Elizabeth I – History… the interesting bits!

Guest Post: Elizabeth’s Governess by Rosemary Griggs

05/09/202604/09/2026Sharon Bennett ConnollyLeave a comment

A couple of years ago, I met Rosemary Griggs at the Historical Novel Society Conference in Devon. We had a lovely chat between speaker sessions, but it wasn’t long enough. Earlier this year, Rosemary posted on Facebook that she was visiting Lincoln and I replied with ‘I’ll meet you there!’ We spent 4 hours, talking history and wandering around Lincoln Cathedral – and 4 hours still wasn’t long enough. But it was a fabulous day. Rosemary and I are kindred spirits when it comes to history.

We talk about all sorts!

But we also talked about her new book, her first foray into historical non-fiction. It is a book about a woman who most people with a love of Tudor history has heard of, but probably thought little more about her. After all, her charge, Elizabeth – the future Elizabeth I – is far more fascinating (or is she?).

Rosemary’s book, Queen Elizabeth I’s Governess: The Real Kat Ashley, promises not only to fill in some gaps in Elizabeth I’s story, but to highlight the relationship between Kat and the queen, and the duties and responsibilities of a royal governess in the tumultuous times of Tudor England. There may also be some surprises along the way, things you thought you knew may not have been as they are traditionally presented.

So, it is a pleasure to welcome Rosemary to the website, with a little insight into her most recent work…

Elizabeth’s Governess

In many biographies of Elizabeth I, Kat Ashley, or Kate Astley, as I prefer to call her, appears only briefly as a supporting character in the drama of Elizabeth’s teenage encounter with Thomas Seymour. Yet she served Elizabeth for nearly thirty years. In my book, I explore Kate’s entire career in Elizabeth’s service, including the fraught years of Mary Tudor’s reign.

When studying the period from Edward VI’s death in 1553 until 1558, historians have, understandably, focused on Elizabeth herself. In this post, I’ll turn the spotlight away from Elizabeth to examine Kate Astley’s involvement during those critical years.

This was a difficult and often dangerous time. Elizabeth had to navigate a new political and religious landscape. Keeping her position in the succession and, at times, her very survival depended on having loyal and trustworthy servants and advisers she could call on. None were more important to her than those who had brought her up and seen her through the Seymour crisis.

As the gossip surrounding the infamous events of January 1549 subsided, Elizabeth enjoyed a calm interlude, spending much of her time at Hatfield. Sadly, Kate’s brother-in-law, Sir Anthony Denny, died in September 1549, meaning Elizabeth lost one of her most important advisers. However, William Cecil managed her estates after 1550, Thomas Parry returned to his duties as cofferer, and the old team came back together.

Kate held a trusted position at the top of the hierarchy. In the only surviving set of young Elizabeth’s household accounts, for the years 1551-1552 which bear her signature on every page, Kate received a salary of £7.15s per half year, roughly double that paid to another of her ladies, Blanche Parry. Kate had the authority to disburse payments to others and received payments for fine fabrics like crimson damask, satin, and linen, and ‘neccies’ (necessities). The crimson damask was perhaps for petticoats. During this period, perhaps on Kate’s advice, Elizabeth dressed demurely in black and white, going, as John Aylmer, Jane Grey’s Tutor observed, ‘clad in every respect as becomes a young maiden.’ In the portrait on the cover of my book, Kate dresses in a similar style, in a dark gown with few adornments.

Kate’s responsibilities extended beyond caring for Elizabeth’s wardrobe. She continued as Lady Mistress, overseeing Elizabeth’s education and acting as a friend and mentor. A new tutor named Johannes Spithovious arrived in April 1549, possibly to teach Elizabeth German, while she continued to study Italian with Batista Castiglione. Roger Ascham remained in post, and other Cambridge-educated scholars visited Hatfield and often joined Elizabeth’s tutors and Kate and her husband in learned discussions, earning Hatfield the reputation of being ‘an outpost of Cambridge University.

