanded extra pay for some two
-hundred soldiers who had assisted in quelling the Ket rebellion, and
-other risings, Somerset, unconsciously playing into his enemy’s hands,
-refused the request, and the mercenaries, naturally incensed against
-the Protector, held themselves ready to aid Warwick without compunction.
-
-Realising in some measure--especially after the defection of Pembroke
-and Winchester to Warwick’s party--that, unless he made some effort,
-his position would soon become altogether untenable, Somerset
-metaphorically entrenched himself and his family behind the person
-of the King at Hampton Court, and thence began to defy Warwick and
-his followers, so that, about September 1549, the Court of England
-was divided into two distinct camps--Warwick and the Council at Ely
-Place, Holborn; the Protector and the principal members of his party,
-Cranmer, Sir John Thynne, his secretary, Sir Thomas Smith, Cecil,
-Paget, and Petre, at Hampton Court, where King Edward was held in a
-state bordering on captivity. Then Somerset set to work to limit the
-power of his sovereign as much as possible, so as to have him on his
-own side in the struggle with Warwick, which was now beginning in
-earnest. On the ground that Warwick was bribing the Court lackeys to
-spy on the King, the royal attendants at Hampton Court were removed and
-replaced by Somerset’s own men. No one could approach His Majesty’s
-person save through the Protector. A stop was put to all those games
-and sports in which the little King delighted, on the score of his
-health, and the lad was made to feel himself so completely a prisoner,
-that he alludes sadly to the matter in his “Diary.” Meanwhile the Duke
-himself assumed almost regal rank, styling himself “By the Grace of
-God Lord Protector of the Realm, Highness”; using a prayer in which he
-is described as being “called by Providence to rule”; addressing the
-French King as “brother,” a title hitherto exclusively employed by the
-anointed monarch; and, as a climax, offending the nobility by taking
-a seat in the House of Lords above his peers. In October, he issued a
-proclamation, commanding all the King’s loyal subjects “to repair with
-all haste to His Highness at His Majesty’s Manor of Hampton Court,
-in most defensible array, with harness and weapons, to defend his
-most royal person, and his entirely beloved uncle the Lord Protector,
-against whom certain have attempted a most dangerous conspiracy. And
-this do in all possible haste. Given at Hampton Court the 5th day of
-October in the 3rd year of his most noble reign.”[167] Hundreds of
-copies of this document were distributed all over London; and Lord
-Edward Seymour, the Protector’s son, was dispatched with letters in the
-King’s name to Lord Russell and Sir William Herbert, who were still
-in the West, stamping out the rebellion, commanding them to hasten
-to the aid of the King and himself, with all the troops they could
-muster. These worthies, who would seem to have had personal grievances
-against Somerset,[168] promptly threw in their lot with Warwick’s
-party, promising assistance, and sending to Bristol for cannon for
-that purpose. Somerset now set the printing-presses to work to
-distribute thousands of handbills, calling on townsfolk and villagers
-to rise and “protect the King and the Lord Protector,” “because he
-[the Lord Protector] is the friend of the poor and the enemy of their
-oppressors.” The Lord Mayor and Corporation were also commanded to
-dispatch a thousand men to Hampton Court, and the Lieutenant of the
-Tower received orders to close the gates of that fortress and refuse
-admission to members of the Council. On 5th October, Petre was sent
-to London to interview Warwick and the Council. He found them at Ely
-Place; but as Petre, thinking all lost, did not return to Hampton
-Court, the Protector never got any answer to his message. At the same
-time, the Council sent letters to the chief nobles throughout the
-country, demanding their aid and dilating on Somerset’s misdeeds.
-Within a few days, the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and the Lieutenant
-of the Tower had all turned traitors to the Protector, and promised
-Warwick their support.
-
-Hampton Court, put into a state of defence,[169] assumed the aspect
-of a fortress; the moat was filled up, the gates were fortified,
-and every battlement and tower was made ready in case of danger.
-Five hundred suits of armour were brought out of the armoury for the
-palace servants, much to the delight of King Edward, who watched the
-preparations. A vast crowd assembled round the palace, and in the
-neighbourhood; and the Protector, hoping that a sight of the King might
-rouse it to loyalty, led him into the Base Court, where the soldiers
-were drawn up to receive him. The stricken youth[170] appeared, leaning
-heavily on his uncle’s arm, with Archbishop Cranmer, Paget, and Cecil
-behind him; the heralds sounded their trumpets, and as the flare of the
-torches--for it was an autumn evening--flashed on their armour, the
-troops greeted his sickly Majesty with three times three cheers. From
-the Base Court the King and his escort passed over the stone bridge
-across the moat in front of the great gate, where a motley throng was
-gathered. Presently silence was obtained, and gradually the mumble of
-many voices was hushed, as the young King’s feeble tones struck on the
-still evening air, asking humbly, “I pray you be good to us and to
-our uncle.” Then Somerset made a speech, pleading in such stupid and
-selfish fashion for himself and the King that the rude crowd listened
-with impatience, and gave no cheers when he had finished. Mortified and
-disappointed, the Protector and the King turned their backs on the mob,
-and silently re-entered the palace. The people round Hampton Court were
-more bitter against Somerset than he imagined. Their grievance was not
-abstract and national, but local; they could not forget that it was
-Somerset who, in the first year of King Edward’s reign, had dechased
-Hampton Court Chase.
-
-Seeing himself unable to inspire the people with anything like
-enthusiasm for their sovereign (or for himself), Somerset determined
-on more vigorous action, and on 7th October, the King, despite his
-“rewme,” was hurried to Windsor, at nine or ten o’clock at night.
-Thence the Protector wrote to the Council, asking what had become of
-Petre, and why no answer had been vouchsafed to his message, adding,
-“that if any violence was intended to the King’s person, he would
-resist till death.” Negotiations by letter continued for some days,
-and there was even an interview on 12th October at Windsor, between
-Warwick’s group and the Protector. On the following day, a number of
-charges were promulgated against Somerset, and the once all-powerful
-“Lord Protector of these Realms” was arrested and confined for the
-night in Windsor Castle. Next day he was conducted to the Tower,
-whither most of his adherents and associates in the Hampton Court
-adventure had preceded him; and he had the mixed pleasure of being
-received _en route_ by his quondam friend the Lord Mayor, who had
-lately turned traitor to his cause. Meanwhile Edward, very glad, no
-doubt, to be rid of so austere and troublesome an uncle, returned from
-Windsor to Hampton Court, and appointed Warwick Lord Great Master and
-Lord High-Admiral. So far, John Dudley’s plot had prospered.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII
-
-THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF SOMERSET
-
-
-In the earlier stages of his struggle for power, when he felt himself
-insecure with the Protestant party, Warwick had endeavoured to secure
-Catholic support by promising the old religion a satisfactory amount
-of freedom; but no sooner was he safe in his saddle, during Somerset’s
-imprisonment (1549-50), than he became its inveterate enemy. The
-Protector had made an effort to liberate Gardiner, but Warwick kept
-him more closely confined than ever. During the new ruler’s term of
-office, the internal disorders of the country continued as acute, in
-every detail, as under Somerset’s régime; all military works fell
-into decay, no new ships of war were built, fortifications came to a
-standstill, and many troops were disbanded. The coinage was debased,
-though the Protector had worked hard to improve it; the tribunals were
-as corrupt as at any period. To ensure the passing of his vigorous
-religious measures, and carry on his administration, Warwick “packed”
-both Parliament and Council with his own staunchest followers. It was
-almost a piece of good fortune for him when Somerset was released
-from the Tower, for so great was the general dissatisfaction with his
-administration that he would probably have been overthrown in his turn.
-
-[Illustration: EDWARD SEYMOUR, DUKE OF SOMERSET
-
-FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PAINTING BY HOLBEIN]
-
-During the winter of 1549-50, Somerset, confined in the gloomy old
-fortress, was striving to retrieve his tottering fortunes. His
-first move was to sign (in December) a confession of “his guilt,
-presumption, and incapacity.” Early in January 1550, a bill, brought
-before Parliament and passed in both Houses, promised him his life,
-on condition that he forfeited his estates to the King, gave up his
-positions, and paid a fine of £2000 a year in land. He attempted to
-appeal against the extent of the forfeiture, but the Council grew so
-menacing that the fallen Protector, with visions, it may be, of
-Tower Hill and the block before his eyes, thought it best to pocket
-his grievance. So on 2nd February he wrote to the Council expressing
-his gratitude to the King for sparing his life and treating him so
-leniently. According to a letter from Ab Ulmis to Bullinger, dated from
-Oxford, 4th December 1551, Warwick generously made an effort to save
-the Duke by imploring him in court to throw himself upon the mercy of
-the King, which he did. On the 4th of that same month he was released,
-after giving a bond of £10,000 as a guarantee of good behaviour, and
-on the peculiar conditions that he should not go more than four miles
-away from the Council, nor yet come to the meetings unless summoned;
-further, if the King went near the palace at Sheen or Somerset’s own
-house at Sion (in one or other of which two places he was to abide),
-the former Protector was to depart instantly. The Duke’s full pardon
-was given on 16th February. At the same time, all those who had been
-imprisoned with him were released, after being mulcted in heavy fines.
-
-Immediately after his liberation Somerset joined the Court at
-Greenwich, and was shortly afterwards made a Privy Councillor! Indeed,
-before many months were over he had regained his former position and
-influence over the King so completely that Warwick considered it safer
-to become, at least publicly, reconciled to him. For this purpose
-he arranged a marriage between John, Viscount Lisle,[171] his own
-eldest son, and the Lady Ann Seymour, Somerset’s eldest daughter.
-This marriage took place on 3rd June (1550) at the royal palace at
-Sheen, and in the King’s presence. On the following day occurred yet
-another aristocratic wedding, also attended by His Majesty, that of
-Warwick’s third son, Sir Robert Dudley, afterwards famous as the Earl
-of Leicester of Elizabeth’s reign, with that renowned heroine of
-romance, Amy Robsart. Sir Walter Scott, in his _Kenilworth_, falls
-into the error--unless, indeed, he wilfully disregarded facts for the
-sake of artistic effect--of placing the scene of this marriage in
-Devonshire, and of describing it as clandestine. On the contrary, it
-was quite an open affair, mentioned by King Edward in his _Diary_ in
-the already quoted entry for 4th June 1550, relating to the cruel sport
-of duck-pulling. The King seems to have attended this wedding, but he
-was too ill to be present at the far more important marriages of his
-two cousins three years later. About this time, the summer of 1550, the
-ex-Protector’s forfeited lands were restored to him, and he was allowed
-to reconstitute his household as in the past.
-
-In February 1550 a proposal was brought before Parliament for the
-restoration of Somerset to the office and title of Lord Protector, and
-was only quashed by the prorogation of that body. He seemed in a fair
-way of regaining his old position of power, and the Dorsets, thinking
-no doubt that it would be well to be on friendly terms with him,
-began to bethink themselves once more of the old project of marriage
-between their eldest daughter, Lady Jane Grey, and young Hertford, who
-had once been on such intimate terms in their family circle that, as
-we have seen, the Lady Frances had on more than one occasion called
-him her “son.” She now wrote to Cecil[172] referring to some service
-Somerset had rendered her--this may have been her reason for reviving
-the matrimonial project--and stated incidentally that she much desired
-a match between his (Somerset’s) son and her daughter, but “that she
-wished to let the parties have their free choice.” Somerset does not,
-however, appear to have approved of the plan, for there is no evidence
-that he did anything now to further it, and when it was originally
-proposed he had allowed the matter to fall into abeyance. It is not at
-all improbable that the lady’s letter, if communicated to him, put him
-on his guard against traps such as the wily Dorsets might set for him
-and his son. The incident is not devoid of interest, as demonstrating
-how the Dorsets never ceased their intrigues and matrimonial schemes,
-and also how even Warwick’s best friends were none too sure of his
-eventual success, now his rival was again at large. The Dorsets were
-evidently anxious to have a foot in each camp; but this time they
-failed, and ended by falling back on Northumberland’s youngest son as a
-husband for the much-enduring Jane.
-
-Meanwhile, Warwick was contemplating, by no means complacently, the
-honours and favour heaped upon the rival for whose ruin he was only
-awaiting some favourable opportunity. His first chance of proving
-his unvarying hatred of the Protector came on 15th October of the
-year 1550, on the occasion of the death of the aged Lady Seymour.
-This event placed her son, as we have already seen, in a quandary--a
-State funeral, such as was due to the King’s grandmother, would have
-enabled Warwick to accuse him of a fresh assumption of regal dignity;
-a private funeral, on the other hand, might be maliciously construed
-into disrespect shown to the sovereign. Wherefore Somerset consulted
-the Council as to what should be done. The reply, as already mentioned,
-was that a State funeral was not at all necessary, nor even any formal
-Court mourning, since such observances served “rather to pomp than to
-any edifying,” an opinion peculiar to the Council, for in the preceding
-August a State funeral (that of Lord Southampton) had been organised
-with all possible “pomp.” This denial of the honour due to Lady
-Seymour’s remains did not, of course, proceed from any idea of economy
-or Puritanism, but merely from the Council’s desire to insult Somerset
-and his family. It was an opportunity neglected, for if Seymour had
-insisted upon a State funeral, the events of the following year might
-have been anticipated, and the accusation of usurping regal honours
-brought against him at once. Another curious fact in connection with
-this funeral is that Somerset--a shining light amongst Reformers--wrote
-to ask Gardiner to “offer up Mass for the health of his mother’s soul
-after her death” (!)[173]
-
-Another method adopted by Warwick was that already employed by Sudeley
-in his struggle with his elder brother, of spreading calumnies against
-his rival through the agency of a third person, and ensuring their
-reaching the King’s ears. After a time these tales began to make their
-impression on his juvenile Majesty, though Somerset, for his part, was
-working hard to recover the King’s favour entirely, and consolidate
-his own position. Rich, the Lord Chancellor, an infamous traitor,
-gave him his aid and acted as his spy, keeping him informed of every
-movement made by Warwick and his party. One of Rich’s letters on this
-subject, addressed merely “To the Duke,” was handed by mistake to the
-Duke of Norfolk, next to Warwick, Somerset’s bitterest enemy; thus
-each opponent had some idea of his adversary’s plans. Still, so subtle
-was Warwick’s work that there was no movement against Somerset visible
-enough to justify him in taking open measures; there was nothing for it
-but to bide his time, and do his best, meanwhile, to ingratiate himself
-with the King. In public, the rivals appeared the best of friends, and,
-to maintain this pleasant fiction, Somerset, on 11th October 1551,
-attended what must have been a painful ceremony to him--the investiture
-of Warwick with the title of Duke of Northumberland in the Great Hall
-of Hampton Court.[174] The mortification caused by this evidence of his
-rival’s growing power, a power he could not openly attack, must have
-been bitter indeed.
-
-Side by side with Northumberland’s intrigues, the national discontent,
-of which we have already given instances, and which had been
-intensified by Northumberland’s brief term of office, was a potent
-factor in the eventual ruin of the Protector: for we may be sure
-Somerset’s enemies took good care to father Northumberland’s misrule
-on his rival. It would be useless for our purpose, though easy indeed,
-to cite further and numerous instances of the universal disorder into
-which the realm had fallen. Suffice to say that the England of this
-period strongly resembled France under the Directory. Everything was
-upside down. The faith of the people had received a staggering blow,
-from which it would take nearly a hundred years to recover, and then
-only in a measure, for to this day the masses of the lowest class of
-the people of England remain in terrible darkness, alike indifferent to
-influences religious and moral. In the reign of Henry VII, and in the
-first years of Henry VIII, no hale man or woman dreamt of missing Mass
-on a Sunday: under Edward VI, Latimer complained that the churches were
-deserted, and Gardiner describes the lower classes as gradually falling
-into a state of paganism. This relaxation of religious observance
-influenced the popular morals, and in every class the domestic habits
-of the country were most disreputable. So bad was the condition of
-things, in fact, that Northumberland and his party came to realise that
-Somerset’s worst enemy was himself; in other words, that the general
-discontent and misery arising from his maladministration--or, to be
-just, in some cases from causes over which he had no control--furnished
-a more powerful argument against him than the spiteful inventions
-of his opponents. They must have felt confident that any blow they
-struck at him would meet with little or no opposition, but rather with
-encouragement from the people, who had turned the cold shoulder on his
-appeal at Hampton Court some two years previously.
-
-Accordingly, on 16th October 1551, the Duke of Somerset was suddenly
-re-arrested in the Council Chamber[175] at Hampton Court, and taken
-to the Tower to await his trial on charges made against him to
-Northumberland by Sir Thomas Palmer, “a brilliant but unprincipled
-soldier.” Palmer asserted that Somerset and his friends had plotted
-to raise the North of England against Northumberland; that he had
-intended to secure the Tower, to incite the populace of London to
-revolt, to seize the Great Seal, with the aid of the City apprentices,
-and, finally, to murder the Duke and his principal supporters at a
-supper in Lord Paget’s house. There would seem to have been but little
-truth in these charges; Northumberland at a later date, at any rate,
-confessed that they were fabrications, and Palmer, before his death,
-described them as the products of Northumberland’s fertile imagination.
-This second trial of the Lord Protector took place on 1st December in
-Westminster Hall. The judges were seven and twenty peers, amongst
-them all the prisoner’s enemies--Northumberland, Northampton, and
-Pembroke, with the Marquis of Winchester as President. The business
-was conducted with the unfairness which distinguished nearly all the
-political trials of this period; no witnesses for the prosecution were
-produced in person, but their depositions were read. The indictments
-accused Somerset of plotting to lay hands on Northumberland and others,
-to seize the Great Seal and the Tower, and to deprive the sovereign of
-his kingly power; he was also charged with having incited the citizens
-of London to rebel against the King. The official indictment made no
-mention of his supposed intention of assassinating Northumberland;
-neither was Paget, in whose house it was alleged the murder was to have
-taken place, ever tried for his share in the plot. This melodramatic
-accusation would, in fact, seem to have been entirely dropped at the
-last moment. Somerset, who denied the charges, was acquitted of treason
-on the first count, but found guilty on that of felony for inciting
-the citizens to revolt. There is ample evidence that he never did
-anything of the kind. Winchester, a few months back his enthusiastic
-ally, pronounced the death sentence on the unhappy man. Its effect upon
-him was sudden and staggering. He became pale, and fell upon his knees
-before Northumberland, Northampton, and Pembroke, who turned their
-backs whilst he besought the people to pray for him and his family. And
-so he was ordered back to the Tower to prepare for death. The count
-of treason not having been proved, the axe did not face the prisoner
-on the way back to his cell, and “the people, supposing he had been
-clerely quitt, when they see the axe of the Tower put downe, made such
-a shryke [shriek] and castinge up of caps, that it was heard into the
-Long Acre beyonde Charing crosse.”[176] This must have cheered him
-greatly. He may have thought and hoped that the people loved him still.
-
-King Edward is said to have expressed considerable anxiety on his
-uncle’s account, but his distress did not prevent him from indulging,
-according to his own statement, notwithstanding his delicate health, in
-exceptionally riotous Christmas festivities.[177] The popular joy over
-his acquittal on the charge of treason proved fatal to Somerset, for it
-convinced Northumberland more than ever of the necessity of destroying
-his rival. Holinshed sarcastically informs us that “Christmas being
-thus passed and spent with much mirth and pastime, it was thought now
-good to proceed to the execution of the judgment against the Duke of
-Somerset.” Notwithstanding the frequency of such events, the execution
-of so great a nobleman produced a considerable impression throughout
-London. Though every precaution was taken to prevent the assembling of
-an unusual crowd, Tower Hill was black with people long before dawn on
-22nd January 1552, the day of doom. The vast assembly had gathered in
-the expectation of the Duke’s reprieve rather than of his death. There
-was an extraordinary muster of halberdiers, men-at-arms, sheriffs and
-their officers. At eight o’clock Somerset was brought forth. He faced
-the axe manfully, knelt down and said his prayers, and then, rising
-to his feet, made a speech. Unlike most of his peers, he did not deny
-with his last breath the religion he had helped to promulgate; there
-was nothing he regretted less, said he, when on the brink of his bloody
-fate, than his endeavours “to reduce religion to its present state,
-and he exhorted the people to continue steadfast in the Reformation
-principles, and thereby escape the wrath of God.” Just as he was
-about, according to custom, to take formal leave of the crowd, great
-confusion was caused by the arrival of a body of soldiers with bills
-and halberds, who had received orders to attend the execution. Arriving
-late, these men dashed towards the scaffold, and their onrush, combined
-with some noise as of thunder,--“a great sound which appeared unto many
-above in the element as it had been the sound of gunpowder set on fire
-in a close house bursting out,”--terrified the mob, and an awful panic
-ensued: spectators standing on the edge of the Tower moat lost their
-balance and fell into the water, and not a few were trampled underfoot
-and others broke their necks. Presently, in the midst of the hubbub,
-during which Somerset was left so unguarded that, it is said, he might
-easily have escaped, Sir Anthony Browne was seen riding towards the
-spot. The mob, somewhat recovered from its consternation, imagined he
-was bringing a reprieve, and shouted, “A pardon, a pardon!” casting
-their caps and cloaks into the air. But Sir Anthony brought no message
-of mercy with him. The doomed Duke had been standing quietly on the
-edge of the scaffold, watching the turmoil. He too, when he heard the
-shouts of “Pardon!” imagined his nephew had remembered him; but he soon
-realised his error. The hectic colour which for a moment had flushed
-his cheeks with the gleam of hope faded as, in a ringing voice, he
-concluded his interrupted speech; and that done, he bestowed his rings
-on the headsman, said a few words to the Dean of Christchurch, bared
-his neck, knelt on the straw, and laid his head on the block. Another
-instant and the axe had fallen. Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and
-first Lord Protector of England, was buried in the Church of St.
-Peter-ad-Vincula within the Tower on the north side of the choir,
-between the coffins of the Queens Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard; the
-funeral rites were those of the Church of England, as then constituted,
-“but hurried and simple as for a pauper.”[178]
-
-The character of Edward Seymour has been the subject of much
-discussion; but it would seem fair to seek a _via media_ between
-the over-severe condemnation of some historians and the exaggerated
-praise of others. If we cannot exalt him to the high pedestal upon
-which he has been set by Mr. Pollard, we need not fall into the error
-of degrading him to the low level assigned him by eighteenth-century
-historians. Somerset must not be judged by modern standards. If the
-balance of good and evil in his character is considered, and we
-contemplate him by the light of the middle sixteenth century, we
-may even come to share the opinion of a large section of the London
-populace of his day--mostly those of the Protestant party, be it
-said--who looked on him as an admirable and God-fearing man,[179]
-who did his best to free the people from much of the superstition,
-oppression, and injustice from which it suffered. His faults, his
-ambition and lust of power, were very human; and the evils of his
-administration were largely due to the condition to which Henry VIII’s
-misrule had reduced the country. The age in which he lived was very
-unpropitious to statesmen and leaders of men, for, no matter how
-intelligent they might be, some rival lurking in the shade was sure to
-be ready to trip them up and take their place at the first opportunity.
-On the whole, Somerset seems to have worked for what he believed to be
-the interests of his King and the good of the Protestant religion, to
-which he was consistently faithful. His domestic life was clean, and in
-an age of place-hunters and libertines Edward Seymour was one of the
-most respectable men. Neither entirely mediocre nor altogether great,
-the Duke of Somerset may be described as _un grand homme manqué_--one
-who just missed greatness.
-
- * * * * *
-
-NOTE.--A long letter from a Reformer named Francis Burgoyne, written
-from London to John Calvin on 22nd January 1552, gives a most detailed
-account of the Duke of Somerset’s execution, and an analysis of his
-character which is of great interest. He says: “Hence arise our tears,
-hence arises the all but universal distress, that on this very day,
-about 9 o’clock, the Duke of Somerset of pious memory, when hardly
-any person looked for or suspected such an event, was led out publicly
-to execution. I myself was not present at the sight ... but many of
-my friends related to me what they had seen and heard.” Then follows
-a long account, given to Burgoyne by Utenhovius, of Somerset’s last
-speech, continuing that “he spake all this ... with a look and gesture
-becoming the firmness of a hero, and the modesty of a Christian; (they
-say) that he was splendidly attired, as he used to be when about to
-attend upon the King, or to appear in public on some special occasion;
-that he gave the executioner some gold rings which he drew from his
-fingers, together with all his clothes; only to a certain gentleman,
-the Lieutenant of the Tower of London ... he gave his sword and upper
-garment. What weeping, and wailing, and lamentation, followed upon the
-death of this nobleman, it is as difficult to describe as to believe.
-It is stated by some persons who belong to the household of some of the
-Councillors ... that by the Royal indulgence the capital punishment had
-been remitted, with a free pardon, while the Duke was yet in prison,
-and that whole Council sent to inform him of it more than once; but
-when he rejected with contempt the grace that was offered to him, (I
-know not whether in reliance on his own innocence, or on the favour of
-the King and some other parties, or on his own influence, and wealth,
-and rank, or on some other delusive persuasion), the whole Council
-were at length so irritated by this conduct, that they determined that
-they would no longer endure that excessive arrogance of the man....
-It is quite evident, in my opinion, that the deceased nobleman, like
-other men, was not without his faults, and those perhaps more grievous
-than could be passed over by God without punishment in this life....
-This man was endowed and enriched with most excellent gifts of God
-both in body and mind, but is not that the best gift, that God has
-chosen the light of the Gospel to shine forth by his instrumentality
-throughout this Kingdom.... I do not now mention how God had so exalted
-him, from being born in a private station, that as the late King’s
-brother-in-law, the brother of a Queen, the uncle of the present King,
-he had no one here superior to him in any degree of honour, and then
-especially, when appointed Lord Protector of the Realm, he was all
-but King, or rather esteemed by everyone as the King of the King.”
-Burgoyne then passes to the subject of Somerset’s religion: “During
-almost the whole time when we were both of us here, he had become so
-lukewarm in the service of Christ as scarcely to have anything less
-at heart than the state of Religion in this country. Nor indeed did
-he retain in this respect anything worthy of commendation, excepting
-that, as far as words go, he always professed himself a Gospeller when
-occasion required such acknowledgement.” “It is notorious to every
-one in this Kingdom,” he continues, “that he was the occasion of his
-brother’s death, who, having been convicted on a charge of treason
-which no one could prove against him by legal evidence, and of which
-when brought to execution he perseveringly denied the truth, was
-beheaded owing to his information, instigated by I know not what hatred
-and rivalry against his brother.... In fine, that very act, for which
-he was last of all thrown into prison, was both unworthy of a Christian
-such as he professed himself to be, and also sufficiently shews that
-the most part of the crimes which I have laid to his charge, have
-their foundation in truth. For he was himself the head and author of a
-certain conspiracy against the Duke of Northumberland, lately called
-the Earl of Warwick, whom he pursued with the most unrelenting hatred,
-as having been foremost in depriving him of the rank of Protector,
-and being himself regarded from that time by the King’s Councillors
-as occupying that office; the Duke of Somerset, I say, gained over
-some accomplices in this conspiracy even from among the Council itself
-(who are now in prison awaiting the King’s pleasure respecting them),
-by which it was agreed among them, that on the Duke of Northumberland
-being dispatched (together with any of his friends who should oppose
-their views) either by violence, or in secret, or in any other way,
-they should place the entire administration of the Kingdom in their own
-hands, but that the Duke of Somerset should be invested with the chief
-authority, or even be restored to the order of Protector.” The writer,
-after saying that “at his death he manifested some favourable marks of
-Christian penitence,” concludes: “Two reasons are present to my mind
-which increase my regret; one of them is, that we have lost so great a
-man, and one who was not so entirely corrupted but that there remained
-some hope both of his reformation, and also that the interest of the
-Gospel would in any case be advanced by his authority and protection,
-since there is certainly the greatest scarcity and want of such
-characters in this country.”[180]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV
-
-THE LADY JANE MARRIES THE LORD GUILDFORD
-
-
-The execution of the Duke of Somerset left the stage clear for
-Northumberland, who was now all-powerful.[181] More cunning than his
-predecessor, he avoided offending the nation by assuming the title of
-“Protector,” and rousing his colleagues’ jealousy by styling himself
-“Highness.” Little cared he whether he sat on the King’s right hand or
-on his left, so long as his young sovereign obeyed him implicitly--on
-this point he was resolved. His ambition was sordid enough: he had no
-care for the people, but a great deal for his own advancement to wealth
-and power; and his wife and children were as greedy and ambitious as
-himself. He had flattered the Catholics, and if Princess Mary had been
-younger, and willing to marry one of his sons, the religious history
-of England might have been different. Somerset had always entertained
-a friendly feeling for Mary, who was kind to his wife, while he
-hated Elizabeth; Northumberland loathed both Henry VIII’s daughters
-equally. Almost his first act on entering office, nominally as Great
-Master of the Household or Lord High Steward, but virtually as Lord
-Protector of the Realm, was to annoy Mary by opening up the question
-of her chaplains, and her right to have Mass said in her private
-chapel--a blunder which nearly resulted in a war with the Emperor, her
-cousin, to whom the Princess appealed. Then he lent Cranmer a hand in
-persecuting the Anabaptists. The fires of Smithfield flared up once
-more. Joan Bocher, and Peter of Paris a Dutchman, were put to death,
-though Cranmer found it hard to get Edward VI to set his hand to the
-warrant for Joan’s execution. With great alacrity, then, Northumberland
-pushed on Somerset’s iconoclastic vandalism, till he made our glorious
-cathedrals and churches as bare as meeting-houses. Shiploads of holy
-images, chalices, pictures, and painted windows were carted out of the
-churches, defaced, destroyed, or sold, and carried abroad, even as far
-as Constantinople, where a cargo of “imaugys” from England fetched a
-high figure among the Catholics of Pera and Galata. So wanton was the
-destruction of Church linen at this time that the citizens, disgusted
-at seeing it burnt at the street corners, petitioned Northumberland to
-hand it over to the hospitals.
-
-The Catholics, perceiving they had gained nothing in return for the
-help they had given Northumberland, retired into obscurity, to wait
-for better days; whilst the Reformers acclaimed the zeal of a man who
-fought so fiercely against the faith in which he eventually elected
-to die. It presently occurred to the Lord High Steward that the young
-King was failing fast. The servants about the Court saw death in the
-boy’s pale face and shrunken form, and heard its stealthy advance
-in his feeble voice and hacking cough. To curry favour for himself,
-Northumberland allowed the dying monarch greater freedom than he had
-hitherto enjoyed. Sports and pastimes were arranged for his amusement,
-and if we may believe his _Journal_, he enjoyed them after his own
-fashion. Nobody had been so kind to him since his uncle Thomas’s death!
-But sports and pastimes could not galvanise the attenuated lad into
-fresh vigour, and he grew worse every day, watched with anxious eyes by
-Northumberland and Suffolk, and above all by Cranmer, whose hopes were
-concentrated in him.
-
-Since his accession to great wealth the Duke of Suffolk had gradually
-abandoned Bradgate for London and fixed his family’s abode at
-Sheen,[182] in the abbot’s buildings of the once opulent Carthusian
-monastery, which he had adapted as a private residence.[183] Here
-the Suffolks resided towards the end of the year 1552 and during the
-early part of the momentous year 1553. The house, a large and noble
-structure, with a long Gothic gallery running from end to end, stood
-close to the venerable palace built by Edward the Confessor. It was
-supposed to be haunted--the place was often disturbed after dark by
-the sound of footsteps, the rustle of ghostly garments, and the mutter
-of unearthly voices; but the most ghastly incident of all was one
-which struck sudden terror into the hearts of the Duke and Duchess as
-they paced the gallery in the gloaming. All at once a skeleton hand
-and arm thrust itself from the wall, and brandished in their faces a
-sword, or, as some said, an axe, dripping with blood. It should be
-remembered that the Lady Frances was now in possession of nearly all
-the Carthusian property in and about London, which had been granted by
-Henry VIII to her father, Charles Brandon, and which she had lately
-inherited from her stepbrothers; and this spectre may have been
-contrived by some friend of the exiled Brotherhood to impress on the
-Duchess and her brood the sacrilegious origin of this wealth, which
-certainly did not bring them good luck.
-
-Nearly opposite to this uncanny residence stood Syon or Sion House,
-an ancient Bridgetine convent which had been presented at the
-Dissolution to the late Duke of Somerset, and which his rival, the Duke
-of Northumberland, had filched from his widow. As the scene of the
-most dramatic event in Lady Jane Grey’s short life, it still retains
-considerable historical interest; but although much of the old convent
-is standing, the cloisters and other portions have been hidden under
-the plaster and stucco of an exceedingly ugly structure of the debased
-Victorian villa type.[184]
-
-Northumberland, although he had not yet evolved the scheme of
-marrying his only bachelor and youngest son to Jane Grey, none the
-less considered the amity of the Suffolks too valuable an asset to
-be neglected. At this time Northumberland’s power and certainly his
-secrets were largely shared by his ally, the Duke of Suffolk, who never
-took any initiative or made a step in any direction without the consent
-of his all-powerful friend, who knew him to be a “weakling.”[185]
-
-[Illustration: SUPPOSED PORTRAIT OF LADY JANE GREY, FORMERLY IN THE
-COLLECTION OF COL. ELLIOTT, AND NOW AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY
-
-FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PAINTING BY HOLBEIN]
-
-Northumberland, it would seem, did not at first intend Guildford for
-Lady Jane Grey, but for the Lady Margaret Clifford, whose right to
-the throne was at this time considered less disputable, she being
-Henry VIII’s own grand-niece, eldest daughter of the Lady Eleanor
-Brandon, the younger sister of the Duchess of Suffolk. Born after
-the nullification of Charles Brandon’s marriage with Lady Mortimer,
-her legitimacy was indisputable, whereas the enemies of the Suffolks
-were busily engaged about this time (1552) in spreading a report that
-Jane was illegitimate, her mother, the Lady Frances, having come
-into the world during the lifetime of the said Lady Mortimer. This
-insinuation was probably made by Lady Powis, Brandon’s eldest daughter
-by his second wife, Anne Browne. At one moment this matter of Lady
-Jane’s illegitimacy came very near saving her life, but Queen Mary,
-to whom the matter was represented, refused, it is said, to take such
-a possibility into consideration, out of respect for the memory of
-her aunt, the Queen-Duchess of Suffolk, whose marriage would have
-been invalidated if this assumption had been proved. Among Catholics,
-however, Lady Jane’s legitimacy was much disputed, and the Lady Eleanor
-prudently refused to encourage any great intimacy between her daughter
-and Northumberland’s son; she and her family, indeed, kept themselves
-in the background as much as they possibly could. At last, even though
-the boy-King had been induced to take an interest in the projected
-marriage, and had written both to Northumberland and to the Earl of
-Cumberland on the subject, the Duke altered his mind, and in 1553, with
-the casual fashion of those days, having decided to marry Guildford
-to the Lady Jane, he “offered” the Lady Margaret Clifford to his own
-younger brother, Sir Andrew Dudley.[186]
-
-Perhaps that which finally decided Northumberland to abandon his first
-project was the unguarded and compromising language used by a certain
-Mrs. Huggones, a former servant of the widowed Duchess of Somerset.
-This good woman’s tongue having been loosened on one occasion by
-too liberal potations--the conversation is said to have taken place
-during supper--openly lamented the Duke of Somerset’s misfortunes
-(the incident occurred about August 1552), called the young King an
-unnatural nephew, and vivaciously remarked she wished she “had the
-jerking of him.” She added that Lord Guildford Dudley was to marry the
-daughter of the Earl of Cumberland, the match having been planned by
-the King, and finally, “with a stoute gesture,” she cried, “have at the
-Crown, with your leave.” Further, she used “unseemly saiyenges, neither
-meet to be spoken, nor conseyled of any hearer.” Sir William Stafford,
-in whose house at Rochford, in Essex, the affair apparently occurred,
-wrote to the Privy Council an account of these injudicious remarks. On
-8th September, Mrs. Huggones was arraigned before Sir Robert Bowes,
-Master of the Robes, and Sir Arthur Darcy, Lieutenant of the Tower,
-acting for the Privy Council. She denied what had been said of her,
-and expressed great admiration for Northumberland. “And, moreover, she
-being examined of the last article concerning the marriage of the Lord
-Guildford Dudley with the Earl of Cumberland’s daughter, she deposeth
-that she heard it spoken in London (but by whom she now remembereth
-not) that the King’s ma^{ty} had made such a marriage, and so she told
-the first night that she came to Rochford to supper, showing herself to
-be glad thereof, and so she thought that all the hearers were also glad
-at that marriage.”[187] Maybe the fact that her daughter was becoming
-the subject of popular gossip was another incentive to the proud Lady
-Eleanor to place obstacles in the way of Northumberland’s proposal.[188]
-
-There is no evidence that any of the Reformers visited the Suffolks
-at Sheen, but it is probable they did so, for the success of the
-Northumberlands’ scheme depended on the zeal of Lady Jane for
-Protestantism being kept at fever heat; and we may therefore conclude
-her Reforming friends were frequent guests at the ex-monastery.
-
-The foreign Reformers were at this time very active all over England.
-Cranmer was particularly engaged with them, sending the smartest
-among them to lecture at Oxford and Cambridge, and inviting the great
-Melanchthon, and even Calvin himself, to visit England and preach,
-although the religious opinions of both were very different from his
-own. He even proposed to Calvin the formation of a sort of Protestant
-œcumenical council in London in opposition to the Council of Trent.
-In March 1552, he wrote to Calvin: “Our adversaries are now holding
-their Council at Trent for the establishment of their errors. Shall we
-neglect to call together here in London a godly synod for restoring and
-propagating the truth?”
-
-There is nothing in Reformation correspondence so interesting or so
-curious as the _Zurich Letters_--no writings so rich in details and
-revelations. The tone of these old letters, of Melanchthon, Calvin,
-Cranmer, Hooper, Conrad Pellican, Œcolampadius, Hilles, Hales, Gualter,
-Fagius, Stumphius, Ab Ulmis, Bullinger, Bucer, etc. etc., is strangely
-modern. It is easy to imagine oneself to be reading the documentary
-evidence of some great modern revolutionary scheme for “the betterment
-of humanity.” All these worthies held themselves in a “godly” light
-uncommon to the rest of mankind. They, and they only, brandished the
-torch of truth, albeit they did not by any means hold identical views
-on even the most vital points of Christian faith--but they were as one
-when face to face with their common enemy, the Pope, and the religion
-he represented, and any blow dealt at Lutheranism was an equal joy
-to them. Cranmer would have burnt half of them to cinders for their
-“heresies” had they been Englishmen--he sent Anne Askew and Joan Bocher
-to the stake for holding “errors” which coincided with those of some
-of his foreign friends, Stumphius, Fagius, and Calvin, for instance!
-He would have hanged a Briton for stating in plain English his belief
-in predestination--but none the less invited over to a synod the
-great teacher of that desperate doctrine. These men were, no doubt,
-in earnest, and have left some strange details of their doings which
-throw floods of light on the history and mentality of the times in
-which they lived. They believed themselves to be so many God-appointed
-apostles, and addressed each other as “father in Christ,” even
-substituting for their common Teutonic names rich-sounding classical
-ones--Œcolampadius, Stumphius, Massarius, Utenhovius, Terentianus,
-Vadianus, Osiander, Dryander, Ochianus, etc. They would willingly have
-suffered death heroically and patiently for what they believed to be
-the truth. On the other hand, they could hate like very devils; Mary
-to them was Jezebel or Ataliah, Philip, Satan, Pole, a hell-hound, and
-the Pope, the Scarlet Whore and worse than the Devil. They could not
-speak decently of their adversaries; and it is precisely here that we
-see their influence on the youthful Jane--the reason why, if she really
-wrote the letter to Harding after his reversion to Catholicism, she
-employed a viragoish language unworthy of so gentle a Christian.
-
-We have no positive proof of how the two families, of Northumberland
-and Suffolk, passed their time in the more genial months of the
-years 1552-3, when the Thames is pleasantest, especially in the
-neighbourhood where they had elected to pitch their respective camps.
-The two Dukes and their Duchesses cannot always have been engaged in
-political intrigues; they must have given themselves some occasional
-recreation, and we may imagine that archery, tennis, and other sports,
-dancing, music, and such amusements, were frequently indulged in
-at Sheen and Sion, the two state barges incessantly crossing and
-recrossing the river, from one mansion to the other. We can picture
-the scene on the lawn in front of Sion, down which the handsome
-Duchess of Northumberland often went to welcome the Lady Frances and
-her daughters as they landed from their barge, leading them, with the
-stately ceremony of those days, from the water-gate to the terrace in
-front of the former convent, and so into the cloisters along which the
-sisterhood of St. Bridget had so often and so recently passed in solemn
-procession to their now ruined chapel. And then came the gay romp in
-the hall and the merry games of the young folk, in which even the
-austere little Lady Jane would condescend to mingle, to the righteous
-consternation, doubtless, of her friends from Zurich and Geneva. Here,
-too, must have come the handsome Ambrose Dudley, lately married to the
-Lady Anne Seymour;[189]--but did that lady visit the house of the man
-who had compassed the ruin and death of her father? And here Robert
-Dudley, afterwards the famous Earl of Leicester, may have brought his
-affianced wife, the fair Amy Robsart of _Kenilworth_ fame. And the Lady
-Mary Sidney, Northumberland’s elder daughter, and wife of Sir Henry
-Sidney, soon to become the mother of one of the most illustrious men of
-the Elizabethan age, no doubt joined the circle with her clever young
-husband. In these hours of relaxation, when the dark undertakings to
-which the politics of those bloody days forced them were forgotten,
-these youths overflowed with animal spirits, and it is more than likely
-that Jane and her sister Katherine, and even the little Lady Mary,
-romped merrily with their guests. It was a romping age, the good old
-healthy country dances were in high favour, and the best performer
-was he who could lift his lady highest off the ground, or could cross
-his legs twice in a pirouette before he touched the floor again!
-Northumberland himself was famous as a dancer of extraordinary elegance
-and skill. That the Calvinism in which they had dabbled had not as yet
-stirred up Henry of Suffolk and his Tudor consort to a proper pitch
-of “godliness” is evident, for a company of players who had enacted
-comedies, tragedies, and tragi-comedies at Tylsey in the previous
-year, repeated their performances at Sheen in the winter of 1552-3,
-and brought a smile, perchance, to the pale lips of the studious Lady
-Jane, and evoked a hearty laugh from her materialistic mother, who, for
-aught we know to the contrary,--let us hope it was not so!--may already
-have begun to allow a certain ginger-headed Master Adrian Stokes, His
-Lordship’s Groom of the Chambers, to pay her compliments which a great
-Princess and an honest woman ought to have nipped in the bud. Tradition
-has it that Northumberland and his colleague of Suffolk often played
-a game of chess together, and that Suffolk would wax irritable if
-Northumberland won more often than himself.
-
-No doubt, as soon as the Cumberland affair was broken off, and
-Northumberland had decided to marry his son to Lady Jane, Guildford
-was thrown as much into the young girl’s society as was possible
-in those days of rigid etiquette, when maidens of rank were not
-often allowed out of the sight of their parents and governesses. But
-there is no record of any love-making between the young folk: on the
-contrary, there is plenty of evidence that the girl disliked her
-suitor. About a week before the wedding her parents ordered her to
-marry the young gentleman, and, according to Baoardo,[190] she at first
-stoutly refused, “her heart,” she said, “being plighted elsewhere.”
-The Duke harshly reiterated his command and, according to the Italian
-chronicler, even struck his daughter several hard blows, whilst the
-broad red face of the Lady Frances purpled threateningly. The Duke
-told Jane her marriage had been ordained by no less a person than
-King Edward himself, and sharply inquired “whether she intended to
-disobey her King as well as her father?” Poor Jane, aching from his
-blows, could scarcely stammer her reply, “that she could not marry
-with Guildford since she was already contracted to another” and that
-with her father’s consent,--she doubtless alluded to the young Earl of
-Hertford, the late Duke of Somerset’s son. But what could a forlorn
-little girl of less than sixteen do, surrounded, as Jane was, by people
-whom she believed to be all-powerful? She had been so “nipped and
-pinched and bobbed” in her youth for an ill-constructed Latin verse
-or a faulty translation of a Greek sentence,[191] that her spirit was
-already more or less broken; she gave a reluctant consent at last;
-and straightway the two Duchesses began their wedding preparations.
-Milliners and haberdashers, glove-makers, embroiderers and Italian
-silk merchants flocked to Sion and Sheen to display their gewgaws and
-rich stuffs. Let us hope the little bride-elect derived some childish
-pleasure from all this finery, the ostentatious display of which
-must have thrown her Calvinistic friends into hysterics of righteous
-indignation. And thus, long before she went to the Tower and thence
-to her unmerited doom, Jane’s life was made a burden to her. Like the
-forlorn bride of Lammermoor, she was the victim of cruel parents, and
-one only wonders her young mind did not totter under the weight of so
-much woe!
-
-Lord Guildford Dudley was born about 1533, and was consequently not yet
-of age, as Queen Mary afterwards remarked to the Imperial Ambassador.
-He was in his nineteenth year at the time of his ill-omened marriage.
-The Duchess of Northumberland, his mother, was granddaughter of that
-Lady Guildford who had been governess to Mary Tudor, sister of Henry
-VIII, and to whom occasional allusion is made in early Tudor documents
-as “Moder Guildford.” This lady had contrived to offend Louis XII of
-France, who packed her off to England the day after he married the
-English Princess. Thus the great-grandson of the governess and the
-granddaughter of the royal pupil eventually became man and wife. Lord
-Guildford Dudley’s case is believed to be the first instance, in this
-country, of the bestowal of a family instead of a Christian name at
-baptism; in stricter Catholic times it had been illegal to baptize a
-child by any name but that of a saint. Guildford was a tall, well-built
-youth, of very fair complexion.[192] In contrast with his splendid
-colouring and light-brown hair, he had the soft brown eyes which
-lend so peculiar a charm to the authentic portraits of his father,
-whose darling he was.[193] The Northumberland family was proverbially
-beautiful;--Robert, the famous Earl of Leicester and lover of Queen
-Elizabeth, was considered the handsomest man of his time. Guildford
-Dudley had a second name, James or Diego, received at his christening
-from a Spanish[194] nobleman, the famous Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, a
-trivial circumstance, apparently, but fatal in its consequences, for,
-as we shall see, it was largely a foolishly worded letter from this
-godfather that brought Guildford to the block.
-
-It is uncertain whether Jane’s wedding was celebrated towards the end
-of May or in the beginning of June[195] (1553), but the former is the
-date generally received. Three marriages occurred on the same day:
-the first that of Lady Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley; the second
-between Lord Herbert,[196] eldest son of the Earl of Pembroke, and the
-Lady Katherine Grey, younger sister of Guildford’s bride; whilst the
-third was between Henry, Lord Hastings, eldest son of the Earl of
-Huntingdon, and Lady Katherine, the young sister of Lord Guildford
-Dudley. On the same day, little Lady Mary Grey, barely eight years of
-age, was solemnly betrothed to her equally youthful kinsman, Arthur,
-Lord Grey of Wilton.
-
-Lady Jane Grey’s wedding seems to have been exceptionally magnificent.
-Strype tells us that to increase its splendour and solemnity, the
-Master of the Wardrobe, Sir Andrew Dudley, had orders to deliver to
-the various parties much rich apparel and jewels out of the royal
-wardrobe.[197] As the King’s “table diamond” was delivered to the
-Princess Mary about this time, it seems probable that she also attended
-the wedding. These articles were not new, but consisted of velvets,
-brocades, pieces of cloth of gold, of silver, etc., the property of the
-late Duke of Somerset and of his Duchess, who was still a prisoner in
-the Tower; which had been forfeited to the King, on their attainder.
-Thus was poor Jane’s bridal party bedecked with the finery of her
-father’s victim, who preceded her by a few months only on the road to
-the bloodstained scaffold. The French Ambassador also mentions the
-exceptional pomp displayed at this wedding, but gives no details.
-
-No contemporary account of this particular ceremony is in
-existence,[198] but the general custom was for the bride, attired in
-a dress highly ornamented with gold and embroidery, her hair hanging
-down, curiously waved and plaited, to be led to the church “between
-two sweet boys, with bride laces, and rosemary tied about their silken
-sleeves.” Before the bride was carried “a fair bride cup, of silver
-gilt,” “therein was a goodly branch of rosemary, gilded very fair, and
-hung about with silken ribbands of all colours; next there was a noise
-of musicians, that played all the way before her.”[199] Then followed a
-train of virgins in white, crowned with fresh flowers, with their hair
-hanging loose, some bearing bride cakes, and others garlands, adorned
-with gold. Last came the bridegroom, splendidly apparelled, with
-young men following close behind. There were scarves and gloves, an
-“epithalamium” and masques and dances; and “all the company was decked
-out with the bride’s colours, in every form and fantasy.”
-
-When Jane’s marriage took place, the populace, though far from pleased
-with the exorbitant pretensions of the Duke of Northumberland, could
-not forbear admiring the bridegroom’s extreme beauty of person. The
-bride was considered pretty, but small and freckled. She must have
-come, in all her bridal bravery, from Suffolk House in the Strand to
-Durham House, for it was the custom then, as it is still, for the bride
-to start from her paternal roof, and meet the bridegroom at the church
-door or even at the altar. The Church of St. Mary-le-Strand having
-been destroyed by Somerset, the service was undoubtedly held in the
-private chapel of the ex-palace of the Bishops of Durham, then the town
-residence of Northumberland.
-
-Edward VI was too ill to attend the wedding, and there is no direct
-evidence that either of the Princesses, his sisters, were present;
-though, as we have already said, Princess Mary may have been. Their
-absence, however, points to their fear of Northumberland’s sinister
-intentions. The young King made his cousin, Jane, and Lady Katherine
-Grey some wedding gifts of jewels and plate.
-
-Burke says in his _Tudor Portraits_, though on what authority he does
-not tell us, that on the morning of her fatal marriage, “Lady Jane’s
-headdress[200] was of green velvet, set round with precious stones.
-She wore a gown of cloth of gold, and a mantle of silver tissue. Her
-hair hung down her back, combed and plaited in a curious fashion ‘then
-unknown to ladies of qualitie.’ This arrangement was said to have been
-devised by Mrs. Elizabeth Tylney, her friend and attendant, who was
-with her to the end. The bride was led to the altar by two handsome
-pages, with bride lace and rosemary tied to their sleeves. Sixteen
-virgins, dressed in ‘pure white,’ preceded the bride to the altar.
-Northumberland and his family were remarkable on this occasion for
-the splendour of their costumes. We have seen that they were jays in
-borrowed plumes. A profusion of flowers was scattered along the bridal
-route, the church bells gave a greeting, and the poor received beef,
-bread and ale for three days.”
-
-Ascham reports that the wedding was “conducted much in the old Popish
-fashion,” and adds, curiously enough, as a rider to this observation,
-that “Northumberland, notwithstanding his pretended zeal for the
-Reformation, was a Papist at heart.” He was quite right, as events
-proved, though it should be remembered that at this time of transition
-the order of the marriage ceremony, unlike that for funerals, had not
-yet been formulated according to the Reformed rite.
-
-Every item in this tragic story would seem predestined to increase
-its fateful horror. Part of Jane’s wedding dower was the estate of
-Stanfield in Norfolk,[201] which has more than once been associated
-with scenes of horror, not the least dreadful being the Rush murder, in
-the second half of the last century. This property belonged at one time
-to the Robsart family, and was believed by many to be the birthplace of
-the fair Amy, Countess of Leicester, who was really, however, born at
-Syderstone, an adjacent manor.
-
-In the letter to Queen Mary, dated August 1553, quoted by Pollino,[202]
-and written, according to him, from the Tower, Jane Grey relates the
-manner of her existence between her marriage and Edward’s death. “The
-Duchess of Northumberland,” she says, “promised me at my nuptials with
-her son, that she would be contented if I remained living at home with
-my mother. Soon afterwards, my husband being present, she declared
-that it was publicly said that there was no hope of the King’s life
-(and this was the first time I heard of the matter), and further she
-observed to her husband, the Duke of Northumberland, ‘that I ought not
-to leave her house,’ adding ‘that when it pleased God to call King
-Edward to His mercy I ought to hold myself in readiness, as I might
-be required to go to the Tower, since His Majesty had made me heir to
-his dominions.’ These words told me off-hand and without preparation,
-agitated my soul within me, and for a time seemed to amaze me. Yet
-afterwards they seemed to me exaggerated, and to mean little but
-boasting, and by no means of consequence sufficient to hinder me from
-going to my mother.” Evidently Jane expressed these sentiments very
-frankly, for she proceeds: “The Duchess of Northumberland was enraged
-against my mother and me. She answered ‘that she was resolved to detain
-me,’ insisting, ‘that it was my duty at all events to remain near my
-husband, from whom I should not go.’ Not venturing to disobey her, I
-remained at her house four or five days.” These days were most likely
-spent at Durham House. “At last,” continues Lady Jane, “I obtained
-leave to go to Chelsea for recreation” (meaning perhaps change of air),
-“where I very soon fell ill.” Her illness was a struggle for life or
-death, the suffering so acute as to lead her to imagine she had been
-poisoned. The mention of this attack of what we should now call nervous
-breakdown, lends an indisputable air of authority to Jane’s letter as
-given by Pollino. There was really no earthly reason why anybody should
-attempt her life--it was certainly too precious to the Dudleys for
-the Duchess, an eminently respectable if an autocratic woman, to wish
-to see it prematurely ended. It is well known that this fear of being
-poisoned frequently seizes on people in time of distress.
-
-Chelsea Manor House, which had lately been in the possession of the
-Duke of Somerset, had fallen, with other property, into the hands of
-Northumberland, and thence he dates certain letters to Cecil and his
-other colleagues.[203] Lady Jane apparently preferred going to Chelsea
-to stopping at Durham House; and so departed without her husband,
-although so recently married. Guildford was not present at the scene at
-Sion (on 9th July) when the Crown was offered to his wife, which points
-to his having been left in bachelor solitude at Durham House. Possibly
-the absence of her mother-in-law from the Chelsea establishment
-accounts for the bride’s preference for that suburban residence; and
-having married Guildford without entertaining the least affection for
-him, she probably did not desire his presence either.
-
-The pomp and splendour of these nuptials were the last gleam of gaiety
-in the reign of Edward VI. A very short time afterwards, the poor young
-King grew so pitifully weak that Northumberland thought it was time to
-carry his great projects into execution. Otherwise, as he clearly saw,
-he and his friends must not expect to continue long in power, or even
-in security: all his efforts, his overthrow of Somerset, and the rest,
-would be rendered useless if his royally born daughter-in-law was not
-named by the King himself as the lawful successor to the throne.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV
-
-ON THE WAY TO THE TOWER
-
-
-The Duke of Northumberland is accused, even by almost contemporary
-authorities, of having forged the will of King Edward VI; but, as we
-shall presently see, that King never made a will, but left a sort of
-tentative document called a “Devise” for the succession, written in
-his own hand; though maybe it was suggested or even dictated by the
-Duke. By an Act--the XXVIII of Henry VIII, cap. 7--it was enacted that,
-failing issue of Queen Jane Seymour, “Your Highness (Henry) shall
-have full and plenary power and authority to give, dispose, appoint,
-assign, declare, and limit by your letters-patent under your great
-seal, or else by your last will made in writing, and signed with your
-most gracious hand, at your only pleasure, from time to time hereafter,
-the Imperial Crown of this Realm.” Other Acts had recapitulated this;
-and King Henry, acting on the same principle, made a will in his
-thirty-fifth year, under the terms of which the Crown was to pass,
-firstly to his son Edward and his heirs; secondly, to his own heirs
-by the then Queen, Katherine Parr, “or any other wife I may have”;
-thirdly, to his daughter Mary; fourthly, to his daughter Elizabeth;
-fifthly, to the heirs of the body of his niece, the Lady Frances;
-sixthly, to those of her sister, Eleanor; seventhly, to the next
-rightful heirs, meaning the heirs of his sister, the Queen of Scots. It
-was also stipulated that if either of his daughters married without the
-consent of the Privy Council, they were to be passed over “as if dead.”
-
-Both Edward VI and his father seem to have wished for a male successor,
-for in the latter’s enactments limiting the succession, all the female
-heirs are set aside in favour of their as yet unborn male issue.
-King Edward’s “Devise” for the limitation of the succession makes
-no allusion to his two sisters, the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth.
-On the other hand, in the letters-patent for this limitation of the
-succession, which were based on the “Devise,” the Princesses’ claim
-is ruled out for three reasons: that they were illegitimate; that
-they were of half-blood to the King; that there was a chance of their
-marrying foreigners. Besides, as we have said, the King, like his
-father, was anxious for a male successor; in fact, this desire is
-on the very surface of the “Devise,” wherein much stress is laid on
-the “issue masle,” since for the one living male descendant of Henry
-VII--that is, Edward himself--there were as many as seven ladies (even
-excluding the Scotch line) potential to the English Crown.[204]
-
-The first limitation decided upon by the young King was to the Lady
-Frances’s issue male, born before the King’s death, and, failing them,
-the Lady Jane’s issue male. This scheme suited Northumberland, for if
-Jane had a son by Guildford the Duke would become the grandfather of
-the King of England and proportionately powerful. But as time went
-on it became evident that the King was doomed to an early death, and
-therefore a swifter and more practical solution of the succession
-problem had to be arrived at. The next best arrangement would have been
-the nomination of the Lady Frances;[205] Northumberland, however,
-could not approve of such a scheme, since it would have placed the
-weight of power in the hands of the Duke of Suffolk, her husband. At
-last, all plans failing, Edward decided to nominate the Lady Jane Grey
-as his successor to the throne--and thereby the Duke gained his point.
-The words in the “Devise,” “to the L’Janes heires masles,” were now
-changed to “_to the L’Jane and_ her heires masles”: in the copy of
-the document bearing the King’s signature which is still extant, it
-can be seen that a pen has been drawn through the “s” at the end of
-Jane’s name, and the words “and her” have been written above. Thus was
-manufactured[206] the ladder by which Northumberland, by becoming the
-father-in-law of a Queen, hoped to reach the summit of his ambition.
-
-Northumberland had a great deal of trouble to get his scheme legalised.
-Edward was not unpliable, and indeed attributed Northumberland’s
-intense desire to see the “Devise” carried into effect entirely to his
-zeal for the Reformed religion; but Archbishop Cranmer, Sir Edward
-Montagu, Lord Chief Justice, Sir James Hale, Secretary Cecil and
-others, either because they saw through Northumberland or else because
-they really had qualms of conscience as to its legality, opposed the
-plan, taking their stand on the fact that the nomination of Jane
-Grey, being contrary to the older “Statute of Succession,” would be
-illegal. Cranmer, as the result of an interview with the King, was
-finally converted to his views. Lord Darcy, the Lord Chamberlain,
-and the Marquis of Northampton were present at this meeting, much to
-the Archbishop’s disgust. “I desired to talk with the King’s Majesty
-alone,” says Cranmer, “but I could not be suffered: and so I failed
-of my purpose. For if I might have communed with the King alone, and
-at my good leisure, my trust was, that I should have altered him from
-his purpose; but they (the above-mentioned noblemen) being present,
-my labour was in vain. And so at length I was required by the King’s
-Majesty himself to set my hand to his will (that is, the scheme for
-the succession) saying that he trusted that I alone would not be more
-repugnant to his will than the rest of the Council were. Which words
-surely grieved my heart very sore. And so I granted him to subscribe
-his will, and to follow the same. Which when I had set my hand unto I
-did it unfainedly and without dissimulation.”[207]
-
-Directly Northumberland was satisfied that the young King would
-not depart from the decision to which he had forced him, he
-summoned Lord Chief Justice Montagu to attend at the Royal Court
-at Greenwich, on 11th June 1553, with Sir John Baker, Mr. Justice
-Bromley, Attorney-General Gosnold and Solicitor-General Griffin. This
-command was the first step towards officially depriving Mary of her
-inheritance, and the letter was signed by Secretary Petre, Sir John
-Cheke, and strange to relate, by Cecil, which is surprising when taken
-in conjunction with his subsequent conduct in the matter. The Lord
-Chief Justice, coming into the royal presence, found the King very ill,
-lying on a couch, surrounded by Lord Winchester, Lord Treasurer, the
-Marquis of Northampton, Sir John Gates, Sir John Palmer, and others.
-Raising himself, Edward declared, in the verbose language of the time,
-that he had summoned his Council to hear from his own lips that he
-had appointed the Lady Jane Grey his heiress, as the Lady Mary might
-change her faith, and “his Highness’s proceedings in religion might
-be altered.[208] Wherefore his pleasure was that the state of the
-Crown should go in such form, and to such persons, as his Highness
-had appointed in a bill of articles [_i.e._, the “Devise”[209]] now
-signed with the King’s hand, which were read, and commanded them to
-make a book thereof accordingly with speed.” Montagu refused to do
-this, saying the nomination of Lady Jane would be illegal and against
-the already mentioned “Statute of Succession,” which had passed
-Parliament. Edward, or rather Northumberland, became so irritable,
-that the Lord Chief Justice finally acquiesced so far as to ask for
-time to deliberate and consult the laws; whereupon the King gave him
-the “Devise” to study, and dismissed all present, Northumberland alone
-remaining. On the following day (12th June), Secretary Petre sent for
-the Lord Chief Justice to Durham House, Northumberland’s palace in the
-Strand, and told him the matter must be executed off-hand. Montagu
-immediately went to Ely Place, Holborn, where he found the Council
-sitting, but Northumberland absent; which emboldened him to warn the
-Council of the exceeding danger of the matter they were about to
-approve. “In God’s name, my Lords,” cried he, “think twice what you
-do--it will be treason to us all who have a hand in it.” Hardly had he
-spoken ere Northumberland, who was, of course, aware of his opposition,
-burst, as white as a sheet, into the room like a whirlwind, “before all
-the Council there,” says a contemporary account, “being in a great rage
-and fury, trembling for anger; and, amongst his ragious talk, called
-Sir Edward Montagu traitor, and further said that he would fight in
-his shirt [sleeves] with any man in that quarrel.” No one took up the
-challenge, and Montagu withdrew in some dismay--thankful, no doubt,
-that there had been no actual blows given or received.
-
-Nothing was signed or done that day, but on the next, Montagu received
-a fresh order to repair immediately to Court with the same companions
-as before. On arrival at Greenwich, the party was ushered into a
-room filled with the notables of the Court, who “looked upon them
-with earnest countenance, as though they had not known them, so that
-they might perceive there was some steadfast determination against
-them”; which treatment, combined with uncertainty as to whether
-the all-powerful Northumberland might not persuade the King into
-punishing them for not preparing the “book” of the King’s scheme
-as he had wished, made the poor gentlemen feel very uncomfortable.
-Edward also (on 15th June), received the Lord Chief Justice and his
-colleagues haughtily; His Majesty was apparently better, and seated
-in his chair. Montagu’s party endeavoured to excuse themselves by
-using the same arguments against the scheme of succession as they had
-previously put before the Council. They said that, by reason of the
-“Statute of Succession,” the plan would be null and void after Edward’s
-death; and that the only power which could remove the said Statute
-was Parliament, which had made it, and which was not then sitting.
-Thereupon the King said he would summon a Parliament, but, all the
-same, the drawing up of his scheme must be proceeded with. He further
-commanded Montagu to obey his order, and “make dispatch.” At last
-Montagu, “in great fear as ever he was in his life before, seeing the
-King so earnest and sharp, and the Duke so angry the day before--who
-ruled the whole Council as it pleased him, and they were all afraid
-of him (the more is the pity)[210] so that such cowardliness and fear
-was there never seen amongst honourable men--being an old man and
-without comfort, he began to consider with himself what was best to be
-done for the safeguard of his life.” Accordingly he agreed to comply
-with his sovereign’s command, provided Edward granted him (as a sort
-of protection) his commission under the Great Seal, enjoining him to
-draw up the instrument of succession, and that a general “pardon” for
-having signed it should be made out at the same time. The King acceded
-to these terms; and so the letters patent nominating Jane Grey as King
-Edward’s successor received the Great Seal on 21st June, and over a
-hundred signatures, including those of the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs of
-Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, the officers of the Royal Household, and
-of Thomas Grey, the Duke of Suffolk’s younger brother, were affixed to
-the document. It took so long to collect all the signatures that the
-work was not finished until the 8th of July, that is, after Edward’s
-death. Stowe records the attendance of the “chief citizen” of the
-metropolis on that day in the following terms: “The 8. of July the lord
-mayor of London was sent for to the court then at Greenwich, to bring
-with him six aldermen, as many merchants of the staple, and as many
-merchant adventurers, unto whom by the council was secretly declared
-the death of King Edward, and also how he did ordain for the succession
-of the crown by his letters patent, to the which they were sworn,
-and charged to keep it secret.” Sir James Hale, however, refused his
-signature with great dignity; Cecil slipped out of the difficulty on
-a pretext of sudden illness. Foreseeing, even before 11th June, the
-rocks ahead, he wisely retired from Court after a well-acted scene
-of simulated faintness, so realistic as to mislead the shrewd Lord
-Audley, who, being a great believer in his own prescriptions, sent the
-disordered Secretary the following delightful receipt:--
-
- “Take a sow-pig of nine days old, and flea him and quarter him,
- and put him in a stillatory with a handful of spearmint, a handful
- of red fennel, a handful of liverwort, half a handful of red nepe
- [turnip], a handful of celery, nine dates clean picked and pared,
- a handful of great raisins, and pick out the stones, and a quarter
- of an ounce of mace, and two sticks of good cinnamon bruised in a
- mortar; and distill it together, with a fair fire; and put it in a
- glass and set in the sun nine days; and drink nine spoonfuls of it
- at once when you list.
-
- “A COMPOST
-
- “_Item._--Take a porcupin, otherwise called an English hedgehog,
- and quarter him in pieces, and put the said beast in a still with
- these ingredients and boil together; item, a quart of red wine, a
- pint of rose-water, a quart of sugar, cinnamon and great raisins,
- one date, twelve nepe. Pass the whole through a sieve and drink at
- night, a full cup thereof warm.”[211]
-
-Possibly his Lordship intended this epistle as a fine piece of sarcasm,
-for if Cecil was only to partake of the “sow-pig” and raisin remedy
-nine days after it was concocted, there was every chance of his dying
-or getting well in the interval.
-
-The fact that so many persons were found to sign the fateful document
-is another proof--even if we make allowance for the majority of the
-Council being time-servers--that Edward’s “Devise” for the succession,
-though evidently suggested and forwarded by Northumberland, was not a
-forgery.
-
-On 6th July[212] (1553), whilst the newly-made bride was peacefully
-resting at Chelsea, King Edward VI passed away at Whitehall Palace.
-He had been taken out of the hands of his physicians, Drs. Owen[213]
-and Wendy, old and trusted Court doctors, and put into those of a
-female quack, who soon extinguished the feeble ray of life that still
-flickered in his wasted body. An hour before Edward passed away, Dr.
-Owen, who had been recalled in a hurry, bent over him, saying, “We
-heard you speak to yourself, but what you said we know not?” The weary
-lad answered, smiling faintly, “I was praying to God.” A little later
-he was heard to murmur, “Lord have mercy upon me, and take my spirit.”
-He never spoke again--he was very tired, and needed rest!
-
-The people had shown their anxiety for Edward’s health by assembling
-daily in front of Greenwich Palace to ascertain how he was, and to
-convince the mob that he was still alive it had become necessary to
-make the royal lad show his sickly person, robed in velvet and ermine,
-and his poor wasted face--crowned with the delightful little velvet
-cap with the white feathers, so familiar to us in his portraits--at
-the window. The received version among all classes was that the King
-was being slowly poisoned by the Duke of Northumberland, whom they
-also accused of having forged Edward’s “Devise” for the succession
-in favour of Lady Jane. The Swiss Reformers, in their letters to
-Strasburg and Zurich, did not hesitate to give currency to the report
-that Northumberland, whom a few weeks earlier they had called the
-“illustrious” and the “noble,” had murdered his nephew. “That monster
-of a man,” says John Burcher to Henry Bullinger (letter dated from
-Strasburg, 16th August 1553), “the Duke of Northumberland, has been
-committing a horrible and portentous crime. A writer worthy of credit
-informs me, that our excellent King has been most shamefully taken
-off by poison. His nails and hair fell off before his death, so
-that, handsome as he was, he entirely lost all his good looks. The
-perpetrators of the murder were ashamed of allowing the body of the
-deceased King to lie in state, and be seen by the public, as is usual:
-wherefore they buried him privately in the paddock adjoining the
-palace, and substituted in his place a youth not unlike him.... One
-of the sons of the Duke of Northumberland acknowledged this fact. The
-Duke has been apprehended[214] with his five sons, and nearly twenty
-persons; among whom is master [Sir John] Cheke, doctor Cox, and the
-Bishop of London, with others unknown to you....”[215] Burcher does
-not tell us which son of the Duke made this confession; nor is there
-evidence that any of Northumberland’s boys ever accused their father of
-regicide. Besides, Burcher was somewhat addicted to putting his faith
-in the reports of untrustworthy people. A few years earlier (in 1549)
-he had written Bullinger a letter in which he repeated the sensational
-story of an attempt to murder King Edward made by his uncle, Thomas
-Seymour, a crime frustrated by the vigilance of the King’s lap-dog,
-which seeing the murderer suddenly appear, flew at him and made such
-a yelping that the bodyguard was in time to save their sovereign. This
-story may or may not be true; but is as unauthenticated as the other.
-There is just one point, however, that supports the poison theory;
-which is that the young King’s old and competent nurse, Mrs. Sybil
-Penn, was suddenly relieved of her duties, and replaced by a woman
-who was an acknowledged quack, and declared she could cure the lad by
-a sort of faith-healing not unknown in our own times. On the other
-hand, Edward was suffering from such a complication of diseases that
-there was no reason why Northumberland should have troubled to burden
-his soul by hastening an end that would in any case have come before
-long.[216] Born of a debauched father and a sickly mother, the “second
-Josiah” never throve, and never could have thriven, for he bore in his
-puny frame the seeds of early death from his birth.
-
-[Illustration: EDWARD VI
-
-FROM AN ENGRAVING BY G. VERTUE]
-
-King Edward VI lived exactly fifteen years, eight months, and six days.
-We can easily believe Strype’s assurance that his wonderful and almost
-preternatural sagacity was merely the result of skilful prompting.
-He informs us that whenever the young King was about to attend the
-Council, Northumberland carefully rehearsed with him both how he
-should behave and what he was to say. Yet the boy does not appear
-to have been devoid of exceptional intelligence. It may be doubted
-whether his affections were very deep; he certainly did not hesitate
-to bastardise his two sisters at the bidding of their common enemy. It
-has been stated that Lady Jane Grey was devotedly attached to her young
-cousin; that there had even been love passages between them. The King’s
-youth should mark this report as the veriest gossip. Not a tinge of
-affection or regret for her cousin is expressed in any of Lady Jane’s
-letters, and we have no proof whatever that she was specially affected
-by his early death. There is but little evidence, indeed, of her having
-been much in his company, nor any proof that he, on his side, held her
-in exceptional esteem.
-
-Nature added a warning note to the horror of the approaching tragedy.
-“Several women were delivered of monsters on the day of the King’s
-death, one of an infant with two heads and four feet, and another
-of a child whose head was planted in the centre of his body.” The
-ghost of Henry VIII was reported to have been seen stalking along the
-battlements of Windsor and at Hampton Court and Whitehall--so that
-even the supernatural stimulated popular imagination. The hour of the
-young King’s death, too, was ushered in by a tempest of such appalling
-violence, that heaven and earth seemed to menace the city. A terrible
-hailstorm swept over London and its outskirts, and the ruined gardens
-and devastated orchards for miles round were heaped with hailstones “as
-red as blood.” Cataracts of water deluged the lower parts of the city:
-trees were torn up, and the steeple of the church in which the first
-Protestant service was held was shattered by forked lightning. The
-people, terrified at the universal havoc, believed, when they learnt of
-the King’s death, that this storm was the forerunner of fresh disasters
-and terrible crimes, and so indeed it proved to be--for the death of
-Edward VI was the signal for the outbreak of the long contemplated
-revolution so skilfully prepared by Northumberland.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI
-
-THE LADY JANE IS PROCLAIMED QUEEN
-
-
-No sooner had King Edward VI given up the ghost, than Northumberland
-devised a cunning attempt to obtain possession of the person of
-Princess Mary, then at Hunsdon. The Duke persuaded the Council to
-address a treacherous letter to her, after Edward was actually dead,
-but before his decease was divulged to the public, in which they gave
-no hint that her brother was dead, and informed her he was only very
-ill, and “prayed her to come to him, as he earnestly desired the
-comfort of her presence.” Touched by this exhibition of brotherly
-affection, Mary fell into the trap, and, returning a loving answer,
-started immediately for London; but a timely warning prevented the
-whole course of our history being changed. The plot was to seize her
-on the high road near the metropolis, and convey her a prisoner to the
-Tower.
-
-A young brother of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, however, who was in
-Northumberland’s service, and in attendance upon him at Greenwich
-Palace, was surprised to see Sir John Gates come, on the morning
-after the King’s death, to the Duke’s chamber before he was dressed.
-They discussed the movements of the Princess, and young Throckmorton
-overheard Gates exclaim angrily, “What sir! will you let the Lady
-Mary escape, and not secure her person?” Acting upon this hint, he
-forthwith galloped to Throckmorton House, where he found his father
-and his brothers, together with Sir Nicholas, who had just come to
-inform them of the King’s death, of which he had been a witness, and
-also of Northumberland’s schemes concerning the proclamation of Lady
-Jane. On this the youth related what he had overheard that morning in
-Northumberland’s bedroom; and Sir Nicholas, who, although a Reformer,
-was none the less loyal to Mary, instantly dispatched her goldsmith,
-a trusty servant, who met her at Hoddesden, and informed her both of
-her brother’s death and of the danger in which she stood. Even yet she
-doubted the genuineness of the warning, and remarked to the goldsmith
-that “If Robert[217] had been at Greenwich, she would have hazarded all
-things, and gaged her life on the leap.” Sir Robert Throckmorton,[218]
-however, arriving on 7th July, confirmed the goldsmith’s message,
-and Mary and her retinue, in consequence, left the London road and
-struck off into Suffolk, reaching her manor of Kenninghall after a two
-days’ hard gallop. Almost as soon as she arrived there, she addressed
-the Council a comparatively mild remonstrance, and at the same time
-confirmed her claim to the throne. Mary prized the fidelity of the
-Throckmortons so highly as to bestow upon the chief of that ancient
-house the position of chief-justice of Chester, which act of kindness
-he repaid in after times, when Mary was long dead, by praying for her
-soul whenever he said his mealtime grace.
-
-Lady Jane Grey meanwhile remained at Chelsea until she was sent for:
-“There came unto me,” she continues in her letter to Queen Mary, “the
-Lady Sidney, the daughter of the Duke of Northumberland, who told me
-she was sent by the Council to call me before them, and she informed me
-that I must be that night at Sion House, where they were assembled, to
-receive that which was ordained for me by the King.”
-
-The two young ladies went that afternoon (9th July 1553) by river from
-Chelsea to Sion House, which they reached towards nightfall:--
-
- “On arriving at Sion,” writes Lady Jane, “I found no one there. But
- presently came the Marquis of Northampton, the Earls of Arundel,
- Huntingdon, and Pembroke, who began to make me complimentary
- speeches, bending the knee before me, their example being followed
- by several noble ladies, all of which ceremony made me blush. My
- distress was still further increased when my mother (the Lady
- Frances), and my mother-in-law (the Duchess of Northumberland),
- entered and paid me the same homage. Then came the Duke of
- Northumberland himself, who, as President of the Council, declared
- to me the death of the King, and informed me that every one had
- good reason to rejoice in the virtuous life he had led, and the
- good death he had. He drew great comfort from the fact that, at
- the end of his life, he took great care of his kingdom, praying
- to our Lord God to defend it from all doctrine contrary to His,
- and to free it from the evil of his sisters. He signified to the
- Duke of Northumberland ‘that he (the said Majesty of Edward VI),
- had well considered the Act of Parliament, in which it had been
- already ordained that, whoever shall recognise Mary, or Elizabeth
- her sister, as heir to the Crown, were to be considered traitors,
- seeing that Mary had disobeyed the King, her father, and her
- brother (Edward VI) and was, moreover, a chief enemy to the Word of
- God, and that both were illegitimate. Therefore he would not that
- she and her sister be his heirs, but rather thought he ought in
- every way to disinherit them.’ And before his death, he ‘commanded
- his Council, and adjured them by the honour they owed him, by the
- love they bore their country, and by the duty they owe to God,
- that they should obey his will and carry it into effect.’ The Duke
- of Northumberland then added that I was the heir nominated by His
- Majesty, and that my sisters, the Lady Katherine and the Lady
- Mary Grey, were to succeed me, in case I had no issue legitimately
- born, at which words all the lords of the Council knelt before
- me, exclaiming, ‘that they rendered me that homage because it
- pertained to me, being of the right line,’ and they added, that in
- all particulars they would observe what they promised which was, by
- their souls they swore, to shed their blood and lose their lives
- to maintain the same. On hearing all this, I remained stunned and
- out of myself, I call on those present to bear witness, who saw
- me fall to the ground weeping piteously, and dolefully lamenting,
- not only mine insufficiency, but the death of the King. I swooned
- indeed, and lay as dead, but when brought to myself I raised myself
- on my knees, and prayed to God ‘that if to succeed to the Throne
- was indeed my duty and my right, that He would aid me to govern the
- Realm to His glory.’ The following day, as every one knows, I was
- conducted to the Tower.”
-
-Lady Jane’s own version as given above differs materially from the
-one of this famous scene of the recognition of Jane as Queen edited
-by Foxe; the two are, however, identical in the main facts, but the
-bombastic speech put into the mouth of his heroine by the author of
-the _Book of Martyrs_ is much less natural than Pollino’s version.
-_The Grey Friars’ Chronicle_ corroborates in every particular both
-narratives, and adds that, “on 10th July, the Lady Jane came from
-Richmond to Westminster by water,[219] whither she came to robe herself
-before proceeding to the Tower.” On her way from Westminster, she
-stopped at Durham House, her father-in-law’s palace on the Thames,
-where she dined. Lady Jane afterwards proceeded by the State barge to
-the Tower, where she landed about three o’clock in the afternoon, the
-weather being exceedingly fine.
-
-In the Genoese Archives there is a letter from a member of the Spinola
-family,[220] who was then in London, giving details of that day’s
-doings:--
-
- “To-day [the date is not given, but possibly it figured on
- the cover, now lost: it was, of course, 10th July 1553] I saw
- Donna Jana Groia [an Italianisation of Grey] walking in a grand
- procession to the Tower. She is now called Queen, but is not
- popular, for the hearts of the people are with Mary, the Spanish
- Queen’s daughter. This Jane is very short and thin, but prettily
- shaped and graceful. She has small features and a well-made nose
- (_ben fatta ha il naso_), the mouth flexible and the lips red. The
- eyebrows are arched and darker than her hair, which is nearly red.
- Her eyes are sparkling and red (_rossi_--a sort of light hazel
- often noticed with red hair). I stood so long near Her Grace, that
- I noticed her colour was good, but freckled. When she smiled she
- showed her teeth, which are white and sharp. In all, a _graziosa
- persona_ and _animata_ [animated]. She wore a dress of green
- velvet stamped with gold, with large sleeves. Her headdress was a
- white coif with many jewels. She walked under a canopy, her mother
- carrying her long train, and her husband Guilfo [Guildford] walking
- by her, dressed all in white and gold, a very tall strong boy with
- light hair, who paid her much attention. The new Queen was mounted
- on very high _chopines_ [clogs] to make her look much taller, which
- were concealed by her robes, as she is very small and short. Many
- ladies followed, with noblemen, but this lady is very _heretica_
- and has never heard Mass, and some great people did not come into
- the procession for that reason.”
-
-Queen Jane was received by Sir John Brydges, Lieutenant of the Tower,
-and his brother, Mr. Thomas Brydges, Deputy-Lieutenant, and walked
-in procession from the landing-place to the Great Hall, a crowd of
-spectators lining the way, all kneeling as the new Queen passed. The
-Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, to the surprise of every one, carried
-her daughter’s train. Pollino informs us that universal indignation was
-expressed by the onlookers when they beheld the Duchess-mother, who was
-rightful heiress, playing the part of train-bearer to her daughter,
-and describes as theatrical in the extreme the obsequious manner in
-which the Duke of Suffolk and his consort treated their own child,
-kneeling to her and walking backwards before her, “the which was a most
-despicable and humiliating sight.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-NOTE.--The following is the full text of the celebrated “Devise,” drawn
-up by Northumberland and approved by Edward VI.
-
- _Deuise for the succession._
-
- 1. For lakke of issu (masle _inserted above the line, but
- afterwards erased_) of my body (to the issu (masle _above
- the line_) cumming of thissu femal, as i haue after declared
- (_inserted, but erased_). To the L. Fraūceses heires masles (For
- lakke of _erased_) (if she have any _inserted_) such issu (befor
- my death _inserted_) to the L’Janes (and her _inserted_) heires
- masles, To the L. Katerins heires masles, To the L Maries heires
- masles, To the heires masles of the daughters wich she shal haue
- hereafter. Then to the L Margets heires masles. For lakke of such
- issu, To th’eires masles of the L Janes daughters. To th’eires
- masles of the L Katerins daughters, and so forth til yow come to
- the L Margets (daughters _inserted_) heires masles.
-
- 2. If after my death theire masle be entred into 18 yere old, then
- he to have the hole rule and gouernaūce therof.
-
- 3. But if he be under 18, then his mother to be gouuernres til he
- entre 18 yere old, But to doe nothing w^tout th’auise (and agremēt
- _inserted_) of 6 parcel of a counsel to be pointed by my last will
- to the nombre of 20.
-
- 4. If the mother die befor th’eire entre into 18 the realme to be
- gouuerned by the coūsel Prouided that after he be 14 yere al great
- matters of importaunce be opened to him.
-
- 5. If i died w^tout issu, and there were none heire masle, then the
- L Fraunces to be (regēt _altered to_) gouuernres. For lakke of her,
- the her eldest daughters, and for lakke of them the L Marget to be
- gouuernres after as is aforsaid, til sume heire masle be borne, and
- then the mother of that child to be gouuernres.
-
- 6. And if during the rule of the gouuernres ther die 4 of us doo
- assent to take, use, and repute hym for a breaker of the common
- concord, peax, and unite of this realme, and to doo our uttermost
- to see hym or them so varying or swarving punisshed with most
- sharpe punisshmentes according to their desertes.
-
- T. CANT T. ELY, CANC WINCHESTER NORTHUBRLAND
- J. REDFORD H. SUFFOLK
- W. NORTHT
- F. SHREWESBURY F. HUNTYNGDON
- (PEMBROKE.
- E. CLYNTON T. DARCY G. COBHAM
- R. RYCHE T. CHEYNE
- JOH’N GATE WILL’M PETRE
- (JOAN.’ CHEEK
- W. CECILL EDWARD MOUNTAGU.
- JOHN BAKERE
- EDWARD GRYFFYN JOHN LUCAS
- JOHN GOSNOLD
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII
-
-THE NINE DAYS’ REIGN
-
-
-As soon as Jane Grey and her escort had entered the royal apartments
-of the Tower, the heralds trumpeted, and a few minutes later (it was
-close on six o’clock), four of them read the new Queen’s proclamation,
-one of the most tedious State documents in existence, and the first in
-which a woman claims the title of “Supreme Head of the Church.”[221]
-The ceremony of solemn proclamation within the precincts of the Tower
-once over, other heralds proceeded for the same purpose to Cheapside
-and the Fleet. In Cheapside, a potboy who was heard to disapprove of
-the wordy document, and of the expression “bastard” applied to the Lady
-Mary, was arrested, and treated after a fashion quaintly described
-by Machyn,[222] who says, “there was a young man taken that time for
-speaking of certain words of Queen Mary, that she had the right title.
-The xj day of July, at viij of the clock in the morning, the young man
-for speaking was set on the pillory, and both his ears cut off; for
-there was a herald, and a trumpeter blowing; and incontinent he was
-taken down, and carried to the Counter; and the same day was the young
-man’s master dwelling at Saint John’s head, his name was Sandor Onyone,
-and another, master Owen, a gun-maker at London Bridge was drowned,
-dwelling at Ludgate.”[223]
-
-It is curious that the original of this unique proclamation should have
-passed into the hands of Cecil, who endorsed it with the significant
-words--“_Jana non Regina_.”
-
-From every point of view, Queen Jane’s proclamation was ill-advised.
-It was prodigiously long-winded, even for that period, and the manner
-in which it dealt with the claims of Mary and Elizabeth, brutal in
-frankness, was well calculated to offend the Catholic Powers, and
-cruelly wound the personal feelings of the late King’s sisters. Queen
-Mary’s resentment is proved by the stern simplicity of the language
-of the death-warrant of Northumberland, Lady Jane, and Guildford,
-which allows none of them the vestige of a title. Elizabeth, in later
-life, never alluded to her cousin Jane without bitterness. Jane
-was, of course, perfectly innocent of the offensive wording of this
-document,[224] but it nevertheless bore her signature. The sentence
-which infuriated the Princesses ran as follows: “And, forasmuch as the
-said limitation of the Imperial Crowne of this Realme, being limited
-as is aforesaid to the said Lady Mary and the said Lady Elizabeth,
-being illegitimate the marriage between the said King Henry VIII our
-progenitor and great uncle, and the Lady Katherine, mother to the said
-Lady Mary, and also the marriage between the said late King Henry
-VIII and the Lady Anne, mother to the said Lady Elizabeth, being very
-clearly undone by sentence of divine, according to the word of God,
-and the ecclesiastical laws. The Ladies Mary and Elizabeth are to all
-intents and purposes divested to claim or challenge the said Imperial
-Crown or any other honours, etc., appertaining thereunto, etc.”
-
-This proclamation, as well as most of the other official documents
-of Jane’s reign, which are generally attributed to Northumberland,
-was, we may take it for granted, edited by the celebrated Sir John
-Cheke, who entered the Tower at the same time as Lady Jane and was
-her Secretary throughout the whole of her nine days’ reign. We have
-already mentioned in more than one place this distinguished Greek
-scholar, who had been for a time tutor to Edward VI, over whom he had a
-great influence, and by whom he was knighted at the same time that the
-Marquis of Dorset was elevated to the Dukedom of Suffolk in 1551. At
-the period of Jane’s misfortunes he was between thirty-nine and forty
-years of age, greatly in favour with his royal pupil, and holding the
-office of Clerk to the Council; so that when there was a talk of Cecil
-resigning his secretaryship, Cheke was, on 2nd June 1553, appointed
-a principal Secretary of State, Cecil however continuing in office;
-and on 11th June, Cheke sat in the Council for the first time as
-Secretary. It is probable that Northumberland suggested his nomination
-to the King, for the express purpose of interesting a diplomat of such
-ability in the forthcoming conspiracy to place Jane on the throne. He
-was far too high-minded a man to be influenced by pecuniary motives,
-but undoubtedly his zeal for the Reformation was such that he desired
-the advent of Jane, which meant a continuance of the Reformation,
-rather than the coming of Mary, which he fully realised would be
-disastrous to it. Cheke’s appointment to the office of Secretary of
-State gave great joy to the Reformers, and Ascham, then in Brussels
-with our Ambassador, Morysone, wrote him a laudatory letter, in which
-he congratulates England, the State, Cambridge, and St. John’s College
-on having produced so learned and worthy a man! Great must have been
-Cheke’s delight when he beheld Queen Jane, the hope of Protestantism,
-actually enthroned in the Tower; and it must have been a consolation
-to Lady Jane to have about her so capable and at the same time so
-upright a man--one devoted, not only to her personally, but especially
-to the cause she represented. Cheke tried to induce the cunning Cecil
-to take an active part in the Government; Strype says, “He checked his
-brother Cecil who would not be induced to meddle in this matter, but
-endeavoured to be absent.”
-
-Before this, the first day of her reign, came to a close, Jane signed
-a letter to William Parr, Marquis of Northampton, Lord Lieutenant of
-Surrey, informing him of her entry into the Tower “this day.” After the
-usual preamble concerning the death of Edward, the document proceeds:
-“we are entered into our rightful possession of this kingdom, as by
-the last will of our said dearest cousin our late ancestor ... now
-therefore do you understand we do this day make our entry into our
-Tower of London as rightful queen of this realm, and have accordingly
-set forth our proclamation to all our loving subjects, giving them
-thereby to understand ... their duty of allegiance which they now of
-right owe unto us ... nothing doubting, right trusty and well beloved
-counsellor, but that you will endeavour yourself in all things to the
-uttermost of your power, not only to defend our just title, but also
-assist us ... to disturb, repel, and resist, the feigned and untrue
-claim of the Lady Mary, bastard daughter to our great uncle Henry th’
-Eight, of famous memory.”
-
-This missive was later on shown to Mary, and increased her resentment
-against Jane, whose signature it bore, and also against Northumberland,
-who drew up the original draft, though the copy Jane signed was made
-by some clerk, perhaps by Sir John Cheke. Cecil was, therefore, wise
-to number the composition of this compromising epistle among the
-many dangerous offices out of which he contrived to shuffle; for
-it is certainly to this letter to Northampton that he refers in his
-“Submission,” by the words, “I eschewed the writing of the Queen’s
-Highness, _bastard_, and therefore the Duke (of Northumberland) wrote
-the letter himself which was sent abroad in the Realm.” The Duke so
-fully appreciated the dangerous nature of the document, that later
-on he endorsed the clerk’s copy of it with the words, “_Jana non
-Regina_”--just as Cecil did with the proclamation.[225]
-
-All her State duties over, the young Queen supped in state at a
-small table on a dais, the Duke of Suffolk on her right, the Duke of
-Northumberland on her left, and the two Duchesses opposite to her. She
-was indisposed, and retired early, the whole company rising as she left
-her seat.
-
-The following morning (11th July) there was a violent scene[226]
-between Jane, her husband, and his mother. So far as can be
-ascertained, the marriage had not hitherto gone beyond the stage of
-ceremony, and Guildford Dudley and his bride had never lived as man and
-wife. The Duchess of Northumberland insisted that this state of affairs
-should cease, resolving that “her son should share the new Queen’s bed
-and throne, and forthwith assume the title of King Consort.” With this
-object, the ambitious parent and her docile son made a sudden incursion
-into Jane’s chamber, whilst she was still seated at her toilet. The
-Duchess vituperated her daughter-in-law, using coarse and violent
-language; the would-be King was noisy and impertinent! But Jane stoutly
-refused to grant the latter part of the Duchess’s request. “The Crown,”
-she said, “was not a plaything for boys and girls. She could make her
-husband a Duke, but only Parliament could make him a King.”[227] On
-these words the Duchess burst into a fury, and paced angrily up and
-down the floor, swearing her strongest oaths, that her son should be
-King, whether Jane would or not. Guildford, who was boyish, began
-to cry, and left the room. Jane had to endure another scene of the
-most unpleasant description with the Duchess, in the midst of which
-Guildford, still sulking, returned. His mother presently caught his
-hand and drew him out of the room, saying “she would not leave him with
-an ungrateful wife.”
-
-Thereupon Jane sent for the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke, and asked
-their advice. They apparently approved of the line she had taken, and
-going to young Guildford, informed him he must on no account leave the
-Tower, nor agree to the Duchess’s proposal that he should separate from
-his wife, and return with her (_i.e._ his mother) to Sion House. It is
-quite probable that if he had done so, his life would have been spared.
-
-Lady Jane’s account of this stormy interview is as follows: “The Lord
-High Treasurer, Winchester,” says she, “brought me the regalia and the
-Crown, the which were neither demanded by _me_ nor by any one in _my
-name_[228]; he desired to place it on my head to see how it fitted.
-This I declined with many protestations; but he said, ‘I might take it
-boldly, for that he would have another made to crown my husband with.’
-Which thing I certainly heard with infinite grief, and displeasure of
-heart. As soon as I was left alone with my husband I reasoned with him,
-and after we had had a great dispute he consented to wait till he was
-made King by me and Act of Parliament.” Jane then relates what we have
-already said--how she sent for the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke, and
-the scene with the Duchess and her threat of carrying Guildford off to
-Sion; also how the two Earls were charged to keep Guildford from going
-there. “And thus,” concludes the narrative, “I was compelled to act
-as a woman who is _obliged_ to live on good terms with her husband;
-nevertheless I was not only deluded by the Duke and the Council, but
-maltreated by my husband and his mother.”
-
-Disregarding Jane’s prudent advice, her ambitious young husband
-nevertheless did his best to get himself recognised King of England.
-In the minutes of a dispatch which must have been written during the
-nine days’ reign of his wife, and is addressed to the Duchess-Regent
-of the Netherlands by Guildford’s directions, he recalls Sir Thomas
-Chamberlayne (English Minister in that country) and desires that “in
-all _his_ (Guildford’s) affairs” full credit be given to Sir Philip
-Hoby.[229] One of the first acts, therefore, of Jane’s Council was to
-nominate Sir Philip, then at Brussels, as successor to Chamberlayne;
-this nomination is signed “Jane the Quene.” Jane herself, true
-to what she said to her mother-in-law and to Guildford, does not
-appear to have recognised her husband as King, for no mention of
-him appears in such of her official documents as have come down to
-us. All the same, Guildford contrived to get his claims accepted by
-some Continental notabilities. On learning of the death of Edward
-VI, Sir Philip Hoby and Sir Richard Morysone,[230] the English
-Commissioners in Flanders,--who had doubtless been primed beforehand
-by Northumberland,--wrote from Brussels to the Privy Council (under
-date of July 15th) that “The xiii^h of this presente, Don Diego found
-me Sir Phillipe Hobby (Hoby), and me Sir Richard Morysone, walkyne
-in our hostes gardene.” This Don Diego Mendoza[231] was a member of
-the Spanish administration in the Low Countries, an old personal
-friend of the Dudley family, and, as already stated, godfather to
-young Guildford, who had, of course, been baptized a Catholic. On the
-occasion of this meeting with the Englishmen, the Spaniard, after the
-usual condolences on the death of Edward VI, passed to praises of that
-monarch’s wisdom in providing England with so good a King, meaning not
-“Jane the Quene,” the rightful heiress of the Realm, but Guildford
-Dudley.[232] The truth may be that Diego said nothing of the kind,
-and that the English diplomats simply put these words into his mouth,
-to confirm the Council in its allegiance to Jane, and make it look on
-Guildford as the King, by creating an impression that his right to the
-throne was admitted by leading men on the Continent. Don Diego Mendoza
-told the Commissioners (they said) that his condolences on the occasion
-of the death of King Edward and his offers of service “to the kyng’s
-majestie” (Guildford) had been retarded, by the advice of the Bishop of
-Arras, a member of the Ministry at Brussels. “Therefore says he (_i.e._
-Don Diego, quoted by the Commissioners) do I (feel) sorry that you lose
-so good a King, so much do I rejoice that ye have so noble and toward a
-_Prince_ to succeed him, and I promise you, by the word of a gentleman,
-I would at all times serve His Highness myself if the Emperor (Charles
-V) did call me to serve him (_i.e._ “allow me to do so”).” The English
-Envoys inform the Council that they told Don Diego “they had received
-the sorrowful news (of the death of Edward VI) but the glad tidings
-(of the “accession” of Guildford) were not as yet come unto us by
-letters”--which was probably true, so far as official intimations of
-them went. Upon this Don Diego replied: “I can tell you this much. The
-King’s Majesty (Edward VI), for discharge of his conscience, wrote
-a good piece of his testament with his own hand, barring both his
-sisters of the Crown, and leaving it to the Lady Jane, near to the
-French Queen (that is to say, “related to Mary Tudor, Queen of Louis
-XII of France”). Whether the two daughters be bastards or not or why
-it is done, we that be strangers have nothing to do. You are bound to
-obey and serve His Majesty (Guildford Dudley), and therefore it is
-reasonable (that) we take him for (_i.e._ “to be”) your King, whom the
-consent of the nobles of your country have declared for (“to be”) your
-King, and,” he continued, “for my part of all others, I am bound to be
-glad that His Majesty is set in this office. I was his godfather, and
-would as willingly spend my blood in his service as any subject that
-he hath, as long as I shall see the Emperor willing to embrace (His)
-Majesty’s amity.” “Don Francisson (Francesco) de Este, general of all
-the footmen Itallyanes (Italian Infantry),” the Commissioners add, “is
-gone to his charge in mylland (”Milan“), who, at his departure, made
-the like offer, as long his master and ours should be friends, which
-he trusted should be ever, praying us at our return to utter it to the
-King’s Majesty (Guildford), and will (we) humbly take our leave of your
-honours.”
-
-It is obvious that, if Diego de Mendoza ever really used the words
-attributed to him in this letter, and did not merely lend his name
-to the English Commissioners, he must have been well “coached” by
-the Dudleys in what he was to say, though his close connection with
-Guildford as his godfather would naturally incline him to credit
-anything in his favour. Still, knowing Northumberland and Suffolk’s
-deep scheming, one cannot suppose that Mendoza’s enthusiasm for
-Guildford’s illegal claim to royal honours and his haste to admit
-it was entirely uninspired by outside influences. It is, indeed, a
-significant fact that Ascham, a great friend of the Duke of Suffolk,
-and very intimate with the inner workings of English politics, who
-had been sent abroad as Secretary to Morysone in 1550, was still in
-Brussels with that knight in the summer of 1553. It is more than
-probable, therefore, that Ascham, being in correspondence with Suffolk,
-knew beforehand of the forthcoming elevation of Jane to the throne,
-and, on behalf of the Duke, advised Hoby and Morysone as to what they
-should say and do when that event took place, and also had an interview
-with Don Diego to the same end. We may be certain, however, that
-Ascham did not countenance the Catholic side of the question.
-
-This letter from the Commissioners was not written until 15th July,
-and by the time it reached England the political scene had changed.
-It damaged Guildford’s position seriously by its revelation of the
-schemes of the Dudleys and their party, who, not content with placing
-Northumberland’s daughter-in-law on the throne, were also seeking to
-crown that nobleman’s youngest son. From certain documents in the
-Belgian and Viennese Archives it would appear that Diego de Mendoza
-went so far as to address the Emperor directly on the subject of
-Guildford’s right to the throne, even assuring him that his godson
-would become a Catholic.
-
-A strong searchlight has been thrown on this hitherto rather obscure
-passage in the history of this period by the learned Editor of this
-work, in his interesting volume, _Two Queens and Philip_.[233] The
-author, it is true, had suspected that Northumberland must have had
-some strong foreign support in his audacious attempt to usurp the
-throne, ostensibly for Lady Jane, though in reality for his own son,
-Guildford, but Major Martin Hume’s researches in the Spanish Archives
-have proved beyond a doubt that Charles V was backing him throughout
-in his perilous undertaking, and this against the interests of his own
-cousin, Mary Tudor.
-
-The Swiss Reformers, and especially Bocher, doubted the sincerity of
-Northumberland’s Protestantism, and it is not at all improbable that he
-had promised the Emperor that, should he succeed in placing Guildford
-Dudley on the throne and Jane as Queen-Consort, he would veer round to
-the Catholic party and re-establish papal supremacy in England.
-
-The Emperor had sent the Sieurs de Courrières and Renard as Ambassadors
-to our Court in the last year of Edward VI. Whether they were deceived
-by Northumberland or were genuinely of the opinion that the chances of
-Mary’s succession were very remote and that Jane’s party was infinitely
-the strongest, we know not, but the Emperor, acting on their advice,
-backed Northumberland for all he was worth up to the very day that he
-was captured at Cambridge and conveyed a prisoner to London. Bearing
-these facts in mind, the almost incredible story which we have just
-related concerning Guildford’s attempt to secure the throne for himself
-becomes intelligible.
-
-On the other hand, Northumberland had apparently done nothing to obtain
-favour for poor Jane’s own Envoys, sent to announce her accession to
-the Courts of Paris and Vienna, for no sooner had those gentlemen
-reached the cities in question than they were refused recognition and
-turned back. The elder Dudley, selfishness incarnate, cared little for
-the dignity of his daughter-in-law, if only his son might be proclaimed
-King.
-
-In the Museum at Hastings there is the impression of a hexagonal seal
-which was to have figured on the State documents of “Queen Jane and
-King Guildford Dudley.” Under an arched crown, between the initials
-“G. D.” (Guildford Dudley)--a striking proof of the extent to which
-his claims to the Crown were carried--are two escutcheons, one to
-the left bearing the royal arms of England, lions and fleurs-de-lys,
-and the other to the right, two animals, probably bears, grappling a
-ragged staff, the arms of the Dudleys. Properly speaking, according to
-heraldic rule, the royal arms should be on the right and the family
-arms on the left. Doubtless the mistake was due to the haste with which
-this seal was prepared. Under the escutcheons are the words “Ioanna
-Reg,” and on either side the date 1553. The matrix of this seal seems
-to have been lost; at least, its present whereabouts are unknown.
-
-On the 11th of July the Council wrote afresh to the Commissioners (Hoby
-and Morysone) telling them of the “signification of our sovereign
-lord’s death,” and remarking that, “although the Lady Mary hath been
-written unto from us (_i.e._ in answer to her letter of the 9th), yet
-nevertheless we see her not so weigh the matter that if she might
-she would disturb the state of this realm, having thereunto as yet
-no manner apparent of help or comfort but only the connivance of a
-few lords and base people: all others the nobility and gentlemen
-remaining in their duties to our sovereign lady Queen Jane. And yet,
-nevertheless, because the conditions of the baser sort of people is
-understood to be unruly if they be not governed and kept in order,
-therefore for the meeting with all events, the Duke of Northumberland’s
-grace, accompanied with the Lord Marquis of Northampton, proceedeth
-with a convenient power into the parts of Norfolk, to keep those
-countries in stay and obedience, and because the Emperor’s ambassadors
-here remaining shall on this matter of the policy not intermeddle, as
-it is very likely they will and do dispose themselves, the Lord Cobham
-and Sir John Mason repaireth to the same ambassadors, to give them
-notice of the Lady Mary’s proceeding against the state of this realm,
-and to put them in remembrance of the nature of their office, which
-is not to meddle in these causes of policy,[234] neither directly nor
-indirectly, and so to charge them to use themselves as they give no
-occasion of unkindness to be ministered unto them, whereas we would be
-most sorry, for the friendship, which on our part, we mean to conserve
-and maintain. And for that grace the ambassadors here shall advertise
-the others what is said to them.... The xi^{th} of July, 1553.”
-
-This document was followed, next day, by an official letter to the
-Commissioners, signed by Jane, and outlining what they were to say to
-the Emperor as to the foreign policy to be pursued hereafter:--
-
- “TRUSTY AND WELL-BELOVED,--We greet you well. It hath pleased
- God of his providence, by the calling of our most dear cousin of
- famous memory, King Edward the VI^{th}, out of this life, to our
- very natural sorrow, that we both by our said cousin’s lawful
- determination in his lifetime, with the assent of the nobility and
- state of this our realm, and also as his lawful heir and successor
- in the whole blood royal, are possessed of this our realm of
- England and Ireland.”
-
-Then comes a recommendation of the bearer of the letter, a Mr. Shelley;
-the confirmation of Hoby’s appointment--“the whole number of our
-ambassadors shall there remain to continue to dwell in the former
-commission which ye had from our ancestor the King,” and an order
-that Hoby shall make this clear to the Emperor, and assure him that
-the friendship between England and the Emperor shall be continued as
-hitherto.
-
-Worry, anxiety, and annoyance soon brought on a relapse of the illness
-from which Jane had lately suffered. Her pains at last grew so acute
-that she again fancied the Duchess of Northumberland had poisoned her.
-Possibly this illness accounts for our hearing so little of her doings
-during the second, third, and fourth days of her short reign (11th,
-12th, 13th of July). “Twice,” she writes, “was I poisoned, once in
-the house of my mother-in-law,[235] and afterwards in the Tower; the
-venom was so potent that all the skin came off my back.” This idea was
-evidently only the result of the fever, which caused the skin to peel.
-Trouble had so reduced the poor girl, no doubt, that she fell an easy
-prey to the fevers so prevalent in and about the Tower, as long as the
-moat remained uncovered.
-
-On the 11th the Council received a letter from Mary, dated from
-Kenninghall 9th July, stating she had heard of her brother the King’s
-death, and was surprised that she had not known it sooner, and adding
-her intention to cause her right and title to be published, and
-proclaimed accordingly. The letter declared the Princess aware of the
-Council’s desire to undo her claims, but added that she was willing
-to grant pardon, and closed with an order to the Council to have her
-proclaimed in the City of London and other places. The Council’s reply
-was a masterpiece of “bluff.” It ran as follows:--
-
- “MADAM,--We have received your letters (of) the 9th of this
- instant, declaring your supposed title ... to the Imperial Crown
- of this Realm, and all the dominions thereunto belonging. For
- answer whereof, this is to advertise you, that for as much as our
- Sovereign Lady, Queen Jane is after the death of our Sovereign
- Lord Edward the 6th, ... invested and possessed with the just and
- right title in the Imperial Crown of this Realm, not only by
- good order of ancient laws of this Realm, but also by our late
- Sovereign Lord’s letters-patent, signed with his own hand, and
- sealed with the Great Seal of England, in presence of the most part
- of the nobles, councillors, judges, with divers other grave and
- sage personages, assenting and subscribing to the same. We must,
- therefore, of most bound duty and allegiance assent unto her said
- Grace, and to none other, except we should, which faithful subjects
- cannot, fall into grievous and unspeakable enormities. Wherefore
- we can no less do, but for the quiet both of the Realm and you
- also, to advertise you, that forasmuch as the divorce made between
- the King of famous memory, Henry VIII and the Lady Katherine,
- your mother, was necessary to be had, both by the everlasting
- laws of God, and also by the ecclesiastical laws, and by the
- most part of the noble and learned universities of Christendom,
- and confirmed also by the sundry acts of Parliament, remaining
- yet in their force, and thereby you justly made illegitimate and
- unheritable to the Crown Imperial of this Realm ... you will,
- upon just consideration hereof, and of divers other causes lawful
- to be alleged for the same, and for the just inheritance of the
- right line and godly order, taken by the late King our Sovereign
- Lord King Edward the VI, and agreed upon by the nobles and great
- personages aforesaid, surcease by any pretence, to vex and molest
- any of our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane her subjects, from their true
- faith and allegiance unto Her Grace; assuring you, that if you will
- ... show yourself quiet and obedient, as you ought, you shall find
- us all and several ready to do you any service that we with duty
- may.... And thus we bid you most heartily well to fare.
-
- “Your ladyship’s friends, showing yourself an obedient subject.”
-
-This document was signed by the following members of the Council:
-“Thomas Canterbury, the Marquis of Winchester, John Bedford, Will.
-Northampton, Thomas Ely, Chancellor; Northumberland, Henry Suffolk,
-Henry Arundel, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Cobham, R. Rich, Huntingdon,
-Darcy, Cheney, R. Cotton, John Gates, W. Peter, W. Cecill, John Cheeke,
-John Mason, Edward North, R. Bowes.” Of all the signatories of this
-letter, not more than four, if so many, remained true to Jane to the
-last!
-
-[Illustration: LADY JANE GREY, BY WYNGARDE
-
-THE EARLIEST ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF HER, FROM A PICTURE SAID TO BE BY
-HOLBEIN, NOW LOST]
-
-On 12th July, the second day after Jane’s entry into the Tower,
-the Marquis of Winchester brought her unwilling Majesty a curious
-collection of miscellaneous articles of jewellery, the contents of
-sundry boxes and caskets, deposited at the Jewel House in the Tower,
-and which had belonged to Henry’s six queens. Jane, despite her poor
-health, was constrained to examine these things. The caskets contained,
-amongst other articles, “A fish of gold, being a toothpick. One
-dewberry of gold. A like pendant, having one great and three little
-pearls. A newt of white silver” (that is to say, a silver ornament
-wrought in the form of a lizard or eft). “A tablet of gold with a white
-sapphire and a blue one, a balas ruby, and a pendant pearl. A tablet of
-gold hung by a chain with St. John’s head, and flat pearls. A tablet
-with our Lady of Pity, engraved on a blue stone. A pair of beads of
-white porcelain, with eight gauds of gold, and a tassel of Venice
-gold. Beads of gold with crymesy (crimson) work. Buttons of gold with
-crimson work. Six purse hangers of siver and gilt” (these were to hang
-purses or trinkets to the girdle, like the modern chatelaine). “Five
-small agates with stars graven on them. Pearls in rounnels of gold
-between pivots of pearls. Pipes of gold. A pair of bracelets of flaggon
-chain (pattern), connecting jacinths of orange coloured amethysts.
-Many buttons of gold worked with crimson, and in each button set six
-pearls. Thirty turquoises of little worth. Thirteen table diamonds set
-in collets of gold. An abiliment set with twelve table diamonds” (these
-were the borderings of the caps like those of Anne Boleyn, or even of
-the round hood which was the fashion that succeeded them). “Forty-three
-damasked gold buttons, and a clock or watch set in damasked gold,
-tablet fashion,” close the list,[236] but Winchester affirms that he
-delivered to Jane, on 12th July, not only these, but the regalia[237]
-and other jewels, together with a supply of cash, books, and even
-clothes.
-
-About this date, too, Lord Guildford Dudley was sent a quantity of
-the Crown jewels, possibly as an earnest of his future dignity. They
-certainly cost him dear!
-
-A curious inventory exists at Hatfield, of stuffs delivered to “the
-Lady Jane Grey, usurper, at the Tower by commandment over and above
-sundry things already delivered to her by two several warrants.”
-These goods were her own personal property, evidently left by her at
-Westminster Palace on the occasion of some visit, of which no record
-now exists. The stay in question must have occurred very shortly
-before Edward’s death, and the things may have been forgotten in the
-confusion attendant upon his last illness. The inventory is endorsed
-by Sir Andrew Dudley and Sir Arthur Sturton, deceased, Keeper of the
-Palace at Westminster, and was made, according to custom, on the day of
-the King’s death, when seals were put on the doors of every apartment
-in the royal palaces, not to be lifted till the King’s burial, after
-which such articles as belonged to persons in waiting or servants were
-delivered, after verification, to their various owners. The list of
-goods and chattels belonging to Lady Jane is a very lengthy one, and we
-will only make a few quotations, to give a glimpse of the contents of
-her wardrobe and her minor possessions:--
-
- “Item, a muffler of purple velvet, embroidered with pearls of
- damask gold garnished with small stones of sundry sorts and tied
- with white satin.
-
- “Item, a muffler of sable skin with a head of gold with 4 clasps
- set with five emeralds, four turquoises, six rubies, two diamonds
- and five pearls, the four feet of the sable being of gold set with
- turquoises and the head having a tongue made of a ruby.
-
- “Item, a hat of purple velvet embroidered with many pearls.
-
- “Item, a hat of black velvet laced with aglets (tags), enamelled,
- with a brooch of gold.
-
- “Item, a cap of black velvet, having a fine brooch with a square
- table ruby with divers pictures enamelled in red, black and green.
-
- “Item, eighteen buttons with rubies.
-
- “Item, eighteen gold buttons.
-
- “Item, a helmet of gold with a face, and a helmet upon its head and
- an ostrich feather.
-
- “Item, three pairs of garters having buckles and pendants of gold.
-
- “Item, one shirt with collar and ruffles of gold.
-
- “Item, three shirts--one of velvet, the other of black silk
- embroidered with gold, the third of gold stitched with silver and
- red silk.
-
- “Item, a piece of sable skin.
-
- “Item, two little images of wood, one of Edward VI, and the other
- of Henry VIII.
-
- “Item, a dog collar wrought with red work with gold bells.
-
- “Item, a picture of Lady of Suffolk in a gold box.
-
- “Item, a picture of Queen Katherine Parr that is lately deceased.”
-
-This list also contained some articles which must have belonged to
-Guildford, for it is not probable that Lady Jane ever possessed “a
-sword grille of red silk and gold” or “a Turkey bow and a quiver of
-Turkish arrows,” or “a white doublet and hose of silk and velvet.” The
-number of clocks contained in this list is very remarkable:--
-
- “One fair striking clock standing upon a mine of silver; the clock
- being garnished with silver and gilt, having in the top a crystal,
- and also garnished with divers counterfeit stones and pearls, the
- garnishment of the same being broken, and lacking in sundry places.
-
- “One alarum of silver enamelled, standing upon four balls.
-
- “One round striking dial, set in crystal, garnished with metal gilt.
-
- “One round hanging dial, with an alarum closed in crystal.
-
- “One pillar, with a man having a device of astronomy in his hand,
- and a sphere in the top, all being of metal gilt.
-
- “One alarum of copper garnished with silver, enamelled with divers
- colours having in the top a box of silver, standing upon a green
- molehill a flower of silver, the same altar standing upon three
- pomegranates of silver.
-
- “One little striking clock, within a case of letten, book fashion,
- engraven with a rose crowned, and _Dieu et Mon Droit_.”
-
-The articles enumerated were brought to Lady Jane at the Tower,
-during her imprisonment, after her brief reign was over, and having
-ascertained their agreement with the Inventory, she signed that
-document, which was returned, and came into the possession of Cecil,
-and now lies, as we have said, among the State Papers at Hatfield. The
-fact that the list contains a reference to articles evidently belonging
-to Guildford Dudley points to his having accompanied Lady Jane to
-Court, and shared his wife’s apartment. Probably the object of the
-visit had been to bring Jane under the King’s immediate notice, and
-influence him to name her in his will, as his chosen successor.
-
-It had evidently been decided that the young Queen was not to tarry
-long in the gloomy palace prison, for some of the documents drawn up
-during the “nine days” have spaces left blank for the insertion of some
-other royal residence. Besides, when Jane appointed her brother-in-law,
-Lord Ambrose Dudley, to be her palace-keeper at Westminster, in lieu
-of his uncle, Sir Andrew Dudley, one of his first wardrobe orders was
-for twenty yards of purple velvet, twenty-five of Holland cloth, and
-thirty-three of coarser lining to make her robes, “against her removal
-from the Tower.”
-
-On the night of 12th July, according to Machyn, “was carried to the
-Tower iij carts full of all manner of ordnance, as great guns and
-small, bows, bills, spears, mores-pikes, arnes [harness or armour],
-arrows, gunpowder, and wetelle [victuals], money, tents, and all
-manner of ordnance, gun-stones a great number, and a great number of
-men of arms; and it had been for a great army toward Cambridge;”[238]
-in other words, all these things were provided for the use of a great
-army, to proceed to Cambridge. These warlike preparations were made
-none too soon, for on the following morning, 13th July, news reached
-the Tower that the rival Queen was at Kenninghall, on the borders of
-Suffolk and Norfolk, and that the men of Norfolk, knights and squires
-alike, were scurrying in their hundreds along the dusty lanes, to offer
-Mary their lives and service. In brief, the guilty inmates of the
-Tower, the would-be rulers of the realm, learnt to their consternation
-that throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom the people
-were against Queen Jane, and for Queen Mary. The Council was hastily
-assembled, and it was at once decided that the Lords Robert Dudley
-and Warwick were too young and inexperienced “for such difficulties
-as these.” The first proposal was, that the Duke of Suffolk should
-leave the Tower, and take command of the troops; but Queen Jane,
-alarmed for her own safety, insisted she needed her father, and could
-not do without him. His age and bad health were also factors in the
-final decision that Northumberland would, after all, be the best man
-to send.[239] The Duke left Her Majesty in charge of the Council, and
-swore one of his big oaths that when he came back “Mary should no
-longer be in England, for he would take care to drive her into France,
-or----” He took a passionate leave of his son Guildford, holding him in
-a long and tender embrace, pressing his head in his hands, and kissing
-him again and again. Did it flash across the father’s mind that he
-might never see his darling son again?
-
-Northumberland ordered the troops he was to command, which were to be
-raised by the various noblemen adhering to Jane’s party, to meet him
-at Newmarket. He gave a sort of farewell dinner to the Council in the
-Tower on the 13th, opening the banquet with a threatening speech to
-his guests. “If you do not keep your oath, or if you turn traitor to
-Jane,” said he, “God shall [will] not acquit you of the sacred and
-holy oath of allegiance, made freely by you to this virtuous lady, the
-Queen’s Highness, who by your and our enticement is rather of force
-placed therein [_i.e._ “in the position of Queen”], than by her own
-seeking and request. But if ye mean deceit, though not herewith but
-hereafter, God will revenge the same. I can say no more.” This was
-perhaps fortunate, for some of the assembled gentlemen certainly did
-“mean deceit.” The Duke concluded by asking the Council to “wish him
-no worse speed in his journey than they would have themselves.” One
-of the members of that august body replied in the following terms: “My
-Lord, if ye mistrust any of us in this matter [the forcing Jane to
-become Queen], Your Grace is far deceived; for which of us can wipe
-his hands clean thereof? And if we should shrink from you, as one
-that is culpable [of having forced Jane to assume the crown], which
-of us can excuse himself as guiltless? Therefore herein your doubt
-is too far cast.” Northumberland was not offended by these ambiguous
-remarks, and merely added, “I pray God it be so. Let us go to dinner.”
-When this--as we should imagine--rather gloomy banquet was over,
-Northumberland sent a messenger to Jane at the Tower, and received
-by his hand his commission as “Lieutenant of the Army.” As he passed
-through the Council Chamber on his way to Durham House for the night,
-he encountered the Earl of Arundel, “who prayed God to be with His
-Grace, saying he was sorry it was not his chance to go with him and
-bear him company, in whose presence he could find in his heart to spend
-his blood even at his feet; and, taking Thomas Lovel, the Duke’s boy,
-by the hand, he added, ‘Farewell, gentle Thomas, with all my heart.’
-Then the Duke, with the Lord Marquis of Northampton, the Lord Grey, and
-divers others, took barge and went to Durham Place and to Whitehall,
-where they mustered their men.”[240] Next morning, Friday, 14th July,
-the Duke and his followers rode proudly forth,[241] with a train of
-guns and a body of six hundred men, led by some of the greatest in
-the land; such as Lord Edward Clinton, the Marquis of Northampton,
-the Earls of Warwick, Huntingdon, and Westmoreland, the Lords Grey
-de Wilton, Ambrose and Robert Dudley, Sir John Gates, and a score of
-others, equally influential, the majority already tried in war. As
-the glittering troop, armed with the motley collection of weapons
-brought to the Tower two days before, passed through the city and along
-Shoreditch, Northumberland noticed that, great as the crowd was, it
-was sullen, no one greeting the troops and their leaders with anything
-like enthusiasm. “The people,” he remarked surlily to Sir John Gates,
-“press to see us, but no one bids us God speed.”
-
-On the day her father-in-law left the Tower, only to return as a
-condemned prisoner, the Lady Jane--whose occupations from the time
-of her stormy interview with her mother-in-law up to this point are
-nowhere recorded, except for her inspection of the Crown jewels--signed
-a number of letters and documents of considerable importance. She wrote
-to the Duke of Norfolk, for instance, demanding his allegiance and
-commanding him to come to her Court as Earl Marshal, and confirming
-his titles and honours if he proved loyal to her. The original of this
-letter is in the possession of Mr. Wilson of Yorkshire. The body of
-the document is in Northumberland’s hand, and must have been drafted
-some days previously, but the signature is Jane’s. She next signed a
-warrant for the appointment of Edward Baynard as Sheriff of Wiltshire
-in lieu of our old friend, Sir William Sharington, “lately deceased.”
-This curious and little-known document is in the possession of Mrs.
-Alfred Morrison, and is exceedingly curious. The body of the text is
-in the hand of a Secretary, but the name is in Lady Jane’s handwriting
-and the signature is an autograph. Curiously enough, on 6th July Queen
-Mary had made the same appointment: later, she issued a proclamation to
-the effect that “no document, appointment, payment, or gift of land or
-money made by Jane Dudley,[242] usurper,” should be considered valid;
-but Baynard’s nomination, however, held good, as we find from the Pipe
-Rolls of the County of Wiltshire for 1553. It is strange that Baynard
-should have been appointed by both the rival Queens, though this may be
-accounted for by the fact that he is said to have been a Wiltshire man
-and popular in his neighbourhood.
-
-Bad news reached London that evening, and before Queen Jane retired to
-rest she knew her fortunes were in jeopardy and she herself rapidly
-ceasing to be Queen, even in name. Presently a messenger informed the
-Council that the men of Bucks, under Lord Windsor and Sir Edward
-Hastings, were rising for Queen Mary. Still worse news flew Londonwards
-on Saturday, the sixth day of Jane’s disastrous reign. Queen Mary had
-been proclaimed at Framlingham and Norwich. Northumberland, perceiving
-his weakness, had sent to London for fresh troops, and was himself
-speeding as fast as horse could gallop towards Cambridge, which he
-reached at midnight.
-
-So complete and rapid was the collapse of Jane’s cause that even the
-most carefully planned precautions taken in her interest ended by
-serving her foes. Her partisans, for instance, fearing Mary might
-escape by sea, had ordered six men-of-war to cruise off the east coast,
-intercept her flight, and bring her back a prisoner. The weather
-suddenly became so stormy that the vessels were driven into Yarmouth
-Roads just as a body of men was being levied in that town for Mary’s
-support. The sailors of the squadron, who had landed, bribed with money
-and strong ale to abandon their ships and join the levy, handed over
-their vessels to Sir Henry Jerningham, one of the staunchest supporters
-of the Tudor Princess, who, being thus supplied by her enemies with
-money, ammunition, and a train of artillery,[243] marched forthwith
-against Northumberland, who was soon fain to fall back towards
-Cambridge, where he fancied himself safe in Trinity College, with his
-friends Drs. Sandys, and Parker, and Dr. Bill. As a matter of fact,
-his enemies, declared and secret, were as numerous and formidable in
-Cambridge as elsewhere; but during the momentary lull which ensued he
-flattered himself with false hopes, and plied the Council with demands
-for money and men, many of his followers having deserted him at Bury to
-join the enemy. Yet all the time Cecil[244] was betraying him at every
-point. Nothing can exceed the cunning and treachery he displayed--so
-deep and cruel that one cannot but feel some pity for Northumberland,
-notwithstanding his many crimes and faults. When Cecil was forced to
-order his horsemen to take the field against Mary, he contrived to have
-them ambushed and attacked, and thus rendered quite useless to the Duke
-and harmless to his opponents. The Council informed Northumberland of
-the miscarriage of Cecil’s men; but the letter fell into the hands
-of Mary, who inquired of Roger Alford, Cecil’s confidential servant
-in attendance on her, why her master, whom she evidently knew to be
-playing traitor to Jane, had sent troops against her. Alford, so he
-says, “being privy to the matter before (hand), laughed, and told her
-[Mary] the matter,”--that Cecil had never intended his men should do
-any harm to her cause, but had simply sent them as a “blind” to make
-Northumberland think the Council was doing all in its power to send
-him reinforcements, and thus spur him forward to his ruin. Under such
-circumstances, the Duke’s position soon became desperate. “He would sit
-moodily in his chair lost in thought, then starting up, would pace the
-room, muttering to himself.”
-
-Dr. Sandys and several of his friends in Cambridge asked him to sup
-with them on the Saturday night, and spoke in a very friendly manner
-about Lady Jane. He shook his head, rose from the table, and seated
-himself in a vacant chair; remained there a long time in silence, and
-in deep depression; and, when his entertainers bade him good-night,
-took their hands in his, and begged them severally to pray for him,
-“for he was in great distress.”
-
-Sandys had been appointed to preach before the Duke on the following
-morning (Sunday, 16th July). Before retiring to rest, the learned
-Doctor, intending to choose a text, took up a Bible, which fell open
-at the first chapter of Joshua, the verse that met his eye being,
-“All that Thou commandest we will do, and wheresoever Thou sendest,
-so will we go.” “Upon which text he preached the next day with such
-discretion that he [Northumberland] got not such full advantage of him
-as he had hoped.” On the Monday the Duke went with his men to Bury.
-Their “feet marched forward, but their minds moved backwards”; in other
-words, they were but a half-hearted set, and one by one they deserted
-all through the day, hiding behind hedges and in ditches, till when
-evening came, the Duke, heart-sore and heavy, rode back to Cambridge
-almost alone, “with more sad thoughts than valiant soldiers about hym.”
-Realising that all was lost, he bethought him of a dramatic, or rather
-theatrical, trick to save himself. He conceived the idea that if he
-went to London and fell at the Queen’s feet, she would welcome and
-forgive him. Had she not pardoned many rebels? and was he worse than
-any of these?
-
-Presently, considerably cheered by his own but erroneous reflections,
-he betook himself, accompanied by the Mayor and Dr. Sandys, to the
-market cross, where the crowd greeted him in silence, “more believing
-the grief in his eyes, when they let down tears, than the joy professed
-by his hands, when he threw up his cap,” full of gold coins, into
-their midst. This show of tardy loyalty--produced by the arrival of
-the news of Mary’s growing power--having failed in its effect, Slegg,
-the Sergeant-at-Arms, accused him of treason, and brought him back a
-prisoner to King’s College.[245]
-
-On the morning of the 21st of July, according to Machyn, the Earl of
-Arundel, as treacherous a man as any in that nest of vipers, who, a
-week before, had knelt before Northumberland and sworn to shed his
-blood for him and for Queen Jane, came rapping at his door before he
-was up. The Duke, huddling on a cloak, went out to him, and seeing him
-look so threatening, fell on his knees, praying him to be good to him
-and merciful. “For the love of God, my lord,” said he, “consider that I
-have done nothing but by consent of the Council.” “My Lord Duke,” quoth
-the Earl of Arundel, “I am hither sent by the Queen’s Majesty, and in
-her name I arrest you.” Whereupon the Duke, rising, said, “I obey; but
-I beseech you, my Lord Arundel, have mercy towards me, knowing the case
-as it is.” “My good lord,” quoth the Earl, “you should have sought for
-mercy sooner. I must do according to the commands that have been given
-to me,” and upon this he took the Duke’s sword and committed him in
-charge of the guard and other gentlemen that stood by. The miserable
-Duke went to breakfast with not much appetite, looking as white as a
-ghost and feeling most wretchedly ill. Towards evening, under an escort
-of eight hundred men, he left Cambridge with Sir John Gates and Dr.
-Sandys--both prisoners--still wearing his red cloak wrapped about him
-and suffering agonies from gout in the feet. As night fell, it began
-to rain; and down long country roads, under the lowering clouds, went
-the weird procession of rough troopers on horseback, footmen with their
-pikes, and in their midst the tall, gaunt, grim figure of the Duke, his
-soaked and tattered red cloak clinging about his bent shoulders. He is
-said to have spent the night in a barn, to be moved on to London the
-next day, entering the city early in the morning, 25th July, just as
-the shopkeepers were taking down their shutters. His plight must have
-been pitiable, for in the streets men, recognising him, jeered at him
-as a “Traitor,” threw mud on his red cloak and scowled at him, calling
-him Somerset’s murderer, and so scaring him that he was almost thankful
-to reach the Tower and its comparative safety. He had gone forth in
-proud security, certain of success, sure he was about to punish his
-enemies and reward his friends. He came back, cold and miserable,
-knowing he had sacrificed his youngest son to his ambition; that the
-fate of his other children and of the unhappy Jane hung in the balance;
-and that the only friend left him in the world was his faithful wife,
-who was at that moment on her knees to Queen Mary, pleading for mercy
-and receiving none, her husband’s offence being deemed too great for
-pardon. That night surely, in the solitude of his prison in the
-Beauchamp Tower,[246] the Duke flung himself on his knees, and prayed
-the long-neglected prayers of his childhood, the _Pater Noster_ that
-was now said in English, and the _Ave Maria_ that had gone out of
-fashion altogether!
-
-Meanwhile, on Sunday the 16th (the seventh day of Queen Jane’s reign)
-there was no rest throughout the whole length and breadth of England;
-everywhere the people were rising for Queen Mary. In the streets of
-the metropolis there was great cheering and rioting, even bloodshed.
-Bonfires were lighted in the streets, and crowds of rough men and
-loose women whirled round the lurid flames shouting, “Queen Mary!
-Queen Mary!” In the churches, the claims of the rival Queens and rival
-Creeds occupied the preachers. At Paul’s Cross, Bishop Ridley preached
-against Queen Mary[247] and the Scarlet Woman, and in favour of Jane
-and the Reformation. At St. Bartholomew’s, a Catholic priest told his
-congregation to kneel down and thank God that the victory was with
-Queen Mary; while at Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, John Knox thundered
-forth in favour of Queen Jane--but all his eloquence, and that of her
-other defenders, was in vain: the people would have Queen Mary, and
-Queen Mary only. Late this Sunday night a curious incident occurred.
-The Tower had been shut up for the night, when suddenly Jane, dreading
-perhaps some unexpected rising, ordered the outer gates to be locked
-and the keys carried up[248] to her chamber. Then the guards were
-informed that one of the Royal Seals was missing; and Jane had the
-lately closed gates unbarred, to send a body of Archers of the Guard
-after the Marquis of Winchester, who had left the precincts about seven
-o’clock for his house in Broad Street. They found him in bed, forced
-him to rise and dress himself, and brought him back about midnight
-to the Tower, where, it is said, he had to explain matters to Lady
-Jane, who connected him with the loss of the Seal. The whole incident
-is somewhat mysterious. Did the poor little Queen fancy Winchester
-was contemplating some move like that of Somerset when he practically
-assumed the Kingship at Hampton Court? Winchester undoubtedly bore
-Jane no particular good-will, and the interview, if it occurred, was
-probably somewhat stormy.
-
-The eighth day of the reign, Monday the 17th, opened with a violent
-scene in the early morning between the Duchesses of Northumberland
-and Suffolk, who wrangled over Guildford and his Kingship. Poor Jane
-was most miserable: her eyes were red with weeping, and she looked
-more dead than alive as she endeavoured to calm her belligerent Grace
-of Northumberland and reason with her own headstrong and domineering
-parent. By this time everything and everybody in the Tower were at
-sixes and sevens. No one seemed to know what to do or say. In the
-midst of it all came bad news from the country, where the peasants,
-notwithstanding the threats of their lords and masters, were refusing
-to take arms against Mary. Trouble was drawing unpleasantly near.[249]
-On the previous day (Sunday, 16th) some ten thousand of Mary’s
-adherents, many of them county notables, had assembled at Lord Paget’s
-house at Drayton, and marched to Westminster Palace, which they sacked
-of its arms and ammunition, “for the better furnishing of themselves
-in the defence of the Queen’s Majesty’s person and her title.” Paget,
-whose house was this army’s headquarters, was at this time, be it
-observed, amongst the party in the Tower and ostensibly loyal to Jane!
-Meanwhile, the people, at one with that section of the nobles who would
-have none of poor Jane, were shouting, in London and all over the land,
-“God save Queen Mary!”--whilst poor Jane’s name was never heard except
-to be scoffed at. The “nine days’ Queen” was now nothing but “a mock.”
-
-On Tuesday (the 18th) it was patent that the drama--or rather,
-tragi-comedy--was drawing to a close. Of all Queen Jane’s Council
-only two men, Cranmer and her own father, remained true to her; and
-the former left that afternoon for Lambeth and Croydon. Winchester,
-Arundel, Pembroke, Paget, and Shrewsbury, to save their necks, had
-by this time definitely decided to betray the cause of the girl whom
-they had helped to put on the throne--and of these men, two, Arundel
-and Pembroke, only nine days before, had knelt before her at Sion
-House, protesting their loyalty and belief in her right to the crown!
-This day, however, Jane signed an order to Sir John Brydges and Sir
-Nicholas Poyntz that those officers should raise forces, “with the
-same to repaire with all possible spead towardes Buckinghamshire, for
-the repression and subdewing of certain tumultes and rebellions moved
-there, against us and our Crowne by certain seditious men.” This order
-is now to be seen in the British Museum, Harleian MSS, No. 416, f. 30.
-
-On Wednesday, 19th July, the short reign ended--“Jane the Quene” became
-“_Jana non Regina_.” Yet still there was a flicker of Queendom, for
-that morning, information being received from the Lord Lieutenant of
-Essex, Lord Rich, that the Earl of Oxford, who was then in Essex, had
-thrown in his forces with Mary, Sir John Cheke, Queen Jane’s Secretary
-of State, wrote a letter, to which the treacherous Lords of the Council
-affixed their signatures, requiring Oxford “like a noble man to remain
-in that promise and stedfastness to our sovereign Lady Queen Jane,
-as ye shall find us ready and firm with all our force to maintain
-the same: which neither with honour, nor with safety, nor yet with
-duty, we may now forsake.” This morning, too, commenced the betrayal,
-when Winchester, the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Privy Seal, Arundel,
-Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Sir Thomas Cheney, Sir John Mason, and Sir John
-Cheke waited on Suffolk, as the principal leader in Northumberland’s
-absence, and desired leave to depart from the Tower so as to confer
-with the French Ambassador about the foreign mercenaries[250] who were
-to come over and aid Northumberland[251]--at that moment awaiting
-arrest at Cambridge! Their zeal evidently touched Suffolk, who granted
-them leave to depart. No sooner had they left the grim fortress behind
-them than they proceeded straight to Baynard’s Castle,[252] where,
-having sent for the Lord Mayor, they were presently joined by that
-dignitary, with the Recorder and some of the Aldermen. The proceedings
-of this improvised Council opened with an attack on Northumberland’s
-ambition and scheming, delivered by Arundel,[253] and then Pembroke
-drew his sword, and cried out, “If the arguments of my Lord Arundel do
-not persuade you, this sword shall make Mary queen, or I will die in
-her quarrel.” This speech was much applauded, and Mary’s proclamation
-was signed by all present. The conspirators then had Mary publicly
-proclaimed Queen at the Cross in Cheapside by four trumpeters and
-two heralds in their gorgeous coats. This took place about five or
-six in the evening--the very hour at which Jane’s accession had been
-published nine days earlier! The proclamation in the Chepe concluded,
-the Councillors proceeded to St. Paul’s for evensong and the singing
-of the _Te Deum_, whilst Cecil,[254] Arundel, and Paget were sent to
-pay the Council’s homage to Mary. Now that the people had absolutely
-nothing to fear from the broken power of Jane, they gave wild vent to
-their feelings. The bells of the city churches, swung with a right
-good will, sounded a welcome to the coming reign; bonfires blazed in
-every street. One of those attacks of spontaneous feverish enthusiasm
-which seize nations from time to time, even in these prosaic days, took
-hold of London. Tables were dragged into the thoroughfares, that all
-might sit down and drink to the health of her Catholic Majesty. Money
-was dispensed freely by the rich; and “the number of cappes that weare
-throwne up at the proclamacion wear not to be tould.” Most enthusiastic
-and excited of all was my Lord Pembroke, who filled and refilled his
-cap with small coin to be scrambled for by the mob. He could afford to
-be liberal: he knew Mary would reward him well for his share in her
-proclamation. London was a very pandemonium that night. “For my tyme,”
-says a contemporary news-letter,[255] “I never saw the lyke and by the
-reporte of otheres the lyke was never seen.... I saw myself money was
-thrown out at windows for joy. The bonefires were without number; and
-what with shouting and crying of the people, and ringing of bells,[256]
-there could no one man hear what another said; besides banketyng
-[banqueting] and skipping the street for joy.”[257]
-
-Archbishop Cranmer is said to have been the last of Jane’s Council,
-then resident in the Tower, to leave it, which he did in the course
-of 19th July, after a sad leave-taking with Lady Jane. His position
-in the Janeite conspiracy has been severely criticised by more than
-one historian, and by none more than by Lord Macaulay. He had been
-instrumental in aiding Northumberland to overthrow Somerset, probably
-because he disliked the latter’s Calvinistic tendencies, and regarded
-him as a stumbling-block in the way of his proceedings for the
-establishment of a more moderate and orthodox Church of England. After
-the death of Somerset, the Archbishop became one of Northumberland’s
-chief supporters, and, as Macaulay points out, covered himself with
-lasting obloquy by his attempt to seduce an innocent girl into a
-treasonable career which was to lead to her ruin. In her eyes he was
-something more than a political Councillor--an Apostle of the Lord--and
-his advice no doubt told with her above that of any one else. The next
-time they met, Cranmer was a prisoner on his way to Guildhall,[258]
-whither she too was tramping on foot to hear her doom, approved of by
-most of the men who had been her chief Councillors, read out before the
-multitude of Queen Mary’s friends and supporters.
-
-There was little joy and much grief within the Tower. Presently a
-messenger to Suffolk from Baynard’s Castle came to tell him that the
-nobles there assembled required him to deliver up the Tower, and
-proceed to the Castle to sign Mary’s proclamation. They also ordered
-Lady Jane to resign the title of Queen. Instantly Suffolk abandoned
-the unequal struggle; leaving the Lieutenant in charge of the Tower,
-he went out, telling his men to leave their weapons behind them. He
-himself announced Mary’s accession on Tower Hill, and then, going to
-Baynard’s Castle, he signed her proclamation. This done, the wretched
-man returned to the Tower to tell his daughter that her Queenship
-was a thing of the past. Jane, meanwhile, having promised Edward
-Underhill, the famous “Hot Gospeller,” then on duty in the Tower, that
-she would act as godmother that day to his infant son, who was to be
-christened Guildford, and being herself too ill to attend the baptism,
-commissioned Lady Throckmorton to go in her stead. Lady Throckmorton
-left the royal apartments and proceeded to St. John’s Chapel (some
-say All Hallows’, Barking), leaving Jane surrounded by the insignia
-of royalty--the cloth of estate, the throne, and all that marked her
-position as Queen. When her ladyship returned, these had all been
-removed; for _the_ Queen of England had not yet arrived in London,
-and her subject, “Jane, the usurper,” no longer sat on the throne.
-During the absence of Lady Throckmorton Suffolk had rushed back to his
-daughter. He found her alone in the Council Chamber, seated, forlorn,
-under her canopy of State. “Come down from that, my child,” said he;
-“that is no place for you.” Then he gently told her all; and gladly
-did poor Jane rise and quit her hateful office. For a moment father
-and daughter stood weeping, locked in each other’s arms, in the centre
-of the deserted hall, through the open windows of which, borne on the
-summer air, came the exulting shouts of “Long live Queen Mary!”
-
-Then, after a pause, Jane Grey spoke four simple words, sublime in
-their pathos. “Can I go home?” she asked ingenuously. God help her!
-what a world of innocence was in that little sentence, “Can I go home?”
-Alack! alas! poor little victim of so much ambition and such damnable
-intrigue, there is no more earthly home for thee!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII
-
-THE LAST DAYS OF NORTHUMBERLAND
-
-
-All through the night of Queen Mary’s proclamation, Jane Grey was
-abandoned in the great fortress to the care of her personal attendants;
-and bitter must have been her distress, as she realised the cruel
-plight to which the mad ambitions of others had brought her. Everything
-helped to heighten her terror--the changed attitude of the guards,
-and other Tower officials, who a few brief hours before had treated
-her with obsequious deference, and who now marked their loyalty to
-Mary by an ostentatious display of scorn for the fallen majesty of the
-“Nine Days’ Queen”; the tears of her women, their whispered talk, the
-brooding and ominous silence of the palace, broken only by the distant
-shouts of revellers, who acclaimed the triumph of her successful
-rival, all combined to increase the nervous and hysterical agitation
-into which the poor girl’s recent illness had already thrown her. Her
-mother, the Duchess, compelled by circumstances beyond her control,
-most probably, had left the Tower, and hurried back to Sheen, after
-having obtained Queen Mary’s pardon for her husband. The Duchess of
-Northumberland, white with horror, and trembling with anxiety for
-her wretched husband and children, had likewise departed with her
-attendants up the river to Sion: so that of all Jane’s Court none
-remained to help and comfort, except her faithful women and servants.
-Suffolk’s movements at this time are not quite clearly recorded. That
-he retired to Sheen immediately after Mary’s proclamation, appears
-certain; and also that, on the 27th July, he was arrested and committed
-to the Tower, to be released at the intercession of the Duchess his
-wife, on his own bail, on the 31st of the same month.[259] Yet a
-contemporary letter, dated August 11th, says: “The Duke of Suffolk is
-(as his owne men report) in prison, and at this present in suche case
-as no man judgeth he can live.” An explanation of these conflicting
-statements may be, that the Duke, when officially released, was for
-some days too ill to leave the Tower.
-
-There is reason to believe that Lady Jane remained in the State
-apartments till late in the evening of the 19th July, when she was
-transferred to the rooms above the Deputy-Lieutenant’s, recently
-vacated by the Duchess of Somerset. The Deputy-Lieutenant of this
-period was Thomas Brydges or Bridges, brother of Sir John Brydges,
-Lieutenant of the Tower. This last gentleman attended Jane on the
-scaffold, in discharge of his duty; but Thomas Brydges figures a good
-deal in the narrative of the last months of Jane’s life. There has
-been much dispute as to the exact situation of the rooms in the Tower
-in which the innocent prisoner was confined, and the absolute identity
-of her keeper. But it is now pretty clearly established that the first
-period of her detention was not spent, as so often stated, in the Brick
-Tower, but in the modernised house of the Deputy-Lieutenant, which
-stands next door to the Lieutenant’s or the King’s House. Later--we do
-not know the precise date of her removal--she was lodged in a house,
-also on the Green, adjacent to the Lieutenant’s dwelling, and which
-then belonged to the Gentleman Gaoler, Mr. Nathaniel Partridge.[260]
-Earlier historians have denied the existence of Partridge, and even
-Harris Nicholas thought he was Queen Mary’s goldsmith; but his
-identity is now conclusively proved, and he is admitted to have been
-a well-known figure in and about the Tower at this period. He died in
-February 1587, and is buried in St. Peter-ad-Vincula in the same vault
-as his illustrious guest. During her incarceration, Jane was allowed
-to walk in the Queen’s Garden, and “on the hill within the Tower
-precincts.”[261]
-
-Several persons attended on Lady Jane in the Tower, among them
-Elizabeth Tylney,[262] “a beautiful young woman of good birth,” Lady
-Throckmorton, wife of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and “Mrs. Ellen.” Some
-light has been thrown upon the identity of the last-named lady by Lady
-Philippa de Clifford, Lady Jane’s cousin, whose curious account of her
-unhappy kinswoman’s last hours was published in Brussels in 1660; from
-this we learn that “Mrs. Ellen, an elderly woman,” was Lady Jane’s
-nurse. There were also two waiting-maids, and a lad, in the suite of
-the Princess, as we glean from _The Chronicles of Queen Jane and Queen
-Mary_. Thus she was no “solitary prisoner,” but served by gentlewomen,
-and in comparative comfort. We must, therefore, dismiss the old idea
-that Lady Jane Grey was ever relegated to a “dungeon deep,” to pine in
-darkness and in loneliness. That she was not fed on bread and water
-is proved by the Privy Council records, from which we learn that
-ninety-five shillings a week was allowed for her maintenance whilst
-in captivity, and twenty shillings for each of her attendants, six in
-number--a very handsome allowance in those days, and equivalent, in
-modern coinage, to about fifteen times the amount.
-
-It must be clearly understood that Lady Jane was never even formally
-arrested, as were Henry VIII’s Queens. No armed guard took her captive,
-after the reading of a solemn warrant. She was simply detained in the
-Tower,[263] partly as a hostage for the good behaviour of her father,
-and partly to prevent her being once more the tool of those who might
-attempt to place her on the throne, and make her the figure-head of a
-politico-religious party. Northumberland and his followers had claimed
-honours for her which rightly belonged to Mary, and when Mary gained
-the upper hand, “Jane the usurper” had, _ipso facto_, to be kept in
-retirement.
-
-There is no trace of any independent movement on Guildford’s part,
-during the nine days of his wife’s reign, except to assist his mother
-in pushing his “claim” to the throne. Either he sulked, because Jane
-had refused to make him King Consort on the day following her entry
-into the Tower; or else Northumberland advised him to keep out of the
-way as much as possible, so as to escape the blame of having taken
-an active part in the usurped administration. Be this as it may, we
-have no news of his doings, from the first day or two of the nine
-days’ reign, until after its termination, when he was parted from his
-wife, and sent to the Beauchamp Tower, whither, on the 25th July, his
-brothers, Lord Warwick and Lord Ambrose Dudley, followed him, to be
-joined the next day by Lord Robert Dudley.
-
-Jane’s peaceful seclusion was of very short duration. On the day
-following her deposition (20th July), the Marquis of Winchester,
-Lord High Treasurer,[264] came to ask for the return of the Crown
-Jewels and other articles delivered to her on the second day of her
-Queenship. A parcel or so was missing, it would seem, and Winchester,
-when he commanded Jane to restore the Crown Jewels, desired she
-should also make good the alleged deficiency. Astonished at this
-demand, she declared she knew nothing of the missing articles, but
-agreed to give up all the money she had in her possession, and on
-25th July she consigned to the Treasury an extraordinary assortment
-of coins--angels of the reign of Edward VI, gold coronation medals of
-Henry VIII and Edward VI, some shillings and half shillings, as well
-as some deteriorated coinage of Edward VI, of no value. The whole of
-her available assets did not amount to more than £541, 13s. 2d. The
-missing valuables, it would appear, had not been returned two months
-later, or else Queen Mary had not been informed of their receipt, for
-on 20th September she writes to Winchester requesting him immediately
-to order Lady Jane to give up the jewels and “stuffs,” which had been
-delivered to her “on July 12th,” and which were still missing. The
-inventory of these mislaid “stuffs” includes a most curious assortment
-of odds and ends, which one would think it hardly worth Queen Mary’s
-while to reclaim. First we have a large leather box, marked with Henry
-VIII’s broad arrow, containing “two old shaving cloths, and thirteen
-pairs of old leather gloves, some of them worn.” Another “square
-coffer” missing, and described as being covered with “Naples fustian,”
-contained a collection of old Catholic prayer books, rosaries, and
-other odds and ends, which had probably remained among the Tower
-stores since Katherine of Aragon had last kept court there, and which
-were, needless to say, of no use to Lady Jane Grey! The first article
-in this collection is the half of a broken ring of gold, perchance
-some forgotten love-token. Then comes “a book of prayers, covered
-with purple velvet, and garnished with gold. A _primer_ [or Catholic
-prayer book] in English. Three old halfpence in silver, seven little
-halfpence and farthings. Item, sixteenpence, two farthings and two
-halfpence. A purse of leather with eighteen strange coins of silver. A
-ring of gold with a death’s head. Three French crowns, one broken in
-two. Item, a girdle of gold thread. A pair of twitchers [tweezers] of
-silver. A pair of knives in a case of black silk. Two books covered
-with leather. Item, a little square box of gold and silver with a pair
-of shears [scissors] and divers shreds of satin. A piece of white paper
-containing a pattern of gold damask.” The third coffer was “Queen’s
-jewels,” and contained chains of gold studded with rosettes of pearl
-and other valuables. The fate of this curious collection of gewgaws
-is unknown. About the same time, Winchester made an exploration of
-the contents of Guildford’s pockets, which resulted in the discovery
-that he possessed exactly £32, 8s., in the debased coinage of Edward’s
-reign. Miss Strickland, in mentioning this incident, says: “Thus
-the prisoners were left entirely without the means of bribing their
-gaolers.” This is not the case, for Lady Jane appears to have made a
-will (which may still be in existence, though for the time being it has
-disappeared) in which she left certain jewels, clocks, and valuables
-to her sisters, her women, and her servants, and, strange to relate, a
-gold cup or chalice to Queen Mary. Wherefore we may conclude she was
-allowed to retain the articles brought her from Westminster Palace,
-some of which served, no doubt, to decorate her apartment in the Tower.
-We possess no record, unfortunately, of the sort of food provided
-for the prisoner and her husband; we can only guess at its nature by
-consulting the bills of fare, still extant, provided for the Duchess
-of Somerset during her imprisonment in the Tower: from the fact of the
-prices of the various dishes being appended, we may conclude that the
-wealthier political prisoners were allowed to pay for their meals. Her
-Grace’s bill for “dynner” was as follows:--
-
- “Mutton stewed with potage viijd.
- Beef boiled viijd.
- Veale, rost xd.”
-
-“Suppr” consisted of:--
-
- “Slyced beef vjd.
- Mutton rost viijd.
- Bred xd.
- Bere viijd.
- Wyne viijd.”
-
-“Wood, coills (coals) and candull by the weke,” cost “xxd.”
-
-In the meantime, the Council had retired to Westminster, whence, as
-is generally believed, it sent Northumberland orders to disband his
-army and await Mary’s pleasure before returning to London; the herald
-who bore this order being commissioned to proclaim, in certain places
-_en route_, that if the Duke refused to submit he should be arrested
-as a traitor. Before this, as we have said (on the 19th instant),
-the Earl of Arundel and Lord Paget had been dispatched to offer the
-Council’s homage to Mary, bearing with them the following letter--a
-good specimen of the barefaced hypocrisy practised on Lady Jane. “Our
-bounden duties most humbly remembered to your most excellent majesty,
-it may like the same to understand, that we your most humble, faithful,
-and obedient subjects, having always (God we take to witness) remained
-your Highness’s true and humble subjects in our hearts, ever since the
-death of our late sovereign Lord and Master, your Highness’s brother,
-whom God pardon; and seeing hitherto no possibility to utter our
-determination herein, without great destructions and bloodshed, both of
-ourselves and others till this time, have this day proclaimed in your
-city of London, your majesty to be our true natural sovereign, liege
-Lady and Queen, most humbly beseeching your Majesty to pardon and remit
-our former infirmities, and most graciously to accept our meaning which
-have been ever to serve your Highness truly, and it shall remain with
-all our powers and forces to the effusion of our blood. These bearers,
-our very good lords, the Earl of Arundel and Lord Paget, can and be
-ready now particularly to declare, to whom it may please your excellent
-Majesty, to give firm credence; and thus we do and shall daily pray to
-Almighty God for the preservation of your most royal person long to
-reign ... from your Majesty’s city of London this ... (19th) day of
-July, the first year of your most prosperous reign.” This letter needs
-no comment; Paget’s treachery towards his late patron is particularly
-diabolical. He seems to have behaved throughout with Mephistophelian
-cunning and falseness. There is something absolutely Satanic in the
-hypocritical manner in which this letter asserts that the Council
-had hitherto had no opportunity to express its “determination” in
-the matter of Mary’s right to the Crown--this in the hope of leading
-Mary to think it had been acting under compulsion! If Jane’s friends
-_had_ succeeded in establishing her on the throne, and Mary had been
-killed or driven out of the country, these Councillors, the latter’s
-“most humble, faithful, and obedient subjects,” would, no doubt, have
-rallied about her rival--provided always it paid them so to do; Mary
-being victorious, they saved their necks and kept their positions by
-embracing her cause. Like the Vicar of Bray, no matter who was King,
-or what were the social and religious conditions of the country, these
-gentlemen were resolved to cling to their offices, and accommodate
-their opinions and actions to those of the party in power.
-
-It was about this time that Mary received another abject document of
-the same sort--the already quoted “Submission” or _apologia_ of Cecil,
-whose conduct throughout had been as tortuous as that of any of Eugene
-Sue’s Jesuits.
-
-A previous chapter has touched upon the singular intrigues of the
-Commissioners in Brussels, who conveyed Diego Mendoza’s acclamation
-of Guildford, as King of England, to the Council. We must now relate
-the sequel. On the 20th July, these gentlemen followed up their letter
-of the 15th, by another, stating that they had vainly endeavoured to
-obtain an interview with the Emperor, who was exasperated by what had
-happened in England, and had even refused to receive Mr. Shelley,
-the bearer of the Council’s letter of the 12th July. His Imperial
-Majesty held that Jane’s assumption of the Crown would lead to trouble
-with France; Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, at this time consort of
-the Dauphin of France, having a claim to the English throne prior
-to that of Lady Jane. He does not seem to have approved--or else he
-feigned disapproval--of Mary Tudor’s succession, but desired the
-matter should be settled by Parliament in accordance with the will of
-the English nation. Within a few days, probably, the Commissioners,
-hearing of Jane’s downfall, and realising their own danger, promptly
-submitted--like the Council at home--to Mary, and enclosed the letter
-brought by Shelley in one of their own dated 29th July to the Council
-at Westminster, “for that it hath pleased God to call my Lady Mary her
-grace to the State and possession of the realm, according to the King’s
-majesty her father’s last will and the laws of the realm.” Not quite
-sure, however, as to what has taken place, they ask the Council to let
-them have all news to date, and desire to know “her maj^{tys} pleasure
-what we should do, wherunto we shall conform ourselves most willingly
-according to our most bounden duty.... Sir Philip Hoby, etc., to the
-Council.”[265] In spite of their forethought, Hoby and Morysone were
-recalled by an order of 5th August, their place at Brussels being taken
-by Dr. Wootton, Bishop of Norwich; and the fact that in the said order
-they are described as “_Mr._” Hoby and “_Mr._” Morysone suggests that
-they were in dire disgrace. Most likely their letter about Guildford
-rankled in Mary’s mind! Their attempt to shelter themselves behind
-a show of loyalty, at all events, was not as successful as that of
-the Council at home, but they richly deserved any punishment their
-duplicity received; for, like the rest of the Janeite conspirators,
-they supported her cause as long as it seemed likely to profit them,
-and abandoned it, as if it were plague-stricken, directly the tables
-were turned.
-
-None the less, the Emperor Charles V (who dropped the cause of
-Northumberland the moment he perceived that Mary had won the day),
-wishing “to show his great love for that Queen his most dear cousin,”
-requested the Governess of the Netherlands, Mary, Queen of Hungary, to
-entertain the above-named gentlemen, as well as the newly dispatched
-Ambassador, Bishop Wootton of Norwich, “to such a banquet as they had
-never partaken of before, for such carvings, and sumptuous dishes, and
-frequent changing of wines.” The Emperor’s Embassy, which included the
-Sieur de Courrières, already mentioned, Simon Renard, and several other
-noblemen, was amongst the first of the numerous Envoys sent from all
-parts of Europe to congratulate the Queen on her victory, and, as if
-to emphasise his affectionate interest in the Royal cousin whose cause
-he had so lately abandoned in favour of that of her chief enemy, the
-negotiations for the marriage of the Queen of England with the young
-widowed Prince, afterwards King Philip of Spain, were pushed forward
-with the utmost alacrity.
-
-The mere idea of a union with her very Catholic cousin inflamed the
-imagination of the old maid sovereign with so ardent a passion as to
-absorb her whole being, and to bring about the sad catastrophe of her
-tragic life. She now “could think and speak of Philip, and of Philip
-only.” The most affectionate solicitude was displayed on the part of
-Queen Mary for the welfare and comfort of her future Consort, so that
-even a special clause was included, allowing him to land at the most
-convenient port he should choose, for he was “apt to be very sick on
-the sea, and most eager to be on land again.”[266]
-
-In some way or other Lady Jane must have been kept informed of the
-current events and gossip of the day. Some one probably gave her an
-account of Elizabeth’s ride through London on 31st July, from Somerset
-House to Wanstead, where she joined her sister. The astute Princess
-had at first hesitated as to what course she should pursue, but at
-last, seeing Jane’s position was hopeless, she made up her mind to side
-with her sister, and pass through the City and Aldgate with a numerous
-escort. The royal prisoner must have heard of the gay decorations
-of the streets, brilliant with flags, and streamers, and splendid
-tapestries, and how wild was the popular enthusiasm for Queen Mary.
-
-The foredoomed prisoners must have received a rude shock on 1st
-August, when the monotony of their existence was suddenly broken by
-the appearance of the Constable of the Tower, Sir John Gage, and
-his officials, who repaired to them severally, and read out to them
-the solemn indictments made against them in the Queen’s name. These
-indictments--the originals of which will be found in the Baga de
-Secretis, pouch xxiii., at the Public Record Office--were dated 1st
-August, and had been previously read out and endorsed at Guildhall,
-with all due ceremonial, earlier in the day, in the presence of Thomas
-White, Lord Mayor of London; Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal;
-the Earls of Derby and Bath; Richard Morgan, Chief Justice of Common
-Pleas; and other noblemen and gentlemen, not all of whom were, however,
-actually present, but represented by deputies. The first document,
-divested of its legal verbosity, declares Lady Jane Grey, Guildford
-Dudley her husband, Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lords
-Ambrose and Henry Dudley, guilty of treason, for having seized the
-Tower of London,[267] on 11th July; having sought to depose their
-rightful sovereign, Queen Mary; and having “acknowledged and proclaimed
-Jane Dudley, wife of Guildford Dudley, Esq., of the parish of St.
-Martin’s by Charing Cross, Queen of England.” The address is curious,
-as it indicates that the town residence of the unfortunate couple was
-still Durham House, the Duke of Northumberland’s palace in the Strand.
-
-The second indictment concerns John, Duke of Northumberland, William,
-Marquis of Northampton, Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, and others, for
-having, “between the 10th and the 17th July, first of Mary, levied men
-at Cambridge to march against the Queen.”
-
-Yet a third indictment is of even greater historical interest,
-and charges Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, as “a false
-traitor to the Queen,” with providing arms for twenty men, under
-Barnaby Boylot, Walter Morford, and Robert Durant of Westminster, and
-dispatching them to Cambridge, in aid of John, Duke of Northumberland.
-This proves that the original indictment against Cranmer did not charge
-him with heresy, but merely as a political offender. Undoubtedly, as
-Macaulay points out, by making himself the accomplice of Northumberland
-in endeavouring to overcome the scruples of so amiable a young woman as
-Lady Jane Grey, and seducing her into treason, Cranmer committed an act
-of most unjustifiable wickedness.
-
-A little later, in the early twilight of 3rd August, the flickering of
-hurrying lights, and the boom of cannon--“the loudest that ever was
-heard”--could not fail to apprise the State prisoners in the Tower
-that some unusual event was happening, and that the Queen and Princess
-Elizabeth had entered its precincts, to prepare for the obsequies of
-Edward VI. From her windows Lady Jane noted the flaring torches,
-moving hither and thither, in unwonted chambers and courtyards, and
-heard the tramp of feet, the heavy tread of the guards, the changing of
-sentinels, and the coming and going of the Ambassadors and courtiers
-hurrying to pay their homage to the new Sovereign--amongst them,
-doubtless, most of those very men who had solemnly sworn allegiance to
-herself!
-
-The Protestant funeral service of Edward VI took place on 8th August,
-the King’s body having been removed, on the preceding evening, from
-Greenwich to Whitehall. A great number of children in surplices were
-gathered together to attend his obsequies in the Abbey, and this
-gave a touch of poetry to a ceremony described by Noailles as “a
-very shabby one, badly attended, without any lights burning, and no
-official invitations sent to the Ambassadors.” Archbishop Cranmer, who
-had organised the function, read the plain English service, from the
-Book of Common Prayer. Round about the coffin were a great number of
-standard-bearers with their standards, conspicuous among them being
-those of his mother, Queen Jane Seymour, and of his grandmother, Lady
-Seymour, as well as one with a white dragon on a red background, and
-yet another with a very large white greyhound, the emblem of the house
-of Tudor. All the banners were bowed as the little coffin was lowered
-into the vault in Henry VII’s Chapel, and the wands were broken and
-cast in upon the lid. Cranmer gave a heavy sigh as he watched it pass
-into the gloom, knowing full well that with that little corpse passed
-away all his hopes and power--that the vengeance of the Queen whose
-mother he had outraged was near at hand. He never officiated again
-at any State function; his day was over! Lady Jane heard of this
-particular service with considerable pleasure, for it was celebrated
-in accordance with her own religious views; but the details of another
-ceremony in suffrage of King Edward’s soul, according to the ritual
-and doctrine of the Church of Rome, celebrated in the Queen’s presence
-in the Royal Chapel of the White Tower, must have pained her not
-a little.[268] Mary, in residence in the Tower at this time, had
-organised this special Requiem Mass with all permissible pomp and
-ceremony, and we may take it for granted that Jane saw from her windows
-a good deal of the coming and going of royal personages, officials, and
-servants, consequent upon so elaborate a function. Pained indeed must
-have been the Reforming Princess to learn that Dr. George Day, the very
-Catholic Bishop of Chichester, had been selected to preach before Her
-Majesty the panegyric of her very Protestant brother!
-
-We must now turn our attention to the Duke of Northumberland. Soon
-after entering the Beauchamp Tower on 25th July, he collapsed, and
-had to take to his bed. The fates were not, indeed, propitious to
-Northumberland in this respect, for his health broke down when he most
-needed all his physical as well as moral strength to help him through
-his tremendous task. Even as far back as 1550, John ab Ulmis, in a
-letter to Bullinger, mentioned “the Earl of Warwick’s very dangerous
-illness.” He would seem to have never quite recovered from this
-attack, for in the following August he was very ill, and again, late
-in September 1552, he wrote Cecil that he was “fevrish and unable
-to sleep.” In January 1553, Warwick told Petre or Cecil that he was
-much alarmed about himself, and feared he was “going to be very ill.”
-Throughout the year 1553 he was observed to look pale, and to walk with
-difficulty, but his indomitable will held him up, and he was able to do
-the work of a dozen men, for his energy was as admirable as its object
-was detestable. Northumberland is scarcely a commendable character, but
-there is none the less a pathos in the fact that his health was giving
-way under the terrible strain that crushed him. He does not deserve
-much sympathy, but it is impossible not to pity him in his extremity,
-abandoned by every one, a doomed prisoner, his last card played and
-lost. To his insane ambition he had sacrificed his youngest and
-best-loved son, and the young creature the lad had so recently married,
-and now an unnatural death faced him in stark horror. What nights he
-must have spent, hopeless and helpless, alone in that prison on every
-gate of which the great Italian might have written, _Lasciate ogni
-speranza voi ch’entrate_. He knew the Queen hated him with the intense
-and unforgiving hatred of a Spaniard. Had he not sided against her
-mother, and framed the pitiless and insulting documents he had forced
-his helpless daughter-in-law to sign, stigmatising Mary and Elizabeth
-as “bastards”? Reflecting on these, and a hundred other offences, he
-realised his case was hopeless. So bitterly did the Queen loathe him,
-as a matter of fact, that she actually requested Comendone, the Papal
-Envoy, to put off his departure for a few days, so as to witness the
-execution of her chief foe, and give a personal account of it to the
-Pope!
-
-The trial for treason of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, took
-place on August 18th in Westminster Hall. The Marquis of Northampton,
-and the Earl of Warwick, Dudley’s son, were arraigned at the same
-time. Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, sat as High Steward of England; this
-was, indeed, one of his last official appearances. He died in the
-following year (on 24th August) at Kenninghall. Several of those
-men who sat in Jane’s Council, and had only saved their necks by
-addressing their hasty submission to Mary, figured at this trial.
-Northumberland was very obsequious to his judges, and “protesting
-his faith and obedience to the Queen’s Majesty, whom he confessed
-grievously to have offended, said that he meant not to speak anything
-in defence of himself.” He then demanded of the court, first “whether
-a man doing an act by the authority of the Prince and Council, and by
-warrant of the Great Seal,[269] and doing nothing without the same,
-may be charged with treason for anything which he might do by warrant
-thereof?” and secondly, “whether any such persons as were equally
-culpable in that crime, and those by whose letters and commandments
-he was directed in all his doings, might be his judges, or pass upon
-him his death?” The answer returned was that the Great Seal to which
-he appealed was not that of the lawful Queen of the realm, but was the
-seal of a “usurper,” and as such had no authority; also, that though
-some of his judges might be equally guilty with himself, they had no
-attainder against them, and therefore were as fit to try him as any
-one else, provided the sovereign gave permission. Finding they were
-bent on his destruction, the unhappy man pleaded guilty, and besought
-the Duke of Norfolk to obtain the Queen’s pardon for him. Following
-suit, the Marquis of Northampton and the Earl of Warwick also pleaded
-guilty; the former urged, that “after the beginning of these tumults
-he had forborne the execution of any public office, and that all the
-while he, intent to hunting and other sports, did not partake in the
-conspiracy,” whilst Warwick begged the Queen would have his debts paid
-out of his confiscated goods. They were both sentenced to death, “to
-be had to the place that they came from, and from thence to be drawn
-through London unto Tyburn, and there to be hanged, and then to be cut
-down, and their bowels to be burnt, and their heads to be set on London
-Bridge and other places.”[270] When he heard this horrible sentence of
-death, Northumberland asked that, as a nobleman, he might be beheaded,
-and “begged that his children might be kindly treated.” He had the
-grace also to confess that Jane, so far from desiring regal honours,
-was only induced to accept the Crown “by enticement and force”--which
-confirms what we have said of her parent’s ill-treatment of her. The
-Duke also requested that a “learned divine” might be sent to him; and
-that he might have an interview with four members of the Council, “for
-the discovery (_i.e._ revelation) of some things which might concern
-the State.”[271] What these mysterious “things” may have been, is
-now unknown. Lingard says Gardiner and another member of the Council
-visited Northumberland in prison, and that the former interceded for
-him with the Queen; but there is no documentary evidence as to the
-purport of the State secrets the Duke had promised to divulge.
-
-On the following day, 19th August, four of the chief of those who
-had ridden out of London with Northumberland against Mary--Sir
-Andrew Dudley,[272] Sir John Gates, Sir Harry Gates, and Sir Thomas
-Palmer--were sentenced to death in Westminster Hall.
-
-Next day Northumberland made a public renunciation of the Protestant
-religion, either in the Church of St. Peter-ad-Vincula, or else in the
-chapel in the White Tower; the former place is more generally accepted.
-Some forty of the principal citizens of London were present; and the
-Marquis of Northampton, Sir Andrew Dudley, Sir Henry Gates, and Sir
-Thomas Palmer, were also reconciled to the Latin Church at the same
-time. The ex-conspirators knelt during Mass, saying the _Confiteor_
-after the celebrant, who was probably Gardiner. When the Mass was
-concluded, they one after another asked each other forgiveness,
-kneeling as they did so. After this they all went in front of the
-altar, where, on bended knees, they confessed to Gardiner, that “they
-were the same men in the faith, according as they had confessed to him
-before, and that they all would die in the Catholic faith.” Having
-received the Eucharist, the Duke turned to the congregation and said,
-“Truly, good people, I profess here before you all that I have received
-the sacrament, according to the true Catholic faith; and the plague
-that is upon this realm, and upon us now, is, that we have erred from
-the faith these sixteen years, and this I protest unto you all, from
-the bottom of my heart.” Northampton, Andrew Dudley, Gates, and Palmer
-made the same statement, and they were all conducted back to their
-respective prisons.[273] There can be no doubt, that, if this ceremony
-took place in St. Peter’s, Lady Jane must have seen, from the windows
-of the Deputy-Lieutenant’s house, the procession of her father-in-law
-and his followers on their way to hear Mass, and her grief on learning
-that they had abandoned Protestantism was, as we learn from her own
-lips, intense.
