This week I started re-reading the book “The Other Tudors – Henry VIII’s Mistresses and Bastards by Philippa Jones. How did I miss the possibility that our Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet may have helped raise one of Henry VIII’s bastard sons? His own nephew, Henry Lee?!
Page 297 – “Another rumoured illegitimate son of Henry VIII’s was Sir Henry Lee. John Aubrey, in his Brief Lives, wrote of Sir Henry Lee (1530-1610): ‘Old Sir Harry Lee (was) knight of the Garter and was supposed brother of Queen Elizabeth. He ordered that all his family should be christened Harry’s.’
Wikipedia states “Margaret was one of Anne’s chief ladies-in-waiting, and accompanied her to Calais, France in 1532, where it is presumed Anne and Henry VIII made secret plans to marry in the immediate future. It is known that Anne had a lady-in-waiting who ‘she loves as a sister,’ and it has been suggested that this lady was Margaret. She was certainly part of the Queen’s circle of favorites. As Mistress of the Queen’s Wardrobe, she would presumably have played a leading part in the decadent social life at court in the mid-1530s, which was fuelled by the extravagance of Henry and Anne.”
Well, the imagination just runs wild. Anne Boleyn was crazy jealous and Margaret was described as her “favorite”. That implies trust. Well, when you compare her painting to Anne’s – I’m sorry, no contest. Anne was beautiful and Margaret looks pinched and shrewish.
I wondered what might have inspired Henry to seduce Anne’s best friend. Or maybe he didn’t need much inspiration. Henry Lee’s birth year is uncertain. If he was conceived between 1529 and 1532, that was probably Henry VIII’s response to Anne “holding out for marriage”. She was also getting unbearably bitchy, thinking his divorce would never happen. (She actually made Henry cry; unbelievable.)
So in 1532 Henry was elevating Anne. In September he made her Lady Marquess of Pembroke; it’s assumed she finally surrendered to him sexually around that time.
In January of 1533 their secret marriage was celebrated in Calais and she was telling our Sir Tom that she had “a hankering for apples.” (Implying pregnancy.) In April her household was established and she appeared in public as queen.
By then she was obviously pregnant. The king ordered the churches to pray on her account; in one parish, everyone walked out. One woman was imprisoned for shouting out “God Save Queen Katherine” and calling Anne a “goggle-eyed whore.”
Anne’s coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on June 1 and St. Edward’s crown was used, since it was assumed she was carrying a prince. Our Sir Tom served as chief ewerer in place of his father, pouring scented water over the queen’s hands. If his feelings were what they say they were, that had to be an unbearably emotional experience.
By then, Anne’s arrogance was out of control. Norfolk – Anne’s uncle and Sir Tom’s godfather – was in charge of the coronation and barely on speaking terms with his niece.
Henry was straying and when she blew up at him, he reminded her to endure “as more worthy persons”. (Namely Katherine of Aragon; SMACK!)
Elizabeth was born 9/7/1533. The gender was a huge disappointment. Announcements had already been printed, so S’s were hastily added to “prince”.
As stated, we don’t know when Henry Lee was born. I did a quick search but wasn’t able to find the date of Margaret’s marriage to Sir Anthony Lee of Quarendon. Henry VIII had learned to restrict his flings to married women, but he wanted the husbands to keep a distance until he had had enough of the woman. The woman was elevated through her relationship with the king. Sometimes an advantageous marriage was “arranged” so an honorable husband would be standing by to accept responsibility for any “issue”. It was common for Henry’s child to be the woman’s first.
Henry Lee was the firstborn of Margaret and Sir Anthony. This could explain why the child was sent to Allington to live with his uncle, our Sir Tom. (Margaret and Anthony went on to have 8 more children.)
You have to wonder at Margaret’s steel to be able to hide such a deception from her friend; still, she was with Anne to the end. Wikipedia says, she “was sent to attend her royal mistress in the Tower of London in May 1536 when the Queen was arrested on charges of adultery, treason, and incest. Margaret also attended Anne on the scaffold on May 19, and even received the last gift of a prayer book from her. After Anne was beheaded, Margaret acted as chief mourner at her small funeral. Anne had written a short farewell to Margaret inside the prayer book:
“Remember me when you do pray,
that hope doth lead from day to day.”
On page 299 of The Other Tudors Philippa writes “Sir Henry Lee was the son of Sir Anthony Lee and Margaret, the daughter of Henry Wyatt, Privy Councillor to Henry VIII. There was certainly no contemporary suggestion that Sir Henry Lee was Henry VIII’s son.”
The possibility is not broached on tudorplace.com, but there’s a lot of great information on this interesting relative. http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/HenryLee.htm
We do know his half-sister (?) Queen Elizabeth treated him very well. He became her champion in 1570 and Master of the Royal Armouries in 1580. The fact that he enjoyed writing poetry is probably a tribute to the years he spent with his famous uncle.
The somewhat lewd inscription on his tombstone is a tribute to his – um – colorful lifestyle, sassy mistress and unusual sense of humor.
Here lies the good old knight Sir Harry,
Who loved well but would not marry;
While he lived and had his feeling,
She did lie and he was kneeling.
Now he’s dead and cannot feel,
He doth lie and she doth kneel.
