The Other Tudors E-Book

Philippa Jones

• Herausgeber: IMM Lifestyle Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 516

Beschreibung

Forget everything you thought you knew about Henry the Eighth. While Henry VIII has frequently been portrayed as a womanizer, author Philippa Jones reveals a new side to his character. Although he was never faithful, Jones sees him as a serial monogamist: he spent his life in search of a perfect woman, a search that continued even as he lay dying. This book brings together for the first time the 'other women' of King Henry VIII. When he first came to the throne, Henry VIII's mistresses were dalliances, the playthings of a powerful and handsome man. However, when Anne Boleyn disrupted that pattern, ousting Katherine of Aragon to become Henry's wife, a new status quo was established. Suddenly noble families fought to entangle the king with their sisters and daughters; if wives were to be beheaded or divorced so easily, the mistress of the king was in an enviable position. Yet he loved each of his wives and mistresses, he was a romantic who loved being in love, but none of these loves ever fully satisfied him; all were ultimately replaced. "The Other Tudors" examines the extraordinary untold tales of the women who Henry loved but never married, the mistresses who became queens and of his many children, both acknowledged and unacknowledged. Philippa Jones takes us deep into the web of secrets and deception at the Tudor Court and explores another, often unmentioned, side to the King's character.

Leseprobe

PHILIPPA JONES

Published in 2009 by New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd

London • Cape Town • Sydney • Auckland

www.newhollandpublishers.com

Garfield House, 86–88 Edgware Road, London W2 2EA, United Kingdom

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text copyright © 2009 Philippa Jones

Copyright © 2009 in artworks: see page 319

Copyright © 2009 New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd

Philippa Jones has asserted her moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN 978 1 60765 237 3

Publishing Director: Rosemary Wilkinson

Publisher: Aruna Vasudevan

Project Editor: Julia Shone

Editor: Sally MacEachern

Editorial Assistant: Cosima Hibbert

Inside design: Sarah Williams

Cover design: Richard Jenkins

Production: Melanie Dowland

Reproduction by Pica Digital Pte. Ltd., Singapore

Printed and bound in India by Replika Press

The paper used to produce this book is sourced from sustainable forests.

Contents

Chronology

Introduction

1 The Formative Childhood Years

– King Henry VII and Prince Hal

2 The First Encounter

– Elizabeth Denton

3 The Longed-for Wife and the Maids of Dishonour

– Catherine of Aragon

– Anne Hastings, sister of the Duke of Buckingham

– Etionette de la Baume and Jane Poppincourt, the ‘Flemish Mistresses’

4 The Worldly Jewel and the Plotting Widow

– Bessie Blount and her son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond

– Mary Howard, Dowager Duchess of Richmond, and the Howard Plot

5 The First Mistress Boleyn and the Questionable Bastard

– Mary Boleyn and her son Sir Henry Carey

6 The Wool Merchant’s Wife and the Amazing Mercenary

– Jane Pollard and her son Thomas Stukeley

7 The Huntsman’s Wife and the Blustering Diplomat

– Mary Berkeley and her son John Perrot

8 From Mistress to Queen to the Executioner’s Block

– Anne Boleyn, Mistress and Queen

9 The Mysterious Mistress and the Tailor’s Foster Daughter

– Joanna Dingley and her daughter Etheldreda Malte

10 The Question of Mary or Madge and the Quiet Queen

– Margaret Shelton, the Chosen Mistress

– Jane Seymour, Mistress and Queen

11 The Virgin Queen and the Merry Maidens

– Anne of Cleves and the baby boy

– Anne Bassett and Elizabeth Cobham

12 The Foolish Queen, the Last Queen and the Last Love

– Catherine Howard

– Catherine Parr

– Katherine d’Eresby

13 According to Rumour…

– Elizabeth Bryan; Elizabeth Brooke, Lady Wyatt; Sir Henry Lee; Richard Edwards; Lady Eleanor Luke; Mistress Parker; Elizabeth Amadas

Conclusion

Endnotes

List of Illustrations

Chronology

1485

August

22nd: Henry VII ascends to the throne

1486

January

18th: Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York

September

Prince Arthur is born

1489

Princess Margaret is born

1491

June

28th, Prince Henry is born

1492

Princess Elizabeth is born (dies 1495 aged 3)

1496

Princess Mary is born

1499

Prince Edmund is born (dies in infancy); Mary Boleyn is born

1500

Elizabeth Denton becomes governess to the Princess Mary

1501

November

Prince Arthur marries Catherine of Aragon

1502

April

2nd: Prince Arthur dies

1503

February

11th: Princess Catherine is born(dies after three days);

Elizabeth of York dies in childbirth

1505

(?) Margaret Shelton is born

1507

(?) Anne Boleyn is born

1509

Jane Seymour is born

April

21st: Henry VII dies; Henry VIII ascends to the throne

June

11th: Marriage to Catherine of Aragon; 29th: Margaret Beaufort dies

1510

May

Affair between Henry VIII and Anne Hastings

1511

January

1st: Prince Henry is born (dies in March)

1512

Catherine Parr is born

1513

Anne Boleyn joins the Court of Margaret of Austria

September–October

Affair between Henry VIII and Etionette de la Baume

1514

January

Affair between Henry VIII and Elizabeth Blount begins (lasts to 1519)

Louis XII of France marries Mary Tudor

September

Affair between Henry VIII and Jane Popincourt begins (lasts to January 1515)

