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LIVES

OF

THE TUDOR PRINCESSES

LADY JANE GRAY and HER SISTERS

BY
AGNES STEICKLAND
AUTHOR OF 'LIVES OF THE QUESKS OF EKOLAKD

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1868

PREFACE.

The lives of the Princesses of the Eoyal Tudor line
age, including " Jane the Queen " and her sisters the
Ladies Katharine and IVEary Gray, are here for the
first time presented collectively in chronological order.
They are foUow^ed by the Lady Eleanor Brandon, Coun
tess of Cumberland, the second daughter of Mary Tudor,
Queen-dowager of France, by her marriage Avith Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, on whose posterity, failing
that of the Lady Frances, Marchioness of Dorset, the
fatal heritage of the regal succession of England, had
been entailed by the despotic -will of Henry VIIL, con
firmed by Act of Parliament in his reign, and after his
death by the illegal deed of settlement •wrung from
his son Edward VI. in his dying illness.
This important and much required chain of royal
female biographies commences with the birth of the
beautiful Mary Tudor, youngest surviving daughter of
Henry VIL and his consort Elizabeth of York. A rich
amount of fresh inedited historical matter is embodied
in the Hfe of this princess and those of her posterity.
The rupture of her contract with the Priace of Spain',
' Subsequently the -srorld-renowned Emperor Charles V.

viii .PEEFACE.
after she had worn publicly his ring of solemn be
trothal and borne the title of Princess of Spain; her
state marriage to the aged and infirm Sovereign of
France, Louis XIL, with aU -its pomp and pageantry ;
her splendid but brief royal wedlock, her briefer widow
hood, and hasty lore-match -with the king her brother's
representative at the court of France, the Duke of
Suffolk, the object of her early affection, are circum
stantially recounted here.
The base unkingly manner in which Henry Vlli.
played on the conjugal tenderness of his young iaex-
perienced sister, till he .terrified her into surrendering
into his greedy hands the rich store of jewels and pla'fce
lavished upon her by her late royal husband, quaintly
described by her as " my winnings in France," to pur
chase his forgiveness of Suffolk's presumptuous marriage
with her, is fuUy shown in the holograph letters of
him, whom a recent eloquent panegyrist has eulogised
as the most noble and generous of men, imputing all
his crimes to his patriotic love of England.
Highly curious carved busts of Mary Tudor, the royal
Avidow of France, and her second husband, Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, remain as bosses in the Lady
Chapel of Southwold Church in Suffolk, of which the
Dukes of Suffolk were especial patrons. Woodcuts
from these interesting time-honoured relics of the past
will be found in this work. It may be observed that
Mary Tudor wears, in a modified form, the widow's veil,
which royal etiquette required her to retain as Queen-
dowager of France, even after her second marriage.
The Lady Margaret Clifford, Countess of Derby,

PEEFACE. ix
granddaughter of the Queen-dowager of France and
the Duke of Suffolk, was the last surviving of the
princesses of the royal Tudor lineage on whom the regal
succession was entailed. The events of the Lady Mar
garet's life have never been previously recorded, either
in history or biography. Cautious silence, respecting
the false accusation and long imprisonment of this last
of the kindred female victims of Queen Elizabeth's
jealous state policy, fettered the pens of contemporary
annalists; nor have ¦the historians of the House of
Stanley done aught to raise the cloud in which the
destiny of this lady has hitherto been involved.
Even in the family archives of her noble represen
tative, the Earl of Derby, enquiry has vainly been made
for letters and memorials of her, from whom he derives
the blood of the royal Tudors. The biography of this
ill-treated lady wUl he found replete with interest, and
affording a striking picture of the golden days of good
Queen Bess.
The volume closes with the Hfe of Lady Arabella
S'fcuart, who by her marriage ¦with young WiUiam
Seymour, the grandson of the Lady Katharine Gray
and the Earl of Hertford, fondly imagined to unite her
claim to the regal succession, as the EngUsh-bom
descendant of the Princess Margaret Tudor, eldest
daughter of Henry VIL, -with that which he, the male
representative of Mary Tudor, Queen-dowager of France
and Duchess of Suffolk, derived from the ¦wUl of Henry
VIIL, an unrepealed Act of ParHament, and the illegal
deed of settlement rashly executed by King Edward VT.

CONTENTS.

PEINCESS MAET TUDOE, SECOND DAUGHTER OF KING
. HENET VII., QUEEN OF FRANCE AND DUCHESS OP
SUFFOLK. CHAPTER I. FAQB
Birth of Mary Tudor, second Daughter of Henry 'VII. and Elizabeth
of York, at Eichmond Palace, 1498 — Deaths of the Queen her
Mother, her youngest Brother, und Sister — She appears at Court at
nine Years old, with Katharine of Arragon, AiVido-w of Arthur Prince
of 'Wales — ^Betrothed 'to Charles Prince of Castile — ^Wears his
Espousal Eing, and is entitled Princess of Castile — Charles and his
Grandfather, Emperor Maximilian, send her Jewels — Henry YTJ..
pays her Dower beforehand, and receives rich Cluster of Diamonds,
worth twice as much, in acknowledgment — He dies, and Henry AT^III.
appropriates the Pledge to his own Use — Mary left -without Dower
— Her Plight with Charles of Castile dissolved — Attached to Bran
don, Duke of Suffolk — Louis XII. of France proposes for her — Her
Eeluctance — Henry 'VIII. promises she shall please herself next
Time — Married to Louis by Proxy at Greyfriars, Greenwich — Her
Letters to him — ^Louis impatient to see her — She is conducted by
King and Queen to Dover — Detained there by adverse AVinds a
Month — Favourable Change— Eoused at Four o'clock to embark —
Parts from King and Queen on the Beach — Storm at Sea — Her Ship
in Danger — Grounds on Sandbank near Boulogne next Morning —
— Bride helpless from Sea-sickness — Carried ou Shore through tbe
Breakers in the Arms of a tall Knight — Her Dress and golden Hair
drenched with Salt Spray — Eeceived ty Duo de AT'endome — ^From
Boulogne proceeds to Abbe-viUe — Met by Francis Due de A^alois —
She and her Ladies halt four Miles from the Town, and make
Stat« Toilettes in their Litters — ^Encounter Eoyal Bridegroom at
Ardres — Impeded in Attempt to kneel by her cumbrous Dress —
Courteous Behaviour of Louis  1-19

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE n. PAGE
Maiy TadOT married to the French Eng at Abbeville, October 9 —
He presents costly Jewels to her— Next Day her English Attendants,
Male and Female, are disniisse.d — ^Her Governess, Lady Guildford,
among the rest— Bride heartbroken for the Loss of her "Moder
Guildford "—Her pathetic Letters of Complaint to King Henry and
¦Wolsey — B«gs her Moder Guildford may be sent back — Her Eoyal
Husband continues to give her Jewels — ^FaUs sick of the Gout — She
nurses him — Eeconciled to the Loss of Moder Guildford — Does as
she will with the King, she says — Duke of Suffolk and Marquis of
Dorset como as Ambassadors from England — ^Mary's splendid Coro
nation at St. Denis as Queen of France — Oppressed by the 'Weight
of the Crown — ^Francis of Valois, Heir of France, supports it — ^King
Louis attends as Spectator only — Eoyal Ceremonials and Pageantry
— Jousts and Tournament succeed— Suffolk distinguishes himself
above all the Champions there — Prudent Conduct of the Queen —
Sends Presents of Jewelry to her discarded Ladies — ^Wise Exercise
of her Influence as Queen of France— Death of her Eoyal Consort,
Louis XII., on New Year's Day — His last Letter is in praise of his
youthful Queen ......... 19-41

CHAPTEE m.
Mary, as Eeine Blanche, retires to Hotel de Cluny — Has no Prospect of
bringing Heirs to France — ^The Mother of Francis I. resides -with her
— ^Francis annoys her by making Love to her in her Eetirement, and
' when repelled (for he was a married Man), urges her to marry the
Duke of Savoy — ^Wolsey -writes to her from England, begging her
not to engage herself in Marriage before her Eoyal Husband's
Funeral — She -writes indignantly in Eeply — Begs her Brother to
send for her back to England — Henry sends Suffolk to demand her
Dowry, and to receive her Person — Her VT^idoVs Dower assigned,
and the Queen delivered to Suffolk  41-47

CHAPTEE IV.
Queen's 'White Mourning ends — Her severe Toothache — Detains King
Henry's Surgeon to cure her — Confers -with Suffolk — Says two
English Friars had told her " he had Instructions to land her in
Flanders, and give her in Marriage to Charles of Castile " — ^AVeeps
Bore — ^Urges Suffolk to marry her himself — He consents — Entrance

CONTENTS. xni
PAGE
of Louise of Savoy interrupts passionate Love Scene — She compels
them to immediate Marriage — Sends them into Chapel, where Priests
unite them in holy Wedlock, February 12 — Bride and Bridegroom
in fear of Henry's 'Wrath — Bride executes Deed of Gift to propitiate
him, with the Choice of all her Plate and Jewels — Generous Conduct
of Francis I. — Letter of Suffolk to AYolsey, avowing Marriage — Letter
of Mary to King Henry  47-61

CHAPTEE V.
¦Wolsey's alarming Eeply to Suffolk — Queen writes to Henry, taking
all the Blame on herself — ^Wolsey directs her to at once leave Paris
— Comes to Calais -with Suffolk — 'Writes to Henry — Eeminds him of
his Promise to give her Liberty to please herself after the Death of
King Louis — Offers to give him Part of her Dower if he wUl forgive
Suffolk, repeating that " the Marriage was all her Fault " . 61-73

CHAPTEE 'VI.
Mary arrives in England with Suffolk — Eich Freight of Plate and
Jewels, termed by her "my Winnings iu France" — Kindly received
by King Henry at Greenirich Palace — ^Married publicly to Suffolk
at Grey Friars Church there by his Command — Ffites and Tourna
ment—Suffolk's 'Verses to her — Birth of her Son — Her Letter to the
King — Joins with Queen Katharine and Queen-dowager of Scotland
in interceding for the unruly Prentices on 111 May-Day — Birth of
her eldest Daughter at Hatfield — Royal Christening — Suffolk House
— Progress -with King and Queen to Canterbury — Meets her former
affianced Husband, the Emperor Charles V. — ^His sorrowful Admira
tion — Field of the Cloth of Gtoii — Esteemed the reigning Beauty
there — ^Her pecuniaiy Troubles from the War with France . 73-82

CHAPTEE VIL
Mary plays the Hostess to Charles V. — Her Happiness as Wife and
Mother — Dark Cloud — Suffolk's previous Matrimony — ^Birtli of Lady
Eleanor — Jane Popincourt's Present — Death of her only Son — Her
Eesidence at Bury St Edmund's — ^Treated there like a female
Sovereign — ^Present at the Proclamation of Bury Fair — Eeceives the
Ladies of the Countiy — Patronage of Suffolk Manufactures . 83-88

XIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER vm. PAGE
Westhorpe Hall her favourite Residence — Katharine WiUoughby her
Ward — Benefactress to Mendham Abbey — Her eldest Daughter, the
Lady Frances, betrothed to the Marquis of Dorset — He comes to
reside in her Family  Queen-Duchess in declining Health — Writes
to King Henry about coining to London — Journey of no AvaU —
Marriage of her eldest Daughter, the Lady Frances, to Dorset —
Lady Eleanor betrothed to Lord Clifford — Queen-Duchess dies at
Westhorpe Hall in 1533 — Her Body embalmed and interred in the
Abbey at Bury St. Edmund's — Her two Daughters chief Mourners
— Each places a PaU of Gold on her Coffin — Suffolk's two Daughters
by his first Wife do the like — The Ladies Frances and Eleanor
retire — Her magnificent Tomb in the Abbey — Outrages to the Tomb
and Abbey — Wonderful Preservation of her Body — ^Locks of her
Hair sold by Auction  88-93

LADY JANE GEAT, ¦WIFE OP LOED GUILDFORD
DUDLEY.
CHAPTER I.
Lady Jane Gray, Daughter of Lady Frances Brandon and Henry Gray,
Marquis of Dorset, bom October 1537, at Bradgate, near Leicester
— Her early Promise and leamed Education — ^At Court -with Queen
Katharine Parr — Bears the Candles before Queen at momentous
Visit to King's Chamber — Henry entails regal Succession, afteir his
o-wn Children, on those of Lady Frances, and failing hers, on those
of Lady Eleanor Brandon — Jane regarded as reversionary Heiress of
the Cro-wn — Lives -with Queen Katharine after Henry's Death —
Chief Mourner at her Funeral — Sent Home by Lord-Admiral —
Changes his Mind, and requests her Eetum — Correspondence between
him and. her Parents — He promises to marry her to King Edward —
Dorset seUs her Wardship to him — Jane's early Engagement 'with
Lord Hertford, Somerset's Son, done away — Her Letter to the Admiral
— He comes to Bradgate, and receives her into his Charge — Jane in
his House at the Time of his Arrest and Execution . . 94_i 13

CONTENTS. XV

CHAPTEE II. FAOB
Jane returns to Bradgate — Pursues her Studies with her Preceptor
Aylmer — Her Delight iu Learning — Ascham's Visit — Finds her
reading the "Phsedon" of Plato, while her Parents and all the
Household are hunting in the Park — His Surprise — Her Definition
of true Pleasure — Confides to Ascham the Eelief she finds from
domestic Trials, in her Studies with Aylmer — Her harsh Parents
and gentle Schoolmaster — Her Correspondence -with the learned
Zurich Eeformers — Death of her two Half-Uncles — Her Father
created Duke of Suffolk — Jane comes to Court, and assists at State
Eeceptions of Mary of Lorraine, Queen-Eegent of Scotland — Jane's
Love of Dress and Devotion to Music blamed by Aylmer . 1 1 4-1 23

CHAPTER in.
Intimacy of Jane's Parents with the Princess Mary — ^Violent Illness of
her Mother, Lady Frances — Her Recovery — Goes -with Jane to visit
Princess Mary, and spends Christmas at Tylsey — Presents to Lady
Jane from Princess Mary — Jane stays -with Mary at ClerkenweU —
Goes to Tylsey — Gay Doings there-^Illfeom her equestrian Journeys
— Ascham's Letter to her — His enthusiastic Commendations . 124-131

CHAPTEE IV.
She corresponds in Latin and Greek with Swiss Eeformers — She visits
Princess Mary at Newhall — Incurs her lU-will — Fatal Bon Mot —
Coalition of Dorset with Northumberland — Marriage of Lord Guild
ford Dudley to Jane proposed — Her Eeluctance — Harshness of her
Father— Her Portraits  131-138

CHAPTEE V.
Jane and Guildford Dudley's Marriage — Jointured in Stanfield Hall —
Her Dislike of Duchess of Northumberland — Jane goes to her Mother
at Chelsea— Death of King Edward 'VI.— Jane iU . . 138-143

CHAPTEE VI.
Jane ill at Chelsea — Northumberland's Daughter, Lady Sidney, sent
to take her to Sion House— -King Edward's Death announced, and

XVI CONTENTS. PAGE
her Appointment as his Successor announced to her there by North
umberland and Privy Council — They aU kneel in Homage — Her
Mother and Duchess of Northumberland do the same, and all salute
her Queen — She swoons — Scarcely persuaded to accept the Throne
— Taken by Water to Westminster Palace, Durham House, and the
Tower — Walks in grand Procession to the Royal Apartments — ^Her
Mother bears her Train— Proclaimed Queen— Puts her Sign-Manual
to important Papers as Jane the Queen .... 143-150

CHAPTER Vn.
Jane's next Trouble — The Regalia brought to her — Refuses to have a
Crown made for her Husband — His Anger — His Mother insults her —
Tells him to leave her — Offers to carry him off to Sion — Jane's re
solute Conduct — Forbids hisDeparture — Violent Relapse of IUness —
Inventory of Cro-wn Jewels — ^Pacifies her Husband — Sir Philip Hoby
Ambassador to the Low Countries — In his Letter to Privy Council
styles Guildford the King — CouncU appoint Suffolk to command
Army against Queen Mary — Jane's Distress — ^Northumberland con
sents to take the Command  150-159

CHAPTER •Vin.
Northumberland recommends Jane to the Care of the Council — She
signs his Commission — ^Ridley preaches in her Favour at Paul's Cross
— Northumberland's ill Success — Strength of Party for Mary — Suf- '
folk be-wildered — ^Lords in the Tower selfish and fainthearted — Jane
ill — Counter-Revolution — Her State Canopy removed — Her Father
announces her Fall from Royal State — ^Hernoble Reply — Shehecomes
a Prisoner  , 159-164

CHAPTER IX.
Lord Treasurer demands Cro-wn Jewels of Jane — Strips her and Guild
ford of all their Money — Her guilty Parents pardoned bv Queen
Mary — Reluctant to take fcne's Life — Northumberland and his Ac
complices condemned to Death and beheaded — Harleian Chronicler
dines with the Lieutenant of the Tower in company with Lady Jane
— Minutes of her Conversation — Queen comes to the Tower . 164-172

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE X. PAGE
Lady Jane, her Husband, and his Brothers arraigned for High Treason
in GuildhaU — Sentence of Death pronounced — Dismal Christmas —
Jane's Father revolts — Wyatt's Insurrection — Queen signs June and
Guildford's Death- Warrant — Dr. Feckenham tries to convert her to
be a Roman Catholic in vain— He obtains three Days' Respite from
the Queen — Suffolk brought a Prisoner to the Tower — Jane's beau
tiful fareweU Letter to him  172-177

CHAPTEE XI.
Lord Guildford Dudley desires to take a last FareweU of Jane — Queen
-willing to grant his Wish — Jane declines a parting Interview — Sees
him pass to the Scaffold — ^Waves a silent Adieu — Lieutenant of the
Tower requests some Memorial from her — She gives him her Book of
Devotions — ^Begs her to write in it — Touching Sentence, with her Auto
graph — Her last Words of Comfort to her Father — Sees her Husband's
bleeding Body — Her pathetic Exclamation — Led to the Scaffold— Her
last Speech — Eeads Psalm U. with Feckenham — Bids him grateful
and affectionate FareweU — Her calm courageous Death — Burial in the
Church of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower — Horror of Judge Mor
gan at her Death — Executions of her Father and Lord Thomas Gray
— Hasty second. Marriage of the Lady Frances, his Widow, -with
Adrian Stokes — Their Portraits described .... 177-185

LADY KATHAEINE GEAY, COUNTESS OP HEETPOBD.
CHAPTEE L
Lady Katharine, younger Sister of Lady Jane Gray — Educated by Ayl
mer — Married the same Day to Henry Lord Herbert, Heir to the Earl
of Pembroke and Nephew to Queen Katharine Parr — Lady Jane's last
Letter to Lady Katharine, with Greek Testament — ^Earl of Pembroke
compels his son to divorce Katharine — Queen Mary takes Katharine
and Mary Gray, with Lady Jane Seymour, as Maids of Honour —
EecallB Lady Frances to Court — Lady Jane Seymour iU — Sent to her
Mother at Hanworth — ^Lady Katharine bears her Company — Earl of
Hertford in love with Katharine — His Mother fears the Queen's
Anger — Hertford thinks the Queen cannot object . . . 186-193
a

XTiii CONTENTS.
CHAPTEE II. PAGE
Katharine and Jane Seymour Maids of Honour to Queen Elizabeth —
Hertford confides his Love for Kathariiie to her Mother, Lady
Frances — Her Husband, Adrian Stokes, advises Hertford to ask the
Queen's Consent to the Marriage— Hertford wishes Lady Frances to
'write for him to the Queen — She faUs 01— Sends for Katharine —
TeUs her " she has provided a Husband for her " — Katharine says
" she is very wiUing to have Hertford " — Lady Frances bids Adrian
'write rough Copy'of Letter for her to copy to the Queen, asking her
Consent — Falls very iU — Letter not sent— Lady Frances dies — Her
stately Funeral in St. Edmund's Chapel — Lady Katharine chief
Mourner — No Sympathy, but Harshness, from Queen Elizabeth —
PhiHp II. of Spain projects abducting Katharine, and marrying her
to his Son Don Carlos— She is regarded as the Queen's Successor —
Katharine jealous of Hertford — His Sister Jane reconciles them —
He proposes Marriage, and they are betrothed . . . 193-202

CHAPTEE ni.
Her stolen Marriage — Queen at Greenwich — Katharine and Hertford's
Sister Jane steal to his House in Canon Eow — Jane fetches Priest,
and pays him for uniting the Lovers — Hertford's poetic Wedding-
Eing— The Bride and Jane return to the Palace — ^No one has missed
them — The only Witness to their Marriage, Lady Jane Seymour, dies
soon after — Queen sends Hertford to France — Takes Katharine with
her on Suffolk Progress — Katharine's Distress — HI, and about to be
a Mother — Confides her Trouble to Mrs. Saintlow — No Sympathy —
Katharine enters Lord Eobert Dudley's Bedroom , and implores him
to break her Marriage to the Queen — ^Elizabeth's Fury — Katharine
hurried to the Tower — Unfeeling Letter of Hertford's Mother to
Cecil  202-210

CHAPTER rv.
Katharine in the Tower — -Hertford sent for from France — He and
Katharine examined — Their Depositions — ^Describe the Priest, but
do not know his Name- -He cannot be found — Katharine shows her
Eing in token of her Marriage — No Witness but Lady Jane Seymour,
and she dead — The Deed settling 1,000/. a Year on Katharine by
Hertford lost — She threw it into a Coffer, and could not remember
where  211-218

CONTENTS. xix
CHAPTEE V. PAGE
Lady Katharine's Son bom — Baptism in the Church of the Tower — His
beheaded Kindred — Katharine long iU and weak — Loving Messages
and Posies sent by Hertford — Trial of their Marriage lasts more
than a Year — Queen's Commissioners give Judgment that there had
been no Marriage — Base Letter of Advice from Sir John Mason — Sir
Edward Warner permits Hertford and Katharine to meet — Eesult, a
second Son bom — Hertford's manly Defence — ^Heavy Fiijes levied on
him — Lieutenant of the Tower imprisoned .... 218-224
CHAPTEE VI.
Mischief perpetrated on the Furniture by Katharine's Monkeys and
Dogs — Lieutenant's contemptuous List — Begs to have the damaged
Goods — ^Plague raging in London — Lady Katharine and her Baby
sent to her Uncle, Lord John Gray, at Pergo — Hertford and the
eldest Boy sent to Duchess of Somerset at Hanworth — Newdigate,
second Husband to Hertford's Mother the Duchess, conducts Katha
rine, her Baby, and Attendants to Pergo — Lord John Gray's beseech
ing Letters to Cecil  225-229
CHAPTEE ¦VII.
Lady Katharine's SuppUcation to CecU — Lord John Gray's piteous
description of her Melancholy — Lady Katharine's Petition to the
Queen — ^Lord John Gray's imploring Letter to Cecil . . 236-234
CHAPTEE 'Vin.
Another pleading Letter from Lord John to Cecil for Katharine —
Piteous Letter from herself to Cecil — ^Lord John's Complaints of
Newdigate's Insolence —Encloses Inventory of Clothes for Lady Ka
tharine and her Baby, with other Necessaries, and BiU for their
Board — CecU and Lord Eobert Dudley send the Amount to Hertford,
requesting him to pay  236-240
CHAPTEE IX.
Hertford compeUed to pay for his Wife's and Baby's Clothes and Board
— Letters to Leicester, begging his Influence with the Queen — Hypo
critical Letter in reply — Hertford writes again — Sends Gloves to tiie
Queen — ^Letters of the Duchess of Somerset to CecU — Death of Lord
John Gray — Katharine committed to the Custody of Lord Petie 240-246

XX CONTENTS.
CHAPTER X. PAOB
Katharine removed from Lord Petre and quartered on Sir John Went
worth at Gosfield Hall, near Halstead— His sick Wife, and Eeluctance
to receive State Prisoner — He dies — His Wife stiU compeUed to be
Katharine's Keeper — Remonstrances of Sir John's Executor, Mr.
Book Green— Katharine at last committed to Sir Owen Hopton,
Lieutenant of the Tower — He obtains Leave to take her 'with him to
Cockfield HaU, near Yoxford — Stop at Ipswich — Eest next Day at
Snape  245-247
CHAPTER XI.
Katharine's holy Death at Cockfield Hall — Sends her Betrothal, Wed
ding, and Mourning Rings to Hertford — The Passing Bell — ^Her
Death in Yoxford Register — Buried in Yoxford Church — Expenses
of her Burial there — Her faithful Dog pines to Death on her Grave —
Her Portrait at Cockfield HaU (see Frontispiece) — After-Life of
Hertford— His two last Wives — ^Epitaph on him and Katharine in
Salisbury Cathedral — Her Eemains removed — ^Eest with his there 247-259

LADY MARY GEAY, WIPE OP THOMAS KEYES.
CHAPTER I.
Lady Mary Gray, youngest Daughter of Lady Frances Brandon and
Henry Gray, Marquis of Dorset, bom in 1545 — Almost a Dwarf,
but, by Edward VI.'s Deed of Settlement, reversionary Heiress of
the Crown — Betrothed at eight Years old, the Day of Lady Jane's
Bridal, to Lord Gray of Wilton — ^Forsaken by him — ^Left in the
Nursery — ^WhoUy destitute at the Execution of her Father and dis
graceful Marriage of her Mother to Adrian Stokes — ^Maid of Honour
to Queen Mary — Subsequently to Queen Elizabeth — ^Fourteen at her
Mother's Death — Her stolen Marriage with Thomas Keyes, Ser
geant-Porter, at Westminster Palace  260-265
CHAPTEE n.
Secret Nuptials reported — Bride and Bridegroom arrested — Cross-
questioned by Privy Council — Bridegroom committed to the Fleet —
Bride to the Custody of Mr. Hawtrey, a Buckinghamshire Squire —

CONTENTS. XTi
PAGE
Eides behind him to his Mansion, " The Chequers " — Her Maid and
Man foUowing 'with her Baggage on Packhorses — ^Lady Mary very
unhappy — ^Writes to implore Cecil's Favour .... 266-269

CHAPTEE m.
Lady Mary's penitential Letter and Petition to the Queen — Disregarded
— Harsh Treatment of Keyes in the Fleet Prison — He offers to re
nounce Lady Mary if he might be released — Is refused — Almost
poisoned in the Fleet — ^Forbidden to shoot Sparrows with his Cross
bow in Fleet Garden  269-274

CHAPTER IV.
Lady Mary transferred to the Ward of Katharine, Duchess-dowager of
Suffolk — Brought thither riding behind Squire Hawtrey — Her Maid
and Man attending— Duchess demands Lady Mary's "Stuff" — Lady
Mary much mortified — ^Weeps, and wiU not eat — Hawtrey sends her
smaU Pack of Goods next Day — Duchess 'writes satirical Account to
CecU of their Defects — Asks for better from the Queen . . 274-279

CHAPTEE V.
Lady Mary lives two Years 'with the Duchess — Forms close Friendship
'with her Daughter-in-law, Lady Mary Bertie, but is not suffered to
rest — Transferred to Sir Thomas Gresham's Charge — List of her
Books — Lady Gresham impatient of her Presence — Sir Thomas
petitions Burleigh and Leicester to have her removed . . 279-284

CHAPTEE VI.
Lady Mary informed of her Husband's Death — Her Grief— Sir Thomas
'writes to ask Lord Burleigh "whether Lady Marymay wear Black" —
Begs to be deliveredof her — She writes to Burleigh, praying to be re
stored to the Queen's Favour — Begs that she may be permitted to live
'with her Step-father, Adrian Stokes — Sir Thomas Gresham continues
to pray that he may be relieved from her Eesidence with him — Lady
Mary writes again to Burleigh, pleading her Poverty — Has only 20/.
a Year, and " destitute of all Friends but God and her Majesty " 284-288

xxii CONTENTS.
CHAPTEE vn. PAGE
Liberated and friendless— Suffered to reside with Adrian Stokes, Char
terhouse, Sheen— Sends New Year's Gift of gold Buttons and
perfumed Gloves to the Queen — Eeceives in return sUver Cup and
Cover— Her Will-Death, 1678  288-292

LADY ELEANOR BEANDON, COUNTESS GP CUMBERLAND.
Second Daughter of Maiy Tudor, Queen-dowager of France, and
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk — ^Married to Henry Lord Clifford,
eldest Son of the Earl of Cumberland, at Suffolk House, Southwark
— GaUeiy and octangular Towers at Skipton Castle buUt in honour
of the Marriage — Joy of the CUffords — Bolton Abbey presented by
Henry 'VIII. to her Husband — Lady Eleanor's Peril during Pilgrim
age of Grace whUe at Bolton Abbey with her first-born Son and her
Ladies — Her Lord besieged at Skipton Castle — Frightful Menaces
of the Insurgents to compel her Lord to surrender Skipton Castle —
Lady Eleanor, her Babe, and Ladies relieved by the Chivalry of
Christopher Aske — Death of the Earl of Cumberland, her Husband's
Father — Her Lord succeeds to the Title — Eleanor becomes Countess
of Cumberland — Both her Sons die in Infancy — She retires to
Brougham Castle with her little Daughter for Change of Air and
Scene — Dies there — Buried in Skipton Church — Intense Grief of her
Lord— His long Trance— The Clifford Vault in Skipton Church— Its
Inmates  293-297

LADY MAEGAEET CLIFFORD, COUNTESS OP DEEBY
AND QUEEN IN MAN.
CHAPTEE I.
Lady Margaret Clifford, only surviving ChUd of Lady Eleanor Brandon
and Henry Earl of Cumberland — Bom in Brougham Castle, Cum
berland, 1540 — Seven Years old at her Mother'sDeath — Her Title to
the Eegal Succession by some preferred to that of the Daughters of
Lady Frances Brandon, because her Mother, Lady Eleanor, was not
born tUl after the Death of Charles Brandon's first Wife, Anne

CONTENTS. xxui

PAGE
Bro'wn, who persisted in claiming to bo his Wife after the Birth of
Lady Frances — Northumberland seeks Lady Margaret for his Son,
Guildford Dudley, before his Marriage with Lady Jane Gray — Mis
tress Elizabeth Huggins' Sayings on that projected Alliance — OuLord
Guildford's Engagement with Lady Jane Gray, Northumberland
seeks Lady Margaret for his Brother, Sir Andrew Dudley — The
Earl of Cumberland refuses his Consent .... 298-301

CHAPTEE II.
Lady Margaret one of the great Ladies of Queen Mary's Court — Marries
Lord Strange, Son to the Earl of Derby — Grand Wedding Festi-
vities^King Philip joins in the Moorish Game of Cane-tilting —
Lady Strange secretly boasts her Eight to succeed the childless
Queen — She attends Queen Elizabeth, and bears her Train — She and
her Lord, when not at Court, reside at Gaddesden — His Extrava
gance — ^Borrows large Sums of her Father — Plans to evade Pay
ment — Her conjugal Trials  301-305
CHAPTEE m.
Margaret's Grief at her Father's Death — Queen expresses Sympathy —
Writes to restrain Lord Strange from selling Margaret's Lands to
pay his Debts— Lord Huntingdon's incendiary Letter — Noble Cha
racter of Edward Earl of Derby — His Death — Margaret's Husband
succeeds to his Honours and Estates — Margaret's New Year's Gifts
to the Queen — ^Eeturns of Plate  306-310
CHAPTEE IV.
Queen jealous of Lady Derby's supposed Title to the Throne — Earl
of Sussex offers to place her eldest Son in the Eoyal Household —
Earl of Derby's Letter accepting the Proposal — Fernando Lord
Strange placed with the Queen — Lady Margaret, in ill Health, retires
to Latham — Afflicted with Toothache — Dr. Randall, a celebrated
Empiric, offers to cure her — Queen accuses Margaret of practising
against her Life by Art-Magic with a Conjuror — Margaret and her
Servants arrested— Dr. Randall hanged — Lady Derby committed to
the Ward of Thomas Seckford, Master of the Court of Requests —
Her piteous Letter to Walsingham — Tormented by importunate
Creditors— Begs Leave to sell some of her Land — Her AppUcation to
Walsingham of no Avail — ^Writes to Sir Christopher Hatton on behalf
of one of her Servants accused of Treason — Hatton assists the poor
Man — Lady Derby writes gratefully in return from ClerkenweU 311-319

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V. PAGE

Lady Derby remains in Sickness, Poverty, and Capti'vity — Melancholy
Letter to Hatton, prior to his Elevation to the Woolsack — Her Cousin
Seckford — His noble Charities — Books dedicated to Lady Derby —
Time-serving Conduct of her Husband — Margaret permitted to live
at her House at Isleworth through Hatton's Intercession — Sends
Copy of her Letter of Thanks to the Queen for his Corrections 319-324

CHAPTER VI.
Margaret's obsequious Letter of Thanks to the Queen — ^No Reason to
think Margaret and her Husband ever met again — He died in 1593 —
Their Children — Their Son Fernando Lord Strange succeeds as Earl
of Derby — Dies in the Flower of his Days, supposed by Poison —
Succeeded by his Brother William — ^Lady Margaret dies in London —
Buried in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey . . 324-328

LADY AEABELLA STUART, WIFE OF WILLIAM SEYMOUE.
CHAPTER L
Lady ArabeUa Stuart, Great-granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, Prin
cess Eoyal of England, and Queen of Scotland.' — Margaret's Daugh
ter by her second Husband, the Earl of Angus, was the Countess
of Lennox and Mother of Lord Charles Stuart, Arabella's Father
by his Marriage -with Elizabeth Cavendish, Daughter of the Countess
of Shrewsbury — ArabeUa was born at Chatsworth in 1575— Ara
bella affectionately mentioned by Mary Queen of Scots in her
Letter to Countess of Lennox — Death of her Father— Her Portrait
atHardwick, in the second Year of her Age .... 329-334

' See "Life of Margaret Tudor" in Lives of the Queens of Scotland and
English Princesses connected with the Segal Steccession of Great Britain,
vol. i., by Agnes Strickland; and "Life of Lady Margaret Douglas, Coun
tess of Lennox," vol. ii. Und.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE II. PAGE
Arabella claims to be Countess of Lennox — Her Mother's Solicitations
in her Behalf — ^Her Letters to Cecil and Lord Eobert Dudley —
Death of Margaret Countess of Lennox, her Grandmother— Death
of ArabeUa's Mother — ^Earland Countess of Shrewsbury's Letters on
her Death — Countess prays for Money to be aUowed for Arabella's
Education — ArabeUa with Countess at Sheffield — Boasts of her as
rightful Heiress of the Crown — Designs her to wed the Son of Lei
cester — He dies in Childhood — ^ArabeUa invited to Court by Queen
Elizabeth — Dines at Queen's Table — Impressively mentioned to
French Ambassador's Lady as future Queen .... 334-343
CHAPTEE m.
Effects of ArabeUa!s Visit to Court — ^Merry, but wiU not study — Con
sidered future Queen by aU her Grandmother's FamUy — Grows up a
lovely young Woman — ^Friendly Letter from King of Scotland — Plot
for her Abduction to Flanders commimicated to old Countess of
Shrewsbury —Her Letter to Burleigh — King of Scots desires to marry
ArabeUa to Duke of Lennox — ^EUzabeth sternly forbids the Match —
Arabella resides with old Countess in Derbyshire — Her costly New
Year's Gift to the Queen  343-348

CHAPTEE IV.
ArabeUaat five-and-twenty engages in Love- Affair 'with Earl of Northum
berland — Queen forbids it — Intrigues of foreign Princes for Ara
bella's Marriage — ^Pope's Desire for her to mariy Cardinal Farnese —
Eeport of her Conversion to Church of Rome — King of Scotland
expresses his Regret — ^ArabeUa proposes herself to Lord Beauchamp,
on the Deathof his Wife, for his second Consort — Queen's Uneasiness
— ArabeUa arrested and confined in Sheriff Hutton Castle — Eliza
beth's last Words — ^Lady Arabella refuses to walk chief Mourner
at EUzabeth'g Funeral  348-353

CHAPTEE V.
Pleasant Change — ^King James's Accession to the Throne of Great
Britain — ArabeUa meets and welcomes his Queen — Appointed State
Governess to Princess Eoyal — ^Fowler's Love — ArabeUa's Iietter from
Woodstock — Description of Spanish Ambassador — Goes 'with Queen
to Winchester — Eoyal Pastimes  353-358
b

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE VL PAGE
Eeturns to London— Present at Trial of Sir Walter Ealeigh— Cecil's
Vindication of her — Lord Nottingham's Speech in her Favour —
Ealeigh's contemptuous Speech of ArabeUa — She is present at Garnet's
Trial— New Year's Gifts to Queen— King of Poland's Offer for her
Hand refused by the King— Queen's Brother in lo^e 'with her — She
is not indined to wed — King increases her Allowance — She is iU
from perpetual Hunting, tired of boi sterous Exercise — ^Not on friendly
Terms with Tier Grandmother — King writes to old Countess, begging
her to be reconciled to Arabella — ^ArabeUa goes to see her, but has
cold Eeception . . . . ^ ¦ » • • 358-361

CHAPTEE vn.
ArabeUa Godmother to new-bom Princess Mary — King, in high Glee,
bids her ask what she will of him — ^Asks a Peerage for her Uncle
Sir Henry Cavendish — Her friendly Letters to Henry Prince of
Wales — She ia jn debt, retires into the Country — Bess of Hard'wick's
WUl — ^Arabella disappointed of her Legacies — King grants her a
Monopoly on PubUcans' Licences  362-366

CHAPTEE VIIL
Arabella's Extravagance in Dress — Has Small-pox — King gives her
valuable Gifts — Her earnest Letter to Earl of Shrewsbury — ^William
Seymour, Grandson to Lady Katharine Gray and Earl of Hertford,
seeks Arabella for his Wife, though much younger than she . 366-369

CHAPTEE IX.
Arabella's Acquaintance with WiUiam Seymour commenced at a Court
Ball — ^Proposes himself for a Husband to her, and is accepted at once —
Arrange for a private Marriage — Secret transpires — ^Both summoned
before the CouncU, and questioned — ^ArabeUa satisfies the King — Both
cautioned and dismissed — King grants large Income to her — She
marries Seymour privately at Greenwich — Personates Nymph of
Trent at Queen's costly Masque — ^Her splendid Dress — Her Mar
riage discovered— Arabella and her Husband summoned before
the Council — Censured, and both committed for their Offence ; he to
the Tower, and she to the Charge of Sir Thomas Parry at Lambeth
— 'WhUe there, Seymour is iU, and she writes to him . . 369-373

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE X. PAGE
Arabella petitions King and Council — Demands Servants and Clothes
— Lady Jane Drummond's Letter — Queen has presented ArabeUa's
Petition to the King — His Eemark — Queen sends Token of Regard —
She 'writes to thank Queen — Sends Article of her Work — Reports of
her stolen Interviews with her Husband carried to the King — He
gives Orders for her Removal from Lambeth to the Care ofthe Bishop
of Durham — ArabeUa refuses to go, or to rise from her Bed— Car
ried in her Bed to the Boat — Removed to Highgate — Five Days there
ill — Then removed to Barnet — Continues to 'write Petitions to the
King — Procures a Month's Respite — ^Writes to Seymour — Arranges
for their simultaneous Escape to France— Disguises herself in male
Attire — Walks out of the House 'with Markham — Gets a Horse at
the Inn — Ostler says, " That Gentleman will scarce hold out to
London " — She arrives at Blackwall ; finds her Maid at the Inn, but
not Seymour  374-380

CHAPTER XI.
Seymour does not leave the Tower in time to join ArabeUa — She goes
down the River to French Ship — Captain wiU not wait for Seymour,
and puts to Sea — Pursued by S'wift-saihng Ship " Adventure " — Ship
chaUenges Frenchman, and fires a Broadside^Arabella, terrified at
the Shot, proclaims herself — Brought hack to London — She and her
Confederates and Countess of Shrewsbury examined by the Council
—Countess refuses to answer — Both committed to the Tower — ^Letter
of her Uncle, Charles Cavendish, to Henry Butler — Seymour's Ad
ventures and Escape — ^Distress of old Earl of Hertford on receiving
Frances Seymour's Letter teUing him of what had happened — His
own Letter to SaUsbury — ^Attachment of Margaret Byron to Lady
Arabell*  380-388
CHAPTER xn.
Arabella in the Tower — Sends an elaborate Piece of her Embroidery
to the King — He refuses to accept it — Her Letter to Henry Prince
of Wales — Orders costly Dresses for the Wedding of Princess Royal —
Her Reason fails — Becomes utterly insane — Her wild Letter — Dies in
the Tower — Buried at Night in Westminster Abbey, in the same Vault
as Mary Queen of Scots — ^Epitaph written on her by Corbet, Bishop
of London — ^False Eeport of her leaving a Child by Seymour — Sequel
of Seymour's Life  388-392

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PoETBAiT OF Lady Kathaeinb Geat . . Frontispiece
Maey Tuboe akd Charles Beaihjon, Duke of Suffolk,
from bosses in the Lady Chapel in Southwold Church,
Suffolk ..... to face page 93

LIVES

OP IHE

TUDOK PKINCESSES.

MAEY TrDOR

CHAPTEE I.
Hitherto our lamp of biography, carried along and
kept alight with care throughout the difficult path of
personal narrative, has been admitted to have thro'wn
some illumination on the dark recesses of history. We
trust it will not now fail us when recording the events
that befell the illustrious ladies of the second line in
our regal succession. Entangled in the meshes of a
disputed regal title which fatally interfered with all
their hopes of domestic happiness, the Uves of these
princesses present examples of varied adventures of fre
quent heavy calamity. In most instances their troubles
were bome ¦with patience, and, in some, resignation was
united with the highest heroism.
The mother of this branch of the royal family, Mary
Tudor, youngest survi-viug daughter of Henry VII. and
Elizabeth of York, was bom at Eichmond Palace, 1498,
being eight years younger than her brother Henry,

2 MAEY TUDOE. 1498-1503.
and more than nine the junior of Margaret, Queen of
Scotland. She had the -same governess. Lady Guild
ford, as her sister, whom she always called her " moder
Guildford." The Lady Mary was the beauty of the
House of Tudor, and was generally allowed to be the
fairest princess in Europe.
Early in her childhood Sir Thomas More with Eras
mus, the visitors of Lord Montjoy, came to the neigh
bouring palace of Croydon, where they were permitted to
see the royal chUdren assembled in the hall. Erasmus'
observes that while Prince Henry and his sister Mar
garet held their receptions with premature majesty,
the little Lady Mary, a child of three years old, was
sporting on the floor near her brother Edmund, a babe
in his nurse's arms.
Prom this interview Sir Thomas More drew his de
scription of Mary when he wrote her mother's funeral
monody some months afterwards, in which the dying
queen is thus represented as bidding farewell to her
young family : —
" Adieu, Lord Henry, loving son, adieu !
Our Lord increase your honour and estate.
Adieu, my daughter Mary, bright of hue,
God make you virtuous, wise, and fortunate.
Adieu, sweetheart, my little daughter Kate ;
Thou shalt, sweet babe — such is my destiny —
Thy mother never know, for here I lie."
Mary was soon rendered the youngest chUd of the
royal family by the demise of " the little daughter Kate,"
who speedily descended to the tomb of their royal
mother. The young Mary, when in public, appeared under the
' Letter of Erasmus.

1508. AFFIANCED TO CHAELES OF CASTILE. 3
care of her sister-in-law Katharine of Arragon, Princess
of Wales, the widow, of her elder brother Prince Arthur.
She was present and took her part at- the high festival
given to PhUip the Pair and his consort, when they
were the unwUling guests of her father. Accompanied
by Katharine, the Lady Mary, a young girl in her ninth
year, received Joanna, the regnant Queen of Castile,
mother of her betrothed, Charles of Austria. The beau
tiful chUd displayed her accompUshments, danced her
base-dances, played at tables or backgammon, and did
her best to entertain the royal guest during a long
day at Windsor Castle.' She wooed Philip to dance,
who unvrillingly broke off his diplomatic converse -with
King Henry, and said coldly, " he was a mariner, and
not attired fit for dancing." PhUip was suffering in
his health, and evidently marked for the early death
that soon carried him off.^
The venerable press of Pynson has recorded the
fiangailles of the young Lady Mary Tudor to Charles
of CastUe.' The. Flemish herald-king, by title Toison
d'Or, accompanied by a crowd of nobles from the Low
Countries, the President of Flanders, and other wise
and valuable people, doctors of laws, and provosts of
towns, came 'to see that their young prince was properly
betrothed to the fair Mary. The prior of Canterbury
received and lodged them at St. Augustine's hall and
palace, and Sir Edward Poynings escorted them to
London. In the midst of aU the ceremonial of introduc
tion to the city, Pynson's venerable tract has a leaf
tom out, but they were, it seems, safely ushered into the
royal presence at Greenwich Palace.* The Emperor
' Cottonian MS. ' Hall's Chronicle.
' Tract (British Museum) by Eichard Pynson.
* Bid. B 2

4 MAEY TUDOE. 1508.
MaximUian treated for his grandson, calling himself
tutor, meaning guardian.
After Henry VH. had dined vdth the principal proxy
caUed the Lord of Barg and the Governor of Bresse, at
his o'wn table, he retired to his gaUery, which was
"richly hanged and adorned," whither entered the
young bride Mary, announced as Princess of CastUe,
chaperoned by her widowed sister-in-law Katharine,
Princess of Wales, both accompanied by " a goodly
number of fair ladies." From this gaUery, which seems
to have been open towards the tUt-yard, the princess
vfitnessed joustings for three days, and assisted at the
banquets and baUs which concluded the evenings, where
" the brUliancy of her beauty, her modesty and gravity,
and the princely gestures with which she comported
herself," were considered 'truly laudable in a princess
who had not seen her twelfth birthday, giving to the
Dutch dignitaries present the utmost satisfaction. In
the course of these entertainments the Lady Mary re
ceived from the ambassadors the jewels sent her by
her betrothed and his imperial grandsire. Charles's
present was a jewel in the form of a K, for Karolus,
composed of diamonds and pearls, in which was written
a Scripture text in Latin, saying that " Maria had
chosen the good part, which should not be taken from
her " — an affirmation not kept to the letter.
The Emperor Maximilian sent his chosen grand
daughter an orient ruby surrounded by pearls, and her
bridegroom's aimt, the Duchess of Savoy, a goodly balass
ruby garnished with pearls. " At the banquet there was
no salt, cup, or layer [tray or waiter], but was of fine gold,
nor no vessel but was richly gUt." ' Notwithstanding the
' Tract (British Museum) by Eichard Pynson.

1509. DEATH OF HEE EOYAL FATHEE HENEY Vn. 5
approval of this vast deputation of Low Country mag
nates, the fiangailles were not completed for six months
afterwards, when the young princess received from the
proxy ofthe Archduke Charles, December 17, 1608, the
spousal ring, which she wore on the first joint of the
ring-finger. Her father Henry VII. paid her dowry of
50,000 crowns to the Emperor MaximUian, but, with his
characteristic caution, demanded a pawn for the money
advarujed, which was given in a cluster of magnificent
diamonds of tlie finest water, valued at twice the sum.'
Henry VII. died in the course of the ensuing year,
when a great change took place in the prospects of his
younger daughter. He left her the sum of 60,000
crowns for which the Flemish jewel was pledged, in the
expectation that young Charles of Castile and Austria
would speedUy claim the jewel and his brighter bride.
TJnfortimately for the Lady Mary, the jewel took the
fancy of the young king her brother, who frequently
wore it on his hat, and showed no signs of -willingness
to give it up, although frequently urged -to do so.
AU chroniclers, and even the pages of general history,
assert that. young Mary of England was attached to her
brother's showy favourite, Charles Brandon, before her
hand was pledged to Louis XII. of France. feCow this
eorUd be is a difficult case to decide, considering the
already existing claims on his hand.
The famUy of Charles Brandon had not the most
distant claim -to royal or even to noble descent. It
was merely in the ranks of the country gentry, pos
sessing, perhaps, some manorial rights in the town of
Brandon, situated in an odd angle of West Suffolk,
which is even now, with aU modem agricultural im-
' Speed's Chronicle; Hall.

6 . MAEY TUDOE. 1S09-
provements, irreclaimably afflicted vrith the plague of
barrenness. From this town the Brandons derived therr
weU-sounding name. Sir WUliam Brandon, the grand
father of Charles, according to the Paston Papers, must
have been a most profligate savage, being disgraced
for his immoral doings by Edward IV. (himself not a
person whose aspirations were very high in the scale of
morality). His son became, in consequence, a staunch
Lancastrian; he met his death from the desperate
valour of Eichard III., as Eichmond's standard-bearer,
whom the king hewed down when making his last
farious charge to retrieve the fortunes of Bosworth
Field. Henry VH., grateful to the memory of the man
who, by the interposition of his person, had saved his
life, took the infant Charles Brandon from the evU ex
ample of old Sir WiUiam, his grandfather, and brought
him up as a royal ward. The boy was about five years
older than Arthur, Prince of Wales.'
When the second son of England, Prince Henry, was
born, young Charles Brandon was placed in office near
him, and the prince attached himself to him with affec
tion of the utmost endurance. When Prince Henry be
came heir-apparent, the career of favour which opened to
Brandon seemed boundless. He was one of the taUest
and most robust knights at the court of England,
reckoned remarkably handsome; his healthful com
plexion and manly figure were, according to the standard
of beauty in those days, his chief advantages. Before
Henry VIIL grew up, and whUe the Princess Mary was
yet a child, young Brandon had entangled himself in
more than one matrimonial engagement. He had
married a daughter of Sir Anthony Browne; her he
• Hall's Chronicle.

1513. CHAELES BEANDON'S MAEEIAGES. 7
dismissed on some pretence, and married her relative,
a widow. Lady Mortimer. The Church obUged him
to return to his old love, who died in 1613, leaving
him with two survi'ving daughters. Charles Brandon
was soon afterwards engaged to 'the heiress of Lord
Lisle, and was created a baron by that title, in antici
pation of the marriage. Suddenly he fancied that
" Savoy^s bloomy duchess," as Drayton calls Margaret
of Austria, was captivated by his address and valo'ur in
the -tUt-yard, when he went on some diplomatic mission
¦to Flanders, relative to the interminable marriage ne
gotiations -with her nephew Charles and the Princess
Mary.' By a reckless act of favouritism, Henry Vill.
elevated his beloved Charles to -the royal dukedom of
SuffoUi. Henry Vill. received, when at Toumay, in the
summer of 1513, a 'visit from the young Archduke
Charles of CastUe, or Austria, who came accompanied
by his aunt, Margaret of Austria, the Dowager of Savoy
and Eegent of 'the Netherlands, for the purpose of con
gratulating him on the faU of that city, taken from
their mutual enemy the King of France. The Duchess
of Savoy seemed captivated by the appearance and
fame of Charles Brandon, who had recently made a
dashing sortie almost to Paris gates, and was deemed
the hero of the day by his own coun-trymen and their
aUies. Henry Vill. was infinitely amused by pro
moting a love-making scene, when they met at Lisle,
between his favourite and the fair regent. Exulting in
his o-wn command of languages, he ac-fced as interpreter
between the duchess-regent and Brandon, greatly de-
lio-hting in the blunders she made in English: as
' Hall's Chronicle.

8 MAEY TUDpE. 1514.
for the handsome favourite, he covUd have conquered
Paris sooner than have wooed the daughter of the
Caesars in any language she could understand. The
king made Brandon kneel before her ; he drew from her
hand a ring, as if in betrothal, giving her in exchange
one of great value ; but Margaret replied that " Brandon
was no mate for her; and as the ring taken was
her official signet, she must have it restored." ' The
foUowing spring, the king, the Princess . Mary, the
Duchess Margaret, the Archduke Charles, and Brandon
were all to meet at Calais, for the purpose of concluding
the long-negotiated marriage between the princess and,
the archduke; but the ever-recurring -wrangle respect
ing the diamond fieur -de-luce of the men of Ghent pre
vented it from taking place. At last, by the diplomatic
tricks of her brother, the fair Mary was left utterly
pennUess. The coimcU of Flanders declared they would
gladly receive her to be espoused to their prince, for
they knew she was one of the fairest ladies in the
world; but, as concerning the articles of her dower,
they could not fulfil it without the consent of Ferdinand,
King of Arragon, who was minded to marry the Prince
of CastUe in Spain. Henry would not marry his sister
-without a settlement or dower being secured to her, and
that the Flemish statesmen would not give vnthout her
portion ; and thus Mary, in the commencement of the
year 1514, was repudiated, although she had for some
years assumed the title of Princess of Castile.'
While thus situated, the grandest aUiance the world
coiUd offer was proposed to the Lady Mary. The
Duke of LonguevUle, a French prince of the blood,
' From her own curious narrative. Chronicle of Calais. Camden So
ciety. ' Hall's Chronicle.

1514. HEE MAEEIAGE 'WITH CHAELES V. DISSOLVED. 0
then a prisoner in England, being captured in the
skirmish called the Battle of the Spurs, pointed out to
Katharine of Arragon that her fair young sister-in-law
would make an admirable Queen of France. Louis XII.
had been recently left a most disconsolate widower by
the decease of his queen, Anne, Duchess of Bretagne,
yet was in great haste to marry, as he was aged, and
had no heirs. The negotiation was carried on with ra
pidity by Queen Katharine and her Ulustrious prisoner,
who had obtained the co-operation of Jane Popincourt,
the favourite lady of the young princess.
, The result was, that whatsoever manifestation of
attachment might have existed between the Princess
Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon in the course of the
year 1514, was crushed Tinder the inteUigence that
she must yield her hand to the infirm and homely
Louis XIL, King of France, whose character and dis
position, although excellent, were not Ukely to outweigh
the difference of his sixty years in the estimation of a
girl of sixteen. No resistance she could make altered
her destiny in the least, for Henry VEIL had ingeniously
arranged a method reconciUng at the same time his re
tention ofthe guttering Flemish pawn, dot, and promised
her a' splendid dower. Henry had waged war against
the King of France on the pretext of forcing him to pay
up the tribute of a yearly annuity with which Louis XI.
had bought off the imwelcome visitation of Edward IV.
at the head of fifty thousand English yeomen. A mil-
Uon crowns were demanded by Henry VIII. ; out of this
bad debt, Louis XH. agreed that two hundred thousand
should be deducted and aUowed, as if Henry had paid
down the same sum actuaUy left by Henry VIL as his
youngest daughter's portion. Thus the diamond fleur-
de-Us remained clear gain in the jewel-box of the

10 MAEY TUDOE. 15U.
EngUsh king. The bride, meantime, was to be jointured
as splendidly as any Queen of France, even equaUy to
her predecessor, Anne of Bretagne, a sovereign in her
own right.
A lively discussion took place between Henry VIII.
and his young sister before she could be induced to ac
cept this capital bargain and her ancient suitor. They
came, however, to a compromise, by which the king
engaged that, if his sister submitted quietly to be the
pledge of peace between England and France on this
occasion, she should please herself in the choice of a
spouse the next time she bestowed her hand.' Henry
pacified the princess as crying children are soothed by
their nurses with extravagant promises if they wUl take
physic, in hopes they wiU forget all that was said ; but
young Mary clung to the promise with Tudor tenacity,
and took the first opportunity of acting on the same.
The Emperor Charles was deeply offended at the
beautiful Mary Tudor, who had been affianced to him and
styled Princess of Castile ever since 1509, being espoused
to Louis XII., and angrily threatened the members of
his privy councU for having tamely suffered him to be
deprived of his English bride. ^ The Due de Longue-
viUe, when he returned -to his o-wn coun-fcry, had under
taken to make a request to his king that when the
princess became Queen of France, Jane Popincourt
¦ might be retained in her service, because she was of all
ladies the most trusted and beloved by her. Louis XII.
was a good-natured man, but, at the same time, an old
politician ; he forthwith discussed this request for the
• Lord Herbert's Henry VIIL; Groves' Wolsey. Likewise the letters
of the princess herself, extant in the Cottonian Collection.
" Diary of Lanuto, quoted in note to the despatches of Sebastian Giu-
stiani, edited by Eawdon Browne, Esq.

1514. ENGAGED TO LOUIS XIL, KING OF FRANCE. 11
beloved Jane Popincourt -with Charles Somerset, the
Earl of Worcester, one of the ministers of Henry VIIL,
the ambassador appointed to conclude the matrimonial
treaty. The condition of Jane Popincourt's companion
ship is doubtless aUuded to in the foUowing letter of
young Mary to her aged spouse, extant in the French
archives ', which was evidently, presented by the Earl of
Worcester to the King of France before the fiangailles,
as the epistle expressly intimates : —
" I humbly commend myself to your good grace. As the
king, my lord and brother, is sending ambassadors to you
directly, I have desired, entreated, and commissioned my
cousin, the Earl of "Worcester (Charles Somerset), to tell you
some matters from me regarding the espousals now spoken of
between you and me. Honour and credit him, monseigneur,
as myself. And certes, monseigneur, as I have previously
notified -to you by our cousin the Duke of Longueville, that
thing which at present I most desire and wish is to hear
happy tidings of your health and good prosperity, as my
cousin of Worcester will tell you at large. Please you, more
over, monseigneur, to use and command me according to your
good pleasure, that I may obey and please you by the help of
God, who give you, monseigneur, good life and long. By the
hand of your very humble companion, " Mart."
There was, as vdU soon appear, some very serious
objections to the residence of Jane Popincourt in France
as one of the young queen's ladies, although there had
been none in regard to her first suggestion of the mar
riage to the prisoner-of-war LongueviUe, -with whom, it
is to be feared, Jane's reputation was somehow compro
mised, for Worcester O'wned afterwards that he was
startled when the King of France mentioned her to
' BethuneMS.

12 MAEY TUDOE. 1514.
him ; but promised to report the request to his master,
Henry VIII.
The young princess was, however, suffered to suppose
that aU her stipulations would be observed, and aU the
promises made to induce her obedience would be held
sacred ; she therefore gave her hand quiescently to the
Duke of LonguevUle', as the proxy for his king, the
marriage of procuration taking place at the Grey Friars'
Church, near Greenwich Palace, August 25, 1514. Soon
afterwards the princess was induced to write the foUow
ing letter to her unseen spouse, in which she already
speaks of herself as his wife. The original is in
French : —
"Monseigneur, I commend myself most humbly to your
grace. I have received by monsieur, the Bishop of Lincoln,
the very affectionate letters you have written me with your
ojvn hand, and they have given me infinite joy and comfort.
Assure yourself, naonseigneur, that nothing equals my desire
to see you ; and the king, m.y brother, uses great diligence to
speed my passage across the sea, which I hope, by the plea
sure of God, will he brief. Meanwhile I supplicate that you
will afford m.e the inestimable consolation of often hearing
news of yoxir health and happiness. May the aid of our
Creator, monseigneur, grant you a long and prosperous life.
From the hand of your very hum.ble consort, " Marie."
Louis XIL, at the church of his famUy, the Orleans
Valois line, being the Abbey church of the Celestines,
in Paris, very solemnly espoused, as proxy for the fair
young Mary, the Earl of Worcester, to whom he gave
his troth, September 2, 1514, and received the promise,
in return, that the young princess should obey him as
' Lingard.

1614. EMBAEKS FOE FEANCE. 13
her lord and master during her natural Ufe '¦ — a very odd
interpolation of the marriage vow. Old Louis became ex
tremely importunate, forthwith, for Henry VIII. to send
him his young queen, and aU matters were arranged by
the EngUsh sovereign for that purpose as soon as the
stormy autumn woiUd permit Mary to cross the narrow
seas. Meantime she received several letters from her
affianced spouse, and wrote occasionaUy to him, aU much
resembling those previously quoted, which present the
most favourable specimens of those extant.
King Henry, his queen Katharine, and almost all
their court, accompanied the bride to Dover, and took
up their residence at their grand castellated palace
there, with the intention of expediting her immediate
transit to France. But the elements seemed obstinately
bent against any such purpose. A succession of autumnal
storms set in during the rest of September, wliich de
tained the king and the royal famUy a whole month in
Dover Castle ; several ships were wrecked on the Une of
coast beneath their eyes, and not one day promised a
safe passage across the narrow seas to the opposite
coast. At last the vnnd proved fair (October 2), when
the bride and her attendants were roused up at four
in the morning and hurried for embarkation to the
beach, where Henry VIII. and his queen came to kiss
her and bid her fareweU.
Many tears and audible lamentations took place
when the young bride of France was tom from the
armg of Queen Katharine. They had indeed been
companions during much the largest part of Mary's
short Ufe. The queen gave her sister-in-law into the
' Archives Secrites, Hotel de Soubise; Contract of Espousal. The same
clause was introduced into the contract of Henry's sister Margaret and
James IV.

14 MAEY TUDOE. 1514.
personal care of Sir Christopher Gervase, or Garnish,
her own knight. Henry VIIL, as he advanced to the
edge of the water to take leave of the weeping bride,
renewed his promises of giving her leave to marry
according to her own good pleasure the next time,
and, ostensibly comforted -with the thoughts of a happy
widowhood', Mary submitted to the weary dignities
imposed upon her. Ladies sometimes may wed with
these views, but they seldom make them matter of
history with the naive pertinacity of this young Queen
of France.
Scarcely had the bride gained the ship in which she
was to cross the Channel when the 'wind began to tune
up a loud autumn song, and the waves to dance on
all sides to the storm which had, with brief intervals,
been roaring since the equinox. AU the night of Octo
ber 2, Mary's ship was seen labouring in the greatest
danger, separated from the rest of the fleet. If it were
Uke its representation in the contemporary iUumi-
nations, it was a clumsy junk with very short masts,
not easy to overset; but it did its worst by groimd-
ing near Boulogne early the next morning, where it
•obstinately stuck on a sandbank.
The forlorn bride had to be lowered into an open boat,
completely helpless from sea-sickness. The breakers
were dashing high, and wetted her long golden hair,
which streamed most disconsolately over her person.
The boat could not approach the beach, and the surl
was high on the shaUows, so that there was no little
danger in landing; but Sir Christopher Gervase was
fortunately as taU in stature as was suitable to his
' She recalls this circumstance to him in her own letter. Drayton,
either through tradition, or from a sight of her holograph, now in the
Cottonian Collection, says the same.

1514. STOEMY LANDING NEAE BOULOGNE. 15
Christian name. The French, to their great satisfac
tion, saw the gigantic islander stride through the
breakers, which only reached to his waist, bearing their
insensible queen in his arms, and in this guise she
touched the shores of France, every long bright tress
of her hair, and aU her garments, streaming piteously
with salt water.' Mary was received at her landing by
the Due de Vendome, one of the elder princes of the
line of Bourbon, who informed her that her royal lord
had advanced as far as AbbeviUe to anticipate the
happiness of meeting her.^
WhUe the fair young queen rested at Boulogne, her
ancient bridegroom was deep in conference at Abbe
viUe -with her brother's resident ambassador. When
they had fully discussed the affairs of Spain and the
general policy of Europe, the King of France and the
English ambassador touched on the more interesting
topic of Mistress Jane Popincourt. The Earl of Wor
cester was prepared to circumvent all the machinations
of that young lady and the Duke of LonguevUle her
friend. He was enabled, by information which he had
obtained from his own court, to give the King of France
particulars of " her evU Ufe and conversation," of a
nature to alarm him. "I would," says Worcester, in
his despatch -to Cardinal Wolsey*, "have showed the
King of France the biUs signed " (that is, the testimony
of the persons who accused Mistress Jane of impro
priety of conduct), " but in no -wise would he hear more
speaking of her." " As you love me," exclaimed King
Louis, " name her no more ; I would she were burnt ! "
"For I and my feUows," adds Worcester, "had showed
> Hall's Chronicle. ' Ibid.
• Letter of -Worcester to Wolsey, Octobers, 1514. — Ellis's Historical
Letters, vol. i. p. 236, 2nd series.

]6 MAEY TUDOE. 1514.
him enow of her iU life." The King of France further
observed, " There shaU never be put about my wife
either man or woman but such as shaU be to her con-.
tentation and pleasure. As 'to speaking for the said
Jane, it was at the suit and desire of Monsieur de
LongueviUe, who had told me that the queen loved and
trus'fced her above all the gentlewomen that were about
her, but if King Henry made her to be burnt he shaU
do but weU and a good deed." '
All this agitation about Mistress Jane Popincourt
leads to the supposition that she was a Frenchwoman
(for her surname is certainly French or Belgic), that
she had negotiated the marriage of her princess by
means of the Due de LongueviUe during the time of
his captivity in England, and that now the matter was
completed she was to be driven from her royal lady as
not being sufficiently in the English interest.
While the good name of Mistress Popincourt was
receiving damage in the preceding discussion, news
arrived that the queen had landed, "which was this
morning " (October 3), continues Worcester. " Since the
king heard thereof nothing can displease him, and he is
devising new collars [necklaces] and goodly gear for her.
There was in his chamber only my Lord of Paris [the
Archbishop of Paris], Eobertet, and I, when he showed
me the goodliest and the richest sight of jewels that
ever I saw. I would never have believed it if I had not
seen it. For I assure you that aU I have ever seen is
not to compare to forty-six great pieces that I saw of
diamonds and rubies, and seven of the greatest pearls
that I have seen, besides a great number of other
goodly diamonds, rubies, balais, and great pearls. The
1 Letter of "Worcester to "Wolsey, October 3, 1614.— Ellis's Historical
Letters, vol. i. p. 236, 2nd series.

1D14. PEOGEESS TO ABBEVILLE. 17
worst of his second sort of stones he prized at two
thousand ducats. Fjr ten or twelve of tho principal
stones he hath refused for each a hundred thousand
ducats. And when the King of France had shown me
aU, he said ' that all should be for his wife.' "
Another of these Aladdin-like coffers, full of girdles,
necklaces, chains, and bracelets, was opened by the
royal bridegroom, the contents being viewed and ad
mired with unfeigned enthusiasm by the EngUsh am
bassador. Jewels have a certain utUi'ty as the means
of investing great masses of capital in very small space,
but that was not the light in which the politicians of
the sixteenth century surveyed them. Grim old war
riors and careworn statesmen actually coveted these
pretty sparkling things to encrust them on their cloaks
and doublets, and to hang them round their necks.
Louis XII. was consistent so far with his character
for good sense that he dressed very plainly, and only
meant his vast store of jewels as playthings for his fair
wife, judiciously using them to obtain for him a place
in her good graces as far as they would go. " My wife,"
said Louis XII., merrily laughing, " shall not have these
at once, but at divers times, for I -wUl have many (and
at divers times) kisses and thanks for them ! " "I assure
you," continues Worcester, " the king thinketh every
hour a day till he seeth her ; he is never well but when
he hears her spoken of- I make no doubt she wUl lead
a good life with him by the grace of God." '
The young Queen of France, 'attended by near rela
tives, the Lady Anne and the Lady EUzabeth Gray, set
forward towards AbbevUle, October 4 ; they were fol
lowed by thirty-four female attendants, amongst whom
' Letter of "Worcester to -Wolsey, October 3, Abbeville. — EUis's Historical
Letters, voL i. p. 237, 2nd series. 0

18 MAEY TUDOE. loit.
was Mademoiselle de Boleyn, the celebrated Anne, who
afterwards, for her. sorrow, attained the cro-wn matrimo
nial of England. The bridal party traveUed in horse-Ut
ters, or waggons, but when the weather was fine and they
were in spirits to assume their fuU-dress riding suits of
crimson velvet, the maiden train mounted their palfreys.
The Duke of Norfolk led the way, while the rear was
brought up by the young queen's archer guard and
baggage-waggons.' Thus they went forward by easy
stages -until within four mUes of AbbevUle. Singularly
interesting was this ground to the daughter of the
English royal Une. To her left hand was the forest of
Crecy, skirting the celebrated battle-field of that name ;
to her right was the village of St. Valery, on the mouth
of the Somme, from whence her ancestor the Con
queror sailed to invade England. Yet it is by no means
certain that Mary Tudor had a thought to bestow on
the glory of her ancestors.
The royal princess's cortege was first encountered by
the heir presumptive of France the Duke of Valois,
afterwards Francis I., who then for the first time beheld
the princess whom, young as she was, he was henceforth
to treat as his queen and mother. From some hints
given by the officers of the train of Francis, the attend
ants of the bride were led to expect a more important
encounter before they entered AbbevUle. A halt was
made, and an elaborate arrangement of travelling -toilets
•took place ; the young queen was dressed in her Utter,
by her ladies, in grand costume, not in very good taste,
for the skirt, as weU as the bodice of her habit, was
as heavUy plated with goldsmith's work as if it were
meant for a suit of armour. As the whole cortege
• Hall's Chronicle.

1014. JV5J;T BY HEE EOYAL BEIDEGEOOM AT AEDEES. 19
approached the forest of Ardres, they were met by
the infirm royal bridegroom, mounted on a stately
charger. Mary's cumbrous robes of goldsmith's work
impeded her attempt to comply -with the etiquette
which required her to dismount and offer her consort
the homage of the knee. Louis perceived her em
barrassment, and entreated her to forbear. He wel
comed her kindly and courteously, and having conversed
with her for a few moments took his leave, having come
in a manner by stealth to look upon her beauty, with
which he professed himself enraptured.

CHAPTEE n.

The day of the patron saint of France occurred most
opportunely for the royal marriage. On the anniversary
of St. Denis, Monday, October 9, at the cathedral of
St. Wolfran, AbbeviUe, the marriage ceremony took
place, which made, for the first time since the Norman
Conquest, a princess of England Queen of France. A
cardinal officiated at the marriage and sang the high
mass. The royal bride retired to her state apartments, and,
according to the custom of France, dined privately in a
room with certain princesses of the blood, who were
seated at the end of her table. The Duke of Valois'
(Francis I.) entertained aU the ambassadors in a sepa
rate chamber, while the rest of the queen's train, lords,
• Sometimes in chronicles, as well as in contemporary letters, Francis is
called the Duke of Valois ; likewise the Duke of Bretagne, in right of his
¦wife Claude of France, eldest daughter of Louis XII. He is also called
Earl of AngouUme, which was his inheritance. In Mary's own letters he
is termed the Dolphin or Dauphin, which he never was.
C 2

20 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-
ladies, and maidens, were sumptuously feasted in the
great haU. That very day the King of France com
mended himself to his young queen's good graces, by
gifts of the splendid jewels he had in store for her.
" He gave her a marveUous great pointed diamond,
¦with a ruby almost two inches long without foU, which
was valued by some ofthe court at ten thousand marks.
The next day the king presented his bride vrith a re
markable jewel, being a ruby two inches and a half in
length and as thick as a man's finger, hanging by two
chains of gold at. every end." '
These " marveUous gifts " only preceded a measure
which nearly broke the young queen's heart. The
Duke of Norfolk was anxious to return to England;
he therefore, in concert -with the King of France, had
a councU caUed of the queen's new French officials, to
sit in judgment on the number of the EngUsh ladies
which were to be retained in her service, and to decide
on those who were to return -to England. To the con
sternation of the young queen, she found that aU her
English ladies (excepting young Anne Boleyn and three
more girls of the like age) were warned to make ready to
return with the Duke of Norfolk. Her governess. Lady
GuUdford — "her moder Guildford" — was among these
banished friends. No doubt a scene approaching to the
tragic ensued at their departure, for Mary, a day or
two afterwards, penned two letters, one to her royal
brother, the other to the aU-powerful Wolsey, earnestly
setting forth her -wrongs and demanding instant redress.
Her epistle to Henry VIII. is as follows : —
" My good Brother, — ^As heartily as I can I commend me -to
your grace, marvelling much that I never heard from you
' Letter of "Worcester to "Wolsey. — Ellis's Historical Letters, vol. ii.
p. 240, 2nd series.

1514. BEEEAVED OF HEE LADIES. 21
since our departing, so often as I have sent and written to you.
And now I am left alone, in effect, for on the mom next after
my marriage, my chamberlain, with all other men-servants,
were discharged. And in like wise my moder Guildford, with
other my women and maidens, except such as never had expe
rience and Tcnowledge how to advertise [advi?e'\ and give me coun
sel in time of need, which is, it is to be feared, will be more
shortly than your grace thought at the time of my departing,
as my moder Guildford can more plainly show your grace
than I can write, to whom I beseech you give credence.
" An' if it be by any means possible, I humbly require you to
cause my moder Guildford to repair hither, once again. For
else if any chance hap other than well, I shall not know where
or of whom to ask any good council to your pleasure nor yet to
mine own profit. I marvel much that my Lord of Norfolk
would, at all times, so lightly grant everything at their re
quests here !
" I am well assured that when ye know the truth of every
thing, as my moder Guildford can show you, ye would full
httle have thought I should be thus entreated. "Would to
God that my Lord of York [ Wolsey, Archbishop of Yorlc] had
come with me in the room of Norfolk, for then I am sure I
should not have been left as I am now ! And thus I bid your
grace fare well as ever did prince, and [wishing you] more
heartsease than I have now. From Abbeville, the 12 of
October. " Give greetings 'to my mowder Guildford by [^from.'] your
loving sister, "Maete, Queen of France." '
Norfolk was singiUarly unfortunate in his office of
escort to the Princess Mary's elder sister. Queen Mar
garet Tudor had denounced his discourtesy and inatten
tion to her interests at the court of Scotland, especiaUy
his cruelty in rending from her this same moder GuUd
ford, whose name comes in at the end of every paragraph
' I31is's Historical Letters, voL i.

22 MAEY TUDOE. 1514.
in the royal letter, which is, by the way, a very good
composition, in nothing inferior to those of Wolsey,
Sir Thomas More, Margaret of Valois, or any other
of her celebrated contemporaries : and this is no sUght
praise for the abiUty of a young girl in her sixteenth
year, thrown, as the circumstances prove, wholly on her
own resources in regard to advice. She could have
had no assistance in composition ; for Anne Boleyn,
though not so young as general history chooses to
assert, had few years' experience, and was incapable
of giving counsel to her distressed mistress — a circum
stance, it wiU be perceived, the queen aUudes to in her
letter. Another eloquent epistle was indited by the
forlorn bride of France to Wolsey ; the commencement
recapitiUates the same facts of the heart-breaking dis
missal of the EngUsh ladies, chamberlains, and other
officials : —
" My moder Guildford was like-wise discharged," continues
the young queen to Wolsey ', " by whom, as ye know, the king
and you -willed me in any wise [always] to be counselled.
But for anything that I might do, in no -wise might I have any
grant for her abode here, which I assure you, my Lord, is
much for my discomfort, beside many discomforts that ye
would full little have thought ! I have not yet seen any lady
or janteVwomam in France so necessary for me as she is, nor
yet so meet to do the king my brother service as she is. And
for my part, my Lord, as ye love the king my Iroder and me,
find the means that she may in all haste come to me hither
again. For I had as lief lose the winning I shall have in
FroMce as lose her counsel when I shall lack it. I am sure the
noblemen and jantilmen can show you more than becometh
me to write concerning this matter.
" And albeit my Lord of Norfolk neither dealed best -with me
nor with her at this time, yet I pray yon always to be good
' Ellis's Historical Letters, vol. i.

1514. THE KING'S EICH GIFT. 23
Lord to her. Aud would to God my brother had been so
good as to have had you with me hither when I had my Lord
of Northfolk. And thus fare ye weal, my Lord. Written at
Abbe-ville, this 12 day of October.
" My Lord, I pray you to give credence to my moder Guild
ford in my sorrows which she [shall'\ have delivered.
" Tour own while I live, "Maete."
Doubtless the young Queen of France expected that
the statecraft of Wolsey, the pugnacity of her brother,
and the knight-errantry of the chivalry of England,
would have all been put in action to effect the restora
tion of her " moder " Guildford. She was in her letter
astute enough to put in a word on the great utUity
mother GuUdford woiUd have been to her native sove
reign, if she were a resident at the French court — a fact
that the wise French monarch evidently knew fuU weU,
because persons in her station are the most efficient of
spies and poUtical agents, for which reason he hastened
her departure with the rest of her colleagues.
HaU, the contemporary EngUsh chronicler, is pathetic
on the subject of the dismissal of Mary's train. It is
to be hoped the disasters he recounts are merely flights
of his rhetoric. Some of these attendants had re
mained in the service of the young princess " on scant
aUowances," hoping that she would be well married
some day, and able to provide for them ; " others had
been at much expense to wait on her to France, and
now returned destitute, which many -took to heart, inso
much some died by the way returning, and some feU
mad." The very morning on which Mary describes herself
as much distressed. King Louis had presented her with
a "wonderful" (or table-cut) diamond tablet, -with a

24 MAEY TUDOE. 1514.
surprising pearl, quite rotmd, hanging to it. This jewel
was the noted one caUed " le Miroir de Naples,^' wliich
Francis I. afterwards would have redeemed at anyprice.
Louis in the coui-se of that day gave his mourning bride
a shower of other costly gems, priceless diamonds and
rubies set as rings, which were pressed with gaUantry
on her fingers whensoever he saw sad looks or -tears
making their appearance for "moder GuUdford," to
whom, as will be shown, his French Majesty had taken
no slight aversion. "The queen is continually -with
him," -wrote the resident ambassador, Worcester, the day
succeeding the doleful parting of her EngUsh house
hold, " of whom King Louis maketh as much as it is
possible for any man to make of a lady." '
The King of France lingered at AbbeviUe, although
when he was dismissing my Lady " moder GuUdford," he
had declared he was desirous of moving onwards to
Paris, and that he had agreed -with his good brother
Henry VIII. that the Duke of Norfolk and the English
supernumeraries were not to advance farther than Abbe
viUe. He took a fit of gout, and was glad of the quiet of
the provincial town to indiUge in the society of his fair
young wife, who nursed him in his malady. Her coro
nation at St. Denis, and the tumultuous rejoicings
attending her entry of Paris ; the processions, the tour
naments, and endless robings and sittings in state for
long hours in the open air, however pleasant in antici
pation to the young beauty he had wedded, were shrunk
from by King Louis with foreboding apprehension.
Queen Mary, with her infirm lord, remained at
' Letter 'written by the Earl of "Worcester and Dr. "West to King Henry
VIII. — Ellis's Historical Letters, vol. i. p. 234 ; 2nd series, p. 241. " "Writ
ten at Abbeville, Oct. 13, by your most humble servants and subjects,
C. "Worcester, N. "West."

1614. EEASONS FOE DISMISSAL OF "MODEEGULLDFOED." 25
Abbeville untU the last day of October, when his
illness permitted him to move forwards to the magni
ficent abbey of St. Denis, where, in the palace con
nected with the ecclesiastical establishment, the royal
pair waited for the completion of the preparations for
her coronation. Here a letter' from Wolsey arrived,
November 2, dated from Eltham Palace, in which it
appeared that the sovereign wiU and pleasure of Henry
VIII. was announced that .his beloved sister shoiUd not
pine for the fostering care of her "moder GuUdford.'"*
Dr. West aud the resident ambassador took upon them
selves to learn whether the old king still reiftained
obdurate against the banished lady, and from the an
swering despatch may be gathered the real state of
the royal minds of husband and wife. Worcester was
granted an audience of Louis XII. in private, and the
French monarch thus expressed himself regarding
mother GuUdford : —
" My wife and I," said the King of France, " be in good
and perfect love as ever any two creatures can be ; we
are both of age to rule ourselfs " [she was sixteen, he was
sixty], "and not to have servants that shotdd look to
rule her or me. If my wife need of coimsel or to be
ruled, I am able to do it. But I am sure it never is the
queen's mind to have her [Lady GuUdford] again. For
as soon as she came a lond [landed], and also when I
was- married. Lady GuUdford began to take npon her
not only to rule the queen, but also that she shoxUd not
come to me, but she should remain with her, nor that
• Letter of "Worcester to "Wolsey. — Ellis's Historical Letters, vol. ii.
p. 243, 2nd series.
' "Worcester spells her name " Gilford ; " Mary Tudor, " Guldeford ;'' and
'West, " Guleford." They all mean Guildford, which we have followed, lest-
the reader should be perplexed with the varied orthography; for, of all
advantages, perspicuity is the most desirable.

