43 NA E 351/3,221. See also Colvin et al, Vol. IV, p.321.
44 Paul Hentzner, Itinerarium, etc., Breslau, 1617, p.148. Translated from the Latin.
45 It was, of course, a mere cenotaph as Henry’s body lay alongside that of Jane Seymour in the vault in the centre of the choir of St George’s Chapel.
46 St George’s Chapter Acts VI B:2, fol.31b.
47 St George’s Chapter Acts XI F:6. Darknall was appointed verger on 28 January 1618 and later signed a number of property transactions involving the Chapter as a witness.
48 Journal of the House of Commons, 7 April 1646.
49 William Sanderson, Complete History of the Life and Reign of King Charles, London, 1658, p.888.
50 Higgins, pp.177–80. The original casting, from moulds, of the candlesticks was not well done: several patches have been inserted to cover defects. See fn. p.180.
51 There is a cast in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
52 St George’s Chapter Acts VI B:3, p.11, and Bond, p.111.
53 Elias Ashmole, The Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, London, 1672.
54 Pote, p.62.
55 Queen Victoria restored the chapel in memory of the Prince Consort. The cost of the sarcophagus and its transportation was not to exceed £1,000.
56 C. V. Wedgwood, The Trial of Charles I, London, 1964, p.204.
57 Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, Vol. II, London, 1721, p.703.
58 Ibid. The last statement about the contents of the great coffin is a reference to the story that Henry VIII’s body had been removed and destroyed in Mary I’s reign.
59 On p.362 of the hand-foliated and heavily annotated copy of Pote’s History and Antiquities of Windsor Castle, given to the Chapter by Dr Joseph Goodall, Provost of Eton, in 1814. It was previously owned by a G. Wingfield; the MS notes are by a Capt. Wingfield. (Pote, a Windsor bookseller, is traditionally believed to have written the History; this copy is signed by the true author, John Stapletoft.) The cost of the re-laying of the choir was met by William Childe, organist.
60 Pote, p.362.
61 They were seeking to prove that Charles I was buried there.
62 Halford, p.10. The wall at the west end of the vault had been partly pulled down and repaired again ‘not by regular masonry but by fragments of stones and bricks, put rudely and hastily together without cement’.
63 Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Oxford, 1807, Vol. III, pt.i, p.393.
64 Bound at the back of the copy of Halford in the Chapter Archives of St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
65 Annual Reports of the Friends of St George’s 1933–1950, p.10.
66 St George’s Chapter Acts VI B:9, p.109.
Bibliography
PRIMARY SOURCES
Manuscript Sources
BRITISH LIBRARY
Add. MS 4,724 – Orationes or Declamations in Latin and Greek written by Edward VI, 1548–52.
Add. MS 6,059 – Astronomical calendar in Latin, owned by Sir John Cheke and later by William Cecil, First Baron Burghley.
Add. MS 27,402, fol.47 – ‘A list of such were executed in Henry VIII’s time.’
Add. MS 30,536, Vol. 1, fol.194b – Account of obsequies observed in Paris after Henry VIII’s death (in French in an eighteenth-century hand).
Add. MS 32,655, fols.98 and 100 – Letter from Francis Talbot, Lord Shrewsbury, and others to Queen Katherine Parr and the Council relating to Scottish Border issues, 14 and 18 July 1544; fol.168 – Letter from Queen Katherine Parr to the Wardens of the [Scottish] East and West Marches, 2 September 1544.
Add. MS 45,368 – Inventory of jewels and plate belonging to Henry VIII.
Add. MS 45,716 A – Book of New Ordering of the King’s Most Honourable Household, fols. 12–15 – Details of the ceremonial for the christening of Prince Edward, 15 October 1537.
Add. MS 46,348, fols.168b–171b – Inventory of Queen Katherine Parr’s jewels; fol.206 – Details of pet dog’s collar.
Cotton MS Galba B x, fol.8 – Letter from August de Augustini to the Duke of Norfolk reporting several audiences with Charles V, Ghent, 3 June 1531.
Cotton MS Nero C x, fol.6 – Rough draft of a letter from Queen Katherine Parr to Prince Edward, January 1546.
Cotton MS Nero C x 4, fol.3 – Prince Edward to Henry VIII, from Hatfield, 27 September 1546, and to Katherine Parr from Hertford, 10 January 1547.
Cotton MS Otho C x – Matters relating to the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Queen Anne of Cleves.
Cotton MS Titus B i, fol.94 – Letter from Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, to the Privy Council from the Tower of London.
Cotton MS Titus B i, fol.388 – Letter from the Duke of Norfolk’s wife to Thomas Cromwell, complaining of her ‘hard usage’ by him.