1516

February

18th: Mary I is born

1518

Last recorded pregnancy of Catherine of Aragon

1519

June

Henry Fitzroy, son of Henry VIII and Elizabeth Blount is born; Elizabeth Blount marries Gilbert Tailboys

1520

Affair between Henry VIII and Mary Boleyn begins; Katherine d’Eresby is born

February

4th: Mary Boleyn marries William Carey

1521

Anne Boleyn returns to England from France; Anne Bassett is born

1522

(?) Catherine Howard is born

1523

Anne Boleyn is courted by Henry Percy, heir to the Earl of Northumberland

1524

Mary Boleyn gives birth to either Catherine or Henry Carey

1525

Henry Fitzroy is created Duke of Richmond and Somerset and Earl of Nottingham;

Affair between Henry VIII and Mary Boleyn ends

1526

March Mary Boleyn gives birth to either Catherine or Henry Carey; Affair between King Henry and Anne Boleyn begins

1527

Mary Perrot gives birth to John Perrot.

July

First mention of Henry VIII’s divorce

1528

William Carey dies

1529

Catherine Parr marries Edward Borough

1530

(?) Thomas Stukeley is born

November

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey dies

1532

Elizabeth Blount marries Edward Fiennes Clinton

September

1st: Anne Boleyn is created Marquess of Pembroke

1533

Catherine Parr marries John Neville, Baron Latimer

January

Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII marry

April/May

Henry VIII divorces Catherine of Aragon

September

7th: Elizabeth I is born

1534

Henry Fitzroy marries Mary Howard; Mary Boleyn marries Sir William Stafford

September

7th: Katherine d’Eresby marries Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk;

(?) Affair between Henry VIII and Joanna Dingley

1535

(?) Affair between Henry VIII and Margaret Shelton

June

23rd: Etheldreda Malte is born (?)

1536

January

7th: Catherine of Aragon dies

May

19th: Anne Boleyn is executed; 30th, Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour

July

22nd: Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, dies

1537

October

Jane Grey, briefly Queen Jane I, is born

September

Anne Bassett becomes a lady-in-waiting to Queen Jane

October

12th: Edward VI is born; 24th, Jane Seymour dies in childbirth

1540

Elizabeth Blount dies

January

6th: Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves

July

9th: Marriage to Anne of Cleves is annulled;

28th: Henry VIII marries Catherine Howard

1542

February

13th: Catherine Howard is executed

1543

July

12th: Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr;

19th: Mary Boleyn dies

1545

August

24th: Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, dies

1547

January

28th: Henry VIII dies; Edward VI ascends to the throne

1548

Catherine Parr marries Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudeley

August

30th: Mary, daughter of Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour is born

September

7th: Catherine Parr dies

Etheldreda Malte marries John Harrington

1549

March

20th: Thomas Seymour is executed

1550

Thomas Stukeley is the King’s standard bearer in Boulogne

1552

Katherine d’Eresby marries Richard Bertie

1553

July

6th: Edward VI dies; 10th, Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England; 19th: Mary I ascends to the throne

1554

Anne Bassett marries Sir Walter Hungerford

February

12th: Jane Grey is executed

1555

Thomas Stukeley marries Anne Curtis

October–November

Etheldreda Malte dies

1557

July

16th: Anne of Cleves dies

December

Mary Howard, Dowager Duchess of Richmond, dies

1558

(?) Anne Bassett dies

November

17th: Mary I dies

Elizabeth I ascends to the throne

1570

April

Thomas Stukeley retires to Spain

1571–3

Sir John Perrot is made president of Munster, in Ireland

1578

August

4th: Thomas Stukeley is killed at the Battle of Alcazar

1580

September

19th: Katherine d’Eresby dies

1582

John Harrington dies

1584–8

Sir John Perrot is made Lord Deputy of Ireland

1592

September

Sir John Perrot dies in the Tower accused of treason

1596

July

23rd: Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, dies

1603

March

24th: Elizabeth I dies

Introduction

The life of Henry VIII (see plate 1) is probably the best defined of any king of England. Plays, films and television series have focused on Henry’s life, particularly in relation to his six wives. Put simply, he loved his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (see plate 4), but divorced her because she failed to give him a son and grew old and unattractive. He married Anne Boleyn (see plate 6) for love and beheaded her when she, too, failed to give him an heir. Jane Seymour (see plate 7) was the quiet wife who died giving him that longed-for son. Anne of Cleves was the undesired one; Catherine Howard (see plate 8) the promiscuous one; and Catherine Parr the wife who survived Henry. However, this view portrays Henry as a two-dimensional, almost cartoon character, as epitomised by the Holbein painting (completed 1537) where he is dressed in red and gold, a massive figure standing, legs akimbo, seemingly the Lord of the World. In line with this image, he selects women to share his bed with a snap of his fingers and discards them just as easily when they cease to please him. All that matters to Henry is a male heir and nothing is allowed to stand in the way of his getting what he wants.

Of course, the real Henry Tudor is far more complicated. This book looks beyond Henry VIII’s six wives, examining the women with whom the King had, or is believed to have had, affairs and the illegitimate children he is believed to have fathered. Beyond the limits of policy and diplomacy, it presents the King as a serial monogamist, a man who spent his life searching for the one, perfect woman he was destined never to find.