-
-The evening of the 21st August, Northumberland was informed by the
-Lieutenant of the Tower that he was to die next day, whereupon he wrote
-the following abject letter to his brother-in-law and captor, the Earl
-of Arundel:--
-
- “Hon^{ble} lord, and in this my distress my especial refuge, most
- woeful was the news I received this evening by Mr. Lieutenant,
- that I must prepare myself against to-morrow to receive my deadly
- stroke. Alas, my good lord, is my crime so heinous as no redemption
- but my blood can wash away the spots thereof? An old proverb there
- is, and that most true, that a living dog is better than a dead
- lion. Oh! that it would please her good grace to give me life,
- yea, the life of a dog, if I might but live and kiss her feet, and
- spend both life and all in her honourable services, as I have the
- best part already, under her worthy brother, and most glorious
- father. Oh! that her mercy were such, as she would consider how
- little profit my dead and dismembered body can bring her; but how
- great and glorious an honor it will be in all posterity when the
- report shall be that so gracious and mighty a queen, had granted
- life to so miserable and penitent an object. Your hon^{ble} usage
- and promise to me since these my troubles, have made me bold to
- challenge this kindness at your hands. Pardon me if I have done
- amiss therein, and spare not, I pray, your bended knees for me
- in this distress. The God of Heaven, it may be, will requite it
- one day, on you or yours; and, if my life be lengthened by your
- mediation, and my good lord chancellor’s (to whom I have also sent
- my blurred letters), I will ever owe it to you, to be spent at your
- hon^{ble} feet. Oh! my good lord, remember how sweet life is, and
- how bitter the contrary. Spare not your speech and pains; for God,
- I hope, hath not shut out all hopes of comfort from me in that
- gracious, princely and womanly heart; but that, as the doleful news
- of death hath wounded to death, both my soule and body, so the
- comfortable news of life, shall be a new resurrection to my woeful
- heart. But if no remedy can be found, either by imprisonment,
- confiscation, banishment, and the like, I can say no more, but, God
- grant me patience to endure, and a heart to forgive the whole world.
-
- “Once your fellow, and loving companion, but now worthy of no name
- but wretchedness and misery.
-
- J. D.”[274]
-
-It must have cost the haughty Northumberland dear, to write so humble
-a supplication; but he was a man of strong domestic affections, and
-realised that if he were spared, his children and brothers might also
-be saved. But Mary’s hate, thoroughly Spanish in its intensity, was
-implacable; and if, as some historians seem to think, the prisoner
-hoped to obtain his freedom by returning to the religion of his
-ancestors,[275] he made a terrible mistake. The Queen may have rejoiced
-that the chances of his eternal salvation were enhanced, according
-to her views, by his conversion, but none the less did the outraged
-sovereign and woman claim the head of her arch-enemy, and worst
-detractor.
-
-Machyn tells us of a strange incident, in connection with the Duke’s
-execution, which tends to prove it was to have taken place on the
-21st August, and to have been accomplished by the common hangman.
-Says the chronicler in question: “The xxj of August was, by viij of
-the clock in the morning, on the Tower hill about XM (_i.e._ “about
-ten thousand”) men and women for to have seen the execution of the
-Duke of Northumberland, for the scaffold was made ready and sand and
-straw was brought, and all the men that belong to the Tower,[276] as
-Hoxton, Shoreditch, Bow, Ratclyff, Limehouse, Saint Katherines, and
-the waiters [attendants] of the Tower, and the guard, and sheriff’s
-officers, and every man stand in order with their halbards, and lanes
-made (_i.e._ barriers placed so as to admit of the free passages of
-the troops and officials) and the hangman was there, and suddenly they
-were commanded to depart.”[277] The fact that the hangman was present
-seems to denote that the order, changing the sentence from hanging and
-disembowelling, to decapitation, had not yet been made. Northumberland
-had given way at his trial to an unusual display of emotional terror,
-as the barbarous details of the sort of death to which he was condemned
-were read out to him, and probably efforts were therefore made, and
-not in vain, to spare him so atrocious an ordeal and substitute the
-more merciful and dignified death by the axe. Maybe it was this which
-occasioned the postponement of the grim ceremony.
-
-According to a MS, now in the Brussels Archives, entitled, _Les
-événements en Angleterre_, 1553-4, the Duke of Northumberland was
-allowed to take a pathetic leave of his youngest son, “whom he pressed
-again and again to his breast, sighing and weeping a deluge of tears,
-as he kissed him for the last time.”
-
-The executions of Northumberland, Sir John Gates, and Sir Thomas
-Palmer, took place on 22nd August, on Tower Hill. The prisoners were
-first delivered over to the Sheriffs of London by the Lieutenant of
-the Tower. As soon as the Duke was confronted with Sir John Gates, he
-exclaimed, “Sir John, God have mercy on us, for this day shall end
-both our lives, and I pray you forgive me whatsoever I have offended,
-and I forgive you with all my heart. Although you and your counsel was
-a great occasion thereof (_i.e._ “of my troubles”). “Well,” returned
-Gates, “I forgive you all, as I would be forgiven, and yet you and
-your authority was the original cause of it, altogether, but the Lord
-pardon you, and I pray you forgive me.” They then bowed to each other,
-and the Duke, who was garbed in “swan-coloured (_i.e._ grey) damask,”
-went forward to the scaffold, looking dejected. Bishop Heath, crucifix
-in hand, walked with him. On the way, when they were outside the Tower
-gates, a woman rushed forward, and waving in his face a handkerchief,
-which had been dipped in the blood of Somerset, cried out, “Behold, the
-blood which thou did cause to be unjustly shed, does now apparently
-begin to revenge itself on thee!” The guards dragged her away, and the
-condemned proceeded on their way to Tower Hill. On the scaffold, the
-Duke took off his outer cloak, and leaning over the rail, on the east
-side, made his farewell speech to the people, of which several versions
-exist. He admitted that he had been “an evil liver”; begged the Queen’s
-forgiveness, kneeling; alluded to his accomplices, and would not name
-them; regretted his religious errors; professed his attachment to
-the Catholic Church, asking the Bishop of Worcester, Heath, to bear
-witness to his sincerity, to which the prelate answered “Yea”; and
-finally, asking all to pray for him, he knelt down, and recited the _De
-Profundis_, after which he made the sign of the cross, in the sawdust
-of the scaffold, and stooped and kissed it. Then, rising, he bared
-his neck, tied the handkerchief over his eyes, and, turning to the
-executioner, said he was ready. The fellow, who was lame in one leg,
-took good aim--and in a flash, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was
-no more. Sir John Gates would not have his eyes bandaged, and died a
-fearful death, after three blows from the axe. Palmer was beheaded at
-one stroke. Both made lengthy speeches, in which they styled themselves
-staunch Catholics. It is said that when the horrible scene was over,
-children came and dipped cloths in Northumberland’s blood, to be
-preserved as a memorial of him, and this despite his unpopularity.[278]
-
-A pathetic incident occurred in connection with the burial of the
-Duke’s remains. One of his servants, John Cock, sufficiently attached
-to his memory to have a care for the whereabouts of his last resting
-place, waited upon Queen Mary and prayed her to command that his
-master’s head should be given to him. “In God’s name,” answered Her
-Majesty, somewhat irate, “take the whole body as well, and give
-your lord proper burial.” Acting on this permission, Cock took
-Northumberland’s corpse and laid it to rest in the Church of St.
-Peter-ad-Vincula, beside the coffin of the Duke of Somerset!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX
-
-THE TRIAL OF QUEEN JANE
-
-
-The writer of the _Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary_ relates that
-he dined with Queen Jane in “Partridge’s House,” on 27th August, and
-incidentally mentions her evident resentment at her father-in-law’s
-apostacy. This chronicler appears to have been a resident in the Tower,
-and a friend of Partridge. He writes: “I dined at Partridge’s house
-with my Lady Jane being there present, she sitting at the board’s
-end, Brydges, his wife, Sarah, my lady’s gentlewoman and her man, she
-commanding Brydges and me to put on our caps [_sic_]. Amongst our
-communications at this dinner, this was to be noted. After she had once
-or twice drunk to me and bade me heartily welcome, saith she: ‘The
-Queen’s Majesty is a merciful Princess; I beseech God she may long
-continue, and send His bountiful grace upon her.’
-
-“After that we fell to discussing matters of religion, and she asked,
-‘What he was that preached at Paul’s on Sunday before----’ [a blank],
-and so it was told her. ‘I pray you,’ quoth she, ‘have they Mass in
-London?’
-
-“‘Yea, forsooth,’ quoth I, ‘in some places.’
-
-“‘It may be so,’ quoth she. ‘It is not so strange as the sudden
-conversion of the late Duke, for who would have thought he would have
-so done?’
-
-“It was answered her, ‘Perchance he thereby hoped to have had his
-pardon.’
-
-“‘Pardon,’ quoth she, ‘Woe worth him. He hath brought me and our stock
-in most miserable calamity, and misery by this exceeding ambition. But
-for the answering that he hoped for life by turning, though others be
-of the same opinion, I utterly am not, for what man is there living, I
-pray you, although he had been innocent, that would hope of life in
-that case--being in the field against the Queen, in person as general,
-and after his taking, so hated and evil spoken of by the Commons, and
-at his coming into prison, so wondered at, as the like was never heard
-by any man’s time? Who was judge that he should hope for pardon, whose
-life was odious to all men? But what will ye more? Like as his life
-was wicked and full of dissimulation, so was his end thereafter. I
-pray God I, nor no friend of mine, die so. Should I, who am young and
-in the flower of my years, forsake my faith for love of life? Nay, God
-forbid. Much more he should not, whose fatal course, though he had
-lived his just number of years, could not have long continued. But
-life was sweet, it appeared, so he might have lived, you will say, he
-did not care how. Indeed, the reason is good, for he that would have
-lived in chains to have had his life, belike would leave no other means
-attempted. But God be merciful to us, for He sayeth, ‘Whoso denieth Him
-before man, He will not know him in His Father’s Kingdom.’
-
-“With this and much other talk, the dinner passed away, which ended,
-I thanked her Ladyship that she would vouchsafe to accept me in her
-company, and she thanked me likewise, and said I was welcome. She
-thanked Brydges also for bringing me to dinner. ‘Madam,’ said he, ‘we
-are all somewhat bold, not knowing that your Ladyship dined before,
-until we found your Ladyship there.’”
-
-A little later, that is, at the end of September and in October, Lady
-Jane’s hopes of release may have risen, for Mary had returned from St.
-James’s Palace to the Tower, for the Coronation. There is no evidence
-that she ever came into personal contact with Lady Jane Grey after the
-friendly visit to Newhall in the summer of 1552. If so interesting an
-event had taken place, there would surely be some trace of it; some
-account, however brief, of the broken words poor Jane’s trembling lips
-uttered, when she, the Queen-usurping, and Mary, the Queen-Regnant,
-stood face to face. But since there is no contemporary mention of such
-a meeting, we must conclude it never occurred, even at this time, when
-Jane was awaiting an uncertain fate in one corner of the Tower, while
-Mary was receiving the homage of the hypocrite Councillors in its State
-chambers.
-
-A wave of unusual heat swept over England during the summer of 1553,
-accompanied by storms of extreme violence. Jane must have felt the
-sultriness in her prison, and have gladly accepted the refreshing
-walks in the Queen’s garden, which not only brought her amid the last
-roses of summer,[279] but into contact with the busy life of the
-Palace-fortress, so that she must have seen many of the preparations
-for the forthcoming Coronation. It may well have occurred to her that,
-had fate been less cruel, all this coming and going might have been in
-her honour, and she, instead of the triumphant Mary, might have gone
-forth to Westminster, the first Protestant Queen of England. And the
-Coronation ceremony itself--surely some gossip told her all about that?
-How stately was the procession of 30th September, in which nearly all
-the erstwhile ardently Protestant Privy Council of King Edward, now
-staunch Papists every one, surrounded the most Catholic Mary, garbed
-in their official bravery, and proclaiming themselves more orthodox
-than her Papistical Majesty herself; Lord Russell with his big beaded
-rosary at his waist--that rosary, which on a famous occasion, hearing
-Mary might very likely order his share of the Church lands to be handed
-back to the monks, he cast, with a fierce oath, upon the fire! They
-must have told the Lady Jane how fair and gracious Elizabeth looked in
-her golden chariot lined with crimson, her robes of pale blue velvet
-threaded with silver; how Anne of Cleves scintillated with jewels, and
-how sixty grand dames, in ruby velvet and ermine, with coronets on
-their heads, rode in the gorgeous procession to Westminster. They must
-have told her, too, how the charity children, who had sung Calvinistic
-hymns a week or so ago, now tunefully invoked the blessings of the
-Saints upon their Catholic Sovereign; how the French Ambassador,
-Noailles, rode near to the famous Renard, the sly fox who represented
-the Emperor, and contributed to bring about Jane’s death; how my Lady
-of Sussex carried the Queen’s crown and the Lord Mayor her sceptre; how
-the people thought the old Duke of Norfolk looked much changed since he
-had last appeared in his official robes; how my Lord Edward Hastings
-had been made Master of the Horse, and led the Queen’s milk-white
-palfrey; how the Protestant Mrs. Bacon had obtained Cecil’s pardon,
-and how Mrs. Barnett, Sir Thomas More’s granddaughter, helped to robe
-the Queen; how Gog and Magog had condescended to leave Guildhall and
-go to the Tower gates, where they saluted the Queen, and how Gog’s
-head had nearly wobbled off his gigantic shoulders; how three thousand
-yeomen, in the apple green and white of the House of Tudor, and three
-hundred Beefeaters from the Tower, in scarlet and black, had added a
-brilliant touch to the sumptuous procession; how there were so many
-giants in the wayside pageantry, along the route from the City to
-Westminster, that people talked about it as a weird contrast, since
-the Queen was of such low stature as to be almost a dwarf; how among
-these giants was a colossal angel ten feet high, all clothed in gold
-foil, sent by the Florentine merchants to grace a triumphal arch in
-Fenchurch Street; and how, in conclusion, Noailles, true Frenchman as
-he was, had waxed excited over the splendours of the Queen’s jewels,
-and annoyed because Elizabeth walked next to her! And the scene in the
-Abbey next day, surely Lady Jane heard all about that?--how Gardiner,
-fresh from the Tower, crowned the Queen--which was deemed an ugly
-omen, for both Canterbury and York were in prison, and no King of this
-land had ever yet been crowned by a mere Bishop! They must have told
-the young prisoner how brilliantly the banquet went off; how Dymoke,
-hereditary champion of England, rode into the Hall, armed _cap-à-pie_,
-and championed the Queen’s right; how, no one taking up the challenge,
-the Queen drank to him; how the old Duke of Norfolk, in true mediæval
-fashion, rode into the Hall, too, and ushered in the first course
-of the elaborate meal; how Anne of Cleves, weighed down with heavy
-pearls, rubies and emeralds, sat next Elizabeth, who had precedence of
-everybody after the Queen; and how Heywood, the dramatist, had returned
-from exile to superintend the revels and masques. All that holiday,
-poor Jane’s ears must have ached with the boom of cannon,[280] and the
-pealing of bells, and the shouts of the guards and servants, as they
-sang and banqueted and drank, and lighted a big bonfire on Tower Hill.
-Probably the gossips told her too of the scandals, the tales of petty
-intrigues, quarrels, and heart-burnings, the little shames and mortal
-sicknesses, which the Muse of History has disdained to record, but
-which were of greater interest, one fancies, to the fair prisoner, than
-the broader effects of the gorgeous pageant which boded so little good
-for her.
-
-Jane’s parents and friends, were buoyed up with the hope that soon
-after her Coronation, Mary would liberate her young cousin, and her
-husband; and the Queen, her detractors to the contrary, did make a
-strong effort to save Lady Jane Grey and Guildford. When, either
-late in July or in August 1553--very soon after Jane’s fall--Renard,
-the Imperial Ambassador, had an audience with the Queen (probably
-at Newhall or Wanstead), and opened the question as to what was to
-become of the little usurper, the Queen answered, “she never could be
-induced to have her executed, because three days before she left Sion
-House, she had deemed herself to be the victim of intrigues.” Neither,
-said she, was Jane the daughter-in-law of Northumberland, because
-she had been validly contracted to another person; and had taken no
-part in the Duke’s enterprise, and was “innocent.” The wily Renard,
-who had formerly backed Jane’s party, but now wished to destroy her,
-answered that very probably the contract of marriage had been invented
-as an excuse, and that she must at least be kept a prisoner, as her
-liberation would give rise to a great deal of trouble and endanger the
-Realm, and the Catholic religion. The Queen’s answer was, that Lady
-Jane would not be liberated, without every necessary precaution having
-been taken to avoid all difficulties. Upon this speech being reported
-to the Emperor, he reiterated his advice--given in a letter of 20th
-July--that _all_ who were implicated in Northumberland’s plot should be
-put to death.[281]
-
-Noailles, also, spoke to Her Majesty about Lady Jane’s position, and
-she repeated that she “intended to spare her.” “After all,” said
-she, “the marriage with Guildford is invalid, since she was already
-contracted to a youth in the employ of the Bishop of Winchester”--_ung
-serviteur de l’Evêque de Wincestre_. Was Hertford ever in Dr.
-Gardiner’s employ? Even after she had received the Emperor’s despatch,
-crying for vengeance on all the participants in the late usurpation,
-Mary wrote, on 29th August, to Dr. Wotton, our Ambassador to France,
-“that she would see Jane was kept safe, and that before giving her
-liberty, she would see that she was innocuous”; but on 19th September,
-the Imperial Ambassadors wrote rather jubilantly that at last the
-Queen is determined to execute “the five sons of Dudley and Jane of
-Suffolk.” There was still hope, however, for on 5th November, Renard
-writes that being at supper with the Venetian Ambassador, he heard it
-said that “the four sons of Northumberland, were to be executed, but
-that Robert might be pardoned, and that he thought Jane, too, would not
-be executed.” This was as it should be, for Robert Dudley was of all
-Northumberland’s sons, the least guilty, his share in the conspiracy
-being a very light one. We may add that in a letter preserved in the
-Corsini Library at Rome, Cardinal Pole says he has lately heard that
-Queen Mary was desirous of saving “Lady Jane Suffolk,” as he calls
-her. There is not a tittle of evidence that Mary at any time gave it
-to be understood, either to Lady Jane or to others, that she would be
-pardoned if she embraced the Roman Catholic religion. Religion had
-little or nothing to do with the matter; the charge against Jane was,
-that she had usurped the throne--treason--and treason to the Queen was
-a purely secular offence. The Emperor’s desire for Jane’s death, was
-actuated by a fear that if she were set at liberty, she might once more
-be used as an instrument against Mary’s legitimate pretensions, since
-the late King had named her his successor in his “Devise.” The reason
-why the Council shared the Emperor’s opinion, and had urged Mary to
-sign Lady Jane’s death-warrant was, that it was anxious to show its
-whole-hearted zeal for Mary, and entirely dissociate itself from Jane’s
-claims. Let it not be forgotten by those who would blame our severe
-judgment of the Council’s behaviour, that the very men who now urged
-the Queen to destroy Jane[282] and her husband, and who attended Masses
-with the utmost unction, had not only been staunch Protestants a few
-months previously, under Edward VI, but Janeites of the hottest during
-the first two or three days of Jane’s brief reign. Beset on all sides,
-Mary Tudor yielded at last, and, when the sentence had been passed,
-reluctantly signed the death-warrant.
-
-Before that, however, a Writ of _Habeas Corpus_ was issued on the
-evening of 11th November, commanding John Gage, Constable of the Tower,
-“to bring up [_i.e._ to Guildhall, two days later, for their trial] the
-bodies of the accused, to wit, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, Jane
-Dudley, Guildford Dudley, Ambrose and Henry Dudley.” The document bore
-the signatures of Thomas White, Mayor, and Thomas, Duke of Norfolk.
-
-On 13th November 1553, Jane Grey, Guildford Dudley, Thomas Cranmer,
-Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley,
-were arraigned at Guildhall for the offences cited in the official
-indictment already mentioned. The accused left the Tower on foot
-early in the day, in the company of Sir Thomas Brydges. Lady Jane was
-attended by her women, and together with her companions in misfortune,
-was escorted through the thronged streets by four hundred halberdiers.
-She was dressed in a black cloth gown, the cape lined and edged with
-velvet. Her coif was of black velvet made like a hood, after the French
-fashion; a book bound in black velvet--probably it was a Bible or
-prayer book, hung by a chain from her girdle. She held another open in
-her hand, on the pages of which she constantly kept her eyes fixed.
-Her two women, also dressed in black, walked behind her. Cranmer led
-the procession, walking between two gentlemen, and immediately behind,
-the Gentleman-Chief Warder, who bore the axe; Guildford, in a black
-velvet suit slashed with white satin, followed his wife, and with him
-were the two Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley, though separated from
-him by officials and guards. Florio, an Italian writer, who witnessed
-Jane’s trial, declares her behaviour to have been most dignified. Even
-the ordeal of passing on foot through the densely-crowded streets did
-not affect her composure. Within Guildhall there was a great array of
-lords, prominent among them the old Duke of Norfolk, who after his
-long and enforced absence from official life, once more enjoyed the
-privilege of sitting on the Bench as High Steward and Earl Marshal.
-His aged eyes had mirrored, not only the State trials of two previous
-Queens of England, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, but also the
-bloody death of the first-named, whilst his ears had heard the fire
-crackling round Anne Askew.
-
-On entering Guildhall, the prisoners and their attendants and guards
-were conducted by an usher with the usual ceremony, to the upper part
-of the fine old hall, where Lady Jane, owing to her royal rank, was
-granted the privilege of a chair draped with scarlet cloth, and a
-footstool; her women stood beside her. Cranmer was placed, according
-to regulation, in a railed-off pew or box by himself, which separated
-him by a light barrier from the Lords Guildford, Ambrose and Henry
-Dudley. The “innocent usurper,” although naturally awed by the stately
-dignity of the scene, may have sought among the many faces present
-those of not a few she had known all her brief life, and who had even
-caressed her in her childhood, or been obsequious to her in her ominous
-Queendom. There sat the aged head of the house of Howard; then came
-the Earls of Derby, Bath, and Hastings; Sir Richard Morgan, Chief
-Justice of the Common Pleas,[283] who sat with the other Judges and
-men of law in their furred robes of office; Nicholas Hare, Master of
-the Rolls; a little further on, the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, in their
-crimson satins and velvets, and their costly sables and glistening
-chains; then, a crowd of noblemen and gentlemen and officials, filling
-up nearly the whole of the space at the top of the hall, the body
-of which was reserved for privileged persons, whilst the lower part
-nearest the entrance was given over to the mob, with difficulty kept in
-order by the halberdiers and other guards. The sacred emblems of the
-ancient Faith, which had been cast out under Edward VI, were restored
-by this time; and before a small altar, on which stood a crucifix, and
-six golden candlesticks, the Lord Mayor’s Chaplain opened proceedings,
-whilst all knelt, with the “_Veni, Sancte Spiritus_,” and other
-prayers in Latin. The reading of the indictments followed, and after
-a pause between each, the prisoners were arraigned to plead guilty
-or otherwise; but Cranmer, crying out in a loud voice, “Not Guilty!”
-the other prisoners also pleaded “Not Guilty!” As the counts of the
-indictment were matters of general knowledge, no witnesses were brought
-forward on either side, nor were the prisoners cross-examined, nor was
-any defence made. A jury, consisting of citizens of Middlesex, was
-empanelled and sworn. After an absence of about twenty minutes they
-returned, giving as their verdict that the “sufficient and probable
-evidence” was in favour of the Queen’s Grace, and that they therefore
-returned a verdict of guilty. On this, Archbishop Cranmer, standing up,
-reversed his previous plea, and admitted his offence--an example which
-was speedily followed by the other prisoners, who one and all pleaded
-“Guilty!” Then sentence was pronounced by Chief Justice Morgan, whose
-voice is said to have trembled considerably, especially as he came to
-that fearful portion of it, in which Lady Jane was condemned to be
-burnt alive, or beheaded, “as the Queen shall please.” The luckless
-victim heard her doom with sublime meekness and dignity. Cranmer
-and Guildford were condemned to be hanged at Tyburn, but a pardon
-was extended to the Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley. Then, after the
-recitation of the _De Profundis_, the Court rose,[284] the prisoners
-were ceremoniously re-conducted to the door of the hall, and escorted
-back to the Tower, in much the same order as that in which they had
-come thence--but the axe was reversed; a sign of condemnation which
-deeply moved the populace, especially with pity for young Dudley
-and his consort. How weary must have been that tramp back to the
-fortress, especially to one so young, and in such frail health, as the
-unfortunate Lady Jane! To Guildford Dudley, too, the journey must have
-been exceeding painful, for he was in the full vigour of early youth;
-and the terrible words of the sentence presented to his imagination
-that awful final scene with which, like most men of his time, he was
-but too familiar. Cranmer must long since have realised that his days
-were numbered; but he was as yet mercifully spared the knowledge of the
-gruesome nature of the end in store for him.
-
-There is, however, no indication that Jane and her husband were treated
-with any greater severity than hitherto, and Mary, even after the
-condemnation, was certainly still unwilling to put her cousin to death.
-She might, in fact, have been saved even then from capital punishment,
-at all events, if not from imprisonment, if the Wyatt rebellion and
-the Duke of Suffolk’s indiscreet behaviour had not given colour to the
-opinion entertained by the Emperor and the Council, that Jane’s freedom
-and very existence were a menace to Mary’s safety, and compelled the
-unwilling sovereign to inflict the utmost penalty of the law.
-
-In December, Guildford and his brother Robert were “allowed the
-liberty of the leads” of the Bell Tower: which most likely means
-that they were permitted to walk on the terrace-like space on the
-ballium wall between the Bell and the Beauchamp Tower. Cranmer and
-Ridley--because they had been “evill of their bodies for want of
-ayre”--shared the right of walking in the Queen’s Garden with Lady
-Jane, and Ridley even dined with the Lieutenant; but it is unlikely
-that either he or Cranmer were allowed converse with Jane Grey, whose
-spiritual adviser, we know, was Dr. Feckenham--not Abbot of Westminster
-at this time, as generally stated, but Dean of St. Paul’s,[285]--whom
-the Queen had expressly delegated to attend on her unfortunate cousin,
-in the hope of converting her to the Catholic faith.
-
-Towards the end of the year 1553, Lady Jane is said to have written
-that coarsely violent epistle to Dr. Harding, once her tutor and her
-father’s chaplain, which will be found in Foxe’s _Acts and Monuments_,
-vol. iii., p. 27. Harding was a most unblushing turncoat; a Protestant
-and leading Reformer under Edward VI, under Mary--when his old
-patron’s power was broken--his Popish opinions were as extreme as his
-Protestantism had been fierce. According to some historians, this
-letter is wrongly attributed to Lady Jane, and certainly its wording,
-of a vulgar polemic type, has nothing in common with the Christian
-forbearance and piety of her undisputed compositions. It is difficult
-to believe Jane Grey can have used such expressions as “thou deformed
-imp of the Devil,” “sink of sin,” “white-livered milksop,” and even
-worse, hurled at Harding by the writer of this virulent epistle, more
-likely to have been the production of Hales, that stalwart hater of
-“Rome,” than of the gentlest of princesses.
-
-Christmas must have been a dismal season for the poor prisoners, whose
-hopes of pardon were failing, and who realised that the New Year about
-to open would be their last on earth. Jane’s thoughts flew back, in
-the long dull evenings, to the merry scenes of her Yuletide at Tylsey,
-two years previous, and to the cheery games and sports at her father’s
-mansion at Sheen, only twelve short months ago! And beautiful Bradgate
-with its lovely park, the scenes of her childhood, her happy lessons
-with Aylmer, all must have come back to the lonely captive. Before the
-New Year was a week old, stirring events were happening in the great
-world beyond the Tower walls. The Queen’s early popularity was already
-on the wane. Her obstinate determination to marry Philip of Spain
-had sore offended her people, who, in the Midland counties, began to
-rise openly against the “Spanish match.” The Duke of Suffolk, thanks
-to his wife’s intercession, and his own zeal in proclaiming Mary,
-had been set free after three days’ imprisonment, and was residing
-at Sheen. Bethinking herself that he would make a good leader of her
-troops against the rebels, Mary sent for him to take command.[286] The
-Queen’s messenger reached Sheen on 25th January 1554, and summoned
-the Duke to Court. His answer was, “Marry, I was coming to her Grace.
-Ye may see, I am booted and spurred, ready to ride, and I will but
-break my fast and go.” He then gave the messenger a present and some
-refreshment, and himself departed, accompanied by his brothers, the
-Lords John and Leonard Grey,[287]--but instead of going to the Queen
-in London, he galloped with some fifty followers into Leicestershire
-and Warwickshire, and made an attempt to rouse the population into
-open revolt against the Queen’s marriage. That he “proclaimed Jane
-in every town he passed through” is not true. He swore he had never
-swerved from his loyalty to Mary, and it seems certain that he told
-the Mayor of Leicester the Queen was “the mercifullest prince that
-ever reigned.” He rebelled against the Spanish marriage and against
-that only. The people of the Midlands, however, notwithstanding his
-bribes, did not rally to him to any extent--his own men deserted him.
-The Earl of Huntingdon took the field against him, and after a defeat
-near Coventry, he had to fly for his life. He reached his own estate of
-Ashley, and threw himself on the mercy of Underwood, his park-keeper,
-who saved him, for a few days, by hiding him in a hollow tree in the
-park, where, according to Pollino, he was nearly starved to death. One
-of his brothers, who had managed to escape with him, was hidden under a
-pile of grass or hay. At last, thanks to Underwood’s treachery and to
-the noise made by a dog which persisted in barking at the foot of
-the tree where the unhappy Duke was concealed, the two brothers were
-delivered up to Warner, Mayor of Coventry, who handed them over to
-the Earl of Huntingdon.[288] They were brought to London, and reached
-the Tower on 6th February,[289] towards the conclusion of the Wyatt
-rebellion. As he passed through London the Duke looked, we are told,
-more dead than alive, “pale as a ghost and shivering.”
-
-[Illustration: QUEEN MARY AT THE PERIOD OF HER MARRIAGE
-
-FROM THE PAINTING BY ANTONIO MOR IN THE PRADO MUSEUM]
-
-Some mystery surrounds the motives of Suffolk’s misguided action. He
-does not seem to have intended, as has been frequently but wrongly
-represented, to reconstruct a party in favour of his daughter, Lady
-Jane.[290] Perhaps, after all, he was sincerely incensed at the Spanish
-match, fearing it would undo all the work of the Reformation, to which
-he was honestly attached. It is presumable, too, that a conspiracy
-existed to place Princess Elizabeth on the throne,[291] which, Suffolk
-may have hoped, would lead to the release of his daughter and
-son-in-law. The result, however, was entirely opposite. The knowledge
-of this movement, combined with Wyatt’s rebellion, enabled the Spanish
-party to force Mary’s hand and oblige her to put Lady Jane and her
-young husband to death.[292] Mary affixed her signature to the “Nine
-Days’ Queen’s” death-warrant on the very day which saw Suffolk led a
-prisoner into the Tower.
-
-The terror and anxiety with which Jane received the news of her
-father’s arrest and imprisonment may be better imagined than described.
-Did she ever see him again? There is no trace of such an interview,
-but we possess the MS. of a letter she wrote him on the fly-leaf of
-a prayer book. She was certainly very much attached to her father,
-but it is significant that she never attempted to see her mother,
-nor wrote, nor even alluded to her. And whereas the petitions of the
-wives of the Dudleys--including, by the way, that of Amy Robsart, wife
-of Lord Robert Dudley--to see their husbands in the Tower, are still
-extant, and were readily granted--no document exists to prove that the
-Duchess of Suffolk ever made any attempt to visit either her daughter
-or her son-in-law in their prison. Perhaps she was otherwise and more
-agreeably engaged!
-
-There was a great commotion and consternation in the Tower during the
-Wyatt rebellion, when London presented a spectacle not unlike that of
-Paris during certain of the greatest outbursts of the Reign of Terror.
-Lady Jane and the other State prisoners, most of whom had attendants,
-who, after due ransacking of their persons, were allowed to pass in
-and out of the Tower and its wards, were well acquainted with the
-details of that extraordinary attempt on the part of a youth of only
-twenty-three summers, not to overthrow the legitimate sovereign indeed,
-but to prevent her marriage with Philip of Spain, soon to be called
-King of Naples. The Queen’s courage in risking her person in defence of
-her rights had won the hearts of the people, opposed though they were
-to the Spanish alliance, and the Wyatt crusade was, in every sense, a
-useless and a foolish one. Never, however, since the tumultuous days
-of Jack Cade had London been so disturbed as during the early months
-of the year 1554. On 7th February Wyatt and his men were as near the
-Tower as Southwark, where they sacked the shops and destroyed Bishop
-Gardiner’s library, so that they stood “knee deep among the tattered
-leaves of his precious volumes.” Later in the day, when the rioting had
-got as far as Charing Cross, so great and shrill was the noise of the
-shouts of men and of the cries of frightened women and children, “that
-it was heard to the top of the White Tower; and also the great shot
-was well discerned there out of St. James’s field.”[293] “There stood
-upon the leads there [_i.e._ of the White Tower],” continues the same
-Chronicler, “the Lord Marquess [of Northampton], Sir Nicholas Poyns,
-Sir Thomas Pope, Master John Seamer and others. From the battle, when
-one came and brought word that the Queen was like to have the victory,
-and that the horseman had discomfited the tale of his enemies, the Lord
-Marquess for joy gave the messenger ten shillings in gold, and fell in
-great rejoicing.”
-
-We may imagine the anxiety of the condemned prisoners in the Tower.
-If Wyatt were victorious, they might yet be saved by a change of
-administration, that would send Mary flying abroad for her life, and
-bring Princess Elizabeth to the throne. Wyatt’s object was to seize the
-Tower, but alas! poor man, when he had approached it as near as the
-Belle Sauvage Yard, on Ludgate Hill, he collapsed on the bench of a
-fishmonger’s shop, was swiftly seized and cast into durance, in that
-very fortress whence he hoped to proclaim his victory over “Spanish
-tyranny.” The prisoners in the Tower must have heard a hundred tales of
-the appalling retaliation practised on the promoters of the rebellion;
-of the scores of men hanged in bunches at the street corners[294];
-of the bloody heads stuck on London Bridge, and even in front of the
-Queen’s palace at St. James’s. They may even have seen Wyatt and
-his fellows enter the Tower. Guildford, too, since he had the same
-privileges as Northampton, may have heard the cries of the frightened
-populace in those days of hot rebellion, from the leads of the White
-Tower, where he was allowed to take the air, and whence he could see
-beyond the precincts over on to Tower Hill without.
-
-Jane may likewise have learnt with considerable distress that the Earl
-of Huntingdon and many other Catholic courtiers--all the Spaniards,
-for instance--were permitted to attend Mass in the Tower chapel; and
-that this, to her, idolatrous ceremony had replaced the plain Communion
-service of Edward VI in most of the churches of London, and indeed,
-throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom. She must also have
-heard with disgust that half London was going in procession nearly
-every day, with banners, copes, “imauges,” and lights, praying for fine
-weather.
-
-Unfortunately little is known about the death-warrant of Lady Jane Grey
-and her husband. The date of its signature would seem to have been 6th
-February--the very day, as we have said, that Suffolk was brought back
-a prisoner into the Tower--a confirmation of the statement that it was
-his indiscreet action which eventually decided Queen Mary to put Lady
-Jane to death. The warrant itself and the text have disappeared. All
-we know is that the document unceremoniously described the unfortunate
-young couple as “Guildford Dudley and his wife”; and named Friday, 9th
-February 1554, as the day of execution. The Queen signed the document
-at Temple Bar, whither it was brought by the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs.
-How Mary came to be at Temple Bar on this occasion is not clear, but
-as Her Majesty is not likely to have performed her dread duty in the
-middle of the street, it is probable that the warrant received her
-signature in the office of the Duchy of Lancaster, just beyond Temple
-Bar. If this is the case, the actual chamber in which the dramatic
-event occurred still exists, in the upper storey of the quaint old
-house now used as a barber’s shop and recently restored (externally)
-to its original condition by the removal of a lath and plaster façade,
-dating from the early eighteenth century, which masked the fine Tudor
-front that now lends so picturesque a note of mediævalism to modern
-Fleet Street. For a long time this chamber was believed to have been
-of the reign of James I, but a close examination of the scheme of
-decoration revealed the monogram of Prince Arthur, younger brother of
-Henry VIII, and from this we may conclude the building to have been
-the office of the Duchy of Lancaster, of which this young Prince was
-treasurer, and which is known to have stood hereabouts. This is the
-origin of the tradition so popular in London a generation ago, that the
-house in question was “the palace of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey”;
-who may indeed have forgathered there for business purposes, but who
-certainly never inhabited the building.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX
-
-THE SUPREME HOUR!
-
-
-To Dr. Feckenham Mary assigned the melancholy task of announcing her
-hopeless position to Jane Grey. This duty he performed on 8th February,
-the day before that originally fixed for the execution, at the same
-time exhorting her to prepare for death. The little victim of great
-iniquity is said to have learnt her doom with Christian resignation
-and princely dignity. She did not fall into a consternation as
-when her accession to the throne was announced to her at Sion, but
-listened, dry-eyed, to the worthy prelate’s awful words. The call to
-another world was more welcome, doubtless, to her weary spirit than
-had been that other summons to an earthly throne. Her life, she told
-Feckenham, had long been a living death, and the sooner it ended the
-better--“I am ready to receive death patiently,” she said, “and in
-whatever manner it may please the Queen to appoint. True, my flesh
-shudders, as is natural to frail humanity, at what I have to go
-through, but I fervently hope the spirit will spring rejoicingly into
-the presence of the Eternal God, Who will receive it.” She pleaded
-for her husband; “he was innocent,” she said, “and had only obeyed
-his father in all things.” Finally, she expressed her desire to see a
-minister of her own religion, and prayed that during her last hours
-she might not be troubled by the presence of any Roman Catholic priest
-or prelate, since “she had no time for that.” Mary, however, was
-resolved that no minister of the Reformed religion should visit her
-cousin, but she had made a judicious choice in sending Dr. Feckenham, a
-liberal-minded man of the gentlest manners,[295] to minister spiritual
-consolation to her. Though the numerous pictures representing the
-tragic scene of Jane’s death generally depict Feckenham as a dignified
-old man with a long white beard, he was in reality a short, stout,
-“comfortable-looking” elderly gentleman, with a close-shaven red
-face, and twinkling eyes. A devout Catholic, he desired, no doubt, to
-convert his illustrious prisoner to his own faith, and even Pollino,
-who must have been well acquainted with all that the Catholic party
-had to say on the subject, says that Lady Jane and Feckenham held long
-conversations on the subject of the Eucharist, one on which Lady Jane
-held distinctly Protestant views: but there is no evidence that, as
-some historians allege, she ever engaged in a discussion on matters
-of faith and doctrines with Feckenham in a hall of the Tower set
-apart for that purpose, and in the presence of an assembly of learned
-Catholic prelates and theologians. We may be sure that any controversy
-between Lady Jane Grey and Dr. Feckenham, either in the last week of
-her life or at any other time, took place in the privacy of her own
-apartment. Florio, the Protestant Italian historian, who has written
-a life of Lady Jane Grey--concocted out of Foxe’s _Book of Martyrs_
-and other similar works,--prints at the end of his book a dialogue
-between Lady Jane and Feckenham on the subject of Transubstantiation,
-and this conversation is also given in Harris Nicholas’s _Literary
-Remains of Lady Jane Grey_. This is most likely a report dictated by
-some one to whom Jane communicated the substance of what passed between
-herself and the Benedictine. Dr. Feckenham has left his own account
-of what took place, and admits that in the course of several lengthy
-conversations with Jane on matters of dogma, by means of which he had
-hoped to convert her to Catholicism, he had been deeply impressed by
-her gentleness, her dignity, and her evident sincerity.
-
-Feckenham obtained the respite of three days, generally given in such
-cases, and the execution was postponed until Monday, 12th February. On
-his informing Jane of what he had done, she is said to have replied,
-“Alas, sir! I did not intend what I said to be reported to the Queen,
-nor would I have you think me covetous for a moment’s longer life;
-for I am only solicitous for a better life in Eternity, and will
-gladly suffer death, since it is her Majesty’s pleasure.” Feckenham, it
-appears, had misunderstood the phrase, “she had no time for that,” as
-meaning that Jane might be disposed to listen to his religious teaching
-if allowed more time for its consideration; and had therefore requested
-the respite granted by the Council. But she proved no more amenable to
-the worthy priest’s arguments on the last day than on the first.
-
-Lord Guildford Dudley, unlike his stoical wife, received his sentence
-with a flood of tears. Of all the victims of this terrible tragedy, he
-was, in truth, the most inoffensive. The poor lad had done no harm,
-except to obey the instructions of his father and mother--especially
-in respect to his foolish attempt at Brussels, which was probably
-the real cause of his condemnation--and there was nothing, now that
-his father was removed, to be gained by putting him to death. Except
-by his marriage, he was not connected with the royal family; he was
-therefore not in the line of succession, and his liberation would not
-have involved the slightest danger to Queen Mary or her throne. His
-execution may be described as a useless murder, even a darker stain on
-Mary Tudor and her advisers--the Emperor Charles V, his agent Simon
-Renard, and the Council--than that of Lady Jane Grey, who certainly
-might have been used again, in the near future, as the tool of some
-unscrupulous statesman. Mary, as we have said, was herself perfectly
-willing, almost to the last, to spare both Guildford and his wife, but
-their chance of pardon was ruined by the Duke of Suffolk’s abortive
-rebellion. Had he obeyed Mary’s orders, put himself at the head of her
-troops, remained loyal, and defeated the rising in the Midlands, as
-Huntingdon eventually did, his children’s lives would doubtless have
-been spared by the grateful sovereign.
-
-The original order, as we have seen, was that Jane and Guildford should
-perish together on Tower Hill. Harris Nicholas seems to think the plan
-was abandoned because the Council dreaded the effect of the prisoners’
-youth and innocence on the populace. This view has been adopted by
-other writers, but the real motive of the change was a matter of
-political etiquette. Lady Jane was of the Blood Royal, and therefore
-entitled to be executed within the precincts of the Tower, on the Green
-where the two Queens of Henry VIII and the old Plantagenet Princess,
-Margaret of Salisbury, had been beheaded. Guildford, on the other hand,
-on the paternal side of even plebeian origin, could only be decapitated
-without the Tower.
-
-On the evening of the day originally fixed for the execution (Friday,
-9th February), Jane wrote the following letter to her father, in which
-she herself holds him responsible, through his rashness, for her
-death:--
-
- “FATHER,--Although it hath pleased God to hasten my death by
- you, by whom my life should rather have been lengthened, yet can
- I patiently take it, that I yield God more hearty thanks for
- shortening my woeful days, than if all the world had been given
- into my possession, with life lengthened at my own will. And albeit
- I am well assured of your impatient dolours, redoubled many ways,
- both in bewailing your own woe, and especially, as I am informed,
- my woeful estate; yet, my dear father, if I may without offence
- rejoice in my own mishap, herein I may account myself blessed,
- that washing my hands with the innocence of my fact, my guiltless
- blood may cry before the Lord, ‘Mercy to the innocent.’ And yet,
- though I must needs acknowledge that being constrained, and, as you
- know well enough, continually assayed; yet, in taking [the Crown]
- upon me, I seemed to consent, and therein grievously offended the
- Queen and her laws, yet do I assuredly trust, that this my offence
- towards God is so much the less, in that being in so royal estate
- as I was, my enforced honour never mixed with mine innocent heart.
- And thus, good father, I have opened unto you the state in which
- I presently stand, my death at hand, although to you it may seem
- woeful, yet to me there is nothing that can be more welcome than
- from this vale of misery to aspire to that heavenly throne of all
- joy and pleasure, with Christ our Saviour: in whose steadfast faith
- (if it be lawful for the daughter so to write to the father), the
- Lord that hitherto hath strengthened you, so continue to keep you,
- that at last we may meet in heaven with the Father, Son, and Holy
- Ghost. Amen.--I am, Your obedient Daughter till death,
-
- JANE DUDLEY”
-
-Jane probably spent Sunday (10th February) in prayer and meditation; or
-perhaps as an unwilling listener to Feckenham’s exhortations. The next
-day Gardiner, preaching before the Queen, then at Whitehall, blamed her
-for what he considered her leniency. He “axed a boon of the Queen’s
-Highness, that like as she had before extended her mercy particularly
-and privately, so through her lenity and gentleness much conspiracy and
-open rebellion was grown, according to the proverb _nimia familiaritas
-parit contemptum_; which he brought then in, for the purpose that she
-would now be merciful to the body of the commonwealth, and conservation
-thereof, which could not be, unless the rotten and hurtful members
-thereof were cut off and consumed.”[296]
-
-Some communication seems to have reached Jane from her ruined home on
-this Sunday, for in consequence of the transports of grief into which
-her sister, Lady Katherine, was plunged, she wrote that evening the
-following beautiful letter, on the blank pages at the end of her Greek
-Testament:--
-
- “I have sent you, good sister Katherine, a book, which, although it
- be not outwardly rimmed with gold, yet inwardly it is more worth
- than precious stones. It is the book, dear sister, of the laws of
- the Lord; it is His Testament and last Will, which He bequeathed
- unto us wretches, which shall lead you to the path of eternal joy,
- and if you, with a good mind, read it, and with an earnest desire
- follow it, shall bring you to an immortal and everlasting life.
- It will teach you to live, and learn you to die; it shall win you
- more than you should have gained by the possession of your woeful
- father’s lands,[297] for as if God had prospered him, ye should
- have inherited his lands, so if you apply diligently [to] your
- book [_i.e._ the Bible], trying to direct your life after it, you
- shall be an inheritor of such riches as neither the covetous shall
- withdraw from you, neither the thief shall steal, neither yet the
- moth corrupt. Desire, sister, to understand the law of the Lord
- your God. Live still to die, that you by death may purchase eternal
- life; or after your death enjoy the life purchased [for] you by
- Christ’s death; and trust not the tenderness of your age shall
- lengthen your life, for as soon, if God will, goeth the young as
- the old; and labour alway to learn to die. Deny the world, defy the
- devil, and despise the flesh. Delight yourself only in the Lord.
- Be patient for your sins, and yet despair not. Be steady in faith,
- yet presume not, and desire with St. Paul to be dissolved and to
- be with Christ, with whom even in death there is life. Be like
- the good servant, and even at midnight be waking; lest when death
- cometh and stealeth upon you, like a thief in the night, you be
- with the evil servant found sleeping, and lest for lack of oil ye
- be found like the first foolish wench,[298] and like him that had
- not on the wedding garment, and then be cast out from the marriage.
- Resist [sin] in ye [yourself] as I trust ye do, and seeing ye have
- the name of a Christian, as near as ye can, follow the steps of
- your master Christ, and take up your cross; lay your sins on His
- back, and always embrace Him; and as touching my death, rejoice as
- I do, and assist [perhaps, ‘consider’] that I shall be delivered of
- this corruption, and put on incorruption, for I am assured that I
- shall for losing of a mortal life find an immortal felicity. Pray
- God grant you [and] send you of His grace to live in His fear, and
- to die in the love [here is an illegible passage, perhaps made so
- by fast falling tears], neither for love of life, nor fears of
- death. For if ye deny His truth to lengthen your life, God will
- deny you, and shorten your days; and if ye will cleave to Him, He
- will prolong your days, to your comfort and His glory, to the which
- glory God bring mine and you hereafter, when it shall please God to
- call you.
-
- “Farewell, good sister, put your only trust in God, who only must
- uphold you.--Your loving sister,
-
- “JANE DUDLEY”
-
-The precious volume containing this letter is fortunately the property
-of the nation, deposited in the MS. department of the British Museum.
-
-In the British Museum[299] there is also a small and beautiful MS.
-vellum prayer book, imperfect in one or two pages. Four inches in
-length, and nearly two inches thick, bound in red morocco, and richly
-ornamented, it contains thirty-five distinctly Protestant prayers.
-The catalogue of the Harleian Collection states that it “was perhaps
-written by the direction of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and
-Protector of England, upon his first commitment to the Tower of London;
-and that the last five prayers were added after his second commitment,
-which ended in his execution.” On the margin of several pages, not more
-than three lines occupying the same leaf, are a series of interesting
-autographs. The first of these is in the hand of Lord Guildford Dudley,
-and runs as follows:--
-
- “Your loving and obedient son wisheth unto your grace long life in
- this world, with as much joy and comfort as ever I wish to myself;
- and in the world to come, joy everlasting.--Your most humble son
- till his death,
-
- “G. DUDLEY”
-
-It has been conjectured from this inscription that Guildford presented
-the book to his father-in-law, on the occasion of his wedding with
-Lady Jane; unless the inscription was addressed to his father,
-Northumberland. It is also supposed that the Duke of Suffolk, having
-received it from Guildford, left it behind him after his release from
-his three days’ imprisonment in the Tower. Others say that Sir John
-Gage, Constable of the Tower, gave it himself to his prisoners, so
-that they might write something in it for him to keep in remembrance
-of them. It was certainly in Jane’s possession for some time, for she
-carried it with her to the scaffold; and it contains in her hand,
-a solemn farewell to, and prayer for, her father, in the following
-terms:--
-
- “The Lord comfort your grace, and that in his word, wherein all
- creatures only are to be comforted. And though it hath pleased God
- to take ij of your children, yet think not, I most humbly beseech
- your grace, that you have lost them; but trust that we, by leaving
- this mortal life, have won an immortal life. And I, for my part,
- as I have honoured your grace in this life, will pray for you in
- another life.[300]--Your grace’s humble daughter,
-
- “JANE DUDLEY”
-
-Shortly before proceeding to her execution, Jane’s kindly jailor, Sir
-Thomas Brydges, begged her to give him something to keep in memory
-of her; whereupon she offered him this very prayer book, and at his
-request wrote in a third sentence:
-
- “Forasmuch as you have desired so simple a woman to write in so
- worthy a book, good master Lieutenant, therefore I shall as a
- friend desire you, and as a Christian require you, to call upon
- God, to incline your heart to His laws, quicken you in His ways,
- and not to take the word of truth utterly out of your mouth.
- Live still to die, that by death you may purchase eternal life;
- and remember how the end of Methuselah, who as we read in the
- Scriptures was the longest liver that was of a manner, died at the
- last. For, as the preacher saith, there is a time to be born and
- a time to die; and the day of death is better than the day of our
- birth.--Yours as the Lord knoweth as a friend,
-
- “JANE DUDLEY”
-
-Finally, at some time or other during her imprisonment, Jane wrote
-three further inscriptions on the last page of this book in Latin,
-Greek, and English, which run as follows:--
-
-The Latin--“If justice is done with my body, my soul will find mercy
-with God.”
-
-The Greek--“Death will give pain to my body for its sins, but the soul
-will be justified before God.”
-
-The English--“If my faults deserve punishment, my youth at least and
-my imprudence were worthy of excuse. God and posterity will show me
-favour.”[301]
-
-It was on this, the last Sunday evening of her unhappy life, that Jane
-wrote the well-known prayer, which, although quoted in full by Foxe and
-Howard, is not now extant in Lady Jane’s own hand, and may therefore,
-like several letters, etc., attributed to her, be apocryphal.[302]
-
-The few details we possess as to the acts of other State prisoners,
-implicated in Northumberland’s plot, on the day of their execution,
-are lacking in the case of Lady Jane; no record has come to us of how
-she slept on her last night of life; of those who were present at her
-last mournful meal. However, enough has been reported by contemporary
-writers to enable us to reconstruct the events of the later portion of
-the day, when the hour of the execution drew near. It is clearly stated
-that Lord Guildford Dudley made an attempt to see his wife before his
-death, and even informed his guards of his desire to do so. Hearing of
-this, Mary sent word, on the very morning of the fatal day, that “if it
-would be any consolation to them, they should be allowed to see each
-other before their execution.” When this concession was communicated
-to Lady Jane she declined it, saying “it would only disturb the holy
-tranquillity with which they had prepared themselves for death”; and
-unnerve them for the supreme moment. At the same time she sent a
-message to Guildford to the effect that such a meeting “would rather
-weaken than strengthen him”; that he ought to be sufficiently strong in
-himself to need no such consolation; that “if his soul were not firm
-and settled, she could not settle it by her eyes, nor confirm it by her
-words; that he would do well to remit this interview till they met in
-a better world, where friendships were happy and unions indissoluble,
-and theirs, she hoped, would be eternal.” But Jane took her stand at
-the window of her room to watch her husband pass, a little before ten
-o’clock, to his doom on Tower Hill. Sir Thomas Brydges stood by her,
-as she waved her hand to Guildford. Burke (_Tudor Portraits_) says,
-but without naming his authority, that “like his father and brothers,”
-Guildford Dudley, “recanted his supposed Protestantism whilst in the
-Tower”; and that “he was attended to the scaffold by two Benedictine
-Fathers.” Other and earlier writers do, indeed, declare that Guildford
-received Communion according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church
-before his death; but _The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary_
-makes no mention of this recantation, and clearly says no minister of
-any religion attended at Guildford Dudley’s execution.[303] At the
-Bulwark Gate of the Tower (its outside entrance), Guildford was met
-by Sir Anthony Browne and Sir John Throckmorton, and several other
-gentlemen who had assembled to bid him farewell, and with whom he
-shook hands “pleasantly.” Here, too, Sir Thomas Offley, the Sheriff
-of Middlesex, in accordance with precedent,[304] took charge of the
-prisoner. The mob that in those days invariably assembled to witness
-such sinister functions, was on Tower Hill in its hundreds, nay
-thousands, to see the poor boy beheaded. He looked very handsome, in
-his suit of black velvet slashed with dark coloured cloth: his tall
-and youthful figure impressed the people most favourably, and a murmur
-of sympathy ran through the motley throng. Guildford did not attempt
-to make a speech. He knelt down and said his prayers--simple prayers
-he had learnt as a child--and, it was said, he shed some tears at the
-thought of dying so young. But despite the youth’s natural emotion,
-he faced death bravely. He begged the “good people” to pray for him;
-took off his doublet himself, unfastened his collar with his own hands,
-knelt on the straw, stretched out his graceful limbs, laid his head on
-the block; and in an instant, with one stroke of the axe, his spirit
-passed into Eternity.[305] His blood-stained corpse, covered with a
-sheet, was thrown into a tumbril or handcart filled with straw, and his
-head, wrapped in a cloth, was cast at its feet.
-
-And now a horrible incident occurred. Whether by accident or
-design,[306] Jane caught a glimpse of her husband’s mutilated remains
-as they were carried into the Tower for interment. We have several
-versions of this story: some say she saw the body taken out of the
-cart[307] and carried into St. Peter’s Chapel, whilst a passage in
-Grafton[308] lends colour to the belief (adopted by many historians,
-including Turner and Nicolas) that she met the corpse as she was
-herself proceeding to the scaffold. What most likely happened is, that
-she was waiting to be summoned by the Lieutenant of the Tower and
-the Sheriffs, when she heard the rumbling of cart wheels, and before
-her attendants could prevent her, rushed to the window, and beheld
-the hideous sight, without, however, it seems, expressing any great
-emotion. “Oh Guildford, Guildford!” we are told she exclaimed, “the
-antepast that you have tasted, and I shall soon taste, is not so bitter
-as to make my flesh tremble; for all this is nothing to the feast that
-you and I shall partake this day in Paradise.”
-
-The direful procession which was to conduct a young and innocent
-Princess of the Blood Royal, of barely seventeen summers, to the
-foot of an ignominious scaffold, was formed according to established
-precedent. But for some unexplained reason, it was nearly an hour late
-in starting from Partridge’s house to the place of execution, opposite
-the Church of St. Peter-ad-Vincula, where, since that day, countless
-pilgrims from the Old and New Worlds have paused to ponder a moment
-over the fate of Lady Jane Grey, and have learnt to hate Mary Tudor
-with an almost personal detestation. The delay may have resulted from
-the state of nervous prostration into which the unfortunate Princess
-had been thrown by the sight of her husband’s mangled remains. It would
-have been impossible, even in those hard times, to convey the victim
-to execution if she had swooned. It was nearly eleven o’clock, then,
-before the drums began to beat, and the procession fell into order.
-
-The morning had dawned grey and misty, heavy clouds veiling the sun
-that now and then shone feebly athwart them, but it was fairly fine for
-London at that early season, and no rain fell throughout the day. The
-bells of St. Peter-ad-Vincula, and of All Hallows’, Barking, tolled at
-regular intervals, whilst the grand outline of the White Tower stood
-out luminous against the threatening sky, as the dread procession
-wended slowly onwards. First, came a company of two hundred Yeomen of
-the Guard; then, the executioner, in a tight-fitting scarlet worsted
-and cloth garment, displaying the swelling muscles of his chest, arms,
-and legs;[309] his face was masked, and his head hooded in scarlet.
-Beside him marched his assistant, a rough-looking man, who carried the
-axe over his shoulder; then Sir John Brydges, Lieutenant of the Tower,
-with Sir Thomas Brydges, Deputy-Lieutenant, and between them Sir John
-Gage, Constable of the Tower, with two Sheriffs, in their robes of
-office. Lastly, the young prisoner herself, dressed as on the occasion
-of her trial at the Guildhall in the same black cloth dress, edged
-with black velvet, a Marie Stuart cap of black velvet on her head,
-with a veil of black cloth hanging to the waist, and a white wimple
-concealing her throat; her sleeves edged with lawn, neatly plaited
-round the wrists. Not wearing _chopines_ to increase her height, as
-on the occasion of her State entry into the Tower, the people who had
-not seen her since were greatly surprised at her diminutive stature.
-On her right walked Abbot Feckenham, in his black robe, without a
-surplice, and carrying a crucifix in his hand. Behind him came the
-Chaplains attached to the Chapel Royal of the Tower. Lady Jane’s
-ladies, Mrs. Tylney and Mrs. Ellen, and Mrs. Sarah; two other women
-and a man-servant, all in deep mourning, and weeping bitterly, closed
-the doleful procession. The route was a short one, and the crowd of
-spectators--about five hundred--allowed to be present at the execution,
-was silent and respectful. From Partridge’s house to the scaffold, the
-Lady Jane continued to read the open Prayer-Book in her hand--it was
-that containing the various inscriptions already mentioned--and paid
-little or no heed to Feckenham’s pious exhortations, if, indeed, he
-made any.
-
-At the foot of the scaffold stood a jury of forty matrons, who had
-been previously called upon to testify that the Princess was not with
-child; a rumour that she was in this condition was so widespread
-as to be mentioned by Radcliffe--who says, “Lady Dudley was very
-brave, considering the condition she was in”--and by Fuller, Pomeroy,
-Challoner, and Fox. The presence of these matrons is also mentioned
-by Bishop Godwin. There is no record of the presence of the Duke of
-Norfolk in his usual seat as Earl Marshal, but no doubt he was there
-with Lord Mayor White and several Aldermen, Sheriffs, and noblemen.
-Before ascending the three or four steps that led to the scaffold, the
-Lady Jane took leave of her ladies, who sobbed bitterly; Mrs. Ellen and
-Mrs. Tylney followed her on to the platform, ominously littered with
-fresh straw. Here Feckenham, the executioner, and his assistant also
-took their stations, with Sir Thomas Brydges. “When she appeared on
-the scaffold,” writes a contemporary, “the people cried, and murmured
-at beholding one so young and beautiful about to die such a death.”
-Nevertheless, though the writer of _The Chronicle of Queen Jane and
-Queen Mary_ says “her countenance [was] nothing abashed, neither her
-eyes misted with tears,” there can be little doubt but that the long
-spell of anxiety had left some trace on Jane’s sweet face. She advanced
-to the edge of the scaffold, and in the dead silence spoke in a
-distinct voice: “Good people, I am come here to die, and by a law I am
-condemned to the same. My offence against the Queen’s Highness was only
-in consenting to the device of others, which is now deemed treason; but
-it was never of my seeking, but by the counsel of those who should seem
-to have further understanding of such things than I, who knew little of
-the law and less of the title to the Crown. The part, indeed, against
-the Queen’s Highness was unlawful, and so the consenting thereunto
-by me; but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me, or on
-my behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency before God and in
-the face of you, good Christian people, this day,” and therewith she
-wrung her hands in which she had her book. Then she continued, “I pray
-you, all good Christian people, to bear me witness that I die a true
-Christian woman, and that I look to be saved by none other means, but
-only by the mercy of God, in the merit of the blood of His only Son
-Jesus Christ; and I confess that when I did know the Word of God, I
-neglected the same, loved myself and the world, and therefore this
-plague of punishment has worthily happened into me for my sins; and
-yet I thank God of His goodness that He hath thus given me a time and
-respite to repent. And now, good people, while I am living, I pray you
-to assist me with your prayers.”
-
-Lady Jane’s relative, Lady Philippa de Clifford, in her little known
-report,[310] adds that, “After a pause, and wiping her eyes, she
-(Jane) said in a firmer voice, ‘Now, good people, Jane Dudley bids
-you all a long farewell. And may the Almighty preserve you from ever
-meeting the terrible death which awaits her in a few minutes. Farewell,
-farewell, for ever more.’ Jane, when she had finished speaking, was
-much affected, and hid her face upon the neck of the old nurse who
-attended her on the scaffold.” This nurse must have been Mrs. Ellen,
-into whose arms she threw herself when she first perceived the towering
-figure of the masked executioner, garbed from head to foot in scarlet.
-Clinging to the aged woman, the poor girl sobbed convulsively. Growing
-calmer, after a while, she knelt down, and asked Feckenham what prayer
-she should recite--“Shall I say this Psalm?”--probably pointing to
-her prayer-book as she did so. “Yes,” answered he; and then, as she
-and many of the people knelt, he said the fifty-first Psalm, the
-_Miserere_, in Latin, Jane repeating it after him in English. This
-done, she rose, and said very courteously to Dr. Feckenham, “God
-will abundantly requite you, good sir, for all your humanity to me,
-though your discourses gave me more uneasiness than all the terrors
-of approaching death.” Bishop Godwin says, “Just before she knelt
-down, Lady Jane embraced the venerable prelate and thanked him for his
-kindness to her.” She then gave her handkerchief and gloves to Mrs.
-Tylney; and turning to Sir Thomas Brydges, said gently, “You asked me
-for a parting memory of me,” and handed him the prayer-book which she
-had been using and in which she had written her farewells.
-
-The supreme moment had arrived. Without the assistance of her two
-female attendants, who were too completely overcome to assist her,
-she untied the collar of her gown. The executioner offered to help
-her, but she curtly desired him to desist, and turning to her ladies,
-spoke a few words to them. Mastering their emotion, they took off
-her outer dress, leaving her in her kirtle, or under gown with
-close-fitting sleeves. They also removed her headdress (described by
-the old chroniclers as a “frose paste”) and kerchief, giving her at the
-same time a handkerchief to tie over her eyes. Then the executioner
-knelt and besought her pardon; she replied simply, “Most willingly.”
-Now came what was perhaps the most painful episode of the horrible
-ceremony--the pause of five minutes “for the Queen’s mercy.” The poor
-girl had to stand, with the ghastly preparations for her approaching
-death about her, for a space of time which, brief as it really was,
-must have seemed an eternity to her, waiting for a clemency she no
-longer expected nor desired. But no white wand was waved--there was no
-mercy for Jane Grey! The five minutes ended, the executioner motioned
-the unfortunate Princess to take her place upon the straw, and she,
-noticing the block for the first time, began to tremble a little, and
-said, as she knelt down, “I pray you dispatch me quickly,” adding,
-“Will you take it off before I lay me down?”[311] “No, madam,” replied
-the executioner. With her own hands she bound the handkerchief about
-her eyes, and being now in that darkness from which death would soon
-release her, lost consciousness of where she was, and groping about
-for the block, asked eagerly, “Where is it? What shall I do? Where is
-it?” Someone guided her to the fatal spot, and the “Nine Days’ Queen,”
-laying herself down with her fair head upon the block, stretched out
-her body, and cried aloud that all might hear her, “Lord, into Thy
-hands I commend my spirit!”[312] A flash, a thud, a crimson deluge on
-the straw-strewn scaffold--and, as the cannon boomed, an innocent soul
-was borne towards a Throne more high, and a Justice more sure than
-those of Queen or Emperor![313]
-
-There are several conflicting accounts of what subsequently happened.
-The more generally received version is that the body was handed over
-to Lady Jane’s women, who reverently placed it in a common deal
-coffin, and conveyed it to St. Peter-ad-Vincula, precisely as the
-women of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard had conveyed the mangled
-remains of those slaughtered Queens. But on the other hand, Antoine
-de Noailles,[314] the French Ambassador, who had arrived in London
-early in the morning, passing that way about three o’clock in the same
-afternoon (he was living at Marillac’s old house on the Tower Green),
-saw Lady Jane’s half-naked body lying abandoned on the scaffold, and
-was amazed at the immense quantity of blood that had poured out of so
-small a corpse.[315] Peter Derenzie tells us her remains “were left for
-hours half naked on the scaffold streaming with blood, and were placed
-in a deal coffin.” It would seem indeed that, in death as in life,
-Lady Jane Grey, the moment fortune turned against her, was abandoned
-by all those, even by her own mother, who by reason of natural ties
-should have rallied round her in the hour of need. Thus after death
-her bleeding remains were treated with corresponding neglect; the
-puppet which was to have made Northumberland’s fortune was thrown
-aside, with none to care for it, when once its purpose failed. This
-unusual treatment of the body may not, however, have proceeded entirely
-from heartlessness; but from the difficulty and uncertainty as to the
-nature of the religious service to be said over the remains of one who,
-though born a Catholic, had died a “heretic”; St. Peter’s Chapel having
-been lately restored to the Catholics, Jane could not be buried there
-without ecclesiastical licence, and to obtain this, Feckenham probably
-had to see Queen Mary, or get some sort of “permit” from Archbishop
-Heath. But, granting all this, the corpse might, at least, have been
-decently covered. The delay as to the burial of Jane Grey’s corpse
-may have given rise to the popular report that it was transported to
-Bradgate, and interred there. There is no question, however, that the
-body was eventually conveyed into the Church of St. Peter-ad-Vincula
-and buried in the vault which already contained the mangled remains of
-so many of her contemporaries.[316] Many years ago, a very small and
-broken coffin was discovered in this vault, containing the remains of
-a female of diminutive stature, with the head severed from the body.
-The skeleton, which crumbled to ashes immediately it was exposed to the
-effect of the atmosphere, was surmised to be that of Lady Jane Grey,
-and the dust was enclosed in an urn and placed immediately under the
-oval inscription in the chancel above, which records her death. Yet in
-Leicestershire, the tradition still persists that the body was brought
-to Bradgate late at night, and secretly interred in the parish church.
-And with this tradition, of course, is connected the legend of the
-coach with the headless occupant, said to appear before the gates of
-Bradgate on the anniversary of Lady Jane’s death.
-
-Thus, in blood and in neglect, ends the tragic story of Lady Jane Grey,
-one of the most popular heroines in our history, the helpless victim of
-circumstance, and of the soaring ambition of a singularly masterful and
-unscrupulous man.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI
-
-THE FATE OF THE SURVIVORS
-
-
-The Reforming Leaders, who had so flattered Lady Jane Grey when they
-saw a chance of her becoming Queen, do not seem to have felt much
-concern at her death. In a letter of 3rd April 1554, addressed to
-Bullinger, Peter Martyr says, “Jane, who was formerly Queen, conducted
-herself at her execution with the greatest fortitude and godliness”;
-Burcher, writing on 3rd March 1554 to Bullinger, casually remarks, “I
-have heard, too, that the Queen has beheaded his [Suffolk’s] daughter
-Jane, together with her husband; that Jane, I mean, who was proclaimed
-Queen”; lastly, a less well-known Reformer named Thomas Lever wrote to
-Bullinger in the April of 1554, that Jane had been beheaded.[317] As to
-the Imperial Ambassadors, Montmorency Marnix, Jehan Schefer, and Simon
-Renard, they were one and all jubilant over the death of Lady Jane, her
-father, and Northumberland. There was not much sympathy ever expressed
-for Lady Jane among the people. No doubt her execution was the main
-topic of chatter in all the taverns of London, as well in the little
-darksome dens, down by the wharves, where seafaring men congregated,
-as in the luxurious hostelries in Cheapside, the Strand, Holborn, and
-Westminster, where rich gossips forgathered; but of demonstrative
-sympathy there was none. Yet the erection on that fateful Monday of
-some fifty gibbets intended for the hanging of the Wyatt rebels did
-impress the hardened populace with a sense of horror and anxiety.
-It marked the beginning of the reaction against Mary, which set in
-violently a few months later on with the burnings in Smithfield, to
-blast her name for ever by the fearful epithet of--“Bloody.”
-
-Let us give a parting glance to the remaining actors in this tragedy.
-Jane’s father, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, was brought to trial for
-high treason in Westminster Hall on 17th February. The indictment was
-for levying war against the Queen, adhering to Sir Thomas Wyatt, in
-order to depose the Queen and set the Crown on his daughter Jane; and
-having opposed the Earl of Huntingdon when the latter was in command
-of the Queen’s forces.[318] The Duke’s defence was, that he had not
-attempted to proclaim Jane during his expedition of January 1554, and
-had only gone out to rouse the people against the Spaniards, which,
-as a peer of the Realm, he claimed he was entitled to do. As to the
-accusation of opposing Huntingdon, he answered that he did not know
-that nobleman was acting under the Queen’s orders: he also took refuge
-behind his brother Thomas, who, he said, had advised him to go into
-the country, where he would be safe among his tenants, whereas if he
-remained in London he would be sent to the Tower again. This feeble
-defence was not accepted; and Henry Fitzallan, Lord Maltravers (Lord
-Arundel), the Queen’s Lord Steward, who had brought the record into
-court, pronounced sentence of death, as a traitor, on that Henry Grey
-who had so greatly injured his sister, Lady Katherine Fitzallan, his
-first and neglected wife, from whom he was never legally divorced. He
-had his hour of revenge at last! The Duke was “much confounded at his
-condemnation”; contemporaries inform us that when he left the Tower he
-went “stoutly and cheerfully enough,” but when he re-entered Traitor’s
-Gate “his countenance was heavy and pensive.” He had not to wait long
-for his _coup de grâce_. On the following Friday (23rd February) he
-was brought out of the Tower, between nine and ten in the morning,
-to be executed on Tower Hill. He had some trouble with Dr. Weston,
-the Roman Catholic priest Mary had appointed to accompany him to the
-scaffold. When they arrived at its foot, the Duke refused to listen
-to him, and even went so far as to prevent his ascending the steps.
-Dr. Weston, however, insisted in the Queen’s name; whereupon, with an
-expressive gesture of resignation, Suffolk submitted to his presence,
-but the attempt to change his religious convictions failed utterly. Dr.
-Weston told him in a loud voice that the Queen forgave him, to which
-the Duke replied, “God save her Grace!” and the people murmured, and
-some said they hoped he (Weston) would have a like pardon. The Duke
-at last made a brief speech, saying simply, “Masters, I have offended
-the Queen, and her laws, and thereby I am justly condemned to die, and
-am willing to die, desiring all men to be obedient; and I pray God
-that this my death may be an example to all men, beseeching you all
-to bear me witness that I die in the faith of Christ, trusting to be
-saved by His blood only, and by no other (_sic_) trumpery: the which
-died for me, and for all men that truly repent and steadfastly trust
-in Him. And I do repent, desiring you all to pray to God for me, that
-when ye see my breath depart from me, you will pray to God that He
-may receive my soul.”[319] After this, kneeling and raising his hands
-in supplication to Heaven, he repeated the _Miserere_--the very Psalm
-his daughter had said under like circumstances a week or so before.
-Then, rising, he continued--also as she had done--saying, “Into Thy
-hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” Just as he was about to make his
-final preparations for death a very human incident occurred. A man
-to whom he was deeply in debt stood up and asked him, “Who will now
-pay me my money?” “Well,” quoth the Duke, “ask not me now, but go and
-see my officers, who will, I doubt not, satisfy you.” On this the man
-departed, saying, “God save your soul, Sir!” Suffolk now removed his
-cap and neck-cloth, and to the headsman’s usual appeal for forgiveness,
-replied, “God forgive thee, and I do; and when thou dost thine office,
-I pray thee, do it quickly, and God have mercy on thee.”[320] Lastly,
-having tied a handkerchief over his eyes, he knelt down and recited
-the Lord’s Prayer aloud, and appealing for mercy to the Throne of
-Grace, Henry Grey laid his head on the block, and on the stroke of the
-headsman’s axe expired. Suffolk’s body was laid to rest in St. Peter’s
-Chapel; but his head, for some reason which has never been explained,
-was sent to the Church of the Holy Trinity in the Minories.[321] Here
-it was embalmed after a fashion, by being placed in a small vault by
-the altar, in the dust of oakwood, which, as it contains a quantity of
-tannin, is a strong preservative; and when unearthed about fifty years
-ago, it was sufficiently perfect for the mark of a blow made by the axe
-above the actual place of severance (rather low on the neck), to be
-still visible. Sir George Scharf was greatly struck by the resemblance
-between this head and the portrait of Suffolk now at Hatfield and the
-copy of it in the National Portrait Gallery. The author has himself
-inspected the relic closely, and recognised the resemblance to the
-portrait: the exceedingly arched eyebrows and the rather weak chin are
-identical: three of the teeth are perfect, the eyes are closed, the
-mouth open, the head beardless and bald.
-
-Lady Jane’s uncle, Lord Thomas Grey, shared the fate of his brother of
-Suffolk and of Lord Leonard Grey. At the time of the Duke’s rising, he
-attempted to escape to the Continent by way of Wales; but he got no
-farther than the borders of the Principality, where he was captured,
-according to a contemporary, “through his great mishap and folly of his
-man who had forgot his cap case with money behind him in his chamber
-one morning at his inn, and, coming for it again, upon examination what
-he should be, it was mistrusted that his master should be some such
-man as he was indeed, and so he was stopped, taken, and brought up to
-London.” Lord Thomas, however, took no very prominent part either in
-the rebellion in Warwickshire, or in the previous attempt to establish
-Lady Jane on the throne; and it is difficult to understand why he
-should have been sacrificed, especially when Lord John Grey, who had
-been caught as it were red-handed in hiding with the Duke of Suffolk
-at Ashley, was released after two trials.[322] However, the mention of
-the Lord Thomas by Suffolk at his trial was distinctly damaging to him;
-perhaps also Mary had some personal grudge against him, or his unloving
-sister-in-law, the Duchess of Suffolk, who, despite her husband’s
-action, was much in favour with Mary, may have prejudiced the Queen
-against him. According to Noailles, Thomas Grey frankly avowed his
-determination to see Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, King, or to be King
-himself. He did not explain how this was to be achieved; but added,
-“If I am not King, I’ll be hanged.” He was beheaded instead! This
-reference to Courtney gives support to Suffolk’s admission, that the
-Wyatt rebellion and his own expedition had for their immediate object
-the proclamation of Elizabeth as Queen. Curiously enough, Lord Thomas
-Grey, unlike his relatives, always remained a Catholic, and is said to
-have asked for a confessor before he died. After being brought to trial
-at Westminster on 9th March 1554, as Machyn says: “The xxviij day of
-April was beheaded on Tower hill, between ix and x of the clock before
-noon, my lord Thomas Gray, the Duke of ‘Suffoke-Dassett[’s]’ brother,
-and buried at Allalow’s [All Hallows’], Barkyne, and the head ...” (the
-sentence is unfinished).[323]
-
-[Illustration: THE LADY FRANCIS BRANDON, DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK, AND HER
-SECOND HUSBAND, ADRIAN STOKES, ESQ.
-
-PROBABLY BY CORVINUS. PROPERTY OF COL. WYNN FINCH]
-
-The Duchess of Suffolk, Lady Jane’s strange and untender mother, did
-not, as might have been expected, even in those unfeeling times, go
-into retirement after the bloody deaths of her daughter, son-in-law,
-husband, and brother-in-law, but within a fortnight, and on the very
-day that Lord Thomas Grey was arraigned (9th March 1554, not, as some
-writers say, the day he was executed), she married her late husband’s
-Groom of the Chambers, a red-haired lad of middle-class origin, fifteen
-years her junior, one Mr. Adrian Stokes. She received a reminder of
-“the dear departed” on this her wedding-day, in the shape of a demand
-to deliver, “unto the Lord-Admiral the Parliamentary robes, lately
-belonging to the Duke her husband; or, if she had them not, to let
-the Lord-Admiral understand where they remain, to the end he may send
-for the same.” This widow of Ephesus was not in the least disturbed
-by the message, and after returning the paraphernalia in question,
-gaily proceeded with her nuptial preparations! To account for so
-extraordinary and apparently heartless a proceeding, we must remember
-the position in which the Lady Frances now found herself. She realised
-that unless she was married, and that speedily, to some one much
-beneath her station, she might be proposed by the Protestant party as
-one of its candidates for the succession, and her life and tranquillity
-be thus endangered. Her marriage with one who was little better than a
-menial[324] rendered this impossible; and besides (she was a Tudor),
-she may have been really in love with her red-haired Mr. Stokes. That
-Queen Mary did not resent the match is evident, for throughout her
-reign the Lady Frances occupied a towering position at Court, with
-precedence of all other peeresses, sometimes even of Princess Elizabeth
-herself. Her daughters, the Ladies Katherine and Mary Grey, were
-appointed Maids-of-Honour to the Queen who had so lately signed the
-death-warrants of their father, sister, brother-in-law, and uncles,
-and seem to have been very much attached to their mistress. They
-probably convinced themselves that the recent tragedies had been purely
-political, and not the least domestic or personal. The lives of these
-two young ladies were not a jot happier than that of their sister; but
-this was due to Queen Elizabeth, who played with them both much as a
-cat plays with a mouse, and literally worried them into early graves.
-Lady Frances and her youthful husband had their portraits taken the
-very year of their marriage, both in one panel; the picture was lately
-in the possession of Colonel Wynn Finch. The Duchess appears as a
-buxom, puffy-looking dame of thirty-six,--the age given on the margin
-of the picture,--whilst her sheepish-looking, ginger-headed husband
-is put down as twenty-one. He is represented in a superb costume of
-black velvet, edged with ermine and sparkling with jewels. The lady
-wears black satin cut somewhat after the fashion of the year 1830.
-Her garment is edged with ermine, and she wears two wedding-rings on
-the fourth finger of her fat hand, and several handsome chains and
-carcanets about her short neck. A close examination of this picture
-reveals the extraordinary breadth of the Duchess’s face. Divested of
-her feminine head-dress, and with a very little “make up,” she might
-easily be the very image of her uncle, King Henry VIII. Lady Jane’s
-mother lived happily enough with Mr. Stokes, to whom she bore a
-daughter so soon after her marriage--a little under nine months--that
-if she had visited her husband in the Tower (which she did not) the
-question of her paternity might have been raised. This child, baptized
-Elizabeth, died the day it was born. The Lady Frances herself died in
-October 1559, leaving most of her fortune--by this time considerably
-reduced--to her husband, and very little to her two surviving
-daughters. She was buried in Westminster Abbey in great pomp on 5th
-December 1559. Elizabeth, out “of the great affection she bore the
-Duchess and because of her kinship,” ordered that the Royal Arms should
-be borne at her funeral, which was attended by Garter-King-at-Arms and
-by Clarencieux. Her monument, still in existence, occupies the exact
-site of the shrine of St. Edmund in the chapel of that saint, and
-is a fine specimen of the early and best period of Elizabethan art.
-The inscription is in old English, and, modernised, runs as follows:
-“Here lieth the Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, daughter to Charles
-Brandon, Duke of Suffolk and Mary the French Queen; first wife to
-Henry, Duke of Suffolk, and after to Adrian Stokes, Esq.” This is
-followed by a few lines of high-flown panegyric in Latin. After the
-death of his Duchess, Mr. Stokes obtained a new lease of twenty-one
-years of “her Highness’s manor of Beaumanor,” in Leicestershire. About
-1571 he was returned as M.P. for Leicestershire, and took as his second
-wife Anne, relict of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. Mr. Adrian Stokes died
-on 30th November 1586, leaving his brother William as his heir.[325]
-
-The widow of the once all-powerful Duke of Northumberland spent some
-months with her daughter, Lady Mary Sidney, endeavouring to restore her
-shattered health and to recover some shreds of the property taken from
-her at the time of her husband’s condemnation. It was mainly through
-the instrumentality of Don Diego de Mendoza, or “Damondesay,” as she
-styles him, whose imprudent conduct had brought such misfortune on
-her luckless son, that Philip II was led to solicit the restoration
-of a considerable part of the Duchess’s fortune. She also obtained
-permission to inhabit the empty Manor House at Chelsea, where she
-endeavoured to collect some of the magnificent furniture which had once
-adorned the royal mansion, Durham House, in the Strand, recovering,
-amongst other things, a set of green curtains shot with gold thread
-and certain carved chairs and tables. But peace and shelter, even
-combined with a measure of comfort and independence, availed not to
-restore her broken health, and on 22nd January 1555 the famous Duke
-of Northumberland’s widow died broken-hearted at Chelsea Manor in her
-forty-sixth year. Her will is one of the most curious extant. After
-declaring it written entirely in her own hand, without the advice of
-one learned in the law, she bequeaths to “the Lord Diegoe Damondesay,
-that is beyond the sea, the littell book clock that hath the moon in
-it, etc.,” and her dial, “the one leaf of it the almanac and the other
-side, the Golden Number in the middle.” What would we not give for a
-glimpse of this curious little clock or dial? To Sir Henry Sidney she
-leaves the gold and green hangings in the gallery at Chelsea; to her
-daughter, Mary Sidney, her gown of black barred velvet, furred with
-sable; to her daughter, Katherine Hastings, a gown of purple velvet,
-and a summer gown; to the Duchess of Alva, her green parrot, “having
-nothing else worthy of her”; to Elizabeth, wife of Lord Cobham, a gown
-of black barred velvet, furred with lizards. The document ends with the
-following quaint directions: “My will is earnestly and effectually,
-that little solemnities be made for me, for I had ever have a thousand
-folds my debts to be paid, and the poor given unto, than any pomp to
-be showed upon my wretched carcase; therefore to the worms will I go,
-as I have afore written in all points, as you will answer it afore God;
-and you break any one jot of it, your will hereafter may chance be to
-as well broken.... After I am departed from this world, let me be wound
-up in a sheet, and put into a coffin of wood, and so laid in the ground
-with such funerals as pertaineth to the burial of a corpse. I will
-at my year’s mind (_i.e._ anniversary of her death) have such divine
-service as my executors shall think meet, with the whole arms of father
-and mother upon the stone graven; nor in any wise to let me be opened
-after I am dead. I have not loved to be very bold afore women, much
-more would I be loth to come into the hands of any living man, be he
-physician or surgeon.” She was buried in Chelsea Parish Church on 1st
-February 1555, two heralds attending the funeral, at which there was a
-brilliant display of escutcheons and banners, etc. Her tomb is against
-the south wall of the church, and is under a Gothic canopy, supported
-by pillars of mosaic. It bears a long inscription, together with
-effigies of the Duchess and her five daughters, kneeling: a similar
-plate with her eight sons on it has been torn off.[326]
-
-The Duchess of Somerset, the Protector’s widow, followed the example
-of my Lady of Suffolk, and ensured her personal tranquillity by
-contracting a _mésalliance_ with Mr. Newdigate, son of that Mr.
-Newdigate to whom, as recorded in an early chapter of this work,
-Lord Latimer, Katherine Parr’s second husband, used to let his house
-furnished. The Duchess had been released from the Tower with other
-notable prisoners when Mary first entered its precincts. She was much
-beloved by that Queen, who used to address her as “my good Nan,” and
-this despite the fact that the Duchess was an ardent Protestant. She
-died in her ninetieth year, and was laid to rest under a monument which
-is reckoned as one of the finest in Westminster Abbey.
-
-Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, Charles Brandon’s fourth and
-last wife and Lady Frances’ stepmother, had followed the prevailing
-custom and married her secretary, Mr. Bertie or Bartie, “a gentleman
-of fair family and little means.” Her Grace was one of the first
-Englishwomen of noble birth to embrace the principles of the
-Reformation, and greatly incensed Queen Mary by doing so. This lady’s
-mother, Lady Willoughby d’Eresby, was Queen Katherine’s closest friend,
-and a staunch Catholic, a fact that probably increased the Queen’s
-resentment against the Duchess and her second spouse; and a hint that
-he might be arrested on a charge of heresy sent Mr. Bertie flying to
-Flanders. He had not the kindness to inform his wife of his intended
-flight, and she, feeling herself forsaken and in danger in London,
-escaped one foggy morning from her house in the Barbican and followed
-in the wake of the truant, whom she found at Wesel, where their famous
-son, Peregrine, the brave Lord Willoughby, was born. After Elizabeth’s
-accession, the Duchess returned to London with her children by Mr.
-Bertie and that gentleman himself. She was favourably received by the
-Queen, who saddled her, however, with many unwelcome obligations among
-them the custody of her step-granddaughters, the Ladies Katherine and
-Mary Grey. The Duchess, who was on friendly terms with Cecil, kept
-up a constant correspondence with him; and even after the lapse of
-nearly five hundred years, her humorous descriptions of people and
-things raise not a smile only, but a hearty laugh--she was, in fact,
-considered the wittiest woman of her day. Katherine, Dowager Duchess of
-Suffolk, died late in the reign of Elizabeth.
-
-Queen Jane’s Secretary, Sir John Cheke, was arrested on 27th or 28th
-July 1553 (Strype says, “together with the Duke of Suffolk”) and
-committed to the Tower. There he remained a close prisoner. On 12th or
-13th August an indictment as a traitor was made out against him, which
-brought forth a private letter to him from Cranmer, with whom he was
-on intimate terms. In this epistle Cheke is described as “one who had
-been none of the great doers in this matter [_i.e._ of the accession
-of Jane] against her [Queen Mary].” In 1554 Sir John Cheke was, after
-his estates had been confiscated, released from the Tower and given a
-licence by the Queen to travel abroad,[327] whereupon he made no delay
-in getting to Switzerland and thence to Italy.[328]
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX
-
-ICONOGRAPHY OF LADY JANE GREY AND HER FAMILY, ETC.
-
-
-The painted portraits of Lady Jane Grey are exceedingly scarce, and
-probably not a single one of them is authentic; on the other hand, very
-early and almost contemporary engraved portraits are fairly numerous.
-The oldest of these latter is one by E. V. Wyngaerde. It bears a
-certain resemblance to the portrait of her grandfather, the Duke of
-Suffolk, by Jacobus Corvinus, in the possession of Sir Frederick Cook
-at Richmond. Although Wyngaerde engraved it in the middle part of the
-reign of Elizabeth, when many persons were still living, the Queen
-herself included, who had seen Jane Grey, and who could have set him
-right, he attributes the original to Hans Holbein, who died in London
-of the plague, according to recent discovery, in 1543, that is to say,
-when Jane was but six years old, a fact which renders it impossible for
-him to have painted any of the numerous portraits attributed to him of
-Edward VI as a lad in his teens, Edward being born in the same year
-and month as Lady Jane. The portrait of Jane Grey from which Wyngaerde
-engraved is evidently by some other artist who painted in the style
-of Holbein, presumably one of his pupils. It must be remembered that
-in our own time people are constantly attributing to Gainsborough and
-Reynolds portraits they could not have painted, so in the seventeenth
-century it was the fashion to attribute every portrait of the early
-part of the preceding century to Holbein, whose great name was
-remembered, whilst those of his lesser contemporaries were forgotten.
-
-(2) In the Earl of Stamford and Warrington’s collection there is a very
-ancient portrait of Lady Jane Grey, engraved by Lodge. It is not well
-painted, but is none the less extremely interesting. The features are
-small and delicate. The costume is rich but simple, and the pretty
-neckerchief is fastened at the bosom by a bunch of flowers.
-
-(3) Another frequently engraved portrait of Jane Grey, also attributed
-to Holbein, and engraved in George Howard’s _Life of Lady Jane Grey_,
-was for many years in the possession of the late Mr. Wenman Martin, of
-Upper Seymour Street. The costume is exceedingly rich.
-
-(4) Probably on account of its excessive prettiness, the celebrated
-picture called “Jane Grey,” in the possession of Lord Spencer, at
-Althorpe, is likely to remain the most popular likeness of Lady Jane.
-It represents a sweet-looking young woman of about sixteen, seated
-by a window, reading an illuminated missal. By her side, on a table,
-stands a richly chiselled goblet or chalice. The dress is of ruby
-velvet, made very plain, and with hanging sleeves of a darker material.
-It was engraved in the last century by Dibden, as the frontispiece of
-the _Decameron_, a work which certainly has no association whatever
-with the poor little “Nine Days’ Queen.” By its general neatness and
-vivid colouring, this picture may very reasonably be attributed to
-Luca Penni, an Italian and pupil of Raphael, who painted a good deal
-in England under Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary. There is a very
-singular fact connected with this Althorpe picture. The noble Milanese
-family of Trevulzio has possessed for many generations an almost
-identical picture which has always been known as a portrait of Lady
-Jane Grey. A photograph of this picture is in my hands, and certainly
-the resemblance between it and the Althorpe picture is remarkable. Lord
-Spencer has most kindly afforded me some interesting details connected
-with his own picture. “It has been,” he said, “for many generations in
-our family, and can be traced as a portrait of Lady Jane Grey as far
-back as the seventeenth century.” Some years ago, Lord Spencer took
-it down from its place in his gallery, and found on the back of it an
-inscription in the handwriting of his grandmother, Lavinia, Countess
-Spencer, to the effect that the picture was a portrait of the Lady
-Jane Grey, and that what she had written was copied from a much older
-inscription, which had been nearly obliterated by time. Lord Spencer
-many years ago saw at Milan the picture above-mentioned, and was struck
-by its likeness to his own, of which it might have been a copy. Sir
-George Scharf, although an authority on portraiture, was apt at times
-to have prejudices and to cast doubt on those historical portraits
-which have been handed down as authentic for many generations; and
-his singular ignorance or rather disregard of the value of costume in
-determining the period of a picture often led him into ludicrous errors
-of judgment. His reason for discarding the Althorpe portrait of Lady
-Jane Grey appears rather unreasonable. He objected to it because a tall
-standing goblet or chalice figures conspicuously on the table beside
-the lady, such a chalice being, according to him, an attribute of St.
-Mary Magdalen, and so, too, is the skull, which is not present in this
-picture. However, an extraordinary number of Tudor portraits represent
-great ladies with a similar goblet standing beside them. These gold and
-silver chalices or cups were a common gift from royal god-fathers and
-mothers in Tudor times, and were frequently stolen from the churches.
-Lady Jane, we know from the inventories of her effects, had several in
-her possession.
-
-(5) An exceedingly beautiful portrait, said to represent Lady Jane
-Grey, is at Madresfield, Lord Beauchamp’s seat in Worcestershire. The
-face bears a resemblance to that in the engraving by Wyngaerde, and
-the costume is undoubtedly one that Lady Jane might have worn, and
-consists of a rich velvet gown, cut square at the neck and filled in
-with soft lawn and lace. Her head-dress is very elaborate and graceful.
-Her expression is sweet and noble. This picture is wrongly ascribed to
-Lucas Van Heere, and is more likely to have been painted by Streete.
-Independently of its historical interest, it is a beautiful picture.
-On the other hand, its companion, supposed to represent Lord Guildford
-Dudley, is absolutely wrong. It represents a tall young gentleman with
-strongly-marked features and a vapid expression. It is the costume
-that gives the lie to the tradition that it is the portrait of Lady
-Jane’s husband, for the dress, with its voluminous ruff, is of the
-mid-Elizabethan period, and at least twenty-five years later than the
-death of the unfortunate young gentleman it is said to represent; but,
-on the other hand, the little velvet cap, with its two plumes, is
-certainly of the time of Edward VI. The ruff may have been added at a
-later date by an ignorant restorer.
-
-(6) There is a curious portrait, probably of Lady Jane Grey, in the
-possession of J. Knight, Esq., of Chawton House, Alton.
-
-(7) A very remarkable portrait, called “Jane Grey,” was formerly in the
-possession of Colonel Elliot; said to be now in one of the Colleges
-at Oxford. It was, however, engraved in 1830, and has lately been
-reproduced in colour by Messrs. Graves of Pall Mall. The face is that
-of an older person than Lady Jane, but the features are small and
-pretty, the expression being rather defiant and world-wise. She wears
-a turban-shaped hat of velvet, studded with immense pearls, which was
-certainly not in fashion in the days of Edward VI, or even in the
-last years of Henry VIII. Here again is an instance of costume giving
-the lie to tradition. Lady Jane could no more have worn such a hat and
-costume than a lady in 1909 could be painted as wearing the crinoline
-and spoon-shaped bonnet of mid-Victorian days.
-
-(8) The small semi-miniature in the National Portrait Gallery is
-wrongly attributed to Lucas Van Heere, who was born in the year of
-Jane’s execution, and could therefore neither have painted the portrait
-in question nor any one of the numerous likenesses of Queen Mary
-ascribed to him, since he was only five years of age when that Queen
-died.
-
-(9) A small portrait called “Jane Grey” is in the possession of Lord
-Hastings at Melton Constable, Norfolk.
-
-(10) “A splendid portrait of Jane Grey” was exhibited at the Derby
-Art Exhibition in 1841--mentioned by Howard. It belonged to a Mr.
-Harrington, who inherited it from two ancient ladies, the Misses Gray
-of Derby, in the possession of whose family this picture had been for
-many generations.
-
-(11) There is a sweetly pretty contemporary Tudor portrait, reputed to
-be that of Lady Jane Grey, in the possession of Colonel Horace Walpole,
-at Heckfield Place, Hants.
-
-The Wyngaerde engraving has been frequently reproduced. In the Print
-Room at the British Museum there are no less than six variations of it.
-There are also engravings, more or less apocryphal, of Lady Jane by
-G. W. Krauss and G. C. Schmidt, 1782.
-
-Engraved and fanciful portraits:--
-
-Jane Grey, by G. Smerton, 1824.
-
-Lady Jane Grey, by G. Buckland, 1776.
-
-Lady Jane Grey, by Sherwin.
-
-Lady Jane Grey presenting her prayer-book to Sir Thomas Brydges.
-Engraved by Wells. 1786.
-
-Lady Jane Grey as Queen. By J. P. Simons.
-
-Lady Jane Grey “From a contemporary miniature at Strawberry Hill,” by
-Vertue. (The original is now in the National Portrait Gallery.)
-
-Lady Jane Grey. From a portrait in the possession of the Marquis of
-Buckingham. No name of engraver. She wears a velvet gown open at the
-throat to display a double chain with pendant cross. On table, large
-gold chalice.
-
-Paul Delaroche has painted two famous historical pictures, representing
-events in the last days of Lady Jane Grey’s life--her farewell to
-Guildford and her execution. They have been frequently engraved.
-
-
-PORTRAITS OF LADY JANE’S MOTHER, FATHER, AND GRANDFATHER
-
-“Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and her second husband, Adrian
-Stokes” (dated 1554). Small half-lengths of the Duchess of Suffolk
-on the left, and Adrian Stokes on the right. She wears a black dress
-with tags and jewels, gold-edged ruffs at neck and wrists, black
-jewelled hoods, two necklaces of pearls, one with pendants, right hand
-resting on cushion and holding glove, left holding ring. He wears a
-light-coloured embroidered doublet, black fur-lined surcoat slashed and
-with tags, ruffs at neck and wrists edged with pink, chain round neck,
-right hand on hip, left holding gloves, sword at his side. Above her
-head, _Ætatis_ xxxvi: above his, _Ætatis_ xxi. Dated MDLIV. Panel, 19½
-× 27 in. Probably by Corvinus. This picture was engraved by Vertue.
-Colonel Wynn Finch.
-
-Frances, Marchioness of Dorset. A superb Holbein drawing. H.M. the
-King, at Windsor.
-
-Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk. Miniature. Was lent to the Tudor
-Exhibition by Lord Willoughby d’Eresby.
-
-There are fine portraits of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in the
-National Portrait Gallery, and in the possession of Sir Frederick Cook.
-There is also a fine portrait by Corvinus of Henry Grey, Marquis of
-Dorset, in the National Portrait Gallery, and another in the possession
-of G. P. Boyce, Esq.
-
-A portrait of Katherine, Baroness Willoughby d’Eresby, and Duchess
-of Suffolk, is in the possession of her descendant, Lord Willoughby
-d’Eresby.
-
-
-BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LADY JANE GREY
-
-In literature, Lady Jane Grey has been a popular heroine. She figures
-in: _The Tower of London_, by Harrison Ainsworth. _Jane Grey_ (French
-novel), by Alphonse Brot. _Lady Jane Grey_, by Philip Sidney. The life
-story of Lady Jane is told in _Jeanne Grey_, by Mdme. de Genlis. _The
-Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary_. _Lives_ of Lady Jane Grey, by
-Howard, Agnes Strickland (in _Tudor and Stuart Princesses_), and Dr.
-Harris Nicholas.
-
-There is a fine elegy of Lady Jane Grey by Sir Thomas Chaloner, one of
-the best Latin writers of the reign of Elizabeth, the original of which
-is preserved in the Bodleian Library. It is contained in the collection
-called the Illustrium, Jan. II. 68. p. 33.
-
- “Jana luit patriam profuso sanguine culpam,
- Vivere Phœnicis digna puella dies.
- Illa suit Phœnix, merito dicenda manebat;
- Ore placens Venerio, Palladis arte placens.
-
- Culta fuit, formosa fuit: divina movebat
- Sœpé viros facies, sœpé loquela viros.
- Vidisset faciem? porterat procus improbus un:
- Audisset cultæ verba? modestus era,” etc.
-
-Lady Jane Grey’s tragic fate has been several times dramatised:--_John
-Dudley, Duke of Northumberland_, a tragedy, by Scriptor Ignotus.
-London, 1686. _Lady Jane Grey_, by J. W. Ross, 1882.
-
-Independently of Rowe’s tragedy, _Lady Jane Grey_, there is the German
-tragedy of Von Sommer, entitled _Johanna Grey_; and _Jane Grey_, an
-opera-epilogue, acted 25th February, 1723, for the benefit of Mrs.
-Sterling at Dublin.
-
-The literary works attributed to Lady Jane Grey are:--
-
-1. Four Latin epistles--three to Bullinger, and one to Lady Katherine
-Grey. The originals of the first three are preserved at Zurich, the
-other is in the King’s Library, British Museum.
-
-2. Her conference with Feckenham (probably apocryphal), although quoted
-by such early writers as Foxe and Florio.
-
-3. A letter to Harding (doubtful).
-
-4. A prayer for her own use in prison.
-
-5. Four Latin verses scratched on her prison walls with a pin. These
-will be found on p. 336.
-
-6. Her speech on the scaffold.
-
-7. _The Complaint of a Sinner._
-
-8. _The Duty of a Christian._
-
-9. The annotations in the famous prayer-book.
-
-10. A fragment of a letter has been recently found, and is printed in
-volume vii of the State Papers; Edward VI. Domestic Series. Addenda.
-
-Hollingshead and Sir Richard Baker state “that she hath wrotten other
-things,” but they do not tell us where they are to be found. Several of
-her letters, notably the one to Sudeley and the famous letter to Queen
-Mary, are not extant in her own handwriting.
-
-Lady Jane’s fine autograph signature figures on a number of
-contemporary documents. It is nothing like so elaborate as that of
-Elizabeth, but it is easy to see that the two Princesses received
-lessons in Italian caligraphy from the same teacher, probably
-Castiglione.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX
-
-
- Ab Ulmis or Ullmer, John, Reformer, 24, 169;
- letters of, 179-80, 185, 186 f.n.
-
- Anne Askew, birth and marriage, 61;
- her preaching, 61;
- arrest and recantation, 62;
- second trial and condemnation, 63;
- racked, 64 and f.n.;
- is burnt alive, 66; 72 note
-
- Anne of Cleves, Queen, 37 and f.n., 38, 39, 59, 312, 313
-
- Arundel, Earl of, 7, 128, 251, 261, 275;
- arrests Northumberland, 279-80, 283; 284;
- proclaims Mary, 285 and f.n.; 295, 305, 349
-
- Ascham, Roger, 127, 172;
- his story of Lady Jane, 172-3;
- his letter to Lady Jane, 175-7; 259; 264-5;
- death, 358 f.n.
-
- Ashley, Mrs., Princess Elizabeth’s attendant, 106;
- on Elizabeth’s behaviour with Sudeley, 136 et seq.; 161 f.n.;
- 162, 163
-
- Aske, Robert, 32
-
- Audley, Lady, 184 and f.n.
-
- Aylmer, John, 67, 169, 170;
- letter to Bullinger, 178;
- death, 358 f.n.
-
-
- Baynard’s Castle, 284 and f.n.
-
- Bradgate, Old Manor of, and Park, (Lady Jane’s birthplace), 1-4;
- life at, in the olden times, 19-23; 223
-
- Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk (Lady Jane’s grandfather), 4;
- origin of, 7;
- matrimonial peculiarities, marries Lady Mortimer, 7-11;
- marries Mary Tudor, Queen of France, 8-9;
- goes to France with Henry VIII, 54, 192;
- death, etc., 57; 94;
- portraits of, 363
-
- Brandon, Lady Eleanor, 10, 12, 108, 109, 114
-
- Brandon, Lady Frances. (_See_ Frances Brandon, Lady)
-
- Browne, Sir Anthony, 39, 97 and f.n., 101, 106, 163, 216, 338
-
- Brydges, Sir John, Lieutenant of the Tower, 253, 283, 290,
- 310, 311, 340
-
- Brydges, Sir Thomas, 253, 290, 316, 335, 337;
- at Lady Jane’s execution, 340, 341, 343
-
-
- Carew, Sir Gawen, 84, 86, 88
-
- Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, 166-7 f.n., 204, 206, 210;
- knighted, 212 f.n.; 237, 240, 241, 244, 257 and f.n., 259-60;
- his treachery, 277 and f.n., 278; 285 and f.n.; 296
-
- Charles V, Emperor, 56, 263;
- supports Northumberland, 265, 267 and f.n.; 268;
- abandons Northumberland, 296, 297, 298 f.n.;
- urges Lady Jane’s execution, 314, 315 f.n.; 316; 330
-
- Cheke, Dr., afterwards Sir John, 127 and f.n.;
- knighted, 212 f.n.; 241;
- acts as Queen Jane’s Secretary of State, 257 f.n., 258-9;
- imprisoned, 281 f.n.;
- writes to Lord Oxford and leaves the Tower, 284;
- imprisonment, recantation, and death, 358 and f.n.
-
- Chelsea, Manor House, 137 f.n., 237, 355
-
- Council, the Privy, letters of, to the Commissioners in Brussels,
- 262 f.n., 266-7;
- to Princess Mary, 268-9, 295;
- obtains leave to depart from the Tower, 284;
- proclaims Mary Queen, 285;
- attends St. Paul’s, 285;
- retires to Westminster, 294;
- its submission to Mary, 295-6; 312;
- its treachery to Queen Jane considered, 316 and f.n., 320
-
- Coverdale, Dr. Miles, as Jane’s tutor, 119;
- at Katherine Parr’s funeral, 145, 146
-
- Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, 54, 65-6, 103-4, 107,
- 108, 131, 156, 204, 206;
- connection with the Reformers, 227;
- his interview with Edward VI about the succession, 240-1;
- his conduct towards Lady Jane, 286-7;
- the original charge against, 287 f.n.;
- indictment against, 299;
- at Edward VI’s funeral, 300;
- trial of, 316, 317, 319, 320; 321
-
-
- “Devise” for the succession drawn up, 238-9;
- Jane named in, 240;
- Council object to, 240-3;
- signed, 243;
- text of, 254-5
-
- Diego de Mendoza, Don, 232, 262 and f.n., 263;
- accepts Guildford Dudley as King, 263-4;
- probably influenced by Northumberland and the Suffolks, 264; 265;
- 355
-
- Dissolution of the Monasteries, disastrous effect of, 25-6, 195
-
- Dorset, Henry Grey, Marquess of, afterwards Duke of Suffolk (Lady
- Jane’s father), 4-5;
- marriage of, 11; 14; 94;
- negotiations with Sharington and Sudeley about parting with Lady
- Jane, 115, 116; 128; 130;
- welcomes Reformers, 134;
- correspondence with Sudeley about Jane, 149-50;
- has fresh negotiations with Sudeley and Sharington for the
- purchase of Lady Jane, nature of the affair, 152;
- also negotiations with Somerset, 153;
- conclusion of negotiations with Sudeley, the money paid, 154-5;
- supports Sudeley, 160; 169;
- goes to live in London, 179;
- letter to Bullinger, 179;
- created Duke of Suffolk, 179, 212 f.n.;
- goes to Sheen, 223; 224 and f.n.;
- social intercourse with the Dudleys, 228-9;
- coerces Jane into marrying Guildford Dudley, 230;
- gives the Council leave to depart from the Tower, 284;
- is ordered to give up the Tower, signs Mary’s proclamation, 287;
- announces her downfall to Queen Jane, 288;
- his subsequent movements, 289-90;
- raises revolt against Mary, his defeat and betrayal, 322-3, 323
- f.n.;
- the injury done to Queen Jane’s cause by this revolt, 323-4, 323
- f.n., 324 f.n., 326, 330; 334;
- trial and defence, 349;
- execution, 349-50;
- burial, 350-1;
- his head, 351 and f.n., 352 f.n.;
- portrait of, 363
-
- Dorset, Margaret, Dowager Lady, 5-6 and f.n.
-
- Dorsets, residences of the, in London, 23-4;
- friendship of the Howards for, 94, 95
-
- Dudley, Lord Ambrose, 228, 273, 275;
- imprisoned, 281 f.n., 292; 298; 316;
- trial of, 317, 319; 356 f.n.
-
- Dudley, Sir Andrew, 225 and f.n., 233, 271, 273, 281 f.n.;
- condemnation and recantation, 304 and f.n.
-
- Dudley, Edmund, 8, 190-1
-
- Dudley, Guildford. (_See_ Guildford Dudley)
-
- Dudley, Henry, 281 f.n., 284 f.n., 298, 316;
- trial of, 317; 319; 356 f.n.
-
- Dudley, John. (_See_ Northumberland, Duke of)
-
- Dudley, Lord Robert, 23, 209, 229, 275, 292, 315, 320, 324, 356 f.n.
-
- Durham House, 234, 236, 299, 252
-
-
- Edward VI, King, birth, 14 and f.n., 52;
- never Prince of Wales, 101 f.n.; 103 and f.n.;
- learns of his father’s death, 106;
- his movements at that time, 106 f.n.;
- enters London, 107, 111;
- writes to Katherine Parr on her marriage, 123-4;
- infancy, 126;
- education, 126-8;
- little intercourse with his sisters, 128;
- Coronation procession, 130-1;
- Coronation, 132 and f.n.;
- has to hear innumerable sermons, 156-7;
- state of his health, is deformed and deaf, 157;
- prefers Sudeley to Somerset, 157;
- at Hampton Court, 204-6, 206 f.n.; 214;
- becomes weaker, 222;
- does not attend Jane’s wedding, but makes gifts, 234-5;
- his scheme for the succession, 238 et seq.;
- names Jane Grey as his successor, 240;
- declares his will to the Council, 241, 242-3;
- his death, 245 and f.n.;
- rumours of his having been poisoned by Northumberland, 246-7, 247
- f.n.;
- supernatural visitations, 248;
- funeral of, 300;
- Masses for, 300 and f.n., 301;
- his Great Seal, 302-3 f.n.
-
- Elizabeth, Princess, 39, 52, 94, 106, 121;
- joins Sudeley, 122;
- her appearance at fifteen, 136;
- her behaviour with Sudeley, 137 et seq., 162-3;
- is sent away from Sudeley, 139;
- letter to Katherine Parr, 139;
- her feelings towards Sudeley, 140; 157; 167; 178;
- omitted from the succession, 239;
- declared illegitimate, 257-8;
- dislikes Lady Jane, 257;
- enters London, 298; 312
-
- “Ellen,” Mrs., Lady Jane’s nurse, 17, 291, 340, 341, 343
-
- England, state of, under Somerset’s protectorate, 195-6 et seq.,
- 212;
- immorality in, 196-7;
- slavery in, 198-9
-
-
- Feckenham, Dr., afterwards Abbot, 321 and f.n.;
- announces hour of her death to Lady Jane, 328 and f.n.;
- appearance of, 329; 340; 341; 343; 358 f.n.
-
- Fitzpatrick, Barnaby, 127 and f.n.
-
- Frances Brandon, Lady, Marchioness of Dorset, afterwards Duchess of
- Suffolk (Lady Jane’s mother), 4, 9;
- birth and baptism, 11;
- marries Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, 11;
- her appearance, children, etc., 12; 35; 94; 108; 114; 132;
- letter to Sudeley, 150-1; 154;
- falls ill, 181; 183;
- proposes a marriage between Lord Hertford and Jane, 210;
- pays homage to Lady Jane as Queen, 251;
- enters the Tower with Queen Jane, 253-4; 282; 289;
- marries Adrian Stokes, 352;
- portrait of, 353, 363;
- appearance, gives birth to a child, dies, her monument, 354
-
-
- Gage, Sir John, Constable of the Tower, 298, 299 f.n., 316, 334, 340
-
- Gardiner, Bishop, 39, 54, 58;
- endeavours to overthrow Katherine Parr, 67;
- Henry’s anger against, 69 and f.n.;
- omitted from Henry VIII’s will, 69, 103, 110; 70; 105; 108; 109;
- 111; 112; 114; 156; 211; 304; 325;
- urges Jane’s execution, 332
-
- Gates, Sir Harry, condemnation and recantation, 304
-
- Gates, Sir John, 87, 241, 249, 275, 279 f.n., 280, 281 f.n.;
- condemnation, 304;
- execution, 307-8
-
- “Geraldine, Fair,” birth and antecedents, 96 and f.n.;
- her beauty, connection with the Earl of Surrey, marriages, etc.,
- 97;
- funeral, 98; 163
-
- Greys of Groby, family of, 3-4
-
- Grey, Thomas, Marquis of Dorset, 1, 4
-
- Grey, Lord Thomas, Lady Jane’s uncle, 183;
- signs the “Devise,” 243;
- captured and executed, 351-2
-
- Grey, Lady Jane, “the Nine Days’ Queen,” birth, 14;
- christening, 15 and f.n.;
- babyhood and childhood, 16-18 et seq.; 24; 50; 51;
- Lady Jane and Prince Edward, 55, 72, 120, 125-6, 128, 247-8; 62;
- 67; 68; 70; 94; 97; 108; 109;
- effect of Henry VIII’s will on her political position, 115;
- goes to Seymour Place, 117;
- her life there, 118-9;
- proposal of marrying her to the Earl of Hertford, 119, 132, 153,
- 210, 230;
- life at Chelsea, 140;
- at Sudeley Castle, 141 et seq.;
- as chief mourner at Katherine Parr’s funeral, 145;
- goes back to Bradgate, 151;
- letter to Lord Sudeley, 154;
- returns to Sudeley’s charge at Hanworth, 155;
- goes again to Seymour Place, 157;
- returns to Bradgate, 166;
- her education, 169 et seq.;
- letter to Bullinger, 170-2;
- Ascham’s story of, 172-3;
- ill-treated by her parents, 173, 230 and f.n., 303;
- her knowledge of languages, 174;
- appears at Court, 181, 182;
- her travels in 1551-2, 183-4;
- illness, 185;
- makes presents to Bullinger’s wife, 186;
- movements in 1552-4, 186, 223 f.n.;
- story of, 189;
- doubtful legitimacy, 197, 224-5;
- coerced into marrying Guildford Dudley, 230;
- preparations for the wedding, 230;
- date of wedding, 232 and f.n.;
- special attire for, 233 and f.n.;
- details of the wedding, 233-4, 235;
- her dress at her wedding, 235 and f.n.;
- her own account of her interview with the Duchess of
- Northumberland, 236;
- goes to Chelsea and falls ill, 237;
- nominated successor to Edward VI, 240;
- goes to Sion House, 250-1;
- is informed of Edward VI’s will, 251;
- homage done her as Queen, 252;
- her distress thereat, 252;
- proceeds to the Tower, 252;
- her entry into the Tower as Queen, her appearance, 253;
- proclaimed Queen, 256;
- signs documents, 259, 267, 276, 283;
- dines in State, 260;
- scene with the Duchess of Northumberland, refuses to make
- Guildford Dudley King, 260;
- receives the Regalia, 261, 270;
- her Royal Seal, 266;
- falls ill, 268;
- list of her property sent to the Tower, 271-3;
- makes appointments, 276;
- collapse of her cause, 281, 283;
- strange incident, sends for Lord Winchester, 282;
- Suffolk announces her downfall to her, abandons the Throne, 288;
- deserted in the Tower, 289;
- her imprisonment, 291, etc.;
- relinquishes the Regalia and her money, 292-3;
- her will, 294;
- indictment against, 298-9;
- writ against, 316;
- proceeds to Guildhall for her trial, 316-7;
- trial and condemnation, 318-9, 319 f.n.;
- letter to Harding, 321;
- her death-warrant, 326-7;
- her death announced to her, 328-9;
- postponement of execution, 329-30;
- reasons why she was not executed with Guildford, 330-1;
- letter to her father, 331;
- last letter to her sister Katherine, 332-4;
- last writings, 335-6;
- inscriptions in her cell, 336 f.n.;
- last hours, 337 et seq.;
- refuses to see Guildford but watches him go to execution, 337;
- sees his bleeding remains, 339 and f.n.;
- the execution delayed, 339;
- the procession to the scaffold, 340;
- Jane said to be _enceinte_, 341;
- her last speech, 341-3;
- behaviour on the scaffold, prepares for death, 343-4;
- last moments and decapitation, 344;
- contemporary account of execution, 344-5 f.n.;
- treatment of her body after death, 345-6;
- burial, 346 and f.n.;
- legend about, 347;
- portraits of, 359-62;
- writings on Jane Grey, 342 f.n., 363-4;
- her literary works, 364
-
- Grey, Lady Katherine, 10, 17, 18, 108, 109, 119 f.n., 132, 183, 232
- and f.n., 235, 252;
- Lady Jane’s last letter to, 332-4; 353
-
- Grey, Lady Mary, 10; a dwarf, 17; 18; 109; 183; 233; 252; 353; 358
-
- Guildford Dudley, Lord, proposal to marry him to Lady Margaret
- Clifford, 224, 226; 229;
- birth and antecedents, 231;
- appearance, 231;
- his portrait, 231 f.n.;
- date of his marriage with Jane Grey, 232 and f.n.;
- details of the marriage, 234-5;
- remains at Durham House, 237;
- enters the Tower with Queen Jane, 253;
- his endeavours to become King of England, 260, 261-6;
- imprisoned, 292;
- his money taken from him, 294;
- indictment against, 298-9;
- writ against, goes to trial, 316-7;
- trial and condemnation, 319; 320; 326;
- receives his death sentence, 330;
- his autograph, 334;
- desires to see Lady Jane, 337;
- supposed recantation, 337;
- goes out to execution, 337-8;
- his execution, 338 and f.n.
-
-
- Hampton Court, 43, 44, 47;
- Edward VI at, 204-6
-
- Harding, Dr., Jane’s tutor and rector of Bradgate, 15, 27, 170, 321
-
- Henry VIII, his religiosity, 37;
- divorces Anne of Cleves, 37-8;
- marries Katherine Parr, 39;
- his appearance, 46;
- in expedition to France, 54, 55-7;
- declines in health, 59;
- defeats the plot against Katherine Parr, 67-9;
- his will, 69 f.n.;
- text of, 109 and f.n., 110, 238, 111; 72;
- his last illness, 100-1;
- does not receive the last Sacraments, 102;
- death, 104;
- his body embalmed, 107;
- funeral arrangements, 107-8, 111;
- funeral procession and sermon, 112-4;
- weird occurrence at Sion, 113;
- supernatural apparitions of Henry, 114;
- effect of his will, 115
-
- Hertford, Earl of, son of the Duke of Somerset, proposal to marry
- him to Jane, 119, 153, 210, 230; 119 f.n.; 127; 232 f.n.; 315
-
- Hoby, Sir Philip, English Ambassador to Brussels, 40, 262 and f.n.,
- 266, 267-8;
- submits to Mary, 296;
- recalled, 297; 328 f.n.
-
- Holland, Mrs. Elizabeth or Bess, 75 and f.n., 85-6;
- gives evidence at Surrey’s trial, 89-90; 92; 93; 94; 95 f.n.
-
- Household, Henry VIII’s, 42 et seq.;
- etiquette in, 49
-
- Howard, the house of, 73 and f.n.;
- feud between the Howards and the Seymours, 73, 76, 81 et seq.;
- their relations with the Dorsets, 95-6
-
- Huggones, Mrs., 225;
- called before the Privy Council, 226
-
- Hunsdon, 95 f.n.
-
- Huyck, Dr., 145 and f.n.
-
-
- Inventory of the Howards’ effects, 92 et seq.;
- of the Crown Jewels, etc., delivered to Queen Jane, 270, 293;
- of Queen Jane’s own effects, 271-2
-
-
- Jane Grey, Lady. (_See_ Grey, Lady Jane)
-
-
- Ket, Robert, 200 and f.n.;
- his rebellion, 201-2;
- captured and hanged, 202; 235 f.n.
-
- Knox, John, 156, 157, 281
-
- Kyme, Thomas, husband of Anne Askew, 61, 63
-
-
- Latimer, Lord, 32-3;
- correspondence with Sir John Russell, 33-4;
- dies, 34; 162
-
- Latimer, Lady. (_See_ Parr, Katherine)
-
-
- Margaret Clifford, Lady, proposal to marry her to Guildford Dudley,
- 224, 226; 225 and f.n.
-
- Mary of Guise, Queen-Regent of Scotland, 110;
- enters London, 181-2
-
- Mary, Princess, afterwards Queen of England, 39, 52-3, 94, 102, 121;
- the Dorsets and Mary, 181;
- visited by the Dorsets, 183;
- her feelings towards Lady Jane Grey, 189; 233;
- omitted from the scheme for the succession, 239, 241 f.n.;
- Northumberland’s intrigues against her and her escape, 249, 250;
- declared illegitimate, 258, 259;
- her letter to the Council, 268;
- risings in favour of, 273-4, 277, 281, 283;
- proclaimed Queen, 285;
- popular enthusiasm for, 285-6;
- affection for Philip of Spain, 297;
- enters London, 298;
- enters the Tower as Queen, 299;
- her hatred of Northumberland, 302, 306;
- Coronation, 312-3;
- wishes to spare Lady Jane’s life, 314 and f.n., 315-6, 320;
- decline of enthusiasm for, 322;
- signs Jane’s death-warrant, 327; 337
-
- Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, 109, 238
-
- Mary Tudor, Queen of France, 8;
- marries Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, 9;
- her children, 9;
- dies, 10;
- her monument, 11
-
- Montagu, Lord Chief Justice, 240, 241, 242, 243, 281 f.n.
-
- Morgan, Judge, 298;
- presides at Queen Jane’s trial, 318;
- his career and death, 318 f.n.;
- condemns Jane to death, 319
-
- Mortimer, Lady. (_See_ under Brandon, Charles)
-
- Morysone, Sir Richard, English Ambassador, 262, 266;
- recalled, 297
-
-
- Newhall Place, description of, 186-7;
- life at, 188
-
- Noailles, the de, French Ambassadors, 312, 315, 345, 345-6 f.n.
-
- Nonesuch, Palace of, 45 and f.n.
-
- Norfolk, Thomas Howard, third Duke of, 32, 54, 66, 73, 74;
- appearance, 74-5;
- marriage, 75;
- his attempt to reconcile his son and the Seymours, 81 et seq.;
- charged with treason and taken to the Tower, 88;
- his death-warrant prepared, 92;
- release, 92;
- dispersal of his lands and wardrobe, 92-3; 105; 298;
- death, 302; 312, 313; 316;
- attends Lady Jane’s trial, 317; 341
-
- Norfolk, Duchess of, is neglected by her husband, 75;
- her grievances, 85-6;
- gives evidence against her husband, 89; 94
-
- Northampton, William Parr, Earl of Essex and Marquis of, 29, 53, 54;
- created Marquis, 129; 163; 197; 202; 214; 240; 241; 251;
- letter to, 259; 275; 281 f.n.;
- indictment against, 299;
- trial, 302-3; 304; 325
-
- Northampton, Marchioness of, 141 f.n.
-
- Northumberland, John Dudley, Duke of (previously Viscount Lisle and
- Earl of Warwick), 38, 50, 54, 57;
- becomes Lord Chamberlain, 112;
- created Earl of Warwick, 129; 130;
- his antecedents, 190 and f.n., 191;
- birth, 191;
- goes to France, 192;
- his wife, 192;
- his intrigues, 192;
- successful expedition into Norfolk, 202;
- popularity, 203;
- becomes Lord Great Master and High-Admiral, 207;
- governs badly, 208;
- endeavours to overthrow Somerset, 211;
- is created Duke of Northumberland, 212;
- makes false accusations against Somerset, 213;
- attends Somerset’s trial, 214;
- position improved by Somerset’s death, 221 and f.n.;
- interferes with Princess Mary’s religion, 221 f.n., 222;
- social intercourse with the Suffolks, 224, 228-9;
- induces Edward VI to nominate Jane Grey as his successor, 239-40,
- 240 f.n.;
- coerces the Council, 242;
- tyrannises over every one, 243 f.n.;
- rumours that he had poisoned Edward VI, 246-7, 247 f.n., 315 f.n.;
- intrigues to destroy Princess Mary, 249;
- informs Jane that she is Queen, 251;
- his schemes for changing the State religion, 265; 267;
- his farewell dinner, 274-5;
- takes command of Queen Jane’s forces against Mary, and leaves
- London with them, 275;
- sends for reinforcements and retires to Cambridge, 277;
- made prisoner, 279;
- brought to the Tower, 280;
- indictment against, 299;
- his bad health, 301;
- Mary’s hatred for him, 302, 306;
- his trial and condemnation, 302 and f.n., 303;
- his recantation, 304 and f.n.;
- pathetic letter to Arundel, 305-6;
- his sincerity in changing his faith, 306 f.ns.;
- his execution postponed and the probable reason, 306-7, 307 f.n.;
- leave-taking of Guildford, 307;
- his execution, 307-8;
- curious account of, 308 f.n.;
- burial, 309;
- Lady Jane’s opinion of him, 310-11;
- his family, 356-7 f.n.
-
- Northumberland, Duchess of, disliked by Lady Jane, 192;
- antecedents, 231;
- quarrels with Lady Jane, 236;
- does homage to Jane as Queen, 251;
- has a violent scene with Queen Jane in the Tower, 260-1;
- her bequests to Don Mendoza, 262 f.n.;
- pleads for her husband to Mary, 280;
- quarrels with the Duchess of Suffolk, 282; 289;
- her existence after the Duke’s execution, 355;
- death, 355;
- her will, 355;
- strange last directions, 355-6;
- funeral, 356
-
-
- Owen, Dr. George, 101, 245 and f.n.
-
-
- Paget, Sir William, 101, 105, 106, 213, 283, 285, 295, 358 f.n.
-
- Palmer, Sir Thomas, 213, 281 f.n.;
- condemnation, 304;
- execution, 307-8
-
- Parr, Katherine, Queen (previously Lady Latimer), birth, 28;
- first marriage, 29;
- her appearance, 30 and f.n.;
- her education, writings, etc., 31;
- first dealings, with Henry VIII, 37, 38;
- her marriage with Henry VIII, 39;
- public opinion on, 39-40; 51-2;
- her writings, 53; 54; 59;
- her connection and encouragement of Anne Askew, 62, 64, 72 note;
- is nearly arrested for heresy, 67-9;
- the plot against, 69 et seq.;
- at Henry VIII’s death-bed, 102; 108 and f.n.;
- mentioned in Henry’s will, 110, 110-11 f.n., 238;
- at Henry VIII’s funeral, 114; 119;
- her _liaison_ with Thomas Seymour, 121-2;
- marriage to Seymour, 123;
- indignation of the Somersets at the marriage, 124;
- her life at Sudeley Castle, 142;
- gives birth to a child, 143;
- her last days, 144 et seq.;
- makes her will, 145;
- death and funeral, 145-6
-
- Parr, the family of, 28-9
-
- Parr, Sir Thomas, 29, 53
-
- Partridge, Nathaniel, Lady Jane’s warder, 290 and f.n.; 310
-
- Pembroke, William Herbert, Earl of, 29, 53, 54, 130, 160, 163, 214,
- 251, 261, 283, 284, 285, 286
-
- Penn, Mrs. Sybel, Prince Edward’s nurse, 126 and f.n., 247
-
- Proclamation of Queen Jane, 256 and f.n., 257 and f.n.
-
-
- Reformers, the Swiss and other, 59, 133-5;
- their letters, 134, 180, 227;
- Lady Jane Grey and the Reformers, 180, 226;
- their ways and opinions, 227-8;
- their comments on Lady Jane’s execution, 348
-
- Religion, in England, return of Catholicism, 74 and f.n., 326;
- state of, in the first year of Edward VI’s reign, 133;
- under Edward VI, 213;
- Northumberland’s schemes anent a change in, 265
-
- Renard, Simon, the Imperial Ambassador, 265, 297, 312, 314, 315,
- 330, 348
-
- Richmond, Mary, Duchess of, Earl of Surrey’s sister, 83-4, 85;
- gives evidence against Surrey, 90;
- repentance and death, 98; 108
-
- Ridley, Bishop, 156, 281 and f.ns., 321
-
- Russell, Lord John, Privy Seal, 33 and f.n., 39, 66, 199;
- connection with Sudeley, 158-9; 204; 205 f.n.; 284; 312
-
-
- Sandys, Dr., 277, 278;
- preaches before Northumberland, 278-9; 279; 280; 281 f.n.
-
- Seymour, Dowager Lady, 117-8;
- death, 161; 211 and f.n.
-
- Seymour, Edward, Earl of Hertford, Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector,
- 39, 54, 77;
- quarrels with the Earl of Surrey, 81;
- attempted reconciliation, 82-3;
- failure of same, 84;
- attends Henry VIII’s death-bed, 101, 105;
- after Henry’s death leaves Palace, 106;
- appointed Protector, 110;
- proclaimed Protector, 111 and f.n.;
- assumes the office of treasurer, etc., 111-2;
- his intrigues, 119;
- indignation at Thomas Seymour (Sudeley’s) marriage, quarrels with
- him, 120, 124;
- is created Duke of Somerset, 128;
- dines with Sudeley and Warwick, 129-30;
- quarrels with Sudeley, letter to, 143-4;
- unpopular in Scotland, his massacres there, 192-3, 192 f.n.;
- unpopular in England, 194-5;
- his loose morals, 197;
- risings against his maladministration, 199;
- takes refuge at Hampton Court, 204;
- assumes higher rank, 204;
- flies to Windsor, 206;
- arrested and sent to the Tower, 206-7;
- confesses his guilt, is fined and released, 208-9;
- regains his lost position, 209-10; 212;
- return of unpopularity, 212-3;
- second arrest, 213; trial, 213-4;
- sentenced to death, 214;
- scene at his execution, 215;
- decapitation and burial, 216;
- his character considered, 216-7;
- contemporary letter about him, 217-20;
- his prayer-book, 334
-
- Seymour, the family of, 76-7;
- feud between the Seymours and the Howards, 81 et seq.
-
- Sharington, Sir William, 115, 116, 151 and f.n., 152, 154, 160, 161
- f.n., 276
-
- Sheen, ex-Priory of, 223 and f.n.
-
- Sidney, Lady Mary, Northumberland’s daughter, 229;
- sent to Jane by the Council, 251; 355; 356-7 f.n.
-
- Sion House, 224 and f.n.;
- life at, 228-9;
- homage paid to Lady Jane at, 251
-
- Somers, Will, Court jester, 49 and f.n., 50
-
- Somerset, Edward Seymour, Duke of. (_See_ Seymour, Edward)
-
- Somerset, Anne Stanhope, Duchess of, 34, 39, 80;
- quarrels with Katherine Parr, 125, 165 f.n.;
- imprisoned, 213 f.n.;
- her prison fare, 294;
- second marriage, friendship for Mary, death, 357
-
- Stanfield Hall (Lady Jane’s dower), 235 f.n.
-
- Stokes, Adrian (Lady Frances Brandon’s second husband), 229, 352,
- 353 and f.n., 354;
- death, 355
-
- Sudeley Castle, in olden times, 141-2;
- Jane Grey’s room at, 142
-
- Sudeley, Thomas Seymour, Lord, 36, 77, 82;
- at Henry VIII’s death, 101, 106;
- becomes Lord High-Admiral, 112;
- his intrigues to obtain possession of Lady Jane Grey, 115;
- his London residence, 116 and f.n.;
- obtains wardship of Lady Jane, 117;
- his appearance, morals, and early intrigues, 120-1;
- endeavours to marry a Princess, 121;
- his courtship of Katherine Parr, 121-2;
- marriage with her, 123;
- gets Edward VI to countenance this marriage, 123;
- the marriage made public, 123-4;
- indignation of the Somersets thereat, 124;
- created Baron Sudeley, 129; 130;
- his improper behaviour with Princess Elizabeth, 136 et seq.;
- rumours about the same, 140 and f.n.;
- intrigues against the Protector, 143, 155;
- is arrested but released, 143;
- conduct during Katherine Parr’s illness, 144-5;
- effect of her death, 147;
- writes to Dorset relinquishing Jane, 147-9;
- intrigues to again obtain possession of Lady Jane, on payment of
- money, and interviews Dorset, 152;
- negotiations concluded, 154;
- pays for Jane and takes her back to Hanworth with him, 155;
- again plots to marry a Princess, 157-9;
- tries to obtain the Protectorship, 160;
- arrested, 161;
- evidence against him, 162;
- condemned to death, 164;
- beheaded, 165;
- sermon on, 166;
- fate of his child, 166-7 f.n.
-
- Suffolk, Katherine, Duchess of, 11, 34, 39, 108, 357-8;
- portrait of, 363
-
- Suffolk, Duke of. (_See_ Dorset, Marquess of)
-
- Suffolk, Duchess of. (_See_ Frances Brandon, Marchioness of)
-
- Surrey, Earl of Surrey (the “Poet-Earl”), 54, 66, 74;
- his many talents, 75-6;
- appearance, 76;
- riotous life, 78;
- brought before the Privy Council, 79 and f.n.;
- committed to prison, 80;
- quarrels with Edward Seymour (then Lord Hertford), 81;
- makes impolitic remarks, 83;
- again summoned before Privy Council, 85, 86, 87;
- his trial, 90-1;
- execution, 91;
- dispersal of his effects, 93-4;
- his children, 98;
- his place of burial, 99
-
- Surrey, Countess of, 78 and f.n., 93;
- second marriage and death, 98-9
-
-
- Table of the heirs female to the Crown, named in the “Devise,”
- 239 f.n.
-
- Throckmorton brothers, the, 37, 163;
- save Mary’s life, 249-50, 250 f.n.
-
- Throckmorton, Lady, 287-8, 291
-
- Tower of London, the, Queen Jane’s entry into, 253;
- Queen Jane proclaimed in, 256;
- ammunition brought into, 273;
- part of it in which Queen Jane was lodged, 281-2 f.n.;
- place of her imprisonment in, 290;
- seizure of, made a count against Queen Jane, 298, 298-9 f.n.;
- Mary’s entry into as Queen, 299;
- the Bulwark Gate, 337, 338 f.n.
-
- Tylney, Mrs. Elizabeth, Lady Jane’s attendant, 291 and f.n.; 235;
- 340; 341; 343
-
- Tyrwhitt, Lady, 35 and f.n., 62, 67;
- her account of Katherine Parr’s last illness, 144-5, 162
-
-
- Udall, Nicholas, 157, 172
-
- Underhill, Edward, his child, 287
-
-
- Warwick, John Dudley, Earl of. (_See_ Northumberland, Duke of)
-
- Warwick, John, Earl of, (the Duke of Northumberland’s son), 209 and
- f.n., 275, 281 f.n., 292;
- trial, 302-3; 356 f.n.
-
- Wendy, Dr., 67, 101 and f.n., 245
-
- White, Thomas, Lord Mayor of London, 298, 316, 341
-
- Winchester, William Paulet, Marquess of, 203;
- created, 212 f.n.; 214; 241;
- brings Jane the Regalia, 261, 270 and f.n.; 282; 283; 284; 292 and
- f.n.; 293; 294
-
- “Windsor Martyrs,” the, 40 and f.n.
-
- Wriothesley, Lord Chancellor, 39, 54, 64, 65, 66;
- tries to ruin Katherine Parr, 67;
- Henry’s anger against him, 68-9; 87; 88; 109;
- created Earl of Southampton, 129 and f.n.; 160; 203; 313 f.n.
-
- Wyatt rebellion, the, 325;
- capture of Wyatt, 326
-
-
-_Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES
-
-
-[1] This will be seen conspicuously in my new volume of Spanish State
-Papers of Edward VI, now in the press to be issued next year by the
-Record Office.
-
-[2] Antonio de Guaras, a Spanish merchant. This was just before
-Somerset’s final downfall. See Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII.
-
-[3] “The oak trees there [Bradgate] were pollarded after her [Jane’s]
-execution. Some old members of the family remember a watch with a case
-made of a hollowed ruby or carbuncle, which is said to have belonged
-to Lady Jane. But this, with other relics of Lady Jane, seems to have
-disappeared mysteriously some fifty or so years ago.”--Extract from a
-letter from Earl Stamford and Warrington, dated 20th November 1907.
-
-[4] The barony of Ferrers was merged in the Townshend peerage by the
-marriage, in 1751, of George, Viscount Townshend, with Charlotte, last
-Baroness Ferrers.
-
-[5] State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII.
-
-[6] The Priory of Tylsey was dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.
-
-[7] State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII.
-
-[8] Miss Strickland and other writers on the Grey family state that
-Margaret, Marchioness of Dorset, outlived the ruin of her family. This
-is an error. She died in September 1541, apparently of the plague. See
-State Papers, 1156 and 1489, Domestic Series, Henry VIII.
-
-[9] This lady is occasionally confounded with Queen Anne Boleyn, who
-was never _Lady_ Anne Boleyn. The lady in question, who has proved
-somewhat of a stumbling-block to historians, who have frequently
-confused her with the Queen, was Anne, daughter of the Earl of Pembroke
-and wife of Sir William Boleyn.
-
-[10] Lady Jane was certainly christened at Bradgate and not at Groby,
-which confirms the statement that she was born at Bradgate; for if
-she had been born at Groby, her baptism would have taken place in the
-parish church of that village.
-
-[11] There has been some controversy over the date of Queen Jane
-Seymour’s death. Bishop Burnet (p. 33, vol. ii.) says it was the
-day after Prince Edward’s birth, _i.e._ 14th October; which date is
-adopted by Hall (p. 825), Stow (p. 575), Speed (p. 1039), Herbert (p.
-492), and Holinshed (p. 944). On the other hand, Henninges (_Theatrum
-Genealogicum_, tome 4, p. 105) says it was the 15th; a letter of the
-doctors (in Cottonian MSS, Nero C. x. fol. 2), the 17th; Fabian, 23rd
-October; King Edward’s own _Journal_, “Within a few days after the
-birth of her son, died ...;” and George Lilly (_Chronicle_), twelve
-days after--_Duodecimo post die moritur_. However, Cecil’s _Journal_,
-a document in the Herald’s Office, and a letter among the State Papers
-dated Wednesday, 24th October, give the 24th October as the date of the
-Queen’s death. This is in agreement with the statement in the _London
-Chronicle during the Reigne of Henry VII and Henry VIII_ (Camden Soc.,
-from Cottonian MSS, Vespasian A. xxv. fol. 38-46), which clearly says
-that “On Saynt Edwardes eve Fryday in the mornyng (12th October), was
-prince Edward boorn, the trew son of K.H. the viii. and quene Jane
-his mothur in Hamton Corte. His godffathurs was the deuke of Norfock,
-and the deuke of Suffocke, and the (Arch) Bisschop of Caunterbery;
-and his godmother was his owne sister, which was dooughter of quene
-Kataryn a fore sayd. On Saynte Crispyns eve Wensday (24th October),
-dyid quene Jane in childbed, and is beryid in the castelle of Wynsor.”
-She was not, however, buried until 12th November. Dorset followed the
-procession from Hampton Court to Windsor, riding close to the Princess
-Mary, who was her stepmother’s chief mourner.
-
-[12] Jane Grey was evidently given the name of Jane in compliment to
-Queen Jane Seymour, who must have been still living at the time of
-the child’s birth. The name Jane, a variant of Johanna and Joan, is
-exceedingly rare in pre-Reformation times. The lady who very likely
-acted as godmother was her paternal aunt, Lady Cicely Grey.
-
-[13] This method of baptizing infants is still practised in the
-Archdiocese of Milan.
-
-[14] These ceremonies, which are extremely ancient and essentially
-Roman Catholic, are even now carried out in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
-
-[15] The prefix _the_ before the title Lady was considered in the
-sixteenth century equivalent to “Princess”; “the Lady Elizabeth,” “the
-Lady Mary,” and so forth. “Royal Highness” was not in use, and royal
-ladies were addressed as “Your Grace.”
-
-[16] An old cookery book of the sixteenth century in the possession of
-the author contains the following “crafte to make Ypocras”: “Take a
-quarter of red wyne, an unce of synamon, and half an unce of gynger: a
-quarter of an unce of greynes and of longe pepper, wythe half a pound
-of sugar: broie all these not too smalle, and then putte them in a bagg
-of wullen clothe (made therefore) with the wyne, and lette it hange
-over a vessel tylle the wyne be runne thorow. It is presumed that the
-wyne should be poured in boiling hot, else it would gain little of the
-spicy flavour.”
-
-[17] Dorset, when he became Duke of Suffolk, incurred the censure of
-the Reformers under Edward VI for his sinful encouragement of players
-and other like “vagabonds.”
-
-[18] In Lent and Advent, and during Passion and Rogation weeks, meat
-was only served once a week.
-
-[19] Sir Thomas Carden’s account for sums disbursed for the household
-expenses of Anne of Cleves in 1552 gives us a curious insight into the
-manner and expense of lighting a gentlewoman’s house in the middle of
-the sixteenth century. Anne was residing at a manor at Dartford, and
-Sir Thomas supplied her with “35 lb. of wax lights, sixes and fours to
-the lb. at 1s. per lb.; 100 prickets [or candles to be stuck on an iron
-spike] at 6d. per lb.; staff torches 1s. 4d. per doz., and of white
-lights, 18 doz. at 9s. per doz.”--Losely MSS, edited by A. J. Kempe.
-
-[20] This detestable game is still a favourite in parts of Cuba, but
-generally with a goose substituted for the duck. The writer saw it
-“played” there in 1879.
-
-[21] The fact that this house was the Dorsets’ usual town residence
-is proved by the Marquess’s distinctly stating that Seymour, when he
-fetched away Jane Grey, came to him “immediately” after Henry VIII’s
-death “at my house in Westminster.”
-
-[22] Coaches, properly so called, were introduced into England in 1601.
-
-[23] “The gentlewomen in cloak and _safeguards_.”--Stage directions to
-the _Merry Devil of Edmonton_.
-
-[24] Strype’s _Memorials_.
-
-[25] Queen Katherine Parr was buried in the chapel at Sudeley Castle,
-which fell into ruins late in the seventeenth century. The monument
-having become much dilapidated, the then Vicar of Sudeley (1786) had
-the curiosity to open it and examine the condition of the body, which
-was found to be in a perfect state of preservation. The corpse measured
-5 ft. 3 in.; the coffin, 5 ft. 10 in., the width being 1 ft. 4 in. in
-the broadest part, and the depth 1 ft. 5½ in. The Queen must therefore
-have had a very slight figure. The body was fully dressed in a Court
-costume of the period of cloth of gold and velvet; there were untanned
-leather shoes upon the feet. The profusion of light golden hair was
-quite remarkable. Of course several locks of it were snipped off and
-preserved as relics, one of them being still exhibited at Sudeley.
-Another lock of Katherine Parr’s hair was in the possession of Lord
-Bennet, who showed it to the author. It was very bright in colour and
-exceedingly curly. In 1805 the remains of Katherine Parr were again
-disturbed, and it was then discovered that an ivy berry had fallen
-into a fissure of the skull, taken root, and twined round the head a
-verdant coronet. For the last time the remains were touched in 1842,
-when they were removed with reverential care by Messrs. William and
-John Dent, who had become possessors of Sudeley Castle, and placed in a
-handsome monument, having above it a noble figure of the Queen, which
-is still one of the chief ornaments of the exquisitely restored chapel
-of the ancient castle--a veritable treasure-house of Tudor relics--now
-so pleasantly associated with the Dent family. For these notes on the
-remains of Katherine Parr the writer is personally indebted to the late
-Miss Elizabeth Strickland, who so long survived her sister Agnes, and
-to an interesting pamphlet on Sudeley Castle by Dr. Richard Garnett.
-
-[26] The MS. of this poem is contained in a little volume bound in
-black morocco. Though evidently contemporary, some doubts have been
-expressed as to its authenticity, but a marked allusion to the writer’s
-position as a Consort of Henry VIII is supposed to be a sufficient
-guarantee as to the identity of the royal poetess, not to speak of the
-evidence of her handwriting.
-
-[27] He is the gentleman with the beautiful saint-like head and angelic
-expression in the splendid series of drawings by Holbein at Windsor.
-
-[28] This Mr. “Nudygate” or Newdigate’s son became in due time
-secretary to Anne Stanhope, Duchess of Somerset, and her second husband.
-
-[29] British Museum, Vespasian, F. xiii. 183, f. 131.
-
-[30] Lady Denny was the daughter of Sir Philip Champernoun of Modbury,
-Devonshire, and wife of Sir Andrew Denny, Privy Councillor and Groom of
-the Stole to Henry VIII. Her husband predeceased her on 10th September
-1549, and she herself died on 15th May 1553.
-
-[31] Lady Fitzwilliam was the daughter of Sir W. Sidney and wife of Sir
-William Fitzwilliam of Milton, Northamptonshire, Master of the King’s
-Bench. Sir H. Gough Nichols, however, thinks she was more probably the
-widow of that Sir William’s grandfather, Sir William Fitzwilliam of
-Milton and Alderman of London, who died in 1534. In this case she would
-have been the daughter of Sir John Ormonde and granddaughter of Anne
-Cooke, the learned daughter of Sir A. Cooke by his first wife, Anne
-Fitzwilliam.
-
-[32] Lady Tyrritt or Tyrwhitt was not, as Miss Strickland says, the
-daughter of Katherine Parr’s first husband, but through her husband,
-Lord Robert Tyrwhitt of Leighton House, the cousin seven times removed
-of that gentleman. She was the daughter of Sir Gerald Oxenburgh of
-Sussex.
-
-[33] This Countess of Sussex was Anne, daughter of Sir Philip Calthorpe
-and second wife of Henry, Earl of Sussex. She was sent to the Tower in
-April 1552 on a charge of witchcraft, and for having said that a son of
-Edward IV was yet living. Lodged in the Lieutenant’s apartments, she
-was liberated by order of the Duke of Northumberland in the following
-September, after six months’ imprisonment. In all probability the
-offence of which this lady was accused was merely that of having
-predicted the young King Edward VI’s early death.
-
-[34] There were some very curious rumours circulating in London
-concerning the divorce of Anne of Cleves. Cranmer granted the divorce
-on the plea that the Queen was still _virgo intacta_; but “two honest
-citizens” (letter from Chapuys to Charles V) “were arrested on 9th
-December 1541 on a plea that they published particulars of Queen
-Katherine Howard’s inchastity, and said ‘the whole thing was a judgment
-of God,’ and that the lady of Cleves was the King’s real wife; and that
-she was in the family way by the King, notwithstanding rumours to the
-contrary. That it was not true the King had not behaved to her like a
-husband; and that she was gone away from London and had had a son in
-the country last summer.”
-
-[35] Robert Testwood was a chorister belonging, with Marbeck, to the
-Chapel Royal, Windsor. Parsons was a priest, and Henry Filmer was
-a tailor. Marbeck, who is said to have had a very fine voice, was
-a fairly well-educated man, who at the time of his arrest had made
-some progress with a translation of Calvin’s works. Testwood was a
-well-known ribald jester who had frequently turned the anthem into
-ridicule, and on more than one occasion had been caught singing lewd
-words while the rest of the congregation were chanting the right ones.
-He was arrested for smashing the nose of a statue of the Virgin;
-Parsons was condemned for blasphemy; and Filmer for speaking ill of the
-Host. He had said that if Transubstantiation were true, he had eaten
-“twenty Gods” in his time.
-
-[36] The Royal Household was considerably reduced by Somerset in the
-first year of Edward VI, but in Elizabeth’s day it was again augmented
-in every department, and was the most terrible and disastrous legacy
-the great Queen bequeathed to her Stuart successor. The only other
-example of such an extraordinary plethora of Court officials and
-retainers is to be found at the Court of France under Louis XIV and
-Louis XV’s unhappy successor, and they were a great factor in bringing
-about the Revolution.
-
-[37] Harl. 1419. The above account of Henry’s palaces and their
-contents is taken from this important MSS: the Household Expenses,
-State Papers, Royal Society’s Papers, _temp._ Henry VIII, and from the
-very curious Trevelyan Papers, Camden Society; also from that admirable
-work, _The History of Hampton Court Palace_, by Ernest Law, M.A.
-
-[38] These tapestries were duplicates of those still preserved in the
-Vatican, the cartoons for which are at the South Kensington Museum.
-They remained in Whitehall till the death of Charles I, when they were
-sold to Don Alfonso de Cardenas, and passed at his decease to the house
-of Alva, which in turn sold them to Mr. Peter Tupper, who brought
-them to England in 1823; in his house they remained until they were
-resold to Mr. William Trall. In 1863 they were exhibited at the Crystal
-Palace, and came very near destruction in the fire which devastated the
-Tropical Department. Their subsequent fate is unknown, but as recently
-as 1889 the writer saw two of the series in a shop in Wardour Street.
-In 1890 a series of finely painted cartoons, evidently by Raphael
-and his pupils, representing scenes from the Acts of the Apostles,
-identical with these, came from Russia, and were exhibited by the late
-Mr. Martin Colnaghi and afterwards sold to an American financier.
-
-[39] The Palace of Nonesuch stood near the site of the old manor house
-and the village church of Chuddington, near Cheam, in Surrey. Henry
-VIII obtained possession of the manor as a hunting-seat in 1526 by
-exchange, and erected a magnificent structure of freestone, having
-a central gate-house and being flanked by lofty towers crowned with
-cupolas in the form of inverted balloons, which gave the building a
-decided Oriental appearance. The writers of the sixteenth century are
-profuse in their laudations of this royal residence, and speak in the
-most glowing terms of its beautifully furnished apartments, which
-contained works of art worthy of ancient Greece or of Rome, and of its
-lovely gardens, its orchards stocked with the choicest of fruit trees,
-and its extensive park laid out in avenues ornamented by artificial
-fountains. Its luxuriousness and beauty soon acquired for the new
-palace the proud appellation of “Nonesuch.” Henry VIII never quite
-completed it, but in Mary’s reign it passed to the Earl of Arundel, who
-carried out the original intentions of its founders. Queen Elizabeth
-frequently resided at Nonesuch, but whether as guest or tenant is
-uncertain. Charles II presented it to the Duchess of Cleveland, who
-completely demolished the palace and disparked the lands.
-
-[40] Possibly the “Virgin of the Rocks,” now in the National Gallery.
-
-[41] At the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
-
-[42] Lately in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk, and now belonging
-to the nation.
-
-[43] Windsor Castle.
-
-[44] There were several of these allegorical “tables,” one or two of
-which survive to this day in ancient contemporary engravings.
-
-[45] Among the astronomers was the learned Nicholas Crager. William
-Parr was also a student of astronomy. The State Papers contain some
-mention of astronomical instruments purchased for him. Needless to say,
-this “astronomy” was really only astrology under another name.
-
-[46] Will Somer, or Somers, Court Jester to Henry VIII, and apparently
-continued in that office by Edward VI, was originally in the service
-of Richard Farmer, Esq., of Easton Newton, Northampton. This gentleman
-was, in consequence of his having sent two groats and some articles of
-clothing to a priest convicted of denying the King’s supremacy, found
-guilty of a _præmunire_ and deprived of his estates. The distress to
-which his former master was thereby reduced attracted the attention of
-Will Somers, who during the King’s last illness availed himself of his
-privileged position to let fall certain remarks concerning him, which
-so worked upon the King’s mind that Henry was induced to restore to
-Mr. Farmer what remained of his estates. Will Somers was an excellent
-musician and had a very fine voice.
-
-[47] This sort of slavish homage excited the sarcasm of the
-Ambassadors. Soranzo, the Venetian Envoy, tells us he once saw Princess
-Elizabeth kneel five times before venturing to address her brother
-Edward.
-
-[48] The household inventories of the Queen’s rooms contain mention of
-innumerable pillows and cushions richly covered with silk and satin,
-and also of costly counterpanes. This Oriental custom of using soft
-pillows may have been introduced into England by Katherine of Aragon.
-In England as in Spain the Sovereign only was allowed a chair.
-
-[49] Political influence of this period no doubt seconded the good
-offices of Queen Katherine in favour of Princess Mary. Her cousin the
-Emperor was no longer an enemy, but an ally.
-
-[50] This is the beautiful letter beginning _La nemica fortuna_,
-which, although written by an English princess, is, in its way, a very
-masterpiece of Italian epistolary literature. It may have been written
-under the auspices of the famous Baltazar Castiglione, who taught
-Elizabeth the Italian language.
-
-[51] After her accession Queen Mary ordered this work to be recalled.
-
-[52] State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII, 1544-5. Lord Parr of
-Horton died in 1545.
-
-[53] Some very interesting particulars unknown to English historians
-of the siege of Boulogne and of the sojourn of Henry VIII, Suffolk,
-Surrey, and their merry men in Picardy, will be found in _Les Archives
-de la Ville de Boulogne_; _Histoire de la Ville de Montreuil-sur-Mer_,
-by F. Leplon; _Memoires de Martin de Bellamy_ (Michaud, Paris, 1838);
-_Inventaire de l’Histoire de France_, by Le Comte Jean de Serre; in
-a very curious little volume entitled _Le Château d’Hardelot_; also
-in _Notre Dame de Boulogne_, by l’Abbé Haignere, published by Hamain,
-Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1898; and in the _Spanish Chronicle of the Reign of
-Henry VIII_, translated by Major Martin Hume.
-
-[54] Full particulars of the reasons for and the progress of this
-disagreement will be found in vol. viii. of the _Spanish State Papers
-of Henry VIII_, vols. vii. and viii., edited by Major Martin Hume.
-
-[55] See for evidence of this fact a curious document included in the
-Notes to the _Journal_ of Edward VI, who himself informs us that his
-father drove away anybody who appeared before him in mourning.
-
-[56] Speed.
-
-[57] See Privy Council Papers, 1546.
-
-[58] Anne Askew’s “Narrative.” It is but fair to the reputation of both
-Rich and Wriothesley to state that Anne herself admits that she sat
-talking with both for two hours immediately after the torture, which
-she could not possibly have done if it had been very severe.
-
-[59] The text of the full confession of Mrs. Askew will be found among
-the State Papers for 1545, Nos. 390, 391.
-
-[60] This scene must have taken place, not at Windsor, as stated by
-Foxe, for Henry never was there after the early spring of 1546, but at
-Hampton Court. The allusion to his striking Gardiner’s name out of his
-will must refer to some of the many wills he made before his last (in
-December of the same year). In this Gardiner’s name was not struck out,
-but simply omitted.
-
-[61] Dr. Thirlby’s name was not omitted in the last will, but he was
-absent abroad at the time of the King’s death.
-
-[62] See Note at the end of this Chapter.
-
-[63] This curious fact, that the unorthodox if not heretical King
-actually communicated at the same time as the orthodox Ambassador, is
-one of the most significant incidents in the story of this singular
-period of religious disquiet.
-
-[64] Among the members of the house of Howard who were prisoners in the
-Tower at this time were Agnes, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, the Lord
-William Howard and his wife and sister, the Countess of Bridgewater,
-and Lord Thomas Howard, Surrey’s younger brother, who was imprisoned
-for marrying Henry’s niece, the Lady Margaret Douglas, without the
-royal consent.
-
-[65] For an account of these processions see Machyn’s Diary (_The
-Diary of Henry Machyn_, edited by John Gough Nicholas, F.S.A., Camden
-Society, pp. 63, 107, etc. Also note, p. 399).
-
-[66] The Lord Mayor, who was at the arraignment of Queen Anne Boleyn,
-afterwards said that he “could not observe anything in the proceedings
-against her, but that they were resolved to make an occasion to get rid
-of her”--thus corroborating the opinions of Sir Thomas Wyatt and other
-witnesses.
-
-[67] When quite a lad, the Duke married the Princess Anne Plantagenet,
-youngest daughter of Edward IV and sister to Queen Elizabeth of York.
-By this royal alliance he became uncle-by-marriage to Henry VIII. Anne,
-Duchess of Norfolk, died of consumption in 1512, and shortly afterwards
-her widower married again.
-
-[68] This lady was the second daughter of the unfortunate Duke of
-Buckingham, who was executed on a public charge of combined sorcery and
-treason, in the first years of Henry VIII’s reign.
-
-[69] Elizabeth Holland was the daughter of John Holland of Redenhall,
-Norfolk, chief steward and afterwards secretary to the Duke of Norfolk.
-Her mother was a Hussey, niece of Lord Hussey of Sleaford, beheaded for
-the part he took in the Pilgrimage of Grace.
-
-[70] Sir John Seymour, father of Queen Jane, was a man of note in his
-day. He was born in 1474, and was a doughty soldier, fighting well at
-the sieges of Terouenne and Tournay, and at the Battle of the Spurs. On
-his return to England he was appointed Sheriff of Wells, Dorset, and
-Somersetshire. In 1515 he obtained the Constableship of Bristol Castle.
-His wife, Margery Wentworth, was the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth
-of Nettlestead, Suffolk, whose grandfather married a granddaughter of
-Hotspur (Henry Percy), and was thus descended from Edward III. Sir John
-Seymour died in 1517.
-
-[71] Realising the suddenness of their rise to power, Hayward says of
-the Seymour brothers (_Life of Edward VI_, p. 82) that “their _new_
-lustre did dim the light of men honoured with ancient nobility.”
-
-[72] Little is known of William Pickering except that he was a boon
-companion of Lord Surrey. See _Courtships of Queen Elizabeth_ by Martin
-Hume.
-
-[73] Holbein’s fine sketch of Lady Surrey shows her to have been
-distinctly “homely” but extremely intelligent-looking.
-
-[74] An examination of the Privy Papers shows that Surrey was
-originally brought before the Council on a charge of eating flesh on
-days of abstinence--a grave offence, and one against the law, but at
-that period of frequent occurrence, since no less than nine joiners
-had been a few days previously arrested and severely reprimanded, and
-even heavily fined, for the offence of eating meat in public on Friday.
-Surrey pleaded guilty, but in extenuation declared he had received
-an ecclesiastical dispensation. With regard to the second charge, of
-riotous conduct, he declared himself deserving of punishment, but threw
-himself on the mercy of the Court, alleging, in extenuation of his
-misdemeanour, his youth and hot-blooded disposition. He is said to have
-written an abject apology; but, though the letter is extant, it is not
-in his handwriting, and may therefore be a forgery. The occurrence took
-place on the night of 21st January 1544.
-
-[75] M. Edmond Bapst, _Vie de Deux Gentilhommes Poètes du Temps de
-Henri VIII_.
-
-[76] Surrey, in his metrical “Satire,” makes use of the same whimsical
-excuse for shooting with a bow through citizens’ windows. Says he:--
-
- “This made me with a reckless brest,
- To wake thy sluggards with my bow;
- A figure of the Lord’s behest,
- Whose scourge for synne the Scriptures shew.”
-
-[77] This ball was, it appears, given for the purpose of conciliating
-the Seymours and at Surrey’s express request. It must have been a
-picturesque function, with its rich costumes, its splendid but rather
-roughly expressed profusion and hearty welcome. Just such a ball as
-this old Capulet gave on that ever-memorable night when Juliet first
-met her Romeo. Was it to dance the _Volta_ or the _Salta_ with him that
-Surrey invited the angry Countess? These, the two most fashionable
-dances of the period, had been but recently introduced from France and
-Italy. The latter resembled, and very closely too, our modern waltz,
-only in the _Salta_ the gentleman lifts the lady from time to time an
-inch or so from the ground, as in the German hop waltz.
-
- “Yet there is one, the most delightful kind,
- A lofty jumping, or a leaping round,
- When arm in arm, two dancers are entwin’d,
- And which themselves, in strict embracements bound
- And still their feet, an anapest do sound;
- An anapest is all their music’s song
- Whose first two feet are short, the rest are long.”
-
- _Sir John Davies’ Orchestra._
-
-See also for an account of the _Volta_, the _Orlando Furioso_ of
-Boiardo, book xv. stanza 43. These two dances, the _Volta_ and the
-_Salta_, were introduced into Scotland by Madeleine de Valois, the
-first wife of James V, and gave terrible offence to the “unco’ guid”
-folk of “Auld Reekie.”
-
-[78] See State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII, 1542-3; also Miss
-Strickland’s excellent biography of Katherine Howard in the _Lives of
-the Queens of England_, and the _Wives of Henry VIII_, by Martin Hume.
-
-[79] The Duke’s second son.
-
-[80] Herbert’s _Henry VIII_.
-
-[81] These are the volumes he desired to have delivered to him whilst
-imprisoned in the Tower.
-
-[82] He must have left Norfolk in a great hurry, for he had to borrow
-a sum of money from Sir William Stonor, Lieutenant of the Tower, to
-buy a dark suit of clothes in which to appear before the Council. The
-documents connected with this transaction are still preserved in the
-British Museum, Additional MSS 24459, fol. 1497.
-
-[83] _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII_, translated by Major Martin
-Hume, and the _Calendar of Spanish State Papers_, vol. viii., by the
-same Editor.
-
-[84] These “night-gowns” were most probably what we should now call
-“evening dresses” or “dress suits.”
-
-[85] This lady was a rather interesting personage, being the first
-British peeress who was ever reduced to earning her living by her
-needle. She was the widow of that Earl of Oxford who was killed during
-the Wars of the Roses and whose estates were so carefully confiscated
-that his widow was left penniless.
-
-[86] A list of the names of persons in the Earl’s retinue is extremely
-curious. In the first place, we find that one John Holland was private
-secretary. He was the father of George Holland, who in his turn was the
-father of the husband of that Mrs. Holland who figured in the Surrey
-trial. Then we have Mr. William Sappeworth, Mr. Widdow, Mr. Hairbottle,
-and Mrs. Ingliss. We learn that the company was often regaled with
-boiled neck of mutton; and a very favourite dish appears to have been
-boiled capon with sauce and a roast breast of veal basted. Occasionally
-they indulged in rabbit pie, and there was a bountiful supply of tarts,
-custards, and sweetmeats.
-
-[87] Hunsdon, in Worcestershire, was one of the numerous seats of the
-Duke of Norfolk, which he lent on rental to Princess Mary, who first
-came there in 1536, having in her company Mistress Elizabeth Fitzgerald
-or Garret. The house, according to William Worcester, was built in
-Henry VI’s reign by Sir William Oldhall at an expense of 7000 marks. It
-had four towers and was mainly built of brick.
-
-[88] Lady Kildare’s frequent petitions to King Henry for money
-generally contain some mention of her being his kinswoman and “of his
-most Royal blood.” See Cottonian MSS, Titus B. xi. 342. It will be
-remembered that Lady Elizabeth Grey attended the christening of the
-Lady Frances at Hatfield Church as a sponsor.
-
-[89] It has frequently been stated that the Lady Elizabeth
-Fitzgerald--or Garret, as she was generally called--was educated with
-Princess Mary, but this is obviously incorrect, since she was born when
-her future royal mistress was fully fourteen years of age. But she was
-certainly in Mary’s service, and not in that of her sister Elizabeth,
-as stated by Bapst.
-
-[90] There is a fine portrait of her by Kettel at Woburn Abbey, and a
-copy at Carton.
-
-[91] Princess Mary’s present to Mistress Elizabeth Garret on her
-marriage was “A gold broach with one bolace of the history of Susanne.”
-Another gift is mentioned in her list of jewels in the following
-entry: “A broach of gold enamelled black, with an agate of the story
-of Abraham--with iii small rock rubies--Given to Sir Anthony Brown,
-drawing her Grace as his valentine.”
-
-These gifts were presented to the bride and bridegroom on 10th
-December, in the thirty-third year of Henry’s reign. The youthful bride
-could not have been more than fifteen years of age, and Sir Anthony was
-not much under sixty.
-
-[92] Hentzner also saw the bedchamber in which Henry VIII died, but
-this was late in Elizabeth’s reign, when it was shown as one of the
-“lions” of the palace, a fact which tends to prove that the apartment
-was never again used by any other sovereign, but kept as a sort of
-show-place.
-
-[93] In his youth Henry’s eyes had been considered fine. In the picture
-by Paris Bordone, belonging to the Merchant Taylors’ Company, they are
-a light grey and decidedly good in colour and shape.
-
-[94] Edward VI was never officially proclaimed Prince of Wales--the
-document doing so was prepared, but was delayed by the death of his
-father. None the less, he is frequently so styled in the last years of
-Henry’s reign.
-
-[95] Dr. Wendy became physician to Elizabeth. He died in 1560 at
-Haslingford Court, a manor given to him by Henry VIII.
-
-[96] Dr. Gale was living as late as 1586. He wrote a curious work
-entitled _The Office of a Chirurgeon_, which gives a dreadful picture
-of warfare in the sixteenth century. See for an account of this rare
-work, once possessed by the author, _The Medical Biography_, p. 65.
-
-[97] Father Thiveter, a Franciscan, who obtained some curious facts
-concerning the death of Henry VIII, presumably from Princess Mary,
-wrote an account of that event which has been occasionally reprinted.
-
-[98] The Queen had sent him a picture of the King, his father, and of
-herself, in one frame. Edward was so delighted with the present that he
-said he preferred it to gold-embroidered robes and other things most
-priceless: “_Quamobrem majores tibi gratias ego ob hanc strenam, quam
-si misisses ad me preciosas vestes, aut aurum celatum, aut quidvis
-aliud eximium._”
-
-[99] “Thursday,” writes Aubrey, “was a fatal day to Henry VIII, and so
-also to his posterity. He died on Thursday, January 28; King Edward VI
-on Thursday, July 6; Queen Mary on Thursday, November 17; and Queen
-Elizabeth on Thursday, March 24.”
-
-[100] During the last year of Henry’s reign Edward had resided at
-Hatfield with his sister Elizabeth. Very early in December it was
-deemed advisable, owing to the precarious state of the King’s health,
-to remove the young Prince from Hatfield, first to Tittenhanger House,
-in Hertfordshire, and then to Hertford itself. His various removals can
-be traced from the dates of his letters to his father, to the Queen,
-and to the Princesses his sisters. On 5th December, for instance, he
-wrote a letter to Elizabeth from Tittenhanger lamenting his enforced
-absence from her. And later, on the 18th, he wrote another in the same
-strain; but on 10th January he addressed his sister Mary a Latin letter
-from Hertford, and on the same day the epistle already mentioned to
-Queen Katherine. Elizabeth, in the meantime, was relegated to Enfield
-Chase, where she remained until she joined Queen Katherine at Chelsea,
-after Henry’s death.
-
-[101] King Francis I, notwithstanding Henry’s unorthodox opinions and
-his notorious revolt from Rome, ordered a Requiem to be said in the
-Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris for the repose of the soul of his
-well-beloved brother, Henry VIII, King of England, at which service
-he assisted; he also left in his will a sum of money to be devoted to
-Masses to be said in perpetuity for the same pious purpose. A Mass is
-still offered every year in the Metropolitan Church of Paris for the
-repose of the soul of our “Bluff King Hal,” the custom having survived
-even the Reign of Terror.
-
-[102] These noble ladies were not present in any official capacity,
-but simply “to pray for the soul of the departed King.” It was not the
-custom for women to attend the funeral of a male, except as an act of
-devotion. They wore on these occasions black cloth gowns and black
-cloaks and hoods or silk scarfs. This costume was general at funerals,
-and especially in the country, until the end of the first half of the
-last century.
-
-[103] Her separate establishment was formed early in March, and she
-then took up her residence at Chelsea; but she may well have hovered
-between Whitehall and the Manor House for some weeks after the King’s
-death, whilst her future residence was being put in readiness for her.
-
-[104] The King’s will was dated 26th December 1546, and revoked all
-other previous wills that he might have made. The original was not in
-Henry’s own hand, but written in a book of stout paper, and was, it
-is said, signed by His Majesty’s stamp as well as his autograph. It
-should be remembered that because the act of attainder against the
-Duke of Norfolk had merely a stamp affixed to it by Paget, the said
-attainder was in 1553 treated as null and void, and the Duke, after his
-liberation, at once resumed his seat in the House of Lords.
-
-[105] This significant allusion to “any other wives he might have”
-inclines one to think that had His Majesty lived to seventy or eighty,
-he may have contemplated having twelve instead of six wives!
-
-[106] King Henry’s will is said to have been inspired not only by the
-Earl of Hertford and his party, but by the Queen, Katherine Parr.
-This, however, is scarcely probable, since if she had had a hand in
-the matter she would assuredly have caused a paragraph to have been
-inserted appointing her Regent during the minority of her stepson.
-Marillac, the French Ambassador, informs us in his “Notes” that when
-Katherine discovered that she was not so nominated she gave way to a
-great outburst of indignation and temper.
-
-[107] See the Losely MSS, edited by A. J. Kempe. John Murray, 1835.
-
-[108] His position as Protector was not officially ratified until 22nd
-March.
-
-[109] As a matter of fact, the royal corpse was, owing to its weight,
-not enclosed in a lead shell until it reached Windsor, so that the
-chronicler has made a mistake; but the fact that it was in a mere
-wooden case lends support to the above horrible story. Strype, it is
-true, declares in his _Memorials_, which include a very minute account
-of Henry VIII’s funeral, that the _body_ was enclosed in lead before it
-was placed in the coffin, thus unintentionally supporting the story of
-the leakage of blood; but the plumbers’ bill for the soldering of the
-leaden coffin of King Henry VIII at Windsor is still extant among the
-Royal Household receipts and expenses.
-
-[110] After the execution of Thomas Seymour, this fine mansion was
-purchased for £41, 6s. 8d. by Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel,
-whose only son, Lord Maltravers, was a paragon of learning and
-accomplishments. He predeceased his father by nearly twenty years. On
-the death of the Earl of Arundel the property passed to his daughter,
-Mary, Duchess of Norfolk, and through her the ground-rents are still
-payable to the premier Duchy of England. The unfortunate Philip Howard,
-Earl of Arundel, who was attainted for his religious opinions in the
-reign of Elizabeth, and who died in exile, lived here for some time. In
-the eighteenth century the famous Arundel marbles, now at Cambridge,
-were to be seen at Arundel House, which was finally pulled down and a
-number of rather mean streets built on its site. Quite recently the
-property has been immensely improved, and in fairly artistic taste. One
-or two very fine hotels--the Howard and the Arundel, for instance--have
-been erected on the site of the old palace. The Colonial and American
-guests at these excellent establishments will perhaps be interested
-to know that that favourite heroine of history, Lady Jane Grey, dwelt
-hereabouts.
-
-[111] State Papers, 1537, under Seymour.
-
-[112] It is possible that Henry VIII intended, when he married Jane
-Seymour, not to allow his mother-in-law to interfere in his concerns.
-Some such thing happened with regard to Lady Wiltshire, Anne Boleyn’s
-mother, who is very little heard of after her daughter’s marriage.
