and showed the letter to her royal pupil, who, without committing herself in any way, tacitly permitted it to be sent. Lady Tyrwhitt, soon after, told Mrs. Ashley "that it was the opinion of many, that the lord admiral kept the late queen's maidens together to wait on the lady Elizabeth, whom he intended shortly to marry." Mrs. Ashley also talked with Mr. Tyrwhitt about the marriage, who bade her "take heed, for it were but undoing if it were done without the council's leave." At Christmas the report became general that the lady Elizabeth should marry with the admiral; but when sir Henry Parker sent his servant to ask Mrs. Ashley what truth were in this rumour, she replied "that he should in nowise credit it, for it was ne thought ne meant.”1 Mrs. Ashley, however, by her own account, frequently told her royal pupil" that she wished that she and the admiral were married." Elizabeth, who had only completed her fifteenth year two days after the death of queen Katharine Parr, had no maternal friend to direct and watch over her, there was not even a married lady of noble birth or alliance in her household, a household comprising upwards of one hundred and twenty persons; so that she was left entirely to her own discretion, and the counsels of her intriguing governess, Mrs. Katharine Ashley, and the unprincipled cofferer or treasurer of her house, Thomas Parry, in whom, as well as in Mrs. Ashley, she reposed unbounded confidence. These persons were in the interest of the lord admiral, and did every thing in their power to further his presumptuous designs. Very soon after the death of queen Katharine, the lord admiral presented himself before Elizabeth, clad in all the external panoply of mourning, but having, as she suspected, very little grief in his heart. He came as a wooer to the royal maid, from whom he received no encouragement, but he endeavoured to recommend his cause to her through her female attendants. One of her bedchamber women, of the name of Mountjoy, took the liberty of speaking openly to her youthful mistress in favour of a marriage between her and the admiral, enlarging at the same time on his qualifica'Haynes' State-Papers, p. 101.

tions in such unguarded language, that Elizabeth, after trying in vain to silence her, told her at last, "that she would have her thrust out of her presence, if she did not desist." There can, however, be little doubt that a powerful impression was made on Elizabeth by the addresses of Seymour, seconded as they were by the importunity of her governess, and all who possessed her confidence. The difference of nearly twenty years in their ages was probably compensated by the personal graces which had rendered him the Adonis of her father's court, and she was accustomed to blush when his name was mentioned, and could not conceal her pleasure when she heard him commended. In a word, he was the first, and perhaps the only man whom Elizabeth loved, and for whom she felt disposed to make any sacrifice. She acknowledged that she would have married him, provided he could have obtained the consent of the council.2 To have contracted wedlock with him in defiance of that despotic junta by which the sovereign power of the crown was then exercised, would have involved them both in ruin; and even if passion had so far prevailed over Elizabeth's characteristic caution and keen regard to her own interest, Seymour's feelings were not of that romantic nature which would have led him to sacrifice either wealth or ambition on the shrine of love. My lord admiral had a prudential eye to the main chance, and no modern fortune-hunter could have made more particular inquiries into the actual state of any lady's finances than he did into those of the fair and youthful sister of his sovereign, to whose hand he, the younger son of a country knight, presumed to aspire. The sordid spirit of the man is sufficiently unveiled in the following conversation between him and Thomas Parry, the cofferer of the princess Elizabeth, as deposed by the latter before the council:3

"When I went unto my lord admiral the third and fourth time," says Parry, "after he had asked me how her grace did, and such things, he had large communications with me of her; and he questioned me of many things, and of the

1 Leti's Elizabeth.

2 Haynes' State-Papers.

Ibid.

1

state of her grace's house, and how many servants she kept; and I told him '120 or 140, or thereabouts.' Then he asked me 'what houses she had, and what lands?' I told him where the lands lay, as near as I could, in Northamptonshire, Berkshire, Lincoln, and elsewhere. Then he asked me if they were good lands or no?' and I told him they were out on lease, for the most part, and therefore the worse.' He asked me, also, 'whether she had the lands for term of life, or how?' and I said, 'I could not perfectly tell; but I thought it was such as she was appointed by her father's will and testament, the king's majesty that then was.' The admiral inquired 'if the lady Elizabeth had had her letters-patent out?' and Parry replied, 'No; for there were some things in them that could not be assured to her grace yet, [probably till she was of age,] and that a friend of her grace would help her to an exchange of lands that would be more commodious to her.' The admiral asked, 'What friend?' and Parry replied, 'Morisyn, who would help her to have Ewelm for Apethorpe.' Then the admiral proposed making an exchange with her himself, and spake much of his three fair houses, Bewdley, Sudely, and Bromeham, and fell to comparing his housekeeping with that of the princess,3 said 'that he could do it with less expense than she was at,' and offered his house in London for her use; observing that 'Ashridge was not far out of his way, and he might come to see her in his way up and down, and would be glad to see her there.' Parry told him, 'He could not go to see her grace, till he knew what her pleasure was.'-'Why,' said the admiral, it is no matter now, for there hath been a talk of late that I shall marry my lady Jane;' adding, 'I tell you this merrily,—I tell you this merrily.'"4

