Crown of Blood

by Nicola Tallis

  6 Robinson (ed.), Original Letters, p. 276.

  7 A date in 1537 appears to contradict all of the other evidence. Equally, the assertion of Roger Ascham, the tutor of Jane’s cousin Elizabeth, that Jane was about fifteen years old in 1550, placing her birthdate at some time in 1535, defies all other accounts.

  8 Robinson (ed.), Original Letters, p. 276.

  9 Ibid. In April 1550, the German scholar John of Ulm, who met and admired Jane, guessed that her age at that time was about fourteen, which coincides with a birthdate in 1536.

  10 M. Florio, Historia de la vita e de la morte de l’illustriss. Signora Giovanna Graia gia regina eletta e publicata in Inghilterra e de la cose accadute in quell Regno dopo la morte del Re Edoardo VI (Middelburg, 1607), p. 68; see J.S. Edwards, A Further Note on the Date of Birth of Lady Jane Grey’, Notes and Queries, 55 (2008), pp. 146–8. Sir Thomas Chaloner’s Elegy to Jane, published in 1579, also suggests that Jane was in her eighteenth year at the time of her death.

  11 Following the death of Bradgate’s owner, the 2nd Earl of Stamford in 1719, the family ceased to live there. The house then fell into a state of disrepair, and it is now a ruin.

  12 E. Ives, Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery (Chichester, 2011), p. 36; J. Stevenson and A. Squires, Bradgate Park: Childhood Home of Lady Jane Grey (Newtown Linford, 1994), p. 22.

  13 Cited in B.L. Beer, Tudor England Observed: The World of John Stow (Stroud, 1998), p. 23.

  14 The other possibility is that Jane was born at Suffolk Place, the London residence of her paternal grandfather, Charles Brandon. This was not the original Suffolk Place that once occupied a site in Southwark, for on 4 February 1536 the Southwark house was exchanged with the King for Norwich Place on the Strand. The house in Southwark was demolished in 1557. Rather confusingly, Norwich Place then became known as Suffolk Place, and it is possible that Jane was born here, although her grandfather appears to have rarely used the house.

  15 The Dorset House owned by the Grey family is not to be confused with the Dorset House that later occupied a site just off Fleet Street. This second Dorset House was formerly the London residence of the Bishops of Salisbury, and was called Salisbury House. It was acquired by Richard Sackville in 1564, and following the creation of his son Thomas as Earl of Dorset in 1604, it was renamed Dorset House. The house was burned down during the Great Fire of London in 1666, and was not rebuilt. However, the names of several streets in the area indicate where it once stood, namely Salisbury Court and Dorset Rise.

  16 Birthing stools had been in use in Italy since ancient times, and the idea had gradually spread to the rest of Europe.

  17 Wingfield, Vita Mariae, p. 245.

  18 There is also a sketch in the Royal Collection labelled ‘The Duchess of Suffolk’ that may represent Frances. Equally, it may also show her stepmother, Katherine Willoughby.

  19 Charles Brandon’s father, William Brandon, had been standard-bearer to Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. He had fought bravely, but in the thick of the battle he had been cut down and killed by none other than Richard III himself. His death left his wife Elizabeth Bruyn a widow with two young children to support. Although the exact date of Charles’s birth is unknown, it is thought that he was born in 1484, and had an older sister, Anne. At the death of his father, however, Charles appears to have spent some time living with his paternal grandparents, and his uncle Sir Thomas Brandon. It was under Sir Thomas’s influence that Henry VII later found the young Charles a place in the royal household, where he quickly became a firm favourite of the King’s son, Prince Henry (later Henry VIII). Charles was created Duke of Suffolk in 1514.

