We are delving into Tudor forbidden love in this new episode. So February is love month and here at the Renaissance English History Podcast, all of our episodes are going to be love-related or somehow ancillary to love, also Valentine’s and friendships and all kinds of royal weddings. We’re going to be doing a lot both here and on my YouTube channel.

All about love!  It’s love time! We’re going to talk about love gone wrong.  So this week, we are looking at forbidden love. Today we are peeling back the layers of what constituted forbidden relationships in the 16th century, setting the stage for stories that not only captivated contemporaries but also continue to fascinate us to this day.

In Tudor, England marriage was far more than a personal union between two people. Especially among the nobles, it was a strategic alliance that served political, economic, and social purposes. Marriages, especially among nobility and royalty, were meticulously arranged to strengthen family ties, secure political alliances and enhance wealth and land holdings.

The idea, the very concept of marrying for love, as we understand, the concept of marrying for love as we understand it today was not a priority. And often not even a consideration in these negotiations. Given this context, certain relationships were deemed forbidden due to different factors that went against the social-political and religious fabric and ideas of the time.

One of the primary reasons would be social disparity. The class hierarchy was rigid. Marriages occurred within one’s social class. Relationships that crossed these strict boundaries such as those between nobles and commoners were frowned upon and could lead to social ostracism or worse.

Marital status of course was another crucial factor. The sanctity of marriage was upheld by law and the church, making adultery a very serious offense. Engaging in any kind of romance outside of marriage was not only considered morally reprehensible but it also could have legal consequences.

For women in particular, such transgressions could tarnish family honor and lead to severe punishment. Of course, that’s because women run the risk of becoming pregnant. Which could throw the whole succession into question if the rightful heir wasn’t inheriting whatever there was to inherit. So it was especially bad for women in that period to be caught or to be engaging in that kind of behavior,

Religious laws and the mandates of the church also further complicated matters. After Henry VIII’s establishment of the Church of England, and the subsequent religious upheavals, adherence to religious doctrines became intertwined with loyalty to the crown.

Marriages that crossed religious lines, especially in the latter half of the 16th century, when tensions between Protestants and Catholics intensified were often viewed with suspicion and could be deemed unacceptable or even treasonous. In this era where personal desires often collided with demands of duty status and faith, forbidden love was not just a matter of the heart but a complex web of societal norms and expectations.

As we delve into some stories of those who dare to defy these norms, we uncover not only tales of passion and defiance, but also a vivid portrait of the societal structure that shaped every aspect of Tudor life.

So we’re going to start with the big one. The big one that changed everything. Henry and Anne. Their affair was not just a private matter of heart, but a catalyst for monumental religious and political upheaval in England.

In the early 1530s, Henry VIII, already married to Katherine of Aragon for nearly two decades, became utterly infatuated with Anne Boleyn, a charismatic and intelligent lady-in-waiting at the court and was well-educated, possessed, a sharp wit and initially resisted the king’s advances, refusing to become another of his mistresses. A decision that only fueled Henry’s desire.

This pursuit coincided with Henry’s growing desperation for a male heir, something Katherine of course, had been unable to provide. Anne’s refusal to yield without a marriage proposal, set the stage for an unprecedented royal drama. Henry’s determination to marry Anne clashed with the Catholic Church’s refusal to annul his marriage to Katherine.

This impasse led to a series of events that would culminate in the English Reformation. Henry, in his relentless quest to secure a marriage with Anne to fight the Pope by anointing Thomas Cranmer, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, who subsequently declared his marriage to Katherine void and his marriage to Anne valid.

This act, essentially a royal defiance of papal authority, led to England’s break from the Catholic church and the establishment of the Church of England with the king at its head. Anne’s ascendancy to queen in 1533 was as meteoric as it was fraught with controversy. Her failure to produce a male heir quickly eroded Henry’s affection and the court’s initial skepticism turned into outright hostility.

By 1536, the political and religious landscape Anne had helped transform, became the backdrop for her downfall. Accused of adultery and treason, a likely concoction of political machinations orchestrated by her enemies at court, Anne was arrested and tried.

Despite the lack of evidence, the verdict was a foregone conclusion. Anne was executed on May 19th, 1536, her dramatic and tragic end, marking one of the most infamous episodes in Tudor history.
Her marriage to Henry once the cause of a national religious shift, ended on the scaffold, a stark reminder of the volatile intersection of love, power and politics in Tudor, England. The love story that had begun with passionate letters and courtly romance ended in betrayal and bloodshed. Encapsulating the perilous nature of royal affections of the 16th century.

