The Lives of the Queens of England, Volume 5 by Agnes Strickland, Elisabeth Strickland

1 01 - Katharine Parr, Ch I pt 1 32:38

Lives of the Queens of England, Volume Five, by Agnes and Elizabeth Strickland. Section One. Catherine Parr, Chapter One.

Catherine Parr was the first Protestant queen of England. She was the only one among the consorts of Henry VIII, who, in the sincerity of an honest heart, embraced the doctrine of the Reformation, and imperiled her crown in life in support of her principles. The name of Catherine, which, from its Greek derivation, katharos, signifies pure as a limpid stream, seems peculiarly suited to the characteristics of this illustrious lady, in whom we behold the protectress of Coverdale. The friend of Anne Askew, the learned and virtuous matron who directed the studies of Lady Jane Grey, Edward VI, and Queen Elizabeth, and who may, in truth, be called the nursing mother of the reformation. katharine parr was not only queen of england but an english queen.

Although of ancient and even royal descent, she claimed by birth no other rank than that of a private gentlewoman. Like Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, katharine parr was only the daughter of a knight. But her father, Sir Thomas Parr, was of a more distinguished ancestry than either Sir Thomas Boleyn or Sir John Seymour. From the marriage of his Norman progenitor, Ivo de Talebois, with Lucy, the sister of renowned earls Morcar and Edwin, Sir Thomas Parr inherited the blood of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Ivo de Talebois was the first baron of Kendal, and maintained the state of a petty sovereign in the north. His male line failing with William de Lancaster, the seventh in descent, the honor and estates of that mighty family passed to his sisters, Helwise and Alice.

margaret, the elder co-heirress of Helwise, by Peter Le Brice, married the younger son of Robert Lord Reuse, of Hamlake and Works, by Isabel, daughter of Alexander, the second, king of Scotland. Their grandson, Sir Thomas de Reuse, married Catherine, the daughter of Sir Thomas Strickland, of Siser Castle, Westmoreland. The fruit of this union was an only daughter, Elizabeth, who brought kendal castle and a rich inheritance into queen katharine's paternal house by her marriage with sir william de par knight sir william par the grandson of this pair was made knight of the garter and married elizabeth one of the co-heiresses of the lord fitzhugh by alice daughter of ralph neville earl of westmorland and joan beaufort daughter of john of gaunt duke of lancaster Alice Neville was sister to the king's great-grandmother, Cicily Neville, Duchess of York, and through this connection, Catherine Parr was fourth cousin to Henry VIII.

From the elder co-heirress of Fitzhugh, the patrimony of the Marmions, the ancient champions of England, was transmitted to Sir Thomas Parr, father of Queen Catherine. Her mother, Mathilda, or as she was commonly called, Maude Green, was daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Greene of Bowton and Greene's Norton, in the county of Northamptonshire. This lady was a descendant of the distinguished families of Talbot and Throckmorton. Her sister, Anne, wedded Sir Thomas Vaux, afterwards created Lord Vaux of Herodon, and dying childless, the whole of the rich inheritance of the Greene's of Bowton, centred in Matilda. at the age of thirteen, Matilda became the wife of Sir Thomas Parr. This marriage took place in the year, fifteen o eight, the date generally assigned for the birth of Catherine Parr is fifteen ten, but the correspondence between her mother and Lord Dacre in the fifteenth year of Henry, the eighth, in which her age is specified to be under twelve, will prove that she could not have been born till fifteen thirteen.

Her father, Sir Thomas Parr, at that time held high offices at court, being master of the wards and comptroller of the household to Henry VIII. As a token of royal favor, we find that the king presented him with a rich gold chain, valued at a hundred and forty pounds, a very large sum in those days. Both Sir Thomas and his lady were frequent residents in the court, but the child who was destined hereafter to share the throne of their royal master first saw the light at Kendall Castle in Westmoreland, the time-honoured fortress which had been the hereditary seat of her ancestors from the days of its Norman founder, Ivo de Taleboy. A crumbling relic of this stronghold of feudal greatness is still in existence, rising like a grey crown over the green hills of Kendall.

It is situated on a lofty eminence, which commands a panoramic view of the town and the picturesque and ever-verdoned vale of the Kent, That clear and rapid stream, which, night and day, sings an unwearied song, as it rushes over its rocky bed at the foot of the castle hill. The circular tower of the castle is the most considerable portion of the ruins, but there is a large enclosure of ivy-mantled walls remaining, with a few broken arches. These are now crowned with wildflowers. whose peaceful blossoms wave unnoted, where the Red Cross banner of St. George once flaunted on tower and parapet of the sternly guarded fortress that for centuries was regarded as the most important defence of the town of Kendal and the adjacent country.

The warlike progenitors of Catherine had stern duties to perform at the period when the kings of Scotland held Cumberland of the English crown and were perpetually harassing the northern counties with predatory expeditions. Before the auspicious era, when the realms of England and Scotland were united under one sovereign, the lord of Kendal Castle, like his feudal neighbour of Sizer, was compelled to furnish a numerous quota of men-at-arms for the service of the crown and the protection of the border. the contingent consisted of horse and foot, and above all, of those bowmen so renowned in border history and song, the Kendall archers. They are especially noted by the metrical chronicler of the Battle of Flodden.

These are the beaux of Kentdale Bold, who fierce will fight and never flee. Dame Maude Parr evinced a courageous disposition in venturing to choose Kendall Castle for the place of her accouchement. at a time when the northern counties were menaced with an invasion from the puissant and flower of Scotland, headed by their king in person. Sir Thomas Parr was, however, compelled to be on duty there, with his warlike main, in readiness either to attend the summons of the Lord Warden of the marches, or to hold the fortress for the defence of the town and neighbourhood, and his lady, instead of remaining in the metropolis, or seeking a safer abiding-place at Greene's Norton, her own patrimonial domain, decided on sharing her husband's perils in the north, and there gave birth to Catherine.

They had two other children, William, their son and heir, afterwards created Earl of Essex and Marquis of Northampton, and Anne, the wife of William Herbert, the natural son of the Earl of Pembroke, to which dignity he was himself raised by Edward, the sixth. Sir Thomas Parr died in the year fifteen seventeen leaving his three infant children to the guardianship of his faithful widow, who is said to have been a lady of great prudence and wisdom, with a discreet care for the main chance. The will of Sir Thomas Parr is dated November, seventh, the ninth of Henry, the eighth, he bequeathed his body to be interred at Blackfriars Church, London. All his manners, lands, and tenements, he gave to his wife, Dame Maud, during her life.

he willed his daughters, Catherine and Anne, to have eight hundred pounds between them as marriage portions, except they proved to be his heirs or his son's heirs, in which case that sum was to be laid out in Cope's investments, and given to the monks of Clairvaux, with a hundred pounds bestowed on the Chantry of Kendal. He willed his son William to have his great chain, worth one hundred and forty pounds, which the king's grace gave him. he made maud his wife and dr tunstall master of the rolls his executors four hundred pounds catherine's moiety of the sum provided by her father for the nuptial portions of herself and her sister would be scarcely equal to two thousand pounds in these days and seems but an inadequate dowry for the daughters of parents so richly endowed with the gifts of fortune as sir thomas and lady it was however all that was accorded to her who was hereafter to contract matrimony with the sovereign of the realm.

Sir Thomas Parr died in London on the eleventh of november, four days after the date of his will, in the parish of the Blackfriars, and there can be no doubt but he was interred in that church according to his own request. Yet, as lately as the year sixteen twenty eight, there is record of a tomb bearing his effigies name in arms in the chapel or family burying-place of the pars in the south choir of kindle church. It has been generally said that Catherine Parr received a learned education from her father, but as she was only in her fifth year when he died, it must have been to the maternal wisdom of Lady Parr that she was indebted for those mental acquirements which so eminently fitted her to adorn the exalted station to which she was afterwards raised.

Catherine was gifted by nature with fine talents, and these were improved by the advantages of careful cultivation. she both read and wrote latin with facility, possessed some knowledge of Greek, and was well versed in modern languages. How perfect a mistress she was of her own! The elegance and beauty of her devotional writings are a standing monument. I have met with a passage concerning this queen, says Stripe, in the margin of Bale's centuries, in possession of a late friend of mine, Dr. Sampson, which shows the greatness of her mind and the quickness of her wit, While she was yet a young child, somebody skilled in prognostication, casting her nativity, said that she was born to sit in the highest seat of Imperial Majesty, having all the eminent stars and planets in her house.

This she heard, and took such notice of, that when her mother used sometimes to call her to work, she would reply, My hands are ordained to touch crowns and scepters, and not spindles and needles. This striking incident affords one among many instances in which the prediction of a brilliant destiny has ensured its own fulfillment by its powerful influence on an energetic mind. It is also an exemplification at how precocious an age the germ of ambition may take root in the human heart. But however disposed the little Catherine might have been to dispense with the performance of her tasks under the idea of queening it hereafter, Lady Parr was too wise a parent to allow vain dreams of royalty to unfit her child for the duties of the station of life in which she was born, and, notwithstanding Catherine's early repugnance to touch a needle, her skill in industry in its use became so remarkable that there are specimens of her embroidery at Sizer Castle, which scarcely could have been surpassed by the far-famed stitcheries of the sisters of King Athelstan.

though dame maude parr had scarcely completed her twenty-second year at the time of her husband's death, she never entered into a second marriage, but devoted herself entirely to the superintendence of her children's education. In the year, fifteen twenty-four, she entered into a negotiation with her kinsman, Lord Dacre, for a marriage between his grandson, the heir of Lord Scroofe, and her daughter, Catherine, of which the particulars may be learned from some very curious letters preserved among the Scrope manuscripts. The first is from Dame Maud Parr to Lord Dacre, and refers to a personal conference she had had with his lordship at Greenwich on the subject of this alliance. Most Honourable and my very good lord.

I heartily commend me to you. Whereas it pleased you at your last being here, to take pains in the matter in consideration of marriage between the Lord Scroope's son and my daughter, Catherine, for the which I heartily thank you, at which time I thought the matter in good furtherance. Howbeit, I perceive that my Lord Scroope is not agreeable to that consideration. The jointure is little for eleven hundred marks, which I will not pass. And my said lord will not repay after marriage had, and two hundred marks must needs be repaid, if my daughter Catherine dies before the age of sixteen, or else I should break master Parr's will, meaning the will of her husband, Sir Thomas, which I should be loath to do, and there can be no marriage until my lord's son, Lord Scrooge, comes to the age of thirteen, and my daughter to the age of twelve, before which time, if the marriage should take none effect, or be dissolved either by death, Wardship, disagreement, or otherwise, which may be before the time notwithstanding marriage solemnized.

Repayment must needs be had of the whole, or else I might fortune to pay my money for nothing. The conversation I had with you at Greenwich was that I was to pay at desire eleven hundred marks. One hundred on hand, and one hundred every year, which is as much as I can spare, as you know, and for that my daughter Catherine is to have one hundred marks jointure, whereof I am to have fifty marks for her finding till they live together, than they are to have the whole one hundred marks, and repayment to be had if the marriage took no effect. My lord, it may please you to take so much pain as to help to conclude this matter, if it will be, and if you see any defect on my part, It shall be ordered as ye deem good, as knoweth Yesu, who preserve your good lordship.

Written at the Rye, the Thirteenth of July, your cousin, Maude Parr. Lord Scroope of Bolton Castle did not choose to submit to the refunding part of the clause, and was unwilling to allow more than forty marks per annum for the board or finding of the young lady, till the heir of Scroope came to the age of eighteen. Lord Dacre, after some inconsequential letters between him and Dame Maud, proved his sincerity in the promotion of the wedlock by the following pithy arguments contained in an epistle to Lord Scroop, his son-in-law. My lord, your son and heir is the greatest jewel that ye can have, seeing he must represent your own people after your death, unto whom I pray God grant many long years.

And if ye be disposed to marry him, I cannot see, without you marrying him to an heir of land, which would be right costly, that ye can marry him to so good a stock as my lady Parr, for divers considerations. First, in remembering the wisdom of my said lady, and the good wise stock of the greens, whereof she is coming, and also of the wise stock of the Pars of Kendal, for all wise men do look when they do marry their child, to the wisdom of the blood they do marry with. I speak not of the possibility of Lady Parr's daughter, Catherine, who has but one child between her, and eight hundred marks yearly to inherit thereof. My lord, the demands you have and my lady's demands are so far asunder, that it is impossible ye can ever agree.

I think it is not convenient nor profitable, that so large a sum as one hundred marks, Should go yearly out of your land to so young a person as my lady's eldest daughter, Catherine, if it fortune as God defend that your said son and mine die. Also I think it good, but I would not have it comprised in the covenant, that during the time of three years, that he should be with my said lady Parr, if she keep her widowhood, And ye to find him clothing, and a servant to wait upon him, and she to find him meat and drink. For I assure you he might learn with her, as well as in any place, that I know as well nurture as French and other languages, which, meseems, were a commodious thing for him. At Morpeth, Seventeenth Day of December, Fifteen Year, Henry, the Eighth.

These letters certify us that Catherine Parr was under twelve years of age in the year fifteen twenty four she could not therefore have been born before fifteen thirteen. We also learn that Lord Dacre was anxious that his youthful grandson should participate in the advantages of the liberal education Lady Parr was bestowing on her children. and that he placed due importance on the fact that the lady came of a family celebrated for sound sense and good conduct, a point little regarded now in the marriages of the heirs of an illustrious line. Lady Parr and all her lineage had a great reputation for wisdom, it seems. But the wisdom of this world formed so prominent a feature in the matrimonial bargain, which the sagacious widow and the worthy Lord Scrooge were attempting to drive in behalf of their children, that the affair came to nothing.

Lord Dacre tells Lady Parr that Lord Scroope must needs have money, and he has nothing whereof to make it but the marriage of his said son, and Dame Maud, in a letter from the court of Greenwich, dated the fifteenth of the following March, laments to Lord Dacre that the custom of her country, and the advice of her friends, will not permit her to submit to Lord Scroope's way of driving a bargain. lord dacre who seems some degrees less acquisitive than his son and lady Parr replies madam for my part i am sorry that ye must be converted in this matter seeing the labour i have had in it which was most for the strength of my friendship for my cousin katharine your daughter assuring you that ye shall not marry katharine in any place that be so good and comfortable to my said cousin your daughter And concerning my lord Scroope's demands, he demanded nothing but that ye were content to give, which was eleven hundred marks, and concerning his offer, which was one hundred marks jointure, it is not far from the custom of the country, for from the highest to the lowest, it is the custom to give for every one hundred marks of dower, ten marks jointure.

But finally, madam, seeing ye are thus minded, whereat I am sorry, as nature constraineth me to be, As it doth please you in this business, so it shall please me, and thus heartily fare ye well. At Morpeth, twenty-fifth day of May, sixteen ono. Thus ended the abortive matrimonial treaty for the union of Catherine Parr and the heir of Scroop, who was her kinsman by the maternal connection of both with the great northern family of Dacre. Catherine must have been still of very tender age, when she was given in marriage to her first husband, Edward, Lord Borough of Gainsborough, a mature widower, with children who had arrived at man's estate. Henry, the second of these sons, after his father's marriage with Catherine Parr, espoused her friend and kinswoman, Catherine Neville, the widow of Sir Walter Strickland of Sizer, and this lady, though only twenty-nine at the time of her union, was fourteen years older than her husband's stepmother.

The principal family seat of Catherine's first husband was his manor-house of Gainsborough, situated about seventeen miles from Lincoln, and here, no doubt, he resided with his young bride. His father had expended considerable sums in enlarging and improving this mansion, which was sold a century afterwards by one of his descendants to a wealthy London citizen. Lord Borough had a fine mansion at Caterick in Yorkshire, and probably at Newark, likewise where his arms impaled with those of his first wife, Alice Cobham, were painted on the window which his father presented to the parish church. At Gainsborough Church, on the tomb of the first Lord Borough, father to Catherine Parr's husband, the arms of Borough were quartered with Tallybois, Marmion, and Fitzhugh, which afforded sufficient proof of the ancestral connection of this nobleman with the Parrs.

he appears to have been related to Catherine somewhere about the fourth degree. He died in fifteen twenty eight to twenty nine. Catherine, therefore, could not have exceeded her fifteenth year at the period of her first widowhood. She had no children by Lord Burrough. Soon after the death of her husband, Catherine was bereaved of her last surviving parent. From a passage in the will of Lady Parr, It appears as if that lady had sacrificed the interest of her daughter in order to purchase a marriage with a kinswoman of the sovereign for her son, Sir William Parr. This strange document, which is utterly devoid of perspicuity and common sense, commences thus. Dame Maud Parr, widow, late wife of Sir Thomas Parr, deceased, 20th of May, 21st of Henry, the eighth, 1529, My body to be buried in the church of the Blackfriars, London.

Whereas, I have indebted myself for the preferment of my son and heir, William Parr, as well as to the king for the marriage of my said son, as to my lord of Essex, for the marriage of my lady Borghier, daughter and heir apparent to the said Earl, and my daughter, Sir William Parr Knight, my brother. Catherine Burrough, my daughter, Thomas Pinkering, Esquire, my cousin, and steward of my house. Great difficulties were probably encountered by the executors of Lady Parr's will, as it was not proved till December Fourteenth, Fifteen Thirty One, more than two years after her death. Like many of the marriages based on parental pride and avarice, the union of Catherine's brother with the heiress of the royally descended and wealthy house of Bortierre proved a source of guilt and misery to both parties.

The young lady Parr was the sole descendant of Isabelle Plantagenet, sister of the king's great-grandfather, Richard, Duke of York. This alliance increased the previous family connection of the Pars with the sovereign lineage on the female side. Some degree of friendly intercourse appears to have been kept up between the king and his cousin and the young lady Parr, and we observed that in the year fifteen thirty she sent him a present of a coat of kindle cloth. Both the brother and the uncle of Catherine were now attached to the royal household. But many reasons lead us to suppose that Catherine became an inmate of Sizer Castle about this period. She was a lively, noble and wealthy widow in her sixteenth year, when deprived of the protection of her last surviving parent.

her only near-female relations were an unmarried sister younger than herself, and her aunt, Lady Throckmorton, who resided in a distant county. As heiress presumptive to her brother, William, it was desirable to remain in the vicinity of Kendall Castle and the family estates in that neighbourhood. Therefore, the most prudent and natural thing she could do was to take up her abode with her kinswoman and friend, Lady Strickland, that lady, though she had by her marriage with Katharine's stepson, Henry Burrow, become her daughter-in-law, was quite old enough to afford matronly countenance to the youthful widow of Lord Burrow, whom, according to the quaint custom of the time, she called her good mother.

Katharine Parr and Lady Strickland were alike, descended from the nevils of Rabie, and Sir Walter Strickland, the deceased husband of the latter, was also a relative of the Parrs, and as lady strickland held of the crown the wardship of her son, young walter strickland's person and estates, she remained mistress of Sizer Castle even after her marriage with Henry Burrough. At no other period of her life than the interval between her mother's death and her own marriage with Neville, Lord Latimer, could Catherine Parr have found leisure to embroider the magnificent counterpane and toilet cover, which are proudly exhibited at Sizer Castle, as trophies of her industry having been worked by her own hands during a visit to her kinsfolk there.

As the ornamental labours of the needle have become once more a source of domestic enjoyment to the ladies of England, and even the lords of the creation appear to derive some pleasure as lookers-on In tracing the progress of their fair friends at the embroidering frame, a brief description of these beautiful and well-preserved specimens of Catherine Parr's proficiency in that accomplishment may not be displeasing. The material on which both counterpane and toilet cover are worked is the richest white satin of a fabric with which the production of no modern loom can vie. The center of the pattern is a medallion, surrounded with a wreath of natural flowers, Wrought in twisted silks and bullion.

A spread eagle, in bold relief, gorged with the imperial crown, forms the middle. At each corner is a lively heraldic monster, of the dragon class, glowing with purple, crimson, and gold. The field is gaily beset with large flowers, in gorgeous colors, highly embossed and enriched with threads of gold. The toilet is en suite, but of a smaller pattern. the lapse of three centuries has scarcely diminished the brilliancy of the colours, or tarnished the bouillon. Nor is the purity of the satin sullied, though both these queenly relics have been used on state occasions by the family in whose possession they have remained, as precious heirlooms and memorials of their ancestral connection with Queen Catherine Parr.

The apartment which Catherine occupied in Sizer Castle is still called the Queen's Room. It is a fine state chamber in that ancient portion of the castle in Danecourt Tower. It opens through the drawing-room, and is panelled with richly carved black oak, which is covered with tapestry of great beauty. The designs represent hunting in all its gradations, from a fox-chase up to a lion-hunt. Varied with delineations of trees and flowers, and surrounded with a very unique border, in which young tigers are fighting and brandishing their claws at each other, in the manner of enraged kittens. The most splendid patterns for modern needlework might be taken from these spirited devices. Over the lofty carved chimney-piece are the arms of England and France, supported between the lion and the Tudor dragon, with the motto, Vivat Regina.

The date, fifteen sixty nine, proves they were put up some years after the death of Catherine Parr, though doubtless intended to commemorate the fact that this apartment was once honored by her use. The bed, with its hangings of costly crimson damask, is shown as the veritable one in which she reposed. But the fashion of the bedstead is too modern to favor the tradition, which, we think, more probably belongs to one of the elaborately carved and canopied oaken bedsteads, covelled with the days of the plantagenets, which are to be seen in other chambers of this venerable mansion. How long Catherine continued the widow of Lord Burrough is uncertain, but she was probably under twenty years of age when she became, for the second time, the wife of a mature widower, and again undertook the office of a stepmother.

it is not unlikely that her residence at Sizer Castle might lead to her marriage with John Neville, Lord Latimer, as Lady Strickland was a Neville, of Thornton Briggs, and would naturally afford her kinsman every facility for his courtship of their fair cousin. Lord Latimer was related to Catherine in about the same degree as her first husband, Lord Burrough. The date of her marriage with this nobleman is not known. He had been previously married twice, First, to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Musgrave, who died without issue. Secondly, to Dorothy, daughter of Sir George de Vere, and sister and co-heiress to John de Vere, Fourteenth Earl of Oxford, by whom he had two children, John and Margaret.

The second lady, Latimer died in 1526 to 27. after katharine became the wife of lord latimer she chiefly resided with him and his family at his stately mansion of snape hill in yorkshire which is thus described by leland. Snape, a goodly castle in a valley belonging to lord latimer with two or three good parks well wooded about it. It is his chief house and standeth about two miles from great tanfield. The manors of Cumberton wadborough, and several other estates in Worcestershire, which he inherited from Elizabeth Beauchamp, were settled on Katharine Parr at her marriage with this wealthy noble. The ancestors of Katharine Parr, the Marmions, had formerly held sway at Tanfield, and through the marriage of her grandfather, Sir William Parr, with Elizabeth Fitzhugh, the granddaughter of the heiress of Sir Robert Marmion, the castle and manor of Tanfield, descended to the father of Catherine, and was now the property of her brother, young William Parr.

He was at that time childless, and as Catherine was his heiress presumptive, there was a contingency, by no means remote, of this demesne, which was so desirably contiguous to her husband's estates falling to her. it would be too much to say that lord latimer had an eye to this contingency when he sought the hand of katharine parr for she was young lovely accomplished learned and virtuous and to a man who had enjoyed the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the perfections of a mind like hers the worldly advantages that might accrue from a matrimonial alliance with her must have been considerations of a very secondary nature fortunate indeed must lord latimer have felt himself in being able to obtain so charming a companion for his latter days, and at the same time one so well qualified to direct the studies and form the minds of his children.

The amiable temper and sound sense of katharine taught her to perform the difficult duties that devolved upon her in the character of a stepmother with such conscientious and endearing gentleness that she ensured the love and esteem of all the families with whom she was connected in that capacity. During the first years of her marriage with Lord Latimer, she pursued the noiseless tenor of her way, in the peaceful routine and privacy of domestic life, to which those talents and acquirements which afterwards rendered her the admiration of the most learned men in Europe, and the intellectual model of the ladies of England, was calculated to lend a charm.

2 02 - Katharine Parr, Ch I pt 2 37:50

The book of the Queen of England. This is in the public domain.

Chapter One. Part Two.

Lord Latimer was so strenuous a Catholic that he became one of the leaders of the northern insurrection on account of the suppression of the monasteries and the sequestration of the church property by Cromwell in 1536. This revolt, though chiefly proceeding from the miseries of a starving population, who found themselves suddenly deprived of the relief of conventual alms in seasons of distress, assumed the tone of a domestic crusade against the enemies of the olden faith, and was called the Pilgrimage of Grace. Forty thousand rustics in Yorkshire, alone, appeared in arms, bearing white banners in the image of the Savior on the cross, and the chalice and host depicted thereon. Their nominal general was Robert Aske, a gentleman of mean condition, and a mysterious personage entitled the Earl of Poverty, but an enthusiastic junto of nobles, knights, and ecclesiastics, at the head of whom was the Archbishop of York, Lord Neville, Lord Darcy and the husband of Catherine Parr were allied with these adventurers.

They were knit together with oaths of compact, and they compelled the inhabitants of every village or town to take this oath and to join the pilgrimage. They became so formidable in a short time that the Duke of Norfolk, who was empowered by the king to put down the rebellion, considered it more desirable to negotiate than to fight, and a peaceable conference was appointed. Between the royal commissioners, and a chosen number of the leading men among the insurgents at Doncaster. Lord Latimer was one of the delegates nominated by the pilgrims for the perilous service of laying their grievances before the sovereign and stating their demands. Four pledges were given by the Duke for the safe return of the delegates.

They demanded, among other things, the restoration of the monastic establishments and the papal supremacy, the suppression of heretical books, especially the writings of Wycliffe, Luther, Melanchthon, and others whom they specified, and that the heretical bishops might be condemned to the flames, or else compelled to do battle in single combat with certain valiantly disposed pilgrims, who would take upon themselves the office of champions for the church militant. There were also many legal and statistical reforms required. But the most extraordinary demand of a northern democracy was that the king should expel from his council all men of villain blood, especially Cromwell, Rich, and others, who had risen from a humble station in society.

In every era of our history, it may be noted that the lower classes have disliked the elevation of persons of their own degree to the exercise of authority in the state. Such is the inconsistency of popular pride. The king was much offended at the manifesto of the pilgrims, and took upon himself the task of compounding a reply in which he expressed his astonishment. that ignorant people should go about to instruct him in matters of theology, who somewhat had been noted to be learned in what the true faith should be. In this, his majesty, with all the pride of authorship, evidently designed to recall to the memory of the more polite members of the Confederacy, his own book against Luther, which had procured for him from the Pope the title of Defender of the Faith.

He also angrily complains, Of their presumption in wanting to mend his laws, as if, after being their king eight-and-twenty years, he did not know how to govern the realm. He rejected all their petitions, but offered to pardon them for appearing in arms against him if they would give up their ringleaders, and concluded by bidding them admire the benignity of their sovereign. The pilgrims declined the royal grace under such conditions, recalled their delegates, and made them ready for battle. The wise and conciliating policy of the Duke of Norfolk prevented the collision which appeared almost inevitable. He prevailed upon the insurgents to lay down their arms, on condition of receiving free pardon from the King, with a promise that their grievances should be discussed in Parliament.

And with some difficulty, he induced the King, who was very peevish with him about it, to publish the amnesty without exceptions. The general pardon was dated December 9th, 1536. In February, the insurrection broke out again, but Lord Latimer did not join it. The prudent counsels of Catherine possibly deterred her lord from involving himself a second time in so rash an enterprise. It is certain that, by remaining quiescent, he escaped the tragic fate of his northern neighbors and late Confederates. the Lord Darcy, Sir Robert Constable, Sir Stephen Hamerton, and upwards of 70 others, on whom the royal vengeance inflicted the extreme penalty of the law. The only daughter of Sir Stephen Hamerton was betrothed to Catherine's youthful kinsman, Walter Strickland, and not only this family connection, but the execution of several of the Nevilles, After the Second Rising, must have rendered this period a season of fearful anxiety to Lord and Lady Latimer.

It was probably about this time that Sir John Russell, the Lord Pribie Seal, took the opportunity of requesting a very inconvenient favor for one of his friends of Lord Latimer. Namely, that his lordship should oblige this person with the loan of his fine mansion in the churchyard of Chartreux, now called the Charterhouse. latimer did not venture to refuse, but his extreme reluctance to comply with the request may be seen in the following letter written in reply. Right Honourable and my especial good lord, after my most hearty recommendations had to your good lordship, whereas your lordship doth desire of your friends my house within Chartres churchyard beside so, I assure your lordship The getting of a lease of it cost me one hundred mares, besides other pleasures or improvements, that I did to the house, for it was much my desire to have it, because it stands in good air, out of press of the city.

And I do always lie there when I come to London, and have no other house to lie at. And also I have granted it to Farm, to Mr. Newtegate, son and heir to Sergeant Newtegate, to lie in the said house in my absence. And he to void whensoever I come up to London. Nevertheless I am contented, if it can do your lordship any pleasure for your friend, that he lie there forthwith. I seek my lodgings at this Michaelmas term myself, and as touching my lease, I assure your lordship it is not here, but I shall bring it right to your lordship at my coming up, at this said term, and then and always I shall be at your lord's commandment, as knows our lord. Who preserve your lordship in much honor to his pleasure.

From Wyke, in Worcester, the last day of September. Your lordships assuredly to command, John Latimer. To the right honorable and very especial good lord, my lord Privyseal. From this letter we may gather, that the household arrangements of the second husband of Catherine Parr, were of the same prudential character, which induces many of the nobles of the present age to let their mansions ready furnished to wealthy commoners when they retired to their country seats. With this difference, Lord Latimer's arrangement with the heir of Sergeant Newtigate was a perennial engagement by which the tenant was to vacate the house when his duties in parliament or other business called his lordship to town.

It must have been a serious annoyance to all parties for the friend of my lord Pryvysil to take an impertinent fancy of occupying lord Latimer's town-house under these circumstances, and yet, because the minister prefers the suit, the noble owner of the mansion is compelled to break his agreement with his tenant, and to seek for other lodgings for himself against the ensuing session of parliament, in order to accommodate a person who has evidently no claim on his courtesy. But a man who had been once in arms against the sovereign would, in that reign, be careful how he afforded cause for offense to one of the satellites of the crown. After his name had been connected with the pilgrimage of grace, Lord Latimer had a delicate game to play, and it was well for him that his wife was related to the king, and the niece of a favored member of the royal household.

William Parr. Catherine's sister, Lady Herbert, had an appointment in Jane Seymour's court, and assisted at the christening of Edward VI. But Catherine Parr was not only acquainted with Henry VIII, but possessed a considerable influence over his mind, some years before there was the slightest probability of her ever becoming a sharer of his throne. is certified by the history of the Throckmorton family, to which we are principally indebted for the following details. Sir George Throckmorton, the husband of Catherine Parr's aunt, having incurred the ill-will of Lord Cromwell, in consequence of some disputes arising from the contiguity of their manners of Coftancourt and Oursley, Cromwell endeavoured to compass the ruin of his aristocratic neighbour by accusing him of having denied the king's supremacy.

The charge was peculiarly alarming to Throckmorton, because his brother Michael was in the service of Cardinal Pohl, and had taken an active part in opposing the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, as we are told by his kinsmen in the following lines, from a metrical chronicle of the life of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. For after that resolve stood the king to take anew and leave his wedded wife, my uncle was the means to work the thing by Reynolds Poole, who brewed all the strife, and then at Rome did work the contrary, which drove the king at home to tyranny. Throckmorton, M S. The subject of Sir George Throckmorton's imprisonment and the distress of his family is introduced in these quaint lines.

My father's foes clapped him through cantered haste, in tower fast, and gaped to joint his neck. They were in hope for to obtain a mate who heretofore had labored for a check. Yea, Graeville's grieved him ill without a cause, who hurt not them, nor yet the prince's laws. Thus everything did run against the hair, our name disgraced, and we but witless boys did demon hard such crosses then to bear, Our minds more fit to deal with childish toys, but troubles are of perfect wit the school's, when life at will feeds men as fat as fools. After drawing rather a ludicrous picture of their tribulations, and comparing Lady Throckmorton in her tears to a drowned mouse, he introduces the family a par on the scene.

While flocking foes to work our bane were bent, while thunderclaps of angry Jove did last, then to lord Parr my mother saw me sent, so with her brother I was safely placed. Of alms he kept me in extremity, who did misdoubt a worse calamity. Oh, lucky looks that fawned on Katharine Parr, a woman rare like her but seldom seen, to burrow first and then to Latimer, she widow was and then became a queen. My mother prayed her niece with watery eyes to rid both her and hers from endless cries. she, willing of herself to do us good, sought out the means her uncle's life to save, and when the king was in his pleasing mood, she humbly then her suit began to crave. With wooing times, denials disagree, she spake and sped, my father was set free.

in his rapturous allusion to the good offices of Catherine Parr, the poet, by mentioning her subsequent marriage with the king, a little confuses the time when her intercession was successfully employed for the deliverance of Sir George Throckmorton. The date of this event is clearly defined in the prose documents of the Throckmorton family to have taken place in the year fifteen forty by the statement, that sir george was released through the influence of his kinswoman, the lady, Catherine Parr, and advised with the king at her suggestion about Cromwell immediately before the arrest of that minister, which was in the june of that year. This fact throws a new light on the fall of Cromwell, and leads us to infer that his ruin was caused not by the enmity of Catherine Howard, but of her unsuspected successor, Catherine Parr, at that time, the wife of a zealous Catholic peer, and herself a member of the Church of Rome.

It was probably from the eloquent lips of this strong-minded and intrepid lady, when pleading for the life of her uncle, that Henry learned the extent of Cromwell's rapacity, and the real state of the public mind as to his administration. And thus we may, perhaps, account for the otherwise mysterious change in the royal mind, when the monarch, after loading his favourite with honours and immunities, suddenly resolved to sacrifice him to popular indignation as a scapegoat, on whose shoulders the political sins of both king and council might be conveniently laid. Sir George Throckmorton took an active part in bringing his former persecutor to the block, and instead of being stripped by him of his fair domain of Coftain Court, was enabled to purchase Cromwell's manner of Oursley, on adventitious terms of the Crown, and to transmit it to his descendants, in whose possession it remains at the present day.

Few things, perhaps, tend more importantly to the elucidation of historical mysteries, than the study of genealogies. It is by obtaining an acquaintance with the family connections of the leading actors in any memorable era, that we gain a clue to the secret springs of their actions, and perceive the wheel within a wheel, which impelled to deeds otherwise unaccountable. The brother of Catherine Parr was the husband of the heiress of the last Earl of Essex, of the ancient line of Beauschier, but on the demise of that nobleman, those honours, which in equity ought to have been vested in his descendants, were, to the indignation of all the connections of the Beuchiers and Parrs, bestowed on Cromwell.

The death of that rapacious minister, smoothed the way for the summons of William Parr to the House of Lords, as Earl of Essex, and the right of his wife. Catherine herself came in for a share of the spoils of the enemy of her house, for his manner of Wimbledon was settled on her. Tradition says that she resided at the mansion at some period of her life. A portion of this ancient edifice, which is still called by her name, is in existence. Cromwell was the third great statesman of Henry VIII's cabinet within the brief period of ten years, whose fall is attributable to female influence. Wolsey and Moore were the victims of Anne Boleyn's undisguised animosity, and the secret ill-will of Catherine Parr appears to have been equally fatal to Cromwell, although her consummate prudence in avoiding any demonstration of hostility has prevented her from being recognized as the author of his ruin, save in the records of the house of Throckmorton.

The execution of the unfortunate queen, Catherine Howard, in February, Fifteen Forty Two, preceded the death of Catherine Parr's second husband, Lord Latimer, about twelve months. The will of Lord Latimer is dated September 12, 1542, but as it was not proved till the 11th of the following March, it is probable that he died early in 1543. In this document, Lord Latimer bequeaths to the Lady Catherine, his wife, the manners of Nunmoncton and Hamerton. He bequeaths his body, to be buried on the south side of the church of Well, where his ancestors were buried, if he should die in Yorkshire, appointing that the master of the hospital and vicar of the church of Well should take and receive all the rents and profits of the parsonage of Ascombe Richard in the county of the city of York, as also of the parsonage of St.

George's Church in York, for the time of forty years. wherewith to endow a grammar school at Well, and to pray for him, the founder. The latter clause affords evidence that Lord Latimer died as he had lived, a member of the Church of Rome. There is, however, neither monument nor memorial of him in the Church of Well, for he died not in Yorkshire, but in London, and was interred in St. Paul's Cathedral. The conversion of Catherine to the principles of the reformed religion Did not, in all probability, take place till after the decease of Lord Latimer, when, unbiased by the influence of that zealous supporter of the ancient system, she found herself at liberty to listen to the impassioned eloquence of the apostles of the Protestant faith, men who were daily called upon to testify the sincerity of their profession through tortures and a fiery death.

the house of the noble and learned widow soon became the resort of such men as Coverdale, Latimer, and Parkhurst, and sermons were daily preached in her chamber of state by those who were desirous of restoring the practice of the Christian religion in its primitive simplicity. Catherine was not only pious, learned, and passing fair, but possessed of great wealth as the mistress of two ample jointures, both unencumbered. with these advantages, and connected as she was, either by descent or marriage, with some of the noblest families in England, even with royalty itself in no very remote degree, it is not to be supposed that she was left unwooed. At an early stage of her widowhood, she was sought in marriage by Sir Thomas Seymour, the brother of the late Queen Jane, and uncle to the infant heir of England.

Sir Thomas Seymour enjoyed the favour of his royal brother-in-law in a high degree, and was the handsomest and most admired bachelor of the court. He was gay, magnificent, and brave, excelling in all the manly exercises of that age, and much distinguished by the richness of his dress and ornaments, in which his fashions were implicitly followed by the other courtiers, and with the ladies he was considered irresistible. How it happened that the grave learned and devout lady latimer should be the one to fix the wandering heart of this gay and reckless gallant for whom the sprightliest beauties of the court had sighed in vain has never been explained nor is it always possible to account for the inconsistencies of love as the seymours were among the political leaders of the anti-papal party.

It is however probable that sir thomas might be induced to attend the religious assemblies that were held at the house of this noble and distinguished convert to the reform religion, from motives of curiosity in the first instance, till a more powerful interest was insensibly excited in his mind by her charms and winning deportment. Be this as it may, it is certain that Catherine fully returned his passion, as she herself subsequently acknowledges, and had determined to become his wife at that time if her will had not. For wise purposes, been overruled by a higher power. A more important destiny was reserved for her, and while she delayed her union with the man of her heart, till a proper interval from the death of her husband should be elapsed, her hand was demanded by a third widower in the decline of life, and the father of children by former marriages.

This widower was none other than her sovereign, who had remained in a state of gloomy celibacy since the execution of his last queen, apparently wearied out by the frequent disappointments and mistakes that had attended his ventures in the matrimonial lottery. His desire for conjugal companionship was, however, unabated, and rendered, perhaps, wiser by experience. He determined in his selection of a sixth wife not to be guided by externals only. The circumstances that led to Henry's marriage with Katharine Parr are quaintly glanced at by her poet-cousin, Sir Thomas Throckmorton, who dates the advancement of his family from that event. But when the king's fifth wife had lost her head, yet he misliked the life to live alone, and once resolved the sixth time for to wed, he sought outright to make his choice of one, that choice was chance, right happy for us all.

It brewed our bliss and rid us quite from thrall.

When the celebrated act of parliament was passed, which rendered it a capital offence for any lady who had ever made a lapse from virtue to contract matrimony with her sovereign without first apprising him of her fault, it had been shrewdly observed that his majesty had now no other alternative than to marry a widow. No spinster, however pure her conduct might have been, it was presumed, would venture to place herself within the peril of a penalty, which might be inflicted on the most innocent woman in the world, the moment she ceased to charm the unprincipled tyrant, whose fickleness was only equalled by his malice and cruelty. When Henry first made known to Lady Latimer, that she was a lady whom he intended to honor with the sixth reversion of his hand.

She was struck with dismay, and in the terror with which his cruel treatment of his matrimonial victims inspired her, she actually told him that it was better to be his mistress than his wife. A few months after marriage, such a sarcasm on his conduct as a husband might have cost Henry's best-beloved queen her head. As it was, this cutting observation from the lips of a matron of katharine's well-known virtue, though it must have afforded him a mortifying idea of the estimation in which the dignity of queen-consort was regarded by the ladies of his court, had no other effect than to increase the eagerness of his suit to the reluctant widow. Fear was not, however, her only objection to become the wife of Henry.

love was for a while victorious over ambition in the heart of katharine. Her affection for seymour rendered her very listless about the royal match at first, but her favoured lover presumed not to contest the prize with his all-powerful brother-in-law and sovereign. A rival of Henry's temper, who held the heads of wives, kinsmen, and favourites as cheaply as tennis-balls, was not to be withstood. the adonis of the court vanished from the scene, and the bride-elect accommodating her mind as best she might to the change of bridegroom prepared to assume with a good grace the glittering fetters of a queenly slave. The arrangements of the royal nuptials were made with a celerity truly astonishing.

Barely three months intervened between the proving of Lord Latimer's will and the day on which Cramner grants a license. for the marriage of his sovereign lord, King Henry, with Catherine Latimer, late the wife of the lord de Latimer, deceased, in whatever church, chapel, or oratory he may please, without publication of bans, dispensing with all ordinances to the contrary, for reasons concerning the honor and advancement of the whole realm. Dated July 10, 1543, two days afterwards, katharine exchanged her briefly-worn weeds of widowhood for the bridal robes of a queen of england, robes that had proved fatal trappings to four of her five predecessors in the perilous dignity to which it was the pleasure of her enamoured sovereign to advance her.

The nuptials of Henry VIII and katharine Parr, instead of being hurried over secretly in some obscure corner, like some unhallowed mystery, as was the case in his previous marriages, with Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were solemnized much in the same way as royal marriages are in the present times, without pageantry, but with all suitable observances. The ceremony was performed by Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, in the Queen's closet at Hampton Court, and the high respect of the monarch for his bride was proved by his permitting the princesses Mary and Elizabeth, his daughters, and his niece, the lady Margaret Douglas, to assist at these nuptials. The queen was also supported by her sister, Mrs.

Herbert, afterwards Countess of Pembroke, her beloved friend, Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, and Countess of Hertford, and Joanna, Lady Dudley. The king was attended by his brother-in-law, the Earl of Hertford, Lord John Russell, Privy Seal, Sir Anthony Brown, Master of the Pensioners, henry howard richard long thomas darcy edward baynton the husband of the late queen's sister anthony denny and thomas speake knights and william herbert the brother-in-law of his bride it is scarcely possible but the cheek of katharine must have blanched when the nuptial ring was placed on her finger by the ruthless hand that had signed the death-warrant of two of his consorts within the last seven years If a parallel might be permitted between the grave facts of history and the creations of romance, we should say the situation of Henry's sixth queen greatly resembled that of the fair Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights entertainments, who voluntarily contracted matrimony with Sultan Sherrard, though aware that it was his custom to marry a fresh wife every day and cut off her head the next morning.

The sound principles, excellent judgment, and endearing qualities of Catherine Parr, and above all, her superlative skill as a nurse, by rendering her necessary to the comfort of the selfish and irritable tyrant, who had chosen her as a help-meet for him in the season of premature old age and increasing disease, afforded her best security from the fate of her predecessors. But this hereafter. Among the unpublished manuscripts in the State Paper Office, we find the following paragraph in a letter from Sir Thomas Rottesley relating to the recent bridal of the sovereign. I doubt not of your grace knowing by the fame and otherwise that the king's majesty was married on Thursday last to my lady Latimer, a woman in my judgment for certain wisdom and gentleness most meet for his highness, and sure I am his majesty had never a wife more agreeable to his heart than she is, the lord grant them long life and much joy together.

On the day of her marriage, Queen Catherine presented her royal step-daughter and bride-maid, the Princess Mary, with a magnificent pair of gold bracelets set with rubies, and yet more acceptable gift in money of twenty-five pounds. Of course, the Princess Elizabeth, who also assisted at the bridal, was not forgotten. The pecuniary present to Mary was repeated on the twenty-sixth of September. Katharine Parr had now for the third time undertaken the office of stepmother, an office at all times of much difficulty and responsibility, but peculiarly so with regard to the children of Henry VIII, who were the offspring of queens so fatally opposed as Katharine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour, had successively been.

How well the sound sense and endearing manners of Katharine Parr! fitted her to reconcile the rival interests, and to render herself a bond of union between the disjointed links of the royal family, is proved by the affection and respect of her grateful stepchildren, and also by their letters after King Henry's death. Whether a man who has so glaringly violated the duties of a father to his daughters, as Henry had done, deserves any credit for paternal care in his choice of his sixth queen, it would be difficult to say. But it was scarcely possible for him to have selected a lady better qualified to conduce to the happiness of his children, to improve their minds, and to fit them, by the inculcation of virtuous and noble sentiments, to adorn the high station to which they were born.

The union of the sovereign with the pious and learned Lady Latimer was the cause of great joy to the University of Cambridge, where the doctrines of the Reformation had already taken deep root. the opinions of this erudite body on the subject are eloquently expressed in their congratulatory address to henry on his marriage. Catherine Parr, while queen-consort of England, continued to correspond with the University of Cambridge, in the name of which the celebrated Roger Ashcombe thanks her for her royal benefactions, and the suavity of her letters. Write to us oftener, says the enthusiastic scholar. Eruditisima, Regina. And do not despise the term erudition, most noble lady. It is the praise of your industry, and a greater one to your talents, than all the ornaments of your fortune.

We rejoice vehemently in your happiness, most happy princess, because you are learning more amidst the occupations of your dignity, than many of us do in all our leisure and quiet. the dignity of the scholar and the queen are beautifully blended with the tenderness of the woman and the devotedness of the christian in the line of conduct adopted by katharine Parr after her elevation to a throne. Her situation at this period is not unlike that of Esther in the house of Osueras. Her attachment to the doctrines of the reformation naturally rendered her an object of jealous ill-will, to Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, the leader of the anti-papal Catholic party, and as early as the second week after her marriage, this daring ecclesiastic ventured to measure his power against that of the royal bride by an attack on a humble society of reformers at Windsor.

Anthony Persons, a priest, John Marbeck, a chorister, Robert Testwood, and Henry Filmer were the leading persons attached to this community. but it was suspected they received encouragement from members of the royal household. Dr. London, one of the most unprincipled agents of Cromwell in the spoliation of the abbeys, had since the fall of his patron changed his tact, and was employed by the triumphant faction in preparing a book of informations, denouncing every person in Windsor who was suspected of holding opinions at variance with the six articles. this book was presented to Gardner, who moved the king in council, that a commission should be granted for searching all the houses in Windsor for books written in favour of the new learning.

Henry acceded to this measure as regarded the town, but accepted the castle, his own royal residence, having doubtless shrewd reasons to suspect that more works of the kind objected to would be found in the closets and chambers of those nearest and dearest to him, than among the poor and unlearned inhabitants of Windsor. A few manuscript notes on the Bible, and a latin concordance in progress of arrangement, which were found in the house of Marbeck, furnished an excuse for the arrest, trial, and condemnation of himself and his three friends. Nothing could induce them to betray any person in the royal household to save themselves from the fiery death with which they were menaced. Marbeck found an intercessor sufficiently powerful to represent his case to the king.

This was most probably either the queen or some person encouraged by her. Henry was shown the Latin Concordance, of which several hundred pages were completed. Poor Marbeck! exclaimed he, with an unwanted burst of sympathy. It would be well for thine accusers if they had employed their time no worse. A reprieve was granted to Marbeck, but persons, Tesswood and Filmer, were sent to the stake, July twenty sixth, two days after their condemnation. Though the flames of their martyrdom were kindled almost in the sight of Henry's Protestant queen, she was unable to avert the fate of the victims, and well aware she was that the blow which produced this fell sacrifice of human life was aimed at herself, and would be followed by an attack on persons in her immediate confidence.

the murder of these humble reformers was indeed, but the preliminary move in the bold yet subtle game which Gardner was playing against the more elevated individuals professing the same religion with the queen. Dr. Haynes, the dean of Exeter, and a prebendary of Windsor, Sir Philip Hobie and his lady, Sir Thomas Carden, and other members of the royal household, were denounced by Dr. London and Simons as persons encouraging the new learning, and were placed under arrest. The only evidence against them that could be produced was contained in certain inferences and false statements, which Dr. London had suborned Ockham, the clerk of the court, to introduce into the notes he had taken at the trials of the recent victims.

the queen having obtained full information of these proceedings sent one of her most trusty and courageous servants into court to expose the iniquity of this plot. Ockham was arrested and his papers seized, which afforded full proof of the base conspiracy into which he had entered, and the whole transaction was laid before the king. The tables were now completely turned. London and Simons were sent for and examined on oath, and not being aware that their letters were intercepted, fully committed themselves, were found guilty of perjury, and were sentenced to be placed on horseback, with their faces to the horses' tails, with papers on their foreheads, setting forth their perjury. They were then set in the pillory at Windsor, where the King and Queen then were.

Catherine sought no further vengeance, and the mortification caused by this disgraceful punishment is supposed to have caused Dr. London's death. Such were the scenes that marked the bridal month of Catherine Parr as Queen of England, that month which is generally styled the honeymoon. Her elevation to the perilous dignity of Queen Consort afforded her, however, the satisfaction of advancing the fortunes of various members of her own family. She bestowed the office of Lord Chamberlain on her uncle, Lord Parr of Horton. She made her sister, Lady Herbert, one of her ladies of the bedchamber, and her step-daughter, Margaret Neville, the only daughter of her deceased husband, Lord Latimer, one of her maids of honour.

Her brother, William Parr, was created Earl of Essex, in right of his wife, having been previously made Baron Parr of Kendal. The preferment which Queen Catherine's cousins of the house of Throckmorton obtained through her powerful patronage is thus quaintly described by the poetical chronicler of that family. Lo, then, my brethren, Clement, George, and I, did seek, as youth doth still, in court to be, each other state as base we did defy, compared with court, the nurse of dignity. Tis truly said, no fishing to the seas, no serving but a king, if you can please. First in the court my brother Clement served, a fee he had, the queen her cup to bring, and some suppose that I right well deserved, when sewer they saw me chosen to the king, my brother George, by valour in youth rare, a pension-got and gallant halbert bare.

3 03 - Katharine Parr, Ch I pt 3 40:25

The Lives of the Queens of England, Volume Five by Agnes and Elizabeth Strickland. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Catherine Parr, Chapter One, Part Three.

one of the first-fruits of queen katharine's virtuous influence over the mind of the king was the restoration of his daughters the persecuted mary and the young neglected elizabeth to their proper rank in the court, and recognition in the order of succession to the crown. The privy-persexpences of the princess Mary bear evidence of many little traits of kindness and friendly attentions, which she had from time to time received from her amiable stepmother. When Mary was taken ill, on her journey between Grafton and Woodstock, the queen sent her own litter to convey her to Amphil, where she was herself residing with the king. on the new year's day after her marriage, queen Catherine sent her footman, Jacob, with the present of a cheese for the princess Mary, who guerdoned the bearer with seven and sixpence.

A rich nightgown or evening dress is on another occasion sent by queen Catherine to marry by Fritton, the keeper of the royal robes. Mary's reward to Fritton was fifteen shillings. Mary embroidered a cushion with her own hands as an offering for the queen, and paid seven and sixpence to john haines for devising the pattern. Catherine, on her marriage, received into her household one Mrs. Barbara, undoubtedly at the request of the Princess Mary, who had kindly supplied this person with money, clothes, food, and medical attendance during a long illness. An item occurs at the time of Catherine Parr's marriage. In the accounts of the princess, of money presented to Mrs. Barbara, When she was sworn Queen's Woman, and being thus honorably provided for, her name no longer occurs in the list of Mary's pensioners.

Notwithstanding the great difference in their religious tenets, a firm friendship ever subsisted between Catherine Parr and Mary. They were near enough in age to have been sisters. They excelled in the same accomplishments, and the great learning and studious pursuits of these royal ladies rendered them suitable companions for each other. the more brilliant talents of the young elizabeth were drawn forth and fostered under the auspices of her highly gifted stepmother. Catherine Parr took also an active part in directing the studies of the heir of england, and her approbation appears to have been the greatest encouragement the prince could receive. In a letter written in French to Queen Catherine, Edward notices the beauty of her penmanship.

I thank you, says he. Most noble and excellent queen, for the letters you have lately sent me, not only for their beauty, but for their imagination. For when I see your belle scritture, or fair writing, and the excellence of your genius, greatly surpassing my invention, I am sick of writing. But then I think how kind your nature is, and that whatever proceeds from a good mind and intention will be acceptable, and so I write you this letter. a modern author has noticed the great similarity between the handwriting of edward the sixth and katharine parr and from this circumstance it has been conjectured that katharine superintended the education of one or other of the juvenile members of the royal family previous to her marriage with king henry no official evidence of her appointment to any office of the kind has been discovered, but her great reputation for wisdom and learning renders the tradition not improbable.

Certain it is that after she became queen, she took great delight in directing the studies of her royal stepchildren. It is evident that Edward VI, Queen Elizabeth, and their youthful cousins, Lady Jane and Lady Catherine Gray, all imbibed her taste for classic literature. and her attachment to the principles of the reformation. She induced not only Elizabeth, but Mary, to translate passages from the scriptures. Each of these princesses compiled a little manual of devotions in Latin, French, and English, dedicated to their accomplished stepmother. Catherine Parr's celebrity as a scholar and a theologian did not render her neglectful of the feminine accomplishment of needlework, in which, notwithstanding her early resistance to its practice, she much delighted.

Like Henry's first excellent queen, Catherine of Aragon, she employed her hours of retirement in embroidering among her ladies. It is said that a portion of the hangings which adorned the royal apartments of the tower, before they were dismantled or destroyed, were the work of this queen. The only specimens, however, that are now to be found of her skill and industry in this pleasing art are those preserved at Sizer Castle. Her taste in dress appears to have been excellent, uniting magnificence of material with the simplicity of form. In fact, the costume of Catherine Parr, as shown in her miniature, might be worn with perfect propriety in any courtly circle of the present age. Catherine Parr enacted the queen with as much royal state and splendour as the loftiest of her predecessors.

She granted an interview to the Spanish Duke de Nijara at Westminster Palace, February 17th, 1544. this spanish grandee visited england on his return from the army of charles v and was admitted to pay his respects to the queen and her daughter-in-law the princess mary. The queen permitted him to kiss her hand. Pedro de gante secretary to the grandee has described her dress with the zeal of a man milliner. She wore a kirtle of brocade and an open robe of cloth of gold, the sleeves lined with crimson satin, and trimmed with three-piled crimson velvet, the train more than two yards long. Suspended from the neck were two crosses, and a jewel with very rich diamonds, and on her headdress were many rich and beautiful ones.

Her girdle was of gold, with very large pendants. The original miniature of this queen, which has recently attracted much interest during the sale of Horace Walpole's collection at Strawberry Hill, Represents her with very small and delicately marked features, hazel eyes and golden hair, folded in simple Madonna bands. Her forehead is lofty and serene, indicative of talent and sprightly wit. She wears a round crimson velvet hood, or cap of state, edged with pearls, and surmounted with a jeweled band of goldsmiths work, set with rubies and pearls, which confines a long black veil that flows from the back of the headdress over the shoulders. The bodice and sleeves of the dress are made of rich gold brocade, and set tight to the shape.

The bodice is cut square across the bust, like the corsage of a modern dress, and is edged with a row of pearls, between pipes of black and crimson velvet. She wears a double row of large pearls about her neck, from which depends a ruby cross, finished with one fair pendant pearl. Her bodice is ornamented with a large ruby brooch, set in filigree gold. The miniature is a small oval, on a deep, small blue background. Her age is stated, in gilt figures in front of the picture, to be thirty-two, so that the likeness must have been taken in the year, fifteen forty-five, about two years after her marriage with Henry VIII. Perhaps this was the veritable miniature which the admiral, Sir Thomas Seymour, obtained from Catherine, when he subsequently entreated her, to send him one of her little pictures, if she had not given them all away, a proof that several original miniatures of this queen were painted, although they are now almost as rare and difficult to identify as those of Catherine Howard.

The engraving, usually stated to be from an original painting of Catherine Parr, possesses none of her characteristics. It is a shrewd, sordid-looking female, of rather large proportions, with dark complexion and hair. Catherine Parr was petite in form, with remarkably small and delicately cut features, and her complexion was that of a genuine Westmoreland beauty, brilliantly fair and blooming, with hazel eyes, and hair of a golden auburn, realizing the beau-ideal of Petrarca, when he exclaims, Love, From what precious mine of gold didst thou bring the rich glories of her shining hair, where pluck the open roses, fresh and fair, which on her cheeks in tender blushes glow. Catherine Parr's celebrated work, The Lamentations of a Sinner, was written after her marriage with the king.

This little volume, next to the writings of Sir Thomas More, affords one of the finest specimens of English composition of that era. It is a brief but eloquent treatise, on the imperfection of human nature in its unassisted state, and the utter vanity of all earthly grandeur and distinction. Within the limited compass of about 120 miniature pages, it comprises the elements of almost all the sermons that have been levelled against papal supremacy. The royal writer does not forget to compliment King Henry for having emancipated England from this domination. Thanks be given to the Lord, that he hath now sent us such a godly and learned king in these latter days, to reign over us, that with the force of God's word hath taken away the veils and myths of errors, and brought us to the knowledge of the truth by the light of God's word, which was so long hid and kept under, that the people were well-nigh famished and hungered for lack of spiritual food.

Such was the charity of the spiritual curates and shepherds. But our Moses, and most godly wise governor and king, that hath delivered us out of the captivity and spiritual bondage of Pharaoh, I mean by this Moses, King Henry VIII, my most sovereign and favorable lord and husband. One, if Moses had figured any more than Christ, through the excellent grace of God, meet to be another express verity of Moses' conquest over Pharaoh, And I mean by this, Pharaoh, the Bishop of Rome, who hath been and is a greater persecutor of all true Christians than ever was Pharaoh of the children of Israel. The gross flattery offered up to her husband in this passage is somewhat atoned for by the pure morality which generally pervades the precepts of this little treatise.

The zeal with which it is written is extremely ardent. Her aspiration for martyrdom frequent. The tenets inculcated are simply, that all good works arise from the inspiration of the Spirit of God, vouchsafed through belief in Christ, derived from prayer and diligent perusal of the scriptures. She is nearly as severe on those who call themselves gospelers, and separate faith and works, as she is on the Pope, and she evidently considers them in equal or greater error. Here are her words, and it must be owned, that if she considered her two last lords, Henry the eighth and Thomas Seymour. Exceptions from her description, conjugal partiality must have strangely blinded her. Now I will speak with great dolor and heaviness of heart, of a sort of person which be in the world, that be called professors of the gospel, and by their words do declare and show that they be much affected to the same, But I am afraid some of them do build on the sand, as Simon Magus did, making a weak foundation.

I mean, they make not Christ their chiefest foundation, but either they would be called gospelers, and procure some credit and good opinion of the true and very favorers of Christ's doctrines, either to find out some carnal liberty, either to be contentious disputers, finders or rebukers of other men's faults, Or else, finally, to please and flatter the world. Such gospelers be an offense and slander to the word of God, and make the wicked to rejoice and laugh, saying, Behold, I pray you, their fair fruits. What charity, what discretion, what goodness, holiness and purity of life is amongst them? Be they not great avengers, foul gluttons, backbiters, adulterers, swearers and blasphemers. Yea, do they not wallow and tumble in all manner of sins.

These be the fruits of their doctrine, and yet the word of God is allholy, sincere, and godly, being the doctrine and occasion of all pure living. She then, with great earnestness, applies the parable of the sower and his seed, and that of the barren fig-tree. Her precepts to her own sex are as follows. If they be women married, they learn of St. Paul to be obedient to their husbands, and to keep silence in the congregation, and to learn of their husbands at home. Also that they wear such apparel, as becometh holiness and comely usage, with soberness, not being accusers or detractors, not given to much eating of delicate meats and drinking of wine, but that they teach honest things. to make the young women sober-minded, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, housewifely and good, that the word of God may not be evil spoken of.

Catherine evidently approved of clerical celibacy. The passage in her work from which this inference is drawn is curious, because it shows that she still professed the church established by her husband, which insisted on this point of discipline. The true followers of Christ's doctrine hath always a respect and an eye to their vocation. If they be called to the ministry of God's word, they preach and teach it sincerely to the edifying of others, and show themselves in their living followers of the same. If they be married men, having children and family, they nourish and bring them up without all bitterness and fierceness, in the doctrine of the Lord, in all godliness and virtue. committing, that is, the married men, the instruction of others, which appertaineth not to their charge, to the reformation of God and his ministers.

The most remarkable passage in the book is perhaps that in which Catherine deplores her former attachment to the ceremonials of the Church of Rome, some of her biographers having erroneously asserted that she was brought up in the principles of the reformation, those principles were abhorrent to the king, for it was the government, not the essentials of the Roman Catholic Church, that he was laboring to overthrow. In such low esteem, indeed, was Henry held by the fathers of the Reformation, that, on his rupture with the princes of the small caldic league, Luther publicly returned thanks to God, for having delivered the protestant church from that offensive king of england. The king, says he, on another occasion, is still the same old heinz, as in my first book, I pictured him.

He will surely find his judge. The adulation of a woman of superior intellect was necessary to Henry's happiness. Catherine presently discovered his weak point, and by condescending to adapt herself to his humour, acquired considerable influence over his mind. early in the year fifteen forty four king henry gave induitable tokens of the favour with which he regarded queen katharine by causing his obedient parliament to settle the royal succession on any children he might have by her in case of the decease of prince edward without issue the wording of the first clause of this act is very curious inasmuch as henry treats four of his marriages as absolute nullities And out of his six queens, only condescends to acknowledge two, namely, Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr.

Forasmuch, says the record, as his majesty, sithence the death of the late Queen Jane, hath taken to wife Catherine, late wife to Sir John Neville, knight, Lord Latimer, deceased, by whom as yet his majesty hath none issue, but may fool well when it shall please God. Etc., etc. In failure of heirs by his most entirely beloved wife, Queen Catherine, or any other of his lawful wife, Henry, by the same act, entails the succession on his daughter Mary, and in failure of her line, to his daughter Elizabeth. But who their mothers were, he does not think proper to notice. lest he should, by word as well as by deed, contradict his previous decisions, as to the unlawfulness of his marriages with Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn.

It was, however, too late for Henry VIII to think of making sacrifices to consistency in his old age, after having followed no other guide than passion or caprice for nearly a quarter of a century. The record further explains that this act for settling the succession was made preparatory to the sovereign, undertaking a voyage royal in his most royal person into the realm of France against the French king. Previous to his departure on this expedition, King Henry testified his confidence in Catherine's wisdom and integrity by appointing her to govern the realm in his absence by the style and title of Queen Regent of England and Ireland. the queen observes lord herbert was constituted general regent of the realm, yet not so much that her soft sex was thought less capable of ambition as that of the roman catholics of whom the king was mistrustful would take no dependence from her, she being observed to incline a little to the reformed.

the reformers certainly had the ascendancy in the council appointed by henry to assist his consort with their advice. From the minutes of the council of July, seventh, thirty six, henry the eighth, we have the following entry connected with Catherine Parr's appointment to this important trust. First, touching the Queen's Highness and my Lord Prince, the king's majesty hath resolved that the queen's highness shall be regent in his grace's absence, and that his highness's process shall pass and bear test in her name, as in like cases heretofore hath been accustomed. The earl of Hertford was ordered to be ever attendant on the person of Catherine, and resident in her court, but if he could not conveniently be there, then cranmer was for the time to remain with her grace, and with them, sir William Peter and lord Parr of Horton were to sit in council.

Rottesley and the bishop of Winchester were in this junto. In the queen's commission of regency, Hertford was to be her lieutenant if she needed such assistance. Several of the queen consorts of England have exercised viceregal power either by usurpation or by the consent of the sovereign. But Catherine Parr was the first and only one on whom the style and title of Queen Regent was solemnly conferred, and who signed herself as such as the facsimile from her official autograph witnesses. Catherine, Queen Regent, K.P. The initials K.P. for Catherine Parr were attached to all her regal signatures, proved that neither her elevation to a throne, nor the distinction of the highest title of honor that had ever been borne by a female in England, had rendered her unwilling to remember her simple patronymic.

In the true spirit of a Christian, Queen Catherine entered upon her high office by imploring the divine protection for her royal husband and his realm, in the following prayer, which she composed for their use. O Almighty King and Lord of Hosts! Which by thy angels thereunto appointed doth minister both war and peace, who didst give unto David both courage and strength, being but a little one, unversed and inexpert in feats of war, with his sling to set upon and overthrow the great huge Goliath, our cause now being just, being in force to enter into war and battle, We most humbly beseech thee, O Lord God of hosts, so to turn the hearts of our enemies to the desire of peace, that no Christian blood be spilt.

Or else grant, O Lord, that with small effusion of blood and little damage of innocence, we may to Thy glory obtain victory, and that the wars being soon ended, we may all, with one heart and mind, knit together in concord and amity, Laud and praise thee, who livest and reignest world without end. Amen. On the fourteenth of July, 1544, King Henry crossed the seas, from Dover to Calais, in a ship with sails of cloth of gold. On the twenty-fifth he took the field in person, armed at all points, mounted on a great courser, and so rode out of Calais with a princely train, attended by Sir William Herbert, the queen's brother-in-law, bearing his headpiece and spear, and followed by the henksmen, bravely horsed and appointed.

Catherine's brother, the Earl of Essex, was chief captain of the men-at-arms in this expedition. On the twenty-sixth, Henry appeared before Boulogne, and took command of his puissance there. the duke of albuquerque, the general of the allied spanish forces, encamped on the other side of the town, and acted in conformity to the directions of the english monarch, who was the leader of the siege. The following very loving and dutiful letter appears to have been written by queen Catherine to the king very soon after his departure from England. Although the distance of time and account of days Neither is long nor many of your majesty's absence, yet the want of your presence, so much desired and beloved by me, maketh me that I cannot quietly pleasure in anything until I hear from your majesty.

The time, therefore, seemeth to me very long, with a great desire to know how your highness hath done since your departing hence. Whose prosperity and health I prefer and desire more than mine own, and whereas I know your majesty's absence is never without great need, yet love and affection compel me to desire your presence. Again, the same zeal and affection forceth me to be best content with that which is your will and pleasure. Thus love maketh me in all things To set apart mine own convenience and pleasure, and to embrace most joyfully his will and pleasure whom I love. God, the knower of secrets, can judge these words not to be written only with ink, but most truly impressed on the heart.

Much more I omit, lest it be thought I go about to praise myself or crave a thank. Which thing to do I mind nothing less. but a plain, simple relation of the love and zeal I bear your majesty, proceeding from the abundance of the heart, wherein I must confess I desire no commendation, having such just occasion to do the same. I make like account with your majesty as I do with God, for his benefits and gifts heaped upon me daily, somewhat idolatrous this, acknowledging myself a great debtor to him, not being able to recompense the least of his benefits. In which state I am certain and sure to die, yet I hope in his gracious acceptation of my good will. Even such confidence have I in your majesty's gentleness, knowing myself never to have done my duty as were requisite and meet for such a noble prince, at whose hands I have found and received so much love and goodness, that with words I cannot express it.

lest i should be too tedious to your majesty, I finish this my scribbled letter, committing you to the governance of the lord, with long and prosperous life here, and after this life, to enjoy the kingdom of his elect. From Greenwich, by your majesty's humble and obedient wife and servant. Catherine, the queen, K. P. A grateful and loyal spirit pervades this letter. That the queen had both felt and expressed much anxiety for the safety of her royal husband, as well as for the success of his expedition, may be gathered from the following hypocritical passage in one of Rodesley's letters to Her Majesty. God is able to strength his own against the devil, and therefore let not the queen's majesty in any wise trouble herself, for God shall turn all to the best.

and sure we be that the king's majesty's person is out of all danger. A fragment of one of King Henry's letters to Queen Catherine Parr has been preserved, in which he details, with soldier-like plainness, to his fair regent at home, the auspicious progress of his campaign on the hostile shores of France. The manner in which he names his family to Catherine is very interesting, considering their relative positions, and implies much for the amiable conduct of the royal stepmother. Henry the eighth, with all his faults, wrote very pleasant letters, and this is one of his best. At the closing up of these our letters this day, the castle before named with the dyke is at our command, and not like to be recovered by the Frenchman again, as we trust, not doubting with God's grace, but that the castle and town shall shortly follow the same trade, for as this day, Which is the eighth of September, we begin three batteries, and have three more going, besides one which hath done his execution, in shaking and tearing off one of their greatest bulwarks.

No more to you at this time, sweetheart, but for lack of time and great occupation of business, saving we pray you to give in our name our hearty blessings to all our children, and recommendations to our cousin Margit, and the rest of the ladies and gentlewomen, and to our counsel also, written with the hand of your loving husband, Henry R. During the absence of the king in France, Queen Catherine and her royal stepchildren appeared to have resided together as one family. In September, the young Edward and his sisters were under her careful guardianship at Aking, whence, in consequence of the pestilence, then raging, She issued her mandate to the mayor and sheriffs. To make proclamation that, since on account of the plague, great danger might arise to her, the prince and the king's other children, no person in whose house the plague had been, or who may have been with any infected person, or may have lived near any place where the infection had been, should go to court, or suffer any attendance on the court, to enter his house where the infection is, under the queen's indignation and further punishment at her pleasure from Aking.

if aught but good had befallen the dearly-prized heir of england during the absence of the king, a fearful reckoning would have awaited queen Catherine from her jealous and unreasonable lord on his return. No wonder that her anxiety for the safety of this precious trust impelled her to the use of arbitrary measures to preserve the royal household from the danger of infection. among the few existing documents connected with the regency of katharine parr there is in the cottonian collection an inedited letter to her council headed katharine queen-regent k p in favour of her trusty and well-beloved servant henry Gentlemen usher of her privy chamber, requesting that the kings grant of the nunnery and demesne of Holywell, which had been given to him at the surrender of the said nunnery, but only in part fulfilled, might be carried into effect on the modified terms of allowing him to purchase that portion of the demesne which had been withheld from him.

Her Majesty concludes in the following persuasive strain. We shall heartily desire and pray you to be favorable to him at this our earnest request, and in declaring whereof, your kind and loving friendship towards him effectually, at the contemplation of these our letters, we shall gratefully accept it, and also thankfully remember it, whensoever occasion shall serve us to do you pleasure. Given under our signet, at my lord the king's majesty honour of Hampton court, the twenty third of July, and the thirty sixth of his highness's most noble reign. Boulogne surrendered to the arms of Henry the eighth after a fierce siege. He made his triumphant entry into the town September eighteenth. His council in England by command of the queen regent issued a general order September 19th, that a public thanksgiving should be offered up to almighty god in all the towns and villages throughout england for the taking of boulogne.

This was one of the last acts of queen catherine Parr's regency, for the king returned in england October first, finding it impossible to follow up his victorious career in France, because his spanish allies had made a separate peace with Francis the first. katharine had governed with such prudence during the brief period in which the sovereign power of the crown had been confided to her administration as to leave no cause of complaint to either party. It was in all probability after Henry's return from his victorious campaign that the interesting family group in Her Majesty's collection at Hampton Court was painted by Hans Holbein. in this splendid picture, the design of which appears to have been intended to introduce all the members of the royal house of Tudor.

As a united family, Henry is enthroned beneath his canopy of state, with his consort at his left hand, but instead of Catherine Parr, a pale spectral resemblance of Jane Seymour occupies the place at Henry's side. The attitude and expression of the dead queen's face and figure are as rigid and inanimate as if it had been the intention of the painter to represent her as a corpse, newly taken from the grave, clad in royal robes, and seated in jewelled pomp among the living. There is little doubt but that the delineation was made from the wax effigy, which was carried after her funeral. she bears a mournful and almost startling likeness to her son, prince Edward, a beautiful boy of eight years old, who leans on his father in a caressing attitude.

With his right hand, the king embraces his son, and his hand rests on his shoulder. The princesses Mary and Elizabeth are entering on opposite sides, as if to offer filial homage to the royal pair. The scene appears to be on the dais of Wolsey's Hall, with a view of one of the turrets through a side window. The picture is richly emblazoned with gold, and the costumes are peculiarly gorgeous and characteristic of the period. Henry's gown of scarlet and gold brocade is girded to his waist, with a white satin sash, in which the hilt of his jeweled dagger is seen. The skirts of the gown are short, very full, and edged with gold. It is slashed on the breast, and five or six longitudinal rows with puffs of white satin confined with gold clasps.

Over this he wears a magnificent collar of twisted pearls with ruby medallions. A dalmatica with hanging sleeves, lined with sables and edged with pearls, is thrown on his shoulder. His hat is of black velvet, adorned with pearls, and edged with the drooping white feather, which is always characteristic of the costume of this monarch, and also of his son. Henry's hose and shoes are of white satin, and he wears on his breast a large medallion jewel, having the appearance of a watch. The prince wears a crimson velvet cap. Jeweled and plumed, but his hair is so arranged as to have the unpicturesque effect of a brown silk skullcap or a little bob wig. He has a gold chain about his neck, and is dressed in a gown of dark red damask, striped with gold, and arranged in heavy plates, from the throat to the waist, where it is confined by a narrow belt.

The skirt is full, and descends below the knees. His garment is much padded and stiffened. It has hanging sleeves open to the shoulders, beneath which are very full sleeves of white satin, fantastically slashed with scarlet velvet. His hose and shoes are of scarlet. The faded statue-like representation of his dead mother appears in the pointed cloth of gold hood, edged with pearls, precisely like that worn by Jane Seymour in life, but which had been superseded by the pretty low French hood introduced by Catherine Howard, and adopted by Catherine Parr and her ladies. The two princesses are each represented in the same picture, in the round hood, according to the prevailing fashion of their royal stepmother's court of crimson velvet, edged with pearls, similar to that worn by Queen Catherine Parr in the Strawberry Hill miniature.

only not surmounted with so rich a coronal band of jewels. This peculiarity of the costume marks the miniature of Catherine to have been painted at the same period as the Holbein family group, if not by the same artist. The hair of Jane Seymour and of the two princesses in this picture, as well as that of Catherine Parr in the Strawberry Hill miniature, are all of the golden tint, which appears the universal colour in all the Holbein portraits of the last three years of Henry the eighth's reign. A singular freak of nature, we should say, were it not well known that in imitation of the envied Schiomdor, which was produced by the use of a bright yellow powder, then in vogue, in some instances, Folds of amber-coloured velvet were worn by the elder ladies of Henry VIII's court, arranged like cross-bands of hair, so as to give a great appearance of breath to the forehead under the low French hood.

In Holbein's family group, the princesses Mary and Elizabeth are dressed precisely alike in kirtles or close-fitting gowns of rich crimson velvet with long sleeves, Finished at the hands with ruffles, and slashed with puffs of white satin from the wrists to the elbows. Over these they wear flowing robes of gold brocade, with hanging sleeves and sweeping trains. Their bodices fit tightly to the shape, and are cut rather low and square across the bust. They are edged with pearls. Both sisters wear double rows of pearls about their necks, supporting small ruby crosses. elizabeth is a tall full-proportioned lovely girl of womanly appearance. Mary is much smaller and more delicate in form and features.

She has the melancholy cast of countenance which sickness and early sorrow had rendered natural to her. In this painting, contemporary portraits of four Tudor sovereigns, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, with the posthumous portrait of henry's favourite queen, jane seymour, are assembled together in the splendid costume of the era described in the fourth and fifth volumes of the lives of the queens of england. The circumstance of Catherine Parr permitting her deceased predecessor to take her place in the royal tableau is very remarkable. Few ladies indeed there are who would not have regarded the proposal of being thus superseded as a decided affront. But Catherine Parr was too generous to be jealous of a compliment offered to the dead queen, and far too prudent to oppose her royal spouse in any of his whims, however unreasonable.

That Catherine Parr was in the full enjoyment of Henry's favor at this period, may be inferred from the consideration with which her kindred were treated, although she was herself cautious of giving cause of disgust to the old nobility, or envy to the climbing courtiers, by obtaining lavish grants of money and land, or a plurality of offices for her own family. Just such a need of patronage was bestowed on her brother, her uncle, and her sister's husband, as evinced her affection and the respect of the king for her relatives, but no more. three of her young kinsmen, the Throckmortons, followed the banner of the sovereign in the French campaign. George was made a prisoner, and a thousand pounds was demanded by the captor for his ransom on account of his consanguinity to her majesty.

After he had remained a year in captivity, the queen exerted herself for his redemption. The scene of his return and the preferment that followed at court is thus pleasantly described by his nephew in the Throckmorton manuscript. when first in present chamber he was come, the king said to him, Welcome to our grace. I know thou lovest the alarm of a drum, I see the marks of manhood in thy face. He humbly kneeling thanked his majesty that he did see him set at liberty. And often after the king would jest, and call him cousin in his merry mood, because therefore the Frenchman had assessed his fine so high, which turned him to good, his foes did say, in serving he was free, and for reward the prince gave land in fee.

Then none of us did unrewarded go. I had a gift yearly worth fifty pound, which I record because thou shouldest know, I hate received benefits to drown. Besides, I had a stipend for my life, who shortly left the court and took a wife. And now, because the king and queen did use my friendly signs, their liking to display, What men our company would then refuse? Our betters then with us did seek to stay, for lo, it is a path to dignity, with Caesar's friend to be in amity. Then Pembroke and his wife, whose sister was unto the queen, their kinsfolk friended much, and par their brother did them both surpass, who for to pleasure us did never grutch, when these did call us cousin, at each word, the other peers would friendly speech afford.

soon after the king's return from france, the queen's uncle, par of horton, resigned his office of lord chamberlain, and his place in the council, and though greatly urged by henry and katharine, to continue to assist them with his experience and advice, he sighed for the quiet of private life, preferring, he said, to the honours that beset him in his niece's court, the pious, peaceable, hospitable way of the country, where popularity affected him more than he sought it, no man being more beloved by the commonality.

