The new Queen was gone after so short a reign. Henry shut himself away and mourned her passing. He had been happy to see Catherine and Anne meet their deaths but he had had such hopes for his latest Queen. However, she had done exactly what he wanted of her. She was the only Queen to have given him a son and for that, he mourned her all the harder.
Mary was chief mourner at her state funeral held on 12th November. As Jane’s coffin was moved from Hampton Court to Windsor, Mary rode at the head of the procession on a horse draped in black velvet. She was buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle - the only one of Henry’s wives to be buried as Queen - and the Queen he would later join in her final resting place.
The household of girls, who had settled under Jane’s calming influence, were joined by the motherless baby Edward. Change had once again come to the nursery and this time it was Elizabeth who was pushed aside. Lady Bryan now had to take charge of the new addition as she had done when Mary and Elizabeth were born and set up Prince Edward’s household and daily routine. It was Kat Champernowne who was to take over Elizabeth’s care. Kat had joined the household in 1536 but now took the position of governess to the young girl. The well-educated Kat became Elizabeth’s tutor in her early days, teaching her languages, maths, history, geography and astronomy as well as more ladylike skills such as dancing, riding, needlework and embroidery. She became the mother that Elizabeth did not have, spending all her time on her young charge’s education and deportment and in later years, Elizabeth would tell of her ‘great labour and pain in bringing me up in learning and honesty’. We can imagine Katherine sitting in on their lessons, learning to read and write and also taking religious instruction. Katherine would grow up to be as protestant as Elizabeth while Mary was a firm Catholic, like her mother.
Education and religion were one and the same for Tudor women. Mary’s first translation was of a Latin prayer while Elizabeth’s was a translation of the work of Jean Calvin, a protestant theologian. This reflected the tutoring they received and set the tone for their later religious beliefs. Katherine too would hold strong religious beliefs that she later produced in writing. In Melissa Franklin-Harkrider’s book, Women, Reform and Community in Early Modern England, she states ‘Catherine Parr, Catherine Knollys, Elizabeth Tyrwhit and Elizabeth Vane all composed collections of psalms and meditations that exhorted other women to prayer and Bible study’. Katherine herself is credited with writing A Heavenly Recreation or comforts to the sowle, published posthumously by Richard Watkins around 1569.
This was a time when women weren’t expected to learn much else; a time where they remained firmly in the background while their husbands ruled the roost. Girls in general were expected to learn how to maintain a household, look after their husbands, children and servants and to conduct themselves well in social situations. Social skills were paramount for girls who hoped to gain court positions. They should be able to engage in conversation, dance, play music and entertain guests with grace and femininity. But not all women conformed to the times and there are records of women like Margaret More, Thomas More’s daughter, who challenged the norms and received an education that included theology, astronomy, languages and geometry as well as Elizabeth herself.
Both girls and boys were sent to grow up in other households. It was a type of social networking, giving the children the best chance in life of making contacts that would further their prospects. Like Katherine, there could be several children from different families all housed together attending on whichever lord and lady to further their education and for children from more well-to-do families, to increase their chances of rising to take a position at court. Not every child was taught to read or write although reading was a skill far common in Tudor times than writing was. Especially with girls, reading was encouraged so that they could read religious tracts, the Bible and books on good behaviour.
Kat taught Elizabeth as much as she could but Elizabeth was a fast learner. She went on to further her education with tutors such as Sir John Cheke and William Grindal. At no point did she receive the education her brother was receiving, an education that was preparing him for kingship. And Edward was thriving under Lady Bryan’s care. She wrote to the King in 1539:
My lord Prince is in good health and merry. Would to God the King and your Lordship had seen him last night. The minstrels played, and his Grace danced and played so wantonly that he could not stand still, as Mr. Chamberlain and my lady his wife can show you.
Elizabeth was studious and intelligent, continuing her studies even after she was made Queen and had to learn a whole new role. Mary, on the other hand, would learn those ropes sooner and her reign would have a devastating effect on the population while Katherine, the unacknowledged daughter who could never aspire to such heights, was set to become a lady-in-waiting.
