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Lady Elizabeth Howard, later Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire (c. 1480 – April 3, 1538) was one of the many daughters of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk by his first wife Elizabeth Tilney. She is most famous for having been the mother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England. As such, she was also the maternal grandmother of Queen Elizabeth I. She was also a direct descendant of King Edward I.^[1]

Little is known of her but we can piece together a rough chronology of her life through the comments and mythologies of her contemporaries.

Her family managed to survive the fall of their patron, Richard III in 1485 and Elizabeth successfully joined the royal court as a young girl. There, she was wed to Thomas Boleyn, an ambitious young courtier - sometime before 1500, probably in 1498.^[2] According to Thomas, his wife was pregnant many times in the next few years but only five children are thought to have survived birth and only three into adulthood: -

• Mary Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII (c. 1499 - July 19, 1543).
• George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford (c. 1503 - May 17, 1536).
• Anne Boleyn, Queen Consort of Henry VIII of England (c. 1501/1507 - May 19, 1536 )
• Thomas Boleyn - thought to have died young.
• Henry Boleyn - thought to have died young.

Throughout this time, Elizabeth was Lady-in-Waiting at the royal court; firstly to Elizabeth of York and then to her successor, Catherine of Aragon. To judge from later gossip, Elizabeth Boleyn must have been a highly attractive woman.^[3] Rumours circulated that she was the mistress of the young King, Henry VIII. However, despite recent attempts by one or two historians to rehabilitate this myth, it was denied by Henry and never mentioned in the stream of dispensations he sought in order to make his union with Anne lawful. Most historians believe it is likely that this rumour began by confusing Elizabeth with Henry's more famous mistress Elizabeth Blount, or from the growing unpopularity of the Boleyn family after 1527.^[4]

In 1519, Elizabeth's elder daughter, Mary, who was then living in the French royal court, was brought home in disgrace once her reputation was left in tatters due to a series of sexual escapades in France. The French King vindictively called Mary "my English mare", and later in his life described her as "a great whore, the most infamous of all".^[5]

Elizabeth never forgave Mary for this slur on the family's reputation, and in the words of historian M.L. Bruce both Thomas and Elizabeth "developed feelings of dislike" for their daughter.^[6] In later years, Mary's romantic involvements would only further strain this relationship. Around 1520, the Boleyns managed to arrange Mary's marriage to Sir William Carey, a respected and popular nobleman at court. It was sometime after the wedding that Mary became mistress to Henry VIII (the exact dates as to when the affair started and ended are unknown), although she never held the title of "official royal mistress," as the post did not exist in England. It has long been rumored that one or both Mary Boleyn's children were fathered by Henry and not Carey. Some historians, such as Alison Weir, now question whether Henry Carey (Mary's son) was actually fathered by the King ^[7]. Few of Henry's mistresses were ever publicly honoured, excepting Elizabeth Blount, who was mentioned in Parliament and whose son was created Duke of Richmond in an elaborate public ceremony in 1525. ^[8] Henry's relationship with Mary was so discreet that within ten years, some observers were wondering if it had ever taken place.^[9]

In contrast to Mary, Elizabeth's other daughter, Anne, had a close relationship with her mother. Elizabeth had been in charge of Anne's early education and she had taught her music and religion, as well as embroidery, reading and writing.^[10] In 1525 Henry VIII fell in love with Anne, and Elizabeth became her protective chaperone. She accompanied Anne to Court, since Anne was attempting to avoid a sexual relationship with the king.^[11] It was Elizabeth who travelled with Anne to view York Place after the fall of the Boleyn family's great political opponent, Thomas Cardinal Wolsey - an intrigue which had given Anne her first real taste of political power. She was crowned Queen four years later.

Elizabeth remained in her daughter's household throughout her time as Queen consort. Tradition has it that Anne's only daughter, Elizabeth I was named after her maternal grandmother. However, it is more likely that she was named after Henry's mother, Elizabeth of York, although we cannot rule out the possibility that she was named after both grandmothers.