-
-[113] Lord Hertford clandestinely married Lady Jane Grey’s second
-sister, Lady Katherine, and was imprisoned for many years in the Tower
-by Elizabeth’s order “for venturing to marry an heiress to the throne.”
-
-[114] When this proposal was eventually made to the boy-King, he
-was highly indignant, and remarks in his _Journal_ that it “was his
-intention to choose for his Queen a foreign princess well stuffed and
-jewelled”--meaning that his bride should be endowed with a suitable
-dower and a regal wardrobe.
-
-Lady Jane Seymour died early in the reign of Elizabeth, one of whose
-maids-of-honour she was, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
-
-[115] Hayward (_Life of Edward VI_) describes Sudeley as “fierce
-in courage, courtly in fashion, in personage stately, in voice
-magnificent, but somewhat empty in matter”(!).
-
-[116] The Queen alludes here not, as generally supposed, to the Lady
-Frances Brandon, but to her stepmother, the witty Duchess Katherine,
-who uses this curious expression in one of her letters.
-
-[117] This belief received confirmation in a letter of “Kateryn the
-Quene” to the Lord Admiral in which she says, “When it shall be your
-pleasure to repair hither, ye must take some pains to come early in the
-morning, that ye may be gone again by seven o’clock; and so I suppose
-ye may come hither without suspect. I pray you let me have knowledge
-over-night at what hour ye will come, that your portress [_i.e._
-herself] may wait at the gate of the fields for you.” This letter is
-signed, “By her that is and shall be, your humble, true, and loving
-_wife_ during her life.” This was written from Chelsea Manor House
-after Henry VIII’s death.
-
-[118] From one of Fowler’s letters to Sudeley we learn that “His
-Highness the King is not half a quarter of an hour by himself,” and
-that “in his secret leisure His Grace hath written his commendations to
-the Queen’s Grace and to your lordship [Sudeley].” Moreover, he says
-that the King intends to write letters “whenever he can do so, that is,
-when there is no supervision kept over his actions.” Enclosed in this
-letter from Fowler were two notes written in Edward’s childish hand on
-torn scraps of paper. The first is a request for money: “My Lord, send
-me _per_ Latimer [another go-between] as much as ye think good, and
-deliver it to Fowler.--EDWARD.” On the second is written: “My Lord, I
-thank you and pray you have me commended to the Queen.”
-
-[119] Strype’s _Memoirs_, vol. ii. part i. p. 59.
-
-[120] See the State Papers.
-
-[121] This lady was a daughter of Humphrey Bouchier, Lord Berners, and
-wife of Sir Thomas Bryan or Brian. She was the “my lady maistress” of
-Princess Mary, whose Privy Purse Expenses contain several items to her
-credit--as in January 1537: “Item paid for a broach and a frontlet and
-the same given to my lady maistress, xxxviij.” Lady Bryan or Brian was
-for a time governess to Princess Elizabeth as well as to Prince Edward.
-She was created a Baroness in her own right, but does not appear from
-her correspondence and petitions to have had sufficient income to
-support the dignity of a peeress. This able lady died on 20th August
-1551 at Leyton, in Essex. (See Strype’s Appendix to Stowe’s _Survey of
-London_ for 1720, vol. ii. p. 114.)
-
-[122] Mrs. Sybel or Sybilla Penn, dry nurse to Edward VI, was not, as
-erroneously stated by Gough Nichols in his _Literary Remains of Edward
-VI_, the daughter of Sir Hugh Pagenham or the wife of John Penne,
-barber-surgeon to Henry VIII, but the daughter of William Hampton of
-Dodyngton, Buckinghamshire, and owed her appointment as dry nurse and
-foster-mother to the future King to the good offices of Sir William
-Sydney. She married Mr. David Penn, and continued at Court after the
-death of Edward, being very kindly treated by both Mary and Elizabeth.
-She had an apartment in Hampton Court Palace, and died there in 1562
-of the smallpox, at the same time that Elizabeth herself was attacked
-by that dreadful malady. She is buried in Hampton Church, and is said
-to haunt the palace because her bones were disturbed when the position
-of her monument was altered many years ago (1820). Mrs. Penn’s spirit
-was greatly displeased at this removal, and forthwith took to haunting
-the palace she had inhabited for so many years. Her ghost has been
-seen ascending the stairs as recently as 1896, when she nearly scared
-the attendant out of his wits. The well-known sketch by Holbein signed
-“Mother Jack” is supposed to be a portrait of this lady, but Sir
-Richard Holmes, the late learned Librarian at Windsor Castle, disputes
-this opinion, and attributes another portrait to her. (See Ernest Law’s
-_History of Hampton Court Palace_. George Bell & Sons. Tudor Period, p.
-197 _et seq._)
-
-[123] Edward’s friend and companion, Barnaby Fitzpatrick, was the
-eldest son of the Irish chieftain, Barnaby Gill Patrick, Lord of Upper
-Ossory, who made his submission to the King in 1537, and was created
-a Baron by his old title in 1541. Barnaby’s mother was the widow of
-Thomas Fitzgerald, a grandson of the Earl of Desmond. Barnaby, who was
-brought up with Edward, was sent for a year’s education to the French
-Court: whilst there he received many letters from his royal friend.
-On his return to England Barnaby Fitzpatrick continued to enjoy the
-King’s favour. After Edward’s death he entered the service of Mary and
-went to fight in Scotland. Under Elizabeth, Barnaby, who had by this
-time become Baron of Upper Ossory, fought for the Queen in Ireland, and
-actually slew Oge O Moarda, or Rory O’More, one of the great rebels
-of the day. Barnaby Fitzpatrick died in 1581 without issue, and was
-succeeded by his brother, Florence, whose descendants enjoyed the title
-of Upper Ossory until the extinction of the peerage in 1818. (See for
-further particulars of his career John Gough Nichols’ _Literary Remains
-of Edward VI_, p. 64. Printed for the Roxburgh Club.)
-
-[124] Sir John Cheke was an early forerunner of President Roosevelt,
-for not only did he reform the pronunciation of Greek, but he actually
-instituted a reform of English orthography. His suggestions for the
-simplification of our writing were very curious and worth detailing.
-Firstly, there was to be no _e_ at the end of words, so he wrote excus,
-giv, hay, and so on. Secondly, when _a_ is sounded long, he would have
-had it doubled, as maad, straat (made, straight), etc. Thirdly, he
-replaced _y_ by _i_, as mi, sai, awai, for my, say, away! The rest of
-the language was phoneticised, as britil (brittle), frute (fruit), and
-so on. He translated part of the Bible into his new English, a copy of
-which is now at Cambridge.
-
-[125] Wriothesley having now become Earl of Southampton, evidently
-hoped to represent for some time in the Privy Council the old
-faith--_i.e._ schismatic--as it had been under Henry VIII, probably
-with the view of eventually modifying it into the ancient Roman
-Catholicism which had been the religion of his youth. But as he showed
-the extent of his ambition by putting the Great Seal into commission
-without the authority of his colleagues, he offended Somerset and gave
-him the opportunity of getting a dangerous competitor out of the way by
-arresting Wriothesley on a vague charge of treason and ordering him to
-confine himself to his own house in the Strand. With the same intention
-of “clearing the board,” the Protector had Winchester also arrested and
-thrown into the Tower.
-
-[126] There is a very minute account of Edward VI’s coronation (from
-an MS. at the College of Arms) in Nichols’ _Literary Remains of Edward
-VI_. The _Spanish Chronicle_ also gives a curious description of it,
-where the writer says (p. 153 _et seq._) that at the cross in Cheapside
-there was a triumphal arch “made to look like the sky,” whence
-descended a boy “like an angel,” who gave the King a purse containing
-£1000, which His Majesty handed over to the captain of the guard,
-much to the astonishment of the people; the chronicler significantly
-adds that the boy-King “had not the strength” to carry this weighty
-gift. The way from the Abbey to Westminster Hall was spread with “fine
-cloth”--“at least twenty lengths”--and “the moment the King passed
-these cloths disappeared, for whoever could cut a piece off took it for
-himself.” The Spaniard makes the curious mistake of saying that Henry
-VIII’s death was not made known to the public until _after_ Edward’s
-coronation. (The coronation to which the Chronicler referred was that
-called the first coronation, which took place in the Tower on the 31st
-January. The King’s death was not generally known until then.--M. H.)
-
-A large contemporary picture of Edward VI’s coronation procession was
-destroyed in a fire at Cowdray House (the home of the Montagu family)
-in 1793; but in the engraving of it made previously by the Society of
-Antiquaries we perceive a man bearing a cross leading the troop of
-knights, etc., preceding the King--another proof of the persistence of
-the old religious customs.
-
-[127] Of this man Strype says: “He was entertained here [England]
-divers years with the Earl of Bedford; and _expecting preferment here,
-failing of it, he departed_ and lived abroad.” This certainly does not
-put Master Peter’s reason for coming to this country in quite such a
-good light as his description of himself as “an exile from Italy ... by
-reason of his confession of the doctrine of the Gospel.” See Strype’s
-_Annals_, iii. i. 660.
-
-[128] _Original Letters relative to the English Reformation, written
-during the Reigns of King Henry VIII, etc._ Edited for the Parker
-Society by the Rev. Hastings Robinson, D.D., F.S.A. Cambridge, 1847.
-They are generally called “The Zurich Letters.”
-
-[129] Anne Boleyn was very dark. Froude mentions her “blonde
-tresses”--but they were really raven black; her eyes were black and
-velvety. Elizabeth’s hair may have been black, but the habit of dyeing
-the hair golden and Venice red was universal, even for children, at
-this period. The magnificent portrait by Lucas de Heere at Hampton
-Court represents the young Queen with dark hair and eyes.
-
-[130] “Considerable confusion exists as to the identity of some of
-these historical houses. Messrs. Wheatley and Cunningham, in their most
-useful _London Past and Present_, seem to think that Sir Thomas More
-resided in Chelsea Manor before Katherine Parr came to live there.
-After the execution of More his estate at Chelsea was confiscated by
-Henry VIII and given to the Marquess of Winchester. Chelsea New Manor,
-which was inhabited by Katherine Parr and others,--and, under the
-Commonwealth, by Bulstrode Whitelock,--came into the hands of the Duke
-of Buckingham, who sold it to the Duke of Beaufort (hence Beaufort
-Street). It was purchased in 1738 by Sir Hans Sloane, who pulled it
-down in 1740. There is, moreover, local tradition, and even historical
-evidence, that there were two distinct manors at Chelsea in the first
-half of the sixteenth century--Chelsea New Manor, and Chelsea Old
-Manor. Dr. King, in his MS. account of Chelsea, says that the ‘old
-manor-house stood near the church.’ This is the house associated with
-the deaths of Anne of Cleves and of the old Duchess of Northumberland.
-He mentions another house, Chelsea New Manor, standing on that part
-of Cheyne Walk which adjoins Winchester House, and extends as far as
-‘Don Saltero’s coffee house.’ ‘This house was built by Henry VIII as
-a nursery for his children, and here Katherine Parr lived.’ A picture
-of it in Faulkner’s _Chelsea_ shows it not unlike St. James’s Palace.
-Small turrets communicate with the chimneys; the windows are long
-and high, and one of them has a Tudor arch on top. On the site of
-the present Durham House, Durham Terrace, the town residence of Sir
-Bruce and Lady Seton, there stood, not so many years ago, an ancient
-wainscoted house with a fine staircase, rather mysteriously connected
-by report with Jane Grey, who, according to a local tradition, lived
-here before she was made queen. In the beginning of the century this
-house was made a fashionable school for young ladies, but was pulled
-down in 1860 to make room for the present mansion.”--Mr. Richard
-Davey’s _Pageant of London_, vol. i. p. 379.
-
-[131] Deposition of Mrs. Ashley in the Hatfield State Papers.
-
-[132] There are several versions of this story. For instance, Henry
-Clifford, a retainer of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria, says, in his MS.
-Life of that lady (London, Burns & Oates, 1887) that “In King Edward’s
-time what passed between the Lord Admiral, Sir Thomas Seymour, and her
-[Elizabeth] Dr. Latimer preached in a sermon, and was a chief cause
-that the Parliament condemned the Admiral. There was a bruit of a child
-born and miserably destroyed, but could not be discovered whose it
-was; only the report of the midwife, who was brought from her house
-blindfold thither, and so returned, saw nothing in the house while she
-was there, but candle light; only she said, it was the child of a very
-fair young lady. There was a muttering of the Admiral and this lady,
-who was then between fifteen and sixteen years of age.”
-
-[133] Among the guests at Sudeley at this period, with whom Lady Jane
-must have come into contact, was the Marchioness of Northampton, wife
-of William Parr, the Queen’s only brother. This unfortunate lady, who
-was closely allied with the Crown, had been so indiscreet that when her
-marriage came to be dissolved her children were declared illegitimate.
-She was living apart from her husband at the time of this visit to
-Sudeley. The Tudor great ladies were distinctly “mixed” in their love
-affairs, and Lady Northampton has been saddled with perhaps the worst
-reputation of any woman of her time; yet the _Spanish Chronicle_,
-which, as already remarked, contains much personal “back-stair” gossip,
-reveals some curious facts about this lady’s behaviour, and shows
-that a great part of the blame rests on the Marquis her husband, who,
-on altogether insufficient evidence, accepted a story of her having
-misconducted herself with a man-servant. See the _Chronicle of King
-Henry VIII of England, etc._ (the _Spanish Chronicle_), chap. lxii. p.
-137 _et seq._, translated by Major Martin Hume.
-
-[134] Inventory of furniture and other goods at Sudeley Castle. Dated
-1547-8.
-
-[135] See Latimer’s Sermons in Strype’s _Memorials_.
-
-[136] Haynes’ State Papers, p. 104.
-
-[137] Robert Huycke, or Huicke, was an M.A. of Oxford. He was divorced
-from his wife in 1546, and later married again. In 1550 Edward VI made
-him his physician extraordinary at the munificent salary of £50 per
-annum. Huycke was greatly in favour with Elizabeth, and she gave him a
-house near Enfield. He died near Charing Cross in (it is believed) 1581.
-
-[138] This interesting account shows how many Catholic customs
-still survived--the offering here mentioned is evidently a relic
-of the Offertory at the Requiem Mass, otherwise explained; and the
-candles also are distinctly a part of Roman Catholic ritual, though
-Coverdale’s account of their signification is not altogether that
-given by Catholics. The _Te Deum_ is no longer sung or said at either
-Catholic or Anglican funerals. The fact that the writer of this account
-mentions that the whole service was done in one morning, shows that the
-brevity of the new form of worship was somewhat of a novelty to people
-accustomed to the long series of Dirges and Masses accompanying burials
-in Catholic times. Sir Walter Besant says, on p. 154 of his _London
-in the Time of the Tudors_, “Before the coming of the Puritans the
-funerals continued with much of the old (Catholic) ritual.”
-
-[139] Froude says, “The Lady Frances, now that the Queen was dead,
-no longer thought the Admiral’s house a becoming residence for her
-daughter and sent for her.” The Lady Frances did nothing of the sort;
-Sudeley himself first suggested the Lady Jane’s removal to her parents’
-custody.
-
-[140] Hatfield MSS.
-
-[141] Hatfield MSS.
-
-[142] Hatfield MSS.
-
-[143] Sir William Sharington or Sherington was one of the most
-benighted frauds of this age, albeit a very successful one. He was
-born about 1495, and was of good Norfolk family. In 1546 he became
-vice-treasurer of the Bristol Mint, being created a Knight of the Bath
-at Edward VI’s coronation. Once installed in this office, he made a
-sort of “corner” in West-Country Church plate, which he bought cheap
-from the Somerset villagers, and coined into “testons” or shillings
-of two-thirds alloy. By this means, and by shearing and clipping
-coins, falsifying the account books of the Mint, the originals of
-which he destroyed, and by other cheating, he managed to amass £4000
-(an enormous sum in those days) in three years. Probably fearing that
-Sudeley, whose friend he was, might reveal these affairs to his brother
-the Protector, Sir William lent the Lord Admiral money, placed the
-Bristol Mint at his disposal, and, as we shall see, helped him in his
-nefarious schemes. He bought manors in Wiltshire from the King for
-£2808; but he was arrested on 19th January 1548-9. He was questioned in
-the Tower, but denied the charge of conniving at Sudeley’s intrigues.
-In February, however, he turned traitor to the Lord Admiral and
-admitted all, throwing himself on the King’s mercy. He was pardoned in
-acts of 30th December 1549 and of 13th January 1550. He now somewhat
-settled down, buying back with a part of the purchase-money given
-by the French for Boulogne, which money had got into his hands, his
-confiscated manors and lands, some of which he presented to the
-King--likely enough the reason why Latimer, in a sermon preached
-before His Majesty in 1551, described this admitted cheat as “an
-honest gentilman and one that God loveth”(!!). Sharington got himself
-appointed Sheriff of Wiltshire, and died in 1551. There is a portrait
-of him by Holbein in the Royal Library at Windsor. He was married three
-times, but left no children.
-
-[144] _Vide_ Dorset’s deposition in the Hatfield MSS.
-
-[145] Nothing could be more forcible as a proof of the manner in
-which Sudeley, in the style of the Duke of Northumberland at a later
-period, threatened and bullied any who dared to oppose him, than the
-following story. About the time that he was endeavouring to supplant
-his brother in Edward’s affections, he tried to induce the boy-King
-to write a letter for him to the Parliament, which was to meet in the
-November of that year. It was suggested that Parliament might not
-grant his demands; whereupon, said “my Lord of Sudeley,” “I will make
-[it, if that be so] the blackest Parliament that has ever been seen in
-England”--“blackest” perhaps meaning “the most humbled and depressed”
-Parliament ever seen, which shows that Sudeley was sufficiently
-self-confident to believe that he could coerce whole bodies of
-administrators at his will.
-
-[146] Sudeley’s nefarious assistant, Sharington, Sir Thomas Parry, John
-Fowler, and Mrs. Ashley were all imprisoned in the Tower at the same
-time as Sudeley.
-
-[147] Sudeley’s connection and connivance at the frauds perpetrated by
-Sir William Sharington was also made a count of his indictment.
-
-[148] Queen Elizabeth stated at a later date that “the Admiral’s life
-would have been saved had not the Council dissuaded the Protector from
-granting him an interview.” In face of these statements, there would
-seem to be little doubt that the Protector, if left to himself, might
-have visited a less severe sentence on his brother.
-
-The Protector’s wife evidently bore in her time a very bad reputation
-for intriguing and interference, for Hayward (_Life of Edward VI_,
-p. 82) says the troubles between Sudeley and his brother were mainly
-due to the quarrel (already mentioned) between Katherine Parr and her
-Ladyship--“to the unquiet vanity of a mannish, or rather a devilish
-woman [Lady Somerset] ... for many imperfections intolerable, but for
-pride monstrous.”
-
-[149] As to the unfortunate Seymour’s infant child, we learn that after
-his death it was carried to Somerset’s house at Sion, whence, after
-a short time, it was conveyed to the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, at
-Grimsthorpe, in Lincolnshire. She had been at one time the dearest
-friend of Katherine Parr. Here the child had a governess, Mrs.
-Aglyonby, and was also attended by a nurse, two maids, and many other
-servants, in accordance with her high rank. The Duke of Somerset had
-promised that a certain pension should be settled on his niece, and
-that her nursery plate and furniture, which had been brought up from
-Sudeley to Sion House, should be sent after her to Grimsthorpe. He
-pledged his word on this point to the Duchess of Somerset’s gentleman,
-Mr. Bertie, who subsequently married his mistress, the Dowager Duchess
-of Suffolk; but the promise was never redeemed. The Duchess herself did
-not show much maternal tenderness to the child of her quondam friend.
-In the second year of Edward VI she wrote a curious letter to Cecil,
-begging him to relieve her of the guardianship of the child of the late
-Queen. She says: “The late Queen’s child hath lain, and yet doth lay
-in my house with her company about her, wholly in my charge.” Then she
-accuses Somerset of not sending money for the child’s maintenance, and
-adds: “And that ye may better understand that I cry not before I am
-pricked, I send you Mistress Glensborough’s [the governess’s] letter
-unto me, who, with her maids, nourice, and others daily call upon me
-for their wages, whose voices mine ears may hardly bear, but my coffers
-much worse.” She declares she is ill, and hopes that the child will be
-removed at an early date. There is a very long list in the Lansdowne
-MSS of plate, hangings, and even musical instruments, belonging to
-this child, which the Lord Protector took and never restored. Cecil
-paid little attention to the Duchess’s application. In all probability
-he never answered her letter at all. At a later date she wrote to the
-Marquis of Northampton, the infant’s uncle, and begged him to receive
-her. He behaved even more heartlessly than the Duchess, declaring he
-would neither receive the child nor her attendants at his house. Thus
-Katherine Parr’s own brother and the Duchess of Somerset, her old
-friend, whose life she had actually saved on one occasion from the fury
-of Henry VIII, besides spending considerable sums out of her private
-means to publish the ungrateful woman’s devotional writings, actually
-refused food and shelter to her orphaned child. It is impossible now
-to fully trace the child’s eventful history. Strype asserts that she
-died young, but there is much reason to believe that she lived and
-married Sir Edward Bushel, a gentleman of family, who was in attendance
-upon Queen Anne of Denmark, the Consort of James I. His only daughter
-married Silas Johnson, and their daughter married into the Lawson
-family, an old Suffolk house, which until quite recently possessed a
-number of Tudor relics, which, their proprietors alleged and amply
-proved, originally belonged to their ancestress, the daughter of
-Katherine Parr and the Admiral Seymour, a baby doubtless often caressed
-by the gentle Jane Grey. At the close of the seventeenth century some
-hundreds of papers belonging to the Lawson family were unfortunately
-destroyed by a thoughtless widow. However, an existing copy of the
-family pedigree proves almost beyond doubt that the Lawson version of
-the fate of Seymour’s daughter was accurate in every detail. One thing
-is evident, that the infant suffered a good deal of neglect in her
-childhood, and that she was passed on from one unwilling relative to
-another, until at last some kindly soul took compassion on her desolate
-state, and brought about a match between her and Sir Edward Bushel.
-
-[150] The letter in which Ab Ulmis does this will be found in the
-Parker Society’s edition of the Reformers’ letters, vol. ii. p. 406,
-and is dated 30th April 1550. It simply overflows with flattery of
-the Marquis, who is described as “the thunderbolt and terror of the
-Papists, that is, a fierce and terrible adversary.... He is much
-looked-up to by the King. He is learned and speaks Latin with elegance.
-He is the protector of all students, and the refuge of foreigners. He
-maintains at his own house the most learned men; he has a daughter,
-about fourteen years of age, who is pious and accomplished beyond what
-can be expressed; to whom I hope shortly to present your book on the
-holy marriage of Christians, which I have almost entirely translated
-into Latin. You may adopt this form of dedication to the book: ‘To
-Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, Baron Ferrers of Groby, Harrington,
-Bonville and Astley, one of His Majesty’s Privy Council, and my most
-honoured lord, &c. &c.’” So far as can be discovered, neither Jane Grey
-nor the Marquis her father wrote to thank Bullinger for this work, no
-letter to this effect being extant.
-
-In the December of the following year (1551) the Marquis of Dorset
-wrote to Bullinger from London (_Zurich Letters_, Parker Society, vol.
-i. p. 3) to thank him for “the book which you have published under the
-auspices of my name,” but this volume was one of Bullinger’s _Decades_,
-dedicated to his Lordship in the preceding March.
-
-[151] _Zurich Letters_ (Parker Society), vol. i. p. 6.
-
-[152] The above-quoted Latin letter to Henry Bullinger was written when
-she was only fourteen.
-
-[153] See note at end of this Chapter.
-
-[154] A very fine portrait of this lady was formerly in the possession
-of the late Martin Colnaghi, Esq. It represents a handsome matron of
-fifty, dressed in the costume of the period. She has regular features,
-light eyes, and auburn hair. The picture is dated 1552, the year of the
-Suffolk family’s last visit to Walden. Lady Audley’s only child married
-that Duke of Norfolk who was executed under Elizabeth for his attempt
-to assist Mary Stuart to escape from Tutbury Castle.
-
-[155] The gay festivities at Tylsey were a matter of some annoyance
-to Aylmer, and to the chaplain at Bradgate, Haddon, who feared their
-distracting effect on the minds of their pupils, Jane and Katherine
-Grey.
-
-[156] _Zurich Letters_, vol. ii. pp. 447-8.
-
-[157] Ulmer wrote to Conrad Pellican in the summer of 1552 (_Zurich
-Letters_, p. 451) that “Our Duke (Suffolk) has been staying for the
-last few days at an estate here in the neighbourhood of Oxford, which
-has come to him by inheritance from the late Duke of Suffolk.” The
-“late Duke of Suffolk” refers to the Lady Frances’s half-brother, who
-has been already frequently mentioned. Ulmer continues: “I waited upon
-him and paid my respects, according to the custom of the University.”
-Edward VI being at that time in the neighbourhood, Jane was presented
-to him, and “received with great favour.”
-
-[158] Mr. H. Sydney Grazebrook, in his interesting outline on the
-subject of Northumberland’s origin, in the _Herald and Genealogical
-Review_, vol. v., 1870, thinks John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was
-really descended from the Dudleys of Sedgley and Tipton, a member of
-which ancient house married the widow of John Sutton, Lord of Dudley,
-in Henry VI’s time. On the other hand, Dugdale says his grandfather was
-a carpenter and “very base-born.”
-
-Sir Philip Sydney in his curious tract in defence of Robert, Earl
-of Leicester, written in answer to “Leycester’s Commonwealth,”--a
-scurrilous attack on Queen Elizabeth’s famous favourite,--entirely
-denies the aspersions cast upon the honour of a family with which
-he was closely allied, his father having married the Duke of
-Northumberland’s daughter, Mary. He contends that to his certain
-knowledge the Duke was a man of legitimate descent from the ancient
-house of Sutton of Dudley, and moreover connected with the greatest
-nobility in England. “How can a man descended from such great Houses
-as Nevill, Talbot, Beauchamp and Lisley, be deemed otherwise than
-honourable and noble?” He continues: “A railing writer has said of
-Octavius Augustus, his father was a silversmith; another Italian
-declares (oh! the falsehood) that Hugh Capet was descended of a
-butcher who was his father. Of divers English names of the best,
-foolish dreamers have said one was the descendant of a miller, another
-of a shoemaker, another of a furrier, and forsooth yet another of a
-fiddler!--foolish lies! and by any who have ever tasted of antiquities,
-known so to be, yet those however had luck to treat with honest
-railers--for they were not left fatherless clean; but we as if we were
-of Ducalion’s brood, were made out of stones--they have left us no
-ancestors from whence we came. Edmund Dudley was the father of this
-younger brother of the same Lord Dudley, and would have been Lord
-Dudley, if the Lord Dudley had died without heirs. His father was
-married to the daughter and heir of Bramshot in Sussex. This Dudley’s
-father is buried with his wife at Arundel Castle and left land to
-Edmund Dudley and so to the Duke my grandfather, in Sussex.” Philip
-Sydney ought certainly to have known the true descent of his family,
-especially since they were to acquire the title of Leicester from the
-Dudleys.
-
-[159] It will be remembered that the Duke of Suffolk filched the title
-of Lisle from the Lady Elizabeth Grey, but on his relinquishing it, it
-was given to her eldest son, John Dudley.
-
-[160] On this expedition Somerset carried out to the letter the
-instructions given him by Henry VIII, which will be found in a document
-in the State Papers. Nero might have written them. They run as follows:
-“Put all to fire and sword, burn Edinburgh Town, and raze and deface
-it, when you have sacked it, and gotten what you can out of it.... Beat
-down and overthrow the castles, sack Holyrood House, and as many towns
-and villages about Edinburgh as you conveniently can. Sack Leith, and
-burn and subvert it and all the rest, putting man, woman and child to
-fire and sword, without exception, when any resistance shall be made
-against you; and this done, pass over to Fife-land and extend all
-extremities and destruction in all towns and villages whereunto you
-may reach ...; not forgetting ... so to spoil and turn upside down the
-Cardinal’s [Beaton] town of St. Andrew’s, as the upper stone may be the
-nether, and not one stick stand upon another, sparing no creature alive
-within the same, specially such as, either in friendship or blood, be
-allied to the Cardinal.”
-
-[161] For a further account of this campaign, see the dispatches of the
-Seymours in the State Papers for the reign of Henry VIII; and for the
-second expedition, those for the reign of Edward VI.
-
-The most heinous crime of all perpetrated on the second expedition--a
-crime which damaged Somerset’s reputation to the greatest extent--was
-the slaughter of twelve young lads under fifteen years of age, the
-children of Scottish horsemen recruited by Lennox, who were held as
-hostages for the good behaviour of their parents. Lennox and Lord
-Wharton had the poor boys hanged for their fathers’ disaffection; only
-one escaped, to become eventually known in the story of Mary Stuart as
-Lord Maxwell of Herries. A common soldier to whom he was handed over
-by Lennox, and who was sick of the carnage, saved the lad at the risk
-of his own life. Somerset rewarded Lennox for his services in this
-campaign, and wrote to him “right merrily.”
-
-[162] See documents dealing with the state of the prisons under Edward
-VI in the Record Office.
-
-[163] See Haylin; Hayward; and Hume, vol. iii. (folio edition) p. 328.
-
-[164] John Strype says: “About this time [reign of Edward VI] the
-nation grew infamous for the crime of adultery. It began among the
-nobility and better classes, and so spread at length among the inferior
-sort of people. Noblemen would frequently put away their wives and
-marry others, if they liked another woman better, or were like[ly]
-to obtain wealth by her. And they would sometimes pretend their
-former wives to be false to them, and so be divorced, and marry again
-those whom they might fancy. These adulteries and divorces increased
-very much; yea, and marrying again without any divorce at all, it
-became a great scandal to the Realm and to the religion professed in
-it.”--Strype’s _Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer_, vol. i. pp. 293, 294.
-
-[165] Robert Ket was a comparatively rich man, and to some extent
-a landowner, by reason of which he came into connection with the
-nobleman who afterwards had him killed--Northumberland. Ket bought
-Wymondham Abbey at the Dissolution, and also possessed a large part
-of Wymondham Town, and certain rich lands between that place and the
-royal manorhouse of Stanfield Hall. These lands had been bestowed on
-the brotherhood of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem--an offshoot of the Order
-of Hospitallers of St. John, who devoted their time to the relief
-of the sick poor--by Queen Adelicia, second wife of Henry I. Later
-on, Ket sold these ex-monastic lands to John Dudley, afterwards Duke
-of Northumberland--the suppressor of the Ket rebellion! Blomefield
-(_Norfolk_, article on “Wyndham or Wymondham”) indeed attributes the
-cause of that outbreak to a disagreement between the Ket brothers and
-Northumberland over these lands. “John Dudley,” says he, “bought some
-of these charity lands of Ket the tanner. As for payment, it was done
-in his own particular mode.... The two brothers (Ket), finding Dudley
-meant to pull down the magnificent tower, the preservation of which was
-most dear to their affections, raised the Norfolk poor, whom extreme
-misery had driven to discontent, and Wymondham became the nucleus of
-the great Norfolk rebellion.” It is much more likely that indignation
-at the general state of things, social and religious, under Somerset’s
-Protectorship, was at the bottom of this popular rising, and not mere
-platonic affection for an ancient tower.
-
-[166] William Ket’s remains were given “a dip in boiling pitch,” and
-then hanged, in their monastic dress, in chains. They continued, like a
-ghastly scarecrow, to ornament Wymondham Church until 1603, when they
-began to fall, bone by bone, the last piece coming away on the very day
-of Queen Elizabeth’s death, 25th March 1603.
-
-[167] Printed in Tytler’s _England under Edward VI and Mary_, vol. i.
-p. 205.
-
-[168] Mr. Pollard says that Herbert’s private park had been ploughed
-up, whilst Russell “had been reprimanded for exceeding his instructions
-in his severity towards the rebels.” It is interesting to learn, by the
-way, that Somerset did make some effort to check the butcheries in the
-West.
-
-[169] In making all these warlike preparations Somerset was acting on
-the mere premise--since Petre had never returned to Hampton Court,
-and he had no news from the metropolis--that Warwick contemplated
-some sort of _coup d’état_; for no _open_ act of violence had been
-perpetrated. The revolution of 1549, which practically placed Warwick
-in the Protectorship and Somerset (temporarily) in the Tower, proved
-successful, as we shall presently see, but it was an entirely bloodless
-victory.
-
-[170] In addition to his incipient consumption, the poor little King
-would seem to have caught a cold on his original journey to Hampton
-Court. The _Literary Remains_ say, “The Kinge’s Majesty is much
-troubled with a great rewme; taken partly while riding hither in the
-night” (vol. i. p. cxxxi).
-
-[171] This nobleman was created Earl of Warwick on his father’s
-assumption of the title of Duke of Northumberland, and under that title
-was imprisoned in the Tower, which has been the cause of some confusion
-to students.
-
-[172] 9th May 1550.
-
-[173] This letter is still extant, and seems to point to a possibility
-that Lady Seymour’s mysterious retirement may have been due to her
-perseverance in the old faith.
-
-[174] At the same time the Marquis of Dorset was made Duke of Suffolk;
-Paulet, Earl of Wiltshire, was raised to the Marquisate of Winchester;
-Sir William Herbert, Master of the Horse, was made Earl of Pembroke;
-and Mr. William Cecil, Mr. John Cheke, the King’s tutor, Henry Sidney,
-and Henry Nevil, were knighted.
-
-[175] The day following the Duke’s arrest, that hot virago, Anne
-Stanhope, his Duchess, together with Mr. and Mrs. Crane, Sir Miles
-Partridge, Sir Thomas Arundel, Sir Thomas Holcroft, Sir Michael
-Stanhope, and others, were also arrested and conveyed to the Tower,
-where the Duchess remained a prisoner until the accession of Queen Mary.
-
-[176] Wriothesley’s _Chronicle_, ii. 63.
-
-[177] Nevertheless, the death of Somerset seems to have rankled in the
-boy-King’s mind. On one occasion long afterwards, it is said, when
-Edward was enjoyed a match of archery with Northumberland and the
-King made a remarkably fine shot, the Duke exclaimed, “Well aimed, my
-liege.” “But,” replied the young King sarcastically, “you aimed better
-when you shot off the head of my uncle Somerset!” Which proves that His
-Majesty fully realised Northumberland’s share in that matter.
-
-[178] There was, of course, the usual crop of infant prodigies and
-monsters which followed as portents after every notable decapitation. A
-dolphin was caught in the Thames; “a child with two heads was born at
-Middleton in Oxfordshire; but although it had four arms it had only a
-leg, it caughte cold and died,” which was certainly fortunate for the
-nerves of the Middletonians.
-
-[179] We find instances of this in the enthusiastic joy of the
-people at his suspected acquittal, in their excitement on thinking
-he was reprieved, and the fact that after the execution many dipped
-handkerchiefs and cloths in his blood, “so that they might have
-some token to preserve of the memory of a man who had always been
-their friend.” It is said that when, some nineteen months later,
-Northumberland was going to execution in his turn, a woman shook one
-of these handkerchiefs stained with the blood of Somerset in his
-face, crying, “Behold the blood of that worthy man, that good uncle
-of that excellent King, which, shed by thy malicious practices, does
-now apparently revenge itself on thee.” This is also a proof that the
-commonalty clearly understood how great had been Northumberland’s share
-in bringing about Somerset’s destruction.
-
-[180] _Zurich Letters_, No. cccxlvii.
-
-[181] One gets a very fair idea of the improvement in Northumberland’s
-position after the death of the Duke of Somerset from the letters of
-the Swiss and other Reformers. Ab Ulmis, for instance, tells Bullinger
-that “He [Northumberland] almost alone, with the Duke of Suffolk,
-governs the State, and supports and upholds it on his own shoulders.
-He is manifestly the thunderbolt and terror of the Papists.” He
-goes on to say that when Somerset licensed Mary to have Mass in her
-apartments, Northumberland said angrily, “The Mass is either of God or
-of the Devil; if of God, it is but right that all our people should
-be allowed to go to it; but if it is not of God, as we are all taught
-out of the Scriptures, why then should not the voice of this fury be
-equally proscribed to all?”... “Therefore,” says Ab Ulmis, “as soon
-as he had succeeded into his office, Northumberland immediately took
-care that the mass-priests of Mary should be thrown into prison,
-whilst to herself he entirely interdicted the use of the Mass and of
-Popish books.”--_Zurich Letters_, ii. 439. No wonder Mary did not love
-Northumberland!
-
-[182] The movements of Lady Jane from January 1552 onwards appear
-to have been as follows. In January 1552 she was alternately at
-Tylsey and at Audley; later in the spring of the same year she was at
-Bradgate; in July she went to Oxford, and afterwards to Princess Mary
-at Newhall. After this she went with her family, on some unknown date
-in 1552, probably in the autumn, to this ex-monastery at Sheen, where
-she continued to reside until she came up to London, to (most likely)
-Suffolk House, Westminster, for her marriage with Guildford Dudley, in
-the spring of 1553. She perhaps spent five days after this at Durham
-House, Strand, and then went to Chelsea Manor, now a residence of
-the Duke of Northumberland. Thence she went to Sion with Lady Sidney
-(as we shall presently relate in detail) on 9th July (1553); on the
-following day, from Sion to Westminster Palace, then (the same day)
-to Durham House to dine, and lastly to the Tower, which she reached
-in the afternoon, and did not leave again, being executed in February
-1554 within its precincts. Some writers have fallen into the error of
-thinking Lady Jane left the Tower at the close of her nine days’ reign,
-at the same time as her father, the Duke of Suffolk. It is not so. From
-the day Jane entered the fortress (10th July 1553) to the day of her
-death (12th February 1554) she never left it, except for the few hours
-of her trial at Guildhall.
-
-[183] The Priory of Sheen was finally suppressed by Henry VIII in 1539,
-or rather, it surrendered its estates to the Crown about the time of
-the passing of the Act for the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Most of
-the ex-monks of this house died in prison in great misery. In 1540 the
-abandoned monastery was granted to Edward, Earl of Hertford, brother of
-Jane Seymour, who afterwards became the famous Duke of Somerset. After
-his attainder in 1551 it was granted to Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk,
-Jane’s father. The ruins of this building were visible as late as the
-middle of the eighteenth century. For further details about this house
-see Chancellor’s _History of Richmond_, p. 71.
-
-[184] Syon has interest for yet another reason, for the nuns to whom
-it had formerly belonged, emigrated to Flanders in Henry VIII’s time,
-to return to England early in the last century, and thus form the only
-unbroken community of pre-Reformation _religieuses_ in England.
-
-[185] The _History of Queen Jane_ says of Suffolk that “For as he had
-few commendable Qualities, he was guilty of no vices.”
-
-[186] The negotiations for this marriage got so far that Sir Andrew,
-who was at this time Master of the Wardrobe, actually ordered certain
-splendid garments to be taken out of it for himself and the Lady
-Margaret to wear at the wedding; and this, needless to say, with
-the consent of Edward VI. Cumberland, however, who approved of this
-proposal no more than he did the other, removed himself and the rest
-of his family as far from London as he could, and thereby frustrated
-Northumberland’s matrimonial scheme, leaving poor Sir Andrew to cut a
-by no means dignified figure. Lady Margaret eventually married the Earl
-of Derby.
-
-[187] This story will be found in a MS. among the Harleian Collection
-(No. 353).
-
-[188] As for “having at the Crown,” as a matter of fact if the
-Cumberland marriage had taken place it would have put six persons
-between Guildford and any chance of his sharing regal honours; or else
-the Duke would have had to find some plea for setting aside not only
-the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, but also the Duchess of Suffolk and
-her three daughters; this could only have been achieved by urging the
-irregularity of the Brandon and Dorset marriages, both of which, as
-we have seen, were strictly speaking illegal, for in both cases the
-husbands married again before their first marriages had been formally
-dissolved, either by the ecclesiastical or the secular courts.
-
-[189] On the death of Somerset, Lady Cromwell, widow of Thomas
-Cromwell, offered to take charge of his four daughters (which would
-have included the Lady Anne Seymour), the Duchess being, as we have
-said, imprisoned. Whether these ladies were in fact placed in Lady
-Cromwell’s charge has never been ascertained.
-
-[190] Baoardo, a Venetian who was in England in 1553-6, wrote a
-historical pamphlet on the events he beheld. Edited by the celebrated
-Luca Cortile, it was printed and published by the Accademia di Venezia,
-in 1558, and has been frequently reprinted.
-
-[191] Ascham has told us how bitterly Lady Jane complained of her
-parents’ brutal treatment of her even when there was little cause that
-they should ill-use their daughter so, and we may easily imagine their
-behaviour when they had a more serious complaint against her.
-
-[192] The only portrait of Guildford Dudley which the writer has ever
-seen is that at Madresfield attributed to Lucas van Heere, who could
-not, however, have painted it, as at the time of Guildford’s execution
-he was only seven years of age. There is another objection to this
-picture; it is dated 1566, and Guildford was decapitated in 1553.
-Still the inscription may have been painted in at a later date, and
-the tradition that it is a portrait of Lady Jane’s unfortunate consort
-may be correct. But the costume is more like that of the time of James
-I, so large a ruff not being worn in Guildford’s day. There is also at
-Madresfield a portrait of Lady Jane Grey attributed to Lucas van Heere.
-This is far more beautifully painted than its companion, and is in all
-probability by Luca Penni, who painted the alleged portrait of Lady
-Jane now in the possession of Lord Spencer at Althorpe, to which it
-bears a certain resemblance, both in costume and features.
-
-[193] Nevertheless, Heylyn says (in his _Reformation_) that “of all
-Dudley’s brood he (Guildford) had nothing of his father in him.”
-Fuller (_Worthies_) calls him “a goodly and (for aught I know to the
-contrary) a godly gentleman, whose worst fault was that he was son to
-an ambitious father.”
-
-[194] The Northumberlands seem to have been in close touch with several
-Spaniards. It was due to the intercession of a Spanish noble that the
-Duchess obtained her liberty; and it was to the Duchess of Alva that
-she bequeathed her pet green parrot.
-
-[195] The exact date of Jane’s marriage is doubtful. Historians assign
-various dates ranging from the beginning of May to the beginning of
-June. Stowe contents himself with saying “three notable marriages took
-place at Durham Place in May 1553.” Giulio Raviglio Rosso of Ferrara,
-who obtained his information from Giovanni Michele, Venetian Ambassador
-to England, 1554-7, and from Federigo Badoardo, Venetian Ambassador to
-Charles V, speaks of “_Nelle feste dello spirito santo, le nozze molto
-splendide e reali, e con molto concorso di populo et de’ principali
-del regno_.” That is, “On the feasts of the Holy Ghost (_i.e._ Whit
-Sunday), the very grand and regal espousals (took place), and with a
-great attendance of the people and of the leaders of the kingdom.”
-Hutchinson (_History of Durham_, vol. i. 430) says positively 21st
-May; and this agrees with the “_feste_” (_i.e._ “feasts” or within the
-octave) of Whit Sunday. Pollino also says it occurred on that day.
-Strype (_Ecclesiastical Memorials_, book ii. p. 111) gives more details
-than most writers. He says: “And a little before this time were great
-preparations making for the match (_which was celebrated in May_) of
-the Lady Jane with Guildford, Northumberland’s son, and some other
-marriages that were to accompany that; as the Earl of Pembroke’s eldest
-son with the Lady Katherine ... etc.”
-
-The 21st of May was only six weeks and four days before the declining
-Edward VI breathed his last (on 6th July).
-
-Noailles, who is often very vague about his dates, fixes this triple
-wedding as taking place in July!
-
-[196] Lord Herbert’s marriage was not consummated on account of the
-youth of the parties. He relinquished the hand of the Lady Katherine
-Grey, and in 1561 she bestowed it on the Earl of Hertford.
-
-[197] “And for the more solemnity and splendour of this day, the
-master of the wardrobe had divers warrants, to deliver out of the
-King’s wardrobe much rich apparel and jewels: as, to deliver to the
-Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, to the Duchess of Northumberland,
-to the Lady Marchioness of Northampton, to the Lady Jane, daughter to
-the Duke of Suffolk, and to the Lord Guildford Dudley, for wedding
-apparel; (which were certain parcels of tissues, and cloth of gold
-and silver, which had been the late Duke’s and Duchess’s of Somerset,
-forfeited to the King;) and to the Lady Katherine, daughter to the
-said Duke of Suffolk, and the Lord Herbert, for wedding apparel, and
-to the Lord Hastings, and Lady Katherine, daughter to the Duke of
-Northumberland, for wedding apparel, certain parcels of stuff and
-jewels. Dated from Greenwich, the 24th of April. A warrant also there
-came to the wardrobe, to deliver to the King’s use, for the finishing
-certain chairs for his Majesty, six yards of green velvet, and six
-yards of green satin; another, to deliver to the Lady Mary’s Grace, his
-Majesty’s sister, a table diamond, with pearl pendant at the same; and
-to the Duchess of Northumberland, one square tablet of gold, enamelled
-black, with a clock, late parcels of the Duchess of Somerset’s jewels.
-And lastly, another warrant to Sir Andrew Dudley, to take for the Lady
-Margaret Clifford, daughter of the Earl of Cumberland, and to himself,
-for their wedding apparel, sundry silks and jewels: this last warrant
-bearing date June 8.”--Strype’s _Memorials_, pp. 111-2, book ii.
-
-[198] The only description of the three weddings is that from the pen
-of Giulio Raviglio Rosso, who lived at a later date. See the English
-translation of the Venetian State Papers.
-
-[199] Contemporary account of an English wedding in the sixteenth
-century quoted by Howard in his _Life of Jane Grey_.
-
-[200] The description of this head-dress corresponds with the very
-beautiful and picturesque one she wears in the picture, reputed to be
-her portrait, now in the possession of Earl Beauchamp at Madresfield.
-
-[201] There would seem to be some reason to think that Stanfield Hall,
-which was often visited by the Plantagenet kings, was part of the
-monastic lands purchased by Robert Ket, leader of the famous rebellion.
-His brother’s remains, hanging on Wymondham Church, were visible from
-its windows. After Lady Jane’s death, Stanfield Hall went to the
-Crown. There is no express mention, however, in any existing documents
-connected with the Hall, of Jane Grey’s possession of this manor, and
-Blomefield was unable to trace it. The tradition that it was part of
-Jane’s dower rests on a statement by Strype. Perhaps it was amongst
-the lands bought from Ket by the Duke of Northumberland, as already
-related; or else it was taken from him by force after the rebellion.
-
-[202] Pollino relates some personal circumstances omitted by Baoardo.
-The former, however, mentions the violence used to Jane by the Duke
-of Suffolk, when she refused to marry Guildford, on the grounds of a
-previous “contraction.” This is an additional proof of the genuineness
-of the letter as rendered by Pollino; for Jane, from filial respect,
-does not refer to her father’s cruelty.
-
-[203] Several of these letters are included in the second volume of
-Tytler’s _England under Edward VI and Mary_.
-
-[204] Table showing the heirs female in remainder to the Crown, named
-in the will of Henry VIII and the “Devise” of Edward VI:--
-
- King Henry the Seventh and Queen Elizabeth of York,
- had issue
- |
- +-------------------------+-----------------------+
- | | |
- King Henry VIII, Margaret, Queen of Scots, Mary, Queen of
- father of, grandmother of France, mother of,
- by Katherine by Anne Mary Stuart, and by Charles Brandon,
- of Aragon, Boleyn, great-grandmother of Duke of Suffolk,
- | | King James the First. |
- | | |
- | +------+ +------------+-+
- | | | |
- | | The Lady Frances, The Lady
- The Lady Mary, The Lady Elizabeth, Duchess of Eleanor,
- æt. 38 in 1553. æt. 20 in 1553. Suffolk, Countess of
- æt. 36 in 1553. Cumberland,
- | d. 1547.
- +-----------------+-----------------+--+ |
- | | | |
- The Lady Jane, The Lady Katherine, The Lady Mary, The Lady
- æt. 17 in to the Earl of to Thomas Margaret,
- 1553, m. to Hertford, issue. Skye, or Countess of
- Guildford Keyes, Clifford,
- Dudley, no issue. issue.
- no issue.
-
-[205] Antoine de Noailles informs us in his Notes that the Lady Frances
-was very sore over the way in which her succession to the Crown was set
-aside by King Edward in favour of her daughter Jane; and the Duke of
-Suffolk had some difficulty in inducing her to accept the situation.
-
-[206] John Terentianus, writing to John ab Ulmis under date of 29th
-November 1553, says (_Zurich Letters_, p. 365): “A few days before his
-death the King made a will _at the instigation of Northumberland_, by
-which he disinherited both his sisters.”
-
-[207] _Cranmer’s Works_ (Parker Society), vol. ii. p. 442.
-
-[208] That is to say, Princess Mary, at that time only a Schismatic,
-or “Henryite,” might suddenly become a Roman Catholic, and abolish the
-Reformed religion. It should be remembered that Mary was not openly in
-communion with Rome until about three months after her accession to the
-throne.
-
-[209] The reader will find the text of the “Devise” at the end of the
-next chapter.
-
-[210] Northumberland, in fact, tyrannised over everybody: Noailles
-(_Ambassades Françaises_, ii. 80), says that “_toutes ces choses_
-[Jane’s failure to keep the throne] _sont advenues plus pour la grande
-hayne que l’on porte à icelluy duc_ [Northumberland], _qui a voulu
-tenir un chacun en craincte, que pour l’amitié que l’on a à ladicte
-royne_ [Mary].”
-
-[211] The original of this letter is among the State Papers.
-
-[212] The author’s researches lead him to think that this must be
-the correct date of Edward’s death; though different dates are given
-by some writers. Machyn, Aubrey, and Wriothesley incline to the 6th
-of July; but, on the other hand, Burke (_Tudor Portraits_, vol. ii.
-p. 398) says it was the 7th of that month, and the writer of the
-article on Edward VI in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ (vol. vii. p.
-686) declares that the King died on 4th July! Aubrey says the 6th
-was a Thursday; and Burke, that the King died at nine p.m. These
-discrepancies are most likely due to the fact that the King’s death was
-kept a secret for some days.
-
-[213] Dr. George Owen was probably the most distinguished physician of
-his day. He received honours at Merton College. He attended at Edward
-VI’s birth, when he is said untruly to have performed the Cæsarian
-operation; he afterwards attended that Prince throughout his life, and
-was well treated by him. Amongst the grants made to Owen were Bewley
-Abbey, Cumnor Place, Gadstow Abbey, and the chapel of St. Giles,
-Oxford. He died on 18th October 1558, and was buried at St. Stephen’s
-Walbrook, his funeral being thus recorded by Machyn (_Diary_, p. 177):
-“The xxiiij day of October was bered at sant Stevyn in walbroke master
-doctur Owyn, phesyssyon, with a ij haroldes of armes and a cote armur
-and penon of armes, and iij dosen of armes, and ij whyt branchys, and
-xx torchys; and xx pore men had gownes, and ther dener; and iiij gret
-tapurs; and the morow masse, and master Harpfheld dyd pryche; and after
-a gret dener.” It is strange that Edward’s favourite physician should
-have been a “Papist.” Dr. Owen must also have been on good terms with
-“Bluff King Hal,” for he received £100 by that monarch’s will. The
-second son and the daughter-in-law of Dr. Owen were living at Cumnor
-Place in 1560, when the mysterious death of Amy Robsart took place
-there.
-
-[214] But of course their arrest was for having placed Jane on the
-throne, not for murdering the King. This is a manifest error on the
-part of Burcher.
-
-[215] _Zurich Letters_, p. 684.
-
-[216] The belief that the King had been poisoned was, however, very
-widespread. Another Reformer, Terentianus, says that it was not only
-rumoured, but there were not wanting “many and strong suspicions”; he
-attributes it to “the Papists.” Machyn, the diarist, fell into the same
-error as Burcher of thinking Northumberland’s arrest due to his share
-in Edward VI’s “murder.” He says: “The vj day of July, as they say,
-dessessyd [deceased] the nobull kyng Edward the vj. and the vij yere of
-ys rayne, and sune and here to the nobull kyng Henry the viij; and he
-was poyssoned, as evere body says, wher now, thanks be unto God, ther
-be mony of the false trayturs browt to ther end, and j trust in God
-that mor shall folow as thay may be spyd owt” (p. 35). Osorius, Bishop
-of Sylva (Portugal), wrote to Elizabeth when she was on the throne,
-that her brother had died of poison.
-
-[217] Sir Robert Throckmorton, Sir Nicholas’s elder brother, whom she
-much preferred to the latter.
-
-[218] Some historians have represented the warning as coming to Mary
-by way of the Earl of Arundel; but the statement that it came from the
-Throckmortons is confirmed by Jardine’s _State Trials_ and Cole’s MS.
-vol. xl., British Museum. There is a very curious account of the whole
-proceeding in rough verse by Sir Nicholas Throckmorton himself, of
-which we give two verses:--
-
- “Mourning, from Greenwich did I straight depart,
- To London, to a house which bore our name.
- My brethren guessèd by my heavie hearte,
- The King was dead, and I confess’d the same:
- The hushing of his death I didd unfolde,
- Their meaning to proclaim Queene Jane I tolde.
-
- * * * * *
-
- Wherefore from four of us the newes was sent.
- How that her brother hee was dead and gone;
- In post her goldsmith then from London went,
- By whom the message was dispatcht anon.
- Shee asked, ‘If wee knewe it certainlie?’
- Who said, ‘Sir Nicholas knew it verilie.’”
-
-See _The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary_, p. 2; also Bishop
-Goodman’s _Memoirs_, p. 161.
-
-[219] Wriothesley says: “Jane came to the Tower from Greenwich,” which
-is evidently a mistake. She certainly did not proceed from Westminster
-to Greenwich to return thence to the Tower.
-
-[220] This letter is from Sir Baptist Spinola, a very rich Genoese
-merchant, who flourished in London under Edward VI,--by whom he was
-knighted,--Mary, and Elizabeth. Frequent mention of him will be found
-in the State Papers of this period. On one occasion Elizabeth paid him
-an enormous sum--probably for supplies of Genoa velvet and brocade.
-The “grand procession to the Tower” refers to the procession from the
-landing-place there to the Great Hall.
-
-[221] A fair number of copies of the Proclamation of Lady Jane Grey
-have come down to us, but the original printed Proclamation is in the
-Collection of the Royal Society of Antiquaries. Herein the Lady Mary
-and the Lady Elizabeth are, as said above, stigmatised as bastards,
-whilst it calls upon persons of all degrees to be loyal to “their
-lawful Sovereign”--_i.e._ Jane Dudley. The Proclamation was printed by
-Richard Grafton, and is a very fine specimen of his workmanship. In
-the imprint he styles himself “The Queen’s Printer.” One would like to
-discover what became of Mr. Grafton after Mary’s accession?
-
-[222] Machyn’s _Diary_, p. 35.
-
-[223] An unknown, who cautiously dubbed himself “Poor Pratte,”
-addressed an open letter to Mr. “Onyone” during his imprisonment. The
-writer, who was apparently a staunch supporter of Mary, informed his
-readers that “if England prove disloyal, evils will come on it ... the
-Gospel will be plucked away and the Lady Mary replaced by so cruel a
-Pharaoh as the ragged bear (_i.e._ Northumberland).” “Pratte” points
-out that Mary is less overjoyed at becoming Queen than sorry for her
-brother’s death, whilst Northumberland was pleased thereat; “she would
-be as glad of his life as the ragged bear of his death.” The writer
-prays God “to raise up Queen Mary and pluck down that Jane--I cannot
-nominate her Queen, for that I know no other Queen but the good Lady
-Mary, her Grace, whom God prosper.” In conclusion, the writer wishes
-Jane’s supporters “the pains of Satan in hell,” and to Mary’s, “long
-life and prosperity.” See the Appendix, pp. 116-21 of _The Chronicle of
-Queen Jane and Queen Mary_.
-
-[224] Cecil was originally selected to draw up the draft of the
-proclamation, but with his usual desire--manifested in a like manner on
-other occasions when an unpleasant and dangerous task was assigned to
-him--to save his own skin at the expense of no matter whom, he passed
-on the duty to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. Cecil himself relates this
-plainly in his unblushing “Submission” to Mary, of which more anon.
-There he says: “I refused to make a proclamation, and turned the labour
-to Mr. Throckmorton, whose conscience I saw was troubled therewith,
-misliking the matter.” It would be difficult to imagine a meaner trick.
-It is more than probable that Northumberland very largely guided
-Throckmorton in arranging the terms of this document: one can scarcely
-imagine that he would have left it entirely to Sir Nicholas’ judgment.
-Probably it was composed at Sion House. The editing of it was given to
-Sir John Cheke.
-
-[225] One copy of this interesting letter is in the Lansdowne MSS,
-1236, f. 24, and a facsimile in Ser. iii. No. 4.
-
-[226] There are two versions of this interview, differing in some
-particulars; the second is by Jane herself, printed in Pollino’s
-_Ecclesiastical History_. We have deemed it best to give both.
-
-[227] Pollino (_Istoria Ecclesiastica_, p. 357) puts Jane’s answer
-slightly differently--_Dissi loro_, he makes her say, _che se la corona
-s’appetava a me, io sarei contenta di fare il mio marito Duca ma non
-consentirei di farlo Rè_. That is, “I said to them that if the Crown
-was my concern, I should be pleased to make my husband Duke, but I
-would not consent to make him King.”
-
-[228] There would seem to be an error here. Quite true, the Crown
-was, metaphorically, thrust upon Jane; but surely the request for the
-release of the regalia must have been made at least to _appear_ as if
-it came from her?
-
-[229] Harleian MSS, No. 523, p. 13. Sir Philip Hoby or Hobby was a
-Herefordshire man, who had been previously sent to Paris as English
-Ambassador to treat for the marriage of Elizabeth of Valois to
-Edward VI. He afterwards passed to Antwerp and then to Brussels and
-other parts of the Low Countries, during which period occurred the
-above-mentioned incident with Don Diego Mendoza. He married Elizabeth,
-daughter of Sir W. Stonor, who died without issue. Sir Philip’s brother
-and heir, Sir Thomas Hoby, married Cecil’s learned sister-in-law,
-Elizabeth Cooke. Many memorials of the Hoby family still exist at
-Bisham Abbey.
-
-[230] The dispatch of the Council to Hoby and Morysone announcing the
-death of the King is dated 8th July, and will be found in the British
-Museum, Cottonian Collection (Galba B. xii. 249). It makes no mention
-of either Guildford or Jane.
-
-[231] In her will the Duchess of Northumberland calls this gentleman,
-to whom she left “the littell book clock, that hath the sun, the moon
-on it, &c., and her dial, the one leaf of it the almanack, and on
-the other side the golden number in the midst,” “the Lord Don Diagoe
-Damondesay,” which was the good lady’s rendering of de Mendoça! She
-added that she bequeathed these articles “with commendation for the
-great friendship he hath shewed hir in making hir have so many friends
-about the King’s Majesty as she hath found.” The King’s Majesty here
-referred to is Philip II, who had used his influence with Mary, at
-the instigation of Don Diego, to recover part of her property for the
-Duchess.
-
-[232] “He (Mendoza) could not but at one (and the same) time both
-sorrowe with us for the losse of our good old mastere (Edward VI)
-a prince of such vertue and towardnesse, and also rejoyse with us
-that our master which is departed, did, ere he wente, provid us of a
-kynge (Guildford Dudley), in regard wee had so much cause to rejoyse
-in.” It is a significant fact that throughout this dispatch of the
-Commissioners, whenever Guildford is mentioned, it is by some title
-such as “kynge,” “kynges majestie,” etc., and not once by his proper
-name, though obviously no one else but he is referred to. This was done
-purposely to avoid getting Guildford into trouble in the event of the
-letter falling into the hands of Mary’s supporters.
-
-[233] _Two Queens and Philip_, by Major Martin Hume.
-
-[234] It must always be remembered that the Emperor was Mary’s cousin,
-and had already defended her religious freedom against Northumberland;
-the Council feared, though without reason, as we know, his Ambassadors’
-interference for the purpose of vindicating her rights to the throne.
-
-[235] That was during the few days she spent at Chelsea Manor after
-leaving Durham House, as already recorded; cf. cap. xiv. p. 237.
-
-[236] This inventory will be found among the Harleian MSS, No. 611.
-
-[237] Jane herself, as we have already seen, says the regalia was
-brought to her on the 11th of July; perhaps Winchester made a slip of
-the pen in writing the 12th.
-
-[238] Machyn’s _Diary_, p. 36.
-
-[239] We have already seen (_vide_ the letter of the Council to the
-Commissioners in Brussels of the 11th July) that the Council had
-intended from the very first that Northumberland should proceed into
-Norfolk, the object even then being to remove his all-powerful and
-domineering presence from London and into Mary’s hands, since all
-the members doubtless foresaw they would have to renounce Jane very
-shortly, and were not anxious to incur his wrath for so doing. Probably
-Suffolk was merely suggested so as to avoid rousing Northumberland’s
-suspicions that the Council was anxious to be rid of him.
-
-[240] Holinshed, vol. iii. pp. 1068, 1069.
-
-[241] Machyn says (p. 36): “And ij days after (the xij day of July) the
-duke, and dyvers lordes and knyghts whent with him, and mony gentylmen
-and gonnars, and mony men of the gard and men of armes toward my lade
-Mare grace, to destroye here grace, and so to bury, and alle was agayns
-ym-seylff, for ys men forsok him.”
-
-[242] In this document, as in the indictment, Mary gives neither Jane
-nor her husband their legitimate titles. She calls the former “Jane
-Dudley,” and describes her as “the wife of Guildford Dudley, Esquire,”
-stating that Sharington’s successor has received his appointment “by
-the traitorous abuse and usurpation of Jane Dudley ... and other
-accomplices.”
-
-[243] Only two days after Northumberland started (that is, on the 16th)
-Mary had left Kenninghall and ridden without pause to Framlingham,
-where, according to Holinshed (vol. iii. p. 1067) she gathered round
-her an army of thirty thousand men.
-
-[244] William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, was born at Stamford
-St. Martin, Northamptonshire, in 1520. In his youth he was a royal
-page, and was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Later, he
-went to Cambridge, and was a great friend of Roger Ascham and John
-Cheke. Against his father’s will, he married Mary Cheke, the latter’s
-sister. She died in 1544; and he married again, this time to Mildred,
-daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall, Essex. This was in 1545.
-Cecil fought in Scotland under Somerset two years later, being present
-at the battle of Pinkie Cleugh. He was appointed a Secretary of State
-on 5th September 1550. In October of the next year he was knighted,
-together with Cheke. His action in the matter of Edward VI’s “Devise”
-for the limitation of the succession has been already related; also
-his duplicity with regard to Northumberland. Immediately all hopes
-of Jane’s retaining the crown were gone, he made his well-known
-“Submission” to Mary. All the same, he spent the first year of her
-reign in retirement, and only appears again as holding a public office
-in 1554. His successful career under Elizabeth is foreign to the
-subject of this book, and is well known. Cecil died in 1598 at his
-house in the Strand, and is buried in Westminster Abbey. See _The Great
-Lord Burghley_, by Martin Hume.
-
-[245] This is mainly derived from Stowe’s account; Burke (p. 417) and
-others say that in the first instance Northumberland was arrested
-by Sir John Gates, one of his own followers, apparently whilst in
-the midst of his toilet, “with his boots half on and half off,” and
-therefore utterly helpless.
-
-[246] With Northumberland were brought prisoners into the Tower on 25th
-July, John, Earl of Warwick, and the Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley,
-his three sons, his brother, Sir Andrew Dudley, the Earl of Huntingdon,
-Lord Hastings, Sir Thomas Palmer, Sir Henry and Sir John Gates, and
-Dr. Sandys. They are said to have been escorted by four thousand
-men; others say eight hundred. On the 26th these noblemen were also
-joined by other prisoners--namely, the Marquis of Northampton, another
-of Northumberland’s sons Lord Robert Dudley, the Bishop of London
-(Ridley), Sir Richard Corbet, and Cholmondeley and Montagu, Chief
-Justices: the latter’s distress must have been softened by the feeling
-that his gloomy forebodings as to the evil results of the continuance
-of Edward VI’s scheme for the succession had been amply realised.
-Next day, Sir John Cheke, Sir Anthony Cooke, and Sir John York were
-committed to the Tower. See Strype, vol. iv., and Stowe.
-
-[247] After the proclamation of Mary, Ridley went to Framlingham to pay
-her homage; but the Queen being suspicious of his sincerity, he was
-arrested at Ipswich, “despoiled of his dignities, and sent back on a
-lame, halting horse to the Tower.”
-
-[248] From the use of the expression (adopted in _The Chronicle of
-Queen Jane and Queen Mary_), “the keys were carried up,” it has been
-suggested that Lady Jane was lodged in the White Tower itself, which
-was not the case. Queen Jane proceeded immediately after her arrival
-at the Tower to the palatial apartments usually inhabited by royalty
-when in residence there. These chambers--in which Elizabeth of York
-breathed her last; where Anne Boleyn spent the night before her
-coronation and later, by an irony of fate, that before her execution;
-where, afterwards, Katherine Howard also awaited her doom; where, in
-a word, most of our Kings and Queens had “ruffled it wi’ the best” or
-trembled at their coming fate--were removed in the seventeenth century.
-They were contiguous to the White Tower--indeed, the door communicating
-between the two blocks of buildings is still visible--and it is more
-than probable that Queen Jane used the chapel and the Council Chamber
-in the said White Tower; but she certainly never inhabited the tower
-during her brief Queenship. Later, as we shall presently see, she
-was removed to the quadrangle opposite St. Peter’s Church, to the
-apartments which had been vacated by the Duchess of Somerset, in
-Partridge’s House.
-
-[249] It was on the 17th or the next day that a significant placard was
-found attached to the pump at Queenhithe, stating “that the Princess
-Mary had been proclaimed Queen in every town and city in England,
-London alone excepted.” The exception was to cease within two days!
-
-[250] It was generally said that Northumberland’s son, Lord Henry
-Dudley, had been to France to raise a force, and that six thousand
-French soldiers were about to embark from Dieppe and Boulogne.
-
-Strype says (_Ecclesiastical Memorials_, vol. iii. part I, p. 23):
-“Henry Dudley, a relation and creature of the Duke [of Northumberland],
-and in with him, had, with four servants and certain letters, escaped,
-and got hither to Guisnes. Him these officers detained, seizing his
-men and letters; which they sent by a special messenger to the Queen,
-keeping him in sure custody till her pleasure were further known. All
-this they declared to her in their letter, protesting their steadfast
-loyalty and obedience. Dudley was soon after conveyed to Calais and so
-to England.”
-
-It was also rumoured that Northumberland had offered to hand over
-Calais to the French in return for the aid which was to be afforded
-him. Needless to say, it never came.
-
-[251] Rossi, _I Successi d’Inghilterra dopo la morte de Edoardo Sesto_,
-pp. 15, 16. This book was printed at Ferrara in 1560.
-
-[252] Baynard’s Castle, which was standing in Edward II’s time, and was
-later the residence of Richard III, stood somewhere about the site now
-occupied by St. Paul’s Station, and was a large square building, with
-high pitched turrets at each corner, and having its river front washed
-by the Thames. Several royalties visited it in the course of time. In
-Henry VIII’s time it belonged to that Earl of Pembroke who married
-Katherine Parr’s sister, and was in the possession of that family in
-1553. “Bluff King Hal” was sometimes entertained there. The greater
-part of the building was burnt down in the Great Fire, but the towers
-were standing as late as 1809.
-
-[253] It is distinctly curious that Arundel should be generally
-stated to have been present at the proclamation of Mary in London
-on 19th July, and yet be said by several writers to have arrested
-Northumberland at Cambridge on the 21st! This hardly seems probable;
-doubtless the arrest took place later in that week. But the dates of
-Northumberland’s movements on his expedition are altogether obscure.
-
-[254] Roger Alford, Cecil’s servant, gives the following account of
-this stage of the intrigue in a letter to Cecil of 1573: “After this,
-the Lords not long after agreed to go to Baynard’s Castle to the Lord
-of Pembroke [Baynard’s Castle was, as we have said, his residence]
-upon pretence before in Council, to give audience to the French King
-and Emperor’s Ambassadors, that had long been delayed audience; and
-that the Tower was not fit to him to enter into at that season. At
-which time, my Lord of Arundel, upon some overture of frank speech to
-be had in Council in respect of that present state, said secretly to
-his friend, as I take it yourself [_i.e._ Cecil] or Sir William Petre,
-that he liked not the air. And thereupon it was deferred to Baynard’s
-Castle; from which place the Lords went and proclaimed Queen Mary. And
-yourself was despatched after my Lord Arundel and my Lord Paget to her
-Grace, being at Ipswich; where, being sent by you a little before, my
-Lady Bacon told me that the Queen thought very well of her brother
-Cecil, and said you were a very honest man.”--Strype’s _Annals_, vol.
-iv. p. 349.
-
-[255] See either Harleian MSS, 358, 44; or _Chronicles of Queen Jane
-and Queen Mary_, p. 11.
-
-[256] _The Grey Friars Chronicle_ says that the bells continued to ring
-“all night till the next day to None.”
-
-[257] So complete was the popular desertion of Jane’s cause--if so,
-indeed, it may be called, seeing that there had never been any great
-enthusiasm for her--that Foxe was able to remark that “God so turned
-the hearts of the people to her [Mary], and against the Council
-[who represented Jane], that she overcame them without bloodshed,
-notwithstanding there was made great expedition against her both by sea
-and land” (Foxe, _Acts and Monuments_, vol. vi. p. 388). Jane herself
-was not disliked, but there would seem to have been little popular
-goodwill towards the Councillors and especially Northumberland; we
-have already recorded that the French Ambassador said that _toutes ces
-choses_ [Mary’s success] _sont advenues, plus pour la grande hayne
-qu’on porte à icelluy duc, que pour l’amitié qu’on a à ladicte royne_
-[Mary].
-
-[258] It is a curious fact that Cranmer was not arrested immediately
-on the fall of Jane. On 8th August he officiated at a Communion
-Service at the funeral of Edward VI at Westminster. He seems to have
-been eventually arrested on quite another charge than the one in the
-indictment. A certain Dr. Thornden, Bishop of Dover, having said
-Mass in Canterbury Cathedral, Cranmer published a manifesto against
-him, and incidentally stated that the rumour that he was willing to
-celebrate Mass before the Queen was untrue. This document being read
-in Cheapside, the Archbishop was brought before the Council on 8th
-September 1553 for “disseminating seditious bills,” and committed
-to the Tower. Having being tried at the same time as Jane Grey, he
-remained a prisoner in the Tower until 8th March 1554, when he went to
-Oxford for the celebrated theological disputation which ended in his
-fiery doom.
-
-[259] See Machyn, p. 38.
-
-[260] Dr. Nicholas suggested that this Partridge was Queen Mary’s
-goldsmith, who bore the same name, and seems to have been living in the
-Tower about this time.
-
-[261] The site of the Royal Garden in the Tower is now covered by
-modern buildings, military stores, etc., of no particular interest. The
-“hill within the Tower” may be another term for the Green, for Stowe,
-in speaking of the prisoners who knelt on the Green to invoke Queen
-Mary’s pardon at her first entry into the Tower, terms that ominous
-spot “the hill.” It is strange indeed if Lady Jane took her exercise on
-the place where she afterwards died!
-
-[262] This lady was a close connection of the Howards, and probably a
-grand-niece of Agnes, Duchess of Norfolk, by birth a Tylney.
-
-[263] A recent writer on the life of Lady Jane Grey states, but gives
-no authority, that she was released from the Tower immediately after
-her deposition, and retired to Sion House: but there is no contemporary
-evidence whatever in substantiation of this statement.
-
-[264] This William Paulet, Lord St. John, Marquis of Winchester, was in
-many ways an extraordinary creature. After the attainder and execution
-of Sir Thomas More, he was granted the beautiful mansion of Chelsea,
-and Edward VI, when Paulet was created Marquis of Winchester in 1551,
-gave him in fee both that property and all other possessions in Chelsea
-and Kensington forfeited by More. Next we hear of him as Great-Master
-of the Household to Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. In the fourth year
-of Edward VI’s reign he was made Lord Treasurer of England, in which
-capacity he appealed to Lady Jane for the jewels left in her charge at
-her accession. His religious changes were remarkable; in Edward’s time
-he was a bitter anti-Papist; in Mary’s, an enthusiastic Catholic; and
-under Elizabeth we find him a staunch supporter of the Church by law
-established. Asked how it was he managed to avoid a downfall amidst so
-many changes, he is said to have answered: “By being a willow and not
-an oak!” He died in 1572 in his ninety-seventh year, having lived to
-see over a hundred persons descend from him; and is buried in Chelsea
-parish church, where he had attended Mass in Henry VIII’s time; an
-“evangelical” service under Edward VI; Mass again in Mary’s day; and
-the English Morning Prayer in Elizabeth’s!
-
-[265] British Museum, Harleian Collection, No. 523, 46.
-
-[266] For a full and very instructive account of the _volta face_ of
-the Emperor and his subsequent conduct towards Queen Mary, see the
-State Papers, Foreign Series, from 23rd August 1553, the date of the
-banquet to Hoby at Brussels, to May 1554, and also _Two English Queens
-and Philip_, by Martin Hume.
-
-[267] This count would in itself have been punishable, it may be
-supposed, since the Tower was one of the royal palaces, as well as
-defences: the “seizure” here referred to consisted in the fact that
-Jane’s Council and attendants had been lodged there; that ammunition
-had been, as we have seen, brought in there during Jane’s reign;
-and that the Constable of the Tower had been changed by Suffolk’s
-manipulation. Sir John Gage, who had been appointed to that post in
-the year 1540, and had continued therein throughout Edward VI’s reign,
-was replaced by Lord Clinton, a Janeite, about the time the “Nine
-Days’ Queen” entered the fortress--only to be superseded on Mary’s
-accession by the very man he had displaced, Sir John Gage! Gage was
-followed by Sir Edward Braye, probably losing his appointment over a
-whimsical quarrel with the servants of the Princess Elizabeth during
-her imprisonment.
-
-[268] Although no official report of it remains, a Requiem for the
-repose of King Edward must have been sung at St. Paul’s, the bill of
-costs for choir-boys, lights, etc., for such a ceremony being still in
-existence. Edward VI was the first King of England buried according to
-the rites of the Church of England; at the same time, he was the last
-King of England for whom a Requiem Mass was sung in this country. James
-II died a Catholic, but abroad, in France. It has been remarked by
-Protestant historians that Mary had no right to have a Mass of Requiem
-said for her brother; they forget that he was baptized a Catholic.
-
-[269] It is quite obvious--Hume and Lingard to the contrary--that the
-Great Seal here referred to was that of Edward VI, affixed to that
-monarch’s letters patent for the limitation of the succession. The
-judges, however, purposely misunderstood Northumberland, and pretended
-to think he was referring to Jane’s seal, which would not, of course,
-have been recognised as legal. The Great Seal of King Edward continued
-to be used upon documents for many months after Mary’s accession; it
-will, for instance, be found attached to the Special Commission of Oyer
-and Terminer addressed to Thomas White, Mayor of London, and others
-for the trials of the indictments against Guildford Dudley “and Jane
-his wife,” and Ambrose and Henry Dudley, which took place in November
-1553. This seal is circular, and rather indistinct; on the one side His
-Majesty is represented seated, with the sceptre in his right hand and
-the orb in his left. He is under a canopy with curious side pillars:
-on either side of the throne are round coats of arms, surmounted by
-crowns. On the other side is a figure, wielding a mace and with a
-shield, on a horse in armour--this is either St. George or the Lord
-Protector. At the horse’s feet is a Tudor greyhound: there is an
-illegible inscription at the top margin. (See Baga de Secretis, pouch
-xxiii., Record Office.)
-
-[270] Machyn, p. 41. This horrible sentence was afterwards commuted to
-decapitation, and the same in the case of next day’s condemned.
-
-[271] Harleian MSS, No. 2194.
-
-[272] Sir Andrew Dudley was released on 18th January 1554. He died,
-without issue, in 1559.
-
-[273] For a further account of this recantation ceremony, see Harleian
-MSS, 284, fol. 128_d._ Also Stowe, _Annals_, p. 614.
-
-[274] Harleian MSS, No. 2194.
-
-[275] Bishop Burnet considered that Northumberland was only insincere
-in professing Protestantism--“he had always been a Catholic at heart”;
-John Knox said the same; and Jane Grey herself said, about a week after
-his death, “but for the answering that he [Northumberland] hoped for
-life by turning (Catholic), _though others be of the same opinion, I
-utterly am not_.” Burnet’s remark is supported by a statement the Duke
-of Northumberland made on one occasion, it is said, to Sir Anthony
-Browne, that “he certainly thought best of the old religion; but seeing
-a new one begun, run dog, run devil, he would go forward.” In other
-words, his Protestantism was a mere matter of policy.
-
-[276] This refers to the trained bands of the Tower Hamlets mentioned,
-whose headquarters were in the Tower, and took their titles from the
-districts in which they were raised.
-
-[277] Machyn’s _Diary_, p. 42. The paragraph ends with a reference to
-their attendance at Mass: “And at the same tym after was send for my
-lord mer and the aldermen and the cheyffest of the craftes in London,
-and dyvers of the counsell, and ther was sed mas [Mass] a-for [before]
-the Duke and the rest of the prisoners.” Was it the sudden arrival of
-the news that Northumberland was about to return to Catholicism that
-occasioned the postponement of the execution, in the hope that the
-Queen, touched by his conversion, might spare him? Most historians,
-however, assign the 20th as the date of the recantation, which would
-mean of course that it took place before the postponement of the
-execution, described by Machyn as having occurred on the 21st.
-
-[278] A very quaint account of the Duke of Northumberland’s execution,
-published in Paris in 1558 by a French priest named Stephen Perlin,
-contains, though full of inaccuracies, some details not to be found in
-other contemporary reports. “The afore-mentioned prisoners,” says he,
-“were taken to the Tower. The mob called the milor Notumbellant [_sic_]
-vile traitor, and he eyed them furiously with looks of resentment.
-Two days afterwards [an error; he entered the Tower on 25th July,
-and was tried on 18th August] he was taken by water in a little bark
-to Ousemestre [Westminster], a Royal palace, principally to indict
-and try him; his trial was not long, for it did not last more than
-fourteen days at most [there is no reason to suppose it lasted so
-long]; and he, the Duke of Suphor [Suffolk], and the milor Arondelle
-were condemned by an arrest of the Council to be beheaded in an open
-space before the castle of the Tower; and they had all three [they were
-really executed at widely different periods; see the text] the pain of
-seeing one under the hands of a hangman, before whom a whole kingdom
-had trembled, which, reader, was a lamentable spectacle. This hangman
-was lame of a leg, for I was present at the execution, and he wore a
-white apron like a butcher. This great lord made great lamentations
-and complaints at his death, and said this prayer in English, throwing
-himself on his knees, looking up to Heaven, and exclaiming tenderly,
-‘Lorde God mi fatre prie fort ous poore siners nond vand in the hoore
-of our teath,’ [so in the original: it seems to be a ludicrous mixture
-of the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary] which is to say, in French,
-‘Lord God my Father, pray for us men and poor sinners, and principally
-in the hour of our death.’ After the execution you might see little
-children gathering up the blood which had fallen through the slits in
-the scaffold on which he had been beheaded. In this country the head is
-put upon a pole, and all their goods confiscated to the Queen.”
-
-[279] The beauty and quantity of the roses in the Tower gardens is made
-particular mention of in contemporary documents.
-
-[280] Wriothesley says the cannonading and gun-firing on this occasion
-was positively deafening.
-
-[281] A rare French book entitled _Nouveaux Eclaircissements sur
-l’Histoire de Marie Reine d’Angleterre_, says of this interview:
-“Elle [Mary] lui [Renard] dit, qu’elle ne pouvait se résoudre à faire
-mourir Jeanne de Suffolck [Lady Jane Grey], qu’on lui avait assuré,
-qu’avant d’épouser le fils du duc de Nortumberland, elle avait été
-promise en mariage à un autre par un Contrat obligatoire, qui rendait
-son second mariage nul; d’où Marie concluait, que Jeanne n’était pas
-véritablement belle-fille du duc de Nortumberland. Elle ajouta qu’elle
-n’avait eu aucune part à l’entreprise de ce duc, & qu’elle se ferait
-conscience de la faire mourir, puisqu’elle était innocente. Simon
-Renard lui répliqua qu’il était à craindre, qu’on n’eût imaginé cette
-promesse obligatoire pour lui sauver la vie, & qu’il fallait au moins
-la retenir prisonnière, parce qu’il y aurait beaucoup d’inconvénients
-à lui rendre la liberté.... La Reine répondit ... qu’à l’égard de
-Jeanne de Suffolck, on ne la mettrait pas en liberté, sans avoir pris
-toutes les précautions nécessaires, pour qu’il n’en pût résulter
-aucun inconvénient. Le Lieutenant d’Amont [_i.e._ Renard] ayant
-rendu compte à l’Empereur de cette conversation, ce Prince insista
-de nouveau dans sa réponse ... de punir sans miséricordes tous ceux
-qui avaient entrepris de lui enlever la Couronne, & ceux qui avaient
-contribué à la mort du Roi.” [The latter phrase evidently refers to the
-widespread but unauthenticated idea that Edward VI had been poisoned by
-Northumberland.] The author or compiler of the book from which this is
-taken was one Père Griffet, who flourished in the eighteenth century,
-and having discovered a number of Simon Renard’s dispatches in the
-Royal Library at Besançon, wrote this work in answer to David Hume’s
-attack on Queen Mary: it was published at Amsterdam in 1766. There is
-no copy of it in the British Museum.
-
-[282] Poinet, the Protestant Bishop of Winchester, says in truth that
-“those lords of the Council who had been the most instrumental at the
-death of Edward VI, in thrusting royalty upon poor Lady Jane, and
-proclaiming Mary illegitimate, were now the sorest forcers of men, yea,
-became earnest councillors for that innocent lady’s death.” See Strype,
-vol. iii. part I, p. 141.
-
-[283] Sir Richard Morgan, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Lady
-Jane’s judge, was a Catholic. The date of his birth is not known.
-He was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn on 31st July 1523, and called to
-the Bar in 1529. From 1545 to 1547 and again in 1553 he represented
-Gloucester in the House of Commons. He was arrested and confined in
-the Fleet Prison on 24th March 1551, for the offence of attending Mass
-in Princess Mary’s chapel, but was soon released with a caution. In
-1553 he joined Mary’s party at Kenninghall, and when the Queen came to
-her own he was knighted [2nd October 1553]. Later in the same year he
-was placed on the commission to inquire into Bishop Tunstal’s appeal;
-and in November he tried and passed sentence of death on Lady Jane
-Grey and others. Sir Richard Morgan retired from the Bench in October
-1555. In the following year (according to Foxe, _Book of Martyrs_,
-iii. p. 37) “Judge Morgan, that gave the sentence against hir [Jane],
-shortly after fell mad, and in hys raving cryed continuallye to have
-the ladie Jane taken away from him, and so ended his life.” His death
-is mentioned in Holinshed, 1577 edition, p. 1733. Machyn (_Diary_,
-p. 106) records Morgan’s funeral in the following terms: “The ij day
-of June was bered at sant Magnus at London bryge ser Richerd Morgayn
-knyght, a juge and on [one] of the preve consell unto the nobull Quen
-Mare, with a harold [herald] of armes bayryng ys cott armur, and with
-a standard and a penon of armes and elmett, sword, and targatt; and
-iiij dosen of skochyons, and ij whytt branchys and xij torchys and iiij
-gret tapurs, and xxiiij pore men in mantyll ffrysse gownes, and mony
-in blake; and master chansseler of London [a certain Dr. Darbishire]
-dyd pryche.” Morgan also appears in Machyn as being present at a sermon
-on 5th November 1553, “The v day of November dyd pryche master Feknam
-[Feckenham] at sant Mare overays afor non [at St. Mary Overies before
-noon], and ther where at ys sermon the yerle of Devonshyre, ser Antony
-Browne, and juge Morgayn and dyvers odur nobull men” [p. 48]. The same
-writer makes mention of a Francis Morgan, Judge of the Queen’s Bench,
-who died in 1558, and may have been a relation of the Chief Justice.
-
-[284] This description of the trial is mainly derived from the original
-documents in the Baga de Secretis, Pouch xxiii., in the Public Record
-Office, Chancery Lane, London; from various contemporary descriptions
-of previous and subsequent State trials; and from ancient and
-contemporary engravings of similar scenes. There is, unfortunately, an
-utter lack of documentary evidence of a personal character connected
-with this trial, for, unlike these of the Queens Anne Boleyn and
-Katherine Howard, it was not of a domestic character, and there was
-neither cross-examination of witnesses or prisoners nor defence: the
-facts were of public knowledge and as such handed to the jury, who,
-after considering them, gave the only verdict possible under the
-circumstances, guilty. Thus, this celebrated trial is divested of those
-many touches of dramatic interest and human pathos which characterise
-the records of the trials of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Machyn’s
-account of Jane’s trial is very brief, and is in part destroyed. He
-says (p. 48): “[The 13th of November were arraigned at Guildhall Doctor
-Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord] Gylfford Dudlay, the sune
-of the Duke of Northumberland, and my lade Jane ys wyff, the doythur
-of the Duke of Suffoke-Dassett, and the Lord Hambrosse Dudlay, and the
-Lord Hare Dudlay, the wyche lade Jane was proclamyd Queen; they all v
-wher cast for to dee [die].”
-
-There is a contemporary account of the procession to the Guildhall,
-which runs as follows: “The xiijth daie of November were ledd out of
-the Tower on foot, to be arrayned, to yeldhall, with the axe before
-theym, from theyr warde [prison], Thomas Cranmer, archbushoppe of
-Canterbury, between ... [blank].
-
-“Next followed the lorde Gilforde Dudley between ... [blank].
-
-“Next followed the lady Jane, between ... [blank] and hir ij
-gentyll-women following hir.
-
-“Next followed the lorde Ambrose Dudley and the lorde Harry Dudley.
-
-“The lady Jane was in a black gowne of cloth, tourned downe, the cape
-lyned with fese velvett, and edget about with the same, in a French
-hoode, all black, with a black byllyment, a black velvet boke hanging
-before hir, and another boke in hir hande open, holding hir ...” [the
-entry breaks off here].
-
-See also Bishop Burnet’s _History of the Reformation_.
-
-[285] Dr. Feckenham was not installed as Abbot of Westminster until
-November 1556.
-
-[286] See Rossi, _I Successi d’Inghilterra_, p. 44, _et seq._
-
-[287] _The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary_, p. 37.
-
-[288] A dispatch of Renard’s of 8th February (given by Griffet),
-confirms this account, saying: “_Le duc de Suffolck avait assemblé un
-corps de troupes & quelques Gentilshommes de son parti, pour soutenir
-la rébellion: il fut attaqué par le comte Addincton_ [a mistake for
-Huntingdon], _qui s’était déclaré pour la Reine; & il perdit, dans ce
-combat, tous ses soldats sans exception, son argent & son équipage.
-Ce Duc s’enfuit avec ses deux frères, & se voyant poursuivi, il se
-cacha dans le creux d’un arbre, où il fut découvert par un chien qui
-ne cessait d’aboyer autour de cet arbre. Un de ses frères fut pris
-pareillement sous un tas de foin, & tous deux furent mis dans la Tour
-de Londres, avec un grand nombre d’Officiers & de Seigneurs._”
-
-[289] Machyn says (p. 54): “The same day [Shrove Tuesday, 6th February]
-cam rydyng to the Towre the Duke of Suffoke and ys brodur by the yerle
-of Huntyngton [_i.e._ in the Earl of Huntington’s charge] with iii. C.
-[three hundred] horse.”
-
-He also tells us that on the same day “was ij hanged upon a jebett
-in Powles churche yerd; the on [one] a spy of Wyatt, the thodur [the
-other] was under-shreyff of Leseter, for carryng letturs of the duke of
-Suffoke and odur thinges.”
-
-[290] Mary was, however, so firmly convinced that this was his object
-that in the orders to Lieutenants of Counties to proclaim as traitors
-Henry, Duke of Suffolk, the Carew brothers, Wyatt and others (dated
-26th January 1554), they are described as having “threatened her
-destruction and to advance the Lady Jane Grey _and her husband_.” These
-last words are significant, in view of Guildford’s pretensions to
-regality.
-
-[291] Griffet says: “_Le duc de Suffolck fut le premier à découvrir
-lui-même tous les secrets de la conspiration. Il écrivit sa confession,
-& la fit remettre à la Reine, en implorant sa clêmence; & il déclara,
-que les conjurés ne se proposaient rien moins que de mettre Elisabeth
-sur le trône._” There can be no mistaking the meaning of this statement.
-
-[292] Renard, in a dispatch of the 8th February, as given by Griffet,
-says indeed that “_Jeanne de Suffolck, dont elle_ [Mary] _avait épargné
-les jours, contre l’avis de l’Empereur Charles-Quint, fut sacrifiée à
-la nécessité d’ôter aux rebelles, & aux ennemis du Gouvernement, une
-idole qu’ils étaient fâchée de n’avoir pas maintenue sur le trône. Son
-mari fut exécuté le même jour._”
-
-Besides, Gardiner says that Suffolk himself bewailed “with impatient
-dolours not only his own woe, _but the calamity his folly had brought
-on his daughter_.” Godwin, however (_Rerum Anglicarum Henrico VIII,
-Edwardo VI et Maria, Annals_, p. 217), throws the blame of Jane’s
-troubles more on her mother than on her father: “_Hunc exitum habuit
-Iana, majorum titulis illustris fœmina, sed virtute et ingenii
-nobilitate longe illustrior, quæ dum Virtici et imperiosæ matris
-ambitioni obsequitur ... funestum sibi reginæ sumpsit._”
-
-The consensus of historians, nevertheless, lays the blame on Suffolk’s
-ill-advised attempt at rebellion. Bishop Burnet, writing in 1680
-(_History of the Reformation_, vol. ii. 437) says: “Indeed the blame of
-her death was generally cast on her father rather than on the Queen,
-since the rivalry of a crown is a point of such niceness, that even
-those who bemoaned her death most could not but excuse the Queen, who
-seemed to be driven to it, rather from considerations of State, than
-any resentment of her own.... He [Suffolk] would have died more pitied
-for his weakness, _if his practices had not brought his daughter to her
-end_.”
-
-[293] _The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary_, p. 50.
-
-[294] Machyn tells us (p. 55) that “The xij day of February was made
-at every gate in Lundun a new payre of galaus [gallows] and set up ...
-the xiiijth day of February were hangyd at evere gatt and plasse: in
-Chepe-syd vj; Algatt j, quartered; at Leydyhall iij; at Bysshope-gatt
-one, and quartered; Morgatt one; Crepullgatt one; Aldersgate one,
-quartered ...” and so forth, giving a total of about forty-eight, three
-being hanged at Hyde Park Corner, but none at Tyburn.
-
-[295] Fuller says he was “earnest yet modest.” Feckenham had been
-imprisoned by Henry VIII for his adherence to papal supremacy, until
-Sir Philip Hoby, whom we have seen advocating a Protestant monarch,
-“borrowed him out of the Tower.”
-
-[296] _The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary_, p. 54.
-
-[297] This allusion to a possible inheritance by Lady Katherine of
-her father’s possessions, does not, as Miss Strickland thinks, “prove
-that the insurrection of Suffolk was intended to replace Jane on the
-throne.” “If,” says that writer, “it had been in favour of any other
-heiress or heir, it is not likely that the Lady Jane would have rested
-under the attainder and surrendered the means of her subsistence to
-increase her younger sister’s portion. Moreover, if Jane had been the
-sovereign of England, she would scarcely have claimed a third portion
-of her father’s inheritance.” As a matter of fact, what Jane wrote
-proves nothing; Lady Katherine, had Suffolk kept out of political
-strife, would, after Jane, have inherited his fortune, which was
-confiscated at his arrest. Jane simply penned this sentence to make the
-contrast stronger between the mutability of the things of this world,
-and the unchangeability of that better land to which she knew she was
-hurrying.
-
-[298] This is an allusion to the parable of the foolish virgins.
-
-[299] British Museum, Harleian Collection, No. 2342.
-
-[300] This declaration of her intention of praying for her father in
-the next world suggests a survival of some Roman Catholic ideas in
-Jane’s theology; and one cannot imagine that it would have been exactly
-approved by the more extremely Protestant of the Reformers.
-
-[301] This book was either mentioned to Florio, or seen by him, for
-he has translated these three touching sentences into Italian in his
-_Historia di Giana Graia_.
-
-[302] It is said that Jane scratched some verses on the walls of her
-apartment with a pin, but, although numerous devices inscribed by the
-unfortunate persons who have at different times been the inhabitants
-of the Tower were discovered in divers parts of it some years ago,
-during alterations, not the slightest trace of these verses were found.
-This does not, however, prove that they never existed, and as they are
-constantly attributed to Lady Jane, we have thought it best to reprint
-them here:--
-
- “_Non aliena putes homini quæ obtingere possunt;
- Sors hodierna mihi, cras erit ilia tibi._”
-
-This has been thus translated:--
-
- “To mortals’ common fate thy mind resign,
- My lot to-day, to-morrow may be thine----”
-
-These lines are also paraphrased as follows:--
-
- “Think not, O mortal! vainly gay,
- That thou from human woes art free;
- The bitter cup I drink to-day,
- To-morrow may be drunk by thee.”
-
-The following is also said to have been written by Jane in like
-manner:--
-
- “_Deo juvante, nil nocet, livor malus;
- Et non juvante, nil juvat labor gravis,
- Post tenebras, spero lucem_”:
-
-Which has been translated in two ways:--
-
- “Whilst God assists us, envy bites in vain,
- If God forsake us, fruitless all our pain--
- I hope for light after the darkness.”
-
-Or:--
-
- “Harmless all malice if our God be nigh,
- Fruitless all pains if He His help deny,
- Patient I pass these gloomy hours away,
- And wait the morning of eternal day.”
-
-In the Beauchamp Tower, in that room which was occupied by
-Northumberland, the name “Jane” appears twice, cut into the wall. It
-has been said that this was the work of Lord Guildford Dudley, but it
-is more probable that it was carved by Northumberland, his faithful
-wife’s name being Jane.
-
-[303] The Protestant chaplains appointed under Edward VI had at this
-time been replaced by Benedictine monks.
-
-[304] The Bulwark Gate marked the boundaries of the County of Middlesex
-and the Tower precincts.
-
-[305] “The monday, being the xij of Februarie, about ten of the clock,
-ther went out of the Tower to the scaffolde on Tower Hill, the lord
-Guildforde Dudley, sone to the late Duke of Northumberland, husbande to
-the lady Jane Gray, daughter to the Duke of Suffoke, who at his going
-out tooke by the hande sir Anthony Browne, maister John Throgmorton,
-and many other gentyllmen, praying them to praie for him, and without
-the bullwarke Offeley the sheryve receyved him and brought him to the
-scaffolde, where, after a small declaration, having no gostlye father
-with him, he kneeled downe and said his praiers, then holding upp his
-eyes and handes to God many tymes, and at last, after he had desyred
-the people to pray for him, he laide himselfe along, and his hedd upon
-the block, which was at one stroke of the axe taken from him.”--_The
-Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary._
-
-[306] It has been stated that this additional horror was commanded by
-Queen Mary herself, but the charge is absolutely without foundation.
-Sharon Turner, amongst others, was of opinion that “the meeting with
-the bleeding body was purely accidental.”
-
-[307] _The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary_ says: “Guildford’s
-carcass was thrown into a carre, and his hed in a cloth, he was brought
-into the chappell within the Tower, wher the Lady Jane, whose lodging
-was in Partridge’s house, _dyd see his ded carcass taken out of the
-cart_, as well as she dyd see; him before a lyve going to his death, a
-sight to hir no lesse than death.”
-
-[308] “The Lord Guildford Dudley’s dead carkas lyin in a carre in
-strawe was againe brought into the Tower _at the same instant that
-my Ladi Jane_ his wyfe _went to her death_ within the Tower, which
-myserable sight was to her a duble sorrowe and griefe.”
-
-[309] He is said to have been of almost gigantic height, and very
-powerful.
-
-[310] This little volume, which purports to give an account of the last
-days of Lady Jane Grey, is quoted by Burke in his _Tudor Portraits_,
-the Lady Philippa de Clifford being there described as the author and
-as a cousin of Lady Jane Grey, who certainly had no first cousin of
-this name; but among the English Benedictine nuns who took refuge at
-Mechlin in the early part of the seventeenth century there is a mention
-of a Philippa de Clifford, but of which branch of the Clifford family
-it is difficult at this period to ascertain. That the little volume
-exists there can be no doubt, as a copy of it was seen by the author
-at Brussels a few years ago. It was written in French and apparently
-from notes in the possession of its author, who, although a Catholic,
-says nothing disparaging of Lady Jane’s faith. Its authenticity, like
-that of another little volume on the same subject quoted elsewhere,
-also published in Belgium, must be taken with considerable caution. In
-the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a sort of fashion was started
-in England, France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy for the writing of
-apocryphal memoirs of popular heroes and heroines: and as Lady Jane
-Grey was a great favourite with the Protestants, both at home and
-abroad, she has been the heroine of several of these volumes, most
-of which are founded upon the famous letter to Queen Mary, quoted by
-Pollino. They must not, however, be disparaged as entirely worthless,
-for some of them undoubtedly contain details that have been handed down
-during many generations. In the British Museum will be found a curious
-little volume called _The Diary of Lady Mary Grey_, which also contains
-a number of very amusing details concerning that unlucky lady which
-have all the appearance of being absolutely true. Similar monographs
-exist on the lives of Anne Boleyn, and especially of Mary Stuart;
-all of these purport to be written by attendants or persons who have
-derived their information from original sources now lost. I am assured
-that in the Dutch libraries there are several contemporary pamphlets
-on Lady Jane Grey written in the Dutch language; and there are also
-one or two in the Swiss Libraries--in the main they all bear a strong
-resemblance one to the other, but differ in matters of detail. Lady
-Philippa tells us, for instance, that the headsman of Lady Jane was
-a man of exceptional stature; and this is confirmed by other writers
-whose work could not have been known to the author of the pamphlet in
-question. For lists of the Benedictine nuns at Mechlin, etc., amongst
-whom was Lady Philippa, see in the Brussels Archives: No. 11205,
-Prevost; _Les Refugiés Anglais et Irlandais en Belgique à la suite
-de la Reforme Anglaise établie sous Elizabeth et Jacques I_. Gand:
-_Messager des Scénes Historiques_, 1865. Also: Gachet, _Catholiques
-Anglais et Ecossais Pensionnaires du Duc d’Alve_. Bruxelles, 1850.
-
-[311] As Lady Jane’s “neckerchief” had been taken off before, one can
-but suppose that she meant to ask the headsman if he would cut her
-head off as she knelt with her body upright, as was sometimes done,
-and not with her head on the block. “_Before_ I lay me down” may be a
-mistake for, “_Without that_ I lay me down.” We may add that there is
-no mention in any contemporary record of Jane’s hands having been tied:
-probably she held them clasped in the attitude of prayer.
-
-[312] An old book, entitled, _The Ende of the Ladie Jane Dudlie on
-the Scaffulde_, which was printed at Antwerp in 1560, says her last
-words were, “I die in peace with all people; God save the Queen.” It
-is more probable, however, that the pious Lady Jane used the religious
-ejaculation printed above.
-
-[313] _The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary_ thus describes Lady
-Jane’s last moments: “By this tyme was ther a scaffolde made upon the
-grene over agaynst the White Tower for the saide Lady Jane to die
-upon.... The saide Lady being nothing at all abashed, neither with
-feare of her own deathe, which then approached, neither with the ded
-carcase of her husbande, when he was brought into the chapell, came
-forthe the Lieutenant leading hir, in the same gown wherein she was
-arrayned, hir countenance nothing abashed, neither her eyes mysted
-with teares, although her two gentlewomen, Mistress Elizabeth Tylney
-and Mistress Eleyn wonderfully wept, with a boke in hir hand, whereon
-she praied all the way till she came to the saide scaffolde, whereon
-when she was mounted, this noble young ladie, as she was indued with
-singular gifts both of learning and knowledge, so was she as patient
-and mild as any lamb at her execution.” Here the chronicler describes
-her gift of the book to Brydges, etc., and continues, “Forthwith she
-untied her gowne. The hangman went to her to have helped her therwith,
-then she desyred him to let her alone, turning towards her two
-gentlewomen, who helped her off therwith, and also her frose paste and
-neckercher, geving to her a fayre handkercher to knytte about her eyes.
-Then the hangman kneled downe, and asked her forgiveness, whom she
-forgave most willingly. Then he willed her to stand upon the strawe,
-which doing she sawe the block. Then she sayd ‘I pray you despatche me
-quickly.’ Then she kneled downe saying, ‘Will you take it off before I
-lay me downe?’ And the hangman answered her, ‘No, madame.’ She tied the
-kercher about her eyes. Then feeling for the block, saide, ‘What shal
-I do, where is it?’ One of the standers by guyding her thereunto, she
-layde her head downe upon the block, and stretched forth her body, and
-said, ‘Lord, into Thy handes I commende my spirite,’ and so she ended.”
-
-[314] Historians are very apt to speak of the famous French Ambassador
-de Noailles, as one person, whereas in reality there were two
-Ambassadors of this name, the first of whom was Antoine de Noailles,
-the son of Louis and Catherine de Pierre-Bussiere, who entered
-diplomacy when he was quite a young man and continued in the service
-until his death, which took place in his fifty-ninth year. His tomb can
-still be seen at Noailles, where his ancestors are buried. His wife,
-Jeanne de Gontault de Biron, is not, however, buried with him, although
-her heart was placed in his coffin.
-
-The second Ambassador to our Court of this illustrious family was
-François de Noailles, brother of the last named, who was born on 2nd
-July 1519. He was a very zealous Catholic and extremely pious. He
-entered the Church when he was only twelve years of age, to eventually
-become Bishop of Acqs in 1556. His extraordinary ability for diplomatic
-intrigue led the King, Henry II, to send him to various countries on
-sundry diplomatic missions, even at the same time as his brother, and
-he first appeared in England on the occasion of Mary’s victory over the
-rebels in 1553. He remained in England altogether about two years, and
-his dispatches are frequently confounded with those of his brother.
-François de Noailles died in 1560.
-
-Both brothers were greatly opposed to the policy of Queen Mary, and
-thought her unnecessarily harsh and cruel. On more than one occasion
-they were very outspoken to her, especially in the matter of the
-extraordinary number of executions which took place immediately after
-the quelling of the Wyatt insurrection; and they both appear to have
-thought that she made her own unpopularity by her bigotry, and her
-abject subservience to the wishes of her husband.
-
-[315] Noailles was certainly not present at the execution in the Tower.
-He gives, however, a very concise account of it, including her speech.
-His version of the tragedy follows that of Foxe very closely.
-
-[316] Peter Derenzie states that “the corpse was interred in the Chapel
-of St. Peter-ad-Vincula within the Tower, close by that of her husband,
-Lord Guildford Dudley, and between the decapitated bodies of Anne
-Boleyn and Katherine Howard, without any religious ceremony.”
-
-[317] See _Zurich Letters_ (Parker Society), pp. 154, 515, 686.
-
-[318] Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, having ridden out of London against
-Mary in company of Northumberland, was arrested at Cambridge on 19th
-July and conveyed to the Tower of London a day or two later. He was
-indicted with Lady Jane and the others, but was released before the
-following January, by which time he had so completely re-established
-himself in the Queen’s favour that he was given the command of Her
-Majesty’s troops sent into Leicestershire against Suffolk, whom he
-brought back to the Tower a prisoner.
-
-[319] Foxe’s _Acts and Monuments_, vol. ii. p. 1467.
-
-[320] It is strange and significant that both in his prayer and in his
-request for haste, Suffolk should have acted exactly as his daughter
-had done!
-
-[321] Did the Duchess of Suffolk cause her husband’s head to be
-removed to his own house, which stood on the site now occupied by the
-buildings adjacent to this Church? The mansion in question had been
-the convent of the Order of Religious known as the Poor Clares, or in
-Latin, _Sorores Minores_ (from which “Minories” has been formed) and
-was given to Suffolk by Edward VI. The Church known as Holy Trinity was
-the convent chapel. It is not altogether improbable that the Duchess
-had the head brought there; on the other hand, Suffolk’s will may have
-contained a request that it should be placed in the chapel.
-
-[322] See Machyn, pp. 56, 64.
-
-[323] What was to have been the ending of this sentence? Was the
-chronicler going to add that the head was removed from the Tower after
-decapitation? Perhaps, after all, the head in the Church of the Holy
-Trinity, Minories, is that of Thomas Grey, and _not_ of the Duke of
-Suffolk; its resemblance to the latter’s portrait arising from a mere
-family likeness, common to all the brothers.
-
-[324] The writer is of opinion that Adrian Stokes was a son or near
-relation of John Stokes, the Queen’s brewer, who supplied the Suffolks
-with beer and wine, as appears in the household accounts of the Duke of
-Suffolk. This John Stokes was a notability in his way, and his funeral,
-which must have been a costly function for those days, is recorded by
-Machyn (p. 177) in the following terms: “The vj day of November [1558]
-was bered at sent Benettes at Powlles Warff master John Stokes the
-queen’s servand and bruar [brewer], with ij whytt branchys and x gret
-stayffes-torchys and iij gret tapurs; and x pore men had rosett gownes
-of iiijs. the yerd [four shillings the yard], and xvj gownes, and
-cottes of xijs. [coats of eleven shillings] the yerd.”
-
-[325] Vide _Notes and Queries_ for 1855, vol. xii. p. 451.
-
-[326] The entire family of the Duke of Northumberland and his Duchess
-was as follows:--
-
-Henry, killed at the Siege of Boulogne in the thirty-fifth year of
-Henry VIII, aged nineteen.
-
-Thomas, who died when two years old.
-
-John, who bore the title of Lord Lisle and Earl of Warwick during his
-father’s life. He adopted a martial life, acting as Lieutenant-General
-during Somerset’s expedition into Scotland. He married, in June 1550,
-Anne Seymour. He was sentenced to death at the same time as his father,
-was pardoned, and died at Penshurst, in Kent, ten days after his
-release from the Tower, in 1554.
-
-Ambrose was born about 1528. He was tried, together with Lady Jane Grey
-and her husband, in 1553, was pardoned and released in October 1554,
-and died in 1590, being created Earl of Warwick in the fourth year of
-Elizabeth.
-
-Robert, who was born about 1532, having proclaimed Jane Queen at King’s
-Lynn, was sent to the Tower. He was condemned to death on 22nd June
-1554, but was released and pardoned in October 1554. He was created
-Earl of Leicester by Elizabeth, and became famous in her reign.
-
-Guildford Dudley, husband of Lady Jane Grey.
-
-Henry, who was tried at Guildhall with his brothers Ambrose and
-Guildford in 1553, but liberated. He was killed at the battle of St.
-Quentin, in 1555.
-
-Charles, who died aged four years.
-
-The daughters of Northumberland were--
-
-Mary, who married Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, etc., and
-was the mother of Sir Philip Sidney. Catherine, the second daughter,
-who married the Earl of Huntingdon, died in 1620, aged seventy-two.
-
-Margaret, the fourth daughter, died at the age of ten.
-
-Frances, fourth daughter, died as an infant.
-
-Temperance, the fifth daughter, died at seven years old.
-
-Of all these daughters, the only one who came into intimate contact
-with Lady Jane was Lady Mary, who, it will be remembered, fetched the
-Lady Jane to Sion from Chelsea, on the memorable occasion when she
-received the homage of the Council.
-
-[327] Cheke continued to travel on the Continent until 1556, when,
-being invited by Lord Paget and Sir John Mason to go and see them in
-Brussels in a friendly way, he was suddenly taken prisoner _en route_
-by the Provost Marshal, on the road between Antwerp and Brussels,
-blindfolded, tied, flung into a waggon, taken to the nearest port,
-and conveyed by sea to the Tower of London, “being taken as it were
-by a whirlwind,” as he says himself. The excuse given for his arrest
-was that he had overstayed the leave of absence granted by the royal
-licence, having endeavoured to establish himself abroad. In the Tower
-he submitted to the Roman Catholic Church. He was later released and
-granted extensive lands; but he died in September 1557, after, so it is
-said, a partial return to Protestantism. He is buried in St. Alban’s
-Church, Wood Street, under a monument bearing some verses by Dr. Haddon.
-
-[328] The remainder of the actors in the drama are soon disposed of.
-The end of Judge Morgan we have already mentioned. Feckenham was
-imprisoned for twenty-three years under Elizabeth, and died in Wisbeach
-Jail. Aylmer, once Jane’s tutor, was, on the other hand, extremely
-fortunate. He fled at the coming of Mary, taking refuge in Switzerland,
-whence he wrote a reply--entitled _An Harborowe for Faythfull and True
-Subjects_--to Knox’s _Blast_. He returned to England at Elizabeth’s
-accession; became Archdeacon of Lincoln in 1562, Bishop of London in
-1576, and died in 1594. Ascham remained in England during Mary’s reign,
-protected, despite his ardent Protestantism, by Gardiner. He died in
-December 1568. The treacherous Lord Paget was restored to office under
-Mary, and appointed Lord Privy Seal.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Notes
-
-
-Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
-predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not
-changed. Spelling of non-English and old-English words not changed.
-
-Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
-quotation marks retained.
-
-Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
-
-Text sometimes spells “Althorp” as “Althorpe”; both have been retained
-here.
-
-Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references,
-except for reference to page 385, which has been corrected to 358.
-
-Page 254: Letters with overbars (such as ū) indicate contractions.
-
-Page 254: “(to the issu” has no matching closing parenthesis.
-
-Page 270: “Six purse hangers of siver and gilt” was printed that way.
-
-Page 327: “Prince Arthur, younger brother of Henry VIII” is incorrect:
-Arthur was the older brother.
-
-Page 341: “Fox” may be a misprint for “Foxe”.
-
-Page 364 refers to “Ross” and then “Rowe”; may be the same person.
-
-Footnote 310, originally on page 342: The correct title of “Messager
-des Scénes Historiques” is “Messager des Sciences Historiques”.
-
-Page 364: The elegy, written in Latin, apparently contains several
-typographical errors. They have not been changed here, but readers
-may wish to consult other versions of that elegy, such as the one at
-https://books.google.de/books?id=upwNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA190.
-
-Page 372: Left parenthesis added in the “Warwick, John, Earl of,” entry,
-just before “the Duke of Northumberland’s son”.
-
-Footnote 98, originally on page 103: “gratias ego” may be a misspelling
-for “gratias ago”.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey,
-and Her Times, by Richard Davey
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-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey, and
-Her Times, by Richard Davey
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey, and Her Times
-
-Author: Richard Davey
-
-Editor: Martin Hume
-
-Release Date: November 10, 2015 [EBook #50427]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NINE DAYS' QUEEN, LADY JANE GREY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by MWS, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive)
-
-
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-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<div class="transnote covernote">
-<p class="nobreak p1 center">Transcriber’s Note<br />Cover created by Transcriber, using an illustration in this book,
-and placed in the Public Domain.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="newpage p4 in0 vspace">
-ROMANTIC HISTORY<br />
-<span class="smaller"><span class="smcap">General Editor: Martin Hume, M.A.</span></span></p>
-
-<h1 class="nobreak gesperrt">THE NINE DAYS’ QUEEN</h1>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p class="newpage p4 center">
-BY THE SAME AUTHOR</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="l2a smcap">The Pageant of London</span><br />
-<span class="smcap">The Sultan and his Subjects</span>
-</p>
-
-<div id="i_frontis" class="newpage figcenter" style="width: 456px;">
- <img src="images/i_000.jpg" width="456" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>LADY JANE GREY</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">FROM THE PAINTING BY LUCAS DE HEERE AT ALTHORP</p></div></div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p class="newpage p4 center xlarge vspace wspace bold">
-THE<br />
-<span class="larger">NINE DAYS’ QUEEN</span></p>
-
-<p class="p1 center large vspace wspace bold">LADY JANE GREY<br />
-<span class="gesperrt1">AND HER TIMES</span></p>
-
-<p class="center vspace"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br />
-<span class="large wspace bold">RICHARD DAVEY</span></p>
-
-<p class="p2 center vspace wspace">EDITED, AND WITH INTRODUCTION, BY<br />
-<span class="larger bold">MARTIN HUME, M.A.</span></p>
-
-<p class="p2 center small">WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS</p>
-
-<p class="p2 center vspace larger wspace vspace">METHUEN &amp; CO.<br />
-<span class="smaller">36 ESSEX STREET W.C.<br />
-LONDON</span></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p class="newpage p4 center smaller"><i>First Published in 1909</i></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p class="newpage p4 center vspace wspace smaller">
-TO<br />
-MY DEAR WIFE<br />
-<span class="larger">ELEANORA DAVEY</span>
-</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii">vii</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2><a id="AUTHORS_NOTE"></a>AUTHOR’S NOTE</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">My</span> object in writing this book has been to interest
-the reader in the tragic story of Lady Jane
-Grey rather from the personal than the political
-point of view. I have therefore employed, more perhaps
-than is usual, what the French historians term <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">le document
-humain</i> in my account of the extraordinary men and
-women who surrounded Lady Jane, and who used her as
-a tool for their ambitious ends. The reader may possibly
-wonder why in several of the earlier chapters Lady Jane
-Grey plays so shadowy a part, but I deemed it impossible
-for any one who is not very familiar with our History at
-this period to understand, without having a complete idea of
-the chain of conspiracies that preceded and rendered possible
-her proclamation, how a young Princess, not in the immediate
-succession to the Crown, came to be placed, if only for nine
-days, in the towering position of Queen of England. These
-conspiracies were four in number. The first was that of the
-Howards and the Catholic party against Queen Katherine
-Parr. The second, the conspiracy of the Seymours against
-the Howards, which ended in the downfall of the great House
-of Norfolk, whereby Edward Seymour was enabled to proclaim
-himself Lord Protector of the Realm. The third plot was that
-of Thomas Seymour to cast down his brother Edward from his
-high station, and, if possible, to usurp the same for himself&mdash;a
-strange story of folly and intrigue and overvaulting ambition
-which ended in one of the most terrible fratricidal tragedies
-to be found in the history of the nations. Fourthly, the
-removal of the brothers Seymour from the scene enabled John
-Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, to work his own will and
-to prepare the way, during the last days of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, for his
-daughter-in-law, much against her will, to usurp the throne.</p>
-
-<p>I have consulted every available document, as well in our<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii">viii</a></span>
-national archives and private libraries as in those of foreign
-countries, concerning Lady Jane and her friends and foes, the
-better to paint as vivid a picture as possible of the times in
-which they lived.</p>
-
-<p>I need scarcely add how greatly I appreciate the honour
-Major Martin Hume has conferred upon my work by his
-scholarly Introduction, which gives so succinct and deeply interesting
-an account of our foreign politics at a most momentous
-period of English history. To him, to Dr. Gairdner, to Earl
-Spencer, to Earl Stamford and Warrington, and to many other
-gentlemen and friends, including the officials at the State Paper
-Office and the British Museum, I beg to tender my sincere
-thanks for their courtesy and for the valuable information with
-which they have helped me to complete my picture of one of
-the most interesting periods in our national history.</p>
-
-<p>I cannot, moreover, allow this opportunity to pass without
-recording, with sincere gratitude and affection, the aid which
-I received, when I first thought of writing this life of Lady Jane
-Grey, from the kindness of my old valued and lamented
-friend, Dr. Richard Garnett.</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-RICHARD DAVEY
-</p>
-
-<p class="smaller">
-<span class="smcap">200 Ashley Gardens, London, S.W.</span><br />
-<span class="in5"><i>5th September 1909</i>.</span>
-</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ix">ix</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2><a id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table id="toc" summary="Contents">
- <tr class="small">
- <td colspan="2"> </td>
- <td class="tdr">PAGE</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td> </td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">xiii</a></td></tr>
- <tr class="small">
- <td class="tdr">CHAP.</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">I.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Bradgate Hall and the Greys of Groby</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">II.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Birth and Education</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">14</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">III.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Lady Latimer</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">28</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">IV.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The King’s Household</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">42</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">V.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Anne Askew</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">58</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">VI.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Howards and the Seymours</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">73</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">VII.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Henry viii</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">100</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">VIII.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Concerning the Lady Jane and the Queen-Dowager</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">115</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">IX.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Queen and the Lord High-Admiral</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">136</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">X.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Lady Jane goes to Seymour Place</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">147</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XI.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Education of Lady Jane</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">168</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XII.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">John Dudley, Earl of Warwick</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">190</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XIII.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Fall of the House of Somerset</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">208</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XIV.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Lady Jane marries the Lord Guildford</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">221</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XV.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">On the Way to the Tower</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">238</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XVI.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Lady Jane is proclaimed Queen</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">249</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XVII.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Nine Days’ Reign</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">256</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XVIII.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Last Days of Northumberland</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">289</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XIX.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Trial of Queen Jane</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">310</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XX.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Supreme Hour!</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">328</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdr top">XXI.</td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Fate of the Survivors</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">348</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td> </td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Appendix</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#APPENDIX">359</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td> </td>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Index</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#INDEX">365</a></td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xi">xi</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2><a id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table id="loi" summary="List of Illustrations">
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Lady Jane Grey</span><br /><span class="sub">From the Painting by <span class="smcap">Lucas de Heere</span> at Althorp. (Photograph by <span class="smcap">Hanfstaengl</span>)</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#i_frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
- <tr class="small">
- <td> </td>
- <td class="tdr">FACING PAGE</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk</span><br /><span class="sub">From the Painting by <span class="smcap">Joannes Corvus</span>, in the National Portrait Gallery</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_12">12</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Queen Katherine Parr</span><br /><span class="sub">After the Painting formerly in the possession of Horace Walpole</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_30">30</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Henry viii in 1547</span><br /><span class="sub">From an old Engraving</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_48">48</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Roger Ascham’s Visit to Lady Jane Grey at Bradgate</span><br /><span class="sub">After the Painting by <span class="smcap">J.&nbsp;C. Horsley, R.A.</span></span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_172">172</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland</span><br /><span class="sub">From an Engraving by <span class="smcap">G. Vertue</span></span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_192">192</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset</span><br /><span class="sub">From an Engraving after the Painting by <span class="smcap">Holbein</span></span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_208">208</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Supposed Portrait of Lady Jane Grey</span><br /><span class="sub">Formerly in the Collection of Col. Elliott of Nottingham, and now at Oxford University. From an Engraving after the Painting by <span class="smcap">Holbein</span></span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_224">224</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Edward vi</span><br /><span class="sub">From an Engraving by <span class="smcap">G. Vertue</span></span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_246">246</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Lady Jane Grey by Wyngaerde</span><br /><span class="sub">The earliest engraved Portrait of her, from a Picture said to be by <span class="smcap">Holbein</span>, now lost</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_270">270</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Queen Mary at the Period of her Marriage</span><br /><span class="sub">From the Painting by <span class="smcap">Antonio Mor</span>, in the Prado Museum. (Photograph by <span class="smcap">R. Anderson</span>)</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_322">322</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Portrait of the Lady Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and her Second Husband, Adrian Stokes, Esq.</span><br /><span class="sub">Probably by <span class="smcap">Corvinus</span>, property of Col. Wynn Finch</span></td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#ip_352">352</a></td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiii">xiii</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2><a id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> tragedy of Lady Jane Grey is unquestionably one
-of the most poignant episodes in English history,
-but its very dramatic completeness and compactness
-have almost invariably caused its wider significance to be
-obscured by the element of personal pathos with which it
-abounds. The sympathetic figure of the studious, saintly
-maiden, single-hearted in her attachment to the austere creed
-of Geneva, stands forth alone in a score of books refulgent
-against the gloomy background of the greed and ambition to
-which she was sacrificed. The whole drama of her usurpation
-and its swift catastrophe is usually treated as an isolated
-phenomenon, the result of one man’s unscrupulous self-seeking;
-and with the fall of the fair head of the Nine Days’
-Queen upon the blood-stained scaffold within the Tower the
-curtain is rung down and the incident looked upon as fittingly
-closed by the martyrdom of the gentlest champion of the
-Protestant Reformation in England.</p>
-
-<p>Such a treatment of the subject, however attractive and
-humanly interesting it may be, is nevertheless unscientific as
-history and untrue in fact. An adequate appreciation of
-the tendencies behind the unsuccessful attempt to deprive
-Mary of her birthright can only be gained by a consideration
-of the circumstances preceding and surrounding the main
-incident. The reasons why Northumberland, a weak man
-as events proved, was able to ride rough-shod over the nobles
-and people of England, the explanation of his sudden and
-ignominious collapse and of the apparent levity with which
-the nation at large changed its religious beliefs and observance
-at the bidding of assumed authority are none of them
-on the surface of events; and the story of Jane Grey as it is
-usually told, whilst abounding in pathetic interest gives no
-key to the vast political issues of which the fatal intrigue<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiv">xiv</a></span>
-of Northumberland was but a by-product. To represent
-the tragedy as a purely religious one, as is not infrequently
-done, is doubly misleading. That one side happened to be
-Catholic and the other Protestant was merely a matter of
-party politics, and probably not a single active participator
-in the events, except Jane herself, and to some extent Mary,
-was really moved by religious considerations at all, loud as
-the professions of some of the leaders were.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Davey has given in the vivid pages of this book a striking
-picture of the Society in which the drama was represented
-and of the persons who surrounded Lady Jane Grey in the
-critical period of her unhappy fate; and this of itself enables
-a wider view than is usual to be taken of the subject. But,
-withal, I venture to think that an even more extended prospect
-of it may be attained and the whole episode fitted into its
-proper place in the history of England, if supplementary
-consideration be given to international politics of the time,
-and especially to the part which England aspired to take
-in the tremendous struggle for supremacy which was then
-approaching the end of its first phase on the Continent of
-Europe; a struggle in which not only the two most powerful
-nations in Christendom were engaged and the two greatest
-monarchs in the world were the leaders, but one in which the
-eternally antagonistic principles of expansion and repression
-were the issues.</p>
-
-<p>It is too often assumed that the system of political parties in
-English Government dates only from the rise of Parliament
-as the predominant power in the State in the seventeenth
-century, since, by the open opposition and the public discussion
-of rival policies in the Legislature, the existence of
-different groups of statesmen then became evident to the
-world. But at least it may be asserted that, from the time
-when the two first Tudor kings sought the aggrandisement of
-England by placing their power in the balance between the
-great Continental rivals, two schools of English politicians
-surrounded their sovereign, each intent upon forwarding
-the alliance which seemed to them wisest in the interests of
-the country and their own. When, however, the political
-rivalry of France and the Emperor was accentuated by the
-introduction of religious schism in the contest, by the bold<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xv">xv</a></span>
-defiance of Luther and the spread of the reformed doctrines,
-the political parties in the English Court were divided more
-distinctly than ever by the new element introduced; and,
-despotic as the Tudor sovereigns were, the apparently personal
-and fickle character of their policy, which proves so puzzling
-to students, really arose in nearly every case from the temporary
-predominance in their counsels of one or the other
-school of thought represented in their Court. It is only by
-recognising this fact that the strange and sudden changes
-which took place in the reigns of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>
-can be made comprehensible, and by it also the rise and fall
-of Lady Jane Grey can be seen in its true light.</p>
-
-<p>During the last twenty years of the reign of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>
-his bewildering mutations of policy and of wives were the
-result of efforts on the part of rival sets of politicians to utilise
-his brutal sensuality and inflated pride to their respective
-ends. With him, as with the most of them, religion was a
-mere stalking horse for other interests. The traditional
-and more Conservative party, which usually leant towards
-the imperial alliance, naturally took the Catholic side, the
-established nobility such as the Howards backed by the
-Catholic bishops being contrasted with the more recently
-ennobled men, aided by bureaucrats like Cromwell and by
-the reforming churchmen. Thus it came to be understood
-before the end of Henry’s reign that the men in the English
-Court most favourable to emancipation from the Papacy were
-generally speaking the advocates of a French alliance, whilst
-those who clung to the orthodox view of religion favoured
-the traditional adherence to the house of Burgundy. It is
-true that the men on both sides were equally eager to participate
-in the plunder of the Church and in filching the commons
-from the people of England; and that both parties included
-men who were ready to profess themselves faithful Catholics
-or ardent reformers as their interests demanded at the time.
-But the political aims of the respective parties were quite
-distinctly divided, notwithstanding religious affinities, for
-the Emperor was just as desirous of having Protestant friends
-in England as the King of France was willing to accept Catholic
-support there. The object of the English sovereigns, it
-must be recollected, was usually somewhat different from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xvi">xvi</a></span>
-that of their bribed councillors who had their own interests
-to serve. The aim of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span> and Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, and especially
-of Elizabeth, who alone was successful in attaining it,
-was so to distribute the weight of England’s influence as to
-avert any coalition of the two great Continental powers
-against her, rather than to become the permanent tool of
-either; the efforts of Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>, and his French rival being
-respectively directed towards preventing England from
-throwing in her lot with their enemies.</p>
-
-<p>Until religious bitterness infinitely complicated the
-question, and finally led to the long state of war with Spain,
-the side which commanded most sympathy amongst the
-English people at large was unquestionably that which favoured
-a cordial understanding with the sovereign of Flanders and
-Spain. The country had been in close antagonism with
-France on and off for centuries, the proximity of the coasts
-and the aspirations of the French to dominate the Channel
-represented a constant danger and source of anxiety, and it
-was instinctively felt in England that the time-honoured policy
-which bound her to the monarch who was able when he
-pleased to divert the aggression of the French by threatening
-any of their land frontiers, was the safest friend of this country.
-The English merchants who found their richest markets in
-Flanders and Spain, and who were in chronic irritation at
-the French piratical attacks upon their commerce, were
-equally anxious for a friendship which they looked upon as
-the best assurance against a war which they dreaded; so
-that the chief English advocates of the French connection
-were usually those whose adherence to the reformed religious
-doctrines overbore their political interests, and the newer
-nobility and politicians who found themselves at enmity
-on social and other grounds with the traditional conservatives.</p>
-
-<p>It must not be forgotten that both France and the
-Emperor strove ceaselessly to gain friends amongst the
-English councillors. Immense bribes found their way into
-the pockets of ministers and secretaries of State, in many
-cases regular yearly pensions being settled upon influential
-political supporters, and by means of flattery, social attentions,
-and promises, the ambassadors in England of the rival powers
-became centres of intrigue to influence English policy in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xvii">xvii</a></span>
-favour of one or the other. The goal to which both the
-rivals directed their eyes was one in which, curiously enough,
-England had no interest whatever, namely, the hegemony
-over Italy; but England which by activity on the northern
-coasts of France or on the Scottish border could weaken
-the French power for harm in other directions, could
-enable the Emperor at any time to check his enemy’s Italian
-ambitions; whilst with England as her friend France could
-brave the imperialists, certain that she would not be taken
-in the rear, especially when, as she usually managed to do,
-she had enlisted on her side the Turks on the Hungarian
-frontier and the Lutheran princes and towns of Germany.</p>
-
-<p>The marriage of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> with Jane Seymour was looked
-upon by the Imperialist Conservative party in England as a
-victory for their cause. Her brother, Sir Edward Seymour,
-had been in the Emperor’s service, and Jane had supplanted
-the hated Anne Boleyn, whose sympathies were, of course,
-entirely French. It is true that later Seymour, a parvenu
-noble, be it recollected, was driven into the anti-papal camp
-mainly by the antagonism of Norfolk and the older nobles
-who led the Conservative party, but, notwithstanding his
-Protestantism, he never wavered in his attachment to the
-imperial alliance and his opposition to French interests.</p>
-
-<p>When the death of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> made Seymour, as Duke
-of Somerset and Protector, virtually ruler of England with
-Paget as his principal minister, both of them were almost
-servile in their professions of devotion to the cause of the
-Emperor; and made no secret of their distrust of France
-with which a hollow and temporary peace had only been
-recently patched up. Somerset harried the Church and
-changed religious forms ruthlessly; his greed was insatiable
-and the devotional endowments were looted without compunction,
-the Catholic bishops were treated with stern severity,
-and even the schismatic Catholicism of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> was cast
-aside in favour of an entirely new creed and ritual. Norfolk
-was kept in the Tower, Wriothesley was disgraced and the
-Catholic Conservative nobles were warned not to stand in
-the Protector’s way. But through it all Somerset and Paget
-were politically the sworn servants and friends of the
-Emperor, pledged to discountenance any attempts of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xviii">xviii</a></span>
-French to injure him: whilst Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span> on his side, much as
-he deprecated the religious changes, could no more afford
-to quarrel with Somerset than he could with Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>,
-twenty years before when he contumeliously repudiated his
-blameless Spanish wife and scornfully threw off the papal
-supremacy which was the keystone of the imperial system.</p>
-
-<p>Submissive as were the words of Somerset and Paget to
-their imperial master<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> not by words alone but by acts also
-they sought to serve him as against France. The strong
-policy adopted by Somerset towards Scotland, and his defiant
-attitude at Boulogne, then temporarily held by the English
-against the payment of a great ransom, served the Emperor’s
-turn excellently at a period when he was at grips with his
-Lutheran subjects, at issue with the Pope and faced by a
-series of dangerous French intrigues in Italy. That the
-French themselves understood this perfectly well is seen
-by the desperate efforts they made to conciliate Somerset
-and win him to their side. Early in July 1547, only five
-months after his accession to power, Somerset told the imperial
-ambassador in strict confidence, when the latter was complaining
-of his religious innovations, that the special French
-envoy, Paulin&mdash;“immediately after the death of King
-Henry had striven to win him, the Protector, to the side of
-France by means of a large annual pension, which, as was
-only right, he had always declined. Notwithstanding this,
-however, Paulin, the last time he came hither, was instructed
-to offer him the assignment of the pension, which he had
-brought with him already signed and sealed. But with all
-these offers and grand promises of the French to divert the
-English Government from their alliance with your Majesty
-(the Emperor), he said he would always remain constant and
-loyal to you, knowing well that the strict preservation of
-the ancient alliance was so important for both parties.”
-Even a month previous to this Somerset had informed
-the ambassador that the French had greatly scandalised
-him by offering him as an inducement to join France, in an
-offensive and defensive alliance, the cession of the Emperor’s
-Flemish province to England when it had been conquered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xix">xix</a></span>
-by the allies, Boulogne at the same time to be restored to
-France.</p>
-
-<p>What wonder that the Emperor’s reply to this was to
-send flattering autograph letters to Somerset, assuring him
-of his unalterable regard, but saying not a word about his
-Protestant proceedings. “Of course,” continues the Emperor,
-writing to his ambassador, “the Protector would naturally
-refuse to accept the pension from the French, if only in the
-interests of duty and decency. The goodwill he displays
-towards us must be encouraged to the utmost by you on
-all occasions, and you must lose no opportunity of confirming
-the Protector in these favourable sentiments.” Somerset
-and Paget were therefore from first to last “Emperor’s men”
-and opponents of French interests, that is to say advocates
-of the same policy as that identified with the older nobles
-and Catholics, most of whom were now under a cloud in
-consequence of their religion or in consequence of their personal
-enmity to Somerset whom they regarded as a greedy,
-unscrupulous interloper.</p>
-
-<p>From the first days after the death of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, it had
-been seen by close observers that personal and not political
-rivalry alone was likely in the future to bring about a split
-in Somerset’s Government. The imperial ambassador, writing
-less than a fortnight after Henry’s death, says that whilst
-Hertford (Somerset) and Warwick (Northumberland) would
-apparently be supreme in authority, “it is likely that some
-jealousy or rivalry may arise between them because, although
-they both belong to the same sect, they are nevertheless widely
-different in character: the Lord-Admiral being of high
-courage will not willingly submit to his colleague. He is in
-higher favour with the people and with the nobles than is
-the Earl of Hertford, owing to his liberality and splendour.
-The Protector, on the other hand, is not so conspicuous in
-this respect, and is looked down upon by everybody as a
-dry, sour, opinionated man”: the sequel to this being that
-both these nobles with Paget and Wriothesley should, in
-the opinion of the ambassador, be “entertained” by the
-Emperor “in the usual way.”</p>
-
-<p>Before many months had passed, as we have seen, it was
-recognised by the Imperialist party that Somerset and Paget<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xx">xx</a></span>
-were their fast friends and that the rising personal opposition
-of Dudley had adopted, not unnaturally, as its policy that
-of a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">rapprochement</i> with France. It would, of course, be
-untrue to say that Dudley’s attack upon Somerset had for
-its sole object the substitution of one international policy for
-another. Dudley, like his rival, was in the first place ambitious
-and self-seeking; but it was necessary for both of them,
-in order to serve their ends, that they should obtain the cooperation
-and support of one or other of the two main currents
-of public opinion, the adhesion of both rivals to the advanced
-Protestant practices in religion being dictated in the first
-place by their need for the money and patronage that the
-religious confiscations provided, and, secondly, by the great
-predominance of the reformed doctrines in and about London.
-But Somerset having embraced the Conservative or Imperialistic
-policy, and infused, under the influence of Catholic
-Paget, some consideration for the professors of the old faith
-into his reforming zeal, it was incumbent upon Dudley, who
-wished to overthrow him, to adopt in both respects an entirely
-opposite policy.</p>
-
-<p>It is the fate of most Governments to be judged by results,
-and it was a comparatively easy matter for Dudley to pick
-holes in Somerset’s management of affairs. The debasement
-of the coinage and the consequent dislocation of business
-and the terrible distress it caused, the enclosures of the
-commons and the process of turning customary copyholds
-into tenancies at will, had reduced the people of England to a
-condition of misery such as they had never seen before. The
-cruel confiscation of the monastic properties had deprived
-the sick and the poor of their principal source of relief, the
-drastic changes in religion had produced indignation in the
-breasts of many citizens, whilst slackening the hold of
-authority generally and promoting lawlessness. When to
-all this is added the grasping selfishness of Somerset personally,
-and above all the success of the French arms before
-Boulogne, attributed to the parsimony of the Protector, it
-will be seen that Northumberland had a large area of discontent
-upon which to work for support against his unpopular
-rival. But even so, it is improbable that he would have
-ventured to take so bold an action against the Protector as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxi">xxi</a></span>
-he did, but for the consciousness that he had behind him the
-support, moral and financial if not military, of France and the
-Lutheran enemies of the Emperor.</p>
-
-<p>When the loss of the English forts protecting Boulogne
-made negotiations for peace necessary, a French Embassy
-was sent to London, and a keen observer present at the time<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">2</a>
-thus records what was evidently the public impression of
-events&mdash;“It was suspected that the principal object of this
-embassy was to bribe them (<i>i.e.</i> the English Government)
-to make war on the Emperor. Whilst these ambassadors
-were there they were greatly feasted by the Earl of Warwick
-(Northumberland) and the Grand Master (Paulet, Marquis
-of Winchester) much more than any other of the lords; for
-it appears that the French ambassadors could not gain the
-ear of the others&mdash;The King of France found out from his
-ambassadors which of the English lords showed more leaning
-towards France and against the Emperor. These were the
-Earl of Warwick and the Grand Master (of the Household), and
-it is believed that the King (of France) wrote to them warning
-them against the Protector and the Earl of Arundel who were
-plotting their destruction.” If this contemporary belief was
-well founded, as it probably was, the overthrow of Somerset
-is proved to a great extent to have been an international
-intrigue promoted and probably well paid for by France.</p>
-
-<p>As the observer already quoted remarks, the sequel of
-the Embassy which thus ensured Northumberland’s neutrality
-in favour of France was the almost immediate declaration
-of war by the French King against the Emperor, and the
-wholesale plundering of the imperial subjects at sea. Seen
-in this light, therefore, Northumberland’s complete change
-of England’s policy, his truckling to France, his merciless
-measures against Catholics, although, as events proved he
-was a Catholic at heart himself, his imprisonment of Paget
-the Emperor’s humble servant, and his ostentatious disregard
-for the imperial friendship, his whole attitude indeed, assumes
-a new aspect. His ambition was boundless for himself
-and his house; but it must have been evident to him that
-it could only be successfully carried into effect if he had behind<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxii">xxii</a></span>
-him a strong body of public opinion in England itself, and
-the countenance of one of the great continental powers. Both
-these desiderata he had in the earlier months of his domination;
-and if Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> had died or had been despatched late in
-1551, or in the earlier weeks of 1552, it is quite possible that
-Northumberland might have carried through his great conspiracy
-successfully.</p>
-
-<p>But the eighteen months that elapsed between the execution
-of Somerset and the death of Edward were fully sufficient
-to prove to the people of England that they had cast off the
-yoke of a King Log to assume that of a King Stork&mdash;Northumberland’s
-overbearing arrogance and roughness had offended
-everyone with whom he came into contact: his colleagues
-dreaded and hated him, especially after the marriage of his
-young son Guildford to a lady of the Royal house in the direct
-line of succession had to some extent opened the eyes of men
-to the magnitude of his aspirations. The condition of the
-country, moreover, instead of improving under his rule was
-considerably worse even than it had been under Somerset.
-The coinage had now reached its lowest point of debasement,
-the shilling containing only one quarter of silver to three
-quarters of copper, and even was ordered by decree to be
-only valued at half its face value. The gold had all left the
-country and foreign trade was killed by the lack of a decent
-currency. Labour, driven from the land by the wholesale
-conversion of the estates from tillage to pasture, crowded the
-towns clamouring for food, and the disgraceful treatment of
-the Princess Mary by the ruling minister had aroused a strong
-feeling against his injustice and tyranny.</p>
-
-<p>The Emperor was at war with France and the Lutherans,
-and was obliged to speak softly to Northumberland. Again
-and again he tried to win him over to his side, and the ruler
-of England knew full well that, whatever he might do he was
-safe from any overt interference from the imperial power.
-But for this fact it is certain that Northumberland would
-not have attempted the bold stroke of disinheriting Mary
-and placing Jane Grey and his own son upon the throne of
-England. When Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> was known by him to be sick
-beyond recovery Northumberland, with an eye to the near
-future, endeavoured to conciliate the Emperor somewhat and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxiii">xxiii</a></span>
-to bring about peace upon the Continent. His object in doing
-so was twofold&mdash;first to persuade Charles that he was still a
-potential friend; and, secondly, to set his French friends free
-from their war with the Emperor, and so enable them at the
-critical moment he foresaw to come to his aid in England if
-necessary. The English trading classes were by this time in a
-fever of indignation against the French for their piratical
-interference with English shipping, and Northumberland must
-have known that with this and the fear aroused by the French
-successes in the Emperor’s Flemish dominions&mdash;always the
-key of English policy&mdash;even he could not for very long withstand
-the demand of the English people to help the Emperor
-against his enemies. It was Northumberland’s misfortune
-that he was obliged to deliver his blow against the legitimate
-English succession in this state of public affairs. The Emperor
-and his ministers were keenly alive to the situation,
-and although they were of course not yet aware of the details
-of Northumberland’s intended <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">coup d’état</i>, they feared that
-the Princess Mary might by his influence be excluded from
-the throne. This of course would have been a serious blow
-to the imperial cause; for it would in all probability mean
-the permanent adhesion of England to the French alliance.
-But Charles had swallowed so much humiliation to keep
-England friendly in the past that he was not disposed now
-to be too squeamish. He did not know how far his enemies
-the French had gone in their promises of support to Northumberland
-when Edward should die, but if by blandishments
-and conciliatory acquiescence he could win the friendship
-of England he was willing to smile upon any occupant of
-the throne or any power behind it who would keep to the
-old alliance and turn a cold shoulder to the French.</p>
-
-<p>As soon as it was known in the imperial court that Edward
-was approaching his end the Emperor’s ambassadors hurried
-over to England with instructions to conciliate Northumberland
-at all costs, and to assure him that the Emperor’s affection for
-England and its young King was much greater than that of the
-King of France. “But,” continues the Emperor’s instructions,
-“if you arrive too late and the King is dead, you must take
-counsel together and act for the best for the safety of our
-cousin the Princess Mary, and secure, if possible, her accession<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxiv">xxiv</a></span>
-to the Crown, whilst doing what you judge necessary
-to exclude the French and their intrigues. You must endeavour
-also to maintain the confidence and good neighbourship
-which it is so important that our States should enjoy
-with England ... and especially to prevent the French
-from getting a footing in the country, or of gaining the ear
-of the men who rule England, the more so if it be for the purpose
-of embarrassing us.”</p>
-
-<p>News had already reached Flanders of Northumberland’s
-intention to exclude Mary from the throne on her brother’s
-death, and although the Emperor saw that in such case the
-life of his cousin would be in grave peril, especially if French
-aid, as was feared, were given to Northumberland, the
-principal efforts of the imperial envoys were to be directed
-to assuring the English government in any case that the
-Emperor was their friend and not France; Northumberland
-was to be persuaded that the Emperor had no thought
-of proposing a foreign husband for Mary; and that any
-match chosen for her by the ruling powers in England would
-be willingly accepted by her imperial kinsman. In short,
-the envoys were to promise anything and everything to secure
-the throne for Mary, even to endorsing the religious changes
-effected under Edward. But failing success in this it is
-made quite clear that the Emperor was willing to accept
-Jane Grey or any other sovereign who would consent to
-regard him as a friend and exclude French influence from
-the country.</p>
-
-<p>The French were just as much on the alert to serve their
-own interests, and Northumberland, knowing how unpopular
-the French were at this juncture, and how much his supposed
-dependence upon them was resented, was extremely careful
-not to show ostensibly any leaning towards them. But as
-soon as he heard, late in June, that the imperial envoys were
-coming to London he came specially from Greenwich to the
-French ambassador’s lodging at the Charterhouse to inform
-him that the Emperor was sending an embassy. “I doubt
-not,” writes the French agent to his King, “that they will do
-their best to interrupt the friendship that exists between your
-Majesty and the King of England. I will keep my eye upon
-them and will leave no effort untried to subvert them.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxv">xxv</a></span>
-Edward died on the very day that the imperial ambassadors
-arrived in London, though the death was kept secret for
-some days afterwards, and it soon became evident, both
-to the French and the Imperialists, that Northumberland
-had prepared everything for the elevation of Jane Grey
-to the throne. At this juncture, which called, if ever
-one did, for prompt and bold action, only one of the several
-interests took a strong course, the Princess Mary herself.
-It is quite evident that everyone else had deceived himself
-and was paralysed in fear of action by another. Again and
-again the French ambassador expressed a belief that the
-coming of the imperial envoys portended an active interference
-on the part of the Emperor in favour of Princess
-Mary; and Northumberland and his council, notwithstanding
-all the protestations of the imperial envoys, were of the same
-opinion; whereas we now see that the Emperor was quite
-willing to throw over Mary, and even the Catholics, if only
-he could persuade Jane Grey and her government to join
-him against France.</p>
-
-<p>When Mary’s bold defiance of the usurper was announced,
-the Emperor’s envoys, whom many believed to be forerunners
-of a strong foreign armed force to aid her, had
-nothing but shocked condemnation for her action. They
-considered her attitude “strange, difficult and dangerous”;
-and predicted her prompt suppression and punishment.
-In reference to the suggestion of her Catholic friends,
-that imperial aid should be sent to her, the envoys, who were
-supposed to be in England for the purpose of forcing her
-upon the throne, could only say to their master, “Considering
-your war with the French, it seems unadvisable for your
-Majesty to arouse English feeling against you, and the idea
-that the Lady will gain Englishmen on the ground of religion
-is vain.” Serious remonstrances were sent to Mary herself
-by the imperial envoys, pointing out the danger and the
-hopelessness of her position in the face of Northumberland’s
-supposed strength, and they laboured hard to dissuade the
-Duke from his idea that they had been sent to England
-to sustain Mary’s cause.</p>
-
-<p>Nor was the Emperor himself bolder than his envoys.
-He instructed the latter to recommend Mary, “with all softness<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxvi">xxvi</a></span>
-and kindness,” to the mercy of Jane’s government, but
-they were to make it quite clear that he would strike no blow
-in her favour, and would receive with open arms any sovereign
-of England who would not serve French interests. Mr. Davey
-has indicated in the present book the eagerness with which
-the great imperial minister, Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza,
-greeted Guildford Dudley as King of England. That Mendoza,
-one of the most trusted and ablest of the Emperor’s councillors,
-could take such a step without knowing that it would
-not, at least, be against his master’s policy is inconceivable:
-and all through it is clear that, if Mary had waited for effective
-help from her imperial cousin, Jane Grey might have reigned
-for a long lifetime.</p>
-
-<p>Just as the Emperor was paralysed in his action by
-the fear that he might alienate England from his side, so
-France allowed discretion to wait upon valour for fear of
-driving the English government irretrievably into the arms
-of the Emperor. When the news of Mary’s rising came to
-London the French ambassador bitterly deplored Northumberland’s
-want of foresight in not having seized the person
-of the Princess in time to prevent it. He confessed that
-Northumberland was excessively unpopular, but believed
-that his possession of the national forces would enable him to
-crush Mary and her malcontents. But he took care not
-to pledge himself too deeply to Jane, and whilst full of sympathy
-and good wishes for Northumberland’s success always
-kept in touch with some of Mary’s friends. Neither the
-French ambassador nor the English council really understood
-the Emperor’s attitude. When the council communicated
-to the imperial ambassadors Jane’s succession, they
-haughtily told them that it was known they were here to
-force Mary upon the throne, and that a new sovereign now
-having been successfully proclaimed, the sooner they left
-England the better. The French ambassador, writing to
-his king at the same time, remarked that the imperial ambassadors
-had informed the English council, that rather than
-submit to Jane’s wearing the crown to Mary’s deprivation his
-master would make friends with the French on any terms and
-would deal with Jane in a way which she would not like.</p>
-
-<p>It is almost amusing, now that we have the correspondence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxvii">xxvii</a></span>
-of all parties before us, to see how they all deceived themselves.
-The Emperor, as has been said, would not lift a
-finger to help Mary, even when she was in the field with a
-strong armed force, for fear of alienating hopelessly the sovereign
-of England whoever he might be; the King of France,
-whilst giving the same sort of hesitating implied support to
-Northumberland and Jane as Charles held out to the Princess
-Mary, would give no effective help for the same reason that
-tied the Emperor’s hands. Both sides, indeed, were waiting
-to greet success without pledging themselves to a cause which
-might fail.</p>
-
-<p>But the person who miscalculated most fatally of all was
-Northumberland himself. He had been during the whole
-time of his rule the humble servant of France. He had
-violated the treaty of 1543, by which England was bound
-to side with the Emperor in case his territory was invaded
-by France, and he stood between the throne and Princess
-Mary who it was known would serve the cause of the Emperor
-and her mother’s country to the utmost. He was obliged,
-as has been shown, to cast his hazard when the public opinion
-was strongly against him, the commercial classes of England
-well nigh ruined, the labourers in a worse condition than
-had ever been known before, and the nobility jealous and
-apprehensive. Knowing this, as he did, it is difficult to
-believe that he would have dared to take up the position he
-assumed unless he had persuaded himself that, as a last
-resource, French armed aid would support him. That
-such a thing was not remotely probable is now evident from
-the correspondence of the French ambassadors. They were
-only full of sorrow for “this poor Queen Jane” and feared
-for the fate of their unfortunate friend the Duke of Northumberland.
-And yet London itself was in a panic, born of the
-conviction that 6000 French troops were on their way to
-keep Jane upon the throne; Northumberland, in fact, presumably
-believing that his past services to France had deserved
-such aid, had actually sent and demanded it of the
-King. If it had been afforded in effective time the whole
-history of England might have been changed.</p>
-
-<p>We know now, although none knew it then, that the
-Emperor would have greeted with smooth assurances the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxviii">xxviii</a></span>
-victorious Jane and Northumberland, and would have
-deserted his cousin Mary until a turn of the wheel gave her
-hopes of success again. There was, indeed, nothing to prevent
-Henry of France, but groundless fear of his rival, from
-sending to England the small force necessary to keep Jane
-upon the throne and defeat Mary. But time-serving cowardice
-ruled over all. The edifice of Northumberland’s ambition
-crumbled like a house of cards under the weight of his unpopularity
-alone, and when Mary the victorious entered into
-the enjoyment of her birthright, the Frenchman who had
-plotted and intrigued against her in secret, vied with the
-imperial ambassadors who had stood by, unsympathetic in
-the hour of her trial, in their professions of devotion to her
-and her cause. The people of London, overwhelmingly
-Protestant as they were, greeted the Queen with effusion
-and had few words of pity for poor Jane, not because they
-loved the old observance but because they dreaded the French,
-and hated Northumberland the tyrannous and unjust servant
-of France. In the country districts, too, where Catholicism
-was strong, the enthusiasm for Mary was not so much religious,
-for all the people wanted was quiet and some measure of
-prosperity, as expressive of joy at the hope of a return to the
-national policy of cordial relations with the sovereign of
-Flanders, which in past times had ensured English commerce
-from French depredations and the English coast from French
-menaces, with freedom from the arrogant minister who had
-harassed every English interest and had reduced to ruin all
-classes in the country.</p>
-
-<p>The unhappy Jane, a straw upon the rushing torrent,
-was not raised to her sad eminence that the Protestant faith
-might prevail, though that might have been one of the results
-of her rule, nor was she cast down because Catholicism was
-triumphant, but because the policy which her dictator,
-Northumberland, represented was unpopular at the time of
-Edward’s death, and the English sense of justice rebelled
-at the usurpation and its contriver. Mary, in addition to
-her inherent right to the succession, which was her strong
-point, had only her own boldness and tenacity to thank for
-the success which she achieved. The Emperor, notwithstanding
-all his sympathy and the enormous importance<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxix">xxix</a></span>
-to him of her success, did nothing for her until she was independent
-of him, and only promised her armed aid then in
-case the French should attempt to overthrow her by force.</p>
-
-<p>Northumberland fell, not because the country at large
-and London above all, was yearning for the re-submission
-of England to the Pope, but because the eighteen months of
-his unchecked dictatorship had made him detested, and
-because he overrated the boldness and magnanimity of the
-King of France. The English public, by instinct perhaps
-more than by reason, believed in the ideal policy of Henry
-<span class="smcap smaller">VII</span>: that of dexterously balancing English friendship between
-the rival continental powers, making the best market possible
-for her moral support, keeping at peace herself and adhering
-mostly to the more prosperous side without fighting for either.
-Such a policy required statesmanship of the highest order,
-and Elizabeth alone was entirely successful in carrying it
-out. Somerset and Northumberland both failed because
-they were unequal to it. Each of them took the minister’s
-view rather than that of a monarch. They were party
-leaders, both of them, and incapable of adopting the view
-above party considerations which marks the successful sovereign.
-They pledged themselves too deeply to the respective
-foreign alliances traditional with their parties; and in both
-cases, as a penetrating statesman would have foreseen, their
-allies failed them at the critical moment.</p>
-
-<p>Mary’s tragical fate was the result of a similar short-sighted
-policy. When she determined against the wishes
-of her people and the advice of her wisest councillors, Catholics
-to a man, to hand herself and her country, body and soul,
-over to Spanish interests, she ceased to be a true national
-sovereign; the nice balance upon which England’s prosperity
-depended was lost, the love and devotion of the people turned
-to cold distrust, and failure and a broken heart were the result.
-Not until Elizabeth came with her keen wit and her consummate
-mastery of the resources of chicanery was England
-placed and kept firmly again upon the road to greatness
-which had been traced for her by the first Tudor sovereign.</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-MARTIN HUME
-</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1">1</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2><span class="larger">THE NINE DAYS’ QUEEN</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak p2 vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">BRADGATE HALL AND THE GREYS OF GROBY</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">There</span> is no more picturesque spot in England than
-Bradgate Old Manor, the birthplace of Lady Jane
-Grey. It stands in a sequestered corner, about three
-miles from the town of Leicester, amid arid slate hillocks, which
-slope down to the fertile valleys at their feet. In Leland’s
-<cite>Perambulations through England</cite>, a survey of the kingdom
-undertaken by command of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, Bradgate is described
-as possessing “a fair parke and a lodge lately built there by
-the Lorde Thomas Grey, Marquise of Dorsete, father of Henry,
-that is now Marquise. There is a faire and plentiful spring
-of water brought by Master Brok as a man would judge agyne
-the hills through the lodge and thereby it driveth a mylle.”
-He also informs us that “there remain few tokens of the old
-castelle,” which leads us to believe that at the time of Lady
-Jane Grey’s birth Bradgate was a comparatively new house.
-The ruins show that the mansion was built of red brick and in
-that severe but elegant form of architecture known as the
-“Tudor style.” Worthy old Leland goes on to say that Jane’s
-paternal grandfather added “two lofty towers at the front
-of the house, one on either side of the principal doorway.”
-These are still remaining.</p>
-
-<p>In Tudor times the park was very extensive and “marched
-with the forest of Chartley, which was full twenty-five miles
-in circumference, watered by the river Sore and teeming with
-game.” Another ancient writer tells us, in the quaint language
-of his day, that “here a wren and squirrel might hop from
-tree to tree for six miles, and in summer time a traveller could<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2">2</a></span>
-journey from Beaumanoir to Burden, a good twelve miles,
-without seeing the sun.” The wealth of luxuriant vegetation in
-the old park, the clear and running brooks, that babble through
-the sequestered woods, and the beautifully sloping open spaces,
-dotted with venerable and curiously pollarded oaks, make
-up a scene of sylvan charm peculiarly English. Here cultivation
-has not, as so often on the Continent, disfigured Nature,
-but the park retains the wild beauty of its luxuriant elms
-and beeches that rise in native grandeur from amidst a
-wilderness of bracken, fern, and flags, to cast their shadows
-over heather-grown hillocks. On the summit of one of the
-loftiest of these still stands the ruined palace that was the
-birthplace of Lady Jane Grey. The approaches to Bradgate
-are beautiful indeed, especially the pathway winding round by
-the old church along the banks of a trout-stream, which rises
-in the neighbourhood of the Priory of Ulverscroft, famous for
-the beauty of its lofty tower. When Jane Grey was born, this
-Priory had been very recently suppressed, and the people
-were lamenting the departure of the monks, who, during the
-hard winter of 1528, had fed six hundred starving peasants.</p>
-
-<p>Bradgate Manor House was standing as late as 1608, but
-after that date it fell into gradual decay. Not much is now
-left of the original structure, but its outlines can still be traced;
-and the walls of the great hall and the chapel are nearly intact.
-A late Lord Stamford and Warrington roofed and restored
-the old chapel, which contains a fine monument to that
-Henry Grey whose signature may be seen on the warrant for
-the execution of Charles <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>.</p>
-
-<p>A careful observation of the irregularities of the soil reveals
-traces of a tilt-yard and of garden terraces; but all is now
-overgrown by Spanish chestnut trees, wild flowers, nettles,
-and brambles. The gardens were once considered amongst
-the finest in England, Lord Dorset taking great pride in the
-cultivation of all the fruits, herbs, and flowers then grown in
-Northern Europe. The parterres and terraces were formal, and
-there was a large fish-pond full of golden carp and water lilies.
-Lady Jane Grey must often have played in these stately
-avenues, and there is a legend that once, as a little girl, she
-toppled into the tank and was nearly drowned&mdash;a less hideous
-fate than that which was to befall her in her seventeenth year.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3">3</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“This was thy home, then, gentle Jane!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This thy green solitude; and here<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">At evening, from thy gleaming pane,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thine eyes oft watched the dappled deer<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">(Whilst the soft sun was in its wane)<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Browsing beside the brooklet clear.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The brook yet runs, the sun sets now,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The deer still browseth&mdash;where art thou?”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>These sentimental lines were written in the eighteenth
-century, when deer still browsed in Bradgate Park, whence
-they have long since departed. Many curious traditions concerning
-Lady Jane are even now current among the local
-peasantry. Some believe that on St. Sylvester’s night
-(31st December) a coach drawn by four black horses halts at
-the door of the old mansion. It contains the headless form
-of the murdered Lady Jane. After a brief halt it drives away
-again into the mist. Then again, certain strange<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> stunted
-oaks are shown, trees which the woodmen pollarded when they
-heard that the fair girl had been beheaded. The pathetic
-memories of the great tragedy, reaching down four slow
-centuries, prove how keenly its awful reality was felt by the
-poorer folk at Bradgate, who, no doubt, had good cause to
-love the “gentle Jane.”</p>
-
-<p>The Manor of Bradgate was settled upon the Lady Frances
-Brandon, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s niece, when she espoused Henry Grey.
-It had been inherited by the Greys of Groby, Lady Jane’s
-paternal ancestors, from Rollo, or Fulbert, said to have been
-chamberlain to Robert, Duke of Normandy, who gave him the
-Castle of Croy in Picardy, the ruins of which are still to be seen
-not far from Montreuil-sur-Mer. It was hence he derived the
-surname of de Croy, afterwards anglicised to de Grey. This
-Rollo accompanied William the Conqueror into England, and
-was settled, soon after the Conquest, at Rotherfield, in Oxfordshire.
-The first of the family to be noticed by Dugdale is
-Henry de Grey, to whom Richard <span class="smcap smaller">I</span> granted the Manor of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4">4</a></span>
-Grey’s Thurrock, in Essex, which grant was confirmed by
-King John in the first year of his reign. The descendant of
-this nobleman, Edward de Grey, was summoned to Parliament
-in 1488 in right of his wife’s barony of Ferrers of Groby, and
-his son John, afterwards Earl Rivers, who was slain in the
-battle of St. Albans, married the beautiful daughter of Sir John
-Woodville, subsequently the Queen of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">IV</span>. Bradgate
-is thus associated with two of the most unfortunate of England’s
-Queens: Elizabeth Woodville, who passed much of her life
-in its leafy glades; and Lady Jane Grey, who first saw the light
-in the stately red brick Manor House of which the crumbling
-ruins are now so beautiful in their decay.</p>
-
-<p>Jane Grey’s grandfather, Thomas, the eldest son of
-Elizabeth Woodville, was summoned to Parliament on the
-17th October 1509 as Lord Ferrers of Groby, his mother’s
-barony, and to the second Parliament in 1511 as Marquess
-of Dorset. He was a man of great note. In the third year
-of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s reign he had charge of the army of 10,000
-men sent into Spain to assist the forces invading Guyenne
-under the Emperor Ferdinand. This force returned to
-England without doing service. We next hear of the Marquess
-figuring at the jousts with Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk,
-Lady Jane’s maternal grandfather, on the occasion of the
-latter’s adventurous journey to France to bring back Mary
-Tudor, widow of Louis <span class="smcap smaller">XII</span> of France, whom he subsequently
-married. The Marquess was also sent to Calais to attend
-Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span> to England; indeed, he was very conspicuous
-throughout the early years of Henry’s reign. King Hal paid
-him the compliment of calling him “that honest and good
-man”&mdash;a title which he thought he richly deserved, since he
-signed the celebrated letter to Pope Clement <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span> touching
-the King’s divorce. He died in 1530, and was succeeded by
-his eldest son, Henry, Lady Jane’s father. The inheritance
-of this nobleman included the Marquisate of Dorset and the
-baronies of Ferrers,<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> Grey, Astley, Boneville, and Harrington,
-besides vast estates in Leicestershire and other parts of England.
-Henry Grey, though his portraits show him to have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5">5</a></span>
-been a very good-looking man, did not enjoy a good contemporary
-reputation for ability or strength of character.
-During the brief reign of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> he became the patron
-of the Swiss Reformers and was adulated by Bullinger and
-Hill. His name will be found attached to many of Henry
-<span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s anti-papal decrees, and so long as that monarch
-lived, he was a staunch “Henryite” or schismatic, professing
-belief in all the doctrines of Rome save and except papal
-supremacy. In 1531, when the clergy were threatened with
-<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">præmunire</i> and mulcted in a fine, as a punishment for their
-too close attention to pontifical interests, young Henry of
-Dorset, who had just come to his own, displayed great energy
-in carrying out the King’s wishes and supporting his attempt to
-get himself acknowledged supreme head of the English Church.
-He also evinced considerable courage in connection with
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s resistance to the excommunication of the Pope,
-launched against him after his marriage with Anne Boleyn.
-Such zeal in his sovereign’s service undoubtedly led to his
-advancement and paved the way to his marriage with the
-King’s niece, the Lady Frances Brandon. He may have
-owed much to the counsels and influence of Cromwell, to
-whom he carried a letter of introduction from his mother,<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">5</a>
-when he first went to London as a lad of seventeen, immediately
-after his father’s decease. The Dowager recommended
-her son very earnestly to “Master Cromwell,” pleaded
-his youth, and besought that worthy, then all-powerful, not to
-take heed of certain ill-natured reports concerning alleged
-wilful damage to the priory buildings of Tylsey, where she
-was then residing.<a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">5</a></p>
-
-<p>The good lady couches her letter in very humble terms,
-but does not enlighten us fully about the nature of the
-“damage” to which she refers, or by whom it was done.
-She seems, at any rate, to be in a terrible fright lest the tale
-should injure her son’s prospects with the all-powerful
-Chancellor. Some little time afterwards the Marchioness
-wrote another letter to Cromwell complaining of her son’s
-undutiful behaviour to her. It is dated from the “House
-of Our Lady’s Passyon”<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> (the Priory of Tylsey), and <span class="locked">begins:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6">6</a></span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">My Lorde</span>,&mdash;I beseeche you to be my good lorde, consyderyng
-me a poor wydo, so unkyndly and extreymly escheated
-by my son.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This curious epistle, now in the British Museum, is much
-defaced and in parts illegible. The name of the person to
-whom it is addressed is undecipherable, but, taken in
-conjunction with two other letters previously addressed
-to Cromwell by the same correspondent, there can be little
-doubt as to its destination. Her son had evidently withheld
-some property intended for her under her husband’s
-will. Whether he mended his manners and paid her the
-money, we know not; but as the Dowager is occasionally
-mentioned as attending Court functions in company with
-her daughter-in-law, it seems probable that the ultimate issue
-of the difficulty, whatever it was, was satisfactory to her.</p>
-
-<p>Margaret, Dowager Lady Dorset, became one of the
-greatest ladies of the Court in the latter years of the reign
-of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span> and during a part of that of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. She
-was in much request, it seems, at royal christenings, for not
-only was she specially invited to that of Mary Tudor, afterwards
-Queen Mary <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>, but she enjoyed the signal honour of
-carrying the infant Elizabeth to the font. She was invited
-to perform a like office at the baptism of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, but
-this time she was unable to be present, and wrote to make
-her loyal excuses, pleading that some of her household at
-Croydon had been attacked by the “sweating sickness.” It
-is probable that she had no desire to attend, for she had been
-the intimate friend of Anne Boleyn, and could hardly have
-felt kindly towards Jane Seymour.<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> Her place was filled by
-the Marchioness of Exeter, who eventually, after the execution
-of her luckless husband, was sent to the Tower on a
-flimsy charge of treason, and kept there until Mary <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>’s time.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">8</a></p>
-
-<p>A singular point in the history of Jane Grey’s forbears is
-that her father, in his hot haste to marry into the royal<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7">7</a></span>
-family, set aside, without the slightest scruple, his legitimate
-wife, Lady Katherine Fitzalan, daughter of the Earl of
-Arundel. Some writers say he was simply “contracted,”
-not married, to this lady, who never demanded her marriage
-rights, but retired into a dignified obscurity. None the less
-her family resented the affront offered their kinswoman, and
-it was Thomas, Earl of Arundel, this discarded lady’s brother,
-who acted as Dorset’s Nemesis, and at last betrayed him into
-the hands of his enemies.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey’s maternal grandfather was, as he wrote
-himself in the famous quatrain referring to his marriage with
-the King’s sister, descended from “cloth of frieze.” He was
-the grandson of a London mercer who had married a lady
-allied to the great houses of Nevill, Fitzalan and Howard, and
-his father had fought and fallen at Bosworth Field in the
-cause of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span>. In recognition of his services, Henry
-attached young Charles Brandon to the person of his younger
-son, Prince Henry, who was of similar age to himself. Thus
-began a friendship which was only severed by death. In
-appearance the Prince and his comrade were singularly alike:
-both were tall and stalwart, both with red hair and fair complexions,
-and they were equally skilful and agile in sport
-and manly pastimes. Charles was more intellectually gifted
-than Henry, but there was little to choose between them as
-regards their execrable views of moral responsibilities and
-their laxity in respect of their marriage vows.</p>
-
-<p>As this last characteristic of Charles Brandon, Duke of
-Suffolk, touches somewhat upon the legitimacy of Lady Jane
-Grey’s descent, a short summary of his matrimonial vagaries
-may be pardoned here. He was contracted in marriage early
-in life to Anne Browne, a daughter of Sir Anthony Browne,
-Governor of Calais, by his wife Lady Lucy Nevill, daughter of
-George Nevill, Duke of Bedford, brother of Richard, Earl of Warwick,
-“the King maker.” In 1513 he was bold enough to flirt
-most outrageously with, and seek in marriage, one of the greatest
-ladies in Europe, Margaret of Austria, the widowed Duchess
-of Savoy, aunt of the Emperor Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>. But though Margaret
-fell in love with him, such a match was soon seen to be impossible,
-even by the lady herself, and Brandon came out of the affair
-most ungallantly. For this or some other reason never clearly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8">8</a></span>
-explained, Brandon set aside his contract with Anne Browne,
-notwithstanding that by the laws of the period it was considered
-as binding as the completed marriage ceremony. We
-next learn that a probable reason for his unchivalrous conduct
-was a chance that suddenly offered itself to him of marrying
-the Lady Margaret, the rich widow of Sir John Mortimer of
-Essex. Charles and his mature consort&mdash;there was a difference
-of nearly thirty years between them&mdash;did not abide long
-together, for he presently endeavoured to annul this marriage
-on a plea of consanguinity, the Lady Margaret being sister to
-the mother of his neglected bride, Anne Browne, and consequently
-her aunt, a complication which surely ought to have
-been discovered at an earlier stage of the proceedings. Having
-settled this matter for the time being to his own, but certainly
-not to the lady’s, satisfaction, he remarried his discarded
-wife, Anne Browne, in the presence of a great concourse of
-relations and friends. By this lady he had two daughters:
-Mary, who became the wife of Lord Mounteagle; and Anne,
-who married a connection of the Greys, Viscount Powis.
-Their mother died in 1515, and Brandon soon afterwards
-contracted himself in matrimony with the Lady Elizabeth
-Grey, daughter and heiress of Viscount de Lisle. Whether
-through the interference of Lady Mortimer or not it is impossible
-to say, but it is certain that Lady de Lisle refused to carry
-out her side of the contract, and the match was broken off.
-Brandon, with the consent of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, filched from the
-poor lady her title of Lisle, which he forthwith assumed. In
-due time the lady gave her hand to Edmund Dudley, father
-of the fateful Duke of Northumberland. It was probably
-when in France, and in attendance upon King Henry, at the
-time of the negotiations for the marriage of the King’s youngest
-and most beautiful sister, Mary, to the prematurely aged
-Louis <span class="smcap smaller">XII</span>, King of France, a hideous victim to elephantiasis,
-that Charles made so strong an impression upon that ardent
-Tudor princess that she swore by all the saints that she would
-not wed the French King unless it was thoroughly understood
-she was to marry whom she chose after his death, which took
-place within eighteen months of the marriage. The romantic
-story of how Brandon, now created Duke of Suffolk, wooed
-and married the royal widow within a fortnight of the King’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9">9</a></span>
-death, and whilst she still wore the white widow’s weeds of a
-French King’s Consort, is too well known to need recapitulation
-here, nor need we enter into the details of the gorgeous
-ceremonies of remarriage that took place at Greenwich, in
-the presence of King Henry, Queen Katherine of Aragon, and
-their Court, soon after Mary and Suffolk had landed in England.
