ttle woman; she was the mother of Queen Elizabeth, and she had done
nothing whatever to merit death. But Henry had seen someone else he
wanted to marry, so he ordered his wife to be beheaded. It is said that
he waited under a great tree on a height in Richmond Park, some miles
away, to see a rocket fired up from the Tower, which was to announce the
death of Anne, and to let him know he could marry Jane Seymour. Anne had
only been his wife three years when he tired of her, and she was
twenty-nine when she was executed. Four years later the King married
Katherine Howard, having had two wives--Jane Seymour and Anne of
Cleves--in between. Poor Katherine was Queen only for two years, when
she followed Anne to the block.

The handsome and gallant Earl of Essex, who had been a favourite of
Queen Elizabeth's, also suffered here. He had lost the Queen's favour,
and, after having been one of the principal men at the Court, was
treated with coldness and disdain. Essex's proud temper could not endure
this, and he made plots against the Queen, one of which was to kidnap
her and carry her off as his prisoner. Elizabeth heard of this, and sent
her soldiers to seize him. Essex had then a house in the Strand, near
St. Clement's Church, and he barricaded his house and defied the Queen's
soldiers. Nothing could have been more mad. Elizabeth was furious when
she heard it. Cannon were placed on the tower of St. Clement's Church,
and from there they were fired at the house of the reckless Earl, who
was at last forced to submit. He was tried, found guilty of high
treason, and condemned to death. But all the time Elizabeth, who must
still have cared for the high-spirited Essex, felt sure that he would
not really be killed; for long years before she had given him a ring,
and told him that whenever he was in great need he had only to send that
ring to her, and she would help him. So she expected to receive the ring
from him, and was very slow in signing his death-warrant; but the ring
never came, so she signed the warrant, and then she recalled it. Yet
still there was no sign from Essex. Elizabeth began to grow uneasy, and
thought perhaps that the Earl was too proud to ask help from her when he
had defied her. Well, if that were so, she could do nothing to save him,
for she was a queen, and was too proud to give help where it was not
asked for; so she signed the death-warrant a second time. Meantime,
Essex was in the Tower, and he had remembered