Review of "Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior" by Catherine Hanley

Empress Matilda is a fascinating historical character. She almost became queen of England in her own right but when her father, Henry I, died, her royal inheritance was stolen from her by Stephen, her first cousin. Matilda decided to fight and although she didn't become queen, her son claimed the throne through her. He proudly called himself Henry FitzEmpress, Henry "Son of the Empress". He is known to history as Henry II. 

As stated by author Catherine Hanley, her book is not aimed solely at academic readership. There's never been an accessible bio of Matilda. Marjorie Chibnall's "The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English" was, so far, the best and the most detailed account of Matilda's political & private life, but it's a difficult book and requires a lot of beforehand knowledge of the period. Catherine Hanley, on the other hand, wrote a book with flowing narrative that is both easy to understand for a general reader and compulsively readable. 

I'm sure that people who would like to gain more insight into Matilda's life would be satisfied after reading Hanley's book (I know I was!). The author restored Matilda to her rightful place in history, debunking all sorts of myths and misconceptions that arouse around Matilda over the centuries. 

Most sources about Matilda were written by hostile clerics and monks who believed women should be subservient to men. Many historians assumed that Matilda truly was haughty and overbearing, and repeated these characteristics after the empress's first medieval biographers. Matilda's biographers in 1939 and 2017 even claimed that she was menopausal and suffered from mood swings because they trusted too much in biased clerical sources. 

Catherine Hanley challenged such views in her sympathetic biography of Matilda, arguing that Matilda was condemned by her male contemporaries because she was a woman who reached for the crown. Had she been a man, nobody would have had any doubts that her claim to the throne was indisputable and valid. 

I hope that the author will write more about medieval women in the future, because her style and approach are wonderful. I'm looking forward to reading more books by Catherine Hanley. 

What happened to Margaret Tudor’s remains?

James I of Scotland, Wikimedia Commons

On 21 February 2017, a proposal to search for the tomb of King James I of Scotland, has been unveiled. Archaeologists also looking for the remains of his Queen, Joan Beaufort, and of Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England and wife of James IV of Scotland.

James I was assassinated on 21 February 1437 and buried at the Charterhouse monastery in Perth. His wife and queen, Joan Beaufort, was buried with him 1445. In 1541, Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England and wife of James IV of Scotland, was buried in the same vault.

Margaret Tudor

In Tudor: A Family Story, historian Leanda de Lisle says: “The remains of Margaret Tudor disappeared after her tomb was destroyed by a Protestant mob in May 1559. They had attacked the Carthusian priory in Perth where she was buried, killing one of the monks before desecrating her remains.” In her biography of Margaret Tudor’s daughter, historian Alison Weir adds that Margaret’s remains were “burned and the ashes scattered when the Charterhouse at Perth was attacked and destroyed by a mob of Calvinist reformers on 11 May 1559”.


Let’s hope that the archaeologists will find whatever’s left of her remains.

Sources: 

Search for Perth grave of King James I

Alison Weir, The Lost Tudor Princess: A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox (Jonathan Capre, 2015).

Leanda de Lisle, Tudor: The Family Story, (Vintage Digital, 2013).

Books I'm looking forward to reading this autumn: Part 1

Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe by Sarah Gristwood

Release date: 6 October 2016 (Oneworld Publications, UK), 29 November 2016 (Basic Books US)

Description: 

Sixteenth-century Europe saw an explosion of female rule. From Isabella of Castile and her granddaughter Mary Tudor, to Catherine de Medici, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth Tudor, women wielded enormous power over their territories for more than a hundred years. In the sixteenth century, as in our own, the phenomenon of the powerful woman offered challenges and opportunities. Opportunities, as when in 1529 Margaret of Austria and Louise of Savoy negotiated the “Ladies’ peace” of Cambrai. Challenges, as when both Mary Queen of Scots and her kinswoman Elizabeth I came close to being destroyed by sexual scandal.

A fascinating group biography of some of the most beloved (and reviled) queens in history, Game of Queens tells the story of the powerful women who drove European history.

Anne Boleyn in London by Lissa Chapman

Release date: 24 October 2016 (Penn and Sword, UK), 19 January 2017 (Penn and Sword, US)

Description: 

Romantic victim? Ruthless other woman? Innocent pawn? Religious reformer? Fool, flirt and adulteress? Politician? Witch? During her life, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s ill-fated second queen, was internationally famous – or notorious; today, she still attracts passionate adherents and furious detractors. 

