accustomed to do, unless Mrs. Ashley were touched, whereunto she was ever ready to make answer vehemently in her defence." The following is the letter which Elizabeth addressed to Somerset, instead of that which his creature, Tyrwhitt, had endeavoured to beguile her into writing. It is marked with all the caution that characterized her diplomatic correspondence, after the lessons of world-craft, in which she finally became an adept, were grown familiar to her. She, however, very properly assumes the tone of an injured person with regard to the scandalous reports that were in circulation against her, and demands that he and the council should take the requisite steps for putting a stop to those injurious rumours: THE LADY ELIZABETH TO THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET. "MY LORD, "Having received your lordship's letters, I perceive in them your good. will towards me, because you declare to me plainly your mind in this thing; and again, for that you would not wish that I should do any thing that should not seem good unto the council, for the which thing I give you most hearty thanks. And whereas, I do understand that you do take in evil part the letters that I did write unto your lordship, I am very sorry that you should take them so, for my mind was to declare unto you plainly, as I thought, in that thing which I did, also the more willingly because (as I write to you) you desired me to be plain with you in all things. And as concerning that point that you write, that I seem to stand in mine own wit in being so well assured of mine own self, I did assure me of myself no more than I trust the truth shall try; and to say that which I know of myself, I did not think should have displeased the council or your grace. And, surely, the cause why that I was sorry that there should be any such about me, was because that I thought the people will say that I deserved,' through my lewd demeanour, to have such a one, and not that I mislike any thing that your lordship or the council shall think good, for I know that you and the council are charged with me; or that I take upon me to rule myself, for I know that they are most deceived that trusteth most in themselves; wherefore I trust you shall never find that fault in me, to the which thing I do not see that your grace has made any direct answer at this time, and seeing they make so evil reports already, shall be but an increasing of these evil tongues. Howbeit, you did write that if I would bring forth any that had reported it, you and the council would see it redressed,' which thing, though I can easily do it, I would be loath to do, because it is mine own cause; and again, that it should be but abridging of an evil name of me that am glad to punish them, and so get the evil will of the people, which thing I would be loath to have. But if it might seem good to your lordship, and the rest of the coun This is a contemptuous manner of signifying lady Tyrwhitt, her new governess, whom Elizabeth scorns to mention by name. cil, to send forth a proclamation into the countries that they refrain their tongues, declaring how the tales be but lies, it should make both the people think that you and the council have great regard that no such rumours should be spread of any of the king's majesty's sisters, (as I am, though unworthy,) and also that I should think myself to receive such friendship at your hands as you have promised me, although your lordship hath showed me great already. Howbeit, I am ashamed to ask it any more, because I see you are not so well minded thereunto. And as concerning that you say that I give folks occasion to think, in refusing the good to uphold the evil, I am not of so simple understanding, nor I would that your grace should have so evil an opinion of me that I have so little respect of my own honesty, that I would maintain it if I had sufficient promise of the same, and so your grace shall prove me when it comes to the point. And thus I bid you farewell, desiring God always to assist you in all your affairs. Written in haste. From Hatfelde, this 21st of February. "Your assured friend to my little power, Superscribed, "To my very good lord, my Lord Protector."1 "ELIZABETH." To such a horrible extent had the scandals to which Elizabeth adverts in this letter proceeded, that not only was it said that she had been seduced by Seymour, and was about to become a mother, but that she had actually borne him a child. From the MS. life of Jane Dormer, countess de Feria, who had been in the service of her sister the princess Mary, it appears "that there was a report of a child born and miserably destroyed, but that it could not be discovered whose it was. A midwife testified that she was brought from her house blindfold to a house where she did her office, and returned in like manner. She saw nothing in the house but candle-light, and only said it was the child of a very fair young lady." This wild story was but a modern version of an ancient legend, which is to be met with among the local traditions of every county in England, in border minstrelsy and ballad lore, and even in oriental tales; and it had certainly been revived by some of the court gossips of Edward the Sixth's reign, who thought proper to make the youthful sister of that prince the heroine of the adventure. The council had offered to punish any one whom Elizabeth could point out as the author of the injurious rumours against her character, and her observation in her letter to Somerset, in reply to this offer, "that she should but gain an evil name as if she were glad to punish, and thus incur the ill-will of the 1 Lansdowne MSS., Brit. Mus. people, which she should be loath to have," is indicative of the profound policy which, throughout life, enabled this great queen to win and retain the affections of the men of England. Popularity was the leading object with Elizabeth, from her childhood to the grave. On the 4th of March, 1549, the bill of attainder against Thomas Seymour, baron Sudely, lord admiral of England, was read for the third time in the house of lords: presumptuous courtship of Elizabeth formed one of the numerous articles against him. At this season, so replete with anxious alarm and anguish to herself, the young princess generously ventured to write the following earnest appeal to Somerset in behalf of her imprisoned governess Mrs. Ashley, and her husband, who were, as she had every reason to suppose, involved in the same peril that impended over her rash lover, with whom they had been confederate :— THE LADY ELIZABETH TO THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET.1 "MY LORD, "I have a request to make unto your grace, which fear has made me omit till this time for two causes; the one because I saw that