Question from Chad - Elizabeth Boleyn in Hester Chapman's bio of Anne Boleyn
posted by Lara | 12:47 PM
Hello,
Recently I have come across a biography about Anne Boleyn by historian Hester Chapman. Though the book was written in 1974, I knew some of the information would be considered outdated but I thought nonetheless that it would be entertaining to read. When I read it information on the first page caught my eye. It was an account on Anne Boleyn's early childhood. It stated that Anne's Mother Elizabeth Howard Boleyn gave birth to the three Boleyn children and died of a fever in 1512. I knew this was inaccurate as recent history has found that Anne's mother lived until 1538 when she probably died from grief over her children's deaths.
The book further stated that Thomas Boleyn went on to marry another woman "whom history has found not to have recorded her name." Does anyone have any idea who this woman could be? I know Elizabeth Boleyn did not die in 1512, but why would it be assumed that she did? Modern history does eclipse many of the books information but I do not understand why it records Anne Boleyn's mother as dying during this age, and why is some unnamed stepmother taking the place that Lady Boleyn had in history? Is this stepmother a fictitious form of Tudor propaganda?
Recently I have come across a biography about Anne Boleyn by historian Hester Chapman. Though the book was written in 1974, I knew some of the information would be considered outdated but I thought nonetheless that it would be entertaining to read. When I read it information on the first page caught my eye. It was an account on Anne Boleyn's early childhood. It stated that Anne's Mother Elizabeth Howard Boleyn gave birth to the three Boleyn children and died of a fever in 1512. I knew this was inaccurate as recent history has found that Anne's mother lived until 1538 when she probably died from grief over her children's deaths.
The book further stated that Thomas Boleyn went on to marry another woman "whom history has found not to have recorded her name." Does anyone have any idea who this woman could be? I know Elizabeth Boleyn did not die in 1512, but why would it be assumed that she did? Modern history does eclipse many of the books information but I do not understand why it records Anne Boleyn's mother as dying during this age, and why is some unnamed stepmother taking the place that Lady Boleyn had in history? Is this stepmother a fictitious form of Tudor propaganda?
5 Comments:
Hester Chapman was a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. She was not a trained historian and thus seldom did any kind of archival or primary-source research for her books. Instead, she tended to draw from other writers like herself, i.e., untrained historical writers. Thus she often repeated the factual errors made by those before her. Read her books for entertainment as something akin to very high quality historical fiction and not as solid presentations of historical fact and expect there to be errors of fact.
I think Agnes Strickland originally introduced the stepmother in her "Lives of the Queen of England," and a lot of subsequent biographers and novelists picked up the error. I don't know where Strickland originally got her information from.
The problem with Strickland's theory is that it is hard to disprove. A stepmother would have been referred to as a mother, so that does not discount the many references of Anne being chaperoned by her 'mother'. She would also have been referrred to by her titles - Lady Boleyn, viscountess Rochford, countess of Wiltshire and Ormonde, and so there is no confirmation of the lady's first name. Even if there was, Elizabeth was a common name. It is unfortunate that we have so little information about this woman who was at the centre of things for years, and who produced such notable children. It says it all that it is difficult to disprove Strickland's assertion.
However, I think it unlikely that 'she probably died from grief over her children's deaths'. It is a very romantic idea, and you must remember that sixteenth-century English people usually had very different relationships with their offspring to those we would consider 'normal'. In 1538, Mary Boleyn was probably around 39, so her mother would have been considered an elderly woman by sixteenth-century standards, in her late fifties or early sixties.
However, whilst the Tudor mentality was very different to the current one, it was not entirely devoid of sentimentality. We do have recorded comments from Anne, made during her imprisonment, when she commented that her downfall would make her mother die of grief - hence the later suggestion that this was what hastened Elizabeth Howard-Boleyn's death, although nowadays we might refer to it by a more scientific name (nervous breakdown, depression, etc.) It seems unlikely that Thomas Boleyn, himself deeply ambitious, would have re-married an unknown woman rather than following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Geoffrey, who has used the death of his first wife as an opportunity to remarry to a woman with better connections - Lady Anne Hoo. Whilst it is impossible to prove a negative, there were so many connections between the Howards and Boleyns, that Elizabeth's continued prescence at its nexus seems more than likely. There is also no evidence that Thomas had a second wife.
And to be fair, biography is an ongoing art, constantly in revision. Many of us first got interested in Anne Boleyn and the whole Tudor saga by reading now-out-of-date biographies by Hester Chapman, Marie Louise Bruce, Alison Plowden, and yes, Agnes Strickland, as well as the works of novelists like Norah Lofts (good old Lady Bo!), Evelyn Anthony and Jean Plaidy. Mock them if you will, but they sparked the imagination and the will to investigate, speculate and produce new interpretations.
Even if they're incorrect, they provide often interesting information as to how the Tudors were viewed in previous generations. Perhaps Agnes and her sisters (the sisters did the actual research, I've read) simply couldn't believe, in their early Victorian hearts, that any mother would stand by while her daughters were prostituted or actively connive at it.
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