History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume II Part 49

[539] Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. I.; and see Appendix, p. 241, et seq.

[540] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 452

[541] Lord Herbert, p. 188.

[542] Lord Herbert, p. 188. It will have been observed, that neither in this letter, nor in the other authentic papers connected with her death, is there any allusion to Cardinal Pole's famous story, that being on her deathbed, Queen Catherine prayed the king to allow her to see her daughter for the last time, and that the request was refused. Pole was not in England at the time. He drew his information from Catholic rumour, as vindictive as it was credulous; and in the many letters from members of the privy council to him which we possess, his narrative is treated as throughout a mere wild collection of fables. I require some better evidence to persuade me that this story is any truer than the rest, when we know that Catherine allowed the king to hear that she was dying, not from herself, but from a foreign amba.s.sador; and that such a request could have been made in the few days which intervened between this intimation and her death, without some traces of it appearing in the close account which we possess of her language and actions during those days, is in a high degree unlikely.

[543] See Lingard, Vol. V. p. 30. Hall says: "Queen Anne wore yellow for mourning."

[544] The directions for the funeral are printed in Lingard Vol. V., Appendix, p. 267.

[545] It ought not to be necessary to say that her will was respected--Lord Herbert, p. 188; but the king's conduct to Catherine of Arragon has provoked suspicion even where suspicion is unjust; and much mistaken declamation has been wasted in connexion with this matter upon an offence wholly imaginary.

In making her bequests, Catherine continued to regard herself as the king's wife, in which capacity she professed to have no power to dispose of her property. She left her legacies in the form of a pet.i.tion to her husband. She had named no executors; and being in the eyes of the law "a sole woman," the administration lapsed in consequence to the nearest of kin, the emperor. Some embarra.s.sment was thus created, and the attorney-general was obliged to evade the difficulty by a legal artifice, before the king could take possession, and give effect to the bequests.--See Strype's _Memor._, Vol. I., Appendix, pp. 252-255. Miss Strickland's valuable volumes are so generally read, that I venture to ask her to reconsider the pa.s.sage which she has written on this subject.

The king's offences against Catherine require no unnecessary exaggeration.

[546] See Vol. I. pp. 175, 176.

[547] Foxe speaks very strongly on this point. In Ellis's Letters we find many detailed instances, and indeed in all contemporary authorities.

[548] Cranmer's Letter to the King: Burnet, Vol. I. p. 323.

[549] More's _Life of More_; and see Chap. IX.

[550] Il Re de Inghilterra haveva fatto venire in la Corte sua il majordomo de la Regina et mostrava esserse mitigato alquanto. La causa della mitigation procede del buon negotiar ha fatto et fa la Catolica Mata con lo Ambaxiatore del Re de Inghilterra con persuadirle con buoni paroli et pregeri che debbia rest.i.tuir la Regina in la antigua dignita.

Dicano anch.o.r.e che la Anna e mal voluta degli Si di Inghilterra si per la sua superbia, si anche per l'insolentia et mali portementi che fanno nel regno li fratelli e parenti di Anna e che per questo il Re non la porta la affezione que soleva.--"Nuevas de Inglaterra": _MS. Archives of Simancas._

[551] Il Re festeggia una altra donna della quale se mostra esser inamorato; e molti Si di Inghilterra lo ajutano nel seguir el preditto amore per desviar questo Re de la pratica di Anna.--_Ibid._

[552] Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 87.

[553] _Pilgrim_, p. 117.

[554] _Le Laboureur_, I. 405: quoted in Lingard, Vol. V. p. 30.

[555] Quoy qu'il en soit l'on me luy peult faire grand tort quand cires l'on a repute pour meschante. Car ce a este des longtemps son stile.--The Regent Mary to Ferdinand: _MS. Brussels._

[556] Later writers point to the ladies of the court, but report could not agree upon any single person: and _nothing_ is really known.

[557] Baga de Secretis, pouch 8: Appendix II. to the _Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records_.

[558] Cranmer to the King: Burnet, Vol. I. p. 322.

[559] I must draw particular attention to this. Parliament had been just dissolved, and a fresh body of untried men were called together for no other purpose than to take cognizance of the supposed discovery.--See the Speech of the Lord Chancellor: _Lords' Journals_, p. 84. If the accusations were intentionally forged by the king, to go out of the way to court so needless publicity was an act most strange and most incomprehensible.

[560] Constantyne says, Smeton was arrested first on Sat.u.r.day evening, at Stepney; but he seems inconsistent with himself. See his Memorial, _Archaeologia_, Vol. XXIII. p. 63.

[561] His name repeatedly occurs in "the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII."

