Henry VII built a new brick range of royal apartments with bays and oriel windows on the west side of the Great Court-"a fair front over the moat"45-and rebuilt the chapel. From 1490 on, he and Elizabeth of York often resided at Eltham, and in their day the great hall was used as a dining hall for the court. Here they dined on the dais, while the officers of the court kept their tables at right angles to theirs.
The future Henry VIII and his siblings spent a large part of their childhood on Eltham"s breezy heights,46 their mother being a frequent visitor-often from nearby Greenwich-rather than a constant presence in their lives.47 Margaret was weaned in 1491, probably around her second birthday, and her nurse, Alice Davy, dismissed. It is clear from Exchequer warrants that her household and Henry"s were amalgamated before the end of that year, although each had their own attendants.48 In time other infants would join them. The Great Wardrobe Accounts contain many payments for beautiful clothing for the royal children, who were clad in velvet, satin, and damask right from infancy, outward display being considered more important than practicality.49 Since 1489 there had been fresh and persistent rumors that at least one of the Princes in the Tower had survived. It is not known where they originated, or if Elizabeth heard these rumors, or what she made of them. It is unlikely that she knew for certain what had happened to her brothers, so it is possible that hope sometimes sprang in her heart that one or both of them was alive. Conceivably she had long speculated as to their fate, and maybe this new crop of rumors gave her pause for thought.
But in the autumn of 1491 news came from Ireland that one of the princes might be very much alive. A merchant of Brittany, Pregent Meno, had sailed into Cork with a youth on board. When this fair, blond young man appeared magnificently garbed in silks, bearing himself with great dignity, the citizens of Cork are said to have concluded at once that he must be of royal blood, and the mayor, John At.w.a.ter, impressed by the youth"s knowledge of the court, declared that he must be the Earl of Warwick, escaped from the Tower. It is likely that this plot had been hatched in advance.
What happened next is unclear, but soon afterward it was announced that the handsome stranger was actually Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the vanished princes. York would have reached sixteen in August 1491, and the stranger was about that age. In a drawing in the Receuil d"Arras he bears a strong resemblance to Edward IV, which was commented on by contemporaries, although he was "not handsome," as Edward was.50 Certainly the boy knew a lot about the Yorkist court. According to a thirdhand report, Maximilian of Austria was to a.s.sert that he was Margaret of Burgundy"s b.a.s.t.a.r.d son by Henri de Berghes, Bishop of Cambrai,51 but there is no evidence to substantiate this.
By 1487 the boy had been taken into the service of Edward IV"s G.o.dson, Sir Edward Brampton, a staunch Yorkist knighted by Richard III. Brampton had gone to Portugal to negotiate the marriage between Richard and the Infanta Joana, but he fled into exile in the Netherlands after Bosworth. It could have been in his household that his protege learned so much about the Yorkist court, knowledge that would serve him well in the future. He might have been Edward IV"s b.a.s.t.a.r.d; Bacon hints that there was something scandalous behind the employment of the boy by Edward"s G.o.dson. Yet this lad, who claimed he was brought up at the English court until he was ten, had clearly not yet mastered the English language.
Vergil believed that this was a new imposture, the brainchild of Margaret of Burgundy, who hated Henry VII and had probably been waiting for an opportunity to unseat him since the failure of the Simnel conspiracy. According to Vergil, Margaret had apparently come across the boy by chance, or he might have been pushed into her path by Brampton. Impressed by his looks and sharp wits, and possibly struck by his resemblance to her brother, Edward IV, she was only too happy to recognize him as her lost nephew, whom she had last seen when he was seven. Bacon claimed that she had been looking out for such a handsome, graceful youth "to make Plantagenets and dukes of York." Vergil states that she kept him secretly in her household and that it was she who taught him all he needed to know, "so that afterward he should convince all by his performance that he sprang from the Yorkist line." Vergil believed it was Margaret who had arranged for the lad to go to Ireland with a view to stirring up the Yorkist supporters there.
There is no evidence that Margaret ever met the pretender before 1492, when he fled to her court from France. Even so, it is likely that some conspiracy had been formed before he appeared in Ireland. Henry VII was convinced that it had its roots in Burgundy.52 Certainly Margaret of Burgundy would not have hesitated to do everything in her power to overthrow Henry and Elizabeth and replace them with any "male remnant" of the House of York who was remotely suitable.53 The news of York"s apparent survival "came blazing and thundering into England," arousing much excitement and speculation.54 One wonders what Elizabeth felt on hearing it. Her Victorian biographers suspected that "her mental sufferings were acute"55 during the years and crises that followed, and that the emergence of this new pretender and his subsequent career filled her mind "with gloomy forebodings."56 It seems many wanted to believe that one of the princes had survived. "The King began again to be haunted by sprites, by the magic and curious arts of the Lady Margaret [of Burgundy], who raised up the ghost of Richard, Duke of York, to walk and vex the King. This was a finer counterfeit stone than Lambert Simnel." The youth who claimed to be York was so "crafty and bewitching" that he could "move pity and induce belief, as was like a kind of fascination and enchantment to those that saw or heard him."57 Is it possible that he was the prince he claimed to be? His own account of how he was spared death after his brother had been killed lacks credibility, and there were inconsistencies in his confession, made much later when he was a captive, which cast doubt on its veracity. Further, against the weight of evidence that the princes were dead by October 1483, it would be hard to argue for the survival of one of them. But some were apparently convinced that he was York. He was to "number kings among his friends,"58 convincing the monarchs of France, Denmark, and Scotland, the Duke of Saxony, Maximilian the Archduke of Austria and his son, Philip; all claimed to be satisfied with the evidence of birthmarks, although each at some stage may have been glad of an opportunity to discountenance Henry VII.
The pretender was also a magnet for the dissident Irish lords. "My masters of Ireland, you will crown apes at length!" Henry VII was to observe scathingly.59 But it was no jesting matter: the King might dismiss him as "this lad who calls himself Plantagenet,"60 but that lad was to be a constant thorn in Henry"s side for the next eight years, and at first the King may have feared that he really was Richard of York. The pretender could not have plagued him thus if he had discovered what became of the Princes in the Tower. Had he been in possession of that information, he would surely have used it to counter the pretender"s claims, as he had paraded Warwick in London to counteract Simnel"s.
The question of the youth"s true ident.i.ty must at this stage have tormented Elizabeth, whose heart no doubt leapt at the news that her brother might be alive. Yet her hopes must have been tempered with dread and cruelly torn loyalties, for Richard of York had a better claim to the throne than she or Henry. Even if this pretender was her brother, he must be her husband"s enemy, and therefore hers, a deadly threat to Henry"s security and the safety of her children; and she herself would be placed in a most unenviable position.
