© Unknown Artist – The National Portrait Gallery
Not many men were fortunate enough to remain a favourite of King Henry VIII nor survive his wrath long enough to avoid imprisonment or execution. There are a mere few whom Henry had at his side for almost his entire life and one of those men was his childhood best-friend and widowed brother-in-law; Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk.
As a young prince, Henry would have been surrounded with many young boys his own age, or close to it, but sadly, many of those friendships would not last long in comparison to his friendship with Charles Brandon, who remained his friend right until the end of the latter’s life. If you excuse the brief period of exile Charles Brandon endured due to his secret and forbidden marriage to Henry VIII’s younger sister, Mary Tudor.
You might have seen this event in Charles’ life in popular television shows such as Showtime’s The Tudors or Starz’s The Spanish Princess but there was so much to Charles Brandon’s life than his marriage to a Tudor Princess or his friendship with the King. He was reasonable for helping Henry VIII achieve some of his most notable political and warfare triumphs as well as being one of the King’s most trusted advisors, someone he could always rely on to do exactly what he wanted without argument. After all, his brief exile from court had taught Charles that pleasing the King was something he had to learn how to deal with and content himself with, even if it went against his better judgment. A man who was exiled from court had little power and influence in England, therefore it was imperative to never anger the King and always be aware of others who might seek to cause conflict with you and the King.
And Charles Brandon was one of the few men who had suffered the wrath of the tyrant King and lived to tell the tale. Despite angering the King through his marriage to Mary Tudor, Charles was still able to rise so high in Tudor society and become quite a powerful man in his own right.
Today marks the 478th anniversary of the death of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and so let us take a glimpse through the sixty-one years of his life.
We do not know the precise date of Charles Brandon’s birth but we believe he was born in circa.1484, making him around two years older than Prince Arthur and seven years older than the King himself. Charles was the son of Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn, whilst the birth year of his brother William is unknown, we do know that he died before 1500, most likely as an infant. Charles also had three sisters, two of which were illegitimate half-sisters by his father; Anne Brandon and his two half-sisters, Katherine and Elizabeth.
You will notice that a lot of Tudor names were common and could often cause confusion if repeated within numerous generations in a family.
Charles’ father, Sir William Brandon, was the standard-bearer (they carried standards which were spears with various symbols on them including the house banner of whom they served but they also served as bankers by looking after the pay of the soldiers and other men in the army) for Henry VII, was killed when Charles was very young, perhaps one or two years old, during the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485. William himself was only around twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old when he was killed, it is said that Richard III himself was the one responsible for his death. You might be wondering what relevance this has to Charles’ life but it is his father’s death (assumedly) at the hands of Richard III which prompted King Henry VII to place a young Charles under his care and move him to live with him at court, as a way of repaying his father for his loyalty and death in the battle to win him his crown.
His aunt Mary was also married to the treasurer of King Henry VII, John Reading (Reding) which might have also influenced the King’s decision to have Charles live as part of his court, as he might have planned to give Charles a title or important role of his own when the time was right or asked his son Arthur to do it when he himself became King.
When young Charles arrived at Henry VII’s court in London, he was immediately introduced to Prince Arthur, who was born in September 1486, and although they did form a slight connection, he did not accompany the young prince to Ludlow Castle in 1502 upon Arthur’s marriage to the Spanish Princess, Catherine of Aragon.
It is believed that Henry VII chose to keep him in London to act as playmate and friend to his youngest son, Henry, the Duke of York. At this time, Henry was eleven years old and Charles might have been around eighteen or nineteen years old, but that did not stop the boys from forming a close connection and quickly becoming inseparable best-friends. Despite popular opinion, Charles did not live as part of Henry’s household but they were always close to one another in proximity.
The two boys shared similar interests, including sword-fighting, jousting and having unrestricted fun at court, despite Henry being a Prince and Charles a member of the gentry—Henry was not the heir to the throne, meaning he could almost do whatever he pleased. Historians have often commented on how, before his mother’s death, Henry would have temper tantrums if he did not receive the attention he wanted and would sometimes try and steal attention from others if he felt he was being left out. Henry was known as Harry by those close to him and it is said that when Charles angered him, Henry would respond by saying his name was Prince Henry, not Harry. We also see this in The Spanish Princess and The Tudors, showing that although their friendship was not based off title, Charles had to remember he was friends with a King (or Prince at that time) and not a regular man.
