Kateryns

July 24, 2021 by Rachael Dickson in English History

Other English History Posts:
My Favorite Thomases: A Review of and Often Arbitrary Ranking of Tudor Thomases
Six the Musical Historical Costume References: Queens 1-3 ; Queens 4-6 (I have like 20 posts about Six)
Henry VIII’s Jousting Accident Probably Didn’t Change his Personality
Shakespeare English History Plays Family Tree
Historical Inspirations in Game of Thrones

(This title is an homage to the brilliant “An Abundance of Katherines” by John Green! It’s not about the Tudors, but you should go read it anyway.)

Last year, I wrote a blog post on “My Favorite Thomases,” giving a little overview of numerous Tudor Thomases and ranking them somewhat arbitrarily. I had such a good time doing this, that I’ve decided to write another post ranking various Tudors, because their parents were all unimaginative and kept giving them the same names! Future posts on Henrys, Marys, Edwards, Margarets, and Richards may also emerge in time.

I originally started off this post with two parts, with terrifically long entries on each Katherine. I’ve scaled it back to just one, more organized post, just to simplify. So if this post seems familiar to you, that’s why.

While a significant deciding factor of the “Thomases” ranking was a look at how terrible/good they were, I really can’t say that any of these Katherines/Catherines did any super terrible things. The ones ranked lower were really just less interesting to me than the ones at the top, or perhaps made decisions I consider a bit more careless or stupid.

Quick Note: As I’ve noted before, spelling of names was not standardized in Tudor times at all. Plenty of people spelled their own names in several different ways on different documents or just as the whim hit them. So honestly, I’m not fussing over the exact spellings of each name, although I’ve endeavored to use the name that the person themselves used most often.

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite Tudor Katherine at the end of the post!

11. Katherine Woodville, Duchess of Buckingham (through her first husband, Henry Stafford), Duchess of Bedford and Countess of Pembroke (through her second husband Jasper Tudor) (c. 1458-1497)

Summary: She outlived two husbands, survived three different kings, was immensely wealthy most of her life, and had some fairly notorious children.

Under Edward IV:
- Katherine Woodville was Elizabeth Woodville’s sister and sister-in-law to Edward IV. She served her sister the Queen in the mid to late 1460s.
- First Marriage: Katherine married her husband Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham while they were both children; contemporary accounts of her sister Elizabeth’s coronation indicated that both Katherine and her husband were still small enough that they were carried on the shoulders of squires. The duke of Buckingham reportedly resented his marriage to a woman of inferior birth, but the couple still had 4 children together. They were married for ~13 years before they had any children.
Under Richard III:
- Her First Husband’s Death: Her husband Henry Stafford was initially a close ally of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, when he usurped the throne from his nephews. However, Katherine did not attend Richard’s coronation, likely due to his hostility toward the Woodvilles. Henry Stafford later betrayed Richard III and was executed for treason in November 1483.
- Katherine and her children may have gone on the run after his death, but Katherine was quickly captured along with her younger son Henry and brought to London. Although the Duke left his wife a sizable jointure of 1,000 marks in his will (roughly equivalent to 460,430 pounds today, I figured out, using the UK National archives currency converter - this was the equivalent of 22,201 days of wages for skilled tradesmen), Katherine was attainted by Parliament because of his treason and was thus, deprived of his money. Her eldest son was kept in Richard’s custody. It is unknown where Katherine spent the remainder of Richard III’s reign, but she may have lived with her sister the Dowager Queen in sanctuary or in a trusted nobleman’s household. Richard did grant her a small annum of 200 pounds in April 1484 (roughly equivalent to 138,257 pounds a year).
Under Henry VII:
- After Henry VII defeated Richard III and took the throne, her two eldest sons were placed in the wardship of the king’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, and they grew up in her care. Katherine’s attainder was reversed by Parliament and she received both her dower lands and the jointure her first husband left her in her will, making her an exceedingly wealthy woman.
- Second Marriage: Katherine married the king’s uncle Jasper Tudor in 1485, when she was about 27 and Jasper was 54. Katherine was given a place of honor at her niece Elizabeth of York’s coronation in 1487. After ten years of marriage, Jasper died. Katherine was only mentioned briefly in his will.
- Third Marriage: Only a few weeks after Jasper’s death, she married Sir Richard Wingfield without royal license. Henry VII fined them a huge sum of 2,000 pounds, which was not paid until Katherine’s eldest son became Duke of Buckingham and came into his inheritance. Her third marriage lasted only about a year before she died in 1497. Although Richard Wingfield would outlive her by about 27 years, in his will, he ordered masses be said for her soul.
Her Children:
- Her eldest son Edward Stafford (Duke of Buckingham) was executed by Henry VIII for treason, continuing in his father’s footsteps.
- Her younger son Henry Stafford (Earl of Wiltshire) was also suspected of conspiring with his brother, but managed to stay in the king’s good graces until his death a few years later in 1523. When he died without children, his earldom became extinct. His title was granted a few years later to Thomas Boleyn.
- Her daughter Anne had a bit of a sex scandal under Henry VIII and was rumored to be having an affair with the king’s courtier William Compton. Her husband was so suspicious of her that he sent her to live in a convent 60 miles away from the royal court. Although there was no evidence of their adultery, William Compton actually did bequeath land for her in his will (which was very unusual for the time) and had the executors of his will include her in prayers for his kin.

10. Lady Kateryn Gordon of Scotland (also known as Kateryn Huntleye) (c. 1474-1537)

Summary: She outlived three husbands and served three separate Tudor royal women (Elizabeth of York, Catherine of Aragon, and Mary Tudor), despite first coming to court as the wife of a rebel leader.

First Marriage: Kateryn was a Great Granddaughter of James I of Scotland and a cousin of James IV. James IV gave her in marriage to the Yorkist pretender Perkin Warbeck, who quickly gained his favor upon his arrival at the Scottish court in July 1495. Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the “Princes in the Tower” and the son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. After their marriage in January 1496 (marked with a jousting tournament), Kateryn was called the Duchess of York.
Her Husband’s Capture: Warbeck raided Northumberland with James IV in 1496 for a few short days before coming home to Scotland. In 1487, Warbeck tried to take advantage of Englishmen in Cornwall angry over taxes to launch another rebellion against Henry VII. Kateryn and their young son joined Warbeck as he tried to rouse troops in Ireland and England, but were left safely away from the battle when Warbeck fought Henry VII’s troops. After Warbeck was captured after leaving sanctuary, the king’s forces went to Kateryn, who was found wearing mourning (possibly for a second son).
Warbeck’s Execution: Kateryn was brought to Henry VII, where she met with her husband. Some historians claim that at this meeting, Warbeck confessed his true identity to her, causing Kateryn to weep. The couple stayed at the royal court for many months but were not allowed to sleep together. Kateryn was brought into Queen Elizabeth’s household and treated well, given a pension and a place of honor due her rank. Some historians claimed around this time that Henry VII fell in love with Kateryn. Warbeck was executed in November 1499 for conspiring against the king. Their son Richard came to London with Kateryn but disappeared from the record shortly thereafter.
Serving Elizabeth of York and Henry VII: Kateryn served Queen Elizabeth for the rest of the queen’s life, serving as chief mourner at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. After the Queen’s death, Kateryn apparently was close with Henry VII, playing cards with him, painting scenes for him, and acquiring medicines for him. He granted her land in Berkshire shortly before his death in return for her promise that she would not leave England without royal license. She became an English citizen in 1510.
Serving Catherine of Aragon and Mary Tudor: Kateryn later served Catherine of Aragon in 1509-1510, while she was Dowager Princess of Wales. From 1525-1530, she served Princess Mary (Henry VIII’s daughter) as chief lady of the privy chamber.
Second, Third, and Fourth Marriages: Kateryn married a gentleman usher of the king’s chamber in 1510-1512, who later died and left all his property to her. She married again in 1517 to a Welsh knight and went to live with him in Wales; he died in 1531 and named Katherine as executor of his will, leaving her significant property. She entered into her last marriage sometime before January 1536. She spent the last years of her life on her own lands in Berkshire, where she regularly went horseback riding.

9. “Kat” Astley (sometimes written as Ashley) (born Katherine Champernowne) (c. 1502-1565)

Summary: A much-loved governess to the future Elizabeth I who survived two imprisonments in the Tower of London and went on to serve the queen as one of her highest-ranking and most powerful ladies.

Serving Princess Elizabeth: Kat was appointed a waiting gentlewoman to the 4-year-old Princess Elizabeth in 1536, shortly after her mother Anne Boleyn’s death, and became her governess in 1537. We do not know about Kat’s educational background, but it must have been impressive, as she taught the young princess a variety of subjects. Numerous secondary sources state that Kat taught Elizabeth “astronomy, geography, history, mathematics, French, Flemish, Italian, and Spanish,” in addition to the usual noble women’s education of needlework, embroidery, dancing, riding, and deportment. I actually haven’t been able to find more primary sources or encyclopedia sources that state that, but lots of blogs! In any case, contemporary records at the time indicate that those who met Elizabeth as a child found her extremely intelligent and “formidably learned,” indicating that Kat was indeed quite good at her job.
Marriage: Kat married Sir John Astley/Ashley, a senior gentleman attendant of Elizabeth’s in 1545. Apparently her new husband was also a distant relation of Elizabeth through her mother Anne Boleyn. As she was over 40 at the time, she was past childbearing age, so this marriage was likely for love.
After Henry VIII’s death: After Henry VIII died in 1547 and Edward VI took the throne, the teenage Elizabeth was sent to live with her stepmother Kateryn Parr and her new husband Thomas Seymour. Kat accompanied her charge there. There, she witnessed Seymour’s flirtatious behavior toward the 14-year-old princess, which was at the very least inappropriate and may have actually constituted sexual abuse. Eventually, Parr found Elizabeth in Seymour’s arms and sent Elizabeth away.
First Imprisonment: When Thomas Seymour was investigated for treason in early 1549, Kat was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, along with her husband John and Elizabeth’s cofferer [treasurer]. There, she was interrogated on everything she knew about Seymour’s doings with Elizabeth. She was eventually released in March 1549 and returned to live with Elizabeth at Hatfield.
Second Imprisonment: Under the reign of Mary I, only a few years after Elizabeth herself was released from the tower, Kat was arrested and sent to Fleet Prison for owning seditious books. She was imprisoned for three months and afterward, was forbidden from seeing Elizabeth.
Serving Elizabeth I: Once Elizabeth rose to the throne, Kat served her as Chief Gentlewoman of the Bedchamber, wielding great power and influence at court. Kat died in July 1565 after a brief illness, after serving Elizabeth for almost 30 years. Elizabeth was incredibly fond of her and supposedly said “Anne Boleyn gave me life but Kat Ashley gave me love.”

8. Lady Catherine Carey (known after her marriage as Catherine Knollys) (c. 1524-1569)

Summary: A cousin of Elizabeth I who was rumored to have been her half-sister as well, Catherine served two Tudor queens consort and a queen regnant, endured religious exile, and had a prosperous family life, with over a dozen children surviving infancy.

Family Background: Catherine was the daughter of William Carey, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII, and Mary Boleyn, and thus, a cousin of Elizabeth I’s. Some believe that Catherine was an illegitimate child of Henry VIII, but there is no definitive evidence to prove such a theory.
Early Time in Service: Catherine likely witnessed the execution of her aunt Anne Boleyn in 1536, at the age of around 12. She served both Anna of Cleves and Catherine Howard as a maid of honor.
Marriage: In 1540, she married Sir Francis Knollys, an English courtier and member of parliament who was favored by Henry VIII and had been in attendance on Anna of Cleves when she arrived in England. During Mary I’s reign, Catherine and her husband, who were staunch Protestants, fled to Germany.
Serving Elizabeth I: Catherine, a favorite of Elizabeth’s, was made Elizabeth I’s Chief Lady of the Bedchamber upon her cousin’s accession to the throne. While holding this high profile position, she gave birth to more than half a dozen children (she had 14 overall. All survived infancy except one). Her husband was appointed treasurer of the queen’s chamber in 1566 and promoted to treasurer of the household in 1570.
Later Years: Catherine’s husband Francis had the dubious honor of serving as the keeper of Mary, Queen of Scots, from 1568 to 1569. Catherine died in January 1569 while he was away dealing with Mary; Mary herself blamed Elizabeth for Catherine’s death, saying that Francis’s enforced absence was the cause. After Catherine’s death, her husband Francis would serve Elizabeth as a treasurer, advisor, and MP. He spoke out in support of the Puritans in particular. He eventually died in 1596.
Catherine’s Daughter Lettice: Catherine’s daughter Lettice would eventually marry the queen’s favorite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, without the Queen’s knowledge or approval. Although Lettice was the daughter of Elizabeth’s cousin and a former maid of her privy chamber, the furious Elizabeth banished her from court for the rest of her life.
Relation to Elizabeth II: Catherine Carey was the 11th great-grandmother of Elizabeth II, the current queen of the United Kingdom.

7. Lady Katherine Grey (later Katherine Seymour, Countess of Hertford) (1540-1568)

Summary: As an heir to the throne in dangerous times, Katherine was punished for her secret marriage and imprisoned for the rest of her life.

