"In 14 Henry VIII. (the next year) he--the Duke--obtained a grant
in special tail, and to his son, Thomas, Earl of Surrey, of the
manors of Welles, Shyringham-Stafford, Bannyngham, Warham, and
Weveton in the County of Suffolk, with the advowsons of their
churches; part of the possessions of the before specified Edward,
Duke of Buckingham, attainted."
This Duke of Buckingham was the son of the ill-fated personage of our
little narrative, executed at Salisbury;[39]--he fell, it is related,
like his father, by domestic treachery, and the enmity of Wolsey, on
a most frivolous charge, and at his trial thus made answer to the
"tears" of the Lord High Steward,--
"My Lord of Norfolk,--you have said as a traitor should be said
to; but I was never any. I nothing malign you, for what you have
done to me, but the eternal God forgive you my death. I shall
never sue to the king for life, though he be a gracious prince;
and more grace may come from him than I desire, and so I desire
you and all my fellows to pray for me."
[39] See page 111.
Such is the recorded reply of the doomed, high-souled captive, to the
"tears" of his fellow duke, and condemning judge; whose sincerity of
grief on the occasion may be estimated by the subsequent fact of his
soliciting for the gift of a large portion of the victim's possessions
the year following. But the Dukes of Norfolk of those days appear to
have been among the most unscrupulous men of that era. Then we learn
with almost incredulous surprise that Thomas, the third Duke of
Norfolk, and son of the Lord High Steward, who presided at
Buckingham's trial, married the victim's daughter Elizabeth;--their
son was the accomplished and ill-fated Earl of Surrey, beheaded
twenty-five years afterward in the same reign, and on equally flimsy
pretence.
To resume. Lord Edmund Howard married Joyce, daughter of Sir Thomas
Culpeper of Hollingbourne, Kent. He is described as being
"Marshal of the Horse, in the battle of Flodden-field, 5 Henry
VIII. when he, and his elder brother the Lord Thomas Howard
leading the van-guard, this Lord Edmund was in some distress,
through the singular valour of the Earls of Lennox and Argyle;
but the Lord Dacres coming to his succour with one Heron, the
fight was renewed and the Scots vanquished. In 12 Henry VIII., on
that famous interview which that King had with Francis I. of
France, where all feats of arms were performed between Ardres and
Guisnes for thirty days, he was one of the challengers on the
part of England."
On the occasion of his marriage, and to give his son position
befitting his rank as a country gentleman, his father, Sir John
Arundell, settled on Sir Thomas and his wife, partly in jointure, a
dozen or so manors in the Counties of Dorset and Somerset. In 1532,
and again in 1533, he filled the office of Sheriff of Dorset.
But it was the alliance itself with the influential family of Howard,
destined immediately afterward to be so closely related to the crown
itself, and in perilous nearness to the grim and capricious Henry,
that must have given him considerable importance, advanced him to the
front rank among the courtiers, and afforded him ample opportunity to
promote his position and interests, both as to honours and wealth.
These were not slow of arriving. In May, 1533, Henry VIII. was wedded
to 'sweet' ill-fated Anne Boleyn. This brought Sir Thomas into his
first direct relationship with that king, to whom, through his wife,
he now stood in the position of cousin, the new Queen being the
daughter of her aunt Elizabeth (sister of Lord Edmund Howard), wife of
Sir Thomas Boleyn, K.G.--afterward created Viscount Rochford, and Earl
of Wiltshire and Ormond.
Our next glimpse of him is within the royal precincts, and being the
recipient of an honour, amid the company of some of the most
distinguished men at Court, on the occasion of the crowning of that
unfortunate Queen. Among the "Knights of the Bathe, made at the
coronation of the most excellent Princesse Queen Anne the 25 yere of
the reign of Kinge Henry the Eight on Whitsonday the last day of May,
1533; (when) shee was crown'd at Westminster,"--twelfth on the list
occurs the name of Sir Thomas Arundell.
