61. Mares (ed.), The Memoirs of Robert Carey, p. 14.
62. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 233.
63. Murdin (ed.), State Papers, p. 646.
64. Maulette went on to become the tutor of James I’s daughter, Elizabeth of Bohemia.
65. G. Maulette, Deuoreux Vertues teares for the losse of the most christian King Henry, third of that name, King of Fraunce; and the vntimely death, of the most noble & heroicall gentleman, VValter Deuoreux, who was slaine before Roan in Fraunce. First written in French, by the most excellent and learned gentlewoman, Madam Geneuuefue, Petau Maulette, trans. G. Markham (London, 1597).
66. Tragically, the baby died the month after his birth.
67. When Sidney died, Margaret married for a third time, taking Thomas Hoby as her third husband.
68. Margaret died on 4 September 1633, and is buried in the church at Hackness, near Scarborough.
69. WCRO, MI 229.
70. Ibid.
71. WCRO, MI 229.
Chapter 18: Disgraced Persons
1. CSPD, Elizabeth 1591–1594, 246, p. 326.
2. The circumstances of his death are certainly mysterious, and poison does seem to have been a serious possibility.
3. Freedman, Poor Penelope, p. 94.
4. The couple had four children together. Penelope would later marry Sir Robert Naunton, by whom she had a daughter named Penelope. Meanwhile, Thomas’s wife later remarried the renowned astronomer Sir William Lower.
5. Though the verdict of suicide was upheld, many believed that the Earl had been murdered. Some suspected Sir Christopher Hatton, and Walter Ralegh later referred to his guilt as though it were well known.
6. Petworth House is now largely the work of the seventeenth century, and is administered by the National Trust. The Percy vault still survives in nearby St Mary’s Church. During their ownership, Syon became known as the White House.
7. HMC Bath, V, p. 261.
8. L.R. Betcherman, Court Lady and Country Wife: Royal Privilege and Civil War, Two Noble Sisters in Seventeenth-Century England (Chichester, 2005), p. 4.
9. HMC Salisbury, X (179).
10. He had been born on 6 October 1573 at Cowdray House in Sussex. He was the son of Henry Wriothesley, second Earl of Southampton, and Mary Browne.
11. Freedman, Poor Penelope, p. 101.
12. Craik, Romance of the Peerage, p. 149. This was dated 10 September 1595.
13. See WCRO, MI 229 collection.
14. Ibid.
15. HMC De L’Isle, p. 163.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. WCRO, MI 229.
20. Ibid.
21. CSPV, Elizabeth 1592–1603, IX (463).
22. Ibid., IX (488).
23. PROB 11/88/135.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. He died at Somerset House on the Strand. As his end approached, the Queen offered to create him Earl of Wiltshire. However, he declined, quipping, ‘Madam, as you did not count me worthy of this honour in life, then I shall account myself not worthy of it in death.’
27. Camden, The Historie, p. 175.
28. Malpas, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’, p. 123.
29. HMC Salisbury, VI (42).
30. WCRO, MI 229.
31. HMC Salisbury, VII (55).
32. HMC De L’Isle, p. 268.
33. WCRO, MI 229.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Cited in Craik, Romance of the Peerage, p. 167.
37. Penelope died in 1599 at the age of around five or six. Henry died when he was approximately one year old.
38. HMC De L’Isle, p. 322.
Chapter 19: Some Wonted Unkind Words
1. Collins (ed.), Letters and Memorials of State, II, pp. 92–3.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., p. 92.
5. Ibid., pp. 92–3.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., p. 95.
8. Murdin (ed.), State Papers, p. 302.
9. Burghley died on 4 August 1598, and is buried in St Martin’s Church, Stamford.
10. Camden, The Historie, p. 126.
11. Ibid., p. 219.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Jones, Mountjoy 1563–1606, p. 46.
15. L. Hopkins, Elizabeth I and her Court (New York, 1990), p. 101.
16. WCRO, MI 229.
17. Camden, The Historie, p. 244.
18. Collins (ed.), Letters and Memorials of State, II, pp. 127–9.
19. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, II, p. 88.
