Secrets of the Tudor Court Boxed Set

A WHO’S WHO

OF THE TUDOR COURT

1542–1558

Bassano, Jasper (d. 1577)

A musician, he came to England from Italy with four of his brothers under the sponsorship of William Parr. When Parr’s sister Kathryn became queen, they joined her household. By 1552, they were living in the Italian quarter of London (St. Mark’s Lane) where they made as well as played a variety of instruments.

Bassett, Anne (1521?–1557?)

A maid of honor to Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Kathryn Parr, and later a member of Queen Mary’s household, Anne (here called Nan) Bassett is also the protagonist of the previous volume in the Secrets of the Tudor Court series, Between Two Queens.

Bourchier, Anne (1517–1571)

Daughter of the Earl of Essex, first wife and child bride of William Parr (later Marquess of Northampton), she took a lover and had children by him. This allowed Parr to divorce her for adultery, but he was not permitted, by church or civil law, to remarry while she still lived. Anne came to court as one of Queen Mary’s ladies while Parr was in the Tower for conspiring to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne in Mary’s stead. Known as Viscountess Bourchier, she was instrumental in securing his release, since to have him executed as a traitor would have cost her both income and position. After Queen Mary’s death, Anne retired to rural Hertfordshire.

Brandon, Frances (1517–1559)

Daughter of Henry VIII’s younger sister, Mary Tudor, by Mary’s marriage to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk (both of whom appear in Secrets of the Tudor Court: The Pleasure Palace), Frances became Marchioness of Dorset through her marriage to Henry Grey, and Duchess of Suffolk after the deaths of her two half brothers in 1551. Frances Brandon is best known to history as the mother of Lady Jane Grey. After the executions of her daughter and husband, Frances married a commoner, Adrian Stokes.

Bray, Anne (1500–1558)

Lady Cobham and therefore Bess Brooke’s mother, she was one of those women who stayed in the background, but her tomb in Cobham Church assures us that she was “blest with her children’s love.” She died in the influenza epidemic of 1558.

Bray, Dorothy (c. 1524–1605)

Lady Cobham’s sister and Bess’s aunt, Dorothy was a maid of honor to Catherine Howard and Kathryn Parr. She had a brief, scandalous love affair with William Parr while Catherine was queen (see also Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens) and later married Edmund Brydges. He succeeded to the title Baron Chandos. After his death, when Dorothy was married to a much younger man, she was known as “old Lady Chandos.”

Bray, John (c. 1527–1557)

Lord Bray was the brother of Anne and Dorothy Bray and Bess Brooke’s uncle. He conspired with rebels in 1555–6, but fought for King Philip at Saint-Quentin in 1557. He was wounded during the siege of that city and died of his injuries several months later.

Brooke, Elizabeth (c. 1505–1560)

Lord Cobham’s sister and Bess’s aunt, she was the cast-off wife of Sir Thomas Wyatt the poet and the mother of Sir Thomas Wyatt the rebel. After her first husband’s death, she married Sir Edward Warner, lord lieutenant of the Tower of London under Edward VI and Elizabeth I.

Brooke, Elizabeth (1526–1565)

Bess Brooke was Lord Cobham’s daughter. In 1542, the Spanish ambassador thought that King Henry VIII was considering her as a prospective bride. Bess was, on and off, depending upon who sat on the throne of England, the legal wife of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton. She never wavered in her devotion to him. Bess is credited with suggesting that Lord Guildford Dudley marry Lady Jane Grey. She was asked by the French ambassador to take a message to Princess Elizabeth at Hatfield in 1557, warning Elizabeth not to leave England. When Elizabeth became queen, Bess was high in favor at her court. She never had any children and died of breast cancer seven years after the last events in By Royal Decree.

Brooke, George (c. 1497–1558)

Lord Cobham and Bess’s father, he was lord deputy of Calais and later a member of the Privy Council under Edward VI. He backed Lady Jane Grey but changed sides when he realized Mary Tudor was going to prevail. He held Cowling Castle against Wyatt’s rebels even though three of his sons were with Wyatt’s army. He died in the influenza epidemic of 1558.

Brooke, George (1533–1578)

Lord Cobham’s second son and Bess’s brother, he was one of Wyatt’s rebels and was condemned to death for treason. After he was pardoned, he became an undersecretary to Queen Mary’s Privy Council and one of the French ambassador’s informants.

Brooke, William (1527–1597)

Lord Cobham’s eldest son and heir and Bess’s brother, he was sent to Italy for his education. He sided with his cousin, Tom Wyatt, against Queen Mary and ended up in the Tower of London. He succeeded his father as Lord Cobham in 1558 and spent the rest of his life in service to Queen Elizabeth. When Bess fell ill in 1564, William and his second wife went with her to the Low Countries in search of a cure.

Dudley, Henry (1526–1544)

Oldest of the Dudley sons, called Harry in By Royal Decree, he died in France after the campaign against Boulogne. Very little is known about him except that he was at court from an early age.

