The Holinshed Texts (1587, Volume 6, p. 1143)

The duchesse and hir husband, dailie more and more, by their friends vnderstanding that the bishop meant to call hir to an account of hir faith, whereby extreamitie might follow, deuised waies how by the quéenes licence they might passe the seas. Ma|ster Bertie had a redie meane:

Waies practi|sed how to conueie the duchesse ouer the seas with the quéenes licence.

Master Ber|tie deuiseth causes to passe ouer into Flanders.

for there rested great summes of monie due to the old duke of Suffolke (one of whose executors the duchesse was) beyond the seas, the emperour himselfe being one of those deb|tors. Master Bertie communicated this his purpo|sed sute for licence to passe the feas, and the cause, to the bishop; adding, that he tooke this time most meet to deale with the emperour, by reason of likelihood of marriage betwéene the quéene and his sonne. I like your deuise well (quoth the bishop) but I thinke it better, that you tarrie the princes comming, and I will procure you his letters also to his father. Naie (quoth master Bertie) vnder your lordships correc|tion & pardon of so liberall spéech, I suppose the time will then be lesse conuenient: for when the marriage is consummate, the emperour hath his desire: but till then he will refuse nothing to win credit with vs.

By saint Marie (quoth the bishop, smiling) you gesse shrewdlie. Well, procéed in your sute vnto the quéene, and it shall not lacke my helping hand. Ma|ster Bertie found so good successe, that he in few daies obteined the quéenes licence, not onlie to passe the seas, but to passe and repasse them so often as to him séemed good,Master Ber|tie licenced by the quéene to passe the seas. till he had finished all his businesse and causes beyond the seas. So he passed the seas at Douer about the beginning of Iune in the first yeare of hir reigne, leauing the duchesse behind, who by agréement and consent betwixt hir and hir hus|band, followed, taking barge at Lion keie,Preparation made how to conueie the duchesse ouer the seas. verie ear|lie in the morning, on the first daie of Ianuarie next insuing, not without some perill. There was none of those that went with hir, made priuie to hir going till the instant, but an old gentleman called master Robert Cranwell, whome master Bertie had speci|allie prouided for that purpose. She tooke with hir hir daughter an infant of one yeare,M. Cranwell a trusty frien [...] to master Bertie. and the meanest of hir seruants: for she doubted the best would not ad|uenture that fortune with hir. They were in number foure men, one a Gréeke borne, which was a rider of horsses, an other a ioiner, the third a brewer, the fourth a foole one of the kitchin, one gentlewoman, and a landresse.

As she departed hir house called the Barbican, betwixt foure and fiue of the clocke in the morning, with hir companie and baggage, one Atkinson an herald, kéeper of hir house,The duches [...] with hir com|panie depar|ted the realme. hearing noise about the house, rose and came foorth with a torch in his hand as she was yet issuing out of the gate: wherewith being amazed, she was forced to leaue a male with necessaries for hir yoong daughter, & a milkepot with milke in the same gatehouse, commanding all hir seruants to spéed them before awaie to Lion keie: and taking with hir onelie the two women and hir child, so soone as she was out of hir owne house,The maner o [...] the duchesse flieng out of hir house. per|ceiuing the herald to follow, she slept in at Garter|house hard by. The herald comming out of the du|chesse house, and séeing no bodie stirring, not assured (though by the male suspecting) that she was depar|ted, returned in: and while he staied ransacking par|cels left in the male, the duchesse issued into the stréet, and proceeded in hir iournie, he knowing the place onelie by name where she should take hir boat, but not the waie thither, nor none with hir. Likewise hir seruants hauing diuided themselues, none but one knew the waie to the said keie.