Of Lettice’s two granddaughters by her daughter Dorothy, Lucy was destined to have an interesting career. A great favourite of Queen Henrietta Maria, at the outbreak of the Civil War Lucy tried to associate herself with her male relatives as far as she could. Following the execution of Charles I, though, she became involved in plans that looked to restore the monarchy. The result was that she was briefly imprisoned in the Tower, and although she survived the experience, she died on 5 November 1660, shortly after Charles II’s restoration. She was buried at Petworth. Her brother Algernon fought for Parliament during the Civil War, but nevertheless managed to ingratiate himself with Charles II. His final years were spent at Petworth in quiet retirement. It was there that he died on 13 October 1668, and there that he was buried with his two sisters.
THROUGH HER NUMEROUS grandchildren and relatives, Lettice’s bloodline continues to this day. Thus her inheritance has proved to be enduring. Her story provides a unique example of a woman who witnessed the highs and lows of the Tudor and early Stuart court, who was once loved and then loathed by Queen Elizabeth, and whose family were involved in some of the most monumental events of the day. They would continue to be so long after Lettice had left the stage, ensuring that though she was no longer present, her posterity and her spirit lived on.
APPENDIX 1
Epitaph to Lettice, Countess of Leicester
Gervase Clifton’s epitaph next to Lettice’s tomb in St Mary’s Church, Warwick:
Upon the death of the excellent and pious Lady Lettice, Countess of Leicester, who died upon Christmas Day in the morning, 1634
Look into this vault and search it well,
Much treasure in it lately fell;
We all are robbed, and all do say
Our wealth was carried this away.
And that the theft might near be found
Tis buried closely under ground:
Yet if you gently stir the mould,
There all our loss you may behold:
There you may see that face, that hand,
Which once was the fairest in the land.
She that in her younger years,
Matched with two great English peers.
She that did supply the wars
With thunder, and the court with stars.
She that in her youth had been,
Darling to the maiden Queen;
Till she was content to quit
Her favour, for her favourite.
Whose gold thread, when she saw spun,
And the death of her brave son,
Thought it safest to retire
From all care and vain desire,
To a private country cell
Where she spent her days so well,
That to her the better sort
Came as to an Holy Court.
And the poor that lived near
Death nor famine could not fear.
Whilst she lived, she lived thus,
Till that God, displeased with us,
Suffered her at last to fall,
Not from him, but from us all.
And because she took delight
Christ’s poor members to invite,
He fully now requites her love,
And sends his angels from above,
That did to Heaven her soul convey
To solemnise his own birth day.
APPENDIX 2
Following in Lettice’s Footsteps – Places to Visit
MANY OF THE places that Lettice once knew have long since vanished, including most of the sumptuous royal palaces of Tudor England. Both Leicester House and Wanstead, her main homes during the time of her marriage to the Earl of Leicester, are no longer extant. The buildings that do survive, however, were the scenes of some of the most poignant and significant moments of Lettice’s life.
Greys Court, Oxfordshire
It was at Greys Court that Lettice’s life began, and where she passed the majority of her childhood. The interior of the house has largely altered since Lettice’s day, but she would have recognized much of the exterior and outer fabric. Similarly, the church of St Nicholas in the heart of the nearby village of Rotherfield Greys is now primarily the work of a later era. The most significant reminder of Lettice and her family, though, is the magnificent tomb effigy of her parents, flanked by fifteen of their children. Lettice is clearly distinguishable among them, although whether she ever saw this splendid memorial to her parents is unknown.
Chartley, Staffordshire
The manor house at Chartley where Lettice spent much of her marriage to Walter Devereux no longer survives, but the ruins of the crumbling castle of Chartley can be seen nearby. The church at Stowe, which may have been where at least one of her children were christened, also contains the tomb effigy of Walter Devereux, the grandfather of her first husband.
Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire
Although the mighty castle of Kenilworth now lies in ruins, enough survives to convey the former glory that would have greeted Lettice and her contemporaries as they enjoyed their hunting parties and summer holidays. More significantly, it is still possible to get a flavour of the grandeur that would have been experienced by Queen Elizabeth and her court as they arrived for the Princely Pleasures in 1575. With this in mind, the spectacular Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth has since been recreated, while Leicester’s Gatehouse can also still be visited. Built in the 1570s, it was intended to provide a grand entrance to the castle before being turned into a private house in the following century. The elaborate alabaster fireplace, proudly displaying Leicester’s initials, is housed inside, and once stood in the rooms used by Elizabeth I.
St Mary’s Church, Warwick
Lettice’s final resting place in the town of Warwick is fittingly marked. In the Beauchamp Chapel within St Mary’s can be seen the splendid tomb that she shares with the Earl of Leicester. It is surrounded with eighteenth-century ironwork by Nicholas Paris. Next to it is the flattering epitaph, composed by Gervase Clifton following her death. Also within the beautiful chapel is the poignant monument to Lettice and Leicester’s young son, ‘the Noble Imp’, as well as that of Leicester’s brother, Ambrose, Earl of Warwick.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
The following abbreviations are used in the Notes and References:
CSPD
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series
CSPF
Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series
CSPS
Calendar of State Papers, Spanish
CSPV
Calendar of State Papers, Venetian
HMC
Historical Manuscripts Commission
L & P
Letters and Papers of Henry VIII
SP
State Papers
TNA
The National Archives
WCRO
Warwickshire County Records Office
Introduction
1. G.L. Craik, The Romance of the Peerage, or Curiosities of Family History, Vol. I (London, 1849), p. 5.
2. R. Lacey, Robert, Earl of Essex: An Elizabethan Icarus (London, 1971), p. 15.
3. G.E. Cokayne (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, 12 vols (London, 1910–59), p. 140.
4. L. Johnson, The Tain of Hamlet (Cambridge, 2013), pp. 264–5.
5. Charlotte Boyle, the Queen’s ancestress, was the wife of William Cavendish, fourth Duke of Devonshire. Charlotte was descended three times from Lettice.
Chapter 1: Hiding Royal Blood
1. The church dates from Norman times, but little of the original structure now remains and the surviving fabric is mostly the work of the Victorian era.
2. According to a note in St Nicholas’s Church, there is a suggestion that the final lady may be Dorothy, the first wife of William Knollys. However, it is more likely that it represents one of the Knollys’s daughters who died young or was stillborn, and whose name has not survived. Dorothy can, though, be seen on the top o
f the tomb canopy, next to the kneeling effigy of William. Lettice is represented at the head of her sisters, although her sister Mary was older. This can be explained by the fact that Lettice was married. Mary’s life is obscure to us, and she is not known to have married. Francis Knollys’s badge was the elephant – a creature considered to be faithful, wise and pleasing to God. His wife’s was the cygnet, believed to be dignified and good company.
3. S. Varlow, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’s Latin Dictionary: New Evidence for Katherine Carey’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research (2006), p. 2. Lettice’s date of birth is sometimes given as 8 November, but her father’s entry makes it clear that her birth took place on the Tuesday after All Hallow’s Day, which was 6 November.
4. The dictionary dates from 1551. It is now in a private collection.
5. Varlow, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’s Latin Dictionary’, p. 1.
6. Ibid., p. 2.
7. In later years the name Lettice became more common: Lettice had four nieces, a granddaughter, and a sister-in-law who all shared her name.
8. John Malpas dates Francis’s birth to 1515, which is among several dates that have been suggested. See F.J. Malpas, ‘Sir Francis Knollys and Family’ (Reading Library, 1993) p. 7; Rookes was part of the confiscated property of Sir Richard Empson, who was executed by Henry VIII in 1510.
