Mary Rose

by David Loades

  He commenced his new married life with a series of legal tussles with his wife’s uncle, Sir Christopher Willoughby, tussles which were fronted by the Dowager Lady Willoughby. The two of them, acting in collusion, obtained a writ of supersedeas to prevent Sir Christopher having inquisitions held on all the late Lord William’s estates, and the issue was eventually resolved by an arbitration before the King which resulted in Suffolk retaining his control over the bulk of the Lincolnshire lands in his wife’s name. 37 However, Mary’s death necessitated a fresh financial settlement between the King and the Duke, and Henry (or Brian Tuke on his behalf) pulled no punches. By the summer of 1535 it had been agreed that the Queen’s outstanding debt should be cancelled, but that left Suffolk to pay £6,700. He handed over jewels to the value of £4,360, and agreed an unfavourable exchange of lands with the King. He lost all his Oxfordshire and Berkshire manors, including Ewelme, valued at £480 a year, in return for ex-Percy land in Lincolnshire worth £175 a year, £2,333 in cash and the cancellation of his remaining debts. 38 He was also forced to surrender the reversion of his new house at Westhorpe for a Percy manor in Essex and £850 in cash. It was not until November of that year that this settlement was complete, his title to the Lincolnshire lands secured, and his and the Queen’s debts finally written off. Even then he had to give up Suffolk Place in Southwark in return for a London house recently surrendered by the Bishop of Norwich as a part of the price for his installation. 39 When he took stock of his financial situation early in 1535, apart from his debt to the Crown, which was still alive at that point, he had liabilities of £2,415 and assets of £2,210 in the form of debts due from sundry creditors. His income from all sources at this time can be roughly gauged from a subsidy assessment of 1534, which shows it at £2,000 ‘clear’, that is after allowances and deductions. 40 Since it was customary for peers to be under-assessed, this probably indicates a real revenue of between £2,500 and £3,000, which would be about right for a peer of his status.

  Mary’s death of course led to the sequestration of her French revenues, which was ordered by Francis I on 7 July 1533, as soon as news of the event reached him. It remained only to tidy up her accounts by paying to Suffolk such arrears as were still outstanding. 41 George Hampton busied himself with this until his death late in 1534, after which the Duke was compelled to rely on Nicholas de St Martin, with the result that by September 1535 the payments were four months overdue. Suffolk did his best to keep up pressure via Montmorency, but this was not effective and his contacts with the French court gradually languished. 42 His French pension was only half that of the Duke of Norfolk, and Anne Boleyn’s French contacts discouraged his further efforts. He had been in receipt of an Imperial pension since 1529, and by 1536 Chapuys detected clear signs of movement on his part in favour of an Imperial alliance. 43 Such a move was of course facilitated by the death of Catherine of Aragon in January, and even more by the fall of Anne Boleyn in May, an event not a little connected with Thomas Cromwell’s pro-Imperial policies. By July the Duke was voicing the opinion that there was no greater a Turk than the King of France, a sentiment prompted by the Franco-Ottoman understanding of that year. Suffolk’s influence in court and in Council was recovering by the summer of 1536 on the basis of his Imperial connections after the setback marked by the King’s harsh dealings over his financial affairs. Also, following the death of the Earl of Lincoln on 1 March 1534, which had left him without a male heir, his new marriage proved fruitful. On 18 September 1535 Catherine gave birth to a son, who was again hopefully named Henry, and to whom the King and Thomas Cromwell stood as godfathers. 44 In the two years which followed the French Queen’s death, her husband had re-orientated himself completely. Gone was his pro-French stance in the Council, and his dependence on French money. Gone too, was his local influence in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, to be replaced by a move to Lincolnshire following the rearrangement of his estates. He had also settled his financial differences with the King and formed an alliance of convenience with Thomas Cromwell, with the result that his friendship with Henry revived. It was based now on bowls and cards rather than on tennis and jousting, but above all it was based on long memories. The King did not have many friends as opposed to servants, and his affection for Brandon blossomed in the new circumstances.

  9

  THE LEGACY

  The Willoughby lands in Lincolnshire had been divided by Lord William’s death, part going to Suffolk with Catherine’s wardship, and part remaining as the dower lands of his widow, Lady Mary. The Duke consequently did not control the latter until Lady Willoughby died in 1539, although he worked in close collaboration with her to fend off the assaults of Sir Christopher, the late lord’s brother. 1 In fact, observing the terms of Lord William’s will, and paying the Crown £100 a year for his outstanding debts, can have left her little to contribute to Catherine’s well-being – nor is there any evidence that she did so. Suffolk, however, controlled several manors in Lincolnshire apart from his wife’s inheritance, and was reckoned to be ‘a great inheritor in those parts’, a description which he might not have recognised in 1535. In 1535 also he negotiated a successful marriage for his younger daughter by the French Queen when the seventeen-year-old Eleanor was wedded to Henry Clifford, the son and heir of the Earl of Cumberland. 2 If this reduced his outgoings it was only briefly, because on 18 September of the same year his new wife bore him a son, which necessitated the establishment of a fresh nursery with its complement of staff. The child was named for the King, who as we have seen stood godfather, so what was lost in financial terms was gained in honour.

