Secrets of the Tudor Court Boxed Set

A WHO’S WHO

OF THE TUDOR COURT

1537–1543

Anna of Cleves (1515–1557)

Henry VIII married his fourth queen on January 6, 1540. She was persuaded to accept an annulment on July 9 of that same year. She retired to Richmond and Bletchingley, properties granted to her in a generous settlement, and was thereafter treated as “the king’s sister.” A false rumor, circulated in 1541, claimed she’d given birth to a child. She was present at ceremonial occasions throughout the reign of Mary I. She was buried in Westminster Abbey. Her portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger still makes her appear, to modern eyes, the most attractive of King Henry’s wives.

Arundell, Jane (d. 1577)

Jane Arundell, older half sister of Mary (below), was one of Queen Jane’s maids of honor when Anne Bassett first came to court. She was at least thirty years old at the time, since her mother had died before 1507. After Queen Jane’s death, Jane Arundell joined her half sister’s household. Nothing further is known of her.

Arundell, Mary (Countess of Sussex) (1517?–1557)

Mary Arundell was Anne Bassett’s cousin. Their mothers were sisters. She was at court as a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour until she became the third wife of Robert Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, on January 14, 1537. Mary remained at court as one of Queen Jane’s ladies until Jane’s death and returned to court as one of the great ladies of the household under Anna of Cleves and Catherine Howard. She had at least one son by Sussex, born in March 1538, but he seems to have died young. After the earl’s death, Mary became the second wife of Henry FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, marrying him on December 19, 1545. She was once thought to have translated Greek and Latin epigrams, but it is now believed that scholars confused her with her stepdaughter, Mary FitzAlan.

Astley, Jane (Mistress Mewtas) (1517?–1551?)

Jane Astley was a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour until she married Peter Mewtas. The wedding took place after Easter but before October 9, 1537. Jane is the subject of the sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger labeled Lady Meutas. Jane and Peter had several children—Cecily, Frances, Henry, Thomas, and Hercules. Anne Bassett lived with them in their house in London after she left the Countess of Sussex’s household.

Bassett, Anne (1521?–1557?)

Anne was the third daughter of Sir John Bassett and his second wife, Honor Grenville. When her stepfather, Arthur Plantagenet, Lord Lisle, became deputy of Calais in 1533, Anne was sent to Pont de Remy to live with the family of Tybault Rouand, Sieur de Riou, and complete her education. In 1537, she became one of Queen Jane’s maids of honor but her stay at court was short. She was sworn in only one day before the queen went into seclusion to await the birth of Prince Edward. Following the queen’s death from complications of childbirth, Anne went to live in the household of her cousin Mary Arundell, Countess of Sussex. Later she resided with Peter Mewtas and his wife and then, at the king’s suggestion, with Anthony and Joan Denny. The king took a particular interest in Anne and at one point gave her a horse and saddle as a gift. Upon Henry VIII’s marriage to Anna of Cleves, Anne resumed her post as a maid of honor. She entered the household of Queen Catherine Howard after the marriage to Anna was annulled. When Queen Catherine’s household was dissolved, the king made special provision for Anne Bassett, although exactly what provision is unclear. At the time, her mother and stepfather were both being held on charges of treason in connection with a plot to turn Calais over to England’s enemies. Their continued imprisonment did not seem to affect the king’s fondness for Anne. At a banquet where he entertained some sixty ladies, she was one of three singled out for particular attention, leading to speculation that the king might marry her. When Kathryn Parr became Henry’s sixth queen, Anne resumed her accustomed post as maid of honor. She left court during the reign of Edward VI, but returned as a lady of the privy chamber to Queen Mary in 1553. In June 1554, Anne married Walter Hungerford of Farleigh, a gentleman some years younger than herself, in the queen’s chapel at Richmond. The queen granted the couple a number of properties that had been lost when Hungerford’s father was attainted and executed in 1540. Anne bore her husband two sons who died young and had died herself before June 1557, when Hungerford remarried.

