Elizabeth Holland (died 1547/8), commonly known as Bess Holland, was an English courtier. She was the mistress of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and maid-of-honour to his niece, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England.

Life

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk After Hans Holbein the Younger. An embellished portrait possibly by or after Henry Stone

The daughter or sister of the Duke's secretary, it is often said that Bess had worked for eight years as a laundress in the household of Norfolk's wife, Elizabeth Stafford, Duchess of Norfolk.^[1] This is from one of the Duchess of Norfolk's letters in which she describes Bess as a "churl’s daughter who was but a washer in my nursery for eight years".^[2][3] Kate Emerson points out that since she was a gentlewoman, she was probably not a laundress in the household, or the children's nurse, but may have been the children's governess. Bess was certainly on good terms with Mary Howard, Norfolk's daughter.^[4]

When Anne Boleyn was created Marquess of Pembroke, Bess Holland was one of her maids of honour.^[4]

A book of hours belonging to Anne Boleyn and currently preserved in the British Library contains the names of Elizabeth and Henry Reppes,^[5] written in the hand of Henry Reppes (d. 1558). It is also inscribed by Anne Boleyn in English, Be daly prove you shall me fynde To be to yu bothe lovynge and kynde, and while her lover King Henry VIII gallantly replied in French, Si silon mon affection la sufvenance sera en voz prieres ne seray yers oblie car vostre suis Henry R. a jammays, which in English would be If you remember my love in your prayers as strongly as I adore you, I shall hardly be forgotten, for I am yours. Henry R. forever.^[6]

  Historian Sylvia Barbara Soberton writes:

One of the most interesting aspects of Anne’s last days is the question of the identity of the four women who accompanied her to the scaffold on 19 May 1536. Eyewitnesses described them as young, and yet the women who accompanied Anne in the Tower of London were by no means young. Is it possible that in his last act of mercy, Henry VIII allowed Anne to have her most trusted women with her in her last hours? A book of hours belonging to Anne Boleyn and currently preserved in the British Library contains the names of Elizabeth and Henry Reppes. Elizabeth Reppes served as Anne Boleyn’s maid of honour when she was known as Bessie Holland. Mistress Holland accompanied Anne to her coronation in 1533 and was placed in Anne’s household because she was mistress of the Queen’s uncle, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Why does Bessie Holland’s married name appear in the book of hours that belonged to Anne Boleyn? This overlooked connection between the Queen and her maid raises the possibility that Bessie Holland accompanied Anne to the scaffold and perhaps received this book as a gift.^[7]

She was still at court in 1537, when she rode in the funeral cortege of Queen Jane.^[4]

Family

According to Kate Emerson's A Who's Who of Tudor Women Elizabeth Holland was the daughter (some sources say the sister) of John Holland of Wartwell Hall in RedenHall, Norfolk and a kinswoman, probably a niece, of John Hussey 1st baron Hussey of Sleaford.^[4]

The Visitations of Norfolk, however, identifies Bess as "Elizabeth Holland da. to Thomas Holland of Swynested",^[8] as does The Gawdy Papers.^[9]

It is known that Holland had a brother, George, who signed for her jewellery “for and in the name of my said sister” when it was returned to her in February 1547. After the Duke of Norfolk's fall the commissioners had seized rings, brooches, strings of pearls, silver spoons, ivory tables, and other treasures from her lodgings at Kenninghall. Bess had at her disposal an outer chamber, a bedchamber, and an adjoining garret. Bess herself was taken to London for questioning but was eventually released. At the time her jewellery was returned to her, Bess was identified as living in Mendham, Suffolk.^[4] Mary, Duchess of Richmond, Norfolk's daughter, granted her an annuity of £20.^[10] It is also known that her eldest brother was called Thomas, because he was involved in a dispute with her husband over her inheritance after her death.^[11]

John Holland, of Wortwell Hall, in Redenhall, trustee to the Duke of Norfolk, died 10 February 1542.^[12] However, Bernard Henry Holland in The Lancashire Hollands also separates this family of Hollands from that of Elizabeth and her brother George:

