The Favourite by Mathew Lyons

I have just published my interview with Mathew Lyons, author of The Favourite, ‘The true story behind one of the great love affairs in British history: Sir Walter Ralegh and Queen Elizabeth I.’

Book Description

When the adventurer Walter Ralegh first encountered Elizabeth I he supposedly placed his cloak over a puddle and allowed the queen to walk across it. Thus began one of the most intriguing relationships between a monarch and her favourite.

The Favourite explores the labyrinthine complexity of human emotion, ambition and ritual within the restricted confines of the Tudor court. Was the favourite a Machiavellian schemer who fooled the queen in her affections? Was Elizabeth willing to manipulate her courtier for her own ends? The Queen’s affection for Ralegh would protect him but he would soon become the ‘most hated man in England’.

In The Favourite, Mathew Lyons reveals a new portrait of an immortal relationship and a fascinating exploration of the many layers of love between Gloriana and Ralegh – courtier, chancer and privateer.

I think the book sounds fascinating and I really enjoyed reading Mathew’s detailed and interesting responses to my interview questions. The paperback will be released on 21 June and includes a new afterword.

Read the full interview here.

Robert Parry

On this, the 3rd birthday of Robert Parry’s wonderful novel Virgin and the Crab, I am delighted to share with you a guest article about the protagonist of Parry’s novel – the fascinating John Dee.

We are also giving away a copy of Virgin and the Crab to one lucky commenter, so be sure to leave a comment after Robert’s post.

You can read my review of this remarkable book here.

Welcome Robert!

Thank you Natalie, for helping me celebrate the 3^rd Birthday of my novel ‘Virgin and the Crab’ here on The Tudor Trail. The novel itself is set in the middle of the 16^th century, within that brief, extraordinary period in English history when we had no less than two kings and three queens in rapid succession, all within a twelve-year period. The main protagonist through all of this, is the astronomer, alchemist and spy, John Dee (1527-1609) and I would like to write a little here about how his reputation has suffered, often unjustly, over the centuries. For those who do not know too much about him, you can find a brief biographical sketch here.

Virgin and the Crab

In my story, Dee is a young man on an heroic mission, and many of the more controversial accusations to be levelled against him by his enemies, of which he had quite a few, had yet to be fashioned. But fashioned they were. As a character, he has made various appearances in novels and screenplays over the centuries, but unfortunately usually in a less-than-flattering guise. Often he has a walk-on part as some deranged magician or as a fantastical, half-wizard half-prophet kind of figure full of dire predictions of impending doom.

It is remarkable how someone who, in his time, was regarded as the greatest of humanist scholars, a man in possession of a library more extensive than that of most universities and who was consulted by almost every major player in Elizabethan society from the Queen downwards on matters as diverse as geography, mathematics, geometry, navigation, astronomy and optics, should have been virtually airbrushed out of history. But this has happened – and only very recently has there been any serious attempt by historians to rescue his name from obscurity.

John Dee

He did, at least, get off to a good start as far as character portrayal goes. He was almost certainly the source for the wizard Prospero in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. He might also have provided more than a little inspiration for Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. He makes an appearance in Spenser’s Faerie Queen and, a little later, Ben Jonson probably incorporated a piece of him in his play The Alchemist. But from there it all seems to have gone downhill rather fast.

The damage was already beginning to take place, in fact, towards the end of his life, after the passing of Queen Elizabeth and the protection she had afforded him. The new regime under King James, with its witch hunts and its suspicion of anything redolent of demonic forces, could only view his inquiries into the world of the unseen as an embarrassment and a threat. The man who had once held the attention and ear of so many of the kings and queens of Europe, from London to Paris, from Moscow to Prague, began to lose status.

Later, during the 16^th century, Dee’s posthumous reputation suffered a further blow due to the writings of a gentleman by the name of Meric Casaubon, a classical scholar who is said to have fallen foul of the government and church during the harsh Puritanical regime of Oliver Cromwell and who, for reasons perhaps best known to himself, resolved to argue against one of the fundamental principles of Protestant belief, namely that humans can receive guidance directly from divine sources, without intercession. Dee’s extensive records of angelic conversations were compiled in a volume by Casaubon as a means of demonstrating that such revelations could be evil and mischievous. Mud sticks, of course – and over subsequent generations, Casaubon’s character assassination of Dee in his lengthy introduction to his volume became ammunition for sceptics of the occult, and even of other, more sobre forms of spiritual enquiry.

