“Item; for one bait at Snape when the Lady Katherine came from Ipswich to Cokfield (Cockfield), 20s.
“Item; for the hire of a cart for the carriage of the stuff and apparel of the same Lady Katherine from Ipswich to Cockfield, 20s.
“Item; given in reward for the coach, 10s.”[101]
[CHAPTER IX]
LADY KATHERINE’S LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH
VERY soon after her arrival at Cockfield,[102] Lady Katherine, who was already in a deep decline, fell dangerously ill. Sorrow, anxiety, and hope deferred had done their work, and by the close of 1567, Sir Owen Hopton decided to send for Dr. Symonds, the queen’s physician, who must have left for London somewhere in January 1568, since on the 11th of that month, Hopton wrote to Cecil[103] that his charge was much worse since Dr. Symonds’s departure.[104] He adds that he would like the queen to order her doctor to return at once; “he then shall show his cunning and God shall do the cure.” He did come back, but as soon as he beheld the evidently dying lady, he warned her weeping attendants that her end was near. Sir Owen seems to have done his best to alleviate Lady Katherine’s sufferings; and his household books mention the despatch of no less than three messengers to London with news concerning her illness.
A remarkably interesting document, entitled The Manner of Her Departing, is still extant among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum.[105] All the night of January 26, 1568, says the writer, Lady Katherine prayed incessantly, repeating the orisons in the Book of Common Prayer, the service for the Visitation of the Sick from the same, and the Psalms. Her attendants endeavoured to persuade her that she would live, but she, being entirely reconciled to the idea of death, would not listen to them. “Then said the Lady Hopton to her, ‘Madam, be of good comfort, for with God’s favour you shall live and escape this; for Mrs. Cousins saith you have escaped many dangers when you were as like to die as you be now.’ ‘No, no, my lady,’ answered the Lady Katherine, ‘my time is come, and it is not God’s will I should live longer. His will be done, and not mine.’ Then, looking on those about her, she added, ‘As I am, so you shall behold the picture of yourselves.’ About six or seven of the clock in the morning, she desired Sir Owen should be sent for, and upon his asking her how she did, replied, ‘Even going to God, Sir Owen, even as fast as I can.’ Then she added, ‘I beseech you promise me one thing, that you yourself, with your own mouth, will make this request unto the Queen’s Majesty, which shall be the last suit and request I ever shall make to Her Highness, even from the mouth of a dead woman, that she would forgive her displeasure towards me, as my hope is she hath done. I must needs confess I have greatly offended her, in that I made my choice without her knowledge, otherwise I take God to witness, I had never the heart to think any evil against Her Majesty; and that she would be good unto my children, and not impute my fault unto them, whom I give wholly to Her Majesty; for in my life they had few friends, and fewer shall they have when I am dead, except Her Majesty be gracious unto them; and I desire Her Highness to be good unto my Lord [Hertford], for I know this my death will be heavy news to him; that Her Grace will be so good as to send liberty to glad[den] his heart withal.’” She next asked for her jewel-box, and taking from it the ring with the pointed diamond in it, which her husband had given her when they plighted their troth, she desired Sir Owen to return it to him in her name, for “This is the ring that I received of him when I gave myself unto him and gave him my faith.” Sir Owen, evidently remembering what had been said by Hertford about the wedding-ring at the time of his examination by Grindal and the commission, inquired rather abruptly, “What say you, Madam, was this your wedding-ring?” “No, Sir Owen,” said the dying lady, “this was the ring of my assurance [betrothal] to Lord Hertford: there is my wedding-ring,” and she lifted another ring, the one with the inscription upon it, out of the box: “Deliver this also to my Lord, and pray him, even as I have been to him (as I take God to witness I have been) a true and faithful wife, that he will be a loving and natural father to our children, to whom I give the same blessing that God gave unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” And then she took out yet another ring, with a death’s head enamelled on it and the words, “While I lyve yours,” and said, “This shall be the last token to my Lord that ever I shall send him; it is the picture of myself.” “After which, noticing that her nails were turning purple, she said, with a joyful countenance, ‘Lo, He comes! Yea, even so come, Lord Jesus!’ Then, after ejaculating the words, ‘Welcome death!’ she, embracing herself, as it were, with her arms, and lifting up her eyes and hands to Heaven, and striking her breast with her hands, brake forth with these words: ‘O Lord! for Thy manifold mercies, blot out of Thy book all my offences!’ Whereby Sir Owen Hopton, perceiving her to draw towards her end, said to Mr. Bockeham, ‘Were it not best to send to the Church that the bell may be rung?’ And Lady Katherine, overhearing him, said, ‘Good Sir Owen, let it be so.’” Then, the parish-church of the neighbouring village of Yoxford tolled the passing bell. Some time—perhaps an hour—had elapsed, when Lady Katherine, awaking as if from a dream, and closing her eyes with her own hands, murmured—just as her sister, Lady Jane Grey, had done, when on the scaffold, fourteen years earlier: “Lord! into Thy hands I commend my spirit!” and “thus she yielded unto God her meek spirit at nine o’clock in the morning of the 27th of January 1568.” She was only twenty-seven years of age at the time of her death.
Elizabeth’s persecution of Lady Katherine and Hertford was very nearly, if not quite, as unrelenting as Mary’s treatment of Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley; but far less justifiable. Her methods were those of Julian and not of Nero; but quite as efficacious! Jane had been actually placed on the Throne by a powerful party, had been proclaimed queen, and had received the homage due to royalty; whereas the scheme in favour of Lady Katherine never took shape. Besides, Elizabeth, who had succeeded in making herself popular with a large section of the people, was far more firmly seated on the Throne in 1563 than Mary had been in 1554, when her proposed Spanish marriage had rendered her obnoxious to a great number of her subjects. On the other hand, Hertford had violated the law passed in Henry VIII’s reign, punishing with the utmost severity any subject who was so bold as to venture to marry a princess of the blood royal, especially if she was in the line of succession, without the sovereign’s consent, ratified by Act of Parliament. His fate might indeed have been even worse, had not the Duchess of Somerset represented Lady Katherine as the more blameworthy of the two.