Bastard Prince (23 page)

Even as Anne became more visibly pregnant, displaying ‘a goodly belly', Richmond took on further responsibilities at court. He was in regular attendance at parliament. Of the forty-six sessions where attendance was recorded from January 1534, Richmond was absent on just thirteen occasions. When the Order of the Garter celebrated the Feast of St George at Windsor that year it was decided that ‘the noble Youth, the most deserving, Duke of Richmond should supply the Sovereign's place'. Richmond was assisted by a select group of nobles, including the Duke of Norfolk and the king's cousin, the Marquess of Exeter, who duly observed the solemn feast on 17 May 1534. In their letters to Arthur, Viscount Lisle, both John Husse and Sir Francis Bryan picked up on the fact that Richmond had deputised for the king.

Once his duties were discharged, Richmond did not rejoin the court as it moved to Richmond Palace. Instead, he headed straight from Windsor Castle into Dorset. There is no indication that he was in any disgrace. It was common to spend the summer away from the heat and dust of London. Richmond also made a similar progress to another of his manors at Sheffield. If Richmond was to be accepted as a landed magnate, it was expected that he would occasionally spend some time on his estates. Although, just as he had been kept out of the way in September 1533, it was perhaps thought best by all concerned that he should remain quietly in the country until the king's legitimate son was safely born.

Richmond had now developed into a well-respected figure. As he travelled towards his Manor of Canford in Dorset he was greeted outside the town of Salisbury by a number of local dignitaries who ‘received his grace very lovingly in offering themselves to be at his commandment'. As he came to Salisbury itself the mayor and aldermen of the town came out to meet him bearing gifts. Once he was settled at Canford he was sent ‘divers and costly presents', in exactly the sort of token of esteem that would be shown to any established lord.

While he was at Canford Richmond received some news which prompted him to write to Thomas Cromwell. He had been told ‘by my friends in these parts' that the king ‘is fully purposed within short while to take his voyage into France'. The duke was perhaps keen to reaffirm those friendships which he had made during the previous year while he was living at the French court. He hinted rather broadly ‘I would have been very glad to have given attendance upon his said highness if it had been his grace's pleasure'. In the end Richmond did not go to France, but then neither did the king. Anne was now in the latter stages of pregnancy and, as in 1533, these last few months seem to have been difficult. When Henry postponed the French meeting ‘on account of her condition' he may well have had real reason for concern.

Richmond also had reason to be worried. Ironically, he had more to fear from another daughter than the longed-for prince. Henry's first-born son could expect to retain his lands, offices and a unique place in his father's affections, even if there was an heir. Another daughter was more dangerous. Anne Boleyn's overtures of friendship towards Mary were more political than personal. If she could be persuaded to recognise Anne as queen, Elizabeth's position as heir apparent was assured.
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With Richmond there was no such incentive for good relations. If Anne were to bear yet another girl her desire to protect the claims of her children, especially in the face of any moves from the king's only male issue, might become ever more desperate.

In the event, it was Anne's fortunes, rather than Richmond's, that faltered. At about eight months she miscarried, and hindsight suggests that the baby was a son. The whole matter was quickly swept aside. Henry and Anne set off on the court's summer progress as if the pregnancy had never happened. In normal circumstances a miscarriage, especially after Anne had had a successful pregnancy, would not be serious cause for concern. But these were not normal circumstances.

For Henry's subjects the question of the succession had become a thinly spun thread ‘upon which dependeth all our joy and wealth'. Anne's confidence was shaken and when she objected to her husband amusing himself with the ladies of the court, as he had always been accustomed to do before she became his sole interest, Henry was bitter in his disappointment and rebuked her that ‘she should remember where she came from'. Henry's own confidence was also rocked by this echo of Katherine of Aragon's misfortunes. As with the shock of his infant son's death in 1511, this latest crisis seems to have affected his virility. His romantic dalliances might serve to convince the world he was indeed, ‘a man like other men'. Yet, while Henry could play the gallant lover, it would be more than a year before he could actually make his wife pregnant again.

