Blanche Parry
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, Chief Gentlewoman of Queen Elizabeth’s most honourable Privy Chamber
Privy chamber
A Privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The gentlemen of the Privy chamber were servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King and Queen at court during their various activities, functions and entertainments....
and Keeper of Her Majesty’s jewels.
Early life
Blanche is properly called Blanche ferch Harry as she used this Welsh system of nomenclature that showed Harry was her father; later her name was anglicised to Parry or to Apharrie. Blanche came from prominent border gentry and nine bardic poems refer to her family: five by Guto’r Glyn and one each by Gwilym TewGwilym Tew
Gwilym Tew was a Welsh language poet and manuscript copyist from Tir Iarll, Glamorgan.It is probable that his father was the poet, Rhys Brydydd, and that another poet of the same family, Rhisiart ap Rhys, was his nephew....
, Howel Dafi, Huw Cae Llwyd and Lewys Morgannwg
Lewys Morgannwg
Lewys Morgannwg was a Welsh language poet from Morgannwg, south Wales. He lived at St. Bride's MajorLewys was one of the foremost poets of the sixteenth century. Most of his poems that have survived are eulogies and elegies in strict metre. Lewys was the household poet to Sir William Griffith of...
. She was born at Newcourt, Bacton
Bacton
Bacton may refer to:* Bacton, Herefordshire* Bacton, Norfolk* Bacton, Suffolk...
, Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
. Her parents were Henry Myles and his English wife Alice (a daughter and an heiress of Simon Milbo(u)rne). Henry Myles was Steward of Ewyas Lacy, Steward of Dore Abbey
Dore Abbey
Dore Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in the village of Abbey Dore in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. A large part of the original mediaeval building has been used since the 16th century as the parish church, with remaining parts either now ruined or no longer extant.-History:The...
(Cistercian) and three times High Sheriff of Herefordshire
High Sheriff of Herefordshire
The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions are now...
. He was related to the Herbert family of the Earls of Pembroke. Blanche was bilingual in Welsh and English, though brought up in a Welsh cultural environment. There are strong indications of earlier family connections to the Lollards and Blanche's mother’s family were connected to Sir John Oldcastle
John Oldcastle
Sir John Oldcastle , English Lollard leader, was son of Sir Richard Oldcastle of Almeley in northwest Herefordshire and grandson of another Sir John Oldcastle....
. However, Blanche Parry and her sisters may have been educated by the Augustinian nuns
Augustinian nuns
Augustinian nuns are the most ancient and continuous segment of the Roman Catholic Augustinian religious order under the canons of contemporary historical method. The Augustinian nuns, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , are several Roman Catholic enclosed monastic orders of women living...
of Aconbury
Aconbury
Aconbury is a village in the English county of Herefordshire, situated on a road leading from Hereford to Ross-on-Wye.St John the Baptist Church was originally the church of a nunnery founded before 1237. The style of the current building is late 13th-century. Some restoration work was carried out...
.
At the Royal Court
Blanche Parry arrived at the Royal CourtNoble court
The court of a monarch, or at some periods an important nobleman, is a term for the extended household and all those who regularly attended on the ruler or central figure...
with her aunt, Lady Troy
Lady Troy
Blanche Herbert, Lady Troy, was the Lady Mistress in charge of the upbringing of Queen Elizabeth I, Edward VI and also of Queen Mary when she lived with the younger Tudor children...
who was the Lady Mistress to Edward VI and Elizabeth I as children. Blanche Parry herself wrote in her epitaph in Bacton Church that she was the Queen's servant, "whose cradle saw I rocked", from Elizabeth's birth in 1533; Parry was then 25 or 26 years old. Thereafter she hardly left Elizabeth and almost certainly attended her in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
before she came to the throne. After Elizabeth's accession in 1558, and Kat Ashley's death in 1565, Blanche was appointed the Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber, and she was one of those who could control access to the Queen. She was in charge of the Queen's jewels from before Elizabeth's accession, the Queen's personal papers, clothes, furs and books, receiving the presents given to the Queen especially as New Year gifts. She received considerable sums of money on behalf of the Queen. She passed information to the Queen (including from John Vaughan, Blanche Parry's nephew, during the Northern Rebellion of 1569-1570, and Sir Nicholas White, Master of the Rolls in Ireland
Master of the Rolls in Ireland
The office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland originated in the office of the keeper of the Rolls in the Irish Chancery and became an office granted by letters patent in 1333. It was abolished in 1924....
) and presentations of parliamentary bills. She also wrote letters on the Queen's behalf. In addition, she supervised the Queen's linen "and other things belonging to her majesty"; this included "our musk cat", probably a ferret
Ferret
The ferret is a domesticated mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur...
.
Blanche Parry's position at the centre of the Royal Court was fully recognised at the time. Her cousin and friend was Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley . The Queen treated Blanche Parry as a baroness
Baroness
Baroness is the female equivalent of the nobility title Baron.Baroness or The Baroness may also refer to:* Baroness , a metal band from Savannah, Georgia* Baroness , a fictional villain in the G.I...
. Amongst the material rewards she received from Elizabeth were two wardships and she acquired lands in Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. A meticulous lady, Blanche Parry commissioned the first known map of Llangorse Lake
Llangorse Lake
Llangorse Lake is the largest natural lake in south Wales, and is situated in the Brecon Beacons National Park, near to the town of Brecon and the village of Llangors....
in 1584 to aid the deliberations in the court case in which she became involved. Lord Burghley supervised Blanche Parry's two Wills, and his notes in his own handwriting survive for her first Will of 1578.
Monument and Tomb
Thinking she might retire to the family property of Newcourt, Blanche commissioned her monument in Bacton Church. Dated to before November 1578, this has the first depiction of Queen Elizabeth I as GlorianaGloriana
Gloriana is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten to an English libretto by William Plomer, based on Elizabeth and Essex by Lytton Strachey...
. The inscription on this monument said: "With maiden Queen a maid did end my life". Blanche Parry did not retire however, staying with the Queen until her death and was buried in St. Margaret's Westminster, the Queen paying all her funeral expenses. George Ballard
George Ballard
George Ballard was an English antiquary and biographer, the author of Memoirs of British Ladies .Ballard was born at Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire. Self-educated, Ballard taught himself Saxon while working in a habit-maker's shop, and attracted the attention of the Saxon scholar Elizabeth Elstob...
saw her tomb in its original location in the 18th century.
Bacton Church, Herefordshire has an altar cloth fashioned from an Elizabethan court dress, with an original design that is very similar to the Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I.