did consent that I should have my lord admiral, whether I would consent to it, or no?" I answered, that I would not tell him what my mind was ;' and I further inquired of him 'what he meant by asking me that question, or who bade him say so?' He answered me, and said, 'Nobody bade him say so, but that he perceived, as he thought, by my lord admiral inquiring whether my patent were sealed or no, and debating what he spent in his house, and inquiring what was spent in my house, that he was given that way rather than otherwise.' And as concerning Kat Ashley by which familiar name Elizabeth always speaks of her governess, she never advised me to it, but said always, when any talked of my marriage, that she would never have me marry, neither in England nor out of England, without the consent of the king's majesty, your grace's, and the council's.' And after the queen was departed(A cool way, by the bye, of alluding to the death of queen Katharine Parr, from whom Elizabeth had in her tender childhood received the most essential offices of friendship and maternal kindness)—when I asked of her—' What news she heard from London? she answered, merrily, They say, your Grace shall have my lord admiral, and that he will shortly come to woo you. And, moreover, I said unto him, that the cofferer sent a letter hither, that my lord said that he would come this way as he went down into the country.' Then I bade her write as she thought best, and bade her shew it to me when she had done; so she wrote, that she thought it not best, (that the admiral should come,) for fear of suspicion,' and so it went forth, (that is, the letter was sent,) and the lord admiral, after he had heard that, asked the cofferer, 'why he might not come to me as well as to my sister?' and then I desired Kat Ashley to write again (lest my lord might think that she knew more in it than he), that she knew nothing, but only suspected, and I also told Master Tyrwhit that to the effect of the matter-(Here Elizabeth evidently alludes to the report of his intended courtship)-I never consented to any such thing without the council's consent thereto. And as for Kat Ashley and the cofferer, they never told me that they would practise it, (i.e., compass the marriage.) These be the things which I declared to Master Tyrwhit, and also, whereof my conscience beareth me witness, which I would not for all earthly things offend in anything, for I know I have a soul to be saved as well as other folks have, wherefore I will, above all things, have respect unto this same. If there be any more things which I can remember, I will either write it myself, or cause Mr. Tyrwhit to write it. Master Tyrwhit and others have told me that there goeth rumours abroad which be greatly both against my honour and honesty, which, above all other things, I esteem, which be these, that I am in the Tower, and with child by my lord admiral.' My lord, these are shameful slanders, for the which, besides the great desire I have to see the king's majesty, I shall most heartily desire your lordship that I may come to the court after your first determination that I may shew myself there as I Written in haste from Hatfield, this 28th of January. "Your assured friend to my little power, am. "ELIZABETH." This letter, which is in Haynes' edition of the Burleigh State Papers, entitled, "The Confession of the lady Eli 1 Haynes' State Papers, 90. zabeth's grace,” is one of the most interesting documents connected with her personal history. There is a curious mixture of child-like simplicity and diplomatic skill, in her admissions, with that affectation of candour which often veils the most profound dissimulation. Her endeavours to screen her governess are, however, truly generous, and the lofty spirit with which she adverts to the scandalous reports that were in circulation against her reputation, is worthy of the daughter of a king, and conveys a direct conviction of her innocence. There is no affectation of delicacy or mock modesty in her language; she comes to the point at once, like an honest woman, and in plain English tells the protector of what she had been accused, and declares that it is a shameful slander, and demands that she may be brought to court that her appearance may prove her innocence. It is to be remem bered that Elizabeth was little turned of fifteen when this letter was penned. On the 7th of February, Tyrwhit succeeded in drawing a few more particulars from Elizabeth, which he forwarded to the duke of Somerset, enclosed in the following note to his grace: "I do send all the articles I received from your grace, and also the lady Elizabeth's confession, withal, which is not so full of matter as I would it were, nor yet so much as I did procure her to; but in no way will she confess that either Mrs. Ashley or Parry willed her to any practices with my lord admiral, either by message or writing. They all sing one song, and so I think they would not, unless they had set the note before.—Feb. 7, Hatfield." IN ELIZABETH'S HAND. "Kat Ashley told me, that after the lord admiral was married to the queen, if he had had his own will he would have had me afore the queen.' Then I asked her 'How she knew that?' She said, 'she knew it well enough both by himself and others.' The place where she said this I have forgotten, but she spoke to me of him many times." Then Tyrwhit wrote the rest of the confession, but under the inspection of the princess, as follows: "Another time, after the queen was dead, Kat Ashley would have had me to have written a letter to my lord admiral to have comforted him in his sorrow, because he had been my friend in the queen's lifetime, and would think great kindness therein. Then I said, " I would not, for he needs it not.' Then said Kat Ashley, 'If your grace will not, then will I.' I remember I did see it, (i.e., the consolatory letter Elizabeth thought so superfluous to the widower,) but what the effect of it was I do not remember." "Another time I asked her, 'what news was at London,' and she said, 'The voice went there that my lord admiral Seymour should marry me.' I smiled at that, and replied, It was but a London news.' One day she said, 'He that fain would have