That peaceful time came to an abrupt end with the death of Elizabeth’s brother, Edward, in 1553.Elizabeth wisely kept well out of the way during the upheaval that followed Edward’s death. Once her sister Mary had prevailed, putting an end to John Dudley’s plan to place his daughter-in-law Jane Grey on the throne, Elizabeth made a great show of supporting her sister.

On 29 July 1553, Kate joined the cavalcade accompanying Elizabeth as she made a splendid entry into London to meet Mary. Elizabeth was popular and the people of London cheered as her two thousand strong procession, with all the men dressed in the Tudor colours of green and white, passed by. With a reduced escort she rode beside Mary to the Tower of London a few days later. The sisters presented a striking contrast. Mary was nearing 40, and her features showed clear signs of the years she had spent battling anxiety. Elizabeth was younger and full of life. At first, relations between the sisters were cordial, but soon soured. Perhaps hearing the loud cheers for her sister upset Mary, but it was Elizabeth’s clever prevarications about adopting Mary’s preferred form of worship that were a the heart of the rift between them.

Although everyone expected Mary would seek to bring the country back to the Catholic faith, Kate’s staunchly Protestant cousin, Sir Peter Carew, and her brother Sir Arthur Champernowne, declared for Queen Mary at Dartmouth and Newton Bushell in July 1554. It was not Mary’s religion that would lead them towards rebellion, but concerns that she might marry a foreign prince. To secure the succession, Mary must marry and give birth to an heir. However, even though she was Queen Regnant, once she married, like all other women of her time, she would be subservient to her husband. People like Sir Peter preferred an English husband.

Edward Courtenay, the son of the Champernownes’ relative and erstwhile patron, Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, had languished in the Tower of London since his father’s execution in 1539. Mary released him, and for a time seemed to consider him seriously as a potential husband. Kate’s family had been closely associated with Courtenay’s father, although they did not share his conservative views on religion. Perhaps that previous connection made them warm to Edward Courtenay as a possible suitor for the queen. They may have seen him as an easily manipulated figurehead who, if married to Mary, might keep a foreign prince from power in England. However, all attempts to encourage Mary to marry Courtenay failed, and she chose Philip of Spain. Concerns escalated towards outright rebellion.

Kate’s cousin, Sir Peter Carew, was one of the prime movers in a plot which would become known as the Wyatt Rebellion.The plan was to depose Mary in favour of Elizabeth, who would, the plotters envisaged, marry Courtenay. Kate was close to her Carew relatives. She knew Sir Peter well. It is inconceivable that she did not know about the plot. It is also hard to believe she did not pass on information to Elizabeth. With their narrow escape during the Seymour affair still fresh in their minds, however, Kate and Elizabeth were careful to leave no evidence of their involvement.

Elizabeth spent Christmas 1553/4 unwell at Ashridge, while Peter and others prepared. On Palm Sunday, they planned to ignite four consecutive uprisings in Devon, the Welsh borders, the Midlands, and Kent. Soon after Christmas the plot was discovered, causing the conspirators to bring their plans forward. Sir Thomas Dennys was ordered to arrest the Devon plotters. Sir Peter Carew escaped to France, aided by Kate’s brother-in-law, Walter Raleigh senior. Along with many others, Kate’s brother, Sir Arthur Champernowne, and her uncle, Sir Gawen Carew spent an uncomfortable few months in the Tower, until Mary eventually released them. Sir Thomas Wyatt was the only one to actually bring his followers into the field. After a few skirmishes with Mary’s forces, led by the ageing Duke of Norfolk, he marched on London. Unfortunately for Wyatt, Londoners did not turn out to assist him, forcing him to surrender on February 7, 1554. Convinced that Elizabeth had been involved, Mary had Wyatt questioned. However, he steadfastly refused to implicate Elizabeth, even when tortured.

Wyatt was executed on April 11, 1554. Other ring-leaders including Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and his brother Lord Thomas Grey, also lost their lives. Kate’s husband, who may have acted as a go-between, left the country, taking with him Kate’s nephews, the Denny boys.

