well anticipated, from the honourable place which
several members of her family had filled in the settlement of that
kingdom; and doubtless the influence of Philip himself was not wanting
at such a moment. The Duchess lies buried in the Church of Chelsea,
having died at her manor house there, her epitaph closing with the
suggestive words,—
"After she had lived years 46 she departed this
transitory world at her Manor of Chelse the 22nd day of January, in the
second year of the reigne of our Sovereigne Lady Queen Mary the first,
and in an. 1555, on whose soule Jesu have mercy."
It was indeed a "short life," and we may well add
"and full of misery," and as a worthy sequel to it she charged
her executors in her will in the words,
"My will is that little solempnitie be made for me,
for I had ever have a thousand foldes my debts to be paid and the poor
to be given unto, than any pompe to be shewed upon my wretched carkes:
therefore to the wormes will I |
|
goe as I have before written at all poyntes as you will
answer yt afore God." She orders "such devyne service as her
executors shall thinke mete with the whole armes of father and mother
upon the stone graven."
This last direction, which was carried out on her tomb, is
not a little remarkable; it seems to indicate that the arms of her
husband were forfeited by his attainder, and that she bore in her
widowhood only the coats and quarterings of Guldeford and Delawarr.
The terrible blow, which had been struck at the very
existence of the great family of the Dudleys, almost recoiled upon the
throne of Mary. The cruel executions (eighty at a time), which followed
the rebellion of Wyatt, were only closed by the solemn remonstrance of
the House of Lords, conveyed by the Lord Paget; in which the vindictive
Queen is suggestively reminded that "already too much blood has
been shed. The noble house of Suffolk was all but |