It was in London that most of the drama of Anne Boleyn’s life and death was played out – most famously, in the Tower of London, the scene of her coronation celebrations, of her trial and execution, and where her body lies buried. 

Londoners, like everyone else, clearly had strong feelings about her, and in her few years as a public figure Anne Boleyn was influential as a patron of the arts and of French taste, as the center of a religious and intellectual circle, and for her purchasing power, both directly and as a leader of fashion. It was primarily to London, beyond the immediate circle of the court, that her carefully 'spun' image as queen was directed during the public celebrations surrounding her coronation. 

In the centuries since Anne Boleyn’s death, her reputation has expanded to give her an almost mythical status in London, inspiring everything from pub names to music hall songs, and novels to merchandise including pin cushions with removable heads. And now there is a thriving online community surrounding her – there are over fifty Twitter accounts using some version of her name.

This book looks at the evidence both for the effect London and its people had on the course of Anne Boleyn’s life and death, and the effects she had, and continues to have, on them.

The Lives of Tudor Women by Elizabeth Norton

Release date: 6 October 2016 (Head of Zeus, UK), 4 July 2017 (Pegasus Books, US)

Description: 

The turbulent Tudor age never fails to capture the imagination. But what was it actually like to be a woman during this period? This was a time when death in infancy or during childbirth was rife; when marriage was usually a legal contract, not a matter for love, and the education of women was minimal at best. Yet the Tudor century was also dominated by powerful and characterful women in a way that no era had been before.

Elizabeth Norton explores the seven ages of the Tudor woman, from childhood to old age, through the diverging examples of women such as Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister who died in infancy; Cecily Burbage, Elizabeth's wet nurse; Mary Howard, widowed but influential at court; Elizabeth Boleyn, mother of a controversial queen; and Elizabeth Barton, a peasant girl who would be lauded as a prophetess. Their stories are interwoven with studies of topics ranging from Tudor toys to contraception to witchcraft, painting a portrait of the lives of queens and serving maids, nuns and harlots, widows and chaperones.

Catherine of Aragon: An Intimate Life of Henry VIII's True Wife by Amy Licence

Release date: 15 October 2016 (Amberley, UK) 1 April 2017 (Amberley US)

Description:

Catherine of Aragon continues to fascinate readers 500 years after she became Henry VIII's first queen. Her life was one of passion and determination, of suffering and hope, but ultimately it is a tragic love story, as circumstances conspired against her. Having lost her first husband, Henry's elder brother Prince Arthur, she endured years of ill health and penury, to make a dazzling second match in Henry VIII. There is no doubt that she was Henry's true love, compatible with him in every respect and, for years, she presided over a majestic court as the personification of his ideal woman.

However, Catherine’s body failed her in an age when fertility was a prerequisite of political stability. When it became clear that she could no longer bear children, the king’s attention turned elsewhere, and his once chivalric devotion became resentment. Catherine’s final years were spent in lonely isolation but she never gave up her vision: she was devoted to her faith, her husband and to England, to the extent that she was prepared to be martyred for them. Banished and close to death, she wrote a final letter to her ‘most dear lord and husband’. ‘I pardon you everything... mine eyes desire you above all things.’ The fidelity of this remarkable woman never wavered.

Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey by Nicola Tallis

Release date: 3 November 2016 (Michael O'Mara, UK), 6 December 2016 (Pegasus Books, US)

Description: A significant retelling of the often-misunderstood tale of Lady Jane Grey's journey through her trial and execution―recalling the dangerous plots and web of deadly intrigue in which she became involuntarily tangled, and which ultimately led to a catastrophic conclusion.

"Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same.” These were the heartbreaking words of a seventeen-year-old girl, Lady Jane Grey, as she stood on the scaffold awaiting death on a cold February morning in 1554. Minutes later her head was struck from her body with a single stroke of a heavy axe. Her death for high treason sent shockwaves through the Tudor world, and served as a gruesome reminder to all who aspired to a crown that the axe could fall at any time.

Jane is known to history as "the Nine Days Queen," but her reign lasted, in fact, for thirteen days. The human and emotional aspects of her story have often been ignored, although she is remembered as one of the Tudor Era’s most tragic victims. While this is doubtlessly true, it is only part of the complex jigsaw of Jane’s story. She was a remarkable individual with a charismatic personality who earned the admiration and affection of many of those who knew her. All were impressed by her wit, passion, intelligence, and determined spirit. Furthermore, the recent trend of trying to highlight her achievements and her religious faith has, in fact, further obscured the real Jane, a young religious radical who saw herself as an advocate of the reformed faith―Protestantism―and ultimately became a martyr for it.

