By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 155 



herself, like her unfortunate sister, Lady Jane, had no ambition of 

 her own, and both of them probably heartily wished that they had 

 nothing whatever to do with the succession. The Queen may per- 

 haps seem to us to have acted with unnecessary severity ; but we are 

 living in the days of Queen Victoria, not of Queen Elizabeth : and 

 there are no conspiracies and plotting^ now besetting" the throne 

 by potentates abroad or fanatics at home, for purposes of their 

 own ; we are happily free from troubles upon that score, and 

 to be so free is surely a blessing above all price, if we all did but 

 know it. But things were different then : and the difference should 

 always be remembered, in judging of the conduct of Queen Elizabeth. 

 After the death of Lady Katharine Grey, the Queen was, personally, 

 as kind as it was possible to be, to the Earl of Hertford and his 

 children, and all would have been forgotten, had it not been for 

 another Royal alliance (to be mentioned presently) , designed by one 

 of this same Seymour family, which most unluckily coming to her 

 knowledge just before her death, revived all the animosity she had 

 felt agaiust Lady Katharine. 



Elizabeths death-bed is described by a Lady Southwell, an eye- 

 witness. 1 Up to that moment, who the successor was to be was still 

 uncertain; and Secretary Cecil and others, on the night of the 23rd 

 of March, 1603, approached her bed-side, asking her to name one. 

 The old Queen seemed to be already speechless ; so they requested 

 her to show, by some sign with her hand, when they should have 

 named the one she liked. She said nothing. They named ,f The 

 King of France ? 33 Neither word, nor sign. c< The King of 

 Scotland?'''' Again neither. They then ventured the name of 

 " The Lord Beauchamp, the son and heir of Katharine Grey ? s> She 

 was stirred by the sound of the name : and replied, " I will have 

 no rascal's son in my seat, but one worthy to be a King." According 

 to another account, 2 Cecil then boldly asked her, what she meant by 

 those words, " no rascal should succeed her ? " Whereto she answered 

 that "her meaning was, that a King should succeed, and who should 



1 Quarterly Review, vol. 108, p. 439. 

 Disraeli's " Curiosities of Literature, 2nd ser., iii., 107. 



