THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND AND THEIR TIMES. ELIZABETH, SECOND QUEEN REGNANT. CHAPTER I. Elizabeth's birth-Parentage-Christening-Infancy-Early misfortunes-Letter from her governess-Attends the christening of Edward the Sixth-Resides with him-Precociousness-Friendship with Anne of Cleves; with Katherine Howard; with Katherine Parr-Restored to her right of succession-Futile overtures for her marriage with Philip of Spain. HE illustrious Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry the Eighth by the beautiful and unfortunate Queen Anne Boleyn, was born on Sunday, the seventh of September, 1533, between three and four in the afternoon, at the royal palace of Greenwich. Although the King had earnestly hoped that the babe would prove a son, he stifled his disappointment. Te Deum was sung, and bonfires blazed, in honour of her birth; and preparations were made for her christening, which, on the tenth of September, was celebrated with extraordinary pomp and splendour. On that day, the lord mayor, with the aldermen and council of the city of London, in their robes and chains, took to their barges at one in the afternoon, and rowed to Greenwich, where they found assembled lords, knights, and gentlemen, in great numbers. The walls between Greenwich Palace and the Convent of the Grey Friars were hung with tapestry, and the way strewn with green rushes; the Friars' church, of which not a vestige now remains, was also hung with rich tapestry. The fount was of silver; it was placed in the middle of the church, raised three steps high, the steps being covered with fine cloth, surmounted by a square canopy of crimson satin, fringed with gold, enclosed by a rail covered with red ray, and guarded by several gentlemen with aprons and towels about their necks. Between the quire and body of the church a closet was erected, with a pan of fire in it, that the child might be dismantled for the ceremony without taking cold. When all these things were ready, the child was brought into the hall of the palace, and the procession proceeded to the LL* been served in abundance, the proces sion returned to the palace, in the same order as it had set out, excepting that the Earl of Worcester, Lord Thomas Howard, the Lord Fitzwalter, and Sir John Dudley, preceded by trumpeters, carried the gifts of the sponsors before the Princess. Five hundred staff torches, carried by the yeomen of the guard and the King's servants, lit Sup the way homeward; and twenty gentlemen, bearing large wax flambeaux, walked on each side of the Princess, who was carried to the Queen's chamber door, when a flourish of trumpets sounded, and the pro Grey Friars' church. The citizens led Elizabeth passed the first six weeks of her existence at Greenwich; the Lady Margaret Bryan was appointed governess to her; in December she was removed to Hatfield, where she resided till the subsequent April, when she was conveyed to the Bishop of Winchester's palace at Chelsea. She was created Princess of Wales when three months old, and weaned in her thirteenth month with extraordinary ceremony. About this time a futile attempt was made to betroth her to the Duke D'Angoulême, the third son of Francis the First of France. In compliance with the act of Parliament, passed in March, 1534, which pronounced the marriage between Henry the Eighth and Katherine of Arragon unlawful and null, and that between him and Anne Boleyn lawful and valid, Elizabeth was honoured as heiress presumptive, and the Princess Mary forced to yield precedence to her, and to dwell under the same roof with her, more like a bondmaid than a sister and a princess. But this unjust elevation was of short continuance. The divorce and tragic death of Anne Boleyn rendered Elizabeth motherless in her third year, and placed her in a situation at once precarious and embarrassing. On the day immediately succeeding the Queen's death, the King, with the most unblushing effrontery, was publicly married to Jane Seymour; and shortly afterwards an act of Parliament was passed, illegitimatizing Elizabeth, and settling the succession to the throne on the offspring of Henry VIII. by his present Queen." "MY LORD, "When your Lordship was last here, it pleased you to say that I should not mistrust the King's Grace nor your Lordship, which word was more comfort to me than I can write, as God knoweth. And now it boldeth me to shew you my poor mind. My Lord, when the Lady Mary's Grace was born, it pleased the King's Grace to appoint me lady mistress, and make me a Baroness; and so I have been, and am so still, to the children his Grace have had since. Now it is so, my Lady Elizabeth is put from that degree she was before, and what degree she is at now I know not, but by hearsay; therefore, I know not how to order her, nor myself, nor none of hers that I have the rule of, that is, her woman and her groomes: beseeching you to be good Lord to my Lady, and to all hers, and that she may have some raiment, for she hath neither gown, nor kirtel, nor petticoat, nor no manner of linen for smocks, nor kerchiefs, nor sleeves, nor rails, nor body-stitchet, nor handkerchiefs, nor mufferlers, nor biggens. All this her Grace must take, I have driven off as long as I can, that, by my troth, I cannot drive it no longer; beseeching you, my Lord, that ye will see that her Grace