Catherine the Queen

The Tower of London, October, 1562

At first sight the woman's rooms could be mistaken for the comfortable apartment of a young lady of the court. Whilst not luxurious it was warm with a goodly fire in the grate. The bed had hangings and there were chairs offering further respite for the rooms occupant. However you could not really ignore the heavy locks on the door, the narrow windows and the cold stone walls.

The fair haired and attractive woman who was clearly with child stood near the fire only slightly trembling, perhaps more from fear than cold, as she regarded the men who entered the room.
He pet dogs drew near her skirts and her monkey hid at the top of the bed frame.
The gentlemen approached with heavy tread and knelt before the woman.

"Master Secretary," the woman said, "I hope you bring something to cheer me rather than dread news to chill me further,"

"Madam, the Queen is dead, long live the Queen," were his only words

CGREY.jpg


Catherine Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc

All three men - William Cecil, the Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker and the Constable of the Tower, Sir Edward Warner - knelt as one proclaiming their recent prisoner Catherine Grey as Queen of England, France and Ireland.

The young Queen was shocked and nervous at the arrival of the men and insisted on her husband, the Earl of Hertford, and her uncle Sir John Grey being brought to her before she would acknowledge her accession fearing it a trap to force her to treason and her own death.

"The Queen would not have wished it for me," was her response acknowledging her poor relationship with her older cousin Elizabeth I.

The law was clear she was told by virtue of the will of her Great Uncle King Henry VIII and the council's refusal to accept anything other than a Protestant accession.

In fact the council had debated for hours as Elizabeth I lay dying with some favoring the Scots Queen, the direct nearest relation of the late Elizabeth. However Cecil and others had prevailed - the law was clear he argued and could support the outcome most desired a Protestant succession with a guaranteed male heir - the validity of Catherine's marriage could he said be overcome.

The new Queen was immediately removed to the Royal Apartments at the Tower and summons were issued in her name for a Parliament - with an additional explanation attached explaining her right to the throne.

Sir William Cecil was confirmed as secretary by the young Queen whose next acts were to proclaim her infant son Edward Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and to restore her husband to his father's Duchy of Somerset with precedence over all other Lords of the Realm. On Cecil's advice she did not name him King and gave him no authority.

Her embarrassed Archbishop explained how the church would move to formally declare her marriage to be valid in order to clarify the succession - stating that he bore Her Majesty no ill will and had been urged to it only at the demand of the late Queen.

Whilst Catherine appointed her household under the advice of her step grandmother Catherine Willoughby Duchess of Suffolk now Mistress of the Robes, plans were being made for her coronation and the birth of her second child.

North of the border the news of Catherine's accession was met with fury though.

Mary Queen of Scots was in the midst of putting down the rebellion of Lord Huntley and his supporters but had no other view than she was the legal heir of her cousin Elizabeth.

She immediately issued orders to change her Royal Style to include the Crown of England. Furthermore in letters sent to the English Council she pointed out the late Queen had "given her word she would do naught to disparage our rights to the crown of England".

Mary was in a precarious position - the Huntley's were Catholic and Mary was supporting her Protestant half brother in their destruction - a fact not likely to appeal to many English Catholics particularly in the North who might have rallied to her support on the death of Elizabeth and the decision of the council to proclaim Catherine Grey as Queen.

Some would in the next few months look to the only other obvious claimant the Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, the last surviving granddaughter of Henry VII.
 
Sorry for the delay been away

The main aims of the council of the new Queen was to shore up their monarch and their own positions.
To that end many who had served Elizabeth remained in power - the only exception was Robert Dudley. The Queen found herself unable to forgive the man who had betrayed her illicit marriage to Elizabeth and he was urged to retire from court.
The new Queen was very different to her cousin, not as well-educated as her late sister Jane or her cousin the late Queen, she had far less interest in the actual business of government.
Often decried unfairly as rather silly she did however take an interest and urged William Cecil to explain things to her usually in the presence of her husband the Duke of Somerset, who Sir William appears to have had slightly more respect for.
Unlike Elizabeth she had no firm opinions and the council felt they had a more malleable and easier to deal with sovereign who was happy to assume her "proper" place and role.
To be fair to the Queen she was heavily pregnant and would be forced to take to her chamber once Christmas festivities were completed and the council and the realm were more interested in the Queen's production of a "duke of York" than her abilities in the council chamber.
Foreign courts were rather more mystified by the new English Queen - whose claim was regarded as weak in the extreme - most would have freely acknowledged Mary Stuart's rights and some believed Catherine a mere cypher for the "dark men" of England's council.
Spain's reaction was muted - the Spanish ambassador wrote that Catherine was "even more firmly a heretic than the late Queen your sister," but Philip remained equally mistrustfull of the Scots Queen and had no desire to see a half-french woman take control of the whole of the British Isles.

Cecil was not unaware of the threat posed to the Queen's position and had moved with speed to neutralise the Lady Margaret Douglas. She had been summoned to London as the Queen lay ill but it appears she had been warned that she may face arrest. Her husband and eldest son Lord Darnley had slipped across the border into Scotland but the Lady Margaret and her younger son had been detained on Cecil's orders and was soon once again under lock and key in the Tower in the same appartment recently vacated by Queen Catherine.
It was a significant blow that her son had escaped to the new Queen's council.
England's representative at the Scots court was told Queen Mary recognised only one Queen of England and he was ordered to either offer homage to his sovereign or depart the realm.
Aware that Mary Stuart was not in any position to launch an assault on England Cecil and the council began preparations for the Queen's coronation with May suggested as an appropriate time. Parliament was also summoned to begin sitting in January/February 1563 in order to confirm the Queen's accession and her traditional rights and dues as was usual.