26 MAEY TUDOE. ' 1614.
no lady nor lord should speak to the queen but she
[Lady Guildford] should hear it. Withal she began to
set a murmur and banding [faction] among the ladies
at the French court."
No one can blame King Louis for decUning the society
of such an interloper : few newly-married people would be
any the happier for the company of a "moder Guildford,"
it wiU be owned. Then proceeded the great King of
France to discuss the more deUcate points of his young
queen's wishes respecting the return of the woman
under whose care she had been reared ; after affirming
with an oath " that no man loved his wife better than
he did," his Majesty continued : —
" Eather than have such a woman about my wife, I
would Uever be without one. I know weU when the king
my good and loving brother knows this my answer, he
vdU be contented, for in no wise wiU I have her about
my wife. Also I am a sickly body, and not at aU times
that I would be merry with my wife Uke I 'to have
any strange woman -with her, but one that I am weU
acquainted withal, afore whom I durst be merry."
An awful idea his French Majesty here gives of the
stiff precision of the royal gouvernante — no attractive
auxiUary to the loves and graces of a royal honeymoon.
It must be o-wned that the inflexibiUty of the good-
natured Louis XII. is remarkably developed in this
dramatic description of his home life. However, he
would not have been the great man history truly de
signates him, if he had been afflicted vrith any propen
sity to variableness of wUl and purport. The line of
policy he took with his fair bride proves his acute
knowledge of the human heart ; he gave her the notion
that he had whoUy set her at Uberty, and that it was un
suitable for a queen to have a mistress dictating to her.

1514. SUFFOLK'S APPEOACH. 27
" I am sure," continued he to the Earl of Worcester,
" the queen my wife is content withal, for I have set
about her neither lady nor gintlewoman to be with her
for her mistress, but for her servants and to obey her
commandments. "
"Upon which answer," observes the ambassador,
" seeing the King of France would in no wise have the
Lady GuUdford, I repUed to him again, * So that he was
content, I made no doubt but the King's Grace my
master woiUd be,' which answer had been weU debated
ere I gave it."
The conclusion of this despatch turns on a point of
great importance to Mary's future destiny. Suffolk, it
seems, was preparing to present himself at the scene
of her coronation as Queen of France.
When Lord Worcester had an interview vrith her
Majesty, to enquire her mind and pleasure, she thus
declared herself: — "My Lord Worcester, I love Lady
GuUdford well, but I am content that she come not
here, for I am in that case that I may be weU "without
her, as I can do whatever I wUl." " I pray God," adds
Lord Worcester, " it may ever continue so to His plea
sure." '
The Duke of Suffolk and the Marquis of Dorset were
appointed to deliver letters to the King and Queen
of France, at St. Denis, November 3. Thanks were
formaUy tendered from Henry Vill. by these am
bassadors extraordinary for the honourable receiring
and meeting of the queen, his sister, at her first arrival
at Boulogne, especiaUy for meeting her in person before
her entrance at AbbeviUe, as also for the loving and
honourable entertaining of her ever since. Louis XH.
' Letter of "Worcester to "Wolsey, at St. Denis, Nov. 6. — Ellis's Historical
Letters, vol. ii. p. 247.

28 MAEY TUDOE. 15U.
named the day after that, Sunday, November 5, for the
coronation of his bride in the royal abbey of St. Denis.
Accordingly, the next Sunday all was prepared in that
stately fane for the solemnity ; the queen had not far
to travel, but merely to advance vrith her procession
from her royal apartments when the doors were throvra
open. An hour before her entrance, the Due de Mont
morency went to the lodging of the Duke of Suffolk,
and courteously conducted him, before the crowd poured
in, to the seat for the ambassadors at the end of the
choir, to the right of the high altar.
Those who are acquainted with the locality of St.
Denis wUl know this seat was situated so near the
chancel that the persons engaged in the august cere
monial might perfectly be seen from thence, and even
be heard to speak. The king's closet window was just
over the same, where he appeared, "without pomp or
state, as a private spectator, to behold his bride receive
the crown matrimonial of France.
Mary was preceded by the great officers of France,
bearing her regalia, aU being princes of the blood royal
— ^the Duke of Alen9on, the Duke of LongueviUe, the
Duke of Albany (lately made Eegent of Scotland, and
a prince of the blood in right of his mother and his
wife), the Duke of Bourbon, and the Count of Vendome,
his brother. The young queen came then, led by Francis
Duke of Valois, her husband's heir and son-in-law.
First, the queen knelt before the altar of St. Denis, just
below the place where the oriflamme of France is still
to be seen; here she was anointed by Cardinal De Pr^,
the same ecclesiastic who married her to Louis XIL;
he put the sceptre in her right hand, and the verge of
justice in her left. This symbol in France has always the
figure of a hand at the termination. The cardinal put a

1614. CEOWNED QUEEN OF FEANCE. 29
ring on her finger, and then set the great crown of Jane
of Navarre on her head. Francis of Valois led her, thus
crowned, up a raised platform to a chair of state pre
pared for her, which was under the canopy of the throne,
by the altar.'
But the crown of state weighed unbearably heavy on the
temples of the young queen, who was perhaps perturbed
by the presence of her former lover, stationed near to her
seat of grandeur. Francis of Valois, whose admiration
of her exquisite loveliness began to be noted in France,
reUeved her of the weighty diadem, but, at the same
time, not to deprive her of the state and dignity appro
priate to the ceremony, stood behind her, holding it
above her head.' And a noble tableau must the lofty and
graceful figure of Francis have made, thus contrasted
with the delicate beauty of the English Queen of France,
before the eyes of the assembled multitudes of aU de
grees which thronged from base to clerestory of the
glorious minster of St. Denis. " Then began the high
mass, songen by the cardinal, whereat the queen offered."*
The afternoon was devoted to diplomatic deUberations
with the English ambassadors ; but in the evening the
queen gave Suffolk and his coadjutors a private audience
in her withdravring-room.
' Letter of Suffolk to Henry "VIIL It is actually -written by Dr. "West
or Prior Docwra, the secretaries of the embassy. — FMs's Historical Letters,
vol. i. p. 251, 2nd series.
* It was no original idea of Francis, but clearly his office, in case the
crown should prove oppressive to the royal brow. Two bishops were
appointed thus to support St. Edward's crown, or to hold it on each side,
over the head of the king or queen, if so required. Many illuminations
present this scene ; among others, a well-known one in the Cottonian
Collection, representing the coronation of Edward I. In France this pic
turesque office was ^ven to the leader of the warlike French chivalry, the
first prince of the blood royal, as above.
• Suffolk's letter. — Ellis's Historical Letters.

30 MAEY TUDOE. 1514.
King Louis left St. Denis as early as seven in the
morning, for Paris, in order to receive his queen, who
was to make her grand entry into that city from St.
Denis after her coronation — the proudest day of a French
queen's life, if her beauty and grace could bear the
critical observations of the Parisians. Mary Tudor de
parted from St. Denis at nine in the morning ; she dined
at a vUlage two miles from Paris. The road between
St, Denis and Paris at present offers no vUlage of this
kind. The afternoon was the time appointed for the
entry of the English Queen of France in'to Paris. The
royal dinner-hour was at noon.
Mary incurred some blame for having introduced
such a new-fashioned luxurious dinner-time ; the king's
health had been hurt by it, " for whereas," says one of
his chroniclers, " Louis XII. loved to observe the good
old custom of dining at eight in the morning, and going
to bed at six in the afternoon, but it now suited his
young queen that he shoiUd dine at noon, and not go
to rest tUl midnight." As for his custom of going to
bed at six in the evening, it is to be hoped that was
in vrinter, for in summer the very cocks and hens
usually sit up two hours later than did his Christian
Majesty. Mary ascended a carriage, called a chaise or chair,
in which she sat solus. It was covered with cloth of
gold, shot with white, and drawn by two mUk-white
steeds, -with housings of the same tissue, and sUver
reins and harness. The beautiful queen was cro-wned
with a precious circlet' formed entirely of the largest
and purest pearls the treasury of France could furnish,
without the intrusion of any other gem; by way of
¦ Hall's Chronicle.

.„... x^.i:iiv ixiiumrJiAlj Ji-KOGEESS TO'WAEDS PARIS. 31
contrast, her neck and bust were radiant -with inesti
mable diamonds and other sparkUng jewels. Around
her car, protecting her person, marched, as their place
of right, the royal Scotch archer-guard, under the
command of her handsome kinsman the Duke of Al
bany, already named Regent of Scotland. Imme
diately preceding them went, to clear the way, a troop
of Louis XII.'s German mercenary cavaliers, the re-
no-wned lansquenets. Francis of Valois ', heir presump
tive of France, rode before the carriage of the young
queen, accompanied by the other princes of the blood
royal, being his kinsmen the Dukes of Alen9on, Bourbon,
Vendome and Longue-riUe, with \riiom was the Duke of
Suffolk, Ukewise the queen's -fest cousin, Thomas Mar
quis of Dorset, whose young daughter. Lady Anne Gray*,
vrith Anne Boleyn, had remained among the four young
maidens left with Mary Tudor, and now foUowed her
car. Scarcely was the queen's procession arranged and
moving forwards on the Paris road, when it had to halt
to give audience to the Provost of the Paris merchants,
who were accompanied by the city archer-guard in coats
burnished vrith gold, ornamented with ships gUt.' Then
came the other more important Paris provost, he of
justice, who is usuaUy confounded with his pacific name
sake, to the great mystification of the foreign readers of
French history. With this warlike provost of Paris
came the counseUors leamed in law, the Basoche of the

' Hall calls him the Dolphin, others the Duke of Valois; all the
English despatches of the ambassadors, the Duke of Bretagne, which makes
him pass for three different gentlemen.
' "Who married Sir Henry "WiUoughby of "Woollaton, Notts.
• The armorial bearing of the city of Paris.

32 MAEY TUDOE. 15H.
Palais de Justice, the President of the Parliament and
aU his train, and then the University of Paris, which
with priests and students amounted to three thousand
persons.' There is a beautiful manuscript descriptive of aU
these ceremonials in the British Museum, iUuminated
by an eye-witness, Pierre Gregoire, who afterwards
presented it to Mary herself. He very modestly
styles himself, "Pierre, simjple apprentice of the eloquent
rhetoriciens, orateurs, facteurs, and compositors of the mo
dem French." Pierre Gregotre's clerks of the Basoche
chose to greet our fair-faced Mary, sitting before them
with her shower of glittering hair outshining the gold
about her, as the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba come to
visit King Solomon, who of course is Louis XII. This
was their canticle, sung as a rondeau : —
" Noble Sabba, dame de renomm^e.
Est vena voir Saloman tres-saige,
Qui la receve d'ung douce courage
Par sur toutes la prisee et aymee.
C'est la royne de vertus enfiammee.
Belle et bonne, ¦virtnese en langage,
Noble Sabba."
Another song, arranged to the fine national French air
oi Rev&illez-vous, stiU surrives, though composed, or at
least arranged, for the entry of the English Queen of
France. The first verse may thus be rendered : —
" Wake, wake, ye hearts asleep !
All ye allied to English powers.
Sing Ave Maria.

' Hall says these came first, and we think he is right ; but we follow
Suffolk's letter. — Ellis's Historical Letters, vol. i. p. 264, 2nd series.

1614. COEONATION PAGEANTEY. 33
The Fleece of Gold ', the Purple Towers *,
The Eagles ^, and the Lily flowers ¦*
Rejoice in Dame Maria.
Reveillez-vous !
Joy to Lady Maria ! "
One specimen of the numerous pageants vrill suffice.
At the gate of St. Denis, over the portcuUis, was placed
a ship not unlike the Chinese junk that appeared a
few years ago on the river Thames. On its three short
masts and ladders of rope are four seamen trimming
little fat sails ; these are meant to be two English and
two French seamen, being in the national colours, "with
lieu au roi hoods and jackets for the French. Henry
vm., in the character of Honour, presides over the
mainmast, a French man-at-arms is perched on the
right masthead, an EngUsh knight on the other, one
having a blue shield, the other gules. Mary, herself,
her bright hair loose and flowing, personates Ceres,
vrith a wheatsheaf large enough to freight the huU of
the junk, whUe King Louis XIL, -with an amiable
smirk and a red face, presents her vrith a branch of
vine purple vrith grapes. He wears a white nightcap
vrith a red velvet bicocket hat over it, hemmed with
gold: a robe of ileu au roi velvet, with red under-
• sleeves and a cape of sable fur, a white shirt beneath
a gold cordelure tied round his waist, and a rosary
of gold beads. Such was the king's ordinary dress.
But written on the side of the ship is the word " Bac
chus." A very smart young attendant stands behind
him in the page's dress of the time, vrith clubbed red
hair, a hat shot with gold, green sleeves, poppy-coloured
' Charles V., as heir of Burgundy and the Low Countries.
' The arms of Castile. ' The Emperor of Germany's banner.
* Louis XII.'s fleur de lis. D

34 MAEY TUDOE. 1614.
trousers and bishop's purple gaberdine : on the page's
arm is -written " Paris." AU the four winds are blowing
the junk tumultuously. It probably moved and rocked.
T-wUight feU before Mary -riewed all the pageants
and was brought to Notre Dame ; she made her offer
ing at that fine cathedral, gloriously Uluminated and
sitting stately on its island above the Seine. From
thence she went by torchlight along the quays of the
river to the ancient palace of St. Louis, now called the
Conciergerie, where she offered at the Sainte ChapeUe.'
It was six o'clock at night ere she entered that palace
"where," says Suffolk, "she did sleep aU night, and
there was a right great banquet." ^
The state reception of his queen by Louis XH. forms,
indeed, one of the most interesting of Pierre Gregoire's
iUustrations. There is an ancient Gothic haU -with lancet-shaped
windows ; in the distance is set out a board of green
cloth, on which are arranged gold and purple bottles,
pitchers, and nefs for napkins, beiu'g the preparations
for the " right great banquet " mentioned in Suffolk's
despatch. The King of France is seated in state in a
very odd-looking sentry-box with a round top. Lions'
shoulders and feet, fixed in front, give to this seat the
appearance of an arm-chair, but all is very elaborately
covered with gold. Louis is robed and crowned, and
holds in his left hand the celebrated sceptre called the
hand of justice; -with his right he receives from the
queen, who kneels before him, a smaU escutcheon, on
wliich is figured the red cross of St. George : perhaps
it means to intimate that she presented from her brother
' Hall's Chronicle.
' Letter of the English Embassy. — Wixs' s Historical Letters, vol. i. p. 264,
2nd series.

1514. EOYAL CEEEMONIALS. 35
the formal ratification of the peace which was just con
cluded between England and France, of which she was
the pledge. Behind Louis stand the princes of the
blood and peers of France. The queen's ladies are
ranked behind her ; she only is kneeling. She is robed
in gold tissue, with faUing ermine sleeves. Her yeUow
hair, powdered -with gold, is parted over her brow ; her
black velvet hood, rather square, is ornamented with
pearls; the crown of France is over her hood. The
whole scene is doubtless the representation of the ter
mination of the queen's progress that day by her recep
tion in that ancient seat of royalty the Palais de Jus
tice, no other than the fatal Conciergerie. " She slept
there that night," pursues Suffolk's despatch to her
brother, "and the next day she dined at the same
palace. In the afternoon she renewed the grand pro
cession of reception, and came -with great triumph to
the Palace of the ToumeUes, where the king is lodged.
On Sunday next," continues the Duke of Suffolk', "by
the grace of God, the jousts shaU begin."
The celebrated tournament at which Suffolk, then in
rather a desperate state of mind, was preparing to vent
his indignation and lover-Uke sorrow, by thundering
blows on the new subjects of his beloved, was the fourth
great pubUc scene in which our Mary had taken part
since she landed as Queen of France. Mary steered
her queenly course with calmness and self-government
amidst the atmosphere of temptation which surrounded
her. The plain honest letter of her good husband is
stUl extant to prove his satisfaction regarding her
vrifely conduct.
During the rest of the week the national antipathies
' Letter of the English Embassy. — Ellis's Historical Letters.
D 2

36 MAEY TUDOE. 15H.
of the EngUsh and French nobles, who were to tUt at
the coming tournament, sweUed to complete animosity,
for the courses were run vrith sharp spears, exactly as
in a battle charge : the chroniclers of both countries
affirm that " at every course many dead were carried off
without notice taken." At the random-toumay ' Suffolk
" hurt a French cavalier unto death," and the Marquis of
Dorset nearly demolished another. " Tet," says the in
dignant historian, " the Frenchmen would in no ways
praise them ! " Francis of Valois was wounded in the
hand and disabled, and then, it is said, he suborned
a gigantic German from his lansquenets to make an
«nd of Suffolk. But as Suffolk was laying about him
desperately wit]j the genuine weapons of war, the
sharpened spear and keen-cutting battle-sword, and
was one of the strongest knights England could boast,
there was no reason why the burly German should not
receive as good blows as he brought. Indeed, to the
great deUght of all the EngUsh present, the queen not
excepted, he got the worst in the encounter. But it
seems that the lansquenet was a common soldier, and
therefore, whosoever had introduced him within the
lordly tUting-lists had outraged aU the laws of chivalry.
While this " war in little " was thus proceeding — and
it lasted three long days — a lofty stage was buUt for the
royal personages. King Louis, who was very feeble and
UI, reclined on a couch. Queen Mary stood the chief of
the time, surveying the s-trife between her countrymen
and her subjects with intense interest. It was observed
that Francis of Valois had assumed the Tudor colours,
white and green, whUe the Englishmen were distin
guished wherever they were by the red cross of St.
George. The Parisians supposed that their young
' Hall's Chronicles; so written, "random-toumay."

1514. DIFFICULTIES OF HEE POSITION. 37
queen stood to display her magnificent dress and ele
gant person, of which they never had had so complete a
view. " And much they wondered at her beauty," as
her enthusiastic countryman Hall takes care to record.
The young queen, left utterly to herself, and, perhaps,
alarmed at the spirit of national antipathy which had
been remarkably manifested at the very sports intended
to celebrate her accession to the throne matrimonial of
France, craved some advice from the English embassy-,
now on the point of their homeward journey. Although
the principal person was the lover from whom her
young affections had been tom when she wedded Louis
XIL, yet friendless, as she was, she had no choice.
Assuredly never did royal lady more completely sepa
rate the queen and wife from the dross of feminine
partiality than did this young girl, when she appealed
to the ambassador of her country to right some mis
understandings which she doubted would injure her
peace and respectabiUty as Queen of France. The pre
cise nature of her troubles cannot here be defined, for
though communicated to her countrymen, Worcester,
Dorset, and Suffolk, they were only to be told by word
of mouth to her brother.
It appears that the young queen found the domestic
usages of Franco very different from those of England
(which, indeed, they are at this day). She had been
wholly deprived of the adviser she had leant on from
infancy, and had none about her to whom she could
apply for advice. It is erident she saw the health of
her royal husband breaking up, and found the difference
of hours she kept was not such as he had been accus
tomed to observe. According to her request, her En
glish friends convened Monsieur Robertet (the finan
cier), the Bishop of St. Pol, Brez6, the Governor of

38 MAEY TUDOE. 1514.
Normandy, and above all, the Due de LonguevUle, who
had proposed and negotiated her marriage ; these were
the cabinet ministers of Louis XII. She then requested
her countrymen of the embassy to ask them " that they
would be so good and loving to her as to give her counsel
from time to time, how she might best order herself to
content King Louis her husband, whereof she was most
desirous, because she knew weU that they were the men
the king her lord most loved and trusted." They were
weU pleased, and said "they woiUd report to King
Louis what honourable and loving request the queen had
made, which would content him very weU."
Mary, in order to quiet the lamentations of her
EngUsh ladies, who had reckoned on making their for
tunes as her attendants in France, gave private orders
to her goldsmith, WUliam Vomer, of Fleet Street,
London, to prepare jewelry as gifts among them to the
value of 600 gold cro-wns. A polished ruby and an
emerald set in a gold cross, to the value of 200 ecus de
soleU, were probably destined to soothe the frantic grief
of moder Guildford. A fine diamond and a sapphire set
in a gold necklace, worth 300 crowns, was for another
of the discarded English ladies ; a third was given an
agnus, in which was set a table diamond the worth of
100 crowns of the sun. The young queen obtained
credit with her London jeweller, who duly deUvered the
goods to the afflicted ladies after their homeward voy
age. These jewels were to be shown at the EngUsh
court, in proof that the ladies had not been dismissed
empty-handed. Mary commands her treasurer Curissy
" not only to pay WiU Vemer, but to do it -without diffi
culty." She dates at Paris, November 11', a few days
after her coronation and solemn entry. The young
' Archives of France, in H6tel de Soubise.

1614. "WISE EXEETION OF HEE INFLUENCE. 39
queen had been remarkably busy, during the short time
of her power, exerting her influence both vrith her
brother in England and her adoring spouse in France,
always to induce them to do some good to the unfortu
nate. She negotiated the ransom, on moderate terms,
of Fran9ois Descars, one of the household of the Duke
of Bretagne her son, " called the Dauphin ; " this was
Francis de Valois, afterwards Francis L, who was her
son by virtue of his marriage "with her husband's
daughter Claude, heiress of the sovereignty of Bretagne.
Descars had been taken with LonguevUle prisoner at
the Battle of the Spurs ; he had been seized by Lord
Darcy, who wanted a high ransom for him, and the clever
way in which Mary bids 200 or 250 marks for the poor
Frenchman's Uberty is worth notice. Her lord. King
Louis, had set her to mediate thus, and she displays
a valuable trait of an international law of humanity.
Louis XII. bids her remind Henry VIH. that he had
duly liberated all the EngUsh prisoners at Boulogne
" according to the custom of the sea," ' which was, in
the feudal ages, that poor shipwrecked folk, flung by
the fury of the waves on a hostUe coast, should not be
treated as prisoners of war. These precious immu
nities, awarded to suffering humanity, should never be
lost sight of by the historian. In one of her letters of
mediation for her countrymen in distress, she comes
in direct collision -with her brother's mighty prime
minister, Wolsey, who had seized at Toumay a priest,
one Vincent, who had come over vrith her dearest lord
and grandfather Henry VIL, probably when he made
his descent at MUford Haven, and had belonged to
England ever since. Wolsey had incarcerated him,
vrithout cause, in the Fleet Prison, where he had been
' Archives of France, in H6tel de Soubise.

M> MAEY TUDOE. 151-1-
nearly a year, and had spent or been robbed of aU his
cash. Mary boldly asks her brother to command Wolsey
not only to release Father Vincent, but to make resti
tution for his losses, and take him into favour, adding,
" and then he wiU more particularly pray for you and
me." She asked of her brother, in the course of the
same month of November, provision to maintain one
of her discarded English pages, John Palgrave, as a
student, probably at the Paris University, where great
numbers of young EngUshmen, then, had their educa
tion. In some of her letters she complains that her brother
does not write to her ; but the multitude of her requests,
and their nature, was probably the reason. Her dower
was not entirely settled, for in the course of her No
vember correspondence she excuses herself -to her bro
ther " for being importunate in asking reUef for those
who had claims on her, because her demesnes had
brought her no income yet, nor did she know where
they were situated." It was to see this important ar
rangement effected that Suffolk and the other EngUsh
ambassadors tarried in France. > Suffolk, whose con
duct in after life was in too many instances that of an
evU -tool in -the hands of an evil master, conducted him
self with truth and discretion in the deUcate negotia
tion the fair queen required. In the conclusion of one
of his despatches he aUudes to the recent tournament,
but in terms so unpre-tending that no person could have
guessed that he had taken and given hard blows suf
ficient to have rendered himself the hero of it. He
thus concludes his letter to Wolsey : —
" My Lord, at the writing of this letter the jousts are done,
and bhssed be God all our Englishmen sped well, as I am sure

1514-15. DEATH OF HEE EOYAL SPOUSE. 41
ye shall hear by others. And thus I commit you to the Holy
Ghost, who ever preserve you. From Paris, the xriii day of
November, " By your assured
"Charles Soffglk."
About six weeks after Mary's dower was settled to
her satisfaction, and the EngUsh ambassador extraor
dinary had returned to her brother, her royal spouse
wrote a letter to Henry VIII. on purpose to assure him
that his young queen " conducted herself daily towards
him in such sort that he knew not sufficiently how to
praise her, and that he more than ever loved, honoured,
and held her dear."
The letter of Louis XH., dated at Paris, December
28, the theme of which is chiefly his esteem and admi
ration for his young queen, was, perhaps, the last he
ever wrote. In three days he was -with the dead, for
his Christian Majesty expired suddenly on New Tear's
Day, 1515, lea-ving his young queen a widow after a
marriage of only eighty-two days, as disconsolate as
could reasonably be expec-ted.

CHAPTER in.

The Parisians point out several curious edifices in their
capital as the veritable residence of La Reijie Blanche ;
consequently, these ancient structures have been aU
considered as palaces once pertaining to the celebrated
Queen-regent of France, Blanche of CastUe. Much the
historical antiquary marvels at the number of Blanche's
palaces, stiU more at the extraordinary variety in their
architecture; but the tradition is verbally true, how
ever the facts on which it was founded may be forgotten.

42 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-16.
It simply means to say that a queen-dowager of France
retired -to one of these houses, on the death of her hus
band, to pass those forty days of deep seclusion during
which she wore only white garments, and was caUed La
Eeine blanche.
The young queen-dowager of Louis XII. complied
with the etiquette of the royal fainily of France, and
retired to pass her blanche vridowhood imder the im
mediate protection of the Church. Mary chose for her
abode that beautiful Uttle palace, the Hotel de Cluny,
recently rebuUt' by her late husband's great prime
minister. Cardinal Amboise, and deriving its name from
its ricinity to a grand convent of the Cluniac order.
This royal demesne was the most ancient seat of govern
ment in Paris, for it adjoins, and doubtless originaUy
was part of, the imperial palace of the Emperor JiUian,
his residence when he reigned in the Gaulish province.
The noble Roman structure, with his warm baths, stUl
towers in grand preservation by the side of the Hotel
de Cluny, and is caUed Julian's Palais des Thermes.
There are few visitors of any -taste at Paris who have
not spent a day or two in the examination of this
interesting historical locality, which is situated near
the Ecole de Medecine, half-way up that " mountain "
where the Revolution of Terror sprang to life. At
present, the Hotel de Climy is one of the recherche
show-places of Paris ; it is a perfect gem of domestic
Gothic architecture, furnished witli aU domestic articles
of the same era. It encloses, indeed, a number of
ancient goods and chattels, yet by no means of one
date, for they vary from the fifteenth to the seventeenth
' The Hotel de Cluny is mentioned iu the earlier ages of the Valois
dynasty by the same name ; therefore Cardinal Amboise only rebuilt it, as
Wolsey did Hampton Court.

1614-16. H6TEL de CLUNl'. 43
century. It is doubtful whether any of this interesting
furniture belonged to our countrywoman, the young
blanche queen, Mary Tudor ; but the actual rooms and
the exquisite little chapel have echoed her sighs and
witnessed aU the tumults of her poor oppressed heart,
for the traditions of that district of Paris are positive
in pointing out the Hotel de Cluny as her residence
when she was the Blanche Queen of France, and as the
scene of the romantic events which led to her second
marriage. At the death of Louis XIL, his son-in-law and kins
man, Francis de Valois, ascended the throne, under the
appeUation of Francis I. But the usual reservation was
made of the aUegiance of himself and Ueges, in favour
of any posthumous male heir which might be bome to
the late Louis XII. by his young widow ; and this cir
cumstance explains the singular fashion of white -widow
hood, which seems to have been rendered customary in
France by the accident of each of the three successors
of PhiUp-le-Bel leaving a queen consort, in expectation
of bringing an heir to the crown. Of course, the royal
•widows, having taken their chambers, according to the
regal custom, passed many days in the seclusion of
their bedchambers, attired in white night-dresses, and
thus fixed the fashion for aU their successors.
Mary Tudor, however, had no expectation of bring
ing heirs to the disparagement of Francis I. and good
Queen Claude ; and, that no question might arise of
the kind, the vigUant mother of Francis I., the weU-
known Louise of Savoy, moimted guard over the pro
ceedings of the reine blanche in her retirement at the
Hotel de Cluny. The protection of this princely matron
was liighly requisite to the youthful queen ; for, not-
¦withstanding the near connection between her and

44 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-15.
Francis I. (so near that this young girl called him " her
son," on account of his marriage with the Princess
Claude, her late husband's daughter), he had avaUed
himself of the power of access to her presence given
him by his sacred character of her sovereign and rela
tive, to annoy her crueUy by making love to her. Be
fore her days of white ¦widowhood were expired, she
was not only tormented by the avowals of Francis I.,
but at the same time by his persuasions to bestow her
hand on the young Duke of Savoy, brother-in-law to
the Duchess Margaret, the object of Mary's intense
jealousy in her uncertainty whether Suffolk had not
plighted his promise to her.
The dukedom of Savoy, before its union vrith the
kingdom of Sardinia, was usually tyrannised over by its
powerful neighbour of France. The staple commodities
of the dukedom — sUkworms and soldiers — were much
coveted by the King of France ; one suppUed the in
fant manufactures of the looms of Lyons vrith mate
rial, the other famished active and hardy mercenaries
for war.'
Mary's dower came from the French domains, and
Francis shrewdly considered that, if she wedded his
neighbour of Savoy, that neighbour's interest woiUd
be one -with his own. On the side of England, Mary
dreaded the renewal of the proposals of her formerly
betrothed Prince of CastUe. This, of aU others, would
have been the most distasteful to Fra,ncis I. ; and no
doubt the part he subsequently played in the romance
of the young queen-dowager's love-marriage was, in
some degree, influenced by his reluctance to see his
rival in European empire Unked to Henry VIIL by a
tie so important as wedlock -with that powerful mon-
' EUis's Historical Letters, p. 121, 1st series.

,1614-15. HEE EEPLY TO "WOLSEY'S LETTEE. 45
arch's favourite sister. Thus every prospect threatened
the unfortunate Mary Tudor with a marriage as re
pugnant to her as the one from which death had just
released her.
The moment Henry VIII. and his ministers heard of
Mary's -widowhood, Wolsey vn:ote an earnest request to
her not to promise herself immediately to any one in
marriage. She felt insulted by the caution : her reply
to it is dated as early as January 10 : —
"Mary, Queen-dowager of Prance, to Wolsey.'
" My nwrme [Mine o-wn] good Lord, — I recommend me to
you, and thanking you for your kind and loving letter desiring
you of your good countenance and good lessons that you have
given to me. My lord, I pray you, as my trust is in you, for
to remember me to the king my brother, for such causes and
businesses as I have for to do. For as now I have mo nother to
put my trust in but the king my brother and you, and as it
shall please the king my brother and his council I will be
ordered. And so I pray you, my lord, to show his grace — ^
seeing that the king my husband is departed to G«d (whose
soul God pardon). And whereas you advise me that I should
make no promise. My lord, I trust the king my brother and
you ¦wUl not reckon me in such childhood ! I trust I have so
ordered myself since I came hither, that I trust it hath been
to the honour of the king my brother and me since I came
hither*, and so I trust to continue.
" If there he anything that I may do for you, I would be glad
to do it in these parts, I shall be glad to do it for you. No
more to you at this time, but Jesus preserve you. Written at
Paris, the 10th day of January, 1515 [1514-5].
[Endorsed]
" To my Lord [Archbishop] of Tork."
' EUis's Historical Letters, vol. i. p. 121, 1st series. From Cottonian
MSS. ; Julius, A. m. fol. 1.
' The queen repeats this clause, as she does several little words, having
written in agitation.

46 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-16.
The Savoy alliance was that deprecated by the poUcy
of Henry VTII. and Wolsey. But in the course of a
fortnight the irksomeness of the young queen's Ufe be
came so intolerable, that she wrote earnestly to her
brother, entreating him to be pleased to send for her
as soon as possible from France', "as she was grieved
vrith suits by no means consistent with her honour."
When King Henry* "was advertised of his sister's
purpose to return to England, he sent the Duke of
Suffolk, Sir Richard Wingfield, and Dr. West, attended
by a goodly band of yeomen, to Paris." They wore
court mourning for the death of Louis XH., and were
charged with a message to Francis I., " declaring that,
according to the covenants of the marriage between
King Louis and the Lady Marie, sister to the King of
England, they were to have the said lady deUvered
to them 'with her dower, and they showed their com
mission for the receipt of her."* Thus the beautiful
Mary was treated much as if she were a bale of broad
cloth ; but such was the etiquette of the times. The
same process took place in the restoration of the young
queen of Richard II., and it may be remembered that
a regular receipt and acquittance was signed on her
re-consignment to her former ovmers. Francis I. cour
teously acknowledged "that the matriage articles of
Queen Mary left it in her choice to live in England
or France, according to her preference, and yet to enjoy
her dower." The coimcU of France assigned her her
vridow's dower, and then the queen was delivered to
the Duke of Suffolk, "which," continues the quaint
record, "behaved himself so to her that he obtained
her goodwUl."* The inward springs of action are re-
' Lord Herbert; likewise her own letters. Cottonian MSS. ; Caligula.
' Hall's Chronicles. ' Ibid. * Ibid.

1514-15. TEEMINATION OF HEE ^WHITE WIDO"WHOOD. _ 47
vealed by the narratives, written in the letters, of the
acting parties in this romantic drama of historical
reality. The caprice that led Henry VIIL to send Suffolk to
perform the office of receiving his sister's person and
effects into his custody is not very accountable, since,
according to her repeated asseverations, he knew of
their attachment even before her marriage with the
King of France. It appears, however, that Suffolk took
a solemn oath to the king and Wolsey in the great
haU at Eltham Palace '; on the eve of his departure,
affirming " that he would not abuse his trust by any
particular manifestation of partiality to the young qu^en
consigned to his guardianship." It is true that e-very
ambassador extraordinary, employed on such affairs,
had to take a similar oath.

CHAPTER IV.

The white widowhood of the young Queen-dowager of
France expired on February 9 or 10, when etiquette
permitted her to assume her sable robes, and admit the
Ught of day and the presence of such persons as had
pubUc or official business to transact with her.
Several anxious letters and many strange incidents
occurred to poor Mary between the hour of issuing out
of her lamp-Ught seclusion and February 15th, accord
ing to the testimony of the "written eridence which the
devouring flames have spared. Henry VIH. sent her
a letter by one of his gentlemen, CUnton, bidding her
• Letter of Wolsey to Suffolk; supposed March, 1514-16. Exchequer
MS.

48 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-15.
prepare for a speedy return to England. " An' it were
to-morrow," "wrote Mary in return,. " I would be ready ;
as for my Lord of Suffolk and Sir Richard Wingfield,
and Dr. West, there be two or three that came from
the king my son (Francis I.), for to have brought them
to him, by the way, as they came hitherward." ' That
is, Francis I. vrished to hold a private conference vrith
Suffolk and the rest of the embassy, before they had
access to the young queen-dowager, in which purpose
he was e-ridently disappointed.
Mary renews her promise in the co-urse of her letter
" not to enter into any matrimonial engagement " (ap
parently) proposed for her by the poUcy of Prance. She
insinuates her preference " of returning to her beloved
brother, and to be so situated that she never need part
from him again. Every day that passed over her she
thought was a thousand untU she saw him." In this
letter she mentions Suffolk, but only officiaUy, nor does
she chaUenge any right to him in the peremptory and
earnest tone which a few hours caused her for some
reason to assume. She informs her brother piteously that
she had been very iU, " diseased vrith the toothache, and
distressing attacks of hysterical weeping ; that she had
detained his surgeon. Master John, to cure her, and
had assured him that his royal master would not be
angry at his long tarrying -to reUeve her sufferings, for
at times," she adds, " I wot not what to do ; but an' I
might but see your Grace I were healed."
The anguish of mind and body she describes to her
brother was brought to a crisis in a few hours. The
very day after the arrival of Suffolk in Paris, she had
an interview vrith him, as we presume, at the H6tel de
• Cottonian Collection ; Caligula, D. -vi. Fragment : Mary Queen of
France to Henry "VIII. The date is about February 12.

1514-16. ENGLISH FEIAES' FALSF; EEPOETS. 49
Cluny, for as the historical documents existing give
no contradictory evidence', there is no reason to dis
pute the local tradition of her residence at this
period. Two English friars meantime had had a conference
with her, and their communications had wrought her
up to desperation ; they had lectured her on her duties,
and from their exhortations she drew the inteUigence
that if she returned to England she would be consigned
to another ambitious aUiance, as the hand of her former
betrothed, Charles of CastUe, was stUl in the matri
monial market. These friars almost maddened her by
insinuating " that the reason Suffolk was sent to claim
her was because he could better entice her to embark
for England, instead of which he was in reality in
structed by her brother," they assured her, " to land
her in Flanders, and give her in wedlock to Charles of
CastUe." It requires evidence of the existence of some
such terrible stimulus, to account for a young girl of
seventeen acting vrith the blunt decision thus described
by SuffoUs.2
" When I came to Paris, the queen was in hand with
me the day after. She said ' she must be short with me
and show to me her pleasure and mind,' and so she
began, and showed how good lady she was to me, and
if I would be ordered by her, she verUy would have none
but me." It is scarcely possible to render into com
prehensible narrative the diction used by Suffolk, be
cause his phraseology is very obsolete, and besides,
many hiatus occur from time and fire, although the
meaning is plain enough.
1 "When she adds a date to her letters it is " Paris ;'' therefore, as far as
it goes, it is confirmatory.
2 Cottonian MSS.; Caligula, D. vi., 1515.
E

50 MAEY TUDOE. 1614-15.
" The queen," he says, " had been visited by the friars
that day." One he calls Friar Langley, and the other
Friar F . . . ., perhaps either Forrest or Featherstone,
both of whom were ecclesiastics high in the confidence
of Katharine of Arragon.
" An' ever I come to England," said the royal widow to
Suffolk, " I never shall have you, and therefore plainly
an' you marry me not now, I "wiU never have you nor
never come into England." Suffolk repUed, " You say
that but to prove me vrithal." " I would but you
knew weU," answered Mary, " at your coming to Paris
how it was shown to me." " I asked her," continues
Suffolk, " what that was." " The best in France has
been -with me," replied Mary. Here she clearly in
dicated Francis I., and from him she had inteUigence
which added -to her excitement. " An' I go to England,"
continued she to Suffolk, " then I am sent to Flanders,
and I would be tom to pieces rather than ever come
there." " And with that," pursues Suffolk, " she weeped'
as never saw I woman so weep."
Suffolk at this pathetic climax did his best to soothe
the young queen by affirming, he says, " that there was
none such thing, by my faith ; and vrith the best words I
could, but in no wise could I make her believe it ; and
when I saw that, I showed her grace that an' her
grace would be content to write unto King Henry to
obtain his goodwUl, I would be content, or else I durst
not, because I had made such and such a promise."
This promise was, apparently, the oath he had taken
to Henry VIII. at Eltham Palace, before he saUed for
France as ambassador.
Suffolk's cautious reply by no means suited the weep
ing beauty, who repUed with the wilful spirit of her
race, " ' If the king my brother is content and the
French king here — the one by his letters and the

1514-15. MAEE1A.GE "WITH SUFFOLK. 51
other by his words — that I should have you, yet vrill I
have the time to my desire, or else I may weU think
that the words of them in these parts [France] and of
them from England be true, — and that is, that you
are come to fice' me hence, to the intent that I may be
married in Flanders, which I never "wiU an' I die for
it, and so I promised the French king ere you came.
Thus, if so be you -wiU not be content to follow after
my mind, look never after this day to have the proffer
again.' And," continues Suffolk, "I saw me in that
case that I thought it better rather to put me at your
Highness' mercy than to lo'se aU, and so I granted there
to — and so she and I were married."
A very pithy and terse conclusion to a scene which is
of a cast decidedly Shakesperean in character as weU as
dialogue ; for our mighty dramatist, it must be o-wned,
is rather addicted to represent his fair heroines as play
ing the wooers too much in this style. However, we
must be permitted to explain the when, the how, the
where of that marriage, which is summed up with
soldierUke brerity in the above, " so she and I were
married." It has been noted that the mother of Francis I.,
Louise of Savoy, mounted guard on the fair royal
-widow at the H6tel de Cluny. Now there is a -winding
staircase which leads from an exquisite little Gothic
vestibule, opening on the garden below, the stairs
branching from thence right and left ; a small landing
connects both flights, one leading to the chapel, which
is on the second floor, and the other to the state bed
chamber and presence-chamber opposite, where the
' Meaning " entice.'' The word, in its contraction, is to this hour in
common use among the Suffolk peasantry. Brandon betrays his county by
his East Anglian patois in other instances. E 2

62 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-15.
a^kve historical scene and dialogue was going on be-
"tw^m the fair young queen and her lover. It must be
noted, that but a few steps divided them from the
chapel. Suddenly the mother of Francis I. entered
the room from thence and surprised them, absorbed in
the most passionate distress. How Mary was weeping
^Suffolk has best described. The French have the tradi-
'tion that Louise of Savoy reproached *the young queen,
in the most intolerant manner, with forgetfulness of her
dignity, both as a woman and a princess who had borne
the crown-matrimonial of France, and flnished by in
sisting on the lovers adjoufning that very instant to
the neighbouring altar, where the priests were actuaUy
officiating, and then and there Mary anS. Suffolk were
married in her presence. Such is the story current at
Paris connected ¦with the Hotel de Climy. Its beautiful
chapel is always pointed out to strangers as the locaUty
of this royal love-match. The ceremony performed there
was probably that solemn plighting of 'troth to each
other, with vows at the altar before a priest, which was
frequently treated as a private marriage. No other seems
to have passed between Katharine of Valois and Owen
Tudor, or with Edward IV. and Elizabeth WoodviUe.
The tradition of the Hotel de Cluny is not contradicted
by any of the copious correspondence extant, but rather
confirmed ; even the hurried manner in which Suffolk
mentions their espousals leads us to suppose that some
very astounding occurrence had intervened. The modem
historian of Paris ', the most malignant writer that ever
dipped his pen in calumny on royalty, has, of course,
very evil charges to bring against the young queen,
Mary Tudor, during her residence at the Hotel de
Cluny, connected with this mysterious marriage with
' Dulaure.

1514-15. OFFEES TO BUY HEE BEOTHEE'S CONSENT. 53
Suffolk. But allowance must be made for his mono
mania, for the name, alone, of queen seems crime suffi
cient in his eyes.
No sooner was the behest of the haughty mother of
France obeyed by the lovers than the remembrance of
Suffolk's master in England rose in all its terrors to
their minds. But they knew him weU. The weeping
Mary recoUected that her aged monarch had endowed
her -with a vast store of those glittering baubles which
were, after aU, the leading passion of the king her
brother, and, as these baubles were safe from his rapa
city in France, she resolved to throw out the bait of
making them over to him as the price of his forgiveness
of their marriage. The following document', extant
among our archives, was written certainly on the very
important day of her marriage -with Suffolk ; it has been
penned vrith extreme agitation, and drenched in tears,
which have added to the UlegibUity of her trembling
characters : —
" Be it known to all manner [of] persons that Mary, Queen
of France, sister unto the King of England, giveth freely unto
the said king my brother all such plate and vessels of gold as '
the late King Loys of France, the XII. of that name, gave unto
me, the said Mary, his wife. And also by the same presents I
do freely gift unto my said brother, King of England, the
choice of such special jewels, aU that my said lord and hus
band King of France, gave. Unto the performance whereof I
bind me by this .... mine honour, hand, and
mind, -which ray name .... [utterly illegible,
owing to the wetting of the paper hy a copious shower of tears'].
" Paris, the xii. day of February, the year of our Lord fifteen
hundred and fourteen, by your loving sister,
"Mart, Queen of France."
' Holograph of Mary the French Queen, dated Paris, Feb. 12, 1514. —
Inedited MS., EoUs' House, article 785.

54 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-15.
This curious historical paper is endorsed in an an
cient court hand, puzzUng enough to those who are
not aware of the relative positions of the parties, " A
hill of gift made ly the French Qusen of gold and jewels
given her hy Eing Loys." Among other minutiae in
the verification of such papers, it may be observed
that, coarse and harsh as the paper is on which the
fair dowager has written the above " bUl," it was part
of the royal store of stationery, since the watermark
bears the arms of the king, being the three fleurs-de-
lis. Whether by means of his mother, or by other means
not revealed, Francis I. heard that some extraordinary
occurrence had taken place between the young queen-
dowager and the EngUsh ambassador. That very even
ing, before the state audience had been granted to
Suffolk, the king sought an interriew with Mary, of
which she herself is the narrator. The date of the day
on which it occurred was the Tuesday before the 15th
of February, apparently on St. Valentine's eve — a very
suitable season for the events in agitation.
It was the interest of Francis to promote the mar
riage of Mary with any person in the world rather than
with the young Archduke Charles of Castile, then in
Flanders. It was the interest of Louise of Savoy, more
than any person in France, that Mary should be imme
diately put out of the reach of Francis I., who was but
too much inclined to foUow the example of Louis XII.
by changing the daughter of his former king and
master for a more attractive bride. Louise of Savoy
knew that Bretagne, the heritage of her daughter-in-
law, the Good Queen Claude, hardly acquired as it was by
France, would be reft away if the hand of the king was
withdrawn from the daughter of Louis XIL and Anne

1614-16. HEE PLEADING LETTEE TO HEE BEOTHEE. 55
of Bretagne. This national misfortune was prevented
by the opportune entry of the mother of IVancis I.,
the result of her own watchfulness, which was greatly
aided by the peculiar situation of the pleasance-o-arden
leading from the ancient Palais de Thermes and the
H6tel de Cluny into the vestibule. Mary's passionate
anguish, as described by Suffolk:, seems too genuine to be
part of a concerted plan, or it might be supposed that
the entrance of Louise of Savoy was not entirely the
result of accident. It is said that Mary and Suffolk
obeyed her imperious orders to marry in sUent con
sternation ; one of the twain was, doubtless, in sufficient
consternation, the humbly-born Brandon, who thought,
perhaps, the present wrath of the French royal famUy
as alarming as that of his distant sovereign.
" Pleaseth your grace," -wrote Mary ' to her brother
King Henry, " the French king, on Tuesday night last,
came -to visit me, and had -with me many diverse con-
versings, among which he demanded of me ' whether I
had made any promise of marriage in any place,' as-
sui'ing me upon his honour, and on the word of a
prince, that ' in case I would be plain vrith him in this
affair, he woidd do for me to the best of his power
whether I were in his realm or out of the same.' Where
unto I answered 'that I would disclose to him the
secret of my heart in aU humUity, as unto the prince in
the world, after your grace, in whom I had most trust.'
And so I declared to him the good mind, which for
divers considerations, I bear to my Lord of Suffolk
asking the King of Fi'unce not only to grant me his
favourable consent thereunto, but also ' that he woiUd
with his own hand ¦write unto your grace, praying you
' Cottonian Collection ; Caligula, B. vi. The letter is somewhat tattered
and burnt, but the sense is not dif&cult to render.

56 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-16.
to bear like favour unto me, and to be content vrith the
same.' " ' Meaning that Francis I. was to request Henry
Vin.'s toleration of her lowly wedlock with Suffolk.
The young queen does not teU her brother how far,
encouraged by the generous conduct of Francis, she
opened her entire heart to him, teUing aU her court
ship with Suffolk, and reveaUng the pass or bywords *
they had invented in their wooing to snatch a mo
ment's confidential communication when surrounded
by crowds of inquisitive courtiers. Whether such con
trivances were resorted to by the lovers in the court of
England or of France is not explained ; if the former,
the young princess must have had a very early initia
tion into the gaUantries of her brother's court ; perhaps
Jane Popincourt,. whose conduct was so much repro
bated by the English ambassador Worcester, was an
swerable for the early attachment the princess mani
fested for Suffolk.
Mary excused herself for the degree of confidence she
acknowledged giving to Francis I., very sagaciously, by
telling her brother that by so doing she trasted to be
rid of the annoyance and alarm which he had himself
repeatedly given her by pleading his own passion, in
which, to quote her o'wn pretty words, she says, " Such
suit as the French king had made unto me not accord
ing with mine honour, now he hath clearly left off.
Also, Sire," continued she, "I feared greatly lest in
case that I had kept this matter from his knowledge, he
might not well have entreated my Lord of Suffolk, and
the rather that he might have returned to his former
mal-fantasy and suits."
Francis I., perhaps, had only complied with the hy-
' Cottonian Collection ; Caligula, B. iv.
' Letter of Suffolk to "Wolsey. — Cottonian CoUection ; Caligula, B. vi.

1614-15. CONSENT OF THE KING OF FEANCE. 57
perboUcal strain of compUmenting aU ladies with any
claims to beauty, prevalent in his day, for he so far over
came his " mal-fantasy " as to promise to indite letters
to Henry VIII. vrithout delay, giving his consent to the
immediate union of the fair young dowager and her
lover. In truth, the consent of the King of France was
by far the most important to Mary, because she had by
her marriage become his subject, and a denizen of his
realm, from whence she drew a dovrry, and to which she
had in reality brought no equivalent. Francis I. could
have been justified by aU laws in force, at that time
throughout Europe, if, on suspicion that the queen-
dowager of his predecessor had plighted herself to an
EngUshman of humble birth, he had deprived her of the
revenue and riches given her by the .. fondness of her
recently-deceased husband. "Wherefore, Sire," con
tinues Mary to Henry VIIL, " since it hath pleased the
said king to pray of you your favour and consent, I
most humbly and heartUy beseech you that it may like
your grace to bear such favour and consent to the same,
and advertise the said king by your writiiig of your own
hand of your pleasure." But that was not sufficient.
Through several hiatus made by the fire, which de
voured so much manuscript history in the Cottonian
coUections, may be dimly perceived how Mary repre
sents to her brother that it is for his honour not only
to consent to her love-match himself, but -to obUge aU
his councU and peers " to agree thereto." She exhorts
bim "eftsoons for aU the love it liked your grace to
bear me, that you do not refuse, but grant me your
favour and consent, in form before rehearsed; the which
if you shaU deny me, I am weU assured to lead as
desolate a life as ever had creature, the which I weU
know shaU be my end." Meaning to touch Henly's

58 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-15.
fraternal tenderness by implying that the desolation she
should feel in the foreign convent, which her disappoint
ment would force her to enter, woiUd be the death of her.
"Always praying your grace to have compassion of me,
my most loving sovereign lord and J)rother." She dates,
as if in conclusion, " at Paris, the 15th day of Febmary,"
but, ladylike, resumes the subject in a postscript, seeking
to awaken in her brother's mind alarm for the danger
threatened to his famUy honour if Francis I. should
take new courage to resume his declarations of love :
in such case Suffolk, who was her brother's favourite
as well as her favoured lover, might come to some
harm. ^
Suffolk next day took up the narrative, and -trans
mitted to his own sovereign and Wolsey how King
Francis I. was pleased to amuse himself. Francis
appears to have been at St. Germains, or some place as
near to Paris, where he gave the official audience to
Suffolk and his coadjutors concerning the restitution to
England of the young queen-dowager. After the public
and formal reception was concluded, the King of France
signified to Suffolk his wish for a private interview.
" His grace caUed me unto him," says Suffolk, in a
letter to Wolsey stUl extant ', " and had me into his
bedchamber, and said to me, ' My Lord of Suffolk, so
there is a bruit [rumour] in this realm that you are
come to marry with the queen your master's sister.'
When I heard him say so, I answered him, and said,
' I trust your grace wiU not reckon so great a foUy in
me, as to come into a strange realm, and to marry a
queen of the realm -without his knowledge, and without
the authority from the king my master.' I assured his
grace that there was no such thing, and that it was
' Holograph : Suffolk to "Wolsey.— Cottonian CoUection ; Caligula, D. -n.

1514-15. CONFEEENCE BET"WEEN FEANCIS I. AND SUFFOLK. 59
never intended, either on the king my master's behalf,
nor on mine."
Francis L, who was diverting himself by hearing
what Suffolk would say, in ignorance of the full con
fidence which the yo.ung queen had bestowed on him
the preceding evening, then rejoined : " Since you -will
not be plain with me, I wiU be plain with you." " Then,"
continues Suffolk, " he showed me that the queen her
self had broken her mind to him, and that he had
promised her, on his faith and troth and by the truth
of a king, that he would help her to obtain what she
did desire." ' " Because you should not think," pur
sued Francis I. to his anxious auditor, " that I bear you
in hand, I -wiU say to you some words you have vrith
her privUy ; " " and so he showed me a wa/re word, the
which none alive could teU him but she." Suffolk was
as much startled and confounded as the gay young
monarch expected, when he found that the by-words
under which he and Mary communed, as if in a spoken
cipher, were known to him. " I was abashed," continued
he, in his letter, " and the King of France saw that,
and said : ' Because you shaU say that you have found a
kind prince and a lo-ving, and because you shaU think
me no other, here I give you, in your hand, my faith
and troth.' " It is probable that the chivalric monarch
here gave his hand to Suffolk.
" By the word of a king, then," continued Francis,
" ' I shall never faU you, but help and advance the matter
between you and her with as good a wiU as I would for
mine own self.' And when he had done this, I could
do no less than to thank his grace for the great goodness
' Holograph : Suffolk to "Wolsey. — Cottonian Collection ; Caligula, D. vi.
Here the original is much burnt and tattered, but the sense of what Francis
engaged to is correctly stated above.

60 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-15.
he intended to show to the queen and me." Suffolk,
however, did not forget to urge on the consideration of
his generous rival " that he was like to be undone, if
the affair shoiUd come to his master's ears." " Let me
alone for that," resumed Francis;' "I and the queen
shaU so instance your master that I trust he wiU be
content ; and because I would gladly put your heart at
rest, I wiU, when I come to Paris, speak with the queen,
and she and I both wUl "write letters to the king your
master with our o-wn hands in the best manner that can
be devised." " My lord," resumes Suffolk to Wolsey,
" these were his proper [o-wn] words." The queen, whose
intercession Francis I. thus promised to the lovers, must
have been his own consort Claude, the young sove
reign of Bretagne, who would write to Henry VIII. as a
European potentate and his equal. As none of Suffolk's
letters are dated, their order can only be guessed by
their tenor; and this, just quoted, appears to us the
first he -wrote home on the subject of his courtship with
his royal master's sister, when she was Queen-dowager
of France.
According to the schemes Henry VIII. and Wolsey
had in hand, it suited them to give some present en
couragement to the lovers, who had not o-wned their
actual marriage; for Suffolk had not yet -written his
narrative to England of the events of February 12,
which led to his espousals with the yoimg queen. So
the honeymoon ran on delightfully, and Mary thus
acknowledged her brother's kind letters : —
" My most kind and loving Brother *, — I humbly recommend
me to your grace, thanking you entirely of [for] your com-
' Cottonian Collection ; Caligula, D. -vi.
' EUis's Historical Letters, vol. i. pp. 121-2, 1st series.— Cottonian Col
lection; Vespasian.

1614-16. DECEITFULNESS OF HENEY VIH. AND "WOLSEY. 61
fortable letters, beseeching your grace, most humbly, so to
continue toward me and my friends as our special tnist is in
your grace, and that it may like you -with all convenient dili
gence to send for me, that I may shortly see your grace, which
is the thing that I most desire in this world, and I and all mine
are at your grace's commandment and pleasure.
" At Paris, the 6th day of March, by your loving sister,
[Endorsed] " Maet.
" To the King's Grace these be dehvered."

CHAPTER V.

All matters seemed now progressing for Mary as if the
warlike Majesties of England and France had nought
to do but to join aU their energies to guard her from
every grief, and to lap her young Ufe in Elysium. Her
brother, however, had intentions regarding her altogether
in coincidence with his character, and was acting ac
cording to the plans of vrily gamesters, who suffer their
victims to win a little before they pluck them bare.
Wolsey and his king, in tmth, had designs on the
great wealth with which the fondness of Louis XII. had
endowed Mary ; but as Henry VIIL could not for shame
bargain for his consent to her love-match, immediately
in the very face of the free generosity with which
Francis I. had agreed to part with aU those riches out
of his kingdom, and guarantee besides the payment of
her dower, they had a fine game to play. It was no
vrish of Henry VTII. to scare his sister and Suffolk from
their union, nor to manifest any anger untU it was irre
parable. Wolsey, therefore, wrote in reply to Suffolk,
that he had discussed his letter vrith King Henry, " and
his grace," he adds, " is marveUously rejoiced to hear of
your good speed in the same, and how discreetly you

62 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-15.
ordered yourself in your conversation with the French
king, when he first secretly broke -with you of the mar
riage." " The king [Henry Vm.] ," adds Wolsey, " con-
tinueth firmly in his good mind and purpose towards
you, for the accompUshment of the said marriage, albeit
there be daily on every side practices made to the pre
vention of the same, which I have -withstood hitherto,
and doubt not so to do untU you have achieved your in
tended purposes.'" Who could have distrusted a le-tter,
private although it affected to be, which thus pledged
the consent of the king and prime minister, only in
sinuating that there was opposition somewhere in the
cabinet council ? Nevertheless, Mary and Suffolk took
courage, and, deeming the consent of Henry VIH. was
granted, avowed their espousals, and Uved pubUcly as
man and vrife at Paris ; and, at last, Suffolk had the
boldness to write to Wolsey, March 5, 1514-15, an
nouncing their nuptials, and begging his interest to
reconcUe King Henry to the same. Meantime, the news
reaching England by general report, the matter was
discussed in council.
Henry VIII. would not acknowledge any private sanc
tion or encouragement given by him to the audacity of
the ambassador. Of course, every member of the privy
councU who had any envy of Suffolk, or any apprehen
sion concerning the heights to which the ambition of
that favourite meant to lead him, spoke his mind on
the subject with all possible bitterness. Such being
exactly the result which Wolsey and his royal master
anticipated, the former sat down to express to Suffolk
in the following alarming letter, apparently sent early
in March, the anger testified by Henry VIII. and his
privy councU at his proceedings : —
' Letter of "Wolsey to Suffolk. — EoUs' Letter.

1514-15. ¦WOLSEY'S ALAEMING LETTEE TO SUFFOLK. 63
" My Lord, — With sorrowful heart I -write unto you, signify
ing that I have, to my no httle discomfort and inward heavi
ness, perceived by your letters dated at Paris the fifth day of
this instant month, how that you be secretly married unto the
king's sister, and have accompanied together as man and -wife.
And albeit you, by your said letters, desired me in no wise to
disclose the same to the king's grace, yet seeing the same
touching not only his honour, your promise made to his grace,
and also my truth 'towards the same, I could do no less but,
incontinent upon the sight of your said letter, declare and
show the contents thereof to his grace, which at the first
hearing could scantly believe the same to be true."
Such was Henry VIIL's mode of acting at the
councU-board, which was evidently where Wolsey had
communicated Suffolk's in'teUigence ; and this letter,
so contrary to his preceding private ones, was cer
tainly -written as part of the current business of the
councU sitting. Wolsey affected to take upon himself
the blame of having privately patronised the intentions
of the lovers. He thus proceeds to say : — " But after I
had showed to his grace that by your writing I had
knowledge thereof, his grace, gi-ving credence thereunto,
took the same grievously and displeasantly, not only for
that you durst presume -to marry his sister -without his
knowledge, but also for breaking of your promise made
to his grace in his hand, I being present, at Eltham;
having also such assured affiance in your tmth, that for
aU the world (and to have been tom with wUd horses),
you would not have broken your oath made to his grace,
whence he doth well perceive that he is deceived of the
constant and afBrmed trust that he thought to have
foimd in you. And, for my part, no man can be more
sorry than I am that you have so done ; and so his grace
would that I should expressly -write to you, being so in-
cholered [angered] therewith that I cannot derise the

64 MAEY TUDOE. 1514-15.
remedy thereof, considering that you have faUed to him,
which hath brought you from low degree -to be of this
great honour, and that you were the man in aU the
world he loved and trusted best, and was content that,
with good order and saving of his honour, you should have
had in marriage his said sist&r. Cursed be the blind
affection and the counsel that hath brought you here
unto, fearing that such sudden and unadvised . . .
shall have sudden repentance."
According to Wolsey's subsequent statements, Henry
VIII. proposed to cut the knot of his sister's wedlock
by cutting oft* the head of her new spouse' — for
Wolsey afterwards reproached him -with having saved
his life at this juncture — all which was mere acting on
the part of the king, to further his purpose of getting
the better price for his consent. There is, notwith
standing, reason to suppose that there were several
items which Suffolk never whoUy forgave. It was not
pleasant to be reminded of his low degree just when he
had taken an English princess for his mate, nor to see
aU these accusations of broken oaths and want of fideUty
set forth in array against him as pretexts for stripping
him of the wealth, so needful to support the high sta
tion he had taken by his ambitious marriage. Wolsey,
however, does not close his despatch without opening
the scheme in agitation between him and his ever-
rapacious master, for gaining a supply of ready money,
which their extravagance rendered so needful ; and the
subtle prime minister gives a hint that pardon may be
extended to the two delinquents for a consideration —
that is, if they were wUling to make sacrifice of the
vast masses of plate and jewels which the young Queen-
dowager of France had received from her late royal
' Lord Herbert's Henrt/ VIH.

1615. TAKES ALL THE BLAME ON HEESELF. 65
husband. Wolsey's letter caused both the lovers to "write,
for the purpose of averting the threatened wrath of
Henry VIH., Mary taking all the blame of the marriage
on herself: —
" Pleaseth it your grace ', to my great discomfort,
sorrow, and disconsolation, but lately I have been ad
vertised of the great and high displeasure which your
highness beareth unto me and my Lord of Suffolk, for
the marriage between us. Sire, I "wiU not in any wise
deny but that I have offended your grace, for the which
I do put myself most humbly on your clemency and
mercy. Nevertheless, "to the intent that your highness
should not think . . ."
And here the royal lady's epistle becomes Ulegible,
from the united action of time and fire ; but she seems to
exciUpate herself from marrying Suffolk out of any low
or degrading inclination, and that she had never taken
such a step but from the despair into which she was
thrown by the two friars, who accompanied the embassy,
taking it upon themselves to certify that the council
would never consent to the marriage between her and
Suffolk ; and in her consternation she preferred throw
ing herself on her brother's mercy, rather than referring
the marriage to his inimical council.
" Whereupon, sire," she continues, " I put it to my
Lord of Suffolk's choice whether he would accompUsh
the marriage in four days, or else he should never have
had me ; whereby I know weU that I constrained him to
break such promises as he made to your grace, as weU
for fear of losing me as also that I ascertained [certified]
bim that by their consent [that of the privy councU] I
should never come into England.' And now that your
grace knoweth both the offences ofthe which I have been
• Cottonian Collection ; Caligula, D. vi. fol. 242. » Ibid.
P

66 MAEY TUDOE. 1515.
the only occasion, I most humbly, as your most sorrow
ful sister, require you to have compassion upon us both,
and to pardon our offences, and that it wUl please your
grace to write to me and my Lord of Suffolk some com
fortable words, which should be the greatest comfort
for us. " By your lo'ring and most humble sister,
" Mart.
" To the King's grace."
As to the great sacrifice of treasure and jewels, which
the poor young queen was expected to pay for pleasing
herself, by wedding the man she loved, she had no
thought but gratitude to Wolsey, for haring suggested
the possibility of her brother's willingness to accept
such propitiation.
Notwithstanding the number of interesting letters
which stiU exist, in the Cottonian CoUection and other
of our English archives, there are evidently many
more lost. History, however, from the pens of Lord
Herbert and Recorder Hall, declares that, by means
of the French queen herself and other great friends,
Mary and Suffolk obtained leave to come to England.
The real case was that when Mary had expressed her
readiness to surrender part or aU of her dower, for
her brother's permission to return and Uve in England
with Suffolk, Cardinal Wolsey directed her to leave
Paris vrith her husband and move forward to Calais.
On this journey they set out April 18.'
From Calais Mary, according to a concerted plan vrith
Wolsey, wrote a letter to be placed before the privy coun
cil, as the consent of that body was needful to legaUse
' Suffolk wrote to "Wolsey on April 1 7, merely announcing their obedience
to his directions. — Cottoiiian Collection ; Caligula, D. vt.

1516. ON THE EVE OF QUITTING PAEIS. 67
her marriage. It is, however, clear that the consent
or non-consent of Henry's councU in the affair was
merely to bewilder the young girl, to obtain from her a
higher price for consent to her wedlock.
Before Mary left Paris, and in the midst of hei
anxieties regarding Suffolk, she contrived to keep a
vigUant eye on aU going forward in England, likely to
compromise the interests of that craving and impor-
tuna-te little world she caUed her family or household.
In behalf of the few English, chiefly belonging to the
Church, that remained in her train as Queen of Finance,
she recollected the most distant promise she had ever
extorted from Wolsey, and showed the keenest ap
preciation of benefices and the relative value of their
revenues. For John Palgrave, who had so weU em
ployed the scholarship exhibition she Obtained for him,
in the autumn, that he was now Master of Arts, she
sues for one of the benefices vacant by the promotion of
Dr. West to the bishopric of Ely. For Dr. Denton, her
almoner, she claims the foUowing promise of Wolsey,
when he was making aU things agreeable to her in her
joumey to France, the preceding year : —
" My lord," she says, " you remember, I doubt not,
that at my last being at GuUdford you desired the king,
my brother, to give unto my trusty and weU-beloved
almoner. Dr. Denton, the prebend in St. Stephen's,
which then the dean of the royal chapel, now Bishop of
Lincoln, had in possession." Wolsey had forgotten
aU his promises, and had given the preferment to
his own chaplain — a proceeding by no means tolerated
by the young queen, who insisted that Wolsey should
desire his chaplain to resign -the said prebend " to the
behoof and use of my said almoner ; and I promise you
I wUl not cease untU I have gotten some promotion of the
P 2

68 MAEY TUDOE. 1515.
king, my brother, or else of some other person for your
said chaplain, which, I -trust, shall be worth double the
value of St. Stephen's." The young queen was very im
portunate iu this matter, it must be owned, but she was
excited, doubtless, by the -urgency of those around her.
Mary was stiU at Paris in the beginning of AprU, as
she dates her suppUcation on behalf of John Palgrave on
the third of that month. In fact, she lingered with her
new husband there, under the protection of Francis I.,
as late as the 17th of AprU. Suffolk wrote to Wolsey
on the preceding day, announcing their progress to
Calais, where they were to wait, according to the wUy
prime minister's instructions, imtU he had negotiated
their reception in England by inducing the privy council
to recognise their wedlock, which, indeed, it dared not
dispute when Henry's wUl and pleasure had been de
cisively spoken. From Calais Mary was to -write a letter
proper -to be laid before the councU, the draught or
copy of which important epistle she was expected "to
forward to Wolsey, who, after examination, sent it back
to her for fair transcription -with his alterations and
improvements. In this state the letter was found lately
among the misceUaneous documents of the Exchequer
in the RoUs' House.' Very curious is the struggle be
tween Mary's affectionate spirit and loving words to her
brother and the awful distance Wolsey deemed it neces
sary to be observed towards the dread Tudor despot,
even by his favourite sister, as a proper example to the
lords of the councU.
Mary has written as commencement —
" My most dear and entirely loved Brother, — ^In most tender
and loving manner possible I recommend me to your grace."
' -Wood's Soyal Letters, vol. i. p. 204.

1515. HEE LETTEE TO HEE EOYAL BEOTHEE. 69
Wolsey, shocked at the idea of tender and loving
feelings towards Henry VIIL, has scored them out and
substituted —
"In most humble manner I recommend me to your grace."
This curious production, emanating as it did from
Wolsey and the young Queen of France as aUied powers,
thus continues : — " Dearest brother, I doubt not but you
have in your good remembrance that, whereas for the
good of peace, you moved me to marry with my late lord
and husband. King Louis of France, whose soul God
pardon ! Though I understood that he was very old
and sickly, yet for the advancement of the said peace
and for the furtherance of your causes, I was contented
to conform myself to your said motion, so that if I
should fortune to survive the late king, I might, with
your good wiU, marry myself at my liberty -without
your displeasure. Whereunto, good brother, you con
descended and granted, as you well know, promising
unto me that in such case you would never provoke or
move me, but as my o-wn heart and mind should be best
pleased, and that wheresoever I should dispose myself
you wotUd wholly be contented with the same. And
' upon that your good comfort and faithful promise I
assented to the said marriage, which else I would never
have granted to, as, at the same time, I showed you more
at large."
Mary's aUusions to her o-wn determined dislike of
one of the most august of those splendid state mar
riages to which princesses generally passively submit,
excite curiosity. Indeed, throughout the whole of her
remarkable correspondence it is erident enough that
this only rose on Tudor's thorny stem could manifest
a wiU of her own as resolutelv as the most riolent of

70 MAEY TUDOR. 1515.
her race. Yet it is reaUy an extraordinary circum
stance how an attachment for Suffolk, thus steadfast
in its character, could have taken root in her mind at
her tender age, absoltitely environed as he was with
claimants on his hand. Probably the young princess
knew of none of his engagements, excepting with the
¦wife who was dead, or reported to be dead, or she
would never have spoken of him openly in a letter,
meant to be discussed by the executive councU of the
English Goverilment, as she does here : —
" Now that God hath caUed my said late husband to
His mercy, and that I am at my liberty, dearest brother,
remembering the great virtues which I have seen and
perceived, heretofore, in my Lord of Suffolk, to whom I
have always been of good mind, as you well know, I
have apprised and clearly determined to marry -with
him ; and the same, I assure you, hath proceeded only
of mine own mind, without any request or labour of my
said Lord of Suffolk, or of any other person. And to be
plain with your grace, I have so bound myself unto him
that, for no cause earthly, I vrill or may vary or change
from the same. So, my good and most kind brother,
I now beseech your grace to take this matter in good
part, and to give unto me and my Lord of Suffolk yom*
good vriU herein. Ascertaining you that upon the
trust and comfort which I have, that you have always
honourably regarded your promise."
No particulars of the young queen's departure from
Paris and residence at Calais are to be found, excepting
in the few words contained in this letter, from which it
may be leamed that she left the capital of her friend,
Francis I., and advanced to Calais, where she awaited
the success ofthe negotiation concerning the price Henry

1515. "WHITES TO HENEY VIII. FEOM CAL.ilS. 71
VIIL was pleased to put upon his consent to her return
to England as Suffolk's wife.
It is certain that to retreat back under the protec
tion of Francis would not have been difficult from
Calais — ^less difficult, assuredly, than if she had crossed
the sea. Although she trusted her person and that
of her lord to her brother's governor of Calais, there
is reason to believe that she left her valuables on the
French frontier. The words she uses do not bespeak
a mind whoUy at ease in regard to her personal
safety, and from them may be learned, -withal, that she
only -trusted herself there on solemn parole or promise
of safe conduct. " I am now come," she continues,
" out of the realm of France, and have put myself
within your jurisdiction in this your town of Calais,
where I intend to remain, till such time as I shall have
answer from you of your good and loving mind herein,
which I would not have done lut upon the faithful trust
that I have in your said promise. Humbly beseeching
your grace, for the great and tender love which hath
ever been, and shaU be, between you and me, to hear
your gracious mind and show yourself to be agreeable
thereunto, and to certify me by your most loving letters
of the same, till which time I will maJce mine abode here,
and no farther enter your ;realm."
The young queen anxiously presses upon her brother's
attention her wUlingness to give him, she says, " all the
dote that was delivered with me, and also all such plate
of gold and jewels as I shall have of my late husband's.
Over and besides this, I shaU, rather than fail, give you
as much yearly part of my dower as great a sum as
shaU stand with your wiU and pleasure."
It seems downright plunder of Henry VIII. to

72 MAEY TUDOE. 1616,
receive from his helpless sister aU she was wUling to
give rather than the man her heart had elected should
be molested ; she very piteously implores him " -to show
brotherly love, affection, and good mind to her in this
behalf, which to hear of," she says, "I ahide [wait]
vrith most desire."
She does not faU to entreat of him " not to be mis-
contented -with my Lord of Suffolk," taking upon her
self the whole blame of her love-match, and answering
in a very naive maimer for Suffolk's unwUlingness, as
she expressly teUs her brother, she " in manner inferred
to be agreeable to the same, without any request by
him made, as knoweth our Lord."
The desire in the sixteenth century for the possession
of ready cash or tangible valuables, and the comparative
disregard for landed property, was one of the most re
markable features of the era. Possessors of land could
readUy obtain from their tenants the soundest materials
for the sustenance of life, for shelter, warmth, and cloth
ing, but it was not so easy to derive from them any
portion of income, in the convenient shape of money.
Henry Vill., from the time he first invested his
favourite Brandon vrith the empty title of Duke of
Suffolk, must have planned the appropriation of aU the
guttering baubles his young sister had earned by her
marriage with Louis XII., and even of the yearly in
come paid her from France by way of dower, for he
now remunerated her for this vast mass of personal
property by settling on Suffolk's heirs male the great
landed estates which had escheated to the crown, after
the execution of the unfortunate son of De la Pole,
Duke of Suffolk, and EUzabeth Plantagenet, sister of
Edward TV. The settlement of these estates was sin
gular, since all authorities declare that Suffolk did not

1615. EETUENS TO ENGLAND AS SUFFOLK'S BEIDE. 73
possess them untU after his marriage with Henry Vlil.'s
sister'; and yet they were not her appanage but his,
since they were successfully claimed in after times by
his coUateral relatives of the Brandon famUy. The
extreme fondness of Mary, as manifested in her letters,
was probably the reason of this preference given to her
newly-wedded lord, to her o-wn interests and that of her
descendants. Be this as it may, it is evident that these
estates had been reserved as an apparent equivalent for
the ready cash and valuables, which Mary eagerly sacri
ficed as the price of her brother's recognition of her
love-match.

CHAPTER VI.

The yoimg Queen-dowager of France was reUeved from
aU trouble and apprehension regarding her negotiation
-with her brother and Wolsey, about the end of April
or the beginning of May. In lovely weather, wafted
by favourable breezes, and on a summer sea, she gaUy
saUed from Calais vrith her beloved. In different mood
had she landed there, tempest-tossed, and a weeping
bride, on the stormy morning of October 3, the pre
ceding autumn.
Mary brought with her all the treasures larished upon
her by her ancient husband — all the round pearls and
long rubies, measured by the inch, aU the broad tablet
diamonds, and sparkling pointed diamonds, now caUed
brilliants — "her winning in France," as she very naively
terms aU she had amassed in her eighty days' queenship.
One diamond of uncommon splendour, called " le
' The authorities, which are consonant with aU modern discoveries of
historical antiquaries, are quoted in Biog. Britannica, in the discussion of the
descent of Suffolk's granddaughter Lady Jane Gray.

74 MAEY TUDOE, 1515.
Miroir de Naples," was much regretted by Francis I.,
who would have redeemed it at any price ; ' but Mary
Tudor carried it off vrith her to England — a trait of
character which neither iUustrates her gratitude nor
generosity, unless the excuse is aUowed that she would
be caUed to close account for every one of these glitter
ing baubles, by her rapacious brother, as part of the
ransom of Suffolk's liberty or life. Mary crossed the
sea enriched with personal property to the amount of
200,000L, chiefly in jewels of the remarkable kind de
scribed in this biography : and a curious question it is to
ask what has become of them, and where they are at pre
sent ? — for jewels are indestructible, and they must be at
this moment in some coUection or other, bright as when
they were " the winning " of the young Queen-duchess.
Henry VIII. received his sister with as much hearti
ness, at his Greenwich Palace, as if he had dictated
to her the disposal of her hand. He chose, however,
that she should be publicly married to Suffolk at the
Grey Friars' Church, Greenwich, May 13, when he and
Katharine of Arragon graced the wedding. Tourna
ments were given at Greenvrich Palace, in honour of the
nuptials. Suffolk became poetical on the occasion, and
caused two quaint rhymes, expressive of his advancement
and, at the same time, of his humility, to be inscribed
on his banner, which Unes found great favour in the
sight of his royal brother-in-law. They have been often
quoted : — " Cloth of gold, do not despise
Though thou hast wedded cloth of frieze.
Cloth of frieze, be not too bold,
Though thou hast wedded cloth of gold." ^
' Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIIL
¦' In the contemporary portraits ofthe Duke of Suffolk and his bride, the

1615. MEETS HEE ELDEE SISTEE. 75
It scarcely needs explanation that Charles Brandon
symboUsed his royal bride by " cloth of gold," and him
self by " cloth of frieze." It is just possible that his
rhyme eventuaUy saved his head.
The expenses of Suffolk's embassies, tournaments,
and marriage had been enormous ; he owed large sums
to the cro-wn, which he expected would have been ex
cused, on account of his marriage with the king's sister.
Wolsey caUed in the money, upon which a riolent quar
rel ensued between him and the duke, which was never
wholly pacified.
Suffolk withdrew his wife into the country, where
they took possession of the vast appanage now granted
them by Henry VIIL from the property of the De la
Poles, Dukes of Suffolk. Among the seats and manors
once belonging to Edmund De la Pole, lately executed
in the Tower, may be reckoned Mary's favourite re
sidence, Westhorpe Hall, near St. Edmund's Bury, Suf
folk ; Donnington Castle, the inheritance of Chaucer's
granddaughter, the first Duchess of Suffolk ; Wingfield
Castle, Suffolk; Rising Castle, Norfolk; andLethering-
Butley, in Herefordshire.
When Margaret, Queen of Scotland, visited the court
of her brother. May 1516, her sister, whom she had
not seen since her chUdhood, met her at Greenwich
Palace. The festivals and tournaments were again on
the grandest and most expensive scale, rendering a
retreat into the country for retrenchment necessary.
The priest of the Earl of Shrewsbury sends a news
letter to his lord, in which he notes as an item : " June,
1516. The French queen and the Duke of Suffolk be
Queen-duchess Mary, in one frame, hand in hand, these lines are inscribed
on his banner. The painting was sold at Strawberry HiU. — Ellis's His-
tcmcal Letters, vol. i. p. 123, 1st series.

76 MAEY TUDOE. 1515.
out of the court." And again rumours circiUate that
Wolsey and the councU were severely pressing for the
pecuniary debt owed by the Duke of Suffolk to the
revenue, when he was parading his empty title, and
vying in expense of train and accoutrements vrith the
magnates of France.
In this year the Queen-duchess gave birth to her
first chUd, a boy, to whom the king and queen acted
as sponsors. The king bestowed his o-wn name, Henry,
on his infant nephew, and subsequently created him
Earl of Lincoln.
The king promised to visit Mary and her husband in
the autumn at Donnington Castle, and the foUowing
letter was -written to him by his sister in anticipation of
this event : —
"My most dearest and right entirely beloved Lord
and Brother', — In my most humble -wise I recommend
me unto your grace, showing unto your grace that I do
[hear] by my lord and husband that you are pleased and
contented that he shall resort unto your presence, at such
iime as your grace shaU be at his manor of Donnington,
whereby I see well that he is marveUously rejoiced and
much comforted that it hath liked your grace so to be
pleased ; for the which especial goodness to him, showed
in that behalf, and for sundry and many other your
kindness, as weU to me as to him, showed and given in
divers causes [cases], I most humbly thank your grace,
assuring you that for the same I account myself as much
bounden to your grace as ever swster [sister] was to
brother ; and, according thereunto, I shall, to the best
of my power during my life, endeavour myself, as far as
in me shall be possible, to do the thing that shaU stand
-with your pleasure. An' if it had been time convenient,
' Cottonian Collection ; Caligula, B. -vi.

