Elizabeth, you’re doing this to yourself! With the help of her mother Frances, the two sisters were soon back at court. engraved with a poem he had written for her: As circles five by art compact show but one ring in sight, So trust uniteth faithful minds with knot of secret might,Whose force to break (but greedy death no wight possesseth power),As time and sequels well shall prove, my ring can say no more. On this day 451 years ago, Katherine Grey died. While they were there, Jane’s brother Edward aka Ned happened to be at home visiting. He was found guilty on all charges, and fined £5,000 apiece for each crime. Which meant that the new Queen would be his cousin, Lady Jane Grey. Lady Mary Grey, clever as she was, could be somewhat comfortable that she herself wouldn’t become … She travelled on Le Train Bleu to the French Riviera. So for all of the above reasons, Elizabeth had Katherine imprisoned in the Tower of London, and recalled Ned from Europe so he could be thrown in jail too. The answer is No, to both. Ned … Katherine also took turns, along with the other ladies, to stand watch in the chapel where Mary’s corpse was set out for a month before the funeral, which Katherine also attended. Now (secretly) married, Katherine and Ned had sex as often as they could, wherever they were able to. This time, her jailer fell ill, necessitating her relocation. This was not a good choice, as St. Loe wept inconsolably and was like, “Why did you tell me this, this is a disaster!” She also clearly was not great at secret-keeping as, by the next morning, everyone at church was whispering about Katherine’s secret pregnancy. Lady Katherine Grey. Lady Catherine Grey spent the next seven years in several different homes/prisons, and died on January 26, 1568. Her advocates begged the Queen to let her move elsewhere, and finally Elizabeth relented, allowing Katherine to be moved into house arrest. There was the small matter of persuading Jane that it was a good idea but it was effectively a done deal with the marriage being celebrated in May 1553 along with the nuptials of Jane’s younger sister Lady Katherine Grey to William Herbert, heir of the earl of Pembroke on the same day. And, despite their bad reputation and current poverty, until Mary I had a child of her own, Katherine was again a potential heir to the throne. ... Katherine and Mary Grey were with their mother as she passed, and Katherine served as chief mourner at the funeral (which Elizabeth generously agreed to pay for). The Sisters Who Would be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy by Leanda de Lisle, Elizabeth’s Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen by Tracy Borman, Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey by Nicola Tallis, Devices and Desires: Bess of Hardwick and the Building of Elizabethan England by Kate Hubbard, The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots: Elizabeth I and her Greatest Rival by Kate Williams, https://www.britain-magazine.com/carousel/tudor-of-the-month-katherine-grey/https://tudortimes.co.uk/guest-articles/love-and-loss-lady-katherine-greyhttps://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2012/03/born-in-tower-crimes-of-lady-katherine.html. The French Queen’s eldest daughter, Frances, married Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset. Rumours were flying that the young couple would be executed, and he (and his mother, in her way) were doing their best damage control to try and at least stay alive. And until Jane had a child, Katherine would be her heir. What did they look like? And he also kind of hated the Greys for how the Lady Jane Grey scenario had led to the execution of so many Dudley family members. Meanwhile, Katherine herself (and her sister Mary Grey) posed no threats personally; it was just the people working in their names who threatened Elizabeth. Of course they had sex! Katherine was forbidden to contact Ned, or her sister Mary Grey (who was still a Lady in Waiting), or to visit with anyone while she was in her uncle’s house/jail. So the fact that Katherine, Elizabeth’s heir, was bitching about the Queen to the Spanish Ambassador was a big fucking deal. Other courtiers did, and some warned Katherine that Ned was maybe just using her. Baillie Family; Health; School Days. For here is nothing but care and misery, and there is life everlasting.” After several hours, Katherine passed along her final requests. Rather than being gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber, the Grey girls were moved over to the Presence Chamber. Their little jail family would soon get one new member. Katherine couldn’t just run off at anytime to get secretly married, she had to be clever about this. Baby Edward? Since ultimately it would be up to Elizabeth, they needed to get as many people advising her to support the match as possible. Courtiers were well used to accompanying the Queen on her progresses (& all would have had their own bedding, linens & general luggage in ox carts following on behind). But then she passed along word that she was currently with child, and Herbert knew that babies don’t gestate for ten years, and called things off because her motives were so obvious, and so distasteful to him. ?” And he was like, “Aw, that’s a nice idea” and began courting her. This is not Katherine, younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, born in 1540. She had been moved to live within the mansion of the Tower’s Lieutenant, so at least she had a nice place to stay. But did these teens care? The girls were all provided with a thorough education (including learning Latin, Greek, French, music, and the