Elizabeth Blount and Henry the Eighth, with some account of her surroundings
Childe-Pemberton, William Shakespear, 1859-1924
i Jn^ssESs^ Kia^s^^sS! '^<f^ C^oruell Hmucraitg SItbrarg BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 3 1924 027 961 998 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027961998 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY THE EIGHTH ^:^^^^p^ Mi^ '^ ^^^-y"-^-^—- ^.-w..?^.,^^^^^ ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY THE EIGHTH WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF HER SURROUNDINGS BY WILLIAM S. CHILDE - PEMBERTON AUTHOB OF "THE EOMANCE OP PEINCESS AMElLIA" "THE LIFE OF LOBD NOKTON" ETC EVELEIGH NASH LONDON MCMXIII piAc^boQ; boqS PRINTED AT T«E BALLANTYNE PRESS LONDON PREFACE In the memoir of Elizabeth Bloimt now pre- sented, the background has been sketched in with such accessories as seemed suitable to assist the picture, but this has not been done without careful attention to chronology, and to facts capable of proof. A pamphlet purporting to be the " History of the beautiful Elizabeth Blount " (by Mark Noble, Historian of the College of Arms) is the only memoir which has hitherto appeared on this theme. Written in 1803, long before the State Papers were catalogued or accessible to the public, it is full of flights of fancy founded on chronological errors, and would perhaps have passed unheeded, had it not been published in recent years without correction or comment. As a descendant of Elizabeth Blount's father. Sir John Blount of Kinlet (which property the Childes eventually inherited) the compiler of this essay has had special opportunities of tracing the antecedents and surroundings of Elizabeth Blount 5 PREFACE from private sources, and has been led to collect together and arrange all such clues and facts with regard to her as are now accessible to the public in the State Papers. His thanks in this respect are especially due to Mr. R. H. Brodie, of the Record Office. The story of Elizabeth Blount's son, Henry FitzRoy, will be well known to readers of John Gough Nichol's standard memoir written in 1855. His information was drawn from the Public Records. Some additional facts have come to hand in more recent years. William S. Childe-Pemberton. 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER I Introductory Remarks Her renowned beauty : Her position : No known portrait : A mysterious personality : A little effigy : Her parents' tomb : Her ancestral home : The " mistress-piece of her time " : Her story misrepresented : A very young lady-in-waiting pp. 17-24 CHAPTER II Birth : Parentage Date of Elizabeth's birth : Parentage : Parents' marriage in infancy : An heiress mother : Elizabeth's maternal grandfather : Ballad of Bosworth Field : Boy and girl parents : Maternal ancestors : The Stanleys of EUord : Paternal ancestors : The Kinlet inheritance : The origin of the Cornwalls : Early history of Kinlet : Saxon and Norman possessors : Fifteen-century knighthood : Small number of peers : Tudor changes : The royal household : Kinlet Church : A marriage procession in 1491 : Marriage settlement of Elizabeth's parents pp. 25-38 CHAPTER III 1500-1502 Elizabeth's babyhood : Ludlow Castle : Katherine of Arra- gon : Arthur of Wales : Royal residence at Tickenhall : Bewdley, its beautiful site : The Blounts' neighbour- hood : Elizabeth's grandfather and grandmother : Grandmother's father, Sir Richard Croft : Steward of 7 CONTENTS the royal household : Lady Croft governess to the Princes : Elizabeth's kinship to the Tudors : Prince of Wales's court : His death : His f imeral cortege : Princess leaves Ludlow : Character of Elizabeth's mother pp. 39-49 CHAPTER IV 1512-1513 Elizabeth at Court : William Blount : Lord Mountjoy : The patron of Erasmus : Elizabeth a mere child : Her " wages " : Her young father " King's Spear " : Her grandfather's career : Her great-grandmother living : Queen Katherine : Her prosperity : Her Regency : Her busy maidens : The fall of Tournay : Elizabeth's rela- tives there : The King's return : An unwarranted statement : Elizabeth's education at Court pp. 50-58 CHAPTER V 1514 Another Elizabeth : " Mistress Blount and Mistress Carew " : A "yong wyff" : The Duke of Suffolk's message : Theories and counter-theories : A curious " receipt " : Some suspicions discussed pp. 59-65 CHAPTER VI 1514 {continued) A Christmas mummery : The King's grace : Nicholas Carew ; The Boleyn relatives : List of performers : The dresses ; Erasmus's eulogies of Henry : "A pure and modest court " : Henry's devotion to religion : A temple of the muses : Elizabeth's culture pp. 66-74 CHAPTER VII Early Tudor manners : Erasmus's description : " Freedom and simplicity " : Kissing customary pp. 75-76 8 CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII 1515-1517 May Day sports : May dew : The Queen's handsome damsels : A ride in the woods : Hall's description : A sylvan banquet : Robin Hood : The return home : The Court ladies' sports and songs : Ordinary amusements : Out- break of the Sweating Sickness : Memo's music : The King's passion for music : His rare talent : His com- positions : Elizabeth's singing : She grows to perfect womanhood pp. 77-85 CHAPTER IX 1518 Her last year as Maid-in- Waiting : Position of her family : Her father Esquire of the Body : Her great-uncle Vice- Chamberlain to Queen Katherine : " The chains of love " : The King's passion : Cardinal Wolsey : The French " Espousals " : Wolsey's entertainment : List of