Elizabeth and Katherine had formed a friendship that was to last Katherine’s lifetime but for now, Katherine’s life was taking a different path and one that would lead her to Anne of Cleves.
Chapter Four
Maid of Honour
Katherine mourned her grandfather, Thomas Boleyn, at his passing in the March of 1539. He had been back at court after her aunt Anne’s fall from grace and had been returned to the king’s confidence once again. Henry also mourned his death and ordered masses to be said for his soul. Whatever their relationship had been in later years, Henry had executed both his son and daughter. It was the least he could do. Thomas was buried at St Peter’s Church near the family home at Hever, where his tomb was decorated with a depictive brass showing him dressed as a Knight of the Garter with Anne’s falcon crest appearing by his right shoulder. His death meant that Hever, the Boleyn family home, returned to the crown and Katherine’s mother, Mary, might return to England to claim her part of the inheritance.
This was a year of change for Katherine. Elizabeth was growing into an intelligent Queen-to-be and Katherine was now fifteen, the right age to leave her childhood days behind and to take her first court position, that of maid of honour to Henry’s new wife, Anne of Cleves. Henry had finally begun looking for a new Queen and had asked the king of France to line up a bevy of beauties so that he might inspect them and choose his new bride. King François was shocked at his proposal. Henry had become notorious for the way he treated his wives and the ladies of the French court were in no rush to become the next Queen of England. The search for a new bride had to reach further afield and, after being presented with miniatures of the Duke of Cleve’s two sisters who were living in Germany, Henry’s next wife was selected.
In December of 1539, Anne of Cleves arrived in England at Deal in Kent after months of negotiation and Katherine was ready and waiting to join her entourage. There had been no Queen for several years and no ladies-in-waiting so when it was announced that Henry was to marry again, the ladies of the Tudor court clamoured for a position with the new Queen. To become a maid of honour was honour indeed and Katherine was shown favouritism in gaining this appointment, another indicator that Henry was looking out for her even though he would never acknowledge her. Katherine was finally to enter the world into which by dint of her birth she had been refused so far.
Plans were put in place to ensure that Anne was well treated and welcomed to her new country and home. In a list entitled ‘For the Reception of Anne of Cleves’ the details were set out:
1. The lord Deputy and Council of Calais, with the men of arms and such of the retinue as they and the lord Admiral shall appoint, shall receive her at her entry into the English Pale, and after due saluta- tions conduct her and her train into the town. 2. About St. Peter’s without Calais, the said lord Admiral and those assigned to keep him company shall meet her and in like manner wait upon her into the town to her lodging. 3. On her arrival at Dover the duke of Suffolk and lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, with the other lords appointed to wait upon them, and the duchess of Suffolk and other ladies, shall receive her at her landing, and convey her to the castle, attend upon her during her abode there
, and at her departure conduct her to Canterbury, and so forth till her meeting with the King. 4. The archbishop of Canterbury, with certain other bps. and gentlemen, are to meet her beyond Canterbury and convey her to her lodging there, and in like manner attend upon her till her meeting with the King. 5. She shall be met on the down beyond Rochester by the duke of Norfolk and certain other lords and gentlemen, who shall likewise wait upon her till she come to the King’s presence. 6. On this side Derford the earl of Rutland, who is to be her lord chamberlain, Sir Thos Denys, chancellor, Sir Edw. Baynton, vice-chamberlain, Sir John Dudley, master of her horse, and all others appointed to be of her Council, and also the lady Margaret Douglas, the duchess of Richmond, and other ladies which shall be her “ordinary waiters,” 30 in all, shall meet her, and be presented, by the abp. of Canterbury, and the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, as her own train and household, and so wait upon her till she approach the King’s presence, when all the yeomen and meaner sort shall avoid. 