Elizabeth I's Secret Lover

by Robert Stedall

  With Warwick’s influence over the young King steadily increasing, on 11 October 1551, at the age of 47, he was raised to a Dukedom, choosing the Northumberland title of the attainted Percy family, which brought with it parts of their huge Northumberland estates and others taken from the bishopric of Durham. Even Somerset encouraged his elevation and participated in the ceremony. John, Viscount Lisle, now took the courtesy title of Earl of Warwick and, as a Duke’s younger son, Robert became Lord Robert Dudley. Without giving warning to Somerset, the newly created Northumberland raised the rank of all his principal supporters. Sir William Lord Herbert became Earl of Pembroke, Sir John Lord Russell became Earl of Bedford and William Paulet, the Lord Treasurer, who had become Earl of Wiltshire in 1550, was created Marquess of Winchester. Cheke, Cecil and Henry Sidney were knighted. Dorset became Duke of Suffolk. (Despite his shortcomings, Northumberland had been determined to gain his kinsman’s favour. Following the death of Henry VIII’s sister, Princess Mary in 1533, Charles Brandon, the 1st Duke of Suffolk, aged 50, had married his wealthy ward, the 14-year-old Katherine Willoughby of Eresby. Although this had raised a few eyebrows, she provided him with two sons, born in 1534 and 1537 respectively, half-brothers of Frances Brandon. On their father’s death in 1545, the eldest son, Henry, became the 2nd Duke of Suffolk, but, in 1551, both brothers tragically succumbed to the ‘sweating sickness’ while at Cambridge. Northumberland now persuaded the King to grant the Dukedom to Frances, as the first Duke’s elder daughter, allowing Dorset to become Duke of Suffolk, in right of his wife.)

  With Northumberland having failed to steer Somerset towards a more supportive role, his backing of Northumberland’s dukedom seems surprising and may have been designed to put him off the scent of some plotting with Gardiner and other Catholics, which has never come to light. He was now Northumberland’s leading opponent on the Council, unable to tolerate a position of equality with his colleagues.26 Having failed to uncover any treasonable wrongdoing, Northumberland resorted to subterfuge, as he was to admit before his own execution. He suborned Sir Thomas Palmer and Sir John Gates to provide false evidence against his rival. (Rumours of this contributed to Northumberland’s growing unpopularity and resulted in the execution of Palmer and Gates with their master.) According to Palmer’s story, Somerset was attempting to gain Gardiner’s liberation from the Tower and was planning to ‘raise the people’ to support his reinstatement as Protector, despite lacking royal endorsement. Palmer also claimed that he was plotting to invite Northumberland, Suffolk, Northampton and others to a banquet, where they were to be assassinated. The purported coup was to be led by Sir Ralph Fane, with Sir Thomas Arundel delegated to gain control of the Tower and Sir Miles Partridge to seize the Great Seal and rally the apprentices to establish control of London. Any member of the City militia failing to join the rebels was to be massacred. It was further claimed that he planned to break the French alliance so that the King could marry his daughter, Jane Seymour. His kidnapping of the King and moving him from Hampton Court to Windsor was cited as evidence of his violent and tyrannical intent. His support for the Princess Mary evidenced his wish to return to papacy with the Reformation being overturned. In all, the evidence named thirty-nine conspirators, including the Duchess of Somerset, her family and servants.

  On 16 October, Somerset attended a Council meeting, at the end of which Winchester accused him of high treason. He was taken to the Tower, where he was joined by his wife and children. The King accepted the story as entirely plausible and the charges were proclaimed to the judges with witnesses being assembled. Nevertheless, parts of the statements of evidence were at variance and contradictory. These caused a delay of several weeks while inconsistencies were resolved. After Somerset’s trial, they were quickly destroyed. Despite the evidence, Somerset, at Northumberland’s request, was acquitted of treason, but was immediately convicted of felony for having raised a contingent of armed men without license. ‘Somerset was not deluded by this masquerade of leniency.’27