4 04 - Katharine Parr, Ch II pt 1 37:41

Catherine Parr, chapter two, part one. one great trial, we may add peril, of Katharine Parr's queenly life was the frequent presence of her former lover, Sir Thomas Seymour, who was one of the gentlemen of the king's privy chamber. the contrast between him and her royal lord must have been painfully apparent at times to Catherine. She was surrounded with invidious spies withal, who would have been only too happy to be able to report a word, a look, or even a sigh, to the king as evidence of her preferment for the handsome Seymour. But the high principles and consummate prudence of the queen carried her triumphantly through an ordeal, which some princesses might not have passed without loss of life and fame.

The conduct of Seymour was rash, inconsistent, and selfish. He was the most restless, and at the same time the most blundering of intriguers. He had shared in the spoils of the sequestered abbeys, though in a lesser degree than his brother, the Earl of Hertford, and was one of those who would have tempted the king to appropriate the revenues of the bishops. It was, however, necessary to find some cause of complaint with that body, and according to Fox, he began at the fountain-head. Sir Thomas Seymour, says our author, who waited on the king, not much favoring Cramner, accused him of wasting his revenues and retrenching all hospitality, in order to gather riches for his wife and children, and that such stipends would be no small profit to his majesty.

About a fortnight afterwards, one day, the king having watched before going to dinner, and Sir Thomas Seymour holding the basin, he said to him, Go you out of hand to my lord of Canterbury, and bid him be with me at two o'clock, and fail not. When Seymour went to Lambeth, he found the great hall set out for dinner, and the usual hospitality going forward, and being invited by Cramner to dine, at which meal, All proceeded with the usual state of the former archbishops. Sir Thomas Seymour presently divined that he had been sent on purpose, and, after delivering his message, went back to the king in great haste. "'Ho!' said Henry, when he saw him. "'Dined you not with my lord of Canterbury?' Sir Thomas Seymour spied a portentous cloud on the royal brow as he replied, "'That I did, your majesty, and he will be with your highness forthwith.' then falling on his knees he added, I beseech your majesty to pardon me, for I have of late told you an untruth concerning my lord of Canterbury's housekeeping.

But I will never henceforth believe the knave which did put that vain tale in my head, for never did I see in my life so honorable a hall set in the realm, except your majesty's, or so well furnished according to each degree, and himself also most honorably served. Ah, sir, quoth the king, have you now spied the truth? But I perceive which way the wind bloweth. There are a sort of you, whom I have liberally given of suppressed abbeys, which, as you have lightly gotten, so you have unthriftily spent. Some at dice, others some in gay apparel, and otherwise worse, I fear. And now all is gone. You would fain have me make another cherescence, or gratuity, of the bishop's lands, to satisfy your greedy appetites.

Far different from this worldly, self-seeking spirit, was the disinterested devotion of the queen to the cause of the Reformation. With nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by her religion, she courageously maintained the opinions to which she had become a convert, and, in her zeal for the translation of the holy scriptures, left no means untried for the accomplishment of that good work. She appointed Miles Coverdale to the office of her almoner, and rendered him every assistance in his labor of love. Even that determined pillar of the olden faith, the princess Mary, her step-daughter, was won upon by Catherine to cooperate partially in the undertaking, as will be shown in the memoir of that queen.

a circumstance which proves how resistless in their gentleness must have been the manners of the royal matron whom the protestant church may well regard as its glory. The learned Nicholas Udall, master of Eton School, was employed by Catherine Parr to edit the translations of Erasmus's paraphrases on the four gospels, in the labor of which the princess Mary was induced by her royal stepmother to take an active share. The Queen thus addresses the Princess Mary, on the expediency of appending her name to her translation. I beseech you to send me this beautiful and useful work, when corrected by Mallet, or some other of your household, and at the same time, let me know whether it shall be published under your own name or anonymously.

In my own opinion, you will not do justice to a work in which you have taken such infinite pains for the public. and would have still continued to do so, as is well known, had your health permitted it, if you refuse to let it descend to posterity under the sanction of your name. For, since everybody is aware what fatigue you have undergone in its accomplishment, I do not see why you should refuse the praise that all will deservedly offer you in return. The first edition of these paraphrases, of which so important a use was afterwards made by Cramner and Somerset, was published, according to Stripe, in 1545, at the sole expense of Queen Catherine Parr. In this dedication to his royal patroness, Udall remarks, On the great number of noble women at that time in England, given to the study of devout science and of strange tongues, it was a common thing, he quaintly adds, to see young virgins so noozled and trained in the study of letters that they willingly set all other pastimes at naught for learning's sake.

It was now no news at all to see queens and ladies of most high estate in progeny instead of courtly dalliance, to embrace virtue exercises, reading and writing, and with most earnest study, early and late, to apply themselves to the acquiring of knowledge. Fortunately for Katherine Parr and those fair and gentle students, who were encouraged by the example of that learned queen to seek the paths of knowledge. They flourished in days when the acquirements of ladies were regarded as their glory, not their reproach. Learning in women was then considered next unto holiness, and the cultivation of the female mind was hailed by the wise, the good, the noble of England, as a proof of the increasing refinement of the land.

In later centuries, invidious ignorance has succeeded in flinging the brand of vulgar opprobrium on such women as Sir Thomas More, Erasmus, Udall, and Ascombe, all but deified. Margaret Roper, Catherine Parr, and the divine Lady Jane Grey would inevitably have been stigmatized as blue stockings if they had lived in the nineteenth instead of the sixteenth century. when katharine parr was first called to the unenviable distinction of sharing the throne of henry the eighth the poverty of the crown precluded the king from indulging his love of pomp and pageantry in any of the public feats and rejoicings which had been so frequent in the first thirty years of his reign. The expense of a coronation for the new queen was out of the question, and though she was dowered in the same proportion as her predecessors had been, it must have been a source of comfort to Catherine that she enjoyed a fine income as the widow of Lord Burrough and Lord Latimer, independently of her royal allowance as Queen Consort of England.

Henry's pecuniary distresses had led him to the fallacious expedient of raising the nominal value of the currency of the realm, and afterwards of issuing a fresh coinage in which the proportion of alloy exceeded that of the silver. This purblind proceeding gave the death-blow to trade by ruining the national credit, and involving himself, his subjects, and successors in tenfold difficulties. In the autumn of fifteen forty five, Henry claimed the assistance of Parliament, but the subsidy granted not satisfying the rapacious and needy sovereign, the revenues of all the hospitals and colleges in England were placed at his disposal by the time-serving and venial legislators of whom it was composed.

The University of Cambridge, dreading the spoliation with which it was threatened, implored the protection of their learned queen, Catherine, who was not forgetful of the affection and respect which had ever been manifested for her person and character by this erudite body. exerted her utmost influence with her royal husband to avert the storm that impended over that ancient nursery of learning and piety. The letter in which Her Majesty informs the members of the university of the success of her intercession with the king in their behalf is exceedingly curious, and the advice she offers as to the nature of their studies is equally creditable to her head and heart. Letter from Queen Catherine Parr to our right trusty dear and well-beloved chancellor and vice-chancellor of my lord the king's majesties, University of Cambridge, and to the whole said university there.

Your letters I have received, presented on all your behalves, by Mr. Dr. Smythe, your discreet and learned advocate, and as they be latinly written, which is signified unto me by those that be learned in the latin tongue, so I know, You could have uttered your desires and opinions familiarly in your vulgar tongue, aptest for your intelligence, albeit you seem to have conceived, rather partially than truly, a favorable estimation both of my going forward and dedication to learning, which to advance, or at least conserve, your letters move me. This passage must not be considered by the reader as any contradiction of her attainments as a Latin scholar, because Notwithstanding her denial of learning, the Queen meant not to be taken at her word, as ignorant of the language in which the university had addressed her, for she uses, in the course of the letter, a very apt Latin quotation.

You show me how agreeable it is to me, being in this worldly estate, not only for mine own part to be studious, but also a maintainer and cherisher of the learned state, bearing me in hand. Or insisting, that I am endowed and perfected with those qualities which ought to be in a person of my station. Truly this, your discreet and poetic document, I as thankfully accept as you desire that I should embrace it. And forasmuch, as I do here, All kind of learning doth flourish among you in this age, as it did amongst the Greeks at Athens, long ago. I desire you all not so to hunger, for the exquisite knowledge of profane learning, that it may be thought that the Greek university was but transposed, or now in England revived, forgetting our Christianity, since their excellency did not only attain to moral and natural things.

But rather, I gently exhort you to study and apply those doctrines, as means and apt degrees, to the attaining and setting forth Christ's reverent and sacred doctrine, that it may be laid against you in evidence, at the tribunal of God, how you were ashamed of Christ's doctrine. For this Latin lesson, I am taught to say of St. Paul, No me podet evangeli, to the sincere setting forth whereof, I trust, Universally in all your vocations and ministries you will apply, and conform your sundry gifts, arts and studies, in such end and sort, that Cambridge may be accounted rather a university of divine philosophy than of natural and moral, as Athens was. Upon the confidence of which your accomplishment of my expectation, zeal and request, I, according to your desires, have attempted my lord the king for the establishment of your livelihood and possessions, in which, notwithstanding his majesty's property and interest, through the consent of the high court of parliament, his highness being such a patron to good learning, doth tender you so much, that he would rather advance learning, and erect new occasion thereof, Then confound your ancient and godly institutions, so that such learning may hereafter ascribe her very original whole conversation to our sovereign lord the king, her only defense and worthy ornament, the prosperous estate and princely government, of whom long to preserve.

I doubt not but every one of you will in the daily invocation call upon him, who alone and only can dispose to every creature. scribbled by the rude hand of her, that prayeth to the lord and immortal god, to send you all prosperous success in godly learning and knowledge. From my lord, the King's Majesty's Manor of Greenwich. The twenty sixth of February. Catherine, the Queen, K. P. The triumph which Catherine Parr's virtuous influence obtained, in this instance, over the sordid passions of Henry and his greedy ministers, ought to endear the name of the royal patroness of learning to every mind capable of appreciating her magnanimity and moral courage. The beauty, the talents, and rare acquirements of Catherine Parr, together with the delicate tact which taught her how to make the most of these advantages, enabled her to retain her empire over the fickle heart of Henry for a longer period than the fairest and most brilliant of her predecessors.

but these charms were not the most powerful talisman with which the queen won her influence. It was her domestic virtues, her patience, her endearing manners, that rendered her indispensable to the irritable and diseased voluptuary, who was now paying the severe penalty of bodily tortures and mental disquiet for the excesses of his former life. Henry had grown so corpulent and unwieldy in person that he was incapable of taking the slightest exercise, much less of recreating himself with the invigorating field sports and boisterous pastimes in which he had formerly delighted. The days had come unexpectedly upon him, in which he had no pleasure. His body was so swollen and enfeebled by dropsy that he could not be moved to an upper chamber without the aid of machinery.

hitherto the excitement of playing the leading part in the public drama of royal pomp and pageantry had been, with sensual indulgences, the principal objects of his life. Deprived of these, and with the records of an evil conscience to dwell upon in the weary hours of pain, his erasibility and impatience would have goaded him to frenzy, but for the soothing gentleness and tender attentions of his amiable consort. Catherine was the most skilful and patient of nurses, and shrunk not from any office, however humble, whereby she could afford mitigation to the sufferings of her royal husband. It is recorded of her that she would remain four hours on her knees beside him, applying fomentations and other palliatives to his ulcerated leg, which he would not permit any one to dress but her.

She had already served an apprenticeship to the infirmities of sickness, in her attendance on the deathbeds of her two previous husbands, and had doubtless acquired the art of adapting herself to the humors of male invalids. A royally born lady might have been of little comfort to Henry in the days of his infirmity, but Catherine Parr had been educated in the school of domestic life, and was perfect in the practice of its virtues and its duties. she sought to charm the ennui which oppressed the once magnificent and active sovereign in the unwelcome quiet of his sick chamber by inducing him to unite with her in directing the studies and watching the hopeful promise of his beloved heir, Prince Edward.

The following letter addressed to Catherine by her royal stepson bears witness to the maternal kindness of the queen and the affection of the precocious student. prince edward to katharine parr most honourable and entirely beloved mother i have me most humbly recommended to your grace with like thanks both for that your grace did accept so gently my simple and rude letters And also that it pleased your grace so gently, to vouchsafe to direct unto me your loving and tender letters, which do give me much comfort and encouragement to go forward in such things, wherein your grace beareth me on hand, that I am already entered. I pray, God, I may be able to satisfy the good expectation of the King's Majesty, my Father, and of your grace, whom God have ever in his most blessed keeping.

Your loving Son. E. Prince. There is extant a latin and a french letter addressed to the queen in the same filial style. The arrival of the Plentipotenaries to negotiate a peace between England and France in the commencement of the year, 1546, caused the last gleam of royal festivity and splendor that was ever to enliven the once magnificent court of Henry VIII. Claude d'unbao, the admiral who had a few months previously attempted a hostile descent on the Isle of Wight, and attacked the English fleet, was the ambassador extraordinary on this occasion. He was received with great pomp at Greenwich, where he landed, and on Hounslow Heath, he was met by a numerous cavalcade of nobles, knights, and gentlemen, in King Henry's service, headed by the young heir of England, Prince Edward, who, though only in his ninth year, was mounted on a charger, and performed his part in the pageant, by welcoming the admiral and his suite, in the most gracious and engaging manner.

Anbau embraced and kissed the princely boy, and all the French nobles were loud in their commendations of the beauty and gallant bearing of this child of early promise. Prince Edward then conducted the embassy to Hampton Court, where for ten days, They were feasted and entertained with great magnificence by the king and queen. Henry, on this occasion, presented Catherine Parr with many jewels of great value that she might appear with suitable as his consort to the Plentypotenaries of France. He also provided new and costly hangings and furniture for her apartments, as well as plate, which she naturally regarded as her own property. But a long and vexatious litigation took place with regard to these gifts, after the death of the king, as will be shown in its proper place.

The increasing influence of Catherine with King Henry, and the ascendancy she was acquiring over the opening mind of the future sovereign, was watched with jealous alarm by the party most inimical to the doctrines of the reformation. Rodesley, the Lord Chancellor, who had been the base suggestor to Henry VIII of a breach of faith to Anne of Cleves, and afterwards pursued the monarch's fifth unhappy queen with the zest of a bloodhound till her young head was laid upon the block waited but for a suitable opportunity for effecting the fall of katharine Parr. Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, was his confederate in this intention, but so blameless was the conduct so irreproachable the manners of the queen that, as in the case of Daniel, it was impossible for her deadliest foes to find an occasion against her, except in the matter of her religious opinions.

In these, she was opposed to Henry's arbitrary notions, who was endeavouring to erect the dogma of his own infallibility on the ruins of papacy. Every descent from his decisions in points of faith had been visited with the most terrible penalties. In his last speech to Parliament, he had bitterly complained of the divisions in religion, which distracted his realm, for which he partly blamed the priests, some of whom, he sarcastically observed, were so stiff in their old mumsumus, and others so busy with their sumsumus, that, instead of preaching the word of God, they were employed in railing at each other, and partly the fault of the laity, whose delight it was to censor the proceedings of their bishops, priests, and preachers.

If you know, continued the royal polemic, that any preach perverse doctrine, come and declare it to some of our counsel, or to us, to whom is committed by God, authority to reform and order such cases and behaviors, and be not judges yourselves of your own fantastic opinions and vain expositions. And, although you be permitted to read holy scriptures, and to have the word of God in your mother tongue, you must understand it is licensed you so to do only to inform your conscience, your children and families, and not to dispute, and to make scripture a railing and taunting stock against priests and preachers. I am very sorry to know and hear how irreverently the precious jewel, the word of God, is disputed, rhymed, sung, and jangled in every alehouse and tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the same.

This speech was a prelude to the rigorous enforcement of the six articles. The most interesting victim of the fiery persecution that ensued in the spring and summer of was the young, beautiful, and learned, Anne Askew. She was a lady of honorable birth and ancient lineage, and, having become a convert to the new faith, was for that cause violently driven from her house by her husband, Mr. Kyme of Lincolnshire. She then resumed her maiden name, and devoted herself to the promulgation of the religious opinions she had embraced. It was soon known that the queen's sister, Lady Herbert, the duchess of suffolk and other great ladies of the court, countenanced the fair gospel-er, nay more, that the queen herself had received books from her, in the presence of Lady Herbert, Lady Turwit, and the youthful Lady Jane Grey, which might bring her majesty under the penalty of the statute against reading heretical works.

The religious opinions of a young and beautiful woman might perhaps have been overlooked by men. with whom religion was a matter of party, not conscience. But the supposed connection of Anne Askew with the Queen caused her to be singled out for the purpose of terrifying or torturing her into confessions that might furnish a charge of heresy or treason against her royal mistress. The unexpected firmness of the Christian heroine baffled this design, she endured the utmost afflictions of Rodesley's vindictive fury, without permitting a syllable to pass her lips that might be rendered subservient to this purpose. Anne Askew had been supported in prison by money which had been conveyed to her from time to time.

By prison supposed to be in the service of the ladies of the queen's bedchamber, and the lord-chancellor's inquisitorial cruelty was especially exercised in his attempts to exhort From the hapless recipient of this charity, the names of her secret friends. It is well known, that when Sir Anthony Nevitt, the lieutenant of the tower, endeavoured by his directions to the jailer, to modify the ferocious, and it seems illegal, requisition of Chancellor Rodesley, to inflict severer agonies on the tender, but unshrinking victim, his lordship threw off his gown. and with the assistance of his pitiless accomplice, Rich, worked the rack, till, to use Anne's own words, they well-nigh plucked her joints asunder.

When the lieutenant of the tower found his authority thus superseded, he promptly took boat, and proceeding to the king, indignantly related to him the disgusting scene he had just witnessed. Henry affected to express great displeasure that a female should have been exposed to such barbarity, but he neither punished the perpetrators of the outrage, nor interposed his authority to preserve Anne Askew from a fiery death. Indeed, if the contemporary author quoted by Speed is to be credited. Henry had himself ordered Anne Askew to be stretched on the rack, being exasperated against her for having brought prohibited books into his palace. and imbued his queen and his nieces suffix's daughters with her doctrine.

The terrible sentence which consigned the dislocated frame of the young and lovely anne askew, a living prey to the flames, shook not the lofty self-devotion of the victim. Several persons professing the reform doctrine were condemned to die at the same time, among whom were two gentlemen of the royal household, William Morris, the king's gentleman, and Sir George Bagg of the Privy-Chamber. The following touching particulars of their last meeting have been recorded by a survivor. I, being alive, narrates John Loud, tutor to Sir Robert Southwell, and a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn, must needs confess of her departed to the Lord. There was a sad party of victims, and their undaunted friends gathered in the little parlor at Newgate.

Sir George Bagg was with Lassels, A gentleman of a right worshipful house, in Nottinghamshire, at Gatford, near Worsop. The day before his execution and that of Anne Askew, who had, says the narrator, an angel's countenance and a smiling face. Lassels was in the little parlour by Newgate. He mounted up in the window seat and sat there. He was merry and cheerful in the Lord. And Sir George Baggs sat by his side, one Billenian, a priest. Likewise, Burnt was there. Three of the Throckmortons were present, Sir Nicholas being one of them. By the same token, a person unknown to me said, Ye are all marked men that come to them. Take heed to your lives. The Throckmortons were to be remembered, the near kinsmen of the Queen, and confidential members of her household.

They were her élives and converts withal, to the faith of which she was the nursing mother. undismayed by the warning they had received when they came to comfort anne askew and her fellow-captives in prison, these heroic brethren ventured to approach her when she was born to her funeral pyre in smithfield for the purpose of offering her sympathy and encouragement. But they were again warned that they were marked men and compelled to withdraw. In a far different spirit came Rottesley, Russell, and others of the ruthless to witness the last act of the tragedy, and to tempt the weakness of woman's nature by offering her the king's pardon on condition of her recanting. She treated the proposal with the scorn it merited, and her fearless demeanor encouraged and strengthened the resolution of the three men, who shared with her the crown of martyrdom.

The male victims were not subjected to torture. They appear to have suffered on matters of faith unconnected with politics. Anne Askew may be regarded as a sacrifice to the malignity of the party who failed in making her an instrument in their machinations against the queen. The terror and anguish which must have oppressed the heart of the queen at this dreadful period may be imagined. Not only was she unable to avert the fate of the generous Anne Askew and the other protestant martyrs, but she was herself, with some of her nearest and dearest connections, on the verge of the like peril. Sir George Bagg, who was involved in the same condemnation with Anne Askew and those who suffered with her, was a great favourite with the king, who was wont to honour him, in moments of familiarity with the endearing appellation of his pig.

Henry does not appear to have been aware of Bagg's arrest till informed of his condemnation. He then sent for Rottesley and raided him, for coming so near him even to his privy chamber, and commanded him to draw out a pardon. Bag, on his release, flew to thank his master, who, seeing him, cried out, Ah, my pig, you are here safe again. Yes, sire, said he, and if your majesty had not been better than your bishops, your pig had been roasted ere this time. Notwithstanding this rebuff, Rodesley and his coadjutors presumed to come somewhat nearer to the king than an attack on members of his household, for they struck at the wife of his bosom. It was shrewdly observed by a contemporary that Gardiner had bent his bow to bring down some of the head deer.

Victims of less distinguished note were destined to fall first, but it was plain to all that it was to compass the disgrace and death of the queen, that the fires of persecution had been rekindled. Ronesley and Gardner having masked an iniquitous political intrigue under the name of religion. The queen's sister, Lady Herbert, had been secretly denounced to Henry as an active instrument in controverting his edict touching heretical works. This was a subtle prelude for an attack upon the queen herself, for when Henry had reason to suppose she received and read books forbidden by his royal statutes, He was prepared to take every difference in opinion expressed or insinuated by her in the light not only of heresy, but treason.

Henry's anger was always the most deadly and dangerous when he brooded over an offense in silence. Queen Catherine had been accustomed, in their hours of domestic privacy, to converse with him on theological subjects in which he took great delight. The points of difference in their opinions and the ready wit and eloquence with which the queen maintained her side of the question gave piquancy to these discussions. Henry was at first amused and interested, but controversies between husband and wife are dangerous pastimes to the weaker vessel, especially if she chanced to have the best of the argument. On subjects of less importance to his eternal welfare, Catherine might possibly have enough tact to leave the victory to her lord.

But, Laboring as she saw him under a complication of incurable maladies, and loaded with a yet more fearful weight of unrepented crimes, she must have been anxious to awaken him to a sense of his accountability to that almighty judge, at whose tribunal it was evident he must soon appear. With the exception of his murdered tutor, Fisher, Henry's spiritual advisors, whether Catholics or reformers, had all been false to their trust. They had flattered his worst passions, and lulled his guilty conscience by crying, Peace, peace, when there was no peace. Katharine Parr was, perhaps, the only person for the last ten years who had the moral courage to speak, even in a modified manner, the language of truth in his presence.

Henry, who was neither Catholic nor Protestant, had a sumptuous of his own, which he wished to render the national rule of faith, and was, at last, exceedingly displeased that his queen should presume to doubt the infallibility of his opinions. One day she ventured, in the presence of Gardner, to remonstrate with him on the proclamation he had recently put forth, forbidding the use of a translation of the scriptures, which he had previously licensed. this was at a time when his constitutional irascibility was aggravated by a painful inflammation of his ulcerated leg which confined him to his chamber. Perhaps Catherine, in her zeal for the diffusion of the truths of holy writ, pressed the matter too closely, for the king showed tokens of mislike and cut the matter short.

The queen made a few pleasant observations on other subjects and withdrew. henry's suppressed caller broke out as soon as she had left the room. A good hearing it is, said he, when women become such clerks, and much to my comfort, to come in mine old age to be taught by my wife. Gardner, who was present, availed himself of the scornful sally to insinuate things against her majesty, which a few days before he durst not for his life have breathed to the king. for says a contemporary author never handmaid sought more to please her mistress than she to please whose humour, and she was of singular beauty, favour, and comely personage, wherein the king was greatly delighted. But Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, lord-chancellor Rodesley, and others of the king's privy-chamber practised her death That they might the better stop the passage of the gospel, yet they durst not speak to the king touching her, because they saw he loved her so well.

But now that an offense had been given to the king's egotistical self-idolatry, he was ready to listen to anything that could be said, in disparagement of his dutiful and conscientious wife. Her tender nursing, her unremitting attentions to his comfort, together with her amiable and affectionate conduct to his children, were all forgotten. Gardner flattered him, to the top of his bent, on his theological knowledge and judgment, in which he declared, that his majesty excelled the princes of that, and every other age, as well as all the professed doctors of divinity, insomuch that it was unseemly for any of his subjects to argue with him so malapertly, as the queen had just done. that it was grievous for any of his counsellors to hear it done, since those who were so bold in words would not scruple to proceed to acts of disobedience, adding, that he could make great discoveries if he were not deterred by the queen's powerful faction.

In short, he crept so far into the king at that time, says Fox. He and his fellows so filled henry's mistrustful mind with fears that he gave them warrant to consult together about drawing articles against the queen wherein her life might be touched. Then they thought it best to begin with such ladies as she most esteemed, and were privy to all her doing, as the lady Herbert, afterwards Countess of Pembroke, her sister, the lady Jane, who was her first cousin, and the lady Turwit, all of her privy chamber, and to accuse them of the six articles, and to search their closets and coffers, that they might find somewhat to charge the queen, which being found, the queen should be taken and carried by night in a barge to the tower, of which advice the king was made privy by gardener.

This purpose was so finely handled That it grew within few days of the time appointed, and the poor queen suspected nothing, but after her accustomed manner, visited the king, still to deal with him touching religion as before. At this momentous crisis, when the life of the queen might be said to hang on a balance so fearfully poised, that the descent of a feather would have given it a fatal turn, the bill of articles that had been framed against her, together with the mandate for her arrest, were dropped by Rodesley from his bosom in the gallery at Whitehall, after the royal signature of the king had been affixed. Fortunately, it happened that it was picked up by one of the attendants of the queen, and instantly conveyed to her majesty, whose sweetness of temper and gracious demeanour had endeared her to all her household.

5 05 - Katharine Parr, Ch II pt 2 31:58

Catherine Parr, Chapter Two, Part Two. It is impossible but that shuddering recollections of the fell decree which doomed henry's second queen and boleyn to be either burned or beheaded at the king's pleasure, and of the summary proceedings by which his last queen, Catherine, was hurried to the block, without even the ceremony of a trial, must have pressed upon her mind as she glanced at these appalling documents. Her virtue, it is true, could not be impugned, as theirs had been, But she had disappointed the expectation, so confidently stated by the king, in the act for settling the succession to the crown, that their union might be blessed with offspring. In that very act, there was an ominous clause, in case of failure of issue by her, which secured a precedency over his daughters, to the children he might have by any other queens.

She had been Henry's wife three years, and was still childless, and as she had not brought a family to either of her former husbands, the reproach of barrenness might not unreasonably be ascribed to her by the king. It was doubtless to the full as great a crime, in his sight as her heresy, and it is not improbable that it was even cited in the list of her misdemeanours, as the untimely death of Catherine of Aragon's sons had been impiously construed into evidences that the marriage was displeasing in the sight of God, when Henry was desirous of another wife. When Catherine Parr became aware from the perusal of the paper, so providentially brought to her, that a bill for her attainer was prepared, And saw that the king had treacherously given his sanction to the machinations of her foes.

Then she concluded that she was to be added to the list of his conjugal decapitations, and fell into a hysterical agony. She occupied an apartment, contiguous to that of the sick and froward monarch, and as she fell from one fit into another, her shrieks and cries reached his ears. finding they continued for many hours, either moved with pity, or as Dr. Lingard shrewdly suggests, incommoded by the noise, he said to inquire what was the matter. Catherine's physician, Dr. Wendy, having penetrated the cause of her majesty's indisposition, informed the royal messenger that the queen was dangerously ill, and that it appeared that her sickness was caused by distress of mind. When the king heard this, he was either moved with unwanted feelings of compassion for the sufferings of his consort, or reminded, by his increasing infirmities, which had confined him, for the last two days, to his bed, of her unrivalled skill as a nurse.

And feeling, perhaps, for the first time, how much he should miss her in that capacity if death deprived him of her services, he determined to pay her a visit. this act of royal condescension was the more remarkable because it was attended with great personal inconvenience to himself, for he was carried in a chair into queen katharine's apartment, being at that time unable to walk. He found her heavy in melancholy, and apparently at the point of death, at which he evinced much sympathy, as if really alarmed at the idea of losing her. Perhaps he had not till then discovered that she was dearer to him than her fairer and more passionately but briefly loved predecessors Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.

The hysterical agonies of those unhappy ladies had produced no such relentings in his vindictive breast, though they had been duly reported to him. But then, to be sure, he was out of hearing of their cries. Catherine Parr had, besides, been twice married before, And being a woman of great sense and observation, had acquired more experience in adapting herself to the humor of a froward lord than either the gay, reckless Coquette, Anne Boleyn, or the young, unlettered Howard. On this occasion she testified a proper degree of gratitude for the honor of his visit, which, she assured him, had greatly revived and rejoiced her. She also adroitly offered an opening for an explanation of the cause of Henry's displeasure by expressing herself much distressed at having seen so little of his majesty of late, adding that her uneasiness at this was increased by her apprehensions of having been so unhappy as to have given him some unintentional offence.

Henry replied only with gracious and encouraging expressions of his good will. during the rest of this critical interview, Catherine behaved in so humble and endearing a manner, and so completely adapted herself to the humour of her imperious lord, that in the excitement caused by the reaction of his feelings, Henry betrayed to her physician the secret of the plot against her life. The physician, being both a good and prudent person, acted as a mediator with his sovereign in the first instance, And is said to have suggested to the Queen, the proper means of securing a reconciliation with Henry. The next evening the Queen found herself well enough to return the King's visit in his bedchamber. She came attended by her sister, Lady Herbert, and the King's young niece, Lady Jane Grey, who carried the candles before Her Majesty.

Henry welcomed her very courteously, and appeared to take her attention in good part, but presently turned the conversation to the old subject of controversy. for the purpose of beguiling her into an argument. Catherine adroitly avoided the snare by observing that she was but a woman, accompanied with all the imperfections natural to the weakness of her sex. Therefore, in all matters of doubt and difficulty, she must refer herself to his majesty's better judgment as to her lord and head. For so God hath appointed you, continued she, As the supreme head of us all, and of you, next unto God, will I ever learn. Not so, by St. Mary, said the king. Ye are become a doctor, Kate, to instruct us, and not to be instructed of us, as oftentimes we have seen.

Indeed, replied the queen, if your majesty have so conceived, my meaning has been mistaken, for I have always held it preposterous for a woman to instruct her lord, And if I have ever presumed to differ with your Highness on religion, it was partly to obtain information for my own comfort, regarding certain nice points on which I stood in doubt, and sometimes because I perceived that, in talking, you were better able to pass away the pain and weariness of your present infirmity, which encouraged me to this boldness, in the hope of profiting withal by your Majesty's learned discourse. And is it so, sweetheart? replied the King. then are we perfect friends. He then kissed her with much tenderness, and gave her leave to depart.

On the day appointed for her arrest, the king being convalescent sent for the queen to take the heir with him in the garden. Catherine came, attended as before, by her sister, Lady Jane Grey and Lady Presently, the lord-chancellor, Rodesley, with forty of the guard, entered the garden with the expectation of carrying off the queen to the tower, for he had not received the slightest intimation of the change in the royal caprice. The king received him with a burst of indignation, saluted him with the unexpected address of, Beast, fool, and knave, and sternly withdrawing him from the vicinity of the queen, he bade him a vaunt from his presence. Catherine, when she saw the king so greatly incensed with the chancellor, had the magnanimity to intercede for her foe, saying, She would become a humble suitor for him, as she deemed his fault was occasioned by mistake.

Ah, poor soul, said the king, thou little knowest, Kate, how evil he deserveth this grace at thy hands. On my word, sweetheart, he hath been to thee a very knave. Katharine Parr treated the authors of the cruel conspiracy against her life with the magnanimity of a great mind and the forbearance of a true christian. She sought no vengeance, although the reaction of the king's uxorious fondness would undoubtedly have given her the power of destroying them if she had been of a vindictive temper. But though Henry was induced through the intercession of Katharine to overlook the offence of Rodesley, He never forgave Gardner the part he had taken in this affair, which proved no less a political blunder than a moral crime.

It was the death-blow of his credit with the king, who not only struck his name out of his council-book, but forbade him his presence. Gardner, notwithstanding this prohibition, had the boldness to present himself before the sovereign on the terrace at Windsor among his former colleagues. when henry observed him, he turned fiercely to his chancellor and said, Did I not command you that he should come no more among you? My lord of Winchester, replied Rodesley, has come to wait upon your highness with the offer of a benevolence from his clergy. This was touching the right cord, for money never came amiss to the rapacious and needy monarch from any quarter. Henry condescended to receive the address, and to accept the bribe, but took no further notice of the bishop than to strike his name out of the list of his executors.

Henry cancelled that of Twirlby, bishop of Winchester, also because, he said, the latter was schooled by Gardner. So careful was the king to leave neither power nor influence in the counsel of his successors to the man who had tempted him to close his reign with the murder of his innocent wife. Henry is said to have exhibited many public marks, of course, but confiding fondness for Queen Catherine Parr in his latter days. He was accustomed to call her sweetheart, and to lay his sore leg on her lap before the lords and ladies-in-waiting, and sometimes it is said, He so forgot the restraints of royalty as to do so in the presence of the whole court. The queen, who was still a very pretty little woman, and quite young enough to have been his daughter, was careful to receive these rude endearments as flattering marks of the favor of her royal lord.

Yet after the fearful warning she had received from the capricious nature of his love and the treachery of his disposition, she must have regarded herself as a poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour. how indeed could the sixth wife of henry pillow her head on his cruel bosom without dreaming of axes and flames, or fearing to see the curtains withdrawn by the pale spectres of his former matrimonial victims. Her wifely probation as queen-consort of england was however near its close, for henry's own tragedy was rapidly drawing to a termination. This last act was to be stained with the blood of the most accomplished noblemen in his dominions, the gallant Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the cousin of his two beheaded queens, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and the friend and brother-in-law of his passionately loved son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond.

Surrey has generally been regarded as the victim of the Seymour party, who had obtained a great ascendency in the council since Gardiner had committed the false step of practising against the life of the queen. Katharine Parr, though she had labored at the peril of being sent to the scaffold to obtain toleration and liberty of conscience for those of her own religion, had hitherto carefully abstained from implicating herself with the intrigues of either party. Now she naturally threw the weight of her quiet influence into the scale of those who supported the doctrine of the Reformation. With this party, which was headed by the Seymours, her brother, the earl of Essex, and her sister's husband, Lord Herbert, were allied.

A mortal hatred subsisted between the newly aggrandized family of Seymour and the house of Howard. The high-spirited heir of Norfolk, in whose veins flowed the blood of Charlemagne and the Plantagenets, was known to look with contempt on the new nobility, and had rashly expressed his intention of avenging the insolence with which he had been treated by the Earl of Hertford, when a convenient season should arrive. The precarious state of the sovereign's health warned the Seymours to make the most of the power which they had got into their hands. Among the absurd charges that were brought against Surrey, one must have been artfully framed to cause disquiet to Queen Catherine, which was That he had conceived the monstrous project of marrying his beautiful sister, the Duchess Dowager of Richmond, to the King, although she was the widow of that monarch's reputed son, Henry, Duke of Richmond.

Stranger still, the young lady herself, out of revenge, as it is supposed, to her noble brother, for having prevented her father from bestowing her in marriage on the Admiral Sir Thomas More, of whom she was deeply enamored. came forward as a witness against him, and deposed. That he had instructed her how to behave herself, that she might obtain private interviews with the king, and so endear herself in his favor, that she might rule as others had done. As Henry had already married two fair ladies of the Howard lineage, through whose influence the Blanche Lyon had for a brief period triumphed over all rivals in the court, the foes of Surrey and his aged father. calculated that this odious accusation might possibly obtain sufficient credit to excite the indignation of the people and the jealousy of the queen, so far, at any rate, as to deter her from interceding in the behalf of the victims of their murderous policy.

The unmerited fate of the gallant and accomplished Surrey has been ever considered as one of the darkest blots of the crime-stained annals of Henry VIII. It is somewhat remarkable that this monarch, who had received a learned education, made pretensions to authorship, and affected to be a patron of the bell-letters, sent the three most distinguished literary characters of his court, Sir Thomas More, Lord Rockford, and Surrey, to the block, from feelings of private and personal malice, and in so illegal a manner, that the executions of all three deserve no gentler name than murder. Surrey was beheaded on the 19th of January, 1547. Henry then lay on his death-bed, and his swollen and feeble hands having been long unequal to the task of guiding a pen, a stamp with the facsimile of the initials H.R.

was affixed to the death-warrant in his presence. In like manner was that of the execution of the Duke of Norfolk signed. This aged nobleman claimed a threefold relationship to the king, as the husband of his maternal aunt, the princess and plantagenet, and as the uncle of two of Henry's queens, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. According to the custom of those times, he had no doubt been occasionally called by the king his uncle Norfolk. Yet the last act of Henry's life was to dispatch a messenger to the lieutenant of the tower with an order for the execution of the unfortunate duke early on the following morning. This was on the evening of the twenty-sixth of January. A more irrevocable fiat had, however, gone forth against the relentless tyrant, and ere that morning dawned, which was to have seen the last of the hoary head of Norfolk fall on the scaffold, he himself was a corpse.

When the physicians announced to those in attendance on the sovereign that the hour of his departure was at hand, They shrunk from the peril of incurring the last ebullition of his vindictive temper by warning him of the awful change that awaited him. The queen, worn out, with days and nights of fatiguing personal attendance on her wayward lord, during the burning fever which had preyed upon him for more than two months, was in all probability unequal to the trial of witnessing the last fearful scene, for she was not mentioned as having been present on that occasion. Sir Anthony Denny was the only person who had the courage to inform the king of his real state. He approached the bed, and leaning over it, told him, that all human aid was now vain, and that it was meet for him to review his past life, and seek for God's mercy through Christ.

Henry, who was uttering loud cries of pain and impatience, regarded him with a stern look, and asked, What judge had sent him to pass this sentence upon him? Denny replied, Your physicians. When these physicians next approached the royal patient to offer him medicine, he repelled them in these words, After the judges have once passed sentence on a criminal, they have no more to do with him. Therefore, be gone. It was then suggested that he should confer with some of his divines. I will see no one but Cramner, replied the king, and not him as yet. Let me repose a little, and as I find myself so, shall I determine. After an hour's sleep, he awoke, and becoming faint, commanded that Cramner, who had withdrawn to Croydon, should be sent for with all haste.

But the precious interval had been wasted, and before the archbishop entered, Henry was speechless. Cramner besought him to testify by some sign his hope in the saving mercy of Christ. The king regarded him steadily for a moment. wrung his hand, and expired. Thvet bears testimony to the dying monarch's remorse of conscience for the murder of Anne Boleyn in particular, and of his other crimes in general. Harpsfield describes him as afflicted with visionary horrors at the hour of his departure, for that he glanced with rolling eyes and looks of wild import towards the darker recesses of his chamber, muttering to himself, Monks, Monks! But whether this ejaculation implied that his disordered fancy had peopled vacancy with cowled figures, or that he was desirous of summoning monks to assist at his last arisons, must forever remain a mystery.

Warned of the moment of approaching disillusion, says another writer, and scorched with the death-thirst, he craved a cup of white wine, and, turning to one of his attendants, he exclaimed, All is lost! These were his last words. the same author avers that henry was preparing an accusation against his queen on the old charge of heresy which was only prevented by his death. If this were indeed the case, it would sufficiently account for the silence of contemporaries touching katharine Parr's proceedings at the time of her royal husband's death. This throws some light, too, on the general remark of the historians of that period that katharine's life was providentially preserved by the decease of henry at a critical period for her, and that it was only by a special good luck that she was the survivor.

The only notice of the queen which occurs at this period is contained in a letter addressed to her on the 10th of January by Prince Edward, in which he thanks her for her new year's gift, the pictures of herself and the king his father, which will delight him, he says, to contemplate in their absence. he calls her illustrious queen and dearest mother. The youthful heir of England was at Hertford with his preceptors at the time of the last illness of his royal father. Henry, the eighth expired at two o'clock in the morning of January, twenty eighth, fifteen forty seven, at his royal palace of Westminster in the thirty-eighth year of his reign and the fifty-sixth of his age. This important event was kept secret Till the Earl of Hertford had obtained possession of the person of his royal nephew, the young king Edward VI, and arranged his plans for securing the government of England in his name.

The parliament met on the twenty-ninth, according to an adjournment, which had been moved during the life of the sovereign, and received no intimation of his demise till Monday, the last day of January, when Rodesley, the chancellor, announced to the assembled peers and commons, the death of their late dread lord, which says the deceitful record, was unspeakably sad and sorrowful to all hearers, the chancellor himself being almost disabled by his tears from uttering the words. A part of Henry's will was then read by Sir William Paget, Secretary of State, and the parliament was declared by the chancellor to be dissolved by the demise of the crown. when the will of henry the eighth was opened, the queen expressed the utmost surprise on learning that she was not appointed to the regency of the realm and the care of the person of the young king.

She complained bitterly of the counsellors and executors of king henry, and of those persons under whose influence his last testament had been made, but they paid no attention to her displeasure. In his will, Henry places the children he may have by his queen, Catherine Parr, in the order of succession immediately after his only son, Prince Edward, giving them precedency of the princesses Mary and Elizabeth. If, therefore, the queen had borne a posthumous daughter to Henry, a civil war would unquestionably have been the result. The words are, and per default of lawful issue of our son, Prince Edward, we will that the said imperial crown, and other premises, after our two deceases, shall fully remain and come to the heirs of our entirely beloved wife, Queen Catherine, that now is, or of any other our lawful wife, that we shall hereafter marry.

the last sentence seems ominous enough to the childless queen, implying that Henry meant to survive her, and was seriously providing for the contingency of his issue by a seventh queen. The preamble to the legacy he bequeaths to Katharine Parr contains, however, a very high testimony to her virtues. And for the great love, obedience, chastity of life and wisdom, Being in our forenamed wife and queen, we bequeath unto her for her proper life, and as to shall please her to order it, three thousand pounds in plate, jewels and stuff of the household goods, and such apparel as it shall please her to take of such as we have already, and further we give unto her one thousand pounds in money, and the amount of her dower and jointure according to our grant in parliament.

this legacy when the relative value of money is considered as well as the destitution of the exchequer at the time will not be thought so inadequate a bequest as it appears. Catherine Parr was amply dowered by parliament and by the king's patents, and she had two dowers besides as the widow of the lord's borough and latimer. She was supposed to have made great savings while she was queen consort. After the death of the king, she received all the honors due to his acknowledged widow. He left too, be it remembered. But she was prayed for as Queen Dowager, in the presence of the young king, by her old enemy Gardener, in the following prayer for the royal family. I commend to God Queen Catherine, Dowager, my Lady Mary's Grace, and my Lady Elizabeth's Grace, your Majesty's dear sisters.

On the seventh of february, after Henry VIII's death, King Edward VI wrote a latin letter of condolence to his widowed stepmother, superscribed, Regina Catharine, calling her his dear mother, and concluding, Farewell, venerated Queen. The news of Henry's death was received with exultation at Rome. The Pope asked Cardinal Pole, why he did not rejoice with the rest at the death of this great enemy of the church? poll replied that nothing would be gained by that event, for the young king edward had been educated by preceptors of lutheran and zuinglian principles, that the council of regency was composed of persons of the same class, and to complete all his uncles and the queen-mother, Catherine Parr, were more obstinate in their heresies than all the rest.

while henry's body lay in state, Gardiner held a controversy with Lord Oxford's players, who were located at Southwark, his own diocese. These players chose to act a splendid play. Gardiner thought it more decent, as he said, to perform a solemn dirge for his master, as beseemeth, whilst he lay unburied. He applied to the justice of peace against the players. Who mean, says he, to see which shall have more resort, them or I. Adding that, if he could not prevent the acting of the play, he could and would prevent the people from going to see it, while the king's body was above ground. The following account of the pompous and certainly very catholic obsequies of Henry VIII is taken from a book in the college arms.

The chest wherein the royal corpse was laid stood in the midst of the privy chamber, with lights, And divine service was said about him, with masses, obsequies, and continual watch, made by the chaplains and gentlemen of the privy chamber, in their course and order, night and day, for five days, till the chapel was ready, where was a goodly hearse, with eighty square tapers, every light containing two feet in length, and in whole, one thousand eight hundred or two thousand weight in wax. Garnish with pencils, escutcheons, Banners and bannerals of descents, and at the four corners, banners of saints, beaten in fine gold upon damask, with a majesty, for example, canopy, over of rich cloth of tissue, and valance of black silk, and fringe of black silk and gold.

The barriers without the hearse, and the sides and floor of the chapel, were covered with black cloth to the high altar, and the sides and ceiling set with the banners and standards of St. George and others. The second of February, the corpse was removed, and brought into the chapel by the Lord Great Master and officers of the household, and there placed within the hearse, under a pall of rich cloth of tissue, garnished with scuchins, and a rich cloth of gold, set with precious stones. It continued there twelve days. With masses and dirges sung and said every day, Nooroy each day standing at the choir door, and beginning with these words in a loud voice. Of your charity pray for the soul of the high and mighty prince, our late sovereign lord and king, Henry VIII.

February 14th, the corpse was removed for interment. There is an appalling incident connected with that journey, which we copy from a contemporary manuscript among the Sloan collection. the king, being carried to Windsor to be buried, stood all night among the broken walls of Sion, and there, the leaden coffin being cleft by the shaking of the carriage, the pavement of the church was wetted with Henry's blood. In the morning came plumbers to solder the coffin, under whose feet, I tremble while I write it, says the author, was suddenly seen a dog creeping and licking up the king's blood. If you ask me how I know this, I answer, William Gribble, who could scarcely drive away the dog, told me, and so did the plumber also.

It appears certain that the sleepy mourners and choristers had retired to rest after the midnight dirges were sung, leaving the dead king to defend himself, as best he might, from the assaults of his ghostly enemies, and some people might think they made their approaches in a currish form. It is scarcely, however, to be wondered that a circumstance so frightful should have excited feelings of superstitious horror, especially at such a time and place. For this desecrated convent had been the prison of his unhappy queen, Catherine Howard, whose tragic fate was fresh in the minds of men, and by a singular coincidence it happened that Henry's corpse rested there the very day after the fifth anniversary of her execution.

There is a class of writers, too, who regard the accident which just had been related as a serious fulfillment of Friar Pato's denunciation against Henry from the pulpit of Greenwich Church in 1553, when that daring preacher compared him to Ahab and told him to his face that the dogs would, in like manner, lick his blood. In a very different light, Henry was represented by Bishop Gardner, In the adulatory funeral sermon which he preached at Windsor on the 16th of February, on the text, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, in which he set forth the loss both high and low had sustained, in the death of so good and gracious a king, but to return to the ceremonial. The corpse, being conveyed with great pomp to St.

George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, was, when interred, let down into the vault by means of a vice, with the help of sixteen tall yeomen of the guard, the same bishop, gardener, standing at the head of the vault, proceeded in the burial service, and about the same stood all the head officers of the household, as the Lord Great Master, the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Treasurer, Lord Comptroller, Sergeant Porter, and the four gentlemen ushers in ordinary, with their staves and rods in their hands, and when the mould was brought and cast into the grave by the officiating prelate, at the words pulvis pulveri, cinis cinere, then first the Lord Great Master, and after him, the Lord Chamberlain, and all the rest, break their staves in shivers upon their heads, and cast them after the corpse into the pit, with exceeding sorrow and heaviness, not without grievous sighs and tears.

After this, de profundis was said, the grave covered over with planks, and garter attended by his officers stood in the midst of the choir and proclaimed the young king's titles, and the rest of his officers repeated the same after him thrice. Then the trumpet sounded with great melody and courage to the comfort of all them that were present. Acting as a cordial to the official weepers, it may be presumed after their hydraulic efforts were concluded. on the banners carried at henry the eighth's funeral, the arms of his late wife, Queen Jane, were displayed, quartered with his, likewise a banner of the arms of Queen Catherine Parr, his widow, these being the only wives he acknowledged out of six.

6 06 - Katharine Parr, Ch II pt 3 32:44

Catherine Parr, Chapter Two, Part Three. During the brief period of her royal widowhood, Catherine Parr, now queen-dowager, resided at her fine jointure house at Chelsea, on the banks of the Thames, with its beautiful and extensive gardens occupied the pleasant spot now called Cheney Pier. Some of the noble trees in Mr. Deuce's gardens appear coeval with that epic, and are perhaps the same under whose budding verdue Queen Catherine was accustomed to hold her secret meetings with her adventurous lover, Sir Thomas Seymour, ere royal etiquette would allow her to give public encouragement to his suit. Faulkner assures us that At the time of Catherine Parr's residence at Chelsea Place, there was but one passable road in the village, which was a private way to the royal residence across the open fields.

It crossed a footbridge called in ancient records Blandall Bridge, afterwards the scene of many murders by highwaymen, which caused the name to be corrupted in vulgar parlance to Bloody Bridge. Across this dangerous track, the lord admiral must have taken his nocturnal path to the queen. Seymour renewed his addresses to Catherine so immediately after king Henry's death that she was wooed and won almost before she had assumed the widow's hood, and barb, and sweeping sable pall, which marked the relic of the departed majesty of England. seymour had opportunities of confidential communication with the widowed queen, even before the funeral of the royal rival, for whom she had been compelled to resign him, when Lady Latimer, for he was a member of the late king's household, and had been appointed by Henry's will, one of the council of regency during the minority of the young king.

His person and characteristics are thus described by Hayward. The Lord Sudley, He had been elevated to that title by his nephew, Edward VI. Was fierce in courage, courtly in fashion, in personage stately, in voice magnificent, but somewhat empty in matter. He was still in the prime of life, and possessed of the peculiar manners calculated to charm the softer sex. Though he had made more than one attempt to secure a splendid alliance, He had the art to make the queen dowager believe that he was still a bachelor for her sake. Catherine, after having been the wife of three mature widowers in succession, to the last of whom that joyless bauble, a crown, had tricked her into three years, six months and fourteen days, of worse than Egyptian bondage, found herself in her thirty-fifth year, still handsome, and apparently more passionately beloved than ever by the man of her heart.

woman-like, she gave him full credit for constancy and disinterested love, and found it difficult to withstand his ardent pleadings, to reward his tried affection, by resigning to him the hand which had been plighted to him before her marriage with the king. The postscript of the following letter Evidently not the first Belay-Doux, the widowed queen had penned to Seymour, contains an interesting comment on her feelings on the occasion of their previous separation, and the painful struggle it had caused. My lord, I send you my most humble and hearty commendations, being desirous to know how ye have done since I saw you. I pray you to be not offended with me, in that I send sooner to you than I said I would.

For my promise was but once in a fortnight. Howbeit the time is well abbreviated, by what means I know not, except weeks be shorter at Chelsea than in other places. My lord, your brother hath deferred answering such requests, as I made to him till his coming hither, which he saith shall be immediately after the term. This is not the first promise I have received of his coming, and yet unperformed. I think my lady hath taught him that lesson. For it is her custom to promise many comings to her friends, and to perform none. I trust in greater matters she is more circumspect. And thus, my lord, I make my end, bidding you most heartily farewell, wishing you the good I would myself, from Chelsea. P.S.

I would not have you to think that this mine honest goodwill toward you, to proceed from any sudden motion of passion, For, as truly as God is God, my mind was fully bent, the other time I was at liberty, to marry you before any man I know. Howbeit God withstood my will therein, most vehemently for a time, and through his grace and goodness, made that possible which seemed to me most impossible, that was, made me renounce utterly mine own will, and to follow his will most willingly. It were long to write all the process of this matter, If I live, I shall declare it to you myself. I can say nothing, but as my lady of Suffolk saith, God is a marvellous man. By her, that is yours to serve and obey during her life.

Catherine, the Queen, K. P. Endorsed. The Queen's letter from Chelsea to my Lord Admiral. The answer to the Lord Admiral of her former loves. seymour who was determined not to lose katharine a second time would brook no delays not even those which propriety demanded the following letter was written by queen katharine in reply to one of his love-letters wherein among other matters their immediate marriage appears to have been warmly urged by the admiral my lord as i gather by your letter delivered to my brother herbert Ye are in some fear, how to frame my lord your brother, to speak in your favor. The denial of your requests shall make his folly more manifest to the world, which will more grieve me than the want of his speaking.

I would not wish you to importune his good will, if it come not frankly at the first. It shall be sufficient once to require it, and then to cease. i would desire you might obtain the king's letters in your favour, and also the aid and furtherance of the most notable of the council, such as ye shall think convenient. Which thing obtained shall be no small shame to your brother and loving sister, in case they do not the like. My lord, whereas ye charge me with a promise, written with mine own hand, to change the two years into two months, I think ye have no such plain sentence written with my hand. I know not whether ye be a paraphraser or not. If ye be learned in that science, it is possible you may of one word make a whole sentence, and yet not at all times alter the true meaning of the writer, as it appeareth by this your exposition upon my writing.

When it shall be your pleasure to repair hither, Ye must take some pain to come early in the morning, that ye may be gone again by seven o'clock, and so I suppose ye may come without suspect. I pray you let me have knowledge overnight, at what hour ye will come, that your portress may wait at the gate to the fields for you. And thus, with your most humble and hearty commendations, I take my leave of you for this time, giving you like thanks for your coming to court when I was there, from Chelsea. p s i will keep in store till i speak with you my lord's large offer for faustern at which time i shall be glad to know your further pleasure therein by her that is and shall be your humble true and loving wife during her life katharine the queen k p although the precise date of katharine parr's fourth nuptials is uncertain, it is evident that the admiral's eloquence prevailed over her punctilio at a very early period of her widowhood by persuading her to consent to a private marriage.

Letty affirms that exactly thirty-four days after king Henry's death, a written contract of marriage and rings of betrothal were exchanged between katharine and Sir Thomas Seymour, but the marriage was not celebrated till some months later. According to Edward, the sixth journal, this event took place in May, but it was certainly not made public till the end of June. Great censure has been passed on Queen Catherine for contracting matrimony again so soon after the death of her royal husband. But in the first place, she owed neither love nor reverence to the memory of a consort who had held a sword suspended over her by a single hair, for the last six months of their union, and in the next, Henry himself had previously led her into a similar breach of wittily decorum by inducing her to become his wife, within almost as brief a period after the death of her second husband, Lord Latimer, as her marriage with Seymour after his own.

It appears evident from the tenor of the following reverential letter, dated May 17th, from Seymour to queen katharine, which we give verbatim that they had been privately married for some days, and that at the time it was written, he was doubtful from the cross-questioning of her sister, Lady Herbert, whether the queen had confided the secret to her, or circumstances had been whispered abroad, which had led to unpleasant reports as to the nature of his nocturnal visits to her majesty. Seymour to Katharine Parr. after my humble commendation unto your highness, yesterday night I supped at my brother Herbert's, of whom, for your sake besides mine own, I received good cheer, and after the same, I received from your highness, by my sister Herbert, your commendations, which were more welcome than they were sent, and after the same, she, Lady Herbert, waited further with me, touching my lodging with your highness at Chelsea.

which i denied lodging with your highness, but that indeed i went by the garden as i went to the bishop of london's house, and at this point stood with her a long time, till at last she told me further tokens, which made me change colour, who, like a false wench, took me with the manner. Then, remembering what she was, and knowing how well ye trust her, examined whether those things came from your highness or were feigned. She answered, that they came from your highness, and he, lord herbert, that he knew it to be true. For the which I render unto your highness my most humble and hearty thanks, for by her company, in default of yours, I shall shorten the weeks in these parts, which heretofore were four days longer in every one of them, than they were under the plummet at Chelsea.

Besides this commodity, I may also inform your highness, by her, how I do proceed in my matter, although I should take my old friend, Walter Errol. I have not as yet attempted my strength, for that I would be first thoroughly in credit, ere I would move the same. But beseeching your highness, that I may not so use my said strength, that they shall think, and hereafter cast in my teeth, that by their suit I sought, and obtained your good will, For hitherto I am out of all their dangers for any pleasure that they have done for me, worthy of thanks. And, as I judge, your Highness may say the like. Wherefore mine advice will keep us, so nothing mistrusting the goodness of God, but we shall be able to live out of their danger, as they shall out of ours.

Yet I mean not to use their friendship to bring our purpose to pass, as occasion shall serve. If I knew by what mean I might gratify your Highness, For your goodness to me, showed at our last lodging together, it should not be slack to declare mine lady again, and to that intent that I might be more bound unto your highness, that once in three days I might receive three lines and a letter from you, and as many lines and letters more, as shall seem good unto your highness. Also I shall humbly desire your highness to give me one of your small pictures, if ye have any left. who with his silence shall give me occasion to think on the friendly cheer that i shall receive when my suit shall be at an end, and thus, for fear of troubling your highness with my long and rude letter, I take my leave of your highness, wishing that my hap may be one so good, that I may declare so much by mouth at the same hour that this was writing, which was twelve of the clock in the night, this Tuesday, the seventeenth of May, at St.

James's. i wrote your highness a line in my last letter that my lord of somerset was going to that shire who hath been sick, which by the blank thereof, and as I understand, may get thither as to-morrow, from him whom ye have bound to honour, love, and in all lawful things obey, T. Seymour, etc. Indursed, the Lord Admiral to the Queen. In this lover-like and romantic manner, did the fair queen dowager and her secretly wedded lord pass the merry month of may, which according to king edward's diary was their bridal month. The oft-repeated assertion that Katharine wedded Seymour so immediately after the death of her royal husband, that had she proved a mother so soon as she might have done, it would have been a doubt whether the child should have been accounted the late kings or the admirals.

rests wholly on the charge that was brought after her decease against Seymour in his indictment. Catherine, for her own sake, would scarcely have married till full three months had elapsed since the death of the king, as her issue, whether male or female, by the tenor of Henry VIII's will, would have been heir-presumptive to the crown of England, and she was too prudent, and at the same time too ambitious, to have risked the benefit and dignity she would have obtained. by a contingency that might have ultimately given her the rank and power of a queen-mother. May was certainly the earliest period in which she could, with any degree of safety, to say nothing of propriety, contract matrimony with her former lover, and even this, notwithstanding the precedent afforded by the parallel case of the precipitate marriage of Mary, Queen of France, with Charles Brandon, was a great breach of royal etiquette.

seymour at length became impatient of the restraints that attended his clandestine intercourse with his royal bride, and applied to the princess Mary for her advice and influence in the matter. In her dry and very characteristic reply, the princess commences with allusions to some amplification of her establishment, which the interest of Lord Seymour in the council of guardianship and regency had expedited. My lord, After my hearty commendations, these shall be to declare to you that, according to your accustomed gentleness, I have received six warrants from you by your servant, this bearer, or the bearer of this, for the which I do give you my hearty thanks, by whom also I received your letter, wherein, as methinketh, I perceive strange news concerning a suit you have in hand to the queen for marriage, For the sooner obtaining whereof, you seem to think that my letters might do you a favor.

My lord, in this case, I trust your wisdom doth consider that, if it were for my nearest kinsman and dearest friend on live, or alive, of all other creatures in the world, it standeth least with my poor honor to be a meddler in this matter, considering whose wife her grace was of late, and besides that, if she be minded to grant your suit, my letters shall do you but small pleasure. On the other side, if the remembrance of the king's majesty, my father, whose soul, god pardon, will not suffer her to grant your suit, I am nothing able to persuade her to forget the loss of him, who is, as yet, very rife in mine own remembrance. Wherefore, I shall most earnestly require of you, or the premises considered, To think none unkindness in me, though I refuse to be a meddler anyways in this matter, assuring you that, wooing matters set apart, wherein, being a maid, I am nothing cunning.

If other ways it shall lie in my power to do you pleasure, I shall be as glad to do it as you to require it, both for his blood's sake that you be of, and also for the gentleness which I have always found in you, as knoweth Almighty God. to whose tuition i commit you. From Wainstead, this saturday at night, being the fourth of June, your assured friend, to my power, Mary. The princess Elizabeth was at that time residing at Chelsea with Queen Catherine, to whose maternal care she had been consigned by the counsel of the young king. It is very likely that she was very well acquainted with the whole affair, for even if the queen had not made her a confidant, her acute powers of observation and natural talent for intrigue would undoubtedly have enabled her to penetrate the cause of the handsome seymour's mysterious visits and admissions through the postern gate of the gates at chelsea.

In the latter end of may, Queen Catherine was sojourning at St. James's palace for a few days, and while there, she wrote the young king a latin letter on the subject of her great love for his late father, Henry the this was rather an extraordinary subject for the royal widow to dilate upon, since she was at the very time married to Seymour. She added to her letter many quotations from scripture, and expressed an earnest desire that the young monarch would answer the epistle, which he did in the same learned language. The following is a translation of Edward's letter. That of Catherine Parr is lost, but the answer gives a clear idea of its contents. As I was so near to you, and saw you, or expected to see you every day, I wrote no letter to you, since letters are tokens of remembrance and kindness between those who are at a great distance.

But, being urged by your request, I would not abstain longer from writing, first, that I may do what is acceptable to you, and then to answer the letter you wrote to me when you were at St. James's, in which First you set before my eyes the great love you bear my father the king, of most noble memory, then your good will towards me, and lastly your godliness and knowledge and learning in the scriptures. Proceed therefore in your good course. I continue to love my father, and to show the same great kindness to me which I have ever perceived in you. Cease not to love and read the scriptures, but persevere in always reading them, for in the first You show the duty of a good wife and a good subject, and in the second, the warmth of your friendship, and in the third, your piety to God.

Wherefore, since you love my father, I cannot but much esteem you. Since you love me, I cannot but love you in return. And since you love the word of God, I do love and admire you with my whole heart. wherefore, if there be anything wherein I may do you a kindness, either in word or deed, I will do it willingly. Farewell, this thirtieth of May. The artless young sovereign was, in the end, not only induced to recommend his wily uncle to his widowed stepmother for a husband, but led to believe that it was actually a match of his own making. In the innocence of his heart, Edward wrote the following letter with his own hand to queen katharine in which he expresses himself highly obliged to her for acceding to his wish by marrying his uncle.

The dignity with which the monarch in his tenth year offers his royal protection to the mature bride and bridegroom is truly amusing. To the queen's grace, We thank you heartily, not only for the gentle acceptation of our suit moved unto you, but also for the loving accomplishing of the same, wherein you have declared, not only a desire to gratify us, but to declare the good-will, likewise that we bear to you in all your requests. Wherefore ye shall not need to fear any grief to come, or to suspect lack of aid in need, seeing that he being mine uncle, is of so good a nature, that he will not be troublesome any means unto you, and I of such mind, that for divers just causes, I must favour you.

But even as without cause you merely require help against him, whom you have put in trust with the carriage of these letters, so may I merely return the same request unto you, to provide that he may live with you also without grief, which hath given him wholly unto you, and I will so provide for you both, that if hereafter any grief befall, I shall be a sufficient succor in your godly or praiseable enterprises. Fare ye well with much increase of honor and virtue in Christ. From St. James, the five-and-twenty day of June, Edward. Endorsed in an antique hand. The King's Majesty's Letter to the Queen, After Marriage, June 25th, 1548. young edward in his journal notices the anger of the lord protector at the marriage of the admiral with the queen-dowager.

Somerset and his council loudly condemned the presumption of the audacious Seymour in daring to contract this lofty alliance without leave or licence of those who exercised the authority of the crown. They did what they could to testify their hostility by withholding from Queen Catherine all the jewels that had been presented to her by the late king, under the pretext that they were not personal property, but heirlooms to the crown. This was touching the lady on a very tender point. Can a bride forget her ornaments? Is a scriptural query, founded on the characteristic attachment of females for these glittering toys. Neither the equanimity nor the philosophy of this learned queen was proof against such a provocation as the detention of the costly endowments, which had formed a portion of her conjugal wages during the perilous term of her servitude to her royal husband's caprices.

The indignant remonstrances of the royal dowager were unavailing. Her jewels were never restored, and that their detention was no less illegal than vexatious may be gathered from the following observation of the Lord Admiral. my brother is wondrous hot in helping every man to his right save me. He maketh a great matter to let me have the queen's jewels, which you see by the whole opinion of the lawyers ought to belong to me, and all under pretence that he would not the king should lose so much as if it were a loss to the king to let me have mine own. The loss of her jewels was neither the only affront, nor the only wrong to which the queen-dowager was subjected from her powerful brother-in-law.

He had fixed his mind on obtaining a lease of her favourite manner of Faustern for a person of the name of Long, and we have seen with what scorn Catherine in her first letter to the admiral speaks of his brother's large offer for Faustern. The protector, however, strong in the authority of his office, actually caused long to be admitted as a tenant of her majesty's demesne in defiance of her wish to retain the property in her own hands. Catherine gives a lively account of her wrath at this outrage in the following letter to her husband. She says, My lord, this shall be to advertise you that my lord your brother hath this afternoon made me a little warm. It was fortunate we were so much distant.

for I suppose else I should have bitten him. What cause have they to fear? she adds playfully. Having such a wife, to-morrow, or else upon Saturday at three o'clock in the afternoon, I will see the king, when I intend to utter all my choler to my lord, your brother, if you shall not give me advice to the contrary, for I would be loath to do anything to hinder your matter. I will declare to you how my lord hath used me concerning Faustern, and after I shall most humbly desire you to direct mine answer to him in that behalf. It liked him to-day to send my chancellor to me, willing him to declare to me that he had brought master Long's lease, and that he doubted not, but I would let him enjoy the same to his commodity, wherein I should do to his succession no small pleasure, nothing considering his honor, which this matter toucheth not a little, for so much as I at sundry times declared unto him that only cause of my repair into those parts was for the commodity of the park, which else I would not have done.

He, notwithstanding, hath so used the matter, with giving master long such courage, that he hath refused to receive such cattle as are brought here for the provision of my house. And so in the meantime I am forced to commit them to the farmers. my lord, i beseech you send me word with speed how i shall order myself to my new brother, and thus I take my leave with my most humble and hearty commendations wishing you all your godly desires, and so well to do as I would myself, and better, from Chelsea in great haste. By your humble, true and loving wife in her heart, Catherine the Queen, K. P. whether katharine enjoyed the satisfaction of telling the protector her mind in the presence of his royal nephew does not appear, but she was probably frustrated in her intention of obtaining an interview with the young king by the party most interested in keeping them apart.

Surely so rich a scene as that which she meditated would have been recorded if it had ever taken place. Somerset is supposed to have been excited to this injurious treatment of the widow of his royal master and benefactor, Henry VIII, by the malice of his duchess, who had always borne envious ill-will against Catherine Parr. Many and various are the accounts given by historians of the cause of the fatal animosity borne by these ladies towards each other. open hostility between them broke out after the marriage of katharine with the admiral in consequence of the duchess of somerset refusing any longer to fulfil her office of bearing up the train of the queen dowager alleging that it was unsuitable for her to submit to perform that service for the wife of her husband's younger brother.

According to lloyd, the duchess not only refused to bear up the queen's train, but actually jostled with her for precedence so that continues he quaintly, what between the train of the queen and the long gown of the duchess, they raised so much dust at court, as at last put out the eyes of both of their husbands and caused their executions. The pretence on which the Duchess of Somerset founded her presumptuous dispute for precedency with the queen-dowager in the court of Edward the sixth, was that as the wife of the protector and guardian of the realm, she had a right to take place of every lady in england. It is possible that, with the exception of the ladies of the royal family, she might. But the act of Henry the eighth, whereby it was provided that Anne of Cleves should take precedency after his queen, and the princesses his daughters, of every other lady in the realm, settled the matter of Catherine Parr's precedency beyond contravention, and the arrogant Duchess was compelled to yield but never forgave the mortification.

According to Halen, the Duchess of Somerset was accustomed to inveigh in the bitterest manner against Queen Catherine, and actually expressed herself concerning her in the following course and detracting language. Did not Henry VIII marry Catherine Parr in his doting days, when he had brought himself so low by his lust and cruelty, that no lady that stood on her honor would venture on him? and shall i now give place to her who in her former estate was but latimer's widow and who is now fain to cast herself for support on a younger brother if master admiral teach his wife no better manners i am she that will the tender affection which the young king lavished on the queen-dowager and his reverence for her talents virtue and piety excited of course the jealousy and ill-will not only of the duchess of somerset but of her husband also, and the vulgar insolence of the former was systematically exerted to keep so powerful a rival from court.

The king was certainly far more attached to his uncle, Thomas Seymour, than to the protector, and Katharine Parr had always been to him in the place of the mother whom he had never known. Allied with them was his best-loved sister, Elizabeth, and his amiable and highly gifted cousin, Lady Jane Grey, who were both the eliveys of the queen, and residing in her house. The project of uniting lady jane grey with edward the sixth originated with katharine parr, who had directed her education in such a manner as to render her a suitable companion for the royal scholar. The aspiring protector desired to match king edward with his own daughter, the learned lady jane seymour, and to obtain lady jane grey for his son.

his plans were however frustrated by a private arrangement between the admiral and the marquess of dorset, the preliminaries of which were thus arranged. Soon after the death of king Henry, one Harrington, a confidential officer of Sir Thomas Seymour, came to the marquess of dorset's house at Westminster, and proposed to him to enter into a close friendship and alliance with his master, who was like to come to very great authority. he advised dorset to permit his daughter, Lady Jane Grey, to reside with Sir Thomas Seymour, because he would have the means of matching her much to his comfort. With whom will he match her? asked Dorset. Marry, quoth Harrington, I doubt not you shall see him marry her to the king.

Upon these persuasions, Dorset visited the admiral that day week at Seymour Place, who gave such explanations of his prospects, that Dorset struck a bargain with him, sent for his daughter, and consigned her to him as an inmate of his house, in which she remained during the life of Catherine Parr. Queen Catherine's cup-bearer, Nicholas Throckmorton, continued to follow her fortunes from the time of King Henry's decease. The Throckmorton manuscript furnishes the following details connected with Catherine's fourth marriage. My sovereign lost, the queen I did attend, the time when widow, morning she did rest, And while she married was unto her end, I willingly obeyed her highness's hest, whom me esteemed, and thought my service good, whereas in truth to small effect it stood.

Her husband, fourth, was uncle to the king, Lord Seymour, high by office admiral, in praise of whom loud peals I ought to ring, for he was hardy, wise, and liberal. His climbing high disdained by his peers was thought the cause he lived not out his years. her house was deemed a second court of right because there flocked still nobility. He spared no cost his lady to delight or to maintain her princely royalty.

7 07 - Katharine Parr, Ch II pt 4 36:49

Catherine Parr, chapter two, part four. after queen katharine had been the wife of her beloved seymour some months there was a prospect of her becoming a mother her raptures at the anticipation of a blessing which had been denied to all of her other marriages carried her beyond the bounds of discretion, and her husband was no less transported than herself. The feelings of paternity with them amounted to passion. During a brief separation, while Seymour was at court, vainly soliciting of his brother the restoration of Queen Catherine's property, among which not only the late king's gifts, but those of her mother were unjustly detained. He writes in a very confidential and loving strain to his teeming consort.

After my humble commendations and thanks for your letter, as I was perplexed heretofore with unkindness, apprehending I should not have justice in all my causes, from those that I thought would have been partial to me, even so, the receiving of your letter revived my spirits. Partly for that I do perceive you be armed with patience, howsoever the matter may fall. But chiefest, here he proceeds to exult in fierce hopes that his expected son, should God give him life to live as long as his father, will revenge his wrongs. Now, continues he, to put you in some hope again. This day, a little before the receiving your letter, I have spoken to my lord Somerset, whom I have so well handled that he is somewhat qualified, and although I am in no hopes thereof, Yet I am in no despair.

I have also broken to him for your mother's gift. He makes answer, that at the finishing of the matter you shall either have your own again, or else some recompense as ye shall be content withal. I spake to him of your going down into the country on Wednesday, who was sorry thereof, trusting that I would be here all tomorrow, to hear what the Frenchman will do. But on Monday, at dinner, I trust to be with you. as for the frenchmen, I have no mistrust that there shall be any let or hindrance of my going with you this journey, or any of my continuing there with your highness. Thus, till that time, I bid your highness most heartily well to fare, and thank you for your news, which were right-heartily welcome to me.

he then expresses his wishes that both the queen and his expected progeny, whom he insists is to be a boy, may be kept in health with good diet and walking, and concludes in these words. And so I bid my most dear and well-beloved wife most heartily well to fare from Westminster this Saturday, the ninth of June, your highness's most faithful loving husband, T. Seymour. the queen was then at Hanworth one of the royal manors belonging to her dower. From whence, Seymour escorted her to his principal baronial residence, Sudley Castle. The jealousy with which the Duke of Somerset regarded his brother, the admiral, operated to prevent, as far as he could, the slightest intercourse between him and their royal nephew, the young king.

The admiral, however, who was bent on superseding Somerset in the office of protector, Contrived to keep up a secret correspondence with Edward, and to supply him with money, of which he was kept almost destitute. One of the agents of this correspondence was John Fowler, a gentleman of Edward's privy chamber. The following letter shows how vigilantly the young king was beset, and the jealous care taken by Somerset and his satellites, to prevent his writing to that beloved stepmother, to whom his heart yearned with not less than filial tenderness. John Fowler, to my lord admiral. I most humbly thank your lordship for your letter, dated the fifteenth of this present, which letter I showed to the king's majesty, and whereas, in my last letter to your lordship, I wrote unto you, if his grace could get any spare time, his grace would write a letter to the queen's grace, and to you.

His highness desires your lordship to pardon him, for his grace is not half a quarter of an hour alone, but in such leisure as his grace had, his majesty hath written, here enclosed, his commendations to the queen's grace, and to your lordship, that he is so much bound to you that he must needs remember you always. And as his grace may have time, you shall well perceive by such small lines of recommendations with his own hand. Inclosed within Fowler's letters are the royal notes alluded to, written by Edward's own hand, on torn and shabby scraps of paper, betraying both the scarcity of that article in the royal escritory, and the stealthy manner in which they were penned. The first is a mysterious request for money addressed to his uncle.

My lord, send me, per Latimer, as much as ye think good, and deliver it to Fowler, Edward. The second of these small lines is, My lord, I thank you, and I pray you to have commended me to the queen. There is, in the context of Fowler's letter, an allusion to Queen Catherine's situation, with a friendly wish for the birth of the son, of whom both parents were so fondly desirous. He says, My lady of Somerset is brought to bed of a goodly boy, and I trust in Almighty God, the queen's grace shall have another. Fowler's letter is dated July, 19th, from Hampton, where the young king then was. Seymour's great object was to get a letter written by King Edward, complaining of the arbitrary conduct of the protector, and the restraint in which he was kept by him.

Edward had actually consented to write the letter, which the admiral was to lay before the parliament. But before this could be done, the plot was betrayed to the protector. The admiral was called before the council to answer for his proceedings. He defied them, but when he was threatened with imprisonment in the tower, he made submissions to his brother. A hollow reconciliation took place for the present, and 800 pounds per annum was added to his appointments by the protector, in the hope of conciliating him. as long as queen katharine lived, the admiral was too powerful for his foes. Perhaps he did not sufficiently appreciate her value, even in a political and worldly view, till it was too late.

The residence of the princess Elizabeth under their roof was fatal to the wedded happiness of Seymour and katharine. The queen, forgetful that a blooming girl in her fifteenth year was no longer a child, had imprudently encouraged the admiral to romp with her royal stepdaughter in her presence. Mrs. Ashley, the princess Elizabeth's governess, in her deposition before the Privy Council, gives a strange picture of the coarse manners of the times in which such proceedings could be tolerated in a palace and with royal ladies. at chelsea after my lord thomas seymour was married to the queen he would come many mornings into the said lady elizabeth's chamber before she was ready and sometimes before she did rise and if she were up he would bid her good morrow and axe how she did and strike her on the back familiarly and so go forth to his chamber and sometimes go through to her maidens and play with them and if the princess were in bed, he would put open the curtains and bid her good-morrow, and she would go further in the bed.

And one morning, he tried to kiss the princess in her bed, and this deponent was there, and bade him go away for shame. At Hanworth for two mornings, the queen, Catherine Parr, was with him, and they both tickled my lady Elizabeth in her bed. Another time at Hanworth, he romped with her in the garden and cut her gown, being black cloth, into a hundred pieces, and when Mrs. Ashley came up and chid Lady Elizabeth, she answered. She could not strive withal, for the Queen held her while the Lord Admiral cut the dress. Another time, Lady Elizabeth heard the master key unlock, and knowing his Lord Admiral would come in, ran out of her bed to her maidens, and then went behind the curtain of her bed, and my Lord tarried a long time in hopes she would come out.

Mrs. Ashley could not tell how long. She, Mrs. Ashley, was told these things were complained of, and that the Lady Elizabeth was evil-spoken of. Then the Lord Admiral swore, God's precious soul, I will tell my Lord Protector how I am slandered, and I will not leave off, for I mean no evil. At Seymour Place, when the Queen slept there, he did use a while to come up every morning in his nightgown and slippers. When he found my Lady Elizabeth up and at her book, then he would look in at the gallery door and bid her good-morrow and so go on his way. And the deponent told my lord it was an unseemly sight to see a man so little dressed in a maiden's chamber, with which he was angry, but he left it.

At Hanworth, the queen told Mrs. Ashley that my lord-admiral looked in at the gallery window and saw my lady Elizabeth with her arms about a man's neck. Upon which Mrs. Ashley questioned her charge regarding it, and the lady elizabeth denied it, weeping, and bade them axe all her women, if there were any man who came to her except in Grindel. My lady elizabeth's schoolmaster. Howbeit, Mrs. Ashley thought, the queen being jealous, did feign this story, to the intent that Mrs. Ashley might take more heed in the proceedings of Lady Elizabeth and the Lord Admiral. The governess added, that her husband, Mr. Ashley, Who, it seems, was a relative of Anne Boleyn, did often give warning that he feared the princess did bear some affection to the Lord Admiral, as she would sometimes blush when she heard him spoken of.

