CONCERNING THE LADY JANE AND THE QUEEN-DOWAGER
The will of Henry VIII conferred upon the houses of Seymour and Grey
a towering position in the State which naturally brought forward
into extraordinary relief the hitherto ignored name of Lady Jane.
A few weeks earlier she was but the eldest daughter of the rather
weak-minded Marquis of Dorset, a man whom no one seems to have held
in any great consideration, notwithstanding his royal alliance and
rather showy past career as a soldier under Henry VIII; to-day she
was almost as prominent in the matter of the succession as the King’s
two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom could easily be set
aside by an ambitious faction: the elder on account of her religion,
the younger on that of her somewhat doubtful legitimacy. It is not
surprising, therefore, that the intrigues which were to culminate in
the ruin of the unfortunate Lady Jane began almost immediately after
the accession of her cousin, Edward VI; for it was at this time that
the newly made Lord Sudeley, desiring to possess “two strings to his
bow,” embarked in a most imprudent intrigue to obtain possession of the
person of the Marquis of Dorset’s daughter, who, as the reversionary
heiress of England, was justly regarded by both parties as a most
valuable asset. The intermediary employed in this transaction was
one William Sharington, a gentleman in Seymour’s confidence, who was
his equal in the conducting of tricksome intrigues: it will become
apparent as we proceed that whenever Sudeley had any particularly
difficult and dangerous matter to deal with, he invariably got some
subordinate to share the danger with him. One morning, very soon after
King Henry’s death, Sharington appeared at Dorset Place, Westminster,
to open negotiations with the Marquis about the transfer of his
eldest daughter into Sudeley’s charge. He began by informing Dorset,
apparently one of the most credulous of mortals, that the Admiral, as
uncle to the King, “was like to come to great authority, and was most
desirous of forming a bond of friendship with him.” On the following
day Sharington returned, and after assuring the Marquis that “the Lord
High-Admiral was very much his friend,” insinuated that “it were a
goodly thing to happen if my Lady Jane his daughter were in the keeping
of the said Lord Admiral.” He said he had often heard his master say
“that the Lady Jane was the handsomest lady in England and that the
Admiral would see her placed in marriage much to his (the Marquis’s)
comfort.”
“And with whom will he match her?” inquired Dorset.
“Marry,” replied Sharington, “I doubt not but you shall see he will
marry her to the King, and fear you not, he will bring it to pass, and
then you shall be able to help all the friends you have.”
After this visit the Marquis held a consultation with the Lady Frances,
which resulted in his accepting a personal interview with Lord Sudeley.
Thomas Seymour does not appear to have had any fixed London abode in
his bachelor days, but probably lived, on occasion, as Surrey did, in
what we should now call chambers, somewhere in the Strand. But when he
became Baron Sudeley and Lord High-Admiral, he conceived it incumbent
upon him to live in a style commensurate with his increased rank, and
solicited a suitable mansion from his brother, the Protector. Somerset
forthwith filched Bath House, Strand, from Bishop Barlow, and presented
it to his brother. This house, which must not be mistaken for Bath
House, Holborn, was built in the fourteenth century and considerably
enlarged and embellished in the beginning of the sixteenth; it was
one of the finest mansions in London, and, with its gardens, occupied
the whole space now covered by Arundel, Norfolk, and Suffolk Streets,
Strand. The mansion stood on the approximate site of the present Howard
Hotel. It commanded an extensive view of the Thames, and there was an
orchard extending to the Strand.[110]
To Seymour Place, Strand, therefore, rode my lord of Dorset, to
find Sudeley walking in his garden. The two gentlemen held a most
confidential conversation, in the course of which Sudeley persuaded
Dorset not only to hand the wardship of the Lady Jane over to him, but
to send for her then and there, and allow the young girl to take up her
abode under the roof of one of the most notorious profligates of an
exceedingly degenerate Court.