Bassett, Catherine (1517?–1558+)

The second daughter of Sir John Bassett and Honor Grenville, Catherine was in competition with her sister Anne for one position as a maid of honor to Queen Jane in 1537. When Anne was chosen, Catherine was taken into the household of Eleanor Paston, Countess of Rutland. There was talk of placing her with Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk or with Anne Stanhope, Countess of Hertford, but Catherine apparently preferred to remain where she was. A marriage was proposed for her with Sir Edward Baynton’s son, but the Bayntons thought Catherine’s dowry was too small. In 1540, she joined the household of Anna of Cleves, but by then Anna was no longer queen. In 1541, Catherine was heard to wonder aloud how many wives the king would have. This comment led to her examination by the Privy Council but she does not seem to have been charged with any crime. On December 8, 1547, she married Henry Ashley of Hever, Kent. They had a son, also named Henry. The date of Catherine’s death is unknown, but took place sometime between 1558 and 1588.

Bassett, Mary (1522?–1598)

The youngest daughter of Sir John Bassett and Honor Grenville, Mary was, according to Peter Mewtas, the prettiest of the four sisters. She joined the household of Nicholas de Montmorency, Seigneur de Bours, in Abbeville in August 1534. Her stepfather, Arthur Plantagenet, Lord Lisle, attempted to find her a place in the household of the young Elizabeth Tudor, but nothing came of it. Mary suffered from ill health and returned to Calais in March 1538 to be nursed by her mother. Gabriel de Montmorency, who had become Seigneur de Bours on his father’s death in 1537, paid a number of visits to her there and eventually proposed marriage. They kept their betrothal secret, with disastrous consequences. When her mother and stepfather were arrested and all their papers seized, Mary attempted to destroy Gabriel’s love letters by throwing them down the jakes. She was caught and her unsanctioned engagement to a Frenchman was taken to be one more proof of treason in the household. It was a crime to conspire to marry a foreigner without the king’s permission. It is not clear where Mary was confined in Calais or when she was released. The next record of her is her marriage to John Wollacombe of Overcombe, Devon, on June 8, 1557.

Bassett, Philippa (1516?–1582)

This oldest Bassett daughter remained in Calais with her mother. There was talk of a marriage to Clement Philpott, but nothing came of it. She was arrested with her mother and sister but it is not clear where she was held or when she was released. She had married a man named James Pitts by 1548.

Botolph, Sir Gregory (d. 1540+)

Botolph is the mystery man of the story. He was a younger son from a respectable Suffolk family and became a priest. He was a canon at St. Gregory’s in Canterbury in the mid–1530s and later confessed that he stole a plate from the church during that time. He went to Calais in April of 1538 to become one of the three domestic chaplains employed by Lord Lisle. There he shared quarters with Clement Philpott, who joined the household at the same time. He has been described as both a fanatic papist and an unscrupulous rogue. He was known in Calais as “Gregory Sweet-lips” for his ability to talk people into doing what he wanted. He claimed to have made a very fast, very secret trip to Rome to meet with the pope and Cardinal Pole in early 1540, but there is no evidence to back up his story. He was, however, clearly the instigator of a plot to deliver Calais to England’s enemies in “herring time” and he did recruit Clement Philpott and Edward Corbett, among others, to help him. The plan probably would not have succeeded even if Philpott had not betrayed the conspirators. Botolph escaped being arrested when his coconspirators were taken by English authorities because he was already in “the emperor’s dominions.” He may have been taken into custody there, briefly, but he was never returned to England to stand trial for treason. He disappears from history after August of 1540. Further details about the Botolph conspiracy can be found in volume six of M. St. Clare Byrne’s The Lisle Letters.

Bray, Dorothy (1524?–1605)

Dorothy Bray was either the youngest daughter or the fifth of six daughters of Edmund, Baron Bray, and was at court as a maid of honor to Anna of Cleves in 1540. She served Catherine Howard and Kathryn Parr in the same capacity. She was involved in a brief, passionate affair with William Parr, brother of the future queen, in 1541, but during Kathryn Parr’s tenure as queen, Parr’s interest shifted to Dorothy’s niece, Elizabeth Brooke. Dorothy later married Edmund Brydges, Baron Chandos, by whom she had five children. After his death she wed Sir William Knollys, a much younger man. Late in life she was known as “old Lady Chandos.”

