The Other Tudors (3 page)

Although the pregnancies of Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn may both have been accidents, the pregnancies of Henry’s later liaisons with Jane Stukeley, Mary Perrot and Joanna Dingley may have been more the result of his carelessness. Perhaps he practised unprotected sex with them, not caring if he impregnated them or not? After all, Henry did not have to acknowledge any children or worry about them making any later claims to be his offspring. In an age without blood tests or DNA testing, claims concerning paternity were extremely difficult to prove or disprove. They relied on the characters of the parents, the physical appearance of the child and reports on the relationships of the wife. The wife of William Knollys, the grandson of Mary Boleyn and William Carey, finally had children after 20 years of childless marriage, when he was in his 80s. Suspiciously, his widow, Elizabeth, married Lord Vaux immediately after his death, but Knollys was no fool: his will did not acknowledge any children and he was officially recorded as having died without heirs. His ‘son’ was subsequently refused a place in the House of Lords on the grounds of ‘adulterous bastardy’.
⁵

By the time the King met Anne Boleyn, Henry had fallen out of love with Catherine of Aragon. They barely spent any time together and even the pregnancies that failed to go to term or ended in stillbirths had stopped. Henry was ripe for a real love – a deep, honest, true love that would replace what he had once had with Catherine. Anne Boleyn was the woman he chose, but it didn’t stop Henry from continuing to enjoy other brief, light-hearted affairs. Jane Stukeley, Mary Perrot and Joanna Dingley, all of whom are discussed later in this book, belong to this group and it may be that there were others too. Each of these aforementioned ladies had a child whom contemporary records claim was fathered by the King. The boys, Thomas Stukeley and John Perrot, were said to resemble Henry VIII rather than the husbands of their mothers. All three ladies were considered to be ‘safe’ by Henry: Jane and Mary were married, while Joanna was a recent widow and would soon marry again. At a time (1526–33) when Henry VIII was being put through emotional turmoil by Anne Boleyn’s refusal to become his lover and then by her increasing desire to become his wife, he must have found occasional passionate but meaningless episodes with beautiful, adoring, willing partners absolutely irresistible. None of these ladies would further complicate an already complicated situation by suggesting marriage.

Henry’s wives, on the other hand, were part of an elaborate political network. When Henry married Anne Boleyn and their relationship became increasingly strained, Margaret Shelton, Anne’s cousin, became his mistress for a short time. It may even be that Anne herself supported this move; if the King were to stray, much better that he do so with a member of the Boleyn–Howard faction (see
page 102
– the Boleyn–Howard family tree) rather than with a lady belonging to some other great family reaching for power who would try and replace the Queen. When Anne finally fell from favour, it was Jane Seymour who used Anne’s own strategy to get her way; she refused to surrender her virtue and held out for marriage. She was supported by a rival Seymour-based faction trying to oust the Howards from power.

When Jane Seymour died, after having given birth to Henry’s son, the pattern changed. Having three illegitimate sons must have helped convince Henry to keep trying for a legitimate male heir with his wife, whoever she might be, and Edward’s birth lifted the major pressure of securing the succession from Henry’s life. Now his aims became different, as he looked beyond his own borders to select a queen for political gain. It was one of history’s great ironies that, when faced with Spanish, French and Italian beauties, he ended up with Anne of Cleves, the plain daughter of a German duke. History usually has Henry turning straight from Anne to Catherine Howard, but, in fact, once Henry had decided that the Cleves marriage must be ended, he took a little time to find her successor. He had access to the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting, the usual hunting ground for a king in search of female interest. He had met Bessie Blount when she was lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon; Mary and Anne Boleyn both came to his attention through the same route, and Jane Seymour had been Anne Boleyn’s lady. Now from amongst Jane Seymour’s ladies, Henry showed interest in Anne Bassett, Elizabeth Brooke and Elizabeth Cobham, before finally settling on Catherine Howard, the most unsuitable lady of all. Catherine Howard had a loving nature and absolutely no selfcontrol when it came to personable young gentlemen. She was devoid of any sense of self-preservation, actually bringing two ex-lovers into her household while she was Queen, one of whom she had previously acknowledged as her husband.

