by David Field
‘Grace!’ Jane said. ‘Do you not recognise me? Have I grown up so much that you don’t know who I am?’
‘Why should I?’ Grace replied sullenly. ‘In London I barely saw you, but was left to join the other servants. You didn’t want to know me when you played with Prince Edward and now you want me to be your friend again?’
A tear formed in Jane’s eye as she dropped her arms to her side, lost for words.
Mary Calthorpe took Grace’s arm and pulled her towards Jane. ‘Well, there’s a fine welcome home for the girl who used to lead you into such mischief! And as for you, Lady Jane, have you no hug for the Nanny who always managed to make you presentable when you rolled in all the muck with your friend? I don’t know which of you was the worse — but I do remember that it was nigh impossible to keep you two apart.’
Jane raced over, threw her arms around Mary and began to sob. ‘Court was fine enough, but it never felt like home. I can’t wait to explore the grounds again!’
Grace reached out a hand and pulled Jane sideways so that they were sharing the hug with Mary Calthorpe. ‘Does that include rolling down to the fishpond and counting the carp?’
‘Yes, of course it does, dearest Grace! I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you, because you won’t believe me.’
‘I will, because I know how much I’ve missed you,’ Grace croaked, and Mary Calthorpe was all but pushed to one side as the two young girls hugged each other joyfully and cried on each other’s shoulders.
‘Do you miss being at Court?’ Grace asked Jane as they rambled slowly among the grazing fallow deer in the sprawling park that lay to the north of Bradgate House. Jane had been back home for almost a year now, and was now a little over nine years old.
‘Of course,’ Jane replied, ‘although it all seems like an old dream these days. I miss all the fine food and the servants who would bring us whatever we asked for. But most of all I miss talking to Prince Edward. We became very good friends and he always singled me out when he wanted an honest opinion on something or other. He couldn’t ask the Lady Mary, because she disapproves of almost every idea in his head and as for Lady Elizabeth, I’m afraid she’s not very given to study and she would distract me by making me giggle with some silly jest or other. It’s perhaps best that neither of them will become Queen, because Mary’s too strict and Elizabeth’s too sort of giddy-headed. Edward is just about right, I think. He reminds me of you.’
‘How?’ Grace asked, puzzled.
‘Well, I got the feeling that he was always telling me the truth, the way you do. Whatever he said, he seemed to believe it to be true and he never hid the truth behind fancy words and gestures, like so many Courtiers do, or so I hear.’
It fell silent for a few moments, until Grace’s concern got the better of her. ‘Do you think you’ll ever be obliged by your father to go back to the Brandon house?’
‘I don’t think that likely,’ Jane replied. ‘Certainly not the house in London, where we both lived. That was only ever needed when my grandparents were received at Court and now that my grandfather’s dead, my grandmother prefers the castle at Grimsthorpe. And now that we’re so far away from Court and she can’t present me to Edward every week, like a dish of sweets, I’m no longer of any use to her.’
‘Use in what way?’ Grace asked.
Jane sighed. ‘My grandmother hinted that I might one day be married to Prince Edward, if I make myself agreeable to him. I think that’s why she kept taking me to see him, but that can’t happen anymore, clearly, now that she’s in Lincolnshire and I’m no longer important to her.’
‘Just think!’ Grace mused out loud. ‘I might one day be the best friend of the Queen of England! I will still be your best friend if that happens, won’t I?’
‘Of course,’ Jane reassured her. ‘And then Nanny Calthorpe won’t be able to order us about any more. I might order her about instead. “Pass me that cushion, Nanny Calthorpe”, or “Please fill my wine goblet, Nanny Calthorpe.” Wouldn’t that be something to look forward to?’
At court Edward Seymour visited Prince Edward on his way to an audience with King Henry.
Prince Edward smiled as the entrance of Edward Seymour was announced. ‘Welcome to my daily audience and what have you brought me?’
‘Nothing, as you can see,’ Edward Seymour replied, ‘other than news of more suppression of the unruly Scots. How go your studies?’
