Lady Margaret Bourchier married Sir Thomas Bryan III, son of Thomas Bryan II and Lady Margaret Bowsey, and Sir Francis Bryan and Lady Elizabeth Bryan were their children. . Warm-hearted Lady Margaret Bourchier was governess for Princess Mary, and after the death of Anne Boleyn , Lady Margaret Bourchier was made foster mother to Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth, I). When Prince Edward was born, Lady Margaret transferred to his household. Lady Margaret Bourchier died in 1551 or 1552.

Lady Margaret Bouchier, wife of Sir Thomas Bryan, was a cousin of Queen Ann Boleyn and was a great favorite at the glamorous court of Henry VIII, who had a predeliction for wives. She is said to have been very beautiful and most fascinating and her influence was so great and far-reaching that jealoous courtiers in their "whisperings" even suggested a "royal romance."

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Lady Governess of all Henry VIII´s children: Princess Mary; Henry Fitzroy, D. Richmond; Princess Elizabeth and Prince Edward.

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WIKIPEDIA:

Margaret, Baroness Bryan[1] (c.1468 - c.1551/52) was Lady Governess to Henry VIII's children: Princess Mary, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Edward.[2] The position of Lady Governess in her day resembled less that of the popular modern idea of a governess, more that of a nanny.

Margaret Bryan was born Margaret Bourchier around 1468 in Beningbrough, Yorkshire, England. Her mother was Elizabeth Tilney (d. 4 April 1497) and her father was Sir Humphrey Bourchier (d. 14 April 1471).[3] Humphrey Bourchier was heir to the title Baron Berners but died before his father, being killed during the Wars of the Roses at the Battle of Barnet. Margaret's brother John (b.1467) succeeded to the title as second Baron Berners. Humphrey Bourchier and Elizabeth Tilney had one further daughter who survived to adulthood. Margaret's younger sister was Anne Bourchier (1470-1530) who married Thomas Fiennes, 8th Lord Dacre[4] in 1492. Their son, also Thomas, was the 9th Lord Dacre who was executed for murder in 1541.

Contents [hide]

1 Marriages

2 Lady Governess

3 Family Connections

4 Legacy

5 In Fiction

6 Notes

7 Further reading

8 External links

[edit] Marriages

Margaret Bourchier was married three times. Her first husband, with whom there may only have been a marriage agreement (a ‘pre-contract’), was Sir John Sandes (or Sandys). The marriage agreement was signed when Margaret was 10 or 11 years old on 11 November 1478.[5] Pre-contracts were not unusual among the Tudor period aristocracy and gentry, and it need not have resulted in a consummated marriage.[6]

She married Sir Thomas Bryan sometime before 1490. As Lady Bryan, she was a Lady-in-Waiting to Catherine of Aragon and was present at Catherine's wedding to Prince Henry in 1509.[7] Known as Lady Bryan initially because of her husband's knighthood, she claimed[3][8] to have been made Baroness Bryan suo jure on 18 February 1516, upon the birth of Princess Mary, when she was appointed as Mary's Lady Governess.

Sir Thomas Bryan died sometime before 1517[9], and Margaret Bryan married her final husband, David Souche (or Zoche) in or before 1519. In July 1519, there is a record in the archives of Henry VIII's court that notes the payment of an annuity of 50 pounds to "MARGARET BRYAN, widow of Sir Thomas Bryan, and now wife of David Soche." The annuity paid "for services to the King and queen Katharine" included "one tun of Gascon wine yearly, out of the wine received for the King's use."[10] David Souche may have died in 1526[11] or in 1536.[8]

[edit] Lady Governess

Margaret Bryan became the Lady Governess for Princess Mary in February 1516. More well known primary evidence exists to connect her with with Princess Elizabeth and Prince Edward. From August 1536, there is a widely quoted letter from her to Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister, in which she complains of the economic difficulties of the household of "lady Elizabeth" since the change in her status (from legitimate to illegitimate) following the annulment of the King's marriage to her mother Anne Boleyn, and Anne's execution in May.