masqueraders : Elizabeth's partner : Final revelry , pp. 86-104 CHAPTER X 1518-1519 Queen Katherine's disappointment : Mistress Blount's situa- tion : Henry's want of a male heir : King Francis jeers : Henry's morals contrasted : The changed tone of the Court : The King's companions : Suffolk, Compton, Carew, Bryan : French fashions : Some banishments : " Sad and ancient Knights " substituted : Bryan's character : His poetic gifts : His dissoluteness pp. 105-113 CHAPTER XI 1519-1522 Elizabeth retires to an Augustinian Priory : Birth of Henry FitzRoy : Cardinal Wolsey his godfather : Wolsey's apparent interest in the mother : Her seclusion : Wolsey's motives discussed : Mysterious allusions : Accused of " encouraging young gentlewomen " : Matrimonial 9 CONTENTS alliances for Elizabeth : She marries Gilbert Tailbois : His ancestry : His father a lunatic : His mother : Act of Parliament passed : Handsome provision : She settles in Lincolnshire pp. 114-128 CHAPTER XII 1525 Henry FitzRoy : Like both his parents : The King's love for him : Brought up " as a prince's child " : Aged six in 1625 : Wolsey writes about him : Arms granted to the Lord Henry FitzRoy : Elected Knight of the Garter : Created Earl of Nottingham, Duke of Richmond, and Duke of Somerset : Description of the ceremonies pp. 129-139 CHAPTER XIII 1525 (continued) Richmond made " Lord High Admiral " : " Warden-General of the Marches towards Scotland " : Takes leave of the King : Wolsey's present for his journey : Visits Lady Parr : Presents of fish : Of wild fowl : From Huntingdon to CoUiweston : Shoots a buck : Rides right merrily : From CoUiweston to York : Arrives at Sheriff-Hutton : His magnificent establishment : Contrasted with Prin- cess Mary's : The Queen displeased : Her Spanish ladies murmur : The King dismisses them pp. 140-146 CHAPTER XIV 1525-1526 Nichols's memoir of Henry FitzRoy reviewed : Elizabeth in touch with her son : Her brothers at his court : She corresponds with his tutor : A remarkable child : His accomphshments : His musical parents : His Councillor's letter : Pontefract his winter residence : A letter from the infant Duke pp. 147-isi CHAPTER XV 1526 Letters from James V and Queen Margaret : A request for hounds : Ten couple sent : Queen Margaret's " natural affection " pp. 152-155 10 CONTENTS CHAPTER XVI 1525, 1526-1527 Matrimonial alliances contemplated : The ruses of diplo- macy : Projected " King of Ireland " : The Emperor indignant : FitzRoy's first tutor, Palsgrave : His methods of education : A picture-painter requisite : The child's Latin pronunciation : His marvellous pre- cocity : The pedagogue's complaints : His letters to the child's mother : He importunes Lady Tailbois : Her influence with bishops and abbots : Palsgrave leaves the Duke of Richmond : His poverty : He turns against Lady Tailbois : His mean disparagement of her pp. 156-170 CHAPTER XVII 1527-1528 Palsgrave's successor : Dr. Croke : Hostility of clerk and layman : Latin letters : The Prince educated with other boys : His young uncles : " Whipping boys " : A well- devised " policie " : An infant prodigy of learning : Croke's complaints : The Cotton brothers : Accused of inciting to idleness : Extravagance of household : Sir William Parr : Richmond's good qualities pp. 171-181 CHAPTER XIVII 1529-1530 Another scene of squabbles : The Tailbois family : Wolsey's omniscience : Old Lady Talbois's complaints : The Cardinal's intervention : Young Tailbois made Lord Talbois of Kyme : The " first Parliament of the Refor- mation " : Lord Tailbois dies : The inscription on his monument : Cardinal Wolsey's fall : His journey north : Dies pp. 182-189 CHAPTER XIX 1524-1531 Elizabeth's grandfather, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, dies : His will : Her father's troubles : Feud with Sir William Compton : Their retainers fight : Cromwell supports Sir John Blount : Compton dies of the sweating sick- 11 CONTENTS ness : Sir John Blount of Kinlet dies : Dame Katherine, his widow : Their son George a minor : Monument in Kinlet Church pp. 190-196 CHAPTER XX 1532-1533 The widowed Elizabeth : Resides at Kyme : Her surround- ings and hospitality : Her younger sisters : Their hus- bands : Lady Tailbois' servant at Court : Her New Year's gifts : " The mother of the Duke of Richmond " : He leaves Yorkshire : Made Lieutenant of Ireland : Never sets foot there : The King preoccupied with Anne Boleyn : Some current gossip : Monsieur de Heyl- wigen and John Barlow : A conversation : Lady Tailbois and Anne Boleyn compared : The former " eloquent, gracious, beautiful " pp. 197-203 CHAPTER XXI 1532-1534 Elizabeth's suitor : A cousin of the King : A hunting excur- sion : Lord Leonard Grey's eager proposals : Cromwell intercedes with Lady Tailbois : She declines : Lord Leonard's love of money : His sordid conduct : His end : Elizabeth's young suitor : His good looks : Association of rivals : Elizabeth maries Lord Clinton : Disparity of years : A grant from the King pp. 204-210 CHAPTER XXII 1533-1536 The young Duke's marriage : The Duke of Norfolk's in- trigues : The Earl of Surrey's friendship with Richmond : His poem quoted : Decline of Richmond's health : His undermined strength : Anne Boleyn suspected of poisoning him : He is present at her execution : Symp- toms of consumption develop : His death : Satisfaction of Princess Mary's party : His funeral and monument : " A natural son of supernatural endowment " pp. 211-223 12 CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIII 1536 Lord and Lady Clinton in Lincolnshire : A dangerous situa- tion : The " Pilgrimage of Grace " : An enraged multi- tude : Kyme surrounded by the people : Lord Clinton gives warning of the outbreak : His men join the rebels : He proceeds to headquarters : Bearer of the King's letter : His journeys : Returns home : The rising col- lapses : Ring-leaders executed : Elizabeth's guest executed : Grants to Elizabeth and her son Tailbois : An honest priest : The Act for Suppression of Monas- teries : Ill-fortune said to have attended : But Clinton most fortunate pp. 224-281 CHAPTER XXIV 1536-1539 Elizabeth's mother, Dame Katherine Blount : A series of her letters to Cromwell : He supports her interests : She schemes for her sons : Her eldest son's marriage : Bargains with Sir John Talbot : Asks Church lands for her youngCT sons ; Lord Stafford asks for an abbey in preference to George Blount : " The Worshipful of the Shire " : The plague at Shrewsbury : Electioneering dodges : Local quarrels of gentry : Cromwell's fall and execution : Death of Dame Katherine Blount pp. 282-240 CHAPTER XXV 1540 End of Elizabeth's life : Anne of Cleves arrives : Elizabeth among the " great ladies " : A list of these : The appear- ance of Anne's maidens : Some account of the " great ladies " : Mary of Richmond's cowardice : Lady William Howard : Her connexion with Katherine Howard : Elizabeth dead : Lord Clinton's second wife pp. Frontispiece Photogravure from the print by B, Clamp in 1194: from the original miniature then in Horace WcHpole's collection. At the Strauiberry HiU sale in 1842, the miniature was sold for £7 178. 6(2. to the name of Jarman. Some doubt was then thrown upon its genuineness. But it is now authorita- tively stated to be a true portrait, and is in the King's collection at Windsor. 2. MoirtmENT m Kinlet Chitbch to Sir John Bloxtnt of KiNXBT AND Same KATHEBms his Wife, pabents of Elizabeth BLOimT. {In the background is seen the monument to her brother, Sir George Blount) Photograph taken in 1856 by the late Miss Anna-Maria ChUde, second daughter of the late William Lacon CTiMde, Esquire, of KirUet, The monument is now placed in the Chancel 20 3. Kinlet Chubch From an engraving in 1860 36 4. Cabdinal Wolsby From the original in the National Portrait Gallery, repro- duced by permission 90 6. Kathebine of Abbagon, pibst Queen of Hbney VIII From the original on panel in the possession of O. Gery Milner-Gibson-Cullum, Esquire, of Hardwick House, Bury St. Edmunds 106 15 ILLUSTRATIONS Facing 6, Henbt VIII poQ' From the original glass medallion in the British Museum 130 7, Window m the Nobth Tbansbpt of Kjnlet Church Photograph taken in 1859 by the late Miss Anna-Maria Childe " 196 8. Edward, Lord Cltnton (afterwards first Earl of Lincoln, K.G.). Bom 1512; died 1584-5 from, Bartolozzi's engraving of Holbein's drawing, the original being in the King's collection at Windsor 210 9. Sib Gbobqb Blount of Kinxbt, M.P. fob Shbofshirb From the original at Kinlet Hall, with armorial bearings atvd date, 1548. Photograph taken by the late Miss Anna- Maria Childe 238 iO. Monument to Sib Gboboe Blount of Kdtlbt and Dame Constance (Talbot) his Wife, est Kinlet Church 256 THE COATS OF ARMS OUTLINED ON THE BINDING REPRESENT : In the centre those of Elizabeth Blount, namely, those borne by the Blounts of Kinlet, who, by quartering the arms^of the Comwalls of Kinlet, distinguished their branch from the senior line of the Blounts of Sodington. The arms on the left represent those of her first husband, Lord Tailbois, and the arms on the right those of her second husband, Lord Clinton. 16 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Her renowned beauty : Her position : No known portrait : A myBterious personality : A little effigy : Her parents' tomb : Her ancestral home : The " mistress-piece of her time " : Her story misrepresented ; A very young lady-in-waiting. It is strange that no portrait has been handed down to us of one of the most beautiful women of her day. Among the numerous drawings by Holbein portraying the ladies of the Court of Henry VIII, none bears the name of her who was, or had been, its chief ornament. Is it possible that among the many erroneously named portraits in this superb series the face of Eliza- beth Blount looks out upon us unsuspected ? Although at the time when Holbein was employed on this work the first bloom of EHzabeth Blount's youth had passed, and with it her intimate relations with the King, she nevertheless retained her beauty, and continued to fascinate the hearts of men. Moreover by two marriages, progressively distinguished, she B 17 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII had with riper years attained an accession of dignity at Court, in addition to possessing, in the eyes of statesmen and courtiers alike, a defined status as the "Mother of the King's son." Having regard then to her prominent position, how comes it that no portrait of this lady, whether as Lady Tailbois or as Lady Clinton, adorns any collection, and that if any portrait of her anywhere exists it is unknown or forgotten ? Her personal appearance, indeed, remains one of many mysteries attaching to her — ^veiling, while they enhance the interest in, this figure which flits, like some brilliant and elusive butterfly, across the history of her time. All that we gather of Elizabeth's appearance is that she was a perfect specimen of the blonde type — so much in fashion at that epoch — ^her race retaining in successive generations the fair hair and complexion from which it had derived its surname in Normandy before the Conquest.