Despite the sensation he had created in Cork, the pretender had little success in winning over many of the Irish to his cause, so in 1492 he went to France. Charles VIII"s relations with Henry VII were dismal at that time, so predictably he warmly received the pretender as "Richard IV." a.s.signed royal apartments and a guard of honor, the young man "thought himself in Heaven."61 His advent had already subverted the loyalty of some of Henry"s subjects, "in some upon discontent, in some upon ambition, in some upon levity and desire of change, and in some few upon conscience and belief, but in most upon simplicity, and in divers out of dependence upon some of the better sort, who did in secret favor and nourish these bruits. And it was not long ere these rumors of novelty had begotten others of scandal and murmur against the King and his government, taxing him for a great taxer of his people. Chiefly they fell upon the wrong that he did his Queen, and that he did not reign in her right, wherefore they said that G.o.d had now brought to light a masculine branch of the House of York that would not be at his courtesy, however he did depress his poor lady."62 Unwittingly, Elizabeth had become a focus for discontent among her husband"s subjects, and the existence of the pretender only fueled the fire.
On June 8, 1492, Elizabeth Wydeville died at Bermondsey Abbey. She must have been unwell since at least April 10, when she had made her will. Elizabeth could not be with her at the end, for "at this same season," in the ninth month of her pregnancy, she had already taken to her chamber at Sheen,63 knowing that her mother was very ill; but her sisters and her half brother, the Marquess of Dorset, were present, with Grace, a b.a.s.t.a.r.d daughter of Edward IV. "The said Queen desired on her deathbed that, as soon as she should be deceased, she should in all goodly haste, without any worldly pomp, by water be conveyed to Windsor, and there to be buried in the same vault that her husband was buried in, according to the will of my said lord and mine."64 In her will, witnessed by Abbot John of Bermondsey, and Benedict Cun, "doctor of physic," the Queen Dowager lamented: "Where I have no worldly goods to do the Queen"s Grace, my dearest daughter, a pleasure with, neither to reward any of my children, according to my heart and mind, I beseech Almighty G.o.d to bless Her Grace, with all her n.o.ble issue, and with as good heart and mind as is to me possible, I give Her Grace my blessing, and all the aforesaid my children ... And I beseech my said dearest daughter, the Queen"s Grace, and my son, Thomas, Marquess Dorset, to put their good wills and help for the performance of this my testament," and to ensure that her last requests were carried out. They were few.
Elizabeth Wydeville"s wishes in regard to her interment were respected. Her body was "wrapped in [fifty yards of] wax canvas" and, on the evening of Whitsunday (June 10), conveyed by barge from London to Windsor, with only the executors-the late Queen"s chaplain, the prior of the Charterhouse at Sheen, a Mr. Haute, a clerk, Dr. Brent, and "Mistress Grace" in attendance. The coffin was borne "privily through the little park and conveyed into the castle without ringing of any bells or receiving of the dean and canons, but only by the prior of the Charterhouse of Sheen and her chaplain. And so, privily, about eleven of the clock in the night, she was buried" in Edward IV"s tomb in St. George"s Chapel, Windsor, "without any solemn dirge or Ma.s.s done for her."65 On the Tuesday following, Elizabeth"s younger sisters, Anne, Katherine, and Bridget, arrived by barge at Windsor for the Requiem Ma.s.s, Bridget having come from Dartford Priory. With them were several relatives, including Lord Dorset and John, Viscount Welles, husband of Cecily of York, who was not present, possibly because she was ill or pregnant, so Anne was chief mourner, deputizing for Queen Elizabeth. They attended the ceremonies in St. George"s Chapel that evening and the next, and "the officers of arms, there being present, went before the Lady Anne, which offered the Ma.s.s penny instead of the Queen, wherefore she had the carpet and the cushion laid, as would have happened had Elizabeth been present." There were murmurs that the obsequies were conducted cheaply and shabbily, because only the Poor Knights of St. George, garter officers, and other servants were present, but they had been performed as Elizabeth Wydeville had directed.66 The death of her mother must have been a grievous blow to Elizabeth, coming as it did as she was about to give birth. An observer wrote that because the Queen was confined to her chamber, "I cannot tell what dolent [sad apparel] she goeth in, but I suppose she went in blue likewise as Queen Margaret, the wife of King Henry VI, went in when her mother the Queen of Sicily died."67 Henry VII"s ordinances followed earlier precedents in laying down the colors to be used for royal mourning; blue was still to be worn,68 although Elizabeth was also to don the traditional black after the death of one of her children.69 On July 2 she bore a second daughter, who was baptized Elizabeth in honor of her late grandmother as well as her mother.70 According to the epitaph on her tomb, this child was exceptionally beautiful. She was brought up in the nursery household at Eltham Palace with her brother Henry and sister Margaret, in the care of her nurse, Cecilia Burbage, who was paid a salary of 100s. [2,500]. Her rockers each received 66s.8d. [1,630]. That the royal siblings were brought up together is attested by warrants dated September 1493 for payment to servants attending upon "our right dearly well-beloved children, the Lord Henry and the Ladies Margaret and Elizabeth."71 The Wardrobe Accounts of the Lord Treasurer for the period 149195 contain orders for robes for "Margaret and Elizabeth," the King"s daughters.72 Henry VII"s alliances with Ferdinand and Isabella and Maximilian had led to hostilities with Charles VIII. Early in October 1492 he departed for France, leaving Prince Arthur at Westminster to act as nominal regent in his absence. He arrived at Calais on October 6, then joined his allies in besieging Boulogne. Elizabeth, left behind at Eltham in charge of her younger children, felt her husband"s absence keenly, and wrote him many letters with "tender, frequent, and loving lines," begging him so persuasively to return that they were among the "potent reasons" why he raised the siege, concluded a peace treaty with Charles VIII on November 3 at etaples, and returned to England soon after November 17.73 This reveals how close the royal couple had become in nearly seven years of marriage-so close that they hated being apart.
The peace treaty put an end to Charles VIII"s support of the pretender, but rather than surrender him to Henry VII, Charles merely banished him from France. Late that year the youth sought refuge at the court of Margaret of Burgundy. At first she showed herself dubious about his claims, but then said she had been persuaded, after questioning him, that he was indeed her nephew, "raised from the dead," and publicly congratulated him on his preservation.74 He was taken under the protection of the Archduke Philip, and was again treated like a king. Given a palatial house in Antwerp, he held court there seated under the royal arms of England, which enraged some English visitors. When he went abroad in the streets, he was escorted by a guard of thirty archers wearing his white rose badge. Philip"s father, Maximilian, received him in Vienna as the rightful King of England.
Naturally, everyone wanted to know how "York" had escaped from the Tower as a child. He told them he had narrowly avoided murder by a ruse, "for that those who were employed in that barbarous fact, having destroyed the elder brother, were stricken with remorse and compa.s.sion toward the younger." He had been delivered to "a gentleman who had received orders to destroy him, but who, taking pity on his innocence, had preserved his life and made him swear on the sacraments not to disclose for a certain number of years his birth and lineage."75 It was an unlikely tale, since the a.s.sa.s.sins would surely have known that their remit was to do away with the Yorkist heirs who posed a threat to the King; it did not make sense-and indeed was perilous-for them to kill one and spare the other, however plaintively he pleaded for his life, for with his older brother dead, York would have been, in the eyes of many, the true King of England.
