1547 TO 1549.
Testamentary provisions of Henry VIII.--Exclusion of the Scottish
line.--Discontent of the earl of Arundel.--His character and
intrigues.--Hertford declared protector--becomes duke of
Somerset.--Other titles conferred.--Thomas Seymour made
lord-admiral--marries the queen dowager.--His discontent and
intrigues.--His behaviour to Elizabeth.--Death of the queen.--Seymour
aspires to the hand of Elizabeth--conspires against his brother--is
attainted--put to death.--Particulars of his intercourse with
Elizabeth.--Examinations which she underwent on this subject.--Traits of
her early character.--Verses on admiral Seymour.--The learning of
Elizabeth.--Extracts from Ascham's Letters respecting her, Jane Grey,
and other learned ladies.--Two of her letters to Edward VI.
The death of Henry VIII., which took place on January 28th 1547, opened
a new and busy scene, and affected in several important points the
situation of Elizabeth.
The testament by which the parliament had empowered the king to regulate
the government of the country during his son's minority, and even to
settle the order of succession itself, with as full authority as the
distribution of his private property, was the first object of attention;
and its provisions were found strongly characteristic of the temper and
maxims of its author. He confirmed the act of parliament by which his
two daughters had been rendered capable of inheriting the crown, and
appointed to each of them a pension of three thousand pounds, with a
marriage-portion of ten thousand pounds, but annexed the condition of
their marrying with the consent of such of his executors as should be
living. After them, he placed in order of succession Frances marchioness
of Dorset, and Eleanor countess of Cumberland, daughters of his younger
sister the queen-dowager of France by Charles Brandon duke of Suffolk;
and failing the descendants of these ladies he bequeathed the crown to
the next heir. By this disposition he either totally excluded, or at
least removed from their rightful place, his eldest and still surviving
sister the queen-dowager of Scotland, and all her issue;--a most absurd
and dangerous indulgence of his feelings of enmity against the Scottish
line, which might eventually have involved the nation in all the horrors
of a civil war, and from which in fact the whole calamitous destinies of
the house of Suffolk, which the progress of this work will record, and
in some measure also the long misfortunes of the queen of Scots herself,
will be found to draw their origin. Sixteen executors named in the will
were to exercise in common the royal functions till young Edward should
attain the age of eighteen; and to these, twelve others were added as a
council of regency, invested however with no other privilege than that
of giving their opinions when called upon. The selection of the
executors and counsellors was in perfect unison with the policy of the
Tudors. The great officers of state formed of necessity a considerable
portion of the former body, and four of these, lord Wriothesley the
chancellor, the earl of Hertford lord-chamberlain, lord St. John master
of the household, and lord Russel privy-seal, were decorated with the
peerage; but with the exception of sir John Dudley, who had lately
acquired by marriage the rank of viscount Lisle, these were the only
titled men of the sixteen. Thus it appeared, that not a single
individual amongst the hereditary nobility of the country enjoyed in a
sufficient degree the favor and confidence of the monarch, to be
associated in a charge which he had not hesitated to confer on persons
of no higher importance than the principal gentlemen of the bed-chamber,
the treasurer of Calais, and the dean of Canterbury.
Even the council reckoned among its members only two peers: one of them
the brother of the queen-dowager, on whom, since the fall of Cromwel,
the title of earl of Essex had at length been conferred in right of his
wife, the heiress of the Bourchiers: the other, the earl of Arundel,
premier earl of England and last of the ancient name of Fitzalan; a
distinguished nobleman, whom vast wealth, elegant tastes acquired in
foreign travel, and a spirit of magnificence, combined to render one of
the principal ornaments of the court, while his political talents and
experience of affairs qualified him to assume a leading station in the
cabinet. The loyalty and prudence of the Fitzalans must have been
conspicuous for ages, since no attainder, during so long a period of
greatness, had stained the honor of the race; and the moderation or
subserviency of the present earl had been shown by his perfect
acquiescence in all the measures of Henry, notwithstanding his private
preference of the ancient faith: to crown his merits, his blood appears
to have been unmingled with that of the Plantagenets. Notwithstanding
all this, the king had thought fit to name him only a counsellor, not an
executor. Arundel deeply felt the injury; and impatience of the
insignificance to which he was thus consigned, joined to his
disapprobation of the measures of the regency with respect to religion,
threw him into intrigues which contributed not a little to the
turbulence of this disastrous period.
It was doubtless the intention of Henry, that the religion of the
country, at least during the minority of his son, should be left
vibrating on the same nice balance between protestantism and popery on
which it had cost him so much pains to fix it; and with a view to this
object he had originally composed the regency with a pretty equal
distribution of power between the adherents of the two communions. But
the suspicion, or disgust, which afterwards caused him to erase the name
of Gardiner from the list, destroyed the equipoise, and rendered the
scale of reformation decidedly preponderant. In vain did Wriothesley, a
man of vigorous talents and aspiring mind, struggle with Hertford for
the highest place in the administration; in vain did Tunstal bishop of
Durham,--no bigot, but a firm papist,--check with all the authority that
he could venture to exert, the bold career of innovation on which he
beheld Cranmer full of eagerness to enter; in vain did the catholics
invoke to their aid the active interference of Dudley; he suffered them
to imagine that his heart was with them, and that he watched an
opportunity to interpose with effect in their behalf, whilst, in fact,
he was only waiting till the fall of one of the Seymours by the hand of
the other should enable him to crush the survivor, and rise to
uncontrolled authority on the ruins of both.
The first attempt of the protestant party in the regency showed their
intentions; its success proved their strength, and silenced for the
present all opposition. It was proposed, and carried by a majority of
the executors, that the earl of Hertford should be declared protector of
the realm, and governor of the king's person; and the new dictator soon
after procured the ratification of this appointment, which overturned
some of the most important clauses of the late king's will, by causing a
patent to be drawn and sanctioned by the two houses which invested him,
during the minority, with all the prerogatives ever assumed by the most
arbitrary of the English sovereigns, and many more than were ever
recognised by the constitution.