Perhaps because of Kate’s intimate connections with the plotters, Mary remained deeply suspicious. She ordered Elizabeth to London to face questioning. Even though she was genuinely ill, Mary’s doctors declared Elizabeth fit to travel. Elizabeth set off, travelling by very slow stages. It is probable that they separated Kate from her mistress when the party stopped overnight at the home of Sir Roger Cholmeley, a prominent lawyer, in Hampstead.

This began a long separation. Sir Roger questioned Kate, either at his mansion in the Old Bailey, or at his country house at Highgate. She gave nothing away that would implicate her Mistress, and remained under house arrest for fifteen months. Elizabeth, meanwhile, ended up in the Tower of London in fear of her life. Ironically, she arrived there on Palm Sunday, the day originally planned for the uprising. Mary eventually sent her to Woodstock, where she remained under close guard until called back to court in April 1555 to attend the expected birth of Mary’s child. By the autumn of 1555 it was clear the queen was not pregnant. Probably with the encouragement of her husband, Mary allowed Elizabeth to return to Hatfield and ordered Kate’s release from Sir Roger’s custody.

John arrived home from his ‘exile’ on the continent, and Kate joined Elizabeth at Hatfield. However, Kate soon found herself suspected of involvement in another plot. Sir Henry Dudley, a distant relative of the executed John Dudley, led another unsuccessful attempt to depose Mary and marry Elizabeth to Edward Courtenay.

At the end of May 1556, seditious pamphlets were found in Kate’s rooms at Somerset House. Mary had her interrogated at the Tower and then imprisoned for several months in the Fleet. This prison was more often used to house those accused of civil offences, and Mary often kept religious dissenters there. Imprisonment there cannot have been a pleasant experience. Although the conditions were somewhat better than at some other prisons, prisoners had to pay for their board and lodging. Hopefully John Astley could afford to pay for tolerable conditions and decent food, although he may have gone overseas again for a time. Later that year the queen released Kate, but she clearly still saw her as a threat. She forbade Kate’s return to Elizabeth’s household. It wasn’t until 1558, when Elizabeth claimed the throne after Mary died, that they were reunited.

In my book, I delve deeper into these events. Kate’s association with known plotters makes it almost certain that she, and possibly her husband too, acted as go-betweens during the most dangerous period of young Elizabeth’s life. Kate Astley was, throughout her career, a highly political actor, and her role during Queen Mary’s reign deserves further attention. She was much more than a governess.

Rosemary Griggs

Buy the book: Queen Elizabeth I’s Governess: The Real Kat Ashley

About the Author:

Author and speaker Rosemary Griggs has been researching Devon’s sixteenth-century history for years. She has discovered a cast of fascinating characters and an intriguing network of families whose influence stretched far beyond the West Country. She loves telling the stories of the forgotten women of history — the women beyond the royal court; wives, sisters, daughters and mothers who played their part during those tumultuous Tudor years: the Daughters of Devon.

Her novel A Woman of Noble Wit tells the story of Katherine Champernowne, Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother, and features many of the county’s well-loved places. The Dartington Bride, published March 2024, is the extraordinary tale of Lady Gabrielle Roberda Montgomery who travelled from France to Elizabethan England to marry into the prominent and well-connected Champernowne family. Her third book, Mistress of Dartington Hall, set in the time of the Spanish Armada, is due for publication July 2025  

Rosemary creates and wears sixteenth-century clothing, a passion which complements her love for bringing the past to life through a unique blend of theatre, history and re-enactment. Her appearances and talks for museums and community groups all over the West Country draw on her extensive research into sixteenth-century Devon, Tudor life and Tudor dress, particularly Elizabethan. An Audience with the Lady Katherine includes a full demonstration of the costume of a wealthy sixteenth century woman.

Out of costume, Rosemary leads heritage tours of the gardens at Dartington Hall, a fourteenth-century manor house and now a historic visitor destination, events venue and thriving community of businesses, colleges and more.

