i Jn^ssESs^ Kia^s^^sS! '^ Hall's Chronioles, 1548. A. A. A. iii. b. ■ John Gough Nichols (1866). 28 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII first two Georges, at whose Courts the mistress was as necessary and recognised an appendage as the State officials. Among more recent writers. Brewer, in a passing reference to Eliza- beth, indicates her true status, ^ and Froude pays her the compliment of calling her an " accomphshed and most interesting " person. But all overlook the fact that her family in its antecedents had for long been intimately asso- ciated with the entourage of the Sovereign, and that her own position at the Court originated in this connexion. She was in fact one of the very young ladies in attendance on Queen Katherine (of Arragon) — a mere child when she is first found in the circle of the Court in 1512 — and for many years there was no cause to asso- ciate scandal with her name. The young King, it is generally admitted, was at this time a model of domestic habits, and during the early years of his married life — despite some tittle-tattlei about him and Lady FitzWalter, the Duke of Buckingham's sister ^ — his affections did not stray from his wife. » Brewer, Introduction to Letters and Papers ; and Reign of Henry VIII, vol. ii. p. 104. " Letter of Caroz, May 29, 1510. Spanish State Papers. 24, CHAPTER II BIRTH : PARENTAGE Date of Elizabeth's birth : Parentage : Parents' marriage in infancy ; An heiress mother ; Elizabeth's maternal grandfather : Ballad of Bosworth Field : Boy and girl parents : Maternal ancestors : The Stanleys of Elford : Paternal ancestors ; The Kinlet inheritance ; The origin of the ComwaUs : Early history of Kinlet : Saxon and Norman possessors : Fifteenth-century knighthood ; Small number of peers i Tudor changes : The royal household : Kinlet Church : A marriage procession in 1491 : Marriage settlement of EUzabeth's parents. The date of Elizabeth's birth may be placed in 1500, or perhaps in 1499, but it seems improbable that she was born earlier. Her parents were married in childhood in 1491.^ Her father, John Blount, out of a family of some twenty children, was the eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, who had been knighted by Henry VII at the battle of Stoke in 1487, on the occasion of the defeat of Lambert Simnel. Her mother was Katherine, heiress of Knightley, in Staffordshire, and of ' So stated in post-mortem inquisition of Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet. 25 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII many other manors in that county, the only (legitimate) child of Sir Hugh Peshall, or Persall, a soldier of the highest distinction, who, as Knight of the; Body to Henry VII, was 'in constant attendance on that King, Sir Hugh is mentioned in the " Ballad of Bosworth Field," with his brother-in-law. Sir Humphrey Stanley, among " four good knights " whom the Lord Stanley gives to Henry of Richmond at his request on the eve of the fight. The outline of the story bears the stamp of truth, but in strict accuracy he was of course not knighted by Henry of Richmond until, after the battle, the crown had been placed on Henry's head. During the three succeeding years to this memorable year of 1485, the name of Sir Hugh Peshall frequently occurs in the State records as being the recipient of large sums of money from Henry VII " by way of reward." He died as a young man in 1488, when his daughter Katherine was a httle child.^ John Blount at the time of his marriage to Katherine Peshall appears to have been not more than ten years old ; " he may well have » SirHugh had two illegitimate daughters, but his daughter Katherine is styled on her husband Sir John Blount's monument in Kinlet Church, " Unica filia et heres sola Hugonis Peshall, Mil." ' In Sir Thomas Blount's Post-mortem Inquisition, his son John 26 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII been some years younger. The younger he was the later must we place the birth of Elizabeth, and in that case the more remarkable would be her juvenility when she is found at Court in 1512, and in that case, also, we must suppose John Blount to have been a father at an age extraordinarily early even for those days, for he had at least one child older than EUzabeth.* Offspring at a very early age was not unusual in the fifteenth century, when family interest was concerned in the promotion of these pre- cocious unions, and the boy-and-girl couples were encouraged by their respective parents to fulfil at the earliest possible age the obligations they had entered into as children, for it was a matter of great consequence to the families of is stated to have been " forty years old and more " in 1524 — the usual formula " and more " leaves his precise age uncertain. If he was forty at that date he would have been seven years old at the time of his marriage in 1491. ' Anne Lacon, whose descendants eventually inherited Kinlet (and whose representative in blood is the writer of these pages), was the eldest daughter. Her name, wrongly called Agnes in the Visita- tions of Shropshire, was clearly traceable a few years ago in the scroll above her figure on her father's monument in Kinlet Church. She married Bichard, eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Lacon, of Willey, Shropshire, whose daughter Elizabeth (sister of Bichard), wife of George Bromley, of Hodnet, Shropshire, was mother of the eminent Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Bromley, and of Chief Justice Sir George Bromley. 27 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII both parties. On the side of the girl she would not be entitled to her dowry out of her husband's estate, in the event of his dying before the marriage was consummated ; while, on the other side, the husband's family would have to return the bride's dowry to her family if she died under similar circumstances. Prudence and not senti- ment dictated these matters in days when life, more uncertain than in our own day, was exposed to sudden ravages for which there were no known remedies. But be this as it may, a further reason may be adduced for not placing the birth of Elizabeth earlier than 1499-1500, namely, the fact that, of her three brothers, the eldest. Sir George Blount, was born as late as 1513 — ^the year after she arrived at Court ; while we know also that her second husband. Lord Clinton, was born in 1512, being her junior, we suppose, by not more than twelve or thirteen years, for she did not marry him till 1534 and after- wards bore him three children. We have dealt at some length with these points as affecting the date of Elizabeth's birth, because it will appear later that her extreme youth is a remarkable feature of her story. Whatever may have been the exact age of 28 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Elizabeth's parents at the time of their marriage, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet was doubtless eager to secure for his eldest son so desirable a match as the only child of his old companion- in-arms, Sir Hugh Peshall, who had died in the lifetime of his father, Humphrey Peshale of Knightley^ (a leading Staffordshire esquire), leaving his daughter the heiress apparent of her grandfather. Besides the broad lands in prospect she was to bring an augmentation of quarterings^ to the already large number borne in the shield of the Blounts of Kinlet ; and through her mother's family, the Stanleys of Elford, she was closely related to the most powerful family in the kingdom. It was at the mansion of Elford that Henry VII, as the guest of Sir John Stanley (the father of Lady Peshall), passed the night preceding the battle of Bos- worth in secret conference with the various members of the Stanley family, who, as is well known, under Thomas, Lord Stanley, the head of the family, turned the fortunes of the fight. A near connexion existed between the Stanleys ' The Feshalls derived in the female line from the Knightleys of Knightley, from whom the Knightleys of Fawsley sprang. ' Katherine Peshall brought to the Blounts of Kinlet the quarteringa of Swynnerton, Hastang, Beck, Trussell, Stafford, and Knightley. See Appendix. 29 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and the King, whose mother, the Countess of Richmond, was married to the said Lord Stanley,^ afterwards created Earl of Derby. Moreover the bride's uncle. Sir Humphrey Stanley, was in high favour with Henry VII throughout the whole of the reign, and as a Knight of the Body was in personal attendance on the King. Nor was the heir of Kinlet with the various other manors inherited by that branch of the Blount family any mean match for the young heiress. The Blounts of Kinlet were a junior offshoot of that fair-haired, widespread race of the " Le Blonds," of which it may with truth be said that while the pretensions of so many of our noble families have of late been ruthlessly discarded as mythical by modem genealogical critics, its nobility and antiquity have never been disputed.* And among the scions of " this most ancient and distinguished " house none were more noted, alike for prowess in arms and for ancestral possessions, than the branch whose chief residence was at Kinlet, and whose repre- • Sir Hugh Peshall's wife (Katherine Blount's mother) was Isabel, daughter of Sir John Stanley, of Elford and Pipe, oo. Stafford, and sister of Sir Humphrey Stanley, Knight of the Body to Henry VII. * Camden, in his Britannia, says, " The name of the Blounts was very famous in these parts, denoting their golden looks. This is a very anoient and honourable family and hath spread its branches far." 30 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII sentatives were appointed by Royal Warrant to superintend, as officers of the King, the adjacent chases of Cleobury Mortimer and Ern- wood, or the vast forest of Wjrre (Bewdley), when these ancient domains of the Mortimers became the inheritance of the Crown. Kinlet had come to this jimior branch of the Blounts in the fifteenth century, in consequence of a relationship with the Cornwall family.^ The first of the Cornwalls of Kinlet was Edmund de Cornwall, 2 on whom in 1309 Edward II, styling him his " dear kinsman " (" nepos "), had be- stowed the hand of Elizabeth de Brampton (or Brompton) of Kinlet, the great co-heiress of the ancient lords of Kinlet, which young lady had been Cornwall's ward for some years. This kinship of the Cornwalls with the Crown, al- though a left-handed one, had been openly acknowledged by Edward I,* and was claimed ' For the descent of Sir Humphrey Blount of Kinlet from the Corn- walls see Appendix II. He was the first of the Blounts of Kinlet. His father was a younger son of Sir John Blount of Sodington, by hia second wife, Isabella, daughter of Sir Bryan Cornwall of Kinlet. • Edmimd de Cornwall, and his younger brother Geofirey (first of the Barons of Burford), were the sons of Bichard de Cornwall, illegiti- mate son of Bichard King of the Romans, Earl of Cornwall, the youngest son of King John. • Grant by Edward the First to Edmund de Comubia [Cornwall] 31 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII by their descendants for many centizries ; till indeed, at last, in the seventeenth century, the heralds daring to assert the fact of the original progenitor of the Cornwalls having been the bastard and not the legitimate son of Richard King of the Romans (son of King John), the then representative of the Cornwalls (Barons of Burford) was furious with indignation.'^ The name Kinlet has a remarkable derivation. It is formed of the Saxon words " kyne," signifying royal, and " laeth," a district, and tallies with the earliest known history of the place. For it was a manor of the Saxon kings, and was enjoyed by Edith, Queen of Edward the Con- fessor. Richardus held it at Doomsday, and from him it passed to the Bromptons, of whom that reliable antiquary Eyton says, " it is most rare that the genealogy of any family of mere knightly degree can be traced in the male line so far back as Doomsday," owing to the absence of records during the chaotic reign of Stephen. The genealogy of the Bromptons, however, of the custody of the two daughters and heirs of Brian de Brampton [of Kinlet and Brampton Brian] ffany. 2, Anno 1305. (Calendar of Patent Rolls, Ed. I, and Cal. of Close Rolls, 1309.) Edmund de ComwaU married the younger of his two wards ; the elder, Margaret, married Robert de Harley, and had Brampton Brian for her portion. » Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 4 (Kinlet). 32 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII he explains, is a remarkable exception, and " it stands on accidental yet perfect evidence." ^ From the Bromptons, as we have said, Kinlet descended to the Cornwalls, and from the Cornwalls it eventually passed to the Blounts — namely to the line of which we treat. For various reasons, then, the owners of Kinlet held high standing among the knightly families of England, and in the fifteenth century, when the roll of peers was still small, when dukedoms were almost confined to the blood royal, when a marquisate was the rarest of dignities, when many of the old earldoms were attainted, and when the order of the baronetage was still in the far future, the knightly families occupied a position of dignity, and had as yet not been submerged in the flood of newer titles.* Throughout the Wars of the Roses, which had decimated so many of the old nobility, the Blounts of Kinlet, staunch supporters of the White Rose, had managed to keep their heads above water. The name of Sir Humphrey Blount of Kinlet frequently occurs in the annals of Edward IV in tlie lists of those called upon to " Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 4, p. 240. ' At the accession of Henry VII in 1485 there were but one duke, nine earls, two viscounts, and fifteen barons to answer to his summons. (Dugdale.) C 33 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII supply the King with men for the wars. His son, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, supported the blending of the red and white in the union of Henry Tudor and Elizabeth Plantagenet. Sir Thomas and his wife were present at the corona- tion of that Queen, and were guests at the royal feast at Westminster on the occasion/ With the accession of the Tudor dynasty the old order came to a close, and a new state of things was inaugurated. Henceforth personal service in the household of the Sovereign was the chief passport to consideration and powder. By this means, under the Tudors, adventurers came to the surface, and many upstart families rose to eminence. The Bloimts of Kinlet were not backward in adapting themselves to the new system and in taking advantage of it ; and thus began an official connexion with the Court which continued to succeeding genera- tions. It is interesting to note that, at the dawn of the Tudor epoch, with the exception of a few such as the Talbots, the Howards, and the Stanleys, many of our great families had as yet ' Leland's Collectanea. The eminent Sir James Blount, who figures in Shakespeare's " Richard III," among the supporters of Henry of Richmond, was a distant kinsman of the Kinlet branch. 34 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII not come to the front, and the stars of the Russells,^ the Cavendishes, and the Cecils had not risen. The parents of Elizabeth Blount, however — the boy-bridegroom and the girl-heiress — were each through their ancestral alliances repre- sentatives of the ancient aristocracy of England, and were equally matched in lineage and estate. The marriage took place on August 1, 1491 — not, we may observe, at the bride's home, but at Kinlet,^ the home of the bridegroom. Little change has there been in the external features of Kinlet Church since the two children, marshalled by their elders, passed with pro- cession from hall to church to plight their troth. The old manor-house at Kinlet, demolished in the early part of the eighteenth century,* was situated even nearer to the church than is the present mansion ; now, as then, both church '■ The accomplished John Bussell began his career in the latter part of the reign of Henry VII, and was a Gentleman Usher to that monarch. Later George Cavendish was in Wolsey's household, becoming his secretary. • So stated in the Inquisition Post-mortem of Sir Thomas Blount ([A.D. 1524). (Record Office.) ' Sir Lacon Childe was the last to inhabit the house of his Blount ancestors ; his nephew, William Lacon Childe j[M.P. for Shropshire), built the present mansion in 1727. 85 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and house being wholly surrounded by park and woodland of wide extent, and remote from any village or hamlet. The old cross in the churchyard near the southern entrance must have been of great elevation ; its quadrilateral base, unique in design, lofty and gabled, is still in its place, though time has wrought some ruin, and the niche in its wall has long been emptied of the saint's image it once held. The Norman doorway, the round massive arches and columns of the nave, stand firm as ever ; while the spacious chancel and transepts,^ added by pious ancestors 2 in Early English or Decorated style, still speak to us of mediaeval times, and were already venerablfe when that bridal pro- cession paused before the high altar. Still in the muUioned windows, amid traces of antique glass of colour unsurpassed by modern imita- tions, there remains the stained-glass figure of a kneeling knight,* helmeted and clad in coat embroidered with the armorial bearings of the ^ " The South transept or Saint Catherine's Chapel," says Cranage, " would alone be sufficient to make Kinlet famous, for there are very few places where the arrangements of a mediaeval chantry chapel can be seen so fully.'' ' Edmund de Cornwall early in the fourteenth century made additions. ' The figure " is that of a Knight of the Camail period " (Cranage). 86 o D w o H ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Cornwalls, and asking of your charity prayers for his soul, as on the day when his descendant Httle John knelt with Katherine at the nuptial mass, four hundred and twenty years ago. The mother of the infant bride, Dame Isabel Peshall, and that lady's brother. Sir Humphrey Stanley,^ as trustee on the side of the bride, saw to it that due settlements were made by the bridegroom's father ; and Kinlet was settled on young John and on such children in succession as he might have by Katherine. It was wisely done in their interests, for in the end Sir Thomas Blount, either not understanding law-Latin, or purposely disregarding the obligations he had entered into at the time of his eldest son's marriage, attempted in his old age to set them aside by his will, and to deprive him of the full rights of inheritance in order to make provision for his own numerous daughters and younger sons. But from what we know of Sir Humphrey Stanley, he was not one to be gainsaid. Quarrel- some, revengeful, unscrupulous, he was a dangerous man to offend, and stuck at nothing ' Sir Humphrey Stanley, who died in 1505, was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a brass effigy (representing him in armour with sword and dagger), and an inscription to his memory. 37 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII to gain his ends.^ It was safer to be on good terms with him, and in these characteristics his niece, Katherine Blount, resembled him in after years. ^ For an aocoimt of him and his quarrel with the Monks of Lichfield see Harwood's History of Lichfield (p. 98) j and a story is told of him by Pennant which puts him in an ugly Hght. In 1493 a spirit of rivaby existed between the Stanleys of EHord and the Chetwynds of Ingestre. Sir Humphrey Stanley was one of the Knights of the Body to Henry VII, and Sir WilUam Chetwynd was one of the Gentlemen Ushers. The former contrived to draw Sir WiUiam out of his house by means of a counterfeit letter from a neighbour, and while he was passing on Tixal Heath, caused him to be attacked by twenty armed men and slain on the spot. Sir Humphrey passed at the instant with a train of followers under pretence of hunting, but in reality to gratify his revenge with the sight. (Pennant's Journey to Chester, p. 1 909. ) 88 CHAPTER III 1500-1502 Elizabeth's babyhood : Ludlow Castle : Katherine of Arragon : Arthur of Wales : Koyal residence at Tickenhall ; Bewdley, its beautiful site : The Blounts' neighbourhood : Elizabeth's grandfather and grandmother : Grandmother's father, Sir Richard Croft : Steward of the royal household : Lady Croft governess to the Princes : Elizabeth's kinship to the Tudors ; Prince of Wales's court : His death : His funeral cortege : Princess leaves Ludlow ; Character of Elizabeth's mother. While Elizabeth was a baby, her parents and relatives were brought into association with Katherine of Arragon, when as a girl-bride that princess resided at Ludlow Castle during her brief and passionless experiment of marriage with the boy-prince Arthur, Prince of Wales. Of those who hastened to pay their respects to the young Princess of Wales the Blounts of Kinlet were surely among the first. Ludlow, that great border stronghold, a town of the utmost importance in Tudor times, was within the distance of a three hours' ride from the seat of the Blounts — ^the road thence to Ludlow 89 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII winding by slopes and valleys along the eastern side of the Clee Hills. No more romantic scenery is perhaps to be found in all England than that which keeps the Clee Hills in view; and Kinlet, still noted for the size and age of its ^ oaks — ^the same oaks under which the little Elizabeth played in childhood — is situated in the heart of that country of which an old rhymester sings : Thrice happy he Twixt Severn and Clee. Ehzabeth's grandfather, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, frequented the Court of the Prince of Wales, both at Ludlow Castle— where as Lord President of the Marches of Wales the boy resided on the outskirts of his principality — and at Ticknell, or Tickenall (Bewdley), which his father, Henry VII, had built for him near the banks of the Severn on the edge of the forest which borders the counties of Worcester and Salop.^ Sir Thomas Blount was Steward of the Royal Park and Manor of Bewdley, of which Ticknell was an appurtenance, and Kinlet is but a few miles distant from Bewdley on the Shropshire side. It was in the chapel of » The Royal residence of Ticknell had a great court and garden and several outhouses which extended on the sides. 40 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Bewdley, we learn from a letter of the Spanish Ambassador to Ferdinand and Isabella, that Prince Arthur plighted his troth to the proxy of Katherine of Arragon on May 19, 1499. " William, Bishop of Lincoln," writes the Ambassador, " with many other persons present entered the chapel of the Manor of Bewdley, in the diocese of Hereford, in order to perform the nuptial ceremony ; " and it was doubtless incumbent on Sir Thomas Bloimt to be present on the occasion. The town of Bewdley (Beau- lieu), which derived its name in Norman times from the beauty of its situation, evoked the admiration of Leland in the sixteenth century. " Beaudley is set on the side of a hill," he says, " so comely a man cannot wish to see a town better. It riseth from Severne bank by east, upon the hill by west, so that a man standing on the hill, by ' pontem ' by east, may discern almost every house in the town, and at the rising of the sun . . . the whole town glittereth as it were gold." There was, moreover, a near connexion between Sir Thomas Blount and the Court of Henry VII, for his wife. Dame Anne,^ was a * Dame Anne Blount (born Croft) bore twenty children, aa her mother had done before her. 41 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII daughter of Sir Richard Croft, of Croft Castle, Herefordshire, Knight Banneret, who as Steward of the Household to the Prince of Wales was of paramount influence in the royal entourage. Richard Croft was no ordinary country squire. He was as erudite as he was valiant. When a young man he had been Governor of Prince Edward (afterwards Edward IV) and of his younger brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland. A letter is extant written by these boys at Ludlow Castle to their father complaining of the " odieux reule and demenying [demeanour] of Richard Croft " ; * but in spite of this accu- sation of severity we find Croft in favour when Edward became king. Croft fought for his former pupil on the field of Tewkesbury in 1471, and is said to have captured, after the battle, the unfortunate Prince Edward of Lan- caster, son of Henry VL* He was made a knight banneret " on the field of Grafton." On the accession of Henry VII, Sir Richard Croft, as a kinsman of the Tudors,* through his Welsh ancestry, came at once into prominence, and was made Comptroller of the King's House- ' Ellis' Letters, Ist Series. ' Habingdon excuses Croft for the subsequent murder of the Prince. » For the kinship of Elizabeth Blount with Henry VIII see Appendix. 42 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII hold. A beautifully indited account-book of the King's expenses in 1486-87 in Croft's hand- writing is preserved in the Record Office. At the time of which we treat, in his position about Prince Arthur at Ludlow, he was of advanced years; and there was no official of the Welsh Tudors more acceptable to the Welsh people in the Marches of Wales, of which his young Master was the President, than Sir Richard Croft, a representative of the ancient Princes of North Wales and the Princes of Powysland, and in whose veins ran the blood of the renowned Owen Glendower. Croft's wife. Dame Eleanor (born Cornwall of Burford) was also long connected with the Court. She is described in the early Cornwall pedigrees as " Lady Governess to the young Princes at Ludlow Castle " (probably the above- named Yorkist princes), and also as " Lady Governess to Prince Arthur at Ludlow " in later years. This great -grandmother of Eliza- beth Blount was certainly a remarkable woman. From an old manuscript in the British Museum we learn ^ that "it is truly reported this lady lived so long and had such increase of yssue that she had, before she died, seventeen score and » Cotton MS. XrV, 3. 43 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII odde people descended from her body : whereof the Duke of Richmond, base sonne to Henry 8 was one, and the late Duchess of Northumber- land, mother to Ambrose Earle of Warwick and to Robert Earle of Leicester was another." ^ Thus the position of the Blounts, through their Croft relatives, was assured at the Court of Ludlow, and the family on that account seem to have mustered thick upon the ground. At the time when the Spanish Princess arrived at Ludlow early in the year 1502, the youthful John and Katherine Blount — ^the infant bride and bridegroom of ten years before — had now a family, and the little Elizabeth was about two years old. Madam Blount had as yet not succeeded to her grandfather Humphrey Peshall's Staffordshire estates, of which she was the eventual heiress. She was still waiting for his ' Dame Eleanor Croft was a daughter of Edmund, son and heir of Sir Richard Cornwall, Baron of Burford ; which Edmund died in the lifetime of his father in the fifth year of Henry VI, at Cologne, where he is buried, his heart being brought to Burford Church (Shropshire) at his desire, " unto my native land." Prom an old Cornwall pedigree at Kyre Wyard Park (in the possession of Mrs. Baldwyn-Childe) we learn that Dame Eleanor Croft had previously married Sir Hugh Mortimer of Kyre Wyard and had (with a son. Sir John Mortimer of Kyre) a daughter Anne, married to Sir Thomas West, Lord De la Warr. For the descent (from Dame Eleanor) of the above-mentioned Duchess of Northumberland (bom Guilford), wife of the famous John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, see Appendix. 44 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII demise, while he, by the way, had hopes of disinheriting her, his dead eldest son's only child.i She and her husband resided with his father. Sir Thomas Blount, at Kinlet — and were thus within easy reach of the social life and bustle of the Court of Ludlow. " In this romantic seat," says a picturesque writer,^ " the Prince and Princess held a Court at which knights and gentry of the border shires were welcomed with a round of tilts and feasts, when Katherine, though she could not speak their language, crowned the victors with her eyes and hands, the Prince, amidst his masks and revels, gave a ready ear and warm encouragement to every one." Ludlow was, in fact, at this moment the point towards which the eyes of all Europe turned, focused on the boy Prince and his bride ; while the development of their pre- mature union was eagerly watched and can- vassed, alike by the statesmen as the gossips of the day. Judging by what we know of the mother of ' Humphrey Peshall made a will in favour of his son by his second wife which was eventually successfully disputed by his granddaughter, Katherine Blount, she being the only child of Humphrey's eldest son. Sir Hugh. " Hepworth Dixon's Two Queens. He, however, writes inaccurately with regard to Ehzabeth Blount. 45 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Elizabeth Blount from a series of her letters preserved among the State archives, we may be sure that this astute lady lost no opportunity of advancing the worldly interests of herself and her family. Katherine Blount appears in these letters (they are written years afterwards) as a vivid personality, and by her own showing, as the scheming woman of affairs, in touch with the principal personages in the State, a staunch friend to those who stood in her good graces, and a dangerous enemy to those who thwarted her plans. She was forward in soliciting favours according to the custom of those days, when nothing was to be had without the asking, and persistency was most likely to be crowned with success. It may well have been that she con- trived to bring little Bess under the notice of the Princess of Wales, with a view to future advantage. The hopes of all, however, were soon suddenly cut short by the premature death of the Prince at Ludlow on April 2, 1502. A form of plague, fostered by the torrents of rain which had fallen in the neighbouring hills, was raging in this part of the country, and the heir of England was one of its many victims. Of the f oiir " banner-holders " at the lying-in- state Sir Thomas Blount was " at the Corner 46 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII of the Canopy," bearing the " Banner of the Patible," and among the knights who conveyed the body from Ludlow to Bewdley on its way to its final resting-place in Worcester Cathedral was Sir Thomas Bloimt — " on the foulest cold windy and rainy day," says the chronicler,^ " and the worst day I have ever seen — ^yea, and in many places they were fain to take oxen to draw the chair, so ill was the way." The funeral procession stopped the night at Bewdley on the road, the bier being " set in the quire " of the royal chapel there. Next day, from Bewdley, Sir Richard Croft and Sir William Uvedale rode before to Worcester and " suffered no man to enter the gate of the city till the tyme the corpse was come." The unfortunate Princess of Wales was hurried away from Ludlow Castle on account of infection, while the thoughts of her father-in-law, Henry VII, were centred on securing her dowry to himself. Six weary years of poverty and anxiety were in store for her ; but when, after the death of the King, she became the happy and devoted Queen of her brother-in-law, Henry VIII, an end seemed to have come to aU her troubles, and her good fortune appeared ' Quoted by Leland, Collectanea, vol. v, p. 377. 47 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII secure. Indeed for many years after her union with Henry her domestic happiness left nothing to be desired. Meanwhile the parents of little Bess Blount quitted the neighbourhood of Ludlow soon after the death of Prince Arthur. Madam Blount's grandfather, Humphrey Peshall, having died in May 1502, she succeeded in ousting her half- uncle Richard, and in establishing her rights to her ancestral estates. The family now removed to her manor of Knightley, in Staffordshire, and henceforth her husband John Blount, in right of his wife, figures in the local annals among " the worshipful " of that shire, ^ while his father Sir Thomas, at Kinlet, played a similar part among the knights of Shropshire. The veteran Sir Richard Croft died in the same year as his King, whom he had devotedly served. The quaint terms of his will (proved in 1509) show the regard he had for his son-in-law Sir Thomas Blount, and the interest he took in the prospective matrimonial alliances of his granddaughters — ^lest they should " despise " themselves by marrying beneath their station. His granddaughter Eleanor Croft, and his 1 ' ' The Worshipful of the Shire "is the expression by which Katheriae Blount designates the leading persons in the county in one of her letters. 48 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII granddaughter Joice Blount, Sir Thomas's daughter, are to marry only by the united advice of specified relatives, namely, their grand- mother. Dame Eleanor Croft — ^the wife who had shared Sir Richard's status in the Royal House- hold, and had besides borne twenty children — ^their two uncles, and last, but not least. Sir Thomas Blount, Joice Blount, if she fulfils these conditions, and " if she dissepisse not herself," is to have a legacy of fifty marks.^ Bess Blount, Sir Richard Croft's great-grand- daughter, was now nine years old. She was to prepare for a career at the new Court of the eighth Henry. We find her there three years later. * A fine altar-tomb in Croft Church represents the recumbent effigies of Sir Bichard Croft and Dame Eleanor, surrounded by their many children. 49 CHAPTER IV 1512-1513 Elizabeth at Court : William Blonnt, Lord Mountjoy : The patron of Erasmus : Elizabeth a mere child : Her " wages " ; Her young father " King's Spear " : Her grandfather's career : Her great-grandmother living ; Queen Katharine : Her prosperity ; Her Regency ; Her busy maidens ; The fall of Toumay : Elizabeth's relatives there : The King's return ; An imwarrauted statement ; Elizabeth's education at Court. When little " Bess " Blount arrived at Court in 1512, the Queen, we may suppose, would recall her own early associations with Ludlow and would greet the new-comer as no stranger. At this time an illustrious representative of a branch of the Blount family was Chamberlain to the Queen ^ — William Blount, fourth Lord Mountjoy, noted in history as the munificent patron and constant correspondent of Erasmus, who called him his " Maecenas." Erasmus speaks of him as "the most noble among the learned and the most learned among the noble, 1 May 13, 1512, he received £66 13s. 4d. annuity as Chamberlain to Katherine, Queen Consort. 50 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and the most excellent of both," and to this he says may be added that he was also " the most modest among them all." As a kinsman of Elizabeth's father and a trustee of her parents' marriage settlement, Lord Mount joy had long been intimately asso- ciated with the Kinlet family and its domestic affairs, and in later years we find him supporting John's interest against his father Sir Thomas, and siding with John in his feud with Sir William Compton. With such a friend and relative in the imme- diate service of the Queen, Bess Blount had high interest to push her fortunes in the world, and it is probable that Lord Mount joy's influence, together with that of his Spanish wife, Agnes de Venegas — a special favourite with her royal mistress — was an important factor in procuring for the girl so desirable an opening as a post about the Queen.^ She had arrived at Court by the spring of 1 Letter of HenryjVIII to his father-in-law, Ferdinand the Catholic, July 30, 1509 : " Lord William Moiintjoy, one of his Barons whom he has in high esteem, has married Agnes de Venegas, one of the ladies of the Qneen. He thinks it very desirable that Spanish and English families should be united by family ties." Spanish State Papers, Bergenroth's Coll., vol. ii. p. 20. Agnes de Venegas was probably bis second of four wives. 