Anne, Lady Berkeley, Anne Boleyn and the Fortunes of the Berkeley family.

   Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, the family home of Elizabeth Craven's ancestors, has been occupied by a succession of Berkeleys since before the Norman Conquest. Rarely however has it been governed by a woman.

Anne, Lady Berkeley,
 by Meister Drucke

 The exception is Anne, Lady Berkeley, who in the reign of Henry VIII held it and controlled the large estates unaided. Not only that, but we are told that she acted as a judge and sat on the Bench.

In The Percy Anecdotes we read:-

In the reign of Henry VIII. when during some family quarrels, Maurice Berkely, Nicholas Poyntz, and a riotous company of their servants, entered the park of Lady Anne Berkeley, at Yate, killed the deer, and set a hay-rick on fire, this lady repaired to court, and made her complaint. The king immediately granted her a special commission under the great seal to inquire, hear, and determine these riots and misdemeanors, and made her one of the commissioners and of the quorum. She then returned to Gloucester, opened the commission, sat on the bench in the public Sessions Hall, impanneled a jury, and received evidence; when Nicholas Poyntz, Maurice Berkely, and several of their followers, were found guilty of divers riots and disorders, and punished accordingly." [1]

   Yate Court in Gloucestershire was an considerable manor house with a fine estate, one of many that the Berkeley family had acquired over the centuries.

Who was this powerful Berkeley lady? 

    She was born Anne Savage, circa 1506, the daughter of Sir John Savage of Frodsham, Cheshire and his wife Anne née Bostock. In April 1533 she married Thomas Berkeley, 6th Lord Berkeley, whose father, Thomas, 5th Lord Berkeley, had died in January that year.

   The 5th Lord had died considerably in debt, for many reasons, not least that in 1486 there had been a family quarrel between two brothers, so the younger brother Sir Maurice had inherited neither Berkeley Castle, nor his father's other estates, which were all bequeathed to the crown. Even his title Lord of Berkeley was de jure (granted by the king's permission) not de facto. Despite improving his prospects by marrying his wealthy cousin Catherine Berkeley, his son was at one point in such dire need that he had sold his plate for ready money. Thomas obtained a court post under Henry VIII, and was appointed Constable of his ancestors' castle, but was still struggling financially in 1533, unable even to pay his servants. Chief among his creditors was Sir Nicholas Poyntz. [2]

  In February 1533, a month after the 5th Lord's death, the Crown appointed Anthony Kingstone, a court official, to be steward of the Castle, manor, lordship and hundred of Berkeley, and of all the family possessions including Hawe Park in Gloucestershire. Presumably this was because creditors were demanding payment.

Berkeley Castle.

    There were rivals trying to obtain the 5th Lord's place at court. Nicholas Poyntz applied for it as soon as he heard of his neighbour's demise. [3]

   Then the family fought back. In March 1533, the new Lord Berkeley was granted the position of Constable of Berkeley Castle with all its lands, forests and deer-park. He was back in charge of his ancestors' inheritance, and before the year was out, was made a Knight of the Garter. [4]

  In April that year, he married Anne Savage, whose father Sir John, had previously been leasing parts of the estate near the Castle. Sir John was a wealthy man and later this same year, in November 1533, he was granted several manors in various counties. [5]

  How did the Berkeley and Savage families manage to gain such favour? 1533 was the year when Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon and had Anne Boleyn crowned Queen. Anne Savage was one of Anne Boleyn's ladies-in-waiting and one of the witnesses to her early, secret marriage to King Henry. She became one of the inner circle at court during the few short years that Anne enjoyed favour. 

   Thomas must have realized that marrying her was a step towards mending his own family's fortunes. Those who showed support for the King's ruthless policies were rewarded by him and his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. In January 1533, it was reported to the Privy Council that "the under-receiver of the Lord of Berkeley is Edward Tyndale brother of the arch-heretic who daily promotes his relatives to the King's farms." [6]

   Anne quickly began to take a leading role in running the family affairs. In June 1533, very soon after her marriage, she wrote to Cromwell complaining that some one called Anthony has applied to Sir John Dauncy asking for a piece of land called Hampstalls adjoining Berkeley Castle, and if he gets it this will be "a very great hindrance to her and her husband". She told Cromwell she is willing to pay as much rent for it and she and her father have "hitherto held it without impediment". She begs Cromwell will speak to Sir John about it. Clearly this was an assertive woman. [7] 

   Anne's marriage to Thomas Berkeley lasted only seventeen months. He died in September 1534, leaving her far advanced in pregnancy. She already had a baby daughter, Elizabeth, and two months later on 26th November she gave birth to a posthumous son, named Henry. The months before his birth must have been nerve-wracking. Until the child was born, there was no clear heir to claim the Berkeley title and estates, and a lot of cousins and creditors must have been circling and ready to pounce.

