Sisters of Treason (55 page)

E
LIZABETH
I

Queen Elizabeth I, 17 November 1558–24 March 1603; younger daughter of Henry VIII with Anne Boleyn. Deemed illegitimate by her father, Elizabeth was subsequently reinstated to the royal succession. She controversially avoided marriage, turning her single state to her advantage, and so is remembered as the Virgin Queen. (1533–1603)

F
ELIPE OF
S
PAIN
 

Felipe (or Philip) II, house of Habsburg; son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal; husband of (1) Maria Manuela of Portugal, (2) Mary I, so King of England, (3) Elizabeth of Valois, (4) Anna of Austria. Spain reached the zenith of its powers during Felipe’s reign, gaining territories far and wide—it was he who coined the term “the empire on which the sun never sets”—though it was his great Armada of 1588, famously overcome, with help from the weather, off the coast of England, which became one of the glories of Elizabeth I’s reign. (1527–1598)

F
ERIA
 

Gómez Suárez de Figueroa y Córdoba, Count of Feria and later Duke; husband of Jane Dormer; briefly envoy of Felipe II to Elizabeth I. Hoped to arrange a marriage between Katherine Grey and Felipe’s son, thereby strengthening the Spanish position in England. (c.1520–1571)

F
OXE
 

John Foxe was the English author of
Actes and Monuments,
more commonly known as
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs,
a hugely influential anti-Catholic polemic. He spent the reign of Mary Tudor in self-imposed exile in Geneva. (c.1516–1587)

F
RANCES
G
REY
 

Duchess of Suffolk (née Brandon); wife of (1) Henry Grey, (2) Adrian Stokes—thought to have been her Master of Horse; mother of Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey; first cousin of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor. She was remembered—I think unfairly—as a harridan, mainly due to a single reported statement of Jane Grey’s that she was beaten as a child. (1517–1559)

F
RANCES
M
EAUTAS
 

Member of the household of Elizabeth I and the subject of romantic advances from Hertford at a time when he had been cautioned by Cecil to stay away from Katherine Grey. (Dates not known)

F
RIDESWIDE
S
TURLEY
 

Also Strelly; lady-in-waiting to Mary I. (Died c.1565)

G
EORGE
T
EERLINC
 

Born in Belgium (date unknown), the younger son of a well-to-do Blankenberge family, Teerlinc came to England around 1545 with his wife, Levina. He settled at the English court under the sponsorship of William Parr (then Earl of Essex) to become a member of the Royal Guard of Gentleman Pensioners, a post he held until his death. He was granted English citizenship in 1566. (Died c.1578)

G
UILDFORD
D
UDLEY
 

Husband of Jane Grey; son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland; younger brother of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. His marriage to Jane was organized when it became apparent that Edward VI was dying. Northumberland sought to tie his own family with the Greys, who had been declared next in line by the King. He was executed for treason on the same day as his wife. (1535–1554)

H
ARRY
H
ERBERT
 

Lord Henry Herbert. Son of the Earl of Pembroke and Anne Parr (sister of Katherine), Herbert was first married, aged about fourteen, to Katherine Grey as part of Northumberland’s scheme to gain power. Herbert’s father, the Earl of Pembroke, was keen to firm his place close to the throne. The marriage was hastily annulled when it was clear that Mary Tudor would depose Jane Grey as Queen and Pembroke shifted allegiance. Some years later, in 1561, Katherine, desperate, pregnant, and thinking herself abandoned by her secret husband, Hertford, approached Herbert in the hope of rekindling their relationship. He reciprocated her advances initially but on discovering the truth of what he termed “her whoredom” threatened to make a public example of her. He did not make good his threats, probably due to his own pride. There are letters between them that testify to this, but, alas, there was not space to fully explore the episode in this novel. He went on to marry (2) Lady Catherine Talbot and (3) Mary Sidney. (after 1538–1601)