51 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII 1512. For we find in the list of "the King's Year-book " fpr the following year an entry dated from the Court at Greenwich, Sunday, May 8, 1513, stating that a hundred shillings is due to Elizabeth Blount " upon a warrant signed for hir last yere's wages ended at thanun- cacon [the Annunciation] of Our Lady last passed." She had therefore been already at Court for more than a year. The same manu- script informs us that John Blount, her father, enjoyed a post in the royal guard at this time as " one of the King's Spears," and in that capacity was in receipt of a " hole yere's wages " of £60 16s. 8d. — a large salary in those days. Elizabeth was now, as we have said, about twelve years old, and possibly younger.^ Her father was barely thirty, or thereabouts, while his father, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, was still in the vigour of a martial career.* More- ' Dr. Gairdner remarks on the painful absence of natural feeling on the part of parents for their children in sending them out to " other homes as soon as they reached the age of seven, or nine at the utmost, in order that they might learn manners.'' Cambridge Modem History, vol. i, p. 492. » In May of this year (1512) Sir Thomas was among a select number of certain knights and nobles to whom the King sent letters command- ing them " to make and send " a certified number of men " to serve the King's Grace by land " in an expedition against France concerted 52 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII over her prolific great-tgrandmother, Dame Eleanor Croft, who had been a noted figure at former Courts, was still living — perhaps at no very advanced age — and lived j^et eight years. Through this ancestress Elizabeth was nearly connected with the Guilfords — now risen pre- eminently into favour with the King. At the period of which we treat, Henry VIII and Katherine of Arragon had been married and crowned about three years, and were aged respectively twenty-one and< twenty- five years — ^the higher figure was on the side of the Queen. Her seniority was rather to her advantage than otherwise, for she was in the prime of woman- hood, while the King was little more than a boy. Katherine, though rather hard-featured and clumsy of figure, was not, as yet, faded and worn by misfortune, but she was at this time, according to a contemporary, a handsome woman and noted for the beauty of her com- plexion. The career of the Queen may be said to have reached its zenith of prosperity in 1513, when between Henry and his father-in-law, Ferdinand of Spain. Thia expedition, however, proved abortive, owing to the failure of Ferdinand to keep his promises, but in the following year we find Sir Thomas among the knights who accompanied the King to the war in France. Record Office, Cal. S. P., vol. i, p. 360. 53 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII in June of that year the King appointed her Regent of England during his absence at the war in France. We find the Queen Regent residing at Rich- mond in August, and wherever her Court was it may be assumed that Elizabeth Blount was in attendance. It was at Richmond that news was received of the King of Scotland's " treachery " in declaring war on England in his brother-in-law the King of England's absence. The responsi- bility of the defence of England now rested — nominally at least — on the Queen Regent, and she threw herself heart and soul into the enter- prise. In a letter to Wolsey, dated from Richmond August 13, she informed him " all here are very glad to be busy with the Scots, for they take it a pastime.^ My heart is very good to it," she declares, and adds, "I am horrible busy with making standards, banners, and badges " — ^the fingers of her ladies and maids-in-waiting were no doubt as " horrible busy " as their royal mistress's, stitching and weaving as fast as they could. Meanwhile news from France reached Rich- mond of the fall of Terouenne and of the victory ' State Papers, Henry VIII, 1513, vol. i, 4398. 54 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII of the Battle of the Spurs — so named, it was said, by the French themselves on account of their spurs, with which they hastened their inglorious flight. Elizabeth must have had a personal interest in the good tidings, as both her grand- father. Sir Thomas, and her father, John Blount, had accompanied the King to the wars. Sir Thomas Blount was among the knights ban- nerets ^ present on the occasion of the taking of Tournay, which was entered on September 24, Sir Thomas's second and favourite son, Edward, was his " petty Captain " on the occasion. Eliza- beth's father was also present as a " Shropshire banneret," and her brother-in-law, young Richard Lacon of Willey, was his " petty Captain." * Moreover her kinsman William Blount, Lord Mount joy, was advanced to the supreme post of Lieutenant of Tournay. The Queen Regent now received the glorious * He was a knight banneret in 1512 {Metcalfe's Knights). There was formerly in a window of Stoddesdon Church (near Einlet) a representation of the banner of Sir Thomas Blount with the Blount and Cornwall arms quarterly, together with the banner of his wife Anne Croft's arms. On the field of battle he bore the following crest upon his banner : " 16th June, 1513. ... Sir Thomas Blount barythsylver a Eyon passant goules, the tayle reversed, with a crown upon his head, and sapits in the same. Made Bude Banerett at this time " — John Blount bearing the same crest with a crescent in the lion's shoulder for difference. Cotton MSS. Qeopatra C.V. 59, B.M. ' Ibid. 55 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII news of the victory of her forces over the Scots at Flodden Field on September 9, and of the King of Scots being among the slain. She and her ladies were residing at the time at her Bed- fordshire mansion, Ampthill (or, as it was called, the Honour of Ampthill), and she wrote forth- with to the King to announce the victory, a letter dated from the neighbouring Abbey of Woburn, she being, as she says, on the point of departure to visit the shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham to pray for the King's safe return. Both of these victories she was confident were " all owing to the King's piety." ^ The King returned from France early in October, and the Queen went to meet him at Dover. Their greeting was of the most tender. Miss Strickland, in her agreeable and romantic " History of the Queens of England," with regard to this meeting of the King and Queen makes the following surprising and unwarrant- able mis-statement : " But notwithstanding this tender greeting, Henry had permitted his heart to wander from his Queen during his absence ; for it was during his sojourn at Calais in this campaign that he first saw the beautiful wife of Sir Gilbert Talboys." * Cal. S.P., vol. i, 4417. 56 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII The fact is that Elizabeth Blount was not married till nine years later — and why she should have been at Calais in 1513, or indeed at any time, fancy, unsupported by any clue, could alone have suggested.^ It seems the more important to deal with this point here, in this year of 1513, that some modern writers following Miss Strickland have imagined another theory, namely, that the King brought back Elizabeth Blount with him from Calais as a girl.^ It is probable that Elizabeth Blount was one of the very young maidens in attendance on the Queen at Dover, but, as she had been at Court for at least a year and a half, it is incredible that the King should have now seen the girl for the first time. As Elizabeth grew to be one of the most cultivated and accomplished women of her time, • Witness the Act of Parliament of 1523. See p. 125. ' Miss Strickland may have erroneously supposed that Elizabeth Blount was the daughter of a Sir John Blount, Governor of Calais, and thereupon assumed that Calais was Elizabeth's home, and so built up the fantastic theory that she met King Henry there. Martin Hume repeats this error — a strange confusion, for not only was this Sir John Blount (Lord Mountjoy) of a generation antecedent to EHzabeth's father (of whom he was a distant kinsman), and himself long dead, but that she was the daughter of Sir John Blount of Kinlet is authoritatively stated on the epitaph to her husband Lord Tailbois in Kyme Church, Lincolnshire. 5T ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII it must have been as a girl at Court that she received her education. We may assume that, during her jBrst years there, she was much occupied with her lessons, being taught by the first masters of the day. Latin, French, and playing on the virginals would have been the studies of a young lady who, by " her rare ornaments of education," was to become " the mistress-piece of her time." It was an age when learning, according to the standard then attainable, was prized and affected by ladies of high degree, and when also the arts of singing and dancing were much in fashion. Elizabeth, we know, excelled in all these things,^ having spared no pains in improving her natural gifts. The superintendence would not be wanting of the Queen's older ladies-in-waiting — duennas of virtuous decorum and punctilious etiquette. 1 Hall's Chronicles. Herbert's Henry VIII. 58 CHAPTER V 1514 Another Elizabeth : " Mistress Blount and Mistress Carew " : A " yong wyfE " : The Duke of Suffolk's message : Theories and counter-theories : A curious " receipt " : Some suspicions discussed. In the autumn of 1514 — she had now been two and a half years at Court — ^we find her already attracting attention in the immediate circle of the King and his associates. Among the very young ladies at Court also coming into notice in this year was another Elizabeth. This was Elizabeth Bryan, daughter of Sir Thomas Bryan, Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen. Lady Bryan, her mother, was a half- sister of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey (after- wards Duke of Norfolk), and of Sir Thomas Boleyn's wife, and through this connexion the Bryans were brought into the circle of courtiers most highly favoured by the King. Elizabeth Bryan was married, as a young girl, to Master Nicholas Carew, one of the King's favourite 59 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII attendants. She was evidently a very juvenile bride in the late autumn of 1514 ; and as if to accentuate the fact of her youth, she is alluded to in a list of the Christmas revels as " Mistress Carew, the yong wyff." The names of the two juvenile Elizabeths are twice associated together in the records for this year, and both times it may be mentioned that the name of Mistress Blount^ takes precedence of that of Mistress Carew. The first notice of them occurs as follows : There is in the British Museum a curious letter addressed to Henry VIII by his favoured com- panion and future brother-in-law, that eminently successful adventurer, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, written from France (dated " Beau- vais, October 25, 1514 "), and giving an account of his interview with the King of France, the invalid bridegroom Louis XII, whom the Duke found in bed with his young Queen sitting by his bedside — ^the Queen, by the way, between whom and the Duke certain love-passages had already passed, and whom a few months later he was to marry clandestinely in her early • It need hardly be remarked that young gentlewomen whether married or single were equally styled " Mistress " in the sixteenth century. 60 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII widowhood. In a postscript the Duke sends by King Henry the following message of remem- brance to Mistress Blount and Mistress Carew : " And I beseech your Grace to [tell] Mistress Blount and Mistress Carru the next time that I write unto them or send them tokens they shall either write to me or send me tokens again." ^ Surely an innocent message enough, though insinuations on account of it have been made. Brewer (" Reign of Henry VIII," vol. ii, p. 104) bases upon this message a suggestion as to the undue familiarity of these young ladies with the King at this early date. At the same time he alludes to Mistress Carew as an un- married woman, remarking that Mistress meant " Miss." But it also meant " Mrs." ; and it seems evident that the Mistress Carew of Suffolk's letter is identical with the Mistress Carew whom we find two months later at the Christmas festivities as the "yong wyff" recently married to Nicholas Carew. A difficulty arises as to the date of the marriage; and we must suppose that at the time when Suffolk wrote his post- script at the end of October, he believed either that a marriage had already taken place between 1 Original MS. British Museum. Calig. D. VI, 149. 61 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Nicholas Carew and Elizabeth Bryan, or that being betrothed to Carew she was already called by his name. For, from a remarkable document which has recently come to light, it would appear that no marriage had actually taken place by November 7. Among the archives in the Public Record Office, as yet uncalendared, there is a " receipt " bearing that date in the sixth year of Henry VIII (1514), by Margaret, Lady Bryan, on behalf of her daughter Elizabeth, of £500 from Sir John Daunce (that is from the King) " to her marriage which by God's grace shall be espoused and wedded to Nicholas Carew, son and heir apparent to Sir Richard Carew, Knight, before the feast of the Purification of our Blessed Lady the Virgin," This receipt is signed by the mother and daughter, Margaret and Elizabeth Brian, and by Sir Richard Carew. The young couple, by the way, certainly did not wait to be married till the Feast of the Purification (February 2, 1515) ; for there is an entry among the King's Household expenses for December 1514 of an offering of 6s. 8d. given through Lord Mountjoy on the occasion of the marriage of Nicholas Carew, so that the marriage had openly taken place at some date previous to this entry. 62 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Dealing afterwards with a suspicious aspect of the Bryans' " receipt," we will now return to Suffolk's message and the insinuation drawn from it as affecting Mistress Blount. That the Duke of Suffolk should have ven- tured on this freedom with the King, and should have particularly selected these young ladies from the rest of the Court for such a message is remarkable, and midoubtedly implies a certain familiarity between them and the King. But it is surely no evidence for scandal, and we cannot here involve Elizabeth Blount in any insinuation Avithout involving the " young wife " in the same connexion ; and further, if suspicions of Mistress Carew are to be entertained, her husband would appear implicated in a charge of complicity — which is, at all events, devoid of proof. The receipt to which we have alluded for £500 (the King's prenuptial present to Elizabeth Bryan, worth at least ten times as much of our money to-day) may seem to give some colour to the speculations of those who see scandal in this transaction. But to such it may be pointed out that Elizabeth Bryan's elder sister Margaret, wife of Sir Henry Guilford, had been treated in a manner equally profuse, money and 63 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII grants of land being hers and her husband's portion from the King. If we are to admit scandal in one instance we must apparently do so in the case of all these girls at an early age ; and Lady Bryan's transaction would then be seen in a singularly unpleasant light — and this is the mother who, two years later, is appointed Governess and Lady- Superintendent of the infant Princess Mary, a lady of the highest social standing, the step-daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. A state of things would thus be revealed which certainly changes the accepted view of Henry and his Court during the early years of his reign — a period which has hitherto received some eulogy alike from contemporary observers and recent writers. We hold no brief for Mistress Carew, and are ready to admit that in later years there was some intrigue between her and the King. The gossip of the envoy Chapuys twenty-five years later certainly points to it.^ But we do not see sufficient reason for a complete alteration of perspective with regard to these early years of Henry's reign; indeed, ' Writing to the Emperor Charles V, December 31, 1539, at the time of the beheadal of Sir Nicholas Carew, Chapuys remarks : " The Grand Escuyer Master Caro was taken prisoner to the Tower, and the moment his arrest was ordered, Commissioners went to seize all his goods and his houses. It is presumed the King will not have forgotten to charge 64 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII it would appear not unlikely that Mistress Blount and Mistress Carew were chosen for the honour of the Duke of Suffolk's message trans- mitted through the King, in some measure on account of their youth. We may suspect, how- ever, that it was kept secret from the Queen's elder ladies, and that the Bang took occasion to whisper it in the ears of those for whom it was intended at some convenient moment when he was unobserved.^ them to take the most beautiful diamonds and pearls and innumerable jewels which he formerly gave to the said Esouyer's wife, the greater part he had taken from the late good Queen." (Gairdner's Cal. S.P., vol. xiv, p. 18.) The last sentence seems to point to the late date of the Uaison, for it is not in accordance with known facts that Henry would take the " good Queen " Katherine's jewels from her in the early stages of their married hf e when he treated her with marked respect and afiection. ' It having been suggested that possibly the Mistress Carew here associated with Mistress Blount may not be the same as Mistress Carew " the young wife " associated with her two months later, but may have been Nicholas Carew's young unmarried sister Anne Carew, who appears in 1518 at Wolsey's revels, we may add that in this case there seems still less reason for associating scandal with her name. 65 CHAPTER VI 1514 {continued) A Christmas mummery : The King's grace : Nicholas Carew : The Bole3ai relatives : List of performers : The dresses ; Erasmus's eulogies of Hem'y ; " A pure and modest court " ; Henry's devotion to religion ; A temple of the muses : Elizabeth's culture. The names of the two Elizabeths are again associated in the annals of 1514, both appearing in a list of performers in the Christmas mummery that year, held at Greenwich, where the Court was then residing. Nicholas Carew, the husband of " the young wife," was forward in arranging these sports and pastimes in which the youthful King delighted, and in which he took the leading part. His brother-in-law. Sir Henry Guilford, who had married two years earlier Mistress Carew's elder sister, Margaret Bryan, was noted as the designer of similar revels in former years. These two young couples, with their relatives, the Boleyns, formed a family party which com- posed the greater number of those taking part 66 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII on this occasion. It is interesting to note the position of the Bolejm family at this early date in the circle of the King, long before Sir Thomas Boleyn's elder daughter, Mary, appeared there, and when Anne, his younger daughter, was but a little child. The King's Master of the Revels, Richard Gibson, has left in his handwriting his bill to the King for the costumes supplied by him, and with it the names of the players. It may be of interest to transcribe the whole list, in so far as it is decipherable, from the mutilated fragment which exists among the State archives.^ The Kynge's Garse [Grace] ^ The Duke of Suffolk « > Cal. S.P. Hen. VIII, vol. ii, pp. 1500-1. Compare the original. The left-hand margin of the paper alone is mutilated. * One is reminded that the imposing title of " Majesty " was not adopted by any of the monarchs of Europe till some years later, and they were contented with the appellation of " Highness " and " Grace " until Charles V assumed the new epithet on his accession to the Imperial throne ; whereupon the contemporary sovereigns began to follow his example, though a considerable time elapsed before the style of " Majesty " was used with the invariable precision now habitual. = Charles Brandon, who had been Esquire of the Body to the King on his accession in 1S09, was created Duke of Suffolk early in the year 1614. He had returned from his mission to the King of France shortly bsfore the Christmas revels. He married Mary Tudor, Queen of France, in the following year. 67 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII . . . Nicholas Karew ^ Sir Harry Gyllforth [Guilford] * Lady Margaret Gyllforth ^ Lady Sellynger [St. Leger] * Maysteres Elisabeth Blont Maysteres Karew the yong wyff Mayster Edward BoUyn^ Mayster Sir Thomas BoUyn * Mayster Koke ' ' Nicholas Carew was at this time Cupbearer to Henry VIII. It is a mistake to say that he was a knight at this time. His father. Sir Richard, was Knight of the Body. Nicholas was later Esquire of the Body and knighted. * Guilford had been made a knight banneret by the King the year before at Tovimay. He was also an Esquire of the Body, and a King's Spear (with John Blount). Later he was a K.G. " Margaret (Bryan) Lady Gmlford. As a knight's wife she would be styled " Lady Margaret " in those days. « Lady Aime Sellynger or St. Leger, wife of Sir James St. Leger, was a daughter of the seventh Earl of Ormonde and sister of the mother of Sir Thomas Boleyn ; the lady here mentioned is probably the wife of her son, Sir George St. Leger, namely, Anne, daughter of Sir Edmund Knyvett of Beckenham, and sister of Sir Thomas Knyvett, Master of the Horse, who had been lost in the burning ship " Regent," which he commanded in 1512. ' Younger brother of Sir Thomas Boleyn and uncle of Anne Bole3m. * Sir Thomas Bolejm came of a new and wealthy family who had made good aUiances for three generations. His mother was a daughter of the Earl of Ormond ; and his wife. Lady Elizabeth Howard, was a daughter of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk. ' Robert Coke of Sparham, Norfolk. His grandson was the eminent lawyer Sir Edward Coke. 68 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Mayster Koffyn ^ Four Drumbylls lads Four Minstrells. The four ladies were dressed alike in gowns of white satin " savoysin," in hoops of white satin lined with blue, with mantles " savoysin" of blue velvet. They wore bonnets of blue velvet, and coifs of damask gold piped, and fillets of damask gold. For the dresses of the male performers, which were also of blue and white, " there were spent in this mummery four doublets, four coats, four mantle Albanoys, four bonnets, four pair hose, four pair shoes, four blue and white satin gowns, four yellow sarcenet girdles, four drumbyllslad's [drummer boy's] coats, and bonnets of blue and white damask," &c. The servant of the Duke of Suffolk supplied " 82 J yards white velvet for mantles Albanoys, 157 yards blue velvet for lining, ribbing and bordering for ladies' mantles savoysin, wrapping the King's bonnet, &c., 71 yards yellow satin for lining doublets and coats of blue velvet, 75 yards white satin for gowns savoysis, 75 1 Afterwards Sir William Coffin, Master of the Horse at the Corona- tion of Anne Boleyn in 1633. He bequeathed his hawks to the King. 69 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII yards blue satin for ditto, &c., 9 yards white and 9 yards blue damask for coats for drum- byllslads." " Bought of Chrystian Warren, Silkwoman : .... damask gold; of William Botre, Mercer; 12 yards yellow sarcenet for girdles for Nicholas Carew and Harry Guilford, and for covering the necks and faces of the mummers. Bought of Richard Gibson and Elizabeth Philip, silk- woman, Venice ribbon at 4s. 6d. a piece, 6 dozen ribbon points, 8 a dozen, for the mantels Albanoys and the apparel savoysis, four caps of white velvet Albanoys, four blue and white satin gowns and bonnets for the mummers, four blue and white damask coats and bonnets for drumbyllslads, crimson and green satin for the taborets and rebecks." It seems likely that in this profusion of satin and velvet a superfluity of yards was inten- tionally supplied, so as to provide a handsome perquisite for Master Richard Gibson ; none the less because he defends himself from any sus- picion of extravagance by his excuse that he ordered a superfluity " for avoidance of the King's displeasure " (lest the supply in any item should nm short). The King, however, so far from feeling displeasure, was evidently in 70 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII high good humour after his " rich and goodly revels " at Greenwich, for he immediately ordered Gibson to prepare a fresh pageant for the Feast of Epiphany, the reason given being that the Court was " full of strangers, French, Spanish, and German." We may imagine that the blond beauty of the girl Elizabeth Blount, set off to perfection by her blue and white costume, was the theme of general admiration at these Christmas fes- tivities, she being, as we suppose, not more than fourteen years old at this time. The Queen herself may not have been present at this particular scene, for she had rather recently been confined of a " still-born male child to the very great grief of the whole Court." ^ But on many similar occasions we may be sure that the Queen enthroned among the audience, and sur- rounded by her ladies, would deign to express her approval and would compliment her Cham- berlain, Lord Mountjoy,^ on his young kins- woman's looks and deportment. We turn again to the Chronicles of Hall, and find that this " damosel in singing, dancing, and * Andrea Badoer, Venetian Ambassador in England. Letter dated December 1514. Cal. S.P. Venetian Series, vol. ii, 312. ' Mountjoy was appointed Governor of Tournay about this time, and resided much there ; but was in England in December 1514. 71 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII all goodly pastimes exceeded all other." How seductive these accomplishments eventually proved. Hall further records ; but we may close the scene of these Christmas pageants without anticipation of scandal. Henry did not at this time neglect his wife, who was deeply attached to him and bore him many children.^ He treated her well, although whenever his father-in-law, Ferdinand, deceived and overreached him, he no doubt vented his rage by blustering at the Queen. Erasmus, who was intimately acquainted with the Court, wrote of the Royal pair : " What household is there among the subjects of their realms that can offer an example of such united wed- lock ? Where can a wife be better matched with the best of husbands ? Nowhere," he declares, " could be found so pure and modest a Court." Henry was devoutly religious, was " more fond of reading good books than was any other prince of his age, heard Mass three times on the days when he went to the chase, and as ' The report of Lippomano {September 1, 1614) that Henry in " demandiug a million ducats from the Emperor on account of the expenditure in the war last year " talked of '" annuling his marriage with the Queen," appears, if more than idle gossip, to have been a diplomatic threat on the part of Henry, not to be taken seriously. Sanuto Diaries V, xix, p. 1. 72 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII many as five times on other days,"^ besides attending service every evening with the Queen. " The King is prudent and sage and free from every vice " is the joint testimony of the three Venetian Ambassadors in 1515.^ He certainly, in the early part of his reign, presents a most remarkable contrast, both in moral character* and in personal appearance, to the gross and callous decapitator of wives and the morose monster he became in later years. Nor had he as yet whetted his appetite for the blood and spoils of wealthy subjects — indeed his coffers were still full, for his penurious father had left him rich beyond the dreams of avarice. As to his person, the Venetian Ambassador Pasqualigo's description (April 1515) is well known : " the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on . . . his complexion very fair and bright, with aubuAi hair combed straight and short, in the French fashion, and a round face so very beautiful, that it would become a pretty woman . . ." ; and all contemporary writers report of him in a similar strain. Moreover he ' Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII. Giustiniani's Letters, vol. i, p. 27. ' May 3, 1516. Ihid. p. 76. " " Judged by the standard of a Francis [of France] he was a model of propriety." Political Hist, of England, vol. v, p. 265. (Fisher.) 73 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII enjoyed the reputation of being the best dressed sovereign in the world. Erasmus describes in glowing terms the Court of Henry as rather a temple of the muses than a palace — a polite academy where arts and sciences flourished under liberal patronage, and the eulogy of Erasmus, though in other ways highly coloured, was in this respect not undeserved.^ It was in this atmosphere of culture that Elizabeth Blount's " rare gifts of nature " grew and blossomed to that full perfection which we are told they attained. 1 These are the words of Brewer. Beign of Henry VIII, vol. i p. 233. 74 CHAPTER VII Early Tudor manners : Erasmus's description : " Freedom and simpKcity " : Kissing customary. A DECADE or more earlier, Erasmus, on his first visit to England, had merrily described, in a letter to Andrelinus, the delightful impression which English manners had made on him,' and if the pleasant freedom he then depicted was customary in the reign of the sombre Henry VII, may we not accept the description as illustrating the epoch of that King's debonair successor in his early years ? Social intercourse would surely have lost nothing of its warmth under the example of that popular monarch ; and it therefore seems not inappropriate to introduce this picture of Tudor manners in a review of the domestic surroundings of Elizabeth Blount and her times. " Did you but know," exclaims the sprightly theologian, writing in Latin to his poet friend — Erasmus, now in his youth, has lately been released by papal dispensation from his monastic 1 In 1499. 75 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII vows — " Did you but know the endowments of Britain, you would run hither with winged feet, and if the gout stopt you you would wish your- self a Daedalus. To mention one thing out of many, there are here nymphs of divine beauty, gentle and kind, whom you may well prefer to your Camoenae. Moreover there is a fashion never sufficiently commended. Wherever you go you are received by every one with kisses ; when you take leave you are dismissed with kisses ; you return, kisses are again renewed. People come to you and kisses are offered. They take their leave and kisses are again distributed. Wherever you meet there are kisses in abun- dances. In short wherever you move, all things are charged with kisses. And, Faustus, if you once tasted how sweet and fragrant they are you would be glad to sojourn in England not for ten years, like Solon, but to your dying day." ^ The translator of this letter comments on the " freedom and simplicity of manners which prevailed among English ladies " at this date, and truly these were the halcyon days of " Merry England " — a, century before the leaven of Puritanism permeated the very heart and marrow of social life. < Epistles of Erasmus, translated by F. M. Niohol, vol. i, p. 203. 76 CHAPTER VIII 1515-1517 May Day sports : May dew : The Queen's handsome damsels : A ride in the woods : Hall's description : A sylvan banquet : Robin Hood ; The return home : The Court ladies' sports and songs ; Ordinary amusements : Outbreak of the Sweating Sick- ness : Memo's music : The King's passion for music : His rare talent : His compositions : Elizabeth's singing ; She grows to perfect womanhood. An account of the May Day sports of the year 1515 (to continue our Court Chronicles) con- tained in a letter from the Venetian Secretary, Nicolo Sagudino, describes the kind of scene in which Elizabeth Blount, one of the Queen's " handsome damsels " alluded to, was often called upon to take part. We may preface our quotation from this account by remarking that Queen Katherine and her maidens were doubtless careful on May Day to " gather May dew " in the fields, according to the Spanish custom introduced from the Queen's own country ; Maydew preserved in vessels for future use being considered specific 77 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII as a wash for the complexion. The Queen, " poor soul," comments the translator of the Venetian letters ^ with reference to this custom, " was doomed to so much care that it behoved her to neglect no possible antidote to its furrows." Elizabeth Blount, however, we may add, in her " fresh youth,',' had certainly no need to trouble herself about her complexion. A notable feature of these royal sports was the immense multitude of spectators which collected to witness and share in the amusements of their King and his Court, a custom which contributed greatly to the contentment of the people, and made Henry exceedingly popular in the early part of his reign. " On the first day of May," reports the Venetian two days later, ^ " the King sent two English lords to the Ambassadors, who were taken by them to a place called Greenwich, five miles hence, where the King was, for the purpose of celebrating May Day. On the Ambassadors arriving there they mounted on horseback, with many of the chief nobles of the kingdom, and accompanied the most serene Queen into the » Rawdon Brown. » Letter of Sagudino to Alvise Foscari. Sanuto Diaries. Quoted by Rawdon Brown, Four Yeara at the Court of Henry VIII, Gius- tiniani, vol. i, p. 79. 78 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII covintry to meet the King. Her Majesty was most excellently attired, and very richly, and with her were twenty-five damsels, mounted on white palfreys, with housings of the same fashion, most beautifully embroidered in gold ; and these damsels had all dresses slashed with gold lama in very costly trim, with a number of footmen in most excellent order. The Queen went thus with her retinue a distance of two miles out of Greenwich, into a wood, where they found the King with his guard all clad in livery of green, with bows in their hands, and about a hundred noblemen on horseback, all gorgeously arrayed." The whole of Sagudino's account has been quoted too often and too lately to bear repetition in these pages — his description of " bowers filled purposely with singing birds," of the " bastions," " the triumphal cars," on which were singers and musicians who played on the organ, the lute, and flutes during the banquet, the paste-board giants, and the rest. . . .