June 10, 2016 is the 95th birthday of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born a Prince of Greece, husband of Queen Elizabeth II. He is the oldest living descendant of Queen Victoria (through her daughter Princess Alice). Here is a selection of articles about Prince Philip here, at Unofficial Royalty, in honor of this milestone.
by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016
Queen Mary I of England; Credit – Wikipedia
Excluding the disputed reigns of Empress Matilda in the 12th century and Lady Jane Grey, Mary’s predecessor, Queen Mary I was the first queen regnant of England. Mary was born on February 18, 1516, at the Palace of Placentia (Greenwich Palace), the only child of King Henry VIII of England and his first wife Catherine of Aragon to survive infancy. Mary had two much younger half-siblings from two of her father’s other marriages: Queen Elizabeth I of England and King Edward VI of England.
On February 21, 1516, Mary was christened at the Church of the Observant Friars in Greenwich, London. Her godparents were:
Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury was appointed Mary’s governess in 1520 and played an important role in Mary’s upbringing. Margaret Pole was one of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses. Her father was George, Duke of Clarence, third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, the York claimant during the Wars of Roses until his death at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. Margaret’s paternal uncles were the Yorkist monarchs King Edward IV and King Richard III. Margaret’s mother was Lady Isabel Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker of the Wars of the Roses) who was also killed at the Battle of Wakefield. Margaret’s maternal aunt was Anne Neville who was married to King Henry VI’s only child, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales until his death at the Battle of Tewkesbury, and then Anne Neville married King Richard III. At the command of King Henry VIII, Margaret Pole was beheaded in a horrific manner when she was 67. Her son Cardinal Reginald Pole was the Archbishop of Canterbury during Mary’s reign.
Mary resembled both her parents, who had blue eyes, fair complexions, and reddish-golden hair. Like her father King Henry VIII, Mary’s mother Catherine of Aragon was descended from the House of Plantagenet. Catherine’s great-grandmother Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile and her great-great-grandmother Philippa of Lancaster, Queen of Portugal were daughters of John of Gaunt, a son of King Edward III of England.
Queen Mary I, attributed to Lucas Horenbout (or Hornebolte), watercolour on vellum, circa 1525, NPG 6453 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Mary was well educated and studied Greek, Latin, French, Italian, science, and music. Henry VIII was disappointed that Mary was not a male, however in 1525, he sent her for three years to Ludlow Castle on the border of Wales to preside, presumably in name only, over the Council of Wales and the Marches. This was the same castle that Catherine of Aragon and her first husband, Arthur, Prince of Wales (Henry VIII’s elder brother) were sent to after their marriage, and it is where Arthur died. Mary received many of the dignities of a Prince of Wales and there is evidence that she was sometimes referred to as Princess of Wales, despite never being invested with the title. During Mary’s childhood, there were some tentative marriage plans to King François I of France and her first cousin, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (also King of Spain, Archduke of Austria, Lord of the Netherlands, Duke of Burgundy) but nothing ever came of these plans.
By the time Catherine of Aragon turned 40 in 1525, it was unlikely that she would produce the male heir that Henry yearned for. Henry had three options. He could legitimize his illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy. He could marry his daughter Mary and hope for a grandson. He could reject Catherine and marry someone of childbearing age. Henry became convinced that his marriage was cursed because Leviticus 20:21 says, “And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.” Around the same time, Henry became enamored of Anne Boleyn, a lady-in-waiting to Catherine, and Henry began pursuing her.
Henry instructed Cardinal Wolsey to start negotiations with the Vatican to have his marriage to Catherine annulled. Catherine put up a valiant fight to save her marriage and was supported by her nephew Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. After several long years of negotiations, Cardinal Wolsey failed to obtain the annulment incurring the anger of Anne Boleyn, who brought about Wolsey’s dismissal as Chancellor. A far more reaching consequence was Henry’s break with Rome which was to lead to the Reformation in England and the establishment of the Church of England. In 1533, Henry nominated Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury and in May 1533, Cranmer declared that because Henry and Catherine’s marriage was against the law of God, it was null and void. Catherine had testified that she and Arthur had never had physical relations.
Catherine of Aragon; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine was banished from the court and Henry refused her the right to any title but “Dowager Princess of Wales” in recognition of her position as his brother’s widow. She was forbidden to see her daughter Mary. Catherine suffered these indignities with patience and told her women not to curse the new queen, Anne Boleyn. She spent most of her time doing needlework and praying. Catherine refused to accept the 1533 Act of Succession which made her daughter Mary illegitimate and made Anne Boleyn’s daughter Elizabeth Henry’s successor. Mary was sent to Hatfield House to live in her infant half-sister’s household. She seems to have no grudge against Elizabeth and had genuine sisterly feelings. By 1535, with no hope of ever seeing her daughter Mary, who suffered great humiliation at the court of Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon’s health deteriorated and she was taken to Kimbolton Castle, where she died on January 7, 1536, at the age of 50.
After the execution of her father’s second wife Anne Boleyn, Mary was reconciled to her father with the help of his third wife Jane Seymour. However, Mary was forced into acknowledging that her parents’ marriage had been unlawful and that therefore, she was illegitimate. In addition, she was forced into acknowledging, at least outwardly, that her father was the Head of the Church of England. Mary remained true to the Roman Catholic Church. When her half-brother the future King Edward VI was born to Jane Seymour in 1537, Mary was one of his godparents and then acted as the chief mourner at the funeral of Jane Seymour, who died as a result of childbirth complications.
Mary in 1544; Credit – Wikipedia
Through the influence of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife, the family became closer. Catherine Parr, a kind stepmother to Henry’s three children, was influential in Henry’s passing of the Third Succession Act in 1543 that restored both his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth (who had been removed from the succession after the execution of her mother Anne Boleyn), to the line of succession to the throne. King Henry VIII died in 1547 and was succeeded by his 9-year-old son King Edward VI. Henry’s three children remained on friendly terms despite their great differences in age and religious belief. When the 1549 Act of Uniformity made the use of the new Book of Common Prayer mandatory, Mary refused to comply and continued to have the Roman Catholic Latin Mass said in her household.
As 15-year-old King Edward VI lay dying, probably of tuberculosis, in the late spring and early summer of 1553, many feared that the succession of his Catholic half-sister Mary would spell trouble for the English Reformation. At that time, the succession to the throne according to the Third Succession Act looked like this:
1) Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon
2) Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
3) Duchess of Suffolk (Lady Frances Brandon), daughter of Mary Tudor (daughter of King Henry VII)
4) Lady Jane Grey, daughter of Frances Brandon
5) Lady Catherine Grey, daughter of Frances Brandon
6) Lady Mary Grey, daughter of Frances Brandon
7) Lady Margaret Clifford, daughter of Countess of Cumberland (born Lady Eleanor Brandon, daughter of Mary Tudor)
Earlier in 1553, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and Lord Protector of the Realm had arranged the marriage of his son Guildford and Lady Jane Grey, number four in the line of succession. What role the Duke of Northumberland played in what followed is still debated, but surely he played a big part in the unfolding of what happened. King Edward VI composed a document “My devise for the succession” in which he passed over his half-sisters and the Duchess of Suffolk (Frances Brandon). Edward meant for the throne to go to the Duchess’ daughters and their male heirs. The Duke and Duchess of Suffolk were outraged at the Duchess’ removal from the succession, but after a meeting with the ailing king, the Duchess renounced her rights in favor of her daughter Jane. Many contemporary legal experts believed the king could not contravene an Act of Parliament without passing a new one that would have established the altered succession. Therefore, many thought that Jane’s claim to the throne was weak. Apparently, Jane did not have any idea of what was occurring.
