19.The Chronicle of Queen Jane (ed Nichols), p. 55.
20.Ibid., pp. 56, 57; The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey (ed N. H. Nicolas) (1825), pp. 58–9. The Lieutenant of the Tower was Sir John Bridges.
31Marriage and Sons
1.Harry Grey also sent John Harington, whose son and namesake was Elizabeth’s godson.
2.Frances’ stepmother, Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, the widow of Charles Brandon, had married her gentleman usher Richard Bertie, sometime before 20 March the previous year. Frances was close to her, and may have married Stokes at her suggestion. Katherine Willoughby would flee to exile in Europe later that year. Stokes was approximately eighteen months younger than Frances. For the marriage date, see PRO C 142/128/91 for the inquisition post-mortem on Frances; I had previously assumed she had married in 1555, since no mention was made of her marriage in the royal gifts of land to her in 1554.
3.Frances’ marriage would, unfortunately, later tap into the old prejudices about women being unable to control their lust. In 1727, a portrait by Hans Eworth of the hard-faced Lady Dacre and her beardless twenty-one-year-old son was mislabelled as being of Frances and Stokes (who was, in fact, close to her in age). Historians afterwards made much of the resemblance of the female sitter to Henry VIII in his later years, and a myth grew up that Frances was not only lustful but matched her royal uncle in cruelty and ambition. Stokes was, in fact, only about eighteen months younger than Frances. See Appendix 4 on Frances.
4.englishhistory.net/tudor/marydesc.html.
5.The Chronicle of Queen Jane (ed Nichols), p. 166; tudorhistory.org/primary/janemary/app10.html.
6.CSPS 13 (37).
7.Narratives of the days of Reformation (ed Nichols), p. 289.
8.Loades, Mary Tudor, p. 239.
9.The Chronicle of Queen Jane (ed Nichols), p. 163.
10.Ives, The Reformation Experience, p. 213.
11.Ibid., p. 205.
12.Her ladies included such Protestants as Lady Anne Bacon.
13.By 1559 fourteen per cent of Sussex wills and by 1560 ten per cent of Kent wills would use Protestant formulae, and behind these figures lay the zealous faithful. Sue Doran, Elizabeth I & Religion (1994), p. 48.
14.A total of 312 died, when those who died in prison are added to the number burned at the stake.
15.The friar was John Forrest. The mockery would not have troubled Latimer. ‘If it be your pleasure that I shall play the fool after my customary manner when Forrest shall suffer,’ he had written to Cromwell, ‘I would wish that my stage stood near to Forrest.’
16.John Foxe wrote to the queen, Lord Burghley, the Privy Council and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, urging that the sentences of two Flemish Anabapists be commuted. His efforts were to no avail and they were burned at Smithfield on 22 July 1575.
17.Henry VIII had burned a mere seventy-six; Thomas Freeman, ‘Burning Zeal’ in Mary Tudor: Old & New Perspectives (ed Susan Doran and Thomas Freeman) (2011), p. 180.
18.CSPV 13 (884).
19.PRO C 142/128/91. Frances had a baby that month, and named her Elizabeth, a telling indication of where it was judged the future now lay. Frances’s elder daughters all had names with royal connections: Jane Grey, after Queen Jane Seymour (1537), Katherine Grey after Queen Katherine Howard (1540), and Mary Grey after Mary Tudor was appointed Edward’s heir in the Third Act of Succession. It therefore seems probable Elizabeth Stokes was named after Elizabeth Tudor. She died in infancy.
20.Doctors I have spoken to note that autoimmune hyperthyroid disease is quite a common condition, especially in women. It runs in families and I do wonder if Elizabeth also suffered from it, as I discuss later. ‘Thyroid Dysfunction and False Pregnancy’ in Western Journal of Medicine (January 1992), p. 89. A much more rare condition, with symptoms that mimic those associated with pregnancy, would be benign tumours on the pituitary gland. On the benign tumour theory, see M. Keynes, ‘The Aching and increasing blindness of Queen Mary’ in Journal of Medical Biography 8/2 (2000), pp. 102–9. Suggestions that she suffered from ovarian cancer seem less likely, as this would have killed her relatively quickly.
21.Charles’ empire in the Netherlands included the inheritance of the former Dukes of Burgundy inherited through his paternal grandmother (Marie, the daughter of Charles the Bold), except for the province of Burgundy itself, which had passed to France. He had added to these, however, and united seventeen provinces in the region, a rich and densely populated area covering the modern Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, much of northern France, and extending even into western Germany.
32A Flickering Light
1.Starkey, Elizabeth, p. 78.