my request for the rumours which were spread abroad of me took so little place, which thing, when I considered, I thought I should little profit in any other suit; howbeit, now I understand that there is a proclamation for them, (for the which I give your grace and the rest of the council most humble thanks,) I am the bolder to speak for another thing; and the other was, because, peraventure your lordship and the rest of the council will think that I favour her evil doing for whom I shall speak, which is Kateryn Ashley, that it would please your grace and the rest of the council to be good unto her. Which thing I do, not to favour her in any evil, (for that I would be sorry to do,) but for these considerations that follow, the which hope doth teach me in saying, that I ought not to doubt but that your grace and the rest of the council will think that I do it for other considerations. First, because that she hath been with me a long time, and many years, and hath taken great labour and pain in bringing me up in learning and honesty; and therefore I ought of very duty speak for her, for Saint Gregorie sayeth, 'that we are more bound to them that bringeth us up well than to our parents, for our parents do that which is natural for them that bringeth us into the world, but our bringers up are a cause to make us live well in it.' The second is, because I think that whatsoever she hath done in my lord admiral's matter, as concerning the marrying of me, she did it because, knowing him to be one of the council, she thought he would not go about any such thing without he had the council's consent thereunto; for I have heard her many times say that she would never have me marry in any place without your grace's and the council's consent.' The third cause is, because that 1 MSS. Lansd. 1236. fol. 35. it shall and doth make men think that I am not clear of the deed myself, but that it is pardoned to me because of my youth, because that she I loved so well is in such a place. Thus hope, prevailing more with me than fear, bath won the battle, and I have at this time gone forth with it, which I pray God be taken no otherwise than it is meant. Written in haste from Hatfield, this seventh day of March. Also, if I may be so bold, not offending, I beseech your grace and the rest of the council to be good to master Ashley, her husband, which, because he is my kinsman, I would be glad he should do well. "Your assured friend to my little power, "To "ELIZABETH." my very good lord, my Lord Protector." There is something truly magnanimous in the manner in which Elizabeth notices her relationship to the prisoner Ashley at the time when he was under so dark a cloud, and it proves that the natural impulses of her heart were generous and good. The constitutional levity which she inherited from her mother appears, at that period of her life, to have been her worst fault, and though she afterwards acquired the art of veiling this under an affectation of extreme prudery, her natural inclination was perpetually breaking out, and betraying her into follies which remind one of the conduct of the cat in the fable who was turned into a lady, but never could resist her native propensity for catching mice. Seymour was brought to the block on the 20th of March. He had employed the last evening of his life in writing letters to Elizabeth and her sister with the point of an aglet, which he plucked from his hose, being denied the use of pen and ink. These letters, which he concealed within the sole of a velvet shoe, were discovered by the emissaries of the council, and opened. No copies of these interesting documents have apparently been preserved, but bishop Latimer, in his sermon in justification of the execution of the unhappy writer, described them to be "of a wicked and dangerous nature, tending to excite the jealousy of the king's sisters against the protector Somerset as their great enemy." When Elizabeth was informed of the execution of the admiral, she had the presence of mind to disappoint the malignant curiosity of the official spies, who were watching to report every symptom of emotion she might betray on that See the Life of queen Katharine Parr, vol. iii. occasion, and merely said, "This day died a man with much wit, and very little judgment." This extraordinary instance of self-command might, by some, be regarded as a mark of apathy in so young a woman, yet there can be no doubt that Elizabeth had been entangled in the snares of a deep and enduring passion for Seymour,-passion that had rendered her regardless of every consideration of pride, caution, and ambition, and forgetful of the obstacle which nature itself had opposed to a union between the daughter of Anne Boleyn and a brother of Jane Seymour. That Elizabeth continued to cherish the memory of this unsuitable lover with tenderness, not only after she had been deprived of him by the axe of the executioner, but for long years afterwards, may be inferred from the favour which she always bestowed on his faithful follower, sir John Harrington the elder,' and the fact, that when she was actually the sovereign of England, and had rejected the addresses of many of the princes of Europe, Harrington ventured to present her with a portrait of his deceased lord, the admiral, with the following descriptive sonnet : Of person rare, strong limbs, and manly shape, In peace head-wise, in war-skill great bold hand, On horse or foot, in peril or in play, None could excel, though many did essay. A subject true, to king a servant great, Friend to God's truth, and foe to Rome's deceit; 1 Sir John Harrington the elder was originally in the service of king Henry VIII., and much in his confidence. He married Ethelred Malte, alias Dyngley, the king's natural daughter, by Joanna Dyngley, or Dobson, and obtained with her a large portion of the confiscated church lands, which the king, out of his special love and regard for her, gave for her use and benefit; but she always passed for the illegitimate daughter of John Malte, the king's tailor, to whose care she was committed in her infancy for nurture and education. After the death of this illegitimate scion of royalty, Harrington entered into the service of the lord admiral. He was very strictly examined by the council of Edward VI. as to the intercourse of his lord with the lady Elizabeth, but he could neither be cajoled nor menaced into acknowledgments tending to criminate them. Elizabeth took him into her own household, and he remained faithfully attached to her interest to the end of his life. His second wife, the beautiful Isabella Markham, was one of Elizabeth's maids of honour, whom he has immortalized in his poetical works as 'sweet Isabella Markham.'-See Nugæ Antique, by sir John Harrington the younger. |