some guilt in the matter herself. As the princess herself later confessed, Kate had playfully confided to her not long after Seymour had married Catherine, that if the bridegroom ‘might have had his own will’ he would have had Elizabeth ‘afore the queen’. 46 This piqued the girl’s interest. She had asked Kate ‘how she knew that’, to which Kate had replied that ‘she knew it well enough, both by himself and by others’.
Kate must also have been concerned about her own position, since it was she who had removed the pallet bed from Elizabeth’s room. Whether that change was motivated by her new married status, or by pressure from Elizabeth to let her sleep alone, either way it did not look good. Yet, in spite of her unease, Kate did not force the girl to be chaperoned again at night. For several hours each night, Elizabeth continued to remain alone, and Thomas Seymour had a key to her room. It would have been a simple matter for him to slip into her chamber at Hanworth, unobserved, just as he had slipped into Catherine’s bedchamber at Chelsea some months earlier during his secret night-time visits.
The queen, in love with her husband but also in thrall to him as her ‘oppressor’, resisted seeing what was in front of her face. That summer and autumn, she was far from an attentive guardian. She had other things on her mind. Sometimes she would be away at court or even at the Protector’s house at Sheen, remonstrating with him over his treatment of her and her property. 47 She was also grieving the loss of Lord Parr of Horton, who had raised her. On his death in September 1547, she wrote plaintively that ‘it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto his mercy my entirely beloved uncle’, before remembering her position and substituting the more royal ‘our beloved uncle’. 48
Despite mixed, confused emotions, Elizabeth was rapidly growing infatuated with her alluring admirer. It was while they were staying together again at Hanworth that events took on a more dramatic turn. As Kate later put it, Thomas Seymour, who had with such little effort won himself a queen, also wanted to possess and ‘be homely with’ the young princess. 49
*1 There is historical dispute about her whereabouts. Some (James, Porter and de Lisle) consider that she remained, for the most part, at Seymour Place until the household moved to Seymour’s castle at Sudeley in the summer of 1548. However, the fact that Elizabeth’s later tutor, Roger Ascham, obviously knew Jane and her tutor well suggests that Elizabeth and Jane were sharing a household some time earlier.
*2 In the two recorded instances that Elizabeth spoke of Anne, she portrayed her favourably, in one case asserting that her mother would never have agreed to cohabit with the king except by way of marriage (Cole, p. 4).
*3 In one sense, Thomas Seymour might be said to have been doing Elizabeth a favour in causing her to rise earlier, since contemporaries agreed that ‘the sleep of a virgin should not be long’ (Vives, p. 91).
*4 A. Haynes, in his study of Tudor sexual activity (1999, p. 19), considers that Seymour’s conduct was ‘an eroticised substitute for penetrative sex, an attempt to subordinate her to his will’.
*5 As mentioned in Thomas Parry’s confession. A. Haynes (1999, p. 11) discusses the close relationships between master/mistress and servants in the household, suggesting that Seymour’s concerns need not have been entirely paranoid. In 1556 a Somerset gentlewoman, Mary Stawell, was found to have become besotted with a servant, to her husband’s rage.
*6 In spite of Catherine’s considerable number of administrative staff, Seymour also took on a controlling role in relation to her lands (as can be seen at The National Archives in document TNA E163/12/17 f. 1). He had terrified one of Catherine’s officers in Hampshire, such that the man protested that he had in no way ‘misused’ his office and pleaded: ‘I shall be glad and most
Kate must also have been concerned about her own position, since it was she who had removed the pallet bed from Elizabeth’s room. Whether that change was motivated by her new married status, or by pressure from Elizabeth to let her sleep alone, either way it did not look good. Yet, in spite of her unease, Kate did not force the girl to be chaperoned again at night. For several hours each night, Elizabeth continued to remain alone, and Thomas Seymour had a key to her room. It would have been a simple matter for him to slip into her chamber at Hanworth, unobserved, just as he had slipped into Catherine’s bedchamber at Chelsea some months earlier during his secret night-time visits.
The queen, in love with her husband but also in thrall to him as her ‘oppressor’, resisted seeing what was in front of her face. That summer and autumn, she was far from an attentive guardian. She had other things on her mind. Sometimes she would be away at court or even at the Protector’s house at Sheen, remonstrating with him over his treatment of her and her property. 47 She was also grieving the loss of Lord Parr of Horton, who had raised her. On his death in September 1547, she wrote plaintively that ‘it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto his mercy my entirely beloved uncle’, before remembering her position and substituting the more royal ‘our beloved uncle’. 48
Despite mixed, confused emotions, Elizabeth was rapidly growing infatuated with her alluring admirer. It was while they were staying together again at Hanworth that events took on a more dramatic turn. As Kate later put it, Thomas Seymour, who had with such little effort won himself a queen, also wanted to possess and ‘be homely with’ the young princess. 49
*1 There is historical dispute about her whereabouts. Some (James, Porter and de Lisle) consider that she remained, for the most part, at Seymour Place until the household moved to Seymour’s castle at Sudeley in the summer of 1548. However, the fact that Elizabeth’s later tutor, Roger Ascham, obviously knew Jane and her tutor well suggests that Elizabeth and Jane were sharing a household some time earlier.
*2 In the two recorded instances that Elizabeth spoke of Anne, she portrayed her favourably, in one case asserting that her mother would never have agreed to cohabit with the king except by way of marriage (Cole, p. 4).
*3 In one sense, Thomas Seymour might be said to have been doing Elizabeth a favour in causing her to rise earlier, since contemporaries agreed that ‘the sleep of a virgin should not be long’ (Vives, p. 91).
*4 A. Haynes, in his study of Tudor sexual activity (1999, p. 19), considers that Seymour’s conduct was ‘an eroticised substitute for penetrative sex, an attempt to subordinate her to his will’.
*5 As mentioned in Thomas Parry’s confession. A. Haynes (1999, p. 11) discusses the close relationships between master/mistress and servants in the household, suggesting that Seymour’s concerns need not have been entirely paranoid. In 1556 a Somerset gentlewoman, Mary Stawell, was found to have become besotted with a servant, to her husband’s rage.
*6 In spite of Catherine’s considerable number of administrative staff, Seymour also took on a controlling role in relation to her lands (as can be seen at The National Archives in document TNA E163/12/17 f. 1). He had terrified one of Catherine’s officers in Hampshire, such that the man protested that he had in no way ‘misused’ his office and pleaded: ‘I shall be glad and most
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