The sad end of the House of Tudor's most tragic queen

 

On a cold winter's day, the teenager who had once been Queen of England met a tragic fate within the walls of her former realm's greatest fortress. Catherine Howard, consort to Henry VIII for 15 brief months before her downfall, was executed at the Tower of London on February 13th 1542. Her title of queen had been removed almost three months earlier as she faced allegations of betraying the king through adultery. And on that grey morning, the final part of her story unfolded.

Tudor Queens and the name Catherine

 

It's got quite the claim to being THE Tudor name for Queens. Three of Henry VIII's consorts were called Catherine. They spelled it differently to one another but it's the same name. And there is every chance two of his six wives were only called Catherine because of another of his queens who may well have been given the name because of a scandalous affair that threatened the stability of the monarchy centuries earlier.

Queens of England burial places: Jane Seymour

She was the wife that Henry VIII wanted everyone to remember because she was the wife that gave him the son he hoped would rule and strengthen his kingdom.  And because of that, Jane Seymour was given pride of place beside the much married monarch in his funeral plans.  Queen Jane, consort of England for just 15 months, was buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor in November 1537 and joined there by Henry less than ten years later, in January 1547.  Their graves lie in the best position in the chapel, right in front of the altar.  And yet now, among the tourist rush, it is easy to walk by the stone which remembers Henry VIII and his third wife.

Jane Seymour, Queen of England 1536 - 1537

Queen Jane's death was unexpected and sudden and shocking.  On October 9th 1537, she had gone into labour in her rooms at Hampton Court Palace but the birth of her child would take three days and leave her exhausted and very ill.  Although some reports show her in good humour in the hours immediately after the delivery of her son, Henry's longed for heir, on October 12th 1537 others tell us that the queen was already fragile by the time Edward made his appearance.  Queen Jane was present at her son's christening, on October 15th 1537, but began to deteriorate very soon after that.  She died just twelve days after giving Henry his longed for son and her body was taken to Windsor.  She was given a queen's funeral, the only one of Henry's wives to receive that honour, and she was laid to rest in the grand tomb in front of the altar in St George's Chapel that her husband had been planning for himself.

Jane Seymour is given pride of place in the Remgius portrait commissioned to show the splendour of the Tudor dynasty.  As mother of its third king she stands in the front of the picture 

Today, its central position in this ancient royal home is sometimes easy to miss as hundreds throng St George's Chapel to take in centuries of regal history.  The stone that marks the resting place of Jane is simple, a plain black stone with gold engraving that notes that the queen was buried in a vault beneath.  The same stone commemorates Henry as well as Charles I whose body was brought to WIndsor and placed in the same grave on the orders of Queen Victoria.  Also buried there is an infant child of Queen Anne.

Jane Seymour's grave in St George's Chapel, Windsor

Queen Jane is very much a mysterious figure in British history.  She is known as the wife who gave Henry VIII the son he so desperately wanted but her reign was so short that her legacy is limited.  In many ways, her death became the most documented part of her queenship.  We know that after she had died, mourning took place at Hampton Court Palace with black cloths hung around her coffin before it was taken to the chapel there where her ladies kept a vigil by their queen through the day and religious men kept watch by night.  On November 12th 2014, the queen's body was taken to Windsor for her funeral with Henry's eldest child, the Lady Mary, as chief mourner.  Henry, as was usual at the time, did not attend the short ceremony - the first funeral for a queen of England for thirty five years.  In the months after Jane Seymour's funeral her reputation as the mother of the new Tudor dynasty began to take shape.  Her son, soon Prince of Wales, was the hope of his royal house and his country and Jane's reputation was based on that.  It could be based on little else as her queenship had lasted less than eighteen months.  But by giving Henry VIII his much longed for son, she secured a place in history.  And it is perhaps one of the main reasons she is buried alongside her king at the very heart of Britain's royal history.

A royal sum for an old bed

A broken up bed found in a car park in Chester could end up going under the auctioneer's hammer for several million pounds - and all because of its royal connections.  The bed was sold four years ago to an auctioneer who was told it was a Victorian piece.  He paid around £2,000 for it.  It's now thought to be early Tudor - very early Tudor, in fact.  The bed is believed to have been one of the first used by Henry VII after he married Elizabeth of York and some historians think it may have been the place that Henry VIII was conceived.

Henry VIII, King of England and one of the most famous royals of all time - historians now think they have found the place where his epic journey began

An engraving of Adam and Eve was what first made historians think that the bed was a royal relic rather than a Victorian leftover.  And because of its link to Henry VII, his queen Elizabeth and Henry VIII it's gone up in value.  Just a bit.  It's now thought it could be worth around £20 million.

Not a bad return for £2,000 - the royal bed which could now fetch £20 million

Obviously, the new owner will have to buy a new mattress but otherwise the bed is in pretty good condition.  It will probably end up in a museum or historical collection which might be for the best - is the world really ready for another Henry VIII?

The birth of one of England's saddest queens

The little girl born at the Palace of Pleasance in London on this day in 1516 had, quite literally, a whole world at her feet.  And yet this same baby princess would grow up into a sad, lonely woman who could not get happiness to stick at her side however hard she tried.  Mary, princess of the House of Tudor and descendant of some of Europe's greatest monarchs, would make history by becoming England's first queen regnant.  But despite claiming that historic crown - as much through her own determination and charm as through birthright - Mary I, Queen of England is remembered by history as Bloody Mary, as a shadow that had to pass before the brightness of the reign of her half-sister, Elizabeth I.  And much of the blame for that can be laid at the feet of the man who celebrated her birth so fervently on this day in 1516, her father - Henry VIII.

