Читать книгу Other Tudors: Henry VIII's Mistresses & Bastards - Philippa Jones - Страница 10

Henry VIII was very much a product of his family ambitions and their rise to power. His complex private life had its origins in his father’s arguably weak claim to and lengthy fight for the throne, and the history of two families, the Houses of Lancaster and York. Descended through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of Edward III, and his mistress, Catherine Swynford, and through his father, Edmund Tudor, who was half-brother to Henry VI, Henry Tudor became the foremost Lancastrian claimant to the throne.

After the first usurpation of the throne of Henry VI by Edward, Duke of York, who became Edward IV, Henry Tudor, the 13-year-old Earl of Richmond, had no real protectors and disappeared into exile in the care of his uncle, Jasper Tudor. His grandmother was Catherine de Valois, sister of Charles VI of France, and exile across the Channel was a good deal safer than staying in England. Henry Tudor stayed in Brittany (a separate dukedom until 1488 when the heiress, Anne of Brittany, married Charles VIII of France) from 1471 to 1485 as the guest of Duke Francis II, the Marshall of Brittany. He ended up living in a chateau at Largöet, near Vannes, the home of the Marshall of Brittany, Jean de Rieux. As the years passed, increasing numbers of Lancastrians and Yorkist malcontents retreated to France and Henry Tudor was an acknowledged claimant to the English throne. The claim was deemed so serious that both Edward IV and Richard III went to some lengths to entice Henry Tudor back to England and to bribe or trick Louis XI of France and Francis II into sending him home. All attempts ended in failure and Henry’s value as a rival to the House of York increased. As a child, the future Henry VIII would have heard of his father’s struggles as an exile in France. The lesson was twofold: firstly, that anyone who could not hold on to the throne faced exile and constant danger of assassination; secondly, that exiles were a menace, ready to return and seize the throne from the ruling king. This helped to make Henry VIII ruthless, more so once he had his son and heir. He would defend his throne for his dynasty, no matter how many lives were forfeit.

Henry Tudor spent 14 years in exile in Brittany, the formative years of his life, from the age of 13 to 27. He learned to speak and read French, and also took a French mistress with whom he had a son, Roland de Velville, born around 1474. The name is spelled in many ways, one of which is Vielleville, which indicates that the lady belonged to the de Vielleville family, Counts of Durtal. When Henry Tudor became king, Roland was knighted. He became a leading jouster for a period between 1494 and 1507 and was eventually made Constable of Beaumaris Castle. In his will, dated 1535, Sir Roland asked to be buried at Llanfaes Friary in Wales, where some of the earlier Tudors were buried. Part of his epitaph, written in Welsh, reads: ‘… a man of kingly line and of earl’s blood …’¹ This statement was a discreet announcement of his paternity. Henry VII never formally acknowledged him, but everyone knew whose son Roland was. It could be said, therefore, that Henry VIII was following in the footsteps of his ancestors when he fathered bastard children, but with the knowledge that his own dynasty was founded on not one, but two bastard families, he perhaps did not feel confident enough to acknowledge his baseborn children.

Henry Tudor’s triumph at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 was the culmination of years of plotting, abortive risings and failures. Richard III was dead, other claimants were too distant to the throne or too young and, as Henry stated in proclamations issued after Bosworth, he was king by right of descent and by possession. Henry VII further cemented his claim to the throne by marrying the rival family heiress, Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV. Elizabeth grew up with the knowledge of her father’s frequent and constant unfaithfulness to her mother, which was common gossip. Yet she saw that her father and mother still loved each other; she learned that a queen’s duty was to produce heirs, smile and say nothing. Henry VIII would have observed that his mother, alluded to as the perfect king’s wife, was always subservient to her husband, a mother to his children and a docile adornment to his Court. Here he found the template for his ideal queen.

Elizabeth fulfilled her destiny with calm good sense, her eldest child born eight months after her marriage. She bore her husband three sons – Arthur in 1486, Henry in 1491 and Edmund in 1499 – and four daughters – Margaret in 1489, Elizabeth in 1492, Mary in 1496 and Catherine in 1503 – losing one son and two daughters in childhood. She was idealised by many as the perfection of womanhood, yet her husband kept her powerless, giving authority and his affection and trust to his mother, Margaret. Elizabeth found herself playing second fiddle to her mother-in-law; at the Christmas festivities in 1487, Margaret wore the same costume, ‘like mantell and surcott as the queen, with a rich corrownall on her hede.’² Margaret would accompany Elizabeth on state occasions, walking and standing directly behind her; she went on progresses with Henry and Elizabeth. At Woodstock and in the Tower apartments, Margaret’s rooms adjoined the King’s.

Margaret Beaufort was a wealthy woman in her own right; she managed her own affairs and kept tight hold on her wealth. She would demand her rights and pursue a debt to death and beyond. She taught her son the value of a well-filled treasury, but failed to make such an impression on her grandson, who may have been heartily tired of advice on the need for prudence. His father and grandmother both approved of his teenage years when he was kept on an allowance from his father without a privy purse of his own.

Henry VII had married a young, beautiful, virtuous, well born lady, but this had never stopped any of his predecessors or family members from engaging in extramarital liaisons. Taking a mistress and fathering children out of wedlock was commonplace. In a time when virtually all marriages were arranged for financial and family benefits, it was reasonable to seek love outside the marriage. Given that Henry VII was the king and a red-blooded male in a political marriage, it would have been amazing if he had not found affection with other ladies. The temptation was all around him: Elizabeth’s ladies were chosen for their beauty and charm.

In the early years of his reign, Henry VII delighted in spending money on show and display. There were lavish building projects and splendid clothes for him, his family and courtiers, as well as extravagant pastimes. The King loved hunting and hawking, and when he rebuilt Sheen (after the palace on the bank of the Thames in Surrey burned down in 1497) he added ‘houses of pleasure to disport in at chess, tables, dice, cards …’ and established a menagerie at the Tower, with ‘lions, leopards, wild cats and rare birds …’³ He also enjoyed dancing and music. Two interesting references from his privy purse accounts may indicate that love and music can easily go together: 25 August 1493, payment ‘to the young damsel that danceth’ – £30; 13 January 1497, payment ‘to a little maiden that danceth’ – £12’.⁴

To offer these dancers the equivalent of the annual salary of a lady-in-waiting for one performance (or even several) seems a trifle excessive if dancing was all that was on offer. Henry VII was taking his pleasure in as safe a way as he could, in the company of young ladies whose social position meant that they could have no influence whatsoever. It was a lesson his son would have been wise to learn: taking mistresses who would not cause trouble. The difference was that whereas Henry VII wanted sex, Henry VIII wanted love.