Henry was born a second son: he spent his childhood in the shadow of an elder brother who would one day be his king and master. In the space of less than a year, however, he had lost both his brother and his mother. He became the adored and vital eldest son, the Prince of Wales, the future king – and everyone around him suddenly treated him as such. He was expected to be stronger, wiser and more talented than anyone else. That Nature endowed Henry with a beautiful face, an admirable body and a quick and receptive mind led him eventually to believe all those who told him he was the best and worthy of the best.

While he did not lack male role models in his childhood and youth (his father; brother Arthur; great-uncle Jasper Tudor, who died when he was four; his mentor William Blount, Lord Mountjoy; companions such as Charles Brandon, John St John and Edward Neville), Henry lacked close female company. He had two sisters, but Margaret, two years older, was never a friend and Mary, five years younger, was too much the baby to be of interest. The most formidable lady in Henry’s world was his grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, a woman devoted to the point of obsession to her only son, Henry VII (see plate 3). A woman of strong character, Margaret was already well past middle age, religious, a widow, obsessed with family, monarchy and wealth – Margaret, in fact, was the real power behind the throne. Elizabeth of York (see plate 2), Henry’s mother, was not allowed to play a significant part in his life as his father and grandmother ruled his household. Mother and son only met on the occasions when Henry VII and Elizabeth visited the young Henry or he was brought to Court (in 1494, aged three, Henry came to London to be made a Knight of the Bath and Duke of York, for example). He also knew of Elizabeth from ballads sung about her:

In a glorius garden grene

Sawe I syttyng a comly queen

Among the flouris that fressh byn.

She gaderd a floure and set betweene;

The lyly-whighte rose methought I sawe …1

Elizabeth of York embodied perfection to Henry, a view endorsed by everyone at Court. She was beautiful, elegant, serene, gentle, loyal, loving – everything that a wife and queen should be. Thus, Elizabeth became the ideal against which all the ladies in Henry’s life were to be measured, and those that pleased him most invariably resembled her. Catherine of Aragon, his first wife and arguably Henry’s true love, probably came closest. She was every inch a queen, Henry’s intellectual equal, lover, friend, companion and counsellor. Catherine became to Henry what he perceived his mother had been to Henry VII.

There was a strong element of subservience in Elizabeth’s relationship with Henry VII. Her motto was ‘Humble and Reverence’ and when Henry VII set Margaret Beaufort up as Elizabeth’s superior in matters of state or, indeed, their personal life, Elizabeth appears to have said nothing. She bowed to her husband in every way, striving to serve him as the perfect wife and mother to his children. There is no record that she ever spoke out against him or contradicted him. Henry VIII similarly expected his ladies to treat him with humility and reverence. His favourites were those who followed his lead, made his opinion their own and sought to please him. Jane Seymour, first mistress and then queen, was a case in point; a large part of her charm was her total acquiescence to Henry’s personality (this is discussed further in Chapter 10). Anne of Cleves, his wife, earned his friendship by giving in to him; on the other hand, Catherine of Aragon earned his enmity when she stood up against him. Anne Boleyn was beloved until she started arguing; and his last queen, Catherine Parr, almost lost everything when Henry believed that she was trying to influence him – to be the teacher in the relationship rather than the pupil (this is discussed further in Chapter 12). But where did this pattern begin?

The centre of attention from an early age, Henry became Prince of Wales at 11. By the time he was 14, he had started to take an interest in girls – to put it in context, the minimum age for marriage was 12 for a girl and 14 for a boy at the time. Life expectancy in the 16th century was about 35 and infant mortality was high and so it was not uncommon for a young couple to start their family in their mid to late teens. Henry was 19 when he came to the throne and he quickly married Catherine of Aragon, but it is highly unlikely that he was a virgin. Elizabeth Denton, a lovely lady and a servant of his family, was probably the first in what was a romantic, but stage-managed love affair organised by Henry VII and Margaret Beaufort (this is discussed in Chapter 2). However, when Henry became king, his only thought was to marry Catherine, his brother Arthur’s widow, and set her on the throne at his side.

Perhaps one obstacle to Henry and Catherine enjoying a fairytale union was that they belonged to an age and to a social class that considered extramarital affairs for men as perfectly normal. The king was practically expected to take a mistress. Henry’s grandfather, Edward IV, had been incredibly promiscuous; his great-grandfather, Owen Tudor, had a bastard son through a sexual liaison, as had his great-uncle Jasper Tudor. Henry VII, despite a reputation for fidelity, also had an illegitimate son, Sir Roland de Velville. It was, therefore, almost inevitable that Henry VIII would follow suit. He was, after all, extremely handsome and sexually desirable. The wealthiest and most powerful man in England, Henry was a leader of fashion and the focus of a Court that lived for pleasure. Women, often with the support of their families, quite simply threw themselves at him. Lord Herbert of Cherbury summed this up when he wrote, ‘One of the liberties which our King took in his spare time was to love … so it must seem less strange if amid many fair Ladies, which lived in his Court, He both gave and received temptation.’2

One of Henry’s earliest mistresses, Anne Hastings, became the object of his attention while Catherine of Aragon was pregnant for the first time, and Henry was excluded from her bed. The affair was light-hearted, and would most probably have passed without incident but for the Duke of Buckingham, Anne’s brother, who made the matter public and caused a scene. For a while after that, Henry returned to connubial bliss, although Catherine lost her baby, but when he took his armies to France in 1513, on his quest to conquer French territory, he fell in love with Etionette de la Baume, a lady of the Court of Margaret of Austria. Their affair was passionate, but brief – an amusing interlude on his part and a political manoeuvre on hers (this is discussed in Chapter 3). On Henry’s return to England, with his wife pregnant again, Henry enjoyed another brief fling, this time with Jane Popincourt. These relationships were primarily harmless and fun.