The events of recent years had done nothing to settle the uncertainty of the succession. Even Henry's policy of ennobling his relations had rebounded upon him. The king's cousin Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, seems to have enjoyed a good relationship with Richmond. When the duke was eleven he gave him ‘a bay ambling gelding for his own saddle'. Yet Exeter found himself in prison when his servants were caught claiming that if anything happened to Henry VIII ‘My Lord Marquis would be King, and they lords'. The death of Henry's nephew, Henry Brandon, who had been honoured as Earl of Lincoln at Richmond's elevation, can only have added to the general mood of uncertainty. Despite years of much upheaval the king was still no closer to securing his legitimate male heir.

When Henry returned from his summer progress, Richmond was recalled to court. In November 1534, he played host at a St Andrew's Day feast in honour of the visiting French Admiral, Philippe de Chabot. In January 1535, he was also at court for the New Year celebrations. Henry gave him the now traditional silver gilt, weighing in at 55 ounces. Anne also gave him a piece of silver gilt, a cruse with a cover, which in a rather back-handed compliment, the duke sent to his sister Mary for her New Year's gift. Known for her good eye for clothes Anne did rather better with ‘a bonnet, finished with buttons and a little brooch', which Richmond added to his wardrobe. In the New Year he was still with the king at Westminster, adding his vote (in accordance with the King's wishes), for James V's election to the Order of the Garter.

Now aged fifteen, he began to assume duties for his father on a more regular basis, although sometimes it was his very youth and inexperience that made him useful. When Chapuys paid a visit in February 1535, to find ‘all the Lords were in Council', he was not insulted because ‘the Duke of Richmond . . . remained to entertain me'. However, Richmond's usefulness could also have a political edge. His presence at Tyburn in May 1535 at the execution of three Carthusian monks was a clear signal of Henry VIII's tacit approval of their punishment for flouting the king's new laws on religion. The Imperial ambassador wrote with shocked disbelief that Richmond and ‘several other lords, and gentlemen courtiers, were present at the execution, openly and quite close to the victims'. Chapuys believed that the king himself had wanted to be present ‘to witness the butchery'. Instead, his son's attendance was perhaps the next best thing and a public indication of the king's mind.

Richmond also continued to spend some of his time away from court. In general he does not seem to have followed the king on his summer progresses, instead preferring to use the time to visit his own estates. On one occasion he travelled as far as his Sheffield manor, although he did not find the area very much to his liking. Unlike Canford, which boasted two parks, he complained rather petulantly to Thomas Cromwell that Sheffield offered little to amuse him as ‘here in this country [county] where I lie I have no park nor game to show sport nor pleasure to my friends'. Obviously hoping that Cromwell would help him out, he enclosed a list of the nearby parks belonging to the king and others, which he had had his eye on.

As the months passed and Anne still failed to conceive, speculation grew that some other solution to the succession crisis would be necessary. For the first time since his elevation in 1525, Richmond featured in the gossip. However, it was not the dutiful son himself who had attracted attention, but the ambition of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who was described as:

Having a niece as Queen of England had not brought Norfolk all the benefits he felt were his due. Richmond's marriage was intended at least as much for Anne's benefit as his own. Now it appeared that she could not ensure that a son with Howard blood would sit upon the throne. Relations between him and Anne became increasingly tense and his loyalty to her grew correspondingly thin. When Anne lost her temper and ‘heaped more injuries on the Duke of Norfolk than on a dog', he stormed out and vented his spleen on the first person he met, calling his queen and sovereign lady every possible name under the sun.

In the circumstances the idea of his own daughter as a more dutiful and benevolent queen, with the ultimate prize of his grandchild as a future king, must have seemed a more tempting prospect. Although Chapuys might believe that Anne ‘now rules over and governs the nation' so that even Henry dared not contradict her, Norfolk was astute enough to realise that her long-term security depended on the safe delivery of a prince. Richmond was a route to continued power and influence that did not rely on the fortunes of his niece.
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Outwardly, Richmond was every inch the king's loyal and obedient son. Yet backed by the power and ambition of the Duke of Norfolk, Anne would be foolish not to see him as a threat. Matters did not immediately come to a head, but Norfolk increasingly had little reason to support Anne and her offspring, and every reason to promote the fortunes of his royal son-in-law.

