Mary Rose (21 page)

Mary’s body was embalmed, and lay in state in the chapel at Westhorpe for over three weeks before burial. Her passing bell had been heard just before eight o’clock on the morning of her death, but the rituals had to be carefully observed for one of her status, and the length of the delay was probably caused by the time which it took for a delegation to come from France.
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Meanwhile a wax chandler had ‘sered and trammelled’ the body with spiced cloth, which was then sealed in a leaden box covered with black velvet and adorned with a cross of white damask. While it was still in the chapel the coffin was covered with an embroidered pall of blue velvet, many tapers burned day and night and a continuous vigil was kept by the members of her household. A detailed account of her funeral is preserved among the manuscripts of the College of Arms, which shows that all the preparations were complete by 20 July.
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English heralds arrived from London to accompany the French pursuivants, and black gowns, hoods and trains had been issued to all the aristocratic participants. Neither the King nor the Duke were present, the chief mourner being her daughter Frances, who was escorted by her husband the Marquis of Dorset, and by her brother the Earl of Lincoln. Ladies Powis and Mounteagle were also present, Eleanor, and Catherine Willoughby the Duke’s ward who had been living in the house. The interment was to be in the abbey church at Bury St Edmunds, and for the journey thither the coffin was placed on a hearse draped in black velvet emblazoned with Mary’s arms, and covered with a pall of black cloth of gold, betokening the wealth of the deceased. On this lay Mary’s effigy, representing her as Queen of France, complete with robes of state, a gold crown and a golden sceptre as a symbol of her (supposed) power. It is not known whether this effigy was of wax or carved wood, and in any case it has long since disappeared, but it was presumably designed by a well-known artist of the time, possibly the King’s Sergeant Painter, Andrew Wright.
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The hearse on its journey was drawn by six horses, trapped in black cloth, while over it was a canopy borne by four knights of the Duke’s affinity. Alongside it were more standard bearers carrying the insignia of the Brandon and Tudor families. The whole cortège was led by a hundred torch bearers, who were local country folk recruited for the occasion, given coarse blacks and few pence for their trouble, and who were followed by the clergy bearing the chapel cross. Next came the household staff, heralds and officials suitably mounted, followed by the hearse, and then the knights and nobles in attendance. After them came another hundred taper bearers, only in this case they were the Duke’s yeomen, which must have left the Duke, who remained at Ewelme, ‘but thinly attended’. The cortège was completed by the female mourners, led by the Marchioness of Dorset, the mounted ladies, two mourning wagons or coaches containing those unable or unwilling to ride, and Mary’s waiting women and other servants on foot. Along the way, we are told, others joined the procession, because Mary was well thought of in the county, and many wished to pay their respects. Representatives of neighbouring parishes met the procession at intervals, were given torches and money, and followed on behind. Bury St Edmunds was reached at about two o’clock in the afternoon, and the body was received by the abbot and monks of the abbey.
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The coffin was placed on a catafalque before the high altar, and surrounded by the mourners in strict order of precedence. The dirge was then sung, and the French pursuivant commended the soul of the ‘right high excellent princess, and right Christian Queen’ to the prayers of the assembled company.

That completed the proceedings for that day, and everyone moved to the monastic refectory, where a supper had been ‘plenteously prepared’. There was food and drink for everyone, but the abbey could only accommodate so many guests, so whereas the nobles and officials were provided for, presumably the rest either went home or found such lodgings as might be available in the town. Eight women, twelve men, thirty yeomen and a number of clergy were appointed to watch about the corpse during the night, probably in shifts, and accommodation was no doubt provided for those, either within the abbey or nearby. Early the next morning breakfast was served, in the refectory for important visitors and elsewhere for the others, and the ceremonies were resumed at about seven o’clock. A requiem mass was sung, and the six leading mourners, the four Suffolk daughters, Catherine Willoughby and her mother, offered their palls of cloth of gold at the altar. The funeral oration was delivered by William Rugg, at that time Abbot of St Benet’s at Hulme in Norfolk, and soon (June 1536) to be Bishop of Norwich, who may well have been a client of Mary’s at an earlier stage in his career.
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It was a long and wearying address, and so exhausted were Frances and Eleanor after listening to it that they were excused attendance at the actual inhumation. This, which took place within the abbey church as became her rank, was attended by the other mourners and by all Mary’s officers, who broke their staves into the grave, as the custom was. On the following day, which was 23 July, the funeral party dispersed, the family returning to Westhorpe. Mary was long remembered in Suffolk as a gracious lady, and the memory was reinforced by the great dole which was distributed after the final funeral dinner on the 22nd, when meat and drink had been available to all, and every poor person had received four pennies. An alabaster monument was erected in the church, but was destroyed at the dissolution just a few years later, and the details and cost of its construction have also disappeared.
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At that time the coffin was also removed to the neighbouring church of St Marys, where it still is. It has been twice opened, and fragments of her hair removed, but in 1784 it was reinterred in the chancel at St Mary’s, and the grave covered with the original slab of Petworth marble which had marked her altar tomb in the abbey church. Since the end of the eighteenth century she has been allowed to rest in peace.