After great suffering, King Edward VI died on July 6, 1553, at Greenwich Palace. On July 9, Lady Jane Grey was told she was Queen of England, and reluctantly accepted the fact. However, the Privy Council switched their allegiance from Jane to Edward’s sister Mary and proclaimed her Queen on July 19, 1553. Mary arrived triumphantly in London on August 3, 1553, accompanied by her half-sister Elizabeth and a procession of over 800 nobles and gentlemen. Ultimately, Lady Jane, her husband, her father, and her father-in-law would all lose their heads.
On October 1, 1553, Queen Mary I of England was crowned at Westminster Abbey by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, whom she had released from the Tower of London upon her accession to the throne. Gardiner also was appointed Lord Chancellor and held that position until he died in 1555.
Queen Mary I after Anthonis Mor, oil on panel, 1555, NPG 4174 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Mary was 37 and needed to marry and produce an heir to supplant her Protestant sister Elizabeth. Edward Courtney, 1st Earl of Devon, a Plantagenet descendant was suggested. However, Mary had her heart set on marrying Prince Philip of Spain (later King Philip II of Spain), the only son of Mary’s first cousin Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Philip was a widower and was eleven years younger than Mary. Parliament, backed by Gardiner, begged her to reconsider fearing the threat a marriage to a foreign royal might have for English independence. When Mary insisted on marrying Philip, a rebellion broke out, led by Thomas Wyatt, to depose Mary in favor of her half-sister Elizabeth. Wyatt marched on London but was defeated and executed.
Mary and Philip were married at Winchester Cathedral on July 25, 1554. Mary insisted that Philip receive the title of King and that all official documents were to be in both their names. The marriage was not successful. Although Mary was in love with Philip, he found her repugnant. In September 1554, Mary thought she was pregnant and continued to exhibit signs of pregnancy until July 1555, when her abdomen returned to normal. There was no baby. After 14 months of marriage, Philip returned to Spain in August 1555. Mary was heartbroken and went into a deep depression. Philip did return to England in 1557 and was happily received by Mary. Philip wanted England to join Spain in a war against France. Mary agreed and the result was the loss of Calais, England’s last possession in continental Europe. Philip left England in July 1557, never to return. Mary said of these losses, “When I am dead, you will find the words ‘Philip’ and ‘Calais’ engraved upon my heart.”
Mary and her husband Philip, Bedford Collection, Woburn Abbey; Credit – Wikipedia
Throughout her reign, Mary was steadfast in her determination to restore the Roman Catholic religion to England. Edward VI’s religious laws were abolished during Mary’s reign, and her legitimacy was asserted. During Mary’s reign, nearly 300 Protestants were burned at the stake for heresy. Included in this number were the famous three Oxford Martyrs: Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester; and Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London. They were burned at the stake outside Balliol College in Oxford. There is a marker on the street marking the site of the executions. In addition, their names are on a plaque in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford, where they were tried, along with names of both Protestant and Catholic victims of the Reformation who lived in Oxfordshire, taught at the University of Oxford, or were brought to Oxford for execution.
Plaque in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer
In the latter part of her reign, Mary relied heavily on Cardinal Reginald Pole, the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury and the son of her governess Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury. Pole acted as the Pope’s legate in Mary’s attempted reconciliation of the Church of England with Rome. In November 1558, Mary and Pole fell ill during an influenza outbreak. Mary had become weak and ill in May 1558, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer. Both Mary and Cardinal Pole died on November 17, 1558. Mary wanted to be buried with her mother but was buried in Westminster Abbey in a vault she would eventually share with her Protestant sister Elizabeth. The tomb erected above only has Elizabeth’s effigy, but King James I, Elizabeth’s successor, ordered this to be inscribed upon the tomb in Latin: Regno consortes et urna, Hic obdorminus Elizabetha et Maria sonores in spe resurrectionis – Partners both in throne and grave, here we, Elizabeth and Mary, rest as sisters, in hope of our resurrection.
Tomb of Mary I and Elizabeth I; Photo Credit – Wikipedia
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England: House of Tudor Resources at Unofficial Royalty
by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2015
King Edward VI of England; Credit – Wikipedia
Twenty-six years into his reign, King Henry VIII of England was still without a male heir. His first two wives were displaced because they did not provide a male heir, but each did provide a daughter (Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I). Catherine of Aragon‘s marriage was annulled and Anne Boleyn was beheaded on trumped-up charges. Henry VIII married his third wife Jane Seymour eleven days after Anne Boleyn’s execution. Jane was pregnant before her first wedding anniversary, which would be her only wedding anniversary.
Prince Edward (future Edward VI), Henry VIII, Jane Seymour painted in 1545, eight years after Jane’s death; Credit: Wikipedia
The joyous king fulfilled Jane’s every desire and ensured that the best doctors and midwives attended her. As was tradition, Jane went into confinement a month before the baby’s due date. At 2:00 AM, on October 12, 1537, the long-awaited male heir was born at Hampton Court Palace. Jane’s labor had been long, two days and three nights.
Edward had two elder half-sisters:
by Catherine of Aragon, his father’s first wife:
by Anne Boleyn, his father’s second wife:
Three days after his birth, the baby was christened Edward after Edward the Confessor whose feast day is October 13. His half-sisters 21-year-old Mary and four-year-old Elizabeth attended the ceremony along with his mother who was carried on a litter. Henry’s joy soon turned into grief. On October 17, 1537, Jane’s condition deteriorated and she was given the last rites. She died at Hampton Court Palace on October 24, 1537, most likely from puerperal fever (also called childbed fever), a bacterial infection. The birth attendants often caused puerperal fever. With no knowledge of germs, it was believed that hand washing was unnecessary.
Prince Edward in 1539, by Hans Holbein the Younger; Credit – Wikipedia
The motherless infant was placed under the care of Margaret Bryan, Baroness Bryan, the Lady Governess to all three of Henry VIII’s children. In 1539, Lady Bryan wrote to Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chief minister, “My lord Prince is in good health and merry. Would to God the King and your Lordship had seen him last night. The minstrels played, and his Grace danced and played so wantonly that he could not stand still ..”
On July 1, 1543, representatives of England and Scotland signed the Treaty of Greenwich which established peace between the two kingdoms and arranged for the betrothal of Edward and the seven-month-old Mary, Queen of Scots, which would unite both kingdoms. However, the Treaty of Greenwich was ultimately rejected by the Scottish Parliament on December 11, 1543, leading to eight years of conflict between England and Scotland known as the Rough Wooing.