If one looks at Henry’s affairs of the heart, they can be divided quite neatly into those ladies who were important to him – and those who were not. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, obviously was, but Anne Hastings, Etionette de la Baume and Jane Popincourt were not.

Henry’s first big extramarital romance came in 1514 when he fell in love with Elizabeth (Bessie) Blount. She was his ideal woman: young, beautiful, intelligent, acquiescent, well raised, musical, an enthusiastic rider and a graceful dancer. While Catherine remained his wife and the future mother of his heir, Henry was no longer deeply in love with her. In a very short time, Bessie Blount came to mean everything to him and for five years they enjoyed each other, a physical relationship that only ended when Bessie informed the King that she was pregnant. A husband was quickly found for Bessie – a little late admittedly – but Henry publicly acknowledged their son, Henry Fitzroy (see plate 10), the future Duke of Richmond and Somerset – the only one of his illegitimate children that he did so with. The affair had been public, added to which the boy looked just like Henry and, perhaps more importantly, Bessie did not initially have a husband who could usefully take responsibility for the child. This affair and its outcome taught Henry a valuable lesson. From then on those ‘light-hearted’ mistresses had husbands that could ‘hide’ any child born to such a relationship.

Mary Boleyn (see plate 5), the first of the Boleyn women with whom Henry had sexual liaisons, was another such light-hearted lover. As soon as Henry declared his interest in her she was found a husband. Although some historians believe that Mary was a woman of loose morals – one who had been the mistress of Francis I of France – I do not believe that this is the case. Mary had sexual relations with only three men: Henry and her husbands, William Carey and William Stafford (discussed further in Chapter 5).

Henry’s affair with Mary lasted until she had her first child, who arguably may have been Henry’s. However, thanks to a compliant mistress and her even more compliant husband, no one needed to know. As the husbands of the King’s ex-mistresses, Gilbert Tailboys (Bessie Blount’s husband) and William Carey (Mary Boleyn’s husband) never had reason to complain. They acquired charming, agreeable wives with equally acceptable dowries and also the sincere gratitude of their monarch.

Perhaps it seems strange that Henry’s affairs with Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn lasted for years and only ended when the ladies became pregnant. Was it that Henry could not accept a mistress who was also a mother? Did he feel that these children were, in some way, a kind of betrayal or danger? From personal experience Henry knew that bastards could potentially threaten a weak king or one without legitimate heirs. His own claim to the throne came from two bastard lines that had resulted in his father Henry VII, a man capable of toppling a dynasty.

Another way in which Henry could have felt betrayed is if he thought the pregnancies were deliberate. Both Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn enjoyed five years of sexual intimacy with the King before they fell pregnant with their first children, suggesting that they were using some method of contraception. The experienced Catherine Howard is supposed to have commented, ‘a woman might meddle with a man and yet conceive no child unless she would herself.’3 Contraceptive methods existed, such as condoms, made of fine lambskin, known as ‘Venus gloves’4 but they were cumbersome to use and not always successful. The use of pepper as a spermicide was also unreliable. Anal sex was also recognised as an effective method of birth control. These methods, however, were considered immoral, if not illegal, between a man and woman as God had ordained sex as a means of procreation and to prevent it was contrary to the laws of God.

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

By the time the King met Anne Boleyn, Henry had fallen out of love with Catherine of Aragon. They barely spent any time together and even the pregnancies that failed to go to term or ended in stillbirths had stopped. Henry was ripe for a real love – a deep, honest, true love that would replace what he had once had with Catherine. Anne Boleyn was the woman he chose, but it didn’t stop Henry from continuing to enjoy other brief, light-hearted affairs. Jane Stukeley, Mary Perrot and Joanna Dingley, all of whom are discussed later in this book, belong to this group and it may be that there were others too. Each of these aforementioned ladies had a child whom contemporary records claim was fathered by the King. The boys, Thomas Stukeley (see plate 11) and John Perrot (see plate 12), were said to resemble Henry VIII rather than the husbands of their mothers. All three ladies were considered to be ‘safe’ by Henry: Jane and Mary were married, while Joanna was a recent widow and would soon marry again. At a time (1526–33) when Henry VIII was being put through emotional turmoil by Anne Boleyn’s refusal to become his lover and then by her increasing desire to become his wife, he must have found occasional passionate but meaningless episodes with beautiful, adoring, willing partners absolutely irresistible. None of these ladies would further complicate an already complicated situation by suggesting marriage.

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

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

After Catherine Howard followed Anne Boleyn to the scaffold, Henry settled down to a quiet and contented old age with Catherine Parr, but old habits were hard to break. Whether he loved Catherine or not, it didn’t take long for Henry to become irritated with her extreme Protestantism, and in the last months before his death, he was considering yet another change of wife. Katherine d’Eresby (see plate 9), widow of his best friend, Charles Brandon, was a good-looking lady and a renowned wit. She expressed her opinion freely without fear and was said to be deliciously malicious in her humour. Katherine’s spice was attractive to the ageing Henry, but he never came to enjoy her charms and wit for himself. He died on the night spanning 27 and 28 January 1547.

