Page:The Queens of England.djvu/388

 34& THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. the crown in strongest opposition to her own will. The power- ful influence of habit as well as a generous desire to save her nearest connections from the consequences of their ambitious policy, undoubtedly aided greatly in bringing her head to the block. Perhaps some of the pleasantest days of Lady Jane's child- hood were passed in the society and under the care of Queen Katharine Parr, whose serious and religious mind seems to have delighted in the budding genius and the deep piety of this lovely and intellectual girl. We have evidence of her being with Katharine Parr both before and subsequent to that queen's marriage with Lord Seymour of Sudely, the lord admiral, and brother of Protector Somerset. Though Lady Jane was at this period but eleven years of age, her proximity to the throne, combined with her beauty and talents, had arrested the attention of those who hoped to profit by them. The lord admiral, who married a queen- dowager, and who gave unmistakable signs of an audacious hope of marrying the Princess Elizabeth, who had even at that period a very probable chance of succession to the crown of England, was a man full of plottings and speculations of the most daring character. To secure a strong hold on his nephew Edward the Sixth, and wrest him from the equally selfish grasp of his brother Somerset, Seymour had thus early fixed on Lady Jane Grey as- the future consort of the voung king. He had not merely planned this, but he had bargained with her father for the right of disposing of her hand. Whether, there- fore, Lady Jane were residing with Queen Katharine before Lord Seymour conceived these designs, or whether she was invited to her majesty's house in consequence of his sugges- tions, nothing can be clearer than that he must have regarded her being there as a circumstance most auspicious to his projects. Queen Katharine died at Hanworth, in 1548, while Lady Jane was still with her ; and the Marquis of Dorset, her father, demanded her return home soon after, very properly consider- ing that the parental oversight was much more desirable for her than the society of a man of the lord admiral's calculating, and yet assuming and rash, character. In consequence of this demand, Lady Jane returned to her parents ; but Lord Seymour did not long rest satisfied without her being permitted to re- turn to him. Mr. Howard, in his "Lady Jane Grey and Her