arts), and were raised in the new Protestant faith. Jane’s husband was Guildford Dudley, the son of the King’s powerful Chief Minister, John Dudley. Katherine was probably happy to accept this better treatment, but her main priority was finding opportunities to sneak off with her boyfriend, Ned. Queen Mary I had also fallen ill during the influenza epidemic and, on top of her other medical issues (and her habit of starving herself for religious reasons) she seemed to be dying. She advised Ned to get to work convincing other people at court that this was a good idea, namely, members of the Privy Council. The lovers, now aged twenty (Katherine) and twenty-two (Ned) had sex for hours, until finally Katherine had to go because she and Jane had dinner plans. Ned wrote to her, proposing marriage, and Katherine obviously agreed. It would make sense for her manner of dressing her daughters to have survived that long. This third was engraved with a message for Ned: While I Lived, Yours. When they got to London, Elizabeth announced she was going off on a hunting trip. An influenza epidemic tore through England (and the royal court) in the summer of 1558. She was still there when Queen Mary I died and was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth I. Katherine Grey and Jane Seymour were close in age (Katherine two years older), had both gone through having their fathers executed, and had known each other most of their lives. I mean, probably. But not even Elizabeth could stop nature, and on February 10, Katherine gave birth to a second son, who she named Thomas Seymour. Because it is going to: Katherine became pregnant again. And if that child was a son? And then things got worse for everyone when Katherine gave birth on September 24th to a boy. Katherine's body was embalmed and then interred here in the Cockfield Chapel of Yoxford Church where it lay for 57 years before being moved to Salisbury Cathedral. The Unfortunate Death of Lady Katherine Grey. Nobody bought her act, obviously. Frances, specifically, was still eyed with some suspicion for her probably role in the Jane Grey Situation, but clearly Mary I felt some fondness for her relatives. ), and finally they agreed he could go but he’d leave her with a letter saying, “In case Katherine is pregnant, please note that we are totally married and also she should inherit my lands in case I die in Europe!”. Lady Katherine Grey and her son Lord Edward Beauchamp. A man with his own claim to the throne? Jane ran out into the street to grab a random priest to perform the ceremony, because Lady Jane Seymour was an amazing friend and sister. It wasn’t possible for him to just remove one of his half-sisters, so even though he’d have been fine with Elizabeth taking over, he had to disinherit both Mary and Elizabeth. Katherine named her son Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp. As you might expect, Katherine kept the pregnancy hidden for as long as she could because this was an extremely dangerous situation for her. Ned greeted them at his house, where a few servants (on their way out for their day off) also saw them arrive. And she was very much pregnant. Support for Katherine’s claim continued, much to Elizabeth’s chagrin. One less heir for her to worry about. Ned was also distantly descended from the medieval English King Edward III, meaning that he wasn’t directly in the line of succession, but was closer than many other aristocrats. Elizabeth did not attend the event, but was said to have unconvincingly performed grief back at home. She also knew that Elizabeth’s plans to travel around the country were coming up, which meant opportunities for Katherine to see Ned for Summer Of Love Part Two. Elizabeth, of course, had to do something about all of this. As long as she was alive and Elizabeth didn’t have any children, Katherine was — even in jail — heir to the throne. A few months before Edward died, fifteen-year-old Jane and twelve-year-old Katherine Grey were married off in a double ceremony. How were the couriers to know who to give the letters to**???) And although Elizabeth was freaking out, public opinion was very much on the side of Katherine, Ned, and their little family. Ned’s sister Jane and brother Henry helped courier letters and tokens back and forth between the lovers. However, the rumours of the Spanish plot had finally reached Elizabeth. As one of the late Queen’s ladies in waiting, Katherine helped to lay out Mary’s body for embalming. ?” And then tragically, just when she needed her BFF the most, Lady Jane Seymour fell ill again, this time with tuberculosis. He found there was little to be done for her. This bothered James nearly as much as it had bothered Elizabeth. Family Tree. Katherine was now no longer the only Tudor heiress married with a son, and Mary (being a literal Queen) had much more power than the depressed, imprisoned Katherine. But Katherine and Ned’s only defense against charges of illegal fornication were to explain that yes, actually, they were married and so the fact she was pregnant was totally not a problem. As such, Katherine was sent into the care of Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (the widow of Edward VI’s former, now executed, Lord Protector). And the thing is, as a close relative to the Queen, Katherine couldn’t get married without the Queen’s permission. Because this is an incredibly romantic love story, and if not for the political angle, everyone knows that the pair would have been considered married in the first place! This was Elizabeth making clear that she did not trust the Greys, had not forgotten the Lady Jane Grey scenario, and perhaps even did