The Queen was delivered of a second son on the 11th Febuary 1563 at Hampton Court Palace - the boy was promptly named Henry in honour of the Queen's father Henry Grey and on the 13th February was given a lavish christening and created Duke of York.
The birth of a second son gave the Queen considerable strength over her childless rival north of the border.
 
A secure succession left the English council contented.
For the first time the men of the Queen's council were effectively able to govern the realm as they saw fit. Cecil had ensured that the Queen's household was filled with people loyal to both the Queen and her husband - these included the Queen's wider relations including her sister Lady Mary Grey, their stepgrandmother the Duchess of Suffolk and her children by her second marriage aswell as the Duke of Somerset's younger sisters who were appointed maids of honour.
Notably the Dowager Duchess of Somerset was not given a formal position given her poor relationship with the Duchess of Suffolk, her lowly second marriage and her personal distrust of Cecil (who she believed betrayed her husband to ingratiate himslef with the Dudley's). Though the Dowager attended court it was clear that both her son and the Queen kept her and her increasing financial demands at a distance.
The Queen's husband was regarded as a sensible man despite his hasty marriage and was on good terms with Cecil and his eldest son Thomas aswell as his brother Lord Henry Seymour.
The Spanish Ambassador reported that: "Somerset be King in all but name just as his father was in King Edward's day." Whilst the French Queen Regent was told "Master Cecil governs both the Queen and the Duke in all things."
The Queen's Coronation was a lavish affair as one wit reportedly said in order to convince everyone of "her rite and title to the crown" - decorations in the streets of London emphasised her descent from Mary Tudor sidelining both her Grey and Brandon ancestry and for the first time in almost a century depictions of Edward IV and his Queen Elizabeth Woodville were displayed given Catherine Grey's descent from both Elizabeth of York and Thomas Grey Marquess of Dorset (son of Elizabeth Woodville).
In honour of her coronation she formally restored her uncle Lord John Grey as Marquess of Dorset and Baron Grey of Groby (as the sole surviving brother of her father) his children would be prominent at Catherine's court as was her cousin Margaret Countess of Derby. Her sister Lady Mary was granted the style of a King's daughter and would have precedence over all other women of hte court bar any daughter's born to the Queen or the wives of the Queen's sons she was also granted a household of her own and an income.
Following the coronation Catherine and her husband took a prolonged progress through southern England before reaching her childhood home Bradgate House in Leicestershire in late July.
With most of the court lodged at Bradgate House it was there that couriers would arrive from Scotland declaring that Queen Mary was intent on war - her note to Catherine was addressed to the "Pretended Quene of England" declaring that Mary not tainted by "attainder, treachery and treason and being the lawful heir in blood of Henry VII of blessed memory" was the rightfull inheritrix of the English throne being nearest in blood to both the late Queen's Mary and Elizabeth She firmly stated that Parliament despite being an honourable body of men had not the right to deprive a Princess of the blood royal from her lawful inheritance or to ammend the succession which was a matter governed not by men but by God. To the council it was bluster and intended to bully Catherine to stand aside for she it stated was a mere "cypher" being used by "diverse wordly men" for their own gain.
Cecil had been manouvering for boths to try and gain a foreign alliance with a power willing to defend Catherine's rights against the Scots Queen and his main aim was to neutralise at least one of the Catholic powers - all of whom Mary was courting with the offer of her hand in marriage.
Firstly Cecil had offered Phillip II the hand of Lady Mary, the Queen's sister, as a possible wife for his son Don Carlos - however this plan was hardly likely to appeal - the daughter of a mere Duke with little chance of succeeding to the English throne was hardly an appropriate match even had she been a great beauty and as the Spanish Ambassador described her she was 'little, crook-backed and very ugly'.
She was then offered to both Charles of France and his brother Henri and was strongly rebuffed by the French Queen Regent. Attempts to marry the Lady were of little success and she is reputed to have later said she was "much offered but little wanted".
Mary Stuart's own attempts had also faltered - her former mother in law in France had no wish to renew her alliance with Scotland and had little desire to see the Guise family gain additional power - also any marriage with any of her former brothers in law would be frought with difficulties - the Queen Regent would, Mary was told, willing to consider a match with her younger sons once Mary was undoubted Queen of both Scotland and England but not before. The Spanish were not eager for a match with Don Carlos either without a guarantee that Mary had gained the English throne preferably without their help.
In effect both England and Scotland were left without foreign allies - Mary Stuart's main hope seemed to be to encourage the English themselves to rebel leaving her free to invade in their defence and assume the throne by acclamation rather than as an invading foreigner.

The Stuart Queen had one ace up her elegant sleeve - Lord Henry Darnley - her English-born cousin and after herself and his imprisoned mother next in line of descent from Margaret Tudor. An alliance with the handsome Darnley would unite both lines of descent and bolster her claim. It has long been disputed how much of their match was passion and how much politics - but without informing anyone on August 5th 1563 Darnley and Mary were married in a Catholic ceremony in the Chapel at Stirling.

However Mary had overplayed her hand - her Protestant peers including her half-brother Moray were furious at the Queen's Catholic marriage - clearly aimed at one goal the English throne. Now she had to deal with the threat of further rebellion in her own realm.

Cecil and the English council might have been fearful of the Scots marriage but were quick to funnel money to the Protestant Lords in Scotland to fund further dissent against the Scots Queen.
 
I hope that this thread continues. I for one would like to see the house of Seymour as kings of England - after all, it's quite an impressive jump for them from being a knight's children in the 1500s to the king-in-all-but-name of England in the 1540s/1550s, and TTL kings of England in the 1560s
 
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