Note 148 — Chapter X · THE LADY JANE GOES TO SEYMOUR PLACE

Queen Elizabeth stated at a later date that “the Admiral’s life would have been saved had not the Council dissuaded the Protector from granting him an interview.” In face of these statements, there would seem to be little doubt that the Protector, if left to himself, might have visited a less severe sentence on his brother.

The Protector’s wife evidently bore in her time a very bad reputation for intriguing and interference, for Hayward (Life of Edward VI, p. 82) says the troubles between Sudeley and his brother were mainly due to the quarrel (already mentioned) between Katherine Parr and her Ladyship—“to the unquiet vanity of a mannish, or rather a devilish woman [Lady Somerset] ... for many imperfections intolerable, but for pride monstrous.”