Six Wives (114 page)
Authors: David Starkey
The result was that Gardiner and his new ally Wriothesley got Henry's agreement to a coup against the Queen. Her leading women, Ladies Herbert, Lane and Tyrwhit, would be arrested; their illegal books seized as evidence; and the Queen herself sent 'by barge' to the Tower.
19
19
* * *
But Henry, after another contretemps with Catherine, unburdened himself to one of his physicians, 'either Dr Wendy, or else Owen, but rather Wendy, as is supposed'. The King told this physician that he was determined to be rid of such a 'doctress' as Catherine was. He also outlined the means he had chosen to do it.
Naturally, the King swore his physician to secrecy 'on peril of his life'. Equally naturally, he must have expected the story to leak. Was it to add to Catherine's terror? Or had he begun to have second thoughts?
20
20
And why did Foxe highlight his uncertainty about the identity of the physician in question?
* * *
Foxe did so, I think, because he knew that there had been a recent change in the King's long-standing medical establishment. For in his letter of 17 December 1545, Petre had also reported to Paget that 'the long sickness of Dr Butts makes it necessary that another physician should be appointed'. As it happens, Butts had died on 22 November 1545, a day or two after Paget's departure on Embassy to France and his successor, Dr George Owen, had been appointed on the 24th, with the accustomed high fee of £100 a year. But Owen was not the only doctor in attendance on Henry in March 1546, for on the 8th a messenger was paid 'for posting to Cambridge to Dr Wendy for his repair to the Court'. The messenger had received the very large sum of £4, which suggests that the summons was urgent.
21
21
So
both
Owen and Wendy were present at Court when the plot against the Queen broke. And both had powerful connexions with her. Owen, for instance, had acted as her personal physician on her becoming Queen, and had authorised her apothecary's bills for medicines which, no doubt, he had prescribed. There were also close ties between Owen and Catherine's religiously radical Secretary, Walter Bucler, who was then on Embassy to the German Protestants. But Owen's ties related primarily to the past. Wendy's, more interestingly, belonged to the future. For on 24 October 1546, as 'the Queen's [newly appointed] physician', he was to receive the grant of a valuable manor and rectory. Was this the result of services rendered – and more, much more, than medical ones?
22
both
Owen and Wendy were present at Court when the plot against the Queen broke. And both had powerful connexions with her. Owen, for instance, had acted as her personal physician on her becoming Queen, and had authorised her apothecary's bills for medicines which, no doubt, he had prescribed. There were also close ties between Owen and Catherine's religiously radical Secretary, Walter Bucler, who was then on Embassy to the German Protestants. But Owen's ties related primarily to the past. Wendy's, more interestingly, belonged to the future. For on 24 October 1546, as 'the Queen's [newly appointed] physician', he was to receive the grant of a valuable manor and rectory. Was this the result of services rendered – and more, much more, than medical ones?
22
It seems likely.
* * *
In which case it was Wendy whom Henry sent to his wife after her sudden collapse with shock. For the bill of articles against the Queen had been mislaid and brought to Catherine. Faced with the same terrible fate as her predecessor, she had broken down. Wendy now told her of the plot and also advised her what to do. She should, he counselled, 'somewhat . . . frame and conform herself to the King's mind'. 'If she would do so', he added, 'and show her humble submission unto him . . . she should find him gracious and favourable unto her.'
Catherine accepted the advice and, accompanied by her three faithful ladies, took once more the road to her Canossa of the King's bedchamber.
Henry deliberately turned the subject of conversation to religion. But Catherine did not bite. Instead, she protested her weakness as a woman and the God-given superiority of men. Therefore, she said, she had no opinion worth having, since 'must I, and will I, refer my judgement in this, and all other cases, to your Majesty's wisdom, as my only anchor, Supreme Head and Governor here in earth, next under God'.
'Not so by St Mary', replied the King. 'You are become a doctor, Kate, to instruct us (as we take it) and not to be instructed or directed by us.'
Catherine had an answer for that too. She had disputed with Henry in religion, she said, principally to divert his mind from the pain of his leg but also to profit from her husband's own excellent learning as displayed in his replies.
'Is it even so, sweetheart?' Henry answered. 'And tended your arguments to no worse end? Then perfect friends we are now again, as ever at any time heretofore.'
And they kissed and made up.
