The Boleyn Women: The Tudor Femmes Fatales Who Changed English History (9 page)

Elizabeth, like all female members of her class, was raised for marriage. While her oldest half-brother, Lord Berners, had been married to her aunt to secure his inheritance for the Howards, Surrey cast his net further when arranging marriages for his two stepdaughters, with Margaret Bourchier marrying John Sandys of the Vyne in Hampshire as a child in 1478: a solid, but unspectacular match.
⁴²
This match proved to be short-lived with Margaret, who would later become the lady governess to her own great-niece, Princess Elizabeth, later marrying Sir Thomas Bryan. Elizabeth’s other elder half-sister, Anne Bourchier, married Thomas Fiennes, Lord Dacre, while Surrey was able to provide an heiress for his second son, Edward, with his marriage in around 1500 to Elizabeth, daughter of Miles Stapleton.

It has been suggested that Elizabeth, as the eldest Howard daughter, had been intended for Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex, following the grant of his wardship to her grandfather by Richard III.
⁴³
This is certainly possible and it was common for the guardian of a ward, who also possessed the rights to their young charge’s marriage, to arrange a match with a member of their own family. If Elizabeth was engaged to Essex, however, this came to nothing after Bosworth and her father was instead left to negotiate a new match for her at some point after his release from the Tower in 1489. Given the fact that Surrey’s lands lay predominantly in East Anglia, it is no surprise that he came to look at Thomas Boleyn, whose father he knew. As one commentator has pointed out, ‘from Surrey’s point of view the connection was also highly advantageous, for not only was Sir William very active in local government in Norfolk, but he brought several other powerful Norfolk families closer to the Howards, such as the Sheltons, Heydons and Cleres’.
⁴⁴
Elizabeth’s father was still only Earl of Surrey rather than Duke of Norfolk and coupled with his very recent release from imprisonment, the match was not particularly unequal, especially given the wealth of the Boleyn family. The marriage occurred in the last years of the fifteenth century and certainly before 1499 when Surrey acquired the wardship of John Grey, Viscount Lisle, who was a significantly higher-status individual and to whom he chose to marry his second (and presumably only unmarried) daughter, Muriel. This marriage proved to be short-lived, with Lisle dying in 1504, leaving an infant daughter, Elizabeth. Muriel herself quickly remarried, taking Thomas Knyvet as her second husband.

The surviving evidence suggests that Elizabeth Howard was an attractive woman. She was certainly highly praised by the poet John Skelton, who knew Elizabeth and the female members of her family personally. In his early career, Skelton has been described as a protégé of Elizabeth’s mother, the Countess of Surrey, who took a personal interest in his work.
⁴⁵
The Garland of Laurel
,
which has been described as Skelton’s most biographical poem, was published in October 1523, but set at Sheriff Hutton Castle when Elizabeth’s family were present there at some point between 1489 and 1499. Astronomical references in the poem itself suggest a date of 8 May 1495, something which is possible given the fact that Elizabeth’s parents are both known to have been in the North at this time. However, it is clear that the poem, which refers to the countess and her ten ladies weaving a crown of laurel for him to wear, does not relate to any one date or event as not all the ladies referenced can have been in attendance at the time. Instead, it appears that Skelton was familiar with the ladies of the countess’s household and that his work was the result of a number of visits and meetings with ladies, including Elizabeth Howard herself before her marriage. Notwithstanding the fact that not all the ladies can be assembled at the same time, a date of the 1490s would suit Elizabeth very well, when she was then a young woman and still the maiden described by Skelton.
⁴⁶

In his work, Skelton provides a picture of domestic contentment, with the Countess of Surrey surrounded by female members of her family. As well as Elizabeth and her younger sister, Muriel, the countess was also attended by her elder daughter, Lady Anne Dacre of the South, who was a child of her first marriage. In addition to her daughters, the countess’s niece, Margery Wentworth, who would later become the mother of Henry VIII’s third wife, Jane Seymour, was present. Other kinswomen included Margaret Tylney, whose sister-in-law later became Elizabeth Howard Boleyn’s stepmother, suggesting close family links. The other ladies also had family connections. The poet suggests a happy family circle at Sheriff Hutton while Elizabeth and her siblings were growing up and before the death of her mother in 1497, her own marriage towards the end of the century and the marriage of her sister, Muriel, in 1500.
⁴⁷
Given that he wanted to honour his patroness in his work, it is no surprise that Skelton was flattering in his depictions of the countess and her attendants. In spite of this, his description of Elizabeth is likely to have been largely accurate, if allowances are made for a certain amount of flattery. There is also no indication in the work that it had been substantially rewritten before publication, particularly as the Howards were by 1523 even more politically prominent.

For Skelton, in
The Garland of Laurel
,
Elizabeth’s mother was of ‘noble estate’, chaste and bountiful and ‘of gentle courage and perfect memory’.
⁴⁸
His more fulsome praise was however left for some of the younger ladies, including Elizabeth herself, who was described as:

To be your remembrance, madam, I am bound,
Like to Irene, maidenly of port,
Of virtue and conning the well and perfect ground;
Whom Dame Nature, as well I may report,
Hath freshly embeautied with many a goodly sort
Of womanly features, whose flourishing tender age
Is lusty to look on, pleasant, demure and sage.

Good Criseyde, fairer than Polexene,
For to enliven Pandarus’ appetite;
Troilus, I trow, if that he had you seen,
In you he would have set his whole delight:
Of all your beauty I suffice not to write!
But, as I said, your flourishing tender age
Is lusty to look on, pleasant, demure, and sage.
⁴⁹

For Skelton, Elizabeth was one of the most attractive of the ladies described, with only her half-sister, Anne Dacre, coming close, being described as a beauty and ‘princess of youth, and flower of goodly port’. Skelton took pains to describe each of the ladies’ virtues as he saw them, with Margery Wentworth, for example, praised for her gentleness and Gertrude Statham, who rejected Skelton’s advances, grudgingly praised for her chaste virtue. For Elizabeth, her chief virtue described was her beauty, strongly suggesting that she was indeed a striking woman. This was evidently a family trait, with Skelton also referring to Elizabeth’s sister, who was then still a child and called ‘my little lady’ in the poem, as a child within whom:

The embedded blossoms of roses red of hue,
With lilies white your beauty doth renew.
⁵⁰

The evidence strongly suggests that Elizabeth Howard was considered to be a contemporary beauty, which praised fair hair, pale skin and blue eyes. A surviving portrait which is commonly attributed to Elizabeth’s daughter, Mary Boleyn, suggests this colouring and she may have taken after her mother. The second daughter, Anne Boleyn, on the other hand, was famously dark, although this recalls the surviving portrait of her father, Thomas Boleyn.

Other than Skelton’s depiction of her in his poem, little evidence survives of Elizabeth’s character. Like her husband, she was a courtier, being considered an expert on court protocol in later life. For example, in 1537 Lady Lisle, who was the wife of Edward IV’s illegitimate son, Arthur Plantagenet, Lord Lisle, became troubled by the correct status of her stepdaughter, Frances Plantagenet, due to the illegitimate birth of her father. In a letter to Lady Lisle in Calais from her agent at court, John Husee, she was reassured that

this shall be signifying the same that ij days since I moved my Lady Rutland again concerning Mrs Frances, and her ladyship standeth in doubt of that matter. But madam, I have been in hand with the Heralds of Arms, and they saith plainly that the woman shall never lose no part of her degree, but shall always be taken as her father’s daughter. And if need be, to this I can have both their seals and hands, which is sufficient, for they hath the perfect knowledge.
⁵¹

This assurance was not enough for the cautious Lady Lisle, and only six days later Husee again wrote to her on the matter:

And touching Mrs Frances, the heralds saith planly that she shall lose no degree, but use the same according the dignity of her father. Howbeit, if I might speak with my Lady Wiltshire [Elizabeth], I will not fail to have her advice in it.
⁵²

Sadly Elizabeth’s response does not survive, although it is clear that she was considered something of an authority on the matter, presumably due both to knowledge gained due to her long years at court and, perhaps, due to her known pride in her own status as a daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, rather than as the wife of Sir Thomas Boleyn. Elizabeth was friendly with Lady Lisle, perhaps due to the fact that her sister, Muriel, had been married to John Grey, who was the brother of Lord Lisle’s previous wife. In April 1536, when her daughter was still Queen of England, Lady Lisle received a letter from a Thomas Warley which provides one of the only first-hand accounts of Elizabeth, in which he stated from court that

also, this day my lady the Countess of Wiltshire [Elizabeth] asked me when I heard from your ladyship, and how you fared, and heartily thanks your ladyship for the hosen; and said you could not have devised to send her a thing that might be to her a greater pleasure than they were considering how she was then diseased; and further desired me that I would not depart over to Calais until I should speak with her, which, God willing, I will not fail. And I ensure your ladyship she is sore diseased with the cough, which grieves her sore.
⁵³

Given that Elizabeth died just under two years later it seems not impossible that her cough represented the early stages of tuberculosis which was all too common in the Tudor period. In this brief anecdote she appears friendly and approachable, recalling fondly the gift that her friend had sent her, something which shows her character in a favourable light.

The date of Elizabeth’s marriage to Thomas Boleyn is not recorded. It has been estimated to have been as early as 1495 and it was certainly by 1499, given her father’s acquisition of the wardship of John Grey, who was instead assigned as a husband to her younger sister.
⁵⁴
Elizabeth’s dower, which was settled upon her by her father-in-law in July 1501, survives, in which she was given a life interest in Boleyn lands in Sussex and Norfolk, as well as a life interest after William Boleyn’s death in Hever and other manors in Kent.
⁵⁵
While these documents do prove that Elizabeth was married by July 1501, they do not provide the date of the marriage, particularly as it was frequently a term of contemporary marriage agreements that a financial settlement would only be made to the bride within a specified period following the birth of a first child. Thomas had joined the court by around 1500, something which may well have been motivated by poverty since he later lamented that, at the time of his marriage, he had had only £50 per year to live on, in spite of Elizabeth’s fecundity, something which also suggests that he and Elizabeth lived as man and wife for some years before she received her financial settlement from his father.
⁵⁶

Thomas was known to be a proficient jouster, which brought him to the attention of the future King Henry VIII. Certainly, he was knighted at the young king’s Coronation in 1509 and took part in court ceremonials during the early years of the reign. He has been described as a courtier and this description is apt. Elizabeth and Thomas spent much time at court during the years of their marriage, although the couple were frequently apart, with Thomas serving as ambassador abroad during Henry VIII’s reign. For example, in May 1512 he was sent as English ambassador to Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, an appointment which lasted nearly a year.
⁵⁷
Thomas could be very charming and became a particular favourite of the regent’s, with her making a friendly wager with him, on which they shook hands, over the likely outcome of the negotiations.
⁵⁸
As a reward for his services, Thomas and Elizabeth jointly received the royal grant of a Norfolk manor in September 1512 while Thomas was still in Brussels.
⁵⁹

Even after his return to England, he did not remain in the country for long, joining the king’s army in France in the summer of 1513 with a retinue of 100 men under his command.
⁶⁰
Before Henry VIII’s accession, Thomas Boleyn, his father-in-law, Surrey, Elizabeth’s three brothers and her brother-in-law, Thomas Knyvet, were often at court. Elizabeth’s eldest brother, Thomas Howard, and his wife, Anne of York, buried their four young children in Lambeth during the last years of Henry VII’s reign, suggesting that they spent much time at the Howards’ London residence in the parish, while Muriel and Knyvet are also known to have spent time there. Given that Elizabeth later chose to be buried at Lambeth, it is likely that she and Thomas Boleyn also stayed at the residence for long periods when they were in London, a location that would have given them very easy access to the court.
⁶¹
Thomas Boleyn was a regular participant in court tournaments during the early years of the reign.
⁶²
In addition to this, he and Elizabeth were in high enough favour with the king to receive a visit by him to their residence at Newhall in Essex in 1515, with the property apparently so impressive that the king later acquired it for himself. Thomas had already been appointed as an Esquire of the Body by 1509 and he had become a Knight of the Body by 1515. His court career progressed steadily, with his appointment as Comptroller of the Royal Household in 1520 and Treasurer of the Household in 1521.