When Edward was six years old, he had his first taste of family life when his stepmother Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth wife, gathered all three of Henry’s children together for Christmas 1543. Catherine Parr’s efforts in reconciling Henry’s family resulted in the 1544 Third Succession Act restoring Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession after Edward. Both had been declared illegitimate and disinherited. Catherine Parr also played a role in Edward’s education, helping to select his tutors, who were among the greatest scholars in England: Sir John Cheke, Professor of Greek at Cambridge; Richard Cox, a clergyman and Headmaster of Eton; Sir Anthony Cooke, a politician and humanist scholar; and Roger Ascham, Cambridge classical scholar. In addition, Jean Belmain, a French Huguenot scholar, taught Edward French. These tutors not only gave Edward a strong education, but they also imparted to him the tenets of the Protestant Reformation that had swept through Germany and the Netherlands.
Prince Edward in 1546; Credit – Wikipedia
King Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547, at the age of 55 and Henry’s nine-year-old son succeeded him as King Edward VI. Edward’s coronation occurred on February 20, 1547, at Westminster Abbey. The coronation was shortened because of the new king’s young age. Henry VIII’s will named sixteen executors, who were to act as Edward’s Council until he reached the age of 18. Henry VIII’s will did not provide for the appointment of a Protector but rather gave the government during his son’s minority to a Regency Council that would rule collectively, by majority decision. However, a few days after Henry’s death, the executors decide to make King Edward VI’s maternal uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, Lord Protector of the Realm, Governor of the King’s Person, and Duke of Somerset. With this new position, Edward Seymour had almost regal power.
King Edward VI with his uncles Edward Seymour and Thomas Seymour and Thomas Cranmer, 1547; Credit – Wikipedia
Edward Seymour’s younger brother Thomas Seymour, who had married Henry VIII’s widow Catherine Parr (who died after childbirth in 1548), was embittered by his elder brother’s power and demanded he share the power. In March 1549, Thomas was arrested on various charges and beheaded for treason.
Seven months later, Edward Seymour became aware that his rule as Protector was being threatened. Seymour took possession of his nephew, and then went to the safety of the fortified Windsor Castle, where Edward VI wrote, “Me thinks I am in prison.” The Regency Council made it clear that Seymour’s power as Protector and leader of the Council came from them and not Henry VIII’s will. Seymour was arrested on October 11, 1549. The charges against Seymour were stated in King Edward VI’s chronicle: “ambition, vainglory, entering into rash wars in mine youth, negligent looking on Newhaven, enriching himself of my treasure, following his own opinion, and doing all by his own authority, etc.” Seymour was sent to the Tower of London and John Dudley, Earl of Warwick (later 1st Duke of Northumberland and Lady Jane Grey‘s father-in-law (who would lose his head due to his involvement in Lady Jane’s succession to the throne) became the leader of the Regency Council and Lord Protector. In 1550, Seymour was released from the Tower of London and restored to the Regency Council, however, he was executed for felony in January 1552 after scheming to overthrow John Dudley.
During the reign of King Edward VI, the English Protestant Reformation advanced with the approval and encouragement of Edward, who began to exert more personal influence in his role as Supreme Head of the Church of England. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (who was to be burned for heresy under the reign of Queen Mary I) wrote and compiled the first two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, a complete liturgy for the English Church which is still used. Cranmer also revised canon law and prepared a doctrinal statement, the Thirty-Nine Articles, to clarify the practice of the reformed religion
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; Credit – Wikipedia
In January 1553, King Edward became ill with a fever and cough that gradually worsened. He likely had tuberculosis. By May 1553, the royal doctors had no hope that the king would recover and John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and Lord Protector, began to scheme for a succession that would benefit him. The powerful Duke of Northumberland thought marrying one of his sons to Lady Jane Grey would be a good idea. On May 25, 1553, three weddings were celebrated at Durham Place, the Duke of Northumberland’s London home. Lord Guildford Dudley, the fifth surviving son of the Duke of Northumberland married Lady Jane Grey, Guildford’s sister Lady Katherine Dudley married Henry Hastings, the Earl of Huntingdon’s heir, and Jane’s sister Lady Catherine Grey married Henry Herbert, the heir of the Earl of Pembroke.
As King Edward VI lay dying in the late spring and early summer of 1553, the succession to the throne according to the Third Succession Act looked like this, and note that number four in the succession was the Duke of Northumberland’s daughter-in-law.
1) Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon
2) Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
3) Duchess of Suffolk (Lady Frances Brandon), daughter of Mary Tudor
4) Lady Jane Grey, daughter of Frances Brandon
5) Lady Catherine Grey, daughter of Frances Brandon
6) Lady Mary Grey, daughter of Frances Brandon
7) Lady Margaret Clifford, daughter of Countess of Cumberland (born Lady Eleanor Brandon, daughter of Mary Tudor)
King Edward VI’s death and the succession of his Catholic half-sister Mary would cause trouble for the English Reformation. Many on Edward’s Council feared this, including the Duke of Northumberland. The exact role the Duke of Northumberland had in what followed is still debated, but surely he played a big part in the unfolding of what happened. King Edward VI opposed Mary’s succession for religious reasons but also because of her illegitimacy and his belief in male succession. Both Mary and Elizabeth were still considered to be legally illegitimate.
“My devise for the Succession” by King Edward VI; Credit – Wikipedia
King Edward composed a document “My devise for the succession” in which he passed over his half-sisters and the Duchess of Suffolk (Frances Brandon). Edward meant for the throne to go to the Duchess of Suffolk’s daughters and their male heirs. The Duke and Duchess of Suffolk were outraged at the Duchess’ removal from the succession, but after a meeting with the ailing king, the Duchess renounced her rights in favor of her daughter Jane. Many contemporary legal experts believed the king could not contravene an Act of Parliament without passing a new one that would have established the altered succession. Therefore, many thought that Jane’s claim to the throne was weak. Jane did not have any idea of what was occurring.
After great suffering, fifteen-year-old King Edward VI died on July 6, 1553, at Greenwich Palace. On July 9, 1553, Lady Jane Grey was told she was Queen of England and reluctantly accepted the crown. However, the Privy Council switched their allegiance from Jane to Edward’s sister Mary and proclaimed her Queen on July 19, 1553. Mary arrived triumphantly in London on August 3, 1553, accompanied by her half-sister Elizabeth and a procession of over 800 nobles and gentlemen. Ultimately, Lady Jane, her husband, her father, and her father-in-law would all lose their heads.
King Edward VI had a Protestant funeral conducted by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was buried in the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey on August 8, 1553.
Tomb of Edward VI; Credit – findagrave.com
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England: House of Tudor Resources at Unofficial Royalty
by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016
Catherine Parr, Queen of England; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine Parr was the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. She is the “survived” in the saying about Henry’s wives, “Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived,” although she survived for only a year, and Anne of Cleves, Henry’s fourth wife, was the last of his wives to die (in 1557). Catherine was probably born in 1512 at her family’s townhouse in Blackfriars, London, England. She was the eldest child of Sir Thomas Parr and Maud Green. Sir Thomas was a descendant of King Edward III of England through Edward’s son John of Gaunt.
