Bassett, Catherine (1517?–1558+)

The second daughter of Sir John Bassett and Honor Grenville, Catherine was in competition with her sister Anne for one position as a maid of honor to Queen Jane in 1537. When Anne was chosen, Catherine was taken into the household of Eleanor Paston, Countess of Rutland. There was talk of placing her with Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk or with Anne Stanhope, Countess of Hertford, but Catherine apparently preferred to remain where she was. A marriage was proposed for her with Sir Edward Baynton’s son, but the Bayntons thought Catherine’s dowry was too small. In 1540, she joined the household of Anna of Cleves, but by then Anna was no longer queen. In 1541, Catherine was heard to wonder aloud how many wives the king would have. This comment led to her examination by the Privy Council but she does not seem to have been charged with any crime. On December 8, 1547, she married Henry Ashley of Hever, Kent. They had a son, also named Henry. The date of Catherine’s death is unknown, but took place sometime between 1558 and 1588.

Bassett, Mary (1522?–1598)

The youngest daughter of Sir John Bassett and Honor Grenville, Mary was, according to Peter Mewtas, the prettiest of the four sisters. She joined the household of Nicholas de Montmorency, Seigneur de Bours, in Abbeville in August 1534. Her stepfather, Arthur Plantagenet, Lord Lisle, attempted to find her a place in the household of the young Elizabeth Tudor, but nothing came of it. Mary suffered from ill health and returned to Calais in March 1538 to be nursed by her mother. Gabriel de Montmorency, who had become Seigneur de Bours on his father’s death in 1537, paid a number of visits to her there and eventually proposed marriage. They kept their betrothal secret, with disastrous consequences. When her mother and stepfather were arrested and all their papers seized, Mary attempted to destroy Gabriel’s love letters by throwing them down the jakes. She was caught and her unsanctioned engagement to a Frenchman was taken to be one more proof of treason in the household. It was a crime to conspire to marry a foreigner without the king’s permission. It is not clear where Mary was confined in Calais or when she was released. The next record of her is her marriage to John Wollacombe of Overcombe, Devon, on June 8, 1557.

Bassett, Philippa (1516?–1582)

This oldest Bassett daughter remained in Calais with her mother. There was talk of a marriage to Clement Philpott, but nothing came of it. She was arrested with her mother and sister but it is not clear where she was held or when she was released. She had married a man named James Pitts by 1548.

Botolph, Sir Gregory (d. 1540+)

Botolph is the mystery man of the story. He was a younger son from a respectable Suffolk family and became a priest. He was a canon at St. Gregory’s in Canterbury in the mid–1530s and later confessed that he stole a plate from the church during that time. He went to Calais in April of 1538 to become one of the three domestic chaplains employed by Lord Lisle. There he shared quarters with Clement Philpott, who joined the household at the same time. He has been described as both a fanatic papist and an unscrupulous rogue. He was known in Calais as “Gregory Sweet-lips” for his ability to talk people into doing what he wanted. He claimed to have made a very fast, very secret trip to Rome to meet with the pope and Cardinal Pole in early 1540, but there is no evidence to back up his story. He was, however, clearly the instigator of a plot to deliver Calais to England’s enemies in “herring time” and he did recruit Clement Philpott and Edward Corbett, among others, to help him. The plan probably would not have succeeded even if Philpott had not betrayed the conspirators. Botolph escaped being arrested when his coconspirators were taken by English authorities because he was already in “the emperor’s dominions.” He may have been taken into custody there, briefly, but he was never returned to England to stand trial for treason. He disappears from history after August of 1540. Further details about the Botolph conspiracy can be found in volume six of M. St. Clare Byrne’s The Lisle Letters.

Bray, Dorothy (1524?–1605)

Dorothy Bray was either the youngest daughter or the fifth of six daughters of Edmund, Baron Bray, and was at court as a maid of honor to Anna of Cleves in 1540. She served Catherine Howard and Kathryn Parr in the same capacity. She was involved in a brief, passionate affair with William Parr, brother of the future queen, in 1541, but during Kathryn Parr’s tenure as queen, Parr’s interest shifted to Dorothy’s niece, Elizabeth Brooke. Dorothy later married Edmund Brydges, Baron Chandos, by whom she had five children. After his death she wed Sir William Knollys, a much younger man. Late in life she was known as “old Lady Chandos.”

Brooke, Elizabeth (1525–1565)

Elizabeth Brooke is sometimes confused with her aunt, Lady Wyatt, with whom she shared her name. This younger Elizabeth, however, is most likely to have been the “sister of Lord Cobham” to whom Henry VIII paid attention at a supper and banquet at court in January 1542, leading to speculation that he might marry her. Elizabeth was accounted one of the most beautiful women of her time. Late in the reign of Henry VIII, she captured the heart of Queen Kathryn’s brother, William Parr. For more on this fascinating woman, see the extended biography at my website, KateEmersonHistoricals.com.

Browne, John (d. 1540+?)

Edward Corbett’s servant, Browne was accused of treason right along with his master. There is a record of his attainder and his exemption from the general pardon, but not of his execution.

Carey, Catherine (1523?–1569)

As the daughter of Mary Boleyn, long Henry VIII’s mistress, Catherine may in fact have been the king’s child, but he never acknowledged her as such. Catherine came to court as a maid of honor to Anna of Cleves in January of 1540, but she married Sir Francis Knollys on April 26 of that same year and gave up the post. They had fourteen children. Catherine returned to court when Queen Elizabeth took the throne.

Champernowne, Joan (Mistress Denny) (d. 1553)

Joan Champernowne came to court as a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon and remained at court during the tenures of Henry VIII’s next five wives. Married to Anthony Denny, by whom she had at least ten children, she was called upon by King Henry VIII to take Anne Bassett as a guest in her house in Westminster so that Anne could enjoy the country air and take long walks. Joan was one of the ladies sent to greet Anna of Cleves upon her arrival. While serving Kathryn Parr, she was accused of sending aid to Anne Askew, who was later executed for heresy. Joan was an ardent Protestant, but nothing treasonable or heretical was ever proved against her. In May 1548, Princess Elizabeth and her household were sent to stay at Cheshunt with the Dennys. They remained there until autumn. Some accounts say Elizabeth’s governess, Katherine Champernowne Astley, was Joan’s younger sister. Others believe they were only distantly related. Joan was considered a great beauty.

Corbett, Edward (d. 1540+?)

Very little is known about the real Edward Corbett except that he was a gentleman servitor to Lord Lisle at Calais and frequently carried messages to Honor Lisle’s daughters in England and ran other errands for his master. He became close friends with Clement Philpott after the latter’s arrival in Calais in 1538 and was recruited by Sir Gregory Botolph to participate in a plot to overthrow Calais. His failure to report what Botolph suggested made him guilty of treason even though he did not actively aid the conspirators. He was arrested, questioned in Calais, then taken to England and imprisoned in the Tower. He was attainted and exempted from the general pardon but there is no record of his execution. He simply disappears from history. He may have been one of the “others” executed at the same time as Clement Philpott. His relationship with Anne Bassett is my own invention, but it could have happened.

Cromwell, Thomas (1485?–1540)

Henry VIII’s chief advisor after the death of Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell was the driving force behind the king’s marriage to Anna of Cleves. Henry’s displeasure with his new bride was undoubtedly what cost Cromwell his life. Cromwell created difficulties over money and property for Lord and Lady Lisle and was probably responsible for Lisle being implicated in the Botolph conspiracy, even though Lisle knew nothing about it before Philpott confided in him. Cromwell was arrested on June 10, 1540, and executed on the same day Henry VIII married Catherine Howard.

Culpepper, Thomas (d. 1541)

Described as “a beautiful youth,” Thomas Culpepper was at court as a page in 1535 and by the time Henry VIII married Catherine Howard, Thomas’s sixth cousin once removed, he was a groom of the privy chamber and had the unpleasant duty of dressing the ulcer on the king’s leg. Culpepper was high in favor at court as early as 1537, when Honor Lisle sent him the gift of a hawk in the hope he might use his influence with the king on her behalf. Whatever his relationship with the queen during the progress of 1541, it was foolish in the extreme to have met with her in private. He was executed on the charge of treason.

Denny, Anthony (1501–1549)

By 1536, Denny was a groom of the privy chamber to Henry VIII, yeoman of the wardrobe of robes, keeper of the royal palace at Westminster (Whitehall), and keeper of the privy purse. Later he was a gentleman of the privy chamber. He was one of the king’s most trusted servants and the recipient of frequent grants. He had houses in Aldgate in London, where he was a neighbor of Hans Holbein the Younger, and in Westminster. It was to the latter that Anne Bassett came as Denny’s guest in October 1539. Denny was present at Kathryn Parr’s wedding to the king in 1543 and was knighted on September 30, 1544.

Prince Edward (1537–1553)

The baby prince’s mother, Jane Seymour, died of complications of childbirth when Edward was twelve days old. He was for the most part raised away from court. He succeeded his father in 1547.

Princess Elizabeth (1533–1603)

Elizabeth makes only a brief appearance here, at the christening of her baby brother. For most of the period of this novel, she was regarded as the king’s illegitimate daughter and therefore not in line to inherit the throne. She shared a household with her older half sister, Mary, for part of that time and succeeded Mary to the throne in 1558.

Grenville, Honor (Lady Lisle) (1494?–1566)

In 1515, Honor Grenville married Sir John Bassett and by him had three sons and four daughters. Her second husband was Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle and lord deputy of Calais. She was one of the “six beautiful ladies” who accompanied Anne Boleyn to France in 1532 and at least two of her daughters, Anne and Mary, were renowned for their looks. In 1540, when accusations of treason were made against Honor and her husband, in part because she continued to cling to the old ways in religion, she was placed under house arrest in Calais and held there until her husband’s death in the Tower of London in March 1542. Following her release, she retired to Tehidy in Cornwall. Rumor had her going mad while in captivity, but this is not supported by any reliable source.

Harris, Isabel or Elizabeth (Mistress Staynings) (d. 1543+)

Isabel had four children under the age of six by 1534, when her husband was sent to prison for debt. One of her children was named Honor, after Isabel’s aunt, Lady Lisle. Left in poverty and pregnant with her sixth child when her husband died in 1537, Isabel entered the service of Mary Arundell, Countess of Sussex, as a waiting gentlewoman. She was invited to join Lady Lisle’s household in Calais but declined. She may later have remarried, to a man named Thomas Gawdie.

Henry VIII (1491–1547)

King Henry was forty-six in 1537 and still in relatively good health, although he was already portly. He was over six feet tall and had introduced the square-cut beard into fashion a few years earlier. By 1543, he had lost his looks. His waist measured fifty inches and his chest forty-five. His beard was sparse and flecked with gray and his hair was thinning. He weighed over 250 pounds and sometimes wore a corset. He used a staff to walk and wore a felt slipper on the foot of his game leg. Rumors that he was impotent began as early as his marriage to Anne Boleyn. He may have suffered from syphilis, but his symptoms are also consistent with land scurvy, which is caused by poor diet. Henry died less than four years after marrying Kathryn Parr.