As if in compensation for any disrespect shown to the memory of the
deceased monarch by these proceedings, the executors next declared their
intention of fulfilling certain promises made by him in his last
illness, and which death alone had prevented him from carrying into
effect. On this plea, they bestowed upon themselves and their adherents
various titles of honor, and a number of valuable church preferments,
now first conferred upon laymen, the protector himself unblushingly
assuming the title of duke of Somerset, and taking possession of
benefices and impropriations to a vast amount. Viscount Lisle was
created earl of Warwick, and Wriothesley became earl of Southampton;--an
empty dignity, which afforded him little consolation for seeing himself
soon after, on pretence of some irregular proceedings in his office,
stripped of the post of chancellor, deprived of his place amongst the
other executors of the king, who now formed a privy council to the
protector, and consigned to obscurity and insignificance for the short
remnant of his days. Sir Thomas Seymour ought to have been consoled by
the share allotted him in this splendid distribution, for the
mortification of having been named a counsellor only, and not an
executor. He was made lord Seymour of Sudley, and soon after, lord
high-admiral--preferments greatly exceeding any expectations which his
birth or his services to the state could properly authorize. But he
measured his claims by his nearness to the king; he compared these
inferior dignities with the state and power usurped by his brother, and
his arrogant spirit disdained as a meanness the thought of resting
satisfied or appeased. Circumstances soon arose which converted this
general feeling of discontent in the mind of Thomas Seymour into a more
rancorous spirit of envy and hostility against his brother, and
gradually involved him in a succession of dark intrigues, which, on
account of the embarrassments and dangers in which they eventually
implicated the princess Elizabeth, it will now become necessary to
unravel. The younger Seymour, still in the prime of life, was endowed in
a striking degree with those graces of person and manner which serve to
captivate the female heart, and his ambition had sought in consequence
to avail itself of a splendid marriage.
It is said that the princess Mary herself was at first the object of his
hopes or wishes: but if this were really the case, she must speedily
have quelled his presumption by the lofty sternness of her repulse; for
it is impossible to discover in the history of his life at what
particular period he could have been occupied with such a design.
Immediately after the death of Henry, he found means to revive with such
energy in the bosom of the queen-dowager, an attachment which she had
entertained for him before her marriage with the king, that she
consented to become his wife with a precipitation highly indecorous and
reprehensible. The connexion proved unfortunate on both sides, and its
first effect was to embroil him with his brother.
The protector, of a temper still weaker than his not very vigorous
understanding, had long allowed himself to be governed both in great and
small concerns by his wife, a woman of little principle and of a
disposition in the highest degree violent, imperious, and insolent.
Nothing could be more insupportable to the spirit of this lady, who
prided herself on her descent from Thomas of Woodstock, and now saw her
husband governing the kingdom with all the prerogatives and almost all
the splendor of royalty, than to find herself compelled to yield
precedency to the wife of his younger brother; and unable to submit
patiently to a mortification from which, after all, there was no escape,
she could not forbear engaging in continual disputes on the subject
with the queen-dowager. Their husbands soon were drawn in to take part
in this senseless quarrel, and a serious difference ensued between them.
The protector and council soon after refused to the lord-admiral certain
grants of land and valuable jewels which he claimed as bequests to his
wife from the late king, and the, perhaps, real injury, thus added to
the slights of which he before complained, gave fresh exasperation to
the pride and turbulence of his character.
Taking advantage of the protector's absence on that campaign in Scotland
which ended with the victory of Pinkey, he formed partisans among the
discontented nobles, won from his brother the affections of the young
king, and believing every thing ripe for an attack on his usurped
authority, he designed to bring forward in the ensuing parliament a
proposal for separating, according to ancient precedent, the office of
guardian of the king's person from that of protector of the realm, and
for conferring upon himself the former. But he discovered too late that
he had greatly miscalculated his forces; his proposal was not even
permitted to come to a hearing. Having rendered himself further
obnoxious to the vengeance of the administration by menaces thrown out
in the rage of disappointment, he saw himself reduced, in order to
escape a committal to the Tower, to make submissions to his brother. An
apparent reconciliation took place; and the admiral was compelled to
change, but not to relinquish, his schemes of ambition.
The princess Elizabeth had been consigned on the death of her father to
the protection and superintendance of the queen-dowager, with whom, at
one or other of her jointure-houses of Chelsea or Hanworth, she usually
made her abode. By this means it happened, that after the queen's
remarriage she found herself domesticated under the roof of the
lord-admiral; and in this situation she had soon the misfortune to
become an object of his marked attention.
What were, at this particular period, Seymour's designs upon the
princess, is uncertain; but it afterwards appeared from the testimony of
eye-witnesses, that neither respect for her exalted rank, nor a sense of
the high responsibility attached to the character of a guardian, with
which circumstances invested him, had proved sufficient to restrain him
from freedoms of behaviour towards her, which no reasonable allowance
for the comparative grossness of the age can reduce within the limits of
propriety or decorum. We learn that, on some occasions at least, she
endeavoured to repel his presumption by such expedients as her youthful
inexperience suggested; but her governess and attendants, gained over or
intimidated, were guilty of a treacherous or cowardly neglect of duty,
and the queen herself appears to have been very deficient in delicacy
and caution till circumstances arose which suddenly excited her
jealousy[10]. A violent scene then took place between the royal
step-mother and step-daughter, which ended, fortunately for the peace
and honor of Elizabeth, in an immediate and final separation.
[Note 10: It seems that on one occasion the queen held the hands of
the princess while the lord-admiral amused himself with cutting her gown
to shreds; and that, on another, she introduced him into the chamber of
Elizabeth before she had left her bed, when a violent romping scene took
place, which was afterwards repeated without the presence of the queen.
