Lady Katherine Knollys

by Sarah-Beth Watkins

  Cromwell compiled evidence against Anne that accused her of adultery with Mark Smeaton, her musician, Sir Henry Norris, a groom of the King’s, William Brereton, another King’s man, Sir Francis Weston and her own brother, George, Lord Rochford as well as conspiracy to murder the king. Two other men, Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Richard Page were also arrested but released without charge. Mark Smeaton was the only one of the men to confess his guilt but this had surely been due to the torture he endured.

  On the 2nd May 1536 Anne was escorted to the Tower of London and placed in the care of the Constable of the Tower, Sir William Kingston. She was conducted to the Queen’s lodgings and left in the company of her attendants. On the 12th, Norris, Brereton, Smeaton and Weston were condemned to be drawn, hanged, castrated and quartered by Lord Chancellor Audley. George was to be tried separately due to his position and status. Tellingly the King dismissed Anne’s servants from her household in Greenwich at this time. Anne was never going to return home.

  Anne was tried before hundreds of spectators. She sat dignified throughout her trial and refuted all charges put to her. But the King had already decided and the trial was merely a formality. Twenty six peers of the realm found her guilty and it was her uncle the Duke of Norfolk who read out:

  Because thou hast offended our sovereign lord the King’s Grace in committing treason against his person, the law of the realm is this: that thou shall be burnt here within the Tower of London on the Green, else to have thy head smitten off, as the King’s pleasure shall be further known of the same.

  On the 17th her brother George and the other men who were accused of adultery with the queen were beheaded on Tower Hill. Anne was executed two days later in the early hours of 19th May 1536. A swordsman from Calais (or St Omer, as a letter written by Mary of Hungary attests) was specifically employed to put an end to this Queen’s life. Some historians believe Katherine was in attendance and witnessed her aunt’s execution. Did Katherine really see her die? She would only have been about twelve at the time. There are no records of her being one of Anne’s four ladies who accompanied her in the Tower but could her mother have sent her to be a companion to Anne in her final days? In an official guide to Westminster Abbey written in 1878, the author, Augustus Hale, presumes Katherine to have been there but she is not mentioned in any correspondence or writing of the times. The king had in fact chosen women to attend her aunt Anne that were not her close companions and could be relied on to be impartial and to report on Anne’s behaviour. These included her aunts, Elizabeth Boleyn and Lady Shelton, Lady Kingston, Mrs Cosyn and Mrs Stonor but some of the women were family and as family Katherine may have been sent to Anne to comfort her in her last hours.

  Katherine may not have been present to see her aunt die but she would surely have heard of her dying words or read of them. Anne left this world with dignity even though she had been accused of acts she did not commit. On the scaffold, she said:

  Good Christian people! I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law, I am judged to death; and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak any thing of that whereof I am accused and condemned to die; but I pray God save the king, and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler, or a more merciful prince was there never; and to me he was ever a good, a gentle, and a sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle with my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world, and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me! To God I commend my soul.

  There is such controversy over why Anne did not speak out against the King if she truly was innocent. For five men including her brother to have had relations with her seems implausible but maybe there was guilt in some part. Anne had known that her downfall was coming and she may have tried to stop its progress by becoming pregnant by one of her male companions.

  But she may also have been kept from denouncing the King and protesting her innocence because she wanted to keep Elizabeth safe. Elizabeth was her pride and joy and she demonstrated much affection for her. Before Anne’s execution, her marriage was declared null and void making the Princess Elizabeth a bastard also. It is rumoured that the grounds on which the marriage was declared invalid again mentioned Katherine’s mother, Mary and her relationship with the King. The Succession Act of 1536 would put into law that any children from Henry and Jane Seymour’s marriage would be the King’s legitimate heirs or failing that that he would write in his will who the next ruler after him would be - Mary and Elizabeth were now his illegitimate daughters and were effectively written out of the succession. Katherine would never have featured into King Henry’s plans - she was irrelevant as the daughter of his mistress as now were his daughters from his previous marriage.

  This child, Elizabeth, left without her mother and ignored by her father, was to grow up to be Queen against the odds and become Katherine’s dearest friend, employer and early playmate.

  Chapter Three

  Growing Up with Elizabeth and Mary

  After Queen Anne’s death, Elizabeth was forgotten for a time and Lady Bryan had to write to Cromwell. The letter gives us great insight into how the household and Elizabeth was faring after her mother’s death. Lady Bryan tells it like it is, so much so, that Cromwell added a note saying ‘Apologises for her boldness in writing thus.’