2.Elizabeth I: Collected Works (ed Leah S. Marcus, Janel Mueller and Mary Beth Rose) (2002), pp. 43–4.
3.On 1 December 1556.
4. When she described it to the Count of Feria at Brocket Hall in November 1559.
5.CSPV 6 (884).
6.Ibid.
7.CSPS 13 (339).
8.R. A. Houlbrooke, Death, Religion and Family in England 1480–1750 (1998), p. 6.
9.See note 12.
10.CSPV 6 (884).
11.‘The Count of Feria’s Dispatch to Philip II of 14 November 1558’ (ed and tr. Simon Adams and M. Rodriguez-Salgado) in Camden Miscellany XXVIII, Camden Fourth Series, Vol. 29 (1984), p. 332.
12.Ibid., pp. 330–3.
13.CSPV 6 (884).
14.‘The Count of Feria’s Dispatch to Philip II of 14 November 1558’ (ed Adams and Rodriguez) in op. cit., p. 335.
15.CSPV 13 (884).
33A Married Man
1.Glyn Parry, The Arch-Conjurer of England, John Dee (2011), pp. 48, 49.
2.CSPV 7 (10).
3.De Lisle, Sisters, p. 224.
4.Dale Hoak, ‘The Coronations of Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, and the Transformation of the Tudor monarchy’ in Westmintser Abbey Reformed (ed C. S. Knighton and Richard Mortimer) (2003), pp. 139, 140, 141.
5.The treatise was written by Jane Grey’s former tutor John Aylmer and published by John Day in April 1554.
6.Elizabeth I: Collected Works, p. 58.
7.CSPS Simancas 1 (29).
8.CSPS Simancas 1 (27).
9.Philip’s empire in the Netherlands had been increased and unified by his father Charles V. See Chapter 31, Note 21.
10.CSPS Simancas 1, p. 45; de Lisle, Sisters, p. 187.
11.Richard Rex, Elizabeth I (2003), p. 55.
12.His opponent’s lance had pierced his headgear and shattered into fragments, penetrating his right orbit and temple.
13.British Library Harleian MSS 4712.
14.Richard Rex, The Tudors (2011), p. 165 for comparisons with similarly staged scenes.
15.CSPF 1559–60, p. 370.
16.Ives, The Reformation Experience, pp. 143, 46.
17.CSPS Simancas 1, 11 September 1560 (119).
34Dangerous Cousins
1.CSPS Simancas 1, 11 September 1560 (119).
2.Ibid.
3.Ibid.
4.A fact that attracted support from the Earl of Huntingdon, a Protestant descendant of Edward IV’s brother, the Duke of Clarence.
5.CSPS Simancas 1 (120).
6.In a response to a parliamentary delegation on her marriage, 1566.
7.Named after the new King of France, Charles IX.
8.Darnley was the senior male heir to the kingdoms of England (through his mother) and Scotland (through his father).
9.CSPF 5 (412). She was in direct contact with Lennox’s brother in France, and in Spain with Jane Dormer, the English wife of Philip II’s confidant, the Count of Feria.
10.The messenger was John Gordon, Earl of Sutherland.
11.CSPF 5 (26).
12.Ibid.
13.CSPF 5 (26) (332).
14.Cecil’s immediate reasons had concerned Robert Dudley, who had promised the Spanish he would ensure Elizabeth sent a representative to the Council of Trent on church reform if Philip supported his marriage to Elizabeth. The publici
ty surrounding the Catholic witchcraft trials had helped confound Dudley, by discrediting the Spanish ambassador and smearing Catholics in general.
15.CSPS Simancas 1 (144) (153) (154) (155) (156).
16.British Library Add MSS 37749, ff. 41, 50, 58.
17.Miscellaneous State Papers from 1501 to 1726 (ed Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke) (1778), Vol. 1, p. 172; British Library Add MSS 37740, f. 63.
18.British Library Add MSS 37749, ff. 43, 59.
19.De Lisle, Sisters, p. 206.
20.British Library Add MSS 37749, ff. 41, 50, 58. For more details see de Lisle, Sisters.
21.For more on this and who else was linked to the marriage, see de Lisle, Sisters, Chapters 17, 18 and 19.
22.CSPS Simancas 1, p. 214.
23.CSPF 5 (26).
35Royal Prisoners
1.CSPS Simancas 1 (144).
2.A Collection of State Papers relating to Affairs in the Reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth from the year 1542–1570, Left by William Cecil Lord Burghley (ed Samuel Haynes), Vol. 1 (1740), p. 378.