Elizabeth herself told Perry, the cofferer of her household, that she feared the Admiral loved her but too well, and the Queen was jealous of them both, and that, suspecting the frequent access of the Admiral to her, she came suddenly upon them when they were alone. he having her in his arms. Queen Catherine was greatly offended with them both, and very sharply reproved the princess's governess for her neglect of her duty to her royal pupil, in permitting her to fall into such reprehensible freedom of behavior. Conjugal jealousy apart, Catherine Parr had great cause for anger and alarm, for the princess was under her especial care. and if aught but good befell her at the tender age of fifteen, great blame would, of course, attach to herself, especially if the admiral, for whom she had already outraged popular opinion, by marrying with indecorous precipitation, were the author of her young step-daughter's ruin.

It is just possible that the actual guilt incurred by the unhappy queen, Catherine Howard, in her girlhood, did not amount to a greater degree of impropriety than the unseemly romping which took place almost every day at Chelsea between the youthful princess Elizabeth and the bold bad husband of Catherine Parr. It does not appear that any violent or injurious expressions were used by Catherine Parr, but she saw the expediency of separating her household from that of the princess, and acted upon it without delay. there is no reason to believe that she cherished vindictive feelings against Elizabeth, for she continued to correspond with her in a friendly and affectionate manner, as the princess herself testifies in a playful and somewhat familiar letter which is here subjoined.

Lady Elizabeth to the Queen, although your highness's letters be most joyful to me in absence, yet considering what pain it is for you to write, your grace being so sickly, your commendations were enough in my lord's letter. I must rejoice at your health, with the well-liking of the country, with my humble thanks that your grace wished me with you till I was weary of that country. Your highness were like to be cumbered if I should not depart till I was weary of being with you. Although it were the worst soil in the world, your presence would make it pleasant. I cannot reprove my lord for not doing your commendations in his letter, for he did it, and although he had not, yet I will not complain on him, for he shall be diligent to give me knowledge from time to time, how his busy child doth, and if I were at his birth, no doubt I would see him beaten, for the trouble he hath put you to.

Master Denny and my lady, with humble thanks, prayeth most entirely for your grace, praying the almighty god to send you a most lucky deliverance, and my mistress wisheth no less giving your highness most humble thanks for her commendations. Written with very little leisure this last day of July, your humble daughter, Elizabeth. This letter, dated within six weeks of the queen's death, affords convincing evidence she was on amicable terms with her royal stepdaughter. She had not only written kindly to Elizabeth, expressing a wish that she were with her at Sudley, but she had even encouraged the admiral to write, when not well enough herself, to continue the correspondence, a proof that Catherine Parr, though she had considered it proper to put a stop to the dangerous familiarity with which her husband had presumed to demean himself towards her royal charge, did not regard it as anything beyond a passing folly.

But even if her heart had been torn with a temporary pang of jealousy, she was too amiable to blight the opening flower of Elizabeth's life by revealing a feeling so injurious to the honour of the youthful princess. It was not, however, Elizabeth, but the young and early wise Lady Jane Grey, who became the companion of Catherine Parr at Sudley Castle, when she withdrew thither to await the birth of her child. lady jane continued with queen katharine till the melancholy sequel of her fond hopes of maternity. Sudley Castle was royal property that had been granted to the admiral by the regency on the death of king henry. It was suspected that lands thus illegally obtained were held on a doubtful tenure.

One day, when queen katharine was walking in sudley park with her husband and sir robert turwit, she said, master turwit, Will you see the king, when he cometh to full age, will call in his lands again, as fast as they be now given away from him. Mary, said Master Turwit, then will Sudley Castle be gone from your Lord Admiral. Mary, rejoined the Queen. I do assure you he intends to offer to restore them, and give them back freely when the time comes. Queen Catherine had a princely retinue in attendance upon her, in her retirement at Sudley Castle, of ladies-in-waiting, maids of honour, and gentlewomen in ordinary. Besides the appointments for her expected nursery and lying-in-chamber, and more than a hundred and twenty gentlemen of her household, and yeomen of the guard, she had several of the most learned men among the lights of the reformation for her chaplains, and she caused divine worship to be performed twice a day, or oftener in her house, notwithstanding the distaste of the admiral who not only refused to attend these devotional exercises himself, but proved a great let and hindrance to all the pious regulations his royal consort strove to establish.

This opposition came with an ill grace from Seymour, who for political purposes professed to be a reformer, and had shared largely in the plunder of the old church, but in his heart he had no more liking for protestant prayers and sermons than queen katharine's deceased lord king henry. A few days before her confinement, katharine received the following friendly letter from the princess mary. Madam, although I have troubled your highness lately with sundry letters, yet that notwithstanding seeing my lord marquess, who hath taken the pains to come to me at this present, intended to see your grace shortly, I could not be satisfied without writing to the same, and especially because I purposed to-morrow, with the help of God, to begin my journey towards Norfolk, where I shall be farther from your grace, which journey I have intended since Whitsuntide.

But lack of health hath stayed me all the while, which, although it be, as yet unstable. Nevertheless, I am enforced to remove for a time, hoping with God's grace, to return again about Michaelmas. At which time, or shortly after, I trust to hear good success of your grace's condition, and in the meantime shall desire much to hear of your health, which I pray Almighty God to continue and increase to his pleasure, as much as your own heart can desire. And thus, with my most humble commendations to your Highness, I take my leave of the same, desiring your grace to take the pain to make my commendations to my Lord Admiral. From Bo Lu, the 9th of August. your highness's most humble and assured loving daughter, Mary.

The lord marquess mentioned by Mary was Queen Catherine's only brother, William Parr, Marquess of Northampton. His guilty and unhappy wife, the heiress of Essex, was then at Sudley Castle under some restraint, and in the keeping of her royal sister-in-law. This unpleasant charge must have greatly disquieted the last troubled months of Catherine Parr's life. on the thirtieth of august fifteen forty eight catherine parr gave birth at sudley castle to the infant whose appearance had been so fondly anticipated both by seymour and herself. It was a girl, and though both parents had confidently expected a boy, no disappointment was expressed. On the contrary, seymour, in a transport of paternal pride, wrote so eloquent a description of the beauty of the new-born child to his brother, the duke of Somerset, that the latter added the following kind postscript to a stern letter of expostulation and reproof, which he had just finished writing to him when he received his joyous communication.

After our hearty commendations, we are right glad to understand by your letters that the queen, your bedfellow, hath a happy hour, and escaping all danger, hath made you the father of so pretty a daughter, And although, if it had pleased God, it would have been both to us, and we suppose also to you, a more joy and comfort if it had, this the firstborn, been a son. Yet the escape of the danger, and the prophecy and good Hansel of this, to a great sort of happy sons, which, as you write, we trust no less than to be true, is no small joy and comfort to us, as we are sure it is to you and to her grace also, to whom you shall make again our hearty commendations with no less gratulation of such good success.

Thus we bid you heartily farewell from Sion, the first of September, 1548, your loving brother, E. Somerset. From this letter, it is evident that Lord Thomas had been casting horoscopes and consulting fortune-tellers, who had promised him long life and a great sort of sons. it is difficult to imagine that the admiral however faulty his morale might be on some points could cherish evil intentions against her who had just caused his heart to overflow for the first time with the ineffable raptures of paternity the charge of his having caused the death of queen katharine by poison can only be regarded as the fabrication of his enemies Neither is there the slightest reason to believe that the unfavorable symptoms, which appeared on the third day after her delivery, were either caused or aggravated by his unkindness.

On the contrary, his manner towards her, when she was evidently suffering under the grievous irritability of mind and body, incidental to piripural fever, appears from the deposition of Lady Turwitt, one of the most faithful and attached of her ladies, to have been soothing and affectionate. let the reader judge from the subjoined record of that sad scene in the chamber of the departing queen. Two days before the death of the queen, says lady at my coming to her in the morning, she asked me where I had been so long, and said unto me that she did fear such things in herself, that she was sure she could not live. I answered as I thought that I saw no likelihood of death in her. She then, having my lord admiral by the hand, and divers others standing by, spake these words partly as I took, idly, or meaning in delirium.

My lady Turwit, I am not well handled, for those that be about me care not for me, but stand laughing at my grief, and the more good I will to them, the less good they will to me. Whereunto my lord admiral answered, Why, sweetheart, I would you no hurt. And she said to him again aloud, No, my lord, I think so. And immediately she said to him in his ear, But, my lord, you have given me many shrewd taunts. These words I perceived she spake with good memory, and very sharply and earnestly, for her mind was sore disquieted. My lord admiral, perceiving that I heard it, called me aside and asked me what she said, and I declared it plainly to him. Then he consulted with me, that he would lie down on the bed by her, to look if he could pacify her unquietness with gentle communication, whereunto I agreed, and by the time he had spoken three or four words to her, she answered him roundly and sharply, saying, My lord, I would have given a thousand marks to have had my full talk with Hewick.

Dr. Hewick, the first day I was delivered, but I durst not for displeasing you. and I, hearing that, perceived her trouble to be so great that my heart would serve me to hear no more. Such like communication she had with him the space of an hour, which they did hear, that sat by her bedside. It is probable that the alarming charge in Katharine's life had been caused, not by any sinister practices against her life, but by whispers previously circulated among the gossips in her lying-in chamber relating to her husband's passion for her royal step-daughter and his intention of aspiring to the hand of the princess in case of her own deceits. Her malady was pure pearl fever. A sense of intolerable wrong was constantly expressed by her, yet she never explained the cause of her displeasure.

She alluded to her delivery, but, strange to say, never mentioned her infant. Wild and gloomy fantasies had superseded the first sweet gushings of maternal love in her troubled bosom, and she appeared unconscious of the existence of the babe she had so fondly anticipated. This symptom, with ladies in her situation, is generally the forerunner of death. On the very day when the scene occurred, described by Lady Turwitt, Catherine Parr dictated her will, which is still extant in the prerogative office. It is dated September 5, 1548, and it is to the following effect, that she, then lying on her death-bed, sick of body but of good mind, and perfect memory and discretion, being persuaded, and perceiving the extremity of death to approach her, gives all to her married spouse and husband, wishing them to be a thousand times more in value than they were or been.

there are no legacies, and the witnesses are two well-known historical characters. Robert Hewick, M.D., and John Parkhurst. This is a non-cubative or verbal will. It was not signed by the dying queen, which we find was usually the case with death-bed royal wills at that era. The witnesses were persons of high character, and even sacred authority in a sick chamber, being the physician and the chaplain, the latter became subsequently a bishop of the reformed church, highly distinguished for his Christian virtues. In after-life, Parkhurst always mentioned Katharine Parr with great regard as his most gentle mistress. Was it likely that such a man would perjure himself for the sake of enriching Seymour?

Yet the affectionate language of the will is inconsistent with the suspicions and reproaches which lady, Turwitt affirmed that the dying queen threw out against her lord on the very day of its date, namely, September fifth, fifteen forty eight. Both these facts are depositions on oath made by two most respectable witnesses on the same day. A partisan might charge either Lady Turwitt or Bishop Parkhurst with direct perjury and say that Catherine Parr could not have spoken according to both depositions. but the physiologist comes to the aid of the historian, and from lady Tirt's hint of delirium will truly allow that a wandering brain could utter such and many other inconsistencies. As lady Tirt affirms that she entered the queen's apartment in the morning, when the lord admiral was by the bedside, with a patient's hand in his, it is likely that she came in just after the will had been made.

let us consider the state of katharine parr's mind at this juncture. Dr. Hewick had recently revealed to her her danger. Her words, being persuaded of the approach of death, in her will, distinctly intimate this fact. The result was an instant testamentary deposition of her property, in which she at the same time exerted her peculiar privilege as queen-dowager, a bequeathing her personal effects though a married woman, and showed her passionate love to her husband, for she left him all wishing them her goods a thousand times more than they have or been. Her words are evidently written as uttered with all imperfections. He was the sole object of her thoughts. Her new-born infant was forgotten, a lapse of memory on the part of its mother, which doomed it to beggary before it could speak.

all these circumstances certainly occurred in a short space of time, and doubtless occasioned great hurry of spirits. The queen's ladies knew not of her danger. Lady Turwit says she did not. The queen in her will says she herself had been persuaded of it. Then came the revulsion of feeling. The queen, on recollection, was not reconciled to death, and began to question angrily whether she had a right to die, whether her death was not caused by carelessness or malice. Lady Turwitt saw she spoke deliriously. Her mind wandered, and former jealousies and affronts, hitherto successfully concealed, biased her speech. She thought that her husband, to whom she had bequeathed her all, was exulting in her removal.

She fancied, and that part of the narrative plainly reveals delirium, for such fancies are symptomatic, that he, she loved so well, stood deriding her misery. He acted considerably. soothing her as a nurse soothes a sick wayward child, but his manner, as described by Lady Turwit, was that of a person in possession of intellect, humouring the sad vagaries of a mind diseased. Catherine Parr expired on the second day after the date of her will, being the seventh after the birth of her child. She was only in the thirty-sixth year of her age, having survived her royal husband, Henry VIII, by one year, six months, and eight days. Her character is thus recorded by a contemporary quoted by Stripe. She was endued with a pregnant wittiness joined with right wonderful grace of elegance, studiously diligent in acquiring knowledge, as well of human discipline as also of the holy scriptures, of incomparable chastity, which she kept not only from all spot, but from all suspicion, by avoiding all occasions of idleness, and condemning vain pastimes.

further also in his church history panegyriises this queen in the highest terms of commendation. The official announcement of queen katharine Parr's death, together with the programme of her funeral, is copied from a curious contemporary manuscript in the College of Arms. Lady Jane Gray, who was with queen katharine at Sudley Castle at the time of her death, officiated at her funeral solemnity as chief mourner, which is certified in this document. abbreviate of the interment of the lady katharine parr queen dowager late wife to king henry the eighth and after wife to sir thomas lord seymour of sudley and high admiral of england item on wednesday the fifth of september between two and three of the o'clock in the morning died the aforesaid lady late queen dowager at the castle of sudley in gloucestershire fifteen forty eight and lieth buried in the chapel of the said castle.

Item, she was serred and chested in lead accordingly, and so remained in her privy chamber until things were in readiness. The chapel was hung with black cloth, garnished with scussions of marriages, namely King Henry VIII and her in pail under the crown, her own in lozenge under the crown. Also the arms of the Lord Admiral, and hers in pail without the crown. the rails were covered with black cloth for the mourners to sit within, with stools and cushions accordingly, and two lighted scussions stood upon the corpse during the service. The order in proceeding to the chapel. First, two conductors in black with black staves, then gentlemen and esquires, then knights, then officers of the household with their white staves, then the gentlemen ushers, then Somerset Harold in the tabord coat, then the corpse borne by six gentlemen in black gowns, with their hoods on their heads, then eleven staff torches, borne on each side by yeomen round about the corpse, and at each corner a knight for assistance.

Four, with their hoods on their heads, and then Lady Jane, daughter to the Lord Marquess Dorset, chief mourner, her train borne up by a young lady, then six other lady mourners, two and two, then yeomen, three and three, in rank, Then all other follow. The manner of the service in the church. Item. When the corpse was set within the rails, and the mourners placed, the whole choir began, and sung certain psalms in English, and read three lessons, and after the third lesson, the mourners, according to their degrees, and that which is accustomed, offered into the almsbox, and when they had done, all other, as gentlemen or gentlewomen, that would. the offering done, Dr. Coverdale, the queen's almoner, began his sermon, which was very good and godly, and in one place thereof he took occasion to declare unto the people how they should none there think, say, or spread abroad, that the offering which was there done was done anything to benefit the dead, but for the poor only, and also the lights which were carried and stood about the corpse were for the honour of the person, and for none other intent nor purpose.

and so went through with his sermon, and made a godly prayer, and the whole church answered, and prayed the same with him in the end. The sermon done, the corpse was buried, during which time the choir sung te deum in English, and this done, the mourners dined, and the rest returned homeward again. All which aforesaid was done in the morning. This curious document presents the reader with the form of the first royal funeral solemnized according to protestant rites. Queen Catherine's epitaph was written in Latin by her chamberlain, Dr. Parkhurst, afterwards bishop of Norwich. The translation by an anonymous author is elegant. In this new tomb, the royal Catherine lies, flower of her sex, renowned, great, and wise, a wife by every nuptial virtue known, a faithful partner once of Henry's throne.

To Seymour next her, plighted her hand, she yields. Seymour, whose Neptune's trident justly wields. From him a beauteous daughter blessed her arms, an infant copy of her parents' charms. When now seven days this infant flower had bloomed, heaven in its wrath, the mother's soul resumed. The erudite writer, who has collected many interesting particulars, in the archeologica of the life of this queen, says, she was tormented and broken-hearted with the pride of her sister-in-law and the ill-temper of her husband, whom she adored to the last. No instance of personal incivility or harshness on the part of the Lord Admiral towards Catherine Parr has, however, been recorded. Without, indeed, the shrewd taunts she mentioned in her delirium were matters of fact.

If so, like many other ill-tempered husbands, He was resolved no one should revile his wife but himself, for he was wont to affirm, with his usual terrible oath, that no one should speak ill of the queen, or if he knew it, he would take his fist to the ears of those who did, from the lowest to the highest. The charge of his having hastened her death is not only without the slightest proof, but really opposed to the general evidences of history. the fatal termination of the queen's illness was not anticipated even by her husband, and how great a shock it was to him may be gathered from the fact that in his first perplexity, all his political plans were disarranged, and he wrote to the marquess of Dorset to send for Lady Jane Gray, as he meant to dismiss his household.

But before a month was over, he wrote again to the marquess, saying, by my last letters, written at a time when with the Queen's Highness's death, I was so amazed that I had small regard either to myself or my doings, and partly then thinking that my great loss must presently have constrained me to have dissolved my whole house. I offer to send my lady Jane unto you, whensoever ye send for her. But having more deeply considered the matter, he found he could continue his establishment. Where shall remain, he adds, not only the gentlewomen of the queen's highnesses privy-chamber, but also the maids which wait at large, and other women who were about her in her lifetime, with a hundred and twenty gentlemen and yeomen.

The ambition of Lord Admiral Seymour still projected placing a royal partner at the head of his establishment. At present, he invited his aged mother, Lady Seymour, to superintend this vast household, and he concluded his letter to Dorset, with the assurance that if he would restore lady jane grey as his inmate, lady seymour should treat her as if she were her daughter. After this letter, seymour came to Bradgate, and says Lord Dorset, he was so earnestly in hand with me and my wife, that he would have no nay, so that we were contented for her to return to his house. At the same time and place, he renewed the favourite project of the deceased queen in himself, that Edward, the sixth, should marry Lady Jane Grey, adding that if he could get the king at liberty, this marriage should take place.

Thus, the fair girl was restored to the guardianship of Lord Admiral Seymour, and actually remained under his roof till his arrest and imprisonment in the tower.

8 08 - Katharine Parr, Ch II pt 5 32:31

Catherine Parr, chapter two, part five. After the death of queen Catherine, a deceitful message of condolence was sent to the lord admiral by the Duchess of Somerset, who intimated at the same time that if any grudge were borne by her to him, it was all for the late queen's cause, and now she was taken away by death. It would undoubtedly follow, unless the fault were in himself, that she, the Duchess, would bear as good-will to him as ever she did before. The Lord Admiral accepted the overture for a time, and paid his brother a visit, but soon after gave pretty evident proof that his enmity to Somerset and his party was far from being dismissed by the death of Catherine Parr. Indeed, it amounted almost to insanity, after he was deprived of the restraining influence of her sound sense and prudent counsels.

The renewal of this hostility took place soon after approving Catherine Parr's will, which was done December 6th, 1548. The old dispute touching Fousterne was still a sore point, and he fiercely pursued the suit that had been commenced during Catherine's life. for the restoration of the jewels and stuff which had been detained from her by the protector and his counsel. So thoroughly persuaded was the widower of Queen Catherine of the justice of the claim, that he appealed to no meaner witness than the Princess Mary, requiring her to testify whether the disputed jewels and furniture were a bona fide gift made by the deceased king, her father, to Catherine Parr, or only alone. In his letter to the princess, he says, The Queen's Highness, whose soul God hath, did ofttimes in her lifetime, declare unto me, upon occasion of talk between us of such jewels and other things, as were kept from her possession by my lord, my brother, Somerset.

She said, Your Grace knew and could testify how and after what sort the king's majesty used to part with things to her, namely those jewels which he delivered to her. against the French admirals coming in. And forasmuch as it may fortune of further communication, will hereafter be had, for the due trial of her title unto them, I do most humbly beseech your grace, that it will please you to employ so much pains at my poor request, as to make me some brief note of your knowledge, in two or three lines, as to whether his majesty King Henry did give her highness Catherine Parr, those jewels, and other things that were delivered to her at the French Admiral's coming in, and other times, both before and after.

Or else, whether he did but lend them for a time, to be returned home again after those triumphs finished, for which time, and turned some few in number, suppose they were only delivered. Assuring your grace that your opinion declared shall not only much satisfy me in this matter, but also bind me during my life to be at your grace's commandment with anything that lieth in me. This application was made a little before Christmas. The princess Mary was too prudent to allow herself to be involved in the dispute, and merely in her reply, bore testimony to the great love and affection that her late lord and father did bear unto her grace, Queen Catherine, a testimony of some importance to the biographers of Catherine Parr, but not what Seymour required to establish his right to the contested articles.

Whiteman, one of the admiral's servants, subsequently deposed that he was employed by him in copying letters to the keeper of St. James's palace, and others requiring them to bear witness as to the fact whether the jewels were given to queen Catherine by king Henry, or only lent for the honour of the crown, while she presided at the feats that were given at Hampton Court to the French ambassador, Claude Dombau, who concluded the peace between England and France in 1546, as before related seymour made great search among queen katharine's papers at her late royal residence at hanworth in the hope of finding some record affording decisive evidence of the gift. It is to be feared that among the great sort of old papers belonging to the late queen katharine of which he spake to his servant white men, he recklessly destroyed as useless and perhaps dangerous many a precious letter and record of her queenly as well as her early life and of her first and second marriages, whereof so few particulars are now to be obtained.

The limits of this work will not admit of detailing the particulars of the intrigues which led to the fall of the lord-admiral. Suffice it to say, that he had organized measures for supplanting his elder brother, the Duke of Somerset, and the office of guardian to King Edward. The youthful majesty of England was actually brought before his own council to be made a witness against his best-beloved uncle for the purpose of bringing him to the block. Edward confessed that the Lord Admiral had privily supplied him with sums of money, of which he had been kept destitute by the protector, and also that he had been accustomed to censure the proceedings of the protector and to desire his removal. At another time, says the young king, Within these two years, at least, the admiral, Lord Thomas Seymour, said to me, "'Ye must take upon yourself to rule, for ye shall be able enough, as well as other kings, and then ye may give your men somewhat, for your uncle Somerset is old, and I trust, will not live long.' I answered, "'It were better he should die.'" it is worthy of observation that the marquess of northampton, Catherine Parr's brother, her brother-in-law, Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and her cousin, Nicholas Throckmorton, all remained the fast friends of the Lord Admiral after her death, which they would scarcely have done had they suspected him of unkindness to her, much less of hastening her death.

The Throckmorton manuscript thus mentions him. But when my queen lay buried in her grave, To Musselboro Field I morning went, the gladsome victory to us God gave. Home with those tidings I in haste was sent. The admiral, my spokesman, was at home, who stayed his nephew's safety to regard. He was at all essays my perfect friend, and patron, too, until his dying day. When men surmised that he would mount too high, and seek the second time aloft to match, Ambitious hearts did steer something too nigh, off went his head, they made a quick dispatch, but ever since I thought him sure a beast, that causeless labor to defile his nest. Thus guiltless, he, or Seymour, though malice went to pot, not answering for himself, nor knowing cause.

it is more than probable that the charge of poisoning queen katharine parr was devised in order to induce the king by whom she had been so fondly beloved to sign the warrant for the execution of her unhappy husband. Seymour was far from submitting to death like his contemporaries with an approbative speech setting forth the justice of his sentence He knew that he had been doomed lawlessly, and he loudly proclaimed the fact on the scaffold. Before he laid his head on the block, he told an attendant of the lieutenant of the tower to bid his man speed the thing he wot of. This speech was overheard, and Seymour's servant was arrested and threatened till he confessed that his master had obtained some ink in the tower, and had plucked off an aglet from his dress with the point of which he had written a letter to each of the princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, which he had hidden within the sole of a velvet shoe.

The shoe was opened, and the letters found, which were, as was natural, full of bitter complaints against his brother, and all who had caused his destruction. Latimer preached a very uncharitable funeral sermon for Seymour, in which he said, that it was evident God had clean forsaken him. whether he be saved or not, I leave it to god, but surely he was a wicked man, and the realm is well rid of him. Latimer accused lord Thomas Seymour that when queen Catherine, his wife, had daily prayer morning and afternoon in his house, he would get him out of the way, and was a contemner of the common prayer. Among his misdeeds, it was mentioned that a woman, in fifteen forty, being executed for robbery, declared that the beginning of her evil life was being seduced and deserted by Lord Thomas Seymour.

He made no religious profession on the scaffold, and according to the account given in his funeral sermon, he died irksomely, dangerously, and horribly. These accusations against the unfortunate husband of Catherine Parr are somewhat softened by the religious and philosophic verses he was known to write the week before his death. Forgetting God, to love a king, hath been my rod, or nothing else in this frail life, being a blast of care and strife till it be past. Yet God did call me in my pride, lest I should fall, and from him slide. For whom he loves, he must correct, that they may be of his elect. Then death hasten thee, thou shalt me gain, immortally with God to reign. Lord, send the king in years as Noah, In governing this realm in joy, and after this frail life such grace, that in my bliss he may find place.

Lord Seymour was beheaded on Tower Hill, March 20, 1549. There was only an interval of two years, one month, and three weeks, between the death of Catherine's third husband, Henry VIII, and the execution of her fourth, who survived her just six months and fourteen days. the only child of queen katharine and lord seymour was named mary. It is probable that lady jane grey was her godmother as she was at sudley castle at the time of her birth and acted as chief mourner at the funeral of her royal mother. As the sole representative of both parents, the young mary seymour ought to have been the heiress of great wealth, and even if the act of attainer which had been passed on her father operated to deprive her of the broad lands of sudley, and the rest of his possessions.

She was fully entitled to inherit the large fortune of the queen-dowager, her mother, if she had had friends to assert her rights. The high-born infant lady, says Stripe, destitute already both of her mother, Queen Catherine, and her lately executed father, remained a little while at her uncle Somerset's house at Sion, and then, according to her father's dying request, was conveyed to Grimsthorpe, in lincolnshire, where Catherine, Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, lived. There she was brought with her governess, Mrs. Aglianby, her nurse, two maids, and other servants, consonant to the high quality to which, for their own misery, her unfortunate parents had been advanced. Her uncle, the Duke of Somerset, upon her leaving Sion, promised that a certain pension should be settled upon her for her maintenance, and that a portion of her nursery plate and furniture brought to Sion House was to be sent after her when she went to Grimsthorpe.

So the Duchess of Somerset promised Mr. Bertie a gentleman in the service of the Duchess of Suffolk, whom the lady subsequently married. But, consonant to the contestable conduct of the Somerset family, these promises in behalf of the poor orphan were never fulfilled. katharine, duchess of suffolk, had been honoured with the friendship of the deceased queen, and she had, by her favour and protecting influence, been preserved from the fiery persecution which had marked the closing years of Henry the eighth's reign, and she had the greater need of a powerful patroness, since she had, by her cutting raillery, provoked the enmity of both Bonner and Gardner. She held the same religious tenets as the late queen, whom she professed to regard as a saint, and it may have been expected that she would have cherished the orphan babe of her royal friend with not less than maternal tenderness.

The worldly spirit and sordid temper of the young duchess are, however, sufficiently apparent in her letters to her friend, Cecil, on the subject of the encumbrance and expense of the hapless little one, who had become the unwelcome recipient of her charity. To Mr. Cecil, It is said that the best means of remedy to the sick is first plainly to confess and disclose the disease wherefore lieth for remedy, and again, for that my disease is so strong that it will not be hidden, I will discover me unto you. First I will, as it were under benedictite and in high secrecy, declare unto you that all the world knoweth, though I go never so covertly in my net, what a very beggar I am! this sickness as i have said i promise you increaseth mightily upon me amongst other causes whereof is you will understand not the least the queen's child hath lain and yet doth lie at my house with her company about her wholly at my charges i have written to my lady somerset at large which was the letter i wrote note this with my own hand unto you among other things for the child that there may be some pension allotted unto her, according to my lord's grace's promise.

Now, good Cecil, help at a pinch all that you may help. My lady also sent me word at Whitsuntide last, by Barthew, that my lord's grace, at her suit, had granted certain nursery plate should be delivered with the child, unless there might be stay for lack of a present bill, or list, of such plate and stuff, as was there in the nursery. I send you here enclosed, Of all parcels as were appointed out for the child's only use, and that ye may the better understand, that I cry not before I am pricked, I send you Mistress Eganley's letter unto me, who, with the maids, Norris, and others, daily call on me for their wages, whose voices mine ears may hardly bear, but my coffers much worse. Wherefore I cease, and commit me and my sickness to your diligent care, with my hearty commendations to your wife, at my manor of Grimsthorpe, the twenty seventh of august, your assured loving friend, K.

Suffolk. This curious letter is endorsed thus, to my loving friend, Mr. Cecil, attendant upon my lord protector's grace, from my lady of Suffolk's grace to Mr. concerning the queen's child, nursed at her house at Grimsthorpe with a bill of plate belonging to the nursery, ono duo, Edward, the sixth. from the terms of the letter it appears that even the paltry modicum in the list subjoined of the good and stately gear which of right belonged to the neglected infant of queen katharine parr was withheld by her rapacious uncle somerset and his pitiless wife. A bill of all such plate and other stuff as belongeth to the nursery of the queen's child. First, two pots of silver all white. Item, Three goblets, silver all white.

One salt, silver, parcel gilt. A masser, or wooden cup, with a band of silver, parcel gilt. Eleven spoons, silver all white. Item. A quilt for the cradle. Three pillows and one pair of fustians. Three feather beds, three quilts, three pair fustians. Item. A tester of scarlet embroidered with a counterpoint or counterpane of silk serge belonging to the same, and curtains of crimson taffeta. Item. Two counterpoints of imagery for the nurse's bed. Item. Six pair of sheets of little worth. Six fair pieces of hangings within the inner chamber. Four carpets for windows. Ten pieces of hangings of the twelve months within the outer chamber. Item. two cushions, cloth of gold, and a chair of cloth of gold, two wrought stools and a bedstead gilt, with a tester and counterpoint, with curtains belonging to the same.

The fair hangings and the embroidered scarlet tester and counterpane were doubtless wrought by the skilful hands of the royal mother and her ladies-in-waiting to adorn the apartments and the cradle of the fondly expected babe, whose birth cost her her life. How little did poor Catherine anticipate that before that child had completed its first year of life, it was to be deprived of both parents, plundered of its princely inheritance, and even of the small remnant of plate and tapestry belonging to its nursery appointments, and thrown a helpless burden on the sufferance of a forgetful friend. In the list of the little Mary Seymour's effects is the following item. Two milk beasts, which were belonging to the nursery, the which it may please your grace, Somerset, to white or no, may be bestowed upon the two maids towards their marriages, which shall be shortly.

Item One Lute. Eleven months after the date of this application, the persevering Duchess writes again to her friend Cecil, assuring him that she had wearied herself with her letters to the protector and his lady on the same subject, and that she must again trouble him to press her suit to them both. In these my letters to my lady, she says, i do put her in remembrance for the performance of her promise touching some small pension for my kindness to the late queen's child for it is with a dozen servants living altogether at my charge, the continuance of which will not bring me out of debt this year. My lord marquess of Northampton, to whom I should deliver her, hath as bad a back for such a burden as I have.

He would receive her, but not willingly, if he must receive her train. the conduct of the marquess of northampton was even more heartless than that of the duchess of suffolk toward his sister's orphan daughter since he was the person who was by nature bound to cherish and protect her person and to vindicate her right to inherit the possessions of her deceased parents but he having obtained for himself a grant of a portion of his infant niece's patrimony was unwilling to give her and her attendants a home the brother of katharine parr united with her soi-disant friend, Katharine, Duchess of Suffolk, in editing and publishing the devotional writings of that queen, though they grudged the shelter and food to her only child.

The destitution of the unoffending infant of queen katharine was completed by an act of parliament entitled, An act for disinheriting Mary Seymour, daughter and heir of the late Lord Sudley, admiral of England and the late queen. another act for restitution of mary seymour passed january twenty first fifteen forty nine three edward the sixth yet we find her uncle retained possession of sudley the historical records connected with queen katharine's only child close with this act her aunt the learned anne countess of pembroke the only sister of katharine died in the year fifteen fifty one at baynard's castle so that the little lady mary seymour could not have found a home with her, and whether she was actually transferred to her unwilling uncle, the marquess of Northampton, or remained, which is more probable, under the care of the Duchess of Suffolk, is not known.

Stripe says she died young. Lodge affirms, but on what authority he does not state, that the only child of the admiral lord thomas seymour by queen katharine parr died in her thirteenth year there is however more reason to believe that she lived to be a wife and a mother the statements with which i have been favoured by johnson lawson esq of grove villa clevedon and his brother henry lawson esq of hereford the sons of the late very reverend johnson lawson dean of battle in sussex vicar of throwly and rector of Cranbrook in Kent, afford at any rate, presumptive evidence that they derived their descent from this lady. The authentic records of this fact appears to have been destroyed among a mass of interesting genealogical papers that were in the possession of a clergyman of the Lawson family, and on his death were consigned to the flames by his widow, as she had no children to give them to, she said.

One precious manuscript fragment of the pedigree had, however, fortunately escaped the notice of this destructive dame, who would certainly have been branded by Anthony O'wood with the epitaph of a clownish woman, and it contains a family record of the marriage and posterity of the daughter of Catherine Parr. Copy of the manuscript fragment entitled, A Good Account of My Pedigree Given Me by My Grandmother, July Twenty Sixth, 1749. paul johnson a gentleman of good family and estate residing at his mansion at fordwich in the county of kent also having another named nethercourt in the isle of tanit married margaret hayman of the baronet's family of kent and norfolk their son silas johnson married the daughter of sir edward bushel who had married the only daughter of the duke of somerset's younger brother lord seymour which daughter the lord seymour had by queen katharine parr whom he married after the death of henry the eighth whose queen she was the above sir edward bushel's daughter was a great fortune to silas johnson and their daughter mary johnson married the reverend francis drayton of little chart in kent where he and his wife lie buried.

From that marriage, the records of the pedigree down to Lawson are very clear and certain, and need not lengthen this statement. Whether from any records or knowledge or tradition, the old grandmother declaring the marriage of Catherine's daughter to Sir Edward Bushell is impossible now to say, but it seems that Silas Johnson, by his marriage with their daughter, Mary Bushell, obtained a great fortune, together with some relics of katharine parr's personal property which have continued in the lawson family their descendants ever since they are thus described by johnson lawson esq in whose possession they are at present a fine damasked napkin which evidently was made for and brought from spain by katharine of aragon the first queen of henry the eighth The beautiful pattern therein exhibits the spread eagle with the motto plus altres four times, and on the dress of four men blowing trumpets, attired in the spanish garb as matadors, are the letters K.I.P., probably Catherine Infanta Princess, and this napkin in the palace of Henry VIII, must have passed through the hands of six queens, including Catherine Parr.

The second relic is the royal arms of the King Henry, engraved on copper in cameo, which were set in the centre of a large pewter dish. The table service in those times was usually pewter. In the absence of those bona fide vouchers of the marriage of the young lady Mary Seymour, which had been destroyed by time, by accident, or wanton ignorance, it may be conjectured that the Duchess of Suffolk after her marriage with richard birdie and her subsequent flight from the marion persecution provided for her youthful protege by an honourable marriage with sir edward bushel though certainly much beneath the alliances which would have courted her acceptance had she not been wrongfully deprived of the great wealth she ought to have inherited as the only child of queen katharine parr the lawsons who claimed their descent from the daughter of katharine are a branch of the ancient family of the Lawsons of Yorkshire and Westmoreland, and bear the same arms.

Queen Catherine Parr was originally interred in the north side of the altar of that then splendid chapel of Sudley, and a mural tablet of sculptured alabaster was placed above her tomb. The chapel is now despoiled, desecrated, and in ruins. The roofless walls alone remain. The notice of Queen Catherine's death and interment from the document in the herald's office Having been published in Rood's History of Gloucestershire, some ladies, who happened to be at Sudley Castle in May 1782, determined to examine the ruined chapel. Observing a large block of alabaster fixed in the north wall of the chapel, they imagined that it might be the back of a monument that had once been fixed there. Led by this hint, they had the ground open not far from there, and not above a foot from the surface, They found a leaden envelope, which they opened in two places, on the face and breast, and found it to contain a human body wrapped in seer cloth.

Upon removing the portion that covered the face, they discovered the features, particularly the eyes, in the most perfect state of preservation. Alarmed with this sight, and with the smell which came from the seer cloth, they ordered the earth to be thrown in immediately, without closing over the searcloth and lead which covered the face only observing enough of the inscription to convince them it was the body of queen katharine. In the same summer, Mr. John Lucas, the person who rented the land on which the ruins of the chapel stand, removed the earth from the leaden coffin, which laid at the depth of two feet or little more below the surface. On the lid appeared an inscription of which the following is a true copy.

k p here lieth queen katharine sixth wife to king henry the eighth and after the wife of thomas lord sudley high admiral of england and uncle to king edward the sixth she died september fifteen forty eight mister lucas had the curiosity to rip up the top of the coffin and found the whole body wrapped in six or seven linen cerecloths entire and uncorrupted, although it had been buried upwards of two centuries and a half. He made an incision through the sere cloths, which covered one of the arms of the corpse, the flesh of which at that time was white and moist. The perfect state in which the body of Queen Catherine Parr was found affords a convincing evidence that her death was not occasioned by poison, for in that case, almost immediate decomposition would have taken place, rendering the process of embalming ineffectual if not impracticable.

The repose of the berry queen was again rudely violated by ruffian hands in the spring of seventeen eighty four when the royal remains were taken out of the coffin and irreverently thrown on a heap of rubbish and exposed to public view. an ancient woman who was present on that occasion assured my friend, Miss Jane Porter, some years afterwards, that the remains of costly burial clothes were on the body, not a shroud, but a dress, as if in life. Shoes were on the feet, which were very small, and all her proportions extremely delicate, and she particularly noticed That traces of beauty were still perceptible in the countenance, of which the features were at that time perfect, but by exposure to the air and other injurious treatment, the process of decay rapidly commenced.

Through the interference of the vicar, the body was reinterred. In October 1786, a scientific exhumation was made by the Reverend Treadwell Nash, F.A.S., and his interesting and valuable report has been published in the Archeologica, from which the following abstract is given. In 1786, October, Fourteen, having obtained leave from Lord Rivers, the owner of Sudley Castle, with the Honorable J. Summer Cox, the writer proceeded to examine the chapel. Upon opening the ground and tearing up the lead, the face was found totally decayed. The teeth, which were sound, had fallen. The body was perfect, but out of delicacy was not uncovered. Her hands and nails were entire of a brownish color. The queen must have been of low stature, as the lead that enclosed her corpse was just five feet, four inches long.

The sere cloth consisted of many folds of linen, dipped in wax, tar and gums, and the lead fitted exactly to the shape of the body. it seems at first extraordinary that she should be buried so near the surface, but we should consider that the pavement, and perhaps some earth, had been taken away since she was first interred. As she was buried within the communion rails, probably the ground was three feet higher than the rest of the chapel. I could heartily wish more respect was paid to the remains of this amiable queen, and would willingly, with proper leave, have them wrapped in another sheet of lead and coffin, and decently interred in another place, that at least her body might rest in peace, whereas the chapel where she now lies is used for the keeping of rabbits, which make holes and scratch very irreverently about the royal corpse.

The chapel seems a beautiful miniature of that belonging to Eton College. The last time the coffin of Queen Catherine Parr was open, it was discovered that a wreath of ivy had entwined itself round the temples of the royal corpse, a berry having fallen there, and taken root at the time of her previous exhumation, and there had silently from day to day woven itself into this green sepricral coronal. A lock of hair, which was taken from the head of Queen Catherine Parr, after it had lain in the dust and darkness of the grave for nearly two centuries and a half, was kindly sent for my inspection by Mrs. Constable Maxwell. It was of exquisite quality and colour, exactly resembling threads of burnished gold in its hue.

It was very fine, and with inclination to curl naturally. The ruined chapel of Sudley, with the very small remains of the castle, now a farmhouse, were visited by me, says Mr. Lawson. A.D. and i am sorry to report that queen katharine's remains have not been redeposited with the honour and historical respect due to the royal and noble lady for instead of their being replaced within the walls of their own grave and secured from further intrusion, they are buried in a lean-to building outside the north wall in which divine service is sometimes performed to preserve the right as a parochial church. How much better it would be to restore the chapel itself! for this purpose, and to erect a suitable monument to the memory of Catherine Parr.

Surely some mark of consideration, and grateful respect, is due from this country to the memory of our first Protestant Queen. And, if the owner of the soil which covers her sacred dust, does not endeavor to preserve her remains from further outrage, the bishop of the diocese is called upon to devise some suitable protection, For the desecrated grave of this royal lady, to whom the Church of England owes the preservation of the University of Cambridge. With Catherine Parr closes the records of the Queen Consorts of England. The next two queens of England, Mary I and Elizabeth, were sovereigns, and with the Queen of James I and of Denmark, the series of Queens of Great Britain will commence.

9 09 - Mary, Ch I pt 1 23:23

Mary, our first queen regnant, was the only child of henry the eighth and catherine of Aragon, who reached maturity, She first saw the light on the banks of the Thames, at Greenwich Palace, on Monday, at four in the morning, February 18th, 1516. As she was a healthy babe, her birth consoled her parents for the loss of the two heirs male, who had preceded her. Nor in her childhood was her father ever heard to regret her sex. The queen confided her to the care of her beloved friend, the Countess of Salisbury, Margaret Plantagenet, and the royal infant's first nourishment was supplied by one of the lady's family. Catherine, the wife of Leonard Pohl, was Mary's wet nurse. The princess was, according to custom, baptized the third day after her birth.

The silver font, in which the children of Elizabeth of York and Henry the seventh had been christened, once more traveled from Christ Church, Canterbury, to the Grey Friars, adjacent to the Greenwich Palace. Carpets were spread for the royal babes procession from the palace to the font, which was placed in the greyfriars church, guarded by Knights Banneret. The godmothers were, the Princess Catherine Plantagenet, and the Duchess of Norfolk. The infant was carried by the Countess of Salisbury, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, both uncles of the princess by marriage, walked on each side of her. Cardinal Wolsey was godfather. She was named Mary after the favorite sister of Henry VIII. When the baptism was finished, the Countess of Salisbury knelt at the altar with her infant charge in her arms, who received the preliminary rite of confirmation or bishoping, the Countess being her sponsor at that ceremony.

Various rich presents were bestowed on the Princess Mary by her sponsors and relatives, who assisted at her baptism. Cardinal Wolsey gave a gold cup. her aunt, Mary Tudor, gave her niece and name-child a pomander of gold. The princess Catherine gave a gold spoon. The Duchess of Norfolk presented a primer, being a book richly illumined, of Catholic offices of devotion. Mary was reared till she was weaned in the apartments of the queen her mother, and the first rudiments of her education were commenced by that tender parent as soon as she could speak. both Henry and Catherine were in the habit of dandling Mary, and holding her in their arms after dinner. Sebastian Justiniani, the Venetian ambassador, observes in his dispatches, dated March 1st, 1518, that Henry VIII came to his palace called Windsor, about twenty miles from London, and dined there.

The king then took from the arms of the serene Queen Catherine, his little daughter, at that time about two years old, and carried her to Cardinal Wolsey and to our ambassador, who kissed her hand. The nursery establishment of the princess was occasionally stationed at Ditton Park in Buckinghamshire. The royal infant was often ferried over the Thames to Windsor Castle when her parents sojourned there. Her education must have commenced at a very tender age if her early attainments in music may be taken in evidence. After the first months of her infancy, no more payments occurred to Catherine Pohl as her wet nurse, but the care of her person was consigned to Lady Margaret Bryan, the wife of Sir Thomas Bryan, who was called the Lady Mistress.

This lady superintended the temperate meals of the royal infant, which consisted of one dish of meat with bread. The Countess of Salisbury was state governess and head of the household, the annual expenses of which amounted to eleven hundred pounds. Sir Weston Brown was Chamberlain. Richard Sidnor, treasurer and accountant. Alice Baker, gentlewoman of the bedchamber, at a salary of ten pounds, and Alice Wood, laundress, at thirty-three shillings half-yearly. Sir Henry Roat, priest, was chaplain and clerk of the closet, at an allowance of sixpence per day. ditton park and hanworth were the earliest residences of the princess's childhood, but while her parents were absent in France at the celebrated field of cloth of gold, she seems to have kept court in royal state at their palace of Richmond.

Here, the Privy Council frequently visited her, and sent daily details of her health and behaviour to her absent parents, or to Cardinal Wolsey. Some foreign strangers were introduced by the order of the king to the royal child, who, though little more than three years old, had to sit up in state, greet them courteously and rationally, and finally, to amuse them by playing on the virginals. She must have been a musical prodigy, if, at that tender age, she could play a tune correctly on a musical instrument. The visits of three Frenchmen of rank to the princess is thus described by the Privy Council. After they had been shown everything notable in London, they were conveyed in a barge by the Lord Burners and Lord Darcy to Richmond, where they repaired to the princess, and found her right honorably accompanied with noble personages, as well spiritual as temporal, and her house and chambers furnished with a proper number of goodly gentlemen and tall yeomen.

Her presence chamber was attended, besides the lady governess and her gentlewomen, by the Duchess of Norfolk and her three daughters, the lady Margaret, wife to the lord Herbert, the lady grey, lady Neville, and lord John's wife. In the great chamber were many other gentlewomen well apparelled. And when the gentlemen of France came into the presence chamber to the princess, her grace in such wise showed herself unto them, in welcoming and entertaining them with most goodly countenance, proper communication and pleasant pastime in playing on the virginals, that they greatly marvelled and rejoiced at the same, her tender age considered. The infant royal performer must have been exceedingly docile and well trained, not only to receive and speak properly to foreign strangers, but to play her tunes when required.

The instrument here mentioned was the first rude idea our ancestors had formed of a piano. It was a miniature keyed instrument, contained in a box about four feet long, with an ivory or boxwood fingerboard, limited to two or three octaves, and was, when wanted, placed on a table before the performer. When the little princess had exhibited her infantine skill on this instrument, refreshments were served to the foreign guests. Of strawberries, wine, wafers, and Ipecras. The council in another letter thus mentions the princess again. Since our last writing, we have sundry times visited and seen your dearest daughter, the princess, who, God be thanked, is in prosperous health and convalescence, and like as she increaseth in days and years, so doth she in grace and virtue.

General history is not silent regarding Mary's infantine musical attainments. In the Italian history of Polino, it is asserted that Mary played on the arpichordo, which is the same name as the harpsichord. The Italian seems to designate by it the instrument called by the chroniclers clavichord. This she used to play on, he adds, when a very little child, and she had so far mastered the difficulties as to have a light touch with much grace and velocity. When her royal parents returned to England, Mary went back to her nursery at Ditton Park, but she made a long visit to the king and queen this succeeding Christmas. She was a very lovely infant, her complexion rosy and her eyes brown, and right merry and joyous.

It is not probable that the king, who was passionately fond of children, could part from an attractive prattler of that age. Accordingly, she remained at Greenwich till after her fourth birthday. The Christmas gifts made to the princess that year were numerous, and some of them very costly. There was, however, but one article calculated to please a little child. This was a rosemary bush hung with spangles of gold, brought for her by a poor woman of Greenwich. it was perhaps like the christmas tree which gives such delight to the german children. Cardinal Wolsey sent her a gold cup, the princess Catherine Plantagenet, two small silver flagons, Queen Mary Tudor, another golden pomander, her nurse, Lady Margaret Bryan, a crimson purse tinzled, and the Duke of Norfolk, a pair of silver snuffers.

The princess was amused by the performance of a company of children, who acted plays for her diversion, and in her accounts, six shillings eightpence is given to a man who managed the little actors as a reward. This man, it appears, was Haywood, the dramatic author. The succeeding Christmas was spent by the Princess Mary at Ditton Park, where, among the diversions of the season, a lord of misrule, one John Thurgood, was appointed to make mirth for herself and household with Morris dancers Masks, carillons, and hobby-horses. After Christmas, she crossed the Thames to Windsor, and there received her New Year's gifts. From the king, a standing cup of silver gilt, filled with coin. From Cardinal Wolsey, a gold salt set with pearls.

And from her aunt, Princess Catherine, a gold cross. The princess made her candlemas offering that year at Hanworth, and thence proceeded to Richmond, where her mother, the queen, sent her barge to convey her to Greenwich. The same month she stood godmother to the infant daughter of Sir William Compton, to whom she gave the name of Mary. At the baptism, the lady mistress, Margaret Bryan, distributed thirty-three shillings to the attendants. This office of standing godmother made a pleasing impression on the memory of the princess of five years old, since it was often reiterated she must have stood godmother to more than a hundred children. More than one negotiation had been in agitation, for the marriage of the young princess with the Dauphin, heir to Francis I, while she was yet in her cradle.

But neither Henry VIII nor Francis I appeared to have been sincere in their intentions. In the summer of 1522, she was brought to Greenwich, where the queen, her mother, holding her by the hand at the hall-door of the palace, there introduced her to the emperor, Charles V, on his landing, with Henry from his barge at the water stairs. It was the wish of Queen Catherine's heart that this great emperor, her nephew, might become her son-in-law, and all the political arrangements between him and her husband seemed to favour that wish. The emperor, who was then a young man in his twenty-third year, came expressly to England for betrothal to his cousin Mary, A child of six years old. He passed five weeks in England, so the little princess became well acquainted with him, and learned, young as she was, to consider herself as his empress.

By a solemn matrimonial treaty, signed at Windsor, the emperor engaged to marry the Princess Mary when she attained her twelfth year. He was in the meantime exceedingly desirous that she should be sent to Spain, that she might be educated as his wife. but the doting affection of her parents could not endure the separation. The emperor's visit caused the expenditure of the princess's establishment to amount to the great sum of one thousand, one hundred and thirty-nine pounds, six shillings, and one and a half pence. The care of Mary's excellent mother was now sedulously directed to give her child an education that would render her a fitting companion to the greatest sovereign of modern history, not only in regard to extent of dominions, but in character and attainments.

To Dr. Linacre, a learned physician, who had formerly been one of Prince Arthur's tutors, was entrusted the care of the Princess Mary's health, and some part of her instruction in Latin. The queen, her mother, as appears by her own written testimony, often examined her translations and reading with her. Linacre died when the princess was but eight years of age, having first written a latin grammar for her use. It was dedicated to her, and he speaks with praise of her docility and love of learning at that tender age. The copy belonging to the princess is now in the British Museum. Queen Catherine requested Ludovicus Vives, a Spaniard of deep learning, who was called by his contemporaries, the second quintillion, to draw up a code of instructions for the education of Mary, he sent a treatise in latin dedicated to the queen from Brugius, and afterwards came to England, and at Oxford revised and improved it.

He thus addresses Catherine of Aragon. Govern by these my monitions, Maria thy daughter, and she will be formed by them. She will resemble thy domestic example of probity and wisdom, and except all human expectations fail, Holy and good will she be by necessity. Vives points out with exultation the daughters of Sir Thomas More as glorious examples of the effects of a learned and virtuous female education. His rules are rigid. He implores that the young princess may read no idle books of chivalry or romance. He defies and renounces such compositions in Spanish as a modest Dugal. Tironte the White, and others burnt by the curate in Don Quixote. He abjures Lancelot du Lac, Paris and Vienne, Pierre Provençal, Margolone and the fairy Messolina.

In Flemish he denounces Flores and Blanche, Pyremus and Thisbe. All these and such as these he classes as Libri Pestifieri, corrupting to the morals of females. In their places he desires that the young princess Mary may read the Gospels, Night and Morning, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles, selected portions of the Old Testament, and the works of Cyprian, Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose. Likewise Plato, Cicero, Seneca's Maxims, Plutarch's and Ciridion, the Periphrase of Erasmus, and the Utopia of Sir Thomas More. Among the works of classic poets, He admitted the Pharsalia of Lucan, the tragedies of Seneca, with selected portions of Horace. He deemed cards, dice, and splendid dress, as pestiferous as romances.

He gave rules for her pronunciation of Greek and Latin, and advised that lessons from these languages should be committed to memory every day, and read over two or three times before the pupil went to bed. He recommended that the princess should render English into Latin frequently, and likewise that she should converse with her preceptor in that language. Her Latin dictionary was to be either Perodi or Colopin. He permitted some stories for her recreation, but they were all to be purely historical, sacred or classic. He instanced the narrative of Joseph and his brethren in the scriptures, that of Papyrus in Aulus Gellens, and Lucretia in Livy. The well-known tale of Griselda is the only exception to his general exclusion of fiction, and that perhaps he took for fact.

It is a curious coincidence that Griselda was afterwards considered in England as the prototype of Queen Catherine. The young princess was certainly educated according to the rigorous directions of Vives, and she is a historical example of the noxious effect that over-education has at a very tender age, Her precocious studies probably laid the foundation for her melancholy temperament and delicate health. The Emperor Charles continued extremely desirous that the princess should be sent to Spain for education, a wish which Henry VIII parried by declaring that she should, while in England, be brought up and entirely trained as a Spanish lady, and that she should be even accustomed to wear the national dress of the country.

whose queen she was expected to be. For this purpose, he sent envoys to consult Margaret, Regent of Flanders, regarding materials and patterns proper for Spanish costume. As to the education of the Princess Mary, said Henry VIII, if the emperor should search all Christendom for a mistress to bring her up, and frame her after the Spanish manner, he could not find one more meet than the Queen's Grace, her mother, who cometh of the royal house of Spain, and who, for the affection she beareth to the emperor, will nurture her, and bring her up to his satisfaction. But the noble person of the young princess is not meet as yet to bear the pains of the sea, nor strong enough to be transported into the air of another country.

In the course of the summer of 1525, when this correspondence took place, rumours reached the court of england that the emperor meant to forsake the princess mary, and was privately engaged to isabel of portugal. This was probably the first sorrow experienced by mary, who was observed to grow pale with apprehension and jealousy when the change of the emperor's intentions was discussed. The little creature had been persuaded by her maids that she was in love with Charles V, for about this time, she sent a pretty message to him through her father's ambassadors resident in Spain. Cardinal Wolsey thus communicated it in a letter addressed to them, dated April 7th, 1525. I send you herewith an emerald, which my lady Princess Mary sendeth to the emperor, with her most cordial and humble commendations to him.

You, at the delivery of the same, shall say, That her grace hath devised this token, for a better knowledge to be had, when God shall send them grace to be together, whether his majesty doth keep constant and continent to her, as with God's grace she will to him. Whereby you may add, that she assured love towards his majesty hath already raised such passion in her, that it is confirmed by jealousy, which is one of the greatest signs and tokens of love. The emerald, whose colour was the symbol of constancy sent by young mary would it was imagined fade and pale its brilliant green if the heart of the betrothed swerved from the affianced lady. Thus, in that time of transition from the chivalric to the political era, did the fond ideality of the minstrel and the troubadour with which the heads of the maids and pages of honour who waited around the little heiress were teeming find his way into the dispatches of the statesmen, Aye, and would have had influence too, had the betrothed princess been taller and older.

As it was, the emperor stuck the emerald ring on his little finger as far as it would go, and bade the English ambassadors say, he would wear it for the sake of the princess, asking many questions regarding her health, learning, and appearance, to which the ambassadors answered by zealously descanting upon the manifold seeds of virtues that were in her grace. even at this time, charles v was burning with indignation at private intelligence which had reached him that henry the eighth meditated a divorce from queen katharine and the consequent disinheriting of her daughter. In the course of the same year, charles broke his contract of betrothal with mary and wedded the beautiful isabel of portugal.

it appears he justified his conduct by a letter full of reproaches to henry the eighth for his sinister intentions in respect to mary. Henry took great pains to show him in what a different light he ostensibly regarded his only child, for mary, if not actually declared princess of wales, as some authors have affirmed, assuredly received honours and distinctions which have never, either before or since, been offered to any one but the heir apparent of england. A court was formed for her at Ludlow Castle on a grander scale than those established either for her uncle Arthur or Edward of York. Both acknowledged princes of Wales and heirs apparent of England. The officers and nobles who composed the Princess Mary's court at Ludlow were employed likewise in superintending the newly formed legislature of Wales, the natives of the principality being at last by the tardy gratitude of the tutors admitted to participation in the privileges of English subjects.

The Welsh had been long discontented with the absence of the royal family from any part of their territory, and the sojourn of the heiress of England was intended to conciliate their affections and sanction the new laws. Sir John Dudley, whose ambition afterwards made him so prominent a character as Earl of Warwick, and duke of Northumberland in the next reign, was appointed chamberlain to the princess mary at her new court. Thomas Audley, afterwards Lord Chancellor, and John Russell, were members of her council. The Countess of Salisbury resided with her, as she had done from her birth, as head of her establishment and state governess, an office always filled, till the time of James I, by a lady of the blood royal.

The princess had besides no less than thirteen ladies of honour and a crowd of lower functionaries whose united salaries amounted to seven hundred and forty-one pounds, thirteen shillings, nine pence.

10 10 - Mary, Ch I pt 2 27:15

the queen of england.

Mary took leave of her parents at the palace of langley in hertfordshire in september fifteen twenty five previously to her departure for ludlow castle Dr. Sampson gives a pleasing description of her person and qualities at this epoch. My Lady Princess, he says in a letter to Wolsey, came hither on Saturday, surely, sir, of her age, as goodly a child as ever I have seen, and of as good gesture and countenance. Few persons of her age blend sweetness better with seriousness, or quickness with deference. She is at the same time joyous and decorous in manners. in fact, contemporaries in all portraiture represent Mary at this period of her life as a lovely child. But if human ingenuity had been taxed to the utmost, in order to contrive the most cruel contrast between her present and future prospects, it could not have been more thoroughly effaced than by first placing her in viceregal pomp and state as Princess of Wales at Ludlow Castle, and then afterwards blighting her young mind by hurling her undeservedly into poverty and contempt.

It was exceedingly probable that Henry meant fraudulently to force a high alliance from Mary before he disinherited her, and therefore took the deceitful step of placing her in a station which had never been occupied excepting by an heir apparent of England. It was in her court at Ludlow Castle that Mary first practised to play the part of Queen, a lesson she was soon compelled to unlearn with the bitterest insults. Her education at the same time went steadily on with great assiduity. Fresh instructions were given to her council regarding her tuition when she parted from her royal parents. They emanated from the maternal tenderness and good sense of Queen Catherine, whose earnest wish was evidently to render her daughter healthy and cheerful, as well as learned and accomplished.

first, above all other things, the countess of Salisbury, being lady governess, shall, according to the singular confidence that the king's highness hath in her, give most tender regard to all that concerns the person of said princess, her honourable education and training in virtuous demeanour, that is to say, to serve God, from whom all grace and goodness proceedeth. Likewise, at seasons convenient, To use moderate exercise, taking open air in gardens, sweet and wholesome places, and walks, which may conduce unto her health, solace, and comfort, as by the said lady governess shall be thought most convenient. And likewise to pass her time most seasons at her virginals, or other musical instruments, so that the same be not too much, and without fatigation, or weariness, to attend to her learning of Latin tongue and French.

at other seasons to dance, and among the rest to have good respect to her diet, which is meet or proper, to be pure, well-prepared, dressed, and served with comfortable, joyous, and merry communication, in all-honorable and virtuous manner. Likewise, the cleanliness and well-wearing of her garments and apparel, both of her chamber and person, so that everything about her be pure, sweet, clean and wholesome. As to so great a princess doth appertain, all corruptions, evil airs, and things noisome and unpleasant, to be eschewed. With these instructions, the princess Mary and her court departed for Ludlow, which Leland describes as a fair-manor place, standing in a Goodly Park, west of the town of Budley, on the very knob of the hill.

He adds, the castle was built by Henry VII for his son, Prince Arthur. It was probably repaired and decorated, but the castle was previously the grand feudal seat of the Mortimers, as lords of the marches. Richard, Duke of York, as heir of those semi-royal chiefs, resided there, and the young Prince of Wales, afterwards the unfortunate Edward V, was educated and kept his court there, as heir apparent of England, for some years previous to the death of his father, Edward the fourth. As a great concourse of people was expected at Ludlow Castle during the Christmas festivities, for the purpose of paying respect to the princess, her counsel thought it requisite that she should keep Christmas with princely cheer.

They therefore wrote to the cardinal, intimating the articles requisite for the use of their young mistress's household. A silver ship, or neff, which was to hold the table-napkin for the princess, an alms-dish, and silver spice plates were among these requests. They wanted trumpets and a rebeck, and hinted a wish for the appointment of a lord of misrule, and some provision for interludes, disguisings, and plays at the feast, and for the banquet at Twelfth Night. The residence of Mary at Ludlow lasted about eighteen months, varied with occasional visits to Tinkin Hill, and to the magnificent unfinished palace of the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham, at Thornbury, lately seized by the king. Her education meanwhile proceeded rapidly.

Lord Morley, one of the literary nobles of that day, thus alludes to Mary's attainments in a preface to his translation of New Year's Angelical Salutation, one of his works presented to her some years afterwards, when her changed fortune had wholly silenced the voice of flattery. I do well remember, says Lord Morley, addressing the princess, that scant had ye come to twelve years of age, but ye were so rife in the Latin tongue, that wraith, or rarely, doth happen to the woman's sex, that your grace not only could properly read, write, and construe Latin, But furthermore, translate any hard thing of the Latin into our English tongue, and among other your virtuous occupations. I have seen one prayer of your doing of St.

Thomas Aquine, that I do assure your grace is so well done, so near to the Latin, that when I look upon it, as I have won the exemplar of it, I have not only marvel at the doing of it, but farther for the well-doing of it. I have said it, or copied it, in my books, as also in my poor wife's, probably her prayer book, and my children, to them occasion to remember, to pray for your grace. Mary's translation, thus described by her friend, is as follows. The Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas, translated out of Latin into English by the most excellent Princess Mary, daughter to the most high and mighty Prince and Princess, King Henry the eighth and Queen Catherine his wife in the year of our lord god fifteen twenty seven and the eleventh of her age.

O merciful God, grant me to covet with an ardent mind those things which may please thee, to search them wisely, to know them truly, and to fulfill them perfectly to the laud and glory of thy name. Order my living that I may do that which thou requirest of me, And give me grace that I may know it, and have wit and power to do it, and that I may obtain those things which be convenient to my soul. Good Lord, make my way sure and straight to thee, that I fail not between prosperity and adversity, but that in prosperous things I may give thee thanks, and in adversity be patient, So that I be not lift up with the one, nor oppressed with the other, and that I may rejoice in nothing but in that which moveth me to thee, nor be sorry for nothing but for those which draweth me to thee.

Desiring to please nobody, nor fearing to displease any besides thee. Lord, let all my worldly things be vile to me for thee, and that all thy things be dear to me, and thou, good Lord, most especially above them all. Let me be weary with that joy which is without thee, and let me desire nothing beside thee. Let the labor delight me which is for thee, and let all rest weary me which is not in thee. Make me to lift my heart ofttimes to thee, and when I fall, make me to think and be sorry with the steadfast purpose of amendment. My God, make me humble without feigning, merry without lightness or levity, sad or reflective. Without mistrust, sober or steady without dullness, fearing without despair, gentle without doubleness, trustful in thee without presumption, telling my neighbors of their faults without mocking, obedient without arguing, patient without grudging, and pure without corruption.

My most loving Lord and God, give me a waking heart, that no curious thought draw me from thee. Let it be strong that no unworthy affection draw me backward, so stable that no tribulation break it, and so free that no election by violence make any challenge to it. My Lord God, grant me wit to know thee, diligence to seek thee, wisdom to find thee, conversation to please thee, continuance or constancy to look for thee, and finally hope to embrace thee. By thy penance here to be punished, and in our way to use thy benefits by thy grace, and in heaven, through thy glory, to have delight in thy joys and rewards. Amen. There is a childlike simplicity in this translation. At the same time, the perspicuity apparent in the construction proves that Mary had the command of her own language, as well as the knowledge of it, points which do not always meet with proper attention in a classical education.

In her missile, from which this early performance is drawn, the young princess has added, I have read that nobody liveth as he should do, but he that followeth virtue, and I, reckoning you to be one of them, I pray you to remember me in your devotions. Mary, child of Kay. The princess has added, child of king henry and queen katharine but as such a sentence in succeeding years render the person in whose hand it was written liable to the pains and penalties of high treason all the words but those in italics were subsequently obliterated while the princess still resided at ludlow castle henry the eighth made a desperate attempt to marry her to francis i with the intention of revenging himself on the emperor charles and, perhaps, of removing his daughter out of his way before he dismissed her mother.

The king of France was under engagements to marry the emperor's sister, Eleonora of Austria, the widow of Emmanuel the Great, King of Portugal. Wolsey, who could not bear this close alliance between France and Spain, prevailed on his royal master to send Dr. Clerc to Louise, Duchess of Savoy, the mother of Francis, for the purpose of proposing a marriage between him and Mary, the then acknowledged heiress of England. An unsuitable marriage, for the princess was, in fifteen twenty six, but eleven years of age. The marriage with Eleonora had been one of the conditions of Francis's liberation from his captivity, but it now seemed doubtful whether Charles would trust his enemy with an amiable sister, whom he loved so entirely.

while the matter was uncertain, Dr. Clerc beset the Duchess Louise with panegyric on the young Mary's beauty and docility. Howbeit, he says in his dispatch, I observe that Madame Eleonora was now of the age of thirty, and peradventure there should not be found in her so much good-nature and humility as my lady Princess Mary, whom now at her age and after her education she might bring up fashion forge, and make of her whatever she would, assuring her that my said lady princess would be as loving, lowly, and humble to her as to her own father. The lady duchess then held up her hands, and with tears declared, that I said truth, adding, that if it should be my lady princess's chance to be queen of France, she would be as loving again to her as to her own son Francis I.

louise made the most rational proposal of a union between her second grandson, Henry, duke of Orland, and the young English princess, but this did not answer Wolsey's purpose, which was to break a family league between Francis and the emperor. The bishop then sought Francis I himself, to whom he descanted, in terms of great hyperbole, on the girlish beauties of Mary, calling her the pearl of the world, and the jewel her father esteemed more than anything on earth. Francis affirmed that he had wished to espouse her before he left France. Sir, responded the bishop, whereat stick ye then? For she is of that beauty and virtue. Here, Francis interrupted him, being, perhaps, impatient at hearing all this incongruous flattery, Regarding a small child, his words, though couched in a similar strain, have the semblance of satire.

I pray you, said the king, repeat unto me none of these matters. I know well her education, her form and her fashion, her beauty and her virtue, and what father and mother she cometh of. I have as great a mind to marry her as ever I had any woman. And then he declared, he had promised eleanora and was not free without she refused first. This strange negotiation ended with the king's mother informing the english ambassador that news had arrived of queen eleanora having laid aside her widow's weeds, and therefore it was evident she looked upon herself as the future queen of France. francis i though by no means anxious to espouse a bride of eleven years old seemed really desirous of receiving mary as his daughter-in-law and at various periods of his life endeavouring to match her with his son henry duke of orleans it was in the course of one of these negotiations which took place in the succeeding spring of fifteen twenty seven that as it was affirmed by henry the eighth and wolsey doubts of the legitimacy of Mary were first started.

The precise time of the withdrawal of the princess Mary from her court at Ludlow Castle is not defined. It was probably to receive the French ambassadors who had arrived for the purpose of negotiating her marriage with the second son of France. Many notices exist of her participation in the giddy revelry of her father's court. Among others, occur the following curious verses, quoted here, not for any poetical merit they possess, but for their historical allusions. They were evidently penned by some courtly adulator, who had been present at a ball, at which Mary danced with her royal father, and strange must have been the contrast presented between his colossal figure and her petite and fragile form.

Ravished I was, that well was me. O Lord, to me so fain, or willing, to see that sight that I did see, I long full sore again. I saw a king and a princess dancing before my face, most like a god and a goddess. I pray Christ save their grace. This king to see whom we have sung, his virtues be right much, but this princess, being so young, there can be found none such. So fake and fair she is to see, Like to her is none of her age. Without in grace it cannot be, So young to be so sage. This king to see with his fair flower, the mother standing by, it doth me good, yet at this hour on them, when that think I. I pray Christ save father and mother, and this young lady fair, and send her shortly a brother to be England's right heir.

the tenor of these lines plainly indicates that they were composed at a period when Catherine of Aragon was still the undoubted queen presiding at the regal festival, yet that the lamentations of Henry for a son to be England's right heir, on which he founded his grand plea for the divorce, were beginning to be re-echoed by his flatterers. but the princess appeared soon after not only as the partner of her royal sire in the stately pavon or minuet of that era, but as a dancer in courtly ballets and a performer in comedies. No slight infringement of the rigid rules prescribed for her education by Ludovicus Vives. She seems nevertheless to have passed through the trials of this early introduction to display and dissipation, without incurring the least blame for levity of conduct.

On the contrary, all parties joined in praising the simplicity and purity of her manners and pursuits. Among these commendations is one, according to the bias of the times, which will appear no particular excellency in modern estimation. For instance, she is praised for dressing on the Easter festival, according to the old usages of england in the very best apparel she had in order that she might show her gladness at receiving the sacrament. This is a curious illustration of the national custom still existing among the lower classes, who scrupulously wear their best clothes on Easter Day, and if possible purchase some new apparel. The practice of royal personages exhibiting themselves in the costume of stage players had been hitherto unexampled, excepting for Henry VIII, and the most profligate of the Roman emperors.

Nor was the coarse mind of Henry satisfied without the females of his family following his example. His beautiful sister Mary, when she first appeared in one of these panomimic ballets, wore a black-crape mask as an Ethiopian princess. She soon became emboldened, and freely took her part as a dancer in the court balls and pageants. still it was strange that the king should wish a girl young as his daughter was thus to challenge the gaze of strangers. She appeared before the French ambassadors at Greenwich Palace in the spring of fifteen twenty seven with five of her ladies disguised in Icelandic dresses, and with six lords in the costume of the same country, danced lustily about the hall. At another banquet and masque, before the same ambassadors in May, the Princess Mary issued out of a cave with her seven ladies, all apparelled, after the Roman fashion, in rich cloth of gold and crimson tinsel bendy.

That is, the dresses were striped in a slanty direction, a Roman fashion that may vainly be sought in classic remains. Their hair was wrapped in cauls of gold, with bonnets of crimson velvet on their heads, set full of pearls and precious stones. Mary and her seven ladies then danced a ballet with eight lords. Some scenic effect was evidently attempted in this performance. The princess is said likewise to have acted a part in one of Terence's comedies, in the original Latin, for the entertainment of the French ambassadors at Hampton Court. Mary was but in her twelfth year at this epoch, from which the commencement of her misfortunes may be dated. For a few weeks afterwards, her mother's divorce became matter of public discussion.

Just at this time, May 21, 1527, was born at Valladolid, Philip, afterwards the second of Spain, son of the Emperor Charles V, and Isabel of Portugal, who afterwards became the husband of the Princess Mary. henry the eighth during the protracted discussion of the divorce was at times extremely embarrassed by his affection for mary and her claims on his paternity. Sometimes he bestowed profuse caresses on her in public, and at the first movement of the divorce gave out that the inquiry was made only to settle her claims permanently to the succession. the princess meantime remained near her parents in possession of the same state and distinction she had enjoyed since her birth. Henry thus mentions his daughter in one of his speeches regarding the divorce from her mother.

Although, says he, we have had the lady Mary singular both in beauty and shape by the most noble lady, Catherine, yet that marriage cannot be legitimate which gives us such pain and torment of conscience. the jealous disposition of henry was probably soon inflamed into rancour when he found, in the course of the dispute, that his daughter took part with her mother, and was, moreover, the idol of his people, who declared on all occasions, that King Henry might marry whom he would, yet they would acknowledge no successor to the crown but the husband of the lady Mary. Wolsey was hated furiously throughout England, because he was supposed to be the originator of the divorce, and one of the popular rhymes of the day thus sets forth public indignation at the wrongs of the people's darling.

Yea, a princess whom to describe, it was hard for an orator. She is but a child in age, and yet she is both wise and sage, and beautiful in favour. perfectly doth she represent the singular graces excellent both of her father and mother howbeit this disregarding the carter of york is meddling for to divorce them asunder it has been asserted by all contemporaries that queen katharine at one time of her life cherished an ardent desire that her daughter mary should be united in marriage with reginald pole son of the countess of salisbury the noble kinswoman who had constantly resided with the young princess. All the biographers of Reginald Pohl declared that Mary manifested the greatest partiality to him from her earliest childhood.

This might have been, yet the difference of their ages, Reginald being born in fifteen hundred, was too great for any partiality to have subsisted between them in early life as lovers. while there was hope of her daughter becoming the wife of the emperor, it was not probable that queen katharine who loved her nephew exceedingly could have wished her to marry reginald pole. But when reginald returned to england at the same time that the imperial match was broken off, and appeared in her court in his twenty-fifth year possessing the highest cultivation of mind, the grandest person and features of that perfect mould of beauty, which revived the memory of the heroic Plantagenets, his ancestors. It is possible that the wise queen, weighing the disadvantages of wedlock with a foreign monarch, might wish Mary united to such a protector.

The match would have been highly popular among the English, as the national love for the memory of the Plantagenet kings was only equalled by the intense national jealousy of foreign alliances, besides which, the personal qualities of Reginald rendered him the pride of his country. He had, however, a mistrust of the atmosphere of the English court, as portentous of storm and change. He reminded his royal relatives that he had been educated for the church, and withdrew himself into the seclusion of the Carthusian convent of Sion. Here, Reginald abstracted himself from the world by sedulous attention to books, but it was observed that he neither took priest orders nor monastic vows. While the perplexities of the divorce engrossed public attention, few notices occurred of the princess Mary, excepting that the queen was occasionally threatened with separation from her child, a proof that their intercourse continued.

Both the queen and princess were with the king at Tittenhanger during the prevalence of the plague, called the sweating sickness, in 1528. at the ensuing christmas the king gave his daughter twenty pounds to disport her with. At Amthill, one of her servants received for her use ten pounds to make pastime withal. She seems to have spent the year fifteen thirty entirely with her mother, for Hall occasionally mentions her at Greenwich, particularly at the close of the year, when he says, speaking of Henry's disappointment at finding himself still remaining the husband of katharine of Aragon. The king sore lamented his chance. He made no mirth or pastime, as he was wont to do, yet he dined with and resorted to the queen as accustomed.

He minished nothing of her estate, and much loved and cherished their daughter, the Lady Mary. These words afford proof that the establishment and royal routine of the mother and daughter continue the same as formerly. lady salisbury likewise retained her office and reginald pole her son who had with the single exception of an honourable mission to paris been resident in england for five years must have had frequent opportunities of seeing the princess on account of his mother's residence with her and her near relationship to the royal family. Mary was now a very lovely girl in her fifteenth year, she manifested the greatest partiality to her noble and accomplished kinsman. Whether as friend or lover, it is scarcely possible to say.

But history having linked together the names of Mary Tudor and Reginald Pohl, by hints that matrimonial alliance was, at a later time, projected between them, their locality at this momentous period of their career becomes an interesting point of biography.

11 11 - Mary, Ch I pt 3 35:37

Mary, chapter one, part three, Henry, the eighth, was very anxious to gain the sanction of the noble-minded Reginald to his pending divorce. when greatly urged to give his opinion on that head, and to accept of the archbishopric of York, rendered vacant by the death of Wolsey, Reginald by letter, firmly and respectfully declined this great advancement, adding many arguments against the divorce of Catherine, and the degradation of her daughter. Henry was incensed. He called a disinterested advocate before him in the stately gallery of Whitehall Palace to account for this opposition, Reginald, who at that time loved the king ardently, could not speak for emotion, and his words, so celebrated for their impassioned eloquence, were stifled in a gush of tears.

Yet his broken sentences proved that he was firm in his principles, and manly in his defense of the helpless queen and her daughter. Henry frowned, and his hand often sought the hilt of his dagger. But if his kinsman did not yield to affection or interest, There was little chance of a scion of the Plantagenets, bending to fear. Henry left Reginald weeping, and vented his temper by threats to his brother, Lord Montague, threats which long after were fatally verified. Reginald's brothers loaded him with reproaches, yet he appears to have convinced them that he was right, for Montague, his elder brother, undertook a message of explanation to the king, who had rather taken the contents of the letter which had displeased him from the report of the duke of norfolk than from his own perusal.

Meantime, Henry had conquered his passion, for he was yet a novice in injustice and cruelty. He examined the letter, and after walking up and down thoughtfully for some time, turned to his kinsman, Lord Montague, and said, Your brother, Reginald, has rightly guessed my disposition. He has given me such good reasons for his conduct, that I am under the necessity of taking all that he has said in good part. And, could he but gain on himself to approve my divorce from the queen, no one would be dearer to me. At this period, no separation had taken place of the English church from Rome, and the divorce cause remained wholly undecided. Therefore, no religious prejudices were at issue in the bosom of Reginald Pohl.

It was, as yet, a simple matter of right or wrong, between a husband, wife, and child. And when his opinion was demanded, and not till then, Reginald, the near kinsman of the husband and child, honestly declared what he thought of the justice of the case. If his defense of the oppressed made a powerful impression on the oppressor, What must it have done on the minds of those whose cause he pleaded? The queen, from the commencement of her troubles, had often recurred to the unjust sentence on Reginald Pohl's uncle, the last of the Plantagenets. She said that she saw the judgment of God in her afflictions, for a marriage founded in murder was not likely to prosper. She knew that her father, King Ferdinand, had refused the English alliance, till Warwick was executed.

