Notes

Prologue

1 LP Spanish, Edward VI, Vol. IX, p.36.

2 The title was defined by statute, 35 Henry VIII cap.3, 1543. See C. H. Williams, pp.474–5.

3 The time of death is provided by a letter of 31 January 1547 written to his wife by Henry Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, quoted in Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.i, p.118, from BL Cotton MS Titus B ii 25, fol.51.

4 Extrapolated from reports of executions from available monthly county assizes throughout the reign and those who were killed for treason or heresy, or who died during insurrection and other civil disturbances. The population of England and Wales in 1547 was 2.7 million. The chronicler John Stow believed that the total was 72,000 and has been accused of hopeless exaggeration. See also: BL Add. MS 27,402, fol.47 – ‘A list of such were executed in Henry VIII’s time’ – for some state executions.

5 The average male life expectancy during this period was around forty years.

6 He apparently liked the liquor ‘marvellously well’. Chamberlin, p.379.

7 Ellis, ‘Eminent Men’, p.14. Letter from Ascham in Brussels to Sir William Cecil, 23 March 1553, in which he reported Denny’s comment, made several years before.

8 Jordan, p.4. Tytler, Vol. I, pp.15–16.

9 NA SP 10/1/1.

10 LP Spanish, Edward VI, Vol. IX, p.4. Van der Delft added: ‘I should like to have conveyed this intelligence to your Majesty before this, but that all the roads have been and still are, closed; so that in order to send the present letter a passport has been necessary.’ The ports were reopened by order of the Privy Council on 2 February. (APC, n. s., Vol. II, 1547–50, p.11.)

11 ‘Ordo de exeguiis regalibus’ in Legg, Vol. II, pp.734–5.

12 There has always been some debate as to whether both of the king’s legs were afflicted by fistulas. Henry mentions ‘a humour … fallen unto our legs’ in a letter to the Duke of Norfolk in 1537. See LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.27.

13 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.ii, p.289.

14 Bayles, p.795.

15 Dale, p.30.

16 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.ii, p.290. For a more detailed description, see Litten, pp.39–40.

17 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.i, p.17.

18 The mural, by Hans Holbein the Younger, is recorded as still being in the presence chamber in 1586. A smaller copy by Remigius van Leemput of 1667 is now in the Royal Collection at Hampton Court Palace. The original was lost when the palace was burnt in January 1698 after a maid left her washing to dry before an open fire.

CHAPTER 1 A Dangerous Honour

1 LP, Vol. XVIII, pt.i, p.490.

2 Neville Williams, p.171. The following verses, translated from the Latin, were inscribed on her tomb, now lost:

Here a Phoenix Lieth, whose death

To another Phoenix gave breath.

It is to be lamented much

The world at once ne’er knew two such.

See Tighe and Davis, Vol. I, p.509.

3 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.449.

4 She married him in May 1538.

5 His comment to the French ambassador Castillon at the end of December 1537.

6 Kaulek, pp.48 and 51–3.

7 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, p.111.

8 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii pp.110–11.

9 Kaulek, pp.80–1, and LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, p.28.

10 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, p.28.

11 Letter from John Hutton, the English ambassador in Brussels, to Cromwell, 9 December 1537. See SP, Vol. VIII, p.67.

12 LP, Vol. III, pt.ii, p.1188.

13 SP, Vol. VIII, p.146.

14 These words were reported in Wriothesley’s letter to the king, so high levels of sycophancy should be expected.

15 Neville Williams, p.172.

16 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.i, p.99.

17 Strickland, Vol. III, p.170.

18 Henry was impressed by the drummers and trumpeters – probably the only thing connected with Anne of Cleves that did impress him.

19 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.454.

20 As Henry was called by the Protestant reformer Philip Melanchthon.

21 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.455.

22 Ibid., Vol. I, pt.ii, p.457.

23 Later, the Greek traveller Nicander Nucius described her as ‘masculine’. See Revd J. A. Cramer (ed.), The Second Book of Travels, Camden Society, London, 1841, p.48.

24 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.457.

25 Ibid., Vol. I, pt.ii, p.455. Sun-tanned complexions were far from fashionable for women in the Tudor period.

26 Fraser, p.309.

27 Burnet, Vol. II, p.lxxxv.

28 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.452. The promise was never fulfilled. Such papers that were sent ‘not being authentic’ put the issue of the pre-contract ‘in much more doubt’.

29 Hall, p.836.

30 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.458.

31 Burnet, Vol. II, p.lxxxvi.

32 Goldsmid and Goldsmid, p.8.

33 Goldsmid and Goldsmid, p.10.

34 Burnet, Vol. II, p.lxxxvi.

35 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.458.

36 Ibid., Vol. I, pt.ii, p.459.

37 Ibid., Vol. I, pt.ii, p.461.

38 Ibid., Vol. I, pt.ii, p.461. Butts’ deposition to the commission is in Cecil Papers 1/22 at Hatfield House. Henry’s own account is in Cecil Papers 1/23.

39 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.462.

40 Ibid., Vol. I, pt.ii, p.460.

41 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, pp.98–9.

42 Robinson, p.32.

43 Burnet, Vol. II, p.lxxxvii.

44 Questions to be asked of Cromwell relating to the marriage are laid out in BL Cotton MS Otho C x, fols.241 and 246. The establishment of the commission inquiring into the marriage is at fol.236.

45 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, p.206.

46 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i p.203. LP, Vol. XV, p.364.

47 LP, Vol. XV, p.377.

48 Richard Rugeley and David Phinsent of the king’s Department of Wardrobe of Beds and Nicholas Bristowe, its clerk, were paid for stripping Cromwell’s ‘stuff’ from his house in June 1540. Their charges were for conveying the loot ‘to the king’s wardrobe, [then] to the Tower of London, to Hampton Court, eleven miles with one cart, with two carts, four miles and two carts to the Tower and for bed ropes to the beds, and for all the charges by the space of six days at twenty pence a day each, on the vice chamberlain’s bill, 35s 5d’. See LP, Vol. XVI, p.187.

49 32 Henry VIII cap.62.

50 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, p.204.

51 The commissioners’ report, signifying her full assent to the terms and conditions, is in BL Cotton MS Otho C x, fol.247.

52 SP, Vol. VIII, p.395.

53 BL Cotton MS Otho C x, fol.240.

54 Smith, ‘A Tudor Tragedy’, p.121.

55 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.i, p.305.

56 Nichols, ‘Narratives’, p.259.

57 Henry chose a rose for her arms. See Strickland, Vol. III, p.122, note 2.

58 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, p.37.

59 His father destroyed the Scots army with the power of English artillery at Flodden Field in September 1513, killing the Scottish king, James IV, and many of his nobility. As a result, the title of Duke of Norfolk was restored to him in 1514 after losing it by attainder early in Henry VII’s reign.

60 Cited by Robinson, p.25.

61 Smith, ‘A Tudor Tragedy’, p.121.

62 A broadsheet issued after Cromwell’s death, now in the Society of Antiquaries of London Library (no.4, although a later copy), perhaps illustrates some of the crude propaganda of the time. The sheet carries sixteen verses of three lines each plus a refrain, beginning (in the original spelling):

Both man and child is glad to hear tell

Of that false Traytour Thomas Cromwell

Now that he is set to learne to spell

Sing trolle on away.

and ending

God save King Henry with all his power

And Prince Edward that goodly flower

With all his lordes of great honour

Sing trolle on away, Sing trolle on away

Here and how, rombelowe, trolle on away.

See Robert Lemon, Catalogue of Printed Broadsheets in Possession of Society of Antiquaries of London, London, 1866, and also LP, Vol. XVI, p.541. In his speech on the scaffold, Cromwell sought to deny the accusations of heresy against him. He said that he died in ‘the Catholic faith, not doubting any article of my faith, no, nor doubting in any sacrament of the Church’. Many had slandered him ‘and reported that I have been a bearer of such as have maintained evil opinions, which is untrue but I confess that like God by his Holy Spirit, so the devil is ready to seduce us and I have been seduced’. See Hall, p.839; Scarisbrook, pp.378–80.

63 He was also accused of employing magicians to predict the date of Henry’s death and of employing a chaplain who sympathised with the Pilgrimage of Grace. See Ridley, Henry VIII, p.342, and Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, pp.402–3. Hungerford was said to be ‘very unquiet in his mind and rather in a frenzy’ at his execution. Who can blame him? The account may be more suggestive of his insanity. See Hall, p.840.

64 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.282. The reference to ‘a staff’ means an Act of Attainder.

65 Cited by Smith, ‘A Tudor Tragedy’, p.123.

66 LP, Vol. XVI, p.148.

67 Kaulek, pp.236–7. This was not unusual practice by a king terrified by the plague. In 1532, during a visit to Calais, Henry similarly ordered that all plague victims should be dragged out of their houses, taken to a field outside the town and left to die. See Ridley,The Tudor Age, p.195.

68 LP, Vol. XVI, p.450.

69 Marble Arch in London, on the edge of Hyde Park, is the site of Tyburn.

70 Dacre was even more cruelly treated by hopes of a last-minute reprieve. As he left the Tower on foot, escorted by the two sheriffs of London, on his way to Tyburn, ‘Mr Heyre, controller of the Lord Chancellor’s [Lord Audley of Walden] house came and commanded, in the king’s name, to stay the execution till two of the clock, which caused the people to hope that the king would pardon him’ (Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.126). The prisoners waited hopelessly until three o’clock and then were taken to the gallows where they were ‘strangled as common murderers’ (Hall, p.842). Dacre was buried in St Sepulchre’s Church, near Newgate.

71 LP, Vol. XVI, p.466.

72 Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.73.

73 LP, Vol. XVI, p.608.

74 A story recounted by a London merchant in a letter to Germany after Culpeper’s execution. See ‘Original Letters’, Vol. I, pp.226–7.

75 The rack was named after the fifteenth-century duke who introduced this method of extracting information into England during the reign of Henry VI. It was also known as ‘the brake’.

76 LP, Vol. XVI, p.620.

77 LP, Vol. XVI, p.616.

78 LP, Vol. XVI, p.649.

79 LP, Vol. XVI, p.611.

80 Scarisbrook, p.430.

81 LP, Vol. XVI, pp.665–6.

82 Smith, ‘A Tudor Tragedy’, pp.178 ff.

83 LP, Vol. XVI, pp.670–2.

84 LP, Vol. XVI, p.610.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid.

87 Burnet, Vol. II, p.cccxci.

88 Ominously, he was also vice-chamberlain to Anne Boleyn at the time of her disgrace.

89 LP, Vol. XVI, p.610.

90 Wriothesley, Vol. I, pp.130–1.

91 LP, Vol. XVI, p.620.

92 LP, Vol. XVI, p.628.

93 LP, Vol. XVI, p.613.

94 LP, Vol. XVII, p.44.

95 LP, Vol. XVI, p.534.

96 LP, Vol. XVI, p.628.

97 LP, Vol. XVI, p.646. The pre-contract would have rendered any children she had with Henry illegitimate.

98 Smith, ‘A Tudor Tragedy’, pp.166–7.

99 Their heads were set on spikes on one of the turrets of London Bridge and were still there in 1546 when they were seen by the Greek traveller Nicander Nucius. See Revd J. A. Cramer (ed.), The Second Book of Travels, Camden Society, London, 1841, p.48: ‘The skulls are even at this time to be seen, denuded of flesh,’ he observed. See also Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.32. Culpeper was buried in St Sepulchre’s Church, Newgate, near the Old Bailey.

