Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:35:12.513Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Politics and Piety in the Household of Lady Margaret Beaufort

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Malcolm G. Underwood
Malcolm G. Underwood
Affiliation:
Esq., The Bursary, St John's College, Cambridge CB2 1TP
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The sermon which John Fisher preached at the month's mind of Lady Margaret Beaufort, on 29 July 1509, compared her with Martha, traditionally the woman of action and counterpart of Mary, the woman of contemplation. The virtues he stressed, in addition to nobility of character and lineage, were those of good order: the disciplining of Lady Margaret's body and manner of life through prayer and abstinence, her hospitality and charitable dealings with her neigh-bours. The bishop saw discipline also as the mark of her household: statutes for its government were read four times a year, her servants well cared for, her almsfolk regularly supported. Whenever factions arose among her servants she applied herself with great skill to keeping the peace and finding a solution to controversy. Fisher's account has recently been compared by Retha Warnicke with other memories of her household recorded by Henry Parker, Lord Morley. The same elements are found in both descriptions, but Morley complements Fisher's portrait of charity and able household management with a spectacle of splendid conviviality worthy of the great ladies of the past, Queen Elfleda and Matilda, wife of Henry 1. Morley's memories of the household he entered in the early 1490s are not all contemporary with Fisher's who did not become Lady Margaret's confessor until 1498 or later, and the bishop allocates more of her day to religious observance. But whether her piety grew more exacting and intense in her last decade, or was simply more closely observed by her confessor, she remained until her death the centre of a network of patronage and influence in which she took an active part. Her household was a society with many facets, defined not merely by the austere and charitable practices of its head, but by her importance as a tenant-in-chief of the Crown and mother of the king. It was the combination of all these elements that placed her so high in contemporary estimation. This article explores the life of her household not only as the home of works of charity and a pattern of worship whose special feature was devotion to the Name of Jesus, but also as a centre of justice and regional influence and as a source of support for the activities of the Crown.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 39 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The sermon was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1509 as A Mornynge Remembraunce, Pollard, A. W. and Redgrave, G. R. (eds.), Short Title Catalogue of English Books, 1475-1640, London 1926Google Scholar , no. 10891. De Worde's text was compared by Thomas Baker with that in a register in the archives of St John's College, Cambridge (hereinafter cited as SJC), D91.23, and reprinted with Baker's notes in Hymers, J. (ed.), The Funeral Sermon of the Lady Margaret, Cambridge 1840, 107–31Google Scholar . See also The English Works of John Fisher, ed. Mayor, J. E. B. (Early English Texts Society, 1876), i. 289–310Google Scholar.

2 SJC, D91.23, p. 101; , Hymers, op. cit. 116.Google Scholar

3 Warnicke, R. M., ‘Lady Margaret Beaufort,’ Moreana xix (1982), 47–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Rouschausse, J., La Vie et I'auvn de John Fisher, Collection de Babel a Salem, Nieuwkoop 1972, 11Google Scholar ; Emden, A. B. (ed.), A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to 1500, Cambridge 1963, 229Google Scholar.

5 For this alliance see Knecht, R. J., ‘The episcopate and the Wars of the Roses’, Birmingham Historical Journal vi (1957-1958), 126–31Google Scholar ; Chrimes, S. B., Henry VII, London 1972, 240Google Scholar ; Wilkie, W., The Cardinal Protectors of England: Rome and the Tudors before the Reformation, Cambridge 1974, 15Google Scholar.

6 Harvey, B., Westminster Abbey and its Estates in the Middle Ages, Oxford 1977, 67, 333.Google Scholar

7 Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VII, 1485-94, London 1914, i. 154–5.Google Scholar

8 A licence enabling her to do this is referred to by Condon, M., ‘Ruling elites in the reign of Henry vii’, in Ross, C. (ed.), Patronage Pedigree and Power, London 1979, 137Google Scholar n. 30. Such maintenance is recorded in Lady Margaret's household accounts, 1507-8, SJG, D91.19, p. 118.

8 SJC, DiO2.9, pp. 120, 130, 136, 140-1, 145 (Colyweston building accounts, 1499-1500); mention of prisoners, D91.20, pp. 155, 159, 187 (household accounts, 1504).

10 Westminster Abbey Muniments, no. 16019 (letter from Walter Strickland to Sir Reginald Bray, 30 March, no year).

11 Repairs for the almsfolk, SJC, Dgi.22, pp. 13, 17; children's chamber, desks in 1499, D102.9, pp. 17, 51; grammar books bought in 1506, Dgi.21, p. 91; surplices, c. 1509, D9I.I5, fo. 22V.

12 Miller, E., The Abbey and Bishopric of Ely, Cambridge 1951, 76–8Google Scholar ; Victoria County History of Hertfordshire, London 1912, iii. 92Google Scholar.

13 Wood, M., The English Medieval House, London 1981, 59-60, 128.Google Scholar

14 The will, dated 6 June 1508, with codicils of 1509, was printed from the probate copy, SJC, D4.6, in the college's quatercentenary volume, Collegium Divi Johannis Euangelistae, 1511-1911, Cambridge 1911, 103–26Google Scholar . The original will, bearing Margaret's signature, is SJC, D6.27.

