An Uneasy Crown: Power and politics at the Tudor court (The Tudor Saga Series Book 4)

by David Field

  ‘So why does King Edward give preference to Dudley, thereby promoting Jane’s bid for an early crown, if you be correct?’

  ‘Because he knows no better!’ Edward shouted in frustration. ‘All accounts are that Edward dotes on Jane, to the extent that it is rumoured that he sees her as his future bride when he comes into his own. She has played the long hand well and it wants only a few more years before she can probably seduce her way into Edward’s bed anyway.’

  ‘So she has no need to plot with Dudley?’ Anne reasoned.

  Edward frowned. ‘We cannot be sure that she even plotted with Thomas, at least not directly,’ he replied. ‘I believe that it was Thomas’s plan to offer her the crown once Edward was dead, using Dudley as his armed support. Now, with Thomas gone, Dudley has stepped to the forefront of the plot.’

  ‘So does Dudley plot against Edward’s life, or does he simply seek to continue to push Edward and Jane together and let love take its course?’

  ‘That I do not know,’ Edward admitted, ‘which is why I gaze into the fire for answers. But either way, two things remain clear. One is that Dudley has gained supremacy in Council, with Edward’s blessing, and the other is that Jane Grey is his master chess piece.’

  ‘So what do you plan to do?’

  Edward grimaced, then spat into the fire. ‘Much though it irks me, I must ally myself with Wriothesley while he conducts his enquiries. He has no love for me, obviously, but the King has given him the task of unearthing those who were behind Thomas, while the Lady Mary is insisting that he point the finger of accusation at Lady Elizabeth. I must somehow divert Wriothesley’s attentions towards the Grey girl.’

  ‘And how will you do that?’

  ‘First we must get her back to London, where she will be more available for questioning by Wriothesley. So I think that you and I must pay another visit to Bradgate.’

  ‘This is intolerable!’ Elizabeth protested as Wriothesley’s entrance was announced. She was standing with her back to the roaring fire, hands on hips and her mouth set in an expression of displeasure.

  ‘How so, madam?’ Wriothesley enquired with his usual air of cool indifference.

  ‘You have made a virtual prisoner of Mistress Ashley and you have confined several of my household to their rooms here at Hatfield. Several of them were not even in London with me, so how could they possibly know anything of my actions while in Baron Seymour’s house?’

  ‘Some of them, however, were with you during your stay with Sir Anthony Denny,’ Wriothesley replied without seemingly moving a single face muscle. ‘Mistress Parry, for example, who tells a pretty tale of your walks in the garden in Cheshunt on the arm of Thomas Seymour.’

  ‘Walks, Wriothesley,’ Elizabeth snarled. ‘Walks only.’

  ‘With his arm around your waist and your head on his shoulder?’

  ‘If Blanche Parry was close enough behind us to hear aught of our conversations, then she no doubt advised you that we spoke largely of the health of my very good friend Catherine Parr — the former Queen, let me remind you — and her impending childbirth. Perhaps Blanche did not hear such trivial exchanges, or you were not able to terrify her into falsely revealing worse, but you cannot seriously suggest that I would be involved in some intrigue of the flesh with the husband of a very good friend who was carrying his child?’

  ‘You stood to benefit from the death of King Edward, did you not?’

  ‘He is not dead.’

  ‘I speak hypothetically, madam. Were ought to befall King Edward, you would move closer to the throne of England, would you not?’

  ‘Behind my sister Mary,’ Elizabeth reminded him, at which he smiled.

  ‘Even assuming that nothing untoward happened to the Lady Mary, she is still senior to you by some seventeen years and could be expected to die naturally while you were still in your prime. Edward, on the other hand, could well outlive you both.’

  ‘Your meaning?’

  ‘It suited you to have him out of the way.’

  ‘As it also suited Mary — have you subjected her to the same indignities that you inflict upon me and my household? And when do you intend to desist?’

  ‘When I have the truth, madam.’

