“My last letters, written at a time when, partly with the Queen’s Highness’s death I was so amazed that I had small regard either to myself or my doings, and partly then thinking that my great loss must presently have constrained me to have broken up and dissolved my whole house, I offered unto your Lordship to send my Lady Jane unto you whensoever you would send for her, as to him that I thought would be most tender on her. Forasmuch, since being both better avised of myself, and having more deeply digested whereunto my power [i.e. property] would extend; I find, indeed, that with God’s help, I shall right well be able to continue my house together, without diminishing any great part thereof; and, therefore, putting my whole affiance and trust in God, have begun anew to stablish my household, where shall remain not only the gentlewomen of the Queen’s Highness’s privy chamber, but also the maids that waited at large, and other women being about Her Grace in her lifetime, with a hundred and twenty gentlemen and yeomen, continually abiding in the house together. Saving that now, presently, certain of the maids and gentlewomen have desired to have license for a month or such thing, to see their friends, and then immediately to return hither again. And, therefore, doubting lest your Lordship might think any unkindness that I should by my said letters take occasion to rid me of your daughter, the Lady Jane, so soon after the Queen’s death, for the proof both of my hearty affection towards you, and my good-will to her, I am now minded to keep her until I next speak with your Lordship, which should have been within these three or four days if it had not been that I must repair to the Court, as well to help certain of the Queen’s poor servants with some of the things now fallen by her death, as also for mine own affairs, unless I shall be advertised from your Lordship to the contrary. My lady my mother shall and will, I doubt not, be as dear unto her [i.e. Lady Jane] as though she were her own daughter; and for my part I shall continue her half-father, and more, and all that are in my house shall be as diligent about her as yourself would wish accordingly.”[140]
To this letter Dorset replied as follows, in a particularly fine specimen of the strange orthography of those days:—
“My most hearty commendations unto your good lordship not forgotten. When it hath pleased you by your most gentle letters to offer me the abode of my daughter at your lordship’s house, I do as well acknowledge your most friendly affection towards me and her therein, as also render unto you most deserved thanks for the same. Nevertheless, considering the state of my daughter and her tender years, wherein she shall hardly rule herself as yet without a guide, lest she should, for lack of a bridle, take too much the head, and conceive such opinion of herself, that all such good behaviour as she heretofore hath learned, by the Queen’s and your most wholesome instructions, should either altogether be quenched in her, or at the least much diminished, I shall, in most hearty wise, require your lordship to commit her to the governance of her mother, by whom for the fear and duty she oweth her, she shall most easily be ruled and framed towards virtue, which I wish above all things to be most plentiful in her; and although your lordship’s good mind, concerning her honest and godly education be so great, that mine can be no more; yet weighing that you be destitute of such one as should correct her as a mistress, and admonish her as a mother, I persuade myself that you will think the eye and oversight of my wife shall be in this respect most necessary.”
Then follows a mention of the proposed scheme for uniting the Lady Jane to the King; and the letter concludes thus:—
“My meaning herein is not to withdraw any part of my promise to you for her bestowing; for I assure your Lordship, I intend, God willing, to use your discreet advice and consent in that behalf and no less than mine own; only I seek in these her tender years, wherein she now standeth, either to make or mar (as the common saying is), the addressing [the forming] of her mind to humility, soberness, and obedience. Wherefore, looking upon that fatherly affection which you bear her, my trust is that your lordship, weighing the premises, will be content to charge her mother with her, whose waking eye in respecting her demeanour, shall be, I hope, no less than you as a friend and I as a father would wish. And thus wishing your lordship a perfect riddance of all unquietness and grief of mind, I leave any further to trouble your lordship. From my house at Bradgate, the 19th of September.—Your lordship’s to the best of my power,
Henry Dorset”[141]
(Endorsed)
“To my very good Lord Admiral: give this.”
With this precious epistle was enclosed another, from the Lady Frances:—
“And whereas,” says she, “of a friendly and brotherly good will you wish to have Jane my daughter, continuing still in your house, I give you most hearty thanks for your gentle offer, trusting, nevertheless, that, for the good opinion you have in your sister (Lady Frances herself), you will be content to charge her with her (i.e. charge Lady Frances with Lady Jane), who promiseth you, not only to be ready at all times to account for the ordering of your dear niece [Lady Jane], but also to use your counsel and advice on the bestowing of her, whensoever it shall happen. Wherefore, my good brother, my request shall be, that I may have the oversight of her with your good will and thereby shall have good occasion to think that you do trust me in such wise, as is convenient that a sister be trusted of so loving a brother. And thus my most hearty commendations not omitted, I wish the whole [or holy] deliverance of your grief and continuance of your lordship’s health. From Bradgate, 19th of this September.—Your loving sister and assured friend,
Frances Dorset”[142]
(Endorsed)
“To the right Honourable and my very
good Lord, my Lord Admiral.”