Just three years afterward and on the 19th of the same month of May,
1536, Queen Anne Boleyn was from the Tower, "a little before noon, led
down to the green, where the young grass and the first daisies of
summer were freshly bursting into sunshine. A single cannon stood
loaded on the battlements, the motionless cannoneer was ready, with
smoking linstock at his side; and when the crawling hand upon the dial
of the great Tower clock touched the mid-day hour, the cannon would
tell London that all was over. The Yeomen of the Guard were there, and
a crowd of citizens; the Lord Mayor too, and the deputies of the
guilds, and the sheriffs, and the aldermen; they were come to see a
spectacle which England had never seen before,--a head which had worn
the crown falling under the sword of the executioner."[40]
[40] Froude.
But there was a much more interested listener for the fatal boom of
that cannon than any heart-struck citizen of London, as we learn
further, "An old tradition strongly depicts the impatience with which
Henry expected her death. On the fatal morning he went to hunt in
Epping Forest, and while he was at breakfast his attendants observed
he was anxious and thoughtful. But at last they heard the report of a
distant gun--a preconcerted signal. 'Ah! it is done,' cried he,
starting up--'the business is done! Uncouple the dogs, and let us
follow the sport.' In the evening he returned gaily from the chase,
and on the following morning he married Anne's maid of honour, Jane
Seymour, who on Whitsunday, the 29th, clad in royal habiliments
appeared in public as Queen."[41]
[41] _Comprehensive History of England._ Macfarlane and Thompson.
So perished poor Queen Anne Boleyn, niece to Sir Thomas. A fortnight
or so before her death, on her arrival at the Tower, she agonizedly
asked of Cromwell, "I pray you tell me where my Lord Rochford ys? and
I told her I saw hym afore dyner in the Cort. O wher is my swete
brother? I said I left hym at York Place: and so I dyd." Never to see
him again--he was beheaded on Tower Hill two days previous to her own
execution.
This fresh marriage of the king with Jane Seymour, the sister of the
man with whom Sir Thomas was eventually implicated and suffered,
continues incidentally, pertinent interest to our little story. Queen
Jane Seymour, although she escaped the wretched fate of her immediate
predecessor and successor in the royal preference, fell a victim to an
even more painful death, at the birth of her son, which took place 12
October, 1537.
At the ceremonial of the christening of the infant prince Sir Thomas
was present, and also, as a matter of course, the child's uncle, Sir
Edward Seymour (afterward Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector), on
that occasion one of the most honoured guests. Little wot these men as
they gazed on, and took part in the splendid ceremony, that those
helpless, motherless, baby hands were destined at some future and not
very distant day to sign their death warrants, which consigned them to
the scaffold, and both for alleged participation in the same offence.
Henry VIII. having become tired of, and also got divorced from Anne of
Cleves, and Cromwell, the promoter of the distasteful marriage, having
been summarily disposed of by the usual method of the axe, another
event in the king's matrimonial projects was about to happen, which
brought Sir Thomas into still closer relationship with him. Henry had
this time set his eyes on Katharine Howard, a daughter of Lord Edmund
Howard, cousin to the unfortunate Anne Boleyn, and sister to
Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Arundell. She was proclaimed Queen 8
August, 1540, but the king had been privately married to her some time
before. Thus the knight now stood in the double capacity of being by
marriage both cousin and brother-in-law to his most august and cruelly
inclined sovereign, by whom Sir Thomas was made 'Chancellor' to the
new Queen.
This relationship to Henry must have given him great influence, and as
the spoliation of the Abbeys and Monastic institutions was then busily
going forward, he would have good opportunity of advancing his suit,
or claims for a portion of the large landed possessions of these
institutions then being distributed with lavish hand. In this
distribution Sir Thomas appears at different times to have acquired by
grant and purchase a considerable share. Concerning this a short
notice presently.
