The Golden Falcon

The Golden Falcon

Chapter VIII/1 - Lydney

THE MERCHANT VENTURER

 

"I sang in the meadows of the Severn before an illustrious lord, before Brochfael of Powys".  (Taliesin).

 

Henry VII had to contend with two Yorkist uprisings, that of Lambert Simnel in 1487 and Perkin Warbeck in 1499.

 

The 10-year old Lambert Simnel (son of Thomas Simnel of Oxford) was taken to Ireland (which was strongly Yorkist) by Richard Simons, a priest from Oxford who claimed he was the duke of Clarence's son Edward, earl of Warwick (actually imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed in 1499).  After a meeting of the lords, a message was sent to Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy (sister of Edward IV and Richard III) and 5,000 German mercenaries arrived in Ireland under the earl of Lincoln (another Yorkist heir).  Simnel was crowned on 24.5.1487 as Edward VI at Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin by the archbishop of Dublin.  The earl of Lincoln, Garret Mor fitzGerald, 8th earl of Kildare (1478-1513), the chancellor, the treasurer and many other lords attended the ceremony and a parliament was held in Simnel's name.  On 4.6.1487 the Germans, the Anglo-Irish and native Irish troops sailed to England, only to be defeated at Stoke on 16.6.1487.  Francis Lovell, John de la Pole and earl of Kildare's brother died at Stoke.  Simnel was captured and in 1489 was forced to wait at table upon the English lords at a banquet.

 

Francis, lord Lovel ("Lovel our dog" of the doggerel rhyme about Richard III's officials) who took part in Simnel's revolt, fled to Flanders.  Burgundy had originally been Lancastrian but duke Charles fell out with Richard Neville, earl of Warwick.  Edward IV, wishing to protect the cloth and wool trade, gave his sister Margaret Plantagenet in marriage to Charles of Charolais "the Bold" or "Rash", duke of Burgundy so when Edward died in 1477, the Burgundian court became a Yorkist refuge.

 

In November 1491 another Yorkist pretender, Perkin Warbeck or Osbeck (called "The White Rose of York" by Margaret of Burgundy) landed at Cork, claiming to be Edward IV's younger son Richard, duke of York, one of the princes in the Tower.  He was probably the son of John Osbeck of Tournai, a converted Jew.  James IV of Scotland gave him Catherine Gordon, daughter of the earl of Huntly, in marriage and Warbeck and his wife lived in the manor of Fyfield, Berkshire where Catherine was buried.  Warbeck was her fourth husband.

 

Fyfield had come to Edward Plantagenet, Duke of York who married Philipa de Mohun, widow of Sir John Golafre (from whose family Sir William Winter descended) who owned the manor.  The manor descended to Richard III with Stanford-in-the Vale which came to him through his marriage to Anne Neville.  John de la Pole of Fyfield was Richard III's heir and was killed in an attempt to seize the throne after the king died.

 

Amongst the rebels were Simon Mountford, John Ratcliffe, William Daubeney (all three of whom were executed on Tower Hill on 3.2.1495), William Stanley, the king's Councillor and Chamberlain (executed on 16.2.1495), James Touchet, 4th Lord Audley (executed on 27.6.1497), Lord fitzWalter, Robert Ratcliffe, Richard and William de Lacy (who sought Papal dispensations for Clarence's marriage in 1467-8) and Robert Clifford.  Mountford's son, who took part in both rebellions, was also executed in 1495.  Warbeck and Warwick were executed in 28.11 1499 for trying to escape from the Tower and because the Spanish were reluctant to let Catalina of Aragon marry Prince Arthur, Henry VII's eldest son, whilst Warwick the Yorkist heir lived.

 

Edward Winter of Taunton, said to have been at "Prioursewill" was fined 40 shillings for assisting Perkin Warbeck.

 

The negotiations for the marriage Henry VII's eldest son Arthur, prince of Wales, were made through the city of Bristol.  He married Catalina (Katherine) of Aragon, daughter of the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain on 14.11.1501 at St. Paul's Cathedral - she was 16, Arthur 15 and his younger brother Henry was 11.  Arthur died the following year at Ludlow and was buried at Worcester.  On 23.6.1503 Catalina and Henry (when aged 13) were betrothed to be married when he was 14 the following year but the marriage was delayed until June 1509 (when Henry was 18) after Henry VII died.

