that any one on first approaching the task would be led to imagine that they did not exist. Dugdale, in his Baronage, has given, indeed, the alliances of the peers, but in scarcely any instances more than the mere name and parentage of the lady. Any date relating to her is of the rarest occurrence. Neither the period of her birth, nor that of her marriage, nor, what is still more extraordinary, that of her death, appear to be known. If a nobleman had more than one wife, it is consequently often uncertain which was the mother of his children. Nor has such information been generally supplied in more modern works on the peerage. Genealogists have occasionally inserted a date in a pedigree, but that is all. In Lodge's Portraits of Illustrious Personages, out of two hundred and forty memoirs, the subjects of only thirty-one are females, of whom twelve are Queens. More recently the pens of several female writers have been employed on the memoirs of the most illustrious of their sex; and the public have favourably received Miss Halsted's Countess of Richmond and Derby, Miss Strickland's Queens of England, and Miss Costello's Lives of Eminent Englishwomen. But even the latter work, which might be thought to have anticipated our present purpose, comprises no very large number of characters, nor scarcely any before the close of the sixteenth century. It is, therefore, our present intention to try what can be done towards the elucidation of history in this channel of investigation; and if the characters or the adventures of the persons commemorated should not in some cases appear to be of such strong interest as to have merited the attempt to rescue them from oblivion, the reader must bear in mind the principal object of the collection, namely, the future improvement of our historical works on noble families, and the general illustration of history and manners, especially of the latter. Upon that point, indeed, it may be anticipated that the present inquiries will produce many valuable results. We cannot investigate the circumstances of the lives of those persons whose powerful influence has from time to time moulded and modified the usages of society, without bringing to light illustrations of manners both curious and instructive, but which authors of more general aim have allowed to pass into undeserved oblivion. We shall commence the series with the two wives of a potent subject, the first a Princess by birth, and the second a more remote member of the Blood Royal. The former, which now follows, will introduce a contemporary narrative of the funeral of the widowed Queen of Edward the Fourth, now first printed in an entire form. *The contents of Miss Costello's work are as follow: Vol. I. Elizabeth Countess of Shrewsbury; *Arabella Stuart; Catharine Grey; *Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke; Penelope Lady Rich; Magdalen Herbert; *Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond. Vol. II. *Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia; *Lucy Harrington, Countess of Bedford; Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset; Elizabeth Countess of Essex; Christian Countess of Devonshire; *Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset; Mary Evelyn; Lady Fanshawe. Vol. III. Anastasia Venetia Stanley, Lady Digby; the Countess of Desmond; Elizabeth Cromwell and her daughters; Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson; *Frances Stuart, Duchess of Richmond; *Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Sunderland; Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Somerset ; *Lady Rachel Russell; Margaret Duchess of Newcastle; Anne Countess of Winchelsea; Mrs. Katherine Philips; Jane Lane; Anne Killigrew; Frances Jennings, Duchess of Tyrconnel; Mary Beale; Anne Clarges, Duchess of Albemarle; Lady Mary Tudor; *Anne Hyde, Duchess of York; Anne Scott, Duchess of Monmouth; Stella and Vanessa; Susannah Centlivre. Vol. IV. *Sarah Duchess of Marlborough; and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Of these thirty-seven subjects eleven of the most prominent (which we have marked) were already treated of, by Lodge. Miss Costello's work, however, though somewhat unequally executed, is one of great merit and high interest. No. I.-ANNE LADY HOWARD. THIS lady, the first wife of Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, did not live to be Duchess of Norfolk, nor even Countess of Surrey. She was the seventh child and fifth daughter* of King Edward the Fourth, and his Queen, Elizabeth Wodevile. She was born at Westminster, on the 2nd day of November, 1475, and christened in the abbey church there. In a will made by her father a few months before, and bearing date the 20th June, is the following passage: "Item, where we trust in God oure said wiff bee now with childe, if God fortune it to bee a daughtre, then we wil that she have also xml, marc' (66667. 13s. 4d.) towards her mariage."‡ Whilst King Edward was still reigning in prosperity, his female children were contracted in marriage to several foreign potentates: Elizabeth, the eldest, to the Dauphin of France; Mary, to the King of Denmark; and Cecily to the Prince of Scotland. To these prospective alliances he added, in the summer of the year 1479, contracts for the marriages of his daughter Anne to Prince Philip of Austria,§ and of Katharine to the Infant John, heir apparent of Don Ferdinand, King of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Sicily. *The daughters of Edward IV. were altogether seven: 1. Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of Henry VII.; 2. Mary, who died young; 3. Cecily, Viscountess Welles; 4. Margaret, who died young; 5. Anne, Lady Howard; 6. Katharine, Countess of Devon; and 7. Bridget, nun at Syon. Their order in Sandford's Genealogical History is incorrect: see the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. C. i. 24; CII. ii. 200. + MS. Addit. Brit. Mus. No. 6113, f. 48 b. Excerpta Historica, p. 369. § This Philip (surnamed the Fair) was afterwards the husband of the heiress of Spain, father of the Emperor Charles V. and progenitor of the subsequent Kings of that country, as well as the Emperors of Germany. The inheritance of her father's dominions fell to his wife, Jane, (the elder sister of our Queen Katharine of Arragon,) in consequence of the death in 1497 of her brother John, (also above mentioned as the contemplated husband of Katharine of England,) who eventually married Mary of Austria, sister to Philip, but died without issue. In the former case the contract was executed by the Duke Maximilian and the Princess Mary his wife, the parents of the prince, at St. Omer's on the 18th July, and by King Edward at Guildford on the 16th of August: covenanted that by which it was neither party should contract any other marriage within three years.* In the following year, on the 5th August, the treaty was concluded. The Prince was then styled Count of Charolois. It was agreed, 1. that matrimony should be solemnized so soon as the parties were of suitable age; 2. that King Edward should give a dowry of 100,000 crowns (scutorum), which, however, was remitted by an acquittance granted by Maximilian and Mary at Namur, on the 20th of the same month; 3. that, when Anne should arrive at the age of twelve, the Duke and Duchess of Austria should pay her an annual pension of 6000 crowns of gold (coronarum auri) until her marriage; 4. that she should have a dowry, if widowed, of 2000 pounds (librarum grossorum moneta Flandriæ) of should be honourably conveyed to her the money of Flanders; 5. that she marriage at their expense; 6. that, should take place between the survivor should either party die, a like alliance and some other son or daughter of the Duke and King, such party on the Burgundian side being the Duke's heirs. Further, by subsequent letters dated in both countries on the 7th August, it was covenanted that, on the consummation of her marriage, the Princess Anne should receive lordships, lands, and rents to the yearly value of 8000 pounds of Artois; but, if she retracted after attaining her twelfth year, that King Edward should then pay 40,000 pounds of Artois.§ Finally, by a public act performed in a certain high chamber within the * Rymer's Fœdera, edit. 1711, tom. xii. p. 110. Ibid. p. 134.-In consideration of the same, King Edward remitted the first yearly payment of a pension of 50,000 crowns, which the Archduke had agreed to give, should Edward become involved in a war with France, and thus forfeit a like pension for which King Louis was engaged to him. Ibid. p. 133. Ibid. pp. 128, 130. § Ibid. pp. 129, 130, the house of Margaret Duchess of Burgundy at Bruges, on Saturday the 16th Dec. 1480, the Duke Maximilian and Duchess Mary declared execution of the treaty of marriage, in the presence of the English ambassadors Sir Thomas Montgomery, K.G. John Cock, LLD. and William Slifyld; and of the Duchess Margaret, the Earls of St. Paul, Chimay, and Winchester (Louis de la Gruthuse), the chancellor Carondelet, and the abbat of St. Bertin.* Such was the destiny of the Lady Anne whilst still a child; but her father's death, and the degradation of his family, terminated her prospect of alliance with any sovereign prince. When the widowed Queen took sanctuary at Westminster after the seizure of the person of the King her son, by his uncle the Duke of Gloucester, she was accompanied by her younger son the Duke of York, and by all her five surviving daughters, Elizabeth, Cecily, Anne, Katharine, and Bridget. The Duke of York was withdrawn from her custody on the 15th June, 1483; and shortly after the Duke of Gloucester had assumed the throne, on the 26th of that month, the lives of both the royal brothers were terminated, as is supposed, by violence. Such, however, was the weakness of the Queen, that, notwithstanding the calamities which had overtaken her, and the cruel cajolery which had been practised upon her when she parted with the Duke of York, she was again prevailed upon by threats or promises about eight months after to listen to the King's overtures with regard to her daughters. On the 1st of March, the usurper bound himself by oath to protect and provide for them, as detailed in the following remarkable "Memorandum :" [MS. Harl. 433.] "Memorandum, that I Richard by the grace of God King of England and of Fraunce, and Lord of Ireland, in the presence of you my lordes spirituelle and temporelle, of you maire and aldermen of my cite of London, promitte and swere verbo Regio upon these holy cungilies of God by me personelly touched, that if the doughters of Dame Elizabeth Gray, late calling herselff Quene of England, that * Ibid. p. 138. is to wit, Elizabeth, Cecille, Anne, Kateryn, and Briggit, wolle come unto me out of the sanctwarie of Westminster, and be guyded, ruled, and demeaned after me, than I shalle see that they shalbe in suretye of their lyffes, and also not suffre any maner hurt, by any maner persone or persones to them or any of them in theire bodies and persones to be done. by way of ravishement or defouling contrarie to theire willes, nor them nor any of them enprisone within the Toure of London or other prisonne; but that I shall put them in honest places of good name and fame, and them honestly and curteously shalle see to be founden and entreated, and to have all thinges requisite and necessary for their exhibicion and findinges as my kynneswomen. And that I shalle do marie suche of them as now bene mariable to gentilmen borne, and everiche of them geve in mariage landes and tenementes to the yerely valewe of CC marcs for term of their lyves; and in like wise to the other doughters when they come to lawfulle age of mariage if they lyff; and suche gentilmen as shalle happe to marie with them, I shalle straitly charge, from tyme to tyme, lovyngly to love and intreate them as their wiffes and my kynneswomen, as they wolle advoid and eschue my displeasure. And over this that I shalle yerely from hensffurthe content and pay or cause to be contented and paied for thexhibicion and finding of the said Dame Elizabeth Gray during her naturalle liffe, at iiij termes of the yere (that is to wit, at Pasche, Midsomer, Michilmesse, and Christenmesse,) to John Nesfelde, one of the squiers for my body, for his finding to attend upon her, the sume of DCC marc' of lawfulle money of England, by even porcions. "And moreover I promette to them that if any surmyse or evylle report be made to me of them or any of them, by any persone or persones, that than I shalle not geve therunto faithe ne credence, nor therfore put them to any maner ponysshement, before that they or any of them so accused may be at their lawfulle defence In witnesse wherof to this writing of my othe and promise aforsaid, in your said presences made, I have set my signe manuelle the first day of Marche the first yere of my Reigne." or answer. The subsequent disposal of the Princesses during the reign of Richard III. is not known. When her sister was married to King Henry the Seventh, Anne was little more than ten years of age; and it is possible that she still remained or some time with her mother the Queen Dowager. On some state occasions, however, she is mentioned as having been present at Court. She took part in the ceremony of the baptism of her nephew, Prince Arthur, in 1486, carrying the chrisom, which was pinned on her right breast, and hung over her left arm.* At the feast of the Garter in 1488, she was in attendance on the Queen ; and she was also present when the feast of Whitsuntide was kept by the Court at Sheen, in the same year.t When her niece, Margaret, (afterwards Queen of Scots,) was baptised at Westminster, on the 30th Nov. 1489, the Lady Anne again bore the chrisom, "with a marvellous rich cross lace."‡ On Whit-Tuesday in 1492 the Lady Anne repaired "by water" to Windsor, accompanied by her sisters the Ladies Katharine and Bridget, to attend the solemnity of her mother's funeral, the royal corpse having been privately conveyed thither on the previous Sunday. At the mass of the Trinity the Lady Anne offered the mass-penny in the place of the Queen, being conducted by her brother-in-law the Viscount Welles, and her train borne by Dame Katharine Gray. Of this solemnity a curious account is preserved, which, as it has never yet been printed complete, § is here inserted: [MS. Arundel, 26, fol. 29, b.] "On the viij day of June the yere of our Lorde M1.iiij.iiij. et xij at Barmsey in Sowthwerke, discessed the Righte noble pryncesse Qwene Elizabeth, some tyme wiffe of Kyng Edwarde the iiijth, and moder to qwene Elizabethe wiffe to Kyng Henry the vijth, whiche was the Friday before Whitsonday as that yere felle. "And the saide Qwene desired in her dethe-bedde that as soone as [she] shulde be descessed, she shulde in alle goodly haste, without any worldly pompe, [be] by water conveied to Wyndesore, and ther to be beried in the same vaut that her howsbonde the Kyng was beryed in. On Whitsonday she was accordyng to her desire by water conveied to Wyndesore, and ther prevely thorow the Lettille Parke conveied into the castelle without ryngyng of any belles, or receyvyng of the dean and chanons in their habites, or accompaynyed as whos sayes but with the prior of the charterhouse of Shen, Doctor Brent her chaplain and oon of her executors, Edmond Hault, maistress Grace a bastard dowghter of Kyng Edwarde, and upon ant other gentilwomen, and as it [was] told to me, oon preest of the college and a clerke receyved her in the castele, and so prevely about xj of the clocke in the nyghte, she was beried, without any solempne direge, or the morne any solempne masse doon for her owbehytt.‡ Awdeley bysshop of Rochester, to doo the service, and the substaunce of the officiers of armes of this realme, but that day ther was nothyng doon solemply for her, savyng a low hers,§ suche as they use for the comyn peple, with iiij wooden candlesticks abowte hit, and a clothe of blacke clothe of gold over hit, with iiij candlesticks of silver and gilt, everyche havyng a taper of noo gret weight, and vj scochyns of her armes crowned, pynned on that clothe. "On the morne theder came the lorde "On the Tewsday theder came by water iij of kyng Edward's dowghters and Lady Katherene, the Lady Bregett, acheirs, that is to say, the Lady Anne, the compaygned with the Lady Marquys of Dorsset, the Duc of Buckyngham's dowghter of (sic) nyce of the foresaid qwene, alsoo the doughter of the Marquis of Dorssett, the Lady Herbert alsoo nyce to the said qwene,t the Lady Egermont,‡ Dame Katheryne Gray,§ Dame (blank) Gilforde. Whiche after || duryng the derige and oon the morne, that is to say, the Wednesday at the masse of Reqyem. And the thre doughters at the hed, their gentilwomen behynde the thre ladyes. Alsoo that same Tewsday theder came the lordes that folowyn: the Lord Thomas Marquys of Dorssett, soon to the fore-said qwene, the Lorde Edmond of Suffolke, th'Erlle of Essex, the Viscount Welles, Sir Charles of Somerset, Sir Roger Coton, maister Chaterton. And that nyght began the direge; the foresaid bisshop of Rochester and vicars of the college were rectors of the qwer, and noo chanons. The bisshop of Rochester red the last lesson at the direges of (sic) the chanons the other two, but the dean of that college red noon, thowghe he was present at that service, nor att direge nor at non at they (sic) was ther never a new torche, but old torches; nor poore man in blacke gowne nor whodes, but upon a dozeyn dyvers olde men holdyng old torches and torches endes; and on the morne oone of the chanons called maister Vaughan sange our Lady Masse, at the whiche the lorde marquys offered a piece of gold; at that masse offred no man savyng himselfe, and in likewise at the masse of the Trenetie, whiche was songen by the dean, and kneled at the hers hed, *Cecily daughter and heir of William Lord Bonvile. + There is such a confusion in this description of the ladies, that it is difficult to tell who, or even how many, were intended. Anne Lady Herbert and one sister, Elizabeth wife of Robert Lord Fitzwalter, were the only daughters of Henry Duke of Buckingham by Lady Katharine Wodevile, sister of the Queen. Anne was married first to Sir Walter Herbert, and afterwards to George Earl of Huntingdon. Lady Egremont was the widow of a younger brother of the third Earl of Northumberland, Thomas Percy, created Baron Egremont in 1449, and killed at the battle of Northampton in 1460: see Collectanea Topogr. et Geneal. VI. 279, note to pedigree at p. 275; but her parentage is unknown. Dugdale stated that her husband died unmarried. Who Dame Katharine Gray was does not readily appear,-another proof of the justice of our introductory observations. So MS. perhaps for abode, by cause the ladyes came not to the masse of Requiem; and the lordes before reherced sat above in the qwer, into th'offryng tyme, when that the foresaid lordes and also the officiers of armes, ther beyng present, went before my Lady Anne, whiche offered the masse-peny instede of the qwene, wherfore she had the carpet and the cusshyn leid, and the Viconte Welles toke her offryng, whiche was a very peny in ded of silver, and Dame Katherine Gray bore the said lady Agnes trayne in tyme she was turned to her place ageyn. Then everyche of the Kynges dowghters bore [their] owne traynes, and offred a pece of golde. After the ladyes had offred, in likewise the lorde marquys offred a pece of gold; than the other foresaid lordes offred their pleasirs; than offred the dean and the qwer, and the poure knyghtes; then Gartier Kyng of armes, with hym all his company; then offred all other esquyers present, and yemen, and the servauntes that wolde offer, but ther was non offryng to the corps. Duryng the masse ther was geven certayne money in almes. After masse the lord Marquys rewarded (blank) their costes xls. "I pray to God to have mersy on her sowle. At this same season the qwene her dowghter toke her chambre, wherfore I can not telle what dolent howbe it she goth in, but I suppose she went in blew, in likewise as qwene Margaret the wif of Kyng Henry the vj. went in whenne her mother the qwene of Cecille deyed." The Lady Anne was nearly twenty years of age when she was married to Thomas Lord Howard. Her husband was a year older. The marriage took place on the 4th Feb. 1494-5, in the presence of King Henry the Seventh, as appears by the following entry† in the expenses of his Privy Purse : "Feb. 4. For offring at my Lady Anne mariage, vj3. viijd.” The marriage settlement was made subsequently, by an indenture dated the 12th Feb. 10 Hen. VII. between the Queen and the Earl of Surrey. The Earl settled upon the marriage the reversion (after the death of Elizabeth Duchess of Norfolk) of the manors of Hunworth, Little Framlingham, Syselond, Dykelborough, and * Probably an error for habit, "what dolent habit," or mourning. + Excerpta Historica, p. 101. |