Henry FitzRoy, First Duke of Richmond and Somerset (1519–1536)—The illegitimate son of Henry and Bessie Blount, he was publicly acknowledged as the king’s child. Showered with honors and titles, he was treated as a prince until his death at age seventeen.
Margaret Foliot, Mrs. Stonor (died 1546)—Although much speculation surrounds her identification, most historians believe Margaret Foliot was the woman courtiers called Mrs. Stonor. She attended Anne Boleyn in the Tower and later became mistress, or “mother,” of the maids of honors to Henry’s next four queens.
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester (ca. 1482–1555)—Although a conservative Roman Catholic, he went along with the increasing influence of Protestantism in the court. In 1533, he assisted Archbishop Cranmer in declaring the king’s marriage to Katharine of Aragon null and void. Two years later, Gardiner wrote an influential treatise justifying the king’s new title, Supreme Head of the Church of England. In 1555 he attempted to turn the king against his sixth wife, Kateryn Parr, but was unsuccessful.
Karl Harst (fl. 1540)—A German diplomat and one of the Duke of Cleves’s ambassadors to England, he was advisor to Anna of Cleves during the dissolution of her marriage to Henry VIII.
Henry VII, King of England (1457–1509)—The first Tudor monarch and father of Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Henry VIII, he forged the alliance that brought Katharine of Aragon to England and eventually to the throne.
Henry VIII, King of England (1491–1547)—Ascending the throne on April 21, 1509, after his father, Henry VII, died, Henry VIII went on to rule England for almost thirty-six years. His desperation for a male heir resulted in six marriages, as well as the initiation of the English Reformation. Each of his three legitimate children, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, succeeded him.
Catherine Howard, Queen of England (ca. 1521–1542)—The fifth wife of Henry VIII, she was a teenager when she married the forty-nine-year-old king. Petite and vivacious, she was caught in an affair with one of the king’s men, Thomas Culpeper, and beheaded for adultery just sixteen months later.
Thomas Howard, First Earl of Surrey and Second Duke of Norfolk (1443–1524)—A chief advisor to Henry, he joined with Katharine of Aragon to repel Scotland’s attack on England in 1513.
Thomas Howard, Third Duke of Norfolk (1473–1554)—Uncle of both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, he was a prominent nobleman who served Henry VIII as a military leader, as a judge, and on the Privy Council. He played a large role in the machinations behind both queens’ marriages to the king.
Katharine of Aragon, Queen of England (1485–1536)—Henry VIII’s first wife, she was married to him for nearly twenty-four years until a special court, convened at the king’s behest, declared their union illegal in 1533. Despite banishment from the court and Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn, Katharine refused to accept the court’s verdict. Until her death, she insisted on calling Henry “my husband.” Her only living child from the marriage, Princess Mary, became Queen Mary I of England.
William Kingston (1476–1540)—In charge of the Tower of London during Anne Boleyn’s imprisonment, he passed information to Thomas Cromwell that was used against Anne at her trial.
Mary Lascelles (ca. 1515–?)—A chambermaid in the household of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, she gave evidence against Catherine Howard at the queen’s trial.
Henry Manox (1515–?)—Music teacher in the Norfolk household, he was Catherine Howard’s first paramour.
Maria, Duchess of Jülich-Berg (1491–1543)—The Catholic mother of Anna of Cleves. Her marriage to John III united the Rhine River territories of Cleves, Jülich, and Berg.
Mary I, Queen of England (1516–1558)—The only living child of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon, she ascended the throne in 1553 upon the death of her half brother, Edward VI. Seeking to convert England back to the Catholic Church, she repealed many of her father’s religious laws and punished anyone who spoke out against the Pope. This resulted in the burning of over three hundred Protestants as heretics and earned her the moniker Bloody Mary. In 1554, she married the Catholic King Phillip II of Spain in hopes of producing an heir. Their union, however, remained childless. When Mary died after a five-year reign, her Protestant half sister, Elizabeth, assumed the throne.
John Neville, Lord Latimer (1493–1543)—Kateryn Parr’s second husband, whom she married in 1534. When he was pressed into joining a northern revolt against Henry VIII, called the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, Kateryn was held hostage with her stepchildren at Snape Castle in Yorkshire.
