Henry VIII by Alison Weir Page A

the royal household. Numbers fluctuated depending on the season or the occasion. In the summer, when many courtiers were away on their estates, the court numbered perhaps eight hundred people.
    There were probably fewer than a hundred women at court. Many were the wives and daughters of courtiers, and waited on the Queen. Others visited with their husbands, often for ceremonial occasions. Women enjoyed no formal political role at court, although several did involve themselves in politics and intrigues, as will be seen.
    Upon marriage, Henry had assigned to Katherine a household of 160 persons, many of whom were female. She had eight ladies-in-waiting. Two, Elizabeth, Lady Fitzwalter, and Anne, Lady Hastings, were the sisters of England’s premier peer, the Duke of Buckingham. They served alongside the Countesses of Suffolk, Oxford, Surrey, Shrewsbury, Essex, and Derby. By 1517, some of these ladies had been replaced by the Countess of Salisbury, Lady Guildford, Lady Maud Parr, and Lady Elizabeth Howard, wife of Sir Thomas Boleyn. 14 Sir Thomas’s brother, Sir Edward, and his wife Anne would also join the Queen’s household in the 1520s.
    Katherine was also attended by thirty maids of honour, among them the Ladies Dacre, Scrope, Percy, Ferrers, and Bergavenny (who was Buckingham’s daughter, Mary Stafford)—their names a roll call of the mediaeval peerage. Most of their husbands served in the King’s household, creating an intricate network of family ties among the chief courtiers.
    The other maids of honour included Gertrude Blount, daughter of Lord Mountjoy, and Maria de Salinas, who had come with Katherine from Spain. The daughter of a Castilian nobleman and a former maid of honour to Queen Isabella, Maria selflessly had shared the tribulations of Katherine’s penurious widowhood, shelving her hopes of making a good marriage, and was the lady closest to her, “whom she loves more than any other mortal.” 15 Maria had also earned the esteem of Henry VIII, who named one of his ships in her honour. Her sister Iñez, who was married to a Spaniard then resident in England, may also have been one of Katherine’s attendants.
    Jane Popincourt, a Frenchwoman, was another maid of honour; she had once served Elizabeth of York and, since 1500, had attended upon Henry’s sister Mary. Anne Luke, the King’s former nurse, was one of Katherine’s chamberwomen.
    Luis Caroz dismissed the ladies of the Queen’s household as “rather simple,” 16 but to others her damsels were “handsome, and make a sumptuous appearance.” 17 Katherine set high standards for her household, but she was a kind mistress and her servants invariably became devoted to her.
    The chief officers of the Queen’s household were naturally men. At its head was her Chamberlain, the ageing Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormonde, a veteran of the Wars of the Roses. His post was a virtual sinecure, since most of his duties were carried out by Sir Robert Poyntz, who was later appointed the Queen’s Chancellor. 18 Sir Thomas Bryan, the Vice Chamberlain, would later be replaced by Sir Edward Baynton, who would hold this office under all the King’s subsequent wives. Katherine had her own Steward and Keeper of her Privy Purse; Griffin Richards, her Clerk of the Signet, had formerly worked for Margaret Beaufort. 19
    There were only eight Spaniards in the Queen’s household, among them her secretary, John de Scutea; her apothecary; and her physicians, the humanist Ferdinand de Vittoria and Miguel de la Sá. Most of her original Spanish servants had returned to Spain.
    Two devout Englishmen, Father William Forrest and the Observant John Forest, were among Katherine’s chaplains. Her confessor (since 1508) was a Castilian Franciscan, Fray Diego Fernandez. By virtue of his position and his mesmeric, forceful personality, he was said to wield more influence over the Queen than anyone else. Because he