  ‘The actual truth, which I have already disclosed to you, or the version of the truth that is desired by yourself and my sister? Do you fondly imagine that I do not know who really saddles your horse, Master Wriothesley? Dear Edward would never give authority for me to be hounded in this way, whereas for Mary it would be merely consistent with the manner in which she has treated me since my birth. Return to Hunsdon, my Lord, and advise my loving sister that any “understanding” I might have had with Thomas Seymour existed only in her fevered imagination.’

  ‘I shall of course be reporting all this,’ Wriothesley sneered, ‘including your seeming lack of enthusiasm for the revelation of all those behind the threat to the King’s life. But first I must return to London and report all that I have learned so far.’

  ‘Do not let me be the cause of your delay, Master Wriothesley,’ Elizabeth said sarcastically, ‘since presumably my household staff will now be free to discharge their normal duties. When you call in at Hundson on your return to London, be sure and give my sister my kind regards and assure her that my conscience is in no way afflicted.’

  XVIII

  ‘To what do I owe the honour, Uncle?’ King Edward asked with a sneer as Edward Seymour bowed into his presense.

  ‘Various reasons, Your Majesty. First, to enquire as to your health. Secondly, for news of any further progress by Master Wriothesley in his enquiries. And finally — and perhaps more welcome to your ears — to suggest that the Lady Jane Grey be invited back to Court, now that you appear to be returning to full health.’

  ‘As for my health,’ the King frowned, ‘the agues have not completely left me and my physicians advise that these are the lingering legacies of the smallpox that recently beset our city. They advise more purgings and perhaps some country air.’

  ‘Windsor?’ Edward Seymour asked.

  ‘Can it be made ready within the week? I own that life here at Greenwich has become even more tedious, now that fussing physicians have been added to my daily burden of tutors. I wonder that this was once regarded as a place of pleasure.’

  ‘You are correct in your assertion that it is too close to the city, if you are to avoid the risk of common diseases that waft across on the river breezes.’

  ‘You made mention of Lady Jane. Does she remain on her estate?’

  ‘Indeed she does, Your Majesty, for fear of the recent contagions. But were you to transfer to Windsor, I would undertake to have her brought to you there, in order that you might renew your happy acquaintance.’

  ‘Do it, Uncle, and earn my thanks.’

  ‘May I enquire as to how Wriothesley’s commission is faring? Council has been awaiting his first report for several months now and we are all naturally anxious that should there be any left in the plot against your life...’

  ‘Yes, quite,’ Edward interrupted him. ‘Well, as you can see, I am still in this world and far from convinced that anyone other than a lunatic like your brother could possibly have had designs on my death. In fact, there are days when I doubt that even he meant to kill me.’

  ‘And Wriothesley?’

  ‘I expect him back daily, and please assure my Council that he will lose no time in making his report. Now, if there is nothing else, perhaps you would care to take yourself off to Leicestershire without delay?’

  Five days later, at a Council meeting summoned to meet at Greenwich for the greater convenience of King Edward, Wriothesley presented his inconclusive report, to considerable dissatisfaction all round.

  ‘In short, you are no nearer to revealing who else was involved?’ Dudley demanded.

  Wriothesley inclined his head in a respectful gesture as he replied, ‘With the greatest respect to my Lord of Northumberland, it has only ever been assumed that there were others involved in
the matter.’

  ‘Wriothesley,’ Edward Seymour responded with a sour face, ‘even I, as the idiot’s brother, have to concede that he would not have taken a single step on a course of action that a ten-year-old could have assured him was doomed to failure, unless he was persuaded to it by someone else.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Archbishop Cranmer observed out loud, ‘the object was not the death of the King, but the downfall of Thomas Seymour himself.’

  ‘What evidence did you unearth that this might have been the case?’ Dudley asked nervously of Wriothesley, who shrugged his shoulders.

  ‘His Grace may be correct, in that I have so far interrogated everyone who might have been behind a plot against His Majesty, without detecting any suggestion of guilty conscience.’

