The Other Tudors

Henry VIII's Mistresses and Bastards

Philippa Jones

• Publisher: IMM Lifestyle Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781607657675
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

This book brings together for the first time the 'other women' of King Henry VIII, and takes us deep into the web of secrets and deception at the Tudor Court.

1

The Formative Childhood Years

Henry VIII was very much a product of his family ambitions and their rise to power. His complex private life had its origins in his father’s arguably weak claim to and lengthy fight for the throne, and the history of two families, the Houses of Lancaster and York. Descended through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of Edward III, and his mistress, Catherine Swynford, and through his father, Edmund Tudor, who was half-brother to Henry VI, Henry Tudor became the foremost Lancastrian claimant to the throne.

After the first usurpation of the throne of Henry VI by Edward, Duke of York, who became Edward IV, Henry Tudor, the 13-year-old Earl of Richmond, had no real protectors and disappeared into exile in the care of his uncle, Jasper Tudor. His grandmother was Catherine de Valois, sister of Charles VI of France, and exile across the Channel was a good deal safer than staying in England. Henry Tudor stayed in Brittany (a separate dukedom until 1488 when the heiress, Anne of Brittany, married Charles VIII of France) from 1471 to 1485 as the guest of Duke Francis II, the Marshall of Brittany. He ended up living in a chateau at Largöet, near Vannes, the home of the Marshall of Brittany, Jean de Rieux. As the years passed, increasing numbers of Lancastrians and Yorkist malcontents retreated to France and Henry Tudor was an acknowledged claimant to the English throne. The claim was deemed so serious that both Edward IV and Richard III went to some lengths to entice Henry Tudor back to England and to bribe or trick Louis XI of France and Francis II into sending him home. All attempts ended in failure and Henry’s value as a rival to the House of York increased. As a child, the future Henry VIII would have heard of his father’s struggles as an exile in France. The lesson was twofold: firstly, that anyone who could not hold on to the throne faced exile and constant danger of assassination; secondly, that exiles were a menace, ready to return and seize the throne from the ruling king. This helped to make Henry VIII ruthless, more so once he had his son and heir. He would defend his throne for his dynasty, no matter how many lives were forfeit.

Henry Tudor spent 14 years in exile in Brittany, the formative years of his life, from the age of 13 to 27. He learned to speak and read French, and also took a French mistress with whom he had a son, Roland de Velville, born around 1474. The name is spelled in many ways, one of which is Vielleville, which indicates that the lady belonged to the de Vielleville family, Counts of Durtal. When Henry Tudor became king, Roland was knighted. He became a leading jouster for a period between 1494 and 1507 and was eventually made Constable of Beaumaris Castle. In his will, dated 1535, Sir Roland asked to be buried at Llanfaes Friary in Wales, where some of the earlier Tudors were buried. Part of his epitaph, written in Welsh, reads: ‘… a man of kingly line and of earl’s blood …’¹ This statement was a discreet announcement of his paternity. Henry VII never formally acknowledged him, but everyone knew whose son Roland was. It could be said, therefore, that Henry VIII was following in the footsteps of his ancestors when he fathered bastard children, but with the knowledge that his own dynasty was founded on not one, but two bastard families, he perhaps did not feel confident enough to acknowledge his baseborn children.

Henry Tudor’s triumph at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 was the culmination of years of plotting, abortive risings and failures. Richard III was dead, other claimants were too distant to the throne or too young and, as Henry stated in proclamations issued after Bosworth, he was king by right of descent and by possession. Henry VII further cemented his claim to the throne by marrying the rival family heiress, Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV. Elizabeth grew up with the knowledge of her father’s frequent and constant unfaithfulness to her mother, which was common gossip. Yet she saw that her father and mother still loved each other; she learned that a queen’s duty was to produce heirs, smile and say nothing. Henry VIII would have observed that his mother, alluded to as the perfect king’s wife, was always subservient to her husband, a mother to his children and a docile adornment to his Court. Here he found the template for his ideal queen.

