_Grafton’s Chronicle_ states, under the date of 7 September 1533,
“the Queene was delivered of a fayre Lady” which was his Courtly way
of announcing the birth of a female princess, blond in colour. In all
chronicles “fayre” means of light colour. In Wintown the reputed father
of Macbeth--the Devil--is spoken of as a “fayre” man; evil qualities
were in that age attributed to blondes.
In a letter dated from Greenwich Palace, 18 April, 1534, Sir
William Kingston said to Lord Lisle: “To-day, the King and Queen
were at Eltham” (where the royal nursery then was) “and saw my Lady
Princess--as goodly a child as hath been seen. Her Grace is much in the
King’s favour as a goodly child should be--God save her!”
In 1536, when Elizabeth was but three years old, Lady Bryan, the
“Lady-mistress” of both Mary and her half-sister, wrote from Hunsdon
to Lord Cromwell regarding the baby princess. “For she is as toward
a child and as gentle of conditions, as ever I knew any in my life.
Jesus preserve her Grace!” In the same letter she says “Mr. Shelton
would have my Lady Elizabeth to dine and sup every day at the board
of estate. Alas! my Lord it is not meet for a child of her age to keep
such rule yet. I promise you, my lord, I dare not take it upon me to
keep her Grace in health an’ she keep that rule. For there she shall
see divers meats, and fruits, and wines, which it would be hard for
me to restrain her Grace from. Ye know, my lord, there is no place of
correction there; and she is yet too young to correct greatly.”
Testimony is borne according to Leti to the good qualities of the
Princess Elizabeth in these early years, by the affectionate regard in
which she was held by two of Henry’s queens, the wronged and unhappy
Anne of Cleves and the happy-natured Catherine Parr. Anne, he says,
though she had only seen her twice loved her much; she thought her
beautiful and full of spirit (“pleine d’esprit.”) Catherine, according
to the same writer who had seen her often before her marriage to Henry,
admired her “esprit et ses manières.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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