  20 L&P, I (3151). This was not the first occasion on which Charles Brandon had caused a stir. In around 1505 he had become pre-contracted to Anne, the sister of Sir Anthony Browne, who had formerly served Henry VIII’s mother, Elizabeth of York. In the sixteenth century a pre-contract was tantamount to marriage, an arrangement whereby a couple agreed to marry followed by sexual intercourse. In 1506, however, Charles unchivalrously abandoned Anne Browne shortly after she had given birth to a daughter, named Anne, in order to make a more advantageous marriage to the rich, forty-three-year-old Margaret Mortimer, who was also Anne Browne’s aunt. After Charles had made a large profit from the sale of many of her lands, the marriage was annulled in 1508 at his behest, on the grounds of consanguinity. An outraged Margaret Mortimer made her feelings clear when she declared the annulment of her marriage to be invalid. As if this were not bad enough, Charles then returned to the humiliated Anne Browne, who promptly forgave him and married him, the wedding taking place in Stepney Church. The marriage was short-lived, and though another daughter, Mary, was born in 1510, Anne died shortly after. In 1513 Charles was once more betrothed, this time to his nine-year-old ward, Elizabeth Grey, the daughter and sole heiress of Viscount Lisle (Charles was twenty-nine). The marriage never took place, however, and thus Charles’s marriage to Mary Tudor was his third.

  21 L&P, II (3489). Eleanor was probably born around 1519/20. Her name may have been chosen as a compliment to the sister of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Eleanor, Queen of Portugal and later Queen of France.

  22 There is no record of the elder Henry’s death, and he and his younger brother have often been confused as being the same person. However, this was clearly not the case, as on 1 September 1533 the younger Henry was described as then being ten years old, and may have been just short of his eleventh birthday. Both boys were created Earl of Lincoln by their uncle the King in separate ceremonies. A sculpture of the younger Henry, in which he bears a marked resemblance to his father, can be seen at Wingfield College, of which his parents were patrons, while a portrait once thought to represent Edward VI is now also believed to be Henry.

  23 L&P, II (3489).

  24 Francis was the successor of Mary’s first husband, Louis XII. He had also had some connivance in the Suffolks’ marriage.

  25 Neither Katherine nor Mary were present at Frances’s christening, but representatives were sent on their behalf. This practice was common, and the representatives chosen were Lady Boleyn (aunt of the famous Anne), and Lady Elizabeth Grey. Lady Elizabeth was a sister of the 2nd Marquess, and was therefore the aunt of Jane’s father.

  26 Westhorpe Hall was demolished in 1785, and a residential home now stands on the site it once occupied. A few small fragments from the house still remain, including a bridge decorated with terracotta, the Duke’s heraldic badge, and a pediment bearing the Duchess’s arms which was used to decorate a nearby farmhouse. The parish church of St Margaret in the village still contains the royal box that the family would have occupied when they visited. The family also owned Castle Rising, Henham Hall, Wingfield Castle, Donnington Castle and Ewelme Manor.

  27 S.J. Gunn and P.G. Lindley, ‘Charles Brandon’s Westhorpe: An Early Tudor Courtyard House in Suffolk’, Royal Archaeological Institute, 145 (1988), p. 274.

  28 E. Sadlack (ed.), The French Queen’s Letters (New York, 2011), p. 122.

  29 Anne and Mary’s mother was Anne Browne, who died in 1511. Following her mother’s death, the younger Anne had been sent abroad to serve in the household of Margaret of Austria, a friend of Charles Brandon’s. Soon after his marriage to Mary Tudor, however, Brandon wrote to Margaret requesting the return of his daughter, claiming that ‘the Queen [Mary] has so entreated and prayed me to have her in spite of anything I could say to the contrary’. It is unclear where the younger Mary was at this time, but it seems clear that both girls went to live with their father and stepmother at Westhorpe. In later life both sisters fell out with their father to such an extent that it caused a permanent rift, which may also have extended to their half-sister, Frances.

  30 Despite the long-standing belief that Frances and Henry were married in May 1533, the month before Mary Tudor’s death, the account of her funeral confirms that this was not the case. Frances was referred to as Lady Frances, not as Henry Grey’s wife, which she undoubtedly would have been had she been m
arried at this time.

  31 Robinson (ed.), Original Letters, pp. 406–7.

  32 Ibid.

  33 A. Squires, The Greys (Hale, 2002), p. 9.

  34 Thomas was created Marquess of Dorset by his stepfather, Edward IV, in 1475. The youngest son, Sir Richard Grey, was executed at Pontefract Castle on 25 June 1483 on the orders of Richard III.