The conscientious queen had endeavored to make reparation by the friendship she ever showed to Warwick's sister, the Countess of Salisbury, and by the affection she cultivated between her daughter, Mary, and the children of the Countess. At one period of her life, and this may naturally be deemed the time, Catherine was heard to express a wish that Mary might marry a son of Lady Salisbury. in order to atone for the wrong done to the earl of Warwick, whose property was taken as well as his life. Reginald Pohl used no surreptitious means to realize a wish so flattering to ambition. When the young princess was sixteen, he withdrew from England, finding that his principles could not accord with the measures of the king.

Yet it was supposed that his reluctance to take priest's orders arose from a lingering hope, that the wishes of queen katharine might one day be fulfilled. An utter silence is maintained alike in public history and state documents regarding that agonizing moment when the princess mary was reft from the arms of her unfortunate mother to behold her no more. No witness has told the parting, no pen has described it, but sad and dolorous it certainly was to the hapless girl, even to the destruction of health. In the same month that Henry VIII and Queen Catherine finally parted, Mary had been ill, for a payment was made by her father to Dr. Bartolet of twenty pounds in reward for giving her his attendance.

Another long sickness afflicted the princess this succeeding march, when the king again gave a large sum to the physician for restoring his daughter. Mary's sorrow had thus cast an early blight on her constitution, which she never wholly recovered. But her troubles had not yet reached their climax, for Lady Salisbury, the friend next her mother, dear to her heart, still resided with her. this fact is evident from the letter written by queen katharine in which the recent illness of mary is mentioned and at the conclusion a kind message is sent to lady salisbury in this letter katharine endeavoured with great sweetness to reconcile the princess mary to the loss of the latin lessons she used to give her by commendations of the superior ability of her tutor dr featherstone who it is evident still retained his post At the same time, she requested occasionally to inspect her daughter's latin exercises.

The queen's letter concluded with expressions of tender regret at her separation from the king and her daughter, but without a word of angry complaint at the cause, which she wisely knew would irritate and agonize the mind of her child. Woburn is the place of date, which marks the time as during the queen's residence at the palace of Ampt Hill, close to that abbey. the succeeding year brought many trials to the unfortunate mother and daughter who were still cruelly kept from the society of each other. The king proclaimed his marriage with Anne Boleyn. Cranmer pronounced the marriage of Queen Catherine invalid, and the coronation of the rival queen took place. Another letter written by Catherine of Aragon to her daughter occurs without date of time or place, which we conjectured to have been written at Bugdon.

1533, about the middle of August. Daughter, I heard such tidings this day, that I do perceive, if it be true, the time is very near when Almighty God will provide for you, and I am very glad of it, for I trust he doth handle you with a good love. I beseech you agree to his pleasure with a merry or cheerful heart, and be you sure that without fail he will not suffer you to perish if you beware to offend him. I pray, God, that you, good daughter, offer yourself to him. If any pangs come over you, strive yourself. First make you clean, take heed of his commandments, and keep them as near as he will give you grace to do, for there are you sure armed. And if this lady do come to you as it is spoken, if she do bring you a letter from the king, I am sure in the selfsame letter you will be commanded what to do.

Answer with very few words, obeying the king your father in everything, save only that you will not offend God and lose your soul, and go no further with learning and disputation in the matter. And wheresoever, and in whatsoever company you shall come, obey the king's commandments, speak few words, and meddle nothing. I will send you two books in Latin. One shall be De Vita Christi, with the declarations of the Gospels, and the other the Epistles of St. Jerome, that he did write to Paula and Eustochium, and in them, I trust, you will see good things. Sometimes, for your recreation, use your virginals or lute if you have any. But one thing specially I desire you, for the love you owe to God and unto me, to keep your heart with a chaste mind, and your person from all ill and wanton company, not thinking or desiring of any husband for Christ's passion.

Neither determine yourself to any manner of living until this troublesome time is past, for I do make you sure you shall see a very good end, and better than you can desire. I would God, good daughter, that you did know with how good a heart I write this letter unto you. I never did one with a better, for I perceive very well that God loveth you. I beseech him of his goodness to continue it. I think it best you keep your keys yourself, for whosoever it is, that is, whosoever keeps her keys, shall be done as shall please them. And now you shall begin, and by likelihood I shall follow. I set not a rush by it, for when they have done the utmost they can, then I am sure of amendment. I pray you recommend me unto my good lady of Salisbury, and pray her to have a good heart, for we never come to the kingdom of heaven but by troubles.

Daughter, wheresoever you come, take no pain to send to me, for, if I may, I will send to you. By your loving mother. Catherine, the queen. Hitherto, this letter has been deemed a mystery. It is evidently written with conflicting feelings, under the pressure of present calamity, but with the excitement of recently awakened hope of better days. The queen has privately heard of some great, but undeclared benefit to her daughter, which she hints at, to cheer her. Meantime, she expects that a lady is to summon Mary by a letter from the king. and that she is shortly to be introduced into trying scenes where the divorce will be discussed and her opinion demanded. On these points, she disinterestedly and generously exhorts her not to controvert her father's will.

The queen expects her daughter to be surrounded by dissipated company, where temptations will sedulously be brought to assail her, against which she guards her. she likewise anticipates the enemies will be near her, and warns her to keep the keys herself, dreading the surreptitious introduction of dangerous papers into her escritory. Lady Salisbury is still Mary's protectress, but that venerable lady is in trouble, and looking darkly forward to the future. The kind queen sends her a message of Christian consolation, the efficacy of which she had fully tried. all that has been considered mysterious in the letter of queen katharine vanishes before the fact preserved in the pages of the italian polino who declares that mary was present at greenwich palace and in the chamber of anne boleyn when elizabeth was born setting aside the religious prejudices of the historian the simple fact that mary was there is highly probable till some days subsequent to the birth of elizabeth henry did not disinherit his eldest daughter, lest if anything fatal had happened to queen anne and her infant, he might have been left without legitimate offspring of any kind.

It is very likely that the laws of england required then, as now, that the presumptive heir of the kingdom should be present at the expected birth of an heir apparent to the crown, if katharine of arragon's letter be read with this light cast on it, how plain does it appear? The good mother endeavoured to fortify her daughter's mind for the difficult situation in which she would have found herself in the chamber of Anne Boleyn at the birth of the rival heir. Then the beneficial change in Mary's prospects hinted at by her mother has reference to the recent decree of the pope soon after made public, who in July, had annulled the marriage of henry the eighth with anne boleyn and forbade them to live together under pain of excommunication, a sentence which likewise illegitimated their offspring and confirmed mary in her royal station.

This sentence was published in September as near as possible to the birth of Elizabeth, and secret intelligence of this measure had evidently been given to Catherine of Aragon when she wrote to Mary. she knew that the decision of rome had previously settled all such controversies, and it was natural enough that she should expect the same result would take place. It is very clearly to be gathered from the continued narrative of our Italian authority that Mary did not adhere to the temperate line of conduct her wise mother had prescribed for her. She was present, says Pollino, assisting with the relatives and friends of anne boleyn in the lying-in chamber when lizabetta or elizabeth was born and there she heard among the ladies and persons of the court such secret things relative to the conduct of the mother as made her declare that she was sure the infant was not her sister.

Thus had mary with the natural incautiousness of youth given ear to all the scandal which queen anne's enemies were whispering on this occasion, and mary's informants, who were probably her deadliest foes, had repeated to anne boleyn and the king. Any imprudence she, in the excitement of the moment, might utter, or even what she did not utter, but was attributed to her by the surrounding gossips. Too often there is an evil propensity in the human heart which finds amusement in the formation of dissension, where family interests clash. The close observer may see this tendency in active operation among gossiping circles, even where the promoters of strife have not the least selfish end to gain by success in their endeavors.

If they would subject themselves to that rigid self-examination which moral justice requires, They would find their satisfaction arose from a certain degree of malignant marvellousness, which is gratified in watching the agitation of their victims. In short, they witnessed a species of improvisator tragedy, of which they furnished the plot and machinery. If, according to the wise scripture proverb, a little matter kindleth a great heap, when the tale-bearers of private life are pursuing their self-appointed vocation, let us consider what the case was in the royal family of England, September, fifteen thirty three, when the matter was so portentous, and the heap so enormous. The situation of Mary, when called to court at such a crisis, must have been trying in the extreme, nor could the most sedulous caution have guided her through the difficulties which beset her path, without incurring blame from one party or the other.

There is, however, whatever the court gossips might say, the witness of her own letter, that she never denied the name of sister to the new-born infant, for when she was required to give up the title of princess, and call Elizabeth by no other appellation, sister, she said, she would call the babe, but nothing more. Her father threatened her, his threats were useless, And he proceeded to aggravate the case by declaring Mary's newborn rival his heiress, in default of male issue, a dignity till then enjoyed by Mary, who had lately, as such, exercised authority in the principality of Wales. But neither threats nor deprivations had the least effect in bending the resolution of Mary. that her resistance did not spring from an exclusive devotion of her own interest, her subsequent concession proved.

But her love for her injured mother was an absorbing feeling, paramount to every other consideration, and while Catherine of Aragon lived, Mary of England would have suffered martyrdom rather than make a concession against the interest and dignity of that adored parent. Before the end of September, the Privy Council sent orders to Mary, who had then returned to Beaulieu, that she was immediately to lay aside the name and dignity of princess, and moreover enjoined her to forbid her servants to address her as such, and to withdraw directly to Hatfield, where the nursery of her infant sister was about to be established. The king did not take any ostensible part in this message, conduct however singular it may appear was perfectly consistent with the excessive love of approbation apparent in his character even when he was performing acts of the utmost enormity.

The important message, whose effect was to deprive the eldest child of the English crown of her exalted situation, was delivered by her chamberlain, Hussey. It purported to be the king's commandment delivered to him by the privy council on the last sunday at Greenwich. When it is remembered that the princess was but seventeen at this crisis, the tact and courage of her reply will excite some surprise. She told Hussey, that she not a little marvelled at his undertaking in his single person, unauthorized by commission of council, signed by the king, or by his majesty's private letters to her, such matter of high emprise, as minishing her from her state and dignity, she not doubting withal that she was the king's true daughter, born in good and lawful matrimony, and unless she were advertised by letter from the king's own hand, that his grace was so minded to diminish her state, name and dignity, which she trusted he would never do.

She should never believe the same. Hussey withdrew to indict a narrative of the scene to his employers of the Privy Council. It is well worthy of remark that in this dispatch, he invariably applied the titles of Grace and Princess to Mary, though addressing the very persons who had just employed him to deprive her of those distinctions. In Mary's letter to the Privy Council, she sustained the high tone of a royal lady whose rights of succession were invaded illegally. My lords, as touching my removal to Hatfield, I will obey his grace, as my duty is, or to any other place his grace may appoint me, But I protest before you and all others present that my conscience will in no wise suffer me to take any other than myself for princess or for the king's daughter born in lawful matrimony, and that I will never wittingly or willingly say or do aught whereby any person might take occasion to think that I agree to the contrary.

Nor say I this out of any ambition or proud mind, as God is my judge. If I should do otherwise, I should slander the deed of our mother, the Holy Church, and the Pope, who is the judge in this matter, and none other, and should also dishonour the king my father, the queen my mother, and falsely confess myself a bastard. Which God defend I should do, since the Pope hath not so declared it by his sentence definitive, to whose final judgment I submit myself. Hussey's dispatch to the council produced a letter purported to be the royal order written by the comptroller of the king's household requiring mary to leave Beaulieu and take up her abode at Hertford Castle. From a subsequent order in council, it appears that the king and his ministers were dubious whether the princely establishment formed for the infant Elizabeth was to be fixed at Hatfield or Hertford Castle.

Wherever it were to be, it is evident that no home was to be allowed the fallen Mary, but the spot where she was to draw daily comparisons between her lost dignities and those profusely lavished on the daughter of the rival queen. In this exigence, Mary wrote thus to her father. The Lady Mary to the King. In most humble wise, I beseech your grace, your daily blessing. Pleaseth the same to be advertised, that this morning my chamberlain came and showed me that he had received a letter from Sir William Paulet, comptroller of your household. The effect whereof was, that I should, with all diligence, remove to the castle of Hertford. Whereupon I desired to see that letter, which he showed me, wherein was written that the lady Mary, the king's daughter, should remove to the place aforesaid, leaving out in the same the name of princess, which, when I heard, I could not a little marvel, trusting, verily, that your grace was not privy to the same letter, as concerning the leaving out of the name of Princess.

Forasmuch as I doubt not that your grace doth take me, for your lawful daughter, born in true matrimony. Wherefore, if I were to say to the contrary, I should in my conscience run into the displeasure of God, which I hope assuredly that your grace would not that I should do. And in all other things, your grace shall have me always, as humble and obedient daughter and handmaid as ever was child to the father, which my duty bindeth me to, as knoweth our Lord, who have your grace in his most holy tuition, with much honor and long life to his pleasure. From your manner of Bolu, October Second, by your most humble daughter, Mary, Princess. the king took decided measures to dissolve the household of his daughter at Beaux-lew by sending the duke of Norfolk, assisted by Lord Marley, the Earl of Oxford, and his almoner, Bishop Fox, to deal with her, while the Duke of Suffolk and others of the council were breaking up her mother's establishment at Bugdon.

In the midst of these troubles, Mary's cousin German, James V, solicited her hand, but his suit was refused peremptorily, lest such marriage should interfere with the title of Anne Boleyn's issue. The degradation of the princess Mary was rendered legal in the beginning of fifteen thirty four, when the houses of parliament passed an act, settling the crown on the king's heir by Queen Anne, whether male or female. Mary's household at Beaulieu, A princely establishment, consisting of no less than one hundred and sixty individuals, was finally dismissed and dispersed, and the unfortunate princess was severed from those to whose society she had been accustomed during her childhood. Above all, she was torn from her venerable relative, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, in whose arms she had been encircled in the first days of her existence.

This was a blow more bitter than the mere deprivation of rank or titles. harder than all, when separated from this maternal friend, she was transferred to the nursery palace of Hunsdon, where the infant Elizabeth was established, with a magnificent household, befitting the rank of which Mary had just been deprived. In this residence, Mary was located more like a bond-maiden than the sister of the acknowledged heiress of the realm. Hunsdon had formerly belonged to the family of the Boleyns, It had been recently purchased or exchanged by the king. To this place, the former seat of her family, had Anne Boleyn sent her infant with royal pomp. Nor was she satisfied unless the fallen princess drew hourly comparisons between her lot and that of the sister, who had supplanted her.

A fearful thing was thus to tempt the heart of a fellow-creature by aggravating grief into passionate anger through the infliction of gratuitous injury. But the heart of Mary was as yet unscathed by the corrosion of hatred. Every object of her strong affections was not then destroyed, though they were removed, and ample proof remains that instead of being aggravated into detesting or injuring her rival sister, she amused her sorrows with the playful wiles of the infant, and regarded her with kindness. This result probably originated in the fact that that queen anne boleyn choosing that as far as she could command the former attendants of mary should wait on elizabeth had appointed lady margaret bryan as her governess whatever others might do it is certain that excellent lady did all in her power to soothe the wounded mind of her former charge and promote her kindly feelings to her infant sister the insults heaped by anne boleyn at this crisis on the unfortunate mary weighed heavily on her conscience when she was making up her accounts with eternity.

What they were rests between god and herself, for no specific detail of them exists. Perhaps the severe inquiry made the summer after Mary's removal from Beaux-lew relative to her correspondence and communication with her friends was among these repented malfactions. In a mutilated letter from Fitzwilliam, treasurer of the king's household to Cromwell, is an account of a search made in the coffers of Mary at Hunsdon, which were sealed up. Various papers were seized, put into a bag, and sent to Cromwell, together with a purse of purple velvet, containing some writings. Perhaps the very letter from her mother quoted above. Several persons were, at the same time, committed to the tower, on the charge of holding private intercourse with the Lady Mary, and styling her princess, after the prohibition issued against it.

among these was lady hussey and her examination taken august third is still preserved various ensnaring interrogations were put to lady hussey as how often had she repaired to the lady mary since she had lost the name of princess whether she was sent for and on what occasion she went whether she knew that the lady mary was justly declared by law to be no princess and yet had so called her what moved her so to do whether she had received any tokens or messages from the lady mary, and what persons at that time visited her at Hunsdon? The replies are short and unequivocal. The language of one who felt she had done nothing wrong, yet sensible of the danger incurred. She stated, she had visited the lady mary only once since the king had discharged her from beaulieu, and that was when lord hussey came up to parliament, and the last whitsuntide, and the visit then was altogether accidental.

She owned, she had inadvertently called the lady mary twice by the name of princess, not from any wish to disobey the law, but simply from her having been so long accustomed to it. She confessed having received a trifling present from the lady mary, among the persons who visited the disinherited princess at Hunsdon, she deposed, was Lord Morley. He was the literary friend, whose testimony to Mary's early attainments has been already quoted, and who, to the honour of literature, did not forsake the unfortunate, notwithstanding his daughter's intermarriage in the Boleyn family. Lady Morley, Mr. Shakerley, and his wife, and Sir Edward Bainton, were likewise among Mary's visitors. The poor princess, says Halen, had at Hunsdon no comfort but in her books.

She was assisted in her studies by Dr. Voisey, whom Henry VIII rewarded for the pains he took with the bishopric of Exeter. This passage leads to the supposition that Dr. Featherstone, who had been employed in Mary's education since her infancy, had been dismissed with the rest of the attached friends who composed her household at her regretted home of Beaulieu. The two melancholy years which Mary spent at Hunsdon under the surveillance of her stepmother were passed in sorrow and suffering. The few friends who dared visit her were subjected to the severest espionage. Their words were malignantly scrutinized, and sedulously reported to the privy council. The papers of the princess were put under the royal seal, and if she were allowed to read, she certainly was not permitted to write, since in one of her letters, penned just after the execution of Anne Boleyn, she apologizes for her evil writing, because she had not written a letter for two years.

Her father muttered murderous threats against her, and his words were eagerly caught and re-echoed by those members of his council, whose whole study it was to flatter his wilful wishes, however wicked they might be. If the expressions of King Henry had not been appalling to the last degree, would the treasurer, Fitzwilliam, have dared to use the revolting terms he did regarding his master's once idolized daughter? If she will not be obedient to his grace, I would, quoth he, that her head was from her shoulders, that I might toss it here with my foot, and so put his foot forward, spurning the rushes. A graphic exemplification, added by two witnesses of his horrible speech, which it seems was not resented, but received as a dutiful compliment by the father of the young female, whose head was thus kicked as a football, in the lively imagination of the obedient satellite.

dark indeed were the anticipations throughout europe regarding the future destiny not only of the unfortunate daughter but of the queen her mother during the year fifteen thirty five the king's envoys wrote home that all men viewed them as englishmen with either pity or horror mason who was resident in spain declared that the people expected to hear every day of the execution of queen katharine and that the princess mary was expected soon to follow her. These rumors were vaguely stated in general history. Only one author, and he a foreigner, attempts to relate the particular circumstances which instigated Henry the eighth to meditate the astounding crime of philicide. Gregorio Letti affirms that some fortune-teller had predicted the extension of the princess mary to the crown after the death of her father, this report being circulated at court was quickly brought to queen anne boleyn and threw her into great agitation.

She flew to the king and with tears and sobs told him, how much afflicted she was at the thought that their child should be excluded from the throne for the sake of Mary, who was the offspring of a marriage so solemnly pronounced illegal. Henry, who was completely bewitched by her, embraced her with all the tenderness possible, and to assuage her tears, promised not only to disinherit Mary, but even to kill her, rather than such a result should happen. Fox, and every succeeding historian, declared that Cramner prevented the king from immolating his daughter. If so, this must have been the crisis. To the princess, the matter of her life or death was, perhaps, of little moment, for grief had laid her on a bed of Dolores sickness.

Her mother was on her death-bed, desiring with a yearning heart, but with words of saintly meekness, to be permitted, if not to see her, merely to breathe the same air with her afflicted daughter. She promises solemnly, that if Mary may be resident near her, she will not attempt to see her, if forbidden. She adds, that such measure was impossible, since she lacked provisions therefor. meaning she had neither horse nor carriage to go out. Yet she begs the king may be always told that the thing she most desires is the company of her daughter, for a little comfort and mirth she would take with me should undoubtedly be half health unto her. Doleful would have been the mirth, and heart-rending the comfort had such interview been permitted between the sick daughter and the dying mother, but it was no item in the list of Henry's tender mercies.

the emperor, Charles V, remonstrated sternly on the treatment of his aunt and young kinswoman, and the whole ingenuity of the privy council was exerted to hammer out a justification of the ugly case. A copy of the dispatch sent to Mason, much altered and interlined, remains in Cromwell's hand. Touching the brute of the misentreaty of the queen and princess, such report and brute is untrue. then after setting forth king henry's munificence to the mother, he by no means boasts of his generosity to the princess, but adds, our daughter, the lady Mary, we do order and entertain as we think expedient, for we think it not meet that any person should prescribe unto us how we should order our own daughter, we being her natural father.

In another dispatch, the rumor at the imperial court is indignantly denied. that it was the king's intention to marry mary to some person of base blood. The death of mary's tender and devoted mother opened the year fifteen thirty six with a dismal aggravation of her bitter lot. The sad satisfaction of a last adieu between the dying queen and her only child was cruelly forbidden. Mary was informed of the tidings of her mother's expected dissolution, and with agonizing tears and plaints, implored permission to receive her last blessing. Yet in vain, for Catherine of Aragon expired without seeing her daughter. Again, the continent rung with reprobation of such proceedings. The English resident at Venice wrote to Thomas Starkley, a learned divine at Henry's Court, February Fifth, Fifteen Thirty Six.

that queen catherine's death had been divulged there and was received with lamentations for she was incredibly dear to all men for her good fame which is in great glory among all exterior nations. He concludes in latin, great obloquy has her death occasioned. All dread lest the royal girl should briefly follow her mother. I assure you, men speaketh here tradice of these matters, which are not to be touched by letters. happy would it have been for mary, happy for her country, if her troublous pilgrimage had closed even thus tragically before she had been made the ostensible instrument of wrong and cruelty unutterable to conscientious protestants.

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Mary, chapter two, part one, at the very time when all Europe anticipated the destruction of the princess Mary, a change took place in the current of events that influenced her fortunes. her step-mother, Queen Anne Boleyn, lost the male heir, who was expected wholly to deprive Mary of all claims to primogeniture, even in the eyes of her most affectionate partisans. Scarcely had Queen Anne uttered the well-known exclamation of triumph on the death of Catherine of Aragon, before indications were perceptible that she had herself lost Henry's capricious favour. Her fall and condemnation followed with rapidity. the day before her tragic death, Anne Boleyn, after placing Lady Kingston in the royal seat as the representative of Mary, fell on her knees before her, and implored her to go to Hunsdon, and in the same attitude to ask, in her name, pardon of the princess, for all the wrong she had heaped upon her while in the possession of a stepdame's authority.

Lady Kingston certainly went to Hunsdon on this errand. For there is evidence of her presence there, a few days after the execution of Queen Anne. Although the unfortunate Anne Boleyn, in her passionate penitence, took upon herself the blame of the ill-treatment her stepdaughter had experienced, yet it is an evident truth that she was not the sole instrument in the persecution, since, two months after she had lost all power, the cruel system of restraint and deprivation continued to afflict Mary at Hunsdon. but this was artfully relaxed. Directly, Anne Boleyn was put to death in order that the princess might lay the whole blame of her sufferings on the unhappy queen, all which was probably the effect of Cromwell's scheming.

As the sister of Jane Seymour was the wife of his son, his plan of family ambition was plainly to depress the daughters of the two former queens in order to favour the chances of Jane Seymour's children, female or male, wearing the crown of England, and being at the same time, cousins German to his grandson. This recollection should be always kept in mind, while his conduct to Anne Boleyn at the time of her degradation and death is considered. The letters of Kingston, showing the close espionage Cromwell kept upon her, and the eager manner in which he pursued her divorce, are corroborating circumstances of his inimical feelings towards her. on the other hand, he was the active agent in forcing the princess mary to acquiesce in her own illegitimitation.

His game was a fine one, and very skillfully he played it, working at the same time on the broken spirits of the desolate young girl and the despotic temper of her father, and making both the tools of his ambitious finesse. meantime, some kind of friendly acquaintance had previously subsisted between the princess mary and the new queen, jane seymour, but when this commenced is one of the obscure passages in the lives of both, which no ray has yet illuminated. Be that as it may, mary was encouraged to commence the following correspondence in the hopes that her new mother-in-law was favourably disposed to her reconciliation with her father. the event proved that notwithstanding all fair-seeming, there was no restoration of Henry's good graces, but by her utter abandonment of her place in the succession, a result which Mary had, even while Anne Boleyn held the ascendant, hitherto successfully avoided.

The first letter of this series was addressed to Cromwell, evidently at the very time when Lady Kingston had arrived at Hunsdon, to deliver the dying confession of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn. Mary, according to her own words at the conclusion, took advantage of Lady Kingston's visit to obtain writing materials of which she had been long deprived. The letter is dated only one week after the execution of Anne Boleyn. Lady Mary to Cromwell. Master Secretary, I would have been a suitor to you before this time to have been a means for me to the king's grace, my father, to have obtained his grace's blessing and favor. But I perceive that nobody durst speak for me as long as that woman lived, which is now gone, whom I pray God of his great mercy to forgive.

Wherefore, now she is gone, I am bolder to write to you, as one which taketh you for one of my chief friends. And therefore I desire you for the love of God, to be a suitor to me of the king's grace, to have his blessing and license, or leave, to write unto his grace, which shall be of great comfort to me, as God knoweth, who have you evermore in his holy keeping. Moreover, I must desire you to accept mine evil writing, for I have not done so much for this two years, or more, Nor could have had the means to do it at this time, but my lady King since being here. At Hunsdon, 26th of May. By your loving friend, Mary. An intimation followed this epistle, that the king permitted his daughter to write to him, and she accordingly penned a letter, chiefly compounded of supplicating sentences.

It must be remembered, that it had become etiquette to offer slavish homage of this kind to royalty since the days of Henry V, the only fact contained in this letter is comprised in these words. Having received this Thursday night certain letters from Mr. Secretary Cromwell advising me to make my humble submission immediately to yourself, which I durst not do without your gracious license or leave before, and that I should not have soons Offend your majesty by denial or refusal of such articles or commandments as it might please your highness to address to me, for the perfect trial of mine heart and inward affections. No notice was vouchsafed to this letter by Henry, and Mary soon after wrote a second, in which she ventured to congratulate him and Jane Seymour on their marriage.

Lady Mary to the King. In as humble and lowly a manner as is possible for a child to use to her father and sovereign lord, I beseech your grace of your daily blessing, which is my chief desire in this world, and in the same humble wise, acknowledging all the offenses that I have done to your grace, since I had first discretion unto offend unto this hour, I pray your grace for the honor of God, and for your fatherly pity, to forgive me them. For the which I am as sorry as any creature living, and next unto God, I do and will submit me in all things to your goodness and pleasure, to do with me whatsoever shall please your grace. Humbly beseeching your Highness to consider that I am but a woman and your child, who hath committed her soul only to God, and her body to be ordered in this world, As it shall stand with your pleasure, whose order and direction, whatsoever it shall please your Highness to limit and direct unto me, I shall most humbly and willingly stand, content to follow, obey, and accomplish, in all points.

And so, in the lowest manner that I can, I beseech your grace to accept me, your humble daughter, which, or who, doth not a little rejoice to hear the comfortable tidings not only to me but to all your grace's realm concerning the marriage which is between your grace and the queen, Jane Seymour, now being your grace's wife and my mother-in-law. The hearing thereof caused nature to constrain me to be a humble suitor to your grace, to be so good and gracious lord and father to me, as to give me leave to wait upon the queen, and to do her grace such service as shall please her to command me, which my heart shall be as ready and obedient to fulfill next unto your grace, as the most humble servant that she hath.

Trusting to your grace is mercy to come into your presence, which ever hath and shall be the greatest comfort that I can have within this world, Having also a full hope in your grace's natural pity, which you have always used as much, or more, than any prince christened, that your grace shall show the same unto me, your most humble and obedient daughter, which daily prayeth to God to have your grace in his holy keeping, with long life, and as much honor as ever had a king, and to send your grace shortly a prince, Whereof no creature living shall more rejoice, or heartlier pray for continually than I, as my duty bindeth me. From Hunsdon, the first day of June, 1536. By your grace's most humble and obedient daughter and handmaid, Mary.

This letter was written on occasion of Jane Seymour's public appearance as Queen, May 29th. It was accompanied with another to Cromwell, dated the 30th of May. thanking him for having obtained leave of writing to her father, and praying him to continue his good offices till it may please his grace to permit her approach to his presence at the time his Cromwell's discretion may deem suitable. But this favour was not granted till after a compliance was extorted from the princess to sign the cruel articles which stigmatized her own birth and her mother's marriage with as many opprobrious terms as henry and his satellites chose to dictate. One week afterwards, Mary wrote another short letter, from which may be gathered, that her sire had declared that, he forgave her all her offences.

These were truly the injuries with which he had loaded her, but he had not yet either written to her, or admitted her into his presence. Favors she humbly sued for, in her letter written two days afterwards, as follows. Lady Mary to King Henry VIII. In as humble and lowly a manner as is possible for me, I beseech your most gracious Highness of your daily blessing, and, albeit I have already, as I trust in God, upon mine humble suit and submission, Requiring mercy and forgiveness for mine offenses to your majesty, obtained the same with license to write unto you. Whereby I have also conceived great hope and confidence, that your grace, of your inestimable goodness, will likewise forgive me my said offenses, and withdraw your displeasure conceived upon the same.

Yet shall my joy never return perfectly to me. Nay, my hope be satisfied, until such time as it may please your grace, Sensibly to express your gracious forgiveness to me, or such towardness thereof, and of the reconciliation of your favor by your most gracious letters, or some token or message, as I may conceive a perfect trust, that I shall not only receive my most hearty and fervent desire therein, but for a confirmation thereof, penetrate an access to your presence, which shall, of all worldly things, Be to me most joyous and comfortable, for in the same I shall have the fruition of your most noble presence most heartily, as my duty requireth desired. I do most heartily beseech your grace to pardon me, though I presume thus to molest your gracious ears with my suits and rude writing, for nature hath had its operation in the same.

If soons, therefore, most humbly prostrate before your noble feet, Your most obedient subject and humble child, that hath not only repented her offences hitherto, but also desired simply from henceforth and wholly, next to Almighty God, to put my state, continuance, and living in your gracious mercy, and likewise to accept the condition thereof at your disposition and appointment. whatsoever it shall be, desiring your majesty to have pity on me in the granting of mine humble suits and desires, who shall continually pray to Almighty God, as I am most bounden, to preserve your grace with the Queen, and shortly to send you a prince, which shall be gladder tidings to me than I can express in writing.

From Hunsdon, the 10th of June. Your majesty's most humble and obedient servant, daughter and handmaid. Mary. Neither letter had elicited an answer from the king. The last was enclosed in a letter from Cromwell, which contains this remarkable sentence, that she took him for her chief friend next to God and the Queen. So few days had elapsed since Jane Seymour had become queen, that this expression assuredly implies that some friendly communication must have passed between the Princess Mary and her previously to the death of Anne Boleyn. Cromwell continued to urge more unconditional submission, and even sent her a copy of the sort of letter that was to be efficacious with the king. The poor princess, ill in body and harassed in mind, wrote thus to Cromwell three days afterwards.

Nevertheless, because you have exhorted me to write to his grace again, and I cannot devise what I should write more, but your own last copy, without adding or minishing. Therefore do I send you by my servant the same word for word, and it is unsealed, because I cannot endure to write another copy, for the pain in my head and my teeth hath troubled me so sore this two or three days, and doth yet so continue, that I have very small rest day or night. Mary was at this time in deep mourning for her beloved mother. the imperial ambassador visited her during the month of June, fifteen thirty six, and expressed surprise at the heaviness or mournfulness of her apparel. His errand was to advise her to obey her father unconditionally.

She thanked him for his good counsel, and told him she had written to her father. Here, a provoking hiatus occurs in the manuscript. Eustatio, who had attended her mother's deathbed, Probably delivered some message from the dying queen, relative to the expediency of Mary's submission, but she still had a struggle before she could bring herself to compliance. The ambassador, to whom she had probably forwarded letters in Latin or Spanish, expressed his surprise at her deep learning, and asked her if she was unaided in the composition, which the princess assured him was the case. The visit of the Spanish ambassador was followed by one. From the brother of the new queen, Jane, Edward Seymour, lately created Lord Beauchamp, and appointed Lord Chamberlain for life.

He required her to send in a list of the clothing she needed, and added the welcome present of a riding horse, which benefits Mary thus acknowledged. Lady Mary to my lord. My lord, in my heartiest manner, I commend me unto you, as she which, or who, cannot express in writing the great joy and comfort that I have received by your letters, as by the report of my servant, this bearer, concerning the king, my sovereign father's goodness toward me, which I doubt not, but I have obtained much the better by your continual suit and means. Wherefore, I think myself bound to pray for you during my life, And that I will both do, and will continue with the grace of God. Sir, as touching mine apparel, I have made no bill or list, for the King's Highness's favour is so good clothing unto me, that I can desire no more.

And so I have written to his grace, resting wholly in him, and willing to wear whatsoever his grace shall appoint me. My Lord, I do thank you with all my heart for the horse that you sent me with this bearer, Wherein you have done me a great pleasure, for I had never a one to ride upon, sometimes for my health, and besides that, my servant showeth me that he is such a one, that I may, of good right, accept, not only the mind of the giver, but also the gift. And thus I commit you to God, to whom I do and shall daily pray to be with you, in all your business, and to reward you for so exceeding great pains and labors that you take in my suits. from Hunsdon, the first day of July, your assured loving friend during my life, Mary.

Notwithstanding these signs of restoration to his paternal favour, the king had not condescended to notice the letters of the princess till July, eighth, when she either copied or composed the following epistle. Lady Mary to the king. My bounden duty most humbly remembered, with like desire of your daily blessing, and semblable thanks upon my knees to your majesty, both for your great mercy lately extended unto me, and for the certain arguments of a perfect reconciliation, which of your most abundant goodness I have since perceived. Whereas, upon mine inward and hearty suit and desire, that it would please your Highness to grant me license some time to send my servant to know your grace's health and prosperity, which I beseech our Lord long to preserve, being the thing that is in this world my only comfort.

To my great joy and satisfaction I obtain the same. I have now, to use the benefit of that especial grace, sent this bearer, mine old servant, Randall Dodd, In lieu of a token, to present unto your majesty these my rude letters, written with the hand of her whom your highness shall ever find true, faithful and obedient to you and yours, as far as your majesty and your laws, have and shall limit me, without alteration, until the hour of my death, and so to bring me again relation of your prosperous estate. Most humbly beseeching your highness, in case I be overhasty in sending so soon, to pardon me, and to think that I would a thousandfold more gladly be there, in the room of a poor chamberer, to have the fruition of your presence, than in the course of nature, planted in this your most noble realm.

If this sentence has any meaning, it is, that Mary would rather be a domestic servant near her father during his life, than heiress to his realm after his death. She concludes, and thus i beseech our lord to preserve your grace in health with my very natural mother, the queen, Jane, and to send you shortly issue, which I shall as gladly and willingly serve with my hands under their feet as ever did poor subject their most gracious sovereign. From Hunsdon, the eighth of July, Fifteen Thirty Six, your grace's most humble and obedient daughter and bondmaiden, Mary. henry the eighth knew that his daughter mary was regarded in secret with deep affection by a great majority of his subjects who acknowledged in their hearts notwithstanding all acts of parliament that she was in her present position heiress to the crown and he remained in a furious state of irritation till he had obtained an acknowledgment under her own hand of her illegitimacy since the death of anne boleyn an active parliament had passed which not only illegitimated the infant elizabeth equally with mary but changed the constitution of the succession to more than eastern despotism by enabling the king in default of heirs by jane seymour to leave his dominions like personal property money plate or furniture to whomsoever he chose to bequeath them it has been surmised that the king, by placing his daughters on the same footing with his natural son, Henry, Duke of Richmond, meant to use this privilege in his behalf.

Fortunately, for himself and the kingdom, this youth was removed by sudden death within a little time after passing this iniquitous act. Mary promised unconditional submission to all the king required, consisting with what she considered the laws of God, And the king sent down a deputation of his privy council, to apply the cruel test of her obedience, the principal articles of which were, to acknowledge her mother's marriage incestuous and illegal, her own birth illegitimate, and his own supremacy over the church absolute. It will scarcely excite wonder that Mary demurred at signing these bitter requisitions. She did not think them consistent with her principles, and the council departed without their errand.

although at the head of them the king observed he had, as a favour to her, sent his daughter's cousin, the duke of Norfolk. As soon as they departed, Mary wrote to Cromwell a letter expressive of uneasiness of mind, which drew from him the following insolent reply. Madam, I have received your letter, whereby it appeareth you be in great discomfort, and do desire that I should find the means to speak with you. How great soever your discomfort is, it can be no greater than mine, who hath, upon the receipt of your letters, spoken so much of your repentance for your willful obstinacy against the King's Highness, and of your humble submission in all things, without exception or qualification, to obey his pleasure and laws, and knowing how diversely or differently.

And, contrarily, you proceeded at the late being of his majesty's counsel with you. I am as much ashamed of what I have said, as afraid of what I have done, insomuch as what the sequel thereof shall be, God knoweth. Thus, with your folly, you undo yourself, and all who have wished you good. And I will say unto you, as I have said elsewhere, that it were a great pity ye be not made an example in punishment. If ye will make yourself an example of contempt of God, your natural father, and his laws, by your own only fantasy, contrary to the judgments and determination of all men, that ye must confess to know and love God as much as you do, except ye will show yourself altogether presumptuous. Wherefore, madam, to be plain with you, as God is my witness, I think you the most obstinate and obdurate woman.

All things considered, that ever was, and one that is so perversely deserveth the extremity of mischief. I dare not open my lips to name you, unless I have some ground, that it may appear you were mistaken, meaning evidently misunderstood, or at least repentant for your ingratitude and miserable unkindness, and ready to do all things that ye be bound unto, by your duty and allegiance, if nature were excluded from you, in degree with every other common subject. And therefore, I have sent you a certain book of articles, whereunto, if you will set your hand and subscribe your name, you shall undoubtedly please God, the same being conformable to his truth, as you must conceive in your heart, if you do not dissemble.

Upon the receipt whereof, again from you, with a letter declaring that you think in heart what you have subscribed with hand, I shall, as soon as venture to speak for your reconciliation. But if you will not with speed, leave off all your sinister counsels, which have brought you to the point of utter undoing, without remedy. I take my leave of you forever, and desire that you will never write or make means to me hereafter, for I shall never think otherwise of you than as the most ungrateful person to your dear and benign father. I advise you to nothing, But I beseech God never to help me, if I know it not to be your bounden duty, by God's laws and man's laws, that I must needs judge that person, who shall refuse it not meet to live in a Christian congregation.

To the witness thereof I take Christ, whose mercy I refuse, if I write anything but what I have professed in my heart, and know to be true. The overbearing style of this epistle effected the end for which Cromwell had laboured so long, and terrified Mary into signing the articles she had previously rejected. The young princess had been universally accused of meanness, because she yielded to these threats and reproaches, and signed the articles mentioned in this letter. But those who blame her can scarcely have dispassionately examined the whole circumstances of the case, while her mother lived, she was utterly inflexible. Neither bribes nor the deadliest menaces could shake her firmness into the slightest acknowledgment which compromised that beloved mother's honour.

As to her own individual interest, it either remained the same as in her mother's lifetime, or approximated nearer to the crown since the degradation of her sister Elizabeth and the death of Anne Boleyn's son. therefore it is vain to attribute her renunciation of her rights to any cause excepting a yearning desire to be once more enfolded in a parental embrace. She was gone, whose noble mind would have been pained by her daughter's voluntary degradation, and Mary had no one left but herself who could be injured by her compliance. Henry had been used to caress his daughter fondly when domesticated with her, There is no testimony that he ever used personally, an angry word to her. She loved him tenderly, and with natural self-deception attributed all the evil wrought against her mother and herself to the machinations of Anne Boleyn.

She thought if she were restored to the society of the king, instead of lingering her life away in the nursery prison at Hunsdon, she should regain her former interest in his heart, and she signed the prescribed articles. which are as follows. Lady Mary's Submission. The confession of me, the Lady Mary, made upon certain points and articles underwritten, in the which, as I do now plainly and with all mine heart, confess and declare mine inward sentence, belief, and judgment, with a due conformity of obedience to the laws of the realm, so minding forever to persist and continue in this determination, without change, alteration or variance. I do most humbly beseech the King's Highness, my father, whom I have obstinately and unobediently offended in the denial of the same heretofore, to forgive mine offenses therein, and to take me to his most gracious mercy.

First, I confess and knowledge the King's Majesty to be my sovereign Lord and King, In the imperial crown of this realm of England, and to submit myself to his Highness, and to all and singular laws and statutes of this realm, as becometh a true and faithful subject to do, which I shall obey, keep, observe, advance, and maintain, according to my bounden duty, with all the power, force, and qualities, that God hath endued me during my life. Signed, Mary. Item. I do recognize, accept, take, repute, and knowledge the King's Highness, to be supreme head in earth, under Christ, of the Church of England, and do utterly refuse the Bishop of Rome's pretended authority, power, and jurisdiction within this realm heretofore usurped, according to the laws and statutes made in that behalf, and of all the King's true subjects, humbly received, admitted, obeyed, kept, and observed.

And also do utterly renounce, and forsake all manner of remedy, interest, and advantage, which I may by any means claim by the Bishop of Rome's laws, process, jurisdiction, or sentence, at this present time, or in any wise hereafter, by any manner, title, color, mean or case, that is, shall or can be devised for that purpose. Signed, Mary. item, I do freely, frankly, and for the discharge of my duty towards God, the King's Highness, and his laws, without other respect, recognize and acknowledge that the marriage heretofore had between His Majesty and my mother, the late Princess Dowager, was by God's law and man's law incestuous and unlawful. Signed, Mary. Rottesley was the person who brought the rejected articles from Mary's reconsideration, He had authority to promise, in case of compliance, that her household should be re-established with every consideration to her respectability and comfort.

This privy counsellor likewise brought express orders that Mary should no longer call Elizabeth princess, but sister, an injunction which Mary in her next letter alluded to with something like archness, but at the same time with sisterly kindness to the motherless infant. Surely there is something of touching simplicity in the sentence where she says, And, now you think it meet, I shall never call her by any other name but Sister. Good, Mr. Secretary, how much I am bound to you, which have not only travailed, when I was most drownded in folly, to recover me before I sunk, and was utterly past recovery, and so to present me to the face of grace and mercy, but desireth not since with your good and wholesome counsels, so to arm me from any relapse, that I cannot, unless I were too wilful and obstinate, whereof there is now no spark in me, fall again into any danger.

But leaving the recital of your goodness apart, which I cannot recount, I answer the particulars of your credence sent by my friend, Mr. Rodesley. First, concerning the princess, Elizabeth, so I think I must call her yet, For I would be loath to offend. I offered, at her entry to that name and honor, to call her sister, but it was refused, unless I would add the other title unto it, which I denied then, not more obstinately than I am sorry for it now, for that I did therein offend my most gracious father and his just laws. And now you think it meet, I shall never call her by any other name than sister. touching the nomination of such women as i would have about me, surely, Mr. Secretary, what men or women soever the King's Highness shall appoint to wait upon me, without exception, shall be to me right-heartily welcome.

Albeit to express my mind to you, whom I think worthy to be accepted for your faithful service done to the King's Majesty and to me, since they have come into my company. I promise you, on my faith, Margaret Bainton and Susanna Clare-Sue have, in every condition, used themselves as faithfully, painfully, and diligently as ever did women in such a case, as sorry when I was not so conformable as became me, and as glad when I inclined to duty as could be devised. One other there is that was sometime my maid, whom for her virtue I love, and could be glad to have in my company, and that is Mary Brown, And here be all that I will recommend, and my estimation of this shall be measured at the King's Highness, my most merciful Father's pleasure and appointment, as reason is.

For mine opinion, touching pilgrimages, purgatory, relics, and such like, I assure you I have none at all, but such as I shall receive from him who hath mine whole heart in his keeping. That is, the king's most gracious highness, my most benign father, who shall imprint in the same, touching these matters and all other, with his inestimable virtue, high wisdom and excellent learning, shall think convenient and limit unto me. To whose presence, I pray, God, I may come once ere I die, for every day is a year till I have a fruition of it. Beseeching you, good Mr. Secretary, to continue mine humble suit for the same, and for all other things whatsoever they be, to repute my heart so firmly knit to his pleasure, that I can by no means vary from the direction and appointment of the same, and thus most heartily fare you well.

from Hunsdon, this friday at ten o'clock of the night, your assured loving friend, Mary. The continued discussions as to the right of the daughters of Henry VIII to the title of princess led to the conviction that at this era, that title was only bestowed on the heiress presumptive of the crown of England, or at the very utmost, to the eldest daughter of the sovereign, though it is doubtful whether she ever possessed it during existence of brothers. Elizabeth of York was called My Lady Princess before the birth of her brothers, and perhaps retained the title after they were born, but her sisters were only called Lady Cicily, Lady Anne, etc., instead of the Princess Cicily, etc., as they would have been in modern times.

It seems doubtful if any of the daughters of Henry, Edward I, Edward III, or Henry IV, were ever turned princess by their contemporaries, but the rank of all the daughters of the English crown was designated by the elegant address of grace, which was likewise the epithet used in speaking to and of the king and queen. At the same time that Mary wrote the letter to Cromwell just quoted, she addressed the following one to her father. Lady Mary to the king, my bounden duty most humbly remember to your most excellent majesty, Whereas I am unable and insufficient to render and express to your Highness those most hearty and humble thanks for your gracious mercy and fatherly pity, surmounting mine offences at this time, extended towards me.

I shall lie prostrate at your noble feet humbly, and with the very bottom of my heart, beseech your grace to repute that in me, which in my poor heart, remaining in your most noble hand, I have conceived and professed towards your grace. whiles the breath shall remain in my body. That is, that as I am in such merciful sort recovered, being almost lost in mine own folly, that your majesty may as well accept me, justly your bounden slave by redemption, as your most humble and obedient child and subject. My sister Elizabeth is in good health, thanks to our lord, and such a child toward, as I doubt not, But your highness shall have cause to rejoice in time coming, as knoweth Almighty God, who send your grace with the Queen, my good mother, health, with the accomplishment of your desires.

From Hunsdon, the twenty-first day of July. Your highness's most humble daughter and faithful subject, Mary. This letter, dated the twenty-first of July, fifteen thirty-six, may be considered as the concluding one of the curious historical series, Connected with Mary's forced renunciation of her birthright. The opening phrases are couched in the species of formula, prescribed to Mary from the commencement of the correspondence, in which the most servile terms of verbal protestations are studied, as offerings at the throne of the despot. But the letter ends in a manner. that will startle many a preconceived idea of the disposition of Mary in the minds of the readers, who are willing to be guided by facts, not invective.

Noble, indeed, it was of Mary thus to answer the agonized cry for forgiveness from the dying Anne Boleyn, by venturing a word in season in behalf of her forlorn little one. Even this generous trait has been inveighed against, as an act of mean flattery to the parental pride of Henry, And had it happened during the prosperity of Elizabeth, so it might have been considered. But mark how a plain matter of chronology places a good deed in its true light. So far from feeling any pride as the father of Elizabeth, Henry had just disowned her as a princess of his line, and horrid doubts had been murmured that she was the child of Lord Rockford, and not even to be ranked as the king's illegitimate daughter.

who can then deny that it was a bold step of sisterly affection on the part of mary to mention the early promise of the little elizabeth as she does in this letter in terms calculated to awaken paternal interest in the bosom of her father.

13 13 - Mary, Ch II pt 2 35:10

Mary, chapter two, part two, nothing now prevented the settlement of Mary's household. It was effected on a scale of the lowest parsimony, When compared to the extravagant outlay of her annual expenditure as an infant, and when she kept her court at Ludlow Castle, yet she expressed herself cheerfully and gratefully to Rottesley, in the following letter, in which she informed him that he was the fourth man to whom she had ever written. It will be observed, she mentions with great interest a faithful servant of her mother. Mr. Rottesley, I have received your letters by this bearer, Which compel me to do that thing that I never did to any man except the King's Highness, my Lord Privyseal, and once to my Lord Besham, or Beauchamp, Edward Seymour.

That is to say, write to you to give you thanks for your great goodness and gentleness. Besides all other times, now showed to me, as well as sending this messenger for my quietness, as in entertaining my servant, Randall Dodd. Furthermore, there is another, who, as I hear say, also much beholden to you. That is Anthony Roque. For although he be not my servant, he was my mother's, and is an honest man, as I think. I do love him well, and would do him good. Sir, besides all these things, I think myself much beholden to you, for remembering my cook, whom, I think plainly, I have obtained much sooner by your good means. For as I take you to be my second suitor, as God knoweth, who help you in all your business, from Hunsdon, this Thursday at nine of the clock in the morning, your friend to my power during my life, Mary.

Mary, at the conclusion of these painful trials, settled in some degree of peace and comfort, Holding a joint household with her little sister at Hunsdon. The persons nominated to attend her at this time continued in her service the principal part of her life. These were four gentlewomen, four gentlemen, two chamberers, a physician, a chaplain, five yeomen, four grooms of the chamber, one footman, four grooms of the stable, a laundress, and a wood hewer. her mother, queen katharine, had at the hour of her death but three maids, as appears by her last letter to her husband. Two of these were anxious to enter mary's service. One of them, Elizabeth Harvey, applied to the council for permission, but was refused by the king.

The other, Elizabeth Darrell, to whom queen katharine had left three hundred marks, had said she saw no hope, of Lady Mary yielding to the king's requisitions, and therefore petitioned for a situation in the service of Queen Jane Seymour. In the midst of all her degradations, Mary was regarded with the utmost sympathy by her country. Poets offered her their homage, and celebrated the beauty of her person at a time when no possible benefit could accrue to any one by flattering her. John Haywood, one of the earliest dramatists of England, Wrote the following stanzas in her praise, which occur in a poem of considerable length, entitled, A Description of a Most Noble Lady, ad-viewed by John Haywood.

Give place, ye ladies, all be gone. Give place in bower and hall. For why? Behold, here cometh one, who doth surpass ye all. The virtue of her looks excels the precious stone. Ye need none other books to read or look upon. If the world were sought full far, who could find such a white? Her beauty shined like a star within the frosty night. Her color comes and goes with such a goodly grace, more ruddy than the rose within her lovely face. Nature hath lost the mold whence she her form did take, or else I doubt that nature could so fair a creature make. In life as Dian chased, in truth Penelope, in word and deed steadfast, What need I more to say? Mary was her own mistress, and had the command of her own time, after the establishment of her household, Though doubtless, she looked up to the excellent lady Margaret Bryan as her guide and protectress, who continued in the office of governess to her little sister, Elizabeth, with whom Mary kept house jointly for three years to a certainty.

The manner in which Mary passed her time there, and her course of daily studies, nearly coincided with the rules laid down for her by Vives, her mother's learned friend. She commenced the day with the perusal of the scriptures, She then spent some hours in the study of languages, and devoted a third portion to the acquirement of knowledge of an extraordinary kind, considering her sex and station. Crispin, Lord of Mehervey, who was resident in England in the year, fifteen thirty six, and was author of a chronicle of current events in French verse, has declared therein that the Princess Mary studied astronomy, geography, natural philosophy, and the mathematics, and read the orators, the historians, and the poets of Greece and Rome, in their native languages.

She used to read over with her chaplain the daily service. She finished the day by working with her needle, and playing on the lute, the virginals, or the regals, three instruments on which she excelled. Latin she wrote and spoke with ease. It was the medium of communication with all the learned of that day, not only on scientific subjects, But as a universal language, in which the ecclesiastics and the leading characters of all nations were able to confer. She likewise spoke and wrote in French and Spanish. She was well acquainted with Italian, but did not venture to converse in it. In music, she particularly excelled, for the rapidity of her touch on the manochord and lute. Mr. Paston was paid as her teacher on the Virginals, and Philip Van Wilder, of the King's Privy Chamber.

as her instructor on the lute. The expense of such instruction appears to have been as high as forty shillings per month. In the autumn of 1536, notwithstanding the disinheriting statutes lately passed, overtures were renewed for the marriage of Mary with Henry, Duke of Orlon, hence being perpetually thrown out by her father of the possibility of her restoration to her place in the succession. Mary had perhaps a preoccupied heart, for one of the letters of becatelli to his friend, Reginald Pohl, December Fifteen Thirty Six, speaks of the reports current from England. That it was the general opinion that the princess Mary would one day marry him because of the love she had borne him from her infancy.

Lord Morley dedicated one of his translations from Erasmus to her. And, speaking of the change which had recently taken place in her station, he exclaims, O noble and virtuous king's daughter, how is it that those of our time be so blinded? I can thank no other but that the end of the world hasten apace. He calls her, the second Mary of this world, for virtue, grace, and goodness, and beseeches her to help correct his work, where he has by any means erred in the translation. Notwithstanding the concessions made by the princess, no trace can be found of her admission to her father's presence before the Christmas of 1537. From this time, the diary of her privy-purse expenses commences, forming a species of journal of her life, in most instances to her credit, accepting items of high play at cards, And a general propensity to betting and gambling, which will excite surprise.

In this examination of the private life of a princess, so exceedingly detested by her country, a vigilant scrutiny has been kept in quest of the evil traits, with which even the private character of the unfortunate Mary has been branded. The search has been in vain. These records speak only of charity, affection to her little sister, kindness to her dependents. Feminine accomplishments, delicate health, generosity to her godchildren, many of whom were orphans dependent on her alms, fondness for birds. Very little hunting or hawking is mentioned, and no bear-baiting. Her time seems, indeed, to have passed most blamelessly, if the gaming propensities above mentioned may be considered rather faults of the court when she visited it than faults of hers.

It is certain Henry VIII was one of the most inveterate gamblers that ever wore a crown. No doubt the royal example was followed by his courtiers, for very high play at the Christmas festival must have taken place at the court of Queen Jane Seymour if the losings of the Princess Mary are calculated according to the relative value of money. The visit of the Princess Mary at the royal palace of Richmond commenced December the ninth, fifteen thirty six. How the longest strange father and daughter met, no pen has chronicled. But it is evident she regained, when once admitted to his presence, a large share of his former affections, tokens of which were shown by presents and New Year's gifts. The king presented her with a bordering, for a dress, of goldsmith's work, perhaps some rich ornament belonging to her mother.

It was not new, for she paid to a goldsmith, four pounds, three shillings, four pence, for lengthening the borders, adding in her own hand, that the King's Grace had given it to her. Likewise, she noted payment to the goldsmith for coming to Greenwich to take her orders. The court moved from Richmond to Greenwich before Christmas Day. Mary lost at cards six angels, or two pounds, five shillings. Directly she arrived at Richmond. In six days, another supply of six angels was needed. Soon after, a third of twenty shillings, besides thirty shillings lent her by Lady Carew, when her pocket was again emptied at the cards. In the course of this week, the entry of a quarter wages of one of her footmen occurs of ten shillings, which offers a fair criterion to establish the extravagance of her card losings, by comparing the present value of a footman's wages for a quarter of a year, with every ten shillings thus dissipated.

As some atonement for this idle outlay, one pound three shillings was paid to the woman who keepeth Mary price, my lady Mary's god-daughter, and fifteen shillings in alms, and three shillings nine pence, to a poor woman of her grace living at Hatfield, and seven shillings six pence to John of Hatfield. Cromwell presented the princess with a new year's gift, of some value, for a present given to his servant, who brought it amounted to three angels. He likewise sent her a gift of sweet waters and fumes, for which his servant was given a gratuity of seven shillings sixpence. Among the other characters of historical interest, who sent their offerings to Mary, on her return to court, occur the names of Lady Rockford, then one of Queen Jane Seymour's bedchamber ladies, of her father, Lord Morley, Mary's old literary friend.

of Lord Beauchamp, the queen's brother, and his wife, likewise Lady Salisbury. To Queen Jane's maids, the princess presented each a ducat, amounting altogether to forty shillings. The queen's page had forty-five shillings for bringing the New Year's gift of his royal mistress. Besides other presents, she gave the princess fifty pounds. The princess made many minor gifts at the New Year to those to whom etiquette would not permit the offering of money. For instance, she bought of the lady mayoress of London six bonnets, four new year's gifts, at one pound each, and likewise paid her ten shillings for two frontlets, a plain proof that the lady mayoress, in fifteen thirty seven, kept a haberdashers or milliners shop.

The lord mayor that year was Sir Richard Gresham, a near relative of the Boleyns, a circumstance which makes this little mercantile transaction between the princess mary and her sister's industrious kinswoman a curious incident. Yet ample proof is afforded by the privy-purse accounts that the princess mary, though formerly forbidden to do so by Rodesley and Cromwell, persisted in giving to her little sister Elizabeth the title of grace. This was perhaps owing to the adhesiveness of her disposition. which could not endure to alter anything to which she had accustomed herself. To an item of one pound, two shillings, sixpence, given to Mr. Bingham, the princess has added in her own hand the explanation, Chaplain to my lady Elizabeth Grace.

thus disobeying wilfully and deliberately the orders of counsel which degraded her young sister from royal rank. Afterwards, wherever the name of Elizabeth occurs in her sister's account journal, she is always mentioned with this distinction. The princess Mary paid five shillings for mending a clock given her by Lady Rockford, and twenty pence to Haywood's servant for bringing her regals, a sort of portable finger-organ, from London to Greenwich. she had still further dealings with Lady Gresham, the lady mayoress, for divers and sundry things of her had. Forty-two shillings were paid in January. Among other incidental expenses, attempts were made to charge the princess with various pottles of sack, charges which she pertinaciously resisted, and the intrusive pottles were carefully scored out by her hand.

The princess seems to have taken a progress after the festival of the new year to visit her former mansion of Beaulew, or Newhall, in Essex, probably to take possession of this favorite residence. She, however, returned to the court at Greenwich, and remained there the rest of January and part of February. She paid in that month five shillings for making a window in her bedchamber there, and ten shillings for the hire of a room to keep her robes in. The end of february she removed to the palace of Westminster, and the French gardener there presented her with apples. She gave generous donations to the poor prisoners in various prisons in London, a favorite charity of hers, and greatly needed, for the horrors and deprivations in prisons of all kinds rendered benevolence thus bestowed a very good work, and as such, it was always considered from the first institution of Christianity.

the situation in which mary was placed at court in these occasional visits was a very trying one. She was a young woman whose person was much admired, surrounded by parties, hostile to her both on a religious and political account, and she was wholly bereft of female protection. Her tender mother and her venerable relative, Lady Salisbury, had both been torn from her, and who could supply their places in her esteem and veneration. A perplexed and thorny path lay before her, yet at a time of life when temptation most abounds, she trod it free from the reproach of her most inveterate political adversaries. The writings of her contemporaries abound with praises of her virtuous conduct. She was, says the Italian history of Pollino, distinguished when a young virgin for the purity of her life and her spotless manners.

When she came to her father's court, She gave surprise to all those who composed it. So completely was decorum out of fashion there. As to the king, he affected to disbelieve in the reality of female virtue, and therefore laid a plot to prove his daughter. This scheme he carried into effect, but remained astonished at the strength and stability of her principles. Such an assertion, it is very hard to credit. it may be possible to find husbands willing to be as cruel as henry if they had the power, but thanks be to god, who has planted so holy and blessed a love as that of a father for his daughter in the heart of man, it is not possible to find a parallel case in the annals of the present or the past.

And if a father could be believed capable of contriving a snare for the honor of his daughter, it ought to be remembered that family honor is especially compromised by the misconduct of the females who belong to it, and Henry VIII has never been represented as deficient in pride. This singular assertion being, nevertheless, related by a contemporary, it became the duty of a biographer to translate it. the princess was resident at the palace of St. James in the month of March, and gave a reward to the king's watermen for rowing her from the court to Lady Beauchamp's house, and back again. She had recently stood godmother to one of that lady's children. The fondness of the princess for standing godmother was excessive.

She was sponsored to fifteen children during the year, fifteen thirty seven, in all grades of life, from the heir of england down to the children of the cottagers. Her godchildren were often brought to pay their duty, and she frequently made them presents. She stood godmother to a child of Lord William Howard, and to a daughter of Lord Dudley, who was afterwards the Duke of Northumberland, put to death by her sentence. Her godchild was probably Lady Sidney. The princess, as before said, was sponsored to one of Edward Seymour's numerous daughters, Three of whom were afterwards her maids of honour, and the most learned ladies in the realm. Lady Mary Seymour, the goddaughter of the princess, in partnership with her sisters, Lady Jane and Lady Catherine, wrote a centenary of Latin sonnets on the death of the accomplished Queen of Navarre, sister to Francis I.

Whilst the Princess Mary abode at court, The yeomen of the King's Guard presented her with a leak on St. David's Day, and were rewarded fifteen shillings. In the succeeding summer, she was afflicted with one of her chronic fits of illness, and the King's physicians attended her in June and July. She sent Queen Jane from Bo Lu, presents of quails and cucumbers. There is an item in the accounts, given in reward for cucumbers, and the same given to the Queen at divers times. it appears mary practised the good custom of importing curious plants from spain and these cucumbers were perhaps among the number mary had returned to her home at hunsdon in the month of september indications exist that her sister elizabeth was domesticated with her as notations occur in her expenses of presents to her sister's personal attendance mary stood sponsor to a poor infant the child of one welsh beside hunsdon on the seventh of october.

She gave a benefaction to this little one and bountiful alms to her poor pensioners, apparently as farewell gifts, the same day, and came to Hampton Court to be present at the accouchement of her royal friend, Queen Jane. It is likely she brought her little sister with her, since both were present at the christening of Prince Edward, to whom the Princess Mary stood sponsor in manner already detailed. she was dressed on this occasion in a kirtle of cloth of silver ornamented with pearls. She gave to the queen's nurse and midwife the large sum of thirty pounds, and the poor people in alms the day the prince was born forty shillings. She presented a gold cup as a christening gift to her brother, but as it is not charged in her expenses, it was probably one of those that had been profusely bestowed on her in her infancy.

at the conclusion of the baptismal ceremony, Mary took possession of her little sister Elizabeth, and led her by the hand from Hampton Court Chapel to her lodgings in the palace. ten days after, the calamitous death of queen Jane turned all the courtly festivals for the birth of the heir apparent into mourning. The king retired to Windsor, and left his daughter to bear the principal part in the funeral ceremonials about the corpse of the deceased queen. These were performed with all the magnificence of the Catholic Church. whilst the deceased queen laid in state in Hampton Court Chapel, the princess Mary appeared as chief mourner at dirges and masses, accompanied by her ladies and those of the royal household.

She knelt at the head of the coffin, habited in black. A white handkerchief was tied over her head and hung down. All the ladies similarly habited knelt about the queen's coffin in lamentable wise. The princess caught cold at these lugubrious vigils. performed in november nights, and the king sent his surgeon, Nicholas Simpson, to draw one of her teeth, for which service she paid him the enormous sum of six angels. On the day of the funeral, the corpse of Jane Seymour was removed from Hampton Court to Windsor in stately procession. Very fatiguing it must have been that day to the Princess Mary, since she followed the car on which the body was placed, mounted on horseback, her steed was covered with black velvet trappings.

She was attended on her right hand by her kinsman, Lord Montague, who was so soon to fall a victim to her father's cruelty, and on the left by Lord Clifford. Behind her followed her favourite cousin, Lady Margaret Douglas, who was called by the Herald, Lady Margaret Howard, a proof that her wedlock with Lord Thomas Howard was believed by the contemporary Herald, who has described this scene. Lady Frances Brandon, daughter of Mary Tudor and Suffolk, likewise had her place near her cousin, the Princess Mary. They were followed by the Countesses of Rutland and Oxford, both ladies of royal descent, and by the Countesses of Suffolk, Bath and Southampton. As the funeral passed on the road between Hampton and Windsor, the Princess Mary distributed thirty shillings in alms to poor persons begging by the wayside, she officiated in st george's chapel, windsor, the day after, as chief mourner at the interment of queen jane, and she paid for thirteen masses for the repose of her soul.

She gave a sovereign of peace to the women of the deceased queen's chamber, and many gifts to the officers of her household. Mary remained at Windsor Castle with her father till Christmas. King Henry was supposed to be bemoaning the death of queen jane, he was really deeply occupied in matrimonial negotiations for himself, but ostensibly for his daughter. Meantime, Mary stood godmother to two more infants, one being the child of her apothecary, the other that of her physician, according to an entry in her accounts. Item given to John, pothecary, at the christening of his child, my lady's grace being godmother, forty shillings. item given at the christening of Dr. Michael's child, a salt, silver gilt, my lady's grace being godmother to the same, price of the salt, two pounds, six shillings, eight pence.

She usually added her own name to that of the godchildren as Edward Maria or Anne Maria. Christmas was kept at Richmond Palace. A payment was made by the Princess Mary in December of five shillings to a waterman called Perkin of Richmond, for the ferriage on the Thames of her and her servants coming there from Windsor. Mary amused herself this winter by embroidering a cushion as a new year's gift to Rottesley, and a box wrought with needlework and silver for her sister, my lady Elizabeth Grace, as she is designated in the diary of expenses. Mary likewise prepared a cap, which cost two pounds five shillings for her infant brother and godson, and withal made his nurse, mother Jackson, a present of a bonnet and frontlet, which cost twenty shillings.

The princess remained at Richmond till February, and during this time lost money at cards to Lady Hertford and Lady Margaret Gray. She gave considerable sums and alms, and honestly paid William Allen of Richmond the value of two of his sheep killed by her greyhounds. She paid for the board and teaching of her poor godchildren, and several items were charged for necessaries provided for Jane the Fool, a functionary who is first named in the autumn accounts of 1537. Jane the Fool was sometimes exalted on horseback, as her mistress paid for the food of a horse kept for her use. Payments for shoes and stockings, linen, damask gowns, and charges for shaving, Jane's fool's head, frequently occur in the diary of expenses.

The princess concluded her long visit at Richmond Palace after Candlemas Day, when she went to Hanworth. She was forced to employ persons for making the road passable thither. She paid these pioneers seven shillings, and gave besides four shillings fourpence alms on the road to Hanworth. among many other odd gifts, she was presented with orange pies by my lady Derby. Oranges seem to have been in general domestic use since the reign of Edward I. At this time, they were bought for the use of the princess at the rate of tenpence per hundred. Lady Hertford's servant brought the princess quince pies. She was sent cockles and oysters, and received presents of strawberries as early as April and May.

a proof that the art of forcing fruit by artificial means was practiced in England at that period. Many items occur of bottles of rose-water, a preparation in that century considered as an acceptable gift to royalty. Mary paid this summer, repeated visits to her infant brother at Hampton Court. Gifts to his nurse, servants and minstrels form heavy articles in her expenses. She appears to have watched over his infancy with the care of a mother. lady margaret douglas was in attendance on the princess at this time, for she was repaid twenty shillings for articles purchased for her use. The same year, the princess received into her household and protection the lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, a beautiful girl, who has excited no small interest in the literary world as the fair Geraldine, celebrated by the accomplished Earl of Surrey.

She was the near kinswoman of the princess since her mother lady elizabeth grey was daughter of thomas marquess of dorset eldest son of queen elizabeth woodville her father the earl of kildare with the five gallant geraldines his uncles had all perished in the preceding year by the hands of the executioner lady kildare was left a widow dependent on the alms of her tyrant kinsman whether it was the princess mary's desire to receive her destitute young cousin or whether she was sent to her at Hunsdon by the king's pleasure is not precisely defined, but it is certain that a firm friendship ever after existed between the princess Mary and the impoverished orphan of the Geraldines. More than one treaty of marriage had been negotiated by Henry for his daughter since the disinheriting act of parliament had passed, he always setting forth that by the same act It remained in his power to restore her to her place in the succession, if agreeable to his will.

He had been so long used to amuse himself with these negotiations, that they evidently formed a part of his pastime. Yet Mary's early desire of leading a single life was seldom threatened with contradiction by any prospect of these marriage treaties being brought to a successful conclusion. Thus passed away the suit of the Prince of Portugal, made the same year. The year, fifteen thirty eight, was one of great trouble and convulsion in England. The serious insurrection of the Catholics, called the Pilgrimage of Grace, which had occasionally agitated the north since the autumn of fifteen thirty six, was renewed nearer the court, and several nobles connected with the royal family were suspected of collusion.

The most dreadful executions took place. One unfortunate female, Lady Bulmer, was burnt alive for high treason and sorcery. Her husband butchered under the same pretense in Smithfield. The land reeked with judicial bloodshed, and the representatives of some of the most noble families in England perished on the scaffold. Among the requisitions of the northern insurgents, there was always a clause for restoration of the Princess Mary to her royal rank, a circumstance replete with the greatest danger to herself, And very wary must she have guided her course, to have passed through the awful year of 1538, without exciting greater jealousy than she did from her father and his government. Her establishment was for a time, certainly broken up, for a chasm of more than a year, appears in the book of her privy-purse expenses.

She had, in the preceding autumn, excited the anger of her father and Cromwell, by affording hospitality to some desolate strangers, Probably some of the dispossessed religious from the overthrown monasteries, many of whom wandered about in the most piteous state of destitution. The princess promised Cromwell by letter not to offend in this way again, and adds, she fears the worst has been made of the matter to the king. The Christmas of 1538, found Cromwell and the Duke of Saxony, the head of the Protestant League in Germany, busy negotiating the union of the strictly Catholic Mary with the young Duke of Cleves, brother to the Duchess of Saxony. Burgartius, the vice-chamberlain of Saxony, was likewise employed in the proposal.

This dignitary, it appears, had applied for a portrait of Mary, but was answered by Cromwell, that no instance can be quoted of a king's daughter of such high degree, Having her picture sent abroad for approval. But Burgardius, the Duke's vice-chamberlain, whose self having seen the Lady Mary, can testify of her proportion, countenance, and beauty. And although, he adds, she be the king's natural daughter only, yet nevertheless she is endowed and adorned, as all the world knoweth, as well of such grace and beauty and excellent proportion of person as of most excellent learning. honourable behaviour, and of all honest virtues and good qualities, that it is not to be doubted when all the rest as portion, etc., should be agreed, that no man would stick or stay concerning her beauty and goodness, but be more than contented, as he, Vice Chamberlain Burgartius, knoweth well, who saw her visage.

thus, cromwell continued to insist that the faiths and accomplishments of mary quite counterbalanced the defects of her title and fortune, but this marriage treaty proved as futile as the preceding ones, and only served to introduce the unfortunate wedlock of Anne of Cleves and Henry VIII. The beloved friends of Mary's youth, the Countess of Salisbury and her family, were in the commencement of the year, fifteen thirty nine, attained without trial, and overwhelmed in one sweeping ruin. In the spring of the same year, Lord Montague, the elder brother of Reginald Pohl, was beheaded on slight pretenses, and the elegant Marquess of Exeter, Henry VIII's first cousin and former favorite, shared Montague's doom.

The Countess of Salisbury was immured in the tower, and at the same time, bereft of all property, even of the power of purchasing herself a warm garment to shelter her aged limbs. mary's other friend, the wretched widow, Gertrude, Marchioness of Exeter, involved in her husband's sentence, was imprisoned in the tower, expecting daily execution. Her captivity was shared by her little son, Edward, the hapless heir of Courtenay, who was too young even to permit the pretence of having offended. as this utter desolation of these nobles and semi-royal families was entirely attributed by their tyrannical oppressor to their relationship and friendship for Reginald Pohl, whose chief crime was his firm support of the claims of Catherine of Aragon.

It may be easily supposed how much the princess was agonized by their calamities. At this juncture, so replete with peril to herself, Mary was dwelling at Hertford Castle with her little sister Elizabeth, it appears she had had no establishment of her own since the jealousy had occurred respecting the hospitality she had afforded to distress strangers at her dwelling. A tradition actually prevalent at Hertford Castle that a queen-mary was captive there for nearly two years, and a little room in one of the turrets is shown as a place where she used to read and study. Mary, queen of Scots, is the person whom common report has identified with this traditionary imprisonment, but it is scarcely needful to observe that she was never so far south by many score miles as Hertford Town or Castle.

Local reports of this kind may usually be traced to some forgotten historical reality, and satisfactorily explained if rational allowance is made for the confusion occasioned by similar names and station. thus it may be observed that our biography loses the princess mary of england at Hertford Castle in fifteen thirty eight and finds her there again at the end of fifteen thirty nine under a sort of palace restraint and when it is remembered that she was afterwards queen mary little doubt can exist that her durance has been attributed by the Hertford traditions to her fair and popular namesake of scotland.

14 14 - Mary, Ch II pt 3 30:36

The Life of the Queens of England. The Life of the Queen of England.

The low state of Mary's finances this year obliged her to make the following representation to Cromwell by letter. It hath pleased the King's Majesty, my most gracious father, of his great goodness, to send me every quarter of this year forty pounds, as you best know who are the means of it. As I thank you, you be for all my other suits. And seeing this quarter of Christmas must needs be more changeable than the rest. Especially considering the house I am in, I would desire you, if your wisdom thought it most convenient, To be a suitor to the king, said Highness, somewhat to increase the sum. She adds, she is ashamed to be a beggar, but the occasion is such she cannot choose. The king, in consequence of this application, sent her one hundred pounds by Mr.

Hennage that month. In a preceding letter she wrote to Cromwell, she said, My lord, your servant hath brought me the well-favoured horse that you have given me, with a very goodly saddle, for the which I do thank you with all my heart, for he seemeth to be, indeed, as good as I heard reported of him, which was, that he had all qualities belonging to a good horse. Wherefore I trust, in time to come, the riding on him shall do me very much good concerning my health. She usually wrote in very affectionate terms to Cromwell, and took a rating from him now and then, without much indignation. She had been used, from her infancy, when he was Wolsey's factotum, and universal man of business, to receive all her supplies from his hands, and to regard him as a person in practical authority.

towards the close of the year fifteen thirty nine the privy councillor Rottesley came to Hertford Castle for the purpose of informing mary that it was her father's pleasure she should instantly receive as a suitor Duke Philip of Bavaria, who was at that time in England announcing the approach of his kinswoman Anne of Cleves, the betrothed wife of Henry the eighth. Rodesley mentions the mode of his admission to the princess Mary in the following letter, as if she were sedulously guarded, if not under restraint. T. Rodesley to Cromwell. Pleaseth your lord to understand that arriving here at Hertford Castle this afternoon, about two of the clock, upon knowledge given of my coming, and desire to speak with my lady Mary's grace, I had immediate access to the same.

to whom, after the delivery of the king's majesty's token, with his grace's most hearty commendation, I opened the cause and purpose of my coming, in as good a sort as my poor wit had conceived the same. Whereunto she made me answer, that, albeit, the matter were towards her of great importance. And besides, of such sort and nature as, the king's majesty not offended, she would wish and desire never to enter that kind of religion, but to continue still a maid during her life, yet remembering how, by the laws of God and nature, she was bound to be in this, and all other things, obedient to the king's highness. And how, by her own bond and obligation, she had heretofore, of her free will, according to her said bond and duty, obliged herself to the same.

Though she might by frailty be induced in this so weighty a thing, to cast many doubts, and to take great stay with herself, yet wholly and entirely, without qualification, she committed herself to his majesty, as her most benign and merciful father, and most sovereign lord. Trusting and most assuredly knowing that his goodness and wisdom would so provide in all things for her, as should much exceed her simple capacity, and redound to his grace's honor and her own quiet. Which thing she willed this night, right with her grace's own hand, to be sent by me to-morrow on my return. I assure your lordship, here can be no more desired than with all humility and obedience is offered, and because I must tarry all night for these letters, I thought meet to signify how far I had proceeded, to the intent the king's majesty, knowing the same, may further in all things determine, as to his grace's high wisdom shall be thought meet and expedient.

The expression that Mary used to Rottesley, That, the king's majesty not offended, she would wish and desire never to enter that kind of religion, but to continue still a maid, has occasioned some difference of opinion between two historians, one taking it that she declined religious vows, another that she termed matrimony a species of religion. but if this letter really refers to the courtship of duke philip of bavaria, it is a plain representation that she would prefer remaining single, to marrying and owning as her lord, one who was a supporter of the protestant religion, and her words can bear no other meaning. Mary might venture this remonstrance to her father, who had committed such enormities in persecuting the tenants of the very prince, to whom he was now disposing of her hand.

A few days after the date of Radesley's letter, the French ambassador, Marillac, in a letter dated December Twenty Seventh, Fifteen Thirty Nine, says, I have heard from the same source touching the marriage of the eldest daughter of the king, the Lady Mary, with this Duke of the House of Bavaria. Three or four days ago, in the most secret manner which could be, He went to salute and visit her in a house of the abbot of Westminster, in the gardens of the abbey, one mile from this city, where the said lady had been brought privately, and after having kissed her, which is considered here as a declaration of marriage, or of near kindred, and considering also that, since the death of the late marquess, no lord, however great he may be in this kingdom, has presumed to do so.

This seems to imply much. the said duke had a long discourse with her, partly in German, with an interpreter, and partly in Latin, of which she is not ignorant, and in conclusion, he declared to the king his resolution to take her to wife, provided that his person be agreeable to the said lady. The day after Anne of Cleves made her public entry, King Henry invested Mary's German wooer with the order of the garter, an honour which he well deserved. On account of his gallant defence of Vienna against the Turks, in 1529, when he won the cognomen of Bellacosis, or the warlike, He was the first protestant prince invested with the order of the garter, but neither his renown in arms, nor his eloquent wooing in high Dutch and Latin, could atone in the eyes of Mary for his Lutheranism, or his league against the emperor, her relative.