The grim faced, ridiculed woman left to history began life as a much adored daughter and the hope of her father's dynasty.  Mary I, Queen of England, made history but lost many friends along the way.

Mary's arrival at the Palace of Placentia (translated by some as Pleasance) was celebrated as the birth of a royal child and proof that boys would yet arrive for a king who had now ruled England for seven years and his wife, Catherine.  But Mary would be their only child and just one more pregnancy would follow.   By the time Mary was ten, her father was trying to work out who to move her mother aside and replace her with the woman who already fascinated him, Anne Boleyn.   Henry treated his daughter harshly, removing her from the succession when he removed her mother as his queen, and then banning Catherine and Mary from seeing one another even when the latter was dying. Mary had his strong will but the more she showed it, the more he tried to repress it.  But perhaps the saddest part of this father/ daughter dynamic is Henry's refusal to find a husband for his daughter who quite clearly yearned to be married and to be a mother herself.  

Henry VIII kept his daughter on a tight leash and left her a lonely woman with little hope of personal happiness 

By the time the king died, in 1547, Mary was almost 31 years old and hardly the most marriageable princess in Europe.  When she became queen, in 1553, and could command more attention as a royal wife she chose a cousin, Philip II, to whom she was devoted but who showed little inclination to even spend time with her.  As he rejected her, and her chances of motherhood disappeared, Mary became an increasingly sad figure.  Her religious fervour lost her the love of her people which had been plain for all to see when she rode to London to claim the throne after the declaration of Lady Jane Grey as queen on the death of Edward VI.  By taking the throne in 1553 she made history by becoming England's first queen regnant and changing the very concept of monarchy in one brave move.  In her youth, Mary showed every sign of sharing the brilliance and intelligence of her much feted half sister, Elizabeth I.  But while Elizabeth became Gloriana, the first female regnant became Bloody Mary whose short reign came nowhere near to delivering the spectacle its very existence promised.  

Catherine of Aragon's finest hour

The queen who ruled England in 1514 is among the most famous women to be a consort of the country but it is the troubled end to her reign that dominates her life story.  However, in 1514 Catherine of Aragon was all powerful, the perfect partner to her dynamic and younger husband, Henry VIII.  Five hundred years ago there was no sign of the things for which Catherine is best known by history - no shadow of divorce, of Anne Boleyn, of only daughters to succeed their father, of public parading of her personal life.  In 1514, Catherine was the queen who had it all - just about - and every hope of having even more as time went on.

Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England between 1509 and 1533 as the first consort of Henry VIII

In 1514, Catherine was a queen who had just completed a successful stint as regent of England.  Henry had left his kingdom in her care while he went to fight in France and during her tenure, the Battle of Flodden Field was fought between English and Scottish troops with the queen consort riding north to address her army even though she was in the final stages of pregnancy at the time (Catherine gave birth to a stillborn son in October 1513).  Her speech was reported across Europe and her time as regent hailed, generally, a success. Five hundred years ago, Catherine of Aragon was as powerful a consort as England had known in decades. But history would mean that was all forgotten by the time her story came to be told.

England's first queen Catherine

That most intriguing of medieval heroines, Catherine of Valois, died on this day in 1437.  The dowager queen of England, otherwise known as Mrs Tudor, had retired to Bermondsey Abbey, probably to give birth. but soon after her arrival there, she died.  However, her death is mysterious because of some reports of words attributed to her as she made her will.  They refer to release from the pain she is suffering, release from her long standing malady and this has led some historians to question the cause of the queen's death.  The first Catherine to rule England continues to fascinate.

Catherine of Valois, queen consort of England, was the mother of one king and the ancestress of a ling of monarchs who would shape her adopted country to their own ends and to great success

It is generally thought that Catherine died in childbirth.  She is known to have had three sons by her second husband, Owen Tudor, and at least one daughter.  Whether the baby she is believed to have died delivering in 1437 is that girl or another child is a mystery.  But then whether Catherine was actually pregnant when she entered Bermondsey is still something of a mystery.  Because of the circumstances of her second marriage, the births of all her children by Owen Tudor happened away from court and so aren't really documented.  We know that her three sons with him existed because they exist in later records .  Edmund became the father of Henry Tudor, late Henry VII, although he died before his only child was born.  Jasper helped raise Henry and fight for the crown for him.  Owen became a monk.  But the existence of a fourth and fifth child is little more than a link in one history or the other.  

Henry VII, King of England, and grandson of Catherine of Valios

The fact that her second husband, Owen Tudor, was arrested so soon after her death (even though he managed to talk his way out of that tight spot) shows that the acceptance of their union was superficial and lasted only as long as this French princess turned English queen consort then English queen dowager and French king mother was alive.  And it also shows how marginalised Catherine and her second family had become.  Her son by her first husband was king of England and of France and held his second crown partly thanks to descent from Catherine but her role in his life was limited and despite her royal pedigree and the importance her blood line had played in claiming the French crown for England, the queen was a person of little consequence at her boy king son's court.

