by S B Chrimes
QUEEN ELIZABETH
No original portrait of Queen Elizabeth (of York) survives. All extant portraits derive from an original which has not been located but which was probably the one listed in the 1542 and 1547 inventories of Henry VIII and Edward VI. This was the one used by Holbein for the 1537 Privy Chamber fresco-group. The National Portrait Gallery picture (No. 311) is a version by an unknown artist of this original, probably late sixteenth century in date2 (Plate 13b).
Queen Elizabeth also had her funeral effigy (Plate 16b), the arrangements for which are documented more fully than usual. The head carved in wood also needed partial nasal restoration, for which less technical difficulty was experienced. The hair now attached is however entirely modern and cannot be regarded as characteristic of Elizabeth as she actually was.3 It is assumed, without any particular evidence, that Torrigiano may have used the original effigy for his bronze tomb effigy of her (Plate 16c).
THE TRANSEPT WINDOW OF GREAT MALVERN PRIORY CHURCH
This magnificent window, depicting with a splendid wealth of colour and detail the Joys of Mary, contained at the bottom in the place usually reserved for the commemoration of the donors pictures of Sir Thomas Lovell (now very fragmentary), Sir John Savage (now lost except for a tabard bearing his arms), Sir Reginald Bray, Prince Arthur, Queen Elizabeth (now very fragmentary), and Henry VII. The pictures of the king, the prince, and Bray are in excellent (restored) condition.1 Underneath these pictures runs the legend (partially restored): Orate pro bono statu nobillissimi Et: excellentissimi regis Henrici septimi Et: Elisabethe regine ac domini Arturis: principis filii eorundem nec non: Predilectissime consortis sue: Et suorum trium militum predictorum.2
The picture of Henry VII, as restored in 1917, shows him ‘kneeling at a carved desk covered with a white cloth and hung with red, on which is an open book with a gold sceptre lying on it. Behind it is a handsome gold, jewelled, and crested canopy.’3
No evidence has so far come to light to prove that Henry VII himself was the donor of this window. We are dependent at present upon the fact that there is the row of six pictures in the line usually reserved for ‘donors’. All or some or one of these might in theory have been responsible. But if the Sir John Savage depicted is the person greatly favoured by Henry VII, as is almost certain, he was killed at the siege of Boulogne in 1492. He at any rate can hardly himself have been a donor.4 It is furthermore unlikely that the king himself would have thought it proper to commemorate Lovell and Bray, important councillors and officials as they were, along with his queen and son in a church window. Far more likely that Lovell and Bray initiated the project, doubtless with the king’s permission and approval, as Rushforth suggested. Of the two, Sir Reginald Bray, with his well known interest in architecture, his part in the design of St George’s chapel, Windsor, and Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey, and his close connections with Malvern and his other benefactions to the priory church, is by far the most likely instigator, though not necessarily the sole donor. Lovell also had his connections with Malvern.1
We can be certain that the window was completed before the death of Prince Arthur on 2 April 1502 – he was buried in Worcester Cathedral – and therefore also before the death of Queen Elizabeth on 11 February 1503. But we cannot be so confident of the date of its initiation. We cannot jump to the conclusion that because the bidding prayer refers to the prince’s consort therefore it was not initiated before their wedding on 14 November 1501, though it might have been completed after that date. It is surely inconceivable that the great window could possibly have been made between 14 November 1501 and 2 April 1502. Nor is there any need for such an improbable supposition. In fact the couple were married by proxy three times before the final wedding, for the first time on 19 May 1499, and for the third time in November 1500. At any time after 19 May 1499 the window might have been started and the legend completed in its present form, or the legend itself added at any time before the prince’s death. The date of the window may therefore be put at any time between 19 May 1499 and 2 April 1502, but hardly so far back as before the death of Sir John Savage in October 1492.
Indeed late 1499 or early 1500 is a highly likely date for other reasons. The manor of Malvern Chace had been part of the Neville family estates which formed part of the inheritance of Edward, earl of Warwick. During the minority of the earl his lands had been in the hands of the Crown. As a consequence of the attainder and execution of Warwick on 28 November 1499, Henry VII found himself lord of the manor of Malvern Chace. But Richard, duke of Gloucester, had married Anne Neville, Warwick’s mother’s sister, and therefore he had an interest in part of the Neville lands.
The great west window of the priory church had been donated by Richard. His arms and those of his wife, as well as those of Edward IV’s son and heir Edward, the future Edward V, appear on windows within the church. A powerful motive, therefore, for the provision of a splendid piece of Tudor commemorative piety was manifest from late 1499, whether or not Henry VII personally instigated it or contributed to it.
1 Roy Strong, Tudor and Jacobean portraits, 2 vols (1969), I, 149–52; and II, Plates 290, 291; N.P.G. 416.
2 At least six of the first type and three of the second are known, ibid. I, 151.
3 ibid. I, 151, 154; II, Plates 305, 307.
