Mysterious Disappearance of Mary Seymour

Tags

1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, Catherine Parr, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England, Edward Seymour, Edward VI of England and Ireland, Henry VIII of England and Ireland, Mary Seymour, Thomas Seymour

Mary Seymour (August 30, 1548 – unknown), was the only daughter of Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, and Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII of England and Ireland. Mary was born at her father’s country seat, Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire.

Parents

Catherine Parr was the eldest child of Sir Thomas Parr, lord of the manor of Kendal in Westmorland, (now Cumbria), and Maud Green, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Green, lord of Greens Norton, Northamptonshire, and Joan Fogge. Sir Thomas Parr was a descendant of King Edward III, and the Parrs were a substantial northern family which included many knights.

Catherine was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on July 12, 1543 until Henry’s death on January 28, 1547.

About six months after Henry VIII’s death, she married her fourth and final husband, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley. The marriage was short-lived, as she died on Wednesday, September 5, 1548 at the age of 36, due to complications of childbirth. Although Catherine was married four times, Mary Seymour was her only child. Parr’s funeral was held on September 7, 1548. Parr’s funeral was the first Protestant funeral in England, Scotland or Ireland to be held in English.

Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, KG PC (c.1508 – March 20, 1549) was the son of Sir John Seymour and Margaret Wentworth. He was the younger brother of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England (1500–1552).

Despite his great wealth and high position, Thomas Seymour could not come to terms with his brother’s appointment as protector; and in his struggle with Somerset, he tried to ingratiate himself with the king, and vied for control of his nephew, the young King Edward VI (r. 1547–1553) who was just a little boy. In 1547 Seymour became the fourth husband of Catherine Parr. During his marriage to Catherine Parr, Seymour became involved with, the future Queen Elizabeth I (then 14 years old), who resided in his household, in flirtatious and possibly sexual behaviour.

In summer 1547, Edward Seymour, 1st duke of Somerset and the Protector of England, invaded Scotland. During his absence from the court, his brother, Thomas Seymour, fomented opposition to his authority, voicing open disapproval of his brother’s administrative skills. Because his activities seemed suspicious, several members of the nobility advised him to be content with his position, but he would not listen.

I will go into more detail on Thomas Seymour in an up coming post. So I’ll just mention that on February 20, the regency council officially accused him of thirty-three charges of treason. He was convicted of treason, condemned to death and executed on March 20, 1549.

Later in 1549, the Parliament of England passed an Act (3 & 4 Edw. 6 C A P. XIV) removing the attainder placed on her father from Mary, but his lands remained property of the Crown.

As her mother’s wealth was left entirely to her father and later confiscated by the Crown, Mary was left a destitute orphan in the care of Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, who appears to have resented this imposition. After 1550 Mary disappears from historical record completely, and no claim was ever made on her father’s meager estate, leading to the conclusion that she did not live past the age of two.

Survival speculations

Victorian author Agnes Strickland claimed, in her biography of Catherine Parr, that Mary Seymour did survive to adulthood, and in fact married Sir Edward Bushel, a member of the household of Anne of Denmark, wife of King James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland. Strickland’s theory suggested that the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, after her marriage to Richard Bertie in 1553, and before she fled England during the Marian Persecutions in or after 1555, arranged Mary’s marriage to Bushel. The problem with this theory is that Mary would have been only aged six at the time.

Another theory states that Mary was removed to Wexford, Ireland, and raised under the care of a Protestant family there, the Harts, who had been engaged in piracy off the Irish coast under the protection of a profit sharing arrangement with Thomas Seymour.

A lozenge-shaped ring inscribed “What I have I hold” was reputed to have been an early gift to Thomas by his brother Edward Seymour, and was passed down through generations of the Seymour-Harts until at least 1927.

There was reference to “Mary” found in old Elizabethan texts of ‘The Late Queen’s heir.’ However, this could be various other women. Historian S. Joy states that “Mary definitely lived past the age of 10, but after that little is known.”

History of Male British Consorts Part II

Tags

1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, 1st Duke of Somerset, Edward Seymour, Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII. Catherine Parr, Lord Protector of England, Thomas Seymour

It may seem odd to include Queen Elizabeth I of England in this series given the fact that she he never married and no husband ever became consort. However, I would like to examine the possibilities of why she never married because the role of a male consort may have played a part why she chose not to marry.

Eizabeth I ( September 7, 1533 – March 24, 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from November 17, 1558 until her death in 1603. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor.

Whom she would marry occupied the many politicians when she was in her youth. As she grew older, Elizabeth became celebrated for her virginity. A cult of personality grew around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, and literature of the day. Elizabeth’s reign became known as the Elizabethan era.

Henry VIII died in 1547 and Elizabeth’s half-brother, Edward VI, became king at age nine. Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s widow, soon married Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley.

Thomas Seymour was a brother of Lady Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII and therefore an uncle to the young king Edward VI. Thomas Seymour was also brother of the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. The former Queen Catherine and her husband took Elizabeth into their household at Chelsea.

While living there Elizabeth experienced sexual harassment and a an emotional crisis that some historians believe affected her for the rest of her life. Thomas Seymour, aged about 39 years at the time, engaged in romps and horseplay with the 14-year-old Elizabeth, including entering her bedroom in his nightgown, tickling her, and slapping her on the buttocks.

Elizabeth rose early and surrounded herself with maids to avoid his unwelcome morning visits. Catherine Parr, rather than confront her husband over his inappropriate activities, joined in. Twice she accompanied him in tickling Elizabeth, and once held her while he cut her black gown “into a thousand pieces”. However, after Catherine Parr discovered the pair in an intimate embrace, she ended this state of affairs. In May 1548, Elizabeth was sent away.

However, Thomas Seymour continued scheming to control the royal family and tried to have himself appointed the governor of the King’s person. When Catherinr Parr died after childbirth on September 5, 1548, he renewed his attentions towards Elizabeth, intent on marrying her.

Mistress Kat Ashley, who was fond of Thomas Seymour, sought to convince Elizabeth to take him as her husband. She tried to convince Elizabeth to write to Thomas and “comfort him in his sorrow”, but Elizabeth claimed that Thomas was not so saddened by her stepmother’s death as to need comfort.

In January 1549, Thomas was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower on suspicion of conspiring to depose his brither, the Dukr of Somerset as the Protector, and marry Lady Jane Grey to King Edward VI, and take Elizabeth as his own wife.

Elizabeth, living at Hatfield House, would admit nothing. Her stubbornness exasperated her interrogator, Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, who reported, “I do see it in her face that she is guilty”. Seymour was beheaded on March 20, 1549.

This date in History: Coronation of King Edward VI of England & Ireland.

Tags

Duke of Sommerset, Earl of Warwick, Edward Seymour, Edward VI, Edward VI of England, Jane Seymour, King Henry VII Chapel, King Henry VIII of England, Kings and Queens of England, Kings of Ireland

Edward VI (October 12, 1537 – July 6, 1553) was King of England and Ireland from January 28, 1547 until his death. He was crowned on February 20 at the age of nine. Edward VI was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, and England’s first monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a Regency Council because he never reached his majority. The Council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (1547–1549), and then by John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick, from 1551 Duke of Northumberland.

Henry VIII died, aged 55 at the Palace of Whitehall on January 28, 1547 after a reign of ~ 37 years, 281 days. The Lord Chancellor, Thomas Wriothesley, announced Henry’s death to parliament on January 31 and general proclamations of Edward’s succession were ordered. The new king was taken to the Tower of London, where he was welcomed with “great shot of ordnance in all places there about, as well out of the Tower as out of the ships.” The following day, the nobles of the realm made their obeisance to Edward at the Tower, and Seymour was announced as Protector. Henry VIII was buried at Windsor on February 16, in the same tomb as Jane Seymour, as he had wished. Edward VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey four days later on Sunday February 20.

The ceremonies were shortened, because of the “tedious length of the same which should weary and be hurtsome peradventure to the King’s majesty, being yet of tender age”, and also because the Reformation had rendered some of them inappropriate.

On the eve of the coronation, Edward progressed on horseback from the Tower to the Palace of Westminster through thronging crowds and pageants, many based on the pageants for a previous boy king, Henry VI.

The young king He laughed at a Spanish tightrope walker who “tumbled and played many pretty toys” outside St Paul’s Cathedral.

At the coronation service, Cranmer affirmed the royal supremacy and called Edward a second Josiah, urging him to continue the reformation of the Church of England, “the tyranny of the Bishops of Rome banished from your subjects, and images removed”. After the service, Edward presided at a banquet in Westminster Hall, where, he recalled in his Chronicle, he dined with his crown on his head.

Edward VI’s reign would be short. After five years on the throne Edward VI died at the age of 15 at Greenwich Palace at 8pm on July 6, 1553. According to John Foxe’s legendary account of his death, his last words were: “I am faint; Lord have mercy upon me, and take my spirit”. He was buried in the Henry VII Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey on August 8, 1553, with reformed rites performed by Thomas Cranmer. The cause of Edward VI’s death is not certain. As with many royal deaths in the 16th century, rumours of poisoning abounded, but no evidence has been found to support these.