Next we come, in Mr. Froude, to Amy's funeral (September 22), and to Elizabeth's resolve not to marry Leicester (October 13, 14, 15?), and to Throgmorton's interference in October-November.
Throgmorton's wails over the Queen's danger and dishonour were addressed to Cecil and the Marquis of Northampton, from Poissy, on October 10, when he also condoled with Dudley on the death of his wife! 'Thanks him for his present of a nag!'* On the same date, October 10, Harry Killigrew, from London, wrote to answer Throgmorton's inquiries about Amy's death. Certainly Throgmorton had heard of Amy's death before October 10: he might have heard by September 16. What he heard comforted him not. By October 10 he should have had news of a satisfactory verdict. But Killigrew merely said 'she brake her neck. . . only by the hand of God, to my knowledge.'** On October 17, Killigrew writes to Throgmorton 'rumours. . . have been very rife, BUT THE QUEEN SAYS SHE WILL MAKE THEM FALSE. . . . Leaves to his judgment what he will not write.
Has therefore sent by Jones and Summers' (verbally) 'what account he wished him to make of my Lord R.' (Dudley).
*For. Cal. Eliz., 1560, pp. 347-349.
**Ibid., 1560, p. 350.
Then (October 28) Throgmorton tells Cecil plainly that, till he knows what Cecil thinks, he sees no reason to advise the Queen in the matter 'of marrying Dudley.' Begs him 'TO SIGNIFY PLAINLY WHAT HAS BEEN DONE,' and implores him, 'in the bowels of Christ '. . .
'to hinder that matter.'* He writes 'with tears and sighs,' and--he declines to return Cecil's letters on the subject. 'They be as safe in my hands as in your own, and more safe in mine than in any messenger's.'
*For. Cal. Eliz., 1560, p. 376.
On October 29, Throgmorton sets forth his troubles to Chamberlain.
'Chamberlain as a wise man can conceive how much it imports the Queen's honour and her realm to have the same' (reports as to Amy's death) 'ceased.' 'He is withal brought to be weary of his life.'*
*For. Cal. Eliz., 1560, p. 376.
On November 7, Throgmorton writes to the Marquis of Northampton and to Lord Pembroke about 'the bruits lately risen from England. . . set so full with great horror,' and never disproved, despite Throgmorton's prayers for satisfaction.
Finally Throgmorton, as we saw, had the boldness to send his secretary, Jones, direct to Elizabeth. All the comfort he got from her was her statement that neither Dudley nor his retainers were at the attempt at Cumnor Place. Francis I. died in France, people had something fresh to talk about, and the Cumnor scandal dropped out of notice. Throgmorton, however, persevered till, in January 1561, Cecil plainly told him to cease to meddle. Throgmorton endorsed the letter 'A warning not to be too busy about the matters between the Queen and Lord Robert.'*
*For. Cal. Eliz., 1560, p. 498.
It is not necessary, perhaps, to pursue further the attempts of Dudley to marry the Queen. On January 22 he sent to de Quadra his brother-in-law, Sir Henry, father of Sir Philip Sidney, offering to help to restore the Church if Philip II. would back the marriage.
Sidney professed to believe, after full inquiry, that Amy died by accident. But he admitted 'that no one believed it;' that 'the preachers harped on it in a manner prejudicial to the honour and service of the Queen, which had caused her to move for the remedy of the disorders of this kingdom in religion,' and so on.* De Quadra and the preachers had no belief in Amy's death by accident. Nobody had, except Dudley's relations. A year after Amy's death, on September 13, 1561, de Quadra wrote: 'The Earl of Arundel and others are drawing up copies of the testimony given in the inquiry respecting the death of Lord Robert's wife. Robert is now doing his best to repair matters' (as to a quarrel with Arundel, it seems), 'as it appears that more is being discovered in that matter than he wished.'** People were not so easily satisfied with the evidence as was the imprisoned and starving Appleyard.
*Documentos Ineditos, 88, p. 314; Span. Cal., i. p. 179; Froude, vi. p. 453. The translations vary: I give my own. The Spanish has misprints.
**Span. Cal., i. p. 213; Documentos Ineditos, 88, p. 367.
So the mystery stands. The letters of Blount and Dudley (September 9-12, 1560) entirely clear Dudley's character, and can only be got rid of on the wild theory that they were composed, later, to that very end. But the precise nature of the Cumnor jury's verdict is unknown, and Elizabeth's words about 'the attempt at her house' prove that something concealed from us did occur. It might be a mere half-sportive attempt by rustics to enter a house known to be, at the moment, untenanted by the servants, and may have caused to Amy an alarm, so that, rushing downstairs in terror, she fell and broke her neck. The coincidence of her death with the words of Cecil would thus be purely fortuitous, and coincidences as extraordinary have occurred. Or a partisan of Dudley's, finding poison difficult or impossible, may have, in his zeal, murdered Amy, under the disguise of an accident. The theory of suicide would be plausible, if it were conceivable that a person would commit suicide by throwing herself downstairs.
We can have no certainty, but, at least, we show how Elizabeth came to be erroneously accused of reporting Amy's death before it occurred.*
*For a wild Italian legend of Amy's murder, written in 1577, see the Hatfield Calendar, ii. 165-170.