he and I have bothe of the kyngs hynes and the quens gras by the resson of our maryagge wytheout thayr knollyge, wheryn we bothe doe yelde our selfs faulty and doe knollyge that we dyd nat welle to be so hasty nor so bold wytheout thayr knollyge. But wone thyng good Master Sekretory consedor, that he was younge; and love ovarcame ressone, and for my part I saw so myche onesty yn hym that I lovyd hyme as well as he dyd me and was yn bondagge and glade I was to be at lybarty, so that for my part I saw that all the world dyd sete so lytyll by me and he so myche, that I thoute I could take no betar way but to take hyme and to forsake all other ways and lyve a pour oneste lyffe wythe hym; and so I doe pout no douts but, we should, if we myht wons be so hapy to recouver the kyngs grasshyous favour and the quens. For well I myht a had a greater mane of byrth and a hyĥar, but I ynsuer you I could never a had wone that should a lovyd me so well nor a mor onest man, and bysydes that, he ys bothe come offe an aunssyent stok, and agayn as mete, (yeff yt was hys grassys plesaur,) to doe the kyng servys as any young jentyllmane yne hys court; therefore good Mastar Sekretory thys shall be my sute to you that for the loue that well I kno you doe ber to all my bloude, tho' for my part I have nat desarvyd yt, but smally bye the ressone of my vylle condasshyons, as to pout my hous band to the kyngs gras that he may doe hys duty as all outhar gen tyllmene doe: and good Mastar Sekretory sue for us to the kyngs hynes and beshych his hynes whyche ever was wount to take pety, to have pety one ous and that yt woull ples hys gras of his goodines to speke to the qwens gras for ous; for as far as I cane parsay ve har gras ys so hyly dysplessed wyth ous both that withoute the kyng be so good lord to ous as to wythedraw hys reguor and sue for ous we are nevar lyke to recovar har grasys favoor, whych ys to hevy to ber. And seinge ther ys no remydy, for Gods sake help ous: for we have byne now a quarter off a yer maryyd I thanke God and to late now to call that agayn; wherfor yt ys the more almones to helpe. Bout yeffe I war at my lebarty and myhte chous, I ynseure you Mastar Sekretory for my lytyll tyme I haue tryyd so myche onesty to be yne hym that I had rather beg my bred wyth hyme thane to be the gretyst quene krystynd; and I bylyve veryly he ys yne the same cas wythe me, for I bylyve veryly a would nat forsake me to be a kyng, therfor good Mastar Sekretory beyng we are so well togethar and does ynetende to lyve so oneste a lyffe, though yt be but pour, shou part of your goodenes to ous as well as you doe to all the worlde bysyds; for I promys you ye have the name to helpe all them that hathe nede, and amonkst all your suetars I dar be bolde to say that you have no mater more to be pytyd thane ours: and therfor for Gods sake be good to ous for yne you ys all our troust, and I beshych you good Mastar Sekretory pray my lord my fathar and my lady to be good to ous and to lete me have thayr blessyngs and my housband thayr good wyll, and I wool nevar desyr mor off them. Allso I pray you desyr my Lorde of Norfolk and my lorde my brouthar to be good to ous. I dar nat wryte to theme they ar so cruel agaynst ous, but yeff wyth any payne that I could take wythe my lyffe I myht wyne ther good wyls I promys you ther ys no chyld lyvyng would ventar mor than I, and so I pray you to report by me, and you shall fynd my wryting true and yn all poynts whyche I may ples theme yne, I shall be redy to obay theme neryst my housband, home I ame moste bound to, to whom I most hartly beshych you to be good unto, whyche for my sake ys a pour banysshed mane for an onest and a godely cawes: and beyng that I have red yne old bouks that some, for aws joust caussys have by kyngs and quens byn pardonnyd by the suete of good folks, I troust yt shall be our chans thourow your good help, to come to the same, as knoyth the God, who sende you helthe and harts ese. Scryblyd wyth her yll hande, who ys your pour humble suytor always to commande. "MARY STAFFORD."-pp. 525-7. Our next selection will also be a lady's letter. It is from Katherine Basset, daughter of John Basset, Esq. of Heanton in Devonshire, by Frances, daughter and co-heiress of Arthur Plantagenet Viscount Lisle, natural son of Edward the Fourth; and from the address, it seems that her mother assumed the title of Lady Lisle." Katherine was then in the household of the Earl of Rutland, and entreated her mother to exert herself to obtain the queen's favour, most probably with the view of becoming a maid of honour. "To the right honourable, and my very good lady and mother, my Lady Lisle, be this delyvered at Calais. "Madame, "In my humble wyse, my dewtye done to your ladyship, desyeryng yow of your daylye blessyng; sertifying your ladyship, that my lord of Rutland, and my ladye, be in good health, and hathe them hertelye recommendyd