Rich in the treasure of deserv’d renown,
Rich in the riches of a royal heart,
Rich in those gifts which give th’eternal crown.27
Perhaps more significantly, at another point Sidney writes:
Another humbler wit to shepherd’s pipe retires,
Yet hiding royal blood full oft in rural vein.28
Such blatant references seem to indicate that it was well known in court circles, and almost certainly within her own family, that Katherine Carey was really the King’s daughter. If true, it meant that Katherine’s daughter Lettice was Henry VIII’s granddaughter. Although Lettice and her family would never have dared to speak openly about it, her royal heritage provides an interesting and valid grounding for her pride in her family, and her self-assured nature. Lettice grew into a young woman who was both confident and spirited, and it is plausible that this partly stemmed from her knowledge of her royal lineage. She could not declare it, but Lettice was a Tudor, and one who would come to display many of the dynasty’s famed character traits.
IN JANUARY 1533, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, married Henry and Anne Boleyn in secret. Henry’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon was declared null and void, and their daughter Mary illegitimate. Both mother and daughter had been banished from court and were forbidden from meeting with one another, much to their distress. With the Pope refusing to conform to the King’s demands, that same year the Church of England was officially established, signalling Henry’s permanent split from the Catholic Church in Rome. Instead, the King established himself as Head of the Church of England, a move that caused a great divide among his subjects. At the time of their marriage Anne Boleyn was already pregnant, and the King was confident that the child she carried was a prince. He was to be bitterly disappointed, however, for on 7 September, between three and four in the afternoon, Queen Anne gave birth to ‘a fair lady’, named Elizabeth after the King’s mother.29 The Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, informed his master the Emperor Charles V that Elizabeth’s birth had led to the ‘great reproach of the physicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and sorceresses, who affirmed that it would be a male child’.30 Nevertheless, the infant was healthy, and greatly resembled her father with flame-red hair. In time this child, Elizabeth, who was almost certainly a half-sister of Katherine Carey and thus an aunt to Lettice and her siblings, would find that her life became intimately entwined with Lettice’s own.
ELSEWHERE, THE YEAR after Princess Elizabeth’s birth, Mary Boleyn secretly remarried. It was a love match, and her second husband was William Stafford, a man of far inferior social status hailing from a minor gentry family.31 As Mary herself acknowledged, ‘For well I might a had a greater man of birth and a higher, but I ensure you I could never a had one that should a loved me so well nor a more honest man.’32 When her marriage came to light, she explained to the King’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell that ‘love overcame reason’, despite the fact that she knew that her clandestine marriage ‘displeases the King and Queen’.33 So outraged was Anne Boleyn at her sister’s remarriage to a man beneath her that she banished Mary from court. Mary was unrepentant and in a stinging slight to her sister, she insisted that ‘I had rather beg my bread with him than to be the greatest Queen christened.’34 She and Stafford retired into a life of obscurity, and eventually may have travelled to Calais, where Stafford was a member of the garrison. If this was so, then they probably returned to England with Anne of Cleves at the end of 1539, for in January 1540 Stafford was appointed a Gentleman Pensioner in the King’s household alongside Francis Knollys.35
FOLLOWING THE DEATH of William Carey, the wardship of Katherine’s brother Henry was granted to their aunt, Queen Anne, but nothing is known of Katherine’s whereabouts. She could have remained with her mother, and may even have travelled with Mary and her new stepfather to Calais. Alternatively, and possibly more likely, is that Katherine was sent to join the household of the Princess Elizabeth, which had been established at the nursery palace of Hatfield, just outside London.36 This may have been done at the instigation of the King, or of Anne Boleyn, both of whom could have deemed it appropriate to place the two girls together. It is evident that Katherine and Elizabeth spent time together during their youths, for by the 1550s the two had formed a strong bond. Following Katherine’s death in 1569, the contemporary poet Thomas Newton composed an epitaph to her memory.37 One section in particular bears witness not only to the close relationship that Katherine and Elizabeth shared, but perhaps also offers further confirmation that Katherine’s true paternity was known in contemporary circles:
Among the Troupes of Ladies all,
and Dames of noble race,
She counted was, (and was indeed)
in Lady Fortunes grace.
