The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor Read Online Free PDF

to Westminster, she heard nothing. 29 Finally, and still uninvited, she took to her barge on 23 January, sailing down the Thames. 30 But on her arrival she found access to Henry firmly barred. She was hurried away from prying eyes. No doubt protesting, all the queen could do was to send a servant to fetch her bargemen, who had dispersed to the amusements of nearby Southwark. 31 They took her slowly back to Greenwich and to the agony of waiting. No one was to be admitted to the king without the consent of Paget and Hertford.
    On the same day that Catherine was rebuffed, Thomas Seymour experienced a rather different fate – he was admitted to the fold. Hertford was eight years older than his brother. But he was affectionate towards him, envisaging a useful alliance, albeit one in which he, naturally, would be the senior partner. On 23 January Hertford informed King Henry that Thomas was to be admitted to the Privy Council. He had probably waited so long to raise the matter out of fear of the king’s reaction, and indeed now Henry cried out ‘no, no’ – but in his weakness was overruled. 32 The other councillors went along with this act of lèse-majesté for love, or fear, of the coming new power in England; yet Hertford’s partiality for his youngest brother was noted and was a cause of concern. John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, who had been close to Hertford since their shared boyhood with Cardinal Wolsey, saw himself as Hertford’s natural second in command. Now he decided to make himself ‘familiar with them both and loved of them both and trusted of them both’ and so use that as a means to promote discord and sever the possibility of any alliance between the brothers. 33
    Thomas was oblivious to the circumstances of his appointment when he strode into the Council chamber at Westminster later that day. The entire Council was in attendance to witness his advancement. For Thomas, it was a proud moment. He listened as Paget announced that ‘the King’s Majesty, having in remembrance the good service of Sir Thomas Seymour, and minding to have him trained in the knowledge of His Majesty’s Council, had appointed him to be sworn of the same’. 34 Rather more down to earth was Thomas’s first experience of government in the Council: discussions of judges’ payments in Norfolk, and the matter of agreeing a reward for one ‘Patrick Craggy, Scot’, who had assisted the English forces in Scotland. The Council sat only one further time during Henry VIII’s lifetime, to arrange the wages for the garrison at Boulogne. 35
    Rather than being humbled by his new appointment, Thomas Seymour saw his advancement to the Council as his by right. He was, after all, the prince’s uncle and surely destined for greatness in the reign that followed. Moving upwards with Thomas at the palace were his closest servants, including John Harington, a gentleman from Stepney, who was just approaching his thirtieth birthday. Harington was a new addition to Thomas’s service. After a decade trying to make his place as a musician in the Chapel Royal, he was glad of this promotion. He was a dreamer and a romantic – a poet and composer – but utterly devoted to his master. 36 In January 1547, he was newly married too; in this respect, he might have had a better reason than many for lurking around the royal apartments, since his bride, Etheldreda Malt, was believed to have been fathered by the dying king. 37
    Harington was determined to prove his loyalty to Thomas Seymour. Leaving the palace one day, he made the short journey to the house of Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset, which was also in Westminster. 38 Dorset, who was himself a cousin of the king and had married his niece Frances Brandon – daughter of Henry VIII’s sister Mary Tudor – was an uncomplicated fellow, priding himself on his faithfulness to his royal wife, to his friends and to his reformed faith. 39 He admitted Harington, inviting him into his frosty gardens, where they could