Elizabeth I's Secret Lover

by Robert Stedall

  There has been much debate whether it was Dudley or the King, who initiated the scheme for Jane Grey to become heir to the throne, notwithstanding that Henry VIII had reinstated both Mary and Elizabeth to the succession in his final will. It is important to understand the succession’s legal complexities, which had been exacerbated by Henry’s determination to make his own choice, rather than follow the correct dynastic line. Parliament had agreed to this under the Third Act of Succession of 1544, allowing him to nominate his heirs in his ‘last will and testament signed with the King’s own hand’.10 When the will was prepared he was too ill to sign it, so it was completed with a metal stamp of his signature inked in afterwards by a clerk. This caused doubts over whether he had been conscious during its preparation, calling its validity into question. Nevertheless, it nominated his three children, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth. While it is understandable that he would want his own progeny to succeed him, he was well-aware that Mary remained irretrievably Catholic. Furthermore, it was contentious as both Mary and Elizabeth had been illegitimated by Acts of Parliament in 1534 and 1536 respectively. Elizabeth was also illegitimate in Catholic eyes as Katherine of Aragon was still rightfully Henry’s consort at the time of Elizabeth’s birth.

  If his own line failed, Henry decreed that the throne should pass to the grandchildren of his favoured Protestant younger sister Mary, who had married his great friend Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. This overlooked the progeny of his Catholic elder sister Margaret, despite her prior dynastic right. To bar Margaret’s heirs, Henry had ordained that no one born outside England should inherit the Crown, although, at the time of Margaret’s marriage to James IV of Scotland, no such impediment had been put in place. While this barred her granddaughter, the Scottish born Mary Queen of Scots, it did not bar Margaret’s daughter, Margaret Douglas, by her second marriage to the Earl of Angus, as she had been born in the north of England. Margaret Douglas had married with Henry’s approval, Matthew, 4th Earl of Lennox, and they had an infant son, Henry, Lord Darnley. Nevertheless, she was a steadfast Catholic and had been declared illegitimate by Henry (on entirely spurious grounds) to protect the claims of his own children. In other respects, however, she remained in his favour. She had ridden in the funeral procession of Jane Seymour, had been appointed first lady-in-waiting to both Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard and had acted as a bridesmaid to Catherine Parr. It was thus her Catholicism that caused Henry to debar her (but did not cause him to debar his daughter Mary).

  Henry had also overlooked his nieces Frances Brandon, aged 29, and Eleanor, aged 27, the surviving children of his younger sister Mary, both of whom were Protestant and on good terms with the King. Instead he nominated their progeny. It has been argued that he was looking for a male Protestant heir and hoped that Frances would yet produce one. Nevertheless, it seems more likely that Henry, who was a good judge of character, disapproved of Frances’s husband, now Duke of Suffolk, and would not countenance the thought of him becoming King consort. Despite being academically bright and well-educated, Suffolk had shown himself ineffective both as a politician and as a soldier, lacking any modicum of common sense. He was an inveterate gambler, often leaving his family very short of money, and was open to offers of financial perquisites. Despite his close connection to the Crown, Suffolk was not awarded office during Henry’s reign and was excluded from the sixteen-man Regency Council for Edward VI. In addition to being married to Frances Brandon, he was the great-grandson of Elizabeth Wydeville, who had espoused his great-grandfather, Sir John Grey, before her marriage to Edward IV. He was thus the son of Henry VIII’s half first-cousin.

  The outcome of Henry VIII’s will was that, after his own progeny, he had nominated Frances’s daughter, Jane Grey, to succeed to the throne. Everyone was aware that in dynastic terms this overlooked Mary Queen of Scots, Margaret Douglas, Lord Darnley and Frances Brandon. There was really no logic to it except that, other than his daughter Mary, he wanted to avoid a Catholic succession. To achieve this, it might have been less controversial and more effective to provide legislation which barred Catholics from the throne, as was eventually provided in another era by the Act of Settlement in 1701. With the Council being dominated by Reformers, it should have been able to carry such anti-Catholic legislation through Parliament.

