Her Highness, the Traitor

33

Jane Dudley

July 19, 1553, to July 28, 1553





I am not a good prisoner; I found that out in the few days I spent in the Tower. I had been allowed to take all of the normal accoutrements of my life—my needlework, my prayer book, even a lute—with me, but all of these things sat unused in a corner, because I could not bend my mind to occupy myself with any mundane tasks. Instead, I paced up and down the room, then sat staring out of my window, and then when I tired of that, paced again.

Guildford was lodged in the Bell Tower; Jane, in the home of Nathaniel Partridge, one of the Tower jailers. I was in an almost identical house next to hers. My daughters and Jerome—all crying in terror, even Mary—had been taken to stay with Bridget, a widowed half sister of John.

My jailers had not been communicative at first, but an enameled ring had bought me the information that on July 20, John, hearing that the council had deserted Jane’s cause—and him—had walked to the marketplace at Cambridge and proclaimed Mary queen, even smiling and tossing his cap in the air as the occasion required. Then the Earl of Arundel—the whoreson who had said a tearful good-bye to him a week before—had come on Queen Mary’s orders to arrest him. My husband had fallen on his knees and begged Arundel to show him mercy, reminding him he had acted in everything with the consent of the council.

“My lord, you should have sought for mercy sooner,” the earl had replied.

And now my husband was on his way to the Tower. He would get here before Queen Mary, I supposed; she was coming from Framingham, where she had mustered her troops. Mary was proceeding to London in majestic slowness, allowing people to flock from everywhere to join her entourage as it approached the capital. John, and the rest of us, would have to wait until she arrived to learn our fates.

There were two groups of prisoners at the Tower: the old ones and the new. Young Edward Courtenay, then only a lad of twelve, had been put here in 1538 by King Henry, who had been convinced at the time the boy’s family was conspiring against him. Though no one had seen fit to let him out, his mother had been allowed to send in tutors for him, so he had grown into a well-educated young man, but one with no companions of his own age or degree. Recently he had found a new friend in Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester, imprisoned in King Edward’s time for his refusal to support the king’s religious changes. With Mary’s arrival impending, they were considered almost as good as free, so I often saw them walking around Tower Green, talking earnestly, their guards at a respectful distance. The Duchess of Somerset, of course, was still here, with her mother to keep her company. Her steward, Francis Newdigate, frequently stopped by, bringing her news of her children and, the guards joked, trying to fill the duke’s shoes. Bringing up the quartet of important prisoners was Thomas Howard, the old Duke of Norfolk, who would have been executed had not King Henry died on the very day he was set to go to the scaffold. He was about eighty and was said to have survived this long purely out of spite. Norfolk, too, had been allowed great freedom after Mary’s triumph and could often be seen sitting in the garden, smiling as if mentally counting all those he had outlived.

The rest of us—the new arrivals—had no such privileges, only our windows out of which to stare. I had not seen Guildford since he and I had been taken into custody, though I had spotted Lady Jane walking to her new lodgings under guard. Since then, I had watched as a servant of the Duchess of Suffolk bore a teetering stack of books to Partridge’s lodgings. There was no doubt as to how the lady Jane was passing her time.

Around three o’clock on July 25—I had been allowed to keep the dial that hung from my girdle—I heard a rumbling sound mingled with shouts, too far away for me to understand what was being said. Then, as the sound grew louder, I made out the word “Traitor!”

I ran down the winding stairs as fast as I dared and banged on my jailor’s door. He opened it with a sigh. “What is it?”

“The prisoners are coming? Is that what I hear outside?”

“Yes.” The jailor sighed again. “Where they’re going to put them all is anyone’s guess.”

“Will you let me talk to my husband? Just for a short while?”

“Your Grace—”

“For pity’s sake! I do not know what will happen to either of us. It may be the last—” My voice choked. “I beg you, on your honor as a gentleman, just let me tell him that I love him. Everyone else has betrayed him.”

“Very well. But don’t think that means I’m going to let you out every time your heart desires.”

“I won’t ask again,” I promised. “And I will stand right by you.”

“Another thing. The crowd out there’s been baying for the duke’s blood. He might not be in good case when you see him.”

I nodded and let him escort me outside, where the din from the crowd nearby had grown even louder. Finally, the Tower gate was flung open. Through the press of armed men remaining outside the gate rode the traitor: the Earl of Arundel, bringing in his captives.

Close behind him, mounted on his favorite horse, was John, cloakless and with his cap clutched in his hand. I clapped my hand to my mouth as I saw just how many prisoners there were and who they were—my sons Jack, Ambrose, and Hal; my brother-in-law Andrew; Kathryn’s father-in-law, the Earl of Huntingdon; and her husband, Lord Hastings, to name only the ones most important to me. All were covered in filth, but none worse than John, who also bore a large, fresh bruise on his face.

While the prisoners waited silently on their horses and the cries outside grew faint and scattered, Arundel spoke at length to the constable, who gestured at various buildings. At last, John was allowed to dismount under the eye of two armed guards. He did so slowly, as if in pain. The Order of the Garter, which he had worn proudly beneath his knee for ten years, had been stripped from him.

