Inside the six wives' bedchamber: the stories of Tudor ladies-in-waiting

• On the podcast | Nicola Clark on the women who waited on Henry VIII's wives

Every Tudor queen had ladies-in-waiting – and they were never not there. As the queen’s confidantes and her chaperones, their job was to accompany their mistress wherever she went and assist her in any way that she required, from helping her to dress in the morning, to chatting with strangers at a banquet, or dancing in revels. To be one of the queen’s women was to be part of an exclusive set. There were only between 20 and 25 women in ‘ordinary’, daily, service at any given time. And though it was an honour to be chosen, it was not a soft option. They were on duty all day, every day, and could not leave without royal permission.

Ladies-in-waiting held one of three household ranks corresponding to social status: a few ‘great ladies’, several more ‘ladies and gentlewomen’, and a few ‘chamberers’, still of gentry status but responsible for the more menial tasks. To these were added ‘maids of honour’, six teenage girls under the supervision of the mother of the maids. Other noblewomen might pop in to visit or to provide temporary cover for an absence as ‘extraordinary’ ladies-in-waiting.

Vacancies were like gold dust. Every family wanted eyes and ears near the monarch. Foreign queens had their households selected for them before they arrived, but over time all of Henry VIII’s consorts could choose their own ladies subject to his approval. Competition was intense. Each queen prioritised family, friends, and those with previous experience who could help her settle into her new role. Getting into the queen’s household was therefore a matter of connections and of keeping one’s ear to the ground for whispers of change.

Once there, it could be a job for life. Though no woman is known to have served all six wives, several worked for five of the six, balancing their duties at court with their roles as wives, mothers, and estate managers at home. Others spent only a short time at court before leaving to get married. These women saw and heard everything, and that could make them dangerous.

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As Henry’s reign progressed – as queens died and were divorced, and as the fabric of religion and society was violently rewoven around them – ladies-in-waiting had to make choices about loyalty that simply hadn’t existed before, and would never exist like this again.

Elizabeth Stafford: the wronged wife who made an enemy of Anne Boleyn

The Tudor court was a whirlpool of political intrigue and backstabbing, giant egos and extra-marital affairs. This vipers’ nest could stretch a lady-in-waiting’s loyalty to her queen to breaking point. Yet few had that loyalty tested to the same degree as Elizabeth Stafford, Duchess of Norfolk.

Elizabeth (c1497–1558) was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. As the daughter of one powerful nobleman, the Duke of Buckingham, and the young wife of another, Thomas Howard – soon to be Earl of Surrey – her status placed her among the higher rank of the ‘ladies’ rather than the ‘gentlewomen’ in the queen’s household. Elizabeth probably joined the court in her late teens, following her marriage in 1512, and remained there while her husband fought on campaign in France and then on the Scottish border at the battle of Flodden where English forces defeated Scottish king James IV.

She later wrote that she served the queen “16 years together”, but we know that she also spent time at the family homes in East Anglia and gave birth to at least four children. Elizabeth’s court service became complicated as Henry VIII began to question the validity of his marriage. As it became clear that he sought to put Queen Catherine aside in favour of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth had to make a difficult choice.

The Tudor court was a whirlpool of political intrigue and backstabbing, giant egos and extra-marital affairs. This vipers’ nest could stretch a lady-in-waiting’s loyalty to her queen to breaking point

Anne Boleyn was Elizabeth’s niece by marriage. But Elizabeth felt that Catherine was a wronged wife, and she identified strongly with this: her own husband had also taken a mistress, described by Elizabeth as “that harlot”.

Rather than follow her husband in support of Boleyn, Elizabeth spoke out in favour of Catherine, and covertly passed information to her. This got her banished from court at Boleyn’s demand in 1531, and a year later her husband placed her under house arrest in Redbourn, Hertfordshire. Nevertheless, Elizabeth refused to give him a divorce or return to her marriage, writing to Thomas Cromwell that her life “would be but short” if she did. She remained at Redbourn for the rest of Henry’s reign, isolated for her devotion to her mistress and her refusal to put up with her husband’s behaviour.

María de Salinas: the staunch ally of Catherine of Aragon

María de Salinas was Catherine of Aragon’s longest-serving lady-in-waiting, and is remembered by us as the epitome of sisterhood. She came to England with Catherine in 1501, and legend has it that the queen died in her arms in 1536. In fact, new research shows that María’s life involved a little less loyalty and a lot more feistiness.

