Note 648 — Chapter XV

Wriothesley, Chronicle, vol. ii., p. 138. As usual, Elizabeth’s was the name conjured with. Referring to the huge conspiracy of the preceding year, when her household had not so entirely escaped the consequences as herself, Clifford, the secretary of the Duchess of Feria, says: “Hereof by many prescriptions was the Lady Elizabeth held accessory; which the Queen’s Council would have examined and chastised, but the king again protected her from this danger. It was consulted that two Catholic gentlemen should be sent to her to remain there, and observe what passed, and so were sent Sir Thomas Pope and Mr. Robert Gage. But the lady by her wary carriage, her courteous behaviour and cunning, and by her public profession of Catholic religion with shew of zeal did deceive these gentlemen. Before the year was ended, underhand she had intelligence with Mr. Thomas Stafford, who then exiled in France suddenly coming into England should title himself king (for that he was descended from the house of the dukes of Buckingham) and should marry with the Lady Elizabeth; they supposing themselves strong enough against Queen Mary. It was not long before Mr. Stafford put this in execution; for coming out of France only with forty men on 24th April, 1557, and took Scarborough Castle, with hope that either the Lady Elizabeth would send her forces to fetch him or with them to come to him herself. But when by the Earl of Westmoreland he was intercepted, sent to London and beheaded, and some others of his faction hanged, the relics of this crime remained upon the Lady Elizabeth. It was her luck that at this time King Philip had returned from Flanders into England, by whose singular favour she again escaped this plunge” (Life of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria, p. 89).