In favour with our noble Queen,
above the common sort,
With whom she was in credit great,
and bare a comely port.38
Katherine’s whereabouts during this time may be a matter of speculation, but those of her brother, Henry, are easier to ascertain. Following his mother’s remarriage, Henry was sent to the abbey at Syon. It was while he was here that, in 1535, the vicar of Isleworth, John Hale, scathingly referred to young Henry as being the King’s bastard. According to Hale, he had been introduced to ‘young Master Carey’, whom he had been told ‘was our sovereign lord the King’s son by our sovereign lady the Queen’s sister, whom the Queen’s grace might not suffer to be in the court’.39 This is the only contemporary reference to Henry Carey being the son of the King, and it is a claim that was almost certainly incorrect.
ANNE BOLEYN’S SUPREMACY was of short duration, and after several failed pregnancies following Elizabeth’s birth, including the miscarriage of a male foetus on the day of Katherine of Aragon’s funeral, the King had had enough.40 He still had no legitimate male heir to succeed him, and he was not prepared to give Anne any more chances. Her fall was swift, and on 2 May 1536 she was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. Thirteen days later she was charged with adultery with five men and incest with her own brother, George. The charges were almost certainly falsified and engineered through the connivance of Thomas Cromwell, but they were enough to condemn Anne, her brother, and those accused with them. On 17 May, all of the condemned men were executed on Tower Hill, and two days later, on 19 May, Anne herself met her end; an expert French swordsman, within the confines of the Tower of London, removed her head with one swift stroke. Despite four pregnancies, her marriage to Henry VIII had produced just one living child, Elizabeth. That two-and-a-half-year-old little girl was now motherless.
Following the executions of Anne and George, Mary was the only Boleyn sibling to survive the disaster of 1536. She had long since retreated into obscurity and thus had played no role in the events leading to Anne’s fall. The rest of the Boleyn family shared in Anne’s disgrace, and were no longer the dominant party at court. The Seymours took their place, and eleven days after Anne’s execution Henry VIII married Jane, who had once served both of his previous wives. The effects of Anne’s fall also extended to her daughter. Her parents’ marriage was proclaimed null and void, resulting in the disinheriting of the young Elizabeth, who was deprived of her title of princess: from now on she was to be known simply as the Lady Elizabeth.
The next occasion on which Katherine Carey’s name appears is in November 1539. Two years earlier, on 12 October 1537, the King’s third wife Jane Seymour had produced the King’s desired legitimate male heir, Prince Edward, ‘conceived in lawful matrimony’.41 The news of the safe deliverance of the ‘goodly prince’ was greeted with ‘triumphing cheer’ and Te Deum was sung in many of the churches in London in celebration.42 The festivities were, however, tinged with tragedy when Queen Jane fell ill. On 24 October she died from an infection sustained during childbirth. Henry VIII was distraught at the death of his wife, and it was some time before he was able to consider marrying again. By November 1539, though, he was preparing for his fourth marr
iage. The match with the German Anne of Cleves was based on politics rather than personal passion. Although Anne was travelling to England with her own entourage, at court the King began appointing a household of English ladies to serve her. It had been more than two years since the death of Queen Jane, and competition for places was high. Among the ladies who had been appointed to serve the new Queen Anne was Katherine Carey.43 Such an appointment was a great honour for the fifteen-year-old Katherine, and on the surface appears to be rather surprising. Following the fall of Katherine’s aunt, Anne Boleyn, the family had been living under a dark cloud and had lost all of their influence with the King. Thus, in 1539, just three years after Anne’s execution, there appeared to be no reason for the King to promote the dead queen’s niece. Katherine’s appointment is therefore strongly suggestive of the King’s concern for her welfare, and could be taken as an indication that he was aware that she was his daughter. It is true that another of Katherine’s relatives, Katherine Howard, later the King’s fifth wife, was also chosen to serve Anne of Cleves, but her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, had been responsible for securing her appointment.