A later imagining of the marriage of Catherine of Valois and Henry V of England - their union led to their son, Henry VI, being king of both England and France

But her blood line also brought problems with it.  Her father, Charles, had suffered a serious bout of mental ill health which had turned him from a dynamic and energetic ruler into a puppet.  And there is no doubt that Catherine's eldest son, Henry VI, suffered similar problems.  His illness was shown in almost exactly the same way as his grandfather's - both fell into a stupor and refused to communicate at some point in their lives.  But did this genetic inheritance of mental health issues affect Catherine as well?  Those words that are sometimes attributed to her at her death, of freedom from a long standing illness, are taken by some to indicate that this pretty princess who changed the course of European history and founded a dynasty that would do the same all over again less than a century later, was also suffering from psychological and emotional ill issues.

  

An earlier interpretation of the marriage of Catherine of Valois and Henry V - did the queen suffer from the same mental health problems as her father and her son?

The almost overnight change in the personality of Catherine's most famous descendant, her great grandson Henry VIII, perhaps also shows the strength of the genetic predisposition to psychological problems.  Henry was a strong, dynamic king in the early part of his reign but from 1536 became almost tyrannical in his determination to rule England the way he saw fit.  Is it possible that Catherine, too, suffered torments and realised she was becoming like her father before her?  

Henry VIII, Catherine of Valois' most famous descendant, underwent a change in personality in his late thirties and early forties

She left no writings of her own so we will never know.  And she was carefully edited out of history, first by the court of her eldest son who saw her marriage to a servant as little more than a scandal that must be permitted to limit its damage and then by the Tudors who had had enough of independent women like Catherine by the time they came to cast their story in pen and ink.  But the little we do know of this fascinating queen indicates a passion and determination that can be seen at work in her brilliant, bright and short lived dynasty of kings and queens in the 16th century.  And leaves enough of a question mark over what that mysterious illness was that claimed her life on January 3rd 1437.

  

The funeral of Henry VIII's last queen

Katherine Parr, last wife of Henry VIII, outlived her husband by just 18 months.  On his death in January 1547 she became queen dowager and expected to have large role in the running of his kingdom, now ruled by his young son, Edward VI.  On her death, in September 1548, she was a sidelined figure stuck in the middle of the beautiful but remote Gloucestershire countryside.  Her funeral, which took place on September 9th 1548, went virtually unremarked.  But it was as exceptional and game changing as the queen herself had been in life.

Katherine Parr, last wife of Henry VIII, was the first public figure in England to be given a public Protestant funeral

Queen Katherine of England died after giving birth to her only child, Mary, the daughter of her fourth marriage to Thomas Seymour.  Her little girl was just a few days old when Katherine succumbed to childbed fever at Sudeley Castle near Winchcombe in the heart of the Cotswolds.  While little Mary was in her cradle being cared for by nurses, Katherine's funeral procession wound through the picture perfect grounds of Sudeley to its chapel where she was laid to rest.  But it was her funeral service that really changed things.  Katherine was the first public figure to be given a public Protestant funeral.

The 2012 re-enactment of Katherine Parr's funeral at St Mary's Church in Sudeley, Gloucestershire

Katherine was a devoted follower of the new form of religion that was sweeping Europe.  It had almost lost her the crown she won in 1543 when she married Henry as her religious views won her enemies and her writings and conversations on it had started to annoy her husband who didn't like his queens to show too many interests of their own.  But Kate had reined her faith back in until Henry's death and kept her head into the bargain.

The ruins of the earlier Sudeley Castle where Katherine Parr spent the last months of her life

The simple Protestant ceremony of Katherine's funeral was a marked contrast to the spectacle that had marked royal burials until then.  Just a handful of mourners, led by Lady Jane Grey, attended the service for the queen of England.  The words of the service was plain and the burial itself had none of the pomp other queen consorts had been laid to rest with.  The White Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, had been given a simple funeral ceremony but that had been widely criticized for its lack of honour for a former queen consort.  Katherine's funeral made religious history but its doubtful whether anyone outside her circle noticed.  By the time of her death, power was concentrated in the hands of her fourth husband's family and the woman who had once ruled England as regent faded into history with little fanfare.

The peaceful countryside around Sudeley has remained pretty much unchanged in the years since her death although the castle itself was rebuilt along with a lodge after Cromwell's forces attacked in the 17th century

Last year, an reenactment of her funeral was held with commentary by Dr David Starkey at Sudeley Castle.  To modern eyes, the service was elaborate but for the people of the brave new world of Tudor England it was a barely noticeable farewell for their former queen. Katherine still rests at Sudeley and her tomb can be visited when touring the castle.  Its simple memorial plaque is humble and sensible, very like Katherine herself, but just like Henry's last Kate liked to do it also reminds those who look on it that once she was Queen of England.

Photos of Sudeley: Lydia Starbuck

Henry VIII's most illustrious wife

Today marks the anniversary of the death of a woman who ruled England as regent and shaped the destiny of three of its monarchs.  Catherine Parr is often written off as the dumpy, plain, dull wife who married Henry VIII at the end of his life when his grumpiness, fatness and dictatorial tendencies had reached their peak.  Victorian biographers portrayed her tending the wounds on his legs and reading him stories as he creaked towards death.  For many she is number six on the list, labeled as survived on the run down of the fates of the wives of the merry monarch.  But the reality is far more interesting than that.  Catherine ruled England for her husband, reconciled him to his daughters, sorted out the succession crisis brewing as Henry's health ebbed away and most amazingly of all, she managed to persuade him not to cut off her head.  Catherine Parr can claim to be the most illustrious of Henry's wives and one of the greatest queen consorts in English history.

