THE EDUCATION OF LADY JANE
The extraordinary revival of letters in Italy, France, and Germany at
the close of the fifteenth century did not fail to influence English
education, and especially that of high-born women. In this department
the exclusively classical culture then in vogue, which barred many
subjects now held of far greater importance, would undoubtedly be
deemed unpractical and excessive for women nowadays. Modern literature,
however, was then in its infancy, and apart from the classics there
was little to read but crude if noble poetry, and some historical,
theological, and legendary works of a very primitive sort. These soon
palled, whereas, to the cultured mind, the classic authors presented,
then as now, an ever-varying and delightful fund of information and
amusement. Science, in the modern acceptation of the word, was in
its infancy, and, in the opinion of the most learned persons of the
day, the secrets of theology and Nature, and those of art as well,
were embodied in the works of the ancients, and above all in the
Holy Scriptures. A knowledge of Greek and Latin was thus supposed to
give the key to all science. It was the fashion, too, for princesses
and women of noble birth to be, or to pose as being, learned; and
notwithstanding the political and religious convulsions of the reign of
Henry VIII, a number of English ladies of the highest rank, following
the example of their French and Italian sisters, devoted their leisure
to studies usually left nowadays to that class of pedantic females
whom we somewhat scornfully dub “blue-stockings.” This practice was
not confined to women who had embraced the Reformed tenets. Many
Catholics,--the daughter of Sir Thomas More and her learned friend,
Margaret Clement, for instance,--deeply versed in studies of this
description, enjoyed the dialogues of Plato, and may have laughed
over the scorching epigrams of Martial and the stinging satires of
Juvenal in the original, and even recognised their applicability to the
society of their own times. Most of the women who surrounded Lady Jane
Grey were pedants, and even her shallow-hearted mother had presumably
acquired a fair knowledge of classical literature.
But it was not till the young girl returned to Bradgate, after the
death of Thomas Seymour, that the system of “cramming,” which was
to give her, at the age of seventeen, a reputation as a marvel of
erudition, began in grim earnest.
Dorset, who had been summoned to London to attend the trial of his
quondam friend, the Admiral, as a witness against him, retired to
Bradgate in some despondency after its fatal termination. He and
his wife felt they had been wasting their time over Thomas Seymour;
they were conscious, too, that they were living under a cloud,
for the revelation of their pecuniary interest in the transfer of
their daughter to so notorious a scamp had produced a most damaging
impression on the public mind. But the failure of their plans had not
quenched their ambition. They took their luckless child back with them,
and straightway set about preparing her to occupy the towering position
they felt assured she would sooner or later be called to fill.
Her education was forthwith entrusted to the celebrated Aylmer, a
native of Leicestershire, whom Elizabeth made Bishop of London, to
reward him for his scathing answer to John Knox’s pamphlet, _The First
Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment_ [_i.e._ regimen =
régime or government] _of Women_. Aylmer, at this time a good-looking
man in his early thirties, was, so Bacon tells us, engaged as tutor to
the daughters of the Marquis of Dorset at Bradgate. The new preceptor
was in close correspondence with the Genevan Reformers, and it must
have been through him that Jane became acquainted with the celebrated
Bullinger and with John ab Ulmis, better known as Ulmer, a learned but
destitute Swiss Calvinist, who visited Bradgate as early as the summer
of 1550. He mastered the English language, and having been sent to
pursue his studies at Oxford at the Marquis of Dorset’s expense, he
spent his summer vacation at Bradgate, giving lessons in Greek and
Latin to Lady Jane and her younger but less talented sister, Lady
Katherine, and together with John Aylmer and Dr. Harding the Rector
of Bradgate, superintended her classical and theological education. A
somewhat crafty young man was Ulmer, skilled in the art of flattery,
and much addicted to repaying solid benefits by empty compliments. He
it was who urged Bullinger, his master, to dedicate his book, _The
Holy Marriage of Christians_, to the Lord Marquis of Dorset, a rather
venturesome act, seeing this nobleman was publicly credited with
bigamy![150] Bullinger also presented the Marquis and the Lady Jane
with a copy of his book, dedicated to Henry II of France, on Christian
Perfection, for which the latter wrote to thank him in her father’s
name on 12th July 1551. Her epistle is written in Latin, and may have
been suggested and even edited by Aylmer: it also contains a Biblical
quotation in Hebrew. The following extract from it gives a fair idea of
how this child of fourteen addressed one of the most learned men of his
time:--
“From that little volume of pure and unsophisticated religion,
which you lately sent to my father and myself, I gather daily, as
out of a most beautiful garden, the sweetest flowers. My father
also, as far as his weighty engagements permit, is diligently
occupied in the perusal of it: but whatever advantage either of
us may derive from thence, we are bound to render thanks to you
for it, and to God on your account; for we cannot think it right
to receive with ungrateful minds such and so many truly divine
benefits, conferred by Almighty God through the instrumentality
of yourself and those like you, not a few of whom Germany is now
in this respect so happy as to possess. If it be customary with
mankind, as indeed it ought to be, to return favour for favour,
and to show ourselves mindful of benefits bestowed; how much
rather should we endeavour to embrace with joyfulness the benefits
conferred by divine goodness, and at least to acknowledge them with
gratitude, though we may be unable to make an adequate return!