Crown of Blood is an important and significant retelling of an often-misunderstood tale: set at the time of Jane’s downfall and following her journey through to her trial and execution, each chapter moves between the past and the “present,” using a rich abundance of primary source material (some of which has never been published) in order to paint a vivid picture of Jane’s short and turbulent life. This dramatic narrative traces the dangerous plots and web of deadly intrigue in which Jane became involuntarily tangled―and which ultimately led to a shocking and catastrophic conclusion. 16 pages of color illustrations.

Tudor themed books to look forward to in 2016: Part 2

The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty by Tracy BormanRelease Date: 19 May 2016 (UK & US)
Description: 'I do not live in a corner. A thousand eyes see all I do.' Elizabeth I

The Tudor monarchs were constantly surrounded by an army of attendants, courtiers and ministers. Even in their most private moments, they were accompanied by a servant specifically appointed for the task. A groom of the stool would stand patiently by as Henry VIII performed his daily purges, and when Elizabeth I retired for the evening, one of her female servants would sleep at the end of her bed.

These attendants knew the truth behind the glamorous exterior. They saw the tears shed by Henry VII upon the death of his son Arthur. They knew the tragic secret behind 'Bloody' Mary's phantom pregnancies. And they saw the 'crooked carcass' beneath Elizabeth I's carefully applied makeup, gowns and accessories.

It is the accounts of these eyewitnesses, as well as a rich array of other contemporary sources that historian Tracy Borman has examined more closely than ever before. With new insights and discoveries, and in the same way that she brilliantly illuminated the real Thomas Cromwell - The Private Life of the Tudors will reveal previously unexamined details about the characters we think we know so well.

Insurrection: Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell and the Pilgrimage of Grace by Susan Loughlin
Release date: 4 April 2016 (UK), 1 July 2016 (US)
Description: Autumn 1536. Both Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn are dead. Henry VIII has married Jane Seymour, and still awaits his longed-for male heir. Disaffected conservatives in England may have seen an opportunity for a return to Rome and an end to religious experimentation. However, Thomas Cromwell has other ideas. In August, the Lutheran influenced Ten Articles of the Anglican Church was published and the dissolution of the monasteries had started. The obstinate monarch, enticed by monastic wealth, is determined not to change course. Fear and resentment has been unleashed in northern England in the largest, spontaneous uprising against a Tudor monarch. That rebellion is the Pilgrimage of Grace, in which 30,000 men have taken up arms against the king. This book reviews the evidence for that opposition and examines the abundant examples of religiously motivated dissent. It also highlights the rhetoric, reward and retribution used by the Crown to enforce its policy.

Scourge of Henry VIII: The Life of Marie de Guise by Melanie Clegg
Release Date: 30 August 2016 (UK & US)
Description: Although Mary, Queen of Scots continues to fascinate both historians and the general public alike, the story of her mother, Marie de Guise, is much less well known. A political power in her own right, she was born into the powerful and ambitious Lorraine family, spending her formative years at the dazzling and licentious court of Francois I. Although briefly courted by Henry VIII, she instead married his nephew, James V of Scotland, in 1538. James' premature death four years later left their six day old daughter, Mary, as Queen and presented Marie with the formidable challenge of winning the support of the Scottish people and protecting her daughter's threatened birthright. Content until now to remain in the background and play the part of the obedient wife, Marie spent the next eighteen years effectively governing Scotland, devoting her considerable intellect, courage and energy to safeguarding her daughter's inheritance by using a deft mixture of cunning, charm, determination and tolerance.The last serious biography of Marie de Guise was published in 1977 and whereas plenty of attention has been paid to the mistakes of her daughter's eventful but brief reign, the time has come for a fresh assessment of this most fascinating and under appreciated of sixteenth century female rulers.

Tudor themed books to look forward to in 2016!

I've been asked to compile a list of Tudor themed books to look forward to in 2016, so here it is! If you have other suggestions, please share them in the comment section.

So Great a Prince: England in 1509 by Lauren Johnson

Release Date: 10 March 2016 (UK), 1 March 2016 (US)

Description: The King is dead: long live the King. In 1509, Henry VII was succeeded by his son Henry VIII, second monarch of the house of Tudor. But this is not the familiar Tudor world of Protestantism and playwrights. Decades before the Reformation, ancient traditions persist: boy bishops, pilgrimage, Corpus Christi pageants, the jewel-decked shrine at Canterbury.

