your

came for. Of the first I am releued in a parte, bothe that I vnderstode of your helthe, and also that Maiesties loginge is far from my Lorde Marques chamber. Of my other grief I am not eased, but the best is that whatsoever other folkes wil suspect, I intende not to feare your graces goodwil, wiche as I knowe that I never disarued to faint, so I trust wil stil stike by me. For if your Graces aduis that I shulde retourne (whos wil is a commandemente) had not bine, I wold not haue made the halfe of my way, the ende of my iourney. And thus as one desirous to hire of your Maies-ties helth, thogth vnfortunat to se it, I shal pray God for euer to preserue you. From Hatfilde this present Saterday.

Your Maiesties humble sistar

to commandemente

ELIZABETH.

To the Kinges most excellent Maiestie.

LETTER CLXI.

The Princess Elizabeth to King Edward VIth with a Present of her Portrait.

[MS. COTTON. VESP. F. III. fol. 20. Orig.]

LIKE as the richeman that dayly gathereth riches to riches, and to one bag of mony layeth a greate sort

til it come to infinit, so methinkes your Maiestie, not beinge suffised withe many benefits and gentilnes shewed to me afore this time, dothe now increase them in askinge and desiring wher you may bid and commaunde, requiring a thinge not worthy the desiringe for it selfe, but made worthy for your Higthnes request. My pictur I mene, in wiche if the inward good mynde towarde your grace migth as wel be declared as the outwarde face and countenaunce shal be seen, I wold nor haue taried the commandement but preuenta it, nor have bine the last to graunt but the first to offer it. For the face, I graunt, I might wel blusche to offer, but the mynde I shal neuer be ashamed to present. For thogth from the grace of the pictur the coulers may fade by time, may giue by wether, may be spotted by chance; yet the other nor time with her swift winges shal ouertake, nor the mistie cloudes with ther loweringes may darken, nor chance with her slipery fote may ouerthrow. Of this althogth yet the profe could not be greate bicause the occasions hathe bine but smal, notwithstandinge as a dog hathe a daye, so may I perchaunce have time to declare it in dides wher now I do write them but in wordes. And further I shal most humbly beseche your Maiestie that whan you shal loke on my pictur, you wil witsafe to thinke that as you haue but the outwarde shadow of the body afore you, so my in

ward minde wischeth that the body it selfe wer oftner

in

your presence; howbeit bicause bothe my so beinge I thinke coulde do your Maiestie litel pleasur, thogth my selfe great good; and againe bicause I se as yet not the time agreing therunto, I shal lerne to folow this sainge of Oracea, "Feras non culpes quod vitari non potest." And thus I wil (troblinge your Maiestie I fere) ende with my most humble thankes. Besechinge God longe to preserue you to his honour, to your comfort, to the realmes profit, and to my joy. From Hatfilde this 15 day of May.

Your Maiesties most humbly sistar

ELIZABETH.

LETTER CLXII.

King Edward the Sixth, to the Duke of Somerset, upon his Successes against the Scotch.

[MS. LANSD. 1236. fol. 16. Orig.]

DEREST Vncle, by your lettres and reporte of the messenger, we have at good length vnderstanded to our great comfort, the good success it hathe pleased God to graunt vs against the Scottes by your good courage and wise forsight; for the wich and other the benefites of God heaped vpon vs, like as we ar most bounden to yeld him most humble thankes, and to

a Horace.

seke bi all waies we mai his true honour, so do we give unto you, good Vncle, our most hartie thankes, praying you to thanke also most hartelie in our name our good Cosin therle of Warwike, and all the othere of the noble men, gentlemen, and others that have served in this iournei, of whose service, they shall all be well assured, we will not (God graunte us lief) shew our selfes vnmindfull, but be redy ever to consider the same as anie occasion shall serve. Yeven at our house of Otlandes, the eighteneth of September.

The Princess Mary to the Lord Admiral Seymour. [MS. LANSD. 1236. fol. 26. Orig.]

"Lord Seymour," says Hume, "was a man of insatiable ambition, arrogant, assuming, implacable; and though esteemed of superior capacity to the Protector, he possessed not to the same degree the confidence and regard of the people. By his flattery and address, he had so insinuated himself into the good graces of the Queen dowager, that forgetting her usual prudence and decency, she married him immediately upon the decease of the late King: insomuch, that, had she soon proved pregnant, it might have been doubtful to which husband the child belonged."

The Letter from the Princess Mary, now before the reader, is in answer to an Application to her, upon his part, to assist his addresses. The Marriage, as the succeeding Letter will show, was, for some time concealed. The Queen died in child-bed in the month of September 1548.

My lorde after my harty commendacions theyse shalbe to declare to you that accordyng to your accoustomed gentilnes I have receyved six warrants from you by your seruant thys berer, for the whiche I do gyve you my harty thanks; by whom also I have receyved your lettre, wherin (as me thynketh) I parceyv strange newes concernyng a sewte you have in hande to the Quene for maryage; for the soner obtayneng wherof you seme to thynke that my lettres myghte do you pleasure. My lorde in thys case, I truste, your wysdome doth consyder, that, if it weer for my nereste kynsman & dereste frend on lyve, of all other creatures in the worlde, it standeth lest wt my poore honoure to be a medler in thys matter, consyderyng whose wyef her grace was of late; and besyds that, if she be mynded to grawnt your sewte, my lettres shall do you but small pleasure. On the other syde, if the remembrance of the Kyngs mayestye my father (whose soule God pardon) wyll not suffre her to grawnt your sewte, I am nothyng able to perswade her to forget the losse of hyme, who is as yet very rype in myn owne remembrance. Wherfore I shall moste earnestlye requyre you (the premysses consydered) to thynke non vnkyndnes in me, thoughe I refuse to be a medler any wayes in thys matter, assuryng you, that (woweng matters set aparte, wherin I beeng a mayde am nothyng connyng) if otherwayes it shall lye in my litle power to do you playser, I