Forgetting my promise to my jailer, I pushed my way toward John. Without a word, he took me in his arms as the guards, openmouthed, retreated. “Forgive me,” he said as we huddled together. “I have cost us everything.”

“There is nothing to forgive,” I whispered. “Nothing.”

Beside us, my youngest son, Hal, whose face was already wet with tears, began to weep afresh. “They’ve even got our mother,” he said. “Our mother.”

John stepped back. “It’s true? You are a prisoner, too?”

“Yes, and Guildford and Jane.”

Jack dismounted, trembling with anger. Never in my life had I seen him such. Shaking his fist, he leaned in Arundel’s direction. “Why don’t you go off and arrest my little sister Katheryn, you sorry turncoat, you Judas? Or are you afraid her kitten might scratch you?”

“Jack,” said Ambrose, as a guard yanked Jack backward. “This isn’t helping anything.”

“I don’t give a damn whether it helps anything or not! He gave his oath to Father, and what did he do? Ran to Mary—”

“Queen Mary,” said Arundel.

“Ran to Mary and hid his head in her skirts and begged her forgiveness, then came to Cambridge—”

“Take them away,” said Arundel. “The Earl of Warwick to the Beauchamp Tower, Lord Ambrose and Lord Henry to Coldharbour. The duke goes to the Garden Tower.”

“You could lodge him with me,” I suggested.

“No.”

John squeezed my hand tenderly as the guards moved in to take him away. “For mercy’s sake, my lord, can’t you let my lady go free? None of this business was her idea.”

“We’ll see,” Arundel said, looking at me but not into my eyes. He glanced at my own jailer, who had come to stand beside me. “In the meantime, my lady, I have no idea how you got here, but I will thank you to go back where you belong.”

***

Later, I heard four thousand men had been enlisted to keep order as John and the rest of the prisoners came to London, jeered at by the crowds who watched them pass and who pelted them with objects of various sorts all the way. Before entering London through Bishopsgate, Arundel, presumably not wanting the embarrassment of having his captive stoned to death, had ordered John to make himself less conspicuous by taking off his scarlet cloak, but that had not stopped the London mob from screaming vitriol at him, nor from waving the handkerchiefs stained with Somerset’s blood that so many had treasured as relics.

The mob was more subdued the next day when a new group of prisoners arrived, among them my son Robert, the Marquis of Northampton, and the Bishop of London. Now all of my sons were in prison.

Their captivity meant that a couple of hours after Robert had disappeared into the Bell Tower with Guildford, a knock came on my own chamber door. “Your Grace, now that your husband and sons are safely in custody, the council has ordered that you be freed. The crown has taken possession of Sion and Durham House, but you may stay at Durham House until other arrangements have been made.”

I did not much like the sound of that.

Attending me at the Tower were three ladies, a gentleman, and a groom. As the groom went to see to our horses and the others packed my belongings, I went outside and paced around, hoping to catch a glimpse of John or my sons at their windows before I left.

“It appears that your stay here has been a short one.”

I turned to see the Duchess of Somerset. Now that I saw her face-to-face, I found her hair was graying in spots, and she had a line between her eyes that had not been there before, but she was otherwise dressed well, if plainly. She even carried a pair of gloves. “Yes,” I said. “They are releasing me.”

“Edward wanted to marry our son to that girl. It is providential for our family that he did not succeed.”

“Yes.”

“Being shut up for a week seems to have damaged your conversational powers. I daresay if you had been here as long as I have been, you would be completely dumb.”

“I did try to influence John to release you, Anne. Your mother can attest to that.”

“Yes, she has mentioned it. She was disappointed, but I was not. I expected nothing different from John Dudley after what he did to my husband.”

“Anne, we have been through this! Your husband was not an innocent man.”

“And yours is? Subverting King Henry’s will to please the fancy of a sixteen-year-old boy is not guiltless behavior to me. But his judges will decide that. The biter may be bit.”

The attendants emerged from my lodgings, my coffers of belongings in their hands. “I must leave now.”

“Don’t let me detain you, then.” Anne Seymour turned away, then turned back to look at me. “I trust you will send my daughter back to me when I am free? With her husband in the Tower and you in reduced circumstances, it can hardly be pleasant for her.”

“If she wishes, I will gladly let her go to you.”

“Good,” the duchess said. “It may be necessary to seek an annulment. I am sorry, as I believe your son has been good to her, but one has to be practical about these things.”

“Yes,” I said. “One does.”

***

At Durham Place, I found I had plenty of company: even though John had not even gone to trial yet, the Crown had already begun to seize his goods, and the house was full of royal servants, meticulously writing down anything of value John and I owned. No place—not even my own bedchamber—was exempt from their relentless inventorying: my sleeves, my cushions, even my parrot were duly counted. They conducted themselves politely enough, but the sight of them standing in John’s wardrobe, patiently counting every shirt I had made for him, was hard to bear. Even harder was the knowledge that men were already inquiring about their chances of receiving John’s choicest possessions, secure in the knowledge he would never be freed to reclaim them—or worse.

