The Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey, and Her Times

1 This will be seen conspicuously in my new volume of Spanish State Papers of Edward VI, now in the press to be issued next year by the Record Office.

2 Antonio de Guaras, a Spanish merchant. This was just before Somerset’s final downfall. See Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII.

3 “The oak trees there [Bradgate] were pollarded after her [Jane’s] execution. Some old members of the family remember a watch with a case made of a hollowed ruby or carbuncle, which is said to have belonged to Lady Jane. But this, with other relics of Lady Jane, seems to have disappeared mysteriously some fifty or so years ago.”—Extract from a letter from Earl Stamford and Warrington, dated 20th November 1907.

4 The barony of Ferrers was merged in the Townshend peerage by the marriage, in 1751, of George, Viscount Townshend, with Charlotte, last Baroness Ferrers.

5 State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII.

6 The Priory of Tylsey was dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.

7 State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII.

8 Miss Strickland and other writers on the Grey family state that Margaret, Marchioness of Dorset, outlived the ruin of her family. This is an error. She died in September 1541, apparently of the plague. See State Papers, 1156 and 1489, Domestic Series, Henry VIII.

9 This lady is occasionally confounded with Queen Anne Boleyn, who was never Lady Anne Boleyn. The lady in question, who has proved somewhat of a stumbling-block to historians, who have frequently confused her with the Queen, was Anne, daughter of the Earl of Pembroke and wife of Sir William Boleyn.

10 Lady Jane was certainly christened at Bradgate and not at Groby, which confirms the statement that she was born at Bradgate; for if she had been born at Groby, her baptism would have taken place in the parish church of that village.

11 There has been some controversy over the date of Queen Jane Seymour’s death. Bishop Burnet (p. 33, vol. ii.) says it was the day after Prince Edward’s birth, i.e. 14th October; which date is adopted by Hall (p. 825), Stow (p. 575), Speed (p. 1039), Herbert (p. 492), and Holinshed (p. 944). On the other hand, Henninges (Theatrum Genealogicum, tome 4, p. 105) says it was the 15th; a letter of the doctors (in Cottonian MSS, Nero C. x. fol. 2), the 17th; Fabian, 23rd October; King Edward’s own Journal, “Within a few days after the birth of her son, died ...;” and George Lilly (Chronicle), twelve days after—Duodecimo post die moritur. However, Cecil’s Journal, a document in the Herald’s Office, and a letter among the State Papers dated Wednesday, 24th October, give the 24th October as the date of the Queen’s death. This is in agreement with the statement in the London Chronicle during the Reigne of Henry VII and Henry VIII (Camden Soc., from Cottonian MSS, Vespasian A. xxv. fol. 38–46), which clearly says that “On Saynt Edwardes eve Fryday in the mornyng (12th October), was prince Edward boorn, the trew son of K.H. the viii. and quene Jane his mothur in Hamton Corte. His godffathurs was the deuke of Norfock, and the deuke of Suffocke, and the (Arch) Bisschop of Caunterbery; and his godmother was his owne sister, which was dooughter of quene Kataryn a fore sayd. On Saynte Crispyns eve Wensday (24th October), dyid quene Jane in childbed, and is beryid in the castelle of Wynsor.” She was not, however, buried until 12th November. Dorset followed the procession from Hampton Court to Windsor, riding close to the Princess Mary, who was her stepmother’s chief mourner.

12 Jane Grey was evidently given the name of Jane in compliment to Queen Jane Seymour, who must have been still living at the time of the child’s birth. The name Jane, a variant of Johanna and Joan, is exceedingly rare in pre-Reformation times. The lady who very likely acted as godmother was her paternal aunt, Lady Cicely Grey.

13 This method of baptizing infants is still practised in the Archdiocese of Milan.

14 These ceremonies, which are extremely ancient and essentially Roman Catholic, are even now carried out in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

15 The prefix the before the title Lady was considered in the sixteenth century equivalent to “Princess”; “the Lady Elizabeth,” “the Lady Mary,” and so forth. “Royal Highness” was not in use, and royal ladies were addressed as “Your Grace.”

