letter did Gresham send to Cecil and to Leicester, not complaining of

any particular ill-conduct on Lady Mary’s part, but merely putting forward reasons for her departure. First, his wife wants to ride into Norfolk to see her old mother, and the Lady Mary is some sort of hindrance to her journey; then, one of his servants at Osterley has the plague and they want to get into the country. In all these compositions the writer reckons up, to a day, the time Lady Mary has been in his house, to his wife’s “bondiage and harte sorrow.” Sometimes he even offers to pay well for her removal; but the powers that were, gave no heed to these agonized complaints and appeals. Hence Lady Mary was still at Gresham House when, early in September 1571, Dr. Smythe, her doctor, came to inform Sir Thomas that the obnoxious ex-Sergeant-Porter had passed out of the reach of “this warden of the Fleet” for all eternity. The poor little widow was deeply distressed; “his death she grievously taketh,” wrote her host-jailer to Cecil; “she hath requested me to write to you to be a mean to the Queen’s Majesty to be good to her, and that she may have Her Majesty’s leave to keep and bring up his poor children.” This care for her step-children is a pleasant side-light on Lady Mary’s kindness of heart. “As likewise,” continues Sir Thomas, “I desire to know Her Majesty’s pleasure, whether I shall suffer her to wear any black mourning apparel or not.” Then he recurs to his old bone of contention: “Trusting that now I shall be presently [soon] despatched of her by your good means.” Shortly after this, Mary, having retired to Osterley Park, wrote to Cecil that “as God had taken away the cause of Her Majesty’s displeasure [i.e. Mr. Keyes] she begged to be restored to her favour.” This letter was signed “Mary Keyes,” which apparently gave offence, for the next letter was from plain “Mary Grey,” and she never repeated the obnoxious appellation of Keyes. Still she was not removed, and still the Greshams importuned: at length, after a final appeal (for “the quietness of my poor wife”), Sir Thomas rode up to London to make a personal request. Mary would seem to have been as anxious to leave her unwilling host and hostess, as they were to get rid of her, and greatly desired to take up her residence with her step-father, Adrian Stokes, Esq., then living in the Charterhouse at Sheen, who had kindly offered to receive her. But Sir Thomas’s personal efforts were not crowned with success, and the young widow had to spend the winter of 1571-72 with her inhospitable hosts at Mayfield in Sussex, where they had a country seat.

In March 1572, a letter from Sir Thomas Gresham to Cecil, then Lord Burleigh—or as he calls him “Lord Bowerly”—indicates that his oft-expressed desire for the removal of his charge was now nearing accomplishment, and he proceeds to clinch the matter by an offer which is nothing less than bare-faced bribery. “And whereas,” says he, “I have allowed my lord of Oxford [Cecil’s son-in-law] for his money but after the rate of ten per centum, I shall [now] be content to allow him after twelve per centum with any other service I can do for him or you.” This offer of increased interest was too good to be neglected, and before June of the same year, Mary was free to go where she would—liberty had come at last. In a pathetic letter dated May 24, 1572, the released prisoner describes herself as “destitute of all friends—only God and Her Majesty,” and only possessing £80 allowed her by the queen, and £20 per annum of her own. Her “father-in-law”—meaning of course Adrian Stokes, her step-father—will give her nothing, for he has married again. She had expectations which would slightly better her actual income: by a reversion of the dowager Duchess of Suffolk she was to receive £333 6s. 8d. and the same sum at the death of Adrian Stokes.[135] By the summer of this year (1572), Lady Mary was settled with her step-father in the Charterhouse; and Sir Thomas Gresham wrote to express his heartfelt thanks to Cecil for his “delivery [i.e. deliverance] from the Lady Mary.”

After this, Master Keyes’s widow seems to have dwelt in peace till the end of her days. She addressed no further complaints to Cecil, and her will proves that her financial position was a fairly good one. Her name figures no more in the State Papers: she seems to have dropped completely out of sight and out of mind. We know, however, that she eventually either returned to the dowager duchess at the Minories, or occupied that lady’s house in the Barbican;[136] and that on New Year’s Day 1577 she presented the queen, then at Hampton Court, with “four dozen buttons of gold, in each of them a seed pearl, and two pairs of sweet [i.e. perfumed] gloves,” a gift acknowledged by Elizabeth, who gave her kinswoman a silver cup and cover, weighing eighteen ounces: apparently Mary occasionally went to court, and enjoyed the royal favour, at least to some extent.

An entry in the royal household books for 1576 states that Lady Mary Grey stood sufficiently well in the queen’s graces to be at Hampton Court during the great revels held there at Christmas time. The list of guests who presented gifts to Her Majesty opens with the names of her two cousins, the Lady Margaret Lennox and the Lady Mary Grey. The latter presented a gold cup; Leicester, a carcanet glittering with diamonds, emeralds and rubies; Burleigh, a purse of £30; and the Lady Derby, “a gown of satin broidered with peacocks’ feathers in silk.” Even the humblest servant gave some trifle to the greedy queen, who by this means generally obtained something like £10,000 per annum, as voluntary contributions—we will not vouch much, however, for the sincerity of the “voluntary.” The queen’s gifts generally amounted to less than £2000, and, with the exception of those given to members of the royal family, were the merest trifles in silver. She was, however, fairly generous, as a rule, to the poorer menials, giving them warm clothing and blankets.

Lady Mary died, of what complaint we do not know, on April 20, 1578, aged thirty-three, her death being hastened, no doubt, by her griefs and miseries. She may have been buried at St. Botolph’s-without-Aldersgate, but some authorities think otherwise, and even state that her place of burial is Bradgate Church. In Stowe’s _Survey_ occurs an entry to the effect that the Lady Mary Grey shares her mother’s tomb in Westminster Abbey.

Lady Mary’s will is not only a fine specimen of sixteenth-century orthography, but proves that she possessed more property than is generally supposed. The document (which is in the Lansdowne MSS. at the British Museum, xxvii. 31) begins: “In the name of God Amen. The xvij daye of Aprill in the yeare of our lord god 1578. And in the xxth yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lady Elizabethe.” Lady Mary Grey describes herself as “of the p’ishe of St. Botolphe w^[th]out Aldersgate,” a “widowe of wholl minde and of good and perfect remambraunce laude and praise be unto Almightie God.” She commits her “soull” to the care of its Maker, trusting in salvation through Christ “without any other waies or meanes.” Her body is “to be buried where the Quens Ma’tie should think most meete and convenient.” This seems to suggest that she was still under royal supervision. To the dowager Duchess of Suffolk, her step-grandmother, she bequeathes “one paere of hand Bracelettes of gould with a jacinte stonne in eatche Bracelette wh Bracelettes were my ladie grace my late mothers or els my Juell of unycornes horne wchsoever herr grace refusathe I geave and bequeathe to my verie good ladie ye lady Susanne Countesse of Kente.”[137] It is curious that she should “geave to my verie frend Mrs. Blaunche a Parr a little gilt bowlle w^{th} a cover to it.”[138] It was possibly thanks to Blanche Parry that Lady Mary obtained some measure of favour and liberty in her last years. She leaves to the “Fair Geraldine,” now Countess of Lincoln, a girdle of goldsmith’s work and some gold buttons. To Lady Mary Bertie—she spells it “Bartye,” even as it is still pronounced—and to her husband, Mr. Bertie, she leaves her best gilt cup and the best silver and gilt salt-cellar. She bequeathes to Mary, Lady Stafford, a “tablet of gould with an aggett in it”; and to Anne, Lady Arundel, a “tankarde of sylver.” To a certain Lady Margaret Nevill, she leaves a number of gowns of velvet and satin; to Lady Throckmorton, a “boulle” of silver, with a cover; to her god-daughter, Jane Merrick, she leaves “one good fethered bedde and a boulstere to the same and the three peres of hangings which I have of myne owne and a cowple of covered stoolles.” Were these the identical objects that had excited the dowager duchess’s scorn? Lady Mary next disposes of the lease of “my house wherein I now dwell,” which she wishes to be sold, the purchase money being assigned to “Marrie Merrick my goddaughter” in trust of Edmund “Haull my cowsen.” This plainly indicates that at the time of her death she was in a house of her own, and not at the Duchess of Suffolk’s; and the will also proves her to have been rich enough to keep her coach. Mary Merrick must have been a sister of the testator’s godchild, Jane Merrick, since she is expressly stated to have been not yet twenty-one years of age. After various bequests to divers persons, she leaves to Anne Goldwell, evidently the witness of her unhappy wedding, “half a dozen silver spoones and twoe trenchers plattes of silver.” “Henrie Gouldwell,” very likely that lady’s husband, receives “my baie coatche geldings.” The residue “of all my goods and catteles [chattels] both moveable and immoveable,” are to be applied to the payment of her debts. Finally, Mr. Edmund Hall[139] and Mr. Thomas Duport—the latter her cousin by marriage—are appointed executors.

There is no authentic portrait of this poor little princess extant; she was possibly never in a position to have one taken. Nor do we know much of her personal appearance or character. There is no evidence of her having been accomplished in any particular way; still, Gresham, even at the height of his desire to be rid of her, brings against her no accusation of bad temper or undue haughtiness. Most likely she was merely peevish and melancholy, which is not surprising when we remember that she was separated from her husband of a week, and deprived of her freedom. Her very dismal library, which she possessed to the time of her death and had carted about with her wherever she went,[140] suggests that she was acquainted with French and Italian, and greatly interested in religious matters, being a strong Protestant. Her library includes Palgrave’s French Dictionary and Grammar, and an Italian Commentary on the Scriptures, as well as the following works of sombre old-world philosophy and theology: _Mr. Knox, His Answer to the Adversary of God’s Predestination_; _Mr. Knewstubbe’s Readings_; _The Ship of Assured Safety_, by Dr. Cradocke; _Mr. Cartwright’s First and Second Reply_; _The Second Course of the Hunter and of the Romish Fox_; _Godly Mr. Whitgift’s Answer_; _Mr. Dearing’s Reply_; _Dr. Fulkes’ Answer to the Popish Demands_; _Dr. Fulkes’ Answer to Allen touching Purgatory_; _The First Admonition to the Parliament_; _The Image of God_, by Hutchinson; _The Duty of Perseverance_; _The Edict of Pacification_; _The Book of Martyrs_, in two volumes; Latimer’s _Sermons on the Four Evangelists_; _A Treatise of the Deeds of the True Successors of Christ_; _The Life of the Countie Baltazer Castiglione_, and _A Treatise of the Resurrection of the Dead_; also three editions of the Bible—the Geneva Translation, the Bishops’ and the French—and a Common Prayer Book!

Poor little woman! When Gresham literally turned her out of his house, with one man and a cartload of her belongings, her sacred library was amongst her greatest treasures. “She hath taken all her bookes and rubbish,” writes the great man to the greater Cecil; but provided he and his wife were rid of Lady Mary, they did not much care where she and her “bookes and rubbish” went.

LADY ELEANOR BRANDON, AND HER HEIRS

THE reader may be interested to know something of the story of the Lady Eleanor, Countess of Cumberland, younger sister of the Lady Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and another of the many claimants to Elizabeth’s succession, whose name has been frequently mentioned in these pages.

The queen-duchess, Mary Tudor, it will be remembered, had only two daughters who survived her, the Ladies Frances and Eleanor, by her second husband, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Many considered the Lady Eleanor’s claim to the Throne superior to that of her elder sister, because at the time of her birth, Lady Mortimer, Suffolk’s second wife,[141] was dead; whereas she was still living, and clamouring for her rights, when the Lady Frances came into this world. Henry VIII’s will, however, mentioned the Lady Frances and her children, for he had long since refused to question the validity of his sister’s marriage with Charles Brandon, or in any way to recognize the position of the Lady Mortimer, who, it should be remembered, remarried with a certain Mr. Hall—according to Dugdale—and thus placed herself out of court.

The Lady Eleanor Brandon was a better-looking woman than her sister Frances. When her tomb in Skipton Church was disturbed, in the seventeenth century, her skeleton, which was in perfect condition, proved her to have been “very tall and large boned,” whereas the Lady Frances was of medium stature. Lady Eleanor, if we may judge by her portrait, which hangs at Skipton Castle, was pretty, rather than beautiful. The writer confesses that the portrait at Skipton did not impress him as that of one who could have put forward the slightest pretensions to good looks; the cheeks are high, the forehead abnormally broad, the eyes, however, are fine, and the hair, fair; but the complexion, according to this venerable picture, must have been quite ghastly. The portrait is very badly painted—a poor thing, worth little as a work of art, but none the less interesting.

