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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ. Queens of England. Vol.1.

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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ.
Queens of England. Vol.1.
page 448



uplifted hands, blessing her royal husband for his merciful clemency, the archbishop departed; and repeating his visit in the evening, when she was more composed, artfully drew from her a promise to reply to his questions as faithfully and truly as she would answer at the day of judgment, and by the promise that she made at her baptism, and by the sacrament that she received on All-Hallows day last past. In compliance with this solemn promise, Katherine the nest day signed, or rather put her mark, for she could not write, to the following startling confession, which, with some slight modification, occasioned by the impropriety of the language in the original, we give verbatim from the records m Burnet. " I, Katherine Howard, "being again examined by my Lord of Canterbury, of contracts and communications of marriage between Derham and me, I shall here answer faithfully and truly, as I shall make answer at the day of judgment, and by the promise that I made in baptism, and the sacrament that I received upon All-Hallows day last past. " First, I do say that Derham hath many times moved me unto the question of matrimony, whereunto, as far as I remember, I never granted him more than I have already confessed. And as for those words, ( I promise you I love you with all my heart,' I do not remember that I ever spoke them. But as concerning the other words, that I should promise him by my faith and troth to be his wife, I am sure I never spoke them. "Examined what tokens and gifts I gave to Dcrham, and he to me. I gave him a band and sleeves for a shirt, and he gave me a heart's-case of silk, for a new-year's gift, and an old shirt of fine holland or cambric, that had belonged to my lord Thomas, and been given to Derham by my lady; and more than this, to my remembrance I never gave him, nor be to me, saving this summer £10, which 1 received from him about the beginning of the progress. "Examined, whether I gave him a small ring of gold, upon the condition that he should never give it away, To my knowledge, I never gave him any such ring, hut I cannot be certain of the matter. " Examined, whether the shirt, hand, and sleeves, were of my own work. They were not of my work, but, as I remember, Clifton's wife, of Lambeth, wrought them. "As for the bracelet of silk-work, if it was mine, he must have taken it from me, for I never gave him one. " I never gave him a ruby, to set in a ring or for other purposes. As for the French fennel, Derham did not give it me ; but he said there was a little woman in London, with a crooked back, who was very cunning in making all manner of artificial flowers, so I desired him to cause her to make a French fennel for me, and I would pay him again when I had money ; this he did, and when I first came to court, I paid him for that, as well as for divers other things, to the value of five or six pounds. It is true, that I dared not wear the fennel till after I had prevailed on Lady Brereton to say that she had given it me. "As for the small ring with a stone, I never lost one of his, nor did he ever give me one, "As for velvet and satin for dresses, a cap of velvet with a feather, and a quilted cap of sarcenet, he did not give them to rae ; but at my desire he laid out money for them, and I paid him again when I came to court. He did not buy me the quilted cap, but only the sarcenet for it, which I dflivered, as I remember, to a little fellow named Bose, in my lady's house, to make it up as he thought best, and not appointing him to trim it with friar's knots, as he can testify, if he be a true man. Nevertheless, when it was made, Derham said, ' What, wife, here be friar's knots for Francis.'* * Derham's christian name was France and these knots were an enigmatical allusion to that name, introduced for the first time, it is supposed, by the French monarch, Francis the First, at the field of the cloth of gold. " The French King, and his men," says Hall, in his minute detail of that gorgeous scene, "were apparrelled In purple satin, branched with gold and purpla velvet, and emhroidered all over with friar's knots, with a panseyflowerin each knot, which device signified, ' Think on Francis.' "


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