my

myrall. An other tyme at Hanworth in the garden, he wrated with hir, and cut hir gown in an hundred pieces, beyng black cloth ; and when she came up, this examinate chid with her; and hir Grace answerid, she could not do with all, for the Quene held hir, while the Lord Admiral cut it. An other tyme at Chelsey the Lady Elizabeth heryng the pryvie-lock undo, knowyng that he wold come in, ran out of hir bed to hir maydens, and then went behynd the curteyn of the bed, the maydens beyng there; and my Lord tarried to have hyr come out. She can not till how long. This examinate hard of the gentlewoman. She thinks Mr. [query Mrs.] Power told it her. And then in the galery this examinate told my Lord that these things were complayned of, and that my Lady was evill spoken of: the Lord Admyrall swore, God's precious soule he wold tell my Lord Protector how yt slawnderid hym, and he wold not leave it, for he ment no evill. At Seymor Place when the Quene lay there he did use a while to come up every mornyng in his night gown barelegged in his slippers, where he found commonly the Lady Elizabeth up at hir boke: and then he wold loke in at the gallery-dore and bid Elizabeth good morrow, and so go Lady his my Lord it was an unsemly sight to come so bare leggid to a mayway. Then this examinate told den's chambre; with which he was angry, but he left it. At Hanworth the Quene told this examinate that my Lord Admirall loked in at the galery wyndow, and se my Lady Elizabeth cast hir armes about a man's neck. The which heryng, this examinate enquyred for it of my Lady's Grace who denyed it weepyng, and bad ax all hir women: thei all denied it; and she knewe it could not be so, for there came no man, but Gryndall, the Lady Elizabeth's scholemaster. Howbeit, thereby this examinate did suspect that the Quene was gelows betwixt them, and did but feyne this, to th'entent that this examinate shuld take more hede, and be, as it were, in watche betwixt hir and my Lord Admirall. She saith also, that Mr. Ashley hir husband, hath diverse tymes given this examinate warnyng to take hede, for he did fere that the Lady Elizabeth did bere som affection to my Lord Admirall, she semyd to be well pleased therewith, and somtyme she wold blush when he were spoken of: and one other told hir so also: but she cannot tell who it was. CHYLY."-Pp. 99, 100. KATERYN As

Her answers to the questions, of "what communication she hath with any person as touchyng the mariage betwixt the Lady Elizabeth and my Lord Admyrall?" and of "when she did talk with my Lord Admyrall last? and how often she hath written unto hym sith the death of the Quene?" contain nothing of much consequence, excepting that

"Mrs. Cheke, about a sevenight before Christmas did say to this examinate, that my Lord Admirall had been recommendid unto hir, and that he wold com to se my Lady Elizabeth, but he fearid it wold be sayd, that he cam a woeng; and that ther was a sayeng that

From the original, written by Mr. Thomas Smith, and signed by Kateryn Aschyly.

he did not use my Lady Elizabeth well when she was in his house; and axid her how he did use hymself; and she aunswerid, that she never see, but that he did use himself well. To this, this examinate laughid, and sayd, Why do thei say so? John Semar bryngyng my Lady Elizabeth's Grace to Hatfeld, told this examinate, that my Lord Admirall had hym recommendid to hir, and bid him ax hir, whither hir great buttocks were grown eny les or no?"-P. 100.

And, that in the various conversations she had with Elizabeth, when she expressed her wish that the Lord Admiral and her Highness were married, the latter never "did adjoyne unto it, if the Counsell were content."

Well indeed might Tyrwhit tell the Protector, in a letter dated at Hatfield on the 5th of February, but which is stupidly placed in the volume before the document to which it refers, that

"At the redynge of Mestrys Aschlay's letter, she was mych abashed, and halffe brethles or she could rede yt to a ende, and parussed all their namys partfyly, and knewe both Mrs. Aschlay's hand and the cofferer's with halff a syght; so that fully she thnyketh they hav boyth confessed all they knowe. When I declared to her that Mestrys Aschlay would utter nothynge unto [untill] Parry and she war brought face to face, wych he stoode faste to, of all he had wryttene ; she seynge that, she called hym' false wretche,' and sayd that he had promyssed he wold never confesse yt to deyth. Her answer was to thys, That yt was a grett matter for hyme to promys sych a promys and to brake yt.'"-Pp. 94, 95.

