Nicholas Throckmorton 1515-1571

Chronicle of Queen Jane and Two Years of Queen Mary 1553. 6th July 1553. KING EDWARD [aged 15] died at Greenwich, on the 6th July 1553, "towards night."^a The event was kept perfectly secret during the next day;^b but measures were taken to occupy and fortify the Tower of London [Map].^c On "the 8. of July the lord maior of London was sent for to the court then at Greenwich, to bring with him sixe aldermen, as many merchants of the staple, and as many merchant adventurers, unto whom by the Councell was secretly declared the death of king Edward, and also how hee did ordaine for the succession of the Crowne by his letters pattents, to the which they were sworne, and charged to keep it secret."^d

Note a. Letter of the council to sir Philip Hoby [aged 48], ambassador with the emperor, printed in Strype's Memorials, 1721, ii. 430. It was not written until the 8th of the month, and is silent regarding the successor to the throne. Mary [aged 37], in her letter to the lords of the council, dated from Kenynghall [Map] on the 9th of July (printed in Foxe's Actes and Monuments), also states that she had learned from some advertisement that the king her brother had died on Thursday (the 6th) at night last past.

Note b. Northumberland's [aged 49] intention was to keep the death of the king a secret, until he should have obtained possession of the person of the lady Mary, who had been summoned to visit her brother, and was at no further distance from London than the royal manor of Hunsdon in Hertfordshire. But there were not wanting about the court those who from attachment to Mary, or from self-interest, ventured to incur the hazard of conveying to her this momentous intelligence; whereupon she immediately took alarm, and rode off towards the eastern coast, from which she might have escaped to the continent, had such a step become necessary. Many writers assert that it was the earl of Arundel [aged 41] who made a private communication to her. I have not found any contemporary authority for this statement; but sir Nicholas Throckmorton [aged 38], in his poetical autobiography (MS. Cole, vol xl. p. 272, verses 111, 112, 113, 114), claims the credit of having been the officious person. He had been a favourite servant of king Edward; and on his royal master's death,

"Mourning, from Greenwich I didd strayt departe

To London, to an house which bore our name.

My bretheren guessed by my heavie hearte

The King was dead, and I confess'd the same:

The hushing of his death I didd unfolde,

Their meaninge to proclaime queene Jane I tolde.

And, though I lik'd not the religion

Which all her life queene Marye hadd profest,

Yett in my mind that wicked motion

Right heires for to displace I did detest.

Causeless to proffer any injurie,

I meant it not, but sought for remedie.

Wherefore from four of us the newes was sent,

How that her brother hee was dead and gone;

In post her goldsmith then from London went,

By whome the message was dispatcht anon.

Shee asked,' If wee knewe it certainlie?'

Whoe said,' Sir Nicholas knew it verilie.'

The author bred the errand's greate mistrust:

Shee fear'd a traine to leade her to a trapp.

Shee saide,' If Robert had beene there shee durst

Have gag'd her life, and hazarded the happ.'

Her letters made, shee knewe not what to doe:

Shee sent them oute, butt nott subscrib'd thereto."

By "Robert" the lady Mary meant sir Robert Throckmorton, one of the four brothers.

Note c. See the Diary of Henry Machyn, p. 35. for 07 July 1553.

Note d. It appears most probable that this was the first intimation which the citizens had received of the existence of the letters patent: and that it was on this occasion that, being "sworn to them," they affixed their signatures, although the document had been previously executed on the 21st of June. No fewer than thirty-two signatures follow that of the lord mayor, but the parties were perhaps not all citizens, and from the arrangement of their names in the existing transcript (mentioned in the following note b ) it would be difficult to distinguish which were the aldermen, which the merchants of the staple, and which the merchant adventurers.