THE EARLIEST ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF HER, FROM A PICTURE SAID TO BE BY HOLBEIN, NOW LOST
On 12th July, the second day after Jane’s entry into the Tower, the Marquis of Winchester brought her unwilling Majesty a curious collection of miscellaneous articles of jewellery, the contents of sundry boxes and caskets, deposited at the Jewel House in the Tower, and which had belonged to Henry’s six queens. Jane, despite her poor health, was constrained to examine these things. The caskets contained, amongst other articles, “A fish of gold, being a toothpick. One dewberry of gold. A like pendant, having one great and three little pearls. A newt of white silver” (that is to say, a silver ornament wrought in the form of a lizard or eft). “A tablet of gold with a white sapphire and a blue one, a balas ruby, and a pendant pearl. A tablet of gold hung by a chain with St. John’s head, and flat pearls. A tablet with our Lady of Pity, engraved on a blue stone. A pair of beads of white porcelain, with eight gauds of gold, and a tassel of Venice gold. Beads of gold with crymesy (crimson) work. Buttons of gold with crimson work. Six purse hangers of siver and gilt” (these were to hang purses or trinkets to the girdle, like the modern chatelaine). “Five small agates with stars graven on them. Pearls in rounnels of gold between pivots of pearls. Pipes of gold. A pair of bracelets of flaggon chain (pattern), connecting jacinths of orange coloured amethysts. Many buttons of gold worked with crimson, and in each button set six pearls. Thirty turquoises of little worth. Thirteen table diamonds set in collets of gold. An abiliment set with twelve table diamonds” (these were the borderings of the caps like those of Anne Boleyn, or even of the round hood which was the fashion that succeeded them). “Forty-three damasked gold buttons, and a clock or watch set in damasked gold, tablet fashion,” close the list,[236] but Winchester affirms that he delivered to Jane, on 12th July, not only these, but the regalia[237] and other jewels, together with a supply of cash, books, and even clothes.
About this date, too, Lord Guildford Dudley was sent a quantity of the Crown jewels, possibly as an earnest of his future dignity. They certainly cost him dear!
A curious inventory exists at Hatfield, of stuffs delivered to “the Lady Jane Grey, usurper, at the Tower by commandment over and above sundry things already delivered to her by two several warrants.” These goods were her own personal property, evidently left by her at Westminster Palace on the occasion of some visit, of which no record now exists. The stay in question must have occurred very shortly before Edward’s death, and the things may have been forgotten in the confusion attendant upon his last illness. The inventory is endorsed by Sir Andrew Dudley and Sir Arthur Sturton, deceased, Keeper of the Palace at Westminster, and was made, according to custom, on the day of the King’s death, when seals were put on the doors of every apartment in the royal palaces, not to be lifted till the King’s burial, after which such articles as belonged to persons in waiting or servants were delivered, after verification, to their various owners. The list of goods and chattels belonging to Lady Jane is a very lengthy one, and we will only make a few quotations, to give a glimpse of the contents of her wardrobe and her minor possessions:—
“Item, a muffler of purple velvet, embroidered with pearls of damask gold garnished with small stones of sundry sorts and tied with white satin.
“Item, a muffler of sable skin with a head of gold with 4 clasps set with five emeralds, four turquoises, six rubies, two diamonds and five pearls, the four feet of the sable being of gold set with turquoises and the head having a tongue made of a ruby.
“Item, a hat of purple velvet embroidered with many pearls.
“Item, a hat of black velvet laced with aglets (tags), enamelled, with a brooch of gold.
“Item, a cap of black velvet, having a fine brooch with a square table ruby with divers pictures enamelled in red, black and green.
“Item, eighteen buttons with rubies.
“Item, eighteen gold buttons.
“Item, a helmet of gold with a face, and a helmet upon its head and an ostrich feather.
“Item, three pairs of garters having buckles and pendants of gold.
“Item, one shirt with collar and ruffles of gold.
“Item, three shirts—one of velvet, the other of black silk embroidered with gold, the third of gold stitched with silver and red silk.
