am to crave your fryndly advyes and counsell (before yt be delyvered to my lord Robert,) howe you lyke yt; for yf you wyll have onni thyng amendyd theer I pray you note yt, and my man shaull bryng yt backe to me agayne. For I wold be lothe theer shuld be onni faute found with onni word theerin wrytten. Good cousen Cecill as you may contynew your fryndshipp to the furtherauns of the Queenes Magestys most gracyous favor and merse towardes her, I assure you she hathe emputed no smaulle parte of her well spedyng unto your assured fryndshippe, wyche I am shure nether she nor I neyd not to request the contynuauns therof. Thus besechyng you to make my hearty commendatyons to my good lady my cousen, your wyfe, I take my leve of you for this tyme. From Pyrgo the 7th of November 1563..

By your lovyng cousine
and assured frynd

to my smaulle power

To my verye lovinge cowsigne Sir William Cecill knight cheif Secretarye to the Quenes Majestie.

JOHN GREY.

Lady Catherine's Petition to the Queen.

I DARE not presume Most gracious Soveraigne, to crave pardon for my disobedient and rasche matchinge of my selfe, withowt your Highenes consent, I onely most humblye sewe unto your Highenes, to continewe your mercyfull nature towarde me. I knowledge myselfe a most unworthye creature to feale so muche of your gracious favour as I have

don. My just felt miserye and continuall greife dothe teache me dailye, more and more, the greatnes of my faulte, and your princelye pittie encreasethe my sorrowe, that have so forgotton my dewtie towardes your Majestie. This is my great torment of minde. Maye it therefore please your excellent Magestie to licence me to be a most lowlye sutor unto your Highenes to extende towarde my miserable state your Magesties further favour and accustumed mercye, which uppon my knees in all humble wise I crave, with my daylye prayers to God, longe continew and preserve your majesties Raigne over us. From Pirgo the vjth. of November 1563.

Your Majesties most humble bounden
and obedient subjecte. "

LETTER CLXVI.

Lord John Gray to Sir William Cecil, still upon the! grief of Lady Catherine.

[MS. LANSDOWNE NUM. 6. art. 43. Orig.]

THE augmentinge of my Neeces greiffe in the wantte of the Quenes Magesties favour enforsethe me (besides my dewtye in nature) everye waye to declare and recommende unto you, her miserable and wofull state; this thre or foure daies she hathe for the most parte kept her bedde, but altogether her chamber, in suche wise as I thought once I shulde have ben driven to have sent for some of the Quenes Phisicions; and I never came to her, but I founde her either

AMS. Lansd. Num. 6. art. 37.

wepinge or els sawe by her face she had wept. Wherefore good cowsigne Cecill, for the mutuall love which ought to be betwixt christen men, and for the love wherewith God hathe loved us, beinge his, procure by some waye or meanes, the Quenes Majesties farther favour towardes her; for assuredlye, she never went to bed all this time of her sicknes, but they that watched with her muche dowted howe to fynde her in the morninge, for she is so fraughted with fleame by reason of thought, wepinge, and settinge still, that many times she is like to be overcume therewith: so as if she had not painefull wemen about her, I tell you trewlye cowsigne Cecill, I coulde not slepe in quiet. Thus with my hartey commendations to you and to my good ladye my cowsigne I wishe you the same quiet of minde, as to my selfe. From my howse at Pirgo the xijth, of December 1563.

By your lovyng cosine

and assured frynd to his power

To my verye lovinge cowsigne Sir William Cecill knight cheif Secretoryc to the Quenes Majestic.

JOHN GREY.

LETTER CLXVII.

Lady Catherine Countess of Hertford to Sir William Cecil.

[MS. LANSDOWNE NUM. 6. art. 44. Orig.]

WHAT the long want of the Queens Majestys accoustumed favor towards me hath breade in thys myserable and wreched body of myne, God only knoweth, as I dayly more and more, to the torment and wastyng therof, do otherwyse feale then well able to express: wych if it shuld any long tyme thus contynew, I rather wyshe of God shortly to be buryed in the fayth and feare of hym, then in thys contynuall agony to lyve. As I have wryten unto my lord Robert, so, good cousyne Cycell, do I unto yow. I must confess I never fealte what the want of my Prynces favor was before now, wych by yowr good means and the rest of my very good Lords ons obtayned, I shall not requyre any of yow, if it faull through my default, to be means for the restetucyon therof; so myndfull, God wyllyng, shal I be not to offend her Hyghnes. Thus desyryng the contynuance of yowr frendshyp I most hartely byd yow farewell, good cousyne Cecyll, prayng yow to

make my harty commendacyons to my cousyne yowr wyfe. From Pyrgo the xiij of December

yowr poore cousyne and assured
frend to my small power,

KATHERYNE HARTFORD.

FROM a Letter of Sir William Cecil to Sir Thomas Smith of the 27th April, 1564, it seems probable that the Lady Catherine and Lord Hertford's imprisonments, in a measure, owed their prolongation to the mistaken zeal of one John Hales, who had been clerk of the hanaper in the reign of Henry the Eighth.

He says, "Here is fallen out a troublesome fond matter. John Hales had secretly made a book in the time of the last Parliament wherein he hath taken upon him to discuss no small matter, viz. the title to the Crown after the Queen's Majeste. Having confuted and rejected the line of the Scottish Queen, and made the line of the Lady Francis mother to the Lady Catherine only next and lawful. He is committed to the Fleet for this boldness, specially because he hath communicated it to sundry persons. My Lord John Gray is in trouble also for it. Beside this, John Hales hath procured sentences and counsels of Lawyers from beyond seas to be written in maintenance of the Earl of Hertford's marriage. This dealing of his offendeth the Queen's Majesty very much. God give her Majesty by this chance a disposition to consider hereof that either by her marriage or by some common order, we poor subjects may know where to lean and adventure our lives with contentation of our consciences." a

In another, dated May 9th, 1564, Sir William Cecil says that he himself is not free from suspicion " because some of those committed upon the occasion had access to him in their sutes." "In this matter I am by commandment occupied, whereof I could be content to be delivered: but I will go upright, neither ad dextram nor ad sinistram."b

a MS. Lansd. Num. 102. art. 49. Bishop Jewell expressed himself in a similar manner upon this subject in a Letter to Peter Martyr, from Salisbury 7th Feb. 1562: "Est Puella quædam nobilis, domina Catherina, Ducis Suffolchiensis filia, ex sanguine regio, eoque nominatim scripta ab Henrico Octavo in Testamento, ut si quid accidisset, quarto loco succederet. Ex eo, Comes Herfordiensis, juvenis, Ducis Somersetensis filius, suscepit filium, et multi putant ex stupro, sed ut ipsi dicunt, ex legitimis nuptiis. Se enim clam inter se contraxisse, et advocato sacrificatore, et paucis quibusdam arbitris, junxisse Nuptias. Ea res turbavit animos multorum. Nam si sunt veræ Nuptiæ, Puer, qui susceptus est, alitur ad spem Regni. O nos miseros, qui non possumus scire, sub quo Domino victuri simus." Burnet, Hist. Ref. vol. iii. App. Num. 65.

b MS. Lansd. Num. 102. art. 51.