So Great a Prince offers a fascinating glimpse of a country and people that at first appear alien - in calendar and clothing, in counting the hours by bell toll - but which on closer examination are recognisably and understandably human. Lauren Johnson tells the story of 1509 not just from the perspective of king and court, but of merchant and ploughman; apprentice and laundress; husbandman and foreign worker. She looks at these early Tudor lives through the rhythms of the ritual year, juxtaposing political events in Westminster and the palaces of southeast England with the liturgical and agricultural events that punctuated the year for the ordinary people of England.

In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII by Sarah Morris and Natalie Grueninger

Release date: 15 March 2016 (UK), 19 May 2016 (US)

Description: This guidebook takes a fresh perspective on the tale of Henry VIII's six wives, by taking you on a journey through a selection of manors, castles, and palaces that played host to Henry’s unforgettable queens. Explore the Alhambra Palace in Spain, childhood home of Katherine of Aragon; stand in the very room at Acton Court where Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII publicly dined; visit Düsseldorf in Germany, birthplace of Anne of Cleves; and wander the picturesque gardens and panelled rooms of Sizergh Castle in Cumbria, where Katherine Parr spent time in mourning, after the death of her first husband. Each location is covered by an accessible and informative narrative, which unearths the untold tales and documents the artefacts, as well as providing practical visitor information based on our first-hand experiences of visiting each site. Accompanied by an extensive range of 130 images (many in colour), including family trees, maps, photographs and sketches, this book brings you closer than ever before to the women behind the legends, as it takes you on your own personal and illuminating journey in the footsteps of the six wives of Henry VIII.

Katherine Howard: The Tragic Story of Henry VIII's Fifth Queen by Josephine Wilkinson

Release date: 7 April 2016 (UK, US)

Description: Looming out of the encroaching darkness of the February evening was London Bridge, still ornamented with the severed heads of Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham; the terrible price they had paid for suspected intimacy with the queen.

Katherine now reached the Tower of London, her final destination. 

Katherine Howard was the fifth wife of Henry VIII and cousin to the executed Anne Boleyn. She first came to court as a young girl of fourteen, but even prior to that her fate had been sealed and she was doomed to die. She was beheaded in 1542 for crimes of adultery and treason, in one of the most sensational scandals of the Tudor age.

The traditional story of Henry VIII's fifth queen dwells on her sexual exploits before she married the king, and her execution is seen as her just dessert for having led an abominable life. However, the true story of Katherine Howard could not be more different.

Far from being a dark tale of court factionalism and conspiracy, Katherine's story is one of child abuse, family ambition, religious conflict and political and sexual intrigue. It is also a tragic love story. A bright, kind and intelligent young woman, Katherine was fond of clothes and dancing, yet she also had a strong sense of duty and tried to be a good wife to Henry. She handled herself with grace and queenly dignity to the end, even as the barge carrying her on her final journey drew up at the Tower of London, where she was to be executed for high treason.

Little more than a child in a man's world, she was the tragic victim of those who held positions of authority over her, and from whose influence she was never able to escape.

Six Tudor Queens: Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen: Six Tudor Queens Part 1 by Alison Weir

Release date: 5 May 2016 (UK), 31 May 2016 (US)

Description: In this captivating novel, the first in a dramatic new six-book series about each of English King Henry VIII’s wives, bestselling author and acclaimed historian Alison Weir brings to life the tumultuous tale of Katherine of Aragon, Henry’s first, devoted, and “true” queen.

The names of Henry VIII’s wives: handwriting and signatures

“What is this post about?” you may wonder. “I know that Henry VIII had six wives and I know their names”. Indeed. Henry VIII had six wives and they are all very well-known historical figures: 

Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr. 

But when you actually read the original contemporary letters, the names of Henry VIII’s wives are different! So what were their real names?

Katherine of Aragon

Married Henry on 11 June 1509. He was 17, she was 23. Marriage annulled on 23 May 1533.

Married for 23 years and 11 months.

Born in Spain, Katherine’s Spanish name was “Katalina”, but when she became Queen she used the anglicized version of her original name. She signed her letters with “Katharine”, “Katherine”, “Katherina”, and “Katharina”. In one of her prayer books, Katherine left the inscription: “This boke ys myn Katherina the qwene”.