Brooke, Elizabeth (1525–1565)

Elizabeth Brooke is sometimes confused with her aunt, Lady Wyatt, with whom she shared her name. This younger Elizabeth, however, is most likely to have been the “sister of Lord Cobham” to whom Henry VIII paid attention at a supper and banquet at court in January 1542, leading to speculation that he might marry her. Elizabeth was accounted one of the most beautiful women of her time. Late in the reign of Henry VIII, she captured the heart of Queen Kathryn’s brother, William Parr. For more on this fascinating woman, see the extended biography at my website, KateEmersonHistoricals.com.

Browne, John (d. 1540+?)

Edward Corbett’s servant, Browne was accused of treason right along with his master. There is a record of his attainder and his exemption from the general pardon, but not of his execution.

Carey, Catherine (1523?–1569)

As the daughter of Mary Boleyn, long Henry VIII’s mistress, Catherine may in fact have been the king’s child, but he never acknowledged her as such. Catherine came to court as a maid of honor to Anna of Cleves in January of 1540, but she married Sir Francis Knollys on April 26 of that same year and gave up the post. They had fourteen children. Catherine returned to court when Queen Elizabeth took the throne.

Champernowne, Joan (Mistress Denny) (d. 1553)

Joan Champernowne came to court as a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon and remained at court during the tenures of Henry VIII’s next five wives. Married to Anthony Denny, by whom she had at least ten children, she was called upon by King Henry VIII to take Anne Bassett as a guest in her house in Westminster so that Anne could enjoy the country air and take long walks. Joan was one of the ladies sent to greet Anna of Cleves upon her arrival. While serving Kathryn Parr, she was accused of sending aid to Anne Askew, who was later executed for heresy. Joan was an ardent Protestant, but nothing treasonable or heretical was ever proved against her. In May 1548, Princess Elizabeth and her household were sent to stay at Cheshunt with the Dennys. They remained there until autumn. Some accounts say Elizabeth’s governess, Katherine Champernowne Astley, was Joan’s younger sister. Others believe they were only distantly related. Joan was considered a great beauty.

Corbett, Edward (d. 1540+?)

Very little is known about the real Edward Corbett except that he was a gentleman servitor to Lord Lisle at Calais and frequently carried messages to Honor Lisle’s daughters in England and ran other errands for his master. He became close friends with Clement Philpott after the latter’s arrival in Calais in 1538 and was recruited by Sir Gregory Botolph to participate in a plot to overthrow Calais. His failure to report what Botolph suggested made him guilty of treason even though he did not actively aid the conspirators. He was arrested, questioned in Calais, then taken to England and imprisoned in the Tower. He was attainted and exempted from the general pardon but there is no record of his execution. He simply disappears from history. He may have been one of the “others” executed at the same time as Clement Philpott. His relationship with Anne Bassett is my own invention, but it could have happened.

Cromwell, Thomas (1485?–1540)

Henry VIII’s chief advisor after the death of Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell was the driving force behind the king’s marriage to Anna of Cleves. Henry’s displeasure with his new bride was undoubtedly what cost Cromwell his life. Cromwell created difficulties over money and property for Lord and Lady Lisle and was probably responsible for Lisle being implicated in the Botolph conspiracy, even though Lisle knew nothing about it before Philpott confided in him. Cromwell was arrested on June 10, 1540, and executed on the same day Henry VIII married Catherine Howard.

Culpepper, Thomas (d. 1541)

Described as “a beautiful youth,” Thomas Culpepper was at court as a page in 1535 and by the time Henry VIII married Catherine Howard, Thomas’s sixth cousin once removed, he was a groom of the privy chamber and had the unpleasant duty of dressing the ulcer on the king’s leg. Culpepper was high in favor at court as early as 1537, when Honor Lisle sent him the gift of a hawk in the hope he might use his influence with the king on her behalf. Whatever his relationship with the queen during the progress of 1541, it was foolish in the extreme to have met with her in private. He was executed on the charge of treason.

Denny, Anthony (1501–1549)

By 1536, Denny was a groom of the privy chamber to Henry VIII, yeoman of the wardrobe of robes, keeper of the royal palace at Westminster (Whitehall), and keeper of the privy purse. Later he was a gentleman of the privy chamber. He was one of the king’s most trusted servants and the recipient of frequent grants. He had houses in Aldgate in London, where he was a neighbor of Hans Holbein the Younger, and in Westminster. It was to the latter that Anne Bassett came as Denny’s guest in October 1539. Denny was present at Kathryn Parr’s wedding to the king in 1543 and was knighted on September 30, 1544.