 

Kate the great - the last of Henry VIII's wives was more than a match for him.  She became the most solid mother figure that either Edward VI or Elizabeth I had ever known

 

Katherine Parr was number six on a long list but she was far from a carbon copy of Henry's other wives.  There are superficial similarities.  Like Katherine Howard she, too, was named after Henry's first wife, Catherine Parr.  Like Jane Seymour she came from lowly noble stock - her father was a minor noble called Sir Thomas Parr while her mother, Maud Green, was the daughter of another Sir.  Like Anne of Cleves she was well versed in the art of making and keeping a comfortable home.  But scratch beneath the surface and the clues as to why Catherine Parr was able to survive her marriage to Henry VIII and wield power over his children are all there.

Catherine Parr married Henry in 1543 when she was 31 - the oldest of his brides

 

It's the things she had in common with Henry's first two wives that provide the earliest indications of why she ended up being more than a match for her husband.  Like Catherine of Aragon, she had been married before and this made a huge difference to the way in which she handled history's most difficult to please husband.  While Catherine of Aragon denied that her union with Arthur, Prince of Wales had ever been consummated, she couldn't deny that they had lived at the head of a household as husband and wife for six months.  She had begun to learn the art of running a household and of commanding the areas of their joint lives where she, as a woman, was expected to hold sway.  She had started to develop her own court and those political bonds that linked courtiers and saw great competition for favour.  And she had learned how to behave towards a husband in front of that household.  They were all lessons that Catherine Parr had practiced as well before she took the wedding vows that made her queen.  Knowing how to be the wife of an important man was vital to survival in Henry's court.  Anne Boleyn, for all her charm and intelligence, never worked out that once queen she had to adopt a different, more subservient persona to her husband - at least in public.  And her cousin, Catherine Howard, went one step further with indiscretions that were all but semi-public.  While Catherine Parr's first two husbands were minor aristocracy, they still had households to command and appearances to keep up.  Catherine's twenty years as a wife before her marriage to the king were vital in keeping her wedding ring on her finger not to mention her head on her shoulders.

 

Anne Boleyn had much in common with Catherine Parr but didn't share her common sense - perhaps the main reason she lost her head while Catherine kept hers

And like Anne Boleyn, Catherine Parr was a staunch believer in the new Protestant religion then sweeping Europe.  This adherence to a new form of worship singled her out in those times.  While Henry had created a Church of England to allow him to divorce Catherine of Aragon, he never gave up his original way of believing.  But Anne and Catherine Parr were far more engrossed in the reforming nature of the new way of faith.  Catherine Parr went so far as to publish works on it.  And Henry, for all his domineering ways, liked his wives to be bright.  Catherine, like Anne, had a mind of her own.  Luckily for her, she knew when to show it and when to keep it to herself.

Henry VIII enjoyed a challenge but not if he was going to keep losing to the challenger

 

But for that strong streak of tact running through her, the anniversary of her death might fall on a different day.  Because at some point in 1545, Henry VIII became annoyed at his wife's preaching and chattering about religion and began to listen to those who wanted rid of the queen.  By that point, Catherine had assumed power not concentrated in a consort's hands for the best part of three decades.  She had been appointed regent for her husband when he went to France in 1544 and managed the council so well that she was able to issue proclamations in her own name and do pretty much as she saw fit.  The only other time Henry had appointed a wife to rule in his place was in 1513 when Catherine of Aragon ruled his kingdom for him while he was on a French military campaign.  But while the first Catherine had then sunk into the background again when her still young and fit husband returned, the last Catherine retained a huge amount of influence as her Henry was older and less fit.  Her power annoyed many and a plot against her began.

 

Catherine of Aragon, like Catherine Parr, was trusted enough by her husband to run his country for him while he went on military campaign

Her Protestant beliefs were also causing suspicion and two of the king's counselors began to turn him against her.  But when Catherine learned that they had managed to get her husband to agree to an arrest warrant to take her into custody while her beliefs and possessions were examined, she did what no one else had ever done.  She talked Henry out of an execution.  Catherine took to her bed, claiming she was ill and no one was allowed near her.  She then threw herself on her king and told him that she had only become so well versed in these new, reforming opinions so that she could talk to him and take his mind off his sore legs.  It worked.  When the soldiers with the arrest warrant found her in the garden with the king the following day, Henry sent them packing.  And Catherine did what Anne never did.  She went back to quiet, meek, mild and subservient and outlived Henry.

Catherine Parr had been a great influence on Edward VI during her marriage to his father but was all but cut out of his life and upbinging on Henry VIII's death

 

Her death, eighteen months after that of the king, was a shock.  But then she spent her widowhood surprising everyone. She had married within months of Henry's demise.  Before her marriage to the king, rumours at court linked her to the brother of Henry VIII's dead third wife.  Thomas Seymour was a stunner - unlike sister, Jane, who had been described as plain on more than one occasion - and whispers linked his name to that of Catherine until the king took a fancy to her and sent him abroad for a while.  On the king's death she made Mr Seymour her fourth husband and for the first time in almost twenty years of marriage, Catherine became pregnant.  She gave birth to a little girl called Mary at the end of August but died of puerperal fever on September 5th 1548.  She is buried at the romantic castle where she lived with Thomas Seymour. 