While Mary still lay in state at Westhorpe, her brother and husband had solemnised another funeral service for her at Westminster Abbey.
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It was presumably by her own wish that she had been buried at Bury St Edmunds, and neither the King nor the Duke had found it possible to be present, but she had been a great lady, with a high profile at court, and a proper tribute to her rank and virtue was called for. It took place on 10 and 11 July with all the ostentatious formality accorded to royalty. That had not been a feature of the ceremony at Bury, in spite of its magnificence, her royal status only being recognised in the presence of the French heralds. At Westminster the Earl of Essex led seven delegated mourners, with the Kings of Arms, heralds and pursuivants all performing their official duties, and the ceremony was the same except that it did not have an actual body to focus upon. Presumably the breaking of staves was also omitted as there would have been no grave, and in any case Mary’s officers were all in Suffolk at the time. The London obsequies were presumably paid for by the King, who observed that Mary was a queen worthy of such expenditure, but the Suffolk funeral expenses were met by the Duke.
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In the absence of any household accounts we have no idea how much it cost, but in view of the quantities of food and drink consumed, to say nothing of the doles, and the amount of black cloth which needed to be provided, it must have run to many hundreds of pounds.
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The Duke as usual was hard up and heavily in debt, and the termination of Mary’s dower payments must have been a real headache to him. Inevitably he stood down most of her household, but he still had two unmarried children and his ward to support, as well as the regular expenses of his own household. Fortunately Henry again came to the rescue, remitting £1,000 of his debt to the Crown, and granting him the fruits of the vacant see of Ely for the year 1533/34, which would have amounted to over £2,000.
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Brandon was also capable of helping himself in this situation, and within three months he had remarried, his bride being his ward Catherine Willoughby, who had been originally purchased for his son. Henry, however, was only eleven, which would have meant a wait of three years, and Suffolk’s problems were pressing. Catherine was fourteen and apparently willing to become the next Duchess of Suffolk, so they were married on 7 September. Mary had been in her grave only seven weeks, and many disapproving observations were made, but the Duke urgently needed a source of revenue to replace that which his deceased wife had provided, and Catherine was well endowed both in Lincolnshire and in East Anglia.

He commenced his new married life with a series of legal tussles with his wife’s uncle, Sir Christopher Willoughby, tussles which were fronted by the Dowager Lady Willoughby. The two of them, acting in collusion, obtained a writ of
supersedeas
to prevent Sir Christopher having inquisitions held on all the late Lord William’s estates, and the issue was eventually resolved by an arbitration before the King which resulted in Suffolk retaining his control over the bulk of the Lincolnshire lands in his wife’s name.
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However, Mary’s death necessitated a fresh financial settlement between the King and the Duke, and Henry (or Brian Tuke on his behalf) pulled no punches. By the summer of 1535 it had been agreed that the Queen’s outstanding debt should be cancelled, but that left Suffolk to pay £6,700. He handed over jewels to the value of £4,360, and agreed an unfavourable exchange of lands with the King. He lost all his Oxfordshire and Berkshire manors, including Ewelme, valued at £480 a year, in return for ex-Percy land in Lincolnshire worth £175 a year, £2,333 in cash and the cancellation of his remaining debts.
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He was also forced to surrender the reversion of his new house at Westhorpe for a Percy manor in Essex and £850 in cash. It was not until November of that year that this settlement was complete, his title to the Lincolnshire lands secured, and his and the Queen’s debts finally written off. Even then he had to give up Suffolk Place in Southwark in return for a London house recently surrendered by the Bishop of Norwich as a part of the price for his installation.
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When he took stock of his financial situation early in 1535, apart from his debt to the Crown, which was still alive at that point, he had liabilities of £2,415 and assets of £2,210 in the form of debts due from sundry creditors. His income from all sources at this time can be roughly gauged from a subsidy assessment of 1534, which shows it at £2,000 ‘clear’, that is after allowances and deductions.
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Since it was customary for peers to be under-assessed, this probably indicates a real revenue of between £2,500 and £3,000, which would be about right for a peer of his status.