  When rebellion broke out in Lincolnshire in October 1536, it was therefore natural for Henry to turn to his friend Charles Brandon to act as his lieutenant in those parts, although he could hardly be described as a locally based magnate. After careful consultations with the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Oxford, he decided that the urgency of the situation required immediate action, and set off with only his riding household. 3 It may be that he was already aware that most of the so-called gentry leaders of the rebels were at best half-hearted about their cause, and had decided to play on their reluctance in negotiation. He used a stick-and-carrot technique, agreeing to intercede for their pardons on the condition that they advanced no further. If they persisted on the other hand, he would have no option but to fight. This attempt to buy time was successful. By the time that the rebels had agreed to disperse and sue for pardon, he had been joined by Sir John Russell and Sir William Parr with 3,000 fighting men and sixteen guns. 4 In these circumstances when the Earl of Shrewsbury sent a herald to Lincoln, there was no will to resist, and the gentlemen rode to Stamford to submit to the Duke. Suffolk’s commission now required him to investigate the circumstances of the Lincolnshire revolt, and this he did by interrogating some of the surrendered gentlemen, who naturally blamed the intransigence of the commons, a few of whose leaders they actually handed over. When he entered Lincoln, suitably guarded, on 16 October, the reaction of the crowd appeared to vindicate this explanation. 5 He was also instructed to support Shrewsbury further north in Yorkshire, and that was not altogether consistent with what he was expected to do at Lincoln, because to have denuded himself of troops would have been to invite renewed disturbances, a point which the King took when he instructed him to proceed to ‘severe justice’ against the guilty parties. The situation in the county remained confused. On 17 October it was reported that the beacons were burning again in Louth, but ten days later Sir John Russell entered the town without resistance and disarmed the inhabitants, who were nevertheless described as ‘very hollow’. Suffolk proceeded cautiously in disarming the other towns, first receiving the submissions of the gentry and civic leaders, and imprisoning whoever they presented. Contingents of troops were sent to collect the surrendered arms. 6 The Duke moved with similar caution in conducting his enquiries. He filled Lincoln Castle with prisoners, but very few of them were subsequently executed, and he was constantly distracted by developments in Yorkshir
e. Once Norfolk’s and Shrewsbury’s armies had withdrawn under the terms of the Doncaster truce of 27 October, the north of Lincolnshire had to be properly defended, and by late November he had 3,600 men deployed for that purpose. Meanwhile Suffolk, who was not bound by the Doncaster truce, maintained an army of spies in Yorkshire, and planned to mobilise 5,000 men for an attack upon Hull which never materialised. 7 On 16 November his work in Lincolnshire culminated in the issue of the expected royal pardon, and on the 27th he mustered the whole county under the leadership of its gentlemen to go against the Yorkshire rebels, a contingency which did not arise owing to the Pontefract agreement of 4 December. 8

  Suffolk’s role in these events firmly established him as the new leader of Lincolnshire society, and restored his intimate relations with the King, with whom he exchanged letters more fulsome than any which had been seen in recent years. The Pontefract pardon took effect; the Pilgrims dispersed and the Duke’s troops were disbanded. He and the Duchess were invited to spend the Christmas at court. It is not certain that he got there for the festive season because it was 24 December before his deputy arrived to take over, and 18 January 1537 before we have any clear evidence of his presence with the King. When he left the court in April, Henry instructed him to make his main residence in Lincolnshire, and gave him Tattershall Castle for that purpose. 9 As a result of the traumatic events of the Pilgrimage of Grace, Suffolk had been transformed from an East Anglian magnate into a Lincolnshire one, to be at the King’s command as he had been previously. Once there, he wasted no time in mobilising his affinity, and incorporating into it the existing Willoughby clientage, with the full co-operation of Lady Willoughby, who realised which side her bread was buttered. Perhaps because her health was failing, Suffolk appears increasingly to have been managing her affairs during 1538, appointing to church livings in her gift and mobilising the Willoughby affinity for his own purposes. Mary kept nominal control, signing a court roll as late as 7 May 1539, but by the 20th she was dead and the Duke was suing for livery of her lands. These were formally granted to him in July 1540, and that gave him another £900 of income. 10 In addition his favour with the King led to significant grants of ex-monastic property. He sued for these lands in the customary fashion, and they were given to him in two tranches in December 1538 and March 1539. A few years later they were bringing in £1,650 a year, and must have increased his revenue by about 30 per cent. Such lands were mostly in Lincolnshire also, and those that were outside the county he sold or exchanged. These transactions, together with his existing holdings, made him the greatest landowner in the county, and gave him a special role in its government, a role which his good relations with Thomas Cromwell merely served to reinforce.

