An Elizabethan whose story I became aware of through a novel is Helena Snakenborg, who features in Tracy Borman’s novel, The King’s Witch. I had to know more about this Swedish lady living in Tudor England, and include her in my own Heroines of the Tudor World. Even more so after I learned that Helena was the only foreigner amongst Queen Elizabeth’s ladies. Helena was born in 1548, into an ancient Swedish baronial family. Her father, Ulf Henriksson, had been a trusted supporter of King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden. Her mother, Agneta Knuttson, was a descendant of the earls of Orkney and it is from her mother’s family that Helena took her name, Snakenborg.
In 1564, at the age of fifteen, Helena was appointed a maid of honour to Gustav Vasa’s daughter, and the sister of the new King Eric XIV, Princess Cecilia. Later that same year, Princess Cecilia embarked on a voyage to England, taking Helena with her. Cecilia claimed that as a committed Anglophile, she wanted to meet the queen of England. She may also have been hoping to revive her brother’s suit for Queen Elizabeth’s hand in marriage. Their overland journey to England was long and arduous.
They travelled through Poland and Germany in order to avoid hostile countries and were hampered by bad weather. The princess was accompanied by her husband and fell pregnant during the journey, necessitating further delays. Almost a year had passed by the time they arrived in London in September 1565, with the Spanish ambassador reporting to Philip II,
‘On the 11th instant [of September] the king of Sweden’s sister entered London at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. She is very far advanced in pregnancy, and was dressed in a black velvet robe with a mantle of black cloth of silver, and wore on her head a golden crown… She had with her six Ladies dressed in crimson taffety with mantles of the same.’1
The arrival of the Swedish princess caused a great deal of excitement at court and the queen gave them a lavish reception. Among Cecilia’s six ladies was Helena Snakenborg and in a letter to her mother, Helena wrote of their reception in England: ‘There came so many to visit us that there was no end to it. All wished us a hearty welcome to England.’2 After the official ceremonies were completed, Princess Cecilia was taken at once to the place designated for her confinement, where she gave birth to a son on 14 September. The princess was given the use of Bedford House as her London residence. She did not remain long in seclusion after the birth and she and her entourage soon became regular visitors at court, treated to receptions and entertainments.
Helena was by all accounts a beautiful young woman, with large brown eyes, red hair and a pink and white complexion. She attracted the attention of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton, a man thirty-five years her senior whose sister, Kateryn Parr, had been Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife. In a letter to her mother, Helena told her about the marquess’s attention:
‘Amongst the gentlemen was a courtier who always came with the earliest arrivals and left amongst the last. When my gracious Lady had been “churched” after the baby was born, the Marquess of Northampton (for that was the courtier’s name) talked to my gracious lady about me.’3
The marquess of Northampton wasted no time in pressing his suit with Helena, sending her lavish gifts of clothes and jewels, and ‘being an impressionable and romantic young girl, Helena was swept off her feet by the experienced older man.’4 Helena was beguiled by Northampton, who wanted to marry her but felt prevented from doing so because, although divorced in 1551, his first wife Lady Anne Bourchier was still alive and there were some doubts as to the validity of the divorce.
In the meantime, Princess Cecilia had run up some rather large debts due to her lavish lifestyle in England. Her debts, in excess of £3,000, had been amassed as a result of the purchase of poultry, articles of plate and jewellery, a kirtle wrought with gold, a Venice lute – the list goes on. The princess left England in order to escape her creditors, though she had been obliged by the queen to sell whatever she could in order to raise as much money as she could to pay off at least some of the debt, leaving England in April 1566. The princess had wanted to take Helena with her, but the young woman was enjoying life in England, and the attentions of the marquess of Northampton, and wanted to stay.
Queen Elizabeth came to Helena’s rescue by offering her a place in her household, appointing her a maid of honour in 1567 and later promoting her to Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. Although unpaid, the queen awarded her new maid of honour additional privileges, including lodgings at court, servants and a horse. It seems Queen Elizabeth had grown fond of Helena and was keen to help the budding romance of Helena and Northampton. Helena, in her turn, was in the queen’s thrall, emulating her dress and manners and even her signature, underlining the ‘H’ with the same flourish Elizabeth did with her ‘E’. Helena was diligent and conscientious in her duties and became an indispensable member of the queen’s household.
Helena’s relationship with Northampton was still hindered by Northampton’s ambiguous marital status, but the marquess was still generous with Helena, assigning ten of his own servants to care for her and giving her everything she needed or wanted. Helena told her mother: ‘I cannot imagine I shall ever want for anything however beautiful or expensive that his Lordship can buy without his getting it at once for his Elin.’5 The couple’s patience was eventually rewarded, so to speak, with the death of Anne Bourchier in January 1571. William Parr was finally free to marry.
The wedding took place in May in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, who had offered her own closet in Whitehall Palace for the ceremony. The bride was twenty-two and the groom fifty-seven. The newlyweds divided their time between their houses in Guildford, Surrey, and Stanstead Hall, Essex, close enough to London that Helena could attend court regularly. The happy marriage came to a sudden end within just a few months, when the marquess fell ill at Warwick in September 1571. He had been suffering from gout for some time and it now took a turn for the worse. Helena nursed her ailing husband through the ensuing weeks, but the earl succumbed to his illness on 28 October. They had been married just five months. The queen bore the costs of the funeral and even provided material from her own wardrobe for the mourning outfits.