By the Victorian era, Dee had been demoted to little more than a figure of ridicule. Any appearances he made in literature were often frivolous, trading merely on his vague associations with the world of magic and the occult and which could therefore always be trucked out to provide the occasional lurid touch for writers and dramatist in search of a ‘character.’ In our own times, Dee has occasionally fared a little better in fiction and on the screen, but not very often.

The fact is, John Dee, was a man who lived on the cusp between the old world and the new. That was what the 16^th Century did – gradually changing its priorities from spiritual values to material ones. Astride these shifting sands, Dee was not only one of the most gifted of scientists at the forefront of the change, but he also remained a devout Christian and a dedicated and faithful servant of the Crown. The accusation, repeated still, that he died alone in abject poverty, the victim of a life of foolishness and ignorance is probably more than a little inaccurate, therefore. Hearsay statements to this effect made years after his death by those who did not know him – by the astrologer William Lilly, for example – are confused and cannot be relied upon as evidence. Lilly even refers to Dee’s education being at Oxford, when in fact it was at Cambridge. Yes, it is true that Dee’s diaries indicate that he sometimes borrowed money or sold books, but this is not necessarily a sign of poverty. In Tudor times, well-to-do people in large households would borrow to maintain cash flow – it was the ‘credit card’ of the times. The fact is, John Dee enjoyed the company and patronage of numerous wealthy and noble families until the end of his days. His son was a successful physician, and his daughter appears to have been devoted to him. He is even known to have cast horoscopes for his grandchildren.

Perhaps we need to look at Dee in a more tolerant light – not because he was a man who believed in angels, but rather because he was a man who asked whether there might be angels. And there is quite a difference between those two statements. In my novel I have tried to portray him as an intelligent and courageous being, a force for good and for progress – someone at the very centre of the intellectual and political universe of Tudor England. I wanted to do that because I believe that was what he was like.

http://robertparry.wordpress.com

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Conditions of Entry

For your chance to win a copy of Virgin and the Crab you must be subscribed to On the Tudor Trail’s newsletter (if you are not already, sign up on our homepage).

Then simply leave a comment after Robert’s guest post between now and May 4, 2012.

Don’t forget to leave your name and a contact email.

Good luck!

Hever Castle

When you hear the words, ‘Boleyn family home’ it’s difficult not to immediately picture Hever Castle, a fairytale castle in the beautiful Kent countryside that has long been thought of as Anne Boleyn’s birthplace.

The home is, as Eric Ives puts it, ‘a romantic shrine to Anne and her love affair with Henry VIII. Unfortunately, for romance and tradition, Anne was in fact born in Norfolk, almost certainly at the Boleyn home at Blickling, fifteen miles north of Norwich.’ (pg. 3)

Blickling Hall, Norfolk (built on the site of the Boleyn home)

Ives’ source? Mathew Parker, Anne Boleyn’s private chaplain born in Norfolk, who later became archbishop of Canterbury and described himself as her ‘poor countryman’. Sir Henry Spelman, a Norfolk antiquarian writing during the reign of Elizabeth I, echoed this view:

‘To Blickling was decreed the honour of Anne Boleyn’s birth.’ (Weir, pg. 19)

The Boleyns were a Norfolk family long before they moved to Hever Castle in Kent and after the annihilation of the noble Boleyn family in 1536, the gentry family survived at Blickling until the 1560s and the death of Sir James Boleyn.

The focus of this post is not to debate Anne’s birthplace or whether the Boleyns abandoned Blickling for Hever. Instead, it is to bring to your attention another Boleyn property situated by the River Wensum on King Street, Norwich.

Elizabeth Griffiths describes the Boleyn house as lying adjacent to the building now known as Dragon Hall in an area where the Pastons and the Heydons once maintained homes alongside the Boleyns.

The staff at Dragon Hall very kindly informed me that Sir William Boleyn owned part or all of what is now 125-127 King Street. Records show that William paid ‘landgable’, a type of council tax for the property and Blomefield, the Norfolk historian, called it ‘the house of Sir William Boleyn’.

