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There were POMEROYs at the TUDOR COURT
1487 Richard Pomeroy d 1496 & his brother Thomas d 1493 Both were knighted at the Coronation of Henry Tudor', Henry VII's queen, the Princess Elizabeth of York, sister to rightful heir to the throne of England
1520 Field of the Cloth of Gold:
June 1520, Sir Edward Pomeroy , Knight age 42 (1496–1538) feudal baron of Berry Pomeroy; son of Sir Richard, is listed at Henry VIII 's 'bling fest' to out 'glorie' the French king ! It is estimated that Henry VIII spent more than twice the annual costs of the royal household, around £36,000, on the English party at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Edward's wife was Joan daughter of Sir John Sapcote .
1521 & 1527 As Gentlemen Usher : Master Pemerey, (Richard Pomerey) at Calais with Wolsey.
This was most probably Richard of Totnes, merchant & 2nd son Sir Thomas, knight banneret & his wife Agnes Kelloway. A man of wealth & influence; & nephew of Sir Edward Baron Pomeroy 1496 until 1538.
1527 Sir Edward Pomeroy was with Cardinal Wolsey at Gravelines.
Powley says "A Wentworth, Hansard and Pomerey appear, in 1527, in the following of Wolsey."
Connections at Court -The father-in-law of Sir Thomas Pomeroy was Sir Peirs Edgecumbe & his 2nd wife Catherine St John, Lady Edgecumbe had served at court. Did Thomas get himself an invitation ??
Sir Piers Edgecumbe gave long service at Court . He was esquire of the body by 1489 and created a Knight of the Bath by 1504 ( Henry VII ) In 1513 he accompanied Henry VIII to France where, in recognition of his bravery, & made knight banneret. In 1520 he was present with Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He died 1539 ; his widow remain at court
The 2nd wife of Peirs, Catherine St John, Lady Edgecumbe , from 1540 to 1542, was a Lady of the Privy Chamber of the Queen, first to Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife and then to Katherine Howard .
The Henry VIII's Privy Chamber
The Gentlemen Ushers duties were not unlike those of a contemporary butler, which made him quite important in any household in Tudor times
These men were servants in the Royal Household, and also in lesser establishments & were regularly found in the households of Tudor noblemen. They occupied a level between the that of the steward & the ordinary servants. They were responsible for overseeing the work of the servants "above stairs", particularly those who cooked and waited upon the nobleman at meals.
It was they who saw to it the great chamber was kept clean by the lesser servants. Responsible for overseeing other miscellaneous service, such as the care of the nobleman's chapel and bed-chambers it was traditionally the gentleman usher to swear-in new members of the nobleman's service
The Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were noble-born servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King in private, as well as during various court activities, functions and entertainments. In addition, six of these gentlemen were appointed by the Lord Chamberlain, together with a peer, and the Master of the Ceremonies, to publicly attend to all foreign ambassadors.
King Henry VII instituted the Privy Chamber and Privy Council where to serve was a singular mark of favour ; The Privy Chamber , a suite of private rooms in a royal residence ; the Privy Council was the body through which the King delegated his authority. Members of the Privy Chamber were empowered to execute the King's verbal command without producing any written order; their person and character being deemed sufficient authority.
The Gentlemen Ushers of the Royal Household, in order of precedence,
the four Gentlemen Ushers of the Privy Chamber (who attended the Sovereign in the Privy Chamber),
the four Gentlemen Ushers Daily Waiters,
the eight Gentlemen Ushers Quarter(ly) Waiters. The latter two originally served different terms of service, but the distinction later became only nominal, as the role of the Gentlemen Ushers became increasingly ceremonial and they exercised less supervision over the staff.
'...The fountain of honour is the king, and the access to his person continueth honour in life, and to be banished from his presente is one of the greatest eclipses of honour that can be...'
For a gentleman of the sixteenth century employment in the Privy Chamber offered a great attraction with its proximity to the monarch.
A gentleman usher received an annual salary of £30.
The chronicle of Calais in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. to the year 1540. Ed. from mss. in the British museum by John Gough Nichols 1846
1520 Field of the Cloth of Gold: June 1520, Edward Pomerey is listed at Henry VIII 's 'bling fest' to out 'glorie' the French king !
Sir Edward Pomeroy , Knight from Devon (page 21)
Among the Gentleman Ushers in July of 1520 Edward Pomeroy was with Wolsey at Gravelines.
1521: Page 30: Gentlemen Ushers: Master Pemerey, (Richard Pomerey)
Powley says: page 87: "A Wentworth, Hansard and Pomerey appear, in 1527, in the following of Wolsey."
1527: Gentlemen Usher: Master Richard Pomerey.