4 ibid. I, 151; II, Plate 292; J. Pope-Hennessy, Italian Renaissance sculpture (1958), 320–1.
5 ibid. I, 151; II, Plate 297.
6 See below, p. 335 if.
1 For references, see p. 225 above.
2 Strong, op. cit. I, 151; II, Plate 294; H. Bouchot, Les portraits aux crayons des 16e et 17e siècles (Paris, 1884).
3 Strong, op. cit. I, 151; II, Plate 296.
4 W. H. St John, ‘On the funeral effigies of the kings and queens of England, with special reference to those in the Abbey Church of Westminster’, Archaeologia, LX (1907), 517–70, and plates LXI and LXII. For the cost of the various items required for the interment, see ibid. 539–40. The cost of the ‘pictour’ or effigy was £6 12s 8d.
5 R. P. Howgrave-Graham, ‘The earlier royal funeral effigies: new light on portraiture in Westminster Abbey’, prepared for publication by Martin Holmes, ibid. XCVIII (1961), 159–69, esp. 166–7, and plates LI and LII.
1 The fine hair – bright red and grey – which was attached to the mask, Mr Howgrave-Graham thought might perhaps be Henry’s own. But this is unlikely, since Polydore Vergil (ed. Hay, 144–5) describes his hair as ‘thin and white’. Vergil also describes his eyes as small and blue (ceruleos) or alternatively, bluish-grey (glaucis) (ibid. 144). Strong (op. cit. 149) describes the N.P.G. portrait by Sittow as showing dark grey eyes with brown hair streaked with grey.
2 Strong, op. cit. I, 98; II, Plate 182.
3 St John Hope and Howgrave-Graham, loc. cit., respectively, 546, 550, and Plate LX; and 164–5 and Plates XLIX (d) and (e), and L.
1 G. McN. Rushforth, Medieval Christian imagery as illustrated by the painted windows of Great Malvern Priory Church (1936), has a most exhaustive and scholarly account, esp. 373 ff. L. A. Hamand, The ancient windows of Great Malvern Priory Church (1947), offers a useful short survey, esp. 69–81.
2 ‘Pray for the good estate of the most noble and most excellent King Henry the seventh and of Elizabeth Queen and of the lord Prince Arthur their son and also of his most well-beloved consort and of their three knights aforesaid.’
3 Hamand, op. cit. 80 (Plate 14a).
4 Confusion arises, as in Rushforth (op. cit. 373), because this Sir John’s father, also Sir John Savage, of Clifton, Cheshire, lived until 1495 and it was he who married Katherine Stanley, sister of Thomas Lord Stanley, earl of Derby, Henry VII’s stepfather. Their nine sons included the Sir John who presumably was the subject of the picture. This Sir John, who also had a son John (eventually knighted but not much before 1504), climbed in the service of Edward IV and Richard III. He was made a knight of the Bath in 1465, appointed king’s carver, and among other preferments was granted in 1478 £4
0 a year from lands known as the ‘Salisbury’ lands, during the minority of Edward, earl of Warwick. In 1482 he was appointed to survey lands, including the chace of Malvern, which were the inheritance of Warwick from his mother Isabel Neville. Further grants were given him by Richard III. But he deserted the Yorkists, joined Henry of Richmond in Wales and fought at Bosworth, reputedly commanding the left wing. Henry VII took him into great favour. No time was lost in making major grants to him ‘in consideration of his services with a multitude of his brothers, kinsmen, servants, and friends at great costs in the conflict and battle against the king’s great adversary Richard III, eminent in arms as in character and counsel’ (C.P.R., I, 101–2). He had already been granted for life the office of master of the game of Malvern Chace (ibid. 9), and soon among many of the appointments he and his son John were granted in survivorship was the office of sheriff of Worcester (ibid. I, 204). He became one of the king’s more intimate councillors and was made K.G. in 1488. His widow’s name was Margaret (ibid. II, 178). Among his brothers was Thomas Savage who became eventually archbishop of York and a very influential councillor.
1 Bray was born near Worcester and both he and Lovell in their official capacities had business with the lands of which Malvern formed a part. He too is reputed to have built the north transept itself. Rushforth, op. cit. 373 ff; cf. D.N.B.; and Wedgwood, History of parliament, Register, 104–5, 555–6. This work lists Sir John Savage, junior (d. 1527) as being the brother of the Sir John (d. 1492), whereas he was his son (C.P.R., I, 204, 454; II, 62; Materials, II, 245).