  Meanwhile his family was causing problems. Not, it should added, the Duchess Catherine, who discharged her duties, both at court in attendance on Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard and as lady bountiful in Lincolnshire with impeccable fortitude. She also presented Charles with a second son in 1537 who was named for his father and about whose early years virtually nothing is known. 11 The trouble was with his two elder daughters, Anne, Lady Powis and Mary, Lady Mouteagle. Anne took a lover, who was violently ejected from her lodgings by Lord Powis in a night raid. A legal separation inevitably followed for which Cromwell negotiated the maintenance agreement. Rather surprisingly, Lady Powis continued to be persona grata at court, borrowing the necessary cash from Cromwell or from her father. Lord Powis died on 2 July 1551, and his widow (as she still was) remarried Randolph Hayward, although whether he was her earlier lover is not known. 12 Tensions between Lord and Lady Mounteagle also exacerbated their problems, but these were basically caused by Thomas’s incompetence. In February 1538 he still owed the Duke over £1,000, and in order to cancel this debt Suffolk arranged to take over the custody and marriage of his son William in return for £100 worth of land. This was not the only problem and in July 1540 Lord Mounteagle was bound to keep the terms of an arbitration between himself and the Duke which had been negotiated by the Crown surveyor, and which may well have related to the same lands. 13 Fortunately the marriages of his two younger daughters seem to have worked out well. They were beautiful, like their mother, but this seems to have caused no problems. So, apart from the fact that Suffolk believed that Lord Clifford and Eleanor were living in an unhealthy house, there were no issues between them. There is no reason to suppose that her death at the age of twenty-eight in 1547 was connected with this particular concern. It is much more likely to have been caused by childbearing. Both marriages were fruitful, but the sons died young, leaving a problem with which Edward VI had to deal in due course. Outside the immediate family, the move from Suffolk to Lincolnshire seems to have caused some fellow nobles to hesitate before placing their daughters in such a remotely located household. Lady Lisle, for instance, although on good terms with the Duchess, and in spite of the best efforts of the Earl of Shrewsbury, eventually declined the honour. 14 The Suffolks themselves, however, seem to have taken to northern society with aplomb, but then they were spending a considerable amount of time at court, where the Duke had been created Lord Great Master of the Household in 1539. This was a new office, intended by Cromwell to replace both the Lord Steward and the Lord Chamberlain, which it did for a few years, until the Lord Chamberlainship was reinstated in 1543. 15

  In the government of the realm, as distinct from the locality, Suffolk was reasonably assiduous during these years. He attended about 80 per cent of the meetings of the House of Lords, and in the absence of both Norfolk and Audley took the Chancellor’s place as the director of business. He was prominent on ceremonial occasions, was a leading judge in the treason trials of 1538 and 1539, and was careful always to reflect the King’s opinion on any issue of controversy. 16 As Lord Great Master he disposed considerable patronage within the Household, and a number of his clients found places in the newly constituted band of Gentlemen Pensioners, which was formed also in 1539. He was a leading negotiator with Anne of Cleves, and her tame surrender owed a good deal to his tactful handling of what could have been a very difficult situation. He was not a party to the overthrow of Thomas Cromwell in the summer of 1540, and did not challenge Norfolk for the primacy in Council which followed the chief minister’s fall. His relations with Cromwell had always been good, but he was not foolish enough to rush to his defence, having read the King’s mind accurately. His power was private rather than public, and depended once again upon his relationship with Henry, but it increased considerably between 1536 and 1540, largely because of his successful handing of the Lincolnshire revolt. When he did return to the public arena, it was in a military capacity. A proposed expedition to defend Calais in August 1542 came to nothing, but in October and November of that year he defended the Anglo-Scottish border while Norfolk carried out the harrying raids which resulted in the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss in November, and from January 1543 to March 1544 served as the King’s Lieutenant in the North of England. 17 In that capacity he worked closely with John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, who was Lord Warden of the Marches, and to whom it fell to conduct the difficult relations with the Scottish regency government which followed the death of James V in December. There is some evidence to suggest that Suffolk resented being used in an administrative capacity, and that he would dearly have loved to lead an invasion of Scotland himself, but such was the King’s will, and he had to be satisfied, perhaps having been reassured that he would be given a suitable command when the King invaded France, which he was planning to do once the Scottish situation had been resolved.

  As war with France grew closer, Suffolk’s assiduity in Council increased because Henry relied increasingly upon his advice, and from July to November 1544 he commanded the King’s own ward in the Army Royal which he led to the siege of Boulogne. 18 Although he was by this time sixty years of age, his health seems to have been bearing up remarkably well, and he was given the whole responsibility for setting up the siege. This was potentially a tricky assignment, because
it was intended as a public relations exercise as well as a military one, and had to be so laid that once the King himself appeared on the scene he would be assured of a swift victory and a triumphant entry into the conquered town. Rather surprisingly, it all worked according to plan, and while Norfolk and Russell were bogged down in the siege of Montreuil, Boulogne surrendered. On 14 September the King was able to take possession of his conquest. 19