After Catherine Howard followed Anne Boleyn to the scaffold, Henry settled down to a quiet and contented old age with Catherine Parr, but old habits were hard to break. Whether he loved Catherine or not, it didn’t take long for Henry to become irritated with her extreme Protestantism, and in the last months before his death, he was considering yet another change of wife. Katherine d’Eresby, widow of his best friend, Charles Brandon, was a good-looking lady and a renowned wit. She expressed her opinion freely without fear and was said to be deliciously malicious in her humour. Katherine’s spice was attractive to the ageing Henry, but he never came to enjoy her charms and wit for himself. He died on the night spanning 27 and 28 January 1547.

Henry VIII enjoyed the reputation of a womaniser, but he was never in the league of other kings such as Charles II (1630–85; king of Great Britain and Ireland, 1660-85). He did not have a harem, although some historians suggest otherwise. He was a serial monogamist and was essentially a man who loved being in love. He was the king and a handsome, intelligent and charming man into the bargain. He could have ordered any woman to his side, yet he set out to charm and to win; writing letters and poems, composing songs, sending gifts, arranging meetings, and behaving, in fact, like any lovelorn teenager. For Catherine of Aragon he arranged jousts and masques in the disguised character of Sir Loyal Heart. Mary Boleyn had a ship named after her. Anne Boleyn received love letters and jewels for years while she admitted her love for him, yet refused Henry a physical relationship. Jane Seymour was lodged in a house Henry could visit by secretly slipping away from Court. Anne Bassett was given a riding horse and saddle, and moved into the healing atmosphere of the country when she fell ill, and Catherine Howard was showered with clothes and jewels. Henry gave generously and expected complete adulation in return. He wanted to be forever that young man who had taken possession of a throne, the Great Lover, whom no woman could resist.

This study examines all of the aforementioned women, as well as Henry’s illegitimate children. Here you will find all the ladies who captured the heart of the King. Of the ‘Great Loves’, he was tiring of Catherine when he took up with Bessie Blount. Bessie had ceased to be his love when he adored Mary Boleyn. After Mary, he spent two years looking before he settled on her sister, Anne. Anne’s loss of favour, opened the door for Jane Seymour; after Jane, Anne of Cleves came along. Anne vanished and Anne Bassett, Elizabeth Brooke and Elizabeth Cobham tussled for the position, only to be superseded by Catherine Howard. When Catherine could not hold Henry’s affections, it was time for Catherine Parr, and finally Katherine d’Eresby, his last passion.

Of the ‘Lighter Loves’, Elizabeth Denton, Anne Hastings, Etionette de la Baume and Jane Popincourt belong to Henry’s green youth, when he was trying his manhood, in love with life itself. Jane Stukeley, Mary Perrot, Joanna Dingley and Margaret Shelton are the result of Anne Boleyn keeping the King waiting and then, in his view, betraying him when it counted most; Henry, after all, was only human. These ladies gave him unconditional love and a hidden family of healthy, handsome, lively children, a source of secret pride.

Henry VIII’s illegitimate children all played significant roles in the history of the period. His sons, Henry Carey, Thomas Stukeley and John Perrot and their half-sister Etheldreda Malte, all shared an ability to get away with almost anything. Henry Carey, nephew to Anne Boleyn and a Protestant, survived the reign of his half-sister, Mary I; and despite a rough manner, became one of Elizabeth I’s most valued officers. Thomas Stukeley survived charges of piracy, spying and treason, and came away with nothing worse then a few weeks in prison. John Perrot, even when found guilty of defaming Elizabeth I, died of natural causes and not on the block.