The Lady Jane did not arrive at Seymour Place _in formâ pauperis_. She
was attended by her governess, Mrs. Ashley, by four waiting women and a
number of male servants of various degrees. Sudeley’s household was at
this time ruled over by his mother, the Dowager Lady Seymour. Since the
death of her husband, Sir John Seymour, in December 1536, this lady had
kept house for her younger son, who brought her for that purpose either
from Hertford or from a suburban house on a site now crossed by Upper
and Lower Seymour Street, Portman Square.
There is some unexplained mystery connected with Lady Seymour which
the present writer does not pretend to have fathomed. No explanation
is discoverable of the strange fact that the mother of a Queen and the
grandmother of a King of England seems to have been almost ignored by
her son-in-law Henry VIII, by her young grandson Edward VI, by her
own son the Protector, and indeed by all the great people with whom
her high position must have brought her into contact. Her name is not
once mentioned in connection with that of her daughter, Jane Seymour,
after she became Queen. She did not figure at the christening of the
baby Edward, and did not present the customary gifts offered by near
relations on such occasions. She has left no correspondence, and there
is only one allusion to her in the Household Books of Henry VIII,
and none at all in those of Edward VI, which contain some reference
to almost every lady of importance of the period, as receiving or
presenting gifts from or to the sovereign, either personally or through
attendants. We only know that her banner of arms figured, close to that
of her daughter, Queen Jane, at the obsequies of Henry VIII and Edward
VI; and that Henry, in 1537, during the year of his marriage with Jane
Seymour, when he raised his brother-in-law Edward Seymour to the rank
of Baron Beauchamp, granted him a pension of £1100 per annum, out of
which he was to pay his mother an annuity of £60[111]--but beyond the
papers connected with this pension there is only one other existing
document in which her name figures, and this deals with an incident
that arose after her death, in 1551, when her grandson the King was
induced by the Privy Council, and by her own son, the Duke of Somerset,
to countermand the wearing of official mourning for her. Beyond the
fact that Lady Seymour was by birth a Wentworth, and therefore highly
connected, and that in one of his letters to Lady Jane’s mother Seymour
represents his own as a fitting person to take the young girl under
her maternal care, Lady Seymour may be said to have lived and died
as much ignored as though she had been a woman of no birth and no
importance.[112]
Of the sort of life lived by the Lady Jane during the weeks she spent
at Seymour Place we know nothing, but from the alacrity with which she
consented to return there at a later period we may feel justified in
believing she was very happy under the charge of the mysterious Lady
Seymour and her erratic and wilful son. Miss Strickland says, but
without naming her authority, that Lady Seymour was one of the earliest
Englishwomen of rank to adopt the tenets of the Reformation. If this
was the case, Lady Jane Grey probably met at her house some one or
other of the numerous foreign Reformers who began to invade England
shortly after the death of Henry VIII. It is, however, likely that
Sudeley undertook the charge of this young lady at the instigation
of Katherine Parr, and that whilst at Seymour Place her education
was continued under the direction of the scholarly Miles Coverdale,
afterwards Bishop of Exeter, who had been appointed chaplain to the
Queen-Dowager. There is some little resemblance between the handwriting
of this divine and that of Lady Jane, which leads one to think he had a
considerable share in directing her studies at this period.
If the Dorsets imagined they were doing themselves and their daughter a
service by placing her under the guardianship of Thomas Seymour, they
made a terrible mistake, for this incident was certainly at the root
of that fatal animosity between the two brothers which led up to one
of the most appalling tragedies in our history. In the first place,
it revealed to Somerset that Sudeley was fighting for his own hand,
and further, entirely upset the Lord Protector’s domestic schemes and
arrangements. Both Somerset and his wife had been very intimate with
the Marquis and the Marchioness, his royal consort, and the young
Earl of Hertford,[113] their eldest son, was a constant visitor at
Westminster and at Bradgate. He was an exceedingly handsome youth,
described by Norton, his tutor, as “singularly like his father,” who,
judged by his portraits, was one of the finest-looking men of his day.