  Faced with the same problem, Edward and Northumberland decided to ignore anyone overlooked in Henry VIII’s will. This still left the Princess Mary, a Catholic, and the Princess Elizabeth, a Protestant, as next in line. Their remedy was to bar them, because they had been declared illegitimate by Act of Parliament. The half-Spanish Mary was also opposed by the French, with whom England was now in alliance, as they wanted to avoid the development of Spanish influence over English Government.11 It was also argued that Elizabeth could endanger the Protestant succession by marrying a foreigner.

  It has generally been assumed that Northumberland initiated the plan for Jane Grey to succeed Edward and to marry his son, Guildford. This would leave him as the ‘eminence grise’ behind the throne. Yet all the evidence suggests that he personally favoured Elizabeth, for whom he had provided a household and accommodation at Hatfield. She had the advantage of standing immediately after Mary in the succession in accordance with her father’s will, and had demonstrated a Protestant demeanour to the King with her quietness of manner and plainness of dress on her visits to court.12 She was also popular, and much better known than Jane. There can be little doubt that it was Edward who focused on Jane, nominating her in ‘my devise for the succession’ in his own handwriting. He had all his father’s authoritative persona, was an obsessive Reformer and was determined to secure his country’s religious revival.

  Edward attracted extraordinary devotion from all those who knew him, and Northumberland was indisputably in awe of him. If Henry VIII were permitted to nominate his successors under his final will and testament, why should Edward VI not do the same? With Jane undertaking classes with him, there can be little doubt that he recognised her as academically brilliant, more so even than Elizabeth. It is also probable that he was aware that she had been considered as his potential consort. He may also have seen the 19-year-old Elizabeth as less compliant and tainted by her perceived involvement with Thomas Seymour in the failed attempt to kidnap him.

  If Jane were to be promoted ahead of Elizabeth, Edward knew that only Northumberland commanded the authority to execute such a plan, and the 15-year-old would need to be married. To gain his support, Edward suggested Northumberland’s 18-year-old son, Guildford, as her consort. Northumberland would always support a plan which promoted the Dudley dynasty to the Crown. There is no doubt that he gave every encouragement, even if he did not initiate the plan, and he implemented it after Edward’s death.

  Edward and Northumberland still had to gain support from Frances Brandon and Suffolk. She seems to have overcome her own demotion from the succession by focusing her attention on the interests of her deeply religious and academically talented eldest daughter. Nevertheless, for parents who had been hoping that she would espouse the King, Guildford was ‘a devastatingly poor substitute’, and they vigorously opposed the marriage. Although Jane’s succession only gained the Council’s approval after the wedding, the plan must have been floated beforehand. It is inconceivable that Frances would have condoned the marriage without knowing the broader picture. This suggests that Edward’s devise existed in draft before Jane’s marriage, thereby gaining Frances’s approval. Nevertheless, neither Jane nor Guildford seem to have been told that she was heir to the throne. Her succession still faced legal hurdles and there was no value in building expectations in advance.

  There was no difficulty in persuading the ‘timid and trustful’13 Suffolk to support his daughter’s marriage to Guildford Dudley in expectation of her becoming Queen Regnant. He had been beholden to Northumberland for making him Duke of Suffolk and Jane’s accession could only be financially beneficial for him. Frances’s ‘womanly scruples were of little avail’,14 and she kne
w that she had no choice but to comply. No one considered the views of Jane and Guildford. Jane did not find him attractive and made no effort to hide her contempt at the prospect of marriage to him.15 He was considered ‘spoilt, conceited and disagreeable’.16 It took her father’s thrashings and her mother’s insistence to reduce her to acquiescence.17 Frances argued that Guildford was ‘a comely, virtuous and goodly gentleman’.18 Nevertheless, he lacked his siblings’ charisma. The feeling was mutual. Guildford made ‘no secret of his dislike for his bride, nor of the fact that he was marrying her because she was the great-niece of Henry VIII and chosen for him by his father’.19