1517. BIETH OF HEE DAUGHTEE, 11
or your grace had been therewith pleased, I would most
gladly have accompanied my said lord in this joumey.
But I trust that both I and my said lord shaU see you,
according to your grace's word in your last letters unto
my said lord, which is the thing which I desire' more to
obtain than aU the honour of the world.
" And thus I beseech our Lord to send unto you, my
most dearest lord and entirely beloved brother, long and
prosperous life, with the fuU accomplishment of all your
honourable desires; most humbly praying your grace
that I may be humbly recommended unto my most
dearest and best beloved sister, the queen's grace, and
to the Queen off Scottys, my weU-beloved sister.
" From Lethering, in Suffolk, the 9 day of September,
by the hand of your loving suster,
" Maet, Queue off France."
The young Queen-duchess came to assist in the May
festivals, held at Richmond Palace in 1517. These
sports were fataUy interrupted by the riots raised by
the apprentices in London streets, and called EvU
Mayday. Mary joined with her sister queens, Katha
rine of Arragon and Margaret of Scotland, in beg
ging mercy for the unhappy boys. The birth of
her eldest daughter occurred a few weeks afterwards,
at Hatfield, in the neighbourhood of St. Albans, on
July 16, 1517, being St. Francis's Day, in honour of
whom the infant was named Frances. The baptism
was an interesting ceremony. The royal Katharine of
Arragon held the babe at the font ; the other godmother
was " my Lady Princess," the infant's cousin-german,
herself an infant of eighteen months old, afterwards
Queen Mary.' The godfather was the Abbot of St.
• Lodge's Illustrations, vol. i.

78 MAEY TUDOE. 1517.
Albans. The name of the infant preserved the memory
of her parents' gratitude to Francis I., and we fear
it was -written in the masculine gender, without the
feminising e for a difference. She presents the first in
stance of the name as pertaining to any EngUshwoman,
but it soon became fashionable.
When Cardinal Wolsey was entertained at Lether-
ingham HaU by the Duke of Suffolk, the Queen-duchess
had a fair petitioner, whom she introduced to the
powerful premier, encouraging her to teU her sad tale
to him. This was " her weU-beloved and -trusty maid,
Susan Savage." The brother of Mary's damsel, Antony
Savage, was in some bad predicament, hiding from
the wrath of Wolsey, or of Henry VILE., and his
affectionate sister, who only knew of his whereabouts,
vrished to make his peace with Wolsey before he
ventured out of his concealment. Wolsey could not
deny the entreaties of his royal hostess and the tears
of her maid Susan ; so, when they beset him in the iUu
minated hall of Letheringham, he- promised aU things
" reasonable " in behalf of Antony Savage.
Notwithstanding her want of ready money, Mary sus
tained her dignity, tolerably well, on the resources of her
landed property, transferring her residence with great
pomp in turn to her numerous country seats, where
she always assumed the rank and etiquette of a queen-
dowager of France. As a great part of her French in
come was devoured by her royal brother, the expenses
attendant on royal etiquette made poverty a not un-
frequent guest. The ladies, gentlemen, and priests of
her train, who were consequently rather needy, kept a
hungry and vigilant cognisance on every contingency
likely to benefit them. Very frequently did the Queen-
duchess -write to Wolsey on these occasions. When she

1018, HEE PALATIAL EESIDENCES. 79
wanted the Uring of Grafton Flyford, in Worcestershire,
worth twelve marks per annum, for her chaplain, she
-wrote to demand it as a promise made by Wolsey to her
chamberlain, the knight Sir Humphrey Bannister, and
to her counciUor, Henry Wingfield, Esq., in behalf of
her chaplain ; therefore she h-ad both chamberlain and
council, Uke any other queen, and she dates from the
manor of Rising ', apparently Castle Rising, near Lynn,
so long the abode of her ancestress. Queen Isabel, the
criminal -widow of Edward IL
Mary strove to counteract by retirement in the comi-
ti'y the habitual extravagance of her husband Suffolk's
tastes, which were as inordinate for personal finery, for
buUding, and for all costly pleasures as those of his
royal master. Appertaining to the grant bestowed by
Henry VIIL was a palace in Southwark, either buUt
or rebuilt at an early period of Mary's marriage. It
was caUed Suffolk House, and was situated on the
Surrey side of London Bridge. It had two parks along
the south bank of the Thames, and a maze or labyrinth,
like that at Hampton Court. The name stiU clings to
one of the squalid courts or lanes in Southwark, where
the young dowager French queen, Mary Tudor, Suffolk's
duchess, once enjoyed the river air among the plea-
sances of her palace. Before Suffolk House was finished,
it appears that Mary had possession of Stepney or Ste-
benhithe Palace, then belonging to the see of London,
but anciently considered as one of the palaces of King
John. From thence she dates some of her le-tters to
the king her brother.^
Mary the Queen-duchess, as second lady in England,
assisted Queen Katharine when she made a royal pro
gress, with a great train of English ladies, to meet
' EoUs' Letter. ' Retrospective Eevievj (new series).

80 MAEY TUDOE. 1519.
the Emperor Charles V. at Canterbury, where Pente
cost was kept in right royal state. Here Katharine
of Arragon beheld for the first time her nephew,
Charles V., and Mary her once betrothed Charles of
CastUe and Austria, from whom the Cortes and the
machinations of Wolsey had dirided her. AU the court
ladies were exceedingly curious to observe what effect
the dazzling loveliness of Mary — who was only then in
her twenty-second year — would have on the fancy of
the young emperor ; and they were infinitely gratified
-with the result. " For," says Lord Herbert, " it was
remarked that he beheld her with sorrowful admira
tion, as if regretful that he had rejected so fair a
princess. To his dejection on this account they attri
buted his entire refusal to dance, instead of the excuse
he pleaded, that dancing was inconsistent with his
national gravity.'"
On the very day of the emperor's departure, Henry
VIIL, accompanied by his queen, his sister Queen Mary,
her husband, and the chief nobility of England, saUed
from Dover to meet Francis I. at Guisnes, where they
aU performed parts in the historical pageant caUed the
Field of the Cloth of Gold. We might take the oppor
tunity now of inflicting its details on our readers ; but
we -wiU not, for they -wiU find it often repeated in pages
which have space to spare for its masses of faded aUe-
gory and heavy gUding.
Mary was regarded as the beauty of the courts of
France and England at the Field of Gold. In point of
rank she was second lady of each realm ; and owing to
the retiring characters of Queen Katharine and Queen
Claude, she had to appear for both. On these occa
sions she was seen riding on her palfrey between
' Lord Herbert's Henry VIZI. ; Bishop Godwin's lAfe of Henry VIH.

1620. HEE PECUNIAEY TEOUBLES. 81
Francis I. and her brother Henry VIII., the most
admired person in the scene.'
After aU these triumphs and pageants, the war in
France involved the Queen-duchess in a series of pe
cuniary troubles. The first threatening of hostiUties
between Henry Vlll. and Francis I. was felt in the
irregularity of her receipts from France. Nor was her
own privation the worst feature in the case. Her bro
ther's officers of the Exchequer were as rapacious in
demanding that part of it she had engaged to pay, as if
the war had been her fault and not her heavy misfor
tune. In anticipation of all sorts of troubles, she wrote
thus to Wolsey from one of her Suffolk residences —
Wingfield Castle, a royal abode of which Uttle more
than its stately gateway remains : —
" My Lord, — In my most hearty wise I commend me
unto you. So it is, divers of my rights and dues con
cerning my dote * in France have been, of late time, staid
and restrained in such vrise as I, nor mine officers there,
may not have nor receive the same as they have done
in times past, being to my damage therein, and to their
great trouble in many ways, as my trusty servant George
Hampton, this bearer, shall show unto you, to whom I
pray you give credence in the same. And, my lord, in
these and in aU others, I evermore have and do put
mine only trust and confidence in you, for the redress
of the same, entirely desiring you therefore that I may
have the king's grace, my dearest brother's, letters
and yours into France, to such as my said servant shaU
desire. And by the same I trust my said causes shall
be brought to such good conclusion and order now,
that I shaU from henceforth enjoy my rights therein as
' Herbert ; HaU. ' Dote means dower.

82 MAEY TUDOE. 1520.
amplewise as I have done heretofore. An' so it may
stand -with your pleasure, I woiUd gladly my said
dearest brother's ambassadors, being in France, now by
your good means, should have the delivery of aU these
said letters, with their furtherance of the contents of
the same, to do that [which] they may do.
" And thus, my lord, I am evermore bold to put you
to pains vrithout any recompence, unless my good mind
and hearty prayer, whereof you shaU be assured during
my life to the best of my power, as knoweth our Lord,
who have you in His blessed tuition.
" At Wingfield Castle, the third day of August,
"Tours assm:ed, " Maet, the French Queen.
[Endorsed] " To mine especial good lord my Lord Cardinal."
The Queen-duchess must have written this letter in
the summer of 1522, for the war, though long threaten
ing, did not break out into actual hostUities until
the «pring of the succeeding year, on the invasion
by Francis I. of Charles V.'s ItaUan acquisitions. Of
course a positive cessation then took place of aU Mary's
French revenue. In aU the numerous treaties and State
papers of her brother-in-law, negotiating peace, the
restoration of her dower or dote is most sedulously
insisted upon, with all arrears.

1522. ENTEETAINS CHAELES V. 83

CHAPTER VII.
Maet had to play the hostess to her formerly be
trothed spouse, Charles V., whom she received and en
tertained in her newly-built palace of Suffolk House,
Southwark. The emperor remained six weeks in Eng
land, his errand being to engage himself to Mary
Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VIIL, Princess
Royal of England, for whom he would have had to wait
many years, and who never promised to possess the
personal graces of her aunt.
The Queen-duchess was then the happy mother of
two chUdren — a son, Henry Earl of Lincoln ', and a
daughter. Again Charles the Great was observed to
contemplate this beautiful and sweet-tempered princess
vrith increased regret ; whUe she, happy in the husband
of her choice, coveted not the imperial crown she might
have shared vrith this great sovereign.
A cloud soon after darkened the felicity she was en
joying. About 1524 her appearance at the court of her
brother, where she had hitherto shone as the bright
particiUar star, was less frequent, and she was consi
dered to have vrithdrawn from public Ufe. Some pri
vate unhappiness was the cause of the change, eridently
connected -with the report prevalent that one or other
of Suffolk's former wives claimed him, some time be
fore the birth of the Lady Eleanor Brandon, on which
account the political partisans of the claims of that
lady's descendants loudly affirmed that they were the
only legitimate heirs of the House of Tudor. That
' Bishop Godwin's Idfe of Henry VIII.
g2

84 MAEY TUDOE. 1525.
Suffolk had, in his youth, two wives and one betrothed
spouse alive at the same time, genealogists assert.
Again, the terrible retribution, both public and private,
may be seen to faU on the unfortunate and innocent
descendants of those who break the tie which imites the
families of the earth. In the case of Margaret Tudor,
it was the sin and wickedness of the woman and the
queen that injured the legitimacy of her ovm descen
dants ; whUe in that of her sister, Mary, it was the
former evU doings of her chosen partner, her only loved
one, that now rose Uke a black shadow to mar their
wedded happiness. Whether the first Lady Brandon,
Anne Browne', or her cousin Lady Mortimer^, was the
claimant is. unknown, but whosoever she might be she
did not long survive the assertion of the rival claim
on Suffolk's hand, for Lady Eleanor, the second daugh
ter of the Queen-duchess and Suffolk, was universaUy
aUowed to have no stain on her legitimacy.'
Mary bore this blight on her happiness "with meekness
and dignity. She withdrew farther from the ken of the
world, and devoted herself to rearing her three chUdren,
and doing good in a remote and unciviUsed district of
her native country.
The war between England and France ceased after
the battle of Pavia, when the wise Lady-regent of France
made peace with Henry Vlll. The second article of
' They were the daughter and niece of Lord Montagu, whose mother,
the immediate heiress of the claims of the great house of NeviUe, had been
forced into an inferior match by the policy of Henry VII.
* It was not tUl 1629 that the claim of Lady Mortimer on the hand of the
Duke of Suffolk was invalidated. Cardinal "Wolsey had the marriage of
his princess confirmed, and the deed remains in the State Paper Office,
endorsed by Burleigh's own hand. — State Papers: "Domestic Eecords,
Henry VIH."
' Conference on the English Succession, by J. Dolman, 1598. There are
likewise passages in Strype and Dugdale which confirm the assertion.

1527. DEATH OF HEE ONLY SON. 85
the pacification between England and France in 1525
provided that Mary the Queen-dowager of France was
to enjoy the fuU profits of her dower for tbe future, and
to receive the arrears already due to her by half-yearly
instalments of 5,000 crowns per annum from her jointure
in France.
The peace -with France enabled the Queen-duchess to
renew her friendship and correspondence with her former
favourite attendant, Jane Popincourt, who had long been
a resident in Paris, whence she'wrote a loving letter to
her royal friend, recaUing herself to her remembrance,
and sending her two fashionable head-dresses for her
young daughters. The present was graciously accepted
by the Queen-duchess, who -wrote a very kind letter in
reply, thanking her for the gift.
The plague called the sweating sickness, which
passed over England in the autumn of 1527, occasioned
the retirement of the court to Tittenhanger, and is
notable in history as being the occasion of a temporary
reunion between Katharine of Arragon and Henry Vlll.
In that endemic Mary Tudor, the Queen-duchess, lost
her only son Henry, who is supposed to have died at
the Southwark palace caUed Suffolk House. The loss
of her boy took aU remaining enjoyment from Mary's
high and palmy state of worldly feUcity ; she retired with
her daughters Frances and Eleanor to her favourite
manor of Westhorpe in Suffolk, seldom approaching her
brother's court.
It could not have been a pleasant contemplation for
her to behold the deprivations of her earUest friend and
good sister-in-law. Queen Katharine, whUe the female
who had been maid of honour to them both was exalted
in her place. Neither, peradventure, did the Queen-
duchess much approve the manner in which Anne

86 MAEY TUDOE. 1629.
Boleyn vindictively pursued Cardinal Wolsey to his
overthrow. Her health was precarious, and prevented
her from often approaching the iU-conducted court of
her brother, yet she ever and anon craved the visits of
his physicians at her own residence in West Suffolk.
Her husband could not have shared her home very often,
because he constantly occupies a leading part among
the stormy occurrences of Henry VTII.'s reign, now
insulting and trampling down the faUing Wolsey, and
behaving -with stUl greater brutaUty tp his royal mis
tress Queen Katharine.
Sometimes the Duke of Suffolk met with retorts from
Wolsey, which had evident aUusion to his o-wn former
adventures. When Cardinal Campeggio departed from
England and postponed the royal divorce, Suffolk made
himself conspicuous at councU by his zeal for the king's
wishes. Starting from his seat and striking the table
before him furiously, he swore, whUe casting a wrath
ful scowl on Wolsey, " England had never been merry
England since cardinals held rule ! "
Rising -with dignity, Wolsey repUed : " Of aU men
-within this realm, you, sir, have the least cause to dis
praise cardinals, since but for me ye at this time woiUd
have had no head upon your shoulders, and no tongue
able to make so rude report against us who intend ye
no cause of displeasure ! Ye best know what friendship
ye have received at mine hands, which I never before
this time revealed to any one alive ! " '
Cavendish, who possibly witnessed this dialogue, or
heard his master the cardinal relate the incident, adds
that Suffolk was struck speechless, and by his silence
acknowledged the justice of Wolsey's rebuke on his in-
' Cavendish.

1029. BUEY FAIE. 87
gratitude. In fact, we, in these latter times, are aware
that if Suffolk had carried on his attack, a letter could
have been produced under the hand of his -wife, declaring
that he owed his life to the friendly offices of Wolsey.
For that letter is stiU extant in the British Museum ; it
is among the series written by the Queen-duchess at the
anxious period of her marriage with Suffolk, and the
cardinal had it then in his possession.
WhUe her absent husband was involved in the tur
moils agitating the court of England, Mary was looked
up to, in the remote prorince of East Anglia, as if she
were a female sovereign. Her name is to this hour re
membered in Suffolk, through her exertions in the en
couragement of the abbot's great fair, held at Bury
St. Edmund's. She came every year vrith her queeiUy
retinue in state from Westhorpe Hall, entered the to-wn
vrith music, and was conducted to a magnificent tent
prepared for the reception of herself and train.
She was present when the Abbot of Bury had his
fair proclaimed ; she then gave receptions to the country
ladies who came -to make purchases at Bury Fair, and
to be present at the baUs in the evenings, where the
Queen-duchess presided.
The festive and fashionable department of Bury Fair
entirely owes its origin to the younger sister of Henry
Vill. ; even in that department she did good to the
land she Uved in. But the grateful traditions of the
people point to conduct far more deserving praise ; Mary
encouraged the staple commodities brought by the in
dustrious Suffolk peasants to that once great and useful
mart. Bury Fair. The principal object of her patronage
was the now declining and trampled-do-wn manufacture
of Suffolk hempen cloth. Bury Fair was likewise a mart
for Suffolk cheese. It is by no means our intention

88 MAEY TUDOE. 16M
to dUate on the -virtues of the latter commodity ; but to
mention the East Anglian linen cloth, which at that
period rivaUed in deUcacy and durabiUty that of Hol
land.

CHAPTER VEIL

Wbsthoepb Hall, the favourite residence of Mary
Tudor, remained complete late in the last century, vrith
its chapel, its beautiful painted glass vrindows, cloisters,
and original furniture ; it was kept just in the order it
used to be when the Queen-duchess held her courts
there. About seventy years ago, the demon of destruc
tion passed into the persons who had power over it;
Westhorpe HaU was entirely puUed down, and the fur
niture and materials sold and dispersed. The Queen-
duchess kept a grand retinue, and had a noble income
from her French dower. Mary was the guardian of
Katharine WiUoughby, the heiress of Lord WUloughby
d'Eresby, whose mother, the Lady Marie de Salures, was
the near relative and favourite friend of Henry Vin.'s
noble repudiated queen, Katharine of Arragon. The
young lady, Katharine WUloughby, the sole heiress of
the marriage of her father -with the queen's first Spanish
lady of honour, always resided in the famUy of the
Queen-duchess, and became afterwards her successor as
the fourth -wife of Suffolk. The Queen-duchess was a
great benefactress to monastic institutions, especiaUy to
the Abbey of Mendham, the remains of which are to be
seen in the meadows of the Waveney, in Suffolk. Among
the ruins of Mendham Abbey have been found her royal
armorial bearings, with two angels supporting over them
the crown of France.'
' The engraving is published in the G-entleman's Magazine.

1630. HEE DECLINING HEAI?rH. 89
Her eldest daughter, the Lady Frances Brandon, was
growing up very beautiful ; she had been elaborately
educated, and Suffolk desired to ally her in marriage
to the heir of some noble and wealthy house connected
with the royal famUy. With this object in view he
fixed upon Henry Gray, Marquis of Dorset, the great-
grandson of Queen Elizabeth WoodviUe by her first
marriage -with Sir John Gray. Henry had, it is true,
been contracted by his late father, Thomas Marquis of
Dorset, to Lady Katharine FitzaUan, the daughter of
the Earl of Arundel, and was bound to pay 4,000 marks,
unless he fulfiUed his engagement ; but as soon as his
father was dead he forsook his noble bride, and be
haved most undutifuUy to his mother, the -widowed mar
chioness, in whose wardship he was left. After a while
Suffolk -wrote to the dowager marchioness, proposing to
unite his eldest daughter by the French queen to her
son, and that the wardship of the young marquis should
be transferred to himself for the residue of the young
noble's minority. The marchioness had no alternative,
for Suffolk's proposition was backed by a recominenda-
tion from the king, which she weU knew amoimted to a
command. The young marquis became a resident in Suffolk's
famUy. The Queen-duchess was then in very UI health,
and in contemplation of a journey to London for better
adrice, wrote the foUovring letter to her royal brother.
King Henry. It has no date, but internal evidence
proves it must have been written then : —
" My most dearest and best beloved Brother, I humbly recom
mend me to your gracCv Sir, so it is that I have been -very sick
and ill at ease, for the which I was fain to send for Master Peter
the Fesysyon, for to have holpen me of this disease that I
have • howbeit I am rather worse than better, wherefore I

90 MAEY TUDOE. 1533.
trust surely to come up to London with my lord. For an' if
I should tarry here I am sure I should never asperge the sick
ness that I have. "Wherefore, sir, I would be the gladder a
great deal to come [go] thither, because I would be glad to
see your grace, the which I do think long for to do. For I
have been a great while out of your sight, and now I trust I
shall not be so long again. For the sight of your grace is
the greatest comfort to me that may be possible. No more to
yotir grace at this time, but I pray God to send you your
heart's desire, and surely to the sight of yon.
" By your loving suster,
" Mabt, the Frenche qu * * *."'
The joumey was undertaken by the Queen-duchess
in March. 1533, and the marriage of the Marquis of
Dorset and the Lady Frances Brandon was solemnised
at that time. But the Queen-duchess, deriring no bene
fit from the physician, returned to Westhorpe Hall
with the bride, her eldest daughter, leaving the Duke
of Suffolk and her son-in-law, Dorset, to perform their
devoir at the coronation of the new queen, Anne Boleyn,
to which they had both received summonses.
Dorset bore the sceptre at Anne Boleyn's coronation,
having been preriously made a Knight of the Bath ; so
also had Henry Lord Clifford, the eldest son of the
Earl of Cumberland, the betrothed husband of the Lady
Eleanor Brandon.
Both her daughters were with their mother at Wes
thorpe HaU, but Suffolk and her two sons-in-law were
in London, engaged in the festivities of the royal bridal,
when the Queen-duchess expired, Jime 25th. Her
body was embalmed and borne in solemn procession,
on July 20, from Westhorpe HaU to Bury Abbey, at
tended by Garter King-at-Arms and the other heralds,
being foUowed by an equestrian procession of lords and
' Harleian MS.

i533. HEE FUNEEAL AND TOMB. 91
ladies. The Ladies Frances and Eleanor rode as chief
mourners, each on a black steed caparisoned -with black
velvet, and supported by the Marquis of Dorset and
Lord Clifford.
When in the Abbey church, these two ladies, preceded
by Garter Eang-at-Arms, each placed a paU of cloth
of gold on the cof5n of their royal mother ; but, to the
surprise of everyone, they were instantly foUowed by
their half-sisters, the daughters of the Diike of. Suffolk
by his repudiated wife, who advanced and made the
Uke splendid offering by each placing a cloth of gold
paU on the coffin. The Lady Frances and the Lady
Eleanor immediately rose and retired, -without tarrying
the conclusion of the funeral rites.
A stately monument, elaborately ornamented, was
raised to the memory of the Queen-duchess Mary
Tudor. Scarcely, however, was it completed, when it
shared the destruction to which her brother doomed
the glorious structure in which she was interred. The
Abbey church, resisting the pickaxes ofthe destroyers,
was blasted and tom by mines of gunpowder ; but even
now, blackened and rent as it is, the remains tower on
high Uke a riven mountain. The Bury townspeople
hastUy removed the coffin of the Queen-duchess into
the neighbouring church of St. Mary, where it was
placed in a rude tomb before the altar, constructed of
slabs of stone from the dilapidated Abbey church,
cemented together. The vault-stone which had in the
Abbey been put immediately over the coffin of Mary
Tudor, plain as it was, had henceforth to do duty as
her monument. Upon it even now may be deciphered
" Mary Queue." Simdry little crosses, much resem
bling the consecration crosses of the Roman CathoUc
altars, are engraven on it; by which we are inclined

92 MAEY TUDOE. 1533.
to suppose that it was, in fact, the altar-stone of the
desecrated Abbey church. A marble tablet with a
modem inscription is now by the waU at the head of
the tomb, which at present stands at the right side of
the altar of St. Mary's church.' But that was not its
original station.
The corpse of the sister of Henry VIII. was subjected
to a second disinterment. Room was wanted for the
communicants at St. Mary's altar in 1734, when the
tomb was puUed down. Everyone supposed it was a
mere cenotaph, but the queen's body was discovered,
within the space formed by the stone slabs, lapt in a
leaden case somewhat resembling the human form. On
the breast was engraved, "Marye, Queue of Ffranc,
1533, Edmund B." The body was in a wonderful state
of preservation, a profusion of long fair hair gUttering
like gold was spread over it ; of this a handful was cut
off by Sir John CuUum. Several of the antiquaries
present at the exhumation of the Queen-duchess Uke
wise possessed themselves of part of this abundant
chevelure, which had resisted aU the deforming powers
of corruption. Little did Mary, the lovely Queen-
duchess, and her attendant maidens think, when these
far-famed tresses of paly gold were combed out and
braided at her bridal toUet with pride and care, that a
day would come when they would be profaned by the
rude grasp of strange men, and even subjected to the
hammer of an auctioneer.
In the beginning of the present century, a lock of this
beautiful queen's hair was advertised, lotted, and puffed
in the catalogue of the household furniture of a deceased
Beccles antiquary, who had taken it from her tomb:
aye, and it was knocked down to the best bidder, in
' History of St. EdmvncCs Bury Alley.

o I

i- 5$

< "S
CO q.

o 5 I

1809. LOCK OF HEE HAIE SOLD. 93
company with chairs and tables, pots, spits, ketties,
and pans.
Very recently, at the utter desolation of Stowe, when
the personals of her descendant and representative, the
late Duke of Buckingham, were sold, another lock of
Mary Tudor's hair was pubUcly knocked dovm to a
curiosity-dealer. The iU fate of the line of Stuart was
fuUy rivalled by that of the sister stem descended from
Mary Tudor.

94 LADY JANE GEAY. 1537.

THE LADY JANE GRAY.'

CHAPTER I.
Ladt Jane Geat is without exception the most noble
character of the royal Tudor lineage. She was adorned
vrith every attribute that is lovely in domestic Ufe,
whUe her piety, learning, courage, and virtue qualified
her to give lustre to a crown. Her birth was preceded
by those of a brother and sister, who died in early
infancy. She was herself born in October 1537, very
nearly at the same time as her royal cousin Prince
Edward. \/
Her mother. Lady Frances, was dowered in the fine
estate of Bradgate, inherited by Henry Marquis of
Dorset from his ancestors the Grays of Groby.' A few
words may be spared to describe that noble domain
where Lady Jane Gray was bom and educated.
Bradgate, the birthplace and home of our Lady Jane,
is situated in the most sequestered part of Leicestershire,
backed by rugged eminences, but with lowly and fertUe
valleys in the foreground. The approach to the demesne
(which is about five miles from Leicester) from the
vUlage of Cropston is striking;' On the left are seen
masses of venerable trees, in the midst of which rise the
' The life of the Lady Frances Brandon, Marchioness of Dorset, is so
inextricably connected with those of her daughters Lady Jane and Lady
Katharine Gray, that to avoid repetition and confusion of chronology it is
expedient to combine thein, and relate events common to all in natural
order as they occurred.

1637. BEADGATE HALL. 95
remains of the once magnificent mansion of the Grays
of Groby. On the right is a hill called " the Coppice,"
which term certainly was given when the word signi
fied something different from its present use. But it is
" coped" by nature vrith vast wedges of slate, yet so
intermixed vrith fern and forest-flowers as to form a
most beautiful contrast to the deep shades of the
neighbouring woods. A -winding trout-stream steals
from one slate rock to another, washing the very walls
of the castle whUe it prattles on its way to the merry
meads pf Swithland, a viUage standing at the feet of
lordly Bradgate."^ In the distance, situate upon a hiU,
rises a lofty tower, caUed by the country people " Old
John," pertaining to the more ancient castle of the
Ferrers of Groby. The " Old John," or " donjon," com
mands a grand -riew over seven counties, including the
distant castles of Nottingham and Belvoir. As for the
more modern mansion of Bradgate, FuUer says : — " This
fair, large, and beautiful palace was erected in the early
part of the reign of Henry VTII. by Thomas Gray,
second Marquis of Dorset. It is buUt principaUy of red
brick, of a square form, with a turret at each comer."
Excepting the chapel ' and kitchen, the princely quad
rangle of Bradgate has now become a ruin, desolated
by fire in the seventeenth century^; but a tower stUl
stands which local tradition declares to be the birth
place of the Lady Jane. Traces of the tUt-yard are
visible, with the garden walls, and a noble terrace
whereon Jane often played and sported in her chUd
hood. The rose and lUy stiU spring wUdly in favourable
nooks of that tangled -wUdemess, once the pleasance or
pleasure-garden of Bradgate. The brook gambols on
one side of the pleasance, and gives nourishment to a
grand group of ancient chestnut trees.

96 LADY JANE GEAY. 1643.
" This was thy home, then, gentle Jane,
This thy green sohtude ; — and here
At evening, from thy gleaming pane.
Thine eyes oft watched the dappled deer
(WhUe the soft sun was in its wane)
Browsing beside the brooklet clear.
The brook yet runs, the sun sets now.
The deer stfil browseth — where art thon ? "
In consequence of the ricinity of Bradgate to Leices
ter, the noble famUy of Gray were always regarded as
princes in that neighbourhood.
The town-books of Leicester record various presents
of wine, fruit, and other good "things, given to the
Marquis of Dorset and his lady, on their occasional
risits to that town. For instance, there is " a charge
of two shiUings and sixpence for strawberries and wine,
for my lady's grace. From mistress mayoress and her
sisters." Also, on another occasion, " four shillings
paid to the 'pothicarry for making a gaUon of Ippocras,
that was given to my lady's grace, by mistress mayoress
and her sisters, the vrives of the aldermen of Leicester,
who gave, besides wafers, apples, pears, and walnuts at
the same time."
In proof of the good feeling then existing between
the members of the royal famUy, we find that the
mother of Lady Jane Gray " sent the Princess Mary, as
the new year's gift of January 1542-3, a worked chemise
and half-a-dozen worked handkerchiefs. The fee to the
bearer was 10s."'. " The lady Frances sent the Uke pre
sent to the Princess Mary, Christmas, January 1543-4,
and her man was paid the same fee.""
The Marquis of Dorset engaged Aylmer, afterwards
Bishop of London^, as the domestic tutor of his chUdren.
' Privy Purse, Mary, Jan. 1542-3. ' Ibid.
• Aylmer is thus described by Becon in his Jewel of Joy : — " In Leicester-

1843. KING HENEY'S WILL. 97
His only boy died in infancy, but the brUUant and
precocious talents of his eldest daughter. Lady Jane,
astonished everyone, and attracted the admiration of
the learned queen, Katharine Parr. She was much in
Queen Katharine's society at a very early age ; and at
the critical time when the queen's life was endangered,
by the artful practices of Gardiner and Wriothesley,
which were defeated by Katharine taking the prudent
resolution of visiting Henry in his own chamber. Lady
Jane attended her and carried the candles before her — a
service which required adroitness, as etiquette rendered
it imperative for the candle-bearer to walk backwards,
and Jane was only nine years old at this important
period.' King Henry in his vriU entaUed the regal succession,
failing his own children and their posterity, his issue by
Queen Katharine Parr, or any future queen or queens —
she was his sixth — on the male heirs of Frances, Lady
Dorset, or in case she had none, on the male heirs of
her sister, Lady Eleanor Clifford ; faiUng these, on the
daughters of Lady Frances according to primogeniture,
and their male issue, and those of Lady Eleanor CUfford,
and in defatUt of these, on their female posterity. Nei
ther of these ladies had a Uring son, therefore Lady
Jane Gray was regarded as reversionary heiress of the
throne, for Henry had whoUy passed over the descend
ants of his elder sister, Margaret Queen of Scotland.
Wars bloody and more interminable than those of
shire I had familiarity only -vrith one -learned, a countryman of ours in
Norfolk, one John Aylmer, a Master of Arts in the University of Cambridge,
a young man singularly well leamed both in the Latin and Greek tongue,
teacher to my Lord Marquis Dorset his children."
' See the Life of Katharine Parr, in Lives ofthe Queens of England, by
Agnes Strickland, Library edition, vol. iii. p. 246, published by Longmans &
Co., Paternoster Eow. H

98 LADY JANE GEAY. 1547.
York and Lancaster might have been the resiUt of this
Ulegal and despotic testament, but it was decreed only
to crush the iU-starred princesses on whom the fatal
settlement was entaUed. These were Lady Jane, Lady
Catharine and Lady Mary Gray, and Lady Margaret
Clifford, Countess of Derby, the daughter of Lady Elea
nor Brandon, Coimtess of Cumberland.
The conditions of Henry's wUl remained to all but
his royal widow and the ministers acquainted with his
mind a sealed secret. By these persons Lady Jane was
regarded as the reversionary heiress of England. Queen
Katharine Parr, by whom she was much beloved, evi
dently endeavoured to fit her for a consort to King
Edward, and thus to insure the establishment of the
infant Reformation.
The Admiral Lord Thomas Seymour, having, through
the queen, an early intimation of how matters stood,
sent Harrington, one of his servants, a gentleman en
tirely in his confidence, to the Marquis of Dorset very
soon after King Henry's death,^to show him " that
he (the admiral), as uncle to the king, was like to
come to great authority, and desired to form a bond
of friendship with him." ALfter several confidential
risits, Harrington spoke to Dorset of his daughter, the
Lady Jane, and advised him to aUow her to be under
-the care of the lord-admiral, observing, "that he had
often heard his master, the lord -admiral, say of Lady
Jane, 'that she was as handsome a lady as any in
England, and that she might be vrife to any prince in
Christendom;'" and Harrington assured the marquis
" that the admiral would see her placed in marriage,
much to his comfort."'
' Deposition of the Marquis of Dorset, in Tytler's Seigns of Edward and
Mary ; also Haynes's Burleigh Papers.

1648. CHIEF MOUENEE AT a KATHAEINE'S FUNEEAL. 99
" With whom vrill he match her ? " asked Dorset.
" Marry," replied Harrington, " I doubt not but you
shall see he wiU marry her to the king ; and fear you
not but he wiU bring it to pass, and then you shall be
able to help all the friends you have." '
Dorset, won by these flattering persuasions of Har
rington, went a few days after to Seymour Place, where
he had a confidential conversation with the lord- admiral
in his garden, and consented to let him have the guar
dianship of Lady Jane, who went to live with him and
Queen Katharine.
Lady Jane attended her royal friend and patroness
to Chelsea, Hanworth, and Sudeley Castle, carefuUy
pursuing her studies under her guidance. She re
mained at Sudeley untU after the queen's death, and
walked as chief mourner at her funeral. Her long train,
at that solemnity, was supported by a young nobleman.
She was foUowed by six ladies, aU mom^ers, and a great
number of the late queen's household. . As soon as the
funeral at Sudeley was over. Lord Thomas Seymour
appears to have retired to Hanworth in Middlesex, the
favourite seat of the deceased queen : thither he brought
her ward, the young Lady Jane, to whose father he
-wrote, requesting him to send for her home. He soon,
however, changed his mind, and vrished to retain her,
for which puj-pose he thus expressed himself as early
as September 17, about a week after the burial of his
consort. Queen Katharine : —
" My last letters, written at a time when, partly with
the queen's highness's death, I was so amazed that I had
smaU regard either to myself or to my doings, and partly
then thinking that my great loss must presently have
' Haynes's Burleigh Papers, p. 83 ; Tytler's Seigns of Edward and Mary.
E 1

100 LADY JANE GEA"^. 1543.
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."
Strange enough is this remark in a document consign
ing a daughter to her ovni father, but he spoke of her
as his ward. And much he seems to have regretted that
his own act and deed had neutraUsed his claim on her
obedience, for the sentence implies that he might have
transferred her person to some other guardian. " For
asmuch," continues Seymour, " since being both better
arised of myself, and having more deeply digested
whereunto my power [property] would extend ; I find,
indeed, that vrith God's help, I shaU right weU be able to
continue my house [hold] together, without diminishing
any great part thereof; and, therefore, putting my whole
affiance and trust in God, have begun anew to stabUsh
my household, where shall remain not only the gentle
women of the queen's highness' pri-vy chamber, but also
the maids that waited at large, and other women being
about her grace [Queen Katharine Parr] in her life
time, with a hundred and twenty gentlemen and yeo-
naen, continuaUy abiding in the house together. Saving
that now, presently, certain of the maids and gentle
women have desired to have license [leave of absence]
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
yom: daughter, the Lady Jane, so soon after the queen's
death, for the proof both of my hearty affection towards
you, and my good-wiU to her, I am now minded to keep
her untU I next speak vrith your lordship, which should
have been -within these three or four days if it had not

1548. THE ADMIEAL TEEATS FOE EETAINING HEE. 101
been that I must repair to the court, as weU to help
certain of the queen's " poor servants "with some of the
things now faUen by her death, as also for mine own
affairs, unless I shaU be advertised from your lordship
to the contrary. My lady my mother shall and wUl, I
doubt not, be as dear unto her [Lady Jane] as though she
were her own daughter ; and for my part, I shaU con
tinue her half-father, and more, and all that are in my
house shaU be as diligent about her as yourself would
vrish accordingly." '
Thus the Dowager Lady Seymour, the mother of
Queen Jane Seymour, and grandmother of the reigning
king, Edward VI. , presided over the establishment of her
son, the widower Lord Thomas Seymour. Under her care
he thought his ward might continue with as much pro
priety in his home as when Queen Katharine Parr was
Uring. The arrangement was peculiarly suited to for
ward the schemes which had entered the plotting head
of Lord Thomas Seymour respecting Lady Jane Gray.
The Marquis of Dorset had Ukewise his plans and private
interests connected -with the wardship of his daughter
— ^they were of a pecuniary nature. He thought proper,
nevertheless, to assume all the anxieties of the careful
parent in the foUowing reply, which, in its shrewd and
significant construction, bears no token of the imbeciUty
of mind, under which his partisans have been driven to
shield the reproach of his rices : —
" My most hearty commendations unto your good
lordship. Whereas 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 weU acknowledge your
most friendly affection towards me and her herein, as
also render unto you most deserved thanks for the same.
> State Paper, partly edited by Mr. Tytler.

102 LADY JANE GEAY. 1548.
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 the want of
a bridle, take too much to head, and conceive such an
opinion of herself that aU such good behaviour as she
heretofore hath leamed by the queen's and your most
wholesome instructions, shoiUd either altogether be
quenched in her, or, at the least, much diminished, I
shaU in most hearty -wise require your lordship to com
mit her to the guidance of her mother, by whom, for
the fear and duty she oweth her, she shaU be more
easily framed and ruled towards -virtue, which I wish
above all things to be plentiful in her," '
There was Uttle danger of Lady Jane, when under the
severe tuition of the Lady Frances, taking " too much to
head, for want of a bridle," as wUl speedUy be shown.
But who would beUeve that a secret desire for 500?.,
rather than Jane's virtuous training, was lurking be
neath aU Dorset's parental assertions ?
"Although," continues he, "your lordship's good
mind concerning her honest and godly education is so
great that mine can be no more, yet, weighing that you
be destitute of such a one as should correct her as
mistress, and [ad]monish her as mother, I persuade
myself that you wiU think the eye and oversight of my
wife shaU be in this respect most necessary."
Then foUows an allusion to the scheme cherished
by Lord Thomas Sej'mour and his late -wife, Katharine
Parr, the queen-dowager, for marrying Lady Jane to
the young king, her cousin : —
" My meaning herein is not to vrithdraw any part of
my promise to you for her bestowing, for I assure your
' State Paper, partly edited by Mr. Tytler. It is printed in the original
orthography by George Howard, Life of Lady Jane Grey, p. 166.

1548. AETFUL LANGUAGE OF HEE FATHEE. 103
lordship I intend, God wilUng, to use your discreet
adrice and consent in that behalf, and no less than my
own. Only, I seek in these her young years, wherein
she now standeth, either to make or mar (as the com
mon saying is) the addressing of her mind to humUity,
soberness, and obedience. Wherefore, looking on that
fatherly affection which you bear her, my trust is that
your lordship, weighing the premises, wiU be content
to charge her mother [the Lady Frances] with her,
whose waking eye, respecting her demeanour, shaU be,
I hope, no less than you, a friend, and I, as a father,
would wish.
" And thus, vrishing 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.
" Tour lordship's, to the best of my power,
"Henbt Dorset.
[Endorsed] " To my very good Lord- Admiral give this."
No letter could be written vrith greater sagacity for
the purposes that were held in riew. These had by no
means been held forth by the father in the epistle as
the paramoimt objects of giving his young daughter the
most careful education under the rigUant maternal eye ;
but on these pre-tences he meant to withdraw her from
the custody of the vridower of her late guardian (who,
it appears, had some claims of authority over her, de
rived from the Queen's Court of Wards), and driving a
high pecuniary bargain for letting him have her again at
his entire disposal ; — that is, Dorset and his wife meant
to seU the wardship and marriage of Lady Jane Gray,
their eldest daughter, for the highest sum they could

104 LADY JANE GEAY. 1548.
bargain for, and then all the " virtue, obedience, and
humUity," paraded above, might take their chance.
" And whereas," writes Lady Frances to the admiral,
" of a friendly and brotherly good-vriU, 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 [meaning herself, the Lady Frances], you wUl be
content to charge her -with her, who promiseth you not
only to be ready at aU times to account for the ordering
of your dear niece [Lady Jane], but also to use your
coxmsel and adrice for the bestovring her', whensoever
it shaU happen. Wherefore, my good brother, my re
quest shaU be that I may have the overseeing of her,
•with your good-vriU ; and thereby I 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 vrish the whole deUverance of your grief and
continuance of your lordship's healthr- From Bradgate,
19 of this September. " Tour loring sister and assured friend,
" Feancts Doeset."
The terms of brother and sister constantly exchanged
between this niece of Henry Vlll. and Lord Thomas
Seymour, are not to be explained by any relationship or
famUy connection, excepting such as by courtesy might
exist on account of their daughter's previous wardship
with the queen his vrife. The admiral, who had over
shot his mark when, in his consternation at Queen
Katharine's sudden death, he had thrown up the ward
ship, he held in her right, of the Lady Jane, now ful-
' Disposing of Lady Jane in marriage.

1548. EETUENS TO BEADGATE. 105
filled his 0"wn proposal reluctantly. Dorset, however,
sent to Hanworth for his daughter.'
Lord Thomas, not content with the escort the father
deemed sufficient, caused her to be attended to Brad
gate by two of his most trusted retainers — Mr. Rous, the
comptroUer of his semi-royal household, and Mr. John
Harrington (afterwards greatly connected with the for
tunes of the Princess EUzabeth) ; and these gentlemen
reported, on their arrival at Bradgate, vrith their fair
charge, that "all the maids at Hanworth remained
there in full expectation of seeing the young lady back
again speedUy." Such, indeed, was the real intention
of the Marquis of Dorset, her father, and the Lady
Frances, her mother, as may be ascertained by their
immediate proceedings. Thus the noble pair were at
Bradgate, September 19, when they wrote their letters
regarding the recaU of their daughter from Han
worth ; but, directly she arrived at home, they posted to
London, whither they knew by his letter Lord Thomas
Seymour had preceded them. They took up their abode
at Dorset House, Gray's Inn Place, near the Temple.''
Here Lord Thomas Seymour, accompanied by his fa
vourite. Sir WUliam Sherrington, quickly risited them.
According to Dorset's deposition, it might be supposed,
when he says " they came to my house," that the risit
had been paid at Bradgate, and that he had been com
pletely hunted into seUing the wardship and marriage
of his daughter Jane ; but the truth is, he and Lady
Frances took a long and fatiguing joumey from Brad
gate, after September 23, to meet and court the nego
tiation. ' Deposition before the Privy Council, State Paper Office, edited by
Mr. Tytler.
» Examinations, State Papers, partly printed in Haynes.

106 LADY JANE GEAY. 1548.
" Here," continues Lady Jane's father, in his subse
quent deposition before the privy councU, "he was so
earnestly in hand with me and my vrife, the Lady
Frances,^ that in the end, because he woiUd have 'no
nay,' we were contented that Jane should again return
to his house. At this very time and place he renewed
his promise unto me for the marrying of my daughter
to the king's majesty Edward VL, and he added, ' H
I may once get the king at Uberty, I dare warrant you
that his majesty shaU marry no other than Jane.' " '
VvTiUe Lord Thomas Seymour was thus busy, exciting
the hopes of Dorset that he should one day see a crown
on the brow of his Jane, Sir WUUam Sherrington, his
friend and prime agent in aU his poUtical manceuvres,
was holding a secret conference with the Lady Frances.
"And Sir WUliam travaUed as earnestly vrith my -wife,
to gain her good-wiU for the return of our daughter to
Lord Thomas Seymour," continues Dorset, " as he 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."^ One departinent
of this curious negotiation is that " my Lord of Dorset
deposed, for the information of his brethren of the privy
councU, that Lord Thomas agreed to give htm 500?. for
the purchase of the wardship of the Lady Jane,'" on
account of the large sum of 2,000 L, her whole purchase-
money. When the bargain was struck, Lord Thomas Seymour,
in one of the last days of September, -wrote kindly to the
youthful Lady Jane, to announce that she was to return
again to him at Hanworth as his ward. As the treaty
' State Paper, edited by Mr. Tytler: Edward VI., vol. i. p. 139.
' Ibid.
^ Sir H. Nicolas's Life and Times of Lady Jane Grey.

1648. HEE "WAEDSHIP SOLD TO THE LOED-ADMIEAL. 107
was then ratified, and the cash forthcoming, the inno
cent object of it was permitted to acknowledge the Lord
Thomas Seymour as her adopted father and guardian in
the foUowing naive and genuine letter, stiU extant, in a
beautiful Italian hand.' She was then in her thirteenth
year. It is thus addressed : —
" To the Right Honourable and my singular good lord,
the Lord-Admiral, give these.
" 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 purposed
to -write a few rude lines unto your lordship, rather as
a token to show how much worthier I think your lord
ship's goodness, than to give worthy thanks for the
same; and these my letters shaU be to testify imto you
that, Uke as you have become towards me a loving and
kind father, so I shaU be always most ready to obey
your godly monitions and good instructions, as be
cometh one upon whom you have heaped so many
benefits. And thus fearing I should trouble your lord
ship too much, I most humbly take my leave of your
good lordship. " Tour humble servant during my life,
"Jane Gbate.
[Endorsed at the time]
" My Lady Jane, the 1st of Oct., 1548."
The very next day the Lady Frances acknowledged
the new relationship into which Lord Thomas Seymour
had entered -with his ward her daughter. As Jane had
> State Paper, edited by Mr. Tytler : Edward VL, vol. i. p. 133.

108 L,VDY JANE OE.VY. 1548.
hailed her new guaidiau aa adoptive father, so tlie Lady
Frances addresses him as brothei*, thus : —
"To my very good lord and brothor Iho Lord- Admiral.'
"' Mine own good Bivthor, — I have rocoivod your moat
gentle and loving letter, wherein I do perceive your
n.pproved good--wiU, which you bear iint.o mj daughter
Jane, for the which I think myself most boundon to
you, for that you are so desirous for to have her con
tinue with you. I ti-ust at our next meeting (which,
according to your o-wn appointment, shall bo shortly)
we shall so ooiumuiiioato togotliev as you shall be satis
fied and I cout*;>nt.t>d. And foraamuoh as tliis mes-
sengei- doth make haste away, that I have but litlle
leism-o to wnite, I shnU desire you to take these few
Unes iu good pai't.
" And thus wishing your health and quietness, as my
own, and a short despatch of yoiu- business that I might
the sooner seo you here, I take my leave of you, my
good brother, for this time.
" Fi-om my lord's house /« [of] Broadgate [Bradgate],
tho second of October.
" Tom- assured tuid loving sister,
" Fbanobs DoiiSET."
After Michaelmas, tlie Lord- Admiral Thomas Soymom"
aiiived at Bradgate, where the noblo child was given
to his care. All tho fine sentiments ivtrardintr her
virtuous education, exprossed in her father's letters,
were disperaod in empty air by the payment of the first
instalment of her pui-ohaso-money — n. sum of 50011.
Lord Thomas Seymour would take no receipt for tho
same, saying meiTUy, " The Lady Jane herself was in
pledge for it."" Aud for the vUo consideration of a few
' State Papers. • n,itl.

1648. CONSIGNED TO THE LOED-ADMIEAL. 109
hundred pounds, the parents of Lady Jane Gray saw
their sweet chUd carried away from them, by one of the
greatest profligates of a profligate court, after having
declared under their autographs, which exist to this
day, that he had no one in his estabUshment by whom
her education was likely to be properly finished. Former
biographies have treated the payment advanced by Lord
Thomas Seymour as a loan, but it was eridently a trans
action connected -with the system of wardship, the laws
and working of which have been but superficially de
fined in history. Nothing but wardship could have given
Lord Thomas Seymour the power over the noble chUd
in regard to her disposal in marriage, which he soon
asserted. " So," as her father deposed, when questioned con
cerning her removal from Bradgate, "my daughter'
Jane remained vrith him untU he was carried away to
the Tower."
During that period the imconscious Jane was deeply
engrossed with laying the foundation of those rare ac
complishments and high attainments which were, in
after days, to render her the wonder and boast of her
native land. Her guardian was equaUy busy, intriguing
to make her considered by the boy-king and his own
party as a future queen-consort. Nor was that the
only use to which he turned the presence in his house
of his highly-purchased ward ; he insinuated to the con
fidants of the Princess Elizabeth, that if she did not
accept him, the Lady Jane, her cousin, would fill her
place in his heart. He brought Jane to Seymour Place
for the winter, where the innocent student was soon
" State Paper, edited by Mr. Tytler, who pomts out that he has restored
the true version of this important and curious paper, which has been much
garbled by Haynes in his edition of the Burleigh Papers. Tytler's Edward
VL, ToL i. p. 141.

110 LADY JANE GEAY. 1548.
busy imbibing Calrinistic tenets from Bucer;' mean
time, her unprincipled guardian was thus making free
-with her young name : — " When Thomas Parry was con
ferring with Lord Thomas Seymour regarding his mar
riage vrith' the Princess Elizabeth, he proposed going
to see her. Elizabeth's officer cautiously observed, ' he
had no commission to say her Grace would welcome
him,' when the wooer, whose vanity was eridently
piqued, answered, * It is no matter now, for there has
been a talk of late; forsooth, they say now, I shaU
marry the Lady Jane,' adding, ' I teU you this but mer
rily — but merrily.'"^
There is reason to suppose, from the -writings of
Ascham, that Lady Jane's governess was Elizabeth
Ashlery, sister-in-law to Katharine Ashlery, or Astley,
governess to her cousin, the Princess Elizabeth. The
plans of the Duke of Somerset and his duchess were
utterly traversed by the possession Lord Thomas Sey
mour had taken of the yoimg heiress of Bradgate, for
she was one of the ways and means they had devised
-to support their own new dignities. The bold move of
Lord Thomas checkmated both their pieces, for they
had not only educated their daughter. Lady Jane Sey
mour, as a spouse for Edward VL^ but had received a
solemn promise, from Dorset, that he would give the
Lady Jane Gray as a wife to their eldest son, the Earl
of Hertford. In fact, a promise to this effect had taken
place in former years, which may be ascertained by her
father's own words, who, in answer to the demand of
Somerset " that it should be ratified " after Lady Jane was
the ward of his brother, answered thus diplomaticaUy :
> -Who arrived in England in 1549, according to the Zurich Letters,
p. 665. She mentioned it as early as in her first epistle to Bucer. '
' Haynes's State Papers, p. 98.

1548. HEE FIEST ENGAGEMENT. HI
"As for the marriage of your Grace's son -with my
daughter Jane, I think it not meet to be written, but I
shaU at aU times avouch my saying." '
There was every opportunity for an early attach
ment to have commenced between Lady Jane Gray
and the eldest son of Somerset, for ih the lifetime of
Katharine Parr the young lady was frequently in com
pany with Edward VL, who was usuaUy attended both
in pubUc and private by his cousin-german. That
Lady Jane had an early attachment to some young
noble, whom she considered as her betrothed before she
was destined to the man she married, has been posi
tively affirmed. The young earl was distinguished by
the fine stature and beauty of person* for which the
Seymours were noted, and was particularly beloved by
the Lady Frances, Jane's mother, who, according to his
o-wn words', always called him "son." How far the
young lovers had promised and plighted their chUdish
troth cannot be said, but it is clear that untU Lord
Thomas bought the wardship of Jane, in order to carry
out the scheme he and Katharine Parr had contrived
of marrying her to the yoimg king, her parents had
encouraged the idea of wedding her to the heir of
Somerset. A remarkable dialogue took place between Lord
Thomas Seymour and Parr, Marquis of Northampton,
on this very subject. They were walking up and do-wn
the gaUery at Seymour Place, or Durham House, the
London residence of Lord Thomas, when that noble
began to sound his companion regarding the young
> Howard's Ufe of Lady Jane Grey, p. 161.
' Thomas Norton, his tutor, mentions that he was singularly like his
father, whose handsome portraits are very familiar, both in paintings and
engravings. ' Deposition of the Earl of Hertford, 1661.

112 LADY JANE GEAY. 1548.
Jane, who was then actuaUy under his roof. " There
vriU be much ado soon for my Lady Jane, Dorset's
daughter," said he, "for the Lord Protector and his
duchess mean to do aU they can to obtain her for their
heir, young Hertford. However, they vriU not succeed,
for her father has given her up whoUy to me upon cer
tain covenants between us." " But what -wiU you do,"
asked Northampton, "if your brother, the Protector,
should induce the father of the lady to enter into his
riews for her marriage vrith his son ? " "I vrill never
consent thereto," answered Lord Thomas Seymour.'
According to the laws of wardship, that was no idle
assertion. WhUe he Uved, and Jane was under twenty-
one, he could have broken any marriage contracted for
her by her parents. Lord Thomas affirmed, both then
and pubUcly, that " Lady Jane was as handsome a lady
as any in England." Such opinion from the Adonis
of the court of Henry VIIL, the aU-conquering Lord
Thomas Seymour, ought to have its due weight -with
those who deem that the perfections of Lady Jane Gray
were solely mental.
One mystery is solved by the foregoing narrative,
which is that the iU-wUl between Somerset and his
brother. Lord Thomas, which sweUed into murderous
enmity after the death of the Queen-dowager Katha
rine Parr (who is usually considered the cause of it),
had its origin reaUy in the disposal of the hand of
Lady Jane Gray. Lord Thomas meant by her means
to deprive his niece. Lady Jane Seymour, of the hand
of the young king ; or, if disappointed in that scheme,
stUl to prevent all hopes of his nephew Hertford be
coming her husband, by marrying her himself if he
' Deposition of the Marquis of Northampton before the Privy Council.
— State Papers relative to his attainder.

1649. THE LOED-ADMIEAL BEHEADED. 113
faUed of obtaining the Princess Elizabeth, Lady Jane
herself was too young to be otherwise than a passive
instrument in the hands of her legal guardian. She
was actually abiding with him in Seymour Place' at
the close of the year 1549, when the blow fell on him
which laid aU his schemes in the dust. If the measures
taken against Lord Thomas Seymour by the Protector
had not been very sudden, the Marquis of Dorset would
have had time to remove his daughter without subject
ing her to the alarm she must have suffered when he
was arrested on the improbable charge of an endeavour
to assassinate Edward VI.
The Duke of Somerset hurried forward the iUegal
impeachment of his brother Lord Thomas, whose death
is thus mentioned in one of the news-letters of a Zurich
member of the Calvinistic Church, then resident in
England : — " The admiral is dead. He was beheaded
and dirided into four quarters. With how much un-
-wiUingness he suffered death. Master John Utenhovius,
who is the bearer of this, vrill fuUy explain to you by
word of mouth." V Such words, when considered in
unison with those of Latimer, " that Lord Thomas died
irksomely, strangely, horribly," lead to the supposition
that some appalUng addition to the usual tragedy on
the scaffold took place at his execution.*'^ What Lady
Jane Gray thought of the violent death of her guardian,
out of whose house she was taken after he was hurried
to the Tower, has utterly eluded research. '
' Tytler's Edward and Mary, vol. i. p. 132.
' Zurich Letters : Hooper to Bullinger.

114 LADY JANE GEAY. 1650.

CHAPTER II.
Another change in the life of Lady Jane now occurred.
She was returned to her parents, who were dissatisfied
at the faUure of their ambitious schemes. Moreover,
her father had to undergo several sharp examinations
from the dominant party in privy councU as to his
motives in consigning his eldest daughter to the keep
ing of the lord-admiral. Dorset and his wife, the Lady
Frances, retired in some gloom to Bradgate. Then-
eldest daughter had long been estranged from home,
and family affections had been broken on aU sides.
The only comfort Jane enjoyed was in pursuing the
course of learning in which she had already far advanced
under the auspices of her leamed tutor Aylmer. -^
One day the celebrated preceptor of the Princess
EUzabeth, Roger Ascham", who was weU known to Lady
Jane and her family, came to Bradgate to pay his
respects. He observed, while passing through the park,
that the Marquis and Marchioness of Dorset, and aU the
ladies and gentlemen of the household, were engaged
in hunting. The Lady Jane was, however, when Ascham
enquired for her, said to be in her own apartment. He
requested admittance to her, which she granted, and
there he found her " reading the ' Phsedon ' of Plato, in
Greek, with as much delight as gentlemen read a merry
tale in Boccacio." Whereupon Ascham, much surprised,
asked the fair student "why she relinquished such
pastime as was then going on in the park?"
Jane replied, with a smUe, " I wis all their sport in
' His wife Alice and his cousin were among Lady Jane's household.
His father was house-steward to Lord Scrope.

1650. CEUELTY OF HEE PARENTS. 115
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,"
asked Ascham, " to this true knowledge of pleasure P
And what did chiefly allure you to it, seeing that few
women and not many men have arrived at it ? " "I
wiU teU you," replied Lady Jane, " and teU you a truth
which, perchance, you wUl marvel at. One of the
greatest benefits that ever God gave me is that He
sent me, with sharp severe parents, so gentle a school
master. When I am in presence of either father or
mother, whether 1 speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or
go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be se-wing, playing,
dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it, as it
-were, in such weight, measure, and number, even as per
fectly as God made the world, or else I am so sharply
taunted, so crueUy threatened, yea, presented sometimes
with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways (which I
vriU not name for the honour I bear them), so without
measure misordered, that I think myself in heU, tUl
the time comes when I must go to Mr. Aylmer, who
teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, -with such fair al
lurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing
whUes I am with him. And when I am called from
him I faU on weeping, because whatever I do else but
learning is fuU of great trouble, fear, and whole mis-
Uking unto me. And thus my book hath been so much
my pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleasure
and more, that in respect of it, aU other pleasures, in
very deed, be but trifles and troubles to me." '
Ascham, who detaUs this conversation as a powerful
argument against the cruelty of tuition, then generally
prevalent, adds, that " he remembered it more intently
1 Ascham's Schoolmaster.

116 LADY JANE GEAY. 1550.
because it was the last conference he ever had, and the
last time he ever beheld that sweet and noble lady." ' ^'
The Marquis of Dorset, while under the poUtical
cloud caused by his imprudent alliance with the late
lord-admiral, had courted and formed a strong aUiance
vrith the reformed Church of Geneva, and aUowed her
leamed delegates to communicate freely vrith his ac
complished daughter. Lady Jane.
Her father's protege, John Ulmer, a leamed and
destitute S-wiss student, in the course of the summer of
1550, brought Lady Jane into correspondence -with the
celebrated BuUinger, the Protestant professor at Zurich.
Ulmer (who is kno-wn by his Latinised name of Ulmis)
received from the Marquis of Dorset a pension for
prosecuting his studies at Oxford. He often passed his
vacations at Bradgate, where Jane and her young sisters
were studying under John Aylmer, whUe their spiritual
welfare was the charge of the chaplain, James Haddon.
The letters of these learned men furnish a certain degree
of information regarding the domestic life of Lady Jane
at this period. She was learning music, and, like most
of her countrywomen, devoting an undue portion of her
time to its practice. She dressed splendidly, and, ac
cording to the ideas of her anxious tutor, thought a
little too much of her gay attire.
The fii'st time Ulmer names the Lady Jane Gray is
in his letter to BuUinger of AprU, 1550. He had then
been her father's pensioner for nearly two years, and
anxious to repay solid benefits by the cheap remunera
tion of compUmentary dedications, he urges BuUinger
to this course, and thus describes Lady Jane's father : —
"Henry Gray, Marquis of Dorset, who is descended
fr-om the royal famUy " (a great mistake), " with which
' Ascham's Schoolmaster.

1650. HEE LETTEE TO BULLINGEE. 117
he is very nearly connected. He is the thunderbolt
and terror of the papists, that is, a fierce and terrible
adversary. The marquis has a daughter, about fourteen
years of age, pious and accomplished beyond what can
be expressed, to whom I hope shortly to present your
book, ' The Holy Marriage of Christians.' "
In another letter Ulmer says : — " I took your letter
with the book to the marquis. Lady Jane being from
home, and the marquis wiU soon -write." He also ad-
rises BuUinger to write to Lady Jane, promising that
he should " soon receive from her a most courteous
and learned letter in Greek."
He was not disappointed, for Lady Jane wrote to him
at length a most beautiful letter, from which, as it is
of great length, we present the foUowing extract : —
" From that httle volume, of pure and unsophisticated reli
gion, which you lately sent to my father and myself" (she says),
" I gather daily, as out of a most beautiful garden, the sweetest
flowers. My father also, as far as his weighty engagements
permit, is dihgently occupied in the perusal of it ; but what
ever 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 ungrate
ful minds such and so many truly di-rine 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 man-
kuid — 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 dirine Goodness, and at least to acknow
ledge them with gratitude, though we may be unable to make
an adeqiiate return !
" I now come to that part of yom* letter," continues Lady
Jane, " which contains a commendation of myself, which, as I
cannot claim, sp also I ought not to allow ; but whatever the

118 LADY JANE GEAY. 1561.
dirine Goodness may have bestowed on me, I ascribe wholly 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 ofi'er 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 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 in
scribing vrith his name, and publishing under his auspices, your
Fifth Decade, had he not been summoned by most weighty
business in his majesty's serrice to the remotest parts of Bri
tain ; ' but as soon as public affau-s shall afford him leisure, he is
determ.ined, he says, to write to you vrith all diligence. To con
clude, as I am now beginning to learn Hebrew, if you -wUl point
out some way and method of pursuing this study to the greatest
advantage, you will confer on me a very great obligation.
" Farewell, brightest ornament and support of the whole
Church of Christ, and may Almighty God long preserve you
to us and to His Church ! Tour most devoted " Jana Geau."
Ulmer, in one of whose subsequent letters to his mas
ter, BuUinger, this epistle was enclosed, spoke of it -with
enthusiasm. He says, "Tou will easily perceive the
veneration and esteem which the marquis's daughter
entertains towards you, from the very leamed letter she
has written to you. For my own part, I do not think
there ever lived anyone more deserving of respect than
this young lady, if you regard her family; or more
leamed, if you consider her age ; or more happy, if you
consider both. A report has prevailed, and has begun
to be talked of by persons of consequence, that this
most noble virgin is to be betrothed and given in mar
riage to the king's majesty.* Oh ! if that event should
¦ Berwick.
' Edward VI. is designed, but the name is not mentioned in the authority,

1551. HEE MAREIAGE TO THE KING EEPOETED. 119
take place, how happy would be the imion, and how
beneficial to the Church ! Haddon, a minister of the
Word, and Aylmer, the tutor of the yoimg lady, respect
and reverence you with much duty and affection. It
wiU be a mark of courtesy if you -write -to them aU as
soon as possible. Skinner is at court with the king.
WaUock is preaching with much labour in Scotland." '
Lady Jane is again mentioned by John Ulmer, but
this time to another Swiss reformer, caUed Conrad Pel-
Ucan. She was stUl at Bradgate May 29, 1651. The
foreign Oxford student spent two days, in that joyous
time of the year, at the seat of his patron. Earnest
were the learned coUoquies she held -with the young
reformer, whose own account of the matter is better
than any biographical diction ; for with how much life
and power comes the sketch from the very person re
cently occupied viva voce with the historical personage
under discussion I Conrad was some friend of BuUin-
ger's less engaged in political polemics; for Ulmer is
afraid the master cannot spare time to compound as
many Latin letters as Jane and her father desired, there
fore he is eager to substitute the pen of one less busy.
" I am bold in -writing to you," he says*, " by reason of
the daughter of the most noble the Marquis of Dorset,
a lady who is weU versed both in Latin and Greek, and
who is now most desirous of studying Hebrew. I have
been staying with her these two days. She is inquiring
of me the best way of acquiring that language, and
cannot easUy discover the path which she may pursue
with credit and advantage. She has written to BuUin
ger on this subject, but,4f I guess right, he -wUl be very
• Letter of John ab Ulmis to Henry BuUinger, from Bradgate, May,
1551. — Zurich Letters.
' Bradgate, May 28, 1561.

120 LADY JANE GEAY, 1651.
-wiUing to transfer the office to you, both because he is
always overwhelmed vrith affairs of greater importance,
and because aU the world ' are aware of your perfect
knowledge of that language. If, therefore, you are -wiU
ing to oblige a powerful and eminent nobleman, with
honour to yourself, you wUl by no means refuse this
office and duty -to his daughter. It is an important
and honourable employment, and one too of great use ;
the young lady being the daughter of the marquis, and
is to be married, as I hear, to the king [Edward VL] .
By your adrice, according to my request, she vriU be the
more easUy kept in her distinguished course of leariiing,
the Marquis of Dorset also wiU be made more stead
fast in reUgion, and I shaU appear to be neither unmind
ful of, nor ungrateful for, the favours conferred by them
on myself." ' After some urgency to overcome any diffi
dence his compatriot might feel in writing to a young
lady, announced to him as the destined Queen Consort
of England, Ulmer, who is by no means deficient in the
confidence necessary to a travelling student of the cos-
mopoUte species, continues thus: — "Put away, there
fore, aU awkward excuses, and take in hand the business.
I promise you, indeed, and solemnly pledge myself, that
I wUl bear all the blame if you ever repent of this deed,
or if the marquis's daughter do not most -wiUingly
acknowledge your courtesy. Write, therefore, a letter
to her as soon as possible, in which you wiU briefly
point out a method of learning the sacred language,
and then honourably consecrate to her name your Latin
translation of the Jewish Talmud." Whether this
measure was ever adopted has not transpired, but
assuredly the student Ulmer, whatsoever might be his
' Letter of John ab Uhuis to Conrad Pellican. — Zurich Letters, p. 432,
Parker Society.

1561. EAELY PEOFICIENCY IN LANGUAGES. 121
progress in sacred lore, had not omitted to lay in a
serviceable stock of worldly wisdom. " Tou wiU easily
understand the extent of the attainments of the Lady
Jane by the letter which she -wrote to Bullinger.
In truth, I do not think that among aU the English
nobility for many ages past there has arisen an indi
vidual who to the highest excellence of talent and
judgment has united so much dUigence and assiduity in
the cultivation of every liberal pursuit ; for she is not
only conversant -with the more poUte accomplishments,
and vrith ordinary acquirements, but has also so exercised
herself in the practice of speaking and arguing with pro
priety, both in Greek and Latin, that it is incredible how
far she has advanced already, and to what perfection
she wiU advance in a few years ; for weU I know that
she vriU complete what she has begun, unless perhap^
she is diverted from her pursuits by some calamity of the
times." Too fataUy, indeed, were these words verified ;
but the firmness vrith which Jane adhered to aU the
heavy tasks imposed upon her tender youth is empha
ticaUy dwelt upon by Ulmer, who nevertheless seems
not to have anticipated personal calamity to the young
princess. He" continues : " If you -write to her, take
care, I pray you, that it [the letter] he first deUvered to
me. My Marquis of Dorset is stiU in Scotland. I
was vrith him on the first of May ; he is safe and weU.
" Dated May 29, 1551, in the house of the daughter of
the marquis." '
The very same day that Ulmer wrote his letter to
Conrad PeUican concerning the Lady Jane, her anxious
tutor, Aylmer, eagerly avaUed himself of an opportunity
of using the foreign influence recently invoked by the
Marquis of Dorset, his patron, for the benefit of his
• Zurich Letters.

122 LADY JANE GEAY. 1551.
pupU, -the chUd of his heart, Jane. For, in truth, she
only knew the tenderness of a parent from her tutor ',
who had received her in his arms as an infant, and
commenced his first tuition by guiding her Ups to utter
the first sounds in her native tongue. The hauteur
of the Marquis of Dorset made the task of Christian
admonition almost impracticable either to himself or
his fellow-labourer, James Haddon, the chaplain ; there
fore they both agreed to hint to the theological re
former, BiUUnger, the faults they -wished reproved in
the youthful Jane. " Tou are weU able to determine,"
-writes Aylmer, " how useful are the counsels of the
aged to guide and direct persons at her time of life,
which is just fourteen." *
The advancement of the Marquis of Dorset to the
title of Duke of Suffolk (vacant by the deaths of the
two young uncles of Jane) took place in the autumn of
1551. It occasioned an increase of territorial wealth,
and drew Jane more from the retirement of Bradgate.
Lady Jane Gray appeared at the court of her cousin.
King Edward, on the great occasion of receiring Mary
of Lorraine, the Queen-regent of Scotland. That Jane
had dressed richly, may be pretty weU ascertained by
the second-hand lecture which Aylmer wished she should
receive from Zurich. These are his words : — " It now
remains for me to request that, -with the kindness we
have so long experienced, you wUl instruct my pupil, in
your next letter, as to what embeUishment and adorn
ment of person is becoming in a young woman pro
fessing godliness. In treating on this subject, you may-
• According to his deposition, extant in the Chapter House, before
quoted. ^ If the date of this letter (May 29, 1551) be right, as stated bythe
editor of the Zurich Letters, p. 275, Jane was just fourteen in May, 1661.—
Parker Society.

1561. PUEITAN LECTUEES ON DEESS. 123
bring forward the example of our king's sister, the
Prin-cess EUzabeth, who goes clad in every respect as
becomes a young maiden ; and yet no one is induced by
the example of so iUustrious a lady, and in so much
gospel Ught, to lay aside, much less look down upon,
gold, jewels, and braidings of the hair. They hear
preachers declaim against such things, yet no one
amends her life. Moreover, I would wish you to pre
scribe to her [the Lady Jane] the length of time she
may properly devote to the study of music, for in this
respect the people of this country of England err be
yond measure, whUe their whole labour [of practising]
is undertaken, and exertions made, for the sake of
ostentation." Little did English ladies suppose that an exordium so
ancient existed against inordinate practising of music,
and that it was deplored three hundred years ago, as
a national delinquency. Unfortunately, the good re
former has not left us the approved standard of time
for practice which the heads of the Genevan Church
considered proper and decorous. We fear the usual
aUowance of eight hours per day would have caUed
forth almost a sentence of excommunication. That the
gentle Jane did err in her attention to lute and virginal,
is clear from the lecture of Bullinger, composed and
written for her benefit; Ukewise that her gay attire
scandalised the admirers of her cousin Elizabeth's sim
plicity of garb. Oh that Aylmer and Bullinger coiUd
have contemplated, by second sight, the three thousand
•gowns and the sixteen -hundred wigs left in the ward
robe of her whom they set up as a model to the truthful
and conscientious Jane !

124 LADY JANE GEAY. J551.

CHAPTER in.
Close intercourse was just then established between
the new Duke and Duchess of Suffolk and the Princess
Mary. The violent Ulness and expected death of the
Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, called Lady Jane to
her sick chamber at Richmond. The Duke of Suffolk
hurried from court, expecting to see his wife breathe
her last. So sudden was the call, that he was obUged
to vmte the cause of it to his coUeagues, and by his
letter of explanation -to Northumberland's secretary,
termed by Suffolk his " cousin Oycell," it may be leamed
how terrible were the fevers then prevalent on the banks
of the Thames. "This shall be to advertise you,"
writes he, " that my sudden departing from the court
was for that I had received letters of the state my wife
was in, who, I assure you, is mo Uker to die than -to
Uve. I never saw a more sicher crea-ture in my life
than she is. She hath three diseases. The first is a
hot burning ague, that doth hold her twenty-ibur 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. " From Richmond, the 26 of August, by your most
assured and loving cousin, who, I assure you, is not a
littie troubled." '
The Lady Frances finaUy recovered, and was suffi
ciently convalescent to pay a famUy visit to the Princess
Mary, and to spend a riotous Christmas at Tylsey. The
> Letter of Suffolk to Cecil, from Eichmond, the 26th of August.— jSiafe
Paper, 1552, inedited.

1561. PRESENTS FEOM THE PEINCESS MAEY. 125
cOmpotus of Mary contains items of former presents,
¦with kind expressions to her " cousin Frances," and
to her " young cousin Jane ; " indeed their personal
intimacy seems greater than usual in the year 1551.
In -the middle of November, Jane returned to her
mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, at Bradgate; but it
was only to set out with her and her two young sisters
to fulfil an engagement to visit the Princess Mary.
They proceeded with a great retinue from Bradgate to
Tylsey, the seat of the duke's nephew and ward, the
heir of WUloughby of WooUaton. Following the WU
loughby compotus, it may be leamed that " Novem
ber 21st, 1651, -ten gentlemen came from London to
escort my Lady Frances' grace [Duchess of Suffolk]
to my Lady Mary's grace ; and they aU left Tylsey
after breakfast ; the Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk,
accompanied by her three daughters, the Lady Jane,
the Lady Katharine, and the Lady Mary Gray, repaired
to my Lady Mary's grace." '
The Lady Frances received from her cousin, the
Princess Mary, a pair of crystal beads trimmed with
gold, the tassel at the end of solid goldsmith's work,
set with smaU pearls. The princess has written against
the article in her inventory : — " Given to my cousin
Frances. Likevrise beads of gold enameUed black and
white. To my cousin Jane Gray a necklace of gold set
vrith pearls, ibid., and another set with pearls and small
rubies." The first and only mention here occurs of
-the Lady Mary Gray in connection with her sister, the
Lady Jane; Lady Mary was an infant of four years
old, though accompanying her mother and sisters on a
visit for some days to the formidable Princess Mary.
The first days of December the two younger sisters
' MS. of the 'Willoughbys of WooUaton.

126 LADY JANE GEAY. 1551-62.
returned from the house of the princess their kins
woman to Tylsey ; but it is expressly noted that Lady
Jane Gray remained vrith the Princess Mary, whose
London abode was St. John's, ClerkenweU.
The Duke of Suffolk came to escort his eldest daugh
ter and wife from their visit to the Princess Mary,
December 16, 1551. The duke then set out from Lon
don, accompanied by his duchess and his daughter, the
Lady Jane Gray, escorted by her two uncles. Lord Tho
mas and Lord John Gray; they were bound to Tylsey, for
the purpose of keeping Christmas with princely cheer.
The Duke of Suffolk, in fact, threw wide the gates of
Tylsey, and kept open house for his wards, the orphan
WUloughbys. The whole neighbourhood and country
population were entertained. The Grays amused their
guests by the help of five players and a boy. These
were probably the domestic company of actors in the
serrice of the Duke of Suffolk, as it is especiaUy noted
" that the players of the Earl of Oxford met and
joined them." The Christmas revels proceeded at Tyl
sey with open hospitaUty untU January 20, 1551-52,
when the whole famUy commenced another equestrian
expedition, January 20th. The duke, the duchess. Lady
Jane, Lady Katharine, and even the chUd Lady Mary
Gray, with their uncles the Lord Thomas and the Lord
John Gray, all stayed a few days -with Lady Audley,
the sister of the Duke of Suffolk, at Walden.
For this notation of simple facts the reader is in
debted to an ancient account-book at WooUaton of
" old Mr. Medeley," who had married the heiress of
Willoughby's grandmother, and, being a trustee, 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

1561-52. FATIGUING EQUESTEIAN JOUENEYS. 127
spending the Christmas with the "godliness and in
nocence " dwelt upon -with such unction in Suffolk's
recent pious epistle.' The real friends of Jane, her
tutor Aylmer and the chaplain Haddon, were extremely
annoyed at aU the double dealing of their master
Suffolk, at his worldly practices and his affectation of
sanctity, as wiU soon be found by their letters.
The equestrian journeys which Lady Jane was forced
to perform with her famUy in the winter of 1551 were
fatiguing enough to have injured the health of a strong
man. Since November, she had traveUed from Tylsey
to the London residence of the Princess Mary; then
back to Tylsey, to keep the Christmas revels ; then to
Walden in Essex, to her aunt Audley ; then back to
Tylsey again, where she is mentioned in Mr. Medeley's
note-book in the last day of January. AU these migra
tions, for a delicate girl of fifteen, had the natural
effect of making her veiy iU.
In the succeeding month the Helvetian student
¦wrote to BuUinger : —
"The duke's daughter has recovered from a severe
and dangerous illness. She is now engaged in some
extraordinary production, which wUl very soon be
brought to Ught, accompanied -with commendation of
yourself. There has lately been discovered a great
treasure of most valuable books — BasU* on Isaiah and
the Psalms, in Greek ; Chrysostom on the Gospels, in
Greek; the whole of Proclus, the Platonists, &c., &c.
I have myself seen all these books this day. The
' Quoted at the commencement of the 'Willoughby-'Woollaton MS.
Transcribed, 1702, by Captain Francis -WiUoughby, from his family papers
at -WooUaton Hall, Notts. The MS., a small quarto, is in very fine con
dition ; it was lent to the author in 1847.
' This notation agrees with a Greek letter to Lady Jane Gray, among the
State Papers, from some lady commending St. BasU.

128 LADY JANE GEAY. 1551-52.
Duke of Suffolk, his daughter, the Lady Jane, Haddon,
Aylmer, and Skinner have aU ¦written to you.'"
The mentioh of the recent diacpvery of the Greek
works, among which the Platonists are mentioned, leads
naturaUy enough to that anecdote which Ascham has
recorded of Jane's perusal of the " Phsedon " of Plato
in its original language. It might have been among
the newly-discovered lot of Uterary treasures which the
gentle lady-student was intent upon as a new pleasure.
Lady Jane's friend Ascham did not forget the inter
riew of the preceding year, when he had found her
reading the mastei-piece of Plato in the native Greek.
She received from him a letter, no doubt directed to her
tutor, Aylmer, for the paragraphs are partly addressed
to him. It was vn-itten early in the year 1551-52, but,
according to the usual delay of the Zurich letters, did
not reach her tUl 1552 was far advanced. Ascham
wrote it in the Latin in which he exceUed. The fol
io-wing is a beautiful translation* of his easy and ele
gant epistle : —
" In this my long peregrination, most illustrious lady, I
have travelled far, have visited the greatest cities, and have
made the most diligent observations in my power upon the
manners of nations, their institutions, laws, religion, and regu
lations. 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
' Letter of Ulmis to Bullinger, Feb. 1551-52.— Zurich Letters, p. 446.
The Zurich Letters are dated just according to the modern custom ; but
as Ulmis's next letter mentions the examination of the Duke of Somerset,
which took place January 22, 1551-52, it is clear he indicates that Jane's
violent illness happened at the same time — an incident of some importance
in her short life.
' Howard's Life and Times of Lady Jane Grey, pp. 168 9.