  Edward was concerned at the prospect of authorising his uncle’s death, but Northumberland kept his mind away from it by keeping him well entertained over Christmas, with his range of schoolroom subjects being made less taxing. The court’s festivities were overseen by a lord of misrule, with ‘costumes, props and ingenious devices’.28 There was ‘spectacular buffoonery’,29 which lasted for twelve days. To humour the citizenry, entertainments were extended into the London streets. Ambrose and Robert played prominent parts in masques and mock tourneys, joining a retinue of young knights and gentlemen, who ‘boarded the Royal barges at Greenwich, dressed in gaudy silks as attendants of the lord of misrule, and disembarked at Tower Wharf to caper merrily through the streets, dispensing free wine and largesse.’30

  With the partying over, Northumberland persuaded Edward to sign the warrant for Somerset’s execution, and, on 22 January 1552, the former Protector died with commendable bravery. Edward noted laconically in his diary: ‘The Duke of Somerset had his head cut off upon Tower Hill between eight and nine o’clock in the morning.’ This does not suggest any great feeling of remorse. Paget, for so long Somerset’s ally, was another casualty. He knew too many of Northumberland’s secrets and, on 22 April, was accused of embezzlement of crown property. His Garter was rescinded, and he was imprisoned, remaining incarcerated until reinstated in Mary’s reign. With Somerset’s execution having made him a martyr, Northumberland’s security now depended on him being seen to act in the name of the King and on maintaining his absolute confidence. He now faced united opposition from Catholics, the peasantry and his personal enemies, particularly Arundel.

  ‘Edward’s relations with the Princess Mary were now too strained for them to see much of each other.’31 Although Northumberland was nervous of her, he was careful to hedge his bets by remaining in close contact with both Mary and Elizabeth. He had always made a point of demonstrating his friendship with them, and they realised that, as the Dudleys and their allies dominated Government, there was a need to keep on their side. Although Mary had always been attentive to the young King, who found her more sympathique than Elizabeth, he strongly disapproved of her continued adherence to the Catholic Mass, even in private. Northumberland considered it his duty to support him in accelerating ‘the pace of Protestant revolution’. Elizabeth was also careful to remain close to Edward and seemed far more amenable in religion than Mary. Nevertheless, he seems to have seen through her displays of fervent Protestantism, which she was to discard on his death, and stories of her flirtation with Thomas Seymour were still circulating. Northumberland provided her with her own establishment at Hatfield House, a royal property which he had purloined for himself. He even provided ‘a surveyor to keep her affairs in order – Secretary William Cecil’.32 (Cecil did not reside at Hatfield, but Elizabeth seems to have sought his advice on property and financial matters.) Although she visited court infrequently, Robert was encouraged to maintain his close friendship with her.

  On 21 January 1551, the 17-year-old Princess ‘was most honourably received by the Council … to show the people how much glory belongs to her who has embraced the new religion and is become a very great lady’, and on her entry to London she was met by a hundred of the king’s horse.33

  In the spring of 1552, she rode in state with her ladies through the City and was received by the King at St James’s, where she maintained apartments. Although she demanded Durham Place as a residence, as promised to her under her father’s will, this was resisted by Northumberland, who did not believe that she needed a permanent London home in addition to Hatfield.

  With the Dudleys riding high, Northumberland granted his friends and family lucrative positions and accepted large grants of land ‘confiscated from ecclesiastical bodies and enemies of the regime’.34 In early 1552, John was appointed Master of the Horse and Robert took over his former role as Master of the Buckhounds, with responsibility for arranging royal hunting parties. This carried an allowance of £33 6s 8d per annum, which ros
e to £100 following the grant of other royal perquisites. Although John was now involved in diplomatic missions to France, Robert was occupied in ‘ceremonial and court functions’,35 where he had every expectation of preferment from the young King. On 25 February 1553, he was appointed Chief Carver. When Anne of Cleves, who had survived Henry VIII, was required by the Council to relinquish certain manors granted to her for life, Robert paid £400 to acquire the reversion of some of them.