100 LP, Vol. XVI, p.677.

101 Concealment of knowledge of treason or treasonable intent.

102 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.i, p.409.

103 33 Henry VIII cap.21.

104 Lehmberg, pp.146–7.

105 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.i, p.472.

106 Ibid.

107 Ibid.

108 Passed on 4 February. 33 Henry VIII cap.21.

109 Seven attended, absentees being the Duke of Suffolk, who was ‘indisposed’, and, significantly, the Duke of Norfolk. Norfolk’s son, the Earl of Surrey, was, however, amongst the crowd of noble spectators.

110 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.i, p.473.

111 Strickland, Vol. III, pp.84–5. They were reprimanded for their indelicate words. See also LP, Vol. XVI, p.655.

112 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.i, p.409.

113 LP, Vol. XVI, pp.678–9, and SP, Vol. I, p.716.

114 Mary of Guise.

115 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.ii, p.31.

116 Twenty-four Scottish guns were captured in the battle. Seventeen ‘Scottish guns of brass’ of various types were listed at the Tower of London in the inventory of Henry’s possessions made after his death. See Starkey, ‘Inventory’, p.102.

117 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.ii, p.223.

118 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.ii, p.224.

119 Her orthodox Catholic stepfather Lord Lisle, who had spent twenty months imprisoned in the Tower, had just been released and pardoned. He died shortly afterwards. His wife had gone mad in his absence. See Ridley, Henry VIII, p.363.

120 Herbert had the reputation of being a rough, rowdy soldier. In 1533, he was involved in a brawl and the murder of John Thomas, ‘one honest man’, in Newport, South Wales. See LP, Vol. VI, p.670. On 23 February 1533, while George ap Morgan was ‘uncoupling his hound … Herbert struck him in the arm [and] into the body so that he would have been in great danger had he not got into a house to save himself’. Four days later, Herbert, with ‘an inordinate company’, made a second assault on ap Morgan. During the mêlée, Thomas was murdered.

121 John Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments, London, 1631, p.371. Sir William Dugdale, in his History of St Paul’s Cathedral, 2nd ed., London, 1716, p.48, records Latimer’s tomb as having been destroyed during the reign of Edward VI or Elizabeth. Probably it was a monumental brass.

122 It is also possible that she had been pregnant during one of her previous marriages. See James, ‘Kateryn Parr’, p.113.

123 An estimate based on the length of her coffin discovered in the ruins of the chapel of Sudeley Castle in 1782. See Nash, p.2.

124 LP, Vol. XV, p.243.

125 Dent-Brocklehurst Papers, D2579, Gloucester Record Office.

126 LP, Vol. XVIII, pt.i. p.418.

127 NA E 30/1,472/6.

128 This was an élite force of, initially, fifty mounted troops called ‘the spears’, founded in December 1539 by Cromwell and normally drawn from good families. They were responsible for the king’s personal security and with typical Tudor parsimony were expected to provide their own weapons – the ‘noble’ pole-axe and a sword. Their strength was later expanded to 150. On Sir Anthony Browne’s death in 1548, the Marquis of Northampton became captain.

129 Meaning yielding, polite and gentle.

130 LP, Vol. XVIII, pt.i, p.483.

131 See Flugel, p.277.

132 LP, Vol. XVIII, pt.ii, p.18.

133 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.ii, p.436.

134 The plague was so bad in London that the law courts were moved to St Albans in Hertfordshire for the Michaelmas Term. See Hall, p.859.

135 LP, Vol. XVIII, pt.i, p.498.

136 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.ii, p.447.

137 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.108.

138 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.ii, p.447.

139 BL Add. MS 46, 348, fol.206. Inventory of jewels and plate of Henry VIII.

140 BL Add. MS 46, 348, fol.168b

141 Ibid.

142 BL Add. MS 46, 348, fol.169a.

143 Listed in Starkey, ‘Inventory’, pp.77–80.

144 James, ‘Kateryn Parr’, p.24.

CHAPTER 2 God’s Imp

1 ‘Imp’ is used in the sense of ‘outcome’. See Tanner, p.49, fn.

2 Burnet, Vol. II, p.lxxxvi.

3 Kaulek, pp.350–4, and LP, Vol. XVI, p.598.

4 Modern historians have rejected this version of a delicate child. See Hester Chapman, The Last Tudor King: A Study of Edward VI, Bath, 1958, and Loach, Edward VI.

5 Kaulek, p.302, and LP, Vol. XVI, p.396.

6 LP, Vol. XVI, p.598.

7 Kaulek, pp.408–10.

8 Cited by Loach, Edward VI, p.11.

9 Wriothesley, Vol. I, pp.66–7.

10 Margaret, Marchioness of Dorset, was due to have the honour of carrying the prince at the ceremony. She wrote to the king thanking him for her appointment to ‘bear my lord prince’ but apologising for being ‘banished from court by the sickness here [at Croydon]’. Clearly, that sickness – it was the plague – put paid to her role. See LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.317.

Gertrude, a devout Catholic, was imprisoned in the Tower in 1538 and attainted in July the following year. Her husband Henry was beheaded as an aspirant to the crown on 9 December 1538.

11 Great care was taken to guard the royal baby from dangerous draughts. Temporary barriers, draped with rich hangings, were erected along the route of the procession where there were no protective walls.

12 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.i, p.4.

13 The robe was still displayed at Hampton Court in 1600. See Thurley, ‘Hampton Court’, p.69.

14 The number attending was severely restricted by the household because of the risk of infection from the plague then raging in the City of London and the suburbs. The proclamation limiting the size of the nobility’s entourages warns of the king’s ‘most high indignation and displeasure’ for any breach of the stipulated numbers. The text of the proclamation is at BL Harleian MS 442, fol.149.

15 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.i, p.6.

16 On the day of the christening, Mary received £100 from Mr Heneage of the king’s Privy Chamber, probably to recompense her for expenditure on her gift.

17 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.319. See also BL Add. MS 45,716 A, fols.112–15, and BL Egerton MS 985, fol.33, for sixteenth-century accounts of the ceremonial for the christening.

18 They had been firm friends since Brandon was appointed an esquire of the body to Henry in 1509.

19 The debate continues as to whether or not Edward was born by caesarean section. No contemporary source mentions any such operation, let alone the conversation reported by Nicholas Sanders in 1581 that Henry, asked by his doctors whether the mother or child should be saved, chose the boy because he ‘could easily provide himself with other wives’. (See R. L. de Molen, ‘The Birth of Edward VI and the Death of Queen Jane: Arguments for and Against Caesarean Section’ in Renaissance Studies, 4 (1990), pp.359–91.) The story’s veracity is undermined by the sex of the child being known before birth, which would have been impossible in the sixteenth century. Indeed, Jane is believed to have come through the birth relatively well: John Husee (Lisle’s agent in London) wrote to Lord Lisle expressing the hope that the king would have many more sons (see ‘Lisle Letters’, Vol. IV, p.425). Loach (Edward VI, p.5) believes delivery by caesarean cannot totally be eliminated but that it ‘seems very implausible’.

20 BL Cotton MS Nero C x, fol.1. The document was sealed rather than signed.

21 The word ‘tyrant’ is used advisedly. Henry was the head of, in modern terms, a totalitarian state. Only the previous July, he had admonished the Justices of the Peace in Cornwall for their laxness in prosecutions, threatening to correct the ‘lewdness of the offenders’ himself. He especially instructed the JPs to search out all those ‘who in spite of the usurped powers of Rome having been with great travail and labour expelled from the kingdom, retain their old fond fantasies and superstitions, muttering in corners as they dare’. They also had to arrest all spreaders of rumours against the king and the state of the realm; punish all vagabonds and valiant beggars; and have ‘special regard’ that no man be involved in unlawful games, but instead should ‘apply himself to use the longbow, as the laws require’. Religion, propaganda, law and order and defence were Henry’s concerns in this missive. See BL Stowe MS 142, fol.14.

22 Rebuilt in 1886 after the fire in Chapel Court.

23 A sweet liqueur wine from Smyrna, flavoured with aromatic spices and then filtered.

24 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.325.

25 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.342.

26 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.339. Signed: ‘[Your] sorrowful friend T Norfolk.’

27 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.348, and SP, Vol. VIII, p.1. Cromwell had received a report from Thomas Rutland and five other doctors regarding Jane’s ‘extreme illness’ dated 17 October. See BL Cotton MS Nero C x, fol.2.

28 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.339.

29 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.360.

30 BL Cotton MS Vitellius C i, fol.65B.

31 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, pp.360 and 505.

32 Simon Thurley, ‘Henry VIII and the Building of Hampton Court: A Reconstruction of the Tudor Palace’, Architectural History, 31 (1988), pp.1–58.

33 Thurley, ‘Hampton Court’, pp.68–9.

34 BL Cotton MS Vitellius C i, fol.65. A modern copy. The original draft had corrections and additions in Cromwell’s hand. Sir John Cornwallis died at Ashridge, while the prince was in residence there, in 1544. Sir William Sidney succeeded him as steward and Sir Richard Page became chamberlain.

35 Neville Williams, p.165.

36 LP, Vol. XVI, pp.179 and 699. Joan was the wife of Peter Mewtes, a member of Henry’s Privy Chamber and Controller of the Mint.

37 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, p.120.

38 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, p.373.

39 In comparison, the Civil List spending by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002–3 (the latest figures available at the time of writing) amounted to £8,153,000. This represents the contribution by the taxpayer in funding the queen’s royal duties and the costs of her official household.

40 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.348.

41 They were still receiving pensions of £10 each in 1553, at the end of Edward’s reign.

42 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.i, p.474.

43 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.i, p.372.

44 BL Royal MS Appendix 89, fol.41.

45 She was married to John Penn, barber-surgeon to Henry VIII, who died in 1557. In 1538, she wrote to Cromwell seeking employment in the prince’s household for her brother-in-law Griffith Richards, ‘the bearer’ of the letter. See LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, p.519.

46 Jordan, p.3.

47 Muller, ‘Letters’, pp.161–2, and Loach, Edward VI, p.10.

48 Butts (?1485–1545) was born in Norfolk and became a physician to the king in 1524. He was a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1529. He attended both Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour while they were queens and also treated Henry’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, as well as Princess Mary and the Duke of Norfolk. He was paid the then fabulous salary of £100 a year, or £40,000 in today’s money, with an additional £20 for his attendance on Fitzroy. See MacNalty, pp.144–5.

49 A stool. See Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1986.

50 LP Addenda, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.523.

51 In 1551, there were extensive but abortive negotiations with the French for a marriage between Edward and Elizabeth – the daughter of the new French king, Henry II. Elizabeth’s portrait had been sent to London the previous year. Agreement on a dowry was reached in July and Edward sent her a New Year’s gift of a ‘fair diamond’ from Katherine Parr’s collection of jewels. Cited by Loach, Edward VI, p.108.