The pretender would never be drawn on the details of Edward V"s murder or his own supposed escape from the Tower, saying only "it is fit it should pa.s.s in silence, or at least in a more secret relation, for that it may concern some alive and the memory of some that are dead."76 That way he forestalled all discussion of the anomalies in his story. But the d.u.c.h.ess Margaret "took pleasure in hearing him repeat the tale," and following her example, the Flemings "professed they believed the youth had escaped the hand of King Richard by divine intervention, and had been brought safely to his aunt."77 "The rumor of so miraculous an occurrence rapidly spread into England, where the story was not merely believed by the common people, but where there were many important men who considered the matter as genuine."78 By now, one imagines, Elizabeth must have been desperate to get a look at or at least obtain more knowledge of this youth who insisted he was her brother. Frustratingly, we don"t know what she made of the story of his escape.
Queens had little control over the lives of their eldest sons. Arthur was growing into a promising boy, "blessed with such great charm, grace, and goodness that he served as an example of unprecedented happiness to people oftimes," as Andre glowingly recorded. But when Arthur was six, Elizabeth had to bid him farewell, for by February 1493 he had been sent to live at Ludlow Castle on the Welsh Marches so that he could learn how to govern his princ.i.p.ality of Wales. It was to be a practical apprenticeship for kingship. The precedent had been established by Edward IV, who had sent the future Edward V to be educated at Ludlow. Following in his uncle"s footsteps, Arthur was nominally to preside over the Council of the Marches and Wales, which administered the princ.i.p.ality. Thereafter Elizabeth would see him only intermittently.
His council was headed by his great-uncle, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, and included his uncle, Dorset, Sir William Stanley, Thomas FitzAlan, now Earl of Arundel, Gerald FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare, who had been forgiven for helping to crown Lambert Simnel, and John Alc.o.c.k, Bishop of Worcester, who served as President of the Council of the Marches, as he had for the future Edward V; his appointment may have been made at the Queen"s behest.
Early in 1493, Sir Richard Pole was appointed chamberlain of the prince"s household.79 The other members of the Council of the Marches included Anthony Willoughby; Robert Ratcliffe, later Earl of Suss.e.x; Maurice St. John of Bletsoe, a favored nephew of Margaret Beaufort who had entered royal service as a member of Henry VII"s elite bodyguard; and Gruffydd ap Rhys, who was the son of an influential Welsh lord and became close friends with Arthur. An interesting appointment, probably also made by the Queen, was that of Dr. John Argentine, former physician to Edward V, who was now to serve as Prince Arthur"s doctor. Dr. Argentine had been one of the last people to see the Princes in the Tower alive.80 After Richard III was crowned, he had fled abroad. Probably he had been able to tell Elizabeth much about her vanished brothers, and possibly this appointment and the many other benefices and marks of royal favor he received under Henry VII were rewards for his loyalty to and care for them both.
Arthur"s governor and comptroller was Sir Henry Vernon. In 1501 the prince stayed at Vernon"s house, Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, where a room adorned with his coat of arms was once called "the Prince"s Chamber."
Arthur had commenced his formal education around 149091. His first tutor was his chaplain, John Rede, headmaster of Winchester College, who gave him a "deep acquaintance with knowledge, without great labor on either side."81 When he was ten, Arthur twice stayed in the President"s Lodgings at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was served pike, tench, red wine, claret, and sack (sweet fortified wine), presented with gloves (as were all distinguished guests), and amused by a marmoset; he came across as "rather in the grave than in the gay aspect of youth."82 Henry VII was the first English king to encourage at his court the Renaissance culture of humanism, the study of ancient cla.s.sical learning, and he was at the forefront of ideas in appointing humanist scholars to teach his sons. Around 1499, Rede was succeeded by the blind friar, Bernard Andre, who had been a.s.sisting Rede since 1496. Under Andre, Arthur studied cla.s.sical and Renaissance literature, history, and philosophy, reading numerous works by authors such as Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Thucydides, Livy, Tacitus, and Erasmus. By 1501, according to Andre, Arthur "had either committed to memory, or read with his own eyes and leafed with his own fingers" the best Latin and Greek authors. Andre was joined after 1499 by Dr. Thomas Linacre, another humanist scholar, who had been in Italy and was a pioneer of the New Learning of the Renaissance as well as the King"s physician. To him was entrusted "the task of making the mind and body of Prince Arthur grow in wholesome vigor," and he dedicated his translation of a Greek text, The Sphere, to the prince. Arthur was also instructed in music, horsemanship, and the arts of warfare. Giles Dewes, who served Henry VII and Henry VIII as clerk of their libraries, was "schoolmaster for the French tongue to Prince Arthur."83 Dewes also specialized in grammar and alchemy and was an accomplished lute player.
Thanks to his careful education, Arthur turned out to be studious, reserved, and thoughtful, "learned beyond his years, and beyond the custom of princes."84 Of the royal children, only he, the heir to the throne, was brought up so far away from his family. The younger ones were reared in households nearer the court, and consequently enjoyed a closer relationship with their parents, especially their mother, who customarily spent more time with them. Elizabeth"s influence over her oldest son"s upbringing would be far less than she exerted over the lives of her other children.
By July 1493, Henry VII"s intelligence had informed him that the young man whom he called "the feigned lad" was Peter, commonly known as Perkin, Warbeck, the son of a boatman of Tournai, and not of royal blood at all,85 whereupon he made a formal protest to Philip and Maximilian against harboring such a dangerous rebel. When this failed, relations between England and Flanders, usually harmonious, quickly deteriorated, resulting in a temporary trade embargo by England.
Did Henry really believe this intelligence, or did it surface all too conveniently? His later conduct, as will be seen, suggests there remained at least a grain of doubt. And if the King was uncertain, then Elizabeth must have been too. Maybe she and her sisters were entertaining a faint hope that their brother was indeed still alive.
But Warbeck"s story had already spread, which was bad news for Henry VII. "Conspiracies began to multiply. Desperadoes seeking refuge in sanctuaries broke forth to flock to Peter in Flanders. Many among the n.o.bility turned to conspiracy. Some were actuated by mere foolhardiness; others, believing Peter to be Edward"s son Richard, supported the claim of the Yorkist party. Others were moved partly by resentment and greed."86 One Edwards, the Queen"s own yeoman, defected to the pretender. Elizabeth was unenviably in the middle. The very silence of the chroniclers on her role in all this strongly suggests that she did what was expected of her.
The Christmas season of 149394 saw lavish and unprecedented celebrations at Westminster. Henry and Elizabeth presided "with great solemnity," and at 11:00 P.M. on Twelfth Night, after divine service and accompanied by the Queen"s ladies and the Spanish amba.s.sadors, they went in procession "through both the halls" to Westminster Hall, which had been hung with tapestries for the occasion. Here they and their guests, including the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London, were entertained by an interlude (a short play) performed by the King"s players; "but ere they had finished came in riding one of the King"s Chapel," the court composer and dramatist William Cornish, "appareled after the figure of St. George; and after followed a fair virgin attired like unto a king"s daughter and leading by a silken lace a terrible and huge red dragon, the which, in sundry places of the hall as he pa.s.sed, spit fire at his mouth. And when Cornish was come before the King, he uttered a certain speech made in ballade royal,87 after finishing thereof he began this anthem of St. George, "O Georgi deo Care" ["O George, beloved of G.o.d"], whereunto the King"s Chapel, which stood fast by, answered "salvatorem deprecare, ut gubernet Angliam" ["Intercede with the Savior, that He may govern England"], and so sang out the whole anthem with l.u.s.ty courage. In pastime whereof the said Cornish avoided with the dragon, and the virgin was led unto the Queen"s standing," to be taken under Elizabeth"s protection.
Then there appeared "twelve gentlemen leading by kerchiefs of pleasance twelve ladies, all goodly disguised, having before them a small tabret [tabor] and a subtle fiddle, the which gentlemen leaped and danced all the length of the hall as they came, and the ladies slid after them," looking as if "they stood upon a frame running." When they came before the King, they danced for an hour, and "it was wonderful to behold the exceeding leaps."
The King and Queen then entertained their guests at a private banquet, seating themselves at the King"s direction at "a table of stone garnished with napery, lights, and other necessaries." Then the disguised gentlemen came in "bearing every each of them a dish, and after them as many knights and esquires as made the full number of sixty, the which sixty dishes were all served to the King"s mess, and as many served unto the Queen." All the dishes were "confections of sundry fruits and conserves, and so soon as the King and the Queen and the other estates were served, then was brought unto the mayor"s stage twenty-four dishes of the same manner service, with sundry wines and ale in most plenteous wise. And finally, as all worldly pleasure hath an end, the board was reverently withdrawn, and the King and Queen with the other estates, with a great sort of lights [were] conveyed into the palace." The Lord Mayor and aldermen of London did not get home until daybreak.88 In April 1492, Henry VII had appointed ten-month-old Prince Henry Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, not only to honor him, but also to provide an income for his maintenance. The following year, to boost that income, Henry had been made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Warden of the Scottish Marches. Now, in October 1494, in order to discountenance the pretender and proclaim him a fraud, the King created his three-year-old son Duke of York. Edward IV had given his second son that t.i.tle; and henceforth, until the eighteenth century (and again today), the second sons of monarchs would customarily bear it. It is tempting to imagine that Henry created this precedent at Elizabeth"s request, in memory of her father"s house and perhaps of her brother Richard, Duke of York, but it is more likely that he did so to demonstrate that young Duke Richard was dead and the t.i.tle was now firmly vested in the Tudor dynasty.
On October 27, the eve of the feast day of Saints Simon and Jude, "the King, the Queen, and my lady the King"s mother came from Sheen to Westminster to dinner." That same day, "about three in the afternoon, Lord Henry came through the City. He sat on a courser and rode to Westminster to the King with a goodly company,"89 escorted by the Lord Mayor, the aldermen, "and all the crafts in their liveries."90 The King welcomed his son and "kissed him, and from thence went into the Queen"s closet." There is a sketch of the child Henry at the age of two or three in the Bibliotheque de Mejanes, which shows him as a solid, placid infant with chubby cheeks and alert eyes.91 Three days later the little prince waited upon his father with a towel while the King dined, then, having been signed with a cross by Henry and given Elizabeth"s blessing, he and twenty-two other candidates received the customary ceremonial bath before keeping vigil in St. Stephen"s Chapel throughout the night-a long ordeal for so young a child. The next day he was dubbed a Knight of the Bath. The ceremony of enn.o.blement took place the following day, when he was formally created Duke of York in the presence of the whole court, both houses of Parliament, and the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London. "My lord Shrewsbury bare my Lord Harry, Duke of York, in his arms, and ten bishops with miters on their heads going before the King that day about Westminster Hall, with many others of great estate." In the prince"s honor, the King created new Knights of the Bath. Elizabeth was not present at the enn.o.bling, but afterward she and Henry, crowned and robed in ermine, went with their son, who was wearing a miniature suit of armor, in procession to Westminster Abbey to attend a Ma.s.s celebrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury.92 The following day was All Souls" Day, when, by tradition, the King kept a "day of estate" at court and he and Elizabeth again wore their royal robes and crowns.
The celebrations in honor of the young duke went on for at least two weeks. There were three days of "jousts royal in the King"s Palace of Westminster," where a special stand had been built for the royal party; "it was the most triumphant place that ever I saw," wrote an observer. The people had flocked "to see the King"s Grace and the Queen so richly appareled, his house and stage covered with cloth of Arras blue, enramplished with fleurs-de-lis of gold, and within hanged with rich cloth of Arras and two cloths of estate, one for the King, another for the Queen, and rich cushions of cloth of gold, accompanied with the great estates of this realm, as the Duke of York, the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Buckingham, and many other," and with them "the fairest young princess," "the Lady Margaret, the King"s oldest daughter." On the first day the challengers wore the King"s livery of green and white, the Tudor colors, but all sported a badge with the Queen"s livery of blue and mulberry on their helmets. Other jousts were fought by lesser combatants, but were "honorable and comfortable to the King and Queen and many other great people there to watch, and a great pleasure to the common people." On the second day the contestants wore Margaret Beaufort"s blue-and-white livery, and "by the advice of the King [and] the Queen, my lady the King"s mother gave the prize."93 On November 11, Henry and Elizabeth, sitting under their canopies of estate, presided over another tournament, which was followed by a comic display between mock knights. Two days later there were more jousts before "the King"s Highness, for whose pleasure, the Queen"s, and all the ladies," the contestants took part, "especially for the pleasure of their redoubted lady and fairest young princess," five-year-old Princess Margaret, who, prompted by her parents, presented the prizes. These were handed to her by three of her mother"s ladies: Elizabeth Stafford, Anne Percy, and Anne Neville, who, clad in white damask gowns with crimson velvet sleeves and gold circlets on their heads, had led three knights into the ring. By popular demand, more jousts were held on November 12, and on the following day "the King [and] the Queen entered the field to their house."94 In 1619, Paolo Sarpi, a Venetian scholar and church reformer, stated that Prince Henry, "not being born the King"s eldest son, had been destined by his father to be Archbishop of Canterbury, and therefore in his youth was made to study"; this a.s.sertion was repeated by Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Henry VIII"s seventeenth-century biographer, who opined that a career in the Church was a "cheap and glorious way" of advancing a younger son, and that the information came from a "credible author"; yet there is no contemporary evidence to support it, and the fact that Henry was given a secular dukedom contradicts it.