not consider Katherine her own heir. Lady Katherine Grey was born on August 25, 1540 at Bradgate Park, the family property of the Grey family. And so Katherine, by now eight months pregnant, continued on travelling as a lady-in-waiting and everyone must have noticed she was pregnant, right?? Like any famous set of sisters, each Grey girl had their own thing: Jane was intellectual and studious, Katherine was pretty and vivacious, and Mary was sweet and kind. She had an older sister, Lady Jane Grey and five years later, a third Grey sister was born, Lady Mary Grey. Katherine and Ned were brought in for new interrogations. Lady Katherine Grey: 1540 � 1568 When fifteen-year-old Edward VI fell ill, his advisors began scheming to marry their sons to the Grey girls so that these adult men could be closer to the increasingly powerful Grey family. Like, she was incredibly upset about this for all of the above reasons. She had the Lieutenant of the Tower thrown in jail for allowing the couple to hook up. Katherine and Thomas were moved to a different house/jail, where they remained for the next three years. Ned, nineteen years old, was slim with dark eyes and dark hair, a nose that people writing about him seemed to have found very appealing, and an arrogant, asshole sort of air. There is no doubting that the Queen's choice of a lowly parish church for Lady Katherine's final resting place was intended as an insult to her memory. Lady Jane Grey mourns Katherine Parr Re-enactment of Katherine Parr’s funeral at Sudeley Castle 2010 The anonymous account of the funeral of Katherine Parr. But guess what, no mother could get in the way of these determined teens, and finally Ned caught up with everyone else! Ned, frankly, was not great at communicating with Katherine because she had to find out about his European holiday plans from Jane. Queen Elizabeth granted her a funeral with full royal honours and 80 mourners duly travelled up from London. Queen Elizabeth ordered Katherine’s final jailer to oversee the her cousin’s internment and burial. Horners; Suffolk House; Other Shops Part 1; Other Shops Part 2; Other Shops Part 3; Other Shops Part 4; Other Shops Part 5; Yoxford At War. It was not an amount that Ned would be expected to repay; the point of it was to punish him forever and to show everyone that Elizabeth was not someone to be messed around with. It’s just when everyone is scheming, they can’t wrap their heads around that sometimes a 20-year-old woman marries her true love and gets knocked up. Katherine’s death was a relief to her as, noted the Spanish ambassador, the Queen had long been afraid of Lady Katherine Grey. Katherine was playing a very dangerous game, and she was LOVING IT!! Life was not great for Lady Katherine Grey at the moment. Boo, Herbert! Mary) in Henry VIII's last will . Lady Mary Grey was just eight years old when her elder sister Jane and her father were executed. The Seymour sisters (Jane, Anne, and Margaret) were writers whose published work includes the poem Hecatodistichon. And: understandably. (**also my theory is that William Cecil or one of his other spies was intercepting the letters for scheme-related reasons). Katherine confided in Jane that she hoped to be able to reconcile with Lord Herbert, her brief childhood husband. Lady Katherine Grey was born on August 25, 1540 at Bradgate Park, the family property of the Grey family. There were even rumours that Mary I intended to adopt one or both Grey sisters, perhaps to make their status as her possible heirs even more iron-clad. Where Mary had sympathized with the Greys and elevated Katherine, her sister, and mother, Elizabeth was wary. Katherine’s supporters all spread the rumour that Mary was responsible for her husband’s murder, and Elizabeth was unable to continue protecting her. Lady Jane Seymour died at age nineteen on March 29, 1560. The double wedding was a huge event, with lots of feasting and partying. But Elizabeth rejected her appeal. But also, real talk. Rumour had it that Jane had been pregnant upon the time of her execution (she was not), but this connected her with her sister Katherine, now in jail with a baby and a toddler and facing her own possible execution. And Robert was like, “Know what? Of course the whole point of this was for them to find the marriage invalid, no matter what it took, but they had to give the appearance of actually investigating. And then Elizabeth came down with smallpox! Ned wrote Katherine a letter/poem, comparing their romantic challenges to those of the Greek lovers Troilus and Cressida, who had also been kept apart for political reasons. Katherine was moved again, to her fifth prison in seven years. Aug 17, 2019 - Mainly concerned with Lady Katherine Grey , ipso facto heiress presumptive to the English throne in succession to Queen Elizabeth l. See … Finally, she realized she had to tell somebody. While Katherine was having obviously a miserably time being nine months pregnant and having to undergo days-long interrogations, Elizabeth was also doing poorly. Katherine was the grand-daughter of Henry VIII’s younger sister, Mary. In one of these letters, Jane identified her sister Katherine as her spiritual and political heir. She soon returned with a random Protestant priest, who performed the wedding ceremony for them in Jane’s bedroom. Katherine died at Cockfield Hall, Yoxford in 1568 at the age of 27. The description can be found in ‘Katherine Parr: Complete Works and Correspondence’ edited by Janel Mueller. With the help of her BFF Jane, they hatched a plan. (I do not know at what point she acquired pet monkeys, but it’s nice she had them with her). Ned’s mother, Anne Somerset, found out about this borderline treasonous teenage summer romance. Ned, who had been there for dinner, was like, “Great, come by my house first thing tomorrow morning.”