Henry VIII (63 page)

But the defeated Gardiner and his party remained undaunted and determined to rid the court of reformists and closet heretics, intending that, when the King eventually died, the Catholics would be in control. For the present, however, the reformists were dominant at court, and among them were several rising “new men.” In April 1543, the shrewd and competent William Paget replaced Sir Ralph Sadler as Principal Secretary to the King. Paget, an ally of Hertford who wisely kept his religious views to himself, was a man who “will have one foot in every pageant.”
²²
He enjoyed immense influence with the King, and his fellow councillors often used him to convey messages and requests to Henry.
²³
Paget was therefore able to exercise extensive patronage, dabble in a little blackmail, and grow rich: he built himself a fine mansion at West Drayton, Middlesex.
²⁴
Paget screened most of the documents and information intended for the King, and sent out by Henry, but there is little evidence that he ever tampered with them; either he was honest, or he covered his traces well.

William Petre was appointed Secretary of State and knighted in 1543. An erudite lawyer and Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, he was to retain his post until 1566 and serve four Tudor monarchs. Petre built a splendid house at Ingatestone in Essex, which survives today. In 1543 also, William Paulet, Lord St. John, was appointed Chamberlain of the Household.

Anthony Denny's influence with the King was growing steadily. At the centre of a humanist circle, he was “a favourer of good learning”
²⁵
and furthered the careers of scholars such as Sir Thomas Elyot, John Cheke, and Roger Ascham, who in turn filled the “tuneful court” with “resonant hymns praising his universal popularity.”
²⁶
Denny, who was knighted in 1544, not only managed the Privy Chamber administration, but also acted as confidential adviser to the King. He was a man of great personal charm, and his painstaking devotion to his duties endeared him to the ageing Henry, for whom he acted as a buffer against a clamorous world. He fielded petitioners for his master and even wrote out their suits for them, “which, considering his attendance upon the King and other business, is very much for him to do.”
²⁷
Yet there was a high degree of self-interest involved, because in so doing Denny created a vast web of patronage with himself at its centre. He was therefore a very busy man, and willingly delegated some of his less pleasant duties to his unscrupulous brother-in-law, Sir John Gates, who was also a member of the Privy Chamber. Denny's genuine but radical religious convictions—he spoke out bravely against the persecution of Protestants—and his closeness to the King aroused the bitter resentment of the conservatives, but for all their efforts they were powerless to dislodge him.

Sir Francis Bryan, who had once supported the imperialists at court, now aligned himself with the reformist faction through his friendship with William Parr, to whom he dedicated his translation of Antonio de Guevara's
A Dispraise of the Life of the Courtier
. Bryan was now around fifty, but had lost none of the restless energy of his youth, which is why the poet Surrey, a kindred spirit, sought his friendship, transcending the enmities of courtly factions.

Catholics and reformists might wrangle and jostle for power, but the King, who had become “very stern and opinionate,”
²⁸
was the ultimate authority in religious matters. Although largely orthodox in his views, he retained the humanist ideals of his youth and respect for the New Learning, and liked to surround himself in these later years with people who shared these interests, perhaps little realising that most held extremely radical, and possibly heretical, religious views.

In 1543, the so-called King's Book, written under Henry's direction and partly in his own hand,
²⁹
was published. Its true title was The Neces
sary Doctrine and Erudition of Any Christian Man
, and it was the most orthodox and reactionary statement yet of the creed of Henry's church. But it was too late to turn back the clock. The availability of the Bible in English had encouraged the King's subjects to think for themselves, and many had gone way beyond the unquestioning obedience expected of devout Catholics, who Henry liked to think formed the majority of his people. Some reformists even dismissed the King's Book, with its paternalistic dogmatism and assumption of widespread traditional morality, as being not worth “a fart.”
³⁰

Paget had reassured Henry that eleven-twelfths of his subjects were of an orthodox persuasion, but for Gardiner this was not enough, and he urged the King to clamp down on wholesale reading of the Bible. Henry, too, thought it dangerous, and in 1543 Parliament passed the Act for the Advancement of True Religion, which condemned “crafty, false and untrue” translations, including Tyndale's, and restricted the reading of the Scriptures to the upper and middle classes.
³¹

The King was not the only man in pursuit of Katherine Parr. Sir Thomas Seymour was also paying court to the wealthy widow and, years later, she admitted to him, “As truly as God is God, my mind was fully bent, the time I was at liberty, to marry you before any man I know.” But she was to be “overruled by a higher power,” for in May, the King, who would brook no rival, sent Seymour on an embassy to Brussels, which was followed by a military command under Sir John Wallop in the Low Countries.

Katherine bowed to her fate. By the middle of June, she and her sister Anne, the wife of William Herbert, an Esquire of the Body, were frequent visitors to court, and there was little doubt in anyone's mind that the King would soon make her his sixth wife.

59

“The Good Expectations of the King's Majesty”

Henry VIII and Katherine Parr were married by Bishop Gardiner on 12 July 1543 in the Queen's holyday closet at Hampton Court, with “none opposing and all applauding.”
¹
Among the twenty guests were the King's two daughters, the Lords Hertford and Russell, and William— soon to be Sir William—and Anne Herbert. Lady Margaret Douglas, restored to favour, carried the bride's train.
²
The new Queen was not crowned, probably because the treasury could not bear the cost. The motto she adopted, “To be useful in all I do,” was an apt one.

As with all Henry's queens, the composition of Katherine's household reflected her family loyalties and ideological affiliations. Sir Anthony Cope, an erudite humanist scholar, served briefly as her Chamberlain, before being replaced in December 1543 by her uncle, Lord Parr of Horton. Sir Thomas Tyrwhit, her stepson by marriage, was Steward. The Queen's sister, Anne Herbert, became her chief lady-in-waiting; her other ladies included Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk; the Countesses of Hertford and Sussex; Honor Greville, Lady Lisle; Joan Champernowne, wife of Sir Anthony Denny; the Queen's cousin, Maud, Lady Lane; and her stepdaughter, Elizabeth, Lady Tyrwhit. Another stepdaughter, Margaret Neville, was a maid of honour, as was Anne Bassett.
³
In 1546, Lord Dorset's daughter by Frances Brandon, Lady Jane Grey, the King's learned little niece, came to serve the Queen as maid of honour. Elizabeth Billingham, an old friend of Katherine's, was Mother of the Maids. The Queen appointed George Day, Bishop of Chichester, as her Almoner, while among her chaplains were noted radicals such as Miles Coverdale and John Parkhurst, later Bishop of Norwich. Another member of the Queen's household was the young Nicholas Throckmorton, later to be one of the luminaries of Queen Elizabeth's court; his brother Clement was Katherine's cupbearer.

Katherine was “quieter than any of the young wives the King had, and as she knew more of the world, she always got on pleasantly with the King and had no caprices.”
⁴
Many writers portray her as little more than a nurse to an increasingly incapacitated husband, but the evidence shows that, apart from the times when his bad leg laid him low, the King and Queen were an active couple and constantly on the move. Right up to the last few months of his life, Henry refused to give in to the illnesses that at times threatened to overwhelm him. There is no evidence that Katherine found him offensive or disagreeable; on the whole, they seem to have enjoyed a harmonious relationship: the Queen confided in a private letter to her brother that this third marriage was “the greatest joy and comfort that could happen to her.” Even Wriothesley had to admit that Katherine was “a woman, in my judgement, for certain wisdom and gentleness most meet for His Highness; and I am sure His Majesty never had a wife more agreeable to his heart than she is.”
⁵

From the first, Katherine exerted a benevolent influence over the court. Not since the days of Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn had a queen patronised humanist scholarship so enthusiastically. Katherine welcomed men of learning to her court and drew extensively on her privy purse to fund the studies of poor students. One of the Queen's chaplains, Francis Goldsmith, who owed his promotion to her generosity, declared that “her rare goodness has made every day a Sunday, a thing hitherto unheard of, especially in a royal palace.”
⁶

In her religious observances, Katherine was outwardly orthodox, and her writings display a personal piety that had more in common with the teachings of Erasmus than those of Luther. Her prayerbook, dated 1534, is at Sudeley Castle. She owned a beautiful manuscript of the Epistles in Latin and English, as well as a French version of the New Testament; both were illuminated by William Harper, Clerk of the Closet.

Yet the Queen's private views seem to have been as radical as Cranmer's, and the members of her circle were mostly of like mind. As well as her ladies in waiting, they included Lady Elizabeth Hoby; Jane, Lady Lisle; and Lady Margaret Butts, all of whom held dangerously Lutheran opninions. The Duchess of Suffolk, who had enthusiastically embraced the new faith, dared openly to criticise the Catholic bishops, and mischievously named her pet spaniel Gardiner, taking pleasure in calling him sharply to heel.
⁷

Katherine's chamber became a haven for those with radical opinions. There were sermons by reformist preachers such as Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Shaxton, and readings from the Scriptures, which were often followed by impassioned debate. Much time was devoted to self-improvement and pious devotion, and Nicholas Udall, visiting the court, was impressed to see the Queen and her ladies absorbed in “virtuous exercises, reading and writing, and with most earnest study, applying themselves to extending knowledge. It is now no news in England to see young damsels in noble houses and in the courts of princes, instead of cards and other instruments of vain trifling, to have continually in their hands either psalms, homilies or other devout meditations.”
⁸
This all gave a tremendous boost to the cause of reform, but it was fraught with risks, not least because it aroused the resentment and suspicions of the conservative faction.

Katherine certainly discussed religious issues with Henry,
⁹
but John Foxe, looking back from the Protestant perspective of Elizabethan England, may have been exaggerating when he wrote that she never ceased urging the King “zealously to proceed in the reformation of the Church.” Although he enjoyed debating theology with his wife, Henry allowed her little political influence, and she never actively involved herself in factional politics. Her family were content with their advancement and did not seek to rule the King. However, since most members of her household and circle were all of the reformist persuasion, she was identified with the interests of that party, and thus further incurred the enmity of the conservatives.

In 1543, the King began building new lodgings for Katherine Parr at Hampton Court, in the southeast corner of the Base Court. A new barge was constructed for her by a Lambeth shipwright. Katherine's life was not totally centred around scholarship and religion, and she pursued other, more traditional pleasures. She loved clothes, especially in the Italian and French fashions. Most of the silk for her dresses came from Antwerp, yet there were complaints that the Queen was often slow to pay for her purchases. She was, however, less extravagant than the King's previous wives: many of the gorgeous bejewelled gowns made for Katherine Howard and kept in storage at Baynard's Castle were altered to fit her. But she had a weakness for shoes, and once purchased forty-seven pairs in one year. Among them were velvet court shoes trimmed with gold at 14s (£210) a pair, six pairs of cork-soled shoes, and “quarter shoes” which cost 5s (£75) a pair and wore out very quickly.
¹⁰

Katherine adored flowers: the chamber accounts record daily payments for floral arrangements for her apartments and for “perfume for the chamber,” her favourite scents being juniper and civet.
¹¹
She was an accomplished needlewoman and produced exquisite embroideries, of which examples survive at Sizergh Castle. She retained several fools, including a dwarf and a woman called Jane, for whom she bought a red petticoat. She kept greyhounds and parrots as pets.

Katherine also enjoyed dancing and shared the King's passion for music. She maintained an Italian consort of viols, whose members received 8d (£10) a day. She once sent a letter to the Lady Mary by the hand of a musician, who, she wrote, “will be, I judge, most acceptable, from his skill in music, in which you, I am well aware, take as much delight as myself.”
¹²

Katherine doubtless appreciated the music of Thomas Tallis, the great composer, singer, and organist, who had joined the Chapel Royal in 1542 after serving as a lay clerk at Canterbury Cathedral, having been made redundant when Waltham Abbey, where he had been organist and master of the choristers, was dissolved in 1540. The King had admired his work since hearing him sing at Waltham.

Tallis, who has been called the Father of English Music, was to enjoy a long and distinguished career in the Chapel Royal until his death in 1585. Under his auspices, English church music would reach its zenith. During Henry VIII's reign he wrote five antiphons, three masses, the motet “Misereri Nostri,” and—perhaps at this time—another Latin motet for forty voices, all in a restrained mediaeval style. It was his later works, composed during the reign of Elizabeth I, that were his greatest achievement.

There was plague in London that summer, and the King issued proclamations forbidding either the citizens to approach the court or the courtiers to go to the City.
¹³
In July, Henry left with his bride and his elder daughter on a long hunting progress that would take them via Oatlands to the south and west of England. After a short stay at Wulfhall, the court moved north to Woodstock, Langley, and Grafton, then homewards via Dunstable and Ashridge.
¹⁴
This was the last time the King would ever venture so far afield. In future, he would confine his travels to the Thames Valley and ensure that facilities at his riverside palaces were improved and adapted to his increasing bulk and periods of restricted mobility.