Elizabeth fulfilled her destiny with calm good sense, her eldest child born eight months after her marriage. She bore her husband three sons – Arthur in 1486, Henry in 1491 and Edmund in 1499 – and four daughters – Margaret in 1489, Elizabeth in 1492, Mary in 1496 and Catherine in 1503 – losing one son and two daughters in childhood. She was idealised by many as the perfection of womanhood, yet her husband kept her powerless, giving authority and his affection and trust to his mother, Margaret. Elizabeth found herself playing second fiddle to her mother-in-law; at the Christmas festivities in 1487, Margaret wore the same costume, ‘like mantell and surcott as the queen, with a rich corrownall on her hede.’² Margaret would accompany Elizabeth on state occasions, walking and standing directly behind her; she went on progresses with Henry and Elizabeth. At Woodstock and in the Tower apartments, Margaret’s rooms adjoined the King’s.

Margaret Beaufort was a wealthy woman in her own right; she managed her own affairs and kept tight hold on her wealth. She would demand her rights and pursue a debt to death and beyond. She taught her son the value of a well-filled treasury, but failed to make such an impression on her grandson, who may have been heartily tired of advice on the need for prudence. His father and grandmother both approved of his teenage years when he was kept on an allowance from his father without a privy purse of his own.

Henry VII had married a young, beautiful, virtuous, well born lady, but this had never stopped any of his predecessors or family members from engaging in extramarital liaisons. Taking a mistress and fathering children out of wedlock was commonplace. In a time when virtually all marriages were arranged for financial and family benefits, it was reasonable to seek love outside the marriage. Given that Henry VII was the king and a red-blooded male in a political marriage, it would have been amazing if he had not found affection with other ladies. The temptation was all around him: Elizabeth’s ladies were chosen for their beauty and charm.

In the early years of his reign, Henry VII delighted in spending money on show and display. There were lavish building projects and splendid clothes for him, his family and courtiers, as well as extravagant pastimes. The King loved hunting and hawking, and when he rebuilt Sheen (after the palace on the bank of the Thames in Surrey burned down in 1497) he added ‘houses of pleasure to disport in at chess, tables, dice, cards …’ and established a menagerie at the Tower, with ‘lions, leopards, wild cats and rare birds …’³ He also enjoyed dancing and music. Two interesting references from his privy purse accounts may indicate that love and music can easily go together: 25 August 1493, payment ‘to the young damsel that danceth’ – £30; 13 January 1497, payment ‘to a little maiden that danceth’ – £12’.⁴

To offer these dancers the equivalent of the annual salary of a lady-in-waiting for one performance (or even several) seems a trifle excessive if dancing was all that was on offer. Henry VII was taking his pleasure in as safe a way as he could, in the company of young ladies whose social position meant that they could have no influence whatsoever. It was a lesson his son would have been wise to learn: taking mistresses who would not cause trouble. The difference was that whereas Henry VII wanted sex, Henry VIII wanted love.

PRINCE HENRY

Born on 28 June 1491 at Greenwich Palace, Henry was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Henry VII was 34 when his second son was born and had been king for six years. At the time of Henry’s birth, Elizabeth was already recognised as a devoted wife and mother. The only surviving contemporary portrait of her shows a plump lady, pale skinned with fair, red-gold hair. Sources of the time give us further insight – the Spanish Ambassador wrote of Elizabeth that she was ‘kept in subjection by the mother of the king’, and was shown little love by either. Others described Elizabeth as beautiful, noble, beloved, great in ‘charity and humanity.’⁵

Almost immediately, Henry was separated from his mother and given his own household at Eltham with his brother Arthur, the Prince of Wales, his sister Margaret and the children who followed. The Royal Court travelled a great deal, and it would have been almost impossible to take children with it as there were too many strangers, who might bring disease or attempt assassination. The King, however, needed to keep himself in the public eye, and the houses where he and his Court stayed needed to be cleaned, after only a few months, so the never-ending movement was a necessity for the King and Queen.

In June 1491 when Henry was born, Margaret Beaufort was in the midst of organising the royal nursery at Eltham; Elizabeth was hardly involved at all. Margaret would, therefore, be the person the young prince would come into contact with most frequently. Her religion now dominated her life. She had taken a vow of perpetual chastity and, despite being married, she dressed like a nun. Margaret’s powerful, dominant role in Henry’s life was to reinforce his distaste for strong-willed women and his liking for those who gave in to him rather than thwarted him.

By September 1494 the three-year-old Henry was already Constable of Dover Castle, Warden of the Cinque Ports, Earl Marshal of England and Lieutenant of Ireland. The Duke of York was added to his titles in answer to the claims of Perkin Warbeck (who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, son of Edward IV, one of the lost Princes in the Tower who had disappeared whilst under the protection of their uncle, Richard III). Henry was first made a Knight of the Bath and, on 18 May 1495, Knight of the Order of the Garter. From the time he was first aware, Henry knew he was special, the centre of attention, as grown men – politicians and soldiers – bowed down to him.