^ There only remains to represent the subject of these pages a little effigy, obscure and un- heeded, in the village church where her ancestors lie entombed — ^the church where, as a child, she knelt and made confession, in the days before she • A portrait at Elinlet Hall represents her brother, Sir George Blount of Kinlet, with fair hair and beard, ruddy complexion and blue eyes. 18 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII had lost her innocence — when as yet the brilliant pageants in which she was destined to become the cynosiu-e had not entered into her dreams. In Kinlet Church, Shropshire, stands the stately alabaster monument to Sir John Blount of Kinlet and Dame Katherine his wife, father and mother of Elizabeth. The student of sepulchral deco- ration may find in this tomb of the time of Henry VIII as fine a specimen as any in England of the earliest and purest period of Renaissance design, before the old Gothic influence was wholly lost. He may contrast with it, on the one hand, the adjacent monument (believed to be) to Sir John's grandfather. Sir Humphrey Blount, of a date some fifty years earlier, when the dignity of Gothic decoration was as yet un- affected by Italian taste. He may find yet another contrast, on the other hand, in the florid and exuberant magnificence of the Eliza- bethan monument to Sir John's son. Sir George Blount — of a date fifty years later — a sumptuous illustration of later Renaissance, when it was beginning to run riot in a wealth of decoration.^ We are, however, only concerned with Sir 1 A high authority, however, the Rev. D. Cranage, of King's College, Cambridge, writes of Sir George Blount's tomb that " without exaggera- tion it may be described as one of the finest EHzabethan monuments in England." Churches of Shrophire, p. 320. 19 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII John Blount's tomb, for among the eleven children sculptured in miniature around the base of the life-sized recumbent effigies of their parents, is the representation of Elizabeth, the second child. Such representations, although executed in the lifetime of the subjects them- selves, were not intended as portraits, yet in this instance the marble bas-relief of the children has been chiselled with a grace and spirit unusual in the workmanship of the ordinary sculptor of family monuments, and the figure of Elizabeth may be distinguished by its situation as the second in the row of six daughters^-all wearing the " pedimental " head-dress and the robes which Holbein has made so familiar. Only a few years ago the respective names of the children were distinctly visible on the scrolls above each figure, and traces of pale colouring were not wholly effaced. Thus she who four hundred years ago left her family when she was but a child, to enter a Court the splendours and the perils of which have perhaps never been surpassed^ is commemorated throughout the ages among the peaceful surroundings of her paternal home. The fact that the very young and very beauti- ful Elizabeth Blount became the mother of a King's son may not entitle her to the regard 20 MONCMEXT I\ KINLET CHUECH TO SIR JOHN BLOINT OF KINLET AMI DAME KATHEHINE HIS WIFE (PARENTS OF ELIZABETH BLOINT) For inscription on monument see Appendix (la the bacljgrouud is seen tlie monument to Sir George Blount) ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII of posterity, but it can fairly be claimed that she who, in the quaint words of Lord Herbert of Chirbury, " was thought for her rare ornaments of nature and education to be the mistress-piece of her time," is not undeserving the notice of those whose pleasure it is to turn to some picturesque, if Uttle known, page of history, and to trace the life-stories of our ancestors illumined by such sidelights — vivid, though rare and in- termittent — as are cast by State papers and private records. Moreover, the touch of romance is not wanting in her story. Even on Henry's side, if Henry was capable of romance, surely it may have been in this early love-affair, for his State-arranged marriage with his sister-in- law when he was a boy of nineteen had been wholly devoid of it ; while to the girl Elizabeth, her superb and superlatively handsome King- lover must have appeared in the light of a young god. It may here be pointed out that the true case of Elizabeth has repeatedly suffered from mis- statement — ^rather unfairly and quite unneces- sarily, owing to the confusion of genealogists and the carelessness of historians. Some writers have erroneously assumed her to be the faithless wife of Lord Tailbois, when in fact she did not 21 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII marry him till four years after her adventure with the King. Other writers have made the still stranger mistake of asserting that it was as the wanton widow of Lord Tailbois that Elizabeth attracted Henry's notice, when in fact Lord Tailbois did not die till twelve years later. How different, in sooth, and how dangerous might have been her situation had her intimacy with Henry been so many years later than it was ! Well may she have congratulated herself in after life that fate had brought her royal lover to her in his youth, and not in his gross and merciless middle-age. Henry at the latter period, alienated from Katherine and broken loose from all restraints and scruples, and from fears of Papal dis- pleasure, was situated very differently from where he had been in 1518 — ^the date of his intrigue with Elizabeth Blount ^ — ^when as yet he had no thought of ridding himself of his good Queen, or of flying in the face of Holy Church. But had he then been untrammelled and emancipated he might as easily have raised to the perilous throne the Queen's maid-in-waiting, EUzabeth Blount, as he did later Anne Boleyn or Jane Seymour. Ehzabeth Blount would then have provided the legitimate male heir to the throne ' Henry PitzRoy was bom the following year. 22 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII so much desired, and Anne Boleyn would not have perished on the block. Even as things turned out, Henry at one time determined to make Elizabeth's son, Henry FitzRoy, heir to the Crown, and truly, on the score of the boy's illegitimacy, no serious obstacle could be raised when Katherine of Arragon's daughter was declared by Parliament a bastard, and Anne Boleyn's daughter was looked upon by every Court in Europe as the daughter of " the con- cubine." How vast then is the field for specula- tion raised by a mere discrepancy of date ! Yet we have only to turn to the old Chronicler Hall ^ to leam that the King was in his " fresh youth," and Elizabeth Blount was a " fair damosel." The biographer 2 of her son, Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, following Hall's account, is among the few who have pointed out that the Duke's mother was young and unmarried at the time when she succumbed to the King's seduction, but he seems to have been unaware of her position at Court and unable to account for it otherwise than as that of a King's mistress. Elizabeth Blount, how- ever, cannot fairly be classed with the pro- fessional sultanas of the later Stuarts or the > Hall's Chronioles, 1548. A. A. A. iii. b. ■ John Gough Nichols (1866). 28 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII first two Georges, at whose Courts the mistress was as necessary and recognised an appendage as the State officials. Among more recent writers. Brewer, in a passing reference to Eliza- beth, indicates her true status, ^ and Froude pays her the compliment of calling her an " accomphshed and most interesting " person. But all overlook the fact that her family in its antecedents had for long been intimately asso- ciated with the entourage of the Sovereign, and that her own position at the Court originated in this connexion. She was in fact one of the very young ladies in attendance on Queen Katherine (of Arragon) — a mere child when she is first found in the circle of the Court in 1512 — and for many years there was no cause to asso- ciate scandal with her name. The young King, it is generally admitted, was at this time a model of domestic habits, and during the early years of his married life — despite some tittle-tattlei about him and Lady FitzWalter, the Duke of Buckingham's sister ^ — his affections did not stray from his wife. » Brewer, Introduction to Letters and Papers ; and Reign of Henry VIII, vol. ii. p. 104. " Letter of Caroz, May 29, 1510. Spanish State Papers. 24, CHAPTER II BIRTH : PARENTAGE Date of Elizabeth's birth : Parentage : Parents' marriage in infancy ; An heiress mother ; Elizabeth's maternal grandfather : Ballad of Bosworth Field : Boy and girl parents : Maternal ancestors : The Stanleys of Elford : Paternal ancestors ; The Kinlet inheritance ; The origin of the ComwaUs : Early history of Kinlet : Saxon and Norman possessors : Fifteenth-century knighthood ; Small number of peers i Tudor changes : The royal household : Kinlet Church : A marriage procession in 1491 : Marriage settlement of EUzabeth's parents. The date of Elizabeth's birth may be placed in 1500, or perhaps in 1499, but it seems improbable that she was born earlier. Her parents were married in childhood in 1491.^ Her father, John Blount, out of a family of some twenty children, was the eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, who had been knighted by Henry VII at the battle of Stoke in 1487, on the occasion of the defeat of Lambert Simnel. Her mother was Katherine, heiress of Knightley, in Staffordshire, and of ' So stated in post-mortem inquisition of Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet. 25 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII many other manors in that county, the only (legitimate) child of Sir Hugh Peshall, or Persall, a soldier of the highest distinction, who, as Knight of the; Body to Henry VII, was 'in constant attendance on that King, Sir Hugh is mentioned in the " Ballad of Bosworth Field," with his brother-in-law. Sir Humphrey Stanley, among " four good knights " whom the Lord Stanley gives to Henry of Richmond at his request on the eve of the fight. The outline of the story bears the stamp of truth, but in strict accuracy he was of course not knighted by Henry of Richmond until, after the battle, the crown had been placed on Henry's head. During the three succeeding years to this memorable year of 1485, the name of Sir Hugh Peshall frequently occurs in the State records as being the recipient of large sums of money from Henry VII " by way of reward." He died as a young man in 1488, when his daughter Katherine was a httle child.^ John Blount at the time of his marriage to Katherine Peshall appears to have been not more than ten years old ; " he may well have » SirHugh had two illegitimate daughters, but his daughter Katherine is styled on her husband Sir John Blount's monument in Kinlet Church, " Unica filia et heres sola Hugonis Peshall, Mil." ' In Sir Thomas Blount's Post-mortem Inquisition, his son John 26 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII been some years younger. ' Anne Lacon, whose descendants eventually inherited Kinlet (and whose representative in blood is the writer of these pages), was the eldest daughter. Her name, wrongly called Agnes in the Visita- tions of Shropshire, was clearly traceable a few years ago in the scroll above her figure on her father's monument in Kinlet Church. She married Bichard, eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Lacon, of Willey, Shropshire, whose daughter Elizabeth (sister of Bichard), wife of George Bromley, of Hodnet, Shropshire, was mother of the eminent Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Bromley, and of Chief Justice Sir George Bromley. 27 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII both parties. On the side of the girl she would not be entitled to her dowry out of her husband's estate, in the event of his dying before the marriage was consummated ; while, on the other side, the husband's family would have to return the bride's dowry to her family if she died under similar circumstances. Prudence and not senti- ment dictated these matters in days when life, more uncertain than in our own day, was exposed to sudden ravages for which there were no known remedies. But be this as it may, a further reason may be adduced for not placing the birth of Elizabeth earlier than 1499-1500, namely, the fact that, of her three brothers, the eldest. Sir George Blount, was born as late as 1513 — ^the year after she arrived at Court ; while we know also that her second husband. Lord Clinton, was born in 1512, being her junior, we suppose, by not more than twelve or thirteen years, for she did not marry him till 1534 and after- wards bore him three children. We have dealt at some length with these points as affecting the date of Elizabeth's birth, because it will appear later that her extreme youth is a remarkable feature of her story. Whatever may have been the exact age of 28 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Elizabeth's parents at the time of their marriage, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet was doubtless eager to secure for his eldest son so desirable a match as the only child of his old companion- in-arms, Sir Hugh Peshall, who had died in the lifetime of his father, Humphrey Peshale of Knightley^ (a leading Staffordshire esquire), leaving his daughter the heiress apparent of her grandfather. Besides the broad lands in prospect she was to bring an augmentation of quarterings^ to the already large number borne in the shield of the Blounts of Kinlet ; and through her mother's family, the Stanleys of Elford, she was closely related to the most powerful family in the kingdom. It was at the mansion of Elford that Henry VII, as the guest of Sir John Stanley (the father of Lady Peshall), passed the night preceding the battle of Bos- worth in secret conference with the various members of the Stanley family, who, as is well known, under Thomas, Lord Stanley, the head of the family, turned the fortunes of the fight. A near connexion existed between the Stanleys ' The Feshalls derived in the female line from the Knightleys of Knightley, from whom the Knightleys of Fawsley sprang. ' Katherine Peshall brought to the Blounts of Kinlet the quarteringa of Swynnerton, Hastang, Beck, Trussell, Stafford, and Knightley. See Appendix. 29 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and the King, whose mother, the Countess of Richmond, was married to the said Lord Stanley,^ afterwards created Earl of Derby. Moreover the bride's uncle. Sir Humphrey Stanley, was in high favour with Henry VII throughout the whole of the reign, and as a Knight of the Body was in personal attendance on the King. Nor was the heir of Kinlet with the various other manors inherited by that branch of the Blount family any mean match for the young heiress. The Blounts of Kinlet were a junior offshoot of that fair-haired, widespread race of the " Le Blonds," of which it may with truth be said that while the pretensions of so many of our noble families have of late been ruthlessly discarded as mythical by modem genealogical critics, its nobility and antiquity have never been disputed.* And among the scions of " this most ancient and distinguished " house none were more noted, alike for prowess in arms and for ancestral possessions, than the branch whose chief residence was at Kinlet, and whose repre- • Sir Hugh Peshall's wife (Katherine Blount's mother) was Isabel, daughter of Sir John Stanley, of Elford and Pipe, oo. Stafford, and sister of Sir Humphrey Stanley, Knight of the Body to Henry VII. * Camden, in his Britannia, says, " The name of the Blounts was very famous in these parts, denoting their golden looks. This is a very anoient and honourable family and hath spread its branches far." 30 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII sentatives were appointed by Royal Warrant to superintend, as officers of the King, the adjacent chases of Cleobury Mortimer and Ern- wood, or the vast forest of Wjrre (Bewdley), when these ancient domains of the Mortimers became the inheritance of the Crown. Kinlet had come to this jimior branch of the Blounts in the fifteenth century, in consequence of a relationship with the Cornwall family.^ The first of the Cornwalls of Kinlet was Edmund de Cornwall, 2 on whom in 1309 Edward II, styling him his " dear kinsman " (" nepos "), had be- stowed the hand of Elizabeth de Brampton (or Brompton) of Kinlet, the great co-heiress of the ancient lords of Kinlet, which young lady had been Cornwall's ward for some years. This kinship of the Cornwalls with the Crown, al- though a left-handed one, had been openly acknowledged by Edward I,* and was claimed ' For the descent of Sir Humphrey Blount of Kinlet from the Corn- walls see Appendix II. He was the first of the Blounts of Kinlet. His father was a younger son of Sir John Blount of Sodington, by hia second wife, Isabella, daughter of Sir Bryan Cornwall of Kinlet. • Edmimd de Cornwall, and his younger brother Geofirey (first of the Barons of Burford), were the sons of Bichard de Cornwall, illegiti- mate son of Bichard King of the Romans, Earl of Cornwall, the youngest son of King John. • Grant by Edward the First to Edmund de Comubia [Cornwall] 31 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII by their descendants for many centizries ; till indeed, at last, in the seventeenth century, the heralds daring to assert the fact of the original progenitor of the Cornwalls having been the bastard and not the legitimate son of Richard King of the Romans (son of King John), the then representative of the Cornwalls (Barons of Burford) was furious with indignation.'^ The name Kinlet has a remarkable derivation. It is formed of the Saxon words " kyne," signifying royal, and " laeth," a district, and tallies with the earliest known history of the place. For it was a manor of the Saxon kings, and was enjoyed by Edith, Queen of Edward the Con- fessor. Richardus held it at Doomsday, and from him it passed to the Bromptons, of whom that reliable antiquary Eyton says, " it is most rare that the genealogy of any family of mere knightly degree can be traced in the male line so far back as Doomsday," owing to the absence of records during the chaotic reign of Stephen. The genealogy of the Bromptons, however, of the custody of the two daughters and heirs of Brian de Brampton [of Kinlet and Brampton Brian] ffany. 2, Anno 1305. (Calendar of Patent Rolls, Ed. I, and Cal. of Close Rolls, 1309.) Edmund de ComwaU married the younger of his two wards ; the elder, Margaret, married Robert de Harley, and had Brampton Brian for her portion. » Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 4 (Kinlet). 32 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII he explains, is a remarkable exception, and " it stands on accidental yet perfect evidence." ^ From the Bromptons, as we have said, Kinlet descended to the Cornwalls, and from the Cornwalls it eventually passed to the Blounts — namely to the line of which we treat. For various reasons, then, the owners of Kinlet held high standing among the knightly families of England, and in the fifteenth century, when the roll of peers was still small, when dukedoms were almost confined to the blood royal, when a marquisate was the rarest of dignities, when many of the old earldoms were attainted, and when the order of the baronetage was still in the far future, the knightly families occupied a position of dignity, and had as yet not been submerged in the flood of newer titles.* Throughout the Wars of the Roses, which had decimated so many of the old nobility, the Blounts of Kinlet, staunch supporters of the White Rose, had managed to keep their heads above water. The name of Sir Humphrey Blount of Kinlet frequently occurs in the annals of Edward IV in tlie lists of those called upon to " Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 4, p. 240. ' At the accession of Henry VII in 1485 there were but one duke, nine earls, two viscounts, and fifteen barons to answer to his summons. (Dugdale.) C 33 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII supply the King with men for the wars. His son, Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, supported the blending of the red and white in the union of Henry Tudor and Elizabeth Plantagenet. Sir Thomas and his wife were present at the corona- tion of that Queen, and were guests at the royal feast at Westminster on the occasion/ With the accession of the Tudor dynasty the old order came to a close, and a new state of things was inaugurated. Henceforth personal service in the household of the Sovereign was the chief passport to consideration and powder. By this means, under the Tudors, adventurers came to the surface, and many upstart families rose to eminence. The Bloimts of Kinlet were not backward in adapting themselves to the new system and in taking advantage of it ; and thus began an official connexion with the Court which continued to succeeding genera- tions. It is interesting to note that, at the dawn of the Tudor epoch, with the exception of a few such as the Talbots, the Howards, and the Stanleys, many of our great families had as yet ' Leland's Collectanea. The eminent Sir James Blount, who figures in Shakespeare's " Richard III," among the supporters of Henry of Richmond, was a distant kinsman of the Kinlet branch. 