^ But there can be no doubt from the chronology of his letter that Mistress Blount — now of the advanced age of fifteen — was one of the " handsome damsels " • Since these pages were prepared for the press the author has just read Mr. Mumby's agreeable reproduction of letters in his " Youth of Henry VIU," which quotes Sagudino's description in full. 79 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII who evoked the admiration of Sagudino and " made a sumptuous appearance." He contrasts them with the " rather ugly Queen who is sup- posed to be pregnant." (In reaUty she had not that excuse.) Hall, the chronicler, who revels in the merry scenes of his youth, adds some particulars on this occasion. He paints his picture with such vivid and lasting colours that it is pleasant to look at it afresh ; and the happy relations between the King and Queen are obvious to all beholders. " The King and the Queen," he says, " accom- panied with many lords and ladies, made to the high ground of Shooter's Hill to take the open air ; and as they passed by the way they espied a company of tall yeomen clothed all in green with green hoods and bows and arrows to the number of two hundred, a-maying. Then one of them, which called himself Robin Hood, came to the King, desiring him to see his men shoot, and the ' King was content.' Then he whistled, and all the two hundred archers shot and loosed at once ; and then he whistled again, and they likewise shot again ; their arrows whistled by craft of the head, so that the noise was strange and great, and much pleased the King, the 80 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Queen, and all the company. All these archers were of the King's guard and had thus apparelled themselves to make solace to the King. Then Robin Hood desired the King and Queen to come into the greenwood, and to see how the outlaws live. The King demanded of the Queen and her ladies if they durst adventure to go into the wood with so many outlaws. Then the Queen said that, if it pleased him, she was content ; then the horns blew till they came to the wood under Shooter's Hill ; and there was an arbour made of bows with a hall and a great chamber, and an inner chamber, very well made and covered with flowers and sweet herbs, which the King much praised. Then said Robin Hood : ' Sir, outlaw's breakfast is venison, and therefore you must be content with such fare as we use.' Then the King and Queen sat down and were served with venison and wine by Robin Hood to their great contentacion. Then the King departed, and his company, and Robin Hood and his men them conducted ; and as they were returning there met them two ladies in a rich chariot, drawn with five horses, and every horse had his name on his head, and on every horse sate a lady with her name written. On the first courser called Lawde sate Humidite, or F 81 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Humide ; on the second courser called Memeon rode Lady Vert ; on the third called Pheton sate Lady Vegative ; on the fourth called Rimphon sate Lady Pleasaunce ; on the fifth called Lampace sate Sweet Odour ; and in the chair sate the Lady May, accompanied with Lady Flora, richly apparelled ; and they saluted the King with divers goodly songs and so brought him to Greenwich. ..." One wonders which of these fair damsels was Elizabeth Blount — she who " exceeded all other." Queen Katherine's ladies constantly enjoyed a roimd of festivities in which music and dancing were the principal features. On great occasions such as the visits of envoys from foreign courts they were spectators at the wonderful jousts in which the King took the most prominent part. The Venetian Secretary describes one of special magnificence given in honour of the Flemish envoys in July 1517. After the banquet which followed, he reports that the King and Queen and their guests " betook themselves into another hall, where the damsels of the most serene Queen were, and dancing went on for two hours, the King doing marvellous things both in dancing and jumping, proving himself, as indeed he is, 82 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII indefaticable " ; and we get frequent glimpses of similar scenes. On ordinary days " the amusements at Court," says Brewer, " were diversified by hunting and outdoor exercise in the morning ; in the after- noon by Memo's music ; by the consecration and distribution of cramp-rings, or the inventing of plasters and compounds of medicine — ^an occupa- tion in which the King took unusual pleasure." " The amusements in which the ladies had most share," explains another modern writer,^ " were the interludes, mummeries, devices, and trick-waggons — words the precise meaning of which is now lost. The descriptions of the ' device,' ' pageant,' ' triumph,' and ' trick- waggon ' bring before the eye something between a pantomime procession scene and a circus procession. A grand gilt waggon brought on the ' device ' — a scene of woodland or mountain cut out of silk and stuff and coloured paper. On various tiers of the waggon were people standing who represented allegorical and classical cha- racters. When the car had been wheeled into the centre of the hall, the actors, male and female, climbed down and danced, acted, sang, or did feats of skill." * Social England, by Trail, vol. iii, p. 204. 83 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII But of all the royal pastimes " the chief dish," reports the Venetian Ambassador to the Doge, " is always Memo's music." When at the end of the summer of 1517 — shortly after the last- mentioned festivities — a fearful outbreak of the " new disease," the sweating sickness, raged with such malignity as to kill in five days, after a few hours' illness, divers lords, knights, gentlemen, and officers of the King's Court, the King in great fright shut himself up at Windsor until the distemper passed, taking with him, among a few companions, his favourite musician, the Reverend Master Memo — music being his chief distraction at this harassing time. Friar Dionisius Memo, organist of St. Mark's, Venice, had been sent, in September 1516, by the Doge to King Henry, who made him his chaplain and choirmaster. " He played mar- vellously," relates the Ambassador ..." the King is so enamoured of him and pleased with his talent that one could not wish for more." He would listen to Memo's playing for four hours at a time, " and had a greater opinion of him than words can express," ^ although many musicians from Germany and other countries flocked to the English Court. Henry was him- ' Four Years. Ginstiniani's Letters, Bawdon Brown, vol. i, p. 301. ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII self an excellent musician. He played all kinds of different instruments with rare talent, and sang from book at sight. He was also a composer. " He composes fairly," reports Giustiniani — himself a critical musician. The King composed two entire masses in five parts, ^ as well as ballads. Songs of a light or comic kind were in vogue, we learn from one of the Venetian letter-writers, who calls them frottole and imported some from Italy for the King. Many a time, we may be sure, was the taste of the accomplished maid-in-waiting, Elizabeth Blount, consulted by the King over clavichord and lute, and her sweet voice employed in singing not only to Memo's accompaniment, but also to that of the King himself. " So the years ran smoothly on " — ^we quote again the words of Brewer, referring to " those brilliant and halcyon days which seemed the more brilliant from the contrast they presented to the troubled rule of other Sovereigns." And it was during these years that Elizabeth was developing to complete womanhood until she reached the zenith of her unrivalled beauty. » Holinshed, p. 557. 85 CHAPTER IX 1518 Her last year as Maid-in- Waiting : Position of her family : Her father Esquire of the Body : Her great-uncle Vice- Chamberlain to Queen Katherine : " The chains of love " : The King's passion : Cardinal Wolsey : The French " Es- pousals " : Wolsey's entertainment ; List of masqueraders : Elizabeth's partner : Final revelry. We now come to the last year of Elizabeth's attendance on the Queen. It was six years since her arrival at Court. Hitherto her sur- roundings, social and domestic, had undergone little or no change. Her accomplished kinsman, WiUiam Blount, Lord Mount joy, on his return from Tournay, was again Chamberlain to the Queen, while a nearer relative of Elizabeth was now promoted to be the Queen's Vice-Chamberlain. This was her great-uncle Sir Edward DarelP of Littlecote, who had succeeded Sir Thomas Bryan in that confidential position. Her father, John 1 Sir Edward DareU's first wife was a daughter of Sir Bichard Croft, a sister of Sir Thomas Blount's wife. He became Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Katherine in 151 7. Brewer's Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII. 86 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Blount, with maturer years, though hardly yet approaching middle age, had now a post at Court of greater consequence than formerly, as an Esquire of the Body to the King, and in that office was in immediate attendance on the Sovereign's person. The duty of an Esquire of the Body was " to array the King and un- array him, and no man else was to set hand upon the King. The Yeomen or Esquires of the Robes were to take from the Esquires of the Body all the King's Stuff, and an Esquire of the Body had to take charge of the cup- board at night." Those of the Body took precedence over all other Esquires or Gentle- men of Ancestry, and ranked above Knights Bachelors. Further, they were granted the right of bearing supporters to their coats-of- arms — a privilege otherwise only enjoyed by Peers, or Knights of the Garte'r, and never by Knights of lower degree. Meanwhile John's father, the veteran Knight- Banneret, on his return from the war, had retired to his Shropshire estates and resided at Kinlet with his numerous younger children. Sir Thomas was pricked Sheriff for Shropshire in this year (1518), which office obliged him to remain the whole year within the borders of 87 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII his county, and he was therefore far away from the circle of the Court. He was moreover Steward for hfe of the Royal Manors of Bewdley and Cleobury Mortimer, and Master of the Hunt, and Parker of the King's Park in the Forest of Wyre, offices which were settled on his eldest son in survivorship. But although little variation had occurred in the external circumstances of Elizabeth, and the routine of Court functions and pastimes continued uninterrupted, a great change had come over her life. For her Sovereign was now — ^to borrow the quaint phraseology of Hall — " in the chains of love with her," and she in return " showed him . • . favour." The amours of Henry and Elizabeth culminated in the autumn of 1518. It is probable that the liaison was not of long duration, and was not at the moment widely notorious. The contem- poraneous correspondence furnishes no allusion to it ; even the letters of foreign diplomatists, usually eager to retail the Court gossip, do not report the intrigue. It is not till many years later that they allude to the " Mother of the King's son," and it was in that capacity, rather than as a mistress, that Elizabeth was known to her generation. 88 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII But whether or not the liaison was suspected by only a few at this time, the whole scandal was not out till the end of the year, or the beginning of the next, by which time the retire- ment of Elizabeth from Court must have become necessary. In October 1518,i however, we find her still playing her part there as usual, and excelling in those " goodly pastimes by which she won the King's heart." The scene towards the close of Mistress Blount's appearances in the Court circle is the most brilliant, and the occasion the most interesting, of any in which we have seen her take part ; for the entertainment is provided by the most transcendent personage of the age, the most magnificent and the most profuse, namely, the Cardinal of York, who had been for three years, and was to continue to be for ten years longer, the supreme director of affairs secular as well as spiritual, private as well as public, throughout the entire realm. Of this period, it has been well said,^ that it was one " of external state and magnificence which has never been surpassed, and when the gratification of personal expenditure ' Hall's Chronicles: Tenth Year of Henry VIII. (Henry FitzRoy was born before or about the following June.) ' J. Gough Nichols. 89 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII was scarcely limited or restrained by any con- siderations of financial economy. The same love of pomp and splendour actuated both monarch and minister, when Henry sat at the prow and Wolsey at the helm." The Cardinal's entertainment took place on the evening of Sunday, October 3, 1518, two days before the betrothal of the Princess Mary, infant daughter of the King and Queen, to the Dauphin, son of Francis I, in connexion with the general peace proclaimed by Wolsey ^ in St. Paul's on the morning of the said Simday " with so many pontifical ceremonies and of such unusual splen- dour as to defy exaggeration."^ Queen Katherine, who, expecting her con- finement, has to save herself all unnecessary exertion before the ceremony of the " espousals," and who, besides, strongly disapproves of the alliance with France, is absent from the revels. She has other grounds for disapproval or un- easiness, it may well be supposed, if her ladies have been making innuendoes with regard to ^ Wolsey, in the interests of lasting peace, had brought about a general agreement between the three sovereigns, Charles, Francis, and Henry, by which Henry was pledged to make common cause against either of the two who should attack the other. ° Despatches of Sebastian Giustiniani, Bawdon Brown, vol. ii, p. 224. 90 Flioto CARDINAL WOLSEY From the origiual painting- iu the National Portrait Gallery Emery JVaUcer ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Mistress Bloiint. But the King's Grace is in full glory on the occasion, accompanied by his sister Mary, the young Queen Dowager of France, lately received back into favour, her clandestine marriage to the Duke of Suffolk in the early days of her widowhood, some three years past, having been the cause of offence to the King. The graceful dancing and deportment of this royal lady is always the admiration of beholders. A full description of the scene is given by the Venetian Ambassador Sebastian Giustiniani in a letter to the Doge (dated October 5, 1518), of which the following is an abstract : ^ " After the solemn mass at St. Paul's, at which the Cardinal officiated with imusual splendour, the King and the rest went to dine with the Bishop of London, His Majesty re- turning afterwards to Dxirham House, in the Strand. From thence the Cardinal was followed by the entire company to his own dwelling [York House, afterwards Whitehall], where we sat down to a most sumptuous supper, the like of which I fancy was never given either by Cleopatra or Caligula ; the whole banqueting- hall being so decorated with huge vases of gold 1 Pour Years at the Court of Henry VIII, Bavdon Brown, vol. ii, p. 225. 91 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and silver that I fancied myself in the tower of Chosroes, where that monarch caused divine honours to be paid him. After supper a mum- mery, consisting of twelve male and twelve female maskers, made their appearance in the richest and most sumptuous array possible, being all dressed alike. After performing certain dances in their own fashion, they took off their vizors, the two leaders were the King and the Queen-Dowager of France, and all the others were lords and ladies, who seated themselves apart from the tables and were served with countless dishes of confections and other deli- cacies. Having gratified their palates they then regaled their eyes and hands, large bowls filled with ducats and dice being placed on the table for such as liked to gamble. Shortly after which, the supper-tables being removed, dancing began and lasted till after midnight." The chronicler Hall gives some vivid touches to the picture, and we are indebted to him for the names of the players, of whom the men were all distinguished and the ladies highly born. It will be noticed that the name of Elizabeth Blount is coupled with that of the brilliant and profligate Francis Bryan. Says Hall : ^ » Hall's Chronicles : The Tenth Year of Henry VIII. We have ventured to modernise the spelling of HaII throughout. 92 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII " When the banquet was done, in came six minstrels richly disguised, and after them followed three gentlemen in wide and long gowns of crimson satin, every one having a cup of gold in his hands. The first cup was full of angels and royals, the second had divers bales of dice, and the third certain pairs of cards. These gentle- men offered to play at mum chance, and when they had played the length of the first board, then the minstrels blew up, and then there entered into the chamber twelve ladies dis- guised." " Twelve nymphs," the Venetian Secretary calls them.^ " When dancing began," Hall continues, " the first was the King himself and the French Queen. " The second was the Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Dawbeny.^ [Then followed] " the Lord Admiral and Lady Guylford : " Sir Edward Nevel [Nevill] and Lady Sentliger [St. Leger] : • Nioolo Sagudino in his letter to Posoari, October 10, 1518, vol. ii., p. 234, Venetian Letters. * Lady Daubeny did not live to become Countess of Bridgewater. Her husband, Henry Lord Daubeny, was afterwards created Earl of Bridgewater and married secondly Catherine, youngest daughter of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk, a half-sister of Lady Elizabeth Bole3rn and of Thomas, third Duke of Norfolk. 93 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII " Sir Henry Guylford and Mrs. Walden : " Captain Emery and Mrs. Ann Carew : " Sir Giles Capel and Lady Elizabeth Carew : " Nicholas Carew and Anne Brown : " Francis Brian and Elizabeth Blount : " Henry Norris and Anne Wotton : " Francis Poyntz and Mary Fyenes : " Arthur Poole [Pole] and Margaret Bruges. " On this company twelve knights attended in disguise and bearing torches. All these thirty- six persons were disguised [each] in one suit of fine green satin all covered with cloth of gold undertied together with laces of gold, arid had masking hoods on their heads, the ladies had tires made of braids of damask gold with long hairs of white gold. All these maskers danced at one time, and after they had danced they put off their vizors, and they were all known. The Admiral and Lords of France heartily thanked the King that it had pleased the King to visit them with such disport, and then the King and his company were banqueted and had high cheer, and then they departed every man to his lodging." These details are said to have suggested to 94 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Shakespeare the scene of the masked ball in Borneo and Juliets As we glance at Hall's list, we are reminded that great titles were far less common than in our own day, when good birth is comparatively rare. But in Tudor times many an untitled family, or one of merely knightly degree, held high standing, and not a few could claim kinship with the King. Scanning the names of the revellers we may pause to review the career of some of them. A tragic fate was in store for many of these boon companions of the King. Three were eventually doomed to execution by their Sovereign-tyrant in whose relentless scheme of rule friendly sentiment had no part. The aged mother and the brother of a fourth were also to suffer be- headal. A fifth fell in battle, and another was suddenly cut off by a deadly plague. Taking the partners in rotation : Young Lady Daubeny's rank entitled her to be assigned to the Duke of Suffolk, and her gaiety and lightness were suited to her com- panion's tastes. She was Elizabeth, first wife of Henry, Lord Daubeny, and daughter of George Nevill, Lord Bergavenny (Abergavenny) ; * Brewer. 95 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and through her mother (Joan FitzAlan, daughter of the Earl of Arundel) she was nearly related to the King. " The Lord Admiral " was Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, son and heir of the old Duke of Norfolk, and himself, as Duke, a few years later, the leading personage in the State. In his domestic aspect he figures as being on ill terms with his wife, and as the secret enemy of his Boleyn relatives (his sister. Lady Elizabeth Howard, being Sir Thomas Boleyn's wife), more- over as hating his half-blood on his father's side (the children of his step-mother, Agnes Tylney, Duchess of Norfolk). He appears, however, as friendly with his half-sister (on his mother's side), the old lady Bryan, and with her children, of whom his partner. Lady Guilford, was one. Lady Guilford, Sir Henry's first wife, was the Margaret Bryan of an earlier page, the elder sister of " Mistress Carew, the young wife." Sir Edward Nevill, a Knight Banneret, and of high distinction as a valiant soldier, was even- tually beheaded on the charge of " devising to maintain, promote, and advance one Reginald Pole, late Dean of Exeter, enemy of the King," &c. He was uncle to Lady Daubeny, being her father's (Lord Bergavenny) brother. The 96 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Marquis of Abergavenny is Sir Edward Nevill's direct descendant. Lady St. Leger, or Sentliger (Anne Knyvett), we have met before — at the Christmas mummery four years earlier. Sir Henry Guilford, renowned in the field of battle as prominent in the revel, was related to, or connected by marriage with, most of the players. Mrs. Walden, Guilford's partner, was probably Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Sir Richard Walden, of Erith, in Kent, and married soon afterwards (as his second wife) to George, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, much older than herself. Her only child, Anne, married Sir William Compton's son and heir, Peter, and was by him ancestress of the present Marquis of Northampton. Captain Emery, of Flemish birth, was popular and distinguished in the service of England. He was David, Lord of Howterrosche, alluded to as " the Bastard Emery," and was slain in battle three years later, when the King expressed regret at his loss. Mrs. Ann Carew, his partner, was probably an unmarried sister of Sir Nicholas Carew, who afterwards married Nicholas Legh of Adlington. She appeared two years later in attendance on G 97 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Queen Katherine at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Sir Giles Capell, who had been knighted after the Battle of the Spurs, was a direct ancestor of the Earl of Essex, His partner, the Mistress Carew (Elizabeth Bryan), of the Christmas mummery of 1514, the " young wife " (whose character we have discussed under that date) is now " Lady Elizabeth," her husband having become Sir Nicholas — knights' wives in Tudor times being customarily given this style, con- trary to modern usage. About Sir Nicholas Carew we shall have a word to say hereafter. He was one of the distinguished favourites of fortune eventually doomed to suffer on the block. Anne Browne, his partner, was a niece of Sir Henry Guilford, being the daughter of Sir Matthew Browne, of Beechworth Castle, by Frideswide, daughter of Sir Richard Guilford, Knight of the Garter. She appears later as " Mrs. Danet," in attendance on the French Queen in 1522. Francis Bryan, as the partner of Elizabeth Blount, will receive separate notice. The ill-fated Henry Norris, or Norreys (younger son of Sir Edward Norreys by Fridiswide, 98 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII daughter and co-heir of Francis, Viscount Lovell), was at one time an Esquire of the Body to the King. A special favourite, he slept in the King's room. Later he was involved in the fall of Anne Boleyn,, and committed to the Tower on the charge of "being one of her paramours. Upon it being reported to the King that Norreys said " he had rather endure a thousand deaths than betray the innocent," the King cried out, " Hang him up — ^hang him up ! " He suffered death accordingly. May 14, 1536, and was attainted by Parliament the same year. He married Francis Poyntz's partner, Mary Fiennes, one of Queen Katherine's ladies-in-waiting, a daughter of Lord Dacre of the South.^ She died shortly before his disgrace.^ Ann Wotton, Norreys' partner, must have been a mere child at this date. Her father. Sir Edward Wotton, was not yet thirty. Later he was in the Privy Council of Henry VIII and Governor of Calais. Dugdale says of him that " he was of * The present Viscount Hampden is the representative (by female descent) of this Lord Dacre, whose Barony he inherits. » Hemy and Mary Norres^s had two children : a daughter, who married first Sir George Carew, and secondly, Sir Arthur Champer- nowne of Dartington ; and a son Henry, who was Ambassador to France and created Lord Norreys by Queen Elizabeth. This Barony is now merged in the Earldom of Abingdon. 99 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII such ability that he might have been Lord Chancellor of England, but that he modestly declined it." Ann Wotton was niece to Sir Henry Henry Guilford's second wife and of Margaret, Marchioness of Dorset. She married first James Cromer, Esquire, and secondly Robert Rudstone, Esquire. The Duke of Devonshire is the senior co-heir of the Wottons. Sir Francis Poyntz was in later years sent as Ambassador to Charles V. He died of the sweating sickness in the memorable summer of that outbreak in 1528. His wife was a sister of Anne Browne. Arthur Pole was of pre-eminent birth. He was a son of Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, "the last of the Plantagenets," — ^the " saintliest of women," the King called her — who at the age of seventy was destined to be condemned to death unheard by Parliament and beheaded on Tower Hill. His eldest brother, Henry, suffered a similar fate. Another brother was the illustrious Reginald Pole who became Cardinal and Archbishop in the reign of Mary. But these gay masqueraders recked not what Fate might hold in store for them, and Life, brief though it was, was perhaps never more 100 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII keenly enjoyed than by the glorious courtiers of Henry VIII. During the remainder of the visit of the foreign envoys the whole Court gave itself over to extravagant rej oicings. Revelry, alternating with religious functions, continued for many days in connection with the ceremony of the " espousals," which took place at Greenwich on October 5. The little Princess Mary, aged two, who was the centre of all this empty diplomatic display of unity, stood on this occasion ^ "in front of her mother dressed in cloth of gold with a cap of black velvet on her head adorned with most costly Jewels," the King standing in front of his throne with the Queen and his sister, the Queen Dowager of France on one side of him, and the two right reverend legates on the other. ..." The Reverend Cuthbert Tonstal, the Privy Councillor, recited a most full and elegant oration in praise of the marriage, which being ended, the most illustrious Princess was taken in arms, and . . . the Cardinal of York placed on her finger a small ring in which a large diamond was set. . . . Mass was then performed by the Cardinal, the whole of the choir being decorated with cloth ^ Giustiniani Despatches, Fom Years at the Court of Henry VIII, vol. ii, p. 226. 101 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VHI of gold, and all the Court in such rich array that I never saw the like either here or elsewhere." ^ That night was more banqueting, dancing, and supping, and so "to bed at three in the morning." Next followed two days of stately jousts, banquets, and comedies — "pageants of such a sort as are rarely seen in England." On the night of October 8 we may take leave of Mistress Blount at a final scene especially characteristic of such fair " nymphs," as were she and her companions, although in this instance their names have not been recorded by the English chronicler. After the " strangers had been ' feasted all day ' " — ^he tells us ^ — " at night they were brought into the hall, where was a rock full of all manner of stones, very artificially made, and on the top stood five trees, the first an olive tree, on which hanged a shield of the arms of the Church of Rome ; the second a pine- apple tree with the arms of the Emperor ; the third a rosier with the arms of England ; the fourth a branch of lilies bearing the arms of France ; and the fifth a pomegranate tree bearing the arms of Spain, in token that all these five potentates were joined together in one league 1 Thus reports the Venetian Secretary Sagudino. Ibid. vol. ii, p. 234. ' HaU. 102 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII against the enemies of Christ's faith. . . . Upon the midst of the rock sate a fair lady, richly apparelled, with a dolphin in her lap ; in this rock were ladies and gentlemen apparelled in crimson satin covered over with flowers of purple satin embroidered on, with wreaths of gold, knit together with gold laces, and on every flower a heart of gold moving. The ladies' tyre was after the fashion of Inde, with kerchiefs of Pleasaunce, hached with fine gold and set with letters of Greek in gold of bullion, and the edges of their kerchiefs were garnished with hanging pearl. These gentlemen and ladies sat on the nether part of the rock, and out of the cave in the said rock came two knights, armed at all points, and fought together a fair tournay ; and when they were severed and departed, the disguisers descended from the rock, and danced a great space ; and suddenly the rock moved and received the disguisers, and immediately closed again. Then entered a person called ' Report,' apparelled in crimson satin fidl of tongues, sitting on a fleeing horse with wings and feet of gold, called ' Pegasus.' This person, in French, declared the meaning of the rock and the trees and the tournay." An entertainment by the Duke of Suffolk, 103 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VHI " a liberal and magnificent lord," concluded the junketings on October 10, and soon afterwards the Ambassadors returned to France, doubtless duly impressed by the hospitality of England and by the beauty of the young ladies of the Court. 104 CHAPTER X 1518-1519 Queen Katheriue's disappointment : Mistress Blount's situa- tion ; Henry's want of a male heir : King Francis jeers : Henry's morals contrasted : The changed tone of the Court : The King's companions : Suffolk, Compton, Carew, Bryan : French fashions : Some banishments : " Sad and ancient Knights " substituted : Bryan's character : His poetic gifts : His dissoluteness. Anxiety and] worry were at this time telling upon the Queen's health, and a climax to her distress was reached in November of this year, when all hopes of the eagerly longed-for male heir were finally disappointed. In her delicate condition she had been keenly annoyed by the betrothal of her little two-year-old daughter to the Dauphin ; and it is not improbable that the discovery by the Queen of Mistress Blount's situation caused her distress prejudicial to her health. Certainly the dates of these circum- stances correspond. Passionately devoted as Katherine was to her husband, it must have been now clear to her that his affection for 105 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII herself was on the wane, if indeed it had not been entirely alienated by this maid- in- waiting — this accomplished and beautiful creature, whose fair face was in marked contrast to her own lined features, as was the girlish physique of her rival to her own stout, short figure. And Katherine's disappointment, the more bitter that the King was now obsessed by his desire to have a son, was not the less keen that it was concealed beneath a cheerful demeanour. Meanwhile the King of France made merry at the expense of Henry's matrimonial relations. " My good brother of England," he jeered, " has no son because, although a young and handsome man, he keeps an old and deformed wife." ^ Henry — he was now in the tenth year of his reign and his age was twenty-eight — was gradually changing as he began to tire of the Queen, whom, however, he continued to treat with the greatest external respect. But, although Henry's morals were correct by contrast with those of his libertine brother of France, strict fidelity was not expected of any monarch ; and certainly the whole tone of the Court was little in accordance with Erasmus's description of it a few years earlier. The King's somewhat ' Francis said this to Giustiniani on May 17, 1S19. " Sanuto Diaries V.," xxvii, p. 276. 106 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII unnatural zeal for religion, and his virtue of former years, had become irksome to the lighter- minded among the courtiers ; and religion was less the fashion than formerly. Many of the King's associates, whose chief object it was to provide for his amusement, while they enriched themselves by his munificence, were conspicuous examples of licentious manners. The domestic career of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, was notorious. His marriage to the King's sister was bigamous, for he had at least one other wife living. Among the King's most favoured com- panions. Sir William Compton,^ the chief gentle- man of the Bedchamber, was cited before Wolsey for living in open adultery with Lord Hastings' wife (the sister of the Duke of Buckingham) and for adding to his offence by taking the sacrament to disprove it. The stricter members of the Court pointed contemptuously to Nicholas Carew as an unsuitable companion for his royal master. He was removed more than once on account of the liberties he took with the King, ^ Sir William Compton, thiough the favour of the King, became one of the richest men in England, possessing manors in seventeen counties. He was in near association with the Blounts of Kinlet. We find him later appointed by Sir Thomas Blount's wiU, a feoffee of the Kinlet estates, and consequently acting in hostility to the rights of John Blount, with whom he was at enmity, after Sir Thomas's death. See Chapter zs. 107 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII but managed to get back again into favour. " Mr. Carew and his wife," writes Pace to Wolsey (March 27, 1518), " be returned to the King's Grace too soon in my opinion."^ Carew and Francis Bryan had about this time returned from France imbued with the foUies and vices of the French Court. Hall gives an amusing account of their doings there. " During his time," he chronicles, " remained in the French Court, Nicholas Carew, Francis Brian, and diverse other of the yotmg gentlemen of England, and they, with the French King [Francis I] rode daily disguised through Paris throwing eggs, stones, and other foolish trifles at the /people. . . . They return to England and are all French in eating, drinking, and apparel. Yea, and in French vices and brags, so that all the estates of England were by them laughed at, the ladies and gentlewomen were dispraised, so that nothing by them was praised, but it were after the French turn — which after turned them to dis- pleasure, as you shall see."^ In the following May (1519) he continues, " the King's Coimcil secretly communed together of the King's gentle- 1 Cal. S.P., 4034, vol. ii, part ii. » Hall, Tenth Year of Henry VIII. We have, in quoting Hall, modernised his spelling throughout. 108 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII ness and liberality to all persons ; by the which they perceived that certain young men in his Privy Chamber, not regarding his estate nor degree, were so familiar and homely with him, and played such light touches with him, that they forgot themselves."^ The King agrees to dismiss them, and to reform his Court ; and Hall continues : " Then the King's Council caused the Lord Chamberlain to call before them Carew, and another who yet liveth, and therefore shall not at this time be named [Quere Bryan, who outlived most of his companions], with divers also of the Privy Chamber which had been in the French Court, and banished them the Court for divers considerations, laying nothing particularly to their charges . . . which discharge out of the Court grieved sore the hearts of these young men, which were called the King's minions. Then was there four sad and ancient knights put into the King's Privy Chamber, whose names were Sir Richard Wing- field, Sir Richard Jerningham, Sir Richard Weston, and Sir William Kingston, and divers officers were changed in all places. ..." A political motive aiming against the King of France was seen by some in these sudden dis- ^ Hall, Eleventh Year of Henry VIII. 109 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII missals. It was asserted by others that the stir was made because these persons had been the cause of the King's excessive gambhng and that he himself resolved to lead a new life. Whatever the true reason, Hall informs us that the fall of the minions was " little moved among wise men." The King, however, tempered the harsh- ness of banishment to his companions by giving them employment and promotion, " extra curiam," and before long received them all back into favour, probably himself being meanwhile heartily wearied by the society of the " sad and ancient knights." A special interest attaches to Francis Bryan as the partner of Mistress Blount at Cardinal Wolsey's pageant in October 1518. Of all the younger members of the royal circle he had the character of being the most dissolute as he was also the most brilliant. Son of Sir Thomas Bryan (Queen Katherine's Vice-Chamberlain) by his wife, Margaret Bourchier,^ half-sister of Thomas, Earl of Surrey, afterwards third Duke of Norfolk, Francis Bryan, with his sisters, Margaret Guilford and Elizabethj Carew, was bred within the precincts of the Court, where ' Lady Bryan's mother, Lady Bourcbier, was the first wife of the second Duke of Norfolk. 