1547. When Sir Thomas Pomeroy sold the baronial estates of the Pomeroy family they ceased to be barons and became minor landed gentry. Sir Thomas retain his title because he was knighted after the Battle of Pinkie Clough in 1547
https://sites.google.com/site/pomeroytwigs2/home
Wolsey’s Embassy to Calais:1540 more about this on Pomeroy Connections
Calais was probably the most significant of the English Wool Staple Towns because of its location of the French Coast. It came under English control after it was captured by Edward III in 1347.
It grew into a thriving wool production centre referred to as the Brightest Jewel in the English Crown from where tin & lead from Cornwall & Dartmoor and lace from Honiton was also exported.
Calais remained under English control until its capture by France in 1558 under Queen Mary.
Mary was the Catholic Queen who tried to reverse the Reformation and had hundreds of her people suffer the horrible fate of being burnt at the stake for heresy, earning herself the nickname Bloody Mary.
Her marriage to Catholic king Phillip of Spain in 1556 was the cause of the Spanish Armadas in 1587 & 1588 when Phillip sought to depose Elizabeth I (1558 -1603) and return England to the Catholic faith.
Thomas Wolsey like Thomas Cromwell rose a long way and like Cromwell was much resented by the Old Aristocracy for his humble beginnings. Cardinal Wolsey the son of a butcher whilst Cromwell was son of blacksmith, cloth merchant, and owner of both a hostelry and a brewery .
Cardinal Wolsey
Thomas Cromwell
Henry VIII died in January 1547 The head of the POMEROY family was Sir Thomas Pomeroy who, like many of the land owning families in the West Country, was a Catholic. The new king,, Edward VI the only son of Henry VIII was a determined that England should be a Protestant country .
With the encouragement of his uncle Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset & Lord Protector during Edward's minority, he published a new prayerbook, in English. It cause great outcry from the population who preferred the mystery of the Latin prayerbook which the priests could read and interpret for them
When Henry VIII made himself head of the new Anglo Catholic Church & made it illegal to be Roman Catholic ; his son the boy king Edward supported the new Protestant movement . The rebels were objecting to the issue of a new prayerbook in English replacing the old Latin one .
Some of the complaint was of the loss of the 'mystery ' created by smell of incense , the Latin liturgy and the highly decorated churches with their gold & silver altar plates and goblets, their statues of Mary & the saints , their stained Glass windows & their highly coloured wall paintings .
Protestants objected to the distractions to their worship so in protest they whitewashed the walls, smashed the glorious stained glass of the windows & everything was made 'plain'.
Thomas Pomeroy joined in the Catholic rebellion against the New English Prayerbook in 1549 . However at the same time he & his brother, Hugh of Tregony, were buying up chantries that were available because of King Henry's Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Tudor Historian A L Rowse called Sir Thomas a lightweight and overlooks the fact that Thomas had made a knight banneret after the Battle of Pinkie Clough in 1547 , which would suggest he was a least a warrior. He knighted by Edward Seymour who had earlier that year bought Thomas's birthright the Barony of Berry Pomeroy.
Catherine of Aragon
mother of Mary Tudor -
25 years of marriage annulled died 1536
Anne Boleyn
mother of Elizabeth I
Executed in 1536
Jane Seymour mother the next king Edward VI died after his birth 1537
Anne of Cleves
divorced 1540 & survived him died 1557 at Chelsea Manor
Catherine Howard
a 17 year old girl. Executed 1542
Catherine Parr survived Henry VIII only to die in 1548
Katherine Willoughby Duchess of Suffolk
Sir Thomas Pomeory, Knighted in 1547 after the battle of Pinkie Clough, was married to Joanna the daughter of Sir Piers Edgecombe of Cotehele and Mount Edgecombe, by his first wife Joan Durnford.
Sir Piers Edgecumbe was esquire of the body by 1489 Peers was created a Knight of the Bath by 1504; In 1513 he accompanied Henry VIII to France where, in recognition of his bravery, he was made knight banneret. In 1520 he was present with Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
His 1st wife was Jane Dernford of West Stonehouse , daughter and heiress of James and widow of Charles Dynham of Nutwell, Devon. They had 3 sons and 4 daughters. Joan Dernford, Lady Edgecumbe died and by 1525,
Piers made a 2nd marriage - to Catherine St John, the daughter of Sir John St John of Bletsoe, Bedfordshire and widow of Sir Griffith ap Rhys of Carmarthen, Sir Piers died in 1539. Between 1540 & 1542 the widowed Catherine St John, Lady Edgecumbe, was Lady of the Privy Chamber of the Queen to Anne of Cleves Henry VIII's fourth wife and then to Katherine Howard, who did not survive very long.
