On the 11th of July the Council wrote afresh to the Commissioners (Hoby and Morysone) telling them of the “signification of our sovereign lord’s death,” and remarking that, “although the Lady Mary hath been written unto from us (i.e. in answer to her letter of the 9th), yet nevertheless we see her not so weigh the matter that if she might she would disturb the state of this realm, having thereunto as yet no manner apparent of help or comfort but only the connivance of a few lords and base people: all others the nobility and gentlemen remaining in their duties to our sovereign lady Queen Jane. And yet, nevertheless, because the conditions of the baser sort of people is understood to be unruly if they be not governed and kept in order, therefore for the meeting with all events, the Duke of Northumberland’s grace, accompanied with the Lord Marquis of Northampton, proceedeth with a convenient power into the parts of Norfolk, to keep those countries in stay and obedience, and because the Emperor’s ambassadors here remaining shall on this matter of the policy not intermeddle, as it is very likely they will and do dispose themselves, the Lord Cobham and Sir John Mason repaireth to the same ambassadors, to give them notice of the Lady Mary’s proceeding against the state of this realm, and to put them in remembrance of the nature of their office, which is not to meddle in these causes of policy,[234] neither directly nor indirectly, and so to charge them to use themselves as they give no occasion of unkindness to be ministered unto them, whereas we would be most sorry, for the friendship, which on our part, we mean to conserve and maintain. And for that grace the ambassadors here shall advertise the others what is said to them.... The xith of July, 1553.”

This document was followed, next day, by an official letter to the Commissioners, signed by Jane, and outlining what they were to say to the Emperor as to the foreign policy to be pursued hereafter:—

“Trusty and well-beloved,—We greet you well. It hath pleased God of his providence, by the calling of our most dear cousin of famous memory, King Edward the VIth, out of this life, to our very natural sorrow, that we both by our said cousin’s lawful determination in his lifetime, with the assent of the nobility and state of this our realm, and also as his lawful heir and successor in the whole blood royal, are possessed of this our realm of England and Ireland.”

Then comes a recommendation of the bearer of the letter, a Mr. Shelley; the confirmation of Hoby’s appointment—“the whole number of our ambassadors shall there remain to continue to dwell in the former commission which ye had from our ancestor the King,” and an order that Hoby shall make this clear to the Emperor, and assure him that the friendship between England and the Emperor shall be continued as hitherto.

Worry, anxiety, and annoyance soon brought on a relapse of the illness from which Jane had lately suffered. Her pains at last grew so acute that she again fancied the Duchess of Northumberland had poisoned her. Possibly this illness accounts for our hearing so little of her doings during the second, third, and fourth days of her short reign (11th, 12th, 13th of July). “Twice,” she writes, “was I poisoned, once in the house of my mother-in-law,[235] and afterwards in the Tower; the venom was so potent that all the skin came off my back.” This idea was evidently only the result of the fever, which caused the skin to peel. Trouble had so reduced the poor girl, no doubt, that she fell an easy prey to the fevers so prevalent in and about the Tower, as long as the moat remained uncovered.

On the 11th the Council received a letter from Mary, dated from Kenninghall 9th July, stating she had heard of her brother the King’s death, and was surprised that she had not known it sooner, and adding her intention to cause her right and title to be published, and proclaimed accordingly. The letter declared the Princess aware of the Council’s desire to undo her claims, but added that she was willing to grant pardon, and closed with an order to the Council to have her proclaimed in the City of London and other places. The Council’s reply was a masterpiece of “bluff.” It ran as follows:—

“Madam,—We have received your letters (of) the 9th of this instant, declaring your supposed title ... to the Imperial Crown of this Realm, and all the dominions thereunto belonging. For answer whereof, this is to advertise you, that for as much as our Sovereign Lady, Queen Jane is after the death of our Sovereign Lord Edward the 6th, ... invested and possessed with the just and right title in the Imperial Crown of this Realm, not only by good order of ancient laws of this Realm, but also by our late Sovereign Lord’s letters-patent, signed with his own hand, and sealed with the Great Seal of England, in presence of the most part of the nobles, councillors, judges, with divers other grave and sage personages, assenting and subscribing to the same. We must, therefore, of most bound duty and allegiance assent unto her said Grace, and to none other, except we should, which faithful subjects cannot, fall into grievous and unspeakable enormities. Wherefore we can no less do, but for the quiet both of the Realm and you also, to advertise you, that forasmuch as the divorce made between the King of famous memory, Henry VIII and the Lady Katherine, your mother, was necessary to be had, both by the everlasting laws of God, and also by the ecclesiastical laws, and by the most part of the noble and learned universities of Christendom, and confirmed also by the sundry acts of Parliament, remaining yet in their force, and thereby you justly made illegitimate and unheritable to the Crown Imperial of this Realm ... you will, upon just consideration hereof, and of divers other causes lawful to be alleged for the same, and for the just inheritance of the right line and godly order, taken by the late King our Sovereign Lord King Edward the VI, and agreed upon by the nobles and great personages aforesaid, surcease by any pretence, to vex and molest any of our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane her subjects, from their true faith and allegiance unto Her Grace; assuring you, that if you will ... show yourself quiet and obedient, as you ought, you shall find us all and several ready to do you any service that we with duty may.... And thus we bid you most heartily well to fare.

“Your ladyship’s friends, showing yourself an obedient subject.”

This document was signed by the following members of the Council: “Thomas Canterbury, the Marquis of Winchester, John Bedford, Will. Northampton, Thomas Ely, Chancellor; Northumberland, Henry Suffolk, Henry Arundel, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Cobham, R. Rich, Huntingdon, Darcy, Cheney, R. Cotton, John Gates, W. Peter, W. Cecill, John Cheeke, John Mason, Edward North, R. Bowes.” Of all the signatories of this letter, not more than four, if so many, remained true to Jane to the last!

LADY JANE GREY, BY WYNGARDE