52 Cheke (1514–57) was knighted by Edward in 1552 and became his secretary of state the following year. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London by Mary in 1554 before exile in Switzerland and Italy and was again imprisoned in London in 1556. Quotations from his homily on St Chrysostom, delivered in August 1543, are contained as article three in the two volumes of controversial theological works traditionally known as Archbishop Cranmer’s Commonplace Books, now in the British Library as Royal MS 7B xi–xii.

53 Cox (1500–81), a former headmaster of Eton, was a favourite of Cranmer. He was imprisoned in 1553 before being exiled in Frankfurt. After Elizabeth’s accession he became Bishop of Norwich and shortly afterwards transferred to the see of Ely.

54 Ascham (1515–68), although a Protestant, became Latin secretary to Queen Mary in 1553. His unfinished book, The Schoolmaster, a practical treatise on education, was published in 1570.

55 The Frenchman John Belmaine taught him French, at a quarterly salary of £6 12s 4d. He was a follower of the religious reformer John Calvin.

56 Nichols, ‘Literary Remains’, Vol. I, p.lxxvii.

57 BL Add. MS 4,724.

58 Nichols, ‘Literary Remains’, Vol. I, p.6.

59 Later owned by Sir William Cecil, First Baron Burghley, who married Cheke’s sister in 1541 and noted the dates of his marriages and other family details for the period 1541–5. Now BL Add. MS 6,059.

60 Now in the British Library.

61 See Judith Blezzard and Frances Palmer, ‘King Henry VIII: Performer, Connoisseur and Composer of Music’, Antiquaries Journal, 80 (2000), pp.251–2, citing BL Cotton MS Vitellius C i, fol.246.

62 Nichols, ‘Literary Remains’, Vol. I, p.liv.

63 Blezzard and Palmer, op. cit., p.252. He was also Princess Mary’s lute teacher and later during Edward’s reign became master of the ‘King’s singing children’. Edward, after succeeding to the crown, learnt to play the virginals, using some of the money given him by Thomas Seymour to pay John Ashley for the lessons. See Loach, Edward VI, p.15.

64 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.i, p.400, and Nichols, ‘Literary Remains’, Vol. I, p.9.

65 BL Harleian MS 5,087, no.17. Written on 12 August 1546.

66 BL Royal MS 7 D xx. The donor was appointed a minister of the Dutch Church in London in 1550.

67 BL Royal MS 2 D iii.

68 Nichols, ‘Narratives’, p.317.

69 Scarisbrook, p.457, who suggests that this Grindal was probably a relative of the Elizabethan Archbishop of Canterbury.

70 Used for hunting game.

71 NA SP 1/217 and E 101/424/12.

72 Cited by Weir, p.469.

73 See BL Cotton MS Nero C x 4, fol.3, from Hertford on 10 January 1547 and BL Cotton MS Vespasian F iii, fol.18, from Hunsdon on 24 May 1546.

74 BL Harleian MS 5,087, no.17.

75 BL Cotton MS Vespasian F iii, fol.18.

76 Nichols, ‘Literary Remains’, Vol. I, Letters, p.16.

77 Nichols, ‘Literary Remains’, Vol. I, p.33.

78 NA E 101/424/8.

79 See Blezzard and Palmer, op. cit., p.252.

80 35 Henry VIII cap.1. The preamble mentions the marriage of Henry and Katherine Parr and adds, rather hopefully, ‘by whom yet his majesty hath none issue but may full well when it shall please God’.

81 Nichols, ‘Literary Remains’, Vol. I, p.xxxix.

82 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.i, p.606.

83 Mary’s work was abandoned because of her ill health.

84 Elizabeth wrote in a letter to Katherine that she had joined the sentences together ‘as well as the capacity of my simple wit and small learning could extend themselves’ and that the work was imperfect and that she hoped the queen would ‘rub out, polish and mend the words … which I know in many places to be rude’. Cited by Neville Williams, p.239.

85 A copy (in Latin) given as a New Year’s gift to Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, by the translator, Sir John Ratcliffe, is in the British Library as Royal MS 7 D ix. This was probably published after 1548, as Katherine is described as quondam Regina – ‘once queen’.

86 Martienssen, p.199.

87 BL Royal MS 7 D x.

88 He received this epithet because of his frequent resort to corporal punishment of his scholars.

89 He was also the author, in 1553–4, of the earliest English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister, printed in 1566.

90 Cited by Neville Williams, p.233.

CHAPTER 3 The Hunt for Heretics

1 Eighty-one heretics were burnt during Henry VIII’s reign, compared with twenty-four in his father’s; two in the short reign of his son, Edward VI; 280 in Mary’s; and four in Elizabeth’s. See Ridley, The Tudor Age, p.77.

2 One of the last public burnings of books in London during Henry’s reign was on 26 September 1546. See Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.175.

3 Later, after the break with Rome, Henry explained his embarrassing change of heart by claiming that he was forced to write the book by Wolsey and some of the bishops.

4 26 Henry VIII cap.1.

5 28 Henry VIII cap.10.

6 Anglo, pp.269–70.

7 Tanner, pp.93–4.

8 Tanner, p.94. A similar instruction was included in early drafts of the 1536 Injunctions but was omitted before they were published.

9 Both presses and type were smuggled out of Paris to London.

10 This was the second edition of Matthew’s Bible, comprising the translations from the Latin of the New Testament completed by William Tyndale in 1525 and of the Old Testament based on the work of John Rogers and Miles Coverdale, which was the first English text to be freely available. Its title page showed Henry handing down copies to his bishops, kneeling in cope and mitre before him, and the nobility in ermine robes and coronets.

11 34 and 35 Henry VIII cap.1.

12 Anabaptists believed that those baptised as infants should be rebaptised as adults.

13 Hall, p.827.

14 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, pp.229ff.

15 Later almoner to Katherine Parr. He was appointed Bishop of Chichester in 1543 and assisted in drawing up the first English Prayer Book in 1548, but voted against its use the following year.

16 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, book iii, p.186.

17 Ibid.

18 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, pp.181–234.

19 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, p.236; Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.80; Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, book iii, p.187.

20 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, pp.384–5.

21 ‘Lisle Letters’, Vol. V, p.291 (Letter 1273).

22 Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.80.

23 Cited by Wilson, p.436.

24 Writing in code.

25 31 Henry VIII cap.14.

26 He married Margaret, niece of the Lutheran divine Andreas Osiander, during his time in Germany as ambassador to Charles V’s court in 1530, before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533. Clerical marriage was still illegal then.

27 Mori and Vivis, Book I, letter 28, cols.22–9.

28 See Scarisbrook, p.421, fn.

29 A light, shallow-draft rowing boat, designed to convey passengers.

30 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, book iii, p.195. The bearward was employed by Princess Elizabeth. See Nichols, ‘Narratives’, p.237.

31 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, book iii, p.195.

32 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, book iii, p.201.

33 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, book iii, p.204.

34 Vicar of Stepney in East London.

35 Garret had escaped execution for heresy in Oxford in 1532. He did penance ‘carrying a faggot in open procession from St Mary’s Church to St Friswides, Garret having his red hood on his shoulders like a master of arts’. See Nichols, ‘Narratives’, p.294.

36 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, book iii, p.216.

37 Cited by Neville Williams, p.193.

38 Said by Hilles (see ‘Original Letters’, Vol. I, p.211) ‘to have been kept in a most filthy prison [and] almost eaten up by vermin’.

39 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, pp.434–8.

40 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.196.

41 Hall, p.840.

42 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, pp.434–6.

43 Hall, p.836.

44 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, p.219.

45 Hall, p.841.

46 LP, Vol. XVI, p.270.

47 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, p.251, and Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.119.

48 Rich, then Solicitor General and acting on Cromwell’s behalf, interviewed More (Henry’s former Lord Chancellor) in the Tower in June 1535, and trapped him into discussing hypothetical issues surrounding the royal supremacy. Rich, in his testimony at More’s trial in Westminster Hall, claimed that More had said that Parliament did not have the authority to make Henry the head of the Church of England. This was the only evidence against More, and he was beheaded on 6 July 1535.

49 He recovered and was later exonerated after his accusers were found guilty of perjury.

50 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, pp.486–92.

51 Nichols, ‘Narratives’, p.252.

52 Brigden, p.78.

53 Nichols, ‘Narratives’, pp.255–8.

54 ‘Original Letters’, Vol. I, p.211.

55 22 Henry VIII cap.9.

56 Tanner, p.381.

57 Wriothesley, Vol. I, pp.134–5.

CHAPTER 4 The Final Quest for Military Glory

1 See Claude Blair, ‘A Royal Swordsmith and a Damascener: Diego de Çaias’, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3 (1970), p.168. The symbolism of the inscription is both subtle and telling. It refers to the dominant roses of the Tudor dynasty and the French lilies crushed by the English military victory in capturing the town of Boulogne. The original Latin text also has a punning play on the word ‘gallus’, which could mean both ‘cock’ and ‘Gaul’ – the former being the French national motif, and the latter the ancient name for France. My grateful thanks to Claude Blair for drawing the significance of this sword to my attention and for supplying this information.

2 Information kindly supplied by Claude Blair. Herbert had been made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and principal esquire to the king on the day of the journey from Calais to Boulogne.

3 The last date he is known to have worn armour was at a tournament in 1540, though it is not known whether he took part. There are references to enlarging of the protective clothing worn under armour in the Wardrobe accounts for September 1543 to September 1544 because of the huge increase in his girth.

4 ‘Item. One harness for the king’s majesty all graven and parcel gilt both for the field and tilt [joust] complete which was commanded to be translated [altered] at the king’s going to Boulogne which lies in pieces part translated and part untranslated by a contrary commandment by the king’s majesty.’ See Starkey, ‘Inventory’, p.161, no.8384. The armour remained in the tiltyard at Greenwich, in the custody of Sir Thomas Paston.

5 It lacks armour to protect the lower legs and feet.

6 See Blair and Phyrr, pp.95–143. The armour remains in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

7 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.i, p.537.

8 Meaning in the sense of establishing a quorum or check in the process of raising money.

9 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.i, p.552.

10 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.i, p.553.

11 Oyer and terminer comes from Norman French, meaning ‘to hear and determine’. It describes the commissions, or assizes, in which a travelling judge tries cases alleging felonies and misdemeanours that have been committed in the specified counties. Now an obsolete legal term, replaced by Crown Courts in England and Wales.

12 BL Add. MS 32,655, fol.100.

13 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.i, p.572.

14 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.i, p.573.

15 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.i, p.606.

16 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.ii, p.18.

17 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.ii, p.113.

18 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.ii, p.127.

19 BL Add. MS 32,655, fol.168.

20 BL Lansdowne MS 1,236, fol.9. Also see Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, p.33, appendix.

21 Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, new edn., Vol. II, London, 1586, p.964. A painting of the siege of Boulogne was at Cowdray House, Sussex, until it was destroyed by fire in 1793. See ‘An Account of Some Ancient English Historical Paintings at Cowdray, Sussex’,Archaeologia, III (1786), pp.251–61. An engraving of this painting, published by the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1788, clearly shows the angled artillery mount towering over the Boulogne defences, buttressed with gabions, or earth-filled basketwork, to add strength and protection against counter-battery fire. Henry, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, can be seen directing operations from his command post.

