On this day in Tudor history, 3rd April 1538, Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire and Ormond, wife of Thomas Boleyn and mother of the late Queen Anne Boleyn, died near Baynard’s Castle, home of the Abbot of Reading, in London.
Elizabeth was about sixty-two years of age and died less than two years after two of her children, Queen Anne Boleyn and George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, were executed.
Thomas Warley recorded her death in a letter he sent to Lady Lisle on 7th April 1538:
“My lady of Wiltshire died on Wednesday last beside Baynard’s castle.”
On 9th April 1538, John Husee wrote to Lady Lisle of Elizabeth Boleyn’s funeral at St Mary’s Church, Lambeth, which had taken place on 7th April:
“My lady Wiltshire was buried at Lamehithe [Lambeth] on the 7th. My lord Comptroller was chief mourner of the men and lady Dawbny of the women. She was conveyed from a house beside Baynard’s Castle by barge to Lambeth with torches burning and four baneys (banners?) set out of all quarters of the barge, which was covered with black and a white cross. At her burial was the King of Heralds, a herald, and a pursuivant.”
Here are some videos I did on Elizabeth Boleyn:
Notes and Sources
Photo: Elizabeth Boleyn as played by Kristin Scott Thomas in “The Other Boleyn Girl”.
- Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, XIII, Part 1, 696 and 717.
- LP X. 669.
