A Dangerous Inheritance

‘Was this your wedding ring?’ my custodian asks.

‘No. This was the ring of my assurance to my lord. This is my wedding ring.’ And I lay in his palm the five-hooped band. ‘Deliver this also to him, and pray him, even as I have been unto him a true and faithful wife, to be a loving and natural father to my children. And here is the third ring you must give him.’ I bring forth the death’s-head memento mori. ‘This shall be the last token unto my lord that ever I shall send him. It is the picture of myself.’

As I hand him the ring, I catch sight of my fingers. The nails have turned an ominous purple. My hour is upon me.

I turn my eyes to the door.

‘He is come,’ I say, and smile.

Afterwards

LADY KATHERINE GREY was first buried in Yoxford Church, with the Queen affording her a lavish funeral. She was mourned by many Protestants who had hoped to see her acknowledged Elizabeth’s heir. Elizabeth expressed formal sorrow at her passing, but the Spanish ambassador observed, ‘It is not believed that she feels it, as she was afraid of her.’

Ned outlived Katherine by fifty-three years. He did not remarry until 1596, his second bride being Frances Howard, daughter of Lord Howard of Effingham, the hero of the Armada. For years he fought to have his sons declared legitimate, but Queen Elizabeth remained obdurate. When she was dying in 1603, it was suggested that Katherine’s son Edward be named her successor. ‘I will have no rascal’s son to succeed me!’ she retorted.

Edward and Thomas, who were brought up to honour their mother’s memory, were finally declared legitimate the following year, by a statute of James I. In 1608, the priest who had married Katherine and Ned finally came out of hiding and testified to the legitimacy of their union. Edward, Viscount Beauchamp, died in 1612; his brother Thomas had passed away in 1600.

In 1611, Ned’s grandson, William Seymour, made another misalliance with a lady of royal blood when he married Lady Arbella Stuart, the granddaughter of Margaret Douglas, Lady Le

Under Charles I, William Seymour was restored to favour and created Duke of Somerset. He died in 1660. It was he who, on his father’s death, had Katherine’s remains moved to Salisbury Cathedral, where she was laid to rest with her husband in a great ‘Golden Tomb’ with effigies of herself and her ‘sweet lord Ned’, with their two sons kneeling at either side.

The Latin epitaph on the tomb describes Katherine and Ned as ‘Incomparable consorts, who experienced the vicissitudes of fortune, and at last rest together here in the same concord in which they lived their lives.’

Author’s Note

In telling this fictional version of the story of Lady Katherine Grey, I have adhered closely to the facts where they are known, although I have taken some dramatic licence. For example, Katherine’s stormy confrontation with Ned over his flirtation with Frances Mewtas was acted out in letters; here, I have shown it taking place face to face. Much here is quoted from contemporary documents, and the letters are genuine; although some passages in Katherine’s letters have been used out of context, the sentiments relate accurately to the narrative. Archaic language has been modified to blend in with a modern text, although I have made use of many contemporary sources and idioms.

The long-accepted view of the Suffolks as harsh parents has recently been challenged, but there is no credible explaining away of Lady Jane Grey’s own bitter testimony to that, as recorded first-hand by Roger Ascham, and at least one contemporary source records Jane being beaten and cursed when she resisted her betrothal to Guilford Dudley. New research undertaken by historian Nicola Tallis suggests that the traditional view of the Suffolks is correct. It is conceivable that a chastened Frances mellowed after Jane’s execution, as portrayed in this novel, and that Katherine and Mary never suffered the rigour and expectations that their parents imposed on Jane. I would question the theory that there has been a deliberate attempt down the centuries to blacken Frances’s character.

Hester Chapman put forward the theory that Katherine’s head was so turned when she saw her sister made queen that for ever after her ambitions were focused on wearing a crown. Chapman believes that this is the only theory that makes sense of Katherine’s behaviour, but I think she was a self-obsessed girl who let her heart rule her head. Her instincts were emotional rather than logical, and because of that, she ended up out of her depth, in deep trouble.

Katherine wasturned out of Pembroke’s house immediately after Mary I was proclaimed queen. I have done my best to make sense of her religious persuasions, and her dealings with the Spanish ambassadors.

Confusion surrounds the date of Frances’s second marriage, to Adrian Stokes, and the number of their children, yet an Inquisition Post Mortem of 1600 dealing with Frances’s estates gives the date as 9th March 1554, only weeks after Henry Grey’s execution, and records their only issue as a daughter, Elizabeth, who was born in July 1555 at Knebworth and died there in February 1556. This Inquisition is listed in Vol. 34 of the Calendar of State Papers: Domestic, Elizabeth I(www.british-history.ac.uk). (I am indebted to Nicola Tallis for this reference.) Various historians have questioned Frances remarrying so soon after the death of her first husband, citing a report of the Spanish ambassador, Simon Renard, who, in April 1555, mentioned a proposal that she marry a descendant of the House of York, Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, although he added that the Earl was unwilling. Courtenay’s biographer, Horatia Durant, suggests that the marriage to Stokes, made over a year before, had been a well-kept secret, which is likely. William Camden, Elizabeth I’s earliest biographer, wrote that Frances remarried ‘for her security’. As Dulcie Ashdown says, Frances would have been aware that, as a widow, she was ‘a tempting match for an ambitious nobleman who saw in her a means to future power’; being in line for the throne, her position was potentially dangerous, so she may have regarded a speedy second marriage to a man with no pretensions as the safest option.

As the law stood, Katherine was Elizabeth I’s heir, and many people supported her claim. I do not think she wanted to supplant Elizabeth, only to be acknowledged as her successor. To Elizabeth, though, she appeared a deadly rival whose very existence threatened her throne. If Elizabeth had had her way, Katherine would never have married. The Interludes in the book are there to show Elizabeth’s point of view; without them, she comes across as a cruel persecutor.

Some sources state that Katherine was demoted from Lady of the Bedchamber (the highest rank) to Lady of the Privy Chamber, others that it was from Lady of the Privy Chamber to Lady of the Presence Chamber, and some even claim she was demoted upwards from the Privy Chamber to the Bedchamber! It seems that she was actually downgraded from the Bedchamber to the Presence Chamber.

The course of Katherine’s courtship by Edward Seymour, and his sister’s role in it, was much as it is portrayed here, and the account of their wedding day – and ‘night’ – is based closely on their own depositions. Katherine’s love for Edward was the overriding passion of her life, and she remained staunchly faithful through every trial, until her death.