María (c1490–1539) came from a family of Castilian courtiers. In Spain, royal service was a customary route to a good marriage, so María probably didn’t expect to be in England for long. She saw Princess Catherine marry the future Henry VIII’s elder brother, Prince Arthur, and must have known what did – or didn’t – happen on the wedding night. Five months after the wedding, Arthur was dead. Then began the dreadful period of limbo, when Catherine and her household became pawns in a financial battle between her father, Ferdinand of Aragon, and Henry VII over Catherine’s dowry.

• Read more | Prince Arthur, Catherine of Aragon, and Henry VIII: a story of early Tudor triumph and tragedy

Newly discovered letters written by María to her family back home reveal that she was desperate to leave England, writing with characteristic sarcasm, “this is not a country to stop in unless necessary”. Marriage was her only way out, and she needed her brother Juan to arrange it. Several matches fell through and Maria’s letters throb with palpable anxiety, even defiance. “Do what you will,” she fumed, “for I will choose what is best for me.”

In 1516, Catherine financed a marriage to William, Lord Willoughby. María sold her Spanish inheritance and became an English noblewoman. She remained a lady-in-waiting and stayed at court after William’s death in 1526, using her court contacts to fight a poisonous lawsuit for her daughter’s inheritance. By this point she was indeed a staunch ally to the queen, and so she was banished from Catherine’s service during the queen’s divorce from Henry VIII.

When María heard of Catherine’s rapid decline, she wrote to the king’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, to ask permission to visit, but left for Kimbolton, the queen’s final home, on New Year’s Day 1536 without waiting for his reply. Once there, she talked her way into the castle and refused to leave. After the queen’s death, María retired to her estates in Lincolnshire. She was a stern landlord, milking her tenants for all the money that she could, and not surprisingly her house was targeted during the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion against Henry’s rule later that year. The rest of her life was spent quietly, and she died in 1539. We do not know where she was buried.

Jane Parker: a shrewd political operator, until she overstepped the mark

It was a long, extraordinary – and ultimately tragic – court career. Jane Parker, Viscountess Rochford served in the courts of five Tudor queens, playing a central role in the trial and execution of one, and losing her own life in the downfall of another.

Jane’s first recorded appearance in Catherine of Aragon’s household was at the Anglo-French summit known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold in June 1520, and a few years later she married courtier George Boleyn. This meant she transferred seamlessly to her sister-in-law Anne Boleyn’s service in the early 1530s. Jane’s career faced its first stumbling block with Anne’s arrest and execution in 1536, for Jane’s husband George was arrested as well.

• Read more | George and Anne Boleyn: their real relationship explored

Jane promised to try to intercede for him. This, though, put her in the path of chief investigator, Thomas Cromwell, and it was probably he who extracted crucial evidence from her. The queen, Jane revealed, had said that the king “was not skilful in copulating with a woman”, and George had questioned Princess Elizabeth’s paternity It was enough to lead to his execution.

Jane is often vilified for her role here, but she found herself in a hellishly difficult situation. If her husband was already condemned, she would need Cromwell’s help for her future. She got it. After Anne and George’s executions, Jane became part of Jane Seymour’s household, and after Seymour’s death, served Anne of Cleves. Jane went along with the king’s decision to annul his fourth marriage, and gave evidence of an alleged conversation in which Queen Anne seemed to admit the marriage had not been consummated.

By the time Jane became part of the household of Henry VIII’s fifth queen, Catherine Howard, she was an experienced courtier. Yet this experience wasn’t enough to prevent her from becoming embroiled in an affair that would end in her own death. Not long after entering Catherine’s service, Jane apparently began acting as a go-between for the queen’s dalliance with the courtier Thomas Culpeper. Jane must surely have known the grave danger in which her actions placed her.

And so it proved when, in 1541, she was arrested for her role in the alleged affair. She was terrified. Her evidence was contradictory; soon, she “went mad”, in fear for her life. The king was determined to have her punished and promptly changed the law to allow execution of the insane. And so, on 13 February 1542, within the grounds of the Tower of London, Jane became the first lady-in-waiting in history to be executed as a direct result of her service.

Mary Howard: the bright spark who defied Henry VIII, and lived

Like so many ladies-in-waiting, Mary Howard (c1519–c1555) secured her place at court thanks to family connections. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Stafford and a lady-in waiting to her first cousin Anne Boleyn (in fact, she made her debut carrying Anne’s train at her creation as Marquess of Pembroke in 1532). And, like both her mother and her cousin, Mary was no stranger to controversy.