So fond was the Lady Frances of the young Earl that she would call
him “her son,” and undoubtedly looked on him as a welcome suitor for
her eldest daughter; and if there was any love romance in Lady Jane’s
brief life, it was certainly in connection with this youth, and not
with Guildford, whom she eventually married, but whom she slighted
rather than loved. The Somersets, moreover, had made up their minds
that if the proposed marriage between Mary Stuart and Edward VI came
to nothing, Edward should be contracted as soon as possible to their
youngest daughter, the very pretty and highly accomplished Lady Jane
Seymour.[114] Under these circumstances it may well be imagined that
the Duke and Duchess were not only furious when they learned that Lady
Jane Grey was already comfortably installed under their brother’s roof,
without their knowledge and consent, but firmly resolved that the young
lady should see as little of her cousin the King as possible.
Brother Thomas had yet a greater surprise and vexation in store for
Somerset and his Duchess, and even for King Edward VI himself, than
the matter of the wardship of Lady Jane Grey. He was, if the truth is
to be honestly told, about the most extraordinary scamp of his time.
Physically he eclipsed his elder brother, the Protector, himself
considered a very handsome man. In addition to a fine figure, Thomas
possessed beautiful features, just escaping the long thin nose which
characterised his brother’s face and ruined Queen Jane’s pretensions
to beauty. He was dark, with a full beard, a ruddy complexion,
and full brown eyes. In a word, a very fine fellow indeed, and
exceedingly attractive to the fair sex, who found it hard to resist his
blandishments, a cruel fact of which he was apt to boast. He danced
to perfection, was first in all sports, could turn pretty verses when
it suited him--and even godly ones, on occasion. His love of dress
was proverbial, and in that brilliant Court of Henry VIII Sir Thomas
Seymour never failed to hold his own for extravagance and magnificence.
Like his brother Somerset, he could be kindly when it suited his
purpose, and liberal enough to his inferiors when he desired to create
a good impression. He seems to have even been a dutiful son, for, as
we have said, his mother lived with him to the end of his life, and he
spoke well of her.
These comparative virtues were outweighted by his evil qualities, for
not even in that age of rascality and of wickedness in high places did
there exist a greater ruffian than this seemingly polished gentleman.
Thomas was one of those men who are born without a conscience.[115]
Henry VIII had not long been dead and the elder Seymour scarcely
proclaimed Protector of the Realm when Sudeley began to realise that
his own part at the Court of his nephew, Edward VI, must be quite
secondary unless he could forthwith contract some royal alliance and
thereby make his position equal to his brother’s. So it fell out that,
before the late King’s body was cold, Thomas Seymour had made up his
mind to marry one of the royal princesses; and ere it was buried
he had offered his hand to the elder of the King’s widows, Anne of
Cleves. That cautious Princess promptly refused the dubious proposal,
preferring her independence and present comfort to the probable
sacrifice of a handsome income paid by the State for the poor pleasure
of espousing a cadet of the house of Seymour. Nothing daunted by this
refusal, the undismayed suitor aimed higher yet, and offered his hand
and heart to Princess Mary, who thanked him, in a courteous letter, for
the honour he paid her, and assured him that she had not the slightest
intention of changing her state, especially so soon after her father’s
death. Baffled again, my Lord of Sudeley now addressed himself to the
youthful Princess Elizabeth, who, according to Leti, answered him in a
most becoming manner, reminding him that her father was just dead, and
that it would ill become her to think of marriage at such a moment or
for at least two years after so sad an event. She had not, she said,
had time to enjoy her maidenhood, and wished to do so for that period
at least, before embarking on the stormy seas of matrimony. Elizabeth’s
letter, if she really wrote it,--one can never quite trust Leti, though
he lived near enough to the time to have access to papers and documents
long since destroyed,--was a model of _finesse_ and good taste.
The rejected, but undejected, Seymour now turned his attention to his
old love, Katherine Parr, whom, as we know, he first courted when
she became the widow of Lord Latimer. He must have been a good deal
in her company in the last months of King Henry’s life, and on her
own admission she had not lost any of her old love for him; for in a
letter, written presumably within a fortnight of the late King’s death,
she says, “I would not have you think that this, mine honest good will
towards you to proceed from any sudden motion of passion; for, as truly
as God is God, my mind was fully bent the other time I was at liberty
[that is, after the death of Lord Latimer], to marry you before any
man I know. Howbeit God withstood my will therein most vehemently for
a time, and through His grace and goodness made that possible which
seemed to me most impossible; that was, made me renounce utterly mine
own will and follow His most willingly. It were long to write all the
processes of this matter. If I live, I shall declare it to you myself.
