| Marquess of Pembroke | |
|---|---|
| Creation date | 1 September 1532 |
| Created by | Henry VIII of England |
| Peerage | Peerage of England |
| First holder | Anne Boleyn |
| Last holder | Anne Boleyn |
| Remainder to | the 1st Marquess's heirs male of the body (whether legitimate or illegitimate) |
| Extinction date | disputed between 28 May 1533, 15 May 1536 and 19 May 1536 (see the text) |
Marquess of Pembroke was a title in the Peerage of England created by King Henry VIII for his future spouse Anne Boleyn.
The then extinct title of Earl of Pembroke had been very significant for the House of Tudor. It was held by Henry VIII's grand-uncle, Jasper Tudor, and it referred to the birthplace of King Henry VII. Henry VIII decided to raise his lover to the dignity of a marquess prior to finally marrying her. He chose to grant her the Marquessate of Pembroke. [1]
On Sunday, 1 September 1532, Anne Boleyn was granted the Marquessate of Pembroke and land, mostly in Wales, worth over £1,000. The investiture ceremony was performed by Henry VIII himself in Windsor Castle. The ceremony was an elaborate affair, witnessed by the highest ranking peers and clergy in the kingdom, including Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Anne's father and uncle respectively; Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk (Henry's brother-in-law); Edward Lee, Archbishop of York; John Stokesley, Bishop of London; and Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester. The French ambassador was also present. The Bishop of Winchester read the patent of creation while Anne knelt before the King who then invested her with the coronet, the robe of estate and the charters of creation and of the lands. [2] [3]
The 16th-century spelling of her title was often marquesse or marquess, sometimes lady marquesse; a feminine, like duchess, of the relatively rare title marquys. [4]
The marquessate was granted to Anne and her heirs male, but the patent did not include the usual provision that the said heirs male had to be of legitimate birth, thus enabling the title to pass to any illegitimate son Anne might have had. The attending peers did not fail to notice this unusual omission. [2] [3] [5]
It is not clear how the Marquessate of Pembroke ceased to exist. The latest it could have become extinct is upon Anne's death, without male heirs, on 19 May 1536. [6] However, it could have become extinct earlier, either:
The effect of the marriage of a peer to a reigning monarch is unclear. Likewise, although forfeiture of titles was a common form of punishment for peers at this time, the historical record is unclear.
Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.
Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, 1st Earl of Ormond, 1st Viscount RochfordKGKB, of Hever Castle in Kent, was an English diplomat and politician who was the father of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, and was thus the maternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. By Henry VIII he was made a knight of the Garter in 1523 and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Rochford in 1525 and in 1529 was further ennobled as Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond.
Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, also called Margaret Pole as a result of her marriage to Sir Richard Pole, was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, a brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III, by his wife Isabel Neville. Margaret was one of just two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right without a husband in the House of Lords. As one of the few members of the House of Plantagenet to have survived the Wars of the Roses, she was executed in 1541 at the command of King Henry VIII, the second monarch of the House of Tudor, who was the son of her first cousin, Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Roman Catholic Church on 29 December 1886.
Earl of Pembroke is a title in the Peerage of England that was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title, which is associated with Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in West Wales, has been recreated ten times from its original inception. Due to the number of creations of the Earldom, the original seat of Pembroke Castle is no longer attached to the title.
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford was an English courtier and nobleman who played a prominent role in the politics of the early 1530s as the brother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII. George was the maternal uncle of Queen Elizabeth I, although he died long before his niece ascended the throne. Following his father's promotion in the peerage in 1529 to Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, he adopted his father's junior title Viscount Rochford as a courtesy title. He was accused of incest with his sister Anne during the period of her trial for high treason, as a result of which both were executed.
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Earl of March is a title that has been created several times, respectively, in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of England. The title derives from the "marches" or borderlands between England and either Wales or Scotland, and it was held by several great feudal families which owned lands in those districts. Later, however, the title came to be granted as an honorary dignity, and ceased to carry any associated power in the marches.
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The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Ormonde have a long and complex history. An earldom of Ormond has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland.
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William Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys, KG, of The Vyne in the parish of Sherborne St John, Hampshire, was an English diplomat, and a favourite of King Henry VIII, whom he served as Lord Chamberlain. In the 1520s he built a palatial Tudor-style mansion at "The Vyne", which survives in a reduced and classicised form as a possession of the National Trust.
Events from the 1530s in England.
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Marquess is a rank of nobility in the peerages of the United Kingdom.
Anne Boleyn, a few months previous to her marriage with Henry VIII., was created marchioness of Pembroke in 1532, It is doubted by authorities on peerage law whether the title merged in the royal dignity on the marriage of the marchioness to the king, or became extinct on her death in 1536.
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See also: Extant British marquessates | ||