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Women and Politics in Early Tudor England*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Barbara J. Harris
Barbara J. Harris
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Extract

Political historians working on the early Tudor period have traditionally concentrated on institutions – monarchy, council, parliament, courts, and administrative bodies – that excluded women. The very definition of politics underlying the dominant historiography has thus made it seem both natural and inevitable to write history as if the world of high politics, the world that really counted, were exclusively male.

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Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , June 1990 , pp. 259 - 281
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 For a recent example of this assumption about the nature of politics see Levine, Mortimer, ‘The place of women in Tudor government’, in Tudor rule and Tudor revolution, essays for G. R. Elton from his American friends, ed. Guth, Delloyd J. and McKenna, John (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 109–23Google Scholar.

2 Starkey, David R., ‘The age of the household: politics, society and the arts c. 1350–c. 1550’, The context of English literature: the later middle ages, ed. Medcalf, Stephen (London, 1981), pp. 226–89Google Scholar; The king's privy chamber 1485–1547 (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Cambridge University, 1973)Google Scholar; ‘Representation through intimacy,’ Symbols and sentiment. Cross cultural studies in symbolism, ed. Lewis, loan (New York, 1977), pp. 187–224Google Scholar. See also Elton, G. R., ‘Tudor government: the points of contact, III. The court’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., XXVI (1976), 211–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Ives, Eric W., Faction in Tudor England (London, 1979)Google Scholar.

3 E.g. James, Mervyn, Society, politics and culture, studies in early modern England (Cambridge, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; MacCulloch, Diarmaid, Suffolk and the Tudors: politics and religion in an English county 1500–1600 (Oxford, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also a somewhat older work Smith, R. B., Land and politics in the England of Henry VIII (Oxford, 1970)Google Scholar.

4 James, , ‘Obedience and dissent in Henrician England: the Lincolnshire rebellion, 1536’, in Society, politics and culture, esp. pp. 226–40Google Scholar.

5 Ives, Eric, Anne Boleyn (Oxford, 1986)Google Scholar; Ives' conscious attempt to avoid ‘the male-dominated interpretations of traditional accounts’ is worth noting (p. viii).

6 On Blount, Public Record Office (P.R.O.), SP1/177, fos. 65–6; SP1/102, fo. 68, and British Library (B. L.), Add. MS 46, 457, fo. 54; on Dorset, P.R.O., SP1/82, fos. 158, 160; on Le Strange, Norfolk Record Office (N.R.O.), Le Strange of Hunstanton, A36; on Parr, B. L., Add. MS 24, 965, fos. 23, 24, 38, 103, 173, 200d, 231d; on Rede, B. L., Cotton MSS, Vespasian, F. XIII, fo. 167, P. R. O., SP1/41, 151, SP1/235, fo. 167; On Salisbury, Historical Manuscripts Commission (H.M.C.), Seventh Report, Appendix, p. 584; Dugdale, William, The baronage of England (London, 1675), 1Google Scholar, 170; on Southampton, Hampshire Record Office (H.R.O.), 5M53 198.

7 Margaret Donnington was married successively to Sir Thomas Kytson (d. 1540), Sir Richard Long (d. 1546), and John Bourchier, second earl of Bath. To avoid confusion, I will refer to her as the countess of Bath throughout this paper.

8 Cambridge University Library (Camb. U.L.), Hengrave Hall MS 88, 1, no. 89.

9 Ibid. nos. 140, 149, 159.

10 On Lucy, P.R.O. Sp1/78, fo. 61; on Radcliffe, N.R.O., Le Strange of Hunstanton, A25; on St. Loe, Folger Shakespeare Library (Folger), X.d. 428 (69); on Sheldon, Warwickshire Record Office (W.R.O.), Throckmorton Papers, CR1998, Box 72, no. 8.

11 11 Camb. U.L., Hengrave Hall MS 90, document marked 72.