On the same day that her sister Lady Frances married Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, in March 1533, occurred the betrothal of the Lady Eleanor to Lord Henry Clifford, the eldest son of the Earl of Cumberland, who was remotely related to Henry VIII; his grandmother, Anne St. John of Bletsoe, being cousin once removed to Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the king’s grandmother. The marriage took place in the summer of 1537 at Suffolk Place, probably in the Church of St. Mary Overies—now incorporated in the recently created Cathedral of Southwark—and in the presence of Henry VIII and his court. In honour of the wedding, the Earl of Cumberland built two towers and a gallery at Skipton Castle; and we are told that these additions to the princely old mansion were completed in less than four months—a surprisingly short time, when the exceeding roughness of the implements and machinery then used for building purposes, is taken into consideration. This ancient mansion is still in existence and happily in excellent preservation.

The bride and bridegroom spent most of the early part of their married life at Skipton; but during the disturbances that accompanied the “Pilgrimage of Grace,” the Lady Eleanor, with her attendants and one of her children, a boy, were removed to Bolton Abbey, some ten miles distant from Skipton, a beautifully situated monastery, which had been presented to the young Earl of Cumberland shortly after its suppression. Here the Lady Eleanor was in sore danger, for the insurgents, having attacked the castle, informed the young earl that they would hold the Lady Eleanor and his child—who were entirely without defence at Bolton—as hostages if he did not surrender. They even threatened to place them in front of the storming party, and if the attacks on the castle were repelled, to hand them over to the lowest camp-followers. Luckily, however, assistance arrived in time, and the danger was thereby averted. Both Clifford and his wife owed their safety to young Christopher Aske, brother to Robert Aske, one of the leaders of the rebellion. This brave youth succeeded in passing, almost single-handed, through the rebel camp, and contrived, thanks to his knowledge of the country, to bring relief to the earl at the castle, and, going on to Bolton, carry the ladies out of the abbey and conduct them, in the dead of night, to a place of safety some miles off.

On the death of the old Earl of Cumberland, in 1542, his title passed to Eleanor’s husband, but very shortly after this accession of rank, he successively lost both his sons; the eldest, christened Henry after his father, died when he was two or three years of age, and was buried in the Clifford family vault in Skipton Church, near his brother Charles, who also died in infancy. The inconsolable young mother did not long survive her loss. She retired to Brougham Castle, and died there in November 1547, being buried at Skipton Church. The most interesting fact connected with her brief and (for those days) uneventful history, is that her husband took his bereavement so much to heart, that “on learning he was a widower, he swooned and lay as one dead.” His attendants, believing he had really passed away, stripped his body, and were preparing to embalm it, when, to their consternation, he suddenly revived and struggled into a sitting position in his coffin. Although the attendants were terribly frightened, they soon realized what had happened, and very sensibly placed him in a warm bed, gave him a strong cordial to drink, and fed him, for some days, on a diet of warm bread and milk. He recovered his health, and, a few years later, married a second time. He died in 1570 and is buried in Skipton Church, between his two wives, the Lady Eleanor Brandon and the Lady Anne Dacres.

The Lady Eleanor is mentioned as the frequent recipient of Henry VIII’s New Year and other holiday gifts, which leads one to presume that she was perhaps a greater favourite than her sister. She seems to have had little or nothing to do with the Greys, but there is mention in the Leicester archives of her visiting Bradgate in 1546; and, if we may credit Burke, there was an intimacy between her kinswoman, the Lady Philippa Clifford, and Lady Jane Grey.[142] With her step-mother, the wily Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, she was evidently on good terms.

The eldest daughter of Henry Clifford and the Lady Eleanor Brandon was the Lady Margaret Clifford, who survived her parents and had a very troubled career.

Of the childhood of this Lady Margaret little or nothing is known, but in all probability it was spent like that of her young cousins, the Greys. In the writer’s life of Lady Jane Grey, mention is made of a certain Mistress Huggins, who foolishly boasted that she had heard it repeated about London that the Duke of Northumberland intended to marry his son, Guildford Dudley, to the Lady Margaret Clifford. The publicity thus given to his schemes seems to have induced the duke to change them; and shortly afterwards, Northumberland made an effort to secure the heiress for his brother, Andrew Dudley, instead of Guildford, who, as all know, married Lady Jane Grey. Luckily for both parties, however, the project fell through; and the Lady Margaret thus escaped the fate that overwhelmed the Dudley family.

Lady Margaret is next heard of as one of the ladies of the bedchamber at the court of Queen Mary; and in 1555, with Her Majesty’s consent, she was married, in Westminster Palace, with great pomp, to Lord Strange, eldest son of the Earl of Derby. Mary was too ill to attend her cousin’s wedding, but the two Ladies Grey, and the queen’s unpopular consort, Philip of Spain, were present, and a great banquet was held in Westminster Hall in honour of the bride and bridegroom, after which the king displayed his prowess to much advantage in a tilt in the Spanish style.

Although the Lady Margaret very often and imprudently asserted her prior right to the Throne over her cousins, the Ladies Katherine and Mary Grey, she does not seem to have given umbrage to Mary Tudor, and continued, until that queen’s death, to take precedence of all the great ladies of the court, her aunt, the Lady Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, and her cousin Margaret, Countess of Lennox, alone excepted. Nor was her position greatly altered after Elizabeth’s accession. Her husband, Lord Strange, enjoyed the “Great Eliza’s” favour until his death, but he seems to have entertained little affection or regard for his wife, whom he left to her own devices.

The death, in 1570, of the Earl of Cumberland, the Lady Margaret’s father, brought her a great accession of wealth; and the subsequent demise (in 1572) of her father-in-law, increased her rank, for her husband then became Earl of Derby and titular King in Man. After this event, Margaret’s husband, who had been living separated from her, seems to have become more friendly, and the illustrious couple removed to Latham House in Westmorland, where they kept up almost royal state. It was not until after Elizabeth’s systematic cruelty had broken the hearts of the Ladies Katherine and Mary Grey that she seems to have conceived it possible that the Lady Margaret Clifford’s claims might, like those of Lady Katherine, threaten her sovereign security. She had received Lady Margaret’s eldest son, Fernando Strange, into her household, and had treated him with much kindness—he was, it is significantly asserted, very good looking—but at the same time the wily queen kept a strict watch on his movements, lest the male heir of Lady Eleanor should display the least inclination to encroach on her prerogatives. Fernando, however, never gave her the least cause for uneasiness. In 1594 he met with a singular and sudden death, wherein witchcraft was mixed up with a good deal of mystery of a very suspicious and purely political kind.

Towards the middle of the year 1578, Elizabeth—for some reason or other which has never transpired, but not improbably at the suggestion of Lord Derby, who was then high in her favour, and who heartily detested his wife—began to look upon Lady Margaret with disfavour. The poor lady had been suffering from a sort of low fever, and was recommended to try the skill of a certain Dr. Randall, a famous physician, who was also popularly held to be a wizard. Elizabeth sent spies to Latham, and was soon informed that the Lady Margaret and her soothsayer were conspiring by magic arts against her, and were also entertaining Jesuits, and other suspected persons.

Acting upon these evidently trumped-up charges, Elizabeth ordered both the doctor and his patient to be conveyed to London. In less than a week, the wizard was arraigned, tried, condemned, and hanged. The countess was handed over to the strict custody of one of her kinsmen, a Mr. Seckford, who resided in the then fashionable suburb of Clerkenwell and held the office of “Master of Requests”—a position which, if the duties at all fitted in with the title, must have entailed a great deal of hard work, in an age when about half the aristocracy spent their lives in petitioning or requesting mercy or other favours for their imprisoned relatives. For all this, the gentleman seems to have been interested in what we should call the building or house-property business, for the Lady Margaret’s numerous letters are full of references to the many houses, not only in Clerkenwell, but even at Hampstead and Hackney, which he desired to sell or to let. He seems to have treated the poor lady very kindly; and, so far as possible under such circumstances, she lived comfortably enough; but she was never allowed to go out unaccompanied, and then only within the precincts of the gardens or to make purchases in shops in the neighbourhood. In her correspondence she frequently mentions a court jeweller named Brandon, presumably an illegitimate son of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. This tradesman was in favour with Elizabeth, who employed him in mending and mounting her innumerable watches, jewels, and clocks, and he appears to have been on almost friendly terms with the queen, and with the Lady Margaret, who, if the above supposition is correct, was his cousin once removed. He may have interceded for her with the queen, as Walsingham, Cecil, and Hatton undoubtedly did, but without the slightest result. The Lady Margaret remained a close prisoner, precisely as the Ladies Grey had been, being quartered with Mr. Seckford until her death, though not always at his house in Clerkenwell, for she generally spent the summer months at Hampstead, in a mansion rented by her from the said Mr. Seckford. It seems she was never allowed to live with her very unfaithful husband, which was probably not considered a very great deprivation by him. Elizabeth, with whom he was in high favour, had appointed him Lord High Steward of England, Judge for the trial of the Earl of Arundel for treason, and Lord High Chamberlain of Chester. When he died, in 1593, Lady Margaret was given a sort of holiday, being allowed to attend his funeral at Ormskirk in Lancashire; their union had been blessed with four sons and a daughter. On the Earl of Derby’s death, his son, Fernando, assumed that title, as well as that of King in Man, but did not enjoy these honours long. In the spring of 1594, he was suddenly taken ill, and died in a few hours. As already hinted, a suggestive air of mystery hung over his end. Some time in that year, he was seized with fearful and sudden intestinal pains which were popularly attributed to the occult practices of one Dr. Hacket, in whose house was afterwards found a small waxen figure said to represent the young earl, and stuffed with hair of the same colour as that of the supposed victim. Accordingly as this wax image was maltreated, so, in the opinion of the credulous, did the person it resembled suffer, and since it was stuck as full of pins as any pincushion, there could be no doubt as to the cause of young Strange’s prolonged torments and terrible death! Hacket was, of course, after having been duly tortured, hanged as a wizard. The Lady Margaret survived her eldest son by two years, dying, in 1596, at the house in Clerkenwell, which she had rented from Mr. Seckford before his death. She is buried in St. Edmund’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey, near her aunt, the Lady Frances. After the death of Earl Fernando, the title of Earl of Derby and King in Man passed to Lady Margaret’s youngest son, Lord William Stanley, who married a De Vere, youngest daughter of the Earl of Oxford, by his wife, Cecil’s second daughter. This William Stanley was the father of that loyal Earl of Derby who was beheaded by Cromwell after the battle of Worcester, and whose wife, Charlotte de la Tremoïlle, has been immortalized by Sir Walter Scott, who introduces her into a short but marvellously effective and impressive scene in _Peveril of the Peak_.

INDEX

Alva, Duke of, 114, 115, 249

Amy Robsart, 148, 149 and _footnote_, 155; her death, 156, 157, 172, 210

Anne Boleyn, Lady, 36 and _footnote_, 60 and _footnote_

Anne Boleyn, Queen, 24, 36 _f.n._, 60 _f.n._, 65 _f.n._, 68; her coronation procession, 69, 72, 258, 262 _f.n._

Anne Brown (second wife of Charles Brandon), betrothed to Brandon, 13; betrothal annulled, 14; her relationship to Lady Mortimer, Brandon’s other wife, 15 and _footnote_; married to Brandon, 16; her children, her death, 16; her children legitimized, 62; their marriages, 63

Anne of Brittany, Queen of France, 22 _f.n._, 47

Anne of Cleves, Queen, 72

Ascham, 94

Aylmer, 95, 96 _f.n._

Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 213, 246

Baynard’s Castle, 97, 98

Bertie, Mr., 19 _f.n._; marries Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, and flies from England, 79; 106; Mr. Stokes and Hertford consult with him, 136-137

Bess of Hardwick (Mrs. Saintlow), her marriage, 85-86, her origin, etc., 87, 88, 89, 90, 129, 170, 174

Blanche Parry, 144 and _footnote_, 145, 288 and _footnote_

Boulogne, 7, 29; Church of Notre Dame at, 30-31, 76, 77 and _footnote_, 33, 75

Bradgate Hall, 83, 93, 298

Brandon, origin of the family of, 7-8

Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk, his extraordinary resemblance to Henry VIII, 3-5; his appearance, 4; his powerful imagination, 5-6; his parentage, 11; his education, 12-13; goes to sea, 13; is betrothed to Anne Browne, 13; betrothal annulled, marries Lady Mortimer, 14, 14-15 _f.n._; his marriage with Lady Mortimer annulled, 16; marries Anne Browne, 16; tries to marry Elizabeth Grey, Lady Lisle, 16; assumes title of Lisle, but relinquishes it, 17; goes to Flanders, 17; created Duke of Suffolk, 18; list of lands bestowed on him, 18 and _footnote_; makes game of Margaret of Savoy, 20-21; courts Mary Tudor, 21, 22 _f.n._, 25, 26, 39; fights in a tournament, 42-43; Mary Tudor declares her affection for him, 48; his interview with Mary Tudor, who wishes to marry him, 49-50, 50 _f.n._; his clandestine marriage with Mary Tudor, 50-51; letter to Wolsey, 51-52; received by Henry VIII, remarried to Mary Tudor, 54; verses by, 56; attitude of Wolsey towards, quarrels with Wolsey, 56-57; his London residences, 58; fights in a tournament, 59; Lady Mortimer claims connubial rights, 61; reaffirmation of the dissolution of his marriage with her, 61; Pope Clement publishes a bull dissolving this marriage, and legitimizing Anne Browne’s children, 62, 63 _f.n._, 64, 65; his mistress, and illegitimate offspring, 66 and _footnotes_; neglects Mary Tudor, 67; attends Anne Boleyn’s coronation, 68, 69; behaves rudely to Katherine of Aragon, 68, 71, 72, 74, 75; writes to Wolsey, 68; not present at Mary Tudor’s funeral, 70; his abominable behaviour to Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, and Katherine Howard, 72; marries a fourth time, 73; his children by his fourth wife, Katherine Willoughby, 74 and _footnote_; his public career, French campaigns, etc., 75-77; his last illness and death, 77-78; his last portrait, 78; funeral, 78; his tomb, 78; his bequests, 78, 244 _f.n._, 293, 294