    When it turned out that the second baby was male, Anne and the Savage family must have been hugely relieved. She had saved the Berkeley line, and the whole inheritance would eventually go to this child. For twenty-one years she would be his guardian, and act as Constable of the Castle. Meanwhile, the cousins and creditors were disappointed, and perhaps some were sceptical about whether this was really the legitimate son of the 6th Lord.

    These rivalries explain why Sir Nicholas Poyntz and Sir Maurice Berkeley - one of the Somerset Berkeleys, with an estate at Bruton - raided the estate at Yate manor. Both of them were wealthy (John Poyntz held the lease of the manor of Symondishall at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire) but doubtless had been disappointed in greater expectations. Anne dealt with the situation in a very assertive manner, going to see the King and his ministers in person, and begging for power to prosecute. She was given ample powers to defend her son's inheritance, and the extraordinary privilege of presiding over the county assizes herself. The fact that she named her son Henry was another gesture of her support for the King. 

   In 1535, two years after her marriage, Lady Berkeley had the honour of receiving King Henry and Queen Anne as her guests at Berkeley Castle. They arrived on 8th August and stayed for a week. The rooms where they stayed - the "privy apartments"- still survive today, albeit much changed. [8]

    Nine months later, in May 1536, Henry's second wife was beheaded at the Tower of London. Lady Berkeley must have been deeply shocked and grieving.

   In November 1536, a religious zealot, John Barlow, who was passing Berkeley Castle, reported to Thomas Cromwell that he had seen people playing the "unlawful and forbidden game of tennis" there at the time when they should have been in church. He had them hauled before a court, and threatened with penalties, but Lady Berkeley, who was already incensed with him for prosecuting a priest named William Norton, was not going to have her tenants treated like that. She filled the jury with her own servants and retainers and got them acquitted. According to Barlow she "railed against him with many slanderous and opprobious words". Clearly she was a woman to be reckoned with. [9]

   For twenty-one years, Anne took full responsibility for all the estates and brought the family back into a state of solvency. Living far from the court after the fall of Anne Boleyn, she became a complete countrywoman. One contemporary wrote that she was "overpowerful with her [son] and seldom at rest with herself..." It was not surprising if she dominated her son as she had to manage his entire inheritance for him until he came of age.

   She was described thus: "Of complexion of a comely brown, of a middle stature. Betimes in winter and summer mornings, she would make her walks to visit her stables, barns, day house, poultry, swine troughs, and the like." So she was very energetic and active in managing the farms, getting up early year round and going out to inspect everything herself. Gradually the debts were paid off.

   On the death of Edward VI in 1553, the Berkeley family were restored to outright possession of the Castle, and Henry inherited his title of 7th Baron Berkeley de facto (no longer needing to be confirmed by the crown). This improvement in his status was reflected in his marriage the following year, 1554, to Lady Katherine Howard of Surrey, daughter of the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, a son of the Catholic Duke of Norfolk. This was a strategic marriage, just as that of his parents had been. With Catholic Queen Mary now on the throne, it was useful to be allied to a leading Catholic noble. 

   Anne's daughter, the Hon. Elizabeth Berkeley, married Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde. Known as "Black Tom" he was also a Catholic. 

       When her son came of age, Anne, now the dowager Lady Berkeley, retired to Caludon Castle, another Berkeley family property, near Coventry, where she died in October 1564 and was buried in St Michael's church.

     She did not live to see her grandson, Henry's son, Sir Thomas Berkeley, marry the Hon. Elizabeth Carey, in 1595, but doubtless she would have been pleased since this marriage renewed the Berkeleys's ties with the Boleyn family. Elizabeth Carey was the daughter and sole heir of Lord Hunsdon, the nephew of Anne Boleyn, son of her sister Mary. He was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, and this marriage gave the Berkeleys useful links to Queen Elizabeth I, as well as bringing the valuable Cranford estate into the family.

  So Anne, Lady Berkeley, played a vital rôle in the family history, and so did Anne Boleyn. As a widowed mother she steered the family through a rough period and not only provided an heir but lived to see her descendants established in security and prosperity. There is still a portrait of King Henry VIII by Holbein hanging in Berkeley Castle, and perhaps it was a gift from his luckless second wife.

[1] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the UK, 1959.

[2] Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henri VIII (roi d'Angleterre et d'Irlande ), ed. ‎James Gairdner · 1882 · p.26- 27

[3] Ibid. p.87, 132.

[4] Ibid.p.140. 

[5] Ibid.p.596.

[6] Ibid. P.32.

[7] Ibid.P.314-5. June 26th 1533 

[8] Sarah Morris, ‎Natalie Grueninger, In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII: The Visitor’s Companion to the Palaces, Castles & Houses Associated with Henry VIII’s Iconic Queens, (Amberley Publishing, 2016).

[9] Heather Dalton. Merchants and Explorers: Roger Barlow, Sebastian Cabot, and Networks of Atlantic Exchange 1500-1560 (2016). p.153