  Edward did everything he could to encourage the marriage. He provided the fine bejewelled clothing for the bridal party from the Royal Wardrobe and sent handsome presents to the bride and groom. Jane wore a gown of royal purple, with gold and silver brocade embroidered with diamonds and pearls, a far cry from her normal sombre attire.20 On 25 May, the whole Dudley family attended the nuptials at Durham Place opposite Charing Cross with its gardens running down to the Thames, followed by ‘exceedingly splendid and royal’ celebrations designed to impress the populace. Marriages were also arranged for other female claimants to the throne to husbands who enjoyed Northumberland’s trust. Jane’s sister, Catherine Grey, who was not yet 13, espoused Henry Lord Herbert, Pembroke’s son. This was certainly no love match and was declared null and void shortly after the failure of the coup to place Jane on the throne. Yet Pembroke was a capable soldier and, as a key member of the Council, became an important, but short-lived ally of the Protector. Catherine Dudley, Robert’s youngest sister, married Henry Hastings, Huntingdon’s heir. Northumberland recognised the supreme value of his position as the most senior of the Plantagenet claimants. Every effort was made to make the triple wedding as magnificent as possible, with games and jousts.21 Even the 8-year-old Mary Grey was betrothed to a distant cousin, Arthur, later Lord Grey de Wilton, although this marriage never took place. Although Edward had promised to attend, he was already too unwell. There were even rumours that he had died. Although he made a supreme effort to appear at a window at Greenwich, he was quickly carried back to his bed and was never again able to leave it.

  The only hiccup at the wedding celebration at Durham Place was food-poisoning, which afflicted Guildford and several of the guests. Guildford was suffering for a month afterwards. This may have been the reason that the marriage was not immediately consummated. Jane also seems to have become ill, but perhaps more out of stress. After a high-pitched row between the Duchesses of Northumberland and Suffolk, she received consent to move with her servants, but without her husband, from Durham Place to Chelsea Manor with its happier memories of her time there with Catherine Parr.

  On 12 June 1553, Edward called Lord Chief Justice Montague and leading law officers to his sickbed to draw up a new will and to put his ‘devise for the succession’22 into proper legal language. His initial draft left the crown to ‘the Lady Jane’s heirs male’, followed by her sisters’ heirs male, but when he realised that he was unlikely to live to see them, he changed it to ‘the Lady Jane and her heirs male’ (but did not make a similar change to include her sisters). It was a poignant scene:

  Northumberland and a small group of councillors stood beside the bed. The judges knelt. The King spoke with a fervour enhanced by shortness of breath of his concern for the maintenance of the new religion. Everyone waited for Montague’s reaction. He knew that what the King was demanding was contrary to the law, but could he say so to the dying boy? Falteringly he tried. The King grew angry. ‘I will hear no objections,’ he gasped. The judges withdrew in confusion.23

  When they returned two days later, they told the King that they could not undertake his request. For his will to be enforceable, Parliament would be required to repeal the Act of Succession of Henry VIII. ‘Anyone who attempted to alter the succession while it remained unrepealed would be guilty of high treason.’24 On hearing this, Northumberland:

  entered the Council Chamber, a sight that no one who saw it ever forgot. The well-known suavity of the Duke’s manner had totally disappeared. He was trembling with rage. He swore that he would ‘fight in his shirt’ with any man who refused his demands.25

  At a further audience, Edward, ‘with desperate haughtiness … asked [the judges] how they dared hesitate to obey his will’.26 ‘I will hear no objections. I command you to draw up the letters patent forthwith.’27 They were finally driven ‘to do what their professional training had made them declare impossible’.28 After requesting a pardon for themselves, they undertook to prepare the letters patent to devise the crown to Jane and her heirs male, for subsequent confirmation by Parliament. With the Duchess of Suffolk dynastically standing ahead of her daughter, she was called to see the King at Greenwich, where she renounced her rights in Jane’s favour. She had no choice in the matter. Northumberland could be very frightening. When the will was prepared, he ensured that it was endorsed by all the leading members of the Council and other people of influence. Cecil, who had been careful to avoid involvement in its preparation, signed it, but afterwards claimed that this was as a witness; he knew that he was in great peril if he refused. Cranmer and Cheke took a lot of persuasion, but it was the dying King who melted their hearts to gain their support. Northumberland retained the will for safekeeping, and it was not immediately published.