1551-52. ASCHAM'S ENTHUSIASTIC PEAISE. 129
were enjoying hunting and field sports, to find, I repeat —
Oh, all ye gods ! — so di-rine a maid dihgently pursuing the
' Phsedon ' of Plato ; in this more happy, it may be believed,
than in her royal and noble lineage.
"Go on thus, 0 best adorned virgin ! to the honour of thy
country, the dehght of thy parents, thy own glory, the praise
of thy preceptor, the comfort of thy relatives, and the admi
ration 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 of John Sturmius ' to
myself, as my reward for teaching the most illustrious Lady
Elizabeth. But to you too I can repeat them with more
truth, to you too 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 restrain the sharpness of my grief, wliich pru
dence makes it necessary I should conceal even to myself.
Thus much I may say, that I have no fault to find -with the
Lady Ehzabeth, whom I have always found the best of ladies,
nor indeed vrith the Lady Mary [afterwards Mary I.] ; but if
ever I sbaU 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 good Aylmer, for I know
thou -wilt see this letter, that by your persuasion and entreaty
the Lady Jane Gray, as early as she can conveniently, may
write to me in Greek, which she has already promised to do.
I have even written lately to John Sturmius, mentioning this
promise. Pray let your letter and hers fly together to us.
The distance is great, but John Hales will take care that it
shall reach me."
In general history names sometimes issue out of a
dark cloud, and, leaving us ignorant of the persons to
whom they pertain, retire into one as dense. This
John Hales is an instance. He who is mentioned, thus
early, in oxir Lady Jane's brief career we shaU after
wards find deeply involved in the troubles of her
' One of the noted doctors of the Genevan sect.
K

130 LADY JANE GEAY. 1561-52.
equally unfortunate sister the Lady Katharine. He
was an English lawyer of the Genevan sect, was very
learned, somewhat crabbed, and fanatic in his propen
sities, but haring a deformed foot, went by the unlovely
sobriquet of "Club-foot Hales."' It is erident that
in the reign of Edward VI. he was one of the great
circle of leamed men, natives and foreigners, who were
patronised by the House of Suffolk. He was, however,
a brave man, not forgetting his early friends. To htm
the correspondence between Zurich and Bradgate was
probably confided.
"If the Lady Jane" {continues Ascham) "were even to
write to Sturmius himself in Greek, neither yon nor she shall
have cause to repent your labour.
"As to the news here, most illustrious lady, I know not what
to write. That which is written of stupid things must of itself
be stupid, and, as Cicero complained of his own 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 fabrica
tions, or founded upon no authority, so that anything respect
ing continental politics would be neither interesting nor useful
to you. The General Council of Trent is, however, to sit on
the first of May. Cardinal Pole, it is asserted, is to be the
president. Besides, there are tumults this year in Africa,
the preparations for war against the Turks, and then the
great expectations of the march of the emperor into Hungary,
of wliich, though no soldier, I shall, God willing, be a com
panion. Why need I write to you of the siege of Magdeburg,
and how the Duke of Mecklenburgh has been taken, or of that
commotion which so universally at this moment affects the
miserable Saxony ? To write of all these things I have neither
leisure, nor would it be safe ; but on my return, which I hope
is not far distant, it shall be my great happiness to relate all
these things to you in person.
" Thy kindness to me, O most noble .Tane Gray ! was always
most grateful when present with you, but it is ten times more
' Conferences on ihe Succession, by Dolman, printed 1594.

1551-52. HEE LETTEES TO THE S"WISS EEFOEMEES. 131
so during this long absence. To your noble parents I vrish
length of happiness, to you a daily rictory in letters and in
virtue, to thy sister Katharine that she may resemble thee,
and to Aylmer I wish every good that he may wish to Ascham.
Further, dearest lady, if I were afraid to load thee -with my
light salutations, I would ask thee in my name to greet Eliza
beth Astley, who, as well as her brother John, I believe to be
of my best friends, and whom I believe to be hke that brother
in all integrity and sweetness of manners. Greet, I pray thee,
my cousin, Mary Latten, and my wife AHce, of whom I think
oftener than I can now express. Greet also that worthy young
man Garret, and John [Janus] Haddon.
" FareweU, most noble lady in Christ,
[Endorsed] " R. A,
"Augustse : January 18, 1551(2)."

CHAPTER IV.
Ladt Jane Geat continued to write Latin letters to
the Swiss reformers during the spring of 1552, appa
rently from Bradgate ; for at the same time she sent a
present of gloves for Mistress BuUinger, and Ukewise a
beautiful ring. " The last," observes Ulmer, " I did not
receive for certain reasons, which would be too long -to
mention in this letter. As for the gloves, they cannot
be conveniently forwarded untU the fair.'" He brought
in person a letter from Conrad PeUican to Lady Jane,
who answered it immediately. The venerable reformer,
in his manuscript journal, preserved at Zurich, gives
this notation : " On June 19, 1552, 1 received a Latin
letter, vmtten with admirable elegance and learning,
from the noble virgin Lady Jane Gray, of the Ulustrious
House of Suffolk." ^ It is not extant.
' Letter of Ulmer to Bullinger. — Zurich Letters, p. 457.
' Letter of Ulmer to PeUican. — lUd. p. 451.
K 2

132 LADY JANE GEAY. 1552.
In the summer of 1552, at the latter end of July,
Ulmer says : — " Our duke 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.' I waited upon him and
paid him my respects, according to the custom of the
University." At the same time Lady Jane Gray joined
the royal progress, and was received with great favour
by her kinsman Edward VT.' She likewise paid that
remarkable visit to her cousin the Princess Mary, at
NewhaU, which impaired the affection previously sub
sisting between them.
Evil tongues, it is probable, were busy in vridening
-the differences between the cousins on acco-unt of
their contending religions. The Princess Mary had
presented the Lady Jane with a rich dress, and she,
-wilUng to practise some of the precepts wliich she
had newly received from Zurich — those denunciations
against splendid attire Aylmer had invoked for her
benefit, in the preceding autumn — asked the lady by
whom her cousin sent the dress, " What she shoiUd do
vrith it?" "Marry," replied the lady, " wear it, to be
sure." " Nay," rettfrned the Ladj Jane, " that were a
shame to foUow the Lady Mary, who leaveth God's
Word, and leave my Lady Elizabeth, who foUoweth
God's Word ! " ' The anecdote was recorded by her tutor
Aylmer, long years after this world had closed on Jane
— at a time, too, when EUzabeth perhaps did not thank
him for reminding the English of her puritan style of
garb. The other incident (which -vrith more certainty
may be ascribed to this visit at NewhaU) put the two
• The brother, or rather the brothers, of his vite the Lady Frances, who
died on the same day the preceding year.
^ Strype.
• Bishop Aylmer's Harloitrfor Faithful Suljects.

1662. HEE BON MOT OFFENDS THE PEINCESS MAEY. 133
cousins at issue on those points of beUef which were
debated throughout the land with polemic fury. Lady
Wharton, a zealous Roman Catholic, was passing with
Lady Jane Gray through the chapel at Newhall, when
service was not proceeding, and made her obeisance to
the host as they passed the altar. Lady Jane asked
" if the princess were present in the chapel ? " Lady
Wharton o-wned she was not. "Why then do you
curtsey?" demanded the Lady Jane. "I curtsey to
Him that made me," repUed Lady Wharton. " Nay,"
retorted the Lady Jane, " but did not the baker make
him ?" Lady Wharton reported the observation to the
Princess Mary, who never after loved the Lady Jane as
she did before.'
The foUo-wing beautiful letter, written to Lady Jane
Gray, is extant in the State Paper Office in the original
Greek; it has been translated by one of the learned
gentlemen to whom her Majesty has confided the
keeping of this department of her archives. It is ano
nymous, nor can a guess be given at the author, unless
it was one of the leamed daughters of the unfortunate
Duke of Somerset : —
" To my Lady Jane, in a boke [book] .*
" My most dear and noble Lady, — Although I am
conversant -with many of the -writers and theologists of
old, yet of no one has the perusal been more pleasing
and agreeable to me than of Basil the Great, excelling
' The time and place are from the Biographia Britannica. The story
is told by Foie, Strype, and Speed.
' Translated for us from the Greek by H. Claud Hamilton, Esq. There
is no name, but Mr. Hamilton found that it was from a lady by the pro
nouns. He rather supposes that the letter was -written by one of the
daughters of Sir Anthony Cook : it is well known that MUdred Cook -wrote
in Greek to the University of Cambridge.

134 LADY JANE GEAY. 1652.
all the bishops of his time both in the greatness of his
birth, the extent of his erudition, and the glowing zeal
of his holiness. To you, then, so worthy both in con
sideration of your noble birth, and on account of your
learning and holiness, I thought the perusal of so
rational and holy and noble a man and theologian
would be very fitting, for it wUl raise the soul, groveUing
below and set on earthly things, to God the Almighty,
and the remembrance of heavenly things. With these
words, then, of BasU the Great, I present you — a gift, if
the ink and paper be considered, small and trifling, but,
if you consider the profit, more valuable than gold and
precious stones, and a token of my great affection for
you, hoping that the perusal of these words vriU be no
less agreeable and delightful to you than they have
been to me throughout my youth. And so, imploring
for you, soul and body, health and happiness and aU
prosperity, I bid you fareweU.
[Endorsed] " From a lady to Lady Jane Gray."

The engagement of Edward VI. to Elizabeth of
France, the eldest daughter of Henry II. and Catharine
de Medicis, placed an insuperable bar to the ambitious
hopes of Suffolk and the Lady Frances, of seeing Jane
chosen as his consort. The faU of Somerset had pre
viously swept Lady Jane Seymour from the path of
incipient rivalry.x/ But a decree more inexorable had
gone forth : the young king was attacked with a fatal
succession of mortal maladies. Smallpox, and then
measles, had seized his delicate frame, imprudent ex
posure to the noxious atmosphere of a cold bUghting

1553. AMBITIOUS SCHEMES OF HEE FATHEE. 185
spring had fixed the remains of these eruptive maladies
on his lungs. He was afflicted with an obstinate cough
and aU the premonitory symptoms of a decline, which
baffled the skiU of his physicians to remove. It was
evident to Northumberland and Suffolk that the royal
patient was on the eve of laying his sceptre in the
dust. The Suffolk famUy had almost deserted Bradgate,
since the great accession of wealth and consequence
which had accrued to them, after the sudden deaths of
the young dukes, Henry and Charles, heirs of Charles
Brandon. The father of Lady Jane ruled England in
conjunction with his aUy Dudley, and it was needful
that their dwellings should be near the court. Sion
House, the favourite country seat of Northumberland,
was situated -within a few strokes of the oar across the
Thames from Sheen, where there had stood for ages
an old palace of Edward the Confessor, and in close
-ricinity a richly-endowed Carthusian monastery, the
structures and lands of which the Duke of Suffolk had
derived from the lately-deceased brothers ofthe Lady
Frances.' Here he estabUshed his vrife and daughters,
and here they passed aU the time they did not spend at
his London residence in Gray's Inn. The aUiances and
projects which convulsed England during the summer
months of 1653 were planned between Suffolk and his
subtle aUy Northumberland, in these palaces of the
Thames, early in the commencement of that year.
The next movement of the two dominant politicians
was the xmion of their interests by uniting their chil
dren. A.U Northumberland's sons were married ex
cepting Guildford, and to him Lady Jane's hand was
destined. But when Suffolk informed his daughter that
' Inquisition MS., Chapter House.

136 LADY JANE GEAY. 1663.
such was his -wUl and pleasure, Jane positively refused
compliance. He reiterated his commands very harShly,
declaring, moreover, that the marriage had been made
by Edward VI., and requiring to know whether she
meant to disobey her king as weU as her father.
Jane reminded her parents that she had given her pro
mise, vrith their consent, to a young nobleman whom
she could not in conscience renounce, supposed to be
the Earl of Hertford. Our authority is a Venetian
visitor -to England', who affirms that "the reluctant
submission of Lady Jane to this marriage was extorted
by the urgency of her mother and the riolence of her
father, who compeUed her to accede to his commands
by blows." Perhaps this was the most agonising crisis
in the short life of martyrdom Jane led on this uncon
genial earth.
Young Guildford Dudley was the fourth son of the
ambitious Dudley and Jane GuUdford, heiress and
granddaughter to the Lady GuUdford who .was governess
to the Princess Mary Tudor, the " moder GuUdford" sent
back -to England, with tokens of dislike, by Louis XH.
the day after he had espoused that princess. It was
not a Uttle singular that the granddaughter, who repre
sented the Queen of France, and the descendant of her
governess, should afterwards marry. GuUdford Dudley
was about twenty in the year 1553. He must have .
been bom in 1533. A Spanish nobleman, one Don
Diego, was his godfather', therefore he probably had
a second name. GuUdford, the only one by which he
' Historical Tract of Baoardo, edited by Luca Cortile. Printed ' nel-
1' Accademia Venezia, mdl-viii,' black letter, kindly lent by the Hon. Mrs.
GreviUe Howard, of Levens Hall, Castle Eising, and Ashley Park.
' Sir Philip Hoby's Despatches (State Papers). The circumstance was
mentioned to him at Brussels by Guildford Dudley's godfather, whom he
caUs Don Diego, annexed to a surname illegible.

1653. POETEAITS OF LADY JANE. 137
is kno-wn, proves the first instance of a famUy name
given in baptism — a practice, though common at the
present day, pecuUar to the inhabitants of the British
Islands and their colonies. GuUdford Dudley was very
taU ; -the handsomest of a handsome famUy, he was the
pride and darling of his aspiring sire. But it was not
to Lady Jane Gray that the prime minister's thoughts
first, turned, when he was seeking a princess of the royal
famUy of England as a mate for his tall youngest boy,
but to the Lady Margaret Clifford, whose title to the
throne, though from Jane's aunt, was more intact, owing
to Brandon's freedom from his former maniage.
The few portraits which remain of Lady Jane Gray
must have been drawn in the period between her be-
trothment and the celebration of her marriage: they
are too womanly for an earlier time of her existence,
and the events which pressed upon her so rapidly
afterwards left no opportunity for so leisurely a pro
ceeding as portrait-sitting. One, considered* the most
authentic, was painted by Holbein, probably at this
period ; it has been engraved for HoUand's " Herologia
AngUca," and re-engraved for George Howard's " Life
of Lady Jane Grey." The original, or an ancient copy
of it, was a few years since in the coUection of Wenman
Martin, Esq., Upper Seymour Street, The height of
the forehead equals the length of the features of the
face. Jane's jewels are rich and numerous; her dress
a damask gold tippet -with a square corsage braided
with gems. The neck is loaded with a throat-necklace,
rich chain, and pendent ornament. She wears a large
brooch of jewels, and her hood is bordered with gems.
A very strong contrast does her portrait afford to the
anecdotes of her preserved by Aylmer, quoted in the
preceding chapter.

138 L.ADY JANE GEAY. 1553.
" The Lady Jane,",says Mr. Tytler', " if we may judge
from her portrait in the Earl of Stamford's coUection,
engraved for Lodge, had sweet though rather diminutive
features ; but her figure was finely formed, and there is
a simplicity in her dress which becomes it weU. It is ^
so plain that Griffet might at first sight have quoted
it, as supporting his supposed puritanical costume of
Edward's time ; but, on a nearer view, the richly flowered
tucker, the string of pearls round her neck, the flowers
in her bosom, the jewel clasping the tight basquine-
bodice, confute his notions, and show that Plato per
mitted his pupU some little leisure for the toUet." This
quietly elegant style, with its chastened ornaments,
took the proper medium between the stiffness of the
Puritans and the loads of jewels and embroidery which
caused a young princess to faU down under the weight
of her own flnery, on the way to the altar.^
In regard to the person of the Lady Jane, her features
and her ^orm were alike diminutive. Our ItaUan
authority, Luca CortUe, who was in England during
her Ufetime, asserts : — " Jane was beautiful, but very
smaU." Her sister. Lady Mary, was a dwarf. Disraeli
the elder, in one of his clever works, mentions gUt
chopines, a sort of cork shoe, about four inches in height,
worn by Lady Jane Gray to raise her to a more majestic
altitude.

CHAPTER V.

The day of Lady Jane's marriage is dateless in all
English chronology ; it is however fixed by the Venetian
contemporary, who has aided us in the restoration of
' Tytler's Edward and Mary, vol. ii. p. 298.
' Joanne of Navarre, mother of Henri Quatre.

1553. HEE MAEEIAGE TO LOED GUILDFOED DUDLEY. 139
some forgotten incidents of her life', to have been on
"lafesta di Spirito Santo" — meaning the Whit Sunday
ofthe year 1553.^ It was celebrated at Durham House,
which had been appropriated by Northumberland after
the executions of Lord Thomas Seymour and the Duke of
Somerset. Her sister. Lady Katharine Gray, was mar
ried at the same time to Lord Herbert, eldest son of
the Earl of Pembroke ; also Northumberland's daughter,
the Lady Katharine Dudley, to Lord Hastings, eldest
son of the Earl of Huntingdon.
There was granted to the Lady Jane Gray, among
other manors and domains, that of Stanfield Hall, in
Norfolk, a place that had had its full share of terrific in
cidents before the modem murderer. Rush, did his work.
Great endowments in Stanfield had been granted by one
of our queens* to the monks of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem,
' Historical Tract- of Baoardo, edited by Luca Cortile. Printed at
Venice, 1628. PoUino, likewise, in his Ecclesiastical History.
' From Blomfield's Norfolk, article " Wyndham," or "Wymondham," we
gather corroborative particulars of the above. Queen Adelicia, second wife
of Henry I., endowed the Brotherhood of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem, an
offset of the Order of St. John Hospitallers, devoted to the relief of the
sick poor, with certain rich lands between -Wyndham and the adjacent
royal manor-house of Stanfield Hall, a Norfolk hunting-palace, often visited
by the kings of England. At the Eeformation a rich Norfolk tanner,
Eobert Kett, bought -Wymondham Abbey and all its dependent manors.
In short, he was the chief proprietor of that town, as Blomfield avers.
John Dudley (afterwards titled as -Warwick and Northumberland) bought
some of these charity lands of Kett the tanner. As for paying him for
them, that matter was done in his own peculiar mode. Will Kett, the
brother of Eob Kett, by whom he was entirely beloved, had been a black
monk among the Hospitallers expeUed at the Eeformation. The brothers,
finding that Dudley meant to pull down the magnificent tower, the preserva
tion of which was most dear to the Ketts' affections, raised the Norfolk
poor, who were malcontent -with extreme misery, and -Wymondham became
the nucleus of the great Norfolk rebellion. Finally, the Kett brothers were
put to death. ' John Dudley's creditor, Eob Kett, was hung in chains over
Norwich Castle, and the stout Hospitaller, his brother WiUiam, after a dip
in boUing pitch, was hung, in his black robes, over the architectural marvel
he died to preserve.

140 LADY JANE GEAY. 1653.
an offset of the Knights HospitaUers, devoted to the
support of the most destitute poor. Stanfield Eoyal
Manor-House, as it was called for several centuries, was
a hunting-palace of our Plantagenets and Tudors — nay,
Henry VIIL's daughter, Mary, had been its recent pos
sessor, not long before Jane received the grant.
At the time that Stanfield HaU was the property
of Lady Jane Gray, the view it possessed was not
particularly inviting. Above the highest tower of the
noble church hung, wavering in the wind, the blackened
corpse of Kett the Hospitaller. So weU had the body
in chains been prepared for this ghastly exhibition,
that the stout Hospitaller, though dead, long out
lasted the brief life of the gentle owner of Stanfield
Hall, for he hung throughout the haJf-century of Queen
Elizabeth's reign. Will Kett's corpse feU, bone from
bone, only on the day of that queen's death, March 25,
1603. Jane did not gain much by the iU-omened church
property of the HospitaUers', and after her attainder it
reverted to the crown.
The king was very iU that day, and coxUd not be pre
sent, as had been intended, at the ceremony. The popu
lace were interested by the youth and beauty of the
three brides, and particularly vrith Lady Jane Gray;
but they munnured loudly at such noisy demonstra
tions of gaiety at the very period when their young
monarch's illness was publicly rumoured to be of mor
tal tendency.
Lady Jane Gray had a deep dislike to her husband's
father and mother. Northumberland she dreaded and
distrusted ; his wife she abhorred. Her situation was
' Blomfield avers that he knows not what became of the property of
Stanfield HaU and royal manors from Kett's execution tiU 1563. Strype,
however, declares it was settled upon Lady Jane as above. — Mem., vol. iii.
Appendix.

1553. HEE DISLIKE OF HEE HUSBAND'S PAEENTS. 141
most pitiable, she being condemned to Uve vrith them at
Sion House. The Lady Frances, her mother, to whom
she clung in this misery, was not on good terms with the
Duchess of Northumberland. Some promise seems to
have been made to the bride, by the duchess, that after
the marriage Jane should be permitted to reside with her
mother at Sheen. Her father then held possession of the
Carthusian building of (East) Sheen, once belonging
to the Protector Somerset — a haunted place, as report
went — where he and his proud duchess were once
most thoroughly terrified, when walking together in the
gaUery there, at a time when they were at the pinnacle
of prosperity, ruling England. Suddenly, out of the
waU issued a hand, bestained vrith red, brandishing a
bloody sword, or, as some say, an axe, in their faces.
As both the duke and duchess saw this apparition, and
were weU-nigh terrified to death, it was, in aU human
probabUity, an ocular deception contrived by some one
interested in the ejected Carthusian occupants. We
find Lady Jane Gray's mother was in possession of aU
the Carthusian property here and in London.
Jane's own narrative of the historical events of this
period, in a letter to Queen Mary, thiis detaUs how she
spent the time between her marriage and Edward VI. 's
death: — "The Duchess of Northumberland," writes
Jane, " promised me, at my nuptials with her son, that
she would be contented if I remained Uring at home
with my mother. Soon afterwards, my husband [Guild
ford Dudley] being present ', she declared ' that it was
pubUcly said, there was no hope of the king's life'
(and this was the first time I heard of the matter) ;
' PoUino, who gives her letter, relates some personal circumstances
omitted by Baoardo. On the contrary, the former preserves the incidents
of the violence used by her father when she declined marrying Lord Guild
ford Dudley, because she was engaged to another. And these are true

142 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553.
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 stupify me. Tet
afterwards they seemed to me exaggerated, and to mean
Uttle but boasting, and by no means of consequence
sufficient to hinder me from going to my mother."'
Jane evidently expressed herself to that effect, and, by
so doing, infuriated her mother-in-law, for she proceeds :
" The Duchess of Northumberland was enraged against
my mother and me. She answered ' that she was re
solved 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 re
mained at her house four or five days." It seems at
Durham House, as her mother-in-law urged the neces
sity of her being at hand to take possession of the Tower,
in case of the king's sudden demise. " At last," con
tinues Lady Jane, " I obtained leave to go to Chelsea,
for recreation [meaning, perhaps, change of air], where
I very soon fell UI." Her Ulness was a struggle between
life and death, her sufferings being acute enough to give
her the idea that she was poisoned.''
marks of the authenticity of PoUino's document ; for Jane, dutiful and good
daughter as she was, suppresses his cruelty, and mentions not a word in
her letter to criminate her parents, as Queen Mary had forgiven Suffolk.
Baoardo wrote the passing incidents he gathered while a visitor in England
regarding this attempted revolution.
' PoUino, p. 10. It is a recital bf the events contained in Lady Jane Gray's
letter published in Italian by PolUno, and first made known by Sharon Turner.
' Ibid. It must have been this iUness she aUudes to at the end of her
letter, as the first she suffered when resident with Dudley.

1553. HEE DANGEEOUS ILLNESS. 143
Chelsea Palace was then in possession of the Duke
of Northumberland; from it he dates several letters
to CecU and others, his coUeagues, that spring.' For
some reason. Lady Jane Gray thought going to Chelsea
a relief: it is not very clear what were her antipathies
-to Durham House and Sion, but she considered Chelsea
preferable, although it equaUy belonged to the Dudley
estabUshment.

CHAPTER VI.

Jane had not left Chelsea, nor is it certain whether she
considered herself well enough to make the attempt,
" when," she says, "there came Lady Sidney, the daugh
ter of the Duke of Northumberland, who told me she
was sent by the councU 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."
Lady Sidney is well known in history as the sister of
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and the mother of
the renowned Sir Philip Sidney. She figures in history,
for the first time, as an agent in the revolution which
placed Lady Jane Gray on the throne of England. She
had been married more than a year to Sir Henry Sidney,
and was eridently despatched by Northumberland to see
that Jane pleaded no excuses of iU health — in short, to
obUge her to conie, UI or weU.
The young ladies went in their barge up the river
to Sion House. Their rowers could scarcely make the
passage in two hours. "When we arrived at Sion,"
' Several in Tytler's Edward and Mary, vol. ii.

144 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553.
Jane continues, " I found no person there.' But thither
came directly afterwards the Marquis of Northampton,
the Earls of Anmdel, Huntingdon, and Pembroke, who
began to make deferential speeches, bending the knee
before me, and their example was followed by several
noble ladies, causing my cheeks to be suffused with
blushes. My distress was further increased when my
mother [the Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk] and
my mother-in-law, the Duchess of Northumberland, en
tered, and performed to me the same homage. Then
came Northumberland himself, and, as President of
the CouncU', declared to me the death of the king, de
monstrating ' that everyone had reason to rejoice in the
virtuous life he had led, and the good death he died,'
drawing 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 eril of his sisters.' He signi
fied -to the Duke of Northumberland 'that hg (the said
Majesty Edward VI.) had well considered the Act of
Parliament, in which it had been already ordained that
whoever should recognise Mary, or EUzabeth her sister,
as heir to the crown, were to be held as traitors, seeing
that Mary was disobedient to the king her father and
to him (Edward VI.) , and was, moreover, chief enemy
to the Word of God, and that both were illegitimate.
Therefore he could not understand thf.t it was right for
them to be his heirs, but rather that he ought in every
way to disinherit them.' And before his death he ' com-
• Baoardo.
" PoUino. Baoardo enumerates Northumberland as one of the first
arrivals, but Jane's letter, given by PoUino in Italian, and quoted by
Sharon Turner in this part, is foUowed as more circumstantial. It is
rather surprising that Sharon Turner did not give the whole, full as it is
of inedited incident.

1553. SHE SWOONS. 145
manded his council, and adjured them by the honour they
owed him, by the love they bore their country, and by
the duty they had to God, that they should obey his will
and carry it into effect.' And," continued Lady Jane',
" the Duke of Northumberland added, ' that I was the
heir nominated by his Majesty, and that my sisters,
the Lady Katharine and the Lady Mary Gray, were to
succeed me, in case I had no male heirs legitimately
born;' at which words aU the lords of the councU 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 aU 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.' Whilst I, having heard aU this,
remained as stunned and out of myself. I call on those
present to bear witness, who saw me faU to the ground,
weeping piteously, and dolefully lamenting, not only
mine own 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 foUowing day, as everyone knows,
I was conducted to the Tower." *
Jane expresses herself as if she was carried prisoner
to the Tower, and so she was effectually, but it was her
State entry, she means, into that ominous fortress pre-
rious to the recognition procession through the city,
which in aU former reigns preceded the coronation of
the EngUsh sovereign.
• Baoardo's narrative, which is in this part a quotation from Lady Jane's
words, is here adopted. PoUino omits the words " president of the council,"
which was the ease.
^ PoUino. ' Ibid. Quoted here by Sharon Turner. * Baoardo.
L

146 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553.
" The narrative above is," as Mr. ShaXvon Turner ob
serves, "very different from the weU-kno-wn version given
by Foxe." The few words said by poor Jane, raising
herself on her knees after her deadly swoon, are more
probable than the pompous oration put into her mouth,
as proper for the occasion. Nor in either of the ItaUan
narratives does she mention her husband as taking any
part in her recognition by the councU at Sion House '
on the evening of July 9. Whilst the cabinet ministry
of the late monarch were breaking to Jane the death of
her cousin Edward, and her own unwelcome accession.
Dr. Ridley was on that very afternoon preaching at
St. Paul's Cross a sermon against the legitimacy of the
surriving chUdren of Henry VIII., and the benefits of
Jane's approaching reign.
The " Grey Friars' Chronicle," a frugment written by
a contemporary, agrees exceUently weU with the nar
rative of Jane herself, saying " that on the morning of
July 10 the Lady Jane Gray came from Richmond to
Westminster by water." To Westminster Palace she
would doubtless come for the purpose of robing. She
expressly says she passed the night of July 9 at Sion
House, which was near enough to Richmond to he
quoted as if she came trow, thence. It must be re
membered that her mother lived at East Sheen, or Kew,
where she had earnestly longed to be, but was not per
mitted by her mother-in-law. Richmond Palace was
« The editor ofthe " Gentleman's Magazine" (May, 1847, p. 491) points
out that Aungier, James, and George Howard are all -wrong in placing the
recognition of Lady Jane Gray as queen at Sion House; whereas it took
place at the Duke of Northumberland's town-house, Durham House, Strand.
We place it where her letter in Pollino places it. The Chronicle of the
Grey Friars, edited by J. G. Nichols {Queen Jane and Queen Mary,
Appendix iv. p. 110), declares she came by water, July 10, from Eichmond
to Westminster, and so on to the Tower. If so, she might have come from
Sion.

1663. HEE FIEST DAYS EEGALITY. 147
the property of Henry VIIL's last surviving widow,
Anne of Cleves. Every way ¦the authenticity of her
letter quoted by Pollino is confirmed.
Very early in the morning of July 10 must Jane and
her attendants have been afloat on the Thames, for she
came down the river in her barge to Westminster Palace
from Sion House, and in regal pomp from Westminster
to Durham House ', one of the Strand palaces. Here
her barges made some stay ; it was her father-in-law's
dhief residence and arsenal above London Bridge, and
she probably dined there. From thence her procession
came by water vrith increasing grandeur; she landed
at about three o'clock at the Tower, under deafening
discharges of artiUery from its batteries, the voices of
which spoke more formidably than ever before heard by
the citizens, from a natural desire of Northumberland
to show his enemies how effective were the means of
defence pertaining to the stronghold of the new sove
reign. The walking procession of Queen Jane from the
landing-place to the Great HaU of the Tower was long
remembered for its magnificence. Crowds of spectators
lined the way, and everyone knelt as she passed on. The
Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, to the surprise of the
beholders, officiated as her daughter's trainbearer, for
Jane wore, on the occasion, royal robes and circlet, and
appeared with the regality of a queen as yet uncrowned.
All the nobUity — lords and ladies resident in or near
London — assisted at the pageant, with the whole body
of the privy councU, some of whom were promoters of
the revolution, others weye secretly Uttle better than
' George Howard's Lady Jane Grey, p. 235. Other historians place her
recognition by the council at Durham House. It is probable she dined
there on the noon of July 10. Its vicinity to the city (on the site of the
Adelphi) renders it likely. l2

148 LADY' JANE GEAY. 1553.
prisoners or hostages : among the last class may be
reckoned the Roman Catholic Earl of Anmdel. Young
Guildford Dudley, who is first mentioned here since he
was the passive witness of his mother's quarrel with
Jane at Durham House, is now noted as walking by the
side of his royal lady, cap in hand *, and bowing to the
ground whensoever she spoke.* He was not long con
tented vrith so subordinate a part. When the whole
cortege had taken possession of the regal apartments in
the Tower, the heralds' trumpets, about five o'clock,
announced the proclamation of Queen Jane within the
circle of the fortress. Such another tedious homUy,
set forth by public outcry, is not preserved by history.
The listeners must have been blessed with exemplary
patience, and those who comprehended it with the
utmost skill in connecting long-taUed periods. After
rehearsing it in the Tower, the painstaking heralds
proceeded to proclaim the same in Fleet Street and
Cheapside, where a pot-boy, for expressing great dis
gust, was considered a formidable ally of the Princess
Mary, and subjected next morning to the barbarous
infliction of the piUory and the loss of his ears. Un
fortunate ears ! no wonder they rebeUed, for the procla
mation occupies seven closely-printed pages: we have
remorse of conscience for inflicting a brief abstract
on our readers; although they can skip it, which poor
GUbert, wedged in a dense crowd with his pots, could
not. To the historian it presents some points of in
terest, as it is the first pubUc chaUenge of a woman to
be considered at once queen regnant and supreme head
of the Church on earth : —
" Jane, by the grace of God, Queen of England, France, and
Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England,
' Baoardo, 1568; PolUno; Sharon Turner. » Ibid.

1553. PEOCLAIMED QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 149
and also of Ireland, under Christ on earth the supreme head.
To all our loring, faithftd, and obedient [subjects], and to
every [each] of them greeting. Whereas our most dear cousin
Edward VL, late King of England, France, and Ireland, and
Defender of the Faith, and on earth the supreme head under
Christ of the Church of England and Ireland, by his letters
patent," signed with his own hand, sealed with his Great Seal
of England, in the presence of the most of his nobles, his
councillors and judges, and divers other sage and grave per
sonages, for the profit and surety of the whole realm, thereto
assenting, and subscribing their names to the same." '
An abstract of the Act of ParUament 35 of Henry
Vni. foUows, showing that Queen Jane's " great-uncle
and progenitor, Henry VIIL, for lack of heirs, if his
son Edward left none, had appointed the cro^wn to de
scend to his daughter, the Lady Mary and her heirs,
and if they faUed, to the Lady Elizabeth and her heirs,
with such conditions as should be appointed by the said
king, of worthy memory, Henry VIII., our progenitor
and great-uncle, by his letters patent under the Great
Seal, or by his last wUl in ¦writing signed with his hand." "
But it is a remarkable circumstance that the wiU of
Jane's " great-uncle and progenitor," as she is made to
caU him, though presenting the first idea that she ¦was
to succeed next his daughters, is whoUy ignored.
Jane put her sign-manual —

' Lansdowne MS., No. 198. Quoted at length by that painstaking anti
quary George Howard {Life of Lady Jane Grey, pp. 236-243).
* The rest of the document, called "Jane's Proclamation," is in the
Cottonian CoUection.

150 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553.
to other important papers, before her first day's labours
of regaUty came to a close. They were letters to the
lords-Ueutenants in England commanding her procla
mation. A wrangle had ensued in the cabinet council
regarding the inditing of this fatal paper. " I eschewed,"
wrote Mr. Secretary CecU, in his apology to Queen
Mary, " ¦writing of the queen's highness, bastard, and
put the same on Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, whose
conscience I saw was offended therevrith."^ In this
ominous renunciation of their duties by the secretaries
of State, North,umberland was forced to do his own.
work, which was performed in an unscrupulous fashion.
Jane's hand has shaken in ¦writing the word " Queue"
in this fatal document, which proved the true death-
warrant ¦to its ambitious compounder, to herself, her
fether, her husband, her uncle, and many a life besides.
On this most important paper of the reign of " Jane
the Queue," CecU, into whose possession it passed after
the brief tragedy was played out, lias inscribed the em
phatic words, " Jana non Regina"* — a needful caution
in the reigns of either jealous Tudor queen, in case ot
an inquisition into his papers.

CHAPTER VII.

Such was the history of the first day of female sove
reignty, temporal and spiritual, in England. How Jane
slept her first night in the ¦terrible fortress, which had
been fatal to so many of her ancestors, history saith
not. From Jane's own record we may infer not well,
' The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary (Camden Society), p. 3.
Fragment: Chronicle of the Grey Friars (ibid.), p. 110. '
' EUis's Historical Letters ; and Archceologia, vol. xviii.

1653. FIEST GEIEF OF HEE EEGALITY. 151
since she complains of her health. It has been sho-wn
from her letter, preserved by PoUino, that she was
hurried from a sick chamber to be carried from Chelsea
Palace to Sion House, where she swooned during her
interview with the councU. The next- morning she must
have been on the river early, whUe the dews were yet
brooding over it ; and that, added to the agitations of
' the day, was quite sufficient to bring on a relapse of
the fever to which she had already succumbed. The
morrow brought her fresh agitations and vexations.
The next trouble of Jane's unsought royalty was a
riolent manifestation of the boyish ambition of her
husband, instigated by his mother. According to Jane's
own words, the crisis occurred the very next morning
after her accession, for she proceeds to say ' : — " The
Lord High Treasurer, Winchester, brought me the
jewels [regalia] and the crown, the which were neither
demanded by me nor by any one in my name ; he desired
to place it on my head, to see how it fitted. This I de
clined -with many protestations ; but he said, ' I might
take it boldly, for that he would have another made to
cro-?vn my husband with.' " But if Lady Jane, as the
next Protestant heir to the throne, had begun to consi-
(ler it was the duty she owed to her reUgion to bear the .
weight of the cro-wn regnant, she by no means approved
of her husband assuming any share of that regality, for
she continues : " Which thing I certainly heard with in
finite 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
tiU he was made king by me and Act of ParUament."
• Translated from the Italian of PoUino's Ecclesiastical History, where it
is quoted as a document inserted in the historian's , narrative. The words
enclosed in commas are Lady Jane's own, retranslated back into EngUsh.

152 LADY JANE GEAY. 1663.
On reflection. Lady Jane resolved that he should not
bear even the title of king, for she says : — " Soon after I
sent for the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke, and told
them I was wUling to make my husband a duke, but not
king." Upon this young Guildford (who seems to have
been performing the Uke part subsequently played by
Darnley after his marriage with Mary Queen of Scot
land) recounted his disappointment to his mother, who
angrily adrised him to forsake his wife's chamber, and
to swear " he would be no duke, but King of England."
Moreover she insulted Lady Jane in the coarsest terms,
threatening to cany off Guildford "with her to Sion House.
Lady Jane assumed the decision of a queen ; she sent
Arundel and Pembroke, the two lords in whom she
most confided, to recaU her perverse partner, and com
manded him not to go to Sion with his mother, but to
return, and behave in a friendly manner to her, " And
thus I was compelled to act as a woman who is obliged
to live on good terms with her husband," continues
she; "nevertheless, I was not only deluded by the duke
and the council, but maltreated by my husband and his
mother." Very riolent was her relapse of illness, insomuch that
she believed herself poisoned by the Duchess of Northum
berland. "Twice I was poisoned," she writes; "once in
the house of my mother-in-law [apparently in Durham
House], and afterwards in the Tower. So powerful
was the venom, that all the skin came off my back." ^
But it was not the interest of the dominant party to
poison her. Indeed, the many varieties of typhus and
eruptive fevers were in those days aU attributed to
poison. One would have thought that no great people
ever died, by the visitation of God, but aU by the maUce
of man. After putting themselves in such terrible jeo-
' PoUino's Ecclesiastical History : Letter of Jane.

1563. ACCEPTS THE EEGALIA WITH TE.iES. 153
pardy to seize the crown, the members of the Dudley
famUy could not do vrithout her. She was their peg to
hang -the crown upon, and without her it was sure to
faU and crush them. Her insolent mother-in-law could
not afford to gratify her spite by murdering her. As
for the Roman CathoUcs, whom Mr. Sharon Turner
thinks she accuses, if they did not poison her in
Wyatt's rebeUion, when they had fuU power to do so,
it is not very probable that the deed was done when
she was queen in the Tower, It is evident that Jane
had caught an eruptive fever, which acted on the skin,
and, poor girl ! she had to struggle -with its severe in
flictions among the other woes of her Tower queenship.
" Jane accepted the regalia with tears," writes Bishop
Godwin. No doubt she did. Yet the good bishop lived
too near her time -to be aware of what a violent storm
the vigUance of the Lord Treasurer Winchester, pre-
Uminary to the performance of his official duties, had
stined up in Jane's immediate famUy circle. All EngUsh
historians pass over the proceeding of the time-serving
treasurer in sUence, excepting the simple chronicler Sir
Richard Baker ; nevertheless it has ample confirmation
in the archives of our country, where we have not the
sUghtest doubt the original documents we have care
fully translated from three Italian contemporaries wiU
be ultimately discovered, so closely are they confirmed
by letters existing in the State Paper Office.
With the much-coveted garland of the realm and its
appurtenances, Winchester must have delivered to Jane
a most curious coUection of misceUaneous articles in
the guise of jewelry, being evidently the contents of
sundry boxes and caskets deposited at the Jewel House
in the Tower, the relics of the queens Henry VIIL had
dismissed or destroyed after decking them in their turns
vrith rare jewels, Jane had an opportunity of examining

154 LADY Jane GEAY. 1563.
the contents of one of these caskets, which, according
to Winchester's inventory \ was delivered to her the
day after the quanel with GuUdford and his mother, as
early as JiUy 12, "A fish of gold, being a toothpick.
One dewberry of gold. A like pendant, ha-ving ,^ne
great and three Uttle pearls. A newt of white sUver,"
(This seems to have been in the form of a little lizard,
or eft : such animals in jewelry were greatly in fashion
in the reign of Elizabeth.) " A tablet of gold with a white
sapphire and a blue one, a balass ruby, and a pendent
l^earl, A tablet of gold hung by a chain with St, John's
head, and eight 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 vrith crymesy [crimson]
work. Buttons of gold -with crimson work. Six purse-
hangers of sUver and gilt," (These were to hang purses
or -trinkets to the girdle, like the modem chatelaine.)
" Five smaU agates, with stars graven on them. Pearls
in rormdels of gold between pivots of pearls. Pipes of
gold, A pair of bracelets of flaggon-chain [pattern],
connecting jacinths or orange-coloured amethysts. Many
buttons of gold worked with crimson, and in each but-
-ton set six pearls. Thirty turquoises of little worth.
Thirteen table diamonds set in coUets of gold. An
abiliment of goldsmith's work, another abiliment set
with twelve table diamonds." (These were the border-
ings 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 ; but Winchester affirmed that he deUvered
to Jane, on July 12-, not only these, but the regalia and
' Haileian MS., No. 611.

1653. PEEVEESITY OF HEE HUSBAND. 155
other jewels, together with a supply of cash, books, and
even clothes. As for Lord GuUdford Dudley, his -wrath
was propitiated by a certain quantity of crown jewels,
which were surrendered to him. Very severely was he
aft6rwards called to account for them, Jane appointed
his uncle. Sir Ambrose Dudley, her palace-keeper at
Westminster, and one of his first orders was for twenty
yards of velvet, twenty -five of Holland cloth, and thirty-
three of coarser lining, to make her robes against her
removal from the Tower,^
Despite of aU Jane's prudent recommendations to her
ambitious spouse, in hopes of inducing him to wait until
ParUament settled his dignity derived from his marriage
with her, he put into practical effect his full determi
nation of acting as King GuUdford I. of England and
Ireland, The minutes of a despatch are extant, written
under his directions to the Lady Regent of the Low
Countries, signifying that Sir Thomas Chamberlayne
(the resident minister there) was recaUed, and desiring
in all his affairs to give audience and fuU credit to
Sir PhiUp Hoby," One of the earliest acts of Jane and
her councU was -to authorise Sir Philip Hoby, then at
Brussels, as the accredited minister : the appointment
was signed " Jane the Quene," Very humble indeed is
its deprecation of any hostile movement on the part of
Charles V. in support of his relative the Princess Mary.
The despatch of the nominal queen certainly includes
no mention of her ambitious partner as king, but the
reply of Sir PhUip Hoby fuUy developed the Dudley
domination, and proves how completely he was a crea
ture of the new famUy, He wrote thus to the privy
councU, after hearing of the death of Edward VI. :
" Don Diego found me. Sir Philip Hoby, and me. Sir
» Howard's Lady Jane Grey. ' Harleian MS., No. 623.

156 LADY JANE GEAY. 1563.
Richard Morysone, walking in our host's garden." Don
Diego was one of the Spanish Government in the Low
Coimtries, and a personal friend of the Dudley famUy,
of long standing, haring been the godfather of the
would-be King of England, young GuUdford. After
condolences on the death of Edward VL, the Spaniard
passed to praises of his sagacity in proriding England
vrith so good a king, meaning not " Jane -the Quene,"
the great-granddaughter of EUzabeth of York, heiress
of the realm, but positively the grandson of Dudley, the
attorney, put to death with Empson, for knavish prac
tices with the public money. And it is of him that the
EngUsh diplomatist writes to the councU, cunningly
putting his terms of dignity into the mouth of a
foreigner without a simame, in order to intimate that
foreigners took for granted that the son of Dudley was
invested with the powers of Henry Vlll. Don Diego
had been delayed from his condolences for the loss of
Edward and his offers of serrice "to the king's ma
jesty " [GuUdford] by the advice of De Arras, one of the
ministry at Brussels ; but on July 15 that interdict was
taken off, and he was permitted -to visit the embassy
and to ring aU the changes on " highness," " majesty,"
and " sovereign " which woiUd chime sweetiy in the
ears of the Dudley dynasty. "Therefore," said Don
Diego, " as I am 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 ye, by the
word of a gentleman, I would at aU times serve his
highness myself if the emperor [Charles V.] did caU
me to serve him." The EngUsh envoys observed, " that
they had received the sorrowful news of the death of
Edward VL, but not the glad tidings of the accession
of GuUdford," Upon which Don Diego replied, " I can

1653. HEE HUSBAND ST^STLED KING. 157
teU you thus much, Edward VI., for discharge of his
conscience, ¦writ a good piece of his testament with his
o-wn hand, baning both his sisters of the crown, and
leaving it the Lady Jane, near to the French queen
[related to Mary Tudor, queen of Louis XIL] . Why it
is done," added Don Diego, " we that be strangers have
nothing to do. You are bound to obey and serve his
majesty [GuUdford Dudley], and therefore it is reason
we take him for your king, whom the consent of the
nobles of your country have declared for your king ;
and," saith he, " for my part of aU others [I] am
bound to be glad that his majesty is set in this office,
I was his godfather, and would as wiUingly spend my
blood in his serrice as any subject he hath, as long as
I shaU see the emperor wUling to embrace his majesty's
amity. Don Francisco d'Este, general of aU the foot
worn, Italians [ItaUan infantry], is gone -to his charge in
MUan ; he, at his departure, made the Uke offer as long
as his master and ours should be friends, which he
trusted should be ever; praying us, at oxir return, to
utter it to the king's majesty [Guildford] , and thus wiU
humbly take our leave of your honours." ' This letter
was not received in England untU the poUtical scene
was suddenly changed : there can be no doubt but that
it told fearfuUy against Jane's aspiring spouse. No nar
rative history has ever detaUed the mad plans of the
Dudley faction, in forcing on the unwiUing Jane the
injurious burden of royalty. This regnal authority, to
her own infinite indignation, was to be wielded by a
spouse -to whom she had very recently and with extreme
reluctance, yielded her hand.
WhUe his -wife and son were by domestic tyranny
striving to subdue Jane into the passive submission of
' Letter to Privy Council from Hoby and Morysine, July, 1553. Brussels.

158 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553.
her ancestress, Elizabeth of York, Northumberland was
playing his game vrith the finesse developed in the artful
despatch of his creature Hoby. The pri-vy councU were
to be thus instructed that aU foreigners took it for
granted that his son GuUdford, by virtue of his marriage
-with the Lady Jane Gray^ was "the king's majesty of
England." But, as the revolring hours fled away, the
urgent necessity of crushing the increasing strength of
the rival queen's party in her East- Anglian fortress of
Framlingham, seems to have interrupted the intrigues
of Northumberland,
The proposal of Winchester to deUver the cro-wn
jewels and the crown itself to Jane, caused the com
mencement of Lord Guildford's dispute vrith her the
day after the proclamation. On the next eventful day
the privy coimcil appointed Jane's father, the Duke of
Suffolk, to march against the Princess Mary. Jane
was terrified at the idea of being left by her father once
more in the power of the Dudleys, and, when she heard
the decision of the councU, she lifted up her voice and
wept passionately, so that the resolution of its mem
bers was shaken.
" She took the matter heavily," says a con-temporary
chronicle, " and, vrith weeping tears, made request to
the whole councU that her father might tarry at home
in her company,"^ Whereupon the council persuaded
the Duke of Northumberland to take that voyage
[joumey] upon him, saying " that no man was so fit
there for, because that he had achieved the victory in
Norfolk once already [at Kett's rebeUion], and was
there so feared that none durst Uft up weapon against
him ; besides, that he was the best man of war in the
realm, as weU for ordering of his camps and soldiers,
' The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary (Camden Society), p. 5.

1653. HEE ILLNESS AND DEPEESSION. 159
both in battle and in their tents, as also by experience,
knowledge, and wisdom, he could animate his army
with persuasions, and also pacify and aUay his enemies'
pride -with his stout courage, or else dissuade them,
if need were, from their enterprise." " Well," said
Northumberland, " since ye think it good, I and mine
wUl go, not doubting of your fidelity to the queen's
majesty [Jane], whom I leave in your custody." So
that night he sent for lords, knights, and others that
should go with him, and caused aU things to be pre
pared accordingly.
Whatsoever the evil intentions of Northumberland
might be, no intimation remains that he ever behaved
to Jane in any way resembling the coarse conduct of
his wife. In this instance, when the councU waited on
Jane to teU her the result of their amended deUbera
tions, he was one of them. Jane humbly thanked him
" for reserving her father at home, and besought him
to use his dUigence." Northumberland answered that
" he would do aU that in him lay."

CHAPTER Vni.

The deep depression of Lady Jane, ending in tears and
sobs, was e-ridently aggrava-ted by the painful iUness
into which she had relapsed vrithin a short time of the
arduous day of her proclamation. She mentions her
illness as arising directly after the contest regarding
the kingship of GuUdford. By the virulence of the
disorder she was probably confined to her chamber
during the remainder of her short reign at the Tower ;
for no mention is made of any of her State receptions,
although occasionaUy official persons went in to speak

160 LADY JANE GEAY. 1663.
to her, Northumberland, having appointed the ren
dezvous of his mUitary muster at Durham House, dined
vrith the councU before he departed the next day. He
desired the noblemen and gentlemen of that body to
send their feudal musters forward to meet him at
Newmarket ; and, whUe waiting for the announcement
of dinner, he thought it needful to refresh their memo
ries in regard to their recent oath to maintain Queen
Jane, in whose behalf he offered the foUo-wing adjura
tion, that if they did not regard their obligations to
her, " God shall [-will] not acquit you of the sacred and
holy oath of aUegiance, made freely by you, to this vir
tuous lady the queen's highness, who by your and our
enticement is rather of force placed therein, than by
her own seeking and request. But if ye mean deceit,
though not herewith but hereafter, God wUl revenge the
same. I can say no more."
Then dinner was announced — very seasonably, in
deed, for the feelings of some of the worthies present,
who must have been, at that very moment, meditating
the course they meant to pursue as soon as their dreaded
minister's back was turned. Northumberland "knit
up " his long speech with an entreaty that the coimcil
" would wish him no worse speed in his journey than
they would have themselves." " My lord," replied one
of Jane's privy councUlors, " if ye mistrust any of us
in this matter, your grace is far deceived; for which
of us can vripe his hands clean thereof? And if we
should shrink from you as one that is culpable, which
of us can excuse himself as guUtless ? Therefore herein
your doubt is too far cast." " I pray God it be so," re
plied Northumberland. " Let us go to dinner." And so
they sat down.
After dinner, Northumberland went in to the queen

1553. EIDLEY PEEACHES IN HEE FAVOUE. 161
[Jane], who had by that time sealed his commission, as
her lieutenant of the army : he took leave of her, as
did also certain other lords, probably those who were
appointed to assist him in his expedition.
AU went wrong with him. Popular feeling was in
favour of King Henry's daughter, and he could do
nothing to turn the tide, Suffolk within the Tower,
and Northumberland without, trembled and gave way,
bowing like bulrushes before the storm.
" Do you mark," said Northumberland to those who
rode next him as he cleared the outskirts of London,
" that no one cries ' God speed ye ! ' "
It was quite a different feeUng. Northumberland was
the most unbeloved of rulers.
On Sunday 16th, Ridley, Bishop of London, preached
at Paul's Cross on the present establishment of the
government, setting forth the late king's paternal care
for his realm, and the evUs which must have occurred
from the succession of the Princess Mary, her zeal for
the papacy, and her foreign connections. He spoke with
eloquent enthusiasm of the -virtues, talents, and piety
of the young Queen Jane, and the blessings to be anti
cipated from her righteous sway. But the people heard
him coldly. There were no shouts of " God save Queen
Jane!" On the evening of July 16, after the Lord Treasurer
Winchester had left the Tower, at seven, to pass the
night at his own dweUing, Winchester House, Broad
Street, Queen Jane, being taken in a panic, ordered all
the Tower gates to be locked and the keys canied up '
to her. In this dim intimation the reader may note
the expression v/p to her, weU enough expressing the
high situation of the regal apartments near the coimcU-
• Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary.

162 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553.
room and chapel in the White Tower. That night
passed not on without other disturbance. Jane missed
one of her seals, and my Lord Marquis of Winchester,
lately locked and baned out of the Tower, was fetched
back into it, by her orders, at midnight. What, passed
in explanation is not mentioned; nothing of a very
friendly nature, it would seem, for it was not long before
Jane felt the effects of this man's enmity.
The next day came evU tidings of faUure in every
department, which the Gray party had fondly deemed
they had made so strong. Tlien the tenants and feudal
vassals refused to obey the requisitions of their lords to
march against Mary.
A placard on the pump at Queenhythe stated " that
the Princess Mary had been proclaimed queen in every
town and city in England, London alone excepted. The
lords in the Tower grew selfish and fainthearted, and
¦wished themselves out of that perUous place.
Northumberland wrote complaining of fearful deser
tions, describing the Princess Mary's daUy increasing
strengtii, and entreating the councU at the Tower ¦to
send him reinforcements.
Suffolk, bewUdered and paralysed, knew not where to
procure troops. Lady Jane, distressed and unhappy,
relapsed into sickness. She had, however, promised to
stand godmother to an infant bom in the Tower during
her brief reign: this was the son of Edward UnderhUl,
sumamed the "Hot GospeUer." Not being weU enough
to stand in person, she desired her attendant. Lady
Throckmorton, to represent her at the baptismal font.
Lady Throckmorton left her mistress in possession of
the royal suite of apartments in the Tower, vrith a
canopy of state and all other regal insignia round her ;
when she returned she found new officers in possession

1653. THE COUNTEE-EEVOLUTION. 163
of the apartments, the canopy down, and was informed,
in reply to her exclamations of wonder, that " Jane Gray
was a prisoner for high treason ; and she also was in
like case, but her attendance was required for her late
mistress." The celerity of this counter-revolution is attributed
entirely ¦to the machinations of the Earl of Arundel, out
of vengeance for Suffolk's deserting his sister. Lady Ka
tharine FitzaUan, for the Lady Frances Brandon, when
Marquis of Dorset, Arundel had outwardly joined the
party for elevating Lady Jane Gray to the throne, but
secretly given information of all their measures and in
tentions ¦to the Princess Mary, which caused their faUure
and min,
Suffolk, now united with the councU in addressing
Mary as the imdoubted sovereign of the realm, sub
scribed vrith them, and himself proclaimed Queen Mary
at the Tower gates. He then hastened to his daughter,
and, in the gentlest terms he could, announced to her
that she was no longer a queen, but must lay aside such
dignity and return to the station of a private person.
Jane answered her father vrith a serene countenance
and steady voice : —
" Sir, I better brook this message than my advance
ment to royalty. Out of obedience to you and my mother,
I have grievously sinned and offered violence to myself.
Now do I vriUingly, and obeying the motions of my own
soul, relinquish the crown, and endeavour to solve those
faults committed by others, if, at least, so great faults
can be solved, by a wUUng and ingenuous acknowledg
ment of them." '
It is probable Jane made this speech in the hearing
of the functionaries of the Tower, who either accom-
' Speed's Chronicle, p. 317.
m2

164 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553.
panied or foUowed her father to her royal apartments,
when they stripped them of aU marks of the Gray
dynasty, and prepared to lead their gentle occupant to
prison rooms, possibly the same rooms formerly occupied
by her cousin. Lady Margaret Douglas ', in the house of
the Deputy-lieutenant of the Tower, It was in these
apartments that Jane probably penned the eloquent
circumstantial letter she soon after wrote to Queen
Mary, in explanation of her conduct, and which has ena
bled historians of such opposite principles as Sharon
Turner and Dr, Lingard to work out the otherwise
banen outUnes of her proceedings during the most
eventful period of her short Ufe.

CHAPTER IX.

The nine days' regaUty of Lady Jane Gray had va
nished like a dream. She was stiU within the Tower, but
a prisoner, not a queen. Her officers of State had disap
peared, her nobles one by one had deserted her ; even
her father and mother were gone, leaving her, the re
luctant puppet in the late pageant that had astonished
the metropoUs, to pay the penalty of their treasonable
project alone. There was indeed her husband, but him
she saw not in her distress : they were separated. He
was confined in the Beauchamp Tower with his brothers.
The pause of dull torpidity which had succeeded the
surprise, the whirl, the uncertainty of her strange posi
tion, if a relief to her agonised brain and throbbing
heart, was brief, for the Lord Treasurer Winchester
invaded her quiet with a peremptory demand for the
return of the crown jewels, and presented also a list of
' See Lives of the Queens of Scotland and Princesses connected with ihe
Segal Succession, by Agnes Strickland, vol. ii.

1553. STEIPPED OF HEE MONEY, 165
certain articles that had been abstracted since, and
required that she should make the deficiency good.
Jane was stunned by this demand. She knew no
thing of the missing property, and patiently submitted
to the forfeiture of aU the money in her possession,
which, on this pretext, was taken from her. A curious
description exists in the Harleian Collection' of the coin
taken from the Lady Jane Gray on the 25th of July,
from which we learn that some rare old Edward angels
(Edward IV.), some gold coronation medals, probably
those with the effigies of King Henry VIII. and Ed
ward VI. struck thereon, one half-angel, with shUlings
and half-shillings, were in her possession. There was base
money to the amount of four and sixpence ; this was of
the deteriorated coinage in the reign of Edward VI.,
which, thanks to the Dudley administration, had just
reached the lowest standard of vUeness. Among other
coins they took from her twelve brass pieces of no value,
and old sterling money -with two plasJce, value twenty
pence. However, the whole of poor Jane's regal re
sources, pubUc and private, only amounted to the sum
of 541?, 13s. 2d. A very smaU exchequer for a revolu
tionary queen, but more than was consistent with the
plan of keeping her safely as prisoner in the Tower.
Winchester made a simUar inquisition into the pockets
of GuUdford Dudley, on the pretext that he was account
able for the crown jewels not restored by his -wife. There
was taken from him in moneys of the deteriorated cir
culation called base coin, 32?. 8s. Thus the prisoners were
left entirely -without the means of bribing their gaolers
to abet their escape, they being utterly pennUess.
The seizure, peremptory as it was, does not appear to
have been officiaUy reported to the queen or her minis-
' Harleian MS, No. 611.

166 LADY JANE GEAY. 1563.
ters, for nearly two months later the following precept
was addressed to the Lord Treasurer Winchester by
her Majesty : —
" Mary the Quene, — Trusty and weU beloved, we greet
you weU. And whereupon the delivery of certain of
our jewels and stuff to your hands by the Lady Jane
Gray, the xx of July last, which she before had re
ceived of you the xU of the same month, it appeareth
that the jewels hereafter mentioned were wanting, and
by occasion thereof [that is, by reason of their deUvery
to her] cannot be found again. Forasmuch as we cer
tainly understand that by your dUigence aU the rest
that she had was recovered, being at the same time in
like danger. And upon trust we have, ye -wiU not let
[delay] to use the Uke travail [trouble] to recover these
jewels to our use as soon as ye can.
"Sept. 20, 1553."'
The missing jewels were but few : the principal part
of the list of the abstracted articles might, -with more
propriety, be ananged under the heading " stuff," ac
cording to the modem acceptation of the word. The
officers of the royal wardrobe must have been teasingly
minute in their entries to have classed and invento-
rised the contents of two of the three missing boxes,
one of which, marked with Henry VIIL's broad ar
row, contained the valuable property of two sharing-
cloths and thirteen pair of old gloves, some of them
odd ones. Poor Jane ! greatly would she have been
puzzled to restore in statu quo these interesting relics of
her burly uncle. King Harry, which some thierish fol
lower of her unprincipled supporters had undoubtedly
purloined, fancying all the time he had captured a most
Harleian MS., No. 6n.

1563. EESTOEATION OF SUPEEANNUATED TEASH, 167
precious prey. How grievously the robber must ha-re
been disappointed at the sight of the king's sharing-
cloths and old gloves ! The contents of a " square coffer
covered with fustian of Naples " -were little more valu
able ; they seem to have been a coUection of keepsakes,.
tokens, and CathoUc books,, not very tempting to the
Protestant Lady Jane.
The whole lot had probably remained among the
stores of the Tower Palace since the queen's mother,
Katharine of Anagon, had last kept court there. The
first article is the half of a broken ring of gold — some
love-token, peradventure. Then " a book of prayers,.
covered with purple velvet, and garnished with gold,
A primer ' in EngUsh, Three old hal^ence [in silver] .
Seven little halfpence and farthings. Item, sixteen
pence, two farthings, and two halQ)ence, A purse of
leather with eighteen strange coins of sUver. Three
French cro-wns, one broken in two. Item, a girdle of
gold thread. A pair of twitchers [tweezers] of silver,
A ring of gold vrith a death's head. [This was the
style of mmiming ring then used.] A pair of knives in
a case of black sUk. Two books co-vered with leather.
Item, a Uttle square box of gold and sil-ver, with a
pair of shears [scissors] and divers shreds of satin.
A piece of white paper containing a pattern of gold
damask." " This coffer eridently contained little femi
nine trifles; it ostensibly belonged to one of Henry
VTTT.'a queens. The scissors and shreds of satin per
tained to fancy-work that had been interrupted by
some convulsion of State. But how was it possible for
the poor prisoner Jane to restore this coUection of odd
sundries? The third coffer was lettered '^Queen's;
' This is a Prayer-book of the Eoman Cathelic ritual. .
» HarleianMS., No. 611.

168 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553.-
Jewels," and contained metal more attractive, such as
chains of gold studded with rosettes of pearl, and other
valuables, not half so curious as the Ust of the odd
shreds and patches above enumerated.
Long before the date of the precept which brought the
above royal hoards of superannuated rubbish to light.
Queen Mary had visited the Tower, and personally
accorded gracious pardons to several of the hopeless
prisoners of State, who had been incarcerated by her
despotic father, and lingered there for years. Mary
had at the same time released the -widowed Duchess
of Somerset from her imprisonment.
The truly amiable manner in which Mary exercised
the royal prerogative of mercy to these captives pro
bably induced Lady Jane to address to her the cele
brated letter which has suppUed the particulars of her
melancholy nine days' reign, and the domestic misery
to which she was subjected from her husband, through
the eril influence of his insolent mother, the Duchess of
Northumberland ,
Mary had pardoned the guUty parents of Lady Jane,
she had even restored the Lady Frances to her favour,
but she could not be induced to extend her grace to the
unfortunate Lady Jane, Indeed, there is no eridence
of anyone pleading for her, whUe the imperial ambas
sadors urged the policy of her immediate execution,
or life-long imprisonment, assuring her Majesty " that
she could never reign in safety while Jane remained
at large. To GuUdford no mercy was to be sho-wn,"
To these cruel counseUors Mary replied, " that she
could not flnd it in her heart -to put her unfortunate
cousin to death. The Lady Jane was not so guUty as
Charles V, supposed. She had not been the accom-
pUce of Northumberland, but merely a puppet in his

1563. QUEEN MAEY UEGED TO TAKE JANE'S LIFE. 169"
hands. Neither was she his daughter-in-law, for she
had been validly contracted to another person before
she was compelled to marry GuUdford Dudley. As for
the danger arising from her pretensions, it was but
imaginary." '
This answer shows that Mary did not, at first, contem
plate the barbarous measures she finaUy pursued, and it
inclines us to conclude that she had read and considered
Jane's statement in the letter quoted by Pollino,
The Duke of Northumberland, who had vainly, on the
failure of his attempt to place Lady Jane on the throne,
endeavoured to hedge in his treason, by proclaiming
Mary queen, had been arrested, 'with his sons and asso
ciates. Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer, con
veyed to the Tower, and brought to ti-ial August 18th.
They were all found guUty of high treason, and con
demned -to the block.
Northumberland made the most humble soUcitations
for his Ufe — nay, more, he embraced the religion of the
Church of Rome ; but he had offended too deeply to be
forgiven.. He and his associates desired to hear the
Mass, and to communicate, the day before they suf
fered. Lady Jane, looking through her -window, saw
them aU enter the church for that purpose. The Duke,
Gates, and Palmer suffered death on Tuesday, August
22nd,V A week later, Tuesday 27th, the Harleian chronicler
records that he dined in company with Lady Jane Gray*
in the apartments where she was confined, erroneously
stated at " Partrige's house ; " meaning, evidently, the
house of the deputy-lieutenant, Thomas Bridges, for
' Eenard apud Griffet, xi.
* Published under the title of The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen
Mary, by the Camden Society. Edited by John Gough Nichols, Esq.

170 LADY JANE GEAY, 1653.
there was no official in the Tower, at that time, of the
name of Partrige.
The particulars of her demeanour and conversation
are peculiarly interesting, and have never before, we
beUeve, been amalgamated with Lady Jane's, prison
Ufe. It appears that she was by no means guarded
with jealous care from the access of strangers, though
the chromcler was apparently a friend of her keeper,
and a resident in the Tower. He says : — " I dined at
Vartrige's [Bridges'] house, with my Lady Jane being
there present, she sitting at the board's end, Partrige
[Bridges] his wife, Sarah, my lady's gentlewoman and
her man, she commanding Partrige [Bridges] and me
to put on our caps. Amongst our communications at
the dinner this was to be noted. After she had once
or twice drunk to me and bade me heartUy welcome,
saith she, ' The queen's Majesty is a merciful princess ;
I beseech God she may long continue, and send Eis
bountiful grace upon her.'
"After that we feU in discourse of matters of re
ligion, and she asked ' what he was that preached at
Paul's on Sunday before,' 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 so be,' 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 his exceeding ambition. But for the
answering that he hoped his Ufe by his turning, though
others be of that opinion, I utterly am not ; for what

1653. HEE CONVEESATION AT TABLE. 171
man is there Uring, 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 evU-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
Ufe was odious to aU men ? But what wUl ye more ?
Like as his Ufe was wicked and fuU 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 Ufe was
sweet, it appeared; so he might have lived, you wUl
say, he did not care how. Indeed, the reason is good ;
for he that would have Uved in chains to have had his
life, belike woiUd have no other means attempted. But
God be merciful to us ; for He sayeth, "Whoso denieth
Him before men. He wUl 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 Partrige [Bridges] also for bringing me to
dinner. ' Madam,' said he, ' we all were somewhat bold,
not knowing that your ladyship dined before untU we
found your ladyship there.' " '
The bitter contempt with which Jane spoke of her
father-in-law Northumberland and his apostacy, in this
' Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary. PubUshed by the Camden
Society.

172 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553.
contemporary document, proves that a sense of intole
rable wrong was stUl burning in her bosom. His head
had fallen on the scaffold a week preriously, but she had
not forgiven him; and this weU agrees vrith the tone of
her letter to the queen her cousin.
On or about September 14, Lord GuUdford Dudley
and one of his brothers were given liberty to take the air
on the leads of the Beauchamp Tower, and the Countess
of Warvrick had Uberty to come to her husband, and
also the wife of Lord Ambrose Dudley to visit hers.
The queen came to the Tower on the 27th -with her
sister the Lady Elizabeth, her retinue, and the councU,
in preparation for her coronation, which was solemnised
with great pomp on October 1, 1553. This must have
been a period of agitation' to poor Lady Jane, and per
chance also of hope, as it was usual for the sovereign
to perform an act of grace on that occasion by releasing
some of the State prisoners ; but, alas ! there were no
hopes for her who had been proclaimed queen.

CHAPTER X.

In the middle of November, Lady Jane, her husband.
Lord GuUdford Dudley, with Sir Ambrose Dudley, and
Lord Henry Dudley, were arraigned for high treason at
GuildhaU. Lady Jane wore a black cloth gown, the
cape lined with pede velvet, and edged about vrith the
same, wearing a French hood aU black, with a black
bylla/ment, a black velvet book hanging before her, and
another book in her hand open ; her two gentlewomen
foUowing her.' She and her husband both pleaded
' Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary. PubUshed by the Camden
Society.

1563. JANE AND HEE HUSBAND PLEAD GUILTY. 173
guUty to the charge, and sentence of death was passed
on both. If they were confronted together, it was the
last time they ever saw each other in life. This was on
November 13.
Jane was granted the Uberty of the Tower from
December 18, that she might walk in the queen's gar
den and on the hiU [we suppose not the outer Tower
HUl] . Lord Guildford and his brother were allowed the
liberty of the leads of the BeU Tower, to which they
must have been removed from their first place of con
finement, the Beauchamp Tower.
It was not Ukely that GuUdford Dudley was invited
to exercise himself by climbing on the high top of the
BeU Tower like a cat. Bell Tower is a mistake, possibly
from a contraction for Beauchamp Tower. The BeU
Tower is a sort of sharp Gothic cupola, with several
passages leading to it, interiorly, from aU parts of the
deputy-lieutenant's residence. At the east there is a
place for an altar, so we may presume it was the domes
tic chapel of that important fortaUce the house of the
deputy-Ueutenant — where, according to important in
formation afforded us by the late lamented Sir George
Cathcart, who had fiUed the office, aU the lady prisoners
of the blood royal were confined.'
A dismal Christmas passed over. The new year
opened with a change of public feeling towards the
queen. Her declared intention of manying PhUip
Prince of Spain was offensive to the realm. Sir Thomas
Wyatt rose in arms in one part of England and Sir
James Crofts in another.
Lady Jane's father, the Duke of Suffolk, was then
residing at his house at Sheen, with his -wife and
youngest child, the Uttle Lady Mary Gray, when a
' See Lives of the Queens of Scotland, ^c, by Alice Strickland.

174 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553-54.
messenger from the queen arrived and summoned him
to court, as her Majesty meant to give him a command
in her house against the rebels.
"Marry," repUed the duke, "I am coming to her
grace. Ye may see I am booted and spurred ready for
the saddle : I wUl but breakfast and go." ' Reckless of
the fact that his daughter. Lady Jane, was in prison as
a hostage for his loyalty, he departed with his -two
brothers. Lord Thomas and Lord John Gray, and en
deavoured to raise the midland counties in arms against
the queen. He was Ul-received ; his smaU force melted
from him by desertion, tUl he was left literaUy alone.
In this emergency he rashly confided himself to the
fidelity of Underwood, his park-keeper at Ashley. Un
derwood at first concealed him in a hoUow tree in -the
park ; but after two or three days gave him up to the
royal authorities, and he was canied a prisoner to the
Tower immediately after the more formidable insunec-
tion of Sir Thomas Wyatt had been put do-wn. That
insurrection caused much bloodshed, endangered the
queen's life, and, combined -with the rash and most un
grateful attempt of Suffolk, induced the Spanish party
to make renewed instances for the death of Lady Jane
Gray, Under these circumstances, the queen was at length
induced to sign ' the wanant for the execution of the
hapless young couple, then prisoners at the Tower, with
in three days from that date, whom she unceremo
niously styles in that document " Guildford Dudley and
his wife." Lady Jane received the announcement with
serenity; the bitterness of death had long been past, and
she was daUy expecting her summons to a better world.
' Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, Baoardo's tract.
' According to report, signed at Temple Bar ; not the present structure.

1563-54. EESPITED BY THE QUEEN. 175
The day named in the royal wanant for her death
was Friday, February 9, but a respite tUl Monday the
12th was obtained by Dr, Feckenham, the Abbot of
Westminster, from the queen; for when he endeavoured
to prevaU on Lady Jane to foUow the example of her
father-in-law, Northumberland, and be reconcUed to
the Church of Rome, she begged him " not to disturb
her mind with controversy, as she had no time for
that. When Feckenham returned and joyfully an
nounced to Lady Jane the reprieve he had obtained
from the queen, she replied, " Alas, sir ! I did not
intend what I said should be reported to the queen,
nor would I have you think me covetous of a moment's
longer life ; for I am only soUcitous for a better life in
eternity, and wiU gladly suffer death, since it is her
Majesty's pleasure."* FinaUy, she so firmly defended
her faith, that he gained no advantage over her steady
beUef from the delay.
Brief as the respite was, Gardiner, Bishop of Win
chester, who preached before the queen on the Sunday,
pointedly reproved her Majjesty "for her lenity and
gentleness, through which," he said, " conspiracy and
open rebeUion were grown up; and he besought that
she would now be merciful to the body of her common
wealth, which could not endure unless the corrupt and
hurtful members thereof were cut off and consumed."*
That Sunday evening, the last she was to spend on
earth, was employed by Lady Jane in vrritii^ her beau
tiful fareweU letter to her sister. Lady Katharine, on the
' Life and Eeign of Queen Mary the First, in 'White Eennetf s History
of England, vol. ii. p. 343.
» On the Saturday previous to the execution of Lady Jane Gray, her
father, the Duke of Suffolk, was brought a prisoner to the Tower, " bewail
ing -with impatient dolours not only his own woe, but the calamity his foUy
had brought on his daughter." — ^Bishop Gabdiitee.

¦176 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553-54.
blank leaves of her Greek Testament. Her father had
arrived in the Tower on the preceding day, and was
most unhappy, both on his own account and hers.
She is therefore supposed not to have delayed writing
to him beyond that day, haring been informed of his
distress of mind; but there is no date to certify the
time when the foUowing letter was penned : —
"Father, — Although it pleaseth God to hasten my
death by one by whom my life should rather have been
lengthened, yet can I so patiently take it ; as I yield far
more hearty thanks for shortening my woful days, than
if the world had been given into my possession with
life lengthened to my wiU. And albeit I am weU
assured of your impatient dolours, redoubled many
ways, both in bewaUing your own woe, and also, as I
hear, especiaUy my unfortunate estate ; yet, my dear
father, if I may, without offence, rejoice in my mishaps,
methinks in this I may account myself blessed, that,
washing my hands -with the innocency of my part, my
guUtless blood may cry before the Lord, Mercy to the
innocent. And yet, though I must needs acknowledge
that, being constrained, and, as you weU know, conti
nuaUy essayed in taking the cro-wn upon me, I seemed
to consent, and therein grie-vously offended the queen
and her laws : and yet do I assuredly trust that this
my offence, towards God, is so much the less, in that
being in so royal an estate as I was, my enforced
honour never mixed with my innocent heart. And
thus, good father, I have opened my state to you,
whose death at hand, although to you perhaps it may
seem right woful, to me there is nothing that can be
more welcome, than from this vale of misery to aspu-e
to that heavenly throne of aU joys and pleasures, -with
Christ our Saviour, in whose stedfast faith, if it be

1563-54. DECLINES A FAEEWELL WITH DUDLEY. 177
la-wful for the daughter to -write so to her father, the
Lord that hitherto hath strengthened you, so continue
you, that at last we may meet in heaven -with the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."

CHAPTER XI.

LoED Guildford Dudley had expressed to the officers,
by whom he was guarded and attended, a very earnest
desire to be permitted to take a personal fareweU of his
wife, that he might see her once more,- and give her a
last kiss ; which being reported to the queen, she sent
word to the unfortunate young couple, on the morning
appointed for their death, that " if it would be any conso
lation to them, they should be aUowed to see each other
before their execution." Lady Jane declined the prof
fered favour, mildly but firmly, saying, " it would only
disturb the holy tranquUUty with which they had pre
pared themselves for death." She also sent word to
her husband, " that it was to be feared her presence
would rather weaken than strengthen him; that he
ought -to take courage from his reason, and derive con
stancy from his ovrii heart ; that if his soul were not firm
and settled, she coidd not settle it by her eyes, nor con
firm it by her words ;" adding, " that he would do weU
-to remit this interriew tUl -they met in a better world,
where friendships were happy and unions indissoluble,
and theirs, she hoped, would be eternal." '
She, however, stood vrith the Lieutenant of the
Tower at the windovy- of her apartment, to see her hus
band pass to his execution on the public Tower HUl,
' Heylin's History ofthe Reformation {BMiographia Britannica]..
K

178 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553-54.
outside the royal fortress, at -ten o'clock, and mournfully
waved a mute fareweU,
Sir John Bridges (as usual, history says), but we sup
pose it was her friendly host, Thomas Bridges, then
asked her to give him some memorial that he might
keep in remembrance of her. She offered him the book
of devotions from which she had been praying ; but as
he besought her to write in it some sentence of her
ovm, she composed herself sufficiently to inscribe as
foUows : —
" Forasmuch as you have desired so simple a woman
to wri-te in so worthy a book, good master lieutenant,
therefore I shaU as a friend desire you, and as a Chris
tian require you, to caU upon God to incline your heart
to His laws, to quicken you in His ways, and not to
take the Word of truth utterly out of your mouth.
Live stiU to die, that by death you may purchase eternal
Ufe ; and remember how the end of Mathusael, who we
read in Scripture was the longest Uver that was of a
man, died at the last : for, as the preacher says, that
there is a time to be bom and a time to die ; and the
day of death is better than the day of our birth.
It has been enoneously conjectured that the book in
which Lady Jane wrote the above impressive words,
the last she penned on earth, was one belonging to the
Lieutenant of the Tower ; but the fact that it contains
two vmtten notices, previously addressed to the Duke
of Suffolk, sufficiently disproves this paradox.

1663-54. LAST WEITTEN FAEEWELL TO HEE FATHEE. 179
The first, written by Lord GuUdford Dudley, is as
foUows : —
" Your loving and obedient son wisheth unto your
grace long life in this world, -with as much joy and
comfort as I -wish to myself, and in the world to come
life everlasting. Your humble son till his death,
" G. Dudley."
This was possibly -written for a presentation inscrip
tion to his father-in-law, at the time of his maniage,
or soon after. The book probably belonged to Suffolk,
and was left by him in the Tower at his hasty and
unceremonious departure six months before.
The Lady Jane Gray has written in it her solemn
fareweU and prayer for her unhappy father, probably
the last morning of her Ufe.
" 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 away ij of your
chUdren, yet think not, I most humbly beseech your
grace, that you have lost them, but tried, that we, by
losing this mortal life, have won an immortal life. And
I, for my part, as I have honoured your grace in this
life, wUl pray for you in another life. Your grace's
humble daughter, " Jane Duddeley,"
She also -wrote in the same book three sentences in
Greek, Latin, and EngUsh, of which the last is as fol
lows : — " If my faiUt deserved punishment, my youth, at
least, and my imprudence, were worthy of excuse. God
and posterity wiU show me favour."
Lady Jane transfened the book, vrith these touching
M 3

180 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553-54.
notations, to the Lieutenant of the Tower, keeping it,
however, in her hand when he led her to the scaffold.
The last earthly trial before her departure was seeing
the bleeding head and body of her husband, enveloped
in a white cloth, taken out of the car on which they
had been brought from the scaffold on the hill, where
he had been beheaded, and canied to the church on
Tower Green.
MoumfuUy gazing on these sad reUcs from her
window — a sight to her no less than death — ^the new-
made widow exclaimed, " O GuUdford, GuUdford ! the
antepast that you have tasted, and I shaU soon taste, is
not so bitter as to make my flesh tremble ; for aU this
is nothing to the feast that you and I shaU partake
this day in Paradise."
After almost an hour's delay, a scaffold having been
erected for her, on account of her royal blood, on the
green within the Tower, Lady Jane was led forth by
the Lieutenant of the Tower. Dr, Feckenham was in
attendance by her side. She was dressed the same as
at her anaignment, and foUowed by her -two faithfid
ladies, Mrs. Elizabeth Tylney and Mrs. EUen, who
both wept passionately. But Lady Jane's countenance
was serene, and her eyes unmoistened by a tear. She
held in her hand a book, the same in which she had
written at the lieutenant's desire. She prayfld from
this book earnestly tUl she came to the scaffold. She
ascended the stairs with a firm and Uvely step, and
addressed the spectators in these words : —
" Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law
I am condemned to the same. The part, indeed, against
the queen's highness was uiUawful, and the consenting
-thereunto by me; but touching the procurement and
desire thereof by me, or on my behalf, I do wash my

1553-54. HEE LAST WOEDS. 181
hands thereof in innocency before God, and in the face
of you, good Christian people, this day ; " and there
with she -wrung her hands in which she had her book.'
Then she said, " I pray you, aU 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 when I did know
the Word of God, I neglected the same, loved myseK
and the world, and therefore this plague or pvmishment
has worthUy happened unto 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,
whUe I am alive I pray you to assist me vrith your
prayers," Then, kneeUng down, she turned to Feckenham, say
ing, " ShaU I say this psalm ? " " Yea," replied Feck
enham ; and she repeated the psalm Miserere mei, Deus,
in English, to the end most devoutly.^ When she had
finished it she rose and took leave of Feckenham in
these words, " God vriU abundantly requite you, good
sir, for aU your humanity to me, though your discourses
gave me more uneasiness than aU the tenors of ap
proaching death,"
Bishop Godwin adds, that Lady Jane, in conclu
sion, vouchsafed -to honour the venerable divine -with
a fareweU embrace on the scaffold. Then she gave her
handkerchief and gloves to her weeping ladies, and her
book of prayers to Thomas Bridges, the brother of the
Lieutenant of the Tower, and untied her gown. The
executioner offered to assist her, but she desired him
' Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, p. 56, published by the
Camden Society. Holinshed ; Stowe.
» Ibid.

