FOOTNOTES: 

[20] S.P.  Dom., James I., Vol.  XCII, No. 101, 23rd July, 1617.

[21] Campbell, Vol.  I., p. 300.

[22] Campbell, Vol.  I., p. 301.

[23] Ibid., p. 302.

[24] S.P.  Dom., James I., Vol.  XCII, No. 101, 22nd July, 1617.

[25] S.P.  Dom., James I., Vol.  XCIII., No. 18, 12th August, 1617.

[26] S.P.  Dom., James I., Vol.  XCIII., No. 28, 18th August, 1617.

[27] Life of Sir Edward Coke.  By Humphrey Woolrych.  London:  J. & W.T.  Clarke, 1826, pp. 146-48.

[28] Life and Correspondence of Francis Bacon.  London:  Saunders, Otley & Co., 1861, p. 459.

[29] She was found innocent, and her accusers, Sir Thomas and Lady Lake, were imprisoned and fined.  L10,000 to the King, and L5,000 to Lady Exeter as damages for the libel.  A chambermaid who was one of the witnesses, was whipped at the cart’s tail for her perjury.  Lady Roos, the wife of Lady Exeter’s step-grandson, and a daughter of the Lakes, made a full confession that she had participated in spreading the scandal.  She was sentenced to be imprisoned during the King’s pleasure.

[30] S.P.  Dom., James I., Vol.  XCIII., 6th October, 1617.  Letter from Sir Gerald Herbert.

[31] Campbell, Vol.  I., p. 303. fn.  The imprisonment of what were called “people of quality” usually took place either in the Tower or in the private houses of Aldermen, in those times, although they were sometimes imprisoned in the Fleet.

CHAPTER VI.

     “Of all the actions of a man’s life his marriage doth least
     concern other people; yet of all actions of our life it is
     most meddled with by other people.” 
          
                                        SELDEN.

In all these negotiations, and caballings, and intriguings, the person most concerned, Frances Coke, the beauty and the heiress, was only the ball in the game.  Neither her father nor her mother nor anybody else either considered her feelings or consulted her wishes about the proposed marriage, except so far as it was to their own personal interest to do so.

At last the poor girl yielded, or pretended to yield.  Lord Campbell says, as well he may, “and without doubt, just as Frances had before copied and signed the contract with Lord Oxford, at the command of her mother, she now copied and signed the following letter[32] to her mother at the command of her father.”

“’MADAM,