Family of William Parr - 1st Marquess of Northampton, 1st Earl of Essex and 1st Baron Parr and Anne Bourchier - Viscountess Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier

Husband:	William Parr - 1st Marquess of Northampton, 1st Earl of Essex and 1st Baron Parr (1513-1571)
Wife:	Anne Bourchier - Viscountess Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier (1517-1571)
Marriage	9 Feb 1527

Husband: William Parr - 1st Marquess of Northampton, 1st Earl of Essex and 1st Baron Parr

Name:	William Parr - 1st Marquess of Northampton, 1st Earl of Essex and 1st Baron Parr1
Sex:	Male
Father:	Thomas Parr ( - )
Mother:	Maud Green ( - )
Note:	Son of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal and of Greens Norton, by his wife Maud (d. 1531), daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Green of Greens Norton and Boughton; he was nephew of Sir William Parr of Horton (d. 1546), and brother of Henry VIII last Queen, Catherine Parr. He was born, probably at Kendal Castle, on 14 Aug 1513, and was educated at Cambridge under Cuthbert Tunstall, who was one of his father's friends. His father died on 12 Nov 1518, and he succeeded to the estate. Described as a man of mediocre talents and a political manoeuvrer who made the most of his position at court. He is believed to have loved poetry, music and fine living. He was knighted on 18 Oct 1537, and took part in suppressing the rising in the north of England in 1537, was one of those who tried the Lincolnshire prisoners in 1538. Made Baron Parr of Kendal in 1539. On 16 Dec of the same year he was made keeper of the parks at Brigstock. On 25 May 1540 he became steward of the manor of Writtle, Essex, and in November following captain of the band of gentlemen-pensioners. In 1541 he was keeper of the park at Moulton, and had trouble with the tenants there. He married first, in 1526, Anne, the heiress of Henry Bourchier, 2nd earl of Essex, when she was barely ten. Twelve years passed before the couple lived together as husband and wife. They were totally unsuited to each other. She was poorly educated and most comfortable living in the country. Her first recorded appearance at court was at a banquet on 22 Nov 1539. Her husband, in contrast, was a career courtier, and engaged, c. 1541, in at least one tempestuous affair, with maid of honor Dorothy Bray, daughter of Edmund Bray, first B. Bray. That same year, Anne surprised everyone by running off with John Lyngfield, alias Huntley or Hunt, prior of St. James, Tandridge, Surrey. Parr secured a legal separation on grounds of her adultery and secured a bill in Parliament on 13 Mar 1543 to bar any child Anne bore from succeeding to her inheritance. Some records give Anne a son by Lyngfield and a daughter (Mary, who married one Thomas York) by an unknown father, while others say she and Lyngfield/Huntley had several children of whom only Mary lived to marry. Details are lacking. The tale that Parr tried to convince King Henry to execute Anne for adultery and that she was saved by Parr's sister, who was about to marry the king, is highly unlikely to have happened. Adultery was not normally punished by death. It is unclear what happened to John Lyngfield, but Anne apparently spent the next few years in impoverished exile at Little Wakering, a manor in Essex. When it was decided that his sister Catherine should marry Henry VIII, William Parr naturally received additional preferment. In Mar 1543 he became a privy councillor, and lord warden and keeper of the marches towards Holland; he was also placed upon the council of the north, and made K.G. on 23 Apr 1543. In Dec 1543, after Cromwell death, just after his sister had married the King, he was created earl of Essex, a title formerly held by his father-inlaw, Henry Bourchier, who had died in Mar 1540. Parr also received in 1543 the barony of Hart in Northamptonshire. In the expedition to Boulogne in 1544 Essex was chief captain of the men-at-arms; and, as a further proof of Henry VIII's confidence in him, he was an assistant-councillor to the king's executors, Henry leaving him £200 by his will. He was one of the commissioners for the trial of the Earl of Surrey on 13 Jan 1546-7. Elizabeth Brooke came to court in the last years of Henry VIII and captivated the much older William Parr, who had been the lover of her aunt, Dorothy Bray. William Parr married Elizabeth in 1547 and lived with her until they were ordered to separate. Their marriage was declared valid in 1548, invalid in 1553, and valid again in 1558 -each change of monarch, and religion, changed Elizabeth's status. Essex was one of the commissioners to determine claims at the coronation of Edward VI on 5 Feb 1546-7, and on the 15th of the same month was created Marquis of Northampton. Edward VI called him his honest uncle. He was a prominent supporter of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and was called to the privy council on 12 Mar 1546/7. On 24 Jun 1549 he was at Cambridge, and heard the disputations as to the sacrament of the altar. In Jul 1549 he was created lord-lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, and Norfolk, and went against Robert Kett in the same month to raise the siege of Norwich during the Norfolk rising. He had little military experience and disregarded Somerset's instructions not to offer battle at Norwich in order to seek a reputation. He was defeated by Ket at St. Martins Place. He was therefore deprived in Aug of the command, which was given to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick. On 4 Feb 1549/50 he was