16 An old cookery book of the sixteenth century in the possession of the author contains the following “crafte to make Ypocras”: “Take a quarter of red wyne, an unce of synamon, and half an unce of gynger: a quarter of an unce of greynes and of longe pepper, wythe half a pound of sugar: broie all these not too smalle, and then putte them in a bagg of wullen clothe (made therefore) with the wyne, and lette it hange over a vessel tylle the wyne be runne thorow. It is presumed that the wyne should be poured in boiling hot, else it would gain little of the spicy flavour.”

17 Dorset, when he became Duke of Suffolk, incurred the censure of the Reformers under Edward VI for his sinful encouragement of players and other like “vagabonds.”

18 In Lent and Advent, and during Passion and Rogation weeks, meat was only served once a week.

19 Sir Thomas Carden’s account for sums disbursed for the household expenses of Anne of Cleves in 1552 gives us a curious insight into the manner and expense of lighting a gentlewoman’s house in the middle of the sixteenth century. Anne was residing at a manor at Dartford, and Sir Thomas supplied her with “35 lb. of wax lights, sixes and fours to the lb. at 1s. per lb.; 100 prickets [or candles to be stuck on an iron spike] at 6d. per lb.; staff torches 1s. 4d. per doz., and of white lights, 18 doz. at 9s. per doz.”—Losely MSS, edited by A. J. Kempe.

20 This detestable game is still a favourite in parts of Cuba, but generally with a goose substituted for the duck. The writer saw it “played” there in 1879.

21 The fact that this house was the Dorsets’ usual town residence is proved by the Marquess’s distinctly stating that Seymour, when he fetched away Jane Grey, came to him “immediately” after Henry VIII’s death “at my house in Westminster.”

22 Coaches, properly so called, were introduced into England in 1601.

23 “The gentlewomen in cloak and safeguards.”—Stage directions to the Merry Devil of Edmonton.

24 Strype’s Memorials.

25 Queen Katherine Parr was buried in the chapel at Sudeley Castle, which fell into ruins late in the seventeenth century. The monument having become much dilapidated, the then Vicar of Sudeley (1786) had the curiosity to open it and examine the condition of the body, which was found to be in a perfect state of preservation. The corpse measured 5 ft. 3 in.; the coffin, 5 ft. 10 in., the width being 1 ft. 4 in. in the broadest part, and the depth 1 ft. 5½ in. The Queen must therefore have had a very slight figure. The body was fully dressed in a Court costume of the period of cloth of gold and velvet; there were untanned leather shoes upon the feet. The profusion of light golden hair was quite remarkable. Of course several locks of it were snipped off and preserved as relics, one of them being still exhibited at Sudeley. Another lock of Katherine Parr’s hair was in the possession of Lord Bennet, who showed it to the author. It was very bright in colour and exceedingly curly. In 1805 the remains of Katherine Parr were again disturbed, and it was then discovered that an ivy berry had fallen into a fissure of the skull, taken root, and twined round the head a verdant coronet. For the last time the remains were touched in 1842, when they were removed with reverential care by Messrs. William and John Dent, who had become possessors of Sudeley Castle, and placed in a handsome monument, having above it a noble figure of the Queen, which is still one of the chief ornaments of the exquisitely restored chapel of the ancient castle—a veritable treasure-house of Tudor relics—now so pleasantly associated with the Dent family. For these notes on the remains of Katherine Parr the writer is personally indebted to the late Miss Elizabeth Strickland, who so long survived her sister Agnes, and to an interesting pamphlet on Sudeley Castle by Dr. Richard Garnett.

26 The MS. of this poem is contained in a little volume bound in black morocco. Though evidently contemporary, some doubts have been expressed as to its authenticity, but a marked allusion to the writer’s position as a Consort of Henry VIII is supposed to be a sufficient guarantee as to the identity of the royal poetess, not to speak of the evidence of her handwriting.

27 He is the gentleman with the beautiful saint-like head and angelic expression in the splendid series of drawings by Holbein at Windsor.

28 This Mr. “Nudygate” or Newdigate’s son became in due time secretary to Anne Stanhope, Duchess of Somerset, and her second husband.