Catherine had two surviving siblings:
William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton; Credit – Wikipedia
Thought to be Anne Parr; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine’s father, Sir Thomas Parr was a courtier and served as Master of the Wards, Master of the Guards, and Comptroller of the Household of King Henry VIII. He also was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire and then High Sheriff of Lincolnshire. Catherine’s mother was a lady-in-waiting to Henry VIII’s first wife Catherine of Aragon, and it is thought that she named her daughter after the queen. Catherine’s father died in 1517 of sweating sickness, leaving a 25-year-old widow with three children under the age of five. Maud Parr did not marry again, fearing that the large inheritance from her deceased first husband would go to a second husband instead of her children. She carefully supervised her children’s education and just as carefully arranged their marriages.
At the age of 17, Catherine married Sir Edward Burgh, who was about four years older than his bride. Edward was the eldest son of Thomas Burgh, 1st Baron Burgh, but he was in poor health and predeceased his father, dying just four years after a childless marriage to Catherine.
In 1534, Catherine became the third wife to 41-year-old John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer, her father’s second cousin and a first cousin of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker, an important player during the Wars of the Roses. 22-year-old Catherine became stepmother to his two children from his first marriage, 14-year-old John Neville, the future 4th Baron Latimer, and 9-year-old Margaret Neville. Lord Latimer was a supporter of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1536 he was implicated in the Pilgrimage of Grace, an uprising in Yorkshire, England in 1536 against King Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic Church, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the policies of Henry’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell. Although no charges were brought against him, Lord Latimer’s reputation was tarnished. Catherine’s strong reaction against the uprising strengthened her belief in the reformed Church of England. Lord Latimer’s health began to go quickly downhill in 1542 and Catherine served as a good nurse to her ailing husband. He died in 1543 after a nine-year childless marriage to Catherine.
Catherine used her friendship with the late Catherine of Aragon to renew her friendship with Catherine’s daughter Mary (later Queen Mary I) to obtain a place in Mary’s household. A widow for the second time, 31-year-old Catherine fell in love with Thomas Seymour, brother of Henry VIII’s late third wife Jane Seymour, and the two hoped to marry. However, Henry VIII began to show an interest in Catherine and she felt it was her duty to choose Henry’s proposal of marriage over Thomas Seymour’s. Seymour was appointed an ambassador to the Netherlands to get him out of England.
King Henry VIII in 1542; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine and King Henry VIII were married on July 12, 1543, at Hampton Court Palace. King Henry VIII now required a nurse rather than a wife. He had become obese and needed to be moved around with the help of mechanical devices. He was covered with painful, pus-filled boils and probably suffered from gout. His obesity and other medical problems can be traced from the jousting accident in 1536, in which he suffered a leg wound that never healed. The jousting accident is believed to have caused Henry’s mood swings, which may have had a dramatic effect on his personality and temperament. Catherine proved to be a good nurse to Henry and a kind stepmother to his three children. She was influential in Henry’s passing of the Third Succession Act in 1543 which restored both his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, to the line of succession to the throne.
Catherine’s religious views were reform Protestant, in the sense of the definition of the word Protestant today. Her religious views incited a pro-Catholic/anti-Reform Protestant faction led by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Thomas Wriothesley, Lord Chancellor, to bring a charge of heresy against her in 1546. Catherine found out about this and eloquently pleaded her case successfully to Henry.
After Henry died in 1547, Catherine finally married Thomas Seymour, the uncle of King Edward VI. Catherine invited Elizabeth, King Henry VIII’s younger daughter, and her cousin Lady Jane Grey, to stay in the couple’s household at Sudeley Castle, located in the Cotswolds near Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England. In early 1548, Catherine became pregnant, which was quite a surprise because she had failed to become pregnant during her first two marriages. During this time, Seymour began to take an interest in Elizabeth. Seymour had reportedly plotted to marry Elizabeth before marrying Catherine, and it was reported later that Catherine discovered the two in an embrace. Kat Ashley, Elizabeth’s governess later testified that not only did Catherine not mind the episodes of horseplay but that she actually assisted her husband. Whatever actually happened, Elizabeth was sent away from Sudeley Castle in May 1548 and never saw her beloved stepmother again.
Thomas Seymour; Credit – Wikipedia
In August 1548, Catherine and Seymour had a daughter, but tragically Catherine died on September 5, 1548, of puerperal fever (childbed fever). Her daughter Mary Seymour appears to have died young. Six months after Catherine’s death, Thomas Seymour was beheaded for treason. Catherine was buried in the chapel at Sudeley Castle. Lady Jane Grey, who lived with Catherine until her death, was the chief mourner at her funeral. Catherine’s grave was discovered in 1728 after the castle and the chapel had been left in ruins by the English Civil War. She was later re-interred by the Rector of Sudeley in 1817 and an elaborate tomb was built in her honor.
Tomb of Catherine Parr; Credit – Wikipedia
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England: House of Tudor Resources at Unofficial Royalty
by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016
Catherine Howard, Queen of England; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine Howard was the fifth of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England and the second of his two beheaded wives. She was born around 1523, the fifth of the six children of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpepper. Catherine’s father, Lord Edmund Howard, was the third son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Edmund’s eldest brother was Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, a prominent Tudor politician, and one of his younger sisters was Elizabeth Howard, mother of King Henry VIII’s other beheaded wife, Anne Boleyn. Therefore, Catherine and Anne were first cousins.
Catherine had five half-siblings from her mother’s first marriage to Ralph Leigh:
Catherine had five full siblings:
Catherine’s mother died when she was a young child, and she was sent off with some siblings to be raised by her step-grandmother Agnes Howard (née Tilney), Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, the second wife of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. It was common for aristocratic children to be raised in other aristocratic households, but the supervision in the Dowager Duchess’ household was quite lax. Catherine and the Dowager Duchess’ other wards were often left to their own devices and the care of servants. Young Catherine had an affair with the music master Henry Manox and then with Francis Dereham, a secretary of the Dowager Duchess. The Dowager Duchess eventually found out about Catherine and Dereham. Dereham was sent away to Ireland but it is possible that they had intentions to marry upon his return from Ireland, agreeing to a pre-contract of marriage.
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, uncle of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine’s uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, also the uncle of Anne Boleyn and as Lord High Steward, had presided at Anne’s trial, found a position for Catherine at court. Through the influence of Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII’s chief minister, Henry married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. Henry immediately disliked Anne of Cleves and the marriage was never consummated. Catherine became one of Anne’s maids-of-honor and immediately caught Henry’s attention. Catherine was well aware of Henry’s interest in her and aided by his extreme distaste for Anne, set out to captivate the king. Catherine’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, saw this as an opportunity to regain the influence they had before the disastrous fall of Anne Boleyn. Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves was annulled on July 9, 1540. Thomas Cromwell, the scapegoat for the failed marriage to Anne of Cleves, was arrested on June 10, 1540, under a bill of attainder and executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill on July 28, 1540. Henry secretly married Catherine Howard that same day at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, England.
