Lady Jane Grey and Her Times by Ida A. (Ida Ashworth) Taylor

Author:Ida A. (Ida Ashworth) Taylor [Taylor, Ida A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Memoir
ISBN: 9781411452282
Publisher: Barnes & Noble
Published: 2011-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER XIV

1552

Lady Jane’s correspondence with Bullinger—Illness of the Duchess of Suffolk—Haddon’s difficulties—Ridley’s visit to Princess Mary—the English Reformers—Edward fatally ill—Lady Jane’s character and position.

The removal of the two Seymour brothers, whilst it had left Northumberland predominant, had also increased the importance of the Duke of Suffolk. Both by reason of the position he personally filled, and owing to his connection, through his wife, with the King, he was second to none in the State save the man to whom Somerset’s fall was due and who had succeeded to his power. He shared Northumberland’s prominence, as he was afterwards to share his ruin; and, as one of the chief props of Protestantism, he and his family continued to be objects of special interest to the divines of that persuasion, foreign and English.

Lady Jane, as before, was in communication with the learned Bullinger, and in the same month—July 1552—that her visit had been paid to the Princess Mary she was sending him another letter, dated from Bradgate, expressing her gratitude for the “great friendship he desired to establish between them, and acknowledging his many favours.” After a second perusal of his latest letter—since a single one had not contented her—the benefit derived from it had surpassed that to be obtained from the best authors, and in studying Hebrew she meant to pursue the method he recommended.

In August more pressing interests must have taken the place of study, for at Richmond in Surrey her mother was attacked by a sickness threatening at one time to prove fatal.

“This shall be to advertise you,” wrote the Duchess’s husband, hastily summoned from London, to Cecil, “that my sudden departing from the Court was for that I had received letters of the state my wife was in, who I assure you is more liker to die than to live. I never saw a sicker creature in my life than she is. She hath three diseases.... These three being enclosed in one body, it is to be feared that death must needs follow. By your most assured and loving cousin, who, I assure you, is not a little troubled.”

His anxiety was soon relieved. The Duchess was not only to outlive, but, in her haste to replace him, was to show little respect for his memory. She must quickly have got the better of her present threefold disorder, for in the course of the same month a letter was sent from Richmond by James Haddon, the domestic chaplain, to Bullinger, making no mention of any cause of uneasiness as to the physical condition of his master’s wife. He was preoccupied by other matters, disquieted by scruples of conscience, and glad to unburthen himself to the universal referee with regard to certain difficulties attending his position in the Duke’s household.

It was true that he might have hesitated to communicate the fears and misgivings by which he was beset to a guide at so great a distance, had not John ab Ulmis—who, as portrayed by these letters, was somewhat

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