-The Duke of Suffolk took his bride to spend their honeymoon
-in his magnificent mansion in Southwark, known as Suffolk
-Place, which he had recently inherited by the death of his
-uncle, Sir Thomas Brandon. It must have been about this time
-that the friends of the Lady Mortimer, and probably that lady
-herself, began to spread rumours abroad that made both
-Charles and his consort anxious as to the validity of their
-marriage and the legitimacy of their offspring. Indeed, even
-at the time of his clandestine wedding in the Chapel of the
-Hôtel de Cluny (now incorporated in the Museum of that
-name), he had felt very uneasy about the matter, and, foreseeing
-his peril, wrote to Wolsey, beseeching his assistance
-and advice on a matter of such vital importance, which, however,
-was not decided so easily as Charles expected. It was not
-until 1528 that Wolsey dispatched a somewhat garbled account
-of the matter to Pope Clement <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span>, then in exile at Orvieto,
-where he received Cardinal Campeggio and the English envoys
-who came to him with the first negotiations for the divorce of
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> from Katherine of Aragon. Trusting in the evidence
-which Wolsey sent him, the Pope, by a special Bull (dated
-12th May 1528), annulled the marriage of Brandon with the
-Lady Mortimer, on the plea of consanguinity, and at the same
-time declared valid that of her niece, Anne Browne, and legitimized
-her two children. The Bull further stated that Lady
-Mortimer and her friends were “liable to ecclesiastical
-censure if they made any attempt to invalidate the decree”
-making valid Brandon’s marriage to Anne Browne and Mary
-Tudor. The importance of this decree, which was first read
-out to the people in Norwich Cathedral in 1529 by Bishop
-Nyx, can readily be imagined when we remember that it was
-not delivered until after the Queen-Duchess had given birth
-to two children. Her only son, the Earl of Lincoln, died
-in infancy, and the Lady Frances became in due time the
-Marchioness of Dorset and mother of Lady Jane Grey. On<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10">10</a></span>
-the other hand, the legitimacy of the Lady Eleanor Brandon,
-the younger daughter, who was born after the publication of
-the papal decree, was never disputed, and moreover, before
-she entered upon her sorrowful career, the Lady Mortimer was
-dead. That considerable doubt was entertained as to the
-validity of Brandon’s marriage with the Queen-Dowager is
-proved by a variety of facts too numerous to be detailed,
-but one of which is very significant. Late in the first half
-of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the validity of the claims of the
-Lady Mounteagle and her sister, the children of Brandon and
-Anne Browne, to be considered legitimate, was ventilated in
-the Court of Arches, and after much deliberation confirmed.
-Although the legitimacy of these ladies, both of whom were
-long since deceased at the time of this trial, had nothing to do
-with the legal position of Mary Tudor as the wife of the Duke
-of Suffolk, it was none the less an indirect test of the right
-to the throne of her granddaughters, the Ladies Katherine
-and Mary Grey.</p>
-
-<p>From these briefly resumed facts it is not difficult to understand
-that although King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> highly approved of his
-bosom friend’s conduct, his subjects held Charles to be an arrant
-rascal. His treatment of his beautiful royal wife was on a par
-with his low conception of his moral obligations. He neglected
-her, spent her money, and lived openly with a notorious
-woman known as Mrs. Eleanor Brandon, by whom he had
-an illegitimate son, Charles, who is said to have been the
-well-known jeweller to Queen Elizabeth, and whose son, or
-grandson, Gregory Brandon, was, according to tradition, the
-headsman who executed Charles <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane’s grandmother, Mary Tudor, was a most amiable
-and long-suffering princess, who after a somewhat secluded life
-in Southwark withdrew to Westhorpe Hall. Here she died on
-24th June 1533. Her two daughters&mdash;the Lady Frances, who
-had recently married the Marquess of Dorset; and the Lady
-Eleanor, soon to be the bride of Henry, Lord Clifford, eldest
-son of the Earl of Cumberland&mdash;were with her at the time of
-her death, but the Duke was absent in London, and so too
-was the Marquess of Dorset, her son-in-law, attending at the
-coronation of Anne Boleyn. The Queen-Duchess was interred
-in Bury St. Edmunds, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and Suffolk paying the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11">11</a></span>
-expenses of a gorgeous alabaster monument to her memory,
-“full of little saints and angels,” which was destroyed soon
-after, during the wreck of the glorious Abbey Church at the
-time of the suppression of the monasteries. The remains of
-the Queen were then removed to the parish church, where they
-still rest, a marble tablet put up in the early nineteenth
-century being the only memorial of Mary Tudor, Dowager
-Queen of France and Duchess of Suffolk.</p>
-
-<p>Within three months of the Queen’s death (September 1533)
-Suffolk married a fifth wife, the Lady Katherine Willoughby
-d’Eresby, who, it seems, was his ward and only fifteen years
-old. She was a great heiress, and what made her marriage
-all the more singular was the fact that she was a daughter of
-that Doña Maria de Sarmiento who, as Lady Willoughby, was
-the friend and attendant of Queen Katherine of Aragon. It
-must also be remembered that Queen Katherine had no
-more bitter enemy than Suffolk. This Duchess developed
-into a very pretty woman, of great wit and character, and a
-staunch supporter of the doctrines of the Reformation.</p>
-
-<p>The Lady Frances Brandon was born at Hatfield, then
-a palace of the Bishop of Salisbury, who had afforded her
-mother hospitality; for it seems that the Queen-Duchess was
-obliged to halt here, for reasons easily understood, on her way
-to Walsingham Priory, whither she was bound on a pilgrimage.
-There is still extant a very curious account of the baptism
-of the Lady Frances in the parish church of Hatfield, which
-was hung with garlands for the occasion. The Lady Anne<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">9</a>
-Boleyn, aunt of the ill-fated Queen Anne of that ilk, stood
-proxy for Queen Katherine of Aragon as sponsor.</p>
-
-<p>In 1533&ndash;4 the Lady Frances was married, notwithstanding
-his afore-mentioned “contract” to the Lady Fitzalan,
-to Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset. The wedding took
-place at Suffolk Place, Southwark, and the religious ceremony
-in the Church of St. Saviour, now the cathedral of the new
-diocese. No very great pains seem to have been taken with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12">12</a></span>
-the lady’s education, except in the matter of what we should
-call “sports,” in which, it seems, she was very proficient.</p>
-
-<p>The Lady Frances was a handsome woman, however, but
-somewhat spiteful and wholly unscrupulous. In a well-known
-portrait, dated after her second marriage, she is represented
-as a buxom, fair-haired, well-featured matron, with
-a very sinister expression in her light grey eyes. Her eldest
-child was a son who died of the plague when a baby, and
-the three children who survived were all girls&mdash;the Ladies
-Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey. Lady Jane Grey, as we
-shall see, had little cause to feel deep affection for either of
-her parents, but least of all for her mother. The Lady Frances
-seems to have been cast, so far as her heart went, in a mould
-of iron. Even the bloody deaths of her husband and her
-eldest daughter, and the wretchedly precarious existence of
-her two remaining children, did not affect her buoyant spirits,
-since she enjoyed her life to the end. It would be difficult
-to define her religious opinions. She was a schismatic under
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, and under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> she appeared a zealous
-Protestant and so intimate with the famous Reformer Bucer
-that when he died she petitioned Cranmer to obtain a pension
-for his widow. She became a pious Papist in Queen Mary’s
-time, and died a prominent member of the Church of England
-as by law established, under Elizabeth.</p>
-
-<p>The Lady Eleanor Brandon, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s niece and Lady
-Jane Grey’s only maternal aunt, married, as we have said,
-Henry, Lord Clifford, to whom she was united in 1537 at the
-Duke of Suffolk’s palace in Southwark. The Lady Eleanor
-gave birth to two sons and a daughter. At the time of the
-Pilgrimage of Grace (in 1536) she was staying at Bolton Abbey,
-which Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, after confiscating it from the Church, had
-presented to Lord Clifford; and had it not been for the
-chivalry and bravery of Christopher Aske, the rebel leader’s
-brother, she would have suffered at the hands of the infuriated
-“pilgrims.” By dint of a bold night ride, Aske aided Lady
-Eleanor to fly from Bolton Abbey and reach a place of safety.
-In 1542 her husband succeeded to the Earldom of Cumberland
-on the death of his father, and five years later (November
-1547) Lady Eleanor passed away at Brougham Castle and
-was laid to rest in Skipton Church.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_12" class="figcenter" style="width: 431px;">
- <img src="images/i_012.jpg" width="431" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>HENRY GREY, DUKE OF SUFFOLK</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">FROM THE PAINTING BY JOANNES CORVUS IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY</p></div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13">13</a></span>
-It will be seen by this rapid sketch of her forbears on both
-sides that Lady Jane Grey might, without exciting surprise,
-have developed a character strongly sensual and unscrupulous.
-That she did not do so, apart from the fact that her early
-death perhaps prevented the full development of her character
-at all, was probably owing to the rigid and severe nature of
-the education to which she was subjected. The influence of
-Erasmus and the fashion of the newly revived classical learning
-had in the childhood of Jane Grey firmly seized upon the
-higher classes of England; and the ladies of royal and noble
-birth, schooled in the stern pietism of <cite>The Instruction of a
-Christian Woman</cite> of Luis Vives, which they all studied in
-Latin or in English, and, steeped in the classic moralities, they
-became prim and self-suppressed in expression and behaviour.
-It is likely enough, indeed, that in most cases this prudishness
-of attitude was but skin deep; but in the case of the
-hapless Jane, who was little more than a child when she was
-sacrificed, no other impression of her personality than this
-was left upon the world. We may picture the tiny demure
-maiden pacing the green alleys and smooth sward of Bradgate,
-with her Latin books and her exalted religious meditations,
-a fervent mystic, with no knowledge of the great world of
-greed, ambition, and lust, of which she, poor child, was
-doomed to be the innocent victim.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14">14</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">BIRTH AND EDUCATION</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">Lady Jane Grey</span> was born at Bradgate Old Manor<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">10</a>
-in October 1537, most probably in the first days of
-the month, for Prince Edward, her cousin, came into
-the world on the 12th,<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> St. Edward’s Eve, and three days later
-Henry, Marquess of Dorset, attended the royal christening,
-which he would scarcely have done if his own wife, a member
-of the royal family, had not been safely delivered. His<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15">15</a></span>
-presence in London can be traced in the State Papers from the
-date of Prince Edward’s birth until the first week in November.
-Lady Jane’s christening took place, as was then the custom,
-within forty-eight hours of her birth, in the parish church,
-with all the ancient rites. Some writers state that the babe
-was carried to the font by her grandmother, the Dowager
-Marchioness; but this good lady, as we have already seen,
-was unable at the time to leave her sick household at Croydon.
-She sent her new granddaughter a rich bowl with a chiselled
-cover. It was the custom at that time, when a baptism took
-place, for the whole family, godfathers and godmothers and
-guests, to walk in procession from the mansion to the church.
-As is still the case in Catholic countries, the number of sponsors
-in pre-Reformation times was unlimited. All these worthy
-people brought gifts of more or less value, according to the
-nearness of their kinship and the length of their purses. The
-Marquess, if he was present, would certainly have worn his
-robes of state and “carried the salt.” At the church door
-the christening company was met by the clergy, and after a
-short prayer the child was named.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> The officiating priest on
-this occasion was either Mr. Harding, then chaplain at Bradgate,
-or else Mr. Cook, Rector of the parish. After being
-named, the child was carried to the font, which stood in the
-middle of the church under an extinguisher-like canopy,
-richly carved and painted, which pulled up and down, so as
-to keep the holy water clean. In those days the back of
-the head and the heels of the infant were immersed in the
-water,<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> the present ceremony of sprinkling having only been
-introduced into this country from Geneva by the Reformers
-during Elizabeth’s reign. The infant was also anointed with
-chrism on the back and breast, a very ancient ceremony, the
-abolition of which caused considerable controversy and some
-persecution in the reign of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. This anointing, or
-unction, which was performed within the sacred edifice, was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16">16</a></span>
-followed by the presentation of the gifts of the various
-sponsors.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> Abundant hospitality in the shape of sweet
-wafers, comfits, spiced wine, or hippocras was dispensed in
-the porch, not only to the invited company, but to the
-promiscuous village crowd that elected to attend the function;
-and at last the procession, with the infant wrapped
-in a sort of shawl of rich brocade, returned to the mansion,
-where a dinner was served to the guests and to the members
-of the household.</p>
-
-<p>The life of an English child in olden times, especially in
-the upper classes, was by no means the ideal existence it has
-now become. A careful study of contemporary records proves
-that the barbarous and filthy system of swathing or “swaddling”
-an infant was almost universally practised. We may
-take it for granted that the baby Jane Grey was swathed or
-“swaddled” according to the prevailing English fashion,
-from her armpits to her knees, and was thus able at all events
-to move her tiny hands and feet, a privilege denied her infant
-contemporaries on the Continent. So late as 1684, Madame
-de Maintenon, writing to Madame de Présné, who had just
-been delivered of a son, beseeches her to “adopt the English
-method of allowing her infant’s limbs free play,” and stigmatises
-the French custom of “tight swaddling” as “abominably
-dirty and unhealthy.”</p>
-
-<p>The Lady Frances certainly did not nurse her own baby;
-it would have been considered most indecent for a woman of
-her rank to suckle her offspring. A foster-mother was engaged,
-and it is likely enough that the good woman who supplied
-little Jane Grey with the sustenance nature had intended
-her to derive from her parent, was that Mrs. Ellen who,
-seventeen years later, attended her beloved foster-child on the
-scaffold.</p>
-
-<p>In her eighteenth month the child was weaned, and this
-was attended by some considerable ceremony. In the morning
-Mass was said in the presence of the whole family, including
-the foster-mother and the child, who was blessed with holy
-water. This finished, the company returned in procession to
-the hall and forthwith sat down to a copious banquet.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17">17</a></span>
-The archives of Sudeley Castle contain an interesting
-description of an aristocratic nursery in the first half of the
-sixteenth century. Queen Katherine Parr, having married
-Admiral Lord Thomas Seymour, lived at Sudeley, where she
-died in September 1548, after giving birth to a child, for
-whom was provided an apartment very elaborately furnished
-with tapestry, and containing everything a modern infant of
-the highest rank could possibly want, all in silver or pewter,
-and, moreover, a “chair of state” hung with cloth of gold.</p>
-
-<p>The Lady Frances’s nursery was, no doubt, fitted up quite as
-luxuriously as that prepared for the infant of Queen Katherine
-Parr; but no inventory of its contents has been handed
-down to us. Nearly all the toys commonly used in England
-at this period were made either in France or Holland, and
-closely resembled those grotesque playthings which were our
-grandparents’ delight: wooden dolls with roughly painted
-heads and jointed limbs, hobby horses, hoops, and even
-toy soldiers mounted on movable slides. Jane must have
-had an abundance of these nursery treasures, besides
-an oaken cradle with rockers and also a sort of little perambulator,
-wherein she might be carried to take the air
-in the park and gardens. She had a complete household,
-consisting of Mrs. Ellen, two under-nurses, a governess,
-two waiting women, and two footmen. Sometimes, but
-very rarely, the voice of nature may have prompted her
-mother and father to play with her and enjoy those exquisite
-moments of purest love common alike to prince and peasant.
-Her babyhood may have been fairly happy, but when that
-ended, the stern training which prevailed in every aristocratic
-family of the period began in all its severity: long prayers,
-tedious lessons, and that terrible “cramming” system which
-as often as not engendered premature physical decline and
-even imbecility. The tiny princess, from her third year
-upwards, was dressed like a little old lady, in miniature reproduction
-of her mother, coif and all complete, an exceedingly
-irksome garb for so very small a child. Even when full-grown,
-Jane, like her sister Katherine, was of very diminutive
-stature; and their youngest sister, Mary, was an
-actual dwarf, “not bigger, when over thirty, than a child
-of ten.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18">18</a></span>
-The greater part of the Lady Jane’s<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> infancy was spent at
-Bradgate with her little sisters&mdash;Katherine, two years her
-junior; and Mary, six years younger than herself. A Mrs.
-Ashly, sister or sister-in-law to the Mrs. Ashly, or Astley, who
-acted in the same capacity to Princess Elizabeth, was appointed
-to attend as governess upon Jane and her sisters; but of this
-lady little is known, whereas Elizabeth’s governess is, of course,
-frequently mentioned as a woman of great importance. It
-was evidently not until the Lady Jane had been named in
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s will as a possible successor to his throne that any
-particular attention was paid to her instruction, and then
-only for purely political purposes. Her two sisters received
-but an ordinary education, and Jane herself must have been
-between nine and ten years of age when she was handed over
-to Queen Katherine Parr to begin her more important studies.
-No doubt the Dorsets secretly intended their eldest daughter
-to become Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s consort and to rule the kingdom
-through her, and her education therefore became a matter
-of great importance to them, as they wished her to be
-thoroughly equipped to hold the high station they desired her
-to occupy. In religion she was to be exceedingly Protestant,
-but in social matters her training was most varied, including
-music and classical and modern languages, even Hebrew and,
-if we may credit some of her enthusiastic eulogists, Chaldee!!</p>
-
-<p>The royal birth of the Marchioness of Dorset and the great
-wealth of her lord placed their family in a very exceptional
-position in the county. Here, as also in London, they maintained
-semi-regal state. No one could compete with them,
-and although they received much company, especially at
-Christmas time, they rarely mixed with their neighbours, and
-when they did so condescend, they were invariably received
-with all the ceremony due to royalty. When, for instance,
-the Marquess of Dorset and his lady visited Leicester, they
-were entertained with great ceremony. In the archives of
-that city for 1540 there is a charge of “two shillings and
-sixpence for strawberries and wine for my Lady Marchioness’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19">19</a></span>
-Grace, for Mistress Mayoress and her sisters.” Also, on the
-occasion of another visit, “Four shillings” were paid “to
-the pothicary for making a gallon of Ippocras,<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> that was given
-to my Lady’s Grace, Mistress Mayoress and her sisters, and
-to the wives of the Aldermen of Leicester, who gave the said
-ladies, moreover, wafers, apples, pears, and walnuts at the
-same time.” From another record, of the city of Lincoln,
-we learn that the Dorset family when on its way to London
-frequently put up at the White Hall Inn for the night, their
-expenses being paid by the town. There is also an entry
-specifying the expenses for entertaining the Lady Jane Grey
-when on her way to London and on her return journeys through
-Leicester to Bradgate in 1548 and 1551.</p>
-
-<p>There was much in the stately mode of life led by our
-great aristocracy in the sixteenth century which has not
-even now passed altogether out of fashion. At certain seasons
-of the year, it appears, the family resided in the main building
-of the mansion and kept up a state almost equal in magnificence
-to that of a royal Court. A great number of servants&mdash;as
-many as eighty or a hundred&mdash;were maintained, and
-these, being very ignorant, often formed a rather disorderly
-crew. They received very small wages; but as they wore
-brilliant liveries, and served as an escort to their masters
-when they went abroad, they made a highly picturesque appearance.
-Few people, even in the upper circles of society,
-could read or write with ease; and as there were no newspapers
-and scarcely any books, no correspondence, and but few visits
-to fill up leisure time, the men’s sports were mainly those of
-the field, so that large hunting and hawking parties were the
-general order of the day. The ladies were frequently invited
-to share these pursuits; and the Lady Frances was well
-known in Leicestershire in her day as a great huntress and a
-skilful archeress.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20">20</a></span>
-Hospitality, if barbaric, was none the less sumptuous.
-Tablecloths and napkins were already in use, and “damask”
-was pretty generally to be seen in the houses of the wealthy;
-while the plate belonging to the great nobility was not only
-very costly, but exceedingly artistic in design. Then as now,
-it was the custom to pass the winter months in the country
-and the summer in London. During the hunting season
-Bradgate was thrown open to a throng of guests, and since
-the mistress of the house was niece to the reigning sovereign,
-many of these were of princely rank, including Princess Mary,
-who was on very friendly terms with her cousin Frances and
-her children. It is not at all unlikely that when the family
-gathered in the great hall of an evening, dances, masques, and
-other pastimes of a more boisterous kind, described as “romps
-and jigs,” were indulged in. On occasion, players were summoned
-from London, and displayed their skill in representing
-those rough and unformed plays which delighted our ancestors
-until the more shapely Elizabethan drama came into being.<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">17</a></p>
-
-<p>People rose and retired to rest earlier in Tudor days than
-we do now, especially in summer, when breakfast was served
-as early as six o’clock, dinner at ten, and supper at five. Tea
-and coffee were as yet undiscovered, and light home-brewed
-ale was the usual breakfast beverage. Such very young
-ladies as Lady Jane Grey would be served at this meal with
-a cup of hot milk and sometimes with a sort of mead, or
-barley water, heated and spiced. During Lent breakfast
-consisted of bread, with salt fish, ling, turbot and eels, fresh
-whitings, sprats, beer and wine. At other seasons there
-were chines of beef, roast breast of mutton or boiled mutton,
-butter, cooked eggs, custard, pies, jellies, etc., as well as
-chickens, ducks, swan, geese, and game.<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> Dinner came at
-noon, and it was customary in large country houses to close
-the gates while the whole establishment sat down, according
-to rank, in the great hall. Sometimes a slight alteration
-was made, two tables being set in the dining-room, at the first<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21">21</a></span>
-of which sat the lord and his family, with such titled guests
-as they might be entertaining, while the second was occupied
-by “knights and honourable gentlemen.” In such a case
-the tables in the great hall were generally three, the first for
-the steward, comptroller, secretary, master of the house,
-master of the fish-ponds, the tutor&mdash;if one was attached to the
-family&mdash;and such gentlemen as happened to be under the degree
-of a knight. In a very large household it frequently happened
-that as many as a hundred and fifty or two hundred people
-would sit down to eat at one and the same time, but in
-most castles, halls, and manors the ladies of the family,
-excepting on state occasions, ate apart from the men, a
-separate table being laid for them, and for the chaplain, in
-the ladies’ chamber, while two others were laid in the housekeeper’s
-room for the ladies’ women. The Lady Frances
-usually partook of her dinner in solitary state, waited upon
-by young gentlewomen and, when they were old enough to
-do so, by her two elder daughters, who stood on either side
-of her until she had finished, when they in their turn sat down
-and were served by gentlewomen. In their infancy, the
-children, attended by their nurses and gentlemen and women,
-dined with the housekeeper in her chamber.</p>
-
-<p>All meals were somewhat disorderly, for, forks not being
-in general use, it was the custom for the gentlemen to pick
-the daintiest scraps out of the common dish with the tips of
-their fingers, and place them gallantly upon the platters of
-the ladies seated nearest them. It was considered ill-bred
-to lick one’s fingers after this act of courtesy. Proper behaviour
-was to wipe them daintily upon a sort of napkin or
-serviette, sometimes, as in Japan, made of tissue paper.</p>
-
-<p>Grace was said both before and after meals, and as most
-large houses had several chaplains and a choir for the service
-of the chapel, it was usual for one of the priests, accompanied
-by three or four of the choristers wearing their surplices, to
-enter the hall and solemnly chant the <i>Benedicite</i> or Grace,
-which until Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s time invariably concluded with a
-petition for the release of the souls in Purgatory. It was
-considered impolite to talk during a repast unless addressed
-by the master or mistress of the feast. The chaplain was
-employed to read aloud either the Gospel of the day or a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22">22</a></span>
-chapter from that enlivening work <cite>The Martyrology</cite>. Occasionally
-a minstrel was invited to sing an interesting ballad
-or tell a story; otherwise the clinking of the knives was the
-only sound heard during meals, which, however copious, were
-invariably dispatched with the utmost speed. In proportion
-to the amount of meat very little bread was consumed. “The
-English bolt their food in dead silence,” remarked the Venetian
-Ambassador Giustiniani, “and, bread being dear, eat very
-sparingly of it. They throw their chicken bones under the
-table when they have sucked them clean.”</p>
-
-<p>When supper, a meal which corresponds with our late
-dinner, was over, evening prayers were said, and soon afterwards,
-on ordinary occasions, everybody retired to rest. It
-should be remembered that artificial light was exceedingly
-costly and inadequate, as indeed it remained until the beginning
-of the later half of the nineteenth century. Many who are
-still in the prime of life can remember the rush tallow dips
-made and used in old-fashioned country houses and farms in
-their childhood. In the sixteenth century these were the
-only lights to be had, except oil lamps and wax candles imported
-at immense expense from France and Italy, and only
-kindled on high days and holidays.<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> Resin torches were
-burnt in the great hall; but many complained of the stench
-and smoke, so that an early departure to bed was not only
-wise but necessary.</p>
-
-<p>It may perhaps be concluded that we who live at the
-beginning of the twentieth century would have found life in
-an English manor in Tudor days insufferably dull and monotonous.
-Yet there were compensations. Outdoor exercises
-were many and various. There was the tennis-court, bowls
-and quoits were much in vogue, and our forefathers practised
-many other excellent sports, some of which we might well
-revive. There was hawking, then in the zenith of its popularity;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23">23</a></span>
-hunting, archery, slinging, mase or “prisoner’s bars,”
-wrestling, tennis, of which game Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> was exceedingly
-fond; fivestool ball, football, and golf. Cricket does not seem
-to have been known, at all events under its present name;
-but there were a score or so of other popular games and
-sports, some of which, such as duck-hunting, dog-fighting, and
-cock-fighting, were exceedingly barbarous. The cruel sport of
-trying on horseback to pull off the greased head of a living
-duck or goose suspended by the legs from a cross beam was
-exceedingly popular at this time.<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, in his <cite>Journal</cite>,
-mentions it in an entry dated 4th June 1550: “Sir Robert
-Dudley, third surviving son of the Earl of Warwick, was
-married this day to Sir John Robsart’s daughter, after which
-marriage there were certain gentlemen on horseback that
-did strive who should first carry away a goose’s head that
-was hanged alive on two cross-posts.” Can we imagine the
-whole Court of England, King included, assisting at this
-childish and cruel spectacle?</p>
-
-<p>The Marquess of Dorset and his family did not spend the
-whole year at Bradgate; political and social duties brought
-them a great deal to London, especially in the early spring and
-summer months. In London they inhabited a mansion at Westminster,
-not far from Whitehall Palace. The town residence of
-the Marquess of Dorset was not, as usually stated, situated in
-Grey’s Inn. At no time did his branch of the family of Grey
-possess property in or near the Inn which bears their name;
-it belonged from a remote period to the house of Grey de
-Wilton, who sold it, in Edward <span class="smcap smaller">IV</span>’s time, to the Carthusians
-of Sheen, from whom it was confiscated at the Dissolution
-and subsequently granted by the Crown for the purpose which
-it still serves. Thus Grey’s Inn did not fall to Lady Frances,
-although she was presented by her uncle the King with
-nearly all the other property owned by the Carthusians in and
-around London. It has also been said that the Marquess of
-Dorset had a house in Salisbury Place, Fleet Street, but this
-is another popular error. This property passed to the <em>Earls</em>
-of Dorset in 1611 and is connected, not with Lady Jane and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24">24</a></span>
-her family, but with many worthies of the seventeenth and
-eighteenth centuries. Henry, Marquess of Dorset, had his
-town residence on the Thames above Whitehall,<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> precisely
-where stood, until quite recently, Dorset Place&mdash;the name by
-which the house was known in Lady Jane’s time. After the
-execution of Suffolk it was seized by the Crown and eventually,
-in the last days of the sixteenth century, cut up into three
-separate houses, one of which was inhabited by John Locke the
-philosopher, who died in it. By a curious coincidence, Locke
-had previously lived at Salisbury Square. Dorset Place
-must have been a very large house; we know from contemporary
-evidence that it had a fine garden and a broad terrace
-overlooking the Thames. Here Lady Jane Grey certainly
-lived for a good many months of her life, and here she formed
-the acquaintance of the Reformers Bullinger and Ulmer,
-or ab Ulmis. She may also have lived for a time in yet another
-house owned by the Marquess, near the Temple, of which
-no trace now exists.</p>
-
-<p>The Dorsets were in the habit, especially in the winter
-season, of paying country visits to their numerous relatives&mdash;to
-Princess Mary at Newhall; to the Lady Frances’ stepmother,
-Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, at Wollaton; to Dorset’s sister,
-the Lady Audley, at Walden; to his orphan wards and cousins
-the Willoughbys, at Tylsey; and to Lady Jane’s paternal
-grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness of Dorset, either at
-her house at Croydon or at Tylsey, where at one time she
-presided over the household of the young Willoughbys.</p>
-
-<p>The entertainment of such important personages must
-often have been a doubtful pleasure to hosts of limited means,
-for they never stirred abroad without a numerous escort of
-male and female servants and a guard of thirty or forty retainers
-mounted on horseback and armed to the teeth. Carriages
-were but little used as yet, and people of quality had to journey
-from place to place on horseback, the elderly ladies being
-provided with the quaintest but most inconvenient and
-perilous of side saddles, while the young girls and children<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25">25</a></span>
-rode pillion either in front of or behind their nearest male
-relatives or some trusty yeoman. In cold or damp weather
-the ladies and children and their female attendants travelled
-in a huge and very heavy covered vehicle<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> not unlike a Turkish
-<em>araba</em> or a modern omnibus in shape. This was furnished
-with leathern curtains and lined with mattresses and cushions,
-and could often contain as many as twelve persons, six on
-either seat facing each other. To protect themselves from
-the cold the ladies wore cloaks and vizors, or “safeguards.”<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">23</a>
-The first genuine statute for repairing roads dates only from
-1668. Before that the roads were, like those of modern Turkey,
-universally execrable, and over them this ponderous vehicle,
-with its enormous wheels, moved at a snail’s pace: it is not
-surprising that most people preferred the hackney, even in
-winter time. Yet in spite of all its inconveniences, this old-world
-fashion of travel was not without charm, especially
-in genial weather, when the passage of a lordly cavalcade
-added much to the life of our highways and verdant lanes and
-lent to the ever lovely English landscape a picturesqueness
-and a gaiety which modern civilisation can never hope to
-restore. On the other hand, delicate folk must have
-dreaded these excursions, and it is not surprising to learn
-that on one occasion, in 1550, after a ten hours’ ride in very
-bad weather to Newhall, on a visit to Princess Mary, the
-Lady Jane was taken very ill, and kept her room for many
-days.</p>
-
-<p>The Dissolution of the monasteries and the general troubles
-of the Church had no doubt greatly attenuated the quaintness
-of English life on the high roads by the time Jane had attained
-girlhood. No longer did the Lord Abbot or Prior, with his
-princely train of ecclesiastics on their gaily caparisoned horses
-and mules, pass through the leafy lanes on their way to pay
-visits of duty or ceremony. Lady Jane can never have seen
-the Abbot of Leicester, for instance, he who attended the
-death-bed of Wolsey, go forth with all his monks to pay his
-respects to the Prior of the rich house of Ulverston, for both
-abbeys were suppressed before she was a year old. She was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26">26</a></span>
-not familiar with the begging friars, with their sacks and their
-jokes; and the pardoner, the palmer, and the pilgrim had also
-faded into the near past long before she began to toddle on the
-green slopes of Bradgate. Still she must have often witnessed
-the procession on Corpus Christi, when her own native village
-was enlivened by garlands of flowers and on every house front
-hung a linen sheet decked with bunches of bright flowers.
-She may even have walked with the rest of the children of high
-and low degree in the annual procession of Our Lady on
-Assumption Day, for throughout the reign of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> this
-festival was observed.</p>
-
-<p>The roads were still full of colour in the summer months,
-with packmen and peddlers, troops of armed men&mdash;not unfrequently
-dragging along between them some poor wretch,
-tied by the wrists, to his fiery doom at Leicester or London&mdash;with
-travelling caravans, with itinerant mountebanks and
-jugglers, and occasionally with a troop of showmen hastening
-to exhibit dancing bears or learned dogs and pigs at some
-neighbouring village fair.</p>
-
-<p>The suppression of the monasteries had a disastrous effect
-on travelling in Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s time, comparable only to what
-would happen nowadays if all the first-class hotels in the
-country were suddenly closed. The Marquess and Marchioness
-of Dorset, as they journeyed with their children from Bradgate
-to London, must have heartily regretted the hospitality they
-had enjoyed in their own young days at many a lordly abbey
-and wealthy priory now laid in ruins. The inns were picturesque
-enough, but none too luxurious; still the beds
-were generally comfortable, and the cooking, according to
-the taste of the day, was excellent. Conti, an Italian traveller
-who visited England some few years after Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s death,
-was much struck by the cleanliness of the parlours and the
-softness of the feather beds he met with in our country hostelries.
-The fare, too, he found abundant, and the wines, “sack,”
-and beers often of superlative quality&mdash;facts to which Shakespeare
-has not failed to allude. The innkeepers were great
-gainers by the Dissolution, for such rich travellers as did not
-care to trouble their peers looked to them for board and lodging
-now that they were no longer able to put up at a religious
-house. We may be sure that the Dorsets and their people<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27">27</a></span>
-were familiar and welcome guests at all the chief inns along
-the roads they travelled.</p>
-
-<p>Aylmer, who became Bishop of London in Elizabeth’s
-time, is usually described as Lady Jane’s earliest tutor. This
-is a patent error, for Aylmer, who was born in 1521, would
-have been far too young, in Jane’s infancy, to be appointed
-tutor to the children of the Marquess of Dorset. It is more
-likely that Dr. Harding, who was chaplain at Bradgate when
-Jane was born, had the honour of teaching his patron’s
-daughters their alphabet. He was reputed a learned man, and
-posed at one time as a staunch Protestant; but he resembled
-his employers in having a chameleon-like facility for changing
-the colour of his opinions according to the state of the religious
-barometer in regal quarters. Under Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> he was a
-schismatic and a firm believer in transubstantiation and in
-the wisdom of invoking saints; when Edward came to the
-throne he turned <em>quasi</em>-Calvinist. Very early in Mary’s reign
-he became, much to the unspeakable horror of Lady Jane, a
-penitent Papist. Aylmer, a far more estimable man and a
-greater scholar, appeared on the scene at Bradgate as tutor
-after the accession of King Edward, when Jane was in her
-twelfth year and ripe to receive his learned instruction in
-theology and classic lore.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28">28</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE LADY LATIMER</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">No</span> task is more congenial to the earnest student of
-history than that of tracing the origin of some
-important event, and following its gradual
-development from a trivial incident to its culmination in a
-great matter destined to alter the fortunes, and even change
-the faith, of an entire nation. If we would reach a thorough
-comprehension of the chain of events which led up to the proclamation
-of Jane Grey as Queen of England, we must now
-leave her to pursue her Greek and Latin studies and broider her
-samplers at Bradgate, while we trace the earlier fortunes of
-those who so ruled her destiny as to compel a simple-hearted
-and naturally retiring girl to accept a station which, by the time
-she was constrained to relinquish it, brought her to the lowest
-depths of misfortune and transformed the regal diadem which
-she herself had never coveted into a crown of martyrdom.</p>
-
-<p>The Lady Latimer, better known in history as Queen
-Katherine Parr, influenced the fortunes of Lady Jane Grey
-more than is usually imagined, for it was to her care that the
-ten-year-old child was committed (after it had been proposed
-by the Seymour faction that she should become Queen-Consort
-of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> and head of the Protestant party in England),
-in order that her education might be directed and her mind
-bent towards “the new learning” of which Katherine was
-secretly a supporter.</p>
-
-<p>Born in 1513 at that lordly Kendal Castle whose ruins
-still command one of the loveliest prospects in Westmoreland,
-Katherine Parr, though a simple gentlewoman, could boast
-royal blood&mdash;that of our Anglo-Saxon kings, inherited from
-her paternal ancestor Ivo de Talbois, who married Lucy, the
-sister of the renowned Earls Morcar and Edwin. She was also<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29">29</a></span>
-of Plantagenet descent through her great-great-grandmother
-Alice Nevill, sister to Cicely Nevill, Duchess of York, a lineage
-that made her cousin four times removed to King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>
-himself. We will not enter in detail into the many alliances
-of the Parr family with the Nevills, Stricklands, Throckmortons,
-and Boroughs, but we are safe in describing it as a wealthy and
-honourable county stock, much looked up to in those days.</p>
-
-<p>Katherine’s father, Sir Thomas Parr, married, when his
-bride was but little over thirteen, Maud Green, daughter of
-the rich Sir Thomas Green of Boughton and Greens-Norton in
-Northamptonshire. Lady Parr had a sister, Mary, who, when
-a mere child, married Lord Vaux of Harrowden, and, dying
-without issue, left her splendid fortune to her sister Maud.
-Lady Parr’s eldest son, born before his mother was fifteen,
-was the celebrated Sir William Parr, ultimately Earl of Essex
-and Marquess of Northampton. Her next child mated with
-Mr. William Herbert, who was raised to the peerage in 1551
-by Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> as Earl of Pembroke six weeks before the death
-of his wife. Katherine, the third and youngest child of Sir
-Thomas and Lady Parr, was destined to occupy the perilous
-position of sixth Queen-Consort to King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. When
-she was a mere child, the proverbial gipsy-woman predicted
-that “she should one day wear a crown, and not a cap; and
-wield a sceptre, not a distaff.”<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> Sir Thomas Parr died in
-London in 1517, leaving very scant provision for his two
-daughters, the bulk of his fortune having been settled upon
-his wife and son; but both young ladies married wealthy men,
-and thus were not seriously affected by their lack of means.
-Anne married at fifteen; and Katherine, long before she was
-fourteen, was led to the hymeneal altar by Lord Borough of
-Cantley Hall, Gainsborough, Yorkshire. The bridegroom had
-already been twice married, and so great was the disparity of
-age between the couple that Lady Borough was wont to call
-her eldest stepdaughter “little mother.” Two years after
-her marriage Katherine became a widow with a very handsome
-dower. Much of her time of mourning was spent at Sizergh
-Castle in Westmoreland, the seat of her kinsfolk the Stricklands,
-where she left several fine specimens of her skill as a
-needlewoman&mdash;notably a gorgeous white satin quilt embroidered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30">30</a></span>
-with gold&mdash;which are still preserved in an apartment
-known as Queen Katherine’s Room.</p>
-
-<p>We are fortunate in possessing a good many portraits
-of this lady, and at least one wonderful miniature,
-formerly in the Strawberry Hill Collection, and which now
-belongs to Mr. Brocklehurst-Dent of Sudeley Castle. This
-contains a likeness of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> painted in a space not bigger
-than a pin’s head, on a tiny medallion suspended round the
-Queen’s neck. A strong magnifying glass is required to do
-justice to the beauty of this microscopic miniature within a
-miniature, probably the smallest ever executed. Judged
-by all these portraits and by contemporary descriptions,
-Katherine Parr must have been a pretty little woman with
-delicate features, an intellectual brow&mdash;too amply developed
-for beauty&mdash;fox-coloured eyes, and a rather cunning expression
-about the thin yet flexible mouth. When her body was
-disinterred in 1786<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> it was found not to be decomposed, and
-measured exactly five feet and three inches. The hair, very
-long and curling naturally, was of a fine golden auburn.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_30" class="figcenter" style="width: 480px;">
- <img src="images/i_030.jpg" width="480" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>QUEEN KATHERINE PARR</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">AFTER THE PAINTING FORMERLY IN THE POSSESSION OF HORACE WALPOLE</p></div></div>
-
-<p>History does not record the names of the tutors who assisted<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31">31</a></span>
-Katherine Parr to acquire her remarkable education and
-numerous accomplishments. We may suppose that some priest
-or monk chaplain at Kendal or Sizergh instructed her in Latin
-and Greek, in both of which languages she was proficient.
-She may have learnt French from Mr. Bellemain, French
-tutor to Prince Edward, a pronounced Huguenot, who, notwithstanding
-his unorthodoxy, was in high favour at Henry’s Court,
-received a pension from Edward after he ascended the throne,
-and walked in the young King’s funeral procession. She
-mastered the language sufficiently to be able to write it and
-speak it correctly, and even to record her sentimental impressions
-in tolerable verse. Amongst the MSS at Hatfield there
-is a curious French poem, partly written by Katherine and
-partly by another, probably her teacher. It opens with the
-following verse in the Queen’s <span class="locked">handwriting:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Considerant ma vie miserable<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Mon cœur marboin, obstine, intraitable,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Outrecuide tant, que non seullement,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Dieu n’estimoit ny son commandement.”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="in0">The concluding verse <span class="locked">runs:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Qui prepare vous est devinement<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ainsi que le monde eust son commencement<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Au Pere au Filz au Saint Esprit soit gloire<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Loz et honneur d’eternelle memoire. <span class="smcap">Finis.</span>”<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">26</a><br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Katherine’s handwriting, though clear and legible, is not to
-be compared with that of Elizabeth, King Edward, and Jane
-Grey, who very probably took lessons in the then much esteemed
-art of caligraphy from Dr. Cheke, chief tutor to the Prince, or
-from Ascham, both famous for the beauty of their penmanship.</p>
-
-<p>Although very worldly, Katherine Parr was much preoccupied
-with theological disputations, and a distinctly
-evangelical tone pervades her literary remains; it is
-nevertheless certain that during the lifetime of her second<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32">32</a></span>
-husband, Lord Latimer, she was, or pretended to be, a Catholic,
-and that during the few years of her married life with Henry
-<span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> she was a schismatic or “Henryite.” Tact and prudence
-were her leading characteristics, and she was both amiable
-and conciliatory, though she could, when angered, be extremely
-vindictive. Thomas Cromwell’s downfall, usually attributed
-to the machinations of Katherine Howard, was in reality mainly
-due to those of Katherine Parr, for she it was, as we shall
-presently see, who opened Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s eyes to the prodigious
-rapacity and unpopularity of his favourite chancellor.</p>
-
-<p>Lord Latimer, the lady’s second spouse, like Lord Borough,
-had been twice married, and when he took her to wife was
-already the father of several children. The date of this
-marriage has not been handed down to us, but as Latimer
-lost his second wife in 1526, it could not have taken place
-earlier than 1527. He was a staunch Catholic of the belligerent
-sort, and a prominent leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace, an
-insurrection that broke out in the North of England in 1536
-in consequence of the popular displeasure at the suppression
-of the monasteries and sequestration of church property.
-The peasants, suddenly deprived of the monks’ accustomed
-charity and driven to desperation, began a local crusade,
-which soon assumed large proportions, their ranks being
-joined by a great number of noblemen and gentlemen belonging
-to the old faith, amongst them the Archbishop of York,
-Lord Nevill, Lord Darcy, Lord Latimer, Sir Stephen Hamerton,
-Sir Robert Constable, a certain mysterious individual who
-called himself the “Earl of Poverty,” and Robert Aske, who
-though of mean extraction was nevertheless considered by
-the rest of his party as their nominal general. These motley
-pilgrims increased in numbers as they swept southwards
-in picturesque confusion; but despite the enthusiasm of their
-members, they seem to have been ill-disciplined and badly
-organised, and were presently dispersed at Dunstable, thanks to
-the conciliatory attitude of the Duke of Norfolk, whom the King
-had empowered to treat with these rebels and disband them.
-Latimer, who had been elected their spokesman, withdrew
-almost immediately and returned to London, where he soon
-afterwards resumed his post as Comptroller of the King’s
-Household. After this excursion into open revolt against<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33">33</a></span>
-his sovereign, Lord Latimer evidently deemed it prudent
-to keep himself very much in the background: he did not
-join the second Pilgrimage of Grace, which broke out in the
-following February (1537) and terminated in the execution
-by sword and fire of some seventy of its more prominent
-members, among them old Lord Derby, who was over
-eighty-three years of age.</p>
-
-<p>When in London, Lord Latimer inhabited a house situated
-in the churchyard of the Charterhouse. The Chartreuse, as it
-was then called, was rather a fashionable place of residence,
-being not far distant from Clerkenwell, which in King Henry’s
-time was a sort of Court suburb, such as Kensington became
-in the eighteenth century. From a letter still extant, it
-would appear that Lord Latimer, like many a modern nobleman
-and gentleman, was in the habit of letting his mansion
-furnished when he himself was absent at Snape Hall, his
-country seat in Yorkshire. Sir John Russell, Lord Privy
-Seal, who looked meek enough<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> but was popularly known as
-“Swearing Russell” on account of his profane language,
-wrote in January 1537 requesting Latimer to allow a friend
-of his to have the loan of his house in the “Chartreuse”
-during his absence. Latimer dared not refuse, but his
-answer betrays his reluctant compliance with the request
-and some temper at the favour having been <span class="locked">asked:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p class="b0">“<span class="smcap">Right Honourable and my especial good Lord</span>,&mdash;After
-my most hearty recommendations had to your good
-Lordship. Whereas your Lordship doth desire ... [effaced]
-of your friends my house within Chartreuse churchyard, beside
-so ... [effaced] I assure your Lordship the getting of a lease
-of it costs me 100 marcs, besides other pleasures [<i>i.e.</i> “improvements”]
-that I did to the house; for it was much my
-desire to have it, because it stands in good air, out of press of
-the city. And I do alway lie there when I come to London,
-and I have no other house to lie at. And, also, I have granted
-it to farm [<i>i.e.</i> “have let it”] to Mr. Nudygate,<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> son and heir<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34">34</a></span>
-to serjeant Nudygate, to lie in the said house in my absence;
-and he to void whensoever I come up to London. Nevertheless
-I am contented if it can do your Lordship any pleasure for your
-friend, that he lie there forthwith. I seek my lodgings at
-this Michaelmas term myself. And as touching my lease, I
-assure your Lordship it is not here; but I shall bring it right to
-your Lordship at my coming up at this said term, and then
-and alway I shall be at your Lordship’s commandment, as
-knows our Lord, Who preserve your Lordship in much honour
-to His pleasure. From Wyke, in Worcestershire, the last
-day of September.&mdash;Your Lordship’s assuredly to command,</p>
-
-<p class="p0 sigright">
-“<span class="smcap">John Latimer</span>”
-</p>
-
-<p>“To the right honourable and very especial good lord, my
-Lord Privy Seal.”<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">29</a></p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Lord Latimer died in February 1543, a twelvemonth after
-the execution of Queen Katherine Howard, leaving his widow
-the manors of Nunmonkton and Hamerton for life, and his
-mansion in the Charterhouse for as long as she should remain a
-widow. As soon as her husband was safely buried in St.
-Paul’s Churchyard, Katherine began to indulge her leaning
-towards what was then known as the “new learning”; and
-her house became the resort of the leaders of a movement
-which was eventually to complete the Reformation in England.
-These gentlemen were wont, it is said, to assemble at regular
-intervals and hold conferences on religious subjects in the
-presence, not only of Katherine and her household, but of a
-select circle of great ladies, among them Katherine’s sister,
-Anne Herbert, and the charming Katherine, Duchess of
-Suffolk, the fourth wife of Lady Jane’s singular grandfather,
-who were only too willing, notwithstanding the risk they ran,
-to sit at the feet of a Coverdale, a Latimer, or a Parkhurst.
-Religion, however, sat lightly on this clever Duchess, who&mdash;so
-brilliant, witty, and amusing are her letters&mdash;might well claim
-to be the precursor in the epistolary art of Madame de Sévigné.
-To these pious gatherings of the widow Latimer came likewise
-the haughty and turbulent Anne Stanhope, Countess of
-Hertford, who in due time, as wife of the Protector, was to be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35">35</a></span>
-Duchess of Somerset and Katherine Parr’s arch-enemy;
-Lady Denny,<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> wife of Sir Andrew Denny, Privy Councillor
-to Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>; the Lady Fitzwilliam,<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> wife of Sir William
-Fitzwilliam, and acknowledged to be one of the ablest women
-of her time; and the Lady Tyrwhitt,<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> who came very near
-martyrdom for her heretical opinions, in the last year of
-Henry’s life. The Countess of Sussex,<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">33</a> second wife of Henry
-Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, was likewise one of Lady Latimer’s
-<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">intimes</i>. This lady’s alleged familiarity with the black art
-eventually led to her being charged with witchcraft, in 1552,
-and imprisoned in the Tower, from which durance she was
-delivered six months later by order of the Duke of Northumberland.
-The Marchioness of Dorset may also have assisted at
-Lady Latimer’s religious exercises, which, although noticed
-by her contemporaries as matters of general knowledge, seem
-to have temporarily escaped the unpleasant attention of King
-Henry’s chief heretic-hunters. The Lady Frances was certainly
-on the most friendly terms with Lady Latimer, and so
-too was Princess Mary.</p>
-
-<p>Another guest there was at the Charterhouse who probably
-came when the house was quiet, the voices of the preachers<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36">36</a></span>
-hushed, and the great ladies returned to their respective
-domiciles. This was Sir Thomas Seymour, the late Queen
-Jane’s second brother, who was considered the Adonis of
-the Court. Lady Latimer seems to have been deeply enamoured
-of his good looks and stalwart figure; but it is not
-unlikely that it was her rich dower, rather than herself, that
-tempted Sir Thomas. Be this as it may, the intimacy which
-began about this period, paved the way to the tragic close
-of the handsome courtier’s chequered career. Seymour
-appears to have proposed to the widow three months after
-Lord Latimer’s death, and she seems to have rejected him
-“pleasantly,” saying “some one higher than he had asked
-her to be his wife.” For all that, Sir Thomas had certainly
-made a deep impression on her heart, a fact all the more
-remarkable since he was in every way the opposite to herself:
-she was learned and sedate&mdash;he was gay and profligate; the
-lady loved rich but sober attire&mdash;the gentleman blazed with
-brilliant satins and silks and cloth of gold and silver, setting
-his brother courtiers the fashion as to the wearing of their
-jewels and the number of feathers they should sport in their
-caps. Still, the advantage of the alliance was obvious, for
-though not a rich man, he was a great favourite with the King,
-his potent brother-in-law, and further, he was the second
-member of the rising house of Seymour, which many predicted&mdash;in
-the event of any accident happening to His Majesty,
-whose health was fast declining&mdash;would at once assume a
-preponderating position at his successor’s Court.</p>
-
-<p>But although Lady Latimer must have been acquainted
-with every detail of the conspiracy organised by the Seymours
-against the house of Howard, of which the first fruit was the
-revelation of the unfortunate Queen Katherine Howard’s
-misconduct, she does not seem to have hesitated for a moment
-in her determination to become Queen of England, even at
-the sacrifice of her passion for Thomas Seymour, which, all-absorbing
-as it was, never diverted her from the two great
-objects of her ambition: her own political influence, and the
-ultimate advancement of the Reformation. She cannot be
-described as a Protestant, for in her time that word was not
-yet coined. During her second husband’s lifetime she must
-have concealed her “advanced views,” and when she became<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37">37</a></span>
-Queen she was&mdash;outwardly at least&mdash;a schismatic, who attended
-as many as three and four Masses daily. Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>
-rarely heard less than three, and sometimes as many as
-five Masses every day, and what is more, obliged every official
-of his Court and household, high and low, to do the same.
-How she first attracted his attention has never transpired;
-but as a great Court lady she must have been in frequent
-and immediate relations with the sovereign. The first mention
-of her personal dealings with King Henry is connected
-with trouble in the Throckmorton family. Owing to some
-dispute over their respective country seats, Coughton Court
-and Oursley, which were contiguous to one another, her
-maternal aunt’s husband, Sir George Throckmorton, had
-incurred Cromwell’s ill-will. Cromwell, with a view to ruining
-his opponent, went so far as to accuse him of conspiring against
-the King’s supremacy in ecclesiastical matters. According
-to an MS. ballad still preserved in the Throckmorton archives,
-Lady Latimer interceded with His Majesty for her uncle, and
-obtained full justice for him. At the same time she contrived
-the overthrow of Cromwell, whose title of Essex was eventually
-conferred upon her brother, Sir William Parr, who married
-Anne Bourchier, only daughter of the last Earl of Essex of
-the original branch.</p>
-
-<p>The divorce&mdash;based on the futile plea that the King did
-not find Anne of Cleves physically attractive<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">34</a>&mdash;which
-followed six months after Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s pompous marriage with
-that lady was accepted by the philosophical Dutchwoman
-in a spirit that proved her practical sense to be stronger than
-her sentiment. A noble mansion in the country, a dower of
-£4000 a year, and precedence over all the great ladies of the
-Court, the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth excepted, struck her
-as more desirable than an anxious and uncertain struggle to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38">38</a></span>
-retain the crown matrimonial which, under somewhat similar
-circumstances, had proved so sorry a possession to Queen
-Katherine of Aragon. None the less, the Reformers took
-Anne’s humiliation&mdash;she was a Lutheran princess&mdash;in much
-the same spirit as that which possessed the Catholics at the
-time of the momentous divorce of Queen Katherine. The
-accommodating “daughter of Cleves,” as she now styled
-herself, continued to receive friendly visits from the King
-even in the halcyon days of his brief matrimonial alliance
-with Katherine Howard, and shortly after that wretched
-woman’s execution an influential party appears to have been
-bent, in Reformation interests, on reconciling King Henry
-with his repudiated spouse. Anne herself seems to have
-been not at all averse to the scheme; and Marillac, the French
-Ambassador, who favoured it, found her on one occasion
-quite hopeful&mdash;“in the best of spirits,” and “thinking only
-of amusing herself and of her fine clothes.” But when the
-matter of a reunion between the King and his discarded wife
-was formally proposed to Cranmer by the Duke of Cleves’
-Ambassador, it met with a flat refusal. The Archbishop
-knew the good-natured lady’s character too well to doubt
-that she was never likely to influence the King or be of
-the least use in furthering the Reformers’ interests. In the
-meantime, Parliament had urged Henry, for his “comfort’s
-sake,” to take unto himself another wife; and at the
-same time, as if to keep him out of the way, Sir Thomas
-Seymour was sent on an embassy to the Queen of Hungary,
-and did not return to London until some days after Katherine
-Parr’s wedding.</p>
-
-<p>The earliest intimation in the State Papers of the King’s
-connection with Katherine is in a letter from Lord Lisle,
-afterwards Duke of Northumberland, to Sir William Parr,
-dated Greenwich, 20th June 1543:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>“My lady Latymer, your sister, and Mrs. Herbert be
-both here in the Court with my Lady Mary’s grace and my
-Lady Elizabeth.” Quite a friendly party!</p>
-
-<p>On 22nd June 1543 the gorgeous State barges streamed
-up the Thames from Greenwich to Hampton Court. On
-10th July Cranmer issued a licence for the King to marry
-Katherine, Lady Latimer, “in any church or chapel without<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39">39</a></span>
-issue of banns,” and two days later Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> led Lord
-Latimer’s widow to the altar of an upper oratory called “the
-Quynes Prevey closet” at Hampton Court Palace. After
-Low Mass, said by Bishop Gardiner, the consent of both parties
-was pronounced in English. The King, taking the fair bride’s
-right hand, repeated after the Bishop the words: “I, Henry,
-take thee, Katherine, to my wedded wife, to have and to hold
-from this day forward, for better for worse (<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">sic</i>), for richer for
-poorer, in sickness and in health, till death us do part, and
-thereto I plight thee my troth.” Then, unclasping and
-once more clasping hands, Katherine likewise said, “I,
-Katherine, take thee, Henry, to my wedded husband, to have
-and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for
-richer for poorer, in sickness and in health to be bonayr and
-buxome in bed and at board, till death us do part, and thereto
-I plight unto thee my troth.” The putting on of the wedding
-ring and offering of gold and silver followed, and after a
-prayer the Bishop pronounced the nuptial benediction.</p>
-
-<p>At the wedding were present, amongst others, Lord Hertford
-and his Countess; Sir Anthony Browne; Joan, Lady
-Dudley; Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk; Lord John Russell;
-the King’s niece, the Lady Margaret Douglas; Mrs. Herbert,
-the Queen’s sister; and last but not least, the Princesses Mary
-and Elizabeth, to whom their stepmother made handsome
-presents of money. There is no mention of the Dorsets attending
-the wedding, though both were in London at the time.
-Everybody seemed delighted, even Wriothesley, who went so
-far as to write to Suffolk, then with the army in the north, that
-“on Thursday last the King had married the Lady Latimer,
-a lady in his judgment for virtue and winsomeness and gentleness
-most mete for His Highness, who never had such a wife
-more agreeable to his harte than she is.” Katherine herself
-informed her brother, Sir William Parr, that “it had pleased
-God to incline the King’s heart to take her as his wife, which
-was to her the greatest joy and comfort that could happen.”
-Wriothesley enclosed this letter in one of his own in which he
-entreated Parr to make himself worthy of such a sister as the
-new Queen. Chapuys wrote to the Emperor on 27th July:
-“My lady of Cleves has taken great grief and despair at the
-King’s espousal of this last wife, who is not, she says, nearly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40">40</a></span>
-so beautiful as she, and besides that there is no hope of
-issue, seeing that she has been twice married before and no
-children born to her.” Richard Hills, “Heretic Hills,” as
-they called him, in a letter to Bullinger, the Swiss Reformer,
-who subsequently became the friend of Lady Jane Grey,
-and dated from Strasburg on 26th September, makes the
-following very characteristic comments on the King’s sixth
-<span class="locked">marriage:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“No news but that our King has, within these two months
-as I have already written to John Bucer, burnt three godly
-men in one day. In July he married the widow of a nobleman
-named Latimer, and, as you know, he is always wont to celebrate
-his nuptials by some wickedness of this kind.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The victims alluded to are known as the “Windsor
-martyrs.” They were men in humble circumstances named
-Parsons, Testwood, and Filmer.<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> A fourth, John Marbeck,
-who was organist at St. George’s Chapel Royal, was, it is said,
-reprieved at the instance of Dr. Casson, Bishop of Salisbury,
-and of the Queen, who is also credited with having saved
-the life of Dr. Haines, Dean of Exeter, of Sir Philip Hoby
-and his wife, and of Sir Thomas Carden, who had been denounced
-by Dr. London as spreading heresy even within the
-precincts of the palace. The result of the Queen’s action
-was that London and Simmonds, his coadjutor, were condemned
-for perjury, and sentenced to ride round Windsor
-with their faces to the horses’ tails&mdash;a humiliating punishment
-which is said to have caused Dr. London’s death&mdash;no
-great loss to humanity.</p>
-
-<p>To save human life and to alleviate suffering is a meritorious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41">41</a></span>
-act that brings its own reward; but in spite of this, and
-although the newly made Queen was thus enabled to realise
-her own influence, she must have found her honeymoon a
-season full of dread, revealing as it did the terrible insecurity
-of lives dependent on the fiat of so capricious a tyrant as her
-royal mate.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42">42</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE KING’S HOUSEHOLD</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Not</span> Solomon in all his glory&mdash;nor Sultan Suleyman
-the Magnificent of Istambul&mdash;was lodged more
-sumptuously than Tudor King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> of
-England. When Katherine Parr espoused the much-married
-monarch, she found herself mistress of a score of royal
-palaces, each furnished in a manner not unworthy of the
-splendour of Aladdin after that fortunate youth had gained
-possession of his magic Lamp, and served by the most
-numerous retinue ever brought together in this ancient
-kingdom of ours. The Venetian envoys, accustomed
-to the luxury and artistic elegance of the Queen of the
-Adriatic, were fairly dazzled by the sight of the treasures
-Henry gathered about him. Although within the space of a
-few brief years he suffered vandal hands to rob his country
-of more noble abbeys, churches, libraries, and works of art
-than had been destroyed by time and foreign and civil war
-combined since William’s Conquest, the King’s own artistic
-sense was highly developed, and he revelled, with a glee that
-sometimes verged upon the childish, in pomp and luxury and
-all things rare and beautiful.<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> To the confiscated collections
-of Wolsey he added the spoils of a hundred monasteries, and
-the Inventory of his effects, taken a few days after his death,<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">37</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43">43</a></span>
-fills two enormous folio volumes preserved among the Harleian
-Papers in the British Museum. It is written in a round,
-legible hand, on the finest paper of the period, and a glimpse of
-its contents cannot fail to excite the longing of the <em>virtuoso</em>
-and to stir the imagination as effectually as any brilliant page
-of description in the <cite>Arabian Nights</cite>. A perusal of these
-bulky tomes facilitates some partial conception of the extraordinary
-magnificence of the Court at which Lady Jane Grey
-figured as a child, and whence, no doubt, she derived that
-taste for “costlie attire, music and other vanities,” which was
-to evoke the unfavourable criticism of her Puritan friends at
-Zurich and Strasburg, who exhorted her, if she really desired
-to save her soul, to forswear all such trash, and imitate “the
-simplicity in dress and modesty in demeanour” practised
-by her cousin the Princess Elizabeth. We find hundreds
-of entries touching bedsteads, tables, card or playing
-tables, chairs, couches and footstools of carved ebony,
-cedar-wood, walnut, or oak, inlaid with mother-of-pearl,
-ivory, or rich metal wirework, and upholstered in silk,
-satin, velvet, or Florence brocade, fringed with gold, and
-even with strings of seed-pearls. Persian and Turkish
-carpets, silks and woollen, covered every available space in
-corridor, gallery, hall, and bedchamber, and there is mention
-of one especially wonderful carpet “of silk,” probably
-Persian, “nine yards long by two and a half wide.” One
-chamber was decorated with “101 yards of white satin
-embroidered and fringed with gold,” while the walls of
-another were panelled with purple cloth of gold, <i>i.e.</i> purple
-silk shot with gold.</p>
-
-<p>There must have been some hundreds of complete sets of
-the costliest tapestries and arras in the various royal palaces.
-Wolsey, whose passion for tapestry as a mural decoration
-became quite unreasonable, collected scores of the finest
-specimens the looms of Italy and Flanders could produce and
-lavish outlay secure. After his fall these remained as he had
-left them at Hampton Court, where we still admire the splendid
-series representing the “Story of Abraham,” designed by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44">44</a></span>
-Raphael’s pupil, Bernard van Orly, and another of yet earlier
-date illustrating the “Triumphs,” of which three, those of
-“Death,” “Renown,” and “Time,” occupy their original
-positions in Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s Great Watching or Guard Chamber.
-As we gaze on their faded beauty, we should remind
-ourselves that the immense quantity of gold thread
-wrought with infinite care and taste into their composition,
-and now tarnished, glistened in King Henry’s time in
-all the glory of its freshness. In the Audience Chamber at
-Whitehall many a great Ambassador may have envied the
-arras hangings, representing the “Acts of the Apostles,”<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">38</a>
-from designs by Raphael presented to the King by Pope
-Leo <span class="smcap smaller">X</span> when he gave him the proud title of “Defender of the
-Faith.”</p>
-
-<p>The walls of three State rooms at Hampton Court were
-hung “with cloth of gold, blue cloth of gold, crimson velvet
-upon velvet, tawny velvet upon velvet, green velvet figury,
-and cloth of bawdekin,” a regal material woven partly of silk
-and partly of gold. Some of the chief tapestries at Whitehall
-represented the “History of Our Lady,” the “Story of
-Ahasuerus and Esther,” the “Crucifixion,” the “Story of
-Apollo and Daphne,” “St. George and the Dragon,” “Hawking
-and Hunting Scenes,” the “Siege of Jerusalem,” and
-many other like episodes in sacred and profane history and
-in mythology. The King would order a score of sets of
-tapestry at once, and would spend a sum equal to £10,000 or
-£15,000 of our money upon them. The overflow of tapestries,
-“picture-hangings,” Oriental silks, Genoa velvets, Florence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45">45</a></span>
-and Venice brocades, curtains of French lace, Chinese silks,
-and costly furniture, went to the State rooms of the stern
-old Tower; to Windsor&mdash;where a few remnants of Henry
-<span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s belongings still remain; to Woodstock, to Richmond,
-to Greenwich, to Oatlands in Surrey&mdash;where Prince Edward
-often lived; to Newhall to Havering atte Bower&mdash;the chief
-country seat of Princess Mary; to Hatfield and Enfield
-Chase&mdash;where Princess Elizabeth spent her girlhood; to the
-Queen’s dower-houses at Hanworth and Chelsea; and above all,
-to that marvel of the age, the new Palace of Nonesuch, which
-Henry had built him at Cheam, Surrey.<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">39</a> At Whitehall there
-were scores of cupboards crammed with gold and silver plate,
-and there were ivory and ebony cabinets with crystal doors,
-in which glittered strange Italian jewels, and curiosities from
-all parts of the then known world. In none of Henry’s palaces
-does there seem to have been a gallery exclusively devoted to
-pictures, such as would be found in most contemporary Italian
-and French royal and princely residences; but there were
-plenty of pictures or “painted tables,” as the Inventory
-quaintly calls them, in nearly every chamber. In 1540
-Holbein’s great fresco in the King’s Privy Council Room at
-Whitehall, representing King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span> and Queen Elizabeth of
-York in the background, with Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and Jane Seymour
-standing in front, was a comparatively recent work. The
-illustrious artist, who died in London of the plague in 1543,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46">46</a></span>
-had also designed the ceiling of the “Matted Gallery,”
-and covered the walls of the Chapel Royal with frescoes
-and arabesques.</p>
-
-<p>The King’s appearance, as he developed from boyhood to
-manhood and middle age, might have been studied in scores
-of presentments of him, to be met with at every turn: here,
-a plump little boy, by Mabuse; there, a singularly handsome
-fair-haired young man by Paris Bordone; and yonder, a
-full-length portrait by Hans Holbein, in which it was evident
-that His Majesty was beginning to “put on flesh.” In the
-Audience Chamber was a “table” of the monarch painted
-by Bartolomeo Penni, wherein the “peepy eyes” and the
-bloated cheeks of his latter years were only too faithfully
-portrayed. Though there were portraits of nearly all the
-King’s contemporaries, including one of Charles <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> of France
-and another of Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>, besides a round dozen of Francis <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>,
-the likenesses of the five queens who preceded Katherine
-Parr had all been carefully removed, or, as in the case, of Anne
-Boleyn and Katherine Howard, destroyed. A cabinet full of
-relics of Queen Jane stood, however, in the anteroom of the
-King’s bedchamber at the Tower; and at Westminster, in a
-picture-book, there was a portrait of this Queen with another
-of the King facing it on the opposite page. Among the great
-“tables” at Whitehall were the “Virgin and Child,” by
-Leonardo da Vinci,<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> given to the King by Francis <span class="smcap smaller">I</span> in exchange
-for a picture by Holbein; “St. George and the Dragon,”<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">41</a>
-by Raphael; “Christina of Denmark,”<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">42</a> by Holbein, full
-length; a portrait, “Like unto Life,” of “Thomas, Duke
-of Norfolk,”<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">43</a> and “one table of the King’s Highness
-trampling upon the papal tiara, whence issues a serpent
-with seven heads snorting fire. In the King’s hand is the
-Bible, and a sword whereon is written <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Verbum Dei</i>.”<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">44</a></p>
-
-<p>If the art of painting was well represented in the King’s
-many palaces, that of music was even more cherished. Page<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47">47</a></span>
-after page in the Royal Inventory is devoted to “double”
-and “single” virginals, with cases inlaid and encrusted with
-ivory and mother-of-pearl or adorned with arabesques of gold,
-studded with gems; while of lutes and flutes, rebecks and
-viols, there seems to have been a perfect arsenal. Then there
-was a library of over a thousand precious volumes, a sort of
-perambulating feast of reason, for in the Household Expenses
-we find various sums of money disbursed from time to time
-for the removal of boat-loads of books from one palace to
-another. The number of gold, silver, bronze, crystal, and
-glass chandeliers, sconces, and candlesticks distributed among
-the royal residences baffles belief. Each of the two hundred
-and eighty-four guest-chambers at Hampton Court boasted a
-bedstead hung with the richest silk and satin, with a gorgeously
-embroidered and wadded counterpane to match, an Oriental
-carpet, and a toilet set, ewer, basin, and candlesticks
-complete, of massive silver; while one closet at Whitehall
-was stored with an immense collection of the choicest
-German and Venetian glass. Such, in fact, was the King’s
-mania for collecting things rich and rare that, in spite of
-the hopeless and suffering condition of his health, he was
-still “buying,” down to the ultimate week of his life, and
-some of his last purchases seem never to have been paid for
-by his successors.</p>
-
-<p>These contemporary accounts of the Household of Henry
-<span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> strike the student by their marked resemblance to similar
-descriptions, by such writers as Sagrado and Knowles, of the
-quaint and numerous population of the Seraglio in the palmy
-days of the Ottoman Khaliphats. The Tudor King, like the
-Grand Turk, had four battalions of pages&mdash;pages of the Outer
-and of the Inner Court, of the King’s Antechamber, and of
-the King’s Presence Chamber; and yet a fifth contingent
-was attached to the service of the Queen. These lads, some
-hundreds in number, had their captains and even their school-masters;
-they were mostly of good family, and were apparelled,
-according to their rank, in wondrous State garments
-either of satin, green and white, the colours of the house of
-Tudor, or else of royal scarlet and gold. There was a legion
-of Grooms of the Wardrobe, Keepers of the King’s Horse,
-Sports and Pastimes, of his Harriers and Beagles, Sergeants-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48">48</a></span>at-Arms,
-Sergeants of the Woodyard, Sergeants of the Bakehouse,
-Sergeants of the Pantry, Sergeants of the Pastry,
-Sergeants of the Trumpeters, Yeomen of the Wardrobe, Yeomen
-of the Armoury, Yeomen of the Buttery, Yeomen of the
-Chamber, Yeomen of the Chariots, of the Cooks, of the Henchmen,
-Stables, and Tents. The Royal Chapel was served by a
-full complement of chaplains, sub-chaplains, organists, and
-choir-boys. There were apothecaries, physicians, astronomers,<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">45</a>
-astrologers, secretaries, ushers, cup-bearers, carvers,
-servers, singing-boys, virginal players, Italian singers and
-English madrigalists, and a perfect orchestra of players on the
-lute, the flute, the rebeck, the sackbut, the harp, the psalter,
-and all manner of instruments.</p>
-
-<p>Full fifty cooks and twice as many scullions worked in
-the spacious kitchens, and in 1544 we hear of a French pastry-cook
-of good repute who rejoiced in the very pleasing and
-appropriate name of M. Doux. A regiment of gardeners and
-under-gardeners trimmed the pleasaunces and kept the King’s
-orchards in order.</p>
-
-<p>The dresses and costumes of this army of picturesque,
-though often quite useless, folk, numbering some thousands
-or so, were sufficiently costly to account in part for the straits
-of the Royal Exchequer. Their wages and silks and satins cost
-the nation, in the last year of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s reign, £56,700&mdash;against
-£17,280 in the last year of that of his father; a prodigious
-increase&mdash;when we take into consideration the relative value
-of money&mdash;and sufficient to explain the depletion of the coin.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_48" class="figcenter" style="width: 445px;">
- <img src="images/i_048.jpg" width="445" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>HENRY VIII IN 1548</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">FROM AN OLD ENGRAVING</p></div></div>
-
-<p>Scarlet, or rather deep red, was the predominant colour
-of the garments of King Henry’s retainers, but dark blue and
-orange, with the white and light apple green of the house of
-Tudor, were not lacking, and added to the kaleidoscopic aspect
-of the courtyards and staircases, galleries and audience
-chamber, in the stately residences of “bluff King Hal.” One
-Venetian Ambassador, commenting on the order kept at the
-English Court, declared that “everything is regulated as by
-clock-work, and no one ever seems to be out of his place.”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49">49</a></span>
-When the King condescended to walk abroad, he was attended
-by a host of superbly attired courtiers, by his grand equerries
-and chamberlains, the Grand Master of his Horse, his almoners,
-ushers, and physicians; his fool&mdash;Will Somers<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">46</a>; his pages, and
-even by a favourite musician or so. In the last years of his
-life, owing to his increasing infirmity, Henry was sometimes
-carried upon the shoulders of six sturdy noblemen, in a kind of
-<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">sedia gestatoria</i> like the Pope’s. At His Majesty’s approach
-every knee was bent, and many who particularly desired
-to conciliate his favour “grovelled” face downward as
-Orientals before some Eastern despot. The officials and serving-men
-who prepared the table for His Majesty’s meals made an
-obeisance each time they passed the vacant chair wherein the
-monarch was presently to seat himself. The Queen-Consort,
-and the Princesses, his daughters, knelt whenever they addressed
-him. In brief, King Henry, having filched from Peter
-some of Peter’s pontifical prerogatives, exacted the same sort
-of homage as that paid to the Roman Pontiff, and turned
-himself from mortal into a sort of demigod or idol. But
-foreigners and Catholics noted that though people knelt as he
-rode past, His Majesty bestowed no blessing upon them.
-This slavish etiquette continued throughout the reign of
-Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI,</span><a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">47</a> but was modified when Mary renounced the
-titular position of Head of the Church. Elizabeth, however,
-demanded, and, what is more, received, <em>quasi</em>-divine honours
-from her subjects.</p>
-
-<p>Yet another point of resemblance between the Courts of
-England and the Ottoman at this period: Whitehall, like the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50">50</a></span>
-Seraglio, was gay and brilliant on the surface, but in each
-case there was an undercurrent of terror and suspicion. The
-Tudor Court swarmed with spies and informers, and often
-a thoughtless jest, a careless remark, spitefully retailed at
-headquarters, would send men or women to the Tower,
-or even to the stake. Folks went in fear and trembling
-lest what they had said overnight in their cups might be
-brought home to them with appalling consequences in the
-morning. This state of abject and habitual fear engendered
-habits of whispering and talking apart and an atmosphere
-of mystery, in spite of which the gossip and rumours of
-the King’s own chamber passed to the pages, grooms, and
-serving-men in the courtyards below, and thence to the
-general public, as rapidly as news flies nowadays by telephone
-and telegraph.</p>
-
-<p>There can be no doubt that Jane Grey, the daughter of one
-so closely connected with the throne as was the Marchioness of
-Dorset, must often have mingled in the gaudy crowd that
-thronged her grand-uncle’s palace. Henry was as “fond of
-children as he was of pastry,” although, for obvious reasons,
-he did not display any overweening affection for his own
-offspring. This engaging little niece, now about six years of
-age, is likely to have found favour in the monarch’s sight, and
-Jane Grey, for all we know, may even have throned it on her
-dread relative’s august knee. Cranmer’s hand, too, must have
-rested in benediction upon her head, and she may, perchance,
-have won the smile of Gardiner and of Bonner. She must
-often have heard the sick King, who had lost his own fine
-voice, accompany his favourite fool, Will Somers, on the lute,
-in some song or hymn of his own composition. She must have
-been familiar with the two Seymour brothers; with the dreamy
-face and austere manner of the Earl of Hertford, and the bluff
-good-nature of Sir Thomas. She may even have been tossed
-in the strong arms of John Dudley, at this time Lord High-Admiral
-of England and Viscount de Lisle, reputed a “magnificent
-gentleman,” but otherwise of secondary importance.
-Wriothesley, Rich, and foredoomed Surrey and his father, old
-Norfolk, must often have watched her run along, clinging to her
-portly mother’s trailing brocades as she passed on her way to
-and from the King’s cabinet, and may even have whispered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51">51</a></span>
-one to the other that the little damsel would surely be as good
-a match for young Prince Edward as the Scottish Queen’s
-daughter, Mary Stuart. In the apartment of her grand-aunt
-the Queen, where that busy little lady nestled like a sultana
-among her innumerable soft pillows and cushions,<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">48</a> encased
-in cloth of gold and silver, the child Jane must have heard
-much evangelical counsel from the erstwhile widow
-Latimer, who found some consolation in the gorgeousness of
-her thraldom for the loss of her handsome lover, Sir Thomas
-Seymour.</p>
-
-<p>The Queen’s lodgings were parted from the King’s by a short
-corridor, and nearly all her windows overlooked the Thames.
-Here Katherine Parr played the housewife, and in the midst
-of her tapestries and brocades and her “stretches” of silver
-and gold cloth, made poultices for Henry’s ulcered legs, wrote
-her pious treaties on probity and prayers, and probably
-counted the hours till the Lord in His mercy should deliver her
-royal spouse from his sore sufferings. In these rooms, perhaps,
-Jane Grey sat for her miniature to Lavinia Tyrling;
-Bartolomeo Penni may here have limned her diminutive but
-very pretty features; and we fancy we can see Mr. Crane or
-Mr. John Heywood, His Majesty’s chief virginal players,
-teaching her the notes upon the King’s “favourite virginal,”
-the one “enlaid with gold and mother-of-pearl.” In the last
-months of Henry’s life, when Lady Jane is known to have
-been much with Katherine Parr, the little girl may have
-listened with delight to the wonderful warbling of the King’s
-Italian singers, Alberto of Venice, Marc Antonio Galiadello of
-Brescia, or Giorgio da Cremona, as they vainly endeavoured
-to soothe the sufferings of the dying monarch by their elaborate
-<em>cadenze</em>.</p>
-
-<p>Queen Katherine soon made her influence felt at Court.
-She could not control the violent passions of her wayward
-lord, but she did in a measure modify them, and steered her
-own course amid the shoals of regal existence with consummate<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52">52</a></span>
-skill. No breath of scandal ever sullied her fair name, though
-Thomas Seymour, back from his convenient mission to Hungary,
-was appointed her Chamberlain, and must have been a good
-deal in her company. Even her worst enemies never ventured
-on that track. When at a later date they planned a blow,
-which they hoped would prove fatal to the Queen, they selected
-her religious leanings, not her love affairs, as their fell weapon.
-Katherine Parr, to her credit, lost no time in reconciling the
-King with his hitherto neglected daughters. Princess Mary
-was near her own age, and had been intimate with her when
-she was Lady Latimer. The Emperor’s Ambassadors praise
-“the new Queen for her kindness to the daughter of Katherine
-of Aragon,<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">49</a> who now takes her proper place at Court.” Elizabeth,
-too, was summoned from her suburban retreat, but had
-not been many weeks under her father’s roof ere he became
-so exasperated by her pert obstinacy that he summarily
-ordered her back to Enfield. In a few weeks, however,
-Katherine patched up the quarrel, and on 24th July 1544
-Elizabeth wrote Her Majesty, in Italian, a most graceful letter
-of thanks for her good offices.<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">50</a> Edward was too delicate to
-be much in London, but none the less his stepmother looked
-after his health with so much “gentleness” that she soon
-won his sincere affection and lasting goodwill. He wrote
-her letters in Latin, French, and Italian, addressed to his
-<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">charisima Mater</i>, and full of praise for her beautiful penmanship,
-which, on comparison, proves greatly inferior both to
-his own and to that of either Elizabeth or Jane Grey.
-Katherine induced her stepdaughter Mary to assist in the
-translation of Erasmus’s <cite>Paraphrase of the Four Gospels</cite>. The
-Princess selected that of St. John, and when the work was
-finished, an amusing correspondence ensued as to the propriety
-of the future Queen of England placing her name, as
-translator, on the frontispiece. “I see not why you should
-reject the praise deservedly yours,” argued the Queen; and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53">53</a></span>
-the Princess at last allowed the editor of the work, the learned
-Dr. Udall, to allude to the fact that “the most noble, the
-most virtuous and the most studious Lady Mary” had a
-hand in its success.<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">51</a></p>
-
-<p>To occupy her own leisure, Queen Katherine devoted
-herself to the composition of a quaint book entitled <cite>The
-Lamentations of a Penitent Sinner</cite>, a pious work which gives
-us, at least in one passage, a lucid idea of the methods employed
-by Her Majesty to keep her hold over her extraordinary
-husband, among which gross flattery was by no means the
-least. A copy of this work was once in the possession of
-John Thelwall, and was sold at the death of his second wife.
-It contained a curious autograph, indicating that it had been
-given by the Queen to her “dear cosyn, Jane Grey,” who no
-doubt read it with veneration and delight. In this tiny
-volume Henry had the satisfaction of being likened unto Moses
-leading the Children of Israel out of bondage. “I mean by
-Moses, King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, my most sovereign favourable lord
-and husband, one (if Moses had figured any more than Christ)
-through the excellent grace of God, meet to be another expressed
-verity of Moses’ conquest over Pharaoh (and I mean
-by this Pharaoh the Bishop of Rome), the greatest persecutor
-of all true Christians than ever was Pharaoh of the Children
-of Israel.”</p>
-
-<p>As may well be imagined, Queen Katherine Parr did not
-fail to use her influence to obtain prominent positions about
-the Court for her own kith and kin. Her uncle and Chamberlain,
-Sir Thomas Parr, was created Lord Parr of Horton; her
-brother was raised from the rank of Baron Parr of Kendal to
-be Earl of Essex, in lieu of the lately decapitated Thomas
-Cromwell; and her brother-in-law, William Herbert, was
-knighted. These gentlemen received their new dignities in
-the Chapel Royal, but were not entertained in one of the
-apartments spread with Persian carpets. Their dinner was
-served in the choir-boys’ mess-room, in which a fresh litter
-of rushes was strewn for the occasion&mdash;a curious fact, which
-leads one to conclude that the acting master of ceremonies
-expected the party to indulge in libations which might result
-in some injury to Oriental rugs but were not likely to do much<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54">54</a></span>
-damage to fresh rushes costing 3s. 6d. the litter. Parr had to
-pay 40s. for his new paraphernalia, and the choir-boys got 10s.
-for singing after the dinner.<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">52</a></p>
-
-<p>On 14th July 1544 King Henry sailed from Dover for
-France to superintend in person the approaching siege of
-Boulogne. He left our shores in a vessel with sails made of
-cloth of gold, the glitter of which does not appear to have
-added to the ship’s speed, for the King did not get to Calais
-for nearly twenty-four hours, although the weather was fine,
-and the sea calm&mdash;probably too calm. The last time he had
-crossed the Channel, on his way to the Field of the Cloth of
-Gold, Henry had acted the part of pilot, garbed in nether
-garments of cloth of gold, and had blown the pilot’s whistle
-as loud as any trumpeter. This time he was too anxious
-and enfeebled to play at all. His Majesty was attended by his
-brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk, also a very sick man; by
-Sir William Herbert, who acted as his spear-bearer, by the
-Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Surrey, the Spanish Duke
-of Alberqurque, John Dudley, the Lord High-Admiral,
-afterwards Duke of Northumberland, and half the English
-nobility. Before his departure he appointed the Queen
-Regent of England and Ireland, with power to sign all official
-and State documents, this being almost the first occasion
-on which a Queen-Consort of England held so responsible
-a position. The Earl of Hertford was to be Her Majesty’s
-constant attendant, but should he chance to be temporarily
-absent, Cranmer was to remain with her, and with these two,
-Sir William Petre and Lord Parr of Horton, her Grace’s
-uncle, Wriothesley, and Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, were
-to sit in council.</p>
-
-<p>During this regency Katherine kept aloof from politics
-and occupied herself principally with assisting the University
-of Cambridge and with the royal children, who were left in
-her charge. Princess Mary, who was an almost constant
-guest during the King’s absence, and Princess Elizabeth, were
-both invited to join the circle at Oatlands, where Prince
-Edward was residing, and whither, owing to an outbreak
-of the plague, the Queen herself soon retired. From the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55">55</a></span>
-various suburban palaces in which she was residing, Katherine
-addressed letters almost daily to the King, giving him accounts
-of the health and the doings of his children; and the monarch
-vouchsafed in return to write most approvingly of all she
-did. Towards the middle of August the Lady Dorset and
-her daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, came to Oatlands for a
-few days’ visit. This was perhaps the first and probably
-the only time spent by Lady Jane and Prince Edward
-under the same roof. The royal kinsfolk may have lived a
-very quiet life, spending their days in the gardens and park,
-and their evenings either listening to the singing of Princess
-Mary, who is reputed to have had a magnificent contralto
-voice, or to Princess Elizabeth’s playing upon the virginals,
-an art in which she already excelled. The Queen may perchance
-have favoured the company with a chapter or so
-from some one or other of her remarkably dull theological
-compositions. There is no evidence that she was a musician,
-and she does not seem to have been infected with the prevailing
-Court vice&mdash;gambling&mdash;in which even the pious
-Princess Mary indulged, frequently losing much more than
-she could pay&mdash;as demonstrated by the Household Books
-of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>.</p>
-
-<p>Boulogne capitulated to Suffolk on 16th September, after a
-lengthy siege, and on the 18th, the King, accompanied by the
-Duke of Alberqurque, representing his ally the Emperor,
-received the keys of the city from his brother-in-law’s hands,
-and made what he was pleased to consider his triumphal
-entry into the town. But he rode through a city untenanted
-and in ruins; even the magnificent Cathedral had not been
-spared, and the townsfolk, who had fled for security, as
-they hoped, to Hardelot and Etaples, were massacred, man,
-woman, and child, by the allied Spanish, German, and English
-troops. English historians have been reticent in dealing
-with the siege of Boulogne,<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">53</a> and the majority have passed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56">56</a></span>
-very lightly over the disagreement which soon broke out
-between our King and his ally the Emperor.<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">54</a> Charles now
-urged Henry to join him and march on Paris. Henry,
-who knew his troops to be enfeebled by hardship and
-suffering, and moreover felt himself far too ill to supervise
-fresh military operations, would go no farther, more
-especially because he feared to infuriate the French King,
-who might at any moment ally himself with his former enemy
-the Emperor Charles, and thus form a Catholic coalition
-absolutely inimical to the policy of the English King.
-Henry’s hesitation undoubtedly saved the city of Paris.
-Seeing the Emperor’s troops approach the capital, Francis
-roused himself for a moment from the lethargy in which he
-had been plunged, and once more became the hero of Marignano.
-The King’s attitude and the bravery of the Dauphin,
-who was covering the capital with 8000 men, stimulated
-the drooping spirits of the Parisians, and, with their usual
-heroism, they prepared to offer a stout resistance to their foes.
-They even made merry at the expense of their two arch-enemies,
-ridiculing the gouty Emperor and caricaturing the
-corpulent English King&mdash;a proof, if one were lacking, that
-the fatal diseases destined eventually to carry Henry off had
-already made sufficient progress to excite general attention.
-Queen Eleanor, the neglected wife of Francis <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>, foreseeing the
-horrors to which the capital and its inhabitants were exposed,
-determined, without consulting her husband, to plead personally
-with the Emperor. Accompanied by a Spanish monk
-named Guzman, she proceeded to the Imperial tent, and casting
-herself upon her knees before Charles, then writhing in agonies
-of gout, obtained terms from him, thus averting a siege which
-must have cost rivers of blood. The peace then concluded
-was none too satisfactory, so far as England was concerned,
-since it stipulated that Boulogne was to be restored in the
-space of six years, during which time the place lost us in money
-and men far more than it was worth. Never, indeed, was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57">57</a></span>
-there a more futile expedition than this, nor a greater waste
-of money. The much-talked-of sails of cloth of gold wafted
-the King home on 1st October 1544. In London he was received
-with little enthusiasm, or none at all. The nation was
-disappointed by the terms of the peace, the army was disorganised,
-Norfolk already out of favour, and Surrey, accused
-of insubordination, was openly disgraced. Boulogne was
-left in the hands of Jane Grey’s future father-in-law, Lord
-High-Admiral John Dudley.</p>
-
-<p>The health of Lady Jane’s maternal grandfather, Charles
-Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, failed him completely soon after
-his return to England. He seems to have suffered from a
-complication of disorders not unlike those which were afflicting
-his brother-in-law, the King. After the siege of Boulogne,
-he appears to have been of very little use, and eighteen months
-later he retired with his Duchess to Guildford Castle “in much
-suffering and pain.” There is a portrait extant of Charles
-Brandon, taken at this time, which represents him seated in a
-large armchair, his head bound up in a sort of nightcap, and
-his swollen and gouty feet, one of which rests on a stool,
-enveloped in bandages. The bloated face bears a weird
-resemblance to Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. Brandon died at Guildford in
-1546 after a long illness, during which he was nursed by his
-Duchess and his two daughters, the Ladies Frances and
-Eleanor, the former of whom brought her eldest daughters,
-Jane and Katherine, with her. By his will Charles Brandon
-left, after deducting a rather meagre dower for his wife, the
-bulk of his vast fortune to his two sons, with remainder to his
-daughters in unequal shares, the Lady Frances, in the case of
-the death of her two brothers, inheriting considerably more
-than two-thirds of her father’s lands and money. He desired
-to be buried in Lincolnshire, but Henry, overlooking this
-request, caused his body to be conveyed to Windsor, where it
-was interred with great pomp in St. George’s Chapel, in the
-presence of his family and of a multitude of courtiers.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58">58</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">MRS. ANNE ASKEW</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">It</span> was in the latter years of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s reign that Stephen
-Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, conceived his scheme
-for the reconciliation of England and England’s monarch
-with the Roman Pontiff. Although a less astute intriguer than
-his powerful opponent Cranmer, Gardiner, who was apt to
-lose his temper and blurt out things best kept to himself, was
-a man of marked ability, one of whom his crafty master made
-frequent use, playing him off against the Archbishop, and so
-retaining the balance of power in his own jealous hands.
-Cranmer was at this period using his influence with Henry to
-abolish the use of Latin in the Mass, preparatory to the eventual
-introduction of the Book of Common Prayer and the early
-and total abrogation of the Eucharistic Service in the Roman
-sense. Yet the wily Churchman knew right well that so long
-as the King lived there was but faint hope of this change.
-For His Majesty clung to the doctrine of Transubstantiation
-closer than to any other tenet; not so much on account of his
-faith&mdash;did he believe anything?&mdash;as because, in the days of
-his youth, he had indited a work in defence of the Catholic
-doctrine of the Sacraments, which, so his clergy had averred,
-proved him wiser than Solomon himself, and which Pope
-Leo <span class="smcap smaller">X</span> had favourably compared with the writings of
-St. Augustine and Gregory the Great, rewarding the royal
-author with that title of “Defender of the Faith” which
-is still a cherished appanage of British royalty. Henry
-had even made belief in the Sacrament of the Altar a
-principal Article amongst the famous Six, any denial of which
-was punishable with death. Yet, if the King had searched
-Cranmer’s study at Lambeth at the very moment when that
-wily prelate was professing to accept his beliefs from his King,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59">59</a></span>
-as submissively as though the monarch had possessed the infallible
-powers of his own Maker, he might have laid his hand
-on a bulky correspondence between the Primate and every
-Lutheran and Calvinistic leader in Germany and Switzerland&mdash;with
-Calvin, Bullinger, Œcolampadius, Osiander, Dryander,
-Bucer, and the rest. Gardiner, on his side, was in communication
-with Cardinal Pole, Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>, the Pope, and the entire
-papal party at home and abroad. This duel between the
-papal leader and the Reformers, then, was the true basis of all
-political undertakings at this momentous crisis. The rival
-parties were really preparing themselves for the departure of
-the dying King, and aimed at controlling the inevitable Protectorate,
-necessitated by the minority of his successor, a lad
-of nine summers. Had Gardiner, the Howards, and the
-Catholic party won the day, history would have had little,
-perhaps nothing, to record concerning Lady Jane Grey. Her
-name, like that of her accomplished friend Lady Jane Seymour,
-daughter of Lord Hertford, would have been lost, buried in
-the spent sands of the past.</p>
-
-<p>The decline of the King’s health began in the summer of
-1541&ndash;2, when he was attacked by a dangerous tertian fever,
-from which, thanks to his powerful constitution, he partially
-recovered.</p>
-
-<p>At the time of his marriage with Anne of Cleves he was
-again in poor health, and during the proceedings for the King’s
-divorce from his Dutch consort, Cranmer laid great stress on
-the fact that although she had shared his chamber for six
-months, the bride was still to all intents and purposes unwed.
-At the siege of Boulogne, as we have seen, Henry was terribly
-altered, and the French ballad-writers jested about <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">le cercle
-de fer</i>, which, they averred, kept his ungainly carcass together.
-Queen Katherine was probably espoused rather as a
-skilful nurse than as a wife, in the ordinary acceptance of the
-term, and a most assiduous attendant she proved, kneeling for
-hours at a time rubbing his swelled legs and dressing his many
-ulcers. It would be unjust to the Queen’s memory to attribute
-this wifely devotion to none but selfish motives. But her
-contemporaries shrewdly guessed that, while fulfilling her
-wifely duty, she did not fail to work in her own interest, and
-that of her friends, with her own peculiar skill and tact. She<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60">60</a></span>
-certainly wished to be appointed Regent during Edward’s
-minority, and would gladly have excluded the Howards,
-Wriothesley, Gardiner, Rich, and the whole Catholic element
-from the King’s sick-room, while doing all she could to
-strengthen the hand of the Seymours, maternal uncles of the
-future King, who were intent on ruling his kingdom for him
-on strictly anti-papal lines. In the spring of the year 1546
-the King had a bad relapse, and day by day the grey shadows
-of approaching death deepened on that broad and bloated
-countenance. He would not have the grim word mentioned
-in his presence, and any courtier who appeared before him
-dressed in mourning<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">55</a>&mdash;even for the nearest kin&mdash;was driven
-in fury from his sight. None the less, he realised that he had
-not many months to live. It was imperative, therefore, if
-any reconciliation with Rome was to be effected before the
-new reign began, that no time should be lost, and that some
-sharp and decisive blow should overthrow the influence of
-the Queen, now the chief intermediary between her sick spouse,
-Cranmer, and the Seymours. But Katherine, in spite of the
-notoriety of her intimate friendship with Sir Thomas Seymour,
-was far too clever to give her enemies any chance of blasting,
-or even smirching, her reputation. With respect to her
-religious opinions, which were distinctly heterodox, she was
-less guarded, however, and her enemies had good reason to
-believe that if they could convince the King, beyond any
-doubt, that she was in correspondence with those whom he
-was pleased to term “heretics,” she would never be able to
-weather the storm her treachery must inevitably raise in
-the King’s resentful breast.</p>
-
-<p>Henry, whose brain remained astonishingly active, notwithstanding
-his infirmities, had never been so irritable and
-ferocious as during the last few months of his life. He was
-like a half-dead rattlesnake, which may recover life and
-spring afresh upon its prey at any moment. Never were the
-fires at Smithfield so active as in 1546. Early in this year
-six poor wretches were sent to the stake&mdash;three Catholics;
-the other three, Reformers. To demonstrate the impartiality<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61">61</a></span>
-of their merciless judge they were all chained together. People
-scarcely knew what they must believe or what disbelieve, to
-escape execution. The King’s informers were always at
-work, spying upon the sayings and doings of people in every
-rank of life; and the wonder is that the Queen and her ladies
-were not caught in some imprudent admission or other, and
-convicted. At last, however, in the early spring of 1546, an
-incident occurred which brought Katherine’s foes their longed-for
-chance of effecting her downfall.</p>
-
-<p>Anne Askew, second daughter of Sir William Askew, or
-Ayscough, of South Kelsy, Lincolnshire, was born at Stallingbrough,
-near Grimsby, in 1521. When about fifteen years of
-age, she was married, without her consent, to Mr. Thomas
-Kyme, a Lincolnshire squire and neighbour, who had been
-previously “contracted” to her elder sister. During her
-early wedded life Mrs. Kyme appears to have been happy
-enough, and became the mother of two children. She presently
-occupied herself in studying the newly translated Scriptures,
-and shortly after imagined she had a divine mission to preach
-the gospel and correct what she deemed the theological errors
-of her neighbours, especially on the subject of the Lord’s
-Supper, concerning which she held Genevan views.</p>
-
-<p>After a few years of discomfort, Mr. Kyme, who, according
-to the latest researches, entertained contrary religious opinions
-to those of his wife, began to complain of the scanty enjoyment
-he derived from her society. She was perpetually “gadding
-up and down the country, a-gospelling and a-gossiping,
-instead of looking after her children.” Anne is described as a
-handsome and daring young woman with a good deal of native
-wit and ability, and was evidently the prototype of not a few
-ladies of our own time, who prefer public life and controversy
-to domestic duty and retirement. She even took upon herself
-to read and comment on the New Testament in the nave of
-Lincoln Cathedral, where she was often to be found surrounded
-by an interested or amused group of priests and people. This
-state of things no Dean or Chapter could be expected to endure,
-and one fine day Mrs. Kyme found herself forcibly ejected
-from the sacred edifice. After this incident, she must have
-had some unusual disagreement with her husband, for her
-relations persuaded her to leave the town, and she travelled<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62">62</a></span>
-to London, where she soon made herself conspicuous as a
-preacher of the new learning, and secured several distinguished
-converts. She lodged in a house near the Temple, and one of
-her neighbours, Mr. Wadloe, a hot Catholic, who began by
-deriding her behaviour, ended by admiring her “godliness”;
-to use his own expression&mdash;“At mydnyght when I and others
-applye ourselves to sleape, or do worse, Mrs. Askew” (she had
-resumed her maiden name), “begins to pray, and ceaseth not
-in many howers after,” doubtless to the edification of such of
-her neighbours as suffered from insomnia.</p>
-
-<p>By dint of perseverance, and also, it may be, through her
-connections, Anne Askew formed the acquaintance of several
-great ladies of the Court, and is said to have obtained, through
-the offices of the Duchess of Suffolk, an interview with the
-Queen, to whom, in the presence of her ladies, notably Lady
-Tyrwhitt, Lady Lane, Lady Denny, and the little Lady Jane
-Grey,<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">56</a> she offered some copies of Tyndale’s version of the New
-Testament, and certain tracts arguing against Transubstantiation,
-which were subsequently found in the Queen’s own
-closet and in the possession of the King’s “Suffolk nieces.”</p>
-
-<p>It was in March 1545 that Mrs. Askew was first arrested
-on a charge of heresy and taken to Sadler’s Hall, where she
-was denounced to the civil authorities and taken before the
-Lord Mayor, who in the course of his examination questioned
-her as to the probable changes in a consecrated wafer after a
-“mowse” had swallowed it, whereupon she “made no answer
-but smiled,” and was committed to the Counter. That much-abused
-man, Bishop Bonner, appears to have taken an interest
-in her case, and endeavoured to save her from an awful fate.
-He granted her a private interview and drew up a form of
-recantation which she signed in the following ambiguous terms:
-“I, Anne Askew, do believe all manner of things contained
-in the Catholic Church and not otherwise.” On this, Bonner,
-whose patience had been severely tried,&mdash;for Anne was very
-sharp-tongued and uncompromising,&mdash;waxed wroth, and taking
-her by the shoulders, pushed her out of the chamber. Her
-next friend was Dr. Weston, afterwards Bishop of Westminster,
-who got her liberated on her own security; and for
-some months we hear no more about her, except that she<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63">63</a></span>
-was busy preaching and distributing her tracts secretly. On
-10th May 1546 both Mr. and Mrs. Kyme received a summons
-to present themselves within a specified time before the Privy
-Council, then sitting at Greenwich, and they accordingly
-appeared on the 19th of the following June before the Chancellor
-of the Augmentations, Sir Richard Rich, the Bishops of Durham
-and Winchester and a number of other noblemen and gentlemen,
-and were put through a severe cross-examination.<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">57</a> Anne,
-we learn, received this summons in London, but her husband
-came to town on purpose to attend. Kyme got off with a
-caution, on his promise to return forthwith to Lincoln, and
-remain there. His wife, in open court, declared she would
-never again recognise him as her husband. He went back to
-Lincoln, and we lose sight of him. All we know is that he died,
-where he is buried, at Friskne in 1591.</p>
-
-<p>Anne Askew was eventually arraigned before the King’s
-Justices at Guildhall for speaking against the Sacrament of
-the Altar, contrary to the Statute of the Six Articles. This
-time she appeared with two other “heretics,” one of them that
-singular personage Dr. Nicholas Shaxton, ex-Bishop of Salisbury,
-whose pupil she is said to have been. Shaxton, a Norfolk
-man by birth, was one of the Commission appointed by Gardiner
-in connection with the divorce of Katherine of Aragon, and
-during the proceedings he so favoured the King’s view that he
-eventually became almoner to Anne Boleyn and Bishop of
-Salisbury. At a later date he preached Zwinglian doctrines
-concerning the Eucharist, got himself into serious difficulties
-with Archbishop Cranmer, and was forced to relinquish his see.
-After a time he became a notorious “gospeller,” and was finally
-arrested with Anne Askew and a man named Christopher
-White. The lady and White were both sent to Newgate; but
-the former recanted, and so escaped a fiery ordeal. Shaxton
-did the same, obtained his pardon, and was actually ordered
-to visit Anne in prison, and persuade her to follow his example.
-But, weak woman though she was, Anne was made of sterner
-stuff than the ex-prelate. “It were better for you you had
-not been born than do that which you have done,” cried she;
-and, crestfallen, her former friend and tutor left her presence.
-Her condemnation followed immediately afterwards. It was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64">64</a></span>
-presently noticed that Anne enjoyed more creature comforts
-in prison than the customs of Newgate allowed. She explained
-the matter by saying that “her maid went abroad into the
-streets and made moan to the prentices and they did send her
-money!” But her persecutors refused to believe this story,
-and so one afternoon, not long before her martyrdom, she was
-conveyed to the Tower, taken to the torture chamber, and
-there racked in the presence of Lord Chancellor Wriothesley,
-Sir Richard Rich, Sir John Barker, and Sir Anthony Knyvett,
-Constable of the Tower. Hitherto no one had been tortured
-in England for conscience’ sake, this terrible resource being
-solely employed to extract information from persons suspected
-of treasonable practices. Wriothesley, exasperated at his
-failure to elicit direct information or satisfactory answers from
-his victim, turned the screws himself, after Knyvett had
-refused to order her to be further tormented by the official
-executioner. Sir Richard Rich lent his hand to the Chancellor
-in this merciless task, and so, to use poor Anne’s own words,
-she “was nigh dead.”<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">58</a></p>
-
-<p>Dr. Lingard and other historians have cast doubt upon the
-veracity of this horrible story, but the scene is described by
-Anne herself in her “Narrative,” dictated a few days before
-her death, and published at Marburg, in the Duchy of Hesse,
-in 1547, with a long running commentary by John Bale,
-afterwards Bishop of Ossory. In his <cite>Three Conversions of
-England</cite>, the Jesuit, Father Parsons, who had access to much
-information and evidence long since destroyed or lost, not only
-confirms the truth of the torture episode, but adds that it was
-ordered by the King himself, who, hearing of the intercourse
-between his Queen and Anne, “caused her to be apprehended
-and put to the rack, to know the truth thereof. And by her confession
-he learned so much of Queen Katherine, as he had
-purposed to burn her also, if he had lived.” Parsons goes on to
-say that “the King’s sickness and death, shortly ensuing, was the
-chief cause of her escape.” Mrs. Askew bravely endured the
-most horrible torments rather than betray her friends’ trust, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65">65</a></span>
-only yielded so far as to admit that whilst in prison she had
-received ten shillings, delivered by a man in a blue livery. She
-thought the money had been sent her by the Countess of Hertford,
-but was not sure. She had a further sum of eight shillings at
-the hand of a footman in a purple livery, and believed it was a
-gift from Lady Denny. Questioned if she knew Lady Fitzwilliam,
-the Duchess of Suffolk, Lady Sussex, or any other
-great ladies of the Court, she evasively answered that she
-“knew nothing about them that could be proved.” She does
-not seem to have been questioned point-blank as to whether
-she had ever had any direct dealings with the Queen. Wriothesley
-may have thought he had already obtained sufficient
-information for his purpose. However that may have been,
-the stout-hearted lady was sent back to Newgate, there to
-spend her last three days of life, which she occupied in writing
-and dictating the “Narrative” to be found among Dr. Bale’s
-writings.<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">59</a></p>
-
-<p>On the eve of her execution Anne Askew and three men
-who had been condemned for heresy at the same time
-as herself were visited in the little parlour at Newgate by
-George Throckmorton and his brother, who were kinsmen of
-the Queen&mdash;a rather suspicious circumstance. They were
-cautioned in time, and thus escaped being arrested on a charge
-of heresy, which might have proved fatal to themselves and
-their royal cousin. John Louthe, the Reformer, who has
-left us an account of the meeting, also came, at great risk to
-himself, to encourage the unfortunate Anne. Mrs. Askew,
-with an “Angel’s countenance and a smiling face,” talked
-“merrily” with her unhappy companions, John Laselles, who
-had been a gentleman in attendance upon the King, and is
-supposed to have been the individual who betrayed the secrets
-of Katherine Howard; Nicholas Bolenian, a priest from
-Shropshire; and John Adams, a tailor. They talked on religious
-subjects until it was time to separate. The next day, 16th
-July, Mrs. Askew and her three fellow-prisoners were taken
-from Newgate to Smithfield. So dislocated were the poor
-lady’s limbs that she had to be carried to her doom in a chair.
-Cranmer, seeking to throw the full odium of the horrible<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66">66</a></span>
-business on Gardiner, kept much in the background in the
-whole matter of Anne Askew. He did not attend the ecclesiastical
-commission which condemned her to the stake; but
-for all that his signature is affixed to her death-warrant. Six
-years later, another martyr, Joan Bocher, one of the last of his
-many victims, reminded the Archbishop that he had martyred
-her friend Anne Askew for teaching more or less the same
-doctrines he now preached himself.</p>
-
-<p>In the 1563 edition of Foxe’s <cite>Martyrs</cite> there is a most curious
-engraving, probably after an original drawing, representing
-the burning of Anne Askew and her companions. The spectators
-are kept back by a ring fence within which we see the
-stake, and a quaint pulpit, from which Dr. Nicholas Shaxton,
-duly restored to grace, preached a sermon, supporting the
-very dogma for denying which he had been prosecuted but a
-few days previously. Anne is shown dressed in white; one
-side of the pyre is entirely devoted to her, while the three men,
-apparently naked to the waist, are bound together, on the
-side opposite the pulpit. The concourse of people appears
-enormous; the mob seems to seethe round the scaffold, loll
-out of the surrounding windows, and even swarm on the
-opposite roofs. On a raised bench, under a canopy,
-sit Wriothesley, Rich, the Dukes of Norfolk, Surrey,
-“Swearing Russell,” and the Lord Mayor. These worthies,
-it appears, were sorely perturbed by a rumour that there was an
-unusual amount of gunpowder on the spot, and were very
-much afraid of a dangerous explosion. Their terrors were
-swiftly allayed when Bedford informed the company that the
-explosive in question was merely a number of small bags of
-gunpowder concealed about the persons of the victims with
-the object of shortening their sufferings.</p>
-
-<p>At the very last moment Mrs. Askew was offered a pardon
-on condition that she recanted and gave up the names of her
-high-born friends. She refused: the Lord Mayor shouted
-<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Fiat justitia</i>, and the faggots were lighted. Presently the fire
-crackled. A quick succession of explosions followed, the
-smoke concealing the wretched victims from sight. When the
-flames and smoke died down only the charred and blackened
-remains of four human beings could be descried. Clouds had
-been gathering; a peal of thunder rolled, and heavy drops of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67">67</a></span>
-rain soon dispersed the throng. The show was over, and the
-home-returning spectators chatted as they went, blaming or
-praising the deed, according to their individual view. The
-horror of it does not seem to have affected them much, although
-among the Reformers and the better classes of all creeds
-expressions of hearty indignation were not lacking. But the
-masses were accustomed to such sights of horror, and so,
-indeed, were our own immediate forbears, until public executions
-ceased and the death sentence was carried out in the
-courtyards of the prisons. We have indeed progressed in
-these matters since 1546 and even since 1868.</p>
-
-<p>A few days after the burning of the unfortunate Lincolnshire
-lady, Foxe tells us, Wriothesley, Gardiner, and Rich
-waited on the King, and so persuaded him that Anne had made
-damaging revelations concerning the Queen’s intercourse with
-heretics that Henry “proposed to burn her also.” His
-Majesty, in his rage, actually signed a warrant for the arrest
-of his offending Consort and handed it to Wriothesley. That
-worthy let the paper drop in a corridor or gallery close to
-the Queen’s apartment. One of her servants picked it up
-and carried it to Her Majesty, who was so terrified by its contents
-that she fell into violent hysterics. Her apartments
-were close to the King’s, and Henry, overhearing the outcry,
-and probably disturbed by the noise, sent to inquire what was
-amiss. The Queen’s physician, Wendy, informed the messenger
-that Her Majesty was dangerously ill, and her sickness, to his
-reckoning, caused by sudden and extreme distress of mind.
-Whereupon the King sent word that she was not to trouble
-herself further, as no ill was intended to her. Greatly comforted
-by this reassuring message, Katherine presently felt
-herself sufficiently recovered to receive a visit from her husband,
-who, at great personal inconvenience, caused himself to
-be conveyed into her apartment in his chair. Nothing could
-have been better calculated to revive the drooping spirits of
-the scared Consort than the sight of her august spouse in a
-good humour. The following evening she was well enough
-to return the King’s visit. She was accompanied by the Lady
-Tyrwhitt, her sister the Lady Herbert, by the King’s niece
-the Lady Jane Grey, and by the Lady Lane, who bore the
-candles before Her Majesty. The King welcomed the Queen<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68">68</a></span>
-and her company very courteously, and, bidding her
-be seated, in a cheerful tone entered into a controversial
-conversation with her. He possibly wished to “draw”
-his Consort upon certain theological questions; but she
-shrewdly observed that “since God had appointed him Supreme
-Head of the Church it was not for her to teach him theology,
-but to learn it from him.” “Not so, by St. Mary,” said the
-King, “you are become a doctor, Kate, to instruct us, and not
-to be instructed of us, as oftentimes we have seen.” “Indeed,
-indeed, Sire,” quoth the Queen, “if your Majesty so conceive,
-my meaning has been mistaken, for I have always held it preposterous
-for a woman to instruct her lord.” “If,” she continued,
-“I have occasionally ventured to differ with your
-Highness on religious matters, it was partly to obtain information,
-and also to pass away the pain and weariness of your
-present infirmity with arguments that interested you.” “And
-is it so, sweetheart?” replied His Majesty, “then we are
-perfect friends,” and thereupon he kissed her and gave her
-leave to depart.</p>
-
-<p>The day appointed by her foes for the Queen’s arrest
-chanced to be fine and the sun shone brightly. The King
-sent for her to take the early air with him on the garden
-terrace overlooking the Thames. Katherine came, attended
-as before by her sister, the Lady Herbert, the Lady Lane, the
-Lady Tyrwhitt, and the little Lady Jane Grey. They had not
-been long walking up and down in the sunshine before the Lord
-Chancellor, with forty of the guard, entered the garden, expecting
-to carry off the Queen to the Tower&mdash;for no intimation
-of the change in the King’s intentions had reached him. Henry
-received his minister with a burst of furious invective. Bidding
-the Queen and her ladies stand apart, he called up Wriothesley
-and cast every evil name he could think of at him, commanding
-him, finally, to “avaunt from his presence and never
-show his face again till he was summoned.” Wriothesley,
-crestfallen and humbled, was about to withdraw, when the
-Queen advanced and interceded for him: “Poor soul, poor
-soul!” quoth the King; “thou little knowest, Kate, how ill he
-deserveth this grace at thy hands. On my hand, sweetheart,
-he hath been to thee a very knave!” So the disappointed
-minister departed, and Henry walked up and down the terrace<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69">69</a></span>
-again, leaning on his Queen and followed by her escort of ladies.
-Although Wriothesley’s part in this tragi-comedy seems to
-have been overlooked, the King is said never to have forgiven
-Gardiner his share in the matter. A little later, notwithstanding
-the royal prohibition, both conspirators presented themselves
-with their colleagues. The King forthwith reminded
-Wriothesley in his most forcible manner that he had ordered
-him never to show his face again, and above all never, on any
-pretext whatever, to bring “that beast Gardiner” along with
-him. “My Lord of Winchester,” replied the cunning Wriothesley,
-“has come to wait upon your Highness with an offer
-of benevolence from his clergy.” The King being as usual in
-great need of money, began to listen more benignly, allowed
-Gardiner to present the address, and finally accepted the bribe.<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">60</a>
-But he took no further notice of the Bishop, and is said to have
-struck his name off the list of his executors within the next few
-days. He also cancelled that of Thirlby, Bishop of Westminster,
-because, said he, “he is too much under the influence of
-Gardiner.”<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">61</a> Queen Katherine may have had a hand in this
-affair, and after the revelation of the treachery which would
-fain have destroyed her she very likely took the opportunity
-of letting the King know more concerning the machinations
-of Gardiner and Wriothesley than was good for their credit or
-likely to serve their influence.</p>
-
-<p>The details of this formidable but abortive plot against
-Katherine Parr rest mainly on the authority of Foxe. But
-it must be remembered, by those inclined to doubt the “Martyrologist,”
-that at this time he had attained his thirtieth year,
-he was in touch with most of the personages named, and was
-consequently in a position to obtain the information which
-he wove into his famous narrative&mdash;not, we admit, without
-considerable embellishment and exaggeration, introduced to
-suit the taste of his readers&mdash;from living witnesses. Foxe
-also made liberal use of Paget’s statement during the proceedings<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70">70</a></span>
-for Gardiner’s deprivation, which took place early in
-Edward’s reign. All the Elizabethan and Jacobean historians
-of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>&mdash;Herbert, Parsons, Holinshed, Strype, Speed,
-Oldmixon, and others&mdash;reproduce the story with slight emendations
-and additions from Foxe. No direct confirmation of
-it is to be found indeed in the State Papers, but this is not
-surprising, for such matters were not usually set down in writing.
-Nevertheless, it is hinted at.<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">62</a> Nor do the Ambassadors
-seem to have known anything about it. Father Parsons, who,
-like Foxe, obtained much of his information at first hand,
-introduces the incident in his <cite>Three Conversions of England</cite>,
-a book written to refute some of Foxe’s errors, and adds that
-although Foxe lays “all the cause of the Queen’s trouble upon
-Bishop Gardiner and others, and though the King did kindly
-and lovingly pardon her, the truth is that the King’s sickness
-and death were the chief causes of her escape, for had the King
-found her guilty he would have commanded her also to be
-burned.”</p>
-
-<p>Speed, possibly mistaking Lady <em>Lane</em> for Lady Jane, introduces
-the King’s little niece on this occasion, not only as a
-witness of the reconciliation of the royal couple, but in the
-character of a candle-bearer before the Queen. Jane Grey,
-being a Princess of the Blood, could never have been in <em>attendance</em>
-upon the Queen, and she was too small a child to be laden
-with a pair of heavy branch candlesticks. Lady Lane, on the
-other hand, was certainly in the Queen’s Household at this
-particular juncture. She was Her Majesty’s cousin-german,
-being the daughter of her uncle, Lord Parr of Horton, and wife
-of Sir Ralph Lane of Orlingby, Nottinghamshire. Still, since
-the fact of her being present is mentioned by so many almost
-contemporary writers, we may conclude that Lady Jane was
-a witness of the dramatic scenes that took place between
-King Henry and his terrified Consort, and may herself, in after
-life, have narrated the incident to some friend of Foxe or immediate
-forbear of Parson’s informant. Gardiner’s disgrace
-does not seem to have been quite as complete as Foxe has been
-pleased to represent it, and he was in close enough contact
-with those in power to be selected as chief celebrant at the
-King’s Requiem.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71">71</a></span>
-That the King was completely reconciled to his wife is
-proved by the conspicuous part he assigned her in the splendid
-series of festivities in honour of the French Envoy, who arrived
-in August, when the Court had removed to Hampton Court.
-Not only was her apartment refurnished with sumptuous
-tapestries, but her wardrobe was renewed, and the King presented
-her with a quantity of magnificent jewellery, which,
-after his death, gave rise to considerable misunderstanding
-and trouble.</p>
-
-<p>These festivities in honour of Monsieur d’Annebault, Francis
-<span class="smcap smaller">I</span>’s special Envoy, were the last flicker of the pageantry of
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s reign, and revived for a week something of the
-brilliance of the Court of England in the great days of Wolsey.
-For the first and only time, Prince Edward, as heir-apparent,
-played a conspicuous part. On Monday, 23rd August, the
-boy-prince rode out towards London to meet the Ambassador,
-attended by the Archbishop of York and the Earls of Hertford
-and Huntingdon, and by a retinue of “five hundred and forty
-persons in velvet coats, and the Prince’s liveries wore sleeves
-of cloth of gold, and half the coats embroidered also with
-gold, and there were the number of eight hundred, royally
-apparelled.” D’Annebault, who came to ratify the peace
-recently concluded between the sovereigns of France and
-England, was accompanied by a suite of two hundred gentlemen,
-who were all lodged at the King’s expense and entertained
-in the most hospitable manner. His Majesty was not
-well enough to receive the Ambassador on his arrival, but he
-received him in audience on the following day, after which
-monarch and Ambassador proceeded to the Chapel Royal,
-where, during Mass, they solemnly received the Host together.<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">63</a>
-Then followed six days of banqueting, hunting, and
-merry-making, masques, and mummeries, “with divers and
-sundry changes, inasmuch that the torch-bearers were clothed
-with gold cloth, and such like honourable entertainments, it
-were much to utter and hard to believe.” On these occasions
-the Marchioness of Dorset and her daughter, the Lady Jane<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72">72</a></span>
-Grey, were present, and Prince Edward danced with his little
-cousin, who also tripped it with young Lord Edward Seymour,
-the Lord Hertford’s eldest boy. When the Ambassador took
-his leave, Henry made him a present of silver plate to the
-value of £1200. After his departure the dying King seems to
-have led a very quiet life at Hampton Court and Whitehall.
-The end was visibly approaching. His feet and hands were
-abnormally swollen; dropsy had set in, and he was probably
-also suffering from an internal tumour. Even his most fervent
-admirers were obliged to confess that in appearance, at least,
-he had assumed somewhat of the aspect of a monster; but
-music still charmed the suffering monarch, and the last Household
-Books of his reign contain various items of payments to
-musicians and madrigal singers.</p>
-
-<blockquote id="note72">
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;Dr. Gairdner makes the following comments on this subject in his
-Preface to vol. 21, part i. of the Calendar of State Papers for 1546 (published in
-1908): “But one word may be permitted here about that dreadful incident, the
-racking in the Tower. It took place <em>after</em> her (Anne’s) condemnation, the
-object being to elicit from her information about persons at the Court who it
-was suspected had been her allies in promoting heresy. Besides others whose
-names are given, against whom she positively refused to utter a word, she was
-probably expected to accuse Queen Katherine Parr herself; for Parsons
-(<cite>Three Conversions of England</cite>, ii. 493) is no doubt perfectly correct in saying
-that the well-known incident related by Foxe, about this Queen, when she
-stood in real danger from a charge of heresy, was connected with the affair
-of Anne Askew. But Parsons is certainly wrong in saying that the King
-would have burned Katherine Parr also if he had lived. For though her
-heretical propensities were no secret, she survived the King, and he himself for
-fully six months survived Anne Askew. More probably the Queen was saved
-by Anne’s refusal to commit anyone except herself.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73">73</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE HOWARDS AND THE SEYMOURS</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> collapse of the conspiracy against Katherine Parr
-led to an immediate counter-plot on the part of the
-Seymours and their allies to compromise the Duke of
-Norfolk and his son, Surrey, and thereby frustrate the aspirations
-of the Catholics, of whose party Norfolk was the acknowledged
-chief. A previous attempt to inflict irretrievable
-damage on the credit of the Howards had partially failed,
-though the unsavoury revelations connected with the arrest
-and execution of Queen Katherine Howard had covered the
-illustrious name with obloquy, and almost every conspicuous
-Howard in England had been sent to the Tower,<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">64</a> on the charge
-of having concealed the Queen’s previous immorality from
-the King’s knowledge when he proposed to marry her. At
-that moment Norfolk and his son only escaped by taking
-Henry’s side against their miserable kinswoman. But the
-Duke never regained his full influence over his master, and,
-despite his great services, both as statesman and warrior, lived
-on, to use the expression of one of his contemporaries, “like
-the bird that is wounded i’ the wing.” Yet he was a great
-power in the politics of those days, for though the Catholic
-party was of but small account at Court, a good two-thirds of
-the people remained firmly attached to the ancestral faith;
-this was the case more especially in the rural districts, where
-the vast majority clung to the dogmas and ceremonies of the
-ancient Church, and only awaited an opportunity to assert their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74">74</a></span>
-preference. For the matter of that, it was shown very
-early in Queen Mary’s reign that the Protestant fervour of
-the official world, being a matter of policy rather than of
-conviction, was not to be relied on. The majority of that
-aristocracy which had so eagerly accepted the extreme reforms
-assented to by Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> was to be seen, a few weeks after his
-death, parading the streets of London, taper in hand, in the
-wake of the revived processions of Corpus Christi and Our Lady.<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">65</a></p>
-
-<p>Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, was one of the
-most conspicuous figures in Henry’s reign. He may not,
-perhaps, have been as astute a statesman as has been
-asserted, but he showed remarkable qualities as a capable
-peacemaker on the occasion of the Pilgrimage of Grace; while
-as a warrior he had no rival, and proved himself a hero on
-Flodden Field. If anything, he was excessive in his loyalty
-to the King, and he would even seem to have sunk all sense
-of his own dignity and importance, humbling himself utterly
-before the monarch whose assumption of <em>quasi</em>-divine attributes
-he had aided and abetted. Thus, when his niece Anne
-Boleyn was tried and executed for misdemeanours she was
-certainly not proved to have committed,<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> he, at her royal
-assassin’s command, pronounced the death sentence, and with
-his son, the young Earl of Surrey, who sat at his feet, holding
-the Earl Marshal’s baton in his hand, was actually present
-at her execution. When, some few years later, Norfolk’s
-other niece, Katherine Howard, was proved guilty of many
-serious offences, both before and after marriage, Norfolk sat
-in judgment upon her and would have witnessed her death
-too but for an attack of gout which kept him a prisoner.
-Two days after the execution he penned an abject letter to
-the King apologising for “the naughtiness of his said niece,
-the late Queen.”<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">67</a> In person, Norfolk was a dark, handsome<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75">75</a></span>
-man, of moderate stature, with piercing eyes and an exceedingly
-intelligent countenance. Holbein has left us several
-magnificent oil portraits of him, and at least one noble drawing,
-now in the Windsor Collection. He was fairly educated,
-a good Latin scholar, and a patron of art. His first wife,
-Princess Anne Plantagenet, the King’s aunt, died young
-in 1512. The day on which he espoused his second,<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> the handsome
-Lady Elizabeth Stafford, was an evil one for him. The
-alliance was one of convenience on his side and of compulsion
-on hers. His duchy had been greatly impoverished by the
-attainder of his father, the second Duke, after Bosworth, and
-the luckless Buckingham’s daughter was possessed of a handsome
-fortune in money and wide lands. She had been previously
-contracted to Ralph Nevill, afterwards Earl of Westmoreland,
-to whom she was greatly attached and with whom
-she kept up a correspondence till the end of her life. Although
-she bore her husband five children, the Duchess of Norfolk
-suffered some neglect at his hands, her rival being a certain
-Bess Holland,<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">69</a> a gentlewoman in her service. The mortification
-caused by this outrage drove the poor Duchess to the
-verge of distraction. She seems to have been a naturally
-conscientious, if narrow-minded, woman, of an exceedingly
-high-strung and excitable temperament. We should describe
-her nowadays as an “impossible” person, whose lack of tact
-and outbursts of uncontrollable rage not only alienated her
-husband’s affections, but deprived her of her children’s love
-as well as of her servants’ respect.</p>
-
-<p>Of all the men of his time, Surrey, this ill-used lady’s son,
-was the most accomplished. He was an excellent Latin,
-French, and Italian scholar, and well versed in ancient and
-modern literature. No one could excel him in tourney or
-joust&mdash;not even John Dudley, afterwards Duke of Northumberland,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76">76</a></span>
-who had exceeding skill with the sword and spear,
-and than whom scarce one could pull a bow with surer aim.
-Surrey danced more lightly than Thomas Seymour, who
-prided himself on the “altitude of his pirouettes,” and the
-King himself in his singing youth did not warble a sweeter
-note. No Englishman since Chaucer had so enriched our
-literature with verse all redolent of those sweet-scented fields
-and lanes, meadows and gardens amid which the poet’s muse
-loved best to linger. An Elizabethan critic well described
-him as “a poet new crept out of the school of Dante, Petrarch,
-and Ariosto,” and “coming nearer to Ariosto” than to either
-the prophet of Florence or the inspired singer of Vaucluse.
-Though of but medium height, Surrey was so graceful and
-well-proportioned as to seem taller than he really was. There
-is a portrait of him at Hampton Court, most probably by
-Guilliam Streete, which gives us a fair idea of this prince for
-a fairy-tale. The face is full of youthful charm: the eyes
-hazel, frank, and winning; the cheeks rounded and flushed with
-rosy health; the hair a darkish chestnut; the slight moustache
-of the colour of ripe corn. His costume is superb. The
-young Earl stands before us garbed from head to foot in red
-velvet, softened by bands of brocade and sarsenet, the only
-white spot visible being the silk shirt open at the neck, and
-even that enriched with a dainty arabesque wrought in gold
-stitchery. On his well-shaped head rests a jaunty cap of
-crimson velvet with a feathered plume of the same tint.</p>
-
-<p>There was much that was purely personal in the violent
-animosity displayed by the Seymours against the Howards
-in general and against Surrey in particular. The Seymours,
-although of far more ancient and well-ascertained lineage than
-either the Brandons or the Boleyns, were not of the great
-aristocracy, but, in a sense, what the modern French would
-call <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">arrivistes</i>. Had it not been for the accident which raised
-their sister Jane to the towering position of Queen-Consort, the
-Seymours would probably have remained what they originally
-were, mere country squires of excellent lineage, reputed
-to be remotely connected with royalty. Their father,<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">70</a> Sir<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77">77</a></span>
-William St. Maur, or Seymour, of Wolf’s Hall, Wiltshire, had
-on one occasion entertained King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>; and their
-mother, Lady Seymour, by birth a Wentworth, and a lineal
-descendant of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">III</span>, was highly connected; but otherwise
-there was nothing in their antecedents to distinguish
-them from scores of other equally respectable and wealthy
-country gentlemen. The sudden<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">71</a> elevation of their sister
-Jane brought them a rapid promotion, which first dazzled
-them and then turned their heads. Honours and positions
-were heaped upon them. Edward, the eldest son, was
-first created Viscount Beauchamp, and, after the birth of
-Prince Edward, Earl of Hertford; the second, Thomas, was
-knighted. The youngest, Henry, seems to have preferred
-obscurity and security to rank and risk, and lived the life
-of a country gentleman, married young, and merely accepted
-knighthood on Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s accession.</p>
-
-<p>The ranks of the old aristocracy had been thinned by the
-prolonged civil wars and the plague, and towards the middle of
-the century the Court was so full of new men that at the time of
-Henry’s last illness there were only two dukes in the peerage&mdash;Norfolk,
-then seventy-two; and Suffolk, a lad of seventeen.
-The new peers, whose fortunes were mainly derived from
-confiscated church property, were eager to obtain recognition
-from the few of the old aristocracy who yet remained,
-and more especially from the Howards, a sturdy race, full
-of sap and vigour, and conspicuous in Court and State. The
-Duke of Norfolk was too experienced a man, both socially
-and politically, to permit his inborn pride of birth to display
-itself out of season. With Surrey it was otherwise. In his
-case, pride of ancestry was something more than a mere matter
-of vulgar boast. He regarded it with a poet’s eye and imagination,
-and took delight in remembering that through his veins<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78">78</a></span>
-flowed the blood of emperors and kings who had founded
-realms and dynasties, and built up the glory of a great nation.
-In the beginning of the fifteenth century a marriage between
-Robert Howard and the Lady Margaret Mowbray had brought
-the illustrious house into alliance with royalty. His father’s
-first wife had been the reigning King’s aunt, and his mother,
-Elizabeth Stafford, had a right to quarter Royal Arms on
-her escutcheon. With such a pedigree, and in an age when
-rank was paramount, Surrey conceived himself sufficiently
-powerful to hold his own against the encroachments of a new
-peerage only too eager to claim a fellowship which offended his
-sense of propriety.</p>
-
-<p>When the Seymours first came to Court, in the heyday
-of their youth and good looks, they sought young Surrey’s
-society, just as in our day new people seek that of a leader of
-the “smartest set.” So long as they kept their place, Surrey
-consorted with them willingly enough; but their rapacity and
-arrogance jarred on him at last, and he resented their many
-attempts at over-familiarity. He himself, on occasion, was
-apt to transgress the bounds of good behaviour, and once upon
-a time, being in lodgings in St. Lawrence Lane, Old Jewry,
-and leading what he himself is pleased to call a “racketty
-life,” went brawling about the streets at midnight with young
-William Pickering<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">72</a> and young Wyatt, the poet’s son, casting
-stones into peaceful citizens’ windows, and frightening them
-out of their wits. One night the party rowed over in a boat to
-Southwark, where dwelt in those days that gay and facile
-sisterhood whose representatives, in this year of Grace, 1909,
-patrol more central parts of our great city. In this fast company,
-our young gentlemen, evidently in their cups, behaved
-disgracefully. On Surrey’s part such conduct was all the more
-unseemly since he was already married to the plain-faced, but
-wealthy, Lady Frances Vere,<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> Lord Oxford’s daughter, to whom
-he declared himself devotedly attached. These escapades
-ended by attracting public attention, and their heroes were
-arrested for disorderly conduct. Thanks to their rank, they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79">79</a></span>
-were brought before the Privy Council,<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> instead of being
-haled before an ordinary justice, though, as ill-luck would
-have it, Edward, Lord Hertford, was presiding at the Council
-board. The opportunity of paying off a few old scores was too
-much for him, and he swiftly resolved to give Surrey good
-cause to remember him in future. A very comical and characteristic
-scene ensued.<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">75</a> Surrey, mimicking Hertford, who
-was nothing if not puritanical in his mode of expressing himself,
-“having ever God on his lips,” assured the Council that if he
-had done what he had, it had been for the good of the souls
-of the wicked citizens of London, who were behaving more
-abominably than the men of papal Rome. Had he not seen
-them sitting round tables and playing at cards in the late hours
-of the night?&mdash;and was it not a godly thing to whizz a stone
-or so at their windows, which stone, passing silently through
-the air, fell with all the greater suddenness among them,
-thereby recalling them to a proper sense of their duties to their
-God, their King, and their country?<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> Mrs. Arundel, a woman
-of good family but greatly impoverished, who kept a sort of
-boarding-house for bachelors of rank in St. Lawrence Lane,
-Old Jewry, was the Earl’s landlady, and imparted a very
-different colour to the episode. “Her young gentleman,”
-she said, had frankly admitted to her that he considered these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80">80</a></span>
-pranks good jokes: but she herself disapproved of them,
-especially the shooting at the windows of women of light
-character, or “bawds,” in Southwark, which the Earl, it seems,
-was addicted to, going by boat close to their quarters and
-firing off petards at the “trolls”! There was nothing for it,
-therefore, but to pronounce sentence. Surrey was committed
-to the Fleet, the most abominable of all the many vile prisons
-of those days, while Wyatt and Pickering, though of much
-inferior rank, were sent to the stately Tower, whence they
-were delivered in a day or two on payment of a heavy fine and
-promising good behaviour. How long Surrey remained in
-durance it is difficult to say&mdash;long enough certainly for him to
-compose his “Satire on the Citizens of London” and several
-other poems. He never forgave Seymour his share in the
-business, and never failed to annoy his enemy openly or covertly
-whenever opportunity occurred. It was quite in keeping
-with his character to address amatory verses with this intent
-to Hertford’s handsome and very proud wife, who took his
-lines in very bad part, as so many insults to her honour. The
-Countess once made a scandal by deliberately turning her back
-upon the poet-Earl when, in August 1542, at a ball in his own
-father’s house,<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">77</a> he ventured to ask her permission to lead her
-out to dance.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81">81</a></span>
-Late in the summer of 1542 a very serious quarrel broke out
-between Seymour and Surrey, over an incident which took
-place in Hampton Court Park. Seymour, it was alleged, had
-reported against Surrey that he had openly approved of the
-Pilgrimage of Grace. Surrey, coming face to face with his
-antagonist in a glen in the park, instantly challenged him.
-Coats were off in a moment, and the two were in the midst of a
-hearty boxing-match when the guard arrived and took both
-into custody for violating the royal privilege and fighting
-within the precincts of the King’s palace. The punishment
-for this offence, as readers of <cite>The Fortunes of Nigel</cite> will
-recollect, was loss of the right hand. All the diplomacy and
-influence of the Duke of Norfolk had to be exerted to avert the
-infliction of this terrible penalty; but, thanks to his efforts,
-both the hot-headed young gentlemen escaped with a sharp
-reprimand. Scores of similar curious instances might be
-quoted from the chronicles and letters of the time, to prove
-the depth and bitterness of the social animosity between the
-Howards and the Seymours. The Duke himself resented the
-cruel manner in which Hertford had behaved in the matter
-of His Grace’s niece, the unhappy Katherine Howard. There
-can be no doubt that at one time both Cranmer and the King
-wished to spare her life, and would have spared it had not
-Hertford, in his hot haste to ruin the Howards’ credit, prematurely
-dispatched letters to the King’s Ambassadors abroad
-containing full details of the Queen’s disgrace, with orders
-to hand them to the sovereigns to whose Courts they were
-accredited. This publicity rendered the royal clemency impossible.<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">78</a></p>
-
-<p>Early in the summer of 1546 the Duke of Norfolk made up
-his mind, in what he held to be the interests of himself and his
-family, to bring about a reconciliation, if that were possible,
-between his house and Seymour’s. He fully realised that,
-ageing as he was, he could no longer be a match for two
-unscrupulous and very able men, then reaching the prime of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82">82</a></span>
-life, and already holding the King’s complete confidence.
-Further, he felt Surrey to be hopeless in all business calling for
-tact and diplomacy, and was convinced the persistent animosity
-between his son and Hertford would lead before long
-to some awful catastrophe. Surrey’s bravery as a fighting
-soldier was undisputed, but as a commander his lack of reticence
-and his rashness had led the King’s troops in France
-into more than one disaster; he himself had paid the penalty
-of his rashness before the walls of Montreuil, where he was
-seriously wounded and only saved from certain death by the
-gallantry of Sir Thomas Clere. He had then been recalled,
-and Hertford had been sent to take his place, a bitter humiliation
-to the proud Howards and one which more than anything
-else rankled in Surrey’s soul. Yet the old Duke recognised
-that Hertford’s bravery and tact as warrior and diplomatist
-had soon ended the war and obtained peace with honour for
-the English forces, thus raising his popularity to the highest
-pitch; for there was nothing the nation then desired so much
-as peace, at home and abroad. Hertford’s brother, Sir Thomas,
-was, if anything, still more popular, for he had so successfully
-scoured the seas in quest of French galleons laden with provisions
-that suppressed monasteries had been converted
-into storehouses. The magnificent ex-church of the Grey
-Friars had become a wine-vault, crammed to the roof with
-barrels of Burgundy and other wines of the best French
-vintages. In Austin Friars such a stock of cheeses was stored
-that there was no moving in that erstwhile beautiful priory
-church, and the huge and splendid church of the Black Friars
-was literally packed with salt herring and dried cod. Wherefore
-the people had good reason to be well pleased with brother
-Thomas.</p>
-
-<p>The Duke, then, without consulting his son,&mdash;and here his
-disastrous mistake,&mdash;obtained an interview with Hertford,
-and, skilfully playing on his well-known vanity and social
-ambition, suggested at length that a betrothal should be forthwith
-arranged between Hertford’s eldest daughter and Surrey’s
-eldest son, and a similar contract entered into between Lord
-Thomas Howard<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">79</a> and Seymour’s youngest daughter, the Lady
-Jane Seymour. His Grace, apparently in a match-making<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83">83</a></span>
-mood, gave his paternal sanction to the wooing and wedding
-of his beautiful daughter, the widowed Duchess of Richmond,
-by Sir Thomas Seymour. With all these suggestions the
-Seymours gladly closed, making but one condition, that Surrey
-should accept a slightly subordinate position under Hertford’s
-command, virtually tantamount to a tacit apology for his
-repeated slights, covert and open, in the past. On Tuesday
-in Whitsun week 1546, then, the Duke, well pleased with his
-own diplomacy, presented himself at Whitehall and laid his
-rather complicated scheme of alliances before His Majesty.
-Henry was graciously pleased to approve it, and willingly
-agreed that his daughter-in-law of Richmond should become
-the bride of the handsome Thomas Seymour, with whom,
-according to Court gossip, she was already much in love. But
-in all these schemes the Duke had reckoned without his host,
-for when he put the matter before Surrey, that impetuous
-poet flew into a towering rage. He would “sooner see his
-children dead in their coffins than married to Seymour’s brats,”
-he said. Then, turning furiously on his sister, the Duchess of
-Richmond, who had accompanied her father, he cried,&mdash;at
-least, according to that dangerous Court gossip, Sir Gawen
-Carew,&mdash;“Go, carry out your farce of a marriage. My Lord of
-Hertford is in full favour, I grant; but why not do yet better
-for yourself and follow Madame d’Estampes’ example with
-King Francis. Get you into the same sort of favour with
-King Henry, and rule through him.” This sinister advice was
-evidently dictated by that vein of bitter sarcasm usual with
-Surrey when the uncontrollable temper which he inherited
-from his mother mastered his common sense. It could not
-have been seriously meant, for nobody knew better than
-Surrey that the King was already more than half dead, utterly
-unable to trouble himself about new mistresses, and in any
-case not likely to select his own daughter-in-law to replace
-his excellent Queen-Consort and nurse, Katherine Parr. The
-Duchess of Richmond, however, took the jibe seriously, replied
-that she “would sooner cut her throat” than do “any such
-vile thing,” and left her irate brother to his own reflections,
-which, when he cooled down, cannot have been particularly
-agreeable. He knew his sister well; she was an exceedingly
-beautiful woman, to whom Holbein, in his exquisite drawing,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84">84</a></span>
-has given the expression of one of Ghirlandajo’s sweetest
-Madonnas. But at heart she was a little fiend, capable, when
-her passions were roused, of working dire mischief. She said
-little at the time, but she nursed her grievance and exaggerated
-its importance. She may also have felt not a little embittered
-against Sir Thomas Seymour, who had ungallantly refused
-her hand because it was not accompanied by her brother’s
-submission. Be this as it may, “the Duchess of Richmond
-from that day forth hated her brother as much as she had
-previously loved him,”<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> and when the hour for revenge came
-at last, forgetful of her obligations as sister and woman, she
-scandalised even that unsentimental age by appearing at her
-brother’s trial as one of the principal witnesses for the prosecution.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile the Duke of Norfolk was at his wits’ end to
-know how to make Hertford aware of the unfortunate results
-of his negotiations with his son. He was possessed of a perfect
-mania for putting pen to paper on any and every pretext,
-although, as every one who has waded through his correspondence
-knows, there has never been a statesman, before or since,
-who could indite more indiscreet and exasperating epistles.
-If then, as is likely, he conveyed the unpleasant news by letter,
-he was not the man to improve matters by a tactful manner.
-The breach between the Howards and the Seymours was now
-complete. Hertford, hurt in pride and vanity, would accept
-no apologies from the Duke, and the feud between himself
-and Surrey soon grew more bitter than ever. To make matters
-worse, the Duchess of Richmond made a confidant of her
-friend, Sir Gawen Carew, who detested her brother, and was the
-most inveterate gossip of the Court, as is well known to those
-who have read the State Papers connected with the tragedy
-of Katherine Howard; it was, indeed, the gossip of Sir Gawen
-that did most to ruin that Queen. Presently young scions
-of the nobility, courtiers who hated the Howards for their airs
-and graces and forgot the old Duke’s well-known kindness to
-the youthful, buzzed about the King, and did their best to
-set him against the luckless Earl. Hertford and his brother
-afforded them ample assistance, supplying all necessary
-instructions and information; and, for all we know to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85">85</a></span>
-contrary, the Queen may have lent a helping hand. In fact,
-the whole Protestant party was now roused against the
-Howards, the representatives of the Catholics, and determined
-to bring about their ruin or perish in the attempt.
-It had hoped the folly of Katherine Howard would have
-sufficed for this purpose, but the great house of Norfolk was
-firm enough to resist even that storm. Another pretext
-had to be found, and the impolitic behaviour of the poet-Earl
-supplied it.</p>
-
-<p>Poor Surrey was no match for the low and cunning intrigues
-amongst which “Fate and metaphysical aid” had thrown
-him. Somewhere in June 1546 he was summoned before the
-Privy Council, severely reprimanded for what he could not
-possibly help, and imprisoned in Windsor Castle, where he
-consoled himself by writing one of his most exquisite poems.
-This was his “Swan Song”! By August, however, he was
-certainly out of durance, and apparently once more in favour
-with the King, for he figured as Earl Marshal at the entertainments
-given in honour of the French Envoy, Claude
-d’Annebault, taking precedence of everyone excepting members
-of the royal family.</p>
-
-<p>Early in September he left London, and returned to his
-wife and children at Kenninghall, accompanied by Churchyard
-the poet, who was his secretary, and an extremely numerous
-and miscellaneous retinue, which included several Italian
-painters, musicians, and jesters. One of the artists, Toto,
-was soon engaged upon a portrait of him, which was later used
-to his great disadvantage; in the left-hand corner of it appeared
-his escutcheon, bearing among its numerous quarterings
-the arms of England, but so arranged that a slide could
-be drawn, when necessary, over the coat-of-arms. The Duke
-of Norfolk and my Lady of Richmond came to Kenninghall
-Palace about this time; but the mansion, of which not a
-vestige now remains, was so enormous that every member of
-the ducal family had a separate dwelling. The Duchess of
-Richmond had a whole wing to herself, which she shared with
-her friend Mrs. Holland. The society of those days was not so
-dead to all sense of propriety as not to be scandalised by this
-singular intimacy between the Duke’s daughter and his mistress.
-Most people agreed with the Duchess of Norfolk “that her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86">86</a></span>
-dater’s abiding ever with that drab Holland” was a “scandayul
-and most unnatterall.” Owing to the huge size of the mansion,
-not much inferior to that of Hampton Court, the Duchess and
-Mrs. Holland may never once have come into contact with
-Surrey and his family; otherwise, it is difficult to account for
-the fact that we have no record of any fiery scene between
-brother and sister. The Duke seems to have spent his time
-very quietly, reading the books he most affected, such as
-Plutarch’s <cite>Lives of Illustrious Men</cite>, Josephus’s <cite>History</cite>, and
-<cite>The Confessions of St. Augustin</cite>.<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">81</a></p>
-
-<p>Whilst the Howard family was thus peacefully rusticating
-in Norfolk, gossip and slander were making headway in the
-metropolis and preparing poor Surrey’s ruin. Sir George
-Blagg, the “my Blagg” of one of his finest poems, had picked
-a quarrel with him in the summer, and was busy as a bee
-spreading evil reports against him. Sir Gawen Carew had
-confided to every one what the Duchess of Richmond had
-related to him anent her brother’s advice to hasten and become
-the King’s mistress. His enemies had even pressed the Court
-astrologer into their service, and this functionary had actually
-warned the King that unless he was careful, his successor’s
-monogram would, like his own, be “H.R.” The Duke himself
-was not spared: he had been seen to enter the French Ambassador’s
-house late at night and to leave it again in the
-small hours of the morning. A letter of his to Gardiner, then
-on a mission to Brussels, was intercepted&mdash;and vague though
-its terms were, it was held to be proof positive of Norfolk’s
-adherence to Gardiner’s scheme, as planned with Cardinal
-Granville, to restore the papal supremacy in England. At
-last, truth and lies together rolled themselves up into an
-ominous storm-cloud, which burst when Surrey was called
-to appear before the Council in London on a charge of high
-treason.</p>
-
-<p>Some writers have attempted to extenuate Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s
-share in the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">dénouement</i> of this tragedy. They plead that he
-was too ill at this time to know exactly what he was doing,
-and that, in consequence of the swollen state of his hands, he
-was compelled to use a stamp to sign his letters. With regard<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87">87</a></span>
-to this, we know that as far back as 1st August 1546 he had
-commissioned Sir Anthony Denny, Sir John Gates, and William
-Clere to sign documents for him with a dry stamp, the signature
-thus made being filled in with ink. And even this is not the
-first time Henry had recourse to a mechanical contrivance for
-signing letters and State Papers. Lord Hardwick has a letter
-of the King’s signed with a stamp and dated as early as the
-seventh year of his reign. Moreover, the official documents,
-which were drawn up by Wriothesley, are carefully annotated
-and corrected in pencil by Henry himself, with very full
-marginal notes and numerous interlineations. The handwriting
-is very shaky, but it is the King’s none the less,
-and proves that if the monarch’s body was infirm, his brain
-was as clear and his feelings as vindictive as ever. The death-warrant
-of the Earl of Surrey is also scribbled over on the
-margin with certain pencil notes in the King’s own writing,
-proving that Henry must have retained the use of his
-hands to the end.</p>
-
-<p>Sufficient evidence having been gathered, and Surrey
-being summoned to London, he left Kenninghall<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">82</a> in the
-last days of September, and appeared before the Privy Council
-in Wriothesley’s house in Holborn, not far from Chancery
-Lane, on 2nd October. His first accuser was Sir Richard
-Southwell, at one time in his mother’s household at Kenninghall,
-who hated him heartily. He averred that Surrey had
-placed the Royal Arms of England in the first quartering
-of his escutcheon, thereby claiming the crown. When confronted
-with Southwell, Surrey, with his foolish impetuosity,
-and to the consternation of the Council, proposed a sort
-of trial by battle after the mediæval fashion. Southwell
-and he were there and then to divest themselves of their
-upper garments, descend on to the floor of the court, and
-indulge the Lord Chancellor and the Council with the
-spectacle of a boxing-match, the winner of which was to
-be declared innocent. The Council, needless to say, did not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88">88</a></span>
-see fit to accept the fiery Earl’s suggestion, and both Surrey
-and Southwell were temporarily detained&mdash;the Earl being not
-yet formally charged.</p>
-
-<p>The examination of the other witnesses took place privately
-a few days later, before the Council but not in the presence
-of the prisoner. Sir Edmund Knyvyt, a son of the Lady
-Muriel Howard, the sister of the Duke of Norfolk, and
-therefore a cousin of Surrey, out of sheer spite, and also
-perhaps to give himself importance, accused the Earl of
-harbouring Italian spies in his house at Kenninghall, of
-affecting foreign airs, of wearing foreign costumes, and,
-gravest of all, of entertaining persons suspected of correspondence
-with Cardinal Pole and other “traitors” abroad.
-Then came Sir Gawen Carew with an exaggerated version
-of the Duchess of Richmond’s story that her brother advised
-her to become the King’s mistress, and had spoken lightly
-of the King’s illness, and speculated as to what might occur
-in the event of his death; and before the week was out a
-score or so of other venal witnesses had concocted sufficient
-evidence to send fifty men to the block.</p>
-
-<p>The Duke, meanwhile, tarried at Kenninghall, wondering
-what had happened to his son, and never imagining how
-bitter and relentless was the suddenly, and indeed inexplicably,
-developed hatred of the King, which we, however, know
-was stimulated by the Seymours and Cranmer for their own
-ends. Instead of coming up to London to help the Earl
-out of his difficulties, he set himself, as usual, to write
-confidential letters to those members of the Council upon
-whom he thought he could rely. These effusions were
-promptly shown to Hertford, with the result that His Grace
-himself was ordered to London with the utmost dispatch.
-On 12th December the Duke of Norfolk appeared before
-Lord Chancellor Wriothesley at his house in Holborn, near
-the present Southampton Buildings, and, to his unutterable
-amazement, found himself formally charged with high treason.
-He was immediately committed to the Tower, but on account
-of his rank and age, and to spare him the humiliation of being
-paraded as a prisoner through the city streets, he was
-conveyed down the hill, put on board a barge in the Fleet,
-and so to the Thames, through the arches of London Bridge,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89">89</a></span>
-and onward to his ominous destination in the ancient fortress.
-Later in the same day Surrey too was conducted to the
-Tower, but he had to go on foot and through a dense
-multitude. To the consternation of his enemies, he was
-cheered all along the road, and grave fears were entertained
-of a rescue.<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">83</a> Three commissioners were now dispatched to
-Kenninghall to bring the Duchess of Richmond and her
-friend Mrs. Holland up to town. Another embassy rode
-to Redbourne, to fetch the Duchess of Norfolk, who was
-only too delighted to come to London and blurt out all
-she could to the detriment of her hated spouse. By this
-time London could talk of nothing but the Surrey trial.
-In the palaces of the rich, in the hovels of the poor, in all
-the little taverns and drinking-houses down by the Thames,
-in the parlours of the great inns in Southwark and the Cheape,
-the conversation turned upon no other subject, and even the
-all-absorbing topic of the King’s illness was forgotten for the
-time being. A touch of horror was added to the general
-excitement when it became known that Norfolk’s wife and
-his daughter and mistress were to be the chief witnesses
-against him and his son. The Duchess did not spare her
-husband. Snatching at the welcome chance of avenging
-her wrongs, the half-witted lady grew garrulous, and confirmed
-everything <em>suggested</em> by those who desired to damn her lord’s
-cause. She had but little to say, however, concerning her
-son, for the simple reason that she had not seen him for
-many months and knew nothing about his affairs. He was
-very “unnatturell” towards her, she declared, and so was her
-daughter, but nevertheless she “loved her children dearly.”
-Her husband, she said, had leanings towards Popery, and caused
-his children to be brought up to deny the King’s supremacy.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Holland behaved with great discretion, considering
-her position and antecedents. It was true, she said, that
-the Duke of Norfolk had on one occasion told her that “if
-he had been young enough he would like to go to Rome to
-venerate the Veronica, an image of our Lord miraculously
-impressed upon a handkerchief which He had given to certain
-women on His way to Calvary.” The Duke had bidden her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90">90</a></span>
-lay aside some needlework upon which she was engaged,
-to oblige the Earl of Surrey, and in a corner of which were
-his arms, one quartering of which was to be left blank,
-“probably for the introduction of the Royal Arms and
-monogram.” She had obeyed the Duke’s behest and never
-set needle into the work again. Before concluding her
-evidence, she, perhaps not unnaturally, seized the opportunity
-to try and clear her own reputation, and informed the Court
-that “the Earl detested her because she was so friendly
-with his sister.”</p>
-
-<p>The appearance of Mary, Duchess of Richmond, must have
-created a sensation. Her angelic beauty contrasted strangely
-with her spiteful and bitter nature. Like her mother, when
-she was once started there was no stopping her, and in her
-excitement she materially damaged her brother’s cause,
-exaggerating every point against him suggested by the
-prosecution. With telling and dramatic effect she related
-the scene when he advised her to become the King’s mistress.
-Her brother, she said, had been reading the book about
-Lancelot of the Lake, and had introduced that hero’s arms,
-together with those of Anjou, into his own. He had recently
-had his portrait taken by an Italian artist, as already related,
-and had caused the arms of England to be painted into the
-left corner, with the monogram “H.R.” surmounted by a
-crown, which she thought was a closed crown, like the King’s.
-He had also appropriated the Confessor’s arms, which belonged
-by right to the King, and the King only; he had spoken
-irreverently of His Majesty, and had speculated upon what
-might happen after his death; and, she added, “my lord
-of Hertford is particularly hateful to him because he superseded
-him at Boulogne, and indeed he detested the new
-nobility in general.” The Council, to its credit, discarded
-the Duchess’s evidence concerning Surrey’s alleged infamous
-advice to her. They held it too abominable to be even
-probable, and it was not included in the indictment; but
-the rest of her evidence was considered very compromising.</p>
-
-<p>On 13th January 1548 Surrey was brought on foot from
-the Tower to the Guildhall, which was packed to suffocation,
-and the charges of treacherously conspiring, together with
-his father, either to usurp the throne or seize the protectorate,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91">91</a></span>
-were read over to him. He made an eloquent defence, and,
-while denying every other item of the charge, said he had a
-right, in accordance with a grant made by Richard <span class="smcap smaller">III</span> to
-his grandfather, the first Duke of Norfolk, to use the arms
-of the Confessor; which was perfectly true&mdash;“Herald-at-Arms
-knew this, and was content he used them.” As to his
-ever “having dreamed of usurping the throne,” that was
-“mere chatter.” He owned he bore Hertford no goodwill,
-but the fault rested with that gentleman, and was “not of
-my making.” He was innocent on all points, he said, and
-called God to witness his loyalty to his King and country.
-In spite of all, sentence was passed upon him, and he was
-condemned to die on the following morning. The breathless
-silence with which the verdict had been awaited gave way
-to tumultuous protests from all sides of the Court, and it
-was only with great difficulty, even danger, that the hall
-was cleared. As the condemned Earl passed from the
-Guildhall to the Tower every cap was lifted, and the utmost
-sorrow and sympathy were displayed when the result of
-the trial was revealed by the sight of the executioner walking
-in the procession, the sharp edge of his axe turned towards
-the prisoner’s person.</p>
-
-<p>The next morning, 14th January, rose bright and frosty.
-A huge multitude had assembled on Tower Hill to witness
-the closing scene. Surrey, dressed in black velvet, looked
-very handsome, as with brave and elastic step he mounted
-the scaffold. He delivered the usual speech&mdash;a part of the
-grim pageant which no prisoner, male or female, ever missed&mdash;in
-a clear voice. He eloquently declared his innocence,
-forgave his enemies, and avowed his loyalty to his sovereign.
-He begged the prayers of all the company, and himself
-prayed aloud while the final preparations were being made.
-These done, in the midst of an awed silence, Surrey knelt to
-receive the fatal stroke, and with the sacred name of “Jesus”
-on his lips, his brave soul passed into eternity. Thus was
-the Court of England robbed of a gallant and magnificent
-gentleman, and the country of a man of genius, who, had
-he lived into the calmer and fostering atmosphere of Elizabeth’s
-reign, might have left a name in literature equal, if
-not superior, to that of Spenser.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92">92</a></span>
-The Duke of Norfolk escaped trial, but not attainder.
-His dignities and estates were confiscated and distributed
-among his enemies. On the 27th of January his death-warrant
-was brought to the King; but Henry was too far
-gone, by this time, to be able to affix his autograph, and Sir
-Richard Gates stamped the document with the Royal Seal
-only. The deed, however, never reached its destination.
-Possibly it was detained by the Seymours, who may have
-thought that age and infirmity would soon spare them the
-blood-shedding of an old man. If so, they were mistaken,
-for Norfolk survived them both. A few hours later the
-King’s death saved the aged Duke’s. He remained, however,
-a close prisoner throughout the reign of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, but at
-the accession of Queen Mary he was liberated and all his
-dignities restored.</p>
-
-<p>The most pitiable part of this strange episode in the
-history of an epoch which was one long series of domestic
-and political tragedies is that the Duke, in the hope of
-saving his life, was induced to address a shameful confession
-to the King. This confession His Majesty never read. It
-is still in existence, and must be described, even by the most
-merciful critics, as a very foolish and impolitic effusion. Yet
-that the Duke of Norfolk and his son were both conspiring&mdash;not,
-indeed, to usurp the throne, but to obtain the
-protectorate&mdash;is beyond dispute. The Seymours, on their
-side, though with much greater skill and diplomacy, were
-doing precisely the same thing.</p>
-
-<p>Among our national archives and those of Norfolk House
-are full inventories of the estates, goods, and chattels of the
-Duke of Norfolk and his son, and also of the Duchesses of
-Norfolk and Richmond and of Mrs. Holland. Norfolk’s list
-is valuable as affording a fair idea of the contents of a great
-English nobleman’s house and wardrobe in the first half of
-the sixteenth century. In his desire to save them, the
-Duke had presented his vast landed estates to the Prince
-of Wales, who, needless to say, never got an acre of them;
-they were made over to the Duke of Somerset, a title assumed
-by Hertford on becoming Lord Protector, to Paget, and to
-other members of the new Government. His wearing apparel,
-which consisted of many garments, mostly of black or russet<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93">93</a></span>
-velvet or satin richly furred, and “much worn,” or even
-“very much worn,” was also seized. The Countess of Surrey
-was allowed one of her father-in-law’s “coats” of black
-satin much worn, and furred with coney and lamb, which
-was delivered to her “to put about her in her chariot.”
-This is probably the first mention of a carriage rug in the
-domestic history of this realm. All the rest of the Duke’s
-effects, including “three broad yards of marble cloth and
-two pairs of old black slippers,” were given to the Duke of
-Somerset for his use. The Protector also obtained possession
-of the magnificent jewelled collars belonging to the various
-Orders of which the Duke was a member. Paget had a
-“George, set with diamonds and one ruby,” and Lord St.
-John had poor Surrey’s “Order of St. Michael with its chain,
-studded with pearls and diamonds.” The Duke left many
-pictures, all of a sacred character, and an enormous quantity
-of gold and silver plate, which was divided into equal parcels,
-and delivered to Somerset, Princess Mary, the Duchess of
-Norfolk, the Duchess of Richmond, and Surrey’s widow.
-Somerset seized a collection of thirty-two splendid rings,
-but Mrs. Holland claimed the finest table diamond as her
-private property. His Grace had also some fifty sets of
-rosary beads, some of coral with paternosters in gold,
-others of pearl, agate, gold studded with little jewels,
-black enamel, and even of glass. A great quantity of
-these were presented to Princess Mary, to whom also
-went much of the altar furniture of the Duke’s private
-chapel.</p>
-
-<p>Surrey’s wardrobe was as magnificent as that of any
-prince. There was “a Parliament robe, of rich purple
-velvet lined with ermine, and with a garter set with jewels
-upon the shoulder,” and a gown “of black velvet curiously
-figured in gold pasmentary”; “a coat and cassock of
-crimson velvet, wrought with satin in the same colour, with
-a cloak, hat and hose to match,” was most probably the
-identical costume in which he was represented by Streete
-in the picture still at Hampton Court. We read of dozens of
-gorgeous suits, one more splendid than the other. Somerset
-chose the finest for himself, and handed over the rest to his
-brother Henry, who had come up to town to be knighted,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94">94</a></span>
-and who doubtless ultimately paraded his Wiltshire market
-town, decked in poor Surrey’s finery, looking very much
-like the fabled jay in peacock’s feathers. The furniture of
-Surrey’s country house, St. Leonard’s, near Norwich, which
-he had built after designs of John of Padua, was given to
-his widow, but some of the altar furniture went to Princess
-Mary at Newhall.</p>
-
-<p>Seals had been placed on the goods and chattels of the
-Duchesses of Norfolk and Richmond and of Mrs. Holland,
-but they were lifted immediately, and the ladies received all
-their several properties intact.</p>
-
-<p>The name of Sir Thomas Seymour does not figure in any
-connection, even remote, with this tragedy, and he did not
-receive a single coat or “night-gown,”<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">84</a> whether of velvet,
-satin, or common cloth, belonging to either the Duke or to
-his son. It may be that by the time the distribution of the
-confiscated property took place the feud between the ambitious
-brothers had already begun. It was destined amply
-to avenge Surrey’s untimely fate.</p>
-
-<p>Readers may fairly ask what the story of the poet-Earl’s
-end has to do with Lady Jane Grey? It may be replied
-that his death and his father’s imprisonment affected her
-very nearly. They cleared the way for the temporary triumph
-of the Protestant party, and enabled Seymour to proclaim
-himself Protector unopposed. The close intimacy between
-the families of Howard and Dorset is easily traced through
-at least three generations in the household books of Thomas,
-Earl of Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk.</p>
-
-<p>When the Earl entertained company, the ladies and
-gentlemen, it seems, all dined together in the “great
-chamber,” and there were often as many as twenty to fifty
-guests staying in the house. Their names include nearly
-all the leading aristocracy of the time, among them being
-Lady Jane Grey’s father and mother, the Lord Marquis of
-Dorset and the Lady Frances; Brandon, Duke of Suffolk;
-the Lady Wyndham, the Lady Parker, the Lady Essex;
-Mrs. Brian, afterwards governess to the Princesses Mary
-and Elizabeth; the Lady Vere, the “old” Lady of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95">95</a></span>
-Oxford,<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">85</a> etc. The ladies attending on the visitors<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">86</a> dined
-at my Lady’s mess, the gentlemen in the hall. When Mr.
-Thomas Reddynge, a gentleman of the Duke’s household,
-brought his bride to Tenderinge Hall for her honeymoon,
-“all the company dined and supped in the bride’s bedroom.”
-The little Lord Thomas Howard, afterwards Earl of Surrey,
-dined in the nursery.</p>
-
-<p>Hospitality was exchanged between the Howards and the
-Dorsets almost to the end of the Duke’s life. The Marquis
-and Marchioness of Dorset (the Lady Frances Brandon),
-Lady Jane Grey and her sisters, were certainly at Hunsdon<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">87</a>
-on more than one occasion, and when the two families were
-in town there was, doubtless, constant visiting between
-them. It must be remembered that the Duke of Norfolk,
-being uncle-by-marriage to the King, was also uncle to the
-Lady Frances’s mother, Mary Tudor, the royal Queen-Duchess
-of Suffolk. Little Lady Jane must often have sat
-perched on Surrey’s knee and listened with delight as he
-whispered in her ear those tales of fairy enchantment he
-himself loved so well. Owing to her tender age, Jane may
-never have been told the details of the closing scenes of her
-gallant kinsman’s life, but she must surely have noticed
-that on a certain day in January 1547&ndash;8 the curtains of
-her father’s house were drawn, as for a family in mourning;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96">96</a></span>
-that her parents moved about with pale and saddened faces;
-and that the servants stirred noiselessly and spoke under
-their breath. The shadow lay everywhere, and the various
-chronicles of the period afford abundant proof that there
-was a genuine sorrow felt in the city on the day of Surrey’s
-death.</p>
-
-<p>And there is yet another link between Lady Jane Grey
-and the unhappy Surrey. The name of her kinswoman,
-Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the “fair Geraldine,” must ever be
-associated with that of the poet-Earl, for she is as indissolubly
-connected with him as is Laura with Petrarch, or Leonora
-with Tasso. A daughter of Oge, Earl of Kildare,<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">88</a> by his
-wife, the Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter of the first Marquis
-of Dorset, the fair Fitzgerald was a not distant cousin to
-Lady Jane Grey, and there were but a few years between
-them. She was born in Ireland, probably at Maynooth
-Castle, somewhere in 1528, and was brought to England
-whilst yet an infant. In 1533 her father died in the Tower,
-broken-hearted at the news that his son, whom the Irish
-cherished as a patriot and the English hated as a rebel, had
-been captured and brought to London. A few days after
-his father’s decease, the young man was hanged at Tyburn
-with some seventeen other Irishmen. Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> appears to
-have pitied the widowed Lady Kildare, who was reduced to
-the verge of starvation after her husband’s death. A small
-pension was granted her, and her children were dispersed
-among the leading families of the aristocracy, to receive an
-education worthy of their rank. Elizabeth, “the fair
-Geraldine,” an extremely beautiful child, was placed under
-the guidance of the Princess Mary.<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">89</a> It was probably in
-the year 1542, whilst attending Her Highness on a visit at
-Hunsdon, that she first fell under the notice of Surrey, who,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97">97</a></span>
-though already married, became desperately enamoured of
-her. The young lady cannot have been more than fourteen
-or fifteen at this time, but in those days this was quite a
-marriageable age. We have Surrey’s own word for it that
-it was at Hunsdon he first beheld the “fair <span class="locked">Geraldine”&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyen:<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And Windsor, alas! doth chase her from my sight.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Her beauty of kind; her virtues from above.<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Happy is he that can obtain her love!”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>They appear to have met again at Hampton Court, and
-we seem to have evidence that the “fair Geraldine” yielded
-to some extent to her suitor’s prayers. They danced together,
-no doubt, in the Great Hall, which still delights us with its
-lofty beauty and rich arras. They sat side by side in the
-oriel windows, or romped among the flower-beds of the
-palace garden. But the lovely Irish girl, true to her race,
-was chaste as snow, and when Surrey’s ardour grew too
-hot for modest endurance, he was firmly repulsed. One
-thing is quite certain, that “Geraldine” was very beautiful,
-with Irish sea-green eyes<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">90</a> and glorious fair hair. She
-seems otherwise to have been a very matter-of-fact young
-lady, who presently bestowed her hand on the rich old Sir
-Anthony Browne.<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">91</a> After his death, in 1548, she re-entered
-the household of her royal mistress, and as the Lady
-Frances and her daughter paid several visits to their cousin,
-Princess Mary, in 1551, Jane Grey must often have seen the
-<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">bella ma fredda innammorata</i> of poet Surrey. After Queen
-Mary’s death the “fair Geraldine” consoled herself with
-a second husband, in the person of Clinton, Earl of Lincoln.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98">98</a></span>
-An account of her funeral still exists, according to which
-sixty-one old women walked in the procession, each wearing
-a new suit of clothes and carrying a loaf of bread, their
-number recording the fact that the lady they mourned had
-reached sixty-one years at the time of her decease.</p>
-
-<p>The Duchess of Richmond seems ultimately to have
-repented to some extent of her wickedness. At any rate,
-her father left her £500 in his will&mdash;a considerable sum of
-money in those days&mdash;in acknowledgment of the expense
-and trouble she had borne to obtain his liberation, and of
-her care of her brother’s children. She died of the plague
-in 1556.</p>
-
-<p>It is curious that Surrey’s children should have been
-placed under his sister’s charge, since their mother, an eminently
-respectable woman, was living, and they were with
-her at the time of their father’s death. She was, however, a
-Catholic, whereas the Duchess had for some years past rather
-ostentatiously proclaimed herself a Protestant. Somerset’s
-religious opinions may have had something to do with
-this transaction, concerning which there is a strange legend.
-Three days after the Earl of Surrey’s execution, Foxe, the
-martyrologist, was sitting in St. Paul’s Cathedral, pale, haggard,
-and almost dying of misery and starvation. Presently
-a gentleman approached him and placed a considerable sum
-of money in his hand, bidding him be of good cheer, for that
-“luck was coming to him at last.” A few days later
-Somerset appointed him tutor to the children of the late
-Earl of Surrey, then under the charge of their aunt, the Lady
-of Richmond. Notwithstanding his ardent Protestantism,
-Foxe was never able to completely detach the future Duke
-of Norfolk from the older faith; but he gave his pupil a
-sound and virtuous education, and won his enduring affection.
-This Duke shared his father’s fate; he was beheaded, in the
-reign of Elizabeth, for espousing the cause of Mary Stuart.
-From him the present Duke of Norfolk is descended in a direct
-line.</p>
-
-<p>The Countess of Surrey resided for many years at Kenninghall,
-but, as usual in those days, she presently took
-a second husband, in the person of Mr. Thomas Steyning,
-of Woodford, Suffolk, most likely her steward or secretary.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99">99</a></span>
-She lived to an advanced age, and is buried in Framlingham
-Parish Church, under the elaborate monument she erected
-to the memory of her husband, whose remains, however,
-are by some believed to be still lying in the interesting
-church of All Hallows’, Barking, near the Tower, where they
-were certainly interred immediately after his decapitation.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100">100</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">HENRY VIII</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap b"><span class="smcap1">On</span> the night of Wednesday, 27th January 1547, Henry
-Tudor lay dying on that huge fourpost bedstead
-which Andrea Conti, an Italian traveller who visited
-Whitehall a few years after the King’s death, described as
-“looking like a High Altar,” so costly were its hangings
-of crimson velvet and cloth of gold, so dazzling its rich
-embroideries.<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">92</a> The vast apartment was hung with rare
-Flemish tapestry glistening with gold thread; the furniture,
-of carved oak and inlaid ebony, was upholstered in glorious
-Florentine brocade. Curtains of “red velvet on velvet”
-draped the numerous windows overlooking the Thames,
-and the Eastern carpets that covered the floor muffled
-the sound of footsteps cautiously moving about the mighty
-couch.</p>
-
-<p>The once puissant and magnificent Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, King of
-England, France, and Ireland, and Defender of the Faith,
-was now a mass of deformed flesh, eaten up and disfigured
-by a complication of awful disorders&mdash;gout, cancer of the
-stomach, rheumatism, ulcers, and dropsy. So swollen were
-the miserable man’s hands, arms, and legs that he could only
-move with great pain, and then only with the aid of a
-mechanical contrivance. But his immense head tossed
-restlessly from side to side and he groaned piteously, often
-praying those about him to cool his parched lips with a drop
-of water. Though little over fifty-six years of age, the
-dying monarch’s hair had turned quite white, and his beard,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101">101</a></span>
-formerly so well trimmed, had grown scant and straggling.
