A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



about the renewal of the war with France. 10 ' 

 Henry eventually left Katharine Parr and his three 

 children at Hampton Court, and went himself to 

 take command of the English army in France.*" 

 The queen remained at the palace during his 

 absence ; some of her letters are extant, informing 

 him of the health of the prince and other 

 children. 508 He rejoined her in October, and 

 they continued at Hampton Court for some time. 

 The picture, attributed to Holbein, of Henry VIII 

 and his family sitting in the cloisters at Hampton 

 Court, which is now in the State Apartments (No. 

 340), was probably painted at this period, about 

 1546."" 



The last of Henry's great ' revellynges ' took 

 place in the summer of 1 546, when the French 

 ambassador, Claude d'Annebaut, Admiral of 

 France, came to ratify the peace recently con- 

 cluded between England and France. He went 

 by river to Hampton Court from London, and was 

 met by the young Prince Edward, attended by 

 the Archbishop of York, the Earls of Hertford and 

 Huntingdon, and ' a retinue of five hundred and 

 forty in velvet coates ; the Prince's livery with 

 sleeves of cloth of gold, and half the coats em- 

 broidered also with gold.' At the outer gate he 

 was met by the Lord Chancellor and all the 



day he had an audience of 

 great triumph went to the 

 king received his oath to 

 the league as cove- 



Council. The next 

 the king, ' and in 

 Chapel, where the 

 perform the articles 

 nanted.' 



After that followed six days of ' banquetings, 

 huntings and triumphings, with noble masques 



of 



and mummeries.' '" This was the end of the gay 

 scenes at Hampton Court which Henry had loved. 

 A little later his health failed entirely ; he left the 

 palace for the last time before the end of I 546, and 

 died at Westminster on 28 January 1547.'" 

 Though Henry VIII himself left the palace on the 

 death of Jane Seymour, and did not return there 

 till the following year, the infant prince remained, 

 and a regular household was appointed for him in 

 March 1538.*" It consisted of a chamberlain 

 Sir William Sydney a vice-chamberlain, a chief 

 steward, a comptroller, a lady mistress, 314 a cofferer, 

 a dean, and several others, including the nurse and 

 rockers." 4 An elaborate code of regulations was 

 drawn up for the use of these officials."* The 

 rooms allotted to the young prince were on the 

 second floor on the north side of the Chapel 

 Court, facing the gardens to the east.' 17 



His nurse was Sibell Penn, daughter of William 

 Hampden, and wife of David Penn. She was 

 appointed in October 1538, having been recom- 

 mended by her brother-in-law, Sir William Sydney, 

 the prince's chamberlain.* 18 She apparently con- 

 tinued to live at Hampton Court after Edward's 

 death, and died there on 6 November 1562, of 

 smallpox, at the time when Queen Elizabeth 

 suffered from the same disease.' 19 Mrs. Penn was 

 buried in Hampton Church, and her monument 

 is still to be seen there, a life-sized recumbent 

 effigy, under a marble canopy. On the tomb are 

 the date of her death, her coat of arms, and a 

 quaintly-rhyming epitaph. Her ghost is the best 

 authenticated of those that are said to haunt the 

 palace."" 



"' Hall, Cbron. fol. 857 ; Holinshed, 

 Ckron. iii, 19 (ed. 1809). 



808 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix, Pref. p. 

 x, &c. ; Did. Nat. Biog. 'Henry VIII.' 



809 Commission of Regency to the 

 queen and others was drawn up 1 1 July 

 1 543 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix, 864, 

 889. 



810 Law, op. cit, i, 238 ; The Royal 

 Gallery of Ham f ton Court, 129-30. 



811 Holinshed, Chron. iii, 975 ; Fahy- 

 an, Chron. 708. L. and P. Hen. VIII, 

 xxi (i), 693, et eq. 



Diet. Nat. Biog. 'Henry VIII.' 

 It is said that he became so unwieldy 

 that at last he could only be moved 

 from one room to another in the 

 palace 'by the aid of machinery'; 

 Lingard, Hist.of Engl. vi, chap. v. 



' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, 579. 



