Henry VIII's Last Victim (59 page)

Prologue

1
The above account draws on the material gathered during the enquiry into Surrey’s misconduct (PRO SP 1/175, fo. 87; 1/176, fos. 152, 156). For the Bankside brothels, see E. J. Burford,
Bawds and Lodgings: A History of the London Bankside Brothels, c. 100–1675
(1976), and R. M. Karras, ‘The Regulation of Brothels in Later Medieval England’,
Signs
, 14/2 (1989).

Introduction

1
Thomas,
The Pilgrim
, p. 13; PRO SP 1/227, fo. 97;
Spanish Chronicle
, p. 147;
Poems
, 46, 31.

2
Constantyne, p. 62.

3
Churchyard,
Churchyardes Charge
, p. 2.

4
Brenan and Statham,
The House of Howard
I, p. 188; Chapman,
Two Tudor Portraits
, p. 142; Jordan,
Edward VI
I, p. 49; Sessions (1999), p. x.

5
I. D’Israeli,
Amenities of Literature
(3 vols., 1841), II, p. 116.

1 Only Virtue Unconquered

1
PRO SP 1/227, fo. 97.

2
The Household Books of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, 1462–1471, 1481–1483
, intro. A. Crawford (Stroud, 1992), p. ix; Robinson,
The Dukes of Norfolk
, p. 5.

3
Poems
, 27, line 39.

4
The Tragedy of King Richard the Third
, Act 1, scene 3, line 244. The Shakespeare edition used here and elsewhere is
The Complete Works
, ed. S. Wells, G. Taylor et al. (Oxford, 1986).

5
Hall, p. 419.

6
Ibid.

7
Beaumont’s ‘Bosworth Field’, cited by Weever,
Ancient Funerall Monuments
, p. 832.

8
Ibid., p. 833.

9
Letters of Richard Fox
, ed. P. S., and H. M. Allen (Oxford, 1929), p. 58.

10
The Anglica Historia of Polydore Vergil
, p. 203.

11
The Eclogues of Alexander Barclay
, ed. B. White, EETS, original series, 175 (1928), p. 179.

12
Hall, p. 555.

13
The epitaph adorned his funerary monument at Thetford Priory. It was destroyed during the Civil War, but not before the antiquarian John Weever had made a careful transcription (Weever,
Ancient Funerall Monuments
, pp. 834–40).

14
R. B. Merriman,
Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell
(2 vols., Oxford, 1902), I, p. 39.

15
The Letters of King Henry VIII
, p. 20.

16
Wilson,
In the Lion’s Court
, p. 111.

17
J. Skelton,
The Complete English Poems
, ed. J. Scattergood (1983), no. XII, lines 91–2.

18
LP
I ii, 2684 (1, 2).

2 Henry Howard

1
‘The Framlingham Park Game Roll’, in J. Cummins,
The Hound and the Hawk: The Art of Medieval Hunting
(2001), p. 264; Stow,
The Annales or Generall Chronicle of England
(1615), p. 506.

2
Giustinian,
Four Years
II, p. 113;
The Travel Journal of Antonio de Beatis
, p. 104.

3
Arundel Castle MS 1638, pp. 35, 123. See too
LP
XX ii, 496; Nott, p. vii.

4
Elyot,
The Governor
, p. 15.

5
Edwardes,
De indiciis et praecognitionibus
, dedication, sig. A.2.

6
T. Phaer,
The Boke of Chyldren
, ed. R. Bowers (Tempe, AZ, 1999), pp. 34–5, 44, 49.

7
Arundel Castle MS 1638, p. 123.

8
C. M. Torlesse,
Some Account of Stoke By Nayland, Suffolk
(1877), p. 1.

9
NRO MS NRS 2378 (11D4), fos. 10Av, 36v–38; Sessions (1999), p. 47.

10
Colvin,
The History of the King’s Works
IV, p. 154.

11
The Regulations and Establishment of the Household of Henry Algernon Percy, the Fifth Earl of Northumberland
, ed. T. Percy (1827), pp. xv, 386–91 (quotation on p. 386).

12
R. Reyce,
The Breviary of Suffolk
, ed. F. Hervey (1902), p. 53.

13
California MS
, fos. 116v–17.

14
Boorde,
Introduction of Knowledge
, p. 132.

15
The Second Book of the Travels of Nicander Nucius
, pp. 23–5.

16
Boorde,
Introduction of Knowledge
, p. 132.

17
Vokes, ‘Early Career’, p. 194.

18
St. P.
II, pp. 38–9.

19
PRO SP 1/29, fo. 292.

20
St. P.
II, p. 43.

21
Ibid., p. 52.

22
Ibid., p. 84.

23
Brewer, ‘The Book of Howth’, p. 192.

24
Vokes, ‘Early Career’, p. 212.

25
CSP Sp.
V i, 87.

26
Brenan and Statham,
The House of Howard
I, pp. 125–6.

27
The Anglica Historia of Polydore Vergil
, p. 263;
The Papers of George Wyatt Esquire
, ed. D. M. Loades, CS, 4th series, 5 (1968), p. 158.

28
Giustinian,
Four Years
II, p. 315.

29
Hall, p. 624;
CSP Ven.
III, 213.

30
Ellis,
Original Letters
, 3rd series I, p. 221; Hall, p. 624.

31
BL Cottonian MS Titus B I, fo. 101.

32
Miller,
Henry VIII and the English Nobility
, pp. 214–15.

33
St. P.
IV, p. 149; Wood,
Letters
I, pp. 337–8. See too Sessions (1999), pp. 49–50.

34
BL Cottonian MS Titus B I, fo. 390.

35
Ibid., fo. 388.

36
From January 1520 to December 1524, Thomas spent at least 40 out of 60 months in the field (Head,
Ebbs and Flows
, p. 279).

37
California MS.

38
Ibid., fos. 71, 73. The Pembroke MS of 1526–7 gives further details of Elizabeth’s pilgrimages, revealing visits to Walsingham (28 April–1 May 1527), Ipswich (4 May) and the Rood of Grace at Kersey (6 June).

39
Wood,
Letters
III, p. 190.

40
BL Cottonian MS Titus B I, fo. 391.

41
Furnivall,
The Babees Book
, pp. 64–5; Brigden,
New Worlds, Lost Worlds,
p. 56.

42
Furnivall,
The Babees Book
, pp. 69–70.

43
Ibid., pp. 179–80; Starkey, ‘The Age of the Household’, p. 250.

44
The household account for 1525 records the purchase of soap (Howlett, ‘Household Accounts’, p. 57).

45
Thurley,
Royal Palaces
, p. 171; Furnivall,
The Babees Book
, pp. 182–5.

46
R. Hughey,
John Harington of Stepney: Tudor Gentleman His Life and Works
(Columbus, OH, 1971), pp. 198–200.

47
Furnivall,
The Babees Book
, pp. 77–9, 135.

48
California MS, fo. 93.

49
‘Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court’,
History Today
, 41 (1991), p. 59.

50
Thomas,
The Pilgrim
, p. 6.

51
Boorde,
A Dyetary of Helth
, pp. 263, 279, 281.

52
California and Pembroke MSS,
passim
.

53
California MS, fos. 147v–60.

54
CSP Ven.
IV, 694;
CSP Sp.
IV ii, 1030.

55
LP
XVI ii, 1332.

56
PRO SP 1/210, fo. 30v.

57
California MS, fos. 69–70.

58
T. Martin,
The History of the Town of Thetford
(1779), app. VIII, pp. 38–43; ‘The Register or Chronicle of Butley Priory’, pp. 43–4; Howard,
defensative
, sig. I.i.4r.

3 Earl of Surrey

1
Head,
Ebbs and Flows
, pp. 272–3; H. Miller, ‘Subsidy Assessments of the Peerage in the Sixteenth Century’,
Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research
, 28/77 (1955), p. 18.

2
Pembroke MS, 1526: 1–2 Oct., 8 Oct., 20 Nov., 29 Nov., 27 Dec. and 13 Jan. 1527.

3
Brewer, ‘The Book of Howth’, p. 191. Hermits are mentioned throughout the Pembroke MS, e.g. 31 Dec. 1526, 2–3 Jan. 1527.

4
D. MacCulloch, ‘Kett’s Rebellion in Context’,
Past and Present
, 84 (1979), pp. 55–6.

5
Pembroke MS. On 6 Jan. over 200 guests and 399 servants were given dinner.

6
Thurley,
Royal Palaces
, pp. 41–3.

7
Details drawn from the inventory of Kenninghall, taken after the fall of the Howards: PRO LR 2/115, fos. 36 (Great Chamber), 47v (Long Gallery), 51 (Surrey’s lodgings. I have not mentioned the furnishings as they probably changed over time), 54 (Armoury), 47 (Garret), 58–67v (Shelfhanger Farm).