22 A method used to bring down the walls of fortifications. The besiegers employed miners to dig under the foundations, propping up the tunnel roof with wood. Combustible material would then be packed into the mine and set alight. The roof would then fall in, bringing down the wall above.

23 Lady Margaret Douglas.

24 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.ii, p.110.

25 Hall, p.861.

26 LP, Vol. XIX, pt.ii, p.119.

27 Hall, pp.861–2. Henry spent the next two days riding around the town and arranging for its future defence. He commanded that the Church of Our Lady of Boulogne should be defaced and ‘plucked down’ and an earthwork thrown up on its site ‘for the great force and strength of the town’.

28 A beautiful sword, especially made for Henry and now at Windsor, had an illustration of the siege of Boulogne and a poem about the victory inscribed on its blade. See Claude Blair, ‘A Royal Swordsmith and a Damascener: Diego de Çaias’, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3 (1970), pp.149–98.

29 Muller, ‘Letters’, pp.185–6.

30 Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.156.

31 50 metric tons.

32 The English Admiral Lord Lisle had 160 ships and 12,000 men at sea.

33 The accidental firing of a gun on board ignited a firkin of gunpowder, killing three sailors instantly, burning four others who later died, while another drowned after he jumped into the river. See Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.157.

34 LP, Vol. XX, pt.i, p.7

35 LP, Vol. XX, pt.i, p.516.

36 2,000 French soldiers did arrive in Scotland.

37 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.104.

38 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.106.

39 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.109. These incidents may figure in a letter, dated 23 June, from the Bishop of Ajaccio in Caen, in which he reports that the Chevalier de’Ans, ‘captain of the galleys which have been made here, was lately at anchor off Boulogne when six English ships, aided by the tide, came upon him so unexpectedly that he was forced to cut his cables with great difficulty’. See LP, Vol. XX, pt.i, p.492.

40 They had been alerted of the French approach by English fishermen.

41 The ship, technically a four-masted carrack, was the first purpose-built warship and was named after Henry’s sister, then aged thirteen. Laid down at Portsmouth in 1509 with a sister ship, the Peter Pomegranate, she fought against the French off Brest in 1512. The Mary Rose was refitted in 1536 to carry a greater load of ordnance and so increase firepower. After her loss, two Venetian sailors were immediately hired to salvage the ship but the unsuccessful operation was abandoned about a month after the sinking. The hulk was raised in the autumn of 1982 and is now on display in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, together with a host of recovered artefacts revealing what life and combat were like aboard a Tudor warship.

42 Pollard, p.279.

43 Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.158. The main propulsion method of the French galleys was oars, so they could manoeuvre without the wind. Each galley had a small gun mounted in the bows.

44 New forts were afterwards built at Sandown and Yarmouth to protect against a repeat of the incursion.

45 Hastily gathered forces of English levies and gentlemen drove off the French. At Seaford, the invaders fled to their boats after a skirmish with militia led by a local magnate, Sir Nicholas Pelham (d.1559), whose monument in St Michael’s Church, Lewes, contains this tortuous pun:

What time ye French sought to sack Seaford

This PELHAM did repel ’em back aboard.

46 He was buried in the south choir aisle. The present inscription was carved in 1947–8. Elias Ashmole, in his Antiquities of Berkshire, London, 1719, Vol. III, p.131, reported that the duke’s achievements – his coat of arms, shield, helmet and crest – hung within the fifth arch of the aisle in the seventeenth century. The first inscription over Brandon’s grave had disappeared by 1749 and a second was laid down in 1797 that survived until the latest addition was made. See Bond, p.23.

47 LP, Vol. XX, pt.i, pp.372, 464, 517 and 561, and LP, Vol. XX, pt.ii, pp.130, 168, 243–4, 250, 254, 263, 269–70, 278–9, 292–3, 304–5, 307–8, 331–2, 334, 358 and 431–2.

48 Cited by Ridley, Henry VIII, p. 388.

49 LP, Vol. XX, pt.i, p.372.

50 LP, Vol. XX, pt.ii, p.334.

51 £12,500, or £4.5 million in 2004 spending power.

52 Reiffenberg was last heard of in the defence of Augsburg against the imperial forces in January 1547. See LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.374.

53 LP, Vol. XX, pt.ii, pp.304–5.

54 LP, Vol. XX, pt.i, p.489.

55 Wriothesley, Vol. I, pp.159–60. Each coat cost 4s and each man was paid 2s 6d in ‘conduct money’ to fund the journey to Dover, where they would join the king’s payroll.

56 LP, Vol. XX, pt.i, p.43.

57 Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.156.

58 Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.157. The tempest was so vehement and terrible that the Parisians ‘thought the day of doom had come’.

59 LP, Vol. XX, pt.ii, p.71.

60 Cited by Scarisbrook, p.453. See: F. Dietz, ‘English Public Finance 1485–1558’, University of Illinois Studies in Social Sciences, 9 (1920), p.149.

61 Lehmberg, p.201.

62 LP, Vol. XX, pt.i, pp.44–5.

63 LP, Vol. XX, pt.ii, p.471. Beaton was assassinated by sixteen Scottish Protestant gentlemen on 29 May 1546 at his castle of St Andrew’s.

64 SP, Vol. I, p.840, and LP, Vol. XX, pt.ii, pp.338–9.

65 Cited by Lehmberg, p.232.

66 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.i, p.374.

67 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, pp.462–3.

68 Now called Campagne-les-Guisnes.

69 The Treaty of Ardres was ratified by Francis I at Fontainebleu on 1 August 1546; Francis even styled Henry ‘Defender of the Faith and Supreme Head of the Church of England’. Diplomacy can sometimes mask many differences. See Scarisbrook, pp.463–4.

CHAPTER 5 ‘Anger Short and Sweat Abundant’

1 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, p.317. Under the Treasons Act of 1534, it was high treason ‘maliciously to wish, will, or desire by words or writing’ or to ‘imagine, invent, practise or attempt any bodily harm’ to the king, queen or their heirs apparent. Montague was executed for these words. See Tanner, p.379.

2 Moriarty, p.13.

3 Although recent research has revealed the purchase of a pair of boots for playing football early on in his reign.

4 Kybett, p.22.

5 Moriarty, p.13.

6 Brewer, p.120.

7 MacNalty, p.67. Vicary, who died in 1561, was a member of the Barber’s Company in 1525, becoming master in 1530. He was appointed a governor of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London in 1548, living in a house provided by that institution, and that year published his Anatomy of the Body of Man. Vicary is seen receiving the charter of the new Barber Surgeons’ Company from Henry in the cartoon by Holbein. See Furdell, p.33.

8 First suggested by the obstetrician A. S. Currie. See his ‘Notes on the Obstetric Histories of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn’, Edinburgh Medical Journal, 1 (1888), 34pp. The syphilis theory was also propounded by the gynaecologist and surgeon C. MacLaurin in ‘The Tragedy of the Tudors’ in Post Mortems of Mere Mortals, 1930, pp.50–102. He writes of Henry and his court (p.68): ‘The general atmosphere of lust, obscenity, grandiose ideas … and violence combined with cowardice especially about disease, is all very typical of syphilis, one might almost call it diagnostic.’

9 Born 1519. Died in 1536 of tuberculosis, a disease particularly fatal to the Tudors, which also claimed the king’s eldest brother, Prince Arthur, in 1502 and his father, Henry VII, in 1509. Henry’s legitimate son, Edward VI, died in 1553 from a suppurating pulmonary infection and generalised septicaemia with renal failure, although Brewer (p.130) strongly suggests that the cause of death was pulmonary tuberculosis, aggravated by an attack of measles. See Moriarty, p.12, and Loach, Edward VI, pp.160–2.

10 For example, see Brinch.

11 Park, p.36.

12 MacNalty, p.161.

13 A letter from Augustine to the Duke of Norfolk, dated Ghent, 3 June 1531, reporting several audiences with Charles V and the discussions about religion at the English court, is in BL Cotton MS Galba, B x, fol.8.

14 MacNalty, p.161.

15 Brewer, p.129.

16 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.27. Henry was explaining his reasons for postponing a visit to the restive North of England after the Pilgrimage of Grace had been brutally put down.

17 3 Henry VIII cap.11. See Bloom and James, p.1.

18 BL Sloane MS 1,047, a book containing 230 prescriptions in ninety-four pages, including contributions by Drs Chambre, Butts, Cromer and Augustine. See Blaxland Stubbs, ‘Royal Recipes for Plasters, Ointments and other Medicants’, Chemist & Druggist, 114 (1931), pp.792–4.

19 A brown-flowered plant of the genus Sanguisorba or Poterium.

20 A feathery-leaved herb, Chrysanthemum parthenium.

21 An evergreen shrubby plant, Ruta graveolens, used in herbal medicine as a cure for coughs, colic and flatulence. It is strongly anti-spasmodic and stimulating.

22 Juice or resin of the dragon tree, Dracaena draco.

23 A vessel holding two quarts or four pints of liquid.

24 ‘Medicine for the pestilence of King Henry VIII which has helped diverse persons.’ Ellis, ‘History’, Vol. I, p.292.

25 See MacNalty, p.126.

26 Roberts, p.221.

27 Copeman, p.117.

28 32 Henry VIII cap.42.

29 Copeman, p.131.

30 Copeman, p.148.

31 Copeman, p.149.

32 Furdell, p.24. His accepted biography is William Osler’s Thomas Linacre, Cambridge, 1908.

33 Dugdale, p.56.

34 Furdell, p.25.

35 He was sent to the Tower in April 1534, but his crime is not known. His imprisonment may have been a result of his sympathies with Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary. He retained friends in high places, however. Sir William Paulet, then Comptroller of the Household, wrote to Cromwell a few weeks later seeking Augustine’s release: ‘Be good to Mr Augustine that he may be relieved of his charge.’ See Hammond, p. 234.

36 LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.340.

37 The Lord Privy Seal was now Sir William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, appointed in June 1540 in succession to Cromwell.

38 LP Spanish, Vol. VI, pt.i, p.285.

39 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, pp.285–6.

40 For a detailed account of Augustine’s mysterious life, see Hammond, pp.215–49, who suggests that permission was sought for Augustine to carry weapons with which to defend himself in Venice.

41 Butts’ tomb was an altar monument made from Purbeck marble close against the south wall of the chancel of Fulham Church, with a effigy in brass on top and his arms – azure, three lozenges gules on a chevron or between three etoils or – and a scroll inscribed: ‘Mine Advantage.’ The inscription was three elegiac Latin verses written by Sir John Cheke, tutor to Prince Edward. The lost brass is engraved in Faulkner, p.78, and the inscription transcribed in BL Redgrave Hall Papers 40,061, fol.8. A small alabaster and black marble tablet was erected in the north aisle of the church in 1627 by a descendant, Leonard Butts.