Now, as my lady Elizabeth is put from that degree she was in, and what degree she is at now I know not but by hearsay, I know not how to order her or myself, or her women or grooms. I beg you to be good lord to her and hers, and that she may have raiment, for she has neither gown nor kirtle nor petticoat, nor linen for smocks, nor kerchiefs, sleeves, rails, bodystychets, handkerchiefs, mufflers, nor "begens."[12]

(The more obscure items in this list are identified by the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edn) as: rails = nightdresses; bodystychets = corsets; begens = nightcaps.)

She also reports that: "My lady has great pain with her teeth, which come very slowly."[12] (Elizabeth was to have serious difficulties with her teeth on and off for much of her life.)

Margaret Bryan passed over responsibility for Elizabeth to Catherine Champernowne in October of 1537 following the birth of Prince Edward, who became her new charge. A second letter to Cromwell, dated 11 March 1539, describes the Prince.

My lord Prince is in good health and merry. Would to God the King and your Lordship had seen him last night. The minstrels played, and his Grace danced and played so wantonly that he could not stand still ...[13]

A late mention of Margaret Bryan in the archives is a note referring to the payment of a 20 pound annuity to "Lady Margaret Bryane, the King's servant" in 1545.[14]

She died in Leyton, now a suburb of London but at the time a village in Essex.[15]

[edit] Family Connections

Margaret Bryan could boast royal Plantagenet bloodlines for herself through her great grandmother on her father's side, Anne of Woodstock, Countess of Buckingham, who was herself the granddaughter of King Edward III. Closer in time, after the death of Sir Humphrey Bourchier, Margaret's mother, Elizabeth, married Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, becoming Duchess of Norfolk.[16] Elizabeth had a number of children in her second marriage, including Lady Elizabeth Howard, mother of Anne Boleyn, the future queen of England. This connection made Margaret an aunt to Anne Boleyn as well as a member of the wider circle of kin and dependents around the Howard family.

[edit] Legacy

The only children Lady Margaret had were in her marriage with Sir Thomas Bryan. Two of their surviving children were: Elizabeth Bryan, who became the wife of Sir Nicholas Carew, and Sir Francis Bryan, who became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

[edit] In Fiction

Margaret, Lady Bryan makes an appearance in Kathryn Lasky's novel for young readers, Elizabeth I, Red Rose of the House of Tudor. In the book she is nicknamed "Muggie" by the four-year-old Princess Elizabeth.[17]

In the TV series The Tudors, the role of "Lady Margaret Bryan" is played by Jane Brennan.[18]

[edit] Notes

^ Susan Brigden, ‘Bryan, Sir Francis (d. 1550)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008) [1], accessed 28 Aug 2008]

^ She may also have been Lady Governess to Henry's illigitimate but acknowledged son Henry FitzRoy as has been stated - without supporting evidence - in an earlier version of this page. If she had responsibility also for Henry FitzRoy that would have made her tenure as Mary's Lady Governess fairly short. Henry was born 15th June 1519, less than two and a half years after Mary. She was Lady Governess to Elizabeth for four years.

^ a b See Peerage.com Ref i179938[2]

^ See Peerage.com Ref i28719 [3]

^ Douglas Richardson, Thread: 'Complete Peerage Additions/Corrections: Margaret Bourgchier, Lady Bryan', Rootsweb.Ancestry.com (Mail dated 5 Apr 2007) [4], accessed 30th March 2009

^ See for example the comments on pre-contract marriages in Woman under the English law, from the landing of the Saxons to the present time, Arthur Rackham Cleveland p132 & p217 [5]

^ 'Henry VIII: June 1509, 16-30 ', Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 1: 1509-1514 (1920), pp. 36-55. "Lady Bryan" Date accessed: 31 March 2009

^ a b "Margaret, lady Brian, was the widow of Sir Thomas Brian, and having been made, as here stated, a baroness (though the fact is not noticed by our Peerage Historians), she was still called lady Brian after she had taken as her second husband David Soche. See Vol. III., No. 361. Apparently, this letter was written on David Soche's death." Footnote 1 to: 'Henry VIII: August 1536, 1-5', Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 11: July-December 1536 (1888), pp. 90-103. "Lady Bryan" Date accessed: 31 March 2009.

^ See Peerage.com Ref i179939[6]

^ Henry VIII: July 1519, 1-15', Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 3: 1519-1523 (1867), pp. 121-136. "margaret bryan" Date accessed: 31 March 2009.