[562] Five years later, after the shameful behaviour of Catherine Howard, the duke wrote to the king of "_the abominable deeds done by two of my nieces against your Highness_;" which he said have "brought me into the greatest perplexity that ever poor wretch was in, fearing that your Majesty, having so often and by so many of my kyn been thus falsely and traitorously handled, might not only conceive a displeasure in your heart against me and all other of that kyn, but also in manner abhor to hear speak of any of the same."--Norfolk to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 721.

[563] Kingston to Cromwell: Singer's Cavendish, p. 456 et seq., in Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. I.

[564] Sir Edward Baynton to the Lord Treasurer, from Greenwich: Singer's Cavendish, p. 458.

[565] See Lingard, Vol. V. p. 33. It is not certain whether the examination of the prisoners was at Greenwich or at the Tower. Baynton's letter is dated from Greenwich, but that is not conclusive. Constantyne says (_Archaeologia_, Vol. XXIII. p. 63) that the king took Norris with him to London, and, as he heard say, urged him all the way to confess, with promises of pardon if he would be honest with him. Norris persisted in his denial, however, and was committed to the Tower. Afterwards, before the council, he confessed. On his trial, his confession was read to him, and he said he was deceived into making it by Sir W.

Fitzwilliam: an accusation against this gentleman very difficult to believe.

[566] Letter to the Lord Treasurer.

[567] Kingston to Cromwell; Singer's Cavendish, p. 451.

[568] Kingston to Cromwell: Singer's Cavendish, p. 451.

[569] She said, "I think it much unkindness in the king to put such about me as I never loved." I shewed her that the king took them to be honest and good women. "But I would have had of mine own privy chamber,"

she said, "which I favour most."--Kingston to Cromwell: Ibid. p. 457.

[570] Ibid. p. 453.

[571] The disorder of which the king ultimately died--ulceration in the legs--had already begun to show itself.

[572] The lady, perhaps, to whom Norris was to have been married. Sir Edward Baynton makes an allusion to a Mistress Margery. The pa.s.sage is so injured as to be almost unintelligible:--"I have mused much et ... of Mistress Margery, which hath used her ... strangely towards me of late, being her friend as I have been. But no doubt it cannot be but she must be of councell therewith. There hath been great friends.h.i.+p between the queen and her of late."--Sir E. Baynton to the Lord Treasurer: Singer, p. 458.

[573] Kingston to Cromwell: Singer, pp. 452, 453. Of Smeton she said, "He was never in my chamber but at Winchester;" she had sent for him "to play on the virginals," for there her lodging was above the king's....

"I never spoke with him since," she added, "but upon Sat.u.r.day before May day, and then I found him standing in the round window in my chamber of presence, and I asked why he was so sad, and he answered and said it was no matter; and then she said, 'You may not look to have me speak to you as I should to a n.o.bleman, because you be an inferior person.'--'No, no, madam; a look sufficeth me [he said], and thus fare you well.'"--Singer, p. 455.

[574] Printed in Burnet, Vol. I. p. 322, et seq.

[575] "Mark is the worst cherished of any man in the house, for he wears irons."--Kingston to Cromwell. Later writers have a.s.sured themselves that Smeton's confession was extorted from him by promises of pardon.

Why, then, was the government so impolitic as to treat him with especial harshness so early in the transaction? When he found himself "ironed,"

he must have been a.s.sured that faith would not be kept with him; and he had abundant time to withdraw what he had said.

[576] The sentence is mutilated, but the meaning seems intelligible: "The queen standeth stiffly in her opinion that she wo ... which I think is in the trust that she [hath in the] other two,"--i.e. Norris and Weston.--Baynton to the Lord Treasurer. The government seems to have been aware of some secret communication between her and Norris.--Ibid Singer, p. 458.

[577] Kingston to Cromwell: Singer, p. 457.

[578] My first impression of this letter was strongly in favour of its authenticity. I still allow it to stand in the text because it exists, and because there is no evidence, external or internal, to prove it to be a forgery. The more carefully I have examined the MS., however, the greater uncertainty I have felt about it. It is not an original. It is not an official copy. It does not appear, though here I cannot speak conclusively, to be even a contemporary copy. The only guide to the date is the watermark on the paper, and in this instance the evidence is indecisive.--Note to the 2d edition.

[579] Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 87; _Cotton. MS._

[580] Strype's _Eccles. Memorials_, Vol. I. Lord Bacon speaks of these words as a message sent by the queen on the morning of the execution.

[581] Kingston to Cromwell: Singer, p. 456.

[582] Ibid. p. 457.

[583] Baga de Secretis, pouches 8 and 9: Appendix II to the _Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records_.