“I come now to that part of your letter,” continues Lady Jane,
“which contains a commendation of myself, which as I cannot claim,
so also I ought not to allow; but whatever the Divine Goodness may
have bestowed on me, I ascribe only to Himself, as the chief and
sole author of anything in me that bears any semblance to what is
good; and to Whom I entreat you, most accomplished sir, to offer
your constant prayers in my behalf, that He may so direct me and
all my actions, that I may not be found unworthy of His so great
goodness. My most noble father would have written to you, to thank
you both for the important labours in which you are engaged, and
also for the singular courtesy you have manifested by inscribing
with his name and publishing under his auspices your Fifth Decade,
had he not been summoned by most weighty business in His Majesty’s
service to the remotest parts of Britain; but as soon as public
affairs afford him leisure he is determined, he says, to write to
you with all diligence.”
Here follows an urgent request for a scheme for the study of the Hebrew
language. She concludes:--
“Farewell, brightest ornament and support of the whole Church of
Christ; and may Almighty God long preserve you to us and to His
Church!--Your most devoted
“JANA GRAIA”[151]
Besides these visitors, the Lady Frances appears to have been the
friend and patroness of a learned Protestant, Nicholas Udall, the
famous stenographer. She was even guardian to his daughter, for a
letter from her to Cecil still preserved at Hatfield begs she may be
relieved of this responsibility, as the young lady is about to be
married.
Late in the autumn of 1549, within six months of Seymour’s execution,
the celebrated Roger Ascham came on a visit to Bradgate. He too has
been described as tutor to Lady Jane, but this is a mistake; he was
preceptor to the Princess Elizabeth. As one of the leading lights of
his time, he was already well known to the Marquis of Dorset, and
passing through the neighbourhood on his way to attend Rutland and
Morysone on an embassy to Charles V, conceived it his duty to pay his
respects to the great man’s family.
Walking through the beautiful park at Bradgate, on his way to the
Hall, the visitor came upon the Marquis and his lady, with all their
household, out hunting. When the cavalcade halted to greet him, Ascham
inquired for the Lady Jane, and was told she was at home in her own
chamber. He begged leave to wait upon her, a favour readily granted,
and found her in her closet “reading the _Phædon_ of Plato in Greek,
with as much delight as gentlemen read the merry tales of Boccacio.”
Much surprised, he asked the young student “why she relinquished such
pastime as was then going on in the park for the sake of study?”
With a smile, Jane replied, “I think all their sport in the park is but
a shadow to that pleasure I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never
felt what true pleasure means.”
“And how attained you, madam,” inquired Ascham, “to this true knowledge
of pleasure? And what did chiefly allure you to it, seeing that few
women and not many men have arrived at it?”
[Illustration: ROGER ASCHAM’S VISIT TO LADY JANE GREY AT BRADGATE
AFTER THE PAINTING BY J. C. HORSLEY, R.A.]
“I will tell you,” replied Lady Jane, “and tell you a truth which
perchance you may marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that God
ever gave me, is that He sent me, with sharp, severe parents, so gentle
a schoolmaster [Aylmer]. When I am in presence of either father or
mother, whether I speak, keep silent, sit, stand or go, eat, drink,
be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else,
I must do it, as it were in such weight, measure and number, even as
perfectly as God made the earth, or else I am so sharply taunted, so
cruelly threatened, yea, presented sometimes with pinches, nips and
bobs and other things, (which I will not name for the honour I bear
them), so without measure misordered, that I think myself in Hell,
till the time comes when I must go with Mr. Aylmer, who teacheth me so
gently, so pleasantly, and with such pure allurements to learn, that
I think all the time of nothing whilst I am with him [that is to say,
“the time passes pleasantly when I am with him”]. And when I am called
from him, I fall to weeping, because whatever I do else but learning is
full of great trouble, fear, and wholesome misliking unto me. And this
my book, hath been so much my pleasure, and bringing daily to me more
pleasure and more, that in respect of it, all other pleasures in very
deed be but trifles and troubles to me.”
Poor solitary little girl! We of this matter-of-fact age can but feel
more of pity than admiration, as down the long vista of four and a half
centuries we picture her sitting alone, poring over the _Phædon_--dull
reading, one would imagine, for a child, even to one so harried by the
ill-temper of her weak father and her sharp-tongued mother, “whether
she stood still or moved about, was merry or sad, sewed or played,”
that she felt herself “in Hell” until Mr. Aylmer called her to her
studies!
Ascham’s story throws a very unpleasing sidelight on the conduct of
Lady Jane Grey’s parents and their harsh treatment of the child, and
proves, moreover, the sort of forcing system to which she was being
subjected. Ascham tells us that he mentions this interesting interview,
which he introduces into his _Schoolmaster_, because it was the last
time he ever saw “that sweet and illustrious lady,” and also as a
protest against the exceeding severity of the teaching of those times.
It is curious to note, as her historian, Howard, observes, that whilst
her parents were handling her like a froward child, this extraordinary
young lady was in active correspondence with such famous men as Ascham,
Conrad Pellican, Bullinger, and Sturmius, who all treated her with the
respect due to a grown-up woman of uncommon sagacity and experience.
