As I begin in earnest my research into the life of the Marchioness of Exeter I find myself constantly being led down winding pathways. Today I began looking into the life of the Marchioness' first stepmother. Inez de Venegas was one of Queen Katherine of Aragon's Spanish attendants and thanks to the wonderful information in one of my favorite Tudor research websites I was able to track her movements with Queen Katherine.
That website is kateemersonhistoricals.com Kate Emerson, under the name Kathy Lynn Emerson, wrote a wonderful book published in 1984 entitled Wives and Daughters: The Women of Sixteenth Century England. This very comprehensive book, whose information is now in the aforementioned website, gives short biographies of hundreds of women in 16th century England. She includes photographs of paintings and tomb monuments. If you are interested in the lives of any of the women who served the Queens and Princesses of England, Ms. Emerson's website should be your first stop.
Another resource available on her website is a series of lists of the women who were named as members of the households of the Tudor royal family. Eventually I will be delving into the English archives and the various letters and papers, foreign and domestic in my search to find the real Marchioness of Exeter and trace her comings and goings. However, Ms. Emerson's lists give me some very good basic information so that I can research not only darling Gertrude, but some of the other women in her life.
As I looked for the court life of stepmother Inez de Venegas, Ms. Emerson's lists showed me that she was a member of Katherine of Aragon's household from her arrival from Spain. She is also listed as one of the ladies of the Princess Dowager of Wales' household who was given "manteletts and kercheffs" for the funeral of King Henry VII. A mantelet is a short shawl and a kerchief is a head covering. Inez is listed as a Lady of the Bedchamber in 1509 as Lady Mountjoy. Since Inez died about five years later, the next Lady Mountjoy that appears is her successor and Gertrude's second stepmother Alice Kebel. This third Lady Mountjoy is listed by Ms. Emerson as a lady at table and participating in court revels. Alice, Lady Mountjoy joins her stepdaughter in attendance upon Queen Katherine at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
While looking at these lists I find other women I am interested in researching more thoroughly. Jane Neville, Lady Montague appears in the Field of the Cloth of Gold list. This is the wife of Henry Pole, Baron Montague, the eldest son of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. Henry Pole's life is very much intertwined with his cousin Henry Courtenay. They joust against each other at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Sadly they die together, caught up in the so-called Exeter Conspiracy. Jane Neville, Lady Montague (or Montagu) was the daughter of George Neville, Baron Abergavenny. I find it interesting that she is listed as dying in 1538 or 1539. It will be interesting to see whether she died before or after the arrest of her husband and young son.
Another woman I look forward to researching further is Gertrude's half sister, Katherine Blount. She was born in 1518 a year before Gertrude's marriage, married twice and named a daughter after her sister.
Last is the mysterious sister of Gertrude's husband Margaret Courtenay. Margaret has a contradictory biography. When Horatia Durant wrote her biography Sorrowful Captives: The Tudor Earls of Devon in 1960 she related the local story that Margaret Courtenay died as a child when she choked on a fishbone. This was a case of mistaken identity and the tomb in question, located in Colyton Church is that of Margaret Beaufort, a granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford who married a different Earl of Devon. Instead it appears that our Margaret Courtenay was married, sometime between 1514-1520 (sources conflict) to Henry Somerset, Lord Herbert, but she died in 1526.
I hope that this rambling discourse shows how an afternoon of preliminary research can lead one down a lot of intriguing pathways. I have a long journey ahead of me, but it is a journey that I hope will lead to a better understanding of the life of Gertrude Blount, the Marchioness of Exeter. In the meanwhile, check out Kate Emerson's website and, while you're at it, pick up one or two (or more) of her historical fiction novels.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
I Am a Plain Dealing Villain: Portraying Thomas Cromwell at The Maryland Renaissance Festival
July 28 is the anniversary of the execution of Thomas Cromwell. This is the paper I delivered earlier this year.
Presented at the Popular Cultural Association/
American Cultural Association National Conference
Washington, D.C. March 27, 2013
Acknowledgements
This paper would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of the following:
Dr. Kimberly Tony Korol-Evans – department chair, friend, mentor
The interview subjects whether formally responding to questions or discussing memories of the festival in years pass with the author at cocktail parties:
Thomas Plott, Thomas Cromwell 1993-1994
Steven Kirkpatrick, Thomas Cromwell 2003-2005, 2007
Carolyn Spedden, Artistic Director, Maryland Renaissance Festival
Mike Field, Playwright
Mary Ann Jung, Royal Court Director, Maryland Renaissance Festival
And this paper is dedicated to Kevin Wilshere, for his love, support and putting up with the author’s eccentricities
“…it must not be denied but I am a plaine dealing vilaine,”
---Don John, Much Adoe About Nothing by William Shakespeare[1]
William Shakespeare’s villains are easy to identify. They tell us they are villains. There is no subtext, no deep dark childhood secret that makes us realize that they aren’t really bad people. They are who they are and this makes watching them that much more enjoyable for the audience. When it comes to history, particularly the popular culture obsession with all things Tudor England, there is a similar desire to create easily identifiable heroes and villains.
What are the challenges for an actor when they are portraying a person from history who is usually identified by popular culture as the villain? One could easily write a novel-length paper on the many persons who were at the courts of the Tudor monarchs who, in historical fiction, plays and films are seen as the villains. The Maryland Renaissance Festival employs professional actors to portray the King and his court. The royal court storyline changes from year to year. The festival has portrayed all six of King Henry VIII’s queens twice and has now returned back in time to portray Queen Katherine of Aragon for a third time.
In the course of the two previous queenly cycles two actors have portrayed a character widely seen in both fictional and non-fictional mediums as a villain. Thomas Cromwell is popularly seen as the orchestrator of the falls of Sir Thomas More and Queen Anne Boleyn. As the Vice-Regent for the King in Spirituals Cromwell destroyed the monasteries filling the King’s treasury with the spoils and using the land to enrich himself and other members of the court. Thomas Cromwell made a fatal mistake in promoting the King’s marriage to his fourth wife, Queen Anna of Cleves. Two months after being raised to the title of Earl of Essex he was arrested and attainted for treason and heresy. His subsequent execution was grisly as the headsman botched the job. A fitting end to a notorious villain.
“With rewards and penalties –so much wickedness purchases so much worldly prospering---“
---Thomas Cromwell, A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt[2]
We all love a good story. When it comes to history we are much more enamored of historical narratives with clear heroes and villains rather than a simple rote list of names, dates and events. It has been ever so from the first chroniclers of Tudor History. Examining Thomas Cromwell he has been brushed with the label of villain since the earliest chroniclers. Theatrically he is portrayed as a driving calculating minister who rose in power from his humble peasant beginnings to the most powerful man in the kingdom, the indispensible right hand man to the king.[3][4] [5]
When those historians, whether John Foxe in his Acts and Monuments positively extolling the Protestant virtues of Thomas Cromwell’s church reforms[6] or Nicholas Sander demonizing Cromwell for persecuting the Carthusian monks for refusing to swear an oath recognizing King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England,[7] each historian’s viewpoint is colored depending on the moral tale they wished to relate to their readers. This has translated to the fictional portrayals of Thomas Cromwell from the beginning. Even William Shakespeare has weighed in on Thomas Cromwell, portraying him as the loyal servant of Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, devastated by Wolsey’s downfall.[8]
What has changed in the 20th and 21st centuries is the rise in popularity of historical fiction. The majority of the portrayals of Thomas Cromwell keep him in his traditional role as the villain of Henry VIII’s court. There have been numerous dramatic portrayals on stage, screen and television that have, for the most part continued the popular stereotypes of Henry VIII’s prominent minister.
Discovering the real person behind the popular cultural perception has become much easier in the past decade with the availability of primary source materials on the internet. It is easier to examine the letters and papers of King Henry VIII’s court and read the actual accounts of the reign. Numerous out of print books, such as accounts originally published in the Victorian era are available to download and peruse. Yet, the stereotypes persist. After all, the history seems juicier when one can write dramatic tales, for example, Queen Anne Boleyn’s allegedly deformed miscarried son[9], which most historians believe was not the case.[10] [11]
This is partly due to the continued interest in Tudor England in popular culture starting in 1998 with the release of the Academy Award-winning film Elizabeth. From Philippa Gregory’s novels The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance, Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, to the many miniseries on Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I which led up to the very popular Showtime series The Tudors, the 16th century remains a popular subject to dramatize. This is also apparent at those renaissance festivals that portray the royal court through storylines based on historical events.
“As matters stand you are but half a king…What the King of England wants he should have, without hindrance from abroad.”
---Thomas Cromwell, Anne of The Thousand Days by Maxwell Anderson
The Maryland Renaissance Festival is known for providing entertaining dramatized plays about the prominent events in the reign of King Henry VIII. As mentioned previously, the Maryland Renaissance Festival has portrayed the entire cycle of King Henry VIII and all six of his queens twice and has started with Queen Katherine of Aragon for a third time.[12] The special nature of acting at a renaissance festival also leads to what Dr. Kimberly Tony Korol-Evans terms historical elaboration.[13]
Dr. Korol-Evans defines historical elaboration as “first-person interpretation with an additional theatrical flair.”[14] Renaissance festival actors are not just performing their characters as part of a play on a stage. Many members of the audience gain a chance to interact with the actors through improvisation, thus gaining a more personal relationship than they might develop by simply seeing the character on a stage. Through such interactions, the audience gets an idea of whom that person might have been through the interpretation of the actor portraying the part. When Thomas Cromwell is portrayed as the villain it becomes a chance for an actor to either fully embrace that villainous role or subtlety shade the audience’s perception by giving them a glimpse into the character’s motivations for his actions.
“I tread as my duty directs me, your majesty. I tread for your interests.”
Thomas Cromwell, The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn
by Nick McCarty[15]
It is a breath of fresh air that Thomas Cromwell’s recent biographer, Robert Hutchinson does not waste pages trying to expand upon what little is known about Thomas Cromwell’s early life. We don’t know exactly when Thomas Cromwell was born, but it is presumed to be around 1485. His father, Walter Cromwell was a violent man who was in constant legal troubles and held many different jobs including that of blacksmith. At some point young Thomas ended up going to the continent where he traveled to the Low Countries and Italy and may have fought as a member of the French army on the losing side in a war with the Spanish.[16] He ended up in Antwerp and Italy where he became a clerk to several bankers and merchants and became fluent in several languages.[17] Returning to England by 1516 he had married and was considered influential enough to be sent by John Robinson, an aldermen of Boston in Lincolnshire to travel to Rome to seek two indulgences from Pope Leo X.[18]
It is not known when he became acquainted with Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, but he entered the Cardinal’s service at some point in the mid-1520’s. Cromwell also served in the House of Commons in Parliament.[19] Cromwell survived the fall of Wolsey from favor and joined the King’s household in 1530. He would become known to history for his legal expertise in the King’s Great Matter (or the annulment of the marriage of King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon) and the rise of Anne Boleyn to queen. His role as Vice-Regent of the King in Spirituals led to his overseeing the dissolution of the monasteries and brought him into conflict both with the conservative, more traditional Roman Catholic members of the aristocracy and with the reforming faction represented by Queen Anne and her brother, George, Viscount Rochford. It is those conflicts that have made Thomas Cromwell a natural villain in the fictional versions of the court of King Henry VIII. Thomas Cromwell has featured as a villain in such works as Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons, Maxwell Anderson’s Anne of the Thousand Days, the 1970 BBC Miniseries The Six Wives of Henry VIII and the 2007-2010 Showtime Series The Tudors.
The storylines written for the two Thomas Cromwells portrayed at the Maryland Renaissance Festival have been based on actual incidents of the time period. They have been changed for dramatic effect sometimes changing the setting to the Festival’s fictional village of Revel Grove or giving Cromwell a more active role in some events. In the plays and scenarios written for the character Thomas Cromwell remains a person of power and influence and most certainly, the villain.
“I am not the King’s right hand, I am his fist.”
---Thomas Cromwell, Cromwell’s Ghost by Mike Field[20]
Thomas Plott portrayed Thomas Cromwell at the Maryland Renaissance Festival for two seasons, 1993 and 1994. In 1993 the year portrayed was 1537 and King Henry VIII was looking for property to build Nonsuch Palace. As Royal Court Director Mary Ann Jung commented she had discovered that historically the village of Cuddington in Epsom, Surrey had been sold to the crown and destroyed to make way for the palace and two royal parks. [21]In the Festival’s version of the story Thomas Cromwell decided that Revel Grove was the perfect location and tried to get the Mayor of Revel Grove to sign the property over to the Crown.[22] In the course of the festival performance day, the Mayor received a blow on the head, which made him think that he was King Alfred the Great. At the end of the day, the Mayor regained his memory just as he was about to sign over the deed to the village. Cromwell ordered his subordinate, the village deputy Cyril to take care of the Mayor leading to the Mayor’s murder.
In 1994, this storyline was revisited in the haunting tale written by playwright Mike Field, Cromwell’s Ghost. In the story Cromwell is lured to the home of a local embroider who wants to punish Cromwell for the death of the Mayor and the subsequent madness of the Mayor’s sister. The actual ghost of the Mayor appears to Cromwell, literally making him confront the demons of his past.
The main royal court storyline that season concerned the ill-fated marriage of King Henry VIII and Queen Anna of Cleves. After the King’s wedding was held on the joust field, Cromwell was forced to sit on a bench on the field to watch the final joust of the day instead of in the royal reviewing stand. Once the joust concluded Cromwell was arrested. He charged towards the royal box, was whipped and escorted away to prison while the village choir sang Mozart’s Dies Ire.
