Elizabeth (10 page)

By the 1590s de Vere had lost most of his wealth, but he managed to retrieve his position by marrying the wealthy heiress Elizabeth Trentham, who would give him his heir, Henry de Vere, in 1592. De Vere died at King’s Place, Hackney, on 24 June 1604. During his last years he received no financial assistance from Elizabeth I and was rejected as a Knight of the Garter. He is most probably best remembered as one of the great Elizabethan courtier poets – and, some claim, as the author of the works attributed to Shakespeare.

One problem with this theory is that the accepted date of birth for Edward de Vere is 12 April 1550, at Castle Hedingham, Essex
(home of the Earls of Oxford). The timeline for Elizabeth’s affair with Thomas Seymour suggests that makes it impossible for de Vere to be Elizabeth’s child. Elizabeth was sent away from Chelsea in May or June 1548; Thomas was arrested on 17 January 1549 and executed in March. Early January is therefore the last time they could have had sexual relations, meaning that the very latest birth date of their child would have to be October 1549, a good six months before de Vere was born.

Furthermore, evidence suggests that if Thomas and Elizabeth did have a sexual relationship, it occurred before Elizabeth left Catherine Parr’s household in mid-1548, putting the birth no later than early January 1549 (before her interrogation and subsequent house arrest began). Although it might be possible to disguise the date of a baby’s birth by a few months, it would be impossible to persuade anyone that a child of a year or more might be newborn.

If we assume that Elizabeth gave birth late in 1549, and that the baby survived, I believe there are other candidates who better fit the bill.

The Bisham Babies

On his
Royal Berkshire History
website David Nash Ford records, ‘The parish church at Bisham [near Marlow], claims among its many huge monuments a “small sculptured memorial” to Queen Elizabeth’s two sons, which sadly I have been unable to locate.’
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Bisham Church is famous for its magnificent monuments to the Hoby family, who lived in nearby Bisham Abbey, a monastic building that fell into private hands with the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.

Sir Thomas Hoby was a noted diplomat, ambassador and leading light in the Protestant Reformation, as well as a personal friend to many of the leading reformers of the time. His wife,
Elizabeth, was one of the four daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, a prominent Councillor to Edward VI (the other daughters married Sir William Cecil, Sir Nicholas Bacon and Sir Henry Kiligrew).

During the reign of Mary I, Hoby remained on good terms with Elizabeth. She stayed at Bisham Abbey sometime between 1555 and 1558, under a loose form of house arrest ordered by Mary I, and years later, when Elizabeth herself was Queen, she is reported to have said to Hoby, ‘If I had a prisoner whom I wanted to be most carefully watched, I should entrust him to your charge.’ Then she added, perhaps with a smile, ‘If I had a prisoner I wished to be most tenderly treated, I should entrust him to your care.’
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It is known that Elizabeth I visited and stayed at Bisham Abbey several times; her cousin, Margaret, daughter of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, married Thomas and Elizabeth Hoby’s son, Sir Edward.

Close as Elizabeth may have been to the Hobys, in 1549, the house belonged to someone who loved her better and in whom she could trust even more. Henry VIII had given Bisham Abbey to Anne of Cleves as part of her divorce settlement. It was not until 1552 that Anne gave the house to Thomas Hoby as part of an exchange of lands. Anne of Cleves would have been the perfect person to take care of Elizabeth’s child; she was a dear and trustworthy friend and was widely known to take in orphans, a fact that could easily explain a new baby appearing in her care.

It would have been easy for the Dennys, abetted by the Ashleys, to arrange for the child to travel the 50 miles from Cheshunt to Bisham. From Bisham, it was only about 30 miles to Anne of Cleves’ principal home at Richmond Palace where her orphans’ school was based. The baby could easily have been transported to Richmond, again confusing its place of origin.

