Whatever the reason, Catherine now had other pressing matters to deal with. She left London on 13 June for Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, where she awaited her own baby’s arrival. Lady Jane Grey was still in attendance and must have provided some distraction from her situation.
Elizabeth and Thomas were still in correspondence, as the following July letter from Elizabeth shows. It was sent in response to a missive from Thomas, stating that he could not fulfil a promise that he had made to her:
My lord, you needed not to send an excuse to me, for I could not mistrust the not fulfilling of your promise to proceed for want of goodwill, but only opportunity serveth not; wherefore I shall desire you to think that a greater matter than this could not make me impute any unkindness in you. For I am a friend not won by trifles, nor lost with the like. Thus I commit you and all your affairs in God’s hand, who keep you from all evil. I pray you make my humble commendations to the queen’s highness.
Your assured friend to my power, Elizabeth.14
Elizabeth also wrote a letter to Catherine around the same time, indicating that Catherine was aware of the contents of previous letters written by Thomas to her:
Although your Highness’ letters be most joyful to me in absence, yet considering what pain it is to you to write, your Grace being so great with child and so sickly, your commendations were enough in my lord’s letter. I much rejoice at your health with the well-liking of the country, with my humble thanks, that your Grace wished me with you, till I were weary of that country. Your Highness were like to be cumbered if I should not depart till I were weary of being with you; although it were the worst soil in the world, your presence would make it pleasant. I cannot reprove my lord for not doing your commendations in his letter, for he did it. And although he had not, yet I will not complain on him, for that he shall be diligent to give me knowledge from time to time how his busy child doth, and if I were at his birth no doubt I would see him beaten for the trouble he had put you to. Master Denny and my lady with humble thanks prayeth most entirely for your grace, praying the almighty God to send you a lucky deliverance. And my mistress [Kat Ashley] wisheth no less, giving your highness most humble thanks for her commendations. Written with very little leisure this last day of July.
Your humble daughter, Elizabeth.15
Such a light-hearted letter hardly seems to support the contention that Catherine and Elizabeth had parted acrimoniously.
Finally, on 30 August 1548, Catherine’s child was born, a daughter named Mary. She was attended by her stepdaughter, Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, who recorded the event. After the birth, Catherine developed a fever, which was the beginning of puerperal sepsis. She became agitated and told the ladies attending her that she had not been well handled by Thomas, ‘for those that be about me careth not for me, but standeth laughing at my grief; and the more good I will to them, the less good they will to me.’16
Thomas held her hand and replied, ‘Why, sweetheart, I would do you no hurt,’ but Catherine returned ‘very sharply and earnestly’, ‘No, my Lord … you have given me many shrewd taunts.’17 Thomas is reported to have lain down beside her, but Catherine said she would give 1,000 marks to have a proper talk with the physician who attended her delivery, but dared not for fear of displeasing him.18 This seems to indicate that Catherine believed Thomas no longer loved her and was, indeed, possibly working against her best interests. Whatever the truth of the matter, Catherine never recovered from the infection that had taken hold of her body.
Catherine Parr, the Queen Dowager and Elizabeth’s stepmother, died on 5 September 1548. She was buried at Sudeley, where 12-year-old Lady Jane Grey took the position of Chief Mourner. News of Catherine’s death was brought to Cheshunt, where Elizabeth was staying, and a servant told Kat Ashley that Thomas was heavy-hearted at his wife’s death.19 Elizabeth did not attend the burial, an act that was strange in itself. Catherine had been enormously kind to Elizabeth, both as a stepmother and as her ward after Henry’s death. Surely had she been able to, Elizabeth would have attended the funeral of a woman who, as her letters indicate, she held in such esteem? What happened to prevent this? Illness, perhaps, or something more?
