Tudor (72 page)

16
.
  
L&P
11 (48). The daughter of Sir John and Lady Anne Shelton, and sister-in-law of Madge/Margaret Shelton née Parker; see Warnicke,
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn
, p. 46. There is a view that she also had a sister called Margaret, but the evidence is pretty thin; see Paul G. Remley, ‘Mary Shelton and her Tudor Literary Milieu', in
Rethinking the Henrician Era
(ed Peter C. Herman) (1994), pp. 40–77. For the further suggestion that Margaret Shelton was Mary's sister-in-law see Heale, ‘Women and the Courtly Love Lyric', in op. cit., pp. 296–313.

17
.
  
Heale, ‘Women and the Courtly Love Lyric' in op. cit., p. 301.

18
.
  
CSPS
5, Pt I (142).

19
.
  
L&P
10 (141).

20
.
  
Katherine was buried with the status of Prince Arthur's widow, not that of a queen consort, and a junior member of the royal family – the French queen's younger daughter, Eleanor – played the role of chief mourner. An annual service is still held for Katherine at what is now Peterborough Cathedral and the Spanish embassy continues to send a wreath in commemoration.

21
.
  
CSPS
5, Pt II (29).

22
.
  
George Wyatt, son of Sir Thomas Wyatt;
CSPS
5, Pt II (29).

23
.
  
L&P
10 (199).

24
.
  
His later impotence in his marriage with Anne of Cleves may also to have reflected concern about the validity of that marriage; see Retha Warnicke,
The Marrying of Anne of Cleves
(2000), pp. 162, 167.

25
.
  
CSPS
5, Pt II (84).

22
   
The Fall of Anne Boleyn

  
1
.
  
Elizabeth Wood, wife of Sir James Boleyn.

  
2
.
  
L&P
11 (48).

  
3
.
  
Nicola Shulman,
Graven With Diamonds
(2011), p. 144.

  
4
.
  
L&P
10 (601).

  
5
.
  
L&P
10 (782).

  
6
.
  
Henry later told Jane Seymour that it was Anne's meddling in a political matter that was her undoing.

  
7
.
  
L&P
10 (699).

  
8
.
  
There were witnesses but Thomas Howard admitted only to Margaret telling William Howard's wife, Margaret Gamage, the next day. William and Margaret's eldest daughter was named Douglas after her godmother Lady Margaret Douglas. She later ‘married' Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester in a ceremony that was never recognised in law.

  
9
.
  
L&P
10 (908).

10
.
  
L&P
10 (798).

11
.
  
L&P
10 (793).

12
.
  
Ives,
Anne Boleyn
, p. 325.

13
.
  
L&P
10 (956); R. B. Merriman,
The Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell Vol. 2
(1902), p. 12.

14
.
  
More than 200 people came forward in 1932 to confess they had kidnapped the baby of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh.

15
.
  
Norris held the Garter office of Black Rod.
L&P
10 (878).

16
.
  
L&P
10 (793).

17
.
  
Sir William Page (a friend of Cromwell) and Sir Francis Bryan
(who had powerful support amongst court conservatives who were needed to bring Anne down).

18
.
  
The judge was John Spelman. The lady-in-waiting was Lady Wingfield. It is possible that Lady Wingfield was aware of some minor indiscretion by Anne. A surviving letter from the queen to Lady Wingfield indicates she had been keen to keep on the right side of her.

19
.
  
The rumours about Lady Wingfield, who died in 1534, are the probable origin of a story later spun in verse by a Frenchman at court called Lancelot de Carles. It describes a woman whose brother accuses her of immorality. She insists she is no worse than others at court, and better than the queen, who has slept with Smeaton, Norris and George Boleyn. The brother tells two friends what he has heard, and they tell the king. These verses are clearly inspired by a combination of the accusations against Anne and dramatic licence – the author describes his view of how things ‘must' have happened, while creating a living drama between a brother and sister that is more vivid than a deathbed confession. But some historians have accepted the de Carles story as literal truth. They suggest the woman in the poem is Lady Worcester.

20
.
  
John Hussey in a letter to Lord Lisle. He also mentions ‘one maid more'. The unnamed maid was probably Margery Horsman; see Ives,
Anne Boleyn
, p. 332.

21
.
  
Anne Braye, wife of George Brooke, Lord Cobham.

22
.
  
The evidence that Jane, Lady Rochford was part of the women's protest again Anne Boleyn in the summer of 1535 is very weak; see it in
L&P
9 (566) and n. It is also worth pointing out that although Lady Rochford was treated generously by Cromwell after her husband's death (something her detractors have made much of), it was not unusual to look after the interests of the wives of executed traitors. Examples are the widows of Perkin Warbeck under Henry VII, the widow of the Duke of Buckingham under Henry VIII, and of Harry Grey, Duke of Suffolk under
Mary I. On other ‘evidence', see John Guy's review of Alison Weir's
The Lady in the Tower
,
Sunday Times
, 1 November 2009. Jane would become a tempting target for slander following a scandal that was still a few years away – and unfortunately many women of the Tudor period have been slandered.