Sadly, as so frequently happened in those times, the child did not survive his infancy. According to the legend, he was interred in
Bisham Church, where Anne would have arranged for the burials of any of her household servants or the orphans she cared for that died while living at Bisham. This child, however, young as it was, was given a monument, which suggested to the local people that there was something special about him. Rumour had it that he was the child of someone important.

If the burial took place early in 1550, rumours of Elizabeth having given birth the previous year would tie in with the Bisham baby. But the legend refers to two baby boys buried at Bisham. Could it be that the baby was buried with another genuine orphan who died at the same time? Were two different children buried here at different times? Or did Elizabeth perhaps give birth to twins?

Hester Harington

Bisham offered the necessary safety for placing a royal bastard: reliable foster parents and a secret location, but it is not the only possibility. There were other people who could be trusted to care for a royal infant, who lived far enough away from Court to protect the child from exposure – moreover, among them, someone who resembled Henry VIII as much as Elizabeth did, should a likeness ever be commented on.

In 1534, while Anne Boleyn held him at arms’ length, Henry VIII had an affair with a lady named Joanna Dingley. In 1535, she gave birth to the King’s daughter, Etheldreda, who was fostered out to the household of his tailor, John Malte. In 1548, after Henry’s death, the well-dowered Etheldreda was married to John Harington, once a servant to the King, and now an attendant to Thomas Seymour. When Thomas was arrested in January of 1549, Harington was also taken into custody and imprisoned in the Tower for his links to Thomas; he spent the next year there and was released in early 1550. His release may have been triggered, in part, by his wife having need of him at home, near Bath.

Etheldreda would have been about 14 at the time and married for about a year. With her husband in prison and in some peril as a close associate of Thomas Seymour, who had been executed in March 1549, perhaps a bargain was struck. Etheldreda would take in an anonymous child and pretend it was hers if the Parrs, Ashleys, Dennys and all their influential connections would ensure that her husband was saved from a death sentence and released. What is known is that John Harington and Etheldreda Malte, in their seven years of marriage (Etheldreda died in 1555), only had one child, a daughter, Hester. The birthdate of the child was never recorded.

John Harington was completely loyal to Thomas Seymour: even after the latter’s execution, he could be trusted absolutely to protect his master’s illegitimate child. He was also loyal to Elizabeth. In 1554, he would be imprisoned in the Tower a second time, purportedly for delivering a letter to Elizabeth, who was suspected of plotting against Mary I.

Etheldreda, herself the illegitimate child of Henry VIII, was trusted by her royal siblings. Furthermore, if anyone noticed any resemblance between the little Hester and the Tudors, it could have been easily explained by Etheldreda’s paternity – she was in fact the half-sister of Elizabeth. Etheldreda and John Harington would have made ideal guardians for the infant: financially well off, living a long way from Court, discreet and unflinchingly loyal.

After Etheldreda’s death, John Harington married Isabella Markham. They would go on to have one daughter and three sons (one of whom, John Harington, would become Elizabeth’s godson; he is discussed in more detail in
Chapter 12
). In 1568, it is known that Hester was still alive as her name was joined with her father’s on a property deed. There is no further record of her, but in May 1569, John bought a wardship for the 20-year-old William Brouncker of Erlestoke in Wiltshire, most likely with the aim of
acquiring the right to arrange William’s marriage. One might imagine that he had Hester in mind as William’s future wife, but as William’s burial monument records his wives as Catherine Moore and Martha Mildmay, it could be deduced that Hester Harington, possible illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth and Thomas Seymour, died late in 1569, aged 20, unmarried.

Hugh Bethell

An essential aspect of successfully concealing the birth of a contentious illegitimate child is to make sure it is brought up as far away from the parents as possible. Ideally there should never be an occasion when the parents and child meet. The Bisham baby (or babies) was hidden among humble orphans and Hester Harington was brought up in the Somerset countryside. A third candidate also fulfils this requirement – Hugh Bethell (or Ap Ithil in the original Welsh spelling).