During 1543, the King built “the Great Standing”—now known as “Queen Elizabeth's hunting lodge”—in a park called Fairmead in Epping Forest, two miles north east of Chingford. Of timber construction, and L-shaped, it had an open gallery on the upper floor from which the King could shoot game or just watch the hunt with his companions.
¹⁵

There was still plague in London in the autumn when the King returned from his progress, and sometime between 7 October and 29 November it claimed the life of Hans Holbein. Holbein had recently recovered some of the King's former favour, and Katherine Parr had commissioned circular portraits of Henry's three children (of which only those of Edward and Mary survive). Holbein's last work, a vast painting of Henry VIII presenting a charter to the Barber Surgeons Company of London, a commission that was obtained through the good offices of Dr. Butts, was left unfinished.
¹⁶
Holbein died at his house in the parish of St. Andrew Undershaft and was buried in the church of St. Catherine Cree. He left money for the maintenance of two bastard children, whose mother had perhaps also been a victim of the plague. There was nothing for the family he had abandoned in Basel. Holbein's many drawings were left in his studio at Whitehall and appear to have passed into Henry VIII's art collection.

No one could replace the genius of Holbein. Lucas Horenbout's grant of office as King's Painter, which referred to the King's long acquaintance with “the science and experience” in his “pictorial art,” was renewed in 1544, but he died soon afterwards in London. In 1547, his wife Margaret received a payment of 40s (£60O) for a portrait of Katherine Parr; whether she painted it herself, or whether the payment was in settlement of an outstanding debt to her late husband, is not known.
¹⁷

Henry's Serjeant Painter, Andrew Wright, had died in 1543 and was succeeded in the post by Antonio Toto, who was to remain in office until the next reign. Toto was the first foreign artist to be appointed Serjeant Painter, and undoubtedly the most competent so far.

The King now began to seek out new artistic talent. Several of those who worked for him cannot now be identified, such as the master who painted the Whitehall family group portrait, executed around this time, but others became famous. Holbein's most important successor was the gifted Hans Eworth, who came to England from Antwerp in 1543 and is said to have finished off portraits that Holbein had left incomplete. Eworth attracted the patronage of Katherine Parr, who commissioned from him miniatures of herself and the King that cost 30s (£450) each. Another follower of Holbein—identified only as “Master John”—is known to have painted portraits of Katherine Parr (full length) and the Lady Mary, which were picked out in gold leaf.
¹⁸

Perhaps the most prominent artist in Henry's last years was the Dutch master Guillim Scrots, who had been chief painter to Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands, since 1537. In the autumn of 1545, the King persuaded him to come to England with the inducement of a high salary of £62.10s (£18,750). Scrots introduced novel Renaissance elements into English painting, such as classical statuary, putti, masks, and heraldic escutcheons. These are evident in the masterful full-length portrait of the Earl of Surrey, painted in about 1546 and attributed to him. Scrots also introduced into England the northern Renaissance obsession with costume detail, which he painted with consummate skill while making little attempt to convey the character of the sitter. This style was to dominate English portraiture until the early seventeenth century. One of Scrots's most famous works—and the only one signed by him—is the anamorphosis, or distorted perspective, of Prince Edward (1546) which was hung in Whitehall Palace and was the kind of novelty appreciated by Tudor courtiers.
¹⁹
Many paintings have been attributed to Scrots, but few can be said with certainty to be his original work. He is thought to have painted the three-quarter-length portraits of the Prince of Wales and the Lady Elizabeth which are still in the Royal Collection and date from about 1545–1546.

John Bettes the Elder, whose work suggests that he was trained in Holbein's studio, was a competent painter, miniaturist, and engraver. He had worked on the mural depicting the coronation of Henry VIII at Whitehall in 1531–1533, and had also painted decorative heraldic pictures for the palace. Katherine Parr paid him £3 (£900) for miniatures of herself and the King and six other pictures in 1546–1547, and he is also known to have painted the likenesses of several courtiers.
²⁰
Sadly, none of his miniatures can now be identified.