Another Holland, George, was secretary to the same Duke, when he was arrested for treason in 1547, and the officials found in the house Elizabeth Holland, a mistress of the Duke. But George Holland was certainly one of the Hollands of Estovening, Lincolnshire, and so, probably, was Miss Elizabeth, descendants from Sir Thomas Holland, who mostly lived in the Holy Land, and his wife, Elizabeth, the "devilish dame." In the seventeenth century the Hollands of Quidenham were for two generations trustees of the Howard estates in Norfolk.^[13]

This other Holland family does have an apparent abundance of Elizabeths and an eldest son named Thomas, but lacks a George,^[14] while Thomas Holland of Swinsted did have both a son named George and an eldest son named Thomas.^[15]

On 3 July 1551 Thomas Holland of Swynested, Lincolnshire, wrote to Simon Lowe, Citizen and Merchant Scissor-dealer of London, regarding a statute staple for 40 pounds payable to Lowe next Bartholomew-tide. The Gawdy Papers here describes him as "son and heir apparent of Thos. Holland, Esq., sen."^[16] This again fits with the father of Thomas and George.^[17]

Kate Emerson writes:

Jeffrey Miles or Myles of Stoke Nayland, Suffolk, is identified as her husband by Gerard Brenan and Edward Phillips Stratham in The House of Howard (1908), but a hundred years later, the Oxford DNB states that her husband was Henry Reppes of Mendham (1509-February 10, 1558), that she married him in 1547, and that she died in childbirth in 1547/8.^[4]

This confusion is again due to the mix-up of the two families. This other Holland family did have a daughter called Elizabeth Holland who married Jeffrey Miles of Stoke Nayland, Suffolk,^[14] but the Duke of Norfolk's Bess married Henry Reppes. Thomas Holland of Swynested was first Comptroller of the Household, and afterwards Treasurer to the Duke of Richmond, the husband of Mary and the son-in-law of Norfolk. His son, George Holland, was something of a family historian, and Francis Blomefield was given the opportunity to study his papers. George was the secretary to the Duke of Norfolk, and writes of him, oddly touchingly:^[18]

Geo. Holland was Secretary to the most worthy and mighty prince, Thomas Duke of Norfolk, grandfather to the present Duke, and served him in that calling, and Clerk of the Counsail in the warrs both in France, England, and Scotland, and when he was committed to the Tower, and his son of Surrey beheaded in the last year of King Henry the VIII^th, and being most worthily delivered thence by Q. Mary, I served him in that callinge till his death, and was with him against Sir Tho. Wiatt his godson, where he was most slenderly appoynted by his own men & capt; trayterously.^[18]

Thomas Holland of Swynested (1486^[19]–1558^[20]) was married twice, first to Jane, daughter of William Hardeby of Evedon, and secondly to Jane, daughter of Henry Smyth of Walpole in Norfolk. His son and heir Thomas Holland of Estovening (b.1512^[19]) married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Smyth of Walpole in Norfolk, sister of Jane.^[19] George Holland of Croyland (1514^[21]–1567/8^[21]), second son, married Elizabeth Lewes and had an illegitimate daughter named Elizabeth, his heiress. Bess Holland also had two sisters. Dorothy (d.1571^[22]), wife to William Hunston of Walpole (1519/20^[23]–1566^[22]), and mother of William Hunston of Boston in Lincoln (1540^[22]–1586^[22]), Edward Hunston who drowned in saving a child, Henry Hunston, Jane who married Edward Knightbridge, and another daughter who married Tupholme of Boston. Frances married Gregory Woolmer or Woolmer of Bloxham (d.1575^[24]), the son of Richard Wolmer of Swineshead and Isabel Upton (d.1564^[25]). They had Sir Gregory Woolmer (d.1618/9), Jasper, Samuel, Susan, Sarah, Beatrix, Anne and Mary who married Bolle. From her father's second marriage Bess had the brothers Henry Holland of Gonville Gollege, Cambridge, Vicar of Boston (d.1584), who married Joane Fox; James Holland; and Christopher Holland of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, who was baptised at Spalding on 26 August 1546 and had Edward Holland, student at Cambridge in 1601.^{[15][21][19][23][26][27][24][20]}