-His steel-grey eyes looked as small in proportion to the broad,
-bloated face as those set in the elephant’s enormous mask,
-but they still retained their ophidian glitter.<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">93</a></p>
-
-<p>The dying King had been unusually irritable throughout
-the weary day. At times indeed he was delirious, but on
-the whole his mind remained fairly clear. At about six
-o’clock in the afternoon he awakened out of a deep sleep
-or lethargy and asked for a cup of white wine, which was
-given him. Presently he wandered again,&mdash;the result,
-perhaps, of the draught of wine,&mdash;and shouted, “Monks,
-monks!” imagining, so it would seem, that he saw cowled
-forms hovering about his bed. Three times, too, and very
-distinctly, he cried out the name “Nan Boleyn.” After
-that he kept his eyes fixed on a certain spot near his bedside,
-where, it may be, his fancy showed him the menacing wraith
-of his murdered wife. This outburst of feverish excitement
-was followed by a lull, and presently the King grew calmer
-and fell into a profound slumber.</p>
-
-<p>The principal persons about the death-bed were the Earl
-of Hertford and his brother, Sir Thomas Seymour; Henry’s
-Chief Secretary, Sir William Paget; and his Master of the
-Horse, Sir Anthony Browne, the only non-schismatic present.
-The physicians in attendance upon the King were Dr. Wendy
-and Dr. Owen, who had brought the Prince of Wales<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">94</a> into
-the world, and who subsequently assisted at the death-beds
-of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span><a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">95</a> and Mary. With them was Dr. John Gale,<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">96</a>
-the King’s surgeon-in-ordinary, who had waited upon Henry
-and his army when in France. Notwithstanding the number<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102">102</a></span>
-of priests attached to the Chapel Royal, there were no
-clergymen in the room. The Catholic party afterwards
-declared they had been purposely kept out of the way lest
-the King, whose hatred of the Papacy was purely political,
-might recant and make a death-bed submission to Rome.
-The elimination of the clerical element from the death-chamber
-is significant, and we have no certainty as to
-whether the King, who clung so tenaciously to the theory of
-the Church as to her Last Sacraments, ever personally
-received them.</p>
-
-<p>Another very remarkable fact is that neither in the State
-Papers nor in any other contemporary accounts of the death
-of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> is there any mention of the Queen’s presence
-at this time. Her Majesty had certainly been her husband’s
-assiduous nurse until early in January, but after that we
-hear no more of her, and except for one or two hints to
-the contrary in documents connected with the household
-effects of the King, we might almost conjecture she had left
-the palace before the King passed away. The <cite>Spanish
-Chronicle</cite>, introduced to English readers by Martin Hume,
-which contains a great deal of what would now be called
-back-stair gossip, informs us, however, that Katherine Parr
-was summoned to the King’s bedside the day before he died,
-and that “he thanked her for her great kindness to him,”
-adding that he had “well provided for her.” The good
-Queen, falling on her knees, burst into such loud sobbing
-that she had to be removed and conveyed back to her
-apartments. From the same source we learn that Princess
-Mary saw her father three or four days before the end, and
-received his blessing. Of these statements there is no confirmation
-in the English State Papers; they are confirmed,
-however, by documents in the Simancas archives and in a
-pamphlet published at Valladolid some three years after
-Queen Mary’s death entitled <cite>La Muerte de la Serenissima
-Reyna Maria d’Inglaterra</cite> (Valladolid, 1562).<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">97</a></p>
-
-<p>The last we hear of Katherine Parr as Queen-Consort
-is in a letter addressed to her from Hertford on 10th January<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103">103</a></span>
-by her stepson, Prince Edward, in which he thanks her for
-a New Year’s gift.<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">98</a></p>
-
-<p>If we trust the <cite>Acts and Monuments</cite>, there is direct
-evidence that Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> deliberately omitted Gardiner’s
-name from his testament. In the afternoon of the day
-before his death, Sir Anthony Browne asked him directly
-if “My Lord of Winchester was left out of His Majesty’s
-will by negligence or otherwise?” He was kneeling at the
-moment by the King’s bed and endeavouring to recall to
-him the Bishop’s long services. The broad face of the dying
-King turned towards him, and he said angrily, “Hold your
-peace. I remember him well enough, and of good purpose
-have I left him out; for surely if he were in my
-testament and one of you, he would cumber you all
-and you should never rule him, he is of so troublesome a
-nature.” If this be a truthful account of the scene, there
-can be no doubt that Henry realised the omission
-of Winchester’s name from the will, which would imply
-a truckling to the Seymour faction; for there was now
-no one left to oppose their influence or expose their
-intrigues.</p>
-
-<p>Between seven and eight in the evening of 27th January,
-Sir Anthony Denny, who had been watching his master
-very closely, thought he perceived signs that the end was
-approaching. Stooping over him, he whispered into the
-dying ear a message especially dreadful to one who, like Henry,
-held the mere mention of death in horror, warning him that
-his hour was very near, and that “it was meet for him to
-review his past life and seek God’s mercy through Jesus
-Christ.” The King, although in great agony, evidently
-understood what Denny had said, and is reported to have
-answered that he would suffer no ecclesiastic near him but
-Cranmer, who was immediately sent for. The Archbishop
-was at Croydon, but, being an excellent horseman, he galloped
-up to London, and reached Whitehall about one o’clock in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104">104</a></span>
-the morning of Thursday, 28th January.<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">99</a> He found the
-King almost speechless but in full possession of his faculties,
-and exhorted him, in a few words, to repent him of his sins
-and “to place his trust in Christ only.” Henry pressed
-the Churchman’s hand, and muttering the significant words,
-“All is lost!” immediately expired.</p>
-
-<p>So passed into eternity Lady Jane Grey’s great-uncle
-and the most extraordinary of all our kings. Even at this
-date it is impossible to define his true character, for whereas,
-on the one hand, his cousin Pole, who knew him well, likened
-him unto Nero and Tiberius, that painstaking historian
-Froude has endeavoured to prove him a well-intentioned
-man, whose political and whose domestic troubles especially
-were not of his own making, but the result of circumstance
-and of Court intrigues beyond his control. Between these
-two appreciations the truth doubtless lies. Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>
-was beyond question a wonderful being&mdash;in whom were
-reflected, nay, absorbed, all the good and evil qualities of
-the subjects whose very Church he contrived to dominate.
-With all his treachery, his lust, and his cruelty, he may well
-have been a necessary evil, a tool in the guiding Hand that has
-shaped the destinies of the British Empire. He tore down
-the last vestiges of the Middle Ages; and if the light so
-suddenly admitted was too dazzling for the eyes that first
-beheld it, in due time it mellowed into the slowly developed
-liberty and progress that have placed our country at the forefront
-of civilisation. Our eighth Henry was the tyrant who
-inadvertently forced open the gate whereby Freedom was to
-enter.</p>
-
-<p>Much as we loathe his sensuality and his cruelty, his
-personal extravagance that emptied the overflowing treasury
-left by his father and led him to debase the coin of the realm
-in order to replenish it, much as we may deplore his iconoclasm
-that destroyed a thousand abbeys, priories, and noble churches
-and dispersed the art treasures of ages, as Englishmen we still
-entertain a surreptitious liking for Bluff King Hal. His<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105">105</a></span>
-magnificent appearance and the Oriental side of his nature,
-his six wives, his fantastic and gorgeous pageants, his outbursts
-of bad language, his masterfulness, his love of art
-and music, all appeal to the imagination and help us to
-convert a monarch, a very weak and poor specimen of
-humanity, who really had much of the vile criminal about
-him, into a hero of romance, and cast over his strange career
-something of the legendary glamour that so fascinates all
-students of the reign of the illustrious daughter who inherited
-so many of his good and evil qualities and carried on much
-of his chosen policy. To King Henry we owe the formation
-of our Army and the creation of our Navy. He abused
-his Parliament, but he was its first and greatest organiser.
-He shaped it to his own will; and it eventually shaped itself
-to the will of the nation.</p>
-
-<p>Earlier in the evening of that momentous 27th of January
-Hertford and Paget had spent slow hours pacing up and
-down the long corridor outside the King’s chamber, and
-consulting as to what it would be best to do as soon as the
-monarch was dead. Parliament, then in session, had been
-busy with the alleged treasonable transactions of the Duke
-of Norfolk, now lying in the Tower under sentence of death.
-His Grace, therefore, was one of the only three members of
-the Privy Council absent from the death-chamber: the other
-two were Dr. Thirlby, Bishop of Westminster, then resident
-Ambassador at the Court of Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>; and Dr. Nicholas
-Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, recently dispatched on a
-diplomatic mission to France. Gardiner, whose name had
-been erased from the Council list, had lately returned from
-Brussels, and must have been communicated with at once,
-for to him were eventually entrusted all the arrangements
-for the late King’s obsequies. An improvised Council was
-held immediately after Henry’s death, and decided that the
-event should be kept a profound secret until the Prince of
-Wales was brought to London. This was cleverly managed
-by putting all the immediate attendants in the King’s private
-apartments under oath; and the multitudinous household
-in the outer rooms performed its usual vocations as though
-Henry, who had long been absent from his general courtiers’
-sight, were still alive. The sentinels were changed, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106">106</a></span>
-everything at Whitehall went on with clockwork regularity,
-as if nothing unusual had happened. At about four o’clock
-in the morning of 28th January Hertford and his brother,
-Thomas Seymour, stole out of the palace, took horse, and
-galloped towards Hertford, where the young heir was then
-residing. By an oversight&mdash;or was it done purposely?&mdash;Hertford
-put in his pocket the key of the coffer in which
-the King’s will was kept, and Paget had to ride out into the
-dark after him to obtain possession of it. At about dawn
-the Seymours were joined by Sir Anthony Browne, an
-accession which greatly elated them, for he was one of the
-most important leaders of the Catholic party. They reached
-Hertford<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">100</a> a little after daybreak, and the boy Edward was
-instantly roused from his slumbers. They did not at once
-inform him of his father’s decease, but rode with him to
-Enfield Chase, where his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, was
-residing with her governess, Mrs. Ashley. Here they broke
-the news to both of the dead King’s children, who burst into
-tears, the Princess Elizabeth holding her young brother’s
-hand the while. The company stayed all Sunday at Enfield,
-their suite being in the meantime reinforced by a numerous
-bodyguard, attended by which they started on the following
-morning for London, the boy-King riding on a milk-white
-palfrey between Lord Hertford and Sir Anthony Browne.
-As the procession passed through the villages on its way to
-London, the inhabitants were informed of King Henry’s
-death. We have proof, however, that it was not known
-in the metropolis on the Sunday. On that day the Grey
-Friar’s Church, which had been closed for some years and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107">107</a></span>
-converted into a wine-vault, was restored to public worship
-by order of the late King, and his “munificence and
-generosity” were fulsomely eulogised by the preacher, who,
-however, never alluded to the sovereign’s demise. Towards
-evening, the fact that the King was dead began to circulate
-among the upper classes, and next morning it was pretty
-generally known all over London.</p>
-
-<p>At three o’clock on the Monday afternoon King Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>
-entered the capital through Aldgate, where he was met by
-the Lord Mayor and a great assembly of the nobility and
-gentry. Cranmer greeted him at the Bridge and read him
-an address, after which he was conducted in state to the
-Tower, being only fairly well received by the populace.
-Meanwhile, his father’s body, still at Whitehall, after being
-“spunged,” cleaned, disembowelled, and embalmed with
-spices, was exhibited, covered with a silken garment, to the
-great nobility. This done, it was sealed up in a leaden
-coffin and brought down into the Privy Chamber, where it
-lay, “with all manner of lights thereto requisite, having
-divine service about him with Masses, obsequies, and prayers,”
-until 3rd February, when it was conveyed into the Chapel Royal,
-where Mass was said between nine and ten in the morning.</p>
-
-<p>The <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Chapelle Ardente</i> was hung with black cloth and with
-banners of St. George and England. Eighty huge silver
-candlesticks with tall wax tapers in them were ranged on
-either side of the catafalque. On the Tuesday, and for five
-following mornings, Norreys stationed himself at the entrance
-to the chancel and cried out at intervals to the congregation,
-“Of your charity pray for the soul of the most high and
-mighty Prince Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, our late Sovereign Lord and King.”
-Watch was kept day and night by the chaplains and gentlemen
-of the Privy Chamber. Then began the saying of Masses
-for the benefit of the King’s soul, and these were “as numerous
-as they were on the occasion of the funeral of his father, Henry
-<span class="smcap smaller">VII</span>.” They were continued until the 13th February. Tens
-of thousands of Masses were said throughout the country,
-both in the capital and the provinces, in the cathedrals as
-well as in the parish churches.<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">101</a> The ritual was everywhere<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108">108</a></span>
-absolutely Latin. In London Gardiner was the celebrant at
-High Mass each day, assisted by the Bishops of Durham,
-London, Ely, St. David’s, Gloucester, Bangor, and Bath.
-Archbishop Cranmer was present but did not officiate. Low
-Masses were said in the chapel at Whitehall, at an altar erected
-at the foot of the catafalque, from four o’clock in the morning
-until ten, when High Mass was chanted, the Marquis of Dorset
-acting as chief mourner. In the evening there were Vespers
-for the Dead and Dirge and “a great attendance of noblemen
-and gentlemen mourners.” The Queen and the King’s nieces,
-the Marchioness of Dorset and her daughters, the Ladies Jane
-and Katherine Grey, the Lady Eleanor Brandon, Countess of
-Cumberland, the Lady Margaret Lennox, the Duchess of
-Richmond, the Duchess of Suffolk, and all the great ladies<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">102</a>
-of the Court, were present, not only at High Mass, but at
-countless other Masses in the Chapel Royal. They were, however,
-not in the body of the Chapel, but in an upper gallery
-overlooking it&mdash;mourning cloaks being provided for them out
-of the Wardrobe.</p>
-
-<p>Queen Katherine may have left the palace somewhat
-hurriedly,<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">103</a> for in the inventory taken immediately after the
-King’s death there is an account of the seals being on one
-chamber described as full of female attire of the most
-sumptuous description, presumably belonging to the Queen,
-who certainly left behind her the jewels given her by the
-King to wear at the reception of M. d’Annebault, the French
-Envoy&mdash;an oversight that gave rise to terrible subsequent<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109">109</a></span>
-dissensions between Sir Thomas Seymour and his eldest
-brother.</p>
-
-<p>Lord Chancellor Wriothesley dissolved Parliament early
-on Monday, 1st February, in a neatly turned speech declaring
-that “their most puissant master was dead.” The eventful
-news was received with every demonstration of sorrow, some
-members even bursting into tears, or pretending to do so.
-Then followed the reading of that portion of the King’s will
-which concerned the Royal Succession.</p>
-
-<p>By this famous testament<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">104</a> Henry provided that in case
-Edward died childless, and Henry himself had no other children
-by his “beloved wife Katherine or any other wives<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">105</a> he might
-have hereafter,” King Edward was to be succeeded by his
-eldest sister Mary; and if she in her turn proved without offspring,
-she was to be succeeded by her sister Elizabeth. Failing
-heirs to that princess, the crown was to pass on the same
-conditions to the Lady Jane Grey and her sisters Katherine
-and Mary Grey, daughters of the King’s eldest niece, the Lady
-Frances Brandon, Marchioness of Dorset. In the eventuality
-of the three sisters Grey dying without issue, the throne was to
-be occupied successively by the children of the Lady Frances’
-younger sister, the Lady Eleanor, Countess of Cumberland.
-The Scotch succession was set aside, from no personal ill-will,
-however, to Henry’s eldest sister, the Dowager Queen of
-Scotland, Margaret Tudor, for he left her daughter a handsome
-legacy. Henry most probably omitted the name of the
-young Queen of Scots as heiress to the throne, and gave his
-preference to the daughters of his two nieces, because, although
-at war with the Regent of Scotland, he still hoped that the
-betrothal of his grand-niece, Mary Stuart, then only six years
-of age, to his son Edward might be arranged, and thus<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110">110</a></span>
-eventually bring about the desired union of the two crowns in
-a natural manner. Moreover, there was the religious question
-to be considered. The Regent, Mary of Guise, was an ardent
-Papist, using all her influence, both in England and in Scotland,
-to thwart the English King’s anti-papal policy.</p>
-
-<p>Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> mentioned Queen Katherine in the following
-eulogistic manner: “And for the great love, obedience,
-chastity of life, and wisdom being in our forenamed wife and
-Queen, we bequeath unto her for her proper life, and as it shall
-please her to order it, three thousand pounds in plate, jewels,
-and stuff of household goods, and such apparel as it shall please
-her to take of such as we have already. And further, we give
-unto her one thousand pounds in money, and the amount of
-her dower and jointure according to our grant in Parliament.”
-Henry appointed the Earl of Hertford Protector of the Realm
-during the minority of his son, and mentioned as his colleagues
-all those persons who were interested in keeping him in power
-in order to share it with him. Gardiner’s name was omitted,
-as already stated. The provisions of the will opposed a
-serious obstacle to the Earl of Hertford’s ambition, for they
-made him fifth in order of precedence, thus placing him on a
-footing of equality with other executors; recognising no
-claim arising out of his kinship to the young Prince. Sir
-Thomas Clere declared that the original will was stamped, a
-fact which inclined so careful a writer as Mr. Pollard to conclude
-that the idea that a stamped will was illegal must have
-flashed across somebody’s mind, and suggested the hasty
-drawing up of another, for the King to sign in autograph.
-The form now in the Record Office is doubtless this second one.
-It displays no trace of a stamp, and the two signatures at the
-beginning and end are not sufficiently uniform to have been
-impressed mechanically. In the last the up-strokes are very
-unsteady, and on comparing them with other signatures of
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> one is justified in thinking that both were forged.
-It must not be forgotten, however, that the King was very ill,
-and failing; his hand may well have trembled.<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">106</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111">111</a></span>
-In those days the funeral of a sovereign and the coronation
-of his successor took place almost simultaneously, occasionally
-with strange results, considerable confusion arising as to
-the arrangements for the two ceremonies: the sombre
-preparations for the obsequies of King Henry, for instance,
-clashed weirdly with the festivities organised for the accession
-of his son. Matters became so confused at last that Bishop
-Gardiner found himself obliged to appeal to “My Lord of
-Oxford’s Players,” who were already at Southwark preparing
-to act a pageant and a comedy. It would be more
-decent, His Lordship pointed out, to sing a solemn Dirge
-for their master than to perform a merry play, and he
-besought them to desist until after the King’s funeral.</p>
-
-<p>In the end the Bishop had his way, and the grandeur
-of Henry’s obsequies suffered nothing from the counter-attractions
-of the “green men,” “morris dancers,” and
-“mountain for the gods,” which were among the items
-promised by the players, who produced their performance
-in the hall of the ex-monastery of Blackfriars immediately
-after Edward’s coronation&mdash;doubtless to their own satisfaction
-and that of the public, albeit they seem to have had
-hard work to get the necessary cash for their “properties”
-out of Sir William Carwarden or Carden, the official in charge
-of such matters, to whom they had to frequently apply for
-payment.<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">107</a></p>
-
-<p>On Monday, 31st January, the young King entered
-London, and passed direct to the Tower, where, in accordance
-with traditional etiquette, he was to remain in semi-seclusion
-until after his coronation. The next day, Tuesday, 1st
-February, the late King’s executors assembled in the
-great hall of the Tower, and having heard the will read from
-beginning to end, took the oath for the King, and Hertford<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">108</a>
-was proclaimed Protector during the coming minority. On
-4th February the Protector proceeded in state to Westminster
-Hall, where he assumed the offices of Lord Treasurer and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112">112</a></span>
-Earl Marshal, rendered vacant by the attainder of the Duke
-of Norfolk. He subsequently relinquished his post as Lord
-Great Chamberlain to John Dudley, Viscount de Lisle, who
-in his turn surrendered his place as Lord High-Admiral to
-Sir Thomas Seymour.</p>
-
-<p>On Sunday, 13th February, High Mass was again sung in
-the Chapel Royal by Gardiner, assisted by the Bishops of
-London and Bristol, and the royal coffin was removed “from
-the Chapell to the Chariot; over the coffin was cast a pall
-of rich cloath of gold, and upon it a goodly ymage like to the
-Kyng’s person in all poynts, wonderfully richly aparrelled
-with velvet gold and precious stones of all sorts, holding in
-ye right hand a Sceptre of gold, in the left hand the ball of
-the world with a crosse; upon the head a crown imperial of
-inestimable value, a collar of the Garter about the neck and
-a garter of gold about the leg, with this being honourably
-conducted as aforesaid, was tied upon the said coffin by the
-Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber upon rich cushions of cloath
-of gold and fast bound with silk ribands to the pillars of the
-said Chariot for removing.” It seems, however, that this
-image was not quite complete, for it had presently to be
-removed and “touched up.”</p>
-
-<p>The gorgeous funeral procession, which is said to have
-been four miles long, left the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, at
-about eleven o’clock on 14th February for Sion <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">en route</i> for
-Windsor. The weather was very fine, and immense crowds
-lining the streets, people of every class, holding lighted
-candles. Over a thousand “lights,” or torches, were held
-by the mourners who preceded or followed the hearse
-containing the King’s body and upon which was placed
-the waxen image already described. This hearse was
-drawn by eight black horses emblazoned with the Arms of
-England and of the house of Tudor, and surrounded by
-noblemen and knights in mourning robes, some on horseback
-and others on foot, holding lights and banners, images of
-saints, and other glistening devices and symbols. The
-procession passed through the streets of London by Charing
-Cross, Knightsbridge, Hammersmith, Chiswick, and Brentford,
-and, owing to its enormous length, did not reach Sion until
-twilight. It is gratifying to note that the vast assemblage<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113">113</a></span>
-of nobles and gentry was plentifully supplied with refreshments,
-wine, and beer throughout the whole of these very
-elaborate and costly obsequies, to the tune of about £10,000
-of our money.</p>
-
-<p>At Sion the coffin stood all night within the ruined walls of
-that erstwhile monastic house which had been the prison of
-Katherine Howard, the second of Henry’s murdered consorts.
-The ravages of ruin to be seen there were now hidden by
-hangings of fine black cloth and by two great altars blazing
-with lights and jewels. By a curious coincidence, the body
-arrived at Sion on the day after the fifth anniversary of
-the Queen’s execution, a fact which lends additional horror
-to the following story, related in a contemporary document
-now in the Soane Collection: “The King’s body
-rested in the ruined Chapel of Sion, and there, the leaden
-coffin<a id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">109</a> being cleft by the shaking of the carriage, the
-pavement of the church was wetted with Henry’s blood.
-In the morning came plumbers to solder the coffin, under
-whose feet, I tremble while I write it,” says the author,
-“was suddenly seen a dog creeping and licking up the King’s
-blood. If you ask me how I know this, I answer, William
-Greville, who could scarce drive away the dog, told me so,
-and so did the plumber also.”</p>
-
-<p>The coffin had most likely been abandoned by the
-mourners, who had retired to rest for the night, and probably
-some gaseous explosion led to this uncanny incident, the
-report of which greatly increased the superstitious terror
-in which the late King’s name was held. Thus was fulfilled,
-so the people said, Friar Peyto’s denunciation from the
-pulpit of Greenwich Church in 1553, when that daring friar
-compared Henry to Ahab, and told him to his face “that
-the dogs would in like manner lick his blood.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114">114</a></span>
-This horrible occurrence, if it really took place, does not
-seem to have made any very deep impression on Bishop
-Gardiner, for no more fulsome sermon was ever preached
-than that delivered by him at Windsor on 16th February.
-He took for his text, “Blessed are the dead who die in the
-Lord,” and, enlarging on the virtues of the late monarch,
-lamented the “loss both to high and low by the death of
-this most good and gracious King”; for whom, Sir Anthony
-Browne declared, “there was no need to pray, for he was
-surely in Heaven.” Queen Katherine Parr, the King’s nieces,
-the Lady Frances, Marchioness of Dorset, and the Lady
-Eleanor of Cumberland and their daughters and other noblewomen
-attended the obsequies at Windsor from a closet
-or chamber looking into the chapel, much such a one as
-Queen Victoria used in the Chapel Royal, Windsor, on similar
-occasions.</p>
-
-<p>Some weird stories of supernatural apparitions were
-circulated all over London, especially among the Catholics.
-The “old King” had appeared, wreathed in flames, to an
-ex-Carthusian friar. Folks at Windsor had beheld him
-fleeing along the battlements and corridors of the castle,
-blazing like a meteoric ball; and he had even, so it was
-rumoured, paid a warning visit to his widow in the still
-hours of darkness.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115">115</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">CONCERNING THE LADY JANE AND THE QUEEN-DOWAGER</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> will of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> conferred upon the houses of
-Seymour and Grey a towering position in the State
-which naturally brought forward into extraordinary
-relief the hitherto ignored name of Lady Jane. A few weeks
-earlier she was but the eldest daughter of the rather weak-minded
-Marquis of Dorset, a man whom no one seems to have held
-in any great consideration, notwithstanding his royal alliance
-and rather showy past career as a soldier under Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>;
-to-day she was almost as prominent in the matter of the
-succession as the King’s two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth,
-both of whom could easily be set aside by an ambitious faction:
-the elder on account of her religion, the younger on that
-of her somewhat doubtful legitimacy. It is not surprising,
-therefore, that the intrigues which were to culminate in the
-ruin of the unfortunate Lady Jane began almost immediately
-after the accession of her cousin, Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>; for it was at this
-time that the newly made Lord Sudeley, desiring to possess
-“two strings to his bow,” embarked in a most imprudent
-intrigue to obtain possession of the person of the Marquis
-of Dorset’s daughter, who, as the reversionary heiress of
-England, was justly regarded by both parties as a most valuable
-asset. The intermediary employed in this transaction was one
-William Sharington, a gentleman in Seymour’s confidence,
-who was his equal in the conducting of tricksome intrigues:
-it will become apparent as we proceed that whenever Sudeley
-had any particularly difficult and dangerous matter to deal
-with, he invariably got some subordinate to share the danger
-with him. One morning, very soon after King Henry’s death,
-Sharington appeared at Dorset Place, Westminster, to open
-negotiations with the Marquis about the transfer of his eldest<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116">116</a></span>
-daughter into Sudeley’s charge. He began by informing
-Dorset, apparently one of the most credulous of mortals,
-that the Admiral, as uncle to the King, “was like to come
-to great authority, and was most desirous of forming a bond
-of friendship with him.” On the following day Sharington
-returned, and after assuring the Marquis that “the Lord High-Admiral
-was very much his friend,” insinuated that “it were
-a goodly thing to happen if my Lady Jane his daughter were
-in the keeping of the said Lord Admiral.” He said he had
-often heard his master say “that the Lady Jane was the
-handsomest lady in England and that the Admiral would see
-her placed in marriage much to his (the Marquis’s) comfort.”</p>
-
-<p>“And with whom will he match her?” inquired Dorset.</p>
-
-<p>“Marry,” replied Sharington, “I doubt not but you
-shall see he will marry her to the King, and fear you not,
-he will bring it to pass, and then you shall be able to help all
-the friends you have.”</p>
-
-<p>After this visit the Marquis held a consultation with the
-Lady Frances, which resulted in his accepting a personal
-interview with Lord Sudeley.</p>
-
-<p>Thomas Seymour does not appear to have had any fixed
-London abode in his bachelor days, but probably lived, on
-occasion, as Surrey did, in what we should now call chambers,
-somewhere in the Strand. But when he became Baron Sudeley
-and Lord High-Admiral, he conceived it incumbent upon him
-to live in a style commensurate with his increased rank, and
-solicited a suitable mansion from his brother, the Protector.
-Somerset forthwith filched Bath House, Strand, from Bishop
-Barlow, and presented it to his brother. This house, which
-must not be mistaken for Bath House, Holborn, was built
-in the fourteenth century and considerably enlarged and
-embellished in the beginning of the sixteenth; it was one of
-the finest mansions in London, and, with its gardens, occupied
-the whole space now covered by Arundel, Norfolk, and Suffolk
-Streets, Strand. The mansion stood on the approximate
-site of the present Howard Hotel. It commanded an extensive
-view of the Thames, and there was an orchard extending to the
-Strand.<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">110</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117">117</a></span>
-To Seymour Place, Strand, therefore, rode my lord of
-Dorset, to find Sudeley walking in his garden. The two
-gentlemen held a most confidential conversation, in the course
-of which Sudeley persuaded Dorset not only to hand the wardship
-of the Lady Jane over to him, but to send for her then and
-there, and allow the young girl to take up her abode under
-the roof of one of the most notorious profligates of an exceedingly
-degenerate Court.</p>
-
-<p>The Lady Jane did not arrive at Seymour Place <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">in formâ
-pauperis</i>. She was attended by her governess, Mrs. Ashley, by
-four waiting women and a number of male servants of various
-degrees. Sudeley’s household was at this time ruled over by
-his mother, the Dowager Lady Seymour. Since the death of
-her husband, Sir John Seymour, in December 1536, this lady
-had kept house for her younger son, who brought her for that
-purpose either from Hertford or from a suburban house on a
-site now crossed by Upper and Lower Seymour Street, Portman
-Square.</p>
-
-<p>There is some unexplained mystery connected with Lady
-Seymour which the present writer does not pretend to have
-fathomed. No explanation is discoverable of the strange
-fact that the mother of a Queen and the grandmother of a
-King of England seems to have been almost ignored by her
-son-in-law Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, by her young grandson Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>,
-by her own son the Protector, and indeed by all the great
-people with whom her high position must have brought her
-into contact. Her name is not once mentioned in connection
-with that of her daughter, Jane Seymour, after she became<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118">118</a></span>
-Queen. She did not figure at the christening of the baby
-Edward, and did not present the customary gifts offered by
-near relations on such occasions. She has left no correspondence,
-and there is only one allusion to her in the Household
-Books of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, and none at all in those of Edward
-<span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, which contain some reference to almost every lady of importance
-of the period, as receiving or presenting gifts from
-or to the sovereign, either personally or through attendants.
-We only know that her banner of arms figured, close to that of
-her daughter, Queen Jane, at the obsequies of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>
-and Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>; and that Henry, in 1537, during the year of
-his marriage with Jane Seymour, when he raised his brother-in-law
-Edward Seymour to the rank of Baron Beauchamp,
-granted him a pension of £1100 per annum, out of which he
-was to pay his mother an annuity of £60<a id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">111</a>&mdash;but beyond the
-papers connected with this pension there is only one other
-existing document in which her name figures, and this deals
-with an incident that arose after her death, in 1551, when her
-grandson the King was induced by the Privy Council, and
-by her own son, the Duke of Somerset, to countermand the
-wearing of official mourning for her. Beyond the fact that
-Lady Seymour was by birth a Wentworth, and therefore
-highly connected, and that in one of his letters to Lady Jane’s
-mother Seymour represents his own as a fitting person to take
-the young girl under her maternal care, Lady Seymour may be
-said to have lived and died as much ignored as though she had
-been a woman of no birth and no importance.<a id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">112</a></p>
-
-<p>Of the sort of life lived by the Lady Jane during the weeks
-she spent at Seymour Place we know nothing, but from the
-alacrity with which she consented to return there at a later
-period we may feel justified in believing she was very happy
-under the charge of the mysterious Lady Seymour and her
-erratic and wilful son. Miss Strickland says, but without
-naming her authority, that Lady Seymour was one of the
-earliest Englishwomen of rank to adopt the tenets of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119">119</a></span>
-Reformation. If this was the case, Lady Jane Grey probably
-met at her house some one or other of the numerous foreign
-Reformers who began to invade England shortly after the
-death of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. It is, however, likely that Sudeley
-undertook the charge of this young lady at the instigation
-of Katherine Parr, and that whilst at Seymour Place her
-education was continued under the direction of the scholarly
-Miles Coverdale, afterwards Bishop of Exeter, who had
-been appointed chaplain to the Queen-Dowager. There is
-some little resemblance between the handwriting of this
-divine and that of Lady Jane, which leads one to think
-he had a considerable share in directing her studies at this
-period.</p>
-
-<p>If the Dorsets imagined they were doing themselves and
-their daughter a service by placing her under the guardianship
-of Thomas Seymour, they made a terrible mistake, for this
-incident was certainly at the root of that fatal animosity between
-the two brothers which led up to one of the most appalling
-tragedies in our history. In the first place, it revealed to
-Somerset that Sudeley was fighting for his own hand, and
-further, entirely upset the Lord Protector’s domestic schemes
-and arrangements. Both Somerset and his wife had been
-very intimate with the Marquis and the Marchioness, his royal
-consort, and the young Earl of Hertford,<a id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">113</a> their eldest son,
-was a constant visitor at Westminster and at Bradgate. He
-was an exceedingly handsome youth, described by Norton,
-his tutor, as “singularly like his father,” who, judged by his
-portraits, was one of the finest-looking men of his day. So
-fond was the Lady Frances of the young Earl that she would
-call him “her son,” and undoubtedly looked on him as a
-welcome suitor for her eldest daughter; and if there was any
-love romance in Lady Jane’s brief life, it was certainly in
-connection with this youth, and not with Guildford, whom she
-eventually married, but whom she slighted rather than loved.
-The Somersets, moreover, had made up their minds that if
-the proposed marriage between Mary Stuart and Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>
-came to nothing, Edward should be contracted as soon as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120">120</a></span>
-possible to their youngest daughter, the very pretty and
-highly accomplished Lady Jane Seymour.<a id="FNanchor_114" href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">114</a> Under these
-circumstances it may well be imagined that the Duke and
-Duchess were not only furious when they learned that Lady
-Jane Grey was already comfortably installed under their
-brother’s roof, without their knowledge and consent, but
-firmly resolved that the young lady should see as little of her
-cousin the King as possible.</p>
-
-<p>Brother Thomas had yet a greater surprise and vexation
-in store for Somerset and his Duchess, and even for King
-Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> himself, than the matter of the wardship of Lady
-Jane Grey. He was, if the truth is to be honestly told, about
-the most extraordinary scamp of his time. Physically he
-eclipsed his elder brother, the Protector, himself considered
-a very handsome man. In addition to a fine figure, Thomas
-possessed beautiful features, just escaping the long thin nose
-which characterised his brother’s face and ruined Queen
-Jane’s pretensions to beauty. He was dark, with a full
-beard, a ruddy complexion, and full brown eyes. In a word,
-a very fine fellow indeed, and exceedingly attractive to the
-fair sex, who found it hard to resist his blandishments, a
-cruel fact of which he was apt to boast. He danced to
-perfection, was first in all sports, could turn pretty verses
-when it suited him&mdash;and even godly ones, on occasion. His
-love of dress was proverbial, and in that brilliant Court of
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> Sir Thomas Seymour never failed to hold his
-own for extravagance and magnificence. Like his brother
-Somerset, he could be kindly when it suited his purpose, and
-liberal enough to his inferiors when he desired to create a
-good impression. He seems to have even been a dutiful
-son, for, as we have said, his mother lived with him to
-the end of his life, and he spoke well of her.</p>
-
-<p>These comparative virtues were outweighted by his evil
-qualities, for not even in that age of rascality and of wickedness
-in high places did there exist a greater ruffian than this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121">121</a></span>
-seemingly polished gentleman. Thomas was one of those
-men who are born without a conscience.<a id="FNanchor_115" href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">115</a> Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> had not
-long been dead and the elder Seymour scarcely proclaimed
-Protector of the Realm when Sudeley began to realise that
-his own part at the Court of his nephew, Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, must be
-quite secondary unless he could forthwith contract some
-royal alliance and thereby make his position equal to his
-brother’s. So it fell out that, before the late King’s body
-was cold, Thomas Seymour had made up his mind to marry
-one of the royal princesses; and ere it was buried he had
-offered his hand to the elder of the King’s widows, Anne of
-Cleves. That cautious Princess promptly refused the dubious
-proposal, preferring her independence and present comfort
-to the probable sacrifice of a handsome income paid by the
-State for the poor pleasure of espousing a cadet of the house
-of Seymour. Nothing daunted by this refusal, the undismayed
-suitor aimed higher yet, and offered his hand and heart to
-Princess Mary, who thanked him, in a courteous letter, for
-the honour he paid her, and assured him that she had not
-the slightest intention of changing her state, especially so
-soon after her father’s death. Baffled again, my Lord of
-Sudeley now addressed himself to the youthful Princess
-Elizabeth, who, according to Leti, answered him in a most
-becoming manner, reminding him that her father was just
-dead, and that it would ill become her to think of marriage
-at such a moment or for at least two years after so sad an
-event. She had not, she said, had time to enjoy her maidenhood,
-and wished to do so for that period at least, before
-embarking on the stormy seas of matrimony. Elizabeth’s
-letter, if she really wrote it,&mdash;one can never quite trust Leti,
-though he lived near enough to the time to have access to
-papers and documents long since destroyed,&mdash;was a model of
-<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">finesse</i> and good taste.</p>
-
-<p>The rejected, but undejected, Seymour now turned his
-attention to his old love, Katherine Parr, whom, as we
-know, he first courted when she became the widow of
-Lord Latimer. He must have been a good deal in her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122">122</a></span>
-company in the last months of King Henry’s life, and
-on her own admission she had not lost any of her old
-love for him; for in a letter, written presumably within
-a fortnight of the late King’s death, she says, “I would
-not have you think that this, mine honest good will
-towards you to proceed from any sudden motion of passion;
-for, as truly as God is God, my mind was fully bent the
-other time I was at liberty [that is, after the death of Lord
-Latimer], to marry you before any man I know. Howbeit
-God withstood my will therein most vehemently for
-a time, and through His grace and goodness made that
-possible which seemed to me most impossible; that was,
-made me renounce utterly mine own will and follow His most
-willingly. It were long to write all the processes of this
-matter. If I live, I shall declare it to you myself. I can
-say nothing, but as my Lady of Suffolk<a id="FNanchor_116" href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">116</a> saith, ‘God is a
-wonderful man.’” In March, after Henry’s death, the Queen
-removed to Chelsea Manor, a mansion which Henry had built
-as a nursery for his children and settled on her as a dower-house.
-Princess Elizabeth had joined her within a few days
-for the purpose of finishing her education under the auspices
-of the learned Queen. At the very time, therefore, that
-Seymour was intriguing to secure possession of Lady Jane
-Grey, he was clandestinely spending his evenings with
-Katherine Parr either at Whitehall or, later, when she
-finally removed with her household to Chelsea, at the Manor
-House, coming there by a lane that led from the Bishop
-of London’s house up a path which, until a few years ago,
-was still in existence and associated by tradition with the
-names of Katherine Parr and Thomas Seymour. Some
-authorities assert that the two were secretly married about
-three weeks after the King’s death, and that the Lord Admiral
-prolonged his visits, not leaving his wife till dawn, when she
-would let him out by the garden wicket, and then steal back
-to her room unobserved (at least, so she hoped).<a id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">117</a> According<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123">123</a></span>
-to Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s <cite>Journal</cite>, however, the marriage was not
-officially celebrated until May, and it was certainly not made
-public before the end of June 1547. The intrigues of Lord
-Thomas to induce the young King, his nephew, to sanction
-his marriage with his stepmother began by his poisoning
-the King’s mind against his brother Somerset, and, taking
-advantage of the Protector’s absence in Scotland, he did
-all in his power to make himself agreeable to Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> by
-lending him considerable sums of money. Somerset kept
-the royal lad very short of petty cash, so that at times he
-had none to distribute to such folk as strolling musicians,
-servants who brought him presents from his relatives, and
-other persons who had obliged him. Seymour, who had
-isolated the King, employed a man named Fowler as intermediary
-between himself and Edward.<a id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">118</a> Flattered and
-cajoled by his uncle Thomas and well disposed by his
-natural affection to his stepmother, the poor little King
-was at length induced to write a letter advising the Lord
-Admiral to marry the Queen-Dowager. This extraordinary
-missive, which is still extant, was penned a few days after
-Edward had received a very curious epistle from his stepmother,
-then on a visit to him at St. James’s Palace, in which
-she had dilated upon her extraordinary affection for the
-memory of his late father. The letter was written in
-Latin, and the young King’s answer was in the same dead
-language. The King’s letter is full of advice, which comes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124">124</a></span>
-oddly from a lad not yet ten to a woman verging upon forty.
-He hopes to do what is acceptable in her sight because of,
-firstly, “the great love you bear my father the King, of most
-noble memory; then your good-will towards me; and lastly,
-your godliness, and knowledge and learning in the Scriptures.
-Proceed, therefore, in your good course; continue to love
-my father, and to show the same great kindness to me which
-I have ever perceived in you. Cease not to love and read
-the Scriptures, but persevere in always reading them; for
-in the first you show the duty of a good wife and a good
-subject, and in the second, the warmth of your friendship,
-and in the third, your piety to God.”<a id="FNanchor_119" href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">119</a> Very soon after
-writing this letter he wrote another to Her Majesty, this
-time in English, in which he assured her that, far from being
-vexed with her for marrying his uncle, he promised to aid
-her in the hour of need, should the alliance prove offensive
-to those who were in power.</p>
-
-<p>In June the marriage was made public. The indignation
-of the Duke and Duchess of Somerset knew no bounds. They
-had been greatly angered over the matter of Lady Jane Grey,
-but no words could express their exasperation at what they
-were pleased to consider their brother’s fresh exhibition of
-“indecency and wickedness.” The first practical expression
-of their wrath was the sequestration of the jewels the Queen
-had left behind at Whitehall after King Henry’s death. She
-had applied for them several times, and now wrote in a
-more determined strain; only, however, to receive a haughty
-refusal and the startling information that the jewels belonged
-to the Crown, whereas they really were a personal gift to her
-from the King at the time of the visit of the French Envoy
-M. d’Annebault. These jewels were never returned to
-Katherine Parr&mdash;a matter which roused the Lord Admiral’s
-wrath to a culminating pitch. “My brother,” he said, “is
-wondrous hot in helping every man to his right save me. He
-maketh a great matter to let me have the Queen’s jewels, which
-you see by the whole opinion of the lawyers ought to belong
-to me, and all under pretence that he would not the King
-should lose so much, as if it were a loss to the King to let me
-have mine own!”<a id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">120</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125">125</a></span>
-Then came another unpleasant incident, in the course of
-which the Queen-Dowager was subjected to unfair treatment
-on account of her marriage. Somerset determined to force
-her to lease her favourite manor of Fausterne to a friend of
-his named Long. Katherine refused point-blank to receive
-this gentleman as a tenant, especially at a ridiculously low
-rent, and in a letter to her husband expressed her scornful
-indignation at the “large” offer for Fausterne which his
-brother had made her. Yet in the end she was obliged to
-accept Somerset’s terms. Fausterne passed from her hands
-into those of Long, and was never restored to her.</p>
-
-<p>It is not surprising that she felt a little “warm,” as she
-expresses it, at the manner in which the Somersets handled
-her. Her position had been recognised by the King and
-Parliament, and yet her brother-in-law and his wife refused
-to acknowledge her right to precedence: the Duchess of
-Somerset declared that she was herself as good as Queen, since
-she was the consort of the King’s Protector, “who was
-virtually the head of the Realm.” Whenever Katherine
-went to Court, if the Duchess of Somerset chanced to be
-present, there was sure to be trouble. According to Lloyd,
-the Duchess not only refused to bear up the Queen’s train, but
-actually jostled her so as to pass first. “So that what between
-the train of the Queen, and the long gown of the Duchess,
-they raised so much dust at Court, as at last put out the eyes
-of both their husbands, and caused their executions.” Heylin
-says the Duchess was accustomed to inveigh against her
-royal sister-in-law in her coarsest manner. “Did not King
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> marry Katherine Parr in his doting days, when he
-had brought himself so low by his lust and cruelty that no
-lady that stood on her honour would venture on him? And
-shall I now give place to her who in her former estate was
-but Latimer’s widow, and is now fain to cast herself for support
-on a younger brother? If master admiral teach his
-wife no better manners, I am she that will.”</p>
-
-<p>Historians who, for political and religious purposes, have
-exaggerated the virtue and accomplishments of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>,
-and endowed Lady Jane Grey with charms and gifts which
-that modest young lady never possessed, have woven a legend
-around her and Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> which would lead the uninitiated<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126">126</a></span>
-to believe that she was the constant sharer of his juvenile
-tasks and pastimes, whereas in reality it was only in the last
-few months of his life that she became in the least prominent
-at his Court. Immediately after his birth and the death of
-his mother Prince Edward was handed over to the care of
-Lady Brian,<a id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">121</a> formerly governess to his two sisters, by whom
-she was greatly beloved and respected, and also to that of his
-dry nurse, Mrs. Sybilla Penn.<a id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">122</a> His infancy was spent at
-Chelsea Manor House and at the country seats of Ampthill
-and Oatlands. In these places he was frequently visited by
-his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, and presumably also by his
-little cousins of the house of Grey; but when he attained his
-sixth year, in accordance with the peculiar views of his father
-on the subject of education, all female influence was withdrawn<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127">127</a></span>
-from him, although Lady Brian continued to preside
-over his household. A number of very young noblemen
-were selected to be his constant companions and playfellows.
-Among them were his cousins, the two sons of Brandon, Duke
-of Suffolk; the Lord Edward Seymour, afterwards Earl of
-Hertford; and his great friend, the one being he seems to
-have really loved, young Barnaby Fitzpatrick, sometimes
-mentioned by the Swiss Reformers as Earl of Ireland.<a id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">123</a> His
-principal tutors were the extremely Protestant Dr. Richard
-Cox, who became Dean of Westminster in 1549 and subsequently,
-in Elizabeth’s reign, Bishop of Ely; the learned Sir
-John Cheke,<a id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">124</a> Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and his
-first schoolmaster; Sir Anthony Cooke; M. Jean Bellemain,
-his French master; and Roger Ascham, who taught him
-caligraphy. He also received lessons in the art of writing in
-the Italian or Roman type, which most nearly resembles the
-modern, from Dr. Croke, who had taught this art at an earlier
-period to the young Duke of Richmond and Queen Katherine
-Parr. Dr. Christopher Tye was his music master; and Philip<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128">128</a></span>
-Van Wylder taught him to play upon his father’s favourite
-instrument, the lute. Lady Jane was certainly not among
-his circle of intimate associates, which did not even include
-his two sisters, although the Lady Mary was at one time
-officially appointed his guardian, and Elizabeth passed the
-greater part of the year 1546 with him at Hatfield. So little
-intercourse had he with his sisters after his accession to the
-throne that he actually only met Princess Mary three times,
-and Elizabeth five. As to Lady Jane, he scarcely ever saw
-her, unless indeed she spent a few days with him at Whitehall
-some weeks before his death. As soon as the Somersets were
-thoroughly acquainted with the true motive that had induced
-the Dorsets to part with their daughter, they took every
-precaution to prevent its accomplishment; and so little was
-the Lady Jane seen at the Court of King Edward that she is
-only once casually mentioned by that monarch in his <cite>Journal</cite>
-as being present at the great functions arranged in 1550 in
-honour of the Dowager of Scotland when she passed through
-London on her way to her northern dominions; and this was
-at the time that Northumberland was in favour and Somerset
-in disgrace.</p>
-
-<p>On Thursday, 18th February 1547, the temporal Lords
-assembled at the Tower in their robes of estate to witness a
-solemn and significant ceremony. The young King having
-ascended his throne, and the officials of his Court taken their
-allotted positions about him, the doors were thrown open,
-and Edward Seymour, Lord Protector and Earl of Hertford,
-was led from the Council Chamber and conducted before
-His Majesty. Garter bore his letters-patent, the Earl of
-Derby his mantle, the Earl of Shrewsbury his rod of gold;
-my Lord Oxford carried his cap of estate and coronet. The
-Lord of Arundel bore the sword, and walked immediately
-before the Protector, who was supported by the young Duke
-of Suffolk and the Marquis of Dorset. After the usual
-ceremonies, Hertford knelt and was invested by his royal
-nephew, who put on the mantle, girded on the sword, placed
-the coronet upon his uncle’s head, and delivered him his
-rod of gold. Then the trumpets sounded, and the Herald
-proclaimed Edward Seymour to be no longer Earl of Hertford,
-but now and hereafter Duke of Somerset.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129">129</a></span>
-After the Protector came the Lord William Parr, Earl
-of Essex, brother to the Queen-Dowager, who was created
-Marquis of Northampton and of Essex. Then appeared
-John Dudley, Lord de Lisle, who had not assumed full importance
-at that time, but who was presently to become
-the protagonist of the ominous tragedy already in preparation.
-The future father-in-law of Lady Jane Grey, and the Nemesis
-of Somerset, was a man of splendid presence, exceedingly
-tall, with regular and majestic features, rendered even more
-striking by his long beard and sweeping moustache. He
-entered led by the Earls of Derby and Oxford, and was
-presently created Earl of Warwick. Dudley was followed
-by Wriothesley, who was raised to the peerage as Earl of
-Southampton.<a id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">125</a> Immediately after him came the majestic
-Sir Thomas Seymour, whom the King created Baron Seymour
-of Sudeley, at the same time delivering to him his patent
-as Lord High-Admiral of England. Sir Richard Rich, Sir
-John Sheffield, and Sir William Willoughby followed in succession
-and were created barons by the same names they
-had borne as knights. When the elaborate ceremony was
-over, a grand banquet, at which the King was not present,
-was offered to the new peers in the Tower. His Majesty,
-who was far from strong, had fainted from fatigue, and no
-wonder!&mdash;the function had lasted from seven in the morning
-till nearly midday!</p>
-
-<p>In the evening of the same day (18th February) three
-of the handsomest men of the English Court&mdash;Somerset,
-Sudeley, and Warwick&mdash;rode with a small escort from
-Whitehall through the Strand to Baynard’s Castle, the
-residence of Sir William Herbert, Queen Katherine’s brother-in-law,
-one of the wealthiest men in England, served by not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130">130</a></span>
-less than a thousand men, who wore his liveries. Here these
-three gentlemen were hospitably entertained at supper.
-There was much to talk over, and the party, elated by the
-honours so recently showered upon its members and heated
-by Herbert’s good wine, became “right merry”&mdash;little
-dreaming that within two years’ time Somerset would
-condemn his own brother Thomas to death, and that a few
-months later Warwick, as Duke of Northumberland, would
-sign the death-warrant of Somerset, only to be beheaded
-in his turn for high treason a year or so later by Queen
-Mary’s command. The Marquis of Dorset may have been
-of the company, and his presence would add an additional
-note of tragic significance&mdash;for Warwick was to become
-the direct cause of the deaths both of Lady Jane and of her
-father!</p>
-
-<p>King Edward, in the meantime, remained at the Tower
-until his official progress thence to Westminster for his
-coronation. Although Somerset and his brother were in
-office, and the Marquis of Dorset in great favour with
-them, it is not probable that his cousin, the Lady Frances,
-or her daughters were brought to see him. His boyish
-Majesty was left, according to custom, in complete isolation,
-seen and influenced alone by his uncles, the Seymours,
-and by his numerous tutors (for even after his accession his
-lessons were continued with curious punctuality), so that,
-what with State functions and his education, the unfortunate
-lad had very little or no time for physical exercise
-or recreation.</p>
-
-<p>On 19th February His Majesty rode from the Tower in
-the usual procession to Westminster before the coronation
-which formed a part of our regal ceremonial until the reign
-of James <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>, when it was omitted on account of the plague.
-Edward, garbed in silver, with a white velvet waistcoat
-and a cloak slashed with Venetian silver brocade, embroidered
-with pearls, cantered on a milk-white pony under a white
-silk canopy edged with silver. On either side of him rode
-his two uncles, the Lord Protector and the Lord High-Admiral,
-whilst Cranmer, dumbly riding with the Emperor’s Envoy,
-went between him and the Venetian Ambassador. They
-passed through streets gay with tapestry and cloth of gold;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131">131</a></span>
-whilst at the Conduit in Cornhill white and red wine ran free
-for the people to drink at their will, and children dressed as
-angels sang a quaint <span class="locked">greeting:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Hayle, Noble Edward, our Kynge and soveraigne,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Hayle, the cheffe comfort of your communaltye:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Hayle, redolent rose, whose sweetness to reteyne,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ys unto us all such great comodity,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That earthly joy no more to us can be.”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>At the Standard in the Chepe an erection, “like unto a
-tower,” and hung with cloth of gold, was surmounted by
-trumpeters, who, after a flourish, recited the following poetic (!)
-<span class="locked">effusion:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Ye children that are towardes, sing up and downe,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And never play the cowardes to him that weareth the crowne,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But always doo your care his pleasure to fulfyll,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Then shall you keep right sure the honour of England still.<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Sing up heart, sing up heart,<br /></span>
-<span class="i10">Sing no more downe,<br /></span>
-<span class="i4">But joy in King Edward that wereth the crowne.”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Outside the Metropolitan Cathedral there was an
-acrobatic display: “An argosine [Ragusan] came from
-the batilment of Saint Poule’s Church, upon a cable, beyng
-made faste to an anker at the deane’s doore, liying uppon
-his breaste, aidyng himself neither with hande nor foote,
-and after ascended to the middes [middle] of the same cable,
-and tumbled and plaied many pretie toies [tricks], wherat
-the Kyng and other of the peres and nobles of the realme
-laughed hartely.” In Fleet Street the King was met by
-Faith, Justice, and Truth, the first holding a Bible conspicuously
-in her hands: each of these damsels recited a
-long poem in His Majesty’s honour. Temple Bar having been
-“new painted in dyvers colours,” was garnished with cloth
-of arras and standards and flags, and seven French trumpeters
-“blew sweetly” to the singing of an anthem by a group of
-children. The customary banquet was served in the Great
-Hall, Westminster, and was attended by Archbishop Cranmer,
-most of the bishops, the ambassadors, and envoys, the
-nobility, the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132">132</a></span>
-King Edward stayed at Westminster Palace until the
-coronation, which took place on the following Sunday in
-Westminster Abbey. On account of the King’s poor health,
-the service was slightly abridged, otherwise the old Catholic
-form was throughout adhered to; for though Cranmer preached
-a sermon in refutation of Petrine claims and urged the young
-monarch to abolish “idolatry,” he celebrated High Mass, and
-the incongruous function concluded with the King’s “offering,”
-as had always been done in Catholic times, at St. Edward’s
-shrine! After the coronation there were public jousts and
-tournaments; and the King and Court attended at Blackfriars
-those very performances by the “players” which had
-roused the ire of Bishop Gardiner and had been postponed
-at his request.<a id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">126</a> We may be certain that the Marchioness
-of Dorset witnessed the procession and coronation, together
-with her two elder daughters, Jane and Katherine, from some
-place of vantage set apart for the ladies of the royal
-family, who, however, took no active part in either the procession
-or the actual ceremony, it not being customary for
-ladies to be officially present at the coronation of a bachelor
-King.</p>
-
-<p>Notwithstanding that Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> is always connected in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133">133</a></span>
-the popular mind with Protestantism, and notwithstanding
-Cranmer’s attack on “Popery” at the coronation, for quite
-eighteen months, if not two years, after Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s death
-the Church in England remained exactly as he left it. True it
-is, that the first Book of Common Prayer was issued in 1548,
-but, on the other hand, Mass was said daily in the Royal Chapel
-(Low Mass every day and High Mass on festivals) for the
-first two or three years of Edward’s reign; an MS. account
-book of “the Treasurer of the Chamber” in the Trevelyan
-Papers reveals the fact that the boy-King himself heard Mass
-almost daily until 1549. There is every reason to believe that
-Mass continued to be said or sung in the parish churches also
-until the same year; certainly the old feasts were still observed
-for the first two years of King Edward’s reign, especially in
-London. These feasts were much more numerous than those
-retained by the Established Church; there were the first three
-days in Easter Week, Corpus Christi,&mdash;when there was the
-usual procession with the Host through the streets,&mdash;the
-“Days” of St. John, SS. Peter and Paul, St. Mary Magdalen,
-St. James the Apostle, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the
-Conception, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
-All Hallows’ Day, All Souls’ Day, St. Edward Confessor,
-Christmas Day, and the three following holy-days. High
-Mass of the Holy Ghost was said in St. Stephen’s Chapel
-when Parliament met for the first time after Henry’s death,
-the King and both Houses attending in State. All the same,
-things ecclesiastical were not as they used to be; there was in
-different churches much diversity in the matter of details&mdash;one
-priest would use incense, another not, and so on. In 1548,
-however, Compline was sung in English and the Litany of the
-Saints also in the vernacular.</p>
-
-<p>So soon as the news that King Henry was dead was
-authenticated abroad, an army of foreign Reformers&mdash;Swiss,
-German, French, and Italian&mdash;poured into England, as a
-secure refuge from the persecution they endured in their
-respective countries. These worthies held the most varied
-opinions, some even casting doubt on the Divinity of Christ,
-and the Lutherans hating the Calvinists as cordially as they
-both detested the Papists. The Londoners in general, who,
-when not Catholics, were mostly schismatics and ever jealous<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134">134</a></span>
-of foreigners, did not relish this sudden invasion; but the
-leaders of politics and religion in England welcomed the
-Reformers with open arms, even overlooking their doctrinal
-shortcomings for the sake of their hatred of “the Scarlet
-Lady.” Some of them&mdash;for instance, Bucer, Peter Martyr,
-and perhaps Paul Fagius&mdash;were awarded chairs at the Universities;
-whilst others, such as John ab Ulmis, Conrad
-Pellican, Oswald Geisshaüsler (better known as Myconius),
-Bullinger, Martin Micronius, Bartholomew Traheron, John
-Stumphius, Christopher Froschover, Bernardine Ochinus, Peter
-Bizarro of Perugia,<a id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">127</a> etc., were received into the houses of
-some of the aristocracy to teach their children “the new
-learning.” The Marquis of Dorset, as already noted, welcomed
-these foreign Reformers with enthusiasm, and we
-shall presently learn more concerning his relations with them.
-He did not confine his intercourse to a mere empty display of
-hospitality, but kept up a regular correspondence with many
-of them after their return to their homes. Letter-writing
-seems, indeed, to have been a passion with the Reformers,
-and their voluminous correspondence, arranged, translated, and
-published by the Parker Society,<a id="FNanchor_128" href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">128</a> throws much valuable light
-on their private characters, their politics, and their singular
-theological opinions. It is mostly addressed to their brethren
-in Basle, Zurich, Geneva, and Strasburg, or to their English
-patrons. According to some authorities, there were from ten
-to twenty thousand foreign adherents of the “new learning”&mdash;or
-as we might still better say, new learnings, so many and
-diverse were their opinions&mdash;in England during Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s
-reign, but the former figure is the more likely to be correct.
-Very many of these learned men scattered themselves abroad
-again when the Catholic reaction set in under Mary; but
-doubtless a few remained, whose descendants to this day<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135">135</a></span>
-worship in the Église Reformée Française, l’Église Protestante
-Suisse, the Dutch Church, and in the other foreign Protestant
-churches which are sprinkled over the metropolis, but whose
-congregations were materially increased after the Revocation
-of the Edict of Nantes.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136">136</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE QUEEN AND THE LORD HIGH-ADMIRAL</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">At</span> the time of the much-discussed clandestine
-marriage between Thomas Seymour and Katherine
-Parr, the Princess Elizabeth was a precocious girl
-of fifteen, not beautiful, but tall for her age, well developed,
-and of elegant figure. The aquiline features, which age was
-to harshen, were softened at this early period by the roundness
-of youth; and the brilliant complexion stood in no need
-of the artificial assistance to which the Queen so freely
-resorted in her later life. The splendid auburn hair&mdash;its
-colour may have owed something to a touch of henna&mdash;considerably
-heightened charms not the least striking of which
-were a pair of small but black and penetrating eyes, inherited
-from her mother, Anne Boleyn.<a id="FNanchor_129" href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">129</a> Unmindful of the fact that
-a girl of fifteen is not precisely a baby, the Queen had encouraged
-the Admiral to romp with “our Eliza” in the
-garden and even in her bedroom. Seymour was notoriously
-devoid of any sense of delicacy or chivalry, and there can
-be very little doubt that the object of his play with his
-illustrious stepdaughter was to kindle a passion which might
-serve his purpose in case the Queen, already advancing in
-pregnancy, should die in childbirth&mdash;a not improbable
-contingency, considering her age and the fact that she had
-never borne a child before. At a much later date Mrs. Ashley,
-the Princess’s governess, deposed as follows before the Privy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137">137</a></span>
-Council: “At Chelsea Manor,<a id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">130</a> after my Lord Thomas
-Seymour was married to the Queen, he would come many
-mornings into the said Lady Elizabeth’s chamber before she
-was ready, and sometimes before she did rise, and strike
-her familiarly on the back, and so go forth to his chamber,
-and sometimes go through to her maidens and play with them.
-And if the Princess were in bed, he would put open the
-curtains and bid her good morrow, and she would go further
-in the bed. And one morning he tried to kiss the Princess
-<em>in</em> the bed and I was there, and bade him go away for shame.
-At Hanworth, for two mornings, the Queen was with him, and
-they both tickled my Lady Elizabeth in her bed. Another
-time, at Hanworth, he romped with her in the garden, and
-cut her gown, being of black silk, into a hundred pieces;
-and when I chid Lady Elizabeth, she answered, ‘She could
-not strive with all, for the Queen held her while the Lord
-Admiral cut the dress.’ Another time, Lady Elizabeth<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138">138</a></span>
-heard the master-key unlock, and knowing my Lord Admiral
-would come in, ran out of her bed to her maidens, and then
-went behind the curtains of her bed and my Lord Admiral
-tarried a long while, in hopes she would come out.” Upon
-Mrs. Ashley’s begging the Admiral to be more circumspect,
-because his tomfooleries were giving the Princess a bad
-reputation, he answered, with an oath, “I will tell my Lord
-Protector how I am slandered; and I will not leave off, for I
-mean no evil.” “At Seymour Place,” continues Mrs. Ashley,
-“when the Queen slept there, he did use awhile to come up
-every morning in his night-gown and slippers. When he
-found Lady Elizabeth up and at her book, then he would look
-in at the gallery-door, and bid her good morrow and so go on
-his way; and I did tell my Lord it was an unseemly sight
-to see a man so little dressed in a maiden’s chamber, with
-which he was angry, but left it. At Hanworth, the Queen
-did tell me ‘that my Lord Admiral looked in at the gallery-window,
-and saw my Lady Elizabeth with her arms about
-a man’s neck.’ I did question my Lady Elizabeth about it,
-which she denied, weeping, and bade us ‘ax all her women if
-there were any man who came to her, excepting Grindal.’
-[This gentleman was her tutor.] Howbeit, methought the
-Queen, being jealous, did feign this story, to the intent that
-I might take more heed to the proceedings of Lady Elizabeth
-and the Lord Admiral.”<a id="FNanchor_131" href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">131</a> Mr. Ashley, husband of the above
-deponent, and also in Princess Elizabeth’s service, concurred
-in his wife’s opinion that the Admiral was going too far, and
-that the Princess was “inclined” towards him, for whenever
-the Admiral was mentioned “she was wont to blush to her
-hair-roots.” That Elizabeth herself was alarmed is proved
-by the fact that she told Parry, her cofferer, “that she feared
-the Admiral loved her but too well, and that the Queen was
-jealous of them both; and that Her Majesty, suspecting
-the frequent access of the Admiral to her, came upon them
-suddenly when they were alone, he having her in his arms.
-The Queen was greatly offended, and reproved Mrs. Ashley
-very sharply for her neglect of duty in permitting the
-Princess to fall into such reprehensible freedom of behaviour.”
-The scandalous conduct of her husband at last roused not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139">139</a></span>
-only the jealousy but the apprehensions of Queen Katherine.
-She feared some misfortune might befall the Princess at her
-tender age, and felt that in such a case the blame very
-naturally, and not unjustly, would be cast on her; and
-she would be generally regarded as the author of her stepdaughter’s
-ruin. Very quietly, therefore, Her Majesty suggested
-the departure of the Princess, who was forthwith sent
-back to Hatfield, attended by her governess and servants.
-Elizabeth seems to have borne her late hostess no ill-will on
-account of this banishment, and a few months later we see
-her affectionately concerned about Her Grace’s health, and
-greatly rejoiced at the news that she had been safely
-delivered. Evidently a letter from the Admiral, received some
-days before the event, had assured her the expected child
-would be a boy, and it must have been on receiving this
-expression of opinion that the Princess indited the following
-quaint epistle to her <span class="locked">stepmother:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“Although Your Highness’s letters be most joyful to me in
-absence, yet, considering what pain it is for you to write, Your
-Grace being so sickly, your commendations were enough in my
-Lord’s letter. I much rejoice at your health, with the well liking
-of the country, with my humble thanks that Your Grace wished
-me with you till I were weary of that country. Your Highness
-were like to be cumbered, if I should not depart till I were
-weary of being with you; although it were the worst soil in the
-world, your presence would make it pleasant. I cannot reprove
-my Lord for not doing your commendations in his letter, for
-he did it; and although he had not, yet I will not complain
-of him, for he shall be diligent to give me knowledge from
-time to time how his busy child doth; and if I were at his
-birth, no doubt I would see him beaten, for the trouble he
-hath put you to. Master Denny and my lady, with humble
-thanks, prayeth most entirely for Your Grace, praying the
-Almighty to send you a most lucky deliverance; and my
-mistress [Mrs. Ashley] wisheth no less, giving Your Highness
-most humble thanks for her commendations. Written, with
-very little leisure, this last day of July.&mdash;Your humble
-daughter,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-<span class="smcap">Elizabeth</span>”
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The phrase, “If I were at his birth, no doubt I would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140">140</a></span>
-see him beaten, for the trouble he hath put you to,” is as
-quaint as any metaphor in Shakespeare. This letter was
-dispatched some six weeks before the Queen’s confinement.
-About the same time Katherine received a friendly missive
-from the Princess Mary, congratulating her on the rumour
-she hears concerning her good condition, and assuring her
-she will pray Almighty God to help her in her hour of hope and
-danger.</p>
-
-<p>The unpleasant rumours as to the behaviour of “my
-Lord Admiral” and Elizabeth were soon well known all over
-London, and caused much spiteful gossip. It was currently
-reported that when the Princess left the Queen’s house she had
-betaken herself to some out-of-the-way dwelling at Hackney,
-where a mysterious infant had been born.<a id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">132</a> This story was so
-generally believed that it had an echo even during the great
-Queen’s reign. In the twenty-first year of Elizabeth (1579), a
-youth who appeared at Madrid asserted himself to be the
-Queen’s son by the Lord Admiral, and was accepted as
-such by the Spanish King and Court. The Lord Admiral
-certainly made a great impression on the young girl’s heart,
-for long after her accession, Elizabeth, very reticent, as a rule,
-concerning events connected with her childhood and youth,
-would, in the privacy of her closet, confide to the ladies she
-admitted to her intimacy that “the Lord Admiral had been
-the only man she had ever loved; and the handsomest she
-had ever seen.”</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps the departure of Princess Elizabeth left the Queen
-more leisure to look after her other charge, the Lady Jane
-Grey, who had been removed from Seymour Place to the
-Manor House, Chelsea. Katherine, on account, it may be,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141">141</a></span>
-of the restlessness sometimes observed in ladies in her condition,
-moved about a great deal during this period. Sometimes
-she addresses her letters from Hanworth, sometimes
-from Oatlands. Then, as political events rendered her husband’s
-position less and less secure, she determined to retire
-to Sudeley Castle, Seymour’s lately acquired seat in Gloucestershire,
-and to lie-in there. The journey from Hanworth must
-have been a troublesome one for a woman in her state of
-health. She travelled with her husband, Lady Jane Grey,<a id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">133</a>
-Lady Tyrwhitt, six other ladies, and two chaplains. She
-herself was in a waggon, comfortably lined and cushioned,
-no doubt, and with every possible precaution to ensure her
-comfort, but the roads were atrocious, and the journey lasted
-six days. Yet the weary traveller’s patience must have been
-amply rewarded, for Sudeley Castle in those days was one
-of the most splendid houses in England&mdash;a gem of Gothic
-architecture, furnished in the most sumptuous style. The
-Queen’s apartments had been fitted up with as much magnificence
-as she would have enjoyed if she had still been Queen-Consort
-of England and about to present the realm with
-an expected heir. Her bedchamber was hung with costly
-tapestry, specified, in an inventory still preserved at Sudeley,
-as consisting of “six fair pieces of hangings illustrating the
-history of the Nymph Daphne.” The bed had a tester and
-curtains of crimson taffeta, with a counterpoint of silk serge.
-There was another bed for the nurse, hung with “counterpoints
-of imagery to please the babe”&mdash;probably some stuff
-such as was common in those days embroidered with animals,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142">142</a></span>
-birds, and little men. The outer chamber had been arranged
-as a day nursery, and was hung with “a fair tapestry” representing
-the twelve months of the year. In it was set a
-“chair of state” covered with cloth of gold&mdash;all the other seats
-were stools&mdash;and a bedstead with tester curtains and rich
-counterpoints, or counterpanes, as they are now called. There
-is still a lovely oriel window of Tudor architecture at Sudeley
-popularly called “the nursery window,” but this cannot be
-the window of the nursery that was prepared for Katherine
-Parr’s babe, for the inventory distinctly says “carpets for
-<em>four</em> windows in the nursery.” This other “nursery window”
-looks out upon one of the most lovely scenes in England&mdash;the
-chapel where Katherine Parr sleeps in peace after her
-chequered life, the garden in front of it, while beyond, the
-lovely green of the famous woods of St. Kenelm soften into
-the haze of the distant horizon.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane’s room, beyond Queen Katherine’s, was also
-splendidly furnished, and adorned with tapestries representing
-the history of St. Catherine. The bed was hung with blue
-silk, and a large piece of Turkey carpet<a id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">134</a> covered the floor.</p>
-
-<p>Queen Katherine’s life at Sudeley must have been very
-quiet and peaceful. Local tradition tells us that she was
-wont, with her young charge and her ladies, to visit the poor
-and take an interest in her gardens. Divine service according
-to the rites of the Church of England was said regularly twice
-a day in the beautiful chapel by one of her chaplains, Coverdale
-or Parkhurst, and sermons were preached at least three times
-a day. The Lord Admiral’s ostentatious absence from these
-pious exercises was a matter of great vexation to the Queen,
-and gave rise to a report that his Lordship was an atheist.<a id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">135</a></p>
-
-<p>The return of the Lord Protector from his campaign in
-Scotland boded no good for the Lord Admiral; the brothers
-had a bitter quarrel, and on this occasion it was that Seymour
-departed with the Queen for Sudeley. Edward had been
-writing to Somerset, calling him “his dearest uncle” and
-saying that he was well pleased with his many victories, and
-on the warrior’s return the Admiral found himself quite driven<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143">143</a></span>
-into the shade. However, about a month before the Queen’s
-confinement, he made a hurried journey to London, hoping
-to induce the young King to write a letter complaining of the
-treatment his younger uncle and the Queen were receiving from
-the Protector. Edward was easily persuaded to write the
-letter, but before the plot was thoroughly matured it was
-betrayed to the elder Seymour, and Thomas, arrested by the
-Lord Protector’s order, was taken before the Council to answer
-for his behaviour. Threatened with imprisonment in the
-Tower, he made a sort of submission to Somerset, and a hollow
-reconciliation took place, the Protector adding a sum of £800
-per annum to Sudeley’s appointments in the hope of conciliating
-his unruly brother, who hurried back to Sudeley, where he
-felt himself comparatively safe; for so long as the Queen lived
-he could defy his foes, his wife’s great rank and the well-known
-affection entertained for her by the boy-King sufficing to
-screen him even from the vengeance of the infuriated head of
-the house of Seymour.</p>
-
-<p>On 30th August 1548 Queen Katherine bore the infant for
-whom such great preparations had been made. The parents had
-fondly hoped it would be a boy, but, alack! it was a puny girl,
-destined to be a child of misfortune. She cost her mother her life,
-and grew up to suffer the bitter pangs of poverty and neglect.</p>
-
-<p>My Lord Sudeley, who had been consulting fortune-tellers
-and palmists about the expected child, was bitterly
-disappointed, for they had predicted the birth of a son. This
-did not prevent him from writing a very flattering account of
-his infant daughter to his brother the Protector. The Duke had
-quite recently sent his brother a very severe letter complaining
-of his intrigues; but the birth of the child seems to have had a
-softening effect, and the following letter was far more friendly,
-containing a courteous message to the Queen, and <span class="locked">continuing:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“We are right glad to understand by your letters that
-the Queen, your bedfellow, hath a happy hour; and, escaping
-all danger, hath made you the father of so pretty a
-daughter. And although (if it had pleased God) it would
-have been both to us, and (we suppose) also to you, a more
-joy and comfort if it had, this the first-born, been a son, yet
-the escape of the danger, and the prophecy and good hansell<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144">144</a></span>
-of this to a great sort of proper sons, which (as I write) we trust
-no less than to be true, it is no small joy and comfort to us,
-as we are sure it is to you and to her Grace also; to whom
-you shall make again our hearty commendations, with no less
-gratulation of such good success.</p>
-
-<p>“Thus we bid you heartily farewell. From Sion, the 1st
-of Sept. 1548.&mdash;Your loving brother,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-“<span class="smcap">E. Somerset</span>”
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>It is a curious fact that the child was born on 30th August,
-and that Somerset’s letter is dated the 1st of September, proving
-that communication was much more expeditious in those
-days than we are apt to imagine.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Tyrwhitt, who attended on the Queen, has left a
-very touching account of her last hours.<a id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">136</a> Everything seems
-to have gone well until about six days after the child’s birth,
-when the Queen suddenly became delirious, and conceived a
-great dread and a burning jealousy of her husband. Lady
-Tyrwhitt says that “two days before the death of the Queen,
-at my coming to her in the morning, she asked me ‘Where I
-had been so long?’ and said unto me ‘that she did fear such
-things in herself, that she was sure she could not live.’ I
-answered as I thought, ‘that I saw no likelihood of death
-in her.’ She then, having my Lord Admiral by the hand,
-and divers others standing by, spake these words, partly, as I
-took, idly [that is, “in delirium”]: ‘My Lady Tyrwhitt, I
-be not well handled; for those that be about me care not for
-me, but stand laughing at my grief, and the more good I will
-to them, the less good they will to me.’ Whereunto my Lord
-Admiral answered, ‘Why, sweetheart, I would you no hurt.’
-And she said to him again, aloud, ‘No, my lord, I think so’;
-and immediately she said to him in his ear, ‘But, my lord, you
-have given me many shrewd taunts.’ These words I perceived
-she spoke with good memory, and very sharply and earnestly,
-for her mind was sore disquieted. My Lord Admiral, perceiving
-that I heard it, called me aside, and asked me ‘What
-she said?’ and I declared it plainly to him. Then he consulted
-with me ‘that he would lie down on the bed by her,
-to look if he could pacify her unquietness with gentle communication,’<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145">145</a></span>
-whereunto I agreed; and by the time that he had
-spoken three or four words to her, she answered him roundly
-and sharply, saying, ‘My Lord, I would have given a thousand
-marks to have had my full talk with Hewyke [Dr. Huick
-or Huycke<a id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">137</a>] the first day I was delivered, but I durst not for
-displeasing you.’ And I, hearing that, perceived her trouble
-to be so great, that my heart would serve me to hear no more.
-Such like communications she had with him the space of an
-hour, which they did hear that sat by her bedside.”</p>
-
-<p>Little Lady Jane Grey was no doubt near the afflicted
-Queen throughout these trying scenes; but she would almost
-certainly have been excluded from the bedchamber when
-the Queen’s condition became alarming. Just before the end
-Katherine seems to have rallied, for on 5th September she
-was able to make her will, leaving everything to her husband,
-and “wishing it had been a thousand times more, so great
-was her love for him.” The witnesses to this will were Dr.
-Huycke, already mentioned, and Dr. Parkhurst, afterwards
-Bishop of Norwich, both men of unimpeachable integrity,
-who would not have signed the document if there had been
-anything illegal about it. Katherine Parr died on 7th September,
-the second day after the date of her will and the
-eighth after the birth of her child. She was in her thirty-sixth
-year, and had survived Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> just one year, six
-months, and eight days. Her funeral took place at Sudeley
-Castle, according to the rites of the Church of England, on
-Friday, 8th September, and was the first royal funeral so
-celebrated in England. Dr. Coverdale was the officiant at
-the Queen’s burial. A procession was formed of “conductors”
-(<i>i.e.</i> leaders) in black, gentlemen, Somerset Herald,
-torch-bearers, Lady Jane Grey, acting as chief mourner, her
-train borne by a young gentlewoman, then more ladies and
-gentlemen; finally, “all other following.” The Lord
-Admiral, according to custom, did not attend his wife’s
-funeral. The ritual was somewhat curious, and is described<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146">146</a></span>
-in the following terms in an MS. entitled “A Booke of Buryalls
-of Trew Noble Persons,” now in the London College of Arms:<a id="FNanchor_138" href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">138</a>
-“When the corpse was set within the rails, and the mourners
-placed, the whole choir began and sung certain psalms in
-English, and read three lessons; and after the third lesson,
-the mourners, according to their degrees and that which is
-accustomed, offered into the alms-box.... Doctor Coverdale,
-the Queen’s almoner, began his sermon ... in one place
-thereof he took occasion to declare unto the people ‘how the
-offering which was there done, was (not) done anything to
-benefit the corpse, but for the poor only; and also the lights,
-which were carried and stood about the corpse, were for
-the honour of the person, and for none other intent nor
-purpose’; and so went through with his sermon, and made
-a godly prayer, and the whole church answered and prayed
-with him.... The sermon done, the corpse was buried,
-during which time the choir sung the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Te Deum</i> in English.
-And this done, the mourners dined, and the rest returned
-homewards again. All which aforesaid was done in a
-morning.”</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147">147</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE LADY JANE GOES TO SEYMOUR PLACE</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">All</span> Thomas Seymour’s schemes and conspiracies
-and political and domestic intrigues were brought
-to nought by his wife’s death, and he swiftly
-realised that the danger of his position was immeasurably
-increased by her decease. She had been an effective
-barrier between himself and his foes, for nothing could
-persuade the King to consider her otherwise than with great
-affection, as one of the only two persons he really loved
-(his young companion Barnaby Fitzpatrick being the other).
-Sudeley was now, metaphorically speaking, at sea in a storm,
-and seeking safety in any port he could discover. For
-a few days his troubles seem to have dazed him. He may,
-indeed, have loved his wife and have sincerely mourned her.
-There is not the slightest reason to believe that there was any
-solid foundation for the accusations brought against him of
-having ill-treated and even poisoned the Queen. A few
-weeks before her death, on the contrary, he swore, with one
-of his horrible oaths, that if any man “speak ill of his Queen
-in his presence, he would take his fist to his ear, be he of the
-lowest or of the highest.” After his wife’s death, Sudeley
-was at first inclined to break up his household and throw
-himself once more into public life. He even went so far as
-to dismiss some of his servants, and returned to Hanworth,
-the late Queen’s dower-house in Middlesex, taking Lady Jane
-and her attendants with him. Hence he wrote to Dorset
-to say that, broken-hearted as he was at the departure of
-the Queen, his wife, he could not keep the Lady Jane any
-longer,<a id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">139</a> and begged him to send for her. By 17th September,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148">148</a></span>
-however, he seems to have cheered up considerably, for
-he dispatched another letter to Bradgate, which runs as
-<span class="locked">follows:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“My last letters, written at a time when, partly with the
-Queen’s Highness’s death I was so amazed that I had small
-regard either to myself or my doings, and partly then thinking
-that my great loss must presently have constrained me to
-have broken up and dissolved my whole house, I offered unto
-your Lordship to send my Lady Jane unto you whensoever
-you would send for her, as to him that I thought would be
-most tender on her. Forasmuch, since being both better
-avised of myself, and having more deeply digested whereunto
-my power [<i>i.e.</i> property] would extend; I find, indeed,
-that with God’s help, I shall right well be able to continue
-my house together, without diminishing any great part
-thereof; and, therefore, putting my whole affiance and
-trust in God, have begun anew to stablish my household,
-where shall remain not only the gentlewomen of the Queen’s
-Highness’s privy chamber, but also the maids that waited
-at large, and other women being about Her Grace in her
-lifetime, with a hundred and twenty gentlemen and yeomen,
-continually abiding in the house together. Saving that now,
-presently, certain of the maids and gentlewomen have
-desired to have license for a month or such thing, to see their
-friends, and then immediately to return hither again. And,
-therefore, doubting lest your Lordship might think any
-unkindness that I should by my said letters take occasion
-to rid me of your daughter, the Lady Jane, so soon after
-the Queen’s death, for the proof both of my hearty affection
-towards you, and my good-will to her, I am now minded to
-keep her until I next speak with your Lordship, which should
-have been within these three or four days if it had not been
-that I must repair to the Court, as well to help certain of
-the Queen’s poor servants with some of the things now fallen
-by her death, as also for mine own affairs, unless I shall be
-advertised from your Lordship to the contrary. My lady
-my mother shall and will, I doubt not, be as dear unto her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149">149</a></span>
-[<i>i.e.</i> Lady Jane] as though she were her own daughter; and
-for my part I shall continue her half-father, and more, and
-all that are in my house shall be as diligent about her as
-yourself would wish accordingly.”<a id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">140</a></p></blockquote>
-
-<p>To this letter Dorset replied as follows, in a particularly
-fine specimen of the strange orthography of those <span class="locked">days:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“My most hearty commendations unto your good lordship
-not forgotten. When it hath pleased you by your
-most gentle letters to offer me the abode of my daughter at
-your lordship’s house, I do as well acknowledge your most
-friendly affection towards me and her therein, as also render
-unto you most deserved thanks for the same. Nevertheless,
-considering the state of my daughter and her tender
-years, wherein she shall hardly rule herself as yet without
-a guide, lest she should, for lack of a bridle, take too much
-the head, and conceive such opinion of herself, that all
-such good behaviour as she heretofore hath learned, by
-the Queen’s and your most wholesome instructions, should
-either altogether be quenched in her, or at the least much
-diminished, I shall, in most hearty wise, require your lordship
-to commit her to the governance of her mother, by
-whom for the fear and duty she oweth her, she shall most
-easily be ruled and framed towards virtue, which I wish
-above all things to be most plentiful in her; and although
-your lordship’s good mind, concerning her honest and godly
-education be so great, that mine can be no more; yet
-weighing that you be destitute of such one as should
-correct her as a mistress, and admonish her as a mother, I
-persuade myself that you will think the eye and oversight of
-my wife shall be in this respect most necessary.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Then follows a mention of the proposed scheme for
-uniting the Lady Jane to the King; and the letter concludes
-<span class="locked">thus:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“My meaning herein is not to withdraw any part of my
-promise to you for her bestowing; for I assure your<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150">150</a></span> Lordship,
-I intend, God willing, to use your discreet advice and
-consent in that behalf and no less than mine own; only
-I seek in these her tender years, wherein she now standeth,
-either to make or mar (as the common saying is), the addressing
-[the forming] of her mind to humility, soberness, and
-obedience. Wherefore, looking upon that fatherly affection
-which you bear her, my trust is that your lordship, weighing
-the premises, will be content to charge her mother with
-her, whose waking eye in respecting her demeanour, shall
-be, I hope, no less than you as a friend and I as a father
-would wish. And thus wishing your lordship a perfect
-riddance of all unquietness and grief of mind, I leave
-any further to trouble your lordship. From my house at
-Bradgate, the 19th of September.&mdash;Your lordship’s to the
-best of my power,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-<span class="smcap">Henry Dorset</span>”<a id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">141</a>
-</p>
-
-<p>(Endorsed)</p>
-
-<p>“To my very good Lord Admiral: give this.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>With this precious epistle was enclosed another, from the
-Lady <span class="locked">Frances:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“And whereas,” says she, “of a friendly and brotherly
-good will you wish to have Jane my daughter, continuing
-still in your house, I give you most hearty thanks for your
-gentle offer, trusting, nevertheless, that, for the good opinion
-you have in your sister (Lady Frances herself), you will be
-content to charge her with her (<i>i.e.</i> charge Lady Frances
-with Lady Jane), who promiseth you, not only to be ready
-at all times to account for the ordering of your dear niece
-[Lady Jane], but also to use your counsel and advice on
-the bestowing of her, whensoever it shall happen. Wherefore,
-my good brother, my request shall be, that I may
-have the oversight of her with your good will and thereby
-shall have good occasion to think that you do trust me in
-such wise, as is convenient that a sister be trusted of so
-loving a brother. And thus my most hearty commendations
-not omitted, I wish the whole [or holy] deliverance of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151">151</a></span>
-your grief and continuance of your lordship’s health. From
-Bradgate, 19th of this September.&mdash;Your loving sister and
-assured friend,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-<span class="smcap">Frances Dorset</span>”<a id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">142</a>
-</p>
-
-<p>(Endorsed)</p>
-
-<p class="hang">“To the right Honourable and my very<br />
-good Lord, my Lord Admiral.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>It will be noted that the Lady Frances evinces a quite
-sisterly affection for the Lord Admiral, adopting him as her
-brother; and her daughter, therefore, was to be considered
-as his niece.</p>
-
-<p>After this correspondence, the Lady Jane was returned to
-Bradgate, whither she proceeded with a semi-regal escort
-consisting of not less than forty persons, including Mr. Rous
-or Rowse, controller of the Lord Admiral’s household, and
-Mr. John Harrington, afterwards prominent at Queen Elizabeth’s
-Court. On taking their leave of the young Princess,
-these gentlemen assured her that all the maids at Hanworth
-were expecting her back again. The wily Dorsets themselves
-had, indeed, made up their minds she should return, though
-in their heart of hearts they had something besides Lady
-Jane herself in view. It was somewhere about 20th September
-that Lady Jane arrived at Bradgate. On or about the 23rd
-of that month the Marquis and his spouse journeyed to
-London, where they met Sir William Sharington,<a id="FNanchor_143" href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">143</a> Seymour’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152">152</a></span>
-<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">âme damnée</i>, and the Lord High-Admiral himself. These
-gentlemen had a very secret business to discuss, the nature
-of which must now be described. The Dorsets, not then
-wealthy people, were deep in debt. Now Seymour was
-known to be rich, for, in addition to his own fortune, he
-had just inherited that of the Queen, and, so far, his brother
-had given no signs of any intention of confiscating it. The
-Dorsets, therefore, intimated to Sharington that he would do
-well to make Sudeley understand that if he desired to renew
-his guardianship of the Lady Jane, he must agree to give her
-parents £2000, £500 to be paid down at once, on account. It
-should be here remarked that Sudeley, by voluntarily relinquishing
-the care of the Lady Jane Grey, had given up his
-guardianship, which, by the custom of those times, gave him
-more than parental rights over her. It was his desire to renew
-his official charge that enabled the Dorsets to make this extraordinary
-proposal to sell him their child for what in those
-days was considered a large sum of money. When the game
-was up and Sudeley in prison, the Dorsets threw the blame
-of this transaction on everybody but themselves. The Lord
-Admiral, asserted Lady Jane’s father in his deposition before
-the Privy Council, “was so earnestly in hand with me and
-my wife, the Lady Frances, that in the end, because he would
-have no nay, we were content that Jane should return to his
-house.” Indeed, Sudeley, not content to treat so important
-a matter only through the medium of Sharington, himself
-appeared at Dorset’s town house and interviewed the Marquis,
-who admitted in the above-mentioned deposition that, “At
-this very time and place he renewed his promise unto me for
-the marrying of my daughter to the King’s Majesty, and he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153">153</a></span>
-added, ‘If I may get the King at liberty, I dare warrant you
-His Majesty will marry no other than Jane.’”</p>
-
-<p>Whilst Sudeley was thus pretending, if nothing more,
-that he was able to marry Jane to the King, could he but get
-possession of her, the Marquis of Dorset was inditing a letter
-to the Lord Protector which contained a passage referring to
-some negotiations he was conducting with His Highness for
-the marriage of Lady Jane to the Earl of Hertford, Somerset’s
-eldest son! “Item, for the maryage of your graces sune to
-be had with my doghter Jane, I thynk hyt not met [meet]
-to be wrytyn, but I shall at all tymes avouche my sayng.”
-Dorset’s cunning must have nearly matched Sudeley’s!
-Young Hertford was the lad mentioned in the papers of the
-time of Queen Mary as “contracted” to Lady Jane Grey:
-in later years he married her sister Katherine. Jane probably
-made his acquaintance in her childish days, when the Seymours
-lived at Whitehall and she was in residence at the “Bluff
-King’s” Court under the wing of Katherine Parr. Hertford
-was also one of the band of young noblemen selected as companions
-for Prince Edward under the tutelage of the learned
-Dr. Cheke; and probably had many a romp with Jane, then a
-merry little girl. Later on he paid one or two visits to Bradgate,
-the Lady Frances conceiving such a strong affection for
-him that she was wont to call him her son. Here again the
-young people must have been much together, and their
-childish friendship may have inspired the Marquis of Dorset
-with the idea of uniting them in marriage. However that
-may be, he certainly got as far as corresponding with Somerset&mdash;though
-in the profoundest secrecy&mdash;about the matter.
-Was his caution due to a fear of displeasing Sudeley?
-What is more than probable is that the Lord Admiral got
-wind of the scheme, and that his desire to get Jane away
-from her father and his own brother and nephew was at the
-bottom of his readiness to pay so heavy a price to resume her
-guardianship, for which object he used the likelihood of her
-marriage with the King as a bait to catch the Marquis&mdash;who
-was eventually “jockeyed” by both the Seymours, for no
-marriage with either the King or Hertford ever took place.</p>
-
-<p>Whilst Seymour was personally negotiating with the
-Marquis, the task of persuading the Marchioness fell to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154">154</a></span>
-Sharington. “Sir William [Sharington] travailed as earnestly
-with my wife,” says Dorset, “to gain her good-will for the
-return of our daughter to Lord Thomas Seymour as he [probably
-Seymour is meant in this case] did with me; so as in
-the end, after long debating and ‘much sticking of our sides,’
-we did agree that my daughter Jane should return to him.”<a id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">144</a></p>
-
-<p>Their bargain with the Admiral struck, the Dorsets hurried
-back to Bradgate, whence they incited the dispatch of the
-following ingenuous <span class="locked">letter:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p class="hang">“To the Right Honourable and my singular<br />
-good lord, the Lord Admiral.</p>
-
-<p>“My duty to your lordship, in most humble wise remembered,
-with no less thanks for the gentle letters which I received
-from you. Thinking myself so much bound to your lordship
-for your great goodness towards me from time to time, that I
-cannot by any means be able to recompense the least part
-thereof, I purpose to write a few rude lines to your lordship,
-rather as a token to show how much worthier I think your
-lordship’s goodness, than to give worthy thanks for the same,
-and these my letters will be to testify unto you that, like as
-you have been unto me a loving and kind father, so I shall be
-always most ready to obey your godly monitions and good
-instructions, as becometh one upon whom you have heaped so
-many benefits. And thus fearing I should trouble your lordship
-too much, I most humbly take leave of your lordship.&mdash;Your
-most humble servant during my life,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-“<span class="smcap">Jane Graye</span>”
-</p>
-
-<p>(Endorsed)</p>
-
-<p>“My Lady Jane, the 1st of Oct. 1548.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>With this letter the Lady Frances sent Sudeley another, in
-which she again calls him her “very good lord and brother”:
-Jane considers him as “a loving and kind father,” and her
-mother signs herself, “Your assured and loving sister, Frances
-Dorset”&mdash;most friendly!</p>
-
-<p>It was near Michaelmas when the Lord Admiral, with a
-numerous retinue, including several ladies, arrived at Bradgate<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155">155</a></span>
-to carry the girl back with him to Hanworth. Traces of his
-return journey may be found in papers preserved in the Public
-Library at Leicester, which inform us that “beer, cold meat,
-and ale was provided by the Mayor for my Lady Jane and
-her escort, proceeding from Bradgate with the Lord Thomas
-Seymour, to London.” Sudeley brought the £500 with him
-and gave it to the father who, for the sake of filthy lucre, had
-not scrupled to hand over his young daughter to a notorious
-profligate. Thomas treated the matter jovially, saying
-“merrily” he would take no receipt for the money, for “the
-Lady Jane herself was in pledge of that”; the Marquis, on
-the other hand, sought to endue the affair with a more respectable
-appearance by declaring the cash was “as it wer
-for an ernst peny of the favour that he [Sudeley] wold shewe
-unto him [Dorset].” To our eyes, there is, and can be, but
-one redeeming feature in the whole of this sordid transaction&mdash;the
-fact, proved by sufficient evidence, that Lady Jane Grey
-whilst under the Lord Admiral’s roof was treated not only
-with respect, but with much kindness, and that, even allowing
-for the fact that letters such as that already quoted were
-inspired by her parents, she seems to have been genuinely
-attached to both Sudeley and his mother.</p>
-
-<p>Had Thomas Seymour contented himself with achieving
-eminence in any one legitimate direction&mdash;the Navy, for instance&mdash;he
-might have succeeded in winning both fame and
-honour. But he lacked the clearness of judgment and power
-of reticence necessary to carry any one of his more nefarious
-schemes to completion, and so ended in pitiable failure. Whilst
-his brother was away fighting in Scotland, he had striven,
-and with some success, to ingratiate himself with the young
-King. To this end, as we have seen, he lent him various sums
-of money. He seized every opportunity of belittling and
-even calumniating his brother, the Protector, openly accusing
-him of conspiring against Edward’s liberty, all of which the
-poor little King was only too eager to believe; for Somerset,
-with his puritanic views, had not made the boy’s existence
-very pleasant to him, persistently treating him as a little old
-man, and suppressing all those amusements and sports which
-lads, even sickly lads, love so dearly. It is said that, on one
-occasion, when he came upon the King and Barney Fitzpatrick<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156">156</a></span>
-playing cards, he seized them in a fury and threw
-them into the fire. He had striven, in a word, to make Edward
-look at life as he saw it himself, through smoked Calvinistic
-glasses that robbed it of all brightness.</p>
-
-<p>The Duchess of Feria relates that Queen Mary once told
-her Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> had confessed to her that he was very tired of
-sermons&mdash;not to be wondered at, since the poor child had to
-hear one at least daily on some dogmatic controversy or other,
-and these dull homilies often lasted a good two hours. In
-fact, the royal lad was bored and “prayed” to death. For
-more than a year after his accession to the throne he was
-compelled to hear a daily Mass, celebrated according to the
-old rites but with the Epistle and Gospel said in English.
-Interpolated into this Latin service was the inevitable lengthy
-sermon preached by men well known for their Reforming
-zeal, such as Canon William Barlow of St. Osyth’s, in Essex,
-who became Bishop of Chichester in Elizabeth’s reign; Dr.
-John Taylor; Dr. Redman, a violent opponent of the doctrine
-of Transubstantiation; Dr. Thomas Becken; Dr. Giles Ayre,
-a bitter enemy of Gardiner; and the extremely Protestant
-Dr. Latimer. John Knox, who came to London in 1551, also
-preached before the King; but by that time the Mass had been
-replaced by the services of the first Book of Common Prayer.
-Knox was in a very bad temper with the Protector at the time
-of his visit, and accused him of paying more attention to the
-building of his new house in the Strand than to his (Knox’s)
-sermons. As time went on, poor Edward had to listen to controversies
-in which Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury,
-Ridley, Bishop of Rochester, and “that most zealous Papist,”
-Heath, Bishop of Worcester (afterwards, under Mary, Archbishop
-of York), “debated and disputed” on such grave
-subjects as Transubstantiation, the Intercession of Saints,
-Worship of the Virgin, Prayers for the Dead, Purgatory,
-etc., and attend sermons preached in the courtyard of Whitehall
-Palace, where Gardiner delivered his last discourse on
-papal supremacy, which sent him to the Tower. Contemporary
-evidence shows exactly how the audience was grouped
-round the improvised rostrum built close to the walls of the
-palace, so that the King might hear the preacher from an
-open window, where he generally sat, notebook in hand, in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157">157</a></span>
-company of the Lord Protector, and of Dr. John Cheke, his
-tutor. Aged people of both sexes were ranged on benches
-close to the palace, whilst the general congregation, standing,
-filled up the courtyard. The learned Nicholas Udall often sat
-at a desk under the pulpit, taking shorthand notes of the sermon,
-and by his means many of the more notable of these orations
-have been preserved to this day. John Knox preached his
-last sermon before Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> from the pulpit at Whitehall
-Palace. At many, if not at most, of these pious exercises
-Lady Jane Grey, her mother and sister must have assisted,
-for it was expected that all the great ladies of the Court
-should attend; and consequently, in one or two old engravings
-of these interesting functions, we behold them, wearing
-their “froze pastes” or coifs, seated in rows, looking exceedingly
-sanctimonious, not to say bored. There are numbers
-of young children among them, one or two of whom have
-evidently fallen into a deep sleep.</p>
-
-<p>Edward, extremely delicate from his birth, slightly deformed,
-with one shoulder-blade higher than the other, weak
-eyes, and occasional attacks of deafness, suffered terribly, we
-are told, from headaches, a fact which causes little surprise,
-considering the number of sermons he was forced to attend.
-The Lord Admiral, during the brief time he held the King’s
-favour, altered all this. The sermons were reduced, the
-sports and pastimes multiplied. No wonder, then, that of
-his two uncles Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> preferred Thomas to Edward!</p>
-
-<p>Hardly was Lady Jane installed at Seymour Place, whither
-she was removed from Hanworth as soon as the weather grew
-cold, than her guardian set himself to weave not one but half
-a dozen fresh intrigues. Once more he planned to marry the
-Princess Elizabeth, or, failing her, a little later on, his young
-ward, Lady Jane. He even endeavoured to open a fresh
-correspondence with the Princess, and met with some success;
-but the astute damsel made him a very politic response. However
-impressed she may have been by the Admiral’s good
-looks, she was well aware that he had compromised her once,
-and was resolved there should be no second edition of the
-Chelsea business. Yet she had the imprudence to send his
-Lordship letters through her servants, and, thus encouraged,
-the Admiral began to make minute inquiries as to her fortune<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158">158</a></span>
-and the management of her affairs. He also endeavoured
-to find out the amount of the fortunes owned by Lady Jane
-Grey and Princess Mary, and, in short, of all the marriageable
-ladies of the royal family, not excluding Anne of Cleves. A
-report of these inquiries coming to the knowledge of John
-Russell, the Lord Privy Seal, that functionary thought it his
-duty to look into the matter, and seized an opportunity when
-riding with the Admiral through the streets of London to
-ask him his object point-blank. As they rode past Westminster
-Hall, Russell turned to Seymour, saying, “My Lord
-Admiral, there are certain rumours bruited of you which I
-am very sorry to hear.”</p>
-
-<p>“What rumours?” demanded Seymour.</p>
-
-<p>“I have been informed,” replied Russell, “that you mean
-to marry either the Lady Mary or the Lady Elizabeth, or
-else the Lady Jane.”</p>
-
-<p>Sudeley remained silent, and his interlocutor proceeded:
-“My Lord, if ye go about any such thing, ye seek the means
-to undo yourself, and all those that shall come of you.”</p>
-
-<p>Sudeley, shaking his head, denied ever having had any
-such intention; he “had no thought of such an enterprise.”
-And so, for the time being, the conversation dropped. But a
-few days later, when the Lord Admiral was again riding with
-his Lordship, he said to Russell, “Father Russell, you are
-very suspicious of me; I pray you tell me who showed you
-of the marriage that I should attempt, whereof ye brake
-with me the other day.”</p>
-
-<p>Russell answered, “I will not tell you the authors of the
-tale, but they be your very good friends”; and he advised
-Seymour “to make no suit of marriage that way”&mdash;meaning
-with Elizabeth or Mary, or eventually with Lady Jane.</p>
-
-<p>Nothing daunted, Seymour replied, “It is convenient for
-them to marry, and better it were that they were married
-within the realm than in any foreign place without the
-realm; and why might not I, or another man raised by
-the King their father, marry one of them?”&mdash;in allusion
-to the fact that Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> had passed a law legalising the
-marriage of a Princess of the Blood with a subject.</p>
-
-<p>Russell warned him honestly, “My Lord, if either you, or
-any other within this realm, shall match himself in marriage<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159">159</a></span>
-either with my Lady Mary or my Lady Elizabeth, he shall
-undoubtedly, whatsoever he be, procure unto himself the
-occasion of his undoing, and you especially, above all others,
-being of so near alliance to the King’s Majesty.” Then,
-bearing in mind the Lord Admiral’s love of money, Lord
-Russell straightway asked, “And I pray you, what shall
-you have with either of them?”</p>
-
-<p>Here Seymour was on his own ground: “He who marries
-one of them shall,” he said, “have three thousand pounds
-a year.”</p>
-
-<p>“My Lord,” responded Russell, “it is not so, for ye may
-be well assured that he shall have no more than ten thousand
-pounds in money, plate, and goods, and no lands; and what
-is that to maintain his charges and estates who matches
-himself there?”</p>
-
-<p>“They must have three thousand pounds a year also,”
-said the Lord of Sudeley.</p>
-
-<p>Thereupon Russell lost his temper, and with some strong
-expressions retorted “they should <em>not</em>.”</p>
-
-<p>Seymour, likewise with an oath, asserted “that they
-<em>should</em>, and that none should dare to say nay to it.”</p>
-
-<p>Russell answered that he, at least, dared “say nay” to
-the Lord Admiral’s greed, “for it was clean against the King’s
-will.” And so they parted.</p>
-
-<p>These inquiries about the royal ladies’ fortunes became
-known to the Protector, possibly through Russell, and thus
-the whole intrigue was brought to light.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane at Seymour Place and in the possession of the
-Lord Admiral was already a stumbling-block in the way of
-Somerset’s own matrimonial schemes for his own son, and
-the discovery of the underhand manner in which Thomas
-had endeavoured to supplant him in the King’s affections
-goaded the elder man to fury. But Sudeley had grown
-reckless, and he openly defied his all-powerful brother, and
-vaunted his determination to oust him at any cost from his
-high seat.<a id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">145</a> He boldly set about ingratiating himself with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160">160</a></span>
-the yeoman class, which was embittered against Somerset on
-account of his exactions; and Dorset, now his willing tool,
-also strove to secure a following among the farmers and
-gentlemen, on bad terms with the existing Government. The
-ladies of the Court, who hated the arrogant Duchess of Somerset,
-were flattered into a friendly feeling for the Lord Admiral
-and what he was pleased to consider his just cause. To keep
-up his influence, he had secretly bought over a hundred manors
-and stewardships, and he had arranged with his scoundrelly
-friend, Sharington&mdash;who, to save his skin, turned traitor&mdash;to
-secure sufficient ammunition and arms to store Holt Castle, to
-which fortress he intended to convey the King. Thanks to
-this man’s frauds on the Bristol Mint, my Lord of Sudeley
-got together money enough to raise an army of 10,000 men.
-In addition to all this, he was in league with no less than four
-distinct gangs of pirates or privateers, and had established
-a sort of dépôt for stolen property in the Scilly Isles, whither
-the cargoes of sea-plundered vessels were taken to await
-removal to London. Here, then, was an array of crimes and
-treasons enough to hang any man, even if he was the Lord
-Protector’s brother! One fatal day Thomas made the
-egregious mistake of approaching Wriothesley on the subject
-of obtaining the Protectorship. He told him Dorset and
-Pembroke were on his side. “Beware what you are doing,”
-replied Wriothesley gravely; “it were better for you if you
-had never been born, nay that you were burnt quick alive,
-than that you should attempt it.” Sudeley, somewhat
-dashed by this rebuff, next sought the Earl of Rutland, and
-spoke to him in much the same impudent and imprudent
-fashion. Rutland, when his visitor departed, went straight
-to Wriothesley and told him what he had learnt. Both
-agreed to reveal all they knew of the conspiracy to the Council.
-Several meetings were held to inquire into the matter; and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161">161</a></span>
-at length Somerset summoned his brother to appear before
-him. Sudeley sent a flat refusal. Early in the forenoon of
-17th January 1549 Sir Thomas Smith and Sir John Baker
-proceeded to Seymour Place, and there arrested the Lord
-Admiral, who was conveyed by water to the Tower, after a
-passionate leave-taking with his aged mother.<a id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">146</a></p>
-
-<p>To Lady Jane the trial and subsequent execution of her
-guardian must have been a matter of intense and painful
-interest. She was still his guest at Seymour Place when he
-was arrested, and she must have witnessed the tragic parting
-of the unhappy mother from the son so remorselessly torn
-from her aged arms to meet his doom. Whatever his crimes
-and faults, the Lord of Sudeley had been a good son, and the
-old Lady Seymour mourned him deeply till she died of her
-sorrows, on 18th October in the following year. She was
-buried with scant pomp. The King, her grandson, and his
-Court did not even put on the customary mourning, on the
-plea that black gowns did not really signify respect to the
-dead, who were best remembered in the hearts and prayers
-of those who survived them&mdash;certainly not a popular or
-contemporary belief, for on the day following Lady Seymour’s
-death two State funerals were celebrated with all those honours
-which were denied to the remains of the grandmother of the
-reigning sovereign. There was probably a political motive
-at the back of this want of respect, which may perhaps be
-ascribed to the evil influence of Warwick, who, in his desire
-to humiliate the Somersets, refused the honours due to the
-corpse of the Protector’s mother.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile, the destruction of Thomas Seymour was being
-prepared with skill and secrecy. Whilst the foredoomed
-Admiral had been boasting all over London of his immense
-influence, his foes, now that he was in their power, subtly
-compassed his ruin by buying witnesses against him and
-securing the goodwill of his numerous and venomous enemies.
-They had long been spreading a rumour that he had poisoned
-the late Queen Katherine in order to make an even higher
-alliance with one or other of the heiresses to the throne. His<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162">162</a></span>
-scandalous proceedings with regard to the Princess Elizabeth
-at Chelsea and Hanworth, and the unbecoming manner in
-which he had regained possession of Lady Jane, were brought
-up against him. Lady Tyrwhitt, one of the bedchamber
-ladies of the late Queen his wife, was called to give certain
-damaging evidence, pointing to a strong suspicion that
-Seymour had not only been most unkind to the deceased
-lady, but had actually poisoned her food during the last few
-days of her life, and set up the fever which carried her off
-within a week of her child’s birth. Lord Latimer stated that
-Seymour, when Queen Katherine had prayers said in his
-house morning and afternoon according to the order of the
-Reformed Church, would get out of the way, and swear on
-his oath that “The Book of Common Prayer was not God’s
-work at all.” There was a merciless raking up of misdeeds,
-true or false, of the man’s earliest youth&mdash;as, for instance,
-“that, in 1540, a woman who was executed for robbery and
-child-murder had declared that the beginning of her evil life
-was due to her having been seduced and desolated by Lord
-Thomas Seymour.” The Dorsets were summoned from Bradgate
-to give evidence in the matter of the wardship of their
-daughter, and other witnesses were fetched from different
-parts of the kingdom to give damaging testimony.<a id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">147</a></p>
-
-<p>During, though not at, Seymour’s trial, Elizabeth was
-subjected to a private inquiry at Hatfield, and personally
-asked whether Mrs. Ashley had encouraged her to marry the
-Admiral. This she declared she had never done, adding that
-she did not believe Mrs. Ashley had said the things attributed
-to her. The Princess also wrote the Lord Protector a letter,
-dated from her house at Hatfield, saying she had learned
-that vile rumours regarding her chastity were in circulation,
-and that people had even gone so far as to spread abroad that
-she was confined in the Tower, being with child by the Lord
-Admiral. The story, she protested, was an outrageous slander,
-and she demanded that she might be allowed to proceed to
-Court to disprove these evil reports. On this momentous
-occasion, Elizabeth, considering her youth, displayed no
-small amount of sagacity and also of that leonine spirit for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163">163</a></span>
-which she was afterwards celebrated. When confronted,
-however, with Mrs. Ashley’s written evidence, she blushed to
-the roots of her hair, and, abashed and breathless, returned
-the letter with trembling hands to her inquisitors.
-Curiously enough, Elizabeth does not seem to have resented
-Mrs. Ashley’s outspoken condemnation of her conduct with
-the Lord Admiral. On the contrary, hearing of her arrest,
-she set to work to save her from the clutches of the law,
-declaring the lady had been in her service many years, and
-had exerted herself diligently to bring her up in learning
-and honesty.</p>
-
-<p>Elizabeth told Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, who was sent by the
-Council to examine her on the subject of her intimacy with
-the Lord High-Admiral, “that voices, she knew, went about
-London that my Lord High-Admiral” should marry her, but
-added, with a smile, “It is but London news”&mdash;evidently
-London was as much a centre of gossip in those days as now.
-A little later she asserted that “she did not wish to marry
-him, for she who had had him [meaning Katherine Parr] was
-so unfortunate.”</p>
-
-<p>It would appear that Lady Browne (Surrey’s “fair Geraldine”)
-was also a friend of Seymour’s, and that he went to
-her and asked her to break up her household and come to
-stay with the Princess Elizabeth, so that she might keep him
-posted as to what was going on in that Princess’s circle. This
-the lady had agreed to do, but she was prevented by the
-sudden illness and death of her old husband, the famous
-Master of the Horse, Sir Anthony Browne. Parry, Elizabeth’s
-comptroller, seems also to have favoured the Lord Admiral,
-although it was mainly owing to him that the revelations
-concerning his mistress’s conduct with Seymour were made
-public. On one occasion, when Parry was advising the
-Admiral to leave off his attempt to court the Princess, he
-replied that “it mattered little, for, see you, there has been a
-talk of late that I should marry the Lady Jane,” adding, “I
-tell you this merrily&mdash;I tell you this merrily.”</p>
-
-<p>As for the said Admiral, all the world now turned against
-him, excepting the late Queen’s brother, the Marquis of Northampton,
-his other brother-in-law, Lord Herbert, and his
-deceased wife’s two cousins, the Throckmortons, one of whom<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164">164</a></span>
-wrote the following homely lines on the wretched man’s
-piteous <span class="locked">plight:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Thus guiltless he through malice went to pot,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Not answering for himself, not knowing cause.”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>No better proof can possibly be quoted in his favour, so
-far as the accusation of his having murdered Katherine Parr
-is concerned, than the fact that his wife’s closest connections
-remained his only friends in his trouble.</p>
-
-<p>Still Thomas Seymour stood out boldly for his innocence.
-He did not deny his flirtation with Elizabeth; it was a mere
-romp between a man and a child, with no harm in it beyond
-such as his enemies chose to impute. But the poor man’s
-foes proved too much for him, and on 23rd February he was
-brought face to face with his accusers, and condemned by the
-Council without hearing or defence. The King, his nephew,
-seems to have made some effort to save him, but the Council
-forced the boy to sign the fatal warrant, which he delivered
-with a trembling hand, the tears standing in his eyes, and
-this despite the fact that the reference to Seymour’s death in
-the King’s <cite>Journal</cite> contains not a word of regret. Seymour
-had done him, personally, no great ill, and appears to have
-shown him kindness on more than one occasion. Cranmer,
-who ever ran with the hare and hunted with the hounds,
-hastened to affix his signature to the document ordering the
-Admiral’s execution, and this, as Hume observes, “in contravention
-of the Canon Law, and in sheer spite.” The Bishop of
-Ely informed Seymour that his earthly life was shortly to be
-ended, and a Catholic priest was sent to confess him; but he is
-said to have refused these ministrations, as well as those of a
-Protestant clergyman. He contrived, according to Latimer,
-to write letters to the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth denying
-the accusations against him, which letters he hid between the
-leather of one of his servants’ shoe-soles. Suspected of serving
-his master too well, the poor faithful creature was arrested,
-the letters discovered, and the unfortunate man hanged without
-trial.</p>
-
-<p>Without entering into any controversy as to the magnitude
-of Thomas Seymour’s guilt, it may be admitted, in fairness to
-his brother of Somerset, that, if the misdemeanours of a personal<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165">165</a></span>
-character attributed to Sudeley rest on the gossiping evidence
-of women, the graver charges of collecting stores of arms,
-raising an army to strike a blow against his brother, and
-unscrupulously attempting to obtain funds even through
-pirates and notorious swindlers, do in a measure justify the
-severity of his punishment and excuse the infliction of an
-apparently unnatural and fratricidal sentence of death.
-Somerset, with all his faults, had a high sense of justice and
-of the responsibility of his exalted office. His brother had
-offended not only as an ordinary subject of the realm, but as
-a trusted servant of the nation, and his treason and unscrupulous
-abuse of his position were beyond all pardon.
-The voice of nature was stifled in the heart of the statesman,
-and thus the Duke, with a tolerably clear conscience, signed a
-death-warrant which must at the time have cost him a pang
-of horror and which has since branded him as a merciless
-fratricide.<a id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">148</a></p>
-
-<p>The Lord of Sudeley’s rage against the Council, his
-brother, and his enemies in general, when he heard himself
-condemned, knew no bounds and admitted of no Christian
-forgiveness or resignation. He cursed them one and all with
-every terrible oath his tongue could utter. He was beheaded
-on Tower Hill on 20th March 1549, six months and some days
-after the death of Queen Katherine Parr. His demeanour on
-the scaffold caused great scandal: he refused to listen to the
-pastor deputed to minister to him, and the attendants had
-much difficulty in forcing him to kneel to receive the fatal
-stroke. He wrestled hard with the executioner, who, being a
-strong man, hurled him down on the scaffold and struck off his
-head at last, after a cruel hacking, due to his desperate struggles.</p>
-
-<p>For nearly a week after the death of the Admiral, Lady<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166">166</a></span>
-Jane remained alone with her attendants in the desolate house
-in the Strand. Then her father, Lord Dorset, came to London
-to take her back with him to Bradgate.</p>
-
-<p>On the Sunday after the execution, Hugh Latimer preached
-a sermon at Paul’s Cross which for bitterness and uncharitableness
-has never been surpassed. “This I say,” he remarked,
-“if they ask me what I think of the Lord Admiral’s death,
-that he died very dangerously, irksomely, and horribly.”
-“He shall be to me,” he furiously exclaimed, “Lot’s wife as
-long as I live. He was a covetous man&mdash;a horrible covetous
-man. I would there were no mo’ in England. He was an
-ambitious man. I would there were no mo’ in England.
-He was a seditious man&mdash;a contemner of the Common
-Prayer. I would there were no mo’ in England. He is gone.
-I would he had left none behind him.”</p>
-
-<p>The worst charge that posterity can bring against Somerset
-is not that he signed his brother’s death-warrant, but
-that he seized the dead man’s estates and even his wearing
-apparel, and despoiled his orphaned child, the infant daughter
-of Katherine Parr.<a id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">149</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167">167</a></span>
-Princess Elizabeth learnt the death of the courtier she
-“loved most” with a composure singular for so young a
-lady, simply remarking that he was over clever&mdash;“a man of
-the greatest wit and the least judgment.”</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168">168</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE EDUCATION OF LADY JANE</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> extraordinary revival of letters in Italy, France,
-and Germany at the close of the fifteenth century
-did not fail to influence English education, and
-especially that of high-born women. In this department
-the exclusively classical culture then in vogue, which barred
-many subjects now held of far greater importance, would
-undoubtedly be deemed unpractical and excessive for women
-nowadays. Modern literature, however, was then in its
-infancy, and apart from the classics there was little to read
-but crude if noble poetry, and some historical, theological,
-and legendary works of a very primitive sort. These soon
-palled, whereas, to the cultured mind, the classic authors
-presented, then as now, an ever-varying and delightful fund
-of information and amusement. Science, in the modern
-acceptation of the word, was in its infancy, and, in the opinion
-of the most learned persons of the day, the secrets of theology
-and Nature, and those of art as well, were embodied in the
-works of the ancients, and above all in the Holy Scriptures.
-A knowledge of Greek and Latin was thus supposed to give
-the key to all science. It was the fashion, too, for princesses
-and women of noble birth to be, or to pose as being, learned;
-and notwithstanding the political and religious convulsions
-of the reign of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, a number of English ladies of the
-highest rank, following the example of their French and
-Italian sisters, devoted their leisure to studies usually left
-nowadays to that class of pedantic females whom we somewhat
-scornfully dub “blue-stockings.” This practice was
-not confined to women who had embraced the Reformed
-tenets. Many Catholics,&mdash;the daughter of Sir Thomas More
-and her learned friend, Margaret Clement, for instance,&mdash;deeply<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169">169</a></span>
-versed in studies of this description, enjoyed the dialogues
-of Plato, and may have laughed over the scorching epigrams
-of Martial and the stinging satires of Juvenal in the original,
-and even recognised their applicability to the society of their
-own times. Most of the women who surrounded Lady Jane
-Grey were pedants, and even her shallow-hearted mother
-had presumably acquired a fair knowledge of classical
-literature.</p>
-
-<p>But it was not till the young girl returned to Bradgate,
-after the death of Thomas Seymour, that the system of
-“cramming,” which was to give her, at the age of seventeen,
-a reputation as a marvel of erudition, began in grim
-earnest.</p>
-
-<p>Dorset, who had been summoned to London to attend
-the trial of his quondam friend, the Admiral, as a witness
-against him, retired to Bradgate in some despondency after
-its fatal termination. He and his wife felt they had been
-wasting their time over Thomas Seymour; they were conscious,
-too, that they were living under a cloud, for the revelation
-of their pecuniary interest in the transfer of their
-daughter to so notorious a scamp had produced a most
-damaging impression on the public mind. But the failure
-of their plans had not quenched their ambition. They took
-their luckless child back with them, and straightway set about
-preparing her to occupy the towering position they felt assured
-she would sooner or later be called to fill.</p>
-
-<p>Her education was forthwith entrusted to the celebrated
-Aylmer, a native of Leicestershire, whom Elizabeth made
-Bishop of London, to reward him for his scathing answer to
-John Knox’s pamphlet, <em>The First Blast of the Trumpet against
-the Monstrous Regiment</em> [<i>i.e.</i> regimen = régime or government]
-<em>of Women</em>. Aylmer, at this time a good-looking man in his
-early thirties, was, so Bacon tells us, engaged as tutor to the
-daughters of the Marquis of Dorset at Bradgate. The new
-preceptor was in close correspondence with the Genevan
-Reformers, and it must have been through him that Jane
-became acquainted with the celebrated Bullinger and with
-John ab Ulmis, better known as Ulmer, a learned but destitute
-Swiss Calvinist, who visited Bradgate as early as the summer
-of 1550. He mastered the English language, and having been<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170">170</a></span>
-sent to pursue his studies at Oxford at the Marquis of Dorset’s
-expense, he spent his summer vacation at Bradgate, giving
-lessons in Greek and Latin to Lady Jane and her younger
-but less talented sister, Lady Katherine, and together with
-John Aylmer and Dr. Harding the Rector of Bradgate,
-superintended her classical and theological education. A
-somewhat crafty young man was Ulmer, skilled in the art of
-flattery, and much addicted to repaying solid benefits by
-empty compliments. He it was who urged Bullinger, his
-master, to dedicate his book, <cite>The Holy Marriage of Christians</cite>,
-to the Lord Marquis of Dorset, a rather venturesome act,
-seeing this nobleman was publicly credited with bigamy!<a id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">150</a>
-Bullinger also presented the Marquis and the Lady Jane
-with a copy of his book, dedicated to Henry <span class="smcap smaller">II</span> of France, on
-Christian Perfection, for which the latter wrote to thank him
-in her father’s name on 12th July 1551. Her epistle is written
-in Latin, and may have been suggested and even edited
-by Aylmer: it also contains a Biblical quotation in Hebrew.
-The following extract from it gives a fair idea of how this
-child of fourteen addressed one of the most learned men of
-his <span class="locked">time:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171">171</a></span></p><blockquote>
-
-<p>“From that little volume of pure and unsophisticated
-religion, which you lately sent to my father and myself, I
-gather daily, as out of a most beautiful garden, the sweetest
-flowers. My father also, as far as his weighty engagements
-permit, is diligently occupied in the perusal of it: but whatever
-advantage either of us may derive from thence, we are
-bound to render thanks to you for it, and to God on your
-account; for we cannot think it right to receive with ungrateful
-minds such and so many truly divine benefits, conferred by
-Almighty God through the instrumentality of yourself and
-those like you, not a few of whom Germany is now in this
-respect so happy as to possess. If it be customary with
-mankind, as indeed it ought to be, to return favour for favour,
-and to show ourselves mindful of benefits bestowed; how
-much rather should we endeavour to embrace with joyfulness
-the benefits conferred by divine goodness, and at least to
-acknowledge them with gratitude, though we may be unable
-to make an adequate return!</p>
-
-<p>“I come now to that part of your letter,” continues Lady
-Jane, “which contains a commendation of myself, which as
-I cannot claim, so also I ought not to allow; but whatever
-the Divine Goodness may have bestowed on me, I ascribe
-only to Himself, as the chief and sole author of anything in
-me that bears any semblance to what is good; and to Whom
-I entreat you, most accomplished sir, to offer your constant
-prayers in my behalf, that He may so direct me and all my
-actions, that I may not be found unworthy of His so great
-goodness. My most noble father would have written to you,
-to thank you both for the important labours in which you
-are engaged, and also for the singular courtesy you have
-manifested by inscribing with his name and publishing under
-his auspices your Fifth Decade, had he not been summoned
-by most weighty business in His Majesty’s service to the
-remotest parts of Britain; but as soon as public affairs afford
-him leisure he is determined, he says, to write to you with all
-diligence.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Here follows an urgent request for a scheme for the study
-of the Hebrew language. She <span class="locked">concludes:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172">172</a></span></p><blockquote>
-
-<p>“Farewell, brightest ornament and support of the whole
-Church of Christ; and may Almighty God long preserve you
-to us and to His Church!&mdash;Your most devoted</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-“<span class="smcap">Jana Graia</span>”<a id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">151</a>
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Besides these visitors, the Lady Frances appears to have
-been the friend and patroness of a learned Protestant, Nicholas
-Udall, the famous stenographer. She was even guardian to
-his daughter, for a letter from her to Cecil still preserved at
-Hatfield begs she may be relieved of this responsibility, as
-the young lady is about to be married.</p>
-
-<p>Late in the autumn of 1549, within six months of Seymour’s
-execution, the celebrated Roger Ascham came on a visit to
-Bradgate. He too has been described as tutor to Lady Jane,
-but this is a mistake; he was preceptor to the Princess Elizabeth.
-As one of the leading lights of his time, he was already
-well known to the Marquis of Dorset, and passing through
-the neighbourhood on his way to attend Rutland and Morysone
-on an embassy to Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>, conceived it his duty to pay his
-respects to the great man’s family.</p>
-
-<p>Walking through the beautiful park at Bradgate, on his
-way to the Hall, the visitor came upon the Marquis and his
-lady, with all their household, out hunting. When the cavalcade
-halted to greet him, Ascham inquired for the Lady Jane,
-and was told she was at home in her own chamber. He begged
-leave to wait upon her, a favour readily granted, and found
-her in her closet “reading the <cite>Phædon</cite> of Plato in Greek,
-with as much delight as gentlemen read the merry tales of
-Boccacio.” Much surprised, he asked the young student
-“why she relinquished such pastime as was then going on in
-the park for the sake of study?”</p>
-
-<p>With a smile, Jane replied, “I think all their sport in the
-park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in Plato. Alas!
-good folk, they never felt what true pleasure means.”</p>
-
-<p>“And how attained you, madam,” inquired Ascham, “to
-this true knowledge of pleasure? And what did chiefly allure
-you to it, seeing that few women and not many men have
-arrived at it?”</p>
-
-<div id="ip_172" class="figcenter" style="width: 492px;">
- <img src="images/i_172.jpg" width="492" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>ROGER ASCHAM’S VISIT TO LADY JANE GREY AT BRADGATE</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">AFTER THE PAINTING BY J.&nbsp;C. HORSLEY, R.A.</p></div></div>
-
-<p>“I will tell you,” replied Lady Jane, “and tell you a truth
-which perchance you may marvel at. One of the greatest<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173">173</a></span>
-benefits that God ever gave me, is that He sent me, with sharp,
-severe parents, so gentle a schoolmaster [Aylmer]. When I
-am in presence of either father or mother, whether I speak,
-keep silent, sit, stand or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be
-sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it,
-as it were in such weight, measure and number, even as perfectly
-as God made the earth, or else I am so sharply taunted,
-so cruelly threatened, yea, presented sometimes with pinches,
-nips and bobs and other things, (which I will not name for the
-honour I bear them), so without measure misordered, that I
-think myself in Hell, till the time comes when I must go with
-Mr. Aylmer, who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, and
-with such pure allurements to learn, that I think all the time of
-nothing whilst I am with him [that is to say, “the time passes
-pleasantly when I am with him”]. And when I am called
-from him, I fall to weeping, because whatever I do else but
-learning is full of great trouble, fear, and wholesome misliking
-unto me. And this my book, hath been so much my pleasure,
-and bringing daily to me more pleasure and more, that in
-respect of it, all other pleasures in very deed be but trifles
-and troubles to me.”</p>
-
-<p>Poor solitary little girl! We of this matter-of-fact age
-can but feel more of pity than admiration, as down the
-long vista of four and a half centuries we picture her sitting
-alone, poring over the <cite>Phædon</cite>&mdash;dull reading, one would
-imagine, for a child, even to one so harried by the ill-temper
-of her weak father and her sharp-tongued mother, “whether
-she stood still or moved about, was merry or sad, sewed or
-played,” that she felt herself “in Hell” until Mr. Aylmer
-called her to her studies!</p>
-
-<p>Ascham’s story throws a very unpleasing sidelight on the
-conduct of Lady Jane Grey’s parents and their harsh treatment
-of the child, and proves, moreover, the sort of forcing system
-to which she was being subjected. Ascham tells us that he
-mentions this interesting interview, which he introduces into
-his <cite>Schoolmaster</cite>, because it was the last time he ever saw
-“that sweet and illustrious lady,” and also as a protest against
-the exceeding severity of the teaching of those times. It is
-curious to note, as her historian, Howard, observes, that whilst
-her parents were handling her like a froward child, this extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174">174</a></span>
-young lady was in active correspondence with such
-famous men as Ascham, Conrad Pellican, Bullinger, and
-Sturmius, who all treated her with the respect due to a grown-up
-woman of uncommon sagacity and experience. The only
-explanation of this fact is the supposition that these worthies,
-foreseeing Lady Jane might possibly occupy the throne,
-and anxious to promote the cause of the Reformation in every
-possible way, may have placed her on a higher pedestal than
-her immature talents deserved. They certainly flattered her
-father, of whom they spoke and wrote as being well-nigh
-apostolic in zeal and sanctity, and a marvel of light and learning
-to boot.</p>
-
-<p>At the age of fourteen, then, Lady Jane was fairly conversant
-with Latin and Greek,<a id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">152</a> and with or without the aid of a dictionary
-managed to derive some entertainment from Plato.
-But when we are told that she had mastered Hebrew, and at
-the age of seventeen was forming the acquaintance of “the
-tongue of Chaldea” and “the language of Arabia,” we are
-inclined, with Sir Harris Nicolas, to be sceptical. Her Greek
-and Latin may have been, and very likely were, thoroughly
-mastered. Several letters in these languages are attributed
-to her and are possibly of her own unaided composition, but
-even in these we note that her style and phraseology in many
-cases closely resembles that of Demosthenes or Cicero, whom
-she evidently imitated. In one of her letters, written on 12th
-July 1551, to Henry Bullinger, she says, “I am beginning to
-learn the Hebrew tongue,” and asks him to give her a method
-whereby she may pursue her course of study in that language
-to the greatest advantage. Bullinger sent the plan, and in
-another letter she thanks him and says she will enter upon the
-study of the Hebrew language in the method which he so
-clearly directs. As this letter is dated July 1552, and her
-brief career ended in the following year, her proficiency in the
-language of the prophets was probably not very considerable.</p>
-
-<p>That poor Jane Grey was “crammed” there can be no
-question, and the wonder is her weak health did not collapse
-altogether under the strain. The figurehead of a party she
-was to be, however, and it was necessary that extravagant<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175">175</a></span>
-reports of her learning should be spread throughout her own
-country and among the Protestants in foreign lands.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey at this period, surrounded by learned men
-and women so much older than herself, appears strained, even
-artificial, but later, in her culminating misery, she displays a
-dignity, a sweetness of nature, and a pious sincerity which
-render her worthy of her fame. Her few compositions
-which have come down to us, most of them written during
-the last days of her life,&mdash;her prayer, for instance, the
-letter to her sisters, and the lines which, according to
-tradition, she scratched on the walls of her cell,&mdash;are full of
-feeling, and lead us to regret that so fine a nature should not
-have been spared to adorn mature womanhood as perfectly
-as its unaffected simplicity graced her short maidenhood.
-Yet there was a strain of obstinacy and even of coarseness in
-Jane’s character which leads one to think that after all she
-might, had she remained Queen, have displayed in later life
-many of the less pleasing peculiarities of her Tudor ancestors.</p>
-
-<p>A very curious letter, written to Lady Jane Grey by Ascham
-early in 1552, while he was still at the Court of Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>,
-throws considerable light on the subject of her studies; it
-has also led some authorities to imagine the learned man
-had actually fallen in love with his fair pupil. “In this my
-long peregrination, most illustrious lady,” says he, “I have
-travelled far, have visited the greatest cities, and have made
-the most diligent observations in my power on the manners of
-the nations, their institutions, laws, and regulations. Nevertheless,
-there is nothing that has raised in me greater admiration
-than what I found in regard to yourself during the last
-summer, to see one so young and lovely, even in the absence
-of her learned preceptor, in the noble hall of her family, in the
-very moment when her friends and relatives were enjoying
-the field sports, to find, I repeat&mdash;oh, all ye gods!&mdash;so divine
-a maid, diligently perusing the <cite>Phædon</cite> of Plato, in this more
-happy, it may be believed, than in her royal and noble
-lineage.</p>
-
-<p>“Go on thus, O best adorned virgin, to the honour of thy
-country, the delight of thy parents, the comfort of thy relatives,
-and the admiration of all. Oh, happy Aylmer! to have such a
-scholar, and to be her tutor. I congratulate both you who<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176">176</a></span>
-teach and she who learns. These were the words to myself,
-as to my reward for teaching the most illustrious Elizabeth.
-But to you too I can repeat them with more truth, to you I
-concede this felicity, even though I should have to lament
-want of success where I had expected to reap the sweetest fruits
-of my labours.</p>
-
-<p>“But let me constrain the sharpness of my grief which
-prudence makes it necessary I should conceal even to myself.
-This much I say, that I have no fault to find with the Lady
-Elizabeth, whom I have always found the best of ladies, nor
-indeed with the Lady Mary, but if ever I shall have the happiness
-to meet my friend Aylmer, then I shall repose in his bosom
-my sorrows abundantly.</p>
-
-<p>“Two things I repeat to thee, my friend Aylmer [Aylmer
-was evidently at Bradgate at this period], for I know thou wilt
-see this letter, that by your persuasion and entreaty the Lady
-Jane Grey, as early as she can conveniently, may write to me
-in Greek, which she had already promised to do. I have even
-written lately to John Sturmius, mentioning this promise.
-Pray let your letters and hers fly together to us. The distance
-is great, but John Hales will take care that it shall reach me.
-If she even were to write to Sturmius himself in Greek, neither
-you nor she would have cause to repent your labour. [The
-“neither you nor she” points clearly to collaboration.]</p>
-
-<p>“The other request is, my good Aylmer, that you would
-exert yourself so that we might conjointly preserve this mode
-of life among us. How freely, how sweetly, and philosophically
-then should we live! Why should we, my good Aylmer,
-less enjoy all these things, which Cicero, at the conclusion of
-the third book, <cite>De Finibus</cite>, describes as the only rational mode
-of life? Nothing in any tongue, nothing in any times, in
-human memory, either past or present, from which something
-may not be drawn to sweeten life!</p>
-
-<p>“As to the news here, most illustrious lady, I know not
-what to write. That which is written of stupid things, must
-itself be stupid, and, as Cicero complains of his times, there is
-little to amuse or that can be embellished. Besides, at present,
-all places and persons are occupied with rumours of wars and
-commotions, which, for the most part, are either mere fabrications
-or founded on no authority, so that anything respecting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177">177</a></span>
-Continental politics would neither be interesting nor useful
-to you.</p>
-
-<p>“The general Council of Trent is to sit on the first of May,”
-continues Jane’s correspondent, “Cardinal Pole, it is asserted,
-is to be the president. Besides there are the tumults this
-year in Africa, their preparation for a war against the Turks,
-and then the great expectation of the march of the Emperor
-into Austria, of which I shall, God willing, be a companion.
-Why need I write to you of the siege of Magdeburg, and how
-the Duke of Mecklenburg has been taken, or of that commotion
-which so universally, at this moment, afflicts the miserable
-Saxony? To write of all these things, I have neither leisure,
-nor would it be safe; on my return, which I hope is not far
-distant, it shall be a great happiness to relate all these things
-to you in person.</p>
-
-<p>“Thy kindness to me, oh! most noble Jane Grey, was
-always most grateful to me when present with you, but it is
-ten times more so during this long absence. To your noble
-parents, I wish length of happiness, to you a daily victory in
-letters and in virtue, and to thy sister Katherine, that she may
-resemble thee, and to Aylmer, I wish every good that he may
-wish to Ascham.</p>
-
-<p>“Further, dearest lady, if I were not afraid to load thee
-with the weight of my light salutations, I would ask thee in my
-name to salute Elizabeth Astley, who, as well as her brother
-John, I believe to be of my best friends, and whom I believe
-to be like that brother in all integrity and sweetness of manners.
-Salute, I pray thee, my cousin, Mary Laten, and my wife Alice,
-of whom I think oftener than I can here express. Salute,
-also, that worthy young man Garret and John Haddon.</p>
-
-<p class="b0">“Farewell, most noble lady in Christ.</p>
-
-<p class="sigright p0 b0">R.&nbsp;A.”</p>
-
-<p class="in2">“Augustæ”</p>
-
-<p class="in4">“18th January, 1551”</p>
-
-<p>When we consider that this letter was addressed to a girl
-who was not yet fifteen years of age, making due allowance for
-the high-flown style of the times, we can only conclude that
-there was some politic motive for a mode of address so injudicious
-in its flattery, so fulsome and so extravagant even
-for that age of courtly adulation.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178">178</a></span>
-Lady Jane Grey spent the better part of the years 1550&ndash;1551
-and 1552 at Bradgate, improving her mind by hard study, and
-patiently submitting to the “nips” and petty tyranny of her
-mother. At one time she seems to have commenced the
-study of such music as was then in vogue. This, Ascham
-promptly assured her was a frivolous occupation, unworthy of
-a godly maiden. In a very curious letter, dated 23rd December
-1551, Aylmer writes from London to Bullinger concerning
-the Lady Jane, begging him to write to her direct and seek to
-influence her to give up practising music so zealously.</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“It now remains for me,” writes the worthy Reformer, “to
-request that, with the kindness we have so long experienced,
-you will instruct my pupil in your next letter as to what
-embellishment and adornment of person is becoming in young
-women professing godliness. In treating upon this subject, you
-may bring forward the example of our King’s sister, the Princess
-Elizabeth, who goes clad in every respect as becomes a young
-maiden; and yet no one is induced by the example of so
-illustrious a lady, and in so much Gospel light, to lay aside,
-much less look down upon, gold, jewels, and braidings of the
-hair. They hear preachers declaim against these things, but
-yet no one amends her life. Moreover, I would wish you to
-prescribe to her (the Lady Jane) the length of time she may
-properly devote to the study of music. For in this respect
-also, people err beyond measure in this country, while
-their whole labour is undertaken, and exertions made, for
-the sake of ostentation.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>We can see by this letter, presumably written with a view
-to the great object all these men kept in their hearts,&mdash;that of
-influencing Jane in the event of her becoming Queen,&mdash;that
-they were endeavouring to make a narrow-minded bigot of
-her, and it is equally certain that the Princess Elizabeth was
-just then playing the part of the discreet and modest maiden.
-It is very amusing to find this wily Princess, whose reputation
-was already the reverse of good, held up as an example to
-innocent Jane Grey. The unhappy child was not even to
-practise on her virginals in peace, or dress as she chose, but to
-follow the example of Elizabeth, forsooth! Could Ulmer and
-Pellican have seen in a vision the three thousand dresses and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179">179</a></span>
-the sixteen hundred wigs which were to adorn the wardrobe of
-the lady they were setting up as a model to their simple music-pupil!
-Even in matters of religion, Elizabeth at this early
-stage of her career showed a remarkable discretion, neither
-siding with nor offending either party. She was a pious
-Catholic in the company of her sister Mary, and an equally
-edifying Protestant at the Court of her brother, Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>.</p>
-
-<p>In June 1551, after a lengthy absence, the Dorsets returned
-to their town mansion. They came to London for the purpose
-of examining the vast estate which the Lady Frances had
-inherited from the two sons of her father, Charles Brandon,
-Duke of Suffolk, by his fourth wife, Katherine Willoughby.
-These two brothers died at Bugden Hall, Cams., of the
-sweating sickness, within four hours of each other, and the
-bulk of their wealth, excepting the Duchess’s dower, fell
-to the Lady Frances, whose husband, in September of the
-following year (1552), was raised to the rank of Duke of
-Suffolk. The Dorsets now lived very sumptuously in London,
-and with a view, perhaps, of pleasing the King and pushing
-forward the interests of the Lady Jane, whom they still fondly
-hoped would become Queen-Consort, they invited a number of
-English and foreign Reformers, at this time living in exile
-in London, to their house.</p>
-
-<p>The Marquis, who was an enthusiastic admirer of Conrad
-Bullinger, had on more than one occasion exhorted him to
-correspond with his daughter, Lady Jane. In a letter addressed
-to that eminent Reformer in December 1551, he says:
-“I acknowledge myself also to be much indebted to you on
-my daughter’s account, for having always exhorted her in
-your godly letters to a true faith in Christ, the study of the
-Scriptures, purity of manners, and innocence of life, and I
-earnestly request you to continue these exhortations as
-frequently as possible.”</p>
-
-<p>A letter of another Reformer&mdash;namely Ab Ulmis&mdash;gives us
-some interesting glimpses of the Reformation movement in
-England. He says: “You will easily perceive the veneration
-and esteem which the Marquis’s daughter entertains
-towards you, from the very learned letter she has written to
-you. For my own part, I do not think there ever lived any
-one more deserving of respect than this young lady, if you<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180">180</a></span>
-regard her family; more learned, if you consider her age, or
-more happy if you consider both. A report had prevailed,
-and has begun to be talked of by persons of consequence,
-that this most noble virgin is to be betrothed and given in
-marriage to the King’s Majesty. Oh! if that event should
-take place, how happy would be the union and how beneficial
-to the Church.... Haddon, a minister of the Word, and
-Aylmer, the tutor of the young lady, respect and reverence
-you with much duty and affection. It will be a mark of
-courtesy to write to them all as soon as possible. Skinner
-is at Court with the King. Wallack is preaching with much
-labour in Scotland,” and so on. Ascham, in a letter to
-Sturmius, describes Jane as excelling in learning Lady Mildred,
-Cecil’s accomplished wife. She is, says he, the most learned
-woman in England. “I hear you have translated the Orations
-of Æschines and Demosthenes into Latin. I pray you dedicate
-the work to this peerless lady.”</p>
-
-<p>These and other letters still extant prove, if proof were
-needed, that Aylmer, Ulmer, and Ascham, assisted by Pellican,
-Sturmius, and Bullinger, were at this time hard at work,
-preparing their future Queen and patroness for the position
-they fondly hoped she would one day occupy. Hales, too,
-was assisting them,&mdash;“Club-footed Hales,” as he was called&mdash;an
-English lawyer who had visited Switzerland and adopted
-the tenets of the Geneva sect; he is described as “fanatical,
-learned, and ill-tempered.” He was a frequent visitor at Suffolk
-House and Bradgate, and in after times was much involved
-in the troubles of poor Lady Katherine Grey, Jane’s youngest
-sister. Further quotation from these letters is unnecessary;
-they are all written in the same style of pedantic flattery,
-and throw more light on passing events than most people
-would imagine, although the epistolary literature of this
-period is verbose, and as a rule uninforming. We can
-imagine, however, that the meetings at Suffolk House were
-exceedingly picturesque, and many will marvel that only one
-painter of note, M.&nbsp;M.&nbsp;P. Comte, has ever given us a picture
-of the youthful Lady Jane Grey seated among the doctors of
-the Reformed faith, in the noble Gothic hall of a mansion
-second to none in the old city for its architectural magnificence.<a id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">153</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181">181</a></span>
-The monotony of Jane’s life of close study was frequently
-interrupted by long journeys on horseback, or in cumbersome
-waggons, to pay various country visits. Late in 1551, the
-Greys established, for some reason or other, a close intimacy
-with the Princess Mary, and this notwithstanding their
-religious differences. With increase of wealth and station,
-Jane’s parents became more worldly than ever. Perceiving
-that Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, who began to show signs of consumption,
-might not live long, and that the Crown might after all pass
-to her Catholic Grace, they wisely considered it prudent to
-be on the right side of a lady who was probably destined to
-become their sovereign. Accordingly they paid the Princess
-as many as four visits in a single year.</p>
-
-<p>In the summer of 1551, Jane came very near losing her
-mother, Duchess Frances, who fell ill of a violent fever. The
-sick lady, who was at Richmond, sent for her daughter Jane
-from Bradgate, “to help nurse her.” Suffolk describes her
-illness in the following quaint terms in a letter explaining
-her absence from Court addressed to the Duke of Northumberland’s
-secretary, Cecil, whom he styles his “cousin Cycell”:
-“This shall be to advertise you, that my sudden departure
-from Court was for that I have received a letter of the state
-my wife was in, and I assure you she is mo’ like to die than
-not. I never saw sicker creature in my life. She hath three
-sicknesses, the first is a hot burning nague [ague] that doth
-hold her four and twenty hours, the other is the stopping
-of the spleen, the third is hypochondriac passion. These three
-being enclosed in one body, it is to be feared that death must
-needs follow.” But it did not “follow”; by the beginning
-of October, the Lady Frances was better, and in November
-she was sufficiently convalescent to attend the entry into
-London of the Scottish Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, and
-be present at the festivities consequent on that rather
-unexpected royal visit.</p>
-
-<p>Early in November 1551, Jane appeared at King Edward’s
-Court for the first time, and took a prominent part in these
-merry-makings. The Scottish Queen-Regent, Mary of Guise,
-had recently arrived at Portsmouth from France, on her way
-to the dominions of her unfortunate daughter, Mary, Queen
-of Scots, and wrote begging the English King’s licence to pass<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182">182</a></span>
-through his dominions. This was readily granted; and a
-pressing invitation to visit the Metropolis was sent to the
-Regent, and willingly accepted. On 2nd November, she proceeded
-by water to Paul’s Wharf, and thence rode in great
-state through the City. She lodged in the Bishop of London’s
-house, where she was entertained with regal hospitality, and,
-according to Stowe’s <cite>Annals</cite>, was supplied with “beefs,
-muttons, veales, swans, and other kinds of poultry meates,
-with fuell, bread, wine, beare, and wax.”</p>
-
-<p>The first interview of King Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> with the Scottish
-Queen took place on 4th November, at Westminster Palace.
-She rode in her chariot from the City to Whitehall, attended
-by the Lady Margaret Douglas, cousin to the King, and
-Countess of Lennox, the Duchesses of Richmond and Suffolk,
-the Lady Jane Grey, and many other noble ladies, including
-the Duchess of Northumberland.</p>
-
-<p>The Queen and the King dined alone together; but the
-Duchess of Suffolk, the Duchess of Northumberland, and the
-Lady Margaret Lennox, together with the Ladies Jane and
-Katherine Grey, dined, we are told, in the Queen’s hall, and
-were sumptuously entertained. Neither the Princess Elizabeth
-nor the Princess Mary attended these festivities. They were
-not in favour at this time and had not been invited.</p>
-
-<p>The banquet must have taken place at the hour we usually
-devote to luncheon, for at four the Queen, having visited the
-galleries and state apartments of the Palace, then considered
-“show places,” left Westminster, and, accompanied by her
-escort of nobles and ladies, rode once more through the City
-to her lodgings in the Episcopal Palace.</p>
-
-<p>On the following day (5th November), she made a solemn
-progress through the City, riding from St. Paul’s, through
-Cheapside and Bishopsgate, to Shoreditch, whence she took
-the high road for her own dominions. She was accompanied
-by a great train of nobility, among them the Duchess of
-Suffolk and her daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, and that
-fateful Duke of Northumberland who was destined to bring
-ruin on the unfortunate Jane and her father. Northumberland
-had in his train one hundred horsemen, of whom thirty were
-gentlemen clad in black velvet, guarded with white, and
-wearing white hats with black feathers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183">183</a></span>
-As soon as this state visit, mentioned with considerable
-delight by King Edward in his <cite>Journal</cite>, was over, the Lady
-Frances and her daughters returned to Bradgate.</p>
-
-<p>In the middle of November the Ducal party set out again
-for Tylsey, the seat of Suffolk’s young cousin and ward, the
-heir of Willoughby of Woollaton. From here they went on a
-visit to Princess Mary. A very curious MS. account book,
-still in the possession of the Willoughby d’Eresby family,
-shows that, on 20th November 1551, “ten gentlemen came
-from London to escort my Lady Frances’s grace to my Lady
-Mary’s grace, and they all left Tylsey after breakfast, the
-Lady Frances, accompanied by her daughters, the Lady Jane,
-the Lady Katherine and the Lady Mary, and repaired to my
-Lady Mary’s grace.” Whilst on this visit to Princess Mary,
-who was then at her town house, the former Priory of St.
-John of Jerusalem, in Clerkenwell, the Dorset family received
-handsome gifts, as appears from the Princess’s expense book:
-“Given to my cousin Frances beads (<i>i.e.</i> ‘rosary’) of black
-and white, mounted in gold”; “To my cousin, Jane
-Grey, a necklace of gold, set with pearls and small rubies.”
-In return, the Lady Jane presented Mary with a pair of
-gloves.</p>
-
-<p>In the first days of December, the two younger
-daughters returned to Tylsey, but the Duchess and
-Lady Jane stayed on in London, for the Lady Jane, we
-are told, remained with the Princess at her house in
-Clerkenwell.</p>
-
-<p>On 16th December, the Duke came to Clerkenwell to escort
-Jane and her mother back to Tylsey. There they seem to
-have spent a merry Christmas in the company of the Lords
-Thomas and John Grey. The Duke of Suffolk, in honour of
-his young wards the Willoughbys, and in their name, threw
-open the gates of Tylsey to all such of the county gentry as
-chose to seek hospitality within them. A company of players
-was ordered from London, together with a wonderful boy,
-who “sang like a nightingale,” besides a tumbler and a juggler.
-These were presently supplemented by another band of
-players, belonging to the Earl of Oxford, who acted several
-pieces. Open house was kept until 20th January 1552, when
-the whole family proceeded to Walden, to spend some days<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184">184</a></span>
-with the Duke’s sister, Lady Audley,<a id="FNanchor_154" href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">154</a> whose husband, Lord
-Audley, or Audrey, was created Lord Chancellor by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>
-and presented with the house and property of the London
-Charterhouse, as an acknowledgment of his infamous treatment
-of Anne Boleyn. The record of the doings at Tylsey
-is in an account book kept by “old Mr. Medeley,” husband
-of the heiress of Willoughby’s grandmother and a trustee.
-This book was lent to Miss Agnes Strickland, who says&mdash;in
-her <cite>Tudor and Stuart Princesses&mdash;Lady Jane Grey</cite>&mdash;that
-Medeley “kept a very thrifty notation of all that was spent
-in ‘man’s meat’ and ‘horse’s meat’ on these journeys;
-likewise the payments of the players who were to assist in
-spending the Christmas with the ‘godliness and innocence’
-dwelt upon with such unction” by Suffolk and by the Reformers.<a id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">155</a>
-After the visit to Walden, the Lady Frances and
-her brood went back to Tylsey for about a week, at the end
-of January 1552.</p>
-
-<p>These cross-country journeys, even if sometimes broken by
-two or three days’ stay in one place, must have been extremely
-fatiguing to so young and delicate a girl as Lady Jane. The
-Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Frances being of the blood royal,
-travelled with a great escort, as many as a hundred to a hundred
-and fifty horsemen, scouts, etc., preceding and following their
-horses and waggons, otherwise called “chariots.” If the
-weather was fine, equestrian travel was exceedingly pleasant:
-the canter through the leafy lanes, the midday picnic under
-the greenwood tree, and the evening meal in some picturesque
-inn, full of Shakespearean character, the bustling, bowing and
-curtseying host and hostess, the rustic waiters and grooms,
-the flicker of lamp and candle light, the glowing wood fire,
-the sanded floor, the shining pewter, and the savoury baked
-and roasted meats, all combined to make up a scene of primitive<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185">185</a></span>
-comfort, entirely absent from the great and sumptuous hostelries
-of our own time, in which luxury often predominates over
-more solid qualities of entertainment. But when pouring rain
-turned the ill-kept roads into quagmires, when the nipping
-airs of autumn and winter whistled through the skeleton
-branches of the trees, or the snow lay feet thick on the ground,
-and the keen wintry winds whistled over the frozen rivers and
-streams, then must the welcome glow cast by the crackling
-fires within the inn parlours have made them, however humble,
-appear so many havens of celestial refuge to the Lady Frances,
-her husband, her daughters, and her merry men and women.
-Since there were no other means of locomotion in those days, a
-specially swift and steady steed, or a particularly well-cushioned
-waggon, must have been considered with much the same
-sense of satisfaction as we bestow now on a new type of motor-car
-or a specially well-appointed railway train. Our immediate
-forbears were by no means dissatisfied with the old stagecoaches
-that transported them from one end of the kingdom
-to another in a week or ten days; sailing in luxurious airships
-which will have so reduced the bulk of the globe that from
-being “a vastie sphere” it will have become a mere overgrown
-orange&mdash;“from London to Rome in less than an hour; London
-to New York in three!”&mdash;our descendants will try to imagine
-how it was ever possible for us to travel by train and motor&mdash;so
-slow and uncomfortable! And thus we and our civilisation
-may presently come to be looked upon with the same sort of
-good-natured disdain we now bestow upon the social conditions
-and travelling arrangements of the days of “My Lord
-à Suffhoke.”</p>
-
-<p>It may well be that all this hard riding in bad weather and
-the unwonted dissipations of Christmas at Tylsey proved too
-much for Lady Jane, for in February 1552, Ab Ulmis writes
-to his friend Bullinger: “The Duke’s daughter has recovered
-from a severe and dangerous illness. She is now engaged
-in some extraordinary production, which will very soon be
-brought to light, accompanied with the commendation of yourself.
-There has lately been discovered a great treasure of
-valuable books: Basil on Isaiah and the Psalms in Greek,
-... Chrysostom on the Gospels, in Greek; the whole of
-Proclus; the Platonists, etc.... I have myself seen all<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186">186</a></span>
-these books this very day. The Duke of Suffolk, his
-daughter, (the Lady Jane), Haddon, Aylmer, and Skinner,
-have all written to you.”<a id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">156</a></p>
-
-<p>These literary treasures were probably found in several
-parcels of old books purchased about this time by the Marquis
-from an Italian merchant.</p>
-
-<p>In March 1552, Lady Jane, then at Bradgate, sent Bullinger’s
-wife a present of gloves, and a ring. A month later, Ulmer
-returned from Switzerland, whither he had been sent on a
-mission, and brought with him a letter from Conrad Pellican,
-which Jane immediately answered. In Pellican’s <cite>Journal</cite>, still
-preserved at Zurich, we find the following marginal note:
-“June 19th, 1552&ndash;3, I received a Latin letter, written with
-admirable elegance and learning, from the most noble virgin,
-Lady Jane Grey, of the illustrious house of Suffolk.” This
-letter is lost.</p>
-
-<p>Early in July 1552, Lady Jane went with her parents to
-Oxford,<a id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">157</a> and, almost immediately afterwards, repeated her
-visit to Princess Mary, now at Newhall&mdash;a visit fraught with
-much evil, if we may believe the accounts which have come
-down to us, from, it must be admitted, rather suspicious
-sources; that is to say, from Aylmer and Ascham, both eager
-to represent Jane as even more Protestant than she really was.</p>
-
-<p>Newhall Place, Princess Mary’s chief country seat, had
-formed part, in days gone by, of the possessions of Waltham
-Abbey, and had been exchanged with Sir John de Shadlowe
-by the monks in the reign of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">III</span> for three other properties.
-Its most illustrious occupant in pre-Reformation
-times had been the unfortunate Margaret of Anjou. After her
-capture by the Yorkists it was confiscated by the Crown, and
-was eventually granted by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span> to Bottler or Butler, Earl
-of Ormond, who fortified the mansion and enlarged it. It<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187">187</a></span>
-passed, as a dower, to Sir Thomas Boleyn, grandfather of
-Queen Anne Boleyn, and he exchanged it with Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>,
-who took a great fancy to the place, and changed its name to
-Beaulieu. The monarch stayed here on one occasion, at
-least, with Anne Boleyn, so that Mary Tudor may have found
-a few of the personal belongings of her mother’s chief foe,
-when she took possession of the house which Henry bestowed
-on her towards the end of his reign. She made it her favourite
-abode, principally on account of its gardens, which are often
-mentioned in the Household Books of the period, as supplying
-the royal palaces of London with fruit and vegetables&mdash;the
-cherries and grapes being considered particularly fine.
-Elizabeth, who did not care for Beaulieu,&mdash;its association with
-her mother and sister must have been painful to her,&mdash;presented
-it to Radcliffe, Earl of Suffolk. He sold it to “Steenie,” Duke
-of Buckingham, who let the place fall into such ruin that its
-value so decreased that Cromwell was able to buy it for “five
-shillings and no more!”</p>
-
-<p>In Mary’s day it was still a fine old Gothic mansion of the
-ecclesiastical type, with three lofty towers and a magnificent
-hall, containing a huge chimneypiece and a broad staircase
-leading to the upper apartments. In the chapel was that famous
-window made at Dort in Flanders by order of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span>,
-and now the chief ornament of St. Margaret’s, Westminster.
-The furniture at Newhall, the inventory of which is still extant,
-was extremely magnificent, and included many sets of costly
-tapestries, hangings of velvet and Florentine brocades, Turkey
-carpets and inlaid bedsteads and chairs. The chief artistic
-treasure of the house, however, was a superb portrait of Mary
-herself by Holbein, and another of the King her father by the
-same great painter. These two portraits remained at Newhall
-until the beginning of the seventeenth century, when we lose
-trace of them, but the portrait of Mary is not improbably
-the one now in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk, and
-that of King Henry, that which is in the possession of Lord
-Leconfield at Petworth House.</p>
-
-<p>A state visit to Newhall must have been conducted on
-similar lines to such a function at Sandringham or Windsor
-in our times, being a singular mixture of extreme simplicity
-and extreme stateliness. The Princess herself, who, had her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188">188</a></span>
-life been cast in a less exalted sphere, would have been a
-kindly woman, had a deep hearty voice and a cheery welcome,
-which endeared her to all who approached her; yet an observation
-made by Lady Jane Grey to Lady Wharton proves that
-every time anyone passed before her Grace, they made obeisance
-by falling on one knee, as if she had been the Host on the altar.
-Meals were served somewhat after the French fashion: a
-very light breakfast at what we should consider an unearthly
-hour&mdash;six in summer, seven in winter&mdash;a heavy dinner at
-eleven, and supper at eight. All sorts of sports and pastimes&mdash;hawking,
-tennis, horse-riding, hunting&mdash;served to pass the
-intermediate time, and in the evenings there was card-playing,
-boisterous games, and dancing. Before retiring for the night,
-prayers were said, and a loving cup full of spiced wine was
-passed round, the Princess putting her lips to it before passing
-it, with a blessing, to her guests. We may take it for granted
-that during the visit of the Marquis and Marchioness, notorious
-Protestants, religious controversy did not enter into the
-conversation at Newhall. To do her justice, Mary at this
-time at least was very free from bigotry; two of her favourite
-ladies, Lady Bacon and Lady Brown, were Protestants, and
-her friendship for the imprisoned Duchess of Somerset and
-her daughters never failed so long as she lived&mdash;and yet the
-Duchess was an ardent “Gospeller.” That the Princess
-enjoyed a little “flutter” at cards is proved by her household
-books, and as the Marquis was an excellent card-player,
-no doubt “Ombre”&mdash;a game introduced into England by
-the Spaniards whilst Katherine of Aragon was Queen&mdash;served
-to pass the evening, together with “Gresco,” “Mountsaint,”
-“Newcut,” and “Lansquenet.” Lady Jane and her little
-sisters may have joined in the romping game of “Trump,”
-a noisy round game like our “Old Maid,” in which, on the
-appearance of a certain card, everybody slapped their right
-hand on the table and cried out “Trump!” those who failed
-to do so paying a trifling fine. “Gleke,” a primitive sort of
-whist, was also greatly in fashion; and at this game, we may
-be sure, the Lady Frances was prudent enough to lose fairly
-large sums to her august cousin, whose hot Spanish temper
-was apt to be ruffled when the tide of fortune turned
-against her.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189">189</a></span>
-It was during this visit that the Princess Mary presented
-the Lady Jane with a rich dress, and Jane, willing to practise
-some of the precepts which she had received from Zurich,
-asked the lady by whom her cousin sent the gown, what
-she was to do with it? “Marry,” replied the lady, “wear
-it, to be sure!” “Nay,” replied the Lady Jane, “that were
-a shame, to follow the Lady Mary, who leaveth God’s Word,
-and leave my Lady Elizabeth, who followeth God’s Word.”
-This anecdote was recorded by her tutor, Aylmer, long years
-after this world had closed on Jane&mdash;at a moment, in fact,
-when Elizabeth did not thank him at all for reminding her
-subjects of the Puritan style she had affected in her youth.
-Another incident, which may be more certainly placed during
-this Newhall visit, shows the cousins at issue on those points
-of belief then so hotly debated. Lady Wharton, a fervent
-Catholic, crossing the chapel with Lady Jane Grey when
-service was not proceeding, made her obeisance to the Host
-as they passed the altar. Lady Jane asked “if the Princess
-were present in the chapel?” Lady Wharton answered that
-she was not.</p>
-
-<p>“Then why do you curtsey?” demanded Jane.</p>
-
-<p>“I curtsey to Him that made me,” replied Lady Wharton.</p>
-
-<p>“Nay,” retorted the Lady Jane, “but did not the baker
-make him?”</p>
-
-<p>Lady Wharton repeated this remark to the Princess,
-“who never after loved the Lady Jane as she did before.”</p>
-
-<blockquote id="note189">
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;The London residence of the parents of Lady Jane Grey was, in
-her early days, the house in Whitehall overlooking the Thames and known
-as Dorset Place; but, after the death of the two sons of the Duke of Suffolk,
-the Lady Frances inherited Norwich House, Strand, which Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> had
-confiscated from the Bishops of Norwich, and exchanged with his brother-in-law
-for Suffolk Place, Southwark, which he converted into a mint. Norwich
-House now became generally known as Suffolk House. Here the Greys lived
-in great state, possibly abandoning their other residence in Whitehall for the
-larger and more sumptuous residence. The Lady Frances, after the execution
-of her husband, sold Suffolk House to the Percys and it presently became
-known as Northumberland House, and, altered from a Tudor to a Jacobean
-mansion, it remained a prominent feature of London street architecture until
-early in the second half of the last century, when it was pulled down for the
-improvements at Charing Cross.</p></blockquote>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190">190</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">JOHN DUDLEY, EARL OF WARWICK</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Immediately</span> after the execution of Thomas Seymour,
-John Dudley steps forward on the lurid stage of this
-history. If Seymour was a rascal, Dudley, son of a
-rascal, was even worse. Divested of his magnificent habiliments
-and picturesque surroundings, this man was a far
-meaner and more sordid ruffian than was ever my Lord
-of Sudeley&mdash;more devilish in his cunning and, if anything,
-more unscrupulous.</p>
-
-<p>John Dudley was the son of that notorious Edmund
-Dudley who, under Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span>, had remorselessly plundered
-the public coffers, and so earned the execution which fell to
-his lot in the first years of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s reign&mdash;on 28th August
-1510, to be precise. In common justice, it is fair to say that
-this Dudley of evil repute was highly esteemed by his most
-illustrious contemporary, Sir Thomas More; and we may
-believe him to have been much calumniated, like many other
-men of his time. Dugdale says Edmund Dudley was the son
-of a carpenter,<a id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">158</a> and the assertion is somewhat supported by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191">191</a></span>
-the fact that although he was born twenty years before the
-death of the Lord Dudley whom he asserted to be his grandfather,
-that gentleman would never acknowledge him. His
-real patronym was Sutton, but he assumed that of Dudley after
-his acquisition of the ancient castle of that name, and the
-expulsion of its rightful owner, who fled abroad. On the
-gates of the Castle, Edmund affixed his own arms, together
-with those of the ancient houses of Someries and Malpas,
-from which he claimed descent. He was at one time Sergeant-at-Law
-and at another Speaker of the House of Commons,
-and married Lady Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Edward
-Grey, Viscount Lisle, a collateral of the great house of Grey,
-and the same young lady to whom Charles Brandon was contracted
-and who, as we have seen, refused to carry out her
-side of the engagement.</p>
-
-<p>The John Dudley of these pages was born about 1502,
-the eldest of three brothers, who, after their father’s ignominious
-death, were placed under the guardianship of Sir Edward
-Guildford. The latter fought valiantly to obtain some part
-of the father’s ill-gotten property for his wards, and their
-possessions were further increased at the death of their mother,
-a considerable heiress. Being a handsome, dashing young
-fellow, the father’s bad reputation was soon forgotten, and
-his gay son John, as Viscount Lisle, was a prominent figure at
-Court in the last half of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s reign. In his early years<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192">192</a></span>
-he was a good deal in France with Charles Brandon, Duke of
-Suffolk, the Lady Frances’s father, who knighted him at
-Vian, in Normandy. John Dudley’s wife, Jane Guildford,
-whom he married when he was a mere lad, contrived to
-absorb his affections so completely that his domestic life was
-remarkably respectable. She was a very beautiful woman,
-and part heiress of his former guardian, Edward Guildford,
-Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. She bore him a numerous
-and handsome family, and her behaviour in clinging to her
-husband during his hour of danger, and making desperate
-efforts to save him, was rare at this strange period. With
-all her good qualities, however, she was cordially disliked by
-Lady Jane Grey, whom she treated with consistent harshness.</p>
-
-<p>As Viscount Lisle,<a id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">159</a> John Dudley worked his way up
-legitimately enough until he was nominated Lord High-Admiral
-and Master of the Horse (1542) to Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. Although
-at heart a Catholic, he sided with the Seymours against the
-Howards, and thus&mdash;for ambition’s sake&mdash;came to be numbered
-among the chiefs of the Protestant party at Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s
-coronation, and was then created Earl of Warwick. His
-ambition was now well fired&mdash;he must become <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">aut Cæsar, aut
-nullus</i>, and this he could only achieve by ousting the two
-Seymours and taking their place. Like most of his contemporaries,
-he was essentially an opportunist&mdash;<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">un arriviste</i>,
-as the French would say. For some years he worked like a
-rat in the dark, waiting his opportunity: first he nibbled at
-Thomas Seymour’s good fame&mdash;what there was of it!&mdash;and
-then cunningly set brother against brother. Patiently,
-subtly, he gnawed on till he saw Thomas ascend the scaffold;
-then he promptly undermined Edward Seymour’s credit
-with King and people. His aim was to become Lord Protector
-himself, to reach at supreme power by fair means or
-foul.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_192" class="figcenter" style="width: 512px;">
- <img src="images/i_192.jpg" width="512" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>JOHN DUDLEY, DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">FROM AN ENGRAVING BY G. VERTUE</p></div></div>
-
-<p>Soon after the death of his brother, Thomas, Somerset began
-to totter. The Admiral’s execution had produced a bad
-effect. Hardened as men were in those ferocious times, there
-were yet certain ties of consanguinity which might not be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193">193</a></span>
-violated with impunity; and so, although Elizabeth did write to
-her sister Mary, that “had the brothers met, the Lord Admiral
-would have been saved,” it was none the less the hand of
-Cain that signed his death-warrant. The people said so openly.
-They had not forgotten the dreadful carnage that had marked
-Edward Seymour’s return, through Scotland into England,
-on the occasion of his first Scotch expedition.<a id="FNanchor_160" href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">160</a></p>
-
-<p>If the horrors perpetrated by Somerset himself during that
-expedition were execrable, those committed with his knowledge
-and connivance in the same forlorn country under
-Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> were even more atrocious. That “varmint”
-Lennox, the husband of the Lady Margaret, niece of Henry
-<span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, was his chief agent. Reeking corpses of men, women,
-and little children marked the passage of the English troops
-to and from the Border lands. Thus the Lord Protector’s
-reputation in the North was of the worst&mdash;“his very name
-stank of blood.”<a id="FNanchor_161" href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">161</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194">194</a></span>
-Dudley had not, therefore, so much difficulty as might be
-thought in undermining his formidable rival’s position, towering
-though it was. In many ways, Somerset had proved
-himself a failure, and he had already lost much of his popularity,
-even among Protestants, who were none too sure of his
-loyalty&mdash;was he not the friend of Mary and the avowed enemy
-of Elizabeth? By the large Catholic party he was, of course,
-entirely and heartily detested.</p>
-
-<p>He was not a Calvinist, although he maintained an
-active correspondence with Calvin, but a Church of England
-man of the “Low Church” description, a hater of ecclesiastical
-ritual and formality, and, incidentally, a born iconoclast.
-The statement that no man or woman was persecuted or
-burnt for religious opinions under his rule, is hardly exact.
-There are more ways than one of killing a dog&mdash;or of persecuting
-an opposing faith. True, the fires of Smithfield were
-quenched for the time being, but Catholics and Anabaptists
-were made to feel they were outside the law, and the prisons
-were crowded with men and women of those persuasions,
-and of every social grade.<a id="FNanchor_162" href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">162</a> The cathedrals and parish churches
-were cleared of their sacred images, their plate, their rood-lofts,
-and their art treasures; even their frescoed walls were
-whitewashed. Stained glass was smashed, because it bore
-“idolatrous pictures,” and replaced by plain glass or horn.
-Even dead men’s tombs were overthrown, and the bodies cast
-“into filthy ditches and fields beyond the city.”<a id="FNanchor_163" href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">163</a> In a word,
-the artistic treasures of centuries were within a few months
-dispersed, destroyed, or sold to a throng of Jews, who
-flocked to England to seize so splendid an opportunity.