  Warwick Castle was now the focal point of Northumberland’s dominions with its lands stretching across the Midlands from Worcester to Coventry. Each of his children was catered for: Mary, who had married Sir Henry Sidney, was granted the Guildford family estates at Halden; the Sidney family received Penshurst Place after the attainder of Sir Ralph Fane, who had been an ally of Somerset. The Sidneys also gained some Kentish iron foundries. Henry Dudley was granted lands acquired by his father around London and Middlesex. When Ambrose’s first wife, Anne Whorwood, died of the ‘sweat’ in 1552, he quickly remarried Elizabeth, Baroness Talboys, who owned great estates in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Even Lord Dudley’s family was not left out of the spoils. In 1553, Dudley Castle, which Northumberland had purchased from him was restored to his eldest son Edward on his inheritance of the barony, and his younger brother, Henry, was employed on diplomatic missions. Both became devoted supporters of their kinsman. The family members’ ability to feather their own and their allies’ nests was widely frowned upon. If Edward VI were to die and the Catholic Princess Mary were to gain the throne, they had little hope of weathering the storm.

  Chapter 5 Efforts to circumvent the succession of the Catholic Mary Tudor

  Northumberland was sensitive to criticism and blamed the young King for promulgating the Council’s more radical policies. He admitted going to bed ‘with a careful heart and a weary body, and yet … no man hath scarcely any good opinion of me’.1 During the winter of 1552/3 it became clear that his grasp on events was not as firm as in the past. His energies had been severely drained by illness and he lacked the will to carry the burden of state.2 He was plagued with depression and self-doubt, longing for the time he could hand over full executive powers to the young King. In 1552, the Council agreed ‘to advance Edward’s majority from his eighteenth [birthday as ordained in his father’s will] to his sixteenth birthday’.3 He tried to end the practice of Council members heaping riches on themselves, which he, more than any, had benefited from. Yet they continued to amass perquisites. He was already tarnished as a ruthless oppressor with his hand in the till and no longer commanded universal support from the great magnates. The Earl of Cumberland, who was married to Eleanor Brandon, turned down his proposal for Cumberland’s daughter, Mary, to marry his son, Guildford.

  On 2 April 1552, Edward developed a rash with a high fever which lasted for a week, during which he was dangerously ill. Although he believed that he was suffering from smallpox, it is more likely to have been measles. With his robust health, he quickly recovered and was able to attend the Garter ceremony three weeks later, but he was fatigued and convalesced at Greenwich until his strength returned. To reassure the public, he rode at the ring at Black Heath and held a military tattoo. Despite his seeming recovery, his illness, in retrospect, can be seen as the precursor to consumption, which appeared ten months later. The Princess Mary visited him at Greenwich as did Scheyfve, the Imperial ambassador, but the question of Mary’s attendance at Mass was not raised and the meetings seem to have been friendly. Later in the year, Scheyfve again visited the King, asking for his support to curb Henry II’s hostile activities in the Netherlands. Edward showed considerable diplomacy by leaving the question unanswered, in view of his French alliance. In October he even agreed to stand as godfather to Scheyfve’s son but declined to attend the Catholic christening as this would contravene his coronation oath.

  In June, Cheke developed a severe and prolonged attack of the sweating sickness. The physicians gave up hope for him, but Edward was determined that he would not die and prayed devotedly until at last, Cheke began to recover. Cheke retired to Cambridge to recuperate but was able to return to join a royal progress around the southern counties being organised by Northumberland. When Edward visited the dockyards at Portsmouth he gave orders for improvements to their fortifications before going on to Southampton. He again seemed fatigued, resulting in the trip being curtailed. After resting at Wilton, where he was entertained with a show of great magnificence by Pembroke, he claimed, on his return to Windsor, that his health was recovered. Although Edward still did not admit to feeling unwell, by October Northumberland was sufficiently alarmed to call an Italian physician and astrologer, Girolamo Cardano, to give advice. Cardano concluded that his face had the mark of death, but dared not reveal his real opinion, simply telling Cheke not to over-fatigue the boy.