Philip the warlike had many opportunities of seeing Mary during the festivities which celebrated the ill-omened marriage of Anne of Cleves and Henry the He departed from the court of England, with the intention of returning and claiming Mary as his bride, to whom he presented at his departure the love-token of a diamond cross. The important preliminaries of dote or portion and jointure were at that time already settled. Poor indeed they were, for the brave Bavarian was but a younger brother, and, being an opponent of the Catholics, received Mary, of course, as a person of stigmatized birth. Henry VIII named as her portion less than seven thousand pounds, and Duke Philip could offer her a jointure of but 800 pounds or 900 pounds per annum.

The insults and injuries that were inflicted on the unoffending Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII broke the troth between Mary of England and Philip the warlike. By her father's orders, Mary returned the diamond cross to the Lord Chancellor, who duly transmitted it to Philip, and Mary perhaps whispered, like Portia, a gentle riddance. Yet the brave German appears to have been sincerely attached to her, for he remained single, and renewed his suit six years afterwards, and, being repulsed, died a bachelor, as became a true knight and lover. Well had it been for Mary if her hand had been given to the brave and true-hearted German Philip instead of his cruel Spanish namesake. The interrupted accounts of the princess commence again with the new year of fifteen forty.

Mary received many new year's gifts, and was very liberal in her distribution of presents, especially to her sister Elizabeth, to whom she gave a yellow satin kirtle, made with five yards of satin, at seven shillings sixpence the yard. the princess mary in her own hand has marked against the item for a kirtle for my lady elizabeth's grace seven yards of yellow damask at the same price is presented by mary to the nurse of her brother edward for a kirtle mrs cavendish the woman of the princess elizabeth and ralph her chaplain are given new year's gifts of ten shillings each and mary twice supplied her sister's pocket with money to play with all the sums being ten shillings and twenty shillings.

The New Year's gifts she presented to her brother Edward was a crimson satin coat embroidered with gold by the king's broiderers, and further ornamented with pansies, formed of pearls, the sleeves of tinsel, with four gold aglets, or hooks and eyes. An inconvenient garment, stiff and cumbersome, It must have been for an infant little more than two years old. But young children are habited in garments, modeled into miniature resemblances of costumes worn by grown persons, a practice which certainly continued till late in the last century, with far more ridiculous effect. The princess spent some weeks at her father's court, and many items of high play, and even wagers lost by her, marked the manner in which she passed her time.

she lost a frontlet in a wager with her cousin, Lady Margaret Douglas, for which she paid four pounds. These frontlets were the ornamented edges of coifs or caps, similar to, or modifications of, the costume familiar to the eye in the headdress of Anne Boleyn. Some were edged with gold lace, and this, by the price, appears to have been of that class, and others with pearls and diamonds. The princess Mary not only pledged caps, but lost breakfasts at bowls, which were among the games played by ladies on the greensward. To counterbalance these items, she paid this quarter for the education of a poor child, and binding him apprentice. In the summer of 1540, Mary's privy-purse expenses suddenly ceased, and she was laid on a bed of sickness at her brother's residence at Tittenhanger.

the last items recorded are her payments to the king-surgeon of one sovereign for coming from London to bleed her, and fifteen shillings to her old apothecary, John, for stuff, likewise alms to the poor of forty shillings, and a gift of pocket-money to her sister Elizabeth. The diary of her expenses ceased a few weeks before the marriage of her father with Catherine Howard, and was not resumed for more than two years. the disturbed state of england at this period gives reason to suppose that mary's household was broken up, and that she, though passive and unoffending, was placed where her person could be in more security than in her own dwellings. Among other indications of change in her establishment, her young favourite, the fair Geraldine, was taken from her service, and transferred to that of the newly-married queen at Hampton Court.

It was here that Surrey first admired her, as may be ascertained by his interesting biographical sonnet, which traces with singular clearness her origin and the events of her young life. From Tuscany came my lady's worthy race. Fair Florence was sometime her or their ancient seat. The western isle, whose pleasant shore doth face, Wild Camber's cliffs did give her lively heat. Fostered she was with milk of Irish breast, her sire and earl, her dame of Prince's blood. From tender years in Britain she did rest with King's Child, where she tasted costly food. Hunsdon did first present her to mine eye. Bright is her hue, and Geraldine her height. Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine. Windsor, alas, doth chase me from her sight.

Her beauty of kind, her virtue from above, happy is he that can obtain her love. Dreadful events took place in England in the years 1540 and 1541, events which must have produced a fearful effect on the mind of the Princess Mary, and prepared the way for most of the vengeful persecutions which disgraced her reign. This woeful epic saw the destruction of all her early friends. her old schoolmaster, Dr. Featherstone, suffered the horrid death of treason, in company with Abel, her mother's chaplain, and another zealous Catholic. They were dragged to Smithfield with fiendish impartiality on the same hurdles that conveyed the pious Protestant martyr, Dr. Barnes, and two of his fellow-sufferers, to the flaming pile.

scarcely could the princess have recovered the shock of this butchery when the frightful execution of her beloved friend and venerable relative, the countess of Salisbury, took place. She was hacked to pieces on a scaffold in a manner that must have curdled Mary's blood with horror and stiffened her heart to stone. The connection of these victims with Mary has never been clearly pointed out, Nor the consequent effect of their horrid deaths on her mind properly defined, nor her feelings analyzed, which were naturally excited against those who were in power at the time of their destruction. Her murdered friends were persons of unblemished lives and unswerving integrity, against whom no crime was imputed, excepting their fidelity to the cause of her mother and their disapproval of Henry the eighth's spiritual supremacy.

when the explosion regarding the conduct of katharine howard took place, it will be found by the state papers that mary was resident at Sion with her cousin margaret douglas, and the young duchess of richmond, widow of henry the eighth's natural son. The princess and her companions were removed from Sion to make way for the wretched queen and her guards. they were escorted to the nursery palace of prince edward by sir john dudley and some of katharine howard's servants were appointed to attend on them. The derelictions of henry the eighth's young queen gave mary's partisans hopes that she would remain second in the succession, for so she was usually regarded, notwithstanding the acts of parliament still in force against her title.

This improved prospect brought on an earnest negotiation for her hand. which was demanded by Francis I for his second son, Charles, Duke of Orlon. This treaty was conducted at Chablis in Burgundy, and the most important dispatches regarding it are dated April Twenty Second, Fifteen Forty Two. The privy councillor, Paget, a man of low origin, but deep in all the intrigues of Henry VIII's cabinet, was the ambassador from England. he was, it seems, a person who made his way by his facetious conversation, for his dispatches are a diplomatic comedy, and he gives the dialogue with the High Admiral of France, respecting the princess and the Duke of Orland in a droll, quaint style, calling the princess our daughter, namely, daughter of England, while Bonnevet calls the Duke of Orland our son.

On the matter of dote or dowry, these two worthies were by no means likely to come to terms, and when Paget unfolded to the admiral that Henry the eighth only offered two hundred thousand crowns with Mary, while Francis the first required a portion of a million, the French admiral says Paget, heaved twenty sighs, and cast up his eyes as many times, besides crossing himself, for I marked him when he was not aware of it, Then, sending forth one great sigh, he spoke his mind pathetically on the smallness of the Lady Mary's dote. Paget declared, It was a fair offer, since the Duke of Orlon was but a second son. Had King Louis XII any more than three hundred crowns with the Princess Mary, her aunt, though a sovereign prince?

And as for the King of Scots, he got only a hundred thousand with Margaret. Next day, the Duke of Longville, Governor to the French Prince, took Paget by the hand, and led him to the apartments of his royal charge, where he was treated with an exceeding great feast and good cheer. About two o'clock, this was certainly after dinner, the admiral sent for Paget, and every man avoided out of the chamber. Monsieur, l'ambassadeur, quoth he, let us devise some means of joining the Lady Mary and our Prince together. We ask your daughter, quoth he. For her you shall have our son, a gentile prince, quoth he, and set him out to sail. We ask you a dole with her, and after the sum you will give, she shall have an assignment or jointure in our country.

By my faith, continued he, The dote you have offered is as nothing, and if the duke of Orlon were independent as Louis XII and the King of Scots, he would rather take the Lady Mary in her curdle than with the mean portion of two hundred thousand crowns. The treaty ended futilely like all the preceding ones. It had the effect, however, of paving the way for a recognition, though an imperfect one, in Parliament of Mary's rights in the succession. it may be gathered from a letter, hitherto unedited, at the state paper office, written throughout in Mary's hand, that she was made the medium of pacification between her father and the emperor, Charles V, when she was residing with her brother, Edward, and her sister, Elizabeth, at Havering Bower.

In all probability, the princesses occupied together the neighboring palace of Pergo. it will be observed that she mentions her sister as present with her at the audience she gave the spanish ambassadors. Letter of the lady Mary My lord, after my most hearty commendations to you, these shall be to advertise you that this day before dinner, the emperor's ambassadors came to Havering, where, here a provoking hiatus occurs from injury to the paper, but the lost words have reference to the little prince, her brother, and she goes on to say, and after they had done their duty to him, they came to my sister and me, and showed me how they had taken their leave of the king's highness, my father, and by his license came for the same purpose, declaring unto me, What great amity they trusted should increase between the king and the emperor, and how glad he would be to do me good.

Upon occasion whereof, as much as I could, I spoke unto them the whole effect of your last letter, whereunto they answered, that they were sorry to enter in such communications with me, seeing they came but to take leave of me, and that the one of them, now going to the emperor's court, might instead of thanks tell complaints, and that it grieved them, the more considering my modesty in so long time I had showed. They took it to be great wisdom in me, that seeing the matter of so long success, and the jeopardy that slowness causeth in such business, I would help myself, for they said that the help of God was won as well with diligence as with prayer. Moreover, desiring me to give them leave to speak, they said, that if they had time to understand, the least part of the good will that the emperor hath shown and beareth to the king's grace, my father, and to me also, because I am the daughter unto.

Here the words are gone, and whether the ambassadors mean Henry the eighth or Catherine of Aragon is uncertain. To whom he oweth the love and obedience of a son, they could somewhat blame me for the unkindness laid to their master's charge, But they attributed all the negligence and little care that I had been informed in that matter, and they took my diligence now for virtue, and because that in coming to particularize the fault and coldness that I put in them, I might lay to persons to whom I owe reverence, and ministers to whom I owe goodwill, which they would not because the Emperor's desire is that I should be always in the goodwill and obedience of the most noble king, my father, as I am now.

Leaving to dispute on their parts, they said, that the will which their master beareth me was, and is, and ever shall be, entire, as shall be seen by the effect that he shall ever offer, and shall always continue both in this and the friendship, which he hath ever borne to the king, as they said before, as well as in the matter before said, as in all things that a good and a just friendship and alliance ought. They said, That was the thing they most desired in this world, and would think it great felicity and good gain, to be ministers and intercessors, that this good and pure friendship may always continue, for the desire that they have to serve both parties, and the good will they bear me. This was our whole communication, as far as I remember, before dinner, and after dinner, when they came to take leave, I gave them as gentle words as my wit would serve me.

according to your counsel, and they varied in nothing from the effect above said. And so I write this letter, for I could not be satisfied till I had fulfilled your desire in sending you word of all these things, as God knoweth, who keep you forevermore. From Portgrove, this Tuesday at nine of the clock at night, your assured loving friend during my life, Mary. The very guarded language Mary uses in this letter injures its perspicuity, but its object is evidently to impress cautiously, on the minds of her father and his ministers, the importance of her position as a bond of union between the English government and her kinsman, the Emperor Charles V. This curious epistle affords the first instance of a daughter of the royal family of England, taking any part as a diplomatist.

Mary came at Christmas, fifteen forty two, direct from young Edward's residence to her father at Westminster, as may be gathered from the re-commencement of her privy-purse journal. To the care of mistress Finch were given her funds, and likewise her jewels. The New Year's gifts sent to the princess for fifteen forty three are noticed in the renewed accounts. Some of them possess biographical interest, Others mark improvements in inventions, and in the state of female costume and occupations at that era. The Princess Elizabeth sent her sister a little chain, and a pair of hose made of silk and gold. The Lady Margaret Douglas, a gown of carnation satin of the Venice fashion. The Duchess of Suffolk, Catherine Willoughby, a pair of work sleeves and pullers out for an Italian gown.

Lady Calthrop, two pair of sleeves, Whereof one pair was worked with silver, and the other with gold and parchment lace. This article occurs more than once, and was the first indication of Brussels lace. Three Venetians sent the princess a fair steel glass. If this had been a mirror of polished steel, they would not have called it glass. But as Venice was the birthplace of looking-glasses, the accountant has supposed the quicksilver was polished steel, but under glass. Another article occurs of the same kind directly after. My young lady of Norfolk, two pair of work sleeves, half a dozen handkerchiefs, and a steel glass. Lady Anne Gray presented two artificial flowers, and her aunt, Lady Kildare, mother of the fair Geraldine, a comb case set with pearls.

The fair Geraldine herself, under the designation of Lady Browne, of London, sent a New Year's gift to her patroness, Its nature this year is not mentioned, but next year it was a fuming box of silver. Sir Anthony Brown, the ancient bridegroom of this young lady, drew the princess for his valentine, fifteen forty three, and received from her a gift of a brooch, set with four rock rubies round an agate, enamelled black, with the story of Abraham. there is a previous instance of the princess being drawn as a valentine by george Montjoy, one of the gentlemen of her household, who received in consequence a present of money. The high collars with little ruffs, often seen in the portraits of this time, are described as being set on capes, and are called partlets.

Partlets were often presented as New Year's gifts. Likewise, work chemises, probably similar to the modern chemise set, are sent to the princess from many of her female friends. They are, however, registered by an old English word, which looks homely enough everywhere, excepting in Shakespeare's enchanting spring lyric, but who objects to, ladies' smocks, all silvery white. Several domestic animals are mentioned. Boxley, a yeoman of the king's chamber, was given by the princess, fifteen shillings, for bringing her a present of a little spaniel. Previously, Sir Brian Tuck had sent her a couple of little fair hounds. A woman of London had five shillings for bringing her a brid or a bird in a cage, and the woodman of Hampton Court took charge of a white lark the princess had left there, and he received threepence for bringing it to her at Westminster in April, 1543.

Mary was present at her father's marriage with Catherine Parr. This fact, and the circumstances connected therewith, have already been narrated in the biography of that queen. She accompanied her father and his bride on a summer progress to Woodstock, Grafton, and Dunstable. But, being seized with a violent return of her chronic illness, she was carried in the queen's litter to her mother's former abiding-place, the honor of Amphill. From thence, after several removes, she was finally carried to Ash Ridge, where her brother and sister were sojourning, and with them she spent the autumn. Many of her attendants were at this time suffering under the influence of a sickly season, and were as ill as their mistress, for her slender income was taxed, for lodging, nursing, and medicine for them, at a distance from the bustle of the royal residences.

Her faithful old servant, Randall Dodd, was very sick, and one of her women, called Bess Cressy, was long chargeable during illness. Jane the Fool was indisposed in health, and on recovery was taken with a fit of industry, since a solitary article appears in the accounts of the Princess Mary of one pence, Expended for needles for Jane the Fool. A chair was worked for King Henry in the autumn by Mary and her maidens as a New Year's gift for the king. It was of such ample dimensions that the materials cost 20 pounds. When King Henry and his bride returned to Westminster, the Princess Mary joined them there at Christmas. She must have been greatly distressed for money, owing to her bounty to her sick servants, and the expenses of her own long affliction, for she sold a pair of gilt silver pots for thirty-seven pounds, nineteen shillings fourpence, and a fur of budge for nineteen pounds, fifteen shillings.

Soon after she received a very seasonable token of her stepmother's kindness, in the substantial form of a gift of forty pounds. the income of mary was so small and precarious that every one of her numerous benefactions must have been attended with some degree of self-sacrifice. Her early dignity as the sole offspring of the sovereign, and the great expenses lavished on her household and establishment, in her infancy and girlhood rendered the subsequent privations of a limited and precarious income more embarrassing. Those who sued for her bounty expected her to bestow as munificently as if she were the eldest princess of England. Those who supplied her income apportioned it according to the law which had ranked her as an illegitimate and cast-off scion of the royal family.

This harassing uncertainty of station, however, ceased in the close of 1543, and the ensuing year brought a favorable change to the prospects of the disinherited princess.

15 15 - Mary, Ch III pt 1 30:50

Mary, chapter three, part one, an auspicious change took place in the situation of Mary a few months after the sixth marriage of her father. Although her restoration to her natural place in the succession was not complete, Yet the crown was entailed on her after prince Edward, or any son or daughter which Henry might have by his wife, Catherine Parr, or any succeeding wives, by act of parliament, past February seventh, fifteen forty four, Mary assisted ten days afterwards at a grand court held by the queen, her stepmother, for the reception of the duke de Najadra, a Spanish grandee of the highest rank, whose secretary has preserved minute particulars of the ceremonial. When the noble spaniard had been presented to the queen, he essayed to perform his homage to the princess Mary by kissing her hand, but she prevented him, and very graciously offered him her lips, a proof that he was her relative, and privileged thus to salute her.

Mary danced at a court ball given on the same occasion, Her dress was extremely splendid, being a kirtle or a close-fitting undergown made of cloth of gold, over which was worn an open robe of three-piled violet velvet. A coronal of large precious stones completed this brilliant costume. Her magnificence of attire, and her public appearance at the reception of a grandee, who was the accredited agent of Charles V, may be considered as the effects of her restoration to royal rank. The spanish secretary of the duke de Nahara wrote that Mary was pleasing in person and so popular in England as to be almost adored. Among other praises that I heard of her, adds he, is that she knows how to conceal her acquirements, and surely this is no small proof of wisdom.

Either the religious prejudices of Mary were not so invincible as have been supposed, or the influence of Catherine Parr was indeed extraordinary. For, by the entreaty of that queen, she undertook the translation of the Latin paraphrase of St. John by Erasmus. The original, which comprehended all the Gospels, was a work very precious to those who wished for reformation in the Christian Church, founded on a more intimate knowledge of Scripture. But, like scripture itself, the luminous paraphrases by Erasmus were locked in a learned language from the approach of general readers. It was the erudition and industry of the Princess Mary that rendered into English the whole of the important paraphrase of St.

John. She meant to have labored further in the good work, when a recurrence of her chronic illness laid her once more on a bed of sickness, and her chaplain, Dr. Francis Mallet, Revised and prepared for the press the manuscript she had completed. It was comprised in the same volume with the other paraphrases of Erasmus, which were rendered into English by several celebrated reformers. Those who mistake Henry VIII for a patron of the Reformation, instead of what he really was, and still continues to be, its impediment, its shame, and its sorrow. How suppose that Mary undertook this task? to please and propitiate her father. But that such a course was not the way to his good graces is apparent from the anger which was excited in his mind against Katharine Parr, on account of the theological works patronized by her, anger which had nearly been fatal to that queen soon after the publication of these paraphrases.

Mary's translation, therefore, must have been undertaken wholly to please Katharine Parr, Who, in her letter from Hanworth, September 1544, entreated her to get her translation of St. John, with all care and diligence, revised, and then with speed, to send this, her most fair and useful work, to her, that she might with the rest, namely, the translations of Kay, Cox, Udall, Old, and Allen, committed to the press, desiring withal to know of her. Catherine Parr added, on this point, that in her opinion she would do a wrong to the work, if she should refuse to send it to posterity, with the advantage of her name, because, in her accurate translation, she had gone through much pains for the public good, and would have undertaken more, had her health permitted.

I see not why you should reject the praise which all deservedly would give you, yet I leave all to your own prudence, and will approve of that which seems best to you. Mary did not append her name to her translation, but she permitted Dr. Udall to say what he pleased concerning her labors, in his preface, which was to the following effect. England, he said, can never be able to render thanks sufficient. so it will never be able, as her deserts require, enough to praise the most noble, the most virtuous, and the most studious, Lady Mary's Grace, for taking such pains and travail in translating this paraphrase of Erasmus on the Gospel of St. John. Dr. Mallet, who superintended the progress of this work through the press, could not have been long in the service of the Princess Mary, having been chaplain to the late unfortunate Queen, Catherine Howard.

he was highly esteemed by Katharine Parr for his deep learning. His principles appear to have been mild and liberal, if he may be judged by his co-operation with some of the fathers of the Reformation in a work of general Christian utility. The persecution and severe imprisonment he met with in the succeeding reign did not, perhaps, encourage him in this happy frame of mind, since his name occurs in Fox's list of persecutors, a solitary instance among the personal friends of Mary, who are almost all excluded from that black catalogue. The manuscript, which has been preserved, of the Princess Mary's Privy-Purse expenditure, closes in the year 1544. It has afforded a curious insight into her real manner of spending her time, her tastes and pursuits.

Among other remarkable points, it shows how small a portion of her means was bestowed on any of the prevalent devotional observances of the times. If she had been inclined to spend her income on attentions to the dead, instead of active charity to the living, she might have done so with impunity, As the masses for the soul of her friend, Queen Jane Seymour, indubitably prove that such rites still form part of the then-established church. But no other expenditure of the kind occurs, and, with the exception of a yearly trifle offered at Candlemas, the expenses of Mary might have passed for those of a Protestant princess. Many items occur in the course of this diary, which bespeak her love of flowers, rare seeds, and roots.

She was a horticulturist and an importer of foreign plants, for her father gave her ten pounds in reward to a person, because he had brought safely to England many trees from Spain, commissioned by his daughter, the Lady Mary's Grace. She had a decided taste for clocks, like her illustrious relative, Charles V, for they form a prominent article in her yearly expenditure. Sometimes she had as many as four repaired and regulated at once, Sometimes she gave and received presents of clocks. Gloves were sent from Spain as presents. She gave a gentleman in the suite of the Lord Admiral, thirty shillings for bringing her, from a Duchess in Spain, a coffer containing twelve pair of Spanish gloves. Gloves of this kind bore a great price, as late as the middle of the last century, and were probably some of the relics of Moorish industry.

They were made of exquisite leather and embroidered with silk, gold, silver, and even with gems, and highly perfumed. The wicked suspicions of that age of crime often supposed that the perfumes of Spanish gloves were poisoned. Painting was not one of the arts encouraged by Mary while Princess, owing to her slender finances, but she paid John Hayes handsomely for drawing her work patterns, and gave, one John, four pounds, Who drew her likeness on a table. That is, it was a portrait painted on wood. There is a good portrait by Holbein in the collection at Hampton Court, representing a princess about the age of twenty-four, supposed rather too hastily to be Elizabeth. The outline of the face is wholly different from the pear-shaped form of Elizabeth's visage, instead of which it is short and round.

and though sufficiently regular to excuse the praises of mary's person, which formed the constant theme of her contemporaries in her youth, shows a slight indication of the squareness of her upper lip, which was afterwards so violently caricatured in the prints executed in the reign of her successor. if other tokens were wanting to identify it, the costume is sufficient, which had materially changed before Elizabeth had attained the age of the person represented. The colour of the hair was occasioned the mistake, which is of a red cast of auburn, when it is probable that Mary had the dark hair, as well as the dark eyes, of her Spanish mother. But most of the portraits of that era are embellished with red or sandy hair, It is supposed that, out of complement to the rufous complexion of Henry VIII, the locks of his dutiful courtiers were sprinkled with gold dust or red powder, in order that those who had not been gifted by nature, with the warm hue fashionable at court, might at least have the appearance of possessing that enviable tint.

Holbein's genuine works have a very deceptive quality, leading the beholder into much false criticism on his stiffness and hardness. The laborious finish of the flesh and draperies induces those who look at his pictures to examine them as near as possible, and the closer they are surveyed, the flatter they appear. But let the spectator walk into the middle of the room, and the picture assumes a marvelous effect of roundness and vraisemblance. Thus it is with the famous group of Henry VIII and family, which is one of the treasures of Hampton Court. On a close inspection, it seems as flat as a map. and as highly finished as an enameled tea-cup. But as the spectator retreats from it, and looks at it from the center of the room, the pillars move into panoramic perspective, the recess deepens, the glorious roof glows with lozenges of ruby and gold.

The canopy juts out, and the royal group beneath assume lifelike semblance. Thus it is with the young portrait of Mary. If it is viewed from the window-seat to the right, Its effect is full of nature and reality. The face is delicate and pleasing, the complexion pale and pure. The fragile figure shows the ravages of recent illness. The expression of the features is mild and reflective, and the whole design gives the idea of a lady student engaged in peaceful meditation. A book with vellum leaves is on a stand to the right, and the princess holds another, velvet-bound and clasped with gold, in her hands. The fluted curtains partially open from the background. These accessories Holbein has finished with Flemish patience.

The book on the stand appears as if the studious princess had recently been writing therein. Her dress is in form, color and texture exactly resembling that of Queen Anne Boleyn at the Louvre. It is square at the bust, tapered in the waist, Girded with a cordillire of gems, and made of rose-colored damask, the head-dress is of the roundhood form. Mary, according to the Italian of Polino, was small, fragile, and of a singular beautiful complexion, but of a very different tint from that of her father. When a girl, she was much celebrated for her beauty, but the troubles she underwent in her father's reign faded her charms prematurely, though she was very far from being ugly. Her face was short, her forehead very large, her eyes dark and lustrous, and remarkably touching when she fixed them on any one.

The portrait engraved by Halbrocken with an axe, faces, and a mourning cupid, entitled Queen Catherine Howard, is indutibly the Princess Mary, about the age of thirty. It is nearly a facsimile in features dress and attitude with her portrait in the family group at Hampton Court only at a more advanced age. The tone of the privy-purse journal of the princess altered considerably when Catherine Parr presided over the English court. All card-playing and betting vanished from the pages of this document, but in the preceding year, Mary had lost the sum of ten pounds in a bet with Dr. Bill. a divine so-called was distinguished among the fathers of the protestant church of england in the reign of edward the sixth, but whether he is the same to whom the princess mary had lost the wager is a curious question.

Such an incident is much at variance with all preconceived ideas of the gloom and unbending sternness of mary's routine of life as it would have been in the primitive simplicity of that of dr bill. If one could see a grand inquisitor playing at dice, or betting at a horse-race, with Calvin or John Knox, the sight would scarcely be more startling and anomalous than the plain item in the account-book of Mary, noting cash thus won and lost. Strange, indeed, are the revelations when a sudden flash of light affords a transitory view into the realities of life, just at the commencement of the great religious warfare, which has raged since this period. The mind is tantalized with an earnest wish to know more of the private life and daily mode of conduct of those who are only known to the world as persecutors on one side, or as martyrs or theological champions on the other.

Vain is the wish. The struggles of rival creeds for supremacy take the place of all other information, either personal or statistical. Individual character, arts, science, and even the historian's absorbing theme. arms, are alike a blank in the annals of the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary. Yet all were undergoing changes as striking as those of religion. In this dearth of general information, assiduous examination of the documents, which time and accident have spared, becomes a more imperative duty. The remaining leaves of the book, containing the accounts of the Princess Mary, are filled up with the list of her jewels. many interesting marginal notices in her own hand are added to it.

The jewels were placed in the care of Mary Finch, and at the bottom of every page is the signature of the princess, and on each side of it four long scratches to prevent any more writing being added. Among these jewels was a book of gold with the king's face, and that of her grace's mother, Catherine of Aragon, This is retained in Mary's possession, but the next article, a round tablet, black enamelled, with the King's picture and that of Queen Jane, was given by Mary as a present to Mrs. Ryder at her marriage with Judge Brown. A pomander of gold, having a dial in it, was given to the Lady Elizabeth Grace. This must have been a watch. Another item occurs of a plain tablet of gold with a dial in it.

Given to Lady Kingston. Among Mary's valuables were miniature paintings, set in brooches and tablets, evidently meant to be worn on the person. Their subjects were mostly from scripture history, but one given to the Princess Elizabeth had on it the history of Pyramus and Thisbe. The king presented his daughter with a considerable number of jewels, the first of January, 1543, and six months before his death, The twentieth of July. He presented her with so many that it may be supposed they were her mother's jewels. Among them occurs another miniature of Catherine of Aragon, set with one of the king, opening like a book of gold. Against one gold necklace set with pearls, Mary has written, given to my cousin, Jane Gray.

Little thinking, when she gave her young kinswoman a share of her ornaments, that the fair neck would be mangled by her order. round which these pearls were clasped. Many rich presents were distributed by Mary among her female relations. The names of Lady Frances, mother of Lady Jane Grey, Lady Eleanor Clifford, and Lady Margaret Douglas, married to Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lenox, frequently occur, familiarly named as my cousin Frances, Eleanor, or Margate. Mary had been suffering with severe illness in the early part of fifteen forty six and was in the spring at the court of her stepmother. A letter is extant from her brother, Prince Edward, dated from Hunsdon, February twenty ninth, fifteen forty six, in which he congratulates her affectionately on her recovery, affirming that God had given her the wisdom of Esther, and that he looked up to her virtues with admiration.

he desires her to give his love to lady Tirtwt, lady lane, and to lady herbert. These were ladies of queen katharine's household, and the last her sister, circumstances which proved that mary was then resident at court. Mary retained her father's favour to the close of his existence, though just as he was on the verge of the grave, her name was strangely implicated in the mysterious offences for which the accomplished surrey was hurried to the block. General history repeats perpetually that Surrey's principal crime was an intention of aspiring to the hand of the princess Mary. His own family history, however, proves that this was impossible, for his hand was already given to a wife whom he tenderly loved, and who survived him many years.

Henry the eighth, in his will, confirmed Mary in her reversionary rights of succession, and bequeathed to her the sum of ten thousand pounds towards her marriage portion, if she married with the consent of the council of regency. While she continued unmarried, she was to enjoy an income of three thousand pounds per annum, which it appears arose from the rents of her manors of Newhall, or Beaulieu, Hunsdon, and Kenning Hall. This last was part of the illegal plunder of the noble houses of Howard, which she honestly returned on her extension to its rightful owner. The silence of all English writers regarding any communication between Henry VIII and his eldest daughter when he was on his death-bed, obliges us to have recourse to the testimony of continental historians, and to translate the following passage from the Italian Apollino.

One day, when the king felt convinced that his death was approaching, he ordered his daughter Mary to be sent for. He addressed her with great tenderness and affection, and said, I know well, my daughter, that fortune has been most adverse to you, that I have caused you infinite sorrow, and that I have not given you in marriage as I desired to do. This was, however, according to the will of God, or to the unhappy state of my affairs, or to your own ill-luck. But I pray you take it all in good part, and promise me to remain as a kind and loving mother to your brother, whom I shall leave a little helpless child. it is very probable that mary actually made her father such promise because in all the stormy movements of the succeeding reign, though it will be presently shown that snares and temptations were not wanting to induce her to seize the reins of government, she never gave, either secretly or openly, the least encouragement to any rebellion against the successive regents, who governed in her brother's name.

happy if she could preserve her own home from molestation, which was not always the case. Her brother's first employment on his extension was to write her from the tower a latin letter of condolence on their father's death, replete with as much personal affection to herself as the stiffness of a scholastic composition would permit. The princess lived in retirement at her country seats in the ensuing spring, the great changes which took place in religion immediately after the decease of Henry VIII had as yet produced no collision between her and the protector Somerset. The following letters bespeak her terms of great familiarity and friendship both with him and his wife. The Princess Mary to my lady of Somerset.

April 1547. My good gossip, After my very hearty commendations to you, with like desire to hear of amendment and increase of your good health, these shall be to put you in remembrance of mine old suit concerning Richard Wood, who was my mother's servant when you were one of her Grace's maids. As you know, by his application, he hath sustained great loss, almost to his utter undoing, without any recompense hitherto, which forced me to trouble you with his suit before. Whereof, I thank you, I had a very good answer, and desire you now to renew the same to my lord your husband, for I consider it impossible for him to remember such matters, having such a heap of business as he hath. Wherefore, I heartily require you to go forward in this suit, till you have brought it to an honest end, for the poor man is not able to abide long in the city.

And thus, my good Nan, I trouble you with myself and all mine, thanking you with all my heart for your earnest gentleness towards me in all my suits hitherto, reckoning myself out of doubt of the continuance of the same. Wherefore, once again, I must trouble you with my poor George Brickhouse, who was an officer of my mother's wardrobe and beds, from the time of the king my father's coronation, whose only desire is to be one of the knights of Windsor, if all the rooms be not filled, And, if they be, to have the next reversion in obtaining, whereof, in mine opinion, you shall do a charitable deed, as knoweth Almighty God, who sent you good health, and us shortly, meet to his pleasure. From St.

John's, this Sunday in the afternoon, being the twenty-fourth of April, your loving friend during my life, Mary. Mary's requests for provision for her mother's aged servants were duly remembered by her good nan. For, some months later, a letter of thanks in her hand occurs to the protector. The Princess Mary to the protector. My lord, I heartily thank you for your gentleness, showed touching my request late made unto you, whereof I have been advertised by my comptroller, and though I shall leave or omit, To trouble you at present with the whole number of my said requests. Yet I thought it good to signify to you my desire for those persons who have served me a very long time, and have no kind of living certain.

Praying you, my lord, according to your gentle promise, that they may have pensions, as my other servants have, during their lives. For their years be so far past that I fear they shall not enjoy them long. Thus, with my hearty commendations, as well to yourself as to my gossip, your wife, I bid you both farewell, praying, Almighty God, to send you both as much health and comfort of soul and body as I would wish myself. From Bo Lu, the 28th of December. Your assured friend to my power, Mary. in june lord thomas seymour wrote to her requesting her sanction to his marriage with her friend and stepmother, Katharine Parr. Her letter has already been given. It is sensibly written, though somewhat prudishly worded, disowning all knowledge in wooing matters, and she evidently insinuates that a six months widowhood is rather too short for the widow of a king of England, though perhaps Mary knew, as well as the parties themselves, that they were already married.

The princess dated her letter from Wanstead, and soon after she notified to Katharine Parr that she was about to try the heir of Norfolk for the restoration of her infirm health, and from that time she sojourned frequently at her manor of Kenning Hall. She required the attendance of her chamberwoman, Jane, during an attack of illness that seized her in the autumn. This damsel had given her hand to William Russell, a servant in the household of her sister, on which occasion Mary received the following familiar letter from the princess Elizabeth. we find by its contents that it is one of a numerous and affectionate series which pass between the royal sisters at this period of their lives. From the princess Elizabeth to the princess Mary.

To my well-beloved sister Mary, good sister, as to hear of your sickness is unpleasant to me, so it is nothing fearful, for that I understand it is your old guest that is wont off to visit you, Whose coming, though it be oft, yet it is never welcome, but notwithstanding it is comfortable, for that Iacula provisa Minus As I do understand your need of Jane Russell's service, so I am sorry that it is by my man's occasion leaded or hindered, which, if I had known afore, I would have caused his will to give place to need of your service, for, as it is her duty to obey his commandment, so it is his part to attend your pleasure, and as I confess it were meet for him to go to her, since she attends upon you, so indeed he required the same.

But for divers of his fellows had business abroad that made his tarrying at home. Good sister, though I have good cause to thank you for your oft-sending to me, yet I have more occasion to thank you for your oft-gentle writing, and you may see by my writing so oft how pleasant it is to me. And thus I end to trouble you, desiring God to send you as well to do as you can think or wish. Or I desire or pray. From Ash Ridge, Scribble this Twenty-Seventh of October. Your loving sister, Elizabeth. The will of Henry VIII was as replete with seeds of strife for his subjects as the capricious acts of his life had been, This monarch who had, on the suppression of the monasteries, desecrated so many altars, and scattered the funds of so many mortuary chapels, and endowed chantries, in utter disregard of the intentions of the founders, whose very tombs were often violated, left by his will, six hundred pounds per annum for masses to be said, for his soul.

He had likewise enjoined his executors to bring up his son in the Catholic faith, but this he probably meant the cruel church of the six articles which he had founded. This will was a serious impediment to the Protestant Church of England, for the establishment of which Somerset and Cramner took decided steps, directly Henry expired. Before the parliament met in November, Bishop Gardner, the chief supporter of Henry's anti-papal Catholic Church, was deprived of his see and imprisoned in the fleet. Sometime in the same autumn, a controversy, by letter, took place between the Princess Mary and Somerset, which appears to have been commenced by her earnest entreaties for the performance of her father's will, especially that part which related to the education of her brother.

Somerset's answer to the princess is alone preserved. It contains assertions regarding the Protestant principles and intentions of Henry VIII, wholly contradicted by facts. Far wiser would it have been for the protestant protector to have boldly founded his opposition on the obvious truth, and argued on the inconsistency of Henry's testimony and his deeds. But Somerset, like most politicians, sacrificed the majesty of truth to expediency, which conduct, of course, involved him in a labyrinth of disputation and self-contradiction. in the course of the correspondence that ensued between Somerset and bishop gardener on the same subject a remarkable fact appears which is that the paraphrases of erasmus among which the translation by the princess mary held so conspicuous a place was reprinted by the founders of our Protestant Church, and was provided in all churches throughout England as a companion to the Bible, being considered next in efficacy to the sacred volume itself, for the promotion of the Reformed Faith.

It likewise appears that Gardner's attack on this very work was the ultimate cause of his imprisonment. Mary's connection with this publication forms a singular incident in the history of this controversy, and indeed in her own career. Thus did Mary's opposition to the Protestant Church of England commence at the very moment that the church was taking for one of its bulwarks the work of her own pen.

16 16 - Mary, Ch III pt 2 39:54

The princess was invited to court by an affectionate letter from the young king, her brother, who was, before the religious controversy occasioned variance, exceedingly fond of her, The royal family passed the Christmas, succeeding their father's death, in each other's society, on the most affectionate terms. From that time, however, the visits of Mary to court were few, as she could not agree with the tenants of the Protestants. She held herself as much in retirement as possible. The country was, the succeeding summer, in a state of insurgency, from east to west, and from north to south, Chiefly on account of the utter misery into which the tyrant of the latter years of Henry VIII's government had thrown it.

It ought to be noted that not one of these insurgents implicated Mary's name in their proceedings. Though if she had given them the slightest encouragement, there cannot be a doubt but that they would joyfully have done so. Mary certainly limited her religious zeal, whilst she was a subject. To the narrow circle of her own chapel and household, for which she claimed only toleration. This she was the less likely afterwards to practice, since no example was afforded her that it formed a principle of any creed established in Christendom. Notwithstanding all Mary's caution, the Protector addressed to her some communication, accusing her servants of encouraging the rebels in Devonshire. She answered him by a letter, in which After proving that her servants were not near the scene of action, she concludes with these words.

My lord, it troubleth me to hear such reports, especially where there is no cause given, trusting my households shall try or prove themselves true subjects to the king's majesty, and honest, quiet persons, or else I would be loath to keep them. And whereas you charge me that my proceedings in matters of religion should give no small courage to many of these men, to require and do as they do, that thing appeareth most evidently to be untrue. For all the rising about this part, for example Norfolk, is touching no point of religion. But even as ye ungently and without desert charge me, so I, omitting so fully to answer it as the case doth require, do and will, pray God, that your new alterations and unlawful liberties be not rather the occasion of these assemblies than my doings, who am, God I take to witness, disquieted therewith.

And as for Devonshire, no indifferent or impartial person can lay the doings to my charge, for I have neither land nor acquaintance in that country, as knoweth Almighty God, whom I humbly beseech to send you, all as much plenty of his grace as I would wish to myself. So with my hearty commendations I bid you farewell. From my house at Kenninghall, the 20th of July, your friend to my power, Mary. Mary came to London in the autumn of fifteen forty eight and paid a visit to her brother at his private residence of St. James's Palace. Here she must have occupied a regular suite of reception rooms, for she had a great concourse of friends to visit her, and made a special good cheer for their entertainment.

The comforts and luxuries of the table were not, it is evident, forbidden at court, but the sound of musical instruments was wholly banished from the royal residences. Nor did the first lady in the realm venture to indulge her favourite taste by touching virginals, lutes, or regals, while sojourning under the roof of the young sovereign of England. The widower of Catherine Parr, Lord Thomas Seymour, was among the guests of Mary. This is apparent by a letter he addressed to her, in which he returned thanks for her hospitality. at the same time, he required her testimony, as related in the preceding biography, respecting the rich jewels her father had given to the late queen, Catherine Parr. He, in the conclusion, alluded to Mary's total deprivation of music while she abode at St.

James's, and insinuated that she must wholly have lost her practice. In order to obviate such a misfortune, he offered the services of his man, Walter Earl, to give her lessons, This person being well-skilled on her favorite instrument, the Virginals. The Inquisitors of the Star Chamber, who soon after carefully sifted all the proceedings of the unfortunate Seymour, found that he had had a long consultation with his man, Walter Earl, the night before he set out on his errand to marry. They shrewdly suspected that Walter was directed to intersperse with his musical lessons. Some words calculated to raise the ambitious widower in the good graces of the princess. Great jealousy was excited in the mind of the protector, that his brother, if he failed in his matrimonial projects regarding Elizabeth or Lady Jane Grey, meant to offer his hand to the Princess Mary.

Nor were these suspicions wholly unfounded. The Lord Admiral Seymour to the Lady Mary. After my humble commendations to your grace, with most hearty thanks for the great good cheer I, amongst others, had with you, at your grace's late being here, it may hereof please you to understand, that had it not been that the little time of your late abode did rather require to be absented from suits, or not troubled with applications, than to be at any time impeached or impeded of the entertainment of so many of your grace's friends, which then came to visit you, I had even then, by mouth, desired knowledge of the thing, which now I am suitor for by writing. I have sent your grace this bearer to wait on you this Christmas, and to renew and bring to your remembrance such lessons as I think you have forgotten, because at my late being at St.

James's, I never saw a pair of virginals stirring in all the whole house, wishing I had some other thing that might be more pleasant and acceptable to your grace, whom for this present I commit to the good governance of God. From Seymour Place, this 17th of December. But one little month intervened between the penning of this letter and the impeachment of the hapless writer, and in still less time he was hurried, without trial, to the block. by virtue of a warrant signed with the hand of his fraternal foe. He employed his last moments in writing to the royal sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, one of whom regarded him with feelings of friendship, the other with those of love. Mary's health was so very infirm in the spring of fifteen fifty that her death was generally expected.

She herself felt convinced that her end was near. Had she died at this time, How deeply venerated would her name have been to all posterity! How fondly would her learning, her charities, her spotless purity of life, her inflexible honesty of word and deed, and her fidelity to her friends, have been quoted and remembered by her country! Even her constancy to the ancient church would have been forgiven. As she was as yet innocent of the greatest offense a human being can commit against God and man, Persecution for religion's sake. If she had never reigned, the envenomed hatred between Protestants and Catholics would have been less, and many horrid years of persecution and counter-persecution would have been spared.

She wrote a meditation on her severe illness in 1549, and sent it to her kinswoman, Lady Kappel, with these words. Good cousin Kappel. I pray you, as often as you be disposed to read this writing, to remember me and pray for me, your loving friend, Marie. This cousin, whose relationship the princess claimed so frankly, was daughter to the Lady Manners, descended from Anne, Duchess of Exeter, sister to Edward IV, by her second husband, Saint Leger, and of course, a descendant of the royal line of York. The sickness Mary alluded to, laid long and heavily on her at Kenning Hall, and it seems to have been greatly aggravated by the arduous letters. She had almost daily to write to the protector, respecting her required conformity with the recently established Church of England.

In the course of this correspondence, she frequently alluded to her sinking health. The point of contest was, her refusal to deliver up her chaplain, Dr. Hopton, her officer, Sir Francis Ingelfield, and her comptroller, Rochester, for the examination of the privy council regarding her domestic worship. In her letter, she rather appealed to the former friendship between her and Somerset than used harsh language. I intend, with God's grace, to trouble you little with any worldly suits, but to bestow the short time I think or expect to live in quietness, Praying for the King's Majesty and all of you. Moreover, your desire seems that I should send my Comptroller, Rochester, and Dr. Hopton, the Chaplain, to you.

It is not unknown to you that the chief charge of my house resteth only on the travails of my said Comptroller, who hath not been absent from my house three whole days since the setting up of the same, unless it were for my letter's patent, so that, if it were not for his continual diligence, I think my little portion or income would not have stretched so far. My chaplain, by occasion of sickness, hath been long absent, and is not yet able to ride. Therefore, as I cannot forbear or spare my comptroller, and my priest is not able to journey, I desire you, my lord, if you have anything to declare to me, except matters of religion, to send me some trusty person with whom I shall be contented to talk, but assuring you that if any servant of mine, man, woman, or chaplain, should move me contrary to my conscience, I would not give ear to them, nor suffer the like to be used in my house.

And thus, my lord, with my hearty commendations, I wish unto you, and the rest of the council, as well to do as myself. From my house at Kenning Hall, the twenty-second of June, fifteen forty-nine, your assured friend to my power, Mary.

The dispute gathered strength as it proceeded, and in a letter written a few days after, she says, Her poor sick priest, Hopton has set out in obedience to their orders, though the weather was cold and stormy, and he likely to fail by the way. This controversial correspondence with Somerset was suddenly interrupted by his deposition from the protectorship. The faction which had deposed him, the leaders of which were Dudley, Cramner, and Northampton, addressed an extraordinary memorial to Mary, giving their own version of the transaction, written with natural partiality to their own cause and conduct. From this singular document, we abstract the following particulars. To my Lady Mary's Grace and my Lady Elizabeth's Grace.

It may please your grace, with our most humble and hearty commendations, to understand that whereas some trouble hath chanced between us, of the King's Majesty's Council, and the Duke of Somerset, and because the same may be diversely reported, we have thought it our parts to signify to your grace briefly how the matter hath grown, and by what means it hath now come to this extremity. Many sentences then occur, accusing Somerset indefinitely of pride, ambition, and impracticability in business, And at last, with flying into violent courses, because he suspected a cobble against him. As addressed to the Princess Mary, the following narrative of the only misdemeanor that could be alleged against the hapless Somerset is very curious.

We, resume his accusers, had not dined together above twice, but immediately he took the tower and raised all the country about Hampton Court, brooding and crying out, That certain lords had determined to destroy the king's majesty, whom we pray to God on our knees, to make as old a king as any of his progenitors. And when he had thus gathered the people together at Hampton Court, he brought his majesty into the base court there, and to the gate, causing him, the good prince, to say to the people crowded round the gate, I pray you be good to us and our uncle. The scene of this stirring historical drama, we consider, is that antique quadrangle in Hampton Court, which opens on the river, the bridge, and offices.

This, we think, agrees with the term base court. It is little injured by the hand of innovation, and here imagination can picture the royal boy with his noble-looking uncle supplicating through the grate, the motley crowd, assembled from the banks of the river and the adjacent hamlets, to be good to them. But this did not form the whole of the protector's harangue, which chiefly turned on a political intrigue he suspected his rivals meant to agitate with the Princess Mary. The document proceeds. When he, Somerset, began his oration to the people, and among his other untrue and idle sayings, declared that we wanted to remove him from his office because we were minded to have your grace, the princess Mary, to be regent of the realm, dilating on what danger it would prove to his majesty to have your grace, who are next in succession and title, to be in that place, and that therein was meant a great treason, which, as God knoweth, we never intended, and consider all laws touching the government provide to the contrary.

Neither have any of us all at any time, by word or writing, open any such matter to your grace as your honour knoweth. This singular communication bears every appearance of a snare laid for Mary by Dudley. It opened to her a prospect which she had never previously contemplated of governing England as Princess Regent by the aid of his faction after the deposition of Somerset. Had she given way for one instant to the temptation of ambitious vanity, and encouraged Dudley by replying, that as next in succession and title, her appointment as regent was by no means an unreasonable step. She had been lost, for the same party afterwards conspired to invalidate her title and right of succession to the throne.

She knew them well, and gave no encouragement to the subtle hint. The whole transaction has, Till very recently slept in the dim twilight of the state paper office. Most wisely does Mr. Titler observe, that historical truth is progressive, of slow attainment, and to be found, if anywhere, in the original letters of the times. To this may we add, that history, separated from the companionship of her sister biography, is an inexplicable riddle, For in the individual characters of rulers and princes, in their passions, interests, and good or bad principles, can alone be traced the springs of the outward and visible actions which history records. Dudley's Dispatch, after detailing many curious particulars relative to Edward VI and Somerset, irrelevant here, concludes with the following strong canvas to enlist Mary on their side.

We trust your grace in our just and faithful quarrel will stand with us, and thus shall we pray to Almighty God for the preservation of your grace's health. It may be inferred from Mary's kindness on her extension to Somerset's downtrodden and persecuted family, after his enemies had wreaked their final vengeance on him, that she by no means approved of his ruin and execution. and it is certain from the immediate renewal of aggravated severities against her for the practice of her domestic worship that her grace did not stand with his enemies according to their earnest request. Indeed, Mary's utter retreat from all political agitation in her brother's stormy minority was a respectable trait in her character, and coincides entirely with Paulino's narrative regarding her father's death-bed charge, Whenever she was at issue with the ministers of Edward VI, her disagreement was wholly personal, and never of a public nature.

It was passive and defensive, and limited to repelling their interference with her domestic altar and worship. And, when she resisted their attacks, she neither meddled with their intrigues, fomented their factions, nor encouraged their enemies. when the Dudley regency arrested her chaplains for officiating in her chapel, she appealed to the emperor on the subject, and his ambassador, April Nineteenth, Fifteen Fifty, demanded of the Privy Council, that the Lady Mary might have her mass, which was denied, says her royal brother in his journal. The denial was in ambiguous terms, since the imperial ambassador understood that permission had been granted. yet molestation to the princess continued during the whole year, and towards the autumn assumed a serious aspect.

Mean time, the Duke of Brunswick became a suitor for her hand, but was informed by her brother that Don Luis, the infant of Portugal, was engaged in a marriage treaty for the Princess Mary, and when that was determined, he should be answered. The duke of Brunswick was the second illustrious wooer Mary had had from among the champions of the protestant faith, and the marquess of Brandenburg soon after offered her his hand. There seems, during the reign of Edward, to have been as many overtures for her marriage as when her father was alive. She gave her consent to the alliance with Don Luis of Portugal, but the match was never concluded. The emperor threatened England with war, if the Lady Mary was not exempted from all penal law against nonconformity, which was at this time severe, and when the young king positively refused to permit mass to be said in her chapel, the emperor Charles sent ships, commanded by one of his flemings, named Scypirus, to hover off the east coast, to receive Mary on board, and carry her to the protection of his sister, the Queen of Hungary.

King Edward ordered Sir John Gates to watch that his recusant sister was not stolen away from Newhall, which is situated near the mouth of the Blackwater in Essex, to Antwerp. This measure was expected because it was said at court that more than one of her gentlemen had been to the coast and examined the best places for her embarkation. Thus, it appears her favourite seat of Newhall was regarded with jealousy by the court. The Privy Council endeavoured to entice Mary from the forbidden ground of Newhall, by amiable representations, that the heir of Essex was bad for her health, and the cause of a fit of illness, which attacked her in the November of 1550. In answer, she wrote the following letter, which is pleasantly worded, and from which may be gathered information regarding her health and residences.

It was probably addressed to the Lord Privy Seal. Bedford, with whom she was always on friendly terms. My lord, I most heartily thank you for your gentle and kind words, and, whereas it should seem to you, and others my friends, that the soil and air of this house might be the reason of my sickness, for recovery whereof you think it good I should remove from the same. My lord, the truth is, neither the house or the heir is herein to be suspected, but the time of the year being the fall of the leaf, at which time I have seldom escaped the same disease these many years, and the rather, to prove the heir is not the evil, I have not at present, thanks be to God, any of my household sick. Notwithstanding, I had made my provisions at Wayne Stead and St.

John's these two months past, where I intended to have been all this winter. But by reason of my one departed at Waynestead of the plague, who was buried in the churchyard very near to my gate, I was driven from that house, and then my disease coming on me so sore. Hearing also that the air of St. John's was not clear, I durst not venture to take so far a journey. The stay or delay whereof was a grief to me, because the chief intent of the same was to see the king's majesty. So, having no house of my own near hand, I thought it not meet to make more provision in any other, but determined to rest here till Christmas was past, and cause mine officers to provide accordingly. Moreover, for the better amendment of my health, you so gently offered me the choice of any of the king's majesty's houses, or any other man's house being meet to be had.

You would give order for the same. My lord, your gentleness in this or in any other of my causes, doth appear so unfaintedly, that I had just occasion to thank you my very friend, and not being otherwise able to recompense you, I shall pray for you. Hereafter, if I shall espy any house meet for my purpose, I shall make bold to require your favor therein. for i mean if strength and health will suffer me to change the air and house here for the cleansing of the same, and borrow my lord chancellor's house for ten or twelve days, who very gently hath offered me the same. And thus, with my most hearty commendations, I wish you well to do as myself. From Beaulieu, or Newhall, the twenty third of november, your assured friend to my power, Mary.

this letter was so represented that it produced the observation from the young king in his journal that the lady mary refused to come to him throughout the winter the controversy continued regarding the ritual used in her chapel which at last became so serious that she resolved to appeal to her brother in person. The offence given by mary was that she did not have her service celebrated with closed doors, but permitted her neighbors to come in crowds, to share in her worship. All ecclesiastics agree in the opinion that no Christian congregation can thrust members of the same faith from the door of their place of worship, while divine service is celebrating, if there is room within for their presence.

Yet in the frightful system of antagonism, which has only abated within the last hundred years, The struggle of each party, as it rose to power, was to suppress the resort of the people to rival places of worship. Mary could no more lock herself into her chapel, as a Catholic, than we, as Protestants, can bar the door of a church in sermon time. She was accused of usurping the parish churches near her residences, occupying them with her chaplains, and causing Mass to be celebrated therein. But that this is a false statement, Bishop Ridley himself implied, for in his subsequent discussion with her, on the subject of preaching to her, she referred him to the parish church at Hunsdon as the proper place for his ministry.

Early in the following spring, she was resident at Waynstead, close to London. A contemporary thus describes her manner of going to court. She mounted her horse, and attended by a noble cavalcade of ladies and gentlemen, rode through Fleet Street to Westminster. Her intention was to make a personal appeal to her brother. On the interruption his ministers were then offering to her domestic worship. Every one of her numerous retinue wore a black rosary and cross hanging at the girdle, a display which naturally gave rise to irritation, and caused infinite offense to the Protestant court of the young king. At the great gate of the palace she alighted, and Mr. Wingfield, comptroller of the king's household, and many lords attended her there, and so she was brought through the hall unto the chamber of presents, and so she tarried there two hours, and ate a goodly banquet.

Succeeding years have drawn the veil from the two hours conference, which was Mary's concern at court, rather than the goodly banquet. The lady Mary, my sister, says young Edward in his journal, came to me at Westminster, where, after salutations, she was called with my council into chamber, where was declared how long I had suffered her mass against my will, in the hope of her reconciliation, and how, now being no hope which I perceived by her letters, except I saw some short amendment, I could not bear it. He told her, moreover, she was to obey as a subject, not rule as a sovereign. She answered, that her soul was God's, and her faith she could not change, nor dissemble her opinion with contrary words.

She likewise offered to lay her head on the block in testimony of the same. To which it appears the young king answered with some tender and gracious words. They are, however, recorded by his sister, and not by himself. It is singular that the same historians who have loaded young Edward with undeserved praise, have here accused him of designs on his sister's life. The truth is, no one talked of cutting off her head but herself, and there exists her own evidence that her brother received her ardent proposals of martyrdom with gentle and soothing expressions. Some alarm was evidently felt for the princess by the populace, whose idol she then was. But she seems to have parted on friendly terms with the king, whatever resentment she bore to the council, since she obtained leave to visit her favourite seat of Beaux-lew, or Newhall, in Essex.

The chronicler before quoted continues, that, after the goodly banquet, the same afternoon, she took horse and rode back to St. John's, and there she lay all night, and on the morrow her grace rode to Newhall in Essex, and there bides with grace and honour. thanks to god and the king her brother. The king, it may be perceived by his journal, was personally aggrieved by the reluctance of his sister Mary, manifested at visiting his court. Yet, had there existed no religious differences, the ceremonial imposed upon everyone who approached the Tudor's sovereigns must have been difficult for an invalid to support. when one of the king's sisters eats with him, says the Florentine ambassador, Umbaldini, she may not sit on a chair, but a mere bench, and so far distant from the head of the table and the king, that the canopy does not overhang her.

The ceremonies observed before sitting down to table are truly laughable. I have seen, for example, the princess Elizabeth drop on one knee five times before her brother ere she took her place. The king was answered on the knee every time he addressed anyone even of the highest rank. Laughable it was that the representatives of Owen Tudor should exact from their court almost oriental prostration when it is evident from the minute descriptions of Frussart that the mightiest of the majestic Plantagenets, Edward III, required no such servility. But the law had been so altered by the slavish parliaments of Henry VIII, that the national high spirit of the English was crushed in the dust. The very day after Mary's visit, the Emperor's ambassador declared that if his master's kinswoman was any further molested in her religious rites, he should quit the country, preparatory to a declaration of war.

The ministers, and even the bishops of the young king, assured him That war with the low countries would be utter ruin to England, and that he must wink at his sister's mass for a while. Whereat he wept. And the enforced toleration did not last long, for Francis Mallet, the head chaplain of the princess's household, was seized and confined rigidly in the tower. A person was placed in his cell, night and day, to watch what he said and did. This was the more to be deplored, since Mallet had shown, by aiding Mary in the translation of Erasmus, a tendency to liberality of principles. And when such a person meets persecution, the mischief done to the general cause of Christianity is great, since all the tendencies to kindliness and mutual forbearance are changed into polemic fury.

Mallet was esteemed by Queen Catherine Parr, and was a retiring character. but a man of great learning and sincerity. He had been long in the service of the Princess Mary, and it was to him she addressed the following words at the end of a prayer she composed. Good Francis, pray that I may have grace to obtain the petitions contained in this prayer, above written, Your assured loving mistress during life, Marie. When this old and tired friend was dragged from under her roof to prison, Mary wrote earnest letters of remonstrance to her brother and his council, but in vain. She continued, however, to have her religious service celebrated by her remaining chaplains, although in the following August, another attempt was made to prevent it.

She was at Copte Hall, Waltham, Essex, when the king and council sent for the comptroller of her household, Mr. Robert Rochester, with Mr. Walgrave and Sir Francis Inglefield, her two other principal officers, and, after using many menaces and persuasions, charged them to return to their mistress, and informed her and her remaining chaplains that mass should not be continued. In short, these officers were charged to control the princess in her own house by altogether putting a stop to her religious service, and if, in consequence, she discharged them from her service, they were to stay nevertheless. and enforce the king's orders. Most unwillingly, and with heavy hearts, did Mary's officers depart on this errand.

How they sped in their attempts to control their mistress, their own words will best testify. We arrived at Copte Hall, August Fifteenth, late in the evening, but as the following day was Sunday, and her grace was to receive the sacrament, we abstained from delivering the letters before noon, lest she should be disquieted. After dinner, they presented the letters, delivered to them at Hampton Court, on the fourteenth, and when the princess had read them, they prayed her to be contented to hear the commission they had received of the council. To which her grace made answer, that she knew right well that their commission agreed with the letters before her, therefore they need not rehearse it. They implored her to permit them to obey the council, and at last she consented to hear their message, but was marvellously offended when she heard it, and forbade them.

To declare the same to her chaplains and household, if they did, they must no longer consider her as their mistress. Moreover, she would leave the house directly. As during this interview they all observed, that her color often altered, and she seemed passioned and unquiet, they forbore to trouble her farther, fearing that the troubling her might bring on an attack of her old disease. They therefore begged her to consider the matter within herself, and pause upon her answer to the council till the next Wednesday, when they would wait upon her grace again to hear further her pleasure, adding that they did this, hoping to find her more conformable. On Wednesday, they found her anything but conformable, for she would not permit them to declare their charge from the council to her chaplains and family, saying, Her household were enjoying the completest peace and quiet, and if they chose to disturb her and them, and any ill should arise, they, the said Rochester, Englefield, and Walgrave, must answer for the blame of it.

On this, they preferred returning to the council without performing their commission, contenting themselves with bringing to Windsor for his majesty, letters from the Lady Mary's Grace, as followeth. My duty most humbly remember to your majesty. It may please you to be advertised that I have by my servants received your most honorable letter, the contents whereof do not a little trouble me, and so much the more, for that any of my servants should move or trouble me in matters touching my soul, which I think the meanest subject in your realm could evil bear at their servant's hand. Having for my part Utterly refused heretofore to talk with them in such matters, and of other persons less regarded them therein.

To them I have declared what I think, as she, which trusteth your majesty, would have suffered me, your poor humble sister and Beda's woman, to have used the accustomed mass which the king your father and mine, with all his predecessors, evermore used, wherein also I have been brought up from my youth. And thereunto my conscience doth not only bind me, which will by no means suffer me to think one thing and do another. But also the promise made to the Emperor by your Majesty's counsel was an assurance to me, that in so doing I should not break the laws, although they seem now to qualify and deny the thing. And at my last waiting on your Highness, I was so bold as to declare my mind and conscience, and desired, your Highness, rather than constrain it, to take my life, whereunto your majesty made me a very gentle answer.

And now I beseech your highness to give me leave to write what I think, touching your majesty's letters. Indeed, they may be signed with your own hand, and nevertheless, in my opinion, not your majesty's in effect, because it is well known that heretofore I have declared in the presence of your highness that, though our lord be praised, Your Majesty hath far more knowledge and greater gifts than others of your years. Yet it is not possible that your Highness can at these years be a judge in matters of religion, and therefore I take it, that the matter proceedeth from such as do wish those things to take place, which be most agreeable to themselves, by whose doings your Majesty not offended, I mean not to rule my conscience.

and thus, without molesting your highness any further, I humbly beseech the same ever, for God's sake, to bear with me, as you have done, and not to think that by my doings or example, any inconvenience might grow to your majesty or to your realm, for I use it not after any such sort, putting or having no doubt but in time to come. Whether I live or die, Your majesty shall perceive mine intent is grounded upon a true love towards you, whose royal estate I beseech Almighty God long to continue, which is and shall be my prayer according to my duty. And after your pardon craved of your majesty for this rude and bold letter, if neither at my humble suit, nor for the regard of the promise made to the emperor, You will suffer and bear with me as you have done, till your majesty may be a judge herein yourself, and right understand their proceedings, of which I yet despair not.

Rather than to offend God in my conscience, I offer my body at your will, and death shall be more welcome than life with a troubled conscience. Most humbly beseeching your majesty to pardon my slowness in answering your letters, for my old disease would not suffer me to write any sooner. And thus, I pray, Almighty God, to keep your majesty in all virtue and honor and long life at his pleasure. From my poor house at Cop Hill, Essex, the 19th of August, your majesty's most humble sister, Mary. Edward VI and his council took four days for the consideration of this letter, nor could they devise a more rational scheme of reducing the recusant princess to conformity than by continuing to excite her own servants to control her, who, being accustomed to render her implicit obedience, were, as she shrewdly remarked, the last persons likely to enforce it.

And so it proved. For when Robert Rochester, her principal officer, was brought before the king in council, in order to receive a second code of instructions, on his return to his vocation in the household of the princess, he flatly refused to carry any more messages, vowing he had had enough of his first commission. They might send him to prison if they liked, but as to face his mistress on any such errands, he would not. Sir Francis Ingelfield and Mr. Walgrave were precisely in the same mind, refusing to intermeddle with the religious rites in the household of their lady, saying it was against their consciences. In this dilemma, the council found they must carry their own messages themselves.

Accordingly, a deputation of their bodies set off, for the purpose of reducing the princess to obedience. The persons composing it were the Lord Chancellor Rich, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Comptroller of the King's Household, and Mr. Peter. They likewise brought a gentleman who meant to favor Mary with his service, in place of the impracticable Robert Rochester, who was forthwith conveyed prisoner, first to the fleet, and then to the tower.

17 17 - Mary, Ch III pt 3 29:38

Mary, Chapter 3, Part 3. The proceedings of the privy councillors at Copte Hall cannot be better narrated than in the words of the Lord Chancellor himself, who, in a very tragic tone, thus relates the scene. Which, contrasted with the sad and tearful events of those times of terror, positively ends with a tinge of comedy. I, the Lord Chancellor, delivered His Majesty's letters to the Lady Mary, who received them on her knees, saying that she would kiss the letter because the king had signed it, and not for the matter contained therein, which was merely the doings of the council. Reading it to herself, she said these words in our hearing. Ah, good Mr. Cecil took much pains here. When they began to exhort her on the business they came on, she prayed them to be brief.

For, said she, I am ill at ease and health, and I shall, mayhap, make you a short answer, having written my mind to his majesty with mine own hand. Nevertheless, they proceeded in their exhortation, and offered to show her the names of all the council, who had resolved she should not have the private mass in her house. She cared not, she said, for the rehearsal of their names, for she knew they were all of one mind therein, and added she, rather than use any other service than that ordained during the life of my father, I will lay my head on the block. But, she continued, I am unworthy to suffer death in so good a cause. And though his majesty, good sweet king, have more knowledge than any other of his years, yet it is not possible for him, at present, to be a judge of all things.

For instance, if ships were to be sent to sea, I am sure you would not think him able to decide what should be done, and much less can he, at his age, judge in questions of divinity. Howbeit, if my chaplains do say no Mass, I can hear none. No more can my poor servants. As to my priests, they know what they have to do. If they refuse to say Mass for fear of imprisonment, they may act therein as they will. But none of your service shall be said in any house of mine, and if any be said in it, I will not tarry in it an hour. they then told her how the king had commanded her comptroller, Mr. Robert Rochester, to enforce his council's orders, and how ill and inefficiently he and his colleagues had done the errand, and of their flat disobedience when commanded to return with a second message.

As might be expected, this information gave the princess Mary extreme satisfaction. Friendless and oppressed she might be, but it was evident she was still absolute mistress in her own domicile, and her servants preferred gainsaying a king and his council to the task of contradicting her under her own roof. With true woman's wit, she rejoined. It was not the wisest of all counsels that sent her own servants to control her in her own house, for of all persons she was least likely to obey those who had been always used to obey her implicitly. As for their punishment, the lords must use them as they thought fit. But if they refuse to do your message, added she, they were the honester men, I wiss.

Then the Chancellor opened at length Regarding the message of Charles V in her behalf to the Privy Council, to which she replied, I have the Emperor's letter in his own handwriting, testifying that an actual promise was made by the Council that the Mass should be permitted me. Nor can you marvel that I credit the Emperor's writing more than your words, and, though you esteem the Emperor so little, yet should ye show me more favor than ye do, even for my father's sake. who made the most of ye what ye be now, almost out of nothing. This observation must have been peculiarly cutting to those in her presence, since Henry VIII had, really, raised them from the lowest rank of English gentry, and they were remarkable for no talent, excepting the art of skilful compliance, with every persecuting whim of the sovereign that happened to be reigning, whether directed against Protestants or Catholics.

As for the emperor, continued the princess, were he dead, I would do just as I do now. Notwithstanding, to be plain with you, his ambassador shall know how I am used. After this, resumes Lord Chancellor Rich, she was told that the king had appointed a person to supply the place of her impracticable comptroller, Rochester, who was sent to prison for refusing to carry the messages of the council. "'I shall appoint mine own officers,' quoth she, "'for my years are sufficient for the purpose, and if ye leave your new comptroller within my gates, out of them I go forthwith, for we twain will not abide in the same house.' And added she, "'I am sickly, yet will I not die willingly. But if I chance to die, I will protest openly that ye of the council be the cause of my death.'" And having said this, she on her knees delivered a ring as a token to the king, saying, that she would die his true subject and sister, and obey him in all things, except matters of religion.

But this, she added, will never be told his majesty. And having said this, she departed into her bedchamber. Then the Lord Chancellor called the chaplains of her household before him, and commanded and threatened them if they said aught but the service contained in the common prayer-book. The chaplains, after some take, promised to obey. When departing, the Lord Chancellor and his company went down into the courtyard and waited a few minutes, while search was made of one of the chaplains, who had got out of the way of the exhortation, just then, the princess, who perhaps was willing to divert their attention, opened a little window close by them, and though they offered to return to the house to hear what she had to say, she would needs, says my lord chancellor, speak out of the window.

I pray you, quoth she, ask the lords of the council that my comptroller, Rockchester, may shortly return, for since his departing I take the accounts myself, and lo, have I learned how many loaves of bread be made of a bushel of wheat. I wis my father and mother never brought me up to brewing and baking. And to be plain with you, I am a-weary of mine office. If my lords will send mine officer home again, they shall do me a pleasure. Otherwise, if they will send him to prison, beshrew me, if he go not to it merrily, and with a good will. And I pray God to send you well in your souls, and in your bodies too, for some of you have but weak ones. It cannot excite surprise that the deputation waited not to hear any more of this address, to which the princess certainly gave a comic turn, that few will expect from her.

Thus, she remained victor in the whole discussion, for it is not mentioned that the absentee chaplain was found. Therefore, when the unwelcome visitors departed, this chaplain doubtless came out of his hiding-place, and performed the forbidden service as usual in the chapel. These events took place just before the arrest and condemnation of the Duke of Somerset to the scaffold, He had previously lost every shadow of power. Among other accusations, he was charged with having proclaimed to the people that the Dudley faction had sown strife between the king and the princess Mary. In the succeeding April, the united attacks of the smallpox and measles left a blight on the constitution of the young king, which too truly prognosticated his early death.

Projects in consequence began to be formed for excluding Mary from the throne. The long fits of illness which afflicted her gave probability to the reports the Dudley faction raised, representing her, according to the Italian of Polino, as a poor, miserable invalid, fit for nothing but to be shut up in her palace. Nevertheless, many of the principal lords of the kingdom were anxious for their daughters to serve her and be her companions, To whom she replied, Do not marvel that I am obliged to decline receiving them, for my fortunes are such that I could neither benefit their prospects in life or give them pleasure, and though you kindly offer them, I could not receive services without rewarding them.

The visits of the princess married to her brother in the last year of his life had become few and far between, and when they took place were conducted according to the solemnest etiquette. One of these visits took place in June, fifteen fifty two. She previously spent some days in London at her palace of St. John's, Clerkenwell. From whence she rode with a goodly company of ladies and gentlemen, June 11th, to the Tower Wharf. There she took her barge and was rode to Greenwich Palace. her interview with the king was to take leave of him previously to his progress to Guilford. The mad ambition of John Dudley, who had lately created himself Duke of Northumberland, destined the English crown for his youngest son, Lord Guilford Dudley, by means of marriage with one of the ladies of the Blood Royal, descended from the Protestant branch of Suffolk.

At first, Lady Margaret Clifford, the grandchild of Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII, by descent from her youngest daughter, was the mate chosen for Northumberland's favourite boy. Subsequently, the faction became more daring and more desperate, as the king's illness took the form of consumption, and Guilford Dudley was matched three degrees nearer the throne with the fair and learned Lady Jane Grey, eldest daughter of Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, who was heiress to the sister of Henry VIII and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. a few months before this union, the princess Mary received Lady Jane Grey as her guest at Newhall during the progress the king made alluded to above in July, fifteen fifty two.

An anecdote connected with this visit proves that the religious rites of Catholicism were, notwithstanding all opposition, still celebrated in Mary's domestic chapel. For Lady Wharton, passing through the chapel at Newhall, in company with Lady Jane Grey, at a time when service was not proceeding, curtsied to the host, which was in its usual place on the altar. Lady Jane asked, If the Lady Mary was present in the chapel? Lady Wharton said, No. Why, then, do you curtsy? asked Lady Jane Grey. I curtsied to him that made me, replied Lady Wharton. Nay, said Lady Jane Grey. But did not the baker make him? Lady Wharton reported this dialogue to the Princess Mary, who never after loved Lady Jane as she had done before.

The princess had previously presented Lady Jane Grey with a rich dress, and her observations on the sinfulness of wearing it, mentioning Mary, as one who left God's word, probably found their way to the princess's ear, as well as into the narrative that recorded them. It is possible that these incidents caused Lady Jane Grey to be nominated as the successor of Edward the Sixth, a choice so replete with calamity to her. The ensuing September was spent by the Princess Mary at Hunsdon, and to this place, on the eighth of that month, the eloquent and zealous Ridley, then Bishop of London, went from his seat of Haddam close by to pay her a pastoral visit, He was courteously entertained by Sir Thomas Wharton and the other officers of the princess till about eleven o'clock, when she came forth into her presence chamber.

He saluted her grace, and said he was come to pay his duty to her. She received the bishop courteously, and conversed with him right pleasantly for a quarter of an hour. She told him, she remembered him when he was chaplain to her father, that she recollected a sermon he preached before the king, On occasion of the marriage of my lady Clinton, to Sir Anthony Brown. The princess then invited him to dinner. After dinner, he told her he came to do his duty by her as her diocesan, and to preach before her next Sunday. She blushed when she answered, For emotion, it has been before noticed, always brought a lively color to her cheeks, and bade him make the answer to that himself. Upon which he became more urgent, and she answered, that the parish church would be open to him if he had a mind to preach in it, but that neither she nor any of her household would be present.

He said, he hoped she would not refuse to hear God's word. She replied, she did not know what they called God's word now, but she was sure it was not the same as in her father's time. God's word, replied Ridley, was the same at all times, but hath been better understood and practiced in some ages than in other. She answered, He durst not have avowed his present faith in her father's lifetime, and asked, If he were of the council, he said he was not. When he retired, she said, She thanked him for coming to see her, but not at all for his intention of preaching before her. Before he left Hunsdon, Sir Thomas Wharton, steward of the household, according to the custom of the times, took him to the cellar or to the buttery hatch, and presented him with the usual stirrup-cup.

After Ridley had taken it, he said, He had done amiss to drink under a roof where God's word was rejected, for he ought to have shaken the dust off his feet, for a testimony against the house, and departed instantly. With these words he went his way, leaving all that heard him in the utmost consternation at his manner. Halen, in his version of the story, affirms that, "...they declared their hair stood on end at his denunciations." The sincerity of both these opponents was unquestionable. Mary, pure in life and unswerving in principle, was ready to lay her head on the block to testify her love for the faith in which she had been reared, Ridley was ardent in piety, and as poor, though Bishop of London, as the Apostles, to whom he compared himself, so bountiful was he in charitable distribution.

In a milder age, such persons would have respected each other's virtues, and tolerated difference of belief. But the main-spring of all the horrors of that dismal era was the fact that if the word toleration was in use, it only served, on both sides, to nominate a crime. Nor was it till after as much catholic blood had been shed by Elizabeth as would have fairly extinguished the hideous fires of the Marian persecution, that one glorious light of the Church of England discovered the great Christian truth, that odious comparisons, bitter sarcasms, and other fruits of polemic argument excite combative anger rather than feelings of Christian benevolence or veneration. It was holy George Herbert, the mild beams of whose tolerant faith were only diffused over one rural parish, who thus addressed his countrymen just preparing, after a short breathing time, to rush into another religious civil war.

Be calm in arguing, for fierceness makes error a crime, and truth discourtesy. Why should I blame another man's mistakes more than his sickness or his poverty? In love I may, but anger is not love, nor reason neither. Therefore, gently move. As the young king's health declined, the homage offered to the princess Mary increased, and when she paid one of her state visits to him at Westminster on the occasion of the new year of 1553, her cortege was crowded with the principal nobility. She retired, however, to her favourite seat of Newhall, where in May she received false intelligence that the king was better, and addressed to him, in consequence, the following letter of congratulation. The Princess married to Edward the sixth.

My duty most humbly presented to your majesty. It may please the same to be advertised, that as hearing of your highness's late room and cough, was as much grief as ever was any worldly thing, even so that the hope which I have conceived since I received your majesty's last token by my servant hath not been a little to my comfort, praying, Almighty God, according to my most bounden duty, to give your majesty perfect health and strength, With long continuance in prosperity to reign, beseeching your Highness to pardon my bold and rude writing, and if, in the same I do trouble your Majesty at this present, which I hope I do not, that my humble duty and nature, or natural feeling, which enforceth me thereunto, may excuse my default.

Thus most humbly taking my leave of your Majesty, I do and shall daily pray for the prosperous preservation of your royal estate. As of all others, I am most bound. From Beaulieu, or Newhall, the sixteenth of May, scribbled with a rude hand, no yearly date. Your Majesty's most humble sister, Mary. This was the last communication that passed between the Princess Mary and her dying brother. His real situation was sedulously concealed from both his sisters, who, in distrust of the prevalent court faction, kept at some distance from the metropolis, At the end of May, a splendid bridal festival was held at Durham House Strand, while the king was extremely ill. His accomplished kinswoman, Lady Jane Grey, was married to Lord Guilford Dudley, and her sister, Lady Catherine Grey, to the heir of the Earl of Pembroke.

King Edward expired at Greenwich Palace, little more than a month afterwards. He disinherited by an illegal will not only the sister whose religion he hated, but his protestant sister, Elizabeth, in order to bestow the crown on Lady Jane Grey. It is a point that will admit strong historical controversy whether, in this transaction, Edward was Northumberland's dupe or his victim. The dominant faction, by means of doubling the guards round the royal apartments, contrived to keep Edward's death a secret from the public for two days, for the purpose of inveigling the rightful heiress of the crown into their power. Accordingly, the council wrote Mary a deceitful letter, saying, that her brother, who was very ill, prayed her to come to him, as he earnestly desired the comfort of her presence, and likewise wished her to see all well ordered about him.

Mary, who had watched over his infancy, appears to have been melted by this appeal. She returned a tender message, expressive of her pleasure, that he should have thought she could be of any comfort to him. She set out immediately from Hunsdon, and got as far as Hodesden, when a mysterious messenger met her, sent, some historians say, by the Earl of Arundel, some by Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. She learned, however, her sisterly affection had been imposed on, that the king was dead, and that she was destined to imprisonment in the tower. The private memorials of the Throckmorton family describe how this was effected. when king edward expired sir nicholas throckmorton who was present at his death came in great grief to throckmorton house in the city where his three brothers were assembled to whom he revealed the king's death and the intended proclamation of northumberland's daughter-in-law as queen the brothers agreeing in a strong detestation of the house of dudley resolved that timely notice should be given to the princess mary and therefore called into consultation her goldsmith who undertook to carry the important message.

He set out accordingly to meet her, and was undoubtedly the man who intercepted her at Hodesden, and revealed the real state of affairs. This information threw Mary into the greatest perplexity. She asked her, Goldsmith, how he knew for a certainty the king was dead. He answered, Sir Nicholas knew it verily. This authorised he was exceedingly mistrusted by Mary, for as Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Had assumed the phraseology of the most violent Calvinists at the court of Edward VI, she could not believe that his intentions were friendly to her cause. She dreaded that a trap was laid to seduce her into an overt act of treason by proclaiming herself the sovereign of England while her brother was living.