Select Pedigrees: I The Descent and Descendants of Henry VII
Select Pedigrees: II The House of York
Select Pedigrees: III The House of Valois
Select Pedigrees: IV The Houses of Burgundy, Hapsburg, and Spain
SCHEDULE OF SELECTED DATES
1457 28 January Birth of Henry in Pembroke Castle
1461 4 March Accession of Edward IV
29 March Battle of Towton
1470 3 October Readeption of Henry VI
October/November Henry Tudor's visit to London and his audience (27 October) with Henry VI
1471 14 April Battle of Barnet
4 May Battle of Tewkesbury
2 June Jasper and Henry Tudor escape from Tenby
1483 9 April Accession of Edward V
26 June Accession of Richard III
12 October Henry's expedition from Brittany
25 December Oath at Rennes to marry Elizabeth
1484 25 January Henry attainted
late September Flight from Brittany to France
1485 1 August Henry sails from Harfleur
7 August Lands at Mill Bay, in Milford Haven
22 August Battle of Bosworth
30 October Coronation of Henry VII
7 November First parliament opens
1486 18 January Marriage with Elizabeth
4 March First parliament dissolves
Easter period Conspiracy of Lovel and the Staffords
19 September Birth of Prince Arthur
1487 24 May Lambert Simnel crowned king in Dublin
16 June Battle of Stoke
9 November Second parliament opens
25 November Coronation of Queen Elizabeth
1488 23 February Second parliament dissolves
11 June Death of James III at Sauchieburn
June–July Edgecombe's mission to Ireland
28 July Battle of St Aubin du Cormier
31 August Treaty of Sablé
9 September Death of Duke Francis II of Brittany
1489 13 January Third parliament opens
10 February Treaty of Redon
27 March Treaty of Medina del Campo
28 April Earl of Northumberland killed
13 June Battle of Dixmude
29 November Birth of Princess Margaret
1490 27 February Third parliament dissolves
1491 17 October Fourth parliament opens
November Warbeck appears in Ireland
6 December Marriage of Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany
1492 5 March Fourth parliament dissolves
October Henry VII invades France
18 October Siege of Boulogne
3 November Treaty of Étaples
Warbeck in France and Burgundy
1493 November Warbeck with Maximilian in Vienna
1494 September Charles VIII invades Italy
13 October Sir Edward Poynings lands in Ireland
1 December Parliament at Drogheda
1495 16 February Execution of Sir William Stanley
27 February Arrest of the earl of Kildare
20 March League of Venice
July Charles VIII flees from Italy
23 July–3 August Warbeck's failure in Kent
14 October Fifth parliament opens
November Warbeck arrives in Scotland
1496 January Sir Edward Poynings leaves Ireland
February The Magnus Intercursus with the Netherlands
5 March Letters patent to John Cabot
March Birth of Princess Mary
6 August Earl of Kildare reappointed deputy
September Invasion by the Scots
1 October Treaty for marriage of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon
21 December Fifth parliament dissolves
1497 16 January Sixth parliament opens
?13 March Sixth parliament dissolves
May Cornish rebellion
17 June Battle of Blackheath
July Warbeck leaves Scotland
7 September Warbeck lands in Cornwall
30 September Treaty of Ayton
5 October Surrender and confession of Warbeck
1498 3 February Second letter patent to John Cabot
1499 May First proxy marriage of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon
Edmund, earl of Suffolk flees to Calais
September Louis XII invades Italy
16 November Execution of Warbeck
29 November Execution of Warwick
1500 9 June Meeting of Henry VII and the Archduke Philip at Calais
19 June Death of Prince Edmund
15 September Death of Cardinal Morton
1501 July Second flight of Edmund, earl of Suffolk
14 November Marriage of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon
1502 2 April Death of Prince Arthur
6 May Execution of Sir James Tyrell
1503 11 February Death of Queen Elizabeth
23 June Betrothal of Prince Henry and Catherine of Aragon
8 August Marriage of Princess Margaret and James IV
1504 25 January Seventh parliament opens
30 March Seventh parliament dissolves
26 November Death of Isabel of Castile
1505 October Treaty of Blois
1506 12 January Landing of Archduke Philip at Melcombe Regis
9 February Treaty of Windsor
18 March Marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Germaine de Foix
23 April Archduke Philip departs
24 April Edmund, earl of Suffolk imprisoned in the Tower of London
30 April Intercursus Malus
25 September Death of the Archduke Philip
1507 21 December Betrothal of Princess Mary and Archduke Charles
1508 10 December League of Cambrai
1509 21 April Death of Henry VII
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following list includes only printed works cited or mentioned in the text, footnotes, or appendices of this book. For more extensive bibliographies, see Bibliography of British history, Tudor period, 1485–1603, ed. Conyers Read, 2nd ed. (1959); Tudor England, 1485–1603, ed. Mortimer Levine (1968); and A bibliography of the history of Wales, 2nd ed. (1962). Some of the standard histories listed below, e.g. those of J. D. Mackie and Wilhelm Busch, contain substantial bibliographical sections; for specialized bibliographies, see the more important monographs. Unless otherwise stated th
e works below were published in Great Britain.