 

Isabella of Castile died in November 1504 and Ferdinand became regent although many nobles wanted his son-in-law Philip "the Fair" of Hapsburg, duke of Burgundy (married to Catalina's sister Juana "la Loca") to take his place.  Philip became king after Ferdinand's death and died in September 1506.  Juana, the rightful heiress to the throne, was by-passed and held almost a prisoner during her husband’s lifetime and after his death, she was left imprisoned as a mad woman, with his embalmed corpse for company, when her son Carlos V took over.

 

In 1506 Henry VII (who had all the Yorkists heirs executed) arrested the earl of Suffolk, another heir.

 

Catalina's daughter Mary was born on 18.2.1516 at the Palace of Greenwich and in 1525 she had her own court at Ludlow.

 

In 1527 Henry decided to divorce Catalina (who could no more children) and marry her lady-in-waiting Anne Boleyn who had also been in the retinue of Mary Tudor (Henry VIII's sister) when she was Queen of France.

 

According to manorial records, Anne Boleyn's ancestor Geoffrey Boleyn was a villein in 1435-9 and his son, also Geoffrey (d. 1463), alderman (1452-63), sheriff (1446-7) and mayor (1457-8) of London and Master of the Mercers' Company (1454), married Anne, daughter of Thomas, Lord Hoo, Knight of the Garter (d.1455).  The family of Hoo and Hastings held land in Herefordshire and Bedfordshire.

Fig. 69 -Howard, Duke of Norfolk & Boleyn

 

The manor of Luton Hoo, Flitt Hundred, Bedford was held by Robert de Hoo in 1245 > Robert de Hoo (1292) > Robert de Hoo (1319) > Thomas de Hoo (1337) > William de Hoo (1415) Thomas (d. 1455) baron Hoo & Hastings in 1447 after whose death it passed to his half-brother Thomas de Hoo (d. 1496) whose co-heiresses were his 4 daughters >:

(1) Anne de Hoo = Geoffrey Boleyn.

(2) Eleanor de Hoo = Sir Richard Carew.

(3) Elizabeth de Hoo = Robert Devenish.

(4) Anne de Hoo = Roger Copley.

 

The family of Hoo also held Knebworth and Walden Hoo, Kippton Hoo or Hoobury which Eustace de Hoo (1190) claimed against Baldwin de "Bolon" (Boulogne).

 

Geoffrey Boleyn of Salle (living 1435) > Geoffrey Boleyn (d. 1463), apprentice to a London hatter, sheriff, alderman & mayor of London = Anne, d. of Thomas de Hoo (half brother of Thomas de Hoo, baron Hoo & Hastings (d. 1456) > son = daughter of Butler, earl of Ormonde > Thomas Boleyn (d. 1539), Lord Rochfort, earl of Wiltshire & Ormonde = Elizabeth, d. of Thomas Howard, 3rd duke of Norfolk >:

(a) George Boleyn

(b) Anne Boleyn = Henry VII > Elizabeth I .

 

William Howard, Chief Justice of Common Pleas (1297-1307) > Sir John Howard, knight > Sir John Howard, knight > Sir John Howard, knight > Sir Robert Howard (1384-1436) of Tendring  in Stour Valley on Suffolk/Essex border = Margaret Mowbray (d. of earl of Norfolk) > John Howard (1435-83) grandson of Elizabeth fitzAlan, sister of last earl of Arundel and Surrey, created 1st duke of Norfolk by Richard III on 28.6.1484 and attainted on 7.11.1485 by Henry VII = (1) Catherine, daughter of William, Lord Moleyns = (2) Margaret, daughter of John Chadworth > Thomas 2nd Duke (1443-1525) created earl of Surrey by Richard III on 28..6.1483, restored as duke and made Treasurer (1501-1522) victor at battle of Flodden Field, Scotland in 1513 died aged 88 years before the reign of Henry VIII = (1) Elizabeth Tilney (d. 1497), widow of Humphrey Bourchier, 2nd Lord Berners (d. 1471) = (2) Agnes Tilney (d. 1544), first cousin of Elizabeth and sister of Philip Tilney (who conveyed land to Denny with William Winter, executor of Marie de St. Pol, countess of Pembroke) >:

