Deliberately separated from her younger brother, the
king, by his unwise and selfish counsellors, hated by her elder
sister, the Lady Mary, as the daughter of the woman who had made
HER mother's life so miserable, she was, even in her manor-home
of Hatfield, where she should have been most secure, in still
greater jeopardy. For this same Lord Seymour of Sudleye, who was
at once Lord High Admiral of England, uncle to the king, and
brother of Somerset the Lord Protector, had by fair promises and
lavish gifts bound to his purpose this defenceless girl's only
protectors, Master Parry, her cofferer, or steward, and Mistress
Katherine Ashley, her governess. And that purpose was to force
the young princess into a marriage with himself, so as to help
his schemes of treason against the Lord Protector, and get into
his own hands the care of the boy king and the government of the
realm. It was a bold plot, and, if unsuccessful, meant attainder
and death for high treason; but Seymour, ambitious, reckless, and
unprincipled, thought only of his own desires, and cared little
for the possible ruin into which he was dragging the unsuspecting
and orphaned daughter of the king who had been his ready friend
and patron.
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