  With Edward suffering from ulcers all over him, ‘his body dry and burning, his stomach swollen, his fever very high … he would never again leave his bed’.29 Circulatory problems were causing the top joints of his fingers and toes to become gangrenous and disfigured. The physicians’ only objective was to keep him alive for as long as they could. Their stimulants made it ‘impossible for him to slip into a merciful unconsciousness’.30 Speech was an effort. The swallowing of food almost impossible. He longed for oblivion.31

  The ensuing days were tense and melancholy for Robert and the other close attendants of the dying King. Edward’s long bouts of continuous, convulsive coughing now brought up a sputum, which was ‘livid, black, foetid and full of carbon; it smells beyond measure’.32

  Although he asked to see ambassadors, visitors were kept to a minimum, and those surrounding him were sworn to secrecy over the seriousness of his condition. He died in the arms of Sir Henry Sidney on 6 July 1553.

  Jane was not immediately proclaimed Queen. Northumberland’s approach was surprisingly indecisive. Although he might have been expected to retain Mary and Elizabeth at court, he failed to do so. It was not until two days before the King’s death, that Northumberland at last summoned them, but he had kept them fully informed of the King’s condition. Rumours of his plan to install Jane on the throne seem to have leaked, and fearing a trap, neither of them arrived. Elizabeth pleaded illness and was probably tipped off by Cecil. Although, his wife Mildred Cooke, was a kinsman of the Greys, Cecil could see the legal difficulties of promoting Jane and was at pains not to be implicated. He wanted to see a monarch of the new religion, but his connection to Elizabeth makes it likely that he preferred her claim. Mary set out slowly from Hunsdon, but received warning after reaching Hoddesdon, five miles closer to London. Northumberland sent his sons, John and Robert, with 300–400 mounted guards to provide the appearance of a party to escort Mary to the capital as was the custom. Despite this implying that he planned to place Mary under guard, forcing her to renounce her crown, his actions do not suggest this. He had always treated the princesses with the utmost courtesy. It is much more likely that he was keeping his options open. If Mary had come to London, where he was in military control, he could have brokered a deal with her, supporting her claim on conditions acceptable to the Protestant Council. All he had to do was to tear up Edward’s illegal will.33 If she refused, he could arrest her and install Jane, arguing that Mary and Elizabeth were illegitimate as confirmed by Parliament.

  With Mary having been warned, early on 7 July she left Hoddesdon with her suite for Kenninghall in Norfolk, which, following
the attainder of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk, had been provided by the Crown for the use of Mary and Elizabeth. Mary believed that Norfolk landowners with their Catholic sympathies would support her. Having seized the initiative, she called for support to establish herself on the throne. If John and Robert pursued her into Norfolk, their role became more sinister, and would no longer be seen as that of an escort. They could not establish the level of support for her, but knew that she enjoyed considerable public sympathy, even among their escort party. John told Robert to ride after the Princess with the bulk of their men. If Mary headed for the coast as was expected, he was ‘to raise loyal men from his own Norfolk estates to stop her’.34 John galloped back to London to report to the Council, intending to return with more troops as reinforcements.

  Robert travelled through the night, arriving at Cambridge before dawn. He had lost track of Mary, who had travelled to Sawston Hall further south, where she lodged with John Huddleston, a kinsman of one of her attendants. After gaining intelligence of Mary’s whereabouts and gathering local support, Robert rode to Sawston at sunrise, but some of his men deserted en route. On arrival, he found that she had left for Newmarket only an hour earlier. Being tired and frustrated, he unwisely set fire to the property (Mary later rebuilt it). The motive for chasing after her was now plain for all to see. Meanwhile, he received reports that she was gathering support from among the East Anglian gentry wherever she went. He decided to withdraw to Cambridge, always a centre with Reformist leanings, to await John’s return. With John arriving later the same day, they set out for Newmarket ‘into an enemy country’.35 The people they passed, who had cheered Mary on, were now ‘sullen and uncooperative’.36 Her flight had become a triumph and she received a civic reception in Bury St Edmunds. Meanwhile, the Dudleys’ escort party was evaporating, making further pursuit impossible. They split up to gather more supporters, with Robert heading for his estates in north-west Norfolk. It was imperative that Mary should be apprehended quickly.