In sixteenth-century England, money was calculated predominantly in pounds, shillings and pence. There were twelve pence in a shilling, and twenty shillings to a pound. In contemporary financial accounts shillings were usually abbreviated to ‘s’ and pence to ‘d’ for the Latin ‘denarii’. I have kept to this usage, for example £39 13s 4d. Medieval and Tudor England also calculated in marks. A mark was worth two-thirds of a pound. Where comparison between the two currencies is required, I have converted marks to pounds. Currency equivalents have been sourced from the National Archives currency converter.
The beginning of the year during the Tudor period could be calculated in several ways now unfamiliar to us: sometimes on 25 March, ‘Lady Day’, sometimes by regnal year (under Henry VIII, 25 April) and sometimes on 1 January. I have used 1 January as the beginning of the year throughout.
Names and titles were confusing even for contemporaries, because individuals could change title over the course of their lives. This was even more complex for women, who changed surnames as well as titles. For the sake of narrative clarity, I have referred to all noblewomen by their natal surname and by the title that they used at any given time, e.g. Elizabeth Stafford, Countess of Surrey between 1514 and 1524, and Elizabeth Stafford, Duchess of Norfolk thereafter. I have anglicised the names of well-known individuals, e.g. Catherine of Aragon, and have used nicknames to aid differentiation between individuals, e.g. Bessie (rather than Elizabeth) Blount.
Sixteenth-century spelling was not uniform, and I have leaned into this where it aids clarity. Individuals with the same name have been given different spellings or different versions, e.g. Isabella, Queen of Castile and her daughter Isabel, Queen of Portugal; Catherine of Aragon, Katherine Howard and Kathryn Parr. These choices are made for the ease of the reader and do not necessarily reflect historical reality.