110 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII his talents and connexions helped him to push his way early into the front rank as a leader among the young men of fashion. Throughout his career his astuteness and his time-serving qualities enabled him to steer his fortunes through all the perilous vicissitudes of the reign, and, as time went on, to rise with his cousin Anne Boleyn's elevation, to turn against her when her star was on the wane, and so on to the end, trimming and treacherous, to avoid execution himself, while many of his early companions suffered death — a fate which not seldom befell Henry's minions. " Vicar of Hell " Thomas Cromwell called him, and Cromwell should have been a good judge. To the ordinary accomplishments of a>man of the world Bryan added many mental acquire- ments. He was a student of foreign languages and a translator, and he may be supposed to have derived his love of letters from his maternal uncle, the illustrious John Bourchier, Lord Berners.^ But his chief title to fame was that of being the first poet of his day — his reputation as such 1 " The Castell of Love " was translated by Lord Bemers at the instance of his niece, Elizabeth Caxew, " late wyfe of Sir Nicholas Carewe Knight," about 1540, shortly after Carew's beheadal. Ill ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII has been handed down to posterity, although none of his verse has survived. Dra5i;on speaks of him as : Sacred Bryan whom the muses kept And in his cradle rockt him while he slept} Bryan wrote verses in praise of the aceom- pUshed Earl of Surrey : Sacred verses most divinely penned, and Francis Meres " describes Bryan as " the most passionate among us (poets) to bewail and bemoan the complexities of love." He did not, however, confine his study of love to its merely poetical aspect. He was also a master in the more material arts of seduction, and no one could so daintily recount a ribald story, or whisper a double entendre in the ear of his fair partner in the masque or revel. A curious sidelight, showing his reputation in this direction, is cast by a chance remark of a chronicler. In recording the apparently unique purity of mind of the young Princess Mary as she was growing to womanhood — ^the date is, of course, many years later than the episode of Elizabeth Blount — it is stated that when her 1 Some editions have " sweet-tongued " Bryan — perhaps a more appropriate epithet than " sacred." ° Palladia Tamia. 112 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII royal father was informed of it he covld not beUeve it possible that she should " know " no f oiil or unclean speeches " until he had caused Francis Bryan to try it" at one of the Court masques.'^ The conversation at these masques or "disguisings," as they were called, was likely to be of the freest, and we may be sure that Cardinal Wolsey's entertainment was no exception in this respect. Sir Thomas Wyatt in his scathing poem on Bryan, " How to use the Court and Himself," compares him to Pandar : " In this also, see that thou be not idle. Thy niece, thy cousin, sister, or thy daughter, If she be fair, if handsome be her middle — If thy better hath her love besought her. Advance his cause, and he shall help thy need. It is but love, turn thou it to a laughter ; But ware, say I, so gold thee help, and speed That in this case thou be not so unwise As Pandar was, in such a like deed ; For he, poor fool, of conscience was so nice That he no gain would have for all his pains." The fair and seductive Elizabeth did not escape the influence of such an associate, and there can be little doubt that although at the time of the Cardinal's revels others may not have known of her intrigue with the King, Francis Bryan was in the secret from the first, if indeed he had not been the go-between. • Life of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria, by Henry Clifford, p. 80. H 113 CHAPTER XI 1519-1522 Elizabeth retires to an Augustinian Priory : Birth of Henry FitzRoy ; Cardinal Wolsey his godfather ; Wolsey's apparent interest in the mother : Her seclusion ; Wolsey's motives discussed ; Mysterious allusions : Accused of " encouraging young gentlewomen " : Matrimonial alliances for Elizabeth : She marries Gilbert Tailbois : His ancestry : His father a lunatic : His mother : Act of Parliament passed : Handsome provision : She settles in Lincolnshire. Lord Herbert of Chirbury, in light and lenient allusion to this episode, remarks that " as all recommendable parts concurred in [the King's] person, and they again were exalted in his high dignity and valour, so it must seem [the] less strange if amid the fair ladies in his Court he both gave and received temptation. Among whom Mistress Elizabeth Blunt, daughter of Sir John Blunt, Knight, was thought for her rare ornaments of nature and education to be the beauty and mistress-piece of her time, that intire affection past betwixt them so as at last she bore him a son." 114 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Thus Lord Herbert, writing early in the next century as if the story of Elizabeth were still remembered in his generation. At his residence, Ribbesford, near Bewdley, Lord Herbert was a neighbour of the family at Kinlet, and may have heard traditions of Elizabeth handed down from his predecessors. He follows and amplifies the testimony of Hall, who as a contemporary of Elizabeth must have known her and her story well, and who himself records her adventure in merry strain. But although her contemporaries and associates may have made light of the situation of Mistress Blount, it would not have been possible for her to remain under the eye of the Queen after the evidence of her dishonour. It was not unusual in that age for a lady similarly situated to retire to a religious house, and Elizabeth found refuge before the birth of her child at the Priory of St. Lawrence at Blacka- more, or Blackmore, in Essex. There the Augustinian canons received her. In this arrangement we trace the hand of her friend the Cardinal of York, and it is evident that he did not lose sight of her. A nunnery, under the circumstances, might seem a more suitable resi- dence. She was, however, doubtless attended by nuns. 115 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII In the early summer of 1519,^ at the Prior's house at Blackamore,'' she gave birth to a " goodly manne child, in beautie like to the father and the mother," ^ and the King having apparently already acknowledged the child as his own, he was christened " Henry," and Cardinal Wolsey was his godfather. For a surname he received that of FitzRoy, which is said to have been given in England in some earlier times, and particularly to Geoffrey, one of the natural sons of King John. How long the young mother remained at the Prior's house after the birth of her child, and whether the King visited her there is not known. It is improbable that he did so.* ' Hall states that Henry FitzKoy was siz years old when he was made Duke of Richmond and Somerset in June 1625. ' Stowe's Chronicle, 1615, p. 526. " In the manor-house of Blackamore ... it was the Prior's House.'' -' Hall's Chronicles. • The fact of the royal bastard having been born at Blackmore is probably the sole origin of the story related by Morant more than two hundred years afterwards (History of Essex [1768], vol. ii, 57). "This [place]," he says, "is reported to have been one of King Henry the Eighth's Houses of Pleasure and disguised by the name of Jericho. So that when this lascivious Prince had a mind to be lost in the embraces of his Courtesans, the cant word among the Courtiers was that ' He was gone to Jericho.' " This ingenious fable seems devoid of foundation. Jericho was the name of a tenement appertain- ing to the Manor of Blackmore (which belonged to the Priory), but this tenement so far from being disguised by its name was called and known by no other in the time of Henry VIII and probably much 116 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII The assertion which has recently appeared, that Henry VIII built NewhaU for EUzabeth Blount, has no foundation in any of the records.^ All that is known is that her maiden name is never again found in Court annals, and that she did not return to the Queen. While many of her former companions at Court were in attendance on the Queen at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in the memorable summer of 1520 — ^the year following the birth of Henry FitzRoy — earlier. When the Priory was dissolved by Wolsey in 1525 (for the foundation of his College) Jericho passed with the Manor of Blackmore into other hands. Miss Strickland eagerly seizes on the above story and asserts as fact that the King and " Lady Tailboys " (sic) carried on their intrigue (before the birth of their child) at a place called Jericho. It seems improbable that in the early days of their intrigue, Henry and EUzabeth should have retired for secrecy to a remote village in Essex, a long journey's distance from any of the royal residences, when they had frequent opportunities of being together at Court. It seems equally improbable that after the birth of Henry PitzRoy — even supposing Elizabeth to have moved from the Prior's house to Jericho (the neigh- bouring tenement) — ^the King should have visited her and been " lost " at Jericho when the absence of the head of the State on such an excursion would have been notorious — far more so than it would be in our own days of rapid locomotion. As to Morant's insinuation that Henry had " houses of pleasure " in different parts of the country, it is generally admitted that his liaison with Elizabeth Blount was his first, and it may be added that history records for Henry a longer succession of wives than of mistresses. • Martin Hume (Wives of Henry VIII, p. 96), who misnames her " Eleanor " and " Lady Tailebois " in 1519. 117 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Mistress Blount was living in retirement — at least this seems a fair assumption from the silence of all record of her name. Not till three years later is there any record of her, and she then appears as the bride of Gilbert Tailbois. We know that in the meantime Wolsey con- tinued to keep his eye on her. " The mother of the King's son," as she was styled in the diplo- matic correspondence of the day, could not be disregarded by so astute and far-seeing a states- man as Wolsey. Indeed, that she in right of that position might attain to high influence was not improbable, and when a clerical corres- pondent assured her in later years how many bishops and prelates would be willing to oblige her, he no doubt said but the truth. As it was, it appears to her credit, considering her opportunities and the times in which she lived, that she is not found making capital out of her position or intriguing in affairs of State. History records no charge against her of plotting the destruction of enemies or of squandering the national revenues, as did the mistresses of Charles II or Louis XV, and the silence of history in this respect is in itself an encomium. Nor do her family, as in so many instances of the kind, appear to have reaped any profit from 118 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII her dishonour. They remained what their fore- fathers had been from time immemorial, of good status according to their knightly birth, and whatever offices they held, their ancestors had held before them.^ We need not pay serious attention to an item in the long list of malignant accusations against Wolsey,^ drawn up many years later in the interest of Wolsey's rival and supplanter, the Duke of Norfolk, namely an item, signed by the Reverend John Palsgrave, taxing the Cardinal with having " begun to encourage our young gentlewomen to become our concubines by the well-marrying of Besse Blont." We shall find this same Palsgrave as tutor to little Henry ' Hepworth Dixon implies that the dubbing of John Blount a knight was a reward for his daughter's dishonour, but as a matter of fact " Squire John " was not knighted till some years later, when he came into possession of the inheritance of his knightly ancestors. * The whole tone of these documents in Palsgrave's handwriting is remarkable. They differ from certain other more virulent and more openly malignant indictments, namely, those of Darcy, in that they appear to aim at, or at least to simulate, impartiality— to admit good intentions in some parts of the Cardinal's policy, but to blame its ineffectiveness. For in the long catalogue of hostile criticisms, many of the doings of Wolsey cited are in themselves laudable, and the only insinuation with regard to them seems to be that he had " begun " to do them, but got no farther than the beginning. The handwriting of Palsgrave strangely resembles that of Norfolk, and one might almost suppose they had the same writing-master. (Brewer's Letters and Papers Henry VIII, vol. iv, p. 2558.) 119 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII FitzRoy (to which post he was appointed by Wolsey) writing abject appeals to the child's mother for her protection and support, and assuring her that he (the writer) was determined never to confide in anyone but " her lady shyppe." It would seem as if, on the reverend gentleman's dismissal from this post, he had joined the party of the Cardinal's enemies, at the same time cherishing some grudge against Elizabeth her- self, whence the item in allusion to her early shortcomings was inserted among the charges against Wolsey.^ The fact remains, however, that Wolsey did set himself to get her " well married." His motives in so doing may have been many and complex. Although the divorce of Katherine was not considered till many years later, it is not unlikely that as soon as it became certain the Queen would never bear a son, the Cardinal, knowing Henry's extreme anxiety to have a male successor, anticipated the possibility of the How, why, or when these papers (now in the Record Office) were found in Palsgrave's cofiers does not appear. They have been catalogued among the State papers of 1529, as bearing upon Wolsey at the time of his fall. But we have no trace of Palsgrave being arrested either then or at any other time. Yet the indorsements imply that three, or at least two, distinct searches were made among his papers. 120 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII King's raising the question of a divorce, and that this possibihty, although never mooted, entered into his calculations even at so early a date as 1522. Besides the divorce of the Queen, the possibility of her dying was always to be reckoned with, and so, in either of these even- tualities, was the position of the mother of the King's son — ^this only son and probable heir until the King should marry again and beget one. It would be well, taking everything into con- sideration, for the Cardinal to bear in mind the future of this young lady. It might be well to see her safely married, lest haply she might stand in the way of his plans. Even in later years, when the question of the King's marriage with Anne Boleyn was in the air, the gossip of diplomacy hinted that the King should marry the mother of his son " to legitimize by sub- sequent marriage the son he had had by her." But such an idea would have been at all times contrary to Wolsey's schemes, for, in- defatigable as he was later in furthering the divorce of Katherine, it was not his policy to raise a subject to the throne. His schemes in the complicated game of statecraft were for a foreign alliance ; and if in the end he was driven to support the case of Anne Boleyn, 121 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII it was only because he then saw no hope of opposing the King's determination. Not with- out motive, we may be sure, did he get Besse Blount well married to young Gilbert Tailbois in 1522 — ^that is three years after the birth of her son. In the above-mentioned accusations it is further asserted that (well-married as she is), Wolsey " would yet by sleight have married her much better and for that purpose changed her name." The foundation for this statement is shrouded in mystery, if indeed it ever existed save in the malicious imagination of Wolsey's enemies. We may conclude, however, that Elizabeth remained secluded from the world in some retreat known to the Cardinal ; and that when, in the course of time, he determined upon her marriage, he encouraged more than one suitor for her hand. The words " much better " in Palsgrave's manuscript being care- fully substituted for the word " better," which is erased, seem certainly to point to a rumour of some highly illustrious marriage having been contemplated for Elizabeth Blount. But that it could ever have been the Cardinal's policy to change or conceal the name of a lady whose worldly position in the estimation of many 122 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII would have been rather enhanced than other- wise by the marks of the royal favour, or that such a ruse could have been attempted, seems hardly credible. There must have been many of the Court gallants who would have been glad enough to marry the brilliant and beautiful protegee of the Cardinal, whom the King had distinguished by his favour, especially as she was sure to receive a handsome dowry. In- deed such secrecy as might be supposed to arise from any delicacy of feeling was foreign to the King's nature, and the publicity of the Act of Parliament passed on the marriage of Elizabeth Blount does not convey the impression that concealment of her name was at any time thought necessary. To judge by a certain fastidiousness observable later in Elizabeth when choosing a second husband, she was not likely to accept the addresses of the first man who wished to marry her, and it is probable that she herself had some choice in the selection of Gilbert Tailbois. It is apparent, however, that it was through the intermediary of Wolsey that Elizabeth made the acquaint- ance of this young suitor, whose family and circumstances were well known to the Cardinal. Gilbert had been sent from Lincolnshire by his 123 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII mother, Lady Tailbois, to push his fortunes in the world, and was attached to the household of the Cardinal, who, in thus marrying " the mother of the King's son " to a gentleman espe- cially beholden to him, strengthened the influence which he already held over both, and bound closer the ties of their dependence upon himself. The bridegroom's father. Sir George Tailbois of Kyme, in Lincolnshire, possessed large estates in that county, as the descendant of the Umfra- villes. Earls of Angus and of the ancient Lords of Kyme. He had been declared a lunatic in 1517, and his property had been handed over by royal warrant to the custody of guardians, chief of whom was the Cardinal of York. The lunatic knight, with his wife, Lady Tailbois, re- sided at his manor of Goltaught,^ in Lincolnshire, and lived to a great age. Lady Tailbois, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorpe, Yorkshire, Gilbert's mother, was nearly related to the then powerful house of Percy, her mother being a daughter of Henry, third Earl of Northumber- land. She was thus kin to the wife of the newly attainted Duke of Buckingham, and to their daughter, the Duchess of Norfolk — a noted figure throughout this reign. ' Goiters or Golthro. 124 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII From glimpses of the domestic affairs of the family which we get in the grumbling letters of this Lady Tailbois (the elder), written some years later, we suspect that before the un- fortunate Sir George was " committed " to Wolsey, the resources of his property had been squandered in " wasteful expenses." Whatso- ever may have been wanting, however, from the patrimonial coffers was amply compensated by the handsome provision which the King and the Cardinal made for the young couple from other revenues. On June 18, 1522, Gilbert Tailbois and Elizabeth (Blount), his wife, were granted by royal warrant the manor and town of Rokeby, in Warwickshire, forfeited by the late Duke of Buckingham (recently beheaded and attainted). And shortly afterwards an Act of Parliament was passed in the session of 14-15 Henry VIII,^ setting forth that " Gilbert, son and heir apparent of Sir George Tailbois, Knight, had married and taken to his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Blount, Esquyer,^ by which marriage, as well the said Sir George Tailbois, Knight, as the said Gilbert Tailbois, have receyved not alonely great 1 Statutes of the BeaLoa, fol. 1817, iii. 280. • John Bloimt, Esquire of the Body, was not knighted till after the death of his father, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, who did not die till two years later, 1524. 125 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII summes of money, but also many benyfittes to their right much comforte." The Act of Parha- ment then assures to the said EUzabeth, a hfe- estate in her father-in-law's (Sir George Tailbois's) houses, lands, &c., in the city of Lincoln, the manors of Skelyngthorpe, Bamburgh, Freskeny, Sotby, and Faldyngworth, Co. Lincoln, Newton Kyme and Hesylle, Co. York, and Yeirlton, Co. Somerset. By this curiously explicit wording of the Act of Parliament, Wolsey publicly emphasizes, as it were, the fact that the Tailbois family have been treated in a thoroughly handsome manner. The debts of the lunatic father have thus been paid ; and his wife, the elder Lady Tailbois, so far from having cause to complain that her son and daughter-in-law have been favoured at their father's expense, evidently enjoys a liberal share of the " benefits." This lady was doubtless well known to Wolsey in old days when he was Dean and Bishop of Lincoln, and, from long experience of her humours, he might anticipate that she would be unlikely to enter- tain a lasting sense of obligation for benefits. We shall find her in later years disregarding Wolsey's orders, and yielding with bad grace to his " visitations." While she and her afflicted 126 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII husband continued to reside at the Manor of Golthro, subject to the " visitations " of Wolsey and his agents, their son. Sir Gilbert — he was knighted about this time — entered, with his wife, into possession of the baronial castle and patrimony of Kyme, handed over to them by the Act of Parliament. Sir Gilbert was pricked Sheriff of Lincolnshire in November 1523 (the year after his marriage) — an office which would necessitate his remaining within the borders of that county during the year of his sheriffalty. We may conclude that his wife accompanied him, and at this time her name does not appear in any Court annals. It is to be found, however, from time to time in later years in the lists of such privileged courtiers as were recipients of " the King's New Year's gifts," and she was certainly as Lady Tailbois within the circle of the Court. In fact, whether at a State function or at her castle in Lincolnshire — where we shall find her entertaining hunting parties on the borders of the vast forest of Kyme — she main- tained the position of a " great ladye." But it is clear that when she became Lady Tailbois all connexion between her and the King was at an end— if indeed it had not ceased some years before her marriage. There is no ground for the 127 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII insinuation that Sir Gilbert Tailbois played the part of a mari complaisant — as did the Earl of Castlemaine to Barbara Villiers and Charles II. He lived happily with his wife, who bore him three or more children during the seven years of their married life, and the fable that, as Lady Tailbois, she was the King's mistress, has not the slightest foundation in fact. It may be added that it would seem that as the King advanced from youth towards middle age it was not in accordance with his nature , to continue long in any passion. He had beai faithful to Katherine of Arragon longer than to any other woman. Moreover his fancy had now fallen lightly and temporarily upon Mary Boleyn, the elder of Sir Thomas Boleyn's daughters, and (before, if not after, her marriage to William Carey) she was apparently Henry's mistress for a short time. The year of Elizabeth Blount's marriage was, it may be noted,^the year of the arrival from France, at the English Court, of Mary Boleyn's younger and more brilliant sister, Anne — now aged fifteen — and when later the King fell under the spell of Anne's fascinations, she perhaps the longer exercised her influence over him, before her marriage, that she appears to have been in no great hurry to succumb to his seductions. 128 CHAPTER XII 1525 Henry FitzRoy : Like both his parents : The King's love for him : Brought up "' as a prince's child " ; Aged six in 1525 : Wolsey writes about him : Arms granted to the Lord Henry FitzRoy : Elected Knight of the Garter : Created Earl of Nottingham, Duke of Richmond, and Duke of Somerset ; Description of the ceremonies. Meanwhile the babe, Henry FitzRoy, whose birth at the Prior's house at Blackmore we recorded in 1519, had grown to be a most inter- esting child. To quote the words of Lord Herbert of Chirbury with regard to him : " proving so equally like to both his parents, he became the chief emblem of their mutual affection," " The King," reports Lorenzo Orio to the Doge and Signory of Venice (January 12, 1525), " loves him like his own soul." Whether the child ceased to reside with his mother, before or soon after her marriage to Sir Gilbert Tailbois, does not appear. When he did so, however, she kept in touch with him, I 129 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII while her friend, the Cardinal of York, who had taken a very politic interest in his godson from the hour of his birth, continued to watch over his infantine years. Meanwhile " he was well brought up, like a Prince's child," and at the age of six,i his loving father determined to advance him to a highly conspicuous position in the eyes of the world, and resolved that he should be regarded as a prince — if necessary a prince worthy to succeed to the throne. It is evident that the King acted with very special motives, and to these, although they were not for the present openly avowed, Wolsey was doubtless privy. " To appreciate them correctly," says an anonymous commentator,* " we must take into consideration that before the reign of Henry VIII no female monarch had actually sat upon the English throne. The regal office in England was regarded essentially in the character of a male fief, which, though it might be transmitted by a female heir, could scarcely be enjoyed or administered except by a male possessor. Such there can be no doubt was the prevalent sentiment at the time when Henry VIII was repeatedly disappointed of male issue from 1 Hall. Seventeenth Year of Henry VIll. ^ Gentleman's Magazine, 1855. 130 Photo Donald Miidutk HENKY Vril From the original glass medallion in tlie Biitish Museum ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Katherine of Arragon." We have seen that his hopes had been finally disappointed towards the close of 1518 — the year of his amour with Elizabeth Blount — and there was now no hope that the Queen would ever bear a Prince of Wales. The scheme of divorce and of a new marriage had, as yet, hardly taken root in the tyrant's mind,i and he presumed upon the extent to^ which his will was law to entertain the intention of nominating his natural son to the throne should he, in his plenary will and pleasure, determine to do so.** The period when this resolution was taken belongs to the year 1525.^ The earliest mention of Henry FitzRoy in the English records dates from May or June of that year. It occurs in a letter * of Wolsey to the King : " Your Grace also shal receyve by this present berer such armes as your highnes hath devised by Page^ • The story that his confessor suggested doubts to the King as to the legality of his marriage about 1522-23 is not generally beUeved. The " doubts," however, may have been present to the King's mind then or even earlier. » J. Gough Nichols. » HalL * State Papers. ' The arms are still to be seen on one of the bosses of the roof of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, over the organ gallery : France and England quarterly, debruised by a baton sinister argent within a bordure, also quarterly, first of ermine, secondly and thirdly compony or and azure (these three bordures in allusion to the coat of Fergaunt, first Earl of 131 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII for your entirely beloved sonne the lord Henry Fitzroy." The coat-of-arms (designed by the King himself in the overladen and degenerate style of heraldry which this Sovereign was the first to affect and to introduce into England) was intended as a preparation for the honours to which the child was shortly to be advanced. The Lord Henry FitzRoy, as he was called, now six years old, was elected to the Garter^ on June 7, and on the 25 was installed at Windsor in the second stall on the Sovereign's side, in that vacated by the " translating of Charles the Emperor." Between these dates he was created Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Rich- mond and Somerset, on which occasion he was the centre of an elaborate ceremonial. The dignity of a Duke at that time was an extremely limited privilege in England, and may be said to have been confined to the blood Richmond); fourthly, gobony argent and azure (in allusion to the gabony bordure borne by Beaufort Duke of Somerset), an inescucheon of pretence quarterly gules and vaire or and charged with a lion rampant argent (for the Earldom of Nottingham) on a chief azure a castle between two bucks' heads caboshed argent (the castle representing Nottingham and the bucks' heads representing Derby, from which counties a pension was assigned for the maintenance of the Earldom). » The eight Knights; present at the election, nominated, according to ancient custom, each three princes, three barons, and three knights, and all named the " Lord FitzRoy " first of the barons. 132 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII royal. There were in fact, since the attainder of the Dukedom of Buckingham, only two Dukes — ^those of Norfolk and Suffolk (both of modern creation), the former the representative of one of the sons of Edward III, the latter King Henry's brother-in-law, Charles Brandon. To the King's son were given at once two Duke- doms, of which it is said this was the first instance in England.^ Moreover the titles of Richmond, Somerset, and Nottingham had been previously specially associated with the blood royal. He was at the same time given pre- cedence of all other dukes already created or to be created hereafter, " those born legiti- mately of the King's body or of the bodies of his heirs alone excepted." The King had, of course, no legitimate son at this time, and it may be observed that this clause gave Henry FitzRoy precedence in the future of the Princess Mary when she was declared illegitimate. Minute descriptions of the picturesque cere- mony of the creations are extant, from which the following is abstracted and arranged : On Sunday, June 18, the Lord Henry FitzRoy came from Durham Place [near Charing Cross], whereat he kept his household, to the King's ' Gentleman's Magazine, 1855. 133 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII palace called Bridewell, at nine o'clock or there- upon, in company with honourable knights, squires, and gentlemen to a great number. Entering into the said palace, he passed through the great chamber, into the Chamber of State, at the end of which was a goodly gallery, called the " nu gallery," wherein he rested in a chamber by himself and there was put on him his robes that pertained to the State of an Earl [he was to be created Earl of Nottingham first]. And all the other Lords, having on their robes, gave on him their attendance, tarrying there unto such time that word came from the King that his Grace was ready to give them their creation.^ " The [Presence] Chamber where was the King's Grace, was hung with rich arras, worked with gold and silk, as well all the gallery, so rich as hath been seldom seen^ and at the upper end of the chamber hung a cloth of State and under it was a chair of gold tissue, and the pomels of the said chair were gilded with fine gold. By it, under the cloth of State, stood the King's grace, and on his right hand and within the 1 Add MS. 6113, f. 61. Cotton MS. Tib. E. VIII. " Cal. S.P. Hen. VIII," vol. iv. p. 1. p. 6. ''■ The destruction of Troy was one subject. I 134 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII compass, a certain space, of the cloth of State stood the Lord Legate " (Wolsey). Beside him the Bishop of Cariisle, the Bishop of Sentas, the Abbot of Westminster, with the divers other abbots and prelates of the Church, and on the left hand of the King's grace divers temporal lords, that is to say, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Treasurer and Steward, ^ Charles, Duke of Suffolk, Marshal of England, George, Earl of Schorysbere ' (Shrewsbury), Steward of the King's Household, the Earl of Arundel,^ the Earl of Oxinford, Chamberlain of England,* the Earls of Northum- berland, ^ Westmoreland,* the Lord Fitz Walter,' the Lord Sandys, « with divers lords, knights, and squires to a great number. As the command- ' Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, had succeeded his father in the previous year (1524). " George, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, K.G., who died three years later in 1528. ' William PitzAlan, 17th Earl of Arundel, K.G., had succeeded his father in 1524 ; he was related to Henry VIII. * John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford, commonly called " little John of Campes " from his diminutive stature, aind residence at Castle Campes in Cambridgeshire. He married Lady Anne Howard, daughter of Thomas Duke of Norfolk ; and died without issue in 1526. ' Henry Algernon, 5th Earl of Northumberland, died 1527. 6 Ralph Nevill, 4th Earl of Westmoreland, K.G., married Lady Catherine Stafford, daughter of the attainted Duke of Buckingham. ' Robert RatcUff, Lord PitzWalter, afterwards 1st Earl of Sussex, and K.G. » Sir WilUam Sandys, 1st Lord Sandys of the Vine. 135 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII ment of the " Vezchamberlayn " the " jentylmen oschers " made all the people stand on both sides so that from the lower end of the chamber to the top, where the King's grace stood a space was made that four men might pass arm in arm. Also the trumpeters were appointed to stand in the window which was right against the cloth of State, to blow, when they were com- manded at such times as was convenient. The chamber thus set in order, and the trumpeters commanded to blow, then came the Lord Henry FitzRoy from his chamber led between two earls in their robes, the Earls of Arundel and Oxinford. Before them went the Earl of Northumberland in his robes bearing the sword in the scabbard by the point, garnished with the girdle. Before him went Sir Thomas, Garter King-at-Arms, bearing the Earl's patent, with Clarencieux, King-at-Arms, Norroy Lancaster, Montorgel Windsor, Heralds-at-Arms, all of these wearing the King's coat-of-arms, saving Somerset herald, who wore the coat-of-arms of the Lord Henry FitzRoy (because he was created Duke of Somerset), and when they came near to the King's grace the said Lords kneeled down to the ground, and the King commanding them to stand up, the Lord Harry stood still between 136 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII the two Earls that led him. Then Garter King at-Arms presented the patent to the King, which my Lord Cardinal received, delivering it to Master Mowre (Sir Thomas More), who read it aloud. On coming to the words " per cinc- turam gladii," the Earl of Northumberland presented the sword unto the King's grace, the King took the sword and put it about the Lord Henry's neck in bend manner, that is, over his right shoulder and under his left arm. Then the King delivered his patent (of the Elarldom of Nottingham) to him in his right hand, and all these ceremonies ended the trumpets blue, and thus created Earl of Nottingham he departed out of the King's presence in like manner and form as he was brought into it. When he was conveyed into his chamber he was next apparelled in the robes pertaining to the state of a duke, and then there came to him the Duke of Norfolk, Treasurer, and the Duke of Suffolk, Marshal of England, they leading him between them, and the Marquis of Dorset bearing the sword, the pomel upward, and before the sword went, side by side, the Earl of Arundel, bearing the cap of estate with the circlet on it, and the Earl of Oxinford, bearing the rod of gold, and before them went the Earl of 137 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Northumberland, with the mantel, and Garter King-at-Arms with the patent preceded by Norroy, Somerset, and the other heralds. In this manner he was led to the King's presence, and he, standing between the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the patent was read, the mantel, sword, cap, and circlet were put on him in due order by the King, and the gold rod and patent handed to him. Thus was he created Duke of Richmond and Somerset, and at the conclusion of the ceremonies he stood aside in the King's presence above all the other peers of the realm. Henry FitzRoy was not the youngest peer created on this occasion with an elaborate ceremonial. The King's nephew, Henry (son and heir of the Duke of Suffolk), who was created Earl of Lincoln, was so young that Sir John Vere was appointed to carry him in his arms into the King's presence, but none of the cere- monies of the creation were dispensed with in his case. Several of the principal nobles at the same time received advancements in the Peerage, probably to reconcile them to the sudden exaltation of the King's infant son, and it is noticeable that some of these dignities were conferred in recognition of the claims of royal 138 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII blood. Courtney, Earl of Devon, was made Marquis of Exeter (" my lady Marquis " being Gertrude Blount, Lord Mountjoy's daughter), Lord Clifford was made Earl of Cumberland, Sir Thomas Manners, Lord Roos, was made Earl of Rutland, Lord FitzWalter was made a Viscount, and one commoner, Sir Thomas Boleyn, was created Viscount Rochford. 