The only explanation of this fact is the supposition that these
worthies, foreseeing Lady Jane might possibly occupy the throne, and
anxious to promote the cause of the Reformation in every possible way,
may have placed her on a higher pedestal than her immature talents
deserved. They certainly flattered her father, of whom they spoke and
wrote as being well-nigh apostolic in zeal and sanctity, and a marvel
of light and learning to boot.
At the age of fourteen, then, Lady Jane was fairly conversant with
Latin and Greek,[152] and with or without the aid of a dictionary
managed to derive some entertainment from Plato. But when we are told
that she had mastered Hebrew, and at the age of seventeen was forming
the acquaintance of “the tongue of Chaldea” and “the language of
Arabia,” we are inclined, with Sir Harris Nicolas, to be sceptical.
Her Greek and Latin may have been, and very likely were, thoroughly
mastered. Several letters in these languages are attributed to her and
are possibly of her own unaided composition, but even in these we note
that her style and phraseology in many cases closely resembles that
of Demosthenes or Cicero, whom she evidently imitated. In one of her
letters, written on 12th July 1551, to Henry Bullinger, she says, “I
am beginning to learn the Hebrew tongue,” and asks him to give her a
method whereby she may pursue her course of study in that language to
the greatest advantage. Bullinger sent the plan, and in another letter
she thanks him and says she will enter upon the study of the Hebrew
language in the method which he so clearly directs. As this letter is
dated July 1552, and her brief career ended in the following year,
her proficiency in the language of the prophets was probably not very
considerable.
That poor Jane Grey was “crammed” there can be no question, and the
wonder is her weak health did not collapse altogether under the strain.
The figurehead of a party she was to be, however, and it was necessary
that extravagant reports of her learning should be spread throughout
her own country and among the Protestants in foreign lands.
Lady Jane Grey at this period, surrounded by learned men and women
so much older than herself, appears strained, even artificial, but
later, in her culminating misery, she displays a dignity, a sweetness
of nature, and a pious sincerity which render her worthy of her fame.
Her few compositions which have come down to us, most of them written
during the last days of her life,--her prayer, for instance, the letter
to her sisters, and the lines which, according to tradition, she
scratched on the walls of her cell,--are full of feeling, and lead us
to regret that so fine a nature should not have been spared to adorn
mature womanhood as perfectly as its unaffected simplicity graced her
short maidenhood. Yet there was a strain of obstinacy and even of
coarseness in Jane’s character which leads one to think that after all
she might, had she remained Queen, have displayed in later life many of
the less pleasing peculiarities of her Tudor ancestors.
A very curious letter, written to Lady Jane Grey by Ascham early in
1552, while he was still at the Court of Charles V, throws considerable
light on the subject of her studies; it has also led some authorities
to imagine the learned man had actually fallen in love with his fair
pupil. “In this my long peregrination, most illustrious lady,” says
he, “I have travelled far, have visited the greatest cities, and have
made the most diligent observations in my power on the manners of the
nations, their institutions, laws, and regulations. Nevertheless, there
is nothing that has raised in me greater admiration than what I found
in regard to yourself during the last summer, to see one so young and
lovely, even in the absence of her learned preceptor, in the noble hall
of her family, in the very moment when her friends and relatives were
enjoying the field sports, to find, I repeat--oh, all ye gods!--so
divine a maid, diligently perusing the _Phædon_ of Plato, in this more
happy, it may be believed, than in her royal and noble lineage.
“Go on thus, O best adorned virgin, to the honour of thy country,
the delight of thy parents, the comfort of thy relatives, and the
admiration of all. Oh, happy Aylmer! to have such a scholar, and to
be her tutor. I congratulate both you who teach and she who learns.
These were the words to myself, as to my reward for teaching the most
illustrious Elizabeth. But to you too I can repeat them with more
truth, to you I concede this felicity, even though I should have to
lament want of success where I had expected to reap the sweetest fruits
of my labours.
“But let me constrain the sharpness of my grief which prudence makes
it necessary I should conceal even to myself. This much I say, that I
have no fault to find with the Lady Elizabeth, whom I have always found
the best of ladies, nor indeed with the Lady Mary, but if ever I shall
have the happiness to meet my friend Aylmer, then I shall repose in his
bosom my sorrows abundantly.
“Two things I repeat to thee, my friend Aylmer [Aylmer was evidently
at Bradgate at this period], for I know thou wilt see this letter,
that by your persuasion and entreaty the Lady Jane Grey, as early as
she can conveniently, may write to me in Greek, which she had already
promised to do. I have even written lately to John Sturmius, mentioning
this promise. Pray let your letters and hers fly together to us. The
distance is great, but John Hales will take care that it shall reach
me. If she even were to write to Sturmius himself in Greek, neither you
nor she would have cause to repent your labour. [The “neither you nor
she” points clearly to collaboration.]
“The other request is, my good Aylmer, that you would exert yourself
so that we might conjointly preserve this mode of life among us. How
freely, how sweetly, and philosophically then should we live! Why
should we, my good Aylmer, less enjoy all these things, which Cicero,
at the conclusion of the third book, _De Finibus_, describes as the
only rational mode of life? Nothing in any tongue, nothing in any
times, in human memory, either past or present, from which something
may not be drawn to sweeten life!