9. Malpas, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’, p. 7.
10. The name Peniston is variously spelt, and also appears as Penistone and Pennyston. I have opted to use the spelling that appears most frequently.
11. O. Garnett, Greys Court (Rotherham, 2010), p. 25.
12. See Malpas, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’, p. 7.
13. Nothing more is known of Mary’s life, but Jane, the youngest sister, was married to Sir Richard Wingfield in around 1537 or 1538. The Wingfield family resided at Kimbolton Castle in Cambridgeshire. It was at Kimbolton that Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife, died on 7 January 1536. Jane and her husband had one son, Thomas.
14. See Malpas, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’, p. 9.
15. Robert was buried in St Helen’s Church, Bishopsgate. His monument was destroyed during the Great Fire of London.
16. The couple would have a son and three daughters.
17. The question of which of the two Boleyn sisters was the elder has been hotly debated. There is, though, good reason to believe that it was Mary who was the eldest.
18. Lacey, Robert, Earl of Essex, p. 15.
19. A. Weir, Mary Boleyn: ‘The Great and Infamous Whore’ (London, 2011), p. 92.
20. Weir suggests that this may have been the case, and that Mary may have first caught the King’s eye in 1522.
21. Carey continued to receive grants until May 1526. It is highly unlikely, however, that the affair was still going on at this time.
22. Fitzroy died at the age of seventeen on 23 July 1536, and was buried in St Michael’s Church, Framlingham.
23. In 1522, long after her affair with the King had come to an end, Bessie was married to Gilbert Tailboys, by who she had three children. She later married Edward Clinton, first Earl of Lincoln, and the couple had three daughters.
24. Anthony Hoskins argues that Henry Carey, as well as Katherine, was the King’s child, based on several factors, including the fact that Henry was referred to as ‘the King’s son’ in a 1535 source. See A. Hoskins, ‘Mary Boleyn’s Carey Children: Offspring of King Henry VIII?’ Genealogists’ Magazine, 25:9 (1997).
25. L & P, XII, Part II (952).
26. Cited in S. Freedman, Poor Penelope: Lady Penelope Rich, an Elizabethan Woman (London, 1983), p. 207.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. L & P, VI (1111). Anne Boleyn’s mother was also called Elizabeth, so the choice of name served as a compliment to both grandmothers.
30. L & P, VI (1112).
31. Stafford was the second son of Sir Humphrey Stafford and Margaret Fogge. His family was distantly related to the Stafford dukes of Buckingham.
32. L & P, VII (1655).
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Weir, Mary Boleyn, p. 220.
36. Weir offers this theory as a possibility. See Mary Boleyn, p. 214.
37. Thomas Newton came from a family of Cheshire origin. He studied at both Oxford and Cambridge.
38. T. Newton, ‘An epitaph upon the worthy and honourable lady, the Lady Knowles’ (1569).
39. L & P, VIII (609).
40. Katherine died on 7 January 1536 at Kimbolton Castle. Her funeral was conducted on 29 January at Peterborough Abbey.
41. L & P, XII, Part II (889).
42. L & P, XII, Part II (890); L & P, XII, Part II (911).
43. L & P, XIV, Part II (572).
44. W. Knollys, Papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1872–6), p. 14.
45. J.A. Lawson (ed.), The Elizabethan New Year’s Gift Exchanges 1559–1603 (Oxford, 2013), p. 89.
46. There is some suggestion that Dudley was named after Robert’s elder brother, Ambrose, but he is more likely to have been named after Robert, who was high in the Queen’s favour.
47. Malpas speculates that the unnamed girl was born at some time in 1557. This is possible, but she could equally have been born in the gaps between other children, chiefly in 1544, 1547, 1551, 1560 or 1561.
48. CSP Scotland, 1547–63, I (811).
49. HMC Ancaster (1893), p. 461. At New Year 1562, the Duchess made Katherine Knollys a gift of ‘a pair of sleeves’.
50. Weir, Mary Boleyn, p. 148.
51. P. Croft and K. Hearn, ‘“Only matrimony maketh children to be certain …”: Two Elizabethan Pregnancy Portraits’, British Art Journal, 3:3 (2002), pp. 19–24.