may have that is needful for her, as my trust is ye will do; beseeching you, my own good Lord, that I may know from your writing how I shall order myself, and what is the King's Grace's pleasure and yours that I shall do, in everything and whatsoever it shall please the King's Grace or your Lordship to command me at all times, I shall fulfill it to the best of my power. The following interesting letter from | it hath been aforetime; and, if it please the governess of Elizabeth, Lady Bryan, you, that I may know what your order to Mr. Secretary Cromwell, will afford is, and if it be not performed, I shall an idea of the neglect and contempt to certify to your Lordship of it, for I fear which she was for a period exposed:- me it will be hardly now performed; for if the head of knew what honour meaneth, it would be the better ordered, if not, it will be hard to bring it to pass. My Lord, Master Shelton would have the Lady Elizabeth to dine and sup every day at the board of estate. Alas! my Lord, it is not meet for a child of her age to keep such a rule yet. I promise you, my Lord, I dare not take it upon me to keep her Grace in health if she keep that rule, for there she shall see divers meat, and fruits, and wine, which would be hard for me to refrain her Grace from it. Ye know, my Lord, there is no place of correction there, and she is yet too young to correct greatly. I know well, if she be there, I shall not bring her up to the King's Grace's honour, nor hers, nor to her health, nor my poor honesty; wherefore, I shew your Lordship this my discharge, beseeching you, my Lord, that my Lady may have a mess of meat to her own longing, with a good dish or two that is meet for her Grace to eat of, and the reversion of the mess shall satisfy all her women, a gentleman usher, and a groom, which being eleven persons on her side, sure I am it will be (into right little) as great profit to the King's Grace this way as the other way, for if all this should be set abroad, they must have three or four messes of meat, where this one mess shall suffice them all, with bread and drink. According as my Lady Mary's Grace had before, and to be ordered in all things as her Grace was before; God knoweth my Lady hath great pain with her great teeth, and they come very slowly forth, and causeth me to suffer her Grace to have her will more than I would, I trust to God her teeth were well grafte to have her Grace after another fashion than she is yet, so as, I trust, the King's Grace shall have great comfort in her Grace, for she is as toward a child, and as gentle of conditions as ever I knew one in my life, Jesu preserve her Grace. And as for a day or two at a time, or whensoever it "My Lord, Mr. Shelton sayes, he is master of this house; what fashion that shall be, I cannot tell, for I have not seen it before. My Lord, ye be so honourable yourself, and every man reporteth your Lordship loveth honour, that I trust your Lordship will see this house honourably ordered, howsomever shall please the King's Grace to have her set abroad, I trust so to endeavour me that she shall so do as shall be to the King's honour and hers, and then after to take her ease again. Queen, Jane Seymour, she carried the chrism for her new-born half-brother, and on returning, walked with infant dignity in the procession, the Princess Mary leading her by the hand, and the Lady Herbert bearing her train. For some time after Prince Edward's birth, Elizabeth was permitted to reside under the same roof with him. Between the brother and sister a sincere affection sprang up, and the day Edward was two years old the Princess made him a birth-day present of "a shyrte of cam' yke of her owne woorkynge." Shehad then just entered the seventh year of her age, and was remarkably attractive and "I think Master Shelton will not be content with this; he may not know it is my desire, but that it is the King's pleasure and yours it should be so. Good, my Lord, have my Lady's Grace and us, her poor servants, in your remembrance, and your Lordship shall have our hearty prayers by the grace of Jesu. O, ever preserve your Lordship with long life, and as much honour as your noble heart can desire! From Hunsdon, with the evil hand of her that is your daily bed-precocious. Wriothesley says, "when woman, MARGET BRYAN." "I beseech you, my own good Lord, be not miscontent that I am so bold to write thus to your Lordship; but, I take God to my judge, I do it of true heart, and for my discharge; beseeching you accept my good mind." "To the right noble and my singular good Lord. my Lord Privy Seal, be this delivered." This letter, an evidence of the minute details on which the first minister of the state was expected in those days to bestow his attention, rendered it apparent that the Lady Bryan and Mr. Shelton, the chief officers at Hunsdon, where Elizabeth then resided, each desired to bring up the Princess after their own notion. However, we may presume that the reasonable request of Lady Bryan was granted, for we hear no more of the vexatious dispute, and are assured that much of the greatness of Elizabeth, as a Queen, was due to Lady Bryan's judicious training and education, combined with the adversity which at once bastardized her, and deprived her of the injurious magnificence and adulation which, ere she could lisp, had been showered upon her