42 CPR, Philip & Mary, Vol. IV, pp.450–1. Wendy’s funeral in Cambridge on 27 May 1560 was a grand affair, recorded by the merchant tailor and undertaker Henry Machyn, with ‘a great dole’ provided for the poor: ‘500 people had great plenty of meat and drink … Great store has been seen for a middle-rank gentleman and a great moan made.’ Machyn, pp.235–6.

43 His inscription fulfilled the Protestant requirement for just factual information: ‘Here lieth/THOMAS WENDYE Doctor in Phesicke/and was buried the xxvij daye of Maye 1560.’ See Munk, Vol. I, p.50.

44 Munk, Vol. 1, p.37.

45 MacNalty, p.149.

46 Cited by Weir, p.457 and Furdell, p.28.

47 He died in 1556 and was buried in St Michael, Bassishaw, Basinghall Ward, London, where his epitaph, now lost, read:

In surgery brought up in youth

A knight here lieth dead

A knight and also a surgeon such

As England seld[om] hath bred

For which so sovereign gift of God

Wherein he did excel

King Henry VIII called him to court

Who loved him dearly well.

48 MacNalty, pp.69–70.

49 Henry had grown a beard a number of times during his reign: Catherine of Aragon persuaded him to shave it off, and the golden beard familiar from his portraits appeared only after 1535 when he ordered his courtiers to grow whiskers and cut their hair short.

50 Furdell, p.35.

51 Furdell, p.30.

52 LP, Vol. X, p.71. The writer Chapuys pondered whether he should ask destiny for ‘what greater misfortune’ was reserved for Henry ‘like the other tyrant who escaped from the fall of the house in which all the rest were smothered and soon after died’.

53 Scarisbrook, p.485, suggests that the headaches may have been due to persistent catarrh.

54 Park, p.44.

55 LP, Vol. XII, pt.i, p.486.

56 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.i, p.368.

57 LP, Vol. XIII, pt.ii, p.313.

58 ‘Lisle Letters’, Vol. V, p.1415. This demonstrates Henry’s adherence to Catholic liturgy: ‘On Holy Thursday, his Grace went [on] procession about the Court at Westminster. And the high altar in the chapel [Royal] was [decorated] with all the apostles and [there was] mass by note and the organs playing with as much honour to God [as] might be devised to be done. Upon Good Friday last, the King’s grace crept to the cross from the chapel door upward, devoutly, and so served the priest to mass that same day, his own person kneeling on his grace[’s] knees.’

59 Boned and pressed white meat, served cold in aspic.

60 Cited by Neville Williams, p.186.

61 Copeman, pp.156–7. Potatoes were not eaten in England until the vegetable was introduced from the West Indies by Hawkins in 1564.

62 Portulaca oleracea.

63 See Kybett, pp.19–25.

64 LP, Vol. XIV, pt.ii, p.45. 12 September 1539, ‘between 10 and 11 am’.

65 Faced with the prospect of the thrill of the chase, Henry sometimes woke up at four o’clock in the morning to go hunting.

66 LP, Vol. XVI, p.284. 3 March 1541.

67 Ibid.

68 Ibid.

69 LP, Vol. XVI, p.285.

70 Now in Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery, the Museo Thyssen, Madrid, and elsewhere.

71 The Walker Art Gallery portrait, by Hans Holbein the Younger, was painted when the king was forty-six and was probably derived, like the portrait at Petworth House, Sussex, from the mural painted in the Palace of Westminster. Holbein employed considerable artistic licence to create an imposing figure: by lengthening the figure’s legs, for example, he created a slimmer image.

72 LP, Vol. X, p.117.

73 An oil on panel painted by an unknown artist. National Portrait Gallery 496. Now on display at Montacute House, Somerset. Other versions are at Castle Howard, Yorkshire, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and Hever Castle, Kent.

74 MacNalty, p.126.

75 Printed and published in London, 1608. Armin is listed amongst the actors in the Folio Edition of Shakespeare’s plays. He was a comic player, probably performing the roles of Touchstone in As You Like It, Feste in Twelfth Night and the Fool in King Lear.

76 The source for this is a reference in the Revd James Granger’s Biographical History of 1779. Fermer gained some influence at court as a result and was appointed Sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 1532–3. However, he incurred royal displeasure in 1540 for his determination to comfort his former chaplain and confessor, Nicholas Thayne, then a close prisoner in Buckingham Gaol for denying the king’s religious supremacy, although nothing was proved except Fermer’s provision of a paltry 8d and several clean shirts. Fermer was briefly jailed in the Marshalsea Prison, Southwark, and his extensive estates were confiscated for the king’s use (his lands are listed in BL Royal MS Appendix 89, fol.158) but he recovered them after Henry’s death in 1549, possibly after an intervention by Somers with Edward VI. See Robert Hutchinson and Bryan Egan,Transactions of the Monumental Brass Society, 16 (1999), pp.247–8, and NA E 318, Court of Augmentations, Particular of Grants, Edward VI.

77 The Protestant John Bale takes Somers’ name in vain in an attack on an unreformed priest who performed a service ‘with no small strutting and stammering, turning his arse to the people after the old popish manner … More apish toys and gawdy feats [were showed] at the communion. He turned and tossed, lurked and licked, snored and snorted, gaped and gasped, kneeled and knocked … with both his thumbs at his ears and other tricks more that he made me twenty times to remember Will Somer[s]’. Nichols, ‘Narratives’, p.318.

78 Doran, p.137.

79 Ibid.

80 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.401. The ferryman was paid at the rate of 1d per horse. The accounts were marked ‘1546’ but probably refer to the previous year, as they also talk of Henry moving from Westminster to Hampton Court. The king remained at Westminster for Christmas 1546.

81 BL Royal MS 2A xvi, fol.63b.

82 He is mentioned in the household accounts as ‘orator in the French tongue’ in 1540–1.

83 BL Royal MS 2A xvi, fol.3, illustrating Psalm 1.

84 Cited by Weir, p.483.

85 LP, Vol. VIII, pp.366–7.

86 Now in the Royal Collection.

87 Queen Katherine Parr provided three geese and hens for Jane to look after in the Privy Garden. See Southworth, p.103. A skin infection contracted in 1543 necessitated a barber shaving her hair every month. Another school of thought believes the figure is ‘Mistress Jak’, Edward’s wet nurse, but given the iconography of the picture, this seems unlikely.

88 A picture of Henry painted towards the end of his life, showing him wearing a jewelled cap and holding a staff in his right hand, with his three children and Will Somers in the background, was in the possession of the Earl of Bessborough in 1800. See Nichols, ‘Literary Remains’, Vol. I, p.cccliii.

89 LP Addenda, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.618.

90 It was a healing power believed to be possessed by later Tudor and Stuart monarchs as well, acquired from God through the holy oil used to anoint kings and queens at their coronations.

91 Starkey, ‘Inventory’, p.75, item 2524.

92 A small upholstered area.

93 NA E 315/160, fol.133v. Virtually the same descriptions appear in the inventory of Henry’s goods made after his death. They were listed under ‘Refuse Stuff at Westminster in the charge of James Ruffoth’. See Starkey, ‘Inventory’, p.263.

94 She was the daughter of Norfolk’s steward at Kenninghall. When the duke separated from his wife during Lent 1534 to live with his mistress, Bess, the duchess moved to Redbourne, Hertfordshire, constantly complaining about her husband’s behaviour. On 24 October 1537, she wrote: ‘I have been his wife twenty-five years and borne him five children and because I would suffer the bawd and the harlots that bound me to be still in the house, they pinnacled [manacled] me and sat on my breast till I spat blood, all for speaking against the woman in the court, Bess Holland. It is four years come Tuesday in Passion week since he came riding all night and locked me up in a chamber and took away my jewels and apparel and left me with but £50 a quarter … to keep twenty persons in a hard country.’ On another occasion she wrote: ‘I reckon if I come home I shall be poisoned.’ See LP, Vol. XII, pt.ii, p.342. Her complaints about ‘hard usage’ by Norfolk are contained in a letter to his enemy, Cromwell, in BL Cotton MS Titus B i, fol.388.

95 See Robinson, p.26.

96 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.110.

97 NA E 315/160, fol.135.

98 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.325. Slanning was paid on 11 January 1547, receipting the document with her mark.

99 LP, Vol. XXIII; Addenda, Vol. II, p.610.

CHAPTER 6 The New Levers of Power

1 Ordinances of the Royal Household, Society of Antiquaries, London, 1790, p.159.

2 He died in 1553. His tomb, which re-uses stonework from older monuments, is at Hainton, Lincolnshire. Its iconography clearly reflects Heneage’s adherence to the old faith.

3 See David Starkey, The King’s Privy Chamber 1485–1547, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1973, and Starkey, The Reign of Henry VIII, pp.109–12.

4 Thynne Correspondence TH/VOL/II, at Longleat House, Wiltshire, dated Westminster, 8 August 1549. This was a premature report of his death, as an addition to Denny’s will is dated 7 September (written while he was ‘lying sick, but of good mind and memory’). He probably died on 10 September.

5 Sir Edmund married three times and had eighteen children. Of the sons, only two survived.

6 His father left him £160 in his will to purchase land and the income from a property in Kent to fund his ‘exhibition and learning’ at Cambridge.

7 The letter directed the Sheriff to elect Denny – ‘one of our privy chamber’ – as Burgess to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas Alvred. The year is not indicated. See Ipswich Borough Correspondence HD36/A, Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich.

8 Shakespeare has Denny as one of his characters in his play King Henry the Eighth. During its first performance, on 29 June 1613, the Globe theatre was burnt to the ground.

9 Another sister, Joyce, first married William Walsingham and was mother to Francis, who would go on to become Elizabeth’s Secretary of State and spymaster. She later married Sir John Carey of Pleshy, Essex.

10 This handled the exchequer revenues from the Church, including the Oxford and Cambridge colleges, after the break with Rome and following the passing of the Act annexing papal revenues in 1534 (26 Henry VIII cap.3).

11 The Court of Requests, established in 1483, was a kind of ‘small-claims court’ of the time, intended specifically for legal cases brought by the poor and by women. Its judges were called ‘Masters’.

12 Sil, p.191.

13 Ellis, ‘Eminent Men’, p.14. Ascham’s letter to William Cecil, dated 23 March 1553.

14 Cited by Neville Williams, p.171.

15 Strype, ‘Cheke’, p.168.

16 A copy of the painting is in the Courtauld Institute in London.

17 Holbein also designed the combined clock and table salt given by Denny to Henry as a New Year’s present in 1544, but now sadly lost. Holbein’s clever design in a Renaissance style also included a compass and two sundials. His drawing of the object survives in the British Museum. Holbein died in London in 1543 of the plague.

18 Martienssen, p.113.

19 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, p.562.

20 He was represented by a deputy.

21 See Robert E. Brook, Early Tudor Courtiers in Society, Illustrated from Select Examples, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1963, pp.271–3.

22 LP Addenda, Vol. I, pt.ii, pp.588–9.

23 LP, Vol. XVIII, pt.i, pp.334 and 406.

24 LP Addenda, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.593.

25 Three card tables are recorded in the Inventory of Henry’s goods, together with gaming dice and chessboards. See, for example, Starkey, ‘Inventory’, items nos. 2613, 10480, 15842 and 16672.