‘I look forward to the day when they go out of my life completely. As to how I progress in learning, you must needs ask my tutors, those boring old men who occupy most of my days. It grows tedious here without the company that I was wont to enjoy. Even my sister Mary, who hides away from me in her own house. As for Elizabeth, she does not visit as often as she did, now that Jane Grey has been withdrawn from Court by her demanding grandmother. When I am King, I shall order that there be no more learning in this land, merely endless games and cakes. And prayer of course, to preserve us all from the anti-Christ in Rome.’
‘Is that what you are being taught?’ Edward Seymour asked, concerned to hear such religious bigotry from the mouth of a nine-year-old. ‘That the Pope is the anti-Christ?’
‘So my tutors teach me,’ the young prince nodded. ‘In years past, the fear of God’s damnation governed the lives of men through the mouths of priests who grew fat through their insistence that they alone held the keys to Heaven. Was it not so? Am I being taught falsehoods?’
‘I am no scholar,’ his uncle replied, ‘but there are many in this kingdom that you will one day rule who believe otherwise — that salvation lies through the old way of worship.’
‘Like the Lady Mary?’ the prince countered. ‘Spending half your days on your knees, while some fat old man mumbles Latin over your head? No wonder she is so miserable.’
‘Nonetheless, it is what she believes,’ Edward Seymour insisted. ‘She was brought up by her mother — the late Queen Katherine — to worship God in the old way, just as you are being taught the Reformist beliefs. You must surely allow men to worship as they choose?’
‘Enough of this boredom! You begin to sound like my tutors and I will not be told what to believe. Have you no business with my father?’
‘Indeed I do, which is why I am here at Greenwich today.’
Edward looked hard at his uncle. ‘You would seek to remain in my good favour?’
‘An uncle should always look to his nephew’s happiness,’ Edward Seymour replied noncommittally.
The prince smiled. ‘Quite so. What I wish from you is that you bring the Lady Jane back to Court.’
‘Why so?’
‘Because she amuses me and makes an otherwise dull day light up with her very presence. If she is here, my sister Elizabeth may also resume her visits, since they are good friends and they brighten the gloom that always seems to hang around my other sister Mary. Can you undertake to bring both Jane and Elizabeth back here at least once a week?’
‘I can undertake to try, certainly,’ Edward Seymour assured him as he contemplated in his mind how he might bring this about, ‘but it is not for me to command your sister Elizabeth, who is a royal princess. However, if, as you say, the renewed presence of the Lady Jane will ensure the attendance of the Lady Elizabeth, then I can at least do my utmost to bring her back to London.’
‘Is she not still here?’
‘No, she has returned to her parents’ estate in Leicestershire, but it is an easy three days’ ride.’
After leaving his nephew, Edward Seymour lost no time in seeking admission to the King’s Audience Chamber, where he found Henry in a depressed and reflective mood. Henry waved Edward into the chair beside him, called for wine and, as protocol demanded, was the first to speak.
‘What news from Scotland?’
Edward Seymour sighed and shook his head. ‘It is a nation in uproar, Your Majesty. Since the peace treaty following our victory at Solway Moss, Scotland has split further along religious lines. In some ways this has proved beneficial to our
interests, since a group of Protestant rebels murdered that old misery Cardinal Beaton, whose voice was the strongest raised in favour of spiriting the Princess Mary across to France. But rumour has it that Francis himself is set to invade Scotland, in retribution for the murder of Beaton and in order to take Mary bodily across to France, perhaps as a prisoner, but certainly with a view to her betrothal to the Dauphin.’
Henry sighed and winced as he shifted his diseased leg onto a footstool. ‘In truth, I did not summon you here in order to discuss Scotland. There are more pressing matters closer to home.’
‘Your Majesty?’
‘You have come from the Prince Edward?’ When Seymour nodded, Henry further asked, ‘And how did you find him?’
