which I am very sorry to hear." When Seymour demanded his meaning, Russell told him, "that he was informed that he made means to marry either with the lady Mary, or else with the lady Elizabeth," adding, "My lord, if ye go about any such thing, ye seek the means to undo yourself, and all those that shall come of you." Seymour replied, "that he had no thought of such an enterprise," and so the conversation ended for that time.1 A few days afterwards, Seymour renewed the subject in these words, "Father Russell, you are very suspicious of me; I pray you tell me, who showed you of the marriage, that I should attempt, whereof, ye brake with me the other day?" Russell replied, "that he would not tell him the authors of that tale, but that they were his very good friends, and he advised him to make no suit of marriage that way."

Though no names were mentioned, Seymour, who well knew the allusion was to the sisters of their sovereign, replied significantly, "It is convenient for them to marry, and better it were, that they were married within the realm, than in any foreign place without the realm; and why," continued he, "might not I or another man, raised by the king their father, marry one of them ?"

Then said Russell, "My lord, if either you, or, any other within this realm shall match himself, in marriage, either with my lady Mary or my lady Elizabeth, he shall undoubtedly, whatsoever he be, procure unto himself the occasion of his utter undoing, and you especially, above all others, being of so near alliance to the king's majesty." And, after explaining to the admiral the perilous jealousies which would be excited by his marrying with either of the heirs of the crown, he asked this home question, "And I pray you, my lord, what shall you have with either of them ?"

"He who marries one of them shall have three thousand a year," replied Seymour.

"My lord, it is not so," said Russell; "for ye may be well assured that he shall have no more than ten

1 Tytler's State Papers, vol. ii., p. 6.

thousand pounds in money, plate, and goods, and no land; and what is that to maintain his charges and estate, who matches himself there ?"

66

They must have the three thousand pounds a year also," rejoined Seymour.

Russell, with a tremendous oath "protested that they should not ;" and Seymour, with another, asserted, "that they should, and that none should dare to say nay to it."

Russell, with a second oath, swore, "that he would say nay to it, for it was clean against the king's will;" and the admiral, profligate as he was, finding himself outsworn by the hoary-headed old statesman, desisted from bandying oaths with him on the subject.

The most remarkable feature in this curious dialogue is, however, the anxiety displayed by Seymour on the pecuniary prospects of his royal love. He sent one of his servants, about this time, to lady Brown (celebrated by Surrey under the poetic name of Fair Geraldine) who appears to have been a very intimate friend and ally of his, advising her to break up housekeeping, and to take her abode with the lady Elizabeth's grace to save up charges. Lady Brown replied, "that she verily purposed to go to the lady Elizabeth's house that next morning," but she appears to have been prevented by the sickness and death of her old husband. It was suspected that Seymour meant to have employed her in furthering some of his intrigues.❜

The protector and his council, meantime, kept a jealous watch on the proceedings of the admiral, not only with regard to his clandestine addresses with the lady Elizabeth, but his daring intrigues to overthrow the established regency, and get the power into his own hands. There was an attempt, on the part of Somerset, to avert the mischief by sending the admiral on a mission to Boulogne; and the last interview the princess Elizabeth's confidential servant, Parry, had with him was in his chamber, at the court, where he was preparing for this 1 1 Tytler's State Papers. 2 Haynes' State Papers.

unwelcome voyage.' The following conversation then took place:-The admiral asked, "How doth her grace, and when will she be here ?"

Parry replied, "that the lord protector had not determined on the day."

"No," said the admiral, bitterly; "that shall be when I am gone to Boulogne."

Parry presented Mrs. Ashley's commendations, and said "it was her earnest wish that the lady Elizabeth should be his wife."

"Oh!" replied the admiral, "it will not be;" adding, "that his brother would never consent to it." 2

On the 16th of January, the admiral was arrested on a charge of high treason, having boasted that he had ten thousand men at his command, and suborned Sharrington, the master of the mint at Bristol, to coin a large sum of false money to support him in his wild projects. He was committed to the Tower, and not only his servants, but the principal persons in the household of the princess Elizabeth were also arrested, and subjected to very strict examination by the council, in order to ascertain the nature of the admiral's connexion with the princess, and how far she was implicated in his intrigues against the government. In fact, Elizabeth herself seems to have been treated as a prisoner of state, while these momentous investigations were proceeding; for, though she made earnest supplication to be admitted to the presence of the king her brother, or even to that of the protector, in order to justify herself, she was detained at her house at Hatfield, under the especial charge of sir Thomas Tyrwhit, who certainly was empowered by the council to put her and her household under restraint.