26 Sil, p.194.

27 See Cunich, ‘Revolution and Crisis in English State Finance 1534–47’, and tables.

28 In 1542, Henry ordered wardrobes full of new clothes such as: ‘A gown of purple satin furred with the sleeves and border set with 130 diamonds and 131 clusters of pearls … set in gold, and in every cluster is four green pearls.’ Then there was a new mantle for Parliament: ‘crimson velvet partly furred with powdered ermine and a cap; three mantles for the order of St George; two of blue velvet, the other of purple velvet, lined.’ And there were precious, sacred objects: ‘An image of Our Lady standing upon an angel, St Edward having an arrow in his hand, weighing 33 ozs; an image of St Peter in gilt standing upon a base of silver and gilt with a book and two keys in his hands, weighing 124 ozs. An image of St Paul standing upon a base with a sword and a book in his hands, weighing 135 ozs.’ And so the purchases went on. See NA PRO 31/17/40.

29 NA E 315/160, fol.136r.

30 Master of the Revels at Henry’s court from 1544.

31 Appointed Treasurer and Master of the Mint in 1546.

32 NA E 315/160, fol.265v.

33 For example, the accounts for 1554–5 have ‘ten pair of spectacles at 4d the pair, 3s. 4d’. See LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.400.

34 See Starkey, The Reign of Henry VIII, p.112.

35 NA SP 4. Signatures by stamp, Henry VIII, 1545–7, 1 vol.

36 The dry-stamp system was revived in the last months of Mary’s reign in 1558 when she became too sick to cope with signing the amount of paper laid before her ‘without distress and peril of her body’. In her case, licensees to ink in her signature ‘as surely as [the documents] had been signed with the queen’s own hand’ were John Boxall, Dean of St George’s Chapel, Windsor (her secretary), Anthony Kempe (one of the Gentlemen of her Privy Chamber), Barnard Hampton (a clerk of the Privy Council) and John Clyff (one of the Clerks of Signet). The stamp was to be used in the presence of Mary and any two of her Councillors, which number would include Sir William Petre, who would also authenticate the use of the dry stamp by signing in a special book. See CPR, Philip & Mary, Vol. IV, pp.453–4.

37 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.i, p.767.

38 Ibid.

39 Hall, p.867. Edward had written to the queen on 12 August enquiring in advance about the admiral’s skill in Latin. ‘If he is so skilled, I should rather learn better how to speak with him, when I come into his presence.’ See BL Harleian MS 5,087, no.17.

40 Nichols, ‘Literary Remains’, Vol. I, p.lxxviii.

41 Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.173.

42 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.i, pp.694–5.

43 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, p.568.

CHAPTER 7 The Plot to Burn the Queen

1 Convincingly ascribed to her by James, ‘Devotional Writings’, pp.137–8.

2 End of the session, with dissolution of Parliament.

3 LP, Vol. XX, pt.ii, p.513. Petre said that the bill had been ‘driven to the last hour and yet then passed only by division of the House’.

4 A jibe based on the ancient Jewish sect that strictly adhered to traditional laws and had pretensions to superior sanctity.

5 Hall, pp.864–6. The chronicler wrote it down ‘word for word as near as I was able to report it’.

6 Meaning ‘perhaps’.

7 LP, Vol. XX, pt.ii, pp.513 and 522.

8 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, p.562.

9 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.425.

10 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.i, p.135.

11 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.i, p.169.

12 Martienssen, p.210.

13 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.i, p.271.

14 NA E 314/22, fol.44.

15 James, ‘Kateryn Parr’, p.268.

16 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. I, pt.ii, pp.597–8.

17 APC, Vol. I, 1542–7, p.400.

18 Ellis, ‘History’, Vol. II, p.176.

19 Nichols, ‘Narratives’, p.42, fn.

20 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.599.

21 According to her nephew, Edward Ascu, in his History Containing the Wars, London, 1607, p.308.

22 Nichols, ‘Narratives’, p.309.

23 Anne, second wife of Henry Ratcliffe, Second Earl of Sussex. She separated from her husband between May 1547 and June 1549 and was charged with wanting to marry Sir Edmund Knyvett. She was imprisoned in the Tower in 1552 on charges of sorcery.

24 Anne Stanhope, wife of Hertford, afterwards Duchess of Somerset.

25 Jane Fitzwilliam, third wife of the London Alderman Sir William.

26 Nichols, ‘Narratives’, p.311.

27 Nichols, ‘Narratives’., p.304, fn.

28 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, pp.553 ff.

29 Ibid.

30 Cited by Martienssen, p.218.

31 Strickland, Vol. III, p.246.

32 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, pp.559–60.

33 Cited by Martienssen, p.220.

CHAPTER 8 Protestants Ascendant

1 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. VI, p.36.

2 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. VI, p.163.

3 Ponet, Book XLVI, p.78.

4 Nichols, ‘Narratives’, pp.209–10.

5 Muller, Stephen Gardiner and Tudor Reaction, p.133.

6 He may have been a bastard son or brother of Sir Thomas Wyatt. After the defeat of the rebellion, Sir Thomas was executed on 11 April 1554, when the French ambassador reported that people crowded the scaffold to dip their handkerchiefs in his blood. See Anthony Fletcher and Diarmaid MacCulloch, Tudor Rebellions, London, 1997, p.90. There is no record of the fate of Edward Wyatt.

7 Strickland, Vol. III, p.247.

8 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.252, and Muller, ‘Letters’, pp.246–7.

9 Muller, ‘Letters’, p.248.

10 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. VI, p.138.

11 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.173. Letter from the French ambassador Odet de Selve to the Admiral of France, 24 November 1546.

12 An Act for Murder and Malicious Bloodshed within the Court was passed in 1542 (33 Henry VIII cap. 12), imposing a mandatory punishment of amputation of a hand for drawing blood within the precincts of the court, although noble courtiers were not liable to such penalties if they had merely struck their servants for the purposes of chastisement.

13 Surrey was called thus in 1539 by Constantine Barlow, Dean of Westbury. See Archaeologia, Vol. XXIII, p.62.

14 It turned out to be an unconsummated union, probably because of the Duke of Richmond’s contraction of tuberculosis, and he died, aged seventeen, in 1536.

15 A tennis court.

16 Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Aldine edn, London, n.d., p.19.

17 He was to succeed his grandfather as the Fourth Duke of Norfolk on 25 August 1554. He was executed on 2 June 1572 and attainted for his attempt to marry Mary, Queen of Scots.

18 Poems of Henry Howard, op. cit., pp.xxvii–xxviii.

19 Poems of Henry Howard, p.xxix.

20 Son of the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, who died in 1542. Wyatt the Younger was later the leader of the rebellion in Kent against Mary in 1554.

21 Poems of Henry Howard, op. cit., p.xxxi, fn.

22 Poems of Henry Howard, pp.68–9.

23 Brenan and Statham, Vol. II, p.383.

24 His squire Thomas Clere saved his life but later died from his wounds, Robinson, p.46. He was buried in the Howard Chapel of St Mary’s Lambeth, Surrey, under a monumental brass depicting him in armour. Surrey wrote a poetical epitaph to him, once displayed on the wall above the slab in the north chapel, now lost:

At Montreuil gates, hopeless of all recure [recovery]

Thine Earl, half dead, gave in thy hand his will

Which cause did thee this pining death procure.

25 Nott, Vol. I, p.178, fn.1.

26 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.i, p.16.

27 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.i, p.175.

28 Poems of Henry Howard, op. cit., pp.xlv–xlvii.

29 Ibid.

30 Robinson, p.47.

31 Lord Edward Herbert of Cherbury, Life and Reign of King Henry VIII, London, 1649, p.562.

32 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.144.

33 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.277.

34 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.273.

35 BL Cotton MS Titus B i, fol.94.

36 Executed by Henry in 1521 on trumped-up charges of disloyalty.

37 BL Cotton MS Titus B i, fol.94.

38 Thomas Darcy, Baron Darcy, who surrendered Pontefract Castle to the rebels during the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 and who was betrayed by an intercepted letter to one of the rebel leaders. Beheaded for treason 1537.

39 One of the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace who seized Hull but was pardoned. He refused to come to London and was executed in Hull in 1537.

40 Another rebel in the Pilgrimage of Grace. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn as a traitor in 1537. His wife, ‘a very fair creature and beautiful’ according to the herald and chronicler Wriothesley, was burnt at Smithfield in London after being dragged through the streets on a hurdle.

41 Robert Aske, attorney and fellow of Gray’s Inn who led the Pilgrimage of Grace insurrection in Yorkshire, was hanged in chains in York in 1537 after apparently being pardoned by Henry.

42 His stepmother Agnes, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, implicated in the downfall of Queen Katherine Howard.

43 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, no.554.

44 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.273. Norfolk was then aged seventy-three and suffered regularly from indigestion and chronic rheumatism, the latter probably not helped by his imprisonment in the dank, damp Tower, fronting the River Thames.

45 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.533.

46 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.310.

47 He was questioning their humanity.

48 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.313.

49 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, pp.145–6.

50 The charges, dated 10 January 1547, in Latin, are contained in the roll NA KB 8/14.

51 Robinson, p.49.

52 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.285.

53 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, pp.284–5.

54 Knyvett was no friend of Surrey’s. He was threatened with amputation of his right hand as a punishment for striking the earl’s squire, Thomas Clere, and drawing Surrey’s blood on the tennis court at Greenwich in February 1541. He was pardoned as he faced the block and the serjeant surgeon.

55 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.287.

56 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.533.

57 Byrne, pp.422–3.

58 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.533.

59 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, pp.533–4.

60 Ibid.

61 BL Harleian MS 297, fol.256. See also Herbert, p.567.

62 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.146.

63 NA E 101/60/22 contains details of the cash owing on Surrey’s board at the Tower, including attendants, candles, coals and an allowance for hangings and plate in his room, totalling £24. The cost of the new coat ‘against his arraignment’ is also included.

64 Under 28 Henry VIII cap.7.

65 Decorated with fleur-de-lis at the terminations of each arm of the cross.

66 A ‘merlett’ or ‘merlion’ is a heraldic bird. This is an old term for martlet, or swallow, often displayed in arms without legs or feet, in the belief that the bird could not perch on the ground. Edward the Confessor’s arms actually had doves. See J. P. Brooke-Little,Boutell’s Heraldry, London, 1970, p.206.

67 The label is a heraldic device similar to a riband, with several shorter ribands hanging down, which overlays arms to indicate those of an eldest son.

68 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.365.

69 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.146, a reference to the merchant’s earlier account of Surrey’s attempted escape.

70 Probably East Winch, near King’s Lynn, which housed a monument to the Howards that bore the arms of Edward the Confessor. See discussion in Moore.

71 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.147.

72 A cap of crimson velvet and ermine, generally belonging to a duke but in this sense clearly signifying that part of royal regalia carried before the monarch at coronations.

73 LP Spanish, Vol. IX, p.4.

74 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.147.

75 ‘Spanish Chronicle’. p.148.