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

THE BOOK

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

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

Henry VIII’s illegitimate children all played significant roles in the history of the period. His sons, Henry Carey (see plate 13), Thomas Stukeley and John Perrot and their half-sister Etheldreda Malte, all shared an ability to get away with almost anything. Henry Carey, nephew to Anne Boleyn and a Protestant, survived the reign of his half-sister, Mary I; and despite a rough manner, became one of Elizabeth I’s most valued officers. Thomas Stukeley survived charges of piracy, spying and treason, and came away with nothing worse then a few weeks in prison. John Perrot, even when found guilty of defaming Elizabeth I, died of natural causes and not on the block.

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

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

1

The Formative Childhood Years

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

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

Henry Tudor spent 14 years in exile in Brittany, the formative years of his life, from the age of 13 to 27. He learned to speak and read French, and also took a French mistress with whom he had a son, Roland de Velville, born around 1474. The name is spelled in many ways, one of which is Vielleville, which indicates that the lady belonged to the de Vielleville family, Counts of Durtal. When Henry Tudor became king, Roland was knighted. He became a leading jouster for a period between 1494 and 1507 and was eventually made Constable of Beaumaris Castle. In his will, dated 1535, Sir Roland asked to be buried at Llanfaes Friary in Wales, where some of the earlier Tudors were buried. Part of his epitaph, written in Welsh, reads: ‘… a man of kingly line and of earl’s blood …’1 This statement was a discreet announcement of his paternity. Henry VII never formally acknowledged him, but everyone knew whose son Roland was. It could be said, therefore, that Henry VIII was following in the footsteps of his ancestors when he fathered bastard children, but with the knowledge that his own dynasty was founded on not one, but two bastard families, he perhaps did not feel confident enough to acknowledge his baseborn children.

Henry Tudor’s triumph at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 was the culmination of years of plotting, abortive risings and failures. Richard III was dead, other claimants were too distant to the throne or too young and, as Henry stated in proclamations issued after Bosworth, he was king by right of descent and by possession. Henry VII further cemented his claim to the throne by marrying the rival family heiress, Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV. Elizabeth grew up with the knowledge of her father’s frequent and constant unfaithfulness to her mother, which was common gossip. Yet she saw that her father and mother still loved each other; she learned that a queen’s duty was to produce heirs, smile and say nothing. Henry VIII would have observed that his mother, alluded to as the perfect king’s wife, was always subservient to her husband, a mother to his children and a docile adornment to his Court. Here he found the template for his ideal queen.

Elizabeth fulfilled her destiny with calm good sense, her eldest child born eight months after her marriage. She bore her husband three sons – Arthur in 1486, Henry in 1491 and Edmund in 1499 – and four daughters – Margaret in 1489, Elizabeth in 1492, Mary in 1496 and Catherine in 1503 – losing one son and two daughters in childhood. She was idealised by many as the perfection of womanhood, yet her husband kept her powerless, giving authority and his affection and trust to his mother, Margaret. Elizabeth found herself playing second fiddle to her mother-in-law; at the Christmas festivities in 1487, Margaret wore the same costume, ‘like mantell and surcott as the queen, with a rich corrownall on her hede.’2 Margaret would accompany Elizabeth on state occasions, walking and standing directly behind her; she went on progresses with Henry and Elizabeth. At Woodstock and in the Tower apartments, Margaret’s rooms adjoined the King’s.

Margaret Beaufort was a wealthy woman in her own right; she managed her own affairs and kept tight hold on her wealth. She would demand her rights and pursue a debt to death and beyond. She taught her son the value of a well-filled treasury, but failed to make such an impression on her grandson, who may have been heartily tired of advice on the need for prudence. His father and grandmother both approved of his teenage years when he was kept on an allowance from his father without a privy purse of his own.

Henry VII had married a young, beautiful, virtuous, well born lady, but this had never stopped any of his predecessors or family members from engaging in extramarital liaisons. Taking a mistress and fathering children out of wedlock was commonplace. In a time when virtually all marriages were arranged for financial and family benefits, it was reasonable to seek love outside the marriage. Given that Henry VII was the king and a red-blooded male in a political marriage, it would have been amazing if he had not found affection with other ladies. The temptation was all around him: Elizabeth’s ladies were chosen for their beauty and charm.

In the early years of his reign, Henry VII delighted in spending money on show and display. There were lavish building projects and splendid clothes for him, his family and courtiers, as well as extravagant pastimes. The King loved hunting and hawking, and when he rebuilt Sheen (after the palace on the bank of the Thames in Surrey burned down in 1497) he added ‘houses of pleasure to disport in at chess, tables, dice, cards …’ and established a menagerie at the Tower, with ‘lions, leopards, wild cats and rare birds …’3 He also enjoyed dancing and music. Two interesting references from his privy purse accounts may indicate that love and music can easily go together: 25 August 1493, payment ‘to the young damsel that danceth’ – £30; 13 January 1497, payment ‘to a little maiden that danceth’ – £12’.4

To offer these dancers the equivalent of the annual salary of a lady-in-waiting for one performance (or even several) seems a trifle excessive if dancing was all that was on offer. Henry VII was taking his pleasure in as safe a way as he could, in the company of young ladies whose social position meant that they could have no influence whatsoever. It was a lesson his son would have been wise to learn: taking mistresses who would not cause trouble. The difference was that whereas Henry VII wanted sex, Henry VIII wanted love.

