Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, belonged to the Plantagenet line and Richard III had executed his father for treason in 1483. In 1510 he discovered his sister Anne was having an affair so William Compton was forced to take the sacrament to prove they had not committed adultery. An angry Stafford then discovered the king was having an affair with Anne so she was sent to a convent to repent of her sins.
Stafford was one of twelve challengers chosen to joust against Henry VIII and his companions in 1517 but he excused himself from the contest. He said he did not want to be responsible for hurting the king but some viewed his attitude as contempt for the king. He was in trouble again the following year for failing to keep the Welsh rebels in check in South Wales.
But all the time Stafford was plotting to assassinate Henry VIII and take the throne for himself because he was a direct descendent of Edward III. He was arrested and held in the Tower in April 1521, accused of listening to prophecies of the king’s death and intending to kill the king. Lord High Steward Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, ‘pronounced the sentence of death with tears streaming down his face’ and Stafford was executed on Tower Hill on 17 May.
Twelve-year-old John de Vere married Anne, daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, in 1511, uniting the two wealthiest families in East Anglia. John inherited the Earldom of Oxford when his uncle John died in 1513, making the union even more powerful. A concerned Henry VIII declared the marriage invalid on the grounds that John had been underage and he offered him a new bride instead. John refused the offer of Margaret Courtenay, so Henry fined him.
George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, was the lieutenant general of the army which invaded France in 1512. Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex, routed the French gendarmes at the Battle of the Spurs in August 1513 and he was appointed the Chief Captain of the king’s forces. Talbot went on to capture Thérouanne and Tournai with the help of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Henry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, and Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire.
Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Surrey, and his sons Thomas and Edmund, faced another Auld Alliance invasion in 1513. They defeated the Scots and killed King James IV at the battle of Flodden on 9 September. Thomas senior was elevated to Duke of Norfolk while his son Thomas became the Earl of Surrey. The lion of Scotland pierced through the mouth with an arrow was added to the Howard coat of arms to celebrate the victory.
Earl Marshal Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, had escorted Henry VIII’s sister Princess Mary to France in 1514 for her marriage to King Louis XII. But Louis died soon afterwards and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was sent to Paris to congratulate the new King Francis I and to bring back the king’s sister and her dowry. Henry VIII knew Charles was in love with his sister but so did Francis and he accused him of wanting to marry his mother-in-law. The matter jeopardised the negotiations and Henry forced Charles to pay a huge fine when he found out Brandon and Mary had married in secret.
Francis I had been crowned king of France in 1515 and Charles was crowned king of Spain in 1516; Charles also became the Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey negotiated the Treaty of London in 1518, an attempt to unite Western Europe against the Ottoman sweeping across Eastern Europe. Henry would entertain Francis at a lavish event near Calais called the Field of the Cloth of Gold in June 1520 but he still favoured Charles.
The peace ended when the Holy Roman Empire attacked France the following year. Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, recrossed the Channel in 1522 and his army conducted a scorched earth campaign across the north of France. Henry VIII then welcomed the news that King Francis I had been captured by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, at the battle of Pavia in 1525. Henry VIII sent Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, to meet the Regent Louise of Savoy and he secured a promise that Francis would be freed. Henry withdrew from the war soon afterwards under the Treaty of the More.
Richard Grey, 3rd Earl of Kent, had to sell most of his property to the crown to pay off gambling debts. His half-brother Henry inherited the title in 1524 but he failed to get the properties back so he had to live on a modest income and never formally took the title.
John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford, was described as an ‘incompetent wastrel’ and Henry VIII ordered him to ‘moderate his excessive hunting, drink less wine, not stay up late, eat less meat, and forbear excessive and superfluous apparel.’ He also banned him from his offices, stopped his pensions and he was told to ‘discharge his household, act lovingly towards his wife and live with his father-in-law.’ But Vere’s excessive lifestyle caught up with him and he died in 1525 aged only 26.
Henry Stafford had been imprisoned briefly in the Tower, suspected of treason, when Henry VIII came to the throne. Stafford soon become one of the king’s favourite courtiers, ‘sharing his taste for lavish entertainments, tournaments, and hunting’ and he was created Earl of Wiltshire. But his extravagant lifestyle cost him dearly and he ended up in debt to the crown.
Henry Percy was described as ‘a proud, presumptuous, and unthrift waster’ but he still became the 6th Earl of Northumberland in 1527. He often complained about his wife Mary Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and her spiteful behaviour. Percy bequeathed his inheritance to the king when it was clear Mary was not going to produce an heir, to stop his wife claiming it; not surprisingly she petitioned for a divorce.
Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, was originally betrothed to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of his guardian Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham. But politics meant she had to marry Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and heir to the Dukedom of Norfolk, so Neville was married to Stafford’s second daughter and they had eighteen children. But the Howard marriage did not go so well and Elizabeth moved out when Thomas moved his mistress Elizabeth Holland into their home.
Thomas’s sister Katherine married Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, without the king’s permission. While Henry allowed the marriage, Katherine died of the plague only a few weeks later. The Stanleys and Howards were anxious to maintain the union so Edward married Thomas’s half-sister Dorothy.
By 1527 Queen Catherine of Aragon had only had one daughter, Mary, but she had had a number of miscarriages. It was doubtful if she could have any more children so Henry VIII wanted his marriage annulled. The king had been pursuing Anne Boleyn and her uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, had been encouraging the romance. Anne’s father Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, was sent to speak to Pope Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, to seek support for the Henry’s ‘Great Matter’ in 1529.
Many supported the king during the protracted negotiations to get his marriage annulled but Catherine defiantly refused to cooperate, stating, ‘God never called me to a nunnery. I am the King’s true and legitimate wife.’ Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, would join King Francis I of France in an audience with Pope Clement VII but he refused to grant a divorce.
Catherine was banished from court in 1531 but she still refused to an annulment and was supported by Bishop John Fisher, Lord Chancellor John More, and King Henry’s sister Mary. Henry VIII eventually took matters into his own hands and appointed lawyers to seek his own solution. They declared that the Bible implied Henry’s marriage was void because he had been forced to marry the widow of his long dead brother Arthur.
Henry and a pregnant Anne Boleyn married in secret on 14 November 1532 and Henry and Catherine’s marriage was declared null in May 1533. Mary lived in relative hardship and she was not allowed to see her daughter Mary because both refused to acknowledge Anne Boleyn. Although she always considered herself to be the Queen of England, Henry titled her the ‘Dowager Princess of Wales’ because she was his brother’s widow. Catherine died in January 1536 and some believed she had been poisoned on the king’s orders. Anne Boleyn miscarried her baby boy on the day of the funeral.
Henry believed his marriage was void but Pope Clement would still not grant him a divorce and Catherine refused to cooperate. Cardinal Wolsey was made the scapegoat for the failure and Henry sent Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, to get his great seal in October 1529. Wolsey was later charged with treason and Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, arrested him at Cawood in Yorkshire in November 1530. He fell ill during the journey south and died in Leicester.
Henry had an affair with her lady in waiting, Elizabeth Blount, while Catherine was in her last confinement. The queen gave birth to a stillborn daughter born in November 1518, but Elizabeth’s pregnancy went full term. Elizabeth was taken to St Lawrence Priory in Essex and in June 1519 she gave birth to the son Henry was desperate for. Henry was the only illegitimate offspring the king ever acknowledged and was given the surname FitzRoy to signify he was the king’s son.
Henry VIII had young Henry raised as if he were a prince and he was created Earl of Nottingham, the first time an illegitimate son had been honoured for 400 years. He was also appointed Lord High Admiral of England, Lord President of the Council of the North and Warden of the Scottish Marches, and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. He was later invested as the Duke of Richmond and Somerset.
During the discussions concerning Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine it was suggested that young Henry could marry his half-sister Mary. It would make an annulment unnecessary and would strengthen Fitzroy’s claim to the throne. Even the Pope would allow the marriage because he was anxious to prevent the royal divorce. But the discussions came to nothing and Henry Fitzroy married Mary, daughter of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, in 1533 when he was 14.
The king obtained his divorce and married Anne Boleyn at the beginning of 1533 but she too gave birth to a daughter. The marriage quickly turned sour and Anne was executed in May 1536 while Henry married Jane Seymour. Henry had an Act of Parliament introduced to disinherit Anne’s daughter Elizabeth. It also allowed the king to designate his successor, legitimate or not, meaning young Henry could have been heir to the throne. However, everything changed in the king’s favour a few months later. Henry Fitzroy died and Queen Jane gave birth to a son, Edward.
The king’s sister Mary died in 1533, leaving Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, facing a dilemma. His young son Henry, Earl of Lincoln, was betrothed to marry his ward, 14-year-old Catherine Willoughby. Forty-nine-year-old Brandon was worried he would lose her wealthy inheritance if he waited for his son to grow up, so he married her himself.
Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, had three children, Mary, Anne and George. A teenage Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, had wanted to marry Anne Boleyn in 1523 but his father refused permission because he was betrothed to the daughter of George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury. The love affair would later come back to haunt them.
Anne’s father, Thomas, was always busy at King Henry’s court and he served as ambassador to France, arranging the spectacular Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting with the king of France. He then served as an envoy to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Anne was lined up to wed James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond, to resolve a dispute with the Boleyn’s over the Earldom of Ormond, but Thomas had his eye on greater things.
Boleyn encouraged his daughters to flirt with Henry VIII, hoping to raise his profile at court. The king initially had an affair with Mary but ignored her as soon as she fell pregnant. There were rumours Boleyn had allowed his wife to have an affair with the king but Henry’s reply was, ‘never with the mother’.
It was Anne’s turn next but she was encouraged to make the king fall in love with her, starting in 1525, to avoid the situation Mary had found herself in. The plan worked but Henry had problems convincing Pope Clement VII to allow him to divorce Catherine. Meanwhile, Thomas was first created Viscount Rochford and then Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond in 1529 as his daughter exercised increasing control over the king. Three years later Henry granted Anne the Marquessate of Pembroke, giving her great powers in court. He would also appoint her uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, his Earl Marshal for helping him to arrange the marriage.
But sibling rivalry resulted in Mary accusing Henry Percy and Anne of promising to get married when they were teenagers. Mary told her father and he informed Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. But Anne used her new powers to order an inquiry in which Percy denied the accusation.
After prolonged theological discussions, Henry finally split with Rome and declared he was head of the English Church. He then committed bigamy (although he did not think it was) when he secretly married the pregnant Anne in January 1533. The obedient Thomas Cranmer was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury and he declared the king’s marriage to Catherine unlawful, allowing Anne to be crowned queen in June.
Everyone had to swear oaths which accepted the legitimacy of the marriage and the Act of Succession which declared Catherine’s daughter Mary illegitimate. But Thomas More and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused to comply so they were imprisoned in the Tower and executed.
Henry VIII appointed Thomas Cromwell Royal Vicegerent and Vicar General, with instructions to carry out the desired reforms to the churches and monasteries. He was also in control of the king’s legal and parliamentary affairs when he denounced the clerical abuses and the power of the ecclesiastical courts. He described Henry as ‘the only head, sovereign lord, protector and defender’ of the Church, but not everyone agreed. The resignation of Thomas More as Lord Chancellor in May 1532 had increased Cromwell’s influence over the king and he was given appointments in the royal household, the Chancery and the Exchequer.
Cromwell replaced Thomas Boleyn as Lord Privy Seal and he conducted a detailed census of the church’s properties so they could be taxed appropriately. His inspectors found corruption and immoral practices so he organised the dissolution of the monasteries starting in 1536. The king also endorsed Ten Articles which explained the Church’s new doctrines and ceremonies and injunctions for their enforcement followed.
Confiscated church goods helped pay for the king’s extravagant projects while forfeited estates were given to the nobility to ensure their loyalty. Anne Boleyn had wanted the proceeds of the dissolution of the monasteries to be used for educational and charitable purposes but Cromwell routed the money into the crown’s coffers instead. The Queen took it upon herself to oppose the Vicar General, making him her enemy.
Anne had promised Henry she would provide a male heir to the throne but she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, and suffered two miscarriages. She became increasingly paranoid and desperate when the king found a new love interest, Jane Seymour. Thomas Cromwell concocted evidence against Anne, with the king’s approval, and Archbishop Cranmer declared the king’s marriage illegal, making their daughter illegitimate.
Anne’s uncle, Thomas Howard, presided at Queen Anne’s trial in May 1536 while John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, acted as Lord Great Chamberlain. Many earls lined up to hear the unpopular queen found guilty. Anne’s first love, Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, was on the jury and he was horrified to hear her confess their pre-contract of marriage as she tried to save her life. He was a sick man and collapsed when the verdict was announced.
William FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton, had used torture to extract confessions. His victims accused each other, resulting in Anne being accused of outrageous multiple cases of adultery and incest. The musician Mark Smeaton, the king’s groom of the stool, Henry Norris, the king’s friend, Francis Weston, William Brereton and her brother George were also accused of plotting to kill the king and they were executed on 17 May 1536. Two days later, Anne was executed, while her conniving father was lucky to escape with his life. The king was then free to marry Jane Seymour on 30 May.
The economy of the north of England was heavily reliant on the monasteries. Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, and Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, had to stop outbreaks of violence as Thomas Cromwell’s agents went about their work. The first ever Privy Council was held to discuss stopping the Pilgrimage of Grace and the committee of royal advisors replaced Cromwell’s one-man rule.
By October 1536 the rebels had become more organised and, while Neville and Percy’s brothers Thomas and Ingelram were sympathetic, Henry remained loyal to the king. The rebel leader Robert Aske asked an ill Percy to hand his command of the Scottish Marches over to his brothers or join the rebels. He refused, so Aske sent him to York to stop the rebels executing him. The Pilgrimage of Grace then moved south, gathering support on the way. But not everyone supported the rebellion. Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, and John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, stopped it gathering momentum in their areas and Henry Clifford, 1st Earl of Cumberland, was besieged in Skipton Castle when he refused to join it.
Meanwhile, news of the rebellion had reached an outraged King Henry in London and he ordered his barons to march north and confront the rebels. Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, failed to defeat them in Yorkshire and they withdrew. George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, raised troops on his own authority and stopped the rebels at Ampthill, Bedfordshire. Later it was stated that ‘his courage and fidelity on this occasion perhaps saved Henry’s crown.’ Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, then joined Talbot and they met Robert Aske and his 30,000 strong army at Doncaster. Howard promised the rebels a pardon and persuaded them to disperse so the king and parliament could consider their grievances.
King Henry ignored Howard’s promise and instead planned his revenge against those who had challenged his measures. William FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton, acted as the king’s enforcer and the Percy brothers were arrested for supporting the rebellion; Thomas was executed but Ingelram was released and went into exile. Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex, and Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, were instructed to restore order in Lancashire but Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, refused to be the Warden of the Middle and East Marches because his men had supported the rising.
The northern revolt re-erupted in January 1537, when the rebels heard the king planned to continue the dissolution of the monasteries. This time Henry ordered his barons to carry out brutal reprisals and hundreds were executed, including many innocent people.
The suppression of the risings spurred further Reformation measures and Cromwell organised the removal of statues, rood screens and images from churches in 1538. He also had an English language Bible placed in every church. But there was continued resistance to these extra religious reforms and even the king was getting uncomfortable about them. Even so, Henry sanctioned the destruction of saints’ shrines, the remaining monasteries were dissolved, and their property transferred to the crown in 1542.
Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland, was married to Eleanor Brandon, daughter of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister, in 1537. The marriage gave Henry great influence at court but the expensive lifestyle he was expected to lead put him in great debt. Clifford was forced to retire to the country following Eleanor’s death.
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, had seen her brother Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, imprisoned when Lambert Simnel impersonated him in 1487. She then saw him executed in November 1499 when there was another rebellion centred on Perkin Warbeck.
Margaret served as Catherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting and as governess to Princess Mary. Margaret refused to return Mary’s gold and jewels when she was declared a bastard in 1533, so Henry dismissed her. Margaret’s son Reginald was the Plantagenet claimant to the throne and he had gone into exile in Padua after warning of the dangers of Henry marrying Anne. He had also suggested he could marry Princess Mary, so they could combine their claims to the throne.
Reginald continued to oppose King Henry, issuing a pamphlet which denied Henry’s royal supremacy and urged the princes of Europe to depose Henry. Pope Paul III made him a cardinal in 1537 and instructed him to organise support for the Pilgrimage of Grace, but neither Francis I of France nor Emperor Charles V would help. Henry’s agents failed to assassinate Reginald but they did arrest his brother Geoffrey in August 1538 when they discovered they were in contact.
Meanwhile, Thomas Cromwell’s rival Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, was in trouble. His devotedly Catholic wife Gertrude Blount was accused of supporting the ‘Nun of Kent’, Elizabeth Barton, who had been executed for threatening the king would die if he married Anne Boleyn. Gertrude was banished from court and later charged with writing to Catherine of Aragon.
A furious Cromwell struck back at his enemies when Geoffrey Pole warned there could be a Catholic uprising. He arrested Geoffrey and Margaret, Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, and Henry Montagu in November 1538. Courtenay was released due to a lack of evidence but he joined the Poles while the Cornish rebels called for Henry Courtenay to be named the heir apparent.
Courtenay was arrested again, in what became known as the Exeter Plot, and the king relied on William FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton, to gather the evidence. John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, presided over the trials and while Geoffrey was pardoned, Henry Courtenay and Henry Montagu were executed for treason. Edward Neville and Nicholas Carew were also executed on Geoffrey Pole’s evidence.
But the king had not done with the Poles. Margaret and her young grandson Henry were arrested in May 1539 and a tunic with the Five Wounds of Christ, the symbol of the Pilgrimage of Grace, was discovered at Margaret’s house; the tunic was probably planted. An inexperienced executioner took a dozen blows to decapitate the 67-year-old Margaret on 27 May 1541. Henry was deprived of a tutor and died in the Tower, possibly starved to death.
Henry Courtenay’s other son, Edward, 1st Earl of Devon, had also been imprisoned. He had not been involved in the plot but he was still kept in prison because he was an heir of the House of York.
By 1539 Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and his son Henry Howard, Earl of Suffolk, were challenging Thomas Cromwell’s religious reforms. Matters came to a head when they were dining with the king and Cromwell as guests of Archbishop Cranmer in June. Cromwell accused the Howards of being disloyal to the king and Thomas retaliated by calling Cromwell a liar.
Queen Jane gave birth to the son, Edward, Henry desperately wanted in October 1539, but she died a few days later. Cromwell took the initiative in looking for a new wife for the grieving king straight away. King Francis of France and Emperor Charles had been in an alliance since the beginning of the year, so Cromwell was looking to organise a useful union for England.
Cromwell suggested Anne of Cleves and Henry accepted, but his decision was only based on a miniature painted by Hans Holbein in October. William FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton, captained the ship which carried Anne from Calais and she arrived in Dover on 27 December. The king could not wait and he rode to meet her at Blackheath, near Rochester, accompanied by John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, and Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex.
The king was not impressed with his new bride and he left immediately, leaving Anne’s lord chamberlain, Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, to escort her to Greenwich Palace. Henry was forced to marry Anne, to prevent upsetting his new ally, but he refused to consummate the marriage. Cromwell was granted the Earldom of Essex but the furious king felt he had been misled into marrying.
Cromwell’s enemies, headed by Thomas Howard and Bishop Gardiner, worked to undermine him and he was arrested at a Privy Council meeting in June 1540. Howard personally ‘tore the St George from his neck’ before he was led away for treason. Cromwell was condemned to death without trial and was beheaded on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540.
The royal marriage was annulled, with Anne’s agreement, in July 1540 and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, immediately made his young niece Catherine available to the king. Henry VIII wed Catherine Howard, as his fifth wife, the same day Cromwell was executed and Howard received his rewards. The king was happy, but his marriage to his teenage bride would not last long.
Archbishop Cranmer revealed Catherine’s premarital sexual indiscretions with Francis Dereham, and Henry accused the Howard family of covering up her misconduct. Catherine’s alleged adultery with Thomas Culpeper was also revealed during investigation. Dereham was hung drawn and quartered and Culpeper was beheaded. Catherine was executed on 13 February 1542 and several members of the Howard family were imprisoned in the Tower.
Earl Marshal Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, invaded Scotland in 1542 and they defeated the Scots at the battle of Solway Moss in November. John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, was appointed Warden of the Scottish Marches and William FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton, was appointed Lieutenant and Captain General of the North after the battle. An ill FitzWilliam was reluctantly carried to Newcastle in a litter where he died on his arrival.
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, crossed the border again in 1544 while Dudley and Edward Fiennes de Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, sailed their fleet up the coast. Their combined forces captured and burnt Edinburgh.
Earl Marshal Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, declared war on France in the king’s name in 1543. He besieged Montreuil, near Calais, the following year while the king and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, captured Boulogne. But Howard complained he was being left short of provisions and munitions and the king criticised him after he withdrew his troops to Calais. John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, would join the peace negotiations in 1546.
Anne, daughter of Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex, was unfaithful, so William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, brother of Henry VIII’s sixth wife Catherine Parr, had his marriage annulled by an Act of Parliament in 1543. Parr was given his wife’s estates and her inheritance, the Earldom of Essex, while Anne’s children were disinherited and declared bastards.
Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford and brother of the late Queen Jane, accused his wife Catherine of being unfaithful and questioned the paternity of his two sons. They were excluded from his will but they remained faithful to their father and were imprisoned with him in the Tower of London at the end of Henry VIII’s reign. Edward was released but John died in prison.
Henry VIII married his final wife, Catherine Parr, in 1543, and she was known to favour the reformed religious faith. The leader of the reform party, Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, clashed with the conservative Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, even though Hertford’s brother Thomas was married to Howard’s daughter Mary.
Thomas’s eldest son Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, included the royal arms of Edward the Confessor in his coat of arms to signify his opposition, a treasonable offence. Father and son were imprisoned in the Tower in December 1546 and Thomas offered the king his lands, hoping for his forgiveness. But father and son were doomed when Thomas’s estranged wife, his daughter Mary, and his mistress Elizabeth Holland, all gave evidence against him. Henry was beheaded in January 1547 but Thomas’s execution was delayed because Henry VIII died on 28 January. The removal of the Howards from court would allow the Protestants to continue their reforms with a passion.