Elizabeth I’s Earliest Influences: New Discoveries Concerning Blanche Parry, Lady Troy, the Funeral Monuments and the Bacton Altar Cloth

Abstract

No relevant history of Queen Elizabeth I, in any medium, can now claim accuracy without mention of Blanche Herbert, Lady Troy, and her niece Blanche Parry. Lady Troy provided a stable childhood for Elizabeth I and Edward VI. Blanche Parry was the constant companion and confidante of Elizabeth for fifty-six years and her position at the centre of the court was recognised. Blanche Parry’s close connection to Lord Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil was a key factor in cementing and facilitating their relationship with the Queen. This paper brings forward new discoveries from Blanche’s Bacton epitaph on the monument she commissioned, from the contemporary pronunciation of Elizabeth’s name, to the process of the Queen’s visual transformation to Gloriana. Further, Blanche’s probable role in facilitating, through finance, the publication of the Welsh Bible, and hence the preservation of the Welsh language, is now clear. These researches led to the discovery of an unrecorded ‘Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I’ in the United States and to the identification of the priceless Bacton Altar Cloth as the only known surviving material from the Queen’s 1,900 dresses.

Notes

1 All the evidence discussed in this paper is fully examined in Ruth Elizabeth Richardson, Mistress Blanche, Queen Elizabeth I’s Confidante (Eardisley, 2007; revised 2018). Additional evidence is available in the book/calendar: Blanche Parry & Queen Elizabeth I (Eardisley, 2012), and on the website: www.blancheparry.com.

2 The Bacton Altar Cloth has been the focus of an exhibition at Hampton Court Palace, October 2019 to February 2020. The curator is Dr Eleri Lynn. See her recent paper: ‘The Bacton Altar Cloth: Elizabeth I’s “long-lost skirt”?’, Costume 51:2 (2018), pp. 3-25.

3 In the State Papers Domestic of Queen Elizabeth I and other documents Blanche Parry is designated as Mistress Blanche or as Blanche ap Harry / Aparry / Aparrey / Apharrie and other forms. It is this variety of nomenclature that has been one factor that has made her difficult to trace. In Welsh nomenclature ‘ap’ means ‘son of’, so ApHarry meant son of Harry. However, it could be indiscriminately applied to a woman. For a full discussion see Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 7.

4 Henry Myles / Mile / Milo also used Welsh nomenclature. He was wrongly designated as Henry Parry, in the English fashion, on Blanche Parry’s tomb in St Margaret’s Church, Westminster. This was placed here six years after her death, in 1596, and her father would not have understood his designation. Blanche’s brother Symond, or Simon, was the first person in the family to use a surname after the English manner.

5 Until 1752 the legal year in England (and Wales) changed date on 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, called Lady Day. As Blanche died on 12 February the year was 1589 to her contemporaries but is now considered to be 1590 in modern (that is, post-1752) dating.

6 British Library [hereafter BL], Lansdowne Ms 102, no 94, property conveyance of the manor of Glasbury in Lord Burghley’s handwriting and notes for Blanche Parry’s will; BL, Lansdowne Ms 62, no 119, an earlier will of Blanche Parry. Both of these are transcribed (by Sue Hubbard) and printed exactly, with discussion of contents and personnel, in Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 165-71.

7 I suggest that this reference on the Bacton epitaph, which Blanche Parry (the closest long-term companion of Queen Elizabeth I) composed, provides primary evidence for the actual, continued, virginity of the Virgin Queen.

8 BL, Lansdowne Ms 102, no 94.

9 Simon Adams (ed.), Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, 1558–1561, 1584–1586 (Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 147: Mrs. Margaret Dane was paid to hem napkins. She probably served the Queen in the same capacity, being mentioned in several lists of New Year’s gifts. The widow of William Dane (a liveryman of the Company of Ironmongers, Master of the Company, Sheriff 1569–70, and Alderman of the City of London), her portrait hangs in the banqueting hall of the Ironmongers’ Company in London (personal communication with the Company of Ironmongers, 2006).

10 BL, Lansdowne Ms 102, no 94.

11 Ibid.

12 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 143-4.

13 Roy Strong, The Tudor and Stuart Monarchy: Pageantry, Painting, Iconography (Woodbridge, 1995), vol. 2 Elizabethan; Roy Strong, Gloriana: Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I (London, 1987); Susan Doran (ed.), Elizabeth: The Exhibition at the National Maritime Museum (London, 2003), pp. 175-81.

14 Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Herefordshire (Harmondsworth, 1963), pp. 69-70.

15 The monument was moved nearer the altar when the organ was installed.

16 Many churches in the area preserve dedications to ‘Celtic’ saints: see Sarah and John Zaluckyj, The Celtic Saints of the Central and Southern Marches (Eardisley, 2006); for a more detailed discussion of how Bacton’s Saint Faith came to be equated with Sainte Foy of Conques, see Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 146-7; see also Eamon Duffy, Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c.1400–c.1580 (New Haven and London, 1992), p. 166.

17 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, plates 11-12.

18 Lambeth Palace Library, MS 3198, f 552, Talbot Papers. Thomas Markham had been a standard bearer for the Queen’s Gentleman Pensioners in 1567.

19 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, plate 14.

20 Pamela Sheingorn, trans., The Book of Sainte Foy (Philadelphia, 1995), pp. 33-63.

21 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 147-8.

22 Eamon Duffy, Voices of Morebath: Reformation & Rebellion in an English Village (New Haven and London, 2001), pp. 119-20.

23 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 10, 87-9.

24 For discussion of the survival of such religious ideas, see Duffy, Stripping of the Altars and Voices of Morebath; also Stephen Greenblatt, Hamlet in Purgatory (Princeton, 2001).

25 Simon and Jane had eleven daughters and a son who died without issue.

26 Full discussion of the families of Lady Troy and Blanche Parry in Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 183-5. Sources are various and include To Harri ap Gruffudd composed by the bard Guto’r Glyn, given with translation on the website; Sir Joseph Bradney, A History of Monmouthshire (London, 1921, republished 1993), vol. 3, part 1; Michael Powell Siddons (ed.), Visitations by the Heralds in Wales (London, 1996), concerning 1531, which includes Herefordshire; the same (ed.), The Visitation of Herefordshire, 1634 (London, 2002); Michael Faraday (ed.), Herefordshire Taxes in the Reign of Henry VIII (Almeley, 2005); due to Welsh nomenclature tracing Welsh family pedigrees also involves establishing links to lands.

27 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 22-4; see also Ron Shoesmith and Ruth E. Richardson, A Definitive History of Dore Abbey (Almeley, 2000), p. 28, for a discussion of The National Archives [hereafter TNA], E111/24, answers of Henry Myle esquire to the complaints of the Abbot of Dore; the interpolations show that it is likely that Blanche’s father himself corrected the scribe’s version of this document.

28 Robert is the ancestor of the Whitneys in the USA. Henry Melville, The Ancestors of John Whitney (New York, 1896). Elizabeth when grown would marry Sir Thomas Morgan of Arkstone Court, Kingstone, Herefordshire, approximately eight miles from Newcourt, Bacton.

29 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 181, for a fuller discussion of the nine poems relevant to Blanche’s family. Several poems have previously been published, but all were re-examined using the original manuscripts in The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth (hereafter NLW) for this biography by Eurig Salisbury and Professor Gruffydd Aled Williams, and are reproduced in modern Welsh with English translation on http://blancheparry.co.uk/papers.php.

30 C.W. Lewis, ‘Llywelyn ap Rhisiart [Lewis Morgannwg] (fl.1520–65)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/16598: Lewys Morganwwg (fl.1520–65), was the bardic name of Llywelyn ap Rhisiart, ‘Chief Bard of the Three Provinces’, and one of the most notable poets in the history of Glamorgan. Also http://www.blancheparry.co.uk/articles/papers/poems/lewys_morgannwg.pdf.

31 Ann Benson, Troy House, A Tudor Estate Across Time (Cardiff, 2017), p. 2. Alternative names for the manor found in medieval documents were Little Troye and Troy Parva.

32 Lady Troy’s and Sir William’s home is at the back of the later seventeenth-century mansion, the only ducal mansion (as rebuilt by the dukes of Beaufort) in Wales. Although apparently in a poor state, a great deal survives of the earlier house and could be reinstated. Benson, Troy House, has demonstrated the layout of the gardens owned by Sir William and Lady Troy.

33 Benson, Troy House, p. 30.

34 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 181. Also http://www.blancheparry.co.uk/articles/papers/poems/gutor_glyn.pdf.

35 The beautiful tomb of William ap Thomas and Gwladys can be seen in the Herbert Chapel in Abergavenny Priory. Gwladys, known as the Star of Abergavenny, was given a prestigious funeral, details of which still survive.

36 Benson, Troy House, p. 35.

37 An annuitant was someone on a pay-roll, receiving regular sums of money from a patron for supporting him/her.

38 TNA, PROB 11/21, Will of Sir William Herbert, 15 March 1523.

39 Burghley was ‘supravisor’ of Blanche’s First Will which he affirmed (see Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 175), and Robert Cecil was bequeathed £50 ‘to remember my said Lord’ (ibid.). Lord Burghley is also referenced in connection with Blanche’s land: see Blanche's First Will above (BL, Lansdowne Ms. 102, also Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 167) where he is named as a trustee. Burghley and Blanche Parry working together is seen clearly in the letters of Sir Nicholas White (see footnote 61, below).

40 Blanche Parry’s epitaph on her monument in Bacton Church places her with Elizabeth when she was born. BL, Cotton Ms Vespasian C xiv. For discussion of the dating, see Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 43-6.

41 Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Hon. the Marquis of Salisbury, vol. XI (Dublin, 1960) [hereafter Salisbury Manuscripts], a report on the subversive activities of the earl of Essex and Mr. Roger Vaughan in 1601 which John Garnons forwarded to Sir Robert Cecil. The unnamed writer was married to John Garnons’ goddaughter.

42 Salisbury Manuscripts, vol. II, p. 517.

43 James Gairdner (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII (London, 1891), vol. 12, part 2 [hereafter LP], 1537, no 911 (Christening of Prince Edward).

44 Llansteffan Ms 164, 118, published in A. Cynfael Lake (ed.), Gwaith Lewys Morganwwg (Aberystwyth, 2004-5), vol. 1, re-examined in the original, see note 21. Poem given in full in Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 39-41 and on http://blancheparry.co.uk/articles/papers/poems/lewys_morgannwg.pdf. I am grateful for the discussions and permissions from Dr Lake and Prof. Jenkins.

45 See Judith Richards, Mary Tudor (London, 2008).

46 For the climate of opinion at the time, see Duffy, Voices of Morebath; Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490–1700 (London and New York, 2004), pp. 103, 112.

47 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 43-4, for discussion of dating these four lists in Letters and Papers, Henry VIII.

48 Letters of Roger Ascham, ed. by Alvin Vos, trans. by Maurice Hatch and Alvin Vos, (Pieterlen, 1989).

49 LP, 1536, no 1187, household lists.

50 Sir Robert Tyrwhitt to the Duke of Somerset, 31 January 1549, Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth, 1547-80, ed. Robert Lemon (London, 1856), p. 13.

51 Kate Ashley was Protestant. Called a heretic by the Spanish ambassador, she was, at best, indiscreet and a danger to Elizabeth. For details of the ‘Seymour Affair’, see Alison Weir, The Children of Henry VIII (New York, 1996), p. 53.

52 Benson, Troy House, pp. 7-38, describes the inventory of 1557, listing the furnishings Lady Troy knew at the end of her life.

53 Viscount Strangford (ed.), ‘Household Account of the Princess Elizabeth 1551–1552’, The Camden Miscellany 55 (Camden Old Series) (London, 1853), vol. 2, p. 41.

54 M.A. Faraday (ed.), Herefordshire Taxes in the Reign of Henry VIII (Almeley, 2005) p. 27, High Collectors for Subsidies February 1546.

55 Salisbury Manuscripts, vol. VIII, p. 83, no 49, an account of William Cecil’s funeral, 6 March 1598. It begins: ‘According to your [Burghley’s] will and command’. Given in full: http://blancheparry.co.uk/articles/places_to_visit/walterstone/walterstone.php.

