Secrets of the Tudor Court Boxed Set (90 page)

Parker, Jane (Lady Rochford) (d. 1542)

Infamous for her part in bringing about the downfall of two of Henry VIII’s six wives, Jane may simply have been the victim of bad press. That is the contention of a recent biography,
Jane Boleyn,
by Julia Fox. The daughter of Baron Morley, Jane was unhappily married to George Boleyn, Queen Anne’s brother, and evidence Jane gave was used against him. Contemporaries, however, cannot have thought too badly of her. She was back at court as a waiting gentlewoman to Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. That her connivance allowed Catherine to meet with Thomas Culpepper in secret is well established, as is the fact that she paid for this lapse in judgment with her life. She was executed in 1542.

Parr, Anne (Mistress Herbert) (1515?–1552)

Anne Parr’s mother was a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon and Anne became a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour. In early 1538, she married William Herbert and as Lady Herbert she was keeper of the queen’s jewels for Catherine Howard. She should not be confused with Lady Herbert of Troy, who was in Elizabeth Tudor’s household, or with Mrs. FitzHerbert, who was chief chamberer to Jane Seymour. Although Anne left court briefly to give birth to her first child in 1540, she was back in time to attend Queen Catherine during the latter’s imprisonment at Syon House and in the Tower of London. When Anne’s sister, Kathryn, became queen in 1543, Anne was part of Kathryn’s household. Anne’s husband was created Earl of Pembroke in 1551. At the time of Anne’s death, she was one of Princess Mary’s ladies.

Parr, Kathryn (Lady Latimer) (1512?–1548)

There are a lot of silly stories about Kathryn Parr’s first two husbands. Neither was a sick old man. The first, Edward Borough or Burgh, was twenty-two years her senior and the second, John Neville, Lord Latimer, was about nineteen years older than she was—in other words, still in the prime of their lives. Lord Latimer was in good health until the Scottish campaign of 1542, after which he was known to be dying. It was at this point that King Henry began to send Kathryn gifts. She was also courted by Thomas Seymour, Queen Jane’s brother, but not until he returned to England in January of 1543. Latimer was buried on March 2, 1543. Kathryn married the king on July 12, 1543. After Henry VIII’s death, Kathryn wed Thomas Seymour. She died after giving birth to a daughter, Mary. Susan James’s
Catherine Parr
is an excellent account of her life.

Parr, William (1513–1571)

Brother to Anne and Kathryn Parr, William Parr was at court even before his sister became queen. He was married as a boy of thirteen
to Ann Bourchier, age ten, the only child of the Earl of Essex. Parr expected to be granted the Essex title when Ann’s father died. Instead it was given to Thomas Cromwell and lapsed upon Cromwell’s execution. Parr was engaged in a passionate love affair with one of Catherine Howard’s maids of honor, Dorothy Bray, in 1541, but later he fell in love with Elizabeth Brooke. Since his wife was still living, he could not marry either woman, but eventually he was able to divorce Ann and wed Elizabeth. This marriage was declared invalid during Mary Tudor’s reign and reinstated under Queen Elizabeth. Parr was created Earl of Essex in 1543 and Marquis of Northampton in 1547. After the deaths of both Ann and Elizabeth, he took a third, much younger wife, but survived that marriage by only a few months. He had no children by any of these unions.

Paston, Eleanor (Countess of Rutland) (before 1496–1559)

As the second wife of Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland, Eleanor gave birth to eleven children. In between, she served as a lady of the privy chamber to Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. In 1536 the Rutland house in Shoreditch was the scene of a triple wedding—three child marriages uniting Henry Manners, age ten, with Lady Margaret Neville; Anne Manners with Lord Neville; and Dorothy Neville with Lord Bulbeck, the Earl of Oxford’s heir. Catherine Bassett lived in the Rutland household from 1537 until 1540.

Philpott, Clement (d. 1540)

The younger son of a Hampshire knight, Philpott joined the household of Lord Lisle at Calais as a gentleman servitor in April 1538 and became good friends with Lisle’s chaplain, Sir Gregory Botolph, who arrived in Calais at the same time, and with Edward Corbett, who was already there. Philpott was devoted to Botolph and privy to his plans to overthrow Calais, but at the last minute he lost his courage and revealed
the plot to Lord Lisle. He was arrested; questioned in Calais; sent to the Tower of London; tried for treason; and hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on August 4, 1540. He has been variously characterized as a dupe and as a dangerous fanatic.