I can say nothing, but as my Lady of Suffolk[116] saith, ‘God is a
wonderful man.’” In March, after Henry’s death, the Queen removed to
Chelsea Manor, a mansion which Henry had built as a nursery for his
children and settled on her as a dower-house. Princess Elizabeth had
joined her within a few days for the purpose of finishing her education
under the auspices of the learned Queen. At the very time, therefore,
that Seymour was intriguing to secure possession of Lady Jane Grey,
he was clandestinely spending his evenings with Katherine Parr either
at Whitehall or, later, when she finally removed with her household
to Chelsea, at the Manor House, coming there by a lane that led from
the Bishop of London’s house up a path which, until a few years ago,
was still in existence and associated by tradition with the names of
Katherine Parr and Thomas Seymour. Some authorities assert that the two
were secretly married about three weeks after the King’s death, and
that the Lord Admiral prolonged his visits, not leaving his wife till
dawn, when she would let him out by the garden wicket, and then steal
back to her room unobserved (at least, so she hoped).[117] According
to Edward VI’s _Journal_, however, the marriage was not officially
celebrated until May, and it was certainly not made public before the
end of June 1547. The intrigues of Lord Thomas to induce the young
King, his nephew, to sanction his marriage with his stepmother began
by his poisoning the King’s mind against his brother Somerset, and,
taking advantage of the Protector’s absence in Scotland, he did all
in his power to make himself agreeable to Edward VI by lending him
considerable sums of money. Somerset kept the royal lad very short of
petty cash, so that at times he had none to distribute to such folk
as strolling musicians, servants who brought him presents from his
relatives, and other persons who had obliged him. Seymour, who had
isolated the King, employed a man named Fowler as intermediary between
himself and Edward.[118] Flattered and cajoled by his uncle Thomas and
well disposed by his natural affection to his stepmother, the poor
little King was at length induced to write a letter advising the Lord
Admiral to marry the Queen-Dowager. This extraordinary missive, which
is still extant, was penned a few days after Edward had received a
very curious epistle from his stepmother, then on a visit to him at
St. James’s Palace, in which she had dilated upon her extraordinary
affection for the memory of his late father. The letter was written in
Latin, and the young King’s answer was in the same dead language. The
King’s letter is full of advice, which comes oddly from a lad not yet
ten to a woman verging upon forty. He hopes to do what is acceptable in
her sight because of, firstly, “the great love you bear my father the
King, of most noble memory; then your good-will towards me; and lastly,
your godliness, and knowledge and learning in the Scriptures. Proceed,
therefore, in your good course; continue to love my father, and to show
the same great kindness to me which I have ever perceived in you. Cease
not to love and read the Scriptures, but persevere in always reading
them; for in the first you show the duty of a good wife and a good
subject, and in the second, the warmth of your friendship, and in the
third, your piety to God.”[119] Very soon after writing this letter
he wrote another to Her Majesty, this time in English, in which he
assured her that, far from being vexed with her for marrying his uncle,
he promised to aid her in the hour of need, should the alliance prove
offensive to those who were in power.