Henry Norris (1482–1536)—A courtier who rose in the ranks to become Henry VIII’s Groom of the Stool, responsible for assisting the king with his bodily functions. Renowned for his honesty and good character, he was a close friend of Henry’s until he was accused of adultery with Anne Boleyn. He was the second of the five men beheaded on May 17, 1536.
Mary Orchard (died 1536)—The name Mary Orchard is used by historians for Anne Boleyn’s childhood nurse, though her name may have been Mary Aucher. At Anne Boleyn’s trial, when the Duke of Norfolk condemned Anne to death, Mary “shrieked out dreadfully” from the gallery. She was chosen as one of the ladies to attend Anne in the Tower.
Jane Parker, Lady Rochford (1505–1542)—Even though she was married to Anne Boleyn’s brother, George, she testified against her sister-in-law, resulting in Anne’s and George’s deaths. She went on to serve in the courts of Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. Her complicity in Catherine’s extramarital affairs resulted in Lady Rochford’s execution in 1542.
Matthew Parker, almoner (1504–1575)—Having begun his church career as an almoner, in charge of doling out alms (food and money) to the poor, Parker—who was a reformist—later helped write the thirty-nine articles of the Anglican Church. In 1537, he was appointed chaplain to Henry VIII, and ultimately served as the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575.
Anne (Nan) Parr, Countess of Pembroke, Baroness Herbert of Cardiff (1515–1552)—The younger sister of Kateryn Parr, she came to court at age thirteen and served each of Henry’s queens.
Kateryn Parr, Queen of England (1512–1548)—The last of Henry VIII’s six wives, she was a fervent Protestant and a popular author of devotional works. For three and a half years, she was a dutiful wife and a kind stepmother to the royal children, managing to outwit and outlive the king.
Maud Parr (1492–1531)—Longtime lady-in-waiting to Katharine of Aragon, she was also the mother of Kateryn Parr.
William Parr, Lord Horton (1483–1547)—Uncle of Kateryn Parr who served with Henry VIII in France.
Eleanor Paston, Countess of Rutland (1495–1551)—Lady-in-waiting to four of Henry’s wives: Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, and Catherine Howard.
María de Salinas, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby (1490–1539)—Confidante and lady-in-waiting to Katharine of Aragon, she traveled with the young Katharine from Spain.
Mary Scrope, Lady Kingston (1476–1548)—One of Anne Boleyn’s attending ladies in the Tower and wife of William Kingston, she spied on Anne on behalf of Thomas Cromwell. Later, at the christening of Jane Seymour and Henry’s son, Prince Edward, she carried Princess Mary’s train. Soon after, she was one of the twenty-nine women who walked in Jane Seymour’s funeral procession.
Edward Seymour, First Duke of Somerset (ca. 1500–1552)—The brother of Jane Seymour, he became Viscount Beauchamp, Earl of Hertford, and Warden of the Scottish Marches after Henry’s marriage to Jane. Later, when his young nephew Edward VI was crowned King of England, Seymour was appointed Lord Protector of England, effectively becoming ruler of the land until 1552, when he was beheaded on trumped-up charges of treason.
Elizabeth “Bess” Seymour (ca. 1518–1568)—Younger sister of Jane Seymour.
Jane Seymour, Queen of England (ca. 1507–1537)—The third wife of Henry VIII, she caught the king’s eye while in the service of Queen Anne Boleyn. Henry and Jane wed just eleven days after Anne’s execution. Seventeen months later, Jane
died from complications of childbirth after delivering a son, Edward. She was mourned by Henry, who took to calling her his “true wife.” Jane is the only one of his queens who was buried with him in the chapel at Windsor Castle.
John Seymour (1474–1536)—Father of Jane, Elizabeth (Bess), Edward, and Thomas Seymour, he brought disgrace to the family name after being caught in an affair with his eldest son’s wife.
Margery Wentworth Seymour (ca. 1478–1550)—Mother of Jane Seymour and grandmother of Edward VI.
