A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: N-P
compiled by
Kathy Lynn Emerson
to update and correct
her very out-of-date
WIVES AND
DAUGHTERS, THE WOMEN OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND (1984)
NOTE: this document exists
only in electronic format
and is ©2008-10 Kathy Lynn
Emerson (all rights reserved)
AGNES NEEDHAM (c.1546-January 1623)
Agnes Needham was the daughter of Thomas Needham of Cranage, Cheshire and Shenton or Shavington, Shropshire (c.1505-1570? or 1510-1556) and Anne Talbot. She married first Sir Richard Bulkeley, constable of Beaumaris Castle (c.1513-September 7, 1572) as his second wife. Their children were: Elizabeth, Mary, Arthur, Tristam, George, Edward, Lancelot, Grissel, Agnes, and Phoebe. Early in 1572, Sir Richard was taken ill. When he died later that year, his oldest son, another Richard (c.1533-1621) took charge of the household. Apparently Richard and Agnes had long been at odds as had her children and Richard and his siblings. Things came to a head over a rivalry for the hand in marriage of a wealthy local heiress, Jane Coeden. Richard instructed his younger brother John to propose to Jane, but at Agnes’s urging, Richard’s stepbrother, Arthur, had already proposed and been accepted. It was at this point that Richard accused his stepmother of poisoning her husband. Poison was found in a chest in her room. At the trial, Agnes seems also to have been accused of committing adultery with William Kendrick or Kenericke, “a young gallant” who serenaded her beneath her window while Sir Richard was away to attend Parliament. One source says that a Beaumaris jury acquitted her of murder. Another says that litigation dragged out for three full years before the charges were dropped. Arthur Bulkeley married Jane Coeden. Agnes married Lawrence Cranage, Esquire, as his second wife. Cranage had a son by his first wife who was a London grocer and a daughter, Dorothy, by Agnes. Cranage predeceased his second wife. Agnes’s will was made on March 12, 1622 and proved March 14, 1623 in Canterbury. She was buried, at her request, in Holmes Chapel in Chester on January 24, 1623.
DOROTHY NEEDHAM
ANNE NEVILLE
CATHERINE NEVILLE (1541-March 27, 1591)
Catherine Neville was the daughter of Henry Neville, 5th earl of Westmorland (1525-February 10,1564) and Anne Manners (1527-June 27,1549+). She married Sir John Constable of Holderness (June 10, 1527-May 25, 1579) as his second wife and had by him one son, John (b.c.1564). She was the Lady Constable who was a recusant and who spent time in prison at Sheriff Hutton in 1582-84. Portrait: A second version of this portrait is incorrectly called Bess of Hardwick. Her age is also incorrectly inscribed, since it is given as 60 in 1590.
DOROTHY NEVILLE (d. September 22, 1559)
Dorothy Neville was the youngest child of George Neville, 3rd Baron Bergavenny (1471-June 13,1535/6) and Mary Stafford (c.1495-before 1534). Her stepmother, Mary Brooke, was Lord Cobham’s sister and she was married to Cobham’s son, William Brooke (November 1, 1527-March 6,1597), later 10th baron Cobham. The Brookes were the most important family in Kent and the Nevilles the second most important. The earliest date I’ve seen given for Dorothy’s marriage is June 4, 1535, which may be when she and William were betrothed, since she would still have been very young at that time, no more than nine and possibly as young as one year old. Dates of 1545 and 1550 are also given for the marriage. Whenever they wed, it is unlikely they actually lived together before 1550, in part because William was so often out of the country. Most records agree that the marriage was not happy, although Dorothy did give her husband two children, Dorothy (d.1624) and Francis (b.c.1555). Some accounts have them separated as early as 1553, but in 1554, when William was arrested for his part in Wyatt’s Rebellion, his wife is said to have been responsible for his pardon. Certainly her brother, Henry, by then Lord Bergavenny, interceded to secure Brooke’s release. Well before 1554, Dorothy had close personal experience with executions. Her uncle, Sir Edward Neville and her aunt’s husband, Lord Montagu, were executed for treason in 1538 and her sister Mary’s husband (see below) was executed for murder in 1541. According to Susan E. James's The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, Dorothy later lived at Cobham Hall with her mother-in-law while her husband lived in London. Portrait: 1553.
ELIZABETH NEVILLE (c.1545-1630)
ELIZABETH NEVILLE
see ELIZABETH BACON; ELIZABETH BRYCE
FRANCES NEVILLE (c.1519-October 18,1599)
FRANCES NEVILLE
see FRANCES MANNERS
GRISOLD NEVILLE
JANE NEVILLE
see JANE HOWARD
KATHERINE NEVILLE
see KATHERINE PARR
LUCY NEVILLE
see LUCY SOMERSET
MARGARET NEVILLE (1466-January 31, 1528)
Margaret Neville was the third daughter of John Neville, marquis Montagu (1428-1471) and Isabel Ingoldsthorpe. She had a tangled matrimonial history. Her first marriage seems to have been to a man named John Horne, by whom she had a daughter, Anne. Then, before June 14, 1492, she married Sir John Mortimer (d. before November 12, 1504). It was as a wealthy widow that she attracted the interest of Charles Brandon (1485-August 22,1545), later duke of Suffolk, and he jilted Anne Browne, the daughter of Margaret’s sister, Lucy, to marry Margaret instead. The marriage took place on November 7, 1506 and was annulled, mostly because of Brandon’s precontract with Anne Browne, less than two years later. Margaret's next husband was Robert Downes. Some accounts attach her daughter, Anne, to this husband. According to Lady Cecilia Goff's A Woman of the Tudor Age (a biography of Brandon's last wife, Catherine Willoughby), Margaret remained on good terms with Brandon, who later supported her cause in "a sordid dispute over money with a daughter of hers by a former marriage."
MARGARET NEVILLE (c. 1526-1546)
MARY NEVILLE (1523-1578+)
Mary Neville was the daughter of George Neville, 3rd baron Bergavenny(1471-June 13,1535) and Mary Stafford (c.1495-before 1534). In 1536 she married Thomas Fiennes, 3rd Baron Dacre of the South (1517- June 29, 1541) and had by him three children, Thomas (1537-August 1553), Gregory (June 1539-September 25, 1594), and Margaret (1541-March 10,1611/12). Both Lord and Lady Dacre were among those who welcomed Anne of Cleves to England, but on the eve of May Day 1541, Lord Dacre was “tempted by his own folly or that of his friends to join a party to kill deer” in Laughton Park, Sussex, which belonged to a neighbor, Sir Nicholas Pelham. Pelham’s gamekeeper, John Busbrig, objected. A fight broke out in which Busbrig was killed. Even though Dacre was not the one who delivered the fatal blow and was in fact in another part of the park at the time, he was held responsible, convicted of “manslaughter following deer stealing,” and hanged at Tyburn. His estates and title were forfeit, leaving Mary and her children destitute. It is possible this was a case of judicial murder, designed to allow the king to seize the estate. On July 2, 1541, Henry VIII ordered that “all her apparel of velvet, satin, pearls, stones or goldsmiths work” be returned to the widow, along with £50, but she was denied her dowry and her jointure lands. In 1542, an act of Parliament granted her the income from several manors. “Mary Fynes, widowe,” as she was now styled, remarried twice, first, before 1546, to John Wotton of North Tuddingham, Norfolk and then to Francis Thursby of Congham, Norfolk, by whom she had at least six children, three sons and three daughters, by 1559. Under Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, the Fiennes fortunes improved. Mary Neville’s second son, Gregory Fiennes, was restored as Lord Dacre in 1561. In 1578, her former brother-in-law, Henry Wotton (not to be confused with the author named Henry Wotton who was born in 1568) published a translation he had made from the French of a collection of Italian romance stories, which he dedicated to Lady Dacre. The title is "A Courtlie Controversie of Cupids Cantils containing five Tragicall Historyes by three Gentlemen and two Gentlewomen." If she died on December 18, 1565, the date given in some genealogies, this seems rather odd. Dedications are generally made to living persons able to reward the author for the honor. Portraits: Mary Neville commissioned two portraits by Hans Eworth, both as part of her campaign to restore her husband's title to her son. The first, c.1555, shows Lord Dacre in an inset marked 1540. The second, c.1559, shows Lady Dacre with her son, Gregory. For years this double portrait was misidentified as Frances Brandon, duchess of Suffolk, and her second husband, Adrian Stokes.
URSULA NEVILLE (c.1528-1575)
ANNE NEWDIGATE
see ANNE FITTON; ANNE STANHOPE
ELIZABETH NEWDIGATE
see ELIZABETH LOVETT
JANE NEWDIGATE (1487-July 7, 1571)
Jane Newdigate was the daughter of John Newdigate of Moor Hall, Harefield (b.1460) and Amphelicia Neville (b.1463). Jane married Sir Robert Dormer of West Wycombe (d. July 12, 1552) and was the mother of Sir William Dormer (1503-May 17, 1575). She rejected Sir Francis Bryan’s suggestion that her son marry Jane Seymour, considering the match beneath him. Jane Seymour went on to marry King Henry VIII while William Dormer married Mary Sidney (d.1542). Jane raised her granddaughter, Jane Dormer (January 6, 1538-January 13,1612) until Jane became a maid of honor to Mary Tudor. After Queen Mary died in 1558, Jane married the count of Feria and left England in July 1559, taking her grandmother with her. Lady Dormer accompanied the countess of Feria as far as Mechlin, where the countess gave birth to a son. When she continued on to Spain with her husband, however, Lady Dormer went to Louvain, where she became a leading light in the community of English Catholic exiles. She attempted to return to England only once, to collect her rents, but was forbidden to enter the country by Queen Elizabeth.
GRACE NEWPORT (1515-c.1549)
Grace Newport was the daughter of John Newport of Pelham, Hertfordshire (1497-June 1522 or May 26,1523) and Mary Daniel. She was married at the age of eight to Henry Parker (c.1513-January 9, 1552 OR December 3,1553) on May 18, 1523 and was the mother of Henry, 9th baron Morley (January 1533-October 22,1577), Charles (b.January 28, 1537), Edmund, Mary (c.1539-November 7, 1544), Margaret, and Ann (or Amy) (d.October 1571). Portrait: Grace is generally accepted to be the subject of the Holbein drawing inscribed “The Lady Parker.”