34 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII not come to the front, and the stars of the Russells,^ the Cavendishes, and the Cecils had not risen. The parents of Elizabeth Blount, however — the boy-bridegroom and the girl-heiress — were each through their ancestral alliances repre- sentatives of the ancient aristocracy of England, and were equally matched in lineage and estate. The marriage took place on August 1, 1491 — not, we may observe, at the bride's home, but at Kinlet,^ the home of the bridegroom. Little change has there been in the external features of Kinlet Church since the two children, marshalled by their elders, passed with pro- cession from hall to church to plight their troth. The old manor-house at Kinlet, demolished in the early part of the eighteenth century,* was situated even nearer to the church than is the present mansion ; now, as then, both church '■ The accomplished John Bussell began his career in the latter part of the reign of Henry VII, and was a Gentleman Usher to that monarch. Later George Cavendish was in Wolsey's household, becoming his secretary. • So stated in the Inquisition Post-mortem of Sir Thomas Blount ([A.D. 1524). (Record Office.) ' Sir Lacon Childe was the last to inhabit the house of his Blount ancestors ; his nephew, William Lacon Childe j[M.P. for Shropshire), built the present mansion in 1727. 85 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII and house being wholly surrounded by park and woodland of wide extent, and remote from any village or hamlet. The old cross in the churchyard near the southern entrance must have been of great elevation ; its quadrilateral base, unique in design, lofty and gabled, is still in its place, though time has wrought some ruin, and the niche in its wall has long been emptied of the saint's image it once held. The Norman doorway, the round massive arches and columns of the nave, stand firm as ever ; while the spacious chancel and transepts,^ added by pious ancestors 2 in Early English or Decorated style, still speak to us of mediaeval times, and were already venerablfe when that bridal pro- cession paused before the high altar. Still in the muUioned windows, amid traces of antique glass of colour unsurpassed by modern imita- tions, there remains the stained-glass figure of a kneeling knight,* helmeted and clad in coat embroidered with the armorial bearings of the ^ " The South transept or Saint Catherine's Chapel," says Cranage, " would alone be sufficient to make Kinlet famous, for there are very few places where the arrangements of a mediaeval chantry chapel can be seen so fully.'' ' Edmund de Cornwall early in the fourteenth century made additions. ' The figure " is that of a Knight of the Camail period " (Cranage). 86 o D w o H ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII Cornwalls, and asking of your charity prayers for his soul, as on the day when his descendant Httle John knelt with Katherine at the nuptial mass, four hundred and twenty years ago. The mother of the infant bride, Dame Isabel Peshall, and that lady's brother. Sir Humphrey Stanley,^ as trustee on the side of the bride, saw to it that due settlements were made by the bridegroom's father ; and Kinlet was settled on young John and on such children in succession as he might have by Katherine. It was wisely done in their interests, for in the end Sir Thomas Blount, either not understanding law-Latin, or purposely disregarding the obligations he had entered into at the time of his eldest son's marriage, attempted in his old age to set them aside by his will, and to deprive him of the full rights of inheritance in order to make provision for his own numerous daughters and younger sons. But from what we know of Sir Humphrey Stanley, he was not one to be gainsaid. Quarrel- some, revengeful, unscrupulous, he was a dangerous man to offend, and stuck at nothing ' Sir Humphrey Stanley, who died in 1505, was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a brass effigy (representing him in armour with sword and dagger), and an inscription to his memory. 37 ELIZABETH BLOUNT AND HENRY VIII to gain his ends.^ It was safer to be on good terms with him, and in these characteristics his niece, Katherine Blount, resembled him in after years. ^ For an aocoimt of him and his quarrel with the Monks of Lichfield see Harwood's History of Lichfield (p. 98) j and a story is told of him by Pennant which puts him in an ugly Hght. In 1493 a spirit of rivaby existed between the Stanleys of EHord and the Chetwynds of Ingestre. Sir Humphrey Stanley was one of the Knights of the Body to Henry VII, and Sir WilUam Chetwynd was one of the Gentlemen Ushers. The former contrived to draw Sir WiUiam out of his house by means of a counterfeit letter from a neighbour, and while he was passing on Tixal Heath, caused him to be attacked by twenty armed men and slain on the spot. Sir Humphrey passed at the instant with a train of followers under pretence of hunting, but in reality to gratify his revenge with the sight. (Pennant's Journey to Chester, p. 1 909. ) 88 CHAPTER III 1500-1502 Elizabeth's babyhood : Ludlow Castle : Katherine of Arragon : Arthur of Wales : Koyal residence at Tickenhall ; Bewdley, its beautiful site : The Blounts' neighbourhood : Elizabeth's grandfather and grandmother : Grandmother's father, Sir Richard Croft : Steward of the royal household : Lady Croft governess to the Princes : Elizabeth's kinship to the Tudors ; Prince of Wales's court : His death : His funeral cortege : Princess leaves Ludlow ; Character of Elizabeth's mother. While Elizabeth was a baby, her parents and relatives were brought into association with Katherine of Arragon, when as a girl-bride that princess resided at Ludlow Castle during her brief and passionless experiment of marriage with the boy-prince Arthur, Prince of Wales. 