According to playwright Mike Field, Cromwell’s power was emphasized by his dramatic arrival with the royal court first thing in the morning. Cromwell was carried by four men in a covered litter as the rest of the royal court walked in procession through the gates of the village.[23] His subsequent fall from grace was visually stark as he sat on a simple wooden bench while the joust took place. Reflecting on his time as Thomas Cromwell Mr. Plott did not see Cromwell as a villain but as a necessary evil. Yet he was delighted by his audience interactions, describing how he was treated and how he treated the audience by saying “with fear, loathing and delight…All that I hoped for.”[24] Mr. Plott saw the arc of the storyline he portrayed as a “classic villain storyline. He was a man who could not escape his fate, though he thought he could.”[25]
Mr. Plott has a unique perspective, as he is a Character Interpreter at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon in Virginia. When asked to comment on the differences between being a Character Interpreter at an historic location such as Mt. Vernon and performing an historic character at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, Mt. Plott replied, “ The similarities are the fact that Cromwell is a historical person and certain facts are known about him. As a Character Interpreter you try to use the knowledge of these facts to create a realistic portrayal of the person. In the case of Cromwell for the festival, I also had to shape my performance using the scripts as another set of ‘facts’ to specifically portray him as a villain.”[26]
“The last three weeks I was alive, I couldn't speak to Henry, couldn’t send a message. Cromwell cut me off. While he told his lies.”
Thomas Cromwell returned to the cast of the Maryland Renaissance Festival in 2003, this time in the guise of actor Steven Kirkpatrick. He would portray Cromwell until the 2007 season, with the exception of the 2006 season. Mr. Kirkpatrick recalled that the storylines over the course of the four seasons “increasingly emphasized the rise of Cromwell in power and influence.[28] Mr. Kirkpatrick began his tenure as Cromwell as the festival portrayed the year 1534 and the storylines showed that King Henry VIII could depend upon Cromwell to do what the king wanted. The scripts gave Mr. Kirkpatrick clues that shaped his Cromwell as shrewd, calm and wry. Fellow members of the cast commented to Mr. Kirkpatrick that while they remembered Thomas Plott’s Cromwell as more of a Darth Vader-like terrorizing villain, Mr. Kirkpatrick was more “slimy”, “like a snake,” or “like Severus Snape”[29] from Harry Potter.
In 2004, the festival portrayed the Year of Three Queens.[30] In the course of the festival performing day Queen Katherine of Aragon died, Queen Anne Boleyn was arrested and executed and Mistress Jane Seymour was betrothed to the king. In history these events happened over the first five months of the year 1536. Dramatically it was a compelling series of plays and street scenarios that brought these historic events to life.[31] Thomas Cromwell was a prominent figure in each of the queen’s stories, announcing that Queen Katherine of Aragon was on her deathbed, interrogating Queen Anne’s ladies in Queen Anne’s Arrest and being honored with the noble title Baron of Oakham as part of Jane’s Betrothal. Mr. Kirkpatrick related that as Cromwell’s power grew he was shown at one point sitting in the King’s throne issuing orders. In another example, Queen Anne hurled curses and accusations at him as he followed her in procession as she exited the festival on her way to imprisonment in the Tower of London.[32]
It was the following season that gave Mr. Kirkpatrick the opportunity to show Thomas Cromwell in his villainous glory. The 2005 season focused on The Lost Princess.[33] The year portrayed was 1537, although the main storyline, the return of the Lady Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon to court, historically took place in the year 1536. Cromwell was tasked with obtaining the written capitulation of the Lady Mary that accepted that her father was now head of the Church of England and that her mother’s marriage was unlawful and incestuous making herself illegitimate. [34] Mr. Kirkpatrick recalled, “The scripts had Cromwell accompanied by Sir Richard Southwell, who indeed served as his henchman, grim-faced and ready to urge violence.”[35]
Mr. Kirkpatrick’s own research on Cromwell revealed that the “speculation about Cromwell’s early years and possible mercenary work in Italy, would have accounted for the violence that was revealed in the Lady Mary interrogation.”[36] He ultimately did not see Thomas Cromwell as an “outright villain,” but “as some one for whom gaining power and influence over people was enough of a kick that he couldn’t help himself.”[37]
I have served my Lord with all my mind and spirit. I am no traitor!
Thomas Cromwell, Cromwell’s Dream by Carolyn Spedden[38]
As with Thomas Plott, Steven Kirkpatrick also portrayed the fall of Thomas Cromwell from power. His experience was unique, as his character was not actually arrested for treason. Instead the stage play Cromwell’s Dream written by Carolyn Spedden dramatized the events leading up to and including the arrest. Thomas Cromwell, working tirelessly at his desk fell asleep. In his dream state his enemies at court confronted him for his treasonous behavior. Cromwell awoke from his nightmare, uneasy with the specter of the axe haunting his soul.
When asked to reflect on his four seasons as Thomas Cromwell, Mr. Kirkpatrick mentioned that the most vivid patron interactions were based on audience members mistaking Thomas Cromwell for Oliver Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell, a descendant of Thomas Cromwell’s sister, is reviled for his treatment of the Irish. “Those were the only times I received outright reactions or negative comments…However, there were always a few savvy patrons who know the history and who might sidle up to me—especially after a court show—and say ‘You’ll get yours one day, you know.’”[39]
“Those who are made can be unmade.”
Anne Boleyn, Bring Up the Bodies by Hillary Mantel[40]
As in all stories of good versus evil, the bad guy loses in the end. The real Thomas Cromwell was arrested while attending a Privy Council meeting on June 10, 1540. An Act of Attainder of treason and heresy passed by Parliament convicted him, a process he himself had promoted as a way to bypass the need for a trial. Kept alive long enough to assist from his cell in the Tower of London with the annulment of the King’s marriage to Queen Anna of Cleves he was executed by beheading on July 28, 1540, the same day that the King married his fifth queen, Katharine Howard.[41] Thomas Cromwell’s newest biographer, Diarmaid MacCulloch writes in the March 2013 issue of BBC History Magazine that Cromwell’s fall and death were caused by four factors. The first factor is the one that is most famous and the primary reason used in fictional portrayals, the arrangement of the King’s marriage to Anna of Cleves. Secondly, and this is a new revelation, Cromwell angered Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk by ignoring the Duke’s wishes for Thetford Priory, traditional burial place of the Howard family and coincidentally the burial place for the King’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset. Norfolk wished to have the priory converted to a college of priests. Cromwell closed the priory in February 1540 and Norfolk was forced to relocate his family’s tombs 35 miles away to Framlingham. Third, in March 1540, John Bourchier, 15th Earl of Essex died and the King granted his ancient title to Cromwell. Lastly, John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford died, the hereditary Great Chamberlain of England one of the oldest royal offices. The King granted it to Cromwell.[42] The blacksmith’s son from Putney had angered the aristocracy one too many times and they were able to persuade the King to put an end to Cromwell.
Thomas Cromwell is a complex character that makes for a fascinating villain from Tudor England. He can be the consummate villain of such plays as Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons or Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn. Alternatively he is a more complicated man, whether in the novels of Hillary Mantel or the television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII and The Tudors.