8
CSP Sp.
IV i, 270; ii, 1030;
St. P.
V, p. 220; PRO SP 1/118, fo. 146. For further references to Norfolk’s health, see below and:
St. P.
I, p. 72; II, p. 84; V, pp. 104, 216, 221; PRO SP 1/105, fo. 246; 1/115, fo. 80; 1/116, fo. 1; 1/122, fo. 212;
Hamilton Papers
I, no. 227.

9
PRO SP 60/1, fo. 114.

10
PRO SP 1/48, fo. 94.

11
LP
IV, intro., pp. ccclxxii
f
.

12
Wood,
Letters
II, pp. 28–30.

13
Poems
, 35, line 6.

14
Peacham,
The Complete Gentleman
, p. 2.

15
The ideals of the humanist educators are well described by L. V. Ryan in the introduction to his edition of Ascham’s
The Schoolmaster
, esp. pp. xxiii–xxvi. Despite protestations to the contrary, most English noblemen were reasonably learned. By 1521 Erasmus could write triumphantly to a fellow humanist that ‘there is scarce a nobleman in the land who considers his children fit for their rank except they have been well educated’ (
LP
III ii, 1527). It is doubtful that Henry VIII would have allowed his own son to be mentored by Surrey, as he later was, if Surrey had not benefited from a humanist education.

16
Elyot,
The Governor
, p. 70.

17
Pembroke MS, dinner, Fri., 5 October 1526.

18
Elyot,
The Governor
, pp. 19, 57–8.

19
Clerke,
A certayn treatye
. The suggestion that Clerke may have tutored Surrey was first made by G. F. Nott in 1815 (p. xviii). It was accepted as fact by Bapst (pp. 159–62), Padelford (
Poems
, p. 7), Casady (
Henry Howard
, pp. 27–8) and Chapman (
Two Tudor Portraits
, p. 24). The earliest reference to Clerke in the Howard household was previously thought to be in 1541, when he is described as the Duke’s secretary (
LP
XVI ii, 1489, fo. 170b). He is later mentioned as the Duke’s comptroller (
LP
XXI ii, 557). I have found an earlier reference in the Seymour Papers at Longleat (XVI, fo. 4): ‘May 1538, Beauchamplace, Receipts: Item, received of my Lord by the hands of John Clerc, servant to the Duke of Norfolk the same day [28 May] – 100
li
.’ For further reading, see S. Baldi, ‘The Secretary of the Duke of Norfolk and the First Italian Grammar in England’, in
Studies in English Language and Literature presented to Professor Dr. Karl Brunner
, ed. S. Korninger (Vienna and Stuggart, 1957), pp. 1–16.

20
P. Ackroyd,
The Life of Thomas More
(1998), p. 21; Pinchbeck and Hewitt,
Children in English Society
, p. 39.

21
LP
IV, iii, 6788, p. 3065; D. Galloway and J. Wasson, ‘Records of Plays and Players in Norfolk and Suffolk, 1330–1642’,
The Malone Society Collections
, 11 (1980–1), pp. 21, 221;
The Register of Thetford Priory
I, pp. 48–52.

22
3 Hen. VIII, c. 3 (
Statutes of the Realm
, pp. 25–6).

23
N. Orme, ‘Child’s Play in Medieval England’,
History Today
, 51/10 (2001), pp. 54–5; Furnivall,
The Babees Book
, p. lv.

24
PRO LR 2/115, fo. 36v.

25
Poems
, 2. For Petrarch’s sonnet, see p. 103 of this edition.

26
Elyot,
The Governor
, pp. 66–7.

27
‘The Register or Chronicle of Butley Priory’, pp. 50, 57.

28
Poems
, 25.

29
CSP Sp.
IV i, 228.

4 With a King’s Son

1
Skelton,
The Complete English Poems
, ed. J. Scattergood (1983), no. XIX, lines 644–5.

2
Two Early Tudor Lives
, p. 12.

3
Wilson,
In the Lion’s Court
, p. 53;
Collected Works of Erasmus
, vol. 2:
The Correspondence of Erasmus, 1501–1514
, tr. R. A. B. Mynors and D. F. S. Thomson; ann. W. K. Ferguson (Toronto and Buffalo, 1975), pp. 147–8.

4
Whether Henry VIII decided to marry Anne Boleyn before he had resolved upon an annulment with Catherine or vice versa is the subject of much debate. Most recently David Starkey has argued for the former (
Six Wives
, 2003, pp. xxiv
f
., 203, 273–88) and Eric Ives for the latter (
The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
, Oxford, 2004,
chapter 6
).