In June the marriage was made public. The indignation of the Duke and
Duchess of Somerset knew no bounds. They had been greatly angered
over the matter of Lady Jane Grey, but no words could express their
exasperation at what they were pleased to consider their brother’s
fresh exhibition of “indecency and wickedness.” The first practical
expression of their wrath was the sequestration of the jewels the
Queen had left behind at Whitehall after King Henry’s death. She had
applied for them several times, and now wrote in a more determined
strain; only, however, to receive a haughty refusal and the startling
information that the jewels belonged to the Crown, whereas they really
were a personal gift to her from the King at the time of the visit of
the French Envoy M. d’Annebault. These jewels were never returned to
Katherine Parr--a matter which roused the Lord Admiral’s wrath to a
culminating pitch. “My brother,” he said, “is wondrous hot in helping
every man to his right save me. He maketh a great matter to let me have
the Queen’s jewels, which you see by the whole opinion of the lawyers
ought to belong to me, and all under pretence that he would not the
King should lose so much, as if it were a loss to the King to let me
have mine own!”[120]
Then came another unpleasant incident, in the course of which the
Queen-Dowager was subjected to unfair treatment on account of her
marriage. Somerset determined to force her to lease her favourite
manor of Fausterne to a friend of his named Long. Katherine refused
point-blank to receive this gentleman as a tenant, especially at
a ridiculously low rent, and in a letter to her husband expressed
her scornful indignation at the “large” offer for Fausterne which
his brother had made her. Yet in the end she was obliged to accept
Somerset’s terms. Fausterne passed from her hands into those of Long,
and was never restored to her.
It is not surprising that she felt a little “warm,” as she expresses
it, at the manner in which the Somersets handled her. Her position had
been recognised by the King and Parliament, and yet her brother-in-law
and his wife refused to acknowledge her right to precedence: the
Duchess of Somerset declared that she was herself as good as Queen,
since she was the consort of the King’s Protector, “who was virtually
the head of the Realm.” Whenever Katherine went to Court, if the
Duchess of Somerset chanced to be present, there was sure to be
trouble. According to Lloyd, the Duchess not only refused to bear up
the Queen’s train, but actually jostled her so as to pass first. “So
that what between the train of the Queen, and the long gown of the
Duchess, they raised so much dust at Court, as at last put out the
eyes of both their husbands, and caused their executions.” Heylin says
the Duchess was accustomed to inveigh against her royal sister-in-law
in her coarsest manner. “Did not King Henry VIII marry Katherine Parr
in his doting days, when he had brought himself so low by his lust
and cruelty that no lady that stood on her honour would venture on
him? And shall I now give place to her who in her former estate was
but Latimer’s widow, and is now fain to cast herself for support on a
younger brother? If master admiral teach his wife no better manners, I
am she that will.”
Historians who, for political and religious purposes, have exaggerated
the virtue and accomplishments of Edward VI, and endowed Lady Jane Grey
with charms and gifts which that modest young lady never possessed,
have woven a legend around her and Edward VI which would lead the
uninitiated to believe that she was the constant sharer of his
juvenile tasks and pastimes, whereas in reality it was only in the
last few months of his life that she became in the least prominent at
his Court. Immediately after his birth and the death of his mother
Prince Edward was handed over to the care of Lady Brian,[121] formerly
governess to his two sisters, by whom she was greatly beloved and
respected, and also to that of his dry nurse, Mrs. Sybilla Penn.[122]
His infancy was spent at Chelsea Manor House and at the country seats
of Ampthill and Oatlands. In these places he was frequently visited
by his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, and presumably also by his little
cousins of the house of Grey; but when he attained his sixth year, in
accordance with the peculiar views of his father on the subject of
education, all female influence was withdrawn from him, although Lady
Brian continued to preside over his household. A number of very young
noblemen were selected to be his constant companions and playfellows.
Among them were his cousins, the two sons of Brandon, Duke of Suffolk;
the Lord Edward Seymour, afterwards Earl of Hertford; and his great
friend, the one being he seems to have really loved, young Barnaby
Fitzpatrick, sometimes mentioned by the Swiss Reformers as Earl of
Ireland.[123] His principal tutors were the extremely Protestant Dr.
Richard Cox, who became Dean of Westminster in 1549 and subsequently,
in Elizabeth’s reign, Bishop of Ely; the learned Sir John Cheke,[124]
Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and his first schoolmaster;
Sir Anthony Cooke; M. Jean Bellemain, his French master; and Roger
Ascham, who taught him caligraphy. He also received lessons in the art
of writing in the Italian or Roman type, which most nearly resembles
the modern, from Dr. Croke, who had taught this art at an earlier
period to the young Duke of Richmond and Queen Katherine Parr. Dr.