Catherine was so unguarded in her own conduct, that the lord-admiral
professed himself jealous of the servant who carried up coals to her
apartment.]
There is no ground whatever to credit the popular rumor that the queen,
who died in childbed soon after this affair, was poisoned by the
admiral; but there is sufficient proof that he was a harsh and jealous
husband; and he did not probably at this juncture regard as unpropitious
on the whole, an event which enabled him to aspire to the hand of
Elizabeth, though other and more intricate designs were at the same time
hatching in his busy brain, to which his state of a widower seemed at
first to oppose some serious obstacles.
Lady Jane Grey, eldest daughter of the marchioness of Dorset, who had
been placed immediately after the two princesses in order of succession,
had also resided in the house of the lord-admiral during the lifetime of
the queen-dowager, and he was anxious still to retain in his hands a
pledge of such importance. To the applications of the marquis and
marchioness for her return, he pleaded that the young lady would be as
secure under the superintendance of his mother, whom he had invited to
reside in his house, as formerly under that of the queen, and that a
mark of the esteem of friends whom he so highly valued, would in this
season of his affliction be doubly precious to him. He caused a secret
agent to insinuate to the weak marquis, that if the lady Jane remained
under his roof, it might eventually be in his power to marry her to the
young king; and finally, as the most satisfactory proof of the sincerity
of his professions of regard, he advanced to this illustrious peer the
sum of five hundred pounds in ready money, requiring no other security
for its repayment than the person of his fair guest, or hostage. Such
eloquence proved irresistible: lady Jane was suffered to remain under
this very singular and improper protection, and report for some time
vibrated between the sister and the cousin of the king as the real
object of the admiral's matrimonial projects. But in his own mind there
appears to have been no hesitation between them. The residence of lady
Jane in his house was no otherwise of importance to him, than as it
contributed to insure to him the support of her father, and as it
enabled him to counteract a favorite scheme of the protector's, or
rather of his duchess's, for marrying her to their eldest son. With
Elizabeth, on the contrary, he certainly aimed at the closest of all
connexions, and he was intent on improving by every means the impression
which his dangerous powers of insinuation had already made on her
inexperienced heart.
Mrs. Ashley, her governess, he had long since secured in his interests;
his next step was to gain one Parry, her cofferer, and through these
agents he proposed to open a direct correspondence with herself. His
designs prospered for some time according to his desires; and though it
seems never to have been exactly known, except to the parties
themselves, what degree of secret intelligence Elizabeth maintained with
her suitor; it cannot be doubted that she betrayed towards him
sentiments sufficiently favorable to render the difficulty of obtaining
that consent of the royal executors which the law required, the
principal obstacle, in his own opinion, to the accomplishment of his
wishes. It was one, however, which appeared absolutely insuperable so
long as his brother continued to preside over the administration with
authority not to be resisted; and despair of gaining his object by fair
and peaceful means, soon suggested to the admiral further measures of a
dark and dangerous character.
By the whole order of nobility the protector, who affected the love of
the commons, was envied and hated; but his brother, on the contrary, had
cultivated their friendship with assiduity and success; and he now took
opportunities of emphatically recommending it to his principal
adherents, the marquis of Northampton (late earl of Essex), the marquis
of Dorset, the earl of Rutland, and others, to go into their counties
and "make all the strength" there which they could. He boasted of the
command of men which he derived from his office of high-admiral;
provided a large quantity of arms for his followers; and gained over the
master of Bristol mint to take measures for supplying him, on any sudden
emergency, with a large sum of money. He likewise opened a secret
correspondence with the young king, and endeavoured by many accusations,
true or false, to render odious the government of his brother. But
happily those turbulent dispositions and inordinate desires which
prompt men to form plots dangerous to the peace and welfare of a
community, are rarely found to co-exist with the sagacity and prudence
necessary to conduct them to a successful issue; and to this remark the
admiral was not destined to afford an exception. Though he ought to have
been perfectly aware that his late attempt had rendered him an object of
the strongest suspicion to his brother, and that he was surrounded by
his spies, such was the violence and presumption of his temper, that he
could not restrain himself from throwing out vaunts and menaces which
served to put his enemies on the track of the most important
discoveries; and in the midst of vain schemes and flattering
anticipations, he was surprised on the sudden by a warrant for his
committal to the Tower. His principal agents were also seized, and
compelled to give evidence before the council. Still the protector
seemed reluctant to proceed to extremities against his brother; but his
own impetuous temper and the ill offices of the earl of Warwick
conspired to urge on his fate.
Far from submitting himself as before to the indulgence of the
protector, and seeking to disarm his indignation by promises and
entreaties, Seymour now stood, as it were, at bay, and boldly demanded a
fair and equal trial,--the birthright of Englishmen. But this was a boon
which it was esteemed on several accounts inexpedient, if not dangerous,
to grant. No overt act of treason could be proved against him:
circumstances might come out which would compromise the young king
himself, whom a strong dislike of the restraint in which he was held by
his elder uncle had thrown pretty decidedly into the party of the
younger. The name of the lady Elizabeth was implicated in the
transaction further than it was delicate to declare. An acquittal, which
the far-extended influence of the lord-admiral over all classes of men
rendered by no means impossible, would probably be the ruin of the
protector;--and in the end it was decided to proceed against him by the
arbitrary and odious method of attainder.
Several of those peers, on whose support he had placed the firmest
reliance, rose voluntarily in their places, and betrayed the designs
which he had confided to them. The depositions before the council were
declared sufficient ground for his condemnation; and in spite of the
opposition of some spirited and upright members of the house of commons,
a sentence was pronounced, in obedience to which, in March 1549, he was
conducted to the scaffold.
