The Other Tudors (8 page)

I
t was not until the death of Henry VII in 1509 that Henry VIII was able to marry. Just why Henry chose to marry Catherine of Aragon is open to much speculation. Years later, Edward Hall (c.1498–1547), historian and lawyer, explaining why Henry had married his first wife, wrote: ‘The king was moved by some of his Council that it should be honourable and profitable to his realm to take to wife the lady Katherine [sic], late wife to Prince Arthur his brother deceased, lest she, having so great a dowry, might marry out of the realm, which would be unprofitable to him …’
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Finances had little or nothing to do with it, however. Henry was simply in love with Catherine. She was, by all accounts, a most lovable person, and he had had time to get to know her and appreciate her finer points. They had also both suffered emotionally because of Henry VII, and this forged yet another link between them. Some scholars suggest other reasons for the marriage which include Henry’s jealousy of Arthur, and a desire to prove he was better in everything; the idea that Henry VIII wanted what his father had told him he could not have (Henry even went as far as to say that his marriage was in response to a deathbed request by his father, which was almost certainly untrue); and that marriage with Catherine gave Henry a Spanish alliance against France, the traditional enemy of England.

On his ascension, Henry VIII quickly seized the reigns of power, ordering the arrest of his father’s unpopular ministers, Sir Richard Empson and Sir Edmund Dudley (who had advised the late King on ways of increasing taxation), and set about spending the contents of the carefully guarded royal treasury. Marriage to Catherine demonstrated to everyone that Henry was his own man, and not bound by the decisions of his predecessor. It also placed him at the centre of European politics, allied by marriage to Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, both allies against Henry’s chosen enemy, France.

When Henry VIII came to the throne, he had a stable kingdom, a considerable personal fortune, a significant place in European politics and such personal qualities as youth, health and beauty in his favour. Pietro Pasqualigo, the Venetian Ambassador, wrote in 1510:

On 11 June 1509, the royal marriage between Henry and Catherine was solemnised with church services at Greenwich (south London), and a series of jousts and pageants, the nature of which had not been seen before. Catherine was the Queen of Love, and Henry, her devoted knight. Embroidered and appliquéd Hs and Ks (for ‘Katheryn’), and the emblems of Henry’s Tudor rose and Catherine’s personal symbol, the pomegranate, were hung around Greenwich. Other Court decorations included castles for Castile, and bundles of arrows for Aragon.

Despite Catherine being a virgin (according to her testimony), they seem to have found considerable physical pleasure in each other from the outset. The choosing of a royal wife was often seen as a diplomatic, logical matter of choosing a woman of royal blood, who came from a prolific family, and whose marriage alliance would be of the greatest good for the country. However, both Henry VII and Henry VIII demanded more than an historic bloodline and broad hips in their queens.

Henry had no fear that Catherine would not please him. She was pretty, intelligent and elegant – every inch a queen. She was Henry’s match intellectually and shared his interests, was delighted to ride with her husband and also go hawking. They could talk about politics, literature, religion, and the joys and stresses of royalty. She enjoyed the lavish shows that Henry put on. She was his lover, friend and councillor. He could place complete faith in her. Indeed, while Henry was campaigning in France in 1513, Catherine acted as Regent in England, and ordered the campaign that repulsed an attack by the Scots on the northern border. Catherine’s only real fault as queen was her inability to give birth to a healthy prince, and in the end that was enough to lose her the faithfulness of the King.

Henry himself, was much admired and continued to receive plaudits. In 1519, Sebastian Giustinian, the Venetian Ambassador, wrote of Henry:

Henry was very attractive to women and he soon succumbed to temptation.

Henry’s first mistress after he became king, Anne Hastings, might have been a passing fancy but she was a member of a most noble family, the Staffords, with connections to the new Queen.

Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, had been a friend to Catherine of Aragon from the time of her arrival in England and had sent her fruit and game during her widowhood when Henry VII had kept her short of money. He was favoured by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, Catherine’s nephew. Buckingham was one of the country’s leading nobles, and a possible candidate for the throne (should Henry die childless) through his legitimate Plantagenet connections. Buckingham had royal blood – perhaps more than Henry Tudor. Buckingham’s grandfather, Humphrey, the 1st Duke, was the son of Anne, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III, all by direct lawful descent.

Buckingham was a contemporary of Arthur rather than Henry, as he was 13 years old when Henry was born, and the two never really became friends. Buckingham became Lord High Steward for Henry VIII’s coronation, then Lord High Constable and a Privy Councillor. In 1513 he was with Henry’s army in France, and on 13 August 1514 he was one of the nobles who attended Henry VIII and Princess Mary at her marriage with Louis XII of France. Much of this, however, was expected of a nobleman of his rank and he was not a member of Henry’s inner circle.

Buckingham’s relationship with the King was also strained by his marriage to Alianore, daughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, who also had royal connections. Their son, Henry Stafford, married the daughter of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, the King’s cousin. It must have seemed to Henry VIII that the Staffords were allying themselves with other powerful noble families who could also potentially make a claim on the throne.

To make matters worse, Buckingham was an arrogant and quarrelsome man, convinced of his own superiority. His power lay in his wealth, inherited position and his presence at Court. He used the law, his wealth and position to achieve his ends and to do whatever he wanted. Buckingham made it very clear that he resented the number of lesser-born councillors who were close to the King. He disliked Thomas Wolsey particularly, but was not clever enough to mask his dislike. It was reported that Buckingham spoke out against both Wolsey and the King himself.

He is supposed to have said that Henry ‘would give his fees, offices and rewards, rather to boys than to noblemen.’
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This was a sly, derogatory reference to the number of relatively humble young men who were close to the King, such as Charles Brandon and Sir William Compton, someone who Buckingham particularly loathed. Henry tended to listen to and take advice from whoever was closest to him at the time, rather than listening to several opinions and making a reasoned decision. He also liked advisers who shared his enthusiasms – if they could joust, hunt, write music and poetry, play or sing, dance, dispute philosophy or theology, they were more likely to be close enough to make their views known and to influence Henry. Once Henry had made his mind up, right or wrong, he rarely changed it.

Henry’s brief affair with Anne Hastings, one of the Duke’s married sisters, while Catherine was pregnant with her ‘honeymoon’ baby (a premature, stillborn girl) gave Buckingham another reason to be angry with the King. Catherine’s pregnancy was a cause for rejoicing, but it also meant that Henry was excluded from Catherine’s bed. Henry’s eye started to roam, and where better to find some female company than amongst his wife’s ladies? It was a pattern that was to be repeated throughout Henry’s life. He rarely had to go looking for female companionship when such a number of agreeable, beautiful and talented women were so close at hand.

Catherine had a large household, but her ladies-in-waiting only numbered eight. They formed the most important group, closest to the Queen. At the start of Catherine’s reign, these ladies included:

The next rank of ladies were the maids of honour, chief amongst whom was Dona Maria de Salinas, one of Catherine’s Spanish ladies. It was said that Catherine loved her ‘more than any other mortal.’
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This lady married a widower, William, Lord Willoughby d’Eresby, Master of the Royal Hart Hounds, in June 1516. She remained loyal to Catherine throughout her painful widowhood, and was with her at Kimbolton Castle, in Huntingdon, when she died. Lady Elizabeth Boleyn was another maid of honour; the daughter of the Earl of Surrey (later Duke of Norfolk), Elizabeth was married to Sir Thomas Boleyn of Hever. She was the mother of a son and two daughters, George, Mary and Anne. These ladies formed the immediate household of the Queen. Their charms and talents showed off the Court to advantage and one of their main roles was to entertain the Queen in the performing arts and with conversation, amusing her and enlivening her day.

As the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, Anne (Stafford) Hastings, a noble, young and beautiful matron, formed a part of the King’s immediate circle. She was already engaged in an affair with Sir William Compton (the King’s friend and Groom of the Stole or Stool) when Henry, having been largely kept away from sexual temptation by his father, sought her affections. If the gossip at the time was correct, Anne transferred her affections from Compton to the King.

Things became more complicated, however, when gossip began to spread about Anne Hastings, Sir William Compton and Henry. The banker Francesco Grimaldi related the story to the Spanish Ambassador, Luiz Caroz, who promptly reported it to Catherine’s father, Ferdinand of Aragon. He said that Henry’s ‘butler, Conton’ (Compton) acted as a go-between for the King and his mistress.

Anne Hastings allegedly told her sister Elizabeth about her affair with Compton – and then with Henry. Elizabeth, in turn, told her own husband, Anne’s husband and her brother. Buckingham, not unsurprisingly, saw this as a blow to the honour of the noble Staffords. He was also enraged by the fact that the affair was common knowledge: Luiz Caroz didn’t just keep this gossip for the diplomatic channels; he wrote to the Duke of Almazan in Spain on 28 May 1510, and gave him all the salacious details. His primary source was Grimaldi, whose own informant was Francesca de Carceres, a former lady-in-waiting. Tired of attending a dowager princess who seemed to be doomed to live in poverty for years, and denied a chance to return to Spain and marry, Francesca accepted the hand of the elderly but wealthy Grimaldi. Francesca, despite leaving her mistress, remained in contact with the Court so her news was at least credible.

According to Caroz, Buckingham confronted Compton when he found him with Anne in her room. He is reported to have shouted, ‘Women of the Stafford family are no game for Comptons, no, nor for Tudors neither.’
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On hearing this, Henry summoned the Duke, presumably to reprimand him for making such a public outcry. Buckingham and the King had an angry exchange, and Buckingham left the Palace in a temper, refusing to return for several days.
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The whole affair ended with the disappearance of Anne Hastings from Court, sent by her husband to a convent to reflect on her behaviour.

Henry, in his anger, ordered Catherine to dismiss Elizabeth Stafford from her household, and banished her and her husband, Sir Robert Radcliffe, from Court. Grimaldi reported that the King said that if he had his way, he would banish all gossiping women. The whole affair upset Catherine, and not just because of her husband’s infidelity. Elizabeth Stafford was a close friend and she had been sent away for exposing the King’s affair. In one blow, Catherine had lost a friend, two ladies-in-waiting – and respect for her husband. Henry and Catherine had their first serious fight as a result. She let the King see how angry and hurt she was, making a bad situation worse – Henry could never bear to be told that he was in the wrong.

Buckingham should have been more careful. He had made an enemy in the King, which would later prove to be his undoing. In 1520, Wolsey claimed that he had received an anonymous letter accusing Buckingham of treason. In 1521, after an investigation, he was arrested and sent to the Tower. The charges were quite frivolous; they included the testimony that Buckingham had openly said that he would kill the King. Buckingham was not allowed to question witnesses, and it became obvious that the King wanted a guilty verdict, with the sentence of death. Buckingham’s crime was, in part, that he had a dynastic claim to the throne at a time when the King was still without a legitimate male heir and the fate of Richard III at the hands of a usurper, Henry VII, was still fresh in everybody’s minds. On 17 May 1521, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was executed on Tower Hill.