. This is the perhaps the one time in Tudor history when everyone was hoping very hard for a baby girl, and the arrival of a boy would cause everyone to despair. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. ?” And Liz was like, “I won’t tell you because I refuse to die!! Plus, Elizabeth had started being cruel to her again. But Elizabeth had her two children bastardised, and from 1563 Katherine was sent to remote country house prisons, never to see her husband again. Katherine and Ned both said, again and again, that they had done this. Ned lived until 1621, dying at age eighty-four. Katherine, now fourteen years old, orphaned and with only one sister left, was now the eldest Grey sister. But so, with Elizabeth publicly stating she didn’t plan to get married anytime soon, her councillors turned their attention to Katherine again. Katherine's body was embalmed and then interred here in the Cockfield Chapel of Yoxford Church where it lay for 57 years before being moved to Salisbury Cathedral. Less than a month after her arrival, Katherine was reported to have fallen into a depression. Although never officially acknowledged as such by Queen Elizabeth, Lady Katherine was widely recognised as the heiress presumptive to the English throne. But there was a catch: Katherine was to be separated from her husband and one of her children. She also didn’t yet know about Katherine’s ongoing secret relationship with Ned. The Spanish Ambassador, whose name was Feria, began scheming if maybe Philip could marry Katherine and then take over England together, etc.. Did Katherine knowingly play along with this scheme? Katherine claimed at the last minute she had a toothache and couldn’t go. Katherine and Ned found opportunities to sneak off together, and more and more people were noticing their affair. If the baby was a son, then all bets were off because everyone was still desperate for a potential male monarch to replace Elizabeth. Upon his death, Lady Jane Grey was declared the new Queen. Ned gave Katherine a ring, and the betrothal was made official with a joining of hands and a lot of hugging and kissing. Elizabeth wouldn’t allow a priest to attend Thomas’s baptism, but two of the prison guards agreed to stand up as his godparents, because the jailers were total #KatheriNed shippers and loved their babies. By Henry VIII’s will, the Grey sisters were in the line of succession behind Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth. Katherine and Jane, like other girls at this time, would share the same bed for warmth and probably also some fun gossiping. Contents. Ned was kept in the same mansion, in a separate apartment about ten feet away. Of course it was! The tricky thing is that the only requirements for the marriage to be found legal was for the brie and groom to consent to marry in front of witnesses. Liked it? Lady Katherine Grey’s story is one of the saddest among many tragic tales of Tudor women. The Greys were given precedence at state events — ahead of Elizabeth, Mary I’s actual heir. The more people sided with Katherine, the more likely it was that her supporters might try and depose Elizabeth. I have just read the most heartbreaking description of the death of Lady Katherine Grey.She was the sister of Lady Jane Grey, the “Nine Days Queen” and a descendant of Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII.Katherine’s death at the age of twenty-seven was most unfortunate. She is one of the Worcestershire Greys. Undeterred, Katherine next turned to Robert Dudley, which is quite a decision. No, they did not!! Queen Elizabeth granted her a funeral with full royal honours and 80 mourners duly travelled up from London. Katherine Seymour, Countess of Hertford (25 August 1540 – 26 January 1568), born Lady Katherine Grey, was a younger sister of Lady Jane Grey.. A granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary, she emerged as a prospective successor to her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, before incurring Queen Elizabeth's wrath by secretly marrying Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford. Thus, although she felt obliged to accord Lady Katherine a funeral with full royal honours, Elizabeth considered it expedient to order it to be held in the small, out-of-the-way church of St Peter's in Yoxford. She ordered Ned to forget about Katherine, but he was like, “Is is so wrong for two young people who enjoy each other’s company to spend time together??? And she was like, “I’m twenty-nine years old and might have a child one day and will not tell you who my heir is!” And her councillors were like, “But what if we told you that Katherine Grey is pregnant again?” And Elizabeth was like “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???”. Katherine was hopeful that this petition would free them all, and wrote a letter to Ned sharing her hopes and goal of them getting to reunite soon. But the thing is: it wasn’t a scheme. Sure. Katherine’s Grey’s descendants, through her son Edward, include Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (née Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon). Both Katherine and Ned knew that their chances of getting married anytime soon had died along with Frances. The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: the Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Grey by Leanda de Lisle is published by HarperPress at £9.99. And Treason Baby would totally be my burlesque stage-name.