The timely removal of this bad and dangerous man, however illegal and
unwarrantable the means by which it was accomplished, deserves to be
regarded as the first of those signal escapes with which the life of
Elizabeth so remarkably abounds. Her attachment for Seymour, certainly
the earliest, was perhaps also the strongest, impression of the tender
kind which her heart was destined to receive; and though there may be a
probability that in this, as in subsequent instances, where her
inclinations seemed most to favor the wishes of her suitors, her
characteristic caution would have interfered to withhold her from an
irrevocable engagement, it might not much longer have been in her power
to recede with honor, or even, if the designs of Seymour had prospered,
with safety.
The original pieces relative to this affair have fortunately been
preserved, and furnish some very remarkable traits of the early
character of Elizabeth, and of the behaviour of those about her.
The confessions of Mrs. Ashley and of Parry before the privy-council,
contain all that is known of the conduct of the admiral towards their
lady during the lifetime of the queen. They seem to cast upon Mrs.
Ashley the double imputation of having suffered such behaviour to pass
before her eyes as she ought not to have endured for a moment, and of
having needlessly disclosed to Parry particulars respecting it which
reflected the utmost disgrace both on herself, the admiral, and her
pupil. Yet we know that Elizabeth, so far from resenting any thing that
Mrs. Ashley had either done or confessed, continued to love and favor
her in the highest degree, and after her accession promoted her husband
to a considerable office:--a circumstance which affords ground for
suspicion that some important secrets were in her possession respecting
later transactions between the princess and Seymour which she had
faithfully kept. It should also be observed in palliation of the
liberties which she accused the admiral of allowing to himself, and the
princess of enduring, that the period of Elizabeth's life to which these
particulars relate was only her fourteenth year.
We are told that she refused permission to the admiral to visit her
after he became a widower, on account of the general report that she was
likely to become his wife; and not the slightest trace was at this time
found of any correspondence between them, though Harrington afterwards
underwent an imprisonment for having delivered to her a letter from the
admiral. Yet it is stated that the partiality of the young princess
betrayed itself by many involuntary tokens to those around her, who were
thus encouraged to entertain her with accounts of the admiral's
attachment, and to inquire whether, if the consent of the council could
be obtained, she would consent to admit his addresses. The admiral is
represented to have proceeded with caution equal to her own. Anxious to
ascertain her sentiments, earnestly desirous to accomplish so splendid
an union, but fully sensible of the inutility as well as danger of a
clandestine connexion, he may be thought rather to have regarded her
hand as the recompense which awaited the success of all his other plans
of ambition, than as the means of obtaining that success; and it seemed
to have been only by distant hints through the agents whom he trusted,
that he had ventured as yet to intimate to her his views and wishes; but
it is probable that much of the truth was by these agents suppressed.
The protector, rather, as it seems, with the desire of criminating his
brother than of clearing the princess, sent sir Robert Tyrwhitt to her
residence at Hatfield, empowered to examine her on the whole matter; and
his letters to his employer inform us of many particulars. When, by the
base expedient of a counterfeit letter, he had brought her to believe
that both Mrs. Ashley and Parry were committed to the Tower, "her grace
was," as he expresses it, "marvellously abashed, and did weep very
tenderly a long time, demanding whether they had confessed any thing or
not." Soon after, sending for him, she related several circumstances
which she said she had forgotten to mention when the master of the
household and master Denny came from the protector to examine her.
"After all this," adds he, "I did require her to consider her honor, and
the peril that might ensue, for she was but a subject; and I further
declared what a woman Mrs. Ashley was, with a long circumstance, saying
that if she would open all things herself, that all the evil and shame
should be ascribed to them, and her youth considered both with the
king's majesty, your grace, and the whole council. But in no way she
will not confess any practice by Mrs. Ashley or the cofferer concerning
my lord-admiral; and yet I do see it in her face that she is guilty, and
do perceive as yet that she will abide the storms or she accuse Mrs.
Ashley.
"Upon sudden news that my lord great-master and master Denny was arrived
at the gate, the cofferer went hastily to his chamber, and said to my
lady his wife, 'I would I had never been born, for I am undone,' and
wrung his hands, and cast away his chain from his neck, and his rings
from his fingers. This is confessed by his own servant, and there is
divers witnesses of the same."
The following day Tyrwhitt writes, that all he has yet gotten from the
princess was by gentle persuasion, whereby he began to grow with her in
credit, "for I do assure your grace she hath a good wit, and nothing is
gotten off her but by great policy."
A few days after, he expresses to the protector his opinion that there
had been some secret promise between the princess, Mrs. Ashley, and the
cofferer, never to confess till death; "and if it be so," he observes,
"it will never be gotten of her but either by the king's majesty or else
by your grace." On another occasion he confirms this idea by stating
that he had tried her with false intelligence of Parry's having
confessed, on which she called him "false wretch," and said that it was
a great matter for him to make such a promise and break it. He notices
the exact agreement between the princess and the other two in all their
statements, but represents it as a proof that "they had set the knot
before." It appears on the whole, that sir Robert with all his pains was
not able to elicit a single fact of decisive importance; but probably
there was somewhat more in the matter than we find acknowledged in a
letter from Elizabeth herself to the protector. She here states, that
she did indeed send her cofferer to speak with the lord-admiral, but on
no other business than to recommend to him one of her chaplains, and to
request him to use his interest that she might have Durham Place for her
town house; that Parry on his return informed her, that the admiral said
she could not have Durham Place, which was wanted for a mint, but
offered her his own house for the time of her being in London; and that
Parry then inquired of her, whether, if the council would consent to her
marrying the admiral, she would herself be willing? That she refused to
answer this question, requiring to know who bade him ask it. He said, No
one; but from the admiral's inquiries what she spent in her house, and
whether she had gotten her patents for certain lands signed, and other
questions of a similar nature, he thought "that he was given that way
rather than otherwise." She explicitly denies that her governess ever
advised her to marry the admiral without the consent of the council; but
relates with great apparent ingenuousness, the hints which Mrs. Ashley
had thrown out of his attachment to her, and the artful attempts which
she had made to discover how her pupil stood affected towards such a
connexion.