Henry VII continued to allow Charles to benefit from being in his royal court by allowing him a proper education just like his son Henry, as it is believed they were taught together by the royal tutor. Charles must have thought that he would achieve a position within the royal household like his father had before him, as Henry would surely ask his brother Arthur to bestow one upon him once he became King.
Nothing would prepare him for the sudden, tragic death of Prince Arthur on 2nd April 1502, leaving Henry the immediate and only heir to the throne of England, nor would he have expected Henry VII to die a mere seven years later on 21st April 1509, making his best-friend the new King of England, known to history as Henry VIII. No one could have predicted that England would lose its Crown Prince, Queen and King all in the span of nearly ten years or that their new King would take his brother’s widow as his Queen.
Nevertheless, upon his coronation, Charles immediately swore his oath of allegiance and loyalty to the King and Queen, showing that despite everything that had happened, Henry always had his best-friend Charles by his side.
Henry, in return, kept him close within his court, making Charles a courtier of the King’s court and, unsurprisingly, quite a ladies’ man, just like the King. The two men often talked about their romantic interests at court and which women caught their eye, Charles was unmarried at this time and Henry, despite showing a deep love and care for his wife, was never going to be a faithful husband as long as he was King. Women practically flung themselves at the both of them, especially since Charles was close to the King meaning that the woman he married would undoubtedly have a much sought-after title and power at court.
William Dugdale (1605-1686) describes Charles Brandon as;
“a person comely of stature, high of courage and conformity of disposition to King Henry VIII, with whom he became a great favourite.”
Charles’ first betrothal came not too long after his established role as a courtier of the King’s court as in 1505, he was officially betrothed to Anne Browne, the daughter of Anthony Browne and Eleanor Ughtred. This match was definitely one of interest to Charles as Anne’s father was the Constable of Calais and had relations with the Neville family through his second marriage who, despite not being as powerful as they had been in the past, were still incredibly wealthy—something that could prove beneficial for Brandon.
Whether Charles and Anne had loved one another or not, the two shared some connection or lust for one another as they proceeded to sleep together (it is unsure of whether Charles was a virgin at this time as Anne surely would have been), despite only being engaged at this time. In the eyes of the Church, however, as they had been pre-contracted to marry and were engaged, their intimate relations meant that they had consummated their marriage, making it valid even without an official marriage ceremony.
Anne must have felt extremely lucky to have married a favourite of the King, as it meant that her popularity at court would surely increase, and not long after, Anne found out she was pregnant with their first child, the future Lady Anne Brandon, Baroness Grey of Powys. But this happiness could soon be spoilt by Charles, who was not convinced that they were truly married, and by her step-aunt (the sister of her stepmother, Lucy Neville), Margaret Neville, the extraordinarily wealthy widow Lady Mortimer as they were married on around 7th February 1507. Charles’ reason for abandoning Anne to marry her aunt is not know but the good news for Anne was that Charles’ marriage to her Aunt Margaret was swiftly annulled a few months later and Charles returned to Anne where they were officially married at St Michael’s Church in Cornhill in early 1508 to avoid further scandal. Anne must have felt betrayed still to know that Charles only returned to her because his marriage to her step-aunt was dissolved and he had no choice after most likely taking Anne’s virginity and forever damaging her reputation, meaning she had no choice but to remain with Charles as no other man would have accepted her in her ‘ruined’ state.
The state of Charles’ marriage to Anne following his return to her by the time of their daughter’s birth in 1507 is unknown but we can assume that Anne contented herself with the fact that Charles was her legal husband and that she was married to a favourite of the King and a loyal courtier who he was sure to receive titles and grants of land from. Of course, this did not mean that Anne would have acted kindly towards the husband who betrayed her for her step-aunt but Anne would have known to hide her feelings of indifference in public, saving her fury and hurt towards her husband for their private chambers where no one could see or hear them.