as the heiress to the throne. The first public ceremony in which Elizabeth took part, was the christening of Edward the Sixth. She was just four years old when, borne in the arms of the Earl of Hertford, brother to the he visited her in December, 1539, she enquired after the King's welfare with as great gravity as if she had been forty years old;" and he adds, "if she be no worse educated than she then appeared to me, she will prove an honour and a blessing to her father, whom the Lord long preserve." With Henry the Eighth's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, Elizabeth formed an ardent friendship. The first letter, said to have been written by the Princess, was a compliment to that august lady on her marriage. The original is lost, but the following is a copy, modernized in phraseology as well as orthography : "MADAM, "I am anxiously desirous to see your Majesty, but as the King, my father, has commanded me not to leave my house for the present, I cannot as yet gratify my wish. In the meantime I beg of your Grace to accept this my written devotion and respects to you as my Queen and my mother. My youth prevents me from doing more than heartily felicitating you on your marriage, and sincerely wishing that your good will for me equals my zeal for your service." By one of the terms of her divorce, Anne of Cleves was granted permission to see Elizabeth as often as she wished, provided that the Princess did not address her as Queen. Katherine Howard, who was sincerely attached to the youthful Elizabeth, anxiously desired to remove from her the brand of illegitimacy. After that unhappy Queen had suffered on the block, Elizabeth resided for some time with her sister Mary at Havering Bower. Soon after the birth of the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots, Henry formed the project of uniting the whole island under one crown, by the marriage of that infant Queen with his son Prince Edward. As a further means of securing this important object, he, in the autumn of 1543, offered the hand of Elizabeth to the Earl of Arran, who then laid claim to the regency of Scotland. Thus early were blended the interests and happiness of two princesses, whose celebrated rivalry and illustrious character were destined to endure, until the life of one was sacrificed to the jealousy and hatred of the other. The Kings of France and England eagerly contended for the hand of the youthful Mary: while that of Elizabeth was offered to a Scottish Earl, of equivocal birth and indifferent reputation. Yet so little was the Scottish Earl flattered by the offer, that he actually declined the honour, and the future Queen of England remained unbetrothed! Katherine Parr, the last and one of the best of Henry the Eighth's wives, was a great admirer of Elizabeth. She caused her to be present at her royal marriage, and when the Princess, in her twelfth year, deeply offended her father by committing an offence, the nature of which has not been handed down to us, she interceded in her behalf with the royal tyrant; an act of motherly kindness, which evidently proved succcessful,* and which Elizabeth acknowledged in the subjoined epistle. deprived me for a whole year of your most illustrious presence; and not thus content, has yet robbed me of the same good, which thing would be intolerable to me, did I not hope to enjoy it very soon. And in this my will, I well know that the clemency of your Highness has had as much care and solicitude for my health as the King's Majesty himself, by which thing I am not only turned to serve you, but also to revere you with filial love; since I understand that your most illustrious Highness has not forgotten me every time you have written to the King's Majesty, which, indeed, it was my duty to have requested from you; for, heretofore, I have not dared to write to him. Wherefore, I now humbly pray your excellent Highness, that when you write to his Majesty, you will condescend to recommend me to him, praying ever for his sweet benediction, and similarly entreating our Lord God to send him best success, and the obtaining victory over his enemies; so that your Highness and I may, as soon as possible, rejoice in his happy return. No less, I pray God that he will preserve your most illustrious Highness, to whose Grace, humbly. kissing your hands, I offer and recommend me, "Your most obedient daughter, This year, 1544, Henry the Eighth restored Elizabeth to her right of succession; and, although the act which pronounced her illegitimate remained for ever unrepealed, she was, nevertheless, universally recognised as a Princess Royal of England; and so completely was the divorce forgotten, that in 1546, when France, Spain, and England, had concluded a treaty of peace, propo sals were made for the marriage of Elizabeth with Philip, Prince of Spain, that same Philip, afterwards her brotherEliza-in-law, her friend and protector in adversity; then a second time her suitor, and afterwards her bitterest enemy. "Inimical fortune, envious of all good and ever revolving human affairs, has Henry the Eighth, in his letter to Katherine of September the eighth, says: "We pray you to give in our name, one hearty blessing to all our children." beth, we therefore may presume, was forgiven by her father before he went to France. See memoirs of Katherine Parr, page 445. |