Brandon, Geoffrey, 8, 302

Brandon, Lady Eleanor, Countess of Cumberland, her birth, 60, 61, 64; betrothed to Henry Clifford, 69, 295; attends his mother’s deathbed and funeral, 70, 71; attends her father’s death-bed, 78, 293; her appearance, portraits of, 294; marries Henry Clifford, 294-295; in peril during the “Pilgrimage of Grace”, 295-296; rescued, 296; death of her sons, 296; her death and burial, 297, 298

Brandon, Lady Frances, Marchioness of Dorset, Duchess of Suffolk (mother of the Ladies Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey), 15 _f.n._; her birth, 59; her baptism, 60, 64; her marriage, 69; attends her mother’s death-bed and funeral, 70, 71; attends her father’s death-bed, 78, 84, 86, 93, 96; her marriage with Adrian Stokes, 103, 255-256; portrait of her, 104; reasons for her marriage, 105-106; her rights of precedence restored, 107-108, 126; approves of Lady Katherine’s proposed marriage, falls ill, 132; is still ill, sends for her daughters, 135; wishes Lady Katherine to marry Hertford, 136, 138; her death and burial, 140, 257; her tomb, 141; her will, 141, 212, 244 _f.n._, 256, 293, 294, 299, 304

Brandon, Richard, 66 and _footnote_

Brandon, Sir William (father of Charles Brandon), 11; his marriage, and death at Bosworth, 11

Brandon, son of Charles Brandon (jeweller to Queen Elizabeth), 66 and _footnote_, 302

Brandon, Thomas, 12

Brandon, William, 9, 10 and _footnote_

Browne, Sir Anthony, 131

Bruyn, Sir Henry, 11 and _footnote_

Cecil, William, Lord Burleigh (Queen Elizabeth’s Chief Secretary), 142, 157; favours Lady Katherine Grey’s claims, 158-159, 221; questions Hertford about his courtship of Lady Katherine, 161-162; questions Lady Katherine, 162-163, 169; his connection with Lady Katherine’s marriage, 172; his enmity with Robert Dudley, 172, 187, 213-214; letters to Cecil, 173 _f.n._, 190-192, 196-197, 199 _f.n._, 200, 201, 203 and _f.n._, 204 and _footnote_, 211, 216, 218, 226 _f.n._, 228 _f.n._, 231, 249, 270-271, 273, 274, 275, 278, 279, 280, 281, 283, 284, 285, 292; attempts a _coup d’état_, 187-188; 192, 194, 208; is implicated in Hales’s book in favour of Lady Katherine’s claims, 213, 215, 240, 245; supports her sons’ claims, 246, 247 _f.n._, 252, 263, 264, 266, 276, 282, 285, 286, 302, 304

Charles, Archduke of Castile and Austria, 17, 19, 21, 26, 47, 49

Claude, Queen of France, 36 _f.n._, 47 and _footnote_

Clement VII, Pope, 62 and _footnote_

Clifford, Henry, Earl of Cumberland (husband of Lady Eleanor Brandon), 69, 70, 295, 296, 297, 298

Clinton, Lady (the “Fair Geraldine”), 130, 131, 204, 257, 268, 288, 300

Cockfield Hall, 227, 229, 230, 231 and _footnote_

Dacre, Lady Magdalen, 115, 123

Darcy, Elizabeth, 11 and _footnote_

Dee, Dr., 144 and _footnote_

De Guaras, Antonio, 246, 247

Derby, Earl of, 286, 299, 303

Dorset, Henry Grey, Marquis of (father of the Ladies Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey), 15 _f.n._, 43, 69, 70, 76, 83, 86, 91, 93 and _footnote_, 96, 244 _f.n._, 294

Dorset Place, 83

Dudley, Edmund, 17

Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester, rumours about his relations with Queen Elizabeth, 146, 148, 156; death of his wife, 156-157; rumours of his desire to murder her, 156, 157, 158 and _footnote_, 160; Lady Katherine’s nocturnal visit to, 171; reveals her marriage to the Queen, 171, 172; favours the Earl of Huntingdon’s claim, to the Throne, 184, 185, 187; opposes Lady Katherine’s claim, 193, 203, 208, 209; correspondence with Hertford about some gloves for the Queen, 210; plots for Cecil’s downfall, 213-214, 215, 216, 218, 223; offers to support Hertford, 224, 240, 245, 249, 251, 282, 286

Edward VI, 76, 77, 94, 95, 96, 98, 104, 188, 244 _f.n._ _See_ Will of Edward VI

Eleanor Brandon, Lady. _See_ Brandon, Lady Eleanor

Elizabeth, Queen, 103, 104, 109, 110; her reception of Lady Katherine Grey, and fear of her, 133; her court, her dress, appearance, etc., 134, 137, 138; pretends great affection for Lady Katherine, 142; her loss of popularity, 146, 149; rumours about her relations with Robert Dudley, 146, 148, 156; believes she will have offspring, 146-147; unwilling to marry, 147; refuses King Philip and other Princes, 147-148; her passion for Dudley, 148, 149; her dislike of Lady Katherine, 151, 152, 153, 161; speaks to the Spanish Ambassador about a marriage with Dudley, 155, 156; hears of his wife’s death, 157-158; her connivance at Amy Robsart’s murder, 158; her rumoured marriage with Dudley, 158 _f.n._, 159, 160, 161; goes on a progress, 165; learns of Lady Katherine’s marriage, her anger thereat, 171; her orders to Sir Edward Warner touching Lady Katherine, 174, 175, 182; falls ill with smallpox, 183; her recovery, and request to the Council, 185; her orders for Lady Katherine’s removal from the Tower, 194 and _footnote_; Lady Katherine’s petition to, 202; her indignation at Hales’s pamphlet, 212-214, 220; Parliament tries to coerce her into naming a successor, 221-223; she refuses to do so, 221 _et seq._, 250; her orders to Mr. Roke Green, 226-227; her orders to Sir Owen Hopton, 227-228; Lady Katherine’s dying request to, 233, 247; her treatment of Lady Katherine and Hertford considered, 235-236, 240, 241; entertained by Hertford, 241; her kindness to his wife, 242; wishes to kill Prince James, and place Lady Katherine’s son on the Scotch Throne, 246; takes charge of her children, 247; falls ill, 248; mention of an alleged illegitimate daughter of, 251; refuses to name Lady Katherine’s son her successor, 252; seizes the Greys’ property, 256, 257, 258, 262 and _footnote_, 268 _f.n._; learns of Lady Mary Grey’s wedding, her anger thereat, 263-264; her orders to William Hawtrey, 265-266, 273, 274, 276 and _footnote_, 277; her gifts to Lady Mary and others, 286-287; 300, 301, 303, 304

Feria, Count de (Spanish Ambassador in England), 102, 129; his influence over Lady Katherine Grey, 130, 133, 147, 148, 152, 153

Feria, Countess de (Jane Dormer), 115, 130, 152, 153, 195 _f.n._

Francis I, King of France, 40; falls in love with Mary Tudor, 44-45, 46; tries to court her, and is refused, 47-48, 50; tries to propitiate Henry VIII, 51, 53, 76

Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Winchester, xxix, 61, 116, 126

Goldwell, Mrs., 262, 263, 265, 267, 268-272, 290

Gosfield Hall, 216, 219 and _footnote_, 220, 225, 229

Green, Mr. Roke, 226, 228, 229

Gresham, Sir Thomas, 278, 282, 284, 285, 290, 292

Grey, Henry, Marquis of Dorset. _See_ Dorset

Grey, Lady Jane, xxviii, 15 _f.n._, 39, 59, 83, 85, 86, 90, 94, 95, 96, 97; her last letter, to Lady Katherine, 98-101, 98 _f.n._, 120, 122, 153 _f.n._, 175, 188, 235, 255, 256 _f.n._, 298 and _footnote_

Grey, Lady Katherine, Countess of Hertford, xxviii, 15 _f.n._, 39, 64, 78; her birth, 83; her childhood, infantile costume, toys, early education, 84-85; entry into society, 85, 86, 89; her travels in 1551, 1552 and 1553, 90-93; falls ill, her health, 93; Katherine is not trained to be Queen, contrast between her girlhood and Lady Jane’s, 94-95; does not go to Edward VI’s court, 96, 96 _f.n._; is contracted to Lord Herbert, goes to Baynard’s Castle, 97; letter to Katherine, from Lady Jane, 98-101; her betrothal annulled, 101-102; expresses her willingness to marry Lord Herbert, 102; goes to court, 107; accompanies Queen Mary on progresses, 108; receives a royal pension, 109; is well treated at Mary’s court, 109; first public appearance, 111; assists at marriage of Philip and Mary, 115, 117, 118, 120; her meeting with the Earl of Hertford, 122; her lovemaking with him, 125, 127; goes to Hanworth, 127; her life at Queen Mary’s court, 128, 129, 131; declares herself a Catholic, 129; 154; her friends and friendships, 129-131, 143; attends Queen Mary’s funeral, 132; goes to Sheen, progress of Hertford’s courtship, 132, 133; her reception by Elizabeth, 133; Elizabeth’s fear of her, 133; her position as Elizabeth’s successor, 134; life at Elizabeth’s court, 135; goes again to Sheen, 135; her mother desires her to marry Hertford, 136, 138; negotiations for the marriage, 136-139; attends her mother’s death and funeral, 140-141, 257; returns to court, 142; Elizabeth’s pretended affection for her, 142; receives distressing news of Hertford, 142; consults Blanche Parry, 145; Spain supports her claim to the throne, 149-150; extraordinary plot for her abduction to Spain, 150-151, 220; her claims also supported by the Low Church party, 151; is disliked by Elizabeth, 151; the plot falls through, 153, 154; gets out of touch with the Spanish embassy, 155; Cecil supports her claims, 158; proposal that she should marry a Spanish Prince, 159, 160, 161; motives for this alliance, 160; questioned by Cecil about her feelings for Hertford, 162-163; pledges her troth to Hertford, 163-164; has a meeting with Hertford, 164; goes to his house, 165; her clandestine marriage with Hertford, 166; adopts the “froze paste,” or matron’s headdress, 167 and _footnote_; attends Lady Jane Seymour’s funeral, 168; secret visits to Hertford, 168-169; mislays deed of jointure, and confesses her marriage to Mrs. Saintlow, 170; her nocturnal visit and confession to Robert Dudley, 171; her marriage revealed to Elizabeth, 171; sent to the Tower, 172; Duchess of Somerset blames her for the marriage, 173, 174 _f.n._, 236; refuses to confess, 175; furniture of her apartment in the Tower, 175, 196, 197 and _footnote_, 176; her examination and evidence, 178; gives birth to a son in the Tower, 181; falls ill, 182; sentence on her marriage, 183; renewed agitation in favour of her claims, 184-185; meeting to endorse her claims, 186; Cecil’s scheme in favour of, 187-188; gives birth to a second son, 189; her case discussed in Parliament, 192-193; Lord Pembroke and Robert Dudley opposed to her claims, 193; begs to be removed from the Tower, 194; removed to Pirgo, 195-196; her life there, 199; letter to Cecil, 199 _f.n._; her unhappiness and ill-health, 200, 201, 203; petitions Elizabeth, 201; text of petition, 202; letter to Cecil, 203 and _footnote_, 204; her state of poverty, 205 and _footnote_; inventory of her effects and of her child’s clothing, 205-206 _f.n._; account of monies paid for her maintenance, and cost thereof, 206 and _footnote_, 207; her attendants, 207; Hales’s book in favour of her claims, 212 and _footnote_; removes from Pirgo, consigned to Sir John Wentworth, 216, 219; agitation in her favour renewed, 221; her claims supported by the House of Commons, 221, 222, 223; remains at Gosfield after Wentworth’s death, 225-226; Elizabeth’s orders to Sir Owen Hopton respecting her, 227-228; is conveyed to Ipswich, 229; cost of her stay there and of journey to Cockfield, 229-230; falls dangerously ill, the Queen’s doctor sent for, 231; her last hours, last instructions to Hopton, etc., 232-235; her death, 235; Elizabeth’s treatment of her, considered, 235-236; her remains embalmed, 236; funeral, 236-238; cost of same, 237-238 _f.n._; and of her keep, 237 _f.n._; her religion, 238 _f.n._; her burial place, 238-239; tradition respecting her pet dog, 240, 244 _f.n._, 245, 246, 252, 255, 257, 263, 274, 277, 299, 300. _See also_ Hertford, Earl of, and Hertford, sons of the Earl of