Although referred to as a ‘house’, there is some doubt as to whether the building was ever used as a home. Norfolk Archaeology Report, number 500 (2000), dates the building as ‘probably late 15^th century’ and ‘suggests that it was not a private dwelling house’ and instead may have been an ‘inn’ with a corridor running along the King Street side and rooms off it.

I was delighted to find some old photos of the building taken by George Plunkett who took photos of old Norwich between 1931-2006.  I have reproduced two photographs here with kind permission of his son, Jonathan Plunkett.

The first picture was taken in 1936 and Mr Plunkett provided the following information:

‘Adjacent, and to the south of the renowned Dragon Hall, is another building of note, that comprising Nos 125-129. When photographed in 1936 its half-timbered upper storey had for long been hidden under plaster, but some ten years later the plaster was removed to reveal its sturdy construction of timber and brick. After a few more years its owners chose to rip out the entire ground floor, replacing the modest 19c shop fronts with a continuous range of plate glass and leaving the medieval first floor suspended as it were mid-air.’

King Street, Norwich 125 to 129 © George Plunkett

The second photograph was taken in 1946 when the plaster had been removed.

King Street Norwich, 125 to 129 © George Plunkett

I am visiting Norfolk next month and hope to see the building for myself even though I have been told that it is in a sad state today, having been empty for many years.

The Palace of Placentia in a 17th-century drawing

On April 18, 1536 Chapuys met with Henry VIII at Greenwich.

On arrival, George Boleyn welcomed the ambassador and Cromwell presented Chapuys with a message from Henry, inviting him to visit Anne and kiss her hand. The ambassador could not bring himself to acquiesce and so begged Cromwell to excuse him, perhaps, for Chapuys’ sake, he should have accepted this more intimate encounter with Queen Anne because what was to follow was a much more public acknowledgement.

Queen Anne Boleyn

Rochford conducted the ambassador to mass and Eric Ives relates what took place.

‘Anne accompanied Henry from the royal pew down to the chapel to make her offering, and knowing that Chapuys was placed behind the door through which she entered, she stopped, turned and bowed to this representative of the Empire, and necessarily he responded likewise. After mass, Chapuys was careful not to go with the king and the other ambassadors to dine with Anne, but again it was her brother who entertained him in the presence chamber…’ (Pg. 313)

Chapuys recounts the encounter in a letter to Charles V,

‘I was conducted to mass by lord Rochford, the concubine’s brother, and when the King came to the offering there was a great concourse of people partly to see how the concubine and I behaved to each other. She was courteous enough, for when I was behind the door by which she entered, she returned, merely to do me reverence as I did to her. After mass the King went to dine at the concubine’s lodging, whither everybody accompanied him except myself, who was conducted by Rochford to the King’s Chamber of Presence, and dined there with all the principal men of the Court. I am told the concubine asked the King why I did not enter there as the other ambassadors did, and the King replied that it was not without good reason.’ (LP, x.699)

It’s difficult to believe that only two weeks after this triumphant victory for Anne, she would be arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Even more disturbing, in 31 days – she would be no more.

Tudor Sugarcraft Exhibition

To be absolutely honest I never thought I would write a piece about this location. It was simply by chance that I stumbled upon Manor Lodge. There was an exhibition about ‘Tudor Sugarcraft’ which piqued my interest and so I thought I would explore it at my own leisure, admire the recreations and, as usually happens when I visit Museums, feel saddened at the prospect of not being allowed to take pictures (I am a visual person after all). I normally wander around thinking, “this is beautiful but something is missing”, I always have it in museums, I love history yet… Museums and the like can feel incredibly stuffy, as if the great characters of the past were never actually there and the life has been sucked out. This wasn’t the case at Sheffield Manor Lodge. Since my visit I have been researching the history and have even become a ‘Friend of Manor Lodge’! Why? Because it is something beautiful – more than aesthetics, it is all the little touches and the colourful history which has made me want to share it with fellow members and hope that it doesn’t sound too much like a sales pitch!

Firstly, what makes this most interesting for me is that it is in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Many a time I have complained to my partner, “You Yorkists do nothing for heritage! You have all robbed it and I am now left with ruins and industrial museums!” But, all along there was a hidden gem in Manor Lodge, whose patron is my favourite Dr David Starkey (I am like a schoolgirl when it comes to Dr David Starkey…) I hope you enjoy reading this, though I have never proclaimed to be much of a writer! It is more to share information about this interesting location. I will try my best to give a historical context to Manor Lodge and give you some details of what to expect on your visit.