-Somerset pulled down three or four episcopal palaces, the
-beautiful North Cloister of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the
-Churches of St. Mary-le-Strand and St. John’s, Clerkenwell,
-for the sake of their building materials, which he used for his
-own new and almost royal residence in the Strand. He gave
-orders for the demolition of St. Margaret’s, Westminster,
-and but for the angry protests of the indignant parishioners,
-his command would have been obeyed. There was another<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195">195</a></span>
-cause of discontent, which has been much neglected by
-historians, namely, the doctrinal changes, which necessarily
-greatly altered outward observances, much to the disgust
-of the older generation, who saw the destruction of the cherished
-traditions of a thousand years, and the desecration of their
-most sacred social usages. Their pageants, pilgrimages,
-and processions were now paralysed; and it was an offence
-deemed worthy of imprisonment, ay, even of burning, to
-pray for the dead, or to retain the rosary the dying mother
-had given, with her last blessing, on her death-bed.</p>
-
-<p>The average Englishman is apt to think of the Sixth
-Edward’s reign as an era of peace and plenty, during which, to
-the applause of the entire nation, the Book of Common Prayer
-was formulated by Cranmer, and the churches emptied of
-“hated and idolatrous images and symbols.” In reality,
-it was one of the most disastrous epochs in the whole of our
-history. Froude, in a passage of uncommon brilliance, sums
-up the appalling effect, after a lapse of fifteen years, of Henry
-<span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s dissolution of the monasteries and hospitals. With
-singular vividness he depicts the extreme misery to which the
-lower orders were reduced; the high roads and country lanes
-rendered dangerous by hordes of starving and half-naked
-men and women, who a few years previously had been
-in fairly comfortable circumstances, earning a living wage
-from the now banished masters of abbeys and priories.
-Now the poor wretches roved in fear and trembling,
-begging food and shelter; or, driven desperate by want,
-committing deeds of violence. Dr. Latimer, in his <cite>Royal
-Sermons</cite>, puts his unfailing finger on the right spot when
-he remarks that “the misery the people were enduring was
-entirely due to the new order of things. My father,” he
-continues, “was a yeoman who lived comfortably, educated
-his children, served the King, and gave to the poor, on a farm
-the rent of which has been increased fourfold since, so that
-his successor in the farm has become a pauper in consequence.”
-Then, turning upon the Seymours, the Pagets, and others of
-their kind, who had enriched themselves out of the ecclesiastical
-spoils, he thundered: “I fully certify you as extortioners,
-violent oppressors, engrossers of tenements and lands, through
-whose covetousness villages decay and fall down; and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196">196</a></span>
-King’s liege people, for lack of sustenance, are famished and
-decayed.... You landlords, you rent-raisers, I may say,
-you step-lords, you unnatural lords, you have for your possessions
-yearly too much! The farm that was some years back
-from £20 to £40 by the year, is now charged to tenants at from
-£50 to £100.... Poor men cannot have a living, all kinds of
-victuals are so dear. I think, verily, that if it thus continue,
-we shall at length be obliged to pay twenty shillings for a pig.
-If ye bring it to a pass the yeomen be not able to put their
-sons to school, ye pluck salvation from the people, and utterly
-destroy the realm.”... “In those days,” he says in another
-sermon, “they [the monks] helped the scholars. They maintained
-and gave them living. It is a pitiful thing to see schools
-so neglected; every true Christian ought to lament the same.
-To consider what has been plucked from abbeys, colleges,
-chantries, it is a marvel that no more is bestowed upon this
-holy office of salvation.... Scholars have no exhibition.
-Very few there be who help poor scholars, or set children to
-school to learn the Word of God, and make provision for the
-age to come. It would pity a man’s heart to hear what I
-have of the state of Cambridge.... I think there be at this
-day [1550] one thousand students less than were within twenty
-years, and fewer preachers.”</p>
-
-<p>The enclosure, too, by their new owners, of the vast tracts
-of lands, which had formerly belonged to the abbeys and
-priories, for the purpose of cattle rearing, instead of corn
-growing&mdash;as hitherto&mdash;(wool being at a premium) had thrown
-thousands of agricultural labourers out of employment;
-and soon the large cities, London, Bristol, and York, were
-crowded with poor creatures seeking work, only to meet
-with flat refusal from the citizens, who were angered and
-alarmed by so considerable an addition to that pauper
-population whose hapless descendants still form the bulk of
-the very appropriately styled “Submerged Tenth” of our
-times. This rapid increase of an undesirable class soon
-resulted in a marked debasement of the lowest orders, and so
-bad did the state of morals in the capital become, that Ridley,
-Bishop of London, preached more than one sermon on the
-subject, and, in a book entitled <cite>The Lamentation of England</cite>,
-gives a hideous picture of the rising tide of “immorality,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197">197</a></span>
-crime, drunkenness, hatred and scorn of religion and its
-ministers amongst the people.” Domestic chastity was held
-at a discount and reviled, and adultery was so common, even
-in the highest ranks, that the Privy Council spoke of bringing
-the question of prohibitive measures before Parliament.
-The Protector himself had set aside his first wife, Catherine
-Ffoliot, although she had borne him a son, on no valid pretext,
-legal or otherwise, in order to marry the higher born Anne
-Stanhope&mdash;the temper of this Stanhope lady was so peppery
-that he went in fear and trembling, and this led his contemporaries
-to say “he had got rid of a dove to saddle himself
-with a scorpion.” Henry, son of William, Earl of Pembroke,
-divorced Katherine, daughter of Henry, Duke of Suffolk
-(Lady Jane’s younger sister), to marry Mary, daughter of
-Sir Henry Sydney. The Earl of Northampton, Katherine
-Parr’s brother, divorced Anne, daughter of the Earl of
-Essex, when he married Lord Cobham’s daughter Elizabeth.
-Even Lady Jane Grey’s own legitimacy was disputed; and
-the matrimonial adventures of her grandfather Brandon,
-Duke of Suffolk, have already been mentioned.</p>
-
-<p>The wickedness of the upper classes<a id="FNanchor_164" href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">164</a> spread downwards,
-and, coupled with intense poverty, made “London worse than
-Babylon of old.”</p>
-
-<p>Well might honest old Latimer cry out to the King, in one
-of his most interesting sermons (preached in 1550 at Paul’s
-Cross), “For the love of God take an order for marriage
-here in England.” Cecil also protests against the prevailing
-looseness of morals: “Sacrilegious avarice ravenously invaded
-Church livings, colleges, chantries, hospitals, and places dedicated
-to the poor, as things superfluous. Ambition and emulation
-among the nobility, presumption and disobedience among<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198">198</a></span>
-the common people, grew so extravagant, that England
-seemed to be in a downright frenzy.” Hear Bishop Burnet
-also on the same subject: “This gross and insatiable scramble
-after the goods and wealth that had been dedicated to good
-designs, without applying any part of it to promote the good
-of the Gospel, and the instruction of the poor, made all people
-conclude that it was for robbery and not for reformation that
-their zeal made them so active. The irregular and immoral
-lives of many of the professors of the Gospel gave their enemies
-great advantage to say that they ran away from confession,
-penance, fasting, and prayer, only to be under no restraint,
-and to indulge themselves in a licentious and dissolute course
-of life. By these things, that were but too visible in some of
-the most eminent among them, the people were much alienated
-from them; and as much as they were formerly against
-Popery, they grew to have kinder thoughts of it, and to look
-on all the changes that had been made, as designs to enrich
-some vicious characters, and to let in an inundation of vice
-and wickedness upon the nation.” To stem this rising tide
-would have been a task for a great statesman; Somerset was
-not a great statesman, for, though many of his intentions
-were good, his methods were primitively violent. He thought
-himself capable of repressing the inevitable result of the evil
-wrought by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and his followers by force of arms,
-and by laws which, even in those days, chilled men with horror.
-To put down the vagabondage in the country districts,&mdash;a
-consequence of the disbanding of the great crowd of abbey
-retainers,&mdash;he signed a decree whereby “Any man or woman
-found suspiciously near any house, or wandering by the highways,
-or in the streets of any city, town, or village, for three
-days together, without offering to work, or running away from
-their labour, may be brought by the master, or any other person,
-before two justices of the peace [these] having the power of
-the statute law to exercise the said power by burning into his
-or her breast with a hot iron the letter V, and to adjudge him
-or her to be the slave of the informer, to have and to hold the
-said slave to him, his executors or assigns, for the space of two
-years, only giving the said slave bread and water.” The
-“slave” was to be made to work by blows or chains. In the
-event of his disappearing for the space of fourteen days without<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199">199</a></span>
-leave, he could be punished by chaining up and beating,
-“and if he [the owner of the slave] chose to prove the fault
-by two witnesses before the justices, they shall cause such
-slave to be marked on the forehead, or the ball of the cheek
-with a hot iron, with the sign of an S, that he may be known
-for a loiterer, and [the justices] shall adjudge the runaway
-to be the said master’s slave for ever.” The penalty of a second
-escape from slavery was death by hanging “from the nearest
-tree, if violent.” Any one was permitted to take children
-between five and fourteen years of age from any wanderer,
-whether they were willing or not, and if the child ran away
-from his master the latter had the power “to keep and punish
-the said child in chains, or otherwise, and use him or her as
-his slave in all points,” up to the age of twenty at least. The
-master of a grown-up slave had the right, under section 4 of
-this law, “To let, set forth, sell, bequeath, or give the service
-of such slaves to any person or persons, whatsoever.” The
-law further empowered an owner of slaves “to put a ring
-of iron about his neck, arm, or leg, for a better knowledge and
-surety of keeping him.” Aiding a slave to escape was punished
-by the forfeiture of ten pounds by the person so doing.
-These and other evils too numerous to detail helped to fan the
-flame of popular discontent.</p>
-
-<p>Presently the counties began to rise, the people of Devonshire
-and Cornwall flew to arms to vindicate the rights of
-conscience. They would have back the religion which their
-forefathers had held for a thousand years. They demanded
-that the “Six Articles” should be put in force. The men of
-Cornwall refused the Book of Common Prayer, because, they
-alleged, they could not speak English, and could not understand
-it, while they were accustomed to the Latin Mass, which
-they had been trained from infancy to comprehend. Down
-into the West went Lord Russell (“Swearing Russell”),
-dispatched by the Lord Protector. He behaved “more like
-a wild beast than a human being”&mdash;as abominably as Lennox
-in Scotland. Hooper, who went with him to preach to the
-rebels, describes his massacres as “the most horrible butcheries
-of brave men that ever did happen in this world.” Russell’s
-dispatches do not in any way minimise the horrors he perpetrated,
-and “our men,” he says, “are daily supplied with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200">200</a></span>
-large numbers of sheep and fowl from the places where the
-farmers and squires forfeited such property by their obstinate
-adherence to the Popish Mass, and other superstitions.”
-Some three thousand men and several hundreds of women are
-said to have suffered death in the fight for freedom of conscience
-in Devonshire. The central counties rose too, and there were
-terrible riots in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Derbyshire, and
-Huntingdonshire.</p>
-
-<p>But it was in Norfolk that the grandest demonstration
-against the tyranny of the central Government occurred. It
-commenced at Aldborough, and at first seemed a matter of
-little consequence; but the rumours of what had happened
-in Kent, where new enclosures had been broken down, greatly
-inflamed the people from one end to the other of the eastern
-counties. There was little of the religious element in the
-revolt, although two-thirds of the people, at least, still adhered
-to the old faith, but now religious differences were set aside,
-and Catholics and Protestants stood shoulder to shoulder in
-the fight for what we should call liberty. At first the mass
-of the people were without a leader, but they soon found one
-in the person of an honest tanner, named Robert Ket.<a id="FNanchor_165" href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">165</a> It fell
-out on the 6th July 1549, at Wymondham, near Norwich,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201">201</a></span>
-where many folk were watching, on a small stage erected in
-the market-place, a sort of “mystery,” that the actors touched
-sarcastically upon the leading events and scandals of the day.
-Ket, who was present, leapt on to a barrel, and delivered a
-rough and ready oration on burning topics, every word of
-which told, and roused the enthusiasm of his audience to a very
-delirium. In a surging, motley crowd, his hearers followed him
-from Wymondham to Mousehold Heath, near Norwich, a
-desolate sweep of country commanding glorious views, immortalised
-in later times by a Crome or a Vincent. Hereabouts,
-on an elevation, grew a stalwart oak, beneath which
-Ket and his men encamped, and where he held Courts of Justice,
-of Common Pleas, Chancery and King’s Bench, “even as in
-Westminster Hall.” With a high and generous sense of freedom,
-he allowed the orators, not only of his own, but of the
-opposition party, to harangue the multitude from this tree of
-liberty, which was now called “the Oak of Reformation.”
-The venerable tree had become a rostrum, and all who had
-anything to say scrambled into it. Aldrich, Mayor of Norwich,
-preached thence against the iniquities of Somerset’s rule.
-Clergymen and priests, parsons and ex-monks, made a rough
-pulpit of it. Matthew Parker, afterwards Archbishop of
-Canterbury, climbed into its branches one day, and harangued
-the mob “on the unwisdom of their attempt,” and the ruin
-they were sure to bring on themselves and their families. He
-would have done better to hold his peace; no one listened
-to him. So great was the crowd on Mousehold Heath, it
-looked on occasions like a surging sea of heads, and sometimes,
-as in Hyde Park in our times, separate groups of lecturers and
-hearers formed at a distance from the tree.</p>
-
-<p>Suddenly, on July 31st, a glittering figure bearing the
-Royal Arms of England, rode into the midst of Ket’s camp&mdash;his
-white horse sheathed like himself in steel, a plume of white
-feathers nodding on its head. In a loud voice the man in
-the “coat-of-arms” proclaimed a free pardon to all present in
-that multitude, if they “would depart to their homes.” Some,
-weary of the business and only seeking an excuse, turned their
-backs on the oak, and trudged citywards; but Ket and the
-larger mass held their ground, saying they wanted no pardon,
-having committed no offence&mdash;they only craved justice, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202">202</a></span>
-that was the right of every Englishman. They were true
-subjects of the King, they said, and had done him no harm&mdash;all
-they needed was justice, justice! Turning his back on the
-tanner and the ancient oak, the glittering herald scattered the
-people right and left, as he galloped away across heath and
-common, dissolved into the mist like a meteor. When he had
-vanished, Ket, fearing a treacherous surprise, called his merry
-men together, and marched into Norwich, where they once
-more encountered the royal messenger, who again offered them
-his master’s pardon. Ket replied as disdainfully as ever, and
-the gorgeous official departed, whilst the rebels, having seized
-all the arms and ammunition they could find, returned to their
-camp on Mousehold Heath. To Court sped the herald, and the
-Protector, alarmed at the turn of events, sent a force of fifteen
-hundred horsemen, under the Marquis of Northampton, and
-some Italians led by a <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">condottiére</i> named Malatesta, against
-the malcontents. These troops entered Norwich, but Ket
-and his men were able to drive both Northampton and the
-Italian out of the city, in a fight in which “fell Lord Sheffield
-and several gentlemen; so that now, blood being up on both
-sides, the town was set fire to and plundered.” Hearing
-this news, the Protector ordered another army of eight thousand
-men, two thousand of whom were Germans, who were on their
-way to Scotland under the Earl of Warwick, to turn southward,
-march on Norwich, and disperse the rebels. After some
-resistance, Warwick entered the city, only to be so fiercely
-assailed on every side that it was as much as he could do to hold
-his ground. Ket galloped off towards Dossingdale; but
-Warwick’s troopers came after him, and 3500 of his men
-were cut to pieces. Yet another massacre followed, in which
-many of the royal forces were killed. Ket was captured at
-last, and hanged without ado, on the walls of Norwich Castle,
-his brother William (who had been a black monk of the Hospitallers
-of St. John)<a id="FNanchor_166" href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">166</a> was swung from the steeple of Wymondham
-Church, and nine of the ringleaders of the rebellion were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203">203</a></span>
-hanged on the “Tree of Reformation.” In the course of this
-expedition, Warwick saw enough to convince him that every
-town and village, farmstead and cottage, from the borders
-of Cambridge to the sea, was a hotbed of rebellion, and that
-the names of Somerset and Warwick had become loathed
-bywords.</p>
-
-<p>Such a state of internal strife, combined with foreign
-defeat, made up an aggregate of confusion which only a statesman
-of the highest genius could attempt to quell. Somerset,
-a man of indifferent education, even if of the best intentions,
-was quite unequal to the task. His natural defects of character&mdash;his
-love of power and money, his contempt for the
-ancient traditions of the country, his hatred of the religion
-of his ancestors, his prejudices and his inveterate habit of
-scheming, now began to occupy the malicious attention of his
-enemies, who felt the time for striking the decisive blow, which
-should crush his power for ever, was drawing nigh.</p>
-
-<p>Their plans were served by Warwick’s reception in London
-as a conquering hero, recognised by the metropolis as a successful
-and able leader. His ambitious views were well seconded
-by old ex-Chancellor Wriothesley, who had a personal grudge
-against Somerset, and who now took up his would-be rival as
-a promising instrument for his revenge. Durham House presently
-became the rendezvous of a great number of the older
-nobility, who were discontented with the new régime; and here
-they plotted and schemed, with one great object in their
-hearts&mdash;the overthrow of Somerset and the exaltation of
-Warwick. The Londoners, too, were against the Protector.
-Boulogne had been lost mainly through his blundering policy,
-and the French war had been notoriously unsuccessful. Moreover,
-when Warwick demanded extra pay for some two hundred
-soldiers who had assisted in quelling the Ket rebellion, and
-other risings, Somerset, unconsciously playing into his enemy’s
-hands, refused the request, and the mercenaries, naturally
-incensed against the Protector, held themselves ready to aid
-Warwick without compunction.</p>
-
-<p>Realising in some measure&mdash;especially after the defection
-of Pembroke and Winchester to Warwick’s party&mdash;that, unless
-he made some effort, his position would soon become
-altogether untenable, Somerset metaphorically entrenched<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204">204</a></span>
-himself and his family behind the person of the King at Hampton
-Court, and thence began to defy Warwick and his followers,
-so that, about September 1549, the Court of England was
-divided into two distinct camps&mdash;Warwick and the Council
-at Ely Place, Holborn; the Protector and the principal
-members of his party, Cranmer, Sir John Thynne, his secretary,
-Sir Thomas Smith, Cecil, Paget, and Petre, at Hampton
-Court, where King Edward was held in a state bordering on
-captivity. Then Somerset set to work to limit the power
-of his sovereign as much as possible, so as to have him on his
-own side in the struggle with Warwick, which was now beginning
-in earnest. On the ground that Warwick was bribing the
-Court lackeys to spy on the King, the royal attendants at
-Hampton Court were removed and replaced by Somerset’s
-own men. No one could approach His Majesty’s person save
-through the Protector. A stop was put to all those games
-and sports in which the little King delighted, on the score of
-his health, and the lad was made to feel himself so completely
-a prisoner, that he alludes sadly to the matter in his “Diary.”
-Meanwhile the Duke himself assumed almost regal rank,
-styling himself “By the Grace of God Lord Protector of the
-Realm, Highness”; using a prayer in which he is described
-as being “called by Providence to rule”; addressing the
-French King as “brother,” a title hitherto exclusively employed
-by the anointed monarch; and, as a climax, offending
-the nobility by taking a seat in the House of Lords above his
-peers. In October, he issued a proclamation, commanding all
-the King’s loyal subjects “to repair with all haste to His
-Highness at His Majesty’s Manor of Hampton Court, in most
-defensible array, with harness and weapons, to defend his most
-royal person, and his entirely beloved uncle the Lord Protector,
-against whom certain have attempted a most dangerous
-conspiracy. And this do in all possible haste. Given at
-Hampton Court the 5th day of October in the 3rd year of his
-most noble reign.”<a id="FNanchor_167" href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">167</a> Hundreds of copies of this document
-were distributed all over London; and Lord Edward Seymour,
-the Protector’s son, was dispatched with letters in the King’s
-name to Lord Russell and Sir William Herbert, who were still
-in the West, stamping out the rebellion, commanding them to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205">205</a></span>
-hasten to the aid of the King and himself, with all the troops
-they could muster. These worthies, who would seem to have
-had personal grievances against Somerset,<a id="FNanchor_168" href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">168</a> promptly threw
-in their lot with Warwick’s party, promising assistance, and
-sending to Bristol for cannon for that purpose. Somerset now
-set the printing-presses to work to distribute thousands of
-handbills, calling on townsfolk and villagers to rise and “protect
-the King and the Lord Protector,” “because he [the Lord
-Protector] is the friend of the poor and the enemy of their
-oppressors.” The Lord Mayor and Corporation were also
-commanded to dispatch a thousand men to Hampton Court,
-and the Lieutenant of the Tower received orders to close the
-gates of that fortress and refuse admission to members of the
-Council. On 5th October, Petre was sent to London to interview
-Warwick and the Council. He found them at Ely Place;
-but as Petre, thinking all lost, did not return to Hampton Court,
-the Protector never got any answer to his message. At the
-same time, the Council sent letters to the chief nobles throughout
-the country, demanding their aid and dilating on Somerset’s
-misdeeds. Within a few days, the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen,
-and the Lieutenant of the Tower had all turned traitors to
-the Protector, and promised Warwick their support.</p>
-
-<p>Hampton Court, put into a state of defence,<a id="FNanchor_169" href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">169</a> assumed the
-aspect of a fortress; the moat was filled up, the gates were
-fortified, and every battlement and tower was made ready in
-case of danger. Five hundred suits of armour were brought
-out of the armoury for the palace servants, much to the delight
-of King Edward, who watched the preparations. A vast
-crowd assembled round the palace, and in the neighbourhood;
-and the Protector, hoping that a sight of the King might
-rouse it to loyalty, led him into the Base Court, where<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206">206</a></span>
-the soldiers were drawn up to receive him. The stricken
-youth<a id="FNanchor_170" href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">170</a> appeared, leaning heavily on his uncle’s arm, with
-Archbishop Cranmer, Paget, and Cecil behind him; the heralds
-sounded their trumpets, and as the flare of the torches&mdash;for it
-was an autumn evening&mdash;flashed on their armour, the troops
-greeted his sickly Majesty with three times three cheers. From
-the Base Court the King and his escort passed over the stone
-bridge across the moat in front of the great gate, where a
-motley throng was gathered. Presently silence was obtained,
-and gradually the mumble of many voices was hushed, as the
-young King’s feeble tones struck on the still evening air,
-asking humbly, “I pray you be good to us and to our uncle.”
-Then Somerset made a speech, pleading in such stupid and
-selfish fashion for himself and the King that the rude crowd
-listened with impatience, and gave no cheers when he had
-finished. Mortified and disappointed, the Protector and the
-King turned their backs on the mob, and silently re-entered
-the palace. The people round Hampton Court were more
-bitter against Somerset than he imagined. Their grievance
-was not abstract and national, but local; they could not forget
-that it was Somerset who, in the first year of King Edward’s
-reign, had dechased Hampton Court Chase.</p>
-
-<p>Seeing himself unable to inspire the people with anything
-like enthusiasm for their sovereign (or for himself), Somerset
-determined on more vigorous action, and on 7th October,
-the King, despite his “rewme,” was hurried to Windsor, at
-nine or ten o’clock at night. Thence the Protector wrote to the
-Council, asking what had become of Petre, and why no answer
-had been vouchsafed to his message, adding, “that if any
-violence was intended to the King’s person, he would resist
-till death.” Negotiations by letter continued for some days,
-and there was even an interview on 12th October at Windsor,
-between Warwick’s group and the Protector. On the following
-day, a number of charges were promulgated against
-Somerset, and the once all-powerful “Lord Protector of these
-Realms” was arrested and confined for the night in Windsor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207">207</a></span>
-Castle. Next day he was conducted to the Tower, whither
-most of his adherents and associates in the Hampton Court
-adventure had preceded him; and he had the mixed pleasure
-of being received <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">en route</i> by his quondam friend the Lord
-Mayor, who had lately turned traitor to his cause. Meanwhile
-Edward, very glad, no doubt, to be rid of so austere and
-troublesome an uncle, returned from Windsor to Hampton
-Court, and appointed Warwick Lord Great Master and Lord
-High-Admiral. So far, John Dudley’s plot had prospered.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208">208</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF SOMERSET</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">In</span> the earlier stages of his struggle for power, when he
-felt himself insecure with the Protestant party, Warwick
-had endeavoured to secure Catholic support by promising
-the old religion a satisfactory amount of freedom; but no
-sooner was he safe in his saddle, during Somerset’s imprisonment
-(1549&ndash;50), than he became its inveterate enemy.
-The Protector had made an effort to liberate Gardiner, but
-Warwick kept him more closely confined than ever. During
-the new ruler’s term of office, the internal disorders of the
-country continued as acute, in every detail, as under Somerset’s
-régime; all military works fell into decay, no new ships of war
-were built, fortifications came to a standstill, and many troops
-were disbanded. The coinage was debased, though the Protector
-had worked hard to improve it; the tribunals were as
-corrupt as at any period. To ensure the passing of his vigorous
-religious measures, and carry on his administration, Warwick
-“packed” both Parliament and Council with his own staunchest
-followers. It was almost a piece of good fortune for him when
-Somerset was released from the Tower, for so great was the
-general dissatisfaction with his administration that he would
-probably have been overthrown in his turn.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_208" class="figcenter" style="width: 371px;">
- <img src="images/i_208.jpg" width="371" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>EDWARD SEYMOUR, DUKE OF SOMERSET</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PAINTING BY HOLBEIN</p></div></div>
-
-<p>During the winter of 1549&ndash;50, Somerset, confined in the
-gloomy old fortress, was striving to retrieve his tottering
-fortunes. His first move was to sign (in December) a confession
-of “his guilt, presumption, and incapacity.” Early in January
-1550, a bill, brought before Parliament and passed in both
-Houses, promised him his life, on condition that he forfeited
-his estates to the King, gave up his positions, and paid a fine
-of £2000 a year in land. He attempted to appeal against
-the extent of the forfeiture, but the Council grew so menacing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209">209</a></span>
-that the fallen Protector, with visions, it may be, of Tower
-Hill and the block before his eyes, thought it best to pocket
-his grievance. So on 2nd February he wrote to the Council
-expressing his gratitude to the King for sparing his life and
-treating him so leniently. According to a letter from Ab
-Ulmis to Bullinger, dated from Oxford, 4th December 1551,
-Warwick generously made an effort to save the Duke by
-imploring him in court to throw himself upon the mercy of
-the King, which he did. On the 4th of that same month he
-was released, after giving a bond of £10,000 as a guarantee
-of good behaviour, and on the peculiar conditions that he
-should not go more than four miles away from the Council,
-nor yet come to the meetings unless summoned; further,
-if the King went near the palace at Sheen or Somerset’s own
-house at Sion (in one or other of which two places he was to
-abide), the former Protector was to depart instantly. The
-Duke’s full pardon was given on 16th February. At the
-same time, all those who had been imprisoned with him were
-released, after being mulcted in heavy fines.</p>
-
-<p>Immediately after his liberation Somerset joined the
-Court at Greenwich, and was shortly afterwards made a Privy
-Councillor! Indeed, before many months were over he had
-regained his former position and influence over the King so
-completely that Warwick considered it safer to become, at
-least publicly, reconciled to him. For this purpose he arranged
-a marriage between John, Viscount Lisle,<a id="FNanchor_171" href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">171</a> his own eldest son,
-and the Lady Ann Seymour, Somerset’s eldest daughter. This
-marriage took place on 3rd June (1550) at the royal palace at
-Sheen, and in the King’s presence. On the following day
-occurred yet another aristocratic wedding, also attended by
-His Majesty, that of Warwick’s third son, Sir Robert Dudley,
-afterwards famous as the Earl of Leicester of Elizabeth’s
-reign, with that renowned heroine of romance, Amy Robsart.
-Sir Walter Scott, in his <cite>Kenilworth</cite>, falls into the error&mdash;unless,
-indeed, he wilfully disregarded facts for the sake of artistic
-effect&mdash;of placing the scene of this marriage in Devonshire,
-and of describing it as clandestine. On the contrary, it was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210">210</a></span>
-quite an open affair, mentioned by King Edward in his
-<cite>Diary</cite> in the already quoted entry for 4th June 1550, relating
-to the cruel sport of duck-pulling. The King seems to have
-attended this wedding, but he was too ill to be present at the
-far more important marriages of his two cousins three years
-later. About this time, the summer of 1550, the ex-Protector’s
-forfeited lands were restored to him, and he was allowed to
-reconstitute his household as in the past.</p>
-
-<p>In February 1550 a proposal was brought before Parliament
-for the restoration of Somerset to the office and title of
-Lord Protector, and was only quashed by the prorogation of
-that body. He seemed in a fair way of regaining his old
-position of power, and the Dorsets, thinking no doubt that
-it would be well to be on friendly terms with him, began to
-bethink themselves once more of the old project of marriage
-between their eldest daughter, Lady Jane Grey, and young
-Hertford, who had once been on such intimate terms in their
-family circle that, as we have seen, the Lady Frances had
-on more than one occasion called him her “son.” She now
-wrote to Cecil<a id="FNanchor_172" href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">172</a> referring to some service Somerset had rendered
-her&mdash;this may have been her reason for reviving the matrimonial
-project&mdash;and stated incidentally that she much desired
-a match between his (Somerset’s) son and her daughter, but
-“that she wished to let the parties have their free choice.”
-Somerset does not, however, appear to have approved of the
-plan, for there is no evidence that he did anything now to
-further it, and when it was originally proposed he had
-allowed the matter to fall into abeyance. It is not at all
-improbable that the lady’s letter, if communicated to him,
-put him on his guard against traps such as the wily Dorsets
-might set for him and his son. The incident is not devoid
-of interest, as demonstrating how the Dorsets never ceased
-their intrigues and matrimonial schemes, and also how
-even Warwick’s best friends were none too sure of his
-eventual success, now his rival was again at large. The
-Dorsets were evidently anxious to have a foot in each camp;
-but this time they failed, and ended by falling back on
-Northumberland’s youngest son as a husband for the much-enduring
-Jane.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211">211</a></span>
-Meanwhile, Warwick was contemplating, by no means
-complacently, the honours and favour heaped upon the rival
-for whose ruin he was only awaiting some favourable opportunity.
-His first chance of proving his unvarying hatred of
-the Protector came on 15th October of the year 1550, on the
-occasion of the death of the aged Lady Seymour. This event
-placed her son, as we have already seen, in a quandary&mdash;a
-State funeral, such as was due to the King’s grandmother,
-would have enabled Warwick to accuse him of a fresh assumption
-of regal dignity; a private funeral, on the other hand,
-might be maliciously construed into disrespect shown to the
-sovereign. Wherefore Somerset consulted the Council as to
-what should be done. The reply, as already mentioned, was
-that a State funeral was not at all necessary, nor even any
-formal Court mourning, since such observances served “rather
-to pomp than to any edifying,” an opinion peculiar to the
-Council, for in the preceding August a State funeral (that of
-Lord Southampton) had been organised with all possible
-“pomp.” This denial of the honour due to Lady Seymour’s
-remains did not, of course, proceed from any idea of economy
-or Puritanism, but merely from the Council’s desire to insult
-Somerset and his family. It was an opportunity neglected,
-for if Seymour had insisted upon a State funeral, the
-events of the following year might have been anticipated,
-and the accusation of usurping regal honours brought against
-him at once. Another curious fact in connection with this
-funeral is that Somerset&mdash;a shining light amongst Reformers&mdash;wrote
-to ask Gardiner to “offer up Mass for the health of his
-mother’s soul after her death” (!)<a id="FNanchor_173" href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">173</a></p>
-
-<p>Another method adopted by Warwick was that already
-employed by Sudeley in his struggle with his elder brother,
-of spreading calumnies against his rival through the agency
-of a third person, and ensuring their reaching the King’s
-ears. After a time these tales began to make their impression
-on his juvenile Majesty, though Somerset, for his part,
-was working hard to recover the King’s favour entirely, and
-consolidate his own position. Rich, the Lord Chancellor,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212">212</a></span>
-an infamous traitor, gave him his aid and acted as his spy,
-keeping him informed of every movement made by Warwick
-and his party. One of Rich’s letters on this subject,
-addressed merely “To the Duke,” was handed by mistake
-to the Duke of Norfolk, next to Warwick, Somerset’s bitterest
-enemy; thus each opponent had some idea of his adversary’s
-plans. Still, so subtle was Warwick’s work that there was
-no movement against Somerset visible enough to justify
-him in taking open measures; there was nothing for it but
-to bide his time, and do his best, meanwhile, to ingratiate
-himself with the King. In public, the rivals appeared the
-best of friends, and, to maintain this pleasant fiction,
-Somerset, on 11th October 1551, attended what must
-have been a painful ceremony to him&mdash;the investiture of
-Warwick with the title of Duke of Northumberland in
-the Great Hall of Hampton Court.<a id="FNanchor_174" href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">174</a> The mortification
-caused by this evidence of his rival’s growing power,
-a power he could not openly attack, must have been
-bitter indeed.</p>
-
-<p>Side by side with Northumberland’s intrigues, the national
-discontent, of which we have already given instances, and which
-had been intensified by Northumberland’s brief term of office,
-was a potent factor in the eventual ruin of the Protector:
-for we may be sure Somerset’s enemies took good care to
-father Northumberland’s misrule on his rival. It would
-be useless for our purpose, though easy indeed, to cite
-further and numerous instances of the universal disorder
-into which the realm had fallen. Suffice to say that the
-England of this period strongly resembled France under
-the Directory. Everything was upside down. The faith of
-the people had received a staggering blow, from which it
-would take nearly a hundred years to recover, and then
-only in a measure, for to this day the masses of the lowest
-class of the people of England remain in terrible darkness,
-alike indifferent to influences religious and moral. In the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213">213</a></span>
-reign of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span>, and in the first years of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, no
-hale man or woman dreamt of missing Mass on a Sunday:
-under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, Latimer complained that the churches were
-deserted, and Gardiner describes the lower classes as gradually
-falling into a state of paganism. This relaxation of religious
-observance influenced the popular morals, and in every class
-the domestic habits of the country were most disreputable.
-So bad was the condition of things, in fact, that Northumberland
-and his party came to realise that Somerset’s worst enemy
-was himself; in other words, that the general discontent
-and misery arising from his maladministration&mdash;or, to be
-just, in some cases from causes over which he had no
-control&mdash;furnished a more powerful argument against him
-than the spiteful inventions of his opponents. They must
-have felt confident that any blow they struck at him would
-meet with little or no opposition, but rather with encouragement
-from the people, who had turned the cold shoulder on
-his appeal at Hampton Court some two years previously.</p>
-
-<p>Accordingly, on 16th October 1551, the Duke of Somerset
-was suddenly re-arrested in the Council Chamber<a id="FNanchor_175" href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">175</a> at Hampton
-Court, and taken to the Tower to await his trial on charges
-made against him to Northumberland by Sir Thomas Palmer,
-“a brilliant but unprincipled soldier.” Palmer asserted that
-Somerset and his friends had plotted to raise the North of
-England against Northumberland; that he had intended to
-secure the Tower, to incite the populace of London to revolt,
-to seize the Great Seal, with the aid of the City apprentices,
-and, finally, to murder the Duke and his principal supporters
-at a supper in Lord Paget’s house. There would seem to
-have been but little truth in these charges; Northumberland at
-a later date, at any rate, confessed that they were fabrications,
-and Palmer, before his death, described them as the products
-of Northumberland’s fertile imagination. This second trial of
-the Lord Protector took place on 1st December in Westminster
-Hall. The judges were seven and twenty peers, amongst<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214">214</a></span>
-them all the prisoner’s enemies&mdash;Northumberland, Northampton,
-and Pembroke, with the Marquis of Winchester as
-President. The business was conducted with the unfairness
-which distinguished nearly all the political trials of this
-period; no witnesses for the prosecution were produced in
-person, but their depositions were read. The indictments
-accused Somerset of plotting to lay hands on Northumberland
-and others, to seize the Great Seal and the Tower, and to deprive
-the sovereign of his kingly power; he was also charged with
-having incited the citizens of London to rebel against the King.
-The official indictment made no mention of his supposed
-intention of assassinating Northumberland; neither was
-Paget, in whose house it was alleged the murder was to
-have taken place, ever tried for his share in the plot. This
-melodramatic accusation would, in fact, seem to have been
-entirely dropped at the last moment. Somerset, who denied
-the charges, was acquitted of treason on the first count, but
-found guilty on that of felony for inciting the citizens to revolt.
-There is ample evidence that he never did anything of the
-kind. Winchester, a few months back his enthusiastic ally,
-pronounced the death sentence on the unhappy man. Its
-effect upon him was sudden and staggering. He became
-pale, and fell upon his knees before Northumberland,
-Northampton, and Pembroke, who turned their backs whilst
-he besought the people to pray for him and his family.
-And so he was ordered back to the Tower to prepare for
-death. The count of treason not having been proved,
-the axe did not face the prisoner on the way back
-to his cell, and “the people, supposing he had been
-clerely quitt, when they see the axe of the Tower put
-downe, made such a shryke [shriek] and castinge up of
-caps, that it was heard into the Long Acre beyonde
-Charing crosse.”<a id="FNanchor_176" href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">176</a> This must have cheered him greatly.
-He may have thought and hoped that the people loved
-him still.</p>
-
-<p>King Edward is said to have expressed considerable anxiety
-on his uncle’s account, but his distress did not prevent him
-from indulging, according to his own statement, notwithstanding
-his delicate health, in exceptionally riotous Christmas<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215">215</a></span>
-festivities.<a id="FNanchor_177" href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">177</a> The popular joy over his acquittal on the charge
-of treason proved fatal to Somerset, for it convinced Northumberland
-more than ever of the necessity of destroying his
-rival. Holinshed sarcastically informs us that “Christmas
-being thus passed and spent with much mirth and pastime,
-it was thought now good to proceed to the execution of the
-judgment against the Duke of Somerset.” Notwithstanding
-the frequency of such events, the execution of so great a nobleman
-produced a considerable impression throughout London.
-Though every precaution was taken to prevent the assembling
-of an unusual crowd, Tower Hill was black with people long
-before dawn on 22nd January 1552, the day of doom. The vast
-assembly had gathered in the expectation of the Duke’s reprieve
-rather than of his death. There was an extraordinary muster
-of halberdiers, men-at-arms, sheriffs and their officers. At eight
-o’clock Somerset was brought forth. He faced the axe manfully,
-knelt down and said his prayers, and then, rising to his
-feet, made a speech. Unlike most of his peers, he did not
-deny with his last breath the religion he had helped to promulgate;
-there was nothing he regretted less, said he, when
-on the brink of his bloody fate, than his endeavours “to reduce
-religion to its present state, and he exhorted the people to continue
-steadfast in the Reformation principles, and thereby
-escape the wrath of God.” Just as he was about, according
-to custom, to take formal leave of the crowd, great confusion
-was caused by the arrival of a body of soldiers with bills and
-halberds, who had received orders to attend the execution.
-Arriving late, these men dashed towards the scaffold, and their
-onrush, combined with some noise as of thunder,&mdash;“a great
-sound which appeared unto many above in the element as it
-had been the sound of gunpowder set on fire in a close house
-bursting out,”&mdash;terrified the mob, and an awful panic ensued:
-spectators standing on the edge of the Tower moat lost
-their balance and fell into the water, and not a few were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216">216</a></span>
-trampled underfoot and others broke their necks. Presently,
-in the midst of the hubbub, during which Somerset was left so
-unguarded that, it is said, he might easily have escaped, Sir
-Anthony Browne was seen riding towards the spot. The mob,
-somewhat recovered from its consternation, imagined he
-was bringing a reprieve, and shouted, “A pardon, a pardon!”
-casting their caps and cloaks into the air. But Sir Anthony
-brought no message of mercy with him. The doomed Duke
-had been standing quietly on the edge of the scaffold, watching
-the turmoil. He too, when he heard the shouts of “Pardon!”
-imagined his nephew had remembered him; but he soon
-realised his error. The hectic colour which for a moment
-had flushed his cheeks with the gleam of hope faded as, in
-a ringing voice, he concluded his interrupted speech; and that
-done, he bestowed his rings on the headsman, said a few words
-to the Dean of Christchurch, bared his neck, knelt on the straw,
-and laid his head on the block. Another instant and the axe
-had fallen. Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and first
-Lord Protector of England, was buried in the Church of St.
-Peter-ad-Vincula within the Tower on the north side of the
-choir, between the coffins of the Queens Anne Boleyn and
-Katherine Howard; the funeral rites were those of the Church
-of England, as then constituted, “but hurried and simple as
-for a pauper.”<a id="FNanchor_178" href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">178</a></p>
-
-<p>The character of Edward Seymour has been the subject of
-much discussion; but it would seem fair to seek a <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">via media</i>
-between the over-severe condemnation of some historians
-and the exaggerated praise of others. If we cannot exalt him
-to the high pedestal upon which he has been set by Mr. Pollard,
-we need not fall into the error of degrading him to the low
-level assigned him by eighteenth-century historians. Somerset
-must not be judged by modern standards. If the balance of
-good and evil in his character is considered, and we contemplate
-him by the light of the middle sixteenth century, we may<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217">217</a></span>
-even come to share the opinion of a large section of the London
-populace of his day&mdash;mostly those of the Protestant party,
-be it said&mdash;who looked on him as an admirable and God-fearing
-man,<a id="FNanchor_179" href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">179</a> who did his best to free the people from much of the
-superstition, oppression, and injustice from which it suffered.
-His faults, his ambition and lust of power, were very human;
-and the evils of his administration were largely due to the
-condition to which Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s misrule had reduced the
-country. The age in which he lived was very unpropitious
-to statesmen and leaders of men, for, no matter how intelligent
-they might be, some rival lurking in the shade was
-sure to be ready to trip them up and take their place at the
-first opportunity. On the whole, Somerset seems to have
-worked for what he believed to be the interests of his King
-and the good of the Protestant religion, to which he was consistently
-faithful. His domestic life was clean, and in an age
-of place-hunters and libertines Edward Seymour was one of
-the most respectable men. Neither entirely mediocre nor
-altogether great, the Duke of Somerset may be described as
-<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">un grand homme manqué</i>&mdash;one who just missed greatness.</p>
-
-<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;A long letter from a Reformer named Francis
-Burgoyne, written from London to John Calvin on 22nd
-January 1552, gives a most detailed account of the Duke of
-Somerset’s execution, and an analysis of his character which
-is of great interest. He says: “Hence arise our tears, hence
-arises the all but universal distress, that on this very day,
-about 9 o’clock, the Duke of Somerset of pious memory, when<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218">218</a></span>
-hardly any person looked for or suspected such an event, was
-led out publicly to execution. I myself was not present at the
-sight ... but many of my friends related to me what they
-had seen and heard.” Then follows a long account, given to
-Burgoyne by Utenhovius, of Somerset’s last speech, continuing
-that “he spake all this ... with a look and gesture
-becoming the firmness of a hero, and the modesty of a Christian;
-(they say) that he was splendidly attired, as he used to be
-when about to attend upon the King, or to appear in public
-on some special occasion; that he gave the executioner some
-gold rings which he drew from his fingers, together with all
-his clothes; only to a certain gentleman, the Lieutenant of
-the Tower of London ... he gave his sword and upper
-garment. What weeping, and wailing, and lamentation,
-followed upon the death of this nobleman, it is as difficult to
-describe as to believe. It is stated by some persons who belong
-to the household of some of the Councillors ... that by the
-Royal indulgence the capital punishment had been remitted,
-with a free pardon, while the Duke was yet in prison, and
-that whole Council sent to inform him of it more than once;
-but when he rejected with contempt the grace that was offered
-to him, (I know not whether in reliance on his own innocence, or
-on the favour of the King and some other parties, or on his own
-influence, and wealth, and rank, or on some other delusive
-persuasion), the whole Council were at length so irritated by this
-conduct, that they determined that they would no longer
-endure that excessive arrogance of the man.... It is quite
-evident, in my opinion, that the deceased nobleman, like other
-men, was not without his faults, and those perhaps more
-grievous than could be passed over by God without punishment
-in this life.... This man was endowed and enriched
-with most excellent gifts of God both in body and mind, but
-is not that the best gift, that God has chosen the light of the
-Gospel to shine forth by his instrumentality throughout this
-Kingdom.... I do not now mention how God had so exalted
-him, from being born in a private station, that as the late King’s
-brother-in-law, the brother of a Queen, the uncle of the present
-King, he had no one here superior to him in any degree of
-honour, and then especially, when appointed Lord Protector
-of the Realm, he was all but King, or rather esteemed by everyone<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219">219</a></span>
-as the King of the King.” Burgoyne then passes to the
-subject of Somerset’s religion: “During almost the whole
-time when we were both of us here, he had become so lukewarm
-in the service of Christ as scarcely to have anything less at
-heart than the state of Religion in this country. Nor indeed
-did he retain in this respect anything worthy of commendation,
-excepting that, as far as words go, he always professed himself
-a Gospeller when occasion required such acknowledgement.”
-“It is notorious to every one in this Kingdom,” he continues,
-“that he was the occasion of his brother’s death, who, having
-been convicted on a charge of treason which no one could
-prove against him by legal evidence, and of which when brought
-to execution he perseveringly denied the truth, was beheaded
-owing to his information, instigated by I know not what
-hatred and rivalry against his brother.... In fine, that very
-act, for which he was last of all thrown into prison, was both
-unworthy of a Christian such as he professed himself to be,
-and also sufficiently shews that the most part of the crimes
-which I have laid to his charge, have their foundation in
-truth. For he was himself the head and author of a certain
-conspiracy against the Duke of Northumberland, lately called
-the Earl of Warwick, whom he pursued with the most unrelenting
-hatred, as having been foremost in depriving him
-of the rank of Protector, and being himself regarded from that
-time by the King’s Councillors as occupying that office; the
-Duke of Somerset, I say, gained over some accomplices in this
-conspiracy even from among the Council itself (who are now
-in prison awaiting the King’s pleasure respecting them), by
-which it was agreed among them, that on the Duke of Northumberland
-being dispatched (together with any of his friends
-who should oppose their views) either by violence, or in
-secret, or in any other way, they should place the entire
-administration of the Kingdom in their own hands, but that
-the Duke of Somerset should be invested with the chief authority,
-or even be restored to the order of Protector.” The
-writer, after saying that “at his death he manifested some
-favourable marks of Christian penitence,” concludes: “Two
-reasons are present to my mind which increase my regret;
-one of them is, that we have lost so great a man, and
-one who was not so entirely corrupted but that there<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220">220</a></span>
-remained some hope both of his reformation, and also
-that the interest of the Gospel would in any case be advanced
-by his authority and protection, since there is certainly the
-greatest scarcity and want of such characters in this
-country.”<a id="FNanchor_180" href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">180</a></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221">221</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE LADY JANE MARRIES THE LORD GUILDFORD</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> execution of the Duke of Somerset left the stage
-clear for Northumberland, who was now all-powerful.<a id="FNanchor_181" href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">181</a>
-More cunning than his predecessor, he avoided offending
-the nation by assuming the title of “Protector,” and rousing
-his colleagues’ jealousy by styling himself “Highness.” Little
-cared he whether he sat on the King’s right hand or on his
-left, so long as his young sovereign obeyed him implicitly&mdash;on
-this point he was resolved. His ambition was sordid enough:
-he had no care for the people, but a great deal for his own
-advancement to wealth and power; and his wife and children
-were as greedy and ambitious as himself. He had flattered
-the Catholics, and if Princess Mary had been younger, and
-willing to marry one of his sons, the religious history of England
-might have been different. Somerset had always entertained
-a friendly feeling for Mary, who was kind to his wife, while
-he hated Elizabeth; Northumberland loathed both Henry
-<span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s daughters equally. Almost his first act on entering<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222">222</a></span>
-office, nominally as Great Master of the Household or Lord
-High Steward, but virtually as Lord Protector of the Realm,
-was to annoy Mary by opening up the question of her chaplains,
-and her right to have Mass said in her private chapel&mdash;a blunder
-which nearly resulted in a war with the Emperor, her cousin,
-to whom the Princess appealed. Then he lent Cranmer a
-hand in persecuting the Anabaptists. The fires of Smithfield
-flared up once more. Joan Bocher, and Peter of Paris a
-Dutchman, were put to death, though Cranmer found it hard
-to get Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> to set his hand to the warrant for Joan’s
-execution. With great alacrity, then, Northumberland
-pushed on Somerset’s iconoclastic vandalism, till he made
-our glorious cathedrals and churches as bare as meeting-houses.
-Shiploads of holy images, chalices, pictures, and
-painted windows were carted out of the churches, defaced,
-destroyed, or sold, and carried abroad, even as far as Constantinople,
-where a cargo of “imaugys” from England fetched a
-high figure among the Catholics of Pera and Galata. So
-wanton was the destruction of Church linen at this time that
-the citizens, disgusted at seeing it burnt at the street corners,
-petitioned Northumberland to hand it over to the hospitals.</p>
-
-<p>The Catholics, perceiving they had gained nothing in
-return for the help they had given Northumberland, retired
-into obscurity, to wait for better days; whilst the Reformers
-acclaimed the zeal of a man who fought so fiercely against
-the faith in which he eventually elected to die. It presently
-occurred to the Lord High Steward that the young King was
-failing fast. The servants about the Court saw death in the
-boy’s pale face and shrunken form, and heard its stealthy
-advance in his feeble voice and hacking cough. To curry
-favour for himself, Northumberland allowed the dying monarch
-greater freedom than he had hitherto enjoyed. Sports and
-pastimes were arranged for his amusement, and if we may
-believe his <cite>Journal</cite>, he enjoyed them after his own fashion.
-Nobody had been so kind to him since his uncle Thomas’s
-death! But sports and pastimes could not galvanise the
-attenuated lad into fresh vigour, and he grew worse every
-day, watched with anxious eyes by Northumberland and
-Suffolk, and above all by Cranmer, whose hopes were concentrated
-in him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223">223</a></span>
-Since his accession to great wealth the Duke of Suffolk
-had gradually abandoned Bradgate for London and fixed
-his family’s abode at Sheen,<a id="FNanchor_182" href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">182</a> in the abbot’s buildings of the
-once opulent Carthusian monastery, which he had adapted as
-a private residence.<a id="FNanchor_183" href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">183</a> Here the Suffolks resided towards
-the end of the year 1552 and during the early part of the
-momentous year 1553. The house, a large and noble structure,
-with a long Gothic gallery running from end to end, stood close
-to the venerable palace built by Edward the Confessor. It
-was supposed to be haunted&mdash;the place was often disturbed
-after dark by the sound of footsteps, the rustle of ghostly
-garments, and the mutter of unearthly voices; but the most
-ghastly incident of all was one which struck sudden terror
-into the hearts of the Duke and Duchess as they paced the
-gallery in the gloaming. All at once a skeleton hand and arm
-thrust itself from the wall, and brandished in their faces a
-sword, or, as some said, an axe, dripping with blood. It<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224">224</a></span>
-should be remembered that the Lady Frances was now in
-possession of nearly all the Carthusian property in and about
-London, which had been granted by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> to her father,
-Charles Brandon, and which she had lately inherited from
-her stepbrothers; and this spectre may have been contrived
-by some friend of the exiled Brotherhood to impress on the
-Duchess and her brood the sacrilegious origin of this wealth,
-which certainly did not bring them good luck.</p>
-
-<p>Nearly opposite to this uncanny residence stood Syon or
-Sion House, an ancient Bridgetine convent which had been
-presented at the Dissolution to the late Duke of Somerset,
-and which his rival, the Duke of Northumberland, had filched
-from his widow. As the scene of the most dramatic event in
-Lady Jane Grey’s short life, it still retains considerable historical
-interest; but although much of the old convent is standing,
-the cloisters and other portions have been hidden under the
-plaster and stucco of an exceedingly ugly structure of the
-debased Victorian villa type.<a id="FNanchor_184" href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">184</a></p>
-
-<p>Northumberland, although he had not yet evolved the
-scheme of marrying his only bachelor and youngest son to
-Jane Grey, none the less considered the amity of the Suffolks
-too valuable an asset to be neglected. At this time Northumberland’s
-power and certainly his secrets were largely shared
-by his ally, the Duke of Suffolk, who never took any initiative
-or made a step in any direction without the consent of his all-powerful
-friend, who knew him to be a “weakling.”<a id="FNanchor_185" href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">185</a></p>
-
-<div id="ip_224" class="figcenter" style="width: 467px;">
- <img src="images/i_224.jpg" width="467" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>SUPPOSED PORTRAIT OF LADY JANE GREY, FORMERLY IN THE COLLECTION
-OF COL. ELLIOTT, AND NOW AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PAINTING BY HOLBEIN</p></div></div>
-
-<p>Northumberland, it would seem, did not at first intend
-Guildford for Lady Jane Grey, but for the Lady Margaret
-Clifford, whose right to the throne was at this time considered
-less disputable, she being Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s own grand-niece, eldest
-daughter of the Lady Eleanor Brandon, the younger sister of
-the Duchess of Suffolk. Born after the nullification of Charles
-Brandon’s marriage with Lady Mortimer, her legitimacy was
-indisputable, whereas the enemies of the Suffolks were busily
-engaged about this time (1552) in spreading a report that Jane<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225">225</a></span>
-was illegitimate, her mother, the Lady Frances, having come
-into the world during the lifetime of the said Lady Mortimer.
-This insinuation was probably made by Lady Powis, Brandon’s
-eldest daughter by his second wife, Anne Browne.
-At one moment this matter of Lady Jane’s illegitimacy came
-very near saving her life, but Queen Mary, to whom the
-matter was represented, refused, it is said, to take such a
-possibility into consideration, out of respect for the memory
-of her aunt, the Queen-Duchess of Suffolk, whose marriage
-would have been invalidated if this assumption had been
-proved. Among Catholics, however, Lady Jane’s legitimacy
-was much disputed, and the Lady Eleanor prudently refused
-to encourage any great intimacy between her daughter and
-Northumberland’s son; she and her family, indeed, kept
-themselves in the background as much as they possibly
-could. At last, even though the boy-King had been induced
-to take an interest in the projected marriage, and had written
-both to Northumberland and to the Earl of Cumberland
-on the subject, the Duke altered his mind, and in 1553,
-with the casual fashion of those days, having decided to
-marry Guildford to the Lady Jane, he “offered” the Lady
-Margaret Clifford to his own younger brother, Sir Andrew
-Dudley.<a id="FNanchor_186" href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">186</a></p>
-
-<p>Perhaps that which finally decided Northumberland to
-abandon his first project was the unguarded and compromising
-language used by a certain Mrs. Huggones, a former servant of
-the widowed Duchess of Somerset. This good woman’s tongue
-having been loosened on one occasion by too liberal potations&mdash;the
-conversation is said to have taken place during supper&mdash;openly
-lamented the Duke of Somerset’s misfortunes (the
-incident occurred about August 1552), called the young King
-an unnatural nephew, and vivaciously remarked she wished<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226">226</a></span>
-she “had the jerking of him.” She added that Lord Guildford
-Dudley was to marry the daughter of the Earl of Cumberland,
-the match having been planned by the King, and finally,
-“with a stoute gesture,” she cried, “have at the Crown, with
-your leave.” Further, she used “unseemly saiyenges, neither
-meet to be spoken, nor conseyled of any hearer.” Sir William
-Stafford, in whose house at Rochford, in Essex, the affair
-apparently occurred, wrote to the Privy Council an account of
-these injudicious remarks. On 8th September, Mrs. Huggones
-was arraigned before Sir Robert Bowes, Master of the Robes,
-and Sir Arthur Darcy, Lieutenant of the Tower, acting for the
-Privy Council. She denied what had been said of her, and
-expressed great admiration for Northumberland. “And,
-moreover, she being examined of the last article concerning
-the marriage of the Lord Guildford Dudley with the Earl of
-Cumberland’s daughter, she deposeth that she heard it spoken
-in London (but by whom she now remembereth not) that the
-King’s ma<sup>ty</sup> had made such a marriage, and so she told the
-first night that she came to Rochford to supper, showing
-herself to be glad thereof, and so she thought that all the
-hearers were also glad at that marriage.”<a id="FNanchor_187" href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">187</a> Maybe the fact
-that her daughter was becoming the subject of popular gossip
-was another incentive to the proud Lady Eleanor to place
-obstacles in the way of Northumberland’s proposal.<a id="FNanchor_188" href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">188</a></p>
-
-<p>There is no evidence that any of the Reformers visited
-the Suffolks at Sheen, but it is probable they did so, for the
-success of the Northumberlands’ scheme depended on the zeal
-of Lady Jane for Protestantism being kept at fever heat;
-and we may therefore conclude her Reforming friends were
-frequent guests at the ex-monastery.</p>
-
-<p>The foreign Reformers were at this time very active all over<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227">227</a></span>
-England. Cranmer was particularly engaged with them,
-sending the smartest among them to lecture at Oxford and
-Cambridge, and inviting the great Melanchthon, and even
-Calvin himself, to visit England and preach, although the
-religious opinions of both were very different from his own. He
-even proposed to Calvin the formation of a sort of Protestant
-œcumenical council in London in opposition to the Council of
-Trent. In March 1552, he wrote to Calvin: “Our adversaries
-are now holding their Council at Trent for the establishment of
-their errors. Shall we neglect to call together here in London
-a godly synod for restoring and propagating the truth?”</p>
-
-<p>There is nothing in Reformation correspondence so interesting
-or so curious as the <cite>Zurich Letters</cite>&mdash;no writings so rich
-in details and revelations. The tone of these old letters, of
-Melanchthon, Calvin, Cranmer, Hooper, Conrad Pellican,
-Œcolampadius, Hilles, Hales, Gualter, Fagius, Stumphius,
-Ab Ulmis, Bullinger, Bucer, etc. etc., is strangely modern.
-It is easy to imagine oneself to be reading the documentary
-evidence of some great modern revolutionary scheme for “the
-betterment of humanity.” All these worthies held themselves
-in a “godly” light uncommon to the rest of mankind. They,
-and they only, brandished the torch of truth, albeit they did
-not by any means hold identical views on even the most vital
-points of Christian faith&mdash;but they were as one when face to
-face with their common enemy, the Pope, and the religion he
-represented, and any blow dealt at Lutheranism was an equal
-joy to them. Cranmer would have burnt half of them to cinders
-for their “heresies” had they been Englishmen&mdash;he sent Anne
-Askew and Joan Bocher to the stake for holding “errors”
-which coincided with those of some of his foreign friends,
-Stumphius, Fagius, and Calvin, for instance! He would have
-hanged a Briton for stating in plain English his belief in predestination&mdash;but
-none the less invited over to a synod the
-great teacher of that desperate doctrine. These men were,
-no doubt, in earnest, and have left some strange details of
-their doings which throw floods of light on the history and
-mentality of the times in which they lived. They believed
-themselves to be so many God-appointed apostles, and
-addressed each other as “father in Christ,” even substituting
-for their common Teutonic names rich-sounding classical<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228">228</a></span>
-ones&mdash;Œcolampadius, Stumphius, Massarius, Utenhovius,
-Terentianus, Vadianus, Osiander, Dryander, Ochianus,
-etc. They would willingly have suffered death heroically
-and patiently for what they believed to be the truth. On the
-other hand, they could hate like very devils; Mary to them
-was Jezebel or Ataliah, Philip, Satan, Pole, a hell-hound,
-and the Pope, the Scarlet Whore and worse than the
-Devil. They could not speak decently of their adversaries;
-and it is precisely here that we see their influence on the
-youthful Jane&mdash;the reason why, if she really wrote the letter
-to Harding after his reversion to Catholicism, she employed
-a viragoish language unworthy of so gentle a Christian.</p>
-
-<p>We have no positive proof of how the two families, of
-Northumberland and Suffolk, passed their time in the more
-genial months of the years 1552&ndash;3, when the Thames is
-pleasantest, especially in the neighbourhood where they had
-elected to pitch their respective camps. The two Dukes
-and their Duchesses cannot always have been engaged in
-political intrigues; they must have given themselves some
-occasional recreation, and we may imagine that archery,
-tennis, and other sports, dancing, music, and such amusements,
-were frequently indulged in at Sheen and Sion, the
-two state barges incessantly crossing and recrossing the river,
-from one mansion to the other. We can picture the scene
-on the lawn in front of Sion, down which the handsome
-Duchess of Northumberland often went to welcome the Lady
-Frances and her daughters as they landed from their barge,
-leading them, with the stately ceremony of those days, from
-the water-gate to the terrace in front of the former convent,
-and so into the cloisters along which the sisterhood of St.
-Bridget had so often and so recently passed in solemn procession
-to their now ruined chapel. And then came the gay romp in
-the hall and the merry games of the young folk, in which even
-the austere little Lady Jane would condescend to mingle,
-to the righteous consternation, doubtless, of her friends from
-Zurich and Geneva. Here, too, must have come the handsome
-Ambrose Dudley, lately married to the Lady Anne Seymour;<a id="FNanchor_189" href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">189</a>&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229">229</a></span>but
-did that lady visit the house of the man who had compassed
-the ruin and death of her father? And here Robert Dudley,
-afterwards the famous Earl of Leicester, may have brought
-his affianced wife, the fair Amy Robsart of <em>Kenilworth</em> fame.
-And the Lady Mary Sidney, Northumberland’s elder daughter,
-and wife of Sir Henry Sidney, soon to become the mother of
-one of the most illustrious men of the Elizabethan age, no
-doubt joined the circle with her clever young husband. In
-these hours of relaxation, when the dark undertakings to which
-the politics of those bloody days forced them were forgotten,
-these youths overflowed with animal spirits, and it is more
-than likely that Jane and her sister Katherine, and even the
-little Lady Mary, romped merrily with their guests. It was
-a romping age, the good old healthy country dances were
-in high favour, and the best performer was he who could
-lift his lady highest off the ground, or could cross his legs
-twice in a pirouette before he touched the floor again!
-Northumberland himself was famous as a dancer of extraordinary
-elegance and skill. That the Calvinism in which
-they had dabbled had not as yet stirred up Henry of Suffolk
-and his Tudor consort to a proper pitch of “godliness” is
-evident, for a company of players who had enacted comedies,
-tragedies, and tragi-comedies at Tylsey in the previous year,
-repeated their performances at Sheen in the winter of 1552&ndash;3,
-and brought a smile, perchance, to the pale lips of the studious
-Lady Jane, and evoked a hearty laugh from her materialistic
-mother, who, for aught we know to the contrary,&mdash;let us hope
-it was not so!&mdash;may already have begun to allow a certain
-ginger-headed Master Adrian Stokes, His Lordship’s Groom of
-the Chambers, to pay her compliments which a great Princess
-and an honest woman ought to have nipped in the bud.
-Tradition has it that Northumberland and his colleague of
-Suffolk often played a game of chess together, and that
-Suffolk would wax irritable if Northumberland won more
-often than himself.</p>
-
-<p>No doubt, as soon as the Cumberland affair was broken
-off, and Northumberland had decided to marry his son to
-Lady Jane, Guildford was thrown as much into the young<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230">230</a></span>
-girl’s society as was possible in those days of rigid etiquette,
-when maidens of rank were not often allowed out of the sight
-of their parents and governesses. But there is no record of
-any love-making between the young folk: on the contrary,
-there is plenty of evidence that the girl disliked her suitor.
-About a week before the wedding her parents ordered
-her to marry the young gentleman, and, according to
-Baoardo,<a id="FNanchor_190" href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">190</a> she at first stoutly refused, “her heart,” she said,
-“being plighted elsewhere.” The Duke harshly reiterated
-his command and, according to the Italian chronicler, even
-struck his daughter several hard blows, whilst the broad red
-face of the Lady Frances purpled threateningly. The Duke
-told Jane her marriage had been ordained by no less a person
-than King Edward himself, and sharply inquired “whether
-she intended to disobey her King as well as her father?”
-Poor Jane, aching from his blows, could scarcely stammer
-her reply, “that she could not marry with Guildford since
-she was already contracted to another” and that with her
-father’s consent,&mdash;she doubtless alluded to the young Earl of
-Hertford, the late Duke of Somerset’s son. But what could
-a forlorn little girl of less than sixteen do, surrounded, as Jane
-was, by people whom she believed to be all-powerful? She
-had been so “nipped and pinched and bobbed” in her youth
-for an ill-constructed Latin verse or a faulty translation of a
-Greek sentence,<a id="FNanchor_191" href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">191</a> that her spirit was already more or less broken;
-she gave a reluctant consent at last; and straightway the
-two Duchesses began their wedding preparations. Milliners
-and haberdashers, glove-makers, embroiderers and Italian
-silk merchants flocked to Sion and Sheen to display their
-gewgaws and rich stuffs. Let us hope the little bride-elect
-derived some childish pleasure from all this finery,
-the ostentatious display of which must have thrown her
-Calvinistic friends into hysterics of righteous indignation.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231">231</a></span>
-And thus, long before she went to the Tower and thence
-to her unmerited doom, Jane’s life was made a burden to
-her. Like the forlorn bride of Lammermoor, she was the
-victim of cruel parents, and one only wonders her young mind
-did not totter under the weight of so much woe!</p>
-
-<p>Lord Guildford Dudley was born about 1533, and was
-consequently not yet of age, as Queen Mary afterwards remarked
-to the Imperial Ambassador. He was in his nineteenth year
-at the time of his ill-omened marriage. The Duchess of
-Northumberland, his mother, was granddaughter of that Lady
-Guildford who had been governess to Mary Tudor, sister of
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, and to whom occasional allusion is made in early
-Tudor documents as “Moder Guildford.” This lady had
-contrived to offend Louis <span class="smcap smaller">XII</span> of France, who packed her off to
-England the day after he married the English Princess. Thus
-the great-grandson of the governess and the granddaughter of
-the royal pupil eventually became man and wife. Lord
-Guildford Dudley’s case is believed to be the first instance,
-in this country, of the bestowal of a family instead of a Christian
-name at baptism; in stricter Catholic times it had been illegal
-to baptize a child by any name but that of a saint. Guildford
-was a tall, well-built youth, of very fair complexion.<a id="FNanchor_192" href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">192</a>
-In contrast with his splendid colouring and light-brown hair,
-he had the soft brown eyes which lend so peculiar a charm to
-the authentic portraits of his father, whose darling he was.<a id="FNanchor_193" href="#Footnote_193" class="fnanchor">193</a>
-The Northumberland family was proverbially beautiful;&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232">232</a></span>Robert,
-the famous Earl of Leicester and lover of Queen
-Elizabeth, was considered the handsomest man of his time.
-Guildford Dudley had a second name, James or Diego, received
-at his christening from a Spanish<a id="FNanchor_194" href="#Footnote_194" class="fnanchor">194</a> nobleman, the famous Diego
-Hurtado de Mendoza, a trivial circumstance, apparently, but
-fatal in its consequences, for, as we shall see, it was largely
-a foolishly worded letter from this godfather that brought
-Guildford to the block.</p>
-
-<p>It is uncertain whether Jane’s wedding was celebrated
-towards the end of May or in the beginning of June<a id="FNanchor_195" href="#Footnote_195" class="fnanchor">195</a> (1553),
-but the former is the date generally received. Three marriages
-occurred on the same day: the first that of Lady Jane Grey
-and Guildford Dudley; the second between Lord Herbert,<a id="FNanchor_196" href="#Footnote_196" class="fnanchor">196</a>
-eldest son of the Earl of Pembroke, and the Lady Katherine
-Grey, younger sister of Guildford’s bride; whilst the third
-was between Henry, Lord Hastings, eldest son of the Earl of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233">233</a></span>
-Huntingdon, and Lady Katherine, the young sister of Lord
-Guildford Dudley. On the same day, little Lady Mary Grey,
-barely eight years of age, was solemnly betrothed to her equally
-youthful kinsman, Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey’s wedding seems to have been exceptionally
-magnificent. Strype tells us that to increase its splendour
-and solemnity, the Master of the Wardrobe, Sir Andrew
-Dudley, had orders to deliver to the various parties much
-rich apparel and jewels out of the royal wardrobe.<a id="FNanchor_197" href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">197</a> As the
-King’s “table diamond” was delivered to the Princess Mary
-about this time, it seems probable that she also attended the
-wedding. These articles were not new, but consisted of
-velvets, brocades, pieces of cloth of gold, of silver, etc., the
-property of the late Duke of Somerset and of his Duchess,
-who was still a prisoner in the Tower; which had been forfeited
-to the King, on their attainder. Thus was poor Jane’s
-bridal party bedecked with the finery of her father’s victim,
-who preceded her by a few months only on the road to the
-bloodstained scaffold. The French Ambassador also mentions
-the exceptional pomp displayed at this wedding, but gives
-no details.</p>
-
-<p>No contemporary account of this particular ceremony is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234">234</a></span>
-in existence,<a id="FNanchor_198" href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">198</a> but the general custom was for the bride, attired
-in a dress highly ornamented with gold and embroidery, her
-hair hanging down, curiously waved and plaited, to be led to
-the church “between two sweet boys, with bride laces, and
-rosemary tied about their silken sleeves.” Before the bride
-was carried “a fair bride cup, of silver gilt,” “therein was a
-goodly branch of rosemary, gilded very fair, and hung about
-with silken ribbands of all colours; next there was a noise of
-musicians, that played all the way before her.”<a id="FNanchor_199" href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">199</a> Then
-followed a train of virgins in white, crowned with fresh flowers,
-with their hair hanging loose, some bearing bride cakes, and
-others garlands, adorned with gold. Last came the bridegroom,
-splendidly apparelled, with young men following
-close behind. There were scarves and gloves, an “epithalamium”
-and masques and dances; and “all the company
-was decked out with the bride’s colours, in every form and
-fantasy.”</p>
-
-<p>When Jane’s marriage took place, the populace, though
-far from pleased with the exorbitant pretensions of the Duke
-of Northumberland, could not forbear admiring the bridegroom’s
-extreme beauty of person. The bride was considered
-pretty, but small and freckled. She must have come,
-in all her bridal bravery, from Suffolk House in the Strand to
-Durham House, for it was the custom then, as it is still, for
-the bride to start from her paternal roof, and meet the bridegroom
-at the church door or even at the altar. The Church
-of St. Mary-le-Strand having been destroyed by Somerset, the
-service was undoubtedly held in the private chapel of the
-ex-palace of the Bishops of Durham, then the town residence
-of Northumberland.</p>
-
-<p>Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> was too ill to attend the wedding, and there is
-no direct evidence that either of the Princesses, his sisters,
-were present; though, as we have already said, Princess Mary
-may have been. Their absence, however, points to their fear
-of Northumberland’s sinister intentions. The young King<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235">235</a></span>
-made his cousin, Jane, and Lady Katherine Grey some wedding
-gifts of jewels and plate.</p>
-
-<p>Burke says in his <cite>Tudor Portraits</cite>, though on what authority
-he does not tell us, that on the morning of her fatal marriage,
-“Lady Jane’s headdress<a id="FNanchor_200" href="#Footnote_200" class="fnanchor">200</a> was of green velvet, set round with
-precious stones. She wore a gown of cloth of gold, and a
-mantle of silver tissue. Her hair hung down her back, combed
-and plaited in a curious fashion ‘then unknown to ladies of
-qualitie.’ This arrangement was said to have been devised
-by Mrs. Elizabeth Tylney, her friend and attendant, who was
-with her to the end. The bride was led to the altar by two
-handsome pages, with bride lace and rosemary tied to their
-sleeves. Sixteen virgins, dressed in ‘pure white,’ preceded
-the bride to the altar. Northumberland and his family were
-remarkable on this occasion for the splendour of their costumes.
-We have seen that they were jays in borrowed plumes. A
-profusion of flowers was scattered along the bridal route,
-the church bells gave a greeting, and the poor received beef,
-bread and ale for three days.”</p>
-
-<p>Ascham reports that the wedding was “conducted much
-in the old Popish fashion,” and adds, curiously enough, as a
-rider to this observation, that “Northumberland, notwithstanding
-his pretended zeal for the Reformation, was a Papist
-at heart.” He was quite right, as events proved, though it
-should be remembered that at this time of transition the order
-of the marriage ceremony, unlike that for funerals, had not
-yet been formulated according to the Reformed rite.</p>
-
-<p>Every item in this tragic story would seem predestined to
-increase its fateful horror. Part of Jane’s wedding dower was
-the estate of Stanfield in Norfolk,<a id="FNanchor_201" href="#Footnote_201" class="fnanchor">201</a> which has more than once<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236">236</a></span>
-been associated with scenes of horror, not the least dreadful
-being the Rush murder, in the second half of the last century.
-This property belonged at one time to the Robsart family,
-and was believed by many to be the birthplace of the fair
-Amy, Countess of Leicester, who was really, however, born at
-Syderstone, an adjacent manor.</p>
-
-<p>In the letter to Queen Mary, dated August 1553, quoted by
-Pollino,<a id="FNanchor_202" href="#Footnote_202" class="fnanchor">202</a> and written, according to him, from the Tower, Jane
-Grey relates the manner of her existence between her marriage
-and Edward’s death. “The Duchess of Northumberland,”
-she says, “promised me at my nuptials with her son, that she
-would be contented if I remained living at home with my
-mother. Soon afterwards, my husband being present, she
-declared that it was publicly said that there was no hope of the
-King’s life (and this was the first time I heard of the matter),
-and further she observed to her husband, the Duke of Northumberland,
-‘that I ought not to leave her house,’ adding
-‘that when it pleased God to call King Edward to His mercy
-I ought to hold myself in readiness, as I might be required
-to go to the Tower, since His Majesty had made me heir to his
-dominions.’ These words told me off-hand and without
-preparation, agitated my soul within me, and for a time
-seemed to amaze me. Yet afterwards they seemed to me
-exaggerated, and to mean little but boasting, and by no means
-of consequence sufficient to hinder me from going to my
-mother.” Evidently Jane expressed these sentiments very
-frankly, for she proceeds: “The Duchess of Northumberland
-was enraged against my mother and me. She answered ‘that
-she was resolved to detain me,’ insisting, ‘that it was my duty
-at all events to remain near my husband, from whom I should
-not go.’ Not venturing to disobey her, I remained at her
-house four or five days.” These days were most likely spent
-at Durham House. “At last,” continues Lady Jane, “I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237">237</a></span>
-obtained leave to go to Chelsea for recreation” (meaning
-perhaps change of air), “where I very soon fell ill.” Her
-illness was a struggle for life or death, the suffering so acute
-as to lead her to imagine she had been poisoned. The mention
-of this attack of what we should now call nervous breakdown,
-lends an indisputable air of authority to Jane’s letter as given
-by Pollino. There was really no earthly reason why anybody
-should attempt her life&mdash;it was certainly too precious to the
-Dudleys for the Duchess, an eminently respectable if an autocratic
-woman, to wish to see it prematurely ended. It is well
-known that this fear of being poisoned frequently seizes on
-people in time of distress.</p>
-
-<p>Chelsea Manor House, which had lately been in the possession
-of the Duke of Somerset, had fallen, with other property,
-into the hands of Northumberland, and thence he dates certain
-letters to Cecil and his other colleagues.<a id="FNanchor_203" href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">203</a> Lady Jane apparently
-preferred going to Chelsea to stopping at Durham House;
-and so departed without her husband, although so recently
-married. Guildford was not present at the scene at Sion
-(on 9th July) when the Crown was offered to his wife, which
-points to his having been left in bachelor solitude at Durham
-House. Possibly the absence of her mother-in-law from the
-Chelsea establishment accounts for the bride’s preference
-for that suburban residence; and having married Guildford
-without entertaining the least affection for him, she probably
-did not desire his presence either.</p>
-
-<p>The pomp and splendour of these nuptials were the last
-gleam of gaiety in the reign of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>. A very short time
-afterwards, the poor young King grew so pitifully weak that
-Northumberland thought it was time to carry his great projects
-into execution. Otherwise, as he clearly saw, he and
-his friends must not expect to continue long in power, or even
-in security: all his efforts, his overthrow of Somerset, and the
-rest, would be rendered useless if his royally born daughter-in-law
-was not named by the King himself as the lawful
-successor to the throne.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238">238</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">ON THE WAY TO THE TOWER</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> Duke of Northumberland is accused, even by
-almost contemporary authorities, of having forged
-the will of King Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>; but, as we shall presently
-see, that King never made a will, but left a sort of tentative
-document called a “Devise” for the succession, written in his
-own hand; though maybe it was suggested or even dictated
-by the Duke. By an Act&mdash;the <span class="smcap smaller">XXVIII</span> of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, cap. 7&mdash;it
-was enacted that, failing issue of Queen Jane Seymour,
-“Your Highness (Henry) shall have full and plenary power
-and authority to give, dispose, appoint, assign, declare, and
-limit by your letters-patent under your great seal, or else by
-your last will made in writing, and signed with your most
-gracious hand, at your only pleasure, from time to time hereafter,
-the Imperial Crown of this Realm.” Other Acts had
-recapitulated this; and King Henry, acting on the same
-principle, made a will in his thirty-fifth year, under the terms
-of which the Crown was to pass, firstly to his son Edward and
-his heirs; secondly, to his own heirs by the then Queen,
-Katherine Parr, “or any other wife I may have”; thirdly,
-to his daughter Mary; fourthly, to his daughter Elizabeth;
-fifthly, to the heirs of the body of his niece, the Lady Frances;
-sixthly, to those of her sister, Eleanor; seventhly, to the next
-rightful heirs, meaning the heirs of his sister, the Queen of
-Scots. It was also stipulated that if either of his daughters
-married without the consent of the Privy Council, they were to
-be passed over “as if dead.”</p>
-
-<p>Both Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> and his father seem to have wished for a
-male successor, for in the latter’s enactments limiting the
-succession, all the female heirs are set aside in favour of their
-as yet unborn male issue. King Edward’s “Devise” for the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239">239</a></span>
-limitation of the succession makes no allusion to his two
-sisters, the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. On the other
-hand, in the letters-patent for this limitation of the succession,
-which were based on the “Devise,” the Princesses’ claim is
-ruled out for three reasons: that they were illegitimate; that
-they were of half-blood to the King; that there was a chance
-of their marrying foreigners. Besides, as we have said, the
-King, like his father, was anxious for a male successor; in
-fact, this desire is on the very surface of the “Devise,” wherein
-much stress is laid on the “issue masle,” since for the one
-living male descendant of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span>&mdash;that is, Edward himself&mdash;there
-were as many as seven ladies (even excluding the Scotch
-line) potential to the English Crown.<a id="FNanchor_204" href="#Footnote_204" class="fnanchor">204</a></p>
-
-<p>The first limitation decided upon by the young King was
-to the Lady Frances’s issue male, born before the King’s
-death, and, failing them, the Lady Jane’s issue male. This
-scheme suited Northumberland, for if Jane had a son by
-Guildford the Duke would become the grandfather of the
-King of England and proportionately powerful. But as time
-went on it became evident that the King was doomed to an
-early death, and therefore a swifter and more practical solution
-of the succession problem had to be arrived at. The next
-best arrangement would have been the nomination of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240">240</a></span>
-Lady Frances;<a id="FNanchor_205" href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">205</a> Northumberland, however, could not approve
-of such a scheme, since it would have placed the weight of
-power in the hands of the Duke of Suffolk, her husband. At
-last, all plans failing, Edward decided to nominate the Lady
-Jane Grey as his successor to the throne&mdash;and thereby the
-Duke gained his point. The words in the “Devise,” “to the
-L’Janes heires masles,” were now changed to “<cite>to the L’Jane
-and</cite> her heires masles”: in the copy of the document bearing
-the King’s signature which is still extant, it can be seen that a
-pen has been drawn through the “s” at the end of Jane’s
-name, and the words “and her” have been written above.
-Thus was manufactured<a id="FNanchor_206" href="#Footnote_206" class="fnanchor">206</a> the ladder by which Northumberland,
-by becoming the father-in-law of a Queen, hoped to reach the
-summit of his ambition.</p>
-
-<p>Northumberland had a great deal of trouble to get his
-scheme legalised. Edward was not unpliable, and indeed
-attributed Northumberland’s intense desire to see the “Devise”
-carried into effect entirely to his zeal for the Reformed religion;
-but Archbishop Cranmer, Sir Edward Montagu, Lord Chief
-Justice, Sir James Hale, Secretary Cecil and others, either
-because they saw through Northumberland or else because
-they really had qualms of conscience as to its legality, opposed
-the plan, taking their stand on the fact that the nomination
-of Jane Grey, being contrary to the older “Statute of
-Succession,” would be illegal. Cranmer, as the result of
-an interview with the King, was finally converted to his
-views. Lord Darcy, the Lord Chamberlain, and the Marquis
-of Northampton were present at this meeting, much to the
-Archbishop’s disgust. “I desired to talk with the King’s
-Majesty alone,” says Cranmer, “but I could not be suffered:
-and so I failed of my purpose. For if I might have communed
-with the King alone, and at my good leisure, my trust was,
-that I should have altered him from his purpose; but they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241">241</a></span>
-(the above-mentioned noblemen) being present, my labour
-was in vain. And so at length I was required by the King’s
-Majesty himself to set my hand to his will (that is, the scheme
-for the succession) saying that he trusted that I alone would
-not be more repugnant to his will than the rest of the Council
-were. Which words surely grieved my heart very sore. And
-so I granted him to subscribe his will, and to follow the same.
-Which when I had set my hand unto I did it unfainedly and
-without dissimulation.”<a id="FNanchor_207" href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">207</a></p>
-
-<p>Directly Northumberland was satisfied that the young
-King would not depart from the decision to which he had forced
-him, he summoned Lord Chief Justice Montagu to attend at
-the Royal Court at Greenwich, on 11th June 1553, with Sir
-John Baker, Mr. Justice Bromley, Attorney-General Gosnold
-and Solicitor-General Griffin. This command was the first step
-towards officially depriving Mary of her inheritance, and the
-letter was signed by Secretary Petre, Sir John Cheke, and
-strange to relate, by Cecil, which is surprising when taken
-in conjunction with his subsequent conduct in the matter.
-The Lord Chief Justice, coming into the royal presence, found
-the King very ill, lying on a couch, surrounded by Lord Winchester,
-Lord Treasurer, the Marquis of Northampton, Sir John
-Gates, Sir John Palmer, and others. Raising himself, Edward
-declared, in the verbose language of the time, that he had
-summoned his Council to hear from his own lips that he had
-appointed the Lady Jane Grey his heiress, as the Lady Mary
-might change her faith, and “his Highness’s proceedings in
-religion might be altered.<a id="FNanchor_208" href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">208</a> Wherefore his pleasure was that
-the state of the Crown should go in such form, and to such
-persons, as his Highness had appointed in a bill of articles [<i>i.e.</i>,
-the “Devise”<a id="FNanchor_209" href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">209</a>] now signed with the King’s hand, which were
-read, and commanded them to make a book thereof accordingly
-with speed.” Montagu refused to do this, saying the nomination<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242">242</a></span>
-of Lady Jane would be illegal and against the already
-mentioned “Statute of Succession,” which had passed Parliament.
-Edward, or rather Northumberland, became so
-irritable, that the Lord Chief Justice finally acquiesced so far
-as to ask for time to deliberate and consult the laws; whereupon
-the King gave him the “Devise” to study, and dismissed
-all present, Northumberland alone remaining. On the following
-day (12th June), Secretary Petre sent for the Lord Chief
-Justice to Durham House, Northumberland’s palace in the
-Strand, and told him the matter must be executed off-hand.
-Montagu immediately went to Ely Place, Holborn, where
-he found the Council sitting, but Northumberland absent;
-which emboldened him to warn the Council of the exceeding
-danger of the matter they were about to approve. “In God’s
-name, my Lords,” cried he, “think twice what you do&mdash;it will
-be treason to us all who have a hand in it.” Hardly had he
-spoken ere Northumberland, who was, of course, aware of
-his opposition, burst, as white as a sheet, into the room like a
-whirlwind, “before all the Council there,” says a contemporary
-account, “being in a great rage and fury, trembling for anger;
-and, amongst his ragious talk, called Sir Edward Montagu
-traitor, and further said that he would fight in his shirt
-[sleeves] with any man in that quarrel.” No one took up the
-challenge, and Montagu withdrew in some dismay&mdash;thankful,
-no doubt, that there had been no actual blows given or received.</p>
-
-<p>Nothing was signed or done that day, but on the next,
-Montagu received a fresh order to repair immediately to
-Court with the same companions as before. On arrival at
-Greenwich, the party was ushered into a room filled with the
-notables of the Court, who “looked upon them with earnest
-countenance, as though they had not known them, so that
-they might perceive there was some steadfast determination
-against them”; which treatment, combined with uncertainty
-as to whether the all-powerful Northumberland might not
-persuade the King into punishing them for not preparing the
-“book” of the King’s scheme as he had wished, made the poor
-gentlemen feel very uncomfortable. Edward also (on 15th
-June), received the Lord Chief Justice and his colleagues
-haughtily; His Majesty was apparently better, and seated
-in his chair. Montagu’s party endeavoured to excuse themselves<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243">243</a></span>
-by using the same arguments against the scheme of
-succession as they had previously put before the Council.
-They said that, by reason of the “Statute of Succession,”
-the plan would be null and void after Edward’s death; and
-that the only power which could remove the said Statute was
-Parliament, which had made it, and which was not then
-sitting. Thereupon the King said he would summon a Parliament,
-but, all the same, the drawing up of his scheme must be
-proceeded with. He further commanded Montagu to obey his
-order, and “make dispatch.” At last Montagu, “in great
-fear as ever he was in his life before, seeing the King so earnest
-and sharp, and the Duke so angry the day before&mdash;who ruled
-the whole Council as it pleased him, and they were all afraid
-of him (the more is the pity)<a id="FNanchor_210" href="#Footnote_210" class="fnanchor">210</a> so that such cowardliness and
-fear was there never seen amongst honourable men&mdash;being
-an old man and without comfort, he began to consider with
-himself what was best to be done for the safeguard of his life.”
-Accordingly he agreed to comply with his sovereign’s command,
-provided Edward granted him (as a sort of protection)
-his commission under the Great Seal, enjoining him to draw
-up the instrument of succession, and that a general “pardon”
-for having signed it should be made out at the same time.
-The King acceded to these terms; and so the letters patent
-nominating Jane Grey as King Edward’s successor received
-the Great Seal on 21st June, and over a hundred signatures,
-including those of the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs of Middlesex,
-Surrey, and Kent, the officers of the Royal Household, and
-of Thomas Grey, the Duke of Suffolk’s younger brother, were
-affixed to the document. It took so long to collect all the
-signatures that the work was not finished until the 8th of
-July, that is, after Edward’s death. Stowe records the attendance
-of the “chief citizen” of the metropolis on that day in the
-following terms: “The 8. of July the lord mayor of London
-was sent for to the court then at Greenwich, to bring with him
-six aldermen, as many merchants of the staple, and as many<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244">244</a></span>
-merchant adventurers, unto whom by the council was
-secretly declared the death of King Edward, and also how
-he did ordain for the succession of the crown by his letters
-patent, to the which they were sworn, and charged to keep it
-secret.” Sir James Hale, however, refused his signature
-with great dignity; Cecil slipped out of the difficulty on a
-pretext of sudden illness. Foreseeing, even before 11th June,
-the rocks ahead, he wisely retired from Court after a well-acted
-scene of simulated faintness, so realistic as to mislead
-the shrewd Lord Audley, who, being a great believer in his own
-prescriptions, sent the disordered Secretary the following
-delightful <span class="locked">receipt:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“Take a sow-pig of nine days old, and flea him and quarter
-him, and put him in a stillatory with a handful of spearmint,
-a handful of red fennel, a handful of liverwort, half a handful
-of red nepe [turnip], a handful of celery, nine dates clean picked
-and pared, a handful of great raisins, and pick out the stones,
-and a quarter of an ounce of mace, and two sticks of good
-cinnamon bruised in a mortar; and distill it together, with a
-fair fire; and put it in a glass and set in the sun nine days;
-and drink nine spoonfuls of it at once when you list.</p>
-
-<p class="p1 center">“<span class="smcap">A Compost</span></p>
-
-<p>“<em>Item.</em>&mdash;Take a porcupin, otherwise called an English
-hedgehog, and quarter him in pieces, and put the said beast in
-a still with these ingredients and boil together; item, a quart
-of red wine, a pint of rose-water, a quart of sugar, cinnamon
-and great raisins, one date, twelve nepe. Pass the whole
-through a sieve and drink at night, a full cup thereof warm.”<a id="FNanchor_211" href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">211</a></p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Possibly his Lordship intended this epistle as a fine piece
-of sarcasm, for if Cecil was only to partake of the “sow-pig”
-and raisin remedy nine days after it was concocted, there was
-every chance of his dying or getting well in the interval.</p>
-
-<p>The fact that so many persons were found to sign the
-fateful document is another proof&mdash;even if we make allowance
-for the majority of the Council being time-servers&mdash;that
-Edward’s “Devise” for the succession, though evidently<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245">245</a></span>
-suggested and forwarded by Northumberland, was not a
-forgery.</p>
-
-<p>On 6th July<a id="FNanchor_212" href="#Footnote_212" class="fnanchor">212</a> (1553), whilst the newly-made bride was
-peacefully resting at Chelsea, King Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> passed away
-at Whitehall Palace. He had been taken out of the hands of
-his physicians, Drs. Owen<a id="FNanchor_213" href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">213</a> and Wendy, old and trusted Court
-doctors, and put into those of a female quack, who soon extinguished
-the feeble ray of life that still flickered in his wasted
-body. An hour before Edward passed away, Dr. Owen, who
-had been recalled in a hurry, bent over him, saying, “We heard
-you speak to yourself, but what you said we know not?” The
-weary lad answered, smiling faintly, “I was praying to God.”
-A little later he was heard to murmur, “Lord have mercy
-upon me, and take my spirit.” He never spoke again&mdash;he
-was very tired, and needed rest!</p>
-
-<p>The people had shown their anxiety for Edward’s health
-by assembling daily in front of Greenwich Palace to ascertain
-how he was, and to convince the mob that he was still alive<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246">246</a></span>
-it had become necessary to make the royal lad show his sickly
-person, robed in velvet and ermine, and his poor wasted face&mdash;crowned
-with the delightful little velvet cap with the white
-feathers, so familiar to us in his portraits&mdash;at the window.
-The received version among all classes was that the King was
-being slowly poisoned by the Duke of Northumberland, whom
-they also accused of having forged Edward’s “Devise” for
-the succession in favour of Lady Jane. The Swiss Reformers,
-in their letters to Strasburg and Zurich, did not hesitate to
-give currency to the report that Northumberland, whom a
-few weeks earlier they had called the “illustrious” and the
-“noble,” had murdered his nephew. “That monster of a
-man,” says John Burcher to Henry Bullinger (letter dated
-from Strasburg, 16th August 1553), “the Duke of Northumberland,
-has been committing a horrible and portentous
-crime. A writer worthy of credit informs me, that our
-excellent King has been most shamefully taken off by poison.
-His nails and hair fell off before his death, so that, handsome
-as he was, he entirely lost all his good looks. The perpetrators
-of the murder were ashamed of allowing the body of the deceased
-King to lie in state, and be seen by the public, as is
-usual: wherefore they buried him privately in the paddock
-adjoining the palace, and substituted in his place a youth not
-unlike him.... One of the sons of the Duke of Northumberland
-acknowledged this fact. The Duke has been apprehended<a id="FNanchor_214" href="#Footnote_214" class="fnanchor">214</a>
-with his five sons, and nearly twenty persons; among whom is
-master [Sir John] Cheke, doctor Cox, and the Bishop of London,
-with others unknown to you....”<a id="FNanchor_215" href="#Footnote_215" class="fnanchor">215</a> Burcher does not tell
-us which son of the Duke made this confession; nor is there
-evidence that any of Northumberland’s boys ever accused
-their father of regicide. Besides, Burcher was somewhat
-addicted to putting his faith in the reports of untrustworthy
-people. A few years earlier (in 1549) he had written Bullinger
-a letter in which he repeated the sensational story of an attempt
-to murder King Edward made by his uncle, Thomas Seymour,
-a crime frustrated by the vigilance of the King’s lap-dog,
-which seeing the murderer suddenly appear, flew at him and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247">247</a></span>
-made such a yelping that the bodyguard was in time to
-save their sovereign. This story may or may not be true;
-but is as unauthenticated as the other. There is just one
-point, however, that supports the poison theory; which is
-that the young King’s old and competent nurse, Mrs. Sybil
-Penn, was suddenly relieved of her duties, and replaced by a
-woman who was an acknowledged quack, and declared she
-could cure the lad by a sort of faith-healing not unknown in
-our own times. On the other hand, Edward was suffering
-from such a complication of diseases that there was no reason
-why Northumberland should have troubled to burden his
-soul by hastening an end that would in any case have come
-before long.<a id="FNanchor_216" href="#Footnote_216" class="fnanchor">216</a> Born of a debauched father and a sickly mother,
-the “second Josiah” never throve, and never could have
-thriven, for he bore in his puny frame the seeds of early death
-from his birth.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_246" class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;">
- <img src="images/i_246.jpg" width="375" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>EDWARD VI</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">FROM AN ENGRAVING BY G. VERTUE</p></div></div>
-
-<p>King Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> lived exactly fifteen years, eight months,
-and six days. We can easily believe Strype’s assurance that
-his wonderful and almost preternatural sagacity was merely
-the result of skilful prompting. He informs us that whenever
-the young King was about to attend the Council, Northumberland
-carefully rehearsed with him both how he should
-behave and what he was to say. Yet the boy does not appear
-to have been devoid of exceptional intelligence. It may be
-doubted whether his affections were very deep; he certainly
-did not hesitate to bastardise his two sisters at the bidding
-of their common enemy. It has been stated that Lady Jane
-Grey was devotedly attached to her young cousin; that there
-had even been love passages between them. The King’s
-youth should mark this report as the veriest gossip. Not a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248">248</a></span>
-tinge of affection or regret for her cousin is expressed in any of
-Lady Jane’s letters, and we have no proof whatever that she was
-specially affected by his early death. There is but little evidence,
-indeed, of her having been much in his company, nor
-any proof that he, on his side, held her in exceptional esteem.</p>
-
-<p>Nature added a warning note to the horror of the approaching
-tragedy. “Several women were delivered of monsters
-on the day of the King’s death, one of an infant with two
-heads and four feet, and another of a child whose head was
-planted in the centre of his body.” The ghost of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>
-was reported to have been seen stalking along the battlements
-of Windsor and at Hampton Court and Whitehall&mdash;so that
-even the supernatural stimulated popular imagination. The
-hour of the young King’s death, too, was ushered in by a
-tempest of such appalling violence, that heaven and earth
-seemed to menace the city. A terrible hailstorm swept over
-London and its outskirts, and the ruined gardens and devastated
-orchards for miles round were heaped with hailstones “as
-red as blood.” Cataracts of water deluged the lower parts of
-the city: trees were torn up, and the steeple of the church
-in which the first Protestant service was held was shattered
-by forked lightning. The people, terrified at the universal
-havoc, believed, when they learnt of the King’s death, that this
-storm was the forerunner of fresh disasters and terrible crimes,
-and so indeed it proved to be&mdash;for the death of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> was
-the signal for the outbreak of the long contemplated revolution
-so skilfully prepared by Northumberland.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249">249</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE LADY JANE IS PROCLAIMED QUEEN</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">No</span> sooner had King Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> given up the ghost,
-than Northumberland devised a cunning attempt
-to obtain possession of the person of Princess Mary,
-then at Hunsdon. The Duke persuaded the Council to address
-a treacherous letter to her, after Edward was actually dead,
-but before his decease was divulged to the public, in which
-they gave no hint that her brother was dead, and informed
-her he was only very ill, and “prayed her to come to him,
-as he earnestly desired the comfort of her presence.” Touched
-by this exhibition of brotherly affection, Mary fell into the
-trap, and, returning a loving answer, started immediately for
-London; but a timely warning prevented the whole course
-of our history being changed. The plot was to seize her on
-the high road near the metropolis, and convey her a prisoner
-to the Tower.</p>
-
-<p>A young brother of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, however,
-who was in Northumberland’s service, and in attendance upon
-him at Greenwich Palace, was surprised to see Sir John Gates
-come, on the morning after the King’s death, to the Duke’s
-chamber before he was dressed. They discussed the movements
-of the Princess, and young Throckmorton overheard
-Gates exclaim angrily, “What sir! will you let the Lady
-Mary escape, and not secure her person?” Acting upon this
-hint, he forthwith galloped to Throckmorton House, where
-he found his father and his brothers, together with Sir Nicholas,
-who had just come to inform them of the King’s death, of
-which he had been a witness, and also of Northumberland’s
-schemes concerning the proclamation of Lady Jane. On this
-the youth related what he had overheard that morning in
-Northumberland’s bedroom; and Sir Nicholas, who, although<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250">250</a></span>
-a Reformer, was none the less loyal to Mary, instantly dispatched
-her goldsmith, a trusty servant, who met her at
-Hoddesden, and informed her both of her brother’s death
-and of the danger in which she stood. Even yet she doubted
-the genuineness of the warning, and remarked to the goldsmith
-that “If Robert<a id="FNanchor_217" href="#Footnote_217" class="fnanchor">217</a> had been at Greenwich, she would
-have hazarded all things, and gaged her life on the leap.” Sir
-Robert Throckmorton,<a id="FNanchor_218" href="#Footnote_218" class="fnanchor">218</a> however, arriving on 7th July, confirmed
-the goldsmith’s message, and Mary and her retinue,
-in consequence, left the London road and struck off into Suffolk,
-reaching her manor of Kenninghall after a two days’ hard
-gallop. Almost as soon as she arrived there, she addressed
-the Council a comparatively mild remonstrance, and at the
-same time confirmed her claim to the throne. Mary prized
-the fidelity of the Throckmortons so highly as to bestow upon
-the chief of that ancient house the position of chief-justice of
-Chester, which act of kindness he repaid in after times, when
-Mary was long dead, by praying for her soul whenever he said
-his mealtime grace.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey meanwhile remained at Chelsea until she was
-sent for: “There came unto me,” she continues in her letter<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251">251</a></span>
-to Queen Mary, “the Lady Sidney, the daughter of the Duke
-of Northumberland, who told me she was sent by the Council
-to call me before them, and she informed me that I must be
-that night at Sion House, where they were assembled, to
-receive that which was ordained for me by the King.”</p>
-
-<p>The two young ladies went that afternoon (9th July 1553)
-by river from Chelsea to Sion House, which they reached
-towards <span class="locked">nightfall:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“On arriving at Sion,” writes Lady Jane, “I found no one
-there. But presently came the Marquis of Northampton, the
-Earls of Arundel, Huntingdon, and Pembroke, who began to
-make me complimentary speeches, bending the knee before
-me, their example being followed by several noble ladies, all
-of which ceremony made me blush. My distress was still
-further increased when my mother (the Lady Frances), and
-my mother-in-law (the Duchess of Northumberland), entered
-and paid me the same homage. Then came the Duke of
-Northumberland himself, who, as President of the Council,
-declared to me the death of the King, and informed me that
-every one had good reason to rejoice in the virtuous life he had
-led, and the good death he had. He drew great comfort from
-the fact that, at the end of his life, he took great care of his
-kingdom, praying to our Lord God to defend it from all
-doctrine contrary to His, and to free it from the evil of his
-sisters. He signified to the Duke of Northumberland ‘that
-he (the said Majesty of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>), had well considered the
-Act of Parliament, in which it had been already ordained that,
-whoever shall recognise Mary, or Elizabeth her sister, as heir
-to the Crown, were to be considered traitors, seeing that Mary
-had disobeyed the King, her father, and her brother (Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>)
-and was, moreover, a chief enemy to the Word of God, and
-that both were illegitimate. Therefore he would not that
-she and her sister be his heirs, but rather thought he ought
-in every way to disinherit them.’ And before his death,
-he ‘commanded his Council, and adjured them by the honour
-they owed him, by the love they bore their country, and by
-the duty they owe to God, that they should obey his will and
-carry it into effect.’ The Duke of Northumberland then
-added that I was the heir nominated by His Majesty, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252">252</a></span>
-that my sisters, the Lady Katherine and the Lady Mary Grey,
-were to succeed me, in case I had no issue legitimately born,
-at which words all the lords of the Council knelt before me,
-exclaiming, ‘that they rendered me that homage because it
-pertained to me, being of the right line,’ and they added, that
-in all particulars they would observe what they promised
-which was, by their souls they swore, to shed their blood and
-lose their lives to maintain the same. On hearing all this, I
-remained stunned and out of myself, I call on those present to
-bear witness, who saw me fall to the ground weeping piteously,
-and dolefully lamenting, not only mine insufficiency, but the
-death of the King. I swooned indeed, and lay as dead, but
-when brought to myself I raised myself on my knees, and
-prayed to God ‘that if to succeed to the Throne was indeed
-my duty and my right, that He would aid me to govern the
-Realm to His glory.’ The following day, as every one knows, I
-was conducted to the Tower.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Lady Jane’s own version as given above differs materially
-from the one of this famous scene of the recognition of Jane
-as Queen edited by Foxe; the two are, however, identical
-in the main facts, but the bombastic speech put into the
-mouth of his heroine by the author of the <cite>Book of Martyrs</cite> is
-much less natural than Pollino’s version. <cite>The Grey Friars’
-Chronicle</cite> corroborates in every particular both narratives,
-and adds that, “on 10th July, the Lady Jane came from
-Richmond to Westminster by water,<a id="FNanchor_219" href="#Footnote_219" class="fnanchor">219</a> whither she came to
-robe herself before proceeding to the Tower.” On her way
-from Westminster, she stopped at Durham House, her father-in-law’s
-palace on the Thames, where she dined. Lady Jane
-afterwards proceeded by the State barge to the Tower, where
-she landed about three o’clock in the afternoon, the weather
-being exceedingly fine.</p>
-
-<p>In the Genoese Archives there is a letter from a member
-of the Spinola family,<a id="FNanchor_220" href="#Footnote_220" class="fnanchor">220</a> who was then in London, giving details
-of that day’s <span class="locked">doings:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253">253</a></span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-<p>“To-day [the date is not given, but possibly it figured on
-the cover, now lost: it was, of course, 10th July 1553] I
-saw Donna Jana Groia [an Italianisation of Grey] walking in a
-grand procession to the Tower. She is now called Queen, but
-is not popular, for the hearts of the people are with Mary, the
-Spanish Queen’s daughter. This Jane is very short and thin,
-but prettily shaped and graceful. She has small features and
-a well-made nose (<i xml:lang="it" lang="it">ben fatta ha il naso</i>), the mouth flexible and
-the lips red. The eyebrows are arched and darker than her
-hair, which is nearly red. Her eyes are sparkling and red
-(<i xml:lang="it" lang="it">rossi</i>&mdash;a sort of light hazel often noticed with red hair). I
-stood so long near Her Grace, that I noticed her colour was
-good, but freckled. When she smiled she showed her teeth,
-which are white and sharp. In all, a <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">graziosa persona</i> and
-<i xml:lang="it" lang="it">animata</i> [animated]. She wore a dress of green velvet stamped
-with gold, with large sleeves. Her headdress was a white coif
-with many jewels. She walked under a canopy, her mother
-carrying her long train, and her husband Guilfo [Guildford]
-walking by her, dressed all in white and gold, a very tall strong
-boy with light hair, who paid her much attention. The new
-Queen was mounted on very high <em>chopines</em> [clogs] to make her
-look much taller, which were concealed by her robes, as she
-is very small and short. Many ladies followed, with noblemen,
-but this lady is very <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">heretica</i> and has never heard Mass, and
-some great people did not come into the procession for that
-reason.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Queen Jane was received by Sir John Brydges, Lieutenant
-of the Tower, and his brother, Mr. Thomas Brydges, Deputy-Lieutenant,
-and walked in procession from the landing-place
-to the Great Hall, a crowd of spectators lining the way, all
-kneeling as the new Queen passed. The Lady Frances, Duchess
-of Suffolk, to the surprise of every one, carried her daughter’s
-train. Pollino informs us that universal indignation was
-expressed by the onlookers when they beheld the Duchess-mother,
-who was rightful heiress, playing the part of train-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254">254</a></span>bearer
-to her daughter, and describes as theatrical in the
-extreme the obsequious manner in which the Duke of Suffolk
-and his consort treated their own child, kneeling to her and
-walking backwards before her, “the which was a most despicable
-and humiliating sight.”</p>
-
-<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;The following is the full text of the celebrated
-“Devise,” drawn up by Northumberland and approved by
-Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>.</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p class="center"><em>Deuise for the succession.</em></p>
-
-<p>1. For lakke of issu (masle <em>inserted above the line, but
-afterwards erased</em>) of my body (to the issu (masle <em>above the line</em>)
-cumming of thissu femal, as i haue after declared (<em>inserted, but
-erased</em>). To the L. Fraūceses heires masles (For lakke of
-<em>erased</em>) (if she have any <em>inserted</em>) such issu (befor my death
-<em>inserted</em>) to the L’Janes (and her <em>inserted</em>) heires masles, To the
-L. Katerins heires masles, To the L Maries heires masles, To
-the heires masles of the daughters wich she shal haue hereafter.
-Then to the L Margets heires masles. For lakke of such issu,
-To th’eires masles of the L Janes daughters. To th’eires
-masles of the L Katerins daughters, and so forth til yow
-come to the L Margets (daughters <em>inserted</em>) heires masles.</p>
-
-<p>2. If after my death theire masle be entred into 18 yere
-old, then he to have the hole rule and gouernaūce therof.</p>
-
-<p>3. But if he be under 18, then his mother to be gouuernres
-til he entre 18 yere old, But to doe nothing w<sup>t</sup>out th’auise
-(and agremēt <em>inserted</em>) of 6 parcel of a counsel to be pointed
-by my last will to the nombre of 20.</p>
-
-<p>4. If the mother die befor th’eire entre into 18 the realme
-to be gouuerned by the coūsel Prouided that after he be 14 yere
-al great matters of importaunce be opened to him.</p>
-
-<p>5. If i died w<sup>t</sup>out issu, and there were none heire masle,
-then the L Fraunces to be (regēt <em>altered to</em>) gouuernres. For
-lakke of her, the her eldest daughters, and for lakke of them
-the L Marget to be gouuernres after as is aforsaid, til sume
-heire masle be borne, and then the mother of that child to be
-gouuernres.</p>
-
-<p>6. And if during the rule of the gouuernres ther die 4 of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255">255</a></span>
-us doo assent to take, use, and repute hym for a breaker of
-the common concord, peax, and unite of this realme, and to
-doo our uttermost to see hym or them so varying or swarving
-punisshed with most sharpe punisshmentes according to their
-desertes.</p>
-
-<pre class="in4">
-T. CANT T. ELY, CANC WINCHESTER NORTHUBRLAND
-J. REDFORD H. SUFFOLK
- W. NORTHT
- F. SHREWESBURY F. HUNTYNGDON
- (PEMBROKE.
- E. CLYNTON T. DARCY G. COBHAM
- R. RYCHE T. CHEYNE
- JOH’N GATE WILL’M PETRE
- (JOAN.’ CHEEK
- W. CECILL EDWARD MOUNTAGU.
- JOHN BAKERE
- EDWARD GRYFFYN JOHN LUCAS
- JOHN GOSNOLD
-</pre>
-</blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256">256</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE NINE DAYS’ REIGN</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">As</span> soon as Jane Grey and her escort had entered
-the royal apartments of the Tower, the heralds
-trumpeted, and a few minutes later (it was close on
-six o’clock), four of them read the new Queen’s proclamation,
-one of the most tedious State documents in existence, and the
-first in which a woman claims the title of “Supreme Head of
-the Church.”<a id="FNanchor_221" href="#Footnote_221" class="fnanchor">221</a> The ceremony of solemn proclamation within
-the precincts of the Tower once over, other heralds proceeded
-for the same purpose to Cheapside and the Fleet. In Cheapside,
-a potboy who was heard to disapprove of the wordy
-document, and of the expression “bastard” applied to the
-Lady Mary, was arrested, and treated after a fashion quaintly
-described by Machyn,<a id="FNanchor_222" href="#Footnote_222" class="fnanchor">222</a> who says, “there was a young man
-taken that time for speaking of certain words of Queen Mary,
-that she had the right title. The xj day of July, at viij of the
-clock in the morning, the young man for speaking was set
-on the pillory, and both his ears cut off; for there was
-a herald, and a trumpeter blowing; and incontinent he was
-taken down, and carried to the Counter; and the same day
-was the young man’s master dwelling at Saint John’s head,
-his name was Sandor Onyone, and another, master Owen, a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257">257</a></span>
-gun-maker at London Bridge was drowned, dwelling at
-Ludgate.”<a id="FNanchor_223" href="#Footnote_223" class="fnanchor">223</a></p>
-
-<p>It is curious that the original of this unique proclamation
-should have passed into the hands of Cecil, who endorsed it
-with the significant words&mdash;“<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Jana non Regina</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>From every point of view, Queen Jane’s proclamation was
-ill-advised. It was prodigiously long-winded, even for that
-period, and the manner in which it dealt with the claims of
-Mary and Elizabeth, brutal in frankness, was well calculated
-to offend the Catholic Powers, and cruelly wound the personal
-feelings of the late King’s sisters. Queen Mary’s resentment
-is proved by the stern simplicity of the language of the death-warrant
-of Northumberland, Lady Jane, and Guildford, which
-allows none of them the vestige of a title. Elizabeth, in
-later life, never alluded to her cousin Jane without bitterness.
-Jane was, of course, perfectly innocent of the offensive
-wording of this document,<a id="FNanchor_224" href="#Footnote_224" class="fnanchor">224</a> but it nevertheless bore her signature.
-The sentence which infuriated the Princesses ran as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258">258</a></span>
-follows: “And, forasmuch as the said limitation of the
-Imperial Crowne of this Realme, being limited as is aforesaid
-to the said Lady Mary and the said Lady Elizabeth, being
-illegitimate the marriage between the said King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>
-our progenitor and great uncle, and the Lady Katherine,
-mother to the said Lady Mary, and also the marriage
-between the said late King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and the Lady Anne,
-mother to the said Lady Elizabeth, being very clearly
-undone by sentence of divine, according to the word of
-God, and the ecclesiastical laws. The Ladies Mary and
-Elizabeth are to all intents and purposes divested to claim or
-challenge the said Imperial Crown or any other honours, etc.,
-appertaining thereunto, etc.”</p>
-
-<p>This proclamation, as well as most of the other official
-documents of Jane’s reign, which are generally attributed to
-Northumberland, was, we may take it for granted, edited
-by the celebrated Sir John Cheke, who entered the Tower at
-the same time as Lady Jane and was her Secretary throughout
-the whole of her nine days’ reign. We have already mentioned
-in more than one place this distinguished Greek scholar, who
-had been for a time tutor to Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, over whom he had a
-great influence, and by whom he was knighted at the same
-time that the Marquis of Dorset was elevated to the Dukedom
-of Suffolk in 1551. At the period of Jane’s misfortunes he
-was between thirty-nine and forty years of age, greatly in
-favour with his royal pupil, and holding the office of Clerk
-to the Council; so that when there was a talk of Cecil resigning
-his secretaryship, Cheke was, on 2nd June 1553, appointed a
-principal Secretary of State, Cecil however continuing in
-office; and on 11th June, Cheke sat in the Council for the
-first time as Secretary. It is probable that Northumberland
-suggested his nomination to the King, for the express purpose
-of interesting a diplomat of such ability in the forthcoming
-conspiracy to place Jane on the throne. He was far too high-minded
-a man to be influenced by pecuniary motives, but
-undoubtedly his zeal for the Reformation was such that he
-desired the advent of Jane, which meant a continuance of
-the Reformation, rather than the coming of Mary, which
-he fully realised would be disastrous to it. Cheke’s appointment
-to the office of Secretary of State gave great joy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259">259</a></span>
-to the Reformers, and Ascham, then in Brussels with our
-Ambassador, Morysone, wrote him a laudatory letter, in which
-he congratulates England, the State, Cambridge, and St.
-John’s College on having produced so learned and worthy
-a man! Great must have been Cheke’s delight when he
-beheld Queen Jane, the hope of Protestantism, actually
-enthroned in the Tower; and it must have been a consolation
-to Lady Jane to have about her so capable and at the
-same time so upright a man&mdash;one devoted, not only to her
-personally, but especially to the cause she represented. Cheke
-tried to induce the cunning Cecil to take an active part in the
-Government; Strype says, “He checked his brother Cecil
-who would not be induced to meddle in this matter, but
-endeavoured to be absent.”</p>
-
-<p>Before this, the first day of her reign, came to a close, Jane
-signed a letter to William Parr, Marquis of Northampton,
-Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, informing him of her entry into
-the Tower “this day.” After the usual preamble concerning
-the death of Edward, the document proceeds: “we are entered
-into our rightful possession of this kingdom, as by the last
-will of our said dearest cousin our late ancestor ... now
-therefore do you understand we do this day make our entry
-into our Tower of London as rightful queen of this realm,
-and have accordingly set forth our proclamation to all our
-loving subjects, giving them thereby to understand ... their
-duty of allegiance which they now of right owe unto
-us ... nothing doubting, right trusty and well beloved
-counsellor, but that you will endeavour yourself in all things
-to the uttermost of your power, not only to defend our just
-title, but also assist us ... to disturb, repel, and resist,
-the feigned and untrue claim of the Lady Mary, bastard
-daughter to our great uncle Henry th’ Eight, of famous
-memory.”</p>
-
-<p>This missive was later on shown to Mary, and increased
-her resentment against Jane, whose signature it bore, and
-also against Northumberland, who drew up the original
-draft, though the copy Jane signed was made by some clerk,
-perhaps by Sir John Cheke. Cecil was, therefore, wise to
-number the composition of this compromising epistle among
-the many dangerous offices out of which he contrived to shuffle;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260">260</a></span>
-for it is certainly to this letter to Northampton that he refers
-in his “Submission,” by the words, “I eschewed the writing
-of the Queen’s Highness, <em>bastard</em>, and therefore the Duke
-(of Northumberland) wrote the letter himself which was sent
-abroad in the Realm.” The Duke so fully appreciated the
-dangerous nature of the document, that later on he endorsed
-the clerk’s copy of it with the words, “<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Jana non Regina</i>”&mdash;just
-as Cecil did with the proclamation.<a id="FNanchor_225" href="#Footnote_225" class="fnanchor">225</a></p>
-
-<p>All her State duties over, the young Queen supped in state
-at a small table on a dais, the Duke of Suffolk on her right, the
-Duke of Northumberland on her left, and the two Duchesses
-opposite to her. She was indisposed, and retired early, the
-whole company rising as she left her seat.</p>
-
-<p>The following morning (11th July) there was a violent
-scene<a id="FNanchor_226" href="#Footnote_226" class="fnanchor">226</a> between Jane, her husband, and his mother. So far as
-can be ascertained, the marriage had not hitherto gone beyond
-the stage of ceremony, and Guildford Dudley and his bride had
-never lived as man and wife. The Duchess of Northumberland
-insisted that this state of affairs should cease, resolving
-that “her son should share the new Queen’s bed and throne,
-and forthwith assume the title of King Consort.” With this
-object, the ambitious parent and her docile son made a sudden
-incursion into Jane’s chamber, whilst she was still seated at
-her toilet. The Duchess vituperated her daughter-in-law, using
-coarse and violent language; the would-be King was noisy
-and impertinent! But Jane stoutly refused to grant the
-latter part of the Duchess’s request. “The Crown,” she said,
-“was not a plaything for boys and girls. She could make
-her husband a Duke, but only Parliament could make him a
-King.”<a id="FNanchor_227" href="#Footnote_227" class="fnanchor">227</a> On these words the Duchess burst into a fury, and
-paced angrily up and down the floor, swearing her strongest
-oaths, that her son should be King, whether Jane would or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261">261</a></span>
-not. Guildford, who was boyish, began to cry, and left
-the room. Jane had to endure another scene of the most
-unpleasant description with the Duchess, in the midst of
-which Guildford, still sulking, returned. His mother presently
-caught his hand and drew him out of the room, saying “she
-would not leave him with an ungrateful wife.”</p>
-
-<p>Thereupon Jane sent for the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke,
-and asked their advice. They apparently approved of the
-line she had taken, and going to young Guildford, informed
-him he must on no account leave the Tower, nor agree to the
-Duchess’s proposal that he should separate from his wife,
-and return with her (<i>i.e.</i> his mother) to Sion House. It is
-quite probable that if he had done so, his life would have
-been spared.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane’s account of this stormy interview is as
-follows: “The Lord High Treasurer, Winchester,” says she,
-“brought me the regalia and the Crown, the which were
-neither demanded by <em>me</em> nor by any one in <em>my name</em><a id="FNanchor_228" href="#Footnote_228" class="fnanchor">228</a>; he
-desired to place it on my head to see how it fitted. This I
-declined with many protestations; but he said, ‘I might take
-it boldly, for that he would have another made to crown my
-husband with.’ Which thing I certainly heard with infinite
-grief, and displeasure of heart. As soon as I was left alone
-with my husband I reasoned with him, and after we had had a
-great dispute he consented to wait till he was made King by
-me and Act of Parliament.” Jane then relates what we have
-already said&mdash;how she sent for the Earls of Arundel and
-Pembroke, and the scene with the Duchess and her threat of
-carrying Guildford off to Sion; also how the two Earls were
-charged to keep Guildford from going there. “And thus,”
-concludes the narrative, “I was compelled to act as a woman
-who is <em>obliged</em> to live on good terms with her husband; nevertheless
-I was not only deluded by the Duke and the Council,
-but maltreated by my husband and his mother.”</p>
-
-<p>Disregarding Jane’s prudent advice, her ambitious young
-husband nevertheless did his best to get himself recognised
-King of England. In the minutes of a dispatch which must<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262">262</a></span>
-have been written during the nine days’ reign of his wife, and
-is addressed to the Duchess-Regent of the Netherlands by
-Guildford’s directions, he recalls Sir Thomas Chamberlayne
-(English Minister in that country) and desires that “in all <em>his</em>
-(Guildford’s) affairs” full credit be given to Sir Philip Hoby.<a id="FNanchor_229" href="#Footnote_229" class="fnanchor">229</a>
-One of the first acts, therefore, of Jane’s Council was to nominate
-Sir Philip, then at Brussels, as successor to Chamberlayne;
-this nomination is signed “Jane the Quene.” Jane herself,
-true to what she said to her mother-in-law and to Guildford,
-does not appear to have recognised her husband as King, for
-no mention of him appears in such of her official documents as
-have come down to us. All the same, Guildford contrived to
-get his claims accepted by some Continental notabilities. On
-learning of the death of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, Sir Philip Hoby and Sir
-Richard Morysone,<a id="FNanchor_230" href="#Footnote_230" class="fnanchor">230</a> the English Commissioners in Flanders,&mdash;who
-had doubtless been primed beforehand by Northumberland,&mdash;wrote
-from Brussels to the Privy Council (under date of
-July 15th) that “The xiii<sup>h</sup> of this presente, Don Diego found
-me Sir Phillipe Hobby (Hoby), and me Sir Richard Morysone,
-walkyne in our hostes gardene.” This Don Diego Mendoza<a id="FNanchor_231" href="#Footnote_231" class="fnanchor">231</a>
-was a member of the Spanish administration in the Low
-Countries, an old personal friend of the Dudley family, and,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263">263</a></span>
-as already stated, godfather to young Guildford, who had, of
-course, been baptized a Catholic. On the occasion of this
-meeting with the Englishmen, the Spaniard, after the usual
-condolences on the death of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, passed to praises of
-that monarch’s wisdom in providing England with so good a
-King, meaning not “Jane the Quene,” the rightful heiress of
-the Realm, but Guildford Dudley.<a id="FNanchor_232" href="#Footnote_232" class="fnanchor">232</a> The truth may be that
-Diego said nothing of the kind, and that the English diplomats
-simply put these words into his mouth, to confirm the Council
-in its allegiance to Jane, and make it look on Guildford as
-the King, by creating an impression that his right to the throne
-was admitted by leading men on the Continent. Don Diego
-Mendoza told the Commissioners (they said) that his condolences
-on the occasion of the death of King Edward and his
-offers of service “to the kyng’s majestie” (Guildford) had been
-retarded, by the advice of the Bishop of Arras, a member of the
-Ministry at Brussels. “Therefore says he (<i>i.e.</i> Don Diego,
-quoted by the Commissioners) do I (feel) sorry that you lose
-so good a King, so much do I rejoice that ye have so noble
-and toward a <em>Prince</em> to succeed him, and I promise you,
-by the word of a gentleman, I would at all times serve His
-Highness myself if the Emperor (Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>) did call me to
-serve him (<i>i.e.</i> “allow me to do so”).” The English Envoys
-inform the Council that they told Don Diego “they had
-received the sorrowful news (of the death of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>)
-but the glad tidings (of the “accession” of Guildford) were
-not as yet come unto us by letters”&mdash;which was probably
-true, so far as official intimations of them went. Upon this
-Don Diego replied: “I can tell you this much. The King’s
-Majesty (Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>), for discharge of his conscience, wrote
-a good piece of his testament with his own hand, barring
-both his sisters of the Crown, and leaving it to the Lady<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264">264</a></span>
-Jane, near to the French Queen (that is to say, “related to
-Mary Tudor, Queen of Louis <span class="smcap smaller">XII</span> of France”). Whether the
-two daughters be bastards or not or why it is done, we that
-be strangers have nothing to do. You are bound to obey
-and serve His Majesty (Guildford Dudley), and therefore it is
-reasonable (that) we take him for (<i>i.e.</i> “to be”) your King,
-whom the consent of the nobles of your country have
-declared for (“to be”) your King, and,” he continued,
-“for my part of all others, I am bound to be glad that
-His Majesty is set in this office. I was his godfather, and
-would as willingly spend my blood in his service as any subject
-that he hath, as long as I shall see the Emperor willing to
-embrace (His) Majesty’s amity.” “Don Francisson (Francesco)
-de Este, general of all the footmen Itallyanes (Italian
-Infantry),” the Commissioners add, “is gone to his charge in
-mylland (”Milan“), who, at his departure, made the like
-offer, as long his master and ours should be friends, which he
-trusted should be ever, praying us at our return to utter it to
-the King’s Majesty (Guildford), and will (we) humbly take
-our leave of your honours.”</p>
-
-<p>It is obvious that, if Diego de Mendoza ever really used the
-words attributed to him in this letter, and did not merely
-lend his name to the English Commissioners, he must have
-been well “coached” by the Dudleys in what he was to say,
-though his close connection with Guildford as his godfather
-would naturally incline him to credit anything in his favour.
-Still, knowing Northumberland and Suffolk’s deep scheming,
-one cannot suppose that Mendoza’s enthusiasm for Guildford’s
-illegal claim to royal honours and his haste to admit it was
-entirely uninspired by outside influences. It is, indeed, a
-significant fact that Ascham, a great friend of the Duke of
-Suffolk, and very intimate with the inner workings of English
-politics, who had been sent abroad as Secretary to Morysone in
-1550, was still in Brussels with that knight in the summer
-of 1553. It is more than probable, therefore, that Ascham,
-being in correspondence with Suffolk, knew beforehand of the
-forthcoming elevation of Jane to the throne, and, on behalf of
-the Duke, advised Hoby and Morysone as to what they should
-say and do when that event took place, and also had an interview
-with Don Diego to the same end. We may be certain,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265">265</a></span>
-however, that Ascham did not countenance the Catholic side
-of the question.</p>
-
-<p>This letter from the Commissioners was not written until
-15th July, and by the time it reached England the political
-scene had changed. It damaged Guildford’s position seriously
-by its revelation of the schemes of the Dudleys and their party,
-who, not content with placing Northumberland’s daughter-in-law
-on the throne, were also seeking to crown that nobleman’s
-youngest son. From certain documents in the Belgian
-and Viennese Archives it would appear that Diego de Mendoza
-went so far as to address the Emperor directly on the subject
-of Guildford’s right to the throne, even assuring him that his
-godson would become a Catholic.</p>
-
-<p>A strong searchlight has been thrown on this hitherto
-rather obscure passage in the history of this period by the
-learned Editor of this work, in his interesting volume, <cite>Two
-Queens and Philip</cite>.<a id="FNanchor_233" href="#Footnote_233" class="fnanchor">233</a> The author, it is true, had suspected
-that Northumberland must have had some strong foreign
-support in his audacious attempt to usurp the throne,
-ostensibly for Lady Jane, though in reality for his own son,
-Guildford, but Major Martin Hume’s researches in the Spanish
-Archives have proved beyond a doubt that Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span> was
-backing him throughout in his perilous undertaking, and this
-against the interests of his own cousin, Mary Tudor.</p>
-
-<p>The Swiss Reformers, and especially Bocher, doubted
-the sincerity of Northumberland’s Protestantism, and it
-is not at all improbable that he had promised the Emperor
-that, should he succeed in placing Guildford Dudley on the
-throne and Jane as Queen-Consort, he would veer round to
-the Catholic party and re-establish papal supremacy in
-England.</p>
-
-<p>The Emperor had sent the Sieurs de Courrières and Renard
-as Ambassadors to our Court in the last year of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>.
-Whether they were deceived by Northumberland or were
-genuinely of the opinion that the chances of Mary’s succession
-were very remote and that Jane’s party was infinitely the
-strongest, we know not, but the Emperor, acting on their
-advice, backed Northumberland for all he was worth up to the
-very day that he was captured at Cambridge and conveyed a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266">266</a></span>
-prisoner to London. Bearing these facts in mind, the almost
-incredible story which we have just related concerning Guildford’s
-attempt to secure the throne for himself becomes
-intelligible.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, Northumberland had apparently done
-nothing to obtain favour for poor Jane’s own Envoys, sent to
-announce her accession to the Courts of Paris and Vienna,
-for no sooner had those gentlemen reached the cities in
-question than they were refused recognition and turned
-back. The elder Dudley, selfishness incarnate, cared little
-for the dignity of his daughter-in-law, if only his son might
-be proclaimed King.</p>
-
-<p>In the Museum at Hastings there is the impression of a
-hexagonal seal which was to have figured on the State documents
-of “Queen Jane and King Guildford Dudley.” Under
-an arched crown, between the initials “G.&nbsp;D.” (Guildford
-Dudley)&mdash;a striking proof of the extent to which his claims
-to the Crown were carried&mdash;are two escutcheons, one to the
-left bearing the royal arms of England, lions and fleurs-de-lys,
-and the other to the right, two animals, probably bears,
-grappling a ragged staff, the arms of the Dudleys. Properly
-speaking, according to heraldic rule, the royal arms should
-be on the right and the family arms on the left. Doubtless
-the mistake was due to the haste with which this seal was
-prepared. Under the escutcheons are the words “Ioanna
-Reg,” and on either side the date 1553. The matrix of this
-seal seems to have been lost; at least, its present whereabouts
-are unknown.</p>
-
-<p>On the 11th of July the Council wrote afresh to the Commissioners
-(Hoby and Morysone) telling them of the “signification
-of our sovereign lord’s death,” and remarking that,
-“although the Lady Mary hath been written unto from us
-(<i>i.e.</i> in answer to her letter of the 9th), yet nevertheless
-we see her not so weigh the matter that if she might
-she would disturb the state of this realm, having thereunto
-as yet no manner apparent of help or comfort but
-only the connivance of a few lords and base people: all
-others the nobility and gentlemen remaining in their duties
-to our sovereign lady Queen Jane. And yet, nevertheless,
-because the conditions of the baser sort of people is understood<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267">267</a></span>
-to be unruly if they be not governed and kept in order,
-therefore for the meeting with all events, the Duke of Northumberland’s
-grace, accompanied with the Lord Marquis of
-Northampton, proceedeth with a convenient power into the
-parts of Norfolk, to keep those countries in stay and obedience,
-and because the Emperor’s ambassadors here remaining
-shall on this matter of the policy not intermeddle, as it is
-very likely they will and do dispose themselves, the Lord
-Cobham and Sir John Mason repaireth to the same ambassadors,
-to give them notice of the Lady Mary’s proceeding
-against the state of this realm, and to put them in remembrance
-of the nature of their office, which is not to meddle in
-these causes of policy,<a id="FNanchor_234" href="#Footnote_234" class="fnanchor">234</a> neither directly nor indirectly, and so
-to charge them to use themselves as they give no occasion of
-unkindness to be ministered unto them, whereas we would
-be most sorry, for the friendship, which on our part, we
-mean to conserve and maintain. And for that grace the
-ambassadors here shall advertise the others what is said to
-them.... The xi<sup>th</sup> of July, 1553.”</p>
-
-<p>This document was followed, next day, by an official
-letter to the Commissioners, signed by Jane, and outlining
-what they were to say to the Emperor as to the foreign policy
-to be pursued <span class="locked">hereafter:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Trusty and well-beloved</span>,&mdash;We greet you well. It
-hath pleased God of his providence, by the calling of our
-most dear cousin of famous memory, King Edward the <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span><sup>th</sup>,
-out of this life, to our very natural sorrow, that we both by
-our said cousin’s lawful determination in his lifetime, with the
-assent of the nobility and state of this our realm, and also
-as his lawful heir and successor in the whole blood royal,
-are possessed of this our realm of England and Ireland.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Then comes a recommendation of the bearer of the letter,
-a Mr. Shelley; the confirmation of Hoby’s appointment&mdash;“the
-whole number of our ambassadors shall there remain to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268">268</a></span>
-continue to dwell in the former commission which ye had
-from our ancestor the King,” and an order that Hoby
-shall make this clear to the Emperor, and assure him that
-the friendship between England and the Emperor shall be
-continued as hitherto.</p>
-
-<p>Worry, anxiety, and annoyance soon brought on a relapse
-of the illness from which Jane had lately suffered. Her pains
-at last grew so acute that she again fancied the Duchess of
-Northumberland had poisoned her. Possibly this illness
-accounts for our hearing so little of her doings during
-the second, third, and fourth days of her short reign
-(11th, 12th, 13th of July). “Twice,” she writes, “was I
-poisoned, once in the house of my mother-in-law,<a id="FNanchor_235" href="#Footnote_235" class="fnanchor">235</a> and afterwards
-in the Tower; the venom was so potent that all the
-skin came off my back.” This idea was evidently only the
-result of the fever, which caused the skin to peel. Trouble
-had so reduced the poor girl, no doubt, that she fell an easy
-prey to the fevers so prevalent in and about the Tower, as
-long as the moat remained uncovered.</p>
-
-<p>On the 11th the Council received a letter from Mary, dated
-from Kenninghall 9th July, stating she had heard of her brother
-the King’s death, and was surprised that she had not known
-it sooner, and adding her intention to cause her right and title
-to be published, and proclaimed accordingly. The letter
-declared the Princess aware of the Council’s desire to undo
-her claims, but added that she was willing to grant pardon,
-and closed with an order to the Council to have her
-proclaimed in the City of London and other places. The
-Council’s reply was a masterpiece of “bluff.” It ran as
-<span class="locked">follows:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Madam</span>,&mdash;We have received your letters (of) the 9th of
-this instant, declaring your supposed title ... to the Imperial
-Crown of this Realm, and all the dominions thereunto belonging.
-For answer whereof, this is to advertise you, that for
-as much as our Sovereign Lady, Queen Jane is after the death
-of our Sovereign Lord Edward the 6th, ... invested and
-possessed with the just and right title in the Imperial Crown<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269">269</a></span>
-of this Realm, not only by good order of ancient laws of this
-Realm, but also by our late Sovereign Lord’s letters-patent,
-signed with his own hand, and sealed with the Great Seal of
-England, in presence of the most part of the nobles, councillors,
-judges, with divers other grave and sage personages, assenting
-and subscribing to the same. We must, therefore, of most
-bound duty and allegiance assent unto her said Grace, and to
-none other, except we should, which faithful subjects cannot,
-fall into grievous and unspeakable enormities. Wherefore we
-can no less do, but for the quiet both of the Realm and you
-also, to advertise you, that forasmuch as the divorce made
-between the King of famous memory, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and the
-Lady Katherine, your mother, was necessary to be had, both
-by the everlasting laws of God, and also by the ecclesiastical
-laws, and by the most part of the noble and learned universities
-of Christendom, and confirmed also by the sundry acts of
-Parliament, remaining yet in their force, and thereby you
-justly made illegitimate and unheritable to the Crown Imperial
-of this Realm ... you will, upon just consideration hereof,
-and of divers other causes lawful to be alleged for the same,
-and for the just inheritance of the right line and godly
-order, taken by the late King our Sovereign Lord King Edward
-the <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, and agreed upon by the nobles and great personages
-aforesaid, surcease by any pretence, to vex and molest any of
-our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane her subjects, from their true
-faith and allegiance unto Her Grace; assuring you, that if
-you will ... show yourself quiet and obedient, as you ought,
-you shall find us all and several ready to do you any service
-that we with duty may.... And thus we bid you most
-heartily well to fare.</p>
-
-<p>“Your ladyship’s friends, showing yourself an obedient
-subject.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This document was signed by the following members of
-the Council: “Thomas Canterbury, the Marquis of Winchester,
-John Bedford, Will. Northampton, Thomas Ely,
-Chancellor; Northumberland, Henry Suffolk, Henry Arundel,
-Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Cobham, R. Rich, Huntingdon,
-Darcy, Cheney, R. Cotton, John Gates, W. Peter, W. Cecill,
-John Cheeke, John Mason, Edward North, R. Bowes.” Of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270">270</a></span>
-all the signatories of this letter, not more than four, if so
-many, remained true to Jane to the last!</p>
-
-<div id="ip_270" class="figcenter" style="width: 430px;">
- <img src="images/i_270.jpg" width="430" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>LADY JANE GREY, BY WYNGARDE</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">THE EARLIEST ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF HER, FROM A PICTURE SAID TO BE BY
-HOLBEIN, NOW LOST</p></div></div>
-
-<p>On 12th July, the second day after Jane’s entry into the
-Tower, the Marquis of Winchester brought her unwilling
-Majesty a curious collection of miscellaneous articles of
-jewellery, the contents of sundry boxes and caskets, deposited
-at the Jewel House in the Tower, and which had belonged to
-Henry’s six queens. Jane, despite her poor health, was
-constrained to examine these things. The caskets contained,
-amongst other articles, “A fish of gold, being a toothpick.
-One dewberry of gold. A like pendant, having one great and
-three little pearls. A newt of white silver” (that is to say,
-a silver ornament wrought in the form of a lizard or eft). “A
-tablet of gold with a white sapphire and a blue one, a balas
-ruby, and a pendant pearl. A tablet of gold hung by a chain
-with St. John’s head, and flat pearls. A tablet with our Lady
-of Pity, engraved on a blue stone. A pair of beads of white
-porcelain, with eight gauds of gold, and a tassel of Venice gold.
-Beads of gold with crymesy (crimson) work. Buttons of gold
-with crimson work. Six purse hangers of siver and gilt”
-(these were to hang purses or trinkets to the girdle, like the
-modern chatelaine). “Five small agates with stars graven
-on them. Pearls in rounnels of gold between pivots of pearls.
-Pipes of gold. A pair of bracelets of flaggon chain (pattern),
-connecting jacinths of orange coloured amethysts. Many
-buttons of gold worked with crimson, and in each button set
-six pearls. Thirty turquoises of little worth. Thirteen table
-diamonds set in collets of gold. An abiliment set with twelve
-table diamonds” (these were the borderings of the caps like
-those of Anne Boleyn, or even of the round hood which was
-the fashion that succeeded them). “Forty-three damasked
-gold buttons, and a clock or watch set in damasked gold,
-tablet fashion,” close the list,<a id="FNanchor_236" href="#Footnote_236" class="fnanchor">236</a> but Winchester affirms that he
-delivered to Jane, on 12th July, not only these, but the regalia<a id="FNanchor_237" href="#Footnote_237" class="fnanchor">237</a>
-and other jewels, together with a supply of cash, books, and
-even clothes.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271">271</a></span>
-About this date, too, Lord Guildford Dudley was sent a
-quantity of the Crown jewels, possibly as an earnest of his
-future dignity. They certainly cost him dear!</p>
-
-<p>A curious inventory exists at Hatfield, of stuffs delivered to
-“the Lady Jane Grey, usurper, at the Tower by commandment
-over and above sundry things already delivered to
-her by two several warrants.” These goods were her own
-personal property, evidently left by her at Westminster
-Palace on the occasion of some visit, of which no record now
-exists. The stay in question must have occurred very shortly
-before Edward’s death, and the things may have been forgotten
-in the confusion attendant upon his last illness.
-The inventory is endorsed by Sir Andrew Dudley and Sir
-Arthur Sturton, deceased, Keeper of the Palace at Westminster,
-and was made, according to custom, on the day of the King’s
-death, when seals were put on the doors of every apartment
-in the royal palaces, not to be lifted till the King’s burial, after
-which such articles as belonged to persons in waiting or
-servants were delivered, after verification, to their various
-owners. The list of goods and chattels belonging to Lady
-Jane is a very lengthy one, and we will only make a few
-quotations, to give a glimpse of the contents of her wardrobe
-and her minor <span class="locked">possessions:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“Item, a muffler of purple velvet, embroidered with
-pearls of damask gold garnished with small stones of sundry
-sorts and tied with white satin.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, a muffler of sable skin with a head of gold with
-4 clasps set with five emeralds, four turquoises, six rubies,
-two diamonds and five pearls, the four feet of the sable being of
-gold set with turquoises and the head having a tongue made
-of a ruby.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, a hat of purple velvet embroidered with many pearls.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, a hat of black velvet laced with aglets (tags),
-enamelled, with a brooch of gold.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, a cap of black velvet, having a fine brooch with
-a square table ruby with divers pictures enamelled in red,
-black and green.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, eighteen buttons with rubies.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, eighteen gold buttons.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272">272</a></span>
-“Item, a helmet of gold with a face, and a helmet upon its
-head and an ostrich feather.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, three pairs of garters having buckles and pendants
-of gold.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, one shirt with collar and ruffles of gold.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, three shirts&mdash;one of velvet, the other of black
-silk embroidered with gold, the third of gold stitched with
-silver and red silk.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, a piece of sable skin.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, two little images of wood, one of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, and
-the other of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, a dog collar wrought with red work with gold bells.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, a picture of Lady of Suffolk in a gold box.</p>
-
-<p>“Item, a picture of Queen Katherine Parr that is lately
-deceased.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>This list also contained some articles which must have
-belonged to Guildford, for it is not probable that Lady Jane
-ever possessed “a sword grille of red silk and gold” or “a
-Turkey bow and a quiver of Turkish arrows,” or “a white
-doublet and hose of silk and velvet.” The number of clocks
-contained in this list is very <span class="locked">remarkable:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“One fair striking clock standing upon a mine of silver;
-the clock being garnished with silver and gilt, having in the
-top a crystal, and also garnished with divers counterfeit
-stones and pearls, the garnishment of the same being broken,
-and lacking in sundry places.</p>
-
-<p>“One alarum of silver enamelled, standing upon four balls.</p>
-
-<p>“One round striking dial, set in crystal, garnished with
-metal gilt.</p>
-
-<p>“One round hanging dial, with an alarum closed in crystal.</p>
-
-<p>“One pillar, with a man having a device of astronomy in
-his hand, and a sphere in the top, all being of metal gilt.</p>
-
-<p>“One alarum of copper garnished with silver, enamelled
-with divers colours having in the top a box of silver, standing
-upon a green molehill a flower of silver, the same altar standing
-upon three pomegranates of silver.</p>
-
-<p>“One little striking clock, within a case of letten, book
-fashion, engraven with a rose crowned, and <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Dieu et Mon
-Droit</i>.”</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273">273</a></span>
-The articles enumerated were brought to Lady Jane at the
-Tower, during her imprisonment, after her brief reign was
-over, and having ascertained their agreement with the Inventory,
-she signed that document, which was returned,
-and came into the possession of Cecil, and now lies, as we
-have said, among the State Papers at Hatfield. The fact
-that the list contains a reference to articles evidently belonging
-to Guildford Dudley points to his having accompanied Lady
-Jane to Court, and shared his wife’s apartment. Probably
-the object of the visit had been to bring Jane under the
-King’s immediate notice, and influence him to name her in
-his will, as his chosen successor.</p>
-
-<p>It had evidently been decided that the young Queen was
-not to tarry long in the gloomy palace prison, for some of the
-documents drawn up during the “nine days” have spaces
-left blank for the insertion of some other royal residence.
-Besides, when Jane appointed her brother-in-law, Lord Ambrose
-Dudley, to be her palace-keeper at Westminster, in lieu of his
-uncle, Sir Andrew Dudley, one of his first wardrobe orders
-was for twenty yards of purple velvet, twenty-five of Holland
-cloth, and thirty-three of coarser lining to make her robes,
-“against her removal from the Tower.”</p>
-
-<p>On the night of 12th July, according to Machyn, “was
-carried to the Tower iij carts full of all manner of ordnance,
-as great guns and small, bows, bills, spears, mores-pikes,
-arnes [harness or armour], arrows, gunpowder, and wetelle
-[victuals], money, tents, and all manner of ordnance, gun-stones
-a great number, and a great number of men of
-arms; and it had been for a great army toward Cambridge;”<a id="FNanchor_238" href="#Footnote_238" class="fnanchor">238</a>
-in other words, all these things were provided for the use of a
-great army, to proceed to Cambridge. These warlike preparations
-were made none too soon, for on the following morning,
-13th July, news reached the Tower that the rival Queen was
-at Kenninghall, on the borders of Suffolk and Norfolk, and
-that the men of Norfolk, knights and squires alike, were
-scurrying in their hundreds along the dusty lanes, to offer
-Mary their lives and service. In brief, the guilty inmates of
-the Tower, the would-be rulers of the realm, learnt to their
-consternation that throughout the length and breadth of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274">274</a></span>
-kingdom the people were against Queen Jane, and for Queen
-Mary. The Council was hastily assembled, and it was at once
-decided that the Lords Robert Dudley and Warwick were too
-young and inexperienced “for such difficulties as these.”
-The first proposal was, that the Duke of Suffolk should leave
-the Tower, and take command of the troops; but Queen Jane,
-alarmed for her own safety, insisted she needed her father, and
-could not do without him. His age and bad health were also
-factors in the final decision that Northumberland would, after
-all, be the best man to send.<a id="FNanchor_239" href="#Footnote_239" class="fnanchor">239</a> The Duke left Her Majesty in
-charge of the Council, and swore one of his big oaths that
-when he came back “Mary should no longer be in England,
-for he would take care to drive her into France, or&mdash;&mdash;” He
-took a passionate leave of his son Guildford, holding him in a
-long and tender embrace, pressing his head in his hands, and
-kissing him again and again. Did it flash across the father’s
-mind that he might never see his darling son again?</p>
-
-<p>Northumberland ordered the troops he was to command,
-which were to be raised by the various noblemen adhering to
-Jane’s party, to meet him at Newmarket. He gave a sort of
-farewell dinner to the Council in the Tower on the 13th, opening
-the banquet with a threatening speech to his guests. “If
-you do not keep your oath, or if you turn traitor to Jane,” said
-he, “God shall [will] not acquit you of the sacred and holy oath
-of allegiance, made freely by you to this virtuous lady, the
-Queen’s Highness, who by your and our enticement is rather
-of force placed therein [<i>i.e.</i> “in the position of Queen”],
-than by her own seeking and request. But if ye mean deceit,
-though not herewith but hereafter, God will revenge the same.
-I can say no more.” This was perhaps fortunate, for some
-of the assembled gentlemen certainly did “mean deceit.”
-The Duke concluded by asking the Council to “wish him no
-worse speed in his journey than they would have themselves.”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275">275</a></span>
-One of the members of that august body replied in the following
-terms: “My Lord, if ye mistrust any of us in this matter [the
-forcing Jane to become Queen], Your Grace is far deceived; for
-which of us can wipe his hands clean thereof? And if we should
-shrink from you, as one that is culpable [of having forced Jane
-to assume the crown], which of us can excuse himself as guiltless?
-Therefore herein your doubt is too far cast.” Northumberland
-was not offended by these ambiguous remarks, and
-merely added, “I pray God it be so. Let us go to dinner.”
-When this&mdash;as we should imagine&mdash;rather gloomy banquet
-was over, Northumberland sent a messenger to Jane at the
-Tower, and received by his hand his commission as “Lieutenant
-of the Army.” As he passed through the Council
-Chamber on his way to Durham House for the night, he
-encountered the Earl of Arundel, “who prayed God to be with
-His Grace, saying he was sorry it was not his chance to go
-with him and bear him company, in whose presence he could
-find in his heart to spend his blood even at his feet; and,
-taking Thomas Lovel, the Duke’s boy, by the hand, he added,
-‘Farewell, gentle Thomas, with all my heart.’ Then the
-Duke, with the Lord Marquis of Northampton, the Lord Grey,
-and divers others, took barge and went to Durham Place
-and to Whitehall, where they mustered their men.”<a id="FNanchor_240" href="#Footnote_240" class="fnanchor">240</a> Next
-morning, Friday, 14th July, the Duke and his followers rode
-proudly forth,<a id="FNanchor_241" href="#Footnote_241" class="fnanchor">241</a> with a train of guns and a body of six hundred
-men, led by some of the greatest in the land; such as Lord
-Edward Clinton, the Marquis of Northampton, the Earls of
-Warwick, Huntingdon, and Westmoreland, the Lords Grey de
-Wilton, Ambrose and Robert Dudley, Sir John Gates, and a
-score of others, equally influential, the majority already tried
-in war. As the glittering troop, armed with the motley collection
-of weapons brought to the Tower two days before, passed
-through the city and along Shoreditch, Northumberland
-noticed that, great as the crowd was, it was sullen, no one
-greeting the troops and their leaders with anything like<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276">276</a></span>
-enthusiasm. “The people,” he remarked surlily to Sir John
-Gates, “press to see us, but no one bids us God speed.”</p>
-
-<p>On the day her father-in-law left the Tower, only to return
-as a condemned prisoner, the Lady Jane&mdash;whose occupations
-from the time of her stormy interview with her mother-in-law
-up to this point are nowhere recorded, except for her inspection
-of the Crown jewels&mdash;signed a number of letters and documents
-of considerable importance. She wrote to the Duke
-of Norfolk, for instance, demanding his allegiance and commanding
-him to come to her Court as Earl Marshal, and confirming
-his titles and honours if he proved loyal to her. The
-original of this letter is in the possession of Mr. Wilson of
-Yorkshire. The body of the document is in Northumberland’s
-hand, and must have been drafted some days previously, but
-the signature is Jane’s. She next signed a warrant for the
-appointment of Edward Baynard as Sheriff of Wiltshire in
-lieu of our old friend, Sir William Sharington, “lately deceased.”
-This curious and little-known document is in the
-possession of Mrs. Alfred Morrison, and is exceedingly curious.
-The body of the text is in the hand of a Secretary, but the
-name is in Lady Jane’s handwriting and the signature is an
-autograph. Curiously enough, on 6th July Queen Mary had
-made the same appointment: later, she issued a proclamation
-to the effect that “no document, appointment, payment, or
-gift of land or money made by Jane Dudley,<a id="FNanchor_242" href="#Footnote_242" class="fnanchor">242</a> usurper,” should
-be considered valid; but Baynard’s nomination, however,
-held good, as we find from the Pipe Rolls of the County of
-Wiltshire for 1553. It is strange that Baynard should have
-been appointed by both the rival Queens, though this may be
-accounted for by the fact that he is said to have been a Wiltshire
-man and popular in his neighbourhood.</p>
-
-<p>Bad news reached London that evening, and before Queen
-Jane retired to rest she knew her fortunes were in jeopardy
-and she herself rapidly ceasing to be Queen, even in name.
-Presently a messenger informed the Council that the men of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277">277</a></span>
-Bucks, under Lord Windsor and Sir Edward Hastings, were
-rising for Queen Mary. Still worse news flew Londonwards
-on Saturday, the sixth day of Jane’s disastrous reign. Queen
-Mary had been proclaimed at Framlingham and Norwich.
-Northumberland, perceiving his weakness, had sent to London
-for fresh troops, and was himself speeding as fast as horse
-could gallop towards Cambridge, which he reached at midnight.</p>
-
-<p>So complete and rapid was the collapse of Jane’s cause that
-even the most carefully planned precautions taken in her
-interest ended by serving her foes. Her partisans, for instance,
-fearing Mary might escape by sea, had ordered six men-of-war
-to cruise off the east coast, intercept her flight, and bring her
-back a prisoner. The weather suddenly became so stormy
-that the vessels were driven into Yarmouth Roads just as a
-body of men was being levied in that town for Mary’s support.
-The sailors of the squadron, who had landed, bribed with money
-and strong ale to abandon their ships and join the levy, handed
-over their vessels to Sir Henry Jerningham, one of the staunchest
-supporters of the Tudor Princess, who, being thus supplied
-by her enemies with money, ammunition, and a train of
-artillery,<a id="FNanchor_243" href="#Footnote_243" class="fnanchor">243</a> marched forthwith against Northumberland, who
-was soon fain to fall back towards Cambridge, where he fancied
-himself safe in Trinity College, with his friends Drs. Sandys, and
-Parker, and Dr. Bill. As a matter of fact, his enemies, declared
-and secret, were as numerous and formidable in Cambridge
-as elsewhere; but during the momentary lull which ensued
-he flattered himself with false hopes, and plied the Council
-with demands for money and men, many of his followers
-having deserted him at Bury to join the enemy. Yet all the
-time Cecil<a id="FNanchor_244" href="#Footnote_244" class="fnanchor">244</a> was betraying him at every point. Nothing can<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278">278</a></span>
-exceed the cunning and treachery he displayed&mdash;so deep and
-cruel that one cannot but feel some pity for Northumberland,
-notwithstanding his many crimes and faults. When Cecil
-was forced to order his horsemen to take the field against Mary,
-he contrived to have them ambushed and attacked, and thus
-rendered quite useless to the Duke and harmless to his
-opponents. The Council informed Northumberland of the
-miscarriage of Cecil’s men; but the letter fell into the hands of
-Mary, who inquired of Roger Alford, Cecil’s confidential servant
-in attendance on her, why her master, whom she evidently
-knew to be playing traitor to Jane, had sent troops against
-her. Alford, so he says, “being privy to the matter before
-(hand), laughed, and told her [Mary] the matter,”&mdash;that
-Cecil had never intended his men should do any harm to her
-cause, but had simply sent them as a “blind” to make
-Northumberland think the Council was doing all in its power
-to send him reinforcements, and thus spur him forward to his
-ruin. Under such circumstances, the Duke’s position soon
-became desperate. “He would sit moodily in his chair lost
-in thought, then starting up, would pace the room, muttering
-to himself.”</p>
-
-<p>Dr. Sandys and several of his friends in Cambridge asked
-him to sup with them on the Saturday night, and spoke in a
-very friendly manner about Lady Jane. He shook his head,
-rose from the table, and seated himself in a vacant chair;
-remained there a long time in silence, and in deep depression;
-and, when his entertainers bade him good-night, took their
-hands in his, and begged them severally to pray for him, “for
-he was in great distress.”</p>
-
-<p>Sandys had been appointed to preach before the Duke on
-the following morning (Sunday, 16th July). Before retiring<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279">279</a></span>
-to rest, the learned Doctor, intending to choose a text, took
-up a Bible, which fell open at the first chapter of Joshua,
-the verse that met his eye being, “All that Thou commandest
-we will do, and wheresoever Thou sendest, so will we go.”
-“Upon which text he preached the next day with such
-discretion that he [Northumberland] got not such full
-advantage of him as he had hoped.” On the Monday
-the Duke went with his men to Bury. Their “feet marched
-forward, but their minds moved backwards”; in other words,
-they were but a half-hearted set, and one by one they deserted
-all through the day, hiding behind hedges and in ditches, till
-when evening came, the Duke, heart-sore and heavy, rode
-back to Cambridge almost alone, “with more sad thoughts
-than valiant soldiers about hym.” Realising that all was
-lost, he bethought him of a dramatic, or rather theatrical,
-trick to save himself. He conceived the idea that if he went
-to London and fell at the Queen’s feet, she would welcome
-and forgive him. Had she not pardoned many rebels? and
-was he worse than any of these?</p>
-
-<p>Presently, considerably cheered by his own but erroneous
-reflections, he betook himself, accompanied by the Mayor
-and Dr. Sandys, to the market cross, where the crowd greeted
-him in silence, “more believing the grief in his eyes, when
-they let down tears, than the joy professed by his hands,
-when he threw up his cap,” full of gold coins, into their midst.
-This show of tardy loyalty&mdash;produced by the arrival of the
-news of Mary’s growing power&mdash;having failed in its effect,
-Slegg, the Sergeant-at-Arms, accused him of treason, and
-brought him back a prisoner to King’s College.<a id="FNanchor_245" href="#Footnote_245" class="fnanchor">245</a></p>
-
-<p>On the morning of the 21st of July, according to Machyn,
-the Earl of Arundel, as treacherous a man as any in that nest
-of vipers, who, a week before, had knelt before Northumberland
-and sworn to shed his blood for him and for Queen Jane,
-came rapping at his door before he was up. The Duke,
-huddling on a cloak, went out to him, and seeing him look so<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280">280</a></span>
-threatening, fell on his knees, praying him to be good to him
-and merciful. “For the love of God, my lord,” said he,
-“consider that I have done nothing but by consent of the
-Council.” “My Lord Duke,” quoth the Earl of Arundel,
-“I am hither sent by the Queen’s Majesty, and in her name I
-arrest you.” Whereupon the Duke, rising, said, “I obey;
-but I beseech you, my Lord Arundel, have mercy towards
-me, knowing the case as it is.” “My good lord,” quoth the
-Earl, “you should have sought for mercy sooner. I must do
-according to the commands that have been given to me,”
-and upon this he took the Duke’s sword and committed him
-in charge of the guard and other gentlemen that stood by.
-The miserable Duke went to breakfast with not much appetite,
-looking as white as a ghost and feeling most wretchedly ill.
-Towards evening, under an escort of eight hundred men, he
-left Cambridge with Sir John Gates and Dr. Sandys&mdash;both
-prisoners&mdash;still wearing his red cloak wrapped about him
-and suffering agonies from gout in the feet. As night fell, it
-began to rain; and down long country roads, under the lowering
-clouds, went the weird procession of rough troopers on
-horseback, footmen with their pikes, and in their midst the
-tall, gaunt, grim figure of the Duke, his soaked and tattered
-red cloak clinging about his bent shoulders. He is said to
-have spent the night in a barn, to be moved on to London
-the next day, entering the city early in the morning, 25th July,
-just as the shopkeepers were taking down their shutters.
-His plight must have been pitiable, for in the streets men,
-recognising him, jeered at him as a “Traitor,” threw mud on
-his red cloak and scowled at him, calling him Somerset’s
-murderer, and so scaring him that he was almost thankful to
-reach the Tower and its comparative safety. He had gone
-forth in proud security, certain of success, sure he was about
-to punish his enemies and reward his friends. He came back,
-cold and miserable, knowing he had sacrificed his youngest
-son to his ambition; that the fate of his other children and of
-the unhappy Jane hung in the balance; and that the only
-friend left him in the world was his faithful wife, who was
-at that moment on her knees to Queen Mary, pleading for
-mercy and receiving none, her husband’s offence being deemed
-too great for pardon. That night surely, in the solitude of his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281">281</a></span>
-prison in the Beauchamp Tower,<a id="FNanchor_246" href="#Footnote_246" class="fnanchor">246</a> the Duke flung himself on
-his knees, and prayed the long-neglected prayers of his childhood,
-the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Pater Noster</i> that was now said in English, and the
-<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Ave Maria</i> that had gone out of fashion altogether!</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile, on Sunday the 16th (the seventh day of Queen
-Jane’s reign) there was no rest throughout the whole length
-and breadth of England; everywhere the people were rising
-for Queen Mary. In the streets of the metropolis there was
-great cheering and rioting, even bloodshed. Bonfires were
-lighted in the streets, and crowds of rough men and loose
-women whirled round the lurid flames shouting, “Queen
-Mary! Queen Mary!” In the churches, the claims of the
-rival Queens and rival Creeds occupied the preachers. At
-Paul’s Cross, Bishop Ridley preached against Queen Mary<a id="FNanchor_247" href="#Footnote_247" class="fnanchor">247</a>
-and the Scarlet Woman, and in favour of Jane and the Reformation.
-At St. Bartholomew’s, a Catholic priest told his
-congregation to kneel down and thank God that the victory
-was with Queen Mary; while at Amersham, in Buckinghamshire,
-John Knox thundered forth in favour of Queen Jane&mdash;but all
-his eloquence, and that of her other defenders, was in vain:
-the people would have Queen Mary, and Queen Mary only.
-Late this Sunday night a curious incident occurred. The
-Tower had been shut up for the night, when suddenly Jane,
-dreading perhaps some unexpected rising, ordered the outer
-gates to be locked and the keys carried up<a id="FNanchor_248" href="#Footnote_248" class="fnanchor">248</a> to her chamber.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282">282</a></span>
-Then the guards were informed that one of the Royal Seals
-was missing; and Jane had the lately closed gates unbarred,
-to send a body of Archers of the Guard after the Marquis of
-Winchester, who had left the precincts about seven o’clock
-for his house in Broad Street. They found him in bed,
-forced him to rise and dress himself, and brought him
-back about midnight to the Tower, where, it is said,
-he had to explain matters to Lady Jane, who connected
-him with the loss of the Seal. The whole incident is somewhat
-mysterious. Did the poor little Queen fancy Winchester
-was contemplating some move like that of Somerset
-when he practically assumed the Kingship at Hampton
-Court? Winchester undoubtedly bore Jane no particular
-good-will, and the interview, if it occurred, was probably
-somewhat stormy.</p>
-
-<p>The eighth day of the reign, Monday the 17th, opened with
-a violent scene in the early morning between the Duchesses of
-Northumberland and Suffolk, who wrangled over Guildford
-and his Kingship. Poor Jane was most miserable: her eyes
-were red with weeping, and she looked more dead than alive
-as she endeavoured to calm her belligerent Grace of Northumberland
-and reason with her own headstrong and domineering
-parent. By this time everything and everybody in the Tower
-were at sixes and sevens. No one seemed to know what to do
-or say. In the midst of it all came bad news from the country,
-where the peasants, notwithstanding the threats of their lords
-and masters, were refusing to take arms against Mary. Trouble<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283">283</a></span>
-was drawing unpleasantly near.<a id="FNanchor_249" href="#Footnote_249" class="fnanchor">249</a> On the previous day (Sunday,
-16th) some ten thousand of Mary’s adherents, many of them
-county notables, had assembled at Lord Paget’s house at
-Drayton, and marched to Westminster Palace, which they
-sacked of its arms and ammunition, “for the better furnishing
-of themselves in the defence of the Queen’s Majesty’s person
-and her title.” Paget, whose house was this army’s headquarters,
-was at this time, be it observed, amongst the party
-in the Tower and ostensibly loyal to Jane! Meanwhile, the
-people, at one with that section of the nobles who would have
-none of poor Jane, were shouting, in London and all over the
-land, “God save Queen Mary!”&mdash;whilst poor Jane’s name
-was never heard except to be scoffed at. The “nine days’
-Queen” was now nothing but “a mock.”</p>
-
-<p>On Tuesday (the 18th) it was patent that the drama&mdash;or
-rather, tragi-comedy&mdash;was drawing to a close. Of all Queen
-Jane’s Council only two men, Cranmer and her own father,
-remained true to her; and the former left that afternoon for
-Lambeth and Croydon. Winchester, Arundel, Pembroke,
-Paget, and Shrewsbury, to save their necks, had by this time
-definitely decided to betray the cause of the girl whom they
-had helped to put on the throne&mdash;and of these men, two,
-Arundel and Pembroke, only nine days before, had knelt
-before her at Sion House, protesting their loyalty and belief
-in her right to the crown! This day, however, Jane signed
-an order to Sir John Brydges and Sir Nicholas Poyntz that those
-officers should raise forces, “with the same to repaire with
-all possible spead towardes Buckinghamshire, for the repression
-and subdewing of certain tumultes and rebellions
-moved there, against us and our Crowne by certain seditious
-men.” This order is now to be seen in the British Museum,
-Harleian MSS, No. 416, f. 30.</p>
-
-<p>On Wednesday, 19th July, the short reign ended&mdash;“Jane
-the Quene” became “<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Jana non Regina</i>.” Yet still there
-was a flicker of Queendom, for that morning, information
-being received from the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, Lord Rich,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284">284</a></span>
-that the Earl of Oxford, who was then in Essex, had thrown
-in his forces with Mary, Sir John Cheke, Queen Jane’s Secretary
-of State, wrote a letter, to which the treacherous Lords of the
-Council affixed their signatures, requiring Oxford “like a
-noble man to remain in that promise and stedfastness to our
-sovereign Lady Queen Jane, as ye shall find us ready and firm
-with all our force to maintain the same: which neither with
-honour, nor with safety, nor yet with duty, we may now
-forsake.” This morning, too, commenced the betrayal, when
-Winchester, the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Privy Seal, Arundel,
-Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Sir Thomas Cheney, Sir John Mason,
-and Sir John Cheke waited on Suffolk, as the principal leader in
-Northumberland’s absence, and desired leave to depart from
-the Tower so as to confer with the French Ambassador about
-the foreign mercenaries<a id="FNanchor_250" href="#Footnote_250" class="fnanchor">250</a> who were to come over and aid
-Northumberland<a id="FNanchor_251" href="#Footnote_251" class="fnanchor">251</a>&mdash;at that moment awaiting arrest at Cambridge!
-Their zeal evidently touched Suffolk, who granted
-them leave to depart. No sooner had they left the grim
-fortress behind them than they proceeded straight to Baynard’s
-Castle,<a id="FNanchor_252" href="#Footnote_252" class="fnanchor">252</a> where, having sent for the Lord Mayor, they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285">285</a></span>
-were presently joined by that dignitary, with the Recorder
-and some of the Aldermen. The proceedings of this improvised
-Council opened with an attack on Northumberland’s
-ambition and scheming, delivered by Arundel,<a id="FNanchor_253" href="#Footnote_253" class="fnanchor">253</a> and then
-Pembroke drew his sword, and cried out, “If the arguments
-of my Lord Arundel do not persuade you, this sword shall
-make Mary queen, or I will die in her quarrel.” This speech
-was much applauded, and Mary’s proclamation was signed
-by all present. The conspirators then had Mary publicly
-proclaimed Queen at the Cross in Cheapside by four trumpeters
-and two heralds in their gorgeous coats. This took place about
-five or six in the evening&mdash;the very hour at which Jane’s
-accession had been published nine days earlier! The proclamation
-in the Chepe concluded, the Councillors proceeded
-to St. Paul’s for evensong and the singing of the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Te Deum</i>,
-whilst Cecil,<a id="FNanchor_254" href="#Footnote_254" class="fnanchor">254</a> Arundel, and Paget were sent to pay the
-Council’s homage to Mary. Now that the people had absolutely
-nothing to fear from the broken power of Jane, they
-gave wild vent to their feelings. The bells of the city churches,
-swung with a right good will, sounded a welcome to the coming
-reign; bonfires blazed in every street. One of those attacks
-of spontaneous feverish enthusiasm which seize nations from
-time to time, even in these prosaic days, took hold of London.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286">286</a></span>
-Tables were dragged into the thoroughfares, that all might sit
-down and drink to the health of her Catholic Majesty. Money
-was dispensed freely by the rich; and “the number of cappes
-that weare throwne up at the proclamacion wear not to be
-tould.” Most enthusiastic and excited of all was my Lord
-Pembroke, who filled and refilled his cap with small coin to be
-scrambled for by the mob. He could afford to be liberal: he
-knew Mary would reward him well for his share in her proclamation.
-London was a very pandemonium that night. “For my
-tyme,” says a contemporary news-letter,<a id="FNanchor_255" href="#Footnote_255" class="fnanchor">255</a> “I never saw the
-lyke and by the reporte of otheres the lyke was never seen....
-I saw myself money was thrown out at windows for joy.
-The bonefires were without number; and what with shouting
-and crying of the people, and ringing of bells,<a id="FNanchor_256" href="#Footnote_256" class="fnanchor">256</a> there could
-no one man hear what another said; besides banketyng
-[banqueting] and skipping the street for joy.”<a id="FNanchor_257" href="#Footnote_257" class="fnanchor">257</a></p>
-
-<p>Archbishop Cranmer is said to have been the last of Jane’s
-Council, then resident in the Tower, to leave it, which he did
-in the course of 19th July, after a sad leave-taking with Lady
-Jane. His position in the Janeite conspiracy has been severely
-criticised by more than one historian, and by none more than
-by Lord Macaulay. He had been instrumental in aiding
-Northumberland to overthrow Somerset, probably because
-he disliked the latter’s Calvinistic tendencies, and regarded
-him as a stumbling-block in the way of his proceedings for the
-establishment of a more moderate and orthodox Church of
-England. After the death of Somerset, the Archbishop<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_287">287</a></span>
-became one of Northumberland’s chief supporters, and, as
-Macaulay points out, covered himself with lasting obloquy
-by his attempt to seduce an innocent girl into a treasonable
-career which was to lead to her ruin. In her eyes he was
-something more than a political Councillor&mdash;an Apostle of the
-Lord&mdash;and his advice no doubt told with her above that of
-any one else. The next time they met, Cranmer was a prisoner
-on his way to Guildhall,<a id="FNanchor_258" href="#Footnote_258" class="fnanchor">258</a> whither she too was tramping on
-foot to hear her doom, approved of by most of the men who
-had been her chief Councillors, read out before the multitude
-of Queen Mary’s friends and supporters.</p>
-
-<p>There was little joy and much grief within the Tower.
-Presently a messenger to Suffolk from Baynard’s Castle came
-to tell him that the nobles there assembled required him to
-deliver up the Tower, and proceed to the Castle to sign Mary’s
-proclamation. They also ordered Lady Jane to resign the
-title of Queen. Instantly Suffolk abandoned the unequal
-struggle; leaving the Lieutenant in charge of the Tower, he
-went out, telling his men to leave their weapons behind
-them. He himself announced Mary’s accession on Tower
-Hill, and then, going to Baynard’s Castle, he signed her proclamation.
-This done, the wretched man returned to the
-Tower to tell his daughter that her Queenship was a thing
-of the past. Jane, meanwhile, having promised Edward
-Underhill, the famous “Hot Gospeller,” then on duty in the
-Tower, that she would act as godmother that day to his infant
-son, who was to be christened Guildford, and being herself
-too ill to attend the baptism, commissioned Lady Throckmorton
-to go in her stead. Lady Throckmorton left the
-royal apartments and proceeded to St. John’s Chapel (some<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_288">288</a></span>
-say All Hallows’, Barking), leaving Jane surrounded by the
-insignia of royalty&mdash;the cloth of estate, the throne, and
-all that marked her position as Queen. When her ladyship
-returned, these had all been removed; for <em>the</em> Queen of England
-had not yet arrived in London, and her subject, “Jane, the
-usurper,” no longer sat on the throne. During the absence
-of Lady Throckmorton Suffolk had rushed back to his daughter.
-He found her alone in the Council Chamber, seated, forlorn,
-under her canopy of State. “Come down from that, my
-child,” said he; “that is no place for you.” Then he gently
-told her all; and gladly did poor Jane rise and quit her hateful
-office. For a moment father and daughter stood weeping,
-locked in each other’s arms, in the centre of the deserted hall,
-through the open windows of which, borne on the summer air,
-came the exulting shouts of “Long live Queen Mary!”</p>
-
-<p>Then, after a pause, Jane Grey spoke four simple words,
-sublime in their pathos. “Can I go home?” she asked
-ingenuously. God help her! what a world of innocence
-was in that little sentence, “Can I go home?” Alack!