Katherine may have come to court directly from the household of the Lady Elizabeth, who was now six years old. She had, though, barely arrived when she became acquainted with Francis Knollys. As a Gentleman Pensioner, Francis was also known to Katherine’s stepfather, William Stafford, and they had all three been a part of the welcoming party charged with greeting Anne of Cleves upon her arrival in England. When Francis and Katherine married in April 1540, their marriage proved to be a very happy one. This was a rarity in an age in which marriages were based on politics and social advantage rather than personal happiness, and the couple’s love endured until the end of their lives. There is no indication that Sir Francis indulged in extramarital affairs – also unusual in an era in which men frequently took mistresses. He clearly doted on Katherine, and addressed many of his letters to her as his ‘loving wife’.44
Soon after their marriage the newlyweds took up residence at Rotherfield Greys, which was secured for them by the King and Act of Parliament. Almost immediately after their wedding, Katherine fell pregnant, and over the course of her marriage she would prove to be a fertile bride. Lettice’s family was a large one, but there has been confusion over the number of children the Knollyses produced. According to Katherine’s memorial plaque in Westminster Abbey, she and her husband had a total of sixteen children, eight boys and eight girls, of whom at least twelve survived infancy. However, on the couple’s double tomb effigy in Rotherfield Church, only fifteen are shown, seven sons and seven daughters, and an infant lying beside Katherine. To add further confusion to the matter, in Sir Francis’s Latin dictionary he lists fourteen children: eight sons and six daughters. The last to be recorded was a son, Dudley, who was born and died in 1562, and who is almost certainly the infant depicted lying next to Katherine on the tomb effigy in Rotherfield Church. It is probable that Katherine’s memorial plaque in Westminster Abbey, stating that she had sixteen children, is correct. One of the unnamed daughters may have died at birth, or perhaps even been stillborn. Infant mortality was high in the sixteenth century, and it was not unusual for a family to have experienced the loss of at least one child. An entry in the gift rolls of Elizabeth I lends support to this. It reveals that on 18 May 1563, the year after Dudley’s birth, the Queen gave ‘three gilt bowls with a cover bought of the goldsmith’s’ as a gift for ‘the christening of Sir Francis Knollys, his daughter’.45 It was this daughter that was the youngest of the Knollys brood, and the Queen’s gift indicates that she had probably been asked to stand as godmother to the child. Unfortunately, no further details of the little girl, including her name, are known. She probably died soon after she was christened.
Lettice’s birth was followed by those of seven younger brothers and six sisters: William (1545), Edward (1546), Maud (1548), Elizabeth (1549), Robert (1550), Richard (1552), Francis (1553), Anne (1555), who may have been named after her great-aunt Anne Boleyn, Thomas (1558), Katherine (1559) and Dudley (1562). Dudley, who died just a month after his birth, was named in honour of Robert Dudley, a man who would later become an integral part of Lettice’s story.46 In between the births of these children, one of the unnamed daughters was presumably also born.47 Little is known of the lives of Mary, Maud and Edward. Edward was certainly alive in September 1568, by which time he would have been just shy of his twenty-second birthday, for at that time Francis Knollys wrote to William Cecil that ‘I have six sons living, besides my eldest.’48 He is also portrayed on his parents’ tomb as an adult sporting a beard in the same manner as his brothers. It may have been the case that he had no desire for public life, or that he suffered from some ailment which prevented him from doing so. This can, though, only ever be a matter of speculation. As for Mary and Maud, by 1561 one of them was serving in the household of Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk. It is unclear which sister was placed there, but the Duchess was a friend of the Knollyses, which explains the appointment.49 It is possible that whichever of them did not join the Duchess of Suffolk’s household died early, or like their brother Edward, possibly refrained from public life or was unable to participate.