An Heir to the Throne: Katherine was a granddaughter of Henry VIII’s sister Mary and Jane Grey’s younger sister. According to the usual laws of succession, Katherine and her sisters were preceded in the line of succession only by Henry VIII’s three children and the descendants of Princess Margaret (Henry VIII’s elder sister who married the king of Scotland). However, Henry VIII had excluded the Scottish regnal line from the succession in his will, which placed Katherine and her two sisters even closer to the throne.
First Marriage: In the final months of Edward VI’s life, Katherine and her older sister Jane were married on the same occasion to the relatives of powerful noblemen as part of a plot to put Jane on the throne in place of Catholic Princess Mary. Jane was married to Guildford Dudley, the son of Edward VI’s chief minister John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, while Katherine was married to Henry, Lord Herbert, the heir apparent to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.
Annulment of Marriage : After Jane’s nine day reign came to an end and Mary took the throne, Henry’s father separated his son from Katherine and had their marriage annulled on the grounds of non-consummation. Although Mary I initially planned to spare Jane , both Jane and her father the Duke of Suffolk were both executed following Wyatt’s rebellion.
Serving Mary I and Elizabeth I: Katherine was a maid of the privy chamber under Mary I but was demoted to a maid of the presence chamber under Elizabeth (all the higher gentry had access to the presence chamber). This indicated that Katherine was not in the queen’s favor. Despite this, as Elizabeth’s presumptive heir, Katherine’s marriage was the subject of much discussion among Elizabeth’s councilors and of others at court.
Secret Second Marriage: In December 1560, Katherine secretly married Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, with only a priest and one witness (Edward’s sister, Jane) present. This was against the law, as anyone in the line of succession had to have royal permission to marry. Jane died a few months later, leaving them without a live witness to their marriage.
- Fun fact: Edward Seymour (who was the son of the more famous Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, who was executed under Edward VI) had a distant claim of his own to the throne, as he was descended from Edward III.
First Pregnancy and Initial Imprisonment: While Edward was abroad in Europe, Katherine realized she was pregnant. This was incredibly dangerous for a noblewoman and heir to the throne whom everyone believed to be single. Late in her pregnancy, she confessed her secret marriage and pregnancy to Robert Dudley, the Queen’s favorite, and begged him to intercede with her to the queen. Whatever Dudley said, it didn’t help, as Katherine was promptly thrown into the Tower of London. Her husband was also imprisoned shortly thereafter.
First Son and an Invalid Marriage: While in prison, Katherine gave birth to a son, Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp in September 1561. Shortly thereafter, a church commission declared Katherine’s marriage invalid. As the priest who conducted their marriage could not be found and their only witness had died, they had no evidence to prove otherwise.
Second Son: Sympathetic guards in the tower had allowed Katherine and Edward to spend time together, which resulted in Katherine giving birth to a second boy in February 1563. The furious Queen Elizabeth had her own lieutenant of the tower locked up and had Katherine and her husband sent to different country houses, where there could be no more secret liaisons.
Parliamentary Debates About Katherine’s Life: Throughout Katherine’s imprisonment, her supporters worked both in court and in Parliament to have her sons recognized as legitimate, the couple freed from prison, and Katherine recognized as heir to the throne. In fact, a member of parliament named John Hales actually published a 1563 book which discussed Katherine’s right to the throne under Henry VIII’s will and pointed to protestant clerics who had ruled that Katherine’s marriage was valid under church law (Hales was later sent to the tower by Elizabeth). In 1566, numerous members of parliament who supported Katherine fought for the right to debate the succession, despite the queen’s direct command not to do so.
Final Years: Despite all efforts to help her, Katherine spent the rest of her life in prison, where she fell further into despair at being separated from her husband and eldest son. When she died in January 1568, at age 28, she had been separated from them for over four years. Her husband Edward was later freed in 1571 and lived to the ripe old age of 84; in his final years, he found the priest who had married them, definitively proving the validity of their marriage.
Relation to Elizabeth II: Despite the sad end to her own life, Katherine is the 10th great grandmother of Elizabeth II, the current queen of the United Kingdom.

6. Queen Katheryn Howard (c. 1523-1542)

Summary: Katheryn Howard was a vivacious but neglected teenager who was involved with and abused by men from an early age, served Henry VIII’s fourth wife, became his fifth wife, and was executed tragically young.

A Noble Family: Katheryn was a member of the illustrious aristocratic Howard family and Anne Boleyn’s first cousin. Her immediate family however, was not wealthy and her father often had to beg for handouts from his rich relatives. Her mother had five children with her first husband and then had another six with Katheryn’s father; as one of the youngest children, Katheryn was likely not her parents’ top priority.
Life with the Dowager Duchess: After her mother’s death when Katheryn was about 5 years old, she was sent, along with several of her siblings, to live with her father’s stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. Although it was common for noble families to send their children to be trained in other noble households, the Dowager Duchess’s household was notoriously lax and undisciplined. It is reported that the children there ran a little wild; several of the older girls there entertained male visitors in the girls’ dormitory at night, receiving gifts in return.
Content Warning, Sexual assault:
- Henry Mannox: At age 13, her adult music teacher Henry Mannox molested her repeatedly. Katheryn later reported, “At the flattering and fair persuasions of Mannox, being but a young girl, I suffered him at sundry times to handle and touch the secret parts of my body, which neither became me with honesty to permit nor him to require.” This seems to indicate that Katheryn felt coerced into sexual activity with Mannox.
- Francis Dereham: At 15, she allegedly entered into a “relationship” with Francis Dereham (who was at least 28), one of the Duchess’s secretaries. Katheryn said in her confessions that they referred to each other as husband and wife and Katheryn kept track of Dereham’s money for him while he was away on business, but her actual testimony about their sexual activity seems to indicate that he coerced her into sexual activity against her will. This “relationship” was apparently common knowledge among many of the Duchess’s maids of honor and attendants. However, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk put a stop to it when she discovered it.
- Basically, the evidence indicates that Katheryn Howard probably was sexually active before her marriage. She herself testified that this activity was coerced and rape. As a very young girl with really no one looking out for her, she likely felt very pressured by these significantly older men into doing things she didn’t want to do.
Service to Anna of Cleves: Her uncle, the influential Duke of Norfolk Thomas Howard, obtained a place for her in Anna of Cleves’ household, where she served as a maid of honor. There, Henry met her and became a bit infatuated, claiming he had never known her “like to any woman” and giving her great gifts of land and expensive cloth. He called her his “very jewel of womanhood” (the story that he called her “his rose without a thorn” is a myth). Contemporary accounts describe Katheryn as giggly and vivacious.
Marriage to Henry VIII: Katheryn married Henry when she was possibly around 17 and he was 49, less than a month after his marriage to Anna of Cleves was annulled. She was Queen from July 1540-November 1541. Katheryn could read and write but was not as well educated as many of Henry’s other wives. She enjoyed dancing but was often distracted and jocular during her lessons. While Queen, people who knew of her previous “relationships” with Dereham and Mannox began to blackmail her for their silence about her relationships pre-marriage; she may have appointed some of these to her royal household.
“Relationship?” with Thomas Culpeper: After her marriage to Henry, Katheryn supposedly became romantically involved with one of Henry’s favorite courtiers Thomas Culpeper, who called her “my little sweet fool” in his letters. Katheryn’s lady-in-waiting Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford (George Boleyn’s widow), reportedly assisted with their secret meetings for several months.
- I always thought that Katheryn Howard’s adultery with Thomas Culpeper was pretty well supported by evidence (i mean, it’s certainly “more supported by evidence” than the allegations against Anne Boleyn, but THAT’S NOT SAYING MUCH). However, when I researched into it more, the case is a lot more nebulous than I realized. Her relationship with Thomas Culpeper was supported by a “love letter” from her found in his chambers, but the phrasing in the “love letter” was actually pretty standard for letters between close friends in that time. It’s definitely possible that their relationship wasn’t a torrid love affair at all, but simply a friendship that was misunderstood and resulted in both of their deaths. I’m sorry, Katheryn, for everything wrong I’ve said about you before.
The Investigation into Katheryn’s Past: Nasty gossip and rumors really brought about Katheryn’s downfall. Allegedly, a fairly random man named John Lascelles tried to talk his sister Mary into working for the Queen, but she refused, saying she knew of Katheryn’s sexual activities when they both lived together in the Duchess’s household and that she wouldn’t be willing to work for her after that. Lascelles reported this to the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, who then launched a quiet investigation into Katheryn’s background. During that time, he spoke to Mary Lascelles and Lady Rochford. This investigation turned up the supposed love letter from the Queen in Culpeper’s chambers (which again, by the standards of the time, may have actually been just a friendly letter). Thomas Cranmer was apparently deputized to tell Henry about the Katheryn situation, as everyone else was too scared to do so, and Henry liked Cranmer best (see: why I ranked him #1 in the “My Favorite Thomases” post). (Note: Cranmer may have had ulterior political motivations to topple the Howards as well).
Katheryn’s Imprisonment: Soon thereafter, Katheryn was questioned by a delegation of councillors. Cranmer later said, “I found her in such lamentation and heaviness as I never saw no creature, so that it would have pitied any man's heart to have looked upon her." She was stripped of her title as queen on November 23 1541 and imprisoned in Syon Abbey (which her ghost supposedly haunts to this day) throughout the winter of 1541. Henry refused to see her again. (Interestingly enough, their marriage was never formally annulled). Throughout her imprisonment, Katheryn refused to admit that there was a precontract between her and Francis Dereham, even though that precontract would have terminated her marriage to Henry and possibly saved her life.
- Several of Katheryn’s relatives were also imprisoned in the tower during this debacle, although the Duke of Norfolk managed to escape this fate by groveling to the king and blaming his niece and stepmother in a letter. The Howard prisoners were found guilty of concealing treason and sentenced to life imprisonment and forfeiture of goods
Culpeper and Dereham’s Executions: In December 1541, Culpeper and Dereham were both executed publicly at Tyburn for high treason. Culpeper, as a noble, was beheaded, and Dereham, as a commoner, was hanged, drawn, and quartered.
Attainder and Sentence: To authorize Katheryn’s execution, Parliament passed the Royal Assent by Commission Act of 1541. This act stated that it was high treason for the queen consort to fail to disclose her sexual history to the monarch within twenty days of their marriage. It also made it high treason for either a third party or the queen consort to have “carnal knowledge” of the consort. [SIDENOTE: The fact that they needed to pass this act seems to indicate to me that they did NOT have very strong proof that Katheryn actually committed adultery, and wanted an excuse to get her out of the way as quickly as possible].
Katheryn was attainted for treason by Parliament on the basis of that act, which means that she did not have a trial like her cousin Anne Boleyn did.
Execution: There are accounts that Katheryn asked for the execution block to be brought to her chamber so she could practice how to lay her head upon the block. Although there’s a legend that, on the scaffold, she said something along the lines of “I die a Queen but I would rather have died the wife of Culpeper,” contemporary accounts indicate that she stuck to the traditional final words asking for forgiveness and praising the king. (Remember, the king could take his revenge on a condemned person’s family after they were executed). Lady Rochford was beheaded immediately after her.

5. Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster (born Katherine de Roet) (c. 1350 – 1403) [*Okay, she’s technically not a Tudor, but her existence and children led directly to the Tudor monarchy, so I consider her Tudor-adjacent*]

Summary: A woman of relatively low status who rose to become Duchess of Lancaster and the ancestress of multiple monarchs of England. After a two and a half decade affair with John of Gaunt, the two married, and their children were legitimized in unprecedented acts by the Pope, the king, and Parliament.

Early Life: Although much about Katherine’s early life is unknown, we do know that her father, Paon Roet, was part of Queen Philippa’s retinue when she came over from Hainault to marry Edward III. We know nothing about Katherine’s mother, and very little about where or when Katherine was born, but it does seem that she grew up at the English court and there, served Blanche of Lancaster, the wife of John of Gaunt (the Duke of Lancaster and a son of Edward III).
- Fun fact: Her sister Philippa de Roet married Geoffrey Chaucer.
First Marriage: At some point, she married Hugh Swynford, a retainer of the Duke’s, with whom she had at least two children. Her daughter Blanche was likely named for the Duchess of Lancaster; John of Gaunt was little Blanche’s godfather.
Governess to John and Blanche’s daughters: Katherine became governess to Philippa and Elizabeth of Lancaster, the daughters of John and Blanche. Blanche died in 1369, and Katherine’s own husband Hugh died in 1371.
Affair with John of Gaunt: Her relationship with John of Gaunt began around 1372, which was coincidentally, also around the time he married for the second time, to Constance of Castile. It’s unclear what Constance thought of Katherine, but Katherine was given the task of telling Edward III about the birth of Johns’ daughter with Constance (also named Katherine). By the mid 1370s or so, records indicate that Katherine’s relationship with the Duke was pretty well known, as she was being approached by others with requests for patronage. Katherine and John had four children together, who were named John Beaufort, Cardinal Beaufort, Thomas Beaufort, and Joan Beaufort.
Marriage to John of Gaunt and Legitimization of their Children: After Constance died, the Duke married Katherine in 1396, over 20 years after their relationship had began. At that point, then-king Richard II and the Pope made the unprecedented move of legitimizing the Beaufort children, which was formalized with an official legitimation ceremony during the Parliament of 1397. Later, after their half-brother Henry IV came to the throne, he inserted a clause into their legitimation act which barred them from inheriting the throne of England, although he probably didn’t have the authority to alter an existing parliamentary statute without further approval of parliament.
Descendants: Despite efforts to keep the Beauforts from having a claim to the throne, Katherine Swynford’s relationship with John of Gaunt led to the entire Tudor dynasty; her great-great-grandson Henry Tudor became Henry VII of England in 1485.

4. Queen Catherine de Valois (previously Princess of France) (1401 – 1437) [*she didn’t live in the time of the Tudor monarchy but she married a Tudor, and is the reason they all existed, so I’m calling her Tudor-adjacent as well*]

Summary: A French princess who left her country to marry an English king as part of a peace treaty and gave birth to another English king. After her first husband’s death, she married a low-ranking Welshman and had two sons. Her grandson Henry Tudor started the Tudor dynasty.