After two days of this, I decided I could not just wait for Queen Mary to arrive in London; I had to travel to her myself. We had never been close, but our relations had always been cordial, and she had served as godmother to a couple of my children. If I could just be admitted to her presence, I could explain to her that John had done only what her brother wished and that he would show the same sort of loyalty to her if he were allowed to serve her. As for my sons, they had only obeyed the commandment that men honor their fathers. Should they be punished for doing what the Lord himself directed?

As I mounted my horse and settled into my saddle—both carefully accounted for by the queen’s men—I felt my optimism, so long in abeyance, rise. Many of the other men who had supported Lady Jane had been forgiven by the queen. The trick seemed to be seeing her face-to-face. If I could speak for John now, and at least get the queen to grant him an audience, it was entirely possible she might extend him her mercy, as well. At the very least, she might agree to free my sons.

When I set off the next day, I found that the roads toward Beaulieu, the Essex manor where Mary was staying for a few days, were lined with Queen Mary’s followers. Some were soldiers, keeping an eye out for anyone who might foment trouble, for there were still pockets of England that recognized Jane as queen. Others were just admirers or hangers-on, caught up in the excitement of the queen’s bloodless victory and anxious to witness her triumphant entry into the capital. I had planned to break the thirty-mile journey to Beaulieu overnight, as my horse was not accustomed to covering such distances, and my health had not been good over the past few days, but the crowds were so great, there were no reputable lodgings to be had. So I pressed on.

I was five miles outside the queen’s headquarters when three armed men stopped my path. “My lady, in the queen’s name, I must ask where you are bound.”

“Beaulieu. I wish to see the queen.”

“Your name?”

“I am the Duchess of Northumberland.” If only I had lied!

The men looked at each other. Did they doubt my word? I gestured toward my groom, William Bowden, and my waiting woman, Maudlyn Flower. “They can tell you I am who I claim to be.”

“I have no doubt of your identity, Your Grace, but that will do you no good. I cannot let you pass. You must turn back to London.”

“On whose authority?”

“On the queen’s authority, Your Grace. She has ordered that you in particular not be admitted to her presence.”

“I?”

Before the men could answer, I heard horses slowing to a trot behind me, and men speaking in a foreign tongue I did not understand. I turned to see four men, richly dressed in clothing that was not in the English style, and their servants. They were accompanied by a fifth man, of an inferior rank and wearing English clothing, who said to the guards, “These are the imperial ambassadors, sir. The queen sent me to conduct them hastily to Beaulieu.”

“Ah, yes. They are expected.” The guards waved the ambassadors through.

“Wait, I beg of you!” I caught the queen’s messenger by the arm. “Can you conduct me to the queen, also?”

The man stared at me. “And who would you be?”

“The Duchess of Northumberland. There is an absurd misunderstanding. This man says that the queen has refused to see me even before I craved permission to see her.”

“There is no misunderstanding, Your Grace. I heard her give the orders myself. If you attempted to see Her Majesty, you were to be turned away and sent back to London where you belong. Now we must be off.”

The ambassadorial party moved past me, looking in my direction and talking amongst themselves. I could just make out the names “Northumberland” and “Dudley” and “Suffolk.”

I tried another approach. “I am not well, and there is no place to sleep around here, I am told. Please? Cannot the queen allow me the Christian duty of hospitality tonight?”

“So you can slip into her presence somehow? Your Grace, there is no point in this. We have our orders and are following them.”

“But why? What harm can it do the queen to hear my plea to her, upon my knees?”

“Even on her knees, a Dudley may find a way to poison Her Majesty.”

“Poison?”

“There are the gravest suspicions that your husband hastened the king’s death. The queen is taking no chances. Now begone with you! Go to London, and do not intrude yourself upon the queen until you are asked, or you will find yourself in the Tower again.”

He took my bridle and firmly guided my horse around.

There was nothing to do but obey. We rode a mile or so, tears pouring down my cheeks, and then found a place by the side of the road where we could rest our weary horses. It was well past midnight when we set out again.

As we plodded down the road, now nearly deserted of travelers, we heard the sound of approaching horses. I froze with dread. At this hour of the night, save for desperate supplicants like me, no one was out but robbers. But the face I saw in the lantern light a few minutes later was no robber. “My lady of Suffolk!”

“Yes. I am on my way to see the queen. I have been much delayed. Do you come from her?”

“No. She would not suffer me to come near her. I was turned away. She may do the same with you.”

“I am willing to take my chances,” Frances Grey said. “I am her cousin. That counts in my favor. I must be going.”

“Wait! My lady, I am desperate. She will not see me. I have done nothing to merit such treatment. She thinks John poisoned the king! Will you tell her he is innocent of that and beg her to allow me a moment of her time when she comes to London? Just a moment? You are my last hope. Tell her that I will speak to her behind prison bars, even, if that is what it takes.”

“I will mention it.”

“Oh, thank you! Thank you!”

The Duchess of Suffolk nodded curtly. Then she and her companion—her master of horse Adrian Stokes, a man so handsome few husbands would have permitted him to serve in their wife’s household—cantered away.