Find out more on Rosemary’s website

My books

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‘My daughter wanted me to treat her more like a princess. So, I married her to a stranger to strengthen the alliance with Poland!’

Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest and Princesses of the Later Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets tell the stories of England’s royal daughters from 1066 to the rise of the Tudors, from the last Anglo-Saxon princesses to the fall of the House of York.

Were they really pampered pawns sent off to marriages on the Continent, out of sight and out of mind?

Perhaps, there was different story, where a foreign marriage does not mean eternal exile, but a purpose in life, where a princess is a diplomat, an ambassador for England in her new country.

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Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking...

Praise for Princesses of the Early Middle Ages:

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Praise for Princesses of the Later Middle Ages:

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Pre-order: Princesses of the Later Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets

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The momentous events of 1066, the story of invasion, battle and conquest, are well known. But what of the women? Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play during the Norman Conquest – wives, lovers, sisters, mothers, leaders. These are lives full of drama, pathos and sometimes mystery: Edith and Gytha searching the battlefield of Hastings for the body of Harold, his lover and mother united in their grief for the fallen king. Who was Ælfgyva, the lady of the Bayeux Tapestry, portrayed with a naked man at her feet?

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Also by Sharon Bennett Connolly:

Heroines of the Medieval World; Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest; Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England; Defenders of the Norman Crown: Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey; King John’s Right Hand Lady: The Story of Nicholaa de la Haye; Women of the Anarchy; Heroines of the Tudor World; Scotland’s Medieval Queens: From St Margaret to Margaret of Denmark; Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters of the Conquest (March 2026); Princesses of the Later Middle Ages; Royal Daughters of the Plantagenets (August 2026)

Alternate Endings: An anthology of historical fiction short stories including Long Live the King… which is my take what might have happened had King John not died in October 1216. Available in paperback and kindle from Amazon.

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Podcast:

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Guest Post: Anne Boleyn Forces Legal Reform by Heather R. Darsie

17/01/2026Sharon Bennett Connolly2 Comments

Anne Boleyn is one of the great enigmas of English history. Credited – or blamed – for Henry VIII’s break with Rome and the English Reformation, she is also the mother of one of England’s greatest monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I. Moreover, Anne Boleyn holds the tragic distinction of being the first queen of England to ever be executed. Historian Heather R. Darsie‘s new book, If Any Person Will Meddle of My Cause: The Judicial Murder of Anne Boleyn, looks into Anne’s queenship and execution – and how the law made her death possible.

And today we have a treat! An extract from the book, to give you a taste of what’s in store….

Welcome Heather!

Anne Boleyn Forces Legal Reform

By Heather R. Darsie, J. D.

Anne Boleyn is famously seen as the reason for Henry VIII breaking from the Catholic church. Her interest in at least reforming religion in England, if not going more toward the way of Martin Luther, made her a figurehead in some ways for underground efforts. In reality, Henry was finishing the work of his forbears from centuries before. He also quickly learned that he needed to pull away from Rome so that he could have full control of legal matters within his kingdom, without outside meddling or dawdling,

“Although Henry had grown frustrated over the confounding dithering of Clement VII and ineptitude of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in the handling of his Great Matter, the issue of Henry VIII’s annulment from Katharine of Aragon was not the biggest problem. The biggest problem was, Henry rapidly learned, that he had no control over his legal system in very important arenas when he needed it most. Aside from not having legal control, the lag time in communications being sent from London to Rome and back again contributed to the delay in Henry’s annulment proceedings, too.

Once Henry was set on his path inspired by Anne Boleyn, he learned just how much money was being kept out his coffers. Cardinal Wolsey started the process before his death, but Thomas Cromwell and Anne spurred Henry to continue shutting down religious institutions in an effort to redistribute the nation’s wealth in favour of crown and kingdom. None of these ideas were novel….

Loosening the church’s powers with England began at the very tail end of the High Middle Ages with Edward I of England. At the beginning of the thirteenth century with the enaction of Magna Carta, the passing of land to a corporation, like a church, without royal consent was forbidden. …Edward I enacted the Statutum de Viris Religiosis, or Statute of Religious Men, in 1279…It forbade the passage of any lands in mortmain [meaning “deadhand”] to any religious man. If anyone did pass their lands to a religious man, then those lands were forfeited…The goals of the Mortmain statutes were not achieved until Henry VIII’s Parliament passed several statutes in 1529 and one directly addressing mortmain in 1531. Henry then began dissolving the monasteries in the 1530s, something he arguably would not have done without being encouraged by his fixation on and love for Anne Boleyn…

Henry VIII was not the first king of England to challenge the pope’s authority. He was the fourth, although the laws of the first two kings were more or less forgotten by the time Henry started taking action. Edward III passed the first, overtly aggressive statutes against papal power, with his successor Richard II taking even stronger action…The laws fell by the wayside during the fifteenth century, not to be fully revived until Henry VIII needed to assert stronger control….

[Edward III] enacted the Statute of Praemunire Facias, or simply the Statute of Praemunire, in 1353. This statute severely curtailed the influence and outright meddling of papal authority and other foreign powers within England… The punishments for the Statute of Praemunire were…severe. Anyone who effectively requested foreign interference with any legal matter, temporal or ecclesiastical, that rightly was under the purview of the king of England’s courts, was at risk of imprisonment, being outlawed and forfeiting all their property, goods, lands, and chattel. These were extremely serious penalties.

Being outlawed meant that the person had no rights or legal protection. Effectively, they were stripped of personhood and did not exist. If the person were robbed and killed after being outlawed, no crime was committed because the person existed outside of the law. Being outlawed was a desperate state of living and reserved for only the worst criminals, as in some ways it was a fate worse than death. The only positive element of being outlawed was that a person, if they survived their term of outlawry, they could be allowed back into society. Once recognised as a legal person again, they were usually at a diminished station, but at least they were alive and had rights… [Updates] were made to the Statute of Praemunire in 1365, curtailing the ability of the papal court to act as a court of first impression or a court of appeal for matters arising in England…

Roughly twenty-five years later, Richard II continued his grandfather Edward III’s work… The 1393 Statute of Praemunire Facias, enhancing the law passed in 1353, did not allow the papal curia to hear any non-spiritual matters that were prejudicial to the king, or went against the customs and laws of England. Spiritual matters could still be heard in Rome, such as divorces and annulments. Anyone who violated the 1393 statute risked punishment by forfeiting all that they owned and being outlawed. The same punishment applied to anyone who aided and abetted them. This was where Henry VIII suffered from the decisions of his great-great-great-granduncle Richard II in Henry’s Great Matter with Katharine of Aragon. This is why Henry’s annulment proceeding simply had to be heard by the pope in Rome, unless Cardinal Wolsey could figure out a solution.…”

Henry VIII’s need for Anne Boleyn opened his eyes to the restrictions of his legal control within England. Their passion inspired Henry to complete the work that was begun hundreds of years before anyone conjured the name of ‘Anne Boleyn’.

For more, pick up a copy of If Any Person Will Meddle of My Cause: The Judicial Murder of Anne Boleyn, available via hardback and Kindle in the UK, or via Kindle internationally. Hardbacks are available for international pre-order, with release on 21 April 2026.

About the book:

Many people know about the dramatic rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s controversial second wife, but this is the first book to look at her life from a Continental perspective. Her role models for queenship came from the Low Countries and France, and this contributed to her tragic end. Heather R. Darsie reviews the political missteps and implications of Anne Boleyn’s queenship, delving into the threat she posed to Henry, and why legal changes made during the early years of the English Reformation allowed the English king to judicially murder his inconvenient queen.

Historically, certain things have been overlooked about Anne’s execution: she wore colours usually associated with martyrdom, announced that she did not come to preach, was killed by beheading instead of burning, and had a very crude burial in an unmarked grave. Anne tried to portray herself as a martyr, and Henry did everything he could to prevent her from reaching that status. If Any Person Will Meddle of My Cause is about Anne Boleyn, but not the Anne Boleyn you know.