23
.
  
Spelman.

23
   
Love and Death

  
1
.
  
Shulman,
Graven With Diamonds
, p. 196.

  
2
.
  
L&P
2, August 1536 (203).

  
3
.
  
Ibid.

  
4
.
  
L&P
11 (41).

  
5
.
  
At some point that year a set of new and magnificent tapestries were delivered to court depicting the seven deadly sins. That Henry chose this period to buy very expensive works of art illustrating the vices which dupe and mislead mankind is striking. Campbell,
Henry VIII
, p. 226.

  
6
.
  
L&P
10 (908).

  
7
.
  
A witness recalled seeing him from a window, but we do not know if he could see Anne; see Shulman,
Graven With Diamonds
, p. 202.

  
8
.
  
A manuscript in the Vatican archives reveals that in France the papal nuncio heard that they were married already: this may be why. ASV,
Serg. St Francia
, Vol. 1B, f. 40r: ‘
Al Signor Protonotaro Ambrogio: se non che hiersera venne un corriere d'Inghilterra, che porta per quel ch'io ne intendo come quel Re ha pigliato per moglie quella dama che vivendo anche l'altra, mostrava che più gli piacesse, ne per anchora ho saputo altro particolare. Da Lione alli X di giugno 1536
.'

  
9
.
  
Linda Porter,
Mary Tudor: The First Queen
(2007), p. 123.

10
.
  
Her status was helped further by the fact that Charles Brandon's last surviving son with Mary, the French queen, had died in 1534. Only their daughters Frances and Eleanor survived.

11
.
  
CSPS
5, Pt II (61).

12
.
  
CSPS
7, Pt II (71).

13
.
  
L&P
11 (40).

14
.
  
Helen Baron, ‘Mary (Howard) Fitzroy's Hand in the Devonshire Manuscript' in
Review of English Studies
45, No. 179 (August 1994), p. 327.

15
.
  
Remley, ‘Mary Shelton' in op. cit., pp. 53, 54.

16
.
  
Lehmberg, ‘Parliamentary Attainder in the Reign of Henry VIII' in op. cit., pp. 691, 692. Within four years the Howards had their revenge and Cromwell was attainted, as so many others had been after 1533.

17
.
  
L&P
11 (147).

18
.
  
Margaret Douglas was ignored in the Third Act of Succession, in which Henry said that he would later appoint Elizabeth's heirs.

19
.
  
L&P
11 (293).

20
.
  
L&P
11 (294).

21
.
  
L&P
11 (994).

22
.
  
L&P
11 (1373).

23
.
  
L&P
11 (202.37); Blaauw, ‘On the Effigy . . .' in op. cit., pp. 30, 31, 32. Although there is a probate to his will dated 1542, Sir David had died in 1535.

24
   
Three Wives

  
1
.
  
L&P
12, Pt I, p. 81, Pt II, p. 280.

  
2
.
  
Leanda de Lisle,
The Sisters Who Would be Queen
(2009), pp. 11, 12. Frances' brothers had died before reaching adulthood. Frances' appearance can be judged from the effigy on her tomb at Westminster Abbey. Jane Grey was named after Jane Seymour.

  
3
.
  
Her biographer Kimberly Schutte claims she was there in the first carriage with Frances, but is mistaken. See
L&P
12, Pt II (1060).

  
4
.
  
L&P
12 (1023); Wriothesley,
Chronicle
, p. 70. He died on 31 October.

  
5
.
  
The opening stanza, written in thick, smudged ink, calls together her family and friends to hear her plans:

                        
Now that ye be assembled here,

                        
All ye my friends and my request,

                        
'specially you my father dear,

                        
that of my blood are the nearest,

                        
this unto you is my request,

                        
that ye will patiently hear,

                        
by these my last words expressed,

                        
my testament entire.

       
They cannot stop what she intends, for she has prepared a defence as strong as the high Tower, and the ‘door fast barred'. What she intends amounts to suicide, and she asks her father's forgiveness:

                        
Wherefore sweet father I you pray,

                        
Bear this my death with patience,

                        
And torment not your hairs grey

                        
But freely pardon my offence.

       
Her reason, she explains, is the suffering she endures through her constant love for a man who has died because of her, and with whom she now wishes to be:

                        
Let me not from the sweet presence

                        
Of him that I have caused to die.

       
His epitaph was also written into the book she would one day pass on to her sons:

                        
But when you come by my sepulchre