PRINCE HENRY

Born on 28 June 1491 at Greenwich Palace, Henry was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Henry VII was 34 when his second son was born and had been king for six years. At the time of Henry’s birth, Elizabeth was already recognised as a devoted wife and mother. The only surviving contemporary portrait of her shows a plump lady, pale skinned with fair, red-gold hair. Sources of the time give us further insight – the Spanish Ambassador wrote of Elizabeth that she was ‘kept in subjection by the mother of the king’, and was shown little love by either. Others described Elizabeth as beautiful, noble, beloved, great in ‘charity and humanity.’5

Almost immediately, Henry was separated from his mother and given his own household at Eltham with his brother Arthur, the Prince of Wales, his sister Margaret and the children who followed. The Royal Court travelled a great deal, and it would have been almost impossible to take children with it as there were too many strangers, who might bring disease or attempt assassination. The King, however, needed to keep himself in the public eye, and the houses where he and his Court stayed needed to be cleaned, after only a few months, so the never-ending movement was a necessity for the King and Queen.

In June 1491 when Henry was born, Margaret Beaufort was in the midst of organising the royal nursery at Eltham; Elizabeth was hardly involved at all. Margaret would, therefore, be the person the young prince would come into contact with most frequently. Her religion now dominated her life. She had taken a vow of perpetual chastity and, despite being married, she dressed like a nun. Margaret’s powerful, dominant role in Henry’s life was to reinforce his distaste for strong-willed women and his liking for those who gave in to him rather than thwarted him.

By September 1494 the three-year-old Henry was already Constable of Dover Castle, Warden of the Cinque Ports, Earl Marshal of England and Lieutenant of Ireland. The Duke of York was added to his titles in answer to the claims of Perkin Warbeck (who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, son of Edward IV, one of the lost Princes in the Tower who had disappeared whilst under the protection of their uncle, Richard III). Henry was first made a Knight of the Bath and, on 18 May 1495, Knight of the Order of the Garter. From the time he was first aware, Henry knew he was special, the centre of attention, as grown men – politicians and soldiers – bowed down to him.

Between late 1496 and early 1497 Arthur went to Ludlow, Shropshire, to set up a separate household as Prince of Wales. With Arthur gone, Eltham became the household of Henry, Duke of York. Even though his sister Margaret was older, as a son Henry took precedence. However, he would always stand second to Arthur, as the future king.

Some historians and novelists like to portray Henry as jealous, determined to outdo Arthur in everything to prove he was better. However, there is no evidence that Henry resented or was jealous of his brother, or that he failed to acknowledge that he would have to find his own place in the world, once Arthur became king.

During the Cornish ‘rebellion’ of 1497, the local people rose up against taxes forced on them by Henry VII to pay for opposing the pretender, Perkin Warbeck, in the north, far away from Cornwall, in southwest England. When it looked as if the Cornish rebels would reach London unopposed, Elizabeth of York and the young Henry sheltered at the Coldharbour, a house near the Tower of London, and then, on Monday 12 June, in the Tower itself.6 Thus, Henry was finally able to spend time with his mother. They were together, without any other family members, and were in some danger. For a week they supported and encouraged each other.

Once the rebellion was crushed (with 2,000 dead at Blackheath in south London), the Cornish were allowed to return home, but were heavily fined. Later that same year some of the Cornish rebels joined forces with other West Country malcontents in support of Warbeck. Although the leaders were executed, the rest again received heavy fines. The result may well have been that six-year-old Prince Henry learned to distrust leniency. Two of his wives were to pay the price for this lesson. Other kings divorced unwanted wives and then imprisoned them or sent them to nunneries; Henry executed them.

Lord Herbert of Cherbury stated in The Life and Raigne of Henry the Eighth, published in 1649, that Prince Henry, as a younger son, was destined for the Church. There is no other evidence for this interesting claim. In fact, given the rate of infant mortality, Henry stood a good chance of becoming Prince of Wales and would have been educated accordingly. In his will, dated 14 October 1496, Jasper Tudor left his lands and wealth to Henry, to give some independence to the future king’s younger brother; the will specifically mentions that if Henry became Prince of Wales, the estate was to go to Henry VII, Jasper’s nephew, instead.

In 1494, John Skelton, an academic and poet, became tutor to Prince Arthur and later to Henry. Skelton was a notable Latin scholar, a skill much appreciated by Henry VII; he wanted the Prince to learn Latin as this was the language of kings, in which most communications were made. Henry VII himself had little Latin, and regretted it as this put him at a disadvantage in international circles.

By 1502, Skelton gave his services exclusively to Prince Henry. Delighted at the rank of his pupil, Skelton wrote in praise of his charge:

‘There grows from the red-rose bush a fair-flowering shoot, a delightful small new Rose, worthy of its stock, a noble Henry born of famous line, a boy noble in the nobility of his father; and furthermore a brilliant pupil, worthy to be sung as such …’7

Skelton taught Henry Latin grammar, rhetoric and logic; he further introduced arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music and theology into the curriculum. Skelton wanted learning to be enjoyable, so he let Henry read the Latin poets and historians. Lessons were taught in English, rather than French or Latin, so that Henry would be fluent in his native language. Skelton may also have mentioned to Henry his own ideas about how abuses in the Church and the State needed to be removed, whilst the actual Church and State were protected.

