The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I by Stephen Alford
‘Alford’s splendid exploration of the secret world of Elizabethan England begins with an arresting what-if-scenario: what if the queen had been assassinated in 1586?….he sets the scene for a riveting study of the spies, informers and code-breakers who kept the Virgin Queen safe from Catholic conspiracies during an erathat was much more paranoid that we remember.’ (Dominic Sandbrook, p.44, 25 November 2012)
The Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary, and Especially of the Rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat
p.32
‘The xiijth daie of November were ledd out of the Tower on foot, to be arrayned, to yeldhall, with the axe before theym, from theyr warde, Thomas Cranmer, archbushoppe of Canterbury, between (blank)
Next followed the lorde Gilforde Dudley, between (blank)
Next followed the lady Jane, between (blank), and hir ij. Gentyllwomen following hir.
Next followed the lorde Ambrose Dudley and the lorde Harry Dudley.
The lady Jane was in a blacke gowne of cloth, tourned downe; the cappe lined with fese velvet, and edget about with the same, in a French hoode, all black, with a black byllyment, a black velvet boke hanging before hir, and another boke in hir hande open, holding hir.’
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Diary of Henry Machyn
p.37
‘(The 13th of November were arraigned at Guildhall doctor Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, the lord) Gylfford Dudlay, the sune of the duke of Northumberland, and my lade Jane ys wyff, the doythur of the duke of Suffoke-Dassett, and the lord Hambrosse Dudlay, (and the) lord Hare Dudlay, the wyche lade Jane was proclamyd (Queen): they all v wher cast for to dee.’
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Original Letters Relative to the Reformation
p.374 & 507-8
‘On November the fourteenth Jane, formerly queen, together with the archbishop of Canterbury and all the sons of the duke of Northumberland, was arraigned before the judges at Whitehall; you know the place at London. Sentence of death was pronounced upon them all.’
Letter CLXXXII
Julius Terentianus to John (Ab Ulmis)
Strasburgh Nov 20 1553
‘On the 14th of November the archbishop of Canterbury, together with the late queen Jane, and the sons of the duke of Northumberland, were brought to trial, and condemned to death…’
Letter CCXXXVIII
Peter Martyr to Henry Bullinger
Strasburgh Dec 15 1553
Two weeks ago I went to ‘The Lost Prince Exhibition’ at the National Portrait Gallery. It was wonderful and a must see!
The Sunday Times Culture writes:
‘Four hundred years after Henry’s death in 1612, the National Portrait Gallery is staging the first exhibition devoted to him. There have been other lost princes in our national history – the Princes in the Tower; the Black Prince; Henry VIII’s older brother, Arthur, whose survival and ascension to the throne might have taken English history in a very different direction – but none has vanished so completely as Henry Stuart.’ (p.6, Sunday Times Culture)
This exhibition, with its wide ranging portraits of, items belonging to and items that the Prince himself collected means that this lost Stuart Prince is no longer forgotten.
These are my highlights from the exhibition:
Room 1 – A New Royal Family
‘The most happy unions contracted betwixt the princes of the blood royal of theirs towe famous kingdoms of England and Scotland’ by John Speed.
This engraving of James’ family tree shows that he was descended from Henry VII on both his father’s and mother’s side. According to the NPG ‘some of the portraits are fictional, while others are based on earlier images.’ Portraits include Margaret Countess of Lennox, Margaret Tudor, Elizabeth of York and Henry VII.
The room includes the following portraits:
Prince Henry Frederick
1594-1612
Unidentified artist
‘Only known portrait of Prince Henry to have been painted during his childhood in Scotland (aged 2 years old) (NPG).
Prince Henry
Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
James VI
c 1606
John de Critz the Elder
Anne of Denmark
c1605-10
John de Critz the Elder
Princess Elizabeth
1603
Robert Peake the Elder
Charles I
c1610
Robert Peake the Elder
James VI miniature
Nicholas Hilliard
1609-15
Anne of Denmark miniature
Isaac Oliver
1612
Also on display are two letters:
Letter from King James I to Prince Henry
1604
Letter from Prince Henry to Queen Anne
22 September 1603
From Nonsuch Palace
Read more at National Portrait Gallery – A New Royal Family
Room 2 – The Making of a Prince
The highlight of this room for me was Prince Henry’s copy-book, dating from 1604-1606.