created great chamberlain; in Apr he was one of those who received the French hostages after the surrender of Boulogne. In Jun 1551 he conducted an embassy to France to invest Henri II with the order of the Garter; and he was one of those commissioned to suggest the marriage between Edward VI and the French king's daughter. In the autumn of 1551 Marie De Guise. Regent of Scotland, paid a visit to the English king, and Northampton, who was still in command of the band of gentlemenpensioners, received her at Hampton Court. In the same capacity he was fourth captain in the great muster held before the King in Hyde Park on 7 Dec 1551. On 31 Mar 1552, a bill passed in Parliament declaring the marriage of Anne Bourchier and Parr null and void. Northampton was a friend of Warwick, hence his influence had grown on Somerset's fall; Somerset's conspiracy was supposed to be directed against John Dudley, now Duke of Northumberland, Pembroke, and Northampton. Elizabeth Brooke was involved in the match to marry Jane Grey to Guildford Dudley. Northampton signed the device of King Edward and favored the claim of Lady Jane Grey to the English throne, and went with Northumberland into the eastern counties to maintain her cause. After Queen Mary's triumph he was committed to the Tower on 26 Jul 1553, and on 18 Aug was arraigned and condemned to be executed. He was attainted and deprived of the Garter, but he was released from the Tower on 31 Dec 1553, and pardoned on 13 Jan 1553/4. Arrested again on suspicion of complicity in Wyatt's insurrection on 26 Jan, he was released once more on 24 Mar 1554. He was also restored in blood on 5 May 1554, but he was not restored to his rank, and was known during the rest of Queen Mary's reign as Sir William Parr; he only recovered part of his estates. The bill declaring the marriage of Anne Bourchier and Parr null was reversed on 24 Oct 1553. Two months earlier, Anne had gone to court to lobby for Parr's release and pardon, which would enable him (them) to keep their estates. That same Dec, Anne was granted an annuity of £100. Parr was released but left in poverty. Anne appears to have remained at court until at least Dec 1556, when "Anne, Viscountess Bourchier, Lady Lovayne" was granted an additional annuity of £450. After Queen Elizabeth succeeded her sister, Anne retired quietly to Benington, Hertfordshire and there lived out the rest of her life. On 13 Jan 1558/9 Parr, enjoying the favor of Queen Elizabeth, was recreated Marquess of Northampton. He was made a privy councillor on 25 Dec 1558, and was one of those whom the Queen consulted respecting the prayer-book. When the trial of Thomas Wentworth, second Baron of Netlestead, for the loss of Calais took place on 20 Apr 1559, Northampton acted as high steward. He was re-elected in the Order of the Garter on 24 Apr 1559; on 22 Jul 1559 he was one of the commissioners to visit the dioceses of Oxford, Lincoln, Peterborough, and Coventry and Lichfield, and in Oct of the same year received the Prince of Sweden, then on a visit to England. He is mentioned as a member of Gray's Inn in 1562. At the court of Queen Elizabeth, Lady Northampton was considered one of the Queen's closest friends, but as early as 1564 she was known to be suffering from breast cancer. At that time she made a trip to Antwerp to visit doctors there, but no cure existed. On 18 Mar 1570/1 he was created M.A. by the university of Cambridge. His last wife was Helen Snakenborg. She is noticed by a contemporary, Bishop Parkhurst, in a letter to Bullinger, dated 10 Aug 1571. "The Marquess of Northampton died about the beginning of Aug. When I was in London, he married a very beautiful German girl, who remained in the queen's court after the departure of the Margrave of Baden and Cecilia his wife from England". (Zurich Letters, vol. i. p. 257. Parker Society.) The same fact is confirmed by the statements of her epitaph in Salisbury cathedral; which adds that she became a lady of the bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth, and having married, secondly, Sir Thomas Gorges, of Longford, Wilts, had issue by him four sons and three daughters. She survived Sir Thomas for twenty-five years, and died on the 1 Apr 1635, aged 86. In Sir R. C. Hoare's South Wiltshire, Hundred of Cawden, are three beautiful folio plates of her monument, which includes whole-length recumbent effigies of the Countess and Sir Thomas Gorges. It was this William Parr who built the oldest parts of the surviving house of Nunnington, which now form part of the west front. Following the forfeiture of the estate, Nunnington was again subject to let, one of the tenants being Dr Robert Huicke who was physician to both Catherine Parr and Elizabeth I. It fell to him to tell the Queen that she would never have children. He never lived at Nunnington however and the estate was managed by stewards. The sub-lease was granted to Thomas Norcliffe in 1583 and the family made many alterations over the next sixty years. The Queen Elizabeth stopped to inquire about his health, when he was ill with an ague, on her way into London both in Nov 1558 and on 6 Jul 1561. Northampton died at Warwick on the 28 Oct 1571. He left no children and his marquessate became extinct. Queen Elizabeth paid for his funeral at St. Mary's Church there. In spite of considerable traffic in abbey lands and of grants made to him at his sister's marriage and later, he did not die rich.
Birth	14 Aug 15131
Title		1st Marquess of Northampton, 1st Earl of Essex and 1st Baron Parr
Death	28 Oct 1571 (age 58)	Warwick, England1