56 BL, Lansdowne Ms 102, no 94, and MS 62, no 119, Lord Burghley’s notes for Blanche Parry’s first (nuncupative) will of November 1578.

57 BL, Lansdowne Ms 9, no 90.

58 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 137.

59 John Nichols, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1823), vol. 2, p. 403; see also vol. 1, p. 386, where Mrs Aparry is again mentioned.

60 Salisbury Manuscripts, CP 12/59; Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 75-9.

61 Sir Nicholas White to Lord Burghley, Waterford, 10 July 1586, Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, 1586–1588, ed. Hans Claude Hamilton (London, 1877), p. 100. Other letters of White which indicate that Blanche served as a communication channel: White to Burghley (Mrs. Blanche), Dublin, 31 May 1586 and 7 December 1586, Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, 1586–1588, pp. 67, 220-1; also Charles Angell Bradford, Blanche Parry, Queen Elizabeth’s Gentlewoman (London, 1935), pp. 18-21.

62 Watkyn Vaughan to Lord Burghley, 13 December 1569, Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Elizabeth, 1581–90, p. 215; Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 78.

63 John Vaughan to Sir William Cecil, 2 November 1569, Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Elizabeth, Addenda, 1566–79, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1871), p. 97; Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 91-7.

64 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 75.

65 Janet Arnold (ed.), ‘Lost from Her Majesties Back’: Items of Clothing and Jewels Lost or Given Away by Queen Elizabeth I between 1561 and 1585 (London, 1980): see items 102, 264, 41, 228, 283, 302-3, 313, 315-9, 327, 379.

66 BL, Royal Manuscripts, Appendix 68, fol. 7.

67 For instance, Note of the amount and the several kinds of moneys received in the Queen's Jewel House, at Christmas 1561, Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth, 1547–80, p. 194. Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 66-70.

68 A. Jeffries Collins, Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I, the Inventory of 1574, ed. from Harley MS. 1650 and Stowe MS. 555 (London, 1955), pp. 586-8.

69 BL, Royal Ms, Appendix 68, fols 1-37; see Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 74-75, 174.

70 BL, Royal Ms, Appendix 68, fol. 2.

71 Lambeth Palace Library, MS 3198 fol.552, note of Thomas Markham.

72 Though see Charlotte Isabelle Merton, ‘The Women who Served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth: Ladies, Gentlewomen and Maids of the Privy Chamber, 1553–1603’, (PhD diss., Trinity College, Cambridge, 1992); Violet Wilson, Queen Elizabeth’s Maids of Honour and Ladies of the Privy Chamber (London, 1922), and on the women of the Privy Chamber; Tracy Borman, Elizabeth’s Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen (London, 2009). However, far more research could be done.

73 TNA, REQ2/127/6: the first document is Blanche’s petition, and the third is Richard Cox’s answer, dated 22 June 1566. See also TNA, REQ2/111/37: the second document is Blanche’s complaint, dated 6 June 1566.

74 Tenants’ names are given in full on http://blancheparry.co.uk/articles/papers/blanches_yorkshire_tenants.pdf.

75 I suggest that Blanche Parry may possibly be the first woman serving at the British royal court who is known to have been placed in the position of having charge of the sovereign’s (or consort’s) jewels and for such a long time.

76 Bishop William Morgan’s translation of the Bible is claimed to be the most important book ever published in Welsh as it reinforced the language’s status. See G. Williams, ‘Morgan, William (c. 1545–1604), bishop, and translator of the Bible into Welsh’, Dictionary of Welsh Biography (1959) [https://biography.wales/article/s-MORG-WIL-1545]; Rosemary Burton, ‘William Morgan and the Welsh Bible’, History Today 5, 38 (May 1988).

77 BL, Lansdowne Ms 102, no 94, and Ms 62, no 119, Lord Burghley’s notes for Blanche Parry’s first (nuncupative) will of November 1578.

78 NLW, Ms 4760B.

79 Staatliche Museen - Graphische Sammlung Kassel, no GS 10430, gouache on paper: https://datenbank.museum-kassel.de. For a full discussion, see Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 78-82. Dr Christiane Lukatis and senior archivists in Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere were adamant that these emissaries’ names were not Dutch; subsequent investigation determined that they were in fact from Hesse-Kassel.

80 Susan Doran and David Starkey (eds), Elizabeth, The Exhibition at The National Maritime Museum (Chatto & Windus, 2003), pp. 103-04. See also Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 80.

81 Contrasting examples include the previously noted Kate Ashley, on whose behalf Elizabeth wrote in 1549 to plead for her release (Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 48); and Elizabeth Sandes, who was removed in 1554 from her duties due to her Protestantism (ibid., p. 50).

82 BL, Lansdowne Ms 62, no 119, First Will of Blanche Parry, 1578.

83 http://blancheparry.co.uk/elizabeth.shtml. The present owner’s name and address are known to the author, who has been authorised to say only that the painting is in a private collection. Detailed photographs were sent and examined by art historians Philip Mould and Charlotte Bolland. The painting remains in the US but there is no doubt that it is genuine.

84 Charlotte Bolland, Private correspondence to author.

85 Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d (Leeds, 1988, sixth reprint 2014), pp. 42-47.

86 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 140-42; http://blancheparry.co.uk/elizabeth.shtml.

87 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 153-62, for a detailed discussion.

88 This approximate number is from the Stowe and Folger Inventories, the warrants for the Wardrobe of Robes and the New Year Gifts Rolls, all fully discussed in Arnold, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d.

89 Lynn, ‘The Bacton Altar Cloth’.

90 The Shakespeare Trust Archive, Stratford upon Avon, main document of eight: ER27/4a New Place Fine 4th May 1597. See: https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/shakespeare-purchases-new-place. The purchase price in a fine was usually less than the sum paid. Therefore, the £60 recorded in this fine probably represents a true price of £120.

91 Arnold, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d, pp. 158-9. Sumptuary Laws or Laws of Apparel, were passed by the parliaments of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I. However, Elizabeth had several passed: 1559,1577, a commandment in 1580 and a proclamation in 1597; Alan Hunt, Governance of the Consuming Passions: A History of Sumptuary Law (Basingstoke, 1996), pp. 295-324.

92 Arnold, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d, pp. xiii-xvi.

93 I made the connection to the Rainbow Portrait when I saw it at Hatfield House on Sunday, 17 August 2003. In 1908, Rev. Brothers had compared the Bacton Altar Cloth to the Welbeck (or Wanstead) Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, noting similar though different flower motifs. In 1910, he was the first to suggest the Cloth ‘was once worn by Queen Elizabeth I’: Lynn, ‘The Bacton Altar Cloth’, p. 10.

94 Rory Rapple, ‘Humphrey, Sir Gilbert, 1537–1583, explorer and soldier’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/10690 .

95 Richardson, Mistress Blanche, pp. 158-9; The Annual Register or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1845 (London, 1846), Appendix to Chronicle, Trials, Law Cases, etc, p. 350. Note: Injunctions were issued between 1549 and 1552. Bishop Ridley of London issued his injunctions in 1550.

96 Framed by the Rev. Charles Brothers, described in Richardson, Mistress Blanche, p. 159; http://www.blancheparry.co.uk/articles/embroidery/embroidery.pdf.

97 Bacton Church owns the Bacton Altar Cloth. It has a beautiful, superb copy on display in the church.

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Notes on contributors

Ruth E. Richardson

Ruth E. Richardson

Ruth Elizabeth Richardson (M.Phil), now retired, was a Field Monument Warden for English Heritage before teaching and lecturing in archaeology. She then instigated, and became the general editor of, The Herefordshire Field-Name Survey, the first such survey anywhere. In the course of her analysis she discovered the link between the field-name ‘blacklands’ and Roman sites: http://blancheparry.co.uk/fieldnames.shtml. As an historian she has carried out book reviews. She founded The Friends of Dore Abbey and this led to her extensive research into the lives of Blanche Parry, confidante of Queen Elizabeth I, and of Lady Troy who brought up the Queen. This research also resulted in Ruth’s identification of the international importance of The Bacton Altar Cloth as a rare survival. Through her books and talks Ruth aims to impart her love of history to anyone interested.