Thomas Seymour Eventually Shifted His Pursuit from Elizabeth I to Her Sister
In addition to his attempts to seduce Princess Elizabeth, Thomas Seymour also tried to marry her older sister, Princess Mary. Luckily for Mary, she never had the misfortune of living under the same roof as Thomas. Thus, she did not have to endure what her younger sister had. Thomas asked the Privy Council for permission to marry Mary Tudor, but his older brother, Edward Seymour, shot that idea down. He explained that neither of the Seymour siblings should be king or marry a king’s daughter. As to Mary, when she was informed of the proposed match, she laughed.
By early 1549, Thomas Seymour had become increasingly frustrated by the failure of his plans to increase his power and supplant his older brother. His efforts to manipulate and control his nephew, the child king, had borne no fruit. Similarly, his attempts to marry either princess Mary or princess Elizabeth had gone nowhere: Mary loathed him on general principal, while Elizabeth was shook by her experiences living with him. So Thomas began to contemplate a more direct path to power: open rebellion.