There is continued interest in Thomas Cromwell thanks to new scholarship in the guise of Diarmaid MacCulloch’s soon to be released biography and Hilary Mantel’s planned novel relating the end of his life. As the Maryland Renaissance Festival cycles its way through the 1520’s and 30’s for the third time you can be assured that Thomas Cromwell will reappear in the tales told of King Henry VIII’s court. It will be fascinating to see whether he will once again be the Darth Vader-like terror embodied by Thomas Plott or the smooth, coy snake of Steven Kirkpatrick. One can look forward to the return of Thomas Cromwell to the cast of the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Perhaps he will emerge in a third manner as a new actor puts his own memorable interpretation on the streets of Revel Grove.
“Men so noble, however faulty, yet should find respect for what they have been.”
---Cromwell, Henry VIII by William Shakespeare[43]
[1] William Shakespeare, Much Adoe About Nothing, Applause First Folio Edition, (New York: Applause Theatre Books, 2001) 13
[2] Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons, (New York: Vintage Books: 1960), 41
[3] Bolt 41
[4] The Tudors. Directors various. (Showtime, TM Productions Limited/PA Tudors Inc. An Ireland-Canada Co-Production), 2007-2009
[5] The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
[6] John Foxe. The Unabridged Actes and Monuments Online or TAMO. (Sheffield: HRI Online Publications) 1563 Edition, Book 3 578-589
[7] Nicholas Sander, Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism, Google Play Digital Edition (London: Burns and Oates, 1877) 253
[8] Shakespeare, William. Henry VIII or All Is True, Folger Shakespeare Edition (New York: Washington Square Press, 2007) 153-159
[9] Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl, (New York: Touchstone, 2001) 589
[10] Eric Ives. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, (Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004) 296-298
[11] Claire Ridgway. The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown, Kindle Edition (MadeGlobal Publishing: April 2012) 17-19.
[12] http://rennfest.com/entertainment/this-year-s-story-line 2012
[13] Dr. Kimberly Tony Korol-Evans, Renaissance Festivals: Merrying The Past And Present, (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2009) 123
[14] Korol-Evans 123
[15] Nick McCarty, The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn, BBC 1970, DVD 2000
[16] Hutchinson, Robert. Thomas Cromwell: The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII’s Most Notorious Minister, (London: Phoenix, 2008) 7-9
[17] Hutchinson 10
[18] Hutchinson 10
[19] Hutchinson 13-17
[20] Field, Mike, Cromwell’s Ghost (Crownsville, MD: Maryland Renaissance Festival 1994
[21] Field notes, interview with Mary Ann Jung, March 2013
[22] Field notes, interview with Thomas Plott, March 2013
[23] Field, March 2013
[24] Plott, March 2013
[25] Plott, March 2013
[26] Plott, March 2013
[27] Brenton, Howard, Anne Boleyn, Kindle Edition (London: Nick Hern Books, 2012) 113
[28] Field notes, interview with Steven Kirkpatrick, March 2013
[29] Kirkpatrick, March 2013
[30] http://articles.mcall.com/2004-08-22/features/3555229_1_dorflinger-glass-maryland-renaissance-festival-opening-weekend
[31] Korol-Evans, 128-144
[32] Field notes. Interview with Steven Kirkpatrick. March 2013
[33] http://friendsofmdrf.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=2005
[34] Porter, Linda. The First Queen of England, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007) 118-125
[35] Kirkpatrick March 2013
[36] Kirkpatrick, March 2013
[37] Kirkpatrick, March 2013
[38] Spedden Carolyn, Cromwell’s Dream, (Crownsville, MD: Maryland Renaissance Festival, 2007)
[39] Kirkpatrick, March 2013
[40] Mantel, Hillary, Bring Up the Bodies, Kindle Edition, (New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC., 2012) 110
[41] Hutchinson, 238-263
[42] MacCulloch, Diarmaid. “Thomas Cromwell: a Thug in a Doublet?”, BBC History Magazine, Ipad Edition (Bristol: Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd., March 2013) 29-33
[43] Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 215
Bibliography
A Man For All Seasons. (1966) Director Fred Zimmerman. Columbia Pictures.
Anderson, Maxwell. Anne of the Thousand Days. New York: Dramatists Play Service, Inc. 1948,1950, 1977.
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). Director Charles Jarrott. Universal Pictures.
Bolt, Robert. A Man For All Seasons. New York: Vintage Books. 1960, 1962.
Brenton, Howard. Anne Boleyn. London: Nick Hern Books. Kindle Edition. 2012.
Field, Mike. Cromwell’s Ghost. Crownsville, MD: Maryland Renaissance Festival. 1994.
Gregory, Philippa. The Other Boleyn Girl. New York: Touchstone. 2001.
Hutchinson, Robert. Thomas Cromwell: The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII’s Most Notorious Minister. London: Phoenix. 2008.
Ives, Eric W. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. 2004.
Korol-Evans, Dr. Kimberly Tony. Renaissance Festivals: Merrying the Past and Present. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. 2009.
Mantel, Hilary. Bring Up the Bodies. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Kindle Edition. 2012
Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC. 2009
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. “Thomas Cromwell: a thug in a doublet?” BBC History Magazine. Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd. Ipad Edition. March 2013.
Porter, Linda. The First Queen of England. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2007.
Ridgway, Claire. The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown. MadeGlobal Publishing: Kindle Edition. April 2012.
Sander, Nicholas. Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism. Google Play Digital Edition. London: Burns and Oates. 1877.
Shakespeare, William. Henry VIII or All Is True. Folger Shakespeare Library Edition. New York: Washington Square Press. 2007
Shakespeare, William. Much Adoe About Nothing. Applause First Folio Editions. New York: Applause Theatre Books. 2001.
Spedden, Carolyn. Cromwell’s Dream. Crownsville, MD: Maryland Renaissance Festival. 2007
The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn. (1970) Director Naomi Capon BBC DVD edition 2000.
The Tudors. (2007-2010). Various Directors. Showtime, TM Productions Limited/PA Tudors Inc./An Ireland-Canada Coproduction.
articles.mcall.com/2004-08-22/features/355529_1_dorflinger-glass-maryland-renaissance-festival-opening-weekend
friendsofmdrf.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=2005
Foxe, John. The Unabridged Actes and Monuments Online or TAMO. HRI Online Publications. Sheffield. www.johnfoxe.org.
www.theanneboleynfiles.com
Saturday, July 20, 2013
The Marchioness of Exeter Contracts the Sweating Sickness, 1528
This is the letter that refers to the Marchioness contracting the sweat in the summer of 1528. Note that the court immediately abandoned the Exeters and the members of their household for fear of contagion. The sweat in 1528 took several well known courtiers lives including William Carey, the husband of Mary Boleyn and William Compton, the King's Groom of the Stool, best known for his battles with Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham over the King's affair with the Duke's sister. Anne Boleyn and her brother George also contracted the sweat that summer, but, like Gertrude, they survived.
“To Wolsey
[1528]
…This morning, at 7 of the clock, I delivered Your Grace’s
letters to the King’s Highness; wherewith I assure Your Grace, His Highness was
greatly comforted, and giveth unto Your Grace hearty thanks for the same, and
especially for the good news he hath out of Italy from Mr. Doctor Stevyns.
