Her Highness, the Traitor

36

Frances Grey

August 22, 1553





When the day appointed for the Duke of Northumberland’s execution came round, Harry insisted we should be there. It was necessary, he said, to show our loyalty to the queen so she would prove more sympathetic toward our imprisoned daughter. “And to us, as well, my dear! We are not exactly basking in royal favor at the moment.” So on August 22, we rode to Tower Hill, leaving kindhearted Kate and squeamish Mary at our house at Sheen, a former priory. I wished I could have found an excuse to stay there with them.

Over days of interrogation, Northumberland had denied poisoning the king. There was nothing, he had said repeatedly, he had wanted more than to see the king live to an old age. The old woman had been a desperate measure to cure the king, who had consented to her ministrations when all else failed. Asked whether he had poisoned Harry, he had snorted with laughter; asked whether his wife had poisoned Jane, he had lost his temper for the first time since his arrest and had demanded to know the name of the whoreson who had made such an allegation. Reluctantly, the queen and her council had decided there was no ground for charging him with the king’s demise. In any case, there was no need; there were plenty of other grounds on which to sentence him to death.

There were at least ten thousand people at Tower Hill, I guessed, but Harry and I stood well away from the common people, who were busy jostling for a better view and taking bets over how many strokes it would take to sever Northumberland’s head. We were in a little stand by the scaffold that had been set up for the nobility, for many others besides Harry and me had decided this would be an apt occasion to demonstrate their loyalty

Beside me stood the Earl of Hertford and his younger brother. Somerset’s death, like everything else that had gone wrong in England since the death of King Henry, was now being blamed entirely on Northumberland’s ambition and greed, and it had been deemed fitting that the former Protector’s sons attend the beheading. People kept coming up to the boys to grasp their hands and congratulate them, as if the duke’s downfall and execution had been arranged especially for their gratification, and I had seen that they looked more uncomfortable than triumphant. I smiled at Hertford, who looked resigned to yet another congratulation upon the duke’s imminent demise. “Your mother must have been thankful beyond words to see you again.”

Hertford looked startled, then smiled—the first genuine smile I’d seen from him that morning. “Yes. And I was glad to see her, too.” He paused. “Is Lady Katherine here?”

“No. She stayed home. She is very softhearted. She cannot stand to see people suffer, even traitors.”

“I like a soft heart in a woman.”

I resolved to invite the young earl to supper one day.

A beating of drums sounded, and we all turned to see the Duke of Northumberland, wearing a gown of pale gray damask and surrounded by armed men, as he slowly made his way up Tower Hill. Beside him, chanting in Latin—to the puzzlement of the crowd, which had grown used to English—were Nicholas Heath, the Bishop of Worcester, and several other priests.

Northumberland climbed the scaffold where the executioner, wearing a white apron, limped as he stepped aside to make way for the duke and his party. The duke quickly removed his gown, revealing a black jerkin and gray doublet, and handed it to an attendant. The crowd grew still and silent as he walked to the east rail of the scaffold. “Sirs and friends,” he said, “I have come to die as you see, having been condemned by the law, and I declare and confess that I have grievously offended God, and I beseech you earnestly that you would implore God for my soul, and if there be any here or absent whom I have offended, I crave their forgiveness.”

“God forgive you,” the people chorused dutifully.

Beside me, the Earl of Hertford stared at the ground. I patted him on the shoulder.

Northumberland went on, “I beg you to accept humbly the work of God, because He does all for the best, and as for me, I am a miserable sinner and have deserved to die, and I am rightfully condemned by the laws. But although it is true that I was chief in bringing those things to pass for which I have been condemned, it is also true that I did it by the instigation of others.” He paused, and I felt everyone on the platform with me tense. “But I will not name them, for I will hurt now no man. I forgive them as I myself desire the forgiveness of God. And I beg you all to bear witness that I am taking leave in perfect love and goodwill with everybody, and to aid me with your prayers in the hour of death.”