Princess of France: Catherine was the youngest daughter of King Charles VI of France and his wife, Isabeau of Bavaria. She was educated at a convent in Poissy.
First Marriage to Henry V: There actually had been discussion of Catherine and Henry, Prince of Wales (who later became Henry V) during her childhood, but these came to naught at the time. Shortly after taking the throne in 1414, Henry V pressed his claim to the title King of France (which derived from his great-grandfather Edward III). This was part of an ongoing English effort to gain French recognition of their ownership of several lands, including Anjou, Brittany, Flanders, Normandy, Touraine, and Aquitaine. France offered Catherine’s hand in marriage, a large dowry, and Aquitaine as part of these negotiations. After the negotiations broke down, England invaded France, officially continuing the series of conflicts known as The Hundred Years’ War between the two countries. After a legendary English victory at Agincourt in 1415 and a brutal 1417-1420 campaign (including a nasty siege of Rouen that resulted in a lot of non-combatant deaths), France recognized Henry as the heir and regent of France in the Treaty of Troyes. The treaty also finally set the long-discussed marriage of Henry V and Catherine of Valois in motion, and they married on June 2, 1420. Catherine then traveled to England with her husband and was crowned queen in Westminster Abbey on February 23, 1421.
Widowhood: Only a few months after her coronation, Henry left a very pregnant Catherine behind as he went back on military campaign in France. Catherine gave birth to the future Henry VI on December 6, 1421. Henry V never met his son, as he became ill and died the following year during the siege of Meaux. The widowed Catherine was still only 21 and her son, the new king of England, was only 9 months old.
A few years later, Catherine’s rumored plans to marry a nobleman inspired Parliament to pass a 1427 bill which stated that, if the queen dowager married without the king’s consent, her husband would forfeit his lands and possessions. This bill also stated that the king could not give consent until he came of age at 16. As Henry was still only 6 years old, this put quite a damper on Catherine’s marriage prospects.
Relationship with Owen Tudor: At some point, Catherine took Welshman Owen Tudor as her lover. Owen was a courtier in the king’s household, but it’s a bit unclear what he did there. At one point, he served the steward of the king’s household, and at least one chronicler says that Owen was Catherine’s sewer, a servant who serves and tastes dishes. Although there’s no evidence that the two ever had a formal wedding ceremony, their marriage was commonly accepted as valid. They had several children together, most notably Edmund, born in 1430, and Jasper, born in 1431.
Death and Legacy: Catherine died on January 3, 1437 shortly after giving birth. After she died, Owen was arrested for violating the law of the remarriage of the queen dowager, and imprisoned, first in Newgate Prison, and later in Windsor Castle. He eventually was released on bail; later, he received a pardon and had his bail cancelled. Afterward, he became a member of the king’s household and was well treated.
Catherine’s sons Edmund and Jasper were made earls by their stepbrother. Edmund’s son Henry (born after Edmund’s own death from the plague) would grow up to become Henry VII, the first Tudor king. Jasper became a mentor, guardian, and long-time close ally to his nephew Henry VII.
Catherine was buried in Henry V’s Chantry Chapel in Westminster Abbey. Her funeral effigy still survives and has been on display in the Westminster Abbey museum at times.
Catherine’s remains: [warning, this part deals with mistreatment of a body and gets macabre and gross] Sadly, Catherine’s coffin was destroyed at some point during renovations to the Abbey chapel. Her remains were moved to a wood chest lined with lead, which was placed on the floor near Henry V’s tomb. Her body became a bit of a macabre tourist attraction for a few centuries, as we have numerous witness accounts saying that the chest lid would sometimes be opened to display her remains. The famous diarist Samuel Pepys even wrote in 1669 that he visited her body and kissed her mouth (!). Over the years, portions of her body were vandalized or even removed as souvenirs. Her remains were moved into a vault nearby in 1788, which at least put her out of reach of hooligans. Finally, in 1877, with the permission of Queen Victoria, Catherine’s remains were removed from the old coffin, placed in a new one, and were re-interred in a newly built tomb.

3. Queen Katharine of Aragon (born Catalina, Dowager Princess of Wales and Princess of Aragon) (1485 – 1536)

Summary: A Spanish princess who endured years of deprivation as both a young widow and as an abandoned wife. In between, she was a perfect queen for Henry VIII, serving as regent in his absence and spearheading the English victory over the Scottish. A brilliant, religious, and devoted wife and mother, she refused to be set aside for another woman without a fight.

The Infanta of Spain: Catalina of Aragon was the daughter of Isabella I of Castille and Ferdinand II of Aragon (yes, the same Ferdinand and Isabella who sent Christopher Columbus out on his fun genocidal adventure and launched the Spanish Inquisition, but THAT’S a blog post for another time). She also was a descendant of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (husband of fellow Katherine, Katherine Swynford) by his second wife, Constance of Castile, and therefore, actually had a stronger claim to the throne of England than her own father-in-law, Henry VII.
First Marriage : At 16, Catalina left her home country of Spain in late 1501 to marry Prince Arthur, the son of Henry VII. Unfortunately, her husband died from illness in April 1502, only a few months after their wedding. Shortly thereafter, King Ferdinand proposed that a marriage be arranged between Katharine (as she was called in England) and Arthur’s younger brother, the 11-year-old Prince Henry. Although marriage between a man and his brother’s widow were within the forbidden degrees of affinity, it was thought that the Pope would provide a dispensation if it could be shown that Katharine and Arthur’s marriage had not been consummated. Katharine stated that although they had slept in the same bed, she remained a virgin. After much back and forth, Prince Henry and Katharine were formally betrothed in June 1503.
Widowhood and Struggles: Unfortunately for Katharine, the death of her mother Queen Isabella in November 1504 caused her own personal importance to plummet. King Isabella’s country Castile, would pass to her eldest daughter, Juana, leaving Ferdinand ruling over only his minor kingdom of Aragon. Katharine no longer represented a great Spanish alliance, and Henry VII quickly began to look to other, more advantageous marriage options for his remaining son.
Over the next few years, Katharine was left to struggle along with her household with very little money while her father and father-in-law squabbled over her dowry and widow’s jointure. She often had to sell her own property or beg for money from the Spanish or English king just to put food on the table; she often had no money to pay her servants.
Her suffering was briefly alleviated in 1507, when she served as the Spanish ambassador to England (the first female ambassador in European history). Her appointment improved her position at court, brought her into closer proximity to then-Prince Henry, and provided her a small allowance. Although Henry VII clearly thought Katharine would be a pushover in this role, she proved to be a good negotiator, and particularly played as go-between between Henry and Ferdinand during Henry’s attempts to marry her sister, Juana. However, a new ambassador eventually arrived in England, and Katharine returned to her previous neglected status.
Second Marriage: Just when things seemed darkest for Katharine, Henry VII died in April 1509 and his son Henry VIII came to the throne. In June 1509, he married her, making her queen of England. They were married for the next 24 years and in the early years, they appeared to be quite in love. In 1513, Katharine ruled England as regent while Henry was off on a campaign in France and encouraged English troops to victory in their battles with the Scots.
Pregnancies and Daughter: Katharine was pregnant at least six times but most of her children either miscarried or were stillborn. Only three of her children survived the birth, and only one, Princess Mary (the result of her fifth pregnancy), survived past two months of life. Katharine was always known as a highly intelligent and religious woman, but as more and more of her children died, she became increasingly devout and more interested in academic matters, particularly in her daughter’s education.
The King’s Great Matter: After Henry became obsessed with Anne Boleyn/developed his all-consuming desire to have a son, he attempted to get his marriage to Katharine annulled on the basis that she was his brother’s wife first. He also asked Katharine to retire to a nunnery. She steadfastly refused all efforts to put her aside and maintained until her death that she was a virgin before her marriage to Henry VIII and his rightful queen and wife.
Final Years and Legacy: Because of her stubbornness, Henry moved her out of his household and into increasingly shabbier and more isolated homes. He also refused to let her see her daughter, Mary. By the time she died in 1535 (probably of cancer), she likely had not seen her daughter for three or so years.
Katharine’s daughter Mary eventually became England’s first queen regnant and ruled the country for five years.

2. Katherine Willoughby (later Katherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, suo jure Baronness Willoughby de Eresby) (1519 –1580)

Summary: A steadfast Protestant who, despite a 35 year age difference, had a happy first marriage to the Duke of Suffolk, then later used her position and power to advocate for protestant causes. Under Queen Mary, she fled with her second husband to travel around Europe.

Early Life: Katherine Willoughby was the daughter of Katharine of Aragon’s longtime lady-in-waiting Maria De Salinas and her English husband, William, Lord Willoughby d’Eresby. She likely was named after Queen Katharine of Aragon. She had two brothers, but both died at a very young age. When her father died in 1526, seven-year-old Katherine was made a ward of the king. As his one surviving child, Katherine became a great heiress, inheriting his huge estate of around 60 manors. In 1528, Henry VIII sold Katherine’s wardship to his brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
First Marriage: Katherine may have been betrothed to marry Charles’s son Henry, although the evidence is not clear. In any case, after his third wife Mary Tudor died in June 1533, Charles married Katherine himself. At the time, she was 14 and he was 49; he had served as her guardian since she was nine years old. (I know that Tudor values and culture were very different than ours but like….ew.)
Katherine would have two sons with Charles, Henry (born 1534) and Charles (born 1537). As Duchess of Suffolk and step-mother to some of Henry VIII’s heirs, Katherine was very close to the crown. With her husband, she welcomed Anne of Cleves to England in 1539, and helped plan the King’s 1541 royal progress.
Charles died in August 1545, when Katherine was 26. Unfortunately, both of their sons together died of sweating sickness in 1551 while off studying at Cambridge; they died within an hour of each other.
Friendship with Catherine Parr: Katherine served Queen Katheryn Parr as a lady-in-waiting and, likely due to their shared love of learning and religious reformation, the two became close friends. They remained friends even in the face of rumors that Katherine was Henry’s intended seventh wife. Later, Katherine was appointed guardian of the orphan daughter of Catherine Parr (who had died shortly after childbirth) and her fourth husband Thomas Seymour (who was executed for treason).
Religious Beliefs and Work: Katherine was a committed Protestant who often invited noted reformers to come speak to her household. At one point, she named her pet spaniel “Gardiner” to poke fun at the conservative Bishop Gardiner.
Katherine used her wealth and position as Duchess of Suffolk to support and fund the publication of several religious works in England, including Queen Katheryn Parr’s Lamentation of a Center, and writings by well known reformers such as Hugh Latimer and William Tyndale.
Under the reign of Edward VI, Katherine, along with other Protestant aristocrats such as William Cecil, helped fund the formation of several independent “Stranger Churches,” which were formed by Protestant foreigners from various countries across Europe, including Italy, the Netherlands, and France.
Second Marriage: In 1553, Katherine married her Master of the Horse and Gentleman Usher, Robert Bertie. After Mary I took the throne, the Protestant couple left England for continental Europe, visiting first Cleves, and then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During this period, they were even appointed them as administrators of Lithuana for a while, due to their friendship with the King of Poland. Their adventures abroad were actually turned into a ballad and a play
Katherine and Bertie had two children, who they took with them on all their continental travels. Their son Peregrine Bertie, born in Wesel, Germany in 1555, was named for their peregrinations in exile.
I actually found some evidence that noted that during their travels, Sigismund II Augustus, the king of Poland appointed Katherine the regent of Samogitia (modern day Lithuania) and made her husband Governor of Samogitia. He also apparently granted Bertie the earldom of Crolan. *This story does appear to be accurate, but I’m having trouble finding too much about it. Apparently it’s mentioned in Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (commonly called Foxe’s Book of Martyrs), but apparently there like 300 versions of it with different content, so I’ll need to keep searching. However, I DO know that later stories that the King of Poland had previously proposed to Katherine after the death of her first husband were invented by playwright Thomas Drue in his 1623 play about Katherine, “The Duchess of Suffolk.”
Katherine and Richard’s travels throughout Europe were also memorialized in a ballad, which you can read online here.
Return from Exile: After Mary I died and Elizabeth I took the throne, Katherine and Richard returned to England, where they lived out the rest of the days. Katherine remained close enough to the queen and the royal court to be named as custodian to her step-granddaughter Mary Grey, when Mary earned the queen’s ire by marrying without her permission.

1. Queen Kateryn Parr (previously Lady Burgh and Lady Latimer, later Lady Seymour) (1512-1548)

Summary: The incredibly intelligent and devout Kateryn Parr became the first woman to publish a book in English, outlasted three husbands, and finally was able to marry the man she loved, only to perish herself in childbirth. She served as regent for Henry VIIi while he was away, helped reunite him with his children, and managed to outwit her Catholic enemies in the court.

Family Background: Kateryn’s mother, Maud Parr, was one of Katherine of Aragon’s ladies-in-Waiting. The Queen served as Kateryn’s godmother, and she probably was named after her.
She was highly educated and fluent in French, Latin, and Italian.
First Two Marriages: In 1529, the 17-year-old Kateryn married Sir Edward Burgh; he died four years later.
1534, Kateryn married John Neville, Baron Latimer, and thus joined one of the oldest and most powerful families in the North. Baron Latimer was twice her age and had already had two wives before Kateryn. Kateryn served as stepmother to his two children, John and Margaret.
Hostage During the Pilgrimage of Grace: When Catholic rebels rose against the king in 1536 during The Pilgrimage of Grace, Latimer worked with the rebels, although he was likely forced into his role under threat of violence. He served as a spokesman for the rebels when they negotiated with Henry VIII. Henry initially agreed to the terms and issued a pardon to the rebels.
Latimer later was summoned to London to beg for mercy from the king. While he was away, the North rose again and a mob attacked Snape Castle, where Kateryn and her step children lived. They were taken hostage and the rebels demanded that Lord Latimer return immediately. He somehow talked the rebels into releasing his family and letting them leave.
Latimer’s association with the rebels (although unwilling) damaged the family’s reputation and kept them away from the royal court for many years. Eventually though, the family was able to return to London, where Lord Latimer eventually died in 1543.
Decision to Marry Henry VIII: The twice-widowed Kateryn then joined Lady/Princess Mary’s household. It appears that she was in love with Thomas Seymour (Jane Seymour’s brother and uncle to Prince Edward) by the time she caught Henry VIII’s eye. When he proposed, devout Kateryn accepted him, as she believed that God wished her to become the Queen. They married on July 12, 1543. Henry then conveniently gave Seymour a job which moved him to Brussels.
Queen Kateryn: Kateryn became close to all three of Henry’s children and helped improve their relationships with their father. She also was likely influential in the development of Lady/Princess Elizabeth’s and Prince Edward’s Protestantism, as she found reforming humanist tutors for them both. In 1544, when Henry went off with his military to France, he left Kateryn as regent of England (only the second of Henry’s wives to be granted this honor).
Reformist Views: Kateryn held strong reformist (and arguably Protestant, although she might not have identified that way openly) views that several more traditional advisors, particularly Bishop Stephen Gardiner, viewed with suspicion. Evangelical preachers regularly spoke to the Queen and her ladies, and her household discussed and studied theological ideas together.
In 1546, some of Henry’s officials attempted to turn the king against Kateryn and get her arrested, Fortunately, Kateryn found out about the arrest warrant beforehand and threw herself on the King’s mercy, literally collapsing from apparent distress and vowing to Henry that he knew best on religious matters and she had only ever debated with him in order to distract him from his pain. The following day, a detachment of men tried to arrest her, but Henry sent them away.
Writing: In her life, she wrote and published three religious books. Psalms or Prayers, an English translation of John Fisher’s 1525 Psalms, was published anonymously in 1544. In 1545, her Prayers or Meditations, a collection of religious texts, became the first book in English published in England by a woman under her own name. Finally, in 1547, after Henry’s death, Kateryn published The Lamentation of a Sinner, a three part book of reflections that discussed her own sinful nature extensively, condemned Roman Catholics, and advocated for people to be able to read the Bible in English for themselves. This last bit actually conflicted a bit with some of Henry VIII’s own policies within his life, which vacillated on how much access people, and particularly noble women, should have to the Bible.
Final Marriage: After Henry VIII’s death on January 28, 1547, Kateryn rekindled her relationship with Thomas Seymour and secretly married him less than six months after Henry’s death. Edward VI (Henry’s young son and the new king) and the ruling council were not informed of Catherine’s marriage to Seymour for several months. Once it became common knowledge, everyone was pretty annoyed at the quick and secretive marriage. They were publicly reprimanded by the ruling council and both the king and Lady/Princess Mary were vocal in their disapproval of the union. Note: Kateryn holds the record for the most-married English queen
Somewhat surprisingly, given that she had not conceived during her first three marriages, the 35-year-old Catherine became pregnant by Seymour. However, she died a few days after giving birth to a daughter, Mary Seymour. Kateryn’s funeral was the first protestant funeral to be held in English.
Within a year after her death, Thomas Seymour was arrested for treason and executed. Their orphaned daughter Mary was put under the guardianship of Katherine Willoughby. Although we don’t know exactly what happened to her, she doesn’t show up in records past a certain point, which likely indicates that she died before she was two.