7. On the hill_there shall be “pight” the King’s rich pavilion, and others for other noble personages to retire to after she shall be presented to His Highness, and there shall be prepared wine, fruits, and spices, in manner of a banquet. 8. Before the King meets with her, all serving men shall depart and range themselves aloof in the field. The rest of the gentlemen to ride in two wide ranges on either side that His Majesty may have only such as shall be assigned before and after him, &c. 9. The duke of Norfolk, being Earl Marshal, shall appoint persons with tipped staves to keep the streets between the town’s end and the gate of Greenwich, the way whereunto shall pass about the park and through the town to the door directly against the west end and the late Friars church, and so to the great gate on the water side at Greenwich. The said door leading out of the lane where the stables be into the church of the late Friars, and all other strait places, to be enlarged. The streets to be gravelled, paved, made clean, and put in as good order as may be; barriers to be made all along the Thames side, that no man be in danger of drowning by press of people. The charge of this to be committed to Nedam, the King’s carpenter. 10. Every lord and gentleman is to alight out of the way without the said gate and go on foot to the Court. Only the King, the Queen, and the ladies to ride into the Court. 11. When the King shall be in his pavilion, the Vice-Chamberlain with the Guard shall repair to Greenwich, and place the said Guard in such parts of the house as shall be meet to keep order. 12. When the King leaves the pavilion for Greenwich, all gentlemen not named in a special list to ride before him, shall stand on the heath in two ranges for his Grace and train to pass. 13. The mayor of London with all the aldermen and crafts shall be upon the Thames, in barges well apparelled and furnished with as many kinds of music as they can get, to congrat- ulate her arrival, but none of them shall set foot on land. The Knight Marshal, or some other, should appoint the place where every barge shall lie. 14. The chief officers of the Household are to furnish the hall, the porters to be at the gate, &c.1
Several ladies met Anne as she set foot on English soil including the Duchess of Suffolk and the Ladies Cobham, Hart, Haulte, Finche and Hales while Katherine stayed with the other five maids of honour to ready the queen’s chambers at court. Anne Bassett, Dorothy Bray, Catherine Howard, Mary Norris and Ursula Stourton had been lucky enough to also gain the positions of maids of honour and they were presided over by other great ladies of the court and the privy chamber including Mary Arundell, Countess of Sussex, Frances Brandon, Marchioness of Dorset, Lady Margaret Douglas, the Duchess of Richmond, the Countess of Rutland and Lady Dudley. Katherine had barely known her uncle George, the brother of her mother Mary and aunt Anne but she was also joined in the new Queen’s household by the deceased George’s wife, Lady Rochford. All the women eagerly anticipated the arrival of the new queen-to-be and their new lives attending on her at court.
There was someone else who was arriving in England along with the queen. Someone who was important to Katherine, someone she had not seen for several years - her mother. Mary Boleyn had returned with her husband, William Stafford, who had been attending the Lord Admiral, Sir William Fitzwilliam, in France. Both Katherine’s mother and step-father had been a part of the reception committee that met Anne in Calais. As Anne had inspected the king’s ships, William had accompanied the Admiral and he and his wife had both attended the banquets and celebrations that were held in Anne’s honour before she set sail for England.
Anne of Cleves was officially greeted at Dover and then continued to Rochester Castle as per the well thought out plan. It was here that Henry tried to play a courtly game of appearing before his bride-to-be dressed as an ordinary man. He strode into her apartments with five of his men and tried to capture her attention. The whole point was for her to recognise him for her king and new husband, being swept away by his handsomeness and stature. But Anne looked at the strange crowd of men that had burst into her rooms and she wondered what on earth was going on. She neither recognised the king nor thought much of the game which prompted Henry to turn to Cromwell and declare ‘I like her not’.