182 LADY JANE GEAY. 1653-64.
to desist, and -turning to her women, they took off her
outer robe, leaving her, probably, in her kirtle or inner
gown, with close-fitting sleeves. Her ladies took off
her frontlet and neckerchief, and gave her a fair hand
kerchief to bind over her eyes. The executioner then
knelt and asked her forgiveness ; she repUed, " Most
vrillingly." Then he requested her to stand on the straw, which
doing, she saw the block, and said, " I pray you, des
patch me quickly ; " adding, " WiU you take it off before
I lay me down ? "
" No, madam," repUed the executioner.
She tied the handkerchief about her eyes, then feel
ing for the block, she said, " Where is it ? What shaU
I do?" Then one of the spectators, guiding her to it, she laid
down her head upon the block, stretched forth her body,
and said, " Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit ; "
and at one blow her head was stricken off, foUowed by
great effusion of blood.'
Her remains were intoned in the church of St. Peter
ad Vincula vrithin the Tower, by those of her husband.
Lord GuUdford Dudley, between those of two of the
murdered consorts of Henry VIII., Anne Boleyn and
Katharine Howard.
Judge Morgan, who in the preceding November had
pronounced the sentence of death on Lady Jane Gray at
GuildhaU, lost his reason soon after her execution, and
in his delirium perpetuaUy exclaimed, " The Lady Jane !
Take away the Lady Jane from me ! Take away the
Lady Jane ! "
The Marquis of Northampton, Catharine Pan's bro-
' Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, and Heylin's History of the
Eeformation. Turner; Stowe; Holinshed.

1653-54. EXECUTIONS OF HEE FATHEE AND UNCLE. 183
ther, who had very recently had his pardon from the
queen for the attempt to supplant her by Lady Jane
Gray, stood on the leads of the DevU's Tower to see the
execution of the Lord Guildford Dudley. The father of
Lady Jane, Henry Gray, Duke of Suffolk, was brought to
his trial for high treason at Westminster on the follow
ing Saturday, February 18. On his going out he looked
stout and cheerful, but on his return, having received
sentence of death, he landed at the Traitors' Gate vrith
a countenance heavy and pensive, desiring aU men to
pray for him. Intent only on seK-preservation, he had
accused his brother. Lord Thomas Gray, of . inciting
him to his last fooUsh act of rebeUion, This execution
did not take place tiU February 24, and there is no
reason -to suppose that he was either -visited or inter
ceded for by his wife, the Lady Frances : indeed she
was otherwise occupied.
When Suffolk mounted the scaffold on Tower HUl, he
was attended by Dr. Weston, one of Queen Mary's chap
lains, -with whom he prayed. He died -with courage
and decency. His brother. Lord Thomas Gray, suffered
on March 8, The stupendous tragedy had been played
out. The axe had faUen successively on Northumber
land, Gates, Palmer, Lord GuUdford Dudley, the divine
Lady Jane Gray herself, on Suffolk and his brother Lord
Thomas Gray. England had looked on aghast, vrith
weeping eyes and tender sympathy for the bereaved
mother of Lady Jane Gray, the recently made widow of
Suffolk, the desolate vridow, as those who knew her not
supposed, of him whose blood had been just poured out
on Tower HiU. All pitied the Lady Frances, and won
dered how she would ever be consoled for her tragic
bereavements. But Lady Frances was the niece of
Henry VIII,,. and she behaved as such. Instead of

184 LADY JANE GEAY. 1553-54.
wasting her precious time in tears and lamentations
for the husband of her youth and the father of her
chUdren, and shrouding herseK in dismal weeds, she
assumed bridal garments, and took to herself a second
spouse in the first brief fortnight of her vridowhood ;
for on March 9, 1553-54, she manied her equerry,
Adrian Stokes', whUe the ensanguined axe, which had
faUen on the hapless Suffolk, was yet . reeking vrith the
blood of his unfortunate brother Lord Thomas Gray,
who was beheaded on the 8th of the same month.
On that day a letter was addressed to the Lady
Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, requiring her " to deUver
unto the Lord- Admiral the ParUamentary robes, lately
belonging to the Duke her husband ; or, if she have
them not, to let the Lord-Admiral understand where
they remain, to the end he may send for the same,"
A message which might have unnerved any other
vridow; but the Lady Frances was unmoved, and per
severed in contracting wedlock -with her young equerry
on the monow, March the 9th,
She retained her dower, and on the 20th of the No
vember foUo-wing her second wedlock, she gave birth to
a daughter at Rockworth, who was baptised EUzabeth,
and died the same day, H she had visited her first
husband in the Tower after his condemnation, the ac
tual paternity of this infant, bom vrithin nine months
after his death, might have been adjudged to him, or at
least disputed.
Portraits of the Lady Frances and her second hus
band on the same canvas, facing each other, were painted
by Lucas de Heere soon after their marriage, bearing
the astounding date 1554. They are stUl bride and
bridegroom, and their names and ages are inscribed over
> -Warwick Inc^uisitions, communicated by the late Frederick Devon, Esq.

1554. LADY FEANCES AS A BEIDE. 185
the head of each. The Lady Frances is stated to be
thirty-six, her foppish-looking bridegroom only twenty-
one. In point of appearance he might well have been
her son, for she looks ten years older than her real age,
is fat and puffy, and all her beauty gone, but she re
sembles her uncle Henry VIIL
Adrian Stokes is bareheaded and red haired. His
ruff and ruffles are very elaborately quiUed and edged
with gold. He wears a rich black velvet doublet, funed
-with ermine, and magnificently jeweUed,
The Lady Frances is in black satin, with ermine fur
and jeweUed pattern, like the dress of her young hus
band. She has two wedding-rings on the fourth finger
of her left hand, and several rich chains and carcanets
about her neck.
Her headdress is according to the fashion of the
period, a raised frontlet of gems; her light red hair
is raised on each side in two bows. Her figure is par
tially concealed -with a black mode scarf.
The Lady Frances did. not bury herself in the coim-
-try after her second marriage. She held high place as
one of the great ladies of the court in Queen Mary's
household, and occasionaUy took precedence of the
Princess Elizabeth herself.

186 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1653.

THE LADY KATHAEINE GRAY,

CHAPTER I.
Lady Kathaeine Geay was about two years younger
than her highly-gifted sister. Lady Jane, and received a
Uke leamed education from Aylmer. The same day
Lady Jane was compelled by their father, the Duke of
Suffolk, to give her hand to Lord GuUdford Dudley,
Lady Katharine was manied to Henry Lord Herbert,
the eldest son of the Earl of Pembroke, and Anne
Parr, the sister of Henry VIIL's last queen, Katharine
Parr, to whom he was nephew.'
Lady Katharine's marriage, according to the custom
of those times, included her sunender to her husband's
family ; so of course she went to Uve with her husband
and his father, the Earl of Pembroke, at Baynard's
Castle, a royal fortress of great strength on the river
Thames, in close proximity to the Temple Garden, which
had been given by Edward VI. to the Earl of Pembroke
when he was Sir WUliam Herbert, and Master of the
Horse to that monarch.
Anne Pan, Countess of Pembroke, had died at Bay
nard's Castle several months before Katharine was given
in maniage to her son ; therefore there was no mother-
in-law for her guidance when she was consigned to the
custody of her husband's father. There were no links
of sympathy between them. He was a selfish poUtical
' Machyn's IHary.

1653-54. FAEE-WELL LETTEE FEOM LADY JANE GEAY. 187
soldier, the commander of aU the discipUned cavalry
near London, and a greedy courtier ; his religion was
the creed of the reigning party at court. When he
received the donation of the royal nunnery of WUton,
he rudely expeUed the reluctant abbess and her nuns
vrith his whip, exclaiming at the same time, " Go spin,
ye jades, go spin!" but on the re-establishment of popery
under Mary, he sought out the distressed sisterhood, in
consequence of receiving a significant hint from court,
invited them to return to WUton, and himself rein
stated them in the convent, cap in hand.
Lady Katharine Gray was a firm Protestant, and
remained so through aU changes of the ruling powers.
Her distress may be imagined when her beloved sister
was condemned to death, and her father was brought
prisoner to the Tower after his rash insunection.
In consequence of the transports of grief into which
Lady Katharine was plunged, the foUowing beautiful
letter was vmtten to her by Lady Jane on the blank
leaves of her Greek Testament, Sunday, February 11,
the evening before she was put to death on Tower
HUl:— "I have sent you, good sister Katharine', a book,
which, though it be not outwardly trimmed vrith gold, yet
inwardly it is of more worth than precious stones. It is
the book, dear sister, of the laws of the Lord ; it is His
Testament and last WUl, which He bequeathed to us poor
wretches, -which shaU lead us to the path of eternal joy;
and if you, vrith good mind and an earnest desire, foUow
it, itwUl bring you to immortal and everlasting Ufe. It
-wiU teach you to Uve — it vriU teach you to die — it wiU
win you more than you would have gained by possession
> The Greek Testament.

188 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1653-54.
of your woful father's lands, for if God had prospered
him ye woiUd have inherited his lands."
A remarkable passage, pro-ring that the insurrection of
Suffolk was intended to place Jane on the throne once
more as queen. If it had been in favour of any other
heiress or heir, it is not likely that the Lady Jane woiUd
have rested under the attainder and sunendered 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 the third por
tion of her father's inheritance. But thoughts of worldly
affairs and the soul of the sweet saintly Jane had parted
for ever, -with that sentence which she only dwelt upon
for a moment to draw the more forcible contrast, in her
sad sister's mind, with that better land to which she
was herself hastening.
" If," continues the Lady Jane, " ye apply dUigently
to this book, -trying to direct your Ufe by it, you shaU be
inheritor of those riches as neither the covetous shall
vrithdraw from you, neither the thief shall steal, nor the
moth conupt. Desire, dear sister, to understand the
law of the Lord your God. Live stiU to die, that you
by death may purchase eternal Ufe, or, after your death,
enjoy the life purchased for you by Christ's death.
Trust not that the tenderness of your age shall lengthen
your life, for as soon as God wUl, goeth the young as
the old. Labour alway and learn to die. Deny the
world, defy the devU, and despise the flesh. Delight
only in the Lord. Be penitent for your sins, but despair
not. Be steady in your faith, yet presume. not, and
desire vrith St. Paid to be dissolved to be with Christ,
with whom, even in death, there is life. Be like the
good servant, and even in midnight be waking, lest when
death cometh he steal upon you like a thief in the night,

1633-64. FAEEWELL LETTEE FEOM LADY JANE GEAY 189
and you be, with the evU servant, found sleeping, and
lest for lack of oU ye be found like the first fooUsh wemch,"
[Here Lady Jane's aUusion is eridently to the parable
of the wise and fooUsh rirgins, as the more refined
language of our present translation gives the parable.
The word wench has faUen into distaste in modem par
lance, but was equaUy inoffensive with the synonyme
" girl."] " and like him that had not the wedding gar
ment, ye be cast out from the marriage. Persist ye (as
I trust ye do, seeing ye have the name of a Christian)
as near as ye can to follow the steps of your Master
Christ, and take up your cross, lay your sins on His
back, and always embrace Him !
" As touching my death, rejoice as I do, and adsist '
that I shaU be deUvered from corruption and put on in
corruption, for I am assured that I shaU for losing a
mortal life find an immortal feUcity. Pray God grant
that ye live in His fear and die in His love [here is an
illegible passage, perhaps occasioned hy some fast-falling
tears], neither for love of life nor fear of death. For if
ye deny Hi a truth to lengthen your life, God wUl deny
you and shorten your days, and if ye wiU cleave to Him,
He vriU prolong your days to your comfort, and for His
glory, to the which glory God bring mine and you here
after, when it shall please Him to caU you.
" FareweU, dear sister ; put your only trust in God,
who only must uphold you. " Your loving sister,
"Jane Duddely."
The Earl of "Pembroke took the earliest opportunity
of extricating himself from aU the danger and inconve
nience of having disputed the queen's title to the throne
' Consider.

190 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1554.
in behalf of Lady Jane Gray, by making his son divorce
Lady Katharine, and sending her out of his house.
Poor forlorn Lady Katharine was in evil case. Her
sister, her father, and uncle had just been beheaded, and
her mother had wedded Adrian Stokes ; but the queen
had pity on the desolate and homeless members of the
royal family, and took Katharine and her young sister
Lady Mary into her own famUy.
We find Katharine on March 31, 1554, acting as
godmother to the infant daughter of Sir WUUam Caven
dish, EUzabeth Cavendish, afterwards the wife of Dam-
ley's brother. Lord Charles Stuart. This was only six
weeks after the decapitation of her father, and seven
from that of her angelic sister. Lady Jane.
At that time natural feelings were imperatively
smothered in the near relations of those who were the
victims of court persecutions. Henry Gray, Duke of
Suffolk, had figured four months preriously at the
christening of an elder child of Sir WiUiam Cavendish,
as sponsor with Queen Mary for the infant Charles
Cavendish, one fortnight after his daughter. Lady Jane
Gray, and her husband had been condemned to death
at GuUdhaU,
The Lady Frances, notwithstanding her indecorous
marriage with Adrian Stokes, was recalled by Queen
Mary to court, where she enjoyed such high favour with
Queen Mary, that we find her in the year 1655 recom
mending a niece of her beheaded husband for prefer
ment, and successfuUy acting as her chaperon; for
there is a letter in the archives of the WiUoughbys of
WoUaston which says, " Mrs. Margaret WUloughby has
been -to court -with the Lady Frances Gray, who has her
place in the privy chamber. Young Mistress Margaret
was much commended, and Lady Frances did not doubt

1554, MAID OF HONOUE TO QUEEN MAEY. 191
but in a short time to place her about the queen's high
ness, to the content of all her friends," '
There is every reason to believe that the place the
Lady Frances prevailed on the queen to give to Mrs.
Margaret was an appointment about the Princess EUza
beth. It is remarkable that Queen Mary should not only
give her sister an attendant recommended by Lady
Frances, but one so closely connected with the Grays,
for Margaret WiUoughby was the niece of the beheaded
Duke of Suffolk, consequently first cousin of Lady Jane
Gray. Lady Katharinfe and Lady Mary Gray were established
as maids of honour to the queen. The daughters of the
late Duke of Somerset, Lady Margaret and Lady Jane
Seymour, were at the same time added to that noble
sisterhood. Lady Jane Seymour, who had been educated
by her parents expressly with a riew of fitting her to be
come the consort ofthe late King Edward, was one ofthe
most leamed young women of that era. She and Lady
Katharine Gray were very dear and affectionate friends.
Queen Mary had granted her royal palace at Han
worth to the Duchess of Somerset for a home, and there
she dwelt vrith her younger children and her eldest son
Edward, for whom she had persuaded her late husband
to disinherit his son by his first wife, Katharine FUol.
Edward, who was given his father's second title of
Earl of Hertford, had been contracted to Lady Jane
Gray, but on his father's faU was separated from his
almost royal bride, and deprived of the inheritance,
titles, lands, and Uving which he should have inherited
from his paternal lineage, A romantic attachment had
sprung up between him and Lady Katharine after he
' Papers of Willoughby of Wollaston,

192 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1555.
was deprived of aU hope of wedding her sister. The Earl
of Pembroke had made this the pretext for divorcii^
Katharine from his son.
It happened after a whUe, that Lady Jane Seymour
feU iU during her attendance at court, and Queen Mary
thinking it best she should be with her own mother,
sent her to Hanworth in the royal Utter — a species of
palanquin borne by men, and weU adapted for the con
veyance of the sick. The mother of the maids was in
attendance on Lady Jane, and the Lady Katharine
Gray accompanied her friend, and remained with her at
Hanworth during her indisposition.
Lord Edward Seymour (the Earl bf Hertford), who
was then resident with his lady mother at Hanworth,
confided to his sister. Lady Jane, his affection to Lady
Katharine Gray, or, as he subsequently termed it, " his
good-wUl towards maniage -with her." Lady Jane,
according to his desire, informed Lady Katharine ofthe
same, who heard it very favourably; but both felt it
was no time to make an open declaration of their love.
The Duchess of Somerset, observing famUiarity and
good-wiU between the lovers, and dreading that it
might be attended vrith danger to her son, prudently
exhorted him to abstain from Lady Katharine's com
pany, to which he was wont to reply : " Mother, young
folks meaning weU may weU accompany, and that
both in this house and in Queen Mary's court, I trust I
may have Lady Katharine's company, not having been
forbidden by the queen's commandment." ' And at
another time he added : — " Lady Katharine hath been
sent by the queen to live with my mother at Hanworth,
knowing I was there ; therefore her majesty's feeling
in this matter cannot be doubted." *
» Harleian MS., No. 6286. « Ibid.

1556. LOVE BETWEEN HEE AND EAEL OF HEETFOED. 193
So the Earl of Hertford, son of the beheaded Duke of
Somerset, continued to love and court the impoverished
daughter of the beheaded Duke of Suffolk, the sister
of her who, but for the mad dream of her being con
stituted the parliamentary heiress of the crown, would
have been his wife. Sympathy in their grief for the
tragic fate of Lady Jane Gray doubtless nourished love
between Hertford and Lady Katharine in the first in
stance. The Lady Frances, Suffolk's widow, and now the bride
of the master of his stables, Adrian Stokes, always
caUed Edward Seymour "son;" doubtless from the time
he was affianced to her eldest daughter. Lady Jane
Gray, yet he never told her of his love for Katharine
tiU after Queen Mary's death.

CHAPTER II.
On Queen Elizabeth's accession. Lady Katharine Gray,
her sister Lady Mary, and Lady Jane Seymour, con
tinued maids of honour, and for a time there was no
mention of love and maniage between Lady Katharine
and Seymour. The new queen had restored the title
of Earl of Hertford and a portion of his lands to him.
During her Majesty's progress in March, the love
was renewed, and Hertford rode to the Charterhouse
at Sheen, where Lady Katharine's mother, the Lady
Frances, lived with her second husband, Adrian Stokes,
and, to use his own words, "moved her, the Lady
Frances, to grant her good-wUl that he might many
the Lady Katharine, her daughter," '
' Harleian MS., No. 6286. Adrian Stokes's examination.
0

194 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1559.
The Lady Frances would not answer tiU she had pri
vately adrised with her husband, whom she told " that
the Earl of Hertford bore favour and good-wiU to her
daughter, the Lady Katharine," adding, " that in her
opinion he was a very fit husband for her, if the marriage
should please the Queen Elizabeth and her honourable
councU." Adrian Stokes had a consultation with the
Earl of Hertford, and advised him to make suit to the
queen and such of her councU as he thought were most
his friends to be, a means to her Majesty to accomplish
the marriage.
The Earl said " he Uked the adrice weU, and would
follow it," Adrian told Hertford " he would himself
make aU the interest he could for him and Katharine
-with those he knew of the council, and that the duchess
Lady Frances should write to Queen Elizabeth for her
Majesty's favour and good-wUl; and in very deed,"
said Adrian, " the Lady Frances required me to make
a rough draft of a letter to that purpose." '
It seems Mr, Bertie, the husband of the other Dow
ager Duchess of Suffolk (Katharine WiUoughby), Mr,
Strikeley, and one GUgett, a servant of Lord Hertford,
were privy to the letter which, concocted by the consul
tations of Katharine's mother and her step-father, was
to propitiate the inexorable Elizabeth, Meantime the
Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, who had been in
declining health ever since the birth of her last chUd
by Adrian Stokes, fell very iU, Hertford saw the Lady
Frances would die, and his heart faUing him, he re
quested Adrian Stokes not to stir further in the matter.
He appears, strangely enough, not to have had the least
fear of Queen Mary.
' Harleian MS., No. 6286. Adrian Stokes's examination.

1659. HEETFOED PEOPOSED BY HEE MOTHER. 195
The Lady Frances sent immediately to court, desiring
Lady Katharine Gray, who was a maid of honour to
EUzabeth as she had been to Mary, to ask leave of
Queen Elizabeth to permit her to come and speak with
her at the Charterhouse, Leave was aUowed, and Lady
Katharine coming to her mother, the Lady Frances
broke the matter to her, as it had been moved by the
Earl of Hertford, saying, " Now I have provided a hus
band for you ; if you can Uke well to frame your fancy
and good-wUl that way." ' Poor Lady Katharine, who
must have been a little amused at the Lady Frances
taking aU the credit of providing a lover who had so
passionately wooed her, assured her mother " that she
was very wiUing to love Hertford." ^ Lady Frances
then caUed her husband, Adrian Stokes, into the con
sultation, and begged him " to devise a letter and rough
draw ^ it for her to copy, that she might -write to the
queen's majesty, for her good-wiU and consent to the
marriage of her Katharine and Hertford."
Adrian, who gave his eridence subsequently in a fear
less and manly manner, far superior to the lover Hert
ford, says " that the Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk,
at this time was at the Charterhouse, where, to the best
of his remembrance, she dictated to him the foUovring
letter for the queen : — ' That such a nobleman did bear
good-wUl to her daughter, the Lady Katharine, and she
did humbly require the queen's highness to be good and
gracious lady tmto her, and that it would please her
majesty to assent to the marriage of her to the said earl,
which was the only thing she desired before her death,
and shoiUd be the occasion for her to die the more
' Harleian MS., No. 6286. « Ibid.
' Make a rough draft of it.
o 2

196 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1659.
quietly.' " Hertford, in a fit of apprehension, stopped
the letter, to the erident contempt of his wife's manly
step- father, who says : — " The letter was not sent to
the queen's highness, on the earl's declaring ' that he
would meddle no more in the matter.' " '
Sore sickness attacked Lady Frances in that year, and
she writes to Sir WUliam Cecil from the Charterhouse,
November 3, 1559, thanking him for his furtherance of
her suit to the queen " for leave to seU one of the manors
of her jointure, in order to pay debts contracted during
her long sickness." She died in the Charterhouse at
Sheen, November 20, 1559, in the fifty-second year of
her age.
She had the burial of a princess, and was so -termed
by the heralds. For Clarencieux stood at the head of
the coffin and said these words in a loud voice : — " Laud
and praise be given to Almighty God, that it hath
pleased Him to call out of this transitory life into His
eternal glory, the most noble and excellent princess, the
Lady Frances, late Duchess of Suffolk, daughter to the
right high and mighty prince, Charles Brandon, Duke
of Suffolk, and of the most noble and exceUent prin
cess, Mary the French queen, daughter to the most illus
trious King Henry VII,"* The Communion service
was then read in English, and a carpet laid before the
high altar, for the chief mourners to kneel on.
The Lady Katharine Gray was then led up to the
place, her train borne and upheld, Mr, Jewel preached
a funeral sermon, after which Lady Katharine and Lady
' Harleian MS., No. 6286. Adrian Stokes's examination.
' Nichols's Progresses of Eliialeth, vol. i. p. 52. Camden quotes a mis
date of five years subsequently, which is indeed actually on the monument
ra.ised by the widower of the duchess, Adrian Stokes. But the date referred
not to the death of the duchess, but to the completion of her tomb.

1569. FUNEEAL OF HEE MOTHEE, THE LADY FEANCES. 197
Mary Gray received the Communion. When all was
over, these ladies went to the Charterhouse in their
chariot', the same that had borne their mother's corpse
to the Abbey.
Lady Frances lies in St. Edmund's Chapel, on the south
side of the Abbey, near the tomb of Valence, Earl of
Pembroke, under a monument of alabaster, which was
erected at the expense of her second husband, Adrian
Stokes. There is an elegant Latin epitaph, of which
this is the literal sense : —
" Nor grace, nor splendour, nor a royal na-me,
Nor wide-spread heritage can aught avail ;
All, all have vanished here. True worth alone
Survives the funeral pyre and silent tomb."
The regal succession had been entaUed, in the vrill
of Edward VL, to the male issue of the Lady Frances.
She bore two sons to Adrian Stokes. Both died in
early infancy; their prolonged existence might have
caused a civU war, but it is certain that her sons did
not survive her, for her daughters. Lady Katharine
and Lady Mary Gray, are named the inheritrixes of
her estates, at the death of Adrian Stokes, who had
life interest in aU her property, and outlived them
both. Lady Katharine did not find her new sovereign. Queen
EUzabeth, either gracious or sympathising. She showed
no tenderness to her on her mother's death, but treated
her coldly and even harshly. Poor Katharine had cause
to regret the death of Queen Mary, " who had," she
told the Spanish ambassador, Count de Feria, " always
treated her kindly, but now," she bitterly added, " she
experienced nothing but discourtesy from Queen Eliza-
' Nichols's Progresses of Elizaheth.

198 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1560.
beth, who could not bear to think of her as her possible
successor." The English ambassador at the court of Madrid in
formed CecU withal', "that King PhUip II, was so jea
lous of the anticipated power of France, by the alUance
of yoimg Francis the Dauphin -with the Queen of Scot
land, and her claims to the crown of England, that he
positively contemplated stealing Lady Katharine Gray
out of the realm, and manying her to his son Don Carlos,
or some other member of his famUy, and setting up her
title against that of Mary Stuart, as the true heiress of
England, That Lady Katharine would probably be glad
to go," he added, "being most uncomfortably situated in
the English court with the queen, who could not well
abide the sight of her, and that neither the duchess her
mother [in whose life this letter was -written] nor her
step-father loved her, and that her uncle could not
abide to hear of her, so that she lived, as it were,
in great despair. She had spoken very anogant and
unseemly words in the hearing of the queen and others
standing by. Hence it was thought that she could be
enticed away, if some trusty person spoke with her."
The Countess de Feria had been suggested for this
purpose, but the count would in no wise consent to her
tanying any longer in England, ha-ving " great mis-
Uking of her e-ril usage, at the queen's hands, after his
departure, nor yet would he return for many respects,
but chiefly because he woiUd not suffer the evil entreat
ing his vrife in his absence." It was doubtful whether
Lady Katharine was aware of any of these practices or
designs on the part of the court of Spain, but it is cer
tain that she and the Count de Feria had been on very
' Letter of Sir Thomas Challoner to Cecil. State Papers; Foreign series,
1860.

1660. JEALOUS AND UNHAPPY. 199
friendly and confidential terms, during his late embassy
in England, and that she had promised, as he said,
neither to marry nor change her religion without ap
prising him.
The sickness and death of the Lady Frances, Katha
rine's mother, made a strange difference in the thoughts
and feeUngs of the forlorn maid of honour. She and
her young sister. Lady Mary, stayed some weeks at the
Charterhouse, Sheen, and with their step-father, Adrian
Stokes, at Isleworth, which had been, with everything
else that was in her power, bequeathed to him, for his
life, by the Lady Frances.
The impoverished demi-royal sisters then returned
to their duties, in the Palace of Westminster, where the
sole pririlege they enjoyed was leave to have permanent
apartments, whether in waiting or otherwise.
Meantime a quanel had ensued between the Lady
Katharine and Hertford, for she was informed that he
was pajring his addresses to the daughter of Sir Peter
Me-wtas, which of course had the effect of rendering
Katharine jealous and uncomfortable, and induced her
to withdraw herself from him, tiU Lady Jane Seymour
informed her he was iU and unhappy, and desired
to explain his conduct to her. Then Katharine and
the earl had a private interriew at Hampton Court,
and on her aUusion to her jealousy of the daughter of
Sir Peter Mewtas, he told her, "that to avoid aU
such suspicion for the future, he was ready, if she
would consent, to marry out of hand, the next time
the queen went to London, if convenience might be
found, and then he hoped she would have no more
doubts. " '
This speech was said in the hearing of his sister. Lady
' Harleian MS., No. 6286.

200 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1560.
Jane Seymour, Lady Katharine was weU pleased, but
suggested their waiting tiU the queen could be induced
to consent. Then they exchanged promises of mar
riage, and Hertford gave Lady Katharine a ring of be
trothal with a fair pointed diamond, from which she
never parted tiU she sent it to him at the hour of
death, Hertford and his sister. Lady Jane Seymour, began to
' consider how the maniage was to be canied into effect.
Unfortunately, some of the busy spirits, who, according
to national custom in England, are always on the look
out for an opposition party, had fixed their thoughts
on poor harmless Lady Katharine as a head for the
Low Church or Swiss faction, which was in after times
caUed Puritan. Some of these politicians made her a
person of consequence at once, by setting afloat the
rumour of a plot, somehow prevented by the death of
Henry II,,King of France, that the Spaniards meant to
steal Lady Katharine Gray, and that PhUip II. meant
to many her to his heir, Don Carlos, This absurd re
port caused everyone to ask "wherefore?" aud "what
interest could it be to the Spaniards to appropriate a
young lady so destitute of wealth, and to destine her to
an alliance the greatest the world could offer ? " Then
came out, in answer, the peculiar situation ofthe impo
verished maid of honour. Poor as she might be, she was
the heiress of Queen Elizabeth, by Act of Parliament,
The English nation felt their crown to be left as if it were
a personal chattel, subject to Henry VIIL's wiU, and he
had bequeathed it, after his son, to his daughter Mary
and her heirs, then to Elizabeth and her heirs, and then
to the daughters of the Duchess Frances, according to
seniority, Edward VI, was dead. Queen Mary was dead,
without heirs, and whUe Queen Elizabeth remained un-

1660. HEETFOED PEOVIDES THE BEIDAL EING. 201
married, Katharine Gray, forlorn and poor as she might
be, was, according to two royal wiUs and an Act of
Parliament, the queen's heiress.
After such discussions had gone the round of all the
whisperers at court, it was not likely that Katharine
Gray and Hertford, her betrothed, dared ask the bene
diction of their royal mistress on their intended nup
tials; they were tolerably certain it would be given in the
shape of a wanant committing the bride to the Tower,
and a Star-chamber inquisition into the poUtical intents
of her lover, to be followed by a fine large enough to de
vour the remains of aU his lordship's restored rents for
many a long year. A law had been framed for the espe
cial benefit of Lady Margaret Douglas, Katharine Gray's
cousin, by Henry VIIL's privy council, and ratified
by his slarish ParUament, infiicting severe punishment
on any man bold enough to many the kinswoman of
the crown without the crown's leave. Yet the rash
pair meant to be married as soon as they aud their con
fidential sister, the busy Lady Jane Seymour, could con
trive to have the ceremony performed.
Between AUhaUows and Christmas 1560, that is, just
when the y^ar of mourning for the bride's mother was
expired, Hertford provided a curious gold ring, which,
looking like a plain one, opened with a secret spring in
several linked compartments, on which he had engraved
different mottoes, poetical distichs of his own com
posing. The Lady Katharine subsequently declared tha.t the
words with which the earl finally required her hand
were, " that he had bome her good-wiU for a long time ;
and lest she shoiUd think he meant to mock her, he was
content, if she would be, to marry her," In answer, she
said " she liked both him and his offer," "Thereupon they

202 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1560.
gave each other their hands : more words passed, but.
she remembered them not. There was present the Lady
Jane Seymour and no other ; it was daytime and in the
Lady Jane's private closet or dressing-room, opening
from the Maidens' Chamber in Westminster Palace," '
The lovers then considered themselves betrothed:
the Earl being asked, "With what ceremonies ?" he
replied, "None but kissing each other, and embracing,
and joining their hands together, in the presence of his
sister, the Lady Jane Seymour," And this was in the
winter, soon after the court came to Westminster,*

CHAPTER HI.

Lady Jane Seymouk had a dressing-closet in the old
Palace of Westminster, which opened into the Maidens'
Chamber of the Household, seemingly the maid of
honour's great room ; but it was quite private to herself,
no one might enter without her leave. Her brother
wrote to her that he was very iU and must see Katha
rine, upon which Lady Jane gave a meeting to him and
his lady-love in this Uttle convenient nook. When
the three were met, the sick lover began to press for
maniage, on which Katharine made the following de
mure speech, not knowing that it would be the subject of
Star-chamber inquisition, how much and ardently she
had loved him : — " Weighing your long suit and great
good--wUl bome to me, I am contented to marry -with
you the next time the queen's highness shaU go abroad,
^nd leave Lady Jane and me behind."
Queen EUzabeth very soon chose to recreate herself
with three or four days' private sojourn at Greenwich,
' Deposition of Lady Katharine. ' Earl of Hertford's deposition.

1560. HEE STOLEN MAEEIAGE. 203
which was to include hunting at Eltham, Lady Katha
rine was in waiting at that time as well as her confi
dante Lady Jane, She had, however, more inclination
to be manied than to be scrambling through the brakes
and bushes of Shooter's HiU, She gave out " that she
was afflicted with a terrible fit of the toothache, tied up
her face, and complained it was swelling very badly,"
What excuse the plotting brain of Lady Jane Seymour
derised is not said, but she was a constitutional invaUd,
and like-wise a great favourite with the queen, and did
pretty well as she liked. Away went her Majesty to
Greenwich, leaving the two young maids of honour to
their owti derices,
" It was between AUhaUow-tide and Christmas," said
the Earl of Hertford, " when I, being in expectation at
my house in Canon Row', for it was very uncertain that
the queen would really go out. I got up at six o'clock,
and watched in the way of the palace some time, for we
had all agreed that the marriage was to take place at
my house in Canon Row. I told Fortescue, my gentle
man usher, to teU aU his feUow-servants to go abroad :
he sent his valets or grooms of the chamber on various
enands to the city, his man Christopher Barnaby had
a commission -to wait at his goldsmith Derrick's, in
Fleet Street." Yet, notwithstanding these preparations,
Hertford denied that the marriage was of his appoint
ment, but all the doings of his sister Jane.' Neverthe
less many of the earl's servants were peeping, and saw
Lady Katharine and Lady Jane come up the Watergate
stairs, and up the stairs that led into the earl's cham
ber, to do which they had to pass the kitchen door, as
the cook PoweU afterwards deposed.
• Harleian MS., No. 6286 : Hertford's deposition.
" Ibid.

204 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1560.
Lady Jane Seymour gave the minister ten pounds for
his trouble, which money she gave herself out of the
aUowance the earl always gave her for her clothes and
pocket-money : he had not otherwise provided it. There
were no banns asked by the minister. Katharine says
that she and Lady Jane Seymour dined at the queen's
comptroller's table, as usual, the day of the maniage,
but they had neither banquet nor dinner at the earl's
house in Canon Row. But there were certain banquet
ing meats stood in the chamber, which the Lady Jane
offered her to eat, but she did eat none.
The earl gave her that morning the gold ring of five
Unks (without any precious stones) written on -with
English miter (metre) : —
" As circles five, by art compressed, show but one ring to
sight,
So trust uniteth faithful minds, -with knot of secret might,
Whose force to break (but greedy Death) no wight pos-
sesseth power.
As time and sequels well shall prove. My ring can say no
more."
With this ring she was manied : no one gave her in
maniage. The Earl of Hertford led her down the water-stairs of
his house in Canon Row, about two hours after the cere
mony, kissed her at their departing, and bade her fare
weU. Then Lady Jane Seymour and she returned by boat
to the c(mrt, for the Thames was up in tide, and flowing
over the Strand path by which they had run quickly to
the Earl of Hertford's house in Canon Row. The newly-
wedded bride, with Hertford's sister. Lady Jane Sey
mour, went to their usual place at the comptroller's
table to dine, for they found aU ready to go to dinner,
which was served shortly after. None of their gentle-

1661. DEATH OF LADY JANE SE"yMOUE. 205
women were privy to where they had been, neither of her
going out or return, and none asked them any questions.
Lady Katharine was so mentally absorbed on that
momentous morning, that she could give no account of
the earl's dress, of Lady Jane's dress, or of her own,
excepting that she had put a kerchief in her pocket to
put on her hair after the ceremony, in token that she was
a matron. The Earl of Hertford, on the contrary, knew
that his bride wore a hood, and that under it she put on
the " frow's paste " or cover-chief. This seems a fashion
of ancient times revived from Germany, where it was
considered almost infamous for a manied dame to ap
pear vrithout the matronly kerchief or cover-chief. How
they came to call it by the name of "frow's paste,"
Germans alone can teU. Serious have been the discus
sions on this fashion by our historical antiquaries, not
regarding Lady Katharine Gray's costume, which is,
we believe, eUcited thus by ourselves from the Harleian
MSS., but it is mentioned, to their extreme perplexity,
as worn by Lady Jane Gray on the scaffold.
The first intenuption to the stolen happiness of Lord
Hertford and Lady Katharine was the death of their
lo-ring and faithful sister. Lady Jane Seymour, On her
great favour with Queen EUzabeth her mistress, and on
her intrepid spirit, they had relied for support, when
soever their trespass against the royal maniage law
might be discovered. Lady Jane Seymour was only nine
teen when she expired suddenly at her apartments in
Westminster Palace, March 20, 1561, Queen Elizabeth,
not being aware of the notable plotting genius of her
young favourite in the matrimonial line, lamented her
death, and ordered for her a splendid fimeral in the
adjacent Abbey, Lady Jane Seymour was brought from
the Almonry, Westminster Palace, on March 26, 1561,

206 , LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1561.
and met by the fuU choir -with 200 persons in deep
mourning. According to Elizabeth's command, aU her
maids of honour were in attendance. In fact, aU the
ladies of the royal household, particularly the ladies of
the bedchamber and their attendants, by the queen's
orders, foUowed Lady Jane Seymour to the grave.
Fourscore lords and gentlemen of the court, moreover,
attended the procession. A great banner of arms was
bome before the corpse, and Master Clarencieux was
the herald.' The funeral sermon was preached by the
Bishop of Peterborough,
The fair young Lady Jane Seymour, niece to the
queen of the same name, was buried in the vault where
Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, had been laid the preceding
year, H the Earl of Hertford, her brother, had been in
his place as chief mourner, that fact would have been
mentioned. The earl afterwards raised a monument
to her memory in St, Edmund's Chapel, on which is
inscribed that it was erected by her dear brother.
One mourner there was among the maiden train of
the -virgin queen, who lamented, in fear and trembling,
as weU as deep grief, when she saw the only witness of
her secret maniage lowered into the cold vaults of
Westminster Abbey — her own beloved familiar friend
and sister: need it be said, that mourner was Lady
Katharine Gray ?
Cecil had intimidated Hertford regarding Lady Ka
tharine ; but this, as Hertford said, was before the mar
riage, " There is good-wUl between you and the Lady
Katharine Gray ? " was the leading question of Eliza
beth's wily minister. Upon which Hertford answered,
" There is no such thing," Some sharp cross-exami-
' Machyn's Diary, p. 254.

1561. HEETFOED SENT TO FEANCE. 207
nation ensued, when Hertford seems to have been con
vinced of the folly of this answer after his maniage, for
he "desired it to be noted that there was no truth in his
reply to Mr. Secretary Cecil." Katharine had received
his visits in her private chamber at Westminster Palace
after their marriage, but she then always sent away her
maids, Mrs. Cousins and Mrs. Leigh,
Lady Katharine owned subsequently, that once Mr,
Secretary CecU had some talk with her about " sevring
of her livery : " such is the orthography. Likely as it
might be that the son of Richard CecU should be inte
rested regarding the stitching of her Uveries, yet we
fear the words mean no such thing, but merely the law-
terms of " suing out her livery" of freehold land she held
of the queen, as about that time the Lady Katharine
became pf age. While CecU was discussing this matter,
whatsoever it might be, he thought fit to warn her " of
her too great familiarity vrith the Earl of Hertford, with
out making the queen's majesty privy thereto," That
warning was too late, for Katharine impUes " that if it
had been before the solemnisation of her maniage,
she might have taken heed," Then she owns " that the
Marquis of Northampton and Lady Clinton [the fair
Geraldine] did seriously advise her to beware the com
pany and famUiarity of the said earl ; " but aU these
warnings came after the concealed wedlock had taken
place, Katharine's troubled dream of wedded happiness was
too soon interrupted. The queen thought fit to send
Hertford to France in 1561, and he had to leave his se
cretly manied demi-royal bride just when his presence
and protection were most required, for, to her inexpres
sible dismay, she became aware that she was likely to be
a mother — she, in her loneliness and inexperience, with

208 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1661.
no kind maternal friend to adrise and comfort her, but
with all eyes upon her, and aU inimical tongues whis
pering of her altered appearance.
Her husband had jointured her in a thousand a year,
before he went to France, and put the deed in her
hands, but in her distraction of mind she mislaid it.
The queen took her with her on her Suffolk progress,
where, fatigued by waiting on her royal mistress and
tenified at her own condition, she, for want of some real
friend, betook herself to the most hard-hearted matron of
the court, Mistress Saintlow, afterwards the Countess
of Shrewsbury, and revealed to her "that in a few weeks
she should be a mother; but that she was a wedded
wife, and manied to Lord Hertford." ' Mistress Saintlow
received the inteUigence with cries and a passionate
burst of tears.* What she said is not recorded ; no
thing very consoUng, it is erident, for the poor Lady
Katharine must have passed the Sunday in anguish
almost amounting to delirium, as mq^ be supposed by
her strange proceeding. That night Lady Katharine
entered the bedchamber of Lord Robert Dudley, just
then the lucky widower of Amy Robsart, and the aU-
potent favourite of the queen, Dudley was asleep when
Lady Katharine came into his apartment ; she threw
herself in anguish by his bedside, and told him her sad
tale, entreating his protection and imploring him to
use his brotherly influence to obtain mercy for her from
Queen Elizabeth,
The relationship between herself and Robert Dudley
must be remembered before the poor young wife is
blamed for this desperate step : he was brother to her
brother-in-law. Lord GuUdford Dudley, and brother-in-
' Lansdowne MS., printed in the Hardwicke State Papers.
' Harleian MS.

1561. HUEEIED TO THE TO WEE. 209
law himself to her dear sister. Lady Jane Gray, both
violently cut off on the same day. With what anguish
Lady Katharine alluded to all the stormy and sad scenes
of their youth may be supposed. She entreated him to
break the news of her marriage with Hertford to the
queen, Robert Dudley had probably no very great love
for Hertford ; perhaps he remembered his exulting risits
to the Tower, when his own father, Northumberland, was
playing the apostate in hopes of escaping punishment ;
and it is possible that Lord Robert might be alarmed
lest this confidential visit of the Lady Katharine might,
despite their brotherly and sisterly connection, alarm
her Majesty, whose sleeping-chamber was always adja
cent to her master of horse.' Let it have been as it
might, the hapless Lady Katharine obtained no advan
tage from her visit to Lord Robert Dudley's bedside. He
either would not or could not propitiate the queen, to
whom he told the news next morning, in some manner
which did not calm the furious passion into which she
was pleased to throw herself. The unfortunate Lady
Katharine was hurried to the Tower that very afternoon.
Sir WiUiam CecU cooUy communicates Lady Katha
rine Gray's situation and supposed connection with the
Earl of Hertford, in a laconic letter to Archbishop
Parker, dated SmaUbridge, August 12, 1561, observing,
in conclusion, " She is committed to the Tower, and he
sent for home. She says she is married." *
The mother of Katharine's husband, the haughty
Duchess of Somerset, -wrote the following hard, unfeel
ing letter to Sir WiUiam CecU, on hearing the news of
the marriage and Lady Katharine's committal to the
Tower : — ' Despatches of La Motte Finelon.
» State Papers, Elizabeth, Dom. xix. fol. 31 MS.
P

210 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1661.
" Good Master Secretary, — Hearing a great bruit
that my Lady Katharine Gray is in the Tower, and also
that she should say she is manied already to my son,
I could not choose but trouble you with my cares and
sorrows thereof. And although I might, upon my son's
earnest and often protesting unto me the contrary, desire
you to be an humble suitor on my behalf, that her tales
might not be credited before my son did answer, yet, in
stead thereof, my first and chief suit is that the queen's
majesty wUl think and judge of me, in this matter,
according to my desert and meaning. And if my son
have so much forgotten her highness caUing him to
honour, and so much overshot his bounden duty, and so
far abused her majesty's benignity, yet never was his
mother privy or consenting thereunto. I wUl not fill
my letter with how much I have schooled and persuaded
him to the contrary, nor yet will desire that youth and
fear may help, excuse, or lessen his fault ; but only that
her highness wiU have that opinion of me as of one that,
neither for chUd nor friend, shall wUlingly neglect the
duty pf a faithful subject. And to conserve my credit
vrith her majesty, good master Secretary, stand now my
friend, that the -wildness of mine unruly chUd do not
minish her majesty's favour towards me. And thus so
perplexed with this discomfortable rumour, I end, not
knowing how to proceed nor what to do therein. There
fore, good master Secretary, let me understand some
comfort of my grief from the queen's majesty, and some
counsel from yourself, and so do leave you to God.
" Your assured friend to my power,
" Ann Someeset." '
' state Papers, Elizabeth.

1561. ANGEY MANDATE OF THE QUEEN. 211

CHAPTER IV.
Lady Katharine Gray was now immured in the Tower,
whence her sister. Lady Jane, was only brought forth
to die on the scaffold. Lady Jane had, however, been
compeUed to assume the regal style; but no offence
coidd be aUeged against Lady Katharine except marry
ing -without the queen's knowledge or consent. Could
that be so deadly a crime ?
The queen had committed Mrs, Saintlow to the Tower
also, only for having been rendered the involuntary
though unsympathising confidante of poor Lady Katha
rine's distress.
Her Majesty addressed the foUowing mandate to Sir
Edward Warner, the Lieutenant of the Tower. The
minutes of this document exist in CecU's handwriting,
as if jotted down by the secretary from his royal mis-
-feress's Ups : ' — " Ye shaU by our commandment exa
mine the Lady Katharine, very straitly, how many hath
been privy to the love between her and the Earl of
Hertford, from the beginning ; and let her understand
that she shaU have no manner of favour except she wiU
show the truth — not only what ladies and gentlewomen
were thereto privy, but also what lords and gentle
women of this court ; for it doth now appear that sun
dry personages have dealt herein. When that shaU
appear more manifestly it shaU increase our indignation
against her, if she now forbears to utter it."
Thus was the terrified girl to be alternately soothed
' Haynes's State Papers, -wrongly dated, Aug. 1560, before the marriage,
instead of Aug. 17, 1661.
p2

212 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1561.
and threatened into the betrayal of her friends, if any
had aided her in her marriage with Hertford,
Lady Katharine was, however, indulged vrith the
society of her monkeys and dogs, of which she had a
numerous and mischievous retinue. Sir Edward Warner
had furnished her apartments with some of the cast
moveables of faded magnificence which had, in times
of yore, pertained to the royal suite, but now were
considered unfit,' These had been beautiful things in
their prime, although, as the Tower lieutenant ob
served, " much torn, worn, and defaced ; " they had per
haps been used in EUzabeth of York's bridal chamber,
or at Anne Boleyn's coronation festival ; they might
have been seen in after times in Lady Jane Gray's
prison-room, or even in that of Elizabeth, when she
herself had been confined in the Tower — an event of
recent date, though she was now in her turn a merci
less persecutor.
On Hertford's anival at Dover, " he was brought to
her majesty's house there [Dover Castle], and being at
breakfast, there came in, newly arrived, Mr, Thomas
SackviUe, and one Strange, whom he desired to sit
down vrith him. As they were at breakfast, Mr. Crispe,
the captain of the castle, came in and showed him the
queen's majesty's commission. The instrument com
manded the captain of Dover Castle to bring the earl in
custody to court, ordering that the prisoner's servants
were not to follow him," Hertford came, as he owns,
" in the custody of Captain Crispe, was suffered to
speak -with no one, and his servants were left at Dover.
Yet, happening to see one of them, Goddard, he asked
him, ' What news ! ' but Goddard dared not reply, for
' Lansdowne MS., edited by Sir Henry Ellis. — Historical Letters, vol. ii.
p. 274, 2nd series.

1661. HEETFOED IN CUSTODY. 213
the captain of Dover Castle interfered, and staid [pre
vented] further talk." '
Immediately on Hertford's anival in the Tower, he
was summoned to appear before the Marquis of Win
chester, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Grindal, Bishop
of London, Sir WiUiam Petre, and a formidable anay
of la-wyers and divines, for the purpose of answering
their intenogatories touching his offence, for their com
mission deputed them to examine, enquire, and judge
the infamous proceedings of Lady Katharine Gray and
the Earl of Hertford,
They plagued the earl vrith questions for several days,
browbeating and intimidating him in every way they
could devise. He behaved with manUness, he freely
avowed his marriage and professed his passionate love
for his wife, giving his inquisitors the same information
respecting his espousals that has been related in this
narrative. He aUowed that "there was no vritness to
their maniage but his dear sister. Lady Jane Seymour,
and she was in her grave ; he had forgotten the name
of the priest who manied them, or had never heard
it," but he described his personal appearance. " The
clergyman his sister Jane fetched," he said, " was a
man of a fair complexion vrith an auburn beard and of
a middling stature ; he had no surpUce, but was attired
in a long gown of black cloth faced vrith budge fur,
and his gown-collar was turned down after the sort that
the ministers used to wear, of the German sect, when
they first returned -to England after the death of Queen
Mary." Great search was made for this dirine, but he was
not forthcoming ; some declared that he was a Catholic
priest, but as he seemed to have been invisible to aU but
' Deposition of the Earl of Hertford.

214 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1561.
the bride, bridegroom, and bridesmaid, all the wor
shipful inquest seemed to conclude that he had never
existed.' The only efficient vritness the earl could summon to
conoborate his claim to his -wife and the legitimacy of
his expected babe was his wedding-ring. On this ring
he had bestowed some expense and trouble; he had
caused it to be made with various gold links, aU shutting
together, and had had them engraved -with poetry of
his own composing. The clerks and scribes of the court
took down the lines very gravely, in evidence, at the
young author's reciting. The deposition of the weeping
Katharine agreed precisely in aU points with that of
her lord.
" The ceremony," she said, " was performed in the
earl's own bedchamber at his house in Canon Row,"
She described how the only four persons present had
stood therein — herself, her husband, the priest, and the
bridesmaid Lady Jane Seymour, She described the
dress and appearance of the officiating minister, just as
the earl had done, but, like him, she was ignorant of
his name. Lady Katharine then exhibited her wedding-
ring : it was of gold without jewels, and appeared at
first sight only a plain maniage-ring. She pressed the
spring, and it separated into five rings linked together,
which had these lines engraved on the four inner rims,
the poetry that her husband had just repeated : —
" As circles five, by art compressed, show but one ring to
sight,
So trust uniteth faithful minds, with knot of secret might.

> It is a curious fact that forty-six years afterwards, when a more mer
ciful sovereign was on the throne, the priest came forward and proved the
marriage. A fact more complimentary to the justice of James I. than hie
enemies wish to allow.

1561. KATHAEINE AND HEETFOED'S DEPOSITIONS. 215
Whose force to break (but greedy Death) no wight pos-
sesseth power.
As time and sequels well shall prove. My ring can say no
more."
Who would suppose all this to be otherwise than the
wUdest romance ? It is, however, more matter of fact
than the duUest protocol ever transcribed into modem
history, it is a copy of judicial eridence ; and we in
vite our readers to test its truth, which Sir Henry EUis
has printed clearly enough in his " Historical Series of
Letters." Lady Katharine constantly affitrmed " that to her
knowledge there was no creature Uving privy to the
marriage, but only Lady Jane and the minister, which
last she had never seen before nor has seen since, nor
should she know him again if she saw him ; and from
that time to the death of the Lady Jane Seymour, his
sister, considering herself as the earl's wife, in her own
heart, she was often in his company at simdry times by
means of Lady Jane Seymour and a woman, her o-wn
maid, Leigh, who is now gone from her. This woman
never was bade to do it, but she would,, of herself, if
she saw my lord and her whisper together, go out of
the way. Before the death of the Lady Jane Seymour,
she suspected she was in the famUy way, and she told
her sister-in-law so, who said 'there was no remedy
but to teU how the matter stood,' and the earl said the
same, that they must proclaim their marriage, and trust
to the queen's mercy,"
Katharine aUowed that she revealed her situation to
the earl at his departing hence over seas, by saying she
mistrusted it, ffis answer to her was that, if she vrrote
to him the certainty of the same, he woiUd not tarry
long from her. Four days before his departure for

216 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1661.
France, Hertford declared he wrote an obligation or
assurance, and deUvered it to Lady Katharine, binding
his property to a jointure annuity of 1,000Z, per annum
after his death. This important paper the woful Lady
Katharine either did not understand, or had lost it
-without knowing what it was, for it is among the
very few circumstances in which their eridence, taken
apart, did not exactly correspond.
The court was at Greenwich at that time, and there
the unhappy Katharine parted from her lord. She -wrote
a letter to him, which was consigned to the care of one
Glynne at the Charterhouse, who was the servant of
the deceased Lady Jane Seymour, He took it about the
beginning ofthe queen's progress ; it was to be delivered
to the earl in France. To her husband in this letter
she revealed her situation, and aU her troubles ; but she
added, " though she sent him other similar letters, not
one in reply did she ever receive from him whUe he was
beyond seas ; neither any token, excepting one pair of
bracelets, which were deUvered to her at Havering by
the Lord Henry Seymour, But at the same time," said
Katharine, "the Earl of Hertford sent divers other
tokens to divers other ladies and gentlewomen of the
court," These were presents from France, and much
pain the fact seems to have given the poor young wife
in her concealed misery. Since the imfortunate lady
gave her letters to Glynne, she never saw that man
again. Lord Henry Seymour affirmed "that he carried tokens
between his brother and the Lady Katharine, before
the earl went beyond seas to France, He thought they
were rings ; it was but twice or thrice that he brought
them, and was charged with no special message or
commendations. But after the earl was in France, he

1561. QUESTIONED ABOUT THEIE LETTEES. 217
received letters wherein he prayed him to make his
commendations to the Lady Katharine, but he received
no letters that were directed to the said lady. Some
of the earl's letters came by the common post, and some
by Frannces the Post. He did not remember any tokens
sent by his brother from France to the Lady Katharine,
neither was he privy to any solemnisation of maniage
between the earl his brother and the Lady Katha
rine," Lady Katharine, at a succeeding intenogatory, o-wned
she " did remember receiving a deed from the earl, but
she threw it into a coffer, and, with removing from place
to place, it is lost, and she doth not know where it
is become ; and this she saith, that now, upon further
adrice, she doth recall to her remembrance, and that
she asked her woman, Mrs, Cousins, for it, and all she
could discover was, it was lost with some papers of the
accounts of her o-wn property." The earl owned " that
he received the letter his hapless lady had sent him by
Glynne, but only one month before his forcible recaU by
the queen's messenger. The letter," he said, " spoke
positively of her state, and implored him to return, and
to reveal aU the matter of their wedlock." It was ad
dressed, " To my loving husband." Glynne stayed about
four or five days at his house in Paris, telling the earl
he had come thither in pursuit of a kinsman who had
run away to France -with his master's goods and money.
About three days before his return to England, Glynne
again made his appearance at the earl's hotel at Paris,
When the earl asked him "how he came to tarry so
long in France, he answered him that the business he
afore spoke of detained him," But Glynne was evidentiy
a spy of the court on the unfortunate pair.
Hertford vowed " he had written letters to the Lady

218 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1561.
Katharine from France, one especiaUy from Roanne
[Rouen], which he sent in the common letter-bag which
went by packet. Another he -wrote to her from Paris
by Jehan Renate, a Parisian merchant, and the direc
tion and endorsement of the said letters was, ' To my
vrife,' and the letters he received from her were en
dorsed, ' To my loring husband,' Jehan Renate was
recommended by Madame Destampes, and he lived on
the bridge at Paris ; he gave particular instructions to
the said merchant Jehan 'to deliver his letters into
the very hands of Lady Katharine,' "

CHAPTER V.

While the hapless Lady Katharine was subjected to
the cross -questioning of Queen Elizabeth's commis
sioners, she was taken iU, and after some days, languish
ing in alternate faintness and agony, brought into the
world, September 21, a helpless Uttle prisoner, a boy',
the representative of several Ulustrious relatives who
had suffered by violent deaths in the gloomy fortress
wherein he was bom. Lady Katharine's babe was bap
tised, after being owned by Lord Hertford as his own
true son and heir^, in the church within the Tower, by
the family name of Edward. Within a few steps of the
spot where the baptismal sacrament was proceeding,
aU readers of history know, rested- the remains of the
infant's paternal grandfather, Edward Seymour Duke
of Somerset, beheaded in the reign of Edward VI. ; of
his maternal grandfather, Henry Duke of Suffolk, of
whom he was likewise the lineal representative, be
headed in the reign of Queen Mary ; of his Ulustrious
' Machyn's Diary, p. 266. " Ibid., pp. 267, 268.

1661. BEHEADED LINEAGE OF HEE BABE. 219
aunt. Lady Jane Gray, beheaded in the same reign, of
whom he was the representative ; of the brother of the
Duke of Somerset, Lord Thomas Seymour ; of Sudley,
his great-uncle, beheaded in the reign of Edward VI. ;
and of another great-uncle. Lord Thomas Gray, be
headed in the Wyatt insunection. It is by no means
an uncommon case for an heir to be baptised, sur
rounded by the tombs of a long line of illustrious an
cestors ; but surely the fate of the infant Seymour was
unique. Not one of these iUustrious dead had died
in their beds ; aU had perished hy the axe. He had also
claims to a more wofiil inheritance, he was the heir of
England, according to the parliamentary settlement
of the wiU of Henry VIII. The unfortunate mother's
health gave way from the time she brought this inhe
ritor of sonow into the world. She remained for some
months in a very precarious state, stUl her cousin the
queen's prisoner.
The poor prisoners declared, "that neither messages
nor letters passed between them since their close im
prisonment in the Tower, otherwise than the earl hath
sent to know how the Lady Katharine did ; also, he would
send her a posie, or such like thing," Then Katharine's
inquisitors demanded, " Who were the messengers that
went and came with these greetings and posies?" She
replied, " The Tower keepers did inquire of those about
her how she did, and the earl only sent through others ;
she did not see the messenger. And she does not know
what the common voice of fame is, because she hath
long been, and is presently [at present], a close prisoner
in the Tower of London,"
The queen next sent her commission to the Lieu
tenant of the Tower, Sir Edward Warner, regarding the
examination of the marriage of her prisoners, couched in

220 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1662.
language which impUed actual prejudgment ; for what
commissioners would dare to acquit persons whose con
duct was thus described by a despotic sovereign ? —
" The Archbishop of Canterbury, -with others, have
commission to examine, inquire, and judge ofthe infamose
conversation and pretended marriage betwixt the Lady
Katharine Gray and the Earl of Hertford. Our pleasure
is that, when the commissioners shall send to have either
of the parties to appear before them in that cause, ye
shaU yourselves lead either of them by water, as pri
soners in your custody, to Lambeth ; and, when they
have answered in place of judgment, to suffer neither
of them to have conference -with any person, but, whUe
any of them [either of them] shall remain there out of
the place of judgment, to remain under your custody as
your prisoners, and to return them in like manner to
their places. For our wUl is to have judgment,'"
The order was sent in May, 1562, under the royal
signet, commanding Sir Edward Warner, Lieutenant of
the Tower, to convey his two prisoners to Lambeth
whensoever the archbishop should need their presence ;
but the enquiry took place in the Tower, The trial
lingered out for more than a year, when, to the indig
nation of such of the English people who were able
to obtain sight of the proceedings, sentence was. pro
nounced in the Bishop of London's palace, near St,
Paul's Cathedral, May 12, 1562, "that there had been
no maniage between the Earl of Hertford and Lady
Katharine Gray,"
The sentence, that thus blighted the reputation of one
of the queen's nearest female relatives, was considered
' Haynes's Burleigh Papers. " Given under oui signet at our palace of
Westminster, February 10th, fourth year of our. reign, 1561-62."

1662-63. A SECOND SON BOEN IN THE TOWEE. 221
the more cruel, because the law of marriage, at that
time prevalent, considered that if two persons in their
adolescence owned each other as man and wife, it was
not possible afterwards for either to marry any other ;
Ukewise, that maniage might be celebrated at any
place or hour by any Christian clergyman — an order of
affairs which continued far into the last century, Eliza
beth's commissioners were, however, armed with the
terrors of Henry VIIL's maniage laws passed against
the marriage of his niece, Margaret Douglas, with Lord
Thomas Howard, who died in the Tower, 1536,
The poor captives, Katharine and Hertford, remained
in the Tower ; but Sir Edward Warner, convinced of the
validity of their wedlock, winked at the visits they paid
each other, and, with a little skUful bribery dispensed
to the lower officers, they Uved together entirely. The
Lady Katharine, Febmary 10, 1562-63, presented her
lord with another boy, who was baptised in the Tower-
Green church by the name of Thomas, after his two
beheaded uncles, Lord Thomas Seymour and Lord
Thomas Gray, two warders officiating as godfathers to
the innocent prisoner.'
One of the contemptible instruments of the Star
Chamber, Sir John Mason, reported the feeling ex
pressed by the people, but not for the sake of inducing
leniency. " There be abroad," says he, " both in the
city* and in sundry other places in the realm, broad
speeches of the case of the Lady Katharine and the
Earl of Hertford. Some of ignorance make such talks
thereof as liketh them, not letting to say [not scrupling
to say] that they be man and vrife. And why should
man and wife be lett [hindered] from coming together?
' Machyn's Diary, p. 300.
2 Letter of Mason to Cecil, January 28, 1662.

222 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1562-63.
These speeches and others are very common. And,
to teU my foolish judgment thereof, methinketh it
vriU be no iU way to call him [Hertford] to the Star
Chamber, and there, after a good declaration of the
queen's proceedings for the trial of the truth of the
supposed marriage, and what was found adjudged, then
to charge him with his presumptuous, contemptuous,
and outrageous demeanour and behaviour in using the
said Lady Katharine, as he hath done both before the
sentence and since. And in the end to set upon his
head a fine of XM. [10,000] marks : if they be made
pounds it is little enough. There is not a more oul-
treayd youth. I speak French for lack of apt EngUsh
[Mason's French is very uncouth; perhaps he means
an OM^re youth], neither one that better liketh himself,
neither that promiseth himself greater things. He
should be made to learn himself [know himself]. His
imprisonment fatteneth him, and he hath rather there
by commodity [convenience] than hindrance. If a good
part of his Uring might answer some part of his offence,
and the imprisonment, therevrithal, continue, it would
make him to know what it is to have so arrogantly and
contemptuously offended his prince [Queen Elizabeth],
and would make him, hereafter, to know his duty to the
State and to Almighty God, I beseech you pardon my
rude scribbling and my boldness shewed in the same,
and to weigh my good meaning in the matter, and
nothing else. And thus Almighty God have you in His
most blessed keeping, and assist you alway with His
present grace,"
The hateful adrice was foUowed by EUzabeth and
Cecil to the very letter. And, infamous as their in
justice was to the imoffending prisoners, it scarcely
raises the disgust excited by the vile instrument who

1562-63. LIEUTENANT OF THE TOWEE'S ADMISSION. 22.3
suggested the aggravation of the wickedness, already
perpetrated, by the ruinous fine laid on the Earl of
Hertford ; and stUl more nauseating is the hypocritical
taking of God's name in vain, the canting invocations
for His grace to do deeds of darkness which He abhors.
Just the same formula of affected godliness was re
hearsed, whether Puritans, as in this case, were to be
injured and plundered, or Papists to be quartered and
confiscated. The God of aU mercy, truth, and honesty
was shamelessly invoked for the perpetration of the
worst of iniquities.
Deep and earnest were the discussions in the House
of Commons on the sufferings of Lady Katharine Gray,
her husband, and children ; many persons mentioning
her as a real wife, and her chUdren as legitimate. The
proceedings of that house were not then laid before the
world, but the report alarmed the conclave who were
persecuting them, A nearer kinswoman of the throne,
the Lady Margaret, Countess of Lennox, was at the same
time mewed up in the Tower' on most absurd accusa
tions ; but as this lady headed the Roman Catholic
party in England, the queen thought fit to set her at
Uberty, in order to frighten the Puritans into submission.
Sir Edward Warner, Lieutenant of the Tower, being
examined touching the birth of Ladj' Katharine's se
cond son, owned " that he had admitted the Earl and
Countess of Hertford to risit one another once on being
over persuaded, and afterwards thought it was of no
use keeping them apart." '
The Earl of Hertford was summoned before the Star
Chamber conclave, to answer for his offence in visiting
' See her life in Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses
connected with the Segal Succession, by Agnes Strickland, vol. ii.
« J. T. Smith's Antiquities of London (the Tower).

224 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1562-63.
the Lady Katharine, and its result in the birth of their
second son. He was assaUed -with the coarsest vitu
perations for the crime of which he was accused. His
spirit rose, and he replied in a more manly tone than
he had previously ventured to use : —
" Being lawfuUy married to the Lady Katharine, who
hath bome me a fair son during the time of our impri
sonment in the Tower, and finding her prison door
unbaned, I came in to comfort her in her sadness, and
to pay my conjugal duty, of which I cannot repent."
He was sentenced to pay a fine of 15,000 marks, for
his triple crime, as the junta styled his offence ; 5,000
marks for seducing a virgin of the blood royal, 5,000
for breaking his prison to visit her in hers, and 5,000
more for the birth of the second boy, whom they af
fected to consider an Ulegitimate chUd, pretending that
the hapless parents had not proved their wedlock, and
therefore, they treated them -with the contumely due to
vicious persons. An extent was issued over the hapless
husband's lands for the payment of the three fines.
As for the Lieutenant of the Tower, the gentle Nor
folk knight Sir Edward Warner, he was grievously
suspected by her Majesty of some connivance which
occasioned her little kinsman Thomas to make his un
welcome appearance in this wicked world. Therefore,
the queen actuaUy committed her own Lieutenant pri
soner to his own Tower ! His friend CecU soon nego
tiated his release, but it appears he was dismissed his
office.

1563. MISCHIEF DONE BY HEE DOGS AND MONKEYS. 225

CHAPTER VI.
The plague broke out with tenible strength in Lon
don the following summer, and, as it was remarkably
fatal in the precincts of the Tower, the petitions of
Lady Katharine Gray were heeded when the deaths
amounted to 1,000 every week' within the smaU compass
of the circling waU of London — little London, we may
caU it, compared to our present huge metropoUs with its
long polypus arms. Queen Elizabeth, after the birth of
her poor prisoner's second boy, was desirous of remov
ing her from the easy keeping of Sir Edward Warner,
Lieutenant of the Tower. That gentleman, being now
released from his troublesome and responsible office,
had retired into his native county, and was taking aU
matters very easUy in the country at Plumstead, from
whence he wrote to CecU, who seems his intimate friend,
some amusing particulars of the furniture which had
been given out from the old stores in the royal lodgings
for poor Lady Katharine Gray's use : —
" Sir, — My Lady Katharine is, as ye know, delivered
[released from the Tower prison] , and the stuff that she
had — I woiUd it were seen. It was deUvered to her by
the queen's commandment, and she hath worn, now
-two years fuU, most of it so tom and tattered with her
monies and dogs as wiU serve to smaU purpose,"
Lady Katharine's " monks," or monkeys, had like
wise amused themselves and their melancholy mistress
by tattering poor Sir Edward's household stuff, as weU
as her great-uncle King Harry's old gout footstools and
• Cecil's letter, Wright's Mizabeth, vol. i. p. 138.
1

226 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY, 1663,
velvet cushions ; and the lieutenant thought that the
ragged remnants ought to be bestowed on him by way
of compensation, " Besides," continues he, " my Lady
Katharine had one other chamber furnished with stuff
of mine, the which is all maned also. Now, sir, I would
be loth to have any more business [dispute] with my
Lord Chamberlain, if it please you to move a word to
him that I may quietly enjoy it," Meaning the fur
niture tattered by Lady Katharine's monkeys, and not
his own, damaged by them,
" It was delivered by the queen's pleasure," continues
he, " and I trust he wiU be so content. If I have it
not, some of it is fitter to be given away than to be
stored into the wardrobe again, and that I justify with
my hand. If he [the Lord Chamberlain] Uke not that
I have the bed of down, I shall be content to forbear it,
I send you here enclosed the biU of parcels, with some
notes in the margent truly written,"
These are amusing enough, and weU the reader's
imagination can furnish out the grim " prison rooms "
cf the BeU Tower, garnished with the royal tatters,
well described in Warner's commentaries on the Lord
Chamberlain's list, as follows : —
"Stuff delivered in August 1561, by the queen's com
mandments and the Lord Chamberlain's warrants, by
WiUiam Bentley, out of the wardrobe in the Tower,
to Sir Edward Warner, Knight, then levetenant of the
said Tower, for the necessary furniture of Lady Katha
rine Gray's chamber. First : six pieces of tapestry to
hang her chamber. [' Very old and coarse,' adds the
lieutenant,] Item [says my Lord Chamberlain], A
spavier [perhaps a tester] for a bed of changeable
damask, ['All to-hrohen and not worth tenpence,' ob
serves master lieutenant.] One silk quilt of red striped

1663. CONTEMPTUOUS INVENTOEY. 227
with gold. [' Starh naught!' runs the depreciating
commentary,] Item, Two carpets of Turkey matting
[proceeds the Lord Chamberlain], ['The wool is all
worn,' interpolates the lieutenant,] Item, One chair
of cloth of gold, cased with crimson velvet, with two
pommels of copper gilt, and the queen's arms in the
back," This was, without doubt, the very chair which
served Queen Jane in her nine days' reign in the gaunt
fortress. Sad thoughts must it have brought to her
poor sister. However dignified it may look in my Lord
Chamberlain's list, the lieutenant's detracting com
mentary is, "Nothing worth."
" Item," continues my Lord Chamberlain. " One
cushion of purple velvet. [' An owld cast thing I ' ob
serves master lieutenant.] Item [says the Lord Cham
berlain], Two footstools covered -with green velvet.
[' Owld stools for King Hewry's feet ' is the lieutenant's
commentary,] One bed, one bolster, and a counter-
payne, for her women," runs the list, "A mean hed," adds
the Tower Ueutenant, He concludes his letter of sup
pUcation to Cecil for the possession of these valuables
by providing that his neighbour. Sir WiUiam Wode-
house (who perhaps had some office at the Tower) woiUd
send them dovra to him. " But if the Lord Chamberlain
like not that I have the bed of down, I shaU be content
to forbear it. Whatsoever it is, I shaU take it in good
part. And I pray you bear with me that I trouble vrith
such a trifle ; and thus I vrish you prosperous feUcity,
vrith increase of godliness.
From my poor house at Plumsted, near Norwich.
" Edwaed Waenee."
Lady Katharine's second son was only six months
old when the plague became so tenific in London, and
e2

228 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1663.
especiaUy in the enrirons of the Tower, that the queen
was advised to remove her captive kinswoman and the
Earl of Hertford. In compliance with this counsel,
Hertford and the eldest boy, Edward, were ordered into
the Duchess of Somerset's keeping at Hanworth, and
Lady Katharine was committed to the care of her uncle.
Lord John Gray, at Pergo in Essex, a seat formerly
used by queen-dowagers of England, but which had
been granted to him by Elizabeth.
Strange to say, the second husband of the Duchess of
Somerset, Sergeant Newdigate, was entrusted -with the
office of conducting Lady Katharine to Pergo. He
brought her there with her baby boy, her attendants,
and her slender stock of clothes and conveniences, and
behaved himself very disobUgingly to poor Lord John.
Lady Katharine was in very delicate health and de
jected spirits when she anived at Pergo, with her babe
and attendants.
Lord John Gray wrote to CecU very thankfuUy for
this indulgence to her, propitiating the prime minister
with elaborate cousinship; though when the relation
ship between the high-bom Grays and the son of the late
yeoman of the wardrobe, Richard " Sysell," could have
commenced, no doubt puzzled the heralds of the six
teenth century as much as it has done our present gene
alogists. However, aU matters of the kind were ananged
in that century for a consideration ; and Lord John thus
appeals to the known weak side of the man of power,
commencing his epistle —
" Good cowsigne Cecil, — What cause have we all
to think om'selves bounden and beholden unto you,
the lively fact of your great friendship in the deli
very of my niece to my custody being sufficient pledge
and token for our bondage unto you during our lives;

1563. LOED JOHN GEAYS LETTEE TO CECIL. 229
and although I can justl.v lament the cause of her
imprisonment, yet I cannot lament thus far for her
being there, because I see it hath been the only means
whereby she hath seen herself, known God, and her duty
to the queen ; which when it shaU please the queen's
majesty to make trial of, I doubt not but my saying
and her doings shaU accord. Meantime I shall, accord
ing to my Lord Robert's [afterwards Earl of Leicester]
letter, and yours directed imto me, see all things ob
served accordingly.
" Assure yourself, cowsigne [cousin] Cecil, she is a
penitent and sorrowful woman for the queen's dis
pleasure, and most humbly and heartUy desires you to
finish what your friendship began, obtaining the queen's
favour for the fuU remission of her fault.
" Thus with my wife's hearty commendation and mine,
to you and my good lady (our cousin), your vrife, I bid
you most heartUy fareweU. From Pergo, the 29th of
August, 1563.
" By your loving cousin, and assured poor friend
during life,
"John Geay.
" To my very loving cousin,
" Sir William Cecil, Knight,
" Chief Secretary to the queen's majesty."

230 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1663.

CHAPTER VIL
Lady Kathaeine thought it proper to vn-ite a humble
supplication to CecU, confirming her uncle's report of
her penitence, in which she did not forget to reiterate
the claim of cousinship as a propitiation to the parvenu
minister : —
" Good cousin CecU, — After my very hearty com
mendations to my good cousin, your -wife, and yon, with
like thanks for your great friendship in this my lord's
[Hertford's] deUvery and mine [from the Tower], with
the obtaining of the queen's majesty's most gracious
favour, thus far extended towards us, I cannot but
acknowledge myself bounden and beholden unto you
therefore. And I am sure you doubt not of mine
o-wn dear lord's [Hertford's] good-wUl, for the requital
thereof, to the uttermost of his power. So I beseech
you, my good cousin Cecil, make the like account of
me, during Ufe, to the uttermost of my power; be
seeching your further friendship for the obtaining the
queen's majesty's most gracious pardon and favour to
wards me, which, with upstretched hands and down-
bent knees, from the bottom of my heart, most humbly
I crave, "Thus, resting in prayer for the queen's majesty's
long reign over us, the forgiveness of mine offence,
and short [ly] enjoying [the company] of mine own
dear lord and husband, vrith assured hope, through
God's grace and your good help, and [that] of my
Lord Robert [Leicester] for the enjoying of the queen's
highness' favour in that behalf, I bid you, mine own
good cousin, most heartily fareweU.

1563. SUPPLICATOEY LETTEES TO CECIL. 231
" From Pergo, the thred of September,
" Your assured cousin and friend to my small power,
"Katheeyne Hertfoed,'
*' To my very loving cousin,
" Sir William Cecil, Knight,
" Chief Secretary to the queen's majesty."
Six times did the unfortunate heiress of the royal
claims of the House of Suffolk reiterate the magic
word " cousin " to the prime minister, in hopes of se
curing his interest in behalf of her suppUcation to the
queen, CecU, whose party was fuUy identified with
the Suffolk faction, was wUling enough to grant her
suit ; but the heart of the queen was not to be moUi-
fied by aught that the hapless Katharine could do or
say, for soon after her affectionate uncle drew the fol
io-wing lively picture of her despair and distress : —
" Lord John Gray to Su- W, CecU,' Sept, [1563],
" My good cowsigne CecUl, — Only the desire and care
that my Lady Katharine hath of the queen's majesty's
favour enforceth these few lines (as nature bindeth me
to do), to put you in remembrance of your offered friend
ship and great good-wUl, already shewed, to the fuU
perfecting of the queen's majesty's favour to my niece,
I assure you, cousin Cecil, as I have written to my
Lord Robert Dudley, the thought and care she taketh
for the want of her majesty's favour pines her away.
Before God I speak it, if it come not soon she wUl
not live long thus, for she eateth not above six mor
sels in the meal, I say to her, ' Good madam, eat
somewhat to comfort yourseK,' She faUs a-weeping,
' Lansdowne MS., No. 6, art. 33, edited by Sir H. Ellis in the original
orthography. Original Letters, vol. ii. p. 279, 3nd series,
*Ibid.

232 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1663.
and goeth up to her chamber. If I ask her ' what the
cause is she useth herself in that sort,' she answers me,
' Alas ! uncle, what a life is this to me, thus to Uve in
the queen's displeasure ; but for my lord and my chU
dren, I would I were buried.'
" Good cowsigne CecU, as time, place, and occasion
may serve, ease her of this woeful grief and sonow,
and rid me of this Ufe, which I assure you grieveth me
even at the heart-roots. Thus, beseeching God, in this
His visitation, to preserve us with His stretched-out
arm, and send us merrily to meet, I salute you and my
Lady CecU, vrith my wife's most hearty commendations
and mine.
" From Pergo, the xx of September.'
" By your loving cousin and assured poor friend dur
ing my life,
"John Geay.
" To my very loving cousin,
" Sir William Cecil, &c."
The cruelty to Lady Katharine Gray must have
whoUy emanated from the queen, although she was a
young woman under thirty at the time. CecU was
entirely of the Gray and Dudley faction, and remained
so aU his life ; they were the leaders of the Puritan
Church in England, therefore it is very improbable that
CecU urged any severity .Ukely to torment to death the
lady whose aUeged title to the throne was to keep out
the lineal CathoUc heiress. Indeed, if Katharine and
her husband were so crueUy persecuted, patronised as
they were by the influential minister and the aU-power-
ful favourite. Lord Robert Dudley, the question natu
rally occurs. What would have been their fate if the
prime minister and the favourite had not been of their
faction ? Jealousy of her title was the leading prin-

1663. HEE PETITION TO THE QUEEN. 233
ciple of all Elizabeth's actions, and she could as little
forgive the fact that Lady Katharine Gray's sister had
once been proclaimed queen by the Protestant party,
in preference to herself, as that Henry II. of France
had declared his daughter-in-law, Mary Queen of Scots,
queen of England.
With these feelings it can excite Uttle surprise that
she received with an inimical mind and hard heart the
following piteous supplication, in which the bereaved
-wife sued for some pity : —
" Lady Katharine's petition to the queen, enclosed in
her uncle's letter to CecU.'
" I dare not presume, most gracious sovereign, to
crave pardon for my disobedient and rash matching of
myself, vrithout your highness's consent ; I only most
humbly sue unto your highness to continue your merci
ful nature towards me.'' I [ac]knowledge myself a most
unworthy creature to feel so much of your gracious
favour as I have done.
"My just[ly] felt misery and continual grief doth
teach me daUy more and more the greatness of my
fault, and your princely pity encreaseth my sonow that
have so forgotten my duty towards your majesty. This
is my great torment of mind. May it therefore please
your exceUent majesty to license me to be a most lowly
suitor unto your highness, to extend towards my mise
rable state your majesty's further favour and accustomed
mercy, which upon my knees, in aU humble wise, I
crave with my daUy prayers to God, to long continue
and preserve your majesty's reign over us,
' Lansdowne MS., No. 6, art. 37.
' She says continue, because her captivity had then been favourably
changed irom the Tower to her kind uncle's house of Pergo at Havering-
Bower.

234 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1563.
" From Pergo, the vi of November, 1563,
" Your majesty's most humble, bounden, and obedient
servant," Her uncle. Lord John Gray, wrote the same day ear
nestly to Cecil, enclosing Lady Katharine's letter to
the queen, requesting him to read it, and in case there
was anything which required alteration, to return it to
him. He says : —
" My good Cousin, — I have herein enclosed the copy
of my niece's letter to the queen's majesty, wherein I am
to crave your friendly advice and counsel (before it be
delivered to Lord Robert Dudley) how you like it?
For if you will have anything amended there, I pray
you note it, and my man shall bring it back to me
again. For I should be loth there were any fault found
with any word therein written,
" Good cousin Cecil, as you may continue your friend
ship to the furtherance of the queen's majesty's most
gracious favour and mercy towards her, I assure you
she hath imputed no smaU part of her weU-speeding to
your assured friendship, which I am sure neither she
nor I need to request the continuance thereof.
" Thus beseeching you to make my hearty commenda
tions to my good lady my cousin, your -wife, I take my
leave of you for this time,
" From Pergo, the rii of November, 1 563,
"By your loving cousin and assured friend to my
smaule power,
" John Geay,
" To my very loving cousin,
" Sir W. Cecil, &c. &c."

