Elizabeth's Rival

by Nicola Tallis

  51. CSPS, Elizabeth 1558–1567, I, pp. 57–8.

  52. Adams (ed.), Household Accounts, p. 65.

  53. CSPS, Elizabeth 1558–1567, I, p. 140.

  54. Ibid., I, p. 175.

  55. Cumnor Place was demolished in 1810.

  56. CSPS, Elizabeth 1558–1567, I, p. 175.

  57. See C. Skidmore, Death and the Virgin: Elizabeth, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate of Amy Robsart (London, 2010).

  58. Wilson, Sweet Robin, p. 126.

  59. The origins of the bear and the ragged staff are unclear, but initially they seem to have been used by the Beauchamp family independently. The first Earl of Warwick to use the two together regularly was Richard Neville, ‘the Kingmaker’, who was married to Anne Beauchamp.

  60. A. Francis Steuart (ed.), Sir James Melville: Memoirs of His Own Life, 1549–93 (London, 1929), p. 91.

  61. Margaret Lennox was the daughter of Henry VIII’s elder sister, Margaret, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Archibald Douglas. She was married to Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox, and the couple had two surviving sons, of which Henry was the eldest.

  Chapter 5: Flirting with the Viscountess

  1. Lansdowne MS 3, 88.

  2. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 12.

  3. The ruins of Chartley Castle are now a Scheduled Monument.

  4. J. Leland as cited in T. Harwood, Erdeswick’s Survey of Staffordshire (London, 1844), p. 56.

  5. Chartley Manor House no longer survives, having been accidentally destroyed by fire in 1781. Dr Robert Plot commissioned the engraving for his book, Natural History of Staffordshire.

  6. Harwood, Erdeswick’s Survey of Staffordshire, p. 56.

  7. This is all that remains of Chartley Manor House, and the structure of the house has entirely vanished.

  8. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 12.

  9. Lawson (ed.), Gift Exchanges, p. 93.

  10. The part of the gift roll that lists what the Queen gave in return is sadly missing.

  11. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 59.

  12. Ibid., p. 77.

  13. Lawson (ed.) Gift Exchanges, p. 90.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Freedman, Poor Penelope, p. iv.

  16. Bourchier Devereux states that Dorothy’s birth took place in 1565, but this cannot have been the case, as Lettice’s son was born late that year.

  17. CSPS, Elizabeth 1558–1567, I, p. 451.

  18. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth, was born in around 1579, and Lettice was born in approximately 1583. According to Malpas, the family resided at a house in Blackfriars, known as Lygon’s Lodging, which was on lease from William More of Loseley. See Malpas, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’, p. 37.

  19. CSPS, Elizabeth 1558–1567, I, p. 465.

  20. Charles was also the cousin of Philip II of Spain.

  21. Cited in S. Adams, ‘The Earl of Leicester and his affinity’, in S. Adams, Leicester and the Court: Essays on Elizabethan Politics (Manchester, 2002), p. 140.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton had been suspected of complicity in the Wyatt Rebellion, and was sent to the Tower. He was eventually released but fled abroad. He later became Queen Elizabeth’s ambassador in France.

  26. CSPS, Elizabeth 1558–1567, I, p. 472.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Jenkins, Elizabeth and Leicester, p. 125.

  30. CSPS, Elizabeth 1558–1567, I, p. 472.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Jenkins, Elizabeth and Leicester, p. 125.

  33. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 8; Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, V, p. 141.

  34. Walter’s grandfather had been appointed Keeper of Netherwood Park on 27 January 1513.

  35. Lacey, Robert, Earl of Essex, p. 6.

  36. Lacey, however, states that his name was chosen in honour of the first Robert Devereux, who accompanied William of Normandy to England in 1066. See Lacey, Robert, Earl of Essex, p. 6.

  37. See HMC Bath, V, p. 150.

  38. Lacey, Robert, Earl of Essex, p. 9.

  39. Women who suckled their own babies were thought to be unfashionable.

  40. WCRO, MI 229.

  41. Sir Philip Sidney was the son of Leicester’s sister, Mary, and her husband Sir Henry Sidney.

  42. Cecil was created Baron Burghley on 25 February 1571; Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 166.

  43. Lacey, Robert, Earl of Essex, p. 20.

  44. Ibid., p. 15.

  45. Lansdowne MS 24, f. 208.

  46. Ibid.

  47. See Young’s dedication of his translation of Diana of de Montemayor, 1598. Young also remembered seeing Penelope ‘in a public show at the Middle Temple, where your honourable presence with many noble lords and fair ladies graced and beautified those sports’.