Christopher Tye was his music master; and Philip Van Wylder taught him
to play upon his father’s favourite instrument, the lute. Lady Jane was
certainly not among his circle of intimate associates, which did not
even include his two sisters, although the Lady Mary was at one time
officially appointed his guardian, and Elizabeth passed the greater
part of the year 1546 with him at Hatfield. So little intercourse had
he with his sisters after his accession to the throne that he actually
only met Princess Mary three times, and Elizabeth five. As to Lady
Jane, he scarcely ever saw her, unless indeed she spent a few days with
him at Whitehall some weeks before his death. As soon as the Somersets
were thoroughly acquainted with the true motive that had induced the
Dorsets to part with their daughter, they took every precaution to
prevent its accomplishment; and so little was the Lady Jane seen at
the Court of King Edward that she is only once casually mentioned by
that monarch in his _Journal_ as being present at the great functions
arranged in 1550 in honour of the Dowager of Scotland when she passed
through London on her way to her northern dominions; and this was at
the time that Northumberland was in favour and Somerset in disgrace.
On Thursday, 18th February 1547, the temporal Lords assembled at the
Tower in their robes of estate to witness a solemn and significant
ceremony. The young King having ascended his throne, and the officials
of his Court taken their allotted positions about him, the doors were
thrown open, and Edward Seymour, Lord Protector and Earl of Hertford,
was led from the Council Chamber and conducted before His Majesty.
Garter bore his letters-patent, the Earl of Derby his mantle, the Earl
of Shrewsbury his rod of gold; my Lord Oxford carried his cap of estate
and coronet. The Lord of Arundel bore the sword, and walked immediately
before the Protector, who was supported by the young Duke of Suffolk
and the Marquis of Dorset. After the usual ceremonies, Hertford knelt
and was invested by his royal nephew, who put on the mantle, girded on
the sword, placed the coronet upon his uncle’s head, and delivered him
his rod of gold. Then the trumpets sounded, and the Herald proclaimed
Edward Seymour to be no longer Earl of Hertford, but now and hereafter
Duke of Somerset.
After the Protector came the Lord William Parr, Earl of Essex, brother
to the Queen-Dowager, who was created Marquis of Northampton and of
Essex. Then appeared John Dudley, Lord de Lisle, who had not assumed
full importance at that time, but who was presently to become the
protagonist of the ominous tragedy already in preparation. The future
father-in-law of Lady Jane Grey, and the Nemesis of Somerset, was a
man of splendid presence, exceedingly tall, with regular and majestic
features, rendered even more striking by his long beard and sweeping
moustache. He entered led by the Earls of Derby and Oxford, and was
presently created Earl of Warwick. Dudley was followed by Wriothesley,
who was raised to the peerage as Earl of Southampton.[125] Immediately
after him came the majestic Sir Thomas Seymour, whom the King created
Baron Seymour of Sudeley, at the same time delivering to him his patent
as Lord High-Admiral of England. Sir Richard Rich, Sir John Sheffield,
and Sir William Willoughby followed in succession and were created
barons by the same names they had borne as knights. When the elaborate
ceremony was over, a grand banquet, at which the King was not present,
was offered to the new peers in the Tower. His Majesty, who was far
from strong, had fainted from fatigue, and no wonder!--the function had
lasted from seven in the morning till nearly midday!
In the evening of the same day (18th February) three of the handsomest
men of the English Court--Somerset, Sudeley, and Warwick--rode with a
small escort from Whitehall through the Strand to Baynard’s Castle, the
residence of Sir William Herbert, Queen Katherine’s brother-in-law, one
of the wealthiest men in England, served by not less than a thousand
men, who wore his liveries. Here these three gentlemen were hospitably
entertained at supper. There was much to talk over, and the party,
elated by the honours so recently showered upon its members and heated
by Herbert’s good wine, became “right merry”--little dreaming that
within two years’ time Somerset would condemn his own brother Thomas to
death, and that a few months later Warwick, as Duke of Northumberland,
would sign the death-warrant of Somerset, only to be beheaded in his
turn for high treason a year or so later by Queen Mary’s command.