A. Elizabeth Howard = Thomas Boleyn, Lord Rochfort > Anne Boleyn = Henry VIII.

B. Edmund Howard = (1) Joyce Culpepper > Katherine Howard = Henry VIII.

 

Anne Boleyn's arms were 1. Lancaster 2. Angouleme or Naples 3. Guyenne (all augmentations).  4 quarterly 1 & 4 "or, a chief intended azure" (Butler) & 2 & 3 "argent, a lion rampant, sable crowned gules" (Rochfort) 5. Brotherton 6. Warenne.  Her crest was a white falcon, crowned and holding a sceptre.

 

Hoos manor, Hooland or Holand in Wheathampsted, Dacorum Hundred, Hertfordshire, consisted of 2 manors - one in Wheathampstead, the other in Harpenden - held of the Rothampstead estate which belonged to the Hoo family.  Thomas, lord Hoo, left a daughter Eleanor, wife of James  or Richard Carew.  1 caracute of land was sold in 1405 to Stephen Spelman, mercer of London and Thomas Tyrell who, in 1461, conveyed it to Thomas Winter.  Rothampstead was granted in 1221 to Richard de Merston who had held a knight's fee there from Baldwin Wake.

 

The Boleyns were probably descended from the family of the counts of Boulogne (Boulogne is spelled as Boleyn in the Chronicles of Calais) or came from this county.  There was at least one member of the Boulogne family who settled in England.

 

Ralf de Tony or Toesni held the manor of Magdalen Laver, Ongar Hundred of Essex ("Winter's Armourie" at Magdalen Laver was held by Alice Winter in the 1200s and Richard Winter in 1340).

 

Tony held it from the Honour of Boulogne from Pharasmus de Boulogne (d. 1173-4), great grandson of Count Eustace who also held lands in Surrey.  Magdalen Laver passed from Pharasmus de Boulogne (d. 1183-4) to his daughter Sybil who married a Fiennes, lord Say and Sele and was eventually inherited by Hugh de Audley and his wife Margaret de Clare.  Hugh Audley was grandson of Margaret, daughter of William de Fiennes (2nd cousin of Eleanor of Castile).  Margaret was also a descendant of the Queen.  Magdalen Laver passed to Margaret's sister Elizabeth de Burgh (d. 1360), lady of Clare, whose heiress was her grand daughter Elizabeth, countess of Ulster, wife of Lionel of Clarence through whom it passed to the king.

 

Fig. 70 - Boulogne

 

Bertha, d. of Charlemagne = poet courtier  Anghilbert de Ponthieu > descendant William of Ponthieu helped Louis d'Outremer, king of France >:

(1) Guy, count of Ponthieu >:

     A. Agnes of Ponthieu, d. & heiress = Robert Montgomery de Bellême, earl of Shrewsbury

         William de Montgomery inherited Ponthieu in 1106, reconciled to Henry I in 1120 and

         acquired Montgomery lands near Liseux >:

         a. Robert de Montgomery received his lands in Normandy.

         b. Ela de Montgomery = William de Warenne, 3rd earl of Surrey.

     B. eldest son Guy, count of Ponthieu > descendant Simon Dammartin, Count of Ponthieu

         (by right of his wife) > Joan of Ponthieu = Ferdinand III of Castile as his 2nd wife >

         Eleanor of Castile, half-sister of Alfonso X “the Wise” = Edward I > Joan Plantagenet

         of Acre (d.1307) = (1) Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester (1295) = (2) Ralph de

         Monthermer (d. 1305) > by (1) Margaret de Clare = Lord Audley.

(2) Ernicule of Ponthieu, given county of Boulogne =  Agnes, d. of Eustace, count of

     Jumieges, descendant of Boullonais counts >:

     a. Arnoul of Ponthieu

     b. Eustace of Ponthieu

     c. Mahaut of Ponthieu = Adolphe, Count of Guisnes >:Guy "Blank Barbe", Count of

         Boulogne

     d. Baldwin, Count of Boulogne = Adele de Gand, sister of the lord of Alost > son = Maud

         de Louvain (grand daughter of Charles of Lorraine) > Eustace I "a l'oeil". Count of

         Boulogne >:

        1. Lambert of Lens (d. Lille 1054) = Adela, sister of William I "the Conqueror".

        2. Godfrey, Bishop of Paris.

        3. Eustace II "al Gernons" at battle of Hastings (1066) = (1) Ida of Lorraine = (2) Goda,

            sister of Edward "the Confessor". By (1) >:

           (a) Eustace III, Count of Boulogne = Marie of Scotland >:

               (A) Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne

               (B) Matilda of Boulogne = Stephen of England

           (b) Godfrey (1061-1100), Count of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, Advocate of the

                Holy Sepulchre

           (c) Baldwin, Count of Edessa, king of Jerusalem (d. 1118).

 

Enguerrand de Fiennes (Ingram de Fenes), protégé of Henry III, descended from the son and daughter two Boullonais lords who held lands in England and the county of Boulogne during the reign of Henry II.  In 1247 he was pardoned his and his father's debts and at Christmas was robed as a knight of the royal household.  In 1249 he did homage as tenant-in-chief for the lands of Robert de Guisnes who sold him all his lands and the lands of the count of Guisnes and the advocate of Arras in England, the sale confirmed by royal charter.  In 1253 he had to select  men-at-arms to be sent to Gascony and ordered to provide 40 of his own "good strong men, well equipped with horses and arms"  He also sent his brother Baldwin and his son William.  A descendant built Hurstmonceux Castle, Essex, another succeed to the barony of Say & Sele.

 

Fig. 71 - Say & Sele

 

William de Mandeville (d. 1130) > Geoffrey de Mandeville, earl of Essex (d. 1144) > Beatrice de Mandeville (d. 1144) = William de Say >:

(a) Geoffrey de Say (d. 1244) > Geoffrey de Say (1313).  The 4th baron's aunts were his

     heirs >:

     (1) Idonea de Say = Sir John Clinton (descendants became lords Saye & Sele).

     (2) Joan de Say = Sir William Fiennes, lord Say & Sele by right of his wife.

(b) William de Say > Beatrice de Say = Geoffrey fitzPeter > John fitzGeoffrey fitzPiers or

      fitzPeter = Isabel, sister of John Bigod, widow of Gilbert de Lacy (1256) > John (d. 12

      Henry III) >:

      1. Aveline = Walter de Burgh, earl of Ulster.

      2. Maud = (1) Gerald de Furnival = (2) William Beauchamp (d. 1298).

      3. Joan = Theobald Boteler or Butler (d. 1303).

      4. Isabel = Robert Vipoint (d. 1265) >:

         A. Isabel Vipoint = Roger Clifford (d. 11 Edw I ) > earls of Cumberland.

         B. Joan Vipoint = (1) Roger de Leybourne = (2) John de Cromwell (d. 1334).

 

The Says were descended from Robert de Sai who held lands in Argentan in the vicomte of Hiemois whose lord was Robert Montgomery of Beleme.  Belleme's tenants were Robert "Pincerna" or Butler, Reynold of Bailluel-en-Gouffern (ancestor of John Baliol, king of Scotland), Alan fitzFlaald (whose descendants were the Stuarts kings of Scotland and the fitzAlans of Clun in Oswestry, earls of Arundel who shared a common ancestry from Adeliza of Louvain with the Winters of Huddington), Osbern fitz Richard (ancestor of the Scropes, lords of Castlecombe), Ralph de Mortimer (ancestor of the House of York and earls of March) and Roger de Lacy (ditto).

 

The arms of the family of Hoo were "quarterly sable and argent", "argent and sable" and "or and sable" and one of their crests "a bull passant".

 

The arms of Say were "quarterly or and gules" and their crest "out of a ducal coronet, a bull's head sable, armed or" (Say of Devon), "gules, 2 bars vairs" (Say of Richards Castle), "per pale azure and gules, 3 chevrons argent" (Say of Northampton), "quarterly or and gules, 1st quarter a lion passant or" (Say of Suffolk & Norfolk).

 

As the original arms of John de Lacy, earl of Lincoln (also in Westminster Abbey with a "bendlet sinister sable") were "quarterly or and gules with a label sable" (counter seal 1235) perhaps they were kinsmen.

 

One way of differencing quarterly arms was to convert them to checky and several of the Winters bore the arms "checky argent and sable" and "checky or and sable" as did the family surnamed Elmbridge from their Worcestershire manor and the Curzons although these may have been taken by retainers of the earl Warenne and Surrey.

 

The arms of the family of Wyther or Winter was "ermine, a bull passant sable" and one coat of arms of the Wintersells "argent, a chevron between 3 bulls passant, sable", crest "a tower argent".  The similarity of the crests of Wintersell and Winter of Wych who also had "a falcon or arising out of a tower argent" may mean the these two families were connected.  They shared common ancestry from Dynus Porcellus or Purcell, Ralph de Fay and Stephen de Turnham, seneschal of Anjou.

 

The Boleyns held land in Norfolk.  In the Cathedral records of knights' fees belonging to the barony of the See of Norwich in the reign of Henry VIII was 1 fee in Wickmere held by Sir Thomas Boleyn, knight, earl of Wiltshire, Queen Anne Boleyn's father who also held a fee at Blickling (originally owned by Sir John Fastolf).  There were other fees held of the See of Norwich;: one in Saxlingham by John Heydon, one in Briston by John Berney, one in Gunton by Ralph Berney and one in Barningham by Henry Winter.

 

The Boleyns were connected with the Winters of Barningham through the marriage of John Heydon (d.1480) of Baconsthorpe to Eleanor, daughter of Edmund Winter of Barningham Winter, as the coats of arms in Shelton manor show.

 

Queen Anne Boleyn's great aunt, also named Anne Boleyn, married Thomas Heydon of Salthouse.  They held Heydon and Baconsthorpe sold to them by the Bacons.

 

The first of the family to settle at Baconsthorpe manor, Norfolk was William Heydon of Heydon, Norfolk who married Jane, daughter of John Warren of Lincolnshire whose arms "checky or and azure, on a canton gules, a lion rampant argent" were quartered by the Heydons.  These arms show that John Warren was a descendant of the last earl Warren and Surrey (who held land in Norfolk) by his mistress Maud de Nerford.  William Heydon's son John Heydon of Baconsthorpe, a lawyer in the reigns of Henry VI and Edward IV and Recorder of Norwich (1431), was a Lancastrian.  In 1447 he was executor of the Will of Joan, Lady Bardolf and Sir John Clifton of Buckenham.  He married Eleanor, daughter of Edmund Winter of Barningham Winter.

 

The arms of Boleyn and Winter appear in the church of Shelton, Norfolk and the chapel in the manor of Shelton built by Ralf Shelton.

 

The arms in the chapel were "sable, a chevron between 3 trefoils argent" (Wytchyngham), Howe, Scutumbre, Heydon and Boleyn, Calthorp quartering Burguillion, Dovedale impaling "gules, a chevron ermine between 3 fleurs de lys or", fitzWalter and Shelton, Stapleton and Hingham, Clere and Dovedale, Clere and Haukfort, Howard, Bedingfield and Shelton, Boleyn, Butler and Ormond, Boleyn, Howard and Wichingham and "azure, a fesse between 6 cross crosslets or", Vere quartering Howard and Plays, Shelton and Brewse, Braunche and Bardolf, Lowdham and Shelton, Brewse and Shardelove, Mundeford and Barrett, Knevet and Shelton.

 

There was also a manuscript in Shelton Hall with the arms of Shelton and the families they married into - Shelton "azure, a cross or" quartering the old coat of Shelton "sable, 3 escallops argent," crest "A Moor's or Saracen's head, cooped or at the shoulders proper."  Supporters: "2 talbots argent collared  or, their strings on their back gules" Motto: "Gheure Ant Thol" quartering Illeigh, Burgullion, Cockfield and Barrett quartered.

There were 47 impalements the first 18 were: (1) Shelton & FitzHamon, (2) ditto & Gedding (3) Cretyng (4) Vaux (5) Herling (6) Martin (7) Illeigh (8) Plaiz (9) Bures (10) Tendring (11) Winter (12) Mellers (13) Ufford (14) Thorington (15) Burguillon (16) Cockfield (17) Lowdham (18) Dovedale.

 

In the window of the south transept of the church of Salle, Norfolk were the arms of Berney impaling "checky or and sable, a fess argent" (Winter), over the south door the arms of Briggs and in windows Beaupre and Calthorp, Calthorp and Briggs, Brews (Braiose), lords and patrons, "gules, a lion rampant" and "crusily of crosslets or" with their crest: "the head of an old man with a long beard, couped and wreathed", Brews impaling Shardelow, Brews impaling Ufford, Brews and Calthorp, Brews impaling "argent, a chevron gules between  3 cross crosslets fitches azure" (Shardelow).

 

In a house in Salle were Briggs impaling Beaupre, Briggs impaling "quarterly gules, on a chevron argent, 3 cinquefoils azure in the 1st and 4th" and "gules a chevron between 3 boars' heads couped argent (White).

 

In the church of Swanton Nowers, Norfolk there is a gravestone in the chancel with the arms of Braunche impaling Calthorpe with the inscription "In memory of Edmund Braunche and Anne Calthorpe".  In the windows are the arms of Braunche impaling Winter "checky or and sable, a fesse argent", Bozoun impaling Carvile, Bozoun impaling L'Estrange "argent, on a cross ingrailed gules, between 3 escallops sable, 5 bezants" impaling Winter, "gules, a cross moline argent" borne by Lord Willoughby.

 

Fig. 72 - Braunche & Winter

 

Taverham manor, Norfolk was held by a family of the same name.  Baldric de Taverham = Agnes > Alice de Taverham = Edmund Winter > Margaret Winter = John Braunche.  Sometime after 1404 the manor came to Sir John Fastolf as did the manor of Drayton (up to 1460 - 38 Henry VI) which, in 19 Richard II, John Gourney and Alice his wife had conveyed, with the advowson, to John Winter and his heirs by fine.

 

In Brampton, Norfolk appear the arms of Brome impaling Charles, Shelton, Mautby, Calthorp, Winter and Appleton, also Brampton, Berney, Reymes - the last three and Mautby appear in the hall of Barningham Winter as well as Winter, Erpingham, Repps, Hampton, Hethersett, Irminglond, Woodhouse, Bemenhall, Bedingfield, Reymes, Heydon, Rookwood, Lucy, Symonds.

 

Fig 73 - Descent of the manors of Barningham Winter, Barningham Northwood & Hetherset

 

John Hetherset = Margery > Simon Hetherset = Cecily > John Hetherset (d. before 1357) = Elizabeth (widow of John Curzon) = (2) John Reppes of Barningham Winter, son of John de Reppes of Barningham Northwood.  By (1) > William Hetherset = (1) Elizabeth = (2) Eve Hetherset >:

1. Elizabeth Hetherset = John Winter (2nd wife).

2. Sybell = John Palgrave

 

There is a brass in the church of Broome, Norfolk with 2 shields Brome and Brome impaling Winter with the portions of 2 scrolls, the remains of the brass to Robert Brome (1455) and his wife Olive Winter and children all in shrouds, kneeling, device and inscriptions and a upight slab in splay of nave window.

 

In the church of Plumstead there is an inscription on a stone: "Joh(an)is Reymes armigeri ..(anno) domini Regis Henrici quarti et Marg(are)te, filie Willi(am) Winter. .. sepulti fuer. in a(nn)o sept. Henri 4ti."

 

In the window are the arms of Calthorp impaling quarterly Hastings and Foliot, Reymes "sable, a chevron between 3 lions rampant, argent, crest: a plume of feathers out of a coronet or" impaling Winter "checky or and sable, a fesse argent", also Felbrigg, Le Gross, Mautby, Berney, Winter and Hetherset impaled.  The crest of a plume of feathers out of a coronet is interesting as it was also that of Sir William Winter of Lydney.

 

Amongst the knights and esquires (dying without heirs male), every one of whom had £100 pounds per annum, who had their arms put up in Norwich Cathedral them were Thomas Erpingham, Simon Felbrigge, Edmund Thorpe, John Shardelow, Lord Bardolf, John de Mautby, Dovedale, John Winter, Howard and Oliver Bardolf.

 

The arms of Curson (from whom the Winters obtained Barningham Winter) were "checky or and sable, a fesse argent" (Derby and Staffordshire) which may mean that there was a marriage between a Winter and a Curson or that they somehow inherited the arms perhaps as vassals of the earl of Warrenne & Surrey.