Prince Edward (1537–1553)

The baby prince’s mother, Jane Seymour, died of complications of childbirth when Edward was twelve days old. He was for the most part raised away from court. He succeeded his father in 1547.

Princess Elizabeth (1533–1603)

Elizabeth makes only a brief appearance here, at the christening of her baby brother. For most of the period of this novel, she was regarded as the king’s illegitimate daughter and therefore not in line to inherit the throne. She shared a household with her older half sister, Mary, for part of that time and succeeded Mary to the throne in 1558.

Grenville, Honor (Lady Lisle) (1494?–1566)

In 1515, Honor Grenville married Sir John Bassett and by him had three sons and four daughters. Her second husband was Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle and lord deputy of Calais. She was one of the “six beautiful ladies” who accompanied Anne Boleyn to France in 1532 and at least two of her daughters, Anne and Mary, were renowned for their looks. In 1540, when accusations of treason were made against Honor and her husband, in part because she continued to cling to the old ways in religion, she was placed under house arrest in Calais and held there until her husband’s death in the Tower of London in March 1542. Following her release, she retired to Tehidy in Cornwall. Rumor had her going mad while in captivity, but this is not supported by any reliable source.

Harris, Isabel or Elizabeth (Mistress Staynings) (d. 1543+)

Isabel had four children under the age of six by 1534, when her husband was sent to prison for debt. One of her children was named Honor, after Isabel’s aunt, Lady Lisle. Left in poverty and pregnant with her sixth child when her husband died in 1537, Isabel entered the service of Mary Arundell, Countess of Sussex, as a waiting gentlewoman. She was invited to join Lady Lisle’s household in Calais but declined. She may later have remarried, to a man named Thomas Gawdie.

Henry VIII (1491–1547)

King Henry was forty-six in 1537 and still in relatively good health, although he was already portly. He was over six feet tall and had introduced the square-cut beard into fashion a few years earlier. By 1543, he had lost his looks. His waist measured fifty inches and his chest forty-five. His beard was sparse and flecked with gray and his hair was thinning. He weighed over 250 pounds and sometimes wore a corset. He used a staff to walk and wore a felt slipper on the foot of his game leg. Rumors that he was impotent began as early as his marriage to Anne Boleyn. He may have suffered from syphilis, but his symptoms are also consistent with land scurvy, which is caused by poor diet. Henry died less than four years after marrying Kathryn Parr.

Herbert, William (1506?–1570)

A Welshman, Herbert was at court as a gentleman pensioner by 1526 but in 1527 he killed a man in a brawl and was not heard of again until he reappeared in court records as an esquire of the body to Henry VIII in 1535. He married Anne Parr in early 1538, shortly after Queen Jane Seymour’s death. After Kathryn Parr became queen, Herbert rose in favor and was created Earl of Pembroke in 1551.

Howard, Catherine (1521?–1542)

Raised by her father’s stepmother, the dowager Duchess of Norfolk, Catherine was allowed to run wild as a teenager. When she came to court as a maid of honor to Anna of Cleves, her vivaciousness had as much to do with attracting the king’s attention as her petite form and pretty face. Henry VIII fell in love, had his marriage to Anna annulled, and married Catherine on July 28, 1540. Eventually, however, Catherine’s past came to light. An investigation into former lovers also turned up Thomas Culpepper, who had been meeting with Catherine in private during the royal progress of 1541. Catherine was arrested and sent first to the former Syon Abbey and then to the Tower. On February 11, 1542, Parliament passed a law making it a crime for an unchaste woman to marry the king. Catherine was executed the next day.

Hungerford, Walter (1525?–1596)

Hungerford, whose father was given the title Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury in 1536, was a member of Lord Cromwell’s household by 1538. In 1540, however, both Cromwell and Lord Hungerford were attainted and executed. The charges against the latter included unnatural sexual acts. It is not clear where young Walter went at this point, although he would probably have become a royal ward. He could not marry or inherit until he was of age at twenty-one. He married Anne Bassett on June 11, 1554, at Richmond Palace. He was younger than she, but estimates differ on how many years separated them. After Anne’s death he remarried, but his second marriage was unhappy and ended in a scandalous separation.