29 British Museum, Vespasian, F. xiii. 183, f. 131.

30 Lady Denny was the daughter of Sir Philip Champernoun of Modbury, Devonshire, and wife of Sir Andrew Denny, Privy Councillor and Groom of the Stole to Henry VIII. Her husband predeceased her on 10th September 1549, and she herself died on 15th May 1553.

31 Lady Fitzwilliam was the daughter of Sir W. Sidney and wife of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Milton, Northamptonshire, Master of the King’s Bench. Sir H. Gough Nichols, however, thinks she was more probably the widow of that Sir William’s grandfather, Sir William Fitzwilliam of Milton and Alderman of London, who died in 1534. In this case she would have been the daughter of Sir John Ormonde and granddaughter of Anne Cooke, the learned daughter of Sir A. Cooke by his first wife, Anne Fitzwilliam.

32 Lady Tyrritt or Tyrwhitt was not, as Miss Strickland says, the daughter of Katherine Parr’s first husband, but through her husband, Lord Robert Tyrwhitt of Leighton House, the cousin seven times removed of that gentleman. She was the daughter of Sir Gerald Oxenburgh of Sussex.

33 This Countess of Sussex was Anne, daughter of Sir Philip Calthorpe and second wife of Henry, Earl of Sussex. She was sent to the Tower in April 1552 on a charge of witchcraft, and for having said that a son of Edward IV was yet living. Lodged in the Lieutenant’s apartments, she was liberated by order of the Duke of Northumberland in the following September, after six months’ imprisonment. In all probability the offence of which this lady was accused was merely that of having predicted the young King Edward VI’s early death.

34 There were some very curious rumours circulating in London concerning the divorce of Anne of Cleves. Cranmer granted the divorce on the plea that the Queen was still virgo intacta; but “two honest citizens” (letter from Chapuys to Charles V) “were arrested on 9th December 1541 on a plea that they published particulars of Queen Katherine Howard’s inchastity, and said ‘the whole thing was a judgment of God,’ and that the lady of Cleves was the King’s real wife; and that she was in the family way by the King, notwithstanding rumours to the contrary. That it was not true the King had not behaved to her like a husband; and that she was gone away from London and had had a son in the country last summer.”

35 Robert Testwood was a chorister belonging, with Marbeck, to the Chapel Royal, Windsor. Parsons was a priest, and Henry Filmer was a tailor. Marbeck, who is said to have had a very fine voice, was a fairly well-educated man, who at the time of his arrest had made some progress with a translation of Calvin’s works. Testwood was a well-known ribald jester who had frequently turned the anthem into ridicule, and on more than one occasion had been caught singing lewd words while the rest of the congregation were chanting the right ones. He was arrested for smashing the nose of a statue of the Virgin; Parsons was condemned for blasphemy; and Filmer for speaking ill of the Host. He had said that if Transubstantiation were true, he had eaten “twenty Gods” in his time.

36 The Royal Household was considerably reduced by Somerset in the first year of Edward VI, but in Elizabeth’s day it was again augmented in every department, and was the most terrible and disastrous legacy the great Queen bequeathed to her Stuart successor. The only other example of such an extraordinary plethora of Court officials and retainers is to be found at the Court of France under Louis XIV and Louis XV’s unhappy successor, and they were a great factor in bringing about the Revolution.

37 Harl. 1419. The above account of Henry’s palaces and their contents is taken from this important MSS: the Household Expenses, State Papers, Royal Society’s Papers, temp. Henry VIII, and from the very curious Trevelyan Papers, Camden Society; also from that admirable work, The History of Hampton Court Palace, by Ernest Law, M.A.

38 These tapestries were duplicates of those still preserved in the Vatican, the cartoons for which are at the South Kensington Museum. They remained in Whitehall till the death of Charles I, when they were sold to Don Alfonso de Cardenas, and passed at his decease to the house of Alva, which in turn sold them to Mr. Peter Tupper, who brought them to England in 1823; in his house they remained until they were resold to Mr. William Trall. In 1863 they were exhibited at the Crystal Palace, and came very near destruction in the fire which devastated the Tropical Department. Their subsequent fate is unknown, but as recently as 1889 the writer saw two of the series in a shop in Wardour Street. In 1890 a series of finely painted cartoons, evidently by Raphael and his pupils, representing scenes from the Acts of the Apostles, identical with these, came from Russia, and were exhibited by the late Mr. Martin Colnaghi and afterwards sold to an American financier.