 “This boke ys myn Katherina the qwene”

"Katharina"

Anne Boleyn

Married Henry on 14 November 1532 and 25 January 1533. He was 41, she was either 26 or 32.

Beheaded on 19 May 1536.

In a letter written in French to her father from the Low Countries when she was a teenager, Anne used the French version of her surname: “Anna de Boullan”. A letter she wrote to Cardinal Wolsey sometime prior to the Cardinal’s disgrace in 1529 bears the signature “Anne Boleyn”. Between December 1529 and August 1532 Anne started signing her letters as “Anne Rochford”. In 1533 she became Queen and adapted a new signature: “Anne the Queen” or, in original, “Anne the Qwene”.

"Anna de Boulan"

Jane Seymour

Married Henry on 30 May 1536. He was 44, she was 26. Died on 24 October 1537. Married for 1 year and 4 months.

Jane Seymour seems to be the only wife of Henry VIII who spelled her name the same way we do it today, “Jane the Queen”.

Anne of Cleves

Married Henry on 6 January 1540. He was 48, she was 24. Marriage annulled on 9 July 1540. Married for 6 months.

Anne was born in Germany and her name was spelled “Anna”. She signed herself as “Anna, the daughter of Cleves” in a letter she sent to Henry soon after the annulment of their marriage.

Catherine Howard

Married to Henry on 8 August 1540. He was 49, she was between 17 and 22. Beheaded on 15 February 1542. Married for 2 years and 6 months.

The only extant letter by Catherine Howard was addressed to “Master [Thomas] Culpeper”, a gentleman of Henry VIII’s court who was later beheaded as the Queen’s lover. Catherine signed this letter: “Yours as long as life endures, Katheryn”.

"Yours as long as lyffe endures, Katheryn"

Katherine Parr

Married Henry on 12 July 1543. He was 52, she was 31. Survived the King. Married for 3 years and 6 months.There are several samples of Katherine Parr’s handwriting from the period when she was Queen. She always signed her letters “Kateryn the Quene KP” adding her initials in the end.

So, in the end, we have Katharina, Anne, Jane, Anna, Katheryn and Kateryn. What a diversity!

Picture Sources:

http://exetercollegespecialcollections.com/tag/katherine-of-aragon/

http://smalldogsyndrome.com/tag/travel/page/3/

Pet Monkeys: Marmosets at the Tudor court

Yesterday I’ve been to the zoo with my family and we saw a curious little creature called marmoset. Marmoset is a small tropical American monkey with a silky coat and a long tail. I remembered that at least two Tudor personages were painted with this funny-looking creature so I’ve decided to post these portraits together with some photos of the charming marmosets.

Henry VIII received a marmoset as a Christmas present in 1539 and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, was painted with this animal in the late 1520s. Henry VIII’s elder sister, Margaret Tudor, was also painted with a marmoset sitting on her hands. Not everyone was into marmosets, however. When Lady Honor Lisle wanted to present Anne Boleyn with a pet monkey, she was informed that Anne “loveth no such beasts nor can scant abide the sight of them”. 

Sources:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/64629/9-bizarre-objects-owned-henry-viii

Alison Weir, Henry VIII: King and Court, 2011.

Joanna Denny, Anne Boleyn, 2010.

Thomas Cromwell’s illegitimate daughter Jane

Thomas Cromwell and his daughter Grace
 in "Wolf Hall"

Thomas Cromwell’s two known daughters, Anne and Grace, died from the fatal infectious fever called “the sweating sickness” that swept through England in 1528. However, in his History of the Lives and Actions of Thomas Cromwell, written c. 1761, Arthur Collins made a reference to Thomas Cromwell’s son Gregory “and a daughter Jane”.[1] In her recent biography of Thomas Cromwell, historian Tracy Borman wrote this about Jane:

“Little is known about her, except that she married William Hough of Leighton in Wirral, Cheshire, sometime between 1535 and 1540. Girls were often married as young as twelve years old, but even if the latter date for Jane’s marriage is accepted, she must have been conceived while Cromwell’s wife was still alive. Jane’s husband, a staunch Catholic, was the son of Richard Hough, who was Cromwell’s agent in Cheshire from 1534 to 1540. It is therefore likely that Cromwell arranged their marriage, which was a good one for a girl of Jane’s obscure origins. But he would arguably have performed this favour for any loyal servant, and there is little other than the girl’s surname to suggest that she might have been his daughter.” [2]

There’s also a curious reference to a daughter in a letter to Cromwell from his colleague, Richard Southwell, in 1537. Southwell wrote that “I saw a child of my Lady your daughter’s at a nunnery in Yorkshire”. [3] Sadly, nothing more is known about her. 