76 Surrey’s body was removed to the Howard Chapel in Framlingham Church, Suffolk, in 1614 and reburied there. The monument to him and his wife includes his coronet, which is not worn on the effigy’s head but rather laid separately on a cushion by his legs to indicate his attainder. See Robinson, p.52. Construction of the mortuary chapel was begun by his father after 1545 but the work was not completed until a few years later.

77 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.148.

78 NA E 101/60/22.

79 BL Harleian MS 5,087, no.31, and LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.360.

80 BL Cotton MS Nero C x, fol.6. A rough draft in Latin.

81 BL Harleian MS 5,087, no.32.

CHAPTER 9 The Mystery of the Royal Will

1 Byrne, p.418.

2 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.320.

3 Ibid.

4 Cited by Weir, p.495.

5 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.52.

6 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.533.

7 See: LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, pp.394–9; Matthews, pp.172–3; and Bayles, pp.794–6.

8 Bayles, p.796.

9 First suggested by Brewer, pp.123–4.

10 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.534.

11 Dale, p.31.

12 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.535.

13 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. VI, p.163.

14 Burnet describes Thirlby as a ‘learned and modest man’ but ‘of so fickle and cowardly a temper that he turned always with the stream in every change that was made’.

15 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. VI, p.163.

16 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.537.

17 LP Spanish, Vol. VIII, p.542.

18 Some accounts say it was Sir Anthony Denny. This seems highly unlikely.

19 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, pp.691ff., and Burnet, Vol. I, book iii, p.255.

20 NA E 23/4/1.

21 About £1,300 in the money of the time, or £324,450 in today’s values.

22 The bequest is worth around £165,000 in 2004 spending power.

23 The ‘Poor Knights’ was a charitable foundation created by Edward III for those of his followers captured during the French wars and bankrupted by ransom fees. It exists today as ‘the Military Knights’ and is open to any British army officer under the age of sixty-five. They are still provided with grace and favour accommodation in the lower ward of Windsor Castle and every year take part in the ceremonials of many state occasions. They claim to be the oldest military establishment on the Army List.

24 35 Henry VIII cap.1.

25 Starkey, ‘Inventory’, p.xi.

26 Starkey, Henry VIII: A European Court, p.131. Details of the ordnance, weapons, armour and munitions are provided in Starkey, ‘Inventory’, pp.102–63.

27 Some of the minor legatees waited a long time to receive their bequests; some indeed died before the bequests were paid.

28 See, for example, Smith, ‘Last Will’, pp.20ff.; Levine, pp.471–85; Ives, ‘A Forensic Conundrum’; and Houlbrooke.

29 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.408.

30 Wriothesley administered the ‘accustomed oath’ of allegiance to Seymour on that date at Westminster. See APC, n.s., Vol. I, 1542–7, p.566.

31 Ives, ‘A Forensic Conundrum’, p.786.

32 Ives, ‘A Forensic Conundrum’, p.784.

33 See H. Miller, ‘Henry VIII’s Unwritten Will: Grants of Lands and Honours in 1547’ in E. W. Ives, R. J. Knecht and J. J. Scarisbrook (eds.), Wealth and Power in Tudor England: Essays Presented to S. T. Bindoff, London, 1978, pp.87–106.

34 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.356.

35 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.360.

36 APC, Vol. I, 1542–7, pp.558, 562.

37 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.407.

38 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.434. On 27 January, he received another grant as Under-Steward and Clerk of the Forest and Clerk of the Swaincote Courts of Waltham Forest, Essex.

39 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, pp.406–8, and NA SP 4.

40 LP, Vol. XXI, pt.ii, p.420.

41 Identified by a grant of the rectory of Grayingham, Lincolnshire, on 30 April 1546.

42 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, p.689, and Burnet, Vol. I, book iii, p.255.

43 Brewer, p.121.

44 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, p.689.

45 Brewer, p.124.

CHAPTER 10 ‘Dogs Should Lick His Blood’

1 Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. V, p.697.

2 See Cunich, ‘Revolution and Crisis in English State Finance 1534–47’, and tables at www.le.ac.uk/ni/bon/ESFDB.

3 Derived from the opening words of the antiphon of the first nocturn of the Office for Matins: ‘Dirige, Domine, Deus Meus, in conspectus tuo vitam meam’ – ‘Direct me, O God …’ – one of the three parts of the Office for the Dead. The origin of the modern word ‘dirge’. See Paul Binski,Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation, London, 1996, p.53.

4 NA LC 2/2, fol.87. See also Loach, ‘Function and Ceremonial …’, p.58. The Privy Council, meeting at the Tower on 2 February, approved payments of some of the bills. Warrants were addressed to Sir Edmund Peckham, Cofferer of the Household, and John Hales, Treasurer of the Privy Chamber.

5 Strype, ’Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.ii, p.290.

6 Dethicke was promoted from Richmond Herald to Norroy in January 1547 before Henry died and succeeded Christopher Barker as Garter King of Arms on 29 April 1550. (SPD, Edward VI, 1547–53, p.7.)

7 Sandford, p.493. Strype (‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’) gives a slightly different version.

8 The Vespers of the Dead, so called for the opening antiphon: ‘Placebo Domino in regione vivorum’ – ‘I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living …’

9 Muller, ‘Letters’, p.254.

10 Wriothesley, Vol. I, p.181.

11 Toto came to London in 1519 and received a £25 annuity in 1530–53. He was appointed serjeant painter in 1544. He was a resident of St Bride’s Parish in Fleet Street, dying intestate in 1554. See Auerbach, pp.56 and 145.

12 NA LC 2/2, fol.7.

13 Bannerols were banners of greater width used to display the arms of the ancestors of the deceased and their marriages.

14 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.ii, p.296.

15 NA SP 10/3/7.

16 SP 10/1/9, 13 February 1547.

17 A few months later, it was to be granted to Edward Seymour, by then created Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of the realm. The coffin of Edward IV had rested at Syon overnight en route to his burial place at Windsor in 1483.

18 There are reports of only seven horses, but Sandford, John Stow in his Annals and the ‘Spanish Chronicle’ all talk of eight. See ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.154.

19 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.ii, p.298.

20 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.154.

21 John Bruges, now the king’s tailor, was paid 13s 4d for making the robe of estate in blue velvet, lined with white sarsenet (a soft, silky material), for the effigy and John Benyns was paid 4s for making a doublet of blue satin ‘lined with sarcenet and flamed and edged with velvet’. NA LC 2/2, fol.3.

22 Sandford, p.493.

23 The jewellery was supplied from the Jewel House in the Tower of London. See NA E 101/426/5.

24 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.ii, p.299. It was more likely to be later: Sandford says the procession left at about ten o’clock, which would accord with the two-hour delay incurred while the procession was assembled.

25 There had been orders issued ‘to all men with baggage or carriage to remain at the appointed place out of the way’. SPD, Edward VI, 1547–53, p.5.

26 Eight banners used in the funeral were still hanging in St George’s Chapel in the seventeenth century. They are drawn in a collection of epitaphs and arms in BL Lansdowne MS 874, fol.49. The Chapel inventory, compiled later in 1547, lists ‘a hearse cloth of king Harry the viiith of cloth of tissue with black satin of Bruges’. See Maurice F. Bond: Inventories of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, 1384–1667, Windsor, 1947, p.185.

27 NA LC 2/2, fol.45. Missing from the procession were the senior judges. They were originally included but ‘the chief justices and master of the rolls’ were deleted from the list of attendees because they were ‘spared for the law in the term time’. See SPD, Edward VI, 1547–53, p.5.

28 Related by Burnet, Vol. I, pt.ii, p.298. The prophecy was made by Friar (later Cardinal) Peto, who escaped with only a rebuke from the Privy Council for his insolence. The incident was apparently seen as a divine judgement upon Henry for having ousted the Brigantines from their religious sanctuary at Syon. Burnet adds: ‘Having met with this observation in a MS written nearer that time, I would not envy the world the pleasure of it.’ Aungier (p.92) repeats the legend.

29 Strickland, Vol. III, p.255.

30 Pote, p.361.

31 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials’, Vol. II, pt.ii, pp.304–5.

32 Ibid., p.308.

33 NA SP 10/1/17.

34 Muller, Stephen Gardiner and the Tudor Reaction, p.143.

35 ‘Surround me with your protection.’

36 ‘Dust to dust, ashes to ashes …’

37 Strype, ‘Ecclesiastic Memorials, Vol. II, pt.ii, p.310.

38 Henry’s funeral was the first for which heralds were paid an attendance fee. It was £40 for the whole office in 1547 and it remains the same today. See Wagner, p.113.

39 Starkey, ‘Inventory’, pp.197–8.

Epilogue

1 Paget, ‘Letters’, p.19.

2 Burnet, Vol. I, p.291.

3 The French ambassador Odet de Selve told Francis I of the heralds’ proclamation of Edward as king and wrongly ‘that yesterday Norfolk was secretly beheaded in the Tower’.

4 Machyn (p.45) reported that the duke ‘rode up and down’ Westminster Hall as part of the ceremony of Mary’s coronation dinner.

5 See Anthony Fletcher and Diarmaid MacCulloch, Tudor Rebellions, 4th edn, London, 1997, p.85.

6 Robinson, p.35. He was succeeded as Fourth Duke by his grandson.

7 His ornate tomb chest carries the last major display of overt religious imagery in six teenth-century English monumental art. His funeral is recorded by Machyn on 2 October as having been marked by an extravagant dinner: ‘For the furnishing … were killed forty great oxen and a hundred sheep and sixty calves besides venison, swans, cranes, capons, rabbits, pigeons, pikes and other provisions, both flesh and fish. There was also great plenty of wine and of bread and beer … both for rich and poor; all the country came thither.’ (Machyn, p.70.)

8 A later account is in BL Add. MS 30,536, Vol. 1, fol.194b.

9 BL Harleian MS 5,087, no.35, dated 8 February 1547.

10 Wonderful to report!

11 The title was to be Earl of Leicester, but this was deleted in the list of dignitaries drawn up on 15 February 1547. NA SP 10/1/11.

12 APC, n.s., Vol. II, 1547–50, p.16.

13 APC, n.s., Vol. II, 1547–50, p.17. ‘Painful’ in this context means ‘painstaking’.

14 APC, n.s., Vol. II, 1547–50, p.19.

15 APC, n.s., Vol. II, 1547–50, pp.14–22.

16 APC, n.s., Vol. II, 1547–50, p.20.

17 For a more sympathetic discussion of Wriothesley’s actions, see Slavin, pp.268–85.

18 Gammon, p.151.

19 H. Miller, ‘Henry VIII’s Unwritten Will’, in E. W. Ives (ed.), inWealth and Power in Tudor England, London, 1978, p.87.

20 Paget probably meant the administration of justice without regard to rank or privilege.

21 Paget, ‘Letters’, pp.19–20.

22 NA E 23/4/1.

23 NA SP 10/1, fol.41.

24 Seymour is indicating how much he would value even a short letter from Katherine.

25 Seymour’s convoluted words of love indicate that the imagery of the picture would increase his eager anticipation of his marriage with the dowager queen.