MAGDALEN NEWPORT (1558-June 1627)
Magdalen Newport was the daughter of Sir Richard Newport of High Ercall Shropshire (c.1518-September 12,1570) and Margaret Bromley (1521-August 10,1598). Magdalen’s birthdate is given by some sources as 1552. She and her brother Francis (1554-March 15,1622) were childhood friends of Sir Philip Sidney. Magdalen married Sir Richard Herbert of Montgomery Castle (d. 1596/7) by whom she had seven sons and three daughters: Edward (March 3, 1583-1648), Richard (d.1622), William, Charles (1592-1617), George (April 3, 1593-1633), Henry (1595-1673), Elizabeth, Mary, Frances, and Thomas (May 15,1597-1642). Although her oldest sons’ wardship was sold to Sir George More of Loseley, Magdalen kept control of his education. She lived in Oxford from 1598 to 1602, while he was a student there, and so met John Donne, who became a lifelong friend. He addressed much of his poetry to her and recorded that her second marriage in 1608, to a much younger man, Sir John Danvers (1588-1655) was a happy one. She was buried in the parish church in Chelsea. Donne preached the funeral sermon and her son George composed commemorative verses that were later published. Portraits: portrait shown below by an unknown artist; effigy on the monument erected by her in 1600 in the Lymore chancel of the Montgomery Church.
FRANCES NEWTON (1539-October 17, 1592)
Frances Newton was one of the nineteen children or Sir John Newton or Cradock of East Harptree, Somerset and Hanham, Gloucestershire (d.1568) and Margaret Poyntz. She was in Elizabeth Tudor’s service before 1558 and continued as one of her chamberers after Elizabeth became queen. Later in the reign, Frances's sister, Katherine, also became a chamberer. On February 25, 1560 she married William Brooke, 10th baron Cobham (November 1,1527-March 6,1597), a widower with one daughter. On July 17, 1560, the queen visited Cobham Hall on her summer progress and she returned there for another visit on September 4, 1573. Frances was considered to be one of the queen’s closest friends. On the 1587 list, she was recorded as one of the four Ladies of the Bedchamber. Although she was never gone from court for long, she and her husband had a large family, including Henry, 11th baron (November 22,1564-January 24,1619), Elizabeth (1565-1596), Sir William, Thomas, George (April 17, 1568-December 5, 1603), Frances, and Margaret. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Brooke [née Newton], Frances." Portrait: the Cobham family portrait, painted in 1567 by the artist A. W., also known as the Master of the countess of Warwick. When I obtained permission from Longleat to reproduce this painting in Wives and Daughters (1984), the sitters were identified for me by the curator there as Frances (standing), her husband, her sister, Joanna (seated) and six of Frances's children. The inscribed names and ages, however, are not correct for 1567. More recently, the seated woman has been reidentified as Frances while the woman standing is said to be Elizabeth Brooke, marchioness of Northampton, Lord Cobham's sister, who had died two years earlier. Such memorial portraits were not unheard of. Henry VIII had his children painted with himself and his third wife several years after Jane Seymour's death. A copy of the Cobham Family Portrait was commissioned c. 1590 by Frances's daughter Elizabeth and in this version another child, George, not yet born in 1567, is included in the group.
NAZARET NEWTON (c.1541-April 16, 1583)
THEOPHILA NEWTON (d.1589+)
Theophila, sister of Frances Newton (above) was another of the nineteen children of Sir John Newton or Cradock of East Harptree, Somerset (d. before 1568) and Margaret Poyntz. She married William Somerset, 3rd earl of Worcester (1527-February 21, 1588/89) and then William Paratt of Pantglas and may have made a third marriage to William Butler of Badminton. Portrait: c. 1567.
JEANNE de NOAILLES
BRIDGET NORRIS
ELIZABETH NORRIS (c.1603-November 1645)
MARJORIE NORRIS
see MARJORIE WILLIAMS
MARY NORRIS, NORICE, or NORREYS (d.1570)
Mary Norris was the daughter of Sir Henry Norris (c.1491-x.1536) and Mary Fiennes (d.before 1530). She was a maid of honor, some say to Anne Boleyn, probably to Jane Seymour, definitely to Anne of Cleves, and probably to Catherine Howard. There was also a Mary Norice in Elizabeth Tudor's household c. 1536, and this may also be the same woman. Mary married Sir George Carew, Vice Admiral of the English fleet (c.1504-1545) and was at Southsea Castle with the king in 1545, watching the ship her husband was aboard, the Mary Rose, when it suddenly rolled over and sank. Lady Carew fainted. In armor, her husband had no hope of surviving. She married a second time in 1546 to Sir Arthur Champernowne of Dartington (c.1524-April 1,1578), by whom she had Gawen (d.1592), Henry, Elizabeth, and three other children.
MARY NORRIS
see MARY FIENNES
JOAN NORTH (c.1498-1556)
ANNE NORTON (January 5,1576-November 14,1615)
Anne Norton was the daughter of Thomas Norton of Hinxton, Cambridgeshire and Margaret Lowe. She was raised in the household of Thomas Howard, baron Howard of Walden (later earl of Suffolk). She may have been a nursemaid to his daughter, Frances (1593-1632). Anne left to marry Dr. George Turner (d.1610). In London, they were part of the Catholic underground. Anne was also into other dangerous activities. She was the mistress of Sir Arthur Mainwaring (c.1580-1649+), by whom she had three children during her husband’s lifetime. She was also a client of Dr. Simon Forman the astrologer, known for his “love philtres,” and visited him in early 1610 on Frances Howard’s behalf. Shortly after King James succeeded Queen Elizabeth in 1603, Anne Turner obtained a patent for yellow starch and yellow ruffs became all the fashion. When Turner died, he left £10 to Mainwaring to buy a ring with the inscription Fato junguntur Amantes (May the fates unite the lovers), with the understanding that the other man would marry Anne, but this did not happen. No one seems to know what became of their three children. As for Anne, she is said to have spent her inheritance and, not content with the income from her yellow starch, also acted as a caterer for exclusive supper parties and provided two houses, one in Paternoster Row and one in Hammersmith, where illicit lovers could meet. Lady Frances Howard, wife of the earl of Essex, met there with her lover, Robert Carr. Anne is also said to have provided Lady Frances with potions to make her husband impotent, thus enabling Frances to obtain an annulment and marry Carr. When Carr’s friend, Sir Thomas Overbury, was deemed to know too much about Frances’s activities, Anne also provided the arsenic used to murder him while he was a prisoner in the Tower. Although Overbury died on September 15, 1613, more than two years passed before accusations of murder resulted in the arrest of the conspirators. During that time, Anne persuaded Dr. Forman’s widow that some of Forman’s papers were too dangerous to keep and these were destroyed. In spite of the lack of this evidence, Anne Turner’s trial began on November 7, 1615. Under pressure, she broke down and confessed. Condemned to death, she was taken to Tyburn to be hanged. She threw money to the crowd as she was taken through the streets in a cart. The executioner was ordered to wear yellow cuffs and ruff. Not surprisingly, these went out of fashion with Anne’s death. Her brother, Eustace Norton, the king’s falconer, was allowed to take her body to be decently buried. Biography: detailed accounts of the Overbury case are Beatrice White’s Cast of Ravens and Anne Somerset's Unnatural Murder: Poison at the Court of King James; Oxford DNB entry under "Turner [née Norton], Anne." Portrait: an engraving showing Anne Turner on her way to the gallows at Tyburn.
ELIZABETH NORWICH or NORWICHE (d.1594)
Elizabeth Norwich was the daughter of John Norwich, possibly the John Norwich of Bringhurst (c.1497-before 1553) who married Anne Cobham c.1518 and then Alice Froude. Elizabeth was a member of Elizabeth Tudor’s household before she became queen. When Elizabeth Sandes was dismissed from her service in June 1554, the Lady Elizabeth suggested that Elizabeth Norwich replace her. Elizabeth Norwich probably served Elizabeth from 1548 until Elizabeth's arrest in 1554 and again from October 1554. She continued to be part of the queen’s household after Elizabeth Tudor took the throne and, as the third wife of Sir Gawen Carew (c.1503-1583/4), was the Lady Carew listed as one of Queen Elizabeth's Ladies of the Bedchamber in 1587. John Harington's poem to six of Princess Elizabeth's gentlewomen begins one stanza with the words "To Norwyche good and grave" and talks about her "knowledge in foresight of suche thinges yet to come."
ROSE O’BYRNE
MARY O’CONNOR
ODELL
FIONNUALA O’DONNELL
GRACE O’MALLEY (1530-c.1603)
Grace or Grania O’Malley, legendary female pirate, was the daughter of Owen Dubhdara O’Malley and Margaret, daughter of Conchobhar O’Malley. Grace married first Donal O’Flaherty and second Richard Burke (d.1583). Her second husband became chief of the Burkes of Mayo in 1582. Grace had two sons, Owen O’Flaherty (d.1586) and Theobald Burke (d.1629) and a daughter, Margaret. Her activities harried the English authorities in Ireland for decades. In the 1570s she kidnapped young Christopher St. Lawrence, Lord Howth’s heir. A painting at Howth Castle depicts the incident. In 1576/7, she greatly impressed the young Philip Sidney, whose father was Lord Deputy, when he visited Galway. She spent two years in prison in 1578-9 and was tried for plundering Aran Island in 1586 and was almost executed. In 1593, Sir Richard Bingham, who had tried her in 1586, called her “a notable traitress and nurse to all rebellions in the province for forty years,” but Sir John Perrot secured a pardon for her from Queen Elizabeth. In 1595, she petitioned Lord Burghley for the return of her jointure lands. Although it was long said that she did not speak English and never visited England, recent biographers assert that she did go to the court of Elizabeth I in 1593 and again in 1595. By tradition, she is said to have died in great poverty and been buried on Clare Island. Biographies: Anne Chambers, Granuale: The Life and Times of Grace O’Malley; sections of Joan Druett’s She Captains; Barbara Sjoholm’s The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O’Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea, and Jo Stanley, ed., Bold in her Breeches; Oxford DNB entry under "O'Malley, Grainne [Grace]."
ANNE OSBORNE
see ANNE HEWETT
ROSE O’TOOLE (d. 1597+)
ELIZABETH OUGHTRED
see ELIZABETH SEYMOUR
ALICE OWEN
see ALICE WILKES
ELIZABETH OWEN (d.1547+)
Elizabeth Owen was the daughter of Sir David Owen (1459-1542) and Anne Devereux. She married Sir Thomas Borough (d.1542), son of Thomas, 3rd baron Borough (Burgh) of Gainsborough (1483-February 23,1550). In 1537, when Elizabeth gave birth to her first child (Margaret), her father-in-law became convinced that she was guilty of adultery and disowned her. Destitute, Elizabeth petitioned Thomas Cromwell for an income. In 1543, matters detriorated further when her father-in-law secured an act of Parliament that declared all three of the children born to Elizabeth during his son’s lifetime to be illegitimate. The summary of this act in Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII vol 18, pt. 1 (1543) p. 46 #66 (London: HMSO, 1901) reads: "That whereas Elizabeth Burgh, late wife of Thomas lord Burgh (sic) lived in adultery during her husband's lifetime, and had children Margaret, Humfrey and Arthur by persons other than her husband, as she has partly confessed, these children are to be taken as bastards." Katherine Parr, who was also, briefly, one of Lord Burgh's daughter-in-laws, paid Elizabeth a pension from her own chamber accounts during her tenure as queen (1543-1547). Ironically, in his will, Lord Borough left Elizabeth's daughter, Margaret, a legacy of 700 marks, an indication that he might have changed his mind. The 3rd baron Burgh was, according to Katherine Parr's biographer, Susan James, a tyrant who ruled his family with an iron hand. There was also a strain of madness in the Borough family, a fact from which one may infer whatever they choose about the charges against Elizabeth Owen.
MARY OWEN
see MARY LONG
ELIZABETH OXENBRIDGE (c.1519-April 1578)
Elizabeth Oxenbridge was the daughter of Goddard Oxenbridge (1465-February 10, 1531) of Brede and his second wife, Anne Fiennes (1490-May 24, 1531). She was at court in the household of Queen Jane Seymour in 1537 and after the queen's death resided with Mary Arundell, countess of Sussex. She played an active role in attempting to place one of her sisters, Mary Oxenbridge, in the Calais household of Honor Grenville, viscountess Lisle. Mary thwarted the plan by eloping with a gentleman from Kent. Elizabeth was married to Sir Robert Tyrwhitt (c.1504-1572) of Leighton Bromswold, Huntingdonshire by August 4, 1539, when she and several other gentlewomen wrote a letter to King Henry from Portsmouth, where they had gone to view the royal fleet. She signed it "Elizabeth Tyrwhyt." When Catherine Howard became queen, Elizabeth was a gentlewoman of the privy chamber and during Anne Parr Herbert’s absence from court to have a child, temporarily took over her duties as keeper of the queen’s jewels. She was also a lady of the privy chamber to Kathryn Parr and shared the queen’s views on religion. It is probably at this time that her book of prayers was written. Her husband was Kathryn's master of horse. Both she and her husband remained with the queen dowager after Henry VIII’s death and Elizabeth, in testimony before the Privy Council, gave an eyewitness account of the queen dowager’s death on September 5, 1548. Elizabeth’s dislike of Kathryn Parr’s new husband, Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour, comes through clearly in this report. A short time later, Sir Robert and Lady Tyrwhitt were put in charge of Princess Elizabeth at Hatfield, following the removal of the princess’s longtime governess, Kat Astley, on suspicion of plotting to marry her young charge to the widowed Lord Admiral. Upon Lady Tyrwhitt's arrival, the princess locked herself in her room and declared that she did not need a governess. Sir Robert was of the opinion that she needed two and Lady Tyrwhitt stayed on even after Kat Astley’s return to the household. When the princess was in the Tower, Lady Tyrwhitt sent her a copy of the book of prayers later printed as Lady Elizabeth Tyrwhitt’s Morning and Evening Prayers (1574). In 1577, the Puritan printer John Field dedicated his translation of Jean de L'Espine's Excellent treatise of Christian righteousness to Lady Tyrwhitt. Although Sir Robert continued as master of horse under Mary Tudor, Elizabeth seems to have stayed at home. She bore at least three children, two who died young and a daughter, Katherine (1541-1567). Sir Robert's will in 1572 left the bulk of his estate to his "deare and wellbeloved wife." Some genealogies give her a second husband, Roger Fynes. Elizabeth died in her home in St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell. Biography: Susan M. Felch, ed., Elizabeth Tyrwhit's Morning and Evening Prayers (2008); Oxford DNB entry under "Tyrwhit [née Oxenbridge], Elizabeth." Portrait: marble effigy in St. Mary's parish church, Leighton Bromswold.
ELIZABETH OXENBRIDGE (c.1529-January 1590)
Elizabeth Oxenbridge was the daughter of Thomas Oxenbridge (1502-March 28,1540), half brother of Elizabeth Oxenbridge (above), and Elizabeth Puttenham (1507-1529). Around 1540, she also married a man named Robert Tyrwhitt, this one the nephew of the one married to Elizabeth's aunt. Sir Robert Tyrwhitt of Kettleby (1526-November 16, 1581) was also at court. Many accounts confuse these two sets of Robert and Elizabeth Tyrwhitts, or try to combine them into one couple instead of two. The Tyrwhitts of Kettleby, however, have the distinction of having produced twenty-two children, all of whom are pictured on their tomb in Bigby, Lincolnshire. Among them were: William (d.1591), Edward (1551-1577), Margaret (b.1552), Ursula (1553-1618), Marmaduke (d.1589), Goddard (b.1556), John (b.1557), Anne, George (b.c.1562), Mary, Robert (b.1565), Humphrey (1566-1579), Elizabeth, Frances (1572-1601+), and Roger (c.1573-1610). Elizabeth was buried on January 25, 1589/90. Portraits: A set of portraits of "Elizabeth Oxenham(sic), Lady Tyrwit" and her husband by Cornelius Ketel, painted in 1573, are referred to in Roy Strong's The English Icon but not reproduced there. Their location was unknown at the time of that book's publication in 1969; effigy.
MALYN OXENBRIDGE (1475-October 1544)
OXENHAM
see OXENBRIDGE
ANNE PAGET (c.1540-c.1590-4)
CATHERINE PAGET
NAZARET PAGET
ANNE PAKENHAM, PACKENHAM or PAGENHAM (d. October 22,1544)
CONSTANCE PAKENHAM (c.1505-September 1570)
DOROTHY PAKINGTON
CATHERINE PALMER (c.1500-December 19,1576)
Catherine Palmer was the daughter of Sir Edward Palmer (c.1470-1516/17) of Angmering, Sussex, and Alice Clement. She was a Bridgettine nun at Syon at Isleworth in the 1530s. When the monastery was dissolved on November 25, 1539, she received a pension of six pounds. It is unclear where she spent the next twelve years, but in 1551 she led a group of Bridgettines to the Low Countries, where they lived for six years at Termonde in Flanders. Cardinal Reginald Pole visited them there in 1554. On March 1, 1557, twenty-one sisters and three brothers were officially reestablished back in England, at Syon. Catherine Palmer was elected abbess on July 31, 1557. Unfortunately, with the accession of Elizabeth Tudor, they were once more forced into exile. Syon was dissolved by Parliament in May, 1559 and Catherine Palmer and some of her sisters left England in the party of the departing ambassador from Spain, the count of Feria. They returned to Termonde until 1564, then moved first to Zurich Zee; then to Mishagen, near Antwerp (1568-1571); then to Mechelen, where a Calvinist mob sacked the convent on November 8, 1576. Pope Pius IV had issued a papal bull on July 7, 1563 to ask church leaders, particularly the Archbishop of Utrecht, to assist the nuns in exile from Syon Abbey, but after burying Catherine Palmer in Mechelen, the others moved on to France and then to Portugal, finally settling in Lisbon in 1594. They returned to England in two groups, one in 1809 and the other in 1861, and eventually established a permanent community, still extant, in Devon. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Palmer, Katherine."
KATHERINE PALMER
see KATHERINE STRADLING
ELIZABETH PARIS (d.1591)
Elizabeth Paris was the daughter of Sir Philip Paris of Linton, Cambridgeshire (1492-March 4,1558) and Margaret Bowes (d.1551). In 1547, she married Sir Thomas Lovell (1526-March 23, 1567) of Barton Bendish, Norfolk. They had nine sons and six daughters, including Philip, Francis, Henry, Thomas, Robert, Edmund, Anne, Audrey, Catherine, and Ellen. She was probably the Lady Lovell arrested in 1585 but released by the queen’s command with immunity from further prosecution, although at that time most of the Lovells in Norfolk were recusants. In 1588, Lady Lovell sent a midwife to christen the child of Francis Lovell of West Derham and although the authorities made stringent efforts to discover the midwife’s name, they still had not managed to identify her three years later.
ELIZABETH PARKER
see ELIZABETH STANLEY
FRANCES PARKER
see FRANCES BARLOW
GRACE PARKER
see GRACE NEWPORT
JANE PARKER (x. February 13, 1542)
Jane Parker was the daughter of Henry Parker, 8th baron Morley (1476-November 25,1556) and Alice St. John (1486-December 1552) but she is best known as Lady Rochford, wife and then widow of George Boleyn (1503-1536), Queen Anne’s brother. She gave damning evidence against her husband and sister-in-law and after their executions was able to return to court as a lady of the bedchamber. She also gave evidence to help King Henry VIII annul his marriage to Anne of Cleves, but during the tenure of Queen Catherine Howard, it was Jane who helped the young queen betray her husband. Just how involved Jane was, and whether she was the villainous creature history has painted her, are subject to much debate. Her own evidence in interrogations in 1541 is disjointed and contradictory and she is said to have run mad when she realized she would be executed along with the queen. It was a letter in Catherine Howard’s handwriting that condemned her. The queen wrote to Thomas Culpepper to “come when my Lady Rochford is here, for then I shall be at leisure to be your commandment.” The George Boleyn (d. 1603) who became dean of Litchfield is highly unlikely to have been either Jane’s son or her husband’s, since he is not mentioned in the will of Jane’s father-in-law, Thomas Boleyn. Biography: Julia Fox’s Jane Boleyn; Oxford DNB entry under "Boleyn [née Parker], Jane."
MARGARET PARKER
see MARGARET HARLESTONE
MARY PARKER (d.1606+)
SUSANNA PARKER
see SUSANNA HORENBOULT
ANNE PARR (c.1515-February 20, 1552)
Anne Parr was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr (1478-1517) and Maud Green (1492-December 1,1531). Her mother was a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon and Anne became a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour. In early 1538, Anne married William Herbert (c.1506-March 17,1570). She should not be confused with Lady Herbert of Troy (Blanche Milborne) who carried Elizabeth Tudor's train at the christening of Prince Edward, or Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was chief chamberer to Queen Jane and rode in her funeral cortege in 1537. Anne Parr was also in the cortege, but she was not yet Mrs. Herbert. As Lady Herbert, she was keeper of the queen’s jewels to Catherine Howard, although she left court briefly to give birth to her first child, Henry (d.January 19,1601), in 1540. She was back at court in time to attend the disgraced queen at Syon House and in the Tower. When her sister Katherine became Henry VIII’s sixth queen in 1543, Anne returned to court. In 1551, William Herbert was created earl of Pembroke. They had two more children, Edward (June 1544-1594) and Anne (1545-1593) and used Baynard’s Castle as their London residence. For the birth of her second son, Anne's sister loaned her the manor of Hanworth in Middlesex for her lying in. After the birth, Anne visited Lady Hertford, who had also just given birth, at Syon House near Richmond. In August, the queen sent a barge to bring Anne by river from Syon to Westminster. After Henry VIII's death, when the queen dowager's household was at Chelsea, both Anne and her son Edward were part of the household there. At the time of her death, Anne Parr was one of Princess Mary’s ladies. She died quite unexpectedly at Baynard's Castle and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral next to the tomb of John of Gaunt. Her memorial there reads: "a most faithful wife, a woman of the greatest piety and discretion." Portrait: portrait bust on one face of the 1540s porch at Wilton (now in Wilton garden); it is the opinion of Susan E. James, Katherine Parr’s biographer, that Anne is the subject of the “unidentified” lady in the Holbein sketch shown below; a portrait of Anne was part of the Pembroke collection in 1561.
ANNE PARR
see ANNE BOURCHIER
ELIZABETH PARR
see ELIZABETH BROOKE
HELENA PARR
see HELENA VON SNAKENBORG
KATHERINE PARR (c.1512-September 5,1548)
Katherine Parr was the daughter of Thomas Parr (1478-1517) and Maud Greene (1492-December 1,1531). She married Edward Borough (c.1508-1533), then John, Lord Latimer (November 17,1493-March 2, 1543), and on July 12,1543 became the sixth wife of King Henry VIII (June 28,1491-January 28,1547). After the king’s death, she married Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley (1507-x.March 10,1549) on April 4, 1547. She died giving birth to her only child, Mary (1548-1550). Biographies: Anthony Martienssen’s Queen Katherine Parr is highly speculative and poorly documented. Much better is Susan James’s Catherine Parr and its earlier incarnation Kateryn Parr: The Making of a Queen; two new biographies (2010) are Elizabeth Norton’s Catherine Parr and Linda Porter’s Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr; Oxford DNB entry under "Katherine [Kateryn, Catherine; née Katherine Parr]." Portraits: The portrait once thought to be Lady Jane Grey by Master John c.1545 is now believed to be Katherine Parr; Hans Holbein the Younger sketch labeled “The Lady Borow”; painting by William Scrots, 1545; miniature; others.
MAUD PARR
see MAUD GREEN
MAUD PARR (c. 1507-1558/9)
ANNE PARRY
see ANNE REDE
BLANCHE PARRY (1508-February 12, 1590)
Blanche Parry was the daughter of Henry Myles of Bacton, Hertfordshire (d.c.1528) and Alice Milborne and acquired her surname through a variant of the Welsh manner of naming a son by his father’s first name—ap Harry means son of Harry. Blanche entered the service of the young Elizabeth Tudor by 1536, obtaining her position because her aunt, Blanche Milborne, Lady Troy, was in charge of the household. Blanche remained with Elizabeth throughout Elizabeth’s younger years and continued in her service after she became queen. She never married. Biographies: Ruth Elizabeth Richardson’s Mistress Blanche: Queen Elizabeth’s Confidante; Oxford DNB entry under “Parry, Blanche.” Portraits: several paintings, some of which are unlikely, based on the age of the sitter; two monuments, one in Bacton and the other in St. Margaret’s, Westminster, where she is buried.
ELEANOR PASTON (before 1496-October 12, 1559)
Eleanor Paston was the daughter of Sir William Paston (1479-1554) and Bridget Heydon. She married Thomas Manners, earl of Rutland (c.1492-September 20,1543) as his second wife, before 1523. Their children were Elizabeth, Gertrude (d.January 1566), Henry (September 23,1526-September 17,1563), Anne (b.1527), Sir John (d.1611), Frances (c.1530-September 1576), Roger (b.1535), Sir Thomas (1537-1591), Catherine (b.1539), Oliver, and Isabel (d.yng.). In between giving birth she was a lady of the privy chamber to Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. In 1536, the Rutlands’ London house at Holywell in Shoreditch was the scene of a triple wedding uniting Henry Manners, age ten, with Lady Margaret Neville, Anne Manners with Lord Neville, and Dorothy Neville with Lord Bulbeck, the earl of Oxford’s heir. In July 1537, Lady Rutland was quarantined at Enfield after a member of her household came down with the dreaded "sweat," but she was back at court in August, in time to take Catherine Bassett, stepdaughter of Arthur Plantagenet, viscount Lisle, under her wing and look after her until Catherine was awarded a post in the household of Anne of Cleves in August 1540. There is a monument to Eleanor and three other women in St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, erected in 1591. It says she was buried there in 1551. There is no death date on her husband's tomb at Bottesford, since that monument was erected during her lifetime, but M. St. Clare Byrne gives her death date as October 12, 1559. Portraits: her lifelike effigy is preserved in marble on her husband's tomb in St. Mary the Virgin Church, Bottesford, Leicestershire.
KATHERINE PASTON
ELIZABETH PAULET
FRANCES PAULET
DOROTHY PELHAM
see DOROTHY CATESBY
ELLEN PENDLETON
MRS. PENN or PENNE
see JULIANA ARTHUR; SYBIL HAMPDEN
MARGARET PENNINGTON (d. December 1551)
KATHERINE PENYSON (1440-1509+)
Katherine Penyson was born in the Piedmont region of Italy and came to England with her father, Gregory Penyson, as a political refugee. She was a lady in waiting to Margaret of Anjou and married Sir William Vaux, who was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury on May 4, 1471. Her children, Joan (c.1463-1538) and Sir Nicholas (d.1523), 1st Baron Vaux, were educated in the household of Henry VII’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, where Katherine may also have had a place. She was still living at the time of Margaret Beaufort’s death on June 29, 1509.
LETTICE PENYSTON (c. 1485-1558)
Lettice or Laetitia Penyston was the daughter of Sir Thomas Penyston (Peniston, Pennyston, Penystone) of Hawridge and Marshall, Buckinghamshire (c.1446-before1506) and Alice Bulstrode (d.c.1520). She was raised by Margaret Bourchier, Lady Bryan and may have lived for a time at court as that lady was in the household of Catherine of Aragon. In 1510, Lettice married Sir Robert Knollys (1451-1521) with whom she had Francis (1514-1596), Henry (d.1583), Mary, and Jane. Lettice Knollys, her son Francis’s infamous daughter, was named for her. Her second husband was Sir Robert Lee of Burston, Buckinghamshire (d.1537), by whom she also had children, probably Roger, John, Elizabeth, and Mary, although some of those may have been born to his first wife. After Lee’s death she married Sir Thomas Tresham (d.1559) of Rushton, Northamptonshire. Her will was dated June 28, 1557 and proved June 11, 1558.
ELIZABETH PEPPARD (d. 1587+)
ANNE PERCY
see ANNE SOMERSET
DOROTHY PERCY
see DOROTHY DEVEREUX
KATHERINE PERCY
MARY PERCY
MARY PERCY (1563-1643)
Mary Percy was the daughter of Thomas Percy, 7th earl of Northumberland (1528-x.August 22,1572) and Anne Somerset (1538-October 17,1596). Both parents were involved in the Northern Rebellion of 1569 and when it failed, six-year old Mary was left behind in England with her three sisters. They were taken in by Henry Percy, their father’s brother, who was granted the Northumberland title after Thomas Percy’s execution for treason. The girls were raised at Petworth with their cousins and apparently given an excellent education, as Mary later assisted in translations from the French and received at least one dedication. Some sources have Mary wed to Sir Thomas Grey of Wark. Whether or not she was married earlier in life, Mary eventually joined the English exiles in the Netherlands, perhaps after traveling there to claim her mother’s possessions after the countess’s death. According to her epitaph, Mary “suffered imprisonment in England for a long time” for her faith before she was able to leave. Once she reached Brussels, Mary founded, along with fellow English exiles Dorothy and Gertrude Arundell, an English Benedictine convent, which was dedicated on November 21, 1599 with Joanna Berkeley as abbess. In 1600, Mary took her vows and became a nun in that convent. In 1616 she was elected abbess. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Percy, Lady Mary.” Portraits: marble effigy.
THOMASINE PERCYVALE
see THOMASINE BONAVENTURE
DOROTHY PERROT
see DOROTHY DEVEREUX
MARY PERROT
see MARY BERKELEY
ANNE PETRE
DOROTHY PETRE (1534-May 16,1618)
Dorothy Petre was the daughter of Sir William Petre (1505-1572) and Gertrude Tyrrell (d. May 28, 1541). She married Sir Nicholas Wadham of Merefield, Somerset (1532-October 20,1609) on September 3, 1555. Dorothy’s only claim to fame lies in the fact that she had enough money (£19,200 from her husband and an additional £7270 of her own) to found Wadham College after her husband’s death. In fact, almost nothing of known of her life between her marriage and his death. The Letters of Dorothy Wadham is a slim volume, published in 1904, and has mostly to do with the college, which received its royal letter patent on December 20, 1610. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Wadham [née Petre], Dorothy.” Portraits: 1595; c. 1594 by a follower of Custodis; carved statue at Wadham College, Oxford; funerary brass, St. Mary’s Church, Ilminster, Somerset.
THOMASINE PETRE (April 7, 1543-1611+)
ELIZABETH PHILLIPS (June 18, 1565-October 15, 1632)
ANNE PICKERING (1514-1582)
Anne Pickering was the daughter of Sir Christopher Pickering of Killington (d. September 7, 1516) and Jane Lewknor (d.1543+). After her father’s death, she was the ward of Sir Richard Weston, who married her to his son, Francis (1511-May 17, 1536). Sir Francis Weston was one of the men accused with Anne Boleyn and executed. His widow married twice more, first to Sir Henry Knyvett of Charlton, Wiltshire (1510-1547) and then to John Vaughan (d.1566+). Her children were Sir Henry Weston (1535-1592), Sir Henry Knyvett (1539-1598) and Elizabeth, Anne, Alice, Catherine, Thomas (1545-1622), and Margaret Knyvett. Portrait: carved head from marriage chest c.1530 (Saffron Walden Museum).
ELIZABETH PICKERING (d. October 1562)
Elizabeth Pickering’s parents are unknown. She was the first woman to print books in England, according to an article by Barbara Kreps in the Winter 2003 Renaissance Quarterly. Her first husband was named Jackson and she had two daughters by him, Luce and Elizabeth, when she married Robert Redman (d. October 1540) sometime after the burial of Redman’s first wife on September 29, 1536. When Redman died, his widow took over his shop at the sign of the George in Fleet Street, next to the church of St. Dunstans in the West, and published in her own right for about ten months, producing about a dozen books. Redman left behind three minor daughters, Mildred (b. September 1532), Katherine (d. between 1541 and 1544), and Alice (c.1539-1586+), who was Elizabeth’s child. By October 1541, Elizabeth had sold the press to William Middleton and remarried, taking as her third husband William Cholmeley (c. 1510-1546), a lawyer. After his death, she married his kinsman, Randolph Cholmeley (d.April 25,1563), who became Recorder of London in 1554.
JANE PICKERING
ELIZABETH PIERREPOINT or PIERREPONT (b.1568)
Elizabeth Pierrepoint was the daughter of Sir Henry Pierrepoint (1545-1615) of Holme Pierrepoint, Nottinghamshire, and Frances Cavendish (June 18,1548-1632) and the granddaughter of Bess of Hardwick. As a child of four she joined the household of the captive Mary, queen of Scots, who was in the keeping of Bess of Hardwick and her fourth husband, the earl of Shrewsbury. Queen Mary called the child Mignonne and was very fond of her. So was her grandmother, who called her Bessie. Bessie remained in the queen of Scots’s household even after Mary was removed from Shrewsbury’s keeping. When Bessie was seventeen (c.1585), her grandmother was promoting a marriage for her with one of the earl of Northumberland’s sons, but nothing came of it. Beginning in January 1586, letters were being smuggled in and out of Chartley, where the queen of Scots was at that time imprisoned, in watertight containers inside beer barrels. Mary’s secretary, Claude Nau, also used this method to send messages to Bessie, who had left Queen Mary’s service to wait upon Queen Elizabeth. Bessie’s father approved of the match, but Bessie did not accept him. A recent biography of Bess of Hardwick by Mary S. Lovell states that Bessie did not marry until 1604, when she was thirty-five, and identifies her husband as Thomas Erskine (1566-1639), who was created viscount Fenton in 1606 and earl of Kellie in 1619. Erskine records agree that his second wife was Elizabeth Pierrepoint, daughter of Sir Henry of Holme Pierrepoint, and further that she died on April 27, 1621, after which Erskine married a third time. However, earlier biographers give Bessie a different husband, Richard Stapleton of Templehurst (d.c.1614), six children (Gilbert, Epiphanius, Sir Robert, Jane, Elizabeth, and Grace), and a death date of November 27, 1648. This is supported by Stapleton genealogies. It is possible Bessie married Stapleton and then Erskine, if c.1614 is a mistake for 1604, but that does not account for the difference in death dates.
ANNE PIERS (d.1581+) (maiden name unknown)
Anne Piers is known only through one record, that of her interrogation by Sir Richard Grenville in 1581 on charges of receiving stolen goods and witchcraft. She was found innocent of the latter charge, but guilty of selling plate at Bodmin. Anne was the wife of William Piers and the mother of Captain John Piers of Padstow, Cornwall (c.1560-1582), a notorious pirate captured in 1581 at Studland, Dorset. Anne’s abilities as a witch had been given credit for his success up to that point. Piers himself was imprisoned but escaped from Dorchester gaol. When he was recaptured, he was executed. His mother’s fate does not seem to have been recorded.
CECILY PLANTAGENET (March 20, 1469-August 24, 1507)
HONOR PLANTAGENET
see HONOR GRENVILLE
KATHERINE PLANTATGENET (1479-November 15, 1527)
MARGARET PLANTAGENET (August 14,1473-May 27, 1541)
Margaret Plantagenet was the daughter of George, duke of Clarence (d.1478), brother of Edward IV and Richard III, and Isabella Neville (d.1476). Her father died in the Tower of London, supposedly drowned in a butt of Malmsey. In 1490, she married Sir Richard Pole (d.1505) and by him had Henry (1492-x.December 9,1538), Arthur (d.1535), Reginald (1500-November 17,1558), Sir Geoffrey (1502-1558) and Ursula (c.1504-August 12,1570). Although her brother, Edward, Earl of Warwick, was also executed (on November 28, 1499), simply because he had a claim to the throne, Margaret was held in high esteem under the Tudors. In 1513, she was created countess of Salisbury in her own right. Henry VIII thought of her as a second mother and she was governess of his daughter, Mary, until December 1533. After the Reformation, however, Margaret’s religious beliefs made her suspect and her royal blood, passed on to her children, eventually turned the king against the entire family. That her son Reginald became a Cardinal and, although in exile, actively worked to overthrow King Henry, was enough to cause the downfall of the Poles. In 1538, Margaret, her sons Sir Geoffrey and Henry (Baron Montagu), her daughter-in-law, and her grandson were all arrested. Her son was executed. Margaret was attainted for treason. She was held first at Cowdray Park and later in the Tower of London and in 1541, following a minor uprising in the north of England, to which she had no connection, was beheaded. She was beatified in 1886. Biography: Hazel Pierce, Margaret Pole; Oxford DNB entry under "Pole, Margaret." Portrait: in the NPG.
AGNES PLUMPTON
CATHERINE POLE
see CATHERINE BRYDGES
CONSTANCE POLE
ELEANOR POLE (b.c.1463)
Eleanor Pole was the daughter of Geoffrey Pole (1431-1474) and Edith St. John. She married Sir Ralph Verney (c. 1452-1528) in 1477 and, as Lady Verney, was a waiting gentlewoman to both Elizabeth of York and Catherine of Aragon. She was one of Elizabeth of York’s favorite ladies. She was also, as the daughter of one of Margaret Beaufort’s half sisters, a cousin to Henry VII and his children. She had a son, John (1488-1540) by Verney.
JANE POLE
KATHERINE POLE (d.September 23,1576)
Katherine Pole was the daughter of Henry Pole, baron Montagu (1492-1538) and Jane Neville (d.1538) and married Francis Hastings (1514-June 20,1561), son and heir of the earl of Huntingdon, in 1532, at the same time her sister, Winifred, married his brother Thomas. In 1538, Katherine’s father was executed for treason. Her grandmother, Lord Montagu’s mother, Margaret Plantagenet, countess of Salisbury, was executed on the same charge in 1541. Their only crime was having a claim to the throne. The countess of Salisbury was the daughter of George, duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard III. Although Katherine’s husband was under suspicion for a time, he was careful to stay out of politics. He succeeded his father, becoming 2nd earl of Huntingdon in 1544. Their children were Henry, 3rd earl (1535-December 14,1594), William, George, 4th earl (c.1540-December 30,1604), Edward (d.1603), Francis (d.1610), Walter (b.c.1554), Catherine, Frances, Elizabeth (d.1621), Anne, and Mary (c.1552-1584+). The oldest boy, Henry, was a schoolmate of Henry VIII’s son, the future Edward VI and the family fortunes improved during Edward’s short reign. When Mary Tudor became queen, Katherine promptly contacted her uncle, Cardinal Reginald Pole, who had been in exile since 1538, and upon his return to England asked him to be the godfather of her youngest son, Walter. When Katherine’s husband died, he left her with five sons and five daughters, all but the oldest boy and girl under age. It was her oldest son, the new earl, however, who had the responsibility for supporting them and arranging their marriages. Katherine assisted in this financially. In 1562, she leased him all her lands except the manor of Lubbesthorpe, where she lived until her death, for an annuity of £960 and his promise to double his sisters’ dowries. This lease was cancelled in 1564. In exchange Katherine granted him the lease of the manor of Stokenham in Devon and gave him permission to sell some of her lands in Cornwall. In 1574, she assigned the park of Ware, Hertfordshire to him (he needed to pledge property for his debts to the crown) and received in return an annuity of £33. 6s. 8d. Most of her estates, however, remained in her possession. She remained a Catholic sympathizer, if not actively a recusant, even though her oldest son was a staunch protestant. Her youngest son, Walter, shared her beliefs. Portrait: Katherine Pole appears in effigy on her tomb, lying next to her husband.
MARGARET POLE
see MARGARET PLANTAGENET
URSULA POLE (c.1504-August 12, 1570)
MARY POLEWHELE
JANE POLEY
ELIZABETH POLLARD
see ELIZABETH LECHE
MARIA PONET
ELINOR POOLE (c.1570-c.1647)
Elinor Poole was the daughter of Sir Henry Poole of Sapperton, Gloucestershire (1541-1616) and Anne Wroughton. In 1589, she married Sir Richard Fettiplace of Bessilsleigh and Appleton, Berkshire (1564-July 11, 1615). Their children were John (1590-1619), Anne, Thomas, and three others. In 1604, Lady Fettiplace compiled of a book on household management that included many recipes collected from friends and a great many cures for ailments as varied as insomnia and the plague. Late in life, Lady Fettiplace remarried, taking as her second husband a Gloucester man named Edward Rogers (d.1623). Biography: included in Hilary Spurling, ed., Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book (1986); Oxford DNB entry under "Fettiplace [née Poole; other married name Rogers], Elinor." Portrait: effigy in Sapperton Church.
ANNE POPE
see ANNE HOPTON
JANE POPYNCOURT (d.1528+)
Records first place Jane Popyncourt in England in 1498 as a French-speaking damsel assigned to teach that language to Henry VII’s two daughters, Margaret and Mary, through “daily conversation.” Nothing is known of her background. Some records identify her as French, others as Flemish. By 1502 she was one of Mary Tudor's maids of honor and in 1512 was earning 200s per annum as a member of Queen Catherine of Aragon's household. She became notorious during the stay of the duc de Longueville at the English court as a prisoner of war. Louis d’Orléans, 2nd duc de Longueville, marquis of Rothelin, count of Dunois, and lord of Beaugency (1480-August 1,1516) gained his title upon the death of his older brother, the first duke, in 1515. At that time he was the captain of one hundred gentlemen of the king’s horse. He had been married for ten years to Johanna of Baden-Hochberg (1480-1543) and had four children by her, the youngest born in 1513. Longueville was captured at the Battle of the Spurs and sent to England as a prisoner of war to wait for his ransom (100,000 crowns) to be paid. While there he took a mistress—Jane Popyncourt. After the death of Queen Anne of France, Longueville took an active role in negotiating the marriage of Louis XII of France and Henry VIII’s sister, Mary, and served as proxy bridegroom at the wedding at Greenwich Palace. The next day, his ransom having been paid, he left for France. Jane expected to journey to France as one of Mary's attendants and to be reunited with her lover there, but her name was struck off the list at the last moment by King Louis XII. It was the only name he crossed out, and he reportedly commented that she should be “burnt.” There is no adequate explanation for his antipathy. Some have suggested that Jane was unwelcome because she was Longueville’s mistress and his wife was already at the French court, but in France in those days it was not unusual for noblemen to have mistresses. Besides, those who committed adultery were not burnt. Burning was reserved for heresy, for those who murdered their husbands or their masters (petty treason), and for witches (in France—in England witches were hanged). Whatever caused King Louis to ban her from France, Jane was forced to remain at the English court. There she is recorded as participating in masques and apparently remained in the queen's household. In May 1516, some time after the death of King Louis and the return of Mary Tudor to England, Jane received a gift of £100 from King Henry and left England for France. Some accounts claim Jane was the king’s mistress, and the gift her reward, but she had long served the royal family and there is no need to look further for a reason. As for Jane’s lover, the duc de Longueville had been high in favor with Louis XII and continued to be so under his successor, Francis I. Both were his distant kinsmen. Longueville fought in the Battle of Marigano in 1515 and reportedly lost a brother there. He died of unknown causes at Beaugency on August 1, 1516, having made his will the previous day. Although Jane Popyncourt left England for France in late May of 1516, it is not known whether she was ever reunited with her lover. The story that he set her up at the Louvre and lived with her there for many years obviously has no basis in fact, since he died only a few months after she arrived. In addition, in 1516, the Louvre was a ruin. The court, when in Paris, resided at Les Tournelles. In any case, Jane settled in France and corresponded with Mary Tudor (by then duchess of Suffolk) for some years afterward, on occasion sending gifts to Mary’s children. Jane Popyncourt was still alive in 1528, when Mary asked her to use her influence at the French court on Mary’s behalf.
JOAN POYNTZ
see JOAN VAUX
FRANCES PRANNELL
see FRANCES HOWARD
AGNES PREST (x. August 15, 1557) (maiden name unknown)
ANNE PRESTON (c.1510-February 1587)
HELEN or ELLEN PRESTON (d. 1567+)
Helen Preston was the daughter of Sir Thomas Preston of Preston Patrick, Westmorland (d.1523) and Anne Thornborough. She married first Sir James Leyburne of Cunswick, Westmorland and second, c. 1549, Thomas Stanley, 2nd baron Mounteagle (May 25,1507-August 25,1560). She had two daughters by her first husband, Elizabeth (1536-September 4, 1567) and Anne, and two by her second husband, Margaret and another Anne. She married the first Anne to her second husband’s son, William Stanley, 3rd baron Mounteagle. After the Council of Trent declared (in 1562) that no Catholic could be present at a heretic service and remain a good Catholic, Lady Mounteagle refused to attend services. She does not seem to have been persecuted as a recusant, at least in part because of her family connections. Her widowed daughter, Elizabeth Leyburne, Lady Dacre, married as her second husband, Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk. The wedding took place in Lady Mounteagle’s London house on January 29, 1567. After Elizabeth's death in childbirth some nine months later, Lady Mounteagle took charge of her grandchildren and provided a Catholic priest to instruct them.
see DOROTHY SMITH
see ANNE KILLIGREW.jpg)
Elizabeth Neville was the daughter of John Neville, 4th baron Latimer (c.1520-April 22,1577) and Lucy Somerset (d. February 23, 1583). She was an ancestor of the biographer John Aubrey, who recorded that she “had Chaucer at her fingers’ ends” and “understood jewels as well as any jeweler,” as well as being able to “manage her estate as well as any man.” Elizabeth married Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey, Wiltshire (1540-December 19, 1593). Their children were Sir Charles (1568-1601), Lucy (1572-1621), Sir Henry (1573-1644), Elizabeth, Eleanor (d.1601), Anne, Catherine, Mary, John (June 28,1588-April 16,1655), and Dorothy (1590-1650). In October 1595, Charles and Henry were forced to flee the country following the murder of Henry Long, a member of a family with whom the Danvers family had been feuding for some time. In order to facilitate obtaining pardons for them, Elizabeth married Sir Edmund Carey (c.1557-September 12,1637), one of Lord Hunsdon’s sons and therefore Queen Elizabeth’s cousin. Shortly thereafter, Sir Charles was allowed to return to England. Sir Henry was pardoned a bit later. In 1601, however, Charles was again in need of a pardon, but this time his crime was conspiring with the earl of Essex and although his mother offered to pay £10,000 for his release, he was executed for treason. Portrait: effigy in St. Michael’s Church, Stowe, Northamptonshire.
.jpg)
Frances Neville was the daughter of Sir Edward Neville (1471-x.1538) and Eleanor Windsor (c.1479-March 25,1531). Around 1544, she married Sir Edward Waldegrave of Borley, Essex (1517-September 1,1561). Their children included Magdalen (c.1545-September 8,1598), Catherine, Mary (1549-August 29,1604), Nicholas (c.1550-June 19, 1621), Charles (April 5, 1551-January 10, 1630/31), Frances, and Christopher. In September 1551, Waldegrave was in the Tower of London. Frances was permitted to go there to nurse him. He was released on October 24 and allowed to return to his own house on the following March 18. On April 24, he was set at liberty. Frances was one of Queen Mary’s ladies in 1556. In 1561, both she and her husband were in the Tower for hearing mass. Sir Edward died there. During their imprisonment, Queen Elizabeth made use of their house at Smallbridge, Suffolk, on her annual progress. Frances’s second husband, married c.1562, was Chidiock Paulet (before 1521-August 17, 1574), by whom she had one son, Thomas. Portraits: effigy on Waldegrave tomb in Borley, Essex.
see GRISOLD HUGHES
Margaret Neville was the daughter of John Neville, 3rd baron Latimer (November 27, 1483-March 2, 1543) and Dorothy Vere (d. February 7, 1527). She was raised by her father’s second wife, Katherine Parr and came to court as one of her ladies when Katherine married Henry VIII and became queen of England. In December 1543, Katherine sent Margaret to Ashridge to spend part of the month with Katherine’s new stepdaughter, Elizabeth Tudor. Somewhat unusually for an unmarried woman in the 1540s, Margaret wrote a will. It was probated March 27, 1546. .jpg)
.jpg)
Ursula Neville was the daughter of George, 3rd baron Bergavenny (1471-June 13,1535) and his third wife, Mary Stafford (c.1495-before 1534). In about 1550 she married Sir Warham St. Leger (1525-1597) and was the mother of Anne (1555-1636), Sir Anthony (c.1557-December 19,1602), Nicholas (d.c.1602), Henry, George (c.1562-1620), William (1564-1594), Mary (c.1570-1578) and Jane. In 1568, the family moved to Ireland, where Sir Warham hoped to establish a colony. Unfortunately for Ursula, the idea was not popular with the Irish. While Sir Warham was in England seeking further support in June 1569, Ursula was beseiged in Carrigaline, Cork. She and Mary St. Leger, her husband's cousin and the wife of Sir Richard Grenville, reportedly held out until relief came, although other records indicate that they had to seek the protection of the earl of Ormond at Kilkenny. St. Leger abandoned his plans to colonize and the family returned to England in 1570. From 1570-72 the St. Legers had custody of the earl of Desmond and his family at Leeds Castle, Kent.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Nazaret Newton was the daughter of Sir John Newton or Cradock of East Harptree, Somerset (d.1568) and Margaret Poyntz. She was a gentlewoman of the privy chamber in the 1560s and married, as his third wife, Sir Thomas Southwell of Woodrising Hall, Norfolk (c.1542-c.1572), by whom she had two children, Robert (1563-October 12, 1599) and Elizabeth (1569-1602+). Her second husband was Thomas, 3rd baron Paget (d. 1590), by whom she had a son, William (1572-1629). After they married, Paget dismissed all of his wife’s servants. Gilbert Talbot called him an “evell husband” in a letter in 1573 and Nazaret had formally separated from him in 1581/2. In 1578, Queen Elizabeth visited Woodrising Hall on progress, even though both the Southwells and the Pagets were known recusants. In fact, in 1583, Lord Paget fled England for Paris. Portrait: Susan E. James lists one painted in c.1578 at age 31, which would push Nazaret's birthdate ahead to c.1547.
.jpg)
see JEANNE de GONTAUT
see BRIDGET KINGSMILL; BRIDGET de VERE
Elizabeth Norris was the daughter of Bridget de Vere (April 6, 1584-c.1630) and Francis Norris of Rycote, Oxfordshire, later earl of Berkshire (July 6,1579-January 29,1622). She was said to be the mistress of Philip Herbert, earl of Montgomery and Pembroke (1584-1650), who was married to her aunt, Susan de Vere. Some records say she was openly living with him in 1622. However, there is another version of the story that makes more sense. By 1621, Elizabeth was being courted by Edward Wray or Ray of the king’s household. The couple were said to be in love. But her father, who had just been created earl of Berkshire, was making difficulties. For one thing, he was contemplating divorce, which would make Elizabeth illegitimate. For another, Berkshire had elbowed Lord Scrope out of his way when Scrope tried to push in front of him in the House of Lords. Unfortunately, since Prince Charles was in attendance, this was a crime. Berkshire was sent to the Fleet. When he was released, he went home to Rycote and killed himself with a crossbow. As his death was a suicide, his estate was forfeit to the Crown and Elizabeth became the king’s ward. Fearful that she would be forced into a marriage with Christopher Villiers, brother of the king’s favorite, Elizabeth resolved to elope. She was apparently living in, or at least visiting, the earl of Montgomery’s house—the likely source of the story that she was his mistress—on March 27, 1622, when she crept out and walked three miles to St. Mary Aldermary’s Church to marry Wray. After the ceremony, she went to the Fleet Street house of her uncle, Henry de Vere, earl of Oxford, for protection. When news of the secret marriage got out, Wray was put under house arrest until February of 1623 and lost his post at court. Oxford was sent to the Tower. It is said that the story of the elopement inspired Orlando Gibbons’s Fantazies. It is not clear where Elizabeth was while her new husband was confined to his house, but they were eventually reunited and had a daughter, Bridget (May 12, 1627-March 1657). Elizabeth was suo jure baroness Norris of Rycote. Portrait: artist and date unknown. 
Joan North was the daughter of Roger North (c.1448-1509) and Christian Warcup (c. 1549-1504). She married William Wilkerson (1481-1513), a London alderman. They had three daughters, Christian, Frances, and Jane (d.1556+). As a widow with a house in Soper Lane in London and another at King’s Stanley, Gloucestershire, Joan pursued a career as a silkwoman and served in that capacity in the household of Queen Anne Boleyn from 1533-1535. She embraced the evangelical beliefs of the queen’s chaplain, William Latimer and when Latimer was apprehended in Sandwich with a shipment of banned books in 1535, he sent the books on to Joan in London. Under Mary Tudor, Joan was one of several gentlewomen who provided aid and comfort to imprisoned protestant divines. Eventually, however, she fled to the Continent and settled in Frankfurt am Main, where she died. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Wilkinson [née North], Joan.” 
see ROSE O’TOOLE
see MARY FITZGERALD
see WOODHULL
see FIONNUALA MACDONNELL
Rose O’Toole was the daughter of Turlough O’Toole, who was assassinated in the 1540s. She married Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne (c.1544-1597) as his second wife. O’Byrne, known as the “firebrand of the mountains” was a rebel leader. In 1580, Rose was captured and questioned about her husband’s activities. she blamed the earl of Kildare for involving O’Byrne in treason. Eventually, a truce was reached. The O’Byrnes were noted for their hospitality at their home at Ballincor, but even during peaceful times they were plotting against the English. In January 1591, they contrived the escape of Red Hugh O’Donnell from Dublin Castle and arranged for him to be sheltered by Rose’s brother, Phelim O’Toole, at Castlekevin. In 1594, the truce expired and the Nine Years War (1594-1603), also known as the Rising of the Northern Chiefs, the last great Irish rebellion against the government of Queen Elizabeth, began. In January of 1595, Ballincor was attacked. O’Byrne was almost taken prisoner and Rose was wounded in the breast. The family retreated to Dromceat. O’Byrne’s death did not keep Rose from working for the rebel cause. She acted as a go-between and Sir Thomas Lee believed that she was the mistress of Thomas Butler, 10th earl of Ormond (1532-November 22, 1614). She did take messages from him to the rebel earl of Tyrone. For this crime, she was arrested and sentenced to be burnt as a traitor but was pardoned by Queen Elizabeth in return for her promise to work against her stepson, Turlough O’Byrne. Rose did not keep her word and a second pardon became necessary at a later date. .jpg)
Malyn Oxenbridge was the daughter of Sir Robert Oxenbridge of Brede Place, Sussex and his wife Anne. She married Sir Richard Carew of Beddington (d. May 18, 1520). Their children were Margaret (b.c.1510), Elizabeth (d. February 4, 1532), Ann, Sir Nicholas (x. March 3, 1539), and Mary. Malyn's inheritance from her husband included lands he had recently purchased in the county of Guisnes. After her son's execution for treason, Lady Carew continued to live in Beddington, possibly in the building later called the Old Post Office. Later in 1539, her grandson, Charles Carew (x.1540), rector of Beddington and the illegitimate son of Sir Nicholas, conspired to rob Malyn of her money, plate, and jewelry. A letter exists from Malyn to Lord Cromwell, thanking him for his kindness and asking for mercy for the offenders. In it she writes "if I had my sight I would have waited on you to thank you," from which I conclude she was blind. Some records give her name as Maude. Some records also say she had another husband before Richard Carew. Two names are suggested but both are unlikely. William Cheyney was actually married to Malyn's niece, Malyn Fincham. Arthur Darcy of Huntingdon will also be found in some records, but a marriage to him is based on Malyn's reference to a "son" by that name. In fact, she is referring to her granddaughter's husband.
Anne Paget was the daughter of William, 1st baron Paget of Beaudesert (1505-June 9,1563) and Anne Preston (c.1510-February 1587). She married Sir Henry Lee (c.1533-February 12,1611) in 1560. They had three children, John, Henry, and Mary, all of whom seem to have died young. There is a story that Anne fostered an illegitimate child borne by Lettice Knollys, countess of Essex, to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, before their marriage. Lettice was a kinswoman of the Lee family through her grandmother, who was married to both a Lee and a Knollys. Queen Elizabeth visited the Sir Henry Lee at Quarendon, Buckinghamshire in the Vale of Aylesbury for two days in August 1592. Most online sources give Anne’s date of death as 1590, but I have also seen 1594, which would mean she was still alive at that time. She was also doubtless aware that her husband had taken a mistress, the notorious Ann Vavasour. Anne was buried at Aylesbury.
see CATHERINE KNYVETT
see NAZARET NEWTON
Anne Pakenham was the daughter of Sir Hugh Pakenham and Anne Clement. Her first husband, Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam (c.1474-September 9, 1513), was killed at Flodden. In 1517 she married Sir William Sidney (1482-1554), who later became Prince Edward’s chamberlain and steward. Anne was the prince’s governess. Her daughters Mabel and Elizabeth were in Princess Mary’s household. Her other children were Mary (d.1542), Anne or Agnes (1525-1602), Henry (July 20,1529-May 5,1586), Frances (c.1531-March 9,1589), Lucy (b. 1538), and a son and daughter who died young.
Constance Pakenham was the daughter of Sir Edmund Pakenham of Lordlington, Sussex (1480-1528). Some sources give Sir John Pakenham as her father, but he was her grandfather. She married Sir Geoffrey Pole (1502-1558) c.1529. By 1532, Pole was embroiled in treason and on August 29, 1538, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. The primary charge was that he wrote letters to his brother, Reginald Cardinal Pole, an acknowledged traitor by then living abroad. These had not been vetted by the Crown, raising suspicions of a plot against the king. Constance was also examined. When she realized how indiscreet her husband had been, she warned her brother-in-law, Lord Montagu that he was in danger. The warning came too late. The entire Pole family was implicated in treason. Geoffrey Pole was condemned with his brother and others. After he’d twice tried to take his own life, he was pardoned on January 4, 1539. It was said that it was Constance’s plea that her husband was so ill as to be as good as dead that won his release, but the more prevalent rumor was the he was pardoned because he’d provided evidence against the rest of his family. In September 1540, he was again in prison, this time in the Fleet. After his mother, the countess of Salisbury, was executed, on May 27,1541, Pole fled the country, leaving his wife and children behind, and remained in exile, some said insane with guilt, for the rest of his life. Constance had borne him eleven children, including Katherine (d. September 1598+), Arthur (1531-1570), Edmund (1541-August 12,1570), Anne, Thomas (d.1570), Geoffrey (1546-March 9,1591), Henry, Elizabeth, Mary (d.1571), and Margaret. Pole returned to England during the reign of Mary Tudor. Constance’s sons Arthur and Edmund, who had inherited their father’s royal blood, were sent to the Tower for treason in 1562 and died there. She was buried beside her husband in Stoughton Church.
see DOROTHY KYTSON; DOROTHY SMITH
Mary Parker was the daughter of Edward, 10th baron Morley (1555-April 11,1618) and Elizabeth Stanley (d.June 12, 1585). In 1593, Mary married Thomas Habington (August 23,1560-October 8,1647), who spent the years 1586-92 in the Tower of London for his part in the Babington Conspiracy. In 1606, he again committed treason by hiding the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot in the eleven secret chambers in his house in Hindlip, near Worcester. It has been suggested that Mary wrote the letter warning Lord Mounteagle, her brother, of the plot. This idea is strengthened by the fact that Habington was not executed, or imprisoned in the Tower, but only restricted to Worcestershire for the remainder of his life. They had a son, William (b.November 5, 1605).
.jpg)
.jpg)
Maud Parr was the daughter of William Parr, Baron Parr of Horton (c.1480-September 10, 1547) and Mary Salisbury (1484-July 10, 1555). She married Sir Ralph Lane of Orlingbury (1509-1540) in 1523, although they did not live together as man and wife until 1527, and was the mother of his three sons and seven daughters, including Laetitia, Robert (1527-c.1588), Ralph (1532-1603), Frances, Mary, Jane, Dorothy, Katherine, and William. In 1543, by then a widow, she entered the service of her cousin, Queen Katherine Parr. She shared evangelical religious views with several other of the queen’s ladies and was at one point in danger of arrest. In the past, several historians misread Lady Lane as Lady Jane and thought that Lady Jane Grey was part of Katherine Parr’s protestant circle when she was queen, but Lady Jane would have been too young at that time. Maud Lane survived Henry VIII’s reign and retired to the country until her death in 1558 or 1559. She is not, therefore, the Lady Lane who gave Queen Elizabeth a New Year’s gift in 1561/2. That was probably Maud’s daughter-in-law, Katherine Copley (d. March 1563), wife of her son Robert. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Lane [née Parr], Maud [Matilda].” 
.jpg)
see KATHERINE KNYVETT
see ELIZABETH COWDRAY; ELIZABETH SEYMOUR
see FRANCES NEVILLE
see ELLEN FLODDER
Margaret Pennington was a lady in waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon and became the second wife of John Cooke of Gidea Hall, Essex (1473-October 10, 1516) at some point after the death of his first wife, Alice Saunders, in 1510. Following John's death, it fell to Margaret to raise his son, Anthony (1505-1576). Margaret Pennington is confused in some online genealogies with Sir Anthony's daughter, Margaret Cooke (d. 1558), who was a maid of honor to Queen Mary. Margaret Pennington appears in sixteenth-century records for having leased the manor of Risebridge from 1527-1537 and with her 1551 will, in which she made numerous bequests, including some tapestry hangings. Before her death, she purchased a stone for her grave with "my picture and my late husband's, and our several arms graven thereupon."
Elizabeth Peppard’s parentage is unknown but she was probably an Irishwoman. She married first John Eustace of Castlemartin, Kildare. Her second husband was Thomas Lee or Lea (x.February 14,1601), constable of Carrickfergus. They married in 1576. In 1581, he suppressed a rebellion of the Eustaces, but he does not seem to have been altogether certain of his loyalties. Both Thomas and Elizabeth were included in the general pardon of 1582. Lee was briefly in England in 1585, then returned to Ireland, where he was soon at odds with the earls of Ormond and Kildare. In October 1587, his plot against Walter Reagh was supposedly thwarted by Elizabeth’s treachery, after which Lee separated from her. Shortly afterward, however, when he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, she went to plead for him at the English court. She succeeded in obtaining his release, but he was imprisoned twice more, in 1595 and 1598. When the earl of Essex left Ireland in September 1599, Lee followed him to England. On February 12, 1601, after Essex’s failed rebellion, Lee attempted to rescue him. For this failed attempt, he was arrested, tried, and executed at Tyburn. The Lees had one son.
see KATHERINE SPENCER
see MARY TALBOT
see ANNE BROWNE
Thomasine Petre was the daughter of Sir William Petre of Ingatestone Hall (1505-January 13, 1572) and Anne Browne (1509-March 10, 1582). At the age of ten, after Mary Tudor became queen, Thomasine joined the household of Gertrude Blount, Marchioness of Exeter, to complete her education. An article by Anne Buck in the Costume Society Journal, vol. 24 (1990) gives an account of "The Clothes of Thomasine Petre 1555-1559." On February 10, 1560, Thomasine married Ludovic Greville of Milcote, Warwickshire (c.1545-November 14, 1589). They had numerous children—Edward, William, John, Valentine, Anne, Margaret, Charles, and Peter—but it is unlikely to have been a harmonious marriage. Ludovic was a violent man. In 1578, he attacked Sir John Conway with a cudgel and would have gone on to cut off his legs with a sword if a servant had not intervened. He was imprisoned in the Marshalsea for this crime but eventually released. In 1588, he was summoned before the Privy Council on charges of fraud and in 1589, he was arraigned at the Warwickshire Assizes as an accomplice in two murder cases. To keep the state for seizing everything he owned, he refused to plead. Those who chose that option could save their estates for their families but their sentence was a terrible one, to be pressed to death by heavy weights. Thomasine's son Edward, although reputed to be charming, was as immoral as his father. He was accused of fatally shooting an elder brother in order to succeed to the family estates and when he married a wealthy heiress in 1583, he went through her fortune and left her penniless. In her long widowhood, Thomasine apparently kept musicians, as there is a reference to her "fiddlers" at Gloucester in 1599.
Elizabeth Phillips was the daughter of Thomas Phillips (January 2, 1538-1597) and Elizabeth Ivy (b. October 30, 1540). The Phillips family was Welsh in origin, Elizabeth’s parents were married in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire and Elizabeth was reportedly born in London, but some sources also identify her father as the Thomas Phillips a mercer who was master of the Guild of the Holy Cross in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire in 1563. On January 24, 1580/1, Elizabeth, called Bess, married Richard Quiney (c.1559-May 1602), another mercer from Stratford. When Bess’s husband was in London on Corporation business in October and November of 1598, she sent him goods to sell, including cheeses and tobacco. She was also busy managing her rental property and borrowing and lending money. Excerpts from letters written to Richard by his father and by a colleague are reprinted in Germaine Greer’s fascinating if highly speculative biography, Shakespeare’s Wife. On May 3, 1602, Bess’s husband, who was serving as bailiff, came upon a brawl. When he attempted to intervene, he was struck on the head. Although he lingered for three weeks, he never regained consciousness. He was buried on May 31, leaving Bess with nine children to care for: Elizabeth (c.1582-May 1615), Adrian (1599-October 1617), Richard (1589-1655), Thomas (b. 1591), Anne (1591-May 1616), William (b.1594), Mary (b.1595), John (1597-August 1603), and George (b.1600). She had lost two children before that, an earlier William (September 1590-October 1592) and another infant son . She took over the mercery business. She signed documents with her mark, an E entwined with a Q. And according to Greer’s book, she took an active role in Stratford politics, even leading a gang of women to tear down enclosures built by a greedy landholder. 
see JANE LEWKNOR
Cecily Plantagenet was the daughter of King Edward IV (1442-1483) and Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1491). While her father was king, plans were made for her to marry Prince James of Scotland but the alliance was broken off before Edward’s death. Under Richard III, Cecily spent from April 1483 until March 1, 1484 in sanctuary at Westminster. King Richard provided her with a dowry of 200 marks per annum in land and arranged her marriage to Ralph Scrope of Upsall (c.1465-1515), but in 1486, the marriage was dissolved by order of the new king, Cecily’s brother-in-law, Henry VII, in 1486. That same year she carried Prince Arthur to the font at his christening and she carried her sister’s train at her coronation on November 25, 1487. In 1488, Cecily was married to Henry VII’s half-uncle, John, viscount Welles (d. February 9,1499). By Welles she had two daughters, Elizabeth (d.1598) and Anne (d.yng.). Cecily was at her sister’s court during her widowhood but gave up her social position to marry Thomas Kyme of Friskney, Lincolnshire in 1502. She did not have the king’s permission and he seized the Welles lands, in which she had a life interest, by way of punishment. The king’s mother, however, sheltered the newlyweds and negotiated a compromise the following year. Some sources give Cecily a son, Richard, and a daughter, Margery by Kyme but more recent research indicates that these were the children of a different Thomas Kyme who was from the Isle of Wight. Cecily’s marriage to Thomas Kyme of Lincolnshire was probably childless. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Cecily.” Portraits: stained glass—Canterbury Cathedral; Little Malvern, Worcestershire; Burrell Collection, Glasgow.
Katherine Plantagenet was the daughter of King Edward IV (1442-1483) and Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1491). Early matches were proposed for her with a Spanish prince and with James, marquess of Ormond. After her father’s death she went into sanctuary in Westminster with her mother and sisters but afterward was at court, both under Richard III and Henry VII. She married Sir William Courtenay (c.1475-June 9,1511) in 1495. Her children were Edward (d.1502), Margaret, and Henry (1496-1538). Shortly before the death of Katherine’s sister the queen in 1503, Courtenay was imprisoned in the Tower of London and attainted for treason for conspiring with Edmund de la Pole. Katherine remained at court and was chief mourner at her sister’s funeral. Courtenay was released and restored as earl of Devon when Henry VIII became king in 1509. After Devon's death from pleurisy, Katherine took a vow of chastity. On February 3, 1512, she was granted all the estates of the earldom of Devon for her lifetime. Her son was raised at court, and remained high in the new king’s favor for the remainder of Katherine’s lifetime, although he was later executed for treason. Katherine herself resided at Tiverton Castle, Devon, maintaining a large household there. She had an annual income of around £2750 and lived in style, including minstrels and no fewer than three fools among her retainers. She was buried in St. Peter’s. Tiverton. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Katherine.”.jpg)
see AGNES GASCOIGNE
see CONSTANCE PAKENHAM
see JANE LEWKNOR
Ursula Pole was the daughter of Sir Richard Pole (d.1505) and Lady Margaret Plantagenet (August 14, 1473-x.May 27,1541). In 1515, she was considered as a bride for the duke of Milan but instead she married Henry Stafford (September 18,1501-April 30,1563), son of the duke of Buckingham, on October 20, 1518 (other sources say February 16,1518/19). She was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520, but after her father-in-law’s execution for treason the following year, she was not at court and was in financial difficulties. In 1522 and 1523, she and her husband received joint grants of some of Buckingham's lands, but poverty was still a problem as late as 1537. She had at least thirteen children, twelve of them born before 1537, and each inherited a double claim to the throne. One, Thomas (1531-May 4,1557), tried to declare himself king in 1557, but his conspiracy failed for lack of support. Ursula was also the mother of Henry (d. January 1,1565), Dorothy (October 1, 1526-September 22,1604), Edward (January 17,1535-October 18,1613), Richard, Walter (c.1539-1571+), William, Elizabeth, Anne, and Margaret. Biography: included in Oxford DNB entry for her mother under "Pole, Margaret."
see MARY FITTON
see JANE GROVE
see MARIA HEYMAN
The 1583 edition of the Book of Martyrs gives the story of Agnes Prest, but the details are, as is usual with Foxe’s anecdotes, elaborated upon to make a point. She was an uneducated village woman and was burned as a heretic just outside the walls of Exeter, but her birthplace seems to have been in Cornwall and she may have been considerably younger than Foxe believed. She worked as a servant in Exeter and there embraced the new religion. Then she returned to Cornwall to marry a farmer named Prest and bear him several children, but since he was an ardent Catholic, she eventually left her family and supported herself by spinning. The story goes that she missed her children so much that she returned to her husband and that he promptly turned her in to the authorities as a heretic. She was imprisoned in Launceston for three months and then taken to Exeter for trial. She refused to recant and was executed. Foxe’s story has it that she felt compelled to speak out against the mass to anyone who would listen and that she was arrested and tried as an Anabaptist. Another tale connected to her is that on the night before she was burned at Southernhay, she was visited by Catherine Raleigh, who prayed with her. This may or may not be true, but the fact that the same source then says that Agnes’s execution took place only a few days before Queen Mary Tudor’s death (in actual fact Agnes died more than a year before the queen) makes many of the other details suspect. A detailed but not necessarily accurate account of Agnes Prest and her activities can be found in A. L. Rowse’s Tudor Cornwall.
Anne Preston was the daughter of Henry Preston of Preston, Lancashire, although some genealogies list him as "of Westmorland." In the early 1530s she married William Paget (1505-June 9, 1563). They leased a house in Aldersgate in 1534. Anne was reported to have died in 1545, but she recovered. Her husband was created baron Paget of Beaudesert on December 3, 1549. Under Mary Tudor, Lady Paget was at court. Although she did not have much influence herself, she was acquainted with those who did. Jane Guildford, duchess of Northumberland, wrote to Anne at some point between Northumberland's imprisonment in the Tower on July 25, 1553 and his execution on August 22, 1553, asking her to approach Gertrude, marchioness of Exeter and the queen's good friend "Mestres Clarencyous" (Susan White) on Northumberland's behalf. Anne was chosen to escort the queen in the coronation procession on September 29, 1553. Although the effort to save Northumberland's life was not successful, Lady Northumberland's will, made in late 1554 or early 1555, remembered Anne Paget and left her a "high backed gowne of wrought velvet." In March 1555, the Pagets were said to have nine children living. They were Ethelreda (b.c.1535), Henry (c.1537-December 28, 1571), Joan, Anne (c.1540-c.1590-4), Eleanor, Thomas (c.1544-1590), Dorothy, Charles (d.1612), and Grisel (d. July 21, 1600).