Although Anne and Charles would go on to have another daughter; Mary Brandon, the future Baroness Monteagle in 1510, their marriage was not to end with the desired happily ever after. Anne died circa.1511-1512, leaving Charles widowed with two young daughters at the age of around twenty-eight years of age. Despite being married, Charles was still considered quite handsome and now was a desirable bachelor within Henry’s court.
As expected, Henry VIII began to bestow honour after honour upon his childhood friend as a sign of appreciation for his devoted loyalty and service to the Crown. The first known title Henry bestowed on Charles was Master of the Horse in 1513 which was accompanied by multiple valuable grants of land and Charles holding a succession of offices in the royal household to conduct his business in. It is during this year that Charles purchased the wardship of Elizabeth Grey, 5th Baroness Lisle, 3rd Viscountess Lisle. She was the daughter of John Grey, the 2nd Viscount Lisle, and Lady Muriel Howard but with her father’s death in 1504 making her a considerable heiress, she was made a ward of the Crown. However, her mother and stepfather’s deaths in 1512 had allowed Charles to purchase her wardship, meaning that she lived with him as his ward and someone he was financially and morally responsible for.
Following this, on the 15th May 1513, Charles entered into a pre-marriage contract with an eight-year-old Elizabeth, for reasons unknown but we can assume it was because Charles sought more power and influence at court because he was created Viscount Lisle immediately following his ‘engagement’ to Elizabeth, whom he would marry once she reached the mature age of twelve, according to the Church. Yep, girls could legally be married at the age of twelve whilst boys could at the age of fourteen, for some odd reason.
Charles also distinguished himself during the French campaign of 1513 at the sieges of Thérouanne and Tournai where he had successfully convinced the citizens to surrender the city. This encouraged Henry to try and arrange a better marriage contract for his childhood friend. Margaret of Savoy was the woman he wanted Charles to abandon Elizabeth for as he reminded her that Charles was a “second king” to himself, showing the amount of trust and respect Charles received from the King, and advised her to write him a kind letter i.e. introduce herself to Charles so that he may begin to court her without Elizabeth’s knowledge. It is also important to remember that although many people were involved in pre-contract marriages very early on in their lives, that did not mean that the people involved ultimately had to go through with the marriage in the end. If a better marriage contract could be arranged, you could easily ask permission from the King to annul the contract and sign the new one. Royals such as Mary I, Elizabeth I and Edward VI (yes, all of Henry’s legitimate children) had multiple pre-contract marriage agreements arranged throughout their lives which were unsuccessful for many reasons that included either Henry or the other party changing their mind about their choice of an in-law.
Much to Henry’s dismay, Margaret of Savoy was not interested in Charles, even after he was made Duke of Suffolk on 4th March 1514, meaning that Charles’ engagement to his ward, Elizabeth, remained valid.
However, this marriage was not destined to take place as Charles would travel to France to retrieve Mary Tudor, the younger sister of Henry VIII and considered to be the most beautiful princess of her time, following her husband Louis XII’s death after just 82 days of marriage and bring her back to England. His duty was to safely return the former Queen of France back to the royal court where she would be married off for a second time, probably to a high-standing member of the King’s Council. Both Mary and Charles did not allow this to happen however, as they married secretly at the Hotel de Clugny in Paris on 3rd March 1515 in the presence of the new King Francis I and another nine people. The funny thing is that, before agreeing to marry King Louis XII, Mary had her brother promise that should she survive her husband, she wanted the freedom to choose her second husband. Although Henry had promised this, it was unlikely that he would live up to his end of the bargain. Even more funny is the fact that Henry made his best-friend swear not to propose to his vulnerable, recently widowed sister otherwise he would suffer the consequences.
And suffer they would as we explain in a moment but in any case… because Charles had secretly married Mary, who was twelve years younger than him, his pre-marriage contract to Elizabeth Grey was now annulled and Charles was forced to forfeit the title also, although he did not surrender it until the years of between 1519 to 1523. As a result of their engagement ending, Elizabeth’s wardship was sold to Katherine Plantagenet, the Countess of Devon for £4,000 who then married Elizabeth to her son Henry Courtenay who was a relation of Edward IV of England. Elizabeth’s story, like Anne Browne’s, did not end happily as she died at the age of fourteen, possibly leaving her marriage unconsummated and therefore invalid. Her title of Lisle passed to the husband of her aunt, Arthur Plantagenet.