(Stephen Gardiner) And this morning he hath word that my lady Marquis
of Exeter is sick of the common sickness, which causeth His Highness to appoint
to remove, upon Saturday, from hence to Ampthill, and hath commanded that all
such as were in my said Lord Marquis’ company and my said Lady, to depart in
several parcels, and so not continue together; and so he desireth Your
Grace t do, if any such case shall fortune, as God forbid. And glad he is to hear that Your Grace
hath so good a heart, and that you have determined and made your will, and
ordered your self anenst God; which will he intendeth shortly to send unto Your
Grace, wherein Your Grace shall see and perceive the trusty and hearty mind
that he hath unto you above all men living. And also, this morning His Highness hath knowledge of
the death, of one of his Chapel, which had divers promotions of his gift, and
of yours by reason of the Chancellorship, which he desireth you to forbear the
gift of any of them, unto such time that Your Grace have knowledge of his
further pleasure in them. And also
he desireth Your Grace that he may hear every second day from you, how you do;
for I assure you, every morning, as soon as he cometh from the Queen, he asketh
whether I hear any thing from Your Grace…
Written at Your Grace’s house at Tittenhanger This Thursday,
the 9th day of July, by your humble and most bounden servant,
Thomas Heneage.[1]
Friday, July 19, 2013
An Actor in Search of a Character: Gertrude Blount Courtenay, the Marchioness of Exeter
Presented at the Popular Cultural Association/National Cultural Association National Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, April 12, 2012
One of the more fascinating
aspects of performing as part of the cast of a renaissance festival,
particularly one in which royal court story lines get performed on a regular
basis, such as at my home festival, the Maryland Renaissance Festival, is the
challenge to develop information when portraying an actual historical
person. It is easier to find
information if you portraying a prominent person, such as King Henry VIII or
his wives. However, if you are given the role of a courtier or a
courtier's wife it is much more difficult to find contemporary information.
Birth dates are largely unknown in the first half of the sixteenth
century. Unless you are of royal birth your early life and rudimentary
education will not be recorded. There may be brief glimpses of you in the
historical record, but for women of the sixteenth century, unless you came to
prominence on your own accord, there is little to go on for an actor to develop
insight into the personality of the historical figure.
My own actor’s journey into the
court of King Henry VIII began in the year 1529, better known as 2001, the 25th
anniversary season of the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Prior to this season I had
portrayed fictional village characters. I was ready for a change and was assigned Gertrude
Blount Courtenay, the Marchioness of Exeter. My first reaction to this was, “who?” My second reaction was how on earth do
I pronounce Marchioness.
We are extremely lucky at the
Maryland Renaissance Festival to have a resident historian who is also the
court director, Mary Ann Jung.
There are also several other members of the cast who either have years
of experience in historical interpretation or, like myself, are amateur Tudor
history geeks. At the first
rehearsal I was given a basic fact sheet on the Marchioness.
Gertrude
Blount
1503?-1558
Titles: Marchioness of Exeter (1525)
Father: William Blount, 4th
Baron Mountjoy (1479-1534) Catherine of Aragon’s chamberlain.
Mother: Elizabeth Say.
Husband: Henry Courtenay (1496 –
x1538) Marquis of Exeter, a grandson of Edward IV.
Children: Edward Courtenay, Earl of
Devon (1526-1556).
v Devout Catholic
v Somewhat of an enigma, being called both a “pathetic, ailing,
devout, rather silly woman, with the credulous faith of the women of her kind”
and an “energetic, high-spirited woman” willing to risk her life to keep a
Catholic on the throne.
v Participated in pageantry at court.
v Accompanied Princess Mary at a May 1527 banquet for the French
ambassador.
v Ensured that Queen Catherine’s staff were musically
well-equipped.
v Very resourceful.
v Became a “useful, imperturbable go-between” for Princess Mary
and Chapuys.
v At the same time she was working for Princess Mary, she was one
of the Godmothers to Princess Elizabeth.
v She eventually consulted the Nun of Kent on a “family matter”,
but apologized to Henry VIII and was pardoned for her indiscretion.
v Worked behind the scenes to bring down Anne Boleyn.
v Told Chapuys in January 1536 of Anne Boleyn’s witchery.
v Bore Prince Edward to the font at his Christening.
v Served water to King Henry and Queen Jane.
v She was eventually attainted and sentenced to death for treason
in 1539, but she was pardoned in 1540.
v Her husband was not so fortunate: he was executed in 1538.
v She remained a loyal friend to Princess Mary and became part of
her court when she rose to the throne.
From this fact sheet this woman
clearly intrigued me. Obviously,
the Marchioness of Exeter was a prominent figure at the court of King Henry
VIII and Queen Mary I. Why
had I not heard of her or her husband before? I knew her son’s name Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon
from his role in the Wyatt Rebellion of 1554. That was as little as I knew. I had been obsessed with the court of King Henry VIII
since I was ten years old and watched the BBC miniseries The Six Wives of Henry VIII that was broadcast on CBS and PBS in
1971. Yet, I had never come across the Exeters in my reading, or if I did, they
did not register as important.
As an actor at the Maryland
Renaissance Festival we are encouraged to continue our research into the people
we are portraying. It helps
us give a richer performance and our discoveries can help to write our
character’s roles in the scripted storylines that are performed at the
Festival. What has differed
for me is that I have developed a decade long love for the Marchioness of
Exeter that has steered me into discovering as much about her as I can. Thanks to resources that were not
available to me a decade ago when I first portrayed the Marchioness, I have
gained a deeper understanding of this complex and important woman who served at
the court of King Henry VIII.
In 2001 I had more limited
options and they involved rudimentary research on the Internet, going to the
library and ordering used books. The first resource that I consider essential
when researching a woman from the English court in the 16th century
is Burke’s Peerage in its various forms and volumes. This will give you basic genealogy for both the father’s
family and the husband’s family by searching under either the family name or
the title and these sources will give you a basic biography that include the
titles and offices that the father or husband held at the court. There are also websites
such as www.tudorplace.com.ar and www.tudorhistory.org
that provide short biographies of the important figures of Tudor history using some of the same material.
Here is what I learned about
the Marchioness’ father, William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy. William Blount was the son and
heir of John, 3rd Baron Mountjoy who succeeded to the title on the
death of his father in 1485 while still a child. He studied in Paris where he
met and became the patron of the famous humanist scholar, Erasmus. Lord Mountjoy paid Erasmus a
pension of 100 crowns per year.
