LITMIR.BIZ

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was given the care of her stepdaughter, the Princess Elizabeth. Over the following weeks, as Sudeley saw the huge influence his new wife had over Elizabeth, it struck him that the wardship of the next in line to the throne, Lady Jane Grey, would also be valuable. Notably, Edward’s heirs were all female. The entire political system, the stability of England depended on a series of women and girls and, whether adult, like Catherine Parr and the Princess Mary, or children, like the Princess Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey, they were, to Sudeley, beings to be used and manipulated.

      Sudeley had often noticed Jane Grey about the court. She appeared rather small, but her dark brows and eyes, which were ‘sparkling and reddish brown in colour’, suggested a lively spirit. He now began to watch her with closer interest, observing her playing and talking with the new King. An audience with Edward was always a formal affair, but as Jane Grey’s cousin, Jane Dormer, recalled, it was still possible to spend many happy hours with him, ‘either in reading, playing or dancing’. Edward was universally considered ‘a marvellous, sweet child, of very mild and generous condition’, and Dormer recalled how he would call her ‘my Jane’, and, when she lost at cards, he would comfort her: ‘Now Jane, your king is gone, I shall be good enough for you.’⁶

      As similar scenes were played out under Sudeley’s gaze, he realised that Lady Jane Grey, with her royal blood, could one day be more than a playmate for Edward. She could become the King’s wife, a possibility that served his purposes well. Sudeley knew, or suspected, that Somerset hoped to see Jane Grey married to his eight-year-old son, Edward Seymour, the Earl of Hertford.⁷ He hoped that if he could persuade Jane’s father to make her his ward, he would be able to thwart his brother’s ambitions in this regard and gain some control over whom Jane did marry. There would be many powerful people who would want her as a bride - all useful allies in the struggles ahead.

      As Sudeley knew, Dorset had not been treated well by the Protector. When Catherine Parr’s courtly brother, William, had been made Marquess of Northampton it was said it had been done not so much to promote Northampton as to demote Dorset, who was, until Northampton’s election, the only marquess in England. This view appeared to be confirmed in March, when Northampton had been raised to the Privy Council, and Dorset had not. Harington was instructed to assure Dorset that, as the King’s second uncle, Sudeley was well placed to do him the favours the Protector denied him.⁸ When, during one of his subsequent visits to his London home, Dorset confirmed his willingness to be Sudeley’s friend and ally, Harington seized his opportunity. The most appropriate mark of this future friendship, he said, would be if Dorset were to send Jane to live in Sudeley’s household as his ward. At that, however, Dorset balked.

      It was usual for aristocratic families to send a daughter approaching adolescence to live with a well-connected family. The tradition served a number of useful purposes, binding, as it did, parents as allies and children as friends. The contacts made were used often in the arrangement of a future marriage. For a girl of noble birth it was virtually unthinkable that her marriage should be left to chance, but Jane, at ten, was rather young to be ‘put out’, as it was termed. And there were other considerations. We do not know the precise timing of Harington’s visit, but if it took place before Sudeley’s marriage to Catherine Parr became public, Harington was asking Dorset to send his daughter to the household of an unmarried man. If, as is more likely, it took place after, then it was to a man whose marriage was considered a scandal. Catherine Parr had destroyed her reputation by marrying so soon after the King’s death. Virtue, in a woman, was associated almost entirely with chastity, that is, unimpeachable sexual morality and continence. It was believed that the female sex drive was stronger than the male (since women were creatures of feeling rather than reason) and therefore the likely explanation for Catherine Parr’s behaviour was assumed to be unbridled lust. Sudeley, meanwhile, was judged guilty of selfish ambition. If his wife became pregnant it would be uncertain whose child it was. This was potentially dangerous to the stability of the country. Since Henry VIII had introduced a law requiring the monarch’s assent to any royal marriage, their actions might even have been judged treasonous, had Sudeley not persuaded Edward to write a letter that made it appear the marriage was made at his suggestion.

      Harington had anticipated that Dorset’s reaction to the proposed wardship might not be favourable and assured Dorset that Sudeley would see to it that Jane was placed in a most advantageous marriage. ‘With whom?’ Dorset demanded. ‘Marry,’ Harington replied, ‘I doubt not but you shall see him marry her to the King; and fear you not but he will bring it to pass.’ Dorset was stunned by Harington’s remark. He listened, however, as Harington continued, describing how Sudeley, watching Jane about court, had declared that she was ‘as handsome a Lady as any in Christendom, and that, if the King’s Majesty, when he came to age, would marry within the realm, it was as likely it would be there than in any other place’.⁹ Dorset began to consider the possibilities: maybe Sudeley’s idea was not an unrealistic one? Henry VIII had taken English wives. His daughter was an intelligent, highly educated, evangelical princess: the perfect bride for Edward. For the Greys, it would also be a better match than either his grandfather, or he himself, had made. Dorset agreed to discuss the matter of Jane’s wardship with Sudeley as soon as possible.

      While the royal children played their innocent games, the adults began moving the pawns on the political chessboard. Within a week of Harington’s approaches, Dorset was at Seymour Place along the Strand, talking with Sudeley in the privacy of his garden. The banging and clattering of builders echoed across the hedges and herb beds. Next door, the Protector was clearing the local parish church of St Mary and the Holy Innocents to make way for a vast Italianate palace. It was the first building of its kind in England, a suitable monument to Somerset’s burgeoning status as alter rex (another king).¹⁰ Above the noise Sudeley repeated to Dorset that he believed Jane would make the King a fine Queen. But he offered also substantial proof of his friendship: several hundred pounds towards an eventual payment of £2,000 for Jane’s wardship. Dorset was impressed. Sudeley’s ‘fair promises’ and eagerness to be his friend were in stark contrast to the treatment he had received at Somerset’s hands. Convinced that an alliance with Sudeley was an honourable way forward he sent for his daughter immediately.

      Dorset’s actions have since been characterised as those of a heartless parent selling his daughter for profit. As Jane watched her bags being packed and kissed her sisters farewell, this, however, was surely not how she saw it. It was usual for money to change hands in matters of wardship. Her father’s had been bought twice over, by the late Earl of Arundel and Duke of Suffolk, and for double the figure Sudeley was prepared to pay for Jane. It was not the money that had appealed to Dorset. By placing his daughter with Sudeley, he would open the greatest possible prospects for her, which in turn could bring glory to the family name. Jane would have understood this, for noble children were part of a family network that extended to kin and beyond, in which each was expected to play their part for the good of the whole. Jane’s mother, Frances, appears to have had her doubts, however, about the wisdom of the scheme. Her friend and stepmother Katherine Suffolk disapproved of Sudeley and was shocked by his hasty marriage to their friend, the Queen dowager, Catherine Parr. But although Frances later made strenuous efforts to keep Jane at home, away from Sudeley, she saw it as her duty to support her husband in his decisions - and from this time forward he was determined that his favourite child would one day be Queen.

      The ten-year-old was installed with her guardian at Seymour Place as soon as the necessary arrangements had been made. Despite her mother’s possible misgivings it was to be one of the happiest periods of Jane Grey’s life.

       Chapter IV The Example of Catherine Parr

      It was only a short boat ride from Dorset House to Seymour Place, but Jane’s new home opened a more independent world for her. At the best of times large aristocratic households were not very good at giving girls the

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