Duchess of Norfolk

“ The crowd, silent and sullen, could not be persuaded to take off their hats and cry “God save the Queen,” and when one of Anne’s attendants told the lord mayor to order them to cheer as usual, he answered that he “could not command people’s hearts, and even the King could not do so”. The court and the nobility did their best to grace the ceremony, but the Duchess of Norfolk refused to be present, and no one was surprised, for her loyalty to Queen Katharine was known. ”

“ The head-dress was a busby with blue bag; the forage-cap was blue trimmed with white.
p. 10516.—Intelligence was received at Norwich of the death, of the Duchess of Kent. On the 17th (Sunday) special references were made to the melancholy event at the religious services in the city, and at intervals the age of the deceased was tolled upon the muffled bells of the Cathedral and St. Peter Mancroft church. The Town Council, on April 5th, adopted an address of sympathy with the Queen.
—The Surlingham estate was sold by Messrs. Butcher, at the Royal Hotel, Norwich, for £16,895. ”

“ If we analyse the characters of the men themselves, we shall not find in them anything particularly noble or elevated, if we except the gifted and chivalric son of Norfolk—the poetical Earl of Surrey. The Norfolk family was singularly destitute of unity in itself—of warm natural affection. We have seen the old duke, with the utmost willingness, nay, even eagerness, and a cruel asperity, lending himself to the destruction of his nieces—Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. ”

“ He spoke with some passion, as a man incensed at being wrongfully accused and suspected, yet with a certain dignity—in nothing forgetting his station, and his whole bearing that of a man who was a genuine Englishman at heart, who had been fascinated by the charms of the Scottish queen, but had never conceived a treasonable thought against the English one. On his return to the Tower, Elizabeth pressed him by her ministers to confess and disclose the guilt of his colleagues. Norfolk replied in a long letter, which breathes the spirit of a true-hearted and really noble man. ”

“ The Spanish ambassador lived under a perpetual conviction that she was rushing on her own ruin—that she would drive his master to choose between the deplorable alternatives of fighting on her behalf or allowing the Queen of France and Scotland to become Queen of England also—that the Catholics would rise to dethrone her. But her calculations were sound, and Norfolk himself commanded her armies and served her loyally in a policy which, in his opinion, ought never to have been initiated. She never allowed herself to be bullied or cajoled ”

“ In 1515, the Lady Mary, sister to the King, was married to the French King, with whom he lived 82 days only; after whose death he sent Sir Charles Brandon Viscount Lisle, whom he had created Duke of Suffolk, for the Queen of France, his sister, who desired to return into England, whom the said Duke, by the King's license, married; in their return they visited this city, and were grandly received; several of the printed accounts say, that this year the Queen of France and Duke of Norfolk were here, but it is a mistake for Suffolk. ”

“ The height of his prosperity alone was the source of his misfortunes, and engaged him in attempts from which his virtue and prudence would naturally have forever kept him at a distance.
Norfolk was at this time a widower; and being of a suitable age, his marriage with the queen of Scots had appeared so natural, that it occurred to several of his friends and those of that princess: but the first person who, after Secretary Lidington, opened the scheme to the duke, is said to have been the earl of Murray, before his departure for Scotland. ”

“ Amidst her many weapons, that of marriage and her personal fascination were not forgotten. Twice, at least, she tried to make her love affairs serve her political ambition. Poor, feckless Norfolk was drawn by his vanity and ambition into her net. Love epistles, breathing eternal devotion, passed between them, but murder was behind it all--the murder of Elizabeth, and the subjection of England to Spain to work Mary's vengeance on her foes, and Norfolk lost his head deservedly. ”

“ They had proceeded too far to trust themselves willingly in the hands of their enraged sovereign, and the summons precipitated them into an insurrection for which they were not prepared. They hastily gathered their followers, and published a manifesto, in which they declared that they maintained an unshaken allegiance to the Queen, and sought only to reëstablish the religion of their ancestors, and to restore the Duke of Norfolk to liberty and to the Queen's favor. ”

“ After the Dissolution, the site, &c. with Windham abbey manor, was given, in 1545, to Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey, during the life of Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk, his father, if the Earl so long lived, paying into the Court of Augmentations 9l. 7s. 7d. a year. It came after to the Crown, belonged to Queen Mary, and was granted by Queen Elizabeth, in 1564, to Walter Haddon, to be held by the fee-farm of 11l. 9s. 8d. per annum. ”

“ Then she called Master Mayor and made him Knight: and so departing, said; I have laid up in my breast such good will, as I shall never forget Norwich: and proceeding forward did shake her riding rod and said, Farewell Norwich, with the water standing in her eyes. In which great good will towards us all, I beseech God to continue her Majesty with long and triumphant reign over us, Amen.
Now to come to the return of the Queen's Majesty from Norfolk and Suffolk, in which two counties her Highness knighted certain gentlemen, as namely, in Suffolk, George Colt, Philip Parker, Rob. ”

“ The Princess Mary was proclaimed here on July 18th, 1553, and was the first English Queen in her own right, and the people of Norwich and Norfolk rushed to her standard, impelled by the memory of Kett’s rebellion. The queen was a bigoted Roman Catholic, and in her reign popery was revived in its worst form, associated with all the atrocities of the most sanguinary persecution. Protestants were gathered like fuel for burning; and as for the Puritans, no fate could be too severe for them. ”