There are several Latin letters between Erasmus and Mountjoy and Erasmus
dedicated several of his writings to Lord Mountjoy and his son, Charles.[1]
From Erasmus’ letters we know that Lord Mountjoy came back to
England around 1497/1498, probably because William’s marriage had been arranged
to Elizabeth Saye, the daughter of Sir William Saye. Lord Mountjoy would marry multiple times, and his other
wives included Alice Kebel, the widow of William Browne, Lord Mayor of London,
and Dorothy Grey, daughter of Thomas, Marquis of Dorset. Antonia Fraser in her The
Wives of Henry VIII states that Lord Mountjoy also married Katherine of
Aragon’s Spanish lady-in-waiting, Inez de Venegas and that Inez was Gertrude’s
mother thus making Gertrude half-Spanish.[2]
Sources differ on whether Inez was his second or his fourth wife. In order for
Inez to be Gertrude’s mother Gertrude would have to have been born during Henry
VIII’s reign after 1509 and given that her marriage occurred in 1519 and she
starts to make appearances at court shortly after that, it is unlikely. I have
come to the conclusion that Gertrude is most likely the child of his first
marriage to Elizabeth Saye.[3]
It was Lord Mountjoy’s court
career that made it possible for Gertrude to make her illustrious marriage to
the King’s first cousin, Henry Courtenay.
Lord Mountjoy is present at many of the prominent events of the first
two decades of the reign of King Henry VIII. In 1512 he becomes Chamberlain to Queen Katherine of Aragon,
a position he remained in with a few gaps until the fall of 1533, when he was
tasked with informing the “Princess Dowager” that her marriage was invalid.[4]
He died the following year.
Gertrude is believed to be Lord
Mountjoy’s eldest child. [5] He would have several more children by
his many wives, Mary, Charles, Katherine, John, Dorothy and another Mary. As to her birth year it is listed
in sources as anywhere from 1499 to 1504 and in some sources as late as
1509. As is typical for a female
courtier of the early 16th century Gertrude does not merit a mention
in her own right until she is married.
There is slightly more
information about Gertrude’s husband, Henry Courtenay, although his importance
at the court of Henry VIII has been diminished in popular culture in favor of
those courtiers who have closer ties to the families of the king’s subsequent
wives. One of the best
sources I found during the early years of my research came unexpectedly. Horatia Durant published a book on the
three generations of the Earls of Devonshire in 1960. Entitled Sorrowful Captives: The Tudor Earls of
Devon, Ms. Durant gained access to the family archives of the current Earls
of Devon who live in Powderham Castle.
Henry is the only surviving
child of William Courtenay and Princess Katherine Plantagenet. William was the son of Edward, created 1st Earl of
Devonshire in 1485 for loyal service to King Henry VII. William married the Queen’s
younger sister in 1495.[6] When Queen Elizabeth of York dies, it
is Princess Katherine who acts as chief mourner at her funeral.[7] Unfortunately William begins a
pattern in which his family is suspected of treason for supporting the Yorkist
claimants to the throne.
William is arrested in 1502 and attainted for corresponding with Edmund
de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk.[8] He would be released from the
Tower on the ascension of King Henry VIII and he was given the honor of
carrying the Third Sword at the coronation. The attainder is reversed and
William is granted his father’s title of Earl of Devonshire in 1511, but he
dies before the formalities are completed.[9]
Henry Courtenay appears to have been close to his cousin Henry VIII. He
succeeds to the Earldom on his father’s death, participates in the invasion of
France in 1513 and by 1520 becomes a privy councilor and a gentleman of the
privy chamber.[10] [11]
Now it is time for Gertrude to
step forward into history.
She was Henry Courtenay’s second wife. He was first married to Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess
Lisle in her own right, but she died young no later than early 1519.[12] Ms. Durant uncovers evidence that
Gertrude and Henry’s marriage almost did not happen. In 1519 Henry Courtenay was proposed as a husband for the
niece of William of Chievres, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor’s chamberlain
and tutor. As Horatia Durant
quotes in her book, Sir Thomas More wrote to Cardinal Wolsey,
“as touching the overture made by my
Lord of Shevers for the marriage of my Lord of Devonshire, the King is well
content, and as me seemeth, very glad of the motion, wherein he requireth Your
Grace that it may like you to call my Lord of Devonshire to your Grace, and to
advise him secretly to forbear any further treaty of marriage with my Lord of
Mountjoy for a while; staying the matter, not casting it off; shewing him that
there is a far better offer made him, of which the King would that he should
not know the speciality before he speak with his Grace.”[13]
The marriage between Henry and
Gertrude took place on October 25, 1519. The king paid 200 pounds 4 shillings
and 9 pence for jousts at Greenwich to celebrate their wedding. [14]
Gertrude makes her first appearance as Countess of Devonshire at the Field of
the Cloth of Gold in 1520, where she was allowed in her retinue three women,
four men servants and eight horses,[15]
and she participated as one of the virtuous
ladies in the court masque, the Chateau Vert in March 1522, alongside the
King’s sister, Mary, Dowager Queen of France, Mary Boleyn Carey and Anne
Boleyn. Gertrude portrayed Honor.[16] Clearly, the Marchioness had the
courtly graces of music and dancing, so based on this information I could
portray her as a young woman who enjoyed court entertainments during the 2001
season of the Maryland Renaissance Festival. While the year was 1529, the height of the King’s
Great Matter, because it was the 25th anniversary season, it was
decided to have one last “happy’ day with King Henry and Queen Katherine
enjoying the hospitality of the little village of Revel Grove.
Yet,
I was still intrigued by the descriptions of Gertrude that seemed so
diametrically opposed. Where
did they come from? For that
I turned to another valuable resource for anyone researching Tudor women. In 2001, this resource was in
book form, Wives and Daughters: The Women of the Sixteenth Century by
Kathy Lynn Emerson. It is
now available as an online resource at kateemersonhistoricals.com that has made
it easier for Ms. Emerson to update her information as new scholarship has
happened over the past decade. So,
let’s examine Gertrude. It was
from Ms. Emerson’s book that I discovered the origin of the pathetic, ailing
devout portrayal was A.L. Rowse, who wrote his works on Tudor history during
the period of the 1930’s – 1970’s.
The source of the energetic quote is Garrett Mattingly who wrote his
biography of Katherine of Aragon in 1941. Horatia Durant in 1960 clearly did not like the
Marchioness saying that she wrote “interminable letters”[17]
and that she “wanted power at a time when women…seldom wielded it.”[18]
During
the off-season, I started researching more deeply into Gertrude’s life. I would find snippets of her here and
there, references to her in letters that placed her even more closely into the
events of King Henry VIII’s reign.
I discovered that it was very likely that she was, as she is portrayed
in the one time she appears on the screen, in the BBC’s The Six Wives of Henry
VIII, the enemy of Queen Anne Boleyn, the friend of the King’s eldest daughter Princess
Mary and the woman who had the privilege of carrying Prince Edward during his
christening.[19]
In
2002, the Maryland Renaissance Festival portrayed the year 1533 and the
coronation of Anne Boleyn. I
figured that since the Marchioness of Exeter was a close friend of Queen
Katherine that I would not be asked to portray her that season. I was wrong. As a matter of fact, when I
mentioned to my Artistic Director, Carolyn Spedden that I believed based on my research that the
Marchioness did not attend the coronation of Queen Anne, she wrote it into the
storyline and I received a brief dramatic scene following the coronation in
which Queen Anne berated my arrogance and I chose to silently take the queen’s
wrath. That led to some wonderful
acting opportunities for the next two seasons as the rise and fall of Anne
Boleyn took place at the Festival.