And there we have it! 11 Tudor/Tudor-Adjacent Katherines. Which one’s your favorite? Be sure to vote in the poll below.

Quick, Low Research Historical Thoughts on "Anne Boleyn" Episode 3

July 14, 2021 by Rachael Dickson in TV and Film

Quick Thoughts on Channel 5’s Anne Boleyn: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3

It took me forever, but I finally finished watching Channel 5’s Anne Boleyn! I’ve had some rough mental health periods in the last month and frankly it just took me a bit until I was in the right mind to watch an episode about a woman judicially murdered by her husband. (I’m fine, don’t worry – I’ve had clinical depression for a decade and a half now and know how to deal with it. Sidenote: If you have depression and therapy and medicine hasn’t helped you too much, highly recommend the Fisher-Wallace Stimulator! It honestly really changed my life. More in my blog post here).

The final episode of this show closes out with an almost total focus on Anne. This was true in the earlier episodes, but is more obvious here, as Anne is now so isolated and away from everyone else. I actually think it benefits from the close up look at Anne, as Jodie Turner-Smith is frankly the best part of this show by far.

As advertised, this is a brief look and I’m not doing a ton of research, but I did look up a few items in Alison Weir’s “The Lady in the Tower” just to remind myself of some facts (edit: OKAY I may have done a bit more research than originally planned. This still was relatively low research for me). It’s a good read when it comes to Anne’s last days at least, although it’s good to keep in mind that Weir has some of the same anti-Anne bias as most other historians. For a balanced view at the historiography around Anne, I highly suggest The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo.

This episode takes place over the last 2.5 weeks of Anne Boleyn’s life. Anne was sent to the Tower on May 2, 1536 and was executed on May 19, 1536.

anne boleyn scaffold 2.jpg — Credit: *Anne Boleyn*, Channel 5

Anne is taken quietly to the Tower of London, at what looks like dusk. In real life, she was taken there in the late afternoon, and the news of her arrest had spread enough that there were large crowd on the riverbanks watching her arrive there. They also set off a cannon when she arrived.
At the Tower, she meets the constable of the tower and is taken to her chambers without much conversation. In real life, she met the constable’s deputy, not Kingston himself. In addition, some records indicate that Anne may have suffered a bit of a nervous breakdown upon her arrival at the Tower (as ANYONE would, honestly), and fell down on her knees to pray. When the councillors left her at the tower, she spoke to them and asked if they would beseech the king to be good to her.
In the show, Anne’s rooms in the Tower of London are small and rather simple, though well furnished and certainly nicer than any prison we’d think of today. In reality, Anne was imprisoned in the same Queen’s apartment that had been built for her coronation only a few years prior. These were very large apartments. The Queen’s great watching chamber alone was 70 foot by 30 foot! The apartments also had a presence chamber, a privy chamber, a closet/oratory, a bedchamber, and another large chamber which may have served as a dining room. The rooms in the episode have bars on the windows; I’m honestly not sure if Anne’s room had barred windows or not in real life. Yes, it was a really fancy, newly refurbished royal apartment, but at the same time, the Tower of London was a fortress and a prison. So it’s hard to tell.
As Anne enters her cell, she states, ainsi sera, groigne qui groigne’, ‘grumble all you like, this is how it’s going to be.” This is…an odd choice.
Anne adopted this defiant statement as her motto in 1530, when people were highly anti-Anne and pro-Catherine of Aragon, and had it embroidered on her servants’ livery coats at the time. However, the new liveries and the new motto were laid aside in only a few weeks. The Spanish version of the story (courtesy of gossip monger Eustace Chapuys) has it that that Anne chose the motto because she had heard it in France and stopped using it once she realized it was actually an imperialist Burgundian motto, but since Anne spent several years abroad in the court of Margaret of Austria and in France, it seems odd that she would not have known this initially. I think it’s more likely that she realized the defiant motto was just causing more tension and was more trouble than it’s worth.
So contextually, it just…doesn’t quite make sense in this scene? Perhaps they were intending to say something along the lines of “que sera sera” (whatever will be will be).
Anne’s red dress at the start of the episode may have two different meanings. This could refer both to her scandalous reputation and also to her post-death reinvention as a Christian martyr in the reign of Elizabeth I (the color red traditionally represents martyrs in protestant faiths).
Lady Anne Shelton is told to keep a full report on everything Anne does. Constable of the Tower William Kingston’s letters identify five women that were with Anne during her imprisonment: his own wife Mary Scrope, Margaret Dymoke Coffin (married to the Queen’s Master of the House) the Queen’s aunt Anne Shelton, and another of Anne’s aunts, Elizabeth Boleyn. Anne had two domestic servants, two menservants, and a boy to serve her as well.
Some records indicate that those serving Anne were all forbidden to speak with her unless Lady Kingston was present, indicating that she was really the ringleader reporting back to the Constable and Cromwell, not Lady Shelton, as shown in this show.
In one of her letters from the Tower, Anne stated that it was unkind for the king to put women about her that she never loved and she would have preferred ladies of her own privy chamber. It’s unclear whether it was some of these women or others that actually went with Anne to the scaffold for her execution. Madge Shelton shows up later in the episode and is with Anne at the time of her death, but there’s no actual indication that she was there in real life. There were some women with her at the scaffold that Anne seemed to actually care for, but we don’t know their actual identities.
Throughout the episode, Anne’s first priority is her daughter Elizabeth. She dreams about her daughter crying, she asks whether Elizabeth is safe multiple times, refuses to eat until she knows that her daughter is well (I don’t think there’s any evidence that Anne actually did this, by the way), and worries about her daughter’s birthright if she signs the annulment papers. As I said in an earlier blog post, this lines up with actual records – Anne truly was a very doting mother by Tudor standards. This also aligns with Jodie Turner-Smith’s statements in interviews in which she said she identified with Anne as a mother.
Anne is told that Elizabeth was taken back to Hatfield, where Elizabeth spent some of her early childhood. Elizabeth was moved between several palaces throughout her life, however, as the royal households never really stayed put very long in Tudor times.
Anne is seen reading the Bible and praying. She specifically reads: “For thou art my defender and helper, and has preserved my body from destruction, and from the snare of the slanderous tongue, and from the lips that forge lies, and has been mine helper against mine adversaries:” Ecclesiasticus 51:2. (i know it sounds like Ecclesiastes, but it’s different).
In the show, the Constable tries to dine with her and Anne refuses to eat. She asks him to tell Cromwell that she won’t touch food until she has news of Elizabeth.
In real life, we know from Kingston’s letters to Cromwell that Anne did take her meals with Kingston regularly, and apparently made a very good impression on him. Much of what we know about Anne’s last days come from these letters. His letters revealed that Anne asked for holy communion, worried over the men who had been arrested with her, became agitated over the possibilities of their deaths and her own (even from early on in her imprisonment), and also worried a great deal about the effect her arrest was having on her mother. She also repeatedly told the constable that she was innocent and that there was no reason she should not be able to take the sacrament. There apparently were…some muttered ramblings as well, honestly, because of stress and fear. This does show up a bit later in the show, when she starts muttering about dead man’s shoes and wanting to see Henry.
Thus, overall, she talked a lot more and was much less …stoic than she is portrayed in the show. I love that she’s shown with so much dignity in the show, but historically, she was much less composed. She was completely terrified, and it showed in her conversations with others, which were rather manic at times.
We see Anne starting to write a letter and than pause when she hears someone come in. We do have a letter that supposedly was written by Anne Boleyn to Henry while she was in the tower, but its authenticity is questioned. You can read more about that letter here.
In Anne’s conversation with Cromwell, he reveals that five men were arrested along with her. The men arrested for adultery with Anne were Sir Henry Norris, Sir William Brereton, Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton, and Anne’s own brother George Boleyn, Lord Rochford. The show doesn’t mention this, but two other men – Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Richard Page – were also accused of adultery with Anne but were later released.
Anne straight up suggests that Cromwell tortured Mark Smeaton to get his confession. This really did happen. Records indicate that Smeaton was the only one who was tortured.
In her meeting with Cromwell, Anne ends up losing her temper at Cromwell (as frankly, anyone would). Kingston grabs her and pins her down to restrain her and calm her down. I have never heard of this happening and do not think it at all possible. Everything I’ve read indicates that Kingston actually came to regard Anne Boleyn with respect and would not have grabbed her or restrained her physically.
In the show, Madge Shelton came to the tower to be with Anne and comfort her friend. I so wish this were true and that Anne had a close friend with her in her last days, but I don’t believe it is. There are lots of traditions that a few of her friends were with her on the scaffold, but we don’t have any evidence as to their identities beyond “four young ladies” (more on that later!).
When Kingston tells Anne her trial date, Madge instantly suggests they prepare. Anne correctly notes that she cannot have counsel in a trial for treason. In accordance with legal practice of the time, Anne also was not allowed to question any of the witnesses, summon witnesses to speak for her, or give evidence on her own behalf. [On several occasions I’ve thought about making a blog post about various Tudor incidents that demonstrate the essential lack of human rights that we now have in most countries in modern times, and this would be pretty high on the list]
Madge suggests they prepare for the trial, but Anne says no and that God will guide her speech when the time comes. Thus, this show again highlights Anne’s faith.
At one point, Anne slices a pomegranate in half. Catherine of Aragon’s badge included the pomegranate. This perhaps is a symbol of how Anne supplanted Catherine of Aragon, alluding to the current situation where Anne is supplanted by Jane Seymour. Red juice runs down Anne’s hand in a clear reference to blood.
Timeline Note: Most of the accused men were tried on May 12. All of them pled not guilty but Mark Smeaton. The jury pronounced them all guilty and sentenced them to be drawn, hung, and quartered. The finding of their guilt pretty much sealed Anne’s fate; Henry VIII seemed to agree and actually ordered her household to be broken up and dissolved on May 13. Anne and her brother George were tried on May 15, due to their status as nobles. All the men were executed on May 17 and Anne was executed on May 19.
Madge helps Anne put on a black dress and hood for the trial. In real life, Anne wore a black velvet gown over a petticoat (like an underskirt) of scarlet damask, with a small cap that had a black and white feather. She was attended at the trial by a few of the ladies staying with her in the trial (and perhaps a few maids of honor from her household, but we don’t know for sure).
Anne’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, really did preside over Anne’s and George’s trial in his role as Lord High Steward. The jury was made up of 26 peers of various ranks (of the 62 peers in the land). The jury may have actually included Anne’s father, the Earl of Wiltshire, but the records on that are pretty unclear (some people said he was there as a judge, but his name wasn’t on the official record).
In the show, the trial appears to take place in a hall with spectators, but not an overly large one. In real life, they held the trial in the King’s Hall in The Tower of London, which was 80 feet by 50 feet. They actually built platforms and put in benches to accommodate the many spectators they expected to come watch the trial. Ambassador Eustace Chapuys claimed there were 2,000 spectators at the trial.
In the episode, Anne stands during the trial. Common prisoners really did stand up to hear their charges read at Tudor trials, but since Anne was the Queen of England, she was given a chair to sit in for the whole time.
Cromwell gives a few particular dates of alleged acts of adultery and incest. The historical trial was based on indictments handed down by two grand juries, one based in Middlesex (intended to address “unlawful acts” that had taken place in Middlesex, at Hampton Court Palace and at Whitehall) and one in Kent (intended to cover unlawful acts that had taken place in Kent, namely, at Greenwich Palace, East Greenwich, and Eltham Palace). Some of the dates align with those in one or both of the indictments; some do not.
Anne defends herself against one charge by noting that she was not in the place stated at that time, as she was in Greenwich recovering from the birth of Elizabeth.
The gross line about Anne and George having their tongues in each other’s mouths is almost verbatim from the Middlesex Indictment.
The charges and evidence against Anne Boleyn were honestly ludicrous and the vast majority of them are easily disproven by records. And people even knew that at the time! Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys hated Anne with the fire of a thousand suns, but even he said that there was no valid proof or confession against her.
As Alison Weir said in The Lady in The Tower, “Close scrutiny of the facts suggests that thirteen out of the twenty-one charges were impossible, and that if, four and a half centuries later it can be established that only eight were even plausible—which in itself suggests that even these were not genuine offenses—then the case against Anne is shaky indeed. Furthermore, allegations that a number of unspecified offenses had been committed ‘on diverse days before and after’ the stated dates on which the crimes had purportedly been committed would be difficult to disprove, and Cromwell was doubtless aware of this; it was a catchall guarantee…In no fewer than twelve instances, either Anne or her alleged accomplice can be shown not to have been in the specified location.”
Weir also pointed out that on all but one of the dates cited, Anne was pregnant. At the time, sex during pregnancy was super scandalous. People believed sex while pregnant threatened the health of the unborn child.
Some of the alleged dates of adultery also occurred very soon after Anne gave birth; she likely was not physically up for sex at that time, and would still have been secluded with her ladies. There was also a very strong taboo against having sex after a woman gave birth but before she was churched.
It appears that detailed records of the trial were taken at the time, but those records were lost or destroyed. We don’t have actual trial records, witness statements, or interrogation statements. The show’s portrayal of Anne being very dignified and composed during the trial is accurate. Records indicate that she defended herself very well, with clear logic.
Lady Rochford and the Countess of Worcester testify against Anne at the trial in the episode. It’s a little unclear whether there were live witnesses at the trial in real life. Ambassador Chapuys claimed there were no witnesses against her, even though that was standard practice. Statements may have been read instead.
It’s been accepted for a long time that Jane Parker, Lady Rochford (George Boleyn’s wife) was a witness against Anne Boleyn, but I don’t believe we have any contemporary evidence proving this. The records stating that she testified against him dated from years later (although they were based on extensive research and witness testimonies, so they can’t be completely dismissed either).
The evidence against Anne regarding George is super paltry. It was pretty fashionable at the time to kiss women on the mouth as a greeting; this wasn’t unusual.
We don’t know exactly what Elizabeth Browne, Lady Worcester, said about Anne, but various letters do seem to indicate that she did give evidence against her. Honestly, there are a lot of letters back and forth referring to Lady Worcester and it seems like perhaps she just said something false about Anne’s morality just to distract attention from her own behavior (her brother was chiding her at the time) and it may have just gotten…really really out of control.
I don’t believe we actually know exactly what Anne said at the trial, but people reported that she spoke very well and defended herself with logic and dignity. She likely did not make any comments about her own personal ambition, as that is much more of a modern feminist spin, but the line about being loyal and faithful to her husband and God being her judge sounds much more accurate.
In the show, the verdict is determined and given to the Duke of Norfolk in a piece of paper. I believe in real life, each juror had to individually give their verdict out loud. Every peer sitting in judgment of her gave their verdict as guilty, probably out of intense fear of the king.
I definitely thought the bit where Norfolk said her crown and titles were removed forthwith was made up, but actually, it’s more true than I realized! Records indicated that Anne was asked to resign her crown; she likely wasn’t wearing it at the time, but it may have been placed ceremonially nearby for this purpose. Anne resigned the crown, and then agreed to the removal of all her titles.
In real life, apparently the Duke of Norfolk actually did cry when he read the death sentence for his niece Anne, although it’s unclear whether this was due to grief for her or his family or shame (they had been on bad terms for months before the trial).
Various records indicate that Anne may have spoken after her sentence was given. There are different accounts, but the gist is that she was ready to die personally but was saddened that the innocent men accused with her would also die. She also stated that she suspected there were other reasons she had been convicted, as she had always been faithful to the king.
They didn’t show anything of George’s trial in the show, but in real life, he was tried immediately after Anne, in the same room.
Cranmer did go to see Anne in the tower in order to get her consent to dissolve the marriage. We know from Kingston’s letters to Cromwell that after her meeting with Cranmer, Anne said she might be able to go to a nunnery and that she was in “hope of life.”
In the show, Cranmer says god could not accept her into paradise if she chose death – oh ffs. I don’t think that’s how that works in the theology of the time! I would need to consult with a pastor to know for sure though.
Cranmer was actually a really amazing guy and extremely forward thinking for his time; there are letters indicating that he really did not believe Anne was guilty and may have at least thought about begging Henry to have mercy on her, even if he didn’t actually quite get all the way there. I don’t love this portrayal of him, as his character seems to believe Anne is guilty, based on some of his comments about hell.
In the show, Kingston brings Anne out to have one last look at her brother before George is executed. This is sweet. I doubt it happened though. We’d never have any knowledge of it. People in the tower did occasionally get to see their loved ones with bribes and such.
All five of the men accused of sleeping with Anne had their sentences of being drawn, hung, and quartered commuted to beheading by the axe by Henry. It was pretty notable that he did this even for Mark Smeaton, a lowly musician. But like, he doesn’t get brownie points for killing these people in a slightly less gruesome way.
In the show, it’s noted that it took 3 strokes of the axe to kill George Boleyn. Unfortunately this is true. Executioners of the Tudor era were not known for being particularly skillful or fast in decapitating the condemned. This is one reason why it was considered merciful for Henry to send for the executioner of Calais, a famous sword executioner, to kill Anne Boleyn (note: he did not do this for his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, who was executed by the axe).
This is all from Anne’s POV, so we don’t see any of the actual executions of the men condemned with her. In real life, they were all executed one after another, in front of each other. The order went – George Boleyn, Lord Rochford; Henry Norris; Sir Francis Weston; William Brereton; and finally Mark Smeaton. It must have been terrifically bloody and terrible, particularly for those that had to watch their fellows die in front of them.
I sincerely doubt that Anne told off Cromwell as magnificently as she did in the show, but wouldn’t it be nice? My favorite line: “When people speak your name they will think of mine and the lengths you went to sully it. You will never be rid of me.” That’s arguably true! Although we’ll never know exactly who orchestrated Anne’s downfall (and I personally think some of the false evidence is too sloppy for Cromwell to have made up himself, when his other work shows a meticulous attention to detail), Cromwell has always been the chief suspect, and played a huge role regardless.
The show leaves out one of the real life horrors of Anne’s execution, namely, how her execution was actually delayed several times. Anne was all ready to die at 9 am on May 18. She had been praying for several hours before the scheduled time and took mass from Archbishop Cranmer at that time. At the time, she swore on the sacrament in front of Cranmer and Kingston that she had not been unfaithful to the king. [This is really compelling evidence of Anne’s innocence actually; people very seriously believed in God, heaven, and hell at the time, and Anne knew she was about to die. Lying, while swearing on the Sacrament, right before her death could danger her immortal soul, and Anne really wouldn’t have done that.]
When 9 am came and went, she asked Kingston whether she would be executed at noon; he deflected and did not tell her. After noon had passed, Kingston told her that her execution was delayed for a day. She would not be executed until around 8 am on March 19.
In the show, Anne asks her ladies to give her prayer book to her daughter Elizabeth, and wrote a little bit in it to her. Anne did have a prayer book that she wrote in, and may have brought to her execution. What she actually wrote in it was her signature and ‘Remember me when you do pray that hope doth lead from day to day’. It’s unclear exactly what happened to the prayer book after Anne’s execution, but it likely did not go to Elizabeth, as Henry VIII went on a “destroy everything that ever belonged to Anne” rampage and likely wouldn’t have allowed his daughter to keep anything of hers.
Some amazing new discoveries involving Anne’s prayer book have recently come to light and if you're not familiar with them, I highly suggest you go read about them over here!
In the show, Anne is accompanied to the scaffold by Madge Shelton and her mother Lady Shelton. In real life, eyewitness accounts say that Anne was attended by “four young ladies.” We do not know their identities, but this pretty conclusively rules out Lady Shelton and most of the other older women that were with her in the tower. Madge might have been one of them but there’s no evidence for it. It’s possible that Margaret Wyatt (sister of the poet Thomas Wyatt, who was arrested and then released) may have been there; there’s a tradition that Anne actually gave her a prayer book, but this is likely a rumor and not accurate. There are also stories that Anne’s niece Katherine Carey may have attended her, but a twelve year old child would almost certainly be considered far too young to serve Anne in the tower and on the scaffold.
Both in the show and the real life, the executioner did actually ask Anne for forgiveness and she gave it to him “willingly,” not quite “with all my heart” as in the show.
I will literally never forgive this series for not letting Jodie Turner-Smith give Anne Boleyn’s scaffold speech. Sure, we don’t know for SURE what Anne said, but we have a pretty good idea based on people’s various recollections. And Jodie would have KILLED that speech. Fun fact: Jodie Turner-Smith agreed! I tweeted about this and she responded “me too,” which just about made my life.
The epilogue mentions that Anne’s daughter Elizabeth had a locket ring with pictures of Elizabeth and Anne Boleyn. This refers to the Chequers Locket Ring and is….sort of true. The second portrait isn’t conclusively identified as Anne Boleyn, but like, probably.
The epilogue again is presented over a banner with Anne’s heraldic badge of a falcon on it and the stupid ainsi sera, groigne qui groigne slogan that she only used for a very brief time several years before her execution, but okay, fine. It’s a cool theme to come back to, and we know that she was attached to the slogan at one point.
I’m pretty positive this is an invented banner, as I couldn’t find anything like it when I did a quick google search. Let me know if you know differently.

