Elizabeth I's Secret Lover

by Robert Stedall

  On 8 July, two days after the King’s death, Northumberland was forced to reveal his hand. He sent his gentle and affectionate daughter, Mary Sidney, to collect Jane, who was still recuperating at Chelsea Manor, and to escort her up-river to Syon House. To their surprise, there was no one there to greet them. Northumberland was advising the Lord Mayor of London of Edward’s death and that Jane had succeeded him. He also sent messages to all the great landowners round London seeking levies for the defence of the realm. He reported that Mary had fled abroad to seek foreign support to back her claim, but Mary was safely at Kenninghall surrounded by Catholic allies, ‘ready to move onto the offensive’.37 She had declared herself Queen and wrote to the Council demanding their immediate submission.

  It was some time before Northumberland arrived at Syon with four council members. After some further delay, Jane was told of the King’s death, and, to her great embarrassment, Northumberland and his colleagues knelt before her. At this point, they were joined by the Duchesses of Suffolk and Northumberland with Elizabeth Brooke, Marchioness of Northampton, closely followed by Jane’s father and husband. In the presence of the assembled company, Northumberland advised her that on his death bed, the King had nominated her as his successor. Jane was ‘stupefied and troubled’.38 She fell to the floor ‘in an agony of grief and shock’.39 She cried out: ‘The crown is not my right and pleases me not. The Lady Mary is the rightful heir.’40 It took much argument from Northumberland and her father to persuade her to submit to their will and to behave in a regal manner.

  There is no surviving physical description of Jane’s features – except that she was less than 5ft tall – and no authenticated portrait, but the French Ambassador saw her as ‘virtuous, wise and good looking’.41 At about 3.00 pm on 10 July, dressed in royal regalia and escorted by her mother and father, Jane was conveyed by barge to the Tower of London to meet the people. She was given no choice, but her path was ‘shadowed by uncertainty’.42 When the proclamation appointing her as Queen was read out, ‘no one present showed any sign of rejoicing’.43 One report said: ‘The world is dangerous. The great devil Dudley ruleth.’ Even when a crier called out that both the Princess Mary and the Princess Elizabeth were illegitimate, there was no stirring of support for Jane. Both princesses were popular, while she was almost unknown and will have appeared reticent. There was considerable surprise that it was her mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, with a better claim to the throne than herself, who carried her train. Although the proclamation was repeated in other parts of London and throughout the kingdom, the people remained unconvinced. On entering the Tower, she was greeted by Northumberland and the Council, while Guildford watched cap in hand. The three ambassadors present confirmed that the ceremony was conducted with ‘accustomed pomp’,44 although they also noted the silence of the crowd.

  In addition to Northumberland and Jane’s father, the most prominent members of the Council were Northampton; Winchester; Arundel (Suffolk’s brother-in-law); Pembroke; John Russell, Earl of Bedford; Francis Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury; John Bourchier, Earl of Bath; Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex; Sir William Paget; and Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. They had all signed the documentation confirming her as Queen. Although Winchester presented Jane with the crown which, very reluctantly, she tried on, she was gathering her wits about her. When it was suggested that Guildford might also be offered a crown, she made it quite clear that this was not her intention, but she would consider a dukedom. This resulted in a show of ‘youthful petulance’ from Guildford. ‘He went off to fetch his mother. The Duchess of Northumberland could at first scarcely believe her ears. She poured out commands and revilings … that would have cowed many people.’45 Jane was not to be moved. It was simply a marriage of convenience. It is apparent that by now the relationship had been consummated, as the Duchess suggested that Guildford should withdraw Jane’s conjugal rights and retire to Syon House! This only strengthened Jane’s view that he should not become King and she sent orders through Arundel and Pembroke that ‘he was to behave himself to her in a friendly fashion’,46 and to remain with her at the Tower. He did what he was told. She would not be bullied, nor as compliant as Northumberland had hoped.

  When a message was received from Mary that the Council should renounce Jane and recognise ‘herself as their undoubted liege lady’, Council members became ‘astonished and troubled’,47 realising that Mary was about to fight for her rights. Northumberland composed a defiant reply, but, by now, very few Councillors remained as his reliable allies. With Arundel being Catholic, he was the first to transfer his allegiance to Mary, notwithstanding that he was Jane’s uncle by marriage. Jane played her part in trying to rally the remainder. She issued a warrant to her father’s old friend, Northampton:

  You will endeavour yourself in all things to the uttermost of your power, not only to defend our just title, but also to assist us in our rightful possession of this kingdom, and to disturb, repel, and resist the feigned and untrue claim of the Lady Mary bastard daughter to our great uncle Henry the Eighth of famous memory.48

  With Northumberland already being branded as a tyrant and attempting to deprive Mary of her birth-right, his supporters started to desert him. Nevertheless, the Dudley family hung together, and Robert laboured hard for their cause. He assembled tenants, neighbours and friends at Syderstone, establishing control as far as Wisbech. On 18 July, he proclaimed Jane as Queen in King’s Lynn with support from the mayor and 300 citizens. Elsewhere, Mary was rapidly gaining support and she set up court at the Howard stronghold of Framlingham, south-east of Kenninghall. On 12 July, Norwich proclaimed her as Queen and sent men and weapons to her aid.49 Northumberland found his calls for levies being ignored, or, worse still, soldiers marched to join up with Mary’s growing band of supporters. Although he sent his cousin, Sir Henry Dudley, to France to seek support from Henry II, the Imperial ambassadors cynically considered his plea to be ‘the courage of a resolute tyrant’.50 Although Queen Jane held court in the Tower, it was rapidly becoming a prison.

  Northumberland knew that he should remain in London to assure the Council’s loyalty, and his initial plan was to send Suffolk with a force to support John and Robert in apprehending Mary. This was vetoed by Jane, who did not want to lose her father’s assistance in containing Dudley family ambitions. Furthermore, support for Mary was continuing to grow, and it was well-known that Suffolk was not the best man in a military role. Northumberland realised that he had no choice but to go himself. On 14 July, he set out for East Anglia with an army of 3,000 well-equipped men. He seemed full of confidence, but Jane’s cause was already lost. His departure was a fatal mistake and a great relief to his fellow Councillors. On reaching Cambridge, several of his officers deserted. From here he moved to Bury St Edmunds, 24 miles west of Framlingham, where Mary had amassed 20,000 supporters. Growing numbers of towns were proclaiming her accession and ‘Royal ships in Yarmouth defected to her’.51 With Northumberland’s confidence ebbing away, he retreated to Cambridge. Worse still, several more Council members in London defected. In addition to Arundel, these included Sussex and Bath, both of whom held Catholic sympathies. On 18 July, a Council meeting led by Pembroke and Arundel at Baynard’s Castle in London did a volte face. Acting as their spokesman, Pembroke stood before a crowd of overjoyed Londoners to declare support for Mary and surrender the Tower to her. Cecil supported them against his former mentor and was careful to send messages to Mary to test his standing with her. The bells of the City churches began to peal. Jane and her ineffective father had lost control. The Council’s only interest was to seek Mary’s mercy for the treason they had committed. They stripped ‘the nine-day Queen Jane’ of her title and her robes. Jane spoke to her father with great dignity to express her relief:

  I much more willingly put them off than I put them on. Out of obedience to you and my mother, I have grievously sinned and offered violence to myself. Now I do willingly and obeying the motions of my own soul relinquish the crown and endeav
our to solve those faults committed by others if, at least, so great faults can be solved, by a willing and ingenuous acknowledgement of them.52

  Jane’s father, who bore a significant share of the blame for Jane’s predicament, went out onto Tower Hill to proclaim Mary as Queen.

  Jane, Guildford and the Duchess of Northumberland were held as prisoners by the Lieutenant of the Tower. Jane and Guildford were closely confined and kept apart, but Suffolk and his wife were permitted to retire to their home at the Charterhouse at Sheen. Suffolk was not left there for long and was soon under arrest. Despite claiming illness, he was quickly returned to the Tower, leaving Frances Brandon to approach her cousin Mary, with whom she had always been on good terms, to seek mercy for her family. She laid the blame solely at Northumberland’s door and complained that Suffolk had been poisoned. Whether true or not, Mary agreed to release Suffolk to house arrest at Sheen. This shows that she too blamed Northumberland for perpetrating the treasonable acts against her. It now seemed possible that Jane would be reprieved, despite her continuing confinement.

