Elizabeth's Women

by Tracy Borman

  A short while later, Anne learned that her marriage to the English king had been called into question because Henry was concerned about her prior betrothal to the Duke of Lorraine, and had therefore refrained from consummating the union. An ecclesiastical inquiry was duly commissioned, and a delegation of councillors arrived at Richmond in early July to seek Anne’s cooperation. She was so shocked by this sudden turn of events that she fainted. When she had sufficiently recovered herself, she steadfastly refused to give her consent to the inquiry. But eventually, perhaps fearing a fate similar to Catherine of Aragon or, worse still, Anne Boleyn, she resolved to take a pragmatic approach. The marriage was duly declared illegal on July 9, and the annulment was confirmed by Parliament three days later. Anne wrote a letter of submission to the king, saying that “though this case must needs be most hard and sorrowful unto me, for the great love which I bear your most noble person, yet, having more regard to God and his truth than to any worldly affection … I knowledge myself hereby to accept and approve the same.” She agreed that the marriage had not been consummated, referring to “your Majesty’s clean and pure living with me,” and offered herself up as his “most humble servant.”9

  Anne was to be richly rewarded for her compliance. She was given possession of Richmond Palace and Bletchingly Manor for life, together with a considerable annual income. This was further boosted by her right to keep all of her royal jewels, plate, and goods in order to furnish her new properties. Moreover, she was to be accorded an exalted status as the king’s “sister,” taking precedence over all his subjects, with the exception of his children and any future wife that he might take. Henry later granted her some additional manors, including Hever Castle, the former home of Anne Boleyn. This was to become her principal residence, and she lived a very comfortable life there on the fringes of public life. She was also permitted to visit court from time to time, and her former husband favored her with several visits, which by all accounts were very convivial. It says much for Anne’s strength of character that she managed to accept and adapt to her new life with dignity.

  The demise of Anne of Cleves’s marriage to Henry VIII by no means ended the friendship that she had begun to form with his younger daughter; indeed, if anything, it strengthened it. Now it was Elizabeth’s turn to feel pity for her estranged stepmother, and the two established a bond that would continue for the rest of Anne’s life. As soon as the annulment was settled, Anne requested the king’s permission to invite Elizabeth to visit her from time to time, assuring him that “to have had [her] for her daughter would have been greater happiness to her than being queen.”10 It is a measure of the affection Anne had for Elizabeth that this was the only favor she asked of her estranged husband after the annulment. Henry agreed with a good deal more alacrity than he had greeted her first request to meet his younger daughter.

  Elizabeth subsequently made frequent visits to Anne and was a source of much comfort to her father’s rejected wife. Her former stepmother, in turn, would prove to be a positive influence during Elizabeth’s formative years, and the two became very close. The same could not be said of Elizabeth’s next stepmother, who replaced the last with bewildering speed.

  Katherine Howard was the opposite of Anne of Cleves in almost every respect: immature, foolhardy, and reckless, she was also seductive, vibrant, and—to the king—utterly irresistible. The effect she had upon his younger daughter also ran counter to that of her predecessor. It was almost entirely negative: the ultimate lesson in what not to do. It had a profound effect upon the young Elizabeth’s emotional development and helped to imbue her with a characteristic that would become her most famous.

  Katherine shared a close kinship with Elizabeth. Her father was the younger son of Thomas Howard, second Duke of Norfolk. She was therefore a cousin of Anne Boleyn, although it is unlikely that the two women ever met. The date of Katherine’s birth is uncertain. Contemporary sources cite it as being anywhere between 1518 and 1524, but it was probably nearer to the latter. Perhaps the reason for the uncertainty is that Katherine was the youngest of ten children. Her mother died when she was young, and she was raised by her father’s stepmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. The duchess set little store by the new fashion of giving highborn young ladies a wide-ranging education, and instead insured that her protégée would receive only the rudimentaries of reading, writing, and music. Katherine showed little inclination for academic pursuits in any case; she was barely literate, and preferred the frivolous pastimes of dancing and gossiping with the other young girls in the duchess’s household. She was sexually aware from a very young age, thanks in part to the inappropriate attentions of her music teacher, who was found to have taken advantage of his position. Although the duchess reprimanded the pair when she found them embracing, she had no time to keep a close eye on Katherine—a lapse that would have fatal consequences.

  When the household moved to the duchess’s palatial London house at Lambeth in 1538, Katherine became acquainted with Francis Dereham, a kinsman who had recently joined her grandmother’s service. She was then fourteen years old at most and had little sense of morality, for she regularly welcomed Dereham into her bedchamber, and before long they became sexually involved. Katherine was far from the corrupted innocent she is often portrayed as. The evidence suggests that she was as much a sexual predator as Dereham and knew exactly what she was doing. Young as she was, she had already gained enough sexual knowledge to avoid getting pregnant, and once boasted: “A woman might meddle with a man and yet conceive no child unless she would herself.”11 The duchess soon discovered her wayward charge’s indiscretions and beat her severely. As her moral guardian, it was her duty to ensure that Katherine remained chaste, for a “spoilt” bride was of little value in the aristocratic marriage market. But she managed to hush up the whole affair and the following year secured Katherine a place as maid of honor to Anne of Cleves, thanks to the intervention of Katherine’s uncle, the third Duke of Norfolk.

  There was little that was maidenly about Katherine when she arrived at court. She was greatly excited at the prospect of a dazzling life filled with potential lovers, and was blissfully unaware of the dangers and intrigues that simmered beneath the surface. One of the most powerful intriguers was her own uncle, who from the very beginning used Katherine as a pawn in his political games. Alluring and vivacious, she provided a perfect foil to the ugly new queen, whom Henry VIII was already trying to get rid of. Norfolk therefore set his sights on securing the greatest prize of all for his niece: marriage to the king himself.

  Henry apparently first met Katherine shortly before his marriage to Anne of Cleves. In December 1539, he travelled to Greenwich to await his new bride’s arrival. Katherine was among the ladies who were assembled there, ready to serve this royal mistress from across the seas. It was said that Henry was struck by her from the moment he first saw her, and was determined to have her. The fact that he was already betrothed to another was an annoying inconvenience. Reluctantly going through with the marriage to a woman whom he found repugnant, Henry nevertheless maintained his interest in the seductive young maid of honor. This interest became increasingly marked, and by spring 1540 it was known throughout the court. The king “crept too near another lady,” wrote one observer.12 In the tradition of his other courtships, expensive gifts soon followed. Tutored by her uncle, Katherine was careful to play the maid with her royal lover and never allowed him into her bed. With the prospect of an annulment from Anne of Cleves seeming ever more likely, she held out for the main prize.

  She did not have long to wait. With the same bewildering speed that characterized so much of Henry’s recent marital history, he had his marriage to Anne annulled and took Katherine as his new bride within the space of just over two weeks. Henry and Katherine were married in secret at Oatlands Palace in Surrey on July 28, 1540, the very same day that his minister, Thomas Cromwell, whose downfall was caused by the part that he played in arranging the king’s marriage to Anne of Cleves, was exe
cuted.

  The contrast to his previous marriage cannot have been greater. While Anne’s unattractiveness had rendered Henry impotent, the nubile charms of his new teenage bride drove him to distraction. “The King is so amorous of her that he cannot treat her well enough and caresses her more than he did the others,” exclaimed the French ambassador.13 It is easy to understand what Henry saw in Katherine. She was small, with a curvaceous figure, auburn hair, and sparkling eyes that resembled those of her late cousin, Anne Boleyn. She had a playful exuberance and vitality that must have appealed to the aging king, who was desperate to recapture his own youthful vigor. If she was repelled by her royal suitor, who was more than thirty years her senior and had a physique that bordered on the grotesque, she was wise enough not to show it. She gave him a sexual excitement that he had not felt since courting her cousin. Infatuated with his alluring new plaything, Henry apparently never thought to question how she had gained such skill.

