Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr (30 page)

England had no Salic Law barring women from the throne, as did France, but there had never before been an explicit piece of legislation giving them the right to succeed. The act was also remarkable for omitting the mention of all save Henry’s direct heirs. Neither of his sisters’ children were included, though Margaret Douglas, daughter of the Queen of Scots, Henry’s elder sister, was at court in attendance on Katherine Parr, and his
younger sister’s two daughters both had girls of their own. In time, this would give rise to serious problems, but, for now, the king considered that he had done his duty for his country and for his family. Mary had not legally regained her title of princess and she was still regarded as illegitimate. But she and her younger sister could take comfort in the knowledge that, after their brother, they were Henry’s official heirs. The Act of Succession signified an improvement in their fortunes which their stepmother, Katherine, welcomed wholeheartedly.

T
HE
‘
KING
’
S
second daughter’, as the Act of Succession called her, was nearly ten when Katherine became her father’s wife. Elizabeth was a highly intelligent child (Henry had reason to be proud of all his children in this respect, though he does not appear to have made much of it), watchful and suitably grave in her rare public utterances. Her reaction to her mother’s downfall, and its effect on her, is one of the great mysteries of the Tudor period. She had clearly been schooled never to speak of her mother in public and she carried this habit with her throughout her life. It must have taken a great effort of will. She is said to have remarked on the change in the way her servants addressed her when she, like Mary before her, was declared illegitimate and denied the title of princess, but her household staff were determined that she should not be forgotten. Lady Bryan famously wrote in high dudgeon to Thomas Cromwell about the state of Elizabeth’s wardrobe in August 1536: ‘I beg you to be good lord to her and hers, and that she may have raiment, for she has neither gown, nor kirtle nor petticoat, nor linen for smocks, nor kerchiefs . . .’
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The list went on, giving the impression of a little girl literally denuded by her mother’s disgrace. Anne Boleyn had spent
£
40 a month (
£
14,000 today) on herself and her daughter and now, having presumably grown out of everything in recent months, Elizabeth had nothing. Lady Bryan’s request was evidently met, for it was not repeated, and the problems were
temporary. There was never any question of Henry repudiating Elizabeth, despite lurid tales from Europe that Anne had confessed at the last that Elizabeth was the product of her incestuous union with her own brother, George Boleyn. Henry knew that Elizabeth, who bore a strong resemblance to him (and to her siblings), was his.

By the time Lady Bryan was despatched to run Prince Edward’s nursery, Elizabeth and Mary were sharing a household. Mary became very fond of her younger sister, reporting her progress to the king and buying her toys and clothes. Elizabeth continued, like Mary, to be well served. Her own staff was headed by Lady Blanche Herbert and Katherine Ashley became her chief gentlewoman, probably as early as the end of 1536. Kat Ashley was the daughter of a Devon family with reformist religious leanings. She was probably still in her teens when she entered Elizabeth’s service and helped shape her early education. Elizabeth loved her dearly but her influence on the princess was at its greatest after the death of Henry VIII.

Elizabeth did not see much of her father, but then nor did Edward, the heir to the throne. Despite the shadow that hung over her mother, there is no reason to suppose that she was neglected or unhappy as a child, though precise details of her day-to-day existence at this time are scant. Anne Boleyn’s ambitious plans for Elizabeth’s education were largely followed, even though Elizabeth was no longer being trained to rule. Those who met her were struck by her powers of expression, her self-possession and her desire to do the right thing. Thomas Wriothesley, then Clerk of the Signet, reported to Henry VIII that the six-year-old Elizabeth talked to him with all the gravity of a woman of forty when he had visited her and Mary at Hertford Castle in 1539. Elizabeth herself was also keen to have her father’s approval – and that of Katherine Parr. For the one thing missing in her life, which she had perhaps not realized until Katherine came along, was a mother.

It appears to have been quite a revelation. Elizabeth’s earliest
surviving letter, dated 31 July 1544, is to Katherine Parr. Written in Italian, in the fine italic hand that Elizabeth was to embellish so superbly in coming years, this missive tells us much about the girl who wrote it and also about Katherine, too:

Inimical Fortune, envious of all good, she who revolves things human, has deprived me for a whole year of your most illustrious presence, and still not being content with that, has robbed me once again of the same good; the which would be intolerable to me if I did not think to enjoy it soon. And in this my exile I know surely that your highness’ clemency has had as much care and solicitude for my health as the king’s majesty would have had. For which I am not only bound to serve you but also to revere you with daughterly love, since I understand that your most illustrious highness has not forgotten me every time that you have written to the king’s majesty, which would have been for me to do. However, heretofore I have not dared to write to him, for which at present I must humbly entreat your most excellent highness that in writing to his majesty you will deign to recommend me to him, entreating ever his sweet benediction and likewise entreating Lord God to send him best success in gaining victory over his enemies so that your highness, and I together with you, may rejoice the sooner at his happy return. I entreat nothing else from God but that He may preserve your most illustrious highness, to whose grace, humbly kissing your hands, I offer and commend myself. From St James on the thirty-first of July, Your most obedient daughter and most faithful servant, Elizabeth.
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At first glance, this seems a curiously stilted effort. It is, nevertheless, very revealing, once the allowances for etiquette, formality of address and Elizabeth’s still imperfect grasp of the Italian language have been appreciated. And the choice of that language is surely significant. Elizabeth was, of course, eager to demonstrate her skills in a tongue that was neither Latin nor
English, but her own proficiency at the age of eleven in both was clearly taken as given. She shared language tutors with Edward and was an outstanding pupil. She must also have known that her stepmother would understand what she wrote. Perhaps she had discussed her progress in modern languages with Katherine at earlier meetings, and she might also have seen the copy of Petrarch that we know the queen possessed.

