Monday, February 23, 2009

Question from Colleen - Where did Mary serve Princess Elizabeth

Hi everyone,

I've glanced around online but can't seem to find the specific answer to this, and I won't be able to get to the library until this coming weekend. Does anybody know where (as in which house or houses) Mary I was forced to serve as a lady-in-waiting to the infant Elizabeth? Thanks!

2 comments:

Elizabeth M. said...

Princess Mary was sent to be a member of the infant Princess Elizabeth's household at Hatfield primarily. She was not exactly a lady-in-waiting. mary was a member of her household--partly to conserve expenses at having to have a separate household for Mary, who had been declared a bastard by her father. It was also meant to break her will--having to be subservient to her new sister, the new legitimate heir, according to her father. While not forced to wait on Elizabeth, Mary had to pay her respects to the new arrival, and was continually browbeaten into acknowledging her own bastardy (which she held off doing for nearly four years, until finally giving in in 1537). She was not allowed to eat her meals by herself, but was forced to eat in the common hall with everyone else, was forced to travel in a leather litter behind the velvet one her baby sister rode in.
Part of the old Hatfield House Elizabeth and Mary lived in is still standing and can be seen neat the town of Hatfield, in Hertfordshire.

hector5559 said...

Hatfields is in the london brough of merton,now called morden hall park,