Plantagenet, Arthur (Viscount Lisle) (1462?–1542)

The illegitimate son of King Edward IV, he was thus Henry VIII’s uncle. He had three daughters by his first wife. By his second wife, Honor Grenville, Lady Bassett, Lisle acquired four stepdaughters and three stepsons. The oldest of the boys, John Bassett, married Lisle’s oldest daughter, Frances Plantagenet. The extensive correspondence of Lisle and his family while he was lord deputy of Calais has been preserved by virtue of being seized when Lisle was arrested and charged with treason in 1540. He died in the Tower of London shortly after being told he had been pardoned.

Radcliffe, Robert (Earl of Sussex) (1483–1542)

When his first family was grown, Sussex married a young maid of honor, Mary Arundell, as his third wife. Anne Bassett lived in their household for a time following the death of Queen Jane Seymour. It was the Earl of Sussex who was sent to Calais to arrest Lady Lisle and seize Lord Lisle’s papers.

Scrope, Mary (Lady Jerningham; Lady Kingston) (d. 1548)

One of nine sisters, two of whom married earls, Mary made a career of courtiership. She was at court from 1509–1527 as Lady Jerningham, one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. At the beginning of 1532, she took as her second husband Sir William Kingston, constable of the Tower. During the imprisonment of Anne Boleyn, Lady Kingston was called upon to hear the queen’s apology to Mary Tudor and deliver it to the king’s
daughter after Anne’s execution. Lady Kingston carried Mary’s train at the christening of Prince Edward. According to some accounts, she served the first four of Henry VIII’s queens and also spent time in the household of Princess Mary. She may have been in charge of the joint household of Mary and Elizabeth from March 1538 until April 1539. Several of her children, including her daughter, Elizabeth Jerningham, entered royal service.

Seymour, Jane (1509?–1537)

Jane came to court as a maid of honor under Catherine of Aragon and also served Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII married her shortly after Anne’s execution. She collected poppets (dolls). She died as a result of giving birth to Prince Edward.

Skipwith, Margaret (1520+ –1583)

Rumored to be Henry VIII’s mistress in 1538, Margaret married George, Lord Talboys, in April 1539. He was the son of Henry’s former mistress Elizabeth Blount. After Talboys’s death, Margaret married Sir Peter Carew, and following Carew’s death took Sir John Clifton as her third husband. She had no children by any of them.

Somerset, Lucy (1524–1582)

Although she was identified as one of three young women to whom Henry VIII paid particular attention at a supper and banquet in 1542, Lucy was never seriously in the running to become wife number six. She was the daughter of the Earl of Worcester and was a maid of honor to Catherine Howard. In 1545, she married Queen Kathryn Parr’s stepson, John Neville, Fourth Baron Latimer, and was part of Kathryn’s household as Lady Latimer. She and Latimer had four daughters.

Stradling, Katherine (1513–1585)

Orphaned by the death of her father in 1535, Katherine entered the service of Mary Arundell, Countess of Sussex. She was there at the same time as Anne Bassett and became the subject of a heated correspondence between Anne and her mother, Lady Lisle, because Anne had shared a gift of pearls with Katherine. Katherine was one of the English maids of honor assigned to Anne of Cleves at the beginning of 1540, but soon after that married Sir Thomas Palmer of Parham, Sussex. Their first child was christened on August 23 of that same year.

Zouche, Mary (1512?–1542+)

In 1527, Mary Zouche wrote to her cousin the Earl of Arundel to complain about her mistreatment by her stepmother. She asked to be taken into royal service in order to escape Lady Zouche’s cruelty. As a result, she came to court as a maid of honor, probably to Catherine of Aragon. She was definitely at court as a maid of honor to Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. Some accounts say she never wed, but others give her a husband named Richard Burbagge. She is probably the “M. Souch” in the sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger.

READERS CLUB GUIDE

Introduction

Anne Bassett (Nan) is about to become one of Queen Jane Seymour’s maids of honor and has been taught for all of her sixteen years that this is the opportunity of a lifetime. She has no great dowry, but she is very beautiful. At the royal court she’ll have a chance to catch a wealthy and titled husband. Even the king has found wives among the maids of honor, first Anne Boleyn and then Jane Seymour, and Nan is encouraged when the king notices her. But the day after Nan wins her post at court, the queen and all her ladies go into seclusion. Jane is about to give birth to King Henry’s heir. When Queen Jane dies after birthing the future Edward VI, Nan’s hopes are dashed. She will not be able to catch anyone’s eye if she isn’t at court, and as long as there is no queen, there is no need for maids of honor. Uncertain of her future, she goes to live with her cousin Mary.