Now we’re going to move on to a very poignant story of forbidden love. And that was Katherine Howard Henry VIII’s fifth wife. Katherine’s brief and tumultuous tenure as queen concert from 1540-41, underscores the perilous intersection of youthful indiscretion and the unforgiving nature of the Tudor court.

Katherine was a cousin of Henry VIII’s second wife Anne Boleyn and she came to court as a young and vivacious lady-in-waiting. Her upbringing under the care of her step-grandmother the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk was largely unsupervised allowing Katherine the freedom that would later prove to be her undoing.

In this environment, Katherine engaged with at least one romantic liaison with a kinsman Francis Dereham, which she failed to disclose upon her engagement to the King. Henry besotted with Katherine’s youth and beauty, married her shortly after the annulment of his marriage to Anne of Cleves.

However, the marriage was doomed from the start. Katherine’s past, a tapestry of youthful love and secrecy, also, you could say abuse because she was very young, quickly unraveled. In late 1541, allegations of Katherine’s premarital relationships emerged, shaking the very foundations of the Tudor court.

Thomas Cranmer and others conducted an investigation that revealed Katherine’s previous engagements, and even more terrible, her ongoing affair with Thomas Culpeper, a courtier and favorite of the King.

The revelation of Katherine’s indiscretions was a scandal of monumental proportions. Not merely because of her status as Queen, but because it struck at the heart of Henry’s authority and the sanctity of the royal marriage. The charges against Katherine, adultery and treason were severe and the implications were clear in the Tudor court.

A queen’s virtue was inextricably linked to the stability of the realm. And of course, like I said before, this would be really bad if you were a woman and you got pregnant if you were the queen and gave birth to someone who was not the king’s child. The king’s son, then that person would be king and if that’s something that you care about is king, which one assumes at this point in time, they did.

That’s where treason comes in because suddenly you’ve got somebody on the throne who shouldn’t really be king, right? So Katherine’s downfall was swift. After just a year of marriage to Henry, she was executed at the Tower of London. Her tragic end highlights the precarious nature of royal marriages where youthful indiscretions could be construed as high treason.

In the late 1570s to early 1580s, the Tudor court was once again, the stage for a scandalous love affair. This time involving a young and intelligent maid-of-honor to Queen Elizabeth I and Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, a prominent and married courtier.

Their clandestine relationship unfolded amidst the backdrop of a court or the Queen’s unmarried status. And the conduct of her ladies was under constant scrutiny. Anne Vavasour was noted for her wit and beauty. She entered the royal court as a teenager, quickly attracting the attention of several suitors, including the Earl of Oxford.

Oxford was a man of considerable influence and talent, was already entangled in a troubled marriage with Anne Cecil, the daughter of William Cecil, Lord Burghley Elizabeth’s chief adviser. The affair between Anne and Edward De Vere was not just a personal matter. It was laden with political implications, given their positions within the courts, intricate social hierarchy. The relationship came to a head in March, 1581 when Anne gave birth to Edward De Vere’s illegitimate son in the maiden’s chamber at court, a scandalous event that could not be concealed from the Queen or the public.

Both Anne and Edward De Vere were imprisoned in the Tower of London by Queen Elizabeth, who was known for her strict stance against any impropriety among her courtiers, particularly those in close proximity to her person. The scandal did not end with their imprisonment.

After their release, the affair led to a violent confrontation between Edward De Vere and Anne’s relatives, underscoring, the deep-seated tensions between noble families at Elizabeth’s court. In 1582, a duel erupted in the streets of London between De Vere and Anne’s uncle Thomas Knyvet. The encounter left several men wounded and fueled a bitter feud between the two families that persisted for years involving numerous duels and confrontations.

Her child was baptized Edward Vere and would survived to manhood but the Earl of Oxford took no responsibility for his upbringing or education though. He did settle lands on him and gave 2000 pounds to Anne.

Later Anne Vavasour was involved in yet another scandal when she was accused of bigamy. So Ann Vavasour was not very lucky in love. We could question some of her decision-making abilities and skills, but we will talk about that bigamy episode in another, probably YouTube video. 

The affair between Anne Vavasour and Edward De Vere and its tumultuous aftermath, is a vivid illustration of the complexities of forbidden love within the Tudor court. It was not merely the personal consequences faced by Anne and Edward that marked this affair as significant but the broader implications it had on their families and the court’s political landscape.