Between late 1496 and early 1497 Arthur went to Ludlow, Shropshire, to set up a separate household as Prince of Wales. With Arthur gone, Eltham became the household of Henry, Duke of York. Even though his sister Margaret was older, as a son Henry took precedence. However, he would always stand second to Arthur, as the future king.

Some historians and novelists like to portray Henry as jealous, determined to outdo Arthur in everything to prove he was better. However, there is no evidence that Henry resented or was jealous of his brother, or that he failed to acknowledge that he would have to find his own place in the world, once Arthur became king.

During the Cornish ‘rebellion’ of 1497, the local people rose up against taxes forced on them by Henry VII to pay for opposing the pretender, Perkin Warbeck, in the north, far away from Cornwall, in southwest England. When it looked as if the Cornish rebels would reach London unopposed, Elizabeth of York and the young Henry sheltered at the Coldharbour, a house near the Tower of London, and then, on Monday 12 June, in the Tower itself.⁶ Thus, Henry was finally able to spend time with his mother. They were together, without any other family members, and were in some danger. For a week they supported and encouraged each other.

Once the rebellion was crushed (with 2,000 dead at Blackheath in south London), the Cornish were allowed to return home, but were heavily fined. Later that same year some of the Cornish rebels joined forces with other West Country malcontents in support of Warbeck. Although the leaders were executed, the rest again received heavy fines. The result may well have been that six-year-old Prince Henry learned to distrust leniency. Two of his wives were to pay the price for this lesson. Other kings divorced unwanted wives and then imprisoned them or sent them to nunneries; Henry executed them.

Lord Herbert of Cherbury stated in The Life and Raigne of Henry the Eighth, published in 1649, that Prince Henry, as a younger son, was destined for the Church. There is no other evidence for this interesting claim. In fact, given the rate of infant mortality, Henry stood a good chance of becoming Prince of Wales and would have been educated accordingly. In his will, dated 14 October 1496, Jasper Tudor left his lands and wealth to Henry, to give some independence to the future king’s younger brother; the will specifically mentions that if Henry became Prince of Wales, the estate was to go to Henry VII, Jasper’s nephew, instead.

In 1494, John Skelton, an academic and poet, became tutor to Prince Arthur and later to Henry. Skelton was a notable Latin scholar, a skill much appreciated by Henry VII; he wanted the Prince to learn Latin as this was the language of kings, in which most communications were made. Henry VII himself had little Latin, and regretted it as this put him at a disadvantage in international circles.

By 1502, Skelton gave his services exclusively to Prince Henry. Delighted at the rank of his pupil, Skelton wrote in praise of his charge:

‘There grows from the red-rose bush a fair-flowering shoot, a delightful small new Rose, worthy of its stock, a noble Henry born of famous line, a boy noble in the nobility of his father; and furthermore a brilliant pupil, worthy to be sung as such …’⁷

Skelton taught Henry Latin grammar, rhetoric and logic; he further introduced arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music and theology into the curriculum. Skelton wanted learning to be enjoyable, so he let Henry read the Latin poets and historians. Lessons were taught in English, rather than French or Latin, so that Henry would be fluent in his native language. Skelton may also have mentioned to Henry his own ideas about how abuses in the Church and the State needed to be removed, w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Chronology
• Introduction
• 1 The Formative Childhood Years
• 2 The First Encounter
• 3 The Longed-for Wife and the Maids of Dishonour
• 4 The Worldly Jewel and the Plotting Widow
• 5 The First Mistress Boleyn and the Questionable Bastard
• 6 The Wool Merchant’s Wife and the Amazing Mercenary
• 7 The Huntsman’s Wife and the Blustering Diplomat
• 8 From Mistress to Queen to the Executioner’s Block
• 9 The Mysterious Mistress and the Tailor’s Foster Daughter
• 10 The Question of Mary or Madge and the Quiet Queen
• 11 The Virgin Queen and the Merry Maidens
• 12 The Foolish Queen, the Last Queen and the Last Love
• 13 According to Rumour…
• Conclusion
• Endnotes
• List of Illustrations