“After my hearty commendations, these shall be to declare that according to your accustomed gentleness, I have received six warrants from you by your servant this bearer, for the which, I do give you my hearty thanks, by whom also I have received your letter wherein (as me thinketh) I perceive strange news, concerning a suit you have in hand to the Queen for marriage, for the sooner obtaining whereof, you seem to think that my letters might do you pleasure. My lord, in this case I trust your wisdom doth consider that if it were for my nearest kinsman and dearest friend on live, of all other creatures in the world, it standeth least with my poor honour to be a meddler in this matter, considering whose wife her grace was of late, and besides that if she be minded to grant your suit, my letters shall do you but small pleasure. On the other side, if the remembrance of the King’s Majesty my father (whose soul God pardon) will not suffer her to grant your suit, I am nothing able to persuade her to forget the loss of him, who is as yet very ripe in mine own remembrance. Wherefore I shall most earnestly require you (the premisses considered) to think none unkindness in me, though I refuse to be a meddler any ways in this matter, assuring you, that (wooing matters set apart, wherein I being a maid am nothing cunning) if otherwise it shall lie in my little power to do you pleasure, I shall be as glad to do it as you to require it, both for his blood’s sake that you be of, and also for the gentleness which I have always found in you. As knoweth Almighty God, to whose tuition I commit you.
“From Wanstead, this Saturday at night, being the 4th June.
“Your assured friend to my power,
“Marye.”[257]
The marriage was concealed till the end of June, when it was supposed to have taken place at Edward’s request. Elizabeth’s indignation, real or feigned, was thus expressed in a letter to Mary:—
“Princess, and very dear Sister,
“You are very right in saying, in your most acceptable letters which you have done me the honour of writing to me, that our interests being common, the just grief we feel in seeing the ashes, or rather the scarcely cold body of the King our father so shamefully dishonored by the Queen our stepmother, ought to be common to us also. I cannot express to you, my dear Princess, how much affliction I suffered when I was first informed of this marriage, and no other comfort can I find, than that of the necessity of submitting ourselves to the decrees of heaven; since neither you nor I, dearest sister, are in such a condition as to offer any obstacle thereto, without running heavy risk of making our own lot much worse than it is, at least so I think. We have to deal with too powerful a party who have got all authority into their hands, while we, deprived of power cut a very poor figure at court. I think then, that the best course we can take is that of dissimulation, that the mortification may fall upon those who commit the fault. For we may rest assured that the memory of the King our father, being so glorious in itself, cannot be subject to these stains which can only defile the persons who have wrought them. Let us console ourselves by making the best of what we cannot remedy. If our silence does us no honour, at least it will not draw down upon us such disasters as our lamentations might induce. These are my sentiments, which the little reason I have dictates, and which guides my respectful reply to your agreeable letter. With regard to the returning of visits, I do not see that you who are the elder are obliged to this; but the position in which I stand obliges me to take other measures, the Queen having shown me so great affection, and done me so many kind offices, that I must use much tact in manœuvring with her, for fear of appearing ungrateful for her benefits. I shall not however, be in any hurry to visit her, lest I should be charged with approving what I ought to censure. However I shall always pay much deference to your instructions and commands, in all which you shall think convenient or serviceable to you, as being your highness’s,” etc., etc.[258]