  48. HMC Salisbury, III (435).

  49. R. Edwards, A Boke of Very Godly Psalmes and Prayers. Dedicated to the Lady Letice Viscountesse of Hereford (London, 1570).

  50. Ibid.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Ibid.

  Chapter 6: Death with his Dart hath us Bereft

  1. The supper room is part of the visitor route at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and as such can still be visited.

  2. To this day mystery surrounds the events of Kirk o’Field, but it is accepted that Darnley and his servant survived the explosion and were killed after.

  3. Bothwell was imprisoned in Dragsholm in Zeeland, and died there having gone insane on 14 April 1578. His mummified corpse was on display in Faarevejle church for centuries.

  4. George Douglas, the brother of the castle’s owner, Sir William Douglas, aided her escape. It was not her first attempt.

  5. Knollys, Papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots, p. 64.

  6. CSP Scotland, 1547–63, I (792).

  7. CSP Scotland, 1547–63, I (798).

  8. Sir Richard le Scrope, Lord Chancellor of Richard II, had built Bolton. The castle underwent significant damage during the reign of Henry VIII when the King gave orders for it to be defaced. This was in retribution for Bolton’s owner, Baron Scrope, participating in the Pilgrimage of Grace against the King in 1536.

  9. Knollys, Papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots, p. 14.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Ibid., p. 15.

  14. Ibid.

  15. CSP Scotland, 1547–63, I (772).

  16. CSP Scotland, 1547–63, I (786).

  17. Knollys, Papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots, p. 15.

  18. Ibid., p. 17.

  19. Ibid., p. 19.

  20. Ibid., p. 21.

  21. Ibid., pp. 60–1.

  22. Ibid., p. 61.

  23. Lawson (ed.), Gift Exchanges, p. 118.

  24. Knollys, Papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots, pp. 66–7.

  25. CSP Scotland, 1563–69, II (953).

  26. CSP Scotland, 1563–69, II (954).

  27. Knollys, Papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots, p. 64.

  28. T. Wright (ed.), Queen Elizabeth and her Times: A Series of Original Letters, Selected from the Inedited Private Correspondence of the Lord Treasurer Burghley, the Earl of Leicester, the Secretaries Walsingham and Smith, Sir Christopher Hatton, etc, I (London, 1838), p. 308.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Ibid., pp. 308–9.

  31. CSP Scotland, 1563–69, II (958).

  32. Tutbury Castle is now a ruin.

  33. CSP Scotland, 1563–69, II (958).

  34. CSP Scotland, 1563–69, II (963).

  35. CSP Scotland, 1563–69, II (978).

  36. HMC Salisbury, I (1314).

  37. As would be expected, however, the epitaph stated that Katherine was the daughter of Mary Boleyn and William Carey.

  38. Hoskins, ‘Mary Boleyn’s Carey Children’.

  39. Newton, ‘An epitaph’.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Eight casket lett
ers were produced, supposedly written from Mary to the Earl of Bothwell. Moray claimed that they provided proof that the couple had colluded together to murder Darnley. The English accepted them to be genuine.

  42. The Percys were a renowned Catholic family; Thomas’s father had been executed for his role in the Pilgrimage of Grace, and though he himself had been restored to royal favour, his interests remained intrinsically Catholic. Charles Neville, meanwhile, had always been opposed to Elizabeth’s Protestant policies.

  43. Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, was Queen Elizabeth’s second cousin, and he was also related to Lettice. He was the son of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, a first cousin to both Mary and Anne Boleyn.

  44. Henry Hastings was the son of Walter’s maternal uncle, Francis Hastings, second Earl of Huntingdon.

  45. HMC Salisbury, I (1343).

  46. Ibid.

  47. Leslie, a staunch Catholic, was one of Mary’s most steadfast supporters. He worked tirelessly on Mary’s behalf, even enduring prison and exile for her cause. He died in Brussels in 1596.

  48. S. Haynes (ed.), Collection of State Papers Relating to Affairs in the Reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, From the Year 1542 to 1570 … Left by William Cecil, Lord Burghley … at Hatfield House (London, 1740), p. 532.