  ‘How about my sister Mary?’ the King demanded. ‘Surely, as the next in line under my father’s will, she had the most to gain?’

  ‘You would accuse your own sister, Your Majesty?’

  ‘Why not, since according to letters of complaint that I receive almost daily from our other sister Elizabeth, you persecuted her and every member of her household, every day for a month?’

  It fell silent, until Edward Seymour saw his opportunity. ‘Perhaps the guilt lies elsewhere in the succession, Your Majesty?’

  King Edward’s face set in an angry scowl. ‘You mean who, precisely?’

  ‘Did not your father’s dying succession wishes include the Lady Jane Grey?’

  ‘Enough!’ the King shouted, as his fist came down hard on the table. ‘This search for those to blame for Seymour’s seeming loss of wits has gone far enough! Wriothesley, see that the Clerk to Council has the final draft of your report and then discontinue your enquiries.’

  ‘But, Your Majesty —’ Wriothesley began to argue, before the royal fist again hit the table.

  ‘You have your orders! You have failed in your mission, for reasons that may not lie entirely at your door, but that mission is now at an end. Am I understood?’

  ‘Absolutely, Your Majesty.’

  ‘Good. Now, what other items of business have we?’

  Two hours later, as the Council dispersed, Edward Seymour sidled up to Thomas Wriothesley.

  ‘I know that we have never been the closest of friends, Thomas,’ Edward mumbled, ‘but I am concerned that your mission has been terminated in this fashion. As Thomas’s brother, I clearly feel a deep sense of family shame and would dearly love to learn who was behind his downfall.’

  Wriothesley turned his head to regard Edward with a look of mingled suspicion and resentment. ‘You robbed me of my Chancellorship. Why should I now assist you?’

  ‘For my part, to in some way retrieve my family’s good name. But for you, the opportunity to demonstrate to the King that you are capable of penetrating the most carefully woven web of treason.’

  ‘You heard what I had to report to Council, Somerset. I have so far discovered no evidence of complicity on the part of anyone else.’

  ‘Perhaps you have not been asking the right people.’

  ‘Meaning?’

  ‘Cranmer may have been correct that the entire object of the madcap scheme was to ensure the downfall of my brother Thomas. We must then ask who stood to gain by that downfall.’

  ‘And your answer to your own question?’

  ‘It is well known that at the time when Thomas was caught with a loaded weapon in the Hampton garden, his wife had transferred herself to Sudeley for her lying in.’

  ‘Because she was disgusted by his behaviour with the Lady Elizabeth, or so I was informed.’

  ‘And that information was correct, insofar as it went,’ Edward reassured him. ‘You have been assuming all along, have you not, that it was Elizabeth’s desire for the crown that led her to seduce Thomas into his rash enterprise?’

  ‘Indeed.’

  ‘Well, Elizabeth was not the only young lady resident at Chelsea Manor at that time who had a claim on the throne should aught befall King Edward.’

  ‘You mean the Lady Jane?’ Wriothesley asked, horror-stricken.

  ‘And why not?’ Seymour persisted. ‘She was resident there, she is just at that age when young girls have no control over their bodily urges or their fascination with older men, and my brother had a vile reputation with young girls. It may not have been Elizabeth with whom he hatched the plan, but the young girl Jane.’

  ‘But you heard His Majesty’s reaction when her name was merely mentioned in his presence as a possible conspirator with your brother.’

  ‘Because young Edward is smitten with her. She would be the last person he would accept as having been behind a threat to his life, which makes her all the more dangerous should she attempt to dupe someone else into doing the deed. Someone more capable than my useless brother.’

  ‘Who, for example?’ Wriothesley asked, somewhat out of his depth when it came to conjecture rather than blunt accusation.

  ‘When Catherine Seymour retired down to Sudeley, where did Lady Jane find alternative accommodation?’

  ‘I have no idea, my Lord.’

  ‘In Durham House, along with Dudley and his family.’

  ‘You suspect Dudley’s hand in all this?’

  ‘That is for you to determine, Thomas. I merely offer it to you as a suggestion.’

