Crown of Blood

by Nicola Tallis

13 William Tyndale’s The Obedience of a Christian Man, and The Supplication of Beggars by Simon Fish are two examples.

  14 CSPV, VI (884).

  15 CSPV, IV (761).

  16 Thomas Cranmer was an enthusiastic advocate of religious reform, and later stood trial alongside Jane. By 1529 he had found favour with the Boleyn family, and took up residence in the household of Sir Thomas Boleyn. He began producing arguments for the annulment of the King’s marriage, and encouraged him to question papal authority.

  17 On 29 May, Henry and Frances’s father, the Duke of Suffolk, were among the gentlemen who escorted Anne to the Tower in accordance with the tradition that she should stay there prior to her coronation. The following day Henry was made a Knight of the Bath, and played an active role in the coronation celebrations, as did his future father-in-law. Henry’s mother also attended the coronation, travelling in the same chariot as the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, the Queen’s step-grandmother.

  18 L&P, VI (1111).

  19 L&P, VI (1540). Henry’s mother visited Mary on two separate occasions. First at Knole on 17 March, before returning on 15 April with her daughters.

  20 Katherine Willoughby was the heiress of William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, and his wife, Maria de Salinas, a Spanish maid of honour and close friend of Katherine of Aragon. The Willoughby family were neighbours of the Suffolk’s, their main residence of Parham Old Hall being about twenty-five miles from Westhorpe. It was here that their daughter Katherine was born on 22 March 1519, their only surviving child, two sons having died in infancy. Following her father’s death in 1526, Katherine became Baroness Willoughby in her own right, and was made a ward of the King.

  21 L&P, VI (1069).

  22 L&P, XII (958).

  23 Henry was born on 18 September 1535. This date was confirmed at the time of his father’s death on 22 August 1545, when he was reported then to be nine years, eleven months and six days old. Charles was born on an unspecified date in either 1537 or 1538.

  24 Henry Brandon died on 1 March 1534.

  25 L&P, X (141).

  26 L&P, X (1047). Sir John Russell also attended Henry VIII’s wedding to Jane Seymour. In 1547, Edward VI granted Sir John Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, and in 1550 he was created Earl of Bedford. Sir John’s descendants, the Dukes of Bedford, still reside in Woburn Abbey today. Sir John came to be closely involved in the events of Jane’s story.

  27 Anne even managed to alienate members of her own family, chiefly her maternal uncle, the Duke of Norfolk.

  28 The Statutes of the Realm, III (London, 1963), 28 Hen. VIII, c. 7.

  29 Ibid.

  30 Richmond was buried in St Michael’s Church, Framlingham, where his tomb can still be seen.

  31 Eleanor may have been married in June 1535 – she was certainly married by January 1536. Her descendant, Lady Anne Clifford, later wrote that Eleanor was married in the presence of the King. Her marriage was an extremely happy one, and in her only surviving letter Eleanor referred to her husband as ‘dear heart’. Though she and her husband spent some time at court, following her marriage Eleanor spent most of her time at her husband’s Yorkshire homes of Skipton Castle and Brougham Castle. At Skipton, her father-in-law built a gallery and a new tower in her honour.

  32 Eleanor’s son, Henry, died in infancy, as did a later son named Charles.

  33 L&P, XII (1186).

  34 Ibid.

  35 Ibid.

  36 Although the rebels had little opportunity to do much damage at Skipton, a letter from the Earl to the King on 31 October reveals the extent of the havoc they were able to wreak on his other estates. A distressed Cumberland complained that the rebels had ‘spoiled my houses at Bardon and Carleton, which were so strong as to take three days in breaking. They have stolen my money and destroyed my evidences, and yet threaten to slay me and my servants.’

  37 L&P, XI (1005).

  38 Sir Francis Bigod was a former ward of Cardinal Wolsey. An ardent evangelical, he was initially opposed to the Pilgrimage of Grace. He was, however, opposed to royal intervention in the church. Following the disbandment of the rebels in December 1536, Bigod doubted the King’s intentions, and it was thus in an attempt to ensure that the King’s promises were carried out that he instigated the second rebellion.

  39 Bigod was captured on 10 February 1537. He was condemned, and hanged at Tyburn on 2 June.

  40 L&P, XII (889).

  41 L&P, XII (922).

  42 L&P, XII (905).

  43 L&P, XII (971).

  44 L&P, XII (972); L&P, XII (1260).

  45 L&P, XII (1105).

  Chapter 3: Anyone More Deserving of Respect

  1 Bradgate was made of brick rather than stone, which made it warmer than traditional castles.

  2 The family continued to use Astley on occasion, as well as their London residence, Dorset House.

  3 L&P, XIII (1237).

  4 Ibid.

  5 Sir Richard Clement of Ightham Mote was married to the widowed Anne Grey, Margaret’s sister-in-law. Anne had first been married to Sir John Grey, the brother of Margaret’s husband, Thomas.

  6 The date of Margaret’s death in 1541 is unknown, as is her place of burial. It seems reasonable to assume that she was laid to rest beside her second husband in the church at Astley. Despite a temporary reconciliation, by March 1539 Margaret was so incensed by her son’s behaviour that she urged Cromwell: ‘let him no longer receive the revenues of those lands which be liable to the wills of my late husband and my lady Cecil, my lord’s mother (Cecily Bonville); for he pays no debts, either to the King or to any other, and I am called upon for them every term. Now in my old age I would live in peace.’

  7 Robinson (ed.), Original Letters, p. 281.

  8 Ibid., p. 282.

  9 H. Chapman, Lady Jane Grey (Boston, 1962), p. 17.

  10 Howard, Lady Jane Grey and her Times, p. 104.

  11 Ibid.

  12 On the same day as the wedding, the King’s chief advisor Thomas Cromwell, who had been the prime mover behind the Cleves marriage, was executed.

  13 According to tradition, Katherine was born at Dorset House. As with her elder sister, her precise date of birth is unknown. At some time the same year, Frances’s sister Eleanor also gave birth to a daughter, named Margaret. Margaret was the only one of Eleanor’s three children to survive infancy.

  14 Mary is thought to have been born in April 1545, at Bradgate Park.

  15 In later life she is known to have owned dogs and a pet monkey.

  16 M. Bateson (ed.), Records of the Borough of Leicester (London, 1899–1905), p. 63.

  17 CSPS, I (315). The precise nature of Mary’s physical disability has never been determined, and nearly five hundred years later it is almost impossible to do so satisfactorily. However, it is possible that she was suffering from kyphosis. Her portrait gives only the slight impression of a hunchback, and that may have been caused by her voluminous clothing, although this may also have helped to conceal it. If Mary did indeed have kyphosis, it would been an extremely painful condition for the young girl, and would probably have greatly impacted on her daily life.

  18 Chapman, Lady Jane Grey, p. 24.

  19 Frances’s only child by her second husband was born on 16 July 1555.

  20 Robinson (ed.), Original Letters, p. 4.

  21 M.A.E. Wood, Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain, from the commencement of the twelfth century to the close of the reign of Queen Mary, III (London, 1846), p. 245.

  22 Elizabeth was William’s second wife, and though the couple had been having an affair since 1543, it was not until 1547 that they were secretly married. There were complications, however, due to the slow pace of divorce proceedings from William’s first wife, Anne Bourchier, and it was not until 1551 that the couple’s marriage was legalized.

  23 Jane is believed to have visited Katherine Willoughby at her home in the Barbican with her mother and sisters on several occasions during Katherine’s widowhood.
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  24 Elizabeth Grey had been married to Thomas Audley, the Lord Chancellor. Audley had died in 1544, and his widow had since remarried. A miniature of Lady Audley by Hans Holbein stills survives in the Royal Collection, and may have been painted to commemorate her marriage to Lord Audley. Audley House still survives, although much altered, and is known today as Audley End House, in the care of English Heritage.

  25 Margaret was later married, first to Lord Harry Dudley, younger brother of Jane’s husband, Guildford. When Harry was killed at the siege of St Quentin in 1557, Margaret later took as her second husband Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk. The couple had four children, but sadly Margaret became ill soon after the birth of her son, Lord William Howard. She died in 1564, aged just twenty-three or twenty-four, and was buried in St John the Baptist’s Church, Norwich.

  26 It does seem plausible that Jane spent some time with her maternal grandfather, Charles Brandon, during her youth. It is unlikely, however, that she saw much of her aunt Eleanor and her family, for Eleanor spent much of her time in distant Yorkshire. Relations between Frances’s elder two half-sisters, Anne and Mary, and the rest of the family appear to have been cool.