39 The Palace of Nonesuch stood near the site of the old manor house and the village church of Chuddington, near Cheam, in Surrey. Henry VIII obtained possession of the manor as a hunting-seat in 1526 by exchange, and erected a magnificent structure of freestone, having a central gate-house and being flanked by lofty towers crowned with cupolas in the form of inverted balloons, which gave the building a decided Oriental appearance. The writers of the sixteenth century are profuse in their laudations of this royal residence, and speak in the most glowing terms of its beautifully furnished apartments, which contained works of art worthy of ancient Greece or of Rome, and of its lovely gardens, its orchards stocked with the choicest of fruit trees, and its extensive park laid out in avenues ornamented by artificial fountains. Its luxuriousness and beauty soon acquired for the new palace the proud appellation of “Nonesuch.” Henry VIII never quite completed it, but in Mary’s reign it passed to the Earl of Arundel, who carried out the original intentions of its founders. Queen Elizabeth frequently resided at Nonesuch, but whether as guest or tenant is uncertain. Charles II presented it to the Duchess of Cleveland, who completely demolished the palace and disparked the lands.

40 Possibly the “Virgin of the Rocks,” now in the National Gallery.

41 At the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

42 Lately in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk, and now belonging to the nation.

43 Windsor Castle.

44 There were several of these allegorical “tables,” one or two of which survive to this day in ancient contemporary engravings.

45 Among the astronomers was the learned Nicholas Crager. William Parr was also a student of astronomy. The State Papers contain some mention of astronomical instruments purchased for him. Needless to say, this “astronomy” was really only astrology under another name.

46 Will Somer, or Somers, Court Jester to Henry VIII, and apparently continued in that office by Edward VI, was originally in the service of Richard Farmer, Esq., of Easton Newton, Northampton. This gentleman was, in consequence of his having sent two groats and some articles of clothing to a priest convicted of denying the King’s supremacy, found guilty of a præmunire and deprived of his estates. The distress to which his former master was thereby reduced attracted the attention of Will Somers, who during the King’s last illness availed himself of his privileged position to let fall certain remarks concerning him, which so worked upon the King’s mind that Henry was induced to restore to Mr. Farmer what remained of his estates. Will Somers was an excellent musician and had a very fine voice.

47 This sort of slavish homage excited the sarcasm of the Ambassadors. Soranzo, the Venetian Envoy, tells us he once saw Princess Elizabeth kneel five times before venturing to address her brother Edward.

48 The household inventories of the Queen’s rooms contain mention of innumerable pillows and cushions richly covered with silk and satin, and also of costly counterpanes. This Oriental custom of using soft pillows may have been introduced into England by Katherine of Aragon. In England as in Spain the Sovereign only was allowed a chair.

49 Political influence of this period no doubt seconded the good offices of Queen Katherine in favour of Princess Mary. Her cousin the Emperor was no longer an enemy, but an ally.

50 This is the beautiful letter beginning La nemica fortuna, which, although written by an English princess, is, in its way, a very masterpiece of Italian epistolary literature. It may have been written under the auspices of the famous Baltazar Castiglione, who taught Elizabeth the Italian language.

51 After her accession Queen Mary ordered this work to be recalled.

52 State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII, 1544–5. Lord Parr of Horton died in 1545.

53 Some very interesting particulars unknown to English historians of the siege of Boulogne and of the sojourn of Henry VIII, Suffolk, Surrey, and their merry men in Picardy, will be found in Les Archives de la Ville de Boulogne; Histoire de la Ville de Montreuil-sur-Mer, by F. Leplon; Memoires de Martin de Bellamy (Michaud, Paris, 1838); Inventaire de l’Histoire de France, by Le Comte Jean de Serre; in a very curious little volume entitled Le Château d’Hardelot; also in Notre Dame de Boulogne, by l’Abbé Haignere, published by Hamain, Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1898; and in the Spanish Chronicle of the Reign of Henry VIII, translated by Major Martin Hume.