Husee, John (1506?–1548)

Lord Lisle’s man of business for seven years, operating primarily in London, Husee was also a “gentleman of the King’s retinue at Calais.” His father was a vintner. He turned down the offer to become Lisle’s steward. He is well represented in The Lisle Letters but disappears from the correspondence without explanation in March of 1540, just before the Botolph conspiracy came to light.

Hussey, Mary (d. 1545+)

Because of the treason of her father, Baron Hussey of Sleaford, Mary lost any hope of a good marriage. At the end of May 1539, she went to Calais to become a waiting gentlewoman to Honor Grenville, Lady Lisle. As a result, she was part of that household a year later when Lord and Lady Lisle were arrested and all their correspondence seized. Mary Hussey helped Mary Bassett destroy her love letters and appears to have remained with Lady Lisle during her imprisonment in Calais and been released with her after Lord Lisle’s death in March 1542. She later married and had children. Her sister, Elizabeth, was Lady Hungerford, unhappy second wife and later widow of Walter Hungerford’s father.

Jerningham, Elizabeth (before 1515–1558+)

A waiting gentlewoman to Anne Stanhope, Lady Beauchamp, until January 1537, Elizabeth became a maid of honor to Anne’s sister-in-law, Queen Jane Seymour, at that time. Later she was a maid of honor to Queen Mary. In this, she was following family tradition. Her mother, Mary Scrope, first as Lady Jerningham and later as Lady Kingston, was a member of Catherine of Aragon’s household from the beginning of the reign.

Kingston, William (before 1476–1540)

Constable of the Tower of London from 1524 until his death, Kingston was responsible for many high-ranking prisoners, including Queen Anne Boleyn and Lord Lisle. There is no record that he ever helped anyone escape from the Tower.

Knyvett, Edmund (1508–1551)

The king’s sergeant porter, a cousin of the Earl of Surrey, Knyvett married by 1527 and had four sons. In 1541 he almost lost his hand for striking another man within the precincts of the royal court. The king waited until the last moment to pardon him. Accounts of exactly when and where this happened differ. Later in life, Knyvett was involved in a scandal with a married countess.

Manners, Thomas (Earl of Rutland) (1492?–1543)

Lord chamberlain to Anna of Cleves, the Earl of Rutland was the one who convinced Anna to agree to annul her marriage to the king. Rutland’s second wife, Eleanor Paston, was a friend and correspondent of Honor Lisle’s and took Honor’s daughter Catherine Bassett into her household. Rutland’s primary residences were the former Benedictine nunnery of Holywell in Shoreditch, just outside London, and Belvoir Castle.

Princess Mary (1516–1558)

The only child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon to survive infancy, Mary became queen on the death of her brother, Edward VI, in 1553. She restored Catholicism to England with disastrous results. Her marriage to Philip II of Spain produced no children, and upon her death she was succeeded by her younger half sister, Elizabeth. Queen Mary was so fond of Anne Bassett, one of her ladies, that Anne was married in the queen’s chapel at Richmond Palace and the wedding breakfast was held in the royal apartments. As a wedding gift, Mary granted the couple a goodly number of properties that had been confiscated by the Crown when Lord Hungerford was attainted.

Mewtas, Peter (d. 1562)

Peter Mewtas was a gentleman of the privy chamber to Henry VIII and held other posts as well. In the spring of 1537 he was in France, nominally in attendance on Stephen Gardiner and Sir Francis Bryan, but he was really there to carry out King Henry’s orders to kidnap and murder Cardinal Pole. This plot failed. Later that year, Mewtas married Jane Astley, one of the queen’s maids of honor. They had a house beside Our Lady of Barking in Tower Street, where Anne Bassett was their guest in 1539. Mewtas was knighted in 1544.

Norris, Mary (d. 1570)

The daughter of Henry Norris, who was accused of being one of Queen Anne Boleyn’s lovers and was executed on that charge, Mary was a maid of honor during the tenure of Anna of Cleves and probably during that of Jane Seymour. She may also have been a maid of honor to Catherine Howard. She married Sir George Carew, admiral of the Fleet, and was with King Henry at Southsea Castle on the day in 1545 when the Mary Rose sank. She watched in horror as her husband and hundreds of others drowned. Mary’s second husband was Sir Arthur Champernowne of Dartington.

