Category: Tudor Women - Meandering Through Time

Agnes Tilney - Duchess of Norfolk

10/12/2022

In the last week of November in 1541, Catherine Howard was imprisoned in Syon Abbey for adultery with Francis Dereham and Thomas Culpeper, her world was falling apart, but she was not the only one, other members of the Howard family also found themselves incarcerated.

In the months following Catherine's arrest, at least four of her family were imprisoned in the Tower of London for not disclosing what they knew of Catherine's past, one of them was Agnes, the sixty-four-year-old Duchess of Norfolk, she was Catherine's grandmother's cousin. All were charged with 'concealing the evil demeanour of the Queen, to the slander of the King and his succession' they were sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods.

After a search of the duchess's property, and the questioning of her servants, a charge was brought against her which was that she had opened the aforementioned Francis Dereham's private chest and destroyed documents, she admitted nothing. However, Agnes' main concern was the loss of her goods, when asked where she kept her money, she dropped to her knees weeping, asking God to save the king and give him a long and prosperous life.

Eventually, she admitted to hiding money in the private chamber of her home. When an inventory of Agnes' belongings was made there a vast amount of money, about three hundred and fifty pounds in today's money was found. The money was 'confiscated' and taken to Westminster Palace. Where it ended up, well, your guess is as good as mine!

On the 10th of December, the day that both Dereham and Culpeper were executed, Agnes was questioned again and this time she owned up to having prior knowledge of Catherine's wrongdoings at the time she was being put forward as a bride for the king, that she persuaded Catherine to bring Dereham to court and that she did burn his letters.

Barbara Brennan as Agnes, Duchess of Norfolk in the TV Series The Tudors.

It was deemed that Agnes was too old to stand trial. After having spent another six months in the tower she was released. She died four years later at her home in Lambeth.

Catherine of Aragon

2/10/2021

On the 2nd October 1501, Catherine of Aragon arrived at the Devon port of Plymouth

Catherine was greeted by the nobility who escorted them to St Andrews Church where thanks were given for her safe arrival and outside the townspeople clamoured to welcome their distinguished foreign guests.

Catherine was later escorted to Exeter where she was to stay for fourteen days. On the 16th her future father-in-law, Henry VII, sent messengers with a letter of welcome and a delegation of courtiers to escort her to London.

Catherine was to be married to Prince Arthur, the heir to the throne of England and of course we know that this marriage was short lived. Catherine would become queen of England on her marriage to Henry, Arthur's brother and for the first eleven years of her marriage she would be happy, but in what would later be known as the Kings Great Matter her life would be turned upside down.

Catherine was renowned for her strength of character and virtue, and I wonder if she could have seen her future would have had reconsidered this English marriage as she left the Alhambra in Granada for the port of Corunna to board a boat to England.

Sibel Penn - The Hampton Court Ghost

15/8/2021

I first came across Sibel Penn quite a while ago when I was looking into the family of Margery Pigott of Little Horwood in Buckinghamshire who, in 1587, left a bequest to her cousin Thomas Hampden 'whom I have brought up of a child.' Sibel’s maiden name was Hampden and she was of the family of Hampden, also in Buckinghamshire. I took no notice of her, only entering her name on Margery’s family tree noting that Sibel was Margery’s cousin 3x removed. Sibel was the wife of David Penn of Penn’s Place in Buckinghamshire, she was of the same family as Margery’s step mother in law Margaret, the heiress of John Penn of Penn’s Place.

It wasn’t until the other day that Sibel cropped up again as nurse to Edward VI following his birth in 1537, she was later a lady of the bedchamber to Elizabeth I.

Sibel is also Hampton Court’s most famous ghost, the Grey Lady, she died of smallpox after catching it from Elizabeth in 1562. She is buried in Hampton Church with a live-size marble effigy over her tomb.

In 1829 the church was demolished and her remains scattered. Soon afterwards an unearthly noise was heard through the wall of the south wing of Hampton Court said to sound like that of someone spinning thread. An investigation was mounted and the wall taken down, an old spinning wheel was found and the floorboards worn away where the treadle hit the floor! However, Sibel's ghost is said to haunt Hampton Court; she was seen in 1890 by a sentry who noticed a woman dressed in the exact clothing Sibel wears on her tomb.

Sibel's Memorial at St Mary's Church Hampton.

Hampton Court, as you all will know is famous for its ghosts as it is for being the property of Cardinal Wolsey and later Henry VIII, and Sibel’s ghost is not the only one to wander its corridors. In the Haunted Gallery poor Catherine Howard is said to have run up and down screaming for mercy. Jane Seymour, the much loved third queen of Henry is also said to have been seen, clothed in white and carrying a light taper close to what is known as the Silver Stick Gallery.

Interestingly, the village of Penn, the home of the aforementioned Penn’s has its own ghost, that of an 18th-century farm labourer, who appears, laughing, on a phantom horse.