The whole of her Highness's confession" relates to conversations with Mrs. Ashley about the Lord Admiral's wish

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This Lady, who was the governess to Elizabeth until she was displaced for her conduct respecting Lord Seymour, did not entirely lose the Princess's favour; for in March following she wrote to the Protector, entreating him, and the rest of the Council, "to be good unto her," and states three reasons for her request. "First, because that she hathe bene with me a long time, and manye yeres, and hathe taken great labor and paine in brinkinge of me up in lerninge and honestie, and therfore I oughte of very dewtye speke for her, for Saint Gregorie sayeth, that we ar more bounde to them that bringeth us up well than to our parents, for our parents do that wiche is natural for them, that is, bringeth us into this worlde, but our brinkers up are a cause to make us live wel in it. The second is, because that whatsoever she hathe done in my Lorde Admiral's matter as concerninge the marijage of me, she dide it because knowinge him to be one of the Counsel, she thoght he wolde not go about any suche thinge without he had the Counsel's consent therunto; for I have harde her manye times say that she wolde never have me mary in any place without your Grace's and the Counsel's consente. The thirde cause is, because that it shal and doth make men thinke that I am not clere of the dide myselfe, but that it is pardoned in me bicause that she I loved so wel is in such a place. Thus hope prevailinge more with me than feare, hath won the battel; and I have at this time gone furth with it. Wiche I pray God be taken no other wais than it is mente." To this petition she added one in favour of Mrs. Ashley's husband, because he was her kinsman.-Ellis's Original Letters, First Series, vol. ii. p. 154, 155. The learned editor of that valuable Collection, with a tenderness for royal indecorum truly edifying, describes the Lord Admiral's conduct to the Princess as being merely "most unusually familiar!'

to marry her, and contain little more than confirmations of the statements of Parry. At the end she added in her own hand,

"My Lorde, thes ar the articles wiche I do remember, that bothe she and the coferar talked with me of; and if ther be any moe behind wiche I have not declared as yet, I shall most hartely desire your Lordship and the rest of the Counsel, not to thinke that I do willingeli concille them, but that I have indide forgotten them. For if did knowe them and did not declare them, I wer wonderfullye and above al the rest to be rebuked, consideringe how frindely your Grace has bothe writen to me in letters and conselled me by messages, to declare what I knowe hirein. Also I assure your Lordship, that if ther be any more whiche I have not tolde (wiche I think there be not) I wil sende you worde of them as the come to my minde.

"Your assured frende to my litel power,
"ELIZABETH."-P. 103.

One more document on this subject is all for which we have room it is entitled the "Confession of Elizabeth Tyrwhit," and gives an affecting description of the last illness of Katherine Parr.

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"A too dayes afor the deth of the Quen, at my cumyng to har in the mornyng, she askyd me wher I had ben so long, and sayed unto me, she dyd fere such thinges in harself, that she was suer she cold not lyve: whereunto I answaryd, as I thowght, that I sawe na lyklyhood of deth in har. She then haveyng my Lord Admyrall by the hand, and dyvers other standyng by, spake thes wardys, partly, as I tooke hyt, idylly, My Lady Tyrwhyt, I am not wel handelyd, for thos that be abowt me caryth not for me, but standyth lawghyng at my gref; and the moor good I wyl to them, the les good thay wyl to me.' Wherunto my Lord Admyrall answeryd, why swet-hart I wold you no hurt.' And she saed to hym agayn alowd, no my Lord, I thinke so and imedyetly she sayed to hyme in his ere; but my Lord you have geven me many shrowd tauntes.' Thos wordys I parsavwyd she spake wyth good memory, and very sharply and ernestly for har mynd was sor unquyettydd. My Lord Admyrall parsevyng that I hard hyt, callyd me asyd, and asked me what she sayd; and I declared hyt plainly to him. Then he consowltyd with me, that he wold ly down on the bed by har, to loke if he could pacyfy har unquyetnes wit gentyll comynycacyon; wharunto I agred. And by that tyme he had spoken thre or four wordes to har, she ansuered hym very rowndly and shartly, sayeng, my Lorde, I wold have geven a thousand markes to have had my full talk wyth Hewyke, the fyrst day I was deliveryd, but I doorst not, far displesyng of you;' and I heryng that, parcevyd har troble to be so gret, that my hart would sarve me to her no mor. Sych lyke comunycasyon she had with him the space of an owr; wych thay dyd hear that sat by har bed syd. ELIZABETH TYRWHYT."-Pp. 103, 104.

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1 From the original.

It is from these remarks of Katherine that the opinion was formed that the Lord Admiral had poisoned her; but so serious a charge was surely never before founded upon such evidence.