Due to the scandalous nature of Charles and Mary’s marriage, regardless of whether Henry VIII wanted to or not, they had committed treason by defying the orders of the Crown as well as marrying without the King’s permission and therefore had to be punished. Whilst Henry ultimately was not upset by their marriage, more about the fact that they had married in such a scandalous nature, he forced the newly-weds to pay a heavy fine, of which barley any payments were made before the fine was wiped clean off the couple’s backs. However, this was not the only payment Henry VIII expected the couple to make; as the couple were at this point residing in Calais, they would only be allowed to return once they agreed to reimburse the King for the expenses of Mary’s first marriage. This included all the jewels, monies and other gifts that the late Louis XII had bestowed upon Mary as well as a grand total of £24,000 in six annual payments of £4,000—a lot of money in Tudor money in comparison to modern-day currency.
Naturally, both Mary and Charles readily agreed to Henry’s terms as Mary penned a letter to her brother reminding them of the ‘great and tender love’ they always shared as brother and sister, apologising once more for her forbidden marriage to his best-friend. Satisfied that the couple had learned their lesson and undoubtedly wishing to be reunited with his best-friend and younger sister, he responded with a letter of permission to return to England. Once Charles and Mary were back in England, they were swiftly married at Greenwich Palace on 13th May 1515, as a way of relieving some of the scandal off all of their backs, especially Henry’s. He could not have the fact that his sister, a Princess, had married a member of his court in immoral circumstances thrown in his face by respected peers.
Whilst I will not go into a heavy amount of detail over the subject of Charles Brandon’s marriage to Mary Tudor (as you can read my colleague Sira’s post on this matter), I will mention that Charles’ relationship with his brother-in-law the King resumed as normal once he returned to court. The two would continue to spend an enormous amount of time in each other’s company, usually passing the time with physical activities such as jousting, hawking, hunting etc. It was like nothing had occurred between them and this was noted by the Venetian Ambassador, Sebastian Giustinian circa.1515-1519, saying that;
“for the affection which the King entertained for Charles Brandon, afterwards Duke of Suffolk. Henry's partiality to this brilliant nobleman exceeded the bounds of ordinary friendship. He pushed Brandon's fortunes with the affection and assiduity of a brother.”
Charles and Mary now resided at Westhorpe Hall where they would go on to have four children together, although their two sons would die as mere children. Their first child, Lord Henry Brandon was born on 11th March 1516 and was named after Mary’s brother, the King—of which Henry must have felt very honoured. Sadly, he would not reach adulthood as he would die at the tender age of six in 1522. Following shortly after Henry came the couple’s first daughter, Lady Frances Brandon on the 16th July 1517. You might know of this daughter of Charles and Mary’s as Frances would later become the wife of Henry Grey, the 1st Duke of Suffolk and 3rd Marquess of Dorset and become the mother to Lady Jane Grey—famously known to history as the Nine Days Queen. After Frances followed another daughter, Lady Eleanor Brandon who was born in 1519 and married Henry Clifford, the 2nd Earl of Cumberland, and finally their final child and second son; Henry Brandon, the 1st Earl of Lincoln, born in circa.1523. You will notice that in the Tudor era (as well as other following eras), there will be numerous children with the same names, especially if a younger child is named after a deceased elder sibling.
By 1523, Charles would have fathered six children; four daughters and two sons although his eldest son Henry would have died the previous year and his youngest son Henry would die in 1534.
During the years of 1516 to 1523, Charles was incredibly busy catering to the King’s every desire. Whilst Mary completely retired from court following their return to England, Charles was always at the King’s side at some of the most important events in history. This included the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, commanding the English troops in the 1523 invasion of France as well as being appointed Earl Marshal of England in 1524, although he relinquished the office to Thomas Howard, a relative of Anne Boleyn, in 1533 following her coronation as Queen of England.
