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Jocasta or more commonly known as Joyce Culpeper of Oxon Hoath was
the mother of Katherine Howard the fifth wife and queen consort of King Henry the eighth.
Joyce was born around 1480 she was the daughter of Sir Richard
Culpeper who in total had five children, but on his second marriage to Isabel
Worsley he had two daughters one being Joyce and her sister Margaret.
Joyce Culpeper also had a brother Thomas Culpeper this was not the same
Thomas Culpeper allegedly involved with their daughter Catherine Howard as this
Thomas was only five years old when he died on the 7th of October 1492.
Joyce and Margaret who lived at Oxon Hoath with their brother Thomas Culpepper in 1492.
But for some unknown reason reports started to circulate that Joyce in fact
had another sister Elizabeth, however only Joyce and Margaret were named as
co-heirs after Thomas died. After his death Thomas was placed under an
inquisition postmortem which was an English medieval record of the death,
estate and heir of one of the king's tenants-in-chief,
created for royal fiscal purposes. The process of making such inquisition was
so to transfer the real property of a person who had died without heirs to the
crown or state. It also served to ensure that the property was not left in
limbo without recognised ownership. The practice was finally abolished by the
Tenures abolition Act of 1660 which ended the feudal system.
After the death of Joyces father Sir Richard Culpeper Joyces mother Isabelle married Sir John Leigh
sometime before 1492. Joyce Culpeper married Ralph Lee who was
the younger brother of her stepfather Sir John. Ralph was a treasurer of the Inner
Temple in 1505 at which time he shared a chamber with his elder brother.
Joyce and Ralph as a couple produced five children, two sons and three daughters.
On the 6th November 1509, Ralph Leigh died and Joyce Culpeper went on to marry Lord
Edmund Howard. Edmund Howard was the third son of Thomas Howard the 2nd Duke of
Norfolk and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney.
His sister Elizabeth was the mother of Henry VIII second wife Anne Boleyn
and he was the father of the Kings fifth wife Catherine Howard.
His first cousin Margery Wentworth was the mother of
Henry's third wife Jane Seymour. Joyce and Edmund had six children together.
Firstly Charles Howard who was a gentleman at the court of
Henry VIII of England. He also incurred Henry's displeasure for
having fallen in love with Margaret Douglas later to be the Countess of Lennox.
This while Margaret was serving as first lady of honour to Charles
sister Queen Catherine Howard. Of there children, Sir George Howard was an English courtier,
politician, author and diplomat Howard held offices at court under four monarchs.
Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.
most notably the office of Master of the Armory, and he also undertook several
diplomatic missions. A masque written by Howard was produced at court during
the reign of Edward VI and he's mentioned by name in the Langham letter
which describes the Earl of Leicester entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at
Kenilworth castle in July 1575.
Margaret Howard married Sir Thomas Arundel of Wardour Castle,
but in late 1551 he temporarily aligned himself with the
Protector Somerset, thereby putting himself in conflict with John Dudley the
Earl of Warwick. He was arrested and charged with conspiring to overthrow the
government and murder the Earl. He was convicted and beheaded on Tower Hill the
26th of February 1552. His property was confiscated but in June 1552 the
crown began restoring it to his widow and from 1553 to his son.
They also had a further daughter called Mary who married Edmund Trafford but
little to nothing is known of their marriage. Finally Catherine Howard would
eventually become queen consort of England from 1540 until 1541 as the
fifth wife of Henry VIII. Catherine was a cousin to Anne Boleyn and
niece to Thomas Howard the 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas was a prominent politician at Henry's court and he secured Catherine a
place in the household of Henry's fourth wife Anne of Cleves where she caught the
Kings interest. Catherine married Henry on the 28th of July 1540 at Oatlands
Palace in Surrey most immediately after the annulment of
his marriage to Anne. At the time of their wedding
Henry was 49 and Catherine was 17. Joyce culpeper never saw the marriage
or trials her daughter Catherine would go through as she died in 1528 she was 48 years old.
As for Catherine she was stripped of her title as Queen in
November 1541 and was beheaded three months later on the grounds of treason
for committing adultery with a distant cousin Thomas Culpeper, although it is
suspected that the affair was not consensual.