Skelton was with Henry for a greater part of the day. Up for matins at 6 a.m., followed by breakfast, Henry would have had classes all morning and into the afternoon, breaking only to eat at 10 or 11 a.m. He then took part in sporting activities until evensong and his next meal at 4 p.m. After this would be entertainment until bed at 8 or 9 p.m.

Lord Mountjoy was taken into Henry’s household as his companion, mentor and role model. Thirteen years older than Henry, Mountjoy’s job was to teach him to behave like a gentleman. Mountjoy’s grandmother was Anne neville, sister of Cicely who married Richard, Duke of York in 1438, the parents of Edward IV. Mountjoy was an ideal role model in many ways – elegant, handsome, serious, sensible, beautifully mannered, intelligent and good at sports and games. He had studied at Queens’ College, Cambridge and was a patron of the Dutch writer, philosopher and humanist, Desiderius Erasmus (1466?–1536). Mountjoy also liked women, marrying four times (the first time when Henry was six). Henry would have observed his mentor enter cheerfully into matrimony and would have learned a little about love and respect.

Skelton tried to teach Henry that his head should rule his heart and that he should not give way to passions, emotional or sexual. In 1501 Skelton wrote Speculum Principis (A Mirror for Princes), a textbook for young Henry with such aphorisms as, ‘Choose a wife for yourself. Prize her always and uniquely.’8 Skelton’s writings may also have informed Henry’s view that certain women were not to be respected – women who betrayed their husbands or lovers. In ‘Womanhood, Wanton, Ye Want’, comparing a woman’s chastity to a locked door, Skelton wrote:

Your key is meet for every lock,

Your key is common and hangeth out;

Your key is ready, we need not knock,

Not stand long resting there about;

Of your doorgate we have no doubt …9

This philosophy is reflected in Henry’s attitude to several of his mistresses. They are the ‘wantons’ – ladies who betray their marriage vows, even with the King. They may be loved, but they can be left without feelings of guilt, as they are unworthy of his respect. The long-term mistresses may be found husbands, but they are faithful to the King; the husband is mere window dressing. They are worthy of respect as long as the King is their sole lover. Only when he was young and finding his feet did Henry take mistresses who had enjoyed previous relationships, Anne Hastings with Sir William Compton and Jane Popincourt with the duc de Longueville. In later years, Henry made a great fuss of demanding that his wives should be virgins when they came to the marriage bed.

The year before Henry’s birth, Prince Arthur, then aged two, was betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the rulers of Spain. The Spanish were constructing an alliance against the menace of France by marrying their children into the royal houses of England, Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire (based on Austria and the netherlands). Ferdinand and Isabella, however, were unwilling to send their daughter to England while there were questions as to the strength of the Tudors’ hold on the throne. In March 1500, after King Henry had executed a couple of Pretenders, along with the imprisoned, unfortunate Earl of Warwick who had a strong claim to the throne, the Spanish signed a treaty of alliance and said that Catherine would be in England in May (in fact she did not arrive until the following year). England was now safe. Even the young Prince could learn the lesson that a dead enemy is no threat.

When Catherine of Aragon arrived in October 1501, the Royal Family was at Richmond Palace. Henry VII waited until she was at Dogmersfield, where he went to meet her. Prince Arthur came to meet them from Ludlow. The Princess was then taken to Lambeth Palace in London and Prince Arthur went to the King’s Wardrobe, a royal residence near St Paul’s Cathedral. It had been decided that the 10-year-old Henry would escort Catherine into the City of London two days before her wedding, so she could see the pageants and tableaux set up in honour of the marriage on her way to the Bishop’s Palace, where she would stay until the wedding. All the displays praised Arthur’s regal manliness and emphasised Catherine’s role as the future mother of kings.

Henry also led the bride to church, and after the marriage returned Catherine to the Bishop’s Palace for the banquet. After the feast, came the much disputed wedding night. Arthur contended that his marriage had been consummated. The morning after, he called ostentatiously for wine: He is reputed to have said, ‘I have this night been in the midst of Spain, which is a hot region, and that journey maketh me so dry.’10 This was later denied by Catherine. She maintained, when the question arose, that Arthur had wanted to appear more healthy and manly before his friends and servants. She said that she was sexually ‘as intact as when I emerged from my mother’s womb.’11

As regards Henry’s marriage, there appears to have been one tentative suggestion that he might marry Eleanor, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian, whose grandson Charles was promised to Henry’s sister, Mary. Was this to reduce the number of heirs and claimants to the throne and to keep Henry from having a son for whom he might grow too ambitious? If Prince Henry did marry, it should certainly be to a lady who had no aspirations to the English throne through her own family or to a foreign princess who needed a resident prince consort to dwell abroad.

Shortly after Arthur and Catherine’s wedding, Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, the son of Edward IV’s sister Elizabeth and a claimant to the throne, who had returned to England under the King’s promise of safety, again fled to France, taking his brother Richard with him. Driven by suspicion, Henry VII took immediate action against all those remaining who had any claim to the throne. In March 1502, William Courtenay (husband of Queen Elizabeth’s sister Katherine), William de la Pole (brother of Edmund and Richard) and James Tyrrell (Governor of Guisnes, near Calais), who had received Edmund de la Pole when he fled in 1499, were all imprisoned in the Tower of London. William Courtenay was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death, but was merely imprisoned until Henry VII’s death, when Henry VIII released him. William de la Pole stayed in prison for 38 years, and died there. JamesTyrrell was executed in May 1502, having supposedly confessed, almost 20 years after the event, that he had arranged the murders of Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, the Princes in the Tower, under orders from Richard III.