The late 1520s and the early 1530s showed a change in Henry VIII’s reliance on Charles; the relationship between the King and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, had soured greatly and the King had now decided that he wanted to divorce his wife in favour of Lady Anne Boleyn, a woman who he believed would solve his ‘Great Matter’ a.k.a. produce a living male heir. It was Charles Brandon’s responsibility to assist with succeeding in receiving an annulment for the King’s marriage. As the King’s best-friend, Charles knew how easily enraged the King could become and therefore he “studied his disposition, and exactly conformed to it”, meaning that he did as the King willed and did not speak out against him. This is why in the year 1529, many at Henry’s court commented on how Charles was so close to the King that he was a leading opponent to Cardinal Wolsey, the King’s highest and most trusted advisor. You see, Charles did not agree with the King’s decision to divorce Catherine of Aragon nor his treatment of his Queen as in April 1533, he was the one who informed her thar she was no longer Queen of England and later paid her another visit in December to remove some of her servants on the King’s orders. Charles, along with his wife Mary, were supporters of Catherine and did not care for the King’s mistress and soon-to-be-Queen, Anne Boleyn, which meant that he often did not like to do any duties that included further shaming the Spanish Princess.
Yet unlike others within Henry’s court, Charles never spoke of the ill-treatment of Catherine of Aragon nor the new Queen Anne Boleyn, although Mary would most likely have shared her opinions of the Boleyns with those who visited their home away from court. As for religious beliefs, Charles always kept his opinions to himself regarding the King’s constant religious movements and changes to the law, silently completing any and all responsibilities placed upon him by the King. However, whilst the King was eager to be rid of his wife in 1533, Charles himself also suffered the loss of his own wife Mary. Mary Tudor died in June 1533, most likely from lingering affects of the sweating sickness that she contracted in 1528 whilst historians believe that, like her sister-in-law Catherine of Aragon, she was suffering from early signs of cancer.
You would think that Charles would have suffered and mourned the loss of his wife deeply and swear off remarrying for many years until the time was right. But sadly, much like Henry remarrying Jane Seymour just eleven days after the execution of Anne Boleyn, Charles was no different. A mere two months later on 7th September 1533, Charles would marry for the fourth time to fourteen-year-old Katherine Willoughby, the 12th Baroness Wiloughby de Eresby. Not only was Katherine the daughter of María de Salinas, one of Catherine of Aragon’s closest ladies-in-waiting, but she was previously betrothed to Charles’ youngest son Henry who died shortly after their marriage. Katherine was fourteen at the time of their marriage whilst Charles, her senior of thirty-five years, was forty-nine. I wonder how his son must have felt to see his former betrothed marry his father not three months following the death of his beloved mother.
It must have shown his son that the marriage of his parents was not the loving one that it was assumed to be.
Katherine and Charles would not have their first child, a son, until the 18th September 1535, when Katherine was months away from turning seventeen; Henry Brandon, the 2nd Duke of Suffolk. This might have been because Charles was too busy attending to the King’s needs or because he wanted to wait before impregnating his teenage wife, who would have been busy forming relationships with all of her husband’s children from previous marriages.
Charles busied himself with attending to another of his King’s important matters; ridding himself of his second wife, Anne Boleyn. By the birth of his youngest son in 1535, the King had grown bored of his second wife and the lack of a male heir, leading to accusations of infidelity, incest and treason against the Queen. Charles was responsible for aiding the investigation against the Queen and even attended the Queen’s trial as well as her execution in May 1536. Most likely it had been under the orders of the King to report on her last moments of life and what she said about him, as Anne was still unpredictable even then.
One moment in Charles Brandon’s life that Showtime’s The Tudors represents quite well is Charles’ involvement in the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion in autumn 1536. In the show, we see Charles being sent to Lincolnshire to deal with the rebels and ultimately sentencing over 200 people to hang in chains, including young boys who had joined the rebellion. Whilst the show depicts a young Katherine’s disgust with Charles’ actions over having sentenced innocent man and children to die, it shows her pregnant with the couple’s second child at this time. In reality, by the time Charles returned to court and to his wife, she had already given birth to their second son, Charles Brandon in early 1537.
Unfortunately, despite Charles’ reputation as a respectable and trustworthy member of the King’s court, the same could not be said for any of his marriages. In Showtime’s The Tudors, we see Charles depicted as a womanizing, cheating courtier, almost more so than the King himself. However, whilst we do not know the extent of Charles’ cheating, we do know for certain that Charles engaged in extramarital affairs and fathered at least three acknowledge illegitimate children: Sir Charles Brandon who married Elizabeth Pigot, Frances Brandon who married twice, and Mary Brandon who married Robert Ball. We do not know how their mothers were or when they were born but we can assume that Charles would have shared some responsibility for these children or perhaps even allowed them to live in his household, much to his wife’s dismay.