So, here it is – Manor Lodge (many a time mistaken for Sheffield Castle) dates back to 1066. For this piece, for Tudorphile reasons, I am going to concentrate particularly on the Elizabethan era, but the history prior to this is equally as exciting to me.

Stained glass, Sheffield Cathedral

8^th November 1530 – Cardinal Wolsey, once a man held in high esteem by Henry VIII, was facing imprisonment in the Tower of London. Manor Lodge was to be part of Wolsey’s final journey. Here, he was to be the guest of George, 4^th Earl of Shrewsbury and their meeting immortalised in stained glass at Sheffield Cathedral. In the words of George Cavendish “When we came into the Parke at Sheffield, nighe to the Lodge, my Lord Shrewsbury and all other gentlemen and servants, strode without the gates to attend my Lord’s cominge to receave him. At whose alightinge the earle received him with much honour and embraced my Lorde sayinge these words ‘ My Lorde, Your grace is most hartelye welcome unto me, and I ame glade to see you here in my poore lodge, where I have long desired to see you, and muche more gladder if you had come after another sort…”

Surviving records suggest that the Earl was a supporter of Wolsey and had discussed ways of helping him and of mending his relationship with Henry. However, on the fifteenth night the apothecary was called as Wolsey was suffering violent stomach pains, which failed to ease. Later the physician Dr. Nicholas was summoned and he declared Wolsey was living out his last days.

At Leicester on the 29^th November 1530 – Wolsey died.

“Had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs.”

Moving forward in history to the 1570s – the 6^th Earl of Shrewsbury, George Talbot and his wife Elizabeth Hardwick began an overhaul of the manor, introducing a gatehouse and octagonal towers. It is difficult to say whether this was the start of Elizabeth’s interest in architecture and interior design or whether it was simply done to accommodate their new guest. It was as if history was repeating itself and Manor Lodge was once more to serve as a prison for nobility and royalty, this time the ‘guest’ was Mary Queen of Scots.

Bess of Hardwick & Mary, Queen of Scots entwined initials

Although at least for Mary, the story of her time here reads more pleasurably. At the Lodge she would spend her time creating embroidery patterns with Bess, one depicts their initials, ‘E’ for Elizabeth Hardwick and ‘M’ for Mary entwined and in the middle an S for ‘Shrewsbury’ and ‘Scotland’. The arrows are meant to represent the Crown, possibly not on the right persons head… Interestingly, Bess attended Elizabeth’s court and George Talbot was Earl Marshall of England! The relationship between Bess and Mary soon soured – Bess accused George of an affair with Mary and, as some do nowadays with guests, Bess believed Mary to be taking liberties i.e. milk baths and hosting too large an entourage. Soon, poor George started suffering from paranoia and it is hardly surprising considering he was hosting a member of royalty, dealing with Bess’ suspicions of an affair between he and Mary, pressured from other tenants and under the ever watchful eye of Elizabeth I.

By 1584 Mary was under the supervision of Sir Ralph Sadler and George’s relationship with Bess was becoming more distant, with Bess spending more time at Chatsworth and Hardwick.  When George died in 1590, Bess purchased Hardwick Hall from her brother and went onto create what we know as ‘Hardwick Hall, more window than wall’.

Turret House, Sheffield Manor Lodge

If you do visit Manor Lodge you can expect more than a walk around the ruins. For £1.50 (cheaper than most magazines) you can go on a guided tour. The group number is intimate; at first it was just my partner and I! Later on, more people joined but it never felt impersonal and the tour guide welcomed questions. They will even let you take pictures! This is what made Manor Lodge my type of place, yes the history was interesting, the excerpts from the records informative and the Turret House (the only surviving building of the Tudor Manor Lodge to survive intact) beautiful, but overall it was the amount of time and care that the staff and volunteers dedicate to bringing Manor Lodge to life.

