The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor (32 page)

Although he carried Elizabeth’s letter, on 11 December Parry had no appointment and was not expected at Seymour’s London residence.
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Looking around for a familiar face as he entered, he approached William Wightman, to ask his assistance in obtaining an interview with the Lord Admiral. Wightman, who had little desire to involve himself in his master’s matrimonial schemes, showed scant interest, merely glancing up at his visitor as he sat at his writing desk. He was busy composing a letter, and after Parry was told to wait in another chamber he promptly forgot all about him.

Dismayed to find himself ignored, Parry finally located another servant to inform Seymour that he had arrived. On hearing that Parry was there, Thomas immediately called him into his chamber. He was anxious to know what message the cofferer carried and, without waiting for his visitor to sit, ushered him into his long gallery, where they could talk entirely in private. Seymour greeted Parry jovially, turning all his charm on the princess’s suggestible messenger. The cofferer was flattered and immediately handed over Elizabeth’s letter. Seymour paused in his pacing to read it, considering briefly the question of the girl’s chaplain, Allen, who was ostensibly the reason for Parry’s visit. Once that was dealt with, Parry relayed a verbal message from his mistress, asking for Seymour’s assistance in securing Durham Place. This fine old house, which ‘standeth on the Thames very pleasantly’, was chiefly notable for a hall with a high ceiling supported by marble pillars.
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Although it had been promised to Elizabeth as a London residence, the Protector had been making difficulties. Could Thomas assist her, since she needed her own residence if she were to visit London?

Seymour only had bad news on this score. He was sorry, he said, but Elizabeth had no hope of the house. It had already been decided that it was to be used as a mint, regardless of her prior claim.
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He did, however, agree that the princess needed somewhere to stay if she were to come to London. As he strolled up and down the gallery with Parry, he suggested that he lend her Seymour Place, with all his household possessions and furniture. He had rooms at court that he sometimes used, so it seemed a practical solution. Thomas was sure that she would agree to his offer. It would also, of course, place her under his obligation and under his own roof once more.

Thomas ambled with Parry in the gallery for more than an hour, speaking earnestly about the princess in his West Country brogue. He sent Parry away feeling content with how the interview had gone and invited him to return again as soon as he was able. Elizabeth’s cofferer did indeed come back, three or four days later, and was once again invited to the gallery, conversing with Seymour for just under an hour. As they walked, the pair spoke again about Elizabeth, with Thomas informing the cofferer that he would go to see her.
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Parry deflected this, declaring that he had no commission to consider it and did not know how Elizabeth would feel about it. Seymour laughed: ‘Why it is no matter now: for there hath been a talk of late, they say now I shall marry My Lady Jane.’ When Parry looked askance, Seymour merely laughed again: ‘I tell you this but merrily, I tell you this but merrily.’ Was he hoping that Elizabeth would believe that she had a rival? Perhaps he was trying to establish an alibi. If all the world thought he would marry Jane Grey then a visit to Elizabeth at Hatfield, acting as a break in his journey to Sudeley, must be harmless.

Parry was very taken with the Admiral and his hospitality, and he immediately wrote both to his mistress and to Kate Ashley, setting out the offer of Seymour Place. He also explained that Thomas wished ‘to see her [Elizabeth] especially’. Even Parry could see that she was the chief object of his desire.

After reading the letter at Hatfield, the fifteen-year-old princess summoned her lady mistress to her side. Although guarded both in nature and by necessity, Elizabeth was prepared to open her heart to Kate. Recalling that Kate had only just returned from London, she asked her whether there was any news. Kate, still basking in her own marital reconciliation, answered merrily: ‘They say there that Your Grace shall have My Lord Admiral, and that he will come shortly to woo you.’ Elizabeth blushed to hear this, dismissing it by declaring that ‘it was but a London News’ and thus a report of no worth.
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She did, however, inform Kate of Seymour’s intention to visit Hatfield shortly, something which the lady mistress already knew from Parry. The idea worried Elizabeth, given the talk in London. Kate should write in reply ‘as she thought best’, but she must be sure to show her the letter before it was sent. The lady mistress agreed, taking the decision for the indecisive princess.