Nan is young and headstrong, but she knows the king will most likely make a foreign marriage and it may take years before there is a new queen. Even then, there is no guarantee Nan will still be wanted as a maid of honor. Visits from her stepfather’s servitor, Ned Corbett, bringing news from her family’s home in Calais, soon become the highlights of her days.

What begins as a simple rebellion—slipping out through the gate to see the sights of London with Ned—quickly grows more complicated. Combined with a conspiracy plotted against her family, Nan’s future at court becomes more and more unlikely.

For Discussion

1. How did the letters that opened each chapter impact your reading experience?

2. Consider Nan’s reflection: “How odd, she thought, that her mother believed bribes of wine or quails or jewelry were acceptable, but that offering one’s self in return for favors was a sin” (page 124). Do you agree with Nan’s suggestion of her mother’s hypocrisy, or do you think the form of bribery that Lady Lisle engages in is comparatively innocent? Why or why not?

3. What is your impression of Nan’s mother, Lady Lisle? Do you believe that she uses her daughters for her own advancement, or are her actions necessary for survival? Is she more powerful than her husband, Nan’s stepfather?

4. What does the conversation a young Wat Hungerford eavesdrops on between Lord Cromwell and Sir Gregory Botolph foreshadow?

5. Ned plots to court Cat so that he may continue seeing Nan (pages 54–55). What, if anything, do you think this says about his character? How does Ned evolve in this story? What effect does his innocent involvement in Cromwell and Botolph’s plot, including his subsequent imprisonment in the Tower, have on his character?

6. Compare Nan and Ned. Although their destinies diverge, do they share similar ambitions? Would they have made a successful marriage, had Nan accepted Ned’s proposal?

7. Nan’s priorities and desires change throughout the course of the novel. What events account for the change in her sense of purpose? Can you identify any particular turning point for her character?

8. Why does King Henry befriend Nan and grant her favors, even after he marries Catherine Howard? How do Nan’s interactions with Henry maintain his respect and favor toward her?

9. When Catherine Howard’s flirtations with other men in the court begin to get noticed, Nan vows to stay uninvolved. “A remark Catherine Howard had once made, back when she was a maid of honor, niggled at Nan’s memory. She did not wish to examine it closely. It was not safe to know too much, she reminded herself again. Nor was it wise to speculate” (page 287). To what remark is Nan referring? What dangers does Nan avoid by refusing to make further conjecture?

10. Why does Nan surreptitiously orchestrate Henry’s marriage to Kathryn Parr?

11. What does Nan’s marriage to Wat Hungerford indicate about her development as a character?

Enhance Your Book Club

Author Kate Emerson drew inspiration for this novel from M. St. Clare Byrne’s
The Lisle Letters.
Read it as a companion text.

To see a Who’s Who of Tudor Women and additional information about the time period and the author, visit KateEmersonHistoricals.com.

To learn more about many of the royal and historical sites featured in the novel, including Hampton Court and the Tower of London, visit
www.hrp.org.uk/
.

Read the first book in Kate Emerson’s Secrets of the Tudor Court series,
The Pleasure Palace.

A Conversation with Kate Emerson

1. When Nan first came to your attention as a historical figure in
The Lisle Letters,
as mentioned in your Author Note, did you immediately begin to imagine the arc of her story line for this novel? What was your process for developing the fictional version of this woman from the historical references?

The plot of
Between Two Queens
was inspired by a combination of things. I’ve written a number of historical mysteries and novels of historical romantic suspense, so I’m always on the lookout for a good, real-life conspiracy/spy story. I’ve also written biographies, so the stories of interesting women tend to appeal to me. That said, I didn’t immediately fix on Nan as the protagonist. Her mother is the central character in
The Lisle Letters
and Nan’s youngest sister Mary is the one with the most romantic story. But Nan, in addition to being at court and having caught the king’s attention in real life, also had more interesting gaps in what is known about her. In developing a fictional character from a real woman, I try to answer all the questions that aren’t answered in the historical record. Was Nan the king’s mistress? Did he really consider marrying her? If so, why didn’t he marry her? What happened in Nan’s life between the events recorded in
The Lisle Letters
? What secrets might she have that would make her fear marriage to Henry VIII?