It does appear that in the autumn of 1548, Elizabeth began to suffer from bouts of poor health, something that was common knowledge at the time. Elizabeth herself wrote to Edward Seymour in September, stating that she was bound to him in her time of sickness: ‘… you have been careful for my health, and sending unto me not only your comfortable letters but also physicians as Doctor Bill [Dr Thomas Bill, physician to Henry VIII and Edward VI], whose diligence and pain has been a great part of my recovery.’20
Similarly, in a letter to her brother, Edward VI, Elizabeth referred to an affliction of her ‘head and eyes’ which made it difficult to write to him.21 And, perhaps, more tellingly, Kat Ashley in her February 1549 testimony at Thomas’s enquiry, stated that immediately after Catherine’s death, Elizabeth was bedridden for part of the time and unable to go more than a mile from the house throughout the second half of 1548.22 Rumours began to circulate that the Lady Elizabeth was pregnant, and that those around her were protecting her by alluding to her ‘illness’.
Without the influence of the more sensible Catherine Parr, Thomas began to pursue his plans to overset his brother, Edward, in earnest. His plans were largely unrealistic, extravagant and unworkable. Put simply, in Thomas’s bid to oust his brother from power, he was intemperate. He had already suggested that Edward and he should share the protectorate and control of the young King, and when this offer was rejected, he instead openly schemed to displace his brother. He also went to great lengths to ingratiate himself with the King, making him gifts of money and speaking disrespectfully of the Protector, whose overbearing and autocratic manner was beginning to annoy the young Edward VI.
Freely discussing his plans with anyone who he felt might assist him, he sounded out the other Councillors with imprudent openness, questioning their loyalty to Edward Seymour. Even before Catherine died, Thomas had bribed Sir William Sharington, the Vice-Treasurer of the Mint in Bristol, to coin money that could be misappropriated to fund his plans to overthrow his brother. It was said he had a map of England that indicated which areas he could rely on for support in the event of an uprising (and the money embezzled from the Mint could be put to use bribing anyone who wavered in their support). Thomas and Sharington managed to embezzle £4,000 from the Mint before the plot was uncovered. Sharington later informed the authorities that Thomas had said, ‘If we had £10,000 in ready money, that were well.’23
Thomas’s plans were wide and varied, however, and Lady Jane Grey, Elizabeth and her half-sister, Mary, also entered the frame at one point or another. On Catherine’s death, Jane had returned to her parents, but Thomas persuaded them to return her to his guardianship by promising to arrange her marriage to Edward VI. In reality this was unlikely, as a possible union between Edward and Mary, Queen of Scots had already been mooted, something that would never come to pass due to the deteriorating relations between England and Scotland.
Thomas had also renewed his attentions towards Elizabeth after Catherine’s death. Not content with seeking to rule through Edward VI, he was looking to the future. Lady Mary, the next in line to the throne, suffered from poor health and was a committed Catholic in a now Protestant country. If Edward VI should die young or without heirs, there was a good chance that Mary would be removed from the succession or die before she could produce an heir, and Elizabeth would inherit the crown. Why should Thomas restrict himself to the power behind the throne when he might have the throne itself?
However, Thomas’s desire to be Elizabeth’s suitor raised suspicions about his political intentions. In November 1547, riding in the procession to Parliament, Thomas found himself next to the Lord Privy Seal, Sir John Russell, who warned him that he should take care: ‘My Lord Admiral, there are certain rumours bruited of you which I am very sorry to hear … if you go about any such thing [seek to marry princess
es Elizabeth or Mary], ye seek the measure to undo yourself and all those that shall come to you.’24
Thomas denied that there was any such plot and angrily demanded to know the identity of his accuser. Russell managed to calm him down, but several days later Thomas sought him out as they rode from Edward Seymour’s house to Westminster and asked him again who his accuser was.25 Russell refused to say. Thomas stated that he was not planning anything untoward, but commented that it was better that the princesses chose to marry someone ‘within the realm than in any foreign place’, further adding ‘And why might not I, or another, made by the King their father, marry one of them?’26
Russell replied that this was unthinkable. For one thing, it would arouse suspicions that Thomas might be plotting to gain power, and also there was the matter of a dowry. When Thomas said he would expect £3,000 a year, Russell disabused him. The princesses’ dowries were to be ‘ten thousand pounds in money, plate and goods, and no land.’27 Thomas insisted there must be an additional £3,000 a year, and Russell firmly replied there would be no such thing as it would be ‘clean against the King’s will.’28 This conversation did not discourage Thomas, however. He began to woo Elizabeth in earnest and solicited the Privy Council for permission to marry her.
