The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey. Leanda Lisle de

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СКАЧАТЬ and she felt remorseful that she had allowed herself to hurt a woman who had shown her nothing but warmth and generosity. For Jane, on the other hand, there was a danger Elizabeth’s leaving would encourage a sense of entitlement. While the illegitimate Elizabeth was banished, she, who was the apple of her father’s eye, took her place as the princess of the households. Sudeley, meanwhile, still didn’t acknowledge that he had behaved irresponsibly with Elizabeth. ‘Suspicion,’ as he wrote in one of his poems, ‘I do banish thee.’ He was a ‘master of noble blood…of manner good, And spotless in life.’ His behaviour was simply, ‘sporting’.¹⁵ He was now only looking forward to fatherhood. He liked to hear Catherine describe how his child was stirring in her womb and shared with her his hopes of a son who would grow up to avenge all the humiliations they endured at his brother’s hands. He had prepared a nursery at his house furnished for a prince. There were scarlet curtains of silk taffeta, a chair upholstered in cloth of gold, carved stools, rich hangings, carpets and a gilded salt. All the signs of the baby’s expected arrival were there, from the cradle where he would sleep, to the three feather beds and goblets for his nurse and servants.¹⁶

      Jane had to get used to the noise of further extensive building works while she was at Sudeley House. Her guardian was spending a fortune on his Gloucestershire seat (although nothing like the £10,000 his brother spent that year alone on Somerset House). But it was a happy time for Jane, studying under the Queen dowager’s guidance and with a fine library of books to read. There were upwards of twenty-two volumes in Catherine’s personal collection, some in English, others in French or Italian. Only seven, however, were religious works: Catherine was losing her passion for theology. Sudeley even seemed bored by the twice-daily prayers given by the chaplains. Hugh Latimer, who was the spiritual adviser of Jane’s stepgrandmother, complained later he avoided them ‘like a mole digging in the dirt’.¹⁷ If Jane reflected on this she would have worried that he was tempting fate: God punished such behaviour, she was taught.

      In August, when the baby was almost due, Jane’s father came to visit and she was able to catch up with family news. Her sister, Katherine, who had just turned eight, was now studying Greek with the new chaplain, Thomas Harding, a former Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford. She did not show the same aptitude for her studies as Jane, but she made up in charm what she lacked in intellectual drive. Everyone liked Katherine. Little Mary Grey was also doing well. Jane could imagine her dashing about, the long tippets sewn at her shoulders known as the ‘ribbons of childhood’ streaming behind her as she ran and played: a small, determined figure, as yet ignorant that she was not the beauty her sisters were said to be. There was news too, for Jane, of the extended family, and especially the sisters’ uncle, Lord John Grey, who was commanding cavalry in the war with Scotland. Somerset hoped to achieve what King Henry had failed to do and unite the two kingdoms, by marriage or force. The family was fearful for Lord John after the almost fatal injuries he had received at the battle of Pinkie in September 1547, but they thought his troops had cut a fine spectacle when they had left London in July, dressed in blue coats guarded in yellow, and he had, thus far, survived this campaign unhurt.¹⁸

      Sudeley was anxious, however, to discuss other matters with Jane’s father and, when the adults were alone, Dorset found him full of plans. To Sudeley’s delight, his brother, the Protector, had begun to make enemies. There were those who felt the evangelical reformation was losing impetus. The radical preacher, John Knox, later complained that Somerset spent more time with his masons than he did with his chaplains. And the regal style of his Italianate palace irritated on a further account: it reflected the lofty attitude he held towards his colleagues. There were profound concerns about the expense of the war with Scotland and the high inflation the country was suffering, but Somerset was dismissive of the anxieties of his fellow Councillors and sometimes even appeared contemptuous of them. He had brutally expelled Sudeley’s brother-in-law, William Parr of Northampton, from the Privy Council for taking the novel step of divorcing his wife and marrying his mistress, the court beauty Elizabeth Brooke - an action that reflected, in turn, Somerset’s fears that parts of the country were restive over the religious changes already introduced.¹⁹

      Sudeley outlined to Dorset, as he had already to Northampton, a future in which Edward had come of age and rejected the unpopular Protector in favour of his younger uncle. There was a danger, Sudeley explained, that his brother would not give up power without a fight. It was necessary, therefore, to prepare for the struggle ahead. Northampton had been advised to ‘set up house in the North Country’ where, on his core estates, surrounded by tenants and friends, he would be a powerful figure.²⁰ Dorset was also now given detailed instructions on how to build up an effective military following. Gentlemen had too much to lose to be trustworthy, Sudeley told him. It was better to gain the loyalty of yeomen for they were ‘best able to persuade the multitude’. Dorset was advised to ‘go to their houses, now to one, now to another, carrying with you a flagon or two of wine and a pasty of venison and to use a familiarity with them, for so shall you cause them to love you’.²¹ The talk of war seemed unreal to Dorset, but it was also fascinating. The aims were presented as altruistic: to protect the King from the overweening Somerset. But they coincided also with his personal interests. Dorset’s honour had been slighted by the Protector’s failure to recognise better his place within the royal family. As he returned to Bradgate he had to consider whether he should fight to protect it and whether the horrors of battle were justified by his duties to the King.

      The Queen dowager’s confinement, meanwhile, was coming to an end and on 30th August 1548 she went into labour. Catherine had suffered a difficult and uncomfortable pregnancy, but she eventually delivered a healthy baby girl. Sudeley, despite his hopes for a son, was overwhelmed by the thrill of first-time fatherhood. His daughter was to be called Mary, after Edward’s elder half-sister, and he wrote to his brother, the father of many daughters, declaring his a most spectacular beauty. For a few days all seemed well and Jane Grey rejoiced with her surrogate family. Gradually, however, Catherine grew delirious: the fatal sign of puerperal fever. In her delirium she was tormented by her old fears about her husband’s desire to marry Elizabeth. ‘Those that be about me careth not for me,’ she confided to her servant Lady Elizabeth Tyrwhitt as Sudeley stood over her. ‘Why sweet heart, I would you no hurt,’ he reassured her. ‘No, my Lord, I think so,’ she replied, and whispered, ‘but my Lord you have given me many shrewd taunts.’ Sudeley lay down beside her on the bed and tried to comfort her. But she soon burst out with another accusation: she had not dared spend as much time with her doctor as she would like for fear of making him jealous.

      Sudeley persisted in his efforts to reassure and soothe Catherine and, as it became clear she was dying, Jane and the other women read the Scriptures with her. They would have prayed also, as the chaplain arrived to perform the service for the Visitation of the Sick. The priest was expected to exhort Catherine to ask forgiveness for her sins and to forgive all those who had offended her, and before she died on 5th September, Catherine and Sudeley were reconciled. Her will left her husband everything she had, ‘wishing them to be a thousand times more in value than they were’.²² For his part, Sudeley was left stunned by his wife’s death. The happiness at the birth of his daughter had tapped into a deep well of feeling and now he was plunged into desperate grief. ‘I was so amazed I had small regard either to myself or to my doings,’ he later recalled. Politics were forgotten. He went with his baby daughter to his brother the Protector’s house, to recuperate, and ordered that his own household be broken up. Jane Grey was to be sent back to Bradgate. But he asked first that she fulfil the role of chief mourner at Catherine’s funeral.

      The eleven-year-old Jane performed her first public role with great dignity. She walked behind the Queen’s coffin in the procession from the house to the chapel СКАЧАТЬ