However, Chapuys for once, wrote of the incident as having a happy outcome:
And on New Year’s Day in the afternoon the king’s grace with five of his privy chamber, being disguised with mottled cloaks with hoods so that they should not be recognized, came secretly to Rochester, and so went up into the chamber where the said Lady Anne was looking out of a window to see the bull-baiting which was going on in the courtyard, and suddenly he embraced and kissed her, and showed here a token which the king had sent her for New Year’s gift, and she being abashed and not knowing who it was thanked him, and so he spoke with her. But she regarded him little, but always looked out the window…. and when the king saw that she took so little notice of his coming he went into another chamber and took off his cloak and came in again in a coat of purple velvet. And when the lords and knights saw his grace they did him reverence…. and then her grace humbled herself lowly to the king’s majesty, and his grace saluted her again, and they talked together lovingly, and afterwards he took her by the hand and led her to another chamber where their graces amused themselves that night and on Friday until the afternoon.’
Now in his late forties, Henry was ageing by the standards of the times. He was troubled by his leg and often succumbed to fits of temper brought on by ill-health and the stresses and strains of controlling his kingdom. Anne had slighted Henry from the very beginning and he found her repulsive. He undertook the pleasantries that she deserved by virtue of her status but he was not impressed by what he saw. He hated the way she dressed, being in the German fashion. He hated the way she looked, he hated her mannerisms and the fact that she only spoke German. She couldn’t even play an instrument or sing a tune to please him. He treated her well but was furious that his ambassadors had spoken of her attractiveness which he failed to see and was enraged that the portraits he had been shown painted her in a far more attractive light than she was in reality. He found her distasteful but continued with the marriage, fearful of upsetting the alliance he had made with the German duchies. Whether he liked her or not, the court had come alive again with young women to fill the new Queen’s household and it would not be long before his eye wandered to someone who he found much more pleasing.
Katherine saw her mother again for the first time in years as she met Anne of Cleves and joined her household. It was a time of celebration and joy for her. And it was the start of something new and someone special in her life. While her father had begun looking for someone more comely to share his bed, Katherine was feeling her own stirrings of attraction. In the king’s retinue was a dark-haired, handsome young man who was to play a major part in Katherine’s life - Francis Knollys.
But for now there was a royal wedding to prepare for. The wedding of King Henry VIII and his fourth bride, Anne of Cleves, was held on the Feast of the Epiphany, 6th January 1540, and Archbishop Cranmer once again conducted the proceedings. Henry was increasingly unhappy with his choice of bride complaining, ‘if it
were not to satisfy the world and my realm, I would not do that I must do this day, ay for none earthly thing.’ But still he dressed in a ‘gowne of clothe of gold, raised with flowers of sylver, furred with black jenettes, his cote crimosyn sattyn all to cutte and embroidered and tied with great diamonds, and a ryche coller about his necke’2 to impress his new wife and his court. Katherine helped Anne into the wedding dress she had brought with her from Germany which was also designed to show the new queen in all her splendour. She wore ‘a gowne of ryche cloth of gold set full of large flowers of great and orient pearle, made after the Dutch fassion rownde, her here hangyng downe, whiche was faire, yellow and long. On her head a coronal of gold replenished with great stone, and set about full of braunches of rosemary, about her necke and middle, juelles of great valew and estimacion’.3
After the wedding ceremony, the rest of the day passed with prayer and a sumptuous dinner followed by more ‘bankettes, maskes and diverse dysportes, tyll the tyme came that it pleased the kyng and her to take their rest’4. Henry, the unwilling bridegroom, joined Anne in their marriage bed with a heavy heart. Anne was anxious enough and so concerned with what the night might bring that she did not notice the King’s reluctance. The events of their wedding night were reported to Cromwell the next day and Henry was not pleased. When Cromwell asked the King how he liked the Queen, he erupted with anger and spat out ‘I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse! She is nothing fair, and have evil smells about her. I took her to be no maid by reason of the looseness of her breasts and other tokens, which, when I felt them, strake me so to the heart, that I had neither will nor courage to prove the rest. I can have no appetite for displeasant airs. I have left her as good a maid as I found her’.5 If Anne had known that not only did he think her unattractive but that he also thought she smelt pungently, she would have been ashamed and embarrassed but Henry had conducted himself well and Anne was none the wiser.
Lady Katherine Knollys Page 5