The barn at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, the romantic castle where Catherine Parr spent the last few months of her life

 

The real story of Catherine and Thomas is for another blog post or two or three.  This one is to mark the amazing career of a woman who was queen of England for just three and a half years but whose legacy is huge.  Because Catherine's other advantage, having been a wife, was understanding how families worked.  And as she had been a good stepmother to the children of her second husband, so she repeated the work with those of her third.  In her time as wife to Henry VIII, he was reconciled to his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth.  And Edward, his son by Jane Seymour, referred to her as his Lady Mother.  Catherine also had a deep interest in education and her encouragement in particular of Elizabeth's learning led to some crediting the girl born Miss Parr with the creation of one of England's greatest monarchs.

Elizabeth I was shaped in many ways by Catherine Parr

 

Her death was mourned by all three of her royal stepchildren and her funeral was led by another royal figure who had gone to her last home at Sudeley Castle to learn and find comfort in Catherine's warm embrace.  Lady Jane Grey's guardianship rested with Thomas Seymour and the young girl spent a happy few months under the tutelage of the dowager queen at Sudeley.  When Catherine was buried there in September 1548, Jane was chief mourner.

 

Catherine Parr, Queen of England, 1543 - 1547

Catherine didn't have the sex appeal, sizzle or searing ambition of Anne Boleyn and there's no doubt that had Anne not nabbed herself the King of England then Catherine would never have won a consort's crown either.  Anne opened up the possibility that just about anyone with the right connections could be Queen of England regardless of a lack of blue blood.  When Catherine Parr was born in 1512 the idea that she might rule the land she lived in was absurd.  On her death she had not only proved herself an able monarch but she'd created three more in her own image as well.

 



The woman who unwittingly changed British history

History is full of ifs and buts.  If, if, if....the nagging wonder of what might have happened if just one thing had been slightly different.  But, but, but...but for a tiny moment, what might have been?  So how about this if?  If one woman, born today in 1491, had been slightly more interested in song, dance and storytelling might the whole history of England have been different?

 

Henry VIII's life and reign might have been very different if a woman born on this day in 1491 had been slightly jollier

Maria of Julich-Berg.  Not a name that trips off the tongue first thing in answer to the question of which woman influenced the history of the English crown.  She was born in Julich in northern Gremany, the only daughter of the area's ruler.  Duke Wilhelm IV had been married to wife number two for ten years by the time baby Maria arrived and unless his latest Duchess, Sybille, produced a son their little girl would be the last of his line.  By the time Maria was five it was clear no boy would arrive and Duke Wilhelm negotiated a treaty with his neighbour, the Duke of Cleves.  Julich would become part of a bigger duchy on Wilhelm's death and Maria would marry John, the heir of the Duke of Cleves.

 John II, Duke of Cleves presumably looked slightly happier when he finalized the deal to unify his country with Julich-Berg and leave his son and heir a far wealthier man than he had been

Maria and John married in 1510 and on Wilhelm's death in 1511, John took his title.  By the time John II of Cleves died ten years later, making little John duke of a big area now known as Julich-Cleves-Berg, Maria had had four children and was heavily involved in how they were being brought up.  And that's where the 'if' comes in.

John III, Duke of Cleves, ruled a sizeable part of northern Europe and that made his three daughters very valuable on the royal marriage market

If Maria had approved of educating girls, if Maria had thought it a good idea to train her daughters in the courtly pursuits of song, dance and flirting then might England never have known Mary I and Elizabeth I as queen regnants?  The thing was Maria really didn't approve of girls getting an education.  She was a strict mother and teaching her girls how to charm, how to play musical instruments and sing wasn't on the list.  At all.  Instead, the three girls were taught to cook, to sew and to weave.  And while that was fine while they attended her at the court of Cleves, once daddy opened up negotiations for their marriages the problems began. 

Six Dukes of Cleves including the great grandfather, grandfather and father of Anne, fourth of the six wives of Henry VIII

 

While Maria was still medieval in her plans for her girls, the Cleves clan were on the up and looking to the future.  In 1539, Duke John started talking to Henry VIII's advisers about marrying one of his daughters to the king.  Henry was now a widower - his last wife, Jane Seymour, had died in childbirth two years earlier and of course both Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon were dead too.  For about the only time in his reign, the monarch's marital record was back to scratch and his counselors wanted to make the most of this relatively peaceful time to make a good match abroad that would help both king and country.  Duke John had two unmarried daughters, Amalia and Anne, and the Tudor court was ready to admit one of them.

 

 

Sybille of Cleves was the eldest daughter of the duchess who didn't do dancing but luckily for her, she was already married by the time Henry VIII came looking for a new wife

 

Even with the King of England knocking on the door offering a wedding ring, Maria didn't see the point in changing course.  She allowed a court painter to make an image of her two unmarried girls but that was the only concession to a possible crown that she offered.  Cooking and cleaning remained on the curriculum and while Henry studied the two portraits, their two subjects continued their rather fusty way of life, little knowing the consequences.

 

 

 

The famous portrait of Anne of Cleves which won her the hand of Henry VIII and cost his adviser, Thomas Cromwell, his head. 

 

Henry, of course, chose Anne and at the end of 1539 she packed up her rather unfashionable clothes and her sewing and recipe books and sailed for England to become its queen. The king had a two year old son but he needed more boys to secure his dynasty.  This 24 year old bride was to provide a Duke of York and plenty more besides.  But it was loathing on first sight for the 47 year old king and every second spent in the company of his fourth queen made matters worse.

