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

For that, my lord (said M. Bertie) not long since, she answered a friend of hirs vsing your lordships spéech,Religion go|eth not by age, but by truth. that religion went not by age but by truth: and therefore she was to be turned by persuasion and not by commandement. I praie you (quoth the bi|shop) thinke you it possible to persuade hir? Yea ve|relie (said master Bertie) with the truth: for she is reasonable inough. The bishop therevnto replieng, said: It will be a maruellous griefe to the prince of Spaine, and to all the nobilitie that shall come with him, when they shall find but two noble personages of the Spanish race within this land, the quéene, and my ladie your wife, and one of them gone from the faith. Master Bertie answered, that he trusted they should find no fruits of infidelitie in hir. So the bi|shop persuading master Bertie to trauell earnestlie for the reformation of hir opinion,Master Ber|tie released from his band of appearing. and offering large friendship, released him of his band from further ap|pearance.

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.