The letter concludes with the following wise and spirited assertion of
herself. "Master Tyrwhitt and others have told me, that there goeth
rumours abroad which be greatly both against my honor and honesty,
(which above all things I esteem) which be these; that I am in the
Tower, and with child by my lord admiral. My lord, these are shameful
slanders, for the which, besides the desire I have to see the king's
majesty, I shall most humbly desire your lordship that I may come to the
court after your first determination, that I may show myself there as I
am."
That the cofferer had repeated his visits to the admiral oftener than
was at first acknowledged either by his lady or himself, a confession
afterwards addressed by Elizabeth to the protector seems to show; but
even with this confession Tyrwhitt declares himself unsatisfied.
Parry, in that part of his confession where he relates what passed
between himself and the lord-admiral when he waited upon him by his
lady's command, takes notice of the earnest manner in which the admiral
had urged her endeavouring to procure, by way of exchange, certain crown
lands which had been the queen's, and seem to have been adjacent to his
own, from which, he says, he inferred, that he wanted to have both them
and his lady for himself. He adds, that the admiral said he wished the
princess to go to the duchess of Somerset, and by her means make suit to
the protector for the lands, and for a town house, and "to entertain her
grace for her furtherance." That when he repeated this to her, Elizabeth
would not at first believe that he had said such words, or could wish
her so to do; but on his declaring that it was true, "she seemed to be
angry that she should be driven to make such suits, and said, 'In faith
I will not come there, nor begin to flatter now.'"
Her spirit broke out, according to Tyrwhitt, with still greater
vehemence, on the removal of Mrs. Ashley, whom lady Tyrwhitt succeeded
in her office:--the following is the account which he gives of her
behaviour.
"Pleaseth it your grace to be advertised, that after my wife's repair
hither, she declared to the lady Elizabeth's grace, that she was called
before your grace and the council and had a rebuke, that she had not
taken upon her the office to see her well governed, in the lieu of Mrs.
Ashley. Her answer was, that Mrs. Ashley was her mistress, and that she
had not so demeaned herself that the council should now need to put any
mo mistresses unto her. Whereunto my wife answered, seeing she did allow
Mrs. Ashley to be her mistress, she need not to be ashamed to have any
honest woman to be in that place. She took the matter so heavily that
she wept all that night and lowered all the next day, till she received
your letter; and then she sent for me and asked me whether she was best
to write to you again or not: I said, if she would make answer that she
would follow the effect of your letter, I thought it well done that she
should write; but in the end of the matter I perceived that she was very
loth to have a governor; and to avoid the same, said the world would
note her to be a great offender, having so hastily a governor appointed
her. And all is no more, she fully hopes to recover her old mistress
again. The love she yet beareth her is to be wondered at. I told her, if
she would consider her honor and the sequel thereof, she would,
considering her years, make suit to your grace to have one, rather than
to make delay to be without one one hour. She cannot digest such advice
in no way; but if I should say my phantasy, it were more meet she should
have two than one. She would in any wise write to your grace, wherein I
offered her my advice, which she would in no wise follow, but write her
own phantasy. She beginneth now a little to droop, by reason she heareth
that my lord-admiral's houses be dispersed. And my wife telleth me now,
that she cannot hear him discommended but she is ready to make answer
therein; and so she hath not been accustomed to do, unless Mrs. Ashley
were touched, whereunto she was very ready to make answer vehemently."
&c.[11]
[Note 11: For the original documents relative to this affair see
Burleigh Papers by Haynes, _passim_.]
Parry had probably the same merit of fidelity as Mrs. Ashley; for
though Tyrwhitt says he was found faulty in his accounts, he was not
only continued at this time by his mistress in his office of cofferer,
but raised afterwards to that of comptroller of the royal household,
which he held till his death.
A gentleman of the name of Harrington, then in the admiral's service,
who was much examined respecting his master's intercourse with the
princess, and revealed nothing, was subsequently taken by her into her
own household and highly favored; and so certain did this gentleman, who
was a man of parts, account himself of her tenderness for the memory of
a lover snatched from her by the hand of violence alone, that he
ventured, several years after her accession to the throne, to present
her with a portrait of him, under which was inscribed the following
sonnet.
"Of person rare, strong limbs and manly shape,
By nature framed to serve on sea or land;
In friendship firm in good state or ill hap,
In peace head-wise, in war, skill great, bold hand.
On horse or foot, in peril or in play,
None could excel, though many did essay.
A subject true to king, a servant great,
Friend to God's truth, and foe to Rome's deceit.
Sumptuous abroad for honor of the land,
Temp'rate at home, yet kept great state with stay,
And noble house that fed more mouths with meat
Than some advanced on higher steps to stand;
Yet against nature, reason, and just laws,
His blood was spilt, guiltless, without just cause."
The fall of Seymour, and the disgrace and danger in which she had
herself been involved, afforded to Elizabeth a severe but useful
lesson; and the almost total silence of history respecting her during
the remainder of her brother's reign affords satisfactory indication of
the extreme caution with which she now conducted herself.
This silence, however, is agreeably supplied by documents of a more
private nature, which inform us of her studies, her acquirements, the
disposition of her time, and the bent of her youthful mind.
The Latin letters of her learned preceptor Roger Ascham abound with
anecdotes of a pupil in whose proficiency he justly gloried; and the
particulars interspersed respecting other females of high rank, also
distinguished by the cultivation of classical literature, enhance the
interest of the picture, by affording objects of comparison to the
principal figure, and illustrating the taste, almost the rage, for
learning which pervaded the court of Edward VI.
Writing in 1550 to his friend John Sturmius, the worthy and erudite
rector of the protestant university of Strasburgh, Ascham has the
following passages.
* * * * *
"Never was the nobility of England more lettered than at present. Our
illustrious king Edward in talent, industry, perseverance, and
erudition, surpasses both his own years and the belief of men.... I
doubt not that France will also yield the just praise of learning to the
duke of Suffolk[12] and the rest of that band of noble youths educated
with the king in Greek and Latin literature, who depart for that
country on this very day.
