Thus, Coke’s “curst heart,” as his wife termed it, was forced to yield to terms which he had never contemplated. The matter ended with the young lady’s being sent to Hatton House, with orders that “Lady Compton and her son should have access to win and wear her.” Meanwhile, all the world expected that King James, whose minute interference in the affairs of his courtiers equalled that of Henry the Eighth, would have mediated a peace between Sir Edward Coke and his wife; but James forbore, declaring that it “was a thing of more time and more care than he could afford to give the matter.” In this transaction, there is not a single individual who does not appear to have harboured some unworthy motive. Coke, notwithstanding the failure of his own matrimonial schemes, was ready to wed his daughter to Sir John Villiers, without the slightest regard to her wishes and affections.[195] Buckingham, his mother, and his brother were actuated by the most mercenary considerations. Lady Hatton and her daughter were aiming at a younger son of the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Robert Howard, who was subsequently prosecuted for a criminal intrigue with Frances Hatton, after she had become the wife of Sir John Villiers. Footnote 195: Stephens’s Introduction to Bacon’s letters, p. 42. Also Inedited Letters in the State Paper Offices, Domestic, 1616, 17. During the height of her opposition, the friends of Lady Hatton published a contract, said to have been signed, in the presence of her mother, by Frances Coke; and whether real, or merely contrived for the purpose of preventing the marriage with Sir John Villiers (a precontract being in those days as great an obstacle as a previous marriage), it is highly characteristic of the parties concerned in it. This curious document, from a young lady of the seventeenth century, is as follows:— “I vow before God, and take the Almighty to witness, that I, Frances Coke, younger daughter of Sir Edward Coke, late Lord Cheife Justice of England, doe give myselfe absolutely to wife, to Henry Vere, Viscount Balboke, Earl of Oxenford, to whom I plight my fayth, and inviolate vows, to keepe myselfe till death us do part; and if ever I break off the least of these, I pray God damme me body and soule in hell fyre in the world to come. And in thys worlde, I humbly beseech God the earth may open and swallowe me up quicke to the terror of all fayth breakers that remayne alive. In witness thereof, I have written all thys with my owne hand, and sealed yt with my own seale (a hart crowned), which I will ware till you returne to make it good that I have sent you; and for further assurance, I here underneath sett to my name, “FRANCES COKE, “in the presence of my deare mother, “Elizabeth Hatton. “July 10th, 1617.”[196] Footnote 196: Now first published from the State Paper Office. Domestic, July 10, 1617.