 

As well as being flattered by the portrait sent to woo a king, Anne was a fish out of water in Henrys high spirited and cultured court.  Whereas the first of his queens called Anne had been lively, quick witted, interested in music and courtly romance, this second one stared at it all in bemusement and could barely understand what was being said to her, let alone set the room alight with sparkling conversation.  And while Henry may have been steering clear of another woman who might challenge him as much as Mistress Boleyn had, he wanted something more than Anne.  Antonia Fraser argues that Anne of Cleves lack of learning was a major factor in her being divorced less than six months after her marriage.

 

 

Anne of Cleves - she was very monochrome in comparison to the women who had entranced Henry

 

 

Other historians point out that among the young women lined up to be ladies in waiting to the new queen and in situ for her arrival in England was Catherine Howard.  It's not clear whether Henry had laid eyes on her before Anne stepped off her ship or whether the fateful meeting came soon afterwards but Catherine was in the king's sphere and his heart within weeks of his fourth queen landing in England.  This merry monarch had taken on a Church and an Empire to be rid of one royal wife so as he could marry a commoner from the Howard family and it may be that once he'd seen Catherine nothing was going to stop him doing the same again if he had to.

 

 

 

Catherine Howard - Henry may already have fallen for her charms by the time he first saw

Anne of Cleves

 

 

If Henry had already fallen for Catherine then there was little that Anne could do to win him over.  But there's also little doubt that had this fourth queen been slightly more accomplished at court she might have been able to manipulate the situation more to her own advantage. As it was, Anne won few friends in her short stint as queen.  And while that may be because the fickle world of Tudor politics meant no one was ready to side with a woman who was clearly not in the king's favour, her lack of learning and inability to charm and lead the singing and dancing made her a laughing stock from the very beginning.  If she had been just a little more sophisticated it might have been much harder to throw her over.  All Anne needed was one son and the whole course of English history might have been different.

 

But ifs and buts count for nothing. As it was, Maria saw her second daughter become queen of England before being relegated to the role of King's Sister.  But that was a wealthy job in itself and Anne lived comfortably in England and outlived her king by ten years.  Which is, of course, more than can be said for Catherine Howard who was dead within two years of marriage.  Anne of Cleves may have failed to please her king and failed to provide an heir but she succeeded where all but one of his other wives failed.  She survived her husband.

 

 











Being Anne Boleyn

The poll asks who is England's most misunderstood Queen Consort and the choice is between three of the most high profile and notorious women to wear the crown.  I'll try and keep it brief - a quick upsum for each of them of why I think they could be misunderstood and why the negatives might be telling the whole story.  I've started another debate on the group board as well so please do join in!

Queens of England Board

So starting with Anne - has history really got her that wrong?

The ultimate marmite queen - from the day she became noticed at court to the present day, Anne always gets people talking

That's a difficult question to address because history presents us with several different Annes.  There's the sexy, sultry, super clever seductress who wound one of England's most powerful kings around her little finger and got him to change his known world to make her queen.  There's the woman killed by her husband after a show trial, a martyr.  There's a clever political adviser who was as integral a part of Henry's council as any man but who got too powerful for her enemies.  There's the social climber who bit off more than she could chew.  Or how about the over ambitious girl who thought her king loved her so much she could do whatever she wanted - and who got things fatally wrong?

A 19th century etching showing Henry and Anne reconciling.  Their tempestuous relationship still puzzles historians, five hundred years after they first met

Ambition, determination and self belief all shine through however you tell Anne's story.  As does the idea that the divorce from Catherine was all down to her.  And yet didn't Henry gain far more from dispensing with his first wife that Anne did? 

Did dumping a royal wife and marrying a commoner make Henry more powerful?

 

Sometimes it's forgotten how clever Anne really was.  She would have known better than anyone that if Henry could get rid of one wife, he could get rid of another.  She may have thought she was a match for anyone that tried to undermine her and she may have thought Henry would stick to divorce rather than the shocking events that led to her death in May 1536.  But she knew that marriage to the king was just one step on the way rather than the end of the story and a chance to put her feet up.

But Henry, ultimately, got a lot more from the marriage.  I've always been really interested in Henry's devotion to his maternal grandfather, Edward IV.  He put him on a pedestal early on in his life and kept him there to the very end.  And Henry's marriage to Anne bears all the hallmarks of Edward's marriage.  But did Henry find that copying history was harder than he imagined?

Edward IV, King of England and grandfather of Henry VIII - did a desire to be like granddad have as much influence on his decision to divorce and marry again as his attraction to Anne Boleyn?

Edward was born the son of one of the most powerful men in England but one who never wore the crown despite a strong claim to it and despite managing the kingdom for many years.  Edward himself became king thanks to the support of Warwick the Kingmaker but within a few years of taking power he defied his greatest adviser by marrying a commoner - despite Warwick being about to seal a deal for a union with a French princess.  Romantic tellings of the story show love conquering all but by marrying Elizabeth Woodville, Edward clipped Warwick's wings and made one of his first big stands as a king who was independent of his council.  And as previous councils and advisers had been instrumental in creating the turmoil that had swirled through England for decades in the War of the Roses, ruling without them sometimes was one way of trying to bring peace and establish kingly authority.

