The Other Tudors (7 page)

Henry VII died on Saturday, 21 April 1509 at Richmond. His mother was his chief executrix and the head of the council arranging his burial. After the King died, Margaret moved from Richmond to the Tower to be with her grandson before his coronation. At the funeral, on 11 May 1508, Margaret Beaufort was given precedence over her granddaughter, Princess Mary, and Catherine, the Dowager Princess of Wales and future Queen.

Within a week the new King’s councillors were badgering Fuensalida to get the marriage with Catherine under way. Fox told him: ‘You must remember now that the King is King and not Prince. One must speak in a different way in this matter than when he was Prince.’
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The last money payment came remarkably quickly. Henry VIII wanted Catherine of Aragon, he wanted a Habsburg alliance against France, and he wanted a war.

On 11 June 1509 Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were finally married at Greenwich, to both personal and public rejoicing. On 23 June Margaret Beaufort watched the formal public marriage procession of Henry VIII and Catherine from a room in a house in Cheapside, hired for her by her grandson. Her granddaughter, Mary, kept her company. Margaret attended the celebrations, but soon became ill. She died on 29 June, in Cheyneygates, the abbot’s lodging of Westminster Abbey. Her body was moved to the Abbey refectory on 3 July and finally buried in the Lady Chapel close to her beloved son.

Henry VIII was free at last.

T
here is no concrete evidence of any sexual liaisons for Henry while he was Prince of Wales. However, he was a robust and lusty youth, surrounded by temptation in the form of sexually active friends and ladies of the Court who would have been only too pleased and proud to provide him with sexual amusement. An affair with a royal prince was not disgraceful, and could lead to prosperity for a noble family. The lady might expect to receive favours, both financial and in property, an arranged marriage with a substantial dowry if she was single, and there could be positions at Court for her family. If a royal mistress had a son, the child could expect an earldom and possibly a dukedom, with a chance that either he or his descendents would inherit the throne. There was an obvious historical precedent – Henry VIII himself was descended from John Beaufort, the bastard son of John of Gaunt by his mistress Catherine Swynford. Several powerful and wealthy noble families could trace their descent from the bastards of Henry I and his grandson Henry II.

Henry VII and Margaret Beaufort took care of every aspect of Prince Henry’s life but however much a father may try to protect his son, love will always find a way. Henry was a tall, strong, handsome boy, and children were expected to mature at an earlier age at a time when the average life expectancy was only about 35. As an exceedingly good-looking young man and the future King of England, he would have been of considerable interest to the young ladies of the Court. It would have been sensible to allow him a mistress who would provide him with love and sex, but who could be guaranteed not to meddle in official Court business, demand unreasonable favours for herself and her family, or to entangle the emotions of the Prince too deeply. Elizabeth Denton, a lovely, experienced, loyal lady, was perfect.

Amongst the first business conducted early in Henry VIII’s reign were items that strongly indicate this lady as his first love. Two entries in the Court records state:

Flemish artist Antonis van den Wyngaerde’s view of London, the first panoramic map of mid-Tudor London dated 1540, shows the house known as ‘Cold Harbour’ to the left of London Bridge. The Tudor Coldharbour stood on the waterfront and a panorama dated c.1550 shows it in front of the tower of the Church of All Hallows the Great.
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In 1483, Richard III granted Coldharbour to the Heralds and Pursuivants at Arms as its headquarters. Henry VII, however, took it back, and gave it to his mother for the duration of her lifetime. On Margaret’s death in July 1509, Henry VIII gave the lease to the Bishop of Durham, Cuthbert Tunstal. Later Henry gave it to George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury.
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Margaret Beaufort spent most of her time at her house at Collyweston in Northamptonshire; however, she needed a London house and she kept Coldharbour. In 1501, Margaret received Catherine of Aragon there on her arrival from Spain for her marriage to Prince Arthur. Yet when Henry became King one of his first actions was to make a generous annuity to Elizabeth Denton, one of his servants, and, after his grandmother’s death, to give a right of tenancy of her principal London residence to that same lady.

So who was Elizabeth Denton? She was one of Elizabeth of York’s ladies at Court, listed on the payroll, and she also carried out at least one task for the Queen that entered the royal records in January 1503: ‘Item to Mistress Denton for money by her paid to John Hayward skinner for furring of a gown of crimson velvet for the Queen of Scotts [Princess Margaret, Henry’s sister] … 14s’.

The annual wage bill for Queen Elizabeth’s ladies ran as follows: ‘My Lady Katherine, hir pencon’, for a year and a quarter £62 10s; ‘My Lord Howard for the diettes of my Lady Anne’ for a year £120; ‘My Lady Bridget’ £65 8d. Sisters of the Queen, Katherine was married to William Courtney, Earl of Devon; Anne had married Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey (later 3rd Duke of Norfolk); and Bridget became a nun.

Apart from these three women, the highest reimbursement went to ‘Lady Elizabeth Stafford’, at £33 6s 8d. Next were ‘Mistress Elizabeth Denton’ and ‘Lady Alyanor Verney’, at £20 each. ‘Mistress Anne Crowmer’ and ‘Mistress Mary Ratcliffe’ received £10, as did ‘Alice Massy the Queenes mydwif ’. Seven ladies received £6 13s 4d, presumably the standard wage for a lady-in-waiting. William Denton, carver to the Queen, received a wage of £26 13s 4d.
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The one certain thing about Elizabeth Denton is that she was a beauty, as were all the ladies who waited upon the Queen, it seems. An ambassador, visiting Elizabeth of York, recorded that she was attended by 32 ‘companions of angelical appearance’.
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The Dentons appear to have had close connections with Margaret Beaufort. Elizabeth was not the only Denton serving in her household. Apart from William, the carver, James Denton, a lawyer was ‘retained as “my lady’s scholar at Orleans” by Lady Margaret in connection with her suit to recover money from the King of France in 1502.’
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James was a graduate of the Universities of Valence and Cambridge. He became a royal chaplain before taking up a post as almoner (distributor of charitable alms) to Henry’s sister, Princess Mary, when she went to France to marry Louis XII. In 1520, he was Canon at Windsor Castle and responsible for building works in the Lower Ward next to St George’s Chapel. By 1522, James had been elected Dean at Lichfield Cathedral, an unusual appointment as Denton was a lawyer and diplomat and neither a churchman nor theologian.
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Elizabeth Denton must have been a highly trusted servant. She replaced Elizabeth Darcy, Lady Mistress of the Royal Nursery under Edward IV and Henry VII, who, by 1497, had either retired or died.
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By 1500, she was governess to the infant Princess Mary; later she was one of the entourage who went to Scotland with Princess Margaret in 1503 for her marriage (she received her wages in Scotland on 22 May 1505), and returned when James IV began reducing the number of English ladies in his new wife’s household. It is obvious that the Tudors, especially Margaret Beaufort, placed enormous dependence on this lady and her family.

Elizabeth appears as a character in a novel by Michael Glenne,
King Harry’s Sister
, which was published in 1952. A mixture of history and fantasy, he represents Elizabeth Denton as a malicious, scheming woman:

Sadly, Glenne gives no sources for his pen portrait of Elizabeth. It may be that he had some evidence for his version of her character, or it may be that he needed a meddling, spiteful character to support the plotline of Margaret as a spoiled brat, at odds with her doting husband, and chose Elizabeth because she was a real person who served in close proximity to the young Queen. What he does is give us a physical picture of a lady with black hair, dark eyes, pale skin and thin lips. Had he at least seen a portrait of her?

Henry VIII’s rewards to Elizabeth Denton were made within weeks of his ascending the throne. While he would want to reward loyal family servants, there must have been many people who had served his family and who deserved to be rewarded. One conclusion could be that Elizabeth had provided a service to Henry that was not set down in the Court records. Given that she had been a loyal servant to Margaret Beaufort, it might make sense that, to make sure that there were no unwanted complications, Henry’s grandmother selected the lady for his first lovemaking experience.

Whether she was Henry’s choice or chosen by those who had his best interests at heart, whoever made the decision had the good sense to choose a married lady as his first sexual conquest, one who was experienced and discreet.

In the Blackfriars church of St Anne on Lombard Street, a lady named Elizabeth Denton is buried. Her will, dated 26 April 1518, leaves a generous bequest: ‘… To the intent that the same Prior, &c. shall pray for the Soul of my late Husband, my Soul, and all Christen Souls …’
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The church was eminently suitable for the final resting place of a high-ranking court lady. Several minor members of the Royal Family were buried at St Anne’s, as well as a number of people from notable noble families.