  35 Thomas had first been married to Eleanor, the daughter of Oliver St John of Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire. It was an excellent match for Thomas, as Oliver St John was the stepfather of Lady Margaret Beaufort. This brought Thomas into close contact with the royal family; however, almost nothing is known of Eleanor or the marriage. It may have taken place around 1500, but produced no children. By 1509 Eleanor was dead, for that same year Thomas married Margaret Wotton. Margaret was the widow of William Medley, by whom she had a son, George, and the daughter of Sir Robert Wootton of Boughton Malherbe in Kent and his wife Anne Belknap. Margaret had served in the household of Elizabeth of York, where she appears in the Queen’s surviving Privy Purse Expenses.

  36 Astley Castle had been the family’s main seat since the fifteenth century. It had been built by the Astley family, but had come into the possession of the Greys in 1420 through the marriage of Joan Astley to Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn. It was a fortified castle that also provided comfortable accommodation. However, by the twentieth century, the castle had fallen into a bad state of disrepair following the Second World War, and it was restored in the 1950s as a hotel.

  37 Thomas Grey was never as close to the King as Brandon; however, he was still a member of his inner circle. He was a Knight of the Garter, a Privy Councillor and a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, and was entrusted by the King on several important missions. He had escorted Mary Tudor to France for her marriage to Louis XII in 1514, and both he and his wife had attended the ceremony. Much later he was also called upon by the King to give evidence to the effect that Katherine of Aragon’s marriage to Prince Arthur had been consummated, in order to help his divorce suit.

  38 Richmond had been ennobled on 18 June 1525 at Bridewell Palace, with both Frances’s father and Henry’s father playing significant roles in the ceremony. Henry’s father bore the sword, and it was in this same ceremony that Frances’s younger brother Henry was created Earl of Lincoln.

  39 This was not the first occasion on which a royal household had been established at Sheriff Hutton. In 1484, Richard III had chosen Sheriff Hutton as the home of his nephews, the Earl of Warwick and John de la Pole. The following year, Edward IV’s daughters had also been sent to Sheriff Hutton to await the outcome of Henry Tudor’s invasion. Little of the castle remains today.

  40 Leland, cited in J. Chandler, John Leland’s Itinerary: Travels in Tudor England (Stroud, 1993), p. 543.

  41 Sir William Parr of Horton was the uncle of Katherine Parr. He had a track record of impeccable loyalty to Henry VIII, and had fought for the King during his campaign in France in 1513. As a result of this, he was knighted by the King in the cathedral at Tournai on 25 September 1513.

  42 Thomas and his brothers may have been educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford, where Thomas Wolsey, later Cardinal Wolsey, was their tutor. This is certainly possible, as the 1st Marquess of Dorset was an early patron of Wolsey’s.

  43 By January 1513 Palsgrave had been appointed as Princess Mary’s tutor, and following her marriage to Louis XII he accompanied her to France. However, when Mary’s English attendants were dismissed, Palsgrave travelled to Louvain before returning to England in 1517.

  44 L&P, XIII (732).

  45 The 2nd Marquess was laid to rest in the church at Astley alongside his parents. Nearly eighty years after his death, his vault was opened and his body was found to be well preserved. It was noted that he had been five foot eight inches tall and had yellow hair. It has not been disturbed since.

  46 G. Howard, Lady Jane Grey and her Times (London, 1822), p. 36.

  47 CSPS, IV (635).

  48 L&P, V (340).

  49 CSPS, IV (33).

  50 R. Holinshed, Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, 6 vols (London, 1807), p. 25.

  51 Ibid. Little is known of Holinshed’s life with certainty.

  52 Ibid.

  53 L&P, XIII (732).

  54 L&P, VII (153).

  55 Several versions of a portrait of Margaret survive, all based on a sketch by Hans Holbein now in the Royal Collection.

  56 L&P, VI (300).

  57 Dulcie M. Ashdown claims that Henry and Frances were betrothed when they were twelve years old, an assertion that is impossible. Not only had Henry been previously betrothed to Katherine FitzAlan, but Frances’s father had also hoped to arrange a marriage for his daughter with the Earl of Surrey, heir to the Duke of Norfolk. These negotiations came to nothing, as Suffolk could not produce a sufficient dowry.

  58 This marriage took place sometime between September and 19 November 1532, the first occasion on which Katherine is named as the wife of Lord Maltravers.