With few exceptions, the other articles of the reign of Edward the Sixth possess little interest. To such of our readers as are afflicted with the gout, Sir Philip Hoby's advice to Sir William Cecill, afterwards Lord Burleigh, who had acquainted him on the 18th August, 1552, with his intention of going to Bath in the ensuing month, to amend his legges,' may be useful: In his letter dated" from the Tower, even in the time of my fitt, the 21st of August, 1552," he says,

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"I ought to knowe what Bathes be: in dede if it were so hott here in that month as it is in other countries, then Bathes were very good; but forasmoch as that moneth is cold here, and hott in other countries, Bathes here in my opinion cannot be good to amende your colde leggs againste winter. Rest and libertie, if ye might obteyne it, and be spared to travaill at your pleasure, as ye cannot, were better of both in my fancy, but yf you go ot the Bathes for lack of libertie (which wer no doubt better for you) God send you better luck, then I have by remayneng here in the towne, for two fitts of the ague have I had alredy, and at the thirde, I trust to ridde him awaye, which assuredly cometh through ill eyeres, being here nothing ells."

-P. 125.

The affected humility of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who fell a victim to an almost insane ambition, is as fine a specimen of hypocrisy as the life of any statesman of any age can produce:

"His Majestie's choyse of counsellors ys, in my opynyon, very well apoynted, all save my selffe, who nether hath understanding nor wytt mete for the association, nor body apt to render his duty any wayes as the wyll and hart desireth. And as yt ys a moste great greif to me to think yt, so I cannot but lament yt that yt ys my chaunce to occupy a roome in this common wel mete for a man of moche wytt and gravite; but as Crist in the gospell dyd allow the myte or farthing of the peore woman, wherin she shewyd the good zele and wyll that was in her, so I trust the same Crist, thorro the work of his grace, wyll put in the hart of his Majestie to except the ernest wyll and good hart that remaynith in me, tho therbe no other thing, as in deid I of force am dryven to confess!"-P. 137.

On the 17th of March, 1552-3, Sir Philip Hoby was appointed Usher of the Black Rod, and on the 22nd of April in that year, in a letter to Sir William Cecill, from Brussells, he thus acknowledges the receipt of the badge of that office:

"I have receaved your lettre, and the Rose withall, which according to your advertisement, I have tied to a lace, and do carie about my necke in token of myne office."-P. 148.

The documents relating to the reign of Queen Mary are neither numerous nor important. The principal one is the Journal of Proceedings in the Privy Council from the 16th July, 1553, ten days after her accession, to the 3rd. of November following, which, as it must be supposed, contains some curious entries. On the 13th of August, we find that an order was issued, in consequence of a tumult at Paul's Cross, in which the Mayor and Recorder of London are enjoyned to declare, " in the best words they can devise," to a Common Council,

"The Quene's Highnesse's determination and pleasure uttered unto them [the Privy Council], by the Quene's owne mouthe, in the Toure as yesterdaye, being the 12th of this instant, whiche was, that albeit her Grace's conscience is stayed in matters of religion, yet she meaneth graciously not to compell and constreyne other menne's consciences, otherwise then God shall (as she trusteth) putte in their harts a persuasion of the truthe, that she is in, thorough the opening of his warde unto them by godlye, vertuouse, and lerned preachers." -P. 168.

Of the manner in which her "gracious meaning" was evinced, we have proof on the 22nd of the same month:

"This daye one Fisher, parson of Ammersham, made his apparaunce before the Lords, and hathe to morrowe, in the forenoone, to bringe in a note of his late sermon !”—P. 173.

And on the 24th, "a very sediciouse preacher" was sent to Newgate as a close prisoner, and the Mayor of Canterbury was ordered to place the vicar of St. Dunstan's, near that city, the pillorye'."

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on

On the 1st of September, Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, was committed to the Fleet; and, on the 13th of that month, that illustrious martyr

"Hugh Latymer, clerke, appeared before the Lordes, and for his sedicyous demeanor was comytted to the Toure, there to remaine as close prisoner, having attending upon him Austeyn his servaunte." -P. 183.

Another entry connected with religious persecutions is, that "Robert Mendham, of the parishe of St. Giles in the Field, tailor, for shaving a dogge in despight of pristehod, appearing this day before the Lordes, was appointed to repaire on Sunday next to the parishe church of St. Giles aforesaid, and there openly confesse his folly, according to thorder prescribed unto him.”—P. 185.

A letter was sent by the Privy Council to the Constable of the Tower, ordering him to permit Sir Edward Montague, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who was a prisoner in con

1 P. 174.