Tudor Watch Party 1: The Other Boleyn Girl

September 07, 2020 by Rachael Dickson in English History, TV and Film

I’ve started doing an online Tudor Watch Party! I plan to do these once a month or so and host a virtual discussion for about a week.

Here’s everything I wrote about the first selection for it, The Other Boleyn Girl.

This 2008 film starring Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johansson brought Philippa Gregory's novel to the big screen and was part of a revival of interest in Tudor stories at the time (as also indicated by the TV show The Tudors, which ran from 2007-2010).The Other Boleyn Girl tells the familiar story of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII's "Great Matter" through the eyes of her sister Mary Boleyn, spinning historical rumor about Mary and Henry into a scandalous, sexy story.

The #1 New York Times bestselling novel the film is based on was the first book Philippa Gregory wrote about the Tudors/Plantagenets. Gregory has now written 15 of them, which have been turned into at least four separate TV series (a TV version of The Other Boleyn Girl, The White Queen [which actually combined three of her novels]), The White Princess, and The Spanish Princess [based off of The Constant Princess]).

Warning: A lot of this film is based on historical rumor instead of fact and a ton of it is fictionalized. But that should give us a ton to talk about!

The Other Boleyn Girl is up on Amazon Prime to rent for $2.99. I'll try to pick selections that are free to stream every other week so this doesn't get too expensive for anyone, promise!

Various notes from my watch of The Other Boleyn Girl:

So it’s actually been YEARS since I’ve watched this film. I would guess probably at least 6. I know much much more about Tudor history and Anne Boleyn in particular than I did upon watching it for the first time. This film and the book it is based upon is /not/ meant to be a historical documentary, so I won’t go into every little thing they get wrong, but I’ll try to talk through the big things I notice as I watch through.
The film portrays Anne as the eldest child, but historically, it’s a bit more iffy. We don’t even know the exact year Anne was born, and she was by far more well known than her sister. Most historians seem to believe that Mary was the eldest child, as she was indeed married first, and her descendants later acted as if she was the eldest by claiming their titles based on that ranking. In addition, when Anne was created a Marchioness in 1532, she was referred to as one of the daughters of Thomas Boleyn; if she was the eldest, that probably would have been explicitly stated.
The film portrays Anne as being present at Mary’s wedding to William Carey and being sent off to France as a punishment later, for her relationship with Henry Percy, and then only for a few months. In reality, Anne was sent to Europe at a much younger age, such treatment was an honor and not a punishment, and she wasn’t even in the country at the time of Mary’s wedding in 1520. Anne was actually sent off to Europe in 1513, where she served in the court of Margaret of Austria in the Netherlands. She was transferred to France in 1514 to attend Henry VIII’s sister Mary, who married Louis XII. Louis died only a few months into his new marriage, and then Anne moved to serve Queen Claude. She stayed in France until 1522.
Costuming Note: Anne is very often shown in shades of green, as a nod to the historical myth that Henry VIII wrote Greensleeves for her. This isn’t accurate at all, as we know that Greensleeves was based off of a romanesca, an Italian style of musical composition that did not reach England until after Henry VIII's death.
From what I can tell as someone who’s researched Tudor fashion a lot at this point but is admittedly still an amateur on the subject, the film is pretty accurate at least in the shapes and styles shown. Its characters are generally shown wearing some sort of head covering (as opposed to “The White Queen,” where no one ever wears a hat) and those head coverings look pretty realistic, as opposed to the much more fanciful headwear sometimes sported by Anne Boleyn in the TV show “The Tudors.”
Possible Costuming Quibble: Men are shown sporting very heavy, wide coats that make them look rather boxy. Henry VIII IS known for making this fashionable, but I was under the impression that this fashion developed later in his reign, when he had put on weight and was no longer the trim young handsome man. Don’t get me wrong, there were still a lot of layers and bulk, but I didn’t think men’s fashion had gotten /quite/ this wide yet.
Costuming Note: It’s accurate that some women would be wearing the gable hood (as seen in Queen Katherine’s court) and some would be wearing a French hood (as seen worn by Mary and Anne). The French hood was likely brought to the Tudor court by Mary Tudor around 1516 ish, but the gable hood remained pretty popular until the 1530s or so. The French hood did become very strongly associated with Anne Boleyn, but she by no mean originated the fashion in England.
We don’t really know how much Thomas Boleyn (Anne and Mary’s father) and Thomas Howard (their uncle) were involved in pushing Mary into the king’s arms, and later, Anne. This is a very commonly portrayed dynamic, but no one really knows. The film portrays her father and uncle asking Mary very bluntly about her sex life with the King (and in front of her husband, mother, and brother too), which like, ick and ick forever, but again, we really don’t know
Mary Boleyn also went to France in 1514 to serve Princess Mary as she married Louis XII of france. She stayed on in France and served Queen Claude along with her sister until 1519. She began serving Catherine of Aragon then, even before her marriage.
Although her affairs were likely exaggerated, the French king did refer to her as a very great whore and the English Mare, so Mary may have been involved with the king himself. We do know that she slept with Henry VIII though, as it was based on this relationship that Henry’s marriage to Anne was later annulled. When Henry was trying to get the pope to annul his marriage to Catherine, he also requested dispensation to marry Anne, the sister of his former mistress. In any case, the choice to portray Mary as super shy is an interesting one.
It was rumored at the time that at least one of Mary’s children was the King’s, but there’s no evidence supporting this. Henry did not acknowledge them as his, as he did Henry Fitzroy, but then, Mary DID have a husband (while Henry Fitzroy’s mother, Elizabeth Blount, did not).
It’s shown in the film that Mary found out about Anne’s marriage to Henry Percy, told her father and uncle about it, then they put a stop to it. Historically, Anne was only betrothed to Henry Percy, but this betrothal was broken off when Percy’s father refused to allow it. There’s no evidence that they actually had sex (as happened in this film). Cardinal Wolsey, who was basically running England for Henry VIII at this point, helped put a stop to the match as well, which likely earned him Anne’s enmity for the rest of her life.
Other Tudor Pop Culture Note: Interestingly enough, this film doesn’t portray Cardinal Wolsey at all. He's mentioned like, once, as a courtier says Wolsey will draw up plans to send Catherine of Aragon to a nunnery, but we never see him. That’s really weird, given how much of a role Wolsey played in Anne Boleyn’s life. He generally shows up in any pop culture set during Henry VIII’s early reign, including The Tudors and Shakespeare’s Henry VIII.
Lady Elizabeth Boleyn does appear in this film and plays a pretty big role. I’m pretty sure she never shows up in the Tudors, or if she does, it’s very tiny, as I’ve watched that TV show several times now and don’t remember her at all.
Back to History: The film portrays Thomas Boleyn being made an earl because of Mary’s becoming pregnant with her first child, but in reality, he wasn’t elevated to the peerage until 1525, when Henry VIII was pursuing Anne, and at the time, he was only made a Viscount. He was made an Earl in 1529 and George Boleyn was only then given the title of viscount. Mary’s first child, Catherine, was born in 1524. Her second child Henry was born in 1526.
The marriage of George Boleyn and Jane Parker is very commonly portrayed as an unhappy one, but there’s really no contemporary evidence supporting that. She was believed for a long time to have had a role in the downfall of her husband and Anne Boleyn, but again, there’s no indication that it was actually the case.

