Tudor Times is the online repository for all things Tudor and Stewart (1485–1625)

On 12th March 1539 Sir Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde, died. Boleyn’s rise to power and influence, and subsequent catastrophic fall from favour, shows just how rewarding, and dangerous, life as one of Henry VIII’s courtiers could be. Boleyn was from a fairly undistinguished Norfolk family, although his mother, Lady Margaret Butler, was a daughter of the Anglo-Irish Earl of Ormond & Wiltshire. He married Lady Elizabeth Howard in the last years of the 15th century – a good match for him, as she was the daughter of the Earl of Surrey.

He received a number of marks of favour from Henry VII, including joining the entourage that accompanied Henry’s daughter to Scotland to marry James IV. Boleyn was made a Knight of the Bath for the coronation of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon, and later took an important role in the baptism of their daughter, Mary. Boleyn was an excellent French speaker, and undertook many diplomatic trips to the court of France and to Marguerite of Austria, in the Netherlands. Through his contacts, he was able to place his daughters, Mary and Anne, in the courts of those countries. Both Boleyn’s daughters caught the eye of Henry VIII. Mary became the King’s mistress for an unknown period, then Henry’s infatuation with Anne almost tore his kingdom apart. Boleyn received high office, but, when Anne was executed, he was dismissed from court, and retired to his home at Hever, where he died and is buried in St Peter’s Church.

On 11th March 1516, Mary, Dowager Queen of France and Duchess of Suffolk, gave birth to her first child, who was tactfully named Henry after his uncle, the King. The marriage of Mary to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, had shocked the court and enraged the King (more on that here). Sadly, Henry died young, otherwise he might have stood a good chance of being named as the heir of Edward VI, rather than his niece, Lady Jane Grey.

Picture of Mary, the French Queen, and Charles Brandon by Jan Gosseart

On 6th March 1536 the first bill was introduced into the English Parliament to dissolve the monasteries. Initially, only smaller houses were affected, where the annual income was less than £200 p.a. or where there were insufficient monks or nuns to form the minimum community required by the Monastic Rule.The act followed the eighteen month survey of monastic wealth and practice, commissioned in 1534, and known as Valor Ecclesiasticus. Although the suppression of the monasteries can be over-emphasised as the cause of the rebellion that year, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, it was one of the contributing factors.

Picture of the Valor Ecclesiasticus