Sources:

[1] Michael Everett, The Rise of Thomas Cromwell: Power and Politics in the Reign of Henry VIII, p. 197.

[2] Tracy Borman, Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII’s Most Faithful Servant, Kindle edition.

[3] Michael Everett, The Rise of Thomas Cromwell: Power and Politics in the Reign of Henry VIII, p. 197. 

“Don’t ask, don’t get”: Mary Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell in “Wolf Hall”

In Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall”, there’s an apparent chemistry between Thomas Cromwell and Mary Boleyn, the sister of Anne. We meet Mary after her first husband William Carey, member of the King’s Privy Chamber, has died of sweating sickness in 1528. Mary regrets being widowed because “I am to be swept out after supper like the old rushes. Now I’m no one’s wife, they [the Boleyns, her family] can say anything they like to me”. She reveals to Thomas Cromwell that she “needs a new husband” and tells him that she needs a husband who would upset her family. “I want to marry a man who frightens them”, says Mary in the course of her conversation with Thomas Cromwell and Hilary Mantel clearly hints that Cromwell, who had recently lost his beloved wife, seems like a great catch to Mary Boleyn: “There is a sudden light in her blue eyes. An idea has dawned. She rests one delicate finger on the grey velvet she so admires, and says softly, ‘Don’t ask, don’t get’”.

“Don’t ask, don’t get”: Mary Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell's apparent chemistry in "Wolf Hall" 

Is there any truth to this? Was Mary Boleyn ever interested in Thomas Cromwell? Was he interested in her? Well, there is no historical evidence to prove that Mary Boleyn was romantically linked with Thomas Cromwell. Or that she was poor and couldn't afford grey velvet, as implied both in the novel and in the TV adaptation of "Wolf Hall". Mary and Cromwell certainly knew each other socially and when in 1534 Mary made a secret match to one William Stafford,  her social inferior, she appealed to Thomas Cromwell because she knew he could help her. According to Mary:

“I saw that all the world did set so little by me, and he [William Stafford] so much, that I thought I could take no better way but to take him and forsake all other ways, and live a poor, honest life with him. And so I do put no doubts but we should, if we might once be so happy to recover the King’s gracious favour and the Queen’s. For well I might have had a greater man of birth and a higher, but I assure you I could never have had one that should have loved me so well, nor a more honest man.”

Thomas Cromwell’s reply does not survive and, sadly, we don’t know if he interceded with Henry VIII and the Boleyns on Mary’s behalf. Mary's letter is the only recorded interaction between her and Cromwell. 

Sources:

Hilary Mantel, "Wolf Hall", (Fourth Estate, 2009)

Mary Stafford to Thomas Cromwell (1534), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1862-1910), Volume 7: 1655.

New book releases: Summer Reads

Here's a fresh selection of books to look forward to this summer! 

1. The Rival Queens: Catherine de' Medici, her daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal That Ignited a Kingdom by Nancy Goldstone (non-fiction)

Release date: 18 June 2015 (UK), 23 June 2015 (US)

2. The Seymours of Wolf Hall: A Tudor Family Story by David Loades (non-fiction)

Release date: 15 June 2015 (UK), 19 August 2015 (US)

3. Margaret Pole: The Countess in the Tower by Susan Higginbotham (non-fiction)

Release date: 15 August 2015 (UK), 19 August 2015 (US)

4. The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory (novel)

Release date: 13 August 2015 (UK), 25 August 2015 (US)

Guest Post: Remembering Anne Boleyn: Reminisces of Mary Howard & the Devonshire group by Sylvia Barbara Soberton

Remembering Anne Boleyn: Reminisces of Mary Howard & the Devonshire group by Sylvia Barbara Soberton

Happy Sunday! I'm delighted to announce that today we have a guest post by Sylvia Barbara Soberton, author of the best-selling book entitled The Forgotten Tudor Women. 

Over to Sylvia . . . 

In my book, The Forgotten Tudor Women, I explore the tumultuous lives of three courageous women: Margaret Douglas, Mary Howard and Mary Shelton. These three women all started their careers at court as maids of honour to Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn.