Elizabeth Boleyn sided with the rest of the family when her eldest daughter Mary was banished in 1535 for eloping with a commoner. Mary had initially expected her sister's support (Anne had been Mary's only confidante within the Boleyn family since 1529).^[12] but Anne was furious at the breach of etiquette and refused to receive her..^[13]

Only a year later, the family was overtaken by a greater scandal. Elizabeth's youngest daughter, Anne, and her only living son, George, were both executed on charges of treason, adultery and incest. Anne's two chief biographers, Eric Ives and Retha Warnicke, have both concluded that these charges were fabricated.^[14] They both agree that the King wanted to marry his mistress, Jane Seymour. Beyond this obvious fact, the sequence of events are not completely clear and historians are divided about whether or not the key motivation for Anne's downfall was her husband's hatred of her or her political ambitions.^[15] Despite the claims of several recent novels, academic historians generally agree that Anne was innocent and that she was sexually faithful to her husband.^[16] Nonetheless, the judges obeyed the King and condemned the two Boleyns and four others to death. The men were beheaded by the axe on May 17 1536 and Anne by a French swordsman two days later.

Following the annihilation of the family's ambitions, Elizabeth retired to the countryside. The fall of the Boleyns' has been likened to "a Greek tragedy", and yet there is something tragically pathetic and anticlimactic about Elizabeth Boleyn's quiet, uneventful death only two years after she had witnessed the cruel machinations of the Tudor court which had devoured two of her brilliant and glamorous younger children. She did not attempt a reconciliation with her surviving daughter, Mary, who outlived her by only five years.

1. ^ "The Six Wives of Henry VIII", by Lady Antonia Fraser, p. 116 (1992)
2. ^ "The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn", by Eric Ives, p.17, (2004)
3. ^ "Anne Boleyn," by Marie-Louise Bruce, p. 13, (1972)
4. ^ "The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn," by Eric Ives, p. 16, (2004)
5. ^ "Anne Boleyn," by Marie-Louise Bruce, p. 23 (1982)
6. ^ Ibid
7. ^ Henry VIII: The King and His Court, by Alison Weir, p. 216
8. ^ "The Six Wives of Henry VIII," by Alison Weir, p. 81 (1991); the idea that Mary was Henry's chief and official mistress for several years has gained fame because it is a central plot-point in two modern novels based on her life - Philippa Gregory's "The Other Boleyn Girl" and Karen Harper's "The Last Boleyn". However these are novels and there is no firm historical evidence that her affair with the king was ever so publicly acknowledged. Academic discussions of the issue can be found in Alison Weir's above-mentioned book (p. 133-4) and "The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn," by Eric Ives, p. 15 - 17
9. ^ "The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn," by Eric Ives, p. 15 - 16
10. ^ "The Six Wives of Henry VIII," by Alison Weir, p. 148 (1991)
11. ^ "Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII," by Karen Lindsey, pp. 58 - 60 (1995)
12. ^ "Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII," by Karen Lindsey, p. 73(1995)
13. ^ "The Six Wives of Henry VIII," by Alison Weir, p. 273 (1991)
14. ^ "The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn," by Eric Ives (2004) and "The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn," by Retha Warnicke (1989)
15. ^ For the debate, see the introduction to J.J. Scarisbrick's 1997 edition of his biography "Henry VIII," "The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn," by Eric Ives, pp. 319 - 337 and "The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn," by Retha Warnicke, pp. 189 - 233 (1989)
16. ^ "The Other Boleyn Girl," makes the suggestion that Anne and George may have been guilty of incest. However, see the following non-fiction and academic works for arguments proving Anne's innocence - "The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn," by Eric Ives, pp. 338 - 356 (2004); "The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn," by Retha Warnicke, pp. 2 - 5 (1989); "The Six Wives of Henry VIII," by Alison Weir, pp. 306 - 337 (1991); "The Six Wives of Henry VIII," by Lady Antonia Fraser, pp.245 - 255 (1992); "Six Wives," by David Starkey, pp. 571 - 583 (2004)