Per Wikipedia: Anthony Lee was apparently descended from the Lee family of Lee Hall, Staffordshire, England; it is unknown if this family was related to the Lee Family of Coton Hall, Nordley Regis, Shropshire, England from whom the Lee family of Virginia was allegedly descended.
Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet 
I don’t believe that King Henry VIII actually seduced all the women he
is given credit to have seduced. Some threw themselves upon him
for the position of favor they would recieve by pleasing him while the
others he fornicated with did so out of fear of whom he was and his
demeanor to punish or execute those who did not please him in his wants, desires and so called needs. Yet I had a great grandfather
who was a close and confidential friend of King Henry who spoke to
the King with openess and without fear of retribution and for some
reason King Henry allowed my great grandfather to do so and why I
am not certain of. My great grandfather was just as ruthless and cold
in carrying out all that Henry ask of him. He was a adulterer as Henry
was. My interest in Sir Anthony Lee deems to the finding that my
4th. great grandfather, William Brittian Jones married Mary Lee, the daughter of Anthony Lee and Jemima, (last name unknown) in South Carolina. I was researching the Lee family when I came across Sir
Anthony Lee. I was hoping to find a family connection and then I read this article and thought if Sir Anthony Lee was a relative then he would have known several of my indirect line of grandfathers who were Knights. Sir Francis Bryan of whom I spoke of earlier and Sir William Drury. There were others no doubt but these are interesting enough to write about.
Who was your great grandfather?
I was sitting here with “The Other Tudors” “Henry VIII’s Mistresses and Bastards” by Philippa Jones when your reply came in. Philippa believes Henry was into serial monogamy and a complete romantic at heart. (Chivalry and all that.) She also talks about the many benefits of hooking up with the king.
As Henry Kissinger said, “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” Which implies Henry had a nice selection to choose from.
That Lee connection is fascinating. I haven’t had time to follow that trail.
My seventh great grandfather (indirect lineage) was Sir Francis Bryan
..knight of the Garter…friend and confidant of KIng Henry VIII…
also cousin to both Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymore…labeled by
the cronim of “The Vicar of Hell” by Cromwell…his father Sir Thomas
Bryan II and his father, Sir Thomas Bryan I, respectively are my
eighth and ninth great grandfathers….. My lineage descends through
William Smith Bryan who came to Jamestown by means of deporta-
tion from Ireland where he was called upon by the people to remain
in place as King of Ireland and challenge Cromwell and the British
rule
That is so cool!! I love the way Bryan was portrayed in The Tudors. In reality he wore an eye patch because of a jousting accident and was a friend of Sir Thomas Wyatt; I think it’s also safe to say they were “coworkers.”
It’s so that great grandfather love to do contest and hone his skill
with the sword but he endeared himself in his works of poetry. He
indeed wore a patch but something you may not know is this. In
the writings of the Three Musketeers, the villian that challenged
them was developed from the character and looks of grandfather
Sir Francis Bryan. The evil and eye patch wearing character was de-
veloped from the image of “The Vicar of Hell”. None the less in
later generations of his lineage the town of Smithfield North Carolina
was founded and layed out by his grandchildren of which two were
by grandparents and the other a great uncle….Needham Bryan 1
and sons William ( my lineage) and Needham Bryan II ( a great uncle)
were founders of that town. Grandfather William Bryan and his
brother Needham Bryan married daughters of Joseph Smith who
by so marrying them proved Joseph Smith to be an indirect great
grandfather that gave the land for the town of Smithfield.
lAlso it must be noted that another great grandson of Sir Francis Bryan, namely Morgan Bryan had two daughters and a son that married two children of Squire Boone. Rebecca Bryan married the
great frontiersman of America, Daniel Boone
In my last comment I said three children of Morgan Bryan married two
children of Squire Boone. Morgans two daughters married Daniel and
his brother while Daniels sister married Rebecca and Martha Bryans
brother. As to my understanding Rebecca and Martha’s brother was
a better frontiersman than Daniel and often escorted Daniel on many
of his daring adventures into the mountains of Tennesse, Kentucky,
and North Carolina. The Bryan family as the Lee family were indeed
prominent in the history and developement of America and I am
so proud of those who lived then and those who live today… not
many today can make the claim I make and prove it by documen-
tation……yet I do not boast beyond that which I had not a hand
in causing, but yet, am a part of….
A good while back I left a message concerning my 11th. great grandfather Sir Francis Bryan I and his relationship to the throne of England. If one continues back into his lineage he is a descendant of (grandson) of the Plantagenet line that were Kings of England. Sir Francis Bryan I, was the son of of Lady Baroness Margaret Bourchier-Bryan. His father was Sir Thomas Bryan II. His mother was the daughter of Sir Humphrey Bourchier, who was the son of Sir
William Bourchier and his wife Ann Plantagenet. Ann Plantagenet was the daughter of Sir Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Eu and Gloucester last born child of King Edward Plantagenet III of England. His and my lineage of great grandparents goes all the way back into the Cuthose family. William Cuthose I, also known as William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy is my 25 great indirect grandfather. I have been able to find this but I have not been able to find anything on William Brittian Jones and Mary Lee-Jones of the High Hills of Santee in Sumter District, South Carolina other than Mary Lee’s grandfather was Richard Henry Lee of the HIgh HIlls of Santee, SC.,… I was hoping someone knew more about them and where they were from before moving into South Carolina or were they born there as some state. Any help would be much appreciated…… William Jones