“ Norfolk was a wise and experienced politician, and an expert and valiant soldier, careful in the management of his own affairs, and a faithful adherent of the house of York; but his memory is stained by his desertion of the interests of the son of his old master and by his intimate relations with the usurper. By his first wife, Catharine, he had Thomas, earl of Surrey and second duke of Norfolk [q. v.] , and four daughters: Anne, married to Sir Edward Gorges of Wraxall, Somerset; Isabel, married to Sir Robert Mortimer of Essex; Jane, married to John Timperley ”

“ As to my name, rank, station, et cetera, my name is Ralph Woodhall, a distant relation of a nobleman of that name, without any rank but that of a Master of Arts, without any condition which can particularly designate me but that of being at present a guest of the Duke of Norfolk, and having undertaken, at his request, to escort Lady Danvers on a part of her way to the West."
The magistrates all looked very blank, for the Duke of Norfolk was the great man in those parts; and great men, whether good men or not, obtained much more deference in those days than at present. ”

“ Isabell and Anne, her two daughters; the first married George Duke of Clarence, and the second to Richard Duke of Glocester, afterwards King Richard the Third, who enjoyed Saham, Neketon, Panworth Holl, Cressingham-Parva, and the rest of the Norfolk estate, with the whole inheritance, till his death in Bosworth-Field ”

“ On the strength of this negotiations were being conducted with the Emperor, and yet, said Norfolk, no sooner was the imperial ambassador gone than Leicester pushed his own courtship more strongly than ever. He was told plainly that if he did not desist evil would befall him, as all the nobility were against him; whereupon Leicester went off in a huff and sulked for a fortnight, until the Queen recalled him and petted him more than ever, upon which Norfolk in turn took umbrage and went home, leaving the Archduke’s interests in the hands of Sussex. ”

“ After the death of Sir William Parker, Knt. she remarried to Sir Edward Howard, second son of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, and Elizabeth his wife; he was elected Knight of the Garter, but never installed, for being Admiral of England, he was killed before Brest, April 25, 5th Henry VIII. This Alice, at her death, which happened about 1518, was buried in this chancel, and by will ordered 26l. 13s. 4d. to be expended for a gravestone to be laid over her. ”

“ THE FOURTH PREBEND, Or prebend of the archdeacon of the cathedral church of Norwich, to which the 2d stall from the archdeacon's on the north side of the church belongs.
1. Edmund Drake, alias Norwich, monk here, and prior of their cell at Aldby, was made prebendary by the charter in 1538.
2. Henry King, S. T. P. installed in 1548; he was vicar of Wimondham in Norfolk, rector of Great and Little Fransham; was deprived of all in the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, and being reconciled, became rector of Winterton, in 1557. ”

“ In 1888 the members of the West Norfolk Hunt presented to the King and Queen Alexandra a beautiful silver model of a fox in full gallop as a memorial of their Majesties’ silver wedding, and in returning thanks the King said:—
“I can assure you that no present which has been offered for our acceptance has been received by us with more pleasure than the one which you have given us to-day—a model of the wily animal that we are all so fond of following. Norfolk has always been considered to be a shooting county ”

“ This nobleman died unmarried in 1677, and his brother Henry (who had been created Earl of Norwich, and in 1672 Earl Marshal of England, to him and the heirs male of his body, with other limitations in default) thereupon became sixth Duke of Norfolk. By him the marbles and library were finally dispersed. ”

“ Finally, we desire and beseech your excellency (most renowned Queen) well to accept of this our duty, howsoever it be, proceeding from a singular good will, and a most thankfull mind, and so to think of us citizens of Norwich, that perhaps you have many times come to people more wealthy, but to more joyfull, never.
Immediately after the beginning of the oration, her Majesty called to her the French ambassadors, whereof there were three, and diverse English lords, and willed them to hearken, and she herself was very attentive, even untill the end thereof. ”

“ He soon found that the first line ran: ‘Fallete tollite Norfolk’ (Betray and take Norfolk) ; whence it was evident{153} that the man in the cave had played false to all parties, and after engaging in the conspiracy, had leagued with some fellow-conspirators to betray their chief, the unhappy Duke who preceded Mary of Scotland to the scaffold instead of sharing her throne. ‘Betray and take Norfolk!’ It was not good Latin certainly, but good enough for an inscription where there were so many breaks, which imagination could fill up with the elegances of language ”

“ At the attainder, all the manors and estates of the duke were seized, and among others, the manor and honour of Forncet, of which a curious survey was then made. He afterwards retreated to his palace at Kenninghall in Norfolk, where he died in 1554, and was buried at Framlingham in Suffolk. ”

“ The piratical business in Denmark having become slack, he was glad to take a small bonus to agree to a divorce, and an alliance between Norfolk and Mary, Queen of Scots, was understood, in private circles, to be one of the marriages in high life, which the season would soon see solemnised. Unfortunately for the parties interested, Mary had to send a remittance, in the year 1571, to some friends in Scotland, and the post being either irregular or untrustworthy, she had despatched the communication by hand, through one Banister, a confidential servant of the Duke of Norfolk. ”