What makes this place most exciting are the personal touches – there is an ‘artspace’ where artist Frances Priest has taken inspiration from the beautiful Tudor ceiling and recreated it in dinner ware (manorware). The Manor Weavers, who have recreated tapestries of Bess of Hardwick’s work, show what natural dyes were used and now more modern/Tudor types. The re-enactors are great at the Lodge (We had the cook, who was excellent and told of us Mary’s letters being found in slurp). What is a great touch too, is that in the ruined parts of the Long Gallery, they have planted a Lavender Labyrinth and the ruins of the kitchens are now an apothecary garden. The staff are really friendly, I mentioned that I was a history student and was immediately told of the history of the home and informed of various talks offered throughout the year. It was a pleasantly surprising experience.

Apothecary Garden

Of course in a place such as this, it is rumoured to have a resident ghost who takes delight in knocking poor old George Talbot’s portrait off the wall when Bess of Hardwick is giving a talk!

George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury

Dr David Starkey is a patron of Manor Lodge where they regularly host talks – frequently by Tudor Historians i.e. Linda Porter and recently Leanda De Isle and soon hoping for the man himself. Find out more about upcoming events here.

Manor Lodge is free to visit, but if you would like to go on the guided tour it is £1.50. The tour guide is fantastic and you may even get a chance to see Bess of Hardwick.

Bess of Hardwick

The Sugarcraft Exhibition is on display in the Turret House from 3rd March to 8th September 2012.

On a side note, one of the sugar designs on display is a unique model of St Paul’s, as originally designed for a banquet hosted by cardinal Wolsey for Henry VIII.

A unique model of St Paul' Cathedral as originally designed for a banquet hosted by Cardinal Wolsey for Henry VIII.

By Keeleigh Hodgson

I must say that Sudeley is one of the most atmospheric and beautiful places I have ever visited and you’ll notice that it is the Chapel of St. Mary at Sudeley that features prominently on my website’s header.

Thank you Debbie!

The Queen Katherine Parr Quincentenary

This year Sudeley Castle is celebrating the life of Queen Kateryn Parr with a series of special events and exhibitions to mark the 500 years since the birth of this remarkable woman.

Katherine Parr is best known for being Henry VIII’s surviving queen, but through the exhibitions on show we find out more about the life and loves of Katherine and her time at Sudeley. I was surprised to learn that KP stood 6 feet tall, almost unheard of in Tudor times. It is no wonder she caught Henry’s eye at court – towering above the other ladies. Katherine was also a published author and you can view original copies of her work on display for the first time. In KP’s book of lamentations you can see she has signed her name, Kateryn the Queen KP.

Katherine Parr's Book of Lamentations © Debbie Fenton

Also on display are love letters written to Thomas Seymour and items taken from her tomb when it was opened in 1782 which include a lock of auburn hair and a tooth! (In very good condition I might add) The exhibition ends with a short film by Dr David Starkey where we learn more about Katherine and her time at Sudeley and why she felt compelled to marry Henry when she was in love with Thomas Seymour.

Katherine Parr's Closet Window © Debbie Fenton

The next part of the KP trail takes you to the South Hall and Katherine’s private rooms, which are open to the public for the first time in five years. If like me you like to soak up the atmosphere of an historic place and imagine the conversations that have taken place within the walls, then you will enjoy this experience the most. You ascend a staircase to the only remaining rooms from the original castle that KP lived in. (No photography sadly as my partner found out when he took a snap then was fiercely reprimanded by the guide!). There is a beautiful closet with a stained glass window that allows light to flood in, giving the room a very happy feel. The idyllic views across the garden as Katherine would have seen them, lead on to her private chapel in the church of St Mary. In the window stands a mannequin of Lady Ann Herbert, KP’s sister who was her groom of the stool, who according to the display, assisted KP with the very important job of wiping her bottom!

Katherine Parr's private door © Debbie Fenton

As you descend the staircase you are invited to exit the castle through the very door that KP would have used to make the short walk to her private chapel to carry out her daily devotions. An added moment of excitement ensues when you are told that the door has remained until now unopened since Tudor times. Now you can make your way to the church for the most poignant part of the trail.

Inside the church of St Mary’s, alongside KP’s tomb, you will see a peaceful Katherine lying in state surrounded by candles. She is being watched over by her young chief mourner, Lady Jane Grey. I found this moment quite haunting and a fitting end to the trail.

Katherine Parr lying in state © Debbie Fenton

There are more special events planned for this year, including talks with Dr David Starkey and Alison Weir, and also a re-enactment of Queen Katherine’s funeral.