Queen Katharine Howard at the time of her marriage with Henry could
not have been more than twenty years of age. Two short years only
passed by, and then a fearful charge of similar nature to that which
had sent her hapless cousin to the block, was alleged against herself,
and on the 13 February, 1542, after almost unexampled mental
suffering, she perished in like manner on the Tower green. With her
died also, and by the same means, Jane, Lady Rochford, the wife of
Queen Anne Boleyn's brother George. All three of these headless women
were laid side by side in the Tower Chapel.
Thus was severed by like circumstances, in each case equally
deplorable, the living tie that had connected Sir Thomas Arundell with
his dread sovereign. He appears, however, to have been endowed with
the rare faculty of keeping himself clear of the difficulties that
would naturally arise amid such mournful conditions, and to have
enjoyed apparently the friendship, if not the confidence of the grim
king, and which does not appear to have been afterward disturbed. This
was manifest by what followed.
In 1541,--which must have been during the lifetime of Katharine
Howard, and while she was Henry's Queen,--Sir Thomas purchased of the
king for L761--14--10, the Manor and Grange of Tisbury, late the
property of the Abbey of Shaftesbury, and advowson of the living, the
manor and advowson of Dorrington in Wilts, and sundry other lands.
In 1545,--this was also the year his father, Sir John Arundell,
died,--King Henry VIII., by letters patent, granted to him a large
number of manors, late the possessions of the Abbey of Shaftesbury, in
the counties of Wilts, Dorset, and Somerset (including also probably
the site of the Abbey), and other property in London.
The Benedictine Abbey, or Nunnery of Shaftesbury, was one of the most
antient religious foundations in the west of England, and existed
probably before the time of King Alfred, who was a great benefactor,
and one of its principal Founders, about A.D. 888. "It was first
dedicated," says Hutchins,
"to the _Blessed Virgin Mary_, but it lost that name, at least
for several ages, upon the translation hither of the body of St.
Edward the Martyr, who was murdered at Corfe-Castle 18 March,
978, and first clandestinely buried at Wareham, whence, according
to Leland, he was next year, or as others on better grounds say,
three years afterwards removed to this abbey by Elpher, or
Alpher, duke of Mercia. This unfortunate king being esteemed a
martyr, and canonized a saint, his shrine was much resorted to by
superstitious pilgrims, and persons of all ranks and qualities,
and even by some of our kings, particularly Canute who died here.
On account of the burial of St. Edward, the abbey and the church
received their names from him; and the abbess was styled Abbess
of St. Edward, and the very town almost lost its old name, and
was called for some time _Burgus Sancti Edwardi_, and
_Edwardstowe_."
Upwards of thirty abbesses from the foundation, presided over this
important community, to its surrender by Elizabeth Zouch, its last
Abbess, to the King Henry VIII., 23 March, 1539, when there were
fifty-five nuns within it.
"It was one of the largest and best endowed nunneries in England,
except Syon in Middlesex, its revenues at the suppression being
estimated at between eleven and fourteen hundred pounds per
annum. This occasioned a proverb, mentioned by Fuller in his
_Church History_,--'That if the Abbot of Glastonbury might marry
the Abbess of Shaftesbury, their heir would have more land than
the King of England.' The abbess was of such quality, that she
was one of the four who held of the king by an entire barony, and
had by tenure privilege of being summoned to parliament, &c.,
though upon account of their sex it was omitted. They had writs
directed to them, to send their quota of soldiers into the field,
in proportion to their knight's fees. The three others were those
of Barking in Essex, St. Mary in Winchester, and Wilton."
