Coke had often waited for the confessions of men who were in frightful agony on the rack, in the dungeons of the Tower; so it must have been a mere trifle to him to await his daughter’s consent to a marriage which she detested, while he whipped her, or watched her being whipped, reflecting upon the luxury of the bed-post in comparison with the agony of the rack, flattering himself that he was acting in obedience to Holy Scripture, and piously meditating upon the gratification he must be giving to the soul of Solomon by this exercise of domestic discipline.  But a reader may well wonder whether the old brute considered for a moment the worthlessness of a form of marriage obtained by torture, or the fact that such a so-called marriage could be annulled without difficulty.

Lady Elizabeth, perceiving that her only chance left of winning the game was to over-trump her husband, and recognising that her only hope of freedom and prosperity was by consenting to the wishes of Buckingham and James, wrote to the King himself, to say that she would agree to the marriage and would settle her property on her daughter and Sir John Villiers.

Eventually, “The marriage settlement,” says Campbell, “was drawn under the King’s own superintendence, that both father and mother might be compelled to do justice to Sir John Villiers and his bride; and on Michaelmas Day the marriage was actually celebrated at Hampton Court Palace, in the presence of the King and Queen and all the chief nobility of England.  Strange to say, Lady Hatton still remained in confinement, while Sir Edward Coke, in nine coaches,”—­one man in nine coaches!—­“brought his daughter and his friends to the palace, from his son’s at Kingston-Townsend.  The banquet was most splendid:  a masque was performed in the evening; the stocking was thrown with all due spirit:  and the bride and bride-groom, according to long established fashion, received the company at their couchee.”

In a footnote to The Secret History of James I., Vol.  I., p. 444,[34] we read: 

“The Scottish historian, Johnstone, says that Purbeck’s marriage was celebrated amid the gratulation of the fawning courtiers, but stained by the tears of the reluctant bride, who was a sacrifice to her father’s ambition of the alliance with Buckingham’s family.”

Here is another account of the wedding, in a letter[35] from Sir Gerard Herbert to Carleton:—­

“Maie it please yor.  Lordshippe.

" ...  I know not any news to write yor.  Lo:  other than the marriadge of Sir John Villiers with my Lord Coke’s youngest daughter, on Monday last, beynge Michailmas day at Hampton Courte when King Queen and prince were present in the chappell to see them married.  My Lord Coke gave his daughter to the Kinge (with some words of complement at the givinge).  The King gave her Sir John Villiers.  The prince sate with her to grand dynner and supper so to many Lordes and Ladies, my Lord Canterbury,