Kat Ashley proved a valuable ally in Thomas’s courtship. She frequently spoke to Elizabeth on the subject of their marriage, which she seemed to believe would eventually be approved by the Council. Her husband, Sir John Ashley, Elizabeth’s senior gentleman attendant, was less certain. He warned his wife to be careful, ‘to take heed, for he did fear that the Lady Elizabeth did bear some affection to my Lord Admiral. She seemed to be well pleased therewith, and sometime she would blush when he were spoken of.’29 Sir John could see the danger of Elizabeth allowing herself to become embroiled in the plots of Thomas Seymour, even if Kat, his romantic wife, could not.
Thomas, recalling what Russell had told him about Elizabeth’s dowry, spoke to her Cofferer, Thomas Parry, to offer several suggestions. As part of Henry VIII’s will, each of his daughters had been awarded lands worth £3,000. The law moved slowly in confirming the ladies’ inheritance and Thomas wanted to know how much the lands were worth and where they lay. If the titles had not yet been finalized, he suggested that Elizabeth should ask to exchange them for better, richer lands in the West Country and Wales, closer to his own properties, in order to form a future power base.
In order to speed this plan along, Thomas made another suggestion to Parry. Elizabeth wanted to go to London to see Edward VI, but her town house, Durham House, had been appropriated by the Crown to act as a Mint. Thomas suggested that Elizabeth should apply to Edward Seymour for another house, befriending Anne, Edward’s wife, who might lend her support to the request. Once friends, Elizabeth could ask Anne to use her influence with her husband to exchange her lands for more desirable ones.
When Parry next met with Elizabeth, he asked if she would like to marry Thomas. She replied rather cryptically, ‘I will do as God shall put into my mind.’30 She pressed Parry as to why he was quizzing her on the matter, and he told her about Thomas’s suggestion regarding Anne Seymour. Elizabeth was extremely angry and told Parry to inform Thomas that this was a plan that she would not countenance. She also told him to tell Kat Ashley everything immediately ‘for I shall know nothing but she shall know of it. In faith, I cannot be quiet until ye have told her of it.’31
While Parry may have been prepared to discuss such potentially treasonable matters in secret, Elizabeth was not. She could not be seen to be part of any plot against the King, the Crown or the Council.
Kat was in London at the time, where she had been summoned by Anne Seymour. Anne had heard rumours that Elizabeth had been permitted to go out unchaperoned at night in a barge on the Thames with Thomas. Anne informed Kat that if ‘she was not worthy to have the governance of the King’s daughter … another should have her place’.32 Kat did not seem unduly worried, however; the complaints against her were petty, and Elizabeth would never allow her beloved Governess to be taken from her.