  ‘You seem to be ahead of me, Somerset. Explain carefully to me how you perceive matters to have lain.’

  ‘I can only offer conjecture based upon the known facts. The first of those facts is that Lady Jane was resident in my brother’s house in Chelsea, where either he seduced her, or she tempted him, on the urging of Dudley, into a foolhardy act that could only result in his downfall. This may either have been because Dudley wished to see the Seymours disgraced, in order to enjoy the dominance over Council that he now enjoys, or because Lady Jane was persuaded, in her country naivety, that she could become Queen of England. She then transferred to Dudley’s house for safety, once your enquiry was commenced and then was able to use the convenient excuse of the outbreak of smallpox in order to retreat to her Leicestershire estate until the scandal subsided and Elizabeth became the convenient victim of Lady Mary’s venom.’

  ‘Think you that Jane has an unchaste passion for Dudley?’

  ‘I do not care one way or the other, Thomas. I simply suggest that the names of Grey and Dudley may be linked to a plot against the throne and that you would be performing a great service to the nation — and of course the King himself — by revealing it.’

  ‘And where, pray, would you recommend that I begin?’

  ‘I have been able to take that first step for you, my friend in need. I have secured the King’s consent to Lady Jane being brought back to Court, but at Windsor rather than here, too close to the miasmas that waft off the river. Once I have her down here, you may begin to subtly question her.’

  ‘If she complains to King Edward, he will have my head!’ Wriothesley protested.

  ‘Not if you act from the pure motivation that has driven you thus far, Thomas. Or do you wish this matter to end with the conclusion that Master Wriothesley failed in a commission direct from the Crown?’

  ‘Let me know once Lady Jane is accommodated at Windsor and I’ll give the matter further thought,’ Wriothesley promised, and departed with a furrowed brow, leaving Edward Seymour with a feeling of elation.

  ‘Must I go without Grace?’ Jane complained as they sat at supper, her lower lip quivering in a mixture of nervous defiance and impending tears. Her mother placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

  ‘King Edward has been in poor health of late and it seems that you are one of the means by which he may be offered the prospect of recovery,’ Lady Frances reminded her. ‘At least, that’s what the Duke of Somerset assures us and he has journeyed here specially to take you back with him at the King’s request. How would it be regarded were you to refuse to travel to the side of your King in order to assist him back to full health?’

  ‘But why can Grace not come with me?’r />
  ‘Because,’ her father told her, ‘at thirteen years of age, it’s time you faced life without the friend who was perhaps appropriate when you would climb trees and wade in the fish pond, but must now be put aside as you prepare to take your place at Court.’

  ‘Even if I don’t want to?’ Jane pouted.

  ‘Particularly if you don’t want to,’ Henry Grey insisted. ‘To my mind, you’ve been indulged a little too much in the matter of childish pranks with our neighbours’ daughter, but now you have to face up to the future that lies ahead of you, just as we all had to do in our time.’

  ‘It was easy for you,’ Jane complained, ‘since Mother was the King’s niece and her parents were at Court all the time, so she learned how to behave at her mother’s knee. And up to now all I’ve done is sit and talk with King Edward, share his games, talk about his lessons and so on. Why does he want me to parade myself in the full Court, like some prize heifer at Leicester Market?’

  ‘We can only pass on what the Duke of Somerset tells us,’ her father replied. ‘He’ll be joining us for supper, of course, once he returns from his business in Knighton, and he can tell you all about what King Edward has in mind for you.’

  ‘Why is he riding to Knighton?’ Jane asked suspiciously. ‘Will he be telling Grace that her friend’s deserting her for a rich life at Court? She’ll be heartbroken if she thinks I’m rejecting her in that way.’

  ‘You’ll obviously have ample time to explain matters to her in time to come,’ her mother coaxed her, but Jane shook her striking red locks defiantly.

  ‘How can I possibly explain it to her if I don’t even understand it myself?’ she complained. ‘And what about Nanny Calthorpe?’