Parker, Jane (Lady Rochford) (d. 1542)

Infamous for her part in bringing about the downfall of two of Henry VIII’s six wives, Jane may simply have been the victim of bad press. That is the contention of a recent biography, Jane Boleyn, by Julia Fox. The daughter of Baron Morley, Jane was unhappily married to George Boleyn, Queen Anne’s brother, and evidence Jane gave was used against him. Contemporaries, however, cannot have thought too badly of her. She was back at court as a waiting gentlewoman to Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. That her connivance allowed Catherine to meet with Thomas Culpepper in secret is well established, as is the fact that she paid for this lapse in judgment with her life. She was executed in 1542.

Parr, Anne (Mistress Herbert) (1515?–1552)

Anne Parr’s mother was a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon and Anne became a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour. In early 1538, she married William Herbert and as Lady Herbert she was keeper of the queen’s jewels for Catherine Howard. She should not be confused with Lady Herbert of Troy, who was in Elizabeth Tudor’s household, or with Mrs. FitzHerbert, who was chief chamberer to Jane Seymour. Although Anne left court briefly to give birth to her first child in 1540, she was back in time to attend Queen Catherine during the latter’s imprisonment at Syon House and in the Tower of London. When Anne’s sister, Kathryn, became queen in 1543, Anne was part of Kathryn’s household. Anne’s husband was created Earl of Pembroke in 1551. At the time of Anne’s death, she was one of Princess Mary’s ladies.

Parr, Kathryn (Lady Latimer) (1512?–1548)

There are a lot of silly stories about Kathryn Parr’s first two husbands. Neither was a sick old man. The first, Edward Borough or Burgh, was twenty-two years her senior and the second, John Neville, Lord Latimer, was about nineteen years older than she was—in other words, still in the prime of their lives. Lord Latimer was in good health until the Scottish campaign of 1542, after which he was known to be dying. It was at this point that King Henry began to send Kathryn gifts. She was also courted by Thomas Seymour, Queen Jane’s brother, but not until he returned to England in January of 1543. Latimer was buried on March 2, 1543. Kathryn married the king on July 12, 1543. After Henry VIII’s death, Kathryn wed Thomas Seymour. She died after giving birth to a daughter, Mary. Susan James’s Catherine Parr is an excellent account of her life.

Parr, William (1513–1571)

Brother to Anne and Kathryn Parr, William Parr was at court even before his sister became queen. He was married as a boy of thirteen to Ann Bourchier, age ten, the only child of the Earl of Essex. Parr expected to be granted the Essex title when Ann’s father died. Instead it was given to Thomas Cromwell and lapsed upon Cromwell’s execution. Parr was engaged in a passionate love affair with one of Catherine Howard’s maids of honor, Dorothy Bray, in 1541, but later he fell in love with Elizabeth Brooke. Since his wife was still living, he could not marry either woman, but eventually he was able to divorce Ann and wed Elizabeth. This marriage was declared invalid during Mary Tudor’s reign and reinstated under Queen Elizabeth. Parr was created Earl of Essex in 1543 and Marquis of Northampton in 1547. After the deaths of both Ann and Elizabeth, he took a third, much younger wife, but survived that marriage by only a few months. He had no children by any of these unions.

Paston, Eleanor (Countess of Rutland) (before 1496–1559)

As the second wife of Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland, Eleanor gave birth to eleven children. In between, she served as a lady of the privy chamber to Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. In 1536 the Rutland house in Shoreditch was the scene of a triple wedding—three child marriages uniting Henry Manners, age ten, with Lady Margaret Neville; Anne Manners with Lord Neville; and Dorothy Neville with Lord Bulbeck, the Earl of Oxford’s heir. Catherine Bassett lived in the Rutland household from 1537 until 1540.