^ See Peerage.com Ref i180089[7]

^ a b 'Henry VIII: August 1536, 1-5', Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 11: July-December 1536 (1888), pp. 90-103. "Lady Bryan" Date accessed: 31 March 2009.

^ 'Appendix', Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 14 Part 2: August-December 1539 (1895), pp. 359-372. "Lady Bryan" Date accessed: 31 March 2009

^ 'Henry VIII: January 1545, 26-31', Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 20 Part 1: January-July 1545 (1905), pp. 38-59. "Margaret Bryane" Date accessed: 01 April 2009.

^ 'Leyton: Introduction', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6 (1973), pp. 174-184. "margaret bryan" Date accessed: 31 March 2009.

^ See Peerage.com Ref:i102982 [8]

^ Kathryn Lasky, Elizabeth I, Red Rose of the House of Tudor (Scholastic Inc. 1999). See page 24.

^ See the Internet Movie Database.[9]

[edit] Further reading

The Spear and the Spindle: Ancestors of Sir Francis Bryan (D.1550) by Terry A. Fuller

[edit] External links

Genealogy of Margaret Bryan at TudorPlace.com

Genealogy of Margaret Bryan at Rootsweb

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Bryan"

Categories: 1468 births | 1550s deaths | Women of the Tudor period | Peerage of England | Bourchier family | People from Yorkshire

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Bryan

http://www.carsonjohnson.com/chapter09-plantagenet.htm

Lady Margaret Bourchier , (born ca. 1468 in Benningborough, Yorkshire, England ), was the daughter of Sir Humphrey Bourchier and Lady Elizabeth Tilney. She married first John Sandys, but they had no children. She married second Thomas Bryan III in 1487.

Lady Margaret Bourchier was very beautiful, a great favorite in the court of Henry VIII. There were even rumors – whisperings – of a royal romance. Lady Margaret Bourchier was governess of all of Henry VIII’s children, including Princess Mary Tudor, who became Queen Mary ("Bloody Mary",) and then to Princess Elizabeth Tudor, who became Queen Elizabeth I, and later to Prince Edward Tudor, who became King Edward VI. Lady Margaret Bourchier was made a baroness for her services, and she died in Berkshire, England, in 1551 or 1552.

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Lady Bryan, goveness of the young princesses Elizabeth and Mary, daughters of King Henry VIII and both later Queens of England.

Following the unhappy death of Anne Boleyn, Lady margaret was made foster mother to the princess Elizabeth and in recognition of this service the king created the Barony of Bryan.

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Dame Margaret Bryan, son after the birth of Mary (afterwards Queen Mary) in 1516, had care of her person as "Lady Mistress" and was, according to her own account, made Baroness by the King. She held the same office, and was subsequently "Governess" to Elizabeth (afterwards Queen Elizabeth). Her husband, Sir Thomas Bryan of Chedington, Bucks, died before 517. His will dated 1 Oct. 1508 was pr. January 30, 1517. She was sister of John, Lord Berners, daughter of Sir Humphrey Bourshier, by Elizabeth, who was daughter of Sir Frederick Tylney, afterwards Duchess of Norfolk. She died 1551-52, leaving issue, when her peerage, which, if ever conferred, was probably only for life, was no more heard of. -------------------- Margaret BOURCHIER,

Lady Bryan

Born: ABT 1468, Benningborough, Yorkshire, England

Died: 1551/2, England

Father: Humphrey BOURCHIER (Sir Knight)

Mother: Elizabeth TILNEY (C. Surrey)

Married 1: John SANDS 11 Nov 1478, Benningborough, Yorkshire, England

Married 2: Thomas BRYAN (Sir Knight) ABT 1487, Benningborough, Yorkshire, England

Children:

1. Margaret BRYAN

2. Elizabeth BRYAN

3. Francis BRYAN (Sir Knight Lord Chief Justice of Ireland)

4. Mary BRYAN

Married 3: David ZOUCHE

Margaret was born around 1468 in Beningbrough, Yorkshire, England, dau. of Sir Humphrey Bourchier and Elizabeth Tilney. Margaret Bryan could boast royal Plantagenet bloodlines for herself through her great grandmother on her father's side, Anne of Woodstock, Countess of Buckingham, who was herself the granddaughter of King Edward III. Humphrey Bourchier was heir to the title Baron Berners but died before his father, killed at the Battle of Barnet while fighting for the Yorkists. Margaret's brother John succeeded to the title as second Baron Berners. Her mother remarried at Sir Humphrey´s death; her second husband was Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Margaret was brought up with her half brothers and half sisters, including Elizabeth Howard (Anne Boleyn’s mother). This connection made Margaret an aunt to Anne Boleyn as well as a member of the wider circle of kin and dependents around the Howard family.