Kate hurriedly wrote to Seymour, setting out ‘that she thought it not best, for fear of suspicion’. To soften the blow, she set out her own goodwill towards the Lord Admiral, but insisted that he should in nowise come without the Council’s consent. The princess herself, responding to Kate’s teasing, told her that ‘though he himself would peradventure have me, yet I think the Council will not consent to it; for, I think, by that you said, that if he had had his own will, he would have had me, I thought there was no let, but only the Council, of his part’.
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Elizabeth’s mind, already preoccupied in negotiating the loan of furniture, carpets and tapestries from the royal stores to furnish her house, was yet also wandering to marriage.
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She was certainly more interested in Thomas’s suit than in keeping her thoughts ‘under control through work or holy thoughts and conversations’ as contemporary writers thought proper for a young lady.
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In London, Parry showed Kate’s letter to Thomas the next time he saw him. As he read it, Seymour let show a rare crack in his composure towards the cofferer. As always when he was emotional, his face coloured, and in outrage he demanded to know why he might not come to Elizabeth as well as he did to Princess Mary, whom he was then cultivating for her opinion concerning Catherine’s jewels. He soon calmed down and appeared genial again; but Thomas Seymour was not prepared to take no for an answer.

With Parry gone after an hour, Seymour resolved to further press his suit. Making his way to court, he called for Mary Cheke, the wife of the king’s tutor. Mary had been a friend to Catherine and was also seduced by Thomas’ charms, as her arrival at Chelsea to console him after the queen’s death suggested. She was embroiled enough in Seymour’s affairs that her husband later felt compelled to apologize for her ‘misbehaviour’, although the extent of her involvement was fairly marginal.
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While she was with Seymour, he told her that there was a rumour ‘that he did not use My Lady Elizabeth well, when she was in his house’. Defensively, he asked the lady for her view of how he had used himself when she had been there. Mistress Cheke answered as she had seen: she had never noticed his behaviour towards the princess to be improper.

In late 1548 Mary Cheke was pregnant, although this did not stop her making the short journey to Hatfield on around 18 December, seeking out Kate Ashley. She probably felt obliged to do so, since her husband was as good as on the Admiral’s payroll thanks to the money Seymour passed to the king’s servants. On meeting with Kate in private, Mary Cheke mentioned that she had a message from Thomas, who had said that he wished to come to see Elizabeth but feared that people would say ‘that he came a wooing’.
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After Mary recounted her meeting with Seymour, Kate remained noncommittal, still refusing to give permission for the Lord Admiral to visit. When talk of his wooing Elizabeth was mentioned, all she would say was ‘why do they say so?’ as she laughed.

Even before Mary Cheke headed for Hatfield, Parry was writing to Kate again, renewing Thomas’s offer to visit. It was now that Elizabeth decided to take a more forceful approach, instructing Kate to write that although she knew there was nothing untoward in the visit, they must be careful of rumours. Elizabeth always resolutely stated that this was as far as Thomas’s wooing went, and that she never agreed to anything without the Council’s consent.

This was not, however, all that Kate wrote. In a second letter, quickly despatched to the capital, she declared that, on reflection, the princess accepted Thomas’s gentle offers and that he would be welcome at Hatfield, although ‘if he came not, she prayed God speed his journey’. She wanted to make it clear that Elizabeth was not looking for a visit – Seymour could come or not, as he pleased. One of the letters ended with words of caution: ‘no more hereof, until I see My Lord myself, for My Lady is not to seek of his gentleness or goodwill’. Elizabeth professed herself furious when Kate told her how she had written, telling her that she ‘would not have her take upon her the knowledge of any such thing’. The princess later protested that, for the sake of her reputation, she had begged Kate not to write this letter.