The Marquis of Dorset may have been of the company, and his presence
would add an additional note of tragic significance--for Warwick was
to become the direct cause of the deaths both of Lady Jane and of her
father!
King Edward, in the meantime, remained at the Tower until his official
progress thence to Westminster for his coronation. Although Somerset
and his brother were in office, and the Marquis of Dorset in great
favour with them, it is not probable that his cousin, the Lady Frances,
or her daughters were brought to see him. His boyish Majesty was left,
according to custom, in complete isolation, seen and influenced alone
by his uncles, the Seymours, and by his numerous tutors (for even after
his accession his lessons were continued with curious punctuality), so
that, what with State functions and his education, the unfortunate lad
had very little or no time for physical exercise or recreation.
On 19th February His Majesty rode from the Tower in the usual
procession to Westminster before the coronation which formed a part of
our regal ceremonial until the reign of James I, when it was omitted on
account of the plague. Edward, garbed in silver, with a white velvet
waistcoat and a cloak slashed with Venetian silver brocade, embroidered
with pearls, cantered on a milk-white pony under a white silk canopy
edged with silver. On either side of him rode his two uncles, the Lord
Protector and the Lord High-Admiral, whilst Cranmer, dumbly riding with
the Emperor’s Envoy, went between him and the Venetian Ambassador. They
passed through streets gay with tapestry and cloth of gold; whilst
at the Conduit in Cornhill white and red wine ran free for the people
to drink at their will, and children dressed as angels sang a quaint
greeting:--
“Hayle, Noble Edward, our Kynge and soveraigne,
Hayle, the cheffe comfort of your communaltye:
Hayle, redolent rose, whose sweetness to reteyne,
Ys unto us all such great comodity,
That earthly joy no more to us can be.”
At the Standard in the Chepe an erection, “like unto a tower,” and
hung with cloth of gold, was surmounted by trumpeters, who, after a
flourish, recited the following poetic (!) effusion:--
“Ye children that are towardes, sing up and downe,
And never play the cowardes to him that weareth the crowne,
But always doo your care his pleasure to fulfyll,
Then shall you keep right sure the honour of England still.
Sing up heart, sing up heart,
Sing no more downe,
But joy in King Edward that wereth the crowne.”
Outside the Metropolitan Cathedral there was an acrobatic display: “An
argosine [Ragusan] came from the batilment of Saint Poule’s Church,
upon a cable, beyng made faste to an anker at the deane’s doore, liying
uppon his breaste, aidyng himself neither with hande nor foote, and
after ascended to the middes [middle] of the same cable, and tumbled
and plaied many pretie toies [tricks], wherat the Kyng and other of the
peres and nobles of the realme laughed hartely.” In Fleet Street the
King was met by Faith, Justice, and Truth, the first holding a Bible
conspicuously in her hands: each of these damsels recited a long poem
in His Majesty’s honour. Temple Bar having been “new painted in dyvers
colours,” was garnished with cloth of arras and standards and flags,
and seven French trumpeters “blew sweetly” to the singing of an anthem
by a group of children. The customary banquet was served in the Great
Hall, Westminster, and was attended by Archbishop Cranmer, most of the
bishops, the ambassadors, and envoys, the nobility, the Lord Mayor,
aldermen, and sheriffs.
King Edward stayed at Westminster Palace until the coronation, which
took place on the following Sunday in Westminster Abbey. On account of
the King’s poor health, the service was slightly abridged, otherwise
the old Catholic form was throughout adhered to; for though Cranmer
preached a sermon in refutation of Petrine claims and urged the young
monarch to abolish “idolatry,” he celebrated High Mass, and the
incongruous function concluded with the King’s “offering,” as had
always been done in Catholic times, at St. Edward’s shrine! After the
coronation there were public jousts and tournaments; and the King and
Court attended at Blackfriars those very performances by the “players”
which had roused the ire of Bishop Gardiner and had been postponed at
his request.[126] We may be certain that the Marchioness of Dorset
witnessed the procession and coronation, together with her two elder
daughters, Jane and Katherine, from some place of vantage set apart for
the ladies of the royal family, who, however, took no active part in
either the procession or the actual ceremony, it not being customary
for ladies to be officially present at the coronation of a bachelor
King.