139 CHAPTER XIII 1525 (continued) Richmond made " Lord High Admiral " ; " Warden-General of the Marches towards Scotland " : Takes leave of the King : Wolsey's present for his journey ; Visits Lady Parr : Presents of fish : Of wild fowl : From Hmitingdon to Colliweston ; Shoots a buck : Rides right merrily ! Prom Colliweston to York : Arrives at SherifE-Hutton : His magnificent establishment ; Contrasted with Princess Mary's : The Queen displeased ; Her Spanish ladies murmur : The King dismisses them. In the following month (July 16) the little Duke received a patent as Lord High Admiral of England, Wales, Ireland, Normandy, Gascony, and Acquitaine, for life, with the appointment of Commissioners, Lieutenants, Vice-Admirals, &e. In this patent the King alludes to the " sincere and eternal affection which he bears to our most illustrious Henry, De prosapia nostra ortum." The King's scheme was not fully completed till his son was further dignified, a few days later, by the great office of Warden General of all the Marches towards Scotland, namely, the 140 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Eastmarch, the Westmarch, and the Middle- march, with powers of array extending to the counties of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Northumberland, for the defence of the Marches, and for the rescue and safe custody of the towers and castles of Berwick and Carlisle in time of danger. The chief administration of affairs in the northern parts of England was at this period seated at Sheriff-Hutton, in Yorkshire, and it was necessary for the Duke of Richmond and Somerset to set forth thither immediately, to assume his nominal supremacy over the councils of the north. Accordingly, after taking leave of the King, his father, in the gallery of Hampton Court ^ — he had proceeded thither from London by river with a band of followers in sumptuous barges — he finally quitted Durham Place, in the Strand, at which royal residence he had been residing with his retinue. His godfather, the Cardinal, presented him with a " horse litter " for his journey " garnished with cloth of silver and other stuffs." The trappings of the horses were " black velvet with buckles of copper and gilt for reins " and " gold and silver buttons." His footmen had doublets of blue and yellow, * Newly presented by Wolsey to the King. 141 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and his councillors, gentlemen, and servants were all provided with costly liveries. His journey was made with deliberation, for altogether it occupied more than a month. A curious account of its early stages is preserved in a report which was made to Wolsey by the Duke's " councillors " when they had travelled so far as CoUiweston, near Stamford. Early on the journey a visit was paid to Lady Parr (mother of the future Queen), at whose house " his Grace was marvellously well intreated and had good chere." There the Duke of Norfolk took leave of him " demanding if he would anything to the King's Highness." At Huntingdon the bailiffs and " the honest men of the town " met him upon the bridge and presented him with " four great pykes and tenches." The Abbot of Ramsay sent certain swans, cranes, and other wildfowl, and " Dr. Halle gave his grace wine and also unto his council." From Huntingdon he proceeded to his own Manor of CoUiweston, where David Sicile (Cecil, grandfather of the great Lord Burleigh) was Steward. On the way the child killed a buck in the King's park, called Clyffe Park. We gather from some items among the " Army and 142 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Navy expenses " that, in spite of his tender years, he was already practised with his bow and arrow. " One hundred and twenty sheaves of arrows with girdles " had been supplied him at the cost of £5 — " one day's wages for the fietchers' trimming the arrows into their cases, 18d." — and it is clear with what weapons he slew the buck in Clyffe Park. At CoUiweston David Sicile " made his Grace good cheer at the said David's own cost and charge." Here also the Abbots sent him goodly presents of swans, cranes, and other wild fowl. His Grace did not at all like riding in his " horse-litter " — the Cardinal's present — which he only did for a few miles, " but ever since his Grace has ridden upon his hobby he hath been very well at ease and is cumen right merely (come right merrily) into CoUiweston, thanked be God, and in better case and more lusty of his boddy than his Grace was at his first taking of his journey." Notwithstanding which the Council recommend the Lord Cardinal to send a physician " for the preservation of his person," and we consequently find in future the King's own physician. Dr. Butts, appointed to the household of the Duke. At CoUiweston he and his party rested a week 143 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and from thence after a journey of ten days reached York on August 17. Their visit to that city, which occupied another ten days, is chronicled in the records of the Corporation. It was not till the end of the month that the party arrived at its destination at the Castle of Sheriff-Hutton. Of Sheriff-Hutton Leland says : " I saw no house in the north so like a princely lodging." The boy's household, in fact, was now formed on a scale worthy of a prince, and had he been Prince of Wales his elevation would have been greater only in name. The magnificence of his establishment was the more conspicuous by contrast with the comparatively parsimonious treatment of the Princess Mary three years older than himself, and indeed Henry FitzRoy from the age of six was distinguished by higher consideration than was the Princess — a fact which greatly displeased and disquieted the Queen, her mother. No wonder that certain of the Queen's Spanish ladies-in-waiting murmured their disapprobation. " The Queen," reports Lorenzo Orio to the Doge, " remains dissatisfied, at the instigation, it is said, of three of her Spanish ladies, her chief counsellors, so the King has dismissed them from the Court — a 144 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII strong measure — but the Queen was obliged to submit and to have patience." The following is a list of the principal officers of the Duke of Richmond's Court at Sheriff-Hutton, as authorised to act under the sign manual of Wolsey, each of whom had with them a retinue of servants : The Dean of York. Chancellor [Brian Higdon]. The Archdeacon of Richmond, dean of his chapel and treasurer of his chamber. Mr. Magnus, surveyor and general receiver [Arch- deacon of the East Riding, 1504-1550. Many of his letters written when he was Ambassador to Scotland are preserved]. Sir William Bulmer, Steward of Household. Sir Godfrey FuJgeham, Treasurer [Foljambe]. Sir Thomas Tempest, Comptroller. Roger Radcliffe, Chamberlain. Richard Page, Vice-Chamberlain. Palgrave, Schoolmaster [The Revd. John Palsgrave]. Fairfax, Serjeant-at-Law. William Frankelyn, Chancellor of Durham. Bowes [afterwards Master of \ Counsellors. the Rolls]. John Uvedale, Secretary. Walter Luke, General Attorney [afterwards Justice of the King's Bench]. Doctor Tate, Almoner. Doctor Butts, Physician. The inferior officers of the household were appointed after a like princely proportion, and altogether there K 145 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII were 245 servants on the check-roll, the sum total of whose wages alone amounted annually to the then high figure of £856 15s. 7d. Lands and income were at the same time granted to him, amounting to over £4000 in yearly value : Middleham, Carleton, Coverdaill, Ketilwell, Crakehall, Brynbrig, Bowis, Arkilgarthdale, Sherifhotton, Stam- forthbriggis, Busbye, Faceby-cum-Carleton, Kimpton(?), Skirpynbek, Elvyngton, Sutton-super-Darwent, Rascall, Cotyngham, Langton, and Kirkstall in Yorkshire ; Frampton, Wykes, Skirbeck, Boston, Jeserhall, Taters- hall. East Depyng, West Depyng, Barne, and Bylling- biargh in Lincolnshire ; Thorpp-Watervyle and Achurche, Wrastlyngworth in Bedfordshire ; Bassyngburne in Cambridgeshire ; Cheshunt, Tidbtirst, Kendall, and Maydecrofte in Herts ; Bedhampton in Hants ; Lammershe and Colnewake in Essex ; Canford, Corffe Castle, &c., in Dorset ; Ciu-ryrivell, Carnell Reginae, Martok, Kingsbury, Langporte estoner Langporte Westover in Somersetshire ; Toryton Maner, Freming- ton Maner, Borrytracie, Sanford Paverele in Devon ; Dartford, Chydlynston, and Lychefelde in Kent ; Kendall, Londesdaille, and Eryresdaill Marton and Kyrby in Kendale in Westmorland ; Dalby, Lees, and Wresworth in Derbyshire ; Rydlington in Rutland ; Dartwith in Worcestershire; Walsale in Staffordshire; Ormesby and Bishops Lynn in Norfolk ; Dere and Pessnalen in Pembroke ; Escoyd and Gwynnyonneth in Cardiganshire, &c. 146 CHAPTER XIV 1525-1526 Nichols's memoir of Henry FitzRoy reviewed : Elizabeth in touch with her son : Her brothers at his court : She corresponds with his tutor : A remarkable child : His accomplishments : His musical parents : His Councillor's letter : Pontefract his winter residence : A letter from the infant Duke. The biography of Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, has been fully written,^ but it seems suitable to review it and to quote from it in these pages, closely connected as is the life-story of the mother with that of her son — a fact which has escaped the attention of his biographer. Although Elizabeth did not reside with her son, she was constantly informed of his well-being, was in correspondence with his tutor,^ and, it is evident, not only was con- Sidted, but had considerable influence with * Biographical Memoir of Henry KtzRoy, Duke of Richmond, 1855. By John Gough Nichols. Camden Miscellany, vol. iii. 2 Cal. S.P., Henry VIII, vol. iv. 5807. This important letter — con- necting mother and son — which we quote on a later page, seems to have been unknown to Nictols. 147 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII regard to his education. Moreover she had a Hnk of intimacy with his entourage, for — curiously enough — her own young brothers, George and WiUiam Blount, resided at her son's Court, and were educated with him, the elder being but five years older than Henry of Richmond and the younger much nearer to him in age. Henry appears from all accounts to have been a very remarkable child, of an extremely amiable disposition, and to have been worthy of the affection lavished on him by his father. With a precocious aptitude for learning, he already showed proficiency in all kinds of sports and a great taste for music — qualifications which he inherited from both his accomplished parents, and which must have especially recommended him in the eyes of his father. Music indeed was the inheritance of all the Welsh Tudors, while through his mother — a descendant of Owen Glendower — ^the boy inherited a further strain of Welsh blood, and with it the gift of song.i One of his councillors. Sir William Frankelyn, writes to Wolsey on October 10 following the Duke's arrival in the north : ' A lute was one of the King's gifts to his son. 148 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII " I assure your Grace my Lord of Richmond is a child of excellent wisdom and towardness, and for his good and quick capacity, retentive memory, virtuous inclination to all honour, humanity, and goodness, I think hard it would be to find any creature living of twice his age hable [sic] or worthy to be compared to him. How his Grace used himself in dispeeching Mr. Almoner [Edward Lee, afterwards Archbishop of York], myself being present, and with what gravity and good manner he desired to be recommended to your Grace, I doubt not but the said Mr. Almoner will advertise your Grace at his coming." A month later (November 5) the Council of the north begin betimes to prepare for providing a " New Year's gift " to be given by the little Duke to his father, and they write thus early to Wolsey to beg his opinion as to the device of the gift and as to whether other gifts shall be sent at the same time to the Queen, to the French Queen (Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk), to the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, and to the Marquises of Exeter and Dorset. On Christmas Day (1525) the Council write to Wolsey that his " young and tender godson is at the present time (lauded be God) in good 149 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and prosperous health, and as toward a young prince as hath ' been seen in our time.' " The King's castle of Pontefract was usually the winter residence of the Duke and his Court. A letter dated from thence January 14 (the year is not stated), written by Dr. Magnus to Wolsey, announces that my Lord of Richmond proceeds well in his learning, and " hath kept a right honourable Christmas," and that " numbers of worshipful persons " came to visit him and pay him Court at Pontefract. The letter further informs us that William Saunders, Wolsey's old servant, " is very dilligent in teaching my Lord singing and playing upon the virginals." ^ The same day the Duke himself writes a letter to his father, probably the first of a series of thirteen interesting letters preserved. " The penmanship is so beautifully fair," remarks Nichols of these letters, which are undated, " that it does not afford much guide to the arrangement of them. By that criticism, how- ever, the following penned with his own hand may be regarded as the first in date." " After most humble and most laulye requeste and petition had unto youre Grace for your » A pair of virginals cost 20«. (R.O. July 24,. 17 Henry VIII). 150 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII day lye blissynge, pleasyt the same to be adver- tysed I have receyved yoiir moste honorable and goodly new yere's gyfte. And gyve onto youre sayde grace most laulye thankes for the same. Humbly e beseechynge youre grace to accept and take thys my lettre pennyd with myne owyne hande for a poore token at thys time. At your castel of Pontefract the Xllllth off Januarye, " Youre humble servant, " H. Rychemonde. " Unto the Kynge's hyghnes." 151 CHAPTER XV 1526 Letters from James V and Queen Margaret ; A request for hounds ; Ten couple sen); ; Queen Margaret's " natural affection." A COERESPONDENCE took place early in the new year between the young King of Scots, James V, aged fourteen, and his " cousin," the little Duke of Richmond, not yet half of that age. it opened with letters from the King and his mother. Queen Margaret ^ (FitzRoy's " aunt ") to Dr. Magnus, the Duke's Surveyor, who was well known at the Court of Scotland, having been on an embassy there from Henry VIII in connexion with the Angus rebellion. King James in his letter, dated " at our Palace beside Holyrood House ye Vlllth day of January, 1526," asks for " three or four brace of the best ratches in the country, less or more, for hares, foxes, or other greater beasts, with one brace » Elder sister of Henry VIII. 152 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII of blood hounds of the best kind that are good, and will ride behind men on horseback." Dr. Magnus writes to report this duly to Wolsey, who was kept minutely informed of every occurrence in the Duke's surroundings. His letter is dated from Pontefract on February 8. " Immediately upon the receipt of the said two letters," continues Magnus, " I shewed them to my Lord of Richmond's Grace, whose Grace did roundly read them over and forthwith had a natural inclination to do pleasure to the said King of Scots." Dr. Magnus shrewdly suspects that the osten- sible object contained a secret one — namely that the Scotch messenger should note the " maner, form, and facion " of the Duke's household, reputed in Scotland of " right high estimation." However, " all premises reasoned and con- sidered among us here," the Duke sent ten couple of his hounds to the King of Scots, with a letter written by his own hand in which the little fellow says that he sends them " of the beste that I have proved of my owne." He adds that he was then destitute of any such lyam hounds [blood hounds] as be good and excellent to use to ride behynde men," but proposes to procure them for the King, his cousin. 153 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Magnus concludes his report to Wolsey by "trusting that nothing but much goodness, perfect love, and favour by this means shall increase between both the young princes " — thus, it may be observed, placing the Duke of Richmond on a par with the King of Scotland. These amenities seem to have led to the result desired, for King James, in acknowledgment, wrote a letter to the Duke (dated from Edin- burgh, March 9),^ thanking him for his " honest present for the game of hunting," accompanied by a present of two brace of hounds for " deer and smaller beasts," and by an offer that " if the Duke take pleasure in hawking, he would send him," at the right season, " some of the best red hawks in the realm." At the same time he wrote to Dr. Magnus thanking him " still more for the acquentence making betwixt us and our tender cousing, the Duk of Rich- monde." It is noticeable that the relationship was thus openly acknowledged. In like manner Queen Margaret, writing to Magnus (the previous November 25, 1525),* speaks of " our good nephew, the Duke of Richmond and Somerset," > Probably 1526, No. 2955. State Papers, Record Office. ' Letter published by Miss Wood (]\IrB. Green). Letters of Boyal and Illustrious Ladies, vol. i, p. 368. 154, ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and adds " we desire you to have us recom- mended unto him, as we that shall entertain our dutifid kindness as natural affection aright towards him, as we that is right glad of his good prosperity, praying the same to continue." 155 CHAPTER XVI 1525, 1526-1527 Matrimonial alliances contemplated : The ruses of diplomacy ! Projected " King of Ireland " : The Emperor indignant ; FitzRoy's first Tutor, Palsgrave : His methods of education : A picture-painter requisite : The child's Latin pronunciation : His marvellous precocity : The pedagogue's complaints : His letters to the child's mother : He importunes Lady Tailbois ; Her influence with bishops and abbots : Palsgrave leaves the Duke of Bichmond : His poverty : He turns against Lady Tail- bois ; His mean disparagement of her. Already various matrimonial alliances were proposed for my Lord of Richmond's grace, when he was barely eight years old. Within the space of a few months there was some talk of his marrying Catherine de Medici, styled " the Pope's niece," ^ a Danish Princess, a French Princess, and a daughter of Eleanor, Queen Dowager of Portugal, sister of Charles V. It was mooted in the negotiations between Henry and the Emperor that the Duke of Richmond should become Duke of Milan on marrying the ' She was in reality more distantly related to Clement VIL 156 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Emperor's niece. The ambassadors charged with the negotiations were to say on behalf of the King : " His Highness can be content to bestow the Duke of Richmond and Somerset (who is near of his blood and of excellent qualities, and is already furnished to keep the state of a great prince and yet may he easily by the King's means exalted to higher things) to some noble princess of his near blood." ^ Some of these matrimonial projects were probably merely moves in the game of politics, but his future destiny already entered into the speculations of inter- national diplomacy. A rumour was spread from time to time that he was to be made King of Ireland, causing great indignation to the partisans of the Queen and the Princess Mary. Mendoza reports to Charles V : " The King and the Legate have in hand to make the King's illegiti- mate son King of Ireland. The plan is most unwelcome to the nation, and has aroused such illwill among the people that were only a leader to present himself and head the malcontents the King woxild soon be obliged to change his councillors. The Queen is very dissatisfied with these proceedings, though little of it is com- ' Ellis Letters, 3rd Series, vol. ii, p. 121. 157 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII municated to her." ^ The report was in circula- tion two years later in Spanish circles, the Emperor expressing himself on the subject in a letter to Mendoza with great vehemence.^ Coupling this news about the King's bastard son and Ireland with a report that the Queen was to be divorced, he says : " Such things are not to be tolerated, as they might be the source of much scandal among Christian Princes, very detrimental to England itself, and injurious to the Queen and the illustrious Princess Mary, her only daughter and heir in that kingdom. Things having come to such a pass, we intend preventing the aforesaid evils as much as we can, and waging war on the King of England." Meanwhile, in order that the little boy might be duly qualified to fulfil the great position for which he was destined, he was to receive the highest possible education ; and for this pur- pose the King and Wolsey appointed the most erudite masters to teach him from the age of six. The earliest of these was John Palsgrave, to whose care the King (in the " gallery at Hampton » Spanish State Papers, March 18, 1527. " Ibid. February 1529. 158 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Court," on the eve of his son's departure for the north) had entrusted his " worldly jewel " and charged Palsgrave to bring him up in " virtue and learning." Palsgrave had been previously " schoolmaster " to the King's sister, Mary Tudor, and instructed her in French before she became Queen of France. He was the author of " Lesclarcisse- ment de la Langue Francoyse," the first book of the kind, and one much prized in our own day as illustrating both English and French terms in use early in the sixteenth century. In the introductory portion of this work it is stated that " he had in commandment from our most redoubted Soveragne to instructe the Duke of Richmonde's grace in the latin tong." We accordingly find him established at Sheriff- Hutton as " schoolmaster " in 1525, and as one of the " councillors " who reports to Wolsey and the King, during the first year and a half after the Duke's arrival in the north. A draft of a letter of Palsgrave's to the King promises that " according to my saying to you in the gallery at Hampton Court I do my utter- most best to cause him to love learning and to be merry at it, in so much that without any manner of fear or compulsion he hath already 159 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII a great furtherance in the principles grammatical both Greek and Latin." Vivid sidelights are thrown by his letters on the methods of teaching pursued in an epoch so remote from our own. In ages when children's picture-books were unknown and children were thus without aids to stimulate imagination and develop know- ledge through the medium of the eye, there was but one way by which such could be supplied. In an establishment so great as was the young Duke of Richmond's a painter would be included, so that he might be ever at hand to illustrate with design and colour whatever might be the subject of the schoolmaster's lesson or dis- course. Thus we find Palsgrave, in a letter to the King, petitioning that the bearer of it may " make search to provide the Duke of a sufficient person " for the post of painter. Palsgrave understanding that the King intends to occupy otherwise " the painter about whom Dr. Taite, the King's Almoner, motioned the King," adds that he hopes the King will allow him " to ask some of the Privy Chamber, till the matter may take effect .... as it is a great furtherance in learning to know the names of things by their pictures, and the want of a painter causeth both him and me to stay." 160 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII It is interesting to note that the King con- sxilted Sir Thomas More as to whether this child of six years old should learn Latin, and that they concurred with Palsgrave that he should. It will be remembered that Latin was at this epoch the hall-mark of a polite education, and was not only the language of secret and diplo- matic letters, but it was the tongue in which the cultivated of all nations could converse in common and be intelligible to one another. It was also the language of prayer. The child had already learnt to lisp his " Matins " in it, and we find Palsgrave complaining to Sir Thomas More that " the barbarous tongue of him that taught him his Matins is, and hath been, a great hindrance to me." To the King he wrote : " He who first taught him to read was no clerk and did not know the true pronunciation of Latin, and whereas he is something inclined to lisp I trust now at the changing of his teeth to amend that default, but much might have been done at the beginning." One wonders whether the popular or the erudite method of pronouncing Latin then in vogue was the more correct, or which of the two most nearly re- sembled the one now taught in our schools. According to Palsgrave, his method of com- L 161 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII billing instruction with " merriment " was most successful in spite of the " perils " and tempta- tions put in his pupil's way by the less serious members of the household. This wonderful little boy could already " read the first Eclogue of Virgil," and two of the first scenes of " Adelphorum " which he could pro- nounce right prettily. " Yet," declares Pals- grave, he " never suffers my lord to continue long at his studies till he is wearied," but tries to make them pleasant "in so much that many times his officers wot not whether I learn him or play with him." Some of his household, however, did not hesitate to say " learning is a great hindrance to a nobleman"^ and "would in no wise that he should be learned which were a pity, for no man, rich or poor, had ever better wit, though every day more people call upon him to bring his mind from learning, some to hear cry at a hare, some to kill a buck with his bow, sometime with grey hounds and sometime with buckhounds, and [tell him] that it is not lefuU to depart till he hath taken the saye [sic], some to see a flight with a hawk, some to ride a * " Albeit that some here which be high shaven muimur, and after putting of many perils let not to say that learning is a great hindrance and displeasure to a nobleman, I hear them with UUxes ears." 162 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII horse (which yet he is not greatly combered with because of his youth), besides many other devices found within the house when he cannot go abroad." In truth the position of a tutor in those days was neither remunerative nor held in high estimation. The leading persons about the Duke appear to have treated the pedagogue with all the arrogance born of a contempt of books, while, on his part, systematic begging for money and preferment seems to have been the only resource against destitution. He was in this respect not singular among his fellows, and even the great Erasmus was an inveterate beggar. Palsgrave, finding his pay of £13 6s. 8d. per annum insufficient for his needs, importuned his highly-placed friends and benefactors on all sides for their patronage, and among these Lady Tailbois, to whom he wrote urging his claims and soliciting her interest with a con- fidence which shows him to have been sure of her power to help him. One of these letters, or rather a draft of a letter, preserved in the Record Office,^ is of » Cal. S.P. Henry VIII, vol. iv. 5807. This paper has been placed in the Qalendar under date " 1529 " — some three or four years too late. Palsgrave was no longer tutor to Richmond at that date. 16S ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII special interest as showing that the writer was in frequent correspondence with the Duke of Richmond's mother, and that she was concerned and consulted with regard to her son. He begs her to " come hither and judge for herself " — words which imply that she was in open communication with the child. She appears, too, as a lady of high influence and in a position to exercise it over bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries. This letter, being the only known letter extant addressed to the subject of these pages, is here reproduced in full, for the first time, and in its original spelling, a specimen of the orthography approved by the most learned of the day : " Madame, " I have receyved your favourable letter, most humbly thank you, and whereas I have in all my letters sent to your ladyshyppe synce my comyng into these partes certyfyed you that I lyved in parfit hoope [perfect hope] that, at the length, when the Kyng's grace and my lorde Cardinall should parfitly understand my diligent labours takyn with my lord off Rych- monts grace, and his great forderance in good learnyng by reason off the same, that they wold both be good and gracious unto me, and for 164 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII my paynes mak me abyll to lyve accordying to the roome [place] they have sett me yn here. I certyfyed you allso in every of my saide letters that I hadd bene by the advise and counsell off Syr Richard Wyngfeld so free to make me abyll at the begynnyng to do service according to my roome [but] that I feryd [feared] unless your ladyshyppe were good unto me I should not be abyll to abyd [abide]. . . . " Madame, I have sustayned, synce my coming into Yorkshire a great dele more displeasure than you wold know off, and that, not only in wantyng off these things that were requisite for me to have, but allso both for my necessity and honesty by reason off my povertye am malynyd agaynst. I am sore dispicet [despised] at, in so myche [in-so-much] that not so lytyll as VI sundrye matters have been contryved agaynst me, whereof yoursellf was as gyltye [in respect of] many of theym as I was, and that shall you evidently know, yff yt shall ever be my fortune to see you here and you to be at any convenient leysure. " Madame, thys ys yett to me but a sory provision, whych [who] have not only forgone the hallff off that whyche I have gottyn in all my lyff in lesse than a xij monthe, but allso 165 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII have hadd more prowyng [proving] and de- f endyng to declare my poore honestye than ever I hadd hytherto yn all my lyff, or I trow ever honest man hadd layed unto hym by folks that be esteymyd honest ; but as for my parte I am fully determined never to be aknowyn [indebted] thereoff to no creature lyving but to yoursellff ; for, as for me, let theym esteme me as they lyst, I wyll esteme mysellff, and endeavour me whyle I lyve to use as mych faith and trewth and honestye in my dealing as yt should be in a man better that loveth parfit honesty to do. And, on my fayth, yff I thought yt not honestly requisit for you to know theyse thinges, to the iktent that you may substantially provyd [pro- vide] that the especiall gyftes off grace whyche Godde hath gyveyn unto my lorde of Rychmont's Grace (farre above that whych you yoursell could thynke) be not by malicious and evyll disposed parsons corrupted, I would never have made motion off theym to you. " But, Madame, to be playne with you, on my conscience my lorde of Richemont ys off as good a nature, as mych enclyned to all manner vertuous and honorable inclination, as any babe lyvyng. Now ys my roome undoutyd great about hym, for the Kynges Grace said unto me 166 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII in the presence of Master Parre and Master page [Page] I deliver q he [quoth he] unto you iij [three], my worldly Jewell, you twayne to have the guyding off hys bodye, and thou, Palsgrave, to bring hym uppe in vertu and learnyng, wherefore yff there be not a fayth and a trewth and honestye in me, and, by sydes that, a suflficient dyscretion, the Kynges Grace ys hyghly beguyld in me, and the chyldes manners shall at the lengthe be corrupted by me as many a great yong Princes hath beene . . . unto theym in lyke roume, and on the othersyde yff I be as I ought to be, and other folkes imagyne and conceyve matters agaynst me that I woulde never [have] thought nor wrought, and bring me in disputation before hym as thoughe I were gyltye, the babe shall begyn to dispyse me, or ever he know me, and conceyve a hatredde agaynst me causeless, that hereafter yt shall cause the gospell spoken off my mouthe seem wors [worse] to hym than a dreame or fantasy ; and, to be plain with you, folkes accustom hym already to lye for their pleasure. "Madame, lett thys matter be lokyd upon for yt standeth you in hand. As for me, yt ys not my natuer to accuse no parson, but yett for 167 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII feare hys good qualities shall be marryd [marred] by any about hym, come hyther, Madame, and yff [if] after you could secret wysdom trye [try] every man and parson about hym, yff I be worthye to be expulsyd from hym, lett me ; for on my conscience yt hadd beene better that I hadde never bene borryn [born] than so excellent a creature should by me be corrupted in hys maners — and yff ytt be others (as you may well parceyve what I thynke by my playne writyng) assaye yff you can trye theyr evyll conditions, " Madame, the very grownde off thyse malicious dispites that be here shewyd me ryseth off [ariseth from] my extreme povertye and none other cause, and that shall you well know when so ever you be amongst us, whyche I wold exhort you myght be so shortly as myght be possible, beseching your ladyshyppe on your partye [part] to studye how my poverty may be helpyd ; yt nedeyth me not to put you in mynd how many spirituall prelates as well as byshoppes and abbots wold not styck with you to grant you the advowsons off the best thynge in their gyft, or off any sych thyng as you thought wold shortly fall voyd : whych thyng I beseche you, good Madame, let be part off your studye, and 168 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII as for me I shall apply my hole mynd to advance my lord's grace in hys lernyng beseeching Godde that I may do hym in my roume as mych good service as ever did Plutarch unto Trajan ; but as for howe he prayeth for me (for I am fallyn into a sore fever tertian) I praye Godd he be not a wors [the worse] till I be recovereyd." If Lady Tailbois were sufficiently versed in classical learning to understand the allusion to Plutarch and Trajan (and we may suppose she was one of the lettered ladies of the day) she might appreciate the subtle flattery conveyed in the comparison between her son and the Roman Emperor, while Palsgrave's hopes of future advancement from his august pupil are indicated by the parallel he draws between his own situation and that of Plutarch as preceptor to Trajan.