52. This also coincides with a birth date of either March or April 1524.
53. Her final resting place is unknown, but she may have been buried in St Andrew’s Church close to Rochford Hall.
54. The Tresham family later gained notoriety during the reign of Elizabeth I for their Catholicism. Sir Thomas’s grandson, also called Thomas, built Rushton Triangular Lodge and Lyveden New Bield, two buildings in his native Northamptonshire laden with Catholic symbolism. It was the eldest son of the second Thomas, Francis, who was one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
55. It is unclear exactly how many children Lettice Peniston had with Sir Robert Lee. Malpas says that the couple had a son and three daughters, while other sources suggest that there may have been two sons and two daughters.
56. CSP Scotland, 1547–63, I (811).
57. Newton, ‘An epitaph’.
58. Garnett, Greys Court, p. 2.
59. Ibid., p. 25. Sir Francis Lovell was a supporter of Richard III. Following the latter’s death at Bosworth in 1485, all of his estates were confiscated by Henry VII and redistributed to his supporters.
60. J. Chandler (ed.), John Leland’s Itinerary: Travels in Tudor England (Dover, 1993), p. 372.
61. Ibid.
62. Greys Court has significantly altered since Lettice’s day, and is now largely the work of later centuries. It remained in the Knollys family until 1686, and is now owned by the National Trust, which acquired it in 1969.
Chapter 2: Darling to the Maiden Queen
1. Malpas, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’, p. 14.
2. W. Camden, The Historie of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princesse Elizabeth, Late Queene of England (London, 1630), p. 11.
3. C. Garrett, The Marian Exiles (London, 1966), p. 211.
4. Mary’s father, James V, had died just six days after her birth. Mary was his only surviving legitimate heir, and her mother, Mary de Guise, assumed her care.
5. Malpas, ‘Sir Francis Knollys’, p. 16. Ewelme had almshouses and a school that had been established in the fifteenth century by William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and his wife Alice. Alice was the granddaughter of the celebrated poet Geoffrey Chaucer, and her splendid tomb can still be seen in the church at Ewelme today.
6. Elisabeth was the French King’
s eldest daughter by his wife Catherine de Medici. She would later marry Philip II of Spain and become Queen Consort.
7. During the 1540s, Henry seems to have travelled widely in Europe, and Elizabeth I later employed him on several diplomatic missions.
8. J. Foxe, Acts and Monuments, ed. Rev. S. Reed, VI (London, 1838), p. 348.
9. All four boys left Eton in 1563.
10. See the dedication of B. Young, Diana of de Montemayor (London, 1598).
11. Add MS 18985.
12. See S. Adams (ed.), Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (London, 1995), for numerous examples.
13. CSP Scotland, 1563–69, II (811).
14. W.J. Thoms (ed.), Anecdotes and Traditions, Illustrative of Early English History and Literature, Camden Society (London, 1839), pp. 70–1.
15. Lawson (ed.), Gift Exchanges, pp. 59, 78.
16. On 25 May, Jane and Guildford were married in a splendid ceremony at Durham Place, Northumberland’s London residence on the Strand.
17. J.G. Nichols (ed.), Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London (London, 1851), p. 80.
18. In an attempt to save his life, Northumberland had converted to Catholicism before his execution. It was to no avail, and he was beheaded on Tower Hill.
19. All three of these men were later burned at the stake: Latimer and Ridley died in Oxford on 16 October 1555, while Cranmer was forced to watch. He himself was also burned in Oxford on 21 March 1556.
20. C. Wriothesley, A Chronicle of England during the Reigns of the Tudors, from AD 1485 to 1559, ed. W.D. Hamilton, Camden Society, II (London, 1877), p. 119.
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