Thomas Seymour, First Baron Seymour of Sudeley (1508–1549)—The brother of Jane and Edward Seymour, he was an ambitious and dashing military man and courtier, as well as the fourth husband of Kateryn Parr.
Anne (Boleyn) Shelton (ca. 1476–1556)—During Anne Boleyn’s reign, Lady Shelton and her husband, John, managed Princess Elizabeth’s household. Unsympathetic to Anne’s plight, Lady Shelton was chosen to attend her niece during Anne’s imprisonment in the Tower.
John Skip, chaplain (died 1552)—A chaplain and almoner to Anne Boleyn for many years, both before and during her reign, Skip comforted her during her time in the Tower.
Mark Smeaton (1512–1536)—A court musician who got caught up in Anne Boleyn’s adultery trial, he was tortured until he confessed to being her lover. He was the last of the five men executed on May 17, 1536.
Elizabeth Browne Somerset, Countess of Worcester (1502–1565)—Despite being a close friend and lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn, the countess likely betrayed her, providing Thomas Cromwell with information that was used at Anne’s trial to seal her doom.
Lucy Somerset, Baroness Latimer (ca. 1524–1583)—A maid of honor to Catherine Howard.
Sibylle of Cleves (1512–1554)—Older sister of Anna of Cleves, she was married to Johann Friedrich of Saxony, who was a leader of Germany’s Schmalkaldic League, a confederation of Protestant states.
Agnes Tilney, Dowager Duchess (1477–1545)—A Tudor noblewoman married to the Second Duke of Norfolk, she was stepgrandmother and guardian of Catherine Howard.
Thomas Wendy (ca. 1499–1560)—A physician who may have had Protestant sympathies, he became Henry’s doctor in 1546 and attended him on his deathbed.
Francis Weston (1511–1536)—A minor courtier who was knighted at Anne Boleyn’s coronation, he was accused of committing adultery with her. He was the third of the five men beheaded on May 17, 1536.
Wilhelm, Duke of Cleves (1516–1592)—The Protestant brother of Anna of Cleves.
Thomas Wolsey, cardinal (ca. 1475–1530)—A priest who rose rapidly through the ranks of the Catholic Church. The Pope made him a cardinal in 1515. Soon afterward, the king appointed him Lord Chancellor. Henry’s most trusted and closest advisor, Wolsey fell from grace in 1529 when he was unable to get a papal annulment of Henry’s marriage to Katharine of Aragon, which would have enabled the king to wed Anne Boleyn. Arrested in November 1530 for treason, Wolsey died that same month on his way to trial.
Thomas Wriothesley, First Earl of Southampton (1505–1550)—A ruthless politician, appointed Lord Chancellor in 1544, he plotted the downfall of Queen Kateryn Parr. His wife, Jane, served as one of Kateryn Parr’s ladies-in-waiting.
The authors would like to thank:
Two powerful quotations helped inspire my portrait of Anna of Cleves. Margaret Mead’s beautiful words, Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has, echo in Anna’s plea to Dr. Edmonds. A quotation from “The Red Angel,” an essay by G. K. Chesterton, Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey, reverberates in an observation Anna makes to Alice. A huge, heartfelt thank-you, as always, to Doug and Daisy, and to my agent, Steve Malk. To my fellow wives, Henry, and our fearless editor, Anne Schwartz—it has been a pleasure and an honor to work with you. —J.D.
To my generous, talented, and invincible court of honor—Tobin, Steph, Lisa, Jennifer, Linda Sue, and Deborah—thank you for your gorgeous stories as well as your friendship. Thanks also to my agent, Ethan Ellenberg, for taking the lead and taking charge, and to Geovana Lopez for scrutinizing my Spanish. Thanks to Barbara Perris for her brilliant copyediting. And last, but never least, to my friend and editor Anne Schwartz—you deserve a crown. —C.F.
I could begin and end by thanking one person for bringing my dream of writing about Anne Boleyn to fruition—Candy Fleming. Thank you for guiding this project from an idea into a book and including me among writers I have so long admired. You are my one true Queen and dear friend. I also owe great thanks to the readers of the rough drafts, who give me encouragement when I need it most—Penny Blubaugh, Barb Rosenstock, Craig Martin, Mom, Dad, and always, Steven Malk. —S.H.
