By the Rev. Cation J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 153 



private custody, and Lady Katharine died at Sir Owen Hopton's 

 house, January 2l>th, 1568. 1 



This affair was at the time an important State question, and as it 

 occupies a place in all our histories, I am glad to be able to supply 

 one or two items of information about it, which ought to correct the 

 history for the future. 



The first is one which quite alters the matter of the fine. It 

 certainly, at first, was £15,000, and this has often been pointed at 

 as an instance of Elizabeth's hard-heartedness ; but the real truth 

 is this : — That heavy sum was named, in terror em, to warn others. 

 The Queen herself, immediately excused £10,000. Of the remaining 

 £5009, she insisted upon rather more than £1000 down, and certainly 

 did mean to make the young gentleman pay the rest ; but through 

 the intercession of the Ministers about her, and on the Earl's own 

 full and respectful submission, the whole of the rest was ultimately 

 excused, and he escaped for the precise sum of £1187. This I can 

 safely state to have been the case, because the Earl's own account of 

 the matter, together with a copy of the warrant for his discharge, 

 are now on the table. {Appendix , No. xi.) 



The period during which he was under surveillance, or actually in 

 prison, has also never been exactly known and is variously stated by 

 writers. In his own account, just referred to, the Earl says that 

 " he patiently endured her Majesty's displeasure, in prison," ten 

 years lacking one month. 2 



1 It may be mentioned here that in the Inscription on the Earl of Hertford's 

 monument in Salisbury Cathedral, the date of Lady Katharine's death was cut 

 wrong by the stone-mason, who by twice omitting the Roman capital V, made 

 it to be January xxii., MDCLXIII, instead of January xxdi., MDCLX Fill 

 (January 22nd, 1563, instead of January 27th, 1568). Tt is strange that the 

 errors should not have been corrected. Dr. llawliuson (Antiq. of Cath. Ch. of 

 Sal. p. 88) has perpetuated these wrong dates ; and he has also printed Richar- 

 dum instead of " Edoardum " for the Earl's eldest son (which is right in the 

 original inscription) ; besides one or two other literal errors. 



2 The Earl certainly remained in bondage until about August, 1571, and 

 among the Longleat Papers there is a lamentable petition from him (probably 

 one of many) written when actually in prison (see Appendix, xii., 1.). But 

 for the greater part of the time, judging from the easy tone of his letters and 

 the variety of houses of the gentry from which he writes, such restraint, though 

 no doubt a great hinderance to him, was a widely different thing from being 

 shut up "in prison." There is also a letter from Lady Katharine to her 

 husband (Appendix, xii., 2.) written in a vein of unusual gaiety for a captive. 