Yet Elizabeth went on to lie about other matters too, including denying that she had been privy to the correspondence between Kate and Parry when she had certainly seen some of it. She was no ignorant child, and when she learned of Seymour’s proposed visit it placed her in a quandary. She knew that she should not have dealings with this suitor without the express authority of the Council; but she cared about him and desired to see him again. She wanted to let her heart rule her head – and Kate’s second letter suggests that she did just that.

Kate would write only one further letter to Parry while he was in London.
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This was after she had received a visit from the Tyrwhitts, who were watching Seymour’s activities warily. Lady Tyrwhitt told Kate that ‘men did think that My Lord Admiral kept the queen’s maidens together to wait upon the Lady Elizabeth, whom he intended to marry shortly’; Sir Robert told her that she must take heed, since the marriage would be to the undoing of everyone if it were done without the Council’s consent.

In London, Thomas Parry took little notice of Kate’s advice when she wrote expressing the Tyrwhitts’ concerns. Elizabeth’s cofferer was letting himself be won over by Seymour’s charm. On 20 December 1548, the only day that Seymour failed to attend Parliament, Parry came to him again at Seymour Place, spending two hours alone with him in the gallery.
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A few days later, before Christmas, Parry came yet again. This time he arrived so early that he beat the increasingly watchful Wightman to the house, even though Seymour’s servant had only to make the short walk from his lodgings in Fleet Street.
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Parry slipped in quietly from the icy street, almost unseen.

It was only as Parry grew more sure of the Admiral – on his third or fourth visit – that he opened up enough to speak candidly of his mistress. The two spoke at length, with Seymour questioning his visitor on a number of topics, including Elizabeth’s household and the number of her servants.
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He also asked where her lands were, to which Parry responded diligently. Seymour continued: were they good lands or no? Most were let, his visitor shrugged, and therefore of poor quality. Yes, but were they only held for her lifetime, or were they hers outright? Thomas’s questions were sounding like those of a suitor. Parry was unsure, since he had not seen a copy of Henry VIII’s will. Seymour then asked if Elizabeth yet had title to the lands with letters patent, to which Parry knew that she had not, but that this meant that she could potentially exchange them. Mulling this over, Seymour said: ‘I would wish she had her lands westward or in Wales’ and named an estate in Gloucestershire that had belonged to Catherine and which he would be sorry to lose now that the queen’s life interest in them had expired. Parry was now certain ‘that there was some matter betwixt them’. He resolved to ask the princess when he returned home to Hatfield, once Parliament adjourned for Christmas.

While still in London, Parry wrote to Kate stressing the ‘great friendship’ that he perceived Seymour to bear towards Elizabeth.
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She avoided putting a reply into writing but, when Parry arrived back at Hatfield, she immediately sought him out, asking him insistently exactly what he had meant by his words. She wanted to speak to him before he saw Elizabeth, so the two found a quiet corner in the house, already dark from the December dullness outside. Glancing around to make sure that they were not overheard, Kate told the cofferer that what he had written ‘was dangerous, lest it should kindle affection in her’. Kate knew better than anyone that Elizabeth’s feelings for Seymour were hardly those of a stepdaughter towards her stepfather. As the pair talked quietly, Parry dismissed Kate’s concerns, saying only that he thought that Seymour was Elizabeth’s friend, to which Kate replied: ‘Think you, he goeth about marriage?’ Parry shrugged his shoulders. He could not tell, although he thought that it would be a good match if the Council were to agree. Elizabeth’s governess concurred with this opinion but hastily told Parry that in the event that the Council did not agree, she would ‘rather he were hanged’. Parry answered quietly that he thought so too. Kate, conflicted, ended by saying that she ‘would not be so glad that any man in the world should have her, as he; but without My Lord Protector’s mind, let him never come here’.