The 1502 Progress: Woolaston, Gloucestershire

Itm: the same day [28 August] to the Quenes purs[e] at Walleston by thandes [the hands] of my Lady Verney.
The Queen’s Chamber Books  

Arrival at Woolaston

On 28 August, the Queen’s Chamber Books for Elizabeth of York records, ‘Itm the same day to the mariners that conveyed the Quenes grace over the Severn besides Chepstowe’. The temptation is to immediately conclude that a ferry conducted the King and Queen across the River Severn into England at the point where the current bridge spans the river, close to the foot of Chepstow Castle, where the royal couple had been lodged. While this might be true, further close inspection of a later entry in the Chamber Book (dated 27 September) clarifies that the Queen moved from Chepstow to ‘Walstone’ before arriving at the next stop: Berkeley Castle.

This entry is a retrospective payment made to ‘Robert Alyn for his costes prepayring logging for the Quene from Ragland to Chepstowe by the space of twoo dayes, from Chepstowe to Walstone, ij dayes, from Walstone to Berkeley, ij dayes.’

I expected to find a ‘Walstone’ in England somewhere between Chepstow and Berkeley, but to the east side of the River Severn, thus accounting for the Queen having been conveyed across the river ‘besides Chepstowe’. However, no such location exists. In fact, the only ‘Walstone’ that makes any sense in terms of the route of the progress is a place called ‘Woolaston’, which lies about 5 miles north of Chepstow, close to the west bank of the aforementioned river and adjacent to the ancient Gloucester / Chepstow road. Rather than crossing the river at Chepstow, might the ‘mariners’ have sailed the royal couple north, up the Severn Estuary, to rest overnight at the Manor of Woolaston before being conveyed across the Severn? It’s not cut and dried.

However, as lodgings were being prepared for the Queen by Master Alyn in advance of her arrival, it seems that this was at least an overnight stop before Henry and Elizabeth finally crossed the Severn Estuary and moved onwards to nearby Berkeley Castle.

There is certainly no doubt that there was a suitable lodging in the village to accommodate a royal stay. British History Online describes the manor of Woolaston, whose royal patronage stretched back to the pre-conquest era.

Through the Crown, it came into the ownership of the powerful de Clare family; Walter de Clare, the founding patron of nearby Tintern Abbey, in turn, handed the manorial rights to his religious foundation in 1131. The abbey established (or continued to run) Woolaston Grange (the manor) until its dissolution in the 1530s; the grange being their single largest asset and source of income. At that point, Woolaston Manor / Grange passed briefly back into the hands of the Crown before being granted to the Earls of Worcester, the most powerful landowners in the region at the time.

While Woolaston Grange survives, sadly, this is a later version of the building, and virtually nothing seems to be left of the original medieval grange. However, examining a local map shows evidence of an old ruined medieval chapel close by and features that look distinctly like medieval fish ponds, which you would expect to see adjacent to any major medieval manor house.

My Lady Verney…

This was a brief stay. However, there is another entry in The Chamber Book relating to this location. It is an entry recorded for the same day that the royal party appeared to leave Chepstow and arrive at Woolaston. It states, ‘Itm: the same day [28 August] to the Quenes purs[e] at Walleston by thandes [the hands] of my Lady Verney.

Here, we are afforded a glimpse of another of Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting. This time, we are introduced to the fascinating ‘Lady Verney’. ‘Fascinating’ because Lady Verney is one of those little-known figures who must have seen so many historic events unfold from the willowy shadows of the Queen’s household. Never taking centre-stage, yet close to the ‘action’, she served the Tudor Crown over at least three decades, beginning in the household of Elizabeth of York, then serving her two daughters in turn before ending with an unspecified position as one of Katherine of Aragon’s ladies.