King Henry VIII in the early 1540s; Credit – Wikipedia
Henry called his teenage bride his “rose without a thorn.” Delighted with her, Henry gave her the lands of the executed Cromwell and showered her with jewelry. Catherine adopted the motto Non autre volonte que la sienne (No other will but his), which would soon prove quite ironic.
In 1540, Thomas Culpeper, a Gentleman to the King’s Privy Chamber, caught Catherine’s attention. By 1541, they were spending time together, often alone and late at night, aided and abetted by Catherine’s lady-in-waiting, Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford, the widow of George Boleyn, who had been accused, convicted, and executed for adultery with his sister Anne Boleyn. The affair would cause the downfall of all involved.
Catherine also employed her previous lover Francis Dereham, first as her Private Secretary and then as a Gentleman Usher of the Queen’s Chamber. Dereham’s bragging about being Catherine’s former lover was brought to the attention of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who brought evidence of Catherine’s previous affair with Dereham to the king’s attention. Though Henry originally refused to believe the allegations, Dereham confessed. It took another council meeting before Henry believed the accusations against Dereham and then went into a rage, blaming the council before consoling himself in hunting. When questioned, Catherine could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would have made her subsequent marriage to Henry invalid. Instead, she claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter into an adulterous relationship. Dereham, meanwhile, exposed Catherine’s relationship with Thomas Culpeper.
On November 1, 1541, Catherine was imprisoned at Syon House. She had been brought there from Hampton Court Palace after running through the palace, shrieking denials of her guilt, unsuccessfully trying to get to Henry as he was at prayer in the Chapel Royal. The gallery she ran through is known as the Haunted Gallery and her ghost is reputedly said to haunt it.
On December 1, 1541, Francis Dereham and Thomas Culpeper were executed at Tyburn, the principal place of execution of London criminals and convicted traitors. Both men were to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. However, Henry VIII had mercy on his Gentleman to the King’s Privy Chamber and commuted Thomas Culpeper’s execution to a beheading. Francis Dereham was not as lucky and was hanged, drawn, and quartered. Both their heads were placed on spikes on top of London Bridge.
Site of the scaffold on Tower Green; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine was brought to the Tower of London on February 10, 1542, by barge, passing under London Bridge where Dereham and Culpepper’s heads remained displayed until 1546. Her execution by beheading was to take place on February 13, 1542, at 7:00 AM. The night before her execution, Catherine is believed to have practiced how to lay her head upon the block, which had been brought to her at her request. Catherine was beheaded with one stroke on Tower Green within the Tower of London. Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford, was executed immediately afterward. Catherine Howard was buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula within the Tower of London.
Catherine Howard’s memorial on the floor of the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula; Credit – findagrave.com
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England: House of Tudor Resources at Unofficial Royalty
by Susan Flantzer
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, who attained the highest rank in the British Army, was a Knight of the Garter and Secretary of State for War, drowned on June 5, 1916 when the HMS Hampshire, which was taking him on a diplomatic mission to Russia, struck a German mine west of the Orkney Islands in Scotland.
Horatio Herbert Kitchener, known as Herbert, was born on June 24, 1850 in Ballylongford near Listowel, County Kerry in Ireland, which was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at that time. He was the second son and the third child of the five children of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Horatio Kitchener and his first wife Frances Anne Chevallier.
Lord Kitchener’s siblings:
Kitchener’s half sister by his father’s second marriage to Mary Emma Green:
Lord Kitchener on his mother’s lap with his sister (left) Frances and his brother (right) Henry; Photo Credit – Wikipedia
The family moved to Switzerland in 1863, hoping the Swiss mountain air would cure Kitchener’s mother of tuberculosis, but she died in 1864. Kitchener’s father decided to stay in Switzerland where his expenses would be cheaper. From 1863 to 1868, Kitchener attended a boarding school at Château Grand Clos in Villeneuve, Switzerland on Lake Geneva and then was educated at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. On January 4, 1871, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers where he worked as a surveyor. From 1874-1878, Kitchener worked on, and later led, an expedition on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund surveying Palestine. During this time, he became acquainted with the Arabic language and the mindset of the people in the Middle East. The data collected from Kitchener and others in the expedition, from the topography of the land to the local flora and fauna, were published in the eight-volume work The Survey of Western Palestine. In 1878, Kitchener was sent to Cyprus to help survey the new British protectorate and the following year, he became the vice-consul in Anatolia (Turkey).
Kitchener as a young officer of the Royal Engineers; Photo Credit – Wikipedia
In 1883, Kitchener was promoted to Captain and took part in the re-organizing of the Egyptian Army. Egypt at that time was a puppet state of the British. By 1885, he was a Lieutenant Colonel and the next year he became Governor of the Egyptian Provinces of Eastern Sudan and Red Sea Littoral. Kitchener served as Sirdar of the Egyptian Army from 1892–1899 and won many victories that brought him much fame back in Britain. In 1898, he was created Baron Kitchener of Khartoum and became Governor-General of the Sudan in 1899.
Kitchener participated in the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902) and was promoted to General and created Viscount Kitchener of Khartoum in 1902. Kitchener was appointed Commander-in-Chief in India in 1902 and immediately began the task of reorganizing the Indian Army which was known as the Kitchener Reforms. Kitchener was promoted to the highest Army rank, Field Marshal, on September 10, 1909. He wanted to be Viceroy of India, but was turned down due to political issues in Parliament. In June 1911, Kitchener then returned to Egypt as British Agent and Consul-General. In 1914, he was created 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum.
At the start of World War I in 1914, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith appointed Kitchener Secretary of State for War. Kitchener developed a massive army recruiting campaign and even appeared on a famous recruiting poster.
The iconic, much-imitated 1914 Lord Kitchener Wants You poster; Credit – Wikipedia
Kitchener did an effective job overseeing the British war strategy for the first 18 months of the war, but eventually his relations with the rest of the war cabinet became strained. Kitchener was difficult to work with and he found it difficult to develop close working relationships with colleagues. In 1915, Kitchener was attacked by British newspapers over a shortage of shells, and the responsibility for munitions was taken away from him. Later in the same year, he lost his control of war strategy. Kitchener offered to resign from the cabinet, but his overwhelming popularity among the British people made the government fearful of the consequences of allowing him to leave the cabinet. Kitchener’s involvement with the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign led to a further tarnishing of his reputation with the cabinet.
On June 4, 1916, Lord Kitchener left London for secret talks with talks with Britain’s Russian allies in Archangel, Russia. The next day, he boarded the HMS Hampshire, a British Royal Navy armored cruisers, anchored off Thurso, Scotland, the northernmost town on the British mainland. Because the ship was carrying the British Secretary of State for War and his staff, it was ordered not to take the obvious route to northern Russia. Instead, the HMS Hampshire was instructed to sail was into the Pentland Firth, then to turn north, hugging the western coast of the Orkneys and only to head for Russia once it had passed to the north of the islands.
Two destroyers were to accompany the HMS Hampshire, but a storm with gale-force winds prevented the destroyers from keeping up with the HMS Hampshire and they were ordered back to port. About an hour later, there was an explosion. The HMS Hampshire struck a mine that had been laid by a German mine-laying submarine. Fifteen minutes later, the HMS Hampshire sank. 643 sailors along with Kitchener and his entire staff were killed. Only 12 sailors in two lifeboats reached the shore alive. Two of the survivors later testified in an inquiry that “Kitchener was last seen standing in his uniform on the starboard side of the quarterdeck, calmly talking to two staff officers as the ship went down.” There have been several conspiracy theories regarding the sinking of the HMS Hamsphire and the death of Lord Kitchener.
The route taken by the HMS Hampshire; Credit – https://next.ft.com/
HMS Hampshire; Photo Credit – Wikipedia
The HMS Hampshire wreck site is designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act. As a member of the British armed forces who was lost at sea in World War I and has no known grave, Kitchener is commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Hollybrook Memorial at Southampton, Hampshire. The All Souls’ Chapel in the north tower of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was dedicated in 1925 to the memory of Lord Kitchener.
Memorial to Lord Kitchener at St. Paul’s Cathedral; By Stephencdickson – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36027182
Kitchener Memorial at Marwick Head on Mainland, Orkney; By David Wyatt, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9165473
The Kitchener Memorial on Mainland, Orkney, is on the cliff edge at Marwick Head, near the spot where Kitchener died at sea. The tower bears the inscription: “This tower was raised by the people of Orkney in memory of Field Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartoum on that corner of his country which he had served so faithfully nearest to the place where he died on duty. He and his staff perished along with the officers and nearly all the men of HMS Hampshire on 5 June 1916.” On June 5, 2016, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the HMS Hampshire, The Princess Royal will rededicate the Kitchener Memorial and unveil the wall of names. In addition, The Princess Royal will visit the graves of the HMS Hampshire crew at The Royal Naval Cemetery, Lyness, Orkney.
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Timeline: June 1, 1916 – June 30, 1916
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A Note About German Titles
Many German royals and nobles died in World War I. The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent states, most of them ruled by royal families. Scroll down to German Empire here to see what constituent states made up the German Empire. The constituent states retained their own governments, but had limited sovereignty. Some had their own armies, but the military forces of the smaller ones were put under Prussian control. In wartime, armies of all the constituent states would be controlled by the Prussian Army and the combined forces were known as the Imperial German Army. German titles may be used in Royals Who Died In Action below. Refer to Unofficial Royalty: Glossary of German Noble and Royal Titles.
24 British peers were also killed in World War I and they will be included in the list of those who died in action. In addition, more than 100 sons of peers also lost their lives, and those that can be verified will also be included.
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May 1916 – Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action
The list is in chronological order and does contain some who would be considered noble instead of royal. The links in the last bullet for each person is that person’s genealogical information from Leo’s Genealogics Website or to The Peerage website. If a person has a Wikipedia page, their name will be linked to that page.
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
Freiherr Ernst von Cetto
Karl , Prinz von Lobkowicz
by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016
Anne of Cleves, Queen of England; Credit – Wikipedia
Anne of Cleves was the fourth of King Henry VIII of England‘s six wives and is often considered the most fortunate of Henry’s wives. Born on September 22, 1515, in Düsseldorf in the Duchy of Berg, now in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, she was the second of the four children of Johann, Duke of Cleves and Count of Mark and Maria of Jülich-Berg, daughter of Duke William IV of Jülich-Berg, who became heiress to her father’s estates Jülich, Berg and Ravensberg.
Anne had three siblings:
Anne grew up in Schloss Burg in Solingen, Duchy of Berg, now in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and received a limited education that focused on embroidery and sewing, and not on learning foreign languages (she could read and write only in German), singing, or playing a musical instrument. At the age of ten, Anne was betrothed to Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, but the betrothal was later canceled.
Schloss Burg, Anne’s childhood home; Credit – Wikipedia
Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII of England, died in 1537 due to childbirth complications, after giving birth to Henry’s long-awaited son, the future King Edward VI. The search for a fourth wife began shortly after Jane’s death, with Henry’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, taking the lead. Cromwell wanted an alliance with a European royal house, so all English ambassadors were instructed to look for possible brides.
In 1538, it was suggested that Henry marry a daughter of Johann, Duke of Cleves, who was a powerful supporter of the Protestant Reformation. Henry requested a portrait of Anne, the elder of the two unmarried daughters and so Hans Holbein, Henry’s court painted was dispatched to Cleves. Holbein used his artistic license and painted (the portrait above) what he saw as an artist: a delicate girl in her twenties, quiet and content wearing the unflattering headdress fashionable in Cleves. He did not show her strong frame or her pock-marked skin. Henry was delighted with the portrait and Anne’s brother William, who had succeeded his father in 1539, sent an emissary to England to negotiate the marriage contract.
Anne arrived in Deal, England on December 27, 1539, and proceeded to Rochester on New Year’s Day. Henry was so eager to see Anne, that he went to Rochester incognito. Henry was terribly disappointed by his new bride. He found Anne humorless and boring. She looked unimpressive in her German costume, acted shy, and did not speak English. Henry postponed the wedding for two days and regretted that he could not withdraw from the marriage contract. Reluctantly, Henry married Anne on January 6, 1540, at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, England.
Thomas Cromwell hoped that the wedding night would bring the couple closer together, but the marriage was never consummated, and it was said that the couple spent the night playing cards. Henry told Cromwell, “I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse.” Anne told Eleanor Manners, Countess of Rutland, one of her ladies-in-waiting, “When he comes to bed he kisseth me, and he taketh me by the hand, and biddeth me ‘Good night, sweetheart’; and in the morning kisseth me and biddeth ‘Farewell, darling.'” Lady Rutland responded, “Madam, there must be more than this, or it will be long ere we have a Duke of York, which all this realm most desireth.” Meanwhile, Henry was showing an interest in one of Anne’s maids-of-honor, Catherine Howard, who would become his fifth wife.
On June 24, 1540, Anne was sent to Richmond Palace for “her health, open air and pleasure” and on July 6, 1540, she was informed that Henry wanted to end the marriage. Anne agreed to an annulment, finalized on July 9, 1540, on the grounds of non-consummation and Anne’s pre-contract to Francis of Lorraine. Thomas Cromwell, the scapegoat for the failed marriage, was arrested on June 10, 1540, under a bill of attainder and executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill on July 28, 1540. Henry married Catherine Howard that same day and later regretted having Cromwell executed.
Although Anne’s mother and brother wanted her to return home, she remained in England. Henry gave her a generous settlement and the use of Richmond Palace and Hever Castle. Anne was frequently at court, had a cordial relationship with Henry and his children, and was referred to as “the King’s Beloved Sister.” Anne of Cleves survived Henry and all his wives. Her last public appearance was at the coronation of her stepdaughter Queen Mary I. As the third lady in the land, she rode behind the new queen beside Mary’s sister Elizabeth.
In the spring of 1557, Anne became ill and died at the age of 41 on July 16, 1557, at Chelsea Manor, probably from cancer. Anne was buried with pomp and ceremony at Westminster Abbey on the south side of the altar. Her plain marble tomb has since been used for regalia and plate display at coronations and royal weddings.
Tomb of Anne of Cleves; Credit – Westminster Abbey
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England: House of Tudor Resources at Unofficial Royalty
by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2016
Prince Oscar of Sweden; Credit – By Llevenius – Own work, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132725933
Prince Oscar of Sweden, Duke of Skåne is the second child of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Daniel Westling (now Prince Daniel of Sweden). Oscar was born at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Sweden, at 8:28 pm on March 2, 2016. He weighed 3.655kg (8.06lb) and measured 52cm (20in) at birth.
The following day, his grandfather King Carl XVI Gustaf announced the baby’s name and titles – Prince Oscar Carl Olof of Sweden, Duke of Skåne. There have been two previous Dukes of Skåne, both of whom became king – King Carl XV and King Gustaf VI Adolf.
Prince Oscar’s christening – source: The Daily Mail/EPA
Prince Oscar was christened on May 27, 2016, in the Royal Chapel of the Royal Palace of Stockholm. His godparents are:
Prince Oscar’s family, 2022
Prince Oscar has one elder sister:
Prince Oscar’s elder sister Princess Estelle is second in the line of succession to the Swedish throne after her mother Crown Princess Victoria. In 1979, the Riksdag, the Swedish legislature, introduced an Act of Succession that changed the succession to absolute primogeniture, meaning that the monarch’s eldest child, regardless of gender, is first in the line of succession. This Act of Succession became law on January 1, 1980, making Sweden the first country to adopt absolute primogeniture. The previous 1810 Act of Succession allowed only males to inherit the throne. Even after the birth of her brother Prince Oscar, Princess Estelle retains her place in the line of succession as the eldest child of Crown Princess Victoria who is the eldest child and the heir of King Carl XVI Gustaf.
In the fall of 2017, Prince Oscar began attending Lilla Kvikkjokk (link in Swedish), a Montessori school in the Djurgården section of Stockholm. Since 2022, he has been attending the independent school Manilla Campus (link in Swedish) also in the Djurgården section of Stockholm.
This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.
by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016
Anne Boleyn, Queen of England; Credit – Wikipedia
Anne Boleyn was the second of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England, the mother of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and one of Henry VIII’s two beheaded wives. The date and place of Anne’s birth are uncertain. She was born between 1501 – 1507 at either Blicking Hall in Norfolk or Hever Castle in Kent. Anne’s father was Thomas Boleyn (later 1st Earl of Wiltshire, 1st Earl of Ormond, 1st Viscount Rochford), a diplomat for King Henry VII and King Henry VIII. He was descended from Eustace II, Count of Boulogne who fought for William the Conqueror during the Battle of Hastings. “Boulogne” eventually was anglicized to “Boleyn.” Anne’s mother was Lady Elizabeth Howard, the eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Elizabeth’s eldest brother was Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, a prominent Tudor politician, and one of her other brothers was Lord Edmund Howard, the father of Catherine Howard, King Henry VIII’s fifth wife, his other beheaded wife. Through her mother, Anne was a descendant of King Edward I of England.
Anne had two siblings who survived childhood:
Mary Boleyn; Credit – Wikipedia
In 1512, Anne’s father was appointed an ambassador to the court of Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands in Brussels, and his three children accompanied him. While in Brussels, Anne served as a maid of honor to Margaret of Austria. She then joined her sister Mary at the French court as a maid of honor to Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII, who had married King Louis XII of France. When Mary Tudor returned to England after King Louis XII died, Anne stayed on at the French court, serving as a maid of honor to Queen Claude, the daughter of King Louis XII and the wife of his successor King François I. Anne returned to England in 1522, and was appointed a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII’s first wife.
Anne was lively and vivacious and soon attracted admirers at the English court including King Henry VIII. Henry’s only surviving child with his wife Catherine of Aragon was a daughter. Henry was desperate for a male heir and thought Anne could give him one. Anne refused to become Henry’s mistress as her sister Mary had. However, she continued to flirt with him and entered into an amorous correspondence with him. Meanwhile, Henry set into action the machinations that would annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. When Henry secretly married Anne on January 25, 1533, at the Palace of Westminster, she was already pregnant with her first child. On May 25, 1533, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury declared Henry and Catherine’s marriage null and void and five days later, he declared Henry and Anne’s marriage valid.
There was a rush for Anne to be crowned as she was pregnant and there was some question about whether the child had been conceived before or after the marriage ceremony. Anne was quite unpopular and Henry VIII wanted to cement her status. Anne was crowned at Westminster Abbey on June 1, 1533.
Anne was pregnant three times, but only gave birth to one live child:
When Anne gave birth to her first child, a daughter Elizabeth, Henry was greatly disappointed and did not attend Elizabeth’s christening. Anne soon found herself supplanted as she had done to Catherine of Aragon. Jane Seymour, one of her maids of honor and eventually Henry’s third wife, attracted Henry’s attention starting in 1534. By late 1535, Anne was pregnant again. However, during a tournament in January 1536, Henry fell from his horse and was unconscious for hours. The stress resulted in premature labor, and Anne miscarried a son.
The loss of this son sealed Anne’s fate. Henry was determined to be rid of her, and her fall and execution were engineered by Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s chief minister. Many historians believe that the case charging Anne with adultery with her brother George Boleyn and four other men (Francis Weston, Henry Norris, William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton) was completely fabricated. Anne was arrested on May 2, 1536, and taken to the Tower of London. On May 14, 1536, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury declared her marriage to Henry was null and void. Her trial, presided over by her uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, occurred at the Tower on May 15, 1536, and she was found guilty of adultery, incest, and high treason. On May 18, 1536, Anne’s brother and the four other men were executed. Anne’s execution was scheduled for May 19, 1536, on Tower Green. Henry arranged for an expert swordsman from Calais, France who used a sword rather than an ax. Before her execution, Anne made a speech to the crowd:
Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul.
After saying goodbye to her ladies, Anne knelt and a blindfold was tied over her eyes. Anne remained in an upright kneeling position and kept repeating, “Jesu receive my soul; O Lord God have pity on my soul.” With one stroke of the executioner’s sword, Anne was dead. Her body was placed in an oak chest and she was buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St. Peter-ad-Vincula at the Tower of London. In 1876, Anne’s remains were identified during renovation work and her grave is now marked by a plaque on the chapel floor.
Plaque marking Anne Boleyn’s grave; Credit – Wikipedia
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England: House of Tudor Resources at Unofficial Royalty
by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2016
Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine of Aragon (Catalina in Spanish) was the first of King Henry VIII of England‘s six wives and the mother of Queen Mary I of England. Born on December 16, 1485, at the Archbishop’s Palace in Alcalá de Henares in the Kingdom of Castile (now in Spain), Catherine was the youngest child of the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, whose marriage ultimately united Aragon and Castile into the Kingdom of Spain.