Dudley, John (1504–1553)

Viscount Lisle, then Earl of Warwick, then Duke of Northumberland, Dudley ruled England for King Edward VI after the Duke of Somerset’s fall from power. He attempted to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne when Edward VI died, and his failure led to his execution. He was not popular with the common people of England, but he was known to be a devoted family man.

Dudley, John (c. 1528–1554)

The second Dudley son, called Jack in By Royal Decree, he became Earl of Warwick when his father was elevated in the peerage to Duke of Northumberland. He was married to the Duke of Somerset’s eldest daughter in an attempt to make peace between their fathers. He was condemned to death as a traitor after the attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne failed but he was not executed. He died of natural causes at his sister’s house at Penshurst, Kent, shortly after his release from the Tower.

Dudley, Mary (1531–1586)

The eldest of the Duke of Northumberland’s daughters, Mary married Sir Henry Sidney in 1551. She was with Lady Jane Grey in the Tower but was allowed to return home to Penshurst when Mary Tudor was declared queen. A few weeks after Mary’s brother John died at Penshurst, she gave birth to her first child, a boy who was named Philip after Queen Mary’s husband. He grew up to be Sir Philip Sidney, the courtier and poet. When Elizabeth Tudor became queen, Mary Sidney was one of her closest friends. She caught smallpox while nursing the queen in 1562, which destroyed her looks.

Edward VI (1537–1553)

Edward succeeded his father in 1547, but he never ruled England. The government was first in the hands of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and lord protector, and then of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. The idea of Lady Jane Grey as his successor, however, seems to have been Edward’s own. He was deeply committed to the Church of England and did not want his Catholic sister, Mary, to become queen.

Elizabeth (1533–1603)

Elizabeth was third in line to succeed to the throne by the terms of her father’s will, but there were many who felt the irregularity of her parents’ marriage disinherited her. She was not even considered in her brother’s device for the succession. Under Queen Mary, Elizabeth pretended to accept the Catholic religion but refused to marry the man King Philip picked out for her, his kinsman the Duke of Savoy. She contemplated fleeing England and taking refuge in France but was warned against that action by the French ambassador, who sent Bess Brooke to Hatfield with that message early in 1557, shortly before war between England and France broke out. Elizabeth succeeded her sister Mary the following year.

Fitzgerald, Elizabeth (1527–1589)

Dubbed “Fair Geraldine” because of a sonnet written about her when she was still a child, she married first Sir Anthony Browne, a much older man, and later Edward Fiennes de Clinton, Lord Clinton. As Lady Browne she is recorded as having been with Princess Elizabeth at Chelsea and later at Hatfield, but it is not clear if she was sent there to be part of the princess’s household, or to spy on her, or if she was merely visiting. As Lady Clinton, she was with the princess during a meeting with the Spanish Count of Feria shortly before Queen Mary’s death, but again it is not clear if she was part of Elizabeth’s household at that time or merely hosted the dinner at which they met. She was at court during Elizabeth’s reign and was considered one of the queen’s close friends.

Gardiner, Stephen (1490–1555)

As Bishop of Winchester, Gardiner opposed the evangelicals who advocated further changes in the church. He plotted against Queen Kathryn Parr, but his schemes failed when King Henry was reconciled with his wife. Under King Edward, Gardiner was imprisoned and his estates seized. Winchester House in Southwark was given to William Parr, Marquess of Northampton. Gardiner took the property back as soon as Mary Tudor became queen and restored him to his seat.

Grey, Lady Jane (1537–1554)

Lady Jane Grey was King Edward’s choice to succeed him. She was the great-granddaughter of King Henry VII. Accounts vary as to whether she was willing or not, just as they vary as to whether she had voluntarily married Lord Guildford Dudley a few months earlier. What is certain is that she was a scholar of some renown and that she was a devout Protestant. She was executed following Wyatt’s Rebellion.

Guildford, Jane (1509–1555)

Married to John Dudley, her father’s ward, Jane was the mother of Henry, John, Mary, Robert, Ambrose, another Henry, Guildford, Temperance, and Katherine Dudley, among others who died young. She was Viscountess Lisle, then Countess of Warwick, and finally Duchess of Northumberland and was at court as part of the queen’s household during the reign of Henry VIII. She was one of Kathryn Parr’s inner circle. Exactly what part she played in the plan to make Lady Jane Grey queen is not known. It is often said that Lady Jane’s husband, Guildford, was Lady Northumberland’s favorite son, but there is no hard evidence of this. She certainly found her new daughter-in-law infuriating, but that may have been as much Lady Jane’s fault as Lady Northumberland’s. After the arrest of her husband and sons for treason, the duchess haunted the court of Mary Tudor seeking pardons for them. She was granted the manor at Chelsea by the queen. Although her husband and son Guildford were executed, her remaining sons were eventually released, in large part due to their mother’s ceaseless efforts on their behalf.

Hallighwell, Jane (1480–1558)

As the dowager Lady Bray, Bess’s “Grandmother Jane” married a much younger man when she was in her sixties. She campaigned to win her son’s freedom after Lord Bray was arrested for treason in 1556. She died during the influenza epidemic of 1558.