Anne Boleyn

On 19 May 1536, Anne Boleyn was beheaded on what her contemporaries and the majority of historians today believe to have been trumped-up charges of adultery with four men, incest with her own brother and plotting the King’s death with one of her alleged lovers. Through the course of her meteoric rise to power right up until her execution, Anne Boleyn was an unpopular figure. The common people believed that she had usurped the place of their beloved Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife and queen. Foreign monarchs were slow to acknowledge Anne’s position as Queen and mother of the heiress to the throne, and the situation at court, where political factions scrambled for power, was even worse.  

Mary Howard

Although Anne Boleyn was surrounded by female servants on a daily basis, only one of them allowed her memories to be recorded for posterity. This woman was Mary Howard, Duchess of Richmond, Anne  Boleyn’s first cousin, who was described as “chief and principal of her waiting maids”.[1] Mary started her career at court on 1 September 1532, when she played a prominent part during the ceremony of Anne’s ennoblement as Marquess of Pembroke. Anne took her young cousin under her wing and, despite the protests of Mary’s mother, she arranged her marriage to Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy. Little is known about the personal relationship between Mary Howard and Anne Boleyn, but considering that Mary was known to have been one of the chief and principal ladies serving the Queen, we may assume that they were close.

Anne Boleyn’s tenure as Queen came to an abrupt end in May 1536 when she was arrested and executed. Henry VIII remarried eleven days after his wife’s judicial murder, and it seemed that life at court went on as normal. Behind the closed doors, however, some people gave vent to their despair. Thomas Wyatt, the poet who was imprisoned as Anne’s alleged lover but later cleared of charges and released, wrote a heartbreaking poem where he recorded:

“I was made a filling instrument

To frame other, while I was beguiled”.[2]

Thomas Wyatt’s biographer, Nicola Shulman, explained that Wyatt was a “filling instrument” in the sense of betraying or defiling the honour of other people, presumably those who died with the Queen. The fact that Wyatt was romantically linked with Anne Boleyn in the past answers the question of why he was imprisoned in May 1536 but doesn’t offer an explanation as to why he was released. Thomas Cromwell rewarded Wyatt with a large sum of £100 in May 1536, a date implicating the poet may have been interrogated and coerced into providing damning details about Anne Boleyn’s circle. Whatever he confessed to the authorities, it is clear that Wyatt felt guilty. His poem was copied into the Devonshire Manuscript, a courtly anthology strongly associated with Mary Howard, Margaret Douglas and Mary Shelton, who were among its most prominent contributors. Did they feel the same? Were they forced to testify against their royal mistress? It seems highly likely because Thomas Cromwell later claimed that Anne Boleyn’s ladies-in-waiting provided damning details, and three of her serving women—Elizabeth Somerset, Countess of Worcester, Nan Cobham and one other unnamed maid—were mentioned in contemporary correspondence as the Queen’s accusers.

John Foxe

At some point during the reign of Edward VI, Mary Howard employed John Foxe as tutor to her nieces and nephews, her wards since her brother’s execution in 1547. Living in the Duchess of Richmond’s household provided ample opportunities to talk about people associated with spreading the good religious works during Henry VIII’s reign. Anne Boleyn was seen by her enemies as “the cause and principal nurse” of spreading “heresies” in England.[3] Although Anne’s personal faith is still a matter of debate among historians, it is certain that she was anti-papal, keen on reforming the Church from within and eager to promote reading the Bible in the vernacular. In his Actes and Monuments (best known as The Book of Martyrs), John Foxe recorded that Mary Howard was one of Anne Boleyn’s “chief and principal” ladies-in-waiting and was thus well acquainted with the Queen’s daily doings. When compiling materials for his book, Foxe talked to Mary Howard, who recalled “how Her Grace carried ever about her a certain little purse, out of which she was wont daily to scatter abroad some alms to the needy, thinking no day well spent wherein some man had not fared the better by some benefit at her hands.”[4]

Mary Howard's handwriting

Foxe’s book also contains a rich description of Princess Elizabeth’s christening on 10 September 1533, and this event was most likely related to him by Mary Howard, who carried a rich chrism of pearl and stone. The fact that Mary Howard kept these memories alive proves that she cherished them, and perhaps Mary’s early religious views were shaped by Anne Boleyn’s religious tendencies. Mary had not only sheltered the Protestant John Foxe, but also read the Bible in the vernacular and enjoyed debating its contents with like-minded individuals so much so that her elder brother, the Earl of Surrey, warned her about “going too far in reading the Scripture”.[5] Anne Boleyn had famously encouraged her ladies to read the New Testament translated by William Tyndale, which she held wide open at her desk, and it is possible that Mary began to develop her own religious views under Anne’s wing. 

