It is also said, that Katharine of Arragon was in the habit of employing the ladies of her court in needlework, in which she was herself extremely assiduous, working with them and encouraging them by her example. Burnet records, that when two legates requested once to speak with her, she came out to them with a skein of silk about her neck, and told them she had been within at work with her women. An anecdote, as far as regards the skein of silk, somewhat more housewifely than queenly.
In this she differed much from her successor, Queen Catherine Parr, for having had her nativity cast when a child, and being told, from the disposition of the stars and planets in her house, that she was born to sit in the highest seat of imperial majesty; child as she was, she was so impressed by the prediction, that when her mother required her to work she would say, “My hands are ordained to touch crowns and sceptres, not needles and spindles.”
When the orphaned daughter of this lady, by the lord admiral, was consigned to the care of the Duchess of Suffolk, the furniture of “her former nursery” was to be sent with her. The list is rather curious, and we subjoin it.
“Two pots, three goblets, one salt parcel gilt, a maser with a band of silver and parcel gilt, and eleven spoons; a quilt for the cradle, three pillows, three feather-beds, three quilts, a testor of scarlet embroidered with a counterpoint of silk say belonging to the same, and curtains of crimson taffeta; two counterpoints of imagery for the nurse’s bed, six pair of sheets, six fair pieces of hangings within the inner chamber; four carpets for windows, ten pieces of hangings of the twelve months within the outer chamber, two quishions of cloth of gold, one chair of cloth of gold, two wrought stools, a bedstead gilt, with a testor and counterpoint, with curtains belonging to the same.”
Return we to Katharine of Arragon: her needlework labours have been celebrated both in Latin and English verse. The following sonnet refers to specimens in the Tower, which now indeed are swept away, having left not “a wreck behind.”
“I read that in the seventh King Henrie’s reigne,
Fair Katharine, daughter to the Castile king,
Came into England with a pompous traine
Of Spanish ladies which shee thence did bring.
She to the eighth King Henry married was,
And afterwards divorc’d, where virtuously
(Although a Queene), yet she her days did pass
In working with the needle curiously,
As in the Tower, and places more beside,
Her excellent memorials may be seen;
Whereby the needle’s prayse is dignifide
By her faire ladies, and herselfe, a Queene.
Thus far her paines, here her reward is just,
Her works proclaim her prayse, though she be dust.”
The same pen also celebrated her daughter’s skill in this feminine occupation.
Mary was skilled in all sorts of embroidery; and when her mother’s divorce consigned her to a private life, she beguiled the intervals of those severer studies in which she peaceably and laudably occupied her time in various branches of needlework. It is not unlikely the Psalter we have alluded to elsewhere was embroidered by herself; and a reference to the fashionable occupations of the day will bring to our minds various trifling articles, the embroidery of which beguiled her time, though they have long since passed away.
“Her daughter Mary here the sceptre swaid,
And though she were a Queene of mighty power,
Her memory will never be decaid,
Which by her works are likewise in the Tower,
In Windsor Castle, and in Hampton Court,
In that most pompous roome called Paradise;
Who ever pleaseth thither to resort,
May see some workes of hers, of wondrous price.
Her greatness held it no disreputation
To take the needle in her royal hand;
Which was a good example to our nation
To banish idleness from out her land:
And thus this Queene, in wisdom thought it fit,
The needle’s worke pleas’d her, and she grac’d it.”
We extract the following notice of the gentle and excellent Lady Jane Grey, from the ‘Court Magazine.’