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| Arthur, Prince of Wales |
The King
It was on 2nd
April 1502 that the young Prince Henry’s fortune changed dramatically, the
day his elder brother Arthur died and Henry inherited not only
Arthur’s future but also Arthur’s wife. A Spanish infanta, Katherine was six years older than her second husband. Henry’s father Henry VII was unwilling to return Catherine and
her generous dowry (of which only half had been paid) to Spain.
In April
1509 Henry became king and now freed from his father’s parsimony the young
Henry set out to enjoy his inheritance. And so a marriage between the younger
Henry and Catherine finally took place on 11th June 1509; Henry
wrote to Katherine’s father Ferdinand of Aragon;
‘As for that entire love
that we bear to [Catherine] ….even if we were still free, it is she…..we should
choose for our wife before all other.’[ii]
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| Catherine of Aragon |
Katherine
had loved Arthur and she certainly loved the glamorous and attractive young
Henry whose desire for an heir she gratified with the birth of Henry of Cornwall on 1st January 1511, a
year after the birth of a stillborn daughter. But the young boy lived less than
two months. On 18th February 1516 Catherine gave birth to another
child, Mary. Mary was initially much loved by
both her parents, but Henry started brooding about the lack of a male heir.
‘We are both young. If it
was a daughter this time, by the grace of God the sons will follow.’[iii]
Upward Mobility
It was Geoffrey Boleyn[iv], a merchant, who had amassed the
wealth necessary to attract the attention of the mighty Howard family. Geoffrey
cunningly married Anne Hoo, daughter of Thomas Hoo[v]. Anne was co-heiress of the Hoo
estate, bringing Geoffrey lands and a whiff of nobility. In 1452 Geoffrey
purchased Blickling[vi] from his friend Sir John Falstof and two years later was attempting to marry one of his
daughters to Falstof’s ward Thomas;
‘I am credibly informed that
Geoffrey Boleyn makes great labour for the marriage of the said child [Thomas
Falstof] to one of his daughters.’[vii]
In 1462 Geoffrey
purchased Hever Castle from Sir Thomas Cobham and started to convert the castle
into a moated manor house. Geoffrey died the following year and was buried at
the church of St Lawrence Jewry in London. Nine years later
Geoffrey’s heir Thomas died and was buried alongside his father.
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| Butler family arms |
Geoffrey’s
second son William inherited the Boleyn estates. William was lucky enough to
support the Duke of York during the Wars of the Roses and as a result was made a Knight of the Bath at Richard III’s coronation. He also became a Justice of the Peace and married Margaret Butler,
daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond[viii]. Chronically short of
money before entering into his inheritance of £20,000[ix] in 1477, Butler was kept
afloat financially by Geoffrey Boleyn and the reward was Margaret as William’s
wife.
Margaret and
William had eleven children, of whom only four survived. Thomas Boleyn was the eldest son born in 1477. Anne was his older sister[x], born in 1475; his younger
sister Alice was born circa 1487[xi].
With the death
of the king at the Battle of Bosworth the Boleyns immediately turned to
support the new Henry VII. In 1490 William was appointed Sheriff of Kent and in 1501 Sheriff of Norfolk. By
1502 William was one of the four Barons of the Exchequer, who sat as judges in the Court of the Exchequer[xii].
The Rise of Thomas
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| Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk |
Thomas and
his father fought for Henry VII against the rebellious Cornish[xiii] in 1497 fighting against increases
in income tax. Thomas himself was a gifted linguist, the most fluent French
speaker at court. He was also an expert jouster; a talent that attracted the
attention of the young king Henry VIII, who adored jousting.
About the
turn of the century Thomas
Boleyn married Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas
Howard[xiv].
The marriage was a brilliant match for Thomas Boleyn; he would never have been
allowed to marry a scion of the great Howard family if they had not suffered
the reverse of supporting the wrong side at the Battle of Bosworth, where John Howard, Duke of Norfolk was killed fighting
for Richard.
John’s son was
thrown into the Tower by Henry VII in 1484 for three
years. His son, Thomas
Howard, then the Earl of Surrey, had been engaged to marry the new Queen Elizabeth’s sister Anne; after his return to favour in 1489
the earldom of Surrey was returned to him. Thomas Howard renewed his suit to
Anne and the couple were married on 4th February 1495. Thomas Boleyn
was now brother-in-law to the queen’s brother-in-law. And his sister-in-law
Anne Tempest, his brother Edward[xv]’s wife, was one of
Katherine’s ladies in waiting.
The Newly Weds
Elizabeth
Howard was Thomas Howard’s eldest daughter. She was pretty and the court poet John Skelton dedicated some verses to her, the Garland of the Laurel.
Elizabeth was compared to;
‘Goodly Cressida,
fairer than Polyxena,
For to envy Pandarus’
appetite:
Troilus, I vow, if
that he had you seen,
In you he would have set his whole
delight.’[xvi]
It is
unlikely that Elizabeth came with a large dowry; her father had to expend much
money buying back his lands from the king. Elizabeth was rarely seen at court,
save for the major celebrations.