“As to the news here, most illustrious lady, I know not what to write.
That which is written of stupid things, must itself be stupid, and, as
Cicero complains of his times, there is little to amuse or that can be
embellished. Besides, at present, all places and persons are occupied
with rumours of wars and commotions, which, for the most part, are
either mere fabrications or founded on no authority, so that anything
respecting Continental politics would neither be interesting nor
useful to you.
“The general Council of Trent is to sit on the first of May,” continues
Jane’s correspondent, “Cardinal Pole, it is asserted, is to be the
president. Besides there are the tumults this year in Africa, their
preparation for a war against the Turks, and then the great expectation
of the march of the Emperor into Austria, of which I shall, God
willing, be a companion. Why need I write to you of the siege of
Magdeburg, and how the Duke of Mecklenburg has been taken, or of that
commotion which so universally, at this moment, afflicts the miserable
Saxony? To write of all these things, I have neither leisure, nor would
it be safe; on my return, which I hope is not far distant, it shall be
a great happiness to relate all these things to you in person.
“Thy kindness to me, oh! most noble Jane Grey, was always most grateful
to me when present with you, but it is ten times more so during this
long absence. To your noble parents, I wish length of happiness, to you
a daily victory in letters and in virtue, and to thy sister Katherine,
that she may resemble thee, and to Aylmer, I wish every good that he
may wish to Ascham.
“Further, dearest lady, if I were not afraid to load thee with the
weight of my light salutations, I would ask thee in my name to salute
Elizabeth Astley, who, as well as her brother John, I believe to be
of my best friends, and whom I believe to be like that brother in all
integrity and sweetness of manners. Salute, I pray thee, my cousin,
Mary Laten, and my wife Alice, of whom I think oftener than I can here
express. Salute, also, that worthy young man Garret and John Haddon.
“Farewell, most noble lady in Christ.
R. A.”
“Augustæ”
“18th January, 1551”
When we consider that this letter was addressed to a girl who was not
yet fifteen years of age, making due allowance for the high-flown style
of the times, we can only conclude that there was some politic motive
for a mode of address so injudicious in its flattery, so fulsome and so
extravagant even for that age of courtly adulation.
Lady Jane Grey spent the better part of the years 1550-1551 and 1552 at
Bradgate, improving her mind by hard study, and patiently submitting
to the “nips” and petty tyranny of her mother. At one time she seems
to have commenced the study of such music as was then in vogue. This,
Ascham promptly assured her was a frivolous occupation, unworthy of
a godly maiden. In a very curious letter, dated 23rd December 1551,
Aylmer writes from London to Bullinger concerning the Lady Jane,
begging him to write to her direct and seek to influence her to give up
practising music so zealously.
“It now remains for me,” writes the worthy Reformer, “to request
that, with the kindness we have so long experienced, you will
instruct my pupil in your next letter as to what embellishment
and adornment of person is becoming in young women professing
godliness. In treating upon this subject, you may bring forward
the example of our King’s sister, the Princess Elizabeth, who goes
clad in every respect as becomes a young maiden; and yet no one is
induced by the example of so illustrious a lady, and in so much
Gospel light, to lay aside, much less look down upon, gold, jewels,
and braidings of the hair. They hear preachers declaim against
these things, but yet no one amends her life. Moreover, I would
wish you to prescribe to her (the Lady Jane) the length of time
she may properly devote to the study of music. For in this respect
also, people err beyond measure in this country, while their
whole labour is undertaken, and exertions made, for the sake of
ostentation.”
We can see by this letter, presumably written with a view to the great
object all these men kept in their hearts,--that of influencing Jane in
the event of her becoming Queen,--that they were endeavouring to make a
narrow-minded bigot of her, and it is equally certain that the Princess
Elizabeth was just then playing the part of the discreet and modest
maiden. It is very amusing to find this wily Princess, whose reputation
was already the reverse of good, held up as an example to innocent Jane
Grey. The unhappy child was not even to practise on her virginals in
peace, or dress as she chose, but to follow the example of Elizabeth,
forsooth! Could Ulmer and Pellican have seen in a vision the three
thousand dresses and the sixteen hundred wigs which were to adorn the
wardrobe of the lady they were setting up as a model to their simple
music-pupil! Even in matters of religion, Elizabeth at this early stage
of her career showed a remarkable discretion, neither siding with nor
offending either party. She was a pious Catholic in the company of her
sister Mary, and an equally edifying Protestant at the Court of her
brother, Edward VI.
In June 1551, after a lengthy absence, the Dorsets returned to their
town mansion. They came to London for the purpose of examining the
vast estate which the Lady Frances had inherited from the two sons
of her father, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by his fourth wife,
Katherine Willoughby. These two brothers died at Bugden Hall, Cams., of
the sweating sickness, within four hours of each other, and the bulk of
their wealth, excepting the Duchess’s dower, fell to the Lady Frances,
whose husband, in September of the following year (1552), was raised
to the rank of Duke of Suffolk. The Dorsets now lived very sumptuously
in London, and with a view, perhaps, of pleasing the King and pushing
forward the interests of the Lady Jane, whom they still fondly hoped
would become Queen-Consort, they invited a number of English and
foreign Reformers, at this time living in exile in London, to their
house.