3.British Library Cotton MS Caligula B VIII, ff. 165–8, 184–5. Thanks to John Guy for drawing my attention to this MSS. See the Appendix on Margaret Douglas.
4.CSPF 5 (26); CSPD 1547–89, March 1562 (48).
5.CSPF 4 (980); CSPF 5 (168).
6.CSPF 5 (59) (168); CSPD 1547–80, 14 May, 12 and 19 June, 1562; CSPD 1547–80, 20 September 1560.
7.CSPF 5 (181).
8.CSPF 5 (168).
9.CSPF 5 (34).
10.Glyn Parry, Arch-Conjurer, p. 61.
11.CSPF 5 (26) (34) (412).
12.Norman Jones, Birth of the Elizabethan Age: England in the 1560s (1995), p. 38. Thomas Bishop had noted Margaret quoting the prophecy concerning Darnley becoming King of England and Scotland. CSPF 5 (26).
13.CSPF 5 (26).
14.CSPF 5 (121) (223).
15.Bishop concluded his long list of Margaret’s supposed crimes by denying her English birth, on the grounds that her mother, Margaret Tudor, had been a refugee from Scotland when she was born. He claimed she was also excluded from the throne under the terms of the marriage contract between Margaret Tudor and James IV, which was also nonsense. For the marriage contract, see PRO E39/92/18 E 30/81; for Bishop’s claims, see CSPF 5 (26).
16.CSPF 5 (912).
17.They were arrested on 14 October. Parry, p. 61 Huntingdon was a great-great-grandson of the Duke of Clarence twice in the female line. Arthur was the great-grandson once in the female line.
18.CSPS Simancas 1, p. 296.
19.Reports From the Lost Notebooks of Sir James Dyer, Vol. 1 (ed J. H. Baker) (1994) p. 82; Longleat PO/I/93.
20.Longleat PO/I/93.
21.Mortimer Levine, The Early Elizabethan Succession Question, 1558–1568 (1966), p. 28; HMC Salisbury Vol. 1 (1883), p. 396.
22.Longleat PO Vol. 1, ff. 92, 93.
23.De Lisle, Sisters, p. 245.
24.CSPV 5 (934).
25.The title was usually reserved for royal children in right of the Duchy of Lancaster.
26.John Guy, My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (2004), p. 198.
27.Or so the emissary Sir James Melville later recalled.
28.The baby was born in July 1564 and christened at Cecil House. See John Nichols, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. 1 (1823), p. 149.
29.Guy, My Heart is My Own, pp. 205, 206.
36Murder in the Family
1.CSPS Simancas 1 (286).
2.CSPS Simancas 1 (290). I have modernised some of the English and punctuation in this translation.
3.Ibid., and ditto.
4.CSPS Simancas 1 (144). The arrival in Scotland of Margaret Douglas’ husband, the Earl of Lennox, had also triggered a realignment of the noble factions, with his allies lined up against those of Mary’s illegitimate half-brother, the Protestant and pro-English Earl of Moray.
5.CSPS Simancas 1 (296).
6.CSPS Simancas 1 (314); Charlotte Isabelle Merton, ‘The Women who Served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth’, PhD diss., Trinity College, Cambridge (1992), pp. 64, 66.
7.Kristen Walton, ‘The Queen’s Aunt; The King’s Mother: Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, religion and politics in the Scottish Court, 1565–72’ (unpublished), p. 3.
8.CSPS Simancas 1 (357).
9.Arthur and Edmund Pole. The Poles would remain in the Tower until their deaths.
10.CSPS Simancas 1 (365).
11.CSPS Simancas 1 (405).
12.CSPS 1 (409).
13.CSP Scotland 2 (477).
14.The Duke of Savoy’s ambassador Signor di Moretta, CSPV 7, 1558–80, 20 March 1567 (384).
15.See Linda Porter, Crown of Thistles: The Fatal Interitance of Mary, Queen of Scots (2013).
16.De Lisle, Sisters, pp. 264, 265.
17.Sir David’s daughter Ann married Sir Arthur Hopton; Blaauw, ‘On the Effigy . . .’ in op. cit., p. 26.
18.Notes and Queries, Eleventh Series, Vol. 5 (January-June 1912), p. 82, Eighth Series, Vol. 8 (February–August 1895), p. 233.
19.British Library Cotton Titus MS No. 107, ff. 124, 131.
20.Ibid.
21.Katherine’s clothes and a prayer book survived into the twentieth century, along with a chest. The clothes and prayer book vanished, however, after the house was bombed during World War II. If these items really did belong to Katherine it suggests the Hoptons kept them almost as relics. It is also worth noting that Sir Owen attended Mary Grey’s funeral ten years later. Thanks to Caroline Blois for information on the Katherine Grey prayer book and clothing. For Mary Grey’s funeral, see de Lisle, Sisters, p. 290 and notes.
