Read Online Catherine Howard by Lacey Baldwin Smith - Free Book Online
Authors: Lacey Baldwin Smith
Tags: History
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deal more about such ‘goingson’ than Catherine and her companions gave her credit for. She knew full well where a certain Mr Francis Dereham was prone to spend his evenings, and more than once she was heard to exclaim: ‘I warrant you if you seek him in Catherine Howard’s chamber ye shall find him there.’ 45 All she required was that the younger generation should not flaunt their love-affairs in her face, and when she stumbled upon Catherine and Dereham kissing in the corridor she flew into a rage, boxed her granddaughter’s ears and upbraided Dercham for his liberties. Yet for all the Duchess’s vinegary words and violent fashions, she seems to have liked the full-blooded adventurer, and when Catherine finally grew weary of Dereham’s attentions she found a perverse pleasure in reminding Mistress Howard of her early fascination. 46
Life was too short and too complex for her to be burdened with the morals of her household, and all she asked was that the lusty youth conform to outward appearances. Her time was filled with the multitude of tasks related to the running of a vast and disorganized estate. As one of the richest widows in the realm, she was chronically being hounded by poor relations, and her son, Lord William, was constantly plaguing her for money and an advance upon his inheritance. In an age when banking facilities were almost non-existent, the old lady resorted to the proverbial sock (she confessed in later life that she had some £800 in cash hidden about the house), and rapidly acquired a reputation for being something of a miser. 47 But the care of money was not her only consideration. In the paternalistic society of the sixteenth century, her responsibilities reached out into the surrounding countryside, where she cared for her sick neighbours and prescribed ‘treacle and water imperial’ as a sure cure for all their ailments. The Duchess was evidently something of an apothecary, for she suggested to Cardinal Wolsey that ‘vinegar, wormwood, rosewater and crumbs of brown bread is very good and comfortable to put in a linen cloth to smell unto your nose.’ 48 This was her remedy for the various noxious odours that pervaded the Tudor world.
Most important and time-consuming of all was the management of her own household. How many people were involved in such an organization it is impossible to say, and very likely the old lady of Norfolk was not sure herself. Considering the size of other noble establishments, there may have been well over a hundred persons, ranging in a carefully graduated hierarchy from the dirty and naked scullery-boys who scrubbed the cauldrons in the great kitchen to the most important household officials, such as the steward, the chamberlain and the cellarer. Whether the Dowager had a house at both the manors of Horsham and Chesworth is not clear, but the Chesworth house itself consisted of five great rooms below stairs – not counting such ‘necessary rooms’ as the kitchen, pantry, and storage places – and five rooms upstairs, plus a garret. Then there were the malt-house, the barn, the stable, the cow barn, and four acres of orchards and gardens plus ‘divers fish ponds’. At one time there had evidently been a moat, while the park of 223 acres harboured a herd of 100 deer. 49 Like other large estates, Horsham and Chesworth were self-sustaining organizations, splitting their own wood for the insatiable Tudor fireplaces, carding their own flax, weaving their own clothes, and producing food for guests and retainers. Hams had to be smoked, bacon cured, vegetables preserved, fruit stored, ale brewed, bread baked, for the whole household, and goose-down collected for the mistress’s bed. Agnes Howard was in charge of all this, and though she had her steward, her secretary, and her cellarer to assist her, the ultimate responsibility for the establishment rested on her shoulders.
It was into such a household that Catherine, aged approximately ten, entered, so as to
Life was too short and too complex for her to be burdened with the morals of her household, and all she asked was that the lusty youth conform to outward appearances. Her time was filled with the multitude of tasks related to the running of a vast and disorganized estate. As one of the richest widows in the realm, she was chronically being hounded by poor relations, and her son, Lord William, was constantly plaguing her for money and an advance upon his inheritance. In an age when banking facilities were almost non-existent, the old lady resorted to the proverbial sock (she confessed in later life that she had some £800 in cash hidden about the house), and rapidly acquired a reputation for being something of a miser. 47 But the care of money was not her only consideration. In the paternalistic society of the sixteenth century, her responsibilities reached out into the surrounding countryside, where she cared for her sick neighbours and prescribed ‘treacle and water imperial’ as a sure cure for all their ailments. The Duchess was evidently something of an apothecary, for she suggested to Cardinal Wolsey that ‘vinegar, wormwood, rosewater and crumbs of brown bread is very good and comfortable to put in a linen cloth to smell unto your nose.’ 48 This was her remedy for the various noxious odours that pervaded the Tudor world.
Most important and time-consuming of all was the management of her own household. How many people were involved in such an organization it is impossible to say, and very likely the old lady of Norfolk was not sure herself. Considering the size of other noble establishments, there may have been well over a hundred persons, ranging in a carefully graduated hierarchy from the dirty and naked scullery-boys who scrubbed the cauldrons in the great kitchen to the most important household officials, such as the steward, the chamberlain and the cellarer. Whether the Dowager had a house at both the manors of Horsham and Chesworth is not clear, but the Chesworth house itself consisted of five great rooms below stairs – not counting such ‘necessary rooms’ as the kitchen, pantry, and storage places – and five rooms upstairs, plus a garret. Then there were the malt-house, the barn, the stable, the cow barn, and four acres of orchards and gardens plus ‘divers fish ponds’. At one time there had evidently been a moat, while the park of 223 acres harboured a herd of 100 deer. 49 Like other large estates, Horsham and Chesworth were self-sustaining organizations, splitting their own wood for the insatiable Tudor fireplaces, carding their own flax, weaving their own clothes, and producing food for guests and retainers. Hams had to be smoked, bacon cured, vegetables preserved, fruit stored, ale brewed, bread baked, for the whole household, and goose-down collected for the mistress’s bed. Agnes Howard was in charge of all this, and though she had her steward, her secretary, and her cellarer to assist her, the ultimate responsibility for the establishment rested on her shoulders.
It was into such a household that Catherine, aged approximately ten, entered, so as to
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