The duke paused and stared out over Tower Hill before he continued, “Brethren, you are not ignorant in what troubles this realm has been and now continues, as well as in part of the reign of King Henry, as from then until this day, all of which are notorious. I know well that there is no one of you but knows what has befallen us for having departed from the true Catholic church, and believed false prophets and preachers, who have persuaded us of their false doctrines, and have brought me as the chief offender in this and other things to the extremity which you behold, as they have done to many others, as you know. For which I ask God’s pardon, and declare to you that I die a true Catholic Christian, and confess and believe all that the Catholic Church believes.”

Harry started to snort, and then recalled himself.

“And I warn you, friends and brothers, that none should believe that this great novelty and new conscience arises from being urged upon me by any or that any have persuaded me in this, but I tell you what I feel at the bottom of my heart, and as you see I am in no case to say aught but truth. And thus I charge and enjoin you straightly that you give no credit to the preachers of such false doctrine. And consider, brethren, what I say, and do not forget that I charge you to have no let or shame in returning to God, as you see that I have not, and to consider what is written in the Apostles’ Creed, ‘I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints.’ And I, though ignorant, could say more upon this, but you may reflect and consider it with an impartial mind. And if this does not satisfy you, think upon the miseries in which so great a multitude has lived and died in Germany, one against another, and that they have been trampled down for having forsaken the Catholic faith, wherefore God has forgotten them as he has forgotten us. And if this does not move you to feel as I have declared to you, let each one make his private reckoning and consider how it has fared with him in his own condition. And if he is not utterly blind, I am sure that he will come into this my true knowledge. And therefore I again charge you to embrace what the Catholic Church believes, which is what the Holy Spirit has revealed from generation to generation from the time of the apostles until our days, and will continue until the end. And live peaceably, and be obedient to the Queen’s majesty and her laws, and do that which I have not done.

“I could go on with this talk, my dear people, as I have a thorough experience of the evil which has befallen this kingdom, but you know that I have something else to do, to which I must prepare as time is running short. And now I ask the queen’s majesty to forgive the offenses committed against her. And I have a firm hope of obtaining it, as she has already extended her mercy and clemency towards me so far that whereas she could have made me die, without any judicial proceeding or examination, in the most infamous and cruel way by dragging, hanging, and quartering, as I have been up in arms against Her Majesty, nevertheless by her mercy and goodness she has been contented to have me brought to my judgment and to have my case settled according to the law, by which I am rightfully and fairly sentenced. Her Majesty has also extended her clemency and mercy towards me in the way of my death. Therefore I hope that by her graciousness and bounty she will remit her anger and indignation against me, for which I heartily ask you all heartily to pray our Lord to preserve the life of our majesty so that she may reign on you for many years to come, in honor and happiness.”

Northumberland moved away from the rail and knelt in the fresh straw in the middle of the scaffold. Flawlessly, as if he had been practicing in his cell, he recited a series of psalms and prayers in Latin. Then, having stripped to his shirt and tied the blindfold the lame executioner handed him, he crossed himself and lay down on the beam, then abruptly rose up. The crowd gasped. Was he going to declare all he had just said and done to be a sham?

The duke’s blindfold had slipped down over one eye. Without pausing to take a last look at the summer sun beginning to break through the morning clouds, Northumberland adjusted it, lay down quickly, and struck his hands together. As I cringed against Harry, the executioner—stronger of arm than of leg—swung his axe, dispatching the duke with one stroke as the crowd roared its approval.

Harry winced as the executioner raised Northumberland’s head. “I hope he wasn’t looking to get himself a last-minute pardon with all that Catholic twaddle,” he whispered to me.

“Harry—”

“Oh, I know, my dear. There but for the grace of God—and the queen—go I. But there’s no need to keep reminding me of it.”

In a very short time, John Gates and Thomas Palmer, two underlings of the duke, followed him to the grave. As the crowd slowly dispersed, I watched as the executioner tossed Northumberland’s rich clothing over his arm and as the three bodies were laid inside a cart. The most guilty had paid for their sins—and, I could not help but think, for ours, as well. Now, I prayed silently as the mingled blood of the three traitors ran down the scaffold and the death cart rattled toward the Tower, England would be at peace. We could begin afresh, and my girl would soon be free.