‘With your leave, Majesty, I will speak freely. He grows petulant and is being indulged too far, in my loyal and respectful opinion. While I rejoice that he is being tutored in the Protestant philosophy, it is, I fear, being overdone and he is inclined to be intolerant of those with a more Romanist persuasion, most notably the Lady Mary. She still commands a following of her own, including Norfolk, Wriothesley and Gardiner, and I fear that unless the Prince is taught more tolerance ere he becomes King, our nation will experience as much uproar as the Scots, making us more vulnerable to French invasion. Or possibly a Spanish incursion, given Lady Mary’s ancestry.’
Henry nodded, head down deep in thought. ‘And that is why I summoned you, Edward, since you are the person I can trust above all others. I feel in my bones that I am not long for this life and that Prince Edward will inherit my throne long ere he reaches manhood. This will involve a Regency and I would wish you, as the royal uncle, to lead that Council.’
‘You would appoint me Protector by your will?’
‘No, Edward, since such a high and singular honour bestowed upon one man alone might provoke resentment, most notably from your dissolute brother Thomas, the other royal uncle. Rather it shall be a Council of Regency, a gathering of the most worthy and talented nobles in the land, acting as my executors. They shall be given a wide power to govern by majority and in my will I shall make broad provision for them to award themselves as they see fit in order to dominate those who might seek to contest the succession. To you I entrust, but secretly, the duty of ensuring that Rome does not, by my death, regain its authority over the Church I have founded here in England.’
‘You wish the Regency Council to promote the Protestant cause?’
‘Yes, but not so openly as to cause rebellion among the stubborn Catholics who continue to resist reform. One of those is of course the Lady Mary and I do not wish Edward to be placed in a position in which he is obliged to commit her to the Tower.’
Edward Seymour’s brain was racing with the possibilities that were opening before him. ‘This might be more easily achieved were Your Majesty to begin a policy of removing, from their current positions of influence, those most likely to support the cause of Rome. By this means, when the time comes for Edward to take up the reins of kingship, they will be the more easily held down.’
Henry allowed himself a smile. ‘You refer, of course, to Norfolk and his hangers-on? Your enmity with him reminds me most forcefully of the days in Council when he and Suffolk would almost come to blows. And before him, Cromwell and Wolsey. It seems there was never a time when Norfolk did not attract enemies.’
‘All the more reason why he be removed from a position in which he can incite more, Your Majesty. If the devolution of power is to be made as smoothly as possible to a prince with a Protestant crusade to wage, then the less Romanists in Council the better.’
‘Only Norfolk, say you?’
‘Clearly Gardiner as well, Majesty, since he has ever sought to be Canterbury rather than Winchester. If Stephen Gardiner were to acquire the see of Canterbury, he would sell out to Rome by the end of the same week.’
‘And Wriothesley?’
‘I can manage him with one arm tied behind my back and there will need to be some continuity in legal quarters. So retain him as Chancellor, but leave him in no doubt that he will only exercise his drafting arm when it is jerked into life by a string attached to the Regency Council.’
Henry smiled. ‘My instinct was correct, it seems. But there is one final matter. I wish the current Queen to receive a generous allowance on my death — let us say seven thousand pounds a year, paid directly from the Treasury — and to be afforded all due respect as Queen Dowager. She may also retain all her jewels, including those that came with her crown. Can you see that this is honoured if I include it within the terms of my will?’
‘Of course, Your Majesty, but let us not talk as if such provisions will be executed immediately.’
Henry looked sadly through the mullioned chamber windows, where a few hesitant and wispy flakes of snow were drifting down into the Palace gardens. ‘The first snow of winter. I fear that I shall not live to see the first of the daffodils ere those snows recede.’
VII
Richard and Kate Ashton shook the snow from their riding capes and accepted the cups of mulled wine that they were handed by a server in the entrance hall to Bradgate House, while two grooms led their mounts to the warm straw of the adjoining stables. Henry Grey walked from the Great Hall with his hand extended in greeting.
‘Richard — and Kate — thank you so much for making the perilous journey and in such dreadful weather. Come into the hall and warm yourselves by the fire.’
‘So what is so urgent?’ Richard Ashton asked as they stood in front of the cheerfully blazing logs, idly watching the pages erecting the trestles.