After musing some time, she said to her informant, the goldsmith, if Robert had been at Greenwich, I would have hazard all things and gauged my life on the leap. she meant the elder brother of Sir Nicholas, Sir Robert Throckmorton, for whom she had always the greatest esteem. She would not, however, despise the warning, though she did not fully confide in it, but diverged from the London Road towards Suffolk with all her train. These events must have occurred on the afternoon of the seventh of July. the fugitive heiress of england bent her flight in the direction of cambridgeshire as the nearest way to her seat of kenninghall through bury st edmunds as the soft shades of a july night fell round her hasty course over those desolate plains which are intersected by the eastern road once so familiar to the pilgrims bound to the lady shrine of walsingham and since as much traversed by the frequenters of newmarket The ladies and cavaliers of her faithful retinue began to discuss the recent death of the young king.

They were all Catholics of the ancient ritual, and, of course, viewed the changes of the eventful times wholly according to their prejudices. They recalled with awe that the only heir male of the line of Henry VIII had expired on the very anniversary of the lawless execution of Sir Thomas More. It was in vain that King Henry had overthrown all existing impediments, and set at naught the lives of thousands in his wilfulness. Since his frantic desire of continuing his name and sceptre by airs mail was now as much blighted as if the divorce of Catherine of Aragon and the awful bloodshed which stained his latter years had never taken place. Wearied and worn, the whole party arrived at the gate of Soston Hall in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, and craved the hospitality of Mr.

Huddleston, its owner. That gentleman, like his relative, who watched the royal oak at Boscobel so well, was a zealous Roman Catholic. He knew, though she did not, how inimical his neighbors of the town of Cambridge were to the cause of the lineal heiress. Huddleston was, nevertheless, too true a gentleman to refuse shelter to the way-wearied princess and her harassed retinue, though there can be little doubt but that he must have foreseen the perilous consequences which threatened himself, and his laris empenates. Mary lodged that night under the hospitable roof which was never more to shelter a human being. She was astir with her ladies and retinue before sunrise, but commenced not her arduous journey till she had offered up her devotions according to the rights of her religion.

Very early in the morning, Mary set out on her journey to Kenning Hall. When she and her party gained the rise, called the Gogmagog Hills, she drew her bridle rein, and paused to look back at Sawston Hall. At that moment, it burst into flames, for a party from Cambridge, adverse to her cause, had heard of her arrival, and had mustered early in the morning to attack the house that harbored her. If they had not amused themselves with plundering and burning Sawston Hall, they might have seized Mary. So close were they on her traces. She gazed on the flaming pile undauntedly. Let it blaze, she said. I will build Huddleston a better. She kept her word. The present Sawston Hall was built by her order and at her expense.

Mary was received loyally at Bury St. Edmunds, yet she made no further stay there than for the noon refreshment. The news of the death of Edward, the sixth, had not yet reached that town, and Mary's retinue accounted for their hurried journey by asserting that one of the household at Hunsdon had died suddenly, suspected of the plague. Therefore, the fear of communicating that disease prevented them from tarrying in populous neighborhoods, and caused their retreat into the depths of the country. the same night, Mary crossed the river, which separates Suffolk from its sister county, and arrived safely at her seat of Kenninghall in Norfolk. There was little rest for her, either in mind or body. By that time, the news of the death of the king, her brother, was generally known, and it was necessary for her to take immediate steps for the assertion of her title to the throne.

she instantly penned a temperate remonstrance to the privy council mentioning her brother's death with feeling, and further declaring that she was aware of their inimical projects, but she concluded with the offer of amnesty and favour if they relinquished the same, and proclaimed her in London as their sovereign. This dispatch was dated Kenninghall July, ninth. The council proclaimed Lady Jane Grey Queen on the tenth of the same month, their reply to mary was peculiarly aggravating. They branded her in gross terms with illegitimacy, and advised her to submit to her sovereign lady, Queen Jane. Mary immediately took prompt measures for maintaining her right, and certainly displayed, in the course she pursued, an admirable union of courage and prudence.

She had neither money, soldiers nor advisors. Sir Thomas Wharton, the steward of her household and her ladies, were her only assistance in the first bold step she took. Has she been surrounded by the experienced veterans in arms and counsel that rallied round her sister Elizabeth at Tilbury, more sagacious measures could scarcely have been adopted. And had Elizabeth been the heroine of the enterprise instead of Mary, it would have been lauded to the skies as one of the grandest efforts of female courage and ability the world had ever known. And so it was, whether it be praised or not. Sir Henry Jerningham and Sir Henry Bedingfeld brought their Norfolk tenantry to her aid before she left Kenninghall, which she did on the representation that the country was too open and the house not strong enough to stand a siege.

She resolved to fix her headquarters within an easy ride of the eastern coast whence she could, on emergency, embark for the opposite shores of Holland and seek the protection of her kinsman, the Emperor Charles V. With this intention, she left Kenninghall, July 11, mounted on horseback, and attended by her faithful knights and ladies. She never drew bridle till she reached the town of Framlingham, which is deep in bosom in the Suffolk woodlands, and situated about twenty miles from Kenninghall. The treble circle of motes, which girdle the hillside, town and fortress of Framlingham, were then full and efficient, and the whole defences in complete repair. Nary arrived there after nightfall at the head of a little cavalry force destined to form the nucleus of a mighty army.

The picturesque train of knights in warlike harness, and their men-at-arms, guarding equestrian maids of honor, with the heiress of the English crown at their head, wended their way by torchlight up the woodland eminence on which the Saxon town of Framlingham is built. Thus they passed the beautiful church, where the bones of the noble poet Surrey have since found rest, and ascended the mighty causeway over two deep motes, and paused at length beneath the embattled gateway, surmounted then as now by the arms of Howard. Directly, Mary stood within the magnificent area, formed by the circling towers of Framingham Castle. She felt herself a sovereign, She immediately defied her enemies by displaying her standard over the gate tower, and assumed the title of Queen Regnant of England and Ireland.

18 18 - Mary, Ch IV pt 1 31:32

The Queen of England is a great pleasure to be with you.

the royal standard of england had not floated many hours over the towers of Framlingham Castle before the chivalry of Suffolk mustered gallantly round queen mary. sir john suliard the knight of wetherdon was the first to arrive to her assistance and to him was given the honourable post of guarding her person. Sir henry bedingfell's suffolk tenants came in completely armed to the amount of a hundred and forty men and mary appointed their zealous master knight-marshal of her hourly increasing host. The young grandson of the imprisoned duke of norfolk Lord Thomas Howard, then seventeen, appeared as one of the queen's defenders, and there is no question but that the adherents of his house crowded round the banner of the disinherited heir of the murdered Surrey.

Meantime, Sir Henry Jerningham undertook a most dangerous commission at Yarmouth, the success of which finally turned the scale in Mary's favour. One of the reasons that prompted Mary to raise her standard in Suffolk was the detestation in which the usurper, Northumberland, was held on account of the tremendous cruelties he had perpetrated when Quetz's rebellion, for the restoration of the ancient ritual, was crushed in blood in the eastern counties. Sir William Drury, knight of the Shire of Suffolk, and Sir Thomas Cornwallis, high sheriff, soon joined the Queen's muster at Framlingham. Likewise, Sir John Shelton and Sir John Turrell, both zealous Catholics. according to fox they were afterwards bitter persecutors of the protestants an extraordinary misapprehension exists that mary's recognition as queen was chiefly enforced by the protestants of suffolk yet the leaders of the framelingham force were not only catholics but most of their descendants are so to this day her army soon amounted to thirteen thousand men all voluntarily serving without pay though the queen prudently directed that, if any soldier seemed in need of aught, his captain was to supply his wants as if by way of gift, and charge the expense to her.

In an incredibly short time, a populist camp rose around the ancient walls of the castle, within whose mighty circle the queen herself sojourned. Framlingham Castle was founded in the Saxon Heptarchy. by king Redwald. It remained a royal demisne till Henry I granted it to Earl Bygod, to whom the present structure is attributed. Subsequently, it was given by Edward I to his second son, Thomas of Brotherton, and from him it descended to the Howards, the dukes of which race made it their principal residence. The site of the castle is a high mound. From whence springs the source of the river Ores. This stream supplied the three moats, which are, in the summer season, gaily enamelled with golden irises.

On the edge of the moat is reared a magnificent circle of walls and towers, enclosing an area of more than an acre. These walls remain to this day nearly entire. They are forty feet in height, and more than eight feet in thickness, and are studded with thirteen square towers. Within the area, surrounded by these bulwarks, Once stood the baronial residence occupied by Queen Mary. The fragments existing are small, yet the traces of the state apartments are, as it were, curiously mapped upon the mighty walls which once sustained them. After crossing a walled causeway over the double moat, and passing through the gate tower, the spectator enters the spacious area. To the right, nearly opposite, are seen several chimneys, whose summits are hollow pillars of wreathed brickwork, very elaborately wrought.

The chimney of the state bedchamber, on the second floor, still remains. On one side of it is a recess about the size of a dressing room, with an arched window looking towards the east. This is declared by tradition to have been Mary's chamber, but it is evidently the Oriel, or private oratory pertaining to her state chamber, which, of course, was the room to which the chimney belonged. At the time Mary took refuge in the castle, everything was in the same order as when the old Duke of Norfolk surrendered it into the hands of his ungrateful master, Henry VIII. When he found the Seymours bent on the downfall of his house, he requested that the king would be pleased to bestow his possessions on the royal children, because, as he said, it was stately gear.

At the same time, the experienced statesman calculated shrewdly on its restoration, a result that he actually lived to see. Framlingham appears to have been retained in the hands of Edward, the sixth, but his governor, Thomas Evidently adhered to the ancient ritual, and was consequently willing to surrender it to Mary as Queen. A Catholic priest, named Sir Rowland, still officiated in the private chapel, where a lamp perpetually burned. The chapel was hung with tapestry, representing the life of Christ. The size of the gable of the chapel, and the form of its crockets, may be plainly traced on the wall. Likewise, a few small windows belonging to a gallery leading from the state chamber occupied by Mary to the chapel.

The tapestry which hung the state apartments was transferred from Framlingham to Audley End by Lord Howard of Walden, and even in the succeeding century was so good and rich that William III sent it to one of his palaces in Holland, where it is perhaps at this day. the local traditions of suffolk affirm that queen mary came to framlingham on the tenth or eleventh of july and remained there till the thirty-first many circumstances proved their correctness. None of her kenninghall dispatches and state papers are dated later than the ninth of july, and as she was certainly proclaimed queen at norwich on the twelfth of the same month, she naturally retreated to a place of security before that hazardous step was taken.

From the steeple of the church of Framlingham, the seaport of Aldborough may be seen. The castle stands at a much greater elevation, and its highest watch-tower, when entire, commanded a view of the German ocean, and all that passed near the coast. Mary meant to retreat, in case of danger, by the nearest road to the sea. And to this day, a lane, about a mile and a half from the castle, leading to the coast, is called Bloody Queen Mary's Lane, because it is reported she used to walk there. That is, like a prudent general, she surveyed the roads by which retreat was to be made, if needed. The close and winding lanes which led through the forest surrounding Framlingham Castle were rendered impassable by trees felled and thrown across them.

The crisis of extreme danger occurred about five days after Mary had retired to Framlingham, When six ships of war were seen to sail past the Suffolk coast, making far Yarmouth roads. Now there were stout hearts and strong hands at Framingham, but no other artillery or instruments of war than those carried by the cavaliers at their belts or saddle-bows, while the infantry had to depend on push of pike, or blow of axe, or brown bill. the ships were dispatched by the Privy Council to carry cannon and warlike stores for the siege of Mary's Castle, and likewise to intercept her if she attempted to retreat to the Emperor's dominions. Sir Henry Gerringham was at Yarmouth when the fleet, under pretence of stress of weather, came close to the harbour, and he boldly went out in a boat to hail them.

Upon which, says Speed, these sea-soldiers demanded what he wanted. Your captains replied the intrepid knight, who are rebels to our lawful queen Mary. If they are, replied the men of war, we will throw them into the sea, for we are her true subjects. Upon which the captains surrendered themselves, and Sir Henry and the Yarmouth Burgesses took possession of the ships. another favourable incident to mary's cause occurred simultaneously with the surrender of the fleet. She had, among her numerous letters written on the ninth of July, before she left Kenning Hall, sent one claiming the allegiance of Sir Edward Hastings, who had been commissioned by the adverse party to raise four thousand men for Queen Jane in Middlesex and Buckinghamshire.

Sir Edward was brother to the Earl of Huntingdon, who was closely allied by a marriage or contract with a daughter of Northumberland, but they were at the same time great-nephews to Cardinal Pole, being grandsons to the murdered Lord Montague, whose heiress had married the late Earl of Huntingdon. When Sir Edward Hastings had raised a large force in the name of Jane, he proclaimed Mary as his rightful queen, and thus placed at her disposal a great body of militia close to London. The defection of the fleet at Yarmouth could scarcely have reached lady jane grey's privy council when this revolt so near to them struck terror through their hearts. The first indication of goodwill the metropolis showed towards mary's right of succession was on the morning of the sixteenth of july, when a placard was found posted at Queen Hithe Church importing that she had been proclaimed queen of England and Ireland in every town and city therein except London.

The same day, the Earl of Sussex and the Earl of Bath seceded from the council. They took their way to Framlingham at the head of their armed vassals. The Queen had, directly on her arrival, formed a privy council at Framlingham Castle, who were soon in active correspondence with the municipal authorities at Harwich, Thetford, Norwich, and Ipswich. So early as July 16th, Mr. Smith, the clerk of the Framlingham Council, reported a dispatch from Mr. Brand, that sir edward hastings and ten thousand of the militia of oxford, Bucks, Berkshire, and Middlesex, had mustered on July, at Drayton, Lord Paget's seat, with intention of marching to seize the palace of Westminster and all it contained, in behalf of the queen's right and title.

The mayor and corporation of Thetford begged for aid from the queen's headquarters at Framlingham, but were answered by Mary's orders, that the pride of the enemy they would see in short time abated. Therefore, they of Thetford will be out of all doubt of their conceived fear. The same day, all the ships in the harbor of Harwich declared for the Queen, having deposed Sir Richard Broke and other captains from their command. The Queen commanded stores of ammunition to be instantly forwarded to Framlingham from these ships, and commissioned one of the captains, John Basing, to resume the command of his vessel. the day after, John Hughes, the comptroller of the customs at Yarmouth, and John Brees, captain of a ship of war called the Greyhound, submitted themselves to the Queen's mercy, and were sworn in her service.

She ordered all the ordnance and shot from the Greyhound to be brought to Framlingham that could be possibly spared from their own defence. The same day she sent orders for certain chests. containing church-plate and money at Norwich, to be opened in presence of the mayor, and the treasure convoyed to her at Framlingham by Austin Steward, at whose house the chests had remained. Likewise, she demanded a number of bakers to be sent from Norwich, and three hundred quarters of malt were brewed at Orford. Three brass pieces of ordnance, which were at Aldborough, ready mounted, the queen required to be sent from thence. a proclamation of defiance to northumberland was issued fourth july eighteenth from framlingham castle offering one thousand pounds in land to any noble five hundred pounds to any gentleman and one hundred pounds to any yeoman who brought him in prisoner to the queen five hundred men were appointed to guard the queen within the walls of the fortress and no persons, whether coming to submit themselves or otherwise, were permitted to approach her without order from the council.

She commanded all prisoners in the gaols of Suffolk and Norfolk to be freed, a very doubtful policy in an unsettled time. It is, however, pretty certain that they had been crowded with persons who had committed no other crime than expressing themselves favorable to her title, while Edward, the sixth, was declining. She had the temerity to order as early as the twenty-second of July, Sir Edward Hastings to dismiss his militia and come to her with Lord Windsor. She seems to have had from the first an extraordinary dislike to standing armies, Perhaps they did not suit her rigid notions of state economy. Northumberland, though at the head of an army at Cambridge, had employed himself rather in polemic than military warfare.

He had requested Dr. Edwin Sandys, the vice-chancellor of the university and a very zealous Protestant, to preach a sermon against Mary's title and her religion. Whilst the sermon was proceeding, a yeoman of the guard held up to public scorn, a Catholic missile and a grail, which had been captured the preceding night at Mr. Huddleston's house. where Mary had slept and heard mass. During her late rapid journey into Suffolk, the next day, the news arrived of the revolution in London, and Northumberland, struck with terror, made a clumsy attempt to imitate his colleagues by personally proclaiming Queen Mary in Cambridge Marketplace, tossing up his cap while the tears ran down his cheeks. Dr. Sandys, who stood by him, was a man of indomitable courage, mental and physical.

he could scarcely conceal his scorn when the duke said to him, that Queen Mary was a merciful woman, and that doubtless, all would receive the benefit of her general pardon. Dr. Sandys bade him not flatter himself, for if the queen were ever so inclined to pardon, those who ruled her would destroy him, whoever else were spared. then occurred a disgusting scene of treachery. Sir John Gates, one of Northumberland's most guilty agents, arrested his master when he was personally helpless, with his boots half on and half off. This is a true specimen of the dishonourable spirit of the era. In a few hours, Northumberland was again set at liberty. At last, all this anarchy was settled by the entry into Cambridge of the Earl of Arundel with a body of the Queen's troops.

he arrested Northumberland, Gates, and Dr. Sandys, and sent them to the tower. Several of Northumberland's party, after the arrest of their chief, hastened on to Framlingham in order to excuse themselves to Queen Mary, under the plea that they were but obeying the orders of the Privy Council. Among these visitors were the Marquess of Northampton and Lord Robert Dudley. Bishop Ridley likewise presented himself at Framlingham, but was evilly received and sent back, Fox declares, on a halting horse. He was really arrested and with Northampton sent to the tower from the Queen's camp on the twenty sixth of July on account of a sermon he had recently preached against her title at St. Paul's Cross. the camp broke up at Framlingham the last day of july when queen mary commenced her triumphant march to the metropolis from whence her sister elizabeth set out the same day to meet her at the head of a numerous cavalcade of nobility and gentry amounting to a thousand persons among these were in all probability the privy council who it appears met their sovereign at ingate stone The queen's approach to her capital was gradual, and in a manner of a peaceful royal progress, receiving the homage of her faithful or penitent subjects at her various resting-places on the road.

She arrived the first day at Ipswich, where she gave audience to Cecil, who had been dispatched by the council with tidings, after the departure of Arundel and Padgett. Here he made such fluent excuses for all his turnings and tricks, and what he called Pardonable lies that the queen told his sister-in-law, Mrs. Bacon, that she really believed he was a very honest man. It is worthy of notice that Mrs. Bacon, who was a learned Protestant lady, belonged to the queen's bedchamber then and afterwards, and had access to her in private conversation. The queen, however, still required further explanation of some of Cecil's double dealings in the late usurpation. She moved next day to her favourite seat of Newhall, where Cecil presented her with a list of excuses, lately given entire to the world, which will remain an example of the shamelessness of a climbing statesman to all futurity.

The queen next proceeded to the seat of Sir William Petrie at Ingatestone, where the council, who had lately defied and denied her, were presented to her for the purpose of kissing her hand. Cecil kissed the royal hand, before any other of the councilmen, so far had his apologies satisfied the queen through the intercession of mrs bacon, but his favour went no further, and notwithstanding his cedulous compliances with catholicism, Mary never would listen to his ardent aspirations for office. the queen arrived at her seat at Waynstead on the second of august where she disbanded her army accepting a body of horse, a bold measure considering all that had recently been transacted in the metropolis.

Nevertheless, it was only a proper observance of the ancient laws and privileges of London. Lord Arundel had previously arrived at the tower on the twenty-second of July with Northumberland and the other prisoners brought from Cambridge, he received orders to arrest the duke of suffolk and his unhappy daughter, lady jane grey, and lodged them in prison rooms in the tower. Frances, Duchess of suffolk, directly her husband was taken from her, hastened to meet the queen, and throwing herself at her feet, she lifted up her voice in piteous lamentation. She told the queen, that suffolk was very ill, and would die if shut up in the tower. mary was softened by her plaints and granted liberation of her husband.

A wonderful instance of mercy, Bishop Godwin observes. Thus, unharmed in body or estate, Suffolk paid the penalty of but three days imprisonment for his conspiracy with Northumberland. No pleadings are recorded of the Duchess Frances for her hapless daughter, Lady Jane Grey, who might have been liberated on her parole with far less danger than her wrong-headed father. it was notorious that the duchess frances was a very active agent in the evanescent regality of her daughter jane. She had urged her unfortunate marriage, and had carried her train as queen. She must nevertheless have fabricated some tale of coercion, since she was always treated with great distinction by her cousin, Queen Mary, in the worst of times.

the ladies who had accompanied the princess elizabeth from london were introduced formally to queen mary at waynstead who kissed every one of them. Such is the tradition in a family whose ancestress attended that antique royal drawing-room. The queen was on the third of august escorted from waynstead by great numbers of nobles and ladies who came to grace her entrance into her capital. a foreigner who was an eye-witness thus describes her appearance on this triumphant occasion. Then came the ladies, married and single, in the midst of whom, Rodane Mary, Queen of England, mounted on a small white ambling nag, the housings of which were fringed with gold. The queen was dressed in violet velvet.

She seemed about forty years of age, and was rather fresh-coloured. the old city portal of Aldgate, at which the queen made her entrance into the metropolis, was hung with gay streamers from top to bottom. Over the gateway was a stage with seats, on which were placed the charity children of the spittle, singing sweet choruses of welcome to the victorious queen. The street of Leadenhall, and all down to the tower, through the minorities, were clean swept, and spread with gravel, and was lined with all the crafts of London in their proper dresses, holding banners and streamers. The Lord Mayor, with the mace, was ready to welcome her, and the Earl of Arundel, with the Sword of State. A thousand gentlemen in velvet coats and richly embroidered cloaks preceded Queen Mary.

Next, the Queen rode her sister Elizabeth. Then the Duchess of Norfolk and the Marchioness of Exeter followed, and other noble dames, according to their connection with the Crown and precedence. The aldermen brought up the rear. and the city guard with bows and javelins. The guard which accompanied Mary being three thousand horsemen in uniforms of green and white. red and white and blue and white, were dismissed by the queen with thanks, and all departed before she passed the city gate. Mary acted according to the intrepidity of her character, entrusting her person wholly to the care of the civic guard, thus implicitly relying on the fidelity of a city, where a rival had reigned but a few hours before.

She bent her way direct to the tower, then under the care of Sir Thomas Chaney, warden of the Cinque ports, here she meant to sojourn according to the ancient custom of her predecessors till the funeral of the late sovereign. When Mary entered the precincts of the tower, a touching sight presented itself to her. Kneeling on the green before St. Peter's Church were the state prisoners, male and female, Catholic and Protestant, who had been detained lawlessly in the fortress during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. there was edward courtenay the heir to the earl of devonshire now in the pride of manly beauty who had grown up a prisoner from his tenth year without education there was another early friend of the queen the wretched duchess of somerset there was the aged duke of norfolk still under sentence of death there were the deprived bishops of durham and winchester the mild cuthbert tunstall and the haughty stephen gardener which last addressed a congratulation and supplication to the queen in the name of all.

Mary burst into tears as she recognized them, and extending her hands to them, she exclaimed, "'Ye are my prisoners!' She raised them one by one, kissed them, and gave them all their liberty. The bishops were instantly restored to their sees, Gartner was sworn into the Queen's Privy Council, according to the evidence of its journal, so early as the fifth of August. The Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Devonshire were immediately restored to their rank and estates. As the Duke had never been attained, he took his place with so little delay that he sat as high steward at the trial of the Duke of Northumberland. Gertrude, Marchioness of Exeter, mother of Courtenay, was made lady of the bedchamber with so high a degree of favour that she shared the bed of her royal kinswoman.

The Duchess of Somerset was liberated and comforted by the preferment of her family. Her son, an infant minor, being restored to his rights, and her daughters, Lady Jane, Lady Margaret, and Lady Mary Seymour, which last was one of the Queen's numerous godchildren, were appointed maids of honour. They were considered the most learned and accomplished ladies in Europe, excepting the queen herself and her hapless rival in sovereignty, Lady Jane Grey. The heirs of the three unfortunate gentlemen who had suffered with the protector Somerset were reinstated in their property, and as Somerset's adherents were zealous Protestants, These actions of Mary, which indubitably sprang from her own free will, being at this juncture uncontrolled by counsel or husband, ought to be appreciated by those who are willing to test her character by facts.

The queen remained in privacy, sojourning at the royal apartments of the tower, till after the funeral of her brother, which was performed with great magnificence. Many historical controversies exist, Regarding the religious rites of that funeral, but it appears that Cramner, Archbishop of Canterbury, performed the ceremony for the lamented Edward at Westminster Abbey, according to the ritual of the Church of England. At the same time, the Queen and her ladies assisted at a solemn dirge and requiem for the repose of his soul in her private chapel in the tower. This arrangement, in which each party showed their respect for the memory of the deceased, according to their different modes of belief, was far too rational a method to suit the furious spirits of that dreadful era, and the religious war recommenced in the Tower Chapel.

A chaplain of the court, one walker, approached with a censor to sense the queen. When Dr. Weston thrust him on one side, exclaiming, Shamest thou not to do this office, being a priest having a wife? I tell thee the queen will not be sensed by such as thou. The queen, directly she arrived in London, published a Pacific manifesto, exhorting each party to refrain from reviling by the epithets of idolater and heretic. Two proclamations of the kind had been published within a short time. The first promised liberty of conscience unconditionally. In the last, a clause was introduced, which declared religion was to be settled by common consent, meaning an act of parliament. Mr. Dobbs presented a petition from the reformers of Ipswich.

claiming protection for their religion on the faith of the queen's first proclamation, but Mr. Dobbs was set in the pillory for his pains, a strange way of answering a petitioner. That, and several other deeds of the kind, emanated from the violent zeal of the Privy Council, which governed in London in the Queen's name. The most nefarious of these actions was the imprisonment of Judge Hales, which brought great obloquy on Mary, Though all she had to do with it was righting the wrong when it became known to her. Judge Hales had positively refused to have any concern in the disinheriting of Mary. He had boldly declared to Northumberland and his faction that it was against English law. With equal conscientiousness he had, at the assizes held at the usual time, in the last days of July, given a charge from the bench to the people of Kent, advising them to observe the laws made in King Edward's time.

which were certainly in force while unrepealed. For thus doing his duty, he was committed to the fleet prison by the officious privy council. Hales, despairing that justice would ever again visit his country, attempted his own life, but ineffectually. The queen's attention was drawn to Hales' unmerited sufferings, and she sent for him to the palace, spoke many words of comfort to him, and ordered him to be set at liberty honorably. He seemed composed and happy, but his mind had received an irremedial wound, for he destroyed himself soon after. The violent party spirit that distinguished this council of interregnum, which governed the metropolis from Mary's proclamation to her arrival at the tower, is extremely well portrayed by Mr.

Edward Underhill, an accomplished Worcestershire gentleman, who, for his zeal in the Calvinist religion, was called the hot gospeler. he belonged to the band of gentlemen pensioners. He had penned a satirical ballad against papists, and for this squib was summoned before the council in authority whilst the queen was in Suffolk. After much brow-beating, Edward Underhill was committed to Newgate. He was an elegant lutenist, and was advised by his friends to play much on the lute while in prison, and eschewed polemics. He probably took this advice, and being withal a man of family, had no difficulty in obtaining access to the ear of the queen, since he was released from Newgate a few days after her arrival in London, and finally she restored him not only to his place in the band of gentlemen pensioners, but as he notices with great satisfaction, to his salary, without deduction of the time of his arrest.

Mary showed some judgment in acting thus, for this brave man, though he scorned to disavow his principles, was ever in time of danger an intrepid defender of her person. Several instances are to be found of the queen's interference to save persons from the cruelty of her privy council. Those who were of rank or consequence sufficient to find access to her were tolerably sure of her protection. this peculiarity gave a tone to her reign which renders its character singular to english history. For examples of political vengeance were made chiefly on persons whose station seemed too lowly for objects of state punishment, because, being poor and obscure, they were not able to carry their complaints to the foot of the throne.

Thus the council sent orders to the town of Bedford, for the punishment of a woman, after due examination of her qualities, by the cucking stool, she having been arrested for railing and speaking unseemly words of the Queen's Majesty. These awards of personal punishment, without regular trial, emanated from a certain junta of the Privy Council, whose business it was to sit in the star-chamber in Westminster Palace, and apportion the inflictions which seemed good in their eyes, as vengeance on personal affronts, offered to the reigning monarch. Much of the extortions of the reign of Henry VII, and the bloodshed of that of Henry VIII, may be attributed to the operations of this illegal and inquisitorial tribunal.

But when it condescended to doom an old scold of a distant provincial town, to the cucking stool, it might have been thought that derision would have disarmed its terrors forever. Such would have been the case. Had the periodical press of the present day been in operation at the time, in the latter part of Mary's reign, when she was utterly incapacitated by mortal sufferings from interference with their proceedings, her cruel ministers inflicted more tragic punishments on an old woman who railed against the queen's majesty.

19 19 - Mary, Ch IV pt 2 34:59

The Book of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen of the Queen The council delivered to the lord mayor and recorder these words from the queen's own mouth yesterday at the tower, being the twelfth of August, on occasion of a riot at St.

Paul's Cross about preaching. Albeit her grace's conscience is stayed or fixed in matters of religion, yet she meaneth graciously not to compel and constrain other men's consciences. Otherwise than God shall, as she trusteth, put into their hearts a persuasion of the truth that she is in, through the opening of his word by godly, virtuous, and learned preachers, and she forbade the Lord Mayor to suffer in any ward, open reading of the scriptures in the churches, or preaching by the curates, unless licensed by her. Such was the first blow aimed at the Protestant Church of England. Mary was empowered to inflict it. As head of the very church, whose ministers she silenced by force of her supremacy.

It is an instance of the manner in which that tremendous power worked, and explains the mystery why the great body of the English nation, albeit not composed of the most flexible of elements, changed their ritual with magic celerity, according to the differing opinions of four successive sovereigns. But the truth was, in that evil century, each sovereign was empowered. unfettered by parliament or convocation, to change the entire administration of the clergy throughout the realm by the simple act of private will. Thus, the religious tuition of the parish churches in London, the Sunday before the 12th of August, was according to the Protestant church established by Edward VI, and the next Sunday, according to the anti-papal Catholic church of Henry VIII.

While Queen Mary continued head of the church in England, A reconciliation with the Sea of Rome was an impossibility. The trial of Northumberland and his coadjutors took place August 18. Eleven were condemned to die, but three only executed, the smallest number ever known, either before or since, of the partisans of a usurpation. hollingshed affirms there was great difficulty in inducing mary to consent to the death of northumberland because of the former friendly intercourse there had been between them, of which friendliness many instances may be proved from her privy purse expenses when princess. Northumberland, with his two dependants, Gates and Palmer, were nevertheless put to death on August twenty second.

Northumberland professed himself a catholic at his death, and spoke very earnestly against the protestant religion which could receive no injury from lips false as his. An affecting incident occurred on the evening of his death. The Lancaster Herald, who had been an old retainer to the duke, begged an audience of Queen Mary, and respectful to the dead, implored her to grant him the head of his master, that it might be decently interred. The queen told him, in god's name to take the whole body as well and give his lord proper burial. Mary was, at the time of his execution, resident at Richmond Palace. Here, most of the acts of the Privy Council are dated during the rest of August and part of September.

The imperial ambassadors urged the queen to bring Lady Jane Grey to trial at the same time with her father-in-law, Northumberland, since she could never reign in security while that lady lived, for the first faction, when strong enough, would set up her claims again. Mary replied, she could not find it in her heart or conscience to put her unfortunate kinswoman to death, who had not been an accomplice of Northumberland, but merely an unresisting instrument in his hands. if there was any crime in being his sister-in-law, even of that her cousin jane was not guilty, for she had been legally contracted to another, and therefore her marriage with Lord Guildford Dudley was not valid. As for the danger existing from her pretensions, it was but imaginary, and every requisite precaution should be taken before she was set at liberty.

These coincide with a letter of explanation sent by that lady from the tower, which contains an extraordinary narrative of her brief royalty. Lady Jane commenced this narrative with the declaration that she was willing to extensuate her fault, if such great faults may be extensuated, by a full and ingenuous confession. She described her consternation and confusion when her father and mother her mother-in-law, the Duchess of Northumberland, and the Duke, announced to her the death of Edward VI, and at the same time, doing her homage as queen, informed her that, by virtue of his will, she was left heiress to the crown. She fell to the ground and swooned as one dead. Overcome with grief at tiding, she too truly felt to be fatally disastrous to her, and with tears and shuddering remained the passive victim of their ambition.

She declared to her royal cousin, to whom her domestic griefs seemed told almost familiarly, that when she was brought to the tower as queen, the marquess of Winchester, lord treasurer, brought her the crown to try on her head to see how it would fit her and that he brought it of his own accord, unsent for by her or anyone in her name, and when she scrupled to put it on, the marquess said, she need not do so, for he would have another maid to crown her husband withal. To this exaltation of her husband, Jane firmly objected. which drew on her scenes of coarse violence from him and his mother, the Duchess of Northumberland. They appear to have used personal ill-treatment to her, for she says, with indignant emphasis, I was maltreated by my husband and his mother.

This curious narrative exists in the pages of three contemporary Italian writers, with slight variations, which prove they collected the same facts from different sources, all agreeing in essentials. one of our contemporary chroniclers relates an anecdote of the marquess of Winchester, the time-serving lord treasurer, who, with the shamelessness peculiar to the officials of that era, when preparing for the coronation of Queen Mary, came to the unfortunate prisoner, Lady Jane, and told her that several valuable jewels were missing from the state crown, and that she was accountable for them. on this pretence all the money and jewels of lady jane and her husband were confiscated. The accession of queen mary had not altered her affection for the princess elizabeth.

Whatever were their after jealousies, their first difference had yet to take place, for at the present time wherever mary went, she led her sister by the hand, and never dined in public without her. Mary likewise distinguished courtney, earl of devonshire, with great attention. she endeavoured to form his manners and appointed a nobleman to guide his conduct. He is said to have contracted habits of low profligacy at the tower, which she was exceedingly desirous of seeing altered. But he was too late in life for any very rapid improvement. Being turned of thirty, his noble person was not, however, deteriorated by the vices with which he is charged, for his portrait by sir antonio more presents all the grand outline of our ancient royal race the commanding plantagenets the expression of his face is penetrating and majestic the features high and exquisitely moulded the forehead lofty and noble and decorated withal by a magnificent chevalier of light brown curls courtenay inherited sufficient ambition to desire a marriage with the queen and the english people ardently wished the match it has been said that mary loved him and was refused by him an assertion contrary to all existing documents if she ever loved her cousin courtenay she must have relinquished him within a very few days of her accession since in the middle of august she had a private interview with comendone the pope's envoy in which she told him that she had concluded her league with the emperor and had entirely resolved on her marriage with his heir prince philip comandone had privately entered the kingdom from flanders.

He obtained his first audience with difficulty and in disguise. Mary assured him of her inviolable attachment to the religion in which she had been educated, and of her desire to restore the pope's supremacy in her kingdom, but she entreated him to act with caution and to conceal his identity. She gave him a letter to Pope Julius, the third, declaring her wish that her kingdom might be reconciled to rome, and entreating that Cardinal Pohl might be instantly sent to her. Public opinion had already named this attached kinsman as one of the three suitors for the hand of the queen, but if the pope was willing to dispense with the vows of a prince of the church, it was not probable that the rigid principles of either the queen or Reginald Pohl would suffer them to accept such dispensation.

the counsel pole gave to mary was to remain single. The counsel which was seconded by another of her friends of tried sincerity, his intimate associate, Friar Pato. This churchman was by birth a gentleman of Devonshire. His bold sermon at Greenwich in defence of Mary's mother had startled Henry VIII in his pitch of pride. Pato had survived Cromwell's proposal of putting him in a sack and throwing him into the Thames, and unaided by any power save his calm contempt of life, had proved victor in the contest, and lived to be a cardinal. He had resided with Reginald Pohl since he had retired from England. He now tendered his advice to marry with the same uncompromising integrity which had led him to thunder the principles of moral justice in the ears of her terrific father.

Do not marry, he wrote to the queen, or you will be the slave of a young husband. Besides, at your age, the chance of bringing heirs to the crown is doubtful, and, moreover, would be dangerous to your life. Unvarnished truths these were, yet it is a respectable point in Mary's character that she testified no displeasure either to her kinsman or his plain-spoken friend, when counsel was offered so little soothing to female vanity. Violent struggles took place throughout the month of August between partisans of the rival rituals, for possession of churches and pulpits, which were frequently decided by the prevalence of personal strength. For the ostensible purpose of putting an end to scenes disgraceful to religion in general, the queen issued another proclamation, forbidding any person to preach without her license, till further order by common consent was taken, meaning by act of parliament.

Thus were all preachers silenced, who promulgated doctrine contrary to the royal will. one of the earliest compliments paid to the queen on her accession was the baptism of the great bell at christchurch, which had been recast by the name of mary. The learned jewel, whose office it was to write the congratulatory letter from oxford on the queen's accession, was reading it to Dr. Tresham, a zealous catholic, for his approbation. When the newly hung bell set out in an earnest call to the first mass that had been celebrated in oxford, Since the establishment of the Protestant Church of England, Dr. Tresham broke into an ecstasy. Oh, sweet Mary! he exclaimed. How musically, how melodiously doth she sound!

That bell then rung, adds Fuller impressively, the knell of gospel truth in the city of Oxford, afterwards filled with Protestant tears. however ample her power as head of the english church might be, it was the wish of queen mary to resign it and restore supremacy to the pope, but bishop gardiner, her lord chancellor, was opposed to her intentions. So far from wishing any reunion of england with the see of rome, he was extremely earnest that queen mary should retain her title and authority as head of the english church. Her answer to him was a remarkable one. women, she said, I have read in scripture are forbidden to speak in the church. Is it then fitting that your church should have a dumb head?

The witty equivoque of Queen Mary's reply may lead readers to an erroneous appreciation of this dignity, as at present exercised by a queen regnant, but indeed, defined and constitutional as it has been rendered since the revolution of 1688, it presents in our times Neither the difficulties nor the anomalies it did, when Henry VIII bequeathed it with the regal office to his children. The power Henry assumed could be likened to nothing in history, excepting that with which the Mahometans invested the Caliphs of Baghdad. He prescribed articles of belief, he appointed bishops, and altered their temporalities at his pleasure. He interpreted scripture according to his exigencies. He actually sat in conclave with the bishops of his creed, and, as visible head of the English church, examined and condemned to the flames those who dissented from his six articles, among others, the meek and faithful Protestant, Lambert.

Altogether he united with the crown of England a degree of spiritual despotism, which was the fruitful source of civil and religious warfare till the extension of the House of Brunswick. such was the practical exercise of the power queen mary was eager to resign, and which the anti-papal catholics were equally desirous, she should retain. Thus, at the accession of mary, England was divided into three parties, each struggling to be recognized as the established church, all equally inimical to each other. These were, first in strength, the anti-papal catholic church established by Henry the eighth, Secondly, the Protestant Church of England, established by the Regency of Edward VI. And thirdly, the adherents of the ancient Catholic Church, who acknowledged no spiritual supremacy but that of the Pope.

Perhaps the latter were the weakest in numbers of the three. They had endured twenty years severe persecution, yet were now strengthened by the regal dignity having fallen to one of their faith, who had shared in their sufferings. The principal calamities of Queen Mary's life Had been inflicted by the anti-papal Catholics, who were at this era greatly superior in numbers and political power to either of the others. From their ranks had been drawn the vigorous ministry that aided Henry VIII in his long course of despotic cruelty, in his rapacity, in his bigamies, and in his religious persecutions. The survivors of this junta, who were well versed in the art of government, by long usitude of wielding it, were now the ministers of queen mary.

It must have caused a bitter pang to her heart when she placed her government in the hands of those who long before cranmer emerged from private life had been active agents in the divorce of her mother, but she had no other choice. Cranmer had, during a large portion of his public life, officiated as the primate of Henry VIII's anti-papal catholic church, In the course of this primacy, he had made some abortive efforts to oppose, in parliament, the penal enforcement of the six articles, which Henry VIII and the majority of his bishops had appointed as the English creed, and to which many faithful Protestants fell victims. Directly after the burial of his terrific master, Cramner aided the protector Somerset in establishing a Church of England, more practically humane, in which Protestant principles were For the first time, recognized.

And this is, in truth, the earliest period at which Protestants can historically be deemed responsible for any action performed by an English government. Then commenced that hatred between the leaders of the anti-papal church of Henry VIII and the leaders of the Church of England. Such as can only be engendered in the bosoms of those who, from late associates, have become political and polemic opponents. The protestant bishops inflicted on their enemies, but the minor persecution of imprisonment, which lasted the chief part of Edward VI's reign. This was endured by Gardiner with philosophy, by Bonner with irritation, amounting to mania. The failure of the protestants in establishing the regality of the next protestant heir to the throne, Lady Jane Gray, Made the scale of political power preponderant, once more, in favor of the anti-papal Catholics, whose leader, Bishop Gardner, changed the prison room in the tower for the seat of Lord Chancellor, with astonishing celerity.

Till Gardner received the seals, Cramner was not only at liberty, but officiating in his high functions as Archbishop of Canterbury. On the 27th of August, he, in obedience to an order from the queen's council, delivered a schedule of his effects, and received a command to continue himself to his house at Lambeth. In one opinion alone did all these antagonists agree, which was in the detestation of the queen's engagement with the Prince of Spain. They were heartily joined in it by Cardinal Pohl, Whose dislike to the Spanish match was so well known to the emperor Charles that he intercepted him in his journey to England, and detained him in a German convent till after the marriage had taken place.

One class in England alone was desirous of the match. These were the political economists, chiefly belonging to the moneyed and mercantile interest. They were alarmed at the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scotland, with the heir of France, and they earnestly wished the balance of power to be restored by the wedlock of Mary, Queen of England, with the heir of the Low Countries. Charles V had resolved on this marriage, despite his son's reluctance, who, at twenty-six, entreated that his father would give him a wife younger than himself, instead of one eleven years older. But union with England was far too favorable a step. towards the emperor's scheme of universal dominion, to be given up for notions of mere domestic happiness.

Therefore he made a final tender of the hand of the unwilling Philip, in a letter written to Queen Mary, on the 20th of September, in which he says, that if his own age and health had rendered him a suitable spouse, he should have had the greatest satisfaction in wedding her himself, but as he could not make such proposal. He had nothing more dear to offer to his beloved kinswoman than his son, Don Philip. When it is remembered that this great emperor had been formerly solemnly betrothed to marry, and was now a widower, an apology for not marrying her himself was far from superfluous. Yet it must be owned that the style in which he proposes his son as his substitute bears an amusing resemblance to the solemn gallantry of his illustrious subject, the Knight of La Mancha.

the emperor entreated that mary would not at present communicate her engagement to her ministers. The reason of this request was that some among them wished her to marry his nephew, the archduke, whose possessions were not considered formidable to English liberty, and because he knew they were all opposed to Prince Philip. The queen, meantime, bestowed some attention on forming her household and rewarding the personal friends who had remained faithful to her in her long adversity. She found the three gentlemen who had incurred the displeasure of the council rather than gainsay her commands captive in various prisons. it has been stated that they had been previously liberated by Edward the sixth, but the total absence of their names from the queen's proceedings during her struggle for the throne brings conviction that the above statement is true.

Robert Rochester, she made comptroller of the royal household and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. She carried her gratitude so far as to make him knight of the garter and one of her privy council. his nephew, Edward Walgrave, she honoured with knighthood, and gave the profitable office of master of the great wardrobe. Sir Francis Inglefield, their fellow-sufferer, was given a place at court, and was appointed a privy councillor. The queen's gratitude took a very odd form in the case of the Earl of Sussex. He was a valetudinarian who had a great fear of uncovering his head, and considering that the colds he dreaded respected no person, he petitioned queen mary for leave to wear his nightcap in her royal presence.

The queen, in her abundant grace, not only gave him leave to wear one, but two nightcaps if he pleased. His patent for this privilege is perhaps unique in royal annals. Know ye that we do give to our well-beloved and trusty cousin and counsellor, Henry, Earl of Sussex, Viscount Fitzwater, and Lord of Egremond and Bernal, license and pardon to wear his cap, coif or nightcap, or any two of them, at his pleasure, as well in our presence as in the presence of any other person or persons within this realm, or any other place in our dominions wheresoever, during his life. And these, our letters, shall be his sufficient warrant in his behalf. the queen's seal with the garter about it is affixed to this singular grant.

She reinstated the old duke of Norfolk in his rank, and restored the bulk of his immense possessions confiscated by the crown without legal attainer. Indeed, as the offence given by the duke and his murdered son was a mere quibble regarding heraldic bearings, such as an english sovereign centuries before would have scorned to consider as a crime. The duke was restored on mere petition to the queen, in which he says pathetically, Sovereign lady, the offence wherewith your said subject and supplicant was charged, was only for bearing arms, which he and his ancestors had heretofore of long continuous borne, as well as in the presence of the late king, as in the presence of divers of his noble progenitors, kings of England.

the grandson of the injured noble, Thomas, heir to the earl of Surrey, was distinguished by Queen Mary with great favour, and received the appointment of her page of honour, a post his youth and beauty well qualified him to fill. The queen now indulged the musical taste for which she was so noted, and which extraordinary manifestation of melody in her forehead proves to have been a ruling passion. She established the musicians of her chapel royal with more than usual care, The names of our best English composers are to be found among them. A letter extant from Grace, Lady Shrewsbury, to her husband, who was absent, guarding against an inbreak from the Scottish border, gives some insight regarding the manners of Mary in the early days of her sovereignty, and describes her as in high enjoyment of her taste for sacred music.

September, 1553. yesternight the queen's majesty came from evensong which was sung in her chapel by all her singing men of the same with playing of organs in the solemnest manner. Her highness called me unto her and asked me, when you rode to the north, and when I told her, Grace, that you were there, she held up her hands and besought God to send you good health, and that she might soon see you again. i perceived her grace to be little doubtful of the quietness of the northern counties. Her highness was so much, my good lady, that she told me that whatsoever I wish I should come to her for, since she would be my husband till your lordship came home. The whole attention of Queen Mary and her court was now fixed on the approaching coronation.

Deep were the cogitations of heralds and royal chaplains. They were at a loss regarding precedents. Since neither Saxons nor Normans had owned a sovereign regina. Britain had been occasionally governed by female monarchs, and the venerable common law of the land not only recognized their right of succession, but the law itself is traced to a female reign. Yet these fair civilizers had existed in an antiquity so dim that no clear ideas could remain of their coronations, nor was it very certain that they had been crowned. the norman nobility and their descendants, through evident distaste of female authority, had refused to recognize the rightful heiresses, Matilda the empress, Eleonora of Brittany, and Elizabeth of York, as sovereign ladies.

The effects of ferocity, which interminable wars had rendered national, had destroyed the promising airs-male from every branch of the great stem of Plantagenet, and it was now matter of curiosity to note How completely the throne was surrounded by female claimants. If the life of Queen Mary failed, nature and an act of parliament made her sister Elizabeth her successor, on whose failure the young Queen of Scotland had undoubted rights to unite the island crowns. For the sceptre of North, as well as that of South Britain, was then swayed by a Queen Mary. If the young Queen of Scotland died without heirs, then a procession of female claimants long as that of Banquo's kings appeared. There was Lady Margaret Douglas, who had, however, two infant sons, but neither she nor her offspring had ever been recognized as claimants.

Then Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, and her daughters, Lady Jane Grey, Lady Catherine Grey, and their younger sister, the deformed Lady Mary, and the sister of Frances Brandon, Eleanor, Lady Clifford, and her two daughters, were the representatives of the royal line. Thus our combative forefathers, if they meant to preserve the succession of the royal family, had no alternative but to submit to the domination of a female. This they did with the worst grace in the world, and if they did not term their sovereign, as the Hungarians did theirs, King Mary, they insisted on her being encumbered with spurs, and girded with swords, and other implements of the destructiveness in which their souls delighted.

For the result of all the cogitations on her coronation was, that their regina was to be inaugurated, in all particulars like unto the king of England. There was, however, one thing needed, without which a coronation, like most other pomps, must remain a dead letter. There was not one penny in the royal purse. and queen mary was forced to borrow twenty thousand pounds from her loyal london citizens before she could be crowned. When this supply was obtained, the coronation was all the care, and was finally appointed for the first of october. Previously to that day, the queen was to pass in great procession through the city, which it was the citizen's province by old custom to adorn for the occasion.

Three days before the coronation, the queen removed from St. James's to Whitehall, and took her barge at the stairs, accompanied by her sister, the princess Elizabeth, and other ladies, and proceeded to the tower. This was by no means a private transit, but attended with all the gaiety of a city procession by water, the lord mayor and companies meeting her in their barges, with streamers, trumpets, weights, shalms, and regals. At the tower, the queen was received with discharges of ordinance, which continued some time after her entry. the next day, September twenty ninth, she made fifteen knights of the bath, who did not receive the accolade from her royal hand. They were knighted in her presence by her lord steward, Henry, Earl of Varrundel.

The most noted among these knights were her cousin, Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, and the young Earl of Surrey. About three o'clock next day, the queen set forth from the tower in grand procession through the streets of the city of London, a ceremony which custom imperatively required the sovereign to perform as a prologue to the coronation. It has now been commuted for a royal dinner at Guildhall, which it may be observed always precedes the coronation. Queen Mary's city procession was splendid. She was remarkable for the great number of her own sex who ever surrounded her. it must be owned that some personal courage was required to be a lady of honour to queen mary for in the dangerous struggles for the crown she was always accompanied by her female attendants this was however one of her halcyon days and the procession was distinguished by seventy ladies riding after the queen on horseback clad in crimson velvet Five hundred gentlemen, noblemen and ambassadors preceded her, the lowest in degree leading the way.

Each of the ambassadors was accompanied by a great officer of the crown. The French ambassador, Noel, by Lord Paget, and Renaud, the emperor's resident, who took precedence of Noel, by Lord Cobham. The chief sewer, the Earl of Sussex, wore the queen's hat and cloak, between two squires of honour who had robes of his state rolled, and worn baldric wise over the shoulder and round the waist, and wore caps of estate of the dukedoms of Normandy and Guienne. The lord mayor, on the left of the garter king-at-arms, carried the sceptre. The queen headed the lady procession, seated in a most splendid litter, supported between six white horses, covered with housings of cloth of silver. She was dressed in a gown of blue velvet, furred with ermine.

On her head was a caul of gold network, beset with pearls and precious stones. The value thereof was inestimable, and the weight so great, says Stowe, that she was fain to bear up her head with her hand. It was evident that she was afflicted with one of her constitutional headaches, which generally attacked her if unusually agitated. The pain was not ameliorated by the weight of her inestimable circlet. Elizabeth followed in an open chariot, richly covered with crimson velvet, and by her was seated Henry VIII's surviving widow, Anne of Cleves. They were dressed in robes and kirtles of cloth of silver, with large hanging sleeves. This car was followed by Sir Edward Hastings, who, in reward for his services, had been made master of the horse, leading Queen Mary's own palfrey.

To him succeeded a long train of alternate chariots and equestrian damsels. The ladies of the highest rank rode four together in chariots. The ladies of the bedchamber and those who held office at court rode on horseback, dressed in kirtles of gold or silver cloth and robes of crimson velvet, their horses trapped with the same. Among the ladies who bore office in the palace, the names of the queen's confidant Mrs. Clara Sue and Mary Finch, keeper of the jewels, appear. They were her old and faithful servants. Then rode the queen's chamberers in crimson satin, their horses decked with the like. They were nine in number, and were guarded by Mrs. Bainham, the mother of the maids. Some of these ladies were married women.

Among them might be recognized the virtuous and learned daughters of Sir Anthony Cook. one of whom was the wife of nicholas bacon and another the second wife of cecil mrs bacon's intercessions with queen mary in behalf of cecil proved that she had some influence among the other distinguished ladies who attended this coronation was mrs bassett daughter of the illustrious margaret roper and granddaughter of sir thomas more the royal henchmen clad in the tudor colours of white and green, the royal guard and their captain, Sir Henry Jerningham, and the gentlemen-at-arms brought up the procession. Pageantry in the old accustomed style greeted the queen in her progress through the city. In Fenchurch Street, she listened to orations from four great saints.

In Grace Church Street, to a solo on the trumpet from a great angel in green. Perched on a triumphal arch prepared by the Florentine merchants. When this angel lifted its gigantic arm with the trumpet to its mouth, the mob gave a shout of astonishment. The conduits at Corn Hill and Sheepside ran with wine, and at the latter, the aldermen presented the queen with the benevolence of one thousand marks in a crimson purse. At St. Paul's School, the Queen's favourite poet and player, Haywood, sat under a vine and delivered an oration. By the time the procession, which had started at three from the tower, had proceeded as far as St. Paul's, the shades of an autumn evening must have been closing around, and the violence of the wind somewhat injured a sight only once before exhibited in London.

This was the gymnastics of Peter the Dutchman on the weathercock of old St. Paul's, The ball and cross of the cathedral were decorated with flags, and meant to be illuminated, but the wind blew out the torches as fast as they were lighted. It does not appear that Peter flew down on a rope, as he did at the coronation of Edward, the sixth, but he played many antics at that fearful height, for which he was paid sixteen pounds, thirteen shillings, fourpence, by the Lord Mayor. the queen was escorted by the lord mayor through temple bar to the palace of whitehall where she took leave of him giving him great thanks for his pains and the city for their cost.

20 20 - Mary, Ch IV pt 3 41:55

Mary Chapter Four, Part Three. The seat of English royalty had been transferred from the ancient palace of Westminster to Whitehall, after a great fire in the royal apartments in the latter years of Henry VIII. Whitehall was a grand structure, now existing only a name. Its Watergate, still bearing the name of Whitehall Stairs, marks its locality. St. James's Palace was chosen by Queen Mary as her private residence, but Whitehall was the scene of all grand state ceremonies and receptions, as St. James's is at present. The monarchs of England having been gradually burnt out of every palace, built on a scale suitable to their dignity. On the coronation morning, october first, the queen and her train took their barges and landed at the private stairs of the old palace of Westminster, leading directly to the parliament chamber, which was richly hung with tapestry.

The queen was conducted to the royal privy chamber, where she was robed, and rested there with her ladies till the hour of the procession. Blue cloth was laid from the marble chair in Westminster Hall to the pulpit in Westminster Abbey. And to the stage royal from the choir to the high altar, which was covered with cloth of gold. The choir of Westminster Abbey was hung with rich aras, and well strewn with rushes. A raised boarded pathway for the procession led to the royal stage, which was surmounted by a platform of seven steps, covered with a striped cloth of gold, called bodikins. And on them the royal chair was set, covered with the same cloth of gold, the chair having pillars at the back, with a turreted canopy and two lions of gold.

The procession began from Westminster Hall to the Abbey before eleven o'clock. The queen's royal majesty dressed in her crimson parliament robes walked under the usual canopy, borne by the barons of the Cinquay ports. She was supported by the bishop of Durham on her right hand, and the Earl of Shrewsbury on the left. The ungraceful custom of the royal train being borne by a crowd of ladies is a modern innovation. The train of the first queen regnant was borne by the Duchess of Norfolk, attended by Sir John Gage, the vice-chamberlain. Directly after the Queen, walked the Princess Elizabeth, the Lady Anne of Cleves following her, as expressly declared by Noelle. And here it deserves notice that the Queen's sister, in every part of these important ceremonies, received all the honors and took all precedence due to her rank.

Moreover, it has been very seldom that either heir or heiress presumptive to the throne occupied a place in a coronation of such distinction. The queen was met in Westminster Hall by Gardner, Bishop of Winchester, and ten other bishops, with their mitres and crosses and copes of gold cloth, and the officers of the queen's chapel singing. The bishops sensed her and sprinkled holy water, and then fell into their places in the procession. That day, Gardner performed all the offices of the coronation, usually pertaining to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was unhappily, as well as the Archbishop of York. in prison. It may be noted that the times have ever proved most disastrous for England when any convolutions of church or state had prevented an Archbishop of Canterbury from officiating at a coronation.

Before 11 o'clock, the Queen was conducted by her two supporters to St. Edward's chair, prepared on the royal stage. And, having reposed for a while, was then led by them to the four sides of the stage, in the view of the whole assembly, where the Bishop of Winchester, standing by her side, declared to the people her free election in the following words, which were fuller and more comprehensive than any similar address. Sirs, here present is Mary, rightful and undoubted in heretrix. By the laws of God and man, to the crown and royal dignity of this realm of England, France and Ireland, and you will understand that this day is appointed by all the peers of this land, for the consecration, unction, and coronation of the said most excellent, Princess Mary.

Will you serve at this time, and give your wills an assent, to the same consecration, unction, and coronation? Whereunto the people answered, all in one voice, Yea! Yea! Yea! God save Queen Mary! The queen was then conducted to a rich chair before the high altar and made her offerings. The cushion of velvet was put before the altar, on which she lay prostrate, while certain orisons were said over her. The sermon followed, preached by the bishop of Chichester, who was esteemed a most florid preacher, the subject being the obedience due to kings. Gardner then declared the coronation oaths, and the queen, being led to the high altar, promised and swore upon the host to observe and keep them. Again the queen prostrated herself before the high altar, and remained in this attitude, while the bishop, kneeling, sung the hymn of invocation to the Holy Ghost, commencing, Vini creator spiritus, the choir and organ joining in the strain.

after the litany the queen was led to her traverse on the left hand of the altar and there was unarrayed and unclothed by her ladies of the privy chamber. This preparation seems to have consisted of the removal of her royal mantle, and she returned in a corset of purple velvet. After her unction by the bishop of Winchester, Mrs. Walgrave laced up the apertures left on the shoulders of the corset, where she was anointed, and put on her a pair of linen gloves. The queen then retired to her traverse, and returned in a robe of white taffeta, and a mantle of purple velvet, furred with ermine. She offered up the sword she was girt withal, by the Bishop of Winchester and Lord Arundel, who had borne it, redeemed it for a sum of money.

The Duke of Norfolk, after she was seated in the chair near the altar, brought her three crowns. These were St. Edward's crown, the imperial crown of the realm of England, and a third very rich crown made purposely for her. These crowns were set, one after the other, on her head by the Bishop of Winchester, and betwixt putting on every one, the trumpet sounded. During the singing of Te Deum, a ring was put on the Queen's marrying finger by the bishop. Then the various great officers who had carried the remaining regalia, brought them to her. The bracelets of gold, by the master of the jewel house. The sceptre, by the Earl of Arundel. St. Edward's staff, by the Earl of Bath. The spurs, by the Earl of Pembroke.

The orb, by the marquess of Winchester. And the regal of gold, by the bishop of Winchester. And the queen sat appareled in her royal robes of velvet. A mantle with a train. A surcoat with a kirtle. Furred with wombs of minivert pure, a riband of Venice gold, a mantel lace or cordon of silk and gold, with buttons and tassels of the same, having the imperial crown on her head, her sceptre in her right hand, and the orb in her left, and a pair of sabattans on her feet, covered with crimson cloth of gold, garnished with riband of Venice gold, delivered to her by her master of the great wardrobe. Thus royally invested, she was brought to St. Edward's chair, and when seated, the bishop of Winchester kneeled down before her, and made his homage for himself and all the bishops.

I shall be faithful and true, and faith and truth bear to you, our sovereign lady and queen, and to your heirs, kings and queens of England, France and Ireland. And I shall do and truly acknowledge the service of the lands which I claim to hold of you, as in the right of your church, As God shall help me and saints. And then kissed every one of the bishops the queen's left cheek. Then kneeling down, the greatest temporal prince, the Duke of Norfolk, and made his homage. I become your liegeman of life and limb, and of all earthly worship and faith, and all truly shall bear unto you, to live and die with you against all manner of folk. God so help me and all hallows. Then he kissed the queen's left cheek.

the premier noble of every class, the marquess of Winchester for himself, the earl of Arundel for the earls, the vice-count Hereford, and Lord Burgavony for the barons, repeated the same homage for their fellows, who, all kneeling, held up their hands meantime in manner of lamenting or supplication, and the Queen's Highness held their hands thus between hers, while they by turns kissed her left cheek, and when they had ascended, For example, the steps of the throne, to that homage, they all with a loud voice together cried, God save Queen Mary. Her whole House of Lords then consisted of less than fifty individuals. The general pardon, published at this coronation, contained so many exceptions, that it seemed more like a general accusation, and bore melancholy evidence to the convulsive state of the times.

Bishop Gardner commenced the office of the Mass, And after the gospel was read, he sent the book to the queen, who kissed it. She came down from the throne to make the regal offering, An obel of bread laid upon the patent, or cover of St. Edward's chalice, a cruet of wine, and a pound of gold. The fact of the queens receiving the Eucharist is not mentioned, but it is recorded that she bowed her head, and the bishop said a prayer over her, and her grace was conveyed again to her seat royal, where she sat till the Angus Dei. Then the pact was brought her to kiss by a bishop. afterwards being conducted, the bishop of Winchester took the crown from her head and offered it. The other regalia were likewise offered on the altar, and received by the dean of Westminster.

The queen was then unclad of her robes, and other royal apparel given her by her great chamberlain. Her dress, when she returned from the abbey, was a robe of purple velvet, an open surcoat of the same, a mantle and train, furred with miniver and powdered ermine, a mantle lace of silk and gold, a riband of venice gold, and a crown was set on her head. A rich canopy was borne over her by the barons of the Cinque ports, and so she was conveyed in goodly order to Westminster Hall with all her train to dinner. the ceremony of the banquet was in all particulars the same as at the coronations of previous monarchs. To the grandson of the aged duke of Norfolk was deputed the duty of Earl Marshall, but the duke made the usual entry into the hall, ushering the first course on horseback, accompanied by the Earl of Derby, High Steward of England.

The Queen recognised her sister in all respects as the next to herself in rank, for she sat at the royal table at her left hand. Anne of Cleves sat next to Elizabeth. Both had their especial service. These virgin princes, as Speed quaintly calls Mary and Elizabeth, were chaperoned by their father's surviving widow, whom they both treated with dutiful respect. The ambassadors of Cleves attended the coronation. Notwithstanding the change of religion, they were part of that great mercantile alliance in which the English and Flemish merchants were so closely knit. The champion of England was Sir Edward Dymoke, whose portrait, preserved in the College of Arms, in the act of throwing down his gauntlet, gives, indeed, the beau ideal of a knight worthy to do battle in vindication of the claims of his sovereign lady, he pronounced his challenge, viva voce, right gallantly, the first in behalf of a queen-regnant.

If there be any manner of man, of whatever estate, degree or condition soever he be, that will say and maintain that our sovereign lady, Queen Mary I, this day here present, is not the rightful and undoubted inheritrix to the imperial crown of this realm of England, and that of right, she ought not to be crowned queen. I say, he lieth like a false traitor, and that I am ready the same to maintain with him, while I have breath in my body, either now at this time, or any other whensoever it shall please the Queen's Highness to appoint, and therefore I cast him my gauge. And then he cast his gauntlet from him, the which no man would take up, yet if there ever was danger of a champion being called upon to prove his words, it was at the coronation of Mary I.

The gauntlet having laid the usual time, a herald took it up, and presented it to Sir Edward, who made the same challenge in three several places in the hall. The queen drank to the champion, and sent him the gold cup. Then followed the proclamation of Garter King-at-arms, Which in this reign is by no means a dead formula, but vital with historical interest, since it proves that Mary challenged the right to be considered head of the church. As it is scarcely possible to doubt that she had just taken the ancient coronation oath, which bound the sovereign to maintain the church in all things, as Edward the Confessor did, this proclamation is difficult to reconcile with such obligation. That oath, By the want of moral consistency of the English legislature, was imposed on every one of her successors, whether their principles were Protestant or Catholic, until the alteration made by Parliament at the coronations of William III and Mary II.

Surely it is but moral justice to show some mercy when discussing the characters of sovereigns, whose oath and practice were required to be irreconcilably adverse. Guard her king-at-arms, having made three several obeisances before the queen's majesty at the upper end of the hall, proclaimed the style and title in Latin, French, and English. Of the most high, puissant, and most excellent princess, Mary I, by the grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, of the Church of England and Ireland, supreme head, Larges, Larges, Larges. no observance appertaining to an english sovereign was omitted at this banquet. The feudal cups, the wafers, and Hippocrats were all duly received by the maiden sovereign as by her ancestors.

It was candle-light ere her majesty had dined, and after the tables were taken up and her hands labbed, she arose and stood in the midst of the Hauptfloss with the princess Elizabeth and Anne of Cleves, surrounded by all the nobility according to their degrees. she then called the foreign ambassadors after conversing with them graciously for a short time and thanking them for their attendance, she gave them leave to retire. The queen changed her dress in the privy chamber, and all the nobility divested themselves of their robes and accompanied her, the princess Elizabeth and the ladies, to their barges, and whilst they made their short voyage to Whitehall stairs, Nor did the fatigues of the day end here, for the evening concluded with feasting and royal cheer at Whitehall Palace.

Dramatic representations were among the entertainments at Mary's Coronation Festival. These were superintended by Haywood, the comic dramatist, whose attachment to the royal ritual had caused him to take refuge in France. By an odd coincidence, he returned to his native country on the same day that Bale, the sarcastic poet of the reformers, Retreated to Geneva. If we may be permitted to judge by the tone of their writings, pure Christianity and moral truth, lost little by the absence of either ribald railer, for they were nearer allied in spirit than their polemic hatred would allow. There is something irresistibly ridiculous in the change of places of these persons. resembling the egress and regress of the figures of a toy barometer on the sudden alterations of weather to which our island is subject.

The comedian, Heywood, it has been shown, had served Queen Mary from her childhood, beginning his theatrical career as manager to one of those dramatic companies of infant performers, which vexed the spirit of Shakespeare into much indignation and caused him to compare them to little IASs. when Heywood, on his return from banishment, presented himself before his royal mistress. What wind has blown you hither? asked Queen Mary. Two special ones, replied the comedian, one of them to see your majesty. We thank you for that, said Mary. But I pray, for what purpose was the other? That your majesty might see me. A first-rate repartee for a player and a dramatist, and Her Majesty named an early day for beholding him in his vocation.

He was appointed manager of the performances of her theatrical servants, and she often sent for him to stand at the sidebird at supper, and amuse her with his jests, in which it is said, The protestant reformation was not spared, though according to Camden, the arrows of wit glanced occasionally at his own church, even in these interviews with majesty. Four days after her coronation, Queen Mary performed the important office of opening her first parliament. She rode to Westminster Abbey in scarlet velvet robes, her peers, spiritual and temporal, attending her, likewise dressed in scarlet, with trumpets sounding before them. in the abbey the mass of the holy ghost was celebrated according to the ancient custom.

It did not pass over without manifestations of the sincere protestant principles of two of the bishops, Taylor of Lincoln and Harley of Hereford, who, refusing to kneel at the mass, were thrust violently out of the abbey and the queen's presence. after mass, the queen, the lords, and the remaining bishops adjourned to the usual parliament chamber in Westminster Palace. They went in grand state, the earl of Devonshire bearing the sword before the queen, and the earl of Westmoreland, the cap of maintenance. after mary had seated herself on the throne, bishop gardiner as lord chancellor made an oration showing the causes wherefore the virtuous and mighty princess mary, by the grace of god, queen of england, France and Ireland, defender of the faith and head of the church, had summoned her parliament.

He concluded by signifying her pleasure, that the commons should at their accustomed place choose a speaker. the queen had by previous proclamation remitted to her people two heavy property taxes, one on lands and the other on goods, called in the financial language of the day, two tenths and two fifteenths. granted by the last parliament of edward the sixth for the purpose of paying the debts of the crown. The queen in this proclamation acknowledged herself answerable for these debts, promised to use the utmost economy to pay them off from her own resources, Although they had been chiefly incurred by the misrule of the Duke of Northumberland. She had no private purse of her own at her extension, and as she had restored the estates of several of the great nobility, and had resolved not to touch any part of the church lands still retained by the Crown, it must be owned that she commenced her government in a state of poverty, deep enough to exonerate her from any charge of bribing her Senate.

Some historians have affirmed That the Emperor furnished the funds for bribing this Parliament. If so, the recipient parties were strangely ungrateful, since the only measures in which they opposed the Queen's wishes were relating to her marriage with his son, Prince Philip. The first act of legislation was to restore the English laws regarding life and property to the state in which they stood in the 25th year of Edward III. Since the extension of the Tudor line, a hideous change had taken place. It is only common justice to Queen Mary to describe the state in which she found the laws at her extension. In the freer days of the Plantagenets, proof of an open or overt act of war against the sovereign was required before a man could be attained.

In the third year of Henry VIII, a supposed knowledge of conspiracy was sufficient Very few of Henry VIII's numerous victims could have been put to death, according to the ancient laws. Towards the end of his life, English freedom was still more infamously infringed. Our Saxon chroniclers record that the Norman conqueror and his sons made cruel laws for the protection of game. They acted as conquerors, without the sanction of the National Council. But Henry VIII Found a parliament that could make it death for an Englishman to take a hawk's egg. In his thirty-first regnal year, the measure of his cruelty swelled higher, and conjuring, sorcery, witchcraft were made capital. In his thirty-third regnal year was the act compounded, to which Surrey fell the victim under this mysterious title, prophesying upon arms, cognizances, names, and badges.

Likewise, Casting of slanderous bills. That is, libel was punished with death. Conveying horses or mares into Scotland was capital. The act, which punishes stealing in a dwelling to the amount of forty shillings, owes its origin to one of Henry VIII's statutes. It has been recently modified as it had since the decrease in the value of money become even more cruel in the present era than in the sixteenth century. The state of vagabondage into which the sudden withdrawal of the provision for the destitute afforded by the monasteries had thrown numbers of the lower classes, had been restrained with barbarous laws in the reigns of Henry and his son, instead of a proper poor law. The iron sway of Henry the eighth Crushed not only the ancient nobility and the richly endowed monks, but also the common people.

A statistic writer of those times, who is by no means properly impressed with the horror of the fact, computes that more than seventy-two thousand persons were executed on the gibbet in his reign. It cannot excite surprise that the earliest specimens of parliamentary eloquence in the House of Commons was excited by the review of these atrocious laws, which by one consent they compared to those of Draco. As many men as there were in Parliament, so many bitter names and invictives were bestowed on those statutes. The Parliament next proceeded to annul all previous acts passed in the reign of Henry VIII, relating to the divorce of Catherine of Aragon, and the illegitimitation of her daughter. It has been already shown that, by power of that most unconstitutional act of parliament, which placed the disposal of the crown at Henry VIII's will, he restored his daughters to their places in the succession, at the same time, he left the acts of parliament in force, which, by declaring his marriages with their mothers nullities, branded both sisters equally with illegitimacy.

For his evil passions had caused such inextricable confusion in his family, that it was impossible to do justice to marry without injuring Elizabeth. It was indispensable for the public peace, that the title of the reigning sovereign should be cleared from stigma. This could not be done without inexorable circumstances. Tacitly casting a stain on the birth of her sister. Yet, this was not the crime of Mary, but of her father, as far as the unfortunate case would permit. Elizabeth was guarded from reproach, for all mention of her name or that of her mother was carefully avoided. A forbearance deserving commendation when it is remembered that personal insult as well as political injury had been inflicted on Mary by Anne Boleyn.

Such conduct in a person less systematically calumniated than Queen Mary would have been attributed by history to good motives, especially as she had just allowed Elizabeth at the recent coronation, the place in honours of the second person in the realm. Whilst this parliament sat, a bill of attainder was passed on lady jane grey her husband and cranmer who had been the same month brought to trial at guildhall before the lord chief justice morgan lady jane pleaded guilty and received sentence of death to be burnt on tower hill or beheaded at the queen's pleasure such was the ancient law of england if women either committed high treason against the sovereign or petty treason by killing their husbands Lady Jane Grey conducted herself with angelic meekness, and comforted her companions in misfortune.

She was followed back to the tower by crowds, weeping and bewailing her fate. It was nevertheless understood by all about the court that the queen meant to pardon her, and she was soon after given every indulgence compatible with safekeeping. She was permitted to walk in the queen's garden, at the tower, and even on Tower Hill. but the most important act of the same session was that which repealed the laws passed in the reign of Edward, the sixth, for the establishment of the Protestant Church of England, and made the anti-papal church of Henry, the eighth, six articles, the dominant religion of the country, confirming Queen Mary in the office she so much deprecated as supreme head of that church.

Its functions she continued to exercise till January, that this was a period of grief and alarm to the protestant church of england, our ecclesiastical histories amply manifest, and to their voluminous pages the reader is referred. Where may be traced the arguments of those illustrious protestants, who undauntedly defended their principles in the convocation held for the settlement of religion at Westminster in the autumn of likewise details of the struggles often personal and violent between them and the members of the newly restored church of henry for possession of places of worship. The queen actually held the then despotic authority of supreme head of the church more than a year and a half.

During this period, Had her disposition been as bloody and implacable as commonly supposed, she had ample time and opportunity to have doomed some of her religious opponents to the flames, or at least to have inflicted personal punishment on some of her numerous libellers. But it is as certain that till Mary surrendered her great power as head of the church of Henry VIII, the cruelties of her reign did not commence. The only anecdote preserved by Fox Regarding her private conduct towards Protestant clergymen, it would be difficult to interpret into an act of malice. The arrest of Dr. Edwin Sandys has been mentioned. His offenses against the queen combined an attack on her title and insult to her worship.

Nevertheless, she lent a favorable ear to the intercession of one of the ladies of her bedchamber for his pardon, in case the bishop of Winchester had no objection. the next time gardener came to the privy chamber, the queen said to him, Winchester, what think you about Dr. Sandys? Is he not sufficiently punished? As it pleases your majesty, answered gardener, who had previously promised that if the queen was disposed to mercy, he would not oppose it. The queen rejoined, then truly we would have set him at liberty. She signed immediately the warrant of his liberation, and called on gardener to do the same. this action which redounds so much to her credit, it may be perceived, was only performed by permission of Gardner.

A curious instance of his power occurred about the same time. He thought proper to suppress the two folios containing the paraphrases of Erasmus, translated by Udall, Cox, and Queen Mary. this work had been published by the fathers of the protestant church of england, and placed in all churches in company with the bible as the best exposition of the gospels. Thus, one of queen Mary's first acts as head of the church was the destruction of her own learned labors. Surely her situation in this instance As author, queen, and supreme dictator of a church, by no means consonant with her principles as a Roman Catholic, was the most extraordinary in which a woman was ever placed. She did not, however, manifest any of the irritable egotism of an author, but, at the requisition of her lord-chancellor, condemned her own work to the flames, in company with the translations of her Protestant fellow-labourers, an ominous proof of gardiner's influence, who swayed her in all things, excepting her marriage with Philip of Spain, to which he was, in common with the majority of her subjects, of whatever religion they might be, sedulously opposed.

Among the other difficulties which Mary had to encounter in her reign, it was not the least that the rights of the Queen Regnant of England were matter of speculation and uncertainty. Her people believed that their country would be transferred as a marriage dowry to Prince Philip, and sink into a mere province, like Sicily, Naples, Aragon, and other adjuncts of the Crown of Spain. The example of their queen's grandmother, the illustrious Isabel of Castile, had proved that a female regnant, though wedded to a sovereign, could sway an independent sceptre with great glory and national advantage. Yet this instance was not only distant, but solitary, for female reigns in the Middle Ages had been very calamitous, and the English people could not imagine a married woman otherwise than subject to her husband, politically as well as personally, especially if that husband were her equal in birth and rank.

These ideas seem to have prompted Mary's hitherto compliant parliament to send up their speaker, with twenty of their number, to petition that the queen would not marry a stranger or a foreigner. Mary attributed this movement to Gardner, and vowed she would prove a match for his cunning. Accordingly, she sent that knight for the Spanish ambassador, and bade him follow her into her private oratory. There, in the presence of the consecrated host, she knelt before the altar, and after repeating the hymn, Vini Creator, she called God to witness, that while she lived she would never wed any other man than Philip of Spain, thus virtually making a vow to marry but one husband in case of her survivorship.

This event occurred the last day of October, and for some days during the succeeding month she was extremely ill. On the seventeenth of November, she sent for the House of Commons, when their speaker read the above-mentioned petition, and instead of the answer being given, as expected, by her Chancellor, she herself replied, saying, that for their loyal wishes and their desire that her issue might succeed her, she thanked them but inasmuch as they essayed to limit her in her choice of a husband, she thanked them not, for the marriages of her predecessors had been free, nor would she surrender a privilege that concerned her more than it did her commons. this interference of the house of commons is generally supposed to have been the reason of their dissolution which occurred on the sixth of december when the queen came in state to the house and at the same time gave her royal assent to thirty-one acts not in the manner of modern times when the clerk of the house names and holds up the act in the presence of the sovereign on the throne who sits passively till the officer supposing silence gives consent exclaims La Reine le Vute.

The queen or king wills it. The action of assent in the days of the first queen regnant was more graceful and significant, and throws a light on the ancient use of the sceptre. For the royal approval was implied by the queen extending her sceptre, and touching the act immediately before the proclamation of La Reine Trace exist of this elegant ceremonial from the time of Queen Mary down to the reign of Queen Anne. It is only mentioned in connection with female sovereigns, but it was, there is no doubt, the etiquette of all English monarchs previous to the era of George I, whose want of English might have led to some inconvenient results, for the ceremony called Sceptoring the Axe seems to have expired with the last queen of the line of Stuart.

the queen had been informed that since her legitimacy had been confirmed by parliament, the french ambassador, Noelle, had sought to awake discontents in the mind of her sister Elizabeth, as if it were tantamount to her own degradation, and that Elizabeth was likewise jealous because Margaret, Countess of Lenox, and Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, were sometimes given precedence before her at court. It is improbable that the queen should wish to give undue exultation to the mother of Lady Jane Grey. It is, therefore, likely that the precedence was in some particular instance given them as matrons before a young unmarried woman. No pains were spared by the malignity of partisans to create enmity between the royal sisters, but for a time...

these endeavours were fruitless since elizabeth when questioned by the queen cleared herself satisfactorily of receiving nocturnal visits from the intriguing noel. Mary took leave of elizabeth with kindness on her departure from court to her seat at Ash Ridge, and gave her as tokens of her affection two sets of large pearls and several jewel rosaries magnificently mounted. After the dissolution of parliament and the departure of her sister, The queen appears to have passed some weeks in a state of solitude, owing to the severe attack of her constitutional malady. Early in January, Count Egmont landed in Kent as ambassador from Spain to conclude the marriage treaty between Mary and Philip. The first symptoms of a political storm about to burst were then perceptible, for the men of Kent rose partially in revolt.

