Whose force to break (but greedy Death) no wight possesseth power,
As time and sequels well shall prove. My ring can say no more.
And so, in the presence of Lady Jane Seymour only, and in that lady’s chamber in Westminster Palace, the two lovers were formally betrothed, with, however, “no ceremonies,” as he afterwards admitted, beyond kissing and embracing each other and joining their hands together, before his sister, the Lady Jane Seymour. A little later in December, whilst the Lady Jane Seymour was in her private sitting-room, a large apartment which no one was allowed to enter without her leave, she received “a letter” from her brother, saying he was very ill, “love-sick,” and must see the Lady Katherine at once: would she receive him in her chamber, as he wished to open his heart to her? Whereupon the Lady Jane sent one of the little maids to him, saying that he was to follow her. Half-an-hour later, the two lovers were reunited by Lady Jane’s fireside. Poor Lady Katherine, apparently ignorant of the probable results of her foolish act, after embracing her lover many times, said: “Weighing your long suit and great good-will towards me, I am well content, be the consequences what they may, to marry you the next time the Queen’s Highness shall go abroad and leave the Lady Jane alone with me.”
[CHAPTER V]
THE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE
Some five or six days after the betrothal of Lady Katherine to the Earl of Hertford, Queen Elizabeth elected to go with her train to Greenwich on a hunting expedition; and, summoning her ladies and maids, ordered them to make immediate preparations to follow her. Lady Katherine excused herself on the plea that she was sore afflicted with toothache, and as an evidence of the fact, exhibited her swollen face, tied up in a kerchief: whilst Lady Jane Seymour declared that she could “not go a-hunting, for she was sick with a bad headache.” The unsuspecting queen accepted these excuses and left the girls to their own devices. Scarcely had Her Majesty and her train left Westminster Palace, than the young ladies stole out and repaired to the Earl of Hertford’s house in Cannon Row, Westminster. His Lordship had previously despatched all his servants on various errands; some he sent into the city, others to the country, but his confidential valet was told to wait for him at a goldsmith’s shop in Fleet Street. Powell, the cook, however, afterwards deposed before the council that he had seen the Lady Katherine and the Lady Jane steal out of the water-gate stairs, and enter the earl’s chamber, to reach which they had to pass the kitchen door. In the earl’s bedroom was a priest, who performed the marriage service, Lady Jane Seymour being the only witness. The earl gave his bride a wedding ring, apparently the one already mentioned. Hertford afterwards asserted that the clergyman was brought to the house by Lady Jane, and described him as a fair-complexioned man of middle stature, with an auburn beard; he had no surplice, but wore a garb resembling that of the foreign Reformers who returned to England after Queen Mary’s death—a long furred black cloth gown, with a turn-down collar of white linen. Neither the earl nor Katherine seem to have known this reverend worthy’s name; but Lady Jane paid him a fee of ten pounds, out of the pocket money which her brother gave her for her clothes—he himself seems to have been short of cash at the time. A sort of informal wedding repast had been prepared in the earl’s chamber, but the Lady Katherine, we learn, was too much unnerved to eat or drink. About two hours after the brief ceremony was over, the earl escorted the young ladies down the stairs and “kissed Lady Katherine good-bye.” The tide had risen during the interval, and the maids of honour were obliged to take boat back to the palace, the pathway by which they had come being under water. They must have reached Westminster very early—the wedding took place in the morning[70]—for they dined at noon as usual at the table of the comptroller of the household. Nobody seems to have noticed their absence, nor, except the cook, to have paid attention to their movements, and for a time the queen remained in ignorance of the event. But Katherine had the temerity, at least so Hertford afterwards alleged, to wear the coif known as a “froze-paste,” under her hood: it may be remarked here that her sister, Lady Jane Grey, had worn a similar coif—not unlike a nun’s—at her execution. This close-fitting cap, which entirely concealed the hair, was worn by all married women, even if young, and is said to have been one of the reasons why Elizabeth refused to marry. She wished her subjects always to enjoy the privilege of admiring her magnificent hair. Under the circumstances, Lady Katherine would have been wiser to have disregarded this traditional custom.[71]
The course of true love did not flow smoothly for long, for on March 20, 1561, the learned, though youthful, Lady Jane Seymour died suddenly in her apartment at Westminster Palace. Elizabeth, who was much attached to her, and unaware of her share in Lady Katherine’s affairs, ordered a state funeral of great splendour, and six days after her death, Lady Jane was buried in St. Edmund’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, where her monument is still to be seen, with an inscription to the effect that it was erected by “her dear brother,” the Earl of Hertford. All the queen’s ladies attended the funeral, among them being the Ladies Katherine and Mary Grey. Machyn gives a quaint account of what he calls the funeral of “my lade Jane Semer, the wyche was one of the Quen’s mayds and in grett favor.” Her death must have deeply grieved Lady Katherine, who was not only very fond of Lady Jane, but had found in her a sympathetic confidante.