1563- HEE DEEP MELANCHOLY. 235

CHAPTER VIII.
Neae the close of the year 1563, Lord John Gray
-writes to Sir W, CecU, once more endeavouring to move
his cold heart to compassionate the anguish which was
destroying the existence of poor Lady Katharine, He
says : —
" The augmenting of my niece's grief, in the want of
the queen's majesty's favour, enforceth me, besides my
duty in nature [natural affection] every way to declare
and recommend unto you her miserable and woeful
state. This three or four days she hath, for the most
part, kept her bed, but surely, altogether kept her
chamber ; in such wise as I thought once I should have
been driven to have sent for some of the queen's phy
sicians. And I never came near her but I found her
weeping, or else saw by her face that she had wept,
"Wherefore, good cowsigne Cecil — for the mutual love
wliich ought to be betwixt Christian men, and for the
love wherewith God hath loved us, being His — procure,
by some way or means, the queen's majesty's further
favour towards her ; for assuredly, she never went to
bed aU this time of her sickness, but they that watched
with her much doubted how to find her in the morning.
She is so fraughted -with phlegm, by reason of thought,
weeping, and sitting still, that many hours she is like
to be overcome therewith ; so if she had not painful
[careful] women about her, I teU you truly, cowsigne
CecU, I could not sleep in quiet. Thus with my com
mendations to you, and to my good Lady CecU, my
cowsigne, I vrish you the same quiet of mind as to
myself.

236 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1663.
" From my house at Pergo, the xii of December, 1563,
"By your loving cousin and assured friend to his
power, "John Geay.'
" To my very lo-ving cowsigne,
" Sir W. Cecil, &c. &c."
It was to no purpose that kind Lord John Gray
exerted his natural language of tender compassion to
soften the hard hearts of EUzabeth and her minister,
or the afflicted prisoner tried the effect of the most
humiUating submission in regard to her cruel and most
unjust oppressor, both in her letters to her and CecU,
to whom she wrote the same day as her uncle, in the
most abject strain, as foUows : —
" Lady Katharine, Countess of Hertford, to Sir W.
CecU," " What the long want of the queen's majesty's accus
tomed favour towards me hath bred in this miserable
and -wretched body of mine, God only knoweth, as I
daUy more and more, to the torment and wasting there
of, do otherwise feel than weU able to express ; which
if it should at any long time thus continue, I rather
wish of God shortly to be buried in the faith and fear
of Him, than thus in continual agony to Uve, As I
have vn-itten to my Lord Robert, so, good cousin CecU,
do I unto you,
" I must confess I never felt what the want of my
prince's favour was before now, which, by your good
means, and the rest of my very good lords' once ob
tained, I shaU not require any of you, if it faU through
my default, to be means for the restoration thereof,
so mindful, God vriUing, shaU I be not to offend her
highness [Queen EUzabeth]. Thus desiring the con-
• Lansdowne MS., No. 6, art. 37. ' Ibid.

1663. NEWDIGATE'S INSOLENCE. 237
tinuance of your friendship, I most heartily bid you
fareweU, good cousin CecU, praying you to make my
hearty commendations to my good cousin, your wife.
" From Pergo, the xiii of December,
" Your poor cousin and assured friend to my smaU
" ' "Katheeyne Hebtfoed,"
Queen EUzabeth virtually acknowledged that Hert
ford and Katharine were husband and vrife, by com
pelling him to pay her expenses whUe at her uncle's
house, and Lord John Gray makes bitter complaints of
the insolent maimer in which Hertford's step-father,
Newdigate, the husband of the proud Duchess of Somer
set, his mother, interfered in aU the anangements about
Lady Katharine,
" WeU, cousin Cecil," observes Lord John, " it is not
the first time that Newdigate hath both abused and mis
used me, with his slanderous reports to divers others be
sides you. He hath, with no smaU bragging words, told
my Lady Clinton, ' that if he were my Lord of Hertford,
he would not bear it at my hands, that his wife should
send my letters either to the queen or councU vrithout
his knowledge, and that he would make me repent it.'
"What other unseemly words he spake, my Lady
CUnton can tell ; whether this be good eounseU given
to my Lord [Hertford], considering the great charge,
by your letters, I received with my lady, and fit for
me to bear at your hands, I make you judge. I would
my lord [Hertford] had good counseU about him, for I
hear of his own nature he is weU disposed. But it is
neither Newdigate nor my lady [the Duchess of Somer
set], imder whose government my lord now resteth,
that shaU make me disobey the queen's majesty's com
mandment in the charge committed to me, nor yet fail

238 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1563-64.
those rules (my duty reserved) which in nature I owe
my niece; albeit that Newdigate hath persuaded my
lord that aU I have done hath been altogether his
hindrance. But because you shaU truly know what
charge my lord is, and hath been at with my lady, since
her coming hither, I have herein enclosed true inven
tory, besides my lady's whole furniture of her and
hers, with hangings, bedding, sheets, drapery, and
plate, for neither she nor her little boy hath one piece
of plate to drink, eat, or keep anything but of me ;
which though it cannot be much, yet is as much as I
have. And of the cat there is no more to be had but the
skin, which hitherto I have thought weU bestowed." '
Lord John then tells CecU " that he had leamed, from
Hanworth, that he had been very plain with Newdi
gate, after which Lady Katharine had received twenty
pounds, and been promised to have beds and sheets
sent her, howbeit they had not yet come ; that she had
nothing to send any friend at New year's tide, which
had induced Lady Clinton to give Lady Gray a pair of
silk hose, to present to Lady Kno\yles in Lady Katha
rine's name, as if from her." Lady Katharine had then
been -with him six months, and was so poorly furnished
when she came, that he thinks Newdigate might as
weU have told CecU of her bare providing, when she
came. " For," continues Lord John, " the inventory of
all she had when he left her here I coiUd send to you,
but I am ashamed, for that it was so bare." "
This letter is dated from Pergo, the 20th of January,
1563-64, and in his postscript he " begs that Lady
Katharine may be allowed some wine, either from the
queen's store or by bUl of impost."
' Lansdowne MS., No. 7, fol. 110. " Ibid., fol. 119.

1663-64. CLOTHES FOE HEESELF AND BABY. 239
He encloses an inventory of Lady Katharine's apparel,
of which the clothes for her baby boy is perhaps the
most interesting : — " Two coats for Mr. Thomas, whereof
the one is russet damask, the other of crimson velvet."
He was then eleven months old. " Of white cloth to
make him petticoats, two yards. Of red cloth to make
him like petticoats, two yards. Velvet caps for him, two,
A russet taffeta hat for him, laid on with silver cord."
There were "two pairs of fine sheets for my Lady
Katharine, of two breadths; black velvet to make a
gown for my Lady Katharine, bound with sables, ten
yards; russet velvet to make a gown and a kirtle; black
and russet lace to the gown and kirtle,
" Damask to make a night-gown for my lady; crimson
satin to make a petticoat ; a petticoat of crimson velvet ;
a velvet hood for my lady ; two pairs of black silk hose ;
black cloth to make a cloak, two yards ; of cambrics to
make ruffs, plattes, coverchiefs, and handkerchiefs, six
ells ; and Unen to make smocks, ten ells.
" SUver dishes and saucers for her use, and the charge
of weekly rate for her board was 46s, 8d. ; for her
chUd, I3s. 4d. ; for his nurse, 16s. 8d. ; her three ladies,
each 6s. 8d. ; for her two m,en-servants, 5s. each ; the
same for her laundress and the widow that washeth the
chUd's clothes." '
The use the compassionate CecU and Lord Robert
Dudley made of the inventory was -to make a demand
on the captive husband of Lady Katharine to pay to
the Lady Gray 114Z., for* which Lady Katharine and
her train had been chargeable to Lord John, her uncle,
and he unable to bear the same. " We have," continue
they, "thought good to require you to send some one
' State Papers; Elizabeth, vol. xxxvii. fol. 27.

240 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1563.-64,
hither with the said sum of money, which may be sent
to Pergo to Lady Gray, whereat it is necessary that you
make some expedition, because the said Lady Gray, as
she complaineth, can no longer endure from payment,
and so we bid you fareweU. " Your loving friends, " R, DUDDELY,
" W. Cecil."

CHAPTER IX.

The unfortunate husband of Lady Katharine had no
option but paying the demand in fuU, and he took the
opportunity of endeavouring to interest the favourite
Leicester, and soliciting his good offices with the queen,
in behalf of his beloved wife, whom yet he did not ven
ture to caU by name in his piteous supplication. His
mother, the Duchess of Somerset, had recently been
to court, and Hertford commences his letter to Leicester
with thanks for the civiUty vrith which she had been
treated by him : —
" I find myself not a little bound unto your lordship
for the friendly welcoming and honourable using of my
lady my mother, since her now being at the court, as also -
your well-tried and goodly noble furthering her long
and troublesome suit for us, to our most gracious queen.
Wherein, as always, so now, I stiU crave your especial
and most humble means of desire to her majesty, that
we may be unburdened of her highness's intolerable
displeasure, the great weight whereof hath sufficiently
taught us never again to offend so merciful a princess.
And so I beseech you, my good lord, now on our behalf,
who pray not for earthly things so much as the comfort

1563-64. HEETFOED SENDS THE QUEEN GLOVES. 241
of her too long wasted favour. My trust is God wiU bless
your lordship's travaUs with the fruit thereof, and by
your means, wherein, next Him, we only depend, turn the
sorrowful mourning of us, her majesty's poor captives,
into a contershine comfort, for which I rest in continual
prayer. And so I take my leave, beseeching Almighty
God long to preserve her, and make me so happy as to
enjoy the company of so dear a lord and friend as I
have, and do find of your lordship.'
"Fi-om Hanworth, the xviu of March, 1563,"
Leicester answers very speedily, telling poor Hertford
" he had moved the queen's majesty in his behalf, but
he did not find her in the mood, at present, to grant his
prayer. " Your lordship," continues he, " can consider princes
must be obeyed, and their wills fulfilled. If God have
not yet stined her heart to rest, nothing wUl work tUl
He be pleased. As much as we may do with speech and
humble heart hath been done, I assure your lordship, for
you," The hypocritical courtier then, -with vain assump
tion of piety, adds, " Love Him, and fear Him, and pray
earnestly to Him, for it must be your chief work that
He may further your help to obtain the favour and com
fort you seek. In the meantime I wish your lordship pa
tience, and shall not leave, as opportimity shall yield, to
remember her majesty of your heavy and grievous state."
At the end of a week Hertford writes again, to thank
Lord Robert Dudley for his kind intentions, and to beg
him to be a means of obtaining the queen's grace. ¦
In his postscript he entreats Lord Robert "to present,
in his behalf, his poor token of gloves to her majesty,
earnestly requesting to send him word of her liking or
¦^ State Papers, vol. xxxiii. fol. 27.
B,

242 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1564.
finding fault, that he might amend what was wrong
for the next time," To which the favourite replies, as if
the gloves had been made by Hertford : — " My lord, I
have delivered your handywork where you required me.
There is no fault to be found with these, for they be
perfect in their kind; yet if in the next you make the
same a little stronger, as I have shewed to Thurgans, I
think it wUl be all the lack that may be suppUed to the
want in these," '
And now Hertford's mother, the Duchess of Somer
set, took up the advocacy of the case for her son
and daughter-in-law. Offensive and anogant as her
character was considered by everyone, it was not pro
bable she could do much good. Though faUen from
the high estate she had held as the lady paramount
of the court of the young king, Edward VL, and sorely
visited by adversity, having also stooped to a second
maniage infinitely beneath her rank, the old pride of
the haughty Anne Stanhope, who jostled a queen for
jirecedency, was not a whit tamed. In her letter of
remonstrance, instead of imitating the piteous and
lowly entreaties of Lady Katharine Gray to Queen
Elizabeth, and the perpetual cowsining of CecU used by
that lady and her imcle. Lord John, she boldly ap
proaches something like the tmth of the case, by point
ing out the -wrong " of this young couple, waxing old in
prison." We, who have been admitted by the hand of Time
behind the scenes, know how useless it was for the proud
old duchess to goad CecU with her solicitations for
Hertford and Katharine, since he has said "that he
himself was somewhat in disgrace for the part he had
already taken as their advocate with the queen,"
' State Papers, vol. xxx. fol. 77.

1564. DUCHESS OF SOMEESET'S INTEECESSION. 243
" Anne Duchess of Somerset to Sir WiUiam Cecil.'
"Good Master Secretary, — After this long sUence, and
for that, as yet, mine old occasion lets [hinders] mine
attendance, I have presumed by letter to renew my
suit for my son [Lord Hertford] to the queen's majesty,
and have like-wise -written to my Lord of Leicester, pray
ing you to set in your helping hand to end this tedious
suit ; -wherein for me -to reason how much her highness'
[Queen Elizabeth's] displeasure is too long lasting, or
how unmeet it is this young couple should thus wax
old in prison, or how far better it were for them to be
abroad and learn to serve [the queen] , I wiU not say ;
but leave those and like speeches to the friendly setting
forth of my lord [Leicester] and you. Only my seeking
is, that as there is none other cause, but hath some
favourable order or end since her majesty's reign, so by
your earnest conferring and joining with my good lord
[Leicester], this young couple may feel somelike of her
majesty's plentiful mercy ; to the procurement whereof,
the more earnest my lord and you shall shew yourselves,
the more shall you set forth the queen's majesty's
honour, and, as a mother, I must needs say, the better
discharge your calling and credit. And so, resting in
prayer that God would bless your travail to some com
fortable end, I take my leave.
" Your assured loving friend,
" Anne Someeset.
" To my very lo-ving friend, Mr. Secretary."
After nearly a year's pause, the Duchess of Somerset
took the opportunity of the approach of Passion- week
to plead the cause of the unfortunate couple, through
her old servant CecU, with the queen ; yet again made
> Lansdo-wne MS., No. 102, ait. 67.
B 2

244 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1664.
matters worse, by putting Elizabeth on her conscience
instead of lowly bending to her absolutism.
" Anne Duchess of Somerset to Sir WUliam CecU.'
" Good Mr, Secretary, — If I have let you alone aU
this whUe, I pray you to think it was to tarry for my
Lord Leicester's assistance, to whom as I have now
written to take some occasion tq/do good in my son's
case, so are these to pray you to provoJce [urge] him
and join with him to further the same ; trusting the
occasion of this Holy Week and charitable time of for
giveness, earnestly set forth by his lordship and you,
wiU bring forth some comfortable fruit of relief to the
long afflicted parties, wherein my lord and you cannot
go so far, but God's cause and the queen's honour bid
you go farther. Thus much I thought it good to -write,
as giring occasion for my lord and you to move the
queen's majesty to mercy, and not still to suffer this
case, alone, to rest without all [any] favour and for
giveness," WhUe the poor prisoner remained in some sort of
hope that the queen woiUd ultimately relent, a political
pamphleteer put an end to aU expectation of mercy, by
publishing a dissertation on the right succession to the
crown, " Here," writes Cecil ^, " has faUen out a trou-'
blesome fond matter, John Hales had secretly made
a book in the time of the last Parliament, wherein he
hath taken upon him to discuss no small matter, riz*,,
the title to the crown after the queen's majesty, haring
confuted and rejected the line of the Scottish queen, and
made the line of the Lady Frances, mother to Lady
Katharine Gray, the only next and lawful. He is com-
• Lansdowne MS., No. 9, art. 32, endorsed April 18, 1565.
» Ibid., No. 102, art. 49.

1564. DEATH OF HEE UNCLE, LOED JOHN GEAY. 245
mitted -to the Fleet for this boldness, specially because he
had communicated it to several persons. My Lord John
Gray is in trouble also for it. Beside, John Hales hath
procured sentence and counsel of lawyers beyond seas,
in maintenance of the la-wfulness of the Earl of Hert
ford's marriage with Lady Katharine. This offendeth
the queen's majesty very much,"
In another letter, dated May 9, 1564, CecU declares
that he himself is not free from the queen's suspicions,
on account of the attention he gave the cases of those
imprisoned on this account.
Melancholy as Katharine's letters to CecU and her
petitions to the queen represent her to have been during
her residence at Pergo, she was comparatively happy in
the sympathy of her kind uncle and his paternal care.
But sadder days were at hand, for Lord John Gray
expired at the end of the second year of Katharine's
abode under his hospitable roof, and she was imme
diately transfened to the custody of the Lord Petre,
CecU writes, the latter end of November, " that Lord
John Gray died at Pergo five days ago, and that his
friends reported that he died of thought " — meaning
great uneasiness of mind ; but his gout was enough to
have caused his death.

CHAPTER X.

Lady EIathaeine did not long continue in the custody
of Lord Petre, for the queen compeUed Sir John Went
worth, a venerable man in the decline of life, vrith an
aged and very sickly wife, -to receive her unfortunate
cousin, notwithstanding aU his protestations of the
unfitness of his sick wife to undertake the charge of

246 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1665.
the noble prisoner ; but his protestations were aU in
vain. Thither Lady Katharine, her baby boy, and their
attendants, were sent by the queen's commands, and
quartered on Sir John Wentworth at Gosfield HaU, a
strong, gloomy, brick fortress, built roimd a quadran
gular court, strongly fortified, without any windows on
the ground-floor, and so buUt that no admittance could
be forced to those above without great difficrUty, and
passing through every room.
The park was pleasant and weU wooded, with a noble
piece of water of 107 acres. The mansion, which is stUl
in existence, is two mUes from Halstead, in Essex, and
forty- four from London. There Lady Katharine and her
Uttle one remained some weary months, with nothing
to amuse or cheer them. At length Sir John Went
worth departed this life, leaving his lady stUl very
sick ; but she was not relieved of her melancholy guest,
who was compeUed to remain in the house of death and
mourning, in spite of aU remonstrances of the executor,
Mr, Rook Green, a distant kinsman of the family, who
vainly protested that the daughter and heiress of the
family required to have it cleared. Notwithstanding all
their earnest protestations of the inconvenience of having
such an inmate. Lady Katharine was forced to abide,
" I do not deal thus plainly and truly with you,"
-wrote Mr, Rook Green to Cecil, " for that I am loth
to take charge of her ladyship (if I were meet for
the same), for any misliking I have of her or hers ; for
I must, for truth's sake, confess, as one that hath had
good experience of her ladyship's behaviour, how that
it hath been very honourable and quiet, and her lady
ship's servants very orderly."
He represents, however, " that if he is compeUed to
take charge of her ladyship, he shaU be compeUed to

1,567. HEE JOUENEY TO COCKFIELD HALL. 247
take her to his o-wn house, which is by no means fit for
her reception, for he has no wife and many chUdren."
After long hesitation and delay, the queen, instead
of releasing her forlorn kinswoman, consigned her to
the care of Sir Owen Hopton, who had succeeded to
the lieutenancy of the Tower.- The charge was very
inconvenient to him, for he had prepared to take a
pleasant change and relaxing hoUday with his wife in a
small residence they possessed at Ipswich, and he could
not receive poor Lady Katharine tiU the end of October,
At last, however, he arranged to go to Gosfield HaU,
and there the hapless prisoner. Lady Katharine, and
her infant son were surrendered to him by Mr. Rook
Green, and he took her servants and property into his
possession in the name of the queen.
They were already on the road into Suffolk. Sir
Owen Hopton had obtained the queen's permission to
take his unfortunate charge to his beautiful newly-buUt
mansion, Cockfield Hall, close to the lovely village of
Yoxford, in Suffolk. They stopped, rested, supped, and
slept at Ipswich, where the biU for her one supper and one
dinner, for lodging and horse-meat, was 81. 10s. Then
.for one bait at Snape, when the said Lady Katharine
came from Ipswich to Cockfield, twenty shiUings. He
also paid twenty shiUings for the hire of a cart for the
carriage of the stuff and apparel of Lady Katharine
from Ipswich to Cockfield HaU.

CHAPTER XI.

Lady Kathaeine was in the last stage of atrophy
decUne, and soon after her arrival at Cockfield HaU,
Sir Owen Hopton found it necessary to send to London

248 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1567.
for the queen's physician. Dr. Symonds, Lady Katha
rine derived no benefit from his prescriptions, and after
he had left her, became so UI, that Sir Owen Hopton
wrote in alarm to Sir William CecU, on the llth of
January, acquainting him with the dangerous Ulness of
the Lady Katharine, who had kept her bed three days,
and requesting permission for Dr, Symonds to visit her
again. The petition was granted ; but medical adrice
was all too late for the fragile, heart-broken invalid, who
was never to behold her husband nor her first-bom
chUd again.'
The paper entitled " Manner of her Departing" ^ was
written and sent to court, and it stiU remains an his
torical document of the times — one of those inestimable
vouchers which base historical biography on the soUd
foundation of fact. We quote it verbatim : —
" AU the night Lady Katharine continued in prayer,
saying of psalms, and hearing them read of others,
sometimes saying after others; and as soon as one
psalm was done, she would caU for another to be said.
Many times she would rehearse the prayers appointed
for the Visitation of the Sick (in the Book of Common
Prayer), and five or six times the same night she repeated
the prayers appointed to be said at the hour of death.
When those about her would say, as comfort, ' Madam,
be of good cheer ; with God's help you shaU live and
do weU many years,' she would answer, ' No, no ; no
life in this world ; but in the world to come I hope to
live for ever : for here is nothing but care and misery,
and there is life everlasting,' Then, finding herself
fail, she said, ' Lord, have mercy upon me ! for now I
> Harleian MS.
" Ibid., No. 39, fol. 380, edited by Sir H. 'Ellis.— Original Letters, voL ii.
p. 288, 2nd series.

1567. HEE LAST NIGHT IN LIFE. 249
begin to faint.' And all the time of her fainting, when
any about her would chafe and rub her to restore her,
she would lift up her hands and eyes to heaven and
say, ' Father of heaven, for thy Son Christ's sake, have
mercy upon me ! ' Then said the Lady Hopton to her,
' Madam, be of good comfort, for vrith God's favour
you shaU live and escape this ; for Mrs. Cousins saith
you have escaped many dangers when you were as like
to die as you be now.'
" ' No, no, my lady,' replied Lady Katharine, ' my
time is come, and it is not God's wiU I should Uve
longer. His wiU be done, and not mine.' Then, look
ing on those about her, she added, 'As I am, so you
shaU behold the picture of yourselves.'
" About six or seven of the clock in the morning, she
desired them to cause Sir Owen Hopton to come to her ;
and when he came he said, ' Good madam, how do
you?' And she said, 'Even going to God, Sir Owen,
even as fast as I can ; and I pray you, and the rest that
be about me, to bear witness with me that I die a true
Christian, and that I believe to be saved by the death
of Christ, and that I am sure that He hath shed His
most precious blood for me ; and I ask God and all the
world forgiveness, and I forgive aU the world,' Then
added she to Sir Owen Hopton, ' I beseech you promise
me one thing, that you yourself, with your own mouth,
wUl make this request unto the queen's majesty, which
shaU be the last suit and request I ever shall make to
her highness, even from the mouth of a dead woman,
that she would forgive her displeasure towards me, as
my hope is she hath done, I must needs confess I have
greatly offended her, in that I made my choice without
her knowledge, otherwise I take God to vritness, I had
never the heart to think any evil against her majesty;

260 lADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1567-
and that she would be good unto my chUdren, and not
impute my fault unto them, whom I give wholly to her
majesty ; for in my life they have had few friends, and
fewer shall they have when I am dead, except her
majesty be gracious unto them ; and I desire her high
ness to be good unto my lord [Hertford], for I know
this, my death, wUl be heavy news to him; that her
grace wiU be so good as to send liberty to glad his sor
rowful heart withal,' "
Hertford was then a prisoner in the Tower, and had
been so for nearly seven years, and it was nine before
Elizabeth set him at liberty, when youth and all its
hopes and bright hours were fled for ever,
" ' I shaU further desire you. Sir Owen,' said the
hapless heiress of Henry VIII,'s wiU to the benevo
lent Lieutenant of the Tower, 'to deUver from me
certain commendations and tokens to my lord and hus
band.' " ' Give me the box,' said she to Mrs. Cousins,
' wherein my wedding-ring is ; ' and when she had
opened it and takes out her ring of betrothal with a
pointed diamond in it, she said, ' Here, Sir Owen, de
liver this to my lord : this is the ring that I received
of him when I gave myself unto him and gave bim my
faith.' " ' What say you, madam,' repUed Sir Owen Hopton,
* was this your wedding-ring ? ' "
It is plainly to be perceived, from the sharp abrupt
ness of the question, that he weU remembered the re
markable evidence both she and Lord Hertford sepa
rately gave, regarding the poetical wedding-ring.
" 'No, Sir Owen,' said the dying Lady Katharine, ' this
was the ring of my assurance [betrothment] to Lord
Hertford : there is my wedding-ring,' she continued,

1567. FAEEWELL TOKEN TO HEE HUSBAND. 251
taking another ring, aU of gold, out of the box. She
continued, ' Deliver this also to my lord, and pray him,
even as I have been to him (as I take God to witness I
have been) a true and a faithful wife, that he wiU be a
loving and natural father to our chUdren, to whom I
give the same blessing that God gave imto Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob,' "
Such might be her wish, but strange it was that she
should think it was in her- power thus to bless her
posterity, " And then took she out another ring with
a death's head enameUed on it, and she said : —
" ' This shall be the last token to my lord that ever I
shaU send him ; it is the picture of myself,' The motto
of this mourning-ring was ' While I lyve yours.' Then
looking do-wn upon her hands. Lady Katharine saw her
nails look purple, and said with a joyful countenance,
' Lo He comes ! Yea, even so come. Lord Jesus !' Then
she added, ' Welcome death ! '
" And embracing herself, as it were, with her arms,
and lifting up her eyes and hands to heaven, and strik
ing her breast with her hands, she brake forth with these
words —
" ' 0 Lord ! for thy manifold mercies, blot out of thy
book aU mine offences ! '
"Whereby Sir Owen Hopton, perceiving her to diaw
towards her end, said to Mr. Bockeham, ' Were it not
best to send to the church that the bell may be rung ? '
" And Lady Katharine, overhearing him, said, ' Good
Sir Owen, let it be so.' "
Such was the real custom of the passing beU, called
thus, because it wH.s solemnly toUed while the spirit of
the penitent was actually passing out of the body, in
order that the charitable neighbours might join in
prayer for a Christian soul departing. Such is the real

252 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1667-68.
demand of the dolorous and importunate call of the
death-bell. It was not sounded that vrintry morning
among the noisy bustling streets ofthe great city, where
the urgency of business scarcely permits the crowds,
rushing along, to remember they have souls themselves,
much less to tarry in their race for gold to pray for
any other person. With better feeling was it heard over
dale and woodland glade, from the antique spire of the
sweet village of Yoxford, where the persecuted heiress
of a royal line came among the simple peasantry of East
Anglia, to find a resting-place for her wearied head.
It is singular that in the present times the passing beU
is rung out, not that the dying may have the benefit of
Christian prayer, but to remind neighbours that a feUow-
creature is just departed. It would be a curious ques
tion, whether ringing the passing beU for the dying was
a practice of the Reformers, or whether it was a relic of
the old times. Such a custom must have added much
to the horror of a death-bed, both to the dying person
and to the surrivors.
Immediately after this conversation. Lady Katharine
perceived her death fast advancing, and entered into
prayer. She said : —
" 0 Lord ! into thy hands I commend my spirit,"
and closing her eyes with her own hands, " she yielded
unto God her meek spirit at nine o'clock in the morn
ing ofthe 27th of January, 1567-68."
She was intened in Yoxford church, and an entry
in the parish register-book stiU remains to certify the
fact that a princess of the royal blood of England was
interred in that sequestered Suffolk church.
The date of the entry in the register' declares that
' "Which we copied by the kind permission of the late Eevd. Heniy W.
Eous Birch, when he was Incumbent of Yoxford.

1567-68. HEE FUNEEAL EXPENSES. 253
" Y"Ladye KatharyneGraye was buried Feb. 21, 1567 (8)."
As her death took place on January 27 of that year,
it is probable that her body was embalmed — a circum
stance corroborated by a.nother MS. in the College of
Arms :' — " There be buried in the chancel of the church
at Yoxford, Suffolk, the bowels of the Lady Katharine,
wife to Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford. This lady
Katharine had been committed prisoner to Sir Owen
Hopton, Lieutenant of the Tower, for marryino- without
the queen's knowledge, and was by him kept at Cock
field HaU, Suffolk, being his house where she died,"
The statement is perfectly true regarding the owner
ship of the beautiful Gothic mansion of Cockfield, which
can be clearly traced, from the possession of Sir Owen
Hopton, to the Brookes of Suffolk, and from them in
herited by Sir John Blois, Bart. As this ancient family
of true old English gentlemen have principally resided
at Cockfield HaU, excepting when bearing arms in the
service of their country, the venerable seat presents
much the same aspect as when it afforded a peaceful
shelter to the dying Lady Katharine Gray,
There were given to the poor in alms at the funeral,
41. 17s. 8d., which sum was charged by Sir Owen Hopton
to the Exchequer of Queen EUzabeth, and allowed by
her Majesty, among the other expenses " for the inter
ment and funeral of our cousin, the Lady Katharine,
lately deceased, daughter of our entirely beloved cousin,
the Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, the care of which
is remitted to Sir Owen Hopton, Knight, to whom the
sum of threescore pounds and ten is ordered to be paid
' From Eeyce's MSS. relating to Suffolk Antiquities, now in the College
of Arms. " Feb. 6. Particular account of the expenditure of 761. towards
the charges of the funeral of Lady Cath. Gray. — March 10, 1668. Charges
of cering and mourning, £uid liOl. allowed by the queen for burying Lady
Cath."

254 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1667-68.
for the fees of officers of arms, banners, scutcheons,
hearse, and other things about the said burial."
This included "the travelling expenses of the heralds,
and the painter's work for a great banner of arms, for
four banner roUs, six dozen scutcheons of paper in
metal for garnishing the hearse, and six dozen of paper
scutcheons in colours, six great scutcheons on buckram,
&c. &c,"
" Also for the frame of the hearse 684?., and paid to
the taylours for working the cloth and other things
upon the hearse 20s."
" Sir Owen Hopton is allowed for the board of the
Lady Katharine and her servants, for fourteen weeks,
701., and for four meals and two nights' lodgings ofthe
mourners, being to the number of seventy-seven, and
for their horse-meat during the time, besides a great
number of comers to the solemnity of the burial,"
" Also paid to one Mr, Thomas Spern, for the carry
ing and coffining of the Lady Katharine Gray, 61."
" For singing men at the same funeral 20s,, and also
for watchers by the corpse of the Lady Katharine."
There is the queen's wanant to the Exchequer to pay
1401. to Sir Owen Hopton, dated March 10, for house
hold expenses and funeral charges of Lady Katharine
Gray,' A small black stone was long pointed out by the tra
dition of the viUagers of Yoxford as the place where
rest the remains of Lady Katharine Gray — " Lady Jane
Gray," as they usuaUy call her ; nor would this have been
remembered excepting for the fideUty of one of her little
spaniels, whom no caresses nor even force could detach
from the spot, but there he stretched himself, and there
he remained tUl he died. The hapless princess would
^ State Papers ; Elizabeth, voL xlvi. fol. 4.

1667-68. HEE POETEAITS. 255
have been utterly forgotten by the simple peasantry
among whom she came to die, had not the fidelity of
her dog been even to her as a monument more lasting
than some of costly price and elaborate workmanship.
Strange that both Queen Elizabeth's victims, her heiress
by Act of Parliament, Lady Katharine Gray, and her
heiress by lineal descent, Mary Queen of Scots, should
each have had a faithful dog die of grief at their
deaths !
The tradition of the Suffolk village respecting the
dog of Lady Katharine Gray is somewhat authenticated
by the letters and entries of the former Lieutenant of
the Tower, Sir Edward Wanen, concerning the dogs she
had in her prison-lodgings in the Tower of London,
The maniage of Lady Katharine Gray and Lord
Hertford was not established till the reign of James I.,
when the priest that united them came forward and
deposed to the fact of having joined their hands in holy
matrimony, which, with other circumstances, induced a
jury at common law to find the marriage legal and good.
Portraits of Lady Katharine Gray, holding her in
fant son in her arms, are said, by the great authority of
Sir Henry Ellis, to be preserved at Alnwick and at
Warwick Castles. The Alnwick Castle portrait is at
tributed to Holbein; which assertion does not agree
vrith chronology, since that painter died of the plague
in the year 1554, and Lady Katharine's boy was not
bom untU 1561,
There is a small half-length nameless portrait in the
possession of Sir John Blois, Bart., of Cockfield HaU,
of the Elizabethan era, painted on an oblong square
of oaken panel, in a good style of art for the period,
the Ukeness of which to Lady Jane Gray, only nearly
doubling her years, vrith dark hair, and attenuated vrith

256 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1668.
sickness and sonow, plainly indicates as a contempo
rary porti'ait of poor Lady Katharine Gray, probably
painted for Sir Owen Hopton. Her dress — a costume
strictly of the period — is of dark brown velvet, cut
square across the breast, and confined to the waist with '
a gold chain and jeweUed clasp. The sleeves are long,
finished at the -wrists with small ruffles, and she wears
a crimson scarf on her shoulders. Her dark chestnut
hair is folded in Madonna bands, beneath a short-eared
cap of the Tudor period, the front of which is formed
of white silk, surmounted with a coronet of goldsmith's
work brought round the face, above a roU of crimson
velvet. Over the back of the head is a black veU,
tucked up in the fashion of a hood. She is engaged
in writing, or rather sanding with the sand-box the
letter she has just written, and pensively regards, with
downcast eyes. A penknife with a green handle Ues
before her on her writing-table, and an unUghted taper
of red wax, A curious folding inkstand, half open, show
ing a spare pen and two bottles, one containing ink,
is close to her right hand ; on the left is an elegantly
shaped vase.
Nothing can be more touchingly expressive of melan
choly than her attitude. Her forehead is lofty, nobly
developed, and inteUectual ; her features soft and femi
nine, but the lower part of the face shows the wast
ing ravages of the fatal malady that was conducting
this learned and unfortunate princess to an untimely
grave.' The Earl of Hertford remained in prison two years
• Through the courtesy of Sir John Blois, Bart., the present possessor
of the portrait, we have been permitted to engrave it for the frontispiece
of this volume, from an exquisite reduced copy of the same by Lady Blois,
for which our grateful thanks are offered, together with those of the readers
of the Lives of the Tudor Princesses.

1591. HEETFOED'S SUBSEQUENT MAEEIAGE.S. 257
after Lady Katharine's death. At the end of his nine
years' incarceration he was released from the Tower,
upon payment of his heavy fines, amounting to 16,000/.
or 20,000Z, ^ He came out of imprisonment as spirit-
-broken and subdued as his worst enemy could desire.
As the legitimation of the chUdren he had hy the un
fortunate Katharine Gray seemed hopeless in the reign
of Elizabeth, he married again — perhaps in hopes of
having heirs to his title of undisputed rank.
His second lady was sister to the unfortunate Lady
Sheffield, secretly manied to the aU-powerful Leicester.
Both were daughters to WiUiam Howard, Lord Effing
ham, and maids of honour and near cousins to Queen
Elizabeth, Lady Frances Howard, who gave her hand
to Lord Hertford, had contested the heart of Leicester
with her sister Lady Sheffield, One of Burleigh's letters
declares that Leicester was in love vrith them both, but
the widow conquered.
It wiU scarcely be credited that Hertford inrited
Queen Elizabeth to honour him with a visit at his seat
of Elvetham, and entertained her vrith great splendour
and unbounded flattery — forgetful, we should think, of
the broken heart of Lady Katharine Gray, and the slur
she had cast on the legitimacy of their sons.
His second -wife, Frances, Countess of Hertford,
brought him no chUdren, and after her death he mar
ried another. Lady Frances Howard, also a cousin of
the queen, and daughter of Lord Bindon, but the widow
of Prannel, the handsome London vintner, who had left
her an enormous fortune.
After her marriage with Hertford, she gave symptoms
of the haughty temper for which she was afterwards
celebrated in the decUne of life ; but the earl was accus
tomed to take dovra her pride by exclaiming, " Frank !

258 LADY KATHAEINE GEAY. 1620.
Frank ! how long is it since thou wert wedded to Pran
nel?" Not long after her marriage to the Earl of Hertford,
the queen sent him again to the Tower, for having
caused the opinions he had formerly obtained on the
legitimacy of his chUdren by Lady Katharine Gray to
be registered in the Court of Arches,
His new countess hastened up to London to become
his advocate -with the queen, and presented herself
daily at the palace with petitions for his reUef, The
queen would not see her, " but sent her broths of a morn
ing, and meats from her own trencher, with gracious
assurances that neither her lord's life nor fortune should
be touched."
The earl surrived his first wife fifty-four years; he
had the satisfaction of proving the legaUty of their
maniage and the legitimacy of their children after the
death of Queen Elizabeth, He died in the eighty-third
year of his Ufe.
He had no offspring by either of his two last wives.
On his tomb in SaUsbury Cathedral no other wife is
mentioned but the Lady Katharine Gray.
The foUowing is a literal translation from the bar
barous Latin epitaph on the Earl of Hertford and the
dearly-loved wife of his youth : —

.1621. EPITAPH OF HERTFORD AND KATHARINE. 259
Sacred to y« Memoby of
EDWARD,
Eael of Hertford, Baron Beauchamp, etc.,
Son and Heir
Of the most illustrious Prince Edward, Duke of Somerset,
Earl of Hertford, Viscount Beaucliamp, and Baron Seymour,
Most renowned Companion of the Order of the Garter,
Uncle of King Edward VI. and Begent of his Kingdoms,
Most worthy Protector of his Dominions and Dependencies,
Commander-in-Chief of his Army and Lord Treasurer, [and]
Earl-Marelml of England, by Anna his wife, of most illuBtrious and ancient lineage.
Also of his most dear and beloved Consort
KATHAEINE,
Daughter and Heiress of Henry and Frances Gray, Duke and Duchess of SnflEolk,
And granddaughter of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by Mary, sister of Henry VIII.
Queen-dowager of France, and great-granddaughter of Henry VII.
An Incomparable Pair [Katharine and Hertford],
Who after having experienced alternate changes of fortune here ^ at length they rest
together in the same concord in which they Uved.
8HB
A woman distinguished as an example of nprightnees, piety, beauty, and faith, the best
and most illnstriouB not only of her own but of every age, calmly and piously
breathed her last January xxii. in the year 1667.
HS
The most perfect pattern of nobility,
The preserver of pristine manners and discipline,
Endowed with eloquence, wisdom, innocence, and gravity.
And ennobled not less by virtue and learning than by splendour of birth,
As one who had pursued his studies in company with Prince Edward, the son of
King Henry.
A most determined Defender of ReUgion,
A constant Assertor of Justice and Bighteonaness,
Of the utmost fideUty and ablUty in
Administering the Provinces entrusted to him.
Having fllled the office of Ambassador to the
Archdukes* for his Britannic Majesty tbe most exceUent King James.
Great in his munificence at home and abroad.
And as excelling in goodness, so more richly atdowed in mind than in wealth.
Nor did he ever employ his power In oppression of his dependents.
Full of Uonours, fuU of years.
He yielded to nature in hla 83rd year on vi. April in the year 1620.
By the heroine of this epitaph lex heroind]
He hed two sons.

» Thie plainly confirms tUe local tradition, that Lady KaiJiarine's body was removed
from its first resting-place, in Yoxford Church, by her grandson, William Seymour, and
Interred by her hneband in SaUsbury Cathedral. A precedent had been fumlelied by the
removal ol the body of Mary Queen of Scots from Peterborough to Westminster Abbey,
• Clara Eugenia and her consort, the Archduke, eovereigns of the Low Countries.
8 2

260 LADY MAEY GEAY. 1545-96.

THE LADY MARY GRAY.

CHAPTER I.
Ladt Mabt was the youngest daughter of Henry Gray,
Duke of Suffolk, and Lady Frances Brandon, his wife,
the niece of Henry Viii.
Lady Mary was bom in the year 1545. She was so
very small that she was accounted dwarfish ; neverthe
less, the regal succession of England and Ireland being
-entailed on her and her posterity by the will of Edward
VL, in the event of her elder sisters dying without
issue, she was a person of great importance.
The same day (Whitsunday, 1663) that Lady Jane
Gray was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, and Lady
Katharine Gray to Lord Herbert, Lady Mary, though
scarcely eight years old, was solemnly betrothed to her
adult kinsman, Arthur Lord Gray, of Wilton.
• On the failure of the Northumberland and Suffolk
plot to place Lady Jane Gray on the throne in the suc
ceeding July, and the triumphant elevation of Queen
Mary to the sovereignty of the reahn. Lady Mary Gray
was forsaken by her betrothed husband, and took refuge
from the storm in the peaceful obscurity of the nursery.
She remained there, unmolested, during the tragic
deaths of her sister Lady Jane Gray, Lord Guildford
Dudley, her father, the Duke of Suffolk, her uncle, Lord
Thomas Gray, and the hasty and indecorous marriage
of her mother with Adrian Stokes.

1564-65. COUETED BY THE SERGEANT-POETER. 261
After the latter event. Queen Mary appointed Lady
Mary, with her sister. Lady Katharine, to the ofiice of
maids of honour in her palace.
On Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne, they
remained in her household. Their mother died in 1569.
They were both probably with her, as they attended
her funeral : Lady Mary was then foiu:teen.
In 1661 she had the distress and terror of learning
that her sister. Lady Katharine, was sent to the Tower
for presuming to marry the Earl of Hertford without
the queen's consent.
Lady Mary was now of an age to marry, but it was
vain to expect the queen would allow her to wed ac
cording to her degree. Time passed away, and she
entered her twentieth year single and solitary. About
that period a mysterious affection sprang up between
Lady Mary Gray and an official in the palace, who bore
the title of the Sergeant-porter. The important portal
of Westminster Palace opening on the Thames, called
the Water-gate, was entrusted to the care of a gen
tleman of gigantic stature and some military prowess,
named Thomas Keyes." Certainly his name and his
office agreed very well — so well, that it is possible his
immediate ancestors might have been hereditary ser
geant-porters, and derived their name from the exer
cise of the said office. In some old chronicle mention
is made that " Bows ! " was shouted when the archers
were required to make their appearance, for defence on
the walls, and when the porter of a gate was needed,
" Keys ! was the cry."
Thomas Keyes, Esq., of Kent, the largest gentleman
at court, was sergeant-porter and master of the revels.
' Camden 'erroneously calls him Martin Keyes ; but his own hand, in the
State Paper Office, has distinctly written his signature Thomas.

262 LADY MARY GEAY. 1565.
In point of rank he was equal, if not superior, to Adrian
Stokes, who had married Lady Mary's mother, the Lady
Frances, or to Master Bertie, the second husband of
Catharine, Duchess of Suffolk, whom she called her
grandmother, or to Newdigate, the second husband of
Anne Stanhope, the proud Duchess of Somerset ; all of
whom were the servitors of the dowager ladies, who
took them for second helpmates. No one but the widow
of her grandfather, Suffolk, had incurred any rebuke
from the crown on account of disproportioned mar
riage. It could not be denied that the warrior who had
guardianship of the queen's Westminster gateway — a
portal that communicated by water with all Europe —
was a more responsible gentleman than either of those
who possessed, or had possessed, the hands and incomes
of the above royally allied duchesses. Mr. Sergeant-
porter Keyes could boast some distant connection with
Queen EHzabeth herself, as he was kinsman to the pro
sperous family of the Knollys ', with whom the daugh
ter of Mary Boleyn, Catharine Carey, had married,
and who were the dearest, if not the nearest, of aU
Queen Elizabeth's relations. There is little doubt but
that in the cousinship with the queen's darling cousin,
Lettice Knollys, and her numerous tribe of brothers and
sisters, originated the presumption of Sergeant-porter
Keyes, when he aspired to the diminutive hand of Lady
Mary Gray. " He was a sort of judge, but only regard
ing dice,"' says Fuller — an assertion which may be
corrected by explaining that he was rather a sort
of executioner, since all rioters and brawlers in royal
palaces were dehvered over to the sergeant-porter for
castigation by his grooms in the porter's lodge. One
' State Paper Office : Examination of Lady Mary Gray's marriage.

1565. COUETED BY THE SERGEANT-POETER. 263
of the strong towers which constituted the principal
gateway of every royal residence invariably contained
a prison-cell for the incarceration of offenders. On the
other hand, there was a pleasant reception-room for
noble or royal guests, when accidents of weather or the
fluctuations of the tide caused any delay in the embarka
tions of the courtiers on the bosom of the Thames, the
approved highway of the metropolis. Such voyages
were of daily occurrence, especially in the summer
season, when Queen Elizabeth and her maids of honour
were perpetually migrating from Whitehall and West
minster to Hampton Court, Richmond, Windsor, or
Greenwich. The courtship of Lady Mary Gray and Mr. Sergeant-
porter undoubtedly commenced on these occasions, and
was carried on in his apartments in the Water-gate,
Westminster.' Lady Mary never mentioned her attach
ment to anyone, although Mr. Sergeant-porter had given
her two little rings as tokens of his affection ; next, a
ring set with four rubies and a diamond, which it ap
pears was a ring of betrothal, besides a gold chain with
a little hanging bottle of mother-of-pearl. Mr. Thomas
Keyes was by no means a youthful lover ; he was a
widower with several children ; and, as he declared
afterwards, had Mthfully served the crown in his office
for twenty-two years.^ He must have been between
forty and fifty years of age.
Matters were progressing thus lovingly with the
gigantic gentleman-porter and the petite maid of ho
nour, when, about the 10th or 12th of August, 1565, one
of the sons of Sir Francis Knollys was married at court.
His wedding-day, in consequence of his near relation-
' Examinations of Lady Mary's marriage : State Paper Office.
« Ibid.

264 LADY MARY GRAY. 1565.
ship to the queen, was kept there as a festival. It
evidently encouraged Mr. Sergeant-porter to press his
suit vdth his betrothed ; for he might represent that, as
his kinsman was the queen's cousin, why should her
Majesty object to her kinswoman wedding him, who was
already allied to her? The same evening the sergeant-
porter provided a little wedding-ring, its smallness being
particularly noted, and having prevailed on the Lady
Mary Gray to meet a few of his friends at his cham
ber by the Water-gate, Westminster, she consented to
become his wife.
About nine at night there assembled at his apart
ment in the Water-gate the brother of the sergeant-
porter, Mr. Edward Keyes, and his friend, Mr. Martin
Cawsley, a Cambridge student. These were the brides
men. They were attended by Mr. Cheyney's man. The
bride was accompanied by Mrs. Goldwell, an atten
dant of Lady Howard. The priest was vested in a very
short gown. He was an old man, short of stature,
and very fat. No one could tell his name. It is sup
posed that he was a proscribed Zuinglian or Genevan
minister. He united the hands of the rash couple ac
cording to the form of matrimony in the Book of Com
mon Prayer. The bridegroom put on the finger of his
diminutive lady-love the fatal little gold ring, which
was to become the somrce of such infinite trouble to aU
present. Unlike the marriage of her unfortunate sister
to the Earl of Hertford, a few years before, here were
witnesses in plenty. Lady Mary and her husband might
consider that, though the queen could punish them, she
could not invalidate their wedlock, as shfe did that of
Lady Katharine, on account of the demise of the only
wdtness present besides the unknown priest.
Secrecy, however, was not very likely to be observed

1565. ARRESTED WITH HEE BRIDEGROOM. 265
by every person present, in a place, withal, that was the
principal thoroughfare of the court itself, and the focus
of all news and gossip.

CHAPTER II.

Bbf.oRE the first quarter of Lady Mary's honeymoon
had waned away, the news had reached the royal ears,
then so far distant as Windsor Castle. It is not a very
hazardous supposition to deem, by means of Mistress
Groldwell, the Lady Howard's damsel, who was the
brideswoman, for the first outbreak of the enormous
injury to royalty was manifested in letters between Lord
WiUiam Howard and Mr. Secretary Cecil, who dolefully
agree that "the offence to the queen's grace is very great,
and her majesty taketh it much to heart." ' " Here
is an unhappy chance and a monstrous," wrote CecU,
in his turn, to one of his familiars, Sir Thomas Smith,
clerk of the privy council.* " The sergeant-porter,
being the biggest gentleman in this court, hath married
secretly the Lady Mary Gray, the least of aU the court."
An epistolary lamentation was responded from Lord
William Howard to Cecil concerning " this very fond
and lewde [siUy and unadvised] matter, betwixt my
Lady Mary Gray and Mr. Sergeant-porter."
It may be supposed that these mutterings of thunder,
from distant Windsor, boded no good to the unfortunate
transgressors. In fact, the newly-wedded pair were
speedily seized, by the orders of the offended virginal
majesty of England, and subjected to rigorous cross-
' Letter of Lord Howard to Cecil; Lansdowne MS., No. 102, fol. 62,
August 19, 1665.
' Ibid., August 21.

266 LADY MARY GRAY. 1565.
questioning from the 19th of August to the 22nd, when
the information which has furnished the narrative of
their marriage was elicited in the course of this long
examination regarding their "pretended marriage."
The narrow circumstances of the unfortunate bride were
revealed in the course of the vigorous inquisition, which
clearly proved that the sergeant-porter had not taken
the royally descended Lady Mary for love of gain. The
poor girl, out of the rich demesnes of Ferrars-Groby and
Bonville, to which, by right, she ought to have been
coheiress, since Bonville came by female heirs, had only
a paltry stipend of 20Z. per annum which she could
call her own ! Queen Mary had confiiscated her father's
property, it is true, after he had been twice in arms,
and had twice proclaimed a rival queen. But wherefore
did Queen Ehzabeth retain the property of the forlorn
heiress of Bonville ? For neither of the surviving sisters
of the house of Gray had been mixed up with any overt
act of treason against her title.
Lady Mary Gray received as salary for her court
appointments, by the hands of Lady Clinton (the fair
Geraldine), her near relative of the Gray blood, 80?. per
annum. Lady Clinton, afterwards Countess of Lincoln,
held a high office at the court of her cousin. Queen Eliza
beth; her mother had been granddaughter to Queen
Elizabeth Woodville.
When the privy council had cross-questioned the
petite bride and the giant bridegroom, until both the
unfortunate persons were, as they piteously declared,
utterly bewildered, orders were issued to capture and
cage aU the witnesses of the marriage, and, moreover,
to consign the hapless pair to separate prisons. Upon
the sergeant-porter fell the heaviest effects of the virgin
monarch's wrath : he, on August 22nd, was consigned

1565. CAEEIED PEISONER TO THE CHEQUERS. 267
to the tender mercies of the warden of the Fleet, who
received him into the noisome portals of that prison.
A warrant was addressed to the warden at the same
time, charging him " to keep in safe and separate ward
Thomas Keyes, late sergeant-porter, for an offence which
the queen's majesty taheth moche to harte;" and, that
the poor wretch might experience the utmost stretch of
severity that his gaoler could inflict, the above words
are inlined in the original document.' His imprison
ment was not only to be separate, but solitary and silent,
without communication vdth anyone. A dear penalty
the poor gentleman paid for his ambition of becoming
first cousin to his sovereign lady by wedlock with her
diminutive kinswoman.
Lady Mary Gray remained under the care of the
" Mother of the Maids," that professional guardian
responsible for aU stray lambs from the fold of Queen
Bess's damsels of honour. Before the end of the fateful
month of August, before her most miserable honeymoon
had half waned, a precept was issued by Queen Eliza
beth to WUliam Hawtrey, Esq., of Buckinghamshire,
" that he do forthwith repair to court, and take into his
charge and custody the Lady Mary Gray, and convey
her forthwith to his house. The Chequers, without per
mitting her to hold conference with any one, or to
have liberty to go abroad, suffering only one waiting-
woman to have access to her. For Mr. Hawtrey's charges
and expenses concerning the said Lady Maiy, the queen's
majesty vdll see him satisfied in reason."
In compliance with this mandate, my Lady Mary, on
the 1st of September, was mounted on a pUhon behind
the Buckinghamshire squire, and, followed by his serv
ing-men and her maid, vdth two or three packhorses,
> State Paper Office.

268 LADY MARY GEAY. 1566.
the whole cortege took the western road, and in due
time reached the Chiltem HiUs, on which was seated
the beautiful old mansion of The Chequers — ancient
even then — where the weeping bride was deposited in
the most doleful frame of mind.
The example of her sister. Lady Katharine, was so
little heeded by poor Lady Mary, that all the cruel
doings which overwhelmed her and her lately-chosen
spouse seem to have fallen on her by surprise. Never
did any testamentary paper effect more mischief than
the will of the sovereign Edward VI. His reveries on
" heirs masles," by Lady Jane Gray, Lady Katharine
Gray, or Lady Mary Gray, partook of his father's mania,
which was certainly shared by the latter lady, who
deemed it her bounden duty to fulfil the royal expecta
tions, even by a match as ludicrous as the one she had
just perpetrated.
Her unfortunate sister Katharine was the mother of
two of these much-desired male children; but Lady
Mary considered that her little nephews were not legal
heirs " masles," as Archbishop Parker had just declared
their illegitimacy on account of the failure of witnesses
at their parents' marriage. Her own marriage at the
Water-gate was vdtnessed by too many to be invalidated
on the same score, but, nevertheless, was declared by
her royal cousin's partial Star Chamber to be but a
" pretensed wedlock." Six weeks' seclusion at The
Chequers sufficed to produce deep repentance and com
plaining impatience of her sojourn there. All the en
chanting spots round the old house were unheeded by
the little imprisoned fairy, though they seemed made
to figure in the romantic history of a captive princess.
There, in the garden, was an enormous and venerable
tree called "Thiney Stephens' elm," there was a laby-

1565. HEE PETITION TO THE QUEEN. 269
rinth on the hUl, lawns named Velvet Lawns, and
springs called Silver Springs', from all and each of
which the bride of the sergeant-porter earnestly desired
to escape. So little did she know of the disposition of
her implacable royal mistress, that, as early as Decem
ber 16, 1565, in the sixth week from her transgression,
she wrote to Cecil, " I did trust to have wholly obtained
her majesty's favour before this time, the which having
once obtained I trust never to lose again. But now I
perceive that I am so unhappy a creature, as I must
yet be without that great and long-desired jewel till it
please God to put into her majesty's harte to forgive
and pardon me my great and heinous crime."

CHAPTER ni.

When Queen Elizabeth visited Lord Windsor at Braden-
ham, on her return from one of her great progresses
to Oxford, her unfortunate kinswoman, in terms of the
lowest humiliation, entreated permission that she, " the
queen's prisoner and most pour wretche*, might have
access to her majesty's grace, for the purpose of plead
ing for herself in person." The degrading petition was
treated vdth silent contempt by the royal arbitress of
her fate. Elizabeth, who had herself been a captive,
left her to pine imheeded in hopeless melancholy.
So wore away the time of the Lady Mary among the
green solitudes of the ChUtern HUls. The feeble waUings
of the poor prisoner, joined to the remonstrances of
Mr. Hawtrey (who had as little relish for her company as
she had for his sUver springs and velvet lawns), were at
' Burgon's Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham, vol. ii. p. 392.
* State Papers.

270 LADY MAEY GRAY. 1566.
last SO far heeded by her royal kinswoman, that prepa
rations were made to commit her to the charge of her
own kindred.
Meanwhile the partner of the little lady in the crime
of marriage with a cousin of the crown was subjected to
a far more dismal destiny than an enforced residence in
a pleasant country house. His lamentations since the
period of his committal were piteous, and his petitions
numerous against the continuance of his confinement
in the miserable prison of the Fleet, according to his
own descriptive style of complaining. The hapless man
had likewise a Chancery suit on his hands ; for the privy
council ordered the warden of the Fleet ' " to suffer
Thomas Keyes, late sergeant-porter, and now close pri
soner there, to receive a casket of writings sent him by
Mr. ComptroUer's servant, touching such matters as he
hath depending in law." Apparently the casket had
been part of his property at his former residence, the
Water-gate, which was under the jurisdiction of the
comptroller of Queen Elizabeth's Westminster Palace.
The warden of the Fleet was likewise to permit his
lawyers to have access to him, and confer with him
regarding his law business, but only in the warden's
presence, who was to hear all they had to say.*
In the course of less than twelve months from his
wretched marriage, the unfortunate Keyes offered to
make renunciation of his royally-allied bride, and sub
mit to his marriage being declared no marriage, if he
might be let out of the Fleet, and suffered to retire into
his native county of Kent. He pleaded, but in vain,
" that he had formerly done the crown good service in
suppressing insurrections." The seal of the disconsolate
¦ Burgon's lAfe and Times of Sir Thmnas Gresham, vol. ii. p. 396.
' State Paper Office, October 1565.

1565. HARSH TREATMENT OP KEYES. 271
prisoner to these dolorous letters is impressed with a
coat of arms, being two keys quartering some other coat,
probably that of his first wife. The date of his offer to
renoimce his dearly-bought alliance is July 25, 1566.
This proposal was submitted to the then Bishop of
London, Dr. Edmund Grindal', who refused to recognise
any renunciation of the matrimonial bond by either of
the unfortunate twain who had so rashly assumed it,
but to leave the sentence to the irresistible Court of
Arches. Thomas Keyes was detained in prison by the
authority of the Bishop of London, Avho, however, had
the humanity to suggest " that the wretched man might
be permitted to leave the noisome and narrow prison-
room he had inhabited for twelve months, and depart
into the country for change of air." " I have still stayed
[detained] him in the Fleet," wrote Grindal * to Cecil ;
" but if it please the lords [of the councU] to let him
have some free air, the next term some substantial order
might be taken vdth him, by the advice of those learned
in the laws, it were a great benefit to him ; for his bulk
of body being such as I know it to be, his confinement
in the Fleet putteth him to great inconvenience. God
keep you.
" From Fulham, August 5, 1566.
" Yours in Christ,
" Edmund London." '
The charitable suggestion of his diocesan, regarding
the necessity of free air for the incarcerated Colossus,
only prevaUed on his gaolers to let him recreate himself
in the Fleet garden — for, strange to say, the Fleet prison
had a garden in the maiden reign. The airings which
' Queen Elizabeth's former tutor. ' State Paper Letter.
' State Paper Office, December 21, 1566.

272 LADY MARY GRAY. 15««.
poor Keyes took in this delectable pleasance, however,
lasted no longer than the ensuing December, when, a
new and less merciful warden being appointed to the
prison, he not only forbade him the use of " the Fleet
garden," but condemned him to keep his chamber for
three-quarters of a year. As the information relative
to the new warden's cruelty is only known by means of
the poor prisoner's letters remaining among the State
Papers, of course there is no means of ascertaining how
he had provoked such harshness, as he does not relate
any provocation given by himself.
Previously, it seems, the queen had permitted Keyes to
cook his own meat in his own lodging ; now the warden
forbade any such indtilgence : his prodslon was brought
from- some of the prison purveyors. So carelessly cruel
those who supplied him were, that he relates, as fact, the
circumstance of his being given beef for dinner which
had previously been dropped into some poison prepared
for a dog that had the mange.' The abhorrent meal, if
really meant to put an end to Keyes, did not succeed ;
the strength of his. enormous frame resisted dog-poison,
but he was made very ill, and was forced to ask for
medical aid. He was attended by Dr. Langford, who
elicited the cause of his malady by some kind of inqui
sition into the mysteries of the Fleet prison flesh-pots,
but charged his miserable patient a whole mark, or
6s. 8d., for his professional services. Very moderate,
indeed, considering the amount of serdce performed,
for Dr. Langford not only cured his said patient of the
effects of poison, but provided him vdth a very good
grievance, if he had known how to make the most of it.
It is curious, however, to find the witless giant com
plaining with equal bitterness of the wickedness of not
' State Paper Office, December 21, 1566.

1^6. HER REMOVAL TO LONDON. 273
being permitted to harm the poor London sparrows by
knocking them over vdth his cross-bow charged with
pebbles, when they were recreating themselves in the
dusky delights of Fleet Prison gardens. Here was a
singular perversion of the mind of a reasoning creature :
he, who was suffering severely from the cruelty of his
own species, bewaUs his hard fate because he was pre
vented from destroying and maiming poor little birds,
which were doing him no injury, neither could their de
struction be to him any benefit. " I had," he says, in one
of his grievance-letters', " a stone-bow*, to shoot at birds
out of my prison window, for the refreshment of myself
sometimes ; but even this slight solace is denied me."
It is positively beyond any woman's patience to find
a huge man petitioning to do mischief as a solace, which
any seven-year old urchin, reared in a London kennel,
would be ashamed of, if he has the grace to frequent a
ragged-school for the amendment of his moral percep
tions. It is possible, however, that he cooked his game,
the sparrows, to improve his prison diet.
Leaving Lady Mary Gray's spouse fretting at the
Fleet, because he had no means of molesting the poor
garden-sparrows, we find the lady herself removing by
the royal mandate from Mr. Hawtrey's seat at The
Chequers, in the Chiltems, to the care of her female
relatives in London. It is very evident that her com
pany was unwelcome wheresoever she went. Her noble
relatives felt not only that she had degraded them and
herself by her unequal alliance, but that there was a
provoking degree of ridicule attached to her contested
wedlock with the huge sergeant of the Westminster
Water-gate. ' State Paper Office : Letter from Thomas Keyes, late sergeant-porter.
' A cross-bow or arblast, made to discharge pebbles instead of arrows.
T

274 LADY. MAEY GRAY. .1661
Queen Elizabeth and Cecil had originally destined
the afflicted little lady to the custody of the Duke of
Somerset's widow ; ' but the proud old duchess was con
signed about the same time, by a higher potentate than
Elizabeth herself, to the keeping of a stiU more inex
orable gaoler — Death ; therefore the care of Lady Mary
Gray fell on Katharine Duchess of Suffolk.

CHAPTER TV.

One summer's evening, Mr. Hawtrey made his appear
ance at Minory House, near the Tower, with his poor
little prisoner perched on a pillion behind him, fol
lowed by her man and maid, riding on another steed, in
the same fashion. Mr. Hawtrey deposited his charge,
vdth the said maid and man, quite unexpectedly, with
Katharine Duchess-dowager of Suffolk.
The ladies of the Gray famUy called the sprightly
dowager, the fourth spouse of their grandsire, Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, their grandmother. The
subtle CecU had eddently caused the Duchess of Suf
folk to be taken by surprise, lest that quick-witted
lady should have found some means of eluding the
troublesome burden cast upon her hospitality. As it
was, her Grace of Suffolk manifested as little plea
sure at the arrival of her guest as she did when,
by the last request of Lord Thomas Seymom-, she
had to receive the orphan babe of her bosom friend.
Queen Katharine Parr. Her first demand of Mr. Haw
trey was, "Where was the Lady Mary's stuff? For
that, indeed, she had nothing wherewith to furnish or
to dress up her chamber, as The Minories was totally
unfurnished. She did not usually reside there. Her
• Cecil's Diary, in Murdin's edition of the Burleigh Papers.

1667. LODGED WITH DUCHESS-DOWAGER OF SUFFOLK. 275
dwelling was in Leicestershire ; and when she was in
town, she herself borrowed stuff or household furniture
of the Lady Eleonore." ' The hospitable Buckingham
shire squire, it seems, had never tormented his forlorn
guest respecting " stuff." She and her man and her
maid had been accommodated with the best he had at
The Chequers, and, it seems, he told the duchess as
much, who lamented that " She was not so well stored
for the Lady Mary as Mr. Hawtrey was, but was forced
to borrow furniture from her neighbours in the Tower
[of London]." 2
Poor Lady Mary, who had never since her absurd
marriage been in the presence of her witty and Uvely
step-grandame, was ready to sink vdth grief and shame
at the discussion. Whatsover bed the great lady found
for her that night at The Minories, be sure the pUlow
was copiously watered with her tears ! Whatsoever
hunger or exhaustion she had felt after her long pUlion
joumey behind Hawtrey, it is beyond dispute she ate
not a morsel of food either that night or for two suc
ceeding days.
• And, howsoever the witty Dowager of Suffolk came
into possession of The Minories, she could not forget
that the luckless Lady Mary had a prior claim on it, for it
had heretofore been her unfortunate father's town-house,
as the following abstract wUl prove : — " A patent was
granted by Edward VI. to Henry Duke of Suffolk, Janu
ary 13, 1552-53, of that chief mansion and messuage
called the Minory House, vdthin the precincts of the mo
nastery called The Minories, without Aldgate, London,
and divers houses belonging to the said Minories, situate
within London.'" Somehow, in the strange scramble
• State Paper Office : Letter of Katharine Duchess of Suffolk, Aug. 9, 1667.
2 Ibid. * Strype, Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 229.
I 2

'ii>7& LADY MARY GRAY. 1567.
that took place for houses, goods, and chattels, as the
professors of the divers religions of the sixteenth cen
tury mounted aloft on the wheel of fortune. Duchess
Katharine of Suffolk had got possession of her step-son
Henry's grant of The Minories, and had retained it, for
we here find her in full possession.
The chamber furniture belonging to Lady Mary, re
garding which the duchess was making such sharp
inquisition, was in all probability the poor belong
ings which had been used by the impoverished girl
when she was maid of honour to her cousin-queen at
Whitehall and Westminster. Squire Havdrey had her
goods honourably sent to The Minories the next day,
vdth the assurance "that they had not been used,"
and probably had not been unpacked, whUst the Lady
Mary was his guest in his beautiful and hospitable man
sion at the ChUtems. When the appurtenances of her
dejected guest were unfolded and examined by the
practical duchess, what comments, what satire, what
ridicule they drew forth from her! Then poor Mary
Gray had full experience of those minor miseries which
add heart-sickness to heart-aches, and are far more
difficult to bear.
The Duchess Katharine of Suffolk possessed remark
able talents for investigating the belongings of unwel
come guests. She immediately commenced drawing
up to her dear " Mr. Sekrettory" (as she droUy desig
nated Secretary CecU) a lively description of the defects
of poor Lady Mary's " stuff." Never had she had such
scope for her sarcastic pen as in the miserable appur
tenances of King Henry VII.'s great-granddaughter — a
princess on whom the reversion of the crowns of Eng
land and Ireland was even then settled, by an unrevoked
Act of ParKament.

,1567. HER WRETCHED FURNITURE. 277
No pen can do justice to the tatterdemalion con
dition of Lady Mary Gray's personal property hke that
of the Duchess Katharine of Suffolk, who saith as fol
lows : — " She hath nothing but an old livery feather
bed, all to torn and full of patches, without either bol
ster or counterpaine, but two old piUows, one longer
than the other, an old quUt of sUk, so tottered [tattered]
as .the cotton of it comes out, such a little piteous
canopy of red sarcenet as is scant good enough to cover
some secret stool." It would seem that Lady Mary had
used occasionaUy this red canopy as a Cloth of State,
and received her guests under its shelter to indicate her
near connection to royalty ; hence the bitter derision
with which the lady duchess, her step-grandmother,
mentions it. " Then," she continues, " there are two
little pieces of old hangings, both of them not seven
yards broad." '
It« was no great marvel that the mortification of
hearing such comments on her only personal property,
added to her other afftictions, reduced the hapless
prisoner to the state of despair which prevented her
from swaUowing any nourishment for two days, and at
last positively alarmed her satirical hostess for her hfe.
So away the duchess hurried Lady Mary to Greenwich
Palace, thinking that if anything happened to her, she
had better die under the roof of the queen her cousin
than anywhere else. Queen Elizabeth was not then at
Greenwich ; she was with her court and cabinet minis
ters, making her summer progress. The lady-duchess had
an eye to certain of the Tower palace stores of furniture,
in order to replenish the bare walls of Minory House
without having recourse to her own purse for any outlay
' State Paper Office : Letter of Katharine Duchess of Suffolk to Cecil,
August 9, 1567.

278 LiDY MARY (JfiAY. 1667.
towards making a guest-chamber comfdrtable for the
hapless Lady Mary. So, ceasing suddenly from her sa
tirical strain, she assumes a style of frank jocoseness, iii
hopes that CecU wUl procure Queen Elizabeth's sanction
for aU she required in Lady Mary's lodging. " Where
fore," says she, " I pray you consider of this, and if you
shall think it meet [proper] , be a means for her to the
queen's majesty that she may have the furniture of one
chamber for herself and her maid. And she and I wUl
play the good housewives, and make shift vdth her old
bed for her man. Also I would, if I durst, beg farther
some old sUver pots to fetch her drink in, and two httle
cups for her to drink out of, one for her beer, the other
for her vdne. A sUver basin and ewer, I fear, were too
much [to ask] ; but all these things she lacks, and it
were meet she hath, but she hath nothing in the world;
And truly, if I were able to give it her, she should never
trouble her majesty for it. Look, whatever it %haU
please her majesty to appoint for her shall be always
ready to be delivered again, in as good case as her
wearing shall have left it, whensoever it shall please
her majesty to eaU for it.'" The duchess then proceeds
to declare the state of her poor prisoner. " I trust she
wiU do well hereafter ; for, notwithstanding that I am
sure she is very glad to be with me, yet, I assure you,
she is otherwise, not only in countenance, but in very
deed, so sad and so ashamed of her fault — I think
it is because she has never seen me since before [it
happened] — so that I cannot yet, since she came, get
her to eat. All she hath eaten now these two days is
not so much as a chicken's leg. She makes me even
afraid of her pife], and therefore I write the gladlier,
' State Paper Office: Letter of Katharine Duchess of Suffolk to Cecil,
August 9, 1567.

1567. ARTICLES REQUIRED FOR HER USE. 279
for that I think a little comfort would do weU. And so
I end my long begging letter ; but, if you can help us
to these alms, we wUl never beg no more, but work for
our lidng like honest poor folk — so, as I trust by God's
help, the queen shaU have cause to think well of us,
and you shall have no cause to repent you of any good
deed you shaU do for us. Praying God to be with you
and rest. From the queen's house at Greenwich, this
ninth day of August."
It seems that Queen Elizabeth had lately given the
Duchess Katharine of Suffolk apartments at her Green-
vdch Palace, whither she took her distressed kinswoman
when she really began to be alarmed lest with fretting
and fasting the hapless lady would die on her hands.
The Duchess Katharine had not long had possession
of the Greenwich Palace apartments, as she sends a
thankful message to the queen by her premier for the
grant of them in these words : —
" And for my liging [lodging] so well here, I pray
you most friendly to give her majesty most humble
thanks for me, and, as my bounden duty is, so I do
daUy pray God to look upon her as her majesty hath
mercifuUy looked on me.
" Tour assured friend to my power,
" Kathaeine Suffolk. .
" Master Sekrettory." '

CHAPTER v.-

Attee the first heartbreaking troubles — apparently aris
ing from her reception, and the vexation of hearing aU
that the lively Duchess Katharine had to say regarding
' State Paper Office MS.

280 LADY MARY GRAY. 1568--
her ragged quilt and wretched bedding, and the mock
ery elicited by her ludicrous canopy — ^the Ladj' Mary
settled for two years, in something like comfort, in her
father's old house in the Minories and other habita
tions of her unwilling hostess.
Lady Mary became sponsor to a little girl, and caUed
her god-daughter Jane — we hope we may be permit
ted to guess — in tender memory of her peerless sister,
the Lady Jane Gray. Her godchUd, whose name was
Merrick, finaUy became the co-heiress of her little pro
perty. Lady Mary Bertie was remembered by the poor
prisoner vdth tenderness to the last hour of her exist
ence. She caUed her sister. This lady appears to have
been of the noble line of De Vere, daughter to the
Earl of Oxford, and the wife of Peregrine Bertie, the
son of the Duchess Katharine of Suffolk, and heir to
the barony of Willoughby.
WhUst Lady Mary Gray sojourned in the famUy of
the Duchess of Suffolk, her sister. Lady Katharine, died
in captivity at the house of Sir Owen Hopton, January
1567-68. There was no long rest for Lady Mary Gray
afterwards : she had become, in the eyes of any party
that chose to believe in the asserted iUegitimacy of her
sister's sons, the representative of King Edward VI.'s
famous testamentary settlement. Nature, it is true,
had been unkind to her, and fortune not much better :
she had, vdthal, placed herself in a most ludicrous light
by means of her marriage ; yet, in those unsettled times,
even she might serve for a peg to hang an adverse
faction upon.
Queen Elizabeth knew her times ; she was weU aware
that the Duchess Katharine of Suffolk was looked up to
as a martyr by the Puritan party. It was felt, there
fore, that little Lady Mary, a most sincere disciple of

1569. NOT PERMITTED TO REST. 281
the Genevan sect, ought not to remain under her wing
long after the death of Katharine Gray had added to
her political importance. If the queen is blamed for
harassing her relatives of the blood royal, the heartless
politicians who set them up to annoy her government,
little caring what miseries befell them in the process of
knocking down, ought not to escape reprobation as the
primary causes of her Majesty's harshness. The hapless
Lady Mary was not suffered to remain many months in
the home she had found with her adopted sister. Lady
Bertie, the kind and noble daughter of De Vere.
Lady Mary Gray was transferred to a very different
guardian from those on whom she had been hitherto
imposed, even on Sir Thomas Gresham, Queen Eliza
beth's relative on the Boleyn side, and the zealous sup
porter of her government. Thenceforth Lady Mary was
destined to a change of situation and companions, when
she was domicUed at Gresham House, with the king of
London city. The change seems to have been painful
to herself; whUe on the part of Sir Thomas, after he
became acquainted with his inmate, his aversion to the
office of her keeper passed all the bounds of common
courtesy; as to his wife, Lady Gresham, she never
mentioned the guest intruded on her but as the " heart
sorrow of her life."
If Lady Mary Gray indiUged in a perpetual course of
lamentation and bewailment, all that can be said on the
matter is that surely no woman ever had greater rea
son in every relation of life ; whether as daughter, wife,
or sister, sorrowful thoughts must have met her at every
turn. She is not mentioned as an accomplished person ;
learned she certainly was ; but the gloomy turn of the
books she studied was sufficient to have rendered her a
most dolorous guest. Yet no specific accusation was

282 LADY MARY GRAY. 1569. .
ever brought against the hapless little lady, no outbreaks
of temper, or traits of pride, arrogance, or assumption.
The library she possessed, into which she plunged her
sad thoughts when too sombre for mortal endurance,
was, according to the foUowing inventory: — "Mr. Knox
his Answer to the Adversary of God's Predestination ; "
"Mr. Knewstubbe's Eeadings;" "The Ship of Assured
Safety," by D. Cradocke ; " Mr. Cartwright's First and
Second Eeply;" "The Second Course of the Hunter of
the Eomish Fox." Then the little Lady Mary possessed,
and occasionaUy studied, " Godly Mr. Whitgift's An
swer ; " " Mr. Dearing's Eeply ; " " Dr. Fulkes' Answer
to the Popish Demands ;" "Dr. Fulkes' Answer to AUen'
touching Purgatory ; " " The First Admonition to the
Parliament ; " " The Image of God," by Hutchenson ;
"The Duty of Perseverance;" "The Edict of Paci
fication ; " " The Book of Martyrs," in two volumes ;
Mr. Latimer's "Sermons on the Four Evangelists;"
"A Treatise of the Deeds of the true Successors of
Christ ; " " The Life of the Countie Baltazer Casta-
glione ;" and " A Treatise of the Eesurrection of the
Dead." She possessed three editions of the Bible, the
Geneva translation, the Bishops', and the French. She
had a Common Prayer Book, Palgrave's French Dic
tionary and Grammar, and an Italian Commentary.
Lady Mary and her religious library were in June
1569 conveyed to Gresham House, the new home of
this poor homeless scion of royalty, which once occupied
the large area between Bishopsgate Street and Win
chester Street, in after days covered by the Excise
Office and its dependencies. Then it had a chapel and
a large and beautiful garden, with Crosby Palace on one
side, and Winchester House on the other, interspersed
' Probably Cardinal AUen.

1669. IMPORTUNATE LETTER FOR HER REMOVAL. 283
with aU the trees and pleasances which once made
London a city of gardens. Gresham House was delight
fully situated. Sometimes the Gresham famUy removed
to Osterley House, near Brentford, which was the fa
vourite country retirement of Sir Thomas, the king of
London. Osterley bears some likeness at present to
what it was in the days of its Ulustrious founder : its
dark brick walls and ancient tapestry have witnessed the
pensive dsits of the poor prisoner, when, with some
dusky tome, she crossed the quadrangles to the flower-
gardens, to console herself vdth the hope that all her
troubles would end with her life, and that she should
find rest in a better world.
In the course of little more than a year. Sir Thomas
Gresham began to be most importunate for the removal
of his inmate ; in every letter he wrote to the premier
or to the Earl of Leicester, the burden of the epistle
was the removal of the Lady Mary Gray. Sometimes
the princely merchant offered bribes, sometimes earnest
entreaties ; although he brings no complaints of any ill
conduct of his unfortunate guest. "I have written,"
he says, in a letter to CecU ', " to my lord of Leicester
to move the queen's majesty for the removing of the
Lady Mary Gray, who has been with me this fifteen
months. I pray you set your good helping hand for
the removal of her ; for my wife would gladly ride into
Norfolk to see her old mother, who is fourscore and ten,
and not likely to live long."
No later than the very next month. Sir Thomas
Gresham wrote another importunate epistle, declaring
" that it had pleased God to visit one in his house at
Osterley with the plague, on which account he and his
vdfe intended, with the queen's permission, to ride
' Burgon's lAfe and Times of Gresham, vol. ii. p. 406.

284 LADY MAEY GRAY. 16715
down with aU their servants to his house at Mayfield,
in Sussex, thirty-five miles out of London. " Most
humbly beseeching to know the queen's majesty's plea
sure," he continues, " as to what I shaU do with my
Lady Mary Gray, trusting that now her majesty wUl be
so good to me as to remove her from me, considering
that she hath now been with me sixteen months. Other
[news] I have not to molest your honour withal."
Assuredly such reckoning up, month by month, of
the time of Lady Mary's abiding at Gresham House or
Osterley Park, was not very complimentary to her, stUl
less when, in another complaining letter, he calls her
" Lady Gresham's londiage and harte sorrow." ' AU these
remonstrances were useless ; the unwelcome inmate con
tinued one month after another, tiU months sweUed to
years.

CHAPTER VI.

One morning, in the beginning of September, 1671,
Dr. Smythe, Lady Mary Gray's physician'^, arrived at
Gresham House vdth a request to confer with Sir Tho
mas Gresham. His business being to communicate the
news that poor Thomas Keyes had departed from this
troublesome state of existence, and to request that Sir
Thomas Gresham would break the inteUigence to the
Lady Mary.
When the worst had been done to Thomas Keyes'
constitution by incarceration in the noisome Fleet pri
son, he had been permitted to stay under surveillance
in his native county of Kent. He went no farther than
' Gresham to Cecil, October 22, 1570.
' Ibid., September 8, 1571.

1671. DEATH OF HER -HUSBAND. 285
Lewisham, where, however, he died, stiU waiting for
" pardon and comfort, if only for the sake of his poor
chUdren, who," he says, " innocent as they are, suffer
punishment with me for my offence." ' " If it were her
majesty's and your honour's pleasure," he wrote to
Cecil, " to fetter me vdth iron ^yves, I could willingly
endure it, but to beai the cruelty of this warden of the
Fleet, without cause, is no smaU grief to my heart." ^
Stout and strong as the gigantic gentleman might
have been, his heart and spirit at last gave way, and
his death, at Lewisham, left the unfortunate Lady Mary
with somewhat better prospects as his widow than as
his wife. Sir Thomas Gresham fulfilled the kindly
office the physician had prescribed to him, and broke
the fact to Lady Mary that she was a widow. Never
did any high-born dame take the events of this life less
enprincesse than she did; her warm affections were mani
fest on the occasion like a simple woman in middle life.
She received the inteUigence with bursts of passionate
grief, her thoughts being didded between the possi
bility of the purchase of widow's mourning and her less
worldly wish to assist and support the wretched chUdren
of the deceased, in which she only acted according to
the dictates of a good and just heart ; since it was
owing to her own imprudent marriage with Keyes that
the comfortable home of his children, at the Water-gate
lodge, had been changed into sharing with him the
narrow prison-room of the dreary gaol of the Fleet.
" His death," wrote Sir Thomas Gresham to CecU^,
" she grievously taketh : she hath requested me to write
to you to be a mean to the queen's majesty to be good
to her, and that she may have her majesty's leave to
keep and bring up his poor chUdren. As Hkewise I
> State Paper Office MS. ' Ibid. ' Ibid.