Grey, Lady Mary, xxviii, 15 _f.n._, 39, 64, 86, 90, 107, 108, 109, 120, 132; attends her mother’s funeral, 140, 141, 141, 142, 145, 168, 240, 257; her birth, 255; contracted to Lord Grey de Wilton, 255; betrothal annulled, 256; her childhood, etc., 256-257; her small stature and appearance, 257-258; forms the acquaintance of Thomas Keyes, 259; her visits to him, 261; her marriage with Keyes, 262-263; arrested, examined by Privy Council, 265; her evidence before the Council, 266-267; removed to “The Chequers,” 273; writes to Cecil, 273, 274; arrival at the Minories, 274; her goods, 275-276; her stay at the Minories, etc., 277; her friendship for Lady Bertie, 277; goes to the Greshams, 278; uncomfortable life there, 282; receives news of Keyes’s death, its effect on her, 283; her care for his children, 283; letter to Cecil, 283; is released, her poverty, 285; her gifts to Elizabeth, 286; her death and burial, 287; her will and bequests, 287-290; her character, 290; her library, 290-292, 291 _f.n._, 299, 300. _See also_ Keyes, Thomas

Grey of Pirgo, Lord John (Lady Katherine’s uncle), 93, 109, 152, 194 _f.n._, 195 and _footnote_, 196, 198; letter of, to Cecil, 199, 200-201, 202, 203, 204 and _footnote_, 211; put under arrest, 215; falls ill and dies, 215

Guildford Dudley, 97, 255

Guildford, Lady, 36, 37, 38

Guzman de Silva, Don Diego, Spanish Ambassador, 212 _f.n._, 213, 245

Hales, John, his book in favour of Lady Katherine’s claims, 212 and _footnote_; sent to prison, 213, 218

Hampton Court Palace, 4, 121-127

Hanworth, 127, 195, 197, 217

Hawtrey, William, 265, 266, 273, 274, 275

Henry V, xxiii, xxiv _f.n._, xxvii

Henry VI, xxvi, xxvii, xxviii, xxix, 9

Henry VII, xxiii, xxv, xxviii, xxix, 9

Henry VIII, his likeness to Charles Brandon, 3-5, 18, 19, 20; arranges a marriage between Mary Tudor and Louis XII of France, 22, 24, 25; urges Mary Tudor to marry Louis XII, 27, 28; letter of Mary Tudor to, 37, 49, 51, 52, 53; receives Mary at Greenwich, and assists at her marriage with Brandon, 54; schemes to destroy Brandon, 56; stands godfather to Mary’s child, and creates him Earl, 58-59, 60, 65, 68, 69; his piety, 76, 77, 78, 104, 295, 297

Herbert, Lord, 97, 101, 102

Hertford, Edward Seymour, Earl of (husband of Lady Katherine Grey), 102; his meeting with Lady Katherine, 122; his courtship of her, 125, 127, 132, 133, 135; Lady Frances Brandon wishes him to marry Lady Katherine, Mr. Stokes consults with him, 136, 137; aids Mr. Stokes to prepare a letter for the Queen, but refuses to send it, 138-139; his weak character, 139; his alleged courtship of Sir Peter Mewtas’s daughter, 142; sends Katherine a ring, 143; gets alarmed about the marriage, is questioned by Cecil, 161-162; pledges his troth to Lady Katherine, and gives her a ring, 163-164; his verses on this ring, 163, 164; sends away his servants, 165; marries Lady Katherine clandestinely, 166; is sent to France, 169; his gay life in Paris, 170; recalled from France, arrested, and sent to the Tower, 176-177; his examination, and evidence, 177, 178; proposal to place him on the Throne, 187; Cecil’s scheme for a _coup d’état_ in his favour, 188; is brought before Star Chamber, and fined, 189-190; Sir John Mason’s opinion of him, 191; removed to Hanworth, 195; Newdigate persuades him against Lord John Grey, 204-205; is asked to pay for Lady Katherine’s maintenance, 208; appeals to Dudley, 209 and _footnote_; makes gloves for the Queen, 210; his unhappy life at Hanworth, removed to Sir John Mason’s, 217; writes to Cecil, 218; Dudley offers him his support, in the matter of the succession, 224; his imprisonment becomes more severe, 225, 233, 234, 236; not present at Lady Katherine’s funeral, 237, 239, 240; takes his M.A. degree, re-marries, is restored to favour, 241; death of his second wife, 241; erects monument to her, and to his mother, marries a third time, is sent to the Tower afresh, 242; released, becomes James I’s ambassador, his death, 243; his tomb, 243-245; inscription on it, 243 _f.n._

Hertford, sons of the Earl of (Edward and Thomas Seymour), their births, 181, 189, 242; movement in favour of their claims to the English throne, 186, 221, 242, 245, 248, 249, 250; attempts to place them on the Scotch throne, 246-248, 247 _f.n._, 250-251, 252

Hopton, Lady, 232

Hopton, Sir Owen, 227, 228 and _footnote_, 229, 231-236, 237-238 _f.n._, 239, 247

Howard, Lady Frances, 242, 243

Howard, Lord William and Lady, 263, 269, 270-271

Huntingdon, Earl of, 76; agitation in favour of his claims to the throne, 158-159, 184, 185, 245

James, Prince (afterwards King James I), 59 _f.n._, 243, 244 _f.n._, 248; attempt to kidnap him, and put an end to him, 247, 250 and _footnote_, 251, 252

Jane Grey, Lady. _See_ Grey

Jane Seymour, Lady (sister of the Earl of Hertford), Lady

Katherine Grey’s friendship for, 127; acts as her intermediary, 143, 164, 165; witnesses Lady Katherine’s wedding, 166; her death and funeral, 167-168, 177, 178

Katherine Grey, Lady. _See_ Grey

Katherine Howard, Queen, 72

Katherine of Aragon, Queen, 6, 12, 23, 26, 28, 54, 57, 60, 62, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75 and _footnote_

Katherine of Valois, Queen, xxiii; her meeting with Owen Tudor, xxiv and _footnote_; her children by Owen, xxvi, xxvii; banishment and death, xxvi-xxvii. _See_ Owen Tudor

Katherine Willoughby d’Eresby, Duchess of Suffolk (fourth wife of Charles Brandon), 19 _f.n._; her marriage with Brandon, her parentage, etc., 73; her children, their early deaths, 74, 75; attends Brandon’s death-bed, 78; her visitors at the Barbican, 78-79; re-marries and flies from England, 79, 91 and _footnote_, 106, 136, 137; Lady Mary Grey lodged with, 274; complains to Cecil, 275; her letter to same about Lady Mary’s goods, 275-276, 285, 286, 288, 290 _f.n._, 298

Keyes, Thomas, Sergeant-Porter of the Watergate (husband of Lady Mary Grey), his antecedents, 258; his family, extraordinary stature, etc., 259 and _footnote_; his duties as Porter, 260 and _footnote_; his private apartment, 260; marries Lady Mary Grey, 262-263, 264; sent to the Fleet Prison, 265, 266, 267; his evidence before the Council, 268; is to go to Ireland, 278; is willing to renounce his wife, 279; discomforts of his life in the Fleet, 278, 279, 280; is nearly poisoned, 280; removed to Lewisham, 280; his last appeal to Cecil, 280-281; his death 281; news of same conveyed to Lady Mary, 283

Killigrew, Sir Henry, 250 and _footnote_

Knollys, Henry, 262 and _footnote_

Knollys, Lettice, 261, 262

Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of. _See_ Dudley, Robert

Lennox, Countess of. _See_ Margaret Douglas

Lisle, Lady Elizabeth, 16, 17

Lisle, Lady Elizabeth (aunt of above), 17

Louis XII of France, proposed as husband for Mary Tudor, state of his health, 22 and _footnote_, 27, 28; his “treaty of marriage,” and marriage by proxy, 28-29; his meeting with Mary Tudor, 31-32; and marriage with her, 32-33; his gifts to Mary Tudor, 33, 38, 42, 46, 52; objects to her attendants, 33 _et seq._, 40; his death, 46, 54 _f.n._

Louise of Savoy, 44, 46, 50-51

Maltravers, Lady, 220

Margaret, Archduchess of Austria, Duchess of Savoy, 17, 18; visits Henry VIII at Tournay, incidents there, 19-21, 26

Margaret Clifford, Lady, 298, 299-304

Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, 115, 184 _f.n._, 193, 250, 286, 299

Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Beaufort, xxix, 295

Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 59, 193

Mary Grey, Lady. _See_ Grey, Lady Mary

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, 76, 90, 96, 133-134, 149, 184 _f.n._, 193, 212 and _footnote_, 221, 223-224, 225, 250, 251

Mary Tudor, Queen of England, xxx, 60, 91, 93, 104, 107, 108, 109; her court, 110; 111, 128, 129; her marriage to Philip of Spain, 115-117; proceeds to Windsor, 118-119; goes to Suffolk Place, 120; proceeds to Hampton Court, 121; her life there, 122-123, 125, 127; her death, 132, 257, 299

Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Duchess of Suffolk (Charles Brandon’s third wife), 17, 19-20, 21, 22 and _footnote_, 23; is told she must marry Louis XII, her refusal, 26-27; consents to the marriage, “treaty of marriage,” and marriage by proxy, 28-29; leaves England, arrival at Boulogne, pageant there, 29, 30; visits Church of Notre-Dame, 30, 31; first meeting with Louis XII, 31, 32; the marriage at Abbeville, 32-33; trouble over her English attendants, 33-38; her kindness to them, 35 _f.n._; makes complaint to Henry VIII and Wolsey, 37; proceeds to St. Denis, 39; her coronation as Queen of France, 40; proceeds to Paris, her entry into, and progress round that city, 40-42; assists at a tournament, her popularity, 43-44; court intrigues against her, 45; her respectability, 45-46; her mourning for King Louis, 46; repulses Francis I, 47-48; tells Brandon she will not leave France without him, 49-50 and _footnote_; her clandestine marriage with Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, 50-51; her letters to Wolsey and Henry VIII, 52; hands over her jewelry to Henry VIII, on condition that he recognizes her marriage with Brandon, 52, 53; her deed of gift, 52 and _footnote_; list of her property, 53 _f.n._; her public re-marriage with Brandon, 54-55; bridal portraits of, her appearance, etc., 55 and _footnote_; her residences in London, 58; gives birth to a son, 58; receives Charles V, is accorded queenly precedence, 59; goes on pilgrimage, 59; gives birth to Lady Frances Brandon, 59; and to Lady Eleanor Brandon, 60, 61, 64; is neglected by her husband, death of her son, 67; lock of her hair sold, 67; supports Katherine of Aragon, 67; does not attend Anne Boleyn’s coronation, 68; her ill health, 68; death and funeral, 70; incident at funeral, 71; her monument, 71 _f.n._; 244 _f.n._, 293

Mason, Sir John, 190 and _footnote_; his letter to Cecil, 190-192, 217, 218

Merrick, Jane, 277, 289

Monteagle, Mary, Lady, 63; her portrait, 65; her husband, 65 _f.n._, 70

Mortimer, Lady Margaret (first wife of Charles Brandon), marries Brandon, 14; her antecedents, parentage, pedigree, etc., 14-15 _f.n._; is aunt to Anne Browne (_q. v._), 15; her marriage declared null, 16; claims connubial rights, 61; Brandon obtains a re-affirmation of the dissolution of the marriage, 61; appeal to Rome, and Papal bull declaring the marriage void, 62; her third marriage, 63 and _footnote_; further confirmation of sentence against the marriage, 64-65, 293, 294

Newdigate, Francis, 106, 195 and _footnote_, 204, 217, 218

Norfolk, Duke of, 3, 22 _f.n._, 28, 35, 160, 185; favours Lady Katherine Grey’s claims, 186, 221, 223, 245

Northampton, Marchioness of, 86

Northampton, Marquis of, 163

Owen Tudor, supposed pedigree of, xxiii; appearance of, xxiv, xxviii; his meeting with Katherine of Valois, xxiv and _footnote_, xxv _f.n._; clandestine marriage with her, xxiv; the marriage discovered, his arrest, xxvi; his imprisonments and escapes, xxvii; restored to favour, xxvii; beheaded, xxviii; his children, xxviii, xxix, xxx