Helena was left a young widow with a substantial dower of £368 per annum from her husband’s estates in Cumberland. She could have retired from court and lived in comfort for the rest of her life, but Helena chose to return to the queen’s service just as soon as her husband’s affairs were settled. It was not long, however, before she attracted a new admirer in Thomas Gorges. Although the queen was initially in favour of the match, she refused to consent to a marriage, either out of jealousy or concern for the disparity in their statuses. Helena was a marchioness, whereas Thomas was merely a gentleman, serving as a Groom of the Privy Chamber. In spite of the queen’s objections, the couple married in secret in 1576, earning themselves Elizabeth’s wrath.
Dismissed from court, Helena wrote to the queen to beg forgiveness, describing herself as ‘a poure, desolate, and banished creature’.6
Helena was soon forgiven and welcomed back to court, with the queen granting Helena manors in Huntingdonshire and Wiltshire. Her second marriage appears to have been as happy as the first, if not happier. Two years later, Helena left court to give birth to her first child, a daughter named after Elizabeth for whom the queen acted as godmother, presenting Helena with a silver-gilt bowl at the christening. A son, Francis, was probably born the following year, with at least six more children after that, two more daughters and four more sons, the last being born in 1589.
Despite her growing brood Helena still served the queen, acting as her deputy at the baptisms of children of distinguished noblemen, especially towards the end of the reign as the queen’s health was deteriorating. Helena was with Elizabeth during her final illness at Richmond and remained with the queen’s body after her death on 24 March 1603, watching over the corpse as it was laid in a lead coffin and then accompanied it as it was taken by barge from Richmond to Whitehall Palace in a sombre torchlit procession. As senior peeress, Helena was chief mourner at Elizabeth’s funeral at Westminster Abbey on 28 April.
The reign of King James I (VI of Scots) inevitably meant changes at court and Thomas Gorges was demoted. Helena, too, lost some of her privileges. And with the death of Thomas on 30 March 1610, she increasingly retreated from public life. A devoted member of the Church of England, she died on 10 April 1635, having lived in England for almost exactly seventy years. She granted over £1,700 in annuities and bequests in her will. At the time of her death, Helena had ninety-two living, direct descendants.
Helen Snakenborg, Marchioness of Northampton, was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, beside her second husband Thomas Gorges who had been laid to rest there in 1610.
In her long life, Helena Snakenborg had been lucky enough to enjoy two happy marriages, both made for love, and to have enjoyed the love and patronage of Queen Elizabeth. Even when she had faced the wrath of the queen, Helena had managed to win back her favour.
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Images:
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Notes:
1. CSPS, Elizabeth 1558-67, I, 475 quoted in Tracy Borman, Elizabeth’s Women, p. 278; 2. ibid; 3. ibid; 4. Paul Harrington, ‘Gorges [née Snakenborg], Helena, Lady Gorges [other married name Helena Parr, marchioness of Northampton],’ Oxforddnb.com; 5. Tracy Borman, Elizabeth’s Women, p. 281; 6. BM Cotton MS Titus B II, f. 346 quoted in Tracy Borman, Elizabeth’s Women, p. 357
Sources:
Tracy Borman, Elizabeth’s Women; Paul Harrington, ‘Gorges [née Snakenborg], Helena, Lady Gorges [other
married name Helena Parr, marchioness of Northampton],’ Oxforddnb.com; Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth, 1547-80, ed. Robert Lemon; Elizabeth Norton, The Lives of Tudor Women; Amy Licence, Tudor Roses: From Margaret Beaufort to Elizabeth I; Paul Kendall, Queen Elizabeth I: Life & Legacy of the Virgin Queen; Lisa Hilton, Elizabeth I: Renaissance Prince, A Biography; John Guy, Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years; Laura Brennan, Elizabeth I: The Making of a Queen; R.E. Pritchard, Sex, Love & Marriage in the Elizabethan Age; Alison Weir, Elizabeth the Queen; Neville Williams, The Life and Times of Elizabeth I; Sarah Gristwood, The Tudors in Love: The Courtly Code Behind the Last Medieval Dynasty
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Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Rise and Fall of the Warenne Earls of Surrey tells the fascinating story of the Warenne dynasty, from its origins in Normandy, through the Conquest, Magna Carta, the wars and marriages that led to its ultimate demise in the reign of Edward III. Available from Pen & Sword Books, Amazon in the UK and US, and Bookshop.org. Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England looks into the relationships of the various noble families of the 13th century, and how they were affected by the Barons’ Wars, Magna Carta and its aftermath; the bonds that were formed and those that were broken. It is now available in paperback and hardback from Pen & Sword, Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Heroines of the Medieval World tells the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich. Available now from Amberley Publishing and Amazon, and Bookshop.org. Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066. Available now from Amazon, Amberley Publishing, and Bookshop.org.
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History... the interesting bits! 