Humphrey Bourchier and Elizabeth Tilney had one further daughter who survived to adulthood. Margaret's younger sister was Anne Bourchier, who married Thomas Fiennes, 8th Lord Dacre, in 1492. Their son, also Thomas, was the 9th Lord Dacre who was executed for murder in 1541.

Margaret Bourchier was married three times. Her first husband, with whom there may only have been a marriage agreement (a ‘pre-contract’), was Sir John Sands (or Sandys). The marriage agreement was signed when Margaret was 10 or 11 years old on 11 Nov 1478.

Margaret married Sir Thomas Bryan about 1487. As Lady Bryan, she was present at Catalina of Aragon's wedding to Prince Henry in 1509, and was a lady in waiting to Catalina from 1509 to 1516, while her husband was vice chamberlain of the Queen’s household. She apparently brought their daughters Margaret and Elizabeth Bryan, and her son Francis with her to court. She also had charge of the upbringing of Lettice Penyston.

Known as Lady Bryan initially because of her husband's knighthood, she claimed to have been made Baroness Bryan suo jure on 18 Feb 1516, upon the birth of Princess Mary, when she was appointed as Mary's Lady Governess in charge of the nursery at Ditton Park, Buckinghamshire and at Hanworth. She remained with the Princess for five years and when she left was given an annuity of £50 for life. She may also have been Lady Governess to Henry's illigitimate but acknowledged son Henry Fitzroy. If she had responsibility also for Henry Fitzoy that would have made her tenure as Mary's Lady Governess fairly short.

Sir Thomas Bryan died sometime before 1517, and Margaret married her final husband, David Zouche. In Jul 1519, there is a record in the archives of Henry VIII's court that notes the payment of an annuity of £50 to "MARGARET BRYAN, widow of Sir Thomas Bryan, and now wife of David Soche". The annuity paid "for services to the King and queen Katharine" included "one tun of Gascon wine yearly, out of the wine received for the King's use". David Zouche may have died in 1526 or in 1536.

In 1533 she was called back to care for Elizabeth Tudor at Hatfield. From Aug 1536, there is a widely quoted letter from her to Thomas Cromwell, in which she complains of the economic difficulties of the household of lady Elizabeth since the change in her status (from legitimate to illegitimate) following the annulment of the King's marriage to her mother Anne Boleyn, and Anne's execution in May.

               "Now, as my lady Elizabeth is put from that degree she was in, and what degree she is at now I know not but by hearsay, I know not how to order her or myself, or her women or grooms. I beg you to be good lord to her and hers, and that she may have raiment, for she has neither gown nor kirtle nor petticoat, nor linen for smocks, nor kerchiefs, sleeves, rails, bodystychets, handkerchiefs, mufflers, nor "begens."

She also reports that: "My lady has great pain with her teeth, which come very slowly". Elizabeth was to have serious difficulties with her teeth on and off for much of her life.

She was Lady Governess to Elizabeth for four years. Margaret Bryan passed over responsibility for Elizabeth to Catherine Champernowne in Oct 1537 following the birth of Prince Edward, who became her new charge. Later, she was put in charge of a combined household at Havering-atte-Bower. A second letter to Cromwell, dated 11 Mar 1539, describes the Prince.

               "My lord Prince is in good health and merry. Would to God the King and your Lordship had seen him last night. The minstrels played, and his Grace danced and played so wantonly that he could not stand still ..."

A late mention of Margaret Bryan in the archives is a note referring to the payment of a £20 annuity to "Lady Margaret Bryane, the King's servant" in 1545.

She died in Leyton, now a suburb of London but at the time a village in Essex. The only children Lady Margaret had were in her marriage with Sir Thomas Bryan. Two of their surviving children were: Elizabeth Bryan, who became the wife of Sir Nicholas Carew, and Sir Francis Bryan, who became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

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Links

• http://www.ilonaco.com/b24.htm#P1163