Henry Grey looked to his wife Frances for support as he answered. ‘It concerns Jane, which of course means that it also concerns Grace, since Jane will not leave without her.’
‘Leave for where?’ Kate asked fearfully.
‘We have another visitor, as you will discover in a moment,’ Frances replied. ‘Thomas Seymour, who now calls himself “Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports” in addition to “Master-General of the Ordnance”. I assume that these were rewards from King Henry simply for being a royal uncle.’
Richard Ashton smiled as he recalled the wild and feckless youth he had first met at Wulfhall when he had arrived with Thomas Cromwell to escort his sister Jane back to London to be wooed into marriage by a much younger King Henry. ‘He has done little else to earn such offices, as I understand it. But why is he here and why are we summoned?’
‘And how does it concern Grace?’ Kate demanded nervously.
Frances placed a consoling hand on her arm. ‘Jane is summoned back to Court.’
‘By the King?’ Richard asked.
Henry shook his head. ‘By the Prince Edward. It seems that he took a shine to our daughter when she was last at Court and Thomas Seymour has undertaken to escort her back there at Edward’s request.’
‘And Jane, as usual, will go nowhere without her constant companion,’ Frances added.
Richard frowned. ‘As Grace tells it, the last time they were down there, at the Suffolk house, she was hardly Jane’s companion, but was treated like a lowly servant. We were obliged to bring her home and there was no indication that either girl missed the other. Jane only returned here after she grew tired of life at Grimsthorpe, and not because she was pining for Grace’s company. Does your daughter wish to use ours as a mere travelling companion, only to abandon her once more to kitchen duties once they have arrived? And to where is it intended that she travel this time? Is Madam Suffolk back in London?’
Henry Grey looked across to the hall entrance and beckoned to the latest arrival with his free hand. ‘Here is the man who can answer those questions. Thomas, I believe you remember Sir Richard Ashton?’
‘Indeed.’ Thomas Seymour smiled as the two men shook hands. ‘He was ever by Cromwell’s side, when not in the company of Lady Rochford, and was most instrumental in assuring my sister that it was safe to become Queen of England. How go matters with you, Richard?’
‘Middling well,’ Richard replie
d guardedly. ‘Henry here advises us that Grace is once again to be called upon to chaperone Lady Jane, if only in theory. Before we consent to that, my wife and I wish to be reassured that she will be more respectfully accommodated as befits the daughter of a country squire, and not the spawn of a scullion.’
Thomas Seymour’s face clouded. ‘I have no knowledge of how she was treated when she lived in the Suffolk household, of course, but in mine, you may rest assured, she will be treated no differently from the Lady Jane herself.’
‘And what does your household consist of?’ Kate asked, suddenly much more alarmed.
Thomas Seymour smiled reassuringly. ‘Think you that I would take two young girls into my house without adequate concern for their welfare? I am already seeking to employ a governess, since I remain as yet unmarried and therefore childless. It shall be her duty to guard the honour of the Lady Jane and her companion, who I have yet to meet, by the way. I am advised that your daughter remains at home today.’
‘Indeed she does,’ Richard confirmed, ‘and she is destined to remain there until we have better assurance of what future lies in store for her back in London. It is obviously a matter for Sir Henry here whether or not Jane will be permitted to return to London, but until you give better account of the management of your household, she would be making that journey without my daughter in attendance.’
Back at Court, Edward Seymour had received news from the Senior Clerk of the office of the Earl Marshall of England that the Duke of Norfolk’s son had been making use of the heraldic arms of Edward the Confessor, reserved solely for monarchs. This was the excuse Edward Seymour had been waiting for, and two days later, both father and son were in the Tower. Realising, too late, that his arrogance had led him to a point of no return, Norfolk made a full confession of having ‘concealed high treason, in keeping secret the false acts of my son, Henry Earl of Surrey, in using the arms of St. Edward the Confessor, which pertain only to kings’. In desperation he surrendered all his estates to the King, but was advised that he was to be executed anyway. His neck was preserved only by the death of the ailing King Henry on the day before the sentence was to be carried out.