  Katherine revelled in her newfound importance as queen and threw herself into all the diversions the court had to offer. She was particularly fond of dancing, and showed off her figure in beautiful new gowns, together with an array of priceless jewels that the king lavished upon her. These frivolous pursuits did little to improve her knowledge of court politics, however, and she seemed to think that she could fritter away her days as queen with not a care in the world.

  The king’s elder daughter, Mary, bitterly resented her empty-headed new stepmother, who was some eight or nine years younger than herself. Katherine’s high spirits and decadence were at odds with Mary’s sober piety, and the latter failed to pay her the respect that was due to her as queen. Katherine took her revenge by trying to reduce her stepdaughter’s establishment. She apparently had some success: Chapuys reported that one of Mary’s ladies had died of grief after being dismissed by the king. This may have been an exaggeration, but relations between the two women remained frosty.

  By contrast, Elizabeth showed a great deal more respect toward the new queen. Katherine was the closest to her in age of all her stepmothers, and they were also bound by ties of kinship. But Elizabeth’s good grace was no doubt due to the pragmatic approach that she had learned from Anne of Cleves. Her objective was to be received back into the court—and her father’s favor—and she knew that flattering the queen was an effective way of achieving this.

  For her part, Katherine seemed delighted with her younger stepdaughter. On the day that she was publicly acknowledged as queen at Hampton Court, she asked that Elizabeth be placed opposite her at the celebratory banquet because she was “of her own blood and lineage.”14 This favor was repeated on many other occasions, for Katherine always insisted that Elizabeth should take the place of honor nearest her own. As well as being a great privilege for Elizabeth, it was also a deliberate slight to Mary, and many believed that Katherine would try to get Elizabeth reinstated as heir to the throne, ahead of her dour half sister.

  During the months following her marriage to Henry, Katherine continued to show great favor toward his younger daughter, who enjoyed more visits to court than ever before. In early May 1541, Katherine invited Elizabeth to stay with her at the king’s riverside mansion in Chelsea, and arranged for the young girl to be transported in great state in the royal barge.15 A few days later, she insured that Elizabeth was included in the royal family’s visit to Prince Edward at Waltham Holy Cross in Essex. She also expressed her affection by giving Elizabeth various little gifts of jewelry, such as beads with “crosses, pillars and tassels attached.” Although the royal accounts noted that these were “little thing worth,” it was the thought that counted.16

  Katherine was clearly enjoying the glittering new world that had unfolded before her when she became Henry’s wife. Her days were filled with dancing, feasting, and visits to her husband’s many beautiful palaces. There was more than enough to occupy the time of this pleasure-seeking young queen. But it was not long before she fell prey to other temptations. The gout-ridden king was unlikely to have satisfied her voracious sexual appetite, and by the spring of 1541, she had started an affair with a young lover: Thomas Culpepper, a gentleman of her husband’s privy chamber. When she accompanied the king on his progress to York that summer, Culpepper went with them. Every evening, he would creep up the back stairs to Katherine’s apartments and spend the night cavorting with her. To make matters worse, she also met her former lover, Francis Dereham, who had returned from exile in Ireland, and took a staggering risk by appointing him as her personal secretary.

  Nothing could remain a secret at court for long, and by the time the entourage returned to London, gossip about the Queen’s indiscretions was rife. The ambitious Howards had made many enemies at court, who now seized upon this information to plot their downfall. By October, the king’s closest confidant, Thomas Cranmer, had been informed of Katherine’s adulterous liaisons, and he was given the unenviable task of breaking the news to Henry. The king’s first reaction was disbelief. Katherine had embodied everything that he had looked for in a queen: She was charming, beautiful, and vivacious, and he worshipped her. To be told that she was an arch-deceiver with the morals of a whore was too much for him to bear. He ordered an immediate inquiry, praying that the allegations would prove false. But they were corroborated by several witnesses, and on November 8, the Queen herself confessed. Dereham, she said, had used her “in such sort as a man doth use his wife many and sundry times.”17 She also admitted to having sexual encounters as a girl with her music master, and later confessed to sleeping with Culpepper.