Pembroke, Earl of, 97-98, 101-102, 114, 185, 193

Petre, Sir William, 216

Philip II of Spain (consort of Queen Mary Tudor I), 102; arrival in England, 111; his appearance and manners, 112-113; his journey to Winchester, 113; receives a ring from the Queen, 114; his marriage to Mary Tudor, 115-117, 119; his rude behaviour to Lady Dacre, 123; returns to Spain, 127; 129; courts Queen Elizabeth, 147; supports Lady Katherine’s claims, 150 and _footnote_, 151; proposes to abduct her, 150 _f.n._ loses interest in Katherine after her marriage, 173, 214, 299. _See_ Mary Tudor, Queen of England

Pirgo, 195 and _footnote_, 198, 215, 216

Popincourt, Joan, 33, 34

Powis, Anne, Lady, 63, 64 and _footnote_, 70

Quadra, Don Alvaro de la, Spanish Ambassador, 142, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 172, 183, 184 and _footnote_, 188, 193, 213, 218

Richmond, Edmund of Hadham, Earl of, xxv, xxviii-xxix. _See_ Henry VII

Richmond Palace, 119-120

Robert, the Lord. _See_ Dudley, Robert

Saintlow, Mrs. _See_ Bess of Hardwick

Saintlow, William, 89

Seckford, Mr., 301, 302, 303, 304

Seymour, Edward. _See_ Hertford, Earl of

Seymour, Lady Jane. _See_ Jane Seymour, Lady

Seymour, Lord Henry, 179, 180, 218

Seymour, William, 252

Sheen, the Charterhouse at (residence of the Marquis of Dorset), 108, 132, 135, 137, 284

Shrewsbury, George Talbot, Earl of, 86, 250

Skipton Castle, 294, 295; Skipton Church, 296, 297

Somerset, Anne Stanhope, Duchess of, 106, 125-126, 132; letter to Cecil of, 169; writes to Cecil, blaming Lady Katherine, 173 and _footnote_, 236; appeals on behalf of Lady Katherine and Hertford, 208-209, 216; 224, 242, 244 _f. n._, 249, 274;

Somerset, Duke of, 110, 122, 127, 181 _f. n._

Spaniards, the, their opinion of England and the English, 119, 124-125; create disturbances, 126-127

Stanley, Lord William, 304

Stokes, Adrian (second husband of Lady Frances Brandon), 103, 104, 105, 136, 138, 139, 141, 256, 284, 285

Strange, Fernando, 300, 303-304

Suffolk, Duchess of. _See_ Brandon, Lady Frances; Katherine Willoughby; Mary Tudor

Suffolk, Duke of. _See_ Brandon, Charles

Suffolk Place, or Court, 19 _f. n._, 58, 59, 120, 295

Symonds, Dr., 231, 237 _f. n._

“The Chequers,” 266, 273

Tudor, Owen. _See_ Owen Tudor

Warner, Sir Edward (Lieutenant of the Tower), 174, 175, 182, 189, 192, 196, 197 and _footnote_

Wentworth, Lady, 219, 225

Wentworth, Sir John, 216, 219, 220, 225, 228, 241

Westhorpe Hall, 18, 19 _f. n._, 67, 68

Westminster Palace, 164

Westminster, tournament at, described, 23-26; watergate at, 258 and _footnote_, 260; Hall, 299

Will of Edward VI, touching the succession to the Throne, xvii, 104, 134, 245, 277

Will of Henry VIII, touching the succession to the Throne, xvi-xviii, 104 and _footnote_, 134, 159, 212 and _footnote_, 245, 277, 293

Willoughby, Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk. _See_ Katherine Willoughby

Wolsey, Cardinal, 6, 37, 51, 56-57, 61, 62, 68

Zouch, Lady, 87 and _footnote_, 88

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK

EXTRACTS FROM SOME OF THE PRESS NOTICES OF OTHER WORKS BY RICHARD DAVEY

=THE NINE-DAYS’ QUEEN=: The Life of Lady Jane Grey. Illustrated. [London: Methuen & Co. 10_s._ 6_d._

“Mr. Davey in this scholarly volume—it rests on original research—tells without rhetorical appeal the moving story of the poor girl’s fate.... The book is written with lightly handled knowledge and conspicuous charm.”—_The Standard._

* * * * *

“Diving deep into historical records, Mr. Davey has given us not only a most fascinating narrative of the chief conspiracies, but also some excellent character sketches.... A most interesting volume, which may be read by the general reader with profit, and will be heartily welcomed by students who wish to arrive at a fuller knowledge of that extraordinary period.”—_The Globe._

* * * * *

“A fascinating narrative.... The work is one calculated to lure indolent readers into perusing something of more permanent worth than third-rate fiction.”—_Pall Mall Gazette._

* * * * *

“Mr. Richard Davey’s exhaustive and admirably written history.”—_Morning Post._

* * * * *

“The story emerges clearly through an extraordinary amount of anecdote and personal detail. The detail is never superfluous or indifferent. The narrative and description alike hold the reader’s attention.... The wealth of this new telling lies in the careful psychology and wealth of detail which we have praised. Mr. Davey’s story is essentially exact....”—_The Athenæum._

* * * * *

“Mr. Davey has presented his tragic materials with fulness and clearness.... Among the best of historical biographies.... The work is, indeed, far better than most of the memoirs of this kind, and should have more than a season’s success. It is evidently the fruit of long and careful study, and is admirably presented.”—_Daily Telegraph._

* * * * *

(Extract from a long review of this work by M. T. de Wyzewa in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ for April 15, 1910).

“La haute portée de l’ouvrage de M. Davey lui vient surtout de ce que, après avoir écarté ces fables que l’imagination populaire a amoncelées pendant plusieurs siècles, et sous lesquelles la personne authentique de la petite reine improvisée nous apparaît enfin, pour la première fois, dans son émouvante simplicité, l’auteur s’est attaché à évoquer devant nous les vigoureuses et sinistres figures des acteurs principaux du drame. _Jamais encore_, je crois, _aucun historien_ n’a reconstitué avec autant de relief et de couleur pittoresque le tableau des intrigues ourdies autour du trône du vieil Henry VIII et de son pitoyable successeur Edouard VI.”

=THE TOWER OF LONDON.= With Fourteen Illustrations. [London: Methuen & Co. 10_s._ 6_d._

“The grim annals of the Tower of London have already been treated by various historians, but there is still room for an accurate, yet animated, work such as Mr. Richard Davey has produced. His topography is carefully done, and he has a nice eye for architecture. Mr. Davey sets forth the facts with spirit; we get, indeed, a singularly complete record.”—_Morning Post._

* * * * *

“Mr. Davey’s competent and readable book will rank among the best upon its subject. Mr. Davey has two conspicuous qualifications for a work of this kind; he is careful about his authorities and he writes uncommonly well.... In writing of the Tudor period Mr. Davey is at his best. He shows the true historian’s gift for dissecting motive and probing to the heart of a situation, and he keeps the interest continually quivering with the spirit of suggestion and interpretation.... A book packed with historical interest.”—_Daily Telegraph._

* * * * *

“Mr. Davey’s book is one which no visitor to the Tower, or any one interested in that grim building, should fail to read. He writes pleasantly; the wonderful story he has to tell is related with full appreciation of its dramatic possibilities. Mr. Davey is at his best in relating the tragedies of the Tower.”—_Evening Standard._

=THE PAGEANT OF LONDON.= With Illustrations. [London: Methuen & Co. 7_s._ 6_d._ per volume, or Two volumes, 15_s._

“Mr. Davey marks London’s development up to the present situation by many typical and striking scenes.... His work is an admirable example of discriminating research.”—_Morning Post._

* * * * *

“Mr. Davey has combined the method of the impressionist with those of the historian and anecdotist, and the result is one that is admirable.... It would be easy to quote innumerable passages of admirable description, of well-told historical incidents, of pleasant anecdotes.... A deeply interesting book, quite unlike the conventional topographical works.”—_Daily Telegraph._

* * * * *

“Replete with information, presented with a considerable amount of literary skill.”—_Athenæum._

=THE SULTAN AND HIS SUBJECTS.= Second Edition. [London: Chatto & Windus. 7_s._ 6_d._

“The best book on Turkey that has yet appeared ... a book that goes to the root of the political troubles in Turkey with directness and insight.... Mr. Davey’s book must be read by every one who has eyes to look beyond parochial politics.”—_Pall Mall Gazette._

* * * * *

“The description of the Reform Movement in Turkey is especially interesting.... This is a book which well repays perusal, and is the more interesting at a time when the once moribund Sick Man of the East looms so largely on the European horizon.”—_Morning Post._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See the brief synopsis of Henry VIII’s Will in Note at the end of this Preface.

[2] _Ambassades Françaises_—Elizabeth: Archives Nationales.

[3] _Simancas Papers_ (Spanish State Papers), edited by Major Martin Hume.

[4] See Stowe’s _Annals_; also, _The History of the Twydyr Family_.

[5] The acquaintance of Katherine the Fair with Owen Tudor must have begun a great deal earlier than 1423, the date usually stated. There exists in the British Museum, a picturesque old French novel, entitled _Tidéric, Prince de Galles_—founded, according to its anonymous author, on little-known documents amongst the French archives—which describes Katherine as having fallen in love with Owen during the negotiations for her marriage with Henry V. The handsome Welshman certainly distinguished himself at Agincourt, and subsequent to that momentous battle, was created Captain of the King’s Guard, in which position he became a confidential attendant on the Sovereign. In that quality, we gather, he was sent with a message to Princess Katherine, who then and there fell in love with him. He was next—and this is an historical fact—created Clerk of the Wardrobe to the queen, and was, therefore, constantly in her company. When both the king and queen returned to France, and Henry died, Owen escorted the young dowager back to England. In the _Histoire de Boulogne_, a “M. Tidder” is described as being in the queen’s procession, which followed “at a distance of two miles” that conveying the king’s body through northern France on its way to England. The queen’s procession entered Montreuil-sur-Mer one hour after the one which bore the royal corpse had left that town, “M. Tidder” leading the way, on a white horse. The queen and her party paused to partake of refreshments offered by the mayor, and it was late in the afternoon before they left Montreuil for Boulogne and Calais, where Katherine embarked for England at nightfall, but not on the vessel that carried the king’s body.

Thus Katherine may have had many a meeting with Owen long before her gallant husband’s death. The adventure at the dance, which history relates as a fact, very likely occurred, and kindled a passion that resulted in the secret and momentous union, the precise date of which is lost.

[6] _Parliamentary History_, vol. ii., p. 211.

[7] Among the statutes of the foundation of Bermondsey Abbey was one whereby certain apartments were to be reserved for members of the royal family in case of sickness, the monks having a great reputation as skilful leeches and doctors, a fact which accounts for this queen and for Elizabeth Woodville and other royal ladies being permitted to reside at times in a monastery inhabited by monks.

[8] _Fosdi_, vol. x., p. 354.

[9] See Holinshed’s _Chronicles_.

[10] These facts concerning the Brandons and the Bullens are derived from notes supplied me many years ago by the eminent Norfolk historian, my old and valued friend, A. Carthew, whose history of the hundred of Launditch is one of the most extraordinary volumes of its sort in existence.

[11] Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk, was the daughter and heiress of Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel and Surrey. Her first husband was Robert, Duke of Norfolk, who died in Venice; her second, Sir Gerald Ufflete. A year after his death she took, for a third husband, Sir Robert Goushall, by whom she had a daughter who became the wife of Sir Robert Wingfield of Letheringham; it is this lady’s second daughter, Elizabeth, who married Sir William Brandon, the grandfather of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

[12] Sir Henry Bruyn was a son of Sir Maurice Bruyn and of Elizabeth Radford.

[13] Elizabeth Darcy was the daughter of Sir Richard Darcy and Alice Fitzlangley, daughter and heiress of Henry Fitzlangley.

[14] _Cott. Coll. Julius_, vols. ii. and vi.