  When a price was placed on Northumberland’s head, the game was up. He received a letter from the Council, signed by Cecil, commanding him to disarm. He immediately proclaimed Mary as Queen in Cambridge, claiming that he was acting in accordance with their wishes. Arundel and Sir William Paget, carrying the Great Seal of England, rode to advise Mary what had happened. Arundel was sent to Cambridge to arrest Northumberland, and on 24 July, brought him under guard to London. The crowds jeered as Northumberland was brought from the City gate to the Tower. He was joined by his brother, his sons, and six principal supporters. Nevertheless, ‘instead of facing death like the brave man he was, he grovelled for mercy’.53 He wrote to Arundel:

  Alas, is my crime so heinous as no redemption but my blood can wash away the spot thereof? … How little profit my dead and dismembered body can bring her, but how great and glorious an honour it will be in all posterity, when the report shall be that so gracious and mighty a queen had granted life to so miserable and penitent an object.54

  This cut no ice.

  Mary set out for London on a wave of popular support. With Elizabeth, quick to realise which way the wind was blowing, she joined her from Hatfield, equally piqued at having been superseded. After meeting at Naked Haw Hall, in Essex, which was later to be converted by Robert into Wanstead as a home for Lettice Knollys, they entered London, sumptuously arrayed, with a large escort of infantry.55 Arundel rode before the Queen, ‘bearing the sword in his hand’.56 Cheering crowds lined the streets as they came.

  Robert was apprehended at King’s Lynn, from where he was taken to Framlingham. Although he also threw himself on the Queen’s mercy, he too was moved to the Tower to join his father and brothers in company with Bishop Ridley and Northampton. On arrival, he was held with Guildford in the Bell Tower, while John was in the Beauchamp Tower and Ambrose and Henry in the Coldharbour Tower, but, as more prisoners arrived, they were moved to be together in the Beauchamp Tower. John set to work carving their crest of a bear and ragged staff on its walls by the fireplace, signing it ‘IOHN DUDLI’, as can still be seen by visitors. This was surrounded with a girdle of leaves and flowers, roses for Ambrose, gilley-flowers for Guildford, oak leaves for Robert (From the Latin ‘robur’ – oak) and honeysuckle for Henry.57 (John was undoubtedly a talented sculptor.) Robert left a small carved oak branch, with the initials R.D. By repute, it was Guildford who provided the simple word IANE, suggesting that he had developed some affection for his new bride. Jane was initially lodged in the Lieutenant’s house, but later moved to live with the Gentleman Gaoler adjacent to the Beauchamp Tower. Robert was incarcerated for eighteen very uncomfortable months, generally under the threat of execution. Gone was the luxury of court life, but prominent prisoners generally enjoyed ‘such indulgences as their rank demanded and their purses could command’.58 They could order food, books, furniture and even pets, and were attended by servants.

  Despite attempts to cast all the blame onto Northumberland, other Council members were soon occupying the remaining prison accommodation. They were joined by leading Protestants and churchmen detained for their religious convictions. Cecil met Mary to convince her of his innocence. Although, he was careful to destroy any incriminating evidence, she probably did not believe him. Nevertheless, he was not imprisoned and did not lose his growing fortune. He received a royal pardon at her coronation but gained no political post during her reign.

  Chapter 6 Events leading to Lady Jane Grey’s execution

  On 18 August 1553, Northumberland, Northampton and John were escorted to Westminster to face trial for high treason. With the newly restored Duke of Norfolk presiding, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Despite John’s ‘tender years’,1 all three were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, as was normal practice in treason cases. They were then returned to the Tower. In the final outcome, only Northumberland had to face execution.