The fall of Norfolk

Despite a relationship of fifteen years duration with the Duke, when he and his son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, were arrested in December 1546, Elizabeth Holland gave information which helped to seal their fates.^[28] Kate Emerson points out that she probably had no choice.^[4] Surrey was executed on the eve of the King's own death. Norfolk's execution was not carried out after the King's death; instead, he was kept in the Tower of London throughout the minority reign of King Edward VI, and was released in 1553, at the start of the reign of Queen Mary I, whose Catholic beliefs were similar to his.

In April, 1547 or earlier, Edmond of Sybeton, Suffolk, sent to Elizabeth Holland, a receipt for 100 pounds from Mrs. Holland by hands of Mr. Henry to be paid unto my Lord of Norfolk his Grace. It appears that Elizabeth sent money to the Duke of Norfolk whilst he was incarcerated in the Tower.^[11]

In 1547 Elizabeth Holland married Henry Reppes (d.1558^[29]) but soon afterwards died in childbirth.^[30]

The arms of Smyth of Walpole St. Peter, Norfolk

Henry Reppes (d.1558) was the son of Henry Reppes of Thorp Market in Norfolk and Elizabeth, daughter of Edmond Grymston of Rushangles in Suffolk, Esq. His paternal uncle John Reppes of West Walton in Norfolk, Esq. (d.1561^[31]), was married to Margaret, daughter and one of the heirs of Henry Smyth of Walpole in Mershland, gentleman.^[32] Margaret was the sister of Bess Holland's mother or stepmother Jane, and her sister-in-law Elizabeth, making the two families related through several connections.

In 1547 or 1548 Symon Lowe of London wrote to William Andros, Beeball. The nature of their correspondence is recorded in The Gawdy Papers:

Andros’ son Edmond, who is with Lowe, is in good health. Harry Reppes married Elizabeth Holland of Mendham, who died in childbed, the Caesarean operation being performed. Reppes says the child was born alive and claims tenancy by the curtesy in her lands. Lowe thinks it impossible and, fearing foul play, asks Andros or his friends about Mendham or Harleston to make cautious enquiry. Thomas, Elizabeth’s eldest brother and heir, sold the land to Lowe, but unthriftily spent the money and more (to the amount of 1,000 l.) within a year, so cannot defend the title except at Lowe’s charges. Phillipa Oon, of Mendham, was the midwife; Richard Spayne of Harleston was the surgeon who operated; Edmond Halle, another surgeon of Mendham or Harleston, was present but refused to operate. One William Rochester of Mendham or Harleston has been tampering with the witnesses; he is “truly the falsest and craftiest man in the country,” for “a forty shilling” he will confess all, if well handled. Get the witnesses to a tavern, make them talk, and have men by to hear them.^[11]

After her death, Henry Reppes remarried to Anne Wootton or Wotton (1536^[33]–1587^[34]). Anne was the daughter of John Wootton of North Tuddenham in Norfolk and^[33] the great-niece of Henry Wotton. Anne was the widow of Henry Reppes's nephew Thomas Woodhouse of Hickling, Norfolk, the son of his sister by her husband Sir William Woodhouse.^[32][35] After the death of Henry Reppes on 10 February 1557/8,^[16] Anne married thirdly Bassingbourne Gawdy (d. 1590).^[33]

References

Further reading

• House of Treason: the Rise and Fall of a Tudor Dynasty by Robert Hutchinson, 2009
• A Tudor Tragedy: Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk by Neville Williams, 1989
• The Ebbs and Flows of Fortune: Life of Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk by David M. Head, 1995
• Henry VIII's Last Victim: The Life and Times... by Jessie Childs, 2008