Philpott, Clement (d. 1540)

The younger son of a Hampshire knight, Philpott joined the household of Lord Lisle at Calais as a gentleman servitor in April 1538 and became good friends with Lisle’s chaplain, Sir Gregory Botolph, who arrived in Calais at the same time, and with Edward Corbett, who was already there. Philpott was devoted to Botolph and privy to his plans to overthrow Calais, but at the last minute he lost his courage and revealed the plot to Lord Lisle. He was arrested; questioned in Calais; sent to the Tower of London; tried for treason; and hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on August 4, 1540. He has been variously characterized as a dupe and as a dangerous fanatic.

Plantagenet, Arthur (Viscount Lisle) (1462?–1542)

The illegitimate son of King Edward IV, he was thus Henry VIII’s uncle. He had three daughters by his first wife. By his second wife, Honor Grenville, Lady Bassett, Lisle acquired four stepdaughters and three stepsons. The oldest of the boys, John Bassett, married Lisle’s oldest daughter, Frances Plantagenet. The extensive correspondence of Lisle and his family while he was lord deputy of Calais has been preserved by virtue of being seized when Lisle was arrested and charged with treason in 1540. He died in the Tower of London shortly after being told he had been pardoned.

Radcliffe, Robert (Earl of Sussex) (1483–1542)

When his first family was grown, Sussex married a young maid of honor, Mary Arundell, as his third wife. Anne Bassett lived in their household for a time following the death of Queen Jane Seymour. It was the Earl of Sussex who was sent to Calais to arrest Lady Lisle and seize Lord Lisle’s papers.

Scrope, Mary (Lady Jerningham; Lady Kingston) (d. 1548)

One of nine sisters, two of whom married earls, Mary made a career of courtiership. She was at court from 1509–1527 as Lady Jerningham, one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. At the beginning of 1532, she took as her second husband Sir William Kingston, constable of the Tower. During the imprisonment of Anne Boleyn, Lady Kingston was called upon to hear the queen’s apology to Mary Tudor and deliver it to the king’s daughter after Anne’s execution. Lady Kingston carried Mary’s train at the christening of Prince Edward. According to some accounts, she served the first four of Henry VIII’s queens and also spent time in the household of Princess Mary. She may have been in charge of the joint household of Mary and Elizabeth from March 1538 until April 1539. Several of her children, including her daughter, Elizabeth Jerningham, entered royal service.

Seymour, Jane (1509?–1537)

Jane came to court as a maid of honor under Catherine of Aragon and also served Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII married her shortly after Anne’s execution. She collected poppets (dolls). She died as a result of giving birth to Prince Edward.

Skipwith, Margaret (1520+ –1583)

Rumored to be Henry VIII’s mistress in 1538, Margaret married George, Lord Talboys, in April 1539. He was the son of Henry’s former mistress Elizabeth Blount. After Talboys’s death, Margaret married Sir Peter Carew, and following Carew’s death took Sir John Clifton as her third husband. She had no children by any of them.

Somerset, Lucy (1524–1582)

Although she was identified as one of three young women to whom Henry VIII paid particular attention at a supper and banquet in 1542, Lucy was never seriously in the running to become wife number six. She was the daughter of the Earl of Worcester and was a maid of honor to Catherine Howard. In 1545, she married Queen Kathryn Parr’s stepson, John Neville, Fourth Baron Latimer, and was part of Kathryn’s household as Lady Latimer. She and Latimer had four daughters.

Stradling, Katherine (1513–1585)

Orphaned by the death of her father in 1535, Katherine entered the service of Mary Arundell, Countess of Sussex. She was there at the same time as Anne Bassett and became the subject of a heated correspondence between Anne and her mother, Lady Lisle, because Anne had shared a gift of pearls with Katherine. Katherine was one of the English maids of honor assigned to Anne of Cleves at the beginning of 1540, but soon after that married Sir Thomas Palmer of Parham, Sussex. Their first child was christened on August 23 of that same year.

Zouche, Mary (1512?–1542+)

In 1527, Mary Zouche wrote to her cousin the Earl of Arundel to complain about her mistreatment by her stepmother. She asked to be taken into royal service in order to escape Lady Zouche’s cruelty. As a result, she came to court as a maid of honor, probably to Catherine of Aragon. She was definitely at court as a maid of honor to Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. Some accounts say she never wed, but others give her a husband named Richard Burbagge. She is probably the “M. Souch” in the sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger.