Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World (57 page)
Read Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World Online
Authors: Alison Weir
Another of Elizabeth’s letters to Ferdinand and Isabella is dated August 1, 1499, and recommends one Henry Stile, “who wishes to go and fight against the infidels.” The Queen urged the Spanish sovereigns to agree to this, for “though he is a very short man, he has the reputation of being a valiant soldier.”
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Another letter was written by Elizabeth to a member of the Arundel family of Trerice in Cornwall, who had once loyally supported her father. It bears her signature, and in it she announces the birth of one of her sons.
A further surviving letter was written on June 6, 1499, to Thomas Goldstone, prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, and must be a typical example of many of the Queen’s routine missives that have not survived. It concerns her desire to present one of her chaplains to the next vacancy in the living of All Saints, Lombard Street, London. She had to apply to the prior because Christ Church held the advowson—the right of a patron to appoint a nominee to a benefice—of that church. In this letter, Elizabeth demonstrated that she had a talent for claiming her right with charm and tact:
To our right trusty and well-beloved in God, the Prior of the monastery of Christ’s Church at Canterbury
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Right trusty and well-beloved in God, we greet you well, and as we recently in other letters desired you to grant unto us the living of the parish church of All Saints in Lombard Street in my lord’s city of London, whenever it should fall vacant through the death of Sir Marques Husy [Mark Hussy],
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the late incumbent; whereupon it pleased you, out of your loving and kindly heart, to grant us freedom of the said benefice in writing, to nominate it for whichever of our chaplains we should choose at its next vacancy, for which we heartily thank you. We
have been informed that it is now the case, the said Sir Marques being recently departed out of this transitory life into the mercy of God, so that the said benefice is now vacant
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We therefore request and require you that, in honouring the said promise, you shall send us under your usual seal the giving of the said benefice, with a blank space on it, with the intention that we shall enter the name of whichever of our chaplains we shall think able and suitable to have charge of the curacy there. We sincerely trust that you will effect this desire of ours, whereby you will greatly deserve our special thanks, to be recalled in connection with any reasonable desires of your own concerning your well-being or that of your office in time to come
.
Given under our signet at my lord’s city of London, the sixth day of June
.
Elysabeth
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Henry VII had intended to spend the Christmas of 1497 at Sheen, where he was staying “with the Queen and the court,”
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but on the evening of December 21 or 23,
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an alarm was cried because the palace was on fire. The blaze had broken out “suddenly,” either in the Queen’s chamber
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or the King’s,
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around nine o’clock. Raimondo de Soncino stated that it started “by accident, and not by malice, catching a beam,”
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but Trevisano hinted that “a fire was set,” and that the culprit had been Perkin Warbeck, who was “with the King.”
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There is no evidence, however, that Perkin was held responsible by Henry.
The conflagration quickly spread and raged for three hours, resisting frantic attempts to put it out; and “by violence whereof, much and great part of the old building was burnt,” while hangings, beds, plate, apparel, and many jewels were spoiled or destroyed.
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The fire “did a great deal of harm, and burned the chapel, excepting two large towers recently erected by His Majesty.”
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Henry V’s donjon tower—where it probably started—was certainly spared, although it is not known in what condition, or what other buildings survived.
King Henry, Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Beaufort, Princess Margaret, Prince Henry, and other “notable estates” were in residence at the time, but “to the King’s good comfort, the royal family escaped unhurt,
and no man or Christian creature perished.” Even so, the King had been lucky, for a gallery collapsed immediately after he sped along it to safety.
The damage, according to Soncino, was “estimated at 60,000 ducats [£7.3 million]. The King does not attach much importance to the loss. He purposes to rebuild the chapel all in stone, and much finer than before.”
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Yet he was concerned about some of the crown jewels being lost in the fire, and offered a reward of £20 [£9,700] to anyone finding them in the smoking rubble.
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Surveying the devastation, Henry decided to rebuild not only the chapel, but the palace itself, bigger and better than before.
Fortunately, the old royal manor complex of Byfleet, moved to Sheen by Henry V, stood nearby, beyond the moat and gardens, and Henry and Elizabeth probably took up residence there for Christmas, as they were still at Sheen with the court on January 30, 1498, “in good health and merry, thank God”;
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and they were at Sheen again the following July.
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Elizabeth’s privy purse accounts record that on June 6, 1502, she paid out £3 [£1,450] to Nicholas Grey, clerk of works, “toward such losses as he sustained at the burning of his house at Richmond,” presumably in the same fire that wrecked the palace. On February 7, 1503, she paid £20 [£9,700] in partial compensation to Henry Coote, a London goldsmith, “for certain plate delivered to the Queen’s Grace at Richmond, and there lost and burnt at the burning of the palace there.”
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In April 1498 the King gave Elizabeth a gift of £6.13s.4d. [£3,250].
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That year, Prince Henry rode in great state into London, where the streets had been swept in his honor, and was presented with a gift by the City fathers, for which he made his first recorded speech, thanking them. On May 23, not quite seven years old, he beat his father at cards, winning 3s.4d. [£80].
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Four days later Henry VII paid out £3.6s.8d. [£1,620] to Robert Taylor, the Queen’s surgeon,
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possibly for drawing one of her teeth or letting blood. The generous payment reflects the King’s concern for his wife’s health.
There was alarm when, on June 9, 1498, Perkin Warbeck escaped from the Palace of Westminster. Evading his two warders, he climbed through a window in the wardrobe and set out for the coast, but the King sent men after him and gave orders for the roads to be closed, and Warbeck only made it as far as Sheen, where he took sanctuary at the Charterhouse.
On June 12 the prior of the Charterhouse arrived at Westminster and informed the King of Warbeck’s whereabouts. Henry immediately had the news conveyed to Puebla, who communicated it to Ferdinand and Isabella, to reassure them that the pretender had been speedily found. The prior begged the King to spare Warbeck’s life. Henry VII was not a bloodthirsty man, but he was no longer prepared to be lenient with Perkin. He had him put in the stocks in Cheapside and at Westminster, where he was again made to read aloud his confession, then he was marched under strong guard to the Tower and imprisoned in a cell where “he sees neither sun nor moon.”
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Bacon asserts that even now Warbeck was still insisting he was Richard of York, and declaring that when he was delivered from the Tower, he would wait for the King’s death, “then put myself into my sister’s hands, who was next heir to the crown.” But Bacon was writing much later, and—as we have seen—tended to see intrigue where none probably existed, especially in regard to pretenders. It is highly unlikely that Elizabeth was harboring sympathy for this young man, or that she still took his claim seriously.
Certainly Pedro de Ayala did not, and he assured Ferdinand and Isabella that Henry VII’s crown was now “undisputed, and his government is strong in all respects.” But the years of uncertainty had taken their toll. Ayala added that Henry “looks old for his years, but young for the sorrowful life he has led.”
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Vergil too observed how Henry had aged: “his teeth [were] few, poor and blackish; his hair was thin and gray; his complexion pale.” Worry and anxiety may have taken their toll on Elizabeth too: a portrait of her painted in the 1490s, now in the Royal Collection (see
Appendix 1
), shows her looking older than her years—she was thirty in 1496—with pinched lips and a double chin.
But now, with Warbeck securely imprisoned, the outlook for the
future appeared brighter, and the way seemed clear for preparations for Prince Arthur’s wedding to the Infanta to proceed smoothly. It was what the King earnestly desired, and he “swore by his royal faith that he and the Queen were more satisfied with this marriage than with any other.”
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On July 7, 1498, two Spanish diplomats, Commander Sancho de Londoño and Juan de Matienzo, sub-prior of Santa Cruz, “passed four hours with [King Henry] in conversation, at which the Queen and the mother of the King were present.” They reported to their sovereigns: “To hear what they spoke of Your Highnesses and of the Princess of Wales was like hearing the praise of God.” The envoys gave Elizabeth two letters from Ferdinand and Isabella and two letters from the Princess of Wales. “The King had a dispute with the Queen because he wanted to have one of the said letters to carry continually about him, but the Queen did not like to part with hers, having sent the other to the Prince of Wales.”
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It is hard to imagine Elizabeth defying Henry openly like this. More likely, the dispute was staged to demonstrate to the Spanish envoys the enthusiasm of the royal pair for the marriage of their son to Princess Katherine.
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When, on August 25, 1498, Rodrigo de Puebla brought Elizabeth letters from the Spanish sovereigns and Katherine of Aragon, “and explained them, she was overjoyed.” She sent at once for her Latin secretary “and ordered him to write, in her presence, two letters, one of them to the Queen of Spain and the other to the Princess of Wales.” The secretary told Puebla afterward “that he was obliged to write the said letters three or four times, because the Queen had always found some defects in them,” saying, “They are not things of great importance themselves, but they show great and cordial love,” which had to be expressed in the proper fashion.
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This testifies to Elizabeth’s keen desire for a successful outcome to the marriage negotiations, as do her efforts to cement good relations with Puebla by finding him an English bishopric or an English bride.
In February, Henry VII had informed Ferdinand and Isabella that “since Puebla could not be induced to accept a Church preferment, he was asked whether he would also refuse an honorable marriage offered to him. After many excuses, he has at last been persuaded, principally
by the Queen, to accept the marriage, but under the express condition that his king and queen must first give him their consent. Wishing to marry Puebla well in England, he and his queen beg them [the Spanish sovereigns] to grant their prayers, and to give their consent. The marriage will be of great advantage to the Princess Katherine when she comes to live in England.” Puebla dutifully but reluctantly relayed the proposal to his sovereigns, and it seems that Henry and Elizabeth continued to press him to accept the hand of an Englishwoman of their choosing.
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On the morning of Sunday, July 18, Commander Londoño and the sub-prior of Santa Cruz went to Sheen, accompanied by the Bishop of London and other great dignitaries of state, and there saw the King and Queen walking in procession after hearing Mass in the chapel. “The ladies of the Queen went in good order and were much adorned.” Later that day the envoys “took leave, and went to kiss the hand of the Queen.”
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During their visit, Commander Londoño and the sub-prior of Santa Cruz made their separate observations about Elizabeth resenting Margaret Beaufort’s influence on the King. As discussed earlier, the envoys’ conclusions were probably overstated, for Elizabeth and her mother-in-law continued to present a united and friendly front to the world, and until now there had been no hint of discord between them. Several times during 1498 alone we find them amicably working and playing together. They displayed a joint concern to prepare Katherine of Aragon for her marriage. On July 17, Puebla reported: “The Queen and the mother of the King wish that the Princess of Wales should always speak French with the Princess Margaret [of Austria, wife of Katherine’s brother, the Infante Juan, Prince of Asturias], who is now in Spain, in order to learn the language and to be able to converse in it when she comes to England. This is necessary, because these ladies do not understand Latin, and much less, Spanish. They also wish that the Princess of Wales should accustom herself to drink wine. The water of England is not drinkable, and even if it were, the climate would not allow the drinking of it.”
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That summer, Margaret Beaufort accompanied the King and Queen on a progress into East Anglia, visiting Havering, Bury St. Edmunds,
and Thetford on the way to Norwich, where they were received by the mayor, who made an oration in their honor.
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They again visited the shrine at Walsingham, and at Bishop’s Lynn (later King’s Lynn) they lodged in the Augustinian priory
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before journeying westward to Margaret’s house at Collyweston.
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Two years later Elizabeth collaborated with Margaret and Prince Arthur to secure the appointment of Thomas Pantry, a native of Calais, as Supreme Beadle of the Arts at the University of Oxford, although in 1501 they all supported rival claimants for the same post in Divinity, which shows that Elizabeth was not always swayed by her mother-in-law’s opinions.
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