Ladies of the Tudor Court
The duties of ladies-in-waiting at the Tudor court were to act as companions in public and in private; to accompany her wherever she went; to entertain her with music, dance or singing; and to dress her, bathe her and help her use the lavatory, as a royal person, by the standards of the day, was not supposed to do anything by themselves, but was always to be waited upon in all daily tasks as a sign of their status.[54]
Ladies-in-waiting were appointed by recommendation of their social status as members of the nobility, court officials, knights and military officers; and because they were expected to be supporters of the dynasty or the royal woman because of their relatives. When the queen was not a foreigner, her relatives were often appointed as they were presumed to be trustworthy and loyal; Lady Margaret Lee was a Lady of the Privy Chamber to Queen Anne Boleyn, just as Lady Elizabeth Seymour-Cromwell was to Queen Jane Seymour.
The organisation of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting was set in the period of the Tudor court by Margaret Beaufort the Kings Mother who ' ruled the roost'
The ladies-in-waiting were headed by the Mistress of the Robes,
They were followed in rank by the First Lady of the Bedchamber, who supervised the group of Lady of the Bedchamber (typically wives or widows of peers above the rank of earl) in turn followed by the group of Woman of the Bedchamber (usually a daughter of a peer) finally the group of Maid of honour, whose service entitled them to the style of The Honourable for life.
This system has remained roughly the same since the Tudor period, however in recent times, Maids of Honour have only been appointed for coronations.
More here Ladies of the Tudor Court Life at Tudor Court
Anne of Cleves
Henry was not taken with Anne and after just 6 months the marriage Henry had it annulled. Unlike her predecessors however, Anne went on to have a pleasant relationship with the king, and was even referred to as ‘the King’s Beloved Sister’. Included in the annulment was a large settlement in which Anne was given a number of properties such as Hever Castle, Richmond Palace, and a house in Lewes in East Sussex today known as Anne of Cleves House. She lived quietly at Chelsea Manor etching left Sudely Castle right
Catherine Howard was 17 when King Henry married her she was 19 when he had her executed. Placed into Henry VIII orbit by her uncle the ruthlessly ambitious Thomas Howard 4th duke of Norfolk . She was considered pretty , vivacious & capricious although she does not seem to have been very bright and was certainly exceedingly foolish in her choices in the dangerous Tudor Court. She died with her head on the block at the Tower of London on 13 February 1542.
Catherine Parr, the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII ,and probably the only reluctant wife . Thrice married and widowed she was an educated and intelligent woman, quite remarkable for her time . The first woman to publish under her own name in English in England .She was about to marry the love of her life, the unprincipled rogue Admiral SirThomas Seymour, when she was compelled to marry the King on 12 July 1543. As Queen Consort she promoted the emerging cause of Protestantism. She had to be very careful around the paranoid king Henry VIII because of his anti Protestant officials whose enmity she provoked. For a while they turned Henry against her, causing him to issue a warrant for her arrest in 1545. However, she and the King soon reconciled and her book Prayers or Meditations became the first book published by an English queen under her own name . She published a second book, The Lamentation of a Sinner.
King Henry died in Jan 1547 and hos widow very quickly married Thomas Seymour in April or May of 1547. This was considered scandalously soon after Henry's death.
Catherine undertook the role of guardian to Princess Elizabeth taking her into her household at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, seen above. Whilst there the young princess Elizabeth was groomed & pursued by Catherines husband, Thomas, and had to be sent away . Sadly Catherine outlived Henry by only a year and eight months and died on 5 September 1548, of puerperal fever following the birth to her only child, Mary at Sudeley Castle near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire , where she was buried the first Protestant funeral held in the Engkish language in England, Scotland or Ireland.
Catherine bequeathed her entire state to her husband ( Thomas Seymour) & in doing so reduced her daughter Mary to a destitute orphan because the following year her father, Thomas, was executed for treason on 20 March 1549 & all his estates, money & property were seized, attained, by the Crown.
The penniless orphan & daughter of a traitor, Mary Seymour, was given into the wardship of Katherine Willoughby , widow of Charles Brandon & Duchess of Suffolk & great friend of the child's mother Catherine Parr. It was not long before the duchess found the financial burden of supporting the little girl difficult & wrote to William Cecil saying that if she did not receive a pension soon, she would not be able to continue.
Mary Seymour disappears from historical record completely after 1550. No claim was ever made on the meagre estate of Thomas Seymour leading to the conclusion that Mary did not live past the age of two.
St Peters church in Winchcombe , where I lived as a teenager, has an altar cloth said to have embroidered by Queen Catherine Parr There was also an oral legend in the town that the grave of a child in Tudor Court dress had been found at Sudeley many years ago.
Could that have been Mary Seymour, and not a secret child of Elizabeth I as supposed at the time?
Bisley, also in the Cotswolds, has a similar legend - At the end of the C18th the Reverend Thomas Keeble , making renovations to Overcourt House, supposedly found an unmarked grave containing the skeleton of a child dressed in opulent female Tudor clothing. He is said to have reburied the body in an unknown location.
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