23
23
* * *
The next day her arrest was to have taken place. At the time fixed she was walking in the garden with Henry when Chancellor Wriothesley turned up with a detachment of the Guard. The King took him aside; Wriothesley fell to his knees and Henry berated him, 'Knave! arrant knave, beast! and fool!' After Wriothesley had fled, Catherine completed her victory by sweetly interceding with the King on his behalf.
24
No doubt Foxe's 'story' was improved in the telling. But the fact that Dr Wendy received his reward from her would seem to clinch its essential truthfulness. Catherine's survival, however, had been bought at a price. She had forgone her independence as a woman. And there could be no going back.
* * *
Moreover, circumstances were now turning against her. The decline in Henry's health, which is the background to Foxe's 'story', now became precipitate. And, as it did so, all thoughts turned to the future. But it was a future in which the childless Catherine could have little role to play. As if to symbolise her isolation, the couple spent Christmas 1546 –7 apart. 'The King', the Imperial ambassador reported, 'is here in London; the Queen being at Greenwich.' 'It is', he added, 'an innovation for them to be thus separated during the festivities.'
While they were apart, Henry, though mortally sick, had supervised the drawing up of charges of treason against the Duke of Norfolk and his son, the Earl of Surrey. Both were condemned and Surrey was executed on 19 January. Meanwhile, Henry had also drafted his will. The destruction of the Howards guaranteed the future of Reform, which meant so much to Catherine. But Henry's will, though it gave Catherine honour and wealth after her husband's death, excluded her from all part in government. She would be Queen Dowager, not Queen Regent.
25
25
On 11 January 1547, Catherine's lodgings at Whitehall were got ready for her arrival. But it is unclear whether or not she was allowed to see the King. Certainly she was not present when Henry died on the night of 28 January 1547.
She did not take part in his funeral either, but watched it instead, high up, from her closet.
26
26
By then her mind, like everybody else's, was on the future after Henry.
* * *
For Catherine at least, it was a future that seemed rosy. True, she would lose the political power and public role which had become second nature to her. But, in return, she would enjoy, perhaps for the first time in her life, full personal happiness. She would marry Thomas Seymour. She would have Elizabeth to live with her. Who knows, she might even have children.
And it all came to pass. She set up house with Elizabeth. With barely decent speed she married Seymour. And she became pregnant with a foetus that kicked so vigorously that mother and father were sure that it was a boy.
But it all went sour. Seymour made open love to Elizabeth. The baby turned out to be a girl. And Catherine, like Jane Seymour before her, caught puerperal fever after the birth. In her delirium, Lady Tyrwhit noted, she sometimes railed against Seymour and his betrayal of her with Elizabeth. She died on 7 September 1548, after four days illness.
27
27
Perhaps marriage to Henry had been the better part after all.
Notes
Abbreviations
APC -
Acts of the Privy Council
, ed. J.R. Dasent
et al
., 46 vols. (London, 1890–1964)
Acts of the Privy Council
, ed. J.R. Dasent
et al
., 46 vols. (London, 1890–1964)
AR -
The Antiquarian Repertory
, ed. F. Grose, 4 vols. (London, 1807–9)
The Antiquarian Repertory
, ed. F. Grose, 4 vols. (London, 1807–9)
BIHR -
Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research
Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research
BL - British Library
C
ommons -
The House of Commons 1509–1558
, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 3 vols. (1982)
ommons -
The House of Commons 1509–1558
, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 3 vols. (1982)
CPR
-
Calendar of Patent Rolls
-
Calendar of Patent Rolls
CS - Camden Society
CSP
Dom.
-
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic
Dom.
-
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic
CSP For.
-
Calendar of State Papers, Foreign
-
Calendar of State Papers, Foreign
CSP Mil.
-
Calendar of State Papers, Milanese
-
Calendar of State Papers, Milanese
CSP Sp.
-
Calendar of State Papers, Spanish
-
Calendar of State Papers, Spanish
CSP Ven.
