First Earl of Vemhrohe of the Present Creation. 119 



Daring the Bummer of 1561 the Irish, with Shan O'Neil at their 

 head, worsted the English forces under Sussex. To such an extent 

 was intrigue and faction rife at the court of Elizabeth at this time, 

 that Cecil declared that Lord Pembroke seemed to be the only 

 nobleman whose patriotism could be depended on ; and in Pembroke's 

 absence there was not a person — " no," Cecil reiterated, " not one, 

 who did not either wish so well to Shan O'Neil or so ill to the Earl 

 of Sussex as rather to welcome the news than regret the English 

 loss." 



Soon after this, Cecil was out of favour with the queen, and pro- 

 posed to retire from the public service ; in this he was joined by 

 Pembroke, the cause being, the expectation that Elizabeth would 

 marry Lord Robert Dudley. The queen was then believed to be so 

 infatuated, that a powerful party was moving to prevent it. The 

 secret mover was supposed to have been Cecil, he fearing that 

 Elizabeth was about to abandon the Reformation. As long as the 

 queen remained unmarried the question of the succession was always 

 uppermost, each faction had an eye to a possible candidate. The 

 Spanish ambassador had been coquetting with Katharine Grey for 

 a husband in the interest of Spain. 



At this time we find the following passage in a letter from Sir 

 Henry Neville ',to Throckmorton, the queen's ambassador at Paris, 

 dated June 28th, 1561, " Mt/ Lord of PembroJc cannot yeat bryng hys 

 pttrpos to passe, for my lady Caieryii wyll not have his son, and what- 

 soever ys the cawse I know not, but the Quen ys entryd in to a 

 great mislyking w' her. . . . for that I am goyng-into Wylsher, 

 I do as well aquyt you for wrytyng as my self tyl my retorn." * 



There can be little doubt that this refers to Lady Katharine^Grey, 

 whose sudden marriage to Pembroke's eldest son, and its equally 

 sudden repudiation, about the time of King Edward's death, has 

 already been referred to. The Lady Katharine had some months 

 previously been married secretly to Lord Hertford ; the cause of the 

 queen's misliking her was soon made known. John Somer writes 

 to Throckmorton, " On Sept. 26, the Lady Catharine was brought 

 abed in the Tower of a boy. Lord Hertford and she agree upon the 



> State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth, loGl, 1562, No. 272. 



