CHAPTER VIII

IMPORTUNATE WOOERS Prince Henry's pursuit of my Lady Essex showed little sign of prospering. There were few opportunities of meeting the lady, and none of being private with her. To create or increase them, his highness was driven to odd shifts, the oddest of which was his tightening relations with the Earl of Northampton. He knew his lordship to be, like all the Howards, a crypto-Catholic, which in itself was a thing detestable to the fervently Protestant Prince. He knew him for a friend of Spain and suspected him…