Cotton MS Titus B ii 25, fol.51 – Letter, 31 January 1547, from Henry Ratcliff, Earl of Sussex, to his wife, announcing the death of Henry VIII.
Cotton MS Vespasian F iii, fol.18 – Letter from Prince Edward to Queen Katherine Parr, from Hunsdon, 24 May 1546.
Cotton MS Vitellius C i, fol.65B – Instructions from Henry VIII to Sir William Sidney and Sir John Cornwallis for the arrangements of Prince Edward’s household.
Egerton MS 985, fol.33 – Ceremonial for the christening of Prince Edward.
Harleian MS 297, fol.256 – Confession of the Duke of Norfolk in the Tower of London, 12 January 1547.
Harleian MS 5,087, no.17 – Letter from Prince Edward to Queen Katherine Parr, from The More, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, 12 August 1546.
Harleian MS 5,087, no.31 – Letter from Prince Edward to Henry VIII from Hertford, 10 January 1547, thanking him for his New Year’s gift.
Harleian MS 5,087, no.35 – Letter from Edward, now king, to Dowager Queen Katherine Parr, written from the Tower of London, 8 February 1547.
Lansdowne MS 6, no.31 – Letter from the Lord Treasurer to Sir William Cecil, dated 12 September 1563, regarding Henry VIII’s tomb.
Lansdowne MS 116, no.13 – Certificate to the Lord Treasurer on the state of the tombs of Henry VII at Westminster and Henry VIII at Windsor.
Lansdowne MS 874, fol.49 – Collection of epitaphs and arms in various churches and chapels, showing eight banners used in Henry’s funeral, still hanging in St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
Lansdowne MS 1,236, fol.9 – Letter from Queen Katherine (Parr) to Henry VIII, Greenwich, 1544, ‘full of duty and respect’; fol.26 – Letter from the Lady Mary (afterwards Mary I) to Lord Admiral (Seymour) declining to become involved in his suit for marriage to the dowager queen, dated 3 June 1547.
Royal MS 2A xvi – Psalter in Latin with three canticles from St Luke’s Gospel, c.1540.
Royal MS 2D iii – Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon translated into Latin elegiac verses by Martinus Briannaeus.
Royal MS 7B xi–xii – Archbishop Cranmer’s so-called Commonplace Book.
Royal MS 7C xvi, fol.92 – ‘The names of such officers in ordinary of the chamber of the late king’s majesty as are now discharged,’ c.1547.
Royal MS 7C xvi, fol.94 – ‘Such gentlemen, yeomen, grooms and others that remain unplaced and served the king’s majesty being prince,’ c.1547.
Royal MS 7C xvi, fol.96 – ‘The names of such of the king’s majesty’s servants as are newly placed in ordinary of the chamber,’ c.1547.
Royal MS 7D ix – Prayers and Meditations composed by Queen Katherine Parr, published after 1548.
Royal MS 7D x – Queen Katherine Parr’s Prayers and Meditations translated into French, Latin and Italian by Princess Elizabeth, with a dedicatory letter to Henry VIII, dated 20 December 1545.
Royal MS 7D xx – Lectures in Latin on the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis – a New Year’s gift to Edward VI from Glaterus Doloenus.
Royal MS 17B xl – Exhortation to Queen Mary for reformation of rents from Philip Gerrard, yeoman of the guard.
Sloane MS 1,047 – Book of recipes for medicin
es and balms.
Stowe MS 142, fol.14 – Henry VIII’s admonishment of Sir Thomas Arundell and the other Justices of the Peace in Cornwall for remissness and threatening to ‘correct the lewdness of the offenders in this behalf’.
Stowe MS 396, fol.8 – Report of the trial of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, 1546.
Stowe MS 492 – Register of the Acts of the Privy Council, 31 January 1547 to 4 October 1549. [Copy of the original. Bought c.1748 from a cheesemonger’s shop, where it was used for waste paper.]
NATIONAL ARCHIVES (AT THE FORMER PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE)
‘NA’ prefix National Archives.
‘E’ series records of the exchequer and related bodies, including the Office of First Fruits and the Court of Augmentations.
‘KB’ series records of the Court of King’s Bench.
‘LC’ series records of the Lord Chamberlain and officers of the Royal Household.
‘LR’ series records created by the Court of Augmentations/Office of Auditors, Land Revenue.
‘PCC/PROB’ series Prerogative Court of Canterbury, responsible for probate and granting administrations from 1383 onwards.
‘PRO’ series notes and transcripts created within the Public Record Office.