And Egmont was in some danger of being torn to pieces by the common people for the queen's bridegroom. However, he arrived safely at Westminster, and in a set speech, opened his mission to the queen. Her reply had some spice of prudery in its composition. She said, It became not a female to speak in public on so delicate a subject as her own marriage. The ambassador might confer with her ministers who would utter her intentions. But, she continued, casting down her eyes on her coronation ring, which she always wore on her finger. They must remember her realm was her first husband, and no consideration should make her violate the faith she pledged to her people at her inauguration. On the fourteenth of January, the articles of the Queen's marriage were communicated to the Lord Mayor and the City of London.

According to this document, Mary and Philip were to bestow on each other the titular dignities of their several kingdoms. The dominions of each were to be governed separately, according to their ancient laws and privileges. None but natives of England were to hold offices in the queen's court and government, or even in the service of her husband. If the queen had a child, it was to succeed to her dominions. With the addition of the whole inheritance Philip derived, from the Dukes of Burgundy, namely Holland and the rich Flemish provinces, which in that case were forever to be united to England, a cause which, it is said, excited the greatest indignation in the mind of Don Carlos, the young heir of Philip.

The Queen was not to be carried out of her dominions without her a special request, nor her children without the consent of the nobility. Philip was not to engage England in his father's French wars. he was not to appropriate any of the revenue, ships, ammunition, or crown jewels of England. If the queen died without children, all connection between England and her husband was instantly to cease. If Philip died first, Queen Mary was to enjoy a dower of 60,000 ducats per annum secured on lands in Spain and the Netherlands. No mention is made of any portion or dote brought by Mary to her spouse. One noxious article atoned to the ambitious Spaniard for the rigor of these parchment fetters, and this stipulated that Philip should aid Mary in governing her kingdoms, a fact that deserves particular notice.

The week after these articles became public, three insurrections broke out in different parts of England. One was organized in the middle counties by the vassals of the Duke of Suffolk for the restoration of Lady Jane Grey. Another by Sir Peter Carew, in the west of England, with the intention of placing the Earl of Devonger and the Princess Elizabeth on the throne. As Sir Peter Carew was desirous of establishing the Protestant religion, with a strong bias of Calvinism, it is surprising he was not likewise an upholder of Lady Jane Grey's title. The third and most formidable of these revolts occurred in Kent, headed by Sir Thomas Wyatt, a youth of twenty-three. He was a Catholic. But having accompanied his father, the illustrious poet and friend of Anne Boleyn, on an embassy to Spain, where the elder Sir Thomas Wyatt was in danger from the Inquisition, he conceived in his boyhood such a detestation of the Spanish government, civil and religious, that his ostensible motive of revolt was to prevent like tyranny being established in England by the wedlock of the queen with Philip of Spain.

Yet it is scarcely possible to imagine anything worse in Spain than had already taken place in England under Henry VIII, such as the tortures and burning of Anne Askew, Friar Forrest, and numerous other Protestants and Roman Catholics. As Wyatt was at the same time a Catholic and a partisan of the Princess Elizabeth, his conduct is exceedingly mysterious unless indeed he was an anti-papal catholic and discontented at the prospect of mary's resignation of church supremacy was desirous of placing elizabeth who professed the same religion in her sister's place in church and state the queen was so completely deceived by the affected approbation of the duke of suffolk to her marriage that she actually meant to employ him against wyatt and sending for him to Sion, found he had decamped with his brothers, Lord Thomas and Lord John Gray, and a strong party of horse they had raised.

They took their way to Leicestershire, proclaiming Lady Jane Gray Queen in every town through which they passed, to the infinite injury of that hapless young lady, still a prisoner in the tower. The gray revolt was quickly suppressed by the Queen's kinsman, the Earl of Huntingdon, in a skirmish near Coventry. when the duke and his brothers became fugitives, absconding for their lives. Carew's insurrection was likewise abortive, and he fled to France. This good news was brought to the queen on the first day of February, at the very moment when most alarming intelligence was communicated to her regarding Wyatt's progress in Kent. The queen had sent the aged duke of Norfolk, who had ever proved a most successful general, with her guards and some artillery, accompanied by five hundred of the London-trained bands commanded by Captain Brett.

This person was secretly a partisan of Wyatt, and actually revolted to him at Rochester with his company. Brett's defection caused the loss of the Queen's artillery, and the utter dispersion of her forces, and gave such encouragement to the rebels that Wyatt advanced to Deptford at the head of fifteen thousand men. From whence he dictated, as his only terms of pacification, that the queen and her council were to be surrendered to his custody. The queen, with her wonted spirit, preferred to abide the results of open war, and prepared with intrepidity to repel the besiegers of her metropolis.

21 21 - Mary, Ch V pt 1 32:58

The Queen of England.

Mary, chapter five, part one. When the news arrived that the Duke of Norfolk's army was dispersed, The greatest consternation pervaded the court and city, for everyone knew that the royal residences at Westminster possessed no means of defense, excepting the stoutness of their gates and the valor of the gentlemen-at-arms. The Queen's legal neighbors at Westminster Hall liked the aspect of the time so little that they pleaded their causes clad in suits of armor, which were, however, decorously hidden by the flowing forensic robes, They followed the example set by Dr. Weston, who officiated at Whitehall Chapel for the service of Candlemas Day, early in the morning, February Second, before the Queen, with armor braced on under his priestly vestments, a real specimen of a clerical militant.

He was indeed a most truculent polemic, proving afterwards a dreadful persecutor of the Protestants and a slanderer of the Catholics. in the midst of the warlike preparations of the valiant and the dismay of the timid, Queen Mary remained calm and collected. She ordered her horse and, attended by her ladies and privy councillors, rode to the city. She had no intention of taking refuge within the fortified circle of London Wall, then entire and tolerably efficient. Her purpose was merely to encourage the citizens by her words and example. The lord mayor, Sir Thomas White, the most trusty and valiant of tailors, received his sovereign lady at Guildhall, clad in complete steel, over which warlike harness he wore the civic robe.

He was attended by the aldermen similarly accoutred. Such portentous equipments were true tokens of the exigence of the hour, for the rumor went that Wyatt, then at Southwark, was preparing to storm the city. when the queen was placed in the chair of state with her sceptre in her hand, she addressed the following speech to the citizens with clearness of utterance and no little grace of manner. I am come in mine own person to tell you what you already see and know. I mean the traitorous and seditious assembling of the Kentish rebels against us and you. Their pretence, as they say, is to resist a marriage between us and the Prince of Spain, Of all their plots and evil-contrived articles, you have been informed.

Since then, our council have resorted to the rebels, demanding the cause of their continued emprise. By their answers, the marriage is found to be the least of their quarrel. For, swerving from their former demands, they now arrogantly require the governance of our person, the keeping of our town, and the placing of our councillors. What I am, loving subjects, ye right well know. Your Queen, to whom at my coronation ye promised allegiance and obedience. I was then wedded to the realm, and to the laws of the same. The spousal ring whereof I wear here on my finger, and it has never and never shall be left off. That I am the rightful and true inheritor of the English crown, I not only take all Christendom to witness, but also your acts of Parliament confirming the same.

My father, as ye all know, possessed the same regal estate. To him, ye were always loving subjects. Therefore, I doubt not, ye will show yourselves so to me, his daughter, not suffering any rebel especially so presumptuous a one as this Wyatt to usurp the government of our person. And this I say on the word of a prince, I cannot tell how naturally a mother loveth her children, for I never had any. But if subjects may be loved as a mother doth love her child, then assure yourselves that I, your sovereign lady and queen, do as earnestly love and favour you. I cannot but think that you love me in return, and thus, bound in concord, we shall be able, I doubt not, to give these rebels a speedy overthrow.

Now, concerning my intended marriage, I am neither so desirous of wedding, nor so precisely wedded to my will, that I needs must have a husband. Hitherto I have lived a virgin, and I doubt not, with God's grace, to live so still. But if, as my ancestors have done, it might please God that I shall leave you a successor to be your governor, I trust you would rejoice thereat. Also, I know it be to your comfort. Yet, if I thought this marriage would endanger any of you, my loving subjects, or the royal estate of this English realm, I would never consent thereto, nor marry while I lived. On the word of a queen, I assure you, that if the marriage appear not before the high court of Parliament, nobility, and commons, for the singular benefit of the whole realm, then will I abstain, not only from this, but from every other.

Wherefore, good subjects, pluck up your hearts. Like true men, stand fast with your lawful sovereign against these rebels, and fear them not, for I do not, I assure you. I leave with you my lord Howard and my lord treasurer, Winchester, to assist my lord mayor in the safeguard of the city from spoil and sack, which is the only aim of the rebellious crew. At the conclusion of this harangue, The crowd, who filled the guildhall and its court, shouted, God save Queen Mary and the Prince of Spain. She mounted her horse, and rode with her train across Cheapside, to the water stairs of the three cranes, in the ventry. When she alighted to take her barge, a hosier stepped forth from the crowd, and said to her, Your grace will do well to make your foreword a battle of your bishops and priests, for they be trusty and will not deceive you.

the man was arrested and sent to Newgate. The queen's barge had been appointed to wait for her at the wharf of the three cranes. When she entered it, she bade her rowers take her, as near as possible, to London Bridge, where the attack of Wyatt was threatened. She then was rowed to Westminster. On her arrival, she held a council, in which she appointed the Earl of Pembroke, general of her forces, Then mustering to defend the palaces of St. James and Whitehall. An armed watch was set that night in Whitehall Palace. The hot-gospeler, Mr. Edward Underhill, presented himself to take his share of this duty, but was repulsed and driven away by his bitter adversary, Norris, who was a Roman Catholic, upon which, as Underhill writes, I took a link to light me home and went away for a night or two.

Three days of suspense passed over, in which time Wyatt, finding the city defences by the riverside too strong for him, retreated from Southwark, his people contenting themselves with plundering Winchester House, the palace of Bishop Gardner, when they made such havoc in his library that the destructive stood knee-deep in the leaves of torn books. The storm of civil war, averted from the city, was soon transferred to the doors of Mary's own residence, At two in the morning, the palace of Whitehall was wakened by an alarm, brought by a deserter from the rebels, declaring that Wyatt had made a detour from the east of the metropolis on the Surrey bank of the Thames, which he had crossed at Kingston Bridge, and would be at Hyde Park Corner in two hours.

The hurry and consternation that pervaded the palace on that winter's morning may be imagined. Barricades were raised at the points most liable to attack. guards were stationed at the queen's bedchamber windows and her withdrawing rooms. The palace echoed with the wailings of the queen's ladies. Her royal household had been replenished with a bevy of fair and courtly dames, of a different spirit from those few faithful ladies who belonged to her little circle when she was the persecuted princess Mary, and who shared her flight to Framlingham. These ladies, Susan Clarenceau, Mary Finch, and Mary Brown, and the granddaughter of Sir Thomas More, were with her still in places of high trust, but they had been too well inured to the caprice of Mary's fortunes to behave according to Edward Underhill's account of their colleagues.

The queen's ladies, he said, made the greatest lamentations that night. They wept and wrung their hands. And from their exclamations may be judged the state of the interior of Whitehall. Alack, alack, they said, some great mischief is toward. We shall all be destroyed this night. What a sight is this, to see the queen's bedchamber full of armed men. The like was never seen or heard of before. In this night of terror, everyone lost their presence of mind but the queen. Her ministers and counsellors crowded round her, imploring her to take refuge in the tower. Bishop Gardiner even fell on his knees. To entreat her to enter a boat he had provided for her retreat at Whitehall Stairs, she answered, that she would set no example of cowardice, and if Pembroke and Clinton proved true to their post, she would not desert hers.

in the midst of the confusion at st james's, the hot gospeler, Mr. Edward Underhill, came again dressed in armour, and was very thankfully admitted by the captain of the queen's guard, who could best appreciate his valour and fidelity to his standard. The queen sent information to Pembroke and Clinton of the alarm in the palace. They returned the most earnest assurances of their fidelity, at four o'clock in the morning, their drums beat to arms, and they began to station their forces for the most effectual defence of the royal palaces of St. James and Whitehall, the rebels being uncertain in which Queen Mary had sojourned that night. The queen had a very small force of infantry, but was better provided with cavalry, which was under the command of Lord Clinton, the husband of her friend and kinswoman, the fair Geraldine.

Bands of soldiers were posted at intervals from Charing Cross to St. James's Palace, and on the hill opposite to the palace gateway, now so familiarly known by the name of St. James's Street, was planted a battery of cannon, guarded by a strong squadron of horse, headed by Lord Clinton. This force extended from the spot where Crockford's Club House now stands, to German Street. The antique palace gateway and the hill still remain witnesses of the scene, but no building occupied at that time the vicinity of the palace excepting a solitary conduit, standing where the center of St. James's Square is at present. The whole area before the gateway was called St. James's Field, and where now extend the streets of Pall Mall and Piccadilly, With their swarming thousands, Sylvan Lanes then were seen, or park walls stretched on each side.

After Clinton and Pembroke had arranged their plan of action, the approach of the enemy was eagerly expected. Day broke on the 7th of February, slowly and sullenly, pouring with rain, a real London wintry morning. The difficulty of bringing up artillery through roads, such as roads were in those days, made still worse by the wet weather. Had delayed Wyatt's entry till nine o'clock, when his forces, finding all access to the higher ground strongly guarded, divided into three. One part, under the command of Captain Cobham, approached Westminster, through the park, assaulting the back of St. James's Palace, as they went. The second, led by Captain Nevitt, attacked Whitehall. while the other, led by Sir Thomas Wyatt, made their way down old St.

James's Lane, which seems no other than the site of Piccadilly. Wyatt had been promised by his friends in the city that Luddgate should be open to him if he could make his way thither. Therefore, without providing for a retreat, he bent all his energies on the point of forcing a passage to that main entrance of the city, Lord Clinton permitted a small number of his followers to pass before he charged down St. James's Hill and commenced the contest by severing the leader from his unwieldy army. Nevertheless, without heeding the battle in his rear, Wyatt and his men pushed on to gain Ludgate. Two fierce assaults were, meantime, made simultaneously by the leaders of his main army, Nevitt and Cobham.

one attacked the palace of whitehall the other that of st james a division of the queen's guards under the command of sir henry jeringham made good the defence of the latter but whitehall was in the utmost danger for the remainder of the guards headed by sir john gage who though a valiant cavalier was an aged man gave way before the overwhelming force at that alarming crisis Queen Mary stood in the gallery over the Holbein gateway at Whitehall, which it should be remembered, intersected the way near the present banqueting house, and commanded a view up the vista, now called Parliament Street. Here she saw her guards broken and utterly dispersed by Nevitt. Sir John Gage was overthrown in the dirt, but he succeeded in rising again, and made good his retreat to Whitehall, The defeated guards rushed into the courtyard of the palace, and fled to hide themselves among the wood and scullery offices.

The gentlemen-at-arms, who were guarding the hall against attack, all ran out to see the cause of the uproar. When the porter flung to the gates, and locked all out, friend and foe, the gentlemen-at-arms were by no means satisfied with the precaution of the palace porter, and did not like their station with the gates locked behind them. meantime, sir robert southwell came round from one of the back yards, and the battle-axe gentleman begged he would represent to the queen that it was a scandal to lock the palace-gates on them, but if she would only trust to them, she should soon see her enemies fall before her face. My masters, said Sir Robert, putting his mirion from his head, i desire ye all, as ye be gentlemen, to stay yourselves here while I go up to the queen, and I doubt not, she will order the gates to be opened.

As I am a gentleman, I promise you to be speedy. He entered the palace by some private door to which he had access, and made a quick return. My masters, said he, the queen was content the gates should be opened, but her request is That ye go no forth from her sight, for her sole trust for the defence of her person is in you. The palace-gates were then flung boldly open, and the battle-axe gentlemen marched up and down before the gallery where the queen stood. When they were mustered, she spoke to them, telling them that, as gentlemen in whom she trusted, she required them not to leave the spot. the legal gentlemen who assumed armour when pleading at Westminster Hall did not wear it wholly for their own preservation.

Some of them offered their services for the defence of their liege lady. My father, says Ralph Rokeby, the lively historian of the family celebrated by Sir Walter Scott, went to Westminster Hall to plead with a good coat armour under his sergeant's robes, but hearing at Charing Cross the approach of Wyatt and his rebels, He hastened to the defence of the queen at Whitehall. There he strung and fetid an archer's bow of the livery guard that stood aside unstrung, and throwing aside his sergeant's robe, he went to the gatehouse of the palace, and made good use of it with a sheaf of arrows. Wyatt was, in the meantime, forcing the passes down the strand to Luddgate, which were guarded with bands of soldiers commanded by Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, and the Earl of Worcester.

Courtenay scampered off at the first approach of Wyatt. It was supposed that timidity, from his inexperience in arms, had caused him to show the white feather, but he really was a secret coadjutor of Wyatt, and willing to clear the way for him, though his manner of doing it was not likely to render him very popular with the fierce people over whom he wished to reign. Wyatt and his force then approached Luddgate, and summoned the warder to surrender. But instead of his citizen partisan, who, he supposed, had the keeping of that important city entrance, Lord William Howard appeared in the gallery over the portal and replied sternly, Avant, traitor, Avant, you enter not here. There was no resource for Wyatt but to fight his way back to his main body.

The queen's forces were between him and his army. Urged by despair, he renewed the contest with great fury near Charing Cross. meantime, Courtney rushed into the presence of the queen, crying out, that her battle was broke, that all was lost, and surrendered to Wyatt. The lion spirit of her race rose in the breast of Mary, and she replied with infinite disdain. Such was the fond opinion of those who durst not go near enough to see the truth of the trial, adding, that she herself would immediately enter into the battle, and abide the upshot of her rightful quarrel, or die with the brave men then fighting for her. And so, continues old Hollingshed, she prepared herself accordingly. Whitehall was at that moment assaulted in the rear by Cobham's forces, who had forced their way through the park from St.

James's, while the contest still raged in the area of Charing Cross. The band of gentlemen-at-arms were very earnestly engaged in defence of the royal residence. Park kept the rebels at bay in the rear of the palace, while others defended the courtyard and gateway with their battle-axes. Fugitives from the battle ever and anon took refuge in the palace, crying out, All is lost! Away! Away! A barge! A barge! Yet the queen never changed her cheer, nor would desert Whitehall, but asked, Where was Lord Pembroke? And being answered, He was in the battle. Well, then, she replied, all that dare not fight may fall to prayers, and I warrant we shall hear better news anon. God will not deceive me in whom my chief trust is.

Within the palace reigned the utmost terror, such running and shrieking of gentle women, such shutting-to of doors and windows, as was appalling to hear. while this uproar prevailed, the queen actually came out of the palace among the gentlemen at arms, and stood between two of them within arquebuss shot of the enemy, when Pembroke made the final charge, which decided the fortune of the day. The difficulty was, in this last struggle, to tell friends from foes, the adversaries, says Hollingshed, could only be distinguished by the mire, which had adhered to their garments in their dirty march from Brentford, and the war-cry that morning by the Queen's troops was, Down with the Draggle-tails! The noise at Charing Cross, when Wyeth's forces were finally broken, was plainly heard by the Marquess of Northampton and his fellow prisoners, as they stood on the leads of the White Tower of London.

The shrieking of women and children was absolutely terrific, though it does not appear that any of them were hurt in the fray. Wyatt was forced down Fleet Street, whence there was no retreat. He sat down, fatigued and dispirited, on a fish stall opposite to Bell Savage's Inn. and was finally prevailed on to surrender by Sir Maurice Berkeley, an unarmed cavalier, who took him up behind him, and carried him to court as a prisoner whence he was conveyed to the tower. The band of gentlemen-at-arms were soon after admitted to the queen's presence, who thanked them graciously for their valiant defence of her person and palace. They were all of them gentlemen of family, and many of them possessors of great landed estates, this was in the time of the Tudors the most splendid band of royal guards in europe.

The most dolorous consequence of this rebellion was that the queen was beset on all sides with importunities for the execution of the hapless lady Jane Grey, against whom the fatal facts of her reproclamation as queen by her father and at Rochester by some of Wyatt's London allies were urged vehemently. Poignet, the protestant bishop of Winchester, affirms, that those lords of the council who had been the most instrumental at the death of Edward VI, in thrusting royalty upon poor Lady Jane, and proclaiming Mary illegitimate, were now the sorest forcers of men, yea, became earnest councillors for that innocent lady's death. These were the earl of Pembroke and the marquess of Winchester, afterwards prosperous men at the court of Elizabeth.

the day after the contest with Wyatt, Queen Mary came to Temple Bar, and there, on the very ground saturated with the blood of her subjects, she was persuaded to sign the death-warrant of her hapless kinswoman on the plea, that such scenes would be frequent while she suffered the competitor for her throne to exist. The warrant specified that guilt for Dudley and his wife were to be executed on the ninth of February. it was evidently a measure impelled by the exigency of the moment before queen mary had lost the impression of the blood lately shed around her and of the numerous executions which must perforce follow the rebellion sudden as the order was lady jane grey declared she was prepared for it dr feckenham the queen's chaplain who had had frequent conferences with the angelic victim since her imprisonment was deputed to prepare her for this hurried death lady jane was on friendly terms with him, but was naturally anxious to be spared the harassing discussion of their differing creeds.

She therefore declined disputing with him, saying that her time was too short for controversy. Upon this, Fecchendham flew to the queen, and represented to her that indeed the time was fearfully short for preparation of any kind, and how could she expect lady jane to die a catholic? if she was hurried thus to the block without time for conviction. The queen immediately respited the execution for three days. Lady Jane smiled mournfully on her zealous friend when he brought her news of this delay. She told him, he had mistaken her meaning. She wished not for delay of her sentence, but for quiet from polemic disputation. The meek angel added that she was prepared to receive patiently her death in any manner it would please the queen to appoint, True, it was her flesh shuddered, as was natural to frail mortality.

But her spirit would spring rejoicingly into the eternal light, where she hoped the mercy of God would receive it. The memory of this beautiful message to Queen Mary, far more touching than any anecdote, our Church of England historians have recorded of Lady Jane Grey, was preserved by Fecchendham, who, though he succeeded not in turning the heavenly-minded prisoner from the Protestant religion, won her friendship and gratitude. Her last words bore witness to the humanity and kindness she received from him. The executions of this lovely and innocent girl and her young husband must ever be considered frightful stains on the reign of a female sovereign. Since the War of the Roses, the excitable turbulence of the people would never permit any near connections of the crown to rest in peace without making their names the excuse for civil war.

but if queen mary considered herself impelled to the sacrifice by inexorable necessity, she neither aggravated it by malicious observations nor by hypocritical conduct. Watch was kept night and day in armour at court. So great was the panic at the crisis. The city presented the most frightful scenes, for military law was executed on fifty of the trained bands who deserted the queen's standard under Brett. these deserters, being all citizens, many were hung at their own doors and left there, so that, according to the Italian eye-witness, the queen could not go to the city without beholding the ugly sight of dangling corpses at every turn of the street. But let those who live in our blessed times of peacefulness imagine, if they can, the agony of the harmless families within the houses, children, wife, mother or sisters, Who saw a dear, perhaps an only protector, thus hanging before his own doorway.

What tragedy has ever equalled such a woe? Yet the numbers put to death in this insurrection, about sixty, were trifling, in comparison with the victims of rebellions in the preceding and succeeding reigns, and few persons were sacrificed who were not guilty of a breach of trust. The prisoners taken in arms of Wyatt's army, amounting to five hundred, were led to the tilt-yard at Whitehall, with ropes about their necks. The queen appeared in the gallery above, and pronounced their pardon. Notwithstanding this act of personal forgiveness, many of these prisoners were sent to take their trials, but the sheriff of Kent sent word to the queen of the fact, when she promptly interfered, saying, I have pardoned them once, and they shall not be further vexed.

another proof that mary was far more merciful than her ministers. The same day that lady jane grey was executed, the earl of devonshire was sent to the tower with a great company of guards, according to a letter written the same evening to the earl of shrewsbury, which adds, the lady elizabeth was sent for three days ago, but yet she is not come, whatsoever the let or hindrance is. in fact, the confessions of sir thomas wyatt and some others gave queen mary notice of a competitor for her crown still nearer to her than the candid and angelic jane whose life she had just sacrificed. This was her sister, the princess Elizabeth. On the outbreak of the strife, the queen had sent for Elizabeth from Asheridge by the following letter written in her own hand.

Write, dearly and entirely beloved sister, we greet you well. And whereas certain ill-disposed persons, minding more the satisfaction of their malicious minds than their duty of allegiance towards us, have of late spread divers untrue rumours, and by that means, and other devilish practices, do travail to induce our good and loving subjects to an unnatural rebellion against God and us, and the common tranquillity of our realm. We, tendering the surety of your person, which might chance to come to some peril, if any sudden tumult should arise, either where you now be, or about Donnington, whither we understand you are bound shortly to remove, do therefore think expedient, You should put yourself in good readiness, with all convenient speed, to make your repair hither to us, which we pray you will not fail to do, assuring you that you will be most heartily welcome to us.

Of your mind herein, we pray you return answer by this messenger, and thus we pray God to have you in his holy keeping, given under our signet at our manor of St. James, the 26th of January, the first of our reign. your loving sister, Mary the Queen. Elizabeth was very ill, and pleaded to the messenger mentioned by the queen, that she was utterly unable to travel. Mary permitted her to remain a fortnight, waiting for convalescence. Accusations, however, were made against her by Wyatt, were partially confirmed by Sir James Croft, who had been made prisoner in an abortive attempt to raise an insurrection in Wales, simultaneously with those in Kent and Devonshire. The queen then sent imperatively for Elizabeth, yet showed consideration for her, by the person dispatched to bring her to Whitehall.

This was Lord William Howard, who was not only her great-uncle, brother to Anne Boleyn's mother, but the kindest friend she had in the world. the queen sent withal her own litter for her sister's accommodation and her three physicians to ascertain whether she could travel without danger. Before the princess Elizabeth arrived at Whitehall, the queen had heard so many charges against her that she would not see her, but assigned her a secure corner of the palace to abide in. She had formerly given Elizabeth a ring as a token, and told her to send it, if at any time there should be anger between them. Elizabeth sent it to her at this alarming crisis, but was answered that she must clear herself from the serious imputations alleged against her before they could meet.

It was fortunate for Elizabeth that the queen meant conscientiously to abide by the ancient constitutional law of England restored in her first parliament, which required that an overt or open act of treason must be proved before any English person could be attained as a traitor, Courtenay was, as well as Elizabeth, in disgrace. He had been arrested a few days after the contest with Wyatt, and sent to the tower. It is to Queen Mary's credit that she urged the law of her country to the Spanish ambassador when he informed her that her marriage with the Prince of Spain could not be concluded till Courtenay and Elizabeth were punished. The Spaniard thus quotes her words to his master, Charles V. The Queen replied, that she and her counsel were labouring as much as possible to discover the truth as to the practices of Elizabeth and Courtenay, and that, as to Courtenay, it was certain he was accused by many of the prisoners of consenting and assisting in the plot, and that the cipher by which he corresponded with Sir Peter Carew had been discovered cut on his guitar, that he was intrigued with the french, and that a match had been projected between him and elizabeth, which was to be followed by the deposition and death of her, the queen.

Yet the law of England condemns to death only those who have committed overt acts of treason. Those who have merely implied consent by silence are punished but by imprisonment, and sometimes by confiscation of goods. Renaud angrily observes elsewhere, that it was evident the queen wished to save courtenay and of course elizabeth since she does not allow that her guilt was as manifest as his correspondence of a nature calculated to enrage any sovereign was discovered which deeply implicated elizabeth notwithstanding all that has been urged against mary it is evident from the letters of the spanish ambassador that she proved her sister's best friend by remaining steadfast to her express determination that although she was convinced of the deep dissimulation of Elizabeth's character, who was in this instance what she had always shown herself, yet proof, open proof, must be brought against her before any harsher measures than temporary imprisonment were adopted.

In short, whatever adverse colors may be cast on a portion of her history, which really does her credit, the conclusion, built on the irrefragable structure of results, is this. Mary dealt infinitely more mercifully by her heiress than Elizabeth did by hers. And how startling is the fact that Queen Mary would not proceed against her sister and her kinsmen, because the proof of their treason was contained in cipher letters, easy to be forged, when correspondence in cipher brought Mary, Queen of Scots, to the block, protesting as she did that the correspondence was forged.

22 22 - Mary, Ch V pt 2 34:24

The Queen of England is a great pleasure to be with you. Mary, Chapter Five, Part Two.

At this crisis, Queen Mary gave way to anger. she had offered, if any nobleman would take the charge and responsibility of her sister, that she should not be subjected to imprisonment in the tower, but no one would undertake the dangerous office. The queen then expedited the warrant to commit Elizabeth to the tower. The Earl of Sussex and another nobleman were appointed to conduct the princess thither, but she persuaded them It does not seem for any particular object, except writing a letter to the Queen, to outstay the time of the tide at London Bridge. This act of disobedience incensed Mary. She raided the offending parties at the council board, told them that they were not traveling in the right path, that they dared not have done such a thing in her father's time, and finally, as the most awful feature of her wrath, wished that he were alive for a month.

Well, she knew that he was never troubled with scruples of conscience concerning how the ancient laws of England regarded treasons, open or concealed, for if he supposed that even a heraldic lion curled its tail contumaciously, that supposition brought instant death on its owner, despite the genius, virtue, youth, beauty, and faithful service. There was a seditious piece of trickery carried on in the city at this time, which, if it had happened in the days of Henry VIII, would have been followed by deluges of blood. In an old uninhabited house in Aldersgate Street, a supernatural voice was heard in the wall, which the people, who gathered in the street to the amount of seventeen thousand, affirmed was the voice of an angel, inveighing against the queen's marriage.

When the crowd shouted, God save Queen Mary, it answered nothing. When they cried, God save Lady Elizabeth, it answered, So be it. If they asked, What is the mass? It answered, Idolatry. The council sent Lord Admiral Howard and Lord Paget to quiet the spirit, which they did, by ordering the wall to be pulled down, and soon unharbored a young woman named Elizabeth Croft, who confessed that she was hired by one drakes to excite a mob. While Queen Mary reigned alone, and possessed that share of health, which permitted her sometimes to exercise her high functions according to her own will, an amelioration certainly had taken place in the severity of punishment. For in the parallel case of mock prophecy in the time of Henry VIII, Elizabeth Barton, though undeniably an epileptic, and consequently unconscious of posture, was hung with seven unfortunate companions.

Queen Mary took no similar vengeance. The heroine of the voice in the wall was set to the pillory for her misdeeds, but with no attendant cruelty, or the minute city chroniclers would have specified it. Thus did this grotesque incident pass on without the usual disgusting waste of human life. Another adventure, still more absurd, proves the state of excitement which pervaded all natives of England, of whatever age and degree, concerning the queen's marriage. Three hundred children, assembled in a meadow near England, divided themselves in two parties to play at the game of the queen against Wyatt. These little creatures must have been violent partisans on both sides, for they fought so heartily that several were seriously wounded, and the urchin that played Prince Philip, the queen's intended spouse, Being taken prisoner and hanged by the rest, was nearly throttled in good earnest before some people, alarmed at the proceeding of the small destructives, could break in and cut him down.

Noelle, the French ambassador, who relates the story, and being a detected conspirator against the queen, maligns her on every occasion, affirms that she wished the life of one at least to be sacrificed for the good of the public. The truth is, the queen requested that a few salutary whippings might be dispensed, and that the most pugnacious of this band of infantry might be shut up for some days, and that was all the notice she took of the matter. Conspiracies against Queen Mary's life abounded at this unsettled time. Even the students of natural philosophy, which, despite of the stormy atmosphere of the times, was proceeding with infinite rapidity, were willing to apply the instruments of science to the destruction of the Queen, i have heard says lord bacon there was a conspiracy to have killed queen mary as she walked in st james's park by means of a burning glass fixed on the leads of a neighbouring house i was told so by a vain though great dealer in secrets who declared he had hindered the attempt of all things, the queen most resented the libellous attacks on her character, which abounded on all sides.

She had annulled the cruel law instituted by her father, which punished the libels on the crown with death. But to her anguish and astonishment, the country was soon after completely inundated with them, both written and printed. One, she showed the Spanish ambassador, which was thrown on her kitchen table. She could not suffer these anonymous accusations to be made unanswered. She said, with passionate sorrow, that she had always lived a chaste and honest life, and she would not bear imputations to the contrary silently, and accordingly had a proclamation made in every county, exhorting her loving subjects not to listen to the slanders that her enemies were actively distributing. This only proved that poisoned arrows gave pain, but did not abate the nuisance.

the remonstrance from the protestants in verse was found by the queen on the desk of her oratory when she knelt down to pray. This was couched in very different terms from the indecorous productions which had so deeply grieved her, for this poem was, excepting a verse or two, likening her to Jezebel, affectionate and complimentary. Its strains are much in the style of Sternhold and Hopkins. The commencing stanzas are... Oh lovely rose, most redolent, of fading flowers most fresh, in England pleasant is thy scent, for now thou art peerless. This rose, which bears such a smell, doth represent our queen. Oh, listen, that I may you tell, her colors fresh and green. The love of God within her heart shall beautify her grace.

The fear of God on the other part shall establish her in place. The love of God shall aid her cause, unfeigned if it be, to have respect unto his laws and hate idolatry. Your ministers that love God's word, they feel the bitter rod, who are robbed of house and goods, as if there were no God. And yet you do seem merciful in midst of tyranny, and holy, whereas you maintain most vile idolatry. For fear that you should hear the truth, true preachers may not speak, but on good prophets you make ruth, And them unkindly treat. Him have you made, Lord Chancellor, who did your blood most stain, that he may suck the righteous blood, as he was wont again. Those whom our late good king did love, you do them most disdain.

These things do manifestly prove, your colors be but vain. God's word ye cannot well abide, but as your prophets tell, in this you may be well compared to wicked Jezebel. Therefore my counsel pray you take. And think whereof no scorn, and you'll find it the best advice ye had since ye were born. This homely posy allows the queen's good qualities in the midst of the recapulation of her protestant subjects' grievances. How she received it is not known, but it is an amiably disposed canticle in comparison with the foul and fierce libels her enemies were pouring forth to her discomfort at the same period. amidst all these troubles and contentions, Mary found time to examine with approbation the latin translations of her little kinsman, Lord Darnley, and to send him a present of a rich gold chain as an encouragement for some abstract he had made, either from Sir Thomas More's Utopia, or in imitation of that celebrated work.

A letter of thanks to the queen from this child is extant, which proves that she had frequently sent him valuable gifts, and treated him kindly. Mary encouraged him to proceed in a learned education, in which he was early progressing, according to the unhealthy system of precocious study, in vogue at that day, of which she herself and her brother Edward, the sixth, were noted instances. The little lord Darnley in his letter designates Queen Mary as most triumphant and virtuous princess, in allusion to her late conquest of the rebels, his epistle being written on the twenty eighth of march fifteen fifty four in quaint but pretty language, he expresses his wish that his tender years would permit him to fight in her defence.

He was the eldest son of Queen Mary's cousin German and early companion, Lady Margaret Douglas, at this time, first lady in waiting, and wife to the Scottish exile, Lord Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lenox, it is matter of curiosity to trace queen mary's patronage of lord darnley and his family during his early life since he was involved in utter historical obscurity till his important marriage with the heiress of the english crown in fifteen sixty five the queen had not only to contend with her discontented subjects but with the machinations of most of the foreign envoys at her court besides the french the venetian ambassador was deeply involved in the plots for dethroning her his treachery was first revealed to her by a person no less illustrious than Sebastian Cabot, the first discoverer of North America, who spent his honoured age in England, the country he had so essentially served, and adopted for his own.

His depositions before council showed that he was unwilling to see England convulsed by the intrigues of his countrymen, for he proved that the insurgents had been supplied with arms from a Venetian ship in the river. despite of the extreme repugnance manifested by all her subjects to her marriage with Philip of Spain, Queen Mary accepted his ring of betrothal brought by Count Egmont, who had returned to England on a special embassy in March. This distinguished man, who afterwards died on the scaffold for vindicating the civil and religious liberty of his country, was at the time of his sojourn in England, in the flower of his age, and was one of the most splendid soldiers, in person and renowned, that Europe could produce.

The Tuesday after his arrival, the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Admiral Howard came to escort him into the presence of their royal mistress and her council, accompanied by Renaud, the resident ambassador, who describes the scene. The Eucharist was in the apartment before which the queen fell on her knees, and called God to witness that her sole object in this marriage was the good of her kingdom, and expressed herself with so much pathos and eloquence that the bystanders melted into tears. The oaths confirming the marriage were taken on the part of England and Spain, after which proceeds Renaud. Her Majesty again dropped on her knees, and requested us to join our prayers with hers, that God would make the marriage fortunate.

count egmont then presented queen mary with the ring which your majesty sent which she showed to all the company and assuredly sire the jewel is a precious one and well worth looking at we took our congee after this first inquiring whether her majesty had any commands for his highness prince philip she enjoined us to bear her most affectionate commendations to his good grace she would that they should both live in mutual good offices together, but that, as his highness had not yet written to her, she deferred writing to him till he first commenced the correspondence. This is not the only hint that Renaud throws out respecting the neglect of the Spanish prince. He likewise shows anxiety that the gentlewomen who were most confidential with the queen should not be forgotten.

Your majesty understands, he writes to the emperor, that at the coming of his highness, some little presents of rings, or such small gear, must be made to the queen's ladies, particularly to three, who have always spoken a good word for the marriage. These were mistress Clara Sue, Jane Russell, and mistress Shirley. In proportion of the strong willfulness with which Mary's mind was set on this marriage, was the amount of temptation when she was artfully informed that the destruction of her sister and her kinsman courtney could alone secure. Her tempter was Renaud, the spanish ambassador, who was perpetually urging on her attention that it would be impossible for Prince Philip to approach England till his safety was guaranteed by the punishment of the rebels.

To which the queen replied with tears in her eyes, that she would rather never have been born than that any outrage should happen to the prince. The spleen of the Spanish ambassador had been excited by the queen sending for him on Easter Sunday, March, Twenty Seventh, to inform him that, as it was an immemorial custom for the kings of England to extend their mercy to prisoners on Good Friday, she had given liberty to Eight, among others, Northampton, the brother of Catherine Parr, none of whom had been implicated in the recent rebellion. For a very good reason, certainly, since they were safe under the ward of locks and bolts in the tower. The murmurings of the discontented Spaniard and his threats that If her majesty continued such ill-advised clemency, his prince could never come to England.

Occasion the queen to weep, but not to change her purpose, though he zealously presented her with Thuclidides in French, forgetting that the English queen could read the original Greek, to teach her how traitors ought to be cut off. In the next interview, which happened at the council board, Renaud spoke out plainly, and demanded by name the victims he required, before she could be blessed with the presence of her betrothed. His words are, that it was of the utmost consequence that the trials and executions of the criminals, especially of Courtney and the Lady Elizabeth, should take place before the arrival of His Highness. The answer of Queen Mary is a complete specimen of the art of dismissing the direct question, by a general observation.

She had, she said, taken no rest nor sleep. for the anxiety she felt for the security of his highness at his coming. But this answer did not spare Mary from another urgent requisition for kindred blood. Bishop Gardiner remarked, that as long as Elizabeth lived, there was no hope of the kingdom being tranquillized, and if everyone went to work roundly as he did, things would go on better. this savage speech gives authenticity to a passage which occurs in an old memoir of Elizabeth's early life entitled England's Elizabeth, in which the following assertion occurs. A warrant came down under seal for her execution, Gardner being the inventor of that instrument. Master Bridges no sooner received it, but mistrusting false play, presently made haste to the Queen, who was no sooner informed, but she denied the least knowledge of it.

She called Gardiner and others whom she suspected before her, blamed them for their inhuman usage of her sister, and took measures for her better security. If the lieutenant of the tower had not had full confidence in the attachment of Mary to her sister, he dared not have made such an appeal. the measures heywood describes as taken by queen mary for the security of her sister's person were chiefly sending sir henry bedingfeld with a strong guard to take the entire charge of her till she could be removed to a distant country palace. This appointment he affirms took place on the first of may. Here again is another historical mystery explained of Elizabeth's after amicable conduct to sir henry bedingfeld, that gentleman, though deeply devoted to her sister, was plainly the guardian of her life from the illegal attacks of Gardiner and the Privy Council.

The perpetual delays of the trial of Elizabeth and Courtenay had been, in a series of grumbling dispatches to the emperor, attributed by Renaud to Gardiner, whom he accuses so perpetually, in consequence of being the friend of Elizabeth, that the reader of these documents is half inclined to believe he was such. but the positive attack on elizabeth's life in which gardiner planned the species of tragedy afterwards successfully acted by burleigh in the case of mary queen of scots removes all doubts regarding his enmity to her. The apparent ambiguity of his conduct arose from the fact that he was in reality courtney's friend, and elizabeth and courtney were so inextricably implicated together in this rebellion that one could not be publicly impeached without the other.

Some reason existed for Gardner's protection of Courtenay. The family of this noble had been martyrs to Catholicism. It is very doubtful if Courtenay, though politically tampering with the Protestant party, has shown the slightest personal bias to Protestantism, and he had, withal, been for some time Gardner's fellow-prisoner in the tower. it is certain from whatever causes that gardiner had always been the great promoter of courtenay's marriage suit to the queen, and since the insurrection he must have considered the liaison between courtenay and elizabeth as a fresh obstacle to these views. The cruel intentions of both renaud and gardiner against elizabeth had been plainly enough spoken. At the council conference narrated by the former, it is as plain that she had but one friend in the fearful conclave, and that was the sister at whose deposition and death she had connived, but whose intense constancy of disposition would not suffer her to destroy one whom she had tenderly caressed and loved in infancy.

in one of these sittings of council was first started the idea of marrying Elizabeth to the brave but landless soldier, Filibert Emmanuel of Savoy, the dispossessed prince of Piedmont, thus removing her by wedlock, if not by death. This was, from the commencement of the end of Mary's reign, a favourite notion with Philip of Spain. probably connected with it was the proposal of sending elizabeth to the care of the queen of hungary, but mary no more approved of her sister's removal from england than of her destruction as subsequent events proved. Renaud notices a remark made by lord Paget, that it was vain to think of remedying the disorders of the kingdom without the thorough reestablishment of religion, meaning Catholicism.

This, he added, would be difficult if the opinion of the chancellor Gardner were followed, who was anxious to carry through the matter by fire and blood. In some passages, Renaud himself blames the violence of Gardner in matters of religion, and how savage must Gardner have been if he excited the reprobation and disgust of a man whose inhumanity has been shown to be glaring. as for the queen, whenever the ambassador blames her, it is for sparing persons whose destruction was advised by the spanish government. This council conference was held the day before the queen's third parliament met in Westminster. Mary, or rather Gardner, had intended to summon the parliament at Oxford instead of the metropolis as a punishment for the part the London train bands had taken in Wyatt's rebellion.

This intention was overruled. the queen went in great state to Westminster Abbey, and was present with the lords and commons at the Mass of the Holy Ghost. She did not go to the Whitehall chamber and open sessions. This was done by Gardiner, who in his speech observed, that the queen could not come without danger to her person because of the furious storm of wind and rain, then raging. The queen must have had some other motive for absenting herself, since the Parliament chamber was but a short distance from the abbey. Gardiner introduced the subject of her marriage formally in his address, and laid before the senate her marriage articles. From which it was apparent, he observed, that instead of the Prince of Spain making acquisition of England, as promulgated by the rebels, England had made an acquisition of him and all his father's kingdoms and provinces.

Queen Mary told Renaud, that while she attended the mass in Westminster Abbey at the opening of Parliament, she saw the Earl of Pembroke who had returned from his country house where he had been keeping easter, and spoke to him, and made much of him, bidding him welcome, and his wife also. She now trusts all things will go well. The parliament was earnestly employed in passing laws, in order to secure the queen's separate and independent government of her dominions, without control from her husband. They took jealous alarm that all power was vested in the name of kings in the statute book without any mention of queen-regnance, and their first care was to provide a remedy for this deficiency, lest Philip of Spain, when invested with the titular dignity of king, might legally claim the obedience of the nation, because there was no precedent of queenly authority in the written laws of the land.

The speaker brought in a bill declaring, That whereas the queen had succeeded of right to the crown, but because all written laws had declared the prerogative to be the king's person, some might pretend that it did not extend to queens. It was therefore declared to be law, that such prerogative did belong to the crown, whether it were worn by a male or female. and whatsoever the law did appoint or limit for a king was of right due to a queen-regnant who was declared to have as much right as her predecessors. This motion gave rise to another alarm in the house of commons, which was, that as the queen derived her title from the common or oral law of the land, acknowledged by the English people before acts of parliament or statute laws existed.

She might defy all written laws in which kings were only mentioned, and ruled despotic queen of England. It appears this odd idea was seriously discussed by Mr. Skinner, a patriotic member of the House of Commons. Nor was his caution so superfluous as it appears at first, for a tempter was already busy with queen mary dressing up this silly quibble in an attractive form for her consideration. There was a person who had been Cromwell's servant, and much employed in the suppression of monasteries, a great partisan for lady jane grey, and in arms for her title, and altogether a very busy and factious character. the queen had given him her pardon with many other minor agents of Northumberland. Yet, he rose again in Wyatt's rebellion, and was put once more in the fleet prison.

He has some personal acquaintance with one of the emperor's ambassadors, most likely Renaud, who was exceedingly busy with English affairs, by whose intercession with the queen, this political agitator was once more liberated. While detained in the fleet, He had amused himself by concocting a precious plan for the establishment of despotic power in England. On his liberation, he carried his manuscript, which he entitled, A New Platform of Government Contrived for the Queen's Majesty to his Spanish patron. In this treatise, he argued that, as the statute law only named kings, queens regnant were not bound by it, and therefore might claim unlimited authority. and were by right despotic sovereigns.

From which quibble, the author drew the inference that the queen could, without waiting for the co-operation of parliament, re-establish the supremacy of the pope, restore the monasteries, and punish her enemies by the simple exertion of her own will. After reading this unprincipled production with great approbation, the Spanish ambassador carried it to Queen Mary, he begged her to peruse it carefully and keep its contents secret. As the queen read the treatise, she disliked it, judging it to be contrary to her coronation oath. She sent for Gardiner, and when he came, she charged him, as he would answer it at the general day of doom, that he would consider the book carefully and bring her his opinion of it forthwith.

The next day happened to be Mahdi Thursday, and after Queen Mary had made her Mahdi to her almspeople, Gardner waited on her in her closet to deliver the opinion she requested on the manuscript, which he did in these words. My good and gracious lady, I intend not to ask you to name the divisors of this new invented platform, but I will say this, that it is a pity, so noble and virtuous a queen. should be endangered with the snares of such subtle sycophants, for the book is not, and most horribly to be thought on. Upon which Queen Mary thanked him, and threw the book behind the fire. Moreover, she exhorted the Spanish ambassador, that neither he nor any of his retinue should encourage her people in such projects.

In this interview, One of the good points in the character of Mary's prime minister was perceptible, which was attachment to the ancient laws of England, and he had sometimes dared to defend them. At that dangerous period, when Cromwell was tempting Henry VIII to govern without law, Gardner was likewise an honest and skilful financier, who managed Mary's scant revenue so well, that while he lived, she was not in debt. Yet he was a generous patron of learning, and if he could benefit a learned man in distress, even the cruelty and bigotry which deformed and envenomed his great talents remained in abeyance. Having thus, by stating the for and against, in the disposition of this remarkable man, humbly followed the example prescribed by Shakespeare in his noble dialogue between Queen Catherine and her officer Griffiths on the good and evil qualities of Wolsey.

It remains to quote, In illustration of his conduct, a curious anecdote concerning himself, Queen Mary and Roger Ashcombe, the celebrated tutor of the Princess Elizabeth. Roger himself in one of his epistles, being the authority. Queen Mary had promised Roger Ashcombe the continuation of his pension of ten pounds per annum, granted by her brother Edward VI, as a reward for his treatise written on archery, called the Toxophelite. And now, said he, I will open a pretty subtlety in doing a good turn for myself, whereat, perchance, you will smile. I caused the form of the patent for my pension to be written out, but I ordered a blank place to be left for the sum, and I brought it so written to Bishop Gardner.

He asked me, Why the amount of the sum, ten pounds, was not put in? Sir, said I, that is the fault of the naughty scrivener. Who hath left the blank space so large that the former sum TEN will not half fill it, and therefore, except it please your good lordship to put twenty pounds instead of ten, truly I shall be put to great charges in having the patent written out again, but the word twenty will not only fill up the space, but my empty purse too. Bishop Gardiner laughed, and carried the patent to Queen Mary, and told her what I said, and the queen, without any more speaking, before I had done her any service, out of her own bountiful goodness, made my pension twenty pounds per annum. I had never done anything for her, added Ashcomb, but taught her brother Edward to write, and though I differed from her in religion, she made me her Latin secretary.

he adds many commendations on the learning and wisdom of gardiner, which sprang from his exuberant gratitude for the complete success of his pretty subtlety. While the session of parliament continued, the execution of the unfortunate Wyatt took place, and a few days afterwards, the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. This gentleman, who had given the queen the most important warning which had saved her life and crown, had become malcontent, and had, to a certain degree, Intrigued by message and letter was Sir Thomas Wyatt. His trial was the first instance since the accession of the Tudor line in which a jury dared to do their duty honestly and acquit a prisoner arraigned by the crown. The prisoner defended himself manfully.

He would not be browbeat by his partial judge, Bromley, who had been so long accustomed to administer polluted law that he was obstinate in forcing the trial into the old iniquitous way, which had destroyed thousands in the fearful days of Henry VIII, when condemnation followed arraignment with unerring certainty. Throckmorton had an answer for every one. He appealed to the recently restored laws of England. He quoted the queen's own eloquent charge to her judges when she inducted them into office. the memory of which would have been lost but for the pleadings of this courageous man. What time he said, my lord chief justice, to please the queen's majesty to call you to this honourable office.

I did learn of a great man of her highness's privy council, that among other good instructions, her majesty charged and enjoined you to administer law and justice indifferently without respect to persons. and notwithstanding the old error among you, which did not admit any witness to speak, or any other matter to be heard in favour of the prisoner, when the crown was party against him, the queen told you, her pleasure was, that whatsoever could be brought in favour of the accused, should be admitted to be heard, and moreover, that you specially, and likewise all other justices, should not sit in judgment otherwise for her highness than for her subject. this manner of indifferent proceeding, being enjoined by the commandment of God, and likewise being commanded you by the queen's own mouth, therefore reject nothing that can be spoken in my defence, and in so doing you shall show yourselves worthy ministers, and fit for so worthy a mistress.

You mistake the matter, replied Judge Bromley. The queen spake those words to Master Morgan, Chief Justice of the commonplace, or please. this exordium of mary to her judges was no hypocritical grimace, no claptrap at her accession. She honestly acted upon it, for the witness whose testimony acquitted Throckmorton that day came out of her own household. At the moment when the prisoner's life hung on the proof of whether he was conscious or not of the precise time of Wyatt's rising, he called on Sir Francis Ingelfield, who with his colleague, Sir Edward Walgrave, was sitting on the bench with the judges, and asked him to speak what he knew on that head. Englefield immediately bore witness, like an honest man as he was.

It is truth, said he, that you were at my house, in company with your brothers at that time, and to my knowledge, ignorant of the whole matter. the moment throckmorton was acquitted, the base judge committed the honest jury to prison, who had done their duty like true englishmen. Men deserving everlasting praise as the practical restorers of the constitution of their country, long undermined by the abuses that the queen had pointed out to her judges. The facts developed in this remarkable trial indicate that the wishes and will of the queen were distinct from those of the officials who composed her government. These were men who had been bred in the despotic ways of her father. In truth, England had been governed, since the sickness and infirmity of Henry VIII, by a small tyrannical junta, composed, for the time being, of the prevalent faction of the Privy Council.

The members of this junta oppressed the people, defied the laws, bullied or corrupted the judges, cajoled and really controlled the crown, Till the cup of their iniquities being full in the next century, they actually caused the reverse of the monarchy. A place in this noxious junta was the aim and end of every unprincipled man of abilities in public life, without the slightest scruple whether he had to profess the Protestant or Catholic ritual. Such was the true well-spring of the miseries and atrocities which had tormented England since the death of Sir Thomas More. This unconstitutional power had strengthened itself during the minority of Edward, the sixth, and was by no means inclined to give ground before a queen regnant of disputed title.

23 23 - Mary, Ch V pt 3 33:59

Mary chapter five part three. It was the trial of sir Nicholas Throckmorton, which first brought the illegal proceedings of the privy council into popular notice. under the designation of the decrees of the star-chamber, afterwards so infamous in English history. They had long been at work in the same way, but in the present instance, public attention had been peculiarly excited by Throckmorton's recitation of the Queen's eloquent charge to her judges, And indignation was raised to a high pitch when the jury were, after unjust imprisonment, threatened by the Star Chamber, emulced with heavy fines, while the acquitted prisoner was as unjustly detained in the tower. As the Queen, at the intercession of his brother, set Sir Nicholas Throckmorton free, soon after, uninjured in person or estate, he considered he had had a fortunate escape.

It is said that she finally remitted the fines of the worthy jury who had acquitted him, but it was alike degrading to a queen who wished to rule constitutionally, and to Englishmen whom the law had not declared guilty to give and receive pardons of the kind. The queen was extremely ill, sick almost to death, at the time of Throckmorton's trial. The public, and even Renaud, attributed her indisposition to Throckmorton's acquittal. But the decided part taken by the Queen's confidential friend, Inglefield, in his favor, is a sure proof that the trial took a course not pleasing to her, however it might enrage her privy council. by the fifth of may, the queen was sufficiently recovered to dissolve parliament in person.

She pronounced a speech from the throne in presence of her assembled peers and commons, which excited so much enthusiasm that she was five or six times interrupted by loud shouts of, Long live the queen! And at the same time, many persons present turned away and wept. Such was the description given by Bassett, one of the royal attendants present, to Renaud, and the courtly reporter attributed these emotions to her majesty's eloquence. It is to be hoped that those who wept were mourning over the deep degradation of the national character, since the House of Peers, which had unanimously joined in establishing the Protestant Church of England four short years before, Now, to the exaltation of the Spanish ambassador, as unanimously agreed in enacting, that the ancient penalties against heretics should be enforced, classing as heretics the members of the very church they had so recently planted.

This house of peers consisted of about fifty laymen, who were, with the exception of five or six persons, the very same individuals who had altered religion in the preceding reign. It is true that the spiritual peers who sat among them were Catholic instead of Protestant bishops. Yet, had the lay peers been honest or consistent, a very strong majority might have prevailed against the enactment of cruel penal laws for the prosecution of a church they had lately founded. But they were not honest, for Renaud plumed himself on the emperor's success in bribing the most influential of their body. William Thomas was hung at Tyburn on the eighteenth of may. He had been clerk to the Privy Council of Edward the sixth, and had been very urgent with the rebels to destroy the life of Mary if she fell in their power.

He was the last of the victims executed for participation in Wyatt's insurrection, for the queen had pardoned her kinsman, Lord John Gray, likewise Sir James Crofts, and Admiral Winter. Although the two last had been each the leader of a separate revolt, nor did she exercise this privilege of her high station without much murmuring from Renaud. This minister of mercilessness announced to his master, the emperor, that all the judges had pronounced that if brought to trial, the proofs against Courtenay were such as to ensure his condemnation to death. if the queen could be prevailed on, to give him up to it. But besides her impracticability in his favour, her trusted servant, Sir Robert Rochester, was the staunch friend of both Courtenay and Elizabeth, and wished for their union.

And that the queen trusted Lord William Howard implicitly with her ships, who made no scruple of avowing his friendship for Elizabeth, although Mary's partisans expected he would one day revolt with the whole fleet. the queen showed greatness of mind in her implicit reliance in rochester and howard, malgr all these insinuations. She knew that they had proved true as steel in the hour of her distress, and it is most evident by the result that she did not consider them as enemies because they pleaded for her unfortunate relatives. The day succeeding the execution of william thomas, the princess elizabeth was liberated from her confinement in the tower, and sent by water to Richmond Palace, and from thence to Woodstock, where she remained under some restraint.

Part of the queen's household guards under the command of Bettingfeld had charge of her. About the same time, Courtenay was sent to Fotheringay Castle, likewise under guard, though not continued closely. in the same important week arrived don juan figueroa a spanish grandee of the first class he was designated in a private letter of the earl of shrewsbury as the ancient ambassador with the long grey beard who was here when the late king edward died his errand was to be ready in england for the reception of prince philip The emperor had deputed this nobleman to invest the prince at his marriage with the kingdom of Naples, in order to render him equal in dignity with his spouse. The Lord Admiral Howard had sailed from Portsmouth with the finest ships of the Queen's Navy to join the united fleets of Spain and the Netherlands, that Prince Philip might be escorted to his bride with the utmost maritime pomp.

On the appointment of Howard to this command, the emperor's ambassador offered him a pension as a token of the prince's gratitude. He referred him to the queen, who gave him leave for its acceptance, but it had not the least effect on the Lord Admiral's independence, for his national combativeness rose at the sight of the foreign fleets, and Renaud sent a dispatch full of complaints to the emperor, saying, that the Lord Admiral Howard had spoken with great scorn of the Spanish ships, and irreverently compared them to muscle shells. Moreover, he quarreled with the Spanish ambassador, and held him very cheap. He added, that the English sailors elbowed and pushed the Spanish ones whenever they met on shore, with which rudeness the Lord Admiral was by no means displeased.

And, had it not been for the extreme forbearance of the Spanish Admiral, In preventing his men from going on shore, during the month the combined fleets were waiting for Queen Mary's spouse, the English would have picked a quarrel and given their allies battle royal. To add to all these affronts, Lord Admiral Howard forced the Prince of Spain's ships to do the maritime homage the English fleet always insisted on as sovereigns of the narrow seas, by striking topsails in the channel, though the Prince was on board in person. Philip had continued until the middle of may at Valladolid governing spain as regent for his distracted grandmother, the queen-regnant Joanna. Queen Mary had written to him a French letter commencing with the words, Monsieur Monbon et Perpetueil Ali, in which she announced to him the consent of her parliament to their marriage, the letter is worded with great formality, and assumes the character of england writing to spain rather than queen mary to her betrothed husband.

Yet she could scarcely adopt a different tone, since the prince had sedulously avoided writing to her, as may be gathered from the reiterated remonstrances of Renaud on this subject. Even at so late a date as the twenty eighth of april, fifteen fifty four, six days after the dispatch of queen mary's letter. At the end of may, the bridegroom made a farewell visit to the royal maniac, whose sceptre he swayed. To save time, his sister, the princess-dowager of Portugal, met him by the way, and at the same time he bade her adieu, and resigned into her hands the government of Spain. He arrived at Coruna at the latter end of June, and after waiting some time for a favourable wind, finally embarked for England on the thirteenth of July.

Mary and her council meantime retired to Richmond Palace, and sat in earnest debate regarding the reception of Don Philip, and the station he was to occupy in England. Unfortunately, Mary had no precedent to guide her in distinguishing between her duties as Queen Regnant, and the submission and obedience the marriage vow enforced from her as a wife. it is true that she was the granddaughter of isabel of castile, the greatest and best queen that ever swayed an independent sceptre. But then on the other side, she was granddaughter to the undoubted heiress of England, Elizabeth of York, who had afforded her the example of an utter surrender of all her rights to the will of her husband. It is very evident that Queen Mary considered that her duty, both as a married woman and a sedulous observer of the established customs of her country, was, as far as possible, to yield implicit obedience to her spouse.

All the crimes, all the detestation with which the memory of that unfortunate lady has been loaded, certainly arose. not from intentional wickedness, but from this notion. The first question on which the queen and her council came to issue was whether, in the regal titles, her name should precede that of her husband. On this point, Renaud became very earnest. I told the chancellor, he wrote to the emperor, that neither divine nor human law could surrender his highness to be named last. The result was that the queen yielded precedence to the titular dignity of Philip. Her next desire was to obtain for him the distinction of a coronation as king, but on this point, Gardiner and her council were resolute.

She had, they said, been crowned and received their oaths, with all the ceremonies pertaining to the kings, her ancestors, and what more could be needed. Mary then expressed her wish that her wedded lord might be crowned with the diadem of the queen consorts of England, but that was negatived. She was forced to content herself by providing for him a collar and mantle of the garter worth two thousand pounds, with which he was to be invested the moment he touched English ground. She spent the remainder of June at Guilford Palace in order to be near the southern ports. In the middle of July, before tidings were heard of the approach of the combined fleets, when the queen dispatched Russell, Lord Privy Seal, to receive Philip, who was expected at Southampton, Mary gave her envoy the following instructions, which afford an ominous instance of the future sway that Philip was to bear through her in the government of England.

Instructions for my Lord Privy Seal. First, tell the king the whole state of the realm, with all things pertaining to the same, as much as ye know to be true. Second, to obey his commandment in all things. Thirdly, in all things he shall ask your advice, to declare your opinion, as becometh a faithful counsellor to do. Marry the queen. The day before the royal cortege departed for Winchester, the book containing the list of the queen's attendants was brought before the privy council, and carefully scanned by Gardiner and Arundel, when the following odd dialogue took place. Whilst they were examining the list of the gentlemen-at-arms, presented to them by the lieutenant, Sir Humphrey Ratcliffe, when they came to the name of Edward Underhill, the hot gospeler, to whose journal this biography has been so much indebted.

What doth he hear? said Arundel. because he is an honest man, because he hath served Queen Mary from the beginning, and fought so well for her at Wyatt's rebellion, answered Sir Humphrey Ratcliffe. Let him pass then, said Gardiner. He is an arch-heretic nevertheless, rejoined Arundel. The carriage which conveyed the queen's ladies on this bridal expedition was a very droll vehicle, and redolent as it was with red paint, must have surpassed the splendour of a modern wild-beast show. It is graphically described in one of Mary's own royal orders, as follows. We command you, on the site hereof, to deliver to our well-beloved Edmund Standen, clerk of our stable, one wagon of timber-work with wheels, axle-trees and benches, and fine red cloth to cover the said wagon, fringed with red silk, and lined with red buckram.

the wagon to be painted outside with red, also collar, draughts, and harness of red leather, a hammer-cloth with our arms and badges of our colors, and all things pertaining to the said wagon, which is for the ladies and gentlewomen of our privy chamber. The queen was at Windsor Castle when the tidings arrived, that Don Philip and the combined fleets of England and Spain, amounting to one hundred and sixty sail, had made the port at Southampton, Friday, July 20th, after a favorable voyage from Corunna of but seven days. The queen and her bridal retinue the next day set out for Winchester, where she had resolved her nuptials should be celebrated, not by the unfortunate Cramner, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose right it was to perform the ceremony, but by her prime minister, Gardner, Bishop of Winchester.

she made her public entry into winchester on monday july twenty third in the midst of a furious storm of rain and wind and took up her abode in the episcopal palace which had been prepared for her reception. In the meantime, don philip landed on the twentieth of july. He was rowed on shore in a magnificent state barge, manned by twenty men, dressed in the queen's liveries of green and white. the barge was lined with rich tapestry, and a seat was provided for the prince, covered with gold brocade. Mary had sent this vessel to meet her spouse, attended by twenty other barges, lined with striped cloth, which were to accommodate, with due regard to their several dignities, his Spanish officers of state.

Among these were more than one historical character. The Duke of Alva, afterwards infamous for his cruelties to the protestants in the netherlands, was the principal in rank as Philip's majordomo. When the prince ascended the stairs leading to the mole at Southampton, he found a deputation from the queen and a great concourse of nobles and gentry waiting to receive him. He was immediately presented with the order of the garter, which was buckled below his knee, by the Earl of Arundel, when he first set foot on English ground. he was likewise invested with a mantle of blue velvet, fringed with gold and pearl. The queen had sent by her master of horse a beautiful genet for the prince's use, who immediately mounted it and rode it to the church of the Holyrood at Southampton, where he returned thanks for his safe voyage.

From thence he was conducted to a very fine palace, in which an apartment was prepared for him, with a canopy and chair of state of crimson velvet, gold and pearl. The room was hung with some of Henry VIII's best aras, figured with white and crimson and gold flowers, and bordered with the titles of that monarch, in which the words, Defender of the Faith and Head of the Church, seemed to have made a remarkable impression on the minds of Philip's attendants. The prince was dressed simply in black velvet. He wore a beret cap of the same, passamented with small gold chains. A little feather drooped on the right side. There are letters and descriptions extant, which wonderfully commend his beauty of face and figure, but his numerous original pictures do not bear out such assertions, his complexion being cane-colored, his hair sandy and scanty, his eyes small, blue and weak, with a gloomy expression of face, which is peculiarly odious in a person of very light complexion.

A high volume of brain, although it sloped too much towards the top of the head, denoted that this unpleasant-looking prince was a man of considerable abilities. The following day, being Friday, Don Philip went to Mass, accompanied by many English nobles, to whom he behaved courteously, and gave much satisfaction, excepting only, they remarked, that he never raised his beret cap. The weather had set in with an incessant downpouring of wet, such as an English July only is capable of. It was a cruel rain, says the Italian narrator, on the Saturday, through which Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, came to welcome Don Philip, accompanied by fifty gentlemen, with rich gold chains about their necks, dressed in black velvet, passamented with gold, and a hundred other gentlemen in black cloth, barred with gold.

The Duchess of Ulva landed in the evening, and was carried on shore in a chair of black velvet, borne by four of her gentlemen. don philip dispatched the following morning his grand chamberlain don rui gomez de silva with a magnificent offering of jewels of the value of fifty thousand ducats as a present to his royal bride. That day being sunday, after mass he dined in public and was waited upon by his newly appointed english officers of the household to the great chagrin of his spanish attendants, Most of whom were, according to the marriage treaty, obliged to return with the Spanish fleet. Don Philip courted popularity. He told his new attendants, in Latin, that he was come to live among them like an Englishman, and, in proof thereof, drank some ale for the first time, which he gravely commended, as the wine of the country.

In the midst of a cruel wind and downpouring rain, on the Monday morning, the royal bridegroom and his suite mounted their steeds and set out in grand state and solemn cavalcade to Winchester, where the queen and her court waited for them. The Earl of Pembroke had arrived the same morning as their escort with two hundred and fifty cavaliers, superbly mounted, dressed in black velvet, and wearing heavy gold chains, A party of a hundred archers, with their bows ready, came on horseback, dressed in yellow cloth, striped with red velvet, and wearing cordons of white and crimson silk, being the colours of the prints. Four thousand spectators variously mounted, whom curiosity had brought together, closed the procession.

Don Philip was, as usual, dressed in black velvet, but on account of the heavy rain, he wore over all a red felt cloak and a large black hat. When the cavalcade had progressed about two miles from Southampton, the prince met a gentleman riding-post, who presented him with a small ring as a token from the queen, and prayed him in her name to advance no further. Philip, who did not very well understand his language, and knew the violent resistance the English had made to his espousing their queen, apprehended immediately that she meant to warn him of some impending danger, and calling Alva and Egmont apart, drew up in consternation by the roadside for a consultation, when an English lord, seeing there was some misapprehension, immediately said in French, sire our queen lovingly greets your highness and has merely sent to say that she hopes you will not commence your journey to winchester in such dreadful weather.

When the prince rightly comprehended the queen's message, he gallantly resolved to persevere in his journey, and his line of march again moved forward on the winchester road, but did not progress far before another cavalier was encountered bearing a long white wand in his hand, who, addressing the prince in Latin, informed him that he had the command of the county, and entreated his leave to perform his office. This being granted, the gentleman turned his horse, and raising his wand on high, and taking off his cap, preceded the cavalcade, the rain pouring on his bare head the whole way, though the prince repeatedly entreated him to be covered. About a mile from Winchester, two noblemen from the queen came to meet the prince, attended by six of the royal pages, attired in cloth of gold, and mounted on great Flemish coursers, trapped with the same.

Although Southampton is but ten miles from Winchester, the cavalcade moved with such Spanish gravity and deliberation that it was between six and seven o'clock before Don Philip arrived at the city gate. Where, says the Italian narrator, eight first-rate officials were stationed clothed in scarlet gowns, who swore fidelity to the prince. These worthies were no other than the mayor and alderman of Winchester, who presented don Philip with the keys of the city, which he returned. A great volley of artillery was shot off as he entered the city, and twelve persons from the queen dressed in red with gold on their breasts, probably bee-feeders, conducted him to a palace not very superbly ornamented.

It was, indeed, the dean of Winchester's house where Philip sojourned till after his marriage. There the prince altered his dress. He wore hose and nether stocks of white and silver, and a superb black velvet robe bordered with diamonds. Thus attired, he went first to the cathedral, where Gardener received him, in full pontificals, accompanied by many priests, singing Te Deum, and after prayers conducted him through the cloisters back to the dean's house. The queen's first interview with her affianced husband took place that evening about ten o'clock, when don Philip was conducted privately to the bishop's palace. Mary received him right lovingly, and conversed with him familiarly in Spanish for about half an hour when he went back to the deanery.

The queen held a grand court at three o'clock the next afternoon, When she gave Don Philip a public audience, he came on foot from the deanery attended by the Lord High Steward, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Pembroke. Likewise with some of his Spanish grandees and their wives. He was dressed in black and silver, and adorned with the insignia of the garter. The royal minstrels met him and played before him, and the people shouted, God save your grace! He was thus conducted in great state to the hall of the bishop's palace, where the queen advanced as far as the entrance to receive him, and kissed him in the presence of the whole multitude. She led him to the presence chamber, where they both stood under the canopy of state, and conversed together before all the courtiers.

At Evensong, he withdrew from the presence chamber, and attended service at the cathedral, from whence he was conducted by torchlight to his residence at the deanery. The morrow, being the twenty-fifth of July, and the festival of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, had been appointed for the royal nuptials. A raised causeway, covered with red serge, leading to two thrones in the choir, had been prepared for the marriage procession. Queen Mary walked on foot from the episcopal palace, attended by her principal nobility and ladies, her train being borne by her cousin, Margaret Douglas, Assisted by the chamberlain, Sir John Gage. She met her bridegroom in the choir, and they took their seats in the chairs of state, an altar being erected between them.

Gardner came in great state, assisted by Bonner, Bishop of London, and the bishops of Durham, Chichester, Lincoln, and Eli, with their crosiers borne before them. Philip was attended to the altar by sixty Spanish grandees and cavaliers, among whom were Alva, Medina, Egmont, and Pescara. He was dressed in a robe of rich brocade, bordered with large pearls and diamonds. His trunk hose were of white satin, worked with silver. He wore a collar of beaten gold, full of inestimable diamonds, at which hung the jewel of the golden fleece. At his knee was the garter, studded with beautiful colored gems. the ceremony was preceded by a solemn oration from Figueroa, Regent of Naples, who declared that his imperial master, Charles V, having contracted a marriage between the Queen of England and his chief jewel, being his son and heir, Philip, Prince of Spain, in order to make the parties equal, had resigned his kingdom of Naples, so that Queen Mary married a king and not a prince.

Figueroa then asked in a loud voice, if there were any persons who knew any lawful impediment between the contracting parties, if so, they might then come forth and be heard. The marriage, which was both in Latin and English, proceeded till it came to the part of the ceremony where the bride is given. The question was then asked, who was to give her? And it seems to have been a puzzling one, not provided for. When the marquess of Winchester, the earls of Derby, Bedford and Pembroke, came forward and gave her, in the name of the whole realm. Upon which the people gave a great shout, and prayed God to send them joy. The wedding ring was laid on the book, to be hallowed. Some discussion had previously taken place in council regarding this ring, which the queen decided, by declaring she would not have it adorned with gems, for she chose to be wedded with a plain hoop of gold, like any other maiden.

King Philip laid on the book three handfuls of fine gold coins, and some silver ones. when the lady margaret douglas saw this, she opened the queen's purse, and her majesty was observed to smile on her as she put the bridal gold within it. Directly the hand of Queen Mary was given to King Philip. The earl of Pembroke advanced, and carried a sword of state before the bridegroom, which he had hitherto kept out of sight. The royal pair returned hand in hand from the high altar. They seated themselves again in their chairs of state, where they remained till mass was concluded. at the proper period of the mass, Philip rose from his place, and went to the queen, and gave her the kiss of peace, for such was the custom.

The titles of the royal pair were then proclaimed in Latin and English, after which sops and wine were hallowed, and served to them, of which they took part, and all their noble attendants. Don Philip then took the queen's hand, and led her to the episcopal palace, Both walked when they returned from their marriage under one canopy. The queen always took the right hand. The ceremonial in the cathedral lasted from eleven in the morning till three in the afternoon. The queen was dressed at her marriage in the French style, in a robe richly brocade on a gold ground, with a long train splendidly bordered with pearls and diamonds of great size. The large rebreous sleeves were turned up with clusters of gold set with pearls and diamonds, Her chaperon or coif was bordered with two rows of large diamonds.

The clothes gown or kirtle worn beneath the robe was of white satin wrought with silver. On her breast, the queen wore the remarkable diamond of inestimable value sent to her as a gift from King Philip whilst he was still in Spain by the Marquis de los Navas. So far, the dress was in good taste, but the addition of scarlet shoes and brodikins and a black velvet scarf added to this costume by the royal bride can scarcely be considered improvements. The chair on which Queen Mary sat is still shown at Winchester Cathedral. Report says it was a present from Rome and was blessed by the Pope. The hall of the Episcopal Palace in which the bridal banquet was spread was hung with aras striped with gold and silk.

It had a stately dais raised at the upper end, ascended by four steps. The seats for queen mary and her spouse were placed on this under one canopy before which their dinner table was set. Below the dais was spread various tables, where the queen's ladies, the spanish grandees, their wives, and the english nobility were feasted. Bishop Gardiner dined at the royal table, which was served with plate of solid gold, and a cupboard of nine stages full of gold vases and silver dishes was placed in full view. for ornaments rather than use. In a gallery opposite was placed a band of admirable musicians who played a sweet concert, till four heralds entered, attired in their regal mantles, and between the first and second courses, pronounced a congratulatory latin oration in the name of the realm, likewise a panegyric in praise of holy matrimony.

the winchester boys had written latin epithelamiums which they recited and were rewarded by the queen. After the banquet, king Philip returned thanks to the lords of the privy council and the other English nobility, and the queen spoke very graciously to the Spanish grandees and their noble ladies in their own language. The tables were taken up at six o'clock, and dancing commenced, but the whole gay scene was concluded at nine o'clock, when the queen and king philip retired from the ball while these grand state festivals were proceeding private grudges and quarrels were going forward among her majesty's protestant and catholic attendants the hot gospeller mr edward underhill whose lively journal gives the best idea of the interior of the palace during the reign of our first queen regnant, was on duty in the presence chamber at Winchester and performed his office of assisting in carrying up the dishes at the wedding banquet.

He never chose to give up his post of guarding the queen's person, though his adversary Norris, who was promoted to the place of queen's usher, again renewed his persecutions. A day or two after the royal marriage, Norris came from his station at the door of the queen's private sitting room into the presence chamber, when the gentlemen-at-arms all made reverence to him as his place required. He fixed his eyes on Edward Underhill and asked him, What he did there? Marry, sir, replied the undaunted Protestant. What do you do here? You are very short with me, observed Norris. I will forbear, rejoined Underhill. Out of respect for the place you be in, if you were of the outer chamber, I would be shorter with you.

You were the doorkeeper when we waited at the Queen's table. Your office is not to find fault with me for doing my duty. I am at this time appointed to serve Her Majesty by those who are in authority under her, who know me well. They shall know you better," returned his foe, and the Queen also. Mr. Calverley, one of Underhill's comrades, Brother to Sir John Calvary of Cheshire, then interposed, saying, In good faith, Mr. Norris, you do not well. This gentleman, our fellow, hath served Queen Mary a long time. He has been ever ready to venture his life in her service, and at the last troubles was as forward as any one to guard her. He is now appointed at very great charges, as we all are, to serve her again.

Methinks you do more than the part of a gentleman to seek to discharge him. Ye all hold together, growled Norris. Else we were worse than beasts, retorted Calverly. The master Norris retreated, grumbling, to his post at the queen's door. If he ever carried his threats into execution, of telling tales to Her Majesty, of the valiant hot gospeler, it is certain that he never succeeded in injuring him. The Spanish fleet sailed for the coast of Flanders the next day. Having first landed eighty genets belonging to Don Philip, of such perfect beauty that they could not be surpassed. A number of Spaniards, to the amount of four thousand, who had intended to land in England with Don Philip, were extremely disappointed at finding that their presence was forbidden in the island by the Queen's marriage articles.

Four or five hundred persons, among whom were a number of fools and buffoons belonging to the suites of the grandees of high rank immediately attending on Don Philip, were permitted, however, to come on shore. This was the sole Spanish force that accompanied the queen's bridegroom.