-
Calendar of State Papers, Venetian
-
Calendar of State Papers, Venetian
DNB
-
Dictionary of National Biography
-
Dictionary of National Biography
DKR
-
Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records
-
Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records
EETS - Early English Text Society
EHR
-
The English Historical Review
-
The English Historical Review
Foedera -
Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae
, ed. T. Rymer, 15 vols. (London, 1704 –35)
Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae
, ed. T. Rymer, 15 vols. (London, 1704 –35)
GEC - G.E. Cokayne,
Complete Peerage of England, Scotland,
Ireland, etc., Extant, Extinct, or Dormant
, rev. ed. V. Gibbs and later H.A. Doubleday, 13 vols. (London, 1910 –49)
Complete Peerage of England, Scotland,
Ireland, etc., Extant, Extinct, or Dormant
, rev. ed. V. Gibbs and later H.A. Doubleday, 13 vols. (London, 1910 –49)
HJ -
The Historical Journal
The Historical Journal
HKW -
The History of the King's Works
, ed. H.M. Colvin
et al
., 6 vols. (London, 1963–82)
The History of the King's Works
, ed. H.M. Colvin
et al
., 6 vols. (London, 1963–82)
HMC -
Historical Manuscripts Commission
Historical Manuscripts Commission
HO -
A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Govern
ment of the Royal Household
(Society of Antiquaries, London, 1790)
A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Govern
ment of the Royal Household
(Society of Antiquaries, London, 1790)
HR
-
Historical Research
-
Historical Research
HS - Harleian Society
LJ
-
Journals of the House of Lords
, 12 vols. (London, 1817–1910)
-
Journals of the House of Lords
, 12 vols. (London, 1817–1910)
LP
-
Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of
Henry VIII, 1509– 47
, ed. J.S. Brewer
et al
., 21 vols. and addenda (London, 1862–1932)
-
Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of
Henry VIII, 1509– 47
, ed. J.S. Brewer
et al
., 21 vols. and addenda (London, 1862–1932)
LP Hen. VII
-
Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III
and Henry VII
, ed. J. Gairdner, 2 vols. (Rolls Series, 1861, 1863)
-
Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III
and Henry VII
, ed. J. Gairdner, 2 vols. (Rolls Series, 1861, 1863)
Materials
-
Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII
, ed. W.Campbell, 2 vols. (Rolls Series, 1873, 1877)
-
Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII
, ed. W.Campbell, 2 vols. (Rolls Series, 1873, 1877)
Memorials
-
Memorials of King Henry the Seventh
, ed. J. Gairdner (Rolls Series, 1858)
-
Memorials of King Henry the Seventh
, ed. J. Gairdner (Rolls Series, 1858)
PPC
-
Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of
England, 1386–1542
, ed. N.H. Nicolas, 7 vols. (London, 1834 –7)
-
Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of
England, 1386–1542
, ed. N.H. Nicolas, 7 vols. (London, 1834 –7)
PPE Elizabeth of York
-
The Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: Wardrobe
Accounts of Edward the Fourth
, ed. N.H. Nicolas (London, 1830)
-
The Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: Wardrobe
Accounts of Edward the Fourth
, ed. N.H. Nicolas (London, 1830)
PPE Henry VIII
-
The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Eighth from
November MDXXIX to December MDXXXII
, ed. N.H. Nicolas (London, 1827)
-
The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Eighth from
November MDXXIX to December MDXXXII
, ed. N.H. Nicolas (London, 1827)
PPE Princess Mary
-
Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary from December
-
Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary from December
PRO - Public Record Office
Statutes
-
Statutes of the Realm
, ed. A. Luders
et al
., 10 vols. (London, 1810–1828)
-
Statutes of the Realm
, ed. A. Luders
et al
., 10 vols. (London, 1810–1828)
St. P.
-
State Papers of King Henry the Eighth
, 11 vols. (London, 1830–52)
-
State Papers of King Henry the Eighth
, 11 vols. (London, 1830–52)
References
Introduction
1. Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury,
The Life and Raigne of King Henry the
Eighth
(London, 1649), p. 497; G. Burnet,
The History of the Reformation
, ed. N. Pocock, 7 vols. (Oxford, 1865), I, p. 514; A. Strickland,
Lives of the
Queens of England
, 6 vols. (London, 1854) III, p. 234.
The Life and Raigne of King Henry the
Eighth
(London, 1649), p. 497; G. Burnet,
The History of the Reformation
, ed. N. Pocock, 7 vols. (Oxford, 1865), I, p. 514; A. Strickland,
Lives of the
Queens of England
, 6 vols. (London, 1854) III, p. 234.