22.The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey (ed Nicolas).
23.Andy Wood, Riot, Rebellion and Popular Politics in Early Modern England (2002), p. 73.
24.Speech to parliamentary deputation with a petition requesting she marry and name an heir, 1566 Levine EESQ pp. 184, 185. Susan Doran, Monarchy and Matrimony: The courtships of Elizabeth I (1996), p. 87.
37Exit Margaret Douglas
1.These are only some of twenty-eight emblems and six verses.
2.CSP Scotland 3 (110).
3.Charles had spent time imprisoned with her at Sheen in 1562, and in 1565 when she was in the Tower he had been placed in the care of a servant of the state, a man called John Vaughan. CSPD 1 (25).
4.CSP Scotland 5 (21).
5.A Collection of Letters and State Papers, (comp. Howard), p. 237.
6.CSP Scotland 5 (21). Those she was in touch with included John Lesley, Bishop of Ross and the Laird of Kilsyth.
7.Letter dated 3 December quoted in Kimberly Schutte, ‘A Biography of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox (1515–1578): Niece of Henry VIII and Mother-in-law of Mary Queen of Scots’ in Studies in British History (31 January 2002), pp. 229–30.
8.HMC Salisbury Vol. 13, Addenda, p. 123.
9.Bothwell was, in fact, still alive in Denmark.
10.CSP Scotland 5 (210).
11.Robert Dudley had for several years had an affair with Margaret Douglas’ god-daughter, who was named after her, ‘Douglas’ Sheffield (the parents were Margaret’s old confidants, the former Lord William Howard and his wife, now Earl and Countess of Effingham). But fearful of the queen’s reaction if she found out, he had refused to marry her even after they had a son. The relationship was now over.
12.I have seen various dates given for her death. 10 March is the date given on her tomb, and fits with her will which was sealed on 11 March.
13.The will is available for download from the National Archives, Prob. 11/60.
38The Virgin Queen
1.Queen Elizabeth I: Selected Works (ed Steven W. May) (2004), p. 12.
2.Henry’s views are expressed in the 1532 work, A Glass of the Truth.
3.Later in 1566; Jones, Birth of the Elizabethan Age, p. 119.
4.Ives, The Reformation Experience, p. 235.
5.CSPS Simancas 1 (286).
<
br /> 6.Duffy, Saints, Sacrilege, Sedition, p. 240.
7.Ives, The Reformation Experience, p. 250; Doran, Elizabeth I and Religion, p. 65.
8.Doran, Elizabeth I and Religion, p. 53.
9.Merton, PhD diss., op. cit., p. 119.
10.Patrick Collinson, ‘Religion and Politics in the Progress of 1578’ in The Progresses, Pageants and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth I (ed Jayne Elizabeth Archer, Elizabeth Goldring and Sarah Knight) (2007), p. 138.
11.Ibid.
12.Queen Elizabeth I: Selected Works (ed May), p. 12.
13.It appears Elizabeth tried to destroy Robert Dudley’s marriage by persuading Douglas Sheffield to claim he had already married her, but this failed. For the timing of Dudley’s disgrace, see Simon Adams on Robert Dudley, etc. in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
14.See Appendix 5.
39The Daughter of Debate
1.A young English captain, one of a number of English volunteers supporting the Protestant rebels, was at the prince’s Delft residence, the Prinsenhof, when the assassination took place. The captain dropped to his knee as William of Orange emerged from lunch with his family. Orange rested his hand briefly on the captain’s head, before turning to mount the stairs to his chamber. As he did so another man stepped forward, and pointing a pistol point blank at the prince fired three shots into his body. Two passed straight through him, lodging in the stairway wall. The third remained under his breastbone. William of Orange was carried to an adjoining room and died as his weeping wife tried desperately to staunch his wounds. His murderer was tortured to death in public: his hand was burned off with an iron, and flesh torn from his body in six places with pincers before he was drawn and quartered. Lisa Jardine, The Awful End of William the Silent (2005), p. 50.
2.Something he had been trying to achieve since 1563.
3.CSP Scotland 15 August 1584.
4.Ibid.
5.Ibid.
6.Ibid.
7.Lettres, Instructions & Memoires de Marie Stuart, Reine D’Ecosse (ed Alexandre Labanoff) (1844), Vol. 6, p. 125.
8.J. Lynch, ‘Philip II and the Papacy’ in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fifth Series, Vol. 11 (1961), pp. 23, 24.
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