  Confronted with the shocking and sordid burden of truth, the king fell into a deep distress. When he had discovered the allegations against his second wife, Anne Boleyn, he had experienced some relief because he had long since tired of her. But he was still infatuated with Katherine when the scandal broke, and had no notion of her infidelity. The certainty of it broke his heart. Katherine was “found an harlot” before she married, and “an adulteress” after it.18 There could be only one fate. She was condemned to death for treason, and taken to the Tower on February 10, 1542. Three days later, she faced her execution. So weak that she had to be supported as she climbed the steps of the scaffold, she gathered enough strength to confess that her sentence was justified. Moments later, the axe fell. Katherine’s remains were buried in the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, along with those of her disgraced cousin, Anne Boleyn. She may have been as young as eighteen at the time of her death.

  Although Elizabeth had witnessed a succession of stepmothers come and go over the past few years, none of them affected her so deeply as Katherine Howard. It was not that she had felt any great affection for the young queen. Much as she had revelled in her favor, she had not known her long enough to form a lasting attachment. Rather, Katherine’s sudden and brutal demise was so similar to that of her own mother that she was profoundly shocked by the experience. A precocious eight-year-old, she would have understood a great deal more of what it meant to be condemned for treason and beheaded than when Anne Boleyn had fallen prey to the same fate. What’s more, the two queens had met their deaths at exactly the same spot, in that dread fortress by the Thames. The only difference was that Anne had been afforded the privilege of a sword, whereas Katherine suffered by the traditional axe.

  At her impressionable age, Elizabeth was horrified by the events that had unfolded so rapidly and so catastrophically. One moment she had been basking in the Queen’s affection and watching her carefree frivolity at court. The next she had learned that this same queen had been beheaded. It was apparently enough to convince Elizabeth, young as she was, never to marry. Some twenty years later, her favorite, Robert Dudley, would confide to the French ambassador that he had known Elizabeth since she was eight years old, and that from that time she had always declared: “I will never marry.” Her views were echoed by her closest adviser, William Cecil, who remarked that “marriage with the blood royal was too full of risk to be lightly entered into.”19 The notion that marriage was inext
ricably bound up with death had first formed in the young Elizabeth’s mind as she gradually learned the truth about her mother. Katherine Howard’s fate confirmed it. By taking a husband, royal women, exalted though their status might be, were placing themselves at the mercy of men. As they uttered their marriage vows, they were relegating themselves to the status of pawns, to be used in the dangerous game of high politics.

  For once, Elizabeth must have been glad to be away from this volatile world of the court, safe in the comparative haven of her household. She derived increasing comfort from her studies, which were progressing apace, thanks to the attentions of her governess. During the early years of their association, Kat had sole charge of Elizabeth’s education. She taught her the alphabet and the rudiments of grammar, together with reading and writing skills.20

  As well as learning her letters, Elizabeth would have been taught the typical accomplishments expected of a female royal, including needlework, music, dancing, and riding. Etiquette was another essential prerequisite and included table manners and forms of address. Such courtly pursuits were the closest that Elizabeth came to being trained for the throne. The role of royal daughters was to marry a king or a prince and beget heirs, so it was not considered necessary to give them the same education as that of a future king. Instead the focus was upon strengthening their character and maintaining a good reputation. It was believed that women were not just physically weaker than men but morally so. As a result, they needed to be given strict instruction in virtuous behavior, especially chastity. They should read not for pleasure but for instruction. Idle conversation and gossip were strongly discouraged; young girls should be seen and not heard.