“Item, a piece of sable skin.
“Item, two little images of wood, one of Edward VI, and the other of Henry VIII.
“Item, a dog collar wrought with red work with gold bells.
“Item, a picture of Lady of Suffolk in a gold box.
“Item, a picture of Queen Katherine Parr that is lately deceased.”
This list also contained some articles which must have belonged to Guildford, for it is not probable that Lady Jane ever possessed “a sword grille of red silk and gold” or “a Turkey bow and a quiver of Turkish arrows,” or “a white doublet and hose of silk and velvet.” The number of clocks contained in this list is very remarkable:—
“One fair striking clock standing upon a mine of silver; the clock being garnished with silver and gilt, having in the top a crystal, and also garnished with divers counterfeit stones and pearls, the garnishment of the same being broken, and lacking in sundry places.
“One alarum of silver enamelled, standing upon four balls.
“One round striking dial, set in crystal, garnished with metal gilt.
“One round hanging dial, with an alarum closed in crystal.
“One pillar, with a man having a device of astronomy in his hand, and a sphere in the top, all being of metal gilt.
“One alarum of copper garnished with silver, enamelled with divers colours having in the top a box of silver, standing upon a green molehill a flower of silver, the same altar standing upon three pomegranates of silver.
“One little striking clock, within a case of letten, book fashion, engraven with a rose crowned, and Dieu et Mon Droit.”
The articles enumerated were brought to Lady Jane at the Tower, during her imprisonment, after her brief reign was over, and having ascertained their agreement with the Inventory, she signed that document, which was returned, and came into the possession of Cecil, and now lies, as we have said, among the State Papers at Hatfield. The fact that the list contains a reference to articles evidently belonging to Guildford Dudley points to his having accompanied Lady Jane to Court, and shared his wife’s apartment. Probably the object of the visit had been to bring Jane under the King’s immediate notice, and influence him to name her in his will, as his chosen successor.
It had evidently been decided that the young Queen was not to tarry long in the gloomy palace prison, for some of the documents drawn up during the “nine days” have spaces left blank for the insertion of some other royal residence. Besides, when Jane appointed her brother-in-law, Lord Ambrose Dudley, to be her palace-keeper at Westminster, in lieu of his uncle, Sir Andrew Dudley, one of his first wardrobe orders was for twenty yards of purple velvet, twenty-five of Holland cloth, and thirty-three of coarser lining to make her robes, “against her removal from the Tower.”
On the night of 12th July, according to Machyn, “was carried to the Tower iij carts full of all manner of ordnance, as great guns and small, bows, bills, spears, mores-pikes, arnes [harness or armour], arrows, gunpowder, and wetelle [victuals], money, tents, and all manner of ordnance, gun-stones a great number, and a great number of men of arms; and it had been for a great army toward Cambridge;”[238] in other words, all these things were provided for the use of a great army, to proceed to Cambridge. These warlike preparations were made none too soon, for on the following morning, 13th July, news reached the Tower that the rival Queen was at Kenninghall, on the borders of Suffolk and Norfolk, and that the men of Norfolk, knights and squires alike, were scurrying in their hundreds along the dusty lanes, to offer Mary their lives and service. In brief, the guilty inmates of the Tower, the would-be rulers of the realm, learnt to their consternation that throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom the people were against Queen Jane, and for Queen Mary. The Council was hastily assembled, and it was at once decided that the Lords Robert Dudley and Warwick were too young and inexperienced “for such difficulties as these.” The first proposal was, that the Duke of Suffolk should leave the Tower, and take command of the troops; but Queen Jane, alarmed for her own safety, insisted she needed her father, and could not do without him. His age and bad health were also factors in the final decision that Northumberland would, after all, be the best man to send.[239] The Duke left Her Majesty in charge of the Council, and swore one of his big oaths that when he came back “Mary should no longer be in England, for he would take care to drive her into France, or——” He took a passionate leave of his son Guildford, holding him in a long and tender embrace, pressing his head in his hands, and kissing him again and again. Did it flash across the father’s mind that he might never see his darling son again?