We can assume that his wives, both Mary and Katherine, did not approve of his affairs and illegitimate children. It is not like they could argue in public with him, he was very close to the King and offered them financial and social security, they would have had to live with the lot they had been dealt with.
Charles’ wealth had also increased dramatically over the years as he supported the King’s ecclesiastical policy, resulting in the dissolution of the monasteries and Charles himself receiving a hefty share of the lands the Crown claimed possession of. These lands would have been worth quite a lot and if Charles did not wish to keep them, he could certainly sell them on for a extraordinary sum of money, increasing his wealth further. By the late 1530s and early 1540s, Charles was one of the most powerful, richest men of Henry VIII’s court but his health began to take a negative incline, worrying Henry VIII and Charles’ family as his condition continued to worsen. The family paid for the best physicians of Henry’s court at the King’s request, hoping to find the source of Charles’ ill-health and cure it before it became untreatable.
Unfortunately for the Brandon family, Charles’ condition would indeed worsen and become untreatable. On the 22nd August 1545, Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk and long-time favourite of the King, passed away at Guildford at the ripe old age of sixty-one years old. In the days following Charles’ death, all of his family came to say one final goodbye to him before he was laid to rest as many were saddened by his death. This included the King who, in respect to their longtime friendship and Charles’ unconditional loyalty, decided to show his appreciation to the man he declared was one of his closest, most loyal friends in life and a man who never asked for anything by giving Charles a burial worthy of a royal, rather than a courtier. Despite Charles making it clear to his family that he wanted his funeral to be a simple, quiet affair, Henry VIII was adamant that he allow his closest friend’s family to mourn his loss in the greatest of styles. By order of the King, Charles Brandon was buried at the Chapel of St George at Windsor Castle, where the King would soon follow less than two years later.
In addition to this, the King also might have offered to aid Charles’ wife, Katherine, and his children in their financial affairs as tribute to Charles being loyal to the King for forty years, something practically unheard of during Henry VIII’s reign—someone managing to remain loyal and within favour for that long. The only men who even came close to Charles’ success belonged to the Seymour family, relations to the King’s third wife Jane and his son Edward. Although they would all soon fall from grace following the old King’s death.
Before we discuss the representation of Charles’ death in Showtime’s The Tudors, I will mention what happened to Charles’ widow, Katherine, following his death. Not much is known about Katherine’s life following her husband’s death, we do know that she suffered further misery through both of her sons dying of the sweating sickness on the same day on 14th July 1551, just six years after Charles. Both of the boys were only teenagers at the time of their death and Katherine was left heartbroken, made to care for her husband’s other children whilst mourning the loss of her own. Although she would have two more children by her second husband, Richard Bertie, whom she married two years later in 1553.
Henry Cavill as Charles Brandon in The Tudors
Now—let us discuss the representation of Charles’ death. Whilst Showtime’s The Tudors was not known for its historical accuracy, one of the things that I disagreed with was how they made Charles look at the time of his death. For starters, the show portrays Charles and Katherine’s relationship as being distant and estranged as Charles’ French mistress is the one caring for him as his wife and children disapprove of the relationship. In real-life, Charles never took a French mistress and his relationship with Katherine is believed to be a happy one as he spent much of his final years with his wife and children when he was not catering to his King’s every whim. As a result of this, the show also shows Katherine as mourning Charles with hatred towards him and his French mistress whilst in reality, she mourned his death even though she remarried until her own death in 1580. Additionally, unlike what the show depicts, we do not know for certain that Charles died of a sudden fever, although this is certainly a possibility. It might have simply been from old-age as he was sixty-one at the time of his death.
And that is the life and death of Sir Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk and brother-in-law to the King, a man who achieved a lot in his lifetime but his most accomplished deed was being one of the few men in history who remained at Henry VIII’s side for the majority of their life. Certainly a man to be respected and admired, at least for putting up with Henry for that long, if not anything else.
Until next time!
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
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