Here
are a few highlights of the wonderful events of Gertrude Blount, the
Marchioness of Exeter’s life.
Henry
Courtenay benefited from the execution of the Duke of Buckingham in 1521. He became a knight of the garter
replacing the attainted Duke. In 1527 he was appointed lieutenant of the order
of the Garter. He received the
lordship of Caliland in Cornwall and the Duke’s London home, Red Rose in St
Lawrence Pountney.[20] He was an accomplished jouster
and the records from the Field of the Cloth of Gold show that his opponent was
another royal cousin, Henry, Lord Montague the eldest son of Margaret Pole,
Countess of Salisbury and elder brother of the Reginald Pole who became Queen
Mary I’s Archbishop of Canterbury.[21]
Henry Courtenay was created Marquis of Exeter in June 1525 on the same day that
the king’s bastard son, Henry Fitzroy was created Earl of Nottingham and Duke
of Richmond and Somerset. [22]
The
Marchioness of Exeter was chosen to hold Princess Mary’s hand as she entered
for a banquet in May 1527 when she was presented to the French ambassadors who
proposed a French marriage for the young princess.[23] During the Sweating Sickness
epidemic of 1528 during which Mary Boleyn’s husband died and Anne and George
Boleyn took ill, there is a letter from Thomas Heneage to Cardinal Wolsey that
shows that the Marchioness of Exeter also took ill and that the court left her
behind fleeing to Ampthill.[24]
For
the Exeters’ role in the dramatic events of the 1530’s it became necessary to
dig deeper into even older source material. The Marquis performed his duty to
his King and supported him in his quest for an annulment from Queen Katherine. [25]
Both of the Exeters took part in the christening of Princess Elizabeth with
Gertrude acting as godmother at the confirmation ceremony that took place
immediately following the baptism.
And we see in an episode from the reign of Queen Anne Boleyn, a time
when Gertrude had to beg her forgiveness of the King.
There
is a letter in volume two of Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of
Great Britain, edited by Mary
Anne Everett Wood, in which a lady of the court begs the king’s forgiveness for
seeking advice from Elizabeth Barton, the Holy Maid of Kent. [26] Sister Elizabeth Barton was famous for
her predictions and she would ultimately lose her life for foolishly predicting
that King Henry VIII would die if he married Anne Boleyn. Clearly if a lady of the court
was caught patronizing Sister Elizabeth it could have dire consequences. What is puzzling to me is why is it
presumed to be Gertrude that wrote the letter? The letter published was not taken from the original letter
and it is unsigned. It comes from
the Cotton Manuscripts, which were heavily damaged in a fire, and the original
may be lost. Everett Wood states that the only women of rank
that consulted the Holy Maid of Kent were Lady Exeter and Margaret Pole,
Countess of Salisbury. She attributes the letter to Lady Exeter because
of the references to her husband and by giving as a reason for the consultation
that she was pregnant and had lost all of her children. Margaret Pole was
a widow in her sixties at the time the letter was written. However, Everett
Wood gets some information incorrect, such as stating that the Marchioness was
imprisoned until the reign of Queen Mary I. She also states that the
Marchioness attended Queen Anne's coronation, while other sources say she did
not. Yet another reason to wish I had
access to the actual material.
I
do not have access to the complete letters of Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial
Ambassador, but other biographers have used those letters to show that Chapuys
relied on one or the other of the Exeters for a lot of the information that he
passed on to his master, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.[27]
It is from Chapuys that we learn that the Exeters are presumed to be the
sources for the King claiming that Anne Boleyn had bewitched him[28]
and the charming episode of Mistress Jane Seymour on her knees demurely
rejecting a gift of sovereigns from the King begging him to respect her honor. .”[29]
Gertrude
was tireless in her role as informer to Ambassador Chapuys. It is clear from his letters that the
Marchioness believed Queen Katherine and Princess Mary are in mortal danger.[30]
In two letters from Chapuys to
Charles V in November 1535 he writes “The Marchioness of Exeter has sent to
inform me that the King has lately said to some of his most confidential
councilors that he would not longer remain in the trouble, fear and suspense he
had so long endured on account of the Queen and the Princess, and that they
should see at the coming Parliament, to get him released there from, swearing
most obstinately that he would wait no longer. The Marchioness declares that this is as true as the Gospel,
and begs me to inform your Majesty and pray you to have pity on the ladies. In the second letter he wrote,
“The Personage who informed me of what I wrote to your Majesty on the 6th
about the Queen and the Princess –came yesterday to this city in disguise to
confirm what she had sent to me to say, and conjure me to warn your Majesty,
and beg you most urgently to see a remedy. She added that the King, seeing some of those to whom he
used this language shed tears, said that tears and wry faces were of no avail,
because even if he lost his crown he would not forbear to carry his purpose
into effect.”
I
was able to portray the Marchioness of Exeter through the year 1537
participating in the fall of Anne Boleyn, the betrothal of Jane Seymour and the
restoration to the court of Princess Mary. Yet, because this is a Renaissance Festival and the
Exeter Conspiracy is not one of the tales that gets told in a couple of thirty
minute shows I was unable to portray the downfall of the Exeters. It is a sad story that, believe
it or not was portrayed by Showtime’s The Tudors series, without the Exeters
taking part.
Following
the death of Queen Anne Boleyn, the Marquis again did his duty in helping to
suppress the Pilgrimage of Grace and a similar uprising in the west
counties. He benefited greatly
from the dissolution of the monasteries and became the largest landowner in the
west. [31] Yet, it was his royal blood, his close
friendship to the Pole family and his dislike of Thomas Cromwell that would
prove the destruction of his family.
Margaret
Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence,
brother of Edward IV. Her
middle son, Reginald Pole, had been educated on the continent at the expense of
King Henry VIII. Reginald
became very vocal about opposing the divorce from Catherine of Aragon and the
dissolution writing a treatise against the English Reformation entitled Pro
Unitatis Ecclesiasticae Unitatis Defensione (A Defense of the Church’s Unity)
better known as De Unitate. [32] The Marquis was close friends with the
Pole family, particularly Henry Pole, Lord Montague, Margaret Pole’s eldest
son. Thomas Cromwell had Geoffrey Pole, the Countess’ youngest son arrested for
clandestine correspondence with his brother Reginald in August 1538 and put in
solitary confinement in the Tower of London for two months. He betrayed his entire
family and the Exeters.[33]
The
Marquis and Henry Pole, Lord Montague, were arrested in November 1538. The Marquis was accused of
encouraging apprentices in Cornwall to march carrying his banner and declaring
that he should be heir to the throne. This makes no sense, as he would not have
displaced Prince Edward or Princess Mary to whom he was one of her staunchest
champions. It didn’t help
the Marquis that was overhead saying “Knaves rule about the King; I trust to
give them a buffet one day.”[34]
The
Marchioness and their 12-year-old son, Edward was arrested along with Lady
Montague and her young son, Henry Pole.