Such frequent childbearing doubtless impacted upon Katherine Knollys’s health. Indeed, so common was pregnancy for her that her only surviving portrait depicts her showing off an impressive belly. Now in the Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, the portrait is dated 1562, the same year as Dudley’s birth. For some time the identity of the sitter was debated, but there is good evidence to suggest that it is Katherine. Completed by the Flemish artist Steven van der Meulan, the pregnant sitter, who bears a strong facial resemblance to Henry VIII, wears an identical pendant to that which can be seen adorning Katherine’s effigy in Rotherfield Church.50 Fashioned from pearls and diamonds in a circular setting around a central stone, the pendant lends credibility to the identification of the portrait as Katherine. Her gold girdle ends in a large oval tablet, which has always been believed to represent Mars, armed with a spear and a shield, who personifies a Greek proverb meaning ‘Be prepared’ – a fitting message given Katherine’s condition and the perils of childbirth.51 On closer inspection the jewel provides even further evidence to confirm Katherine as the sitter: it is, in fact, a gentleman adorned in the uniform of the Gentleman Pensioners, a clear indication of the first office to which Katherine’s husband had been appointed by the King. It was this post that had been the first sign of Henry’s favour to Francis, and was therefore hugely significant. A small dog stands next to her: a symbol of marital fidelity that was unusually accurate in this case. The final evidence to support the identification of Katherine Knollys comes in the fact that the portrait was in the possession of her descendants until 1974, when it was sold, along with other Knollys family portraits, at Sotheby’s. The inscription Aetatis suae 38 Ao Dom 1562 on the portrait reveals that Katherine was in her thirty-eighth year at the time that it was painted, which may have been in the final weeks before she gave birth.52 There are no other known portraits of Katherine with which to compare it, but the effigy on her tomb also bears a strong resemblance to the sitter. These sorts of pregnancy portraits are unusual for this period, and the reason behind its commissioning is a mystery. Katherine was in the service of Elizabeth I in 1562, whose likeness was also taken by the artist, and it is possible that she had become familiar with the artist through her royal mistress. It is also possible that, this being a later pregnancy, Katherine’s family desired to have a likeness taken of her in the event that she should die in childbirth. Whatever the circumstances, though Katherine survived her pregnancy, her child did not.
JUST FOUR MONTHS prior to Lettice’s birth, on 19 July, her maternal grandmother Mary Boleyn died at Rochford Hall, the Essex home that she had inherited just four days previously.53 Meanwhile, following the death of her second husband in 1539, Lettice’s paternal grandmother Lettice Peniston had remarried for
a third time, taking as her husband Sir Thomas Tresham. The marriage is unlikely to have met with Francis’s approval, for the Treshams were a family renowned for their steadfast devotion to Catholicism – completely at odds with Francis’s Protestant beliefs.54 It may have been this marriage that caused a family rift between Francis and his mother, for when she died in 1558 she cut both of her sons from her first marriage out of her will. Neither does she appear to have shown any interest in her Knollys grandchildren. Instead she left her remaining possessions to the children she had produced with her second husband.55
Lettice’s immediate family were a close-knit unit; although her father was a more serious, sombre character who always spoke of his children more formally than he did of his wife in his letters, it is clear that he shared a good relationship with them. He also cared deeply about their welfare, and worked hard in order to ensure that they were well provided for. When money was a worry to him he would later write of his sons that
I fear that their youthful stout hearts will not abide misery: and yet if God took me away tomorrow, I should not leave four nobles yearly revenue: and should be sorry to think they should adventure the gallows for lack of living! But if my courtly countenance were taken away, I would leave them such an example of a contented poor life, that they should better contain themselves to live within their compass.56
In an age in which family networking and kinship meant a great deal, Francis’s concern for his family was crucial, and in years to come the support of her family would be vital to Lettice. Their sheer numbers ensured that there was always someone that she could turn to, and they often worked with one another’s interests in mind. She grew up to be close to her parents and most of her siblings, many of whose portraits later hung in her homes. In her youth, though, the time that she spent with her parents may have been sporadic. Francis was often at court, while during the 1540s Katherine appears to have resided primarily in the countryside, though this would later change. Katherine had a reputation for wisdom; Thomas Newton later wrote that she had ‘A head so straight and beautified, with wit and counsel sound’, and she was a steady influence on her children.57 Lettice was therefore fortunate to have two shrewd parents, who provided an excellent moral example to their children.
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