Mary left court, probably in the summer of 1536, and did not join the household of Henry VIII’s new wife, Jane Seymour. It may be that Mary voluntarily shunned court after Anne’s execution, although the arrest of her half uncle, Thomas Howard, and the death of her young husband, Henry Fitzroy, in the summer of 1536 certainly influenced her decision. 

---

[1] John Foxe, Book of Martyrs: The Actes and Monuments of the Church, Volume 2, p. 372.

[2] Nicola Shulman, Graven with Diamonds, p. 195.

[3] Letters and Papers, Volume 10, n. 601.

[4] John Foxe, Book of Martyrs: The Actes and Monuments of the Church, Volume 2, p. 372.

[5] Letters and Papers, Volume 21 Part 1, n. 769.

RSC Wolf Hall - Aldwych Theatre: Review by Christine Wilson

RSC Wolf Hall - Aldwych Theatre: Review by Christine Wilson 

Ben Miles as Thomas Cromwell

I had managed to get to London’s Aldwych Theatre from Belfast minus the two coveted tickets for Wolf Hall. Luckily I had taken a boastful photo to put on Facebook and duplicates were found for me - even better seats for 4 rows from the front. So I could see the whites of their eyes and not miss a thing. The theatre was full for this, a preview and none of us were disappointed.

The curtain pulled back to a gasp from the audience as we saw a tableau of Tudor characters captured in mid dance - straight from the 1530s, staring out at us in their ghostly dance and instantly drawing us in. This is exactly what Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall did. It draws us the reader back, back to the past so we inhabit the characters and see, smell and feel them. This simple opener instantly told us that Director Jeremy Herrin had understood that and was staying true to the book. This device was used four or five times in the 3 hour duration - the cast appearing on stage; moving together and staring out sightlessly at the audience as if woken from slumber for our entertainment.

Nathaniel Parker as Henry VIII

Could the handsome Ben Miles as Cromwell pull off this mighty role? He looks nothing like the character. But within seconds his manner and severe black costume- had convinced. He played the role in a slightly comic way - although wry humour more like The Thick of It than perhaps Blackadder. He spoke direct to the audience and stared around him constantly as if always on the look-out and never relaxed and his sharp wit quickly showed him a man who could rise to the top - as he did - after the fall of his beloved master Cardinal Wolsey (who continued to appear on stage at key points as a ghost.) Loss was a regular feature in the opening acts - as Cromwell also lost his wife and children but also his family life.

Lydia Leonard as Anne Boleyn

Henry VIII was played by TV’s Nathaniel Parker as a slightly dim but deadly, vain man - very much at the mercy (or merci perhaps?) of the charming and clever Anne Boleyn and the ambitious Cromwell who makes it possible for them to eventually wed. Anne’s brother, George, played by Oscar Pearce, got the biggest laugh of the night as he minced on wearing jewellery and waving a small hanky. It was a controversial interpretation of the character but we have to remember that this is Cromwell’s interpretation of events and how he saw people. And as a theatrical device to bring some small humour to a serious play it worked well and added enormously to the enjoyment. Anne Boleyn was ably handled by Lydia Leonard who perhaps brought nothing especially new to the role but stayed true to Hilary Mantel’s creation and played her witty and taunting ‘Cremuel‘ … She was nearly overshadowed by the quirkiness of the anything -but- humble Jane Seymour played by Leah Brotherhead with confidence. There were also some outstanding young actors in the ensemble, many taking their first stage roles.

The set and costume design deserve a special mention for their authenticity and the simple stage switched easily from being Wolsey’s Palace to a boat being rowed up the Thames and then Greenwich Palace in moments and a bit like the character of Thomas Cromwell himself showed how you can see the same thing in many different ways and guises. Step forward Christopher Oram who did both with brilliance.

Although an ensemble cast, some actors playing several roles, it is very much Ben Mile’s role. He is on stage the entire time and drives the play. He reacts to and initiates everything we see so these characters only exist because they are in his world. And his confidence, poise and rapport with the audience meant we could only emphasise with this very modern man.

On my way for a half time drink - and still feeling slightly spell bound by the production, I could hear some Americans drawling ‘It’s hard to know who all these people are really’. But it turned out that they thought they’d booked The Lion King.