[Note 12: This was the second duke of the name of Brandon, who died
young of the sweating sickness.]
"Numberless honorable ladies of the present time surpass the daughters
of sir Thomas More in every kind of learning. But amongst them all, my
illustrious mistress the lady Elizabeth shines like a star, excelling
them more by the splendor of her virtues and her learning, than by the
glory of her royal birth. In the variety of her commendable qualities, I
am less perplexed to find matter for the highest panegyric than to
circumscribe that panegyric within just bounds. Yet I shall mention
nothing respecting her but what has come under my own observation.
"For two years she pursued the study of Greek and Latin under my
tuition; but the foundations of her knowledge in both languages were
laid by the diligent instruction of William Grindal, my late beloved
friend and seven years my pupil in classical learning at Cambridge. From
this university he was summoned by John Cheke to court, where he soon
after received the appointment of tutor to this lady. After some years,
when through her native genius, aided by the efforts of so excellent a
master, she had made a great progress in learning, and Grindal, by his
merit and the favor of his mistress, might have aspired to high
dignities, he was snatched away by a sudden illness, leaving a greater
miss of himself in the court, than I remember any other to have done
these many years.
"I was appointed to succeed him in his office; and the work which he had
so happily begun, without my assistance indeed, but not without some
counsels of mine, I diligently labored to complete. Now, however,
released from the throng of a court, and restored to the felicity of my
former learned leisure, I enjoy, through the bounty of the king, an
honorable appointment in this university.
"The lady Elizabeth has accomplished her sixteenth year; and so much
solidity of understanding, such courtesy united with dignity, have never
been observed at so early an age. She has the most ardent love of true
religion and of the best kind of literature. The constitution of her
mind is exempt from female weakness, and she is endued with a masculine
power of application. No apprehension can be quicker than her's, no
memory more retentive. French and Italian she speaks like English;
Latin, with fluency, propriety, and judgement; she also spoke Greek with
me, frequently, willingly, and moderately well. Nothing can be more
elegant than her handwriting, whether in the Greek or Roman character.
In music she is very skilful, but does not greatly delight. With respect
to personal decoration, she greatly prefers a simple elegance to show
and splendor, so despising 'the outward adorning of plaiting the hair
and of wearing of gold,' that in the whole manner of her life she rather
resembles Hippolyta than Phaedra.
"She read with me almost the whole of Cicero, and a great part of Livy:
from these two authors, indeed, her knowledge of the Latin language has
been almost exclusively derived. The beginning of the day was always
devoted by her to the New Testament in Greek, after which she read
select orations of Isocrates and the tragedies of Sophocles, which I
judged best adapted to supply her tongue with the purest diction, her
mind with the most excellent precepts, and her exalted station with a
defence against the utmost power of fortune. For her religious
instruction, she drew first from the fountains of Scripture, and
afterwards from St. Cyprian, the 'Common places' of Melancthon, and
similar works which convey pure doctrine in elegant language. In every
kind of writing she easily detected any ill-adapted or far-fetched
expression. She could not bear those feeble imitators of Erasmus who
bind the Latin language in the fetters of miserable proverbs; on the
other hand, she approved a style chaste in its propriety, and beautiful
by perspicuity, and she greatly admired metaphors, when not too violent,
and antitheses when just, and happily opposed. By a diligent attention
to these particulars, her ears became so practised and so nice, that
there was nothing in Greek, Latin, or English, prose or verse, which,
according to its merits or defects, she did not either reject with
disgust, or receive with the highest delight.... Had I more leisure, I
would speak to you at greater length of the king, of the lady Elizabeth,
and of the daughters of the duke of Somerset, whose minds have also been
formed by the best literary instruction. But there are two English
ladies whom I cannot omit to mention; nor would I have you, my Sturmius,
omit them, if you meditate any celebration of your English friends, than
which nothing could be more agreeable to me. One is Jane Grey[13], the
other is Mildred Cecil, who understands and speaks Greek like English,
so that it may be doubted whether she is most happy in the possession of
this surpassing degree of knowledge, or in having had for her preceptor
and father sir Anthony Coke, whose singular erudition caused him to be
joined with John Cheke in the office of tutor to the king, or finally,
in having become the wife of William Cecil, lately appointed secretary
of state; a young man indeed, but mature in wisdom, and so deeply
skilled both in letters and in affairs, and endued with such moderation
in the exercise of public offices, that to him would be awarded by the
consenting voice of Englishmen the four-fold praise attributed to
Pericles by his rival Thucydides--'To know all that is fitting, to be
able to apply what he knows, to be a lover of his country, and superior
to money.'"
[Note 13: This lady is commemorated at greater length in another
place, and therefore a clause is here omitted.]
* * * * *
The learned, excellent, and unfortunate Jane Grey is repeatedly
mentioned by this writer with warm and merited eulogium. He relates to
Sturmius, that in the month of August 1550, taking his journey from
Yorkshire to the court, he had deviated from his course to visit the
family of the marquis of Dorset at his seat of Broadgate in
Leicestershire. Lady Jane was alone at his arrival, the rest of the
family being on a hunting party; and gaining admission to her apartment,
he found her reading by herself the Phaedo of Plato in the original,
which she understood so perfectly as to excite in him extreme wonder;
for she was at this time under fifteen years of age. She also possessed
the power of speaking and writing Greek, and she willingly promised to
address to him a letter in this language. In his English work 'The
Schoolmaster,' referring again to this interview with Jane Grey, Ascham
adds the following curious and affecting particulars. Having asked her
how at her age she could have attained to such perfection both in
philosophy and Greek, "I will tell you," said she, "and tell you a
truth, which perchance you will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits
that ever God gave me is, that he sent me so sharp and severe parents,
and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in presence either of father
or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go; eat, drink,
be merry or sad; be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing any thing else, I
must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure, and number, even so
perfectly, as God made the world, or else I am so sharply taunted, so
cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs
and other ways which I will not name, for the honor I bear them, so
without measure misordered, that I think myself in hell, till time come
that I must go to Mr. Elmer, who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly,
with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time
nothing while I am with him. And when I am called from him I fall on
weeping, because whatsoever else I do but learning, is full of grief,
trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me. And thus my book hath been
so much my pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleasure and more,
that in respect of it, all other pleasures, in very deed, be but trifles
and troubles unto me."