54 Full particulars of the reasons for and the progress of this disagreement will be found in vol. viii. of the Spanish State Papers of Henry VIII, vols. vii. and viii., edited by Major Martin Hume.

55 See for evidence of this fact a curious document included in the Notes to the Journal of Edward VI, who himself informs us that his father drove away anybody who appeared before him in mourning.

56 Speed.

57 See Privy Council Papers, 1546.

58 Anne Askew’s “Narrative.” It is but fair to the reputation of both Rich and Wriothesley to state that Anne herself admits that she sat talking with both for two hours immediately after the torture, which she could not possibly have done if it had been very severe.

59 The text of the full confession of Mrs. Askew will be found among the State Papers for 1545, Nos. 390, 391.

60 This scene must have taken place, not at Windsor, as stated by Foxe, for Henry never was there after the early spring of 1546, but at Hampton Court. The allusion to his striking Gardiner’s name out of his will must refer to some of the many wills he made before his last (in December of the same year). In this Gardiner’s name was not struck out, but simply omitted.

61 Dr. Thirlby’s name was not omitted in the last will, but he was absent abroad at the time of the King’s death.

62 See Note at the end of this Chapter.

63 This curious fact, that the unorthodox if not heretical King actually communicated at the same time as the orthodox Ambassador, is one of the most significant incidents in the story of this singular period of religious disquiet.

64 Among the members of the house of Howard who were prisoners in the Tower at this time were Agnes, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, the Lord William Howard and his wife and sister, the Countess of Bridgewater, and Lord Thomas Howard, Surrey’s younger brother, who was imprisoned for marrying Henry’s niece, the Lady Margaret Douglas, without the royal consent.

65 For an account of these processions see Machyn’s Diary (The Diary of Henry Machyn, edited by John Gough Nicholas, F.S.A., Camden Society, pp. 63, 107, etc. Also note, p. 399).

66 The Lord Mayor, who was at the arraignment of Queen Anne Boleyn, afterwards said that he “could not observe anything in the proceedings against her, but that they were resolved to make an occasion to get rid of her”—thus corroborating the opinions of Sir Thomas Wyatt and other witnesses.

67 When quite a lad, the Duke married the Princess Anne Plantagenet, youngest daughter of Edward IV and sister to Queen Elizabeth of York. By this royal alliance he became uncle-by-marriage to Henry VIII. Anne, Duchess of Norfolk, died of consumption in 1512, and shortly afterwards her widower married again.

68 This lady was the second daughter of the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham, who was executed on a public charge of combined sorcery and treason, in the first years of Henry VIII’s reign.

69 Elizabeth Holland was the daughter of John Holland of Redenhall, Norfolk, chief steward and afterwards secretary to the Duke of Norfolk. Her mother was a Hussey, niece of Lord Hussey of Sleaford, beheaded for the part he took in the Pilgrimage of Grace.

70 Sir John Seymour, father of Queen Jane, was a man of note in his day. He was born in 1474, and was a doughty soldier, fighting well at the sieges of Terouenne and Tournay, and at the Battle of the Spurs. On his return to England he was appointed Sheriff of Wells, Dorset, and Somersetshire. In 1515 he obtained the Constableship of Bristol Castle. His wife, Margery Wentworth, was the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead, Suffolk, whose grandfather married a granddaughter of Hotspur (Henry Percy), and was thus descended from Edward III. Sir John Seymour died in 1517.

71 Realising the suddenness of their rise to power, Hayward says of the Seymour brothers (Life of Edward VI, p. 82) that “their new lustre did dim the light of men honoured with ancient nobility.”

72 Little is known of William Pickering except that he was a boon companion of Lord Surrey. See Courtships of Queen Elizabeth by Martin Hume.

73 Holbein’s fine sketch of Lady Surrey shows her to have been distinctly “homely” but extremely intelligent-looking.

74 An examination of the Privy Papers shows that Surrey was originally brought before the Council on a charge of eating flesh on days of abstinence—a grave offence, and one against the law, but at that period of frequent occurrence, since no less than nine joiners had been a few days previously arrested and severely reprimanded, and even heavily fined, for the offence of eating meat in public on Friday. Surrey pleaded guilty, but in extenuation declared he had received an ecclesiastical dispensation. With regard to the second charge, of riotous conduct, he declared himself deserving of punishment, but threw himself on the mercy of the Court, alleging, in extenuation of his misdemeanour, his youth and hot-blooded disposition. He is said to have written an abject apology; but, though the letter is extant, it is not in his handwriting, and may therefore be a forgery. The occurrence took place on the night of 21st January 1544.