Henry VIII (1491–1547)

By 1542, King Henry had gone to seed. He was fat, ill, and crotchety. In a scene that also appears in Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens (in that version from the point of view of Nan Bassett), he gathered together a great number of eligible young ladies at a banquet in the hope of finding a sixth wife. Bess Brooke was one of those who caught his eye, but soon after that he met Kathryn Parr and married her instead. In 1546, rumor had him considering a divorce from Kathryn so he could take a seventh wife, Catherine Willoughby, widow of his old friend Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

Mary (1516–1558)

Upon the death of her brother in 1553, Mary became both king and queen of England and promptly restored Catholicism as the state religion. One of the first acts of her first Parliament was to rescind the bill permitting William Parr, Marquess of Northampton, to remarry while his first wife still lived. Mary invited that first wife, Anne Bourchier, to court.

Parr, Kathryn (1514–1548)

As Henry VIII’s sixth wife, she supported evangelicals—those who wanted even more reforms in the church. Henry was her third husband, but contrary to popular belief, the first two were not old men. One was a sickly boy, the second a gentleman in his prime who did not suffer ill health until about a year before his death. After the king died, Kathryn married Thomas Seymour, who had courted her before King Henry singled her out as a prospective bride. Kathryn had custody of Princess Elizabeth until she sent the princess away, some say out of jealousy, in mid-1548. After Kathryn died in childbirth and Thomas Seymour was executed, their baby daughter was placed in the care of Catherine Willoughby, dowager Duchess of Suffolk. Mary Seymour disappears from the historical record about two years later.

Parr, William (1513–1571)

Queen Kathryn’s brother, he was married as a teenager and later divorced his first wife in order to marry Bess Brooke. The legality of this second marriage varied from reign to reign. He was an excellent diplomat but not a very good soldier. After Bess died, he fell in love with a young woman who was said to much resemble her, but this time Queen Elizabeth forbade remarriage until his first wife, Anne Bourchier, died. This did not occur until 1571. Parr himself died shortly after the wedding.

Seymour, Edward (1505–1552)

Earl of Hertford, then Duke of Somerset, he was the brother of King Henry VIII’s third wife and the uncle of Edward VI. He ruled England for the young king as lord protector until his unpopular policies led to his removal from power and his imprisonment. He was eventually executed.

Seymour, Thomas (1507–1549)

The lord protector’s younger brother, he courted Kathryn Parr before she married Henry VIII. For the next few years, the king kept him busy on diplomatic missions in other countries. After the king’s death, Thomas married Kathryn in secret and without a proper period of mourning. After her death, he schemed to marry Princess Elizabeth, but his fatal mistake was invading King Edward’s private apartments while armed. He was executed for treason.

Stanhope, Anne (1497–1587)

As Lady Seymour, Countess of Hertford, Duchess of Somerset, and the lord protector’s wife, Anne Stanhope was one of the most unpopular women in England. She was blamed for many of her husband’s bad decisions. Before that, she had been at court as a lady-in-waiting. When Kathryn Parr was queen, she had been one of Kathryn’s inner circle, but after Henry VIII’s death and Kathryn’s remarriage to Anne’s brother-in-law, the two women became bitter enemies. Following her husband’s execution, Anne married Francis Newdigate, a commoner. Later her son, Lord Hertford, provoked Queen Elizabeth’s wrath by eloping with Lady Catherine Grey, sister of the executed Lady Jane.

Warner, Edward (1511–1565)

As a member of Queen Kathryn Parr’s household and an evangelical, he was questioned about certain heretical books in the queen’s lodgings at court. Later, as lord lieutenant of the Tower, he welcomed Queen Jane and her entourage to the royal apartments there. By then he was the second husband of Bess’s aunt, Elizabeth Brooke, Lady Wyatt. He was a conspirator in what became known as Wyatt’s Rebellion and was arrested in his house in London even before his stepson launched his uprising in Kent. After being held nearly a year, he was released. He was restored to his post at the Tower of London when Elizabeth Tudor became queen.

Willoughby, Catherine (1519–1580)

The other Duchess of Suffolk (see Frances Brandon, page 344), she married Charles Brandon after the death of his previous wife, Mary Tudor (Henry VIII’s sister). She was one of Kathryn Parr’s inner circle and an evangelical. She went into exile during the reign of Mary Tudor (Henry VIII’s daughter). By that time she had married Richard Bertie, a commoner.

Woodhull, Mary (1528–1548+)

A kinswoman of and chamberer to Queen Kathryn Parr, she was with the queen dowager when she died. She married Davy Seymour, a distant kinsman of the Duke of Somerset.

Wyatt, Thomas the Younger (1521–1554)

The son of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, the poet, and his estranged wife, Elizabeth Brooke (later Lady Warner), he was the only one of the conspirators of 1554 to actually raise troops against Queen Mary. His delay to lay siege to Cowling Castle, for which history has no logical explanation, cost him dearly. By the time he reached Southwark, London Bridge had been dismantled to keep him from entering London. He was captured a few days later and was executed for treason.