The exhibitions are on a small scale, but I found them to be intimate, atmospheric and engaging. I left feeling closer to Katherine, and I will certainly now give her as much thought as I do all my other favourite Tudor people.

By Debbie Fenton

Eustace Chapuys

After hearing of the passing of the Act of Appeals, Chapuys requested an audience with King Henry VIII.

The act, engineered by Thomas Cromwell,

‘removed English religious rule from the authority of Rome, ultimately restricting appeals to Rome on legal matters, endowing Thomas Cranmer with the right to grant Henry a divorce from Catherine of Aragon and enabling him to marry Anne Boleyn.’ (The Literary Encyclopedia)

On April 10 1533, Chapuys was granted this audience and had a long discussion with the king, ‘to whom he represented the injustice done to the queen.’ (Friedmann, pg. 90)

Katherine of Aragon by Wenceslaus Hollar

Chapuys’ efforts were all in vain, as the day before, unbeknownst to the ambassador, Catherine of Aragon had been informed that the king had married Anne Boleyn and that she should now refrain from calling herself queen – or being addressed as such.

Catherine would now be known as Princess of Wales.

Read a detailed description of Chapuys’ encounter with the king in the ambassador’s own words. Click here and scroll down to Chapuys’ letter to Charles V, entry 351.

Tudor Survivor: The Life and Times of Courtier William Paulet by Margaret Scard

I am delighted to welcome Margaret Scard, author of Tudor Survivor: The Life and Times of William Paulet, back to On the Tudor Trail.

Margaret has written a guest post for us about William Paulet- a fascinating figure. He served four Tudor monarchs – Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth – and lived to tell the tale.

Thank you Margaret!

Tudor Survivor by Margaret Scard

For many historians William Paulet is a shadowy figure in the background of the Tudor court. Writers often give him only a passing mention. Yet to his contemporaries he was a man at the forefront of court life and sixteenth century politics.

In the length and breadth of his career together with his remarkable rise from being the son of a country gentleman to be the senior noble in England he stands apart from his contemporaries.  His success, though, was dependent not only on his own ability but also upon surviving the machinations of court life and on choosing to support the winning side.

Continue reading here.

Suzannah Lipscomb

I am frequently asked two questions: why am I a Tudor historian? And why do I think people remain fascinated by this period? The answer is the same: the Tudor era has all the best stories.

Consider: the remarkable sixteenth century contains our tabloid king – the much married Henry VIII – and our virgin queen – the unmarried Elizabeth I – and huge religious change – the overthrow, restoration and eventual displacing of the Roman Catholic church in England; centuries-old monasteries dissolved; heretics burnt and priests tortured. It is an age of threats against England – the attempted French invasion and the Spanish Armada – and of the discovery and colonisation of new worlds, the beginnings of empire and the founding of the navy. It is the age of Holbein and Shakespeare, of glorious architecture and palaces, and of some of the most extraordinary characters in British history.

Miniature of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots

Working on my most recent book, I was struck anew by the poignancy of the stories of those individuals – of the Protestant martyrs Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer burnt in a ditch outside the city walls in Oxford; or the tale of the twice-widowed 26-year-old 6ft and utterly beautiful Mary, Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned in England for 18 miserable years; or Sir Walter Ralegh, gaoled in the Tower of London for almost as long. During his 13 years of confinement, Ralegh wrote the one million words of his History of the World, and was only released to sail to Guiana in search of the fabled city of gold, El Dorado. He naturally failed to find it and returned empty-handed to meet his death by axe. Or there’s the story of another of Elizabeth I’s favourites, Sir Christopher Hatton, who spent his fortune on building and buying houses like Holdenby and Kirby Hall, in the hope that Elizabeth would visit and be wooed by him. She never came and he died in debt to the tune of £42,000 – around £5 million today.

A Visitor's Companion to Tudor England

A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England is a guide to these stories and to the places where you can experience these moments from the past today.

In choosing my 50 places, I had four criteria in mind. The first was there had to be something worth seeing.

Many Tudor houses and palaces – like Theobalds, William Cecil, Lord Burghley’s grand house, or Nonsuch Palace – don’t survive, and this is especially the case in London, because of the devastating effects of the Great Fire of 1666. Where fragments from these places do exist – like Richmond Palace’s gatehouse or the arches at Holdenby House – we visit them.