Thus much for the Abbess, her wealth, importance and high station; the
buildings of the Abbey, and Abbey church, appear to have been of
commensurate grandeur, but, continues Hutchins,--
"There now remain not the least vestiges of it. It seems to have
stood parallel with Holy Trinity churchyard, which anciently
belonged to it, at the east end of the abbey, on Park-Hill, as
appears by bones and coffins found there. It was the glory and
ornament of the town, the mother church, and almost the only
place of sepulture, there being but one ancient in any of the
present churches, which is in St. Peter's, and seems to have been
removed hence. It was a most magnificent building, if we may
judge from the traditions the townsmen retain of its largeness
and height, and from the spire, which Camden and others, derive
the name of the town. By its great height, and advantageous
situation on the top of the hill, it must have had a very fine
effect, and been seen over a great part of the counties of Dorset
and Somerset. It is greatly to be lamented it was not left
standing and made parochial, being so great an ornament to the
town and county.
"The arms of the Monastery were, _Azure, a cross between four
martlets or_,--Dr. Tanner in his _Notitia Monastica_ says they
were, _Azure, on a pale sable, cotised argent, three roses or_.
The former are in Wolveton house, and are those commonly given to
King Alfred."
The fine buildings of the Abbey having been demolished, St. Peter's
church in Shaftesbury appears to be the only building of any
size,--and this not very large,--of antient date now left remaining,
and is the "mother, principal and presentative" church of the place.
Hutchins enumerates nearly a dozen little churches and numerous
chantries that once had their station at Shaftesbury, clustering
around the Monastery, the major portion of which seem now to have
disappeared. St. Peter's is of late character, and very plain
architectural detail, erected probably toward the end of the reign of
Henry VII. The single ornamental portion is the cornice or frieze
toward the street, temp. Henry VIII., on which appears the _double
rose_, _portcullis_, _pomegranate_, arms of the See of Winchester,
some other local coats, a merchant's mark, &c.
Within, on the altar step, is the only monumental remembrance left of
the Abbey, and apparently removed hither from it, a large blue stone,
having in the centre a small brass plate, now almost obliterated, with
this inscription as copied by Hutchins,--
=Sub isto saxo tumulat' corpus Steph'i Payne, armiger', fil' et
hered' Nichi' Payne, arm', quond' seneschali hujus monasterii,
gui obiit xiiij die mens' Decembris: Anno D'ni m.ccccc.viij:
cujus a'ie p'piciet' altissimus De'. Amen.=
The indents of four shields, two at the top and two at the bottom of
the stone, are visible.
Stephen Payne held the office of Seneschal to the Abbess, which
probably meant her Steward or Bailiff for the Abbey property. Of him,
says Hutchins,--
"Here (Shaftesbury) was another freehold held 2 Henry VIII.,
1511, by Stephen Payne at his death; namely--seven messuages,
three gardens in Shaston, of the Abbess; forty acres of land in
Bellchalwel of the Earl of Northumberland; and seventy-eight
acres of land in the hundred of Alcester, of the Abbot of
Evesham, by rent of five shillings."
In the chancel window are two escutcheons;--1. _Azure, a dolphin
embowed_ or (FITZJAMES OF LEWSTON), impaling, _Bendy of eight or and
azure, within a bordure of the first_ (NEWBURGH OF WINFRITH), the
shield encircled by a riband, but the inscription destroyed.
"The ancient family of Fitzjames," continues Hutchins,
"was formerly seated at Redlynch. Sir John Fitzjames, knt., son
of James Fitzjames, married Alice, daughter of John Newburgh of
East Lullworth, Esq., and was father to Sir John; Richard, bishop
successively of Rochester, Chichester and London; and Aldred,
ancestor of the Lewston line. The elder branch has been long
extinct, but produced many eminent men. Sir John Fitzjames was
lord chief justice of the king's bench thirteen years; died 30
Henry VIII., 1539."
On the other are,--quarterly, 1 and 4, _Argent, a barrulet gules,
between four bars gemelles wavy azure_; 2 and 3, _Argent, a chevron
gules, between three castles sable_.
Two further escutcheons display, one the emblem of the Trinity with
customary legends, and the other--what is seldom seen in painted
glass, being usually found sculptured on the frieze, or on the
capitals of the pillars, at or over the entrance to chantry or
chancel,--the imagery of