Their relationship conducted in the shadows at court, ultimately exposed the precarious balance between personal desires and the public duties of those within the Queen’s orbit, highlighting the very perilous nature of forbidden love in an environment where reputation and allegiance were paramount.

Next, let’s talk about the love story between Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth Throckmorton. It’s one of the most captivating stories of forbidden love from the Tudor period, marked by secrecy, real fury and injuring loyalty.

In 1591, Walter Raleigh, a dashing explorer, soldier, and favorite of Elizabeth I, found himself entangled in a clandestine romance with Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting. This relationship was fraught with danger as the Queen’s permission was required for the marriage of her courtiers. And Elizabeth of course was known, was famous for her very possessive attitude towards her favorites.

The secret marriage between Raleigh and Throckmorton likely undertaken in passionate defiance of courtly protocols, was a direct affront to the Queen’s authority. Throckmorton’s pregnancy and the subsequent discovery of their marriage ignited Elizabeth’s wrath, leading to severe repercussions.

The Queen felt personally betrayed by both, as intimate relationships within her court were under her purview and such unions without her consent were seen as a breach of trust and loyalty. Raleigh and Throckmorton’s punishment was swift and harsh with both being imprisoned in the Tower of London.

This stark response underscores the very dangerous course of forbidden love in the Tudor court where personal desires were subordinate to royal decrees. The couple’s imprisonment in the Tower, which was of course, a site of executions and political imprisonments, highlighted the gravity of their offense in the eyes of the Queen and the court.

Despite however their temporary imprisonment, Raleigh and Throckmorton’s relationship injured the trials imposed by their royal mistress. Raleigh’s career however, suffered a significant setback. His favor at court was diminished. His opportunities for advancement and exploration were curtailed for a time.

This episode reveals the precarious balance courtiers had to maintain between their personal lives and their obligations to the crown. Raleigh’s once meteoric rise at court was checked by his romantic entanglements, showcasing the vulnerability of even the most favored courtiers to the whims of the monarch.

Now another very famous Tudor forbidden romance, the union between Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. It stands out for its defiance of royal expectations and its eventual acceptance.

Their story begins in early 1515 following the death of Mary’s first husband Louis XII of France, just three months into their marriage. Mary was a widow at 18 and was a valuable political asset and her brother Henry had grand plans for her second marriage.

However, Mary had other ideas. She had been close to Charles Brandon, who was Henry’s BFF and a prominent figure at court. Despite the vast social gap between a royal princess and a duke, a gap that made their love forbidden by the standards of the day, Mary and Charles shared a mutual affection that led them to marry in secret in France.

This bold move flew in the face of Henry’s authority and his carefully laid plans of international diplomacy. The news of their clandestine marriage sent shockwaves throughout the court. Henry VIII’s initial fury at this betrayal was palpable and the couple faced potential severe repercussions.

The marriage not only defied the King’s wishes. But also threatened England’s political alliances, which were delicately balanced on the prospects of royal marriages. Yet the story of Mary and Charles does not end in tragedy at least then, unlike many other tales of forbidden love from the period.

Through a combination of Charles his loyalty to Henry,  Mary’s persuasive appeals and the King’s own affection for his sister and friend, the couple was eventually forgiven. However, this forgiveness came at a price, a hefty fine levied on Brandon. Essentially a financial penance for his overreach.

This resolution underscores the transactional nature of Royal marriages and the weight of duty over desire. Their marriage lasted until Mary died and was by many accounts, a happy one, producing four children. It serves as a rare example of a love match that despite initial Royal censure, was ultimately incorporated into the fabric of Tudor dynastic politics.

The stories of forbidden love during the Tudor period from the tragic to the triumphant, reveal the tension between obligations to the crown and personal desire. In a time when marriages were strategic tools of diplomacy and power consolidation, the pursuit of personal affection and love often led to scandal conflict and in some cases, reconciliation.

These narratives underscore the significant role of power dynamics in shaping personal relationships. Whether it was the King’s absolute authority over his courtiers or the societal norms that dictated acceptable unions, power was always a central player in the game of love.

Despite the risks and often tragic consequences, individuals continue to pursue love sometimes covertly and sometimes openly challenging the norms of their time. This enduring fascination with forbidden love stories from the Tudor era, speaks to a broader human theme – the quest for personal happiness in the face of societal constraints.