That year the King held "his royal feast of Christmas" at Greenwich, where he entertained the Lord Mayor of London; "which disports being ended in the morning, the King, the Queen, the amba.s.sadors ... being sat at a table of stone, sixty knights and esquires served sixty dishes to the King"s mess, and as many to the Queen"s ... And finally, the King and Queen were conveyed with great lights into the palace."95 On January 7, 1495, the court moved to the Tower, where Elizabeth was a silent witness to the grim events that followed. Two years earlier a knight, Robert Clifford, had been secretly communicating with Sir William Stanley; then Clifford had gone to the court of Burgundy and espoused the cause of Perkin Warbeck. Mysteriously, in December 1494, he was granted a free pardon, upon which he returned to England. On January 6, "forewarned of his coming," the King went ahead to the Tower and had Clifford brought there so he could question him himself. During that interview Clifford-who was probably a royal spy or a double agent-incriminated Sir William Stanley and others who enjoyed his confidence, apparently a.s.serting that Stanley had said he would not fight against Warbeck if he was the true son of Edward IV.96 Bacon a.s.serts that resentment of Henry"s rule, his taxes, and his treatment of Elizabeth were at the root of Stanley"s disaffection.
At first, according to Vergil, the King could not be persuaded to believe Clifford; he owed his crown to Stanley"s intervention at Bosworth, and since then Stanley had held a position of great trust as chamberlain of the royal household, an office that brought him in daily contact with the King; and he had grown very rich in Henry"s service. Elizabeth knew him well. He was also Margaret Beaufort"s brother-in-law, so these allegations came close to home. In the end Clifford convinced Henry that Stanley was plotting treason, and left the Tower with a gift of 500 [243,000].
Henry did not wish to alienate Thomas Stanley, but "in the end severity won and mercy was put behind."97 Sir William and his contacts were arrested, arraigned and condemned for aiding the cause of the pretender Warbeck and plotting the death and destruction of the King and the overthrow of his kingdom. Stanley was accused of pa.s.sing on privileged information to the pretender, thus abusing the trust placed in him by the King. The allegiance he owed Henry VII may have been compromised by his resentment at not being awarded a peerage, and by Henry"s curbs on the power of the n.o.bility, but he must have known that he stood to lose more than most if Henry were overthrown; possibly he hoped for more from Warbeck. The twelve days of executions that followed, culminating with Stanley"s beheading before dawn on February 16 on Tower Hill, caused a sensation.
Warbeck"s cause was now "as stone without lime" in England, and he knew it. In return for continuing financial support from Maximilian and Philip, he resorted to pledging them part of his kingdom if he died childless-and, of course, was in possession of it; and he promised to give away all Henry VII"s personal effects, even down to the toys of his children. Then he set about raising mercenaries to "try his adventures in some exploit upon England, hoping still upon the affections of the common people toward the House of York."98 With Warbeck at large on the Continent and Sir William Stanley proved guilty of treason, Henry VII was aware that his enemies might scheme to use Elizabeth"s unmarried sisters against him. Wishing to avert that threat, he arranged marriages advantageous to himself for Anne and Katherine. On February 4, 1495, at Greenwich, Anne was married to Lord Thomas Howard, son of the Earl of Surrey, who had affirmed to the King that they had been betrothed since 1484.99 The royal family attended the wedding and Henry VII gave the bride away, himself presenting the offering at the nuptial Ma.s.s.100 The marriage marked the return to favor of the Howards: Thomas"s father, the Earl of Surrey, had fought for Richard III at Bosworth and spent three years in prison in the Tower for it, but his refusal to seize an opportunity of escaping had marked him to Henry VII as an honorable, upright man, and secured his pardon and release, and the restoration of his estates and the earldom of Surrey. Since then Howard had proved his loyalty and worth to the new dynasty, paving the way for the marriage of his son to the Queen"s sister, which would bind the Howards to the royal house by kinship as well as loyalty.
On February 12, Elizabeth met with Surrey to finalize Anne"s marriage settlement-which shows that she had been involved in arranging the match. The King had not advanced the marriage portion of 10,000 marks [1.5 million] willed to Anne by Edward IV, so Elizabeth undertook in this indenture to provide the couple with an annuity of 120 [58,300], to which the King had agreed to contribute 26 [12,600, considerably less than Anne"s father had willed] annually from the crown lands; in addition, Elizabeth promised to pay allowances of 20s. [500] a week for the upkeep of the couple"s estate, food, and drink; 51.11s.8d. [25,000] for the wages of two female attendants, a maid, a gentleman, a yeoman, and three grooms; and 15.11s.8d. [7,600] a year to maintain seven horses. In addition, "the said Queen"s Grace, at her costs and charges, shall find unto the Lady Anne all her sufficient and convenient apparel for her body, at all times" until the couple came into their inheritance on Surrey"s death.
In return, the cash-strapped Surrey settled on the couple, as jointure, four manors that would revert on Thomas Howard"s death to Anne"s half brother, Dorset, her royal nephew, Henry, Duke of York, and others of the Queen"s choosing. The indenture was signed in Elizabeth"s own hand.101 At her request and Surrey"s, the settlement was approved by the King in Parliament in 1496, the act being pa.s.sed "at the special desire" of the Queen, since it was "her very will and mind" that the settlement be paid in full.102 This is another instance of Elizabeth exercising her authority within the conventional bounds permitted to queens.
After her marriage, Anne did not frequent the court: her name is not recorded there again. Tragically, her four children-Muriel, Katherine, Henry, and Thomas-were all to die in infancy. They were buried in the Howard aisle in St. Mary"s Church at Lambeth.103 Later in 1495 (certainly by October), Elizabeth"s other unwed sister, sixteen-year-old Katherine, was married to Lord William Courtenay. The Courtenays, who were descended from Edward I, had long supported the House of Lancaster. William"s father, Edward Courtenay, had been one of Henry Tudor"s adherents during Buckingham"s rebellion; after being attainted he had defected to him in Brittany and fought for him at Bosworth, for which he had been rewarded with the earldom of Devon. His son William made a worthy and honorable match for a princess: Vergil praised his courage and his manly bearing, and Hall called him "a man of great n.o.bility, estimation, and virtue."104 Elizabeth almost certainly helped to arrange this marriage too, negotiating with the Earl of Devon a similar settlement to what she had negotiated for her sister Anne and Thomas Howard; no indenture survives, but the Queen appointed the same men to hold the lands in question.105 After the wedding, Katherine resided mainly at the castles of Tiverton, Colcombe, and Powderham in Devon, or at her husband"s London residence in Warwick Lane, Newgate. She bore Courtenay two sons and a daughter.
On March 27, 1495, to supplement her dower, Henry gave Elizabeth the castle, manor, lordship, and town of Fotheringhay,106 the chief seat of her Yorkist forebears, a gift that must have been very welcome to her. Strangely, given that so many members of her family were represented, her arms were missing from the lost heraldic gla.s.s in Fotheringhay Church and College, as described by William Dugdale in the seventeenth century.107 In April the King named Elizabeth Chief Lady of the Order of the Garter. Prince Henry, not quite four, was made a Knight of the Garter on May 17, wearing a crimson velvet gown and cap for his invest.i.ture.108 Death carried off Elizabeth"s grandmother, the eighty-year-old Cecily, d.u.c.h.ess of York, on May 31, 1495, at Berkhamsted Castle. Cecily, clothed in the black Benedictine habit she had worn for many years now, was buried with her husband, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, in the collegiate church at Fotheringhay, the ancestral mausoleum of the House of York. In her will, she bequeathed to Elizabeth a psalter with a relic of St. Christopher;109 Margaret Beaufort was left an exquisite breviary, which suggests that the two matriarchs had got on well.
On Cecily"s death, her revenues reverted by inheritance to her granddaughter the Queen, bringing Elizabeth a further 1,399.6s.8d. [680,200] a year, which considerably boosted her income and helped to clear the debts she had ama.s.sed. She also inherited Baynard"s Castle, which fittingly made her the owner of the two great seats of the House of York. Baynard"s Castle was a place she had known well from childhood, for it had been the London residence of Cecily Neville from 1461, and in 1461 and 1483, respectively, Edward IV and Richard III were offered the crown of England in its great hall. A castle had stood on the site since Norman times, when, along with the Tower of London and Mountfichet"s Tower, Baynard"s Castle had been one of three fortresses guarding the City.
The house Elizabeth inherited was the third to be built on or near the site. It was "situated right pleasantly on Thames side, and full well garnished and arranged, and encompa.s.sed outside strongly with water,"110 its wall rising sheer from the river. It consisted of four wings built in a trapezoid shape around a double courtyard with lovely gardens, from which rose a hexagonal tower. It became Elizabeth"s favorite London residence and she spent liberally on its gardens. In 150001, Henry VII "repaired or rather new builded this house, not embattled, or so strongly fortified castlelike, but far more beautiful and commodious for the entertainment of any prince or great estate."111 His additions included five projecting towers between the two existing great octagonal corner towers on the riverfront. The princ.i.p.al chambers, which may have been located in these towers, were freshly decorated, with new gla.s.s in the windows, expensive ironwork, and tapestries.112 On July 1, 1495, Henry and Elizabeth departed on a progress northward, visiting Chipping Norton, Evesham, Tewkesbury, and Worcester before arriving at Bewdley, the residence of Prince Arthur, on July 10. They were with their son at Ludlow two days later;113 he had traveled ahead to receive them. Entertainments had been laid on, and the prince watched a play in the "dry quarry," an amphitheatre on the site of the modern swimming pool. Henry and Elizabeth then left for Shrewsbury.
This progress came at a fraught time, as an invasion by Perkin Warbeck was expected daily. Sir William Stanley"s execution had cost Henry much popularity in the northwest, where the Stanleys had a great affinity. In Lancashire they were important landowners and commanded more respect than the monarch, and in this period they were steadily increasing their extensive land holdings in the county. It was not the most convenient time to be away, but the King felt it necessary that he should be seen in those parts with his popular Queen in order to regain the love of his subjects.
The royal couple rode northward to Combermere Abbey, Shropshire, where they stayed in the lavish Abbot"s Lodgings. From there they traveled via Holt to Chester, and thence to Hawarden in Wales, where Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, awaited them. On July 27 he accompanied the King and Queen to Vale Royal Abbey, then escorted them north to Lathom House,114 his palatial mansion at Ormskirk, Lancashire. To ease the royal journey, Derby had a fine stone bridge built at Warrington, which lasted until the nineteenth century.
Lathom had been in the possession of the Stanleys since 1390. It was set in a deer park bounded by the River Tawd, Eller Brook, and Douglas Brook, and overlooked the town of Burscough and the marshlands of Martin Mere and Hoscar Mossit. The estate, part of the parish of Ormskirk, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Lathom House, begun by Derby in 1485, was a palatial mansion boasting eighteen towers and a moat eight yards wide; it is said that this splendid house, which was unique in the northwest, was Henry VII"s inspiration for Richmond Palace. Derby was now busily converting Lathom into the chief administrative center of the region, but it was still a peaceful retreat, far from the turmoil of the court.
In the early seventeenth century Samuel Rutter, Bishop of Sodor and Man, described Lathom before its destruction: "Lathom House was encompa.s.sed with a strong wall of two yards thick; upon the walls were nine towers, flanking each other. Without the wall was a moat eight yards wide; upon the back of the moat was a strong row of palisades; beside these there was a high strong tower, called the Eagle Tower, in the midst of the house surrounding all the rest; and the gateway was also two high and strong buildings, with a strong tower on each side of it. There is something so particular and romantic in the general situation of this house, as if Nature herself had formed it for a stronghold or place of security."115 The names of seven of the towers were the Eagle Tower, the Tower of Madness, the Tower at the Kitchen Bridge, the little tower next it, the next tower to that in the corner, the Chapel Tower, and the Private Tower.116 Henry and Elizabeth stayed at Lathom for four days as guests of Derby and Margaret Beaufort. During their visit Henry rewarded "the women that sang before the King and Queen."117 A tale persisted in the Stanley family that the King, after being shown over the house, was taken up to the leads by Derby to see the fine view of the countryside roundabout. The earl"s fool accompanied them, and seeing the King standing near the unguarded edge of the leads, he muttered to Derby, "Tom, remember Will." He was referring, of course, to Sir William Stanley. Henry heard his words and, perceiving what was meant, hastened back downstairs to Elizabeth and terminated his visit immediately, leaving the fool wishing that his master had had the courage to avenge the death of his brother.118 But there is no historical evidence to back up the story.
Late in July, while Henry and Elizabeth were at Lathom, Warbeck and fourteen ships carrying his mercenary force of what Vergil called "human dregs" finally anch.o.r.ed off Deal. The pretender sent his soldiers ash.o.r.e to reconnoiter prior to invading, but the men of Kent were already on the alert and summoned the King"s forces, who cut them to pieces,119 prompting Warbeck"s fleet to scurry away to the west. By the end of July, Warbeck was in Ireland. His attempt to attack Waterford was fiercely repelled by the able Sir Edward Poynings, the King"s Deputy. Driven off, Warbeck sailed toward Cork, disappeared for a time, then made his way north to Scotland.
On August 3, Henry and Elizabeth moved south to Derby"s hunting lodge at Knowsley, east of Liverpool, where Derby had built for them a set of detached royal lodgings. He had perhaps also commissioned a new four-poster bed-the "Paradise Bed"-which was very similar in size, design, and ornamentation to another bed that he had had made for himself, either for Lathom or Knowsley. Both were probably built by the same craftsmen; the standard of carving is exceptionally high and reveals Burgundian influence. It is not known whether the Paradise Bed was installed at Lathom or Knowsley, or whether it was built some years before this visit, but it may have been specially made for the new royal apartments at Knowsley.
The royal bed has a triptych of panels set into the headboard; the central panel portrays the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the side panels display the royal arms of France and England respectively, which are repeated on the footboard. The lion and the dragon, supporters of the Tudor arms, appear in the central panel. Tudor roses appear on the head posts and on shields supported by the heraldic lions surmounting the posts. The center crest bears the royal arms of England and France quartered. The cross of St. George-a saint much invoked by Henry VII-dominates the side crest of the bed, which is formed by a carved knotted cord that may symbolize the King"s devotion to the Observant Friars. These symbols are all to be seen in the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey. The faces of Adam and Eve bear some resemblance to those of Henry and Elizabeth-especially as carved in the Sudbury Hutch (see Appendix I)-and maybe Derby wanted a parallel drawn between the progenitors of humanity and the founders of the Tudor dynasty.120 If the Paradise Bed was at Knowsley, then Henry and Elizabeth slept in it for just one night. The next day they were in Manchester, then a market town, and on September 6 proceeded southward, lodging at Macclesfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford, and Lichfield, before diverting northeast to Burton-on-Trent and Derby, then south via Loughborough to Collyweston, Margaret Beaufort"s house. They continued south to Rockingham, and then to Northampton, Banbury, and Woodstock, where they stayed for ten days. By now Elizabeth knew she was to have another child, so possibly she needed to rest. On October 20 she and Henry were at Ewelme, the Oxfordshire seat of her cousin, Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, then they moved on to Bisham Priory, Berkshire, the burial place of many of her Neville ancestors. From there they went to Windsor Castle, and then to Sheen, arriving on October 31.121 They were to have four days in which to relax after their travels before calamity struck.
14.
"Doubtful Drops of Royal Blood"
Infant mortality was high in Tudor times, and in an age long before antibiotics even royal children succ.u.mbed to minor illnesses. Elizabeth faced tragedy when, on October 7, 1495,1 when she was nearly five months pregnant, her three-year-old daughter Elizabeth died at Eltham Palace. Her death came at a time when her father was negotiating a marriage for her with the future King Francis I of France, then a year-old child. As the King and Queen were at Sheen when their daughter died,2 her death was probably unexpected.
On November 16, 1495, bravely setting aside their grief, they honored with their presence the traditional feast held by the newly appointed Serjeants-at-Law amid the splendors of Ely Place in Holborn,3 Elizabeth and her ladies dining in one room, and Henry and his retinue in another, as was customary. Ely Place would have held a special relevance for both Henry and Elizabeth, for their common ancestor, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, had lived there with his third wife, Katherine Swynford, mother of his Beaufort children, in the late fourteenth century; but on this occasion it was more likely that Elizabeth"s thoughts were with the child she had lost.
The body of the infant princess was brought from Eltham in a black "chair," or chariot, drawn by six horses to the gate of Westminster Abbey, where the prior was waiting to receive it. The King and Queen were nearby at Westminster Palace4 but did not attend the obsequies, for which Henry had outlaid 318 [155,480] on October 26. The funeral was arranged by Cardinal Morton, Giles, Lord Daubeney, the Lord Chamberlain, and others. It took place a month later, on November 26, was conducted with great ceremony and attended by a hundred poor men who had been given black gowns for the occasion.5 Soon afterward the grieving parents raised to the memory of "our daughter Elizabeth, late pa.s.sed out of this transitory life" a small tomb chest of gray Lydian marble with a black marble cover "on the right-hand side of the altar, just before St. Edward"s shrine, the foundation of which the foot of the grave almost touched." It cost 371.0s.11d. [181,400].6 Originally the tomb bore a copper-gilt effigy and inscription, but these have long disappeared, presumed stolen. Fortunately the inscription was copied and preserved by the Elizabethan antiquarian John Stow. It read: "Elizabeth, second daughter of Henry VII, the most ill.u.s.trious King of England, France, and Ireland, and of the Lady Elizabeth, his most serene wife ... On whose soul G.o.d have mercy. Here, after death, lies in this tomb a descendant of royalty, the young and n.o.ble Elizabeth, an ill.u.s.trious princess. Atropos, most merciless messenger of death, s.n.a.t.c.hed her away. May she inherit eternal life in Heaven!"7 It is this reference to the G.o.ddess Atropos, the oldest of the Fates, that has led historians to conclude that Princess Elizabeth died of "atrophy," a wasting disease that can have many causes, although the Tudor age understood it to be the result of poor nourishment. It is hard to imagine that Henry, Elizabeth, or Margaret Beaufort would have allowed a child to perish through such neglect; in fact, the epitaph clearly referred not to a disease, but to the dread task of the severe and inflexible Atropos, which was to choose how a person would die and cut the thread of their life short with her shears. The princess had probably succ.u.mbed rapidly to a childhood infection that would be easily treated today. There is nothing in the historical record to suggest she was delicate or suffered a long illness.
Late that year Elizabeth, no doubt seeking spiritual comfort and wishing to pray for the blessing of a son, journeyed to the famous shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary at Walsingham in Norfolk, where Christ"s mother had reputedly appeared in 1061 to Richeldis de Faverches, a devout widow, and asked her to build a replica of the "holy house of Nazareth" where she had received the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus. Angels were said to have a.s.sisted in the miraculous construction of what was to become one of the most important shrines in Christendom. In time, Augustinian and Franciscan monasteries were founded nearby to look after the needs of the hordes of pilgrims, and over the centuries the "holy house," known as "Little Nazareth," had been visited by numerous kings and queens, and made rich by the offerings of the devout.
Our Lady of Walsingham, the patron saint of mothers, and indeed of all humanity, was said to bestow the gift of calm and serenity to those beset by troubles. Elizabeth had to pa.s.s several small chapels along the road leading to the shrine, but at the last, the fourteenth-century Slipper Chapel, dedicated to St. Katherine, she would have removed her shoes and walked the remaining mile barefoot. Thus she reverently entered the holy sanctum of the incense-scented, candlelit Chapel of the Virgin to pray before the gilded and bejeweled image of St. Mary. Relics were displayed nearby, among them a phial of the Virgin"s milk and a statue of her said to be of miraculous origin. Elizabeth would also have seen a kneeling silver-gilt statue of her husband, given during a pilgrimage made by Henry VII in 1487.
Elizabeth was also a patron of the shrine of Our Lady of Grace of Ipswich, which was first recorded in 1152 and now ranked only second in popularity to Our Lady of Walsingham. A daughter of Edward I had been married in the chapel of Our Lady of Grace in 1297. The shrine was closed down in 1538, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and no trace of the chapel survives; a bronze plaque in Lady Lane marks the site where it once stood. Almost certainly a statue of the Madonna in the sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace at Nettuno, Italy, is the original image that adorned the shrine in Ipswich, having been rescued from the pyre that awaited it in Chelsea, where it was to be burned with the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.8 In November 1495, Perkin Warbeck surfaced in Scotland and was received with royal honors by King James IV at Stirling Castle. James took an instant liking to him, decked him out in clothes befitting a king, settled on him a very generous pension, and took him on a triumphal progress through his kingdom. News of this alarmed Henry VII, for he had been working to seal a peace alliance with Scotland through the marriage of his daughter Margaret to the Scots king.9 James not only seemed determined to provoke his English neighbor, but clearly believed that Warbeck was indeed "Prince Richard of England." He held tournaments in his honor and married him to his distant kinswoman, Katherine, "a young virgin of excellent beauty and virtue, daughter of George Gordon, Earl of Huntly."10 If a love letter from Warbeck is genuine, he was deeply smitten. His bride"s eyes were "brilliant as the stars. Whoever sees her cannot choose but admire her; admiring, cannot choose but love her; loving, cannot choose but obey her."11 This was all bad news for King Henry, for Ferdinand and Isabella were now stalling at concluding the marriage alliance with England while the pretender was at large. But the King was working to neutralize that threat. Fractured relations between England and the Low Countries were healed in February 1496, when he sealed a peace treaty with Maximilian in which each agreed not to support the other"s rebels; the treaty, in both countries" interests, effectively slammed the door to Flanders in Warbeck"s face, for Margaret of Burgundy had been warned that she would be deprived of her dower lands if she did not honor its terms. Henry had also made peace with the French, so Warbeck was now isolated in Scotland.
Elizabeth"s third daughter was born on March 18, 1496, at Sheen Palace.12 The year is sometimes given as 1495, as Margaret Beaufort incorrectly recorded it in her book of hours. In true medieval fashion she dated the years from Lady Day, March 25, and by that reckoning March 18 would have belonged to the previous year, 1495. Later, Erasmus misleadingly stated that this child, Mary, was four in September 1499; however, he gave the ages of Prince Henry and Prince Margaret as a year older than they actually were, so it is likely that he gave Mary"s age incorrectly too. The earliest extant doc.u.ment that mentions Mary is a payment to Anne (or Alice) Skern (or Skeron), her nurse, for one quarter ending June 1496, such payments normally paid half yearly. The fact that she was paid only from March confirms that Mary was born in 1496.13 The King and Queen possibly named their new baby after the sister Elizabeth had loved and lost, or after the Virgin Mary. Mary grew up to be very beautiful, much resembling her mother in portraits; like her, she had red-gold hair. The infant princess was sent to Eltham to be brought up with Prince Henry and Princess Margaret.
By May, Henry and Elizabeth had moved to Sheen and thence to Greenwich, where he gave her a gift of 30 [14,600] to buy jewels.14 That summer, their progress took them to the West Country. In June they left Sheen for Chertsey, then moved on to Guildford, Farnham, Alresford, Bishops Waltham, Porchester, and Southampton, arriving on July 14. They stayed at Beaulieu Abbey and crossed the Solent to the Isle of Wight during their visit, then traveled on to Christchurch, Poole, and Corfe Castle. On August 5 they were at Salisbury, and five days later visited Heytesbury, where Elizabeth probably lived after she left sanctuary in 1484. John Nesfield, her former gaoler and host, had died in 1488, and the manor was now owned by Edward Hastings, Lord Hungerford; he was married to the heiress of the Hungerfords, who had been restored in blood by Henry VII.15 During her visit Elizabeth may have reflected on how settled her life was now compared with the uncertainties of twelve years earlier, when she had resided at Heytesbury during Richard III"s reign.
The royal couple then traveled on to Bath, Bristol, Iron Acton, Malmesbury, Cirencester, and Woodstock. On September 10 they returned via Wycombe to Windsor.16 In September 1496, Prince Henry-or "my Lord Harry," as he was known17-performed his first public duty when he witnessed a charter granted by the King to the abbot and convent of Glas...o...b..ry Abbey, a monastery he was to dissolve decades later.
Harry was now five, a boy of considerable intellect and talent, whom his grandmother called the King"s "fair sweet son."18 It was the King who drew up the rules by which the royal nursery was governed, but the Queen also had a say in the upbringing of her children, as no doubt did Margaret Beaufort. In 1496, Elizabeth appointed Elizabeth Denton, who had served her as wardrobe keeper since her marriage, as a replacement for the long-serving Elizabeth Darcy as lady mistress of the nursery to Prince Henry and his sisters at Eltham Palace.19 Elizabeth Denton also continued to serve the Queen, and by February 1499 had become governess to the princesses and was replaced as mistress of the nursery by Anne Crowmer.20 When Elizabeth Denton accompanied Princess Margaret to Scotland in 1503, Anne Crowmer took over as Mary"s governess. Mistress Denton later served as lady governess and mistress of the nursery to Henry VIII"s own children, Henry, Prince of Wales, and the future Mary I, respectively, and in 1515 was in receipt of an annuity of 50 [19,000] for good service rendered to the late King and Queen.21 By 1499, Jane Vaux, Lady Guildford, who had long served in the household of the Queen, was also employed as governess to the princesses; in 1503 she was paid a salary of 13.6s.8d. [6,500].22 The nursery at Eltham was therefore dominated by women, and the young Prince Henry spent his childhood very much under female influence. The fact that Elizabeth Denton served both Prince Henry and his mother suggests that the Queen spent time with her younger son and his sisters,23 taking a keen interest in their learning and accomplishments, as did the Lady Margaret. All the evidence suggests that Henry, Margaret, and Mary grew up closer to their mother than was often the lot of royal children. It is likely that Elizabeth herself taught her younger children some of their early lessons. A literate woman who loved books and music, she imparted her pa.s.sion for these things to the future Henry VIII and his sisters. David Starkey noted the similarities between the few extant examples of her handwriting and theirs, which suggests that she herself taught them to read and write.24 Prince Henry"s formal education had begun the year before under the guidance of the Cambridge-educated poet laureate, John Skelton, a protege of Margaret Beaufort, who was probably responsible for his appointment. Skelton, who was also a great satirist, now took up residence with his charge at Eltham Palace, and would remain in that post until 1502. Erasmus told Prince Henry that Skelton was "that incomparable light and ornament of British letters, who cannot only kindle your studies but bring them to a happy conclusion."25 Twenty years later, when Henry was King, the poet recalled: The honour of England I learned to spell In dignity royal that doth excel.
I gave him drink of the sugared well.26 It was ever-frowning, frost-faced Skelton who encouraged the prince"s musical talents, inherited from and encouraged by both parents, and taught him to play the lute, organ, and virginals, to read music, and to sing. Young Henry proved to be gifted musically, not only as a player but also as a composer: many pieces he was to compose as an adult survive and are still sung today. Skelton also fostered in his pupil a love of theology and taught him Latin. Like all the Tudors, Henry had an apt.i.tude for languages. Above all, Skelton instilled in the boy a love of learning and scholarship that lasted all his life; and he took delight in his charge"s achievements, calling him "a delightful small, new rose, worthy of its stock." It was for Henry that he wrote his Speculum Principis, a manual for a future ruler, which advised him not to rely too heavily on his ministers, and to "choose a wife for yourself, prize her always and uniquely"-advice that the adult Henry did not heed.
Much later-around the time of Elizabeth"s death, as he was given mourning c