20. Collins (ed.), Letters and Memorials of State, II, 149.
21. Philadelphia Scrope was married to Thomas, Lord Scrope, by whom she had one child, a son named Emmanuel. The magnificent tomb effigy she shares with her husband still survives in St Andrew’s Church in Langar, Nottinghamshire.
22. Collins (ed.), Letters and Memorials of State, II, 159.
23. CSPD, Elizabeth 1580–1625, Addenda, 34, p. 398.
24. Ibid.
25. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 274, p. 392. Traditionally this letter has been dated to 1 January 1600, but there is some debate over whether it may have been written later.
26. The location of this portrait, of English origin, is now, sadly, unknown. It was sold at Sotheby’s in 1974.
27. Craik, Romance of the Peerage, p. 181.
28. HMC De L’Isle, p. 435.
29. Collins (ed.), Letters and Memorials of State, II, p. 171.
30. WCRO, MI 229.
31. Collins (ed.), Letters and Memorials of State, II, p. 171. Elizabeth is believed to have owned approximately two thousand dresses at the time of her death.
32. Collins (ed.), Letters and Memorials of State, II, p. 174.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, II, p. 95.
38. HMC Salisbury, X (72).
39. Ibid., XIV (140).
40. Ibid.
41. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 274, p. 414.
42. Ibid., p. 439.
43. Like Essex, Coke was a former pupil at Trinity College, and became a renowned barrister and judge. Among the numerous noteworthy cases for which he led the prosecution were those of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators.
Chapter 20: The Arch-Traitor Essex
1. Camden, The Historie, p. 195.
2. Ibid., p. 301
3. Ibid., p. 195.
4. Drury House no longer exists, but was once the home of Sir Robert Drury. Drury Lane was named after him.
5. Lacey, Robert, Earl of Essex, p. 15.
6. The cheapest seats available at The Globe were those in the open-air courtyard, for which the price was a penny.
7. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 556.
8. Beer (ed.), A Summarie, p. 457.
9. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 547.
10. Lacey, Robert, Earl of Essex, p. 71.
11. Camden, The Historie, p 302.
12. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 550.
13. HMC Salisbury, XI (41).
14. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, pp. 553–4.
15. Ibid., p. 550.
16. Ibid., p. 552.
17. Ibid., p. 550.
18. Ibid., p. 547.
19. Ibid., p. 550.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 547.
24. Much of the Devereux Tower was rebuilt in the mid-eighteenth century; it once contained secret passages that connected it to the Tower Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.
25. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 556.
26. Ibid.
27. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 579.
28. Ibid.
29. Westminster Hall was part of the Palace of Westminster. In its time it was the largest hall in England, and pr
obably also in Europe.
30. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, II, p. 149.
31. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 590.
32. Ibid.
33. Cited in Weir, Elizabeth the Queen, p. 463.
34. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 590.
35. Cited in Freedman, Poor Penelope, pp. 145–6.
36. Ibid., p. 147.
37. The couple had two sons and two daughters, one of whom was named Penelope, probably in honour of Lettice’s daughter. Southampton died in Holland in 1624, and Elizabeth, still alive, never remarried. She died in 1655.
38. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, II, p. 185.
39. Cited in R. Winwood, Memorials of Affairs of State, I (London, 1725), p. 309.
40. According to Bourchier Devereux, Dorothy was born on 20 December 1600.
41. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 592.
42. HMC Salisbury, XI (180).
43. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 278, p. 595.
44. Ibid, p. 592.
45. HMC Salisbury, XI (180).
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. R. Cavendish, ‘The Execution of the Earl of Essex’, History Today, 51:2 (2001), p. 111.
53. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, II, p. 190. John Stow reported that when the executioner left the Tower, many people recognized him, and loving Essex as they did, proceeded to beat him. Stow believed that they were intent on murder, but fortunately the executioner was rescued.
54. Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, had been a former favourite of the Queen’s. The Duke of Norfolk was his father, who had been executed in 1572. Arundel converted to Catholicism and became a recusant, who was arrested and confined in the Tower in 1585. An inscription he carved during his imprisonment still survives in the Beauchamp Tower, and he was comforted by the presence of his faithful dog. He died of dysentery while still a prisoner in 1595, and was buried in the Tower. However, during the reign of James I, at the petition of his wife and son, his remains were removed from the Tower, and interred in the Fitzalan Chapel at Arundel Castle. Some of them are also in Arundel Cathedral.
55. HMC Salisbury, XI (75).
56. Ibid.
57. CSPD, Elizabeth 1598–1601, 279, p. 23.
58. Ibid.
59. Camden, The Historie, p. 190.
60. W. Cobbett (ed.), A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanours from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (London, 1809), p. 1410.
61. HMC Salisbury, XI (119).
62. Ibid.
63. Beer (ed.), A Summarie, p. 459.
64. Cobbett (ed.), State Trials, p. 1413.
65. Camden, The Historie, p. 194.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Cobbett (ed.), State Trials, p. 1414.
69. Ibid., p. 1416.
70. Camden, The Historie, p. 194; Cobbett (ed.), State Trials, p. 1416.
71. Camden, The Historie, p. 194.
Chapter 21: Mildly Like a Lamb
1. CSPD, Elizabeth 1601–1603, 287, pp. 295–309.
2. Mares (ed.), The Memoirs of Robert Carey, p. 58.
3. The Countess of Nottingham died on 25 February at Arundel House on the edge of the Strand. She was buried in Chelsea Old Church.
4. CSPD, Elizabeth 1601–1603, 287, pp. 295–309.
5. Mares (ed.), The Memoirs of Robert Carey, p. 59.
6. Ibid, p. 129.
7. Helena Snakenborg was the Swedish third wife of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton. She had arrived in England in 1564 in the entourage of Princess Cecilia of Sweden, who was visiting Queen Elizabeth. It was here that she met and fell in love with her future husband, and she later became one of Elizabeth’s maids of honour. Following the death of her husband in 1571, Helena remarried Thomas Gorges, by whom she had eight children. She died in 1635 and is buried in Salisbury Cathedral.
8. James and Anne had been married in Oslo on 23 November 1589. Anne’s journey to Scotland had been marred by repeated bad weather, and thus James decided to set out to collect his bride-to-be personally. They finally met in Oslo.
9. Nichols, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, III, p. 5. The royal couple had travelled to Greys from Oxford.
10. He was also included in the Somerset House Conference portrait of 1604, which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
11. Princess Mary was born at Greenwich Palace, where her elaborate christening was staged on 5 May. Tragically, the little princess died of pneumonia on 16 September 1607. Her tomb can still be seen in Westminster Abbey.
12. Robert Cecil died of cancer at Marlborough. He was laid to rest in the church at Hatfield, where his tomb still survives.
13. See G.F. Warner (ed.), The Voyage of Robert Dudley, afterwards styled Earl of Warwick and Leicester and Duke of Northumberland, to the West Indies, 1594–1595 (London, 1899).
14. The fate of his corpse is unknown; in 1674 it is known to have been in the monastery at Boldrone, but from there its final resting place is uncertain.
15. HMC Salisbury, CXCIII (15).
16. In the year of his accession alone, James visited Syon twice, and Queen Anne also visited by herself on several occasions.
17. Francis Tresham was the grandson of Thomas Tresham by his first wife, Mary Parr. Thomas’s second wife was Lettice’s paternal grandmother, Lettice Peniston.
18. Robert Catesby, John and Christopher Wright were all killed at Holbeach, and others, including Thomas Percy, were injured.
19. On 30 January 1606, Sir Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Thomas Bates were all hung, drawn and quartered at St Paul’s Churchyard. The following day the same fate was meted out to Guido Fawkes, Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood and Robert Keyes in Old Palace Yard, Westminster. Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows and break his neck, ensuring that he was dead before the latter part of his sentence could be carried out.
