Blanche Parry

Blanche Parry, possibly by Marcus Gheeraerts the younger c. 1590
Effigy of Blanche Parry, detail from her monument in St Faith's church, Bacton

Blanche Parry (1507/8–12 February 1590) of Newcourt in the parish of Bacton, Herefordshire, in the Welsh Marches, was a personal attendant of Queen Elizabeth I, who held the offices of Chief Gentlewoman of the Queen's Most Honourable Privy Chamber and Keeper of Her Majesty’s Jewels.

Origins

She was born at Newcourt, Bacton, Herefordshire, one of the daughters of Henry Parry of Newcourt, thrice Sheriff of Herefordshire, Steward of Ewyas Lacy and of Dore Abbey, a relative of the Welsh family of Herbert, Earls of Pembroke, also a relative of the prominent Stradling family[1] of St Donat's Castle in Glamorgan, Wales. Her mother was Alice Milborne, the English daughter and co-heiress of Simon Milborne. Her paternal ancestors were of prominent border gentry stock[2] and are referred to in nine surviving bardic poems, five by Guto’r Glyn and one each by Gwilym Tew, Howel Dafi, Huw Cae Llwyd and Lewys Morgannwg.

Early life

Although brought up in a Welsh cultural environment, Parry was bilingual in Welsh and English. Indications exist of earlier family connections to the Lollards, not least her mother's family connection to Sir John Oldcastle. However, it appears that she and her sisters were educated by the Augustinian nuns of Aconbury.

At the Royal Court

Blanche Parry arrived at the Royal Court with her aunt, Blanche Milborne Lady Troy, who was the Lady Mistress to Edward VI and his half-sister Elizabeth I as children.[2] From the age of about 25 or 26 until her death, she was a servant of Queen Elizabeth, whom she served from her birth in 1533 onwards, writing in her epitaph in Bacton Church that her "cradle saw I rocked", Thereafter she hardly left Elizabeth and almost certainly attended her during her imprisonment in the Tower of London before she came to the throne. After Elizabeth's accession in 1558, and Kat Ashley's death in 1565, Parry was appointed the Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber, and was one of those who controlled access to the Queen.[3] She was in charge of the Queen's jewels[4] (a collection which grew in quantity, magnificence and value) from before Elizabeth's accession, and of the Great Seal of England for two years, also of the Queen’s personal papers, clothes, furs and books, many of which were presented to the Queen as New Year gifts. She received considerable sums of money on behalf of the Queen. She passed information to the Queen, including from John Vaughan, Blanche Parry's nephew, during the Northern Rebellion of 1569–1570, and from Sir Nicholas White, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and she received presentations of Parliamentary bills for the Queen.[5] She also wrote letters on the Queen's behalf. In addition, she supervised the Queen's linen "and other things belonging to her majesty"; this included "our musk cat", probably a ferret. She was also associated with the publication of the Bible in Welsh.

Blanche Parry's position at the centre of the Court and conduit to royal power, with the ability to make pleas on behalf of those suffering under royal displeasure was fully recognized at the time.[6] She was friends with her cousin Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the Queen's chief advisor, and worked closely with him. Amongst the material rewards she received from Elizabeth were two wardships and she acquired lands in Herefordshire, Yorkshire and Wales. Records show frequent gifts of clothing previously worn by the queen.[3] Parry commissioned the first known map of Llangorse Lake in 1584 to aid the deliberations in a court case in which she became involved. Cecil supervised both her wills; his handwritten notes survive for her first will dated 1578 and he was supervisor for her final will dated 1589.[5]

Death & burial

Blanche Parry died on 12 February 1590 (old style 1589), aged 82. She was buried in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, with the rank of baroness, the queen having paid all her funeral expenses.[3] Two monuments to her memory survive, one in St Margaret's, the other in St Faith's Church, Bacton.