  59 L&P, V (1557).

  60 Ibid.

  61 Ibid.

  62 Ibid.

  63 As such contracts were considered to be binding, refutation of them was relatively uncommon.

  64 L&P, V (1557).

  65 L&P, VII (153).

  66 L&P, VI (293).

  67 The nature of her illness has never been satisfactorily established, and her only symptom, which may or may not be linked, was referred to in a letter of her husband’s in 1520. Apologizing for his absence from court, Suffolk explained that ‘the Queen has had several physicians for her disease in her side, and cannot yet perfectly recover her health’. Mary was buried in the abbey at Bury St Edmunds. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, her remains were removed to the nearby St Mary’s Church.

  68 Suffolk Place does seem to be the likeliest setting, as members of the royal family and the nobility were often married in London, and Frances’s father rarely left the capital during this period.

  69 L&P, VII (153). In the letter Margaret complained to Cromwell that the Duke of Suffolk was asking for money to help support the couple, Henry then being at court, and ‘my lady his wife being in the country; or else she and her train to be with us’.

  70 There is no evidence that the King was present. However, it has been claimed that he attended the wedding of Frances’s sister, Eleanor, in 1535, and he certainly attended that of their cousin Lady Margaret Douglas in 1544. It seems possible, therefore, that he may also have attended Frances’s wedding.

  71 Frances was often referred to in this way on ceremonial occasions during this period, such as at New Year and at the time of Jane Seymour’s funeral.

  72 Perhaps one of the most famous examples is that of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and Elizabeth Stafford. The couple became estranged when the Duke took a mistress, Bess Holland, and his wife wrote on more than one occasion of the abuse she suffered at his hands. They eventually separated, and Elizabeth was one of those that gave evidence against her husband when he was attainted for treason in January 1547.

  73 P. Heylyn, Ecclesia Restaurata, or the history of the Reformation of the Church of England (London, 1674), p. 148.

  74 A. Strickland, The Tudor Princesses (London, 1868), p. 94.

  75 Harley MS 2342, f. 78v.

  76 Ibid., ff. 78r–79r.

  77 It is of course possible that Frances suffered miscarriages in between the births of her children that have gone unrecorded.

  78 L&P, XII (890).

  79 Jane’s mother, Frances, Prince Edward, and the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth were all christened three days after their births.

  80 L&P, II (3489).

  81 As Antonia Fraser highlights, the term ‘wet nurse’ was first adopted in 1620. Prior to that, women who fulfilled this role were referred to simply as ‘nurses’. A. Fraser, The Weaker Vessel: Woman’s Lot in Seventeenth-century England (London, 1984), p. 77.

  82 Alternatively, there are instances where wet nur
ses had a child that had succumbed to illness, leaving the mother still producing milk.

  83 There is no evidence to prove that Margaret Wotton had any hand in Jane’s upbringing, but it is certainly possible. The relationship between Margaret and her son was strained, so this may also have affected Margaret’s relationship with Frances, and in turn her granddaughter Jane.

  Chapter 2: Rejoiced All True Hearts

  1 R. Porter, London: A Social History (London, 2000), p. 45.

  2 Wynkyn de Worde was William Caxton’s successor.

  3 CSPS, XI, p. 32.

  4 Three of the seven children born to Henry VII and Elizabeth of York died young, as did both of Jane’s maternal uncles, the sons of her grandmother Mary Tudor, both of whom were named Henry Brandon.

  5 CSPV, I (942).

  6 L&P, I (17).

  7 Throughout the course of their marriage Katherine had three sons, two of whom were stillborn, and one who died young.

  8 Henry’s only acknowledged illegitimate child was Henry Fitzroy, his son by Bessie Blount. He may also have had two illegitimate daughters, one of which was born to Anne Boleyn’s sister, Mary.

  9 CSPV, II (1010).

  10 Charles was the son of Philip ‘the Handsome’ of Burgundy, and his wife, Juana of Castile. Juana was Katherine of Aragon’s eldest sister, and was nicknamed ‘the Mad’ due to her unstable behaviour.

  11 Prince Arthur died in 1502 at Ludlow Castle.

  12 Claude was the daughter of Louis XII, Mary Tudor’s first husband, by his second wife, Anne of Brittany. She suffered from scoliosis, which made her appear hunchbacked, but nevertheless she provided her husband, Francis I, with seven children, five of whom survived infancy.