[15] The origin of this Lady Mortimer, who, for her sins and sorrows, yielded at a mature age to the blandishments of the very youthful Charles Brandon, has hitherto baffled the researches of historians. Quite by chance the writer discovered her identity. Happening one day to turn over the pages of Blomefield’s invaluable _History of Norfolk_, under the heading “Inglethorpe” in the Lynn district, he found, included in the pedigree of the ancient family which gives its name to this manor, that of the Lady Mortimer. It appears that Sir Edmond de Bellasis, Lord of Inglethorpe or Ingaldesthorpe, who died, seized of that manor, in the thirty-sixth year of Henry V’s reign, was the last of his line. He had, by his wife, the Lady Joan de Boase, a daughter and heiress, Isabel, who married John Nevill, Marquis Montagu or Montacute, brother to the famous “Kingmaker,” Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick. This lady had two sons and five daughters. Her eldest son died in infancy, and the second, George, eventually followed the fortunes of his uncle, the Earl of Warwick, and rose, under Edward IV, to be Duke of Bedford, but was deprived of this title and of his estates by Richard III. He died without issue, bequeathing what remained of his fortune amongst his five sisters, one of whom, the Lady Margaret Nevill, married Sir John Mortimer, who, dying on the field of battle at Bosworth without issue, left her very richly dowered. Being considerably over forty when Charles Brandon was in his nineteenth year (it will be remembered that he was a mere child at the time of the battle of Bosworth), she fell a victim to the youth’s fascinations, and married him, to the amazement of the Venetian ambassador, who comments upon the affair in a note to his government, saying: “In this country [England] young men marry old ladies for their money, and here, for instance, is the Duke of Suffolk, who, at nineteen, married a lady, for her wealth, in whose house he dwelt, and who is old enough to be his grandmother.” This Lady Mortimer had a sister, the Lady Lucy Nevill, who married Sir Anthony Browne, governor of Calais, and who was the mother of that Anne Browne, to whom Brandon was betrothed at the time of his marriage with the Lady Mortimer. To add to the confusion, it seems that Brandon’s grandmother, Elizabeth Wingfield, had a youngest sister who married Robert Mortimer, brother to the above-named Sir John, and was therefore sister-in-law to the Lady Margaret Mortimer and Brandon’s great-aunt. These alliances, at a time when not only consanguinity, but spiritual affinity, was taken into consideration in matters matrimonial, rendered it exceedingly easy for certain thoughtlessly undertaken marriages to be annulled by the ecclesiastical tribunals.

There is in this pedigree another curious fact which tells indirectly upon the tragic history of the three sisters Grey, since it proves that there existed a connecting link between the Brandons and the Greys as far back as the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Lady Joan, widow of the last Lord Inglethorpe, married the first Lord Grey de Ruthen, and thereby became the immediate ancestress of that Henry Grey who married Brandon’s daughter by the French queen, the Lady Frances, and was the father of the three unfortunate sisters, Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey. This connection very probably led to the choice of Henry Grey as consort for the Lady Frances Brandon, Mary Tudor’s eldest daughter.

[16] Reginald de la Pole, head of this great house, was beheaded on June 30, 1513, for an alleged treasonable correspondence with his brother, then in the service of Louis XII, who, it was said, had threatened to assist in placing the “heir of the White Rose” (Perkin Warbeck) upon the English throne.

[17] Other lands and mansions assigned to Charles Brandon from time to time were: the manors of Austin’s and Gerard’s in the parish of Darsham (Suffolk), given at the Dissolution; Leiston Abbey (Suffolk), granted in 1536—it is said that the patronage of this abbey had been in the Brandon family for generations, but Charles exchanged it with the Crown for Henham Hall; properties at Laxfield and Middleton in Suffolk, attached to Leiston Abbey, granted to Brandon at the Dissolution; the Priory of St. Mary of Mendham (Suffolk), which came to Brandon through his fourth wife, Catherine, Lady Willoughby of Eresby, she being lineally descended from a sister of Sir William de Ufford, on whom it had been settled—Brandon conveyed it to one Richard Freston for an annual rent of forty pounds; the estate of Combs, which was an inheritance in the right of Catherine, Lady Willoughby, and eventually passed to her second husband, Richard Bertie, Esq.; Haughley Castle, manor and estate (Suffolk), an apanage of the de la Poles; and Cavenham, granted to Suffolk on the attainder of the Duke of Buckingham. Strange to say, Suffolk rarely visited any of his numerous castles and manor-houses. He lived in London. His favourite country house was Westhorpe Hall; but he died at Guildford Castle, which did not belong to him. The estate in Southwark came to him in 1502 on the death of his uncle Thomas, who had inherited it in his turn from his grandfather, who died in 1497. Charles so enlarged the house that it became a palace, second only in size and magnificence to the royal palace at Kennington. These facts prove—the majority of the historians of London to the contrary notwithstanding—that Suffolk Place was not a gift to Brandon from the king, but an inheritance from his forefathers.

[18] British Museum, Titus B.I. 142; also, the _Chronique de Calais_, 71.

[19] See the dowager’s own narrative in the _Chronique de Calais_.

[20] Mary openly renounced her contract with Prince Charles of Castile on July 30, 1514, at Wanstead, in the presence of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Brandon, and the Bishops of Lincoln, Winchester and Durham.

[21] Louis’s queen, Anne of Brittany, had died, “utterly lamented,” on January 9, 1514.

[22] Louis himself told the English ambassadors that “he was a sickly body, and not fond of having curious eyes about him.” Peter Martyr says he suffered from elephantiasis and bore signs of premature senility. See Fleming’s _Chronicles_; the _Calendar of State Papers_; and Peter Martyr’s _Epistles_, 541.

[23] Mary, however, with the kindness of heart which characterized her, saw that they eventually obtained some recognition of their services. According to documents in the French archives, her goldsmith, one William Verner, of Fleet Street, London, was ordered to prepare certain jewelry, to the value of six hundred gold crowns, to be disbursed as gifts to the impecunious gentlewomen dismissed in France. Amongst these valuable presents were a polished ruby and an emerald set in a gold cross, value two hundred _écus de soleil_; a diamond and sapphire set in a necklace, value three hundred crowns; and a table diamond worth one hundred crowns. The gems were to be worn at court, in order that all might see that the ladies had not been defrauded of their just dues.

[24] This Lady Boleyn is frequently described as the Lady Anne Boleyn who became Queen of England and died on the scaffold; but this is a popular error. Anne Boleyn was at this time in attendance on Queen Claude of France, and the Lady Anne Boleyn, her aunt, has been identified as the Lady Boleyn who was in attendance upon Mary at the time of her marriage with the French king. She was the wife of Sir William Boleyn and daughter of the Earl of Pembroke.

[25] British Museum, _Caligula_, D. vi. 192.

[26] On October 13, 1514, Louis presented his queen with the already mentioned ruby valued at 10,000 marks.

Mary was endowed by Letters Patent (Abbeville, October 8, 1514) with the town and castlery of Caynone and its appurtenances, the castles of Saintonge, de Pezenas, etc. (R.O. Rymer xiii. 459.)

[27] This beautiful specimen of a Gothic palace of the fourteenth century was the town residence of the abbots of Cluny, and was lent to the queen dowager by the abbot of that day. The noble old building is still standing, and converted into a museum of mediæval art.

[28] Queen Claude is said to have introduced greengages into northern France. They are still called _prunes de la Reine Claude_.

[29] State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII, vols. i. and ii.

[30] _Ambassades françaises (Angleterre) sous François I (Henri VIII)._ Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

[31] “When,” says Suffolk, “I came to Paris, the queen was in hand with me the day after. She said ‘she must be short with me and show to me her pleasure and mind,’ and so she began, and showed how good a lady she was to me, and if I would be ordered by her, she verily would have none but me.” “An ever I come to England,” said the youthful dowager to Suffolk, “I never shall have you, and therefore plainly an you marry me not now, I will never have you nor never come into England.” Suffolk replied, “You say that but to prove me withal.” “I would but you knew well,” answered Mary, “at your coming to Paris how it was shown to me.” “I asked her,” continued Suffolk, “what that was?” “The best in France has been with me,” replied Mary. Here she clearly indicated Francis I, and from him she had intelligence which added to her excitement. “An I go to England,” continued she to Suffolk, “then I am sent to Flanders, and I would be torn to pieces rather than ever come there.” “And with that,” pursues Suffolk, “she weeped as never I saw woman so weep.”

[32] For this remarkable correspondence see _Cott. Col._ (British Museum), _Caligula_, D. vi.

[33] Some writers call it _le Miroir de Naples_, but in the list of gems taken by Charles VIII (Neapolitan archives), it figures as _La Stella di Napoli_. Where is it now? The “Mirror,” or “Star,” of Naples was valued at 30,000 crowns, and eighteen pearls at 10,000 crowns.

[34] The queen, in her deed of gift adds: “I give all my dote that was delivered with me, and also all such plate of gold and jewels as I shall have of my late husband’s. Over and besides this, I shall, rather than fail, give you as much yearly part of my dower as great a sum as shall stand with your will and pleasure.”

[35] The following are the headings to the lists of the property of Princess Mary Tudor, made at the time of her marriage with King Louis:—

“1. An inventory of date 12th October, 1514, of the jewelry, gold and silver plate, for the chapel, buffets and kitchen of the Princess Mary, delivered to Lewis XII, in presence of Thos. Bohier, Jacques de Beaume, and Henry Wyat, master of the jewel-house, made in the town of Abbeville, 10th and 11th Oct., 1514.” (Among the plate mentioned are several silver images of St. Thomas of Canterbury, St. Katharine, and other saints, and a silver-gilt mirror, garnished with H. & R. and red roses.)

“2. List of the furniture for the chapel, dresses, linen, tapestries, belonging to the Princess Mary, delivered to Lewis XII by Sir Andrew Windsor, master of the Wardrobe, before the same witnesses; made at Abbeville, 11th and 12th Oct., 1514.”

“3. Inventory of the horses, carriages, and their furniture, Abbeville, 12th Oct., 1514.”

There is also a minute of an agreement, in the Rolls Office, by which document Louis XII agrees to receive jewelry and furniture to the value of 200,000 crowns, as the dowry of Princess Mary, reserving certain conditions as to their restoration. What these conditions were we learn from letters of acquittance (R.O. Rymer xiii. 462) given on the delivery of Mary Queen of France, with her jewels, etc., of the 400,000 gold crowns promised as her dower by Henry VIII, provided that, in the case of restitution, the king and his heirs shall only be bound to restore what she brought with her into France, with the expenses of her passage. Subscribed, Abbeville, 13th August, 1514.

[36] An anonymous writer to Margaret of Savoy, in a letter dated April 9, 1514, says: “I think never man saw a more beautiful creature [than Mary], or one possessed of so much grace and sweetness.” Gerard de Pleine writes: “I assure you that she [Mary] is one of the most beautiful young women in the world. I think I never saw a more charming creature. She is very graceful. Her deportment in dancing and in conversation is as pleasing as you could desire. There is nothing gloomy or melancholy about her.... I assure you that she has been well educated.... I had imagined that she would have been very tall; but she is of middling height....” (_Lettres de Louis XII_, tome iv., p. 335; State Papers, 5203, p. 833.)

[37] Cavendish’s _Life of Wolsey_; also, a slightly different version, in Galt’s _Life of Cardinal Wolsey_, p. 164.

[38] In 1603, James I took a fancy to Theobalds Park at Cheshunt, the seat of the Cecils, where he stopped on his progress from Edinburgh to London to ascend the English throne, and exchanged Hatfield for Theobalds, where he died in 1625. Hatfield has ever since remained in the possession of the illustrious family of Cecil.

[39] The Lady Anne Boleyn above mentioned was not the lady who became famous as the second queen of Henry VIII, but her aunt, a daughter of the Earl of Pembroke and wife of Sir William Boleyn of Blickling Hall, Norfolk.

[40] Clement had been driven from Rome by the Spanish troops, and had taken refuge at Orvieto, in a ruinous palace. The envoys say “the furniture of his bed and all was not worth twenty nobles.”

[41] It is not at all improbable that this, the generally received version of what we should call the _affaire Mortimer_, is incorrect. Cokayne says she married, after her separation from Brandon, a gentleman named Downes—the _Baronagium_ calls him Horn. In this case she was already out of court, and the action of Brandon and Wolsey for a papal absolute nullification of the former’s marriage was to make the position of the queen-duchess and her children entirely unassailable. (See the _Baronagium Angl._; also, Brooke’s _Catalogue_, p. 141.) The third marriage of Lady Mortimer seems to have been overlooked by historians. Had Lady Mortimer’s marriage with Brandon been confirmed by the pope, both she and Brandon would have been liable to the charge of bigamy, and the succession to the throne claimed by the daughter of the queen-duchess by Brandon would have been _ipso facto_ invalid.

[42] “The xiij day of January was bared at (Westminster) in sant Margerett parryche my lade Powes, (daughter) to the duke of Suffoke Charles Brandon, (with two) whytt branchys, xij torchys, and iij grett (tapers), with xij skochyons of armes.”

[43] Lady Monteagle, who bore her husband six children, died in 1544. Her husband, Thomas Stanley, succeeded his father as Viscount Monteagle, 1522, and was made K.B. at the Coronation of Anne Boleyn. His second wife was Helen Preston of Livens. (See Dugdale’s _Baronagium_, Machyn’s _Diary_, etc.) These dates prove conclusively that the lovely woman in the sketch by Holbein, inscribed “the Lady Monteagle,” is intended for the daughter of Charles Brandon, and is not the second Lady Monteagle, who was married long after Holbein’s death.

[44] Dugdale. Brandon was jeweller to Elizabeth, and there are numerous references to orders given him by the queen, for plate and jewelry.

