At the King's Pleasure (Secrets of the Tudor Court) (43 page)

No one knows for certain if Lady Anne Stafford and Sir William Compton were lovers. What is known is that Lady Anne and her husband, George, Lord Hastings, had a long, harmonious marriage. He wrote affectionate letters to her when he was away and named her executor of his will. William Compton also had strong feelings for Lady Anne. In his will, written in 1522, he left money for prayers to be said for her soul, something that was not ordinarily done for anyone outside one’s immediate family. In 1527, Compton was called before the Court of Arches at Cardinal Wolsey’s instigation and made to swear under oath that he had not committed adultery with Lady Anne during his wife’s lifetime.

You can find out what happened to many of the real people who appear in this novel in the “Who Was Who at Court 1509–1521” section that follows this note, but please be aware, if you haven’t already finished reading
At the King’s Pleasure,
that some of the entries contain spoilers. If you are looking for more information on the Tudors, especially Tudor women, I hope you will also visit my website at
www.KateEmersonHistoricals.com
.

Brereton, Werburga, Lady Compton (1487–1522+)

Werburga was the wealthy widow of Sir Francis Cheyney of Shurland when she married William Compton in 1512. As Lady Compton, she was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520. A daughter named Margaret died in infancy on June 15, 1517. A daughter named Catherine died before her proposed marriage to John St. Leger, with a dowry of £,346, could take place. Werburga was pregnant with a son, Peter, when Compton made his will in 1522. He never made a later one. Werburga died before 1527. Her effigy at Compton Wynyates, Warwickshire, was thrown in the moat during the Civil War. When it was retrieved, it was missing the head, shoulders, and praying hands. Her husband’s effigy is missing the hands and lower legs.

Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England (1485–1536)

Catherine of Aragon was sent to England in 1501 to marry Henry VII’s oldest son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, who died soon after their marriage. Catherine spent the next seven years on the fringes of the English court and in near poverty. When Henry VIII succeeded his father, one of his first acts was to marry his brother’s widow. During the early years of Henry’s reign it was a successful and harmonious marriage. When the king left England to make war on France, he
named Catherine as regent. Although she had expert help from the Earl of Surrey and others, she was the one who ordered troops to defend England against the Scottish invasion that ended with the Battle of Flodden Field and she had a hand in negotiating the peace that followed. When she failed to give King Henry a son, he divorced her.

Compton, William (1482–1528)

A royal ward after his father’s death in 1493, he was appointed as an attendant to Henry, Duke of York (later Henry VIII), who was some eight years his junior. When Henry became king, Compton was made groom of the stool. He was the king’s go-between in an attempt to arrange a liaison with Anne Stafford, Lady Hastings, and may or may not have been romantically involved with her himself. He married a rich widow, Werburga Brereton, Lady Cheyney, and used her fortune to rebuild Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire, which still stands today. He was knighted after the Battle of the Spurs in 1513. In March 1522, he made a will leaving Lady Hastings a life interest in property in Leicestershire and founding a chantry where prayers would be said daily for her soul. The latter provision was one usually made only for one’s self and close family members. Records of the Court of Arches (an ecclesiastical court) from 1527 indicate that he was required to take the sacrament to prove he had not committed adultery with Lady Hastings during his wife’s lifetime. He remarried shortly before his death in an epidemic of the sweating sickness (possibly a form of influenza).

Geddings, Margaret (d. 1521+)

Margaret Geddings may have been the daughter of Nicholas Gedding, receiver general to the second Duke of Buckingham. By 1500, she was a waiting woman to Eleanor Percy, Duchess of Buckingham, and mistress of the nursery at Thornbury. In 1520, she was discharged from the
duchess’s service. In November 1520, her name comes up in connection with Charles Knyvett, another member of the duke’s household, and it is possible that one or both of them were involved in a conspiracy that eventually led to the duke’s arrest and execution for treason. The duke received a message from Margaret on January 4, 1521, and by March 26 she was back in his household. At the time of the duke’s execution, Margaret held the lease on some of his lands in Gloucestershire. She was probably Buckingham’s mistress and the mother of his daughter Margaret Stafford.

Gilbert, Robert (d. 1521+)

Robert Gilbert was the third Duke of Buckingham’s chaplain in 1509 and later his chancellor. His testimony helped convict Buckingham of treason.

Hastings, Anne, Countess of Shrewsbury (c. 1471– c. 1512)

This Anne Hastings was Lord Hastings’s aunt, married to George Talbot, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, by whom she had eleven children. Anne was at court as one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies-in-waiting at the beginning of Henry VIII’s reign.

Hastings, Anne, Countess of Derby (c. 1485–1550)

This second Anne Hastings was Lord Hastings’s sister. She had been married to John Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, as a child. In 1507, she remarried. Her second husband was Thomas Stanley, second Earl of Derby. Anne was at the court of Catherine of Aragon as the youngest of her ladies-in-waiting in 1509 and was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520.

Hastings, Lady Anne, Lady Hastings—
see
Stafford, Lady Anne

Hastings, George, Baron Hastings (1486/7–1544)

He married Lady Anne Stafford at court on December 2, 1509, and reportedly took her to a nunnery the following May, on her brother’s orders, when she was caught in a compromising situation with William Compton, the king’s groom of the stool. Whatever the truth of that relationship, George and Anne had numerous children together and appear to have had a harmonious marriage. When George made his will, he named his wife as his executor. In 1529, he was elevated in the peerage to Earl of Huntingdon.

Henry VIII, King of England (1491–1547)

Henry married Catherine of Aragon right before their joint coronation in 1509, but as early as May 1510, a Spanish dispatch reported that he was carrying on with one of the Duke of Buckingham’s sisters. The resulting quarrel with the duke ended with the duke and both his sisters leaving court.

Herbert, Sir Walter (d. 1507)

The identity of Anne Stafford’s first husband is not really clear, but he may have been the second son of an Earl of Pembroke who died in 1469. They wed in 1500 and probably lived in Wales until his death. They had no children.

Hopkins, Nicholas (d. c. 1521)

Nicholas Hopkins was a monk at the Carthusian priory of Hinton, Somersetshire. He was believed to have prophetic powers and predicted that King Henry would have no heirs of his body and that the Duke of Buckingham would one day rule England. He was wrong.

Howard, Lady Elizabeth, Lady Boleyn (1476–1538)

Elizabeth Howard was the daughter of Thomas Howard, second Duke of Norfolk. She married Sir Thomas Boleyn in about 1499 and had by him three famous children, Mary, George, and Anne. She was at court as a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon and was Countess of Wiltshire during her daughter’s time as queen. Her brother, the third Duke of Norfolk (who was married to the Duke of Buckingham’s eldest daughter), became the most powerful nobleman in England and it is generally accepted that he controlled the rest of his family, including his sister’s husband and children. It once was believed that Elizabeth Howard died early in the century and that her children were raised by a stepmother, but documentary evidence has since disproved this.

Hungerford, Mary, Lady Hungerford (c. 1468– before 1533)

Mary Hungerford was
suo jure
fifth Baroness Botreaux, and fourth Baroness Hungerford, and Baroness Moleyns. Described as a “wealthy West Country heiress,” she married Edward, second Baron Hastings, around 1480. They had two children, Anne and George, third baron. On May 1, 1509, Mary wed her second husband, Sir Richard Sacheverell. By 1517, they lived in apartments within the College of St. Mary in the Newark, Leicester, where Lady Hungerford “let her dogs run free in the chapel” and “organized bear-baitings on the grounds.”

Knyvett, Charles (d. before 1528)

Charles Knyvett was a grandson of the first Duke of Buckingham and spent most of his life in the household of the third duke, where his father served as chancellor. Charles held the position of surveyor. He left Buckingham’s service in late 1520 and gave evidence against him to Cardinal Wolsey that was instrumental in Buckingham’s downfall. On July 11, 1521, Charles Knyvett was granted protection for one year “from arrest and imprisonment for any offense whatsoever.” On April 20, 1522, he entered the service of Lord Berners, Lord Deputy of Calais.

Knyvett, Elizabeth (d. 1518)

Elizabeth Knyvett was probably the daughter of William Knyvett, chamberlain of the second Duke of Buckingham’s household, and his first wife. Knyvett left his daughter Elizabeth a marriage portion of £333 when he died in 1515. Elizabeth was definitely a lady-in-waiting to Eleanor Percy, Duchess of Buckingham. She appears on a list of the duke’s servants as early as 1508 and was still there at Easter 1518, when she was paid the twenty pounds due to her on Lady Day. After her death, her possessions were “wrongfully withheld” by the duke. They were inventoried after his execution and included such things as satin and damask kirtles, a black velvet gown lined with yellow satin with gold buttons, a blue velvet gown lined with crimson tinsel, gold chains, a silver basin and ewer, and six silver spoons. These possessions indicate a woman of some wealth.

Neville, Edward (d. 1538)

Edward Neville was one of the king’s boon companions and was said to resemble the king so closely in appearance that he could fill in as his double. He was the younger brother of Baron Bergavenny, one of the Duke of Buckingham’s sons-in-law, and received a gift of a cloth of silver doublet from the duke. He was temporarily banished from court at the time of the duke’s trial for treason.

Percy, Lady Anne, Dowager Lady Hungerford (1443–1522)

Lord Hastings’s grandmother, she was the daughter of Henry Percy, third Earl of Northumberland. Her third husband, to whom she was married by December 1493, was Hugh Vaughan of Littleton, Middlesex, gentleman usher of the king’s chamber. In 1492, Vaughan was at the center of a controversy because more nobly born competitors did not want to joust against someone of his humble origins. Henry VII insisted that he be permitted to enter the tournament, even though he was not knighted until several years later. Under Henry VIII, Vaughan was lieutenant of the Tower and a privy councilor.

Percy, Lady Eleanor, Duchess of Buckingham (1470–1530)

Eleanor or Alianor Percy was the daughter of Henry Percy, fourth Earl of Northumberland, who was murdered when she was a young girl. She was probably brought up in the household of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, along with her future husband, Edward Stafford, third duke of Buckingham. They married on December 14, 1490. She was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520 as the ranking peeress but the very next year her husband was attainted for treason and his titles and lands were forfeit to the Crown. She kept her jointure lands, which gave her an income of two thousand marks a year. Eleanor’s second husband was John Audley of Hodnill, Warwickshire. Her will, written on June 24, 1528, requested that her heart be buried in the Church of the Grey Friars in London and her body in the Church of the White Friars in Bristol, “if I shall happen to decease in those parts.”

Sacheverell, Richard (d. 1534)

Lord Hastings’s stepfather, he was knighted after the Battle of the Spurs and made many of the travel arrangements for the Field of Cloth of Gold. His letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury provides many details of the meeting between Cardinal Wolsey and the Duke of Buckingham to discuss potential brides for Buckingham’s son.

Stafford, Lady Anne, Lady Hastings (c. 1483–1544+)

Lady Anne Stafford was the daughter of Henry Stafford, second Duke of Buckingham. Her mother was Katherine Woodville, sister of Edward IV’s queen. Lady Anne married Sir Walter Herbert on February 15, 1500, and, after his death, although she had jointure properties worth three hundred marks a year, lived in the household of her brother, Edward, third Duke of Buckingham, at Thornbury Castle, Penshurst Place, Bletchingly, and the Manor of the Rose, London. She wed for the second time on December 2, 1509, taking as her husband George, third Baron Hastings. Lady Hastings was at court as one of Queen Catherine
of Aragon’s ladies. In May 1510, she was at the center of a scandal. Her own sister, Lady Fitzwalter, informed their brother that Anne’s behavior was bringing shame on the Stafford family. Buckingham subsequently caught William Compton in Anne’s chamber. After a heated exchange during which Buckingham is reported to have told the pair that “women of the Stafford family are no game for Comptons, no, nor for Tudors, either,” the duke saw to it that Anne’s husband spirited his wife away from court, initially transporting her to a convent some sixty miles distant. Speculation ran high that Compton had been soliciting Anne’s favors on behalf of King Henry VIII, and that Anne was already the king’s mistress, but whatever the truth of that relationship, William Compton was the one who developed a lifelong attachment to Lady Hastings. In spite of the scandal and Compton’s continued interest in her, Anne seems to have had a strong and loving relationship with her husband, as evidenced by letters he later wrote to her. They lived primarily at Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, and at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, but both participated in court revels in the spring of 1515 and were present at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520. From the late 1530s, Anne was part of the household of Henry VIII’s daughter, Mary Tudor. Anne and George had eight children—Mary, Henry, Francis, Thomas, Catherine, William, Dorothy, and Edward—but their dates and order of birth are unclear.