The Marquis, who was an enthusiastic admirer of Conrad Bullinger, had
on more than one occasion exhorted him to correspond with his daughter,
Lady Jane. In a letter addressed to that eminent Reformer in December
1551, he says: “I acknowledge myself also to be much indebted to you
on my daughter’s account, for having always exhorted her in your godly
letters to a true faith in Christ, the study of the Scriptures, purity
of manners, and innocence of life, and I earnestly request you to
continue these exhortations as frequently as possible.”
A letter of another Reformer--namely Ab Ulmis--gives us some
interesting glimpses of the Reformation movement in England. He says:
“You will easily perceive the veneration and esteem which the Marquis’s
daughter entertains towards you, from the very learned letter she has
written to you. For my own part, I do not think there ever lived any
one more deserving of respect than this young lady, if you regard her
family; more learned, if you consider her age, or more happy if you
consider both. A report had prevailed, and has begun to be talked of by
persons of consequence, that this most noble virgin is to be betrothed
and given in marriage to the King’s Majesty. Oh! if that event should
take place, how happy would be the union and how beneficial to the
Church.... Haddon, a minister of the Word, and Aylmer, the tutor
of the young lady, respect and reverence you with much duty and
affection. It will be a mark of courtesy to write to them all as soon
as possible. Skinner is at Court with the King. Wallack is preaching
with much labour in Scotland,” and so on. Ascham, in a letter to
Sturmius, describes Jane as excelling in learning Lady Mildred, Cecil’s
accomplished wife. She is, says he, the most learned woman in England.
“I hear you have translated the Orations of Æschines and Demosthenes
into Latin. I pray you dedicate the work to this peerless lady.”
These and other letters still extant prove, if proof were needed,
that Aylmer, Ulmer, and Ascham, assisted by Pellican, Sturmius, and
Bullinger, were at this time hard at work, preparing their future Queen
and patroness for the position they fondly hoped she would one day
occupy. Hales, too, was assisting them,--“Club-footed Hales,” as he
was called--an English lawyer who had visited Switzerland and adopted
the tenets of the Geneva sect; he is described as “fanatical, learned,
and ill-tempered.” He was a frequent visitor at Suffolk House and
Bradgate, and in after times was much involved in the troubles of poor
Lady Katherine Grey, Jane’s youngest sister. Further quotation from
these letters is unnecessary; they are all written in the same style
of pedantic flattery, and throw more light on passing events than most
people would imagine, although the epistolary literature of this period
is verbose, and as a rule uninforming. We can imagine, however, that
the meetings at Suffolk House were exceedingly picturesque, and many
will marvel that only one painter of note, M. M. P. Comte, has ever
given us a picture of the youthful Lady Jane Grey seated among the
doctors of the Reformed faith, in the noble Gothic hall of a mansion
second to none in the old city for its architectural magnificence.[153]
The monotony of Jane’s life of close study was frequently interrupted
by long journeys on horseback, or in cumbersome waggons, to pay
various country visits. Late in 1551, the Greys established, for some
reason or other, a close intimacy with the Princess Mary, and this
notwithstanding their religious differences. With increase of wealth
and station, Jane’s parents became more worldly than ever. Perceiving
that Edward VI, who began to show signs of consumption, might not live
long, and that the Crown might after all pass to her Catholic Grace,
they wisely considered it prudent to be on the right side of a lady who
was probably destined to become their sovereign. Accordingly they paid
the Princess as many as four visits in a single year.
In the summer of 1551, Jane came very near losing her mother, Duchess
Frances, who fell ill of a violent fever. The sick lady, who was at
Richmond, sent for her daughter Jane from Bradgate, “to help nurse
her.” Suffolk describes her illness in the following quaint terms
in a letter explaining her absence from Court addressed to the Duke
of Northumberland’s secretary, Cecil, whom he styles his “cousin
Cycell”: “This shall be to advertise you, that my sudden departure
from Court was for that I have received a letter of the state my wife
was in, and I assure you she is mo’ like to die than not. I never saw
sicker creature in my life. She hath three sicknesses, the first is
a hot burning nague [ague] that doth hold her four and twenty hours,
the other is the stopping of the spleen, the third is hypochondriac
passion. These three being enclosed in one body, it is to be feared
that death must needs follow.” But it did not “follow”; by the
beginning of October, the Lady Frances was better, and in November she
was sufficiently convalescent to attend the entry into London of the
Scottish Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, and be present at the festivities
consequent on that rather unexpected royal visit.
Early in November 1551, Jane appeared at King Edward’s Court for
the first time, and took a prominent part in these merry-makings.
The Scottish Queen-Regent, Mary of Guise, had recently arrived at
Portsmouth from France, on her way to the dominions of her unfortunate
daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, and wrote begging the English King’s
licence to pass through his dominions. This was readily granted; and a
pressing invitation to visit the Metropolis was sent to the Regent, and
willingly accepted. On 2nd November, she proceeded by water to Paul’s
Wharf, and thence rode in great state through the City. She lodged in
the Bishop of London’s house, where she was entertained with regal
hospitality, and, according to Stowe’s _Annals_, was supplied with
“beefs, muttons, veales, swans, and other kinds of poultry meates, with
fuell, bread, wine, beare, and wax.”