15 Henry's reception in 1508, SJC, D91.19, p. 95 (household accounts); the bringing of a ‘book’ describing Castile's coming is mentioned in the accounts for 1506-7, D91.21, p. 103. A brief account of the meeting of the two kings, written for a lady addressed simply ‘madam’, is D105.162: this is unlikely to be the ‘book’; it is roughly written, in the form of a letter, and is only four pages long.

16 Cooper, C. H., The Lady Margaret, Cambridge 1874, 71–2.Google Scholar

17 Routh, E. M. G., Lady Margaret, Oxford 1924, 96.Google Scholar

18 SJC, D56.158, 3 June 1482.

19 Cooper, C. H., op. cit. appendix III, 215–19Google Scholar . A letter from Henry Hornby to John Fisher mentioning the many servants now in the queen's household, SJC, D 105.91, 18 June (1510), is printed in the college magazine, The Eagle xvi (1891), 346–7Google Scholar.

20 Materials for the History of the Reign of Henry VII, ed. Campbell, W. (Rolls Series lx, 1873), i. 386–7.Google Scholar

21 Underwood, M. G., ‘The Lady Margaret and her Cambridge connections’, Sixteenth Century Journal xiii (1982), 70, 76Google Scholar ; Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VII, 1494-1509, London 1916, ii. 543Google Scholar.

22 SJC, D4.16 (exemplification of the pardon entered on the roll of the lord treasurer's remembrancer).

23 Calendar of Patent Rolls…1494-1509, 79.

21 The king's letter to Margaret is printed in , Cooper, The Lady Margaret, 95–6Google Scholar , and , Hymers (ed.), Funeral Sermon, 163Google Scholar , from an early sixteenth-century copy in a St John's register, the ‘Thin Red Book’, SJC, C7.11, fo. 45b.

25 This was recalled by Fisher in his statutes for the college in 1524 and 1530: Early Statutes of St John's College Cambridge, ed. Mayor, J. E. B., Cambridge 1859, 238–40.Google Scholar

26 SJC, D56.165 (the pope's request to Lady Margaret). See also, for the king's reservations about Adrian in 1498, , Wilkie, The Cardinal Protectors, 25Google Scholar , and the article on Adrian de Castello in the DNB, London 1885, i. 146–7Google Scholar.

27 , Campbell, Materials, i. 311Google Scholar ; ibid., London 1877, ii. 279, 297.

28 Ibid. 528.

29 Churton, Ralph, The Lives of William Smyth Bishop of Lincoln and Sir Richard Sutton, Founder of Brasenose College Oxford, Oxford 1800, 79–81Google Scholar ; Westminster Abbey Muniments 4691. 575.

30 , Churton, op. cit. 94Google Scholar ; SJC, D91.20, pp. 16, 43 (household accounts, 1502-3) ; , Emden, A Biographical Register…Cambridge, 636Google Scholar.

31 Epislolae Academicae Oxon, ed. Anstey, H. (Oxford Historical Society, 1898), i. 667–8.Google Scholar

32 , Churton, op. cit. 212–13Google Scholar ; Lady Cecily's dispensation, SJC, D 15.56 (14 September 1499); , Zouche, Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VII, 1500-9, London 1963, ii. 89Google Scholar (16 July 1503).

33 , Campbell, Materials, ii. 262Google Scholar : a fact which perhaps gave rise to the supposition that he was dean of Wimborne, Emden, A. B. (ed.), A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford, Oxford 1958, ii. 1396Google Scholar . For Oldham's career in general see Mumford, A. A., Hugh Oldham, London 1936Google Scholar.

34 Calendar of Patent Rolls…1485-94, 368; Rotuli Parliamentarian, London 1783, vi. 455aGoogle Scholar ; Oldham as receiver and chancellor, SJC, D102.10, pp. 23, 32 (book of receipts and payments, 1499-1509).

35 The Register of Oliver King, 1496-1503, ed. Sir Maxwell-Lyte, H. (Somerset Record Society liv, 1939), 2 no. 8.Google Scholar

36 , Mumford, op. cit. 118.Google Scholar

37 Ibid. 151.

38 Ibid. 151-2.

39 On the basis of Orme's count: see Orme, N., English Schools in the Middle Ages, London 1973. 323. 325Google Scholar.

40 Early Statutes of Christ's College Cambridge, ed. Rackham, H., Cambridge 1927, 80-81, 102–103Google Scholar ; , Mayor, Early Statutes, 386Google Scholar , lines 26-32 (statutes of 1516).