The Marquis and Lord Montague were convicted of treason and executed on January 9, 1539. The Marquis was formally degraded from the Order of the Garter. [35]
Among the other men executed in the “Exeter Conspiracy” were Sir Edward Neville
and Sir Nicholas Carew whose sole crime was to have treasonous correspondence
with the Marchioness.[36]
Act
of Attainder convicted the Marchioness along with several other prisoners in
May 1539. For a time
her cell mate in the Tower was Margaret Pole. The Marchioness is mentioned in the reports of Thomas
Cromwell. In reference to
being unsatisfied with her confession he wrote that “I shall try to the uttermost
and never cease till the bottom of her stomach may be clearly opened and
disclosed, and I can declare it to your highness by mouth more than I could by
writing.”[37]
Thomas Philips, a senior warder
would write “The Lady Marchioness feareth sore lest she stand in the King’s
displeasure and consequently wants your Lordship’s favour. She also wanteth rainment and hath no
change but only what your Lordship commanded to be provided. Further, her gentlewoman, Mistress
Constance, hath no change and what she hath is sore worn. Another gentlewoman hath been
with her one whole year and more and very sorry is she that she hath not to
recompense them, at least their wages.” Later Cromwell’s memorandum lists
“remember the Marchioness of Exeter…remember the two children in the Tower.”[38]
The
Marchioness of Exeter was pardoned on December 21, 1539 and released. [39]
Not so her young son, who would remain a prisoner of the Tower until Queen Mary
I came to the throne. Mary would
restore him to his father’s family title of Earl of Devon. [40]Young
Henry Pole simply disappears from the Tower records around 1543. Margaret Pole would be executed at the
age of 68 in May 1541.
Geoffrey Pole attempted suicide twice, was released and lived out his
life shunned by his surviving relatives.[41]
Gertrude
returned to court with the ascension of Mary and became chief gentlewoman of
the queen’s bedchamber. [42] Her son would become the English
candidate for the queen’s hand in marriage supported by Stephen Gardiner,
Bishop of Winchester, whom Edward had befriended during his imprisonment. [43] When the Queen announced her intention
to marry Philip of Spain, Edward was caught up in the Wyatt Rebellion that
proposed to marry Edward to Princess Elizabeth and place them on the throne.[44] Edward when questioned
stated that while he was aware of the plans to marry him to Princess Elizabeth
he had declined.[45] He was briefly re-imprisoned in
the Tower and then exiled to the continent where he traveled to Calais, Antwerp
and Italy. Edward Courtenay,
the last Tudor Earl of Devonshire would die in mysterious circumstances in
Padua on September 18, 1556 and was buried in St. Anthony’s church. [46]
His
mother would be forgiven by Queen Mary for her son’s mistakes and would remain
a part of the Queen’s household. Gertrude Blount Courtenay, Marchioness of Exeter
died on September 25, 1558 and is buried in Wimborne Minster. [47]
I
end with Gertrude’s own words. The
Marchioness of Exeter wrote several letters to her son in his exile. Five are reprinted in volume three of Letters
of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain. This letter is poignant. It is the letter of a mother desperately missing her only
child.
Son,
Your
letter wrote to me, dated the two-and-twentieth of October, I received from
Brown the 7th of November.
The letter was one way comfortable, to perceive you do not forget your
mother, who esteems you above her own life. And very glad I am to hear the king’s majesty is so much
your good lord as you write; beseeching our Lord long to preserve him: but
sorry I am you will, as I perceive by your letter, travel so far hence, but I
trust, according to your bounden duty, you will first come into England to see
the queen’s highness and your poor mother, who has as little worldly comfort as
ever woman had, saving only the goodness and comfort of the queen’s
highness. As I perceive by your
letter, your man has to say to me from you, but, as he writes to me, he trusts
you shall shortly come hither and speak with me yourself; the which I would be
most gladdest of, and causes me purposely send this bearer to bring me word; if
there be any such good news I will remain here till I hear the certainty what
you will do. And thus with my
hearty blessing I will bid you farewell, for I am at this present so pained with
the cholic and the stone, that I have much ado to write; fearing you cannot
read this ill written letter, praying daily for your short return into
England. Written the 8th
of November, from Master Warham’s house at Malsanger.
If
you come to England I trust I shall see you, or else I will shortly write to
you if I be alive.
By
your most assured loving mother,
Gertrude
Exeter[48]
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[1] Dictionary
of National Biography, pg. 721
[2] Antonia
Fraser, The Wives of Henry VIII (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992) 195
[3] http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenU-V.htm
[4] Tremlett,
Giles, Catherine of Aragon: Henry’s Spanish Queen (London: Faber and
Faber Limited, 2010) 378-379
[5] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage &
Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's
Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 1123.
[6] Arlene
Naylor Okerlund, Queenship and Power: Elizabeth of York (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) 127
[7] Okerlund 204
[8] Horatia
Durant. Sorrowful Captives: The Tudor Earls of Devon (Pontypool, Hughes
& Son, Ltd. The Griffin Press, 1960) 26
[9] Durant 28
[10] Dictionary
of National Biography, pg. 1261.
[11] www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/HenryCourtenay(1MExeter).htm
[12] www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenG.htm
[13] Durant,
pg.36.
[14] http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenB-Bl.htm
[15] William
Jerdan, F.S.A. M.R.S.L.The Rutland Papers (New York and London: AMS
Press, 1968) 36
[16] Eric Ives, The
Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing,
Ltd. 2004) 37
[17] Durant 36
[18] Durant 37
[19] Durant 52
[20] Dictionary
of National Biography, pg. 1261.
[21] Durant 37.
[22] Beverley A.
Murphy, Bastard Prince: Henry VIII’s Lost Son (Gloucestershire: Sutton
Publishing Limited, 2003) 55
[23] Durant 40
[24]M. St. Clare
Byrne, Ed. The Letters of King Henry VIII (New York: Funk and Wagnalls,
1968) 72
[25] David
Matthew, The Courtiers of Henry VIII (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode,
1970) 147
[26] Mary Anne
Everett Wood, Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain,
Volume Two (London: Henry Colburn, 1846) 96-101
[27] Durant 45
[28] David
Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (London: Chatto &
Windus, 2003) 551
[29] Madeleine
Hope Dodds and Ruth Dodds, The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536-1537 and The Exeter
Conspiracy 1538 Volume One (London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. 1915, 1971)
24-25
[30] Durant 47
[31] Durant
50-52
[32] Desmond
Seward, The Last White Rose: Dynasty, Rebellion and Treason; The Secret Wars
Against The Tudors (London: Constable & Robinson, Ltd., 2010) 240
[33] Durant 57
[34] Durant 58
[35] Durant
61-62
[36] Durant 59
[37] Durant. 63
[38] Matthew 153
[39] Durant 64
[40] James D.
Taylor, Jr. The Shadow of the White Rose: Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon
1526-1556 (New York: Algora Publishing, 2006) 59
[41] Durant 63
[42] Durant 76
[43] Seward 316
[44] Taylor 75
[45] Taylor 85
[46] Taylor
160-161
[47] http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18692
[48] Everett
Wood, Volume Three, 307-309
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