-alas! poor little victim of so much ambition and such damnable
-intrigue, there is no more earthly home for thee!</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_289">289</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE LAST DAYS OF NORTHUMBERLAND</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">All</span> through the night of Queen Mary’s proclamation,
-Jane Grey was abandoned in the great fortress to
-the care of her personal attendants; and bitter must
-have been her distress, as she realised the cruel plight to which
-the mad ambitions of others had brought her. Everything
-helped to heighten her terror&mdash;the changed attitude of the
-guards, and other Tower officials, who a few brief hours
-before had treated her with obsequious deference, and who now
-marked their loyalty to Mary by an ostentatious display of
-scorn for the fallen majesty of the “Nine Days’ Queen”;
-the tears of her women, their whispered talk, the brooding
-and ominous silence of the palace, broken only by the distant
-shouts of revellers, who acclaimed the triumph of her
-successful rival, all combined to increase the nervous and
-hysterical agitation into which the poor girl’s recent illness
-had already thrown her. Her mother, the Duchess, compelled
-by circumstances beyond her control, most probably,
-had left the Tower, and hurried back to Sheen, after having
-obtained Queen Mary’s pardon for her husband. The Duchess
-of Northumberland, white with horror, and trembling with
-anxiety for her wretched husband and children, had likewise
-departed with her attendants up the river to Sion: so that of
-all Jane’s Court none remained to help and comfort, except
-her faithful women and servants. Suffolk’s movements at
-this time are not quite clearly recorded. That he retired to
-Sheen immediately after Mary’s proclamation, appears certain;
-and also that, on the 27th July, he was arrested and committed
-to the Tower, to be released at the intercession of the
-Duchess his wife, on his own bail, on the 31st of the same<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_290">290</a></span>
-month.<a id="FNanchor_259" href="#Footnote_259" class="fnanchor">259</a> Yet a contemporary letter, dated August 11th, says:
-“The Duke of Suffolk is (as his owne men report) in prison,
-and at this present in suche case as no man judgeth he can
-live.” An explanation of these conflicting statements may
-be, that the Duke, when officially released, was for some days
-too ill to leave the Tower.</p>
-
-<p>There is reason to believe that Lady Jane remained in the
-State apartments till late in the evening of the 19th July,
-when she was transferred to the rooms above the Deputy-Lieutenant’s,
-recently vacated by the Duchess of Somerset.
-The Deputy-Lieutenant of this period was Thomas Brydges
-or Bridges, brother of Sir John Brydges, Lieutenant of the
-Tower. This last gentleman attended Jane on the scaffold,
-in discharge of his duty; but Thomas Brydges figures a good
-deal in the narrative of the last months of Jane’s life. There
-has been much dispute as to the exact situation of the rooms
-in the Tower in which the innocent prisoner was confined, and
-the absolute identity of her keeper. But it is now pretty
-clearly established that the first period of her detention was
-not spent, as so often stated, in the Brick Tower, but in the
-modernised house of the Deputy-Lieutenant, which stands
-next door to the Lieutenant’s or the King’s House. Later&mdash;we
-do not know the precise date of her removal&mdash;she was lodged
-in a house, also on the Green, adjacent to the Lieutenant’s
-dwelling, and which then belonged to the Gentleman Gaoler,
-Mr. Nathaniel Partridge.<a id="FNanchor_260" href="#Footnote_260" class="fnanchor">260</a> Earlier historians have denied
-the existence of Partridge, and even Harris Nicholas thought
-he was Queen Mary’s goldsmith; but his identity is now
-conclusively proved, and he is admitted to have been a well-known
-figure in and about the Tower at this period. He
-died in February 1587, and is buried in St. Peter-ad-Vincula
-in the same vault as his illustrious guest. During her incarceration,
-Jane was allowed to walk in the Queen’s Garden,
-and “on the hill within the Tower precincts.”<a id="FNanchor_261" href="#Footnote_261" class="fnanchor">261</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_291">291</a></span>
-Several persons attended on Lady Jane in the Tower,
-among them Elizabeth Tylney,<a id="FNanchor_262" href="#Footnote_262" class="fnanchor">262</a> “a beautiful young woman
-of good birth,” Lady Throckmorton, wife of Sir Nicholas
-Throckmorton, and “Mrs. Ellen.” Some light has been
-thrown upon the identity of the last-named lady by Lady
-Philippa de Clifford, Lady Jane’s cousin, whose curious account
-of her unhappy kinswoman’s last hours was published in
-Brussels in 1660; from this we learn that “Mrs. Ellen, an
-elderly woman,” was Lady Jane’s nurse. There were also two
-waiting-maids, and a lad, in the suite of the Princess, as we
-glean from <cite>The Chronicles of Queen Jane and Queen Mary</cite>.
-Thus she was no “solitary prisoner,” but served by gentlewomen,
-and in comparative comfort. We must, therefore,
-dismiss the old idea that Lady Jane Grey was ever relegated
-to a “dungeon deep,” to pine in darkness and in loneliness.
-That she was not fed on bread and water is proved by the
-Privy Council records, from which we learn that ninety-five
-shillings a week was allowed for her maintenance whilst in
-captivity, and twenty shillings for each of her attendants,
-six in number&mdash;a very handsome allowance in those days,
-and equivalent, in modern coinage, to about fifteen times the
-amount.</p>
-
-<p>It must be clearly understood that Lady Jane was never
-even formally arrested, as were Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s Queens. No armed
-guard took her captive, after the reading of a solemn warrant.
-She was simply detained in the Tower,<a id="FNanchor_263" href="#Footnote_263" class="fnanchor">263</a> partly as a hostage
-for the good behaviour of her father, and partly to prevent
-her being once more the tool of those who might attempt to
-place her on the throne, and make her the figure-head of a
-politico-religious party. Northumberland and his followers
-had claimed honours for her which rightly belonged to Mary,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_292">292</a></span>
-and when Mary gained the upper hand, “Jane the usurper”
-had, <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">ipso facto</i>, to be kept in retirement.</p>
-
-<p>There is no trace of any independent movement on Guildford’s
-part, during the nine days of his wife’s reign, except
-to assist his mother in pushing his “claim” to the throne.
-Either he sulked, because Jane had refused to make him King
-Consort on the day following her entry into the Tower; or else
-Northumberland advised him to keep out of the way as much
-as possible, so as to escape the blame of having taken an active
-part in the usurped administration. Be this as it may, we have
-no news of his doings, from the first day or two of the nine
-days’ reign, until after its termination, when he was parted
-from his wife, and sent to the Beauchamp Tower, whither,
-on the 25th July, his brothers, Lord Warwick and Lord Ambrose
-Dudley, followed him, to be joined the next day by Lord Robert
-Dudley.</p>
-
-<p>Jane’s peaceful seclusion was of very short duration. On
-the day following her deposition (20th July), the Marquis
-of Winchester, Lord High Treasurer,<a id="FNanchor_264" href="#Footnote_264" class="fnanchor">264</a> came to ask for the
-return of the Crown Jewels and other articles delivered to her
-on the second day of her Queenship. A parcel or so was missing,
-it would seem, and Winchester, when he commanded
-Jane to restore the Crown Jewels, desired she should also make
-good the alleged deficiency. Astonished at this demand, she
-declared she knew nothing of the missing articles, but agreed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_293">293</a></span>
-to give up all the money she had in her possession, and on 25th
-July she consigned to the Treasury an extraordinary assortment
-of coins&mdash;angels of the reign of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, gold coronation
-medals of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, some shillings and
-half shillings, as well as some deteriorated coinage of Edward
-<span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, of no value. The whole of her available assets did not
-amount to more than £541, 13s. 2d. The missing valuables,
-it would appear, had not been returned two months later,
-or else Queen Mary had not been informed of their receipt,
-for on 20th September she writes to Winchester requesting
-him immediately to order Lady Jane to give up the jewels
-and “stuffs,” which had been delivered to her “on July 12th,”
-and which were still missing. The inventory of these mislaid
-“stuffs” includes a most curious assortment of odds and
-ends, which one would think it hardly worth Queen Mary’s
-while to reclaim. First we have a large leather box, marked
-with Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s broad arrow, containing “two old shaving
-cloths, and thirteen pairs of old leather gloves, some of them
-worn.” Another “square coffer” missing, and described as
-being covered with “Naples fustian,” contained a collection
-of old Catholic prayer books, rosaries, and other odds and ends,
-which had probably remained among the Tower stores since
-Katherine of Aragon had last kept court there, and which
-were, needless to say, of no use to Lady Jane Grey! The first
-article in this collection is the half of a broken ring of gold,
-perchance some forgotten love-token. Then comes “a book
-of prayers, covered with purple velvet, and garnished with
-gold. A <em>primer</em> [or Catholic prayer book] in English. Three
-old halfpence in silver, seven little halfpence and farthings.
-Item, sixteenpence, two farthings and two halfpence. A
-purse of leather with eighteen strange coins of silver. A ring
-of gold with a death’s head. Three French crowns, one
-broken in two. Item, a girdle of gold thread. A pair of
-twitchers [tweezers] of silver. A pair of knives in a case of
-black silk. Two books covered with leather. Item, a little
-square box of gold and silver with a pair of shears [scissors]
-and divers shreds of satin. A piece of white paper containing
-a pattern of gold damask.” The third coffer was “Queen’s
-jewels,” and contained chains of gold studded with rosettes
-of pearl and other valuables. The fate of this curious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_294">294</a></span>
-collection of gewgaws is unknown. About the same time,
-Winchester made an exploration of the contents of Guildford’s
-pockets, which resulted in the discovery that he possessed
-exactly £32, 8s., in the debased coinage of Edward’s reign.
-Miss Strickland, in mentioning this incident, says: “Thus
-the prisoners were left entirely without the means of bribing
-their gaolers.” This is not the case, for Lady Jane appears to
-have made a will (which may still be in existence, though for
-the time being it has disappeared) in which she left certain
-jewels, clocks, and valuables to her sisters, her women, and her
-servants, and, strange to relate, a gold cup or chalice to Queen
-Mary. Wherefore we may conclude she was allowed to retain
-the articles brought her from Westminster Palace, some of
-which served, no doubt, to decorate her apartment in the
-Tower. We possess no record, unfortunately, of the sort of food
-provided for the prisoner and her husband; we can only guess
-at its nature by consulting the bills of fare, still extant, provided
-for the Duchess of Somerset during her imprisonment
-in the Tower: from the fact of the prices of the various dishes
-being appended, we may conclude that the wealthier political
-prisoners were allowed to pay for their meals. Her Grace’s
-bill for “dynner” was as <span class="locked">follows:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-<table id="dinnerbill" summary="dinner bill">
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">“Mutton stewed with potage</td>
- <td class="tdl">viijd.</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl i0">Beef boiled</td>
- <td class="tdl">viijd.</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl i0">Veale, rost</td>
- <td class="tdl">xd.”</td></tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl subhead">“Suppr” consisted of:&mdash;</td></tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">“Slyced beef</td>
- <td class="tdl">vjd.</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl i0">Mutton rost</td>
- <td class="tdl">viijd.</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl i0">Bred</td>
- <td class="tdl">xd.</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl i0">Bere</td>
- <td class="tdl">viijd.</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl i0">Wyne</td>
- <td class="tdl">viijd.”</td></tr>
-</table></blockquote>
-
-<p class="in0">“Wood, coills (coals) and candull by the weke,” cost “xxd.”</p>
-
-<p>In the meantime, the Council had retired to Westminster,
-whence, as is generally believed, it sent Northumberland
-orders to disband his army and await Mary’s pleasure before
-returning to London; the herald who bore this order being commissioned
-to proclaim, in certain places <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">en route</i>, that if the
-Duke refused to submit he should be arrested as a traitor.
-Before this, as we have said (on the 19th instant), the Earl of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_295">295</a></span>
-Arundel and Lord Paget had been dispatched to offer the
-Council’s homage to Mary, bearing with them the following
-letter&mdash;a good specimen of the barefaced hypocrisy practised
-on Lady Jane. “Our bounden duties most humbly remembered
-to your most excellent majesty, it may like the same
-to understand, that we your most humble, faithful, and obedient
-subjects, having always (God we take to witness) remained
-your Highness’s true and humble subjects in our hearts, ever
-since the death of our late sovereign Lord and Master,
-your Highness’s brother, whom God pardon; and seeing
-hitherto no possibility to utter our determination herein,
-without great destructions and bloodshed, both of ourselves
-and others till this time, have this day proclaimed in your
-city of London, your majesty to be our true natural sovereign,
-liege Lady and Queen, most humbly beseeching your
-Majesty to pardon and remit our former infirmities, and most
-graciously to accept our meaning which have been ever to
-serve your Highness truly, and it shall remain with all our
-powers and forces to the effusion of our blood. These bearers,
-our very good lords, the Earl of Arundel and Lord Paget,
-can and be ready now particularly to declare, to whom it may
-please your excellent Majesty, to give firm credence; and thus
-we do and shall daily pray to Almighty God for the preservation
-of your most royal person long to reign ... from your
-Majesty’s city of London this ... (19th) day of July, the first
-year of your most prosperous reign.” This letter needs no
-comment; Paget’s treachery towards his late patron is particularly
-diabolical. He seems to have behaved throughout with
-Mephistophelian cunning and falseness. There is something
-absolutely Satanic in the hypocritical manner in which this
-letter asserts that the Council had hitherto had no opportunity
-to express its “determination” in the matter of Mary’s
-right to the Crown&mdash;this in the hope of leading Mary to think
-it had been acting under compulsion! If Jane’s friends <em>had</em>
-succeeded in establishing her on the throne, and Mary had
-been killed or driven out of the country, these Councillors,
-the latter’s “most humble, faithful, and obedient subjects,”
-would, no doubt, have rallied about her rival&mdash;provided always
-it paid them so to do; Mary being victorious, they saved
-their necks and kept their positions by embracing her cause.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_296">296</a></span>
-Like the Vicar of Bray, no matter who was King, or what
-were the social and religious conditions of the country, these
-gentlemen were resolved to cling to their offices, and accommodate
-their opinions and actions to those of the party in
-power.</p>
-
-<p>It was about this time that Mary received another abject
-document of the same sort&mdash;the already quoted “Submission”
-or <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">apologia</i> of Cecil, whose conduct throughout had
-been as tortuous as that of any of Eugene Sue’s Jesuits.</p>
-
-<p>A previous chapter has touched upon the singular intrigues
-of the Commissioners in Brussels, who conveyed Diego Mendoza’s
-acclamation of Guildford, as King of England, to the Council.
-We must now relate the sequel. On the 20th July, these
-gentlemen followed up their letter of the 15th, by another,
-stating that they had vainly endeavoured to obtain an interview
-with the Emperor, who was exasperated by what had
-happened in England, and had even refused to receive Mr.
-Shelley, the bearer of the Council’s letter of the 12th July.
-His Imperial Majesty held that Jane’s assumption of the
-Crown would lead to trouble with France; Mary Stuart,
-Queen of Scots, at this time consort of the Dauphin of France,
-having a claim to the English throne prior to that of Lady
-Jane. He does not seem to have approved&mdash;or else he feigned
-disapproval&mdash;of Mary Tudor’s succession, but desired the matter
-should be settled by Parliament in accordance with the will
-of the English nation. Within a few days, probably, the
-Commissioners, hearing of Jane’s downfall, and realising their
-own danger, promptly submitted&mdash;like the Council at home&mdash;to
-Mary, and enclosed the letter brought by Shelley in one
-of their own dated 29th July to the Council at Westminster,
-“for that it hath pleased God to call my Lady Mary her
-grace to the State and possession of the realm, according
-to the King’s majesty her father’s last will and the laws
-of the realm.” Not quite sure, however, as to what has taken
-place, they ask the Council to let them have all news to date,
-and desire to know “her maj<sup>tys</sup> pleasure what we should do,
-wherunto we shall conform ourselves most willingly according
-to our most bounden duty.... Sir Philip Hoby,
-etc., to the Council.”<a id="FNanchor_265" href="#Footnote_265" class="fnanchor">265</a> In spite of their forethought, Hoby<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_297">297</a></span>
-and Morysone were recalled by an order of 5th August, their
-place at Brussels being taken by Dr. Wootton, Bishop of Norwich;
-and the fact that in the said order they are described as
-“<em>Mr.</em>” Hoby and “<em>Mr.</em>” Morysone suggests that they were
-in dire disgrace. Most likely their letter about Guildford
-rankled in Mary’s mind! Their attempt to shelter themselves
-behind a show of loyalty, at all events, was not as successful
-as that of the Council at home, but they richly deserved
-any punishment their duplicity received; for, like the rest
-of the Janeite conspirators, they supported her cause as
-long as it seemed likely to profit them, and abandoned
-it, as if it were plague-stricken, directly the tables were
-turned.</p>
-
-<p>None the less, the Emperor Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span> (who dropped the cause
-of Northumberland the moment he perceived that Mary had
-won the day), wishing “to show his great love for that Queen
-his most dear cousin,” requested the Governess of the Netherlands,
-Mary, Queen of Hungary, to entertain the above-named
-gentlemen, as well as the newly dispatched Ambassador, Bishop
-Wootton of Norwich, “to such a banquet as they had never
-partaken of before, for such carvings, and sumptuous dishes,
-and frequent changing of wines.” The Emperor’s Embassy,
-which included the Sieur de Courrières, already mentioned,
-Simon Renard, and several other noblemen, was amongst the
-first of the numerous Envoys sent from all parts of Europe to
-congratulate the Queen on her victory, and, as if to emphasise
-his affectionate interest in the Royal cousin whose cause he had
-so lately abandoned in favour of that of her chief enemy,
-the negotiations for the marriage of the Queen of England
-with the young widowed Prince, afterwards King Philip of
-Spain, were pushed forward with the utmost alacrity.</p>
-
-<p>The mere idea of a union with her very Catholic cousin
-inflamed the imagination of the old maid sovereign with so
-ardent a passion as to absorb her whole being, and to bring
-about the sad catastrophe of her tragic life. She now “could
-think and speak of Philip, and of Philip only.” The most
-affectionate solicitude was displayed on the part of Queen
-Mary for the welfare and comfort of her future Consort, so that
-even a special clause was included, allowing him to land at
-the most convenient port he should choose, for he was “apt<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_298">298</a></span>
-to be very sick on the sea, and most eager to be on land
-again.”<a id="FNanchor_266" href="#Footnote_266" class="fnanchor">266</a></p>
-
-<p>In some way or other Lady Jane must have been kept
-informed of the current events and gossip of the day. Some
-one probably gave her an account of Elizabeth’s ride through
-London on 31st July, from Somerset House to Wanstead,
-where she joined her sister. The astute Princess had at first
-hesitated as to what course she should pursue, but at last,
-seeing Jane’s position was hopeless, she made up her mind to
-side with her sister, and pass through the City and Aldgate
-with a numerous escort. The royal prisoner must have heard
-of the gay decorations of the streets, brilliant with flags, and
-streamers, and splendid tapestries, and how wild was the
-popular enthusiasm for Queen Mary.</p>
-
-<p>The foredoomed prisoners must have received a rude
-shock on 1st August, when the monotony of their existence
-was suddenly broken by the appearance of the Constable of
-the Tower, Sir John Gage, and his officials, who repaired to
-them severally, and read out to them the solemn indictments
-made against them in the Queen’s name. These indictments&mdash;the
-originals of which will be found in the Baga de Secretis,
-pouch xxiii., at the Public Record Office&mdash;were dated 1st
-August, and had been previously read out and endorsed at
-Guildhall, with all due ceremonial, earlier in the day, in the
-presence of Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London; Thomas,
-Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal; the Earls of Derby and Bath;
-Richard Morgan, Chief Justice of Common Pleas; and other
-noblemen and gentlemen, not all of whom were, however,
-actually present, but represented by deputies. The first
-document, divested of its legal verbosity, declares Lady Jane
-Grey, Guildford Dudley her husband, Cranmer, Archbishop of
-Canterbury, and the Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley,
-guilty of treason, for having seized the Tower of London,<a id="FNanchor_267" href="#Footnote_267" class="fnanchor">267</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_299">299</a></span>
-on 11th July; having sought to depose their rightful sovereign,
-Queen Mary; and having “acknowledged and proclaimed
-Jane Dudley, wife of Guildford Dudley, Esq., of the parish
-of St. Martin’s by Charing Cross, Queen of England.” The
-address is curious, as it indicates that the town residence of
-the unfortunate couple was still Durham House, the Duke
-of Northumberland’s palace in the Strand.</p>
-
-<p>The second indictment concerns John, Duke of Northumberland,
-William, Marquis of Northampton, Francis, Earl of
-Huntingdon, and others, for having, “between the 10th and
-the 17th July, first of Mary, levied men at Cambridge to march
-against the Queen.”</p>
-
-<p>Yet a third indictment is of even greater historical interest,
-and charges Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury,
-as “a false traitor to the Queen,” with providing arms for
-twenty men, under Barnaby Boylot, Walter Morford, and
-Robert Durant of Westminster, and dispatching them to
-Cambridge, in aid of John, Duke of Northumberland. This
-proves that the original indictment against Cranmer did not
-charge him with heresy, but merely as a political offender.
-Undoubtedly, as Macaulay points out, by making himself
-the accomplice of Northumberland in endeavouring to overcome
-the scruples of so amiable a young woman as Lady Jane
-Grey, and seducing her into treason, Cranmer committed an
-act of most unjustifiable wickedness.</p>
-
-<p>A little later, in the early twilight of 3rd August, the
-flickering of hurrying lights, and the boom of cannon&mdash;“the
-loudest that ever was heard”&mdash;could not fail to apprise the
-State prisoners in the Tower that some unusual event was
-happening, and that the Queen and Princess Elizabeth had
-entered its precincts, to prepare for the obsequies of Edward
-<span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>. From her windows Lady Jane noted the flaring torches,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_300">300</a></span>
-moving hither and thither, in unwonted chambers and courtyards,
-and heard the tramp of feet, the heavy tread of the
-guards, the changing of sentinels, and the coming and going of
-the Ambassadors and courtiers hurrying to pay their homage
-to the new Sovereign&mdash;amongst them, doubtless, most of those
-very men who had solemnly sworn allegiance to herself!</p>
-
-<p>The Protestant funeral service of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> took place
-on 8th August, the King’s body having been removed, on the
-preceding evening, from Greenwich to Whitehall. A great
-number of children in surplices were gathered together to
-attend his obsequies in the Abbey, and this gave a touch of
-poetry to a ceremony described by Noailles as “a very shabby
-one, badly attended, without any lights burning, and no official
-invitations sent to the Ambassadors.” Archbishop Cranmer,
-who had organised the function, read the plain English service,
-from the Book of Common Prayer. Round about the coffin
-were a great number of standard-bearers with their standards,
-conspicuous among them being those of his mother, Queen
-Jane Seymour, and of his grandmother, Lady Seymour, as
-well as one with a white dragon on a red background, and yet
-another with a very large white greyhound, the emblem of the
-house of Tudor. All the banners were bowed as the little
-coffin was lowered into the vault in Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VII</span>’s Chapel, and
-the wands were broken and cast in upon the lid. Cranmer
-gave a heavy sigh as he watched it pass into the gloom, knowing
-full well that with that little corpse passed away all his hopes
-and power&mdash;that the vengeance of the Queen whose mother
-he had outraged was near at hand. He never officiated again
-at any State function; his day was over! Lady Jane heard
-of this particular service with considerable pleasure, for it was
-celebrated in accordance with her own religious views; but
-the details of another ceremony in suffrage of King Edward’s
-soul, according to the ritual and doctrine of the Church of
-Rome, celebrated in the Queen’s presence in the Royal Chapel
-of the White Tower, must have pained her not a little.<a id="FNanchor_268" href="#Footnote_268" class="fnanchor">268</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_301">301</a></span>
-Mary, in residence in the Tower at this time, had organised
-this special Requiem Mass with all permissible pomp and ceremony,
-and we may take it for granted that Jane saw from her
-windows a good deal of the coming and going of royal personages,
-officials, and servants, consequent upon so elaborate a
-function. Pained indeed must have been the Reforming
-Princess to learn that Dr. George Day, the very Catholic
-Bishop of Chichester, had been selected to preach before Her
-Majesty the panegyric of her very Protestant brother!</p>
-
-<p>We must now turn our attention to the Duke of Northumberland.
-Soon after entering the Beauchamp Tower on 25th
-July, he collapsed, and had to take to his bed. The fates were
-not, indeed, propitious to Northumberland in this respect,
-for his health broke down when he most needed all his physical
-as well as moral strength to help him through his tremendous
-task. Even as far back as 1550, John ab Ulmis, in a letter
-to Bullinger, mentioned “the Earl of Warwick’s very dangerous
-illness.” He would seem to have never quite recovered from
-this attack, for in the following August he was very ill, and
-again, late in September 1552, he wrote Cecil that he was
-“fevrish and unable to sleep.” In January 1553, Warwick
-told Petre or Cecil that he was much alarmed about himself,
-and feared he was “going to be very ill.” Throughout the
-year 1553 he was observed to look pale, and to walk with
-difficulty, but his indomitable will held him up, and he was able
-to do the work of a dozen men, for his energy was as admirable
-as its object was detestable. Northumberland is scarcely
-a commendable character, but there is none the less a pathos
-in the fact that his health was giving way under the terrible
-strain that crushed him. He does not deserve much sympathy,
-but it is impossible not to pity him in his extremity, abandoned
-by every one, a doomed prisoner, his last card played and lost.
-To his insane ambition he had sacrificed his youngest and best-loved
-son, and the young creature the lad had so recently
-married, and now an unnatural death faced him in stark
-horror. What nights he must have spent, hopeless and helpless,
-alone in that prison on every gate of which the great<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_302">302</a></span>
-Italian might have written, <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate</i>.
-He knew the Queen hated him with the intense and unforgiving
-hatred of a Spaniard. Had he not sided against her mother,
-and framed the pitiless and insulting documents he had forced
-his helpless daughter-in-law to sign, stigmatising Mary and
-Elizabeth as “bastards”? Reflecting on these, and a hundred
-other offences, he realised his case was hopeless. So bitterly
-did the Queen loathe him, as a matter of fact, that she
-actually requested Comendone, the Papal Envoy, to put off
-his departure for a few days, so as to witness the execution
-of her chief foe, and give a personal account of it to the
-Pope!</p>
-
-<p>The trial for treason of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland,
-took place on August 18th in Westminster Hall. The
-Marquis of Northampton, and the Earl of Warwick, Dudley’s
-son, were arraigned at the same time. Thomas, Duke of
-Norfolk, sat as High Steward of England; this was, indeed,
-one of his last official appearances. He died in the following
-year (on 24th August) at Kenninghall. Several of those
-men who sat in Jane’s Council, and had only saved their
-necks by addressing their hasty submission to Mary, figured
-at this trial. Northumberland was very obsequious to his
-judges, and “protesting his faith and obedience to the Queen’s
-Majesty, whom he confessed grievously to have offended, said
-that he meant not to speak anything in defence of himself.”
-He then demanded of the court, first “whether a man doing
-an act by the authority of the Prince and Council, and by
-warrant of the Great Seal,<a id="FNanchor_269" href="#Footnote_269" class="fnanchor">269</a> and doing nothing without the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_303">303</a></span>
-same, may be charged with treason for anything which he
-might do by warrant thereof?” and secondly, “whether any
-such persons as were equally culpable in that crime, and those
-by whose letters and commandments he was directed in all
-his doings, might be his judges, or pass upon him his death?”
-The answer returned was that the Great Seal to which he
-appealed was not that of the lawful Queen of the realm, but
-was the seal of a “usurper,” and as such had no authority;
-also, that though some of his judges might be equally guilty
-with himself, they had no attainder against them, and therefore
-were as fit to try him as any one else, provided the sovereign
-gave permission. Finding they were bent on his destruction, the
-unhappy man pleaded guilty, and besought the Duke of Norfolk
-to obtain the Queen’s pardon for him. Following suit,
-the Marquis of Northampton and the Earl of Warwick also
-pleaded guilty; the former urged, that “after the beginning
-of these tumults he had forborne the execution of any public
-office, and that all the while he, intent to hunting and other
-sports, did not partake in the conspiracy,” whilst Warwick
-begged the Queen would have his debts paid out of his confiscated
-goods. They were both sentenced to death, “to be
-had to the place that they came from, and from thence to be
-drawn through London unto Tyburn, and there to be hanged,
-and then to be cut down, and their bowels to be burnt, and
-their heads to be set on London Bridge and other places.”<a id="FNanchor_270" href="#Footnote_270" class="fnanchor">270</a>
-When he heard this horrible sentence of death, Northumberland
-asked that, as a nobleman, he might be beheaded, and
-“begged that his children might be kindly treated.” He
-had the grace also to confess that Jane, so far from desiring
-regal honours, was only induced to accept the Crown “by
-enticement and force”&mdash;which confirms what we have said
-of her parent’s ill-treatment of her. The Duke also requested
-that a “learned divine” might be sent to him; and that he
-might have an interview with four members of the Council,
-“for the discovery (<i>i.e.</i> revelation) of some things which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_304">304</a></span>
-might concern the State.”<a id="FNanchor_271" href="#Footnote_271" class="fnanchor">271</a> What these mysterious “things”
-may have been, is now unknown. Lingard says Gardiner
-and another member of the Council visited Northumberland
-in prison, and that the former interceded for him with the
-Queen; but there is no documentary evidence as to the
-purport of the State secrets the Duke had promised to divulge.</p>
-
-<p>On the following day, 19th August, four of the chief of
-those who had ridden out of London with Northumberland
-against Mary&mdash;Sir Andrew Dudley,<a id="FNanchor_272" href="#Footnote_272" class="fnanchor">272</a> Sir John Gates, Sir Harry
-Gates, and Sir Thomas Palmer&mdash;were sentenced to death in
-Westminster Hall.</p>
-
-<p>Next day Northumberland made a public renunciation
-of the Protestant religion, either in the Church of St.
-Peter-ad-Vincula, or else in the chapel in the White Tower;
-the former place is more generally accepted. Some forty of
-the principal citizens of London were present; and the Marquis
-of Northampton, Sir Andrew Dudley, Sir Henry Gates, and
-Sir Thomas Palmer, were also reconciled to the Latin Church
-at the same time. The ex-conspirators knelt during Mass,
-saying the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Confiteor</i> after the celebrant, who was probably
-Gardiner. When the Mass was concluded, they one after
-another asked each other forgiveness, kneeling as they did
-so. After this they all went in front of the altar, where, on
-bended knees, they confessed to Gardiner, that “they were
-the same men in the faith, according as they had confessed
-to him before, and that they all would die in the Catholic
-faith.” Having received the Eucharist, the Duke turned
-to the congregation and said, “Truly, good people, I profess
-here before you all that I have received the sacrament, according
-to the true Catholic faith; and the plague that is upon
-this realm, and upon us now, is, that we have erred from the
-faith these sixteen years, and this I protest unto you all, from
-the bottom of my heart.” Northampton, Andrew Dudley,
-Gates, and Palmer made the same statement, and they were
-all conducted back to their respective prisons.<a id="FNanchor_273" href="#Footnote_273" class="fnanchor">273</a> There can<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_305">305</a></span>
-be no doubt, that, if this ceremony took place in St. Peter’s,
-Lady Jane must have seen, from the windows of the Deputy-Lieutenant’s
-house, the procession of her father-in-law and
-his followers on their way to hear Mass, and her grief on
-learning that they had abandoned Protestantism was, as we
-learn from her own lips, intense.</p>
-
-<p>The evening of the 21st August, Northumberland was
-informed by the Lieutenant of the Tower that he was to die
-next day, whereupon he wrote the following abject letter to
-his brother-in-law and captor, the Earl of <span class="locked">Arundel:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“Hon<sup>ble</sup> lord, and in this my distress my especial refuge,
-most woeful was the news I received this evening by Mr.
-Lieutenant, that I must prepare myself against to-morrow to
-receive my deadly stroke. Alas, my good lord, is my crime so
-heinous as no redemption but my blood can wash away the
-spots thereof? An old proverb there is, and that most true,
-that a living dog is better than a dead lion. Oh! that it
-would please her good grace to give me life, yea, the life of a
-dog, if I might but live and kiss her feet, and spend both life
-and all in her honourable services, as I have the best part
-already, under her worthy brother, and most glorious father.
-Oh! that her mercy were such, as she would consider how
-little profit my dead and dismembered body can bring her;
-but how great and glorious an honor it will be in all posterity
-when the report shall be that so gracious and mighty a queen,
-had granted life to so miserable and penitent an object.
-Your hon<sup>ble</sup> usage and promise to me since these my troubles,
-have made me bold to challenge this kindness at your hands.
-Pardon me if I have done amiss therein, and spare not, I pray,
-your bended knees for me in this distress. The God of
-Heaven, it may be, will requite it one day, on you or yours;
-and, if my life be lengthened by your mediation, and my good
-lord chancellor’s (to whom I have also sent my blurred letters),
-I will ever owe it to you, to be spent at your hon<sup>ble</sup> feet. Oh!
-my good lord, remember how sweet life is, and how bitter the
-contrary. Spare not your speech and pains; for God, I hope,
-hath not shut out all hopes of comfort from me in that gracious,
-princely and womanly heart; but that, as the doleful news
-of death hath wounded to death, both my soule and body,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_306">306</a></span>
-so the comfortable news of life, shall be a new resurrection
-to my woeful heart. But if no remedy can be found, either
-by imprisonment, confiscation, banishment, and the like, I
-can say no more, but, God grant me patience to endure,
-and a heart to forgive the whole world.</p>
-
-<p>“Once your fellow, and loving companion, but now
-worthy of no name but wretchedness and misery.</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-J.&nbsp;D.”<a id="FNanchor_274" href="#Footnote_274" class="fnanchor">274</a>
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>It must have cost the haughty Northumberland dear, to
-write so humble a supplication; but he was a man of strong
-domestic affections, and realised that if he were spared, his
-children and brothers might also be saved. But Mary’s hate,
-thoroughly Spanish in its intensity, was implacable; and if,
-as some historians seem to think, the prisoner hoped to obtain
-his freedom by returning to the religion of his ancestors,<a id="FNanchor_275" href="#Footnote_275" class="fnanchor">275</a> he
-made a terrible mistake. The Queen may have rejoiced that
-the chances of his eternal salvation were enhanced, according
-to her views, by his conversion, but none the less did the outraged
-sovereign and woman claim the head of her arch-enemy,
-and worst detractor.</p>
-
-<p>Machyn tells us of a strange incident, in connection with
-the Duke’s execution, which tends to prove it was to have
-taken place on the 21st August, and to have been accomplished
-by the common hangman. Says the chronicler in
-question: “The xxj of August was, by viij of the clock in
-the morning, on the Tower hill about XM (<i>i.e.</i> “about ten
-thousand”) men and women for to have seen the execution
-of the Duke of Northumberland, for the scaffold was made
-ready and sand and straw was brought, and all the men
-that belong to the Tower,<a id="FNanchor_276" href="#Footnote_276" class="fnanchor">276</a> as Hoxton, Shoreditch, Bow,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_307">307</a></span>
-Ratclyff, Limehouse, Saint Katherines, and the waiters
-[attendants] of the Tower, and the guard, and sheriff’s
-officers, and every man stand in order with their halbards,
-and lanes made (<i>i.e.</i> barriers placed so as to admit of the
-free passages of the troops and officials) and the hangman
-was there, and suddenly they were commanded to depart.”<a id="FNanchor_277" href="#Footnote_277" class="fnanchor">277</a>
-The fact that the hangman was present seems to denote
-that the order, changing the sentence from hanging and
-disembowelling, to decapitation, had not yet been made.
-Northumberland had given way at his trial to an unusual
-display of emotional terror, as the barbarous details of the sort
-of death to which he was condemned were read out to him,
-and probably efforts were therefore made, and not in vain,
-to spare him so atrocious an ordeal and substitute the more
-merciful and dignified death by the axe. Maybe it was this
-which occasioned the postponement of the grim ceremony.</p>
-
-<p>According to a MS, now in the Brussels Archives, entitled,
-<cite>Les événements en Angleterre</cite>, 1553&ndash;4, the Duke of Northumberland
-was allowed to take a pathetic leave of his youngest
-son, “whom he pressed again and again to his breast, sighing
-and weeping a deluge of tears, as he kissed him for the last
-time.”</p>
-
-<p>The executions of Northumberland, Sir John Gates, and
-Sir Thomas Palmer, took place on 22nd August, on Tower Hill.
-The prisoners were first delivered over to the Sheriffs of London
-by the Lieutenant of the Tower. As soon as the Duke was confronted
-with Sir John Gates, he exclaimed, “Sir John, God
-have mercy on us, for this day shall end both our lives, and I
-pray you forgive me whatsoever I have offended, and I forgive
-you with all my heart. Although you and your counsel was a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_308">308</a></span>
-great occasion thereof (<i>i.e.</i> “of my troubles”). “Well,”
-returned Gates, “I forgive you all, as I would be forgiven,
-and yet you and your authority was the original cause of it,
-altogether, but the Lord pardon you, and I pray you forgive
-me.” They then bowed to each other, and the Duke, who
-was garbed in “swan-coloured (<i>i.e.</i> grey) damask,” went
-forward to the scaffold, looking dejected. Bishop Heath,
-crucifix in hand, walked with him. On the way, when they
-were outside the Tower gates, a woman rushed forward, and
-waving in his face a handkerchief, which had been dipped in
-the blood of Somerset, cried out, “Behold, the blood which
-thou did cause to be unjustly shed, does now apparently begin
-to revenge itself on thee!” The guards dragged her away,
-and the condemned proceeded on their way to Tower Hill.
-On the scaffold, the Duke took off his outer cloak, and leaning
-over the rail, on the east side, made his farewell speech to the
-people, of which several versions exist. He admitted that he
-had been “an evil liver”; begged the Queen’s forgiveness,
-kneeling; alluded to his accomplices, and would not name
-them; regretted his religious errors; professed his attachment
-to the Catholic Church, asking the Bishop of Worcester, Heath,
-to bear witness to his sincerity, to which the prelate answered
-“Yea”; and finally, asking all to pray for him, he knelt
-down, and recited the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">De Profundis</i>, after which he made the
-sign of the cross, in the sawdust of the scaffold, and stooped
-and kissed it. Then, rising, he bared his neck, tied the handkerchief
-over his eyes, and, turning to the executioner, said he
-was ready. The fellow, who was lame in one leg, took good
-aim&mdash;and in a flash, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland,
-was no more. Sir John Gates would not have his eyes
-bandaged, and died a fearful death, after three blows from
-the axe. Palmer was beheaded at one stroke. Both made
-lengthy speeches, in which they styled themselves staunch
-Catholics. It is said that when the horrible scene was over,
-children came and dipped cloths in Northumberland’s blood,
-to be preserved as a memorial of him, and this despite his
-unpopularity.<a id="FNanchor_278" href="#Footnote_278" class="fnanchor">278</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_309">309</a></span>
-A pathetic incident occurred in connection with the burial
-of the Duke’s remains. One of his servants, John Cock,
-sufficiently attached to his memory to have a care for the
-whereabouts of his last resting place, waited upon Queen Mary
-and prayed her to command that his master’s head should be
-given to him. “In God’s name,” answered Her Majesty,
-somewhat irate, “take the whole body as well, and give your
-lord proper burial.” Acting on this permission, Cock took
-Northumberland’s corpse and laid it to rest in the Church of
-St. Peter-ad-Vincula, beside the coffin of the Duke of Somerset!</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_310">310</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE TRIAL OF QUEEN JANE</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> writer of the <cite>Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen
-Mary</cite> relates that he dined with Queen Jane in
-“Partridge’s House,” on 27th August, and incidentally
-mentions her evident resentment at her father-in-law’s
-apostacy. This chronicler appears to have been a resident
-in the Tower, and a friend of Partridge. He writes: “I
-dined at Partridge’s house with my Lady Jane being there
-present, she sitting at the board’s end, Brydges, his wife,
-Sarah, my lady’s gentlewoman and her man, she commanding
-Brydges and me to put on our caps [<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">sic</i>]. Amongst our
-communications at this dinner, this was to be noted. After
-she had once or twice drunk to me and bade me heartily
-welcome, saith she: ‘The Queen’s Majesty is a merciful
-Princess; I beseech God she may long continue, and send His
-bountiful grace upon her.’</p>
-
-<p>“After that we fell to discussing matters of religion, and
-she asked, ‘What he was that preached at Paul’s on Sunday
-before&mdash;&mdash;’ [a blank], and so it was told her. ‘I pray you,’
-quoth she, ‘have they Mass in London?’</p>
-
-<p>“‘Yea, forsooth,’ quoth I, ‘in some places.’</p>
-
-<p>“‘It may be so,’ quoth she. ‘It is not so strange as the
-sudden conversion of the late Duke, for who would have
-thought he would have so done?’</p>
-
-<p>“It was answered her, ‘Perchance he thereby hoped to
-have had his pardon.’</p>
-
-<p>“‘Pardon,’ quoth she, ‘Woe worth him. He hath brought
-me and our stock in most miserable calamity, and misery by
-this exceeding ambition. But for the answering that he hoped
-for life by turning, though others be of the same opinion, I
-utterly am not, for what man is there living, I pray you, although<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_311">311</a></span>
-he had been innocent, that would hope of life in that case&mdash;being
-in the field against the Queen, in person as general, and
-after his taking, so hated and evil spoken of by the Commons,
-and at his coming into prison, so wondered at, as the like was
-never heard by any man’s time? Who was judge that he
-should hope for pardon, whose life was odious to all men?
-But what will ye more? Like as his life was wicked and full
-of dissimulation, so was his end thereafter. I pray God I, nor
-no friend of mine, die so. Should I, who am young and in
-the flower of my years, forsake my faith for love of life?
-Nay, God forbid. Much more he should not, whose fatal
-course, though he had lived his just number of years, could
-not have long continued. But life was sweet, it appeared, so
-he might have lived, you will say, he did not care how. Indeed,
-the reason is good, for he that would have lived in chains to
-have had his life, belike would leave no other means attempted.
-But God be merciful to us, for He sayeth, ‘Whoso denieth Him
-before man, He will not know him in His Father’s Kingdom.’</p>
-
-<p>“With this and much other talk, the dinner passed away,
-which ended, I thanked her Ladyship that she would vouchsafe
-to accept me in her company, and she thanked me likewise,
-and said I was welcome. She thanked Brydges also for
-bringing me to dinner. ‘Madam,’ said he, ‘we are all somewhat
-bold, not knowing that your Ladyship dined before,
-until we found your Ladyship there.’”</p>
-
-<p>A little later, that is, at the end of September and in
-October, Lady Jane’s hopes of release may have risen, for
-Mary had returned from St. James’s Palace to the Tower, for
-the Coronation. There is no evidence that she ever came
-into personal contact with Lady Jane Grey after the friendly
-visit to Newhall in the summer of 1552. If so interesting an
-event had taken place, there would surely be some trace of it;
-some account, however brief, of the broken words poor Jane’s
-trembling lips uttered, when she, the Queen-usurping, and
-Mary, the Queen-Regnant, stood face to face. But since
-there is no contemporary mention of such a meeting, we must
-conclude it never occurred, even at this time, when Jane was
-awaiting an uncertain fate in one corner of the Tower, while
-Mary was receiving the homage of the hypocrite Councillors
-in its State chambers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_312">312</a></span>
-A wave of unusual heat swept over England during the
-summer of 1553, accompanied by storms of extreme violence.
-Jane must have felt the sultriness in her prison, and have
-gladly accepted the refreshing walks in the Queen’s garden,
-which not only brought her amid the last roses of summer,<a id="FNanchor_279" href="#Footnote_279" class="fnanchor">279</a>
-but into contact with the busy life of the Palace-fortress, so
-that she must have seen many of the preparations for the
-forthcoming Coronation. It may well have occurred to her
-that, had fate been less cruel, all this coming and going might
-have been in her honour, and she, instead of the triumphant
-Mary, might have gone forth to Westminster, the first Protestant
-Queen of England. And the Coronation ceremony itself&mdash;surely
-some gossip told her all about that? How stately was
-the procession of 30th September, in which nearly all the
-erstwhile ardently Protestant Privy Council of King Edward,
-now staunch Papists every one, surrounded the most Catholic
-Mary, garbed in their official bravery, and proclaiming themselves
-more orthodox than her Papistical Majesty herself;
-Lord Russell with his big beaded rosary at his waist&mdash;that
-rosary, which on a famous occasion, hearing Mary might very
-likely order his share of the Church lands to be handed back to
-the monks, he cast, with a fierce oath, upon the fire! They
-must have told the Lady Jane how fair and gracious Elizabeth
-looked in her golden chariot lined with crimson, her robes of
-pale blue velvet threaded with silver; how Anne of Cleves
-scintillated with jewels, and how sixty grand dames, in ruby
-velvet and ermine, with coronets on their heads, rode in the
-gorgeous procession to Westminster. They must have told
-her, too, how the charity children, who had sung Calvinistic
-hymns a week or so ago, now tunefully invoked the blessings
-of the Saints upon their Catholic Sovereign; how the French
-Ambassador, Noailles, rode near to the famous Renard, the
-sly fox who represented the Emperor, and contributed to
-bring about Jane’s death; how my Lady of Sussex carried
-the Queen’s crown and the Lord Mayor her sceptre; how the
-people thought the old Duke of Norfolk looked much changed
-since he had last appeared in his official robes; how my Lord
-Edward Hastings had been made Master of the Horse, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_313">313</a></span>
-led the Queen’s milk-white palfrey; how the Protestant Mrs.
-Bacon had obtained Cecil’s pardon, and how Mrs. Barnett,
-Sir Thomas More’s granddaughter, helped to robe the Queen;
-how Gog and Magog had condescended to leave Guildhall and
-go to the Tower gates, where they saluted the Queen, and how
-Gog’s head had nearly wobbled off his gigantic shoulders; how
-three thousand yeomen, in the apple green and white of the
-House of Tudor, and three hundred Beefeaters from the Tower,
-in scarlet and black, had added a brilliant touch to the sumptuous
-procession; how there were so many giants in the wayside
-pageantry, along the route from the City to Westminster,
-that people talked about it as a weird contrast, since the Queen
-was of such low stature as to be almost a dwarf; how among
-these giants was a colossal angel ten feet high, all clothed in
-gold foil, sent by the Florentine merchants to grace a triumphal
-arch in Fenchurch Street; and how, in conclusion, Noailles,
-true Frenchman as he was, had waxed excited over the
-splendours of the Queen’s jewels, and annoyed because Elizabeth
-walked next to her! And the scene in the Abbey next
-day, surely Lady Jane heard all about that?&mdash;how Gardiner,
-fresh from the Tower, crowned the Queen&mdash;which was deemed
-an ugly omen, for both Canterbury and York were in prison,
-and no King of this land had ever yet been crowned by a mere
-Bishop! They must have told the young prisoner how
-brilliantly the banquet went off; how Dymoke, hereditary
-champion of England, rode into the Hall, armed <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">cap-à-pie</i>,
-and championed the Queen’s right; how, no one taking up the
-challenge, the Queen drank to him; how the old Duke of
-Norfolk, in true mediæval fashion, rode into the Hall, too, and
-ushered in the first course of the elaborate meal; how Anne
-of Cleves, weighed down with heavy pearls, rubies and emeralds,
-sat next Elizabeth, who had precedence of everybody after
-the Queen; and how Heywood, the dramatist, had returned
-from exile to superintend the revels and masques. All that
-holiday, poor Jane’s ears must have ached with the boom of
-cannon,<a id="FNanchor_280" href="#Footnote_280" class="fnanchor">280</a> and the pealing of bells, and the shouts of the guards
-and servants, as they sang and banqueted and drank, and
-lighted a big bonfire on Tower Hill. Probably the gossips<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_314">314</a></span>
-told her too of the scandals, the tales of petty intrigues, quarrels,
-and heart-burnings, the little shames and mortal sicknesses,
-which the Muse of History has disdained to record, but which
-were of greater interest, one fancies, to the fair prisoner, than
-the broader effects of the gorgeous pageant which boded so
-little good for her.</p>
-
-<p>Jane’s parents and friends, were buoyed up with the hope
-that soon after her Coronation, Mary would liberate her young
-cousin, and her husband; and the Queen, her detractors to
-the contrary, did make a strong effort to save Lady Jane Grey
-and Guildford. When, either late in July or in August 1553&mdash;very
-soon after Jane’s fall&mdash;Renard, the Imperial Ambassador,
-had an audience with the Queen (probably at Newhall or
-Wanstead), and opened the question as to what was to become
-of the little usurper, the Queen answered, “she never could
-be induced to have her executed, because three days before
-she left Sion House, she had deemed herself to be the victim
-of intrigues.” Neither, said she, was Jane the daughter-in-law
-of Northumberland, because she had been validly contracted
-to another person; and had taken no part in the Duke’s enterprise,
-and was “innocent.” The wily Renard, who had formerly
-backed Jane’s party, but now wished to destroy her,
-answered that very probably the contract of marriage had been
-invented as an excuse, and that she must at least be kept a
-prisoner, as her liberation would give rise to a great deal of
-trouble and endanger the Realm, and the Catholic religion.
-The Queen’s answer was, that Lady Jane would not be liberated,
-without every necessary precaution having been taken to
-avoid all difficulties. Upon this speech being reported to the
-Emperor, he reiterated his advice&mdash;given in a letter of 20th
-July&mdash;that <em>all</em> who were implicated in Northumberland’s plot
-should be put to death.<a id="FNanchor_281" href="#Footnote_281" class="fnanchor">281</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_315">315</a></span>
-Noailles, also, spoke to Her Majesty about Lady Jane’s
-position, and she repeated that she “intended to spare her.”
-“After all,” said she, “the marriage with Guildford is invalid,
-since she was already contracted to a youth in the employ
-of the Bishop of Winchester”&mdash;<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">ung serviteur de l’Evêque de
-Wincestre</i>. Was Hertford ever in Dr. Gardiner’s employ?
-Even after she had received the Emperor’s despatch, crying
-for vengeance on all the participants in the late usurpation,
-Mary wrote, on 29th August, to Dr. Wotton, our Ambassador
-to France, “that she would see Jane was kept safe, and that
-before giving her liberty, she would see that she was innocuous”;
-but on 19th September, the Imperial Ambassadors wrote rather
-jubilantly that at last the Queen is determined to execute
-“the five sons of Dudley and Jane of Suffolk.” There was
-still hope, however, for on 5th November, Renard writes that
-being at supper with the Venetian Ambassador, he heard it
-said that “the four sons of Northumberland, were to be
-executed, but that Robert might be pardoned, and that he
-thought Jane, too, would not be executed.” This was as it
-should be, for Robert Dudley was of all Northumberland’s
-sons, the least guilty, his share in the conspiracy being a very
-light one. We may add that in a letter preserved in the
-Corsini Library at Rome, Cardinal Pole says he has lately
-heard that Queen Mary was desirous of saving “Lady Jane
-Suffolk,” as he calls her. There is not a tittle of evidence
-that Mary at any time gave it to be understood, either to Lady
-Jane or to others, that she would be pardoned if she embraced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_316">316</a></span>
-the Roman Catholic religion. Religion had little or nothing
-to do with the matter; the charge against Jane was, that she
-had usurped the throne&mdash;treason&mdash;and treason to the Queen
-was a purely secular offence. The Emperor’s desire for Jane’s
-death, was actuated by a fear that if she were set at liberty,
-she might once more be used as an instrument against Mary’s
-legitimate pretensions, since the late King had named her
-his successor in his “Devise.” The reason why the Council
-shared the Emperor’s opinion, and had urged Mary to sign
-Lady Jane’s death-warrant was, that it was anxious to show
-its whole-hearted zeal for Mary, and entirely dissociate itself
-from Jane’s claims. Let it not be forgotten by those who would
-blame our severe judgment of the Council’s behaviour, that
-the very men who now urged the Queen to destroy Jane<a id="FNanchor_282" href="#Footnote_282" class="fnanchor">282</a>
-and her husband, and who attended Masses with the utmost
-unction, had not only been staunch Protestants a few months
-previously, under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, but Janeites of the hottest
-during the first two or three days of Jane’s brief reign. Beset
-on all sides, Mary Tudor yielded at last, and, when the sentence
-had been passed, reluctantly signed the death-warrant.</p>
-
-<p>Before that, however, a Writ of <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Habeas Corpus</i> was issued
-on the evening of 11th November, commanding John Gage,
-Constable of the Tower, “to bring up [<i>i.e.</i> to Guildhall, two
-days later, for their trial] the bodies of the accused, to wit,
-Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, Jane Dudley, Guildford
-Dudley, Ambrose and Henry Dudley.” The document bore
-the signatures of Thomas White, Mayor, and Thomas, Duke
-of Norfolk.</p>
-
-<p>On 13th November 1553, Jane Grey, Guildford Dudley,
-Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lords
-Ambrose and Henry Dudley, were arraigned at Guildhall
-for the offences cited in the official indictment already mentioned.
-The accused left the Tower on foot early in the day,
-in the company of Sir Thomas Brydges. Lady Jane was
-attended by her women, and together with her companions<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_317">317</a></span>
-in misfortune, was escorted through the thronged streets by
-four hundred halberdiers. She was dressed in a black cloth
-gown, the cape lined and edged with velvet. Her coif was of
-black velvet made like a hood, after the French fashion;
-a book bound in black velvet&mdash;probably it was a Bible or
-prayer book, hung by a chain from her girdle. She held
-another open in her hand, on the pages of which she constantly
-kept her eyes fixed. Her two women, also dressed in black,
-walked behind her. Cranmer led the procession, walking
-between two gentlemen, and immediately behind, the Gentleman-Chief
-Warder, who bore the axe; Guildford, in a black
-velvet suit slashed with white satin, followed his wife, and
-with him were the two Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley,
-though separated from him by officials and guards. Florio,
-an Italian writer, who witnessed Jane’s trial, declares her
-behaviour to have been most dignified. Even the ordeal of
-passing on foot through the densely-crowded streets did not
-affect her composure. Within Guildhall there was a great array
-of lords, prominent among them the old Duke of Norfolk,
-who after his long and enforced absence from official life, once
-more enjoyed the privilege of sitting on the Bench as High
-Steward and Earl Marshal. His aged eyes had mirrored, not
-only the State trials of two previous Queens of England,
-Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, but also the bloody
-death of the first-named, whilst his ears had heard the fire
-crackling round Anne Askew.</p>
-
-<p>On entering Guildhall, the prisoners and their attendants
-and guards were conducted by an usher with the usual ceremony,
-to the upper part of the fine old hall, where Lady Jane,
-owing to her royal rank, was granted the privilege of a chair
-draped with scarlet cloth, and a footstool; her women stood
-beside her. Cranmer was placed, according to regulation,
-in a railed-off pew or box by himself, which separated
-him by a light barrier from the Lords Guildford, Ambrose
-and Henry Dudley. The “innocent usurper,” although
-naturally awed by the stately dignity of the scene, may have
-sought among the many faces present those of not a few she
-had known all her brief life, and who had even caressed her
-in her childhood, or been obsequious to her in her ominous
-Queendom. There sat the aged head of the house of Howard;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_318">318</a></span>
-then came the Earls of Derby, Bath, and Hastings; Sir
-Richard Morgan, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,<a id="FNanchor_283" href="#Footnote_283" class="fnanchor">283</a> who sat
-with the other Judges and men of law in their furred robes of
-office; Nicholas Hare, Master of the Rolls; a little further on,
-the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, in their crimson satins and velvets,
-and their costly sables and glistening chains; then, a crowd
-of noblemen and gentlemen and officials, filling up nearly
-the whole of the space at the top of the hall, the body of which
-was reserved for privileged persons, whilst the lower part
-nearest the entrance was given over to the mob, with difficulty
-kept in order by the halberdiers and other guards.
-The sacred emblems of the ancient Faith, which had been cast
-out under Edward <span class="smcap">VI</span>, were restored by this time; and before a
-small altar, on which stood a crucifix, and six golden candlesticks,
-the Lord Mayor’s Chaplain opened proceedings, whilst
-all knelt, with the “<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Veni, Sancte Spiritus</i>,” and other prayers<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_319">319</a></span>
-in Latin. The reading of the indictments followed, and after
-a pause between each, the prisoners were arraigned to plead
-guilty or otherwise; but Cranmer, crying out in a loud voice,
-“Not Guilty!” the other prisoners also pleaded “Not Guilty!”
-As the counts of the indictment were matters of general knowledge,
-no witnesses were brought forward on either side, nor
-were the prisoners cross-examined, nor was any defence made.
-A jury, consisting of citizens of Middlesex, was empanelled
-and sworn. After an absence of about twenty minutes they
-returned, giving as their verdict that the “sufficient and
-probable evidence” was in favour of the Queen’s Grace, and
-that they therefore returned a verdict of guilty. On this,
-Archbishop Cranmer, standing up, reversed his previous plea,
-and admitted his offence&mdash;an example which was speedily
-followed by the other prisoners, who one and all pleaded
-“Guilty!” Then sentence was pronounced by Chief Justice
-Morgan, whose voice is said to have trembled considerably,
-especially as he came to that fearful portion of it, in which
-Lady Jane was condemned to be burnt alive, or beheaded,
-“as the Queen shall please.” The luckless victim heard her
-doom with sublime meekness and dignity. Cranmer and
-Guildford were condemned to be hanged at Tyburn, but a
-pardon was extended to the Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley.
-Then, after the recitation of the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">De Profundis</i>, the Court rose,<a id="FNanchor_284" href="#Footnote_284" class="fnanchor">284</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_320">320</a></span>
-the prisoners were ceremoniously re-conducted to the door
-of the hall, and escorted back to the Tower, in much the same
-order as that in which they had come thence&mdash;but the axe
-was reversed; a sign of condemnation which deeply moved
-the populace, especially with pity for young Dudley and
-his consort. How weary must have been that tramp back
-to the fortress, especially to one so young, and in such
-frail health, as the unfortunate Lady Jane! To Guildford
-Dudley, too, the journey must have been exceeding painful,
-for he was in the full vigour of early youth; and the terrible
-words of the sentence presented to his imagination that awful
-final scene with which, like most men of his time, he was
-but too familiar. Cranmer must long since have realised that
-his days were numbered; but he was as yet mercifully spared
-the knowledge of the gruesome nature of the end in store for
-him.</p>
-
-<p>There is, however, no indication that Jane and her husband
-were treated with any greater severity than hitherto, and
-Mary, even after the condemnation, was certainly still unwilling
-to put her cousin to death. She might, in fact, have
-been saved even then from capital punishment, at all events,
-if not from imprisonment, if the Wyatt rebellion and the Duke
-of Suffolk’s indiscreet behaviour had not given colour to the
-opinion entertained by the Emperor and the Council, that
-Jane’s freedom and very existence were a menace to Mary’s
-safety, and compelled the unwilling sovereign to inflict the
-utmost penalty of the law.</p>
-
-<p>In December, Guildford and his brother Robert were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_321">321</a></span>
-“allowed the liberty of the leads” of the Bell Tower: which
-most likely means that they were permitted to walk on the
-terrace-like space on the ballium wall between the Bell and the
-Beauchamp Tower. Cranmer and Ridley&mdash;because they had
-been “evill of their bodies for want of ayre”&mdash;shared the
-right of walking in the Queen’s Garden with Lady Jane, and
-Ridley even dined with the Lieutenant; but it is unlikely
-that either he or Cranmer were allowed converse with Jane
-Grey, whose spiritual adviser, we know, was Dr. Feckenham&mdash;not
-Abbot of Westminster at this time, as generally stated,
-but Dean of St. Paul’s,<a id="FNanchor_285" href="#Footnote_285" class="fnanchor">285</a>&mdash;whom the Queen had expressly delegated
-to attend on her unfortunate cousin, in the hope of
-converting her to the Catholic faith.</p>
-
-<p>Towards the end of the year 1553, Lady Jane is said to have
-written that coarsely violent epistle to Dr. Harding, once
-her tutor and her father’s chaplain, which will be found in
-Foxe’s <cite>Acts and Monuments</cite>, vol. iii., p. 27. Harding was a
-most unblushing turncoat; a Protestant and leading Reformer
-under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, under Mary&mdash;when his old patron’s power
-was broken&mdash;his Popish opinions were as extreme as his
-Protestantism had been fierce. According to some historians,
-this letter is wrongly attributed to Lady Jane, and certainly
-its wording, of a vulgar polemic type, has nothing in common
-with the Christian forbearance and piety of her undisputed
-compositions. It is difficult to believe Jane Grey can have
-used such expressions as “thou deformed imp of the Devil,”
-“sink of sin,” “white-livered milksop,” and even worse, hurled
-at Harding by the writer of this virulent epistle, more likely to
-have been the production of Hales, that stalwart hater of
-“Rome,” than of the gentlest of princesses.</p>
-
-<p>Christmas must have been a dismal season for the poor
-prisoners, whose hopes of pardon were failing, and who realised
-that the New Year about to open would be their last on earth.
-Jane’s thoughts flew back, in the long dull evenings, to the
-merry scenes of her Yuletide at Tylsey, two years previous,
-and to the cheery games and sports at her father’s mansion
-at Sheen, only twelve short months ago! And beautiful
-Bradgate with its lovely park, the scenes of her childhood,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_322">322</a></span>
-her happy lessons with Aylmer, all must have come back to
-the lonely captive. Before the New Year was a week old,
-stirring events were happening in the great world beyond the
-Tower walls. The Queen’s early popularity was already on
-the wane. Her obstinate determination to marry Philip of
-Spain had sore offended her people, who, in the Midland
-counties, began to rise openly against the “Spanish match.”
-The Duke of Suffolk, thanks to his wife’s intercession, and
-his own zeal in proclaiming Mary, had been set free after
-three days’ imprisonment, and was residing at Sheen. Bethinking
-herself that he would make a good leader of her
-troops against the rebels, Mary sent for him to take command.<a id="FNanchor_286" href="#Footnote_286" class="fnanchor">286</a>
-The Queen’s messenger reached Sheen on 25th January 1554,
-and summoned the Duke to Court. His answer was, “Marry,
-I was coming to her Grace. Ye may see, I am booted and
-spurred, ready to ride, and I will but break my fast and go.”
-He then gave the messenger a present and some refreshment,
-and himself departed, accompanied by his brothers, the Lords
-John and Leonard Grey,<a id="FNanchor_287" href="#Footnote_287" class="fnanchor">287</a>&mdash;but instead of going to the Queen
-in London, he galloped with some fifty followers into Leicestershire
-and Warwickshire, and made an attempt to rouse the
-population into open revolt against the Queen’s marriage.
-That he “proclaimed Jane in every town he passed through”
-is not true. He swore he had never swerved from his loyalty
-to Mary, and it seems certain that he told the Mayor of
-Leicester the Queen was “the mercifullest prince that ever
-reigned.” He rebelled against the Spanish marriage and
-against that only. The people of the Midlands, however,
-notwithstanding his bribes, did not rally to him to any extent&mdash;his
-own men deserted him. The Earl of Huntingdon took
-the field against him, and after a defeat near Coventry, he had
-to fly for his life. He reached his own estate of Ashley, and
-threw himself on the mercy of Underwood, his park-keeper,
-who saved him, for a few days, by hiding him in a hollow tree
-in the park, where, according to Pollino, he was nearly starved
-to death. One of his brothers, who had managed to escape
-with him, was hidden under a pile of grass or hay. At last,
-thanks to Underwood’s treachery and to the noise made<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_323">323</a></span>
-by a dog which persisted in barking at the foot of the tree
-where the unhappy Duke was concealed, the two brothers
-were delivered up to Warner, Mayor of Coventry, who handed
-them over to the Earl of Huntingdon.<a id="FNanchor_288" href="#Footnote_288" class="fnanchor">288</a> They were brought to
-London, and reached the Tower on 6th February,<a id="FNanchor_289" href="#Footnote_289" class="fnanchor">289</a> towards
-the conclusion of the Wyatt rebellion. As he passed through
-London the Duke looked, we are told, more dead than alive,
-“pale as a ghost and shivering.”</p>
-
-<div id="ip_322" class="figcenter" style="width: 459px;">
- <img src="images/i_322.jpg" width="459" height="600" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>QUEEN MARY AT THE PERIOD OF HER MARRIAGE</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">FROM THE PAINTING BY ANTONIO MOR IN THE PRADO MUSEUM</p></div></div>
-
-<p>Some mystery surrounds the motives of Suffolk’s misguided
-action. He does not seem to have intended, as has
-been frequently but wrongly represented, to reconstruct a
-party in favour of his daughter, Lady Jane.<a id="FNanchor_290" href="#Footnote_290" class="fnanchor">290</a> Perhaps, after
-all, he was sincerely incensed at the Spanish match, fearing
-it would undo all the work of the Reformation, to which
-he was honestly attached. It is presumable, too, that a
-conspiracy existed to place Princess Elizabeth on the throne,<a id="FNanchor_291" href="#Footnote_291" class="fnanchor">291</a>
-which, Suffolk may have hoped, would lead to the release<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_324">324</a></span>
-of his daughter and son-in-law. The result, however, was
-entirely opposite. The knowledge of this movement, combined
-with Wyatt’s rebellion, enabled the Spanish party to
-force Mary’s hand and oblige her to put Lady Jane and her
-young husband to death.<a id="FNanchor_292" href="#Footnote_292" class="fnanchor">292</a> Mary affixed her signature to the
-“Nine Days’ Queen’s” death-warrant on the very day which
-saw Suffolk led a prisoner into the Tower.</p>
-
-<p>The terror and anxiety with which Jane received the news
-of her father’s arrest and imprisonment may be better imagined
-than described. Did she ever see him again? There
-is no trace of such an interview, but we possess the MS. of a
-letter she wrote him on the fly-leaf of a prayer book. She
-was certainly very much attached to her father, but it is
-significant that she never attempted to see her mother, nor
-wrote, nor even alluded to her. And whereas the petitions
-of the wives of the Dudleys&mdash;including, by the way, that of
-Amy Robsart, wife of Lord Robert Dudley&mdash;to see their
-husbands in the Tower, are still extant, and were readily
-granted&mdash;no document exists to prove that the Duchess of
-Suffolk ever made any attempt to visit either her daughter
-or her son-in-law in their prison. Perhaps she was otherwise
-and more agreeably engaged!</p>
-
-<p>There was a great commotion and consternation in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_325">325</a></span>
-Tower during the Wyatt rebellion, when London presented a
-spectacle not unlike that of Paris during certain of the greatest
-outbursts of the Reign of Terror. Lady Jane and the other
-State prisoners, most of whom had attendants, who, after
-due ransacking of their persons, were allowed to pass in and
-out of the Tower and its wards, were well acquainted with
-the details of that extraordinary attempt on the part of a youth
-of only twenty-three summers, not to overthrow the legitimate
-sovereign indeed, but to prevent her marriage with Philip of
-Spain, soon to be called King of Naples. The Queen’s courage
-in risking her person in defence of her rights had won the hearts
-of the people, opposed though they were to the Spanish
-alliance, and the Wyatt crusade was, in every sense, a useless
-and a foolish one. Never, however, since the tumultuous
-days of Jack Cade had London been so disturbed as during
-the early months of the year 1554. On 7th February Wyatt
-and his men were as near the Tower as Southwark, where they
-sacked the shops and destroyed Bishop Gardiner’s library,
-so that they stood “knee deep among the tattered leaves of
-his precious volumes.” Later in the day, when the rioting
-had got as far as Charing Cross, so great and shrill was the noise
-of the shouts of men and of the cries of frightened women and
-children, “that it was heard to the top of the White Tower;
-and also the great shot was well discerned there out of St.
-James’s field.”<a id="FNanchor_293" href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">293</a> “There stood upon the leads there [<i>i.e.</i> of
-the White Tower],” continues the same Chronicler, “the
-Lord Marquess [of Northampton], Sir Nicholas Poyns, Sir
-Thomas Pope, Master John Seamer and others. From the
-battle, when one came and brought word that the Queen
-was like to have the victory, and that the horseman had discomfited
-the tale of his enemies, the Lord Marquess for joy
-gave the messenger ten shillings in gold, and fell in great
-rejoicing.”</p>
-
-<p>We may imagine the anxiety of the condemned prisoners in
-the Tower. If Wyatt were victorious, they might yet be
-saved by a change of administration, that would send Mary
-flying abroad for her life, and bring Princess Elizabeth to the
-throne. Wyatt’s object was to seize the Tower, but alas!
-poor man, when he had approached it as near as the Belle<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_326">326</a></span>
-Sauvage Yard, on Ludgate Hill, he collapsed on the bench
-of a fishmonger’s shop, was swiftly seized and cast into
-durance, in that very fortress whence he hoped to proclaim
-his victory over “Spanish tyranny.” The prisoners in the
-Tower must have heard a hundred tales of the appalling
-retaliation practised on the promoters of the rebellion; of
-the scores of men hanged in bunches at the street corners<a id="FNanchor_294" href="#Footnote_294" class="fnanchor">294</a>;
-of the bloody heads stuck on London Bridge, and even in front
-of the Queen’s palace at St. James’s. They may even have
-seen Wyatt and his fellows enter the Tower. Guildford, too,
-since he had the same privileges as Northampton, may have
-heard the cries of the frightened populace in those days of
-hot rebellion, from the leads of the White Tower, where he
-was allowed to take the air, and whence he could see beyond
-the precincts over on to Tower Hill without.</p>
-
-<p>Jane may likewise have learnt with considerable distress
-that the Earl of Huntingdon and many other Catholic courtiers&mdash;all
-the Spaniards, for instance&mdash;were permitted to attend
-Mass in the Tower chapel; and that this, to her, idolatrous ceremony
-had replaced the plain Communion service of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>
-in most of the churches of London, and indeed, throughout
-the length and breadth of the kingdom. She must also have
-heard with disgust that half London was going in procession
-nearly every day, with banners, copes, “imauges,” and lights,
-praying for fine weather.</p>
-
-<p>Unfortunately little is known about the death-warrant of
-Lady Jane Grey and her husband. The date of its signature
-would seem to have been 6th February&mdash;the very day, as we
-have said, that Suffolk was brought back a prisoner into the
-Tower&mdash;a confirmation of the statement that it was his indiscreet
-action which eventually decided Queen Mary to put
-Lady Jane to death. The warrant itself and the text have disappeared.
-All we know is that the document unceremoniously
-described the unfortunate young couple as “Guildford Dudley<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_327">327</a></span>
-and his wife”; and named Friday, 9th February 1554, as
-the day of execution. The Queen signed the document at
-Temple Bar, whither it was brought by the Lord Mayor and
-Sheriffs. How Mary came to be at Temple Bar on this occasion
-is not clear, but as Her Majesty is not likely to have performed
-her dread duty in the middle of the street, it is probable that
-the warrant received her signature in the office of the Duchy
-of Lancaster, just beyond Temple Bar. If this is the case, the
-actual chamber in which the dramatic event occurred still exists,
-in the upper storey of the quaint old house now used as a
-barber’s shop and recently restored (externally) to its original
-condition by the removal of a lath and plaster façade, dating
-from the early eighteenth century, which masked the fine
-Tudor front that now lends so picturesque a note of mediævalism
-to modern Fleet Street. For a long time this chamber was
-believed to have been of the reign of James <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>, but a close examination
-of the scheme of decoration revealed the monogram
-of Prince Arthur, younger brother of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, and from this
-we may conclude the building to have been the office of the
-Duchy of Lancaster, of which this young Prince was treasurer,
-and which is known to have stood hereabouts. This is the
-origin of the tradition so popular in London a generation ago,
-that the house in question was “the palace of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and
-Cardinal Wolsey”; who may indeed have forgathered there
-for business purposes, but who certainly never inhabited the
-building.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_328">328</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE SUPREME HOUR!</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">To</span> Dr. Feckenham Mary assigned the melancholy
-task of announcing her hopeless position to Jane
-Grey. This duty he performed on 8th February,
-the day before that originally fixed for the execution, at the
-same time exhorting her to prepare for death. The little
-victim of great iniquity is said to have learnt her doom with
-Christian resignation and princely dignity. She did not fall
-into a consternation as when her accession to the throne was
-announced to her at Sion, but listened, dry-eyed, to
-the worthy prelate’s awful words. The call to another world
-was more welcome, doubtless, to her weary spirit than had
-been that other summons to an earthly throne. Her life, she
-told Feckenham, had long been a living death, and the sooner
-it ended the better&mdash;“I am ready to receive death patiently,”
-she said, “and in whatever manner it may please the Queen
-to appoint. True, my flesh shudders, as is natural to frail
-humanity, at what I have to go through, but I fervently hope
-the spirit will spring rejoicingly into the presence of the Eternal
-God, Who will receive it.” She pleaded for her husband; “he
-was innocent,” she said, “and had only obeyed his father in
-all things.” Finally, she expressed her desire to see a minister
-of her own religion, and prayed that during her last hours she
-might not be troubled by the presence of any Roman Catholic
-priest or prelate, since “she had no time for that.” Mary,
-however, was resolved that no minister of the Reformed
-religion should visit her cousin, but she had made a judicious
-choice in sending Dr. Feckenham, a liberal-minded man of
-the gentlest manners,<a id="FNanchor_295" href="#Footnote_295" class="fnanchor">295</a> to minister spiritual consolation to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_329">329</a></span>
-her. Though the numerous pictures representing the tragic
-scene of Jane’s death generally depict Feckenham as a dignified
-old man with a long white beard, he was in reality a short,
-stout, “comfortable-looking” elderly gentleman, with a close-shaven
-red face, and twinkling eyes. A devout Catholic, he
-desired, no doubt, to convert his illustrious prisoner to his own
-faith, and even Pollino, who must have been well acquainted
-with all that the Catholic party had to say on the subject,
-says that Lady Jane and Feckenham held long conversations
-on the subject of the Eucharist, one on which Lady Jane
-held distinctly Protestant views: but there is no evidence
-that, as some historians allege, she ever engaged in a discussion
-on matters of faith and doctrines with Feckenham in a hall
-of the Tower set apart for that purpose, and in the presence
-of an assembly of learned Catholic prelates and theologians.
-We may be sure that any controversy between Lady Jane
-Grey and Dr. Feckenham, either in the last week of her life or
-at any other time, took place in the privacy of her own apartment.
-Florio, the Protestant Italian historian, who has written
-a life of Lady Jane Grey&mdash;concocted out of Foxe’s <cite>Book of
-Martyrs</cite> and other similar works,&mdash;prints at the end of his
-book a dialogue between Lady Jane and Feckenham on the
-subject of Transubstantiation, and this conversation is also
-given in Harris Nicholas’s <cite>Literary Remains of Lady Jane
-Grey</cite>. This is most likely a report dictated by some one to
-whom Jane communicated the substance of what passed
-between herself and the Benedictine. Dr. Feckenham has
-left his own account of what took place, and admits that in
-the course of several lengthy conversations with Jane on
-matters of dogma, by means of which he had hoped to convert
-her to Catholicism, he had been deeply impressed by her
-gentleness, her dignity, and her evident sincerity.</p>
-
-<p>Feckenham obtained the respite of three days, generally
-given in such cases, and the execution was postponed until
-Monday, 12th February. On his informing Jane of what he
-had done, she is said to have replied, “Alas, sir! I did not
-intend what I said to be reported to the Queen, nor would I
-have you think me covetous for a moment’s longer life; for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_330">330</a></span>
-I am only solicitous for a better life in Eternity, and will
-gladly suffer death, since it is her Majesty’s pleasure.”
-Feckenham, it appears, had misunderstood the phrase, “she
-had no time for that,” as meaning that Jane might be disposed
-to listen to his religious teaching if allowed more time for its
-consideration; and had therefore requested the respite granted
-by the Council. But she proved no more amenable to the
-worthy priest’s arguments on the last day than on the
-first.</p>
-
-<p>Lord Guildford Dudley, unlike his stoical wife, received
-his sentence with a flood of tears. Of all the victims of
-this terrible tragedy, he was, in truth, the most inoffensive.
-The poor lad had done no harm, except to obey the instructions
-of his father and mother&mdash;especially in respect to
-his foolish attempt at Brussels, which was probably the
-real cause of his condemnation&mdash;and there was nothing, now
-that his father was removed, to be gained by putting him to
-death. Except by his marriage, he was not connected with
-the royal family; he was therefore not in the line of succession,
-and his liberation would not have involved the slightest
-danger to Queen Mary or her throne. His execution may be
-described as a useless murder, even a darker stain on Mary
-Tudor and her advisers&mdash;the Emperor Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>, his agent
-Simon Renard, and the Council&mdash;than that of Lady Jane Grey,
-who certainly might have been used again, in the near future,
-as the tool of some unscrupulous statesman. Mary, as we
-have said, was herself perfectly willing, almost to the last, to
-spare both Guildford and his wife, but their chance of pardon
-was ruined by the Duke of Suffolk’s abortive rebellion. Had
-he obeyed Mary’s orders, put himself at the head of her
-troops, remained loyal, and defeated the rising in the Midlands,
-as Huntingdon eventually did, his children’s lives would
-doubtless have been spared by the grateful sovereign.</p>
-
-<p>The original order, as we have seen, was that Jane and
-Guildford should perish together on Tower Hill. Harris
-Nicholas seems to think the plan was abandoned because the
-Council dreaded the effect of the prisoners’ youth and innocence
-on the populace. This view has been adopted by other
-writers, but the real motive of the change was a matter of
-political etiquette. Lady Jane was of the Blood Royal, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_331">331</a></span>
-therefore entitled to be executed within the precincts of the
-Tower, on the Green where the two Queens of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and
-the old Plantagenet Princess, Margaret of Salisbury, had been
-beheaded. Guildford, on the other hand, on the paternal side
-of even plebeian origin, could only be decapitated without
-the Tower.</p>
-
-<p>On the evening of the day originally fixed for the execution
-(Friday, 9th February), Jane wrote the following letter to her
-father, in which she herself holds him responsible, through
-his rashness, for her <span class="locked">death:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Father</span>,&mdash;Although it hath pleased God to hasten my
-death by you, by whom my life should rather have been
-lengthened, yet can I patiently take it, that I yield God more
-hearty thanks for shortening my woeful days, than if all the
-world had been given into my possession, with life lengthened
-at my own will. And albeit I am well assured of your impatient
-dolours, redoubled many ways, both in bewailing your
-own woe, and especially, as I am informed, my woeful estate;
-yet, my dear father, if I may without offence rejoice in my own
-mishap, herein I may account myself blessed, that washing
-my hands with the innocence of my fact, my guiltless blood
-may cry before the Lord, ‘Mercy to the innocent.’ And yet,
-though I must needs acknowledge that being constrained,
-and, as you know well enough, continually assayed; yet, in
-taking [the Crown] upon me, I seemed to consent, and therein
-grievously offended the Queen and her laws, yet do I assuredly
-trust, that this my offence towards God is so much the less,
-in that being in so royal estate as I was, my enforced honour
-never mixed with mine innocent heart. And thus, good
-father, I have opened unto you the state in which I presently
-stand, my death at hand, although to you it may seem woeful,
-yet to me there is nothing that can be more welcome than from
-this vale of misery to aspire to that heavenly throne of all joy
-and pleasure, with Christ our Saviour: in whose steadfast
-faith (if it be lawful for the daughter so to write to the father),
-the Lord that hitherto hath strengthened you, so continue
-to keep you, that at last we may meet in heaven with the
-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.&mdash;I am, Your obedient
-Daughter till death,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-<span class="smcap">Jane Dudley</span>”
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_332">332</a></span>
-Jane probably spent Sunday (10th February) in prayer
-and meditation; or perhaps as an unwilling listener to
-Feckenham’s exhortations. The next day Gardiner, preaching
-before the Queen, then at Whitehall, blamed her for what he
-considered her leniency. He “axed a boon of the Queen’s
-Highness, that like as she had before extended her mercy
-particularly and privately, so through her lenity and gentleness
-much conspiracy and open rebellion was grown, according to
-the proverb <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">nimia familiaritas parit contemptum</i>; which he
-brought then in, for the purpose that she would now be merciful
-to the body of the commonwealth, and conservation thereof,
-which could not be, unless the rotten and hurtful members
-thereof were cut off and consumed.”<a id="FNanchor_296" href="#Footnote_296" class="fnanchor">296</a></p>
-
-<p>Some communication seems to have reached Jane from
-her ruined home on this Sunday, for in consequence of the
-transports of grief into which her sister, Lady Katherine,
-was plunged, she wrote that evening the following beautiful
-letter, on the blank pages at the end of her Greek
-<span class="locked">Testament:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“I have sent you, good sister Katherine, a book, which,
-although it be not outwardly rimmed with gold, yet inwardly
-it is more worth than precious stones. It is the book, dear
-sister, of the laws of the Lord; it is His Testament and last
-Will, which He bequeathed unto us wretches, which shall lead
-you to the path of eternal joy, and if you, with a good mind,
-read it, and with an earnest desire follow it, shall bring you to
-an immortal and everlasting life. It will teach you to live,
-and learn you to die; it shall win you more than you should
-have gained by the possession of your woeful father’s lands,<a id="FNanchor_297" href="#Footnote_297" class="fnanchor">297</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_333">333</a></span>
-for as if God had prospered him, ye should have inherited his
-lands, so if you apply diligently [to] your book [<i>i.e.</i> the Bible],
-trying to direct your life after it, you shall be an inheritor
-of such riches as neither the covetous shall withdraw from you,
-neither the thief shall steal, neither yet the moth corrupt.
-Desire, sister, to understand the law of the Lord your God.
-Live still to die, that you by death may purchase eternal life;
-or after your death enjoy the life purchased [for] you by
-Christ’s death; and trust not the tenderness of your age
-shall lengthen your life, for as soon, if God will, goeth the young
-as the old; and labour alway to learn to die. Deny the world,
-defy the devil, and despise the flesh. Delight yourself only
-in the Lord. Be patient for your sins, and yet despair not.
-Be steady in faith, yet presume not, and desire with St. Paul
-to be dissolved and to be with Christ, with whom even in death
-there is life. Be like the good servant, and even at midnight
-be waking; lest when death cometh and stealeth upon you,
-like a thief in the night, you be with the evil servant found
-sleeping, and lest for lack of oil ye be found like the first
-foolish wench,<a id="FNanchor_298" href="#Footnote_298" class="fnanchor">298</a> and like him that had not on the wedding
-garment, and then be cast out from the marriage. Resist
-[sin] in ye [yourself] as I trust ye do, and seeing ye have the
-name of a Christian, as near as ye can, follow the steps of your
-master Christ, and take up your cross; lay your sins on His
-back, and always embrace Him; and as touching my death,
-rejoice as I do, and assist [perhaps, ‘consider’] that I shall
-be delivered of this corruption, and put on incorruption, for I
-am assured that I shall for losing of a mortal life find an immortal
-felicity. Pray God grant you [and] send you of His
-grace to live in His fear, and to die in the love [here is an
-illegible passage, perhaps made so by fast falling tears], neither
-for love of life, nor fears of death. For if ye deny His truth
-to lengthen your life, God will deny you, and shorten your
-days; and if ye will cleave to Him, He will prolong your
-days, to your comfort and His glory, to the which glory
-God bring mine and you hereafter, when it shall please God
-to call you.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_334">334</a></span>
-“Farewell, good sister, put your only trust in God, who
-only must uphold you.&mdash;Your loving sister,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-“<span class="smcap">Jane Dudley</span>”
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>The precious volume containing this letter is fortunately
-the property of the nation, deposited in the MS. department
-of the British Museum.</p>
-
-<p>In the British Museum<a id="FNanchor_299" href="#Footnote_299" class="fnanchor">299</a> there is also a small and beautiful
-MS. vellum prayer book, imperfect in one or two pages. Four
-inches in length, and nearly two inches thick, bound in red
-morocco, and richly ornamented, it contains thirty-five distinctly
-Protestant prayers. The catalogue of the Harleian
-Collection states that it “was perhaps written by the direction
-of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Protector of
-England, upon his first commitment to the Tower of London;
-and that the last five prayers were added after his second
-commitment, which ended in his execution.” On the margin
-of several pages, not more than three lines occupying the same
-leaf, are a series of interesting autographs. The first of these
-is in the hand of Lord Guildford Dudley, and runs as <span class="locked">follows:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“Your loving and obedient son wisheth unto your grace
-long life in this world, with as much joy and comfort as ever
-I wish to myself; and in the world to come, joy everlasting.&mdash;Your
-most humble son till his death,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-“<span class="smcap">G. Dudley</span>”
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>It has been conjectured from this inscription that Guildford
-presented the book to his father-in-law, on the occasion
-of his wedding with Lady Jane; unless the inscription was
-addressed to his father, Northumberland. It is also supposed
-that the Duke of Suffolk, having received it from Guildford,
-left it behind him after his release from his three days’ imprisonment
-in the Tower. Others say that Sir John Gage, Constable
-of the Tower, gave it himself to his prisoners, so that they
-might write something in it for him to keep in remembrance
-of them. It was certainly in Jane’s possession for some time,
-for she carried it with her to the scaffold; and it contains
-in her hand, a solemn farewell to, and prayer for, her father,
-in the following <span class="locked">terms:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_335">335</a></span></p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“The Lord comfort your grace, and that in his word,
-wherein all creatures only are to be comforted. And
-though it hath pleased God to take ij of your children, yet
-think not, I most humbly beseech your grace, that you
-have lost them; but trust that we, by leaving this mortal
-life, have won an immortal life. And I, for my part, as I
-have honoured your grace in this life, will pray for you in
-another life.<a id="FNanchor_300" href="#Footnote_300" class="fnanchor">300</a>&mdash;Your grace’s humble daughter,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-“<span class="smcap">Jane Dudley</span>”
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Shortly before proceeding to her execution, Jane’s kindly
-jailor, Sir Thomas Brydges, begged her to give him something
-to keep in memory of her; whereupon she offered him this
-very prayer book, and at his request wrote in a third sentence:</p>
-
-<blockquote>
-
-<p>“Forasmuch as you have desired so simple a woman to
-write in so worthy a book, good master Lieutenant, therefore
-I shall as a friend desire you, and as a Christian require
-you, to call upon God, to incline your heart to His laws,
-quicken you in His ways, and not to take the word of truth
-utterly out of your mouth. Live still to die, that by death
-you may purchase eternal life; and remember how the
-end of Methuselah, who as we read in the Scriptures was
-the longest liver that was of a manner, died at the last.
-For, as the preacher saith, there is a time to be born and
-a time to die; and the day of death is better than the day of
-our birth.&mdash;Yours as the Lord knoweth as a friend,</p>
-
-<p class="sigright">
-“<span class="smcap">Jane Dudley</span>”
-</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>Finally, at some time or other during her imprisonment,
-Jane wrote three further inscriptions on the last page of this
-book in Latin, Greek, and English, which run as <span class="locked">follows:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>The Latin&mdash;“If justice is done with my body, my soul will
-find mercy with God.”</p>
-
-<p>The Greek&mdash;“Death will give pain to my body for its sins,
-but the soul will be justified before God.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_336">336</a></span>
-The English&mdash;“If my faults deserve punishment, my
-youth at least and my imprudence were worthy of excuse.
-God and posterity will show me favour.”<a id="FNanchor_301" href="#Footnote_301" class="fnanchor">301</a></p>
-
-<p>It was on this, the last Sunday evening of her unhappy
-life, that Jane wrote the well-known prayer, which, although
-quoted in full by Foxe and Howard, is not now extant in
-Lady Jane’s own hand, and may therefore, like several letters,
-etc., attributed to her, be apocryphal.<a id="FNanchor_302" href="#Footnote_302" class="fnanchor">302</a></p>
-
-<p>The few details we possess as to the acts of other State<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_337">337</a></span>
-prisoners, implicated in Northumberland’s plot, on the day of
-their execution, are lacking in the case of Lady Jane; no
-record has come to us of how she slept on her last night of life;
-of those who were present at her last mournful meal. However,
-enough has been reported by contemporary writers to
-enable us to reconstruct the events of the later portion of the
-day, when the hour of the execution drew near. It is clearly
-stated that Lord Guildford Dudley made an attempt to see his
-wife before his death, and even informed his guards of his
-desire to do so. Hearing of this, Mary sent word, on the very
-morning of the fatal day, that “if it would be any consolation
-to them, they should be allowed to see each other before their
-execution.” When this concession was communicated to Lady
-Jane she declined it, saying “it would only disturb the holy
-tranquillity with which they had prepared themselves for
-death”; and unnerve them for the supreme moment. At the
-same time she sent a message to Guildford to the effect that
-such a meeting “would rather weaken than strengthen him”;
-that he ought to be sufficiently strong in himself to need no
-such consolation; that “if his soul were not firm and settled,
-she could not settle it by her eyes, nor confirm it by her words;
-that he would do well to remit this interview till they met in a
-better world, where friendships were happy and unions indissoluble,
-and theirs, she hoped, would be eternal.” But
-Jane took her stand at the window of her room to watch
-her husband pass, a little before ten o’clock, to his doom on
-Tower Hill. Sir Thomas Brydges stood by her, as she waved
-her hand to Guildford. Burke (<cite>Tudor Portraits</cite>) says,
-but without naming his authority, that “like his father and
-brothers,” Guildford Dudley, “recanted his supposed Protestantism
-whilst in the Tower”; and that “he was attended
-to the scaffold by two Benedictine Fathers.” Other and earlier
-writers do, indeed, declare that Guildford received Communion
-according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church before
-his death; but <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen
-Mary</cite> makes no mention of this recantation, and clearly says
-no minister of any religion attended at Guildford Dudley’s
-execution.<a id="FNanchor_303" href="#Footnote_303" class="fnanchor">303</a> At the Bulwark Gate of the Tower (its outside<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_338">338</a></span>
-entrance), Guildford was met by Sir Anthony Browne and Sir
-John Throckmorton, and several other gentlemen who had
-assembled to bid him farewell, and with whom he shook hands
-“pleasantly.” Here, too, Sir Thomas Offley, the Sheriff of
-Middlesex, in accordance with precedent,<a id="FNanchor_304" href="#Footnote_304" class="fnanchor">304</a> took charge of the
-prisoner. The mob that in those days invariably assembled
-to witness such sinister functions, was on Tower Hill in its
-hundreds, nay thousands, to see the poor boy beheaded. He
-looked very handsome, in his suit of black velvet slashed
-with dark coloured cloth: his tall and youthful figure impressed
-the people most favourably, and a murmur of sympathy
-ran through the motley throng. Guildford did not attempt
-to make a speech. He knelt down and said his prayers&mdash;simple
-prayers he had learnt as a child&mdash;and, it was said,
-he shed some tears at the thought of dying so young.
-But despite the youth’s natural emotion, he faced death
-bravely. He begged the “good people” to pray for him;
-took off his doublet himself, unfastened his collar with his
-own hands, knelt on the straw, stretched out his graceful
-limbs, laid his head on the block; and in an instant, with one
-stroke of the axe, his spirit passed into Eternity.<a id="FNanchor_305" href="#Footnote_305" class="fnanchor">305</a> His blood-stained
-corpse, covered with a sheet, was thrown into a tumbril
-or handcart filled with straw, and his head, wrapped in a
-cloth, was cast at its feet.</p>
-
-<p>And now a horrible incident occurred. Whether by
-accident or design,<a id="FNanchor_306" href="#Footnote_306" class="fnanchor">306</a> Jane caught a glimpse of her husband’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_339">339</a></span>
-mutilated remains as they were carried into the Tower for
-interment. We have several versions of this story: some
-say she saw the body taken out of the cart<a id="FNanchor_307" href="#Footnote_307" class="fnanchor">307</a> and carried into
-St. Peter’s Chapel, whilst a passage in Grafton<a id="FNanchor_308" href="#Footnote_308" class="fnanchor">308</a> lends colour
-to the belief (adopted by many historians, including Turner
-and Nicolas) that she met the corpse as she was herself proceeding
-to the scaffold. What most likely happened is, that
-she was waiting to be summoned by the Lieutenant of the
-Tower and the Sheriffs, when she heard the rumbling of cart
-wheels, and before her attendants could prevent her, rushed to
-the window, and beheld the hideous sight, without, however,
-it seems, expressing any great emotion. “Oh Guildford,
-Guildford!” we are told she exclaimed, “the antepast that
-you have tasted, and I shall soon taste, is not so bitter as to
-make my flesh tremble; for all this is nothing to the feast
-that you and I shall partake this day in Paradise.”</p>
-
-<p>The direful procession which was to conduct a young and
-innocent Princess of the Blood Royal, of barely seventeen
-summers, to the foot of an ignominious scaffold, was formed
-according to established precedent. But for some unexplained
-reason, it was nearly an hour late in starting from
-Partridge’s house to the place of execution, opposite the
-Church of St. Peter-ad-Vincula, where, since that day, countless
-pilgrims from the Old and New Worlds have paused to ponder
-a moment over the fate of Lady Jane Grey, and have learnt
-to hate Mary Tudor with an almost personal detestation.
-The delay may have resulted from the state of nervous
-prostration into which the unfortunate Princess had been
-thrown by the sight of her husband’s mangled remains. It
-would have been impossible, even in those hard times, to convey
-the victim to execution if she had swooned. It was nearly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_340">340</a></span>
-eleven o’clock, then, before the drums began to beat, and the
-procession fell into order.</p>
-
-<p>The morning had dawned grey and misty, heavy clouds
-veiling the sun that now and then shone feebly athwart them,
-but it was fairly fine for London at that early season, and no
-rain fell throughout the day. The bells of St. Peter-ad-Vincula,
-and of All Hallows’, Barking, tolled at regular intervals,
-whilst the grand outline of the White Tower stood out
-luminous against the threatening sky, as the dread procession
-wended slowly onwards. First, came a company of two
-hundred Yeomen of the Guard; then, the executioner, in a
-tight-fitting scarlet worsted and cloth garment, displaying
-the swelling muscles of his chest, arms, and legs;<a id="FNanchor_309" href="#Footnote_309" class="fnanchor">309</a> his face
-was masked, and his head hooded in scarlet. Beside him
-marched his assistant, a rough-looking man, who carried the
-axe over his shoulder; then Sir John Brydges, Lieutenant of
-the Tower, with Sir Thomas Brydges, Deputy-Lieutenant,
-and between them Sir John Gage, Constable of the Tower,
-with two Sheriffs, in their robes of office. Lastly, the young
-prisoner herself, dressed as on the occasion of her trial at the
-Guildhall in the same black cloth dress, edged with black
-velvet, a Marie Stuart cap of black velvet on her head, with a
-veil of black cloth hanging to the waist, and a white wimple
-concealing her throat; her sleeves edged with lawn, neatly
-plaited round the wrists. Not wearing <em xml:lang="it" lang="it">chopines</em> to increase
-her height, as on the occasion of her State entry into the
-Tower, the people who had not seen her since were greatly
-surprised at her diminutive stature. On her right walked
-Abbot Feckenham, in his black robe, without a surplice, and
-carrying a crucifix in his hand. Behind him came the Chaplains
-attached to the Chapel Royal of the Tower. Lady
-Jane’s ladies, Mrs. Tylney and Mrs. Ellen, and Mrs. Sarah;
-two other women and a man-servant, all in deep mourning,
-and weeping bitterly, closed the doleful procession. The route
-was a short one, and the crowd of spectators&mdash;about five hundred&mdash;allowed
-to be present at the execution, was silent and
-respectful. From Partridge’s house to the scaffold, the Lady
-Jane continued to read the open Prayer-Book in her hand&mdash;it
-was that containing the various inscriptions already<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_341">341</a></span>
-mentioned&mdash;and paid little or no heed to Feckenham’s pious
-exhortations, if, indeed, he made any.</p>
-
-<p>At the foot of the scaffold stood a jury of forty matrons,
-who had been previously called upon to testify that the
-Princess was not with child; a rumour that she was in this
-condition was so widespread as to be mentioned by Radcliffe&mdash;who
-says, “Lady Dudley was very brave, considering the
-condition she was in”&mdash;and by Fuller, Pomeroy, Challoner,
-and Fox. The presence of these matrons is also mentioned by
-Bishop Godwin. There is no record of the presence of the
-Duke of Norfolk in his usual seat as Earl Marshal, but no
-doubt he was there with Lord Mayor White and several
-Aldermen, Sheriffs, and noblemen. Before ascending the three
-or four steps that led to the scaffold, the Lady Jane took leave
-of her ladies, who sobbed bitterly; Mrs. Ellen and Mrs. Tylney
-followed her on to the platform, ominously littered with fresh
-straw. Here Feckenham, the executioner, and his assistant
-also took their stations, with Sir Thomas Brydges. “When
-she appeared on the scaffold,” writes a contemporary, “the
-people cried, and murmured at beholding one so young and
-beautiful about to die such a death.” Nevertheless, though
-the writer of <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary</cite>
-says “her countenance [was] nothing abashed, neither her
-eyes misted with tears,” there can be little doubt but that
-the long spell of anxiety had left some trace on Jane’s sweet
-face. She advanced to the edge of the scaffold, and in the
-dead silence spoke in a distinct voice: “Good people, I am
-come here to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same.
-My offence against the Queen’s Highness was only in consenting
-to the device of others, which is now deemed treason;
-but it was never of my seeking, but by the counsel of those
-who should seem to have further understanding of such things
-than I, who knew little of the law and less of the title to the
-Crown. The part, indeed, against the Queen’s Highness was
-unlawful, and so the consenting thereunto by me; but touching
-the procurement and desire thereof by me, or on my behalf, I
-do wash my hands thereof in innocency before God and in the
-face of you, good Christian people, this day,” and therewith
-she wrung her hands in which she had her book. Then she
-continued, “I pray you, all good Christian people, to bear<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_342">342</a></span>
-me witness that I die a true Christian woman, and that I
-look to be saved by none other means, but only by the mercy
-of God, in the merit of the blood of His only Son Jesus Christ;
-and I confess that when I did know the Word of God, I neglected
-the same, loved myself and the world, and therefore this plague
-of punishment has worthily happened into me for my sins;
-and yet I thank God of His goodness that He hath thus given
-me a time and respite to repent. And now, good people,
-while I am living, I pray you to assist me with your prayers.”</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane’s relative, Lady Philippa de Clifford, in her
-little known report,<a id="FNanchor_310" href="#Footnote_310" class="fnanchor">310</a> adds that, “After a pause, and wiping<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_343">343</a></span>
-her eyes, she (Jane) said in a firmer voice, ‘Now, good people,
-Jane Dudley bids you all a long farewell. And may the
-Almighty preserve you from ever meeting the terrible death
-which awaits her in a few minutes. Farewell, farewell, for
-ever more.’ Jane, when she had finished speaking, was much
-affected, and hid her face upon the neck of the old nurse who
-attended her on the scaffold.” This nurse must have been
-Mrs. Ellen, into whose arms she threw herself when she first
-perceived the towering figure of the masked executioner,
-garbed from head to foot in scarlet. Clinging to the aged
-woman, the poor girl sobbed convulsively. Growing calmer,
-after a while, she knelt down, and asked Feckenham what
-prayer she should recite&mdash;“Shall I say this Psalm?”&mdash;probably
-pointing to her prayer-book as she did so. “Yes,”
-answered he; and then, as she and many of the people knelt,
-he said the fifty-first Psalm, the <cite>Miserere</cite>, in Latin, Jane
-repeating it after him in English. This done, she rose, and
-said very courteously to Dr. Feckenham, “God will abundantly
-requite you, good sir, for all your humanity to me, though
-your discourses gave me more uneasiness than all the terrors
-of approaching death.” Bishop Godwin says, “Just before
-she knelt down, Lady Jane embraced the venerable prelate
-and thanked him for his kindness to her.” She then gave
-her handkerchief and gloves to Mrs. Tylney; and turning to
-Sir Thomas Brydges, said gently, “You asked me for a parting
-memory of me,” and handed him the prayer-book which she
-had been using and in which she had written her farewells.</p>
-
-<p>The supreme moment had arrived. Without the assistance
-of her two female attendants, who were too completely overcome
-to assist her, she untied the collar of her gown. The
-executioner offered to help her, but she curtly desired him
-to desist, and turning to her ladies, spoke a few words to them.
-Mastering their emotion, they took off her outer dress, leaving
-her in her kirtle, or under gown with close-fitting sleeves.
-They also removed her headdress (described by the old
-chroniclers as a “frose paste”) and kerchief, giving her at the
-same time a handkerchief to tie over her eyes. Then the
-executioner knelt and besought her pardon; she replied<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_344">344</a></span>
-simply, “Most willingly.” Now came what was perhaps
-the most painful episode of the horrible ceremony&mdash;the pause
-of five minutes “for the Queen’s mercy.” The poor girl had
-to stand, with the ghastly preparations for her approaching
-death about her, for a space of time which, brief as it really
-was, must have seemed an eternity to her, waiting for a
-clemency she no longer expected nor desired. But no white
-wand was waved&mdash;there was no mercy for Jane Grey! The
-five minutes ended, the executioner motioned the unfortunate
-Princess to take her place upon the straw, and she, noticing
-the block for the first time, began to tremble a little, and said,
-as she knelt down, “I pray you dispatch me quickly,” adding,
-“Will you take it off before I lay me down?”<a id="FNanchor_311" href="#Footnote_311" class="fnanchor">311</a> “No, madam,”
-replied the executioner. With her own hands she bound
-the handkerchief about her eyes, and being now in that darkness
-from which death would soon release her, lost consciousness
-of where she was, and groping about for the block, asked
-eagerly, “Where is it? What shall I do? Where is it?”
-Someone guided her to the fatal spot, and the “Nine Days’
-Queen,” laying herself down with her fair head upon the block,
-stretched out her body, and cried aloud that all might hear
-her, “Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!”<a id="FNanchor_312" href="#Footnote_312" class="fnanchor">312</a> A
-flash, a thud, a crimson deluge on the straw-strewn scaffold&mdash;and,
-as the cannon boomed, an innocent soul was borne
-towards a Throne more high, and a Justice more sure than
-those of Queen or Emperor!<a id="FNanchor_313" href="#Footnote_313" class="fnanchor">313</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_345">345</a></span>
-There are several conflicting accounts of what subsequently
-happened. The more generally received version is
-that the body was handed over to Lady Jane’s women, who
-reverently placed it in a common deal coffin, and conveyed it
-to St. Peter-ad-Vincula, precisely as the women of Anne
-Boleyn and Katherine Howard had conveyed the mangled
-remains of those slaughtered Queens. But on the other hand,
-Antoine de Noailles,<a id="FNanchor_314" href="#Footnote_314" class="fnanchor">314</a> the French Ambassador, who had arrived<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_346">346</a></span>
-in London early in the morning, passing that way about three
-o’clock in the same afternoon (he was living at Marillac’s old
-house on the Tower Green), saw Lady Jane’s half-naked
-body lying abandoned on the scaffold, and was amazed at the
-immense quantity of blood that had poured out of so small
-a corpse.<a id="FNanchor_315" href="#Footnote_315" class="fnanchor">315</a> Peter Derenzie tells us her remains “were left for
-hours half naked on the scaffold streaming with blood, and
-were placed in a deal coffin.” It would seem indeed that, in
-death as in life, Lady Jane Grey, the moment fortune turned
-against her, was abandoned by all those, even by her own
-mother, who by reason of natural ties should have rallied round
-her in the hour of need. Thus after death her bleeding remains
-were treated with corresponding neglect; the puppet which was
-to have made Northumberland’s fortune was thrown aside, with
-none to care for it, when once its purpose failed. This unusual
-treatment of the body may not, however, have proceeded entirely
-from heartlessness; but from the difficulty and uncertainty
-as to the nature of the religious service to be said over
-the remains of one who, though born a Catholic, had died a
-“heretic”; St. Peter’s Chapel having been lately restored to the
-Catholics, Jane could not be buried there without ecclesiastical
-licence, and to obtain this, Feckenham probably had to see
-Queen Mary, or get some sort of “permit” from Archbishop
-Heath. But, granting all this, the corpse might, at least, have
-been decently covered. The delay as to the burial of Jane
-Grey’s corpse may have given rise to the popular report that it
-was transported to Bradgate, and interred there. There is no
-question, however, that the body was eventually conveyed
-into the Church of St. Peter-ad-Vincula and buried in the vault
-which already contained the mangled remains of so many
-of her contemporaries.<a id="FNanchor_316" href="#Footnote_316" class="fnanchor">316</a> Many years ago, a very small and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_347">347</a></span>
-broken coffin was discovered in this vault, containing the
-remains of a female of diminutive stature, with the head severed
-from the body. The skeleton, which crumbled to ashes
-immediately it was exposed to the effect of the atmosphere,
-was surmised to be that of Lady Jane Grey, and the dust was
-enclosed in an urn and placed immediately under the oval
-inscription in the chancel above, which records her death.
-Yet in Leicestershire, the tradition still persists that the body
-was brought to Bradgate late at night, and secretly interred
-in the parish church. And with this tradition, of course, is
-connected the legend of the coach with the headless occupant,
-said to appear before the gates of Bradgate on the anniversary
-of Lady Jane’s death.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, in blood and in neglect, ends the tragic story of
-Lady Jane Grey, one of the most popular heroines in our
-history, the helpless victim of circumstance, and of the
-soaring ambition of a singularly masterful and unscrupulous
-man.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_348">348</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="vspace"><a id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">THE FATE OF THE SURVIVORS</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> Reforming Leaders, who had so flattered Lady Jane
-Grey when they saw a chance of her becoming Queen,
-do not seem to have felt much concern at her death.
-In a letter of 3rd April 1554, addressed to Bullinger, Peter
-Martyr says, “Jane, who was formerly Queen, conducted herself
-at her execution with the greatest fortitude and godliness”;
-Burcher, writing on 3rd March 1554 to Bullinger, casually
-remarks, “I have heard, too, that the Queen has beheaded his
-[Suffolk’s] daughter Jane, together with her husband; that
-Jane, I mean, who was proclaimed Queen”; lastly, a less
-well-known Reformer named Thomas Lever wrote to Bullinger
-in the April of 1554, that Jane had been beheaded.<a id="FNanchor_317" href="#Footnote_317" class="fnanchor">317</a> As to the
-Imperial Ambassadors, Montmorency Marnix, Jehan Schefer,
-and Simon Renard, they were one and all jubilant over the
-death of Lady Jane, her father, and Northumberland. There
-was not much sympathy ever expressed for Lady Jane among
-the people. No doubt her execution was the main topic of
-chatter in all the taverns of London, as well in the little darksome
-dens, down by the wharves, where seafaring men congregated,
-as in the luxurious hostelries in Cheapside, the Strand,
-Holborn, and Westminster, where rich gossips forgathered; but
-of demonstrative sympathy there was none. Yet the erection
-on that fateful Monday of some fifty gibbets intended for the
-hanging of the Wyatt rebels did impress the hardened populace
-with a sense of horror and anxiety. It marked the beginning
-of the reaction against Mary, which set in violently a few
-months later on with the burnings in Smithfield, to blast her
-name for ever by the fearful epithet of&mdash;“Bloody.”</p>
-
-<p>Let us give a parting glance to the remaining actors in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_349">349</a></span>
-this tragedy. Jane’s father, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk,
-was brought to trial for high treason in Westminster Hall
-on 17th February. The indictment was for levying war
-against the Queen, adhering to Sir Thomas Wyatt, in order
-to depose the Queen and set the Crown on his daughter
-Jane; and having opposed the Earl of Huntingdon when the
-latter was in command of the Queen’s forces.<a id="FNanchor_318" href="#Footnote_318" class="fnanchor">318</a> The Duke’s
-defence was, that he had not attempted to proclaim Jane
-during his expedition of January 1554, and had only gone out
-to rouse the people against the Spaniards, which, as a peer
-of the Realm, he claimed he was entitled to do. As to the
-accusation of opposing Huntingdon, he answered that he did
-not know that nobleman was acting under the Queen’s orders:
-he also took refuge behind his brother Thomas, who, he said,
-had advised him to go into the country, where he would be safe
-among his tenants, whereas if he remained in London he would
-be sent to the Tower again. This feeble defence was not
-accepted; and Henry Fitzallan, Lord Maltravers (Lord
-Arundel), the Queen’s Lord Steward, who had brought the
-record into court, pronounced sentence of death, as a traitor,
-on that Henry Grey who had so greatly injured his sister,
-Lady Katherine Fitzallan, his first and neglected wife, from
-whom he was never legally divorced. He had his hour of
-revenge at last! The Duke was “much confounded at his condemnation”;
-contemporaries inform us that when he left the
-Tower he went “stoutly and cheerfully enough,” but when he
-re-entered Traitor’s Gate “his countenance was heavy and
-pensive.” He had not to wait long for his <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">coup de grâce</i>. On the
-following Friday (23rd February) he was brought out of the
-Tower, between nine and ten in the morning, to be executed on
-Tower Hill. He had some trouble with Dr. Weston, the Roman
-Catholic priest Mary had appointed to accompany him to the
-scaffold. When they arrived at its foot, the Duke refused to
-listen to him, and even went so far as to prevent his ascending<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_350">350</a></span>
-the steps. Dr. Weston, however, insisted in the Queen’s
-name; whereupon, with an expressive gesture of resignation,
-Suffolk submitted to his presence, but the attempt to change
-his religious convictions failed utterly. Dr. Weston told
-him in a loud voice that the Queen forgave him, to which
-the Duke replied, “God save her Grace!” and the people
-murmured, and some said they hoped he (Weston) would have
-a like pardon. The Duke at last made a brief speech, saying
-simply, “Masters, I have offended the Queen, and her laws,
-and thereby I am justly condemned to die, and am willing to
-die, desiring all men to be obedient; and I pray God that this
-my death may be an example to all men, beseeching you all
-to bear me witness that I die in the faith of Christ, trusting
-to be saved by His blood only, and by no other (<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">sic</i>) trumpery:
-the which died for me, and for all men that truly repent and
-steadfastly trust in Him. And I do repent, desiring you all
-to pray to God for me, that when ye see my breath depart from
-me, you will pray to God that He may receive my soul.”<a id="FNanchor_319" href="#Footnote_319" class="fnanchor">319</a>
-After this, kneeling and raising his hands in supplication to
-Heaven, he repeated the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Miserere</i>&mdash;the very Psalm his daughter
-had said under like circumstances a week or so before. Then,
-rising, he continued&mdash;also as she had done&mdash;saying, “Into
-Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” Just as he was
-about to make his final preparations for death a very human
-incident occurred. A man to whom he was deeply in debt
-stood up and asked him, “Who will now pay me my money?”
-“Well,” quoth the Duke, “ask not me now, but go and see my
-officers, who will, I doubt not, satisfy you.” On this the man
-departed, saying, “God save your soul, Sir!” Suffolk now
-removed his cap and neck-cloth, and to the headsman’s usual
-appeal for forgiveness, replied, “God forgive thee, and I
-do; and when thou dost thine office, I pray thee, do it quickly,
-and God have mercy on thee.”<a id="FNanchor_320" href="#Footnote_320" class="fnanchor">320</a> Lastly, having tied a handkerchief
-over his eyes, he knelt down and recited the Lord’s
-Prayer aloud, and appealing for mercy to the Throne of Grace,
-Henry Grey laid his head on the block, and on the stroke
-of the headsman’s axe expired. Suffolk’s body was laid to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_351">351</a></span>
-rest in St. Peter’s Chapel; but his head, for some reason which
-has never been explained, was sent to the Church of the Holy
-Trinity in the Minories.<a id="FNanchor_321" href="#Footnote_321" class="fnanchor">321</a> Here it was embalmed after a
-fashion, by being placed in a small vault by the altar, in the
-dust of oakwood, which, as it contains a quantity of tannin,
-is a strong preservative; and when unearthed about fifty
-years ago, it was sufficiently perfect for the mark of a blow
-made by the axe above the actual place of severance (rather low
-on the neck), to be still visible. Sir George Scharf was greatly
-struck by the resemblance between this head and the portrait
-of Suffolk now at Hatfield and the copy of it in the National
-Portrait Gallery. The author has himself inspected the relic
-closely, and recognised the resemblance to the portrait:
-the exceedingly arched eyebrows and the rather weak chin
-are identical: three of the teeth are perfect, the eyes are closed,
-the mouth open, the head beardless and bald.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane’s uncle, Lord Thomas Grey, shared the fate of
-his brother of Suffolk and of Lord Leonard Grey. At the time
-of the Duke’s rising, he attempted to escape to the Continent
-by way of Wales; but he got no farther than the borders of
-the Principality, where he was captured, according to a contemporary,
-“through his great mishap and folly of his man
-who had forgot his cap case with money behind him in his
-chamber one morning at his inn, and, coming for it again,
-upon examination what he should be, it was mistrusted that
-his master should be some such man as he was indeed, and
-so he was stopped, taken, and brought up to London.”
-Lord Thomas, however, took no very prominent part either
-in the rebellion in Warwickshire, or in the previous attempt
-to establish Lady Jane on the throne; and it is difficult to
-understand why he should have been sacrificed, especially
-when Lord John Grey, who had been caught as it were red-<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_352">352</a></span>handed
-in hiding with the Duke of Suffolk at Ashley, was
-released after two trials.<a id="FNanchor_322" href="#Footnote_322" class="fnanchor">322</a> However, the mention of the Lord
-Thomas by Suffolk at his trial was distinctly damaging to
-him; perhaps also Mary had some personal grudge against
-him, or his unloving sister-in-law, the Duchess of Suffolk, who,
-despite her husband’s action, was much in favour with Mary,
-may have prejudiced the Queen against him. According to
-Noailles, Thomas Grey frankly avowed his determination to
-see Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, King, or to be King himself.
-He did not explain how this was to be achieved; but added,
-“If I am not King, I’ll be hanged.” He was beheaded instead!
-This reference to Courtney gives support to Suffolk’s admission,
-that the Wyatt rebellion and his own expedition had for
-their immediate object the proclamation of Elizabeth as
-Queen. Curiously enough, Lord Thomas Grey, unlike his
-relatives, always remained a Catholic, and is said to have
-asked for a confessor before he died. After being brought to
-trial at Westminster on 9th March 1554, as Machyn says:
-“The xxviij day of April was beheaded on Tower hill, between
-ix and x of the clock before noon, my lord Thomas Gray,
-the Duke of ‘Suffoke-Dassett[’s]’ brother, and buried at
-Allalow’s [All Hallows’], Barkyne, and the head ...” (the
-sentence is unfinished).<a id="FNanchor_323" href="#Footnote_323" class="fnanchor">323</a></p>
-
-<div id="ip_352" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
- <img src="images/i_352.jpg" width="600" height="490" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p>THE LADY FRANCIS BRANDON, DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK, AND HER SECOND HUSBAND,
-ADRIAN STOKES, ESQ.</p>
-
-<p class="subcap">PROBABLY BY CORVINUS. PROPERTY OF COL. WYNN FINCH</p></div></div>
-
-<p>The Duchess of Suffolk, Lady Jane’s strange and untender
-mother, did not, as might have been expected, even in those
-unfeeling times, go into retirement after the bloody deaths of
-her daughter, son-in-law, husband, and brother-in-law, but
-within a fortnight, and on the very day that Lord Thomas
-Grey was arraigned (9th March 1554, not, as some writers say,
-the day he was executed), she married her late husband’s
-Groom of the Chambers, a red-haired lad of middle-class
-origin, fifteen years her junior, one Mr. Adrian Stokes. She
-received a reminder of “the dear departed” on this her
-wedding-day, in the shape of a demand to deliver, “unto the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_353">353</a></span>
-Lord-Admiral the Parliamentary robes, lately belonging to
-the Duke her husband; or, if she had them not, to let the Lord-Admiral
-understand where they remain, to the end he may
-send for the same.” This widow of Ephesus was not in the
-least disturbed by the message, and after returning the paraphernalia
-in question, gaily proceeded with her nuptial preparations!
-To account for so extraordinary and apparently
-heartless a proceeding, we must remember the position in
-which the Lady Frances now found herself. She realised that
-unless she was married, and that speedily, to some one much
-beneath her station, she might be proposed by the Protestant
-party as one of its candidates for the succession, and her life
-and tranquillity be thus endangered. Her marriage with
-one who was little better than a menial<a id="FNanchor_324" href="#Footnote_324" class="fnanchor">324</a> rendered this impossible;
-and besides (she was a Tudor), she may have been
-really in love with her red-haired Mr. Stokes. That Queen
-Mary did not resent the match is evident, for throughout her
-reign the Lady Frances occupied a towering position at Court,
-with precedence of all other peeresses, sometimes even of
-Princess Elizabeth herself. Her daughters, the Ladies Katherine
-and Mary Grey, were appointed Maids-of-Honour to the Queen
-who had so lately signed the death-warrants of their father,
-sister, brother-in-law, and uncles, and seem to have been very
-much attached to their mistress. They probably convinced
-themselves that the recent tragedies had been purely political,
-and not the least domestic or personal. The lives of these
-two young ladies were not a jot happier than that of their
-sister; but this was due to Queen Elizabeth, who played with
-them both much as a cat plays with a mouse, and literally
-worried them into early graves. Lady Frances and her
-youthful husband had their portraits taken the very year of
-their marriage, both in one panel; the picture was lately in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_354">354</a></span>
-the possession of Colonel Wynn Finch. The Duchess appears
-as a buxom, puffy-looking dame of thirty-six,&mdash;the age
-given on the margin of the picture,&mdash;whilst her sheepish-looking,
-ginger-headed husband is put down as twenty-one.
-He is represented in a superb costume of black velvet, edged
-with ermine and sparkling with jewels. The lady wears black
-satin cut somewhat after the fashion of the year 1830. Her
-garment is edged with ermine, and she wears two wedding-rings
-on the fourth finger of her fat hand, and several handsome
-chains and carcanets about her short neck. A close examination
-of this picture reveals the extraordinary breadth of the
-Duchess’s face. Divested of her feminine head-dress, and with
-a very little “make up,” she might easily be the very image
-of her uncle, King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. Lady Jane’s mother lived
-happily enough with Mr. Stokes, to whom she bore a daughter
-so soon after her marriage&mdash;a little under nine months&mdash;that
-if she had visited her husband in the Tower (which she did
-not) the question of her paternity might have been raised.
-This child, baptized Elizabeth, died the day it was born. The
-Lady Frances herself died in October 1559, leaving most of
-her fortune&mdash;by this time considerably reduced&mdash;to her
-husband, and very little to her two surviving daughters.
-She was buried in Westminster Abbey in great pomp on
-5th December 1559. Elizabeth, out “of the great affection
-she bore the Duchess and because of her kinship,” ordered
-that the Royal Arms should be borne at her funeral, which
-was attended by Garter-King-at-Arms and by Clarencieux.
-Her monument, still in existence, occupies the exact site of
-the shrine of St. Edmund in the chapel of that saint, and is
-a fine specimen of the early and best period of Elizabethan
-art. The inscription is in old English, and, modernised, runs
-as follows: “Here lieth the Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk,
-daughter to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk and Mary the
-French Queen; first wife to Henry, Duke of Suffolk, and after
-to Adrian Stokes, Esq.” This is followed by a few lines of
-high-flown panegyric in Latin. After the death of his Duchess,
-Mr. Stokes obtained a new lease of twenty-one years of “her
-Highness’s manor of Beaumanor,” in Leicestershire. About
-1571 he was returned as M.P. for Leicestershire, and took as
-his second wife Anne, relict of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_355">355</a></span>
-Mr. Adrian Stokes died on 30th November 1586, leaving his
-brother William as his heir.<a id="FNanchor_325" href="#Footnote_325" class="fnanchor">325</a></p>
-
-<p>The widow of the once all-powerful Duke of Northumberland
-spent some months with her daughter, Lady Mary Sidney,
-endeavouring to restore her shattered health and to recover
-some shreds of the property taken from her at the time of her
-husband’s condemnation. It was mainly through the instrumentality
-of Don Diego de Mendoza, or “Damondesay,” as she
-styles him, whose imprudent conduct had brought such misfortune
-on her luckless son, that Philip <span class="smcap smaller">II</span> was led to solicit the
-restoration of a considerable part of the Duchess’s fortune.
-She also obtained permission to inhabit the empty Manor
-House at Chelsea, where she endeavoured to collect some
-of the magnificent furniture which had once adorned the
-royal mansion, Durham House, in the Strand, recovering,
-amongst other things, a set of green curtains shot with gold
-thread and certain carved chairs and tables. But peace and
-shelter, even combined with a measure of comfort and independence,
-availed not to restore her broken health, and on
-22nd January 1555 the famous Duke of Northumberland’s
-widow died broken-hearted at Chelsea Manor in her forty-sixth
-year. Her will is one of the most curious extant. After
-declaring it written entirely in her own hand, without the advice
-of one learned in the law, she bequeaths to “the Lord Diegoe
-Damondesay, that is beyond the sea, the littell book clock
-that hath the moon in it, etc.,” and her dial, “the one leaf
-of it the almanac and the other side, the Golden Number in
-the middle.” What would we not give for a glimpse of this
-curious little clock or dial? To Sir Henry Sidney she leaves
-the gold and green hangings in the gallery at Chelsea; to her
-daughter, Mary Sidney, her gown of black barred velvet,
-furred with sable; to her daughter, Katherine Hastings, a
-gown of purple velvet, and a summer gown; to the Duchess
-of Alva, her green parrot, “having nothing else worthy of
-her”; to Elizabeth, wife of Lord Cobham, a gown of black
-barred velvet, furred with lizards. The document ends with
-the following quaint directions: “My will is earnestly and
-effectually, that little solemnities be made for me, for I had
-ever have a thousand folds my debts to be paid, and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_356">356</a></span>
-poor given unto, than any pomp to be showed upon my
-wretched carcase; therefore to the worms will I go, as I
-have afore written in all points, as you will answer it afore
-God; and you break any one jot of it, your will hereafter may
-chance be to as well broken.... After I am departed from
-this world, let me be wound up in a sheet, and put into a
-coffin of wood, and so laid in the ground with such funerals
-as pertaineth to the burial of a corpse. I will at my year’s
-mind (<i>i.e.</i> anniversary of her death) have such divine service
-as my executors shall think meet, with the whole arms of
-father and mother upon the stone graven; nor in any wise to
-let me be opened after I am dead. I have not loved to be
-very bold afore women, much more would I be loth to come
-into the hands of any living man, be he physician or surgeon.”
-She was buried in Chelsea Parish Church on 1st February 1555,
-two heralds attending the funeral, at which there was a brilliant
-display of escutcheons and banners, etc. Her tomb is against
-the south wall of the church, and is under a Gothic canopy,
-supported by pillars of mosaic. It bears a long inscription, together
-with effigies of the Duchess and her five daughters, kneeling:
-a similar plate with her eight sons on it has been torn off.<a id="FNanchor_326" href="#Footnote_326" class="fnanchor">326</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_357">357</a></span>
-The Duchess of Somerset, the Protector’s widow, followed
-the example of my Lady of Suffolk, and ensured her personal
-tranquillity by contracting a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">mésalliance</i> with Mr. Newdigate,
-son of that Mr. Newdigate to whom, as recorded in an early
-chapter of this work, Lord Latimer, Katherine Parr’s second
-husband, used to let his house furnished. The Duchess had
-been released from the Tower with other notable prisoners
-when Mary first entered its precincts. She was much beloved
-by that Queen, who used to address her as “my good Nan,”
-and this despite the fact that the Duchess was an ardent
-Protestant. She died in her ninetieth year, and was laid
-to rest under a monument which is reckoned as one of the
-finest in Westminster Abbey.</p>
-
-<p>Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, Charles Brandon’s
-fourth and last wife and Lady Frances’ stepmother, had
-followed the prevailing custom and married her secretary, Mr.
-Bertie or Bartie, “a gentleman of fair family and little means.”
-Her Grace was one of the first Englishwomen of noble birth
-to embrace the principles of the Reformation, and greatly
-incensed Queen Mary by doing so. This lady’s mother,
-Lady Willoughby d’Eresby, was Queen Katherine’s closest
-friend, and a staunch Catholic, a fact that probably increased
-the Queen’s resentment against the Duchess and her
-second spouse; and a hint that he might be arrested on a
-charge of heresy sent Mr. Bertie flying to Flanders. He had
-not the kindness to inform his wife of his intended flight,
-and she, feeling herself forsaken and in danger in London,
-escaped one foggy morning from her house in the Barbican
-and followed in the wake of the truant, whom she found at
-Wesel, where their famous son, Peregrine, the brave Lord
-Willoughby, was born. After Elizabeth’s accession, the Duchess
-returned to London with her children by Mr. Bertie and that
-gentleman himself. She was favourably received by the Queen,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_358">358</a></span>
-who saddled her, however, with many unwelcome obligations
-among them the custody of her step-granddaughters, the
-Ladies Katherine and Mary Grey. The Duchess, who was on
-friendly terms with Cecil, kept up a constant correspondence
-with him; and even after the lapse of nearly five hundred
-years, her humorous descriptions of people and things raise
-not a smile only, but a hearty laugh&mdash;she was, in fact, considered
-the wittiest woman of her day. Katherine, Dowager
-Duchess of Suffolk, died late in the reign of Elizabeth.</p>
-
-<p>Queen Jane’s Secretary, Sir John Cheke, was arrested on
-27th or 28th July 1553 (Strype says, “together with the Duke
-of Suffolk”) and committed to the Tower. There he remained
-a close prisoner. On 12th or 13th August an indictment as
-a traitor was made out against him, which brought forth a
-private letter to him from Cranmer, with whom he was on
-intimate terms. In this epistle Cheke is described as “one
-who had been none of the great doers in this matter [<i>i.e.</i> of the
-accession of Jane] against her [Queen Mary].” In 1554 Sir
-John Cheke was, after his estates had been confiscated, released
-from the Tower and given a licence by the Queen to travel
-abroad,<a id="FNanchor_327" href="#Footnote_327" class="fnanchor">327</a> whereupon he made no delay in getting to Switzerland
-and thence to Italy.<a id="FNanchor_328" href="#Footnote_328" class="fnanchor">328</a></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_359">359</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2><a id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX<br />
-
-<span class="subhead">ICONOGRAPHY OF LADY JANE GREY AND HER FAMILY, ETC.</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> painted portraits of Lady Jane Grey are exceedingly
-scarce, and probably not a single one of them
-is authentic; on the other hand, very early and
-almost contemporary engraved portraits are fairly
-numerous. The oldest of these latter is one by E.&nbsp;V. Wyngaerde.
-It bears a certain resemblance to the portrait of her
-grandfather, the Duke of Suffolk, by Jacobus Corvinus, in
-the possession of Sir Frederick Cook at Richmond. Although
-Wyngaerde engraved it in the middle part of the reign of
-Elizabeth, when many persons were still living, the Queen
-herself included, who had seen Jane Grey, and who could
-have set him right, he attributes the original to Hans Holbein,
-who died in London of the plague, according to recent discovery,
-in 1543, that is to say, when Jane was but six years old,
-a fact which renders it impossible for him to have painted any
-of the numerous portraits attributed to him of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>
-as a lad in his teens, Edward being born in the same year and
-month as Lady Jane. The portrait of Jane Grey from which
-Wyngaerde engraved is evidently by some other artist who
-painted in the style of Holbein, presumably one of his pupils.
-It must be remembered that in our own time people are constantly
-attributing to Gainsborough and Reynolds portraits
-they could not have painted, so in the seventeenth century it
-was the fashion to attribute every portrait of the early part
-of the preceding century to Holbein, whose great name was
-remembered, whilst those of his lesser contemporaries were
-forgotten.</p>
-
-<p>(2) In the Earl of Stamford and Warrington’s collection
-there is a very ancient portrait of Lady Jane Grey, engraved
-by Lodge. It is not well painted, but is none the less extremely
-interesting. The features are small and delicate. The costume<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_360">360</a></span>
-is rich but simple, and the pretty neckerchief is fastened at
-the bosom by a bunch of flowers.</p>
-
-<p>(3) Another frequently engraved portrait of Jane Grey,
-also attributed to Holbein, and engraved in George Howard’s
-<cite>Life of Lady Jane Grey</cite>, was for many years in the possession
-of the late Mr. Wenman Martin, of Upper Seymour Street.
-The costume is exceedingly rich.</p>
-
-<p>(4) Probably on account of its excessive prettiness, the
-celebrated picture called “Jane Grey,” in the possession of Lord
-Spencer, at Althorpe, is likely to remain the most popular
-likeness of Lady Jane. It represents a sweet-looking young
-woman of about sixteen, seated by a window, reading an
-illuminated missal. By her side, on a table, stands a richly
-chiselled goblet or chalice. The dress is of ruby velvet, made
-very plain, and with hanging sleeves of a darker material.
-It was engraved in the last century by Dibden, as the frontispiece
-of the <cite>Decameron</cite>, a work which certainly has no association
-whatever with the poor little “Nine Days’ Queen.” By its
-general neatness and vivid colouring, this picture may very
-reasonably be attributed to Luca Penni, an Italian and pupil of
-Raphael, who painted a good deal in England under Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>,
-Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, and Mary. There is a very singular fact connected
-with this Althorpe picture. The noble Milanese family of Trevulzio
-has possessed for many generations an almost identical picture
-which has always been known as a portrait of Lady Jane Grey.
-A photograph of this picture is in my hands, and certainly
-the resemblance between it and the Althorpe picture is
-remarkable. Lord Spencer has most kindly afforded me some
-interesting details connected with his own picture. “It has
-been,” he said, “for many generations in our family, and can
-be traced as a portrait of Lady Jane Grey as far back as the
-seventeenth century.” Some years ago, Lord Spencer took
-it down from its place in his gallery, and found on the back
-of it an inscription in the handwriting of his grandmother,
-Lavinia, Countess Spencer, to the effect that the picture was
-a portrait of the Lady Jane Grey, and that what she had
-written was copied from a much older inscription, which had
-been nearly obliterated by time. Lord Spencer many years
-ago saw at Milan the picture above-mentioned, and was
-struck by its likeness to his own, of which it might have been
-a copy. Sir George Scharf, although an authority on portraiture,
-was apt at times to have prejudices and to cast doubt
-on those historical portraits which have been handed down
-as authentic for many generations; and his singular ignorance
-or rather disregard of the value of costume in determining
-the period of a picture often led him into ludicrous errors of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_361">361</a></span>
-judgment. His reason for discarding the Althorpe portrait
-of Lady Jane Grey appears rather unreasonable. He objected
-to it because a tall standing goblet or chalice figures conspicuously
-on the table beside the lady, such a chalice being,
-according to him, an attribute of St. Mary Magdalen, and so,
-too, is the skull, which is not present in this picture. However,
-an extraordinary number of Tudor portraits represent
-great ladies with a similar goblet standing beside them. These
-gold and silver chalices or cups were a common gift from royal
-god-fathers and mothers in Tudor times, and were frequently
-stolen from the churches. Lady Jane, we know from the
-inventories of her effects, had several in her possession.</p>
-
-<p>(5) An exceedingly beautiful portrait, said to represent
-Lady Jane Grey, is at Madresfield, Lord Beauchamp’s seat
-in Worcestershire. The face bears a resemblance to that in
-the engraving by Wyngaerde, and the costume is undoubtedly
-one that Lady Jane might have worn, and consists of a rich
-velvet gown, cut square at the neck and filled in with soft
-lawn and lace. Her head-dress is very elaborate and graceful.
-Her expression is sweet and noble. This picture is wrongly
-ascribed to Lucas Van Heere, and is more likely to have been
-painted by Streete. Independently of its historical interest,
-it is a beautiful picture. On the other hand, its companion,
-supposed to represent Lord Guildford Dudley, is absolutely
-wrong. It represents a tall young gentleman with strongly-marked
-features and a vapid expression. It is the costume
-that gives the lie to the tradition that it is the portrait of Lady
-Jane’s husband, for the dress, with its voluminous ruff, is of
-the mid-Elizabethan period, and at least twenty-five years
-later than the death of the unfortunate young gentleman
-it is said to represent; but, on the other hand, the little velvet
-cap, with its two plumes, is certainly of the time of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>.
-The ruff may have been added at a later date by an ignorant
-restorer.</p>
-
-<p>(6) There is a curious portrait, probably of Lady Jane
-Grey, in the possession of J. Knight, Esq., of Chawton House,
-Alton.</p>
-
-<p>(7) A very remarkable portrait, called “Jane Grey,” was
-formerly in the possession of Colonel Elliot; said to be now in
-one of the Colleges at Oxford. It was, however, engraved in
-1830, and has lately been reproduced in colour by Messrs. Graves
-of Pall Mall. The face is that of an older person than Lady
-Jane, but the features are small and pretty, the expression
-being rather defiant and world-wise. She wears a turban-shaped
-hat of velvet, studded with immense pearls, which was
-certainly not in fashion in the days of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, or even in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_362">362</a></span>
-the last years of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. Here again is an instance of
-costume giving the lie to tradition. Lady Jane could no more
-have worn such a hat and costume than a lady in 1909 could
-be painted as wearing the crinoline and spoon-shaped bonnet
-of mid-Victorian days.</p>
-
-<p>(8) The small semi-miniature in the National Portrait
-Gallery is wrongly attributed to Lucas Van Heere, who was
-born in the year of Jane’s execution, and could therefore
-neither have painted the portrait in question nor any one of
-the numerous likenesses of Queen Mary ascribed to him,
-since he was only five years of age when that Queen died.</p>
-
-<p>(9) A small portrait called “Jane Grey” is in the possession
-of Lord Hastings at Melton Constable, Norfolk.</p>
-
-<p>(10) “A splendid portrait of Jane Grey” was exhibited
-at the Derby Art Exhibition in 1841&mdash;mentioned by Howard.
-It belonged to a Mr. Harrington, who inherited it from two
-ancient ladies, the Misses Gray of Derby, in the possession of
-whose family this picture had been for many generations.</p>
-
-<p>(11) There is a sweetly pretty contemporary Tudor portrait,
-reputed to be that of Lady Jane Grey, in the possession of
-Colonel Horace Walpole, at Heckfield Place, Hants.</p>
-
-<p>The Wyngaerde engraving has been frequently reproduced.
-In the Print Room at the British Museum there are no less than
-six variations of it. There are also engravings, more or less
-apocryphal, of Lady Jane by G.&nbsp;W. Krauss and G.&nbsp;C. Schmidt,
-1782.</p>
-
-<p>Engraved and fanciful <span class="locked">portraits:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>Jane Grey, by G. Smerton, 1824.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey, by G. Buckland, 1776.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey, by Sherwin.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey presenting her prayer-book to Sir Thomas
-Brydges. Engraved by Wells. 1786.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey as Queen. By J.&nbsp;P. Simons.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey “From a contemporary miniature at
-Strawberry Hill,” by Vertue. (The original is now in the
-National Portrait Gallery.)</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey. From a portrait in the possession of the
-Marquis of Buckingham. No name of engraver. She wears a
-velvet gown open at the throat to display a double chain with
-pendant cross. On table, large gold chalice.</p>
-
-<p>Paul Delaroche has painted two famous historical pictures,
-representing events in the last days of Lady Jane Grey’s life&mdash;her
-farewell to Guildford and her execution. They have been
-frequently engraved.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_363">363</a></span></p>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">Portraits of Lady Jane’s Mother, Father, and Grandfather</span></h3>
-
-<p>“Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and her second
-husband, Adrian Stokes” (dated 1554). Small half-lengths of
-the Duchess of Suffolk on the left, and Adrian Stokes on the right.
-She wears a black dress with tags and jewels, gold-edged ruffs
-at neck and wrists, black jewelled hoods, two necklaces of
-pearls, one with pendants, right hand resting on cushion and
-holding glove, left holding ring. He wears a light-coloured
-embroidered doublet, black fur-lined surcoat slashed and with
-tags, ruffs at neck and wrists edged with pink, chain round
-neck, right hand on hip, left holding gloves, sword at his side.
-Above her head, <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Ætatis</i> xxxvi: above his, <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Ætatis</i> xxi. Dated
-MDLIV. Panel, 19½ × 27 in. Probably by Corvinus. This
-picture was engraved by Vertue. Colonel Wynn Finch.</p>
-
-<p>Frances, Marchioness of Dorset. A superb Holbein drawing.
-H.M. the King, at Windsor.</p>
-
-<p>Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk. Miniature. Was
-lent to the Tudor Exhibition by Lord Willoughby d’Eresby.</p>
-
-<p>There are fine portraits of Charles Brandon, Duke of
-Suffolk, in the National Portrait Gallery, and in the possession
-of Sir Frederick Cook. There is also a fine portrait by Corvinus
-of Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, in the National Portrait
-Gallery, and another in the possession of G.&nbsp;P. Boyce, Esq.</p>
-
-<p>A portrait of Katherine, Baroness Willoughby d’Eresby,
-and Duchess of Suffolk, is in the possession of her descendant,
-Lord Willoughby d’Eresby.</p>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">Bibliography of Lady Jane Grey</span></h3>
-
-<p>In literature, Lady Jane Grey has been a popular heroine.
-She figures in: <cite>The Tower of London</cite>, by Harrison Ainsworth.
-<cite>Jane Grey</cite> (French novel), by Alphonse Brot. <cite>Lady Jane
-Grey</cite>, by Philip Sidney. The life story of Lady Jane is told in
-<cite>Jeanne Grey</cite>, by Mdme. de Genlis. <cite>The Chronicle of Queen
-Jane and Queen Mary</cite>. <cite>Lives</cite> of Lady Jane Grey, by Howard,
-Agnes Strickland (in <cite>Tudor and Stuart Princesses</cite>), and Dr.
-Harris Nicholas.</p>
-
-<p>There is a fine elegy of Lady Jane Grey by Sir Thomas
-Chaloner, one of the best Latin writers of the reign of Elizabeth,
-the original of which is preserved in the Bodleian Library. It
-is contained in the collection called the Illustrium, Jan. <span class="smcap smaller">II.</span> 68.
-p. 33.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_364">364</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Jana luit patriam profuso sanguine culpam,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Vivere Phœnicis digna puella dies.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Illa suit Phœnix, merito dicenda manebat;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Ore placens Venerio, Palladis arte placens.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Culta fuit, formosa fuit: divina movebat<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Sœpé viros facies, sœpé loquela viros.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Vidisset faciem? porterat procus improbus un:<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Audisset cultæ verba? modestus era,” etc.<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Lady Jane Grey’s tragic fate has been several times dramatised:&mdash;<cite>John
-Dudley, Duke of Northumberland</cite>, a tragedy,
-by Scriptor Ignotus. London, 1686. <cite>Lady Jane Grey</cite>, by
-J.&nbsp;W. Ross, 1882.</p>
-
-<p>Independently of Rowe’s tragedy, <cite>Lady Jane Grey</cite>, there
-is the German tragedy of Von Sommer, entitled <cite>Johanna
-Grey</cite>; and <cite>Jane Grey</cite>, an opera-epilogue, acted 25th February,
-1723, for the benefit of Mrs. Sterling at Dublin.</p>
-
-<p>The literary works attributed to Lady Jane Grey <span class="locked">are:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<p>1. Four Latin epistles&mdash;three to Bullinger, and one to Lady
-Katherine Grey. The originals of the first three are preserved
-at Zurich, the other is in the King’s Library, British Museum.</p>
-
-<p>2. Her conference with Feckenham (probably apocryphal),
-although quoted by such early writers as Foxe and Florio.</p>
-
-<p>3. A letter to Harding (doubtful).</p>
-
-<p>4. A prayer for her own use in prison.</p>
-
-<p>5. Four Latin verses scratched on her prison walls with a
-pin. These will be found on p. 336.</p>
-
-<p>6. Her speech on the scaffold.</p>
-
-<p>7. <cite>The Complaint of a Sinner.</cite></p>
-
-<p>8. <cite>The Duty of a Christian.</cite></p>
-
-<p>9. The annotations in the famous prayer-book.</p>
-
-<p>10. A fragment of a letter has been recently found, and
-is printed in volume vii of the State Papers; Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>.
-Domestic Series. Addenda.</p>
-
-<p>Hollingshead and Sir Richard Baker state “that she hath
-wrotten other things,” but they do not tell us where they are
-to be found. Several of her letters, notably the one to Sudeley
-and the famous letter to Queen Mary, are not extant in her
-own handwriting.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Jane’s fine autograph signature figures on a number
-of contemporary documents. It is nothing like so elaborate
-as that of Elizabeth, but it is easy to see that the two Princesses
-received lessons in Italian caligraphy from the same teacher,
-probably Castiglione.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_365">365</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2><a id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2>
-
-<div class="index nobreak">
-<ul class="index nobreak">
-<li class="ifrst nobreak">Ab Ulmis or Ullmer, John, Reformer, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letters of, <a href="#Page_179">179&ndash;80</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Anne Askew, birth and marriage, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her preaching, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">arrest and recantation, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">second trial and condemnation, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">racked, <a href="#Page_64">64</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">is burnt alive, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; <a href="#Page_72">72</a> note</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Anne of Cleves, Queen, <a href="#Page_37">37</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arundel, Earl of, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">arrests Northumberland, <a href="#Page_279">279&ndash;80</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>; <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">proclaims Mary, <a href="#Page_285">285</a> and f.n.; <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ascham, Roger, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his story of Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_172">172&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his letter to Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_175">175&ndash;7</a>; <a href="#Page_259">259</a>; <a href="#Page_264">264&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Page_358">358</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ashley, Mrs., Princess Elizabeth’s attendant, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">on Elizabeth’s behaviour with Sudeley, <a href="#Page_136">136</a> et seq.; <a href="#Page_161">161</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aske, Robert, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Audley, Lady, <a href="#Page_184">184</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aylmer, John, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to Bullinger, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Footnote_328">358 f.n.</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Baynard’s Castle, <a href="#Page_284">284</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bradgate, Old Manor of, and Park, (Lady Jane’s birthplace), <a href="#Page_1">1&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">life at, in the olden times, <a href="#Page_19">19&ndash;23</a>; <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx"><a id="Brandon_Charles"></a>Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk (Lady Jane’s grandfather), <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">origin of, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">matrimonial peculiarities, marries Lady Mortimer, <a href="#Page_7">7&ndash;11</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">marries Mary Tudor, Queen of France, <a href="#Page_8">8&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes to France with Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death, etc., <a href="#Page_57">57</a>; <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">portraits of, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brandon, Lady Eleanor, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brandon, Lady Frances. (<i>See</i> <a href="#Frances_Brandon">Frances Brandon, Lady</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Browne, Sir Anthony, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brydges, Sir John, Lieutenant of the Tower, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brydges, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Lady Jane’s execution, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Carew, Sir Gawen, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, <a href="#Page_166">166&ndash;7</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">knighted, <a href="#Page_212">212</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_259">259&ndash;60</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his treachery, <a href="#Page_277">277</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_278">278</a>; <a href="#Page_285">285</a> and f.n.; <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>, Emperor, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">supports Northumberland, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a> and f.n.; <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">abandons Northumberland, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">urges Lady Jane’s execution, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_316">316</a>; <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cheke, Dr., afterwards Sir John, <a href="#Page_127">127</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">knighted, <a href="#Page_212">212</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">acts as Queen Jane’s Secretary of State, <a href="#Page_257">257</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_258">258&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">imprisoned, <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">writes to Lord Oxford and leaves the Tower, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">imprisonment, recantation, and death, <a href="#Page_358">358</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chelsea, Manor House, <a href="#Page_137">137</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Council, the Privy, letters of, to the Commissioners in Brussels, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_266">266&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">to Princess Mary, <a href="#Page_268">268&ndash;9</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">obtains leave to depart from the Tower, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">proclaims Mary Queen, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">attends St. Paul’s, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">retires to Westminster, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">its submission to Mary, <a href="#Page_295">295&ndash;6</a>; <a href="#Page_312">312</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">its treachery to Queen Jane considered, <a href="#Page_316">316</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Coverdale, Dr. Miles, as Jane’s tutor, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Katherine Parr’s funeral, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65&ndash;6</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103&ndash;4</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">connection with the Reformers, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his interview with Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> about the succession, <a href="#Page_240">240&ndash;1</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his conduct towards Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_286">286&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the original charge against, <a href="#Page_287">287</a> f.n.;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_366">366</a></span></li>
-<li class="isub1">indictment against, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s funeral, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">trial of, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>; <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">“Devise” for the succession drawn up, <a href="#Page_238">238&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Jane named in, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Council object to, <a href="#Page_240">240&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">signed, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">text of, <a href="#Page_254">254&ndash;5</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Diego de Mendoza, Don, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">accepts Guildford Dudley as King, <a href="#Page_263">263&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">probably influenced by Northumberland and the Suffolks, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>; <a href="#Page_265">265</a>; <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dissolution of the Monasteries, disastrous effect of, <a href="#Page_25">25&ndash;6</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx"><a id="Dorset"></a>Dorset, Henry Grey, Marquess of, afterwards Duke of Suffolk (Lady Jane’s father), <a href="#Page_4">4&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">marriage of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; <a href="#Page_14">14</a>; <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">negotiations with Sharington and Sudeley about parting with Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>; <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">welcomes Reformers, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">correspondence with Sudeley about Jane, <a href="#Page_149">149&ndash;50</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">has fresh negotiations with Sudeley and Sharington for the purchase of Lady Jane, nature of the affair, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">also negotiations with Somerset, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">conclusion of negotiations with Sudeley, the money paid, <a href="#Page_154">154&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">supports Sudeley, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>; <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes to live in London, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to Bullinger, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">created Duke of Suffolk, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes to Sheen, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; <a href="#Page_224">224</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">social intercourse with the Dudleys, <a href="#Page_228">228&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">coerces Jane into marrying Guildford Dudley, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">gives the Council leave to depart from the Tower, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">is ordered to give up the Tower, signs Mary’s proclamation, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">announces her downfall to Queen Jane, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his subsequent movements, <a href="#Page_289">289&ndash;90</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">raises revolt against Mary, his defeat and betrayal, <a href="#Page_322">322&ndash;3</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the injury done to Queen Jane’s cause by this revolt, <a href="#Page_323">323&ndash;4</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_324">324</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>; <a href="#Page_334">334</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">trial and defence, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">execution, <a href="#Page_349">349&ndash;50</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">burial, <a href="#Page_350">350&ndash;1</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his head, <a href="#Page_351">351</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_352">352</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">portrait of, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dorset, Margaret, Dowager Lady, <a href="#Page_5">5&ndash;6</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dorsets, residences of the, in London, <a href="#Page_23">23&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">friendship of the Howards for, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dudley, Lord Ambrose, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">imprisoned, <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_292">292</a>; <a href="#Page_298">298</a>; <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">trial of, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>; <a href="#Page_356">356</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dudley, Sir Andrew, <a href="#Page_225">225</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">condemnation and recantation, <a href="#Page_304">304</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dudley, Edmund, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190&ndash;1</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dudley, Guildford. (<i>See</i> <a href="#Guildford_Dudley">Guildford Dudley</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dudley, Henry, <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_284">284</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">trial of, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>; <a href="#Page_319">319</a>; <a href="#Page_356">356</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dudley, John. (<i>See</i> <a href="#Northumberland">Northumberland, Duke of</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dudley, Lord Robert, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Durham House, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, King, birth, <a href="#Page_14">14</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">never Prince of Wales, <a href="#Page_101">101</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_103">103</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">learns of his father’s death, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his movements at that time, <a href="#Page_106">106</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">enters London, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">writes to Katherine Parr on her marriage, <a href="#Page_123">123&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">infancy, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">education, <a href="#Page_126">126&ndash;8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">little intercourse with his sisters, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Coronation procession, <a href="#Page_130">130&ndash;1</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Coronation, <a href="#Page_132">132</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">has to hear innumerable sermons, <a href="#Page_156">156&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">state of his health, is deformed and deaf, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">prefers Sudeley to Somerset, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Hampton Court, <a href="#Page_204">204&ndash;6</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">becomes weaker, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">does not attend Jane’s wedding, but makes gifts, <a href="#Page_234">234&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his scheme for the succession, <a href="#Page_238">238</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">names Jane Grey as his successor, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">declares his will to the Council, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his death, <a href="#Page_245">245</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">rumours of his having been poisoned by Northumberland, <a href="#Page_246">246&ndash;7</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">supernatural visitations, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">funeral of, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Masses for, <a href="#Page_300">300</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_301">301</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his Great Seal, <a href="#Page_302">302&ndash;3</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Elizabeth, Princess, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">joins Sudeley, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her appearance at fifteen, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her behaviour with Sudeley, <a href="#Page_137">137</a> et seq., <a href="#Page_162">162&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">is sent away from Sudeley, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to Katherine Parr, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her feelings towards Sudeley, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>; <a href="#Page_157">157</a>; <a href="#Page_167">167</a>; <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">omitted from the succession, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_367">367</a></span></li>
-<li class="isub1">declared illegitimate, <a href="#Page_257">257&ndash;8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dislikes Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">enters London, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>; <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Ellen,” Mrs., Lady Jane’s nurse, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">England, state of, under Somerset’s protectorate, <a href="#Page_195">195&ndash;6</a> et seq., <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">immorality in, <a href="#Page_196">196&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">slavery in, <a href="#Page_198">198&ndash;9</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Feckenham, Dr., afterwards Abbot, <a href="#Page_321">321</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">announces hour of her death to Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_328">328</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">appearance of, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>; <a href="#Page_340">340</a>; <a href="#Page_341">341</a>; <a href="#Page_343">343</a>; <a href="#Page_358">358</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fitzpatrick, Barnaby, <a href="#Page_127">127</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><a id="Frances_Brandon"></a>Frances Brandon, Lady, Marchioness of Dorset, afterwards Duchess of Suffolk (Lady Jane’s mother), <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">birth and baptism, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">marries Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her appearance, children, etc., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; <a href="#Page_94">94</a>; <a href="#Page_108">108</a>; <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to Sudeley, <a href="#Page_150">150&ndash;1</a>; <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">falls ill, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>; <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">proposes a marriage between Lord Hertford and Jane, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">pays homage to Lady Jane as Queen, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">enters the Tower with Queen Jane, <a href="#Page_253">253&ndash;4</a>; <a href="#Page_282">282</a>; <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">marries Adrian Stokes, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">portrait of, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">appearance, gives birth to a child, dies, her monument, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Gage, Sir John, Constable of the Tower, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gardiner, Bishop, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">endeavours to overthrow Katherine Parr, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Henry’s anger against, <a href="#Page_69">69</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">omitted from Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s will, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>; <a href="#Page_70">70</a>; <a href="#Page_105">105</a>; <a href="#Page_108">108</a>; <a href="#Page_109">109</a>; <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; <a href="#Page_211">211</a>; <a href="#Page_304">304</a>; <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">urges Jane’s execution, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gates, Sir Harry, condemnation and recantation, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gates, Sir John, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">condemnation, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">execution, <a href="#Page_307">307&ndash;8</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Geraldine, Fair,” birth and antecedents, <a href="#Page_96">96</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her beauty, connection with the Earl of Surrey, marriages, etc., <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">funeral, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>; <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Greys of Groby, family of, <a href="#Page_3">3&ndash;4</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grey, Thomas, Marquis of Dorset, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grey, Lord Thomas, Lady Jane’s uncle, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">signs the “Devise,” <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">captured and executed, <a href="#Page_351">351&ndash;2</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx"><a id="Grey_Lady_Jane"></a>Grey, Lady Jane, “the Nine Days’ Queen,” birth, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">christening, <a href="#Page_15">15</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">babyhood and childhood, <a href="#Page_16">16&ndash;18</a> et seq.; <a href="#Page_24">24</a>; <a href="#Page_50">50</a>; <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Lady Jane and Prince Edward, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125&ndash;6</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247&ndash;8</a>; <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; <a href="#Page_67">67</a>; <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; <a href="#Page_70">70</a>; <a href="#Page_94">94</a>; <a href="#Page_97">97</a>; <a href="#Page_108">108</a>; <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">effect of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s will on her political position, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes to Seymour Place, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her life there, <a href="#Page_118">118&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">proposal of marrying her to the Earl of Hertford, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">life at Chelsea, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Sudeley Castle, <a href="#Page_141">141</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">as chief mourner at Katherine Parr’s funeral, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes back to Bradgate, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to Lord Sudeley, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">returns to Sudeley’s charge at Hanworth, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes again to Seymour Place, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">returns to Bradgate, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her education, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to Bullinger, <a href="#Page_170">170&ndash;2</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Ascham’s story of, <a href="#Page_172">172&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">ill-treated by her parents, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_303">303</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her knowledge of languages, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">appears at Court, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her travels in 1551&ndash;2, <a href="#Page_183">183&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">illness, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">makes presents to Bullinger’s wife, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">movements in 1552&ndash;4, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">story of, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">doubtful legitimacy, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">coerced into marrying Guildford Dudley, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">preparations for the wedding, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">date of wedding, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">special attire for, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">details of the wedding, <a href="#Page_233">233&ndash;4</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her dress at her wedding, <a href="#Page_235">235</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her own account of her interview with the Duchess of Northumberland, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes to Chelsea and falls ill, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">nominated successor to Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes to Sion House, <a href="#Page_250">250&ndash;1</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">is informed of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s will, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">homage done her as Queen, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her distress thereat, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">proceeds to the Tower, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her entry into the Tower as Queen, her appearance, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">proclaimed Queen, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">signs documents, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dines in State, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">scene with the Duchess of Northumberland, refuses to make Guildford Dudley King, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">receives the Regalia, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_368">368</a></span></li>
-<li class="isub1">her Royal Seal, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">falls ill, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">list of her property sent to the Tower, <a href="#Page_271">271&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">makes appointments, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">collapse of her cause, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">strange incident, sends for Lord Winchester, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Suffolk announces her downfall to her, abandons the Throne, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">deserted in the Tower, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her imprisonment, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, etc.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">relinquishes the Regalia and her money, <a href="#Page_292">292&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her will, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">indictment against, <a href="#Page_298">298&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">writ against, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">proceeds to Guildhall for her trial, <a href="#Page_316">316&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">trial and condemnation, <a href="#Page_318">318&ndash;9</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to Harding, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her death-warrant, <a href="#Page_326">326&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her death announced to her, <a href="#Page_328">328&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">postponement of execution, <a href="#Page_329">329&ndash;30</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">reasons why she was not executed with Guildford, <a href="#Page_330">330&ndash;1</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to her father, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">last letter to her sister Katherine, <a href="#Page_332">332&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">last writings, <a href="#Page_335">335&ndash;6</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">inscriptions in her cell, <a href="#Page_336">336</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">last hours, <a href="#Page_337">337</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">refuses to see Guildford but watches him go to execution, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">sees his bleeding remains, <a href="#Page_339">339</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the execution delayed, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the procession to the scaffold, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Jane said to be <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">enceinte</i>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her last speech, <a href="#Page_341">341&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">behaviour on the scaffold, prepares for death, <a href="#Page_343">343&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">last moments and decapitation, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">contemporary account of execution, <a href="#Page_344">344&ndash;5</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">treatment of her body after death, <a href="#Page_345">345&ndash;6</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">burial, <a href="#Page_346">346</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">legend about, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">portraits of, <a href="#Page_359">359&ndash;62</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">writings on Jane Grey, <a href="#Page_342">342</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_363">363&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her literary works, <a href="#Page_364">364</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grey, Lady Katherine, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Lady Jane’s last letter to, <a href="#Page_332">332&ndash;4</a>; <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grey, Lady Mary, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>; a dwarf, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>; <a href="#Page_18">18</a>; <a href="#Page_109">109</a>; <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; <a href="#Page_233">233</a>; <a href="#Page_252">252</a>; <a href="#Page_353">353</a>; <a href="#Page_358">358</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx"><a id="Guildford_Dudley"></a>Guildford Dudley, Lord, proposal to marry him to Lady Margaret Clifford, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>; <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">birth and antecedents, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">appearance, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his portrait, <a href="#Page_231">231</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">date of his marriage with Jane Grey, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">details of the marriage, <a href="#Page_234">234&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">remains at Durham House, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">enters the Tower with Queen Jane, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his endeavours to become King of England, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261&ndash;6</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">imprisoned, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his money taken from him, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">indictment against, <a href="#Page_298">298&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">writ against, goes to trial, <a href="#Page_316">316&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">trial and condemnation, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>; <a href="#Page_320">320</a>; <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">receives his death sentence, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his autograph, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">desires to see Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">supposed recantation, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes out to execution, <a href="#Page_337">337&ndash;8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his execution, <a href="#Page_338">338</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Hampton Court, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> at, <a href="#Page_204">204&ndash;6</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harding, Dr., Jane’s tutor and rector of Bradgate, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, his religiosity, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">divorces Anne of Cleves, <a href="#Page_37">37&ndash;8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">marries Katherine Parr, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his appearance, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">in expedition to France, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">declines in health, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">defeats the plot against Katherine Parr, <a href="#Page_67">67&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his will, <a href="#Page_69">69</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">text of, <a href="#Page_109">109</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his last illness, <a href="#Page_100">100&ndash;1</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">does not receive the last Sacraments, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his body embalmed, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">funeral arrangements, <a href="#Page_107">107&ndash;8</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">funeral procession and sermon, <a href="#Page_112">112&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">weird occurrence at Sion, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">supernatural apparitions of Henry, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">effect of his will, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hertford, Earl of, son of the Duke of Somerset, proposal to marry him to Jane, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>; <a href="#Page_119">119</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_127">127</a>; <a href="#Page_232">232</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hoby, Sir Philip, English Ambassador to Brussels, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267&ndash;8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">submits to Mary, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">recalled, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>; <a href="#Page_328">328</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Holland, Mrs. Elizabeth or Bess, <a href="#Page_75">75</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_85">85&ndash;6</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">gives evidence at Surrey’s trial, <a href="#Page_89">89&ndash;90</a>; <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; <a href="#Page_93">93</a>; <a href="#Page_94">94</a>; <a href="#Page_95">95</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Household, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s, <a href="#Page_42">42</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">etiquette in, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Howard, the house of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">feud between the Howards and the Seymours, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their relations with the Dorsets, <a href="#Page_95">95&ndash;6</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Huggones, Mrs., <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">called before the Privy Council, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hunsdon, <a href="#Page_95">95</a> f.n.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_369">369</a></span></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Huyck, Dr., <a href="#Page_145">145</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Inventory of the Howards’ effects, <a href="#Page_92">92</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">of the Crown Jewels, etc., delivered to Queen Jane, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">of Queen Jane’s own effects, <a href="#Page_271">271&ndash;2</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Jane Grey, Lady. (<i>See</i> <a href="#Grey_Lady_Jane">Grey, Lady Jane</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Ket, Robert, <a href="#Page_200">200</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his rebellion, <a href="#Page_201">201&ndash;2</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">captured and hanged, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>; <a href="#Page_235">235</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Knox, John, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kyme, Thomas, husband of Anne Askew, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Latimer, Lord, <a href="#Page_32">32&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">correspondence with Sir John Russell, <a href="#Page_33">33&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dies, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>; <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Latimer, Lady. (<i>See</i> <a href="#Parr_Katherine">Parr, Katherine</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Margaret Clifford, Lady, proposal to marry her to Guildford Dudley, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>; <a href="#Page_225">225</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mary of Guise, Queen-Regent of Scotland, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">enters London, <a href="#Page_181">181&ndash;2</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mary, Princess, afterwards Queen of England, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52&ndash;3</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the Dorsets and Mary, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">visited by the Dorsets, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her feelings towards Lady Jane Grey, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>; <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">omitted from the scheme for the succession, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Northumberland’s intrigues against her and her escape, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">declared illegitimate, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her letter to the Council, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">risings in favour of, <a href="#Page_273">273&ndash;4</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">proclaimed Queen, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">popular enthusiasm for, <a href="#Page_285">285&ndash;6</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">affection for Philip of Spain, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">enters London, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">enters the Tower as Queen, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her hatred of Northumberland, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Coronation, <a href="#Page_312">312&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">wishes to spare Lady Jane’s life, <a href="#Page_314">314</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_315">315&ndash;6</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">decline of enthusiasm for, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">signs Jane’s death-warrant, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>; <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mary Tudor, Queen of France, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">marries Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her children, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dies, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her monument, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Montagu, Lord Chief Justice, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morgan, Judge, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">presides at Queen Jane’s trial, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his career and death, <a href="#Page_318">318</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">condemns Jane to death, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mortimer, Lady. (<i>See</i> under <a href="#Brandon_Charles">Brandon, Charles</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morysone, Sir Richard, English Ambassador, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">recalled, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Newhall Place, description of, <a href="#Page_186">186&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">life at, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Noailles, the de, French Ambassadors, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345&ndash;6</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nonesuch, Palace of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norfolk, Thomas Howard, third Duke of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">appearance, <a href="#Page_74">74&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">marriage, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his attempt to reconcile his son and the Seymours, <a href="#Page_81">81</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">charged with treason and taken to the Tower, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his death-warrant prepared, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">release, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dispersal of his lands and wardrobe, <a href="#Page_92">92&ndash;3</a>; <a href="#Page_105">105</a>; <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>; <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>; <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">attends Lady Jane’s trial, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>; <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norfolk, Duchess of, is neglected by her husband, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her grievances, <a href="#Page_85">85&ndash;6</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">gives evidence against her husband, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>; <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Northampton, William Parr, Earl of Essex and Marquis of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">created Marquis, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; <a href="#Page_197">197</a>; <a href="#Page_202">202</a>; <a href="#Page_214">214</a>; <a href="#Page_240">240</a>; <a href="#Page_241">241</a>; <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">letter to, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>; <a href="#Page_275">275</a>; <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">indictment against, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">trial, <a href="#Page_302">302&ndash;3</a>; <a href="#Page_304">304</a>; <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Northampton, Marchioness of, <a href="#Page_141">141</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><a id="Northumberland"></a>Northumberland, John Dudley, Duke of (previously Viscount Lisle and Earl of Warwick), <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">becomes Lord Chamberlain, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">created Earl of Warwick, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his antecedents, <a href="#Page_190">190</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">birth, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">goes to France, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his wife, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his intrigues, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">successful expedition into Norfolk, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">popularity, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">becomes Lord Great Master and High-Admiral, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">governs badly, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">endeavours to overthrow Somerset, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">is created Duke of Northumberland, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">makes false accusations against Somerset, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">attends Somerset’s trial, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_370">370</a></span></li>
-<li class="isub1">position improved by Somerset’s death, <a href="#Page_221">221</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">interferes with Princess Mary’s religion, <a href="#Page_221">221</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">social intercourse with the Suffolks, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">induces Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> to nominate Jane Grey as his successor, <a href="#Page_239">239&ndash;40</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">coerces the Council, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">tyrannises over every one, <a href="#Page_243">243</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">rumours that he had poisoned Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, <a href="#Page_246">246&ndash;7</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_315">315</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">intrigues to destroy Princess Mary, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">informs Jane that she is Queen, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his schemes for changing the State religion, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>; <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his farewell dinner, <a href="#Page_274">274&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">takes command of Queen Jane’s forces against Mary, and leaves London with them, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">sends for reinforcements and retires to Cambridge, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">made prisoner, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">brought to the Tower, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">indictment against, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his bad health, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Mary’s hatred for him, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his trial and condemnation, <a href="#Page_302">302</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_303">303</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his recantation, <a href="#Page_304">304</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">pathetic letter to Arundel, <a href="#Page_305">305&ndash;6</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his sincerity in changing his faith, <a href="#Page_306">306</a> f.ns.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his execution postponed and the probable reason, <a href="#Page_306">306&ndash;7</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">leave-taking of Guildford, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his execution, <a href="#Page_307">307&ndash;8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">curious account of, <a href="#Page_308">308</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">burial, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Lady Jane’s opinion of him, <a href="#Page_310">310&ndash;11</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his family, <a href="#Page_356">356&ndash;7</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Northumberland, Duchess of, disliked by Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">antecedents, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quarrels with Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">does homage to Jane as Queen, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">has a violent scene with Queen Jane in the Tower, <a href="#Page_260">260&ndash;1</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her bequests to Don Mendoza, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">pleads for her husband to Mary, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quarrels with the Duchess of Suffolk, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>; <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her existence after the Duke’s execution, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her will, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">strange last directions, <a href="#Page_355">355&ndash;6</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">funeral, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Owen, Dr. George, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Paget, Sir William, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Palmer, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">condemnation, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">execution, <a href="#Page_307">307&ndash;8</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx"><a id="Parr_Katherine"></a>Parr, Katherine, Queen (previously Lady Latimer), birth, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">first marriage, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her appearance, <a href="#Page_30">30</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her education, writings, etc., <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">first dealings, with Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her marriage with Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">public opinion on, <a href="#Page_39">39&ndash;40</a>; <a href="#Page_51">51&ndash;2</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her writings, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>; <a href="#Page_54">54</a>; <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her connection and encouragement of Anne Askew, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a> note;</li>
-<li class="isub1">is nearly arrested for heresy, <a href="#Page_67">67&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the plot against, <a href="#Page_69">69</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s death-bed, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; <a href="#Page_108">108</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">mentioned in Henry’s will, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110&ndash;11</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s funeral, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">liaison</i> with Thomas Seymour, <a href="#Page_121">121&ndash;2</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">marriage to Seymour, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">indignation of the Somersets at the marriage, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her life at Sudeley Castle, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">gives birth to a child, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her last days, <a href="#Page_144">144</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">makes her will, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death and funeral, <a href="#Page_145">145&ndash;6</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Parr, the family of, <a href="#Page_28">28&ndash;9</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Parr, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Partridge, Nathaniel, Lady Jane’s warder, <a href="#Page_290">290</a> and f.n.; <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pembroke, William Herbert, Earl of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Penn, Mrs. Sybel, Prince Edward’s nurse, <a href="#Page_126">126</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Proclamation of Queen Jane, <a href="#Page_256">256</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_257">257</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Reformers, the Swiss and other, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their letters, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Lady Jane Grey and the Reformers, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their ways and opinions, <a href="#Page_227">227&ndash;8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">their comments on Lady Jane’s execution, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Religion, in England, return of Catholicism, <a href="#Page_74">74</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">state of, in the first year of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s reign, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Northumberland’s schemes anent a change in, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Renard, Simon, the Imperial Ambassador, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Richmond, Mary, Duchess of, Earl of Surrey’s sister, <a href="#Page_83">83&ndash;4</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">gives evidence against Surrey, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">repentance and death, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>; <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ridley, Bishop, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a> and f.ns., <a href="#Page_321">321</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_371">371</a></span></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Russell, Lord John, Privy Seal, <a href="#Page_33">33</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">connection with Sudeley, <a href="#Page_158">158&ndash;9</a>; <a href="#Page_204">204</a>; <a href="#Page_205">205</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_284">284</a>; <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Sandys, Dr., <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">preaches before Northumberland, <a href="#Page_278">278&ndash;9</a>; <a href="#Page_279">279</a>; <a href="#Page_280">280</a>; <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seymour, Dowager Lady, <a href="#Page_117">117&ndash;8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; <a href="#Page_211">211</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><a id="Seymour_Edward"></a>Seymour, Edward, Earl of Hertford, Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quarrels with the Earl of Surrey, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">attempted reconciliation, <a href="#Page_82">82&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">failure of same, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">attends Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s death-bed, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">after Henry’s death leaves Palace, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">appointed Protector, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">proclaimed Protector, <a href="#Page_111">111</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">assumes the office of treasurer, etc., <a href="#Page_111">111&ndash;2</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his intrigues, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">indignation at Thomas Seymour (Sudeley’s) marriage, quarrels with him, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">is created Duke of Somerset, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dines with Sudeley and Warwick, <a href="#Page_129">129&ndash;30</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quarrels with Sudeley, letter to, <a href="#Page_143">143&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">unpopular in Scotland, his massacres there, <a href="#Page_192">192&ndash;3</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">unpopular in England, <a href="#Page_194">194&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his loose morals, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">risings against his maladministration, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">takes refuge at Hampton Court, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">assumes higher rank, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">flies to Windsor, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">arrested and sent to the Tower, <a href="#Page_206">206&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">confesses his guilt, is fined and released, <a href="#Page_208">208&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">regains his lost position, <a href="#Page_209">209&ndash;10</a>; <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">return of unpopularity, <a href="#Page_212">212&ndash;3</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">second arrest, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>; trial, <a href="#Page_213">213&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">sentenced to death, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">scene at his execution, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">decapitation and burial, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his character considered, <a href="#Page_216">216&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">contemporary letter about him, <a href="#Page_217">217&ndash;20</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his prayer-book, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seymour, the family of, <a href="#Page_76">76&ndash;7</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">feud between the Seymours and the Howards, <a href="#Page_81">81</a> et seq.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sharington, Sir William, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sheen, ex-Priory of, <a href="#Page_223">223</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sidney, Lady Mary, Northumberland’s daughter, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">sent to Jane by the Council, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>; <a href="#Page_355">355</a>; <a href="#Page_356">356&ndash;7</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sion House, <a href="#Page_224">224</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">life at, <a href="#Page_228">228&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">homage paid to Lady Jane at, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Somers, Will, Court jester, <a href="#Page_49">49</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Somerset, Edward Seymour, Duke of. (<i>See</i> <a href="#Seymour_Edward">Seymour, Edward</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Somerset, Anne Stanhope, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quarrels with Katherine Parr, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">imprisoned, <a href="#Page_213">213</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her prison fare, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">second marriage, friendship for Mary, death, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stanfield Hall (Lady Jane’s dower), <a href="#Page_235">235</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stokes, Adrian (Lady Frances Brandon’s second husband), <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_354">354</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">death, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sudeley Castle, in olden times, <a href="#Page_141">141&ndash;2</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Jane Grey’s room at, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sudeley, Thomas Seymour, Lord, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">at Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s death, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">becomes Lord High-Admiral, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his intrigues to obtain possession of Lady Jane Grey, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his London residence, <a href="#Page_116">116</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">obtains wardship of Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his appearance, morals, and early intrigues, <a href="#Page_120">120&ndash;1</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">endeavours to marry a Princess, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his courtship of Katherine Parr, <a href="#Page_121">121&ndash;2</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">marriage with her, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">gets Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> to countenance this marriage, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the marriage made public, <a href="#Page_123">123&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">indignation of the Somersets thereat, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">created Baron Sudeley, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his improper behaviour with Princess Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_136">136</a> et seq.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">rumours about the same, <a href="#Page_140">140</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">intrigues against the Protector, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">is arrested but released, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">conduct during Katherine Parr’s illness, <a href="#Page_144">144&ndash;5</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">effect of her death, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">writes to Dorset relinquishing Jane, <a href="#Page_147">147&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">intrigues to again obtain possession of Lady Jane, on payment of money, and interviews Dorset, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">negotiations concluded, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">pays for Jane and takes her back to Hanworth with him, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">again plots to marry a Princess, <a href="#Page_157">157&ndash;9</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">tries to obtain the Protectorship, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">arrested, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">evidence against him, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">condemned to death, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_372">372</a></span></li>
-<li class="isub1">beheaded, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">sermon on, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">fate of his child, <a href="#Page_166">166&ndash;7</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Suffolk, Katherine, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357&ndash;8</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">portrait of, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Suffolk, Duke of. (<i>See</i> <a href="#Dorset">Dorset, Marquess of</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Suffolk, Duchess of. (<i>See</i> <a href="#Frances_Brandon">Frances Brandon, Marchioness of</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Surrey, Earl of Surrey (the “Poet-Earl”), <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his many talents, <a href="#Page_75">75&ndash;6</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">appearance, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">riotous life, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">brought before the Privy Council, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> and f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">committed to prison, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">quarrels with Edward Seymour (then Lord Hertford), <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">makes impolitic remarks, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">again summoned before Privy Council, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his trial, <a href="#Page_90">90&ndash;1</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">execution, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">dispersal of his effects, <a href="#Page_93">93&ndash;4</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his children, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">his place of burial, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Surrey, Countess of, <a href="#Page_78">78</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">second marriage and death, <a href="#Page_98">98&ndash;9</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Table of the heirs female to the Crown, named in the “Devise,” <a href="#Page_239">239</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Throckmorton brothers, the, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">save Mary’s life, <a href="#Page_249">249&ndash;50</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Throckmorton, Lady, <a href="#Page_287">287&ndash;8</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tower of London, the, Queen Jane’s entry into, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Queen Jane proclaimed in, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">ammunition brought into, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">part of it in which Queen Jane was lodged, <a href="#Page_281">281&ndash;2</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">place of her imprisonment in, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">seizure of, made a count against Queen Jane, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298&ndash;9</a> f.n.;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Mary’s entry into as Queen, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">the Bulwark Gate, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tylney, Mrs. Elizabeth, Lady Jane’s attendant, <a href="#Page_291">291</a> and f.n.; <a href="#Page_235">235</a>; <a href="#Page_340">340</a>; <a href="#Page_341">341</a>; <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tyrwhitt, Lady, <a href="#Page_35">35</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">her account of Katherine Parr’s last illness, <a href="#Page_144">144&ndash;5</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Udall, Nicholas, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Underhill, Edward, his child, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Warwick, John Dudley, Earl of. (<i>See</i> <a href="#Northumberland">Northumberland, Duke of</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Warwick, John, Earl of, (the Duke of Northumberland’s son), <a href="#Page_209">209</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a> f.n., <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">trial, <a href="#Page_302">302&ndash;3</a>; <a href="#Page_356">356</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wendy, Dr., <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a> and f.n., <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">White, Thomas, Lord Mayor of London, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Winchester, William Paulet, Marquess of, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">created, <a href="#Page_212">212</a> f.n.; <a href="#Page_214">214</a>; <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">brings Jane the Regalia, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a> and f.n.; <a href="#Page_282">282</a>; <a href="#Page_283">283</a>; <a href="#Page_284">284</a>; <a href="#Page_292">292</a> and f.n.; <a href="#Page_293">293</a>; <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Windsor Martyrs,” the, <a href="#Page_40">40</a> and f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wriothesley, Lord Chancellor, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">tries to ruin Katherine Parr, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">Henry’s anger against him, <a href="#Page_68">68&ndash;9</a>; <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; <a href="#Page_88">88</a>; <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">created Earl of Southampton, <a href="#Page_129">129</a> and f.n.; <a href="#Page_160">160</a>; <a href="#Page_203">203</a>; <a href="#Page_313">313</a> f.n.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wyatt rebellion, the, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</li>
-<li class="isub1">capture of Wyatt, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li>
-</ul>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="p2 center smaller"><i>Printed by</i> <span class="smcap">Morrison &amp; Gibb Limited</span>, <i>Edinburgh</i></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<div class="footnotes">
-<h2 class="nobreak p1"><a id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES</h2>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> This will be seen conspicuously in my new volume of Spanish State Papers
-of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, now in the press to be issued next year by the Record Office.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> Antonio de Guaras, a Spanish merchant. This was just before Somerset’s
-final downfall. See Spanish Chronicle of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> “The oak trees there [Bradgate] were pollarded after her [Jane’s]
-execution. Some old members of the family remember a watch with a
-case made of a hollowed ruby or carbuncle, which is said to have belonged
-to Lady Jane. But this, with other relics of Lady Jane, seems to have
-disappeared mysteriously some fifty or so years ago.”&mdash;Extract from a letter
-from Earl Stamford and Warrington, dated 20th November 1907.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> The barony of Ferrers was merged in the Townshend peerage by the
-marriage, in 1751, of George, Viscount Townshend, with Charlotte, last
-Baroness Ferrers.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> The Priory of Tylsey was dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> Miss Strickland and other writers on the Grey family state that Margaret,
-Marchioness of Dorset, outlived the ruin of her family. This is an
-error. She died in September 1541, apparently of the plague. See State
-Papers, 1156 and 1489, Domestic Series, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn1"><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> This lady is occasionally confounded with Queen Anne Boleyn, who was
-never <em>Lady</em> Anne Boleyn. The lady in question, who has proved somewhat
-of a stumbling-block to historians, who have frequently confused her with
-the Queen, was Anne, daughter of the Earl of Pembroke and wife of Sir
-William Boleyn.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="fnanchor">10</a> Lady Jane was certainly christened at Bradgate and not at Groby,
-which confirms the statement that she was born at Bradgate; for if she had
-been born at Groby, her baptism would have taken place in the parish church
-of that village.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> There has been some controversy over the date of Queen Jane Seymour’s
-death. Bishop Burnet (p. 33, vol. ii.) says it was the day after Prince
-Edward’s birth, <i>i.e.</i> 14th October; which date is adopted by Hall (p. 825),
-Stow (p. 575), Speed (p. 1039), Herbert (p. 492), and Holinshed (p. 944).