75 M. Edmond Bapst, Vie de Deux Gentilhommes Poètes du Temps de Henri VIII.

76 Surrey, in his metrical “Satire,” makes use of the same whimsical excuse for shooting with a bow through citizens’ windows. Says he:—

77 This ball was, it appears, given for the purpose of conciliating the Seymours and at Surrey’s express request. It must have been a picturesque function, with its rich costumes, its splendid but rather roughly expressed profusion and hearty welcome. Just such a ball as this old Capulet gave on that ever-memorable night when Juliet first met her Romeo. Was it to dance the Volta or the Salta with him that Surrey invited the angry Countess? These, the two most fashionable dances of the period, had been but recently introduced from France and Italy. The latter resembled, and very closely too, our modern waltz, only in the Salta the gentleman lifts the lady from time to time an inch or so from the ground, as in the German hop waltz.

See also for an account of the Volta, the Orlando Furioso of Boiardo, book xv. stanza 43. These two dances, the Volta and the Salta, were introduced into Scotland by Madeleine de Valois, the first wife of James V, and gave terrible offence to the “unco’ guid” folk of “Auld Reekie.”

78 See State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII, 1542–3; also Miss Strickland’s excellent biography of Katherine Howard in the Lives of the Queens of England, and the Wives of Henry VIII, by Martin Hume.

79 The Duke’s second son.

80 Herbert’s Henry VIII.

81 These are the volumes he desired to have delivered to him whilst imprisoned in the Tower.

82 He must have left Norfolk in a great hurry, for he had to borrow a sum of money from Sir William Stonor, Lieutenant of the Tower, to buy a dark suit of clothes in which to appear before the Council. The documents connected with this transaction are still preserved in the British Museum, Additional MSS 24459, fol. 1497.

83 Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII, translated by Major Martin Hume, and the Calendar of Spanish State Papers, vol. viii., by the same Editor.

84 These “night-gowns” were most probably what we should now call “evening dresses” or “dress suits.”

85 This lady was a rather interesting personage, being the first British peeress who was ever reduced to earning her living by her needle. She was the widow of that Earl of Oxford who was killed during the Wars of the Roses and whose estates were so carefully confiscated that his widow was left penniless.

86 A list of the names of persons in the Earl’s retinue is extremely curious. In the first place, we find that one John Holland was private secretary. He was the father of George Holland, who in his turn was the father of the husband of that Mrs. Holland who figured in the Surrey trial. Then we have Mr. William Sappeworth, Mr. Widdow, Mr. Hairbottle, and Mrs. Ingliss. We learn that the company was often regaled with boiled neck of mutton; and a very favourite dish appears to have been boiled capon with sauce and a roast breast of veal basted. Occasionally they indulged in rabbit pie, and there was a bountiful supply of tarts, custards, and sweetmeats.

87 Hunsdon, in Worcestershire, was one of the numerous seats of the Duke of Norfolk, which he lent on rental to Princess Mary, who first came there in 1536, having in her company Mistress Elizabeth Fitzgerald or Garret. The house, according to William Worcester, was built in Henry VI’s reign by Sir William Oldhall at an expense of 7000 marks. It had four towers and was mainly built of brick.

88 Lady Kildare’s frequent petitions to King Henry for money generally contain some mention of her being his kinswoman and “of his most Royal blood.” See Cottonian MSS, Titus B. xi. 342. It will be remembered that Lady Elizabeth Grey attended the christening of the Lady Frances at Hatfield Church as a sponsor.

89 It has frequently been stated that the Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald—or Garret, as she was generally called—was educated with Princess Mary, but this is obviously incorrect, since she was born when her future royal mistress was fully fourteen years of age. But she was certainly in Mary’s service, and not in that of her sister Elizabeth, as stated by Bapst.

90 There is a fine portrait of her by Kettel at Woburn Abbey, and a copy at Carton.