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Authors: Linda Porter
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north of England with them, an uncomfortable truth insufficiently appreciated by the king and government in London. From the perspective of an outsider like Katherine Parr, even though her mother owned a number of manors not far from Gainsborough, it was a very different environment from the one she had known. There was much to be learned and a great deal of adapting to do.
O NE SOURCE of pleasure, amidst all this uncertainty, must have been her new home itself. Her surroundings, at least, were gracious, comfortable and even opulent, certainly by local standards. The mansion of the Boroughs dominated the small town of Gainsborough and today is one of the most impressive fifteenthcentury manor houses surviving in Britain. It was built of red brick and timber, a style that became increasingly popular during Tudor times, and originally it had a moat and a gatehouse, which have long since disappeared. Rebuilt after its destruction during the Wars of the Roses by a Lancastrian army that included many of the first Lord Borough’s personal enemies, the house rose up even grander than before. An inventory recorded that it consisted of ‘[a] hall, a parlour, an inner parlour, a withdrawing room, a great chamber with another next to it, a chamber in the tower and in the gallery’. 3 There were further rooms originally described but part of the inventory is long since lost. The west wing hadthree floors of lodgings, with brick walls at the back and a fireplace and privy for each room. 4 This early version of ‘en-suite accommodation’ shows how much the Boroughs anticipated entertaining. Certainly their great, open high-vaulted hall and the well-designed kitchen were amply suited to feed even a king. The house received two royal visitors, Richard III during his brief reign and, later, Henry VIII and Katherine Howard. Gainsborough Old Hall may have been a long journey from London, but it was not lacking in sophistication. ‘Almost every room was hung with tapestries and the bed in the lower chamber had a canopy of chequered velvet and cloth of gold.’ 5
The Borough family themselves, distant kin of the Parrs, had a history as eventful as that of the building in which they sought to display their wealth and influence. Their rise through the turmoil of the Wars of the Roses mirrored that of Katherine’s family. The first Lord Borough, great-grandfather of Katherine’s husband, had been an esquire of the body and master of the horse to Edward IV, as well as a royal councillor, roles which had also been held at different times by Katherine’s grandfather and great-uncle. The success of the Boroughs and the Parrs was ample evidence of the truth of the old dictum about servants of the Privy Chamber: ‘theyre business is many secretes’. Like Sir William Parr, Thomas Borough was well rewarded by Edward IV and he, too, married a rich widow, was given extensive local responsibilities and negotiated the regime change smoothly when Henry VII came to the throne. In fact, in one crucial respect, he outdid the Parrs. In 1487 he became a lord and was given the title of baron of Gainsborough. So Katherine Parr was marrying into a family that had already achieved a title, with the prospect, in due course, of becoming Lady Borough herself. What the Boroughs had not done, however, was consolidate their personal standing with the Tudors by service at court.
In fact, the positive relationship that had benefited the first Lord Borough was already declining at the time of his death in the mid-1490s. It seems likely that the family already metconsiderable problems with the fragile mental state of Edward, the second Lord Borough. He had certainly attended court, where his prowess as a horseman was noted at a tournament to honour the young Prince Henry, and he enhanced the family fortunes by marrying a wealthy Kentish heiress; but all was not well. In late 1495 he had been made to bind himself in legal recognizance to the king and was placed in the
O NE SOURCE of pleasure, amidst all this uncertainty, must have been her new home itself. Her surroundings, at least, were gracious, comfortable and even opulent, certainly by local standards. The mansion of the Boroughs dominated the small town of Gainsborough and today is one of the most impressive fifteenthcentury manor houses surviving in Britain. It was built of red brick and timber, a style that became increasingly popular during Tudor times, and originally it had a moat and a gatehouse, which have long since disappeared. Rebuilt after its destruction during the Wars of the Roses by a Lancastrian army that included many of the first Lord Borough’s personal enemies, the house rose up even grander than before. An inventory recorded that it consisted of ‘[a] hall, a parlour, an inner parlour, a withdrawing room, a great chamber with another next to it, a chamber in the tower and in the gallery’. 3 There were further rooms originally described but part of the inventory is long since lost. The west wing hadthree floors of lodgings, with brick walls at the back and a fireplace and privy for each room. 4 This early version of ‘en-suite accommodation’ shows how much the Boroughs anticipated entertaining. Certainly their great, open high-vaulted hall and the well-designed kitchen were amply suited to feed even a king. The house received two royal visitors, Richard III during his brief reign and, later, Henry VIII and Katherine Howard. Gainsborough Old Hall may have been a long journey from London, but it was not lacking in sophistication. ‘Almost every room was hung with tapestries and the bed in the lower chamber had a canopy of chequered velvet and cloth of gold.’ 5
The Borough family themselves, distant kin of the Parrs, had a history as eventful as that of the building in which they sought to display their wealth and influence. Their rise through the turmoil of the Wars of the Roses mirrored that of Katherine’s family. The first Lord Borough, great-grandfather of Katherine’s husband, had been an esquire of the body and master of the horse to Edward IV, as well as a royal councillor, roles which had also been held at different times by Katherine’s grandfather and great-uncle. The success of the Boroughs and the Parrs was ample evidence of the truth of the old dictum about servants of the Privy Chamber: ‘theyre business is many secretes’. Like Sir William Parr, Thomas Borough was well rewarded by Edward IV and he, too, married a rich widow, was given extensive local responsibilities and negotiated the regime change smoothly when Henry VII came to the throne. In fact, in one crucial respect, he outdid the Parrs. In 1487 he became a lord and was given the title of baron of Gainsborough. So Katherine Parr was marrying into a family that had already achieved a title, with the prospect, in due course, of becoming Lady Borough herself. What the Boroughs had not done, however, was consolidate their personal standing with the Tudors by service at court.
In fact, the positive relationship that had benefited the first Lord Borough was already declining at the time of his death in the mid-1490s. It seems likely that the family already metconsiderable problems with the fragile mental state of Edward, the second Lord Borough. He had certainly attended court, where his prowess as a horseman was noted at a tournament to honour the young Prince Henry, and he enhanced the family fortunes by marrying a wealthy Kentish heiress; but all was not well. In late 1495 he had been made to bind himself in legal recognizance to the king and was placed in the
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