When these communications had been made to the lady Elizabeth, she caused Mrs. Ashley to write two letters to the admiral. One of these letters appears to have been cautiously worded, for fear of accidents, "requesting him not to come

1 Haynes' State-Papers.

2 This was sir R. Morrison, an influential member of king Edward's council. Haynes' State-Papers. Ibid.

without permission from the council;" the other, containing her real sentiments, an assurance "that she accepted his gentleness, and that he would be welcome; but if he came not, she prayed God to speed his journey." Mrs. Ashley added these words to the private letter herself: "No more hereof until I see my lord myself, for my lady is not to seek of his gentleness or good will." There is reason to suppose that, by the connivance of her governess and state-officers, Seymour had clandestine interviews with the royal girl, at times and places not in accordance with the restraints and reserves with which a maiden princess, of her tender years, ought to have been surrounded. Reports of a startling nature reached the court, and the duchess of Somerset severely censured Katharine Ashley, "because she had permitted my lady Elizabeth's grace to go one night on the Thames in a barge, and for other light parts;" saying, "that she was not worthy to have the governance of a king's daughter."

When Elizabeth was preparing to pay her Christmas visit to court, she was at a loss for a town residence, Durhamhouse, which had formerly been granted to her mother, queen Anne Boleyn, before her marriage with king Henry, and to which Elizabeth considered she had a right, having been appropriated by king Edward's council to the purpose of a mint. Elizabeth made application by her cofferer, Thomas Parry, to the lord admiral for his assistance in this matter, on which he very courteously offered to give up his own town-house for her accommodation and that of her train,2 adding "that he would come and see her grace." "Which declaration," says Parry, "she seemed to take very gladly, and to accept it joyfully. On which, casting in my mind the reports which I had heard of a marriage between them, and observing that, at all times when by any chance

1 Haynes' State-Papers.

2 Bath-inn, a house of the bishops of Bath and Wells, which had been torn from that see by the Seymours, was the town residence of the lord admiral at that time, which, with all its furniture, he offered to Thomas Parry for the use of the princess Elizabeth during her stay in London.-Burleigh StatePapers.

talk should be had of the lord admiral, she showed such countenance that it should appear she was very glad to hear of him, and especially would show countenance of gladness when he was well spoken of, I took occasion to ask her whether, if the council would like it, she would marry with him? To which she replied, 'When that comes to pass, I will do as God shall put into my mind." I remember well," continues Parry, "that when I told her grace how that the lord admiral would gladly she should sue out her 'letterspatent,' she asked me, 'whether he were so desirous or no indeed?' I said, 'Yes; in earnest he was desirous of it.' And I told her farther how he would have had her have lands in Gloucestershire, called Prisley, as in parcel of exchange, and in Wales;' and she asked me what I thought he meant thereby?' and I said, 'I cannot tell, unless he go about to have you also; for he wished your lands, and would have them that way."""

This broad hint Elizabeth received, as it appears, in silence; but when Parry proceeded to inform her that the admiral wished her to go to the duchess of Somerset, and by that means to make suit to the protector for the exchange of the lands, and for the grant of a house, instead of Durhamhouse, for herself, and so to entertain the duchess for her good offices in this affair, the spirit of her royal ancestors stirred within her, and she said, "I dare say he did not say so, nor would.”—"Yes, by my faith!" replied the cofferer. "Well," quoth she, indignantly, "I will not do so, and so tell him," expressing her anger that she should be driven to make such suits, and said, "In faith I will not come there, nor begin to flatter now."3

Shortly after, the lady Elizabeth asked Parry "whether he had told Kate Ashley of the lord admiral's gentleness and kind offers, and those words and things that had been told to her?" He replied that he had not. "Well," said Elizabeth, "in any wise go tell it her, for I will know nothing but she shall know it. In faith, I cannot be quiet until ye have told her of it." When Parry told the governess, she said "that

1 Haynes' State-Papers.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.