There remain, however, lots of gorgeous places still standing: houses like Montacute, Hardwick, Burghley, or Kirby; the smaller halls like Little Moreton and Gawsworth; or hidden gems like Sandford Orcas Manor House. We visit fortresses and abbeys, castles and tombs. We pilgrimage up to the Walker Art Gallery and to the National Portrait Gallery to stand before the great man himself.

In a couple of instances there are mere remains that have important stories to tell, like the sixteenth-century doors at Balliol College that were licked by the flames of the martyrs’ pyres. At one point we visit a 500-year-old tree, on a little road between Hethersett and Wymondham in Norfolk, where Robert Kett was said to have gathered thousands of rebels in 1549 to march on Norwich in protest against the enclosure of lands under Edward VI.

The second principle was that as well as something to see, there needed to be a cracking good story. This ruled out some places that are lovely to visit but where nothing really happened, but in many cases, the stories and places came together in beautiful confluence. At Thornbury Castle, the story of the person who owned it – Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham – and his downfall are practically played out in the stonework. Buckingham was executed in 1521 for listening to prophecies that he would one day be king, and his intended palace-fortress at Thornbury expresses the same regal intent. His death stopped work on the castle: only one tower out of four was ever finished (Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn stayed in this tower in 1535 in a room that you too can now sleep in), and some of the ranges look like ruins, but are actually building sites – they were simply never finished.

Rochester Castle in Kent, England engraved by H. Adlard after G.F. Sargent circa 1836

There are also stories of places that shaped people – the childhood home of Anne Boleyn at Hever Castle, and Hatfield Old Palace, where Elizabeth I discovered she was queen. And there are crucial moments that happened at places – Anne of Cleves’s fateful meeting with Henry VIII happened at Rochester Castle; Prince Arthur died at Ludlow Castle, and with his death, the entire destiny of the Tudors changed.

My final two criteria were that I should cover the geographical diversity of England as much as the south-loving Tudors allowed, and that I should try to represent virtually every significant person or story of the period. I wanted it to be very much a companion to the historical visitor to the period, as well as to today’s visitor to these 50 sites.

I believe fervently in the value of going to historic places. As a research curator at Hampton Court Palace (where my office was beneath Henry VIII’s council chamber, and the stairs I used every day were the back stairs on which Thomas Cromwell manoeuvred and politicked), I learnt the wonder of being where history happened: of walking in the footsteps of Henry VIII, or standing where Shakespeare stood. There is something about these places that makes one feel that one could reach out and touch the past. When I spoke to Natalie Grueninger of On the Tudor Trail about this some time ago, she put it perfectly: in those places, only time and not space separates you from the people of the past.

Historian Johan Huizinga wrote that ‘the feeling of being in contact with the past is a sensation as deep as the purest enjoyment of art, it is an almost ecstatic sensation; no longer being myself, of overflowing into the world around me, of touching the essence of things, of through history experiencing the truth’. I believe that everyone should have an opportunity to experience that sense of immediate contact with the past, and through history, experience the truth. I hope, in some small way, that my book helps that happen.

Suzannah Lipscomb

A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England is published in the UK by Ebury (RRP £12.99).

www.suzannahlipscomb.com

Hever Castle

Today the Boleyns are usually associated with Hever Castle in Kent but they were in fact a Norfolk family firmly established at Blickling. They traced their origins to Geoffrey Boleyn of Salle and Alice, daughter of Sir John Bracton (Griffiths, pg. 454).

The couple had several children, including Geoffrey Boleyn who was born c. 1405 in Blickling. According to David Loades, he was ‘the founder of the family fortune’ (pg. 9).

Geoffrey married as his second wife Anne, daughter and co-heir of Lord Hoo and Hastings. This was a beneficial match, as now the Boleyns were mixing with local gentry and the lesser nobility. Geoffrey became an alderman of the City of London in 1452, Lord Mayor in 1457-8 and was knighted by Henry VI (Weir, pg. 145).

Blickling Hall, Norfolk (Built on the site of the Boleyn home)

In 1452, Geoffrey Boleyn purchased Sir John Fastolf’s Manor of Blickling and in 1462 he purchased Hever Castle in Kent.