  49. There is no evidence that this was in fact the case, but it was a claim that was made by Henry Wotton, a diplomat who later joined Essex’s service. However, this was not until 1594, and his account was not published until 1641 so should be treated with caution. See H. Wotton, A parallel betweene Robert late Earle of Essex, and George late Duke of Buckingham written by Sir Henry Wotton (London, 1641).

  50. Bourchier Devereux refers to him in Lives and Letters, I, p. 8.

  51. She was reputedly detained in St Mary’s Guildhall while in the city.

  52. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 14.

  53. Ibid.

  54. Ibid., p. 15.

  55. Ibid.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Ibid.

  58. Cokayne (ed.), The Complete Peerage, p. 140.

  59. Ibid., p. 16.

  60. Harrison (ed.), Letters of Queen Elizabeth, p. 62.

  61. Despite a number of unsuccessful attempts to return to England, Westmorland remained in foreign exile. He died in Flanders in 1601.

  62. CSPS, Elizabeth 1568–1579, II, p. 394.

  Chapter 7: Faithful, Faultless, Yet Someway Unfortunate, Yet Must Suffer

  1. Edward III founded the Order of the Garter in 1348. It is still the highest order of chivalry in the realm.

  2. A likeness of Walter wearing his Garter robes can be found in the Heinz Archive at the National Portrait Gallery.

  3. Anne was the only child of Henry Bourchier, second Earl of Essex. When her father died, she was unable to inherit the viscounty of Bourchier and the earldom of Essex, and thus both became extinct in the male line. Anne had been married to William Parr, the younger brother of Queen Katherine. It was a notoriously unhappy marriage, and Anne later eloped with her lover, causing a great scandal. Her marriage to Parr was later annulled, and at the end of her life Anne was living at Benington, her estate in Hertfordshire. It was here that she died.

  4. Henry Bourchier, second Earl of Essex, was the son of William Bourchier by Anne Wydeville. Anne was the sister of Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Wydeville. He married twice, but his daughter was the product of his first marriage to Mary Saye. He died on 13 March 1540.

  5. Edward Clinton had been married to Henry VIII’s former mistress, and mother of his illegitimate son, Bessie Blount. The couple had three daughters, and Clinton subsequently married twice more. He served Queen Elizabeth as ambassador to France, and died on 16 January 1585.

  6. SP 86, f. 163–4.

  7. Several other portraits of Walter also survive, notably in Ipswich Museum. Interestingly, a photograph of a wood-carving that supposedly represents Walter and Lettice can be found in the Heinz Archive at the National Portrait Gallery, but the location of the original is unknown. A Flemish, seventeenth-century double portrait from the collection of the Viscount Hereford supposedly also shows Walter and Lettice. It does not bear any resemblance to their known portraits, and appears to be a romantic representation – if they are indeed the sitters.

  8. Camden, The Historie, p. 64.

  9. Sir William Fitzwilliam was married to Henry Sidney’s sister, Anne.

  10. Camden, The Historie, p. 64.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Freedman, Poor Penelope, p. 32.

  13. Most of the Palace of Whitehall was destroyed by fire in 1698. In its time, though, it was the largest palace in Europe. Fragments of the Palace still survive, notably Inigo Jones’s seventeenth-century Banqueting House, Henry VIII’s tennis courts and a Tudor undercroft.

  14. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 30.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Ibid., pp. 30–1.

  18. Ibid., p. 31.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Ibid., p. 31.

  21. This was Robert Rich, second Baron Rich.

  22. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 34.

  23. Ibid., p. 34.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Ibid., p. 37.

  26. Ibid., p. 39.

  27. Ibid., p. 43.

  28. Ibid., pp. 43–4.

  29. Ibid., p. 44.

  30. Ibid., p. 47.

  31. Camden, The Historie, p. 65.

  32. Ibid., p. 64.

  33. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 51.

  34. Ibid., p. 77.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Ibid., p. 78.

  37. J. Jones, ‘The benefit of the auncient bathes of Buckstones vvhich cureth most greeuous sicknesses, neuer before published’ (London, 1572).

  38. HMC Bath, V, p. 139. Lady Grace Mildmay is of particular interest. Married to Sir Anthony Mildmay in 1567, Grace became known for dispensing medicines free of charge. She saw it as her charitable duty to tend to the sick poor, and also provided remedies for friends. It was Lady Gresham’s husband, Thomas, who founded the Royal Exchange in 1565.