Natalie Portman and Eric Bana in *The Other Boleyn Girl*

In the film, the plotting Thomases say that the king will no longer bed Mary now that she’s lying in, so they need Anne to come in to get his attention. First, they generally called the time before the baby was born confinement, rather than lying in. Second, many people in Tudor times believed that any sex during pregnancy could be dangerous for the baby, so in reality, Henry probably stopped “bedding” any of his wives or mistresses the moment they knew they were pregnant. The film also mentions that Henry visits Mary during her lying in, and shows George visiting her as well. During a queen's pregnancy, anyway, no men would be allowed into her rooms during the confinement. I'm not sure if the same rules would be applied to a royal mistress. The rooms were very dark though, as George observes in the film, as it was practice to draw all the curtains and block out the sun during a queen's confinement (I actually have no idea if this was the practice for other, non-queen noble women as well).
Anne talks about “the queen” she served in Europe providing her ladies a broad education and introducing her to scholars and philosophers. Henry refers to them as Lutherans and heretics. The plotting thomases refer to the queen as “the dowager queen.”
It seems that they’re conflating the French court of Queen Claude (a very catholic woman who was NOT a widow at the time and thus wouldn’t have been called a dowager) with the court of Margaret of Austria, in the Netherlands (remember, Anne Boleyn served them both). Claude was pregnant almost her entire marriage and had a strict moral code for everyone in her household.
Margaret, a widow, served as governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507-1530. She had a famously large library, was patron to numerous artists and musicians and also had several humanists visit her court. Erasmus was a humanist and a progressive who believed the Roman Catholic church needed to be reformed, but he was also definitely a traditional Catholic who believed in transubstantiation, and disagreed quite openly with Martin Luther and other big name Protestants. She also was a patron of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, who was a theologian with some controversial ideas and interest in the occult, but also …was definitively Catholic, albeit one who criticized abuses of the catholic church and sympathized with Martin Luther. I really can’t pin down what the script is referencing here.
With more research…maybe they’re referring to Marguerite de Navarre? It’s possible that Anne served Marguerite rather than Claude, as their courts may have overlapped, but it’s not fully known. We do have a letter from Anne (post being made queen) where she said some very nice, affectionate things about Marguerite, so it’s possible. Marguerite was a princess of France and Queen of Navarre (whose husband in 1525, so...conceivably she could be referred to as a dowager queen). Marguerite was also a huge patron of the arts and DID indeed serve as a mediator between Roman Catholics and Protestants. She advocated for reforming the church but was not actually a reformer herself.
So okay, I think the film is referring to Marguerite de Navarre, just…in a very weird round about way, as I don’t think they ever refer to Navarre rather than France. Navarre is not in France, but is in Spain, although it is on the border, so if they're trying to refer to Marguerite, they're not doing it very accurately or clearly.
I am actually really enjoying how many British actors who later became known for other things show up in here. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Mary’s husband William Carey, who appears for maybe half an hour and then disappears. Eddie Redmayne plays Mary’s second husband, William Stafford, and pops in every once in a while. Alfie Allen (Theon in Game of Thrones) shows up just as a messenger trying to deliver a gift to Anne from the queen.
Wow, Anne really is a bitch to her sister in this film. The bit where she actually secures Henry’s promise to never bed his wife again and never speak to Mary again in exchange for her someday maybe being his lover, RIGHT after Mary has given birth, so Henry literally walks away from Mary and his son with her without talking to her at all? GOOD LORD. (to be fair, it was Henry’s idea, not hers)
Historical note: Mary’s first child was a daughter, not a son.
Is it weird that in this film about a quintessentially English story, the main three actors aren’t English? Natalie Portman is a citizen of both Israel and the US, Scarlet Johansson is American, and Eric Bana is Australian. I bet people were pretty pissed about that at the time. Most of the secondary actors are English though: Jim Sturgess (George Boleyn), Kristen Scott Thomas (Elizabeth Boleyn), Mark Rylance (Thomas Boleyn – and also, he famously played Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall), David Mark Morrissey (Thomas Howard), Benedict Cumberbatch (William Carey), Oliver Coleman (Henry Percy), Juno Temple (Jane Parker), and Eddie Redmayne (William Stafford).
Catherine of Aragon is played by Ana Torrent, a Spanish actress. She’s also portrayed as a brunette woman with a heavy Spanish accent. Historically, Catherine of Aragon was known to have auburn hair and after 15+ years in England, probably wouldn’t have that deep of an accent.
Okay seriously, WHAT HAPPENED to Mary’s husband William Carey in the film? He’s just sent away by the king one day on a mysterious assignment and literally never mentioned again. In real life, he died in 1527 (several years after the king began pursuing Anne Boleyn and 5 years after Mary had their first child) of the sweating sickness. What a weird thing to just drop and never talk about at all.
What the heck is the timeline in this film anyway? It’s natural that it would be compressed, as in real life, Henry VIII pursued Anne Boleyn starting in 1525, the trial at Blackfriars of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon didn’t occur until May 1529, and they weren’t able to get married until late 1532-early 1533. Their story lasted a really long time and it makes sense that everyone speeds through it. But they’ve flipped several events and changed things enough that it’s hard to tell exactly what happens when.
Queen Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess and daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand, would probably not stoop so low as to talk directly to Anne and Mary Boleyn and call them whores for sleeping with her husband. I don’t think we have any evidence of her directly confronting any of her husband’s mistresses.
I will say, I haven’t actually read the novel this is based on, so I don’t actually know how much it differs from the original Philippa Gregory story. I AM currently marathoning through the Gregory Plantagent/Tudor books though, albeit slowly, as I read other books too, and am currently on The White Princess, so TOBG will be in two more books.
Catherine of Aragon’s speech before Henry VIII at the Legatine court on her knees is almost word for word exactly what she said historically. It’s been heavily edited, as she said significantly more than that. However, the part at the end where she directly says the pope must rule on their marriage? That was not in her original speech, although she did insinuate that that was what she wanted. Some of what she actually said that points to that desire:
- “Sir, I beseech you for all the loves that hath been between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice and right, take of me some pity and compassion, for I am a poor woman and a stranger born out of your dominion, I have here no assured friend, and much less indifferent counsel: … Therefore is it a wonder tome what new inventions are now invented against me, that never intended but honesty. And cause me to stand to the order and judgment of this new court, wherein ye may do me much wrong, if ye intend any cruelty; for ye may condemn me for lack of sufficient answer, having no indifferent counsel, but such as be assigned me, with whose wisdom and learning I am not acquainted. Ye must consider that they cannot be indifferent counsellors for my part which be your subjects, and taken out of your own council before, wherein they be made privy, and dare not, for your displeasure, disobey your will and intent, being once made privy thereto. Therefore, I most humbly require you, in the way of charity, and for the love of God, who is the just judge, to spare the extremity of this new court, until I may be advertised what way and order my friends in Spain will advise me to take. And if ye will not extend to me so much indifferent favour, your pleasure then be fulfilled, and to God I commit my case!”
Okay so the insertion of Henry raping Anne into the film is really upsetting and insanely unnecessary and there’s no historical proof for it. I had forgotten that was in there and UGH. Is that in the original Gregory novel? God I hope not.
Henry and Anne’s wedding was a hell of a lot more private than it’s shown to be in the film. Think like, five people, not like the 50 shown in the film. There were actually probably two secret wedding ceremonies, both very small.
There’s no evidence of public boos of Anne at or around her coronation. Sure, people hated her (I mean, a mob tried to storm the house she was eating dinner in and kill her once), but that’s a little…public, to be booing the new queen. Although Henry wouldn’t really start beheading people for their views on Anne until a few years later, when people refused to sign and swear their allegiance to the parliamentary Act of Succession (which named Anne Boleyn the legitimate Queen of England and also made the king the head of the church of England), everyone knew he had the power to make it happen.
Anne wasn’t really called a witch during her lifetime. Honestly, if she was suspected to be a witch, we would have a lot more documentary evidence saying so. I mean. People called her everything else, why not that?
Pulling from an earlier blog post of mine: “However, in later years, various people spread the rumor. One Catholic writer Nicholas Sander described Anne Boleyn as having six fingers on her right hand and having a projecting tooth (but he said this in 1585, so like - how would he know?). He also alleged that she miscarried a monstrously deformed child. None of Anne’s contemporaries actually mention her having an extra finger, projecting tooth, or deformed child- and considering how much they hated her, wouldn’t they have mentioned it at the time if she did?” (excerpted from - https://www.rachaeldickzen.com/blog/2020/6/25/dontloseyourhead)
The portrayal of Anne sort of slowly slipping into more paranoia and hysteria about her relationship with Henry is pretty real. Anne had a notoriously sharp tongue and sudden temper. She and Henry really did have a stormy relationship. Another excerpt from my blog: “Reports from the time indicated that Anne and Henry had a very stormy relationship and had a tendency to have huge arguments and then later would reunite blissfully. One report described their relationship as “storm followed sunshine, sunshine followed storm.”
As I said earlier, there’s really no evidence that Jane Parker plotted with Thomas Cromwell to bring about Anne Boleyn and George Boleyn’s downfall, as the film portrays.
There’s of course also the plot device where Anne asks George to have sex with her to impregnate her and get her with child, in order to save her life. This is of course, absolutely did not happen. And even in the film, they don’t go through with it.
The way Anne is arrested and taken to the tower of London in the film is FAR more dramatic than it was in real life. They show her arguing with the king and him demanding his guards take her away. Historically, the last time Anne saw Henry was like, at a jousting tournament. He just left. And then all the other people she was accused with sleeping of were arrested slowly one at a time, and then they came for her. TOBG doesn’t even show the other people Anne was accused of adultery with, just her brother.
Okay, the costumes throughout this are mostly fine, but Mary wears one outfit towards the end with a very high blouse that appears to tie at the neck and that just…does not seem correct for 1530s England. Mary and Anne also both wear heavy damask print dressing gowns in an early scene, right after Mary’s wedding night with William Carey, that look incredibly off to me.
Sadly, Anne really was convicted by her uncle and her former fiancée Henry Percy. The jury unanimously convicted Anne Boleyn.
George’s execution was a lot more dramatic in this film than it was in real life. Historically, he got a chance to speak to the crowd before his death, he wasn’t just carried off by a mob and killed by an executioner immediately.
Mary goes to plead for Anne’s life to Henry in the film, and he seems to agree to her pleas. However, this did not happen in real life. After Mary married William Stafford secretly and became pregnant, she was banished from court and disowned by her family. I don’t believe she ever saw anyone in her family after that – there’s no record of Mary visiting her parents or her siblings in the tower all, and definitely no record of her interacting with the king again.
Anne’s speech before her execution in the film is pretty close to what she said in real life.
Mary Boleyn ABSOLUTELY DID NOT TAKE PRINCESS ELIZABETH AWAY WITH HER. WTF. That would never in a million years happen. Elizabeth fortunately had red hair like her father and looked enough like him that it was never seriously questioned that she was his daughter.

My Favorite Thomases: A Review of and Often Arbitrary Ranking of Tudor Thomases

September 06, 2020 by Rachael Dickson in English History

I recently gave a a little presentation of "My Favorite Thomases" for a friend's virtual Renaissance Faire, giving a little information about a number of famous Tudor/Tudor-adjacent Thomases and ranking them somewhat arbitrarily for fun.

Here’s my final ranking and bullet points about why I put each Thomas in each place. Do you agree with my ranking? Or am I totally wrong? Who's your favorite? Who do you love to hate? I'd love to hear your thoughts on all this!

10. Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton

- Served Henry VIII and Edward VI
- Pressured nobles into supporting Henry VIII’s annulment from Catherine of Aragon
- Became wealthy when the monasteries were dissolved, but was happy to persecute Protestants for Henry as well.
- Ambassador to Brussels.
- Friend and employee of Cromwell’s who later turned against him. Claimed Thomas Cromwell was indiscreet with the fact that Henry couldn’t consummate his marriage with Anna of Cleves, helping bring about Cromwell’s execution.
- Personally tortured protestant preacher Anne Askew when the constable of the Tower of London refused to do so. Bishop Stephen Gardiner ordered that she be tortured to testify against Queen Catherine Parr (this was illegal unless the king expressly ordered it and it was unthinkable to torture a woman). The constable flat out refused to do so. Thomas Wriothesley and Richard Rich (both members of the privy council) personally put her on the rack and turned the wheel when the constable of the Tower of London refused to do so. Askew refused to speak. When she was brought out to be burnt at the stake, she had to be carried, as the torture had dislocated her joints and she could not walk.
- Part of the plot to arrest Catherine Parr (Henry VIII’s last wife).
-Lord Chancellor at the time of Henry's death
- Best thing about him: His eyes are pretty in this one portrait?*

9. Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk

- An advisor to Henry VIII who had served his father previously. Involved in several military campaigns against Scotland and France. Also Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Admiral, and Lord Treasurer for Henry VIII’s household.
- Violently killed many of the Pilgrimage of Grace rebels (Catholics who wanted the monasteries restored) for Henry VIII in 1537.
- Uncle to both Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII’s second wife and mother of Elizabeth I) and Catherine Howard (Henry VIII’s fifth wife). Played a major role in bringing about both their marriages to Henry. He also served on the commission to investigate Anne and presided over Anne’s trial, in which a jury unanimously sentenced her to death.
- Noted political enemy of Cromwell. Helped bring him down in the aftermath of Henry’s failed marriage to Anna of Cleves.
- Became isolated politically in the late days of Henry’s final years as the Seymours grew in power. His eldest son pissed off everyone by assuming the royal arms of Edward the Confessor as his personal heraldry – both were sent to the Tower, his son was executed. Henry assented to Howard’s death.
- Barely survived Henry VIII (was imprisoned and sentenced to death, but Henry died before the sentence could be carried out). Remained imprisoned throughout the rule of Edward VI, released by Mary I who he served for a while in military matters.*
- Worst thing about him: Seemed to really like his wife Lady Elizabeth Stafford for a while, but he took his mistress and literally moved her into the house in 1527, so they lived apart after that. Lady Elizabeth alleged he took her jewels and apparel, locked her in her chamber, and physically abused her.
- One of very few people who actually served Henry VIII from his accession to his death.

8. Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley

- brother of Jane Seymour (third wife of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI), made diplomat and ambassador to Brussels, and later, Lord High Admiral.
- Henry VIII seemed to openly dislike him, which is rather hilarious. - married the dowager queen Catherine Parr in secret only four months after Henry’s death, after his attempts to marry both Princess Mary and Elizabeth failed.
- Hit on his pregnant wife’s 14-year-old stepdaughter (Princess Elizabeth) so much that her reputation was nearly ruined. Reports indicate that Seymour’s “flirting” included tickling and slapping her butt as she lay in her bed, or coming into her room in his nightclothes. Catherine Parrr dismissed these reports from Elizabeth’s governess as just innocent fun for a while and joined in a few times (including one weird time where they attacked Elizabeth’s dress with scissors and cut holes in it?). She later became more concerned and sent Elizabeth away to live elsewhere.
- Tried to pressure the 9-year-old Edward VI into signing various bills that would benefit him. Later tried to kidnap his nephew Edward VI and in the process, killed one of Edward’s dogs. Afterward, he was convicted of treason and executed.
- If you’re familiar with Six, he’s who Catherine Parr is singing to at the end. They became “romantic friends” right before Henry VIII proposed to Catherine. Conveniently, Thomas was made ambassador to Brussels shortly thereafter.

7. Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire

-Ambassador to Low Countries and France, Briefly Lord Privy Seal
-father of Anne Boleyn. Very intelligent and capable man who married above his station to Elizabeth Howard.*
-Took great advantage of his daughter’s rise in favor and took on many roles in Henry VIII’s government. Often portrayed as the mastermind of her marriage with Thomas Howard, her uncle, but no actual evidence to support this.
-Served on the secret commission to investigate his daughter’s sexual misconduct and helped lead to her and George’s downfall.**
-Survived his daughter and son’s downfall, but was stripped of his offices and titles. Died three years later (two years after his wife), still in disgrace. His only surviving child Mary died in 1542.

Described by records at the time of Anne Boleyn’s trial as “a mean egotist and coward, and from motives of prudence had always disapproved of his daughter’s bold and violent courses. There was, therefore, no reason to fear that he would try to defend her.” Did not fight for his children’s survival at all (we have records of other of the condemned men’s families fighting tooth and nail for them, but there’s no sign that that Thomas did anything to try to save Anne or George).

6. Sir Thomas Elyot

- a writer and publisher, English scholar and diplomat, clerk of the Privy Council, high sheriff of Oxfordshire
- Member of Parliament, embassy for Henry VIII on several occasions
- Very relatable. He literally begged Thomas Cromwell not to send him as embassy to holy roman emperor Charles (to try to persuade him to support Henry’s annulment from Catherine of Aragon)
- Educated himself from the age of 12.
- Wrote books supporting education of women and on moral philosophy. He also wrote a dictionary and a eulogy of Anna of Cleves (Henry VIII’s fourth wife).
- one of the first proponents of the use of the English language for literary purposes
- Hans Holbein drew a very lovely picture of him.

5. Sir Thomas More
- Famous humanist/philosopher. Wrote Utopia (giving rise to a new fiction genre) and History of King Richard III. I’m not a huge fan of his because his history of king Richard iii was often very inaccurate and popularized the view of Richard as a hunchbacked murdering villain (and I raelly like Richard III).
- Gave his daughters the same classical education as his son, influencing other nobles to do the same.
- Henry’s secretary, personal advisor, and lord high chancellor
- Opposed the Reformation, burning six Protestants. Insulted Martin Luther via letter on Henry VIII’s behalf.
- His stubbornness led not only to his own death but to his family’s poverty (those convicted and executed of treason lost all their lands and goods).
- Refused to take the Oath of Supremacy acknowledging the annulment of Henry & Catherine’s marriage and Henry as head of the English church, despite his family’s entreaties.
- Frankly brilliantly argued against his conviction at trial. One who keeps silent seems to consent", understood that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject. The evidence again him was pretty weak. The jury only took 15 minutes to convict him (probably had been ordered by Henry)
- Joked upon his death-"I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up and [for] my coming down, let me shift for my self.” He may also have joked about his beard being innocent of any crime, and then positioned his beard so it would not be harmed upon his beheading.
- Canonized martyr and patron saint of statesmen/politicians

4. Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby

- With his brother, he managed to stay in the favor with every king during the Wars of the Roses, serving Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III.
- The Stanleys were slightly notorious for keeping their armies back out of battles until they were sure who would win, and then backing that person.
- Married Lady Margaret Beaufort and helped her bring her son Henry Tudor to the throne as Henry VII by supporting his armies at the Battle of Bosworth, even though Richard III held his son George (Lord Strange).
- Derided as a coward at times but honestly, one of the canniest people during the Wars of the Roses and a born survivor.

3. Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex

- A blacksmith’s son and former mercenary/ “ruffian” in France, Italy, and the Netherlands.
- Became an attorney, a burgess in the House of Commons, and Cardinal Wolsey’s protégé.
- Talked the House of Commons into making Henry the head of the English Church and led the dissolution of the monasteries (which made Henry very rich). Named Henry’s chief minister in 1534.
- Likely manufactured the downfall of Anne Boleyn. Definitely manufactured the dissolution of the monasteries throughout England in the wake of England leaving the Roman Catholic Church. Anne wanted money from the dissolution of the monasteries to go to education instead of the king, which Cromwell preferred.
- Reformed the council of the North to strengthen royal authority there, introduced Protestantism in Ireland, wrote laws which promoted stability in Wales. He also introduced significant social reforms, including poor relief legislation, the promotion of English cloth exports, and taking action against enclosures.
- Arranged Henry’s marriage to Anna of Cleves, from the Duchy of Cleves, a Protestant stronghold. When this didn’t pan out, Henry was pushed by Cromwell’s enemies (including the aforementioned Thomas Wriothesley) to have him executed.
- The only person Henry VIII openly regretted executing.
- Historians <3 him because he ordered all parishes to record all christenings, marriages, and burials.
- I’m biased in his favor because of his effect on the keeping of historical records.

2. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey

-A butcher’s son who ran the kingdom for Henry VIII, serving as his Lord High Chancellor from 1515-1529.
-Made significant and popular legal reforms that allowed nobles to be convicted of crimes.
- Despite being a priest, had a mistress and two children.
- Gave Hampton Court Palace to Henry as a peace offering when Henry was angry at how long his annulment was taking.
- Fell from power after the Legatine Court kicked the can down the road on Henry VIII’s annulment from Catherine of Aragon.
- Extremely unpopular among nobles because of his commoner status and his power. Wolsey was terribly corrupt and got lots of money from his position, but frankly, everyone else did.
- Liked cats so much that his cat features in his statue.
- Sam Neill played him in the Tudors. And I really like Sam Neil.
- He died of illness on his journey to London to answer to charges of treason.

1. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer

- I love Cranmer because he was ahead of his time in many ways, but smart enough and human enough to be flexible and compromise to keep himself alive, as he realized that he could do more for his faith by staying alive than by dying. He actually forgave other people who had done him wrong and personally stuck out his neck to try to protect several condemned people from Henry’s wrath.
- Scholar, Ambassador, Privy Councillor.
- helped build case for Henry's annulment. Traveled around to gather support for the plan. Officiated Henry and Anne’s wedding, pronounced his first marriage invalid, second valid.
- established the doctrine and Book of Common Prayer for the Church of England.
- One of the few people Henry seemed to genuinely love/trust. Begged mercy for Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell. Henry VIII really loved Cranmer and personally sponsored the papal bulls necessary to promote Cranmer to archbishop of Canterbury. He also was deputized to be the person to tell Henry VIII that Catherine Howard was cheating on him, as Henry liked him best. He slipped the message to Henry during mass on All Saints Day.
In the last years of Henry’s reign, when conservatives tried to come after many religious reformers, including Cranmer, Henry himself told Cranmer about the charges and made Cranmer the chief investigator of the matter. Henry gave Cranmer his personal ring to show to anyone who tried to arrest him. Cranmer took initial revenge on the plotters against him but eventually forgave him (which was really rare for the time).
- Genuinely mourned Henry’s death and then grew a beard to mourn the king and reject the old church (continental reformers grew beards to mark their rejection of the old Church and this significance of clerical beards was well understood in England).
- Reformed the church considerably under Edward VI, changing doctrine on the Eucharist, clerical celibacy, veneration of saints, and the role of images in places of worship.
- Imprisoned when Mary I came to power. Over the two years of his imprisonment, recanted a few times and reconciled with the Catholic church, but on the day of his execution, withdrew his recantations to die a heretic.
- Married twice despite being in the church. First, while pursuing his MA, and had to forfeit his fellowship as a result. Later married a Protestant woman he met in Germany (instead of just taking her as a mistress as many priests did) in hopes that Henry would get rid of clerical celibacy and brought her to England in a box. Had two children with her. His family moved to continental Europe when it became clear that Henry wasn’t going to do this.

My Obsessive Shakespeare English History Play Family Tree (from Richard II, Henry IVs, Henry V, Henry VIs, Richard III, AND NOW HENRY VIII))

November 10, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in English History, theater

Originally published October 21, 2019

Things I should have blogged about today: Six the Musical costumes (still working on it!), things I learned at the Emerging Writers Festival, the authors I met at the National Book Festival, TudorCon (just got back!), More #ShakespearesPlaylist

Things I actually worked on today: An overly detailed family tree of English monarchs involved in the Hundred Years’ War and the Cousins’ War (also known as the War of the Roses), as portrayed in various Shakespeare plays, including Richard II, Henry IV Part 1 and 2, Henry V, Henry VI Part 1, 2, and 3, and Richard III. This started as a way for me to sort out my own thoughts and for eventual distribution to the cast members of the Richard III production for which I’m stage managing, but it may have gotten a little too obsessive to be helpful at this point, lol.

Updated on 10/22 to add in the Woodvilles- while not royal, they are very important! I’m going to keep editing and working on this to make it more comprehensive and also to clear up some of the more obscured names on here.

I started with the wonderful family tree over at The History of England Podcast website (Thank you very much!) and modified it in a lot of ways, erasing some descendants that aren’t mentioned in the plays or super relevant, adding in others that are, etc. I also added in various notes to indicate “who killed whom” (or was ultimately responsible for the death) according to Shakespeare and “who had an affair with whom” (according to Shakespeare or historical fact or rumor). [NOTE: a lot of these deaths and affairs are not at all confirmed in history and I am in no way saying it actually happened that way, don’t at me.]

My conclusion is that everyone’s related (thus, the cousins’ war!), no one has ANY IMAGINATION WHATSOEVER when it comes to naming, and everyone killed everyone else’s relatives in some way.

Did I miss someone important? It’s totally possible! Half of these people have the same damn names!

Shakespeare has a whole bit in Richard III Act IV Scene 4 poking a little fun at that. I’ve put in notations to indicate which one is being talked about at which point because it is DAMN CONFUSING.

Queen Margaret. (speaking to Elizabeth Woodville)
Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine:
I had an Edward (Edward, Prince of Wales [son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou]), till a Richard kill'd him; (Richard, Duke of Gloucester/Richard III)
I had a Harry (Henry VI), till a Richard kill'd him: (Gloucester/R 3)
Thou hadst an Edward (Edward V [son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville]), till a Richard kill'd him; (Gloucester/R 3)
Thou hadst a Richard (Richard, Duke of York [son of Edward IV’s and Elizabeth Woodville), till a Richard killed him; (Gloucester/R 3)

Duchess of York. I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him; (Richard, Duke of York [father of Edward IV, Clarence, and Gloucester/R 3; also Duchess of York’s late husband])
I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him.

Anyway, If I DID miss someone or got something wrong in this family tree, please let me know; it would be most appreciated!

UPDATED NOVEMBER 11, 2019

I added a few more generations and cleaned up a lot of the more illegible names. : ) This goes far beyond anything mentioned in Shakespeare’s history plays, but I wanted to add in all the relevant potential heirs under Elizabeth I.

I also reformatted and cleaned it up a lot. I printed out a big copy of this and mounted it on foam-board for demonstration purposes at Richard III rehearsal. I got to teach all about the wars of the roses and history and it was so much fun. :D Please feel free to download it and use it for your own purposes! But if you do so, please comment and let me know what you’re doing with it, I’d love to know!

If you’d like to download the family tree, you can do that here.

From left to right: Jane Seymour (Natalie Paris), Catherine Howard (Vicki Manser), Catherine of Aragon (Jarneia Richard-Noel), Anne Boleyn (Courtney Bowman), Anne of Cleves (Alexia McIntosh), and Catherine Parr (Danielle Steers) (photo by Eleanor Howarth)

Six the Musical Queens 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations

September 30, 2019 by Rachael Dickson in theater, English History

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

So I’ve gotten pretty obsessed with the musical Six lately, which is based on the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII. It’s set up as a girl group pop concert, in which the six women each sing the stories of their lives.

I’ve been dying for more information about the costumes in the show and haven’t been able to find a ton of information. The costume designer, Gabriella Slade, was nominated for an Olivier award for her work. In one article, she said:

“It was an amazing brief. There needed to be an echo of Tudor fashion, but obviously the contemporary influence of the pop industry. It’s an amazing thing to be able to infuse period costume with contemporary style. Lucy [Moss, writer] had ideas about which pop stars related to which queens. Catherine of Aragon is Beyoncé, Jane Seymour is Adele, Catherine Parr is Alicia Keys, Catherine Howard is Ariana Grande, Anne Boleyn is Lily Allen and Anne of Cleves is Nicki Minaj meets Rihanna.”

Other than that though, I haven’t been able to find a lot about her process or inspiration in designing these costumes. So I decided to look into the costumes myself. I’ll be directly comparing them to their historical counterparts and their modern pop artist inspirations.

These are all just educated guesses (based on lots and lots of reading and photo/portrait examining), but I am by no means a fashion or a pop music expert! If you have any contributions or comments, please send them my way - via the comments here, Twitter (@RachaelDickzen), Facebook (@RachaelDickzenAuthor), or email at Rachael.Dickzen@gmail.com. I’d love to hear what you have to say!

This will be the first of several posts on the costumes in Six. Second post will be Wives 4-6 and the Third will take a look at the alternates’ costumes! I also want to do a post looking at how the costumes evolved over time.

Historical Note: Spelling wasn’t standardized in Tudor times, so you’ll see these Queens’ names spelled a number of different ways.

Portrait of a noblewoman, traditionally considered Catherine of Aragon c. 1502 (but also could be Mary Tudor), by Michael Sittow.