Richmond's links to Norfolk and his interests went beyond his marriage to Mary or his friendship with Surrey. Norfolk had replaced Lisle as Vice-Admiral to the Duke of Richmond. He had replaced Wolsey as the chief custodian of the lands and person of the lunatic George, Lord Tailbois. He held the wardship of Richmond's uncle, George Blount, and he also assumed an increasingly active role in Richmond's own affairs, over and above his concerns that the duke should maintain an appropriately splendid household. This was facilitated by the fact that a number of Richmond's servants, notably John Uvedale and William Brereton, already had established links with the Howard family.
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By March 1535, John Husse, who acted for Lisle, knew that any business with Richmond's household would be decided, not by the duke's governor, George Cotton, but ‘the conclusion of the same shall depend much upon my lord of Norfolk's goodwill and pleasure'.

In some respects Norfolk's involvement reflected Wolsey's earlier role, in directing and overseeing daily business. While the duke was still in fact a child it was only sensible to have someone keeping an eye on his officers and lands. Yet as Richmond grew older, rather than simply directing matters, Norfolk actively sought to work with his son-in-law. When problems arose in Richmond's landholdings in the Welsh Marches in 1535, Norfolk accompanied Richmond on a stately progress to Holt to address the problem.
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The idea was plain. Rather than imposing his will, so that Richmond grew to resent his interference, Norfolk was keen to ensure that the young duke came to reflect his own sympathies and prejudices.

As he approached his sixteenth birthday the Duke of Richmond was developing into a most promising candidate for the throne. Not only was he still the king's only son, but the praises heaped upon his mental and martial abilities were entirely reminiscent of the adulation showered upon his father at his accession in 1509. He was ‘a goodly young lord, and a toward, in many qualities and feats'. On the very verge of manhood, the danger of a minority could be argued to be past. For political reasons, Henry's nephew, James V of Scotland, had been declared of age when he was fourteen. If anything untoward happened to Henry, a similar policy could easily be adopted towards Richmond.

There were still a number of factors stacked against him, not least that according to the law, Elizabeth was the heir apparent. Moreover, under the terms of the 1534 Act of Succession, the stigma of his illegitimacy was still an effective block to any consideration of his accession. Even if Richmond mounted a claim against Elizabeth he would still have to contend with the popularity enjoyed by Mary. Support for ‘the Princess', as she continued to be called by the Imperial ambassador, endured. The feeling was not sufficiently strong to convince Charles V to back his support for his cousin with action, although John Snappe cannot have been the only Englishman willing to give his life and all he had ‘upon my Lady Mary's title against the issue that should come of the Queen'.
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The strength of feeling for Richmond was unlikely to be tested while the king or his subjects held out any hope of a prince, and by October 1535 Anne Boleyn finally fell pregnant again.

At the New Year in 1536, things seemed, on the surface at least, to be much as they had been two years earlier. Having successfully given birth to a thriving baby daughter, Anne was now expected to produce her brother. The court enjoyed its customary revels and Henry produced his usual parcel of silver gilt for his son. This year the present was particularly impressive. A bowl with a star in the bottom was engraved with Richmond's arms. A jug, with its handles made to look like two serpents, was decorated with the initials ‘H' and ‘A' beneath a crown, and another ‘standing bowl' was capped with the figure of a small boy bearing a shield and spear with an engraved inscription in French. Some evidence, perhaps, that Richmond, at least, had accrued some benefit from his time in France.

Yet things were not the same. The optimism engendered by Elizabeth's birth had been sorely damaged by Anne's subsequent miscarriage. Anne was dismayed and her enemies were encouraged to find that she was no longer the sole object of her ardent lover's attentions. As was his custom when his wife was pregnant, Henry had developed a roving eye and this time the subject of his affections was a young woman named Jane Seymour.