  39. In 1495, Henry VII granted the manor of Coleshill to Simon Digby, who was the deputy Constable of the Tower of London. Coleshill had been in the hands of the Digby family ever since. George Digby married Abigail Henningham, and together they had several children. Their eldest son, George, died in 1586, making the couple’s younger son, Robert, his father’s heir.

  40. George was the son of John Digby, and became the ward of Sir Francis Knollys in March 1560.

  41. Gerald FitzGerald was the son of the Earl of Kildare, and was of Irish origin.

  42. There were seven sons and three daughters. During the Civil War, Parliamentarian forces at Geashill Castle besieged Lettice. She was rescued, and retired to Coleshill where she died on 1 December 1658.

  43. The Old Hall is now a hotel, and is one of the oldest buildings in Buxton. It was largely rebuilt in 1670.

  44. Cited in Malpas, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’, p. 68. I have been unable to corroborate this story, and neither does Malpas cite his source. It is certainly true, however, that others left their marks, so it is therefore possible that Lettice did the same.

  Chapter 8: His Paramour, or his Wife

  1. J. Foster (ed.), ‘Disbrowe-Dyve’, in Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714 (Oxford, 1891), p. 429.

  2. P. Collinson (ed.), Letters of Thomas Wood, Puritan, 1566–1577 (London, 1960), p. 14. The affair probably started in around 1571.

  3. E. Lodge (ed.), Illustrations of British History, III (London, 1838), pp. 17–18.

  4. Douglas was born in either 1542 or 1543.

  5. William Howard was the half-brother of Elizabeth’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Boleyn. They were both the children of Thomas Howard, second Duke of Norfolk; Elizabeth, though, was a product of the Duke’s first marriage, while William was born of his second marriage.

  6. The wedding took pla
ce on an unknown date in the autumn.

  7. John was the only son and heir of Edmund Sheffield and his wife, Anne.

  8. Jenkins, Elizabeth and Leicester, p. 186.

  9. D.C. Peck (ed.), Leicester’s Commonwealth: The Copy of a Letter Written by a Master of Art of Cambridge (1584) and Related Documents (London, 1985), p. 82.

  10. Ibid., p. 86.

  11. Foster (ed.), ‘Disbrowe-Dyve’, in Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714, p. 429.

  12. Camden, The Historie, p. 80.

  13. Ibid., p. 373.

  14. HMC Bath, V, pp. 142–7.

  15. S. Adams (ed.), ‘The Armada Correspondence in Cotton MSS Otho E VII and E IX’, The Naval Miscellany, ed. M. Duffy (London, 2003), p. 77.

  16. If it were Douglas, as is most likely, then it could have been written at any point after the death of her husband in 1568 and before Leicester’s marriage to Lettice in 1578. If it were Lettice, then it must have been written between 1576 and 1578.

  17. C. Read, ‘A Letter from Robert, Earl of Leicester, to a Lady’, Huntingdon Library Bulletin, 9 (1936), pp. 15–26.

  18. Ibid.

  19. A full discussion of the letter can be found in Read, ‘A Letter’, pp. 15–26.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Dudley Papers, III, pp. 142–7.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Read, ‘A Letter’, pp. 15–26.

  25. T. Rogers, Leicester’s Ghost, ed. F.B. Williams (Chicago, 1972), p. 30.

  26. PROB 1/1.

  27. Camden, The Historie, p. 80.

  28. J. Rickman, Love, Lust, and License in Early Modern England: Illicit Sex and the Nobility (Aldershot, 2008), p. 52.

  29. A. Somerset, Ladies in Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day (London, 1984), p. 85.

  30. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 56.

  31. Ibid., p. 82.

  32. Ibid., p. 83.

  33. Ibid., p. 88.

  34. Ibid., p. 80.

  35. Ibid., p. 97.

  36. J.S. Brewer and W. Bullen (eds), Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, 1515–1603, II (London, 1867–70), p. 8.

  37. Bourchier Devereux, Lives and Letters, I, p. 99.

  38. Lawson (ed.), Gift Exchanges, pp. 172, 178.

  39. Ibid., p. 170.

  40. Kent History and Library Centre, U1475 E93.

  41. See R.M. Warnicke, Wicked Women of Tudor England: Queens, Aristocrats, Commoners (New York, 2010), pp. 114–15.