12 Bindoff, S. T., The House of Commons 1509–1558 (London, 1982), I, 677Google Scholar; II, 209–10, 409, 411, 532; III, 556, 675 (Ferrer, Giffard, Hungerford, Leigh; Monteagle, Waterton, Wyndham); Collectanea genealogica & topographica, VIII, 342 (Clifton); Miscellanea genealogica & heraldica, NS, IV, 270 (Gresham); Some Oxford wills proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury, 1393–1510, ed. Weaver, J. H. and Beardwood, A., Oxfordshire Record Society, XXXIX (1958), 39Google Scholar (Harcourt); North country wills, 1338–1558, Surtees Society, CXVI (1908), no. 70Google Scholar, 96 (Harcourt); B. L., Add. MS 33, 412, fo. 31 (Hungerford); Wedgewood, Josiah C., History of parliament, biographies of members of the commons house 1439–1509) (London, 1936), pp. 520–21Google Scholar, 901 (Knyvett, Uvedale); N.R.O., KnyvettWilson papers KN Y 426 371X9; ‘Some Surrey wills in the prerogative court of Canterbury’, ed. Hooper, Hilda J., Surrey Archaeological Collections, LI, 89Google Scholar (Leigh); The Lisle letters, ed. Byrne, Muriel St Clare (Chicago, 1981), 1Google Scholar, 245, 316; P.R.O., B11/6/33 (Say); Jones, Thomas Wharton, ‘The Knolles or Knollys family…’, The herald and genealogist, VII (1873), 296Google Scholar (Tresham); Rutton, William Loftie, Three branches of the family of Wentworth (London, 1891), p. 198Google Scholar; Wyndham, H. A., A family history, 1410–1688, I (London, 1939), 26Google Scholar.

13 P.R.O., SP1/82, fos. 158, 160.

14 P.R.O., SP1/235, fo. 167.

15 B.L., Add. MS 24, 965, fo. 23. Henry predeceased his father, dying unmarried only two years later.

16 Ibid. fos. 173, 200d.

17 Ibid. fo. 200d.

18 Ibid. fo. 103.

19 Testamenta vetusta, II, 635.

20 Lisle letters, II, 498; Letters & papers of Henry VIII (L. & P.), ed. Brewer, J. S., Gairdner, James, and Brodie, R. H. (London, 1862–1910), XVI, 1320Google Scholar, 1321, 1385, 1440.

21 B.L., Cotton MSS, Titus B1, fo. 162.

22 Camb. U.L., Hengrave Hall MS 88, 1, no. 155.

23 Ibid. no. 159.

24 Richardson, Walter C., Mary Tudor, the white queen (Seattle, 1970), p. 200Google Scholar.

25 L. & P., XIV (I), 181. The grand-daughters were Margaret, daughter of Ursula Pole and Lord Henry Stafford and Katherine, daughter of the countess's son Sir Geoffrey. Her two great-grand-daughters were daughters of her grandson, Sir Arthur. The gentlewomen were Joan Cholmeley, Elizabeth Cheyney, and Alice Densell.

26 Lisle letters, 29; H. M.C, Manuscripts of the duke of Rutland at Belvoir, IV (London, 1905), 284Google Scholar.

27 Plumpton correspondence, ed. Stapleton, Thomas, Camden Society, old series, IV (London, 1839), no. 115Google Scholar.

28 CPR, Edward IV, IV, 1550–1553 (London, 1926), 237.

29 H. M.C., ‘Extracts from the Collections of Cassandra Willoughby, 1702’, Manuscripts of Lord Middleton (London, 1911), pp. 521–2Google Scholar. Margaret's mother had predeceased her father.

30 Folger, W. b. 262, fo. 80; Folger Fil m Accession, 164. 39, Cecil MSS, CL, fo. 121; P.R.O., SP10/5, fo. 13.

31 Bindoff, , House of Commons, III, 332Google Scholar.

32 Rev. Robinson, Hastings, Original letters relative to the English reformation, 1, The Parker Society, LIII (1846–1848), no. 165Google Scholar, 340.

33 Bindoff, , House of Commons, II, 505Google Scholar.

34 Emmison, F. G., Tudor secretary, Sir William Petre at court and home, 2nd edn (London, 1970), p. 128Google Scholar.

35 Harris, Barbara J., Edward Stafford, third duke of Buckingham, 1478–1521 (Stanford, 1986), pp. 33–4Google Scholar; Bindoff, in, 521; Cooper, Charles Henry, Memoir of Margaret, countess of Richmond and Derby, ed. Mayor, John E. M. (Cambridge, 1874), p. 88Google Scholar.

36 For example, Stafford Record Office (S.R.O.), D1721/1/5, P.R.O., E36/220, E101/518/5 and 6, E101/631/20 on Edward Stafford, third duke of Buckingham; Gurney, Daniel, ‘Extracts from the household and privy purse accounts of the Lestranges of Hunstanton’, Archaeologia, XXV, (1884), 411–569Google Scholar; Essex Record Office (E.R.O.), A12 on Sir William Petre; H.M.C., Rutland, vol. iv, passim; Household books of John duke of Norfolk and Thomas earl of Surrey, 1481–1490, ed. Collier, J. Payne, Club, Roxburgh (London, Shakespeare Press, 1844)Google Scholar; , H.M.C., Manuscripts of Lord Middleton (London, 1911), pp. 398–416Google Scholar.

37 H.M.C., Rutland, IV, 278, 296, 302–5, 311.

38 Folger, L.b.X.d. 486, passim.

39 Wriothesley, Charles, A chronicle of England, ed. Hamilton, W. D., Camden Society, new series, XI (1875), 50Google Scholar. On this occasion the earl of Oxford's son and heir married the earl of Westmorland's eldest daughter, Dorothy; Westmorland's son and heir married the earl of Rutland's daughter Anne; and Rutland's son and heir married Westmorland's daughter Margaret.

40 Longleat s., Seymour papers, IV, fo. 68.

41 P.R.O., SP1/131, fos. 82–3.

42 ERO, A12, fos. 40d, 43; Emmison, Tudor Secretary, ch. 8, passim.

43 B.L., Cotton MS S Vespasian, F. XIII, fo. 154.

44 Ibid., fo. 172; also see Lisle letters, IV, no. 882.

45 Lisle letters, I, no. 89, 168.

46 Ibid, IV, no. 870.

47 Lisle letters, II, 363.

48 Ibid. no. 390; IV, nos. 855, 880, 887. Margery Horsman subsequently married Sir Michael Lyster.

49 Ibid. no. 971b.

50 Ibid. I, no. XVa; IV, nos. 705, 855.

51 Ibid, IV, no. 875.

52 Ibid. no. 887.

53 Ibid. no. 904.

54 Ibid. nos. 864, 867, 868a, 870, 887, 894, 895, 896.

55 MacCulloch, , Suffolk and the Tudors, pp. 56–7Google Scholar.

56 P.R.O., SP1/32, fo. 151.

57 Lisle letters, I, no. XV.

58 H.M.C., Rutland, IV, 318.

59 Lisle letters, II, no. 299a.

60 P.R.O., SP10/14, fo. 103.

61 H.M.C., Rutland, IV, 267–376.

62 Ibid.

63 Lisle letters, IV, nos. 875, 887, 894, 903, B. L., Vespasian, F. XIII, fo. 172.

64 E.R.O., A12, passim.

65 B.L., Add. MS 24, 965, fo. 103 (15 Mar. 1524).

66 P.R.O., SP1/122, fo. 60 (26 Mar. 1528–30).

67 Lisle letters, I, no. 5; II, nos. 136, 299a; IV, nos. 907, 941.

68 Lambeth Palace, Shrewsbury 3205, fo. 12.

69 Ibid. fo. 6.

70 P.R.O., SP1/118, fo. 225 (Apr., 1537); the countess and Norfolk's wife were sisters.

71 Lambeth Palace, Shrewsbury MSS 3205, fo. 18.

72 P.R.O., SP1/104, fo. 117; MacCulloch, , Suffolk and the Tudors, p. 48Google Scholar, thinks Katherine, duchess of Suffolk, probably intervened in parliamentary elections at Orford.

73 Bindoff, , House of Commons, I, 695Google Scholar.

74 Putnam, Bertha, Early treatises on the practice of the justices of the peace in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Oxford studies in social and iegal history, ed. SirVinogradoff, Paul, VII (Oxford, 1924), 194–6Google Scholar.

75 L. & P., XII (2), 186 (38); Finch, Mary E., The wealth of five Northamptonshire families, 1540–1640, Northamptonshire Record Society, XIX (1956), 136–7Google Scholar.

76 SirEllis, Henry, Original letters illustrative of English history, series 3 (London, 1846), III, 142Google Scholar. Lady Berkeley was apparently a lady-in-waiting at court before her marriage. L. & P., V, 686; VI, 32. She attended Anne Boleyn at her wedding. Ives, , Anne Boleyn, p. 211Google Scholar; Sir Nicholas Poyntz was married to her late husband's sister Joan. SirMaclean, John, Historical and genealogical memoir of the family of Poyntz (Exeter, 1886), pp. 73–4Google Scholar.

77 Ibid. pp. 143–6.

78 Green, M.A.E. Wood, Letters of royal and illustrious ladies of Great Britain (London, 1846), II, 210Google Scholar.

79 Maclean, , Family of Poyntz, pp. 73–4Google Scholar.

80 Cooper, , Memoir of Margaret, countess of Richmond, p. 30Google Scholar.

81 See for example, B.L., Cotton MSS, Caligula B. 11, fo. 188 (1528), B. VII, fo. 207 (1534); P.R.O., SP1/82, fo. 248 (1534).

82 B.L., Cotton MSS, Caligula, B. VII, fo. 207d.

83 P.R.O., SP1/88/, fo. 88.

84 B.L., Cotton MSS, Vespasian, F. XIII, fo. 232.

85 P.R.O., E36/122, fo. 43.

86 P.R.O., SP1/115, fo. 197.

87 P.R.O., SP1/118, fo. 155.

88 Ibid, II, nos. 175, 319; III, no. 658a; IV, nos. 830a, 833, 846a; also see above pages 265–266.

89 Ibid. 1, no. XVa; 11, nos. 182, 193; III, no. 713; IV, nos. 850 (iii); 874; 878.

90 Willen, Diane, John Russell, first earl of Bedford (London, 1981), p. 15Google Scholar.

91 Eleven of the 24 names come from a single source, Henry VIII's privy purse accounts for 1530, which suggests that the figure is a vast underestimate of the actual number of women who sent gifts to the king and his leading ministers.

92 L. & P., XIV (2), 782; Childe-Pemberton, William S., Elizabeth Blount and Henry the eighth with some account of her surroundings (London, 1913), p. 233Google Scholar.

93 P.R.O., E101/420/4 (1528); E101/421/13 (1534); L. & P., v, 686 (1532); VI, 32 (1533); Folger, z. d. II (1539); these figures exclude the king's immediate family.

94 This figure excludes letters from the queens, Henry VIII's sister Mary, duchess of Suffolk, and all nuns.

95 Howard, Leonard, A collection of Utters from the original manuscripts… (London, 1753), p. 296Google Scholar.

96 P.R.O., SP1/194, fo. 20; L. & P., xv, 354.

97 P.R.O., SP1/32, fo. 151 (Norfolk, 1524); Green, 11, 176 (Maunsell, , c. 1535)Google Scholar.

98 B.L., Cotton MSS, Titus B. XI, part 2, fo. 362. Henry VIII and the countess of Kildare were both grandchildren of Elizabeth Woodville.

99 Lambeth Palace, Shrewsbury MSS 3205, fo. 5.

100 L. & P., IX, 1054.

101 B.L., Cotton MSS, Vespasian F. XIII, fo. 180.

102 P.R.O., SP1/115, fo. 70.

103 P.R.O., SP1/115, fo. 171.

104 Bindoff, , House of Commons, III, 117, 148–9Google Scholar.

105 P.R.O., SP1/154, fo. 142.

106 P.R.O., SP1/84, fo. 100.

107 Ibid. fo. 266. Lord Dacre was acquitted.

108 Lambeth Palace, Shrewsbury MSS 3206, fo. 279; see also Shrewsbury MS S 696, fo. 116.

109 Williams, Neville, Henry VIII and his court (New York, 1971), pp. 31–2Google Scholar.

110 L. & P., XV, 21.

111 Ibid, XXI (1), 969 (iii). A list from 1540 contains the names of fifty women wh o received allowances from the royal household. Ibid. XIV, 380 (fo. 110).

112 Lisle letters, IV, ch. 8.

113 Lisle letters, II, 56–7; P.R.O., E101/420/4, E101/421/13; L. & P., V, 686; VI, 32; XIII (2), 1280 (p. 538); Folger, Z. d. II.

114 Dictionary of national biography, VIII, 767–73; xx, 192–4; Sir Richard was controller of Henry VII's household; Sir Henry a member of Henry VIII's privy chamber.

115 L. & P., III (1), 704 (p. 245).

116 L. & P., I (2), 5628; II (1), 569; V, 686; VI, 32; P.R.O., E101/420/4, E101/421/13; Folger, Z. d. II.

117 Calendar of state papers, Spanish (London, 1862), I, 204 (p. 163)Google Scholar, 205, 210 on Beaufort; Ives, Anne Boleyn, esp. chs. 7, 8, 12–14; on Suffolk, see below pp. 278–280.