Of more concern was information Kat had obtained from Lady Tyrwhitt and Mary Hill, the wife of Sir John Cheke, Edward VI’s tutor and friend. Rumours were circulating that Thomas had simply kept on the female servants of Catherine Parr’s household in anticipation of them serving Elizabeth when she became his wife. The fact that the matter was being discussed so openly at Court must have sobered Kat. When she returned to Elizabeth she told the young girl that there should be no more talk of her marrying Thomas ‘till the King’s Majesty [Edward VI] came to his own rule.’ The King’s Protector and the Privy Council would never consider allowing her marriage to Thomas or anyone else.33
Later, when questioned during the enquiry into Thomas Seymour’s treasonable activities, Sir Thomas Parry recalled a conversation he had had with Kat Ashley in January 1549. Parry believed that some affection existed between Elizabeth and Thomas. Kat had agreed with him, adding, ‘I would wish her his wife of all men living.’ Parry countered this by saying that he had heard Thomas ‘was not only a very covetous man and an oppressor, but also an evil, jealous man; and how cruelly, how dishonourably and how jealously he had used the Queen [Catherine Parr].’34
Kat rose to Thomas’s defence, insisting, ‘I know him better than ye do, or those that so report of him.’ Thomas loved Elizabeth, she said, too well and had done so for a long time. She told Parry about Catherine Parr’s jealousy when she had found Thomas and Elizabeth in an embrace, which had led her to send Elizabeth away. Parry, sensing a scandal, pressed her, ‘Why, hath there been such familiarity indeed between them?’ Realizing she had said too much (she ‘seemed to repent that she had gone so far’), Kat swore Parry to secrecy and begged him several times never to repeat what she had said, ‘for her Grace should be dishonoured for ever and likewise she undone.’35
By now, Thomas Seymour’s various schemes had been reported to the Privy Council, and the Bristol Mint had been investigated. Sir William Sharington, arrested for embezzling, had informed against Thomas. But it was Thomas himself who made matters worse and, in a sense, brought about his own downfall. On the evening of 16 January, Thomas broke into Hampton Court Palace and tried to seize the King from his bed as he slept. He and a small gang used stolen keys to get as far as the antechamber, and when one of Edward’s dogs began to bark, Thomas shot it. The King’s guards rushed in and escorted Thomas out as he pled, ‘I wished to know whether his Majesty was safely guarded.’36
On the following day, an order was issued for Thomas’s arrest. He was dining with the Earl of Dorset when troops came to take him to the Tower of London. Within two days, William Paulet, Lord St John, Sir Anthony Denny and Sir Robert Tyrwhitt had arrived at Hatfield to interview Elizabeth and those in her service: they were suspected of being involved in Thomas’s schemes – particularly his plot to marry Elizabeth.
Kat Ashley and Thomas Parry were arrested and taken to London. Sir Robert Tyrwhitt remained at Hatfield to take a statement from Elizabeth, a task he found increasingly onerous. At first Elizabeth ‘was marvellous abashed and did weep very tenderly a long time’ when she heard that Parry and Kat Ashley had been arrested. Elizabeth acknowledged she had written to Thomas Seymour regarding the help he was to give her in getting Durham Place back. She also recalled that Kat had written to him to warn him against visiting ‘for fear of suspicion’, and that she had been angry with her Governess for being so presumptuous.37
By 22 January, Tyrwhitt was fighting his frustration as he tried to get Elizabeth to utter an admission of guilt or prior knowledge of the plot.
I did require her to consider her honour and the peril that might ensue, for she was but a subject … I further declared what a woman Mistress Ashley was … saying that if she would open all things herself, all the evil and shame should be ascribed to them and her youth considered both with the King’s Majesty, your Grace and the whole Council. But in no way she will not confess any practice by Mistress Ashley or the
Cofferer concerning my Lord Admiral; and yet I do see it in her face that she is guilty, and do perceive as yet she will abide more storms ere she accuse Mistress Ashley.38
The next day Tyrwhitt tried a kinder approach, ‘All I have gotten yet is by gentle persuasion, whereby I do begin to grow with her in credit.’ Elizabeth confirmed that Thomas had offered to lend her his house in London and reported Parry’s account of their conversation. Tyrwhitt was pleased, even though there was nothing new in her account. He reported, ‘this is a good beginning, I trust more will follow … I do assure your Grace, she hath a very good wit, and nothing is gotten of her but by great policy.’
For a week Tyrwhitt tried to extract a confession, to no avail. On 28 January he wrote, ‘I do verily believe that there hath been some secret promise between my Lady, Mistress Ashley and the Cofferer, never to confess till death; and if it be so, it will never be gotten of her, but either by the King’s Majesty, or else by your Grace.’39
On receiving Tyrwhitt’s report, the Protector wrote to Elizabeth himself ‘as an earnest friend’, and she replied on 28 January, effectively laying out what she had already told Tyrwhitt about her relationship with Thomas. She also made reference to the rumours regarding a possible child borne of her relationship with him:
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