  27 Most notably Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth. For the ambitious Bess this was not enough, and with the connivance of Lady Margaret Douglas, the daughter of Henry VIII’s sister Queen Margaret of Scotland, she married her daughter, Elizabeth, to Margaret’s younger son, Charles, who had royal blood flowing in his veins. Their daughter, Arbella, would later become a potential contender for the English throne, but that was all in the future.

  28 Frances held Bess in high regard, and rewarded her good service with a ring, which Bess treasured all of her life. Jewellery was the ultimate sign of favour, even more so than monetary gifts.

  29 Sir William was the Treasurer of the King’s Chamber, and would have known Jane’s parents well from court.

  30 The Cavendish’s first son, Henry, was named after Jane’s father.

  31 Sadly we have no idea exactly how much the debts amounted to, but the fact that it was noted by several of their contemporaries suggests that they may have been significant.

  32 See Bateson (ed.), Records of the Borough of Leicester.

  33 Ibid.

  34 CSPV, VI (884).

  35 H. Bullinger, The Decades of Henry Bullinger, ed. T. Harding (Cambridge, 1852), p. 528.

  36 Robinson (ed.), Original Letters, p. 3. The book arrived in England in the spring of 1551.

  37 Harding seems to have joined the Grey household at the beginning of the 1540s.

  38 T. Becon, ‘The jewel of joy’, The catechism of Thomas Becon ... with other pieces written by him in the reign of King Edward the sixth, ed. J. Ayre, III, Parker Society (London, 1844), p. 424; Aylmer was consecrated in 1577.

  39 Robinson (ed.), Original Letters, p. 277.

  40 Ibid.

  41 Cited in E. Read, Catherine Duchess of Suffolk (London, 1962), p. 29.

  42 L&P, I (5203).

  43 Jane may also have learned to play the virginals.

  44 G.F. Commendone, The Accession, Coronation and Marriage of Mary Tudor, ed. C.V. Malfatti (Barcelona, 1956), pp. 44–5.

  45 The other one was dedicated to Henry Herbert, later 2nd Earl of Pembroke and nephew of Katherine Parr. Henry was briefly married to Jane’s younger sister, Katherine, in 1553.

  46 Chaloner, De Republica, p. 298. According to Chaloner, Jane also knew some Chaldean.

  47 Florio, Historia, p. 26; this was in December 1550.

  48 This presentation copy survives in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Elizabeth later made a New Year’s gift of the translation in three languages of Katherine Parr’s own book, Prayers or Meditations, to her father, Henry VIII.

  49 H. Ellis (ed.), Original Letters Illustrative of English History, II (London, 1825), p. 430.

  Chapter 4: The Imperial Crown

  1 L&P, XIX (273). Jane’s grandfather the Duke of Suffolk also accompanied the expedition, providing 700 men, as did her uncle by marriage, Henry Clifford, now Earl of Cumberland.

  2 Suffolk had attended a meeting of the Privy Council on 19 August, but three days later he died, probably of heart failure. His wife and his daughters, Frances and Eleanor, were by his side at the end and deeply mourned his passing. There are claims that his grandchildren, including Jane, were also present, but this is highly unlikely. They were, after all, still very young.

  3 PROB 11/31/456.

  4 No monument was ever erected to his memory, and a stone slab in the south quire aisle now marks his resting place. Suffolk did not request to be buried beside his third wife Mary, Jane’s maternal grandmother, who was buried in Bury St Edmunds, and instead probably intended that he should be laid to rest beside his fourth wife, Katherine Willoughby.

  5 Margaret’s first marriage to James IV of Scotland had produced James V. The second marriage of James V to Marie de Guise led to the birth of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542. Mary became Queen of Scots when she was just six days old, following the death of her father (possibly of a fever) on 14 December 1542. In December 1543, Henry VIII instigated the conflict known as ‘The Rough Wooing’, which was essentially an attempt to force the Scots to marry their infant queen to Henry’s heir, Prince Edward. The conflict dragged on until March 1551, and the marriage never came to fruition. The child born of Margaret’s second tumultuous marriage to Archibald Douglas was Lady Margaret Douglas.

  6 L&P, XXI (634).

  7 Both Frances and Eleanor had been the recipients of New Year’s gifts from their uncle. In addition, Frances, and possibly Eleanor too, had visited the King at court numerous times, and been present on official occasions.