286 LADY. MARY GEAY. 1671.
desire to know her majesty's pleasure, whether I shaU
suffer her to wear any black mourning apparel or not.
Trusting that now I shall be presently despatched of
her by your good means." '
By his last uncivil clause he meant to express his
hope of being quickly fidded of his unwelcome inmate
now death had taken undisputed possession of her dis
puted spouse. There is good reason to suppose that
the Lady Mary Gray's marriage was not set on one side
by the ecclesiastical law, and that Keyes died her hus
band. Sir Thomas Gresham removed her to his country
seat, Osterley Park, soon after her vridowhood; from
thence she wrote to CecU (at that time Lord Burghley,
Burleigh, or Bowerley, as the city knight always wrote
the premier's title).
Lady Mary's letter represented "that as God had
taken away the cause of her majesty's displeasure, she
begged to be restored to her favour — that great and
long-desired jewel." To this epistle she ventured to
sign her name, " Mary Keyes " ' — not a very likely step
towards obtaining her object ! Some remonstrance was
made against her boldness ; for in a letter written a
very few days afterwards, she signs herself again Mary
Gray. As early as September 5, Sir Thomas Gresham
made another strenuous effort to rid his house of her,
renewing his suit to Burleigh " for the removal of my
Lady Mary Gray, for the quietness of my poor wife."
Lady Gresham, it is to be feared, made her house of
Osterley not a very peaceful abode, either to the new-
made widow or her own far-famed lord and master,
since the knight rode from Osterley to London, three
days afterwards, for the express purpose of personaUy
making petition to be relieved from his inmate, and to
• State Paper Office MS., September 2, 1571. * Ibid.

1571-72. ENTREATIES OF SIR THOMAS GRESHAM. 287
back her own earnest request "that she might be
removed to her father-in-law, Adrian Stokes, at the
Charterhouse, there to dweU and keep house with
him." Notwithstanding the strenuous and unanimous ef
forts of both parties. Lady Mary had no resource but
to accompany her unvdUing host and impatient hostess
to their country-house in distant Sussex. From May-
field Sir Thomas Gresham renewed his entreaties on his
usual grievance : by the tenor of his letter it appears
that hopes had been given of compliance. He dates his
letter "Marchl671-72, Mayfield," and addresses my lord
Bowerley as " my very singular good lord." " This,"
he continues, " is to render unto your lordship both my
vdfe's humble thanks and mine, for the good remem
brance you have of my vdfe's suit for the removing of
my lady Mary Gray, wherein your lordship shaU do her
no smaU pleasure, considering what bondage and heart-
sorroW she hath had for this three years, wherein I have
often moved the queen's majesty to be good imto me
and her, as your lordship doth right well know. Most
humbly desiring your lordship that I may have an
end thereof now, an' it be possible." To facUitate the
possibUity, the sagacious merchant adds the foUowing
convincing argument : — "And whereas I have aUowed
my lord of Oxford [Burleigh's daughter's husband] for
his money hut after the rate of ten per centum, I shaU be
content to allow him after twelve per centum! with any
other service I can do for him and you." ' This was
an irresistible style of arguing ; and now the only diffi
culty remaining was, where was to be the poor lady's
abiding-place. The queen left it all to Leicester and
Burleigh ; but, tmfortunately. Lady Mary Gray was very
1 Burgon's Life of Gresham, vol. ii. pp. 412, 413.

288 LADY MARY GRAY. 1572.
poor, and, as she herself represented, in a very reason
able letter to Lord Burleigh, it was not likely anyone
would board her for the sum she could offer. Burleigh
disapproved of her choice of Adrian Stokes, her father-
in-law, for a guardian, and requested that she would
name some other person among her friends. Lady
Mary replied that she knew no other who would receive
her, and patheticaUy entreated the premier " to speak
unto her majesty, that as it hath pleased her (wholly
undeserved by my past fault) to set me at liberty, so,
seeing I am destitute of aU friends — oiUy God and her
majesty — so I may by her most gracious appointment
be in some place of rest. My living is not so great (as
your lordship doth know) whereby I may help myself
into any place, for I have but fourscore pounds a year of
her majesty; of mine ovra I have but twenty pounds [per
annum] ; and, as your lordship knoweth, there is nobody
will board me for so little. As for my father-in-law, I
know he wUl give me nothing now, for before hts mar
riage I had little, and now I look for less.' Wherefore,
being in this misery, I know not to whom to fly for
succour but only unto her majesty." ^

CHAPTER YII.

Ladt Maet Geat, when she wrote this letter. May 24,
1572, was actually set at liberty; but, like the poor
gentleman released from the BastiUe, she did not know
where to bend her steps. Her income of 801. per
annum, derived from Queen Elizabeth, had evidently
been paid to those who had had the care of her. She
' Adrian Stokes married again after the decease of the Lady Frances, his
high-born consort.
« State Paper Office: Letter, May 24, 1572.

1577-78. LIBERATED AND FRIENDLESS. 289
could not reckon on its continuance ; and here she was,
after seven long years' captivity, alone in the wide world,
vdth but twenty pounds per annum she could call
her own ! The only door open to the poor friendless
one, Burleigh, for some state reasons, forbade her to
enter. Her step-father, Adrian Stokes, had offered her
admittance to some of the wide, deserted chambers of
"the haunted Chartreuse." Shelter from the weather
for herself, her faithful maid and man, her books,
and the coUection of goods and chattels described by
her step-grandame, was aU the widower of Frances
Brandon would, or perhaps could, afford her. Her
unwilling host, Sir Thomas Gresham, sent a letter of
thanks soon after to Burleigh, "for delivery [Anglice,
deliverance] from the Lady Mary Gray." ' Poor soul !
if she had been a boa or a python coUed round him, he
could not have said more. In this epistle, he sums up
her possessions and expectations. "She hath in law
twenty pound by the year, and this is aU she hath in
possession ; and in reversion, of the Duchess of Suffolk
[Katharine] , 500 marks [or 333Z. 6s. 8d.] , and another 500
marks at the death of her step-father, Adrian Stokes."^
The interdict from the only friend of the poor homeless
state captive must have been soon after taken off, for
Lady Mary Gray settled with her mother's widower,
in the Charterhouse, which, by some of the strange
revolutions of that epoch,, had been left to Stokes by
his duchess-spouse, with the slender sum which was to
descend to her hapless chUd.
No more lamenting letters from Lady Mary Gray
or any of her guardians occur. She kept her solemn
promise, and abstained from marriage for the time to
come, and, walking warUy through her short remnant
> State Paper Office MS. ; Letter, July 19, 1572. » Ibid.
U

290 LADY MAEY GEAY. 1577-78.
of life, avoided rousing the royal jealousy. It seems
probable that Queen Elizabeth did not deprive her of
the fourscore pounds per annum, which helped her to
make head against the attacks of gaunt poverty. She
was rich enough to present to the queen at Hampton
Court, on New Tear's day, 1577-78, "four dozen but
tons of gold, in each of them a seed pearl, and two pairs
of sweet gloves."' The said gold buttons must have
been from some family hoard she had inherited from
her mother, for her slender income could scarcely have
furnished the perfumed gloves, much more the golden
buttons with seed pearls. Queen Elizabeth made the
exchange of gifts of the season, which was one indica
tion that Lady Mary was in some degree of favour.
UsuaUy the exchange of value preponderated strongly
in the favour of royalty. In this instance, her Majesty
acknowledged the gold buttons by the gift of a silver
cup with a cover, weighing 18 ounces. Lady Mary
had apparently returned to the protection of Katharine
Duchess of Suffolk, or had received permission from
her to live at her Tower or Castle of the Barbican*, by
Eed Cross Street.
Lady Mary Gray's death occurred April 20, 1578.'
Her wUl was made the day of her death, AprU 20, 1578.
She describes herself as " a widow, of the parish of St.
Botolph, without Aldersgate, of whole mind and of good
and perfect remembrance." She bequeathed her body
"to be buried where the queen's majesty shaU think
most convenient." The little property she possessed she
wUls between her god-daughter, Jane Merrick, and her
adopted sister. Lady Mary Bertie. She died possessed
' Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii. pp. 65, 81.
' The Barbican is mentioned as the Duchess of Suffolk's house. —
Machyn's Diary, p. 308.
» Strype's Annals, vol. ii. p. 548 ; Collin's Peeragp, vol. ii. p. 231.

1678. HER DEATH. 291
of some jewels, and left a pair of gold bracelets, with a
janh stone set in each bracelet, which had belonged to
her mother, Frances Brandon. The jank stones were
most likely jargoons, a species of brown topaz, brought
from Ceylon. An inventory in the State Paper Office of
her curious library dates her death vdthin a few days.
It is headed, " The names of aU such books as the Lady
Marie Gray left behind her at her death, June 1, 1578."
The unfortunate Lady Mary Gray never possessed
the small proportion of her paternal property which
was to revert to her at the death of her step-father,
Adrian Stokes, for he, having married again, lived at
Bradgate in affluence, surviving the hapless heiress of
that and other princely domaijjs of the Gray property
three or four years. In the tte«^third year of Queen
Elizabeth, 1581, aU the family, Katharine, Mary, and
their step-father, Adrian Stokes, had passed from the
face of the earth.
According to the inquisition regarding the payment of
the Kvery of the queen's freehold lands, Adrian Stokes
tiU that year held the manor of Wykes, in Lincolnshire,
vacant in the thirty-third year of Elizabeth by the death
of the said Adrian, late tenant hy the courtesy of England
(that is, as widower of the Lady Frances), and by the
death of the Lady Mary, one of the daughters and co
heirs ofthe Lady Frances, late Duchess of Suffolk, daugh
ter and co-heir of Charles (Brandon), Duke of Suffolk.
Lady Frances's dower on the lordship of Astley likewise
occupies several Chapterhouse manuscripts', which was
given after her death, as a life-rent, to her widower
Adrian Stokes, as repeatedly rehearsed, " by the cour
tesy of England." Such was one of the regulations of
the curious feudal law which stiU governed the freehold
' Chapter-house MS., by favour of F. Devon, Esq.
v2

292 LADY MARY GRAY. 1578.
property in this country ; but more real courtesy would
have been shown in gidng part of the income to the
almost destitute daughter. But, however destitute and
impoverished the Lady Mary might be, she died heiress,
by the Act of Parliamentary Settlement, to the crown
of England ; for the Act which placed the nomination
of the regal succession in the hands of the dying sove
reign Edward VL had never been repealed.

1536. 293

THE LADY ELEANOR BRANDON,
COUNTESS OF CUMBERLAND.
This lady was the second daughter of Mary Tudor,
Queen-dowager of France, by her marriage with Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. She was granddaughter to
Henry VII. and niece to Henry VIII.
On the day of her sister the Lady Frances's marriage
to Henry Gray, Marquis of Dorset, she was betrothed
to Henry Lord CUfford, eldest son to Henry Earl of
Cumberland, by his wife Lady Margaret Percy. He
was the grandson of Henry Lord CUfford, the Shepherd
Lord, and nearly related to the king, to whom his grand
mother, Anne St. John, of Bletsoe, was first cousin by
the half-blood, being the niece of Margaret Countess
of Eichmond, the offspring of her mother's second
marriage with Lord St. John of Bletsoe. In conse
quence of this aUiance, Henry Earl of Cumberland was
educated and brought up with the king, with whom he
was on such intimate terms that Henry had no objec
tion to give his fair young niece to Clifford's son, who
was nineteen years old at the time when their betrothal
was completed by a solemn marriage. This took place
at Midsummer, 1537, at the Duke of Suffolk's palace,
near the stately church of St. Mary Overie, vdth very
great pomp,, and was distinguished by the presence of
the king and his court.
The Earl of Cumberland, in honoi^r of this iUus
trious marriage, to testify his respect for his demi-royal

294 LADY ELEANOR BRANDON. 1537.
daughter-in-law, and give her delight, buUt the great
gallery at Skipton Castle, with the towers at the east
end, in an octangular form. These stately additions to
the castle were constructed in such an incredibly short
time, that in less than four months they were begun and
finished. It was nine months after her bridal before the Lady
Eleanor was conducted to Skipton Castle, where she
was received with great joy and festidty by the parents
of her lord, who treated her with the greatest love and
reverence. They had the happiness of seeing her be
come fruitful.
She bore two sons and a daughter in quicy succession.
Her royal uncle, Henry VTII., presented her husband
with the rich gift of Bolton Abbey and other monastic
spoils. The Lady Eleanor, with her attendant ladies and
first-born son, were sojourning at Bolton Abbey during
the perilous period of " The Pilgrimage of Grace," ten
miles from her lord's castle at Skipton, which was
then hotly besieged by the insurgent forces. The Lady
Eleanor was wholly in their power, vdthout the slightest
means of defence, and involved in the most frightful
danger. The insurgents, hoping to terrify her husband
from his allegiance, sent word to him that they would
make his wife and infant son hostages for his conduct,
threatening " that the next day they would place them
in the front of the storming party ; and, if the attacks
were repeUed, she and aU the other ladies should be
given up to the lowest ruffians in the camp." From
this dreadful fate Eleanor was preserved by the chivalry
and courage of Christopher Aske, the brother of the
insurgent leader, Eobert Aske. Christopher Aske, who
preserved his loyalty to his sovereign, had just before,

1647. RESCUED BY CHRISTOPHER ASKE. .295
with forty of his followers, arrived at Skipton Castle
to the succour of his cousin, the Earl of Cumberland,
whose own retinue had deserted to the PUgrims.
As soon as he was informed of the peril of the fair
young Lady Clifford, her infant, and ladies, Christopher
undertook the gaUant enterprise of delivering them.
Accompanied only by the Vicar of Skipton, a groom,
and a boy, he performed the dangerous feat of passing
through the besiegers' camp. His knowledge of the
country and its inhabitants, enabled him, when once
without that formidable circuit, to procure horses and
volunteers, by the aid of which he succeeded in carrying
off the lady, her babe, and the companions of her re
straint, at dead of night, through the moors and glens,
unsuspected, and halted not tiU he had brought theni
to a place of safety.'
The portraits of the Lord and Lady Clifford are at
Skipton Castle. The Lady Eleanor is very pretty, her
hair is dressed with strings of pearls, and she wears a
double throat-necklace of pearls. She has lovely hazel
eyes, and a clear, delicate complexion. Her husband
is young and handsome.
The Earl of Cumberland, her husband's father, de
parted this life in 1542, and Lord Clifford succeeded to
the honours and estates of the family. The Lady
Eleanor became in consequence Countess of Cumber
land ; but she had the grief of losing her sons. Henry
Lord Clifford died when only two or three years old,
and was buried in the Clifford vault, in Skipton Church.
Their second son, Charles Lord Clifford, died also in his
infancy, and was buried in the same place.
The Lady Eleanor removed to Brougham Castle,
probably for .change of scene, but died there about the
' Examination of Christopher Aske, EoUs' House MS., 1st series, 840.

296 LADY ELEANOR BEANDON. 1548.
end of November, 1547, in the flower of her days, and
was buried at Skipton Church. She was cousin-german
to Edward VL, to Queen Mary, Queen EUzabeth, and
James V. of Scotland, and cousin twice removed from
her husband by the blood of the St. Johns.
Her husband took her death so much to heart that he
pined away and fell into a languishing atrophy, and,
after a few months, became to aU appearance dead. In
this state he was stripped, and laid out on a long table,
with a black velvet hearse-cloth spread over him, pro
bably in preparation for embalming.' Symptoms of
life being fortunately perceived by some of his friends,
he was put into a warm bed, and cordials being ad
ministered, he redved, and, by the use of a milk diet,
became a strong man. He married a second vdfe, by
whom he had two sons and a daughter. He was in
terred beside the beloved wife of his youth, the Lady
Eleanor Brandon, in Skipton Church.
The epitaph of the noble pair is as foUows : — " Here
lies interred, in this vault, Henry CUfford and his first
wife, the Lady Eleanor Brandon's Grace, by whom he
had only one daughter that lived, the Lady Margaret
Clifford, afterwards Countess of Derby. And by his
second wife, Anne Dacres, who also lies here interred,
he had his two sons, George and Francis, succeeding
Earls of Cumberland after him, and the Lady Jane
Clifford, wife to PhUip Earl of Wharton. He died in
Brougham Castle, in the county of Westmoreland, the
6th of January, MDLXX."^
' Whittaker's Cravenshire, pp. 314-16.
* The following is Whittakei^s description ofthe coffins in the Clifford vault
beneath the high altar of Skipton Church, which he obtained permission to
visit: — "First," he says, "lies Henry, the first earl, whose leaden coffin was
much corroded, and exhibited the skeleton of a short and very stout man,
with a profusion of long flaxen hair gathered into a knot at the back of the

1766. THE CLIFFORD VAULT. 297
scull ; next were the remains of Margaret Percy, his countess, a very slender
and diminutive woman. The third coffin contained the Lady Eleanor's Grace,
the coffin much decayed, and the skeleton, as might have been expected cf
Henry VIII.'s niece and Charles Brandon's daughter, was that of a tall
large-limbed female. At her right hand was her husband Henry, the
second Earl of Cumberland, a very tall and rather slender man, through
whose thin envelope of lead, resembling a winding-sheet folded in bold
drapery over the limbs, something of the shape of the face might be dis
tinguished, a long prominent nose being conspicuous. Next lay his son
by Anne Dacres, Francis Lord Clifford, who died in boyhood."

298 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1640.

THE LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD.
COUNTESS OF DERBY AND QUEEN IN MAN.

CHAPTER I.
The Ladt Maegaeet Cliffoed was the last, but not
the least unfortunate, of the princesses of the younger
female Une of the Eoyal House of Tudor, on whom the
crowns of England and Ireland were despoticaUy en
tailed, by the wills of Henry VIII. and his son Edward
VI. , in direct violation of the rights of the representa
tives of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland, the eldest
daughter of Henry VH. and Elizabeth of Tork.
Margaret Clifford was born in her father's castle of
Brougham, in Cumberland, in the year 1540 ; she was
bereaved of her mother before she had completed her
seventh year. The grief of her father, the Earl of Cum
berland, for the death of his beloved wife, reduced him
to so melancholy a condition, that Margaret, their only
surdving chUd, was almost doubly orphaned.
As the greatest territorial heiress in England, and
one of the reversionary heiresses on whom the fatal
heritage of the regal succession had been settled by her
royal uncle, Henry VIIL, with consent of his slavish
ParUament, Margaret Clifford was early marked by the
aspiring Dudley, Earl of Warwick, subsequently Duke
of Northumberland, for the wife of his fourth and only
unmarried son, Lord Guildford Dudley ; Lady Jane Gray

1661. HER TITLE TO THE CROWN. 299
being at that time contracted to the Earl of Hertford,
eldest son of the Protector Somerset.
The title of Lady Margaret Clifford to the royal suc
cession was considered by some better than that of Lady
Frances Brandon and her children, because Lady Elea
nor Brandon was not born till after the death of Anne
Brown, the previously wedded wife of Charles Brandon,
Duke of Suffolk, who had persisted in claiming him for
her husband after his lofty marriage with Mary Tudor,
Queen-dowager of France.
The report that Warwick, soon after he had obtained
the title of Duke of Northumberland, was about to
marry his youngest son to the great-granddaughter of
Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, occasioned much
agitation in London. The indignant comments of an
attached foUower of the unhappy widow of the be
headed Protector Somerset was made matter of a Star
Chamber investigation, in consequence of Sir William
Stafford, the widower of Mary Boleyn, aunt to the
Princess Elizabeth, having denounced "the unseemly
sayings of Mistress Elizabeth Huggins " to the privy
councU, in regard to this lofty aUiance to which North
umberland was said to aspire.
This Mistress Elizabeth Huggins, it seems, had come
down from London on a dsit to Eochford, the family
seat of the Boleyns in Essex, of which Sir William Staf
ford, as the vddower of Mary Boleyn, was then in pos
session. At supper. Mistress Huggins thought proper,
most imprudently, to bewail the late Protector Somerset's
death and the reverses of his family, especially the mise
ries of her former lady, the widowed Duchess of Somer
set, who was then a close prisoner in the Tower, expect
ing every day to be led out to death. " All the work of
Northumberland, who deserved the axe himself," Mis-

300 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1653.
tress Huggins indignantly observed ; and, after repeat
ing the report, " that he was about to marry his son
Lord GuUdford to the Lady Margaret Clifford, with the
consent of the king, who had planned the match at
Northumberland's suggestion," she added, with a stout
gesture, " Have at the crown by your leave." '
Mistress Elizabeth Huggins, finding herself denounced*
by her inhospitable host, and in the hands of Sir Arthur
Darcy, the Lieutenant of the Tower, declared " 'that she
had heard the marriage of the Lord GuUdford Dudley
with the Earl of Cumberiand's daughter spoken of in
London, but by whom she remembered not; and so,' she
said, ' the first night at supper at Eochford, showing
herself very glad thereof, and thought aU her hearers
were also very glad to hear of that marriage.' " Thus
she adroitly turned the tables on the pitiful informer,
and defeated Northumberland's ambitious schemes, for
the Earl of Cumberland, who had recovered from his long
melancholy, came forward, and boldly refused his con
sent to the marriage of his daughter, aUeging "that
she was already precontracted " * — to whom the proud
northern noble did not explain.
Scarcely a year later, Northumberland, having formed
an aUiance vdth Henry Gray, Duke of Suffolk, for the
marriage of Lord GuUdford Dudley and Lady Jane
Gray, could not resist the temptation of a royal aUiance
for his brother. Sir Andrew Dudley, with Lady Margaret
Clifford, the representative of the second branch of the
royal Tudor Uneage in the female line. This marriage
was resolved on by the confederates, and had progressed
so far, that a warrant was issued for the bridegroom,
who held the very convenient office of Master of the
Wardrobe, to take from thence such silks and jewels as
' Zurich Letters : Hilles to BuUinger. » Harleian MS., No. 358.

1655. HER MARRIAGE. 301
the Lady Margaret Clifford, daughter of the Earl of
Cumberland, and himself required for their wedding-
apparel.' Fortunately, the Lady Margaret was safe in the keep
ing of the earl her father, and thus escaped the snare
and the ruin which overwhelmed the aspiring house of
Dudley on the failure of Northumberland's attempts to
place Lady Jane Gray on the throne.

CHAPTER II.

Aftee the successive acts of the fearful tragedy which
sent Lady Jane Gray, her husband, her father, and her
imcle to the scaffold, had been played out. Lady Mar
garet Clifford was received as one of the great ladies of
Queen Mary's court, and finaUy, when fifteen, was mar
ried vdth the fuU consent of her royal kinswoman to
the Lord Strange, eldest son of the Earl of Derby.
The marriage was solemnised at Westminster Palace,
February 12, 1556. The queen was at that time iU —
too iU to take any part in the festivities or to appear at
the wedding; but her consort Philip exerted himself
rigorously on the occasion in honour of the cousin of
his queen.
A great banquet succeeded the nuptials, after which
there were jousts and a toumay on horseback vdth
swords; then foUowed the supper, and the bridal fes
tivities concluded vdth the Moorish war-play of juego
de canes, in which King PhUip joined, and, as usual,
exceUed all the players.
In this instance, the game took place by torch and
cresset lights — picturesque enough. Sixty cressets, or
' MS. Roval : 18 C. xxiv. fol. 364.

302 LADY MAEGAEET CLIFFORD. 1666-57.
flaming fire-baskets, raised on high, with a hundred
torches, shed a bright radiance on a scene entirely new
to the English ; in fact, no other than the Moorish game
of the " Jereed," renowned in the history of Granada.
The cane-tUting by dayhght gn another occasion is
thus described by Machyn. The 26th of November,
after Feckenham had preached a sermon — for it was
Sunday — " the king's grace, and my Lord Fitzwalter,
and divers Spaniards, did ride in divers colours : King
Philip in red, some in yeUow, some in green, some in
white, and some in blue, vdth targets and canes in
their hands, hurling the canes against each other. The
trumpets, banners, and drums, made of metals, were
of the same colours." '
After his marriage with the Lady Margaret Cliftbrd,
the Lord Strange, who had been the principal favourite
of King Edward VL, is often mentioned as bearing the
sword of State before King PhUip — an honour usually
awarded in those days to a near relative of the crown,
which Lord Strange became as the husband of the
great-granddaughter of the queen's aunt, the Queen-
duchess of Suffolk.
As early as 1667, the Lady Strange had asserted her
right to the royal succession . to be superior to that of
her cousins, the Lady Katharine and Mary Gray, be
cause, she said, " of the treason that was on their house ;
for their sister. Lady Jane Gray, had been tried, at
tainted, and executed for treason, and their father also ;
consequently they were," she pretended, " excluded from
the succession ; but she [the Lady Margaret], being the
nearest in blood and legitimately of English birth, had
the best claim to the throne at the queen's death with
out lawful issue." ^
' Machyn's Diary. ' Memoir of Giovanni Michele.

1564. EXTRAVAGANCE OF HEE HUSBAND. 303
The Lady Strange enjoyed the favour of the queen,
and next to her cousin Margaret, Countess of Lennox,
she had the post of first lady in waiting, and, in the
absence of the Countess of Lennox, took precedence
of aU the other ladies in the court and household of
her royal cousin.'
At the death of Queen Mary, she occupied, generally
speaking, the highest place about Queen Elizabeth, in
all her state pageantry and progresses.
Nichols records that, "in 1561, the Lady Margaret,
then Lady Strange, presented for her New year's offer
ing to Queen Elizabeth a Uttle round measure of gold,
to contain a pomander or scent-ball within it. The
queen acknowledged this present by the gift of a sUver
gilt bowl, with a cover weighing sixteen ounces."
When Queen Elizabeth visited Cambridge in 1564,
the Lady Margaret attended her at the performances
of the play of "Aulularia," in the church of King's
College, and bore her train.^
When not engaged in waiting on the queen, the
Lady Margaret and her lord were residing with their
young family at Gaddesden, in Berkshire, about twenty
miles from London. The Lord Strange was very ex
travagant and inconsiderate in his conduct, and was
accustomed to resort to his noble father-in-law, the
Earl of Cumberland, for assistance in his difficulties,
tiU he was at last indebted to him in the sum of eight
thousand pounds, for which, although he had given a
bond, he did not intend to pay. This made Lady Mar
garet very unhappy, especially as she leamed through
her personal attendants, Mrs. CaleshUl and Mrs. New
ton, that her lord was privUy taking measures with his
steward, William Hatley, to defeat the bond, by privUy
> Nichols's Progresses. ' Ibid.

LADY MAEGAEET CLIFFOED. 1567-68.
selUng or leasing the property on which he had pre
tended to give the earl security for the repayment of
this large sum.'
She had also the grief of finding that her lord was
not only dishonourable to her father, but unfaithful to
herself, he hadng formed a guUty intimacy with another
woman, by whom he had a famUy.*
In addition to. these faults, he was often personally
unkind to the poor lady, and when she, moved by a vir
tuous desire to pay her debts, sold one of her estates, he
claimed a large portion of the proceeds, and endea
voured to deprive her of five hundred pounds of the resi
due, which was by arbitration adjudged to be her share.
Then he endeavoured to possess himself of her jewels, by
wheedling and trying to prevaU on her to aUow him to
pledge them. As she resolutely refused to trust them in
his hands, he seized all the plate at Gaddesden, and sent
it up to London for the purpose of raising money for his
own use. He told Morrice Freeman, one of his officials,
"that as he was weU acquainted with Mrs. Newton,
who waited on Lady Strange, to deal with her from
him, to report everything her lady did or said to him
from time to time, promising that if she did, he would
reward her with a hundred or two pounds towards her
marriage." Freeman did as his lord had commissioned
him, but Mrs. Newton scornfuUy replied —
" These are my lord's old practices," refusing to listen
to anything he could say to tempt her to play the spy
and informer against her lady.
The Lady Margaret, under the pressure of these con
jugal wrongs, declared that " she would leave her lord,
appeal to the queen for protection, and inform her ma
jesty how she was treated by her husband;" but Mrs.
' State Paper MS., Eolls' Court. » Ibid.

1567-68. HEE CONJUGAL MISERY. 305
CaleshUl, her woman, persuaded her to be reconcUed,
and for a time she was so. Nevertheless, Lord Strange
endeavoured to separate the faithful CaleshiU from her.
At another time. Lord Strange told his servants, Hatley
and Griffiths, "that if his lady left Gaddesden, he
would take away her chUdren, and place her eldest boy
with the Earl of Derby his father, the second with his
brother Sir Thomas Stanley, take the third into his own
hands, and carry him to Lord Eobert Dudley, with whom
he intended to take up his abode." The Lady Margaret
complained bitterly of the unkindness of her lord, and
protested to Hatley "that she would repair to the
queen, and teU her of aU her griefs," but Hatley en
deavoured to dissuade her from leaving Gaddesden.
" Tush ! " said Griffiths, who overheard the conference,
" let her go. If she were once gone, we would get my
lord down to his house at Eitstone, and carry the money
down vdth us. If she will, she may. Let her tarry where
she Usts." '
Lord Strange then suddenly withdrew from Gaddesden,
declaring himself unable to pay the expense of house
keeping, leaving his unfortunate lady and children with
out any means of sustenance, and carrying off all his plate
vdth him. His lady appealed for aid to the Countess
of Derby his mother, and received a letter in reply, but
so blotted vdth tears that neither she nor anyone else
could read it.* StUl, she had a powerful friend in Sir
WUliam CecU, to whom she confided her griefs and
vrrongs; and as she retained the queen's favour, her
husband was fain to promise better conduct, if she
would submit to another reconciliation.
' State Paper Record, July 18, 1667, No. 28. ' Ibid.

306 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1670.

CHAPTER III.
Maegaeet was plunged in grief at the death of her
last remaining parent, the Earl of Cumberland, in the
early part of 1670. On this event the queen wrote
to the Earl of Derby, expressing " her desire that his
daughter-in-law, the Lady Margaret Strange, should
continue in attendance on her." '
Her Majesty in this letter condescends to observe,
"that she is sorry to perceive how much Lady Mar
garet is grieved by the death of her father, the Earl of
Cumberland, and informs the Earl of Derby that she
has licensed her to dispose of certain land for payment
of her debts."* The same day, February 18, Marga
ret's husband, Henry Stanley, Lord Strange, is also writ
ten to in her Majesty's name, signifying her pleasure
" that the Lady Margaret should continue her attend
ance on her;" and informing him "that she has
granted to Lady Margaret Strange, and to him, per
mission to sell some convenient portion of her lands
held by Katharine Duchess of Suffolk."^
Within the month the queen found occasion to write
again to Lord Strange, censuring him for his desire of
appropriating any part of his wife's patrimony for the
payment of his own debts.*
EebeUion had just before convulsed the northern
counties, and fiUed them with blood and confiscation.
We find that the Earl of Huntingdon, the descendant
of " false, fleeting, perjured Clarence," endeavoured to
create distrust of the noble famUies connected, either
by descent or marriage, with the royal house of Tudor,
with the view of bringing himself nearer to the throne.
In one of his private letters to CecU, he insinuates the
' State Paper MS. = Ibid. ' Ibid. * Ibid., March 14.

1570. INCENDIARY LETTER OF HUNTINGDON. 307
probability " that the Earl of Derby wUl play as false
a part as the Earls of Northumberland and Westmore
land did last year." ' The Countess of Derby was aunt
to Lady Westmoreland ; his two younger sons — Tho
mas and Edward Stanley, the brothers of Henry Lord
Strange, Lady Margaret's husband — were secret ad
herents of the Queen of Scots, though their principles
were not then openly avowed.
Huntingdon contents himself with hypocritical innu
endoes against the head ofthe house — ^the Earl of Derby,
Lord Strange's father. " I know he hath hitherto been
loyal," writes Huntingdon, " and even the last year, as
you knowj gave good testimony of his fideUty and of his
own disposition. But he may be drawn by evU counsel —
God knoweth to what ! I fear he hath, even at this time,
many wicked counseUors, and some too near him." * The
candid relative seems here to point at the Countess of
Derby ; he knew that in the rising of the northern
earls, when they had sent a circular urging Lord Derby
to rise for his religion, the earl had sent it to Queen
EUzabeth. But, lest this sensible action should be re
membered too much to the credit of the Earl of Derby,
his kinsman draws a picture of the recusant state of
the earl's estabUshment, beginning by confessing his
sins for him — at the head and front whereof was the
startling fact that he kept a conjuror. Wheresoever such
a trumpery accusation is the leading article of offence,
it may be taken for granted that nothing worse can
be aUeged against the party denounced.
" There is one Browne, a conjuror," ' proceeds cousin
Huntingdon, "in his house kept secretly. There is
also one UphaUe, who was a pirate, and had lately his
' Haynes's State Papers, p. 603 : Huntingdon to CecU, Aug. 24, 1570.
» Ibid. • Ibid.
x2

308 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1670.
pardon, that could tell somewhat, as I hear, if you
could get him. He that carried my Lord Morley ' was
also within this se'nnight kept secretly there. Lord
Derby, vdth his whole famUy, never raged so much
against religion [Protestant] as they do now ; he never
came to common prayer for this quarter of a year, as
I hear, neither doth any of his family, except five or six
persons. I dare not write what more I hear, because I
cannot justify and prove it yet ; but this may suffice for
you, in time to look to it."
Such incendiary matter is bad enough; but then
foUows a requisition for CecU to send in one of his
tempters, to blow up a plot out of the embers that the
Earl of Derby himself was eddently struggling to keep
down. The next is a clause worthy of the enemy of
mankind himself: —
" And surely, in my simple opinion, if you would send
some faithful and wise spy, that would dissemble to
come from [the Duke of] Alva and feign Popery, you
might understand aU ; for if aU be true that be said,
there is a very fond company in the house at this
present. I doubt not you can and vdU use this matter
better than I can advise you. Tet let me wish you
to take heed to which of your companions [Cabinet
councillors] , though you be but five together, you utter
this matter [a word illegible occurs], lest it be in
Latham House sooner than you would have it, for some
of you have men attending on you that deal not always
weU. I pray God save our Elizabeth, and confound aU
her enemies ! And thus I take my leave, committing
you to God's tuition. Tour assured ^oor friend,
"H. Huntingdon.
' Who had just retired to Bruges.

1670. NOBLE CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF DERBY. .S09
" P.S. — Because none there [at Latham House] should
know of my letter, I would not send it by my servant,
but have desired Mr. Ad. to deliver it to you in secret.
When you have read it, I pray you burn it, and forget
the name of the writer." '
As to historical documents, we constantly find that,
when letters are especiaUy requested to be burnt, they
are invariably carefully preserved. Such was the case
with this curious epistle. Although it was nearly
ten years before the troubles of the Lady Margaret
reached their climax, it proved the seed whence they
sprang, as from it may be traced the noxious species of
spies introduced into the household of the Stanley
family. The attack on the father of Lady Margaret's husband
was the more unjustifiable, because he had offered to raise
ten thousand men at his own charge for the suppress
ing of the northern insurrection, had it been needed.
So loyal to the queen and so influential and beloved
was he, that the holding up his hand would have been
as effectual as the displaying of his banner. Indeed,
this nobleman was one of the most justly popular men
of the era, and the most munificent and princely in his
style of living. ,
He had two hundred and twenty servants in his
cheque-roU for forty-two years, and twice a day sixty
old and decrepit poor were fed with meat ; and on
every Good Friday, for thirty-five years, he fed two
thousand seven hundred with meat, drink, and money.
Every gentleman in his service had a man and horse to
attend him, and his aUowance for the expense of his
house only was four thousand pounds a year, besides
' Haynes's Burleigh Papers, p. 604.

310 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1674.
the produce of his two great parks and very large de
mesnes ; insomuch that his house was styled the North
ern Court. Once a month he looked into his income,
and once a week into his disbursements, that none
should wrong him, nor be wronged by him, the Earl of
Derby. His house was a college of discipUne, instruc
tion, and accomplishment, his and his lady's servants
being so many young gentlemen and ladies, trained up
to govern themselves by the example of this noble pair.
His two younger sons. Sir Edward and Sir Thomas
Stanley, were unfortunately in league with other mem
bers of the Church of Eome in Lancashire, in the cause
of Mary Queen of Scots, and kept a ship at Liverpool
for the purpose of favouring her escape to Flanders.
The treachery of young EoUeston, one of their confede
rates, rendered this plot ineffectual.
The Earl of Derby died in 1574, and Margaret's
husband. Lord Strange (his eldest son), assumed and
succeeded to the family estates and honours : he took
her to live at Latham House in feudal splendour.
Nothing more remarkable occurred in the two pre
vious years than the New year's gifts that the Lady
Margaret presented to her royal mistress in 1572 and
1573. As usual, they iUustrate quaintly the costume
of the era. First, the Lady Margaret presented two
jewels of gold : the one being " an oysterye [perhaps
an oyster] garnished with two blue sapphires, sundry
smaU diamonds and rubies, with two pearls hanging by
a smaU chain, at a knot, hadng two diamonds and rubies
thereat ; the other being a little tablet of gold, hadng
therein a spider and fly of o^Dal, with one pearl pendant."

1574. THE QUEEN'S INCIPIENT JEALOUSY. 311

CHAPTER IV.
Queen Elizabeth had, by her despotic cruelty, broken
the heart of Lady Katharine Gray, and caused her
sons to be declared Ulegitimate, torn Lady Mary Gray
from her husband, and confined them separately tiU
his death, when she remembered that she had only
cleared the stage of the elder line of Suffolk, to make
room for the younger. Lady Margaret and her sons,
who became the immediate objects of her jealousy.
By her desire, the Earl of Sussex wrote to Lord
Derby, offering to place his eldest son, Fernando Lord
Strange, in the royal household, and to give him suit
able advice as to his conduct in this situation, to which
Derby gratefully replied, in the foUowing elaborate
terms : — " Earl of Derby to Lord Sussex.
*' My very good Lord, — Like as I have always found
myself greatly bound to your lordship for your continual
friendship towards me, so do I think me doubly bound
to you for that honourable care it seemeth by your late
letter you have over my son Strange. And after your
friendly assurance for his attendance on her majesty at
convenient times, it pleaseth your good lordship to offer
that friendship, not only to advertise him of times fit
for his attendance, but also give him your loving addce
and direction for his behaviour from time to time, which
favour and courtesy had been my part. I acknowledge
first to have desired of your lordship surety, as your
regard over him is father-like, and your loving friend
ship towards me not smaU. So make account of me to
be by aU means ready to yield your lordship that which
may be required of a friend or kinsman. And as I

312 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1574.
have, according to your vdsh, advertised him, that my
pleasure is that he shaU be at your lordship's direction,
so I hope that the better there be, God will bless him
with discretion to perceive how much he is bound to
you, and with good disposition to endeavour himself to
deserve it ; and when before I have kept him at his
book, without any great care for apparel or other things
fit for any place than that where he is, so now I wUl
take order that he may be provided of things necessary
for him in the times of his attendance at the court, not
doubting but, as your lordship doth vdsh him both
leamed and weU-mannered, so your lordship wiU (the
times for attendance ended) cause him to repair back,
with a charge from you to apply the same ; and so, de
siring I may hear from your lordship from time to time
of his behadour, I commend me most heartily to the
same, and wish you as myself to fare.
" Tour lordship's assured loving cousin and ready
friend during my life,
" H. Debet.'
" From my Castle of Eushen, May 13."
This was Eushen Castle, in the Isle of Man, where
the Earls of Derby were at that time kings. It must
have been written soon after Earl Henry's accession to
his famUy honours in 1674, when his eldest son was
stiU a youth. Fernando Stanley was favourably re
ceived by Elizabeth, though suspiciously regarded as
one of the male representatives of Mary Tudor, the
sister of Henry VIIL, on whom the regal succession had
been illegally settled, to the prejudice of the elder claims
of the descendants of Margaret Tudor, the elder sister,
by the despotic will of that prince.
' CoUection of Letters, edited by Leonard Howard.

1677-78. ACCUSED OF WITCHCRAFT. 313
The New year's gift of the Lady Margaret, Countess
of Derby, in 1677-78, to the queen was a petticoat of
white satin, raised with a broad embroidery of divers
coloured flowers, delivered to Eauf Hoope, yeoman of
the guards.
The Lady Margaret also presented, the next year, a
trained gown of tawny velvet, and she received a costly
double-gUt bowl from the queen, made by the royal
goldsmith (Brandon), who was probably cousin to this
noble lady on her grandfather's side. The bowl" weighed
fiLfty ounces.
Up to this period at least, no diminution of the royal
favour was perceptible.
QueenEUzabeth having placed Fernando Lord Strange
in her household, immediately under her own observa
tion, and within the watchftil attention of her practised
spies, next determined to take the first opportunity of
arresting the Countess of Derby, and holding her in
prison, as a hostage for the loyalty of her husband and
sons. So great was the caution, however, with which
the countess and her famUy behaved, that it was long
ere the queen could find any pretence for taking her
into custody, and she was at last reduced to adopt the
futUe and exploded accusation of occult 'practices.
Lady Margaret had become a nervous invalid, and was
suffering from chronic rheumatism and toothache ; on
which account she had withdrawn herself from the
fatigues and restraints of courtly Ufe, and retired to her
husband's famUy seat at Latham, in Lancashire, where
she was endeavouring to obtain relief from her aches
and pains by employing a celebrated empiric of the
name of EandaU, who had undertaken to cure her lame
ness and reUeve her toothache by his skill, and the
appUcation of certain remedies, which he chose to
administer himself and to watch their effect.

814 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1680.
Dr. EandaU had the advantage of the four spring and
summer months to commence his practice, and the in
valid found herself better, and was in hopes of deriving
great benefit from sedulously pursuing his prescrip
tions ; but the queen, being informed by her spies of
what was going on at Latham House, in the absence of
the Earl of Derby, sent and arrested the countess, her
quack doctor, and upper servants, on the accusation
that they aU were enleagued with the countess in prac
tising against her royal life by art-magic.
EandaU, terrified at the idea of the rack and the
flaming pile, confessed aU with which it pleased his
accusers to charge him and his luckless patient.'
Lady Derby was in consequence tom from her home,
and separated from her husband and famUy. No one
ventured to intercede for her, or to plead her cause to
the queen. At last, hearing of the death of Dr. Ean
daU, she ventured to write the foUovdng piteous sup
plicatory letter to the Secretary of State, Sir Francis
Walsingham, patheticaUy representing her ill-health
and great affliction from her imprisonment : —
" The Countess of Derby to Sir Francis Walsingham.
"Eight Honourable, — If but one and not many
troubles and afflictions were laid upon me at once, I
would then endeavour myself to bear therewith, and
forbear, for remedy thereof, to trouble any of my good
friends. Sickness and weakness in my body and limbs
' " Twenty-third year of Elizabeth, the 28th of November, WiUiam Randal
was arraigned in the Court of Queen's Bench, for conjuring to know where
treasure was hid in the earth, and goods feloniously taken where become.
With him were arraigned Thomas Elkes, Lupton, Eafe Spaly, and Chris
topher Waddington. Randal, Elkes, Waddington, and Spaly were found
guilty, and had judgment to be hanged. Randal was executed, and the
others were respited."

1680. HER PATHETIC LETTER TO WALSINGHAM. 315
I have of long time been accustomed to suffer, and,
finding small remedy (after proof of many), lastly, upon
information of some about me, that one EandaU had a
special remedy for the cure of my disease, by applying
of outward things, I had him in my house from May
untU August foUowing, in which time I found some ease
by his medicine ; but since I have understood, by report,
that man to have lived in great wickedness, wherevdth
it hath pleased God to suffer him, among others, not a
Uttle to plague me with his slanderous tongue whilst
he Uved. What repentance he took thereof before his
death, God knoweth. Good Sir, the heavy and long-
continued displeasure which her majesty thereby, and
by the accusation of some others, hath laid upon me,
doth more vex my heart and spirit than ever any in
firmity hath done my body ; and yet I ever have, do,
and will confess, that her majesty hath dealt both
graciously and mercifuUy vdth me, in committing me
unto such a place, where is wholesome and good air,
without the which I had perished, and imto such a per
son, whom I find is my good kinsman." '
Mr. Seckford was the kinsman to whom the countess
aUudes in ber letter to Walsingham. He held the office
of Master of Eequests, in EUzabeth's time one of some
importance. Mr. Seckford had a fine mansion in St.
John's, ClerkenweU, to which Lady Derby was removed
soon after her arrest, and dwelt under his care and
superintendence as comfortably as a state prisoner
could be expected to do ; but, to add to her troubles,
she was deeply involved in debt, and thus pitifuUy
complains to Walsingham of the importunity of her
creditors, whom her restraint and confinement did not
prevent from disturbing her : —
• Harleian MS., No. 787, fol. 16.

316 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1580.
" The- last affliction," says she, " tormented my soul
with the continual clamour and outcry of many of my
poor creditors, for whom I find no remedy, unless it may
please her highness to license my lord and me to seU
so much land, of my inheritance, as may discharge the
same, whereof, though her highness be in reversion,
yet there be about twenty persons inheritable thereunto
as heirs of the body of my grandfather, Charles Duke of
Suffolk. I humbly pray you to be a means unto her
highness herein, and for her clemency and mercy to
be extended towards me, whom I take the High God to
witness that I have ever feared and loved, and so wUl
continue whUst my life endureth.
" Thus committing myself to your good consideration,
and us both to God, I crave to trouble you (May, 1680).
" Her majesty's prisoner and your assured friend,
"M. Deebt.'"
It does not appear that the unfortunate lady derived
any benefit from her piteous supplication to Mr.
Secretary Walsingham, nor indeed from any of her old
acquaintance in the court and cabinet of her royal
cousin, with the single exception of the Vice-Chamber
lain Sir Christopher Hatton, to whom she applied in
behalf of one of her servants who had been falsely
accused of treasonable designs by one of her enemies.
The case of this hapless person Lady Derby knew
would be far more pitiable than her own ; because it was
one ofthe iniquities of Elizabeth's Star Chamber counsels
to force eddence against any noble famUy, whose ruin
was intended, by seizing a trusted domestic, and com-
peUing him by threats, and, if that were ineffectual, by
the extremity of torture, to make depositions fatal to his
¦ Additional MSS., No. 15,891, fol. 89.

1581. APPEALS TO HATTON. 317
lord or lady, concerning practices of aUeged conspiracies
to take their sovereign's life. Depositions thus extorted
were sufficient, in the reigns of Henry VIIL and Eliza
beth, to send princes and nobles of their own royal
lineage to the block ; in short, to furnish pretexts for
cutting off anyone who had the misfortune of incur
ring the iU-will either of the monarch or an influential
member of the privy council.
There is reason, from the grateful tone of the foUow
ing letter, to infer that Lady Derby had employed the
powerful intercession of the favourite Vice-Chamberlain
successfuUy in behalf of her servant : —
"I am altogether beholden unto you," she writes,
" for your honourable care of my man's miserable cause,
whose adversary God amend ; neither is his ' better '
[herself] void of enemies. But God alone can revenge
the injury, and regard his innocency. Myself at this
instant sickly, in heart perplexed, and in mind, as it
were, excited somewhat, amazed, but not altogether
amated [terrified]. In good sooth, the hope of her
highness's favour is my only reUef. The regard of her
gracious goodness towards me in my suit shaU most
comfort me, and depress the rage of my enemy.
" Well, to God and our good queen I commit both
cause and creature, and yourself, my friend, bind me ever
yours. Thus scribbling rudely, I leave hastUy, but
heartUy, with my loving salutations.
" Tours as faithfuUy as you to me,
" Maegaeet Deebt." '
Unfortunately, there is neither date of time or place
to this letter. After three years of doleful captidty
from the date of her letter to Sir Francis Walsingham,
¦ Additional MSS., No. 15,891, fol. 89.

318 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1683.
the Countess of Derby writes again to Sir Christopher
Hatton, the man the queen delighted to honour, and
from her letter to him we learn that she had, through
his kind offices, succeeded in placing herself in the
queen's sight, and making her humble obeisance as
her Majesty passed the house where she was compeUed
to abide ; and she seems to have derived some hope and
even pleasure from the circumstance, to judge from the
tone of her letter to Mr. Vice-Chamberlain Sir Christo
pher Hatton, to whom she writes : —
"My dear and noble good Friend, — Having by means
of your honourable favour obtained that grace as to
present myself to the view of her majesty, at what time
her highness removed from her house of Sion to Oat-
lands, my humble suit is now you would happily find
that good leisure and opportunity as to let it be known
unto her majesty, that thereby I received that hope of
her gracious further good liking, which since hath not
only brought life in me, but also emboldens me more
and more to prostrate myself, as a loyal and faithful
subject unto my so good and gracious a princess.
Wherefore, that I may at length desist and leave off,
though ever most bound unto your noble courtesies, my
request at this instant once again is, that by the means
of your happy motion I may come to the kissing of her
highness' hand, which would yield me that comfort as
no earthly thing the like. Good Mr. Vice-Chamberlain,
let me not seem tedious (though so indeed) unto you ;
for were it that I possessed all things, yet in this her
majesty's disgrace I esteem myself as possessing nothing,
inasmuch as I take her highness unto me as life with
her gracious favour, but as death with her heavy dis
pleasure. Thus holding you as my surest hold and

1683. IN CAPTIVITY, ILL-HEALTH, AND POVERTY. 319
most honourable good friend, from whom must proceed
my chiefest good, I humbly take my leave.
" From ClerkenweU, the 26th of September, 1588.
" Tour assured and most bounden poor
" Maegaeet Deebt." '

CHAPTER V.

Ladt Deebt remained struggling with Ul-health and
oppressed with poverty, of both which afflictions she
bitterly complains, in her next letter to her friend the
Vice-Chamberlain. It is, unfortunately, without date.
But the queen had, we understand from it, some
what loosened her chains, but did not, we gather, re
store her unconditionaUy to freedom, for she could not
change her own abiding-place, though evidently in very
wretched health. But, at any rate, she professes exces
sive gratitude for the.smaU mercy her royal cousin had
granted, at the solicitation of Sir Christopher Hatton,
to whom poor Lady Derby thus vmtes : —
"Tour honourable dealing hath bound me so much
unto you, as it is Mwpossible you should make a gentle
woman more beholden unto you than I am; for the
liberty I have attained unto at her majesty's hands
(whose feet I Ue under), I do freely acknowledge to
have only proceeded from her goodness by your honour
able mediation. Tou are the sole person in court that
hath taken compassion on me, and hath given comfort
unto my careful heart, and, under God, kept life itself
vdthin my breast. All these noble kindness'es are de
rived from your drtue and good favour towards me, a
poor vn:etched abandoned lady, no way able to yield
' Additional MSS., No. 16,891.

320 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1583.
you thankfulness worthy thereof. Tou are the rock I
buUd on. That made me yesterday so bold to send
Bessey Lambert unto you, to deliver you, at large, the
state of my body and the poverty of my purse, whom
you heard with that willingness as I am double and
treble beholden to you, and humbly thank you for it.'
" I well hoped," continues the anxious, half-Uberated
prisoner, " by your good means unto her majesty, to
have placed myself in that air that I best agree withal.
These sudden faintings and overcomings which I am
seldom out of, have so weakened and afflicted my feeble
body since my coming hither, that I am many times as
a woman brought to death's door and redved again
beyond aU expectation. My cousin Seckford," pursues
she, " hath buUt him a house at ClerkenweU, which is
not yet thoroughly finished. I would gladly be his
tenant ; for the air, as I take it, cannot be much unUke
his house at St. John's; but I hear now they die of
the sickness round about it, so that though I could and
would, yet I dare not adventure to take it ; but I hope
it wiU stay ere long, and in the meanwhUe I purpose to
provide me of some house about Highgate to remain
untU Michaelmas. K I can fiind any, I wUl embolden
myself, upon your pleasure, to trouble you with my
letters, beseeching you to move her majesty for mercy
and favour towards me, when time shall serve you ; for in
effect, as I am now, I live dying, and death were much
better welcome unto me than life, if I must be stUl in
her highness's misliking.
" Pardon me, I pray you, for my tedious lines, and
God send you as much happiness as ever had noble
gentleman. Tour most bounden friend,
• " Maegaeet Deebt." "
' HarleianMS., No. 787, fol. 16. ¦" Ibid.

1684. HER COUSIN SECKFORD. 321
It is a great pity this letter also is undated, and there
is 'not the slightest indication to surmise either when it
was written or at what place. But it was undoubtedly
prior to Hatton's promotion to the woolsack, for in an
other letter we shaU find the Lady Margaret alluding
to his elevation to that high office.
The cousin Seckford, whom the Lady Margaret men
tions in the above letter, was one of the most benevolent
characters of the period. He was the second son of a
fine old EngUsh squire, Thomas Seckford, or Sackford,
and was bom at Seckford HaU, near Woodbridge, in
Suffolk. He was brought up to the profession of the
law, in which he obtained such great eminence, that he
was made by Queen Elizabeth Master of the Court of
Eequests, a now obsolete branch of the Legislature, but
then important and lucrative. Having amassed a large
fortune, he buUt a noble mansion at the end of St.
James's Walk, at ClerkenweU, which he named, in
honour of the beloved town associated with his earUest
recoUections, Woodbridge Hall ; it stood within the
monastic pleasance of St. Marie's Close, which, at great
expense, he enclosed vdth an extensive brick wall.
Within the same spacious enclosure he built other
houses, which he bequeathed to the poor for a hospital,
with bountiful funds for its perpetual maintenance.
Nor was he forgetful of his native town, for he erected
seventeen almshouses for the residence of thirteen poor
old men, and separate houses for three women, to mind
and attend to their comforts.
He also buUt a beautiful mortuary chapel on the
north side of the fine old church at Woodbridge.
Christopher Saxton, the first publisher of county maps,
was his servant, and through the munificent patronage
T

322 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1686-87.
of Thomas Seckford ', was enabled to carry his leamed
ideas into practice.
At the period the Lady Margaret was entreating the
aid of aU the influential members of Elizabeth's court
and cabinet to break her chains, we find two of the lite-.
rati of the period courting her patronage, and address
ing her in terms of praise — Thomas Lupton and Eobert
Green ; one, in his dedication, commending her affa-
biUty, the other eulogising ^er courtesy. Eobert
Green dedicated his book, " The Mirrour of Modesty,"
12mo., to her, in 1584; Thomas Lupton, his ingenious
quarto volume, entitled, " A Thousand Notable Things
of Sundry Sorts," in 1586. It is possible that neither
of the said authors were cognisant of her adversity, as
there were no newspapers, and she had never been
brought to trial for her alleged offences against the
queen's Majesty.
It is a remarkable fact that the husband of Lady
Margaret, Henry Earl of Derby, made not the slightest
effort to obtain the Uberation of his unfortunate wife,
but continued to bask in the royal favour all the time
she was languishing in prison.
The queen, who had, on his noble father's death,
dignified him with the Order of the Garter, now sent
him on an embassy to Flanders to treat with the Prince
of Parma, and some little time after his return em
ployed him to carry the insignia of the Garter to
Paris, to invest the King of France'' with that order.
He also became one of the tools of her iniquitous mi
nistry in the judicial murder of Mary Queen of Scots,
by assisting at her mock trial at Fotheringay Castle,
and afterwards uniting with the base conclave in pro
nouncing sentence of death on the royal victim in the
' Seckford died in the year 1688, aged 72. ^ Henry III.

1687. HER HUSBAND'S TIME-SERVING CONDUCT. 323
Star Chamber. By this crime he placed his issue by
Lady Margaret one degree nearer to the throne. The
cruelty and shameless injustice of Elizabeth to the luck
less wife of his bosom, who had now been incarcerated
for so many long years on the frivolous, and indeed
impossible pretext, of practising against her Majesty's
life by magic, might have suggested to the earl the fact
that the crime of both princesses was their proximity to
the regal succession, Mary Stuart as the representative
of the elder hereditary line, and Margaret Countess of
Derby of the parUamentary.
If we view his conduct from the mildest point of
dew, fears for his own safety, as the husband of the
unfortunate Margaret Countess of Derby and the father
of her sons, might possibly have influenced the earl in
rendering himself one of Elizabeth's craven tools in
assisting to condemn the hapless Queen of Scotland to
the block.
As Sir Christopher Hatton was not promoted to the
office of Lord Chancellor tUl AprU 29, 1687, it is cer
tain that the foUowing letter of Lady Derby, which is,
like the others, undated, could not have been addressed
to him tiU after that period.
It appears that in consequence of his favourable
offices for Lady Derby to the queen, that lady had been
released from her causeless durance, and permitted to
reside at Isleworth, and that he had exhorted Lady
Derby to write very humbly and gratefuUy to her
Majesty, returning thanks for the very generous and
gracious manner in which she had been treated.
Lady Margaret, by delaying her thanks, seems to have
had smaU inclination to pour forth those fiorid expres
sions of loyalty, love, and gratitude, that were expected
of her by the jealous despot, who had tom her from her
y2

824 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1688.
husband and children, and kept her, for upwards of ten
years, in hopeless bondage for a pretended offence.
However, as the Lady Derby did not possess the truly
royal spirit of either of her murdered cousins, Lady
Jane Gray or Mary Queen of Scots, she indited a letter
to Queen Elizabeth in the most abject strain of adu
lation, and sent it to her reaUy kind friend, the Lord
ChanceUor Hatton, with her humble entreaty that he
would read and amend anything he might deem amiss,
and return it to herself, which, pursues she earnestly,
" I beg, for God's sake, that you wUl do, even as your
tender justice and the dignity of the place you are called
unto demands.
" When you have seen it, I expect the return of it,
with your pleasure and good advice, which, when I
have written as weU as I can, I wUl speedily send it you
again, to be exhibited to her majesty, whom God long
preserve, and send you great happiness and honour,
" Tour bounden friend,
" Mae. Deebt," '

CHAPTER VI.

Maegaeet's letter to Queen Elizabeth, painfuUy insin
cere and carefuUy studied as it is, must have disgusted
the clear-sighted sovereign to whom it is addressed, by
convincing her that it must be diametricaUy opposed to
the sentiments of the unfortunate lady, who had re
ceived so many years of bitter sorrow and tribulation at
her hands. How anyone under such circumstances could
have written in that strain, we are at a loss to imagine;
but here is the letter : —
' Additional MSS., No. 16,891, fol. 82.

1688. HER OBSEQUIOUS LETTER TO THE QUEEN. 325
" My dread and gracious Sovereign, most renowned
in all clemency and justice, — I do prostrate myself,
and most humbly crave that it wiU please your high
ness favourably to read, and mercifuUy to conceive,
of these few lines and wretched estate of a very poor
distressed woman, whose heart, God knoweth, hath long
been overwhelmed vdth headness through the great
loss of your majesty's favour and gracious countenance,
which heretofore right joyfully I did possess; the only
want of which hath made me eat my tears instead of
bread, and to endure all griefs beside, that your gracious
and high vdsdom may imagine. But, most dear sove
reign, I confess and acknowledge that I have found
great mercy and goodness at your hands, that in your
merciful consideration you sent me to the house of your
majesty's grave officer, the Master of Eequests, my very-
good friend and kinsman ; and now from thence it hath
pleased your highness, according to your accustomed
benignity and rare goodness, to give order unto your
honourable counseUors, the Lord ChanceUor and Mr.
Vice-Chamberlain, for my deUvery to Isleworth House :
for aU which sweet branches from the tree of your
majesty's mercy, I am, and so take myself to be, most
dutifuUy bounden and thankful unto your highness, as
I trust they wUl testify whom I besought vdth earnest
unfeigned tears, upon my knees, to be mediators to
your majesty for more plenty of your most noble favour,
pity, and mercy towards me, without the good hope
whereof I do account myself, heart and mind, to be in
the black dungeon of sorrow and despair ; and therefore,
vdth more loyalness of heart than vaj pen can express,
I lie most humbly at your gracious feet, and pray to
God that shortly my heavy and dry sorrows may be

326 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1689.
quenched with the sweet dew and moisture of your
majesty's abundant grace and virtue.
" Tour majesty's most woful and miserable thraU,
" Mae. Deebt." '
But why, if Elizabeth had restored her to Uberty,
does she subscribe herself " Tour majesty's woful and
miserable thraU " ?
Too well aware was Margaret that she was in like
case with the poor mouse, whom its feline captor flatters
with the hope of life and freedom while holding it
under her paw, only waiting the next moment to inflict
the fatal blow.
Margaret partook not the lofty courage and unbend
ing fortitude with which the kindred victims of state
policy. Lady Jane Gray and Mary Queen of Scots, had
met their doom. She does not expostulate with the
queen for aU the years of sorrow she had suffered. It
is a strange fact that she ventured not to suppUcate
to be restored to her husband and her chUdren. She
does not even aUude to them. A dark shadow of almost
impenetrable obscurity seems to overhang her destiny.
There is no reason to believe that she and her hus
band ever lived together again. He was constituted by
Queen Elizabeth, in April, 1589, Lord High Steward
of England and sole judge at the trial of PhUip Earl of
Arundel for high treason. Her Majesty was also pleased
to grant to Henry Earl of Derby, by her royal patent, for
five years, the office of Lord High Chamberlain of Ches
ter. Some time after this he determined to dsit the
Isle of Man, and on his way thither came to his house
at Liverpool, called the Tower. WhUe he was waiting
there for a passage, the corporation of that town paid
» Additional MSS., No. 15,891, fol. 32.

¦1593. HER HUSBAND'S DEATH. 327
him the compliment of erecting for him a sumptuous
staU in the church. He died in 1593, having been mar
ried to the Lady Margaret Clifford thirty-eight years.
She attended his sumptuous funeral at Ormskirk in
Lancashire. She had bome four sons and a daughter to him in the
course oftheir union. Edward, their first-bom, died very
young, so did Francis and her daughter. Fernando, Lord
Strange, succeeded to the family honours and estates.
He was a very accompUshed young man, married to
AUce, the daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe in
Northamptonshire, by whom he had only three daugh
ters, who, as females, were incapable of either inheriting
the earldom of Derby or the kingdom of Man.
Earl Fernando only enjoyed these honours a few
brief months, for he died AprU 16, 1594. After a short
but violent iUness, which was, according to the temper
of the times, imputed to the occult practices of a per
son of the name of Hacket, who had vainly tempted
him to assume the title of King of England, as the male
heir and representative of his grandmother, Lady
Eleanor Brandon, and, finding Earl Femando's loyalty
impregnable, had threatened him with an untimely
death. His symptoms were so agonising as to defy all medi
cal aid, and, after his death, a little image of wax, stuffed
with hair precisely the colour of his own, was found in
his chamber, which was absurdly supposed to have been
the cause of all his sufferings. Lord WiUiam Stanley,
the youngest son of Henry Earl of Derby and the Lady
Margaret, succeeded to the earldom of Derby and the
kingdom of Man. A few weeks after the mysterious
death of Earl Fernando, WUliam Earl of Derby married
the daughter of De Vere, Earl of Oxford, by the daughter

328 LADY MARGARET CLIFFORD. 1596.
of the prime minister, Burleigh, by whom he was the
father of the loyal cavaUer James Earl of Derby, who
was beheaded by OUver Cromwell after the battle of
Worcester. The Lady Margaret Countess of Derby returned to
London, where she fitnaUy took up her abode at Clerk
enweU, in one of her late cousin and friendly jaUer
Thomas Seckford's houses, which she had purchased of
him before his death. She departed this life in 1596,
and was buried in St. Edmund's Chapel, Westminster
Abbey. Her portrait remains at Skipton Castle, showing that
she possessed much of the beauty of her race.
" It is remarkable of this lady," observes Camden in
his record of her death, " that through an idle mixture
of curiosity and ambition, supported by sanguine hopes
and a credulous fancy, she much used the conversations
of necromancers and figure-flingers ; upon which ac
count she lost a great share in the queen's inclinations
a Uttle before her death." This is the only mention of
the Lady Margaret Countess of Derby by the usuaUy
circumstantial Camden, and it is certain that Eliza
beth's favour was forfeited fifteen or twenty years before
the death of the Lady Margaret.
The long inscription under her portrait at Skipton
Castle, evidently written by a contemporary, bears the
foUowing high testimony to her worth : —
" She was a virtuous, noble, and kind-hearted lady,
and full of goodness."
Very dearly, it must be acknowledged, were the ladies
who shared the fatal heritage of the royal Tudor blood
doomed to pay for the illegal attempt of Henry VIIL
to reverse the laws of primogeniture in favour of the
posterity of his younger sister.

1574. 329

THE LADY ARABELLA STUART.'

CHAPTER I.
Having completed the lives of the princesses of the
younger line of the royal House of Tudor, we shaU
conclude this melancholy volume with that of Arabella
Stuart, who though, as the great-granddaughter of
Margaret Tudor, Princess Eoyal of England, she occu
pied a higher place in the regal succession than the
representatives of Mary Tudor, her younger sister, was
not bom till much later in the century, and survived
the youngest of her cousins of the Brandon lineage
twenty years.
Lord Charles Stuart, her father, was the last sur
viving son of the Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of
Lennox, and brother of the unfortunate Henry Lord
Darnley, consort of Mary Queen of Scots, and by her
favour titular King of Scotland.
After Mary Queen of Scots, King James her son, and
Lady Lennox, from whom his right was derived. Lord
Charles Stuart was presumptive heir of England. He
was regarded with jealous eyes by Queen EUzabeth,
who kept him in the background as much as pos
sible. In the autumn of 1574, the Countess of Lennox
obtained Queen Elizabeth's permission to visit her
domain of Settrington, in Torkshire, and left London
accompanied by her son; but instead of proceeding
' See "Life of Margaret Countess of Lennox," iu vol. ii. oi Lives of the
Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Segal Succes
sion of Great Britain, by Agnes Strickland.

330 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1575.
into Torkshire, she visited Katharine, Duchess-dow
ager of Suffolk, at her house at Huntingdon, where
she met the Countess of Shrewsbury, who was accom
panied by her daughter, EUzabeth Cavendish, one of
her numerous family by her third husband. Sir Wil
liam Cavendish.
The Countess of Shrewsbury indted Lady Lennox,
with her son and the Duchess-dowager of Suffolk, to
accompany her to Eufford HaU, her seat in that neigh
bourhood, where she entertained the party for several
days. Lord Charles feU in love with Elizabeth Caven
dish at first sight, and so engaged himself to her that
their marriage foUowed as a matter of course.
Queen EUzabeth was infuriated when she learned
what had taken place, and committed the mother of
the bridegroom and the mother of the bride to the
Tower, also the favourite servant of Lord Charles, who
was said to have persuaded his lord to this unauthorised
wedlock. There they lay for several months, WhUe
the mothers of the bridegroom and bride were in
prison, the bride fled to Chatsworth, where, towards the
close ofthe summer of 1575, she gave birth to the first
and only child of her marriage with Lord Charles
Stuart, Lady ArabeUa, or, as she was more familiarly
called, Arbella Stuart,
The captive Queen of Scots frankly and affection
ately acknowledged Arbella as her niece, conferred the
title of Earl Lennox on Lord Charles, the father of the
babe, and desired that he and his wife should always
be entitled the Earl and Countess of Lennox,
On the emancipation of Lady Margaret, the Dowager-
Countess of Lennox, from her imprisonment in the
Tower, the young Earl and Countess of Lennox, as the
parents of Arbella were now entitled, came with their

1576. GIFT FROM MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 331
infant daughter to reside vdth her in her house at
Hackney. The Lady Margaret, who was now on perfect
terms of confidence and good-wUl with her daughter-
in-law, the Queen of Scots, with whom she had long
estabUshed a loving correspondence, had the pleasure
of receiving a letter from her soon after, enclosing a
costly present for the infant Arbella, and also for the
young Countess of Lennox, with an affectionate message
of remembrance to the latter.
The captive queen and calumniated widow of Darnlej'
never had the satisfaction of receidng the affectionate
and reverential reply of the mother and sister-in-law of
her murdered husband to this letter, written eight
years after she had been withering in an English
prison. It was intercepted by the emissaries of CecU
and Walsingham, and remains in the State Paper
Office, where we had the happiness of discovering it,
and leave to print a facsimUe for the life of Mary
Stuart, in which it appeared several years ago, and stUl
affords Lady Lennox's witness in Mary's favour. The
foUowing is her aUusion to the infant ArbeUa : —
" And now must I yield your majesty my most humble
thanks for your good remembrance of our little daughter
here [ArbeUa], who one day may serve your highness.
Almighty God grant, and to your majesty long and
happy life.' Hackney, this vi*'' of November. Tour
majesty's most humble and loving mother and aunt,
" M. L."
Can any mother, however prejudiced against Mary
Stuart, believe that Lady Lennox coidd thus have writ
ten to the aUeged murderess of her son, unless possessed
• See the facsimile of her letter at length in vol. iii. of Life of Mary
Stuart, by Agnes Strickland, published by Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh.

332 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1576.
of convincing proofs of her innocence of that crime ?
Nature forbids the idea.
Between the date of the Lady Margaret's letter and
the signature, her other daughter-in-law, Elizabeth
Cavendish, the daughter of the Countess of Shrewsbury,
who for nearly seven years had been domesticated with
Queen Mary and her household, has written the foUow
ing, reverential Uttle letter to her : —
" I most humbly thank your majesty that it pleased
your highness to remember me, your poor servant, both
with a token and in my lady grace's letter, which is
not little to my comfort. I can but vdsh and pray God
for your majesty's long and happy estate, tUl time I
may do your majesty better serdce, which I think
long to do, and shaU always be as ready thereto as any
servant your majesty hath, accordingly as in duty I am
bound. I beseech your highness pardon these rude lines,
and accept the good heart of the writer, who loves and
honours your majesty unfeignedly. Tour majesty's most
humble and lowly servant during life,
"E. Lennox."
These letters, being intercepted, never reached the
captive queen, to whom they would have afforded so
much pleasure, but they remain in the State Paper
Office to confute the deliberate false witness of the so-
caUed historians, who shame not to quote Buchanan's
forgeries with aU their anachronisms and self-contra
dictions as evidences — the only evidences — that were
ever produced of Mary Stuart's guUt.
ArabeUa's father, the young Earl of Lennox, died in
the year 1576, leadng her an orphan in the first year
of her age, unconscious of her loss. She is kindly men
tioned and cared for in the wUl made by Mary Queen of

1577. HER INFANT'S PORTRAIT AT HARDWICK. 333
Scots the following year, 1577, " I give," says the
royal testatrix, "to my niece ArabeUa the earldom of
Lennox, held by her late father, and enjoin my son, as
my heir and successor, to obey my wiU in this particu
lar " — James being himself the rightful Earl of Lennox.
The infant ArbeUa, in addition to her claims on the
earldom of Lennox, was only four degrees from the
thrones of England, Ireland, and Scotland,
The importance of ArbeUa's position was well un
derstood by her haughty grandame, the Countess of
Shrewsbury, who lost no time in reclaiming her from
the Lady Margaret, Countess-dowager of Lennox, and
commanded her daughter, the young widow of Charles
Earl of Lennox, to repair with the precious babe to her
at Sheffield Castle.
There is a lovely and most curious portait of Lady
Arabella Stuart in the gaUery ofthe Duke of Devonshire,
at Hardwick, which represents her after her father's
death in her orphan infancy. The inscription on the pic
ture is " ArbeUa Comitessa Lennox, oetatis suae 23 menses,
anno Do. 1577," satisfactorily indicating that she was
born in 1575, and witnessing that she had ceased to
wear mourning for her father at that date. She is
attired in white satin trimmed with pearls and bro
caded with crimson and gold flowers. She has rich
epaulettes of pearls, and her fuU embroidered sleeves
are confined to her tiny wrists with costly jeweUed
bracelets. A garland of pearls and coloured gems sur
rounds her throat, and a costly necklace, like the collar
of an order, supports a countess's coronet and a shield,
with this motto, " Pour parvenir j'imdure."
Her golden hair is raised from her infant brow and
combed back over a roU of white embroidered silk, sur
mounted with a frontlet of goldsmith's work, enriched

334 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1577.
with gems, and terminating with one pendent pearl on
the forehead. She is exquisitely fair, with large blue
eyes. The pretty red Ups are pursed up, vdth a look of
earnest thought, apparently on some subject beyond
her years. In her hand she holds a doU — a quaint doll
of the period is a curious study — yclad in the precise
costume of Mary Stuart in her bright morning days,
when Queen of France, a crimson brocade beU-shaped
robe, open in front to show a rich green kirtle, buttoned
down vdth pearls and fringed with pear-shaped pearls
round the bottom. DoUy is adorned with ruff, slashed
sleeves, and ruffles. Her coiffure is an evident imitation
of the peruke of the virgin queen.

CHAPTER n.

Soaecelt had the young widowed mother of the Uttle
ArbeUa settled herself and her child quietly at Sheffield
Castle, when she was compeUed by the importunity of
her ambitious mother, the Countess of Shrewsbury, to
accompany her to London, and urge ArbeUa's claims to
the earldom of Lennox.
The Eegent Mar, on the death of Matthew Earl of
Lennox, had conferred the earldom on Earl Matthew's
son. Lord Charles Stuart, although the young king was
the rightful heir. The captive Queen of Scots, without
any intention of legalising the act of the usurping re
gent, had also bestowed the same on Lord Charles and
his heirs for ever.
But the Eegent Mar was dead, and Morton (Mar's
successor) thought proper to disaUow the rights of the
infant ArbeUa to succeed her father, refusing to grant
the Countess EUzabeth's dower, or to allow her to act

1678. HER MOTHER'S SOLICITATIONS. 335
as guardian to the infant heiress of the earldom, whose
claims he denied.
The young countess soUcited the aid of Burleigh, and
thus eloquently returned her acknowledgments to him
for speaking in her chUd's behaK to the Scotch am-
. bassador : —
" I can but yield your lordship most hearty thanks
for your continual goodness towards me and my little
one, and speciaUy for your lordship's late good dealing
with the Scotch ambassador for my poor chUd's right,
for wliich, as also sundry other ways, we are for ever
bound to your lordship, whom I beseech stiU to further
that cause, as to your lordship may seem best. I can
assure your lordship the earldom of Lennox was granted
by Act of ParUament to my lord my late husband and
the heirs of his body, so that they should offer great
wrong in seeking to take it from ArbeUa, which I trust
by your lordship's good means will be prevented." '
This letter is dated August 15. After ten days of
anxious suspense she next appUed herself to the Earl of
Leicester, weU knovdng his influence with Queen EUza
beth, and hers vdth the Eegent of Scotland. Leicester
warmly advocated the cause of the infant ArbeUa in
the councU-chamber, on which account the widowed
countess addressed the foUowing letter to express her
gratitude and to induce him to continue his good offices
for her fatherless chUd t*^ —
" Tour lordship's most honourable and earnest deal
ings of late in the just cause of my poor infant for the
earldom of Lennox, declareth plainly your noble mind
and disposition as weU to support the distressed (other-
• EUis's Historical Letters, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 58.
2 CoUection of Letters edited hy Leonard Howard, D.D., p. 363.

336 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1578.
wise utterly unable to maintain their right), as also your
most apparent friendship towards them to whom your
lordship professeth the same, whereby I and my friends,
above aU others, do in heart honour your lordship, as by
whom we think ourselves chiefly assisted in aU our
causes, which, for my part, I cannot but acknowledge,
and with most thankful mind wish your lordship aU
happiness, by whose only goodness I assure myself of a
good end of that cause ; and so praying for your lord
ship's health and prosperity long to continue, take my
leave, at Newgate Street, this 25th of August, 1578.
" Tour lordship's most bounden,
"E. Lennox."'
In her postscript the poor young widow communi
cates to Lord Eobert Dudley, in confidence, the uncom
fortable predicament in which she was placed, by her
imperious mother insisting on remodng her from her
comfortable quarters at Chelsea, for fear of the plague,
and compeUing her to lodge in Newgate Street — not
the most comfortable situation in London before the
fire: —
" My Lord, — My mother hearing of the infection at
Chelsea, whereof, though there was no great danger,
yet her fears were such as, having not any fit house,
that for necessity I must presently come hither by her
commandment, which I have obeyed."
The application to the Earl of Leicester was unavail
ing. His friend, the Eegent Morton, was displaced,
and soon afterwards brought to the scaffold for his
share in the murder of Darnley. The young king be-
• See Calendar of Domestic Series of State Papers, preserved in the State
Paper Department. Edited by Eobert Simon, Esq.

1579-82. HEE MOTHEE'S DEATH. 337
stowed the title and appanage of Lennox on Esme
Stuart, Lord of Aubigny, his cousin from France,
The Lady Margaret, Countess of Lennox, having de
parted this life in the spring of 1677, not without sus
picion of poison. Queen EUzabeth seized all her pro
perty, leaving Arbella destitute, although she stood the
third only from the regal succession.
Sir WilUam Cavendish, in 1579, addressed a supplica
tion to the queen that the pension of 4001. a year be
stowed on his sister, the Countess of Lennox, and 2001.
on her daughter, the Lady ArbeU, may be continued
so long as the lands appertaining to the Countess of
Lennox remain in her Majesty's hands.
Sir WUliam might have spared his pains. There was
no extricating any portion of the Lennox property from
the tenacious grasp of Queen Elizabeth, The mother
of ArbeUa died very early in the year 1582 — according
to the computation then practised in England, it was
stiU reckoned 1581, The poor Uttle ArbeUa, thus be
reaved of her last surviving parent, was left, in the
seventh year of her age, entirely to the care and tute-
laofe of her grandmother. Lady Shrewsbury,
Lord Shrewsbury's letter to Lord Eobert Dudley and
Burleigh, announcing the melancholy event, is fuU of
kind feeling, " It hath pleased God," writes he, " to
caU to His mercy, out of this transitory world, my
daughter Lennox, this present Sunday, being the 21st
of January, about three of the clock in the morning.
Both towards God and the world she made a most
godly and good end, was in most perfect memory aU
the time of her sickness, even to her last hour. Sundry
times did she make her most earnest prayer to the
Almighty for her majesty's most happy estate, and the
long and prosperous continuance thereof; and, as one
z

338 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1682.
infinitely bound to her highness, humbly beseeched her
majesty to have pity upon her poor orphan Arbella
Stuart, and as, at aU times heretofore, both the mother
and poore daughter were most infinitely bound to her
highness, so her assured trust was that her majesty would
continue the same accustomed goodness and bounty
to the poor chUd she left.' And of this her suit and
humble petition my said daughter Lennox, by her last
wUl and testament, requireth both your lordships (to
whom she acknowledged herself always most bound) in
her name most lowly to make this humble petition to
her majesty, and to present with aU humUity unto
her majesty a poor remembrance, delivered by my
daughter's own hands, which very shortly wiU be sent
with my daughter's humble prayer for her highness'
most happy estate, and most lowly beseeching her high
ness in such sort to accept thereof as it pleased the
Almighty to receive the poor widow's mite." ^
The Countess EUzabeth Lennox, whom Shrewsbury
mentions with so much tenderness, was only his step
daughter. He speaks of the great affliction of his
vdfe, her mother. That lady writes a week later to
Burleigh, thanking him for his past kindness. " How
much your lordship did bind me," she says, " the poor
woman that is gone, and my sweet joull Arbella, at our
last being at court, neither the mother, during her life,
nor I can ever forget, but most thankfuUy acknowledge
it ; and so I am weU assured will the young babe, when
her riper years wiU suffer her to know her best friends."
Lady Shrewsbury next proceeds to caU the minister's
attention to a matter of great interest to her — the frinds
for the education and maintenance of the orphan. " I
' EUis's Historical Letters, 2nd series, vol. iii. pp. 60-61.
' This letter is dated from ShefiSeld Manor, January 21st (1581-82).