118 Lisle letters, IV, nos. 896, 167.

119 All the women mentioned in this and the next six paragraphs were ladies of the court as that term has been defined in this paper except Jane Bellingham, Margaret Bulmer, Anne Lady Hussey, Anne Lady Cobham, Lady Anne Howard, Katherine, countess of Northumberland, and Elizabeth, countess of Worcester.

120 L. & P., V, 70.

121 Ibid. 238.

122 Lisle letters, III, no. 703a.

123 Ives, , Anne Boleyn, pp. 348Google Scholar, 376–82.

124 L. & P., XVI, 1433, 1438 (Dec. 1541).

125 Ibid. 1467.

126 Ibid. XVII, Appendix B, 11.

127 Ibid. VI, 1468.

128 B.L., Cotton MSS, Cleopatra E. IV, fo. 94.

129 , M.H. and Dodd, Ruth, The pilgrimage of grace, 1536–37, and the Exeter conspiracy, 1538 (Cambridge, 1915), I, 26Google Scholar.

130 James, , ‘Obedience and dissent in Henrician England’, Society, politics and culture, p. 242Google Scholar.

131 P.R.O., SP1/85, fo. 98.

132 Ibid. p. 251; L. & P., XI, 852.

133 L. & P., XII (1), 392 (1). Stapleton was the son an d heir of Sir Brian of Wighill; his wife was the daughter of Sir John Neville of Liversedge.

134 Her husband, Sir John, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Lisle letters, IV, no. 942. H., M. and Dodds, Ruth, Pilgrimage of grace, pp. 39, 215–16Google Scholar.

135 Bindoff, , House of Commons, III, 117Google Scholar.

136 L. & P., IX, 776, 861; XIV (1), 37.

137 B.L., Cotton MSS, Titus, B.I, fo. 265.

138 B.L., Cotton MSS, Appendix L, fo. 79 (16 Nov. 1538).

139 There was a long, bitter dispute over the Willoughby inheritance between Katherine and her mother, the former Maria Salinas, and her father's brother and male heir, Sir Christopher Willoughby. The lion's share of the property eventually went to Katherine, whose case was certainly strengthened by her marriage to Suffolk, Henry VIII's brother-in-law and closest friend; Sir Christopher received some of the Lincolnshire estates in satisfaction of his incontrovertible claim to land worth at least 300 marks under an agreement his brother signed at the time of his marriage in 1512. Lincoln Archives Office, Ancaster MSS. 1, 5/B/4/D.

140 McCulloch, , Suffolk, pp. 158–60Google Scholar.

141 H.M.C., Rutland, IV, 32.

142 L. & P., XXI (1), 1181 (p. 589).

143 Loades, David, The Tudor court (Totowa, N. J., 1987), p. 137Google Scholar.

144 B.L., Lansdowne 2, fo. 46; P.R.O., SP10/8, fo. 60; SP10/10, fos. 8, 19, 60, 72, 80, 82, 83; SP10/11, fo. 9; SP10/14, fos. 71, 103.

145 P.R.O., SP10/8, fo. 60; B.L., Lansdowne 2, fo. 46.

146 P.R.O., SP10/10, fo. 19.

147 Bindoff, , House of Commons, II, 2Google Scholar.

148 P.R.O., SP10/11, fo. 9.

149 In October the duke of Somerset and his wife were sent to the Tower; Cecil followed in November, probably after a period of house arrest; both men were free by February; Seymour rejoined the council in April; and Cecil was appointed one of the king's principal secretaries in September.

150 B.L., Lansdowne 2, fo. 58 (16 Nov. 1549).

151 P.R.O., SP10/9, fo. 116 (28 Dec. 1549).

152 P.R.O., SP10/10, fo. 2 (25 Mar. 1550).

153 Ibid. fo. 9 (9 May 1550).

154 Ibid. fo. 62 (8 Sept. 1550).

155 Ibid. fo. 72 (18 Sept. 1550).

156 Ibid. fo. 83 (2 Oct. 1550).

157 Folger, W.b., 262, fos. 113, 119.

158 See above p. 265.

159 P.R.O., SP10/8, fo. 60; SP10/11, fo. 9; B.L., Lansdowne 2, fo. 46.

160 P.R.O., SP10/11, fo. 9.

161 Robinson, , Original letters, p. 342Google Scholar.

162 The duchess did not marry Richard Bertie as her second husband until 1553.

163 B.L., Titus B., 1, fo. 362.