King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine had blue eyes and golden-red hair that came from her mother’s descent from the English House of Plantagenet. Catherine’s great-grandmother Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile and her great-great-grandmother Philippa of Lancaster, Queen of Portugal were daughters of John of Gaunt, a son of King Edward III of England. Alessandro Geraldini, a humanist scholar and later Bishop of Santo Domingo, served as the tutor to Catherine and her siblings, all of whom received an excellent education.
Catherine of Aragon at age 11; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine had four elder siblings:
When Catherine was only two years old, King Henry VII of England began negotiations for his son and heir Arthur, Prince of Wales to marry Catherine. The Treaty of Medina del Campo, ratified by Spain in 1489 and by England in 1490, contained the marriage contract between Catherine and Arthur. Catherine left Spain in 1501, never to return, and on November 14, 1501, the two 15-year-olds, Catherine and Arthur, were married at Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Catherine was escorted to the cathedral by the 10-year-old Henry, Duke of York, who would later become her second husband.
Arthur, Prince of Wales, circa 1501; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine of Aragon, circa 1502; Credit – Wikipedia
Soon after their marriage, Catherine and Arthur went to live at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, close to Wales, where, as Prince of Wales, Arthur presided over the Council of Wales and the Marches. Less than five months later, on April 2, 1502, Arthur died, probably of the sweating sickness, and 16-year-old Catherine was left a childless widow. It is doubtful that the marriage was consummated, as Catherine would claim in later years.
King Henry VII did not want to lose Catherine of Aragon’s dowry or the alliance he had made with Spain, so he offered his new heir Henry, who was five years younger than Catherine, to be her husband. Several problems with negotiations made it doubtful that the marriage would ever take place. With little money, Catherine lived as a virtual prisoner at Durham House in London from 1502 – 1509. King Henry VII died on April 21, 1509, and 17-year-old Henry succeeded him.
King Henry VIII, 1509; Credit – Wikipedia
King Henry VIII married 23-year-old Catherine on June 11, 1509, at Grey Friar’s Church in Greenwich, London, England. On June 23, 1509, the traditional procession to Westminster, held the day before the coronation of English kings, Henry and Catherine were greeted by a large and enthusiastic crowd. Following tradition, Henry and Catherine spent the night before their coronation at the Tower of London. King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine were anointed and crowned by William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey on June 24, 1509.
16th-century woodcut of the coronation of King Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon showing their heraldic badges, the Tudor Rose and the Pomegranate of Granada; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine had six pregnancies, however, only one child, the future Queen Mary I, survived.
Catherine and Henry’s daughter, later Queen Mary I; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine was highly regarded as queen and Henry made her regent when he went on military campaigns in France and Flanders in 1513. While Henry was away, it was up to Catherine to supervise England’s defense when Scotland invaded. Ultimately, the Scots were defeated at the Battle of Flodden and Catherine sent Henry the bloodstained coat of the defeated and dead James IV, King of Scots (who was married to Henry’s sister Margaret). In 1520, Catherine accompanied Henry to the Field of the Cloth of Gold in France where he met King François I of France.
Field of the Cloth of Gold; Credit – Wikipedia
Catherine was instrumental in reviving interest in gardening, forgotten during the time England was plagued by the Wars of the Roses. Henry imported a gardener from Flanders and the gardens at Hampton Court Palace became the premier gardens in England. Part of Henry’s garden layout still survives at Hampton Court Palace’s Pond Garden.
Pond Garden at Hampton Court Palace; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer
Catherine turned 40 in 1525, and it was unlikely that she would produce the male heir Henry yearned for. Henry had three options. He could legitimize his illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy. He could find a husband for his daughter Mary and hope for a grandson. He could reject Catherine and marry someone of childbearing age. Henry became convinced that his marriage was cursed because Leviticus 20:21 says, “And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.” Around the same time, Henry became enamored of Anne Boleyn, a lady-in-waiting to Catherine, and Henry began pursuing her.
Henry instructed Cardinal Wolsey to start negotiations with the Vatican to have his marriage to Catherine annulled. Catherine fought valiantly to save her marriage and was supported by her nephew Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. After several long years of negotiations, Cardinal Wolsey failed to obtain the annulment incurring the anger of Anne Boleyn, who brought about Wolsey’s dismissal as Chancellor. A far more reaching consequence was Henry’s break with Rome which was to lead to the Reformation in England and the establishment of the Church of England. In 1533, Henry nominated Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury. In May 1533, Cranmer declared that because Henry and Catherine’s marriage was against the law of God, it was null and void despite Catherine testifying that she and Arthur had never had physical relations.
Catherine was banished from the court and Henry refused her the right to any title but “Dowager Princess of Wales” in recognition of her position as his brother’s widow. She was forbidden to see her daughter Mary. Catherine suffered these indignities with patience and told her women not to curse the new queen Anne Boleyn. She spent most of her time doing needlework and praying. Catherine refused to accept the 1533 Act of Succession which made her daughter Mary a bastard and made Anne Boleyn’s daughter Elizabeth Henry’s successor.
By 1535, with no hope of ever seeing her daughter Mary, who suffered great humiliation at the court of Anne Boleyn, Catherine’s health deteriorated and she was taken to Kimbolton Castle. Catherine knew by December of 1535 that she would not live much longer. She put her will in order, wrote to her nephew Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor asking him to protect Mary, and wrote her final letter to King Henry VIII:
My most dear lord, king and husband,
The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me, my case being such, to commend myself to you, and to put you in remembrance with a few words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters, and before the care and pampering of your body, for the which you have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I entreat you also, on behalf of my maids, to give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all my other servants I solicit the wages due them, and a year more, lest they be unprovided for. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.
Katharine the Quene.
Catherine died on January 7, 1536, at the age of 50. Rumors were circulated that she had been poisoned. Her embalmer described her heart as “quite black and hideous to look at” with a “black round body stuck to the outside.” Modern doctors have agreed that her heart’s discoloration was due to cancer. Catherine was buried at Peterborough Cathedral on January 29, 1536, but her daughter Mary was not allowed to attend her funeral. A cortege from Kimbolton Castle brought Catherine’s remains to Peterborough Abbey, now Peterborough Cathedral. It was the nearest great religious place and Henry did not want to move her remains to London as it would have given the wrong message. The cortege was covered in black velvet, pulled by six horses, and accompanied by 50 servants in suits made of black fabric, carrying banners and torches. Four bishops and six abbots met Catherine’s cortege. One thousand candles lit up the Peterborough Abbey and three masses were held as part of the funeral.
Catherine was buried in an elaborate black marble tomb gilded with gold. Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers stole the gold during the English Civil War. The marble tomb survived into the 18th century when it was taken apart by one of the deans of the cathedral for the floor of his summer house. In 1895, Katharine Clayton, the wife of one of the canons at the cathedral, decided something should be done to restore Catherine’s tomb. She launched an appeal for Katharines/Katherines/Catherines around England to donate money towards the project. Every year around the anniversary of her death, a service commemorating Catherine of Aragon’s life is held at Peterborough Cathedral. Catherine’s grave is visited by many people each year, many leaving flowers and pomegranates, Catherine’s heraldic symbol.
Grave of Catherine of Aragon at Peterborough Cathedral; Credit – By Diliff – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35095609
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