Execution of Thomas Culpepper

3/7/2020

In 1541, it was rumoured that Catherine Howard had begun a physical relationship with Thomas Culpepper, her husband Henry VIII's favourite courtier. In a letter to Culpepper Catherine wrote

“praying you that you will come when my Lady Rochford is here.”

This 'affair' would be their undoing.

Adultery with a queen was high treason, Thomas Culpepper was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered but the sentence was commuted to beheading. He was executed on the 10th December in 1541.

You can read about Thomas's and Catherine's downfall in my blog Dangerous Talk Cost Lives.

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/history-blog/dangerous-talk-costs-lives

The Culpepers were a big family from the county of Kent. Thomas Culpepper was born in 1514, the son, it is written, of Alexander Colepeper, but this is not the case, it likely that he was the son of a younger branch of the Culpepers. Catherine's mother was Joyce Culpepper, she was also from a different branch of that that family.

Torrance Coombs played Thomas Culpepper in the TV series The Tudors

Tamzin Merchant played Catherine Howard in the TV series The Tudors

The Death of Amy Robsart

8/9/2019

Victorian artist Edward Matthew Ward is famous for his English Civil War paintings, my favourite being The Concealment of the Fugitive by Alice Lisle, whose execution, I have written about before. His 1866 work 'Leicester and Amy Robsart at Cumnor Hall' covers an earlier time, depicting the relationship between Robert Dudley and his wife Amy Robsart. Ward takes his inspiration from Walter Scott's book Kenilworth.

Amy, as you can see, is depicted as a tragic, romantic heroine, whose true cause of death, on the 8th September in 1560, has never come to light.

Amy Robsart, as you will know was the wife of Elizabethan courtier Robert Dudley who sent away her servants from her house at Cumnor Place in Oxford, was later found dead at the foot of a flight of stairs with a broken neck and two wounds on her head. The coroner found that she had died from a fall downstairs; the verdict was 'misfortune' therefore an accidental death. History has looked at Amy's death three ways, she died as a result of an accident, she took her own life or she was murdered. The letter, dated the 24th August 1560 you see in the image below was written by Amy to her tailor in London which reads

'Edney, with my hearty commendations this shall be to desire you to take the pains for me as to make this gown of velvet which I send you with such a collar as you made my russet taffeta gown you sent me last, & I will see you discharged for all. I pray you let it be done with as much speed as you can & sent by … the carrier of Oxford, & thus I bid you most heartily farewell from Cumnor this 24th of August.'

Your assured friend,
Amye Duddley

Amy Robsart was dead fourteen days later, did she plan to take her own life, ordering a new dress as she does in the letter you could argue suggests not.

Is Amy's story been turned into a melodrama, but was there more to it than meets the eye?

Catherine of Aragon

18/5/2018

On the 19th May 1499, thirteen year old Catherine of Aragon was married, by proxy, to twelve year old Arthur, Prince of Wales at Tickenhill Palace, a manor house that formed part of the princes estate.

The actual wedding would take place on 14th of November in 1501 at St Paul's Cathedral, when Henry VII's heir would be of age.

The sweet chestnut tree in the image below is reputed to have been planted to commemorate the couple's marriage in the manor gardens. If the story is true, then this year the tree will be five hundred and eighteen years old.

Its branches have been allowed to grow, its longest branch, which stretches down a slope has an elbow and touches the ground, is forty four feet from the tree's trunk and reaches to its furthest extent of 77 feet. Sweet chestnut trees were introduced to England over two thousand years ago and can grow to a massive size, many have large hollow trunks.

Catherine and Arthur's 'tree' can be found in the grounds of the Georgian Kateshill House, that now stands in what was the 15th century Tickenhill estate.

Funeral of Catherine of Aragon

29/1/2018

Catherine of Aragon died in the first week of January 1536 it was on this day she was laid to rest at Peterborough Cathedral.

Catherine was Henry VIII's first and 'true wife,' abandoned when she was no longer any use to him. In the furore that surrounded Henry's relationship with Anne Boleyn, it was said that Anne poisoned Catherine. Today, however, it is widely considered that she died of cancer, and most probably a broken heart.

Catherine had written of her fears to Charles V in the November of the previous year

"My tribulations are so great, my life so disturbed by the plans daily invented to further the king's wicked intention, the surprises which the king gives me, with certain persons of his council, are so mortal, and my treatment is what God knows, that it is enough to shorten ten lives, much more mine."

Henry did not attend Catherine's funeral, and in one last cruel act against his wife, he also forbade their daughter Mary to attend. It was written that the queens funeral waggon was

"was covered with black velvet, in the midst of which was a great silver cross; and within, as one looked upon the corpse, was stretched a cloth of gold frieze with a cross of crimson velvet, and before and behind the said waggon stood two gentlemen ushers with mourning hoods looking into the waggon, round which the said four banners were carried by four heralds and the standards with the representations by four gentlemen." and once inside the cathedral Catherine's coffin was "placed under the chapelle ardente which was prepared for it there, upon eight pillars of beautiful fashion and roundness, upon which were placed about 1,000 candles, both little and middle-sized, and round about the said chapel 18 banners waved.”

