On this day in Tudor history, 3rd April 1538, Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire and Ormond, wife of Thomas Boleyn and mother of the late Queen Anne Boleyn, died near Baynard’s Castle, home of the Abbot of Reading, in London.
Elizabeth was about sixty-two years of age and died less than two years after two of her children, Queen Anne Boleyn and George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, were executed.
Thomas Warley recorded her death in a letter he sent to Lady Lisle on 7th April 1538:
“My lady of Wiltshire died on Wednesday last beside Baynard’s castle.”
On 9th April 1538, John Husee wrote to Lady Lisle of Elizabeth Boleyn’s funeral at St Mary’s Church, Lambeth, which had taken place on 7th April:
“My lady Wiltshire was buried at Lamehithe [Lambeth] on the 7th. My lord Comptroller was chief mourner of the men and lady Dawbny of the women. She was conveyed from a house beside Baynard’s Castle by barge to Lambeth with torches burning and four baneys (banners?) set out of all quarters of the barge, which was covered with black and a white cross. At her burial was the King of Heralds, a herald, and a pursuivant.”
Here are some videos I did on Elizabeth Boleyn:
Notes and Sources
Photo: Elizabeth Boleyn as played by Kristin Scott Thomas in “The Other Boleyn Girl”.
- Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, XIII, Part 1, 696 and 717.
- LP X. 669.
The tragedy of her children must have hastened her own demise, after their deaths she did not survive long after, neither did her husband and then Mary their last surviving child died, so it was goodbye to a most remarkable family, a family who have been talked about and pondered over in the five centuries their most famous daughter made her debut at court, the rise and fall of the Boleyn’s has all the essence of a Greek tragedy, the power and glory they were given was brutally snatched away by a most fickle and merciless king, the culmination of that power ended on the scaffold by a bloody death, yet the most famous member of that most fascinating family left a country completely changed as her slight broken body was interred into its gloomy grave, England was under the see of Rome no more, there was a new church, there was a new religion, they gave England her most glorious monarch and they left their mark in several buildings that stand today in all their beauty, Blickling the birthplace of the Boleyn children, Hever Penshurst Beaulieu – and finally the Tower of London where Anne Boleyn and her brother George Viscount Rochford lost their lives, their brilliance was no more their sun had set, yet they have their place in the annals of English history, their matriarch who gave them life, Lady Elizabeth Boleyn nee Howard departed this world the 3rd of April 1538 and was laid to rest on the 7th of that month at Lambeth church in the vault of her illustrious relatives, her grave has never been found yet we know her resting place, her life was unremarkable compared to her children, she was a lady in waiting at court like all daughters of the nobility, she married and had children and oversaw their upbringing their education and hoped they would make good marriages and secure a place at court, we know little about this lady save she was described as a beauty and appears the dutiful Tudor wife, docile obedient and graceful, she seems like a calm breeze alongside the storm that was her daughter the feisty turbulent Anne, she lived through her family’s triumphs and tragedies and yet her ending was peaceful possibly it was a happy release, how can one survive the deaths of two children whose names were embroiled in scandal and infamy? Those with her prayed for her soul and arrangements were made for her funeral, another member of the Boleyn family had departed this world her soul was free, RIP Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire mother of Englands most infamous queen.