  Shortly after this, Edward became involved in a controversy over kneeling to receive the sacrament. Cranmer, who was dominating both the Council and the debate on Anglican dogma, believed that kneeling was a matter of reverence and humility. Northumberland believed that the Anglican church should follow the Calvinist practice of standing. He brought John Knox to England to preach before the King. Knox opposed kneeling, which he saw as ‘a cringing attitude savouring of idolatry’. Although Northumberland’s objective was to discredit Cranmer, the plan backfired. Edward, who had made several changes to the content of the second prayer book of 1552, supported the archbishop. Cranmer was extremely riled by Knox’s interference, not least because the prayer book, which had adopted much of the reforming liturgy emanating from the Continent, had already gone to press and any change would result in delay or dissatisfaction. He wrote to the Council, imploring it to ignore Knox’s suggestions. After a debate between Cranmer and Knox at Windsor, it was agreed that kneeling should be retained, but wording should be inserted to show that this was in reverence, not in idolatrous adoration. Attempts were made to appease Knox with the bishopric of Rochester, which he declined, and he vented his fury over losing the argument on Northumberland. In a sermon before the King, he described the Protector as ‘an ungodly, conjured enemy of God’s true religion’. Northumberland would not be drawn and after letting him thunder on, recommended to Cecil that Knox should be appointed as the King’s preacher in the North, or be moved back to Scotland.4 Edward, who had attended the debate, made no mention of it in his journal, in which his last entry was made at the end of November. Perhaps, he was too unwell.

  The King was sufficiently restored at the New Year to appoint Cheke to the Council. Cheke had gained Northumberland’s respect for his important role in moulding Edward’s political understanding. At the beginning of February, Edward invited the Princess Mary, despite their religious differences, to attend a masque at Westminster to be acted by children. Northumberland arranged for her to be accompanied by Jane Guildford and Frances Brandon. He was still careful to remain on good terms and restored her Royal Arms, of which she had been deprived since her mother’s divorce.5 On arrival, the 15-year-old Edward was bedridden and too unwell to receive anyone, causing the masque to be cancelled. Three days later, Mary joined him at his bedside in the presence of other court members. She was ‘honourably received and entertained with great magnificence’,6 but was distressed at his deteriorating condition and steered clear of matters of religion, realising that he was dying.

  The King’s symptoms turned into congestion in the lungs and modern diagnosis implies that this was pulmonary tuberculosis. Until so recently, he had been ‘tall and of a healthy constitution for a boy in middle youth’,7 but now his right shoulder was much higher than his left. He suffered a high fever with agonising struggles for breath. Although he fought tenaciously for his life, determined to recover, those around him feared for ‘the slight, weak form in the great bed at Westminster’.8

  Although Robert remained on good terms with the dying King, being granted lands at Rockingham in Northamptonshire and at Eston in Leicestershire, the Dudleys faced the bleak prospect of Mary T
udor becoming Queen in accordance with Henry VIII’s final will. In the spring, Edward started to show some signs of recovery and was able to walk in the palace gardens every day. He moved to Greenwich, but, by the third week of May, was again confined to bed and seemed to be wasting away. He was unable to watch the departure of the expedition, financed by Northumberland, of three ships attempting to find a north-east passage to China, led by Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor. (They encountered terrible storms; the bodies of Willoughby and his crew were found by Russian fishermen in the following spring. Chancellor, whose ship had become separated from the remainder, reached Archangel and began a trade with Russia’s northern ports, which lasted 300 years.)

  As Edward’s condition worsened, he became horrified at the prospect of Mary undoing all his work in advancing the Reformation. Its legislative framework was already in place, and England was primarily Protestant. ‘Gone were the Mass, the images in churches, and altars. All services were now conducted in English, and priests were allowed to marry.’9 Yet the Reformation lacked universal support and could easily be undone by a Catholic monarch. Mary would leave England a prey to Continental Catholic powers seeking her hand in marriage. Northumberland became distraught and quite ineffective. Despite their outward shows of cordiality, there is no doubt that Mary blamed him for influencing the King towards his determinedly Reformist views and for the desecration of Catholic churches. He had no hope of surviving if she became Queen.