2. PRO, E315/161, fos. 22–34; N. Williams,
Henry VIII and his Court
(London, 1971), pp. 246–7. Williams does not cite his source; nevertheless, he is relied on by A. Fraser,
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
(London, 1992), p. 373 and n. 43.
Henry VIII and his Court
(London, 1971), pp. 246–7. Williams does not cite his source; nevertheless, he is relied on by A. Fraser,
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
(London, 1992), p. 373 and n. 43.
Henry's Weddings
1.
AR
II, pp. 284 –90;
The Receyt of the Ladie Kateryne
, ed. G. Kipling (EETS 296, 1990), pp. 39– 44.
AR
II, pp. 284 –90;
The Receyt of the Ladie Kateryne
, ed. G. Kipling (EETS 296, 1990), pp. 39– 44.
2.
AR
II, p. 302;
Receyt of the Ladie Kateryne
, p. 73;
The Epistles of Erasmus
, ed. F.M. Nichols, 2 vols. (London, 1904), I, p. 201.
AR
II, p. 302;
Receyt of the Ladie Kateryne
, p. 73;
The Epistles of Erasmus
, ed. F.M. Nichols, 2 vols. (London, 1904), I, p. 201.
3.
LP
IV iii, 5774/5/ii.
LP
IV iii, 5774/5/ii.
4. S. Thurley,
The Royal Palaces of Tudor England: Architecture and Court Life
The Royal Palaces of Tudor England: Architecture and Court Life
1460 –1547
(London, 1993), pp. 125–7, 199.
(London, 1993), pp. 125–7, 199.
5. Thurley,
Royal Palaces
, p. 199.
Royal Palaces
, p. 199.
6.
LP
IV iii, 5774/1, 5774/5/ii.
LP
IV iii, 5774/1, 5774/5/ii.
7.
LP
IV iii, 5774/1;
CSP Sp
. II (1509–1525), p. 19.
LP
IV iii, 5774/1;
CSP Sp
. II (1509–1525), p. 19.
8.
PPC
VII, pp. 352–3.
PPC
VII, pp. 352–3.
9. E.W. Ives,
Anne Boleyn
(Oxford, 1989), p. 210 n. 97;
A Treatise of the
Pretended Divorce between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon by Nicholas
Harpsfield
, ed. N. Pocock (CS new series 21, 1878) [hereafter Harpsfield,
Pretended Divorce
], pp. 234 –5; D. MacCulloch,
Thomas Cranmer: a Life
(London, 1996), pp. 261, 637–8;
LP
X, 1000; XVIII i, 873;
A Chronicle of
England . . . by Charles Wriothesley, Windsor Herald
, ed. W.D. Hamilton, 2 vols. (CS new series 11, 1875) [hereafter
Wriothesley's Chronicle
], I, p. 111.
Anne Boleyn
(Oxford, 1989), p. 210 n. 97;
A Treatise of the
Pretended Divorce between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon by Nicholas
Harpsfield
, ed. N. Pocock (CS new series 21, 1878) [hereafter Harpsfield,
Pretended Divorce
], pp. 234 –5; D. MacCulloch,
Thomas Cranmer: a Life
(London, 1996), pp. 261, 637–8;
LP
X, 1000; XVIII i, 873;
A Chronicle of
England . . . by Charles Wriothesley, Windsor Herald
, ed. W.D. Hamilton, 2 vols. (CS new series 11, 1875) [hereafter
Wriothesley's Chronicle
], I, p. 111.
10. E. Hall,
The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of York and
Lancaster
[hereafter Hall,
Chronicle
], ed. H. Ellis (London, 1809), p. 836;
LP
XV, 925.
The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of York and
Lancaster
[hereafter Hall,
Chronicle
], ed. H. Ellis (London, 1809), p. 836;
LP
XV, 925.
11.
AR
I, pp. 296–341. The text is discussed and dated in D. Starkey, 'Henry VI's Old Blue Gown',
The Court Historian
4 (1999), pp. 1–28.
AR
I, pp. 296–341. The text is discussed and dated in D. Starkey, 'Henry VI's Old Blue Gown',
The Court Historian
4 (1999), pp. 1–28.
12.
AR
I, p. 302; B. Wolffe,
Henry VI
(London, 1981), pp. 180 –2.
AR
I, p. 302; B. Wolffe,
Henry VI
(London, 1981), pp. 180 –2.
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