 

Sir Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire, held Hever Castle in Kent where Henry VIII met his daughter Mary who became his mistress and bore him a child.  It was through Mary's influence that Anne came to court in 1522 but was banished by Wolsey.  She returned in 1526 when Henry was thinking of divorcing Catalina of Aragon.  Henry's courtship of Anne lasted 6 years and she was determined to marry the king, turning down suitors like Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland (whom Wolsey would not allow her to marry) and her cousin Thomas Wyatt the poet.  In May 1527 a commission was set up to inquire into the validity of Henry's marriage to Catalina and Wolsey fell out of favour in 1529 because he was unable to get the Pope's permission for an annulment.

 

Thomas Wolsey had risen to power and became Lord Chancellor and was a cardinal by the age of 41.  In 1514 he built a sumptuous palace at Hampton Court (only part of which remains) which he gave up to Henry VIII in 1525.  Wolsey was the papal legate but after 2 years of negotiations, he failed to get a divorce for the king because Charles V of Hapsburg, the Holy Roman Emperor (Catalina's nephew) opposed it.  He also had Anne Boleyn's hatred to contend with.  In October 1529 he was deposed and sent to his See of York.  In 1530 (when he was dying), he was arrested and died at Leicester Abbey on his way to London.

 

His place was taken by Thomas Cromwell, a lawyer who had been in his household.  Cromwell drew up the statutes for the king's divorce and the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

 

The divorce proceedings dragged on, then Henry married Anne secretly in January 1533 when she was expecting their child.  She was crowned on Whit Sunday 1.6.1533 and Elizabeth was born in September the same year at Greenwich.

 

In June 1533 Catalina's friend Mary Tudor, duchess of Suffolk (the former Queen of France and Henry VIII's sister) died and was buried at Bury St. Edmund's Abbey.  Other friends of Catalina were Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham and wife of Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk and lady Margaret Pole (daughter of George, Duke of Clarence) whose daughter Ursula Pole married Henry Stafford, the duke of Buckingham's brother.  Margaret Pole, another Yorkist heir, was executed when she was 70 years old.

 

Mary Tudor married secondly Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk (their descendant was the tragic Lady Jane Grey).  In 1533 Charles Brandon married Catherine Willoughby, daughter of Maria Salinas (d. 1526), one of Catalina's former ladies-in-waiting and Lord Willoughby d'Eresby (whom she married in June 1516 as his second wife).

 

Fig. 74- Brandon & Grey

 

Edward I = Eleanor of Castile > Joan Plantagent of Acre = Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester > Eleanor de Clare = Hugh le Despencer, 2nd Lord Despencer > Edward le Despenser, knight = Anne Ferrers > Edward le Despencer, 4th Lord Despencer = Elizabeth Burghersh > Anne le Despencer = Hugh Hastings, knight > Margaret Hastings = John Wingfield, knight > Robert Wingfield, knight = Elizabeth Russell > Robert Wingfield, knight = Elizabeth Goushill > Elizabeth Wingfield = William Brandon, knight of Soham, Suffolk (perhaps son of Robert Brandon, Collector of Customs at King’s Lynn & Great Yarmouth, Norfolk).  William Brandon was  Escheator for Norfolk & Suffolk (1454/5), Marshall of the Marchelsea, Marshall of the King’s Bench, MP for Shoreham, Sussex (1467/8) & Suffolk (1478) > William Brandon (d. at Bosworth), probably of Brecklands, Suffolk, Standard Bearer to Henry VII > Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk = (1) Mary Tudor, d. of Henry VII = (2) Catherine Willoughby, d. of Lord Willoughby d'Eresby & Maria Salinas.  By > (1) Frances Brandon (d. 1550) = Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk (d. 1554) >:

1. Jane Grey = Guildford (both exec. 1554), son of John Dudley, duke of Northumberland.

2. Mary Grey (d.1578) = Thomas Keyes (d. 1571).

3. Eleanor Grey (d. 1547) = Henry Clifford, earl of Cumberland (d. 1570) > Margaret Clifford

     = Henry Stanley, earl of Derby (d. 1593).