to your ladiship, thankyng yow for yowre wyne, and your heryng, that yow sent them. Madame, my ladye hath gyven me a gown of Kaffa damask, of her own old wearyng; and that she wold in no wise that I shuld reffuse yt. And I have spoken to Mr. Husse, for a rowle of buckeram to new lyne yt, and velwyt to edge it withall. Madame, I humbly beseche your ladyship to be good ladye and mother to me: for my Ladye of Rutland sayth, that mother Lowe, the mother of the Dowche maydes, maye do muche for my preferment to the queen's highness; so that your ladiship wold sende her my good token, that she myght the better remembre me; trustyng that your ladyship wold be good ladye unto me in this behalf. Madame, I have received of Ravenfford two crownes, for the whiche I humbly thank your ladyship. I do lake a ketyll [kertel] for every day: I beseche your ladyship that I maye have yt; and I desyer your ladyship, that I maye be humblye recommended to my lorde, and to my sisters. Madam, my brother George is in good helthe, and is here in the cowrt with Sir Francis Brian. And thus the Holy Ghost have yow in his kepyng, who send your ladyship good lyffe, and length, to his plesure. Wrytten at Yorke's Place, the 17th daye of February, "by your humble daughter, "KATHERINE BASSET."-Pp. 213-4. Nor have we yet done either with the reign of Henry the Eighth, or the epistles of ladies. We have a curious letter with which to entertain our readers from Ann, first Countess of Bedford, to some nobleman about procuring physicians for the earl, who was then ill, and whose fancies are amusingly described. Dr. Buttes was the great physician of the reign of Henry the Eighth, and was sent by the king to Wolsey during the cardinal's last illness. He is also honourably commemorated by Fox as the friend of Bishop Latimer; but he is better known from being introduced by Shakespeare into his play of " Henry the Eighth :" his portrait occurs in Holbein's picture in Surgeons' Hall, of Henry giving the charter to the Company of Surgeons. "In most humble manner, I commend me unto your lordship. So it is, that it hath pleased God to visit my husband with a burning ague, ensuring your lordship he was as sick and as sore handled with it yesterday, as ever I saw him in my life; and as your lordship shall perceive by the letter therein, I sent to London to a chaplain of my husbands, to send him physicians; but he could get none that my husband had any mind unto; wherefore this shall be most heartily to beseech your lordship, of your goodness, that you will help him so that Doctor Buttes, or the Spanish physician might come hither; for if they did but see my husband, he would think himself half healed. "Furthermore, there is a powder that the kings grace gave to my lord admiral, which my husband hath a great mind unto; and if your lordship could get a few of that of the kings grace for him, you should do him the greatest pleasure in the world. At the writing of this letter, I had, nor could get, no physicians as knoweth him, who preserve your good lordship. "At Cheynes, July 29. By your poor bede woman, But we must not be so unjust to the Compiler to omit his note, because it is a fair specimen of the half dozen which he has inserted. "This lady was Anne, the wife of John, the first Earl of Bedford, and daughter of Sir Guy Sapcott, bart. "N. B. This letter is published to shew the early taste for quackery, which, like the frogs in Egypt, got into the king's palace : however, it chanced to turn out a valuable medicine, and was purchased of the king for 50001. It is thought to be what we now call the Gascoign powder." From one of the Cottonian manuscripts Dr, Howard has given a copy, from the original, of Henry the Eighth's declaration of his dislike to Anne of Cleves, in which his majesty states, "Then after, at my repayre to Grenewyche, the next day after, I thynke, and dowght nott but that the Lord of Essex, well examined, can, wyll, or hathe declaryd what I then sayde to hym in that case, not dowghtyng, but since he is a person whyche knowyth hymselfe condemnyd to dye by act of parliament, wyll not dame his solle, but truly declare the trught, not only att that tyme spoken by me, but also contynuyingly till the day of maryage, and also many times after; wherby I'm lacke off consent, I dought not dothe or shall well appeare; and also lacke much off both wyll and power to consummate the same; weryn both he, my physicians, the Lord Privy Seal that now is, Heneyge and Deny, can, and I doubt not will, testify according to trewth; whyche is, that I never, for love to woman, consented to mary; nor yet if she brought with her, toke any from her. This is my bryffe declaration. H." "Oppon the day off her entre to Grynwich, after I had broght her to her chamber, he came wyth me to myne; and then I sayd to him How say you, my lord; is it not as I tolde you? Say what they wyll, she