As Henry VIII’s bastard daughter, Etheldreda Malte grew up in the household of the country’s most wealthy tailor. This glittering Tudor had the distinct auburn colouring and the sparkling wit. She married a ne’er-do-well, John Harrington, who faced death on several occasions under treason charges, but who survived to become rich and happy under Elizabeth I. Etheldreda protected her feckless husband and bore him a child, before dying quietly in their house near Bath. In 1554, she was one of the ladies who accompanied the future Elizabeth I, to the Tower where she was held by order of her sister Mary I; as their half-sister, both knew they could trust her loyalty and love (her mother’s relationship with Mary I and Etheldreda’s with Elizabeth I are explained in
Chapter 9
).

The lives of Etheldreda Malte, Henry Fitzroy, Henry Carey, John Perrot and Thomas Stukeley overlap and intertwine with each other and with those of their brother, cousin and sisters: Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I. They burst like stars on to the scene, flame gloriously and are extinguished with a spark and then a whisper. Etheldreda had a daughter and Thomas Stukeley had at least one son, but their lines are lost. The family of Henry Carey flourished as did that of John Perrot – today one of the modern Perrots, of the bloodline of Henry VIII, is a dentist in Essex.

H
enry VIII was very much a product of his family ambitions and their rise to power. His complex private life had its origins in his father’s arguably weak claim to and lengthy fight for the throne, and the history of two families, the Houses of Lancaster and York. Descended through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of Edward III, and his mistress, Catherine Swynford, and through his father, Edmund Tudor, who was half-brother to Henry VI, Henry Tudor became the foremost Lancastrian claimant to the throne.

After the first usurpation of the throne of Henry VI by Edward, Duke of York, who became Edward IV, Henry Tudor, the 13-yearold Earl of Richmond, had no real protectors and disappeared into exile in the care of his uncle, Jasper Tudor. His grandmother was Catherine de Valois, sister of Charles VI of France, and exile across the Channel was a good deal safer than staying in England. Henry Tudor stayed in Brittany (a separate dukedom until 1488 when the heiress, Anne of Brittany, married Charles VIII of France) from 1471 to 1485 as the guest of Duke Francis II, the Marshall of Brittany. He ended up living in a chateau at Largöet, near Vannes, the home of the Marshall of Brittany, Jean de Rieux. As the years passed, increasing numbers of Lancastrians and Yorkist malcontents retreated to France and Henry Tudor was an acknowledged claimant to the English throne. The claim was deemed so serious that both Edward IV and Richard III went to some lengths to entice Henry Tudor back to England and to bribe or trick Louis XI of France and Francis II into sending him home. All attempts ended in failure and Henry’s value as a rival to the House of York increased. As a child, the future Henry VIII would have heard of his father’s struggles as an exile in France. The lesson was twofold: firstly, that anyone who could not hold on to the throne faced exile and constant danger of assassination; secondly, that exiles were a menace, ready to return and seize the throne from the ruling king. This helped to make Henry VIII ruthless, more so once he had his son and heir. He would defend his throne for his dynasty, no matter how many lives were forfeit.

Henry Tudor spent 14 years in exile in Brittany, the formative years of his life, from the age of 13 to 27. He learned to speak and read French, and also took a French mistress with whom he had a son, Roland de Velville, born around 1474. The name is spelled in many ways, one of which is Vielleville, which indicates that the lady belonged to the de Vielleville family, Counts of Durtal. When Henry Tudor became king, Roland was knighted. He became a leading jouster for a period between 1494 and 1507 and was eventually made Constable of Beaumaris Castle. In his will, dated 1535, Sir Roland asked to be buried at Llanfaes Friary in Wales, where some of the earlier Tudors were buried. Part of his epitaph, written in Welsh, reads: ‘… a man of kingly line and of earl’s blood …’
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This statement was a discreet announcement of his paternity. Henry VII never formally acknowledged him, but everyone knew whose son Roland was. It could be said, therefore, that Henry VIII was following in the footsteps of his ancestors when he fathered bastard children, but with the knowledge that his own dynasty was founded on not one, but two bastard families, he perhaps did not feel confident enough to acknowledge his baseborn children.