Henry Arthur Payne's famous painting of the Houses of York and Lancaster choosing the white and red roses that would become their symbols.  Edward IV's father, Richard of York, is in the forefront of the painting holding the white rose of York.

Edward's choice of bride also provided a great opportunity for some serious divide and rule.  His Queen Consort had a gaggle of brothers and sisters who could be married off to every wealthy heir and heiress going - and while some historians argue this was all Elizabeth's doing to further her family, Edward gained a great deal by making sure that great chunks of cash and land didn't fall into the hands of anyone who might be able to get big enough to challenge for the throne.  It also stopped Warwick making any more potential kings through strategic marriages among the myriad of people who could lay claim to the throne because of descent from Edward III. 

And by marrying Anne, Henry did pretty much the same.  Firstly, he showed his council that he could pick a bride for himself.  Any question of replacing Katherine of Aragon would need the king to provide an answer.  In fact of all six wives of Henry VIII, his advisers picked just one.  Thomas Cromwell was instrumental in the choice of Anne of Cleves - Henry hated her on first sight, refused to sleep with her, let it be known publicly he wouldn't consummate the marriage and had Cromwell executed within weeks of divorcing her.  A pretty strident rejection of courtly matchmaking.

 

Anne of Cleves endured one of the worst blind dates in history

 



But back to Anne.  She was Henry's choice and a very public one at that.  So he had established who chose the queen.  And just like Edward again, he was confident enough in his stature as king to select someone who needed him to make her royal as his bride.  Kings had always married royalty or nobility, partly for the alliances and allegiances the weddings brought with them and partly because it enhanced their prestige.  Because if you weren't sure of your throne, if others could question your role as a divinely appointed monarch, then a royal wife helped answer some of those doubts.  But Edward and Henry had no doubt they should be king and no doubt that if anyone disagreed, they could deal with it.

 

And lastly, just like granddad, marrying Anne allowed Henry to shake up his advisers and keep his court on their toes.  Anne came with an ambitious father and brother who wanted to go further and she was part of the Howard family which was used to royal favour but who needed to keep it.  Like Edward, Henry chose a wife whose relations needed him but whose kith and kin would fall if he chose to let them. 

 

 

Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, was uncle to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard

 

Henry's grandfather had relied on his wife's relatives for advice and counsel and Anne's brother also had a prominent role at court. But while the Woodville brothers arrogance was tolerated, George Boleyn's attitude started to win him enemies.  Unlike Edward, Henry didn't wait to see if time would be a great healer.  But perhaps most tellingly, Henry chose a wife who didn't provide nearly enough blood relatives to marry off to the fortunes that needed to be kept close to the crown.  And less than three years after making her Anne his queen, Henry found a family that was a bit more useful in that regard.  Enter the Seymours.

 

So with all the benefits that their marriage brought to Henry - was Anne really the schemer that history portrays or a willing participant in a political act that she could never have imagined would end in the way it did?



A third Queen Jane for England?

With less than a week to go until the royal baby is due, what about a look at some of the names of previous Queen Consorts that just really aren't going to make it.  OK, it's a risk.  In the next month there could well be a humble pie eating entry on why Jane or Berengaria or Adeliza was always going to be the name of a Cambridge princess but for now, they're definitely on the unlikely list.

Jane isn't the most auspicious name a queen of England has ever had.  It's a very English name which is probably why it's not been that common among queen consorts who were usually picked from European royalty.  But at some point that all changed when Henry VIII took a fancy to the second daughter of an extremely ambitious family.  Jane Seymour then became caught up in one of the most dramatic stories in royal history. 

 

Jane Seymour is a divisive figure among historians seen as either an obedient, gentle wife or a schemer who used mild manners to dispose of Anne Boleyn

There is nothing from her early life to suggest she sought or craved drama, power or the queen's crown.  And yet opinion on this third queen of the eighth Henry is as divided now as it was in her own time.  When Jane emerged as the king's favourite some commentators described her a plain, pale, almost insipid looking.  Others called her the prettiest of his wives.  All agreed that she wasn't particularly well educated or interested in books or learning, preferring the more stereotypically female pursuits of sewing and looking after the home.  But while some saw her as a gentle, genteel antidote to the ferociously determined and aggressively ambitious second queen that had turned Henry and his kingdom upside down, others perceived a ruthless manipulator who worked with her equally unscrupulous family to grab the throne at the first opportunity.

 

Savernake Forest - Jane Seymour grew up in Wulfhall, Savernake in Wiltshire

(photo Brian Robert Marshall)

Jane was born around 1508, the second daughter of John Seymour and Margery Wentworth.  She served at court and was a lady in waiting to Queen Catherine, most likely entering her service just before Henry VIII divorced her.  The fall of Anne Boleyn is so dramatic and still so poorly understood that it's not clear when Jane entered royal affections.  We do know that she was well in place in Henry's heart by the beginning of May 1536 when Anne was arrested.  In fact, even by Henry's standards his decision to become betrothed to Mistress Seymour within a day of Anne's execution was seen as shocking.  Jane became Queen Consort number three on May 30th 1536 after a quiet wedding at Whitehall Palace.