814 The earliest 'Lady Maistres'to 

 Henry'* three children seems to have 

 been Margaret daughter of Humphrey 

 Bourchier, Lord Berners, and wife of 

 Sir Thomas Bryan, kt. ; Lit. Remains 

 of Ediu. VI (ed. Nichols), i, p. xxxii ; 

 Stowe, Surv. of Lond. i, 1760 ; ii, 114, 

 Strype's App.; in which her will is given. 



815 The Chapter House Accounts in- 

 clude items for the ' Rocking Cham- 

 ber' ; cit. Law, Hist. Hampton Court 

 Palate, i, 201 ; Lit. Remains of Ediv. 

 VI, i, p. xxix. 



811 Ibid. p. xxvii, et seq.; Treasury 

 Papers (Eich.), (Ser. i), 750. A 

 tranicript is in the Cott. MSS. 

 Vittllius, C. i, fol. 65. 



81 7 They are now private apartments 



occupied by Mrs. Thomson, widow of 

 the late Archbishop of York. 



818 He wrote to Cromwell about his 

 wife's sister : ' I doubt not but that she 

 is every way an apt woman for the 

 same, and there shall be no lack of 

 goodwill in her' ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, 

 xiii, (24. It is not certain that Sir 

 William's letter refers to Mrs. Penn, 

 though she must have been appointed 

 about that time (1538) (ibid. 1257), 

 but his wife appears to have been a 

 daughter of Sir Hugh Pagenham, and 

 from the coat of arms and inscription 

 on her monument in Hampton Church 

 it is clear that Mrs. Penn was born a 

 Hampden ; Law, Hist. Hampton Court 

 Palace, i, 196. Sir Clements Mark- 

 ham refers to her as the daughter of 

 Sir Hugh Pagenham, and says that 

 ' the second nurse was Mrs. Jackson 

 Mother Jak'; King Edw. VI; An 

 Appreciation (1907), 4. A picture by 

 Holbein, now at Windsor, of Edward 

 VI and his ' wet nurse Mother Jak ' is 

 said to resemble the effigy of Mrs. 

 Penn at Hampton, but it seems prob- 

 able that she succeeded ' Mother Jak ' ; 

 Diet. Nat. Biog. Henry VIII rewarded 

 her faithful service with some of his 

 monastic spoils, making her a grant for 

 her life of lands in Bucks, which 

 originally belonged to the monasteries 

 of Burcester and Godstow and Cha- 

 combe Priory. These lands were 

 confirmed to her and her heirs by 

 Edward VI ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, 

 12580.; Orig. R. 7 Edw. VI, ii, rot. 49. 



34 



SH Edward VI, and afterwards his 

 listers, Queen Mary and Queen Eliza- 

 beth, always continued to treat Mrs. 

 Penn with great kindness and liber- 

 ality ; Lit. Remains of Ediv. VI, i, 

 pp. xxxiii, ccxv ; Col. S.P, Foreign, 



'547-53. no- >53- 



810 Her monument was moved when 

 the old church was pulled down in 

 1829, and from that time it was said 

 that her spirit returned to haunt the 

 scenes of her former life. The sounds 

 of someone using a spinning-wheel, 

 and of a woman's voice murmuring as 

 the spun, were said to be heard in one 

 of the rooms in an apartment in the 

 south-west wing of the palace. They 

 are now private apartments occupied 

 by Lord and Lady Wolseley. Inquiries 

 were made, and a disused room was 

 discovered in which was an ancient 

 spinning-wheel. The oak floor was 

 found to be worn away by the action 

 of the treadle. At a later period she 

 is supposed to have appeared at night 

 to a sentry on guard, as well as to 

 others. The usual description given 

 of her ghost, as seen by strangers who 

 knew nothing of the tradition, is said 

 to correspond accurately with the figure 

 on her tomb ; Law, Hist. Hampton 

 Court Palace, i, 200. There seems to 

 be absolutely no known reason why she 

 should have haunted that wing of the 

 palace. A further legend runs that she 

 only appears when a child of royal descent 

 is to be born in the palace, and her ap- 

 pearance foretells disaster. See p. 389. 



