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To my Lord my husband the
earle of Shrouesbury./
August 26.
(according to
David Durant
the Old Hall
Bleashy
Nottingham
28.8.76)
267
317
X
My Lord the innocency of my owne harte ys such and my desyar so infenyt to procuer
your good conceat as I wyll Leaue noe ways vnsought to attayne your fauor, which
Longe you haue restrayned from me./ and in all dutys of a wyffe I beceach you
not to rune with asetteled condemnatyone of me for my harte can not accuse yt, sh
a gaynst you, nether ys ther any thynge alleged agaynst me that dyssarueth
seperatyone./ my Lord how I haue rendred your happynes euery ways weare
superfluvs to wryte, for I take god to wettnys my Lyffe should evar haue ben
adventured for you, and my harte notwithstanding what I haue suffered
thyrstes after your prosperety, and desyers nothynge so much as to haue your
Loue./ alas my Lord. what benyfits yt you to seake my troble and
desolatyon, or wherin doth yt sarue you to Lett me Lyue thus absent from
you, yf you wyll saye because now you Loue me not I know my Lord
that hatred must growe of somthynge, and how I haue deserved your
yndignatyon, ys vnvisible to mes yf you wyll say I or myne haue touched
you in dutye of alleadgeence, fyrst I proteast ther ys no such thynge, and
what can you haue more then that her mag:esty Iustefyed you and vs, the Lords
of the connsyll and I and my sonnes cleare you or how can yt in reason be
thought I should forgett my selfe so greatly being your wyffe, and my daughter
wyffe to your eldest sonne./ My Lord I beceache you geue me Leberty to
come vnto you, I doubt not but in euery partecular so to satysfye you as
my innocency wyll manyfestly appeare and then I trust you wyll quiett my
harte receuinge me into your fauor, for you only may doe yt./ so I end
beceaching the almyghty god to prospar you, and blesse me with hys grace and
your fauor./// from my Loging in chanserye Lane thys xxvjth of
august.//
your humble wyffe most
faythfull
EShrouesbury
Copied
?1584 (according to Althorp MSS under
Miss Lloyd’s Memoires of the
Countess of Shrewsbury
See David Durant’s letter
to BMA of 28.8.76)
268
319
Initial version