^ Whatever may have been the result of this cringing appeal to " her Ladyshippe," Palsgrave did not remain long in his post of tutor to the Duke of Richmond. The poor wretch continued > Fabricius asserts that Plutarch was Trajan's preceptor and that he was raised to the consular dignity by him. See also Suidas, who says that Trajan bestowed on Plutarch the consular ornaments and also caused an edict to be passed that the magistrates or officers of lUyria should do nothing in that province without Plutarch's knowledge and approbation. 169 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII to importune his patrons for preferment, and seems to have been always in debt. " I beseech you," he writes to Sir Thomas More in 1529, " for your accustomed goodness to continue until such time that I may once more ttead under foot this horrible monster poverty." It was perhaps through More's influence that Palsgrave became a Prebendary of St. Paul's. But it would appear that Lady Tailbois did not respond to his hint that she should influence bishops and abbots to get him the " best things in their gifts," for we find Palsgrave, in later years, either wantonly ungrateful for past favours, or cherishing some petty sense of resentment that she had not done all she might for his advancement ; and the same hand which penned the fawning letter we have quoted penned also, with singular meanness, the item in disparage- ment of " Besse Blount " to be found in those charges against Wolsey (drawn up later in the interest of his rival), to which we have referred in an earlier page.^ 1 Page 119. 170 KATHEKINE OP ARRAGON, FIRST QUEEX OF HENRY VIII From the original on panel ia the possession of G. Gery Milner-Gieson-Cullum, Esquire CHAPTER XVII 1527-1528 Palsgrave's successor ; Dr. Croke : Hostility of clerk and layman : Latin letters ; The Prince educated with other boys : His young uncles : " Whipping boys " : A well-devised " poUcie " : An infant prodigy of learning : Croke's complaints : The Cotton brothers : Accused of inciting to idleness : Extra- vagance of household ; Sir William Parr ; Richmond's good qualities. To Palsgrave succeeded, as " schoolmaster " to the little Duke, Richard Croke, D.D.,i who had been reader of Greek in the University of Cambridge, and was one of the most famous pioneers of Greek scholarship in England. The mantle of Palsgrave's unpopularity seems to have fallen upon Croke. Indeed, clerk and layman, in their respective methods, habits, and outlook, were at this epoch so irreconcilably opposed that, forced into contact in the Ducal ' It is curious that this Croke appears to have been a distant kinsman of the Blounts, being a scion of that senior branch of the Blount family which in early times changed its name to Croke for political reasons. (See Sir Alexander Croke's History of the Blounts.) 171 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII household, they Hved in a state of perpetual hostility the one to the other. The lay element preponderating so greatly in strength and num- bers, one poor ecclesiastic had little chance of holding his own. He had, however, a weapon with which his adversaries could not match him. He could write Latin letters of complaint to the King and the Cardinal, which they were not only unable to do, but they could not understand a word of the contents if they contrived to intercept them. The squabbles reached a crisis in the summer of 1527, when Dr. Croke's indignation found vent in a Latin letter to Wolsey, of seven pages' length, in which he complains that he can do nothing with the " Prince " unless the Cardinal will restrain the attendants " who do all they can to make the Prince and his fellow pupils dislike literature and the clergy," In the surroundings of FitzRoy we have an interesting illustration of the system of educa- tion and discipline customary in the care of a " Prince " — ^for so Croke alwayis designates the Duke of Richmond. The Prince was not edu- cated alone, but several boys of good birth (" nobles," as Croke calls them) were brought together to be his schoolfellows. These, among 172 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII whom, as we have said, were his young uncles, George and William Blount, had the great advantage of sharing in the Prince's education, thus receiving the best instruction anywhere to be attained. Some of these boys slept in the same room with the Prince. But the Prince's companions were intended to serve more than one useful purpose. They were not only to set him an example of diligence, but further by the punishment they received to let him see what his own shortcomings deserved, that he might in some measure " dread the like discipline, even if he did not sustain it in his own person," It was, of course, contrary to all etiquette that a prince should receive the full indignity of castigation, however much he might deserve it. As is well known, it was customary for another boy's person to be offered in sacrifice, the princeling being condemned to suffer spiritu- ally, it was supposed, a double guiltiness at seeing his companion suffer physically for offences which he himself had committed. " The idea of intimidating a lordly pupil," remarks Nichols, " by the vicarious punishment of his school- fellows appears to have been long regarded as a ' well-devised policie ' " ; and in the old play, 173 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII by Rowley, entitled " When you see me you know me," Cranmer is made to say : So, Sir, this policie was well devised ; Since he was whipt thus for the Princess faults [Prince Edward] His Grace has got more knowledge in a month Than he attained in a year before ; For still the fearful boy to save his breech Doth hourly haunt him wheresoere he goes. Whether or not his Uncles George and William ever " haunted " their princely nephew in this fashion, we can well understand that with so amiable and generous a boy as was FitzRoy the fear of their " smarting " for his faults rendered him the more tractable and obedient to his tutors. Certainly one at least of the Blount brothers in after life retained nothing but the happiest recollections of his boyhood. So lastingly im- pressed were these on Sir George Blount's memory that his epitaph in Kinlet Church r-ecords that he " delighted in the court of his Prince." Of the natural disposition and ability of FitzRoy, Croke indeed has only good to report. We suspect that had not the pedagogue's zeal for cramming his pupil been held in check by counteracting influences, the boy and his 174 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII companions would have had a dreary existence. We are glad to find him writing to Wolsey " for an harness to exercise myself in arms according to my erudition in the Commentaries of Caesar." He begs Wolsey to back his request to the King, to whom he writes a letter to the same effect ; ^ and we doubt not it was promptly granted. But not content that at eight years old this child " could translate any passage of Caesar," his master evidently hoped to make him a still greater phenomenon of learning, were it not for the interruptions and interference of the gentle- men ushers, one George Cotton in particiilar,^ whom Croke accused of putting every obstacle in the way of the Prince's progress, especially in Latin. If Croke's long list of grievances is to be believed. Cotton had forbidden Croke to have access to the Prince even at the hours of teaching, and had told him openly before the Prince that he should not go to him without 1 Cal. S.P., vol. iv, 3860-1. * George Cotton, direct ancestor of the present Viscount Comber- mere, was afterwards knighted, and Esquire of the Body to Henry VIIT. On the dissolution of the Abbeys he seated himself at Combermere, an ancient Abbey of the Benedictines. His younger brother, Richard Cotton, was knighted by Edward VI at his coronation, and was ap- pointed Comptroller of that King's Household in 1562. Both these Cotton brothers (and a third) were skilled in archery, and often shot in contest with Henry VIII, and won on three occasions in 1531. 175 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII definite letters from the Cardinal. Although he keeps his instructors from him, he (Cotton) allows buffoons to sing indecent songs before him, and omits no opportunity of abusing the clergy and bringing them into contempt The Prince has been taught to say " Teacher, if you beat me I will beat you," and might he not well say so when he sees his fellow-pupils, though so much his own inferiors, laughing at Croke even before his face, and when they came for correction they were rescued out of his hands by grooms, who asserted that it was improper to unbreech them before so great a Prince, and that they ought to be taken to the bedchamber ! . . . The groom who had done this was a kinsman of Cotton, and no doubt acted by his directions. One boy, Scrope, is especially named as following Cotton's example in exciting the others against him. This Scrope had not only dared to say the worst things against him, but had even loudly abused him in church, calling him bastard, fool, rogue, mope, and a thousand other naughty names, and had further actually ill-treated a boy of good disposition who lodged with Croke and had been sent there recently by the King. Cotton excuses all the Prince's faults, telling Croke he is too severe — 176 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII takes him out for hunting or other reasons without Croke's leave, forbids the boys who sleep in the Prince's chamber to rise before daylight or to come to Croke to be taught at night. First he forbids the Prince to write to the King, to Wolsey, to Magnus or Parr, at Croke's suggestion. Then he will not allow any writing before dinner, though that was the only convenient time ; but he would set the Prince to writing after dinner before lessons, to his double injury, first because by stooping and too long occupation with his pen he became so wearied that he was wholly in- capable of study, (for his strength being exhausted his mind grew heavy and listless with everything, his apprehension was dulled, and with evident pain both of stomach and head his eyes were stiff and filled with tears) ; and also because of this pretence, the Prince's autograph letters were procured for Cotton's advantage or favour, and, without the knowledge of the Councillors, they were sent perhaps to the neighbouring abbots for hawks, or trifles of that sort, the Prince's dignity being compromised, contrary to the orders Wolsey had given. . . . Frequently Cotton would take the Prince out from dinner to practise archery and thus render him by fatigue little fit for his books, and indeed M 177 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII so idle that he would sometimes purposely stick at what he knew perfectly well and not proceed any further ; on which occasions if Croke at all chid him, Cotton would immediately interfere and say " Why do you scold so ? My lord has done well. The passage is too difficult, he made a mistake. What can you expect ? He will make some mistakes " ; and anon, as if by his authority, the Prince was torn away from his master, and the lesson broken off with caresses, &c. In this human document we trace the spirit characteristic of the true pedagogue in all ages, and our sympathies incline to the other side. But when some months later Croke charges the Cotton brothers with gross extravagance, and even the Chamberlain of the Household, Sir William Parr,^ with neglecting his duties, we suspect the accusations may have been well founded, however interested may have been the motive of the accuser in bringing them against his adversaries. In letters to the King and the Cardinal, he ' Sir William Parr, younger brother of Sir Thomas Parr, whose daughter Katherine was the sixth wife of Henry VIII. He became Chamberlain to his niece and was created in 1543 Lord Parr of Horton, and died in 1546, and was buried at Horton, where there is a splendid monument to his memory. 178 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII begs that the Prince's Council be commended to examine the Clerks of the Kitchen and the yeomen and grooms of every office as to what wine, beer, and other stuffs they have known the two Cottons to spend in two years by enter- taining friends and servants above their allow- ance, and in providing for Parr's family of which the fifth part does not appear in the books by the fraud of Richard Cotton, Clerk Comptroller. As to Sir William Parr, he has been absent sixty- six weeks since Croke came, and when present has seldom given attendance, but spent his time in hawking and hunting. To Wolsey he adds that the Cardinal would hardly believe how great a quantity of the Prince's corn, malt, wine, ale, beef, mutton, veal, venison, salt meat, fish, and all kind of provision has been wasted by the Cottons and the Parrs. That there was reckless excess and waste in this household we can the more believe when we turn to some of the items in Richard Cotton's book of accounts from June 12, 1526, to March 3, 1527, and see what a vast amount of meat, wine, ale and beer was consumed in a period of nine months and nineteen days : 179 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Gascon Wine 24 tuns . . 155Z Ale 162 tuns . 1761 Beer 251 qts. 391 Hops 5J Cwt. 12 lb. 53s. 8id 178 Oxen £160 12s. 3d 916 sheep .... . 110 7 H 251 calves .... Hogs .... 26 14 8 194 Porkers 4 10 n 82 Eels 4 18 2 Fish . 123 14 H (Cod, Stockfish I (Salmon and herring) J . 123 17 Poultry .... . 281 7 9 And according to Croke this was but a fifth part. The implication of Sir William Parr in these charges would perhaps never have been made had it not been that he had mortally offended the schoolmaster by calling the Prince before him and enjoining him that he should cease to repeat to Croke the lessons he had learnt in the day, and that he should never be alone with him or listen to him except when reading. Further, he had forbidden Croke to arrange the Prince's 180 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII holidays, and had appointed his (Parr's) nephew ^ to say Matins and Vespers with the Prince. He had thus " got the Prince to pay no atten- tion to the requests or threats of either Ambrose the Usher (one of the best-natured of men) or of the woman his nurse, or of Croke himself. " Your foresight," he tells Wolsey, in conclusion, " will easily divine to what all this will lead. I vastly fear lest a disposition of the best promise with a great proof of my diligence may at last be ruined under such masters, who measure everything for their own pleasure and profit, and nothing for the advantage of their lord."^ It seems more due to FitzRoy's good qualities of heart and head than to his masters and attend- ants, that these gloomy forebodings were not realized. But the witness of his contemporaries and the verdict of history have nothing but praise for this remarkable boy. * Probably William Parr, afterwards Marquis of Northampton (Nichols). ' Many further details with regard to his career may be found among the State Papers, and in Nichols' Memoir compiled from them. 181 CHAPTER XVIII 1529-1530 Another scene of squabbles ; The Tailbois family : Wolsey's omniscience ; Old Lady Talbois's complaints : The Cardinal's intervention : Yomig Talboia made Lord Talbois of Kyme ; The " first Parliament of the Reformation " : Lord Tailbois dies : The inscription on his monument ; Cardinal Wolsey's fall ; His journey north ; Dies. We have seen that the quarrels of the Duke of Richmond's household were referred to the omniscient Wolsey. We now turn to another scene of squabbling, in which the Duke's mother. Lady Tailbois, figured, and which equally, and at the same period, came under the eye of the Cardinal — no details indeed seem to have been too petty for the attention of the great man. This quarrel was between Elizabeth (Gascoigne) Lady Tailbois the elder, on the one side, and her son. Sir Gilbert, and his wife, Elizabeth (Blount) Lady Tailbois the younger, on the other. 182 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII A large part of the property of the lunatic Sir George Tailbois had, as we have said, been handed over to his son. Sir Gilbert, and settled on Sir Gilbert's wife should she survive him. The lunatic was still living and, in fact, lived for many years. He continued to reside at Golthro, in Lincolnshire, with his wife. Lady Tailbois the elder, who managed or mismanaged his household while under the surveyance of Wolsey, and subject to certain " visitations " by him or his agents. Here, then, was a state of things likely to be fruitful in dissensions. The elder Lady Tailbois cherished a grievance against her son, and doubtless more especially against her daughter- in-law, while they, on their part, were constantly complaining of the mismanagement of that portion of the paternal property which was not in their hands, and trying to get possession of it. Their case was supported by Wolsey, who is reported to have sent for young Sir Gilbert and told him he " ought to go home and see order kept, and that he should have the custody of his father and his lands." So says young Lady Tailbois to an old servant of the family, and denies that she or her husband made any request to the King or the Cardinal that they 183 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII should have more of their father's lands. Her conversation is reported back by the old servant to Lady Tailbois the elder, in Lincolnshire, together with an undutiful message from Sir Gilbert to his mother to say that " as she was the cause of his going to Court she must pay for his Costs." "This," writes the elder lady from Golthro to Thomas Heneage * ( Wolsey's Secretary, and son of her cousin the Dean of Lincoln) " causes me great disquiet and makes my friends here and in the north wonder," and " if their unfitting words do not cease " she " will com- plain to Wolsey. It is folly of my son and daughter [in law] to take any order concerning their father's lands without my Lord Cardinal's commandment, for they shall never order me without it." She thanks Heneage for the pains he always takes in her husband's causes, and is surprised that her son and daughter should complain of Heneage taking her part against them, as he has always been so impartial. She is "sending six fat oxen as a present for my Lord Cardinal at Easter," an attention which no doubt she hoped might further her cause. Possibly the oxen did not arrive in good 1 Letter dated April 1, 1529. Record Office, Wood's letters 11-43. 184 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII condition, or the Cardinal was proof against the bribe. For he wrote a month later to the elder lady a letter dated from Durham Place, May 15, desiring her to deliver to her son, Sir Gilbert Tailbois, "lands to the yearly value of lOOZ. the residue of 2001. appointed by Act of Parlia- ment to him and his wife ; and an annuity of 40Z., together with the money received from the lands from May Day last." To this the lady replies that she would give him the lands, but begs to be excused giving the money, for the following reasons : (1) Since her husband's visitation when he was committed to Wolsey by the King his rents have been employed for household expenses and the marriage of his children and not for wasteful expenses, (2) There are now 150 marks owing of the marriage money of one of their children for which her nearest friends are bound. (3) Her younger son has no assignment for his living and must be provided for. (4) William Bongham, an old servant of her husband's, who was accus- tomed to provide wheat and grain for the house- hold, has gone away with money enough to provide for the whole year, and she is obliged to make fresh provision with the rents of the Lordship of Kyme for which her son Sir Gilbert 185 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII asks, and of other lands also. (6) There are six score wild beasts in the Lordship of Kyme from which they used to provide beef for the house- hold, but from which they can now get no profit. She has had little comfort since her husband's last visitation " and for the pleasure of God I have yielded me thereunto, and now my husband is aged it would be hard to live in penury, and be unable to discharge our friends of the sums in which they are bound to us. If my son obtain his demands we shall be obliged to break up house and ' sparpuU ' [sic] ^ our children and servants." He has " now in his hands lands worth 342Z. 17s. llfd. more than she and his father have." She concludes by saying she will do all she can for him when her children are provided for and her debts paid. So the curtain falls on these unseemly wrangles, and the conclusion of the episode is left to con- jecture. Whether or not the parents received any compensation at the hands of Wolsey, it is certain that the young Tailbois were further advanced in fortune shortly after this corre- spondence. Sir Gilbert was summoned to Parliament as a baron by the style and title of Lord Tailbois ' Compare the French esparpiller — iparpiUer — to scatter. 186 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII of Kyme in November 1529, the unprecedented number of twelve peers being created at the same time with him. The occasion is noteworthy in pariiamentary history, and has been often quoted as a precedent for the creation of large numbers of peers for the purpose of carrying a measure. Froude has extolled this as the first great Parliament of the Reformation, which commenced and concluded a revolution reversing the foundations of the State ; and Mr. Horace Round remarks * that the new peers were summoned to this Parliament in order to facilitate the desired changes, and to counteract the re- actionary influence of the " Spiritual Persons " * among the lords who were known to be hostile to them. But a few months after he received his summons as a baron, young Lord Tailbois received the premature summons of death — for he " departed forth of this world " in the following April. He was buried in the Priory Church of South Kyme,^ where this epitaph may still be seen to his memory : » Studies in Peerage. » Hall. ' His body with two other bodies supposed to be those of hia children were discovered some years ago shrouded in lead. 187 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Here lyeth the body of Sir Gilbert Taylboys, Lord Taylboys, Lord of Kyme Whych married Elizabeth One of the daughters of Sir John Blounte of Kynlet Knight. He departed forth of this world Ye 15th day of April An.Do. 1530 On whose soule God have Mercy, Amen The epitaph seems to suggest that the marriage of Gilbert Tailbois was the principal event of his life ; and doubtless he was chiefly known to his contemporaries as the husband of Elizabeth Blount. In the year of Tailbois' s death his great patron was himself hastening to his end. A prey to his enemies, Wolsey had been driven from London by his rival, the Duke of Norfolk, and sent to York under the pretext of looking after his diocese. On his way thither he rested at Peter- borough from Palm Sunday, April 10, to Thursday in Easter week, and there he would have heard the news that his proteg6. Lord Tailbois, had died on Good Friday. After a brief visit to his friend Lord Fitz William, at Milton, Wolsey proceeded to Grantham, thus passing near the estates of the widowed Lady Tailbois. 188 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII It is not improbable that a meeting took place between the two friends, who would condole with each other on their misfortunes ; or she may at least have sent him neighbourly presents for his journey, according to the custom of the day. Wolsey died in the following November, never having recovered from the effect of his disgrace. Norfolk succeeded to his vast interests, private as well as public, but he was destitute of Wolsey's genius. And now, from the ashes, as it were, of his former master, Wolsey, there gradually arose to the pinnacle of power another figure, more sordid but hardly less prominent than the mighty Prelate, namely, the Right Worshipful Master Thomas Cromwell of the King's Council. 189 CHAPTER XIX 1524-1531 Elizabeth's grandfather, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, dies ; His will ! Her father's troubles ! Feud with Sir William Compton : Their retainers fight ! Cromwell supports Sir John Blount ; Compton dies of the sweating sickness : Sir John Blount of Kinlet dies : Dame Katherine, his widow : Their son George a minor : Monument in Kinlet Church. While the husband of Elizabeth thus passed the last years of his life in wrangling with his parents about the family possessions, her father, Sir John Blount (he was knighted about this time) was harassed up to the time of his death in 1531 by quarrels with regard to his inheritance. His father, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, had died in 1524, leaving a will the whole provisions of which were an infringement of his eldest son's right to succeed to his inheritance as guaranteed by the latter's marriage settlement in 1491. The will, dated March 10, the fifteenth year of Henry VIII (1523), is preserved at Kinlet, and sets forth that the testator " being aged and many tymes sicke in body, but stedfast 190 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII in mynde " — a proviso against any suggestion of mental incapacity — makes his last will and testament. After bequeathing his " Soule to God and Our Ladye and to all the Sayntes in heaven " and his " body to be buried in Saynt Katryne's Chappel in Kinlet Church before the altar there," he leaves Kinlet in trust for thirty years subject to legacies to his numerous daughters and younger sons ; and to this end he appoints certain feoffees. A clause in the will provides that if " John Blount, my son and heir apparent . . . suffer my last will to be performed, fulfilled, and kept according to the words and intent of the same without any lett, vexations, inquieting, or interupcion," then the trust is to terminate at the end of thirty years in his favour. But if, on the other hand, he should " lett or hinder this my will or any part thereof," then the trust is to terminate in favour of Sir Thomas's second (and favourite) son Edward, and John and his children are to be disinherited. Two days after his father's death, Edward Blount, the first-named executor, carried the will to Ludlow Castle and had it proved " in the sacello of our Lady Mary Magdalen within the Castle " before Charles Bishop of Hereford, on June 6, 1524. 191 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII First among the feoffees appointed by Sir Thomas to carry out the terms of his will was Sir William Compton, the King's powerful favourite, to whom were granted more manors, lands, and spoils than to any other man in England. He was, moreover, pre-eminent in Worcestershire, the county adjoining Kinlet, for he enjoyed the unusual privilege of being Sheriff of Worcestershire for life. He had received his knighthood after the battle of Tournay, where the veteran knight banneret Sir Thomas Blount was present with him. But the chief reason the old knight had in appointing Compton was that Compton was at enmity with John Blount (whose contemporary in age he was) and that he was the patron of his favourite son Edward. Further, the influence of so powerful a personage might be counted on to nullify the influence of John and the trustees of John's marriage settlement, among the survivors of whom was William Lord Mount- joy, whose name was known to carry high weight and consideration. Litigation ensued ^ on the death of Sir Thomas 1 On February 25, 1525, "Edward Sutton Lord Dudley, William Blount Lord Mountjoy, and the other surviving feoffees of the marriage settlement of John and Katherine Blount made a deed of recovery, which had not been before executed, by which the said John and 192 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and a state of feud, not only between John Blount and Compton,' but between their respective servants and dependents, who fought in the vast forest of Wyre, which borders the counties of Salop and Worcester. Sir William Compton at once succeeded Sir Thomas Blount in the post of Keeper of the Royal Parks at Bewdley and Ernewood — privi- leges usually enjoyed by the owners of Kinlet, and which had been guaranteed by royal warrant to John Blount some years previously in the event of his surviving his father. John Blount, however, now appears as Parker of Cleobury Mortimer, another of the royal domains adjacent to Kinlet. The respective retainers of the two rivals had therefore constant opportunity for raids over the border ; and the feud was the more bitter that Edward Blount ^ was in the service of Sir William Compton. Sir John Blount, however, had a friend in Thomas Cromwell, newly rising to supreme power Katheiine entered into possession of Eanlet " — thus setting aside Sir Thomas Blount's will, and disregarding the threats contained therein. (Deed at Kinlet.) * Edward Blount (of Kidderminster) was one of two deputies of the King's Surveyor of the Royal Manor of TiokneU (Bewdley), Sir William Compton being the King's Surveyor in 1526. He mamed an heiress. Mary, daughter and only child of John Gameys, and he and his descend- N 193 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII in the State, who supported him in his cause. In a letter addressed to Cromwell (preserved among the State Papers) Sir John thanks Cromwell for the " great pains " he has taken on his behalf, and complains of one in particular of Sir William Compton's men who has indicted thirty of his [the writer's] men " seven of whom are at exigend." He desires Cromwell " to find some remedy, to have a discharge of the Scheroff [sheriff] or else to remove it out of that shire [probably out of Worcestershire into Shropshire] for there," he adds, " I can have no favour by reason of my brother [Edward Blount] and others of Sir William Compton's servants. And here," concludes Sir John, " I send you a token [doubtless a handsome fee] and will provide you a gelding against summer which I trust you shall me thank for, as God knows. ^ ..." Shortly before this letter was written Compton had been suddenly cut off by the " sweating sickness " — ^that swift and deadly " scourge " which seems to have specially singled out the wealthy and the highly placed for its ravages, ants flourished at Kidderminster. In the church there are fine recum- bent monuments to his son, Thomas Blount, and to Thomas's son. Sir Edward, represented with his two wives, the former of whom was a daughter of Edward Nevill, Lord Abergavenny. 1 S.P. Henry VIII, vol. iv. 632. E.G. 194 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII in the summer of the year 1528. Sir John Blount's situation became easier by the death of his adversary ; although Compton's men, as we have seen, continued to harass him and his. But soon afterwards we find him — probably not without the assistance of another ftimely bribe to Thomas Cromwell — in the enjoyment of his ancestral offices which Compton had usurped, namely the keepership of the royal parks of Bewdley and Ernwood — ^the latter closely adjoining his own park at Kinlet. But Sir John Blount himself did not long survive in the possession of the lands of his forefathers. He died in February 1531 — during which year he was serving as Sheriff of Shrop- shire — leaving his widow to carry on the struggles and intrigues which seem to have been inseparable in this epoch from large possessions and the maintenance of social position — always apt to be threatened by the envy and hostility of rivals and enemies. Dame Katherine, whom we have not met since the early days of her married life, appears henceforth as the shrewd and scheming mother of sons to be launched in the world. Her cor- respondence with her husband's ally, Thomas Cromwell, will be quoted in its due chronology. 195 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Meanwhile her eldest son, George, the heir of Kinlet, who had been born after his sister Elizabeth's arrival at Court, and had been educated with his " princely " nephew, was eighteen, and during his minority was in the wardship of the Duke of Norfolk, while his property was under the superintendence of his mother. This lady now erected to her husband's memory the beautiful alabaster monument in Kinlet Church, a picture of which is reproduced in our pages. By the side of Sir John's recum- bent effigy, which represents him wearing the " S.S. Collar " and armour of the Tudor period, she placed a life-sized figure of herself with a detail of necklaces and " pedimental " head-dress deli- cately carved. He who fashioned this work of art must have been a sculptor of repute. 196 WINDOW IN THE NORTH TEANSEPT OF KINLET CHUKCH CHAPTER XX 1532-1533 The widowed Elizabeth : Resides at Kyme : Her surroundings and hospitahty : Her younger sisters : Their husbands ; Lady TaUbois' servant at Court : Her New Year's gifts : " The mother of the Duke of Richmond " : He leaves Yorkshire : Made Lieutenant of Ireland : Never sets foot there : The King preoccupied with Anne Boleyn : Some current gossip ; Monsieur de Heylwigen and John Barlow : A conversation : Lady Tailbois and Anne Boleyn compared ; The former " eloquent, gracious, beautiful." After the death of Lord Tailbois, the widowed Ehzabeth chiefly resided in Lincohishire, at her moated Castle of Kyme, the ancient inheritance of her husband's family, " the goodly house and park " of which, says Leland, " is a three mile from Sleaford." The lofty quadrangular tower of Kyme stiU forms a conspicuous object in the flat landscape on the western border of the Boston fens, but nothing else remains of what was once a baronial mansion on a great scale, The extent of its walls can still be traced beside the trenches of the moat which surrounded it. 197 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII It was here that " my lady Tailbois " provided the hospitable entertainment for her hunting neighbours of which we get glimpses from time to time. With her lived her three little children, a daughter, Elizabeth, and two sons, George and Robert. The elder succeeded to his father's barony, while his mother had the enjoyment for life of the large estates which had been settled on her by Act of Parliament at the time of her marriage. Two of her younger sisters, no doubt through her connexion, were married to Lincolnshire gentlemen — a county so remote from that of their birth. One, Isabella, was the wife of William Reade, and another. Rose, the wife of William Greslyng, or Gresley, whom his nephew Henry FitzRoy styles his " friend " in a letter thanking Cromwell for his goodness to him and praying for its continuance.^ That Lady Tailbois was within the circle of the Court is evidenced by the fact of her name being found occasionally in lists relating to Court matters. Among " payments to certain grooms and messengers of the Chamber riding on the King's business " — servants belonging to a 1 October 27 [1534 ?]. 198 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII few prominent personages whose names are entered with the items — " the Lady Tailbois' servant " has 13s. 4 OenUeman'a Magazine, May 1846. J. G. N. 244 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII that she was an ardent Protestant, who brought up her dead brother's children as Protestants under the influence of Foxe — on which account she has received small mercy from Catholic chroniclers of the House of Howard. She may have been deserving of some pity. She seems to have lived undowered, and in poor circumstances considering her rank. Apparently what things of any value the Commissioners found at Kettering were the trinkets acquired by Bess Holland. Some interest attaches to the lady whose name is coupled with Elizabeth's in the list. " Lady Howard " — or as she would now be designated. Lady William Howard — was Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage, Knight, of Coity, Glamorganshire, wife of Lord William Howard, now Ambassador to France, uncle of Katherine Howard — ^the new favourite, who was already receiving the attentions of the King. Strange vicissitudes were in store for Margaret Howard in this connexion with her husband's niece, for, but a year and a half later, she spent many months of anxiety in the Tower, as did Lord William, his mother, the old Dowager Duchess of Norfolk (responsible for the bringing up of frail Katherine Howard), and his " sister Bridge- 245 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII water " (a lady of light manners) — all arraigned in connexion with the wretched charges of misconduct for which Queen Katherine was executed. It was fortunate for Margaret Howard that the " simplicity " of her demeanour was reported by her interviewers to indicate her innocence ; and in spite of the malice of the Duke of Norfolk against all his half-blood, she was released from the Tower sooner than the rest. She survived to share the honours of her husband, who was created Lord Howard of Effingham in Queen Mary's reign.