Hugh’s father, Thomas, lived in Maunsel in Herefordshire. He married Elizabeth Rogers, who had five sons, John, Nicholas, Hugh, Roger and Andrew. Hugh’s birthdate is unknown and he is quite a remarkable member of an otherwise ordinary family. What makes him stand out is that he was one of the principal beneficiaries in Blanche Parry’s will. Hugh trained as a lawyer and a surveyor, and Blanche used her influence to get him his first job in 1572 as Particular Surveyor in East Riding in Yorkshire. In 1576, he was Surveyor for repairs to the castle at Kingston-upon-Hull. Under Elizabeth I, Hugh was granted the Yorkshire manor of Ellerton, while Blanche left him the Yorkshire manor of Rise and lands at Wheldrake in her will.

The question remains why would Blanche Parry have made Hugh Bethell a beneficiary? Extensive research carried out by historian Ruth Richardson has failed to find any solid link between
the Parrys and the Bethells that might suggest that Hugh was a relative.
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In her will, Blanche calls this man 40 years her junior her ‘friend’, one in whom she took quite an interest.

From at least 1566, Hugh Bethell was a friend of Blanche’s favourite nephew, John Vaughan. John’s prominent position in Herefordshire and the influence of his aunt may be indicated by his marriage to Anne, daughter and heiress of Sir Christopher Pickering and the widow of Francis Weston (one of Anne Boleyn’s supposed lovers, executed in 1536) and Sir Henry Knyvett.

Despite their closeness, John and Hugh are unlikely to have been the same age, as John died in 1577 and Hugh in 1611, which would make them a generation apart. Perhaps Blanche Parry’s favourite nephew, already established as a political force in his own right, took the young Hugh, a contemporary of his own son, under his wing for other reasons, as a favour to someone his mother loved?

So, if not a relative, why would Blanche and John be so kind to Hugh? If Elizabeth had a child in late 1548, she knew she could rely on Blanche Parry to help her conceal it and make sure it was well cared for and brought up in a useful profession. Blanche might have selected a family with two sons, known to her from her home county of Herefordshire (Bacton, the home of Blanche’s family, and Maunsel, the home of the Bethells, are within 15 miles of each other), presenting them with a third. When two more boys followed, the third son would be even less noticeable. But this boy was different in some way; he would be befriended by Blanche’s nephew, John, and patronized by Blanche herself. When Blanche was given lands by Elizabeth I, at least one in Yorkshire was managed by Hugh. If he was Elizabeth’s son, he could be set up on sufficient lands for him to live well, far away from London and the Court, without needing to involve the Queen, and Blanche could keep Elizabeth informed about how the young man was doing.

In any event, Hugh Bethell married twice, first of all to Joan Stephens of Devonshire, and then in around 1580 to Anne, daughter of Sir William Mallory of Studley, Yorkshire. His only surviving child was his daughter, Grissel, who married Sir John Wray. Hugh died in 1611, which, if he was born in 1548, would have made him 63, and he was succeeded in his lands and titles by the son of his elder brother, Nicholas. When this family line died out, the Bethell lands passed to the descendants of the fourth brother, Roger. There are Bethells at Rise in Yorkshire to this day, but they cannot claim descent from the Tudors. The descendants of Grissel Wray, however, are still going strong – and some people claim that a direct descendant of Sir Hugh Bethell is Camilla Shand, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, wife of Charles HRH The Prince of Wales.
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E
lizabeth began to campaign to reinstate her reputation after Thomas Seymour’s execution and her own exoneration from any involvement in his treasonous activities. If she had had a child with Seymour, with it now out of the way, either dead or, more likely, placed in safe hands, Elizabeth began to rebuild her old life, starting with the return of her old governess Kat Ashley. On 7 March 1549, Elizabeth wrote to the King’s Protector, Edward Seymour, listing the reasons why Kat should return to her: