Anne Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier

For other people named Anne Bourchier, see Anne Bourchier (disambiguation).
Anne Bourchier
suo jure Baroness Bourchier
suo jure Lady Lovayne
Baroness Parr of Kendal
Spouse(s) William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton
Issue
(illegitimate by John Lyngfield)
Mary, wife of Thomas York
Noble family Bourchier
Father Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex, 6th Baron Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier, 2nd Count of Eu
Mother Mary Say
Born 1517
England
Died 28 January 1571 (aged about 54)

Anne Bourchier (1517 – 28 January 1571) was the suo jure 7th Baroness Bourchier, suo jure Lady Lovayne, and Baroness Parr of Kendal. She was the first wife of William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, Earl of Essex, and the sister-in-law of Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII of England.

She created a scandal in 1541 when she deserted her husband to elope with her lover, John Lyngfield, by whom she would have several illegitimate children. Due to the intervention of Queen Catherine, who spoke to King Henry VIII on her behalf, Anne avoided the possible penalty of execution, which her husband had pressed the king to apply as a result of her adultery.[1]

Contents

Family

Anne was born in 1517,[2] the only child of Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex, 6th Baron Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier,[3] 2nd Count of Eu, and Mary Say, who was a Lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. Her paternal grandparents were William Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier and Anne Woodville, a younger sister of English queen Elizabeth Woodville, and her maternal grandparents were Sir William Say and Elizabeth Fray. Anne was related to three queens consort of Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Catherine Howard, having shared the same great-grandmother, Elizabeth Cheney.

As the only child of the last Earl of Essex, as well as the contingent heiress of the Countess of Oxford, Anne was one of the wealthiest heiresses in England. The Bourchier wealth derived from the 14th century marriage of Sir William Bourchier to Eleanor de Lovayne (27 March 1345 – 5 October 1397), a rich heiress in her own right.

Marriage and inheritance

On 9 February 1527, Anne was married to William Parr, the only son of Sir Thomas Parr, Sheriff of Northamptonshire and Maud Green. Anne was approximately ten years old at the time of her marriage which had been diligently arranged by her ambitious mother-in-law.[3] Anne later succeeded to the titles of suo jure 7th Baroness Bourchier and Lady Lovayne on 13 March 1540 at the time of her father's accidental death. His viscounty of Bourchier and earldom of Essex did not pass to her, however, and both titles became extinct upon his death.[4] Her husband had been created 1st Baron Parr of Kendal in 1539.

Anne was described as having been "poorly-educated";[2] and she appeared to prefer the peace of the countryside to the excitement of Henry VIII's court, as her first recorded appearance at court where she attended a banquet was on 22 November 1539 when she was aged 22.[2]

Adultery

Anne was apparently unhappy with her husband. In 1541, Baron Parr began an affair with Dorothy Bray, who served as a Maid of Honour to Queen Catherine Howard. In that same year, a scandal erupted when Anne eloped with her lover, John Lyngfield, the prior of St. James's Church, in Tanbridge, Surrey, and by whom she had an illegitimate child. He was also known as John Hunt or Huntley. The birth of Anne's child prompted Baron Parr to take action against her to protect his own interests, lest the baby should later in the future lay claim to his estates. In January 1543, he applied to Parliament, asking for a divorce from Anne on the grounds of her adultery. From the Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of Henry VIII, dated 22 January 1543, there is this item:

"Whereas lady Anne, wife of Sir Wm Parre lord Parre continued in adultery notwithstanding admonition, and, finally, two years past, left his company and has since had a child begotten in adultery and that the said child and all future children she may have shall be held bastards."[5]

On 17 April 1543, he obtained an Act of Parliament, repudiating Anne and her child, who was declared a bastard, and unfit to inherit. At this time, his sister Catherine was being courted by King Henry VIII. She was also a close friend of Anne, and supported her against her brother who was pressing the King to apply the death penalty for his unfaithful wife.[1] Catherine petitioned the King to grant clemency for Anne; Henry agreed, provided Parr himself pardoned her, saying to Catherine that "if your brother can be content, I will pardon her".[1] After much pleading on Catherine's part, Parr relented and Anne received the King's pardon. She was, however, constrained to forfeit her titles and estates to her husband,[1] and spent the next few years living in exile at the manor of Little Wakering, in Essex. It was highly unlikely that Anne would have been sentenced to death, as adultery was not a capital offence in 16th century England. Henry VIII's wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were both executed for treason. The act of adultery, when committed by a queen consort of England, was legally a crime of High treason, and punishable by death.

In 1543, William Parr had begun his courtship of Elizabeth Brooke, who was the niece of his mistress, Dorothy Bray, as well as a former Maid of Honour of Catherine Howard. He was created 1st Earl of Essex on 23 December 1543. As Parr never assumed or claimed her barony of Bourchier, Anne thus retained the title of baroness until her death.

The marriage was annulled (again) in 1552 by Act of Parliament. In 1553, despite their divorce, Anne, along with several other ladies, intervened on Parr's behalf with Queen Mary I, after his traitorous complicity with John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland's failed plot against Mary to place Lady Jane Grey upon the throne. Anne succeeded in securing a pardon for her erstwhile husband, who had been facing the death penalty as a result of his treason.

She had several more children by John Lyngfield but they, like her first child, were legally declared bastards. Only one daughter, Mary, is documented as having lived to adulthood. She married a Thomas York by whom she had children, but they all lived in obscurity. Author Charlotte Merton suggested that Katherine Nott, who held an unspecified position in Queen Elizabeth I's household from 1577 to 1578, was also a daughter of Anne.[2]

Later years and death

Anne was at the court of Mary I until December 1556 when she received an annuity of £450.[2]

Sir Robert Rochester and Sir Edward Waldegrave held Benington Park, in Hertfordshire, as feoffees for her use; however, upon the death of Rochester in 1557, Waldegrave transferred the property to Sir John Butler. In response, Anne brought a lawsuit against Waldegrave and Butler which was heard in the Court of Chancery.[2] She won the case but Butler petitioned to retry the case and continued to regard the park as his own.[2] Butler's petition was apparently unsuccessful because following Queen Elizabeth I's accession to the throne in November 1558, Anne retired to Benington Park where she spent the rest of her life.[2]

Anne Bourchier died on 28 January 1571 at Benington. Parr died the same year, having been created 1st Marquess of Northampton on 16 February 1547. He had married two times after Anne, firstly to Elizabeth Brooke, and secondly to Helena Snakenborg, but fathered no children by any of his wives.

Upon Anne's death, the barony of Bourchier passed to her cousin, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex.

Ancestry

Sources

  1. Weir, Alison (1991). The Six Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-38072-X
  2. Martienssen, Anthony (1973). Queen Katherine Parr. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. ISBN 0-07-040610-3
  3. www.thePeerage.com.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Alison Weir. The Six Wives of Henry VIII, p.492
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Emerson, Kathy Lynn. A Who's Who of Tudor Women, Bo-Brom. Retrieved 26-11-10
  3. ^ a b Martienssen, Anthony (1973). Queen Katherine Parr. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. p.39
  4. ^ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 06
  5. ^ The Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic of Henry VIII, Vol. 18, Part 1, Item 66, Part III, cap. xliii, dated 22 January 1543
Peerage of England
Preceded by
Henry Bourchier		 Baroness Bourchier
1540–1571		 Succeeded by
Walter Devereux