20. Thomas Percy’s great-grandfather was the fourth Earl of Northumberland, thus making him a distant cousin of Henry Percy, the ninth Earl.
21. Percy and Robert Catesby had reportedly been hit by the same bullet, which killed Catesby and injured Percy – fatally, as would soon become clear.
22. CSPD, James I 1603–1610, XVI, p. 250.
23. Cited in Freedman, Poor Penelope, p. 157.
24. Betcherman, Court Lady and Country Wife, p. 9.
25. During the reign of Charles I, Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1640, though, he was accused of treason and imprisoned in the Tower. He was beheaded on 10 January 1645 on Tower Hill.
26. Cited in Jones, Mountjoy 1563–1606, p. 180.
27. He was a heavy tobacco smoker, which worsened his condition. The use of tobacco had been popularized at court by Sir Walter Ralegh.
28. Penelope’s biographer Sylvia Freedman believes that Penelope is buried in All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower, where three of her brother Robert’s children are also buried. Freedman found a record dating to 7 October 1607 that states that ‘A Lady Devereux’ was buried in the church that day. See Freedman, Poor Penelope, p. 195.
Chapter 22: The Wars with Thunder, and the Court with Stars
1. Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk, was married to Katherine Knyvet. James I favoured him, and he began remodelling Audley End House in Saffron Walden.
2. France’s father was a son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, whose father was the Earl of Surrey. In turn, Surrey was a cousin of Lettice’s maternal grandmother, Mary Boleyn.
3. P.E.J., Hammer, The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: The Political Career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585–1597 (Cambridge, 1999), p. 28.
4. Frances and Carr had a daughter together, Anne, who became Countess of Bedford. Frances died on 23 August 1632.
5. Add MS 18985.
6. Ibid. Blac
k was a colour that was favoured by the nobility, not only because it was a demonstration of wealth, but also because it hid any dirt.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Arbella and Seymour had been married on 22 June 1610 at Greenwich Palace. News of their secret marriage leaked out almost immediately.
11. There are reports that she died insane, and it is clear that she was in great distress at the time of her death. She refused all food, subsequently falling ill and dying on 25 September 1615. She was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.
12. Unfortunately there is no monument to mark the site of her grave.
13. Sidney was the son of Robert Sidney and his wife, Barbara Gamage. His grandmother was Leicester’s sister, Mary.
14. By the time of her mother’s death, Dorothy and Robert already had two small children – Lettice’s great-grandchildren Dorothy and Philip – and the family resided at the Sidney family home of Penshurst Place in Kent. Dorothy Sidney’s portrait still hangs in the Long Gallery at Penshurst Place.
15. Northumberland offered Lucy a dowry of £20,000 (£1,958,000) if she let him choose her husband. It was an offer she refused. Though neither of her parents were there to witness her wedding, the King, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Buckingham were in attendance, with the King giving away the bride.
16. PROB 11/167/42.
17. Ibid.
18. CSPD, Charles I 1629–1631, p. 139.
19. Jenkins, Elizabeth and Leicester, p. 368.
20. PROB 11/167/42.
21. W. Knowler (ed.), The Earl of Strafford’s Letters and Despatches, 2 vols. (London, 1739), p. 359.
22. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 162.
23. PROB 11/167/42.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Nicholas Johnson, who had his workshop in Southwark, may have made it.
30. In Lettice’s will, Gervase Clifton was to be the recipient of ‘my best great pearl to hang at his ear, and the hatband, and a diamond ring with God’s blessing’. PROB 11/167/42.
31. Lacey, Robert, Earl of Essex, p. 15.
Epilogue
1. Harwood, Erdeswick’s Survey of Staffordshire, p. 59.
2. Like Lettice’s first husband, the Walter Devereux who now inherited was the grandson of Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Manuscript Sources
British Library
Elizabeth's Rival Page 44
