Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey, Grandmother of Queens

Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey, was the wife of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and the mother of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. She was also grandmother of two of King Henry VIII’s queens, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and two of his known mistresses, Elizabeth Carew and Mary Boleyn Carey.

Moreover, through her maternal half sister, Anne Say, she was also the great-aunt of Queen Jane Seymour.  That means that three of Henry’s wives, and two of his mistresses had the same great-grandmother — Elizabeth Cheney. Elizabeth Cheney’s mother, Ida de Grey, was maternally descended from Gruffydd II ap Madog, the Welsh Prince of Powys Fadog, who was also the great-great-grandfather of Owain Glyndŵr, whose aunt Margaret was the grandmother of  Owen Tudor,  King Henry VIII’s great-grandfather. 

Because Elizabeth Tilney’s family was so well-connected among the powerful Marcher Lords, she married well. Her first husband, Sir Humphrey Bourchier, was a descendant of King Edward III through Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester. As Lady Bourchier, Elizabeth served as a lady-in-waiting to King Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville.

Elizabeth Bourchier was widowed when her husband died for the Yorkist cause at the Battle of Barnet on 14 April 1471. In gratitude for the family’s loyalty, King Edward IV made sure she and her young children were taken care of by arranging her marriage to Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey a year later. Elizabeth would have another 11 children with her second husband, 9 of whom lived to adulthood.

Thomas Howard, who would be the eventual 2nd Duke of Norfolk, was loyal to the king’s younger brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and backed him to the hilt when the duke became Richard III. After Richard’s defeat and the rise of Henry VII, the Countess of Surrey was sent away from court while her husband was imprisoned by the new monarch. However, the king graciously stipulated in Thomas Howard’s attainder that Elizabeth would not lose her dower inheritance. She and her children were no longer in favor, but they were not destitute either.

Henry VII’s bride, Princess Elizabeth of York, was crowned 25 November 1487 and as queen she appointed the former Countess of Surrey as one of her ladies of the bedchamber, even though Thomas Howard was still locked in the Tower. Elizabeth Tilney worked to soften the king’s heart toward her husband, and after Howard refused “an opportunity to escape during the rebellion of the Earl of Lincoln”, Henry VII seemed willing to give him a chance to prove his loyalty to the new regime.

In 1489, Thomas Howard had his earldom restored to him, and after he proved his loyalty to the crown by fighting against a rebellion in Yorkshire, the king restored Surrey’s lands as well. Howard was further rewarded when his wife was made one of Princess Margaret Tudor’s joint godmothers at her baptism in December of that year. Moreover, Henry VII assigned Surrey to act as the King’s lieutenant in the north until 1499.

With the Howard’s firmly in favor in the court, Elizabeth Tilney moved to secure the marriages of her offspring. Her eldest daughter, Margaret Bourchier, wed Sir Thomas Bryan, and would become the Lady Governess to both of King Henry VIII’s daughters, Princess Mary and Princess Elizabeth. Margaret’s son, Sir Francis Bryan, would become one of Henry VIII’s closest friends, and was notorious for his debauched lifestyle. He was called ‘the Vicar of Hell’ by Thomas Cromwell and was be instrumental in the destruction of his cousin, Anne Boleyn.

Elizabeth Tilney’s second daughter, Anne Bourchier, married Thomas Fiennes, 8th Baron Dacre. Their daughter Mary Fiennes, wed one of Henry VIII’s closest friends, Sir Henry Norris. However, after Mary’s death, the widowed Norris made the mistake of becoming close to Anne Boleyn. Thus, he was one of the first men accused of adultery with the queen when Cromwell set out to destroy her.

John Bourchier, Elizabeth Tilney’s eldest son, married his step-father’s half-sister, Katherine Howard, who was one of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk’s daughters by his second wife, Margaret Chedworth. Sadly, all but one of his children, a daughter, would predecease him.

The Countess of Surrey made the best match for her son Thomas. On 4 February 1495, the future 3rd Duke of Norfolk married Princess Anne of York, the fifth daughter of King Edward IV of England and the sister-in-law of reigning monarch. Sadly, none of the couples’ five children would survive infancy, but Elizabeth Tilney would be spared that knowledge, since she herself died just two years after Thomas’s wedding, on 4 April 1497.

Elizabeth Tilney Bourchier Howard was interred under the floor of the nun’s choir in the Convent of the Minoresses. Although several of her granddaughters would die at the hands of Henry VIII, she would gain a karmic triumph over the heir-mad king  — a direct descendant of her granddaughter Mary Boleyn currently sits on the throne of England, while Henry VIII’s direct line ended with the death of his youngest daughter, Queen Elizabeth I.