  …When your lordship was last here you bade me not mistrust the King or you, which gave me great comfort, and encourages me now to show you my poor mind. When my lady Mary was born the King appointed me lady Mistress, and made me a baroness; “And so I have been a m[other] to the children his Grace have had since.” Now, as my lady Elizabeth is put from that degree she was in, and what degree she is at now I know not but by hearsay, I know not how to order her or myself, or her women or grooms. I beg you to be good lord to her and hers, and that she may have raiment, for she has neither gown nor kirtle nor petticoat, nor linen for smocks, nor kerchiefs, sleeves, rails, bodystychets, handkerchiefs, mufflers, nor “begens.” “All thys har Graces mostake I have dreven of as long as I can, that, be my trothe, I cannot drive it no lenger.”

  Mr. Shelton says he is master of this house. “What fashion that shal be I cannot tel, for I have not sen it afore.” I trust to your lordship, who, as every man reports, loveth honor, to see this house honorably ordered, “howsom ever it hath been aforetime.” If the head of [the same] know what honor meaneth it will be the better ordered; if not, it will be hard to bring it to pass. Mr. Shelton would have my lady Elizabeth to dine and sup every day at the board of estate. It is not meet for a child of her age to keep such rule. If she do, I dare not take it upon me to keep her Grace in health; for she will see divers meats, fruits, and wine, that it will be hard for me to refrain her from. “Ye know, my lord, there is no place of correction there; and she is too young to correct greatly.” I beg she may have a good mess of meat to her own lodging, with a good dish or two meet for her to eat of; and the reversion of the mess shall satisfy her women, a gentleman usher, and a groom; “which been eleven persons on her side.” This will also be more economical.

  My lady has great pain with her teeth, which come very slowly. This makes me give her her own way more than I would. “I trust to God and her teeth were well graft to have her Grace after another fashion than she is yet; so, as I trust, the King’s Grace shall have great comfort in her Grace. For she is as toward a child and as gentle of conditions as ever I knew any in my life, Jesu preserve her Grace. As for a day or two at a hey time or whansomever it shall please the King’s Grace to have her set abroad, I trust so to endeavour me that she shall so do as shall be to the King’s honor and hers; and then after to take her ease again. I think Mr. Shelton will not be content with this. He may not know it is my desire, but that it is the King’s pleasure and yours it should be so.”

  From Hunsdon with the evil hand of your daily bede woman. 1

  Katherine sympathised with the two girls that she spent her days
with. As Katherine reached her twelfth birthday, Elizabeth was three while Mary was twenty. While Elizabeth was kept in the dark about the execution of her mother, Mary was well aware of her mother’s death at the cold and forbidding castle of Kimbolton. The atmosphere in the nursery was surely charged with the emotions of the usurped Princess and the servants who tried to keep Elizabeth from knowing the truth about what had happened to Queen Anne.

  Katherine herself had said goodbye to her mother two years before when she left court. Mary Boleyn had followed the example Mary Tudor had set and married a man for love. In the previous chapter, we saw how Katherine’s mother had remarried in 1534 and it had caused a scandal. Mary had met William Stafford on a trip to Calais when she had accompanied her sister, Anne and the King. When Mary was sent from court in disgrace, she probably returned with him to Calais. Mary was gone from court and England, leaving her two children behind. Her younger son, Henry, was a ward of the court while Katherine remained in Elizabeth’s household.

  Elizabeth and Mary were now both declared bastards and Katherine joined their ranks for a time as just another daughter of Henry’s. Elizabeth seems to have taken the change to her status in her stride although at such a young age, she would have little concept of what this would mean to her. She is often reported to have said to John Shelton ‘how hath it, yesterday Lady Princess, and today but Lady Elizabeth?’ Henry’s fondness for his daughters rose and fell with his moods and his marital situation. He showed little affection to any of them and Katherine even less. His treatment of them prompted Mary at least to rethink her relationship to her sister. Mary began to treat Elizabeth with more affection and although there was still a shadow of mourning over their household, the girls began to warm to each other. For Mary, there was no longer any point in having tantrums over Elizabeth when she had been reduced to the same status as herself.

  Their father had already been wooing a new lover before Anne’s death and he spared no time in making their betrothal permanent. King Henry and his new Queen, Jane Seymour, were married on the 30th May 1536 in the Queen’s Closet at York Place by Archbishop Cranmer, just 11 days after Anne had been beheaded. It was a quiet affair coming so soon after Anne’s death. Henry had chosen a woman that could never remind him of his previous wife. Jane was everything Anne wasn’t. She was plain, of average height and her appearance prompted Chapuys to comment that ‘nobody thinks she has much beauty’. She was submissive and well-groomed by the Seymour family to become a compliant Queen. Jane was a peaceable Queen, one that didn’t inflame Henry’s temper, unlike Anne. Her motto, bound to obey and serve, says it all.

  Henry kept Jane away from public scrutiny until June when he ceremoniously accompanied her from Greenwich to Whitehall by barge. The people of England who had not welcomed Anne to the throne were more accommodating of Jane and they lined the river to watch the new Queen sail past with their now thrice-married King.

