one, for he was a good French scholar, an excellent Latin had a fair knowledge of German, and was able to hold his own in theological discussions with the best men of his day. They were taught Latin and French and were reckoned extremely clever for their writings, which made a considerable mark at the time. On the death of Margaret of Valois, the sisters, Anne, Margaret, and Jane, wrote 104 Latin distiches in her honour.* were so highly thought of that they were soon translated into French, Italian, and even into Greek. Some scholars of the time enlarged upon the subject and upon the writers. Sonnets, epigrams, and odes poured in, in various languages, and the poetesses have been handed down to posterity attended by a train of poets. (Note 49.) These At the time of their father's imprisonment they were residing at Sion House, and, on their mother's arrest, were subjected to a severe examination, together with the whole household, in reference to the jewels of the Duchess, of which apparently they had been robbed by some of their domestics. At their father's death, their mother and brothers being in the Tower, four of them were left without a home, and were sent by the Council to reside with their aunt, Lady Cromwell, who does not appear to have appreciated the charge. (Note 50.) The Duchess of Somerset appears to have been kept a prisoner in the Tower till after the accession of Mary, who released her, amongst others, on August 3, 1553. The Parliament then restored to her certain properties, and gave her all such household stock as remained at Killingworth, lately the property of the Duke of Northumberland, so that she had the gratification, not only of seeing the destruction of her enemy, but of sharing in his spoils. She subsequently married Francis Newdigate, * These verses have been published in Latin and English. + Fragmenta Regalia, Addit. MS. 5498, f. 26, date Nov. 16 155 Dict. Nat. Biog. Burghley State Papers, 1, 193. her late husband's steward,* and died in 1587. She was buried in the chapel of St. Nicholas in Westminster Abbey, where a fine monument was erected to her memory in the form of a temple made of various coloured marbles. She was a proud and haughty woman and is generally, though I think erroneously,† supposed to have aided, by her jealousy of Queen Catherine Parr, in bringing about the ill-feeling shown by Lord Seymour, of Sudeley, against the Duke of Somerset, his brother. One thing she undoubtedly did, and that was to use all her influence in bringing about the Act of 1540, by which her children were to succeed to all the family estates and honours to the total exclusion of the sons of Somerset's first wife. There are two portraits of her, both anonymous, one belonging to the Duke of Northumberland and the other to the Earl of Stanhope. Of the Duke of Somerset there are several portraits, one by Holbein, belonging to the Duke of Northumberland, which has been engraved by White, Honbraken, and others; and several anonymous, two of which are at Sudeley. [England under Protector Somerset, by A. F. Pollard; Dictionary National Biography; Froude's History; Sadlier's State Papers; Haynes's Burghley Papers; Ellis's Original Letters; Adit. MSS. British Museum (Hamilton Papers); Hist. MSS. Commission; Papers of 11th Duke of Somerset ; Calendar's Domestic, Venetian, Foreign, and Spanish State Papers; Harleian MSS.; Cottonian MSS.; Brewer and Gairdner's Letters and Papers, Henry VIII; Wiltshire Archæolog. Mag.; Acts of the Privy Council, Nicholas and Dasent; Lisle Papers in the Record Office; Greyfriars Chronicle; Literary Remains, Edward VI; Wriothesley's Chronicle; Rymer's Foedera; De Selve, Corresp. Pol.; Machyn's Diary; Wood, Athenæ Oxon.; Cooper, Athenæ Cant.; Wood's Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies; Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation; Corr. de Marillac; Proceedings, Privy Council; Memoires du Maréchal de Vielleville; Nott, Surrey's Works; Herbert, Life and Reign * Dict. Nat. Biog. + Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation. |