Catherine of Aragon, portrayed by Jarneia Richard-Noel. (Idil Sukan)

My name is Catherine of Aragon
Was married 24 years, I'm a paragon
Of royalty, my loyalty is to the Vatican
So if you try to dump me
You won't try that again

Unknown artist, oil on panel, early 18th century (copy of a lost original portrait)

Catherine of Aragon was a Spanish princess, the youngest child of the famous Ferdinand and Isabella (yes, the same ones who sent Christopher Columbus out on his fun genocidal adventure, but THAT’S another blog post). She was Queen of England from June 1509 - May 1533.

She was betrothed to Henry’s older brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, when she was three years old and married him when they were both 16. However, he died in 1502, only a few months after they married.
What movies/TV shows don’t often tell you about Catherine of Aragon was that she had a HELL of a hard time after Arthur died (The Spanish Princess on Starz got a /bit/ into this, but didn’t fully explore the length of this time in her life. Henry was TEN when she married his brother). By the terms of her marriage contract, if she returned home to Spain, King Henry VII had to return her 200,000 ducat dowry (half of which he hadn’t even received yet). King Henry was broke and totally couldn’t afford this. He briefly considered marrying her himself (after his wife Elizabeth of York died in 1503 after trying to give him another son to replace Arthur), but eventually it was decided that she would marry Henry, Duke of York. However, he was five years younger than her, so they had to wait for him to grow up. His father also continually delayed their marriage. For the next seven years, Catherine lived in near-poverty in London, trapped between her father and her father-in-law. She had to sell many of her goods to survive and was not often seen at court due to the shabbiness of her clothes.

She finally married Henry after his father’s death and his ascension to the throne in 1509. They were married for the next 24 years and for many years, they appeared to be quite in love. Catherine got pregnant seven times but most of her children either miscarried or stillborn; only three survived the birth, and only one, Princess Mary, survived past two months of life. Catherine was always known as a highly intelligent and religious woman, but as more and more of her children died, she became increasingly devout and more interested in academic matters, particularly in ensuring the education of her daughter.
After Henry became obsessed with Anne Boleyn and his all-consuming desire to have a son, he attempted to get his marriage to Catherine annulled on the basis that she was his brother’s wife first. He also asked Catherine to retire to a nunnery. She steadfastly refused all efforts to put her aside and maintained until her death that she was Henry’s rightful queen and wife. Because of her stubbornness, Henry moved her out of his household and into increasingly shabbier and more isolated homes. He also refused to let her see her daughter, Mary. By the time she died in 1535 (probably of cancer), she likely had not seen her daughter for three or so years.

Catherine’s daughter Mary eventually became England’s first queen regnant and ruled the country for five years.

Historical Influences: The costume has some pretty direct homages to Catherine of Aragon’s portrait as a young woman. You can see that in the gold chains and gold grommeting around the collar, the square neckline, and the overall color scheme of the costume. In addition, Catherine somewhat famously had auburn hair, which is clearly shown in at least this actress’s hair. There are fewer similarities to her second portrait, but I’ve included it anyway. This portrait too, though, features a dark dress with a square neckline and touches of gold. The gold throughout the Six costume could also be referencing the wealth of Spain and her royal credentials.

Beyonce at the 2017 Grammys (Getty Images for NARAS)

Beyonce at the Super Bowl 2016 (Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

Beyonce in 2018 (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Pop Culture Influences: The character of Catherine is supposed to be inspired by Beyonce, which comes across pretty clearly in her song “No Way.” Stylistically, it fits with Beyonce’s more melodic songs (like “Irreplaceable,” below), and content-wise, the righteous anger throughout reminds me a lot of some of the songs on the brilliant “Lemonade” album (see “Sorry”).

I also think you can see hints of Beyonce in the costume - particularly in the gold “crown” in her hair. The character’s hair (which appears to be a wig, from videos and photos I’ve seen) is very similar to Beyonce’s, albeit shorter (it does appear that the character’s hair started out a lot longer and then was cut down in both volume and length over time). In addition, the overall cut and strong silhouette of the outfit really seems influenced by Beyonce’s style.

I did find a video in which one of the Aragon actresses said she considered Shakira an inspiration for the character as well, but I’m not really finding any Shakira outfits that are similar to this costume at all. I’m guessing that’s really more of a musical inspiration, as there is a definite Latin beat to Aragon’s song, which represents her Spanish heritage.

Accessories Note: Only two queens in the musical have crown-like spikes in their hair, Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves. This may be because their historical counterparts were royal /before/ marrying Henry VIII.

Anne Boleyn, by Unknown English Artist, oil on panel, late 16th century, based on a work of circa 1533-1536

Anne Boleyn, portrayed by Millie O’Connell. (Photographer Unknown)

Portrait of a Lady, thought to be Anne Boleyn, by Hans Holbein

I’m that Boleyn girl
And I’m up next, see
I broke England from the Church
Yeah, I’m that sexy
Why did I lose my head?
Well, my sleeves may be green
But my lipstick’s red.

Anne Boleyn - Henry’s second wife (who was queen from May 1533- May 1536) is probably the most well-known and notorious, as she was the victim of a vicious propaganda campaign that has lasted for so long that even well-educated people these days will refer to her as a whore. And honestly, I think you can see a lot of that propaganda even in her song from Six, which characterizes Anne as “just tryin’ to have some fun,” which is in my opinion, tremendously unfair to the brilliant woman she really was. I will write a FULL TED TALK LECTURE worth of opinions for a blog post later, but I should probably give you a brief overview so we can talk about the costumes now, yeah? (Note: I have not had the opportunity to see the full show yet , so my posts are just based on the costumes and songs. I’ve been advised that the dialogue provides a much more fleshed out, non-stereotypical view of Anne. I’m seeing it on Broadway in February and may then come back and update my posts!)

Anne Boleyn was Henry’s first English wife, the daughter of a highly respected diplomat and a noble lady from the Howard family (the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk). She was by no means a “commoner,” but she certainly wasn’t a princess like Catherine of Aragon. Anne was considered so precocious and talented that at age 12 (or possibly younger!), she was invited to join the court of Margaret of Austria. In her youth, she also was a maid of honor to Mary Tudor, the new Queen of France, and Queen Claude, the even newer Queen of France (Maids of Honor were young, unmarried noblewomen who attended on women of higher rank). Here, Anne was almost certainly exposed to the ideas of both Renaissance humanism and courtly love (which I’ll explain more in a later post, but didn’t actually involve any physical love), which influenced a lot of her later actions and words.

Anne was recalled to England to marry a cousin to settle a land dispute, but this plan fell through. She went on to the English court to serve Catherine of Aragon and became known as a tremendously charming, intelligent, and quick-witted woman. Henry VIII began pursuing Anne in 1526, but we know from his love letters to her throughout their seven-year courtship that their affair remained unconsummated for a very long time. Both Henry and Anne assumed that his marriage could be annulled fairly easily, as the Pope had granted annulments to several Kings in the past without much fuss. However, Catherine’s connections to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles (her nephew) ensured that this did not happen, and Henry would eventually have to break with the Catholic Church and form the Church of England to get his longed-for annulment. By the that time, most of England and Europe hated Anne and called her a whore. A mob of Londoners actually attacked her during dinner once; she barely got away.

Henry and Anne did eventually get married, after she was already pregnant with the future Princess Elizabeth. By all accounts, she was a doting mother and frequently visited her daughter (and thus, I’m pretty annoyed that Anne’s song in Six literally doesn’t even mention Elizabeth, even though Aragon’s and Seymour’s songs mention their kids). Anne was paranoid for her safety and the safety of her child, and when Henry began pursuing other women at court, she lost her temper at the king publicly several times. Her anger at seeing Henry with Jane Seymour may have led to her final miscarriage.

It’s a bit unclear who actually orchestrated Anne’s downfall - it may have been Henry’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell (although there were numerous sloppy mistakes in the falsified evidence, which seems too careless for Cromwell, IMO). But in the end, Anne would be tried and convicted of high treason due to adultery with five men, including her own brother. All six of the accused were arrested and executed in late April- mid-May 1536. There’s really no evidence supporting any of the charges and historians widely believe that the charges were completely manufactured.

In a final fuck you from the grave though, Anne’s daughter Elizabeth I would ultimately become one of England’s greatest monarchs. She reigned for over 40 years in a golden age of progress and led England to becoming a great world power.

Historical Inspiration: The historical inspiration for this costume is more subtle, but you can still see a few touches. The beading in Anne’s dress is reflected in the silver grommets in the modern costume. The actress also has Anne’s famous dark hair and eyes. Her blush even looks like it might be applied to match Anne’s? And of course, there’s the giant “B” necklace. The green of the costume appears to be tied to the legend that Henry VIII wrote “Greensleeves” about Anne, which is referenced several times in the musical’s soundtrack.

Pop Culture Inspirations: Anne is supposed to be inspired by Lily Allen, Avril Lavigne, and Kate Nash (per Millie O’Connell, an early originator of the role). The Lily Allen influence is most obvious in Anne’s song “Don’t Lose Ur Head,” which has the same sort of sassy wit and obvious non-posh British accent usually found in Lily Allen’s work. I’m guessing the use of this accent in the song is meant to refer to Anne’s “commoner” status; although she was from a good family, she wasn’t a Spanish princess! (And yes, that could just be the actress’s natural accent, but I’m sure they would have had her sing with a less emphasized accent if they didn’t want it in the story).

The Lily Allen fashion influence seems to come across in the dress silhouette. The punky checks are reminiscent of outfits commonly worn by both Kate Nash and Avril Lavigne (and also can honestly be seen worn by many female artists with a “punk” style, like Gwen Stefani or Pink). The wrist covers are a common punk fashion element as well.

The hair is more confusing though; I couldn’t find any photographs of the stated influences for Anne wearing double buns. However, double buns are pretty popular among young stars that go to Coachella; the real life Anne had a reputation for being very fashionable, so it’s possible this is a reference to that.

Apparently the green hair accessories shown in this photo have been replaced with leather and spikes. Anne’s costume is the only one that exposes the shoulders and a significant amount of arm.

Accessories Note: It appears from photos that the only two queens in the show with choker necklaces/choker style necklines are Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, who were both beheaded. They were also cousins and are the only queens to sport their initials on their necklaces.

Left: Kendall Jenner (Credit: Madison McGaw / BFA.com)
Right: Chiara Ferragni (Credit: Ari Perilstein / Getty)

Jane Seymour, Queen of England. Oil on Wood. 1536, by Hans Holbein.

Jane Seymour, portrayed by Natalie Paris. (Photographer Unknown)

Jane Seymour, from “The Family of Henry VIII” c. 1543-1547. Unknown artist, after Holbein. Hampton Court Palace.

Jane Seymour, the only one he truly loved
(Rude.)
When my son was newly born
I died, but I’m not what I seem?
Or am I?
Stick around and you’ll
Suddenly see more

Jane Seymour was Henry VIII’s third wife and Queen of England from 1536-1537. She was his second English born spouse and the daughter of a courtier who was knighted by Henry VII. She had a much more traditional woman’s education than either Catherine of Aragon or Anne Boleyn and though she could read and write, she was better at household management and needlework. She was from a large family, which may have contributed to Henry’s interest in her, as presumably, she was as fertile as her mother.

Jane was definitely a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon as of 1532, but may had been serving her for several years before that. She then went on to serve Anne Boleyn. The first reports of Henry courting Jane are from February 1536, about three months before Anne’s execution and indicate that Jane had rejected a gift from Henry. In March, he sent her another gift; she responded by saying that she had “nothing in the world but her honour, which she would not wound for a thousand deaths.” Jane eventually did accept a small portrait of the king, which she wore on a necklace. Henry had given a similar present to Anne during their courtship; it’s reported that Anne snatched the necklace from Jane’s throat when she saw it.

in April 1536, Jane’s brother and sister-in-law moved into Thomas Cromwell’s former chambers in Greenwich, which were connected to Henry’s apartments by a secret passage. Henry visited her there with her family as chaperones. Jane was kept away from court during Anne’s trial, but was betrothed to Henry only a day after Anne was executed. They were married within two weeks.

She had well-publicized sympathies with Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary and took efforts to reunite Henry with both of his daughters. She was praised by various ambassadors and courtiers as being very gentle, peaceful, and meek (basically the polar opposite of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn).
Jane Seymour became pregnant in early spring 1537 and gave birth to Prince Edward on October 12. Later that day, she reportedly was sitting up in bed writing letters and received guests on the day of Edward’s Christening. However, she fell ill and passed away on October 24. It’s believed she died of puerperal fever, an infection that can occur after childbirth.

Henry wore black for months after Jane’s death and did not remarry until 1540. Years later, when a family portrait was painted for Henry VIII, the painting included Jane Seymour, her son Edward, and his daughters Mary and Elizabeth. When he died in 1547, he was buried next to Jane’s grave on his request.

Historical Influences: I’m not seeing much of an homage to Seymour’s portrait here, aside from slight similarities in the neckline and necklace line. Jane’s character is depicted with the longest skirt by far, which may be a reference to her meek reputation. She also has the heavy grommets seen in the other costumes, but in silver, rather than in gold. The white in the costume may refer to her peace-making efforts. Jane’s dress also has strong armor vibes, although I’m a bit unclear on what that could refer to.
UPDATE: Since I wrote this post initially, the designer has confirmed that Jane Seymour’s costume is heavily influenced by Tudor architecture. I’ve added in an example of a Tudor style house below.

Lady Gaga in her music video for “Telephone”

Pop Culture Influences: Adele, Sia, and Lady Gaga have been listed as inspiration for Jane Seymour in Six. Jane’s power ballad “Heart of Stone” has a definite Adele power ballad feel to it. The piano background is reminiscent of numerous Adele and Lady Gaga songs. The high whistle notes part at the end is a bit more Mariah Carey than any of these singers though, IMO; Gaga and Sia are both known for high /belting/ at the end of songs, but that’s not quite the same.

Adele is known for wearing a LOT of black (in one interview, she said she sometimes goes out wearing color and people don’t recognize her) and she often goes for long sleeves and classic silhouettes that emphasize her hourglass figure, just like Jane’s costume. Sia uses black and white in her wigs and costumes on a pretty regular basis.

I initially thought I’d have trouble finding Lady Gaga inspirations, but the prison dress outfit from the Telephone music video definitely seems similar to Jane’s strong black and white stripes ensemble, plus they both share that trademark light blonde hair. Jane’s pulled back hair with volume seems like a pretty clear Adele reference as well.

Accessories Note: Earlier photos of Jane show that her costume used to incorporate a black leather hair piece with little silver spikes, but that appears to have been removed at this point.