The first interview of King Edward VI with the Scottish Queen took
place on 4th November, at Westminster Palace. She rode in her chariot
from the City to Whitehall, attended by the Lady Margaret Douglas,
cousin to the King, and Countess of Lennox, the Duchesses of Richmond
and Suffolk, the Lady Jane Grey, and many other noble ladies, including
the Duchess of Northumberland.
The Queen and the King dined alone together; but the Duchess of
Suffolk, the Duchess of Northumberland, and the Lady Margaret Lennox,
together with the Ladies Jane and Katherine Grey, dined, we are told,
in the Queen’s hall, and were sumptuously entertained. Neither the
Princess Elizabeth nor the Princess Mary attended these festivities.
They were not in favour at this time and had not been invited.
The banquet must have taken place at the hour we usually devote to
luncheon, for at four the Queen, having visited the galleries and
state apartments of the Palace, then considered “show places,” left
Westminster, and, accompanied by her escort of nobles and ladies, rode
once more through the City to her lodgings in the Episcopal Palace.
On the following day (5th November), she made a solemn progress through
the City, riding from St. Paul’s, through Cheapside and Bishopsgate, to
Shoreditch, whence she took the high road for her own dominions. She
was accompanied by a great train of nobility, among them the Duchess of
Suffolk and her daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, and that fateful Duke of
Northumberland who was destined to bring ruin on the unfortunate Jane
and her father. Northumberland had in his train one hundred horsemen,
of whom thirty were gentlemen clad in black velvet, guarded with white,
and wearing white hats with black feathers.
As soon as this state visit, mentioned with considerable delight by
King Edward in his _Journal_, was over, the Lady Frances and her
daughters returned to Bradgate.
In the middle of November the Ducal party set out again for Tylsey,
the seat of Suffolk’s young cousin and ward, the heir of Willoughby
of Woollaton. From here they went on a visit to Princess Mary. A very
curious MS. account book, still in the possession of the Willoughby
d’Eresby family, shows that, on 20th November 1551, “ten gentlemen came
from London to escort my Lady Frances’s grace to my Lady Mary’s grace,
and they all left Tylsey after breakfast, the Lady Frances, accompanied
by her daughters, the Lady Jane, the Lady Katherine and the Lady Mary,
and repaired to my Lady Mary’s grace.” Whilst on this visit to Princess
Mary, who was then at her town house, the former Priory of St. John
of Jerusalem, in Clerkenwell, the Dorset family received handsome
gifts, as appears from the Princess’s expense book: “Given to my cousin
Frances beads (_i.e._ ‘rosary’) of black and white, mounted in gold”;
“To my cousin, Jane Grey, a necklace of gold, set with pearls and small
rubies.” In return, the Lady Jane presented Mary with a pair of gloves.
In the first days of December, the two younger daughters returned to
Tylsey, but the Duchess and Lady Jane stayed on in London, for the
Lady Jane, we are told, remained with the Princess at her house in
Clerkenwell.
On 16th December, the Duke came to Clerkenwell to escort Jane and her
mother back to Tylsey. There they seem to have spent a merry Christmas
in the company of the Lords Thomas and John Grey. The Duke of Suffolk,
in honour of his young wards the Willoughbys, and in their name, threw
open the gates of Tylsey to all such of the county gentry as chose to
seek hospitality within them. A company of players was ordered from
London, together with a wonderful boy, who “sang like a nightingale,”
besides a tumbler and a juggler. These were presently supplemented by
another band of players, belonging to the Earl of Oxford, who acted
several pieces. Open house was kept until 20th January 1552, when the
whole family proceeded to Walden, to spend some days with the Duke’s
sister, Lady Audley,[154] whose husband, Lord Audley, or Audrey, was
created Lord Chancellor by Henry VIII and presented with the house
and property of the London Charterhouse, as an acknowledgment of his
infamous treatment of Anne Boleyn. The record of the doings at Tylsey
is in an account book kept by “old Mr. Medeley,” husband of the heiress
of Willoughby’s grandmother and a trustee. This book was lent to Miss
Agnes Strickland, who says--in her _Tudor and Stuart Princesses--Lady
Jane Grey_--that Medeley “kept a very thrifty notation of all that
was spent in ‘man’s meat’ and ‘horse’s meat’ on these journeys;
likewise the payments of the players who were to assist in spending
the Christmas with the ‘godliness and innocence’ dwelt upon with such
unction” by Suffolk and by the Reformers.[155] After the visit to
Walden, the Lady Frances and her brood went back to Tylsey for about a
week, at the end of January 1552.