Below you can see the tomb of Catherine at Peterborough Cathedral if you look closely you can see that people are still leaving pomegranates in remembrance of her.

Marriage of Margaret Tudor to Archibald Douglas

5/8/2017

The death of King James IV of Scotland in the September of 1513, whilst he was leading his troops in the Battle of Flodden, left Margaret a widow with an infant son. Just under a year later Margaret would marry Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus.

Of this marriage Polydore Virgil wrote

"This year also Margaret, queen of Scots, wife of James IV killed at Flodden in the fifth year of the king's reign, and elder sister of the King, after the death of her husband married Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, without the consent of the King her brother or the council of Scotland, with which he was not pleased. But after that there arose such strife between the lords of Scotland that she and her husband came into England like banished persons, and wrote to the King for mercy and comfort. The King, ever inclined to mercy, sent them clothing and vessels and all things necessary, wishing them to stay in Northumberland until they knew further of his wishes. And the queen was there delivered of a fair lady called Margaret, and all the country were commanded by the King to do them pleasure."

Her marriage to Douglas gave the Scottish Parliament an excuse to replace her with John Stewart, Duke of Albany.

In this extract from a 1950's tale of Margaret defending herself and the rights of her son.

"My lord," she said, her fingers clutched together to still their trembling, "be you sure no person in the world desires the good of my bairns so much as I do. No man will I support who seeks to harm the rights and privileges of my son's crown, but rather will I do all in my power to bring him justice." She looked round at the lords, her adversaries, but the most of them, playing nervously with quill or sand-box, would not meet her gaze. Only Albany stared at her steadfastly, his thoughts hidden behind the curtain of his eyes. "Do not think," she went on, "that I ever consented to such things as you accuse me of. It will never be found that I did aught to hurt the privilege of my son's crown or mine own honour. I pray you, therefore, my lord Duke, give no credence to such vile slanders of me."

With Douglas, Mary would have one child, a daughter, Margaret who would later give birth to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, the ill fated husband of Mary Queen of Scots.

Death of George Talbot

18/11/2016

It was on this day in 1590 that George Talbot, the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury died.

Talbot was the fourth husband of Bess of Hardwick and it was under their care the exiled Mary Queen of Scots lived for fifteen years.

The time and effort involved with their high profile prisoner took its toll on Talbot's marriage, as Bess was suspicious about
the amount of time Talbot spent with Mary and resorted to spreading rumors that he had been more than her jailer. By the
time of Mary’s execution Talbot's reputation was in tatters, his finances in ruin, and his health had deteriorated too.

By the end of 1587, Talbot was a broken man, from this time and up to his death he lived quietly at Handsworth Manor with Eleanor Britton, a servant in his household.

George Talbot was buried in the Shrewsbury Chapel of Sheffield Cathedral, where there is a magnificent
monument dedicated to him.

Katherine Grey

6/7/2016

This miniature is of Katherine Grey with her son, Edward Seymour.

Katherine was the second daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and Lady Frances Brandon, whose mother was a
sister of Henry VIII and whose father was Charles Brandon one of Henry VIII's closest friends. After her elder sister
Lady Jane Grey's execution, according to the Will of Henry VIII, Katherine was third in line to the throne of England and because of this the subject of who she should marry was of great importance.

In 1560 Katherine married, in secret, the nephew of Henry VIII's third wife Jane Seymour, and when the queen found out she was furious. She imprisoned the pregnant Katherine and her husband in the Tower of London, on the 24th September 1561, Katherine gave birth to a son Edward. Elizabeth immediately announced her intention to have Edward 'declared a bastard by Parliament'

Queen Elizabeth had no liking for the Grey family and I've never really known why, they were the children of her cousin and had Tudor blood in their veins surely they were a better option for the throne than that of her 'rival' and cousin Mary Queen of Scots.

At this point in time, Elizabeth was a mixture of emotions, she was fiery, quick-tempered, and vain and had a jealous
streak that ran through her, and who could blame her? No real choice of husband for her, she wanted to marry Robert Dudley, but royal duties and her heart's desire were not compatible and in the end, she chose not to marry.

Was jealousy the reason for Elizabeth's anger against Katherine's marriage? Did she ask herself why her cousin should be able to marry for love and without her permission, and have a son and heir too?

Whilst in the Tower of London Katherine Grey gave birth to another son which enraged Elizabeth even more causing her to order Katherine's separation from Seymour and her younger son. Katherine, although released from the tower was never really free, for a while she was in the care of her uncle, Sir John Grey. After being in the care of two more 'jailers' she died aged twenty-seven in 1568.

What of Katherine's sons?

Elizabeth refused to recognise Katherine's marriage as valid or to recognise Katherine's two boys as legitimate therefore Edward, the baby in the miniature was passed over as Elizabeth's heir.