The epistles from which the extracts in the preceding pages are with
some abridgement translated, and which are said to be the first
collection of private letters ever published by any Englishman, were all
written during the year 1550, when Ascham, on some disgust, had quitted
the court and returned to his situation of Greek reader at Cambridge;
and perhaps the eulogiums here bestowed, in epistles which his
correspondent lost no time in committing to the press, were not composed
without the secret hope of their procuring for him a restoration to that
court life which it seems difficult even for the learned to quit without
a sigh. It would be unjust, however, to regard Ascham in the light of a
flatterer; for his praises are in most points corroborated by the
evidence of history, or by other concurring testimonies. His
observations, for instance, on the modest simplicity of Elizabeth's
dress and appearance at this early period of her life, which might be
received with some incredulity by the reader to whom instances are
familiar of her inordinate love of dress at a much more advanced age,
and when the cares of a sovereign ought to have left no room for a
vanity so puerile, receive strong confirmation from another and very
respectable authority.
Dr. Elmer or Aylmer, who was tutor to lady Jane Grey and her sisters,
and became afterwards, during Elizabeth's reign, bishop of London, thus
draws her character when young, in a work entitled "A Harbour for
faithful Subjects." "The king left her rich cloaths and jewels; and I
know it to be true, that in seven years after her father's death, she
never in all that time looked upon that rich attire and precious jewels
but once, and that against her will. And that there never came gold or
stone upon her head, till her sister forced her to lay off her former
soberness, and bear her company in her glittering gayness. And then she
so wore it, as every man might see that her body carried that which her
heart misliked. I am sure that her maidenly apparel which she used in
king Edward's time, made the noblemen's daughters and wives to be
ashamed to be dressed and painted like peacocks; being more moved with
her most virtuous example than with all that ever Paul or Peter wrote
touching that matter. Yea, this I know, that a great man's daughter
(lady Jane Grey) receiving from lady Mary before she was queen good
apparel of tinsel, cloth of gold and velvet, laid on with parchment lace
of gold, when she saw it, said, 'What shall I do with it?' 'Mary,' said
a gentlewoman, 'wear it.' 'Nay,' quoth she, 'that were a shame, to
follow my lady Mary against God's word, and leave my lady Elizabeth
which followeth God's word.' And when all the ladies at the coming of
the Scots queen dowager, Mary of Guise, (she who visited England in
Edward's time,) went with their hair frownsed, curled, and doublecurled,
she altered nothing but kept her old maidenly shamefacedness." This
extract may be regarded as particularly curious, as an exemplification
of the rigid turn of sentiment which prevailed at the court of young
Edward, and of the degree in which Elizabeth conformed herself to it.
There is a print from a portrait of her when young, in which the hair is
without a single ornament and the whole dress remarkably simple.
But to return to Ascham.--The qualifications of this learned man as a
writer of classical Latin recommended him to queen Mary, notwithstanding
his known attachment to the protestant faith, in the capacity of Latin
secretary; and it was in the year 1555, while holding this station, that
he resumed his lessons to his illustrious pupil.
"The lady Elizabeth and I," writes he to Sturmius, "are reading together
in Greek the Orations of AEschines and Demosthenes. She reads before me,
and at first sight she so learnedly comprehends not only the idiom of
the language and the meaning of the orator, but the whole grounds of
contention, the decrees of the people, and the customs and manners of
the Athenians, as you would greatly wonder to hear."
Under the reign of Elizabeth, Ascham retained his post of Latin
secretary, and was admitted to considerable intimacy by his royal
mistress. Addressing Sturmius he says, "I received your last letters on
the 15th of January 1560. Two passages in them, one relative to the
Scotch affairs, the other on the marriage of the queen, induced me to
give them to herself to read. She remarked and graciously acknowledged
in both of them your respectful observance of her. Your judgement in the
affairs of Scotland, as they then stood, she highly approved, and she
loves you for your solicitude respecting us and our concerns. The part
respecting her marriage she read over thrice, as I well remember, and
with somewhat of a gentle smile; but still preserving a modest and
bashful silence.
"Concerning that point indeed, my Sturmius, I have nothing certain to
write to you, nor does any one truly know what to judge. I told you
rightly, in one of my former letters, that in the whole ordinance of her
life she resembled not Phaedra but Hippolyta; for by nature, and not by
the counsels of others, she is thus averse and abstinent from marriage.
When I know any thing for certain, I will write it to you as soon as
possible; in the mean time I have no hopes to give you respecting the
king of Sweden."
In the same letter, after enlarging, somewhat too rhetorically perhaps,
on the praises of the queen and her government, Ascham recurs to his
favorite theme,--her learning; and roundly asserts, that there were not
four men in England, distinguished either in the church or the state,
who understood more Greek than her majesty: and as an instance of her
proficiency in other tongues, he mentions that he was once present at
court when she gave answers at the same time to three ambassadors, the
Imperial, the French, and the Swedish, in Italian, in French, and in
Latin; and all this, fluently, without confusion, and to the purpose.