24 24 - Mary, Ch VI pt 1 31:56

Mary, chapter six part one queen mary and her spouse went to basing house the morning after their marriage and were splendidly entertained there by the lord treasurer, Paulette, marquess of Winchester. They finally left Winchester within a week of the marriage, and went to Windsor Castle, where a grand festival of the garter was held on Sunday, August 5th, in celebration of the admission of King Philip to the Order. The following Tuesday was devoted to a species of hunting little practiced in England. Toils were raised in Windsor Forest, four miles in length, and a great number of deer slaughtered. The queen and her spouse removed to Richmond Palace, August 9th, and stayed there till the twenty-seventh when they embarked on the Thames, and rode in great pomp to Southwark, where they landed at Gardiner's Palace, and passing through Southwark Park to Suffolk Place, once the pleasant residents of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

They sojourned there for the night. At noon next day, they crossed London Bridge on horseback, attended by a stately retinue of English nobles and Spanish grandees, they were received in the city with the usual display of pageantry, among which the circumstance most noted was that a figure representing Henry VIII held a book as if an act of presentation to the queen on which was inscribed, wherebum dee. The queen was offended, and the words were obliterated so hastily with a painting brush that the fingers of the figure were wiped out with them. Philip brought over a quantity of bullion, sufficient to fill ninety-seven chests, each chest being a yard and a quarter long. This treasure was piled on twenty carts.

It was displayed with some ostentation on this occasion in its progress to the tower to be coined. The citizens were much pleased with this replenishment of the currency, so dreadfully exhausted and debased by Henry VIII and the regencies of his son. the queen after holding her court at whitehall dismissed for a time the crowds of english nobility and gentry who had assembled there from all parts of the country to celebrate her marriage. It was the death of the duke of norfolk which interrupted the nuptial festivities since mary ordered a court morning for him because adds halin she loved him entirely. on occasion of this morning, she retired to Hampton Court, where she remained for some time in profound retirement with her husband.

Here, an important change took place in the customs of English royalty, which gave mortal offence to the people. Formerly, murmured the populace, the gates of the palace where the royal family resided were set open all day long, and our princes lived in public, but since the Spanish wedlock, Hampton Court gates are closed, And every man must give an account of his errand before entering. It is a point of no little difficulty to ascertain the precise time when Queen Mary was reconciled to her sister, since the whole tenor of the facts, and the chronological arrangement in which they are cast by general history, are totally at variance. The difficulty seems to have arisen from Fox's assertion that Elizabeth continued in hard durance, a year and a half longer than she really did.

Recent discoveries indubitably prove that Mary permitted her sister to appear in state at the festivities of the ensuing Christmas of 1554. It is extremely probable that such a step was taken previously to the private reconciliation of the royal sisters. We therefore venture to suggest that the following dialogue took place between Queen Mary and the Princess Elizabeth at Hampton Court in the autumn of 1554. instead of the spring of fifteen fifty five queen mary received the princess elizabeth who had been brought under a strong guard from woodstock in her bedchamber at hampton court at ten o'clock at night when the princess entered the queen's presence she fell on her knees and protested with streaming eyes and in earnest language her truth and loyalty to her sovereign majesty let whosoever assert the contrary Queen Mary replied somewhat sharply.

You will not confess your offense, I see, but rather stand stoutly on your truth. I pray God your truth may become manifest. If it is not, said the princess, I will look for neither favor nor pardon at your majesty's hands. Well, then, said the queen, you stand so stiffly on your truth, be like you have been wrongly punished. i must not say so to your majesty replied elizabeth but you will report so to others it seemeth rejoined mary no and please your majesty replied the princess i have borne and must bear the burden thereof but i humbly beseech your grace's good opinion of me as i am and ever have been your majesty's true subject the queen turned away with a half soliloquy in spanish uttering audibly God knoweth.

If the intercepted correspondence between Elizabeth and the French ambassador was, at that moment, in Mary's thoughts, she could scarcely say less. The story goes that King Philip had interceded for Elizabeth, that he caused her to be sent for, that she might partake the marriage festivities, and that he was, during this interview, hidden behind the tapestry to prevent his wife's harsh treatment of her sister. but those who know how eagerly the spanish ambassador sought elizabeth's life the preceding spring will find some difficulty in believing that philip was a better friend to her than the queen. The interview terminated amicably between the sisters, for the queen put on elizabeth's finger a costly ring as a pledge of amity, and Lettie adds that she said impressively, whether you be guilty or innocent, I forgive you.

the queen had given her a ring at her accession as a token to recall their love if elizabeth ever stood in danger elizabeth had sent it to her in the hour of deep distress at whitehall mary had probably retained it till this instant the queen recommended sir thomas pope to her sister as comptroller of her household she mentioned him as a person of humanity prudence and altogether of such qualities as would render her home pleasant and happy and the sequel proved that the queen really placed about her sister no jailer but a man of honour and good feelings. Whenever this celebrated interview took place, it is certain that although most trying circumstances afterwards occurred, owing to Elizabeth's own prudence in listening to fortune-tellers, and moreover, two or three dangerous plots were concocted among her servants.

Yet she never lost the privilege of access to her sister, or was again put under durance. the meeting of mary's third parliament, november eleventh drew her from her autumnal retirement to her palace of Whitehall. Her procession to open it was an equestrian one of peculiar splendour. King Philip rode by her side wearing his beret cap and black velvet doublet. A sort of state was born before each in token of their independent sovereignties. The queen was mounted on a train courser, whose ample chest was decorated with rosettes and bands of gems, while a housing of cloth of gold descended below the saddle step. The attitude of her equestrian portraits proves that she rode on the bench-side saddle.

Although Catherine de' Medici had already introduced the pommeled one now in use, she wore a small coif, a band of the most costly jewels, passed over her head and clasped under the chin. The Spanish mantilla veil hung in broad lappets, From the crown of her head to her waist, her dress opened from the throat to the chest, with a small ruff called a partlet. It showed a carcanet of jewels round the throat, connected with a splendid auge and pear pearl, fastened on the chest. The sleeves slashed and moderately full towards the elbow were gathered at the wrist into ruffles and jeweled bracelets. The corsage of the dress tight and tapering, was girt at the waist with a cordillire of gems. The skirt of the robe was opened from the waist, but closed at pleasure by aglets, or clasps studded with jewels.

Such was the riding dress of ladies of rank before the monstrous farthingale was introduced, which was worn even on horseback. The queen was extremely urgent with her parliament to restore the lands, which had been seized by her father from the church, and distributed among the partisans of his measures. Had the English parliaments been as firm in the defense of the Protestant faith, and of the lives of their fellow-creatures, as they were of these ill-gotten goods, the annals of the first queen regnant would have been clear of all stain of persecution. But the reckless facility with which they passed laws for burning their Protestant fellow-subjects forms a strong contrast to their earnestness.

When a hint glanced against the mammon they really worshipped, many struck their hands on their swords, affirming with oaths that they would never part with their abbey lands while they could wield a weapon. Which resolution being told to the queen, she said, she must content herself with setting them a good example by devoting the lands she found in possession of the crown to the support of learning and the relief of the most destitute poor. her counsel represented that if she gave these revenues away, she could not support the splendour of her crown. She replied, that she preferred the peace of her conscience to tend such crowns as England. Mary knew that Cardinal Pohl was on his way to England, with authority from Pope Julius, to reconcile the country to the see of Rome.

He likewise brought a bull, confirming these worshippers of their own interest in possession of their spoils, she had sent her trusty knight, Sir Edward Hastings, who was the cardinal's nephew, as his escort to England, accompanied by Lord Padgett. Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, attached himself as a volunteer agent on this mission of inviting the papal supremacy into this country, thus affording an additional instance of the many furnished by history, that the leaders of persecutions had been almost invariably renegades. but the ardent aspirations of this man of many religions for office were utterly slighted by queen mary for which he bore her memory a burning grudge the queen bestowed on cardinal pole every mark of honour on his arrival in england he came by water from gravesend and fixing the large silver cross emblem of his legantine authority in the prow of his state barge Its progress was surveyed with mixed emotions by the citizens, who lined the banks of the Thames as he was rode to Whitehall.

Bishop Gardiner received him at the Watergate, King Philip at the principal entrance, and the Queen herself at the head of the stairs. Festivities on a grand scale succeeded his arrival. A tournament was held, the last in England, which was attended by royal and noble foreigners, It was published in the Queen's Presence Chamber to take place November 25, 1554. Her Majesty distributed the prizes with her own hand, and King Philip was one of the combatants. The first prize Mary gave was, for the best armour and the most gallant entry. King Philip was pronounced only second best in this case, and the Queen bestowed her prize of a rich augey on Don Frederick de Toledo. the candidates for the sword prize are thus described.

Sir George Howard, brother to the unfortunate queen, Catherine Howard, fought very well, don Adrian Garcias better, and Sir John Parrott best of all, and to him the queen gave in reward a ring set with a fine diamond. Public report insisted that Sir John Parrott was the queen's half-brother. He was a knight of gigantic stature and bore a strong resemblance to Henry the eighth, he was a noted character in the reign of elizabeth. At the pike in rank, Thomas Percy, afterwards restored by Queen Mary as seventh earl of Northumberland, acquitted himself right valiantly. Don Carlo di Sanguine, with better fortune, but Don Rui Gomez, best of all, and to him the Queen's Majesty gave a ring. The last course was a tourney with the foil.

Lord William Howard, the high admiral, fought with high commendation, the marquess of torre maiore exceeded him, but king philip surpassed all, to whom queen mary gave nothing loath the prize of a diamond ring. The queen was extremely ill on the day she had appointed to introduce the mission of cardinal pole to parliament, and as she could not go, as usual, to Westminster, she was forced to take the privileges of an invalid, and convene her peers and commons in her great presence chamber, at the palace of Whitehall. Here she was carried to her throne, attended by all her ladies. King Philip was seated under the same canopy, but at the queen's left hand. A seat of dignity was placed for the cardinal at the queen's right hand, but at a due distance from the royal canopy.

the lord chancellor gardener commenced the business of the day with this quaint address. My lords of the upper house and my masters of the nether house here present, the right reverend father in God, my lord cardinal pole, legate a la terre, is come from the apostolic see of Rome as ambassador to the king and queen's majesties upon one of the weightiest causes that ever happened in this realm. which ambassade, their majesty's pleasure is, to be signified by his own mouth, you giving attentive and inclinable ear to his grace, who is now ready to declare the same. Cardinal Pohl then stood up, and, in a speech of considerable length and eloquence, recapitulated his own sufferings in exile, and with the ingenuity of a great barrister pleading a cause, uttered everything that could be urged in favour of the Roman Catholic side of the question, he mentioned the queen with emotion, declaring, The time was when, on her grace's part, there was nothing but despair, for numbers conspired against her, and policies devised to destroy her right.

Yet she, a virgin, helpless and unarmed, prevailed, and had the victory. And her faith, like a lamp assaulted by adverse winds, through a dark and stormy night, yet kept a light to the hopes of many, and now shed a bright radiance. In the course of the speech, the cardinal hinted that he had the power from Pope Julius, the third, to absolve the English without previous restitution of the church lands distributed by Henry, the immediate consequence of this understanding was that the houses of parliament, by general consent, prepared a petition to the throne, praying for reconciliation with the see of Rome. The next morning, the queen, Her ladies, King Philip and the Cardinal, took their places as before, when the peers and commons, led by Gardiner, again entered the presence chamber, and presented the petition of Parliament to the royal pair.

Philip and Mary rose, and doing reverence to the Cardinal, delivered this petition to him, who received it with glad emotion at their hands. He delivered a few words of thanks to God, and then ordered his commission from the Pope to be read aloud. this ended, the peers and commons fell on their knees, and the cardinal pronounced solemnly his absolution and benediction. The whole assembly then followed the queen and her spouse to St. Stephen's Chapel, where Te Deum was sung, which ended the ceremony. Queen Mary was struck with a relapse of illness during the solemnity. So agitating was it to her. She, however, trusted that her indisposition was owing to her situation, which promised, she persuaded herself, an heir to her crown.

Her health rallied sufficiently to permit her appearance at the Christmas festival, which was kept with more than usual splendor, on account of her marriage and the reconciliation to Rome. Just at this time, the Queen expressed her pity for Sir John Cheek, but did not pardon him of her own accord. She referred this case to Gardner. His offense was not a small one, for he had written a letter from the council, which branded the queen with illegitimacy in the courier terms, and tauntingly advised her to offer her homage to queen jane. It was the office of sir william cecil to write all letters of counsel, but he shifted this on poor sir john cheek with a dexterity on which he afterwards greatly plumed himself.

In one of sir john cheek's supplicatory letters to gardiner from padua, Dated December, fifteen forty four, he makes use of these words. I hear Queen Mary's noble highness, pitying the extreme state of my case, hath referred unto your lordship to take order in my matters, after what sort your lordship listeth. Therefore, all now lieth in your hand, that either of this endless misery you may ease me, or else cast me into extreme beggary, I envy not others to whom the queen's grace was merciful, but I crave the same mercy in a like cause. The festivities on Christmas Eve were peculiarly splendid. Here it was evident that a degree of reconciliation between the queen and her sister Elizabeth had taken place, for the princess was not only permitted to join in them, but to take her place at the banquet as the heir presumptive of the realm.

the great hall of the palace was lighted with a thousand lamps of various colours artificially disposed. Here, Queen Mary, her husband, and a splendid assembly of English, Flemish, and Spanish nobles, supped. The princess Elizabeth sat at the same table with her sister next the royal canopy, called by the chronicler the cloth of a state, Elizabeth was likewise present at the grand tourney that took place five days afterwards according to the proclamation the queen had made on the arrival of the prince of Savoy. The earl of Devonshire had been released from Fotheringay Castle, and was introduced at court with the honours due to his rank at these Christmas festivities. He expressed a wish to travel that he might improve his mind, and was offered by the queen an honourable introduction to the emperor's court.

his flight from the battle of charing cross conduct unheard of in the annals of his race perhaps made his residence at the english court unpleasant to him. Wants of physical courage being deemed a greater disgrace than if he had committed as many murders and treasons as his great-uncle, Richard, the third. As the bridal festivities of Queen Mary had been postponed to the Christmas season, great magnificence was expected on the occasion. yet it was the queen's desire that they should be conducted with a regard to economy, which was perfectly disgusting to the functionaries whose offices were to arrange the amusements of the court. Sir Thomas Carden, who had seen the spoils of many a goodly abbey tossed to him as funds for finding his puppets, was indignant at the change of times, and remonstrated through Sir Henry Jerringham, that he had already shown all his novelties to king philip and wanted new properties.

Upon which Sir Henry penned under the queen's direction the following curious epistle wherein her majesty plainly intimated her desire that something elegant should be furnished forth for the entertainment of king philip without any further drain on the royal purse. Mr. Carden, I have declared to the queen's highness that you have no other mass than such as has been showed already before the king's highness, and for that he hath seen many fair and rich beyond the seas. You think it not honorable, but that he should see the like here. Her highness thinks your consideration very good. Notwithstanding she has commanded me to write to you, saying to me, she knows right well you can make a shift for need.

Requiring you to do so, and you shall deserve great thanks at her highness's hands. and if you lack stuff, you may have some here at hand. I told her you lacked nothing but time, but she trusted you will take more pains for the present. And thus I commit you to God, your friend, Henry Jernigan. To my very friend, Master Carden. Queen Mary's court at this season was the resort of men whose undying names fill the history of that stirring century, whose renown either for good or evil is familiar in memory as household words. There met together in the palace halls of St. James, or Whitehall, the ministers and the victims of Philip II's long career of vigorous tyranny, while they were yet in early manhood, just starting for their devious course of life.

There appeared, in all the grace of manly beauty, Alva the terrific, whose fine person disguised a disposition of demoniac cruelty, afterwards exercised on the unfortunate Protestants of the Low Countries. By his side was the magnificent Fleming, Count Egmont, and his fellow-patriot, Count Horne, afterwards the resistors and victims of the cruelties and despotism with which Philip and Alva desolated the Protestant cities of Flanders. There might be seen, then, a youthful gallant A contender in tournaments for Lady Smiles and Royal Prizes, the Grandi Rui Gomes, afterwards the celebrated Prime Minister of Spain, and as if to complete the historic group, there arrived soon after, Philibert Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, the suitor of Elizabeth, and the future conqueror of St.

Quentin. Last and greatest came that illustrious Prince of Orange, who wrested Holland from the grasp of Philip the Second. the queen sent her lord privy seal to welcome the princes of Savoy and of Orange to Gravesend, and they came through London Bridge to Whitehall in Royal Barges, and landed at Whitehall Palace, January Ninth, fifteen fifty five, where brilliant festivities were at that moment held. All this splendour soon closed in the darkest gloom. The queen's health had been sinking since November set in, Yet, inspired by her elusive hopes of offspring, she kept up her spirits with more than usual energy. She was carried to her throne in the House of Lords, January 16th, for the purpose of dissolving Parliament.

When she went through the ceremony of scepturing, those demoniac acts passed by her third Parliament, which let loose the fiends of persecution over her country. A singular act was likewise passed. declaring it treason to pray publicly for her death, which it seems was done in some meetings of Protestants. But a clause was added, probably by her desire, that if penitence was expressed, the parties were only to be obnoxious to minor punishment awarded by their judge. The two houses had joined in a petition to Philip, requesting that if it should happen to the queen otherwise than well in her travail, he would take upon him the government of the realm during the minority of her child with its guardianship.

Lord Paget had raised an objection to this measure, but the friends of Philip declared he had protested on his honour that he would resign the government when his child came of age. Aye, replied Paget, but should he not, who is to sue the bond? a witticism taken extremely ill by the king and queen, but the act was passed, notwithstanding lord Paget's opposition, and it certainly threw great power into the hands of Philip during the queen's long illness. Her hope of bringing offspring was utterly delusive. The increase of her figure was but symptomatic of dropsy, attended by a complication of the most dreadful disorders, which can afflict the female frame, under which every faculty of her mind and body sunk for many months.

At this time commenced that horrible persecution of the protestants, which has stained her name to all futurity. But if eternal obloquy was incurred by the half-dead queen, what is the due of the parliaments which legalized the acts of cruelty committed in her name? Shall we call the house of lords bigoted when its majority which legalized this wickedness were composed of the same individuals who had planted, very recently, the Protestant Church of England. Surely not, for the name implies honest, though wrong-headed, attachment to one religion. Shall we suppose that the land laid groaning under the iron sway of a standing army, or that the Spanish bridegroom had introduced foreign forces? but reference to facts will prove that even philip's household servants were sent back with his fleet, and a few valets, fools and fiddlers belonging to the grandees, his bridesmen, were all the forces permitted to land, no very formidable ban to Englishmen.

The queen had kept her word rigorously when she asserted that no alteration should be made in religion without universal consent. Three times in two years had she sent the House of Commons back to their constituents, although they were most compliant in every measure relative to her religion. If she had bribed one parliament, why did she not keep it sitting during her short reign? If her parliaments had been honest as herself, her reign would have been the pride of her country instead of its reproach. because if they had done their duty in guarding their fellow-creatures from bloody penal laws regarding religion, the queen, by her first regal act, in restoring the ancient free constitution of the great Plantagenets, had put it out of the power of her government to take furtive vengeance on any individual who opposed it.

She had exerted all the energy of her great eloquence to impress on the minds of her judges that they were to sit as indifferent umpires between herself and her people. She had no standing army to all parliaments, no rich civil list to bribe them. By restoring the great estates of the Howard, the Percy, and many other victims of Henry VIII and Edward VI Regency, by giving back the revenues of the plundered bishoprics and the church lands possessed by the crown, she had reduced herself to poverty as complete as the most enthusiastic lover of freedom could desire, but her personal expenditure was extremely economical, and she successfully struggled with poverty till her husband involved England in a French war.

The fact Of whether the torpid and half-dead queen was the instigator of a persecution, the memory of which curdles the blood with horror at this distance of time, is a question of less moral import at the present day than a clear analyzation of the evil with which selfish interests had infected the legislative powers of our country. It was in vain that Mary almost abstained from creation of peers and restored the ancient custom of annual parliaments. the majority of the persons composing the houses of piers and commons were dishonest, indifferent to all religions, and willing to establish the most opposing rituals, so that they might retain their grasp on the accursed thing with which their very souls were corrupted, for corrupted they were, though not by the unfortunate queen.

The church-lands, with which Henry VIII had bribed his aristocracy, titled and untitled, into cooperation with his enormities, Both personal and political, had induced national depravity. The leaders of the Marian persecution, Gardner and Bonner, were of the apostate class of persecutors. Flesh-bred in murder, they had belonged to the government of Henry VIII, which sent the zealous Roman Catholic and the pious Protestant to the same stake. For the sake of worldly advantage, Either for ambition or power, Gardner and Bonner had, for twenty years, promoted the burning or quartering of the advocates of the papal supremacy. They now turned with the tide, and burnt, with the same degree of conscientiousness, the opposers of papal supremacy.

The persecution appears to have been greatly aggravated by the caprice, or the private vengeance, of these prelates. For a great legalist of our time, who paid unprejudiced attention to the facts, has thus summed up the case. Of fourteen bishoprics, the Catholic prelates used their influence so successfully as altogether to prevent bloodshed in nine, and to reduce it within limits in the remaining five. Bonner, whom all generations shall call bloody, raged so furiously in the Diocese of London, as to be charged with burning half the martyrs in the kingdom. cardinal pole, the queen's relative and familiar friend, declined all interference with these horrible executions. He considered his vocation was the reformation of manners.

He used to blame Gardiner for his reliance on the arm of flesh, and was known to rescue from Bonner's crowded piles of martyrs, the inhabitants of his own district. It is more probable that the queen's private opinion lent to her cousin, who had retained the religion she loved unchanged. than to Gardner, who had been its persecutor. But Gardner was armed with the legislative powers of the kingdom, unworthy as its time-serving legislators were to exorcise them. Yet all ought not to be included in one sweeping censure. A noble minority of good men, disgusted at the detestable penal laws, which lighted the torturing fires for the Protestants, seceded bodily from the House of Commons, after vainly opposing them.

This glorious ban for the honor of human nature was composed of Catholics as well as Protestants. It was headed by the great legalist, Sergeant Plowden, a Catholic so firm as to refuse the chancellorship when persuaded to take it by Queen Elizabeth because he would not change his religion. This succession is the first indication of a principle Of merciful toleration to be found among any legislators in England. Few were the numbers of these good men, and long it was before their principles gained ground. For truly the world had not made sufficient advance in Christian civilization at that time to recognize any virtue in religious toleration.

25 25 - Mary, Ch VI pt 2 41:42

of the Queen of England. One of Mary's earliest cares had been to provide a series of orthodox masses for the soul of her father, and for this purpose she wished to appropriate certain rectoral tithes belonging to Kendall Church, then in possession of the crown. She consulted her ecclesiastic confidants on the matter, but they assured her that the pope would never permit the endowments of a parish to be appropriated to the assistance of so determined an enemy of the church as Henry VIII. She, in the hope that her father's soul was not wholly beyond the reach of intercession, presented the Adboucin to a college he had refounded at Cambridge, saying, that as his benefaction to this college was the best thing he had done for himself, the best thing she could do, to show her duty, was to augment its revenues for his sake.

Among the popular accusations against Mary is a very terrible one, no other than that she instigated an ecclesiastical council to exhume her father's bones, to be burnt for heresy. At the very time when Mary is represented as encouraging such parricidal insults on her father's body, she was occupied in fond, vain solicitude for the comfort of his soul, and was actually sparing endowments from her poverty, in hopes that his state might be ameliorated. Dr. Weston, whose name has been already mentioned, was the author of this scandal, and Fox himself owns That his motive for promulgating it was, because Cardinal Pohl insisted on suspending him from his functions in the Queen's Chapel, on account of his immoral life.

Mary, of course, acquiesced in this decree, or at least, did not interfere to prevent it. Weston was one of the furious persecutors of the Bonner and Gardner class. A good Benedictine historian records, with disgust, A repartee of this bad man, in reply to one of the Protestant martyrs, who said, in answer to his accusations of heterodoxy, "'We have the word.' "'Aye,' replied the persecutor, "'but we have the sword.' The proto-martyrs of the Protestant Church of England were men of blameless lives and consistent conduct, Their leader was Prebend Rogers, of St. Paul's, who was burnt at Smithfield, February 4th, 1555. The same week were burnt Sanders, Rector of All Hallows, at Coventry, Dr. Roland Taylor at Hadley, and Bishop Hooper at Gloucester.

All were offered their lives as the price of apostasy, but all remained firm in their faith. the martyrdom of bishop hooper was a peculiar instance of ingratitude in mary's government, for his loyalty to her had been as firm as his adherence to his church. He wrote a narrative of his conduct, in which he says, with native simplicity, when Queen Mary's fortunes were at their worst, I rode myself from place to place, as is well known, to win and stay the people for her party, and whereas when another was proclaimed, that was Lady Jane Grey, I preferred our queen, notwithstanding the proclamations. I sent horses to both shrines, Gloucester and Worcester, to serve her in great danger, as Sir John Talbot and William Ligon, Esquire, can testify.

At the end of the week of crime, which saw the sufferings of these four good men, Alfonso de Castro, a Franciscan friar, confessor to King Philip, preached before the court a sermon, inveighing against the wickedness of burning them. He boldly declared the truth, that the English bishops learned not, in scripture, to burn anyone for conscience' sake. This truly Christian sermon produced an order from court, whether from the queen or her husband, is not known. to stop the burnings for upwards of five weeks, which raised hopes of future clemency, but in vain, for at the lowest computation, above two hundred human creatures perished before the persecution and Mary's reign ceased together. In February, Fifteen Fifty Five, Christian, the third king of Denmark, wrote an excellent letter to Queen Mary, claiming Bishop Coverdale, the translator of the English Bible, as his subject.

thus, to the joy of all humane persons, was a good and learned man delivered from a dreadful death. So much ridicule has been cast on the mistake made in the queen's situation, that no person has asked the obvious question of, who governed England during the time which embraced the commencement of the protestant persecution and her violent illness? How violent that illness was may be learned from the testimony of the Venetian ambassador, Michel. from the time of her first affliction she was a prey to the severest headaches her head being frightfully swelled she was likewise subject to perpetual attacks of hysteria which other women exhale by tears and piercing cries from this notice may be implied that the wretched queen still retained sufficient command of herself to suppress all audible plaints as on becoming her royal station.

Who can, however, believe that a woman in this state of mortal suffering was capable of governing a kingdom, or that she was accountable for anything done in it? Fox, in his narrative of the sufferings of the Protestant martyrs, whenever the queen is mentioned, really confirms the description of Michel. Sometimes, he reports, She laid weeks without speaking as one dead, and more than once the rumor went that she had died in child-bed. The females of her household and her medical attendants still kept up the delusive hope that her accouchment was at hand. prayers were put up for her safe delivery in may fifteen fifty five and circulars were written similar to those prepared at the birth of queen elizabeth and edward the sixth in which blanks were left for dates and for the sex of the royal offspring.

The news was actually carried to norwich and flanders that a prince was born and some public rejoicings made in consequence. She continued in a deplorable state of health throughout the summer and was advised to remove for the heir of the country. This removal is thus minutely described by Stripe's manuscript chronicler. July 21, 1555. The queen removed from St. James's palace in the fields, passing through Whitehall and the park, she took her barge at Whitehall stairs to Lambeth, my lord cardinal's house, there she mounted into her chariot and rode through St. George's Fields to Newington and over Newington Fields to Eltham Palace, where she arrived at five in the afternoon, Cardinal Pohl, Lord Pembroke, Lord Montague, and many more of her court following on horseback, and a vast conflux of people to see her grace above ten thousand.

This seems her first appearance since her illness. Whilst Mary lay between life and death, only animated by a hope, which every day became fainter, the conduct of her young husband was by no means edifying to her court. Fortunately, the queen had chosen maids of honor, whose correctness of life was unimpeachable, who were not only ladies of approved virtue, but ready to do battle, if any audacious offender offered an incivility. Of this praiseworthy spirit, The beautiful Lady Magdalene Dacre, who married, in the next reign, Vise Count Montague, afforded a signal instance. One day, as she was at her toilet, King Philip, who had observed a small window which lighted her dressing room, from a corridor at Hampton Court, contrived to open it far enough to put in his arm.

when the fair maid of honour, justly indignant at a liberty she never encouraged, took up a staff which stood apropos in the corner, and gave the intruding arm so sound a rap, that Philip was glad to withdraw it back in a hurry, and to make a speedy retreat. He took no offence at this specimen of an English lady's spirit, but was ever afterwards observed to treat the heroine of the staff with remarkable deference. the fair dacre was of so stately a presence that she towered above all the ladies of the court in height. She was made of honour afterward to queen Elizabeth, but was accustomed to speak with infinite scorn of the immorality of her court when compared to that of queen Mary. When Philip found that the ladies of his wife's household were too respectable to give the least encouragement to his advances, it is affirmed that he formed disreputable acquaintances with females of low condition.

At least, such is the testimony of a contemporary pamphlet, published for the purpose of inflaming the English against the Spanish influence in the Privy Council. This singular pamphlet is affirmed to be written by John Bradford, afterwards martyred for religion, but the tenor of it is such that good proof ought to be afforded that Bradford really wrote it before it is seriously attributed to him. So completely is it at dissonance with his venerated character. whoever wrote it, the whole may be considered as a collection of the popular reports afloat concerning king Philip. The author accounts for his knowledge of the king's conduct as follows. Ye would say, what could this fellow hear and see?

In truth, I was chamberlain to one of the privy council, and with all diligence gave myself to write and read Spanish, which once attained, I kept secret from my master and fellow servants, because I might be trusted in my master's closet or study, where I might read daily such writing as I saw often brought into the council chamber, which thing I did as opportunity served. I saw certain letters sent from the emperor, half a year before king philip left england wherein was contained these secrets that king philip should make his excuses to queen mary that he would go to see his father in flanders promising to return immediately. The good simple queen is so jealous of my son. I term it as the letters doth.

We shall make her agree to all our request before his return, or else keep him here exercised in our affairs. no man can think evil of the queen, though she be somewhat moved when things are beaten into her head by her gentlewomen. This was the idea of her adopting her husband as heir of England, to the exclusion of Elizabeth. God is my witness that my heart will not suffer me to declare the vile reports that I have heard the spaniards speak against the queen, and yet her grace taketh them from her faithful friends. He goes on to draw a laughable picture of what the English court will be, if the Spaniards have entire rule in England. The court shall be kept more like a hostelry or tavern than a noble house.

Let them report that have been at Brussels, at the Emperor's court, where is to be sold both wine and beer out of the Emperor's cellar, as at any vintners in the city. Yea, and the best of your lordships shall never be trusted to stay at home, but shall have to wait on King Philip abroad, and be glad to lie in a ventiling house, where ye shall think to fare well. If ye have, half a lean roasted capon to dinner, and as much to supper, perhaps a pint of thin wine and water, or else half a loin of lean mutton, a pig's petit toe, and half a dozen green salads, then ye will say, What to god we had kept the crown for the right heir? But peradventure, her grace, the queen, thinketh King Philip will keep her more company, and love her the better, if she will give him the crown.

A ribald rhyme is then quoted, alluding to one of Philip's supposed intrigues. It seems part of a ballad of no great edification, saying that the king liked the baker's daughter in her russet gown, better than Queen Mary without her crown. The council of spain, continues the author, purposeth to establish other nations, and to appoint in England a viceroy with an army of spanish soldiers, and let the queen live at her beads like a good ancient lady. For the king, he likes better Antwerp, where he may go mumming and masking. Yea, even in the holy time of Lent, night after night, I will tell you a true tale in which the Spaniards glory. he then proceeds to tell a long story of the king and his noble attendants disguising themselves in women's apparel, and joining a company of merchants' fair wives at Antwerp, who were met together at the accouchement of one of their number, and that he shared in the gossip festival at the birth of the little fleming, and assisted in the good woman's chamber.

This true tale concluded with an apology, which indeed it needed. I would not have written this had not the good bishop of Carlyle been checked in his sermon, for he desired King Philip to leave his loathsome conduct and keep to his own wife. Not one word of virtuous sympathy is there in behalf of the suffering Protestants, neither does it accuse Mary of the least participation in the cruelties thus transacting. On the contrary, the author's tone is that of compliance with the prevailing religion. This tract seems to have been published soon after king Philip's departure from England, which took place September, fifteen fifty five being occasioned by an event which filled all Europe with astonishment.

This was the abdication of his father, the emperor Charles, who, tormented with gout and weary of the cares of sovereignty, summoned his son to receive the resignation of his hereditary sceptres. The queen had, in September, somewhat recovered. owing to the sagacity of an irish physician, who ventured to pronounce a true opinion of her case, and apply proper remedies for her agonizing maladies. Mary then moved in state by water from Hampton Court to Greenwich Palace. From whence, King Philip embarked to receive the Spanish Sector. for a few afternoons the queen struggled to pay attention to business she had formerly done, but her health gave way again in the attempt, and she was seen no more at council.

With her married life, the independence of her reign ceased. From whatever cause, whether owing to her desperate state of health, or from her idea of wifely duty, Philip, whether absent or present, guided the English government. When he left England, the Queen desired Cardinal Pole to make minutes of the King's last injunctions for the Privy Council, and they are still preserved in his handwriting. In another Privy Council journal extant, the English government, consisting of Gardiner, Winchester, Arundel, Pembroke, Page and Peter, and the bishops of Eli and Rochester, gave Philip as King minute accounts of their proceedings. ecclesiastical and domestic. He wrote his mind on the opposite column with no more recognition of his wife's authority than was observed by Henry, the seventh to Elizabeth of York, and he very coolly in his own name orders twelve ships of the English fleet to escort his abdicated father to Spain without the ceremony of asking the leave of their royal mistress.

These documents afford incontestable proof that Philip of Spain, not Mary of England, was the reigning sovereign after their hands were united. If this had not been the case, how could the truthful Fuller, the Protestant historian of the church, who lived too near the times of Queen Mary to be deceived, thus speak of her? She had been a worthy princess, if as little cruelty had been done under her as by her. She hated to equivocate, And always was what she was, without dissembling her judgment or conduct for fear or flattery. In the time of Queen Mary, says a minute of counsel, quoted by Stripe, after the king of Spain was her husband, nothing was done in England without the privity and directions of the said king's ministers.

Sir Thomas Smith, in an oration recommending single life to princes, by which word he means Queen Regnance, traces all the cruelty of mary's reign to her marriage. This view of the subject is borne out by the contemporary biographer of Fox, the martyrologist, who calls Queen Mary, a woman every way excellent, while she followed her own inclination. It is a historical mistake to suppose that Philip the second had no power in the government of England. There was none legally given him by parliament, But at the time of the queen's dreadful illness, he possessed himself of it. Although every generous feeling is naturally roused against the horrid cruelties perpetrated in her name, yet it is unjust and ungrateful to mention her maiden reign with unqualified abhorrence.

For if the tyrannical laws instituted by her father had remained a few years more in force, The representative government of England would gradually have withered under the terrors of imprisonment and executions without impartial trial, and regal despotism would have been as successfully established here as it was in France and Spain by the descendants of Henry VIII's associates, Francis I and Charles V. This change arose from the Queen's own ideas of rectitude for the majority of her privy counsellors, judges and aristocracy. had as strong a tendency to corrupt and slavish principles as the worst enemy to national freedom could wish. Many wholesome laws were made or revived by her. Among others, justices of the peace were enjoined to take the examination of felons in writing, at the same time binding witnesses over to prosecute.

Without these regulations, a moment's reflection will show That much malignant accusation might take place in a justice room, unless witnesses were bound to prove their words. All landholders and householders were made proportionably chargeable to the repairs of the roads. The jails were in a respectable state, since Fox allows, that the persons imprisoned for conscience' sake were treated humanely in the prisons under royal authority, while the persecuting bishops made noisome confinement part of the tortures of the unhappy protestants. Queen Mary is commended for the merciful provision she made for the poor. There is, however, no trace of poor rates levied from the community at large, like those established by her sister Elizabeth at the close of the sixteenth century.

But that the poor were relieved by Mary is evident, by the entire cessation of those insurrections, on account of utter destitution, which took place in her father's and brother's reigns, and now and then under the sway of Elizabeth. This is more singular, since corn was at a famine price throughout the chiefest part of Mary's reign, owing to a series of inclement years and wet harvests. It seems likely that part of the church lands she restored were devoted to the relief of the destitute, since very few monasteries were re-founded. In her reign was altered that mysterious law called the Benefit of Clergy. It had originated in the earliest dawn of civilization, when the church snatched, from the tyranny of barbarous and ignorant chiefs, all prisoners or victims who could read, and claiming them as her own, asserting the privilege of bringing them to trial.

thus were the learned judged by the learned, and the ignorant left to the mercies of those savage as themselves. This law tended to the encouragement of learning in times when not more than one person out of two thousand laymen knew a letter in the book. Since the comparative cessation from civil war, after the extension of Queen Mary's grandfather, general knowledge had surged forward in such mighty ways that the law of benefit of clergy with many others of high utility five centuries before, were left without an object, their actual purposes having ebbed away in the transitions of the times. The law of sanctuary was one of these. Mary wished, when she refounded the monastery of Westminster, for the privileges of its sanctuary to be abolished, but Sergeant Plowden made a stand for them on legal grounds.

many customs and usages existed in the reign of our first queen-regnant, which form amusing contrasts with the luxury and refinement witnessed under the sway of our present sovereign lady. Domestic cleanliness in the reign of Queen Mary was by no means an English characteristic. When a room was out of order, the floor was neither swept nor washed, but received a fresh strewing of green rushes. Just like the littering of a farm-yard, when it is newly spread with straw, for the accommodation of the cows or pigs, and the old surface remains a fermenting mass beneath. Thus, layer of rushes accumulated over layer, covering up bones, fragments from the wasteful dining-table, and other abominations.

On occasions of dancing, all this litter was disturbed, by a circle being swept in the midst of the hall, The stone floor was thus made clear of encumbrances, while the extra littering was heaped up all around. This custom explains an expression used by Shakespeare and the early dramatists and chroniclers of, A hall, a hall, when persons wished to dance. Such was the call by which the domestics understood they were to sweep the dancing ring in the hall. How noxious the vapors of the newly disturbed compost must have been to persons warm with dancing, may be supposed. The great philosopher of the sixteenth century, who evidently was not used to such dirty ways in his native Holland, attributed the various plagues which then desolated England to these horrid habits.

His description is as follows. As to the floors, says Erasmus in his letter to Dr. Francis, they are usually made of clay covered with rushes that grow in fens. These are so little disturbed that the lower mass sometimes remains for twenty years together, and in it a collection of every kind of filth. Hence, upon a change of weather, a vapor is exhaled, most pernicious to the human body. He declares this to be the reason England was so frequently afflicted with pestilence. The nobles were not a whit cleanlier than the country gentry, but as they usually were possessed of several seats, they indulged in the luxury of removing from one to another when the insects cherished by their dirty customs became inconvenient.

These progresses were elegantly termed going to sweeten. The most pitiful complaints were made by Lord Padgett to Edward VI Privy Council because, being in disgrace, he was confined to Beaux Desert, which he assured them, though pretty, was too small, and had withal become, by some months' residents, horribly unsavory and could not be sweetened without the removal of his family. The dwellings of the lower and middle classes were made of timber and clay, or of waddled sticks and mud. The Spaniards who came over with King Philip at first expressed great scorn of these mud edifices, which they termed the National Architecture. But when they beheld the good living of the inhabitants, the English, they said, live in houses made of dirt and sticks, but they fared therein as well as their monarch.

Queen Mary, having overcome the repugnance of the English to be governed by a sovereign lady, was disposed to place her own sex in stations of authority, of which there had been few examples before or since. She made Lady Berkeley a justice of the peace for Gloucestershire, and Lady Ruse, she appointed of the quorum for Suffolk. who did usually sit on the bench at assizes and sessions, among the other justices, chink da glaudo, girt with the sword. The houses of parliament had some customs, now obsolete. It was necessary for a peer to obtain leave from the sovereign if he found it needful to absent himself when parliament was sitting. Francis, Earl of Shrewsbury, being sick in the autumn of fifteen fifty five, the queen granted him license of absence, and appointed the person she chose, or rather her government, for his proxy.

Sir William Peter thus wrote to the sick earl, This bearer, your servant, bringeth to you the queen's majesty's license to be absent from parliament. I thought it good also to signify unto your lordship that her majesty is very sorry for your sickness and trust that giving yourself well to the recovery of your health, you shall, by God's grace, shortly grow strong again. In your proxy, Her Majesty prays you to name the Lord Montague and Bishop Eli jointly and severally. The Earl thanked Her Majesty for appointing him such honorable representatives, and sent his proxy by his son. If a member of the lower house absented himself contumaciously, he lost his wages. the english drama assumed some likeness to its present form under her patronage.

The old mysteries and moralities had given way before the regular plays of Plautus and Terence, acted in Latin by the boys of Westminster or St. Paul's School, who were chiefly the acolytes or assistants of the mass. Haywood, the queen's poet and dramatic writer, was frequently sent for in her long illness, and when she was able to listen to recitation, He repeated his verses, or superintended performances, for her amusement. The queen remained at Greenwich the remainder of the year, 1555, so very sick and weak, that it was daily expected she would surrender her life where she drew her first breath. The autumn was unhealthy, owing to the incessant floods of rain. The Thames rose so high that Westminster Hall was under water, and Wherries rode through it.

Gardiner, the lord-chancellor, died at the close of the same year. Mary severely felt his loss as a financier, for his integrity and sagacity were remarkable in pecuniary affairs. He managed her income so well that her expenditure did not exceed the ancient revenues of the crown as long as he lived. Queen Mary permitted the Duchess of Northumberland to retain a maintenance sufficient to support her rank, Through the intercession of Don Diego de Mondesa, there is reason to suppose the queen carried her generosity so far as to repossess the Duchess in the royal palace at Chelsea, since she was buried at Chelsea Church in 1555 and left in her will to her son-in-law, Sir Henry Sidney. The green and gold hangings in the gallery in the manor house, Waterside, Chelsea.

an alarming accident happened whilst the queen dwelt at Greenwich owing to the forgetfulness of a gunner belonging to a ship passing down the Thames, who intending to salute the palace discharged a small cannon or falcon loaded with ball, which broke the windows of the queen's chamber, and the ball even penetrated into her room. The unlucky marksman was not punished for this unwelcome salute, as he pleaded accident. Mary once more appeared in public at the commencement of the year, fifteen fifty six, pale as a corpse, and looking ten years older than when she was last seen. She reviewed her band of gentlemen pensioners in Greenwich Park, after which a tumbler came forth from the crowd, and volunteered so many droll antics for the royal diversion, that he elicited a hearty laugh and a reward from the sick queen.

A deep obscurity remains on her locality through the chief part of this year, which was marked with persecution, insurrection, and famine, and the dreadful martyrdom of Cramner took place in the spring. The utter paucity of all intelligence concerning the residence and movements of Mary, and her total absence from counsel, lead to the conclusion that she was on a sick-bed again. She made no progresses in the summer. indeed such movements were impossible in her desperate state of health for when she attempted them in her father's reign she was usually carried home ill in a litter her affectionate maid of honour jane dormer who married a spanish grandee the conde de feria and wrote her own memoirs affirms that her royal mistress when convalescent in the summer retired to the palace at croydon which had been a dour residence to her mother catherine of arragon when her sole amusement was walking, plainly dressed, with her ladies, and entering the cottages of the poor, and, unknown to them, relieving their wants, she likewise chose those of their children that seemed promising for the benefits of education.

This account agrees with her extreme love of children, and the numerous godchildren and infant proteges on whom she lavished a great part of her narrow income in her youth. the invalid queen in her moments of convalescence soothed her cares and miseries at the embroidery frame. Many specimens of her needlework were extant in the reign of James I, and are thus celebrated by Taylor, the poet of the needle. Mary here the sceptre swayed, and though she were a queen of mighty power, her memory will never be decayed, which by her works are likewise in the tower, in Windsor Castle, and in Hampton Court, in that most pompous room called paradise, whoever pleaseth thither to resort may see some works of hers of wondrous price or value.

Her greatness held it no disreputation to hold the needle in her royal hand, which was a good example to our nation to banish idleness through her land, and thus this queen in wisdom thought it fit. The needle's work pleased her, and she graced it. Where the pompous room called Paradise at Hampton Court may be must remain a mystery. But it was probably one of the ancient state apartments, destroyed by William, the third, to make way for the quadrangle, built and ornamented in the mode a la Louis Quattours. It is easy to surmise that it was hung with tapestry representing the Garden of Eden, with beasts, birds, and plants depicted according to such artistic ideas as Mary and her maids of honour might possess when delineating subjects of natural history and cross-stitch.

Catherine of Aragon, the mother of Queen Mary, commenced ornamenting the state apartments in the tower. according to taylor, mary finished the splendid and elaborate tapestry begun by her mother, but all vestiges of the royal apartments of the tower were swept away by the destructive warfare in the succeeding century. The very site has become a matter of dispute, and with these antique palatial lodging rooms vanished the united labours that Queen Mary and her mother had bestowed on their hangings and furniture. It is possible that some remains of Mary's needlework may exist at Windsor Castle. It is known from her privy purse expenses that she worked an enormous armchair as a New Year's gift for her father, Henry VIII.

And there is reason to suppose it is the specimen of Mary's needlework, Taylor alludes to, as well known at Windsor. A series of plots and insurrections took place. agitated by a younger brother of the Stafford family, who was a nephew of Cardinal Pohl, and had been malcontent before his uncle returned to England. The French ambassador was, as usual, concerned with this rising, which has several ramifications, in which two of the household of the Princess Elizabeth were again concerned, and when arrested, they accused their mistress of participation. the princess however had not the least difficulty in convincing her sister of her innocence who sent her a ring in token of her confidence. The officers of Elizabeth were executed.

A new disturbance was raised in July by an impostor who personated the deceased earl of Devonshire, and who actually proclaimed himself and Elizabeth king and queen. This trying circumstance produced no division between the royal sisters, nor did the populace take the slightest interest in the attempts of any of the disturbers. Lord Bray, the son-in-law of the Earl of Shrewsbury, was confined in the tower, being accused of participation in Stafford's revolt. Lady Bray was admitted to the Queen's presence, and pleaded the cause of her lord very earnestly and successfully. Mrs. Clarenceau, the Queen's old maid, came to Lady Bray with kind words from Her Majesty, and invited her to dine with her, and led her by the hand through the court to her chamber.

And this was thought to be by the queen's special commandment. The queen, two days after, spoke of the devotion of the young wife with great praise, but added with emphasis, which it was thought alluded to her own case, that God sent of times to good women evil husbands. the stout gospeler, Edward Underhill, escaped all persecution for his religion, though he had been in some danger whilst the queen's severe illness lasted. His enemies sometimes would tell him that warrants were out against him, to which the valiant protestants said, If they were, and he found them not duly signed, he should go farther than Peter, who only cut off the ear of Malchus, for he should cut off the head and ears into the bargain of any messenger who served such warrant.

Thus, it is certain that the sick queen's signature was not appended to these tyrannical instruments of the cruel inquisition that performed the enormities in Mary's reign after her marriage, for Underhill added, that he considered himself legally authorized in resisting to death any warrant which was not signed by five of the council. but if the royal sign manual had been affixed, he could not have said this. Burnett expressly says, neither Mary nor Cardinal Pohl were ever at these councils, and that in the midst of the persecutions, seldom more than three sat in consultation. Underhill took the precaution of walling up with a good barrier of bricks all his polemic library in a niche of his bedchamber in Wood Street, he assures his reader they were all released from their concealment as good as new when the scene changed at the accession of Elizabeth.

Thus, this gallant gentleman of the pen and sword weathered all the political and religious storms of the reign of Mary, and lived prosperously till a good old age under the sway of Elizabeth. in truth, being a country gentleman of family and fortune, he was in little danger, for the ugliest feature of the Marian persecution was that the vengeance of the inquisitors was principally wreaked on the poor and lowly, whose tortures and sufferings were made terrific examples to their superiors, a moda proceeding the direct reverse to all former policy in England. those who were of rank sufficient to have access to the queen were generally pardoned if she could induce Gardiner to consent. In the cases of Edwin Sandys, Sir John Cheek, and her sister Elizabeth, and afterwards Lord Bray, she actively interfered for their preservation.

The flight of the dowager of Suffolk to the continent seems to have originated as much from her stolen match with Richard Barty as on religious account. in february fifteen fifty six to fifty seven visits of friendly intercourse were exchanged between the queen and her sister elizabeth who spent some weeks at somerset house this palace seems to have been granted to the princess by her sister as her town house the trouble and even persecution with which dudley had plagued elizabeth regarding her claim to durham house a much inferior domicile and her complaints of being bereft of any town house are the chief topic of her correspondence at the close of Edward VI's life. A contemporary chronicler shows Elizabeth living with great royalty at Somerset House, built by the protector Somerset, by which he had impoverished his family and lost his popularity.

Queen Mary returned the frequent visits her sister had made her during her spring abode at Somerset House by a progress to Hatfield. here the next morning, after mass, she was entertained by Elizabeth with a grand exhibition of bear-baiting, with which, says the chronicler, their highnesses were right well content. To do Mary justice, this is the only instance recorded of her presence and satisfaction at any exhibition of cruelty. Neither letters, account-book, nor any other evidence we have yet discovered. Represent her as an encourager or rewarder of the cruel amusements in vogue at her era, and in this, with the exception of her mother, she stands alone among her family. She seldom hunted, even in her youth, and she never swore, either on paper or by utterance.

Negative good qualities which Candor demands should be recorded to her credit, when so many evil ones have been alleged against her. the evening recreations of hatfield it may be considered were more to the taste of the musical queen than morning bear-baiting for they consisted of concerts at which her sister elizabeth amused her by playing on the virginals accompanied by a chorister boy who possessed a divine voice before the end of the summer queen mary returned the hospitalities at hatfield By a feat champetre, an alfresco concert at Richmond Palace of peculiar elegance. The queen sent her barge for her sister, who was again resident in London at Somerset House. Surely the decorations provided for the triumphal passage up the Thames of Elizabeth, then in the prime of her life and hopes, might have been exceeded by that princess in costliness, when in the zenith of her regal splendor, but never in taste.

for mary had caused her barge to be festooned for her sister's voyage with rich garlands of flowers, and covered with an awning of green silk, embroidered with branches of eglantine and golden blossoms. Under this canopy, Elizabeth sat in state, attended by the comptroller of her household, Sir Thomas Pope, and four of her ladies of honour. six boats followed with the gentlemen of elizabeth's retinue, who were dressed in russet damask and blue satin with caps of silver cloth and green plumes. Queen Mary received her sister and her brilliant train in Richmond Palace Gardens, and entertained her with a sumptuous banquet in a pavilion constructed in the labyrinth, in the form of a castle made of cloth of gold and violet velvet.

embroidered with silver fleur-de-lis, and her mother's device of the pomegranate in gold. A concert succeeded the banquet, at which the best minstrels in the kingdom gratified the high musical tastes of the royal sisters. But there is no mention made that either bulls, bears, badgers, or any other creatures were baited for their diversion. in the evening, the queen's barge, with its gay garlands, was again launched on the Silver Thames for the homeward voyage of the heiress of England, and followed by the attendant boats, the beautiful water procession safely arrived the same night at Somerset House. The queen had reason soon after to express her high approbation of the dutiful conduct of Elizabeth regarding the reception of the king of Sweden's proposal of marriage for his heir, Mary's conduct, if examined through the medium of documents, appears conscientious and unexceptionable regarding all overtures for her sister's marriage.

She sent for Sir Thomas Pope, and after declaring her approval of Elizabeth's reference to herself, respecting the Swedish offer, requesting him to learn her sister's real sentiments as to whether her constant refusal of suitors proceeded from any objection to the marriage state in general.

26 26 - Mary, Ch VI pt 3 39:24

The Queen of England.

Mary, chapter six, part three, king Philip returned for a short time in March, fifteen fifty seven, for the purpose of forcing his queen into a war with France. It is certain she had received every provocation from Henry II, who had incited all the plots that had agitated England since her extension, yet she was very loath to involve her kingdom in the expenses of a war, which her finances were totally inadequate to support. She, however, took the opportunity of pardoning most of the rebels that had been engaged in the late insurrection, on condition of their joining the English quota of Philip's army. then mustering near Calais. Lord Bray was among the number, which likewise comprised the surviving sons of the Duke of Northumberland, the Queen having restored their property as well as their freedom.

She raised money to equip her army by borrowing from the country gentlemen and citizens who had capital to spare small sums at the enormous interest of twelve per cent. Philip left England in the summer, and the queen never saw him more. His friend, the Prince of Savoy, won for him the Battle of St. Quentin in August, but this victory seemed an illustration of the Irish adage of gaining a loss, since the principal result was that the French got possession of Calais a few months afterwards. The recent visit of Philip and the martial excitement around her had roused queen Mary for a short time from the deadly torpor of disease, and she became sufficiently convalescent to be occupied with a series of vexations.

Not the least of these was the pertinacity with which Philip the second insisted on forcing her sister Elizabeth to give her hand to his friend, the prince of Savoy, who was at this time the hero of the day. it must be owned that if mary wished to disinherit or banish her sister, it was strange that she encouraged her in her objections to every foreign match. When Philip urged arguments in behalf of his friend, Queen Mary answered that she had consented to the match while she thought Elizabeth would approve of it, but that, as she found her exceedingly adverse, in consequence she could not force her into an unwilling marriage. the queen added that she was certain that parliament would not suffer her sister to quit the kingdom, a clear acknowledgment of Elizabeth's position as second person in the realm.

This controversy produced an angry letter from Philip in which he charged Mary on her conscience, and as she regarded the future welfare of her religion to bring this matter to bear. This produced a singular letter from Queen Mary written in French, It is worded in the self-denying and humble style, conventional in epistles of the era, but contains a distinct avowal of determination to act, in regard to her sister's marriage, only as her parliament should agree. A principle which governed her in every act of her regal life, although she has been made singly responsible for all the evil enacted by her parliaments, as if she had been an autocrat, who issued you cases expressive of her sole will.

Queen Mary to King Philip. Monsieur, I have received the letters from your highness by Francisco, the eighteenth instant, humbly thanking you for the same, especially as you are pleased to write that you took mine in good part, which were indeed, I assure your highness, written with good intention, and assuredly, seeing that yours was written with the same, I can say nothing more than to entreat your highness, Seeing that you think it right, that I examine my conscience to discover whether it is founded in truth or not, to name what persons your highness may think most proper to communicate with me on this affair, and I will willingly listen to them sincerely, whomsoever they may be. Nevertheless, in my last letter to your highness, I made an offer to agree to this marriage on this occasion, provided I have the consent of this realm, and so I will.

but without this consent, I fear that neither your highness nor this realm will be well served on this occasion, for your highness will remember that once I procured of myself an opportunity of listening to the friars of your highness. But they then, and Alfonso, propounded questions so obscure or irrelevant, that, to my simple understanding, there was no comprehending them. As, for instance, who was king in Adam's days? and said withal that I was bound to conclude this marriage by an article in my creed. Yet, if he had not propounded things too difficult to be understood, it was nevertheless impossible for him, in so short a time, to direct my conscience. But one thing I promise, Your Highness, whomsoever you appoint will not find me obstinate, or without reason, I hope.

Meantime, Your Highness has written, in the said letters, that, if a parliament shall go contrary, your highness will impute the fault to me. I beg, in all humility, that your highness will defer this matter till your return, and then it will be manifest whether I am culpable or not. Otherwise I shall live in apprehension of your highness's displeasure, which would be worse to me than death, for I have already begun to taste too much to my regret. Truth to say, in my simple judgment, Under the correction of your highness, and seeing that the Duke of Savoy will be at this hour entered on the campaign, unless a number of the council, the nobility and kingdom, are with your highness, I cannot find by what means the matter can be properly treated, nor how, in my judgment, even if my conscience were as completely satisfied as yours is, this matter can be brought to the end, which your highness desires, without your presence.

Wherefore, monsieur, in as humble wise as it is possible for me, being your very loyal and very obedient wife, which to be I confess myself justly obliged to be, and in my opinion more than any other woman, having such a husband as your highness is, without speaking of the multitude of your kingdoms, for that is not my principal motive, I entreat your highness that we both pray to God, and put our first confidence in him, that we may meet and live together. And that same God, in whose hand is the direction of the hearts of kings, will, I hope, without fail, enlighten us in such manner, that all at last shall tend to his glory and your satisfaction. It is very plainly to be gathered from this letter that Mary did not choose to use any indirect and illegal methods of influencing her parliament in favor of a marriage which was equally against the wishes of her sister and the kingdom.

This letter has been mentioned, but surely by persons incapable of reading the original as an instance of the utter slavery of Mary's disposition, when in truth, She makes in it a proper distinction between the tenderness of a wife and the duties of an English queen. She will discuss the marriage with whomsoever her husband appoints, but she will not be influenced to act against her regal integrity, either by the mysticism or the bigotry of his friars. She means to leave the whole to her parliament, but deprecates his unreasonable displeasure in making her accountable when she has no right to control their acts. She shows that nothing but trouble will follow any exertion of despotism in the affair.

Yet, if her husband wishes to influence her people, he had better do it in person, for she wants much to see him. And she concludes with a prayer, almost in the words retained in our liturgy, that, God, in whose hand are the hearts of kings, will direct this matter to his glory. And, when it is considered that the matter was providing Elizabeth with a catholic spouse, the whole tends to clear Mary's character of some stains of bigotry. The ambassador, to whom Philip confided the negotiation of this marriage, was his beautiful and fascinating cousin, Cristina of Denmark. Like all the female descendants of Isabella Castile, this young lady possessed great talents for government. She was daughter of the deposed tyrant, Christiane, the second, king of Denmark, and the virtuous Isabel, sister of the emperor, Charles V.

Early and near to misfortune, Cristina was reared in exile, and became the ornament and darling of the imperial court. She married the Duke of Lorraine, and was at this time a widow. Philip, the second, was suspected of cherishing a passion for his lovely cousin, who had great influence in his counsels. christina was an active politician, but to her credit be it spoken, she had an enthusiastic turn for negotiating peace. Some rumours of Philip's partiality for his cousin had reached the ears of Mary, who, either displeased with the embassy or jealous of the ambassadress, gave her, though a near kinswoman of her own, anything but a gracious reception. She warned Elizabeth that if she did not wish to marry Savoy, she must keep close to Hatfield.

Thus, Cristina never saw her. After the departure of the lovely diplomatist, it is said, Queen Mary, in an excess of jealousy, cut her husband's picture to pieces with her own hand. She had recently received a portrait of him, to which a curious anecdote is annexed. she had no great idea of the valor of her spouse, but when she was told that for the first time in his life he had appeared in armor at the siege of St. Quintin, she was smitten with an extreme desire to have his picture representing him in his warlike panoply. Philip very gallantly complied with her wish, and sent her his portrait. in armor all but the helmet, for he did not consider it was consistent with etiquette that the head should be covered before the queen.

Perhaps this was the picture on which she wreaked her vengeance. Mary was exasperated at the thought that her husband had deserted her, and given to his cousin the confidence and influence she ought to have possessed, Her health again received a mortal shock from the attacks of chronic disease. But, like a self-deception, like monomania, she once more fancied that she was about to become a mother. She made her will in the autumn of 1557, under this impression. In many clauses she alluded to a hope of offspring, as futile as that she had formerly cherished. michelle the venetian ambassador who saw queen mary at the close of the year fifteen fifty seven will not allow that she was otherwise than an interesting-looking woman.

He thus minutely describes her person. She is of low stature, but has no deformity in any part of her person. She is thin and delicate, altogether unlike her father, who was tall and strongly made, or her mother, who if not tall, was massive. Her face is well-formed, and her features prove, as well as her pictures, that when younger she was not only good-looking, but more than moderately handsome. She would now be so, saving some wrinkles, caused more by sorrow than age. She looks years older than she is, and always appears very grave. Her eyes are piercing, and inspire not only deference, but even fear in those on whom she bends them. Yet she is near-sighted, being unable to read or do anything else, without her eyes being close to whatever she would peruse or well discern, her voice powerful and high-pitched, like that of a man, so that when she speaks, she is heard at some little distance.

This is a peculiarity often observed in females who sing well, for a very fine voice in singing is often counterbalanced by most unpleasant tones in speech. in short, resumes michelle, she may at her present age be considered very good-looking, not only as a queen, but a woman, and ought never to be despised for ugliness. Such is the opinion of a contemporary ambassador, whose national interest by no means led him to be her adulator, rather the contrary. The real portraits of Mary are as much historical mysteries as her private character and conduct, her portraits as a girl and young woman vary much from each other on account of the extreme fluctuations of her health. Her early portraits are often mistaken for those of lady Jane Gray, to whom she bore in youth a strong family resemblance.

The immense size of the foreheads of these kinswomen, in breadth as well as in height, is extraordinary. It is possible that the early erudition of both, and their great capacity for learning, is in some degree connected with this mighty development of frontal brain. The enormous breadth of music in Mary's forehead is well accounted for by her early proficiency in that science. Perhaps the musical development in Queen Mary's forehead is the largest that can be instanced in any female head. Her passion for music must have amounted to mania. The youthful portraits of Mary fully justify the continual praises we have been forced to quote, from contemporary documents of the attractiveness of her person.

The portrait preferred by Sir Frederick Madden is at Burleigh House. She has brown hair, large open dark eyes, full red lips, and a good complexion. In the possession of E. Wenman Martin, Esquire, is a fine portrait by Holbein, representing Mary as a girl of sixteen. She is pretty, excepting a slight degree of pettishness about the full red lips. this expression is mentioned by sir frederick madden as pertaining to another pretty girlish portrait engraven by holar from the arundel collection. In the Holbein family group at Hampton court, she is a pleasing woman of twenty-eight. Indeed, till after her marriage, all portraiture represents her as a pleasing woman. virtue's picture, lately at Strawberry Hill, gives her a pretty face, exceedingly resembling the portrait in possession of Mr.

E. Wenman Martin. But in some of the engravings from this celebrated burly picture, her face is what the Americans would call awful, not in majesty, but in ugliness. She is in an original picture, from which the Granger Society have engraved. seated in state under a canopy dressed with royal magnificence and a gold cloth brocaded kirtle hanging rebra sleeves and a jewelled hood. Her husband, who is a young man of mean presence and carotty complexion, stands near her canopy. Two little fair hounds are at her feet. The room in which the royal pair are represented is some state chamber at Whitehall, which commanded a view of old St. Paul's For that cathedral is seen through an open window. The date is 1558, and it must have been painted during Philip's last visit to England, when the effects of dire disease were painfully apparent in the queen's visage.

A woman's portrait ought to be taken for futurity in the prime of life. It would be hard, even upon Helen of Troy, to form our ideas of beauty, when shaken by decay and verging to the tomb. A series of the most dismal wet and cold seasons, such as have been observed to occur in many instances in the middle of centuries, plagued the reign of Mary. Famines and burning fevers succeeded this atmospheric irregularity, and were regarded by many as judgments inflicted by God for the tortures of the Protestants, without considering that the insalubriti of the seasons were alike inimical to the health and comfort of the professors of each faith. But gloom and superstitious excitement pervaded the whole population of England in the middle of the 16th century, and every aberration from the common course of nature was viewed through their medium.

Phosphoric exhalations of voluminous appearance have been much seen, even on high grounds, after the wet and unhealthy autumn of 1841, and these have been viewed with some awe by the simple country people in these enlightened days. But these same phenomena were observed at the latter end of the reign of Mary, and were fully believed to be the spectra of those horrid fires which had consumed the Protestant martyrs. These phosphoric meteors certainly boded no good to human health, for general pestilence succeeded them. Stripe's chronicler thus mentions these appearances. Apparitions of strange fires were seen by persons in many places in the neighbourhood of London, as in Finsbury Fields, Moorfield, near the windmill, and at the doghouse, by one Dame Annis Clears, and in many open places.

The natural result of hostilities with France was war with Scotland, which was then united under one royal family. the scotch having made a desperate inbreak over the english border, queen mary took the resolution of heading an army against them, and she summoned the northern militia by a proclamation to that effect. She had sufficient energy of mind for such an exploit, had her sinking frame seconded her intentions. The unexpected loss of Calais, with which the year commenced, overwhelmed both the English and their queen with dismay, and during the remainder of her miserable life, she was harassed with schemes to regain that fragment of France, the sole fruits of all the conquests of the Plantagenettes.

This town was maintained by the sovereigns of England at an expense equal to a fifth of the revenue. It had often been the nursery of faction, and several revolts, which shook the English throne, had been concocted within its walls, Yet it was dearly prized by the English as the key to France whenever they should possess a monarch sufficiently combative to renew the invasions of Edward, the third, and Henry, the fifth, a consummation the nation devoutly wished Not having sufficient statistic wisdom to trace the long miseries of civil strife in the fifteenth century to the evil qualities induced in the population by such diabolical warfare from which they gained nothing but the expensive possession of Calais.

It is little known that this town sent two representatives to the English House of Commons. The Duke of Guise captured the Citadel of Homs by a coup de mons in the first days of January, And, before the end of the month, Calais itself was reunited to the French crown. When do you, English, intend to visit France again? Was the taunting question asked by a French chevalier of an English veteran, as Lord Gray was marching out of Calais? When your national crimes exceed ours, was the admirable reply, and this prediction, recorded by the historic pen of Lord Bacon, has been fulfilled by the Duke of Wellington. but neither Mary nor her subjects could foresee a futurity so consolatory to national pride.

The English insisted that King Philip should make no peace with France till Calais was restored, and this involved the queen in such a mesh of disputes that she declared, she should die, and if her breast was open, Calais would be found written on her heart. Her death was near at hand. She had resided at Richmond in the spring, where she had a bad intermittent fever, induced by the series of wet, ungenial seasons prevalent throughout her reign. Before the Jesuits discovered this specific of Peruvian bark, Agues and other intermittents were the scourge of the country, and often degenerated into the worst typhus fevers. so little was understood of the nature of malaria that the queen removed to Hampton court for change of air, which is situated nearer the level of the Thames than was Richmond Palace.

Finding she grew worse, she removed from thence to St. James's, which has the most marshy site that London could offer. here however the fever somewhat abated but her spirits were oppressed with extreme melancholy at the tidings of the death of her kinsman charles v which occurred in september fifteen fifty eight while the queen laid very sick and ill persons were punished with the pillory for falsely reporting that she had expired it is evident her unfortunate subjects were treated with increased cruelty by the council, who directed the religious persecution which raged in the land. A poor woman named Alice Driver was burnt to death for heresy. She had a short time previously been condemned by Sir Clement Hyman, a judge more clement in name than nature, to have her ears cut off for railing on her majesty and calling her Jezebel.

There is a strong contrast between these horrid sentences and that inflicted on an expert scold at Bedford, who, for the same offence, was, when Mary presided over her council, condemned for railing against her majesty to the ancient constitutional punishment of the cucking stool. King Philip did not visit England, but sent the Count to Feria with a message and ring to his dying wife. Feria was likewise empowered to confer with the English Parliament. The dispatches of this ambassador contained some curious particulars. He found Parliament very uneasy at the loss of Calais, extremely averse to imposing heavy taxes for the purpose of regaining it, and, above all things, unwilling to break the alliance with Flanders, which, it was affirmed, was indispensable since the union of France and Scotland.

King Philip advised Queen Mary to take some steps for the proper recognition of Elizabeth as her successor. A proposition which Mary, says Feria, greeted with great satisfaction. The queen likewise sent her jewels to her sister by the Countess de Feria, formerly Jane Dormer. To these, by King Philip's orders, was added a very precious casket of gems he had left at St. James's palace, which he knew Elizabeth particularly admired. the queen, when she sent the jewels, charged her sister to pay all the debts she had contracted on privy seals, and to keep religion as she found it, both which injunctions, the countess de Feria affirmed Elizabeth, swore to regard. Thus, it is evident that Mary was on good terms with her sister when she lay on her death-bed.

Cardinal Pohl was dying of the same intermittent fever as his royal cousin. It was doubtful which would expire first, and messages hourly passed between these early friends. The whole court had deserted Mary's palace since her recognition of Elizabeth as her successor, and were seen passing and repassing on the road to Hatfield. Of this desertion, the queen never complained. Perhaps she thought it natural, and she had devoted friends round her, who paid her requisite attention. But Elizabeth often recalled it with horror when pressed to name a successor. the hand of death was on the queen throughout the sixteenth of november, but her previous sufferings had blunted the usual agonies of disillusion, for she was composed and even cheerful.

Between four and five in the morning of november seventeenth, after receiving extreme unction, at her desire, Mass was celebrated in her chamber. At the elevation of the host, she raised her eyes to heaven, and at the benediction bowed her head, and expired. these particulars of the last moments of queen mary were given by an eye-witness, White, Bishop of Winchester, in her funeral sermon. Cardinal Pohl survived her. Being informed of her departure, he expressed the greatest satisfaction at the prospect of his speedy dissolution, which actually took place within two days. the deceased queen was embalmed and then removed from the chamber in which she expired into the chapel of st james's palace on the evening of the tenth of december where she laid in state with the usual watch of ladies.

It was the custom of the body of an english sovereign to be buried in royal array, but Mary had earnestly entreated that no semblance of the crown which had pressed so heavily on her brow in life might encumber her corpse in death. she requested that she might be interred in the habit of a poor religious. Letty is the only historian who records this request, but it is more probable that Mary made it than it was fulfilled. Her funeral took place on the thirteenth of the same month, and it proves how completely the gothic etiquette followed at such ceremonials recognized alone the warlike and masculine character in a sovereign. For our first queen regnet's helmet, sword, targe, and body-armour were carried before her corpse, and a stranger in the country trusting only the eye would have supposed the English were attending the burial of a king.

The procession set out from the palace of St. James, where she died. A herald, who was an eye-witness of the scene, thus describes it. So up the highway went the foremost standard, the falcon and the heart. Then came a great company of mourners, then another goodly standard of the lion and the falcon followed by king philip's servants riding two and two then the third standard with the white greyhound and falcon the marquess of winchester bore the banner of england on horseback chester herald the helm the crest and the mantle nori the target with the crown of england and the order of the garter clarence hugh the sword and mr garter king-at-arms her coat armor all on horseback the somerset lancaster windsor and york heralds carried four wide banners of saints embossed in fine gold then came the corpse in a chariot with an exact image representing queen mary dressed in crimson velvet with many gold rings on the hands the pall over the coffin was black cloth of gold intersected by a cross of cloth of silver.

The body was followed by the chief mourners. The queen's ladies came after on horseback, but their black trains were long enough to sweep after them on the ground. Before the corpse and following after came processions of monks mourning their own fate as well as the death of Mary. Such was the procession which passed by Charing Cross, and arrived at the great door of Westminster Abbey, where everyone alighted from their horses. There waited gentlemen ready to take the queen out of her chariot. The earls and lords went before her towards the hearse, which it must always be remembered, was erected in the abbey, near or over the grave. The effigy above mentioned was carried between men of worship.

At the great door of the abbey, four bishops and abbot Fekinham, in pontificalibus met this procession and sensed the corpse. The royal corpse was placed on the hearse and watched the live-long night on December Thirteenth. The hundred poor men in good black gowns and hoods bearing long torches with the queen's guard in black coats, bearing staff torches, stood round the hearse that night, and wax-chandlers were in attendance to supply any torches that burnt out. the next morning, december fourteenth, was the queen's mass, and all the mourners offered, and the queen's body armor, her sword, her helmet, her target, her banner of arms, and three standards were all offered, her herald standing round her coffin.

The bishop of Winchester preached a most remarkable funeral sermon for the deceased queen, being often interrupted by his tears. the historical circumstances attending this oration prove that queen elizabeth was present at the ceremony. The herald, who is our guide for this curious ceremonial, proceeds to say, Then her grace was carried up to that chapel King Henry, the seventh built, attended by mitred bishops. When the heralds break their staffs and flung them into her grave, all the people plucked down the hangings and the armorial bearings round about the abbey, and everyone tore him a piece as large as he could catch it. What a scene of uproar and confusion must have concluded the last state funeral rites of the Roman Catholic Church in England.

However, the bishop of York, in the midst of the hurly-burly, proclaimed a collation, and as soon as he finished, the bishops, Abbott Fekinham, the lords, ladies, and knights, went into the abbey to dinner. Mary was interred on the north side of Henry VII's chapel, no memorial exists of her saving her participation in the following inscription inscribed on two small black tablets erected by the order of James I, which point out the spots where her body reposes with that of her sister, Queen Elizabeth. Regno consortis et earnam, hic abdormimus, Elisabetta et Maria, sores, in spee, resurrectionis. Elizabeth despatched lord Cobham on the twenty-third of november to Philip, the second, who was then in Flanders with the news of her sister's demise.

Mary's widower celebrated her requiem in the cathedral of Brussels simultaneously with her burial, and on the same day, by a singular coincidence, the like service was performed for his father, Charles V, and for his aunt, the Queen of Hungary. So busy had death been in the royal family of Spain. In her testament, Mary styled herself Queen of England, Spain, France, both Sicilies, Jerusalem, and Ireland, defender of the faith, Archduchess of Austria, Duchess of Burgundy, Milan, and Brabant, Countess of Habsburg, Flanders, and Tyrol. She named her husband as principal executor, and her cousin, Cardinal Pohl, as the acting executor, to whom she left one thousand pounds. she considered that she had a right to dispose of, by will, the church property she found still unalienated by her father and brother.

The income arising from it, she seems to have devoted to the maintenance of the most miserable of the poor, with which the country abounded, and the capital, which she might have granted to hungry courtiers during her lifetime, she was exceedingly anxious should return to purposes of charity. And she seemed to think that, As she had not dissipated it in life, she had a right to direct its destination after death, a point that would admit some controversy. The principle used to which she devoted this fund was so noble that it seems grievous her will remained altogether a dead letter. And forasmuch, she says, as there is no house or hospital specially ordained and provided for, the relief and help of poor and old soldiers namely, of such as have been hurt or maimed in the wars and service of this realm, to which we think both honor, conscience, and charity willeth should be provided.

And therefore, my mind and will is, that my executors shall, as shortly as they may, after my decease, provide some convenient house, within or nigh the suburbs of the city of London, the which house I would have founded and created, being governed with one master and two brethren. And I will, that this hospital be endowed with manors, lands, and possessions, to the value of four hundred marks yearly. She recommended that good rules and ordinances should be made for the hospital by her executors, and specially I would have them respect the relief, succor, and help of poor, impotent, and aged soldiers, chiefly those that be fallen into extreme poverty and have no pension or other living. she devotes her jewels and every kind of property to the payment of her debts by privy seal and the debts of her father and brother, which seem to have hung very heavily on her mind.

She devotes about two thousand pounds in all to the re-foundation of the convents of Sion, Sheen, and the observance, for works of charity and relief of the poor, and the support of the Savoy Hospital. There is not a penny bestowed on any devotional observance unconnected with active charity. Neither image, lamp, nor pilgrimage are mentioned, and here the will is in coincidence with her privy purse expenses. One passage in it is extremely interesting, which is her desire to be united in death with her dearly beloved and virtuous mother, Queen Catherine. And further I will, she says, that the body of my most dear and well-beloved mother, of happy memory, Queen Catherine, which lieth now buried at Peterborough, shall, within as short a time as conveniently it may, after my burial, be removed, brought, and laid nigh the place of my sepulter.

In which place I will, my executors, cause to be made honorable tombs for a decent memory of us. This, it is scarcely needful to say, was never done. and both mother and daughter repose without such honourable tombs. When, however, the catholic altars in Westminster Abbey, that in Henry the seventh chapel, and the high altar, were torn down in the reign of Elizabeth, the consecrated stones were carried and laid on Queen Mary's grave. Queen Mary left to Philip, to keep for a memory of her one jewel being a table diamond which the emperor's majesty his and my most honourable father sent unto me by count de Egmont at the insurance or betrothal of my said lord and husband. Also one other table diamond which his majesty sent unto me by the marquis de los naves and the collar of gold set with nine diamonds which his majesty gave me the epiphany after our marriage also the ruby now set in a gold ring, which his highness sent me by the Count de Feria.

She very anxiously provided in her will for her state debts raised for the support of the war on her privy seals, bearing the enormous interest of from twelve to twenty per cent. These would have been blended with the national debt in modern times, but Mary, like other sovereigns of her era, treated them wholly as her personal obligations, and at the same time, considered the goods of the state as her private property, for she pointed out in her will that she left ships, arms, and crown jewels far beyond the value of these debts, on which she clearly implied that the state creditors had just claim, an extraordinary feature in the history of finance, and perhaps not wholly undeserving the attention of our fund holders.

Mary built the public schools in the University of Oxford, but in the style more suited to her poverty than love of learning. They were afterwards taken down and rebuilt, yet the university remembers her in the list of its benefactors. She likewise granted a mansion on Bennett's Hill near St. Paul's to the learned body of Harold's, and it is to this day their college. however fatally mistaken either mary or her ministers were in the principles of religious government her last testament proves that she was not insensible to the prosperity of her country the codicil of her will added after her strange mania of maternity was dispelled by the near approach of death provides for the amicable continuance of the alliance between england and flanders that great desideratum which had been a national object since the alliance of william the conqueror with matilda of flanders.

Mary in her codicil thus solemnly addressed her husband and her successor. And for the ancient amity's sake, that hath always been between our noble progenitors, and between this my realm and the low countries, whereof his majesty king Philip is now inheritor, as God shall reward him, I hope among the elect servants of God, I pray that it may please his majesty to show himself as a father in his care, or as a brother of this realm, in his love and favour, and as a most assured and undoubted friend in his power and strength to my heir and successor. With this sentence concludes a biography which presented a task at once the most difficult and dangerous that could fall to the lot of any English woman to perform.

It was difficult, Because almost the whole of the rich mass of documents lately edited by our great historical antiquaries Madden and Titler are in direct opposition to the popular ideas of the character of our first queen regnant, and dangerous, because the desire of recording truth may be mistaken for a wish to extenuate cruelty in religious and civil government. A narrative composed of facts drawn from contemporaneous authorities is here presented to the public as little blended with comment as possible. Readers will draw their own inferences, and when their object is historical information rather than controversy, these are really more valuable than the most elaborate essay that the pride of authorship can produce.

If such inferences should induce an opinion, that our first queen-regnant mingled some of the virtues of her sex with those dark and stormy passions which have been attributed to her, there will but be fulfilled the motto which, in a mournfully prophetic spirit, she adopted for herself that, Time unveils truth.

End of the Lives of the Queens of England, Volume V, by Agnes and Elizabeth Strickland.

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