[46] Will Somer, or Somers, Court Jester to Henry VIII, and apparently continued in that office by Edward VI, was originally in the service of Richard Farmer, Esq., of Easton Newton, Northampton. This gentleman was, in consequence of his having sent two groats and some articles of clothing to a priest convicted of denying the King’s supremacy, found guilty of a præmunire and deprived of his estates. The distress to which his former master was thereby reduced attracted the attention of Will Somers, who during the King’s last illness availed himself of his privileged position to let fall certain remarks concerning him, which so worked upon the King’s mind that Henry was induced to restore to Mr. Farmer what remained of his estates. Will Somers was an excellent musician and had a very fine voice.
[47] This sort of slavish homage excited the sarcasm of the Ambassadors. Soranzo, the Venetian Envoy, tells us he once saw Princess Elizabeth kneel five times before venturing to address her brother Edward.
[48] The household inventories of the Queen’s rooms contain mention of innumerable pillows and cushions richly covered with silk and satin, and also of costly counterpanes. This Oriental custom of using soft pillows may have been introduced into England by Katherine of Aragon. In England as in Spain the Sovereign only was allowed a chair.
[49] Political influence of this period no doubt seconded the good offices of Queen Katherine in favour of Princess Mary. Her cousin the Emperor was no longer an enemy, but an ally.
[50] This is the beautiful letter beginning La nemica fortuna, which, although written by an English princess, is, in its way, a very masterpiece of Italian epistolary literature. It may have been written under the auspices of the famous Baltazar Castiglione, who taught Elizabeth the Italian language.
[51] After her accession Queen Mary ordered this work to be recalled.
[52] State Papers, Domestic Series, Henry VIII, 1544–5. Lord Parr of Horton died in 1545.
[53] Some very interesting particulars unknown to English historians of the siege of Boulogne and of the sojourn of Henry VIII, Suffolk, Surrey, and their merry men in Picardy, will be found in Les Archives de la Ville de Boulogne; Histoire de la Ville de Montreuil-sur-Mer, by F. Leplon; Memoires de Martin de Bellamy (Michaud, Paris, 1838); Inventaire de l’Histoire de France, by Le Comte Jean de Serre; in a very curious little volume entitled Le Château d’Hardelot; also in Notre Dame de Boulogne, by l’Abbé Haignere, published by Hamain, Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1898; and in the Spanish Chronicle of the Reign of Henry VIII, translated by Major Martin Hume.
[54] Full particulars of the reasons for and the progress of this disagreement will be found in vol. viii. of the Spanish State Papers of Henry VIII, vols. vii. and viii., edited by Major Martin Hume.
[55] See for evidence of this fact a curious document included in the Notes to the Journal of Edward VI, who himself informs us that his father drove away anybody who appeared before him in mourning.