Notwithstanding that Edward VI is always connected in the popular mind
with Protestantism, and notwithstanding Cranmer’s attack on “Popery”
at the coronation, for quite eighteen months, if not two years, after
Henry VIII’s death the Church in England remained exactly as he left
it. True it is, that the first Book of Common Prayer was issued in
1548, but, on the other hand, Mass was said daily in the Royal Chapel
(Low Mass every day and High Mass on festivals) for the first two or
three years of Edward’s reign; an MS. account book of “the Treasurer
of the Chamber” in the Trevelyan Papers reveals the fact that the
boy-King himself heard Mass almost daily until 1549. There is every
reason to believe that Mass continued to be said or sung in the parish
churches also until the same year; certainly the old feasts were still
observed for the first two years of King Edward’s reign, especially in
London. These feasts were much more numerous than those retained by the
Established Church; there were the first three days in Easter Week,
Corpus Christi,--when there was the usual procession with the Host
through the streets,--the “Days” of St. John, SS. Peter and Paul, St.
Mary Magdalen, St. James the Apostle, the Annunciation, the Nativity,
the Conception, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, All
Hallows’ Day, All Souls’ Day, St. Edward Confessor, Christmas Day, and
the three following holy-days. High Mass of the Holy Ghost was said
in St. Stephen’s Chapel when Parliament met for the first time after
Henry’s death, the King and both Houses attending in State. All the
same, things ecclesiastical were not as they used to be; there was in
different churches much diversity in the matter of details--one priest
would use incense, another not, and so on. In 1548, however, Compline
was sung in English and the Litany of the Saints also in the vernacular.
So soon as the news that King Henry was dead was authenticated
abroad, an army of foreign Reformers--Swiss, German, French, and
Italian--poured into England, as a secure refuge from the persecution
they endured in their respective countries. These worthies held
the most varied opinions, some even casting doubt on the Divinity
of Christ, and the Lutherans hating the Calvinists as cordially
as they both detested the Papists. The Londoners in general, who,
when not Catholics, were mostly schismatics and ever jealous of
foreigners, did not relish this sudden invasion; but the leaders of
politics and religion in England welcomed the Reformers with open
arms, even overlooking their doctrinal shortcomings for the sake
of their hatred of “the Scarlet Lady.” Some of them--for instance,
Bucer, Peter Martyr, and perhaps Paul Fagius--were awarded chairs
at the Universities; whilst others, such as John ab Ulmis, Conrad
Pellican, Oswald Geisshaüsler (better known as Myconius), Bullinger,
Martin Micronius, Bartholomew Traheron, John Stumphius, Christopher
Froschover, Bernardine Ochinus, Peter Bizarro of Perugia,[127] etc.,
were received into the houses of some of the aristocracy to teach
their children “the new learning.” The Marquis of Dorset, as already
noted, welcomed these foreign Reformers with enthusiasm, and we shall
presently learn more concerning his relations with them. He did not
confine his intercourse to a mere empty display of hospitality, but
kept up a regular correspondence with many of them after their return
to their homes. Letter-writing seems, indeed, to have been a passion
with the Reformers, and their voluminous correspondence, arranged,
translated, and published by the Parker Society,[128] throws much
valuable light on their private characters, their politics, and their
singular theological opinions. It is mostly addressed to their brethren
in Basle, Zurich, Geneva, and Strasburg, or to their English patrons.
According to some authorities, there were from ten to twenty thousand
foreign adherents of the “new learning”--or as we might still better
say, new learnings, so many and diverse were their opinions--in England
during Edward VI’s reign, but the former figure is the more likely to
be correct. Very many of these learned men scattered themselves abroad
again when the Catholic reaction set in under Mary; but doubtless a
few remained, whose descendants to this day worship in the Église
Reformée Française, l’Église Protestante Suisse, the Dutch Church, and
in the other foreign Protestant churches which are sprinkled over the
metropolis, but whose congregations were materially increased after the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.