-On the other hand, Henninges (<cite>Theatrum Genealogicum</cite>, tome 4, p. 105) says
-it was the 15th; a letter of the doctors (in Cottonian MSS, Nero C. x. fol. 2),
-the 17th; Fabian, 23rd October; King Edward’s own <cite>Journal</cite>, “Within a
-few days after the birth of her son, died ...;” and George Lilly (<cite>Chronicle</cite>),
-twelve days after&mdash;<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Duodecimo post die moritur</i>. However, Cecil’s <cite>Journal</cite>,
-a document in the Herald’s Office, and a letter among the State Papers
-dated Wednesday, 24th October, give the 24th October as the date of the
-Queen’s death. This is in agreement with the statement in the <cite>London
-Chronicle during the Reigne of Henry VII and Henry VIII</cite> (Camden Soc.,
-from Cottonian MSS, Vespasian A. xxv. fol. 38&ndash;46), which clearly says that
-“On Saynt Edwardes eve Fryday in the mornyng (12th October), was prince
-Edward boorn, the trew son of K.H. the viii. and quene Jane his mothur in
-Hamton Corte. His godffathurs was the deuke of Norfock, and the deuke of
-Suffocke, and the (Arch) Bisschop of Caunterbery; and his godmother was
-his owne sister, which was dooughter of quene Kataryn a fore sayd. On
-Saynte Crispyns eve Wensday (24th October), dyid quene Jane in childbed,
-and is beryid in the castelle of Wynsor.” She was not, however, buried
-until 12th November. Dorset followed the procession from Hampton Court
-to Windsor, riding close to the Princess Mary, who was her stepmother’s
-chief mourner.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> Jane Grey was evidently given the name of Jane in compliment to
-Queen Jane Seymour, who must have been still living at the time of the
-child’s birth. The name Jane, a variant of Johanna and Joan, is exceedingly
-rare in pre-Reformation times. The lady who very likely acted as godmother
-was her paternal aunt, Lady Cicely Grey.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> This method of baptizing infants is still practised in the Archdiocese of
-Milan.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> These ceremonies, which are extremely ancient and essentially Roman
-Catholic, are even now carried out in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> The prefix <em>the</em> before the title Lady was considered in the sixteenth
-century equivalent to “Princess”; “the Lady Elizabeth,” “the Lady Mary,”
-and so forth. “Royal Highness” was not in use, and royal ladies were
-addressed as “Your Grace.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> An old cookery book of the sixteenth century in the possession of the
-author contains the following “crafte to make Ypocras”: “Take a quarter
-of red wyne, an unce of synamon, and half an unce of gynger: a quarter of
-an unce of greynes and of longe pepper, wythe half a pound of sugar: broie
-all these not too smalle, and then putte them in a bagg of wullen clothe (made
-therefore) with the wyne, and lette it hange over a vessel tylle the wyne be
-runne thorow. It is presumed that the wyne should be poured in boiling
-hot, else it would gain little of the spicy flavour.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> Dorset, when he became Duke of Suffolk, incurred the censure of the
-Reformers under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> for his sinful encouragement of players and
-other like “vagabonds.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> In Lent and Advent, and during Passion and Rogation weeks, meat was
-only served once a week.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> Sir Thomas Carden’s account for sums disbursed for the household
-expenses of Anne of Cleves in 1552 gives us a curious insight into the manner
-and expense of lighting a gentlewoman’s house in the middle of the sixteenth
-century. Anne was residing at a manor at Dartford, and Sir Thomas supplied
-her with “35 lb. of wax lights, sixes and fours to the lb. at 1s. per lb.;
-100 prickets [or candles to be stuck on an iron spike] at 6d. per lb.; staff
-torches 1s. 4d. per doz., and of white lights, 18 doz. at 9s. per doz.”&mdash;Losely
-MSS, edited by A.&nbsp;J. Kempe.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> This detestable game is still a favourite in parts of Cuba, but generally
-with a goose substituted for the duck. The writer saw it “played” there in
-1879.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> The fact that this house was the Dorsets’ usual town residence is proved
-by the Marquess’s distinctly stating that Seymour, when he fetched away
-Jane Grey, came to him “immediately” after Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s death “at my
-house in Westminster.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> Coaches, properly so called, were introduced into England in 1601.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> “The gentlewomen in cloak and <em>safeguards</em>.”&mdash;Stage directions to the
-<cite>Merry Devil of Edmonton</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> Strype’s <cite>Memorials</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> Queen Katherine Parr was buried in the chapel at Sudeley Castle,
-which fell into ruins late in the seventeenth century. The monument having
-become much dilapidated, the then Vicar of Sudeley (1786) had the curiosity
-to open it and examine the condition of the body, which was found to be in a
-perfect state of preservation. The corpse measured 5 ft. 3 in.; the coffin,
-5 ft. 10 in., the width being 1 ft. 4 in. in the broadest part, and the depth
-1 ft. 5½ in. The Queen must therefore have had a very slight figure. The
-body was fully dressed in a Court costume of the period of cloth of gold and
-velvet; there were untanned leather shoes upon the feet. The profusion of
-light golden hair was quite remarkable. Of course several locks of it were
-snipped off and preserved as relics, one of them being still exhibited at Sudeley.
-Another lock of Katherine Parr’s hair was in the possession of Lord Bennet,
-who showed it to the author. It was very bright in colour and exceedingly
-curly. In 1805 the remains of Katherine Parr were again disturbed, and it
-was then discovered that an ivy berry had fallen into a fissure of the skull,
-taken root, and twined round the head a verdant coronet. For the last time
-the remains were touched in 1842, when they were removed with reverential
-care by Messrs. William and John Dent, who had become possessors of Sudeley
-Castle, and placed in a handsome monument, having above it a noble figure
-of the Queen, which is still one of the chief ornaments of the exquisitely
-restored chapel of the ancient castle&mdash;a veritable treasure-house of Tudor
-relics&mdash;now so pleasantly associated with the Dent family. For these notes
-on the remains of Katherine Parr the writer is personally indebted to the
-late Miss Elizabeth Strickland, who so long survived her sister Agnes, and
-to an interesting pamphlet on Sudeley Castle by Dr. Richard Garnett.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> The MS. of this poem is contained in a little volume bound in black
-morocco. Though evidently contemporary, some doubts have been expressed
-as to its authenticity, but a marked allusion to the writer’s position
-as a Consort of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> is supposed to be a sufficient guarantee as to the
-identity of the royal poetess, not to speak of the evidence of her handwriting.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> He is the gentleman with the beautiful saint-like head and angelic
-expression in the splendid series of drawings by Holbein at Windsor.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> This Mr. “Nudygate” or Newdigate’s son became in due time secretary
-to Anne Stanhope, Duchess of Somerset, and her second husband.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="fnanchor">29</a> British Museum, Vespasian, F. xiii. 183, f. 131.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> Lady Denny was the daughter of Sir Philip Champernoun of Modbury,
-Devonshire, and wife of Sir Andrew Denny, Privy Councillor and Groom of
-the Stole to Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. Her husband predeceased her on 10th September
-1549, and she herself died on 15th May 1553.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> Lady Fitzwilliam was the daughter of Sir W. Sidney and wife of Sir
-William Fitzwilliam of Milton, Northamptonshire, Master of the King’s
-Bench. Sir H. Gough Nichols, however, thinks she was more probably the
-widow of that Sir William’s grandfather, Sir William Fitzwilliam of Milton
-and Alderman of London, who died in 1534. In this case she would have
-been the daughter of Sir John Ormonde and granddaughter of Anne Cooke,
-the learned daughter of Sir A. Cooke by his first wife, Anne Fitzwilliam.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> Lady Tyrritt or Tyrwhitt was not, as Miss Strickland says, the daughter
-of Katherine Parr’s first husband, but through her husband, Lord Robert
-Tyrwhitt of Leighton House, the cousin seven times removed of that gentleman.
-She was the daughter of Sir Gerald Oxenburgh of Sussex.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="fnanchor">33</a> This Countess of Sussex was Anne, daughter of Sir Philip Calthorpe and
-second wife of Henry, Earl of Sussex. She was sent to the Tower in April
-1552 on a charge of witchcraft, and for having said that a son of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">IV</span>
-was yet living. Lodged in the Lieutenant’s apartments, she was liberated
-by order of the Duke of Northumberland in the following September, after
-six months’ imprisonment. In all probability the offence of which this
-lady was accused was merely that of having predicted the young King
-Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s early death.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="fnanchor">34</a> There were some very curious rumours circulating in London concerning
-the divorce of Anne of Cleves. Cranmer granted the divorce on the plea
-that the Queen was still <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">virgo intacta</i>; but “two honest citizens” (letter
-from Chapuys to Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>) “were arrested on 9th December 1541 on a plea
-that they published particulars of Queen Katherine Howard’s inchastity,
-and said ‘the whole thing was a judgment of God,’ and that the lady of
-Cleves was the King’s real wife; and that she was in the family way by the
-King, notwithstanding rumours to the contrary. That it was not true the
-King had not behaved to her like a husband; and that she was gone away
-from London and had had a son in the country last summer.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> Robert Testwood was a chorister belonging, with Marbeck, to the
-Chapel Royal, Windsor. Parsons was a priest, and Henry Filmer was a
-tailor. Marbeck, who is said to have had a very fine voice, was a fairly well-educated
-man, who at the time of his arrest had made some progress with a
-translation of Calvin’s works. Testwood was a well-known ribald jester who
-had frequently turned the anthem into ridicule, and on more than one
-occasion had been caught singing lewd words while the rest of the congregation
-were chanting the right ones. He was arrested for smashing the nose of
-a statue of the Virgin; Parsons was condemned for blasphemy; and Filmer
-for speaking ill of the Host. He had said that if Transubstantiation were
-true, he had eaten “twenty Gods” in his time.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> The Royal Household was considerably reduced by Somerset in the
-first year of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, but in Elizabeth’s day it was again augmented in
-every department, and was the most terrible and disastrous legacy the great
-Queen bequeathed to her Stuart successor. The only other example of such
-an extraordinary plethora of Court officials and retainers is to be found at
-the Court of France under Louis <span class="smcap smaller">XIV</span> and Louis <span class="smcap smaller">XV</span>’s unhappy successor, and
-they were a great factor in bringing about the Revolution.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="fnanchor">37</a> Harl. 1419. The above account of Henry’s palaces and their contents
-is taken from this important MSS: the Household Expenses, State Papers,
-Royal Society’s Papers, <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">temp.</i> Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, and from the very curious Trevelyan
-Papers, Camden Society; also from that admirable work, <cite>The History of
-Hampton Court Palace</cite>, by Ernest Law, M.A.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="fnanchor">38</a> These tapestries were duplicates of those still preserved in the Vatican,
-the cartoons for which are at the South Kensington Museum. They remained
-in Whitehall till the death of Charles <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>, when they were sold to Don
-Alfonso de Cardenas, and passed at his decease to the house of Alva, which
-in turn sold them to Mr. Peter Tupper, who brought them to England in
-1823; in his house they remained until they were resold to Mr. William
-Trall. In 1863 they were exhibited at the Crystal Palace, and came very
-near destruction in the fire which devastated the Tropical Department.
-Their subsequent fate is unknown, but as recently as 1889 the writer saw
-two of the series in a shop in Wardour Street. In 1890 a series of finely
-painted cartoons, evidently by Raphael and his pupils, representing scenes
-from the Acts of the Apostles, identical with these, came from Russia, and
-were exhibited by the late Mr. Martin Colnaghi and afterwards sold to an
-American financier.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="fnanchor">39</a> The Palace of Nonesuch stood near the site of the old manor house and
-the village church of Chuddington, near Cheam, in Surrey. Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> obtained
-possession of the manor as a hunting-seat in 1526 by exchange, and
-erected a magnificent structure of freestone, having a central gate-house and
-being flanked by lofty towers crowned with cupolas in the form of inverted
-balloons, which gave the building a decided Oriental appearance. The
-writers of the sixteenth century are profuse in their laudations of this royal
-residence, and speak in the most glowing terms of its beautifully furnished
-apartments, which contained works of art worthy of ancient Greece or of
-Rome, and of its lovely gardens, its orchards stocked with the choicest of
-fruit trees, and its extensive park laid out in avenues ornamented by artificial
-fountains. Its luxuriousness and beauty soon acquired for the new palace
-the proud appellation of “Nonesuch.” Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> never quite completed
-it, but in Mary’s reign it passed to the Earl of Arundel, who carried out the
-original intentions of its founders. Queen Elizabeth frequently resided at
-Nonesuch, but whether as guest or tenant is uncertain. Charles <span class="smcap smaller">II</span> presented
-it to the Duchess of Cleveland, who completely demolished the palace and
-disparked the lands.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> Possibly the “Virgin of the Rocks,” now in the National Gallery.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="fnanchor">41</a> At the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="fnanchor">42</a> Lately in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk, and now belonging to
-the nation.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="fnanchor">43</a> Windsor Castle.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="fnanchor">44</a> There were several of these allegorical “tables,” one or two of which
-survive to this day in ancient contemporary engravings.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="fnanchor">45</a> Among the astronomers was the learned Nicholas Crager. William
-Parr was also a student of astronomy. The State Papers contain some
-mention of astronomical instruments purchased for him. Needless to say,
-this “astronomy” was really only astrology under another name.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> Will Somer, or Somers, Court Jester to Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, and apparently continued
-in that office by Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, was originally in the service of Richard
-Farmer, Esq., of Easton Newton, Northampton. This gentleman was, in
-consequence of his having sent two groats and some articles of clothing
-to a priest convicted of denying the King’s supremacy, found guilty of a
-<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">præmunire</i> and deprived of his estates. The distress to which his former
-master was thereby reduced attracted the attention of Will Somers, who
-during the King’s last illness availed himself of his privileged position to let
-fall certain remarks concerning him, which so worked upon the King’s mind
-that Henry was induced to restore to Mr. Farmer what remained of his estates.
-Will Somers was an excellent musician and had a very fine voice.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="fnanchor">47</a> This sort of slavish homage excited the sarcasm of the Ambassadors.
-Soranzo, the Venetian Envoy, tells us he once saw Princess Elizabeth kneel five
-times before venturing to address her brother Edward.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="fnanchor">48</a> The household inventories of the Queen’s rooms contain mention of
-innumerable pillows and cushions richly covered with silk and satin, and also
-of costly counterpanes. This Oriental custom of using soft pillows may have
-been introduced into England by Katherine of Aragon. In England as in
-Spain the Sovereign only was allowed a chair.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="fnanchor">49</a> Political influence of this period no doubt seconded the good offices of
-Queen Katherine in favour of Princess Mary. Her cousin the Emperor was
-no longer an enemy, but an ally.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="fnanchor">50</a> This is the beautiful letter beginning <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">La nemica fortuna</i>, which, although
-written by an English princess, is, in its way, a very masterpiece of Italian
-epistolary literature. It may have been written under the auspices of the
-famous Baltazar Castiglione, who taught Elizabeth the Italian language.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="fnanchor">51</a> After her accession Queen Mary ordered this work to be recalled.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="fnanchor">52</a> State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, 1544&ndash;5. Lord Parr of Horton
-died in 1545.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="fnanchor">53</a> Some very interesting particulars unknown to English historians of the
-siege of Boulogne and of the sojourn of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, Suffolk, Surrey, and
-their merry men in Picardy, will be found in <cite>Les Archives de la Ville de
-Boulogne</cite>; <cite>Histoire de la Ville de Montreuil-sur-Mer</cite>, by F. Leplon; <cite>Memoires
-de Martin de Bellamy</cite> (Michaud, Paris, 1838); <cite>Inventaire de l’Histoire de
-France</cite>, by Le Comte Jean de Serre; in a very curious little volume
-entitled <cite>Le Château d’Hardelot</cite>; also in <cite>Notre Dame de Boulogne</cite>, by l’Abbé
-Haignere, published by Hamain, Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1898; and in the <cite>Spanish
-Chronicle of the Reign of Henry VIII</cite>, translated by Major Martin Hume.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="fnanchor">54</a> Full particulars of the reasons for and the progress of this disagreement
-will be found in vol. viii. of the <cite>Spanish State Papers of Henry VIII</cite>, vols. vii.
-and viii., edited by Major Martin Hume.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="fnanchor">55</a> See for evidence of this fact a curious document included in the Notes
-to the <cite>Journal</cite> of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, who himself informs us that his father drove
-away anybody who appeared before him in mourning.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="fnanchor">56</a> Speed.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="fnanchor">57</a> See Privy Council Papers, 1546.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> Anne Askew’s “Narrative.” It is but fair to the reputation of both Rich
-and Wriothesley to state that Anne herself admits that she sat talking with
-both for two hours immediately after the torture, which she could not possibly
-have done if it had been very severe.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="fnanchor">59</a> The text of the full confession of Mrs. Askew will be found among the
-State Papers for 1545, Nos. 390, 391.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="fnanchor">60</a> This scene must have taken place, not at Windsor, as stated by Foxe,
-for Henry never was there after the early spring of 1546, but at Hampton
-Court. The allusion to his striking Gardiner’s name out of his will must
-refer to some of the many wills he made before his last (in December of the
-same year). In this Gardiner’s name was not struck out, but simply omitted.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="fnanchor">61</a> Dr. Thirlby’s name was not omitted in the last will, but he was absent
-abroad at the time of the King’s death.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="fnanchor">62</a> See <a href="#note72">Note</a> at the end of this Chapter.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="fnanchor">63</a> This curious fact, that the unorthodox if not heretical King actually
-communicated at the same time as the orthodox Ambassador, is one of the
-most significant incidents in the story of this singular period of religious
-disquiet.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="fnanchor">64</a> Among the members of the house of Howard who were prisoners in the
-Tower at this time were Agnes, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, the Lord
-William Howard and his wife and sister, the Countess of Bridgewater, and
-Lord Thomas Howard, Surrey’s younger brother, who was imprisoned for
-marrying Henry’s niece, the Lady Margaret Douglas, without the royal
-consent.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="fnanchor">65</a> For an account of these processions see Machyn’s Diary (<cite>The Diary
-of Henry Machyn</cite>, edited by John Gough Nicholas, F.S.A., Camden Society,
-pp. 63, 107, etc. Also note, p. 399).</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> The Lord Mayor, who was at the arraignment of Queen Anne Boleyn,
-afterwards said that he “could not observe anything in the proceedings
-against her, but that they were resolved to make an occasion to get rid of her”&mdash;thus
-corroborating the opinions of Sir Thomas Wyatt and other witnesses.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="fnanchor">67</a> When quite a lad, the Duke married the Princess Anne Plantagenet,
-youngest daughter of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">IV</span> and sister to Queen Elizabeth of York.
-By this royal alliance he became uncle-by-marriage to Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>. Anne,
-Duchess of Norfolk, died of consumption in 1512, and shortly afterwards her
-widower married again.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> This lady was the second daughter of the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham,
-who was executed on a public charge of combined sorcery and treason, in
-the first years of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s reign.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="fnanchor">69</a> Elizabeth Holland was the daughter of John Holland of Redenhall,
-Norfolk, chief steward and afterwards secretary to the Duke of Norfolk. Her
-mother was a Hussey, niece of Lord Hussey of Sleaford, beheaded for the part
-he took in the Pilgrimage of Grace.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="fnanchor">70</a> Sir John Seymour, father of Queen Jane, was a man of note in his day.
-He was born in 1474, and was a doughty soldier, fighting well at the sieges
-of Terouenne and Tournay, and at the Battle of the Spurs. On his return to
-England he was appointed Sheriff of Wells, Dorset, and Somersetshire. In
-1515 he obtained the Constableship of Bristol Castle. His wife, Margery
-Wentworth, was the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead,
-Suffolk, whose grandfather married a granddaughter of Hotspur (Henry
-Percy), and was thus descended from Edward <span class="smcap smaller">III</span>. Sir John Seymour died in
-1517.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="fnanchor">71</a> Realising the suddenness of their rise to power, Hayward says of the
-Seymour brothers (<cite>Life of Edward VI</cite>, p. 82) that “their <em>new</em> lustre did dim the
-light of men honoured with ancient nobility.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="fnanchor">72</a> Little is known of William Pickering except that he was a boon companion
-of Lord Surrey. See <cite>Courtships of Queen Elizabeth</cite> by Martin
-Hume.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> Holbein’s fine sketch of Lady Surrey shows her to have been distinctly
-“homely” but extremely intelligent-looking.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> An examination of the Privy Papers shows that Surrey was originally
-brought before the Council on a charge of eating flesh on days of abstinence&mdash;a
-grave offence, and one against the law, but at that period of frequent
-occurrence, since no less than nine joiners had been a few days previously
-arrested and severely reprimanded, and even heavily fined, for the offence
-of eating meat in public on Friday. Surrey pleaded guilty, but in extenuation
-declared he had received an ecclesiastical dispensation. With regard to the
-second charge, of riotous conduct, he declared himself deserving of punishment,
-but threw himself on the mercy of the Court, alleging, in extenuation of
-his misdemeanour, his youth and hot-blooded disposition. He is said to have
-written an abject apology; but, though the letter is extant, it is not in his
-handwriting, and may therefore be a forgery. The occurrence took place
-on the night of 21st January 1544.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="fnanchor">75</a> M. Edmond Bapst, <cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Vie de Deux Gentilhommes Poètes du Temps de
-Henri VIII</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> Surrey, in his metrical “Satire,” makes use of the same whimsical excuse
-for shooting with a bow through citizens’ windows. Says he:&mdash;
-</p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“This made me with a reckless brest,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To wake thy sluggards with my bow;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A figure of the Lord’s behest,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whose scourge for synne the Scriptures shew.”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="fnanchor">77</a> This ball was, it appears, given for the purpose of conciliating the Seymours
-and at Surrey’s express request. It must have been a picturesque
-function, with its rich costumes, its splendid but rather roughly expressed
-profusion and hearty welcome. Just such a ball as this old Capulet gave on
-that ever-memorable night when Juliet first met her Romeo. Was it to dance
-the <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Volta</i> or the <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Salta</i> with him that Surrey invited the angry Countess?
-These, the two most fashionable dances of the period, had been but recently
-introduced from France and Italy. The latter resembled, and very closely
-too, our modern waltz, only in the <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Salta</i> the gentleman lifts the lady from
-time to time an inch or so from the ground, as in the German hop waltz.
-</p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Yet there is one, the most delightful kind,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A lofty jumping, or a leaping round,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When arm in arm, two dancers are entwin’d,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And which themselves, in strict embracements bound<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And still their feet, an anapest do sound;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">An anapest is all their music’s song<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whose first two feet are short, the rest are long.”<br /></span>
-</div>
-
-<div class="attrib"><cite>Sir John Davies’ Orchestra.</cite></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>
-See also for an account of the <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Volta</i>, the <cite>Orlando Furioso</cite> of Boiardo,
-book xv. stanza 43. These two dances, the <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Volta</i> and the <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Salta</i>, were introduced
-into Scotland by Madeleine de Valois, the first wife of James <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>,
-and gave terrible offence to the “unco’ guid” folk of “Auld Reekie.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="fnanchor">78</a> See State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, 1542&ndash;3; also Miss
-Strickland’s excellent biography of Katherine Howard in the <cite>Lives of the
-Queens of England</cite>, and the <cite>Wives of Henry VIII</cite>, by Martin Hume.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="fnanchor">79</a> The Duke’s second son.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> Herbert’s <cite>Henry VIII</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="fnanchor">81</a> These are the volumes he desired to have delivered to him whilst imprisoned
-in the Tower.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="fnanchor">82</a> He must have left Norfolk in a great hurry, for he had to borrow a sum
-of money from Sir William Stonor, Lieutenant of the Tower, to buy a dark suit
-of clothes in which to appear before the Council. The documents connected
-with this transaction are still preserved in the British Museum, Additional MSS
-24459, fol. 1497.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="fnanchor">83</a> <cite>Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII</cite>, translated by Major Martin Hume,
-and the <cite>Calendar of Spanish State Papers</cite>, vol. viii., by the same Editor.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="fnanchor">84</a> These “night-gowns” were most probably what we should now call
-“evening dresses” or “dress suits.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="fnanchor">85</a> This lady was a rather interesting personage, being the first British
-peeress who was ever reduced to earning her living by her needle. She was
-the widow of that Earl of Oxford who was killed during the Wars of the
-Roses and whose estates were so carefully confiscated that his widow was
-left penniless.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="fnanchor">86</a> A list of the names of persons in the Earl’s retinue is extremely curious.
-In the first place, we find that one John Holland was private secretary. He was
-the father of George Holland, who in his turn was the father of the husband of
-that Mrs. Holland who figured in the Surrey trial. Then we have Mr. William
-Sappeworth, Mr. Widdow, Mr. Hairbottle, and Mrs. Ingliss. We learn that
-the company was often regaled with boiled neck of mutton; and a very
-favourite dish appears to have been boiled capon with sauce and a roast
-breast of veal basted. Occasionally they indulged in rabbit pie, and there was
-a bountiful supply of tarts, custards, and sweetmeats.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="fnanchor">87</a> Hunsdon, in Worcestershire, was one of the numerous seats of the Duke
-of Norfolk, which he lent on rental to Princess Mary, who first came there in
-1536, having in her company Mistress Elizabeth Fitzgerald or Garret. The
-house, according to William Worcester, was built in Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s reign by Sir
-William Oldhall at an expense of 7000 marks. It had four towers and was
-mainly built of brick.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="fnanchor">88</a> Lady Kildare’s frequent petitions to King Henry for money generally
-contain some mention of her being his kinswoman and “of his most Royal
-blood.” See Cottonian MSS, Titus B. xi. 342. It will be remembered that
-Lady Elizabeth Grey attended the christening of the Lady Frances at Hatfield
-Church as a sponsor.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="fnanchor">89</a> It has frequently been stated that the Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald&mdash;or
-Garret, as she was generally called&mdash;was educated with Princess Mary, but
-this is obviously incorrect, since she was born when her future royal mistress
-was fully fourteen years of age. But she was certainly in Mary’s service, and
-not in that of her sister Elizabeth, as stated by Bapst.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="fnanchor">90</a> There is a fine portrait of her by Kettel at Woburn Abbey, and a copy
-at Carton.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="fnanchor">91</a> Princess Mary’s present to Mistress Elizabeth Garret on her marriage
-was “A gold broach with one bolace of the history of Susanne.” Another
-gift is mentioned in her list of jewels in the following entry: “A broach of
-gold enamelled black, with an agate of the story of Abraham&mdash;with iii small
-rock rubies&mdash;Given to Sir Anthony Brown, drawing her Grace as his valentine.”
-</p>
-<p>
-These gifts were presented to the bride and bridegroom on 10th December,
-in the thirty-third year of Henry’s reign. The youthful bride could not have
-been more than fifteen years of age, and Sir Anthony was not much under
-sixty.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="fnanchor">92</a> Hentzner also saw the bedchamber in which Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> died, but this
-was late in Elizabeth’s reign, when it was shown as one of the “lions” of the
-palace, a fact which tends to prove that the apartment was never again used
-by any other sovereign, but kept as a sort of show-place.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="fnanchor">93</a> In his youth Henry’s eyes had been considered fine. In the picture by
-Paris Bordone, belonging to the Merchant Taylors’ Company, they are a light
-grey and decidedly good in colour and shape.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="fnanchor">94</a> Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> was never officially proclaimed Prince of Wales&mdash;the document
-doing so was prepared, but was delayed by the death of his father.
-None the less, he is frequently so styled in the last years of Henry’s
-reign.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="fnanchor">95</a> Dr. Wendy became physician to Elizabeth. He died in 1560 at Haslingford
-Court, a manor given to him by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="fnanchor">96</a> Dr. Gale was living as late as 1586. He wrote a curious work entitled
-<cite>The Office of a Chirurgeon</cite>, which gives a dreadful picture of warfare in the
-sixteenth century. See for an account of this rare work, once possessed by
-the author, <cite>The Medical Biography</cite>, p. 65.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="fnanchor">97</a> Father Thiveter, a Franciscan, who obtained some curious facts concerning
-the death of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, presumably from Princess Mary, wrote an
-account of that event which has been occasionally reprinted.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="fnanchor">98</a> The Queen had sent him a picture of the King, his father, and of herself,
-in one frame. Edward was so delighted with the present that he said he
-preferred it to gold-embroidered robes and other things most priceless:
-“<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Quamobrem majores tibi gratias ego ob hanc strenam, quam si misisses ad me
-preciosas vestes, aut aurum celatum, aut quidvis aliud eximium.</i>”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn2"><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="fnanchor">99</a> “Thursday,” writes Aubrey, “was a fatal day to Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, and so
-also to his posterity. He died on Thursday, January 28; King Edward
-<span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> on Thursday, July 6; Queen Mary on Thursday, November 17; and
-Queen Elizabeth on Thursday, March 24.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="fnanchor">100</a> During the last year of Henry’s reign Edward had resided at Hatfield
-with his sister Elizabeth. Very early in December it was deemed advisable,
-owing to the precarious state of the King’s health, to remove the young
-Prince from Hatfield, first to Tittenhanger House, in Hertfordshire, and then
-to Hertford itself. His various removals can be traced from the dates of his
-letters to his father, to the Queen, and to the Princesses his sisters. On
-5th December, for instance, he wrote a letter to Elizabeth from Tittenhanger
-lamenting his enforced absence from her. And later, on the 18th, he wrote
-another in the same strain; but on 10th January he addressed his sister
-Mary a Latin letter from Hertford, and on the same day the epistle already
-mentioned to Queen Katherine. Elizabeth, in the meantime, was relegated
-to Enfield Chase, where she remained until she joined Queen Katherine at
-Chelsea, after Henry’s death.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="fnanchor">101</a> King Francis <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>, notwithstanding Henry’s unorthodox opinions and his
-notorious revolt from Rome, ordered a Requiem to be said in the Cathedral
-of Notre Dame de Paris for the repose of the soul of his well-beloved brother,
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, King of England, at which service he assisted; he also left in
-his will a sum of money to be devoted to Masses to be said in perpetuity for
-the same pious purpose. A Mass is still offered every year in the Metropolitan
-Church of Paris for the repose of the soul of our “Bluff King Hal,” the custom
-having survived even the Reign of Terror.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="fnanchor">102</a> These noble ladies were not present in any official capacity, but simply
-“to pray for the soul of the departed King.” It was not the custom for
-women to attend the funeral of a male, except as an act of devotion. They
-wore on these occasions black cloth gowns and black cloaks and hoods or silk
-scarfs. This costume was general at funerals, and especially in the country,
-until the end of the first half of the last century.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="fnanchor">103</a> Her separate establishment was formed early in March, and she then
-took up her residence at Chelsea; but she may well have hovered between
-Whitehall and the Manor House for some weeks after the King’s death,
-whilst her future residence was being put in readiness for her.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="fnanchor">104</a> The King’s will was dated 26th December 1546, and revoked all other
-previous wills that he might have made. The original was not in Henry’s
-own hand, but written in a book of stout paper, and was, it is said, signed by
-His Majesty’s stamp as well as his autograph. It should be remembered that
-because the act of attainder against the Duke of Norfolk had merely a stamp
-affixed to it by Paget, the said attainder was in 1553 treated as null and void,
-and the Duke, after his liberation, at once resumed his seat in the House of
-Lords.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="fnanchor">105</a> This significant allusion to “any other wives he might have” inclines
-one to think that had His Majesty lived to seventy or eighty, he may have
-contemplated having twelve instead of six wives!</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="fnanchor">106</a> King Henry’s will is said to have been inspired not only by the Earl of
-Hertford and his party, but by the Queen, Katherine Parr. This, however,
-is scarcely probable, since if she had had a hand in the matter she would
-assuredly have caused a paragraph to have been inserted appointing her
-Regent during the minority of her stepson. Marillac, the French Ambassador,
-informs us in his “Notes” that when Katherine discovered that she
-was not so nominated she gave way to a great outburst of indignation and
-temper.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="fnanchor">107</a> See the Losely MSS, edited by A.&nbsp;J. Kempe. John Murray, 1835.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108" class="fnanchor">108</a> His position as Protector was not officially ratified until 22nd March.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109" class="fnanchor">109</a> As a matter of fact, the royal corpse was, owing to its weight, not enclosed
-in a lead shell until it reached Windsor, so that the chronicler has made
-a mistake; but the fact that it was in a mere wooden case lends support to
-the above horrible story. Strype, it is true, declares in his <cite>Memorials</cite>, which
-include a very minute account of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s funeral, that the <em>body</em> was
-enclosed in lead before it was placed in the coffin, thus unintentionally
-supporting the story of the leakage of blood; but the plumbers’ bill for the
-soldering of the leaden coffin of King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> at Windsor is still extant
-among the Royal Household receipts and expenses.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110" class="fnanchor">110</a> After the execution of Thomas Seymour, this fine mansion was purchased
-for £41, 6s. 8d. by Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, whose only son, Lord
-Maltravers, was a paragon of learning and accomplishments. He predeceased
-his father by nearly twenty years. On the death of the Earl of
-Arundel the property passed to his daughter, Mary, Duchess of Norfolk, and
-through her the ground-rents are still payable to the premier Duchy of
-England. The unfortunate Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, who was
-attainted for his religious opinions in the reign of Elizabeth, and who died in
-exile, lived here for some time. In the eighteenth century the famous
-Arundel marbles, now at Cambridge, were to be seen at Arundel House,
-which was finally pulled down and a number of rather mean streets built on
-its site. Quite recently the property has been immensely improved, and in
-fairly artistic taste. One or two very fine hotels&mdash;the Howard and the Arundel,
-for instance&mdash;have been erected on the site of the old palace. The Colonial
-and American guests at these excellent establishments will perhaps be
-interested to know that that favourite heroine of history, Lady Jane Grey,
-dwelt hereabouts.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111" class="fnanchor">111</a> State Papers, 1537, under Seymour.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112" class="fnanchor">112</a> It is possible that Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> intended, when he married Jane Seymour,
-not to allow his mother-in-law to interfere in his concerns. Some such thing
-happened with regard to Lady Wiltshire, Anne Boleyn’s mother, who is very
-little heard of after her daughter’s marriage.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_113" href="#FNanchor_113" class="fnanchor">113</a> Lord Hertford clandestinely married Lady Jane Grey’s second sister,
-Lady Katherine, and was imprisoned for many years in the Tower by Elizabeth’s
-order “for venturing to marry an heiress to the throne.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_114" href="#FNanchor_114" class="fnanchor">114</a> When this proposal was eventually made to the boy-King, he was highly
-indignant, and remarks in his <cite>Journal</cite> that it “was his intention to choose for
-his Queen a foreign princess well stuffed and jewelled”&mdash;meaning that his
-bride should be endowed with a suitable dower and a regal wardrobe.
-</p>
-<p>
-Lady Jane Seymour died early in the reign of Elizabeth, one of whose
-maids-of-honour she was, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_115" href="#FNanchor_115" class="fnanchor">115</a> Hayward (<cite>Life of Edward VI</cite>) describes Sudeley as “fierce in courage,
-courtly in fashion, in personage stately, in voice magnificent, but somewhat
-empty in matter”(!).</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_116" href="#FNanchor_116" class="fnanchor">116</a> The Queen alludes here not, as generally supposed, to the Lady Frances
-Brandon, but to her stepmother, the witty Duchess Katherine, who uses this
-curious expression in one of her letters.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_117" href="#FNanchor_117" class="fnanchor">117</a> This belief received confirmation in a letter of “Kateryn the Quene”
-to the Lord Admiral in which she says, “When it shall be your pleasure to
-repair hither, ye must take some pains to come early in the morning, that
-ye may be gone again by seven o’clock; and so I suppose ye may come
-hither without suspect. I pray you let me have knowledge over-night at what
-hour ye will come, that your portress [<i>i.e.</i> herself] may wait at the gate of the
-fields for you.” This letter is signed, “By her that is and shall be, your
-humble, true, and loving <em>wife</em> during her life.” This was written from
-Chelsea Manor House after Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s death.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_118" href="#FNanchor_118" class="fnanchor">118</a> From one of Fowler’s letters to Sudeley we learn that “His Highness
-the King is not half a quarter of an hour by himself,” and that “in his secret
-leisure His Grace hath written his commendations to the Queen’s Grace and
-to your lordship [Sudeley].” Moreover, he says that the King intends to
-write letters “whenever he can do so, that is, when there is no supervision
-kept over his actions.” Enclosed in this letter from Fowler were two notes
-written in Edward’s childish hand on torn scraps of paper. The first is a
-request for money: “My Lord, send me <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">per</i> Latimer [another go-between]
-as much as ye think good, and deliver it to Fowler.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Edward.</span>” On the
-second is written: “My Lord, I thank you and pray you have me commended
-to the Queen.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_119" href="#FNanchor_119" class="fnanchor">119</a> Strype’s <cite>Memoirs</cite>, vol. ii. part i. p. 59.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_120" href="#FNanchor_120" class="fnanchor">120</a> See the State Papers.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_121" href="#FNanchor_121" class="fnanchor">121</a> This lady was a daughter of Humphrey Bouchier, Lord Berners, and
-wife of Sir Thomas Bryan or Brian. She was the “my lady maistress” of
-Princess Mary, whose Privy Purse Expenses contain several items to her
-credit&mdash;as in January 1537: “Item paid for a broach and a frontlet and
-the same given to my lady maistress, xxxviij.” Lady Bryan or Brian was
-for a time governess to Princess Elizabeth as well as to Prince Edward. She
-was created a Baroness in her own right, but does not appear from her correspondence
-and petitions to have had sufficient income to support the
-dignity of a peeress. This able lady died on 20th August 1551 at Leyton, in
-Essex. (See Strype’s Appendix to Stowe’s <cite>Survey of London</cite> for 1720, vol. ii.
-p. 114.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_122" href="#FNanchor_122" class="fnanchor">122</a> Mrs. Sybel or Sybilla Penn, dry nurse to Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, was not, as erroneously
-stated by Gough Nichols in his <cite>Literary Remains of Edward VI</cite>, the daughter
-of Sir Hugh Pagenham or the wife of John Penne, barber-surgeon to Henry
-VIII, but the daughter of William Hampton of Dodyngton, Buckinghamshire,
-and owed her appointment as dry nurse and foster-mother to the future
-King to the good offices of Sir William Sydney. She married Mr. David
-Penn, and continued at Court after the death of Edward, being very kindly
-treated by both Mary and Elizabeth. She had an apartment in Hampton
-Court Palace, and died there in 1562 of the smallpox, at the same time that
-Elizabeth herself was attacked by that dreadful malady. She is buried in
-Hampton Church, and is said to haunt the palace because her bones were
-disturbed when the position of her monument was altered many years ago
-(1820). Mrs. Penn’s spirit was greatly displeased at this removal, and forthwith
-took to haunting the palace she had inhabited for so many years. Her
-ghost has been seen ascending the stairs as recently as 1896, when she nearly
-scared the attendant out of his wits. The well-known sketch by Holbein
-signed “Mother Jack” is supposed to be a portrait of this lady, but Sir
-Richard Holmes, the late learned Librarian at Windsor Castle, disputes
-this opinion, and attributes another portrait to her. (See Ernest Law’s
-<cite>History of Hampton Court Palace</cite>. George Bell &amp; Sons. Tudor Period, p. 197
-<i>et seq.</i>)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_123" href="#FNanchor_123" class="fnanchor">123</a> Edward’s friend and companion, Barnaby Fitzpatrick, was the eldest
-son of the Irish chieftain, Barnaby Gill Patrick, Lord of Upper Ossory, who
-made his submission to the King in 1537, and was created a Baron by his old
-title in 1541. Barnaby’s mother was the widow of Thomas Fitzgerald, a grandson
-of the Earl of Desmond. Barnaby, who was brought up with Edward,
-was sent for a year’s education to the French Court: whilst there he received
-many letters from his royal friend. On his return to England Barnaby
-Fitzpatrick continued to enjoy the King’s favour. After Edward’s death he
-entered the service of Mary and went to fight in Scotland. Under Elizabeth,
-Barnaby, who had by this time become Baron of Upper Ossory, fought for
-the Queen in Ireland, and actually slew Oge O Moarda, or Rory O’More, one
-of the great rebels of the day. Barnaby Fitzpatrick died in 1581 without
-issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Florence, whose descendants enjoyed
-the title of Upper Ossory until the extinction of the peerage in 1818. (See
-for further particulars of his career John Gough Nichols’ <cite>Literary Remains of
-Edward VI</cite>, p. 64. Printed for the Roxburgh Club.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_124" href="#FNanchor_124" class="fnanchor">124</a> Sir John Cheke was an early forerunner of President Roosevelt, for not
-only did he reform the pronunciation of Greek, but he actually instituted a
-reform of English orthography. His suggestions for the simplification of
-our writing were very curious and worth detailing. Firstly, there was to be
-no <em>e</em> at the end of words, so he wrote excus, giv, hay, and so on. Secondly,
-when <em>a</em> is sounded long, he would have had it doubled, as maad, straat
-(made, straight), etc. Thirdly, he replaced <em>y</em> by <em>i</em>, as mi, sai, awai, for my, say,
-away! The rest of the language was phoneticised, as britil (brittle), frute
-(fruit), and so on. He translated part of the Bible into his new English, a
-copy of which is now at Cambridge.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_125" href="#FNanchor_125" class="fnanchor">125</a> Wriothesley having now become Earl of Southampton, evidently hoped
-to represent for some time in the Privy Council the old faith&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> schismatic&mdash;as
-it had been under Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, probably with the view of eventually
-modifying it into the ancient Roman Catholicism which had been the
-religion of his youth. But as he showed the extent of his ambition by putting
-the Great Seal into commission without the authority of his colleagues, he
-offended Somerset and gave him the opportunity of getting a dangerous competitor
-out of the way by arresting Wriothesley on a vague charge of treason
-and ordering him to confine himself to his own house in the Strand. With
-the same intention of “clearing the board,” the Protector had Winchester
-also arrested and thrown into the Tower.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_126" href="#FNanchor_126" class="fnanchor">126</a> There is a very minute account of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s coronation (from an MS.
-at the College of Arms) in Nichols’ <cite>Literary Remains of Edward VI</cite>. The
-<cite>Spanish Chronicle</cite> also gives a curious description of it, where the writer says
-(p. 153 <i>et seq.</i>) that at the cross in Cheapside there was a triumphal arch
-“made to look like the sky,” whence descended a boy “like an angel,” who
-gave the King a purse containing £1000, which His Majesty handed over to
-the captain of the guard, much to the astonishment of the people; the
-chronicler significantly adds that the boy-King “had not the strength” to
-carry this weighty gift. The way from the Abbey to Westminster Hall was
-spread with “fine cloth”&mdash;“at least twenty lengths”&mdash;and “the moment
-the King passed these cloths disappeared, for whoever could cut a piece off
-took it for himself.” The Spaniard makes the curious mistake of saying
-that Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s death was not made known to the public until <em>after</em> Edward’s
-coronation. (The coronation to which the Chronicler referred was that called
-the first coronation, which took place in the Tower on the 31st January.
-The King’s death was not generally known until then.&mdash;M.&nbsp;H.)
-</p>
-<p>
-A large contemporary picture of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s coronation procession was
-destroyed in a fire at Cowdray House (the home of the Montagu family) in
-1793; but in the engraving of it made previously by the Society of
-Antiquaries we perceive a man bearing a cross leading the troop of knights,
-etc., preceding the King&mdash;another proof of the persistence of the old religious
-customs.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_127" href="#FNanchor_127" class="fnanchor">127</a> Of this man Strype says: “He was entertained here [England] divers
-years with the Earl of Bedford; and <em>expecting preferment here, failing of it,
-he departed</em> and lived abroad.” This certainly does not put Master Peter’s
-reason for coming to this country in quite such a good light as his description
-of himself as “an exile from Italy ... by reason of his confession of the
-doctrine of the Gospel.” See Strype’s <cite>Annals</cite>, iii. i. 660.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_128" href="#FNanchor_128" class="fnanchor">128</a> <cite>Original Letters relative to the English Reformation, written during the
-Reigns of King Henry VIII, etc.</cite> Edited for the Parker Society by the Rev.
-Hastings Robinson, D.D., F.S.A. Cambridge, 1847. They are generally
-called “The Zurich Letters.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_129" href="#FNanchor_129" class="fnanchor">129</a> Anne Boleyn was very dark. Froude mentions her “blonde tresses”&mdash;but
-they were really raven black; her eyes were black and velvety. Elizabeth’s
-hair may have been black, but the habit of dyeing the hair golden and
-Venice red was universal, even for children, at this period. The magnificent
-portrait by Lucas de Heere at Hampton Court represents the young Queen
-with dark hair and eyes.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_130" href="#FNanchor_130" class="fnanchor">130</a> “Considerable confusion exists as to the identity of some of these
-historical houses. Messrs. Wheatley and Cunningham, in their most useful
-<cite>London Past and Present</cite>, seem to think that Sir Thomas More resided in
-Chelsea Manor before Katherine Parr came to live there. After the execution
-of More his estate at Chelsea was confiscated by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and given to the
-Marquess of Winchester. Chelsea New Manor, which was inhabited by
-Katherine Parr and others,&mdash;and, under the Commonwealth, by Bulstrode
-Whitelock,&mdash;came into the hands of the Duke of Buckingham, who sold it
-to the Duke of Beaufort (hence Beaufort Street). It was purchased in 1738
-by Sir Hans Sloane, who pulled it down in 1740. There is, moreover, local tradition,
-and even historical evidence, that there were two distinct manors at
-Chelsea in the first half of the sixteenth century&mdash;Chelsea New Manor, and
-Chelsea Old Manor. Dr. King, in his MS. account of Chelsea, says that the
-‘old manor-house stood near the church.’ This is the house associated with
-the deaths of Anne of Cleves and of the old Duchess of Northumberland. He
-mentions another house, Chelsea New Manor, standing on that part of Cheyne
-Walk which adjoins Winchester House, and extends as far as ‘Don Saltero’s
-coffee house.’ ‘This house was built by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> as a nursery for his children,
-and here Katherine Parr lived.’ A picture of it in Faulkner’s <cite>Chelsea</cite> shows it
-not unlike St. James’s Palace. Small turrets communicate with the chimneys;
-the windows are long and high, and one of them has a Tudor arch on top. On
-the site of the present Durham House, Durham Terrace, the town residence
-of Sir Bruce and Lady Seton, there stood, not so many years ago, an ancient
-wainscoted house with a fine staircase, rather mysteriously connected by
-report with Jane Grey, who, according to a local tradition, lived here before
-she was made queen. In the beginning of the century this house was made
-a fashionable school for young ladies, but was pulled down in 1860 to make
-room for the present mansion.”&mdash;Mr. Richard Davey’s <cite>Pageant of London</cite>,
-vol. i. p. 379.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_131" href="#FNanchor_131" class="fnanchor">131</a> Deposition of Mrs. Ashley in the Hatfield State Papers.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_132" href="#FNanchor_132" class="fnanchor">132</a> There are several versions of this story. For instance, Henry Clifford,
-a retainer of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria, says, in his MS. Life of that lady
-(London, Burns &amp; Oates, 1887) that “In King Edward’s time what passed
-between the Lord Admiral, Sir Thomas Seymour, and her [Elizabeth] Dr.
-Latimer preached in a sermon, and was a chief cause that the Parliament
-condemned the Admiral. There was a bruit of a child born and miserably
-destroyed, but could not be discovered whose it was; only the report of the
-midwife, who was brought from her house blindfold thither, and so returned,
-saw nothing in the house while she was there, but candle light; only she said,
-it was the child of a very fair young lady. There was a muttering of the
-Admiral and this lady, who was then between fifteen and sixteen years of
-age.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_133" href="#FNanchor_133" class="fnanchor">133</a> Among the guests at Sudeley at this period, with whom Lady Jane must
-have come into contact, was the Marchioness of Northampton, wife of
-William Parr, the Queen’s only brother. This unfortunate lady, who was
-closely allied with the Crown, had been so indiscreet that when her marriage
-came to be dissolved her children were declared illegitimate. She was living
-apart from her husband at the time of this visit to Sudeley. The Tudor
-great ladies were distinctly “mixed” in their love affairs, and Lady Northampton
-has been saddled with perhaps the worst reputation of any woman
-of her time; yet the <cite>Spanish Chronicle</cite>, which, as already remarked, contains
-much personal “back-stair” gossip, reveals some curious facts about this
-lady’s behaviour, and shows that a great part of the blame rests on the Marquis
-her husband, who, on altogether insufficient evidence, accepted a story of her
-having misconducted herself with a man-servant. See the <cite>Chronicle of King
-Henry VIII of England, etc.</cite> (the <cite>Spanish Chronicle</cite>), chap. lxii. p. 137 <i>et seq.</i>,
-translated by Major Martin Hume.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_134" href="#FNanchor_134" class="fnanchor">134</a> Inventory of furniture and other goods at Sudeley Castle. Dated
-1547&ndash;8.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_135" href="#FNanchor_135" class="fnanchor">135</a> See Latimer’s Sermons in Strype’s <cite>Memorials</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_136" href="#FNanchor_136" class="fnanchor">136</a> Haynes’ State Papers, p. 104.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_137" href="#FNanchor_137" class="fnanchor">137</a> Robert Huycke, or Huicke, was an M.A. of Oxford. He was divorced
-from his wife in 1546, and later married again. In 1550 Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> made
-him his physician extraordinary at the munificent salary of £50 per annum.
-Huycke was greatly in favour with Elizabeth, and she gave him a house near
-Enfield. He died near Charing Cross in (it is believed) 1581.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_138" href="#FNanchor_138" class="fnanchor">138</a> This interesting account shows how many Catholic customs still survived&mdash;the
-offering here mentioned is evidently a relic of the Offertory at the
-Requiem Mass, otherwise explained; and the candles also are distinctly a
-part of Roman Catholic ritual, though Coverdale’s account of their signification
-is not altogether that given by Catholics. The <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Te Deum</i> is no longer
-sung or said at either Catholic or Anglican funerals. The fact that the writer
-of this account mentions that the whole service was done in one morning,
-shows that the brevity of the new form of worship was somewhat of a novelty
-to people accustomed to the long series of Dirges and Masses accompanying
-burials in Catholic times. Sir Walter Besant says, on p. 154 of his <cite>London
-in the Time of the Tudors</cite>, “Before the coming of the Puritans the funerals
-continued with much of the old (Catholic) ritual.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_139" href="#FNanchor_139" class="fnanchor">139</a> Froude says, “The Lady Frances, now that the Queen was dead, no
-longer thought the Admiral’s house a becoming residence for her daughter
-and sent for her.” The Lady Frances did nothing of the sort; Sudeley
-himself first suggested the Lady Jane’s removal to her parents’ custody.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_140" href="#FNanchor_140" class="fnanchor">140</a> Hatfield MSS.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_141" href="#FNanchor_141" class="fnanchor">141</a> Hatfield MSS.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_142" href="#FNanchor_142" class="fnanchor">142</a> Hatfield MSS.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_143" href="#FNanchor_143" class="fnanchor">143</a> Sir William Sharington or Sherington was one of the most benighted
-frauds of this age, albeit a very successful one. He was born about 1495,
-and was of good Norfolk family. In 1546 he became vice-treasurer of the
-Bristol Mint, being created a Knight of the Bath at Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s coronation.
-Once installed in this office, he made a sort of “corner” in West-Country
-Church plate, which he bought cheap from the Somerset villagers, and coined
-into “testons” or shillings of two-thirds alloy. By this means, and by
-shearing and clipping coins, falsifying the account books of the Mint, the
-originals of which he destroyed, and by other cheating, he managed to
-amass £4000 (an enormous sum in those days) in three years. Probably fearing
-that Sudeley, whose friend he was, might reveal these affairs to his
-brother the Protector, Sir William lent the Lord Admiral money, placed
-the Bristol Mint at his disposal, and, as we shall see, helped him in
-his nefarious schemes. He bought manors in Wiltshire from the King
-for £2808; but he was arrested on 19th January 1548&ndash;9. He was
-questioned in the Tower, but denied the charge of conniving at
-Sudeley’s intrigues. In February, however, he turned traitor to the Lord
-Admiral and admitted all, throwing himself on the King’s mercy. He was
-pardoned in acts of 30th December 1549 and of 13th January 1550. He
-now somewhat settled down, buying back with a part of the purchase-money
-given by the French for Boulogne, which money had got into his hands, his
-confiscated manors and lands, some of which he presented to the King&mdash;likely
-enough the reason why Latimer, in a sermon preached before His
-Majesty in 1551, described this admitted cheat as “an honest gentilman
-and one that God loveth”(!!). Sharington got himself appointed Sheriff of
-Wiltshire, and died in 1551. There is a portrait of him by Holbein in the
-Royal Library at Windsor. He was married three times, but left no
-children.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_144" href="#FNanchor_144" class="fnanchor">144</a> <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Vide</i> Dorset’s deposition in the Hatfield MSS.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_145" href="#FNanchor_145" class="fnanchor">145</a> Nothing could be more forcible as a proof of the manner in which Sudeley,
-in the style of the Duke of Northumberland at a later period, threatened
-and bullied any who dared to oppose him, than the following story. About
-the time that he was endeavouring to supplant his brother in Edward’s
-affections, he tried to induce the boy-King to write a letter for him to the
-Parliament, which was to meet in the November of that year. It was suggested
-that Parliament might not grant his demands; whereupon, said “my
-Lord of Sudeley,” “I will make [it, if that be so] the blackest Parliament
-that has ever been seen in England”&mdash;“blackest” perhaps meaning “the
-most humbled and depressed” Parliament ever seen, which shows that
-Sudeley was sufficiently self-confident to believe that he could coerce whole
-bodies of administrators at his will.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_146" href="#FNanchor_146" class="fnanchor">146</a> Sudeley’s nefarious assistant, Sharington, Sir Thomas Parry, John
-Fowler, and Mrs. Ashley were all imprisoned in the Tower at the same time as
-Sudeley.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_147" href="#FNanchor_147" class="fnanchor">147</a> Sudeley’s connection and connivance at the frauds perpetrated by Sir
-William Sharington was also made a count of his indictment.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_148" href="#FNanchor_148" class="fnanchor">148</a> Queen Elizabeth stated at a later date that “the Admiral’s life would
-have been saved had not the Council dissuaded the Protector from granting
-him an interview.” In face of these statements, there would seem to be little
-doubt that the Protector, if left to himself, might have visited a less severe
-sentence on his brother.
-</p>
-<p>
-The Protector’s wife evidently bore in her time a very bad reputation for
-intriguing and interference, for Hayward (<cite>Life of Edward VI</cite>, p. 82) says the
-troubles between Sudeley and his brother were mainly due to the quarrel
-(already mentioned) between Katherine Parr and her Ladyship&mdash;“to the
-unquiet vanity of a mannish, or rather a devilish woman [Lady Somerset] ...
-for many imperfections intolerable, but for pride monstrous.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_149" href="#FNanchor_149" class="fnanchor">149</a> As to the unfortunate Seymour’s infant child, we learn that after his
-death it was carried to Somerset’s house at Sion, whence, after a short time,
-it was conveyed to the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, at Grimsthorpe, in
-Lincolnshire. She had been at one time the dearest friend of Katherine
-Parr. Here the child had a governess, Mrs. Aglyonby, and was also attended
-by a nurse, two maids, and many other servants, in accordance with her
-high rank. The Duke of Somerset had promised that a certain pension
-should be settled on his niece, and that her nursery plate and furniture,
-which had been brought up from Sudeley to Sion House, should be sent after
-her to Grimsthorpe. He pledged his word on this point to the Duchess of
-Somerset’s gentleman, Mr. Bertie, who subsequently married his mistress,
-the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk; but the promise was never redeemed.
-The Duchess herself did not show much maternal tenderness to the child of
-her quondam friend. In the second year of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> she wrote a curious
-letter to Cecil, begging him to relieve her of the guardianship of the child of
-the late Queen. She says: “The late Queen’s child hath lain, and yet doth
-lay in my house with her company about her, wholly in my charge.” Then
-she accuses Somerset of not sending money for the child’s maintenance, and
-adds: “And that ye may better understand that I cry not before I am
-pricked, I send you Mistress Glensborough’s [the governess’s] letter unto
-me, who, with her maids, nourice, and others daily call upon me for their
-wages, whose voices mine ears may hardly bear, but my coffers much worse.”
-She declares she is ill, and hopes that the child will be removed at an early
-date. There is a very long list in the Lansdowne MSS of plate, hangings,
-and even musical instruments, belonging to this child, which the Lord Protector
-took and never restored. Cecil paid little attention to the Duchess’s application.
-In all probability he never answered her letter at all. At a later
-date she wrote to the Marquis of Northampton, the infant’s uncle, and
-begged him to receive her. He behaved even more heartlessly than the
-Duchess, declaring he would neither receive the child nor her attendants at
-his house. Thus Katherine Parr’s own brother and the Duchess of Somerset,
-her old friend, whose life she had actually saved on one occasion from the fury
-of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, besides spending considerable sums out of her private means
-to publish the ungrateful woman’s devotional writings, actually refused food
-and shelter to her orphaned child. It is impossible now to fully trace the
-child’s eventful history. Strype asserts that she died young, but there is
-much reason to believe that she lived and married Sir Edward Bushel, a
-gentleman of family, who was in attendance upon Queen Anne of Denmark,
-the Consort of James <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>. His only daughter married Silas Johnson, and their
-daughter married into the Lawson family, an old Suffolk house, which until
-quite recently possessed a number of Tudor relics, which, their proprietors
-alleged and amply proved, originally belonged to their ancestress, the
-daughter of Katherine Parr and the Admiral Seymour, a baby doubtless
-often caressed by the gentle Jane Grey. At the close of the seventeenth
-century some hundreds of papers belonging to the Lawson family were unfortunately
-destroyed by a thoughtless widow. However, an existing copy
-of the family pedigree proves almost beyond doubt that the Lawson version
-of the fate of Seymour’s daughter was accurate in every detail. One thing
-is evident, that the infant suffered a good deal of neglect in her childhood,
-and that she was passed on from one unwilling relative to another, until at
-last some kindly soul took compassion on her desolate state, and brought
-about a match between her and Sir Edward Bushel.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_150" href="#FNanchor_150" class="fnanchor">150</a> The letter in which Ab Ulmis does this will be found in the Parker
-Society’s edition of the Reformers’ letters, vol. ii. p. 406, and is dated
-30th April 1550. It simply overflows with flattery of the Marquis, who is
-described as “the thunderbolt and terror of the Papists, that is, a fierce and
-terrible adversary.... He is much looked-up to by the King. He is learned
-and speaks Latin with elegance. He is the protector of all students, and the
-refuge of foreigners. He maintains at his own house the most learned men;
-he has a daughter, about fourteen years of age, who is pious and accomplished
-beyond what can be expressed; to whom I hope shortly to present
-your book on the holy marriage of Christians, which I have almost entirely
-translated into Latin. You may adopt this form of dedication to the book:
-‘To Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, Baron Ferrers of Groby, Harrington,
-Bonville and Astley, one of His Majesty’s Privy Council, and my most
-honoured lord, &amp;c. &amp;c.’” So far as can be discovered, neither Jane Grey
-nor the Marquis her father wrote to thank Bullinger for this work, no letter
-to this effect being extant.
-</p>
-<p>
-In the December of the following year (1551) the Marquis of Dorset wrote
-to Bullinger from London (<cite>Zurich Letters</cite>, Parker Society, vol. i. p. 3) to
-thank him for “the book which you have published under the auspices of my
-name,” but this volume was one of Bullinger’s <cite>Decades</cite>, dedicated to his
-Lordship in the preceding March.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_151" href="#FNanchor_151" class="fnanchor">151</a> <cite>Zurich Letters</cite> (Parker Society), vol. i. p. 6.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_152" href="#FNanchor_152" class="fnanchor">152</a> The above-quoted Latin letter to Henry Bullinger was written when she
-was only fourteen.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_153" href="#FNanchor_153" class="fnanchor">153</a> See <a href="#note189">note</a> at end of this Chapter.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_154" href="#FNanchor_154" class="fnanchor">154</a> A very fine portrait of this lady was formerly in the possession of the late
-Martin Colnaghi, Esq. It represents a handsome matron of fifty, dressed in
-the costume of the period. She has regular features, light eyes, and auburn
-hair. The picture is dated 1552, the year of the Suffolk family’s last visit
-to Walden. Lady Audley’s only child married that Duke of Norfolk who
-was executed under Elizabeth for his attempt to assist Mary Stuart to escape
-from Tutbury Castle.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_155" href="#FNanchor_155" class="fnanchor">155</a> The gay festivities at Tylsey were a matter of some annoyance to Aylmer,
-and to the chaplain at Bradgate, Haddon, who feared their distracting effect
-on the minds of their pupils, Jane and Katherine Grey.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_156" href="#FNanchor_156" class="fnanchor">156</a> <cite>Zurich Letters</cite>, vol. ii. pp. 447&ndash;8.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_157" href="#FNanchor_157" class="fnanchor">157</a> Ulmer wrote to Conrad Pellican in the summer of 1552 (<cite>Zurich Letters</cite>,
-p. 451) that “Our Duke (Suffolk) has been staying for the last few days at
-an estate here in the neighbourhood of Oxford, which has come to him by
-inheritance from the late Duke of Suffolk.” The “late Duke of Suffolk”
-refers to the Lady Frances’s half-brother, who has been already frequently
-mentioned. Ulmer continues: “I waited upon him and paid my respects,
-according to the custom of the University.” Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> being at that time
-in the neighbourhood, Jane was presented to him, and “received with great
-favour.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_158" href="#FNanchor_158" class="fnanchor">158</a> Mr. H. Sydney Grazebrook, in his interesting outline on the subject of
-Northumberland’s origin, in the <cite>Herald and Genealogical Review</cite>, vol. v., 1870,
-thinks John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was really descended from the
-Dudleys of Sedgley and Tipton, a member of which ancient house married
-the widow of John Sutton, Lord of Dudley, in Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s time. On the
-other hand, Dugdale says his grandfather was a carpenter and “very base-born.”
-</p>
-<p>
-Sir Philip Sydney in his curious tract in defence of Robert, Earl of
-Leicester, written in answer to “Leycester’s Commonwealth,”&mdash;a scurrilous
-attack on Queen Elizabeth’s famous favourite,&mdash;entirely denies the aspersions
-cast upon the honour of a family with which he was closely allied, his father
-having married the Duke of Northumberland’s daughter, Mary. He contends
-that to his certain knowledge the Duke was a man of legitimate descent
-from the ancient house of Sutton of Dudley, and moreover connected with the
-greatest nobility in England. “How can a man descended from such great
-Houses as Nevill, Talbot, Beauchamp and Lisley, be deemed otherwise than
-honourable and noble?” He continues: “A railing writer has said of
-Octavius Augustus, his father was a silversmith; another Italian declares
-(oh! the falsehood) that Hugh Capet was descended of a butcher who was
-his father. Of divers English names of the best, foolish dreamers have
-said one was the descendant of a miller, another of a shoemaker, another of a
-furrier, and forsooth yet another of a fiddler!&mdash;foolish lies! and by any
-who have ever tasted of antiquities, known so to be, yet those however had
-luck to treat with honest railers&mdash;for they were not left fatherless clean;
-but we as if we were of Ducalion’s brood, were made out of stones&mdash;they have
-left us no ancestors from whence we came. Edmund Dudley was the father
-of this younger brother of the same Lord Dudley, and would have been Lord
-Dudley, if the Lord Dudley had died without heirs. His father was married
-to the daughter and heir of Bramshot in Sussex. This Dudley’s father is
-buried with his wife at Arundel Castle and left land to Edmund Dudley and
-so to the Duke my grandfather, in Sussex.” Philip Sydney ought certainly
-to have known the true descent of his family, especially since they were
-to acquire the title of Leicester from the Dudleys.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_159" href="#FNanchor_159" class="fnanchor">159</a> It will be remembered that the Duke of Suffolk filched the title of Lisle
-from the Lady Elizabeth Grey, but on his relinquishing it, it was given to her
-eldest son, John Dudley.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_160" href="#FNanchor_160" class="fnanchor">160</a> On this expedition Somerset carried out to the letter the instructions given
-him by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, which will be found in a document in the State Papers.
-Nero might have written them. They run as follows: “Put all to fire and
-sword, burn Edinburgh Town, and raze and deface it, when you have sacked
-it, and gotten what you can out of it.... Beat down and overthrow the
-castles, sack Holyrood House, and as many towns and villages about Edinburgh
-as you conveniently can. Sack Leith, and burn and subvert it and all
-the rest, putting man, woman and child to fire and sword, without exception,
-when any resistance shall be made against you; and this done, pass over to
-Fife-land and extend all extremities and destruction in all towns and villages
-whereunto you may reach ...; not forgetting ... so to spoil and turn
-upside down the Cardinal’s [Beaton] town of St. Andrew’s, as the upper
-stone may be the nether, and not one stick stand upon another, sparing no
-creature alive within the same, specially such as, either in friendship or blood,
-be allied to the Cardinal.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_161" href="#FNanchor_161" class="fnanchor">161</a> For a further account of this campaign, see the dispatches of the Seymours
-in the State Papers for the reign of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>; and for the second
-expedition, those for the reign of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>.
-</p>
-<p>
-The most heinous crime of all perpetrated on the second expedition&mdash;a
-crime which damaged Somerset’s reputation to the greatest extent&mdash;was the
-slaughter of twelve young lads under fifteen years of age, the children of
-Scottish horsemen recruited by Lennox, who were held as hostages for the
-good behaviour of their parents. Lennox and Lord Wharton had the poor
-boys hanged for their fathers’ disaffection; only one escaped, to become
-eventually known in the story of Mary Stuart as Lord Maxwell of Herries.
-A common soldier to whom he was handed over by Lennox, and who was
-sick of the carnage, saved the lad at the risk of his own life. Somerset rewarded
-Lennox for his services in this campaign, and wrote to him “right
-merrily.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_162" href="#FNanchor_162" class="fnanchor">162</a> See documents dealing with the state of the prisons under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>
-in the Record Office.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_163" href="#FNanchor_163" class="fnanchor">163</a> See Haylin; Hayward; and Hume, vol. iii. (folio edition) p. 328.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_164" href="#FNanchor_164" class="fnanchor">164</a> John Strype says: “About this time [reign of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>] the nation
-grew infamous for the crime of adultery. It began among the nobility and
-better classes, and so spread at length among the inferior sort of people.
-Noblemen would frequently put away their wives and marry others, if they
-liked another woman better, or were like[ly] to obtain wealth by her. And
-they would sometimes pretend their former wives to be false to them, and
-so be divorced, and marry again those whom they might fancy. These
-adulteries and divorces increased very much; yea, and marrying again
-without any divorce at all, it became a great scandal to the Realm and to
-the religion professed in it.”&mdash;Strype’s <cite>Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer</cite>,
-vol. i. pp. 293, 294.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_165" href="#FNanchor_165" class="fnanchor">165</a> Robert Ket was a comparatively rich man, and to some extent a landowner,
-by reason of which he came into connection with the nobleman who
-afterwards had him killed&mdash;Northumberland. Ket bought Wymondham
-Abbey at the Dissolution, and also possessed a large part of Wymondham
-Town, and certain rich lands between that place and the royal manorhouse
-of Stanfield Hall. These lands had been bestowed on the brotherhood
-of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem&mdash;an offshoot of the Order of Hospitallers of
-St. John, who devoted their time to the relief of the sick poor&mdash;by Queen
-Adelicia, second wife of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>. Later on, Ket sold these ex-monastic
-lands to John Dudley, afterwards Duke of Northumberland&mdash;the suppressor
-of the Ket rebellion! Blomefield (<cite>Norfolk</cite>, article on “Wyndham or
-Wymondham”) indeed attributes the cause of that outbreak to a disagreement
-between the Ket brothers and Northumberland over these lands.
-“John Dudley,” says he, “bought some of these charity lands of Ket the
-tanner. As for payment, it was done in his own particular mode....
-The two brothers (Ket), finding Dudley meant to pull down the magnificent
-tower, the preservation of which was most dear to their affections, raised the
-Norfolk poor, whom extreme misery had driven to discontent, and Wymondham
-became the nucleus of the great Norfolk rebellion.” It is much more
-likely that indignation at the general state of things, social and religious,
-under Somerset’s Protectorship, was at the bottom of this popular rising,
-and not mere platonic affection for an ancient tower.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_166" href="#FNanchor_166" class="fnanchor">166</a> William Ket’s remains were given “a dip in boiling pitch,” and then
-hanged, in their monastic dress, in chains. They continued, like a ghastly
-scarecrow, to ornament Wymondham Church until 1603, when they began
-to fall, bone by bone, the last piece coming away on the very day of Queen
-Elizabeth’s death, 25th March 1603.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_167" href="#FNanchor_167" class="fnanchor">167</a> Printed in Tytler’s <cite>England under Edward VI and Mary</cite>, vol. i. p. 205.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_168" href="#FNanchor_168" class="fnanchor">168</a> Mr. Pollard says that Herbert’s private park had been ploughed up,
-whilst Russell “had been reprimanded for exceeding his instructions in his
-severity towards the rebels.” It is interesting to learn, by the way, that
-Somerset did make some effort to check the butcheries in the West.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_169" href="#FNanchor_169" class="fnanchor">169</a> In making all these warlike preparations Somerset was acting on the
-mere premise&mdash;since Petre had never returned to Hampton Court, and he
-had no news from the metropolis&mdash;that Warwick contemplated some sort of
-<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">coup d’état</i>; for no <em>open</em> act of violence had been perpetrated. The revolution
-of 1549, which practically placed Warwick in the Protectorship and
-Somerset (temporarily) in the Tower, proved successful, as we shall presently
-see, but it was an entirely bloodless victory.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_170" href="#FNanchor_170" class="fnanchor">170</a> In addition to his incipient consumption, the poor little King would seem
-to have caught a cold on his original journey to Hampton Court. The
-<cite>Literary Remains</cite> say, “The Kinge’s Majesty is much troubled with a great
-rewme; taken partly while riding hither in the night” (vol. i. p. cxxxi).</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_171" href="#FNanchor_171" class="fnanchor">171</a> This nobleman was created Earl of Warwick on his father’s assumption
-of the title of Duke of Northumberland, and under that title was imprisoned
-in the Tower, which has been the cause of some confusion to students.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_172" href="#FNanchor_172" class="fnanchor">172</a> 9th May 1550.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_173" href="#FNanchor_173" class="fnanchor">173</a> This letter is still extant, and seems to point to a possibility that Lady
-Seymour’s mysterious retirement may have been due to her perseverance in
-the old faith.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_174" href="#FNanchor_174" class="fnanchor">174</a> At the same time the Marquis of Dorset was made Duke of Suffolk;
-Paulet, Earl of Wiltshire, was raised to the Marquisate of Winchester; Sir
-William Herbert, Master of the Horse, was made Earl of Pembroke; and Mr.
-William Cecil, Mr. John Cheke, the King’s tutor, Henry Sidney, and Henry
-Nevil, were knighted.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_175" href="#FNanchor_175" class="fnanchor">175</a> The day following the Duke’s arrest, that hot virago, Anne Stanhope,
-his Duchess, together with Mr. and Mrs. Crane, Sir Miles Partridge, Sir
-Thomas Arundel, Sir Thomas Holcroft, Sir Michael Stanhope, and others,
-were also arrested and conveyed to the Tower, where the Duchess remained
-a prisoner until the accession of Queen Mary.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_176" href="#FNanchor_176" class="fnanchor">176</a> Wriothesley’s <cite>Chronicle</cite>, ii. 63.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_177" href="#FNanchor_177" class="fnanchor">177</a> Nevertheless, the death of Somerset seems to have rankled in the boy-King’s
-mind. On one occasion long afterwards, it is said, when Edward
-was enjoyed a match of archery with Northumberland and the King made a
-remarkably fine shot, the Duke exclaimed, “Well aimed, my liege.” “But,”
-replied the young King sarcastically, “you aimed better when you shot off
-the head of my uncle Somerset!” Which proves that His Majesty fully
-realised Northumberland’s share in that matter.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_178" href="#FNanchor_178" class="fnanchor">178</a> There was, of course, the usual crop of infant prodigies and monsters
-which followed as portents after every notable decapitation. A dolphin was
-caught in the Thames; “a child with two heads was born at Middleton in
-Oxfordshire; but although it had four arms it had only a leg, it caughte
-cold and died,” which was certainly fortunate for the nerves of the Middletonians.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_179" href="#FNanchor_179" class="fnanchor">179</a> We find instances of this in the enthusiastic joy of the people at his
-suspected acquittal, in their excitement on thinking he was reprieved, and
-the fact that after the execution many dipped handkerchiefs and cloths in
-his blood, “so that they might have some token to preserve of the memory
-of a man who had always been their friend.” It is said that when, some
-nineteen months later, Northumberland was going to execution in his turn, a
-woman shook one of these handkerchiefs stained with the blood of Somerset
-in his face, crying, “Behold the blood of that worthy man, that good uncle
-of that excellent King, which, shed by thy malicious practices, does now
-apparently revenge itself on thee.” This is also a proof that the commonalty
-clearly understood how great had been Northumberland’s share in bringing
-about Somerset’s destruction.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_180" href="#FNanchor_180" class="fnanchor">180</a> <cite>Zurich Letters</cite>, No. cccxlvii.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_181" href="#FNanchor_181" class="fnanchor">181</a> One gets a very fair idea of the improvement in Northumberland’s
-position after the death of the Duke of Somerset from the letters of the
-Swiss and other Reformers. Ab Ulmis, for instance, tells Bullinger that “He
-[Northumberland] almost alone, with the Duke of Suffolk, governs the State,
-and supports and upholds it on his own shoulders. He is manifestly the
-thunderbolt and terror of the Papists.” He goes on to say that when Somerset
-licensed Mary to have Mass in her apartments, Northumberland said angrily,
-“The Mass is either of God or of the Devil; if of God, it is but right that all
-our people should be allowed to go to it; but if it is not of God, as we are all
-taught out of the Scriptures, why then should not the voice of this fury be
-equally proscribed to all?”... “Therefore,” says Ab Ulmis, “as soon as he
-had succeeded into his office, Northumberland immediately took care that the
-mass-priests of Mary should be thrown into prison, whilst to herself he entirely
-interdicted the use of the Mass and of Popish books.”&mdash;<cite>Zurich Letters</cite>, ii. 439.
-No wonder Mary did not love Northumberland!</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_182" href="#FNanchor_182" class="fnanchor">182</a> The movements of Lady Jane from January 1552 onwards appear to
-have been as follows. In January 1552 she was alternately at Tylsey and at
-Audley; later in the spring of the same year she was at Bradgate; in July
-she went to Oxford, and afterwards to Princess Mary at Newhall. After
-this she went with her family, on some unknown date in 1552, probably in
-the autumn, to this ex-monastery at Sheen, where she continued to reside until
-she came up to London, to (most likely) Suffolk House, Westminster, for her
-marriage with Guildford Dudley, in the spring of 1553. She perhaps spent
-five days after this at Durham House, Strand, and then went to Chelsea
-Manor, now a residence of the Duke of Northumberland. Thence she went to
-Sion with Lady Sidney (as we shall presently relate in detail) on 9th July
-(1553); on the following day, from Sion to Westminster Palace, then (the same
-day) to Durham House to dine, and lastly to the Tower, which she reached
-in the afternoon, and did not leave again, being executed in February 1554
-within its precincts. Some writers have fallen into the error of thinking
-Lady Jane left the Tower at the close of her nine days’ reign, at the same
-time as her father, the Duke of Suffolk. It is not so. From the day Jane
-entered the fortress (10th July 1553) to the day of her death (12th February
-1554) she never left it, except for the few hours of her trial at Guildhall.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_183" href="#FNanchor_183" class="fnanchor">183</a> The Priory of Sheen was finally suppressed by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> in 1539, or
-rather, it surrendered its estates to the Crown about the time of the passing
-of the Act for the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Most of the ex-monks of
-this house died in prison in great misery. In 1540 the abandoned monastery
-was granted to Edward, Earl of Hertford, brother of Jane Seymour, who
-afterwards became the famous Duke of Somerset. After his attainder in
-1551 it was granted to Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, Jane’s father. The
-ruins of this building were visible as late as the middle of the eighteenth
-century. For further details about this house see Chancellor’s <cite>History of
-Richmond</cite>, p. 71.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_184" href="#FNanchor_184" class="fnanchor">184</a> Syon has interest for yet another reason, for the nuns to whom it had
-formerly belonged, emigrated to Flanders in Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s time, to return to
-England early in the last century, and thus form the only unbroken community
-of pre-Reformation <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">religieuses</i> in England.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_185" href="#FNanchor_185" class="fnanchor">185</a> The <cite>History of Queen Jane</cite> says of Suffolk that “For as he had few
-commendable Qualities, he was guilty of no vices.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_186" href="#FNanchor_186" class="fnanchor">186</a> The negotiations for this marriage got so far that Sir Andrew, who was
-at this time Master of the Wardrobe, actually ordered certain splendid garments
-to be taken out of it for himself and the Lady Margaret to wear at the
-wedding; and this, needless to say, with the consent of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>. Cumberland,
-however, who approved of this proposal no more than he did the
-other, removed himself and the rest of his family as far from London as he
-could, and thereby frustrated Northumberland’s matrimonial scheme, leaving
-poor Sir Andrew to cut a by no means dignified figure. Lady Margaret
-eventually married the Earl of Derby.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_187" href="#FNanchor_187" class="fnanchor">187</a> This story will be found in a MS. among the Harleian Collection (No. 353).</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_188" href="#FNanchor_188" class="fnanchor">188</a> As for “having at the Crown,” as a matter of fact if the Cumberland
-marriage had taken place it would have put six persons between Guildford
-and any chance of his sharing regal honours; or else the Duke would have
-had to find some plea for setting aside not only the Princesses Mary and
-Elizabeth, but also the Duchess of Suffolk and her three daughters; this
-could only have been achieved by urging the irregularity of the Brandon and
-Dorset marriages, both of which, as we have seen, were strictly speaking
-illegal, for in both cases the husbands married again before their first marriages
-had been formally dissolved, either by the ecclesiastical or the secular
-courts.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_189" href="#FNanchor_189" class="fnanchor">189</a> On the death of Somerset, Lady Cromwell, widow of Thomas Cromwell,
-offered to take charge of his four daughters (which would have included the
-Lady Anne Seymour), the Duchess being, as we have said, imprisoned.
-Whether these ladies were in fact placed in Lady Cromwell’s charge has never
-been ascertained.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_190" href="#FNanchor_190" class="fnanchor">190</a> Baoardo, a Venetian who was in England in 1553&ndash;6, wrote a historical
-pamphlet on the events he beheld. Edited by the celebrated Luca Cortile,
-it was printed and published by the Accademia di Venezia, in 1558, and has
-been frequently reprinted.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_191" href="#FNanchor_191" class="fnanchor">191</a> Ascham has told us how bitterly Lady Jane complained of her parents’
-brutal treatment of her even when there was little cause that they should ill-use
-their daughter so, and we may easily imagine their behaviour when they
-had a more serious complaint against her.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_192" href="#FNanchor_192" class="fnanchor">192</a> The only portrait of Guildford Dudley which the writer has ever seen is
-that at Madresfield attributed to Lucas van Heere, who could not, however,
-have painted it, as at the time of Guildford’s execution he was only seven
-years of age. There is another objection to this picture; it is dated 1566, and
-Guildford was decapitated in 1553. Still the inscription may have been
-painted in at a later date, and the tradition that it is a portrait of Lady Jane’s
-unfortunate consort may be correct. But the costume is more like that of
-the time of James <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>, so large a ruff not being worn in Guildford’s day. There
-is also at Madresfield a portrait of Lady Jane Grey attributed to Lucas van
-Heere. This is far more beautifully painted than its companion, and is in
-all probability by Luca Penni, who painted the alleged portrait of Lady Jane
-now in the possession of Lord Spencer at Althorpe, to which it bears a certain
-resemblance, both in costume and features.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_193" href="#FNanchor_193" class="fnanchor">193</a> Nevertheless, Heylyn says (in his <cite>Reformation</cite>) that “of all Dudley’s
-brood he (Guildford) had nothing of his father in him.” Fuller (<cite>Worthies</cite>)
-calls him “a goodly and (for aught I know to the contrary) a godly gentleman,
-whose worst fault was that he was son to an ambitious father.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_194" href="#FNanchor_194" class="fnanchor">194</a> The Northumberlands seem to have been in close touch with several
-Spaniards. It was due to the intercession of a Spanish noble that the
-Duchess obtained her liberty; and it was to the Duchess of Alva that she
-bequeathed her pet green parrot.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_195" href="#FNanchor_195" class="fnanchor">195</a> The exact date of Jane’s marriage is doubtful. Historians assign
-various dates ranging from the beginning of May to the beginning of June.
-Stowe contents himself with saying “three notable marriages took place at
-Durham Place in May 1553.” Giulio Raviglio Rosso of Ferrara, who obtained
-his information from Giovanni Michele, Venetian Ambassador to
-England, 1554&ndash;7, and from Federigo Badoardo, Venetian Ambassador to
-Charles <span class="smcap smaller">V</span>, speaks of “<i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Nelle feste dello spirito santo, le nozze molto splendide e
-reali, e con molto concorso di populo et de’ principali del regno</i>.” That is, “On
-the feasts of the Holy Ghost (<i>i.e.</i> Whit Sunday), the very grand and regal
-espousals (took place), and with a great attendance of the people and of the
-leaders of the kingdom.” Hutchinson (<cite>History of Durham</cite>, vol. i. 430) says
-positively 21st May; and this agrees with the “<i xml:lang="it" lang="it">feste</i>” (<i>i.e.</i> “feasts” or
-within the octave) of Whit Sunday. Pollino also says it occurred on that day.
-Strype (<cite>Ecclesiastical Memorials</cite>, book ii. p. 111) gives more details than most
-writers. He says: “And a little before this time were great preparations
-making for the match (<em>which was celebrated in May</em>) of the Lady Jane with
-Guildford, Northumberland’s son, and some other marriages that were to
-accompany that; as the Earl of Pembroke’s eldest son with the Lady
-Katherine ... etc.”
-</p>
-<p>
-The 21st of May was only six weeks and four days before the declining
-Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> breathed his last (on 6th July).
-</p>
-<p>
-Noailles, who is often very vague about his dates, fixes this triple wedding
-as taking place in July!</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_196" href="#FNanchor_196" class="fnanchor">196</a> Lord Herbert’s marriage was not consummated on account of the youth
-of the parties. He relinquished the hand of the Lady Katherine Grey, and
-in 1561 she bestowed it on the Earl of Hertford.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_197" href="#FNanchor_197" class="fnanchor">197</a> “And for the more solemnity and splendour of this day, the master of
-the wardrobe had divers warrants, to deliver out of the King’s wardrobe
-much rich apparel and jewels: as, to deliver to the Lady Frances, Duchess of
-Suffolk, to the Duchess of Northumberland, to the Lady Marchioness of
-Northampton, to the Lady Jane, daughter to the Duke of Suffolk, and to the
-Lord Guildford Dudley, for wedding apparel; (which were certain parcels of
-tissues, and cloth of gold and silver, which had been the late Duke’s and
-Duchess’s of Somerset, forfeited to the King;) and to the Lady Katherine,
-daughter to the said Duke of Suffolk, and the Lord Herbert, for wedding
-apparel, and to the Lord Hastings, and Lady Katherine, daughter to the
-Duke of Northumberland, for wedding apparel, certain parcels of stuff and
-jewels. Dated from Greenwich, the 24th of April. A warrant also there
-came to the wardrobe, to deliver to the King’s use, for the finishing certain
-chairs for his Majesty, six yards of green velvet, and six yards of green
-satin; another, to deliver to the Lady Mary’s Grace, his Majesty’s sister, a
-table diamond, with pearl pendant at the same; and to the Duchess of Northumberland,
-one square tablet of gold, enamelled black, with a clock, late
-parcels of the Duchess of Somerset’s jewels. And lastly, another warrant
-to Sir Andrew Dudley, to take for the Lady Margaret Clifford, daughter of
-the Earl of Cumberland, and to himself, for their wedding apparel, sundry
-silks and jewels: this last warrant bearing date June 8.”&mdash;Strype’s
-<cite>Memorials</cite>, pp. 111&ndash;2, book ii.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_198" href="#FNanchor_198" class="fnanchor">198</a> The only description of the three weddings is that from the pen of
-Giulio Raviglio Rosso, who lived at a later date. See the English translation
-of the Venetian State Papers.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_199" href="#FNanchor_199" class="fnanchor">199</a> Contemporary account of an English wedding in the sixteenth century
-quoted by Howard in his <cite>Life of Jane Grey</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_200" href="#FNanchor_200" class="fnanchor">200</a> The description of this head-dress corresponds with the very beautiful
-and picturesque one she wears in the picture, reputed to be her portrait, now
-in the possession of Earl Beauchamp at Madresfield.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_201" href="#FNanchor_201" class="fnanchor">201</a> There would seem to be some reason to think that Stanfield Hall, which
-was often visited by the Plantagenet kings, was part of the monastic lands
-purchased by Robert Ket, leader of the famous rebellion. His brother’s
-remains, hanging on Wymondham Church, were visible from its windows.
-After Lady Jane’s death, Stanfield Hall went to the Crown. There is no
-express mention, however, in any existing documents connected with the
-Hall, of Jane Grey’s possession of this manor, and Blomefield was unable to
-trace it. The tradition that it was part of Jane’s dower rests on a statement
-by Strype. Perhaps it was amongst the lands bought from Ket by the Duke
-of Northumberland, as already related; or else it was taken from him by
-force after the rebellion.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_202" href="#FNanchor_202" class="fnanchor">202</a> Pollino relates some personal circumstances omitted by Baoardo. The
-former, however, mentions the violence used to Jane by the Duke of Suffolk,
-when she refused to marry Guildford, on the grounds of a previous “contraction.”
-This is an additional proof of the genuineness of the letter as
-rendered by Pollino; for Jane, from filial respect, does not refer to her
-father’s cruelty.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_203" href="#FNanchor_203" class="fnanchor">203</a> Several of these letters are included in the second volume of Tytler’s
-<cite>England under Edward VI and Mary</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_204" href="#FNanchor_204" class="fnanchor">204</a> Table showing the heirs female in remainder to the Crown, named in the
-will of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> and the “Devise” of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>:&mdash;
-</p>
-
-<pre class="in2 smaller newpage">
- King Henry the Seventh and Queen Elizabeth of York,
- had issue
- |
- +-------------------------+--------------------------+
- | | |
- King Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>, Margaret, Queen of Scots, Mary, Queen of France,
- father of, grandmother of mother of,
-by Katherine by Anne Mary Stuart, and by Charles Brandon,
- of Aragon, Boleyn, great-grandmother of Duke of Suffolk,
- | | King James the First. |
- | | |
- | +------+ +--------------+--+
- | | | |
- | | The Lady Frances, The Lady Eleanor,
-The Lady Mary, The Lady Elizabeth, Duchess of Countess of
- æt. 38 in 1553. æt. 20 in 1553. Suffolk, Cumberland,
- æt. 36 in 1553. d. 1547.
- | |
- +-----------------+-----------------+--+ |
- | | | |
-The Lady Jane, The Lady Katherine, The Lady Mary, The Lady Margaret,
- æt. 17 in to the Earl of to Thomas Countess of
- 1553, m. to Hertford, issue. Skye, or Clifford,
- Guildford Keyes, issue.
- Dudley, no issue.
- no issue.
-</pre>
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_205" href="#FNanchor_205" class="fnanchor">205</a> Antoine de Noailles informs us in his Notes that the Lady Frances was
-very sore over the way in which her succession to the Crown was set aside by
-King Edward in favour of her daughter Jane; and the Duke of Suffolk had
-some difficulty in inducing her to accept the situation.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_206" href="#FNanchor_206" class="fnanchor">206</a> John Terentianus, writing to John ab Ulmis under date of 29th November
-1553, says (<cite>Zurich Letters</cite>, p. 365): “A few days before his death the
-King made a will <em>at the instigation of Northumberland</em>, by which he disinherited
-both his sisters.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_207" href="#FNanchor_207" class="fnanchor">207</a> <cite>Cranmer’s Works</cite> (Parker Society), vol. ii. p. 442.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_208" href="#FNanchor_208" class="fnanchor">208</a> That is to say, Princess Mary, at that time only a Schismatic, or “Henryite,”
-might suddenly become a Roman Catholic, and abolish the Reformed
-religion. It should be remembered that Mary was not openly in
-communion with Rome until about three months after her accession to the
-throne.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_209" href="#FNanchor_209" class="fnanchor">209</a> The reader will find the text of the “Devise” at the end of the next
-chapter.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_210" href="#FNanchor_210" class="fnanchor">210</a> Northumberland, in fact, tyrannised over everybody: Noailles (<cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Ambassades
-Françaises</cite>, ii. 80), says that “<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">toutes ces choses</i> [Jane’s failure to keep
-the throne] <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">sont advenues plus pour la grande hayne que l’on porte à icelluy
-duc</i> [Northumberland], <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">qui a voulu tenir un chacun en craincte, que pour
-l’amitié que l’on a à ladicte royne</i> [Mary].”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_211" href="#FNanchor_211" class="fnanchor">211</a> The original of this letter is among the State Papers.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_212" href="#FNanchor_212" class="fnanchor">212</a> The author’s researches lead him to think that this must be the correct
-date of Edward’s death; though different dates are given by some writers.
-Machyn, Aubrey, and Wriothesley incline to the 6th of July; but, on the
-other hand, Burke (<cite>Tudor Portraits</cite>, vol. ii. p. 398) says it was the 7th of
-that month, and the writer of the article on Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> in the <cite>Encyclopædia
-Britannica</cite> (vol. vii. p. 686) declares that the King died on 4th July!
-Aubrey says the 6th was a Thursday; and Burke, that the King died at
-nine p.m. These discrepancies are most likely due to the fact that the
-King’s death was kept a secret for some days.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_213" href="#FNanchor_213" class="fnanchor">213</a> Dr. George Owen was probably the most distinguished physician of
-his day. He received honours at Merton College. He attended at Edward
-<span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s birth, when he is said untruly to have performed the Cæsarian operation;
-he afterwards attended that Prince throughout his life, and was well treated by
-him. Amongst the grants made to Owen were Bewley Abbey, Cumnor
-Place, Gadstow Abbey, and the chapel of St. Giles, Oxford. He died on
-18th October 1558, and was buried at St. Stephen’s Walbrook, his funeral
-being thus recorded by Machyn (<cite>Diary</cite>, p. 177): “The xxiiij day of October
-was bered at sant Stevyn in walbroke master doctur Owyn, phesyssyon, with
-a ij haroldes of armes and a cote armur and penon of armes, and iij dosen of
-armes, and ij whyt branchys, and xx torchys; and xx pore men had gownes,
-and ther dener; and iiij gret tapurs; and the morow masse, and master
-Harpfheld dyd pryche; and after a gret dener.” It is strange that Edward’s
-favourite physician should have been a “Papist.” Dr. Owen must also have
-been on good terms with “Bluff King Hal,” for he received £100 by that
-monarch’s will. The second son and the daughter-in-law of Dr. Owen were
-living at Cumnor Place in 1560, when the mysterious death of Amy Robsart
-took place there.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_214" href="#FNanchor_214" class="fnanchor">214</a> But of course their arrest was for having placed Jane on the throne,
-not for murdering the King. This is a manifest error on the part of Burcher.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_215" href="#FNanchor_215" class="fnanchor">215</a> <cite>Zurich Letters</cite>, p. 684.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_216" href="#FNanchor_216" class="fnanchor">216</a> The belief that the King had been poisoned was, however, very widespread.
-Another Reformer, Terentianus, says that it was not only rumoured, but
-there were not wanting “many and strong suspicions”; he attributes it to
-“the Papists.” Machyn, the diarist, fell into the same error as Burcher of
-thinking Northumberland’s arrest due to his share in Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s “murder.”
-He says: “The vj day of July, as they say, dessessyd [deceased] the nobull
-kyng Edward the vj. and the vij yere of ys rayne, and sune and here to the
-nobull kyng Henry the viij; and he was poyssoned, as evere body says,
-wher now, thanks be unto God, ther be mony of the false trayturs browt to
-ther end, and j trust in God that mor shall folow as thay may be spyd owt”
-(p. 35). Osorius, Bishop of Sylva (Portugal), wrote to Elizabeth when she
-was on the throne, that her brother had died of poison.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_217" href="#FNanchor_217" class="fnanchor">217</a> Sir Robert Throckmorton, Sir Nicholas’s elder brother, whom she much
-preferred to the latter.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_218" href="#FNanchor_218" class="fnanchor">218</a> Some historians have represented the warning as coming to Mary by
-way of the Earl of Arundel; but the statement that it came from the Throckmortons
-is confirmed by Jardine’s <cite>State Trials</cite> and Cole’s MS. vol. xl., British
-Museum. There is a very curious account of the whole proceeding in rough
-verse by Sir Nicholas Throckmorton himself, of which we give two verses:&mdash;
-</p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Mourning, from Greenwich did I straight depart,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To London, to a house which bore our name.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">My brethren guessèd by my heavie hearte,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The King was dead, and I confess’d the same:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The hushing of his death I didd unfolde,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their meaning to proclaim Queene Jane I tolde.<br /></span>
-</div>
-
-<div class="tb">* <span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">* </span><span class="in2">*</span></div>
-
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Wherefore from four of us the newes was sent.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">How that her brother hee was dead and gone;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In post her goldsmith then from London went,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">By whom the message was dispatcht anon.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Shee asked, ‘If wee knewe it certainlie?’<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Who said, ‘Sir Nicholas knew it verilie.’”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>
-See <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary</cite>, p. 2; also Bishop Goodman’s
-<cite>Memoirs</cite>, p. 161.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_219" href="#FNanchor_219" class="fnanchor">219</a> Wriothesley says: “Jane came to the Tower from Greenwich,” which
-is evidently a mistake. She certainly did not proceed from Westminster to
-Greenwich to return thence to the Tower.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_220" href="#FNanchor_220" class="fnanchor">220</a> This letter is from Sir Baptist Spinola, a very rich Genoese merchant,
-who flourished in London under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>,&mdash;by whom he was knighted,&mdash;Mary,
-and Elizabeth. Frequent mention of him will be found in the State
-Papers of this period. On one occasion Elizabeth paid him an enormous
-sum&mdash;probably for supplies of Genoa velvet and brocade. The “grand
-procession to the Tower” refers to the procession from the landing-place
-there to the Great Hall.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_221" href="#FNanchor_221" class="fnanchor">221</a> A fair number of copies of the Proclamation of Lady Jane Grey have
-come down to us, but the original printed Proclamation is in the Collection
-of the Royal Society of Antiquaries. Herein the Lady Mary and the Lady
-Elizabeth are, as said above, stigmatised as bastards, whilst it calls upon
-persons of all degrees to be loyal to “their lawful Sovereign”&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> Jane
-Dudley. The Proclamation was printed by Richard Grafton, and is a very
-fine specimen of his workmanship. In the imprint he styles himself “The
-Queen’s Printer.” One would like to discover what became of Mr. Grafton
-after Mary’s accession?</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_222" href="#FNanchor_222" class="fnanchor">222</a> Machyn’s <cite>Diary</cite>, p. 35.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_223" href="#FNanchor_223" class="fnanchor">223</a> An unknown, who cautiously dubbed himself “Poor Pratte,” addressed
-an open letter to Mr. “Onyone” during his imprisonment. The writer, who
-was apparently a staunch supporter of Mary, informed his readers that “if
-England prove disloyal, evils will come on it ... the Gospel will be plucked
-away and the Lady Mary replaced by so cruel a Pharaoh as the ragged bear
-(<i>i.e.</i> Northumberland).” “Pratte” points out that Mary is less overjoyed
-at becoming Queen than sorry for her brother’s death, whilst Northumberland
-was pleased thereat; “she would be as glad of his life as the ragged
-bear of his death.” The writer prays God “to raise up Queen Mary and
-pluck down that Jane&mdash;I cannot nominate her Queen, for that I know no
-other Queen but the good Lady Mary, her Grace, whom God prosper.” In
-conclusion, the writer wishes Jane’s supporters “the pains of Satan in hell,”
-and to Mary’s, “long life and prosperity.” See the Appendix, pp. 116&ndash;21
-of <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_224" href="#FNanchor_224" class="fnanchor">224</a> Cecil was originally selected to draw up the draft of the proclamation,
-but with his usual desire&mdash;manifested in a like manner on other occasions
-when an unpleasant and dangerous task was assigned to him&mdash;to save his
-own skin at the expense of no matter whom, he passed on the duty to Sir
-Nicholas Throckmorton. Cecil himself relates this plainly in his unblushing
-“Submission” to Mary, of which more anon. There he says: “I refused
-to make a proclamation, and turned the labour to Mr. Throckmorton, whose
-conscience I saw was troubled therewith, misliking the matter.” It would
-be difficult to imagine a meaner trick. It is more than probable that
-Northumberland very largely guided Throckmorton in arranging the terms
-of this document: one can scarcely imagine that he would have left it
-entirely to Sir Nicholas’ judgment. Probably it was composed at Sion
-House. The editing of it was given to Sir John Cheke.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_225" href="#FNanchor_225" class="fnanchor">225</a> One copy of this interesting letter is in the Lansdowne MSS, 1236, f. 24,
-and a facsimile in Ser. iii. No. 4.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_226" href="#FNanchor_226" class="fnanchor">226</a> There are two versions of this interview, differing in some particulars;
-the second is by Jane herself, printed in Pollino’s <cite>Ecclesiastical History</cite>. We
-have deemed it best to give both.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_227" href="#FNanchor_227" class="fnanchor">227</a> Pollino (<cite>Istoria Ecclesiastica</cite>, p. 357) puts Jane’s answer slightly differently&mdash;<i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Dissi
-loro</i>, he makes her say, <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">che se la corona s’appetava a me, io sarei
-contenta di fare il mio marito Duca ma non consentirei di farlo Rè</i>. That is,
-“I said to them that if the Crown was my concern, I should be pleased to
-make my husband Duke, but I would not consent to make him King.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_228" href="#FNanchor_228" class="fnanchor">228</a> There would seem to be an error here. Quite true, the Crown was,
-metaphorically, thrust upon Jane; but surely the request for the release of
-the regalia must have been made at least to <em>appear</em> as if it came from her?</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_229" href="#FNanchor_229" class="fnanchor">229</a> Harleian MSS, No. 523, p. 13. Sir Philip Hoby or Hobby was a
-Herefordshire man, who had been previously sent to Paris as English Ambassador
-to treat for the marriage of Elizabeth of Valois to Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>. He
-afterwards passed to Antwerp and then to Brussels and other parts of the
-Low Countries, during which period occurred the above-mentioned incident
-with Don Diego Mendoza. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir W. Stonor,
-who died without issue. Sir Philip’s brother and heir, Sir Thomas Hoby,
-married Cecil’s learned sister-in-law, Elizabeth Cooke. Many memorials of
-the Hoby family still exist at Bisham Abbey.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_230" href="#FNanchor_230" class="fnanchor">230</a> The dispatch of the Council to Hoby and Morysone announcing the death
-of the King is dated 8th July, and will be found in the British Museum,
-Cottonian Collection (Galba B. xii. 249). It makes no mention of either
-Guildford or Jane.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_231" href="#FNanchor_231" class="fnanchor">231</a> In her will the Duchess of Northumberland calls this gentleman, to whom
-she left “the littell book clock, that hath the sun, the moon on it, &amp;c., and
-her dial, the one leaf of it the almanack, and on the other side the golden
-number in the midst,” “the Lord Don Diagoe Damondesay,” which was the
-good lady’s rendering of de Mendoça! She added that she bequeathed
-these articles “with commendation for the great friendship he hath shewed
-hir in making hir have so many friends about the King’s Majesty as she hath
-found.” The King’s Majesty here referred to is Philip <span class="smcap smaller">II</span>, who had used his
-influence with Mary, at the instigation of Don Diego, to recover part of her
-property for the Duchess.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_232" href="#FNanchor_232" class="fnanchor">232</a> “He (Mendoza) could not but at one (and the same) time both sorrowe
-with us for the losse of our good old mastere (Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>) a prince of such
-vertue and towardnesse, and also rejoyse with us that our master which is
-departed, did, ere he wente, provid us of a kynge (Guildford Dudley), in regard
-wee had so much cause to rejoyse in.” It is a significant fact that throughout
-this dispatch of the Commissioners, whenever Guildford is mentioned, it is by
-some title such as “kynge,” “kynges majestie,” etc., and not once by his
-proper name, though obviously no one else but he is referred to. This was
-done purposely to avoid getting Guildford into trouble in the event of the
-letter falling into the hands of Mary’s supporters.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_233" href="#FNanchor_233" class="fnanchor">233</a> <cite>Two Queens and Philip</cite>, by Major Martin Hume.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_234" href="#FNanchor_234" class="fnanchor">234</a> It must always be remembered that the Emperor was Mary’s cousin,
-and had already defended her religious freedom against Northumberland;
-the Council feared, though without reason, as we know, his Ambassadors’
-interference for the purpose of vindicating her rights to the throne.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_235" href="#FNanchor_235" class="fnanchor">235</a> That was during the few days she spent at Chelsea Manor after leaving
-Durham House, as already recorded; cf. cap. xiv. p. 237.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_236" href="#FNanchor_236" class="fnanchor">236</a> This inventory will be found among the Harleian MSS, No. 611.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_237" href="#FNanchor_237" class="fnanchor">237</a> Jane herself, as we have already seen, says the regalia was brought to
-her on the 11th of July; perhaps Winchester made a slip of the pen in writing
-the 12th.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_238" href="#FNanchor_238" class="fnanchor">238</a> Machyn’s <cite>Diary</cite>, p. 36.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_239" href="#FNanchor_239" class="fnanchor">239</a> We have already seen (<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">vide</i> the letter of the Council to the Commissioners
-in Brussels of the 11th July) that the Council had intended from the very
-first that Northumberland should proceed into Norfolk, the object even
-then being to remove his all-powerful and domineering presence from London
-and into Mary’s hands, since all the members doubtless foresaw they would
-have to renounce Jane very shortly, and were not anxious to incur his wrath
-for so doing. Probably Suffolk was merely suggested so as to avoid rousing
-Northumberland’s suspicions that the Council was anxious to be rid of him.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_240" href="#FNanchor_240" class="fnanchor">240</a> Holinshed, vol. iii. pp. 1068, 1069.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_241" href="#FNanchor_241" class="fnanchor">241</a> Machyn says (p. 36): “And ij days after (the xij day of July) the duke,
-and dyvers lordes and knyghts whent with him, and mony gentylmen and
-gonnars, and mony men of the gard and men of armes toward my lade Mare
-grace, to destroye here grace, and so to bury, and alle was agayns ym-seylff,
-for ys men forsok him.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_242" href="#FNanchor_242" class="fnanchor">242</a> In this document, as in the indictment, Mary gives neither Jane nor her
-husband their legitimate titles. She calls the former “Jane Dudley,” and
-describes her as “the wife of Guildford Dudley, Esquire,” stating that
-Sharington’s successor has received his appointment “by the traitorous
-abuse and usurpation of Jane Dudley ... and other accomplices.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_243" href="#FNanchor_243" class="fnanchor">243</a> Only two days after Northumberland started (that is, on the 16th) Mary
-had left Kenninghall and ridden without pause to Framlingham, where,
-according to Holinshed (vol. iii. p. 1067) she gathered round her an army of
-thirty thousand men.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_244" href="#FNanchor_244" class="fnanchor">244</a> William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, was born at Stamford St.
-Martin, Northamptonshire, in 1520. In his youth he was a royal page, and
-was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Later, he went to Cambridge,
-and was a great friend of Roger Ascham and John Cheke. Against his father’s
-will, he married Mary Cheke, the latter’s sister. She died in 1544; and he
-married again, this time to Mildred, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea
-Hall, Essex. This was in 1545. Cecil fought in Scotland under Somerset
-two years later, being present at the battle of Pinkie Cleugh. He was appointed
-a Secretary of State on 5th September 1550. In October of the
-next year he was knighted, together with Cheke. His action in the matter of
-Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s “Devise” for the limitation of the succession has been already
-related; also his duplicity with regard to Northumberland. Immediately
-all hopes of Jane’s retaining the crown were gone, he made his well-known
-“Submission” to Mary. All the same, he spent the first year of her reign in
-retirement, and only appears again as holding a public office in 1554. His
-successful career under Elizabeth is foreign to the subject of this book, and is
-well known. Cecil died in 1598 at his house in the Strand, and is buried in
-Westminster Abbey. See <cite>The Great Lord Burghley</cite>, by Martin Hume.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_245" href="#FNanchor_245" class="fnanchor">245</a> This is mainly derived from Stowe’s account; Burke (p. 417) and others
-say that in the first instance Northumberland was arrested by Sir John
-Gates, one of his own followers, apparently whilst in the midst of his
-toilet, “with his boots half on and half off,” and therefore utterly
-helpless.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_246" href="#FNanchor_246" class="fnanchor">246</a> With Northumberland were brought prisoners into the Tower on 25th
-July, John, Earl of Warwick, and the Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley, his
-three sons, his brother, Sir Andrew Dudley, the Earl of Huntingdon, Lord
-Hastings, Sir Thomas Palmer, Sir Henry and Sir John Gates, and Dr. Sandys.
-They are said to have been escorted by four thousand men; others say eight
-hundred. On the 26th these noblemen were also joined by other prisoners&mdash;namely,
-the Marquis of Northampton, another of Northumberland’s sons
-Lord Robert Dudley, the Bishop of London (Ridley), Sir Richard Corbet,
-and Cholmondeley and Montagu, Chief Justices: the latter’s distress must
-have been softened by the feeling that his gloomy forebodings as to the evil
-results of the continuance of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s scheme for the succession had
-been amply realised. Next day, Sir John Cheke, Sir Anthony Cooke, and
-Sir John York were committed to the Tower. See Strype, vol. iv., and Stowe.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_247" href="#FNanchor_247" class="fnanchor">247</a> After the proclamation of Mary, Ridley went to Framlingham to pay
-her homage; but the Queen being suspicious of his sincerity, he was arrested
-at Ipswich, “despoiled of his dignities, and sent back on a lame, halting
-horse to the Tower.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_248" href="#FNanchor_248" class="fnanchor">248</a> From the use of the expression (adopted in <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane
-and Queen Mary</cite>), “the keys were carried up,” it has been suggested that
-Lady Jane was lodged in the White Tower itself, which was not the case.
-Queen Jane proceeded immediately after her arrival at the Tower
-to the palatial apartments usually inhabited by royalty when in
-residence there. These chambers&mdash;in which Elizabeth of York breathed
-her last; where Anne Boleyn spent the night before her coronation and
-later, by an irony of fate, that before her execution; where, afterwards,
-Katherine Howard also awaited her doom; where, in a word, most of our
-Kings and Queens had “ruffled it wi’ the best” or trembled at their coming
-fate&mdash;were removed in the seventeenth century. They were contiguous
-to the White Tower&mdash;indeed, the door communicating between the two
-blocks of buildings is still visible&mdash;and it is more than probable that Queen
-Jane used the chapel and the Council Chamber in the said White Tower;
-but she certainly never inhabited the tower during her brief Queenship.
-Later, as we shall presently see, she was removed to the quadrangle opposite St.
-Peter’s Church, to the apartments which had been vacated by the Duchess
-of Somerset, in Partridge’s House.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_249" href="#FNanchor_249" class="fnanchor">249</a> It was on the 17th or the next day that a significant placard was found
-attached to the pump at Queenhithe, stating “that the Princess Mary had
-been proclaimed Queen in every town and city in England, London alone
-excepted.” The exception was to cease within two days!</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_250" href="#FNanchor_250" class="fnanchor">250</a> It was generally said that Northumberland’s son, Lord Henry Dudley,
-had been to France to raise a force, and that six thousand French soldiers
-were about to embark from Dieppe and Boulogne.
-</p>
-<p>
-Strype says (<cite>Ecclesiastical Memorials</cite>, vol. iii. part <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>, p. 23): “Henry
-Dudley, a relation and creature of the Duke [of Northumberland], and in
-with him, had, with four servants and certain letters, escaped, and got hither
-to Guisnes. Him these officers detained, seizing his men and letters; which
-they sent by a special messenger to the Queen, keeping him in sure custody
-till her pleasure were further known. All this they declared to her in their
-letter, protesting their steadfast loyalty and obedience. Dudley was soon
-after conveyed to Calais and so to England.”
-</p>
-<p>
-It was also rumoured that Northumberland had offered to hand over
-Calais to the French in return for the aid which was to be afforded him.
-Needless to say, it never came.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_251" href="#FNanchor_251" class="fnanchor">251</a> Rossi, <cite xml:lang="it" lang="it">I Successi d’Inghilterra dopo la morte de Edoardo Sesto</cite>, pp. 15, 16.
-This book was printed at Ferrara in 1560.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_252" href="#FNanchor_252" class="fnanchor">252</a> Baynard’s Castle, which was standing in Edward <span class="smcap smaller">II</span>’s time, and was later
-the residence of Richard <span class="smcap smaller">III</span>, stood somewhere about the site now occupied by
-St. Paul’s Station, and was a large square building, with high pitched turrets
-at each corner, and having its river front washed by the Thames. Several
-royalties visited it in the course of time. In Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s time it belonged to
-that Earl of Pembroke who married Katherine Parr’s sister, and was in the
-possession of that family in 1553. “Bluff King Hal” was sometimes entertained
-there. The greater part of the building was burnt down in the Great Fire,
-but the towers were standing as late as 1809.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_253" href="#FNanchor_253" class="fnanchor">253</a> It is distinctly curious that Arundel should be generally stated to have
-been present at the proclamation of Mary in London on 19th July, and yet
-be said by several writers to have arrested Northumberland at Cambridge
-on the 21st! This hardly seems probable; doubtless the arrest took place
-later in that week. But the dates of Northumberland’s movements on his
-expedition are altogether obscure.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_254" href="#FNanchor_254" class="fnanchor">254</a> Roger Alford, Cecil’s servant, gives the following account of this stage
-of the intrigue in a letter to Cecil of 1573: “After this, the Lords not long
-after agreed to go to Baynard’s Castle to the Lord of Pembroke [Baynard’s
-Castle was, as we have said, his residence] upon pretence before in Council, to
-give audience to the French King and Emperor’s Ambassadors, that had long
-been delayed audience; and that the Tower was not fit to him to enter into
-at that season. At which time, my Lord of Arundel, upon some overture of
-frank speech to be had in Council in respect of that present state, said secretly
-to his friend, as I take it yourself [<i>i.e.</i> Cecil] or Sir William Petre, that he
-liked not the air. And thereupon it was deferred to Baynard’s Castle; from
-which place the Lords went and proclaimed Queen Mary. And yourself was
-despatched after my Lord Arundel and my Lord Paget to her Grace, being
-at Ipswich; where, being sent by you a little before, my Lady Bacon told me
-that the Queen thought very well of her brother Cecil, and said you were a
-very honest man.”&mdash;Strype’s <cite>Annals</cite>, vol. iv. p. 349.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_255" href="#FNanchor_255" class="fnanchor">255</a> See either Harleian MSS, 358, 44; or <cite>Chronicles of Queen Jane and Queen
-Mary</cite>, p. 11.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_256" href="#FNanchor_256" class="fnanchor">256</a> <cite>The Grey Friars Chronicle</cite> says that the bells continued to ring “all night
-till the next day to None.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_257" href="#FNanchor_257" class="fnanchor">257</a> So complete was the popular desertion of Jane’s cause&mdash;if so, indeed,
-it may be called, seeing that there had never been any great enthusiasm for
-her&mdash;that Foxe was able to remark that “God so turned the hearts of the
-people to her [Mary], and against the Council [who represented Jane], that
-she overcame them without bloodshed, notwithstanding there was made
-great expedition against her both by sea and land” (Foxe, <cite>Acts and Monuments</cite>,
-vol. vi. p. 388). Jane herself was not disliked, but there would seem to
-have been little popular goodwill towards the Councillors and especially
-Northumberland; we have already recorded that the French Ambassador
-said that <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">toutes ces choses</i> [Mary’s success] <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">sont advenues, plus pour la grande
-hayne qu’on porte à icelluy duc, que pour l’amitié qu’on a à ladicte royne</i>
-[Mary].</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_258" href="#FNanchor_258" class="fnanchor">258</a> It is a curious fact that Cranmer was not arrested immediately on the
-fall of Jane. On 8th August he officiated at a Communion Service at the
-funeral of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> at Westminster. He seems to have been eventually
-arrested on quite another charge than the one in the indictment. A certain
-Dr. Thornden, Bishop of Dover, having said Mass in Canterbury Cathedral,
-Cranmer published a manifesto against him, and incidentally stated that the
-rumour that he was willing to celebrate Mass before the Queen was untrue.
-This document being read in Cheapside, the Archbishop was brought before
-the Council on 8th September 1553 for “disseminating seditious bills,” and
-committed to the Tower. Having being tried at the same time as Jane Grey,
-he remained a prisoner in the Tower until 8th March 1554, when he went to
-Oxford for the celebrated theological disputation which ended in his fiery doom.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_259" href="#FNanchor_259" class="fnanchor">259</a> See Machyn, p. 38.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_260" href="#FNanchor_260" class="fnanchor">260</a> Dr. Nicholas suggested that this Partridge was Queen Mary’s goldsmith,
-who bore the same name, and seems to have been living in the Tower about
-this time.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_261" href="#FNanchor_261" class="fnanchor">261</a> The site of the Royal Garden in the Tower is now covered by modern
-buildings, military stores, etc., of no particular interest. The “hill within
-the Tower” may be another term for the Green, for Stowe, in speaking
-of the prisoners who knelt on the Green to invoke Queen Mary’s pardon at
-her first entry into the Tower, terms that ominous spot “the hill.” It is
-strange indeed if Lady Jane took her exercise on the place where she afterwards
-died!</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_262" href="#FNanchor_262" class="fnanchor">262</a> This lady was a close connection of the Howards, and probably a grand-niece
-of Agnes, Duchess of Norfolk, by birth a Tylney.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_263" href="#FNanchor_263" class="fnanchor">263</a> A recent writer on the life of Lady Jane Grey states, but gives no authority,
-that she was released from the Tower immediately after her deposition, and
-retired to Sion House: but there is no contemporary evidence whatever in
-substantiation of this statement.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_264" href="#FNanchor_264" class="fnanchor">264</a> This William Paulet, Lord St. John, Marquis of Winchester, was in many
-ways an extraordinary creature. After the attainder and execution of Sir
-Thomas More, he was granted the beautiful mansion of Chelsea, and Edward
-<span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, when Paulet was created Marquis of Winchester in 1551, gave him in fee
-both that property and all other possessions in Chelsea and Kensington forfeited
-by More. Next we hear of him as Great-Master of the Household to Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>,
-Mary, and Elizabeth. In the fourth year of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s reign he was made
-Lord Treasurer of England, in which capacity he appealed to Lady Jane for
-the jewels left in her charge at her accession. His religious changes were
-remarkable; in Edward’s time he was a bitter anti-Papist; in Mary’s, an enthusiastic
-Catholic; and under Elizabeth we find him a staunch supporter of
-the Church by law established. Asked how it was he managed to avoid a
-downfall amidst so many changes, he is said to have answered: “By being a
-willow and not an oak!” He died in 1572 in his ninety-seventh year, having
-lived to see over a hundred persons descend from him; and is buried in Chelsea
-parish church, where he had attended Mass in Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>’s time; an “evangelical”
-service under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>; Mass again in Mary’s day; and the
-English Morning Prayer in Elizabeth’s!</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_265" href="#FNanchor_265" class="fnanchor">265</a> British Museum, Harleian Collection, No. 523, 46.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_266" href="#FNanchor_266" class="fnanchor">266</a> For a full and very instructive account of the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">volta face</i> of the Emperor
-and his subsequent conduct towards Queen Mary, see the State Papers,
-Foreign Series, from 23rd August 1553, the date of the banquet to Hoby at
-Brussels, to May 1554, and also <cite>Two English Queens and Philip</cite>, by Martin
-Hume.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_267" href="#FNanchor_267" class="fnanchor">267</a> This count would in itself have been punishable, it may be supposed,
-since the Tower was one of the royal palaces, as well as defences: the
-“seizure” here referred to consisted in the fact that Jane’s Council and
-attendants had been lodged there; that ammunition had been, as we have
-seen, brought in there during Jane’s reign; and that the Constable of the
-Tower had been changed by Suffolk’s manipulation. Sir John Gage, who
-had been appointed to that post in the year 1540, and had continued therein
-throughout Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>’s reign, was replaced by Lord Clinton, a Janeite,
-about the time the “Nine Days’ Queen” entered the fortress&mdash;only to be superseded
-on Mary’s accession by the very man he had displaced, Sir John Gage!
-Gage was followed by Sir Edward Braye, probably losing his appointment
-over a whimsical quarrel with the servants of the Princess Elizabeth during
-her imprisonment.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_268" href="#FNanchor_268" class="fnanchor">268</a> Although no official report of it remains, a Requiem for the repose of
-King Edward must have been sung at St. Paul’s, the bill of costs for choir-boys,
-lights, etc., for such a ceremony being still in existence. Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>
-was the first King of England buried according to the rites of the Church of
-England; at the same time, he was the last King of England for whom a
-Requiem Mass was sung in this country. James <span class="smcap smaller">II</span> died a Catholic, but abroad,
-in France. It has been remarked by Protestant historians that Mary had no
-right to have a Mass of Requiem said for her brother; they forget that he was
-baptized a Catholic.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_269" href="#FNanchor_269" class="fnanchor">269</a> It is quite obvious&mdash;Hume and Lingard to the contrary&mdash;that the Great
-Seal here referred to was that of Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, affixed to that monarch’s letters
-patent for the limitation of the succession. The judges, however, purposely
-misunderstood Northumberland, and pretended to think he was referring to
-Jane’s seal, which would not, of course, have been recognised as legal. The
-Great Seal of King Edward continued to be used upon documents for many
-months after Mary’s accession; it will, for instance, be found attached to the
-Special Commission of Oyer and Terminer addressed to Thomas White, Mayor
-of London, and others for the trials of the indictments against Guildford Dudley
-“and Jane his wife,” and Ambrose and Henry Dudley, which took place in
-November 1553. This seal is circular, and rather indistinct; on the one side
-His Majesty is represented seated, with the sceptre in his right hand and the
-orb in his left. He is under a canopy with curious side pillars: on either side of
-the throne are round coats of arms, surmounted by crowns. On the other
-side is a figure, wielding a mace and with a shield, on a horse in armour&mdash;this
-is either St. George or the Lord Protector. At the horse’s feet is a Tudor
-greyhound: there is an illegible inscription at the top margin. (See Baga de
-Secretis, pouch xxiii., Record Office.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_270" href="#FNanchor_270" class="fnanchor">270</a> Machyn, p. 41. This horrible sentence was afterwards commuted to
-decapitation, and the same in the case of next day’s condemned.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_271" href="#FNanchor_271" class="fnanchor">271</a> Harleian MSS, No. 2194.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_272" href="#FNanchor_272" class="fnanchor">272</a> Sir Andrew Dudley was released on 18th January 1554. He died,
-without issue, in 1559.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_273" href="#FNanchor_273" class="fnanchor">273</a> For a further account of this recantation ceremony, see Harleian MSS,
-284, fol. 128<i>d.</i> Also Stowe, <cite>Annals</cite>, p. 614.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_274" href="#FNanchor_274" class="fnanchor">274</a> Harleian MSS, No. 2194.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_275" href="#FNanchor_275" class="fnanchor">275</a> Bishop Burnet considered that Northumberland was only insincere in
-professing Protestantism&mdash;“he had always been a Catholic at heart”; John
-Knox said the same; and Jane Grey herself said, about a week after his death,
-“but for the answering that he [Northumberland] hoped for life by turning
-(Catholic), <em>though others be of the same opinion, I utterly am not</em>.” Burnet’s
-remark is supported by a statement the Duke of Northumberland made on
-one occasion, it is said, to Sir Anthony Browne, that “he certainly thought
-best of the old religion; but seeing a new one begun, run dog, run devil,
-he would go forward.” In other words, his Protestantism was a mere matter
-of policy.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_276" href="#FNanchor_276" class="fnanchor">276</a> This refers to the trained bands of the Tower Hamlets mentioned, whose
-headquarters were in the Tower, and took their titles from the districts in
-which they were raised.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_277" href="#FNanchor_277" class="fnanchor">277</a> Machyn’s <cite>Diary</cite>, p. 42. The paragraph ends with a reference to their
-attendance at Mass: “And at the same tym after was send for my lord mer
-and the aldermen and the cheyffest of the craftes in London, and dyvers of the
-counsell, and ther was sed mas [Mass] a-for [before] the Duke and the rest of
-the prisoners.” Was it the sudden arrival of the news that Northumberland
-was about to return to Catholicism that occasioned the postponement of the
-execution, in the hope that the Queen, touched by his conversion, might spare
-him? Most historians, however, assign the 20th as the date of the recantation,
-which would mean of course that it took place before the postponement
-of the execution, described by Machyn as having occurred on the 21st.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_278" href="#FNanchor_278" class="fnanchor">278</a> A very quaint account of the Duke of Northumberland’s execution,
-published in Paris in 1558 by a French priest named Stephen Perlin, contains,
-though full of inaccuracies, some details not to be found in other contemporary
-reports. “The afore-mentioned prisoners,” says he, “were taken to the
-Tower. The mob called the milor Notumbellant [<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">sic</i>] vile traitor, and he eyed
-them furiously with looks of resentment. Two days afterwards [an error;
-he entered the Tower on 25th July, and was tried on 18th August] he was taken
-by water in a little bark to Ousemestre [Westminster], a Royal palace, principally
-to indict and try him; his trial was not long, for it did not last more than
-fourteen days at most [there is no reason to suppose it lasted so long]; and he,
-the Duke of Suphor [Suffolk], and the milor Arondelle were condemned by an
-arrest of the Council to be beheaded in an open space before the castle of the
-Tower; and they had all three [they were really executed at widely different
-periods; see the text] the pain of seeing one under the hands of a hangman,
-before whom a whole kingdom had trembled, which, reader, was a lamentable
-spectacle. This hangman was lame of a leg, for I was present at the execution,
-and he wore a white apron like a butcher. This great lord made great lamentations
-and complaints at his death, and said this prayer in English, throwing himself
-on his knees, looking up to Heaven, and exclaiming tenderly, ‘Lorde God
-mi fatre prie fort ous poore siners nond vand in the hoore of our teath,’ [so in
-the original: it seems to be a ludicrous mixture of the Lord’s Prayer and the
-Hail Mary] which is to say, in French, ‘Lord God my Father, pray for us men
-and poor sinners, and principally in the hour of our death.’ After the execution
-you might see little children gathering up the blood which had fallen
-through the slits in the scaffold on which he had been beheaded. In this
-country the head is put upon a pole, and all their goods confiscated to the
-Queen.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_279" href="#FNanchor_279" class="fnanchor">279</a> The beauty and quantity of the roses in the Tower gardens is made
-particular mention of in contemporary documents.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_280" href="#FNanchor_280" class="fnanchor">280</a> Wriothesley says the cannonading and gun-firing on this occasion was
-positively deafening.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_281" href="#FNanchor_281" class="fnanchor">281</a> A rare French book entitled <cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Nouveaux Eclaircissements sur l’Histoire de
-Marie Reine d’Angleterre</cite>, says of this interview: “Elle [Mary] lui [Renard]
-dit, qu’elle ne pouvait se résoudre à faire mourir Jeanne de Suffolck [Lady
-Jane Grey], qu’on lui avait assuré, qu’avant d’épouser le fils du duc de Nortumberland,
-elle avait été promise en mariage à un autre par un Contrat
-obligatoire, qui rendait son second mariage nul; d’où Marie concluait, que
-Jeanne n’était pas véritablement belle-fille du duc de Nortumberland. Elle
-ajouta qu’elle n’avait eu aucune part à l’entreprise de ce duc, &amp; qu’elle se
-ferait conscience de la faire mourir, puisqu’elle était innocente. Simon Renard
-lui répliqua qu’il était à craindre, qu’on n’eût imaginé cette promesse obligatoire
-pour lui sauver la vie, &amp; qu’il fallait au moins la retenir prisonnière,
-parce qu’il y aurait beaucoup d’inconvénients à lui rendre la liberté.... La
-Reine répondit ... qu’à l’égard de Jeanne de Suffolck, on ne la mettrait pas
-en liberté, sans avoir pris toutes les précautions nécessaires, pour qu’il n’en
-pût résulter aucun inconvénient. Le Lieutenant d’Amont [<i>i.e.</i> Renard] ayant
-rendu compte à l’Empereur de cette conversation, ce Prince insista de nouveau
-dans sa réponse ... de punir sans miséricordes tous ceux qui avaient
-entrepris de lui enlever la Couronne, &amp; ceux qui avaient contribué à la mort
-du Roi.” [The latter phrase evidently refers to the widespread but unauthenticated
-idea that Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> had been poisoned by Northumberland.]
-The author or compiler of the book from which this is taken was one Père Griffet,
-who flourished in the eighteenth century, and having discovered a number of
-Simon Renard’s dispatches in the Royal Library at Besançon, wrote this
-work in answer to David Hume’s attack on Queen Mary: it was published
-at Amsterdam in 1766. There is no copy of it in the British Museum.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_282" href="#FNanchor_282" class="fnanchor">282</a> Poinet, the Protestant Bishop of Winchester, says in truth that “those
-lords of the Council who had been the most instrumental at the death of
-Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>, in thrusting royalty upon poor Lady Jane, and proclaiming Mary
-illegitimate, were now the sorest forcers of men, yea, became earnest councillors
-for that innocent lady’s death.” See Strype, vol. iii. part <span class="smcap smaller">I</span>, p. 141.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_283" href="#FNanchor_283" class="fnanchor">283</a> Sir Richard Morgan, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Lady Jane’s
-judge, was a Catholic. The date of his birth is not known. He was admitted
-to Lincoln’s Inn on 31st July 1523, and called to the Bar in 1529. From 1545
-to 1547 and again in 1553 he represented Gloucester in the House of Commons.
-He was arrested and confined in the Fleet Prison on 24th March 1551, for the
-offence of attending Mass in Princess Mary’s chapel, but was soon released with
-a caution. In 1553 he joined Mary’s party at Kenninghall, and when the
-Queen came to her own he was knighted [2nd October 1553]. Later in the same
-year he was placed on the commission to inquire into Bishop Tunstal’s appeal;
-and in November he tried and passed sentence of death on Lady Jane Grey
-and others. Sir Richard Morgan retired from the Bench in October 1555.
-In the following year (according to Foxe, <cite>Book of Martyrs</cite>, iii. p. 37) “Judge
-Morgan, that gave the sentence against hir [Jane], shortly after fell mad, and in
-hys raving cryed continuallye to have the ladie Jane taken away from him,
-and so ended his life.” His death is mentioned in Holinshed, 1577 edition,
-p. 1733. Machyn (<cite>Diary</cite>, p. 106) records Morgan’s funeral in the following
-terms: “The ij day of June was bered at sant Magnus at London bryge ser
-Richerd Morgayn knyght, a juge and on [one] of the preve consell unto the
-nobull Quen Mare, with a harold [herald] of armes bayryng ys cott armur, and
-with a standard and a penon of armes and elmett, sword, and targatt; and
-iiij dosen of skochyons, and ij whytt branchys and xij torchys and iiij gret tapurs,
-and xxiiij pore men in mantyll ffrysse gownes, and mony in blake; and
-master chansseler of London [a certain Dr. Darbishire] dyd pryche.” Morgan
-also appears in Machyn as being present at a sermon on 5th November 1553,
-“The v day of November dyd pryche master Feknam [Feckenham] at sant
-Mare overays afor non [at St. Mary Overies before noon], and ther where at ys
-sermon the yerle of Devonshyre, ser Antony Browne, and juge Morgayn and
-dyvers odur nobull men” [p. 48]. The same writer makes mention of a Francis
-Morgan, Judge of the Queen’s Bench, who died in 1558, and may have been a
-relation of the Chief Justice.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_284" href="#FNanchor_284" class="fnanchor">284</a> This description of the trial is mainly derived from the original documents
-in the Baga de Secretis, Pouch xxiii., in the Public Record Office, Chancery
-Lane, London; from various contemporary descriptions of previous and
-subsequent State trials; and from ancient and contemporary engravings of
-similar scenes. There is, unfortunately, an utter lack of documentary
-evidence of a personal character connected with this trial, for, unlike these of
-the Queens Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, it was not of a domestic
-character, and there was neither cross-examination of witnesses or prisoners
-nor defence: the facts were of public knowledge and as such handed to the jury,
-who, after considering them, gave the only verdict possible under the circumstances,
-guilty. Thus, this celebrated trial is divested of those many touches
-of dramatic interest and human pathos which characterise the records of the
-trials of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Machyn’s account of Jane’s
-trial is very brief, and is in part destroyed. He says (p. 48): “[The 13th
-of November were arraigned at Guildhall Doctor Cranmer, Archbishop of
-Canterbury, the Lord] Gylfford Dudlay, the sune of the Duke of Northumberland,
-and my lade Jane ys wyff, the doythur of the Duke of Suffoke-Dassett,
-and the Lord Hambrosse Dudlay, and the Lord Hare Dudlay, the wyche lade
-Jane was proclamyd Queen; they all v wher cast for to dee [die].”
-</p>
-<p>
-There is a contemporary account of the procession to the Guildhall, which
-runs as follows: “The xiijth daie of November were ledd out of the Tower on
-foot, to be arrayned, to yeldhall, with the axe before theym, from theyr warde
-[prison], Thomas Cranmer, archbushoppe of Canterbury, between ...
-[blank].
-</p>
-<p>
-“Next followed the lorde Gilforde Dudley between ... [blank].
-</p>
-<p>
-“Next followed the lady Jane, between ... [blank] and hir ij gentyll-women
-following hir.
-</p>
-<p>
-“Next followed the lorde Ambrose Dudley and the lorde Harry Dudley.
-</p>
-<p>
-“The lady Jane was in a black gowne of cloth, tourned downe, the cape
-lyned with fese velvett, and edget about with the same, in a French hoode,
-all black, with a black byllyment, a black velvet boke hanging before hir,
-and another boke in hir hande open, holding hir ...” [the entry breaks off
-here].
-</p>
-<p>
-See also Bishop Burnet’s <cite>History of the Reformation</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_285" href="#FNanchor_285" class="fnanchor">285</a> Dr. Feckenham was not installed as Abbot of Westminster until November
-1556.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_286" href="#FNanchor_286" class="fnanchor">286</a> See Rossi, <cite xml:lang="it" lang="it">I Successi d’Inghilterra</cite>, p. 44, <i>et seq.</i></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_287" href="#FNanchor_287" class="fnanchor">287</a> <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary</cite>, p. 37.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_288" href="#FNanchor_288" class="fnanchor">288</a> A dispatch of Renard’s of 8th February (given by Griffet), confirms this
-account, saying: “<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Le duc de Suffolck avait assemblé un corps de troupes &amp; quelques
-Gentilshommes de son parti, pour soutenir la rébellion: il fut attaqué par le
-comte Addincton</i> [a mistake for Huntingdon], <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">qui s’était déclaré pour la Reine;
-&amp; il perdit, dans ce combat, tous ses soldats sans exception, son argent &amp; son
-équipage. Ce Duc s’enfuit avec ses deux frères, &amp; se voyant poursuivi, il se cacha
-dans le creux d’un arbre, où il fut découvert par un chien qui ne cessait d’aboyer
-autour de cet arbre. Un de ses frères fut pris pareillement sous un tas de foin, &amp;
-tous deux furent mis dans la Tour de Londres, avec un grand nombre d’Officiers &amp;
-de Seigneurs.</i>”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_289" href="#FNanchor_289" class="fnanchor">289</a> Machyn says (p. 54): “The same day [Shrove Tuesday, 6th February]
-cam rydyng to the Towre the Duke of Suffoke and ys brodur by the yerle of
-Huntyngton [<i>i.e.</i> in the Earl of Huntington’s charge] with iii. C. [three hundred]
-horse.”
-</p>
-<p>
-He also tells us that on the same day “was ij hanged upon a jebett in
-Powles churche yerd; the on [one] a spy of Wyatt, the thodur [the other] was
-under-shreyff of Leseter, for carryng letturs of the duke of Suffoke and odur
-thinges.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_290" href="#FNanchor_290" class="fnanchor">290</a> Mary was, however, so firmly convinced that this was his object that in the
-orders to Lieutenants of Counties to proclaim as traitors Henry, Duke of
-Suffolk, the Carew brothers, Wyatt and others (dated 26th January 1554), they
-are described as having “threatened her destruction and to advance the Lady
-Jane Grey <em>and her husband</em>.” These last words are significant, in view of
-Guildford’s pretensions to regality.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_291" href="#FNanchor_291" class="fnanchor">291</a> Griffet says: “<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Le duc de Suffolck fut le premier à découvrir lui-même tous les
-secrets de la conspiration. Il écrivit sa confession, &amp; la fit remettre à la Reine,
-en implorant sa clêmence; &amp; il déclara, que les conjurés ne se proposaient rien
-moins que de mettre Elisabeth sur le trône.</i>” There can be no mistaking the
-meaning of this statement.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_292" href="#FNanchor_292" class="fnanchor">292</a> Renard, in a dispatch of the 8th February, as given by Griffet, says indeed
-that “<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Jeanne de Suffolck, dont elle</i> [Mary] <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">avait épargné les jours, contre l’avis
-de l’Empereur Charles-Quint, fut sacrifiée à la nécessité d’ôter aux rebelles, &amp;
-aux ennemis du Gouvernement, une idole qu’ils étaient fâchée de n’avoir pas
-maintenue sur le trône. Son mari fut exécuté le même jour.</i>”
-</p>
-<p>
-Besides, Gardiner says that Suffolk himself bewailed “with impatient
-dolours not only his own woe, <em>but the calamity his folly had brought on his
-daughter</em>.” Godwin, however (<cite>Rerum Anglicarum Henrico VIII, Edwardo VI
-et Maria, Annals</cite>, p. 217), throws the blame of Jane’s troubles more on her
-mother than on her father: “<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Hunc exitum habuit Iana, majorum titulis illustris
-fœmina, sed virtute et ingenii nobilitate longe illustrior, quæ dum Virtici et
-imperiosæ matris ambitioni obsequitur ... funestum sibi reginæ sumpsit.</i>”
-</p>
-<p>
-The consensus of historians, nevertheless, lays the blame on Suffolk’s ill-advised
-attempt at rebellion. Bishop Burnet, writing in 1680 (<cite>History of the
-Reformation</cite>, vol. ii. 437) says: “Indeed the blame of her death was generally
-cast on her father rather than on the Queen, since the rivalry of a crown is a
-point of such niceness, that even those who bemoaned her death most could
-not but excuse the Queen, who seemed to be driven to it, rather from considerations
-of State, than any resentment of her own.... He [Suffolk] would have
-died more pitied for his weakness, <em>if his practices had not brought his daughter
-to her end</em>.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_293" href="#FNanchor_293" class="fnanchor">293</a> <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary</cite>, p. 50.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_294" href="#FNanchor_294" class="fnanchor">294</a> Machyn tells us (p. 55) that “The xij day of February was made at every
-gate in Lundun a new payre of galaus [gallows] and set up ... the xiiijth
-day of February were hangyd at evere gatt and plasse: in Chepe-syd vj;
-Algatt j, quartered; at Leydyhall iij; at Bysshope-gatt one, and quartered;
-Morgatt one; Crepullgatt one; Aldersgate one, quartered ...” and so forth,
-giving a total of about forty-eight, three being hanged at Hyde Park Corner,
-but none at Tyburn.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_295" href="#FNanchor_295" class="fnanchor">295</a> Fuller says he was “earnest yet modest.” Feckenham had been imprisoned
-by Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span> for his adherence to papal supremacy, until Sir Philip
-Hoby, whom we have seen advocating a Protestant monarch, “borrowed
-him out of the Tower.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_296" href="#FNanchor_296" class="fnanchor">296</a> <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary</cite>, p. 54.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_297" href="#FNanchor_297" class="fnanchor">297</a> This allusion to a possible inheritance by Lady Katherine of her father’s
-possessions, does not, as Miss Strickland thinks, “prove that the insurrection
-of Suffolk was intended to replace Jane on the throne.” “If,” says that writer,
-“it had been in favour of any other heiress or heir, it is not likely that the Lady
-Jane would have rested under the attainder and surrendered the means of her
-subsistence to increase her younger sister’s portion. Moreover, if Jane had
-been the sovereign of England, she would scarcely have claimed a third
-portion of her father’s inheritance.” As a matter of fact, what Jane wrote
-proves nothing; Lady Katherine, had Suffolk kept out of political strife,
-would, after Jane, have inherited his fortune, which was confiscated at his
-arrest. Jane simply penned this sentence to make the contrast stronger
-between the mutability of the things of this world, and the unchangeability of
-that better land to which she knew she was hurrying.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_298" href="#FNanchor_298" class="fnanchor">298</a> This is an allusion to the parable of the foolish virgins.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_299" href="#FNanchor_299" class="fnanchor">299</a> British Museum, Harleian Collection, No. 2342.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_300" href="#FNanchor_300" class="fnanchor">300</a> This declaration of her intention of praying for her father in the next
-world suggests a survival of some Roman Catholic ideas in Jane’s theology;
-and one cannot imagine that it would have been exactly approved by the more
-extremely Protestant of the Reformers.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_301" href="#FNanchor_301" class="fnanchor">301</a> This book was either mentioned to Florio, or seen by him, for he has translated
-these three touching sentences into Italian in his <cite xml:lang="it" lang="it">Historia di Giana Graia</cite>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_302" href="#FNanchor_302" class="fnanchor">302</a> It is said that Jane scratched some verses on the walls of her apartment
-with a pin, but, although numerous devices inscribed by the unfortunate
-persons who have at different times been the inhabitants of the Tower
-were discovered in divers parts of it some years ago, during alterations, not
-the slightest trace of these verses were found. This does not, however, prove
-that they never existed, and as they are constantly attributed to Lady Jane,
-we have thought it best to reprint them here:&mdash;
-</p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Non aliena putes homini quæ obtingere possunt;</i><br /></span>
-<span class="i0"><i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Sors hodierna mihi, cras erit ilia tibi.</i>”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>This has been thus <span class="locked">translated:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“To mortals’ common fate thy mind resign,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">My lot to-day, to-morrow may be thine&mdash;&mdash;”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>These lines are also paraphrased as <span class="locked">follows:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Think not, O mortal! vainly gay,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">That thou from human woes art free;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The bitter cup I drink to-day,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">To-morrow may be drunk by thee.”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>
-The following is also said to have been written by Jane in like manner:&mdash;
-</p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Deo juvante, nil nocet, livor malus;</i><br /></span>
-<span class="i0"><i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Et non juvante, nil juvat labor gravis,</i><br /></span>
-<span class="i2"><i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Post tenebras, spero lucem</i>”:<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Which has been translated in two <span class="locked">ways:&mdash;</span></p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Whilst God assists us, envy bites in vain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">If God forsake us, fruitless all our pain&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">I hope for light after the darkness.”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Or:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem-container">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="iq">“Harmless all malice if our God be nigh,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Fruitless all pains if He His help deny,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Patient I pass these gloomy hours away,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And wait the morning of eternal day.”<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>
-In the Beauchamp Tower, in that room which was occupied by Northumberland,
-the name “Jane” appears twice, cut into the wall. It has been said
-that this was the work of Lord Guildford Dudley, but it is more probable that
-it was carved by Northumberland, his faithful wife’s name being Jane.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_303" href="#FNanchor_303" class="fnanchor">303</a> The Protestant chaplains appointed under Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span> had at this time
-been replaced by Benedictine monks.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_304" href="#FNanchor_304" class="fnanchor">304</a> The Bulwark Gate marked the boundaries of the County of Middlesex
-and the Tower precincts.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_305" href="#FNanchor_305" class="fnanchor">305</a> “The monday, being the xij of Februarie, about ten of the clock, ther
-went out of the Tower to the scaffolde on Tower Hill, the lord Guildforde
-Dudley, sone to the late Duke of Northumberland, husbande to the lady Jane
-Gray, daughter to the Duke of Suffoke, who at his going out tooke by the
-hande sir Anthony Browne, maister John Throgmorton, and many other
-gentyllmen, praying them to praie for him, and without the bullwarke
-Offeley the sheryve receyved him and brought him to the scaffolde, where,
-after a small declaration, having no gostlye father with him, he kneeled
-downe and said his praiers, then holding upp his eyes and handes to God
-many tymes, and at last, after he had desyred the people to pray for him,
-he laide himselfe along, and his hedd upon the block, which was at one
-stroke of the axe taken from him.”&mdash;<cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen
-Mary.</cite></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_306" href="#FNanchor_306" class="fnanchor">306</a> It has been stated that this additional horror was commanded by Queen
-Mary herself, but the charge is absolutely without foundation. Sharon
-Turner, amongst others, was of opinion that “the meeting with the bleeding
-body was purely accidental.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_307" href="#FNanchor_307" class="fnanchor">307</a> <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary</cite> says: “Guildford’s carcass
-was thrown into a carre, and his hed in a cloth, he was brought into the
-chappell within the Tower, wher the Lady Jane, whose lodging was in Partridge’s
-house, <em>dyd see his ded carcass taken out of the cart</em>, as well as she dyd see;
-him before a lyve going to his death, a sight to hir no lesse than death.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_308" href="#FNanchor_308" class="fnanchor">308</a> “The Lord Guildford Dudley’s dead carkas lyin in a carre in strawe was
-againe brought into the Tower <em>at the same instant that my Ladi Jane</em> his wyfe
-<em>went to her death</em> within the Tower, which myserable sight was to her a duble
-sorrowe and griefe.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_309" href="#FNanchor_309" class="fnanchor">309</a> He is said to have been of almost gigantic height, and very powerful.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_310" href="#FNanchor_310" class="fnanchor">310</a> This little volume, which purports to give an account of the last days of
-Lady Jane Grey, is quoted by Burke in his <cite>Tudor Portraits</cite>, the Lady Philippa de
-Clifford being there described as the author and as a cousin of Lady Jane Grey,
-who certainly had no first cousin of this name; but among the English Benedictine
-nuns who took refuge at Mechlin in the early part of the seventeenth
-century there is a mention of a Philippa de Clifford, but of which branch of the
-Clifford family it is difficult at this period to ascertain. That the little volume
-exists there can be no doubt, as a copy of it was seen by the author at Brussels
-a few years ago. It was written in French and apparently from notes in the
-possession of its author, who, although a Catholic, says nothing disparaging
-of Lady Jane’s faith. Its authenticity, like that of another little volume on
-the same subject quoted elsewhere, also published in Belgium, must be taken
-with considerable caution. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a
-sort of fashion was started in England, France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy
-for the writing of apocryphal memoirs of popular heroes and heroines: and as
-Lady Jane Grey was a great favourite with the Protestants, both at home and
-abroad, she has been the heroine of several of these volumes, most of which
-are founded upon the famous letter to Queen Mary, quoted by Pollino. They
-must not, however, be disparaged as entirely worthless, for some of them
-undoubtedly contain details that have been handed down during many
-generations. In the British Museum will be found a curious little volume
-called <cite>The Diary of Lady Mary Grey</cite>, which also contains a number of
-very amusing details concerning that unlucky lady which have all the
-appearance of being absolutely true. Similar monographs exist on the lives
-of Anne Boleyn, and especially of Mary Stuart; all of these purport to be
-written by attendants or persons who have derived their information from
-original sources now lost. I am assured that in the Dutch libraries there are
-several contemporary pamphlets on Lady Jane Grey written in the Dutch
-language; and there are also one or two in the Swiss Libraries&mdash;in the main
-they all bear a strong resemblance one to the other, but differ in matters
-of detail. Lady Philippa tells us, for instance, that the headsman of Lady Jane
-was a man of exceptional stature; and this is confirmed by other writers
-whose work could not have been known to the author of the pamphlet in
-question. For lists of the Benedictine nuns at Mechlin, etc., amongst whom
-was Lady Philippa, see in the Brussels Archives: No. 11205, Prevost; <cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Les
-Refugiés Anglais et Irlandais en Belgique à la suite de la Reforme Anglaise
-établie sous Elizabeth et Jacques I</cite>. Gand: <cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Messager des Scénes Historiques</cite>,
-1865. Also: Gachet, <cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Catholiques Anglais et Ecossais Pensionnaires du Duc
-d’Alve</cite>. Bruxelles, 1850.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_311" href="#FNanchor_311" class="fnanchor">311</a> As Lady Jane’s “neckerchief” had been taken off before, one can but
-suppose that she meant to ask the headsman if he would cut her head off as she
-knelt with her body upright, as was sometimes done, and not with her head on
-the block. “<em>Before</em> I lay me down” may be a mistake for, “<em>Without that</em> I
-lay me down.” We may add that there is no mention in any contemporary
-record of Jane’s hands having been tied: probably she held them clasped in
-the attitude of prayer.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_312" href="#FNanchor_312" class="fnanchor">312</a> An old book, entitled, <cite>The Ende of the Ladie Jane Dudlie on the Scaffulde</cite>,
-which was printed at Antwerp in 1560, says her last words were, “I die in peace
-with all people; God save the Queen.” It is more probable, however, that the
-pious Lady Jane used the religious ejaculation printed above.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_313" href="#FNanchor_313" class="fnanchor">313</a> <cite>The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary</cite> thus describes Lady Jane’s
-last moments: “By this tyme was ther a scaffolde made upon the grene over
-agaynst the White Tower for the saide Lady Jane to die upon.... The saide
-Lady being nothing at all abashed, neither with feare of her own deathe, which
-then approached, neither with the ded carcase of her husbande, when he was
-brought into the chapell, came forthe the Lieutenant leading hir, in the same
-gown wherein she was arrayned, hir countenance nothing abashed, neither
-her eyes mysted with teares, although her two gentlewomen, Mistress Elizabeth
-Tylney and Mistress Eleyn wonderfully wept, with a boke in hir hand, whereon
-she praied all the way till she came to the saide scaffolde, whereon when she
-was mounted, this noble young ladie, as she was indued with singular gifts
-both of learning and knowledge, so was she as patient and mild as any lamb
-at her execution.” Here the chronicler describes her gift of the book to
-Brydges, etc., and continues, “Forthwith she untied her gowne. The hangman
-went to her to have helped her therwith, then she desyred him to let
-her alone, turning towards her two gentlewomen, who helped her off therwith,
-and also her frose paste and neckercher, geving to her a fayre handkercher to
-knytte about her eyes. Then the hangman kneled downe, and asked her
-forgiveness, whom she forgave most willingly. Then he willed her to stand
-upon the strawe, which doing she sawe the block. Then she sayd ‘I pray you
-despatche me quickly.’ Then she kneled downe saying, ‘Will you take it off
-before I lay me downe?’ And the hangman answered her, ‘No, madame.’
-She tied the kercher about her eyes. Then feeling for the block, saide, ‘What
-shal I do, where is it?’ One of the standers by guyding her thereunto, she
-layde her head downe upon the block, and stretched forth her body, and said,
-‘Lord, into Thy handes I commende my spirite,’ and so she ended.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_314" href="#FNanchor_314" class="fnanchor">314</a> Historians are very apt to speak of the famous French Ambassador
-de Noailles, as one person, whereas in reality there were two Ambassadors of
-this name, the first of whom was Antoine de Noailles, the son of Louis and
-Catherine de Pierre-Bussiere, who entered diplomacy when he was quite a
-young man and continued in the service until his death, which took place in
-his fifty-ninth year. His tomb can still be seen at Noailles, where his ancestors
-are buried. His wife, Jeanne de Gontault de Biron, is not, however, buried
-with him, although her heart was placed in his coffin.
-</p>
-<p>
-The second Ambassador to our Court of this illustrious family was François
-de Noailles, brother of the last named, who was born on 2nd July 1519. He
-was a very zealous Catholic and extremely pious. He entered the Church
-when he was only twelve years of age, to eventually become Bishop of Acqs
-in 1556. His extraordinary ability for diplomatic intrigue led the King,
-Henry <span class="smcap smaller">II</span>, to send him to various countries on sundry diplomatic missions, even
-at the same time as his brother, and he first appeared in England on the
-occasion of Mary’s victory over the rebels in 1553. He remained in England
-altogether about two years, and his dispatches are frequently confounded with
-those of his brother. François de Noailles died in 1560.
-</p>
-<p>
-Both brothers were greatly opposed to the policy of Queen Mary, and
-thought her unnecessarily harsh and cruel. On more than one occasion they
-were very outspoken to her, especially in the matter of the extraordinary
-number of executions which took place immediately after the quelling of the
-Wyatt insurrection; and they both appear to have thought that she made her
-own unpopularity by her bigotry, and her abject subservience to the wishes
-of her husband.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_315" href="#FNanchor_315" class="fnanchor">315</a> Noailles was certainly not present at the execution in the Tower. He
-gives, however, a very concise account of it, including her speech. His
-version of the tragedy follows that of Foxe very closely.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_316" href="#FNanchor_316" class="fnanchor">316</a> Peter Derenzie states that “the corpse was interred in the Chapel of
-St. Peter-ad-Vincula within the Tower, close by that of her husband, Lord
-Guildford Dudley, and between the decapitated bodies of Anne Boleyn and
-Katherine Howard, without any religious ceremony.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_317" href="#FNanchor_317" class="fnanchor">317</a> See <cite>Zurich Letters</cite> (Parker Society), pp. 154, 515, 686.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_318" href="#FNanchor_318" class="fnanchor">318</a> Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, having ridden out of London against Mary
-in company of Northumberland, was arrested at Cambridge on 19th July
-and conveyed to the Tower of London a day or two later. He was indicted
-with Lady Jane and the others, but was released before the following January,
-by which time he had so completely re-established himself in the Queen’s
-favour that he was given the command of Her Majesty’s troops sent into
-Leicestershire against Suffolk, whom he brought back to the Tower a prisoner.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_319" href="#FNanchor_319" class="fnanchor">319</a> Foxe’s <cite>Acts and Monuments</cite>, vol. ii. p. 1467.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_320" href="#FNanchor_320" class="fnanchor">320</a> It is strange and significant that both in his prayer and in his request for
-haste, Suffolk should have acted exactly as his daughter had done!</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_321" href="#FNanchor_321" class="fnanchor">321</a> Did the Duchess of Suffolk cause her husband’s head to be removed to
-his own house, which stood on the site now occupied by the buildings adjacent
-to this Church? The mansion in question had been the convent of the Order
-of Religious known as the Poor Clares, or in Latin, <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Sorores Minores</i> (from which
-“Minories” has been formed) and was given to Suffolk by Edward <span class="smcap smaller">VI</span>. The
-Church known as Holy Trinity was the convent chapel. It is not altogether
-improbable that the Duchess had the head brought there; on the other hand,
-Suffolk’s will may have contained a request that it should be placed in the
-chapel.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_322" href="#FNanchor_322" class="fnanchor">322</a> See Machyn, pp. 56, 64.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_323" href="#FNanchor_323" class="fnanchor">323</a> What was to have been the ending of this sentence? Was the chronicler
-going to add that the head was removed from the Tower after decapitation?
-Perhaps, after all, the head in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Minories, is
-that of Thomas Grey, and <em>not</em> of the Duke of Suffolk; its resemblance to the
-latter’s portrait arising from a mere family likeness, common to all the
-brothers.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_324" href="#FNanchor_324" class="fnanchor">324</a> The writer is of opinion that Adrian Stokes was a son or near relation
-of John Stokes, the Queen’s brewer, who supplied the Suffolks with beer and
-wine, as appears in the household accounts of the Duke of Suffolk. This
-John Stokes was a notability in his way, and his funeral, which must have
-been a costly function for those days, is recorded by Machyn (p. 177) in the
-following terms: “The vj day of November [1558] was bered at sent Benettes
-at Powlles Warff master John Stokes the queen’s servand and bruar [brewer],
-with ij whytt branchys and x gret stayffes-torchys and iij gret tapurs; and x
-pore men had rosett gownes of iiijs. the yerd [four shillings the yard], and xvj
-gownes, and cottes of xijs. [coats of eleven shillings] the yerd.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_325" href="#FNanchor_325" class="fnanchor">325</a> Vide <cite>Notes and Queries</cite> for 1855, vol. xii. p. 451.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_326" href="#FNanchor_326" class="fnanchor">326</a> The entire family of the Duke of Northumberland and his Duchess was as
-follows:&mdash;
-</p>
-<p>
-Henry, killed at the Siege of Boulogne in the thirty-fifth year of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>,
-aged nineteen.
-</p>
-<p>
-Thomas, who died when two years old.
-</p>
-<p>
-John, who bore the title of Lord Lisle and Earl of Warwick during his
-father’s life. He adopted a martial life, acting as Lieutenant-General during
-Somerset’s expedition into Scotland. He married, in June 1550, Anne
-Seymour. He was sentenced to death at the same time as his father, was
-pardoned, and died at Penshurst, in Kent, ten days after his release from the
-Tower, in 1554.
-</p>
-<p>
-Ambrose was born about 1528. He was tried, together with Lady Jane
-Grey and her husband, in 1553, was pardoned and released in October 1554,
-and died in 1590, being created Earl of Warwick in the fourth year of Elizabeth.
-</p>
-<p>
-Robert, who was born about 1532, having proclaimed Jane Queen at King’s
-Lynn, was sent to the Tower. He was condemned to death on 22nd June
-1554, but was released and pardoned in October 1554. He was created Earl
-of Leicester by Elizabeth, and became famous in her reign.
-</p>
-<p>
-Guildford Dudley, husband of Lady Jane Grey.
-</p>
-<p>
-Henry, who was tried at Guildhall with his brothers Ambrose and Guildford
-in 1553, but liberated. He was killed at the battle of St. Quentin, in 1555.
-</p>
-<p>
-Charles, who died aged four years.
-</p>
-<p>
-The daughters of Northumberland were&mdash;
-</p>
-<p>
-Mary, who married Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, etc., and
-was the mother of Sir Philip Sidney.
-Catherine, the second daughter, who married the Earl of Huntingdon,
-died in 1620, aged seventy-two.
-</p>
-<p>
-Margaret, the fourth daughter, died at the age of ten.
-</p>
-<p>
-Frances, fourth daughter, died as an infant.
-</p>
-<p>
-Temperance, the fifth daughter, died at seven years old.
-</p>
-<p>
-Of all these daughters, the only one who came into intimate contact with
-Lady Jane was Lady Mary, who, it will be remembered, fetched the Lady Jane
-to Sion from Chelsea, on the memorable occasion when she received the homage
-of the Council.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_327" href="#FNanchor_327" class="fnanchor">327</a> Cheke continued to travel on the Continent until 1556, when, being
-invited by Lord Paget and Sir John Mason to go and see them in Brussels in a
-friendly way, he was suddenly taken prisoner <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">en route</i> by the Provost Marshal,
-on the road between Antwerp and Brussels, blindfolded, tied, flung into a
-waggon, taken to the nearest port, and conveyed by sea to the Tower of London,
-“being taken as it were by a whirlwind,” as he says himself. The excuse
-given for his arrest was that he had overstayed the leave of absence granted
-by the royal licence, having endeavoured to establish himself abroad. In
-the Tower he submitted to the Roman Catholic Church. He was later
-released and granted extensive lands; but he died in September 1557, after,
-so it is said, a partial return to Protestantism. He is buried in St. Alban’s
-Church, Wood Street, under a monument bearing some verses by Dr. Haddon.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p class="fn3"><a id="Footnote_328" href="#FNanchor_328" class="fnanchor">328</a> The remainder of the actors in the drama are soon disposed of. The end
-of Judge Morgan we have already mentioned. Feckenham was imprisoned
-for twenty-three years under Elizabeth, and died in Wisbeach Jail. Aylmer,
-once Jane’s tutor, was, on the other hand, extremely fortunate. He fled at
-the coming of Mary, taking refuge in Switzerland, whence he wrote a
-reply&mdash;entitled <cite>An Harborowe for Faythfull and True Subjects</cite>&mdash;to Knox’s
-<cite>Blast</cite>. He returned to England at Elizabeth’s accession; became Archdeacon
-of Lincoln in 1562, Bishop of London in 1576, and died in 1594.
-Ascham remained in England during Mary’s reign, protected, despite his
-ardent Protestantism, by Gardiner. He died in December 1568. The
-treacherous Lord Paget was restored to office under Mary, and appointed Lord
-Privy Seal.</p></div>
-</div></div>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<div class="transnote">
-<h2 class="nobreak p1"><a id="Transcribers_Notes"></a>Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
-
-<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
-preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. Spelling
-of non-English and old-English words not changed.</p>
-
-<p>Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
-quotation marks retained.</p>
-
-<p>Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.</p>
-
-<p>Text sometimes spells “Althorp” as “Althorpe”; both have been retained
-here.</p>
-
-<p>Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references,
-except for reference to page 385, which has been corrected to 358.</p>
-
-<p>Page <a href="#Page_254">254</a>: Letters with overbars (such as ū) indicate contractions.</p>
-
-<p>Page <a href="#Page_254">254</a>: “(to the issu” has no matching closing parenthesis.</p>
-
-<p>Page <a href="#Page_270">270</a>: “Six purse hangers of siver and gilt” was printed that way.</p>
-
-<p>Page <a href="#Page_327">327</a>: “Prince Arthur, younger brother of Henry <span class="smcap smaller">VIII</span>” is
-incorrect: Arthur was the older brother.</p>
-
-<p>Page <a href="#Page_341">341</a>: “Fox” may be a misprint for “Foxe”.</p>
-
-<p>Page <a href="#Page_364">364</a> refers to “Ross” and then “Rowe”; may be the same person.</p>
-
-<p><a href="#Footnote_310">Footnote 310</a>, originally on page <a href="#Page_342">342</a>: The correct title of
-“Messager des Scénes Historiques” is “Messager des Sciences Historiques”.</p>
-
-<p>Page <a href="#Page_364">364</a>: The elegy, written in Latin, apparently contains several
-typographical errors. They have not been changed here, but readers
-may wish to consult other versions of that elegy, such as the one at
-https://books.google.de/books?id=upwNAAAAQAAJ&amp;pg=PA190.</p>
-
-<p>Page <a href="#Page_372">372</a>: Left parenthesis added in the “Warwick, John, Earl of,”
-entry, just before “the Duke of Northumberland’s son”.</p>
-
-
-<p><a href="#Footnote_98">Footnote 98</a>, originally on page <a href="#Page_103">103</a>: “gratias ego” may be a misspelling
-for “gratias ago”.</p>
-
-</div></div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
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