Lady Jane Grey and Her Times

by Ida A. Taylor

If Seymour was going to his ruin it was not to be for lack of warnings. Sleeping at the house of Katherine’s friends, the Tyrwhitts, one night soon after her death, the question of a marriage with a sister of the King’s was mooted; when, although Seymour’s aspirations were not definitely mentioned, Sir Robert spoke in a fashion frankly discouraging to any scheme of the kind on the part of his guest.

Conversing after supper with his hostess, Seymour called to her husband as he passed by, saying jestingly that he was talking with my lady his wife in divinity—or divining of the future; that he had told her he wished the crown of England might be in as good a surety as that of France, where it was well known who was heir. So would it be in England were the Princesses married.

Tyrwhitt answered drily. Whosoever married one of them without the consent of King or Council, he said he would not wish to be in his place.

“Why so?” asked the Admiral. If he, for instance, had married thus, would it not be surety for the King? Was he not made by the King? Had he not all he had by the King? Was he not most bound to serve him truly?

Tyrwhitt refused to be convinced, reiterating that the man who married either Princess had better be stronger than the Council, for “if they catch hold of him, they will shut him up.”[89]

Lord Russell, the Lord Privy Seal, spoke no less openly to the adventurer of the danger he was running. The two were riding together to Parliament House in the Protector’s train, when Russell opened the subject by observing that certain rumours were abroad which he was very sorry to hear, and that if the Admiral were seeking to marry either of the King’s sisters—the special one being left discreetly uncertain—“ye seek the means to undo yourself and all those who shall come of you.”

Seymour replied carelessly that he had no such thought, and the subject dropped. A few days later, however, he himself re-introduced it, demanding what reason existed to prevent him, or another man, wedding one of the late King’s daughters? Again Russell reiterated his warning. The marriage, he declared, would prove fatal to him who made it, proceeding to point out—knowing that the argument would have more weight with the man with whom he had to do than recommendations to caution and prudence—that from a pecuniary point of view the match would carry with it no great advantage, a statement vehemently controverted by the Admiral, who throughout neither felt nor feigned any indifference to the financial aspect of the affair.

During the ensuing months he was busily engaged in the prosecution of his scheme. He may have had a genuine liking for the girl to whom his attentions had already proved compromising; he could scarcely doubt that he had won her affections. But by a clandestine marriage Elizabeth would, under the terms of her father’s will, have forfeited her right to the succession, and she was therefore safeguarded from any attempt on her suitor’s part to induce her to dispense with the consent of the lawful authorities. Forced to proceed with circumspection, he made use of any opportunity that offered for maintaining a hold upon her, aided and abetted by the partisanship of her servants. A fortnight before Christmas he proffered the loan of his London house as a lodging when she should pay her winter visit to the capital, adding to her cofferer, through whom the suggestion was made, that he would come and see her Grace; “which declaration,” reported to her by Parry, “she seemed to take very gladly and to accept it joyfully.” Observing, moreover, that when the conversation turned upon Seymour, and especially when he was commended, the Princess “showed such countenance that it should appear she was very glad to hear of him,” the cofferer was emboldened to inquire whether, should the Council approve, she would marry him.

“When that time comes to pass,” answered Elizabeth, in the language of the day, “I will do as God shall put in my mind.”

Notwithstanding her refusal to commit herself, it was not difficult for those about her to divine after what fashion she would, in that case, be moved to act. Yet she retained her independence of spirit, and when told that the Admiral advised her to appeal to the Protector through his wife for certain grants of land, as well as for a London residence, she turned upon those who had played the part of his mouthpiece in a manner indicating no intention of becoming his passive tool.