  The nursery household now changed under the reign of another Queen. Elizabeth was disregarded as her mother’s daughter - Henry wanted no reminder of the mess his previous marriage had caused - but Mary was beginning to find more favour at court. Jane had been a firm supporter of her mother, Catherine of Aragon, and she upheld those traditional religious beliefs that the Queen had held so dear. She wanted Mary to regain the king’s favour and pushed him to allow her back to court. But Henry was still incensed by his daughter’s stubbornness. During the time of his divorce from her mother, Mary had refused to acknowledge her father as the Supreme Head of the Church of England and she would not agree that his marriage to her mother had been unlawful. Henry became so angry that he considered trying Mary for treason. Jane tried to intervene but this made Henry even angrier. Days passed where Mary tried to engage her father in discussion by writing to him and assuring him of her loyalty but he refused to answer her letters. She was told that unless she signed a paper of submission agreeing he was the Head of the Church, she was placing herself in great danger. Mary held out for as long as she could but eventually she signed the document agreeing to everything that she was against. She had been worn down and in fear of her life. There was nothing else she could do.

  And the change was almost immediate. Henry was delighted that Mary had finally succumbed to his will and he began discussing her return to court. Jane couldn’t have been happier. She wanted Mary to attend her and to take her place as Henry’s daughter and her companion. Jane’s brother was dispatched to present her with a new horse and to arrange her court wardrobe, preparing ahead for her triumphant return. Mary was delighted and wrote to Cromwell:

  After my most hearty commendations, it is so long since I heard from the King my father that I am bold to send my servant, the bearer, with letters to the King and Queen to know how they do. If I have sent too soon molesting his Grace with my rude letters, please make my excuse. Till he shall licence me to come to his presence my comfort is to hear often of his health. My lord, your servant hath brought me the well favored horse that you have given me, with a very goodly saddle, for the which I do thank you with all my heart. I trust the riding upon him shall do my health much good, for I am wont to find great ease in riding. Your benefits increase daily towards me’. 2

  When finally Mary met with her father again, it had been six years since she had been in his presence. Jane took on the role of step-mother to Mary now Henry had warmed again to his eldest daughter. She was allowed her place at court even though she was not restored as Princess and she struck up a friendship with Jane that appears to have been mutual and pleasant for them both. But what about Elizabeth? Jane made no overt moves to include Elizabeth in court life or help her regain her father’s favour. She was still young and perhaps Jane saw little point in making a fuss over her. Her mother’s death and disgrace were still too raw to have the little girl at court, a reminder of the past queen, and Jane would only have incurred Henry’s wrath if she had pressed him to be more attentive to the girl.

  Mary had softened though and even began to buy Elizabeth small gifts and send them to her at Hatfield, visiting when she could. In July of 1536, Mary had written to her father concerning Elizabeth ‘and such a child toward, as I doubt not but your Highness shall have cause to rejoice of in time coming; as knoweth Almighty God, who send your Grace, with the Queen my good mother, health, with the accomplishment of your desires.’3 Not only was Mary warming to Elizabeth but she had wholly accepted Jane as her new mother.

  Jane’s peaceful nature had calmed the relationship between the girls and Mary’s troubled behaviour was soothed so that the nursery became a place of tranquillity again and Elizabeth and Katherine could continue growing up as young girls do. It was a short-lived peace. The girls would be attending Queen Jane’s funeral the very next year but before then there was a new addition to the family, born on 12th October 1537, their half-brother, Edward, the future King. Henry finally had the son that he had been waiting for and he was overjoyed. Bells rang across London, choirs sang, the celebrations were copious and the people rejoiced to have a male heir to Henry’s throne at last.

  Mary had already been with Queen Jane throughout the later stages of pregnancy and her labour at Hampton Court Palace. Elizabeth was allowed to visit them after Edward’s birth and they both attended their brother’s christening three days later. Katherine would probably have stayed at Hatfield although she may have been in Elizabeth’s retinue. Mary acted as Edward’s godmother while Elizabeth carried his heavily embroidered baptismal cloth or chrisom although she too was being carried, by Edward Seymour, the newly-created Viscount Beauchamp. Jane, like other new mothers, did not attend the christening but dressed in velvet and furs and sat waiting on a day bed in her chamber to receive the christening guests. Three days later, she collapsed, exhausted by a labour that had lasted three days and from which she would never recover.

  Edward’s birth was bittersweet. When Jane Seymour died of puerperal fever just twelve days after he came into the world, Henry had lost a wife that he had, for once, b
een happy with. No-one had expected to lose the twenty-nine year old queen, least of all the king though we know that this was sadly often the case with many Tudor pregnancies. Some historians have suggested that she died of a caesarean birth but there is no evidence for this and she would hardly have been able to receive visitors after the christening had that been the case. This was not the time of safe surgical intervention. If a caesarean was performed in those days, it was fatal for the mother. Others thought that Jane’s care had not been sufficient and that she had caught a chill but the most likely explanation is that she succumbed to childbed or puerperal fever caused by uterine infection after such a tough and prolonged labour.