Thanks to Candy Fleming and Anne Schwartz for including me, to my fellow royals for their generosity and friendship, and to Steven Malk for his invaluable assistance. A special thanks to my family for putting up with my obsession with the Tudors. —D.H.
My thanks to Karen Cushman for her help and expertise; any errors that remain are my responsibility. Thanks also to the other five Queens and the King, from whom I learned so much; an extra shout-out to Candy Fleming, M. T. Anderson, Deborah Hopkinson, and Anne Schwartz. And always, love and gratitude to my personal court of honor, especially Ginger Knowlton, Julie Damerell, Anna Dobbin, Ben Dobbin, and all my family. —L.S.P.
I am eternally grateful to my dear friend Deborah Hopkinson, who, years ago, undertook the mission to keep me writing—I’ll never stop saying thank you. Many thanks to Candy Fleming for the invitation to participate in this amazing endeavor—I am so deeply honored by your trust and vision. Thanks to Anne Schwartz, who edited brilliantly and bravely; I’m so glad to have met you! I must also thank my agent, Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, for her unending patience, wisest counsel, and constant encouragement. A million thanks to Aimee Friedman, for her loving friendship and support, and for reading the manuscript. And finally, all the gratitude and love in the world to my husband, Liel Leibovitz, who invaluably helped me to begin to understand Jane, and to my two darling kiddos, Lily and Hudson. I love you three so much. —L.A.S.
Additionally, we would like to thank our Random House family—Barbara Marcus, Lee Wade, Rachael Cole, Annie Kelley, Adrienne Waintraub, Noreen Herits, Barbara Perris, and Colleen Fellingham—for your time, your talents, and your constant support.
The novelist Norman Mailer once said that fiction writers who work with historical events and real people have a “unique opportunity—they can create superior histories out of an enhancement of the real, the unverified and the wholly fictional.” We confess to enhancements of various kinds in this book. Not only have we occasionally invented characters, but also we have speculated about what might have happened in the many private, unrecorded moments of the Tudors’ lives. Ours are fictional narratives. Still, we have chosen to stay close to the facts as we know them. These are documented in the multitudinous sources available in books and online. For readers who want to know more, we have listed some of these sources below.
BOOKS
Nonfiction
Ackroyd, Peter. Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2012.
Arnold, John H, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Betteridge, Thomas, and Suzannah Lipscomb, eds. Henry VIII and the Court: Art, Politics and Performance. Farnham, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2013.
Bordo, Susan. The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
Borman, Tracy. Elizabeth’s Women: Friends, Rivals and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen. New York: Bantam Books, 2010.
. The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain’s Greatest Dynasty. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2016.
Foister, Susan. Holbein in England. London: Tate Publ
ishing, 2006.
Fraser, Antonia. The Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Knopf, 1993.
Froude, J. A. The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon: The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry VIII. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1891.
Goodman, Ruth. How to Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2016.
Hunt, Alice. The Drama of Coronation: Medieval Ceremony in Early Modern England. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Ives, Eric. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. Carlton, Victoria, Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
James, Susan. Catherine Parr: Henry VIII’s Last Love. Stroud, Gloucestershire, England: Tempus Publishing, 2008.
Jones, Nigel. Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012.
Lindsey, Karen. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII. New York: De Capo Press, 1995.
Lipscomb, Suzannah. A Journey through Tudor England. New York: Pegasus Books, 2013.
Loades, David. The Tudor Queens of England. New York: Continuum, 2009.
Moorhouse, Geoffrey. The Pilgrimage of Grace: The Rebellion that Shook Henry VIII’s Throne. London: Phoenix, 2003.
Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England. New York: Penguin Books, 2014.
Norton Elizabeth. Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII’s Obsession. Gloucestershire, England: Amberley Publishing, 2009.
. The Anne Boleyn Papers. Gloucestershire, England: Amberley Publishing, 2013.
. Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride. Gloucestershire, England: Amberley Publishing, 2009.
. Catherine Parr. Gloucestershire, England: Amberley Publishing, 2010.
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