A short epistle from queen Elizabeth to Sturmius, which is inserted in
this collection, appears to refer to that of Sturmius which Ascham
answers above. She addresses him as her beloved friend, expresses in the
handsomest terms her sense of the attachment towards herself and her
country evinced by so eminent a cultivator of genuine learning and true
religion, and promises that her acknowledgements shall not be confined
to words alone; but for a further explanation of her intentions she
refers him to the bearer; consequently we have no data for estimating
the actual pecuniary value of these warm expressions of royal favor and
friendship. But we have good proof, unfortunately, that no munificent
act of Elizabeth's ever interposed to rescue her zealous and admiring
preceptor from the embarrassments into which he was plunged, probably
indeed by his own imprudent habits, but certainly by no faults which
ought to have deprived him of his just claims on the purse of a mistress
whom, he had served with so much ability, and with such distinguished
advantage to herself. The other learned females of this age whom Ascham
has complimented by addressing them in Latin epistles, are, Anne
countess of Pembroke, sister of queen Catherine Parr; a young lady of
the name of Vaughan; Jane Grey; and Mrs. Clark, a grand-daughter of sir
Thomas More, by his favorite daughter Mrs. Roper. In his letter to this
last lady, written during the reign of Mary, after congratulating her on
her cultivation, amid the luxury and dissipation of a court, of studies
worthy the descendant of a man whose high qualities had ennobled England
in the estimation of foreign nations, he proceeds to mention, that he is
the person whom, several years ago, her excellent mother had requested
to undertake the instruction of all her children in Greek and Latin
literature. At that time, he says, no offer could tempt him to quit his
learned retirement at Cambridge, and he was reluctantly compelled to
decline the proposal; but being now once more established at court, he
freely offers to a lady whose accomplishments he so much admires, any
assistance in her laudable pursuits which it may be in his power to
afford.
A few more scattered notices may be collected relative to this period of
the life of Elizabeth. Her talents, her vivacity, her proficiency in
those classical studies to which he was himself addicted, and especially
the attachment which she manifested to the reformed religion, endeared
her exceedingly to the young king her brother, who was wont to call
her,--perhaps with reference to the sobriety of dress and manners by
which she was then distinguished,--his sweet sister Temperance. On her
part his affection was met by every demonstration of sisterly
tenderness, joined to those delicate attentions and respectful
observances which his rank required.
It was probably about 1550 that she addressed to him the following
letter on his having desired her picture, which affords perhaps the most
favorable specimen extant of her youthful style.
* * * * *
"Like as the rich man that daily gathereth riches to riches, and to one
bag of money layeth a great sort till it come to infinite: so methinks
your majesty, not being sufficed with so many benefits and gentleness
shewed to me afore this time, doth now increase them in asking and
desiring where you may bid and command; requiring a thing not worthy the
desiring for itself, but made worthy for your highness' request. My
picture I mean: in which, if the inward good mind toward your grace
might as well be declared, as the outward face and countenance shall be
seen, I would not have tarried the commandment but prevented it, nor
have been the last to grant but the first to offer it. For the face I
grant I might well blush to offer, but the mind I shall never be
ashamed to present. But though from the grace of the picture the colors
may fade by time, may give by weather, may be spited by chance; yet the
other, nor time with her swift wings shall overtake, nor the misty
clouds with their lowering may darken, nor chance with her slippery foot
may overthrow.
"Of this also yet the proof could not be great, because the occasions
have been so small; notwithstanding, as a dog hath a day, so may I
perchance have time to declare it in deeds, which now I do write them
but in words. And further, I shall humbly beseech your majesty, that
when you shall look on my picture, you will witsafe to think, that as
you have but the outward shadow of the body afore you, so my inward mind
wisheth that the body itself were oftener in your presence. Howbeit
because both my so being I think could do your majesty little pleasure,
though myself great good; and again, because I see not as yet the time
agreeing thereunto, I shall learn to follow this saying of Horace,
'_Feras, non culpes, quod vitari non potest_.' And thus I will
(troubling your majesty I fear) end with my most humble thanks;
beseeching God long to preserve you to his honor, to your comfort, to
the realms profit, and to my joy.
(From Hatfield this 15th day of May.)
Your majesty's most humble sister and servant
ELIZABETH."
* * * * *
An exact memorialist[14] has preserved an instance of the high
consideration now enjoyed by Elizabeth in the following passage, which
is further curious as an instance of the state which she already assumed
in her public appearances. "March 17th (1551). The lady Elizabeth, the
king's sister, rode through London unto St. James's, the king's palace,
with a great company of lords, knights, and gentlemen; and after her a
great company of ladies and gentlemen on horseback, about two hundred.
On the 19th she came from St. James's through the park to the court; the
way from the park gate unto the court spread with fine sand. She was
attended with a very honorable confluence of noble and worshipful
persons of both sexes, and received with much ceremony at the court
gate."
[Note 14: Strype.]
The ensuing letter, however, seems to intimate that there were those
about the young king who envied her these tokens of favor and credit,
and were sometimes but too successful in estranging her from the royal
presence, and perhaps in exciting prejudices against her:--It is
unfortunately without date of year.
* * * * *
"The princess Elizabeth to king Edward VI.
"Like as a shipman in stormy weather plucks down the sails tarrying for
better wind, so did I, most noble king, in my unfortunate chance a
Thursday pluck down the high sails of my joy and comfort; and do trust
one day, that as troublesome waves have repulsed me backward, so a
gentle wind will bring me forward to my haven. Two chief occasions moved
me much and grieved me greatly: the one, for that I doubted your
majesty's health; the other, because for all my long tarrying, I went
without that I came for. Of the first I am relieved in a part, both that
I understood of your health, and also that your majesty's lodging is far
from my lord marques' chamber: of my other grief I am not eased; but the
best is, that whatsoever other folks will suspect, I intend not to fear
your grace's good will, which as I know that I never deserved to faint,
so I trust will still stick by me. For if your grace's advice that I
should return, (whose will is a commandment) had not been, I would not
have made the half of my way the end of my journey.
"And thus as one desirous to hear of your majesty's health, though
unfortunate to see it, I shall pray God to preserve you. (From Hatfield
this present Saturday.)
"Your majesty's humble sister to commandment,
"ELIZABETH."
* * * * *