arras, and wrought with gold and
silver and silks. And there he remained."
On the last circumstance it may be remarked, that it appears at this
time to have been the invariable custom for ambassadors and other royal
visitants to be lodged at some private house, where they were
entertained, nominally perhaps at the expense of the sovereign, but
really to the great cost as well as inconvenience of the selected host.
The practice discovers a kind of feudal right of ownership still claimed
by the prince in the mansions of his barons, some of which indeed were
royal castles or manor-houses and held perhaps under peculiar
obligations: at the same time it gives us a magnificent idea of the size
and accommodation of these mansions and of the style of house-keeping
used in them. It further intimates that an habitual distrust of these
foreign guests caused it to be regarded as a point of prudence to place
them under the secret inspection of some native of approved loyalty and
discretion. Prisoners of state, as well as ambassadors and royal
strangers, were thus committed to the private custody of peers or
bishops.
The duke of Holstein on his arrival was lodged at Somerset Place, of
which the queen had granted the use to lord Hunsdon. He came, it seems,
with sanguine expectations of success in his suit; but the royal fair
one deemed it sufficient to acknowledge his pains by an honorable
reception, the order of the garter, and the grant of a yearly pension.
Meantime the queen herself, with equal assiduity and better success than
awaited these princely wooers, was applying her cares to gain the
affections of her subjects of every class, and if possible of both
religious denominations.
On her young kinsman the duke of Norfolk, the first peer of the realm by
rank, property, and great alliances, and the most popular by his known
attachment to the protestant faith, she now conferred the distinction of
the garter, decorating with it at the same time the marquis of
Northampton, the earl of Rutland, and lord Robert Dudley.
The marquis, a brother of queen Catherine Parr, whom he resembled in the
turn of his religious opinions, had been for these opinions a great
sufferer under the last reign. On pretext of his adherence to the cause
of Jane Grey, in which he had certainly not partaken more deeply than
many others who found nothing but favor in the sight of Mary, he was
attainted of high treason, and though his life was spared, his
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