Free The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor by Elizabeth Norton Page B

her new husband, since Thomas, ‘being mine uncle, is of so good a nature that he will not be troublesome any means unto you’. Furthermore, the king resolved to protect them, promising that ‘I will so provide for you both that hereafter, if any grief befall, I shall be a sufficient succour in your godly and praiseworthy enterprises’. With the king’s approval, the couple could now publicize their marriage – it was widely put about as having occurred around 16 June 1547. 43

    The Duke of Somerset was furious at what he took to be proof of his brother’s ‘evil and dissembling nature’. He made his feelings known even to the king, who recorded that he was ‘much offended’. 44 In public, Somerset put on a brave face, despite rumours that it was all part of a wider scheme of Seymour family marriages: there was another advantageous union arranged for Somerset’s daughter with the son of the Earl of Derby. 45 Thomas still attended Council meetings, but the atmosphere was frosty. As they reviewed some written instructions for the French negotiations, produced that June, the rivalry was discernible in their signatures. 46 The brothers had the two largest signatures, and both signed with similar flourishes, dwarfing the other councillors’ marks. But, as always, it was Somerset who dominated, signing above all others. Thomas’s florid attempt was constrained within the only space left on the far right of the page. 47
    The Protector was not the only person to be shocked at Catherine’s apparent lack of self-control. Princess Mary, who usually had so little in common with Somerset, shared his anger. One evening at dinner with Van der Delft, she spoke candidly of the marriage, asking her guest what he thought of it. 48 The ambassador considered that ‘it appeared to me to be quite fitting, since the queen and he were of similar rank, she having been content to forget the honour she had enjoyed from the late king’. Mary was distressed, laying the blame for the marriage firmly with her stepmother. 49
    The princess was also deeply worried about Catherine’s suitability as a guardian. She now saw the queen as a woman filled with lust. She wrote at once to Elizabeth, to remind her that their ‘interests being common, the just grief we feel in seeing the ashes, or rather the scarcely cold body of the king, our father, so shamefully dishonoured by the queen, our stepmother, ought to be common to us also’. 50 Elizabeth should come and live with her, she declared, since she herself could now no longer return visits to the fallen queen.
    The letter placed Elizabeth in a difficult position, and she took her time over her response. She had (she claimed) suffered ‘affliction’ when she heard of the marriage, finding comfort only in God. However, she thought that ‘the best course we can take is that of dissimulation, that the mortification may fall upon those who commit the fault’ rather than those who merely consoled themselves ‘by making the best of what we cannot remedy’. In truth, Elizabeth had no wish to leave her stepmother for the dour environment of Mary’s establishment, writing that ‘the queen having shown me so great affection, and done me so many kind offices, that I must use much tact in manoeuvring with her, for fear of appearing ungrateful’. Despite her talk of ‘dissimulation’, it was to her half-sister that she dissembled. She was staying at Chelsea.
    Princess Mary’s anger was stoked by Somerset’s wife. The forthright, capable but controversial Anne Stanhope was believed by many to rule her husband with ‘ambitious will and mischievous persuasions’. 51 There was some truth in the characterization, and even Paget rued Somerset’s ‘bad wife’. 52 Her husband feared to cross her. On one occasion, when he showed leniency in a political matter, she was said to have complained ominously ‘that she had never so much displeasure of her husband since she was first Sir Edward Seymour’s