‘This is a copy-book in which Prince Henry practised his handwriting. On the left hand page are flourishes, letters, latin phrases and his own signature, on the right hand page he was copied out, repeatedly a passage in latin.’ (NPG)
You can view it at the NPG website:
National Portrait Gallery – The Making of a Prince
Also on display is a marvellous painting of:
Prince Henry with Robert Deveraux (3rd Earl of Essex)
1605
Robert Peake the Elder
And a fascinating and colourful document:
Letters Patent of James I, creating his son Henry Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester
4 June 1610
Room 3 – Festivals, Masques and Tournaments
This room includes 2 suits of armour that belonged to Prince Henry.
Prince Henry’s armour
1608
Prince Henry’s armour for the field, tilt, tourney and barriers
1608
The suit is described as ‘blued steel, gilt brass, copper-zinc alloys.’ ‘It is decorated with emblems of the kingdoms to which the Stuart royal family laid claim: the Scots thistle, English Tudor Rose, and the French fleur-de lys…The thistle is dominant, reflecting Henry’s Scottish birth.’ (NPG)
You can view one of the suits of armour at the NPG website:
>Room 3 – Festivals, Masques and Tournaments
Alongside the two suits of armour is a miniature portrait of Henry wearing a suit of armour. According to the NPG this suit of armour is still in the Royal Collection today.
Prince Henry in French armour (miniature)
1607
Also on display are various miniatures, including the one used in all the publicity for the exhibition.
One of only 2 known miniatures of Prince Henry by Nicholas Hilliard.
2 miniatures of Prince Henry
1610-12 and 1612
Isaac Oliver
The rest of the display features sketches for various masques commissioned by Queen Anne and Prince Henry.
Anne of Denmark in Masque Costume
Isaac Oliver
1610
Henry Prince of Wales in profile
Isaac Oliver
1610
Read more at Festivals, Masques and Tournaments
Room 4 – Princely Collecting
2 sketches by Hans Holbein
Henry Prince of Wales
1610
Robert Peake the Elder
Prince Henry on Horseback
1606-08
Robert Peake the Elder
Read more about Henry’s collection – National Portrait Gallery – Princely Collecting
Room 5 – Prince Henry and the Wider World
The highlights of this room were a painting commemorating ‘the departure of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V Elector of Palatine, following their marriage in February 2013.’ (NPG)
The Embarkation of the Elector Palatine in the Prince Royal from Margate
25 April 1613
1622
Adam Willaerts
You can view the painting at National Portrait Gallery – Prince Henry and the Wider World
There are also miniatures of:
Christian IV King of Denmark
Uncle to Prince Henry
Jacob van der Doort
1606
Frederick Elector Palatine
Isaac Oliver
1612-13
Room 6 – ‘Our Rising Sun is Set: the Death of Prince Henry
After the last few rooms with paintings showing the Prince as an active young man, the final room comes as a shock. Dimly lit with funereal music playing it brings home the tragedy of the death of the Prince of Wales.
The focus of the room is the remains of the funeral effigy used at Prince Henry’s funeral. The wooden figure is missing its head and hands. According to the NPG it is the ‘first known funeral effigy of a royal heir.’
You can view the effigy at the National Portrait Gallery’s blog.
Also on display is an engraving of the Prince’s hearse bearing the effigy in the funeral procession by William Hole (1612, engraving on paper).
In ‘Henry Prince of Wales and England’s Lost Renaissance’, Roy Strong writes:
‘Scarcely a decade after the death of Queen Elizabeth I in March 1603 the streets of London echoed once again to sounds of grief as a cavalcade bore the body of a king-to-be. James I’s eldest son, Henry Prince of Wales, was eighteen when he died on 6 November 2012. The sense of tragic loss at the time was such that he was to remain for long an ideal monarch England never had. And what a procession it was. Over a mile long, with some two thousand mourners in black, including all the members of his household and his friends, it took no less than four hours to marshal. Out of the Prince’s red-brick Tudor palace of St James’s it wended its way to Westminster Abbey amidst an ‘Ocean of Tears.’ Isaac Wake, secretary to ambassador Dudley Carleton, describes the climax: a chariot drawn by six horses, preceded by armorial banners and insignia, over which knights carried a mighty canopy:
…vnder that laye the goodly image of that lovely prince clothed with the ritchest garments he had, which did so liuely represent his person, as that it did not onely draw teares from the severest beholder, but cawsed a fearefull outcrie among the people as if they felt at the present their iwne ruine in that loss. I must confess never to have seen such a sight of mortification in my life, nor neuer so iust a sorrowe so well expressed as in all the spectators whose streaming eyes made knowen howe much inwardly their harts did bleed.
In the Abbey stood ‘a great stately hearse’, six ionic pillars supporting a pyramidal structure decked with a profusion of banners, arms and mottoes. Within it reclined a slight figure, the diadem of his principality of Wales on his head, and the verge or rod of office, also bestowed on him at his investiture, in his right hand. The effigy lay enfolded in a velvet-lined mantle with the chain of the Order of the Garter encircling his shoulders.’ (p7. Strong)
The room also includes portraits of the Royal family in mourning.
Anne of Denmark
Unknown
1628-1644
Princess Elizabeth
Unknown
1613
Princess Elizabeth ‘wears a black arm band, indicating her mourning for her brother.’ (NPG)
‘Also on display is one of a number of surviving early copies of the autopsy findings’ (NPG).
The exhibition ends with a portrait of Henry.
Henry, Prince of Wales
Daniel Mytens after Isaac Oliver
Oil on panel, 1628
Sources
National Portrait Gallery Blog – Rediscoverng Henry’s ‘body’
‘Henry Prince of Wales and England’s Lost Renaissance’ by Roy Strong, Thames and Hudson, 1986.
‘Portraits of a Lost Prince’ by Christopher Hart, The Culture – The Sunday Times – 30/09/2012
Today I have a guest post by James Peacock. You can follow him on Twitter @James8633.
Last Wednesday James attended a talk by Sarah Gristwood and Alison Weir at the Folkestone Book Festival.
A huge thank you to James for writing this report.
When I found out Alison Weir and Sarah Gristwood were doing a talk in Folkestone, I knew I just had to be there… Despite the fact that living in Guildford would mean for me to spend six hours on the train (3 there 3 back)! I have had the absolute pleasure and honour of meeting both ladies before and find them both so charming and insightful to talk to, really you want to just talk with them for hours (although that wouldn’t quite be their pleasure I’m sure).
The talk itself centred around the women in the ‘Wars of the Roses’ (although naturally the Kings themselves come into it) – as that is the subject of Sarah’s new book ‘Blood Sisters’ (covering Cecily Neville- the proud Yorkist matriarch, Margaret of Anjou the fierce she-wolf, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne Neville etc), and obviously Alison has written ‘Lancaster and York’ ‘Princes in the Tower’ and a new biography on ‘Elizabeth of York’ coming out next year.
Of course with the recent possible discovery of the remains of the controversial Yorkist King Richard III, plus the recent releases of Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction books on the Queens during the wars (one of which is being made into a TV series next spring by BBC), the Wars of the Roses is going through something of a surge in interest at the moment so it was a no brainer really for me when I found out about this talk and that it was on my day off- I was most definitely going!
Both Alison and Sarah where in interviewed by Louise Wilkinson. The conversation started with Sarah explaining how her book came together, for those that don’t know the book covers the lives of 7 women during the Wars of the Roses from Cecily Neville- the proud Yorkist matriarch, Margaret of Anjou the fierce French ‘she-wolf’ behind her Lancastrian king, the formidable battle-axe Margaret Beaufort mother of Henry VII, Elizabeth Woodville the wife of Edward IV, mother of the lost princes who was forced into deal-making with her enemy. Elizabeth of York whose marriage to Henry Vii promised peace after Bosworth and her aunt Margaret of Burgundy, who constantly sent pretenders to harass the new dynasty. Basically it never meant to cover all 7 women but upon researching further into the stories she found that each of them lived such fascinating lives- Cecily Neville for example wasn’t originally supposed to be in the book, however her story- her son Edward ordering the execution of his brother the Duke of Clarence and the suspicion that her other son Richard III may have murdered his nephews meant she had to be included within the book.
She spoke about how the business of their lives was power; their sons and husbands the currency; the stark events of these times worthy of Greek tragedy. The aim of her work on this book is to interweave their individual stories, to trace the connections between them- connections which sometimes ran counter to the allegiances by their men- and to demonstrate the way the pattern of their lives often echoed each other, she said how in reality these women had far more dramatic lives then the Tudor queens of decades later- they should be a legend, a byword, in a time not only of terror but of opportunity and that their alliances and ambitions helped get a new world under way. They were the mothers and midwives if not actually of modern, then certainly the Tudor dynasty.
Alison, of course is very close to finishing her book on Elizabeth of York and talked about how she has discovered evidence of Elizabeth’s close relationship with her formidable mother in law, that their apartments in the palaces where always very close to each other, they shared jokes often and generally had a pretty good relationship. She talked about the influence Elizabeth had on her children particularly Henry and that Elizabeth had her three younger children with her in her household ( Arthur of course was being brought up as the future king, learning to govern his principality so she wouldn’t have seen him much) both spoke of the evidence pointed out by David Starkey comparing Elizabeth and Henry’s handwriting and how similar it was and that Elizabeth was influential in arranging her daughter Margaret’s marriage to the king of Scotland. She also spoke of Henry and Elizabeth’s marriage and how it was a very close marriage; they got on very well and obviously comforted each other when Arthur died- and how Henry struggled when Elizabeth herself died a year later. Both ladies talked about Elizabeth Woodville’s departure from court, saying how Henry VII would still receive her at court, bestow gifts upon her and that there is evidence that she been considering retiring to a nunnery for a while.
The best moment of all however is the disagreement about Richard III- Sarah said that she is not a member of the Richard III society, but she does feel that he is ‘innocent until proven otherwise.’ Alison however feels that there is sufficient evidence to prove him guilty and is looking forward to stating it in her book, of course naturally it touched on the possibility of the bones that have recently been discovered and appear to show at least a curvature of the spine, or possibly scoliosis… Could the myths about Richards’s appearance be partly true at least or Tudor propaganda- Alison said how she thinks that it may not be Tudor propaganda as a lot of the rumours sprung up later, even after the Tudor dynasty had passed… Could it mean she said, that Richard really did look that, and he was an evil tyrant and that this was all coming out after his reign because people where too scared to come forward with it during his lifetime… An interesting suggestion at least.
For me with my incredible Tudor passion, this was certainly an interesting talk, I’ve always held the Tudors in such high regard for the way England has formed over the years and put it down to that particular era when England ( and eventually United Kingdom) started on its power to greatness, obviously I still always have that opinion but this had made me realise that the Wars of the Roses doesn’t really get the focus it so much deserves- I mean we always comment on how much the Tudors was the original soap opera with back-stabbing, plotting, romances, battles, fighting for power, affairs etc.. and the Wars of the Roses had all that- it was the preceding to the Tudor grandeur, what a fantastic TV series it would make. I cannot wait to start reading Sarah’s book and I simply just cannot say how much I enjoyed the talk and talking with the ladies afterwards, they truly are incredible.
6 November 2012 – The Tower of London: The Biography by Stephen Porter
‘The Tower of London is an icon of England’s history. William the Conqueror built the White Tower after his invasion and conquest in 1066, to dominate London and it has become infamous as a place of torture, execution and murder. The deaths of royals attracted most attention; the murder of Princes in the Tower, the beheading of Henry VIII’s wives, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, and Lady Jane Grey, Henry’s great-niece, and queen for just nine days. Few prisoners recorded their experiences, but John Gerard, a Catholic priest imprisoned during Elizabeth I’s reign, wrote of being questioned in the torture-room, which contained ‘every device and instrument of torture’. After being hung from manacles, his wrists were swollen and he could barely walk. Members of the aristocracy could not be tortured, and those incarcerated for a long time used their time to write. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote his vast History of the World in the Tower. Control of the Tower was vital at times of crisis, during rebellions and civil wars. It has also been the country’s principal arsenal, it housed the royal mint, the national archives, the crown jewels and wealthy Londoners’ riches, and in the royal menagerie it contained one of the earliest zoos. Stephen Porter’s landmark new history traces the evolution of the Tower and it’s changing role, the many personalities who lived or were imprisoned there, and the ‘voices’ of contemporaries during the Tower’s long history, spanning almost 1000 years.’