[45] In the register of St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, is the record of the burial of Richard Brandon, “a man out of Rosemary Lane.” The entry is dated June 2, 1649, and to it is appended a note to the effect that “this Richard Brandon is supposed to have cut off the head of Charles I.” This man is said to have confessed that he received thirty pounds for the job, which was paid him in half-crowns within an hour after the execution had taken place; he took an orange stuck with cloves, and a handkerchief, from the king’s pocket, and sold the former article to a gentleman for ten shillings. Richard Brandon was the son of Gregory Brandon, and claimed the office of headsman by inheritance. His first victim was the Earl of Strafford. In a very old MS. on armorial bearings, dated 1692, lately in the possession of the author, is the marginal note in an antique handwriting: “Charles Brandon, who was cousin to Queen Elizabeth, had an ill-begotten son Gregory, whose son Richard beheaded Charles I.”

[46] State Papers, Henry VIII, Domestic Series.

[47] Estby’s _History of Bury St. Edmunds_.

[48] Mary Tudor, Queen Dowager of France and Duchess of Suffolk, was buried in a magnificent alabaster monument in Bury St. Edmunds Abbey, which was destroyed at the Dissolution. Although the abbey church was blown up with gunpowder, the townspeople carried the coffin, containing the queen’s body, to the parish church, where it was reinterred near the high altar, and covered with some altar slabs brought from the desecrated abbey. The alabaster monument was destroyed. In 1734 the remains of Mary Tudor were unearthed and her coffin was opened. The body, that of a large woman, with a profusion of golden hair adhering to the skull, was found to be in a perfect state of preservation. It was re-buried close to the right of the altar, where a modern inscription on a marble tablet, let into the wall, may still be read.

[49] There is an interesting account of the death of these “noble imps,” as contemporary chroniclers call them, in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for Nov. 1825, vol. xcv. II. 200.

[50] For an account of this visit, see State Papers, p. 453, a dispatch from the Earl of Sussex dated December 31, 1534. Suffolk had been to Bugden earlier in the year, in May, and had behaved with much unnecessary brutality.

[51] A chandler, who also exercised the calling of surgeon, opened the body of Queen Katherine, and found the heart black and dry, as he informed the Bishop of Llandaff; proving, although he was unaware of the fact, that she died of what is called melanotic sarcoma, or cancer of the heart.

[52] The venerated image was again destroyed during the French Revolution, only the left hand being saved; this is still carried in procession through the streets of Boulogne on August 14.

[53] There is a fine drawing of this lady, by Holbein, at Windsor Castle.

[54] Katherine, Lady Willoughby d’Eresby, was the fourth wife of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and step-grandmother to Lady Katherine Grey.

[55] The Marquis of Dorset was created Duke of Suffolk early in the reign of Edward VI, and shortly after the death of his wife’s two step-brothers, both successively dukes of Suffolk, who died within a few hours of each other, as already stated, in 1551.

[56] Aylmer, however, knew Lady Katherine Grey well, for in one of his letters from Italy he desires to be remembered to her. We may, therefore, conclude that he had at least some share in her education; but whereas Jane Grey’s calligraphy is very fine, for the period, Katherine’s is nearly illegible, and her letters are not well expressed.

[57] It was written by Lady Jane, on the evening of Sunday, February 11 (the night before her execution), on the blank sheets in her favourite Greek Testament. This may now be seen in the British Museum.

[58] An allusion to the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.

[59] The next few lines are illegible, having evidently been blotted out by the writer’s tears.

[60] For a detailed account of Henry VIII’s will, see _The Nine-days’ Queen_, by Richard Davey, p. 109.

[61] The original copy is still preserved in the British Museum, bound up in a small volume of MSS., _temp._ Mary I. “On the outer cover is written, in red ink, ‘Mariæ Reginæ,’ showing this to be the copy presented to the Queen.”

[62] There is a very beautiful picture in the King’s collection, representing the mother of this young lady.

[63] Blanche Parry was the widow of Sir Thomas Parry, who succeeded Mr. Saintlow as comptroller of the queen’s household. She was a palmist of considerable skill; and an ancient black-letter volume on Palmistry, containing a great many very curious plates, is still in the library at Charlcote Hall. It is said by tradition to have belonged to Blanche Parry: if so, she “told the hand” exactly as it is “told” by the occult sisterhood of Bond Street and other fashionable parts of London in our time. Mrs. Parry was also a crystal-gazer.

[64] Dr. Dee, who was born in 1527, was a man of superior attainments, and a clever mathematician. He took his degree as Master of Arts in 1548 at Cambridge. Being suspected as a sorcerer, he left England in the same year, but returned in the reign of Edward VI, who took a great fancy to him. Under Mary, he was imprisoned for attempting the queen’s life by witchcraft. After Elizabeth ascended the throne, he became such a favourite with her that she sent her own doctors to him when he was ill; and she also despatched him to investigate the recently discovered American territory. In 1583 he went to live in Bohemia with a Polish nobleman, who was likewise suspected of necromancy, and the two succeeded in imposing on a great many people on the Continent. Dee eventually returned to England, was made Chancellor of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and died at Mortlake in 1608. He possessed a magic mirror in which Elizabeth placed great faith and which she frequently consulted.

[65] See for particulars of the life of Amy Robsart, Mr. George Adlard’s interesting volume, _Amye Robsart and the Earl of Leycester_, John Russell Smith, London, 1870. Mr. Adlard had not access to the Simancas Papers, and was therefore not aware of the rumours rife in London at the time of the unfortunate lady’s accident or murder. Amy Robsart did not, as Scott tells us, belong to a Devonshire family, but to a very ancient Norfolk house.

[66] The scheme is succinctly recounted in a letter from Sir Thomas Challoner, then English ambassador at Madrid, to Cecil, which will be found in the State Papers (Foreign Series) for the reign of Elizabeth. “King Philip II,” he says, “is so jealous of the anticipated power of France, by the alliance of young Francis the Dauphin with the Queen of Scotland, and her claims to the Crown of England, that he positively contemplates stealing Lady Katherine Grey out of the realm, and marrying her to his son, Don Carlos, or some other member of his family, and setting up her title against that of Mary Stuart, as the true heiress of England. Lady Katherine will probably be glad to go, being most uncomfortably situated in the English court with the queen, who cannot well abide the sight of her, and neither the duchess her mother nor her step-father love her, and her uncle cannot abide to hear of her, so that she lives, as it were, in great despair. She has spoken very arrogant and unseemly words in the hearing of the queen and others standing by. Hence it is thought that she could be enticed away if some trusty person speak with her.”

[67] It will be remembered that these events took place late in 1558, or early in 1559, before Lady Frances’s death.

[68] Durham House, Strand, at one time the town residence of the Bishops of Durham, was ceded to the famous Duke of Northumberland; and Lady Jane Grey was married, and Lady Katherine betrothed, in the private chapel. It afterwards passed into the possession of the Archbishops of York, under Mary, and was finally leased by Elizabeth to the Spanish Embassy. The name of Durham Place and Durham Court, Strand, until lately marked the site of this at one time magnificent mansion.

[69] It was even rumoured about the court that the marriage had actually taken place in secret. Quadra, writing to the King of Spain under date November 20, 1560, says: “They say [Robert Dudley] was married to the queen in the presence of his brother and two ladies of the chamber.”

[70] Hertford mentioned at his trial that he “got up at six o’clock” on this occasion.

[71] This fashion evidently came from Germany, “froze” being an anglicized version of “frau’s.”

[72] The full text of this letter, which will be found in the State Papers for the reign of Elizabeth, is as follows:—

“GOOD MASTER SECRETARY,

“Hearing a great bruit that my Lady Katherine Grey is in the Tower, and also that she should say she is married already to my son, I could not choose but trouble you with my cares and sorrows thereof. And although I might, upon my son’s earnest and often protesting to me the contrary, desire you to be an humble suitor on my behalf, that her tales might not be credited before my son did answer, yet, instead thereof, my first and chief suit is that the Queen’s Majesty will think and judge of me in this matter, according to my desert and meaning. And if my son have so much forgotten Her Highness calling him to honour, and so much overshot his bounden duty, and so far abused Her Majesty’s benignity, yet never was his mother privy or consenting thereunto. I will not fill my letter with how much I have schooled and persuaded him to the contrary, nor yet will I desire that youth and fear may help, excuse, or lessen his fault; but only that Her Highness will have that opinion of me as of one that, neither for child nor friend, shall willingly neglect the duty of a faithful subject. And to conserve my credit with Her Majesty, good Master Secretary, stand now my friend, that the wildness of mine unruly child do not minish Her Majesty’s favour towards me. And thus so perplexed with this discomfortable rumour I end, not knowing how to proceed nor what to do therein. Therefore, good Master Secretary, let me understand some comfort of my grief from the Queen’s Majesty, and some counsel from yourself, and so do leave you to God.

“Your assured friend to my power, “ANN SOMERSET.”

[73] Parrots and monkeys were apparently favourite domestic pets at the end of the sixteenth century—the Duchess of Northumberland (the widow of John Dudley), for instance, left her grey parrot to the Duchess of Alva; in itself a slight “sign of the times,” indicating how ideas of travel were gradually spreading. The animals were probably brought from the north of Africa, Algeria, Morocco, etc.

[74] These were: Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector, the infant’s grandfather, beheaded in 1552; Henry, Duke of Suffolk, his maternal grandfather (1554); Lady Jane Grey, his aunt (1554); Lord Seymour of Sudeley, his grandfather’s brother (1549); the Duke of Northumberland, his great-uncle (1553); and finally, Lord Thomas Grey, another great-uncle (1554).

[75] “Out of the fifteen or sixteen of them (i.e. members of the council) that there are, there were nearly as many different opinions about the succession to the Crown. It would be impossible to please them all, but I am sure in the end they would form two or three parties and that the Catholic party would have on its side the majority of the country, although I do not know whether the Catholics themselves would be able to agree, as some would like the Queen of Scots and others Lady Margaret [Lennox].”—Quadra to the Duchess of Parma, October 25, 1562; see Calendar of Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[76] Quadra to the King of Spain, October 25, 1562.

[77] Spanish State Papers, vol. i. p. 311.

[78] Spanish State Papers, vol. i. p. 321.

[79] Sir John Mason, who had been at one time English Ambassador to the court of the Emperor Charles V, was one of Elizabeth’s privy councillors.

[80] Quadra to the King of Spain, November 30, 1562. Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.

[81] This order only exists in the State Papers as a draft in Cecil’s handwriting. The full text of it is as follows:—

“Rt. Trusty and Well-beloved, We greet you well. Whereas we be informed that the (plague) [the words in brackets are crossed out] places near that our Tower are much visited with the plague, and yourself not without great fear that the same may enter into our said Tower, we (have thought meet upon earnest suit made unto us to license) are contented the lady Catharyne and y^[e] Earl of Hertford for y^[e] time of this danger of the plague shall be placed in some other several and convenient places out of y^[e] Tower. Wherefore (we will that you shall let either of them know of this our contentation that the lady Catharyn shall be removed to And for the places of their abode) we will that the lady Catharyne shall be removed to y^[e] house of Ld. John Grey in Essex, there to remain (within his house) with him and his wife during our pleasure; and y^[e] Earl of Hertford to be removed to his mother’s house in Middlesex, there also to remain during our pleasure; and for their behaviour our pleasure is that ye shall command them in our name under pain of our indignation and such fine as we shall please to assess, that neither of them shall depart from y^[e] said places without our leave, (neither attempt to have any converse together) otherwise than to take y^[e] air near to y^[e] same and not without the company of his mother or Newdegate. (_Endorsed_) 21 Aug. 1563. From the Queen’s Majesty to the Lieutenant of the Tower for the removal of the Lady Katherine and the Earl of Hertford.”

[82] Lord John Grey, the Duke of Suffolk’s brother, had himself been imprisoned in the Tower for eight months in 1554, for his alleged share in Suffolk’s rebellion in favour of Lady Jane Grey. His was a courtesy title, and he was sometimes called “Sir” John. Pirgo was granted to him by the queen on April 24, 1559, but he evidently found some difficulty in keeping it up, for shortly afterwards he wrote to Cecil begging him “to acquaint the queen with his embarrassed circumstances, as they affect her former grant.”

[83] It is a curious fact that the grandmother of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria, whom we have had occasion to mention in these pages, was of the family of “Nudigate,” her brother being that Sebastian Newdigate, a monk of the Charterhouse, London, who was executed under Henry VIII for denying the royal supremacy. The Duchess of Somerset’s husband, Sergeant Francis Newdigate, was of this same family. These Newdigates had a fine house in Charterhouse Square, which they occasionally let, furnished, for the season to Lord Latimer, Katherine Parr’s third husband.