Very distressing must this crisis have been to a girl in her sixteenth year, who had no maternal friend to counsel and support her, under circumstances, that were the more painful, because of the previous scandals in which she had been involved, at the time of her separation from her royal stepmother, on account of the free conduct of the

'Haynes' State Papers.

• Ibid.

admiral. All the particulars of his coarse familiarity and indelicate romping with Elizabeth, had been cruelly tattled by her governess, Mrs. Katharine Ashley, to Parry the cofferer, and were by him disclosed to the council, and confirmed by the admissions of Mrs. Ashley. The fact, that, notwithstanding those things, Elizabeth was receiving the clandestine addresses of this bold bad man, almost before queen Katharine was cold in her grave, was injurious to her reputation, and caused her to be treated with less respect and consideration from the council, than ought to have been shewn to a royal lady, of her tender age, and the sister of the sovereign.

Sir Robert Tyrwhit first announced to her the alarming tidings that Mrs. Ashley and her husband, with Parry, had all been committed to the Tower on her account; on which, he says, "her grace was marvellously abashed, and did weep, very tenderly, a long time, demanding whether they had confessed anything?"" Tyrwhit assured her, "that they had confessed everything, and urged her to do the same." Elizabeth was not to be thus easily outwitted, and Tyrwhit then endeavoured to terrify her by requiring her "to remember her honour, and the peril that might ensue, for she was but a subject"an inuendo that might have been somewhat alarming to so young a girl, considering her mother, though a queen, had died by the sword of the executioner; but the lofty spirit of Elizabeth was not to be thus intimidated, and Tyrwhit told Somerset "that he was not able to get anything from her but by gentle persuasion, whereby he began to grow with her in credit," ""for I do assure your grace," continues he, "she hath a good wit, and nothing is to be gotten from her but by great policy." She was, however, greatly disturbed when he told her that Parry and Mrs. Ashley had both confessed, and in confirmation shewed her the signatures to their depositions; on which she called Parry 992 false wretch."

66

Tyrwhit told her what sort of a woman Mrs. Ashley was, and assured her "that if she would open all things,

1

Haynes.

2

Haynes' State Papers.

that all the evil and shame should be ascribed to them, and her youth taken into consideration by his majesty, the protector, and the whole council." "But in no way," continues he," will she confess any practice by Mrs. Ashley, or the cofferer concerning my lord admiral; and yet I do see it in her face that she is guilty, and yet perceive that Ishe will abide more storms ere she will accuse Mrs. Ashley."

On the 28th of January, Tyrwhit informs the protector "that he has, in obedience to his letter of the 26th, practised with her grace, by all means and policy, to induce her to confess more than she had already done, in a letter which she had just written to the duke, with her own hand, which contained all that she was willing to admit ;" and Tyrwhit expresses his conviction that a secret pact had been made by the princess, Mrs. Ashley, and Parry, never to confess anything to the crimination of each other; " and if so," continues he, "it will never be drawn from her grace, unless by the king her brother, or the protector." The following is the letter written by Elizabeth to Somerset, which tallies, as Tyrwhit very shrewdly observes, most remarkably with the depositions of Ashley and Parry, and induces him to think that they had all three agreed in their story, in case of being questioned, or, to use his own expression, "set the note before."1

THE LADY ELIZABETH TO THE LORD PROTECTOR.

My lord, your great gentleness and good will towards me, as well in this thing as in other things, I do understand, for the which even as I ought, so I do give you humble thanks; and whereas your lordship willeth and counselleth me as an earnest friend, to declare what I know in this matter, and also to write what I have declared to Master Tyrwhit, I shall most willingly do it. I declared unto him first, that after the cofferer had declared unto me what my lord admiral answered, for Allen's matter, and for Durham Place (that it was appointed to be a mint), he told me that my lord admiral did offer me his house for my time being with the king's majesty, and further said and asked me, if the council

1 Haynes' State Papers. This curious simile alludes to the note being pitched for singing in unison.

2 A request made by Elizabeth to the admiral in behalf of one of her chaplains.