‘SP’ series State Papers.
NOTE: Some documents were created and are catalogued by regnal year rather than calendar year.
E 23/4/1 – Henry VIII’s will, dated 30 December 1546.
E 30/1,472/6 – Licence by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, for the marriage between Henry VIII and Katherine Latymer, née Parr, issued at Lambeth, 29 July 1540.
E 101/60/22 – Account of Sir Walter Stonor, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, for expenses incurred in boarding the Earl of Surrey and Duke of Norfolk as prisoners.
E 101/424/5 – Expenses of the queen’s household, 38 Henry VIII and 1 Edward VI.
E 101/424/8 – Allowances for a child named Ralfe Lyons, who was given to Henry VIII.
E 154/2/45 – Inventories of goods of attainted persons: Sir John Gates, Andrew Dudley, Francis Jobson and Thomas Palmer, knights, 1553.
E 314/22 – Vouchers of expenses for the household of Queen Katherine Parr, 37–38 Henry VIII.
E 315/160 – Household book of Sir Anthony Denny, Keeper of the Palace of Westminster, 34 Henry VII to 2 Edward VI. PRO 31/17/40 is a nineteenth-century transcription of fols.1–40 of this book.
E 315/256 – Book of payments … made within the office of Sir John Williams, 1547.
E 315/340 – Book of receipts and payments from Comptroller to Queen Katherine Parr, including rewards and payments made by her command, 1547.
E 315/384/16 – Book of the receipts of the lands of the queen (Katherine Parr) and of Lord Seymour of Sudeley, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Hereford, 2 Edward VI.
E 328/131/1 – Indenture of agreement between Henry VIII, Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Herbert, granting custody and marriage of Margaret and Mary Audley, daughters and co-heiresses of Sir Thomas Audley, 7 January 1545.
E 336/27 – Court of First Fruits and Tenths, and Exchequer, Office of First Fruits and Tenths.
E 351/3,203 – Works and buildings payments, 1565.
E 351/3,209 – Works and buildings payments, 1573–4.
E 351/3,221 – Works and buildings payments 1586–7.
KB 8/14 – Special Commission of Oyer and Terminer with charges against Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, 10 January 1538 (roll in Latin).
KB 8/22 – Special Oyer and Terminer roll and file, principal defendants and charges: Sir John Gate and others, levying war against Queen Mary and proclaiming Lady Jane Grey queen in Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
LC 2/2 – Wardrobe accounts for the funeral of Henry VIII.
LR 2/115 – Inventory of the goods of the Duke of Norfolk at Kenninghall and Castle Rising, Norfolk, and of Henry, Earl of Surrey, at St Leonard’s by Norwich, as at December 1546.
PCC PROB 11/32 F 37 Populwell – Will of Sir Anthony Denny, 7 September 1549.
PCC PROB 11/34 F 13 Bucke – Will of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, 1551.
PCC PROB 11/36 F 11 Tashe – Will of Dame Joan Denny, 1553.
PCC PROB 11/40 – Will of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.
PRO 31/17/40 – Nineteenth-century transcript of fols.1–40 of E 315/160.
SC 12/14/10 – Brief valor [list and valuation] of lands of Thomas Seymour, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Berkshire.
SP 1/217 – Letters and state papers, April–May 1546.
SP 4 – Documents issued under Henry VIII’s ‘dry stamp’, 1545–7, in one volume.
SP 10/1, fol.41 – Letter from Thomas Seymour, Lord Admiral, to Katherine Parr, 1547.
SP 10/1/1 – Letter from Hertford to Paget, 29 January 1547.
SP 10/1/9 – Planned order of service for the coronation of Edward VI.
SP 10/1/11 – ‘List of promotions to dignities’ dated 15 February 1547 but probably drawn up at the end of December 1546 and later amended by Secretary Paget.
SP 10/1/17 – Instructions for Henry VIII’s funeral.
SP 10/3/7 – Account of gold, rings and precious stones removed from the king’s secret jewel house at Westminster, 12 February 1547.
SP 10/4/14 – Letter from Thomas Seymour to his wife, the dowager queen, about travelling with her to her confinement at Sudeley Castle.
SP 10/5/2 – Letter from the Lord Protector to his brother, Thomas Seymour, Syon, Middlesex, 1 September 1548.
SP 10/6/9 – ‘Deposition of Sir Richard Cotton’, ?January 1549.
SP 10/6/10 – State Papers, January–April 1549. Testimony of John Fowler.
SP 10/6/21 – ‘Deposition of Catherine “Cat” Ashley’, 4 February 1549.
SP 10/13/35 – State Letters and Papers, 1551.