These cross-country journeys, even if sometimes broken by two or three
days’ stay in one place, must have been extremely fatiguing to so
young and delicate a girl as Lady Jane. The Duke of Suffolk and the
Lady Frances being of the blood royal, travelled with a great escort,
as many as a hundred to a hundred and fifty horsemen, scouts, etc.,
preceding and following their horses and waggons, otherwise called
“chariots.” If the weather was fine, equestrian travel was exceedingly
pleasant: the canter through the leafy lanes, the midday picnic under
the greenwood tree, and the evening meal in some picturesque inn,
full of Shakespearean character, the bustling, bowing and curtseying
host and hostess, the rustic waiters and grooms, the flicker of
lamp and candle light, the glowing wood fire, the sanded floor, the
shining pewter, and the savoury baked and roasted meats, all combined
to make up a scene of primitive comfort, entirely absent from the
great and sumptuous hostelries of our own time, in which luxury often
predominates over more solid qualities of entertainment. But when
pouring rain turned the ill-kept roads into quagmires, when the nipping
airs of autumn and winter whistled through the skeleton branches of
the trees, or the snow lay feet thick on the ground, and the keen
wintry winds whistled over the frozen rivers and streams, then must
the welcome glow cast by the crackling fires within the inn parlours
have made them, however humble, appear so many havens of celestial
refuge to the Lady Frances, her husband, her daughters, and her
merry men and women. Since there were no other means of locomotion
in those days, a specially swift and steady steed, or a particularly
well-cushioned waggon, must have been considered with much the same
sense of satisfaction as we bestow now on a new type of motor-car or
a specially well-appointed railway train. Our immediate forbears were
by no means dissatisfied with the old stagecoaches that transported
them from one end of the kingdom to another in a week or ten days;
sailing in luxurious airships which will have so reduced the bulk of
the globe that from being “a vastie sphere” it will have become a mere
overgrown orange--“from London to Rome in less than an hour; London
to New York in three!”--our descendants will try to imagine how it
was ever possible for us to travel by train and motor--so slow and
uncomfortable! And thus we and our civilisation may presently come to
be looked upon with the same sort of good-natured disdain we now bestow
upon the social conditions and travelling arrangements of the days of
“My Lord à Suffhoke.”
It may well be that all this hard riding in bad weather and the
unwonted dissipations of Christmas at Tylsey proved too much for Lady
Jane, for in February 1552, Ab Ulmis writes to his friend Bullinger:
“The Duke’s daughter has recovered from a severe and dangerous illness.
She is now engaged in some extraordinary production, which will
very soon be brought to light, accompanied with the commendation of
yourself. There has lately been discovered a great treasure of valuable
books: Basil on Isaiah and the Psalms in Greek, ... Chrysostom on the
Gospels, in Greek; the whole of Proclus; the Platonists, etc.... I
have myself seen all these books this very day. The Duke of Suffolk,
his daughter, (the Lady Jane), Haddon, Aylmer, and Skinner, have all
written to you.”[156]
These literary treasures were probably found in several parcels of old
books purchased about this time by the Marquis from an Italian merchant.
In March 1552, Lady Jane, then at Bradgate, sent Bullinger’s wife a
present of gloves, and a ring. A month later, Ulmer returned from
Switzerland, whither he had been sent on a mission, and brought with
him a letter from Conrad Pellican, which Jane immediately answered. In
Pellican’s _Journal_, still preserved at Zurich, we find the following
marginal note: “June 19th, 1552-3, I received a Latin letter, written
with admirable elegance and learning, from the most noble virgin, Lady
Jane Grey, of the illustrious house of Suffolk.” This letter is lost.
Early in July 1552, Lady Jane went with her parents to Oxford,[157]
and, almost immediately afterwards, repeated her visit to Princess
Mary, now at Newhall--a visit fraught with much evil, if we may believe
the accounts which have come down to us, from, it must be admitted,
rather suspicious sources; that is to say, from Aylmer and Ascham, both
eager to represent Jane as even more Protestant than she really was.
Newhall Place, Princess Mary’s chief country seat, had formed part,
in days gone by, of the possessions of Waltham Abbey, and had been
exchanged with Sir John de Shadlowe by the monks in the reign of Edward
III for three other properties. Its most illustrious occupant in
pre-Reformation times had been the unfortunate Margaret of Anjou. After
her capture by the Yorkists it was confiscated by the Crown, and was
eventually granted by Henry VII to Bottler or Butler, Earl of Ormond,
who fortified the mansion and enlarged it. It passed, as a dower, to
Sir Thomas Boleyn, grandfather of Queen Anne Boleyn, and he exchanged
it with Henry VIII, who took a great fancy to the place, and changed
its name to Beaulieu. The monarch stayed here on one occasion, at
least, with Anne Boleyn, so that Mary Tudor may have found a few of the
personal belongings of her mother’s chief foe, when she took possession
of the house which Henry bestowed on her towards the end of his reign.
She made it her favourite abode, principally on account of its gardens,
which are often mentioned in the Household Books of the period, as
supplying the royal palaces of London with fruit and vegetables--the
cherries and grapes being considered particularly fine. Elizabeth, who
did not care for Beaulieu,--its association with her mother and sister
must have been painful to her,--presented it to Radcliffe, Earl of
Suffolk. He sold it to “Steenie,” Duke of Buckingham, who let the place
fall into such ruin that its value so decreased that Cromwell was able
to buy it for “five shillings and no more!”
In Mary’s day it was still a fine old Gothic mansion of the
ecclesiastical type, with three lofty towers and a magnificent hall,
containing a huge chimneypiece and a broad staircase leading to the
upper apartments. In the chapel was that famous window made at Dort
in Flanders by order of Henry VII, and now the chief ornament of St.
