“Windsor, 29th August 1551. First having received commandment and instructions from the King’s Majesty, we repaired to the said Lady Mary’s house at Copthall in Essex, on Friday last, being the 28th of this instant, in the morning, where, shortly after our coming, I, the Lord Chancellor delivered his Majesty’s letters unto her, which she received upon her knees, saying that for the honour of the King’s Majesty’s hand, wherewith the said letters were signed, she would kiss the letters, and not for the matter contained in them, for the matter (said she) I take to proceed not from his Majesty, but from you of the Council. In the reading of the letter, which she did read secretly to herself, she said these words in our hearing—’Ah! good Mr. Cecil took much pain here’. When she had read the letters, we began to open the matter of our instructions unto her. And as I, the Lord Chancellor began, she prayed me to be short, for (said she) I am not well at ease; and I will make you a short answer, notwithstanding that I have already declared and written my mind to his Majesty plainly, with my own hand. “After this, we told her at good length, how the King’s Majesty, having used all the gentle means and exhortations that he might, to have reduced her to the rights of religion and order of Divine Service set forth by the laws of the realm, and finding her nothing conformable, but still remaining in her former error, had resolved, by the whole estate of his Majesty’s Privy Council, and with the consent of divers others of the nobility, that she should no longer use the private Mass, nor any other Divine Service than is set forth by the laws of the realm; and here we offered to show her the names of all those that were present at this consultation and resolution; but she said she cared not for any rehearsal of their names, for (said she) I know you be all of one sort therein. We told her further, that the King’s Majesty’s pleasure was, that we should also give strait charge to her chaplains and servants, that none of them should presume to say any Mass or other Divine Service than is set forth by the laws of the realm, and like charge to all her servants that none of them should presume to hear any Mass or other Divine Service than is aforesaid. Hereunto her answer was this: First, she protested that to the King’s Majesty she was, is, and ever will be, his most humble and most obedient subject and poor sister, and would most willingly obey all his commandments in anything (her conscience saved)—yea and would willingly and gladly suffer death, to do his Majesty good; but rather than she will agree to use any other service than was used at the death of the late King, her father, she would lay her head on a block and suffer death; but (said she) I am unworthy to suffer death in so good a quarrel. When the King’s Majesty (said she) shall come to such years that he may be able to judge these things himself, his Majesty shall find me ready to