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| Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland |
The couple
had five children, Mary Boleyn was born sometime between 1499-1500;
her exact date of birth is unknown. Her sister Anne was probably born the following year in 1501. Two more children died
young, the fifth child was George Boleyn, born sometime between 1503-4. The
children were born at Blickling Hall in Norfolk. Thomas later complained that,
at the time, the young couple had a mere £50 per annum[xvii] to live on.
‘When I married I had only
£50 to live on for me and my wife, as long as my father lived, and yet she
brought me every year a child.’[xviii]
Thomas had
to pay the Bishop of Norwich the sum of 3 shillings and 6 pence[xix] every 30 weeks for
castle guard for Blickling.
Thomas was
present at the marriage of Prince Arthur and Princess Catherine and in August
1503 was one of those chosen to escort Princess Margaret north to marry James IV of Scotland.
Inheritance
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| Hever Castle |
Thomas’s
financial problems were solved in October 1505 by the death of his father and
the family moved to Hever in the following February. Thomas was given royal
licence to take possession of his father’s estates in February 1506. Thomas
inherited a number of other properties in Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Kent.
Geoffrey’s will required Thomas to pay his mother 200 marks per annum.
Hever was
more convenient for London and the court. Thomas made over Blickling to his
brother James and started improving Hever, adding
mullioned windows, an entrance hall, a staircase gallery and a long gallery.
By 1507
Thomas held the post of Yeoman of the Crown at King’s Lynn. He was one of the
Esquires of the Body at Henry VII’s funeral on 11th May 1509. Thomas
was dubbed a Knight of the Bath at the new king’s coronation on 23rd
June 1509. Elizabeth attended the ceremony and had a new gown for the occasion.
Shortly thereafter
her husband was also dubbed a Knight of the Body[xx]. This new post meant that
Thomas spent far more time away from his family, leaving Lady Elizabeth looking
after the children. Thomas purchased New Inn without Temple Bar as a home from court.
Thomas was a
diplomat and a statesman, holding Henry’s regard to the end. Indeed Henry
believed that no-one was more skilled at negotiating than Thomas. Thomas’s
vices were selfishness and avarice;
‘He could not resist the
temptation of money.’[xxi]
Thomas could
also be affable, dispassionate, brusque and insolent.
Bibliography
Cardinal
Wolsey – Mandell Creighton, McMillan & Co 1891
Henry VIII –
Robert Lacey, George Weidenfeld & Nicholson & Book Club Associates 1992
The Earlier
Tudors – JD Mackie, Oxford University Press 1992
Henry –
David Starkey, Harper Perennial 2009
Rivals in
Power – David Starkey (ed), Toucan Books 1990
Illustrated
Letters of the Paston Family – Robert Virgoe (ed), MacMillan London Ltd 1989
The Six
Wives of Henry VIII – Alison Weir, Pimlico 1992
Mary Boleyn
– Alison Weir, AudioGO Ltd 2012
www.wikipedia.en
[i]
With apologies to my mother, who always wanted to write a book, about Henry
VIII’s counsellors, with this title
[ii]
Henry - Starkey
[iii]
Henry VIII - Lacey
[vi]
The present house is built on the remains of the Boleyn property
[vii]
Illustrated Letters of the Paston Family - Virgoe
[viii]
One of the country’s richest noblemen, Butler had a fortune of £40,000; In 2013 the relative: historic standard of
living value of that income or
wealth is £29,440,000.00 economic status
value of that income or wealth is £858,800,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £13,540,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[ix]
In 2013 the relative: historic standard of
living value of that income or
wealth is £13,900,000.00
economic
status value of that income or
wealth is £447,600,000.00 economic power value
of that income or wealth is £6,812,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[xi]
Marrying Sir Robert Clere
[xii]
Between 1501 and 1546 the appointment of the heads of the Howard family as Lord High Treasurer
saw a diminution in the importance of this court.
[xiii]
A response to Henry’s war taxes to pay for the Scottish border incursions,
inspired by Perkin
Warbeck’s claims to the throne
[xv]
Edward was about 19 years Thomas’s junior
[xvi]
Mary Boleyn - Weir
[xvii]
In 2013 the relative: historic standard of
living value of that income or
wealth is £36,320.00
economic
status value of that income or
wealth is £1,017,000.00 economic power value
of that income or wealth is £14,480,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[xviii]
Mary Boleyn - Weir
[xix]
In 2013 the relative: real price of that commodity is £118.70 labour value of that commodity is £1,133.00 income value of that commodity is £3,299.00 www.measuringworth.com
[xx]
A post requiring Thomas to serve as a bodyguard to the king, sleeping on a
pallet outside his door
[xxi]
Mary Boleyn - Weir
A clever politician...
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