26 Bodleian Library, Ashmolean MS 1729, fol.4.

27 Dent-Brocklehurst Papers, D2579, Gloucester Record Office.

28 Nicholas Throckmorton, cupbearer in Katherine’s household.

29 Katherine had clearly instructed Seymour to burn all letters to avoid the risk of discovery of their affair.

30 NA SP 46/1, fol.14.

31 Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS D.1070.4.

32 BL Lansdowne MS 1,236, fol.26.

33 Strickland, Vol. III, p.264.

34 LP Spanish, Edward VI, Vol. IX, p.123.

35 Somerset had let this property, belonging to Katherine, to a Mr Long.

36 Cecil Papers 133/2.

37 ‘Spanish Chronicle’, p.160.

38 Strickland, Vol. III, p.260.

39 Tytler, Vol. I, p.70.

40 Cecil Papers 150/85. NA SP 10/6/21.

41 Cecil Papers 150/74.

42 Cecil Papers 133/3.

43 NA SP 10/4/14.

44 G. B. Harrison, Letters of Queen Elizabeth I, New York, 1968, pp.8–9, and Strickland, Vol. III, p.275.

45 Thomas Hearne (ed.), Sylloge Epistolarum, Oxford, 1716, p.151.

46 NA SP 10/5/2.

47 Tytler, Vol. I, p.140.

48 Cited by James, ‘Kateryn Parr’, p.333.

49 NA SP 10/6/9.

50 Damaged by Parliamentary forces in 1649.

51 An anthropoid lead coffin.

52 Nash, p.2.

53 It was carved by the sculptor John Birnie Philip (1824–74) and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1859. The work was paid for by J. C. Dent, then owner of the castle.

54 Her obsequies were the first royal funeral solemnized according to Protestant rites.

55 Tytler, Vol. I, p.133.

56 SPD, Edward VI, 1547–53, p.88.

57 SPD, Edward VI, 1547–53, Vol. IX, p.332.

58 NA SP 10/6/10.

59 SPD, Edward VI, 1547–53, Vol. IX, p.340.

60 Cecil Papers 133/4/2.

61 Loach, Edward VI, p.163.

62 ‘Montague Papers’, p.4.

63 NA SP 11/1, fols.16–17v.

64 Morant, Vol. II, pp.450–4.

65 One of the first suits to be presented to Mary after she became queen was from one of her yeomen of the guard, Philip Gerrard, who sought a review of rents. He had made a similar plea in Edward’s reign, but Gates, his captain, ‘nothing at all favouring the effects thereof, would not deliver it’. See BL Royal MS 17B xl.

66 The inventory of his possessions is in NA E 154/2/45.

67 His will is NA PCC PROB 11/32 F 37 Populwell, dated 7 September 1549.

68 Burnet, Vol. I, pt.i, p.339.

69 Clad in armour.

70 Described by Machyn, pp.97 and 100–1.

71 For an interesting discussion of the legacy of Cranmer, see MacCulloch.

72 Feuilleist, pp.xii and 73–7.

73 Southworth, p.78.

Sequel: ‘Tombs of Brass are Spent’

1 NA E 23/4/1.

2 LP, Vol. III, pt.i, p.2. Torrigiano was still living in the precincts of St Peter’s Westminster, Westminster Abbey. He completed Henry VII’s tomb sometime around 1515. Margaret Whinney (Sculpture in Britain: 1530–1830, Harmondsworth, 1964, p.4) calls it ‘themajor Renaissance work created in England’. (An earlier design, in 1506 by Guido Mazzoni, for Henry VII’s tomb was for a gilt-bronze kneeling figure on a monument to be located at Windsor; see B. M. Meyer, ‘The First Tomb of Henry VII of England’, Art Bulletin, 58 (1976), pp.358–67.) Torrigiano also designed and erected a monument with a gothic-style effigy to Margaret Beaufort, Henry VIII’s grandmother, in the south aisle of the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster. See Philip Lindley, ‘Sculptural Functions and Forms in Henry VII’s Chapel’, in Tatton-Brown and Mortimer, p.268.

3 Alfred Higgins, ‘On the Work of Florentine Sculptors in England in the Early Part of the Sixteenth Century with Special Reference to the Tombs of Cardinal Wolsey and King Henry VIII’, Archaeological Journal, 51 (1894), p.143.

4 Archaeologia, 16 (1812), pp.84–8.

5 Annual Report of Friends of St George’s, 5, 1 (1970), p.35.

6 Colvin et al, Vol. IV, p.24.

7 £7,896,763 in 2004 cash terms.

8 Margaret Mitchell, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute, 34 (1971), pp.189–90.

9 London, 1623, pp.796–7. See also Walpole Society, 18 (1930), pp.40–1.

10 John Flaxman, Lectures on Sculpture … as Delivered before the President and Members of the Royal Academy, 2nd edn, London, 1838, p.47.

11 Born 1474, died c.1554 in Florence. He had been working on the base of the monument to the Dukes of Orléans in France in 1502.

12 Known thereafter as ‘Wolsey’s Tombhouse’. Now the Albert Memorial Chapel.

13 He died in Leicester and was buried in the Augustinian abbey there ‘before day’ on 30 November 1530. At the burial, ‘such a tempest with such a stench arose that all the torches went out and so he was thrown into the tomb and there laid’. See Foxe, ‘Acts’, Vol. IV, p.616.

14 Maiano was also responsible for ten terracotta medallions fitted to the exterior walls of Hampton Court. See Colvin et al, Vol. IV, pt.ii, p.25.

15 Hope, Vol. II, pp.483–6.

16 Hope, Vol. II, p.483.

17 See Higgins. A conjectural drawing of this canopy forms plate VII, facing p.172. Higgins’ drawing of the whole tomb is to be found facing p.190.

18 Higgins, p.164. Privy Purse accounts for the tomb for 1531 are reprinted in full on pp.207–19 and for 1534–5 on pp.214–15.

19 Higgins, p.164.

20 NA E 336/27. Portinari later went abroad. On 7 September 1552, the Duke of Northumberland wrote to Sir William Cecil of the high estimation in which Portinari was held at the French court. The Italian, however, was ready to return to England as he ‘is at the king’s command’ and spoke of ‘the devotion he bears … this realm’. NA SP 10/15/3, and SPD, Edward VI 1547–53, p.257.

21 NA E 23/4/1.

22 ‘Henry the Eighth, King of England and France, Lord of Ireland. Defender of the Faith.’

23 NA E 315/256, fol.90. Allowance for expenses ‘about the tomb’, 1547. See also Biddle, p.115.

24 He was working in England as early as 1537, as there are records of payments of an annual salary of £10 a year to him and for the provision of a livery gown.

25 This was located in the area of today’s Dean’s Yard.

26 APC, n. s., Vol. III, p.347.

27 He was called ‘Fill Sack’ by his contemporaries for his propensity for accumulating wealth.

28 APC, n.s., Vol. III, p.380. On p.347 are details of a warrant, dated 9 July 1551, to Sir Raffe Sadler for eight yards of damask to make a gown for Modena, four yards of velvet for a coat and three yards of satin to make him a doublet.

29 Archaeologia, 39 (1863), p.37.

30 A deputation of Edward’s councillors, led by Richard Rich, met Princess Mary at the end of August 1551 and told her that the young king wished to ‘forbid her chaplains to say mass or any other unlawful service’. A defiant Mary replied that ‘she would rather die on the block than use any services other than those in use at her father’s death’ and that she would obey Edward’s instructions on religion ‘only when he was old enough to judge’. See NA SP 10/13/35.

31 Thomas Fuller, Church History of Britain, London, 1655, p.254.

32 Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500–58). Nominated papal legate to England in 1537, but while he was en route, Henry urged Francis I to arrest him as a rebel. Pole returned safely to Rome and accepted a mission from Pope Paul III to form an alliance of Christian princes against Henry. Pole’s mother and eldest brother were executed in England on charges of treason. On Mary’s accession, he was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in March 1556.

33 Cited by Scarisbrook, p.497, quoting the Jesuit Robert Parsons, Certamen Ecclesiae Anglicanae, Joseph Simons (ed.), Assen, 1965, p.273.

34 BL Lansdowne MS 6, no.31, 12 September 1563. See also Colvin et al, Vol. IV, p.321. Higgins has the letter wrongly addressed to Burghley.

35 BL Lansdowne MS 116, no.13.

36 406.4 kg.

37 1,016 kg.

38 Alias Verstegen, fl. 1565–1620.

39 NA E 351/3,203.

40 NA SP 12/43, fol.73.

41 NA E 351/3,209.

42 A drawing, probably by Cure, for Edward’s tomb survives in the Bodleian Library in Gough Maps 45, 17,554, no.63. It was never built.

43 NA E 351/3,221. See also Colvin et al, Vol. IV, p.321.

44 Paul Hentzner, Itinerarium, etc., Breslau, 1617, p.148. Translated from the Latin.

45 It was, of course, a mere cenotaph as Henry’s body lay alongside that of Jane Seymour in the vault in the centre of the choir of St George’s Chapel.

46 St George’s Chapter Acts VI B:2, fol.31b.

47 St George’s Chapter Acts XI F:6. Darknall was appointed verger on 28 January 1618 and later signed a number of property transactions involving the Chapter as a witness.

48 Journal of the House of Commons, 7 April 1646.

49 William Sanderson, Complete History of the Life and Reign of King Charles, London, 1658, p.888.

50 Higgins, pp.177–80. The original casting, from moulds, of the candlesticks was not well done: several patches have been inserted to cover defects. See fn. p.180.

51 There is a cast in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

52 St George’s Chapter Acts VI B:3, p.11, and Bond, p.111.

53 Elias Ashmole, The Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, London, 1672.

54 Pote, p.62.

55 Queen Victoria restored the chapel in memory of the Prince Consort. The cost of the sarcophagus and its transportation was not to exceed £1,000.

56 C. V. Wedgwood, The Trial of Charles I, London, 1964, p.204.

57 Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, Vol. II, London, 1721, p.703.

58 Ibid. The last statement about the contents of the great coffin is a reference to the story that Henry VIII’s body had been removed and destroyed in Mary I’s reign.

59 On p.362 of the hand-foliated and heavily annotated copy of Pote’s History and Antiquities of Windsor Castle, given to the Chapter by Dr Joseph Goodall, Provost of Eton, in 1814. It was previously owned by a G. Wingfield; the MS notes are by a Capt. Wingfield. (Pote, a Windsor bookseller, is traditionally believed to have written the History; this copy is signed by the true author, John Stapletoft.) The cost of the re-laying of the choir was met by William Childe, organist.

60 Pote, p.362.

61 They were seeking to prove that Charles I was buried there.

62 Halford, p.10. The wall at the west end of the vault had been partly pulled down and repaired again ‘not by regular masonry but by fragments of stones and bricks, put rudely and hastily together without cement’.

63 Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Oxford, 1807, Vol. III, pt.i, p.393.

64 Bound at the back of the copy of Halford in the Chapter Archives of St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

65 Annual Reports of the Friends of St George’s 1933–1950, p.10.

66 St George’s Chapter Acts VI B:9, p.109.