1582. PERSEVERING SUIT OF LADY SHREWSBURY. 339
hope," continues she, " that her majesty, upon my most
humble suit, wiU let the portion which her majesty Ipe-
stowed on my daughter and my jewel ArbeUa remain
whoUy to the child for her better education. Her servants
that are to look to her, her masters that are to train her
up in aU good learning and virtue, wiU require no smaU
charge, wherefore my earnest request to your lordship
is to recommend this my humble suit imto her majesty." '
After a delay of four months, the careful grandame
wrote again to her friend Burleigh, to remind him of
her suit in behalf of Arbella, The money she so perti
naciously claims was not a royal gift, but absolutely an
allowance out of the English property of the Lady Mar
garet and her husband Matthew, Earl of Lennox, seized
by Elizabeth on the engagement of Mary Queen of Scots
to their son Lord Darnley, and pertinaciously retained by
her during the life of the Lady Margaret, except some
scanty instalments for her maintenance and that of
her son Lord Charles, and these two annuities of four
hundred pounds to his wife and two hundred to his
daughter, at the earnest petition of Lady Shrewsbury,
as we see by the foUowing letter from the countess to
Burleigh, in which she says : — " It pleased her majesty,
upon my humble suit, to grant unto my late daughter
Lennox four hundred pounds, and to her dear and
only daughter, ArbeUa, two hundred pounds yearly,
for her better maintenance, out of parcel of the land
of her inheritance, whereof the four hundred is now at
her majesty's disposition by the death of my daughter
Lennox, whom it pleased God, I doubt not in mercy,
for her good, but to my no small grief, in her best
time to take out of this world, whom I cannot yet re
member but vdth a sorrowful troubled mind. I am now,
' EUis's Historical Letters, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 64.
z 2

340 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1582.
my good lord, to be an humble suitor to the queen's
majesty that it may please her to confirm that grant of
the whole six hundred pounds, yearly, for the education
of my dearest jewel ArbeUa ; . . . and as I know your
lordship hath especial care for the ordering of her ma-
jestie's revenues and estates every way, so trust I you
wUl consider of the poor infant's case, who, under her
majesty, is to appeal only unto your lordship for succour
in aU her distresses, who, I trust, cannot dislike of this
my suit in her behalf, considering the charges incident
to her bringing up. For although she were ever where
her mother was during her life, yet can I not now like
she should be here nor in any place else where I may
not sometimes see her, and daUy here I hear of her ;
and therefore charged with keeping house where she
must be with such as is fit for her calUng, of whom I
have special care, not only as a natural mother hath of
her best beloved chUd, but much greater in respect how
she is in blood to her majesty; albeit one of the poorest,
and depending whoUy of her majestie's gracious bounty
and goodness, and being now upon vu years, and very
apt to learn and able to conceive what shaU be taught
her. The charge wiU so increase as I doubt not her
majesty wiU weU conceive the six hundred pounds yearly
to be little enough, which, as your lordship knoweth, is
but as so much in money for that the lands be in lease,
and no further commodity to be looked for during the
few years of the child's minority." '
ArbeUa wa.3 with her grandmother, at Sheffield, when
this letter was written, and it appears that two himdred
a year was aU that was aUowed for the education and
bringing up of this highly -connected child. Notwith
standing Lady Shrewsbury's disappointment as to the
3 EUis's Historical Letters, vol. iii. p. 66.

1583. BOASTED AS FUTURE QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 341
aUowance, she regarded Arbella as the future Queen of
England, for, after the captive Queen of Scots and the
young king, she stood heiress presumptive to the throne.
The boastful temper of the haughty countess impelled
her to teU the unfortunate prisoner Queen Mary " that
Arbella was the true heiress to the childless sovereign,
Queen EUzabeth, not being an alien by birth like Mary
and her son, who were of course ineligible for the
royal succession," ' she said. Mary was, of course, deeply
offended, and charged the French ambassador to inform
Elizabeth of the ambitious presumption of the Countess
of Shrewsbury, who had also betrothed her little grand
daughter to the son of the Earl of Leicester", through
whom she trusted to compass her design. " The chU
dren," continued Mary, " are educated with the idea
of marriage, and their portraits have been sent to each
other." The Countess of Shrewsbury, in return, accused Mary
of aUenating her husband's heart from her; she was
then on bad terms with him on money matters, and de
parted from Sheffield Castle with ArbeUa to Chats
worth. She next commenced a Chancery suit against
her lord, and encouraged her two younger sons by
Sir William Cavendish to circulate scandals regarding
Shrewsbury and his royal charge. AU three were com
peUed to deny their assertions in the council-chamber,
before the queen, her council, and the French ambassa
dor, declaring on their knees that " the Queen of Scot
land, since she had been in England, had never deported
herself otherwise in honour and chastity than became a
queen and a princess of her quaUty."
¦ Despatches of La Mothe Fenelon.
' This was the Earl of Denbigh, the son of the Earl of Leicester by his
Countess Lettice KnoUes, the widow of Walter Earl of Essex. The boy died
on July 19, 1684, and was buried in the Collegiate Church at Warwick.

842 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1587;
The murder of Mary Queen of Scots placed ArbeUa
in such near proximity to the throne, that Queen EUza
beth determined to use her as a puppet to awaken the
jealousy of her royal kinsman, the young King James,
by affecting to treat her as her intended successor. She
accordingly ordered her to come to London and await
her pleasure.
ArbeUa proceeded to the metropolis under the care
of her uncle and aunt. Lord and Lady Talbot, in July
1687, and whUe residing with them in their humble
lodgings in Colman Street, continued to take lessons in
French, They were so proud of her progress in this
language, that when writing a joint letter to the aU-
potent minister. Lord Burleigh, they made Arbella finish
vdth the foUowing note to him in French : —
" Je prieray Dieu, Monsieur, vous donner une parfaite
et enti^re saute, tout heureux et bon succ^s, et seray
toujours preste a vous faire tout honneur et serdce,
"Aebella Stuaet."
At length the queen sent for her to court, and indted
the lady of Ch^teauneuf, the French ambassador, and
a great assembly of the EngUsh nobUity to dinner.
ArabeUa, though only twelve years old, was given the
place of honour next the queen, as her nearest relation.
After dinner, when they had aU withdrawn into a
stately hall, her Majesty asked Madame de Chiteauneuf
" if she had remarked a Uttle girl who had dined at her
table." " She is my relation," continued the queen, and
called the Lady ArabeUa to her. Madame de Chiteau-
neuf spoke much in her commendation, and remarked
that " she spoke French very weU, and seemed very
sweet and gracious."
" Observe her weU," said the queen, " for she is not

1687. EFFECTS OF HER FIRST VISIT TO COURT. 343
so simple as you may think. One day she wUl be even
as I am, lady mistress here; but I shaU have been
before her." '

CHAPTER III.

Hee visit to the court, brief as it was, disinclined the
young ArbeUa to return to the toilsome routine of the
elaborate education she was receiving by the orders of
her grandmother, and when she returned to Wingfield
she took advantage of the temporary absence of that
lady to refuse all her tasks, and amuse herself in her own
way. At last her naughty doings were thus communi
cated to the countess by her faithful controUer, Nicholas
Kynnersly : —
" My Lady ArbeUa at eight of the clock this night
was merry and eat her meal weU, but ghe went not to
school this six days ; therefore I would be glad of your
ladyship coming home, if it were only for this." "
The return of the stern old countess had of course
the effect of reducing the high-spirited girl to order for
awhUe ; but, regarded, as she could not but perceive she
was, as the future Queen of England, she occasionaUy
manifested a wiU of her own.
The famUy of the old countess looking on ArbeUa as
the future Queen of England, regarded her with pride
and complacency instead of jealousy, and in aU their
letters have something agreeable to say of her, as GUbert
Lord Talbot and his wife, Mary Cavendish, write to the
old countess : — " July 1, 1689. Our prayer to God is to
prosper my Lady Arbella, and to bless our Uttle ones,
^ ' Letter of Chateauneuf, the French ambassador, to King Henry III.,
August 27, 1687. ' Hunter's HallamsAire.

344 LADY ARABELLA STUAET. 1691.
and to reward your ladyship for your great care and
goodness to them. The queen," continues GUbert,
" asked me very carefuUy the last day I saw her for the
Lady ArbeUa, God bless her with all His blessings." '
ArbeUa grew up a very lovely young woman, learned
and accomplished ; she was often spoken of as a future
consort for her royal cousin, the King of Scotland. The
astute premier of Queen Elizabeth, Lord Burleigh, is
said to have taken great pains to prevent any aUiance
of the kind, intending Arbella for his son. Sir Eobert
CecU, in which case he would have strained every nerve
to procure the regal succession for her. The young
lady having no incUnation for this union, evaded it by
declaring " that no match in England was worthy of
her attention,"
The first letter written to ArabeUa by her royal kins
man, the young King of Scotland, that was permitted
to reach her hands, is very sensible, and manly, and
certainly worthy of the attention of her biogTaphers.*
He says : — " Although the natural bonds of blood, my
dear cousin, be sufficient for the good entertainment of
amity, yet wiU I not abstain from those common offices
of letters, having ndw so long keeped sUence tUl the
fame and report of so good parts in you have interpelled
me. And as I cannot but in heart rejoice, so can I not
forbear to signify to you hereby what contentment I
have received, hearing of your so drtuous behadour,
wherein I pray you most heartUy to continue ; not that
I doubt thereof, being certified of so fuU concourse of
nature and nurriture, but that, you may be the more
encouraged to proceed in your drtuous demeanour,
reaping the fruit of so honest estimation, the increase
of your honour and joy, and your kindly affected friends,
' Birch MS. « State Papers ; Scot. xiv. 12, fol. 123.

1591. PLOT FOR ABDUCTING ARABELLA. 345
especially of me, whom it pleaseth most to see so vir
tuous and honom-able scions arise of that race whereof
we have both our descent. Now, hearing more certain
notice of the place of your abode, I will the more fre
quently dsit you by my letters, which I mean to be
glad to do in person, expecting also to know from time
to time of your estate by your own hand, which I look
you wiU not weary to do, being first summoned by me,
knowing how far I shaU be pleased thereby.
" From Holyrood House, the 23rd of December, 1591.'
" Tour loving and affectionate cousin,
"James E."
Meantime a plot was discovered by the ministers of
Queen EUzabeth for the abduction of Arabella by the
agents of Spain, Sir WUliam Stanley, EoUeston, and
Semple, who had undertaken to convey her to Flanders.
ArabeUa was then spending her time at Hardwick, under
the care of her grandmother, the Dowager Countess of
Shrewsbury.' Burleigh sent a special messenger with a letter to
the old countess, informing her of the discovery of the
plot, and exhorting her to be very careful of the safety
of the young lady, lest she should be stolen away.
Lady Shrewsbury, who was greatly troubled and
alarmed at the tidings, writes confidentially in reply to
the minister as foUows : —
" I was at first much troubled to think that so
wicked and mischievous pi-actices should be devised
to entrap my poor ArbeUa and me ; but I put my trust
in the Almighty, and wUl use such diligent care as I
doubt not but to prevent whatsoever shall be attempted
by any wicked persons against the poor chUd. I am
> State Papers; Scot. xiv. 12, fol. 123. ' Strype.

346 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1691.
most bound to her majesty that it pleased her to appoint
your lordship to give me knowledge of this Vicked
practice, and I humbly thank your lordship for adver
tising it. I wUl not have any unknown or suspected
person to come to my house. I have little resort to
me. My house is furnished with sufficient company.
ArbeU walks not late ; at such time as she shaU take
the air, it shall be near the house, and weU attended to ;
she goeth not into anybody's house at aU. I see her
almost every hour in the day. She lieth in my bed
chamber. If I can be more precise than I have been I
wiU. I am bound in nature to be careful for ArbeU.
I find her loving and dutiful to me, yet her own good
and safety is not more by me regarded than to ac
compUsh her majesty's pleasure. I would rather wish
many deaths than to see this or any suchlike vdcked
attempts prevaU." '
Then the old countess speaks with suspicion " of
the seminary priest Harrison, who, about a year since,"
she says, " lay at his brother's house about a mUe from
Hardwick," where she and ArbeUa were then residing.
She thought then to have had him apprehended, but
found he had a Ucence for a time. He was probably
one of Walsingham's spies, perhaps the same Harrison
who forged Queen Elizabeth's sign-manual to the war
rant for Mary Queen of Scots' execution ; but of course
Lady Shrewsbury was not entrusted with the secret of
his practices with Walsingham. It is even possible he
might have been employed to watch her and her famUy.
" Since my coming into the country again," continues
she, " I had some inteUigence that the same seminary
was come again to his brother's house. My son, WiUiam
Cavendish, went thither of a sudden to search for him,
' Lady Shrewsbury to Burleigh ; EUis, 2nd series, p. 166.

1591. PLOT FOR ABDUCTING ARABELLA. 347
but could not find him. I write thus much to your
lordship, that if any such traitorous and naughty per
sons (through her majesty's clemency) be suffered to
go abroad, that they may not harbor near my houses,
Wingfield, Hardwick, and Chatsworth, in Derbyshire :
they are the Ukest instruments to put a bad matter in
execution." The suspicious old lady next proceeds to discuss the
possibiUty of one of ArabeUa's former masters having
some concern with the project for her abduction. She
says : — " One Morley, who hath attended on ArbeU and
read to her for the space of three years and a half,
showed to be much discontented since my return into
the country, saying, he had Uved in hope to have
some annuity granted him by ArbeU out of her land,
during his life, or some lease of grounds to the value of
forty pounds a year, aUedging that he was so much
damaged by leaving the university, and now saw that
she had not the abiUty to make him any such assu
rance. I understanding by divers that Morley was so
much discontented, and withal having some cause to
be doubtful of his forwardness in reUgion, though I
cannot charge him vdth papistry, took occasion to part
with him. After he was gone from my house, and aU
his stuff carried from hence, the next day he returned
again very importunate to serve, without standing upon
any recompence, which made me more suspicious and
willing to part from him. I have another in my house
who wiU supply Morley's place very well for the time.
I wUl have those that shaU be sufficiently honest and
weU disposed, as near as I can. I am inforced," con
tinues the old countess, " to use the hand of my son,
WUliam Cavendish, not being able to write so much
myself, for fear of bringing great pain to my head. He

348 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1600.
only is privy to your lordship's letter, and neither ArbeU
nor any other lidng shall be."
This letter is dated " From my house at Hardwick,
the 21st of Sept., 1692." '
Arbella was then seventeen, and had declined many
offers of marriage. Her cousin, the King of Scotland,
desired to match her with their mutual kinsman Esme
Stuart, his favourite minister and friend, whom he had
created Duke of Lennox ; but Queen EUzabeth angrily
forbade the marriage. As the duke was many years
older than ArbeUa, she received the interdict with per
fect calmness.
Arbella was kept in the shade during the latter
years of Elizabeth's reign. She resided chiefly in the
country with her widowed grandmother, at one or other
of her country seats in Derbyshire.
The old countess thought proper, at the beginning of
the year 1600, to remind the queen of the existence
of her fair young kinswoman, by employing Dorothy,
Lady Stafford, to present New year's gifts from herself
and Lady ArabeUa, that of Lady ArabeUa being of
great beauty and rarity, together mth a dutiful letter
from Lady Shrewsbury to the queen, humbly beseeching
her majesty " to have a care of Arbella, that she might
be bestowed to her good liking in marriage,"

CHAPTER IV.

Ladt Stapfoed was related both to the queen and Lady
ArabeUa, for her mother, Ursula Pole, was daughter
to Margaret Countess of SaUsbury, daughter to George
Duke of Clarence, She duly informs Lady Shrewsbury
' Lady Shrewsbury to Burleigh; EUis, 2nd series, p. 168.

1600. INTRIGUES FOR HER ALLUNCE. 349
" that she had presented both hers and the Lady Ar
beUa's New year's gifts to the queen, who had been
graciously pleased to accept them, and had taken an
especial fancy to that of my Lady Arbella, It pleased
her majesty," continues Lady Stafford, " to tell me that
whereas, in certain former letters, of your ladyship's, your
desire was that her majesty would have that regard for
my Lady Arbella, that she might be carefully bestowed
to her majesty's good liking ; that aUuding to the con
tents of these letters, her majesty told me she would
be careful of her, and withal hath returned a token to
my Lady ArbeUa, which is not so good as I could wish
it, nor so good as her ladyship deserveth in respect to
the rareness of that she sent to her majesty,"
ArbeUa having attained the age of five-and-twenty
in single blessedness, thought it time to enter into some
aUiance, for, although five-and-twenty is the very pride
ol woman's age, princesses were rarely disengaged ten
years younger.
Perceiving that Elizabeth did not intend to bestow
her in marriage, Arabella engaged herself in a love-
affair with the Earl of Northumberland, who un
doubtedly would have been a suitable consort for her ;
' but the queen was enraged when she learned what was
proceeding, and sternly forbade it.
The neglected, plimdered ArabeUa was an object of
attention and the subject of busy intrigues on the Con
tinent. In the first place, two of the descendants of
Clarence, Arthur Pole and his brother Galfrid Pole,
though much too aged to wed with her, were looking
with longing eyes to her aUiance. They told Car
dinal d'Ossat ', " they were of the ancient royal blood
of the Plantagenets," and soUcited his interest with
' Lettre du Cardinal d'Ossat a Tl^eque de Mayence, p. 368.

350 LADY AEABELLA STUART. 1600'.
Henry IV. of France, his sovereign, to send them into
England to the queen their relative, thinking they might
by that means obtain sight and speech with her sup
posed heiress. Unfortunately for them, Arthur Pole
was in the serdce of Cardinal Farnese, the brother of
the Duke of Parma, and the pope thought the said car
dinal would be a very siutable person to place on the
throne of England, as the husband of ArabeUa, on the
death of the declining English queen. The pope would
have been glad to place the cardinal on the throne of
England without ArabeUa, but was aware his party
would not be strong enough imless he could make an
alUance with hers.^ He would have married her to the
Duke of Parma, but the duke was already prodded
with a wife. The duke had pretensions to the throne
of Portugal through the marriage of an infanta with one
of his ancestors, and by that descent he and his brother
the cardinal were representatives of John of Gaunt. As
for the cardinal's vows, they were easily set aside, and
the pope considered this arrangement would be a good
thing for the Church.
Father Parson's book on the royal succession of
England, published in 1594, made a great impression
on the Continent, and especiaUy on the pope and Car
dinal d'Ossat, who tells his master, Henry TV., that,
after the Queen of England, the King of Scotland and
the Lady Arbella Stuart were nearest of the blood royal,
that the Earls of Derby and Hertford came next to
them ; then of the House of Clarence were the Earl of
Huntingdon and the brothers Arthur and Galfrid Pole,
but that the title of the Duke of Parma and his brother.
Cardinal Farnese, was far superior as representatives
of the legitimate line of Lancaster, through their de-
• Lettre du Cardinal dOssat a Vtiveque de Mayence, pp. 617-18.

1601. HER REPORTED CONVERSION TO ROMANISM. 351
scent from PhUippa Plantagenet, the eldest daughter of
John of Gaunt. The objection to the King of Scotland,
he stated, was, that he was not bom in England, there
fore an aUen ; and to Lady Arabella, that she was a wo
man, and of course ineUgible, as three females reigning
successively would be very distasteful to the English
nation. But the Uke objection held good in regard to
the infanta Clara Eugenia, to whom her brother. King
Philip III., had made over his claims to the crown of
England, derived from the second daughter of John
Duke of Lancaster, since Clara Eugenia was no less a
woman than ArabeUa Stuart.^ There is room to believe
ArabeUa was a Eoman CathoUc, and this affords a
reason for the pope's anxiety for a marriage between
her and Cardinal Farnese.
A rumour having been confidently spread that Ara
bella had become a convert to the Church of Eome, her
cousin* the King of Scotland, to whom it had been con
veyed, thus notices the injurious report in a letter to
Lord Henry Howard : —
" I am, from my heart, sorry for the accident which
hath befallen ArabeUa, but as nature enforceth me to
love her, as the creature nearest of kin to me, next
my own children, so would I for her own weal that such
order were taken as she might be preserved from edl
company, and that edl-incUned persons might not have
access unto her, abusing the fraUty of her youth and
sex ; for if it be true, as I am credibly informed, that
she is lately moved by the persuasions of the Jesuits
to change her reUgion and declare herself CathoUc, it
may easily be judged that she hath been very eviUy at
tended on by them that should have had greater care
of her when persons so odious, not only to all good
' Cardinal d'Ossat to Hemy IV. of France.

352 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1603.
EngUshmen, but to aU the rest of the world, Spain only
excepted, should have access to have conferred with her
at such leisure as to have disputed and moved her in
matters of religion."
The declining Queen EUzabeth was rendered very
miserable by hearing, soon after the death of Lord
Beauchamp's wife, that ArabeUa had proposed herself
to him for a second consort, thus to unite her title with
his, he being the eldest son of Lady Katharine Gray.'
Many writers have confused Lord Beauchamp vdth his
youthful son, WUUam Seymour, whom Lady ArabeUa
Stuart, ten years afterwards, married ; but he, at this
time, was a mere schoolboy, and it is very improbable
that ArabeUa, a beautiful woman of seven-and-twenty,
wooed by princes and nobles, would condescend to waste
a thought on a lad so many years her junior. It was a
connexion that, instead of strengthening her title, would
expose her to the ridicule of every court in Europe.
By CecU's addce, Arabella was arrested, and sent to
the gloomy fortress of Sheriff Hutton in Torkshire, to
be kept out of the way of mischief.
Her name in connection with that of Katharine Gray's
son continued to excite great irritability in the queen ;
and on the last night of her life, when three of her mi
nisters endeavoured to induce her to name her successor,
and mentioned Lord Beauchamp, she angrily exclaimed,
" I wUl have no rascal's son to succeed me."
And these were her last words.''
The Lady ArabeUa Stuart, being of the royal blood,
was especially required to attend the funeral of Queen
Elizabeth. Her place would indubitably have been
to walk as chief lady mourner. She, however, refused
to be present, saying, " Sith her access to the queen
in her lifetime might not be permitted, she would not
' Lingard's llotes. ' Ibid.

1603. ACCESSION OF HER COUSIN KING JAMES. 353
after her death be brought so near her, as on a stage
for public spectacle." ' This was a most phUosophical
renunciation of the opportunity of securing her place
of near proximity to the English crown.

CHAPTER V.

The accession of James I. to the throne of Great Bri
tain brought freedom, wealth, and pleasure to Lady
ArabeUa. She immediately received the eight hundred
a year so shamelessly withheld by Queen Elizabeth, and
also the two hundred a year which had been stopped
during her imprisonment, and he accorded also an
aUowance of many dishes of meat for her household.
ArabeUa met and welcomed the queen, near her uncle
Sir Charles Cavendish's seat, at Welbeck, having de
vised a pastoral masque for that purpose with a com
pany of young persons of rank, dressed like shepherds
and shepherdesses, crowned with flowers, and singing
verses in honour of the meeting, and the blessings of
peace which the accession of King James promised to
secure to the united realm. Then came a troop of
huntsmen, arrayed in green and sUver, conducting a
herd of tame deer, with their horns tipped with gold.
These huntsmen announced the approach of Diana to
welcome the queen ; lastly appeared Lady Arabella, in
the character of the goddess, surrounded by her nymphs.
The pageant was very successful, pleased the queen
and delighted the princess royal, to whom Lady Ara
beUa had been appointed state governess by the king.
Everything was most charming. It was ArabeUa's
fijTst pubUc appearance, and when the king held a chapter
' Sloane MS., No. 718; EUis's Original Letters, vol. iii. p. 59.
A A

364 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1603.
of the Order of the Garter at Windsor, Lady Arabella
and the young princess, her pupU, witnessed it from one
of the window recesses in St. George's HaU.
The king and queen treated ArabeUa as the first lady
of the court, and recognised her as next to the royal
chUdren in the succession.
The king granted her a fine income, and the queen
behaved to her with the affectionate familiarity of a
sister. The queen's secretary " and master of the guests,
WUliam Fowler, feU desperately in love vdth the Lady
ArabeUa. He wrote in the most absurd and euphuistic
strain to her imcle and aunt Shrewsbury on the sub
ject of her perfections,' "I cannot forbear," he says,
" from giving you advertisements of my great and good
fortune in obtaining the acquaintance of my Lady Ara
beUa, who may be to the first seven justly the eighth
wonder of the world, I send two sonnets unto my most
virtuous and honourable lady, the expressions of my
honour to the honour of her whose sufficiency and per
fections merit more regard than this ungrateful and
depressing age vdll afford or suffer."
We only quote from one a few lines : —
" Thon goodly nymph, possesfc with heavenly fear,
Didne in sonl, devout in Hfe, and grave,
Rapt from thy sense and sex, thy spirit doth steer,
Joys to avoid wliich reason doth bereave.
0 graces rare ! " &c.
In another letter, he says : — " My Lady ArabeUa
spends her time in lecture-reading, hearing of Service,
preaching, and visiting aU the princesses. She wUl
not hear of marriage. Indirectly there were speeches
used in recommendation of Count Maurice, who pre-
' Lodge's Illustrations of History.

1603. EER ACCOUNT OF THE SPANISH AMBASSADOR. 355
tendeth to be Duke of Gueldres, I dare not attempt
her," '
Fowler would only have exposed himself to the
laughter of the Lady Arabella if he had ventured to
play the wooer in good earnest. She had ceased to
think of Lord Beauchamp, and spent her days in inno
cent cheerfulness and mirth.
The court removed from London because of the in
fection of the plague ; and ArabeUa writes the following
lively letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury from Abing
don : * —
" At my return from Oxford, where I have spent this
day, whilst my Lord Cecil, amongst many more weighty
affairs, was despatching some of mine, I found my
cousin Lacy had disburdened himself of the charge he
had from you, and straight feU to prepare his freight
back, I wrote to you of the reason of the delay of
Taxis'' audience; it remaineth to teU how jovially he
behaveth himself in the interim. He hath brought
great store of Spanish gloves, hawks' hoods, leather for
jerkins, and moreover a perfumer ; these deUcacies he
bestoweth among our lords and ladies — I wiU not say
with a hope to effeminate the one sex, but certainly
with a hope to grow gracious vdth the other, as he
already is. The curiosity of our sex drew many ladies
and gentlemen to gaze at him betwixt his landing-place
and Oxford, his abiding-place ; which he, desirous to
satisfy (IwUl not say nourish that vice), made his
coach stay, and took occasion, vdth petty gifts and
courtesies, to soon win more affections ; who, comparing
his manner with Monsieur de Eosny's, hold him a far
welcomer guest. At Oxford he took some distaste
¦ Lodge's Elustrations of History. " Ibid., vol iii. p. 20.
• The Spanish ambassador, Don Juan de Taxis, Conde de ViUa Medina.
A 1^ 2

366 LADY ABABELLA STUART. 1603.
about his lodging, and would needs lodge at an inn,
because he had not aU Christ's College to himself,
and was not received into the town by the vice-chan-
ceUor in pontificalibus, which they never do but to
the king or queen or chanceUor of the university, as
they say ; but these scruples were soon digested, and he
vouchsafeth to lodge in a piece of the coUege tiU his
repair to the king at Winchester,
"Count Aremberg ' was here vdthin these few days, and
presented to the queen the archduke and the infanta's
pictures, most exceUently dravra, Testerday the king
and queen dined at a lodge of Sir Henry Lee's, three
mUes hence *, and were accompanied by the French am
bassador and a Dutch duke. I will not say we were
merry at the Dutchkin, lest you complain of me for
teUing tales out of the queen's coach ; but I could find
it in my heart to write unto you some of our yesterday's
adventures, but that it groweth late, and by the short
ness of your letter I conjecture you would not have this
honest gentleman overladen with supei'fluous relations,"
Notwithstanding this remark. Lady ArabeUa goes on
to discuss some court gossip in a Uvely strain ; then, in
conclusion, adds: — "But if ever there were such a
virtue as courtesy at the court, I marvel what has be
come of it, for I protest I see Uttle or none of it, but in
the queen, who, ever since her coming to Newbury, hath
spoken to the people as she passeth, and receiveth
their prayers with thanks and thankful countenance
bareface [that is, without a mask], to the great con
tentment of native and foreign people ; for I would
not have you think the French ambassador would
leave that attractive virtue of our late Queen Elizabeth
' The ambassador of the Archduke Albert and the Infanta Clara Eugenia,
the sovereigns of Flanders.
' Dytchley Park, the seat of the Viscount DiUon at present.

1603. ROYAL PASTIMES. 357
unremembered or uncommended, when he saw it imi
tated by our most gracious queen, lest you should think
we infect even our neighbours with incivility. But
what a theme have rude I gotten unawares ! It is
your own virtue I commend by the foUy of the contrary
vice, and so thinking on you, my pen accused myself
before I was aware. Therefore I wiU put it to sUence
for this time, only adding a short but most hea.rty
prayer for your prosperity in aU kinds, and so humbly
take my leave. " Tour lordship's niece,
"Aeabella Stuaet,
" From Woodstock, Sept. 16th."
Her next remove was with the queen to Winchester,
where she spent the summer. We are indebted to her
lively pen for the foUowing account of how they were
endeavouring to whUe away their seclusion : —
" Will you know," asks she, " how we spend our time
on the queen's side [her Majesty's suite of apartments]?
WhUst we were at Winchester there were certain child's
plays remembered by the queen's fair ladies, such as
' Else, pig, and go,' ' I pray, my lord, give me a course
in your park,' ' One penny follow me ;' and when I came
to court they were as highly in request as ever cracking
nuts was. So I was by the mistress of the revels not
only compeUed to play at I know not what (for tUl that
day I never heard of a play called ' Fire ! '), but I was
even persuaded by the princely example to play the
chUd again. This exercise is mostly used from ten
o'clock at night to two or three in the morning, but
the day I made one it began at twUight and ended at
supper-time." '
' Semarkalle Trials in Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 119.

;ir>8 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1603.
The poor queen and her ladies must have been sadly
at a loss for diversion before they had recourse to these
puerile though harmless games, in order to whUe away
the hours, which passed heavily laden with court ennwi,
in the antique castle of Winchester.

CHAPTER VI.

Eaelt in November Lady ArabeUa returned to London,
having been warned that Sir Walter Ealeigh and Lord
Cobham designed to introduce her name as a party
in the conspiracy against her royal cousin, the king.
Accordingly she was in a gaUery as a personal auditor
of the trial, in the course of which Lord Cecil said : —
" Here hath been a touch of the Lady ArabeUa Stuart,
a near kinswoman of the king. Let us not scandal [ise]
the innocent by confusion of speech. She is as inno
cent of aU those things as I or any one here; only
she received a letter from my Lord Cobham to prepare
her [for the proceedings of the conspirators], which she
laughed at, and directly sent it to the king. So far
was she from discontentment [being malcontent with
the government] that she laughed him [the conspirator
Cobham] to scorn."
The Lord-Admiral Nottingham, the hero of the
Armada, who was in a gaUery, hadng the Lady Ara
beUa by his side, then stood up and spoke : — " The lady
here doth protest, upon her salvation, that she never
dealt in any of these things [viz., with the conspiracy] ,
and so she wiUeth me to tell the court."
Then Lord Cecil again explained, in the name of
Lady Arabella : — " Lord Cobham wrote to my Lady
Arabella to know if he might come to speak vdth her,

1603. CHOICE OF NEW YEAR'S GIFT FOR THE QUEEN. 359
gidng her to understand that there were some about
the king that laboured to disgrace her, but she doubted
this was but a trick,"
George Brook said " that his brother. Lord Cobham,
urged him to procure ArabeUa to write letters to the
King of Spain, but that he never did so."
Ealeigh retorted with a personal insult on Lady
Arabella, saying " she was a woman with whom he had
no acquaintance, and of aU whom he ever saw he liked
her the least."
Lady Arabella was also present at Garnet's trial,
but not publicly, for, like her royal cousin King James,
she occupied a sheltered nook where she could hear and
see without its being known.
At the approach of Christmas, ArabeUa felt much
perplexed in the choice of her New year's gifts to
the queen, for she was very poor. She consulted a
lady who was much in her Majesty's confidence, as to
what would be Ukely to please, " and her answer was,"
writes ArabeUa to her aunt. Lady Shrewsbury, "the
queen regarded not the value, but the device. The
gentlewoman neither liked gowns nor petticoats so
well as some little bunch of rubies to hang in her ear,
or some such daft toy. I mean to give her majesty
two pairs of gloves lined, if London afford me not some
toy I like better, whereof I cannot bethink me. The
time is spent, and therefore you had need crave none of
it. I am making the king a purse; and for all the
world else I am unprovided. This time wUl manifest
my poverty more than all the rest of the year. But
why should I be ashamed of it when it is others' fault
and not in me ? My quarter's aUowance wiU not defray
this one charge, 1 believe." '
' Sloane JIS., No. 4164.

360 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1604.
This letter to her aunt. Lady Shrewsbury, is dated
from Fulston, December 8, 1603.
She spent the Christmas merrUy with the king and
queen at Hampton Court, and was appointed carver to
the queen. She herself jokes to her uncle and aunt,
about her awkwardness in the performance of duties
so unwonted to her ; but she says, " the queen was very
gracious, and took her unhandsome carving in very
good part."
In February the court returned to London, and in
the equestrian procession through the city Arabella
was given the place next to the queen, which, according
to her near relationship to the king, was her due. The
favour she received from both was unbounded, which
reconcUed her to King James's refusal of the matri
monial proposal the King of Poland prefen*ed to him
for her hand by his ambassador.
The queen's brother, Duke Ulric of Holstein, was
much in love with her ; but though accounted a very
comely man, he faUed to win her heart. She appears
to have enjoyed the pride of her conquests, but to have
been wholly disinclined to marry.
The king now increased her income vdth a clear
grant of l,000t. per annum, free from aU deductions
and for Ufe.' Tet ArabeUa was not comfortable, for
she was suffering from chronic pain and constant
fatigue of body from the boisterous sylvan sports to
which both king and queen were so much addicted.
She writes to her aunt the Countess of Shrewsbury,
about this time, the following letter, which betrays
her discomfort without entering into unavaUing com
plaints : —
" Madame, — This everlasting hunting, the toothache,
' Document in State Paper Office, December 8, 1 604.

1604. COLD RECEPTION FROM HER GRANDMOTHER. 361
and the continual moans by my Lord Cecil, makes me
only write these few lines to show I am not unmindful
of your commandments, and reserve the rest I have
to write both to you and my uncle, some few hours
longer, till my pain assuage, and I have given my
never intermitted attendance on the queen, who daUy
extendeth her favours more and more towards me. The
Almighty send you and my uncle all prosperity, and
keep me stUl, I beseech you, in your good opinion, who
wUl ever remain
" Tour ladyship's niece to command,
"Aeabella Stuaet.'"
The old Countess of Shrewsbury had not been on
friendly terms with her granddaughter Arabella for
several years, and now she was reported to be very ill,
near death. ArabeUa considered it her duty to visit
her, but she was so fearful of what reception she might
obtain, that the king, perceiving her uneasiness, wrote
to the old lady, requesting her to see and be reconcUed
to his dear cousin ArabeUa.
To this the venerable countess reluctantly consented.
Arabella went to see her, and was coldly received;
her unconcealed affection for the young Earl and
Countess of Shrewsbury and Sir Henry and Lady
Cavendish prevented her from joining in the abuse the
old lady lavished on them, so the reconcUiation was
only nominaP, and ArabeUa gladly returned to court,
where she was treated with unfeigned respect and
admiration. ' Sloane MS., No. 4164, undated.
* Lodge's Illustrations of History, vol. iii.

362 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1606.

CHAPTER vn.
The queen retired to Greenwich for her confinement.
ArabeUa had apartments in the palace, and was invited
to stand with the queen's brother, Ukic Duke of
Holstein, and the Coimtess of Northumberland for the
royal infant, a little princess, who was named Mary.
The king was in such high glee at the birth of his
first EngUsh child, that he told Lady ArabeUa to ask
what she would, and he would grant it. ArabeUa re
quested him to confer a peerage on her uncle. Sir Henry
Cavendish. The king graciously assented to the peti
tion, and created him Baron Cavendish of Hardwick.'
Fetes, masques, and all sorts of gaieties foUowed the
reappearance of the queen in the court, in aU which
ArabeUa participated.
Lady ArabeUa was beloved and esteemed by her
royal kinsman, Henry Prince of Wales ; from his child
hood he sought to oblige her in every possible way, and
to no person was his early death a severer blow. So
early as 1605 he exerted himself to prefer a kinsman of
hers whom she had recommended to his patronage. She
acknowledged his kindness by the following letter : —
" Sir, — My intention to attend your highness to
morrow, God vdlling, cannot stay me from acknowledg
ing, by these few lines, how infinitely I am bound to
your highness for your gracious disposition to me,
which faUeth not to show itself on every occasion, whe
ther accidental or begged by me, as this high favour
and grace it hath pleased your highness to do my
kinsman at my humble suit. I trust, to-morrow, to let
your highness understand such reasons for my pre-
' Lodge's Illustrations of History, vol. iii.

1606. HER FRIENDLY LETTERS TO PRINCE HENRY. 363
sumption as shall make it excusable. For your high
ness shaU perceive I both understand with what ex
traordinary respect suits are to be presented to your
highness, and withal that your goodness doth so tem
per your greatness, as encourageth both me and many
others to hope we may taste the finits of the one by
the means of the other.
" The Almighty make your highness every way such
as I, Mr. Nevdon', and Sir David Murray" (the only
intercessors I have used in my suit) wish you, and then
you shaU be even such as you are now — your growth in
virtue and grace with God and man being the only
alteration we shaU pray for. And so in aU humility I
cease. " Tour highness's most humble and dutiful
" Aeabella Stuaet."
Arabella was with her uncle and aunt at their seat,
Sheffield Castle, whence she wrote again to her accom
pUshed kinsman, Henry Prince of Wales : —
" May it please your highness, — I have received
your highness's letter, wherein I am let to understand
that the queen's majesty is pleased to commend Cut
ting, my servant, for the King of Denmark, concerning
the which your highness requireth my answer to her
majesty, the which I have accordingly returned by the
bearer, referring him to her majesty's good pleasure
and disposition. And though I may have some cause
to be sorry to have lost the contentment of a good
lute, yet I must confess I am right glad to have found
any occasion whereby to express to her majesty and
your highness the humble respect which I owe you,
' The princes' tutor.
* Gentleman of the robes, and Prince Henry's principal associate.

364 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1607.
and the readiness of my disposition to be conformed to
your good pleasures, wherein I have placed a great part
of the satisfaction which my heart can receive.
" I have, according to your highness's direction, sig
nified unto my uncle and aunt of Shrewsbury your
highness's gracious vouchsafing to remember them,
who with aU duty present their most humble thanks,
and say they will ever pray for your highness's most
happy prosperity, and yet my uncle saith ' he carrieth
the same spleen in his heart to your highness that he
hath ever done.'
"And so praying to the Almighty for your high
ness's felicity, I humbly cease writing.
" Tour highness's most humble and dutiful
"Aebella Stuaet.
"From Sheffield Castle, this March 16, 1607."
Arabella's retreat into the country was prudent at
this time, for she had involved herself deeply in debt,
having little knowledge of the value of money, of which
she had been kept almost entirely without, tUl the
accession of her cousin, King James, to the throne
of Great Britain. Probably she had reckoned in too
sanguine a manner on a vast accession of property on
the death of her grandmother, the old Countess of
Shrewsbury, That event occurred in February, 1608,
but her wiU, which had been long made, commenced
with tender expressions towards her very loving grand-
chUd, ArabeUa Stuart, "to whom she leaves aU the
pearls and jewels she has at her decease, and a
crystal glass framed with lapis lazarus.^ And one sable
vdth the head of gold set with precious stones, and a
white sable [an ermine] vdth the head of gold ena-
' Lazuli.

1608. BESS OF HARDWICK'S WILL. 3G5
meUed." This seems a species of throat-tippet, where
the gold heads of the little creatures were worn by way
of finish. One thousand pounds in money is likewise
aUotted to the loving ArbeU, whom she recommends
to her long-deceased royal mistress. Queen Elizabeth,
entreating also that " her majesty wUl accept the poor
vddow's mite of a gold cup worth 200Z,, and that she
would fulfil aU her majesty had most graciously oft-
times said she would, and be good to the orphan ArbeU ;"
and she beseeches her " to receive ArbeU to wait upon
herself, as the greatest comfort to that desolate poor
orphan, now left only to depend on her gracious pro
vidence, whose most faithful loyalty and careful wiUing
service unto your majesty in aU true allegiance," con
tinues she, "I dare and do answer for, as for myself,"
Then ArabeUa is left the reversion of aU her rich goods
and personals, in case neither of her Cavendish sons
leave heirs. The old countess must have made this
wUl some time after the death of the earl her husband,
November 18, 1590.
The wiU concludes with glancings of displeasure at
the Earl of Shrewsbury, her son-in-law, and her daugh
ter Mary Cavendish, his wife, her eldest son Henry
Cavendish, and her daughter-in-law, his wife, the Lady
Grace Talbot.
By a codicU, dated March 20, 1603, three days be
fore the death of Queen Elizabeth, she disinherited her
granddaughter, Arabella, of all these goodly bequests,
saying " she had changed her mind, and that neither
ArabeUa nor her son Henry should have any benefit
by the said gifts or legacies," Assuredly the " reading
of the vdll of Bess of Hardwick " would have been a
good study for Wilkie.
The king, probably hearing of his unlucky cousin's

366 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1608.
disappointment, did his best to comfort her by granting
her the power of conceding to ostlers and innkeepers
licences to retail oats to traveUers' horses at sixpence
profit, above the market price, on each bushel of the
ancient Winchester measure : if they charged more, they
were Uable to forfeit 51. for each offence. The profit
of Lady ArabeUa was but sixpence yearly on each inn,
but that must have amounted to a handsome revenue.
Many abuses were to be rectified by this arrangement ;
among others, estabUshing an assize of oats, preventing
the innkeepers from making the villanous measure of
six pecks out of every honest Winchester bushel, and
taking advantage ofthe dear years that preceded 1608,
when they had raised their oats to 6d. per peck, and
had never reduced the price ; noting Ukevdse that the
profit of 6d. per Winchester bushel was more than the
law had ever allowed them before.

CHAPTER VIH.

It has been affirmed that Lady ArabeUa Stuart was
straitened in her circumstances by the jealous policy
of James I.; but aU preceding evidence and the fol
lowing statement whoUy contradict that report, Mr.
Chamberlaine wrote to Sir Dudley Carlton, the New year
of 1608 : — "Whatever the devise of the masque may be,
which is put off tiU Sunday, and whatever success the
ladies may have in their dancing, yet shaU you be sure
to see great riches in jewels ; one lady, and she under
the degree of a baroness, is said to be furnished with
jewels worth 100,000?,, and the Lady ArabeUa goes far
beyond her,'"
This year Arabella was attacked with the smaU-pox,
¦ Mr. Chamberlaine to Sir Ralph Winwood, vol. iii. p. 117.

1609. DEEPLY INVOLVED IN DEBT. 367
but recovered through the tender care of Lady Skinner,
who kindly nursed and waited upon her in her Ul
ness, The king, understanding that she was stUl embar
rassed in her circumstances, which had occasioned her to
demean herself in a very disobliging manner to him, and
absent herself from court, graciously invited her to re
turn to her former place and duty, and to enable her to
do so, presented her with a thousand marks to pay her
debts, increased her income, and gave her a cupboard of
plate to the value of two hundred pounds. This was but
as a drop of water in comparison with her need, for
she had amassed a vast stock of costly jewels, which had
absorbed aU her money and credit. She was so deeply
in debt that the donation of a thousand marks seemed
almost mockery, yet she did not apply to her relatives
for aid.
Some of her letters are written in a caustic style at
this time, as if she were suffering from some concealed
cause of uneasiness; indeed the foUowing epistle to the
Earl of Shrewsbury bears evidence of latent insanity: —
" Because I know not that your lordship hath for
saken one recreation that you have liked before, I
presume to send you a few idle lines, to read in your
chair, after you have tired yourself either with affairs or
any sport that bringeth uneasiness. Knowing you weU
advertised in serious matters, I make it my object to
make you merry, and show my desire to please you even
in playing the fool. For no foUy is greater, I trow,
than to laugh when one smarteth ; but my aunt's did-
nity can teU you, St. Laurence, deriding his tormentors,
even upon the gridiron, bade them turn him on the
other side, for that he lay on was sufficiently broUed.
I should not know how to excuse myself from either
insensibleness or contempt of injuries.

368 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1609.
" I find if one rob a house, and buUd a church with
the money, the wronged party may go pipe in an ivy-
leaf for any redress, for money so weU bestowed must
not be taken from the holy work, though the right
owner go begging. Unto you it is given to understand
parables or to command the comment ; but if you hold
this opinion of the scribes and Pharisees, I condemn
your lordship, by your leave, for a heretic, by the autho
rity of Pope Joan, for there is a text saith, ' Thou must
not do evU that good may come thereof,'
"But now from doctrine to miracles, I assure you
vdthin these few days I saw a pair of virginals make
good music without help of any hand, but of one that
did nothing but warm, not move, a glass some five or
six feet from them. And if I thought thus great folks
invisibly and far off work in matters to tune them as
they please, I pray your lordship forgive me, and I hope
God wiU, to whose holy protection I humbly recom
mend your lordship.
" I humbly pray your lordship to bestow two of the
next good parsonages of yours that shaU faU, on me :
not that I mean to convert them to mine own benefit,
for though I pass rather for a good clerk than for a
worldly wise woman, I aspire to no degree of Pope
Joan, but some good ends, whereof the bearer wUl teU
your lordship one. My boldness shows how honourably
I believe of your disposing such livings,
" Tour lordship's niece,
"Aeabella Stuaet.
"From Broad St,,' June 17, 1609.
[Endorsed] " To the Eight Honourable my very good uncle the
Earl of Shrewsbury."
' From that magnificent mansion Winchester House, in Broad Street and
Winchester Street.

1609. HER ENGAGEMENT WITH WILLIAM SEYMOUR. 369
The Earl of Hertford had, in the year 1608, caused
the validity of his marriage with Lady Katharine Gray
to be brought to a fair trial, when the aged priest who
had performed the ceremony came forward, and deposed
to the fact of having united them in holy matrimony,
and the court to which he had appealed pronounced
the wedlock lawful and the offspring legitimate.
Lord Beauchamp's plight with Lady ArabeUa had
long ere this been dissolved, but his second son, WUUam
Seymour, on advancing towards man's estate, conceived
the idea of rendering himself agreeable enough to Lady
ArabeUa, to supply his father's place in her heart.
There was great disparity in their age, on the wrong
side, unfortunately — a point not taken into consideration
by writers who endeavour to weave a love-tale out of
the story of Lady ArabeUa and her young kinsman ; but
the evidence of Margaret Countess of Lennox's letter
to Mary Stuart, which we were so fortunate as to dis
cover among the State Paper Eecords, and have printed
in the Ufe of Mary Stuart, speaks of the infant ArabeUa
as the recipient of one of the generous captive queen's
gifts in November 1676,
Consequently, Arabella was twenty-five years old at
the close of the century.

CHAPTER IX.

Arabella's acquaintance with WiUiam Seymour is
said to have commenced at one of the court baUs or
masques. She would have been in her thirty-fifth year,
and he about twenty-one. As a branch of the royal
famUy, her door was always open to him, and on Can
dlemas day, 1609, he proposed himself to her for a
B B

370 LADY ARABELLA STUART.'  liBOS;
husband, and Lady Arabella, strJatige to say, accepted
him at a word. Her head, perhaLps, was not in a very
sound state at the time she was so lightly won.
To use Seymour's own w;ords, " he was anxious for
advancement in the world ; and seeing the Lady Ara
beUa was a lady of great honour and virtue, aind, as he
thought, of great wealth also, he became desirous of
obtaining her for his wife,"
After his frank proposal, they met twice to discuss
their intended marriage ; once at a Mr, Baggs' in Fleet
Street, at another time at Mr, Bainton's, who belonged
to the com:t, and with a vdld young friend of his, Mr.
Eodney, they arranged for a private marriage, to take
place at Greenwich, But the secret of their projected
marriage was betrayed by one of Seymour's confidants,
and he and Lady ArabeUa were summoned before the
privy councU to answer for the misdemeanor, but Ara
bella contrived to satisfy both the king and council.
The disparity in age between the parties probably in
clined the higher powers to disbelieve in the reality of
an engagement between so Ul-assorted a pair. WiUiam
Seymour received a lecture on his presumption in as
piring to contract marriage vdth a lady of royal blood,
and one so nearly related to the king, and was dis
charged, after ArabeUa and he had solemnly pledged
themselves to resign aU vain thoughts of matrimony,
ArabeUa was immediately restored to the favour of
both king and queen, granted a pension of sixteen thou
sand a year by the king, and the privUege of granting
Ucences for keeping taverns and seUing wine and usque
baugh in Ireland for one and twenty years, with other
privileges. This would have assisted in repairing the broken
State of her finances, had she continued free to exercise

1610. PERSONATES THE NYMPH OF TRENT. 371
her monopolies ; but no sooner were Seymour and she
free, than they thought of nothing but violating their
late promise, Seymour induced his friend, Edward
Eodney, to accompany him to Greenwich, and in the
month of July made him and two other gentlemen,
Crompton and Eeeve, witnesses of his stolen marriage
with Arabella Stuart,
The marriage was kept profoimdly secret, and Ara
bella was invited by the unsuspecting queen to per
sonate the nymph of Trent' in the splendid masque
prepared in honour of the introduction of Henry Prince
of Wales into the House of Lords,
ArabeUa's headdress on this occasion was composed
of sheUs and coral, with a large sheU in form of the
crest of a helmet, from which depended a transparent
veil. The upper garments had bodices of skin-coloured
taffety, for lightness, embroidered with seaweeds. Over
these she had a tunic of cloth of sUver, embroidered
with gold, and cut out in points. Her long skirt was
Wrought with lace, waved round about Uke a river,
with sedges and seaweeds in gold. Her shoes were of
satin, richly embroidered.
This was her last appearance in stately costume; for
the secret of her stolen nuptials and breach of promise
to the king was soon after betrayed, and both bride
and bridegroom were examined before the privy council
touching their unauthorised marriage. Seymour was
taxed vdth his deceit, in saying, on the first enquiry,
" that he would not proceed with the marriage, now he
knew his majesty's objection." Lady ArabeUa was pre
sent. On being confronted with her young spouse, she
took upon herself to defend him, saying, " He had in
' See "Life of Anne of Denmark" in Lives of the Queens of England,
by Agnes Strickland, vol. v. • BB 2

372 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1611.
that case done no worse than both Abraham and Isaac,
who had both disavowed their wives in time of danger." '
Seymour was imprisoned in the Tower, the lady con
signed to the care of Sir Thomas Parry at Lambeth.^
The venerable Earl of Hertford was alive and in pos
session of his faculties when the strange tragedy which
had cast a cloud over the morning of his days was thus
reiterated by his grandson. There was, however, in the
circumstances of the espousals of his young relative
with the mature Lady ArabeUa, but a fantastic and
ridiculous resemblance to the true attachment which had
subsisted between himself and the love of his youthful
heart. Lady Katharine Gray, with which aU humanity
must perforce sympathise, whUe at his grandson's ab
surd union people were more inclined to mock.
While Arabella was at Lambeth, upon hearing that
her young husband, WiUiam Seymour, who was confined
in the Tower, was indisposed, she penned the following
tender letter to him : —
" Sir, — I am exceedingly sorry to hear you have not
been weU. I pray you let me know truly how you do,
and what was the cause of it, for I am not satisfied with
the reason Smyth gives for it. But if it be a cold, I
wiU impute it to some sympathy betwixt us, hadng
myself gotten a swollen face, at the same time with a
cold. For God's sake let not your grief of mind work
on your body. Tou may see by me what inconveniences
it wUl bring one to. And no fortune, I assure you,
daunts me so much as that weakness of body I find in
myself, for si nous vivons I'dge d'un veau, as Marot says,
we may, by God's grace, be happier than we look for in
' Carlton to Sir Thomas Edmondes ; letter of July 25, 1610.
" Ibid.

1611. LETTER TO HER YOUNG HUSBAND. 373
being supposed to enjoy ourselves with his majesty's
favour. But if we be not able to live to it, I for my
part should think myself a pattern of misfortune in
enjoying so great a blessing as you so short a time.
No separation but that deprives me of the comfort of
you ; for wheresoever you be, or in what state soever
you are, it sufficeth me you are mine, Eachel wept,
and would not be comforted, because her children were
no more, and that indeed is the remedUess sorrow, and
none else. And therefore God bless us from that, and
I wUl hope weU of the rest, though I see no apparent
hope. But I am sure God's book mentioneth many of
His chUdren in as great distress, that have done well
after, even in this world. I assure you nothing the
State can do with me can trouble me so much as the
news of your being ill doth. And you see when I am
troubled I trouble you too with tedious kindness, for so
I think you vdU account so long a letter, yourself not
having written to me for this good whUe so much as
how you do. But, sweet Sir, I speak not this to trouble
you with writing, but when you please. Be well, and I
shaU account myself happy in being your faithful wife,
" Aeabella." '
There is no date to this letter from Arabella, nor yet
from a petition from WiUiam Seymour to the lords of
the councU, entreating that he may be aUowed the
liberty of the Tower for the recovery of his former
health, which he complains "is much broken and de
cayed by his long and close confinement, which the
lieutenant of the Tower," he says, " can well certify."
> Harleian MS., No. 7003, fol. 150.

:374 -LADY ARABELLA- STUART. 1611.

CHAPTER X.
.Aeabella was indefatigable in her petitions to the king
and the lords of the councU. She also requested that
as many of her servants as might be thought suffi
cient might, be permitted to attend her, and requests
that Peter, an, ancient servant of hers who attended
Mr. Seymour, might be her bottleman, and to have
another servant, an embroiderer, whose name is Eoger
¦Hartwell. . For , a woman, she desireth the . Lady Cha-
worth that Mrs. Telverton might receive her money
and jewels, and that Smyth, her servant, might have
access to her. She mentioiis " that she hath thirty-one
servants, with whom order, she says, must be taken;
and requests that linen for table-linen and sheets, for
her own wear, might be purchased, for she is vdthout
any. with heir,"
Anne of Denmark did not forsake her friend in her
dire distress, but courageously continued to put into
her husband's , hands petition after petition, letter after
letter, written by the poor flighty captive, at a period
when the hapless ArabeUa was closely barred from aU
access to- her royal kinsman. , Another kind heart.
Lady Jane Drummond, one of the queen's ladies, ne
gotiated the matter of bringing the letters of the hapless
prisoner to her Majesty, and then of narrating from
the queen's mouth the manner in which James had
received the supplication — of which the tenor was,
" that ArabeUa might ask him the cause of her confine
ment in the Tower."
The following letter was written by command of
Queen Anne : —

1611. KINDNESS OF THE QUEEN. 375
" This day her majesty hath seen your ladyship's
letter. Her majesty says that ' when she gave your
ladyship's petition to his majesty, he did take it well
enough, but gave no other answer than that " ye had
eaten of the forbidden tree " in this purpose, but withal
did remember her [Lady Arabella] kindly.
" This was aU her majesty commanded me to say to
your ladyship, and she sent you this little token, in
witness of the continuance of her majesty's favour to
your ladyship," '
Thus, when we lift the veil, there is nothing but true-
hearted kindness in the conduct of this much-reviled
Queen Anne, She was not successful in her mission after
she had done aU she could, yet she cheered the heart of
the forlorn captive with the kind remembrance, and some
gentle feminine token of good-wiU and good wishes.
Lady Jane Drummond continues : —
" Now, when your ladyship desires me to deal openly
and freely with you, I protest I can say nothing on
knowledge, for I never spoke of that purpose but to the
queen ; but the wisdom of this State, with the example
of how some of your quaUty have been used, makes
me fear, that ye shaU not find so easy an end to your
troubles as ye expect, or as I wish."
The aUusion here is to the misfortunes of several of
the princesses alUed to the English crown, long impri
sonment or undeserved death having been the destiny
of several, from Eleonora the Pearl of Brittany to Lady
Katharine Gray and Lady Mary Gray of the one class,
the Countess of Salisbury and Mary Queen of Scots of
the other.
The intimation of Lady Jane Drummond was evidently
. ' Edited by I. Disraeli in Curiosities of Literature, 2nd series, vol. \.
pp. 278-79, which are from Harleian MS., No. 7003.

376 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1611.
the result of her private conversation with the queen on
•ArabeUa's case. It proved too true.
The queen received soon after Lady Arabella's thanks
with an article of needlework — which must have been
something of the glove or cuff species, since they were
accompanied by an entreaty " to accept this piece of
my work, in remembrance of the poor prisoner that
vyrought them, in hopes that her royal hands wUl vouch
safe to wear them, which, tiU I have the honour to
kiss, I shaU Uve in a great deal of sorrow,"
Another of these manufactures the queen received
from the hands of Sir Andrew Sinclair,'
ArabeUa wrote several touching letters to the queen,
entreating her intercession with the king, whose forgive
ness she passionately implored, but in vain. She wrote
to him also, reminding him that he had promised her
permission to marry, so that it was with a subject of
his, and not with a foreign prince."
But James, if ever he had made a promise to that effect,
appeared to have forgotten it, ArabeUa was indefa
tigable in her petitions to the privy council for her
release. At length reports of stolen interviews with Seymour
reached the king, but not till six months had passed
over, and then James determined to remove her far
out of any possibility of holding intercourse vdth her
adventurous young husband again.
Accordingly he issued an order to the Bishop of
Durham to receive the Lady Arabella Stuart into his
care, to take her to his house in the bishopric, and
there to use her honourably, but not to allow her to
have intercourse with dangerous or suspected persons.
This was accompanied with an order to Sir Thomas
' MS. Papers of .Arabella Stuart, Harleian MS., No. 7003.

1611. CARRIED IN HER BED TO THE BOAT. 377
Parry to deliver the Lady ArabeUa to the Bishop of
Durham. ArabeUa, struck with consternation at this order,
positively refused to obey. All the kind bishop's sooth
ing and persuasions were unavailing. She would not
rise or quit her chamber. After a desperate struggle, the
officials appointed for her removal took her up in her
bed, and carried her thus to the boat, in spite of her
screams and dolent resistance.'
She was attended by Dr. Mountford, her physician,
who assisted in removing her from the boat to a Utter
that was in waiting for her on the other side. Dr,
Mountford had to administer restoratives to her thrice
on the short joumey to Highgate, to keep her from
fainting, and she was weU-nigh insensible when they
reached the house of Sir WiUiam Bond, where the
councU had arranged for them to rest and pass the
night. The next day she refused to rise, notwith
standing the bishop's persuasions and reasoning,
Dr, Mountford declared it was impossible, from her
indisposition, and wrote to the privy councU to that
effect. The poor bishop himself felt iU, and sorely discom
forted, never having had, probably, so perplexing an
undertaking on his hands.
King James, on being informed of this trouble, sent
his own physician. Dr. Hammond, to see ArabeUa, who,
after feeling her pulse and consulting Dr. Mountford,
wrote a prescription, and prescribed rest and quiet.
She accordingly remained with the bishop and aU
her company at Highgate, in the house of Sir WiUiam
Bond, from March 15th tiU the 21st, when the king
ordered her removal to Barnet.
' Pictorial History of England.

376 LADY -ARABELLA STUART.- . 1613,.
Dr. Mountford and his apothecary, who were both in
attendance, were again forced to administer redving
cordials to ArabeUa five or six times,- during the short
joumey to Barnet. When she arrived there she vras
taken to the inn, and conveyed, to bed in a state of
utter exhaustion.
In consequence of the representations of Dr. Mount
ford and the Bishop of Durham, Dr. Hammond visited
Lady Arabella at Barnet, and after investigating her
symptoms, pronounced that she must not be troubled
tiU she was in better strength of mind and body.
The king greatly blamed the violent manner of her
removal from Lambeth to Highgate. " It was enough,"
he exclaimed, " to make a sound man sick, to be carried
in a bed as she had been, much more her, whose im
patient and unquiet spirits heapeth upon her far greater
indisposition of body."
It was agreed that she must tarry at Barnet till
better able to bear the journey, and on April 1 she was
.removed to the mansion of Thomas Conyers, Esq., at
East Barnet, at a rent of twenty shiUings per week.
There was paid at her removal from the inn at Barnet
three pounds for broken glasses and rewards to the
meaner servants and divers persons who took pains in
waiting on her company. There was also paid to the
servants of Mr, Conyers's house, and sundry persons
who helped to make clean the house for her reception,
three pounds fifteen shUUngs, There was also paid to
Mathias MUward, one of the Prince of Wales's chap
lains, five pounds for his pains in attending the Lady
Arabella to preach and read prayers to her during her
abode at East Barnet, This was two months and seven
days, and the sum of two hundred pounds was paid into
her own hands from the king for her furnishing herself

1-611. HER ESCAPE IN MALE ATTIRE. 379
•vdth aU things necessary, in contemplation of her long
journey to Durham.'
The Bishop of Durham had departed towards his own
diocese, leaving Lady Arabella in the care of Sir James
Crofts. She continued to write humble petitions to the
king for her liberation, and also to the lords of the coun
cU.^ She sent Dr. Mountford to represent her unfitness
to travel, and at last procured another month's respite.
AU this time she, was in correspondence with ber
husband and with her aunt. Lady Shrewsburj^, who
made it her care to provide her with money for bribing
all her guards, and taking the means for her escape to
the Continent simultaneously with Seymour, who had
arranged for leaving the Tower on the same day.
Through the instrumentaUty of her two trusty ser
vants, Markham and Crompton, she obtained a suit
of masculine attire.^ The fashion was at that time
very favoui'able for disguising the female form. Lady
ArabeUa drew on a great pair of French hose over
her petticoats, a man's doublet and cloak on her
shoulders, a man's peruke with long black locks and a
black hat over her fair hair, a man's russet boots on
her legs, and a rapier by her side ; and thus disguised
she walked forth from the house on Sunday, June 4,
between three and four o'clock, with Markham. After
walking a mUe and a half to a very sorry inn, where she
found the faithful Crompton and the horses, she looked
so deathlike, pale, and exhausted, and grew so faint
and sick, that the ostler who held her stirrup observed,
"That gentleman wUl hardly hold out to London."
Being placed, however, on a good gelding, though in
' Declaration of the accounts of Nicholas Pay in the Audit Office of the
expenses of the removal of the Lady Arabella Stuart.
2 Harleian MS., No-. 7000, fol. 79.. * Winwood's Memorials.

380 LADY ARABELLA STUART. . 1611.
an unwonted position for a lady, the stirring of the
horse brought blood enough into her face, and she per
formed the joumey to Blackwall vdth great spirit.
She found her confidential female attendant at the
inn there, waiting for her, and another of her suite, but
not Seymour.

CHAPTER XI.

Setmoue did not leave the Tower till eight o'clock, and
consequently was not in time to join ArabeUa when,
with her adventurous little company, she made her way
down the river, and, after several delays, reached the
French ship. She passionately entreated the captain to
wait quietly at anchor tiU her husband arrived; but
after an anxious consultation with her attendants, the
captain weighed anchor, and, regardless of the lady's
cries, tears, entreaties, and lamentations, put out to sea ;
but, having been delayed so long on her course, had
only got half over the Channel when the vessel was
overtaken by the swift-sailing royal cruiser the " Adven-
tmre," despatched in pursuit of the fugitives by the royal
order. The fiight of both ArabeUa and Seymour had been
already discovered, and very prompt measures were
taken to intercept them. It was almost a dead calm,
so the " Adventure," with another vessel, were able to
bear dovra on the French ship. They chaUenged her,
but the Frenchman did not respond ; then they fired a
broadside. The captain must have been a very spirited
man, for he did not strike tUl he had received thirteen
shots. Arabella, terrified at the noise and confusion, rushed

1611. CAPTURED. 381
on deck, and proclaimed her identity to the French
captain, who then surrendered his ship.
The captors claimed her and demanded her husband.
" I hope he is safely landed, and out of your reach," she
replied; adding "that her joy for his escape was far
greater than her grief for her own capture."
She and her faithful friends were immediately brought
back to London, and on her arrival the king committed
her to the Tower, with her aunt, Lady Shrewsbury,
Crompton, Markham, and Edward Eodney. Dr. Mount
ford and some others fi'om East Barnet were already
lodged in the Gatehouse prison.
The romantic flight and capture of the luckless kins
woman of the king were commemorated in one of the
popular ballads of the times, which imagines an un
historical dialogue between the king and her, on her
anival at the Tower. A few verses are quoted : —
" A ship had sailed from fair England
Unknown unto our gracious king ;
The lord chief-justice did command
That they to London should her bring.
I then drew near, and saw full plain
Lady ArbeUa in distress ;
She wrung her hands, and wept amain,
Bewaihng of her heaviness.
When near fair London Tower she came,
Whereat her landing-place should he,
The king and queen and all their train
Did meet this 'lady gallantly.
' How now, ArbeUa,' our good king
Unto this lady straight did say,
' Who thee hath tempted to this thing,
That you from England took your way?'

38S LADY ARABELLA 'STUART. Iffll.
' None but myself, my ^gracious liege :
These ten long years I've heen in love
With the Lord Seymour's second son.
The Earl of Hertford — so we prove.
' I would I had a milkmaid heen.
Or bom of some more low defgree ;
I might have loved then where I hked,
And no one would have hindered me.
' And so good-night, my sovereign hege.
Since in the Tower I must he.
I pray your Grace will condescend
That I may have my hberty.'
' Lady Arbella,' said the king,
' I to your freedom would consent
If you would turn and go to church.
And BO receive the Sacrament.
' And so good-night, Arbella fair,'
Our king replied to her again ;
' I will take counsel of my lords.
If you your freedom may obtain.' "
Lady Arbella and her aunt, the Countess of. Shrews
bury, were examined by the privy councU as to their
motives and designs in Lady ArabeUa's escape.
Lady ArabeUa answered the lords of the councU vdth
great judgment and discretion, but Lady Shrewsbury
utterly vdthout reason, crying out "that aU was but
tricks and gigs."
She told the councU, with spirit, " that she would
answer nothing in private, but' was ready to submit to a
public trial if she had offended against the law." She
was accused of assisting in the marriage, but remained
obstinately silent. At the conclusion of the examina
tion, one of the privy-councUlors, supposed to be the

1611.' COMMITTED TO THE TOWER. 383
Earl of Suffolk, pointed out to the Lady Shrewsbury the
superior conduct of her niece. "Nay," said he, "you
may learn duty of my Lady ArabeUa, herself a lady of
the blood royal, of a higher rank than yourself, who,
requesting not to be urged to declare aught concerning
you, yieldeth herself ingenuously to be examined of her
own actions. I do not doubt but by this time you see
both your own error and the king's grace in proceeding
with you in this manner."'
To Lady Arabella herself were addressed these re
markable words : — " Tou have been ill advised in trans
acting the most important passage in your life, which
is marriage, without acquainting his majesty, which had
been neglect even in a mean relative. Then choos
ing as such a condition as it pleased you to choose,
and considering all parties laid together, how dangerous
it was, my Lady ArabeUa might have read that dan
ger even in the fortune of the house wherewith she
matched. For was it not the same case as that of Mr.
Seymour's grandmother. Lady Katharine Gray P "
Lady ArabeUa, the Countess of Shrewsbury, and
others, were aU committed prisoners to the Tower. It was
discovered that Lady Shrewsbury had raised very large
sums of money to assist Lady ArabeUa in her escape.
Charles Cavendish, the day after they were committed,
wrote to Henry Butler, intimating that her imprison
ment was not likely to be very long. He says : —
" Good Henry Butler, — I cannot blame you to be
greatly grieved at this case, knowing how much she
values you for your trust and love to her ; but my lord
[Shrewsbury] putteth me in good hope that her abode
there will not be long, and that shortly she shall have
liberty of friends and servants to come unto her. She
is appointed the queen's lodgings, and hath three or

384 . LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1611.
four fair rooms to walk in. God send her weU out of
them, as I hope in God she shaU. Commend me to
Mr. Wingfield, and be you both of good cheer, for I
understand she [the Countess of Shrewsbury] had not
gone thither [to the Tower] if she had not answered the
lords ; so for that contempt she suffereth. So I bid you
very heartUy farewell. " Tour very loving friend,
" Chaeles Cavendish,"
[Endorsed] " To my good friend Henry Butler give these," '
The king gave leave to six of Lord Shrewsbury's
servants, and Mistress Anne, the waiting-woman of the
Lady Shrewsbury, to attend their noble mistress during
her incarceration in the Tower.
It had been a game at cross purposes with Seymour,
He had succeeded on the Monday evening in walking
out of the Tower disguised as a physician, with black
beard and peruke, and foUowing a cart, which had
brought in a load of wood, as it returned ; but he was
several hours too late for ArabeUa and her company.
He encountered his friend Edward Eodney and two
servants in a boat near the iron gate. They all rowed
stoutly tUl they came to the sea, where, finding their
boat was too smaU, they hired another to coAvey them
to a vessel which he hoped was the French ship, but
it proved a colUer bound to Newcastle. However, he
engaged the master to give up his voyage to New
castle, and land him and his company at Calais ; but
the wind not suiting for that port, the master set them
on shore at Ostend, and having received the money
covenanted for his voyage, returned to England, and was
• Cabala, pp. 369, 370.

1611. EARL OF HERTFORD'S LETTER. 385
the bearer of a letter from Eodney to Francis Seymour,
relating aU the particulars and mishaps ofthe escape.
Francis Sejonour proceeded to the Tower, and having
ascertained the almost incredible fact of his brother's
escape, confided his letter to the Ueutenant, then hastened
to inform the king, and afterwards wrote to his grand
father, the Earl of Hertford. The venerable nobleman
was thrown into a pitiable state of agitation at the
sight of the letter ; it was brought to his bed-side as he
was undressing, at eleven o'clock. The date from Hert
ford House, Canon Eow, June 4, 1611, perhaps recaUed
to his mind those adventures of his own youth, when in
that very mansion he received the trembling Katha
rine, escorted by his loving sister Jane, and she was
made his wife by the fugitive priest. The earl's hand
shook nervously whUe he unfolded Francis Seymour's
despatch, so that it feU on his wax taper, and some words
were burnt ; the manuscript is now extant in that state.
Lord Hertford may be well beUeved when he affirmed
that he slept not aU that night ; he was up as early as
four o'clock to write to the prime minister on the sub
ject. His letter makes a curious finale to the romantic
history of his wedlock with the hapless Lady Katharine ;
at the same time it speaks of himseK as thoroughly
tamed down by the long imprisonment inflicted on him
as punishment by Queen Elizabeth, " My lord," he wrote
to Salisbury, "this last night, at eleven of the clock,
ready to go to bed, I received this letter [enclosed] from
my nephew ', Francis Seymour, which I send to your
lordship here enclosed, A letter no less troublesome to
me than strange to think I should in these my last days
be grandfather of a chUd that, instead of patiently
tarrying the Lord's leisure (lessons that I learnt and
• Grandson. The word was used indifferently.
C 0

386 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1611.
prayed for when I was in the same place, the Tower,
whereout he lewdly has escaped), he would not tarry for
the good hour of favour to come from a gracious and
merciful king, as I did, and enjoyed in the end (though
long first) from a most worthy and noble queen, but
hath plunged himself further into his highness's
[James L] just displeasure, to whose majesty I do by
these lines earnestly pray your lordship to signify piost
humbly from me how distasteful this his boyish and
fooUsh action is to me. And that, as at first, upon his
examination before your lordships [privy councU], and
before his majesty afterward, nothing was more offensive
to me, misliking altogether the unfitness and unsuit-
ableness of the match, and the handling of it after
wards worse, so do I condemn this as the worst of aU
in them both,
" Thus, my lord, with an unquiet mind as before — ^to
think I should be grandfather to any child that hath
so much forgotten his duty as he hath now done, and
having slept never a vdnk this night (a bad medicine
for one that is not fuUy recovered of a second great cold
I took), I leave your lordship vdth my loving commen
dations to the heavenly protection,
" From Lettey, this Thursday morning at four of the
clock, the 6th of June, 1611,
" Tour lordship's most assured loving friend,
" Hbetfoed.
" P.S. — ^As I was reading my said nephew's [Francis
Seymour's] letter, my sise ' [wax-light] took — as your
lordship may perceive — into the bottom of the letter ;
but the words missing, that's burnt, is Tower to ac
quaint." *
' Six-sized wax-light ; thus called in most account-books of the period.
» Harleian MS., No. 7003, fol. 124.

1611. STRONG ATTACHMENT OF MARGARET BYRON. 387
The capabUity of inspiring a strong and disinterested
attachment is justly considered a true proof of worth of
character. " Few great men are heroes in the eyes of
their valets de chambre," says a proverb universaUy
aUowed to be founded on an accurate appreciation of
the masculine temper ; at the same time its application
does not extend to women, for owing to daUy and hourly
habits of self-control and self-government practised by
weU-educated females in domestic Ufe from their in
fancy, many an iUustrious woman has been a heroine
in the eyes of her handmaidens. Lady ArabeUa is one
of this distinguished number. She had in the time of
her prosperity taken a fancy to Margaret Byron', a
younger daughter of the iUustrious line of Newstead,
when she was about nine years old, and begged her of her
parents. According to the custom of the times, young
Mistress Margaret Byron was transferred to court, and
brought up as an infant maid of honour to Lady Ara
bella Stuart, then acknowledged to be the second lady
in England. " She minded nothing but her mistress,"
says Mrs. Hutchinson, from whose memoirs this account
is taken, " and grew up so intimate in her councUs
that the princess [Lady ArabeUa] more deUghted in her
than in any of her household ; but when the Lady Ara
beUa was carried away from them aU to prison. Sir John
Biron came and fetched his chUd back to Newstead,
and there, though his lady laboured to comfort her
with aU imaginable kindness, yet so constant was her
affection for the unfortunate Lady ArabeUa, that she
would steal many hours, even after her marriage, to sit
alone and weep and meditate on her fate." Margaret
' Wife to Colonel Hutchinson, the son of Margaret Byron. Mre. Hutch
inson wrote Memoirs of great interest regarding her husband: the inci
dent is related by her, vol. i. p. 67. C C 2

388 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1612.
Byron, according to the testimony of her daughter-in-
law, manifested a great poetical genius, which was
fostered by the education she obtained under the care
of the leamed Lady ArabeUa. She married Sir Thomas
Hutchinson, and died at the early age of twenty-six, in
the act of singing a divine strain of sacred melody.
Margaret Byron had always been celebrated for her
heavenly voice, but her expiring notes surpassed all she
had ever sung before.

CHAPTER XII.

Aeabella at first tried to resign herself to her fate, and
spent some time in working an elaborate piece of em
broidery to present to the king, who up to the unlucky
time of her marriage had been uniformly indulgent to
her ; but when she sent it to him he refused to accept it,
to her deep and bitter disappointment.'
ArabeUa's reason was in a tottering state even be
fore her rash marriage, as several of her letters prove.
The following is supposed to have been addressed to
her royal cousin, Henry Prince of Wales, before his
death : —
" Sweet Brother, — Every one forsakes me but those
that cannot helpe me.
" Tour most vnfortunate sister,
" Aebella Setmouee," *
At the marriage of the king's yoimg daughter, the
Princess Elizabeth, with the Elector Palatine, she or
dered four costly dresses, one of which cost no less than
' Harleian MS., No. 7003, fol. 153.
' From her autograph, in the possession of John Thane.

1613. BECOMES INSANE. 389
fifteen hundred pounds — a proof that she was not, as
falsely represented by some writers, without money,
but was stiU in possession of enough to lavish in idle
and useless extravagance. Her mind was at last un
hinged, and though she continued to petition the king
for liberation and pardon, her letters became incoherent,
and she was pronounced mad. In the postscript of one
of these to Lord Northampton, she says : —
" I can neither get clothes nor posset at all, nor any
thing but ordinary diet, nor compliment fit for a sick
lady in my case when I call for it,"'
ArabeUa's aunt, the Countess of Shrewsbury, was im
prisoned in the queen's apartments, and treated with
great indulgence ; but Arabella, formerly so much de
voted to her, at last began to accuse her of wild and
improbable things, which might possibly have caused
her some trouble if the insanity of the unhappy royal
captive had not become so fatally apparent.
The foUowing letter was written by her to a person
in the service of the Earl of Northampton : —
" Sir, — Though you be almost a stranger to me, but
only by sight, yet the good opinion I generaUy hear of
your worth, together with the great interest you have in
my lord of Northampton's favour, makes me thus far
presume on your wUlingness to do a poor afflicted gentle
woman that good oflSce (if in no other respect, yet be
cause I am a Christian^) as to further me with your best
endeavours to his lordship, that it wiU please hiTn to
help me out of this great distress and misery, and re
gain me his majesty's favour, which is my chief desire.
Wherein his lordship may do a deed acceptable to God
and honourable to himself, and I shaU be infinitely
' Harleian MS., No. 7003, fol. 153. ' Cabala sive Scrinia Sacra.

•890 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1615.
bound to his lordship [Northampton] and beholden to
you, who now, tUl I receive some comfort from his
majesty, rest " The most sorrovdul creature Uving,
"Aeabella Setmoue,'"
There is neither superscription nor date.
Lord Gray, who, after his life had been spared at
Winchester by James I., had been kept at the Tower as
a sort of prisoner at large, occasioned great consterna
tion among the Tower officers and garrison by being
observed to hold long conferences vdth Lady ArabeUa's
waiting-woman. Lady ArabeUa was in consequence re
strained to her own apartment, and a close examination
instituted regarding these interdews. From a certain
inflexibility of temper. Gray was considered a champion
of some importance, if he chose to undertake any enter
prise which might lead him to risk laying down his
head a second time on the death-block. He, however,
had no intention of encountering such danger again for
the Lady Arabella, who was, it may be remembered,
the ostensible cause of his first rebeUion. He declared
his secret conferences " were aU for love " of the lady's
maid, without any political tendency to her mistress,*
Lady ArabeUa had been greatly agitated by the whole
adventure. "Her brain," says the coarse Winwood,
"continues cracked, so she hath been restrained of
late." 3
ArabeUa was at last forgotten in the court where she
had, during the first seven years of her cousin King
James, made so briUiant a sensation. She died in the
Tower of London, September 27, 1615, aged forty, and
was buried at night in the same vault with Mary Queen
• Cabala sive Scrinia Sacra. ' Winwood, p. 464. ' Ibid.

1615. REPORT OF A CHILD BY SEYMOUR. 391
of Scots, her kinswoman. She had neither tomb nor
inscription, any more than her cousin, Henry Prince of
Wales, or his mother, Anne of Denmark ; but the fol
lowing imaginary epitaph was v^rritten for her by Eichard
Corbet, the witty Bishop of Norwich : —
" Now do I thank thee. Death, and bless thy power,
That I have past the guard and 'scaped the Tower ;
And now my pardon is mine epitaph,
And a small coffin my poor relics hath ;
For at thy charge both soul and body were
Enlarged at last, secured from hope and fear:
That among saints, this among kings, is laid.
And what my birth did claim in death is paid."
The Countess of Shrewsbury set it about that Lady
ArabeUa left a chUd by her husband WiUiam Seymour,
for which false and mischievous report she incurred a
very severe rebuke from the Star Chamber.'
WiUiam Seymour was abroad all the time of Lady
ArabeUa's languishing indisposition. He returned on
hearing of her death. In the foUowing year he made
his peace vdth the king, and was created a Knight of
the Bath, He succeeded his grandfather as Earl of
Hertford in 1621, and distinguished himself in the cidl
wars as one of the most vaUant and stainless of cava
liers. He had the honour of being appointed governor
of the Prince of Wales, and was created by Charles I.
Marquis of Hertford in 1640.
He was one of the Ulustrious six who courageously
attended the interment of his murdered sovereign,
Charles I., in the vaults of St. George's Chapel Eoyal,
at Windsor.
¦ Note to Letters and Memoirs of Sir Francis Bacon, p, $8, written
during the reign of James I.

392 LADY ARABELLA STUART. 1663.
Hertford was restored to the dukedom of Somerset
at the Eestoration, when the attainder of his great
grandfather, the Protector Somerset, was reversed.
He surdved the unfortunate Lady Arabella Stuart
upwards of five-and-forty years, but married after her
death the daughter of Lord Capel.

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