The letter also demonstrates Elizabeth’s tendency to hyperbole, an aspect of her character that developed even more with time and infuriated her sister when Mary became queen. She had, for example, definitely seen Katherine during the previous twelve months, at Ashridge during the royal honeymoon progress, and kept in touch with her through Margaret Neville’s visits. The queen’s generosity towards her younger stepdaughter was also obvious in the gifts of clothes shown in the accounts, including a beautiful gown of purple cloth of gold.
¹⁴
And her ‘exile’, which has often been misinterpreted as some sort of banishment for having offended her father, referred merely to the fact that Edward and Mary had already gone to join Katherine at Hampton Court in the summer of 1544 while Elizabeth remained behind, temporarily, in London.
¹⁵
She had, in fact, dined with her father, brother and sister on 26 June, not long before Henry VIII set sail for France. It is unclear why Katherine was left out of this family occasion but one possible explanation is that she was spending time with Margaret Douglas, Henry’s niece, who was about to be married to the Scottish nobleman Matthew Lennox. Finally, the reason that Elizabeth had not dared write to her father was a straightforward one of propriety; one did not normally address the king directly, but it was permissible to do so through his wife, the queen. Elizabeth does not say how she knew that Katherine was mentioning her in letters to the king, but it was certainly true. Possibly the queen had already told her stepdaughter this in another letter that has not survived, or through other contacts between their households.

Elizabeth, like Edward and Mary, shared with Katherine a
love of study. She was keenly aware of her stepmother’s growing interest in religious ideas and at the end of 1544, when she was back at Ashridge, she sent a New Year’s gift which she believed would allow her to highlight her continuing educational progress while also pleasing the queen. It was a translation of a literary work by another royal lady, Marguerite of Navarre, called
Le Miroir de l’Â me Pécheresse
. The young princess called it
The Mirror or Glass of the Sinful Soul
. Elizabeth was self-effacing about her efforts, but believed that Katherine would appreciate them because of the ‘affectuous [ardent] will and fervent zeal which your highness hath towards all godly learning . . . Which things considered have moved so small a portion as God hath lent me to prove what I could do. And therefore have I . . . translated this little book out of French rhyme into English prose, joining the sentences together as well as the capacity of my simple wit and small learning could extend themselves.’ In this work by the sister of Francis I of France, Elizabeth had perceived that the writer ‘can do nothing that good is or prevaileth for her salvation, unless it be through the grace of God’. It is the earliest statement of her own religious views and one that she knew would appeal to the queen. But she begged Katherine not to judge her translation too severely or to show it to anyone else, an indication of how close she was to her stepmother by this time. She added:

I trust also that, howbeit it is like a work which is but new begun and shapen, that the file of your excellent wit and godly learning in the reading of it . . . shall rub out, polish and mend (or else cause to mend) the words . . . the which I know in many places to be rude and nothing as it should be. But I hope that after to have been in your grace’s hands, there shall be nothing in it worthy of reprehension, and that in the meanwhile no other but your highness only shall read it, lest my faults be known to many.
¹⁶

The bond of affection and respect, the delight in the interest of the queen of England in her upbringing, is clear from the
presentation of this gift. Here is an exceptional child blooming, encouraged and loved by an exceptional woman. For her exile was soon over. Elizabeth spent the period of her father’s French campaign with Katherine, as part of a family unit. She joined her brother and sister at Hampton Court, at the queen’s command, and stayed with them as the court moved south of London, avoiding the inevitable summer contagion.
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They hunted together in various royal parks, while the younger children’s education continued and Mary acted as her stepmother’s companion. And Katherine did not neglect, as Elizabeth had appreciated, to remind Henry in all her letters to her absent husband that ‘my lord prince and the rest of your children are in good health’.
¹⁸

Elizabeth, gratified to be included, would not have objected to this rather curt and impersonal reference to herself and Mary. Like her sister, her status was clarified by the legislation that confirmed the order of succession earlier in the year. She had not suffered Mary’s emotional traumas and was eager to expand her educational attainments. But the period she spent with Katherine in the summer and early autumn of 1544 provided her with an experience that was much more formative than the schoolroom. It gave her the unique opportunity to observe a woman ruler in action. For, as queen regent, Katherine’s time was taken up with much more than maternal obligations and sporting pastimes. While Elizabeth watched, Katherine governed England. This practical lesson was far more valuable than anything her tutors could have devised, and it left an indelible impression.