Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/684

670 her to order it, three thousand pounds in plate, jewels, and stuff of household, besides such apparel as it shall please her to take, as she hath already; and farther we give unto her one thousand pounds in money with the enjoyment of her dowry, according to our grant by act of parliament."

Her great zeal for the reformation, and earnest desire to have the scriptures understood by the common people, induced her to employ several learned persons to translate Erasmus's Paraphrase on the New Testament into English, at her own expence. She engaged the lady Mary (afterwards queen) in translating the paraphrase on St. John: and wrote to her an epistle, in Latin, for that purpose.

King Henry dying, when she had been his wife three years, six months, and five days, she was married, not long after, to Sir Thomas Seymour, lord admiral, and uncle to Edward VI.

This unhappy marriage raised her a new scene of troubles; for between the pride of her sister-in-law, the duchess of Somerset, and the boundless ambition of the admiral, such furious animosities ensued, as proved the destruction of both families; and necessarily involved her in such troubles and perplexities, as put a final stop to her studies, and to all temporal enjoyments.

She lived, however, but a short time with the admiral; for, after being delivered of a daughter, she died in childbed, 1548, not without suspicion of poison; indeed she herself apprehended some unfair dealings, and on her death bed reproached the admiral with his unkindness. .

PARRY