Even before she arrived in court, Mary’s marriage was a matter of contention. In 1530 her mother wanted her to marry the young Earl of Derby. But Anne Boleyn interfered to procure an alliance for Mary with the king’s illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy. Anne’s intervention caused a family row at court. Mary’s own views aren’t recorded.

Intelligent and creative, Mary was part of a set that might be called the bright young things of the 1530s. With her friends Margaret Douglas, the king’s niece, and Mary Shelton, she kept a manuscript book into which she and her circle copied their favourite poems. They added pointed comments and cynical banter in the margins: evidence of the cultural awareness of ladies-in-waiting.

Mary was unexpectedly widowed at only 17, shortly after Anne Boleyn’s execution, and became embroiled in a battle to claim her jointure (money promised by the groom’s family) from her father-in-law, the king. To avoid having to pay, Henry tried instead to marry her off to Thomas Seymour, brother of Henry’s third wife, Jane. The match was agreed, the men poised to arrange the finances, but suddenly: nothing. Mary had vetoed the alliance and simply left court, successfully defying the king. She spent the rest of his reign living under her father’s roof and exploring reformist religion, with occasional visits to court as a lady-in-waiting ‘in extraordinary’.

Anne Basset: the live wire with bad luck and a quick temper

Anne Basset fought hard to join a queen’s household. Her stepfather, Arthur, Viscount Lisle, was the lieutenant of Calais, and the family’s letter collection – the Lisle Letters – shows that they worked hard to maintain their connections in England. Getting one of the Basset girls into the court was a means to this end. The family’s London agent reported every possible vacancy, spoke to family friends and those with influence, and directed Anne’s mother to send gifts to certain ladies-in-waiting.

Finally, while eating quails sent by Lady Lisle in 1537, Jane Seymour declared that Anne (c1520–c1558) and her sister should be sent over and she would choose one. Anne, the bolder, sparklier, “fairer” sister, was selected. There was a flurry of activity to get her ready to join the household before Queen Jane gave birth. Anne needed new clothes, and was told that as one of the six maids of honour, she would receive £10 per year.

Getting one of the Basset girls into the court was a means to this end. The family’s London agent reported every possible vacancy, spoke to family friends and those with influence, and directed Anne’s mother to send gifts to certain ladies-in-waiting

No sooner had she taken up her position than it was pulled from beneath her: Jane died only a month or so later. Anne was sent to friends and relatives until a new queen should arrive. The king had promised that she should “have her place whensoever the time shall come”. But Anne was impatient, quarrelling with her temporary guardian and with her mother in typical teenage fashion. A set of pearls that Lady Lisle had sent were “all rags”, Anne complained behind her mother’s back, and was told off and made to apologise.

She did resume her position on Anne of Cleves’ arrival, and served both Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr as a maid of honour as well.

Katherine Willoughby: the fiery reformer devoted to Henry VIII’s final queen

Katherine Willoughby is best known for serving Katherine Parr in the 1540s – a position that pitched her into the heart of the battle between religious reformers and conservatives. Yet, as the daughter of María de Salinas, Willoughby (1519–80) would have been familiar with the royal court long before that.

In 1533, Katherine married her guardian, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. It was a match that raised eyebrows: she was only 14 to his 49. It was nevertheless a happy union. Katherine helped her husband to suppress the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion in Lincolnshire in 1536, and the couple were in charge of meeting Anne of Cleves on her arrival in Kent in December 1539.

When Katherine Parr became queen in 1543, Katherine Willoughby quickly became part of her inner circle. Both had mothers who had been ladies-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, and both were close to Princess Mary. Both, too, were of an evangelical religious persuasion, interested in new, reformist ideas. After being widowed in 1545, Katherine Willoughby’s religious interests deepened, and she became a target for government ministers intent on bringing down the queen.

While being tortured on the rack in 1546, ‘prophetess’ Anne Askew was asked repeatedly whether she had had contact with the Duchess of Suffolk. Luckily for Katherine, Askew did not implicate her, but Katherine remained at loggerheads with conservatives like Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester. Outspoken and quick-tempered, she later named her dog ‘Gardiner’ so that she might publicly call him to heel.

At Henry VIII’s death in 1547, Katherine was summoned to court by Queen Katherine. She helped the queen move residences, attended her at the funeral, and knew about her secret marriage to Thomas Seymour. Loyal to the end, Katherine raised the former queen’s daughter after her death in 1548 until the little girl’s own death a few years later. She did not serve as a lady-in-waiting again.

This article first appeared in the June 2024 issue of BBC History Magazine