Sir Geoffrey and Anne’s son, William, continued the trend of advantageous marriages by taking as his wife Margaret Butler, daughter of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond (Loades, pg. 7).

Lady Margaret and Sir Geoffrey had four sons that survived infancy and four daughters (Griffiths, pg. 454). Of their sons – Thomas, James, William and Edward – Thomas Boleyn is the most famous and earned his place in history as the father of Anne Boleyn who in 1533 married King Henry VIII.

Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk

Thomas continued the tradition of impressive unions by marrying Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney. She was the eldest of two daughters and was descended from King Edward I (Fraser, pg. 116).

Weir writes of how the Howard fortunes had suffered after the Battle of Bosworth where Surrey’s father had fought on the losing side. This was fortunate for Thomas who otherwise might have found Elizabeth ‘too grand for him’ (Weir, pg. 146).

Elizabeth’s brother, Lord Thomas, was at the time married to Queen Elizabeth’s sister, Anne, who was the daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk

It was Thomas’ marriage to Elizabeth that brought the Boleyns ‘into the ranks of the higher Tudor nobility’ (Loades, pg 7).

Sir James Boleyn

William Boleyn owned property in Kent and Norfolk, dividing much of his time between Hever Castle and Blickling. According to Loades, it is at the latter that James Boleyn was born in 1480 (pg. 12).

For most of his life, Sir James lived in the shadow of his older brother but perhaps he deserves more of our attention. He outlived Thomas by 22 years and it was because of James that the Boleyns survived as a gentry family at Blickling until the 1560s and, ‘through the female line, survived into the seventeenth century’ (Griffiths, pg. 453).

Had he produced a male heir before his death in 1561, the Boleyns might still be at Blickling today.

What do we know about him?

-       May have received legal training in his youth

-       Served on the commission of the peace for Norfolk from 1511 until 1561

-       He was knighted in 1520 for reasons unknown

-       At some time before 1520, James married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Wood of East Barsham in Norfolk

-       In 1529 he sat for Norfolk in the Reformation parliament

-       He was a Knight of the Body by 1533. This position did not involve regular attendance at court and was ‘largely honorific’.

-       From 1533-36 he served as chancellor in the household of his niece, Queen Anne Boleyn and his wife, Elizabeth Wood, Lady Boleyn, ‘served’ Anne during her imprisonment in the Tower and was one of the ladies that accompanied her to her trial and death in May 1536 (According to Ives, Lady Boleyn was not one of Anne’s favourite attendants)

-       James survived the destruction of his niece and nephew (Anne and George Boleyn) in 1536

-       In 1539 his brother, Thomas Boleyn, died

-       In January 1540 he attended the third Duke of Norfolk (his kinsman by marriage) at the reception of Anne of Cleves

-       In February 1540 he was granted livery of Thomas Boleyn’s lands although he was not permitted to claim the earldom of Wiltshire

-       In March 1540 he exchanged newly acquired lands in Kent with the Crown for six manors and other land in Norfolk

-       In 1542 he received a grant of all of Jane Rochford’s moveable property that had been left at Blickling

-       In 1546 James served on the jury which indicted his kinsman Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey for high treason

-       James served as custos rotulorum (“keeper of the rolls”) for Norfolk from 1558-60

-       In November 1558 he saw his great-niece ascend the throne

-       In 1561 he made his will, requesting to be buried at Blickling

The "Hampden" portrait, by Steven van der Meulen, ca. 1563.

Sir James Boleyn died in 1561 and was buried with ‘great Pomp at Blickling’ (Blomefield, pg. 627) on September 6. He left various things to Queen Elizabeth in his will, including ‘a basin and gilt ewer’ and small bequests to various nieces and nephews.

He also left Elizabeth ‘my written book of the revelations of Saint Bridget’, and Roger Virgoe, author of James’ biography published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, concludes that there is no evidence to suggest that Sir James Boleyn shared the reformist beliefs of other members of his family. Although, Eric Ives states that

‘Her chancellor was her uncle, James Boleyn, with whom, as with Cromwell, she shared some sympathies’ (pg. 211).

Since he and his wife, Elizabeth, had no surviving children ‘with him the direct male line of the Boleyns became extinct’ (Loades, pg. 18).

Read part 1 of this series of posts here.

References