Our final mother-in-law of Henry VIII would be Maud Green the mother to Catherine Parr
and Henry's sixth wife. Maude was born on the 6th of April 1492 she was a
close friend to Catherine of Aragon she was also co-heiress to her father Sir
Thomas Green of Greens Norton a small village in Northamptonshire along with her sister Anne.
After her mother died when she was an infant, Maud became a lady-in-waiting to
Catherine of Aragon the first wife of King Henry VIII sometime after
11th June 1509. She was in constant attendance upon the Queen and was
allocated her own rooms at court on a permanent basis. It is thought that Maud may
have named her daughter Catherine after Catherine of Aragon who was also made
godmother to the child. Maud was a very intelligent and well-educated woman she
was fluent in French, Queen Catherine held her in such high regard that Maud
was entrusted with the organisation and control of the royal court school which
was established for the education of the King's family the daughters of the
Queen's closest friends. Maud had already taught her children to read and write
when there were small children but it was at this Royal Court school that
Catherine and her sister Anne would have been taught French, Latin, Philosophy,
Theology and the Classics. Maud at the age of 16, in 1508 had married Sir Thomas Parr,
the eldest son of Sir William Parr and Elizabeth Fitzhugh. He was an English
Knight a courtier and Lord of the Manor of Kendal in Westmorland which is now
Cumbria during the Tudor period. Maud and Thomas had three surviving children.
Although Thomas Parr inherited properties in the North including Kendal
castle in Westmorland, the Parr's resided at Parr House which was located on The Strand in London.
By the time Sir Thomas had inherited the castle it was in need
of repair and eventually became derelict due to this. As a couple they remained as
courtiers and stayed close to court. Thomas Parr died of the sweating
sickness on 11 November 1517, leaving Maud a widow at the age of 25.
Maud chose not to remarry for fear of jeopardising the huge
inheritance she held in trust for her children. She carefully supervised the
education of her children and studiously arranged their marriages. Before the
birth of Catherine, Maud gave birth to a son shortly after her marriage to Sir Thomas.
But the happiness was short-lived as the baby quickly died and his name
was never known. After the birth of their third child Anne, Maud again became pregnant
around 1517 the same year as Thomas's death. However, there's no
subsequent mention of the child so it was probably lost to a miscarriage
stillbirth or death in early infancy. Catherine Parr was born in 1512 she went
on to become Henry VIII sixth wife and queen consort from 1543 she was also
the last queen of the House of Tudor she married Henry on the 12th of July and
outlived him by one year. In total Catherine had four husbands making her the
most married English queen. But Catherine enjoyed a close relationship with
Henrys three children and was personally involved in the education of
Elizabeth I and Edward 6th.
She was influential in Henrys passing of the 3rd Succession act in 1543 that
restored both his daughters Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession
to the throne. William was the second of Mauds
children born on the 14th of August 1513. William took part in suppressing the
rising in the north of England in 1537 after serving as Member of Parliament
for Northamptonshire, was made Baron Parr in 1539. December 1543 just after
his sister married the King he was created the Earl of Essex.
her other daughter was Anne, she was born on June 15th 1515 she was the youngest surviving child of five.
Sometime in 1528, Maud had secured her 13-year-old daughter,
Anne a post at Court as maid-of-honour to Queen Catherine of Aragon.
Anne was then made a ward of King Henry, when Ann Boleyn was
crowned in 1533 Anne Parr continued in the same capacity as maid of honour.
When King Henry took as his fourth wife Anne of Cleves, Anne returned to her role as maid-of-honour,
which she remained in when Queen Anne was supplanted by Catherine Howard.
Following Queen Catherine's arrest for adultery, Anne Parr was entrusted with the queens jewels.
As for Maud herself, she died on 1st December 1531 and is now buried in
St. Ann's Church, Blackfriars, London, beside her husband.
And so end this tale, six wives, six mothers in law, all from
completely different backgrounds but brought together under one man's aim to
produce an heir for his beloved family name. Henry has steamrolled his way
through his reign literally taking no prisoners en-route. His power and might
and controlling ways left a scar upon the nation. His enemies were quickly
dealt with and his friends were always cautious. The story of Henry and his six
wives has been told numerous times but the people behind the scenes had as much
to do with the tudor reign as Henry himself. So in many ways we should celebrate
these women their integrity openness and passion to do whatever they could to
help their children. But times are changing and after Henry it would be a
woman that would lead England into a new era.
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