SP 10/15/3 – State Letters and Papers, September–December 1552.
SP 11/1, fols.16–17v – Questions posed by the Duke of Northumberland at his trial, 18 August 1553.
SP 12/43, fol.73 – Letter from the Marquis of Winchester to Sir William Cecil dated 20 July 1567 including new plans for Henry VIII’s tomb for consideration.
SP 46/1, fol.14 – Thomas Lord Seymour, letter to the queen (Katherine Parr) on their love affair.
SP 46/2, fol.101 – Commission under seal of Court of Augmentations to require Lady Jane Denny, relict of Sir Anthony Denny, to account for stuff late in his charge at the Palace of Westminster.
BODLEIAN LIBRARY, OXFORD
Ashmolean MS 1729 – Letter from Katherine Parr to Thomas Seymour, 1547.
Gough Maps 45, 17,554, no.63 – A drawing, probably by Cornelius Cure, for Edward VI’s tomb (never constructed).
Rawlinson MS D.1070.4 – Letter from Katherine Parr to Thomas Seymour, 1547.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE RECORD OFFICE
Dent-Brocklehurst Papers, D2579, ‘Z’ box.
ST GEORGE’S CHAPEL, WINDSOR, CHAPTER ARCHIVES AND LIBRARY
Chapter Acts VI B:2, fol.31b.
Chapter Acts VI B:3, p.11, 31 May 1661.
Chapter Acts VI B:9, p.109.
Chapter Acts XI F:6.
Chapter Acts XIV, Bundle for 1883.
HATFIELD HOUSE
Cecil Papers 1/22 – Deposition of Dr William Butts, one of Henry VIII’s doctors, to the commission inquiring into the validity of Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves.
Cecil Papers 1/23 – Deposition of the king to the commission inquiring into the validity of his marriage to Anne of Cleves.
Cecil Papers 133/2 and 133/3 – Two letters written by Katherine Parr to her husband, Lord Seymour of Sudeley.
Cecil Papers 133/4/2 – Letter by Princess Elizabeth denying that she was pregnant by Lord Seymour.
Cecil Papers 150/74 – Confession of J. Harrington concerning the Lord High Admiral.
Cecil Papers 150/85 – Deposition of Catherine Ashley, governess to Princess Elizabeth.
Printed Sources
APC – Acts o
f the Privy Council, new series:
Vol. I, 1542–7, John Roche Dasent (ed.), London, 1890.
Vol. II, 1547–50, John Roche Dasent (ed.), London, 1890.
Vol. III, 1550–2, John Roche Dasent (ed.), London, 1891.
Brigden, Susan (ed.), ‘Letters of Richard Scudamore to Sir Philip Hoby’, Camden Miscellany, Camden Society 4th series, 39 (1990), pp.67–148.
CPR – Calendar Patent Rolls:
Philip & Mary, 1554–5, Vol. II, London, 1936.
Philip & Mary, 1555–7, Vol. III, London, 1938.
Philip & Mary, 1557–8, Vol. IV, London 1939.
Ellis, Henry (ed.), ‘Eminent Men’ – Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, London, 1843.
— ‘History’ – Original Letters Illustrative of English History, 2nd series, 3 vols., London, 1825–7.
Feuilleist, Albert, Documents Relating to the Revels at Court in the time of Edward VI and Queen Mary, Louvain, 1914, reprinted 1963.
Foxe, John, ‘Acts’ – Acts and Monuments, J. Pratt (ed.), 8 vols., London, 1874.
— ‘Narratives’ – Narratives of the Days of the Reformation, John Gough Nichols (ed.), Camden Society, Westminster, 1859.
Gardiner, Bishop Stephen, A Detection of the Devil’s Sophistry, Wherewith he Robbeth the Unlearned People of the True Belief in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, London, 1546.
Goldsmid, E. and G. Goldsmid (eds.), A Collection of Eighteen Rare & Curious Historical Tracts & Pamphlets, Edinburgh, 1886.
Hall, Edward, Chronicle, London, 1809.
Haynes, Samuel (ed.), A Collection of State Papers … left by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, London, 1740.
Jordan, W. K., Chronicle and Political Papers of Edward VI, London, 1966.
Kaulek, J. (ed.), Correspondance Politique de MM de Castillon et de Marillac, Paris, 1885.
Legg, J. Wickham, Missale ad usum ecclesie Westmonasteriensis, 3 vols., London, 1891–7.
‘Lisle Letters’ – The Lisle Letters, Muriel St Clare Byrne (ed.), 6 vols., Chicago and London, 1981.
The Last Days of Henry VIII Page 34