had you before he married the queen will come now to woo you.' I answered her, Though peradventure he himself would have me, yet I think the (privy) council will not consent, but I think by what you said if he had his own will he would have had me.' I thought there was no let (hindrance) of his part, but only on that of the council. Howbeit, she said another time, that she did not wish me to have him, because she who had him was so unfortunate."" Elizabeth then informs the duke that Parry asked her, "if the council consented, whether she would have the lord admiral or no." "I asked him," pursues she," what he meant by that question, and who bade him ask me ?" He replied, No one, but he gathered by questions asked by the lord admiral before, that he meant some such thing.' I told him it was but his foolish gathering." She says, Parry brought a message from the lord admiral, advising her, "first to get her patents sealed and sure, and then he would apply to the council for leave to marry her." Likewise that the lord admiral wished her to reside at Ashridge, because it was in his way, when he went into the country, to call and see her. Elizabeth signed this confession with her own hand, and very blandly concludes the paper with an assurance to Somerset " that if she remembered any more she would be sure to forward the items to him."1 It was, doubtless, for the purpose of shaking Elizabeth's confidence in Mrs. Ashley that Tyrwhit shewed her the deposition of that trusty official, which revealed all the particulars of the liberties the admiral had presumed to offer to her, while she was under the care of his late consort, queen Katharine. Elizabeth appeared greatly abashed and half breathless, while reading the needlessly minute details, which had been made before the council, of scenes in which she had been only a passive actor, but as Mrs. Ashley had abstained from disclosures, of any consequence, touching her more recent intercourse with 1 Haynes' State Papers. Seymour, she expressed no displeasure, but when she had read to the end, carefully examined the signatures, both of Katharine Ashley and Parry, as if she had suspected Tyrwhit of practising an imposition," though it was plain," observes he, "that she knew both at half a glance.' In one of Tyrwhit's letters to Somerset, he says, "that master Beverly and himself have been examining the cofferer's accounts, which they find very incorrect, and the books so indiscreetly' kept, that he appears little fit for his office; that her grace's expenses are at present more than she can afford, and therefore she must perforce make retrenchments. She was desirous that the protector should not appoint any one to be her cofferer till she had spoken to him herself, for she thought an officer of less importance would serve for that department, and save in her purse a hundred pounds a year." This proved to be only an excuse, on the part of the young lady, to keep the office open for Parry, whom she took the first opportunity of reinstating in his post, although she had been given full proof of his defalcations; and so far was she from resenting the nature of his disclosures, with regard to the improper confidence that had been reposed in him by her tattling governess, that she afterwards, on her accession to the throne, appointed him the comptroller of her royal household, and continued her preferment to him and his daughter to the end of their lives,conduct which naturally induces a suspicion that secrets of greater moment had been confided to him-secrets that probably would have touched not only the maiden fame of his royal mistress, but placed her life in jeopardy, and that he had preserved these inviolate. The same may be supposed with respect to Mrs. Ashley, to whom Elizabeth clung with unshaken tenacity through every storm, even when the council dismissed her from her office, and addressed a stern note to her grace the lady Elizabeth, apprising her that they had, in consequence of the misconduct of Mrs. Katharine Ashley, removed her from her 1 1 Haynes' State Papers, where the depositions are in full. post, and appointed the lady Tyrwhit to take her place as governess to her grace, and requiring her to receive her as such.' The disdainful manner in which the young lioness of the Tudor-Plantagenet line received the new duenna, who had been contumeliously put in authority over her by her royal brother's council, is best related in the words of Sir Robert Tyrwhit himself, who, in his two-fold capacity of spy and jailer, seems to have peculiar satisfaction, in telling tales of the defenceless orphan of Anne Boleyn, to the powerful brother of her murdered mother's rival, Jane Seymour. "Pleaseth your grace to be advertised," he writes, "that after my wife's repair hither, she declared to the lady Elizabeth's grace, that she was called before your grace and the council, and had a rebuke, that she had not taken upon her the office to see her well governed in the lieu of Mrs. Ashley." This reproof to lady Tyrwhit must have had reference to the time when all the parties concerned were living under the roof of queen Katharine Parr, whose lady-in-waiting lady Tyrwhit was. 66 The lady Elizabeth replied, "that Mrs. Ashley was her mistress, and that she had not so demeaned herself that the council should now need to put any more mistresses unto her," "Whereunto," pursues Tyrwhit, my wife answered, 'seeing she did allow Mrs. Ashley to be her mistress, she need not to be ashamed to have any honest woman to be in that place.' She took the matter so heavily that she wept all that night, and loured all the next day till she received your letter; and then she sent for me, and asked me whether she were best to write to you again or not.' I said, if she would follow the effect of your letter (meaning if she would comply with the injunctions contained in it) I thought it best that she should write, but in the end of the matter, I perceived that she was very loth to have a governor, and to avoid the same, she said,' that the world would note her to be a great offender, having so hastily a governor appointed over her,' and all is no more than that she fully Haynes' State Papers. • Ibid. |