Another image of Jane Seymour - some contemporaries called her plain, others beyond beautiful but in the heavily political world of Henry VIII's court every description was laden with side taking and points scoring

Jane was never crowned queen of England, possibly because there was an outbreak of plague in London at the time of her marriage or possibly because it was only three years since Henry had spent a fortune on a massive and elaborate coronation for Anne Boleyn which proved unpopular and led to the king and his second queen being laughed at as they processed through the streets of the capital.  Instead, Jane confined herself to courtly and queenly duties.  Her main preoccupation seems to have been to restore the fortunes of Mary, the only child of Catherine of Aragon.  Henry's first queen had died at the beginning of 1536 and Jane argued for her daughter to be restored to the line of succession - behind any of her own children.  She failed in that but did bring Henry and his eldest daughter back together.

 

Mary Tudor, later Mary I, as a young girl.  She was18 when her mother died and had been excluded from the line of succession for three years.  Queen Jane Seymour argued loudly for her restoration and secured a reconciliation between Henry VIII and his eldest daughter

Her pregnancy in 1537 led to her withdrawal from public life and she gave birth to Henry's longed for son in October that year but died of complications less than two weeks after the delivery.  She was the only one of Henry's consorts to be given a queen's funeral and when the king died he asked to be buried next to her.  Their grave can still be seen in St George's Chapel, Windsor.

 

Queen Jane Seymour takes pole position in this portrait commissioned by Henry VIII showing the origins of the House of Tudor.  The king stands at the front with his third wife.  Behind them are his parents, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York

So was Jane a saint or a schemer?  Her family was certainly ambitious even by Tudor standards.  While Henry VIII was still alive they kept their ambitions in check although the king clipped the wings of one brother, Thomas, by sending him overseas when he heard of a growing attraction between him and a certain Catherine Parr who became wife number six soon afterwards.  But following Henry's death and the accession of Edward VI, the Seymours ran out of control.  Thomas Seymour married Catherine Parr but soon made advances towards Henry's daughter, Elizabeth, which he increased when Catherine died in childbirth only 18 months after the king's death.  His plotting to gain more influence over Edward VI cost him his life.  His brother, Edward Seymour, gained enormous power on Henry's death and ruled for the boy king Edward VI for a while but he was executed in 1552 in another power struggle over the young king.

Edward VI, Jane's son.  He reigned for 6 years - and lost two of his maternal uncles to the executioner in that time

 

Whether Jane shared these ambitious or unwittingly found herself caught up in her family's determination to win power remains unknown.  She left no writings and her reign was so brief that there was little time for chroniclers to assess her personality or her influence over the king.  In 1536, soon after her marriage, the new queen asked her husband to parson some involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace but he refused and warned her not to interfere again with a subtle hint about what had happened to his previous wife who had meddled quite considerably in politics.  Jane was queen for just 17 months and provided the longed for male heir.  As far as the Tudor chroniclers were concerned, she was untouchable and her true character remains shrouded in mystery as a result.

Another famous portrait of Henry VIII and his family.  It's widely thought that the woman on his left hand side is Queen Jane Seymour, the wife who gave him the son he craved.

 

 



After the death of Jane Seymour, the name took a rather unfortunate turn as far as royal women were concerned.  In either 1536 or 1537 Henry VIII's niece, Lady Frances Grey, gave birth to a little girl.  Frances obviously had the sharp eye for politics that served the Tudors well because she named her daughter Jane, most likely after the queen.  Some chronicles state Lady Jane Grey was born on the same day as Edward VI but he exact date just isn't clear.  What is clear is that Jane was clever, precocious and loved to learn.  She enjoyed an amazing education for a girl at that time, with humanist teachings a mainstay of her upbringing.  As a result she was a staunch Protestant and her religion would cost her her life.

Lady Jane Grey was briefly proclaimed Queen Regnant of England.  As a ward of Thomas Seymour she was being lined up as a Queen Consort as he tried to arrange her marriage to Edward VI

 

Jane Grey became the ward of Jane Seymour's ultra ambitious and super suave brother, Thomas, just after the death of Henry VIII.  Within months he had married the king's widow and Jane now belonged to the household of the Queen Dowager, Catherine Parr, another staunch Protestant.  Princess Elizabeth came to live with them and while Seymour focussed his amorous intentions on the young princess, he tried to arrange a marriage between Jane and Edward VI.  Seymour was desperate for power but neither plan came to anything. Jane was questioned in the investigations into Seymour in 1549 that led to his execution for treason.  By then, Catherine was dead and Jane had been her main mourner.  The funeral was the first Protestant funeral for a public figure in English history.

 

 

 

 

Queen Catherine Parr, the last consort of Henry VIII, and a major influence on Lady Jane Grey

 

 

Jane's religion came to the fore again in 1553 when Edward VI lay dying.  He couldn't restore his Protestant sister, Elizabeth, to the succession without bringing back the older and Catholic Mary so he chose to leave his throne to Jane.  But Mary was hugely popular and within days had roused support and rode triumphantly to London where she deposed Queen Jane after nine days on the throne.

 

There's no doubt that Jane didn't want to be queen and was just a puppet of ambitious men who saw a chance to grab a throne that seemed in grave peril with no male heir to take it.  More plots followed and Jane was convicted of treason in November 1553 but it was thought her life would be spared.  However another revolt, again in her name but without her backing, in January 1554 sealed her fate and she was executed in February 1554 aged just 17.

 

So a queen who was either a murderous minx or a pawn and a tragic girl who just wanted to learn but who ended up losing her life because of the machinations of others.  I can't seen either of them inspiring the name for the first girl guaranteed to be Queen Regnant.