Margaret’s, Westminster. The furniture at Newhall, the inventory of
which is still extant, was extremely magnificent, and included many
sets of costly tapestries, hangings of velvet and Florentine brocades,
Turkey carpets and inlaid bedsteads and chairs. The chief artistic
treasure of the house, however, was a superb portrait of Mary herself
by Holbein, and another of the King her father by the same great
painter. These two portraits remained at Newhall until the beginning of
the seventeenth century, when we lose trace of them, but the portrait
of Mary is not improbably the one now in the possession of the Duke of
Norfolk, and that of King Henry, that which is in the possession of
Lord Leconfield at Petworth House.
A state visit to Newhall must have been conducted on similar lines
to such a function at Sandringham or Windsor in our times, being a
singular mixture of extreme simplicity and extreme stateliness. The
Princess herself, who, had her life been cast in a less exalted
sphere, would have been a kindly woman, had a deep hearty voice and a
cheery welcome, which endeared her to all who approached her; yet an
observation made by Lady Jane Grey to Lady Wharton proves that every
time anyone passed before her Grace, they made obeisance by falling on
one knee, as if she had been the Host on the altar. Meals were served
somewhat after the French fashion: a very light breakfast at what we
should consider an unearthly hour--six in summer, seven in winter--a
heavy dinner at eleven, and supper at eight. All sorts of sports and
pastimes--hawking, tennis, horse-riding, hunting--served to pass
the intermediate time, and in the evenings there was card-playing,
boisterous games, and dancing. Before retiring for the night, prayers
were said, and a loving cup full of spiced wine was passed round, the
Princess putting her lips to it before passing it, with a blessing, to
her guests. We may take it for granted that during the visit of the
Marquis and Marchioness, notorious Protestants, religious controversy
did not enter into the conversation at Newhall. To do her justice, Mary
at this time at least was very free from bigotry; two of her favourite
ladies, Lady Bacon and Lady Brown, were Protestants, and her friendship
for the imprisoned Duchess of Somerset and her daughters never failed
so long as she lived--and yet the Duchess was an ardent “Gospeller.”
That the Princess enjoyed a little “flutter” at cards is proved by her
household books, and as the Marquis was an excellent card-player, no
doubt “Ombre”--a game introduced into England by the Spaniards whilst
Katherine of Aragon was Queen--served to pass the evening, together
with “Gresco,” “Mountsaint,” “Newcut,” and “Lansquenet.” Lady Jane and
her little sisters may have joined in the romping game of “Trump,” a
noisy round game like our “Old Maid,” in which, on the appearance of
a certain card, everybody slapped their right hand on the table and
cried out “Trump!” those who failed to do so paying a trifling fine.
“Gleke,” a primitive sort of whist, was also greatly in fashion; and at
this game, we may be sure, the Lady Frances was prudent enough to lose
fairly large sums to her august cousin, whose hot Spanish temper was
apt to be ruffled when the tide of fortune turned against her.
It was during this visit that the Princess Mary presented the Lady
Jane with a rich dress, and Jane, willing to practise some of the
precepts which she had received from Zurich, asked the lady by whom
her cousin sent the gown, what she was to do with it? “Marry,” replied
the lady, “wear it, to be sure!” “Nay,” replied the Lady Jane, “that
were a shame, to follow the Lady Mary, who leaveth God’s Word, and
leave my Lady Elizabeth, who followeth God’s Word.” This anecdote was
recorded by her tutor, Aylmer, long years after this world had closed
on Jane--at a moment, in fact, when Elizabeth did not thank him at all
for reminding her subjects of the Puritan style she had affected in her
youth. Another incident, which may be more certainly placed during this
Newhall visit, shows the cousins at issue on those points of belief
then so hotly debated. Lady Wharton, a fervent Catholic, crossing the
chapel with Lady Jane Grey when service was not proceeding, made her
obeisance to the Host as they passed the altar. Lady Jane asked “if the
Princess were present in the chapel?” Lady Wharton answered that she
was not.
“Then why do you curtsey?” demanded Jane.
“I curtsey to Him that made me,” replied Lady Wharton.
“Nay,” retorted the Lady Jane, “but did not the baker make him?”
Lady Wharton repeated this remark to the Princess, “who never after
loved the Lady Jane as she did before.”
NOTE.--The London residence of the parents of Lady Jane Grey was,
in her early days, the house in Whitehall overlooking the Thames
and known as Dorset Place; but, after the death of the two sons
of the Duke of Suffolk, the Lady Frances inherited Norwich House,
Strand, which Henry VIII had confiscated from the Bishops of
Norwich, and exchanged with his brother-in-law for Suffolk Place,
Southwark, which he converted into a mint. Norwich House now became
generally known as Suffolk House. Here the Greys lived in great
state, possibly abandoning their other residence in Whitehall for
the larger and more sumptuous residence. The Lady Frances, after
the execution of her husband, sold Suffolk House to the Percys and
it presently became known as Northumberland House, and, altered
from a Tudor to a Jacobean mansion, it remained a prominent feature
of London street architecture until early in the second half of
the last century, when it was pulled down for the improvements at
Charing Cross.