Mary’s death of course led to the sequestration of her French revenues, which was ordered by Francis I on 7 July 1533, as soon as news of the event reached him. It remained only to tidy up her accounts by paying to Suffolk such arrears as were still outstanding.
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George Hampton busied himself with this until his death late in 1534, after which the Duke was compelled to rely on Nicholas de St Martin, with the result that by September 1535 the payments were four months overdue. Suffolk did his best to keep up pressure via Montmorency, but this was not effective and his contacts with the French court gradually languished.
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His French pension was only half that of the Duke of Norfolk, and Anne Boleyn’s French contacts discouraged his further efforts. He had been in receipt of an Imperial pension since 1529, and by 1536 Chapuys detected clear signs of movement on his part in favour of an Imperial alliance.
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Such a move was of course facilitated by the death of Catherine of Aragon in January, and even more by the fall of Anne Boleyn in May, an event not a little connected with Thomas Cromwell’s pro-Imperial policies. By July the Duke was voicing the opinion that there was no greater a Turk than the King of France, a sentiment prompted by the Franco-Ottoman understanding of that year. Suffolk’s influence in court and in Council was recovering by the summer of 1536 on the basis of his Imperial connections after the setback marked by the King’s harsh dealings over his financial affairs. Also, following the death of the Earl of Lincoln on 1 March 1534, which had left him without a male heir, his new marriage proved fruitful. On 18 September 1535 Catherine gave birth to a son, who was again hopefully named Henry, and to whom the King and Thomas Cromwell stood as godfathers.
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In the two years which followed the French Queen’s death, her husband had re-orientated himself completely. Gone was his pro-French stance in the Council, and his dependence on French money. Gone too, was his local influence in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, to be replaced by a move to Lincolnshire following the rearrangement of his estates. He had also settled his financial differences with the King and formed an alliance of convenience with Thomas Cromwell, with the result that his friendship with Henry revived. It was based now on bowls and cards rather than on tennis and jousting, but above all it was based on long memories. The King did not have many friends as opposed to servants, and his affection for Brandon blossomed in the new circumstances.

The Willoughby lands in Lincolnshire had been divided by Lord William’s death, part going to Suffolk with Catherine’s wardship, and part remaining as the dower lands of his widow, Lady Mary. The Duke consequently did not control the latter until Lady Willoughby died in 1539, although he worked in close collaboration with her to fend off the assaults of Sir Christopher, the late lord’s brother.
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In fact, observing the terms of Lord William’s will, and paying the Crown £100 a year for his outstanding debts, can have left her little to contribute to Catherine’s well-being – nor is there any evidence that she did so. Suffolk, however, controlled several manors in Lincolnshire apart from his wife’s inheritance, and was reckoned to be ‘a great inheritor in those parts’, a description which he might not have recognised in 1535. In 1535 also he negotiated a successful marriage for his younger daughter by the French Queen when the seventeen-year-old Eleanor was wedded to Henry Clifford, the son and heir of the Earl of Cumberland.
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If this reduced his outgoings it was only briefly, because on 18 September of the same year his new wife bore him a son, which necessitated the establishment of a fresh nursery with its complement of staff. The child was named for the King, who as we have seen stood godfather, so what was lost in financial terms was gained in honour.