4. Catherine Grey (d. 1568) = (1) Henry Herbert, earl of Pembroke (d. 1601) marriage

    dissolved = (2) Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford (d. 1621) = (2) Honora Rogers > By (1)

    William Seymour, duke of Somerset (d. 1660) = Arabella Stuart (1575-1615).

 

Another of Catalina's friend was Gertrude, daughter of Lord William Mountjoy Catalina's chamberlain.  Gertrude was the second wife of Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter, son of Sir William Courtenay by Catherine Plantagenet, youngest daughter of Edward IV.

 

Catalina of Aragon died on 6.1.1537 and was buried in the Benedictine Abbey at Peterborough, the only mourners were Eleanor Brandon and her mother Catherine (née Willoughby, daughter of Catalina's friend Maria Salinas).

 

In January 1533 Henry said Anne Boleyn had driven him into marriage by sorcery.

 

Two years later Henry met Jane Seymour whilst on a visit to her home.  Ironically the Boleyns and Seymours were connected via the family of Hoo.

 

Jane was supposed to be descended from a St. Maur who was at Hastings but the surname Seymour is spelled as Santomer or St. Omer in the "Chronicles of Calais".  St. Omer (Audomarois), Boulogne and Arras are all in the Pas-de-Calais; St. Omer and Arras were the most important towns in Flanders and the surname St. Omer appears in many charters of the Counts of Flanders.  Hugh of St. Omer was a Crusader lord of Tiberias which was named St. Omer after him.

 

Fig. 75- St. Omer & Hoo

 

The manor of Brundale, Norfolk was held by Sir Thomas St. Omer (Seymour) = (1) Petronilla, d. and coheiress of Nicholas Malmains > Alice St. Omer = Sir William de Hoo.

 

Sir Thomas St. Omer = (2) Beatrice > Elizabeth St. Omer = Thomas Waryn, younger son of John, earl Warenne & Surrey by his mistress Maud de Nerford.  Beatrice, widow of Sir Thomas St. Omer = (2) Sir Thomas de la River in 39 Edward III (1366).

 

In 4 Edward III, Thomas Waryne and Elizabeth his wife conveyed their right to the manor to Sir William Hoo and Alice his wife by whom he had Sir Thomas Hoo, his son and heir.  Sir William Hoo's 2nd wife was Alianor, daughter of Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham, Suffolk.  Sir William was 2nd son of Sir Thomas Hoo and Isabel his wife, d. and heiress of Sir John St. Leger.  In 1386 Sir William Hoo was governor of the castle of Oye in France and died in 1410 aged 76.

 

Sir Thomas Hoo succeeded his father and in 11 Henry IV conveyed the lordship by fine to John Thornham and his heirs.  Thomas Wetherby of Norfolk by his Will dated 12.11.1444 gave it to Margery his wife, remainder to John Winter Esq and Joan his wife.

 

Jane Seymour were: Quarterly of 6:  1. "or, on a pile gules, between 6 fleur de lys azure, 3 lions of England" (augmentation).  2. Seymour: 3. Beauchamp of Hache "vairy".  4. Stiny. "argent, 3 demi-lions rampant gules". 5. Macwilliam "per bend argent and gules, 3 roses bendwise, counterchanged".  6. Coker. "argent, on a bend gules 3 leopards heads or".  Crest: "a phoenix rising from a castle, between Tudor roses".  Supporters a lion and an unicorn.  St. Maur, duke of Somerset had as supporters to his coat of arms "dexter, an unicorn argent armed maned and fitted or, gorged with a ducal collar per pale azure and gold, to which is affixed a chain, of the last.  Sinister: a bull azure ducally gorged, chained, armed and hoofed or".

 

William de St. Maur (St. Omer), master of Woundy and Penhow, Monmouthshire in 1204 was ancestor of Roger de Seymour who bought Wolf Hall, Wiltshire and became Bailiff and Guardian of Savernake Forest.

 

His descendant, Jane's father Sir John Seymour, was knighted and became Sheriff of Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset in 1518.  He married Margery, daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlested, Suffolk.  Margery could trace her descent from Lionel Duke of Clarence and, had 6 sons and 4 daughters.

 

Jane, the eldest was born at Wolf Hall in 1509 and met Henry when he visited her parent's house in 1535.  A few months later she became lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn when she had been queen for 3 years.

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