SHE-WOLVES The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth HELEN CASTOR For Helen Lenygon, and in memory of Mary Yates To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion or empire above any realm, nation or city is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing most contrarious to his revealed will and approved ordinance, and finally it is the subversion of good order, of all equity and justice JOHN KNOX, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women , 1558 I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too QUEEN ELIZABETH 1, 1588 Contents Title Page List of illustrations Preface BEGINNINGS July 1553: The King is Dead Long Live the Queen? MATILDA: LADY OF ENGLAND This Land Grew Dark Mathilda Imperatrix Lady of England Greatest in Her Offspring ELEANOR: AN INCOMPARABLE WOMAN An Incomparable Woman The War Without Love By the Wrath of God, Queen of England Surpassing Almost All the Queens of This World ISABELLA: IRON LADY One Man So Loved Another Dearest and Most Powerful ‘Someone Has Come Between My Husband and Myself ’ Iron Lady MARGARET: A GREAT AND STRONG LABOURED WOMAN Our Lady Sovereign A Great and Strong Laboured Woman Might and Power The Queen Sustains Us NEW BEGINNINGS July 1553: Long Live the Queen Not of Ladies’ Capacity A Queen and By the Same Title a King Also Note on Sources and Further Reading Index About the Author By the Same Author Copyright List of Illustrations Four kings of England: from the Abbreviatio Chronicorum Angliae of Matthew Paris, British Library MS Cotton Claudius D.VI f.9 © The British Library Board All rights reserved FABFABOI The wedding feast of Matilda and Emperor Heinrich V: Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 373 f 95v, courtesy of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Effigies of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II in Fontevraud Abbey: The Bridgeman Art Library Seal of Philippe II, from the Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris: Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library Seal of King John, from the Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris: Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library Isabella of France and her troops at Hereford (English School, 14th century, on vellum): The British Library/The Bridgeman Art Library Tomb effigy of Edward II in Gloucester Cathedral: Scala Images The earl of Shrewsbury presenting a book of romances to Margaret of Anjou: from the ‘Shrewsbury Book’, British Library MS Royal 15 E.VI f 2v © The British Library Board All rights reserved FABFABOI Edward VI, c.1550, attributed to William Scrots The Royal Collection © 2010 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 10 Lady Jane Grey, 1590s, by unknown artist © National Portrait Gallery, London 11 Edward VI’s ‘device for the succession’: Inner Temple Library Petyt MS 538.47 f.317, courtesy of the Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple Photograph © Ian Jones 12 Mary I, 1554, by Hans Eworth or Ewoutsz: Society of Antiquaries of London/The Bridgeman Art Library 13 Great Seal of England of Queen Mary and King Philip, 1554: British Library Cotton Charter XVI 4C © The British Library Board All rights reserved FABFABOI 14 Princess Elizabeth, c.1546, attributed to William Scrots The Royal Collection © 2010 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 15 Elizabeth I, ‘The Pelican Portrait’, c.1575, attributed to Nicholas Hilliard © National Museums, Liverpool 16 Elizabeth I, ‘The Rainbow Portrait’, c.1600, attributed to Isaac Oliver: courtesy of the Marquess of Salisbury Preface This is an attempt to write the kind of book I loved to read before history became my profession as well as my pleasure It is about people, and about power It is a work of story-telling, of biographical narrative rather than theory or cross-cultural comparison I have sought to root it in the perspectives of the people whose lives and words are recounted here, rather than in historiographical debate, and to form my own sense, so far as the evidence allows, of their individual experiences In the process, I hope their lives will also serve to illuminate a bigger story about the questions over which they fought and the dilemmas they faced – and one that crosses the historical divide between ‘medieval’ and ‘early modern’, an artificial boundary that none of them would have recognised or understood What the evidence allows is, of course, very different as we look back from the sixteenth to the twelfth century The face of Elizabeth I is almost as familiar as that of Elizabeth II, and the story of her life can be pieced together not only from the copious pronouncements of her government, but also from notes and letters in her own handwriting and from the private observations of courtiers and ambassadors, scholars and spies Four hundred years earlier, with the significant exception of the Church, English culture was largely non-literate Memory and the spoken word were the repositories of learning for the many, the written word only for the clerical few A historian, relying on the remarkable endurance of ink and parchment rather than a vanished oral tradition, can never know Matilda, who so nearly took the throne in the 1140s, as closely or as well as her descendant Elizabeth But we know a great deal, all the same, about what Matilda did, and how she did it; how she acted and reacted amid the dramatic events of a turbulent life; and how she was seen by others, whether from the perspective of a battlefield or that of a monastic scriptorium If the surviving sources cannot give us an intimate portrait suffused with private sentiment, they take us instead to the heart of the collision between personal relationships and public roles that made up the dynastic government of a hereditary monarchy These stories also trace the changing extent and configuration of the territories ruled by the English crown within a European context that was not a static bloc of interlocking nation-states, but an unpredictable arena in which frontiers ebbed and flowed with the shifting currents of warfare and diplomacy That context lies behind one consistent inconsistency within these pages: I have used different linguistic forms to distinguish between contemporaries who shared the same name I have chosen not to disturb the familiar identification of the main protagonists by their anglicised names, but I hope nevertheless that such differentiation might not only have the convenience of clarity, but also give a flavour of the multilingual world in which they lived All quotations from primary sources are given in modernised form; I have occasionally made my own minor adjustments to translations from non-English texts I have chosen not to punctuate the narrative with footnote references, but details of the principal primary and secondary sources used and quoted in the text, along with suggestions for further reading, appear at the end of the book * I owe many debts of thanks incurred in the writing of this book – first among them, to my agent, Patrick Walsh, and my editors, Walter Donohue at Faber and Terry Karten at HarperCollins in the US For their unfailing support and expert guidance, and for Walter’s ever perceptive advice at critical moments, I am more than grateful Thank you too to Kate Ward at Faber, who has done a superb job of seeing the book (and me) through the production process Three institutions provided a framework within which the book took shape: I am very lucky to count Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, as my academic home; Ashmount Primary School is a community of which I feel privileged to be a part, for a few years at least; and Hornsey Library (and its cafe) offered a refuge without which I might never have finished writing I hope it will be evident how much I have learned from other historians working in the field, many of them friends and colleagues, and among them all I should mention particularly John Watts, who found time to read a large section of the book to invaluable effect I hope too that my friends and family know how much their generosity, support and inspiration have meant: heartfelt thanks to all, and especially to Barbara Placido and Thalia Walters, the best of neighbours past and present I owe more than I can say to Jo Marsh, Katie Brown and Arabella Weir for their unstinting friendship and their strength and wisdom when I needed it most My parents, Gwyneth and Grahame, and my sister Harriet have read every word of what follows with an insight and attention to detail of which I would be in awe if I weren’t so busy thanking them, for that and so much else And special thanks, with all my love, to my boys, Julian and Luca Ferraro The book is dedicated to two of the most inspiring history teachers I could ever have wished for BEGINNINGS Mortimer’s estates, 1, 2; duke of York’s estates, 1; Jasper Tudor’s position, 1, 2, 3, 4; Edward IV’s position, Wallingford, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Walsingham, Walter of Coutances, archbishop of Rouen, 1, 2, Wareham, Warwick, Guy Beauchamp, earl of, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Warwick, Richard Neville, earl of: support for duke of York, 1; view of St Albans battle, 1; at Warwick, 1; captaincy of Calais, 1, 2, 3, 4; loveday (1458), 1; departure from London, 1; Calais forces, 1, 2; flight to Calais, 1; invasion (1460), 1; Northampton victory, 1; in London, 1; St Albans defeat, 1; arrival in London, 1; Towton battle, 1; relationship with Edward IV, 1; French negotiations, 1; French favour, 1, 2; rebellion, 1; capture of Edward IV, 1; release of Edward IV, 1; alliance with Margaret, 1; invasion, 1; Edward’s flight, 1; restoration of Henry VI, 1; treaty with France, 1; Edward’s return, 1; Barnet battle, 1; death, Warwick, Thomas Beauchamp, earl of, Warwick Castle, 1, Westminster: coronation of Rufus, 1; coronation of Henry I, 1; court, 1, 2, 3, 4; Matilda’s childhood, 1, 2; coronation of Henry II and Eleanor, 1; coronation of Henri (the Young King), 1, 2; reconciliation of Henry II’s sons (1184), 1; coronation of Richard, 1; coronation of John, 1; parliament (1308), 1, 2; pardon of Gaveston’s killers, 1; parliament (1320), 1; parliament (1323), 1; parliament (1327), 1; Henry VI’s court, 1, 2; parliament (1455), 1; council (1457), 1; York’s claim to throne, 1; settlement (1460), 1; Edward IV’s enthronement, 1; parliament (1461), 1; Elizabeth Woodville’s sanctuary in abbey, 1; Edward VI in abbey, 1; court pageant (1553), 1; coronation of Mary, Westminster, palace of, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, White Ship, 1, 2, William I (the Conqueror), 1, 2, 3, William II (Rufus), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, William, king of Scots, William II, king of Sicily, 1, William, son of Eleanor and Henry II, 1, William, son of Matilda, 1, 2, 3, William, son of Stephen, 1, William Ỉtheling, son of Henry I, 1, 2, William d’Aubigny, William de Braose, William Clito, son of Robert Curthose, 1, 2, William of Corbeil, archbishop of Canterbury, William of Malmesbury: background, 1; on Henry I, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; on White Ship, 1, 2; on Guilhem of Aquitaine, 1; on Matilda’s character, 1; on Heinrich, 1; attitude to Matilda, 1, 2, 3; on Matilda’s response to father’s death, 1; on Stephen’s coup, 1; on Matilda’s escort, 1; on devastation in England, 1; on Stephen’s imprisonment, 1; on Robert of Gloucester, 1, 2; on bishop Henry’s address, 1; on Matilda and the Londoners, 1; on Matilda’s escape from Oxford, 1, 2; death, William of Newburgh, 1, 2, William of Tyre, William of Ypres, 1, Willoughby, Sir Hugh, Winchester: nomination of Henry I, 1; royal treasury, 1, 2, 3, 4; coronation of Stephen, 1, 2, 3; council (1141), 1, 2; Matilda named as Lady of England, 1; siege, 1; peace treaty (1153), 1; coronation of Henri (the Young King), 1; return of Richard, 1; parliament (1330), 1; wedding of Mary and Philip, Windsor: court (1126), 1; Christmas court (1184), 1, 2; meeting of barons, 1; castle surrendered by John, 1; birth of Edward III, 1; Isabella at, 1; Henry VI’s household, 1, 2, 3; Margaret’s imprisonment, Worcester, Wroth, Sir Thomas, Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 1, 2, Yolanda of Aragon, 1, 2, 3, 4, Yolande of Anjou, York, Edward Plantagenet, duke of, see Edward IV York, Richard Plantagenet, duke of: ancestry, 1, 2, 3; career, 1; claim to lead government of Henry VI, 1; rivalry with Somerset, 1, 2; heir presumptive, 1; control of royal council, 1; imprisonment of Somerset, 1, 2; protector of the realm, 1; government, 1; king’s recovery, 1; exclusion from government, 1; St Albans victory, 1, 2, 3; Henry VI receives crown from his hands, 1; Margaret’s attitude to, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; ascendancy, 1; resignation as protector, 1; at Sandal, 1; Coventry council, 1; oath of loyalty, 1; refusal to attend second Coventry council, 1; defence of Scottish border, 1; loveday (1458), 1, 2; failure to attend Coventry council (1459), 1; Blore Heath, 1; Ludford Bridge, 1, 2; flight to Ireland, 1; declared guilty of treason, 1; invasion preparations, 1; arrival in London, 1; claims throne, 1; Westminster settlement (1460), 1; Wakefield battle, 1; death, 1, Zengi, Imad ad–Din, About the Author Helen Castor is a historian of medieval England, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Her last book, Blood & Roses, a biography of the fifteenth-century Paston family, was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2005 and won the English Association’s Beatrice White Prize in 2006 She lives in London with her husband and son By the Same Author BLOOD & ROSES Copyright First published in 2010 by Faber and Faber Ltd Bloomsbury House 74–77 Great Russell Street London WC1B 3DA This ebook edition first published in 2010 All rights reserved © Helen Castor, 2010 The right of Helen Castor to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly ISBN 978–0–571–27172–6 A thirteenth-century illustration of the first four Norman kings: William the Conqueror (top left), his sons William Rufus (top right) and Henry I (bottom left), and Henry’s nephew Stephen (bottom right) Stephen holds a sword to show that he was forced to fight for his throne against the claim of Henry’s daughter Matilda Eleven-year-old Matilda (second from right behind the table) sits beside her first husband, the German Emperor Heinrich V, at their wedding feast in 1114 It was eleven years before she returned to England as the widowed ‘Empress Matilda’ to be named her father’s heir The effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine lies beside that of her second husband, Matilda’s son Henry II of England, in the calm of Fontevraud Abbey – a striking contrast to the turbulence of their marriage Images of power: the two sides of royal seals show the king with sceptre and sword as judge and warrior – key functions of kingship that a woman could not easily fulfil On the left is Philippe II of France, son of Eleanor’s first husband Louis VII; on the right, John, youngest son of Eleanor and Henry Edward II’s queen, Isabella of France, in armour at the head of her troops at Hereford in 1326 – a fourteenth-century image that echoes contemporary depictions of the Amazonian queens of classical myth In the background her husband’s favourite, Hugh Despenser the younger, meets a grisly end on the scaffold The effigy of Edward II, carved in English alabaster, on his tomb in Gloucester Cathedral A conventional image of virtuous queenship at odds with Margaret of Anjou’s later reputation as Shakespeare’s ‘She-wolf of France’: Margaret sits in a consort’s place on the left of her husband, Henry VI, to receive from John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, a gift of the book in which this illumination appears King Edward VI, a slightly built teenager trying to emulate the imposing style of his father Henry VIII; and a posthumous portrait of Edward’s cousin Lady Jane Grey Edward’s ‘device for the succession’, drafted in his own hand, which specified that England’s future monarchs should be Protestant and male During his final illness in 1553, Edward named Jane his heir by changing his bequest of the crown: ‘to the L’ Janes heires masles’ became ‘to the L’ Janes and her heires masles’ Mary Tudor in 1554, when, according to the outgoing Venetian ambassador Giacomo Soranzo, the queen was ‘of low stature, with a red and white complexion, and very thin; … were not her age on the decline she might be called handsome rather than the contrary’ An improvised division of royal labour on the Great Seal of England, 1554: Mary rides ahead, holding the sceptre and looking back at her husband, King Philip, who takes the consort’s position on her left with a sword unsheathed in his hand From human being to icon Top, Elizabeth at thirteen, a study in charismatic self-possession Below, the queen at forty-two, a stylised figure decked about with symbols: flanked by the Tudor rose, representing the crown of England, and the fleur-de-lys for her claim to France, Elizabeth wears pinned to her bodice an enamelled pelican, a symbol of mystical and selfless motherhood – and therefore of the queen as mother of her people – because it was believed to feed its young with blood pecked from its own breast Apotheosis of an icon: Elizabeth at sixty-six Goddess-like in her eternal youth, she has a serpent on her sleeve for wisdom, and a rainbow in her hand for the peace and prosperity brought by the sunlight of her majesty, while the eyes and ears on her cloak show that she sees and hears all The knotted pearls that represent her virginity both emphasise and defend her sexual power The lesson of this eclectic and densely woven imagery was that, if women were lesser beings and unfit to rule, England’s queen was a unique and glorious exception ... those women – in their ambitions and achievements, their frustrations and failures, the challenges they faced and the compromises they made – were laid out the lineaments of the paradox which the. .. meaningful sense For the Tudor women confronting the succession crisis of 1553, then, the battle to secure the throne was only the first step on a hard road ahead Their right to wear the crown would... their brother since the early stages of his illness, were now kept in ignorance of the progress of the disease, beyond what they could glean of the speculation spreading from the capital to their