On a happier note, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York were delighted with their son’s bride. Catherine of Aragon was pretty and mature beyond her years, only a year older than her husband. She had been brought up to play the part of the Princess of Wales and later Queen of England. She was plump and graceful, with small hands and feet, long chestnut-brown hair and a flawless, fair complexion. She was well read, regal, dignified and pious, although she lacked spontaneity or humour, and was incapable of subterfuge or compromise. Her husband was tall and fair, with the family good looks. The question of his health does not seem to have arisen. As it would have been of great interest to the other European rulers if Arthur had been sickly, it would have been avidly reported; it is therefore safe to say that he enjoyed reasonably robust good health. However, in view of what followed, Prince Arthur may already have been showing the first symptoms of the illness that killed him.

The couple set up their household and spent their brief married life at Ludlow Castle. On 2 April 1502, Prince Arthur died there, after only five months of marriage. For most of this time, he had been ill with ‘consumption’ and the longed-for second wedding night never happened. The Prince’s ailment is usually diagnosed as tuberculosis, but it may very well have been pneumonia. Catherine herself was extremely ill, so much so that she was unable to attend Arthur’s funeral at Worcester Cathedral, and it was some months before she could be moved to London. Her mother-in-law, Elizabeth, sent a sombre, black-draped litter for Catherine to travel in slowly and safely to Durham House, on the Strand, where she set up her household and where Henry VII paid £100 a month to keep her in the style of Dowager Princess of Wales. Despite rumours to the contrary, Catherine showed no signs of being pregnant, wholly due, she would maintain, to nothing of a sexual nature having happened. She remained in England, waiting for her parents and father-in-law to decide what should become of her.

Henry VII decided that his second son, who was now Prince of Wales, should marry Catherine – chiefly so that he could maintain an alliance with Spain, and also, in no small part, so that he could keep her dowry. Henry VII’s reputation for meanness was, it seems, well founded. Prince Henry does not appear to have been unwilling, as he seemed to admire his brother’s bride and wished for the marriage.

The question of whether or not the first marriage had been consummated was ignored; a papal dispensation was issued that allowed Henry to have children with his brother’s widow, regardless of her state of virginity. Strictly speaking, this second marriage was against church law if Arthur and Catherine had had sex, and Arthur’s insistence that they had would later give Henry his grounds for divorce. The Catholic Church, basing its judgement on Holy Scripture, forbade a man to marry his brother’s widow if they had had a sexual relationship. At the time, political expediency overrode Church law and the Pope absolved all parties from any sin.

Catherine maintained that she and Arthur had never consummated their marriage. Catherine was extremely pious and it is unlikely that she lied about something as serious as this, even with a papal dispensation. Had she not been a virgin when she married Henry she would, in her own eyes, have been guilty of a mortal sin. Catherine’s later strength of conviction at the breakdown of her marriage to Henry VIII seems hard to imagine if she had known in her heart of hearts that her marriage to Arthur had been consummated. Catherine would not compromise as far as her religion was concerned and she would never tell a serious lie.

For the young Henry the change from Duke of York to Prince of Wales must have been an exciting one. He stepped into his brother’s shoes, presumably with a mixture of sadness and delight. He took on many of his brother’s officers of the Court. Skelton, however, lost his place as Henry’s tutor. It may have been because his writing was getting more scurrilous (for example, the Bouge of Court, which painted the court as corrupt and self-seeking) and vulgar (‘Womanhood, Wanton, Ye Want’), or because he had an arrogant, quarrelsome nature. In 1504, he was appointed rector of Diss, norfolk, with a stipend and pension from the King. William Hone became Henry’s new tutor. Unlike the colourful Skelton, little is known about the worthy, dull Hone.

Still ruled by his tutors, the young Prince slept, ate, studied, worshipped and played games; he signed documents, but never attended meetings. He also now learned Italian, Spanish, medicine, astronomy, geometry and arithmetic. When Lord Mountjoy was in England, they read history together and worked on Henry’s Latin. Henry shared his lessons, in part, with his sisters, Margaret and Mary. He also shared lessons with the pages, who were his companions and personal servants. These included Charles Brandon, his best friend; John St John, his grandmother’s great-nephew; Edward neville (so physically like Henry that they were sometimes mistaken for each other); and Henry Courtenay, son of Elizabeth of York’s sister.12

Just after Arthur’s death, Henry suffered another bereavement. Elizabeth of York died on 11 February 1503, after giving birth to a baby daughter, Catherine, who also died a few days later. Elizabeth was just 38 years old. Shortly after her death, Elizabeth’s children were taken to see her laid out in her robes of state. They knelt and prayed by her bed. Henry was just 12 years old, and was the King’s only son and heir. What thoughts went through the boy’s head as he gazed at the dead face of his beloved mother can only be imagined. To Henry, Elizabeth was a mixture of reality and myth – woman, queen and goddess – a child’s ideal of female perfection. The impact of her loss and that last farewell in the darkened room with candles flickering made a lasting impression on the young Prince.