  Jane showed great remorse, referring to her ‘want of prudence, for which I deserve heavy punishment, except for the very great mercy of your majesty’. She blamed Northumberland for her predicament, telling Mary: ‘No one can ever say that I sought [the crown] as my own, or that I was pleased with it or ever accepted it … I was deceived by the Duke and the Council and ill-treated by my husband and his mother.’2 Mary undoubtedly believed her and wanted to show clemency, but Simon Renard, the Imperial ambassador, counselled her ‘not to exercise it so as to prejudice the establishment of her reign’.3

  Mary’s new regime, headed by Northumberland’s enemies, Bishop Gardiner, Norfolk and Arundel, was determined to force him into ‘humiliation, degradation and recantation’.4 He was inundated with visits from councillors and priests seeking a public confession that the Protestant faith, which he had stalwartly supported, was ‘damnable heresy’.5 He was offered a pardon if he would recant. Trusting in offers of a reprieve and to save his own skin, he confessed his reconversion to Catholicism. This was all that his enemies wanted and was a huge propaganda coup for Mary. His family was shocked and disappointed, but they stood stalwartly behind him. On 21 August, his sons were summoned to St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower where Bishop Gardiner officiated while Northumberland, Sir Andrew Dudley, Northampton, Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer, all now condemned men, were forced to take Mass. At the end, Northumberland confessed:

  Truly, I profess here before you all that I have received the sacrament according to the true Catholic faith: and the plagues that is upon the realm and upon us now is that we have erred from the faith these sixteen years. And this I protest unto you all from the bottom of my heart.6

  It was the ultimate humiliation for both Northumberland and his family, but his enemies had no intention of honouring any pledge of a reprieve. Robert was left with a bitter ‘loathing for the religion espoused by Mary and Gardiner’.7 It caused Ambrose and Robert to become ‘the main pillars of Elizabeth’s Protestant state’.8 Jane was also horrified. When it was suggested that his objective was to obtain a pardon, she exclaimed: ‘Pardon! Woe worth him! He hath brought me and our stock in most miserable calamity! … What man is there, I pray you, though he had been innocent, that would hope of life in this case? Being in the field against the Queen in person as a general?’ She knew that Mary would never have pardoned him and was shocked that he would ‘risk his immortal soul for the preservation of his earthly body’.9 She later recorded:

  Like as his life was wicked and full of dissimulation, so was his end thereafter. I pray God, I, nor no friend of mine, die so. Should I, who (am) young and in my few years, forsake my faith for the love of life? Nay, God forbid! Much more he should not, whose fatal course, although he had lived his just number of years, could not have long continued.10

  On 22 August, the day after taking Mass, Northumberland was led to his public execution on Tower Hill in front of 50,000 people. Although he avoided the ignominy of being hanged, drawn and quartered, his body was sent for a tr
aitor’s burial under the altar at St Peter ad Vincula next to that of Somerset. He was spared the final indignity of having his head displayed on a pole, thanks to the intercession of his old friend, John Cork, Lancaster Herald. Cork went to Richmond Palace for an audience with Mary to beg to be allowed to take the head to give it a decent burial. Mary also offered him the body, enabling the entire corpse to be interred in the Beauchamp Chapel at the parish church in Warwick. ‘Queen Mary had no desire to start her reign with a blood bath and, for the moment only Northumberland and [his] two associates, Palmer and Gates, went to the scaffold.’11

  With Northumberland’s assets being attainted, Jane Guildford was denuded of her title and the family’s great fortune other than her marriage portion of some land at Halesowen. As a concession, Mary permitted her continued use of a ‘house in Chelsea and some treasured keepsakes’.12 These enabled her to furnish it as befitting a lady of her rank. Everything else reverted to the Crown. An army of royal officials made a detailed inventory of the possessions at the various Dudley properties. She was now aged 45 and devoted herself with great spirit to seeking her sons’ freedom, but no member of the royal suite or Council would ‘defile themselves by befriending the tainted Dudley family’.13 No date had been set for John’s execution, but with the judicial process begun, all her sons remained very vulnerable.14 If the Government wanted to make an example, they were obvious targets. This gave them a vested interest in ensuring a smooth transfer of power to Mary and her Catholic advisers.