Her miscarriage in the summer of 1534 had been a blow and her failure to conceive again must have been a grave concern. Henry had risked a great deal for his marriage to Anne and both knew that it could not be thrown away lightly, whatever Henry’s personal feelings towards his wife. Anne knew jus...
The King did not, at first, show any interest in Margaret, although, with Suffolk’s death, her wardship had once again passed to the crown. This changed in February 1453, when Margaret’s mother was commanded to come to court, bringing her daughter with her in her train. For Margaret, the summons ...
One day, speaking to William Sharington in the company of his serving man Pigot, he whispered that ‘I will wear black for this twelvemonth. After that I know where to have a wife’.1 And at that moment, she was living at Cheshunt. On 7 September 1548, Princess Elizabeth celebrated her fifteenth bi...
No other medieval woman has commanded such enduring interest and numerous biographies have been written about her. Certainly, her fame exceeded even that of her mother-in-law, Empress Matilda, and Eleanor became a legend in her own lifetime. Like Matilda, Eleanor’s fame was perhaps not entirely w...