is nothing fayre; the parsonage is well and semly, but nothing else. Be my fayth, you say right, quoth he; but me thynketh she hath a queenly manner wyth all. That is right, quoth I; and for that tyme we had no farther communication." "The even before we shulde be maryed, as you and I was talkyng thereoff, yow tolde me, that the ambassadurs and you, with the rest of my commissioners, were at a poynt; and then I asked you, How do ye with the ensurrance that was made by her to the Duke of Loran? To that yow answard and sayde, They have cleryd that matter well inowght, and browght with them a sufficient instrument of the same. Marry, quo I; yett wyll I not mary her, excepte she make a renounciation herselfe: Whereoppon, as I remember, you causyd her to make the same; and when she had done it, yow came to me effesones agayne, and tolde me, that it was done: then is there no remedy, quo I, but put my necke in the yoke; and so we parted for that time. The morow after we were maryd, as he and I communyd of our affaires, and the wayghty maters resolvyd, he asked me whether I likyd her any better then affore. I answard, and sayd, nay, my lord, muche wors; for by her brest she shulde be no mayde; which strake me to the hart. But is it so? quo he. Ye, by my fayth, quo I. Then wolde I, quo he, she never had come here. And also I dowght nott, but that he dothe well remember, that at sondry and many other tymes synce, I have declaryd unto hym how I abhorde her ever since. If these thyngs be true, wyllyng to sett hys hand thereto."-pp. 170-2. A letter occurs in Latin, without date, signed "Margaret Seymour and Jane Seymour," thanking Henry for a literary present, probably a book, which they assured his majesty would stimulate them in their studies. Lord Wharton, in a letter to the Lord Privy Seal, dated at Cockermouth, 23rd December, 1540, advises his lordship, that, "As I am informed, there is a ballad maide lately in Scotlande of gret derision against all Ynglyshmen, for our livynge in the trew christen faith; which they take to be the contrarie. If it be your lordship's plesure, that I shall sende for the copie, and to sende it to * P. 276. your lordshipe; for it goeth muche abrode; and, as I am also informed, that the byshops are the setters forth thereof; as it maie stand with your lordship's most honorable commandment therein."-p. 169. Some ballads on the same subject, and about that time, are introduced into Bishop Percy's "Reliques;" but it is not likely that either of them is the one alluded to by Lord Wharton. Among the numerous letters of the reign of Elizabeth, a few will be found of importance, and many of much interest: of the former is a copy of the commission for the execution of the Queen of Scots," penned," the compiler says, "by Lord Burghley." It is dated on the 1st Feb. 29 Eliz. 1587, and was directed to the Earls of Shrewsbury, Kent, Derby, Cumberland, and Pembroke. The date there assigned to that instrument fully agrees with Secretary Davison's assertion, that it was signed on Friday the first of February. Following the warrant, Dr. Howard has inserted the correspondence between James the First and Elizabeth, relative to his mother; but it has been frequently printed elsewhere. There are, however, two letters from James on another affair, which we do not remember to have read before *. The well known Duke of Norfolk, who lost his life from his connexion with the Queen of Scots, writing to the Earl of Sussex in August, 1560, betrays his suspicion of Elizabeth's duplicity; a suspicion justified by almost every action of her life. "I am at the last arrived at the court, good cosyne, after long delays, where, by my will, I mind not long to tarry. All things at my coming out of the north were in as good state as it was possible to make broken matters to be. God send the queens majesty quickly to take order for the redress thereof; it is now an easy matter to do it, which with prolonging may become almost impossible. I have received at the queen's majesty's great heap of fair words, both openly and privately. Her majesty promises me great matters, God send me to feel of some in effect, as by my lords here I am put in good hope. Thus being sorry, that through my man's negligence I have been fain to make your man tarry for this scribbling so long, I bid you, good cosyne, most heartilye farewell. Pray make my commendations unto my lady. From Southehamtone, the 1st of August, 1560. "Your loving cosyne assuredly, "THOMAS NORFOLKE."-Pp. 203-4. Another letter from that unfortunate nobleman well merits a place among these extracts. "To the Earl of Sussex. "I am glad, good cosyne, that in the ende the queen's majestye will consider of the service you have done her in Ireland, not dowtynge, but that tyme shall brynge her majesty to know her true and heartye servants from dysemblyng and flattering lyars; and as to the * P. 244, 245. |