Monument in St Margaret's Church, Westminster

Her marble and alabaster mural monument survives on the south west wall of St Margaret's Church, Westminster, although this was not its original position, having been moved several times.[1] It was formerly on the south side of the chancel;[1] George Ballard saw her tomb in its original location in 1752.[7] It shows a relief-sculpted and painted effigy of Parry kneeling towards the left at a prayer desk, with hands now missing. Above are displayed in a lozenge (appropriate for a female armiger) her paternal arms of eight quarters. Payment for the monument is recorded as having been made by Mr Powell, her executor, in 1595/6. The inscription is as follows:

Hereunder is intombed Blanche Parrye daughter of Henry Parry of New Courte in the county of Herefd. Esquier, Gentlewoman of Queene Elizabethes most honourable bedchamber and keper of her Maties. juells, whome she faithfullie served from her Highnes birth. Beneficiall to her kinsfolke and countryemen charitable to the poor insomuch that she gave to the poore of Bacton and Newton in Herefordshire seaven score bushells of wheate and rye yearlie for ever wt. (i.e. with) divers somes of money to Westminster and other places for good uses. She died a maide in the eighte two yeers of her age the twelfe of February 1589.[1]

Monument in Bacton Church

Monument and empty tomb of Blanche Parry, Bacton Church. The effigy of Blanche at left kneels before the earliest surviving Gloriana of Queen Elizabeth I

Having originally planned her retirement to the family estate of Newcourt, Parry commissioned a monument in the parish church of Bacton, showing sculpted effigies of herself and the queen, with a 28 line inscription, probably composed by herself. Dated to before November 1578, the monument is the earliest known depiction of Queen Elizabeth I as Gloriana and signals the propagation of the queen's iconography and cult of virginity beyond the court. The inscription was designed to both demonstrate her closeness and importance to the queen, and bolster the royal image with the lines '"With maiden Queen a maide did end my life". The effigy utilizes the religious imagery of the Virgin Mary, with a kneeling Parry praying before the enthroned Elizabeth.[4]

Tradition maintained that her monument in Bacton Church contained Blanche's bowels,[7] or according to Bradford, her heart.[8] However, there is no evidence of this.

Bacton Altar Cloth

Lionel Cust first recognised and published the importance of the embroidered altar cloth displayed at Bacton in 1918. He noted a similarity with dress designs shown in the rainbow portrait of Elizabeth I, and theorized it was a gift from the queen to Parry, who had subsequently donated it to her parish church.[9] The cloth has recently been identified as of late sixteenth-century origin, and while there is no documentary evidence linking it directly to Queen Elizabeth, curators stated that it is extremely likely to have once belonged to the queen.[10][11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Blanche Parry". Westminster Abbey. 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  2. 1 2 Borman, Tracy (2010). Elizabeth's Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen. Random House. pp. 59–61. ISBN 9780099548621 – via Google books.
  3. 1 2 3 Eleri, Lynn (March 2018). "The Bacton Altar Cloth: Elizabeth I's 'long-lost skirt'?". Costume. 52 (1): 3–25. ISSN 0590-8876. (Subscription required (help)).
  4. 1 2 Stearn, Catherine Howey (2016). "Women at court- Blanche Parry". In Levin, Carole. A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen: Exemplary Lives and Memorable Acts, 1500-1650. Taylor & Francis. p. 518. ISBN 9781315440712. Retrieved 5 June 2018 – via Google Books.
  5. 1 2 Roberts, Peter R. (23 September 2009). Parry, Blanche (1507/8–1590), courtier. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65989. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  6. ↑ Whitelock, Anna (2013). "17". Elizabeth's Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queen's Court. London: A&C Black. ISBN 9781408833636.
  7. 1 2 Ballard, George (1752). Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages, arts and sciences. Duke University Libraries. Oxford: W. Jackson. pp. 177–179.
  8. ↑ Charles Angell Bradford, Charles Angell (1933). Heart Burial. London: Allen & Unwin. pp. 163–165.
  9. ↑ Cust, Lionel Henry (December 1918). "Queen Elizabeth's Kirtle". The Burlington Magazine. 33 (189): 196–201. JSTOR 860828.
  10. ↑ Rayner, Gordon (7 January 2017). "Queen Elizabeth I's long-lost skirt to go on display after being found on a church altar in Herefordshire". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  11. ↑ Lewis, Danny (17 January 2017). "This Altar Cloth Might Have Been Elizabeth I's Skirt". Smithsonian. Retrieved 4 June 2018.

Further reading

  • Bradford, Charles Angell: Blanche Parry, Queen Elizabeth's Gentlewoman, R.F. Hunger, London 1935.
  • Lynn, Eleri: Tudor Fashion, in association with Historic Royal Palaces, Yale University Press, 2017.
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