It will be noted that the Lady Frances evinces a quite sisterly affection for the Lord Admiral, adopting him as her brother; and her daughter, therefore, was to be considered as his niece.
After this correspondence, the Lady Jane was returned to Bradgate, whither she proceeded with a semi-regal escort consisting of not less than forty persons, including Mr. Rous or Rowse, controller of the Lord Admiral’s household, and Mr. John Harrington, afterwards prominent at Queen Elizabeth’s Court. On taking their leave of the young Princess, these gentlemen assured her that all the maids at Hanworth were expecting her back again. The wily Dorsets themselves had, indeed, made up their minds she should return, though in their heart of hearts they had something besides Lady Jane herself in view. It was somewhere about 20th September that Lady Jane arrived at Bradgate. On or about the 23rd of that month the Marquis and his spouse journeyed to London, where they met Sir William Sharington,[143] Seymour’s âme damnée, and the Lord High-Admiral himself. These gentlemen had a very secret business to discuss, the nature of which must now be described. The Dorsets, not then wealthy people, were deep in debt. Now Seymour was known to be rich, for, in addition to his own fortune, he had just inherited that of the Queen, and, so far, his brother had given no signs of any intention of confiscating it. The Dorsets, therefore, intimated to Sharington that he would do well to make Sudeley understand that if he desired to renew his guardianship of the Lady Jane, he must agree to give her parents £2000, £500 to be paid down at once, on account. It should be here remarked that Sudeley, by voluntarily relinquishing the care of the Lady Jane Grey, had given up his guardianship, which, by the custom of those times, gave him more than parental rights over her. It was his desire to renew his official charge that enabled the Dorsets to make this extraordinary proposal to sell him their child for what in those days was considered a large sum of money. When the game was up and Sudeley in prison, the Dorsets threw the blame of this transaction on everybody but themselves. The Lord Admiral, asserted Lady Jane’s father in his deposition before the Privy Council, “was so earnestly in hand with me and my wife, the Lady Frances, that in the end, because he would have no nay, we were content that Jane should return to his house.” Indeed, Sudeley, not content to treat so important a matter only through the medium of Sharington, himself appeared at Dorset’s town house and interviewed the Marquis, who admitted in the above-mentioned deposition that, “At this very time and place he renewed his promise unto me for the marrying of my daughter to the King’s Majesty, and he added, ‘If I may get the King at liberty, I dare warrant you His Majesty will marry no other than Jane.’”
Whilst Sudeley was thus pretending, if nothing more, that he was able to marry Jane to the King, could he but get possession of her, the Marquis of Dorset was inditing a letter to the Lord Protector which contained a passage referring to some negotiations he was conducting with His Highness for the marriage of Lady Jane to the Earl of Hertford, Somerset’s eldest son! “Item, for the maryage of your graces sune to be had with my doghter Jane, I thynk hyt not met [meet] to be wrytyn, but I shall at all tymes avouche my sayng.” Dorset’s cunning must have nearly matched Sudeley’s! Young Hertford was the lad mentioned in the papers of the time of Queen Mary as “contracted” to Lady Jane Grey: in later years he married her sister Katherine. Jane probably made his acquaintance in her childish days, when the Seymours lived at Whitehall and she was in residence at the “Bluff King’s” Court under the wing of Katherine Parr. Hertford was also one of the band of young noblemen selected as companions for Prince Edward under the tutelage of the learned Dr. Cheke; and probably had many a romp with Jane, then a merry little girl. Later on he paid one or two visits to Bradgate, the Lady Frances conceiving such a strong affection for him that she was wont to call him her son. Here again the young people must have been much together, and their childish friendship may have inspired the Marquis of Dorset with the idea of uniting them in marriage. However that may be, he certainly got as far as corresponding with Somerset—though in the profoundest secrecy—about the matter. Was his caution due to a fear of displeasing Sudeley? What is more than probable is that the Lord Admiral got wind of the scheme, and that his desire to get Jane away from her father and his own brother and nephew was at the bottom of his readiness to pay so heavy a price to resume her guardianship, for which object he used the likelihood of her marriage with the King as a bait to catch the Marquis—who was eventually “jockeyed” by both the Seymours, for no marriage with either the King or Hertford ever took place.