[84] This list runs as follows, the disparaging comments, here printed in brackets, being those written by Warner himself:—

“Stuff delivered in August, 1561, by the Queen’s commandments and the Lord Chamberlain’s warrants, by William Bentley, out of the Wardrobe in the Tower, to Sir Edward Warner, Knight, then levetenant of the Tower, for the necessary furniture of Lady Katherine Grey’s chamber.

“First: six pieces of tapestry to hang her chamber. (‘Very old and coarse.’) Item: a spavier (?) for a bed of changeable damask. (‘All to-broken and not worth tenpence.’) One silk quilt of red striped with gold. (‘Stark naught.’) Two carpets of Turkey matting. (‘The wool is all worn.’) Item: one chair of cloth of gold with crimson velvet, with two pommels of copper gilt, and the Queen’s arms in the back. (‘Nothing worth.’) Item: one cushion of purple velvet. (‘An owld cast thing.’) Item: two footstools covered with green velvet. (‘Owld stools for King Henry’s feet.’) One bed, one bolster, and a counterpane, for her women. (‘A mean bed.’)”

It is not improbable that the chair of cloth of gold, of which Warner speaks so scathingly, was the “Throne” used by Katherine’s sister, Lady Jane, during her nine-days’ reign.

[85] The text of this letter is as follows:—

“Good cousin Cecil, after my very hearty commendations to my good cousin, your wife and you, with like thanks for your great friendship showed me in this my lord’s deliverance and mine, with the obtaining of the Queen’s Majesty’s most gracious favour thus farforth extended towards us, I cannot but acknowledge myself bounden and beholding unto you therefor. And as I am sure you doubt not of mine own dear lord’s good-will for the requital thereof to the uttermost of his power, so I beseech you, good cousin Cecill, make the like account of me during life to the uttermost of my power; beseeching your farther friendship for the obtaining of the Queen’s Majesty’s most gracious pardon and favour towards me, which, with upstretched hands and downbent knees, from the bottom of my heart most humbly I crave. Thus resting in prayer for the Queen’s Majesty’s long reign over us, the forgiveness of mine offence, the short [speedy] enjoying of [the company of] my own dear lord and husband, with assured hope through God’s grace and your good help and my Lord Robert [Dudley] for the enjoying of the Queen’s Highness’s favour in that behalf, I bid you, my own good cousin, most heartily farewell. From Pyrgo the thred of September.

“Your assured friend and cousin to my small power,

“KATHERYNE HARTFORD.”

“To my very loving cousin Sir William Cicyll, Knight, Chief Secretary to the Queen’s Majesty, give these.”—[“Mine own dear lord,” of whom she makes mention, is, of course, her husband, Hertford.]

[86] The letter to Cecil is worded as follows:—

“What the long want of the Queen’s Majesty’s accustomed favour towards me hath bred in this miserable and wasted body of mine, God only knoweth, as I daily more and more, to the torment and wasting thereof, do otherwise feel than well able to express; which if it should any long time thus continue, I rather wish of God shortly to be buried in the faith and fear of Him, than in this continual agony to live. As I have written unto my Lord Robert, so, good cousin Ceycell, do I unto you. I must confess I never felt what the want of my Prince’s favour was before now, which by your good means and the rest of my very good lords, once obtained, I shall not require of any of you, if it fall, through my default, to be means for the restitution thereof, so mindful, God willing, shall I be, not to offend Her Highness. Thus desiring the continuance of your friendship, I most heartily bid you farewell, good cousin Cecil, praying you to make my hearty commendations to my cousin your wife. From Pirgo, the xiii of December.

“Your poor cousin and assured friend to my small power,

“KATHERYNE HARTFORD.”

[87] This part of the letter (which is in the Lansdowne MSS. No. 7, fol. 110) is as follows:—

“But because you shall truly know what charges my lord [Hertford] is at, and hath been at, with my lady [Katherine], since her coming hither, I have herein enclosed true inventory, besides my lady’s whole furniture of her and hers, with hangings, bedding, sheets, drapery and plate, for neither she nor her little boy hath one piece of plate to drink, eat, or keep anything, but of me; which, though it cannot be much, yet is as much as I have.... I learn from Hanworth that he [Hertford] hath been very plain with Newdigate, since which Lady Katherine hath received twenty pounds, and been promised to have beds and sheets sent to her, howbeit they have not yet come; she had nothing to send any friend at New Year’s tide, which induced Lady Clinton to give Lady Grey a pair of silk hose, to present to Lady Knowles in Lady Katherine’s name, as if from her.” Lord John goes on to say that he thinks Newdigate ought to have told Cecil how unprovided she was when she first arrived at Pirgo: “for the inventory of all she had when he left her here I could send to you, but I am ashamed, for that it was so bare.”

[88] The inventory includes the following items:—

“Two coats for Mr. Thomas [Katherine’s baby, then about eleven months], whereof the one is russet damask, the other of crimson velvet. Of white cloth to make him petticoats, two yards. Of red cloth to make him like petticoats, two yards. Velvet caps for him, two. A russet taffeta hat for him, laid on with silver cord.... Two pairs of fine sheets for my Lady Katherine, of two breadths. Black velvet to make a gown for my Lady Katherine, bound with sables, ten yards. Russet velvet to make a gown and a kirtle. Black and russet lace to the gown and kirtle. Damask to make a nightgown for my Lady. Crimson satin to make a petticoat. A petticoat of crimson velvet. A velvet hood for my Lady. Two pairs of black silk hose. Black cloth to make a cloak. Two yards of cambric to make ruffs, plattes, coverchiefs and handkerchiefs, six ells. Linen to make smocks, ten ells. Silver dishes and saucers for her use. The charge of weekly rate for her board, 46s. 8d.; for her child, 13s. 4d.; for his nurse, 6s. 8d.; her three ladies, each 6s. 8d.; for her two men-servants, 5s. each; the same for her laundress and the widow that washeth the child’s clothes.”

[89] The receipt in question runs as follows:—

“January 24, 1564. Received by me, John Woode, steward to the Right Honourable my L(ord) John Graie, at the hands of George Ireland, for fourteen weeks’ diet unto my Lady of Hartford and her train, after six pounds sixteen shillings and eight pence the week, in full payment of all her Ladyship’s said diet unto this day, the sum of four score fifteen pounds thirteen shillings four pence on, besides 57li 4s. 9d. which I received of Mr. Edward Stanhope in full satisfaction of her Ladyship’s diet until the 17th of October last. In witness whereof I have here under subscribed my name this 23rd of January 1563 (n.s. 1564) et Anno Regni Regine E. sext.

li s d 95 13 4 by me John Woode s. d. My Lady 66 8 Her son 13 4 li ——- 4 William Hampton 5 0 Her nurse 6 8 Mrs. Woodeforde 6 8 Mrs. Isham 6 8 My Lady’s groom 5 0 Nowell her man 5 0 My Lady’s two launders 10 0 Page 6 8 s d Lackey 5 0 56 8 li s d ——- ——- 6 16 8

“Recd. of Mr. George Ireland the 23rd of January 1563 (1564) which I stand to account for at our next reckoning, 4li 11s. 8d. by me John Woode.

“(_Endorsed_) Copies of my Lady’s diet at Pirgo last paid for 14 weeks. 23 Jan. 1563 (1564).”

[90] The text of this letter is as follows:—

“I find myself not a little bound unto your Lordship for the friendly welcoming and honourable using of my Lady my mother since her now being at the Court, as also your well-tried and goodly noble furthering her long and troublesome suit for us, to our most gracious Queen. Wherein, as always, so now, I still crave your especial and most humble means of desire to Her Majesty, that we may be unburdened of Her Highness’s intolerable displeasure, the great weight whereof hath sufficiently taught us never again to offend so merciful a Princess. And so I beseech you, my good Lord, now on our behalf, who pray not for earthly things so much as the comfort of her too long wasted favour. My trust is God will bless your Lordship’s travails with the fruit thereof, and by your means, wherein, next Him, we only depend, turn the sorrowful mourning of us, Her Majesty’s poor captives, into a countershine comfort, for which I rest in continual prayer. And so I take my leave, beseeching Almighty God long to preserve her, and make me so happy as to enjoy the company of so dear a lord and friend as I have, and do find of your Lordship.

“From Hanworth, the xviii of March, 1563.”—State Papers, vol. xxxiii. fol. 27.

[91] State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. xxx. fol. 77.

[92] Lansdowne MSS. No. 7, article 55.

[93] Guzman de Silva, writing to the King of Spain, states that the book was written “in the interests of Katherine in the matter of the succession, and mainly consisted of two points: first, as to whether King Henry’s will was valid or not, as in it this Katherine is appointed amongst others as his successor; and secondly, the question of the Scotch Queen being an alien.”—Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 427.

The validity of Henry VIII’s will was questioned on the ground that the king did not sign it with his own hand, but by means of a stamp. See _The Nine-days’ Queen_ (R. Davey), pp. 109, 110.

[94] Gosfield Hall, a fortified brick building, encircling a quadrangular court, is two miles from Halstead in Essex and forty-four from London. It stood in the midst of a pleasant park of a hundred and seven acres, having a lake.

[95] State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. xxxix. fol. 70.

[96] This phrase would tempt one to think that the scheme for abducting the Lady Katherine to Spain may not, after all, have been altogether abandoned, even as late as this, or that some other plot for her sudden seizure was feared.

[97] Spanish State Papers, vol. i. pp. 618, 637.

[98] This letter runs as follows:—

“And, as I hear, the Lady Matravers her [Lady Wentworth’s] daughter does not mind to keep the house [Gosfield], but is better disposed to sojourn in some convenient place for her Ladyship, So that if I should be thought meet to have the charge of the said Lady Catherin, I must remove her from thence unto my house, which is nothing meet for many respects for such a personage. I have no wife to take the charge of my house, the want whereof hath occasioned me to lie most part at the said Mr. Wentworthe’s, whose kinsman I was. My house and provision is neither within or without furnished meet to receive such a charge, [and] my business is most times such, by the occasion of the great charge of children I have, that I am much enforced to be from my house. Sir, I do not deal thus plainly and truly with you for that I am loth to take the charge of her Ladyship (if I were meet for the same) for any misliking I have of her or hers, for I must for truth’s sake confess, as one that hath had good experience of her Ladyship’s behaviour here, that it hath been very honourable and quiet, and her Ladyship’s servants very orderly....” The letter, which is addressed to Cecil (here written “Cyssell”), is dated October 3, 1567; and, together with the next three warrants or letters above mentioned, will be found in vol. xliv. of the State Papers for the reign of Elizabeth.

[99] By a curious error this order is endorsed: “The Queen to Sr. Owen Hopton to receive the custody of Lady _Mary_ Grey.”

[100] The text of the letter is as follows:—

“My duty most humbly remembered, may it like your Honour to be advertised, that the sixth of this month I received the Queen Her Highness’ letters touching the charges and custody of the Lady Katerine [_sic_], her Highness’ pleasure wherein I shall at all points endeavour myself to accomplish as one that dare not presume to make suit to the contrary, although I have great cause. For it may please you to understand that I was presently prepared with my wife and small household to lay at our little house in Ipswich and have disposed all things touching my provision in such sort as I must be now driven speedily to alter the same, and to rest at my poor head-house in Suffolk, for that this house and place in Ipswich is in all respects unfit for the charge now imposed upon me.”

[101] State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xlvi., fol. 12.

[102] A room known as “Lady Katherine’s,” is still shown at Cockfield Hall. Yoxford, where the house is situated, is in Suffolk, about four miles north of Saxmundham, and five from the sea.

[103] State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. xlvi., fol. 1.

[104] “She is now come to such weakness that she hath kept her bed these three days, being not able to rise, and taketh little sustenance, and the worst is she standeth in fear of herself [i.e. fears that she will die].”

[105] British Museum, Harleian MSS., No. xxxix., fol. 380.

[106] The accounts sent in by Sir Owen Hopton to the Exchequer are divided into three bills, the first for the expenses of Lady Katherine’s keep before her death; the second for the funeral expenses; and the third for the heralds’ fees.

The first, endorsed “The charges of the Lady Catherine and of her servants until her funeral at Sir Owen Hopton’s,” begins with the cost of her transport from Gosfield, already detailed, and continues:—

“Itm’; for the diet of the Lady Katherine and the board of her ordinary servants, by the time and space of fourteen weeks, at 5 li. the week, 70 li.

“Itm’; for the board of the Lady Katherine’s ordinary servants sithens her departure [i.e. since her death], by the time of three weeks and three days at 33s. 4d. the week, 6 li.

“Itm’; for sending to London three times while the Lady Katherine was sick, 3 li.

“Itm’; for the charge of Doctor Simondes and his man and his horse at Cockfield twice (left blank).

“Itm’; for my own charge two times coming to London (also blank).”

The charges for the funeral, exclusive of the embalming, are as follows:—

“Imprimis; for four meals and two nights’ lodging of all the mourners, being to the number of 77, for their horsemeat during that time, 40