^ But Elizabeth did not see the fall of ill-fated Katherine Howard, for her own part in the pageant of life had ceased. Whether or not she lived to witness the splendid international tourna- ment at Westminster Hall in May 1540, in which her gallant husband, " very richly apparelled," played a conspicuous part, another Lady Clinton figures in the annals in the following year. This was Ursula Stourton, Lord Clinton's second wife, who was to provide him with the male heir his first marriage lacked. ' This Lord Howard, in 1553, was the first ambassador from England to Russia. From him and Margaret his wife descend the Earls of Effingham, as did also the Honble. Kenneth Howard, so well remembered in late Victorian society. 246 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIH The fair lady whose career has been traced in these pages had then — ^in the words of the epitaph which she had placed to the memory of her first husband — " DEPARTED OUT OF THIS WORLD. ON WHOSE SOUL GOD HAVE MERCY. AMEN." 247 CONCLUSION Clinton created Earl of Lincoln by Queen Elizabeth : Elizabeth Blount's children by her first husband ; The Barony of Tail- bois : The King's decision : No heirs ; Three daughters by Lord CUnton : Their coheirs and representatives : Elizabeth Blount's brother : The descent of Kinlet : A disinherited daughter ; Sir George Blount's monument : A folklore fable : The Lacons of Kinlet : Its descent to the Childe family : Blount's pool : The ghost of Sir George Blount : The ancient oaks at Kinlet. LoED Clinton survived his first wife nearly forty-five years, maintaining a foremost position in the State during the dissimilar circumstances of the four successive reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and EUzabeth. Distinguished alike as a general in battle and a statesman in diplomatic missions, he turned his attention to naval matters, and was con- stituted Lord High Admiral of England in 1550. In the following year he was installed a Knight of the Garter. In 1557 he was a second time appointed Lord High Admiral, and confirmed in that office by Queen Elizabeth on her accession 248 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII in the same year. In 1572 she created him Earl of Lincoln, a dignity still enjoyed by his representative in the male line, the present Duke trf Newcastle, who is descended from the Earl by his second wife, Ursula, daughter of William, Lord Stourton.^ His third wife was " the fair Geraldine," the child-heroine of Surrey's verse, namely, Elizabeth, daughter of Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, and widow of Sir Anthony Browne, K.G., but by her he had no children. The singular fact is recorded of this illustrious soldier, sailor, and statesman, that he was the most extensive farmer in the kingdom, and so successful as such that he was able to live in a most hospitable manner and at the same time not only save the emoluments of his offices, but add greatly to them.^ This great Lord Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, died in January 1585, and was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, under a stately monument of alabaster and porphyry erected by his widow. While the earldom of Lincoln descended in the male line, the Barony of Clinton after some generations passed by female descent, and ' It was this Lady Clinton's death that Machyn recorded in his diary in 1551 — not, as has been erroneously said, Elizabeth's. The Genealogist, vol. ii, p. 23. 249 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIH eventually descended to the Trefusis family, the present Lord Clinton being thus the senior representative in blood of Edward, Lord Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, and his second wife, Ursula Stourton. During the five years of her second marriage Elizabeth had three daughters by Lord Clinton — ^little children at the time of her death. They all married and left many descendants. Her three children by Lord Tailbois also survived her, but not long. Her eldest son, George, Lord Tailbois, as a boy of fifteen or sixteen years, was among those appointed towards the close of 1539 (during his mother's lifetime) to meet Anne of Cleves at Calais and to escort her to England. Like his half-brother, Henry FitzRoy, he was an instance of premature marriage, for he was already married in May of that year to his cousin, Margaret, daughter of Sir William Skipwith, and niece of Sir Thomas Heneage.i He survived his mother only a year, ' Margaret Lady Tailbois married three times, always retaining the name and title of her boy-husband. Her second husband was Sir Peter Carew, who died in or before 1575. Her third was Sir John Clifton, from whom the Earl of Darnley descends in the female line. Sir John Clifton's mother was, curiously enough, another Elizabeth Blount — but not, as erroneously stated by Edmondaon, " daughter of Sir John Blount of Kinlett " — she was of th^ Sodington branch of 250 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII dying in 1541, at the age of seventeen — ^the same age that had proved fatal to Henry FitzRoy. His brother, Robert, who succeeded him in the Barony of Tailbois, followed him to the grAve in the next year and at the same age. The inference seems not improbable that all three of Elizabeth's sons died of consumption, as did certainly both the King's sons, Henry FitzRoy and Edward VI. It was an epoch when the strenuous system of education in vogue among the highest nobility taxed to the utmost the strength of its youth, and the weakly succumbed to early death, their constitutions being pre- maturely forced in every direction, and their strength undermined by the strain of manly exercises combined with application to learning, begun at too early an age. On the death of Robert, last Lord Tailbois, his sister Elizabeth succeeded as Baroness Tailbois of Kyme. Her husband, one Thomas Wimbish — " a man of great possessions," says Leland — claimed in her right to sit in Parliament as Baron Tailbois. His claim was solemnly the Blounts. In her will dated 1580, this lady, the widow of William Clifton, Esq., bequeaths her wedding-ring to her daughter-in-law, " My Lady Talboys,'' namely, the above-named Margaret. (Informa- tion supplied by Lady Elizabeth Cust.) 251 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII decided in the presence of Henry VIII. The King took part in the curious arguments, replying to those of Gardiner, Bishop of Win- chester, and ol Barker, Garter King-at-Arms, who had been expressly summoned by the King. On the Bishop declaring that " by the law he professed " (the Civil law) " dignity was denied both to women and Jews," the monarch objected to putting Christian women and Jews in the same predicament. Finally it was decided by the King that " no man, husband of a Baroness, should use the title of her dignity until he had a child by her, whereby he should become tenant by the courtesy of her Barony." This Mr. Wimbish failed to do. On his death the Baroness married, secondly, her kinsman. Lord Ambrose Dudley, afterwards Earl of Warwick, eldest surviving son of the attainted John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who had married his younger son. Lord Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey, and had brought ruin to himself and to them by his ambitious designs. Lord Ambrose Dudley, favoured by Queen Mary, was restored from the attainder of his father, and was created Earl of Warwick ^ by • This Earl of Warwick is buried in St. Mary's Chapel in Warwick 252 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Queen Elizabeth in 1561, his younger brother being the notorious Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. On the death without children of Lady Ambrose Dudley, Baroness Tailbois, the Barony of Tail- bois became extinct, and Kyme Castle and property fell to the share of her cousin, Dymoke of Scrivelsby, Champion of England, as one of her co-heirs (his mother having been a daughter of the lunatic Sir George Tailbois). The three daughters of Elizabeth Blount by her second husband. Lord Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, now became the co-heirs and repre- sentatives of their mother. They were : 1. Bridget, married to Robert Dymoke of Scrivelsby, Champion of England, who, as we have said, inherited Kyme on the death of his cousin, Baroness Tailboys. 2. Katherine to William, Lord Borough or Burgh. 3. Margaret to Charles, Lord Willoughby of Parham. Of the first Mr. Dymoke, the present Champion of England, is the descendant in the male line. Church. He died without children in 1589, when aU his honours became extinct, Warwick Castle being granted later to Sir Fulke Greville. 258 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VHI Of the second the Thorpes, the de Burghs, and Baroness Berners are the representatives. Of the third the representation is uncertain owing to the curious confusion which eventually arose in the family of the Willoughbys of Parham. Among the Holbein series of drawings at Windsor Castle there is one which bears the name of the above-mentioned Lady Borough — evidently a mista|ie, for Lady Borough, the daughter of Elizabeth and Lord Clinton, was a little child at the time of Holbein's death in 1543. (This date, by the way, is often erroneously given as 1554.) In fact the lettering put on these pictures after Holbein's generation had passed away, is so frequently at fault, that apparently none of the names can be accepted without proof. The Holbein drawing lettered '* Lord Clinton " is more likely to be correct, because he lived so long that probably he was known, or remembered, at the time of the lettering. The exact date when this lettering was added is, however, uncertain. Sir George Blount survived his sister EHza- beth forty-one years. He conveyed Kinlet, the paternal home, by deed of settlement to his nephew, Rowland Lacon of Willey (Shropshire), 254 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII the eldest son of his eldest sister, Anne Lacon, which settlement was to take effect on Sir George's death — an arrangement of this kind being a usual way of evading the heavy expenses of wills in the reign of Elizabeth.^ Rowland Lacon accordingly came into possession of Kinlet on the death of Sir George Blount in 1581, and erected to his uncle's memory the fine alabaster monument so much admired by the students of sepulchral architecture.^ It represents the kneeling effigy of the knight in armour, and that of his wife, Constantia Talbot — a stately and mature dame, with a lap-dog at her feet — the wife whom his mother had provided " for his comfort " five and forty years earlier. Between are two little kneeling figures, thus inscribed : Hier theyr two children be John and also Dorothie. A fable, repeated by Augustus Hare, relates of them that " one died of the bite of a mad dog, the other choked with the ' scork ' of an > The Deed, dated March 22, the 23rd year of Elizabeth, is, or was, at Kinlet. See Appendix. ' " It is difficult to speak too highly of the exquisite carving of this monument ; every detail is cut with the utmost care. . . . The heraldry on the monument is a study." Cranage, Churches of Shropshire, vol. i, p. 320. 255 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII apple." Be this as it may, the Latin inscription states that Sir George Blount on the death of his son appointed Rowland Lacon " in the place of him " — he being descended, through his paternal ancestors, from the ancient Norman lords of Kinlet (the de Bramptons) equally with the Blounts, his mother's family.^ The epitaph also records that Sir George in his youth " dehghted in the Court of his Prince " (his nephew Henry FitzRoy being the only " Prince " in England in his time) ; further, that Sir George was " the terror of Scotland " — ^namely in the wars with that country in the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII ; his portrait at Kinlet (bearing his arms and date 1548) suggests a man of strong and rather ruthless character. On the under part of his tomb lies a representation of his dead body in a shroud, according to the peculiar custom of the time. In connexion with this weird figure, folk-lore supplies another story which has gathered round Sir George Blount's name. At the foot of the shrouded figure is, or was, a bottle about six inches long, fastened down with a glass ' The Lacons represented by descent through the Harleys, one of the Brampton co-heiresses, while the Blounts through the CornewWls represented the other. 256 MONUMENT TO SIR GEOKGE BLOUNT OF KINLET AND DAME CONSTANCE (TALBOT) HIS WIFE, IN KINLET CHUECH ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII stopper, and three parts full of a dark liquid. " No earthly power could move this stopper " — so said an old inhabitant of Kinlet — " because it contained the departed spirit of Sir George Blount." ^ In selecting his nephew Lacon to succeed him, Sir George Blount disinherited his daughter Dorothy. Blakeway, the antiquary, surmises that he was displeased at her marriage to one John Purslow, a neighbouring squire. From an old paper at Kinlet it appears that a Purslow in an earlier generation had been convicted of stealing deer from the park at Kinlet, having confessed his crime in the presence of Lady Blount (whom we may distinguish as the mother of Elizabeth). The penalty for deer-stealing in those days being death, it is hkely enough that an alliance with a member of the Purslow family would be unpardonable in Sir George Blount's eyes. The Lacons continued in the male line at ' Miss Burns's Folklore of Shropshire, quoted by Augustus Hare {[Shropshire, p. 327). The less credulous say this bottle is known to have been an early Victorian one which held photographic chemicals, and was accidentally left in the church by the late Miss Anna Maria Cfailde, an accomplished exponent of photography in the years 1850- 1860. Our picture of Sir John Blount's tomb is reproduced from one of her negatives taken at that date, before the monument had been moved into its present situation in the chancel. R 257 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Kinlet for three generations. Sir Francis Lacon suffered in purse and property as an adherent of Charles I, accused of being " a harbourer of papists and suspected persons." He sold the Manor of Knightley, the Staffordshire inherit- ance of his ancestress, Katherine Peshall, Lady Blount.^ He also sold his patrimonial estate, Willey (now the property of Lord Forester). Fuller, in his " Worthies of England," writing at this epoch, remarks of the Lacons : " My hopes are according to my desires that this Family is still extant . , . though I suspect shrewdly, shattered in estate." Kinlet descended to his granddaughter, Anne Lacon, the heiress of her line, who at the age of twelve married Sir William Childe (in 1640), and became a grandmother before she was thirty. The fortunes of Kinlet revived under Sir William Chjlde, a nephew of the eminent Lord Keeper Coventry, and himself prosperous in the law, although born a portionless younger son of a Worcestershire family which had been heavily fined during and after the civil wars. Ashmole — " the greatest virtuoso and curioso that ever was known," as he was called — visited ^ To Sir Edward Coke. 258 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Sir William Childe at Kinlet in 1663; and drew the " achievement " which he found on the carved roof there, and in the " parlour " window/ namely, the arms and quarterings of Sir John Blount and his wife, Katherine Peshall — a memorial of their child-union in 1491. William Lacon Childe of Kinlet (MJ». for Shropshire in the time of George II), grandson of Sir William and Dame Anne Childe, was long hostile in feeling to the Hanoverian dynasty, and was prepared to lead the Jacobites in Shropshire at the time of Sir Watkin Wynn's projected rising for Prince Charlie in Wales. He built the present mansion at Kinlet in 1727, and demolished the ancient manor-house of his Blount ancestors — the story goes — because of the ghostly appearances of Sir George Blount, who haunted the house, even entering the dining-hall when the family were at dinner, to the terror of all who beheld the sight.^ The ancient cellars and foundations of the original structure were uncovered and seen by several persons a hundred years ago. Kinlet descended, from the time of Doomsday, • Ashmole MSS. 854, 176 JBodleian). " A more elaborate version of this tale is given by Augustus Hare in his Shropshire, p. 327. 259 EUZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII to its late owner, Major Charles Baldwyn Childe (of the Royal Horse Guards), whose gallant death early in the Boer War will not be for- gotten. His widow now resides at Kinlet. The author of this essay is his only brother. Family traditions linger at Kinlet, which has remained singularly remote and undisturbed by the stir of the outside world. The name " Blount's Pool " still survives. This pool near " the dark drive " is pointed out as haunted by Sir George Blount, who could be seen — so the old folks say — ^in the dim light of winter riding through it on his white horse. What is more certain is that in the park at Kinlet — ^the same park from which Purslow stole the deer four hundred years ago — ^among the splendid oaks which make the glory of the country "twixt Severn and Clee," here and there stands forth some ancient specimen of giant girth, and recalls the Tudor times when it was a young tree and Elizabeth Blount a little child. 260 APPENDIX I PEDIGREE SHOWING THE KINSHIP OF ELIZABETH BLOUNT WITH HENRY VIII o pq W H PM M o;> " PS I ;?; W H O o W CO 262 263 LINE OF THE BLOUNTS OF KINLET THEIR DERIVATION AND DESCENDANTS The Pedigree of the Blounts, as given in Croke's " History of the Blounts " and in Burke's " Extinct Peerage " derives the descent of " this most ancient and distinguished family " from the Counts of Guisnes in Picardy. " The chief branch of the family, the Barons of Ixworth, having expired with WilKam le Blount, the sixth feudal lord, at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, the representation devolved upon the line of the younger son of Hubert le Blount, the fourth Baron, by his wife Agnes de I'lsle, viz. Sir Stephen le Blount, living in the 10th Richard I, anno 1198." It is not within the scope of this book to inquire into or prove the details of the earlier generations as given in the above-mentioned works. The portion of the following pedigree, however, which shows the descent of the Blounts of Kinlet from the head line of the Blounts of Sodington is proved by documental and other evidence. Sir Stephen lb Blount Living 10th Richard I (1198) SiK Robert J le Blount Died 17th Edward I (1288) 1. Sir Ralph, Lord of Belton. His grandson. Sir Thomas was summoned to Parlia- ment as Baron Blount of Belton, 1326 1. Peter, one of the Cham- berlains to Edward II, in 1313 -r- 2. Sir William Blount Died 1315-16 2. Sib Walter Blount, of the Rock, co. Wor- cester, and of Sodington, jure uxoris. Died 1322 his kinswoman, Maria lb Blount, sole dau. and heir of Sir WilKam le Blount, representative of his ancestor, Sir William le Blount, of Saxlingham (Suffolk), one of the brothers who came over with the Conqueror Isabel, dau. and coheir of the feudal lord of Odinsels Anne, dau. of Sir John St. Maur, widow of Lovett [Burke gives Sir William for wife: Lady Isabel de Beau- champ, dau. of William, 1st Earl of Warwick, and widow of Henry Lovet, of Elmley Lovet.] Johanna, third sister and coheir of Sir William de Sodington, who died 1301 'Sb J3 a o 1-5 o a ■s cS M o is o M M g o P S m cc 1=1 o 1-5 3 H 'A O m Sir William Blount, of Sodington. Sum- moned to Parliament as a Baron, 1330-7 Margaret, 3rd dau. and coheir of Theo- bald de Verdon, Lord of Alton Castle, co. Stafford, Lord Justice of Ireland IsOLDA, dau. 1st wife and = Sir John heir of Sir Thomas de Mount] oy succeeded his brother at the age of 30. Died 1358. 1st Juliana Foulhurst ^ From this marriage de- scended the Blounts of Sodington, the head of the Blounts, represented by the Blounts, Baronets, of Mawley,Shropshire, and Sodington, Worcestershire wife = Sir John Blount, I of Sodington, con- veyed to his half- brother. Sir Walter, the numerous manors which he (Sir John) had inherited from his mother, the heiress of the Mount- joy family ISABELLA, dau. of SIR BRYAN CORNWALL, OF KINLET (sister of Sir ffohn Cornwall of Kinletj 2nd wife Blount, = Eleanor, 2nd dau. of John, Lord Beauchamp, of Hache, co. Somerset, and widow of John Meriet of Meriet Sir Walter Blount celebrated for his mar- tial prowess. Enjoyed the lands of his father's first wife, conveyed to him by his brother S ancia d b Ayala, dau. of Don Diego de Toledo, Spain From this marriage descended the Blounts, Lords Mountjoy, and Earl of Devonshire (1603) John IJlount of Balterley and other manors in Staffordshire = Alice, dau. of Kynard Delabere Sir Humfrey Blount, of Kinlet, knighted at Battle of Tewkesbury, 1471. Born 1423. Died 1477-^8 Elizabeth, dau. of Sir Robert Winnington, widow of Richard Delves, Esq. Died 1502! Sir Thomas Blount, of = Anne, dau. of Sir Richard Kinlet. Knighted 1487 at Battle of Stoke. Knight- Banneret 1513. Died 1524 Croft, Knight-Banneret 1485. Said to have had 20 children. Edward, of Kidderminster Younger son Sir John Blount, of Kinlet, Squire of the Body to Henry V^iflr-iSlSv- - Died 15^1. Monument in Kinlet Church Thomas Blount, of Kidderminster = Sir Edward Blount, of Kidderminster Kathebine, dau. and sole heir of Sir Hugh Peshall by Isabel, dau. of Sir John Stanley Albora, unmarried Isabella, wife of William Reade, Esquire Rosa, wife of William Grys- ling, or Gres- ley. Esquire Henry = Jane, dau. of Somer- vi 1 le of Warwick George, d.s.p. William d.s.p. ■Maijiii H Dorothy, married (1st) John Purslow of Sidbury, (2nd) G. Bullock, of Morville. By the former she had issue, but her line appears to have become extinct in later generations Sir George Blount, of Kin- let. Born 1513. M.P. for Shrop- shire 1547.- Por- trait at Kinlet 1548. Died 1581. Settled Kinlet on his nephew, Ro- land Lacon. Monu- ment in Kinlet Church erected by his nephew Roland Lacon Constance dau. of Sir John Talbot of Salwarp Elizabeth, married (1st) Gil- bert, Lord Talbois of Kyme, (2nd) Ed- ward, Lord Clinton (afterwards 1st Earl of Lincoln) f.„..-.^My^-iJ^.^^.„^;...V.a.^-.,:-,., ■ .^.-..^ friir'riiiimimiiVil^ -^•^^^^^^^■"■jmiiiMttMiiin'itWiMHai^tMmiiimStssm gggm the brothers who came over with the Conqueror Sib Robert j lb Blount = Isabel, dau. and coheir of the Died 17th Edward I (1288) I feudal lord of Odinsels 1. Sib Ralph, Lord of Belton. His grandson, Sir Thomas was summoned to Parlia- ment as Baron Blount of Belton, 1326 Sib William Blount Died 1315-16 Anne, dau. of Sir John St. Maur, widow of Lovett [Burke gives Sir William for wife : Lady Isabel de Beau- champ, dau. of WiUiam, 1st Earl of Warwick, and widow of Henry Lovet, of Elmley Lovet.] 1. Pbtbe, one of the Cham- berlains to Edward II, in 1313 2. SiK Waltee Blount, = Johanna, of the Rook, co. Wor- cester, and of Sodington, jure uxoris. Died 1322 third sister and coheir of Sir WiUiam de Sodington, who died 1301 a J3 A o o ^ ^ n3 o ^ ^ fe ■g ta ^ M s 13 K o -a O § ^ 'O o "S M o • M M 1-1 < 1 < m II . . II — 11 bl) >> B H ^ J3 q O Q O s " s — % -<( ^ < '■^ H ^ )-4 d vj lJ V-i ^ ^ ^ > >-4 e e V2 VI cc H SiE William Blount, of Sodington. Sum- moned to Parliament as a Baron, 1330-7 1st wife Maegaeet, 3rd dau. and coheir of Theo- bald de Verdon, Lord of Alton Castle, co. Staiford, Lord Justice of Ireland IsoLDA, dau. and heir of Sir Thomas de Mount] oy Sib John succeeded his brother at the age of 30. Died 1358. 2nd wife Blount, = Eleanoe, 2nd dau. of John, Lord Beauchamp, of Hache, co. Somerset, and widow of John Meriet of Meriet 1st Juliana Foulhuest ■• /w From this marriage de- scended the Blounts of Sodington, the head of the Blounts, represented by the Blounts, Baronets, of Mawley,Shropshire, and Sodington, Worcestershire wife = SiE John Blount, I of Sodington, con- veyed to his half- brother. Sir Walter, the numerous manors which he (Sir John) had inherited from his mother, the heiress of the Mount- joy family ISABELLA, dau. of SIR BRYAN CORNWALL, OF KINLET (sister of Sir ffohn Cornwall of KinletJ Sib Walteb Blount celebrated for his mar- tial prowess. Enjoyed the lands of his father's first wife, conveyed to him by his brother S ANOIA D E Ayala, dau. of Don Diego de Toledo, Spain From this marriage descended the Blounts, Lords Mountjoy, and Earl of Devonshire (1603) John Blount of Balterley and other manors in Staffordshire = Alice, dau. of Kynard Delabere Sib HuMrKEY Blount, of Kinlet, knighted at Battle of Tewkesbury, 1471. Born 1423. Died 1477-8 Elizabeth, dau. of Sir Robert Winnington, widow of Richard Delves, Esq. Died 1502; SiE Thomas Blount, of Kinlet. Knighted 1487 at Battle of Stoke. Knight- Banneret 1513. Died 1524 Anne, dau. of Sir Richard Croft, Knight-Banneret 1485. Said to have had 20 children. Edwabd, of Kidderminster Younger son Sib John Blount, of Kinlet, Squire of the Body to Henry -^Ili, 1518. -Bred 1531. Monument in Kinlet Church Thomas Blount, of Kidderminster = Katheeine, dau. and sole heir of Sir Hugh Peshall by Isabel, dau. of Sir John- Stanley Sib Edwaed Blount, of Kidderminster Alboea, unmarried Isabella, wife of William Reade, Esquire Rosa, wife of William Grys- ling, or Gres- ley. Esquire Hbney = Jane, dau. of Somer- ville of Warwick William rf.s.p. Gboege, d.s.rp. DoBOTHY, married (1st) John Purslow of Sidbury, (2nd) G. Bullock, of Morville. By the former she had issue, but her line appears to have become extinct in later generations SiE Geoegb Blount, of Kin- let. Born 1513. M.P. for Shrop- shire 1547. Por- trait at Kinlet 1548. Died 1581. Settled Kinlet on his nephew, Ro- land Lacon. Monu- ment in Kinlet Church erected by his nephew Roland Lacon Constance dau. of Sir John Talbot of Salwarp Elizabeth, married (1st) Gil- bert, Lord Talbois of Kyme, {2nd) Ed- ward, Lord Clinton (afterwards 1st Earl of Lincoln) John Blount died young Anna wrongly called Agnes RiCHAED Lacon, of Willey (son and heir of Sir Thomas Lacon, of Willey, co. Salop). Richard Lacon was Sheriif of Shropshire, 1540. Post- mortem dated 17th Octr, 3rd of Elizabeth. His son Roland then a minor. Two mere rons re pi of( ntrd l. The messuage, lands, etc., in Fenton Kylward are held of the King by the service of the 14th part of one Knight's fee, and are worth yearly 13s. 4d!. The messuages, lands, etc., in Denston are worth yearly 20^ and are held of George, Earl of Shrewsbury. The lands, etc., in Waterfall are worth yearly 19s. and are held of the same Earl. The lands, etc., in Romeshore are worth yearly lOs. and are held 271 APPENDIX IV of the same Earl. The " miner lapia " in Wykesall are worth yearly beyond reprises 2d. and is held of the said Earl. {Translation from original in Record Office.) [Inquis. Post-mortem, 16 Hen. 8, 102^ — Thomas Blount, CO. Hereford.] 272 APPENDIX V INQUISITION POST-MORTEM OF SIR JOHN BLOUNT OF KINLET 23 Henry 8, N. 15 {Translation from original in Record Office) John Blount, Knight, deceased. Salop — Inquisition taken at Bruggenorthe 23 Henry 8. — Thomas Blount, Knight, father of the said John Blount, was seized of the Manor of Kynlet, & of 20 messuages, 300* land, 40* meadow, 200" pasture, 100* wood, 40* heath, & 32s. of rent, in Kynlet, Cottesley, Foxcote, & Ernewode in his demesne as of fee : and by Indenture made at Kynlet, 24th February 6 Henry 7 [etc., as in Inquis. 17 Hen. 8]. Afterwards William Bishop of Lincoln, Edward Sutton of Dudley, Knight, William Blount of Mountjoy, Knight, and others on the 12th Dec. 21 Henry 7, read out a writ of entry sur s 278 APPENDIX V disseisin in le post against the said Thomas Blount, Knight, then tenant of the premises, whereby the Sheriff of Salop was commanded to render to the said Bishop and the others the said manor & tenements by name of the Manor of Kynlet, and 20 messuages, 300* land, 40* meadow, 200* pasture, 100* wood, 40* heath, & 32s. of rent in Kynlet, Cattesley, Foxcote, & Ernewode ; which writ was returned, etc. : where- upon the Bishop, etc., recovered the premises against the said Thomas Blount, which recovery was to the & intent mentioned in the said Indenture. Some of the trustees died, and also the said Thomas Blount, and afterwards the said Edward Sutton, William Blount of Mount joy, & others [surviving trustees], by their charter dated 14th February 6 Henry 8 [1514-1515], granted the premises to the said John Blount and Katherine and the heirs of their bodies: remainder to the right heirs of Thomas Blount, Knight. John Blount died 27th Feb. 22 Henry 8 [1530-1531] ; the said Katherine is still living. George Blount, son & heir, set. 18. The Manor of Kynlet and other lands in Foxcote & Erne- wode are held of the Earl of March as of his Honor & Castle of Wyggemore, by fealty only, and it is worth yearly 4>0l. The messuages, etc., 274 APPENDIX V in Catteley are held of the King in chief, but by what services the jurors know not, they are worth yearly 3^ Staff.— Writ dated 28 Feb. 22 Hen. 8. Inquis. at Stafford 26 October 23 Henry 8 [a.d. 1531] Thomas Blount, father of the said John, was seized in fee of the Manor of Balterley, etc., & by Indenture, etc. [as in the Inquis. of 17 Hen. 8]. Similar findings as to the heir, the values & tenures of the premises — except that the messuages, etc., in Waterfall are said to be held of the heir (or heirs) of Hugh Pessall. 275 APPENDIX VI SIR GEORGE BLOUNT OF KINLET'S SETTLE- MENT ON HIS NEPHEW The following is an excerpt of a deed at Kinlet Hall, in the possession of the late William Lacon Childe, Esquire, of Kinlet ; by which deed Sir George Blount settles Kinlet on his nephew, Rowland Lacon of Willey. This settlement is dated 22nd of May, 23rd year of Elizabeth (1581). Sir George Blount appoints certain feoffees (trustees), Harnage and Hill, who are to hold the Manor of Kinlet for the use of himself (Sir George Blount) during his life, and after his death for the use of his nephew, Rowland Lacon. It seems to have been a usual practice, at this epoch, to convey estates in this manner instead of by will. Sir George Blount thus disinherited his daughter Dorothy. " To all Christian people to whom this present dede indented shall come, S' George Blount of 276 APPENDIX VI Kinlett, in the county of Salop, Knight, fondly greting in our Lord God everlasting. Know you that I the sayd S' George Blount, Knight, for divers good cawses and consyderations me especially moving ... do by this my present dede indented, give, graunt, enfeoff, and con- firm, imto Francis Harnage of Belsewardyne, in the County of Salop, Esquire, and to Humphrye Hyll, of Sylvington, in the County aforesayd, Gent., all my Manor and Lordship of Kinlett . . . Catesley, Foxcote, and Earnewoode, in the County of Salop . . . waters, fyshing, woods, underwoods, advowsons, donations, presenta- tions, rights of patronage, Courte leete . . . To have and to hold the sayd Manors, &c., to the sayd Francis Harnage and Humphrye Hyll ... to the use of me the sayd Sir George Blount for the term of my life, and after my decease, then to the sole and proper use and behoofe of Rowland Lacon of Wylley, Esquire . . . being the son of the sister of the sayd Sir George Blount, but also of the very great and sondrye gratuities, gentleness, courtysies, and friendly- ness by the sayd Rowland Lacon hertofore most lovingly and amply shewed and used unto the sayd S' George Blount, And for the ad- vancement and preferment of this sayd nephew. 277 APPENDIX VI i . . • And I the sayd S' George Blount do, by these presents, ordayne, constitute, make, and appoint, my well-beloved in Christe Thomas Warter, Gierke, and Alvery Kellet, Yeoman, my true and lawfuU Autorneys jointly and severally for me and in my name. . . . " In witness whereof I have put my seale the two and twenty daye of Maye in the xxiij* yeare of the reigne of our soveraigne Lady Elizabeth, by the Grace of God of England, France, and Ireland Queene, Defender of the fayth, &c. Sealed and delivered in the presence of " Francis Lawley, " Rychabd " Francis Harnage, " HUMPHRAY HyLL, " HuMPHRAYE Draper, " George Draper, " Alvery Kellett." The late Mr. Shirley of Ettington in the second edition of his Noble and Gentle Men of England corrected the misstatement which had appeared in the first edition, viz. that the Lacons " purchased " Kinlet from the Blounts. He substituted the word " inherited " for " pur- chased." 278 APPENDIX VII Insckiption on the monument in Kinlet Church to Sir John Blount of Kinlet and Dame Katherine his wife, parents of Elizabeth Blount : " Hie jacet corpus Johanis Blount milit : filii et heredis Thomi Blount milit : filii et hered : Humfrid : Blount mil : ac Dominae Katherinae uxoris filiae et heres : solae Hugonis Pesall milit . ac Dominae Isabellae uxoris suae filiae Dni: Johans : Stanley mil : qui quidm : Johanis Blount obyit xiiij° die mensis Febru : Anno Dni : M°ccccc°XXXI°. cuis: anim: propicietur deus. Amen." " Here lieth the body of John Blount, Knight (son and heir of Thomas Blount, Knight, son and heir of Humfrey Blount, Knight), and of the Lady Katherine his wife, daughter and sole heir of Hugh Pesall, Knight, by the Lady Isabella his wife, daughter of Sir John Stanley, Knight, which said John Blount died the 14th day of the month of February, in the year of our Lord 1531, on whose soul God have mercy. Amen." 279 APPENDIX VIII The following is a list of the arms quartered in the shield of the Blounts on the monument to Sir George Blount of Kinlet. 1. Blount 2. Sodington 3. Verdon 4. Lacy 5. Marshall 6. Strongbow 7. MacMurrough 8. Cornewall of Kinlet 9. Brampton 10. Valerie 11. Braose 12. Milo, Earl of 13. Newmarch 14. Remieule 15. Corbet of Caux 16. Hereford 17. Peshall 18. Chetwynd 19. Caver swell 20. Knightley 21. Pantulph 22. Swynnerton 23. Beck 24. Hastang 25. Trussell Hereford The arms and quarterings of the Talbots are represented on the same monument, as also the arms of the Lacons with twenty-three quarterings. 