41 Baker, T., The History of St John's College Cambridge, ed. Mayor, J. E. B., Cambridge 1869, 61.Google Scholar

42 , Emden, A Biographical Register…Oxford, Oxford 1959, iii. 1761.Google Scholar

43 Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, London 1842, appendix II. 219.Google Scholar

44 Raines, F. R., Lives of the Fellows and Chaplains of the Collegiate Church of Manchester, ed. Renaud, F. (Chetham Society, NS xxi, 1891), i. 23-5, 27-9, 37–8Google Scholar ; Cooper, C. H., The Lady Margaret, appendix, 215, lines 28–36Google Scholar.

45 Sikes, J. G. and Jones, F., ‘Jesus College’, Victoria History of the County of Cambridge and Isle of Ely, Oxford 1959, iii. 421.Google Scholar

46 See Raines, F. R., The Wardens of the Collegiate Church of Manchester (Chetham Society, NS v, 1885), 44–6Google Scholar , for the succession of wardens at this period.

47 , Baker, History of St John's College, 61.Google Scholar

48 See a memorandum attributed to Fisher on the difficulties of founding St John's, printed in The Eagle xxvii (1906), 8–12Google Scholar , from the ‘Thin Red Book’, SJC, C7.1 i.fos. 38-403. See also Stanley's letter to the brethren of the hospital, SJC, D105.96, printed in The Eagle xvi (1891), 342–3Google Scholar.

49 SJC, D102.10, p. 158 (book of receipts and payments, 1499-1509); D91.15, fo. 60 (book of the revestry).

50 Ormerod, G., The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, London 1882, iii. 641.Google Scholar

51 See also Lloyd, A. H., The Early History of Christ's College Cambridge, Cambridge 1934, 350–1Google Scholar.

52 Dorset Record Office, P204/GN1/1/1, lines 51-7 ; cf. Hutchins, J., The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd edn, London 1861-1874, iii. 270–4Google Scholar , where th e passage is omitted.

53 SJC, D57.34, fo. 12r (payment for a certificate of notification, in the accounts of Henry Hornby, one of Margaret's executors).

54 Pfaff, R. W., New Liturgical Feasts in Later Medieval England, Oxford Theological Monographs, Oxford 1970, 77Google Scholar ; the bull is SJC, D56.184.

55 SJC, D91.20, pp. 166, 171 (household accounts, August and September 1504).

56 Ibid. p. 87 (household accounts, April 1503, recording payment for the bull).

57 SJC, D9H5, fo. 22.

58 SJC, D56.208 (grant of confraternity).

59 SJC, D56.20.

60 SJC, D91.17, pp. 24-5 (July 1498); Dgi.2i, p. 19 (May 1505); D91.19, p. 18 (May 1507, reward for books).

61 Collegium Divi Johannis…1911, 122, line 128.

62 Mentioned in Lady Scrope's will, Testamenta Vetusta, ed. Nicolas, N. H., London 1826, ii. 588Google Scholar.

63 James, M. R., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St John's College Cambridge, Cambridge 1913, no. 264.Google Scholar

64 SJC, D91.15, fo. 56V.

65 SJC, D91.21, p. 124 (August 1506).

66 SJC, D91.20, p. 113 (August 1503); D91.19, p. 18 (funeral expenses, May 1507).

67 SJC, D91.19, p. 7 (February 1507); p. 8 (May 1507).

68 Lowry, M., ‘Caxton, St Winifred, and Lady Margaret Beaufort’, The Library, 6thser. v (1982), 101–17.Google Scholar

69 SJC, D56.185 (grant of confraternity).

70 Gough, R., Observations on Croyland Abbey and Bridge and other additions to the History of the Abbey, London 1784, 172Google Scholar ; Ingulph's Chronicle of Croyland, with continuations, ed. Riley, H. T., London 1854, 440Google Scholar.

71 Westminster Abbey Muniments, no. 16017 (letter to Bray, no date).

72 , Cooper, The Lady Margaret, 87.Google Scholar

73 SJC, DiO2.io, pp. 2, 4, D91.21, p. 80 (1505); D91.19, p. 124 (1508); DiO2.io, pp. 4-5 (Hugh Ward).

74 SJC, D91.20, p. 183 (anchoress), Collegium Dim Johannis…1911, 115–16.

75 SJC, D91.20, pp. 30, 32.

76 City of Coventry Record Office, A79/12 (letter signed by Margaret). Cf. , Cooper, The Lady Margaret, 229Google Scholar , where Owen Birch is transcribed as ‘Owen, burchis of the citie’.

77 SJC, D22.35.1, Christ's College Archives, box B13 (copies of the will of Margaret Warton).

78 SJC, D105.107 (letter, 20 December), D91.19, p. 70 (reward to the prior of the charterhouse at Coventry, January 1508).

79 Christ's College Archives, Allesley deeds, box D: conveyance, 12 February 1512.

80 Underwood, ‘The Lady Margaret’.

81 , Lloyd, The Early History of Christ's College, 137, 351.Google Scholar

82 For a list of books recorded i n a catalogue c. 1650 as the gift of Lad y Margare t to Christ's College, see McLean, N., ‘Books given to the library of Christ's College, Cambridge, by the Lady Margaret’, The Library, 2nd ser. viii (1907), 218–23.Google Scholar