Wife: Anne Bourchier - Viscountess Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier

Name:	Anne Bourchier - Viscountess Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier2
Sex:	Female
Father:	Henry Bourchier - 2nd Earl of Essex (1472-1539)
Mother:	Mary Say ( -1535)
Note:	Anne Bourchier (1517 – 28 January 1571) was the suo jure 7th Baroness Bourchier, suo jure Lady Lovayne, and Baroness Parr of Kendal. She was the first wife of William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, Earl of Essex, and the sister-in-law of Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII of England. She created a scandal in 1541 when she deserted her husband to elope with her lover, John Lyngfield, the prior of St. James's Church, Tanbridge, Surrey, by whom she would have several illegitimate children. In 1543, Lord Parr obtained an Act of Parliament repudiating Anne. Family Lady Anne Bourchier was born in 1517, the only child of Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex, 6th Baron Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier, 2nd Count of Eu, and Mary Say, who was a lady-in-waiting to Henry VIII's first Queen consort, Catherine of Aragon. Her paternal grandparents were Sir William Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier and Lady Anne Woodville, a younger sister of the English queen consort Elizabeth Woodville. Her maternal grandparents were Sir William Say and Elizabeth Fray. Anne was related to three queen consorts of Henry VIII; Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Catherine Howard who all shared the same great-grandmother Elizabeth Cheney. As the only child of the last Bourchier Earl of Essex, as well as the contingent heiress of the Countess of Oxford, Anne was one of the wealthiest heiresses in England. The Bourchier wealth derived from the 14th century marriage of Sir William Bourchier to Eleanor de Lovayne (27 March 1345 – 5 October 1397), a rich heiress in her own right. Marriage and inheritance On 9 February 1527, Anne was married to Sir William Parr, the only son of Sir Thomas Parr, Sheriff of Northamptonshire and Maud Green. Anne was approximately ten years old at the time of her marriage which had been diligently arranged by her ambitious mother-in-law. Anne later succeeded to the titles of suo jure 7th Baroness Bourchier and Lady Lovayne on 13 March 1540 at the time of her father's accidental death. His viscounty of Bourchier and earldom of Essex did not pass to her, however, and both titles became extinct upon his death. Her husband had been created 1st Baron Parr of Kendal in 1539. Adultery Anne and Parr were unhappy from the very start of their marriage. After their marriage in 1527, the couple did not live with each other until twelve years later. Anne was described as having been poorly-educated; and she appeared to prefer the peace of the countryside to the excitement of Henry VIII's court, as her first recorded appearance at court where she attended a banquet was on 22 November 1539 when she was aged 22. In 1541, a scandal erupted when Anne eloped with her lover, John Lyngfield, the prior of St. James's Church, in Tanbridge, Surrey, and by whom she had an illegitimate child. He was also known as John Hunt or Huntley. The birth of Anne's child prompted Baron Parr to take action against her to protect his own interests, lest the baby should later in the future lay claim to his estates. In January 1543, he applied to Parliament, asking for a separation from Anne on the grounds of her adultery. From the Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of Henry VIII, dated 22 January 1543, there is the following item: "Whereas lady Anne, wife of Sir Wm Parre lord Parre continued in adultery notwithstanding admonition, and, finally, two years past, left his company and has since had a child begotten in adultery and that the said child and all future children she may have shall be held bastards." In 1541, after Anne had left Baron Parr, he began an affair with Dorothy Bray, who served as a Maid of Honour to Queen Catherine Howard. Parr's sister, Catherine Parr, in March of 1543 used her influence to help her brother and on 17 April 1543, he obtained an Act of Parliament, repudiating Anne and her child, who was declared a bastard, and unfit to inherit. The act was styled in the Lords' journal as a Bill "to bar and make base and bastards, the child which be, or shall be borne in adultery by the Lady Anne, wife of the Lord Parr". This act was read for the first time on 13 March 1543. The Act stated in the 34th Year Hen. VIII: "That for the last two years she [Anne] had eloped from her husband, William Lord Parr, and had not in that time ever returned to nor had any carnal intercourse with him, but had been gotten with child by one of her adulterors and been delivered of such child, which child 'being as is notoriously known, begotten in adultery, and born during the espousals' between her and Lord Parr 'by the law of this realm is inheritable and may pretend to inherit all &c;' and the Act therefore declared the said child to be a bastard. At this time, his sister Catherine was being courted by King Henry VIII. Anne spent the next few years living in exile at the manor of Little Wakering, in Essex. She was allegedly reduced to a state of poverty. In that same year, 1543, William Parr had begun his courtship of Elizabeth Brooke, who was the niece of his mistress, Dorothy Bray, as well as a former Maid of Honour of Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. He was created 1st Earl of Essex on 23 December 1543. On 31 March 1552, a bill was passed in Parliament which declared the marriage between Parr and Bourchier to be null and void. Later years Upon the ascension of Queen Mary, Parr was arrested and was committed to the Tower after his traitorous complicity with John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland's failed plot against Mary to place Lady Jane Grey upon the throne. After Parr was sentenced to death on 18 August 1553, Anne went to court and intervened on Parr's behalf with Queen Mary I in hopes that they [she] would be able to keep their estates. Parr was released. The bill which had declared their marriage null and void was reversed on 24 March 1554. That December, Anne used the reversal to her advantage and was granted an annuity of £100. Again in December 1556, Anne was granted another annuity of £450. She remained at the royal court until the ascension of Elizabeth I. Queen Elizabeth held Parr in high favour and Anne most likely knew that her adulterous history would not endear her to the queen. Parr was restored to blood and was re-created Marquess of Northampton, re-elected to the Order of the Garter, and was made a privy councillor among other things. She had several more children by John Lyngfield but they, like her first child, were legally declared bastards. Only one daughter, Mary, is documented as having lived to adulthood. She married a Thomas York by whom she had children, but they all lived in obscurity. Author Charlotte Merton suggested that Katherine Nott, who held an unspecified position in Queen Elizabeth I's household from 1577 to 1578, was also a daughter of Anne. Sir Robert Rochester and Sir Edward Waldegrave held Benington Park, in Hertfordshire, as feoffees for her use; however, upon the death of Rochester in 1557, Waldegrave transferred the property to Sir John Butler. In response, Anne brought a lawsuit against Waldegrave and Butler which was heard in the Court of Chancery.[1] She won the case but Butler petitioned to retry the case and continued to regard the park as his own.[1] Butler's petition was apparently unsuccessful because following Queen Elizabeth I's accession to the throne in November 1558, Anne had retired to Benington Park where she quietly spent the rest of her life. Death Anne Bourchier died on 28 January 1571 at Benington. Parr died the same year and was buried in the Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Warwick. His funeral and burial was paid by the Queen. He had married two times after Anne, but only his third wife, Helena Snakenborg, whom he had married after Anne's death in May was considered legal. He fathered no children by any of his wives and the little money and estates he had left were passed to his cousins. Upon Anne's death, the barony of Bourchier passed to her cousin, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex. from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bourchier,_7th_Baroness_Bourchier
Birth	15173
Title		Viscountess Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier
Death	28 Jan 1571 (age 53-54)	Bennington2,3

Sources

1	"Wikipedia" (en.wikipedia.org). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Parr,_1st_Marquess_of_Northampton.

2	"Tudor Place Website" (http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/BOURCHIER1.htm).

3	"Wikipedia" (en.wikipedia.org). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bourchier,_7th_Baroness_Bourchier.