280 APPENDIX IX RELATIONSHIP OF ELIZABETH BLOUNT WITH THE GUILFORD FAMILY (Prom an old pedigree of the Comwalls of Burford in the possession of Mrs. Baldwyn-Childe at Kyre Park) " Elinor Cornwall m** 1'' Sir Hugh Mortimer of Cuer 1 Wyard, 2 Sir Richard Croft of Croft. This Sir Hugh Mortimer had by the same Dame EUnor a daughter named Anne, m** to Sir Thomas West, L** Delawar, who had by her a daughter, married to S"^ Edwad Gilford, who had by her Anne, Duchess of Northumberland, mother to the most noble Ambrose, Earl of Warwick & the right excellent E. of Leicester. This said Dame EHnor took to her 2" husband S' Richard Croft, who was Comp' of the household to King Edward 4th. Dame Ehnor, his wife, was Lady Governor to the young Prince Arthur at Ludlow, and that it had been reported that the Lady Elinor lived so long • Cuer, now called Kyre. 281 APPENDIX IX and had such increase of children that before she died 340 and odd were descended of her Body."i * The monument in Burf ord Church, Sfaiopshiie, where the heart of Edmund Cornwall (father of Eleanor Croft) is buried gives the same genealogy ; Anne Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland, being styled "the most beautiful lady." 282 INDEX INDEX Abergavenny (Edmund Nevill), Lord, 194 (George Nevill) Lord, 95, 96 Ambrose, of Richmond's household, 181 Angus, Earls of, 124 Anne of Cleves, 241, 250 Arthur, Prince of Wales, 39 et seq. Arundel, William FitzAlan, Earl of, 96, 185-7 Ashmole, the virtuoso, 258 Badoee, Andrea, Venetian Ambassador, 71 Barker, Sir Thomas, Garter King-at-Arms, 136, 252 Barlow, Rev. John, Dean of Westbury, 202 Barlow, Bishop William, 202 Berners, John Bourchier, Lord, 111 Blackmore, Essex, Birthplace of Henry FitzRoy, 116 Blount, Anne, born Croft, wife of Sir Thomas, grandmother of Elizabeth, 41 Blount, Anne, afterwards Lacon, Elizabeth's elder sister, ancestress of the author, 27, 239, 255 Blount, Constantia Talbot, sister-in-law to Elizabeth, 235, 254 Blount, Edward, Elizabeth's uncle, 55, 191, 193 Blount, Sir Edward, of Kidderminster, 194 Blount, Dorothy, Elizabeth's niece, 257 Blount, Elizabeth, beauty of, 17 no known portrait, 18 early association with Henry, 21 erroneous statement with regard to, 22 chronological mistakes dispersed by public records, 22 status of, 24 date of birth, 25, 28 marriage of her parents in infancy, 26-7 285 INDEX Blount, Elizabeth, distinguished ancestry, 28 et seq. babyhood, 39 her great-grandmother, 43 infancy, 44, 49 at Court, 50, 52 her wages as maid-in-waiting in 1512-1513, 62 Lord Mountjoy's influence, 51 mistaken statement as to her being at Calais, 57 education, 58 contemporary of Elizabeth Carew, 59 message from Duke of Suffolk, 61 scandal affecting, 63-5 culture, 71 domestic surroundings, 75 May-day revels, 77-9 beauty and talent, 77-85 last year as maid-in- waiting, 86 intrigue with Henry, 88 her partner Francis Bryan, 92 appears in Wolsey's masque, 94, 102, 110 her condition necessitates retirement from Court, 105 influence of her associates, 113 retires to Priory of St. Lawrence, Blackmore, 115 birth of Henry FitzRoy, 116 her maiden name disappears from Court annals, 117 in seclusion, 118, 122 married to Gilbert Tailbois, 118-25 points to her credit, 118 Wolsey's interest in, 118 Palsgrave an enemy of, 120 Wolsey's matrimonial schemes for her, 123 her choice of Tailbois, 123 settlements, 126 at Court as Lady Tailbois, 127 resides in Lincolnshire, 127 connexion with Henry terminated, 127, 128 her love for her son, 129 in touch with him, 147 consulted with regard to Henry FitzRoy's education, 164 ; a letter from his tutor to her, 164-169 death of Lord Tailbois, 187 286 INDEX Blount, Elizabeth, widowed life at Kyme Castle, 198 children, 198 still within circle of Court, 198 New Year gift to Henry VIII, 199 her name in Court records, 201 sought in marriage by Lord Leonard Grey, 204, 207 married to Lord Clinton, 209 Henry VIII's grants to, 210 marriage of her son, Henry FitzRoy, 211 death of her son, Henry FitzRoy, 222 harassing times in Lincolnshire home, 224 cautious demeanour, 226 in danger at Kyme, 228 further favours from Henry VIII, 230 nearing her end, 241 last appearance of her name in State records, 241 death, 246 descendants of, 250 her three daughters by Lord Clinton, 253 her pedigree, showing kinship with Henry VIII, 262 Blount, George, Elizabeth's brother, portrait, 18 tomb, 19, 255 birth, 28 intimacy with Henry FitzRoy. 148, 173, 174 ward of Duke of Norfolk, 196 at Court of Richmond, 237 M.P., 238 death of, 255 tomb at Kinlet, 255 disinherited his daughter, Dorothy, 257 legend attaching to, 257 succeeded by his nephew, Rowland Lacon, 257 settlement on his nephew, 274 Blount, Gertrude, Lord Mountjoy's daughter, 139 Blount, Henry, Elizabeth's brother, 285 Blount, Sir Humphrey, of Kinlet, 19, 31, 33 Blount, Sir James, kinsman of Kinlet branch, 34 Blount, Sir John, of Kinlet, Elizabeth's father, tomb, 20 eldest son of Sir Thomas, 25 marriage at Kinlet to Katherine Peshall, 26 287 INDEX Blount, Sir John, marriage-settlement, 37 a parent at an early age, 27 takes up residence at Knightley, 48 one of the King's Spears, 52 accompanied the King to France, 55 Esquire of the Body to the King, 87 at enmity with Sir William Compton, 107 harassed on his inheritance, 190 et seq. death of, 195 inquisition, post-mortem of, 273 date and mention of marriage and age, 269 Blount, Sir John, Governor of Calais, 57 Blount, Joice, aunt of Elizabeth, 49 Blount, Katherine, Elizabeth's mother, tomb, 20 heiress of Knightley, 25 resemblance to her uncle, Sir Humphrey Stanley, 38 successfully disputes will of Humphrey Peshall, 45 a woman of vivid personality, 46 shrewd and scheming for her sons, 196 enlists the aid of Cromwell, 233 et seq. canvasses for her son George, 237 death of, 240 Blount, Sir Thomas of Kinlet, Elizabeth's grandfather, knighted at Battle of Stoke, 25 arranges his son's marriage, 29 present at Coronation of Elizabeth Plantagenet, Queen of Henry VII, 34 attends Court at Ludlow Castle, 40 et seq. in full vigour of martial career, 52 accompanies the King to France, 53 retires to his Shropshire estates, 87 appoints Sir William Compton a feoffee of Kinlet estates, 107 death of, 125, 190 inquisition post mortem of, mention of his son's age, 27, 35, 272 Blount, William, see Mount joy. Lord Blount, WiUiam, Ehzabeth's brother, 148, 173, 235 Blounts of Kinlet, origin of, 29, 30 supporters of White Rose party, 33 pedigree and descendants of, 265 288 INDEX Boleyn, Anne, 22, 23, 67, 69, 99, 111, 121, 128, 200-3, 209, 212, 213, 218, 236 Boleyn, Edward, uncle of Anne, 68 Boleyn, Elizabeth, 93, 96 Boleyn Family, the, 66, 67, 96 Boleyn, George, Viscount Rochford, 218 Boleyn, Mary, 67, 128 Boleyn, Sir Thomas, 59, 67, 68, 96, 128, 139, 202, 212. See also Rochford, Viscount Borough, Lord, or Biu-gh, 227, 253 Bosworth, Battle of, 26, 29 Botre, William, Mercer, 70 Bourchier, Margaret, mother of Lady Bryan, 110 Bowes, Sir Robert, Master of the Rolls, 145 Brandon, Charles, see Suffolk, Duke of Brereton, Sir Richard, 239 Bridewell Palace, 134 Bridgewater, Earl of, 93 Bridgewood, Anthony, 206 Bromley, Sir Thomas, Lord Chancellor, 27 Bromptons, of Kinlet, genealogy of the, 32 Browne, Anne, of Beechworth Castle, 98, 100 Browne, Sir Anthony, K.G., 249 Browne, Frideswide, mother of Anne Carew, 98 Browne, Sir Matthew, of Beechworth Castle, 98 Bruges, Margaret, 94 Bryan, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Bryan, first appearance at Court, 59 married to Nicholas Carew, 59, 61, 62 scandal about, 63 intrigue with Henry VIII, 64 Duke of Suffolk, 65 takes part in Wolsey's masque, 94, 98 return to Court, 108 Bryan, Francis, partner of Elizabeth Blount, 92, 94, 97, 108-113 Bryan, Margaret, Lady, mother of Francis, 59, 62, 96, 110, 200 Bryan, Sir Thomas, Vice-Chamberlain and father of Francis, 59, 60, 110 Buckingham, Edward Stafford, Duke of, 24, 107, 124, 125, 133, 185, 213, 236 T 289 INDEX Bulmer, Sir William, Steward of Richmond's Court, 145 Burrows, Lord of, of Gainsborough, 227, see Borough Butts, Dr., Henry's physician, 143, 145 Camden, William, historian, 30 Capell, Sir Giles, 94, 98 " Captain Cobbler," leader of Lincolnshire rebels, 225 Carew, Ann, sister of Nicholas, 65, 94, 97 Carew, Sir George, 99 Carew, Nicholas, one of Henry VIII's favourites, 59, 61, 62, 64, 66 et seq., 98, 107-9, 110, 111 Carew, Sir Peter, second husband of Margaret, Lady Talbois, 250 Carew, Sir Richard, father of Nicholas, 62, 68 Carey, William, husband of Mary Boleyn, 128 Carlisle, Bishop of, 135 Cavendish, George, Secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, 35 Cavendishes, the, early status of, 35 Cecil, David, ancestor of Lord Burleigh, 142, 143 Champernowne, Sir Arthur, of Dartington, 99 Chapuys, Eustace, Charles V's Ambassador, 64, 218, 220, 221, 227 Charles V, of Spain, 64, 67, 90, 156, 157 et seq., 220, 225 Chetwynd, Sir William, of Ingestre, 38 Childe, the late Major C. B., of Kinlet, 259 Childe, Sir William, of Kinlet, 258 Childe, William Lacon, of Kinlet, M.P. for Shropshire, 35, 259 Childe, Mrs. Baldwyn, of Kyre Park, 44, 269 Clement VII, 156 Clifford, Henry, 113 Clifton, Sir John, third husband of Lady (Margaret) Tailbois, 250 Clinton, Bridget, daughter of Elizabeth, 253 Clinton, Barony of, 249 Clinton, Lord, twenty-first Baron, 250 Clinton, Edward, Lord, ninth Baron, birth, 28 remarkable for good looks, 208 of great promise and fortune, 208 with Henry VIII at Calais, 209 at coronation of Anne Boleyn, 209 married to Elizabeth, 209 290 INDEX Clinton, Edward, Lord, at execution of Anne Boleyn, 218 " Pilgrimage of Grace," 225 first to carry news of outbreak, 226 his servants side with the rebels, 226 collapse of rebellion, 229 supports Act for suppression of monasteries, 231 death of his wife, Elizabeth, 246 maintains a foremost position in State affairs, 248 high ofl&ces for, 248 his second wife, 249 created Earl of Lincoln, 249 his third wife, 249 death of, 249 descendants of, 250, 253 portrait of, by Holbein, 254 Clinton, Katherine, daughter of Elizabeth, 253 Clinton, Margaret, daughter of Elizabeth, 253 Coffin, Sir Winiam, 69 Coke, Sir Edward, 68 Coke, Robert, of Sparham, 68 Compton, Anne, spouse of Peter, 97 Compton, Peter, 97 Compton, Sir William, favourite of Henry VIII, 51, 97, 187, 192, 193, 194 Cornwall, Edmund, of Buriord, 44 Cornwall, Edmund, of Kanlet, 31, 36 Cornwall, Geoffrey, of Burford, 31 Cornwall, Sir Richard, of Burford, 44 Cornwalls, of Kinlet, their royal origin, 31 Cotton, Sir George, of Combermere, 175 et seq., 221, 222 Cotton, Sir Richard, 175, 179, 222 Cranmer, Archbishop, 202 Croft, Eleanor, wife of Sir Richard, 43, 44, 48, 49, 53 Croft, Sir Richard, of Croft Castle, 42, 43, 47-9, 86 Croke, Richard, D.D., 171 et seq. Cromwell, Thomas, his opinion of Bryan, 111 rise to power, 189 friend of Sir John Blount, 193 thanked by Sir John, 194 his fees, 195 thanked by Henry FitzRoy, 198 291 INDEX Cromwell, Thomas, letter from Lord Leonard Grey, 205 writes to Lady Tailbois, recommending Lord Leonard's suit, 206 Duke of Norfolk's gratitude to, 212 his influence with the King, 221 appropriation of Church property, 225 letter from Lord Shrewsbury, 228 letters from Katherine Blount, 232 et seq. execution of, 240 Cumberland, Earl of, 139 Dacre, Lord, 99 Darcy, Lord, execution of, 229 Darrell, Sir Edward, of Littlecote, Elizabeth's great-uncle, Vice-Chamberlain to Katherine of Arragon, 86 Darnley, Earl of, ancestors of, 250 Daubeny, Lady, 98-6 Daubeny, Henry, Lord, 93, 95 Daunce, Sir John, 62 de Bourbon, Nicholas, French poet, 220 de Brampton, Brian, of Kinlet, 32 de Brampton, Elizabeth, of Kinlet, 31 de Brampton, Margaret, 32 de Cornwall, Richard, founder of family, 31 de Harley, Robert, of Brampton Brian, 32 de Heylwigen, Loys, of Brabant, 202 de Medici, Catherine, 156 de Venegas, Agnes, Lady Mountjoy, 51 Derby, Earl of, 30 Devon, Courtney, Earl of, 139 Devonshire, Duke of, 100 Dorset, Marquis of, 137, 149, 204 Dorset, Margaret, Marchioness of, 100 Douglas, Lady Margaret, niece of Henry VIII, 242 Drayton, Michael, poet, 112 Dudley, Lord Ambrose, second husband of Baroness Tailbois, 44, 252 Dudley, Anne, Duchess of Northumberland, born Guilford, see Northumberland Dudley, Edward Sutton, Lord, 192 Dudley, Lord Guilford, husband of Lady Jane Grey, 252 292 INDEX Durham Place, 133, 141, 185 Dymok, Sir Thomas, 228 Dymoke of Scrivelsby, champion of England, 253 Dymoke, Mr., champion of England (1913), 253 Edith, Consort of Edward the Confessor, 32 Edward I, 31 Edward II, 31 Edward IV, 33, 42 Edward VI, 175, 222, 248, 251 Edward, Prince, of Lancaster, 42 Effingham, Earls of, 246 Eleanor, Queen Dowager of Portugal, 156 Elizabeth, Princess, daughter of Henry VIII, and Anne Boleyn, 212, 219, 222 ; Queen, 99, 248, 253 Elizabeth, Queen of Edward IV, 204 Emery, Captain David, Lord of Howterrosche, 94, 97 Erasmus, Desiderius, scholar, 50, 72, 74, 75, 106, 163 Exeter, Marquis of, 139, 149 Eyton, R. W., antiquary, 32, 33 Fairfax, Serjeant-at-law and Counsellor at Richmond's Court, 145 Ferdinand, King of Spain, 58, 72 Feria, Jane Dormer, Duchess of, 113 FitzRoy, Geoffrey, son of King John, 116 FitzRoy, Henry, son of Elizabeth Blount and Henry VIII ; Nichols's biography of him, 23, 147 mention of him in Cotton MS. as one of over seventeen score of the descendants of his great-great-grand- mother during her lifetime, 44 his birth and christening, 114, 116 and his tutor, the Rev. John Palsgrave, 119 his likeness to his parents, the King's affection for him, 129 his godfather Cardinal Wolsey, 130 Henry's resolve that he should be considered as a Prince and one worthy to succeed to the throne, 130-1 the earliest mention of him in the records, his arms, 131 293 INDEX FitzRoy, Henry, elected to the Garter and created Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Richmond and Somerset, 132 given precedence to all other dukes already created, 133 description of the ceremony of the creations, 133-8 he receives patent as Lord High Admiral and Warden General of the Marches towards Scotland, 140 takes leave of his father at Hampton Court and pro- ceeds to Yorkshire, 141 account of his journey, 142-4 list of the officers of his Court at Sherift-Hutton, 145 lands and income granted him, 146 two of his mother's brothers reside at his Court and are educated Avith him, his disposition and acquire- ments, 148, 149 a letter from him to the King, 150, 151 his correspondence with James V of Scotland, 152-5 matrimonial alliances proposed for him, 156 rumoured that he was to be made King of Ireland, 157 his education and first preceptor, 159-63 his second teacher, 171-81 ceases to be Lord Warden of the Marches and advanced to the Lieutenancy of Ireland, 200 accompanies the King to his meeting with Francis I at Calais, 209 married to the Lady Mary Howard, 211, 212 his friendship with the Earl of Surrey, 213-17 the youthful couple live apart, 214 his illness, 217-18 death, 219-20 burial, 221-3 monument at Framlingham, 223 FitzWalter, Lady, 24 FitzWalter, Robert Radcliff, Lord, 135, 139, 242 FitzWilliam, Lord, of Milton, 188 Flodden Field, victory of, 56 Foscari, Alvise, 78, 93 Foxe, John, 245 Francis I, of France, 90, 106, 108 Frankelyn, William, Counsellor at Richmond's Court, 143, 148 Froude, James A., 24, 187, 222 294 INDEX Fulgeham, Sir Godfrey, treasurer of Richmond's household, 145 Fuller, Thomas, historian, 222 Fyenes, Mary, 94 ; wife of Henry Norreys, 99 Gairdner, Dr. James, 52, 227, 242 Gamage, Sir Thomas, of Coity, 245 Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, 252 Garneys, John, father of Mary Blount, 193 Gascoigne, Lady, 229 Gascoigne, Sir William, of Gawthorpe, 124 Gresley, or Greslyng, brother-in-law to Elizabeth, 198 Grey, Lady Jane, 252 Grey, Sir John, of Groby, 204 Grey, Lord Leonard, 204-8 Gibson, Richard, Master of the Revels, 67, 70, 71 Giustiniani, Sebastian, Venetian Ambassador, 73, 84, 90, 91, 101 Glendower, Owen, 43 Guilford, Sir Henry, 63, 66, 68, 70, 94, 96-8 Guilford, Margaret, Lady, 63, 66, 68, 93, 96 Guilford, Sir Richard, 98 Hall, Edward, historian, 23, 58, 71, 80, 89, 92, 95, 108, 109, 110, 116, 130 Hampden, Viscount, 99 Hampton Court, 141, 159 Hare, Augustus (the late), 255, 257, 259 Harwood, Thomas, topographer, 38 Hastings, Lady, 107 Heneage, Sir Thomas, Wolsey's secretary, 184, 250 Henry VI, 42, 44 Henry VII, 25, 26, 29, 30, 33, 35, 38, 40-2, 47, 75 Henry VIII explanations in regard to his intrigue with Elizabeth Blount, 22 marriage to his sister-in-law, Katherine, 47, 53 at war with France and Scotland, 54-6 curious letter from Duke of Suffolk, 60 life at Court, 64 revels at Court, 69-71 295 INDEX Henry VIII, kindness to Queen Katherine, 72 religious devotion, 72 handsome appearance, 73 cultured state of Court, 73 popularity, 78 May-day revels, 78 amusements at Court, 88 alarm at " sweating sickness," 84 talent for music, 84 intrigue with Elizabeth, 88 guest of Wolsey, 90-101 appears in masque, 93 treatment of early companions, 95 tires of Katherine, 106 religious zeal, 107 reforms his Court, 109 residence at Blackmore unproved, 116 marriage provision for Elizabeth, 125 disappointed with Katherine, 131 intention of nominating Henry FitzRoy his successor, 131 confers titles on Henry FitzRoy, 134 promotes Henry FitzRoy Lord High Admiral, 140 dismisses Katherine's ladies, 144 gift to Henry FitzRoy, 148 letter from Henry FitzRoy, 150 intention to create Henry FitzRoy King of Ireland, 157 Elizabeth's New Year gift, 199 affection for Henry FitzRoy, 200 marriage to Anne Boleyn, 203 unfriendly with continental neighbours, 211 promotes marriage of Henry FitzRoy, 213 suspects Anne Boleyn of poisoning FitzRoy, 218 married to Jane Seymour, 219 grief at death of Henry FitzRoy, 220 warned of Lincolnshire outbreak, 227 presides at legal inquiry, 252 pedigree, showing kinship with Elizabeth, 262 Herbert, Lord, of Chirbury, 21, 114, 115, 129 Hereford, Charles, Bishop of, 191 Holbein, Hans, 17, 20, 208, 254 296 INDEX Holland, Bess, Duke of Norfolk's mistress, 214, 244, 245 Holyrood House, 152 Howard, Lady Anne, 135 Howard, Lady Catherine, 93 Howard, Lady Elizabeth, 68 Howard, Katherine, Henry VIII's fifth wife, 245-6 Howard, Margaret, 242, 245, 246 Howard, Lady Mary, wife of Henry FitzRoy, 211, 214, see Duchess of Richmond Howard, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, 59 Howard, Lord William, Ambassador to France, 245, 246 Howards, position of the, 34 Howterrosche, Lord of, see Emery, Captain David Hume, Martin A. S., historian, 117 Huntingdon, first Earl of, 227 Hussey, Lord, 226, 229 James IV, 54 James V, 152-154 " Jericho," Essex, 116, 117 Jerningham, Sir Richard, 109 John, King, 116 Kathekine of Aeragon, 22-4, 89, 40, 47, 50, 53, 54, 77-9, 82, 86, 90, 98, 99, 101, 105, 117, 120, 121, 128, 131, 144, 149, 157, 158 Kildare, Earl of, 207, 249 Kingston, Sir William, 109 Kinlet, Shropshire, 18, 19, 26, 27, 30, 32, 35, 259 Kitson, Sir Thomas, of Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, 284 Knightley, of Fawsley, Family of, 29 Knightley, of Knightley, Family of, 29 Knyvett, Anne, see St. Leger, Anne, Lady Kynvett, Sir Edmund, of Beckenham, 68 Kyme, Lords of, 124 Lacon, Anne, or Agnes, born Blount, see Blount Lacon, Anne, wife of Sir WiUiam Childe, 258 Lacon, Sir Francis, of Kinlet and Willey, 258 Lacon, Richard, of Willey, 55, 239 Lacon, Rowland, of Kinlet and Willey, 254 297 INDEX Lacon, Sir Thomas, of Willey, 27 Lee, Edward, Archbishop of York, 149 Legh, Nicholas; of Addington, 97 Leicester, Robert, Earl of, 44 Leland, John, antiquary, 41, 47, 144, 197, 251 Lennox, Earl of, 242 Lincoln, Dean of, 184 Lincoln, Earl of, son of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, 138 Lincoln, Earl of, see Edward, Lord Clinton Louis XII, 60 Luke, Walter, Counsellor at Richmond's Court, 145 Magnus, Dr., Surveyor at Richmond's Court, 145, 150, 152, 153, 154 Malton, leader of Lincolnshire rebels, 225 Manners, Sir Thomas, 139 Margaret, Queen, sister of Henry VIII, 152, 154 Mary, Princess, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine, 90, 110, 112, 183, 144, 157, 158, 212, 213, 218-22, 225 ; afterwards Queen, 246, 248, 252 Mary Tudor, Queen of France, 60, 91, 149, 159 Memo, Dionisius, musician, 83, 84 Mendoza, correspondent of Charles V, 157, 158 Meres, Francis, divine and author, 112 Morant, Philip, historian, 117 More, Sir Thomas, 137, 161, 170 Mortimer, Sir Hugh, of Kyre Wyard, 44 Mortimer, Sir John, of Kyre Wyard, 44 Mountjoy, Lord, 50, 51, 55, 62, 71, 86, 192 Nevill, Sir Edward, 93, 96, 97 Newcastle, seventh Duke of, 249 Norfolk, Agnes (Tylney), Dowager Duchess of, 96, 245 Norfolk, Elizabeth (Stafford) Duchess of, mother of Mary FitzRoy, Duchess of Richmond, 124, 213, 244 Norfolk, Thomas, second Duke of, 59, 68, 93, 96, 110, 135, 138 Norfolk, Thomas, third Duke of, 93, 96, 110, 119, 135, 137, 138, 142, 149, 196, 206, 211-13, 220-2, 234, 246 Norreys, Sir Edward, 98 Norreys, Henry, 94, 99 298 INDEX Norris, Mary Fiennes, spouse of Henry, 99 Northumberland, Anne (Dudley), Duchess of (born Guilford), 44 Northumberland, third earl of, 124, 229 Northumberland, fifth Earl of, 135, 136, 137, 188 Northumberland, sixth Earl of, 229 Northumberland, John Dudley, Duke of, 252 Nottingham, Earl of, see FitzRoy, Henry Okio, Lorenzo, 129, 144 Ormonde, Earl of, 68 Osborne, Richard, of Fenton, 239 Oxford, John de Vere, Earl of, 135-7 Page, Richard, Richmond's vice-chamberlain, 145, 167 Palsgrave, Rev. John, Richmond's tutor, 119, 120, 122, 145, 158 et seq., 176 Parr, Katherine, Henry VIII's sixth wife, 178 Parr, Sir Thomas, 178 Parr, Sir WilUam, of Richmond's Court, 167, 178, 179, 180 Pasqualigo, Venetian Ambassador, 78 Pen, Philip, of Forton, 239 Percy, Sir Thomas, execution of, 229 Peshall, Humphrey, of Knightley, 29, 44, 45, 48 PeshaU, Sir Hugh, of Knightley, 26, 29, 30, 45 Peshall, Isabel, born Stanley, 80, 37 PhiUp, Elizabeth, silk woman, 70 " Pilgrimage of Grace, the," 225 et seq. Plantagenet, Elizabeth, mother of Henry VIII, 204 Pole, Arthur, 94, 100 Pole, Henry, 100 Pole, Reginald, Cardinal, 96, 100 Pontefract Castle, Court at, 150 Poyntz, Sir Francis, Ambassador to Charles V, 99, 100 Purslow, John, son-in-law to Sir George Blount, 257 Radcliffe, Roger, Richmond's chamberlain, 145 Raynes, Dr., Bishop of Lincoln's Chancellor, 228 Reade, Isabella, sister to Ehzabeth, 198 Reade, William, brother-in-law to Elizabeth, 198 Richmond, Archdeacon, 145 299 INDEX Richmond, Countess of, mother of Henry VII, 30 Richmond, Duchess of, see Lady Mary Howard, FitzRoy's widow, 242, 243, 244 Richmond, Fergeaunt, first Earl of, 131 Richmond, Duke of, see FitzRoy, Henry Rochford, Viscount, 139, 218 Rudstone, Robert, 99 Russell, John, usher to Henry VII, 35 Rutland, Earl of, 42, 139 Sagudino, Nicolo, Venetian Secretary, 77, 78, 79, 82, 93, 102 Sandys, Lady, wife of William, Lord Sandys, 199 Sandys, William, Lord, Henry's chamberlain, 135, 199 St. George's Chapel, Windsor, 249 St. James's Palace, 220 St. Lawrence, Priory of, Blackmore, 115 St. Leger, Lady Anne, 68, 93, 97 St. Leger, Sir George, 68 Salisbury, Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of, 100 Saunders, William, Wolsey's servant, 150 Scrope, a groom in Richmond's household, 176 Sentas, Bishop of, 135 Seymour, Jane, 22, 219 Sheriff-Hutton, Castle of, 141, 144 Sheriff-Hutton, Richmond's Court at, 145, 159 Shrewsbury, Elizabeth, Countess of, 97 Shrewsbury, fourth Earl of, 97, 135, 227, 228, 235 Simnel, Lambert, 25 Skipworth, Margaret, wife of Elizabeth's son, George, 250 Skipworth, Sir William, 250 Skrymshire, John, son of Thomas, 239 Skrymshire, Thomas, of Aqualate, 239 Somerset, Beaufort, Duke of, 132 Spelman, Sir Henry, historian, 231 Stafford, Lady Catherine, 135 Stafford, Henry, Lord, 236 Stanley, Lord, 29, 30 Stanley, Sir Humphrey, of Elford, 26, 30, 37, 38, 284 Stanley, Sir John, of Elford, 29 Stoke, Battle of, 25 300 INDEX Stourton, Ursula, Lord Clinton's second wife, 243, 246, 249 Stowe, John, quoted, 116 Strickland, Agnes, historian, 56, 37, 117 Suffolk, Duke of, 60, 63, 67, 69, 91, 93, 95, 103, 107, 138, 135, 137, 138, 149 Suffolk, Duchess of, Brandon's last wife, 242 Surrey, Heiury Howard, Earl of, son of third Duke of Norfolk, 112, 211-13, 215-17 Surrey, Thomas Howard, second Earl of, 96, 110, 244, 249 Sussex, Countess of, 242 Sussex, Earl of, see FitzWalter " Sweating Sickness," 84, 194 Tailbois, Elizabeth, Lady, mother of Gilbert, 124, 125, 126, 182, 183, 184, 185 Tailbois, Elizabeth, Baroness, Elizabeth's daughter, 198, 251-3 Tailbois Family, wrangles in, 182-6 Tailbois, Gilbert, EHzabeth's husband, 21, 22, 56, 57, 118, 122, 123, 125, 128, 129, 182, 183, 184, 186, 187, 229, 256 Tailbois, Sir George, Gilbert's father, 124-6, 183, 185, 253 Tailbois, George, Elizabeth's eldest son, 198, 221, 230, 250, 251 Tailbois, Robert, son of Ehzabeth, 198, 251 Talbot, Sir John, of Grafton, 235 Tate, Dr., almoner at Richmond's Court, 145, 160 Tempest, Sir Thomas, Comptroller of Richmond's Court, 145 Tonstal, Rev. Cuthbert, 101 Trefusis Family, the, 250 Tudor and Plantagenet, Union of, 34 Tudor Dynasty, accession of, 84 Tudor, Mary, Queen of France, 60, 67, 159 Tyrwhit, Sir Robert, 228 Umfeevilues, the, 124 Uvedale, John, secretary to Richmond, 145 Uvedale, Sir William, 47 Vere, Sir John, 188 301 INDEX Walden, Sir Richard, of Erith, 97 Walden, Mrs., 94, 97 Warren, Christian, silkwoman, 70 Warwick, Ambrose Dudley, Earl of, 44 ; Baroness Tailbois' second husband, 252 West, Sir Thomas, Lord De la Warr, 44 Westminster, Abbot of, 135 Westmoreland, Ralph Nevill, Earl of, 135, 237 Weston, Sir Richard, 109 Willoughby, Lord, of Parham, 253 Wimbish, Thomas, 1st husband of Baroness Tailbois, 251, 252 Windsor Castle, 214, 215, 217 Wingfield, Sir Richard, 109, 165 Wolsey, Cardinal, 54, 89, 90, 101, 107, 115-26, 130, 131, 135, 137, 141, 143, 145, 148, 149, 153, 154, 172, 177, 182, 183-6, 188 Wotton, Ann, 99, 100 Wotton, Sir Edward, Governor of Calais, 99 Wyatt, Sir Thomas, poet, his satirical verse on Francis Bryan, 113 York, Dean of. 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The characteristics and early vicissitudes of the famous Five Frankfurters who laid the foundations of the House are shown, and many amusing anecdotes are related of them in Mr. Balla's book. Some Early Press Opinions " The author takes us, in a sense, behind the scenes, gives us a hundred details of the Rothschilds' MR. EVELEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS methods, and shows us, step by step, how the ac- cumulation of these enormous sums was made possible."— TA^ Globe. " Extremely interesting." — Daily Express. " Interesting all the way through." — Standard. " Abounds in interesting quotations and anecdotes. — Liverpool Daily Post. THE MARRIED LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA By CLARE JERROLD Author of" The Early Court of Queen Victoria" etc. Illustrated. Price 15J. net. In this volume Mrs. Jerrold carries a stage further her interesting study of Queen Victoria's life. She endeavours to tell the real truth regarding the Queen's married life and her relations with the Prince Consort, and in doing so relies on their own recorded actions and words rather than upon the highly coloured and in many cases exaggerated pictures presented by the " lives " of Prince Albert which were authorised by the Queen. The result is a human and fascinating story. The relations of the Queen and Prince with those around them, with their children and with their ministers — especially their hatred and fear of Palmerston — their love for Louis-Philippe, for the German con- federation, and their complacency towards Russia are all dealt with and throw a strong new Hght upon the English Court during the years in which Prince Albert was virtually King. MR. EVELEIGH NASITS NEW BOOKS THE SAILOR WHOM ENGLAND FEARED Being the Story of Paul Jones, Scotch Naval Ad- venturer and Admiral in the American and Russian Fleets. By M. MACDERMOT CRAWFORD. Author of" The Wife of Lafayette.'''' Illustrated. Price 15J. net. John Paul Jones was unquestionably one of the most striking characters of the eighteenth century. Born in 1747, the son of a gardener in Kirkcudbright- shire, he was, at the age of seventeen, third mate on a slaver, at twenty a merchant captain ; at twenty- eight lieutenant in the United States Revolutionary Navy ; at twenty-nine a captain ; at thirty-two commodore, " the ocean hero of the Old World and the New," spoiled, adulated, petted by great and small. A vice-admiral in the Russian Navy at forty-three — at forty-five he was dead ! A traitor who terrorised his countrymen, known alternately as " rebel," " corsair," and " pirate," Paul Jones was none the less a man of rare distinction and ability — a brilliant seaman endowed with courage and determination ; and the record of his deeds is a story of unflagging interest. MR. EVELEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS A CANDID HISTORY OF THE JESUITS By JOSEPH McCABE. Author of " The Decay of the Church of Rome" " Twelve Tears in a Monastery" l^c. Price lOJ. 6d. net. It is curious, in view of the endless discussion of the Jesuits, that no English writer has ever attempted a systematic history of that body. Probably no religious body ever had so romantic a history as the Jesuits, or inspired such deadly hatred. On the other hand, histories of the famous society are almost always too prejudiced, either for or against, to be reliable. Mr, McCabe, whose striking book " The Decay of the Church of Rome " attracted such widespread and well-merited attention, has attempted, in his new book, to give the facts im- partially, and to enable the inquirer to form an in- telligent idea of the history and character of the Jesuits from their foundation by Loyola to the present day. Every phase of their remarkable story — ^including the activity of political Jesuits and their singular behaviour on the foreign missions — is carefully studied, and the record of the Jesuits in England is very fully examined. MR. EVE LEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS A KEEPER OF ROYAL SECRETS Being the Private and Political Life of Madame de Genlis. By JEAN HARMAND Illustrated. Price 15/. net. The career of Madame de Genlis is one of the baffling enigmas of history. For the greater part of her life she played an important role in the social and political life of France. By virtue of her intimate association with Philip Egalite, Due d'Orleans, and her high position as the Governor of Louis Philippe and the other Orleans children, the influence she wielded practicaUy amounted to royal power. She cast her spell over a wide circle, winning admiration even from her enemies, and yet her life has been the subject of a storm of scandalous reports and speculations. What was her exact relationship to the Duke ? was she the mother of the famous " Pamela " whom Lord Edward Fitzgerald married ? what was her share in the astounding affair of " Maria SteUa " ? what part did she play in the Revolution ? — these are some of the mysteries surrounding her on which M. Harmand, with the help of many unpublished letters and documents, throws much new light. The whole truth will probably never be known, but M. Harmand in his elaborate biography gives us an immensely fascinating and vivid story, and unearths many new details regarding her curious and romantic life. 8 MR. EVELEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS THE TRUTH ABOUT WOMEN By C. GASQUOINE HARTLEY (Mrs. Walter M. Gallichan) Price 6s. This book is the outcome of twelve years' careful study of the conditions of women in this country and abroad. Believing that the time has now ar- rived when women must speak out, fearlessly, the truth about their own sex, the author has endea- voured to review the situation as it appears to her after her lengthy study of the subject. Her book is divided into three parts — the biological considera- tion of the question — the historical consideration, and the present day aspects of the woman problem. It is a book of much plain speaking and closely reasoned argument and, whether or not one agrees with its conclusions and directness, it is a work which undoubtedly merits the attention of every responsible person, male and female. MR. EVELEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS BY-PATHS IN COLLECTING By VIRGINIA ROBIE. Profusely illustrated. Price ys. 6d. net. Every enthusiast over rare and unique things which have passed the century-old mark wiU want this delightful book by Virginia Robie. It contains a wealth of sound advice upon the quest of the quaint, and much reliable information is given upon the collecting of such things as china, furniture, pewter, copper, brass, samplers, and sundials. PRINTS AND THEIR MAKERS Essays on Engravers and Etchers Old and Modern Edited by FITZROY CARRINGTON With 200 Illustrations. Price los. 6d. net. A volume exquisite in every detail of the planning and making. The chapters — contributed by notable authorities — discuss various phases of etching and engraving from the time of Raphael and Durer to the close of the nineteenth century. The plates for the illustrations (200) have all been made with unusual care from original engravings and etchings, and together form a valuable collection. 10 MR. EVE LEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS New Six=ShilUng Novels* VEILED WOMEN By MARMADUKE PICKTHALL Author of " Said the Fisherman," " Children of the Nile" etc. A fine novel of the East telling the life story of an English girl who marries an Egyptian noble and lives the harem life. The gradual mental and physical effect of the secluded life of the harem upon a healthy western woman is shown with great effect, while the story of her ineffectual appeal to the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of Occupation to take her back, of her escape from the harem and flight into the desert, of her return and eventual relapse into a state of resigned con- tentment with her lot, will appeal strongly to every woman. The wonderful world of the Cairene women, their comings and goings, their intrigues, their pleasures and pastimes, the gorgeous colouring and the subtle perfume of their surroundings, the mystery, the charm and the insidious influence of the harem life are depicted with the brilliance of characterisation and richness of detail that one has come to expect from the author of " Said the Fisherman." II MR. EVELEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS LADY OF THE NIGHT By BENJAMIN SWIFT A charming story centreing round the romantic attachment of two delightful people — ^Ysmyn Veltry, the daughter of a wealthy French perfume manu- facturer and Vivian Darsay, a great-grandson of an old Crimean veteran, Colonel Darsay — whom, years before the story opens, chance had brought together and made playmates of among the perfumed fields of roses, jasmine and all the other fragrant flowers which surrounded Veltry's world-renowned dis- tillery at Grasse. At the instigation of an ambitious sister-in-law, Veltry has come to London to inaugurate, on lines which shall outvie in magnificence any similar establishment, a shop in which to sell his perfumes, Ysmyn and Vivian meet again under dramatic and greatly changed conditions to find their path to happiness beset with difficulties, and it is not until the " Maison Merveille," which has quickly become the talk of fashionable London and developed into a veritable " palace of beauty culture " is, in the height of its success, overtaken by disaster, that the " Lady of the Night "—so called after jasmine, her father's favourite flower — becomes the wife of her erstwhile playmate. IS MR. EVE LEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS THE EMPEROR'S SPY By HECTOR FLEISCHMANN " The Emperor's Spy," which deals with the struggle between Napoleon Bonaparte's secret police, headed by a beautiful woman spy — Elvire — and a gang of daring Royalist conspirators led by Georges Cadoudal and the Chevalier Lahaye Saint Hilare, is one of the most exciting, vivid and elaborate historical novels since Dumas's " Three Musketeers." Famous historical characters, from Napoleon downwards, crowd its pages. Incident follows incident in quick succession, and plot is met by counter-plot, untU, at last, under the shadow of the wild cliffs of Brittany the Emperor's Spy, having achieved the crowning triumph of her life, meets with a swift and tragic death at the hands of the last of the Royalists. The book is 576 pages long and there is not one page of this tremendous story which does not glow with living, human interest. GLOOMY FANNY AND OTHER STORIES By MORLEY ROBERTS Author of" Thorp's Way," " David Bran" etc. Readers of Mr. Morley Roberts's novel " Thorpe's Way " will remember that " Gloomy Fanny," otherwise the Hon. Edwin Fanshawe, was one of the most amusing characters in that very amusing story. 13 MR. EVE LEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS I'D VENTURE ALL FOR THEE By J. S. FLETCHER Author of " The Town of Crooked Ways" " The Fine Air of Morning," etc. A story of the Yorkshire coast, 1745. THE LOST MILLION By WILLIAM LE QUEUX Author of " The Mystery of Nine" " Without Trace" etc., etc. CARNACKI THE GHOST-FINDER By WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON Author of " The Night Land," " The Boats of Glen Carig," etc. A NEW NOVEL By LADY TROWBRIDGE 14 MR. EVELEIGH NASH'S NEW BOOKS A HAREM ROMANCE By E. DE LA VILLENEUVE A very lifelike picture of the Young Turk Revolu- tion is contained in this novel. A double love story, full of thrilling incidents, is woven into the web of public events, the two heroines, one a lovely Turkish girl, the other a beautiful Armenian, having each been prisoners in the Palace of Yildiz. The person- ality of Abdul Hamid is vividly realised, and the cruel oppression to which he subjected the inmates of his harem is graphically described. Three-and-Sixpence Net Novels* POISON By ALICE AND CLAUDE ASKEW Authors of " The Shulamite" " The Woman Deborah" etc. ROADS OF DESTINY By O. HENRY Author of " Cabbages and Kings" " Heart of the West," etc. 15 MR. EVELEIGH NASFTS NEW BOORS Two-Shilling Net Novels* QUEEN SHEBA'S RING By H. RIDER HAGGARD Author of " King Solomon's Mines" etc. THE MYSTERY OF NINE By WILLIAM LE QUEUX Author of " Without Trace" etc., etc. SETH OF THE CROSS By ALPHONSE COURLANDER Author of "Mightier than the Sword." i6