Introduction
In the Spring of 1554, Queen Mary I was in tense negotiations to marry the King of Spain. Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, had been widely expected to wear the crown beside her, but now she charged him with conspiring with rebel Sir Thomas Wyatt and threw him in Tower; and on March 17th, he was joined by Mary’s half-sister Elizabeth, rumoured to be Edward’s new love. Yet Mary’s minders did not feel safe.
DURING this time, there used a little boy, the child of a man in the Tower,* to resort to their chambers, and many times to bring Her Grace flowers; which likewise he did to the other prisoners that were there. Whereupon naughty and suspicious heads thinking to make and wring out some matter thereof, called, on a time, the child unto them, promising him figs and apples, and asking, “When he had been with the Earl of Devonshire?” not ignorant of the child’s wonted frequenting unto him.*
The boy answered that “He would go by-and-by thither.” Further they demanded of him, “When he was with the Lady Elizabeth?” He answered, “Every day!” Furthermore they examined him, “What the Lord Devonshire sent by him to Her Grace?” The child said, “I will go [and] know what he will give to carry to her.” Such was the discretion of the child, being yet but three years of age.
“This same is a crafty boy!” quoth the Lord Chamberlain;* “what say you, my Lord Chandos?”
Précis
In 1554, Mary I locked her half-sister Elizabeth up in the Tower along with Edward Courtenay, who had fallen from Mary’s graces. A three-year-old boy, son of an employee, had the run of the Tower and carried flowers and messages between Edward and Elizabeth, but Mary’s minders were unable to get the boy to reveal what passed between them.
(59 / 60 words)
In 1554, Mary I locked her half-sister Elizabeth up in the Tower along with Edward Courtenay, who had fallen from Mary’s graces. A three-year-old boy, son of an employee, had the run of the Tower and carried flowers and messages between Edward and Elizabeth, but Mary’s minders were unable to get the boy to reveal what passed between them.
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