  8 Sadly, Eleanor died at Brougham Castle in September 1547. Her only surviving letter, though precisely dated, may have been written in the months preceding her death, as it describes her ill health: ‘I have been very sick and at this present my water is very red, whereby I suppose I have the jaundice and the ague both, for I have none abide [no appetite for] meat and I have such pains in my side and towards my back as I had at Brougham, where it began with me first. Wherefore I desire you to help me to a physician and that this bearer may bring him with him, for now in the beginning I trust I may have good remedy, and the longer it is delayed, the worse it will be.’ A definitive diagnosis is impossible, but it is plausible that she was suffering from pancreatic cancer. Eleanor’s husband was devastated by her death. She was laid to rest in the church of Holy Trinity at Skipton, where her remains were disturbed in the seventeenth century, and her skeleton was found to be ‘very tall and large boned’.

  9 Henry Grey was nominated as a Knight of the Garter on many occasions throughout the reign of Henry VIII, but each time the King chose an alternative candidate.

  10 CSPS, IX, p. 7.

  11 CSPS, IX, p. 20.

  12 CSPS, IX, pp. 19–20.

  13 L&P, XXI, Part II (756). The other person named specifically by Chapuys was the Earl of Warwick (later the Duke of Northumberland), Jane’s future father-in-law.

  14 The day before the coronation, the King had processed through the streets from the Tower to the city, Henry proudly bearing the sword of state. During the ceremony itself he carried the sceptre, while at the banquet that followed he was honoured as Lord High Constable. In the British Museum there survives a medal that was made to commemorate Edward’s coronation, the first coronation medal to be produced in England.

  15 The book can be viewed via the Royal Collection website, www.royalcollection.org.uk, catalogue number 1047357.

  16 Foxe, Acts and Monuments, VI, p. 689.

  17 In 1546 the King took great offence when Katherine took the liberty of expressing some of her radical religious views to her husband. Through the influence of some of the conservatives at court, a warrant was drawn up for her arrest, but fortunately for Katherine she was reconciled with her husband before it could be put into effect.

  18 The Act was repealed in the Parliament of 1547, the first of Edward’s reign.


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

  20 Ibid., p. 3.

  Chapter 5: A Loving and Kind Father

  1 Harington studied the composition of music under the great Thomas Tallis, and he was also a gifted poet.

  2 CSPD, VI (182).

  3 S. Haynes (ed.), A Collection of State Papers Relating to the Affairs in the Reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth From the Year 1542 to 1570 (London, 1740), p. 82.

  4 Ibid., p. 105. Seymour also made similar statements to Harington and William Parr.

  5 CSPD, VI (182).

  6 Ibid.

  7 CSPD, V (157).

  8 Katherine had first been married to Sir Edward Burgh in 1529, when she was seventeen. Following his death in 1533, the following year Katherine had taken as her second husband John Neville, Lord Latimer. Almost twenty years Katherine’s senior, Latimer had been twice widowed and had two children from his first marriage. Latimer died on 2 March 1543, and on 12 July the same year Katherine married for a third time, her groom being Henry VIII.

  9 Dent-Brocklehurst MS. The other time Katherine was at liberty to which she referred was the interlude between the death of her second husband, Lord Latimer, and her marriage to Henry VIII.

  10 CSPS, IX, p. 340.

  11 Lansdowne MS 1236, f. 26.

  12 J. Strype, Annals of the Reformation: Ecclesiastical Memorials, II (Oxford, 1820–40), pp. 208–9.

  13 CSPS, IX, p. 123. Precisely when Jane met Katherine Parr for the first time is unknown, but it seems possible, if not likely, that she had met her before Katherine’s marriage to Thomas Seymour. Jane’s parents were frequently at court during Katherine’s queenship, so it is possible that on one of these occasions Jane was introduced to Katherine. However, there is no truth in the story that Jane served as one of Katherine’s ladies. The confusion was caused during the Victorian period when Foxe’s reference to Katherine’s cousin Lady Lane was mistaken for Lady Jane.

  14 Another of Katherine’s dower properties was Hanworth on the outskirts of London, but there is no evidence that Jane ever visited the house.

  15 CSPV, VI (884). This report was made in 1557, shortly before Elizabeth turned twenty-four.