‘Lady Verney’ is Eleanor Pole, daughter of Geoffrey Pole and Edith St John. Sadly, Eleanor’s date of birth is not recorded. She was half-niece to Margaret Beaufort, while her brother married Margaret Pole (later the Countess of Salisbury, who died at the hands of Henry VIII’s axeman in May 1541. This made Eleanor aunt to the troublesome Cardinal Reginald Pole, later Archbishop of Canterbury under Mary I). Margaret, of course, was the only child of George, Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville. These connections bound Eleanor to the Tudor crown through blood and marriage.

By all accounts, Eleanor became Elizabeth or York’s chief lady-in-waiting and one of the Queen’s favourites. She attended the Queen at her coronation on 25 November 1487 and by 1502 had married Sir Ralph Verney (b.1445). Ralph attended Elizabeth’s coronation as an esquire and would later rise to become Elizabeth’s Chamberlain (a position responsible for running the Queen’s privy apartments).

After Elizabeth’s death in February 1502, Eleanor transferred to the service of her eldest daughter, Margaret Tudor. Alongside her husband, she accompanied the young Queen of Scotland to her new homeland later that year.

However, this was far from the end of Eleanor’s royal service. Returning to England with Lord Verney in 1509, Lady Verny entered another of Elizabeth’s daughter’s household: Mary Tudor, soon-to-be Queen of France. By now, Ralph Verney was Mary Tudor’s Chamberlain and, therefore, was at the heart of the arrangements made for the safe and pleasant conduct of the English Princess into France to marry the aged Louis XII. My suspicion is that Lady Verney likely accompanied this wedding entourage, as she had done with Princess (Queen) Margaret. However, as we know, most of the English court was soon dismissed, leaving only a handful of young demoiselles, including the Boleyn sisters, to attend to France’s young and beautiful new Queen.

Return to England she did, as the records show that Eleanor was one of the 160 ladies listed as being a part of Queen Katherine of Aragon’s household. There are also records of her receiving an annual wage of £20 in 1516, while the following year, Henry VIII conferred upon her a tun of wine annually.

Sir Ralph died at the ripe old age of 88 in 1528. Lady Verney’s date of death is unknown, although she was certainly alive in 1532 when Henry VIII provided her with an annuity. She would be buried alongside her husband in All Saints Church, King’s Langley. While her age when she died is unknown, it seems likely that she was at least in her 50s or 60s.

At this point in the 1502 progress, we see Eleanor handling money on behalf of the Queen, as she had been doing throughout the progress, such as when she made an offering at the Shrine of St Friedewide (see image above), near Oxford, on Elizabeth’s behalf, not long before the royal entourage arrived at Woodstock.

From Woolaston, the royal entourage must have traversed the Severn, the austere Berkeley Castle being their next destination.

THE NEXT STOP ON YOUR PROGRESS IS BERKELEY CASTLE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE: CLICK HERE TO READ

Visitor Information

I have yet to visit Woolaston. However, I aim to drop by when I am next in the area and will update this section after that visit. It is worth noting that Woolaston Grange is in private hands and not open to the public.

Other Nearby Tudor Locations of Interest:

Chepstow Castle (6 Miles): Chepstow is another location on the 1502 progress. This mighty medieval fortress is a fascinating castle, both historically and architecturally. During the Tudor period, it was owned by the Earls of Worcester. Elizabeth Browne, Countess of Worcester (the woman whose words were first used against Anne Boleyn to ignite the destruction of the Boleyn faction), is buried in the nearby parish church. Just be sure to check it is open before you visit!

Tintern Abbey (6.3 Miles): If you love wandering among abbey ruins, nearby Tintern, nestled in the glorious Wye Valley, will be just the ticket. As mentioned above, Tintern Abbey owned the grange during the 1502 visit. Like virtually all abbeys, Tinern was sleighted following its Dissolution in 1539 and subsequently fell into ruin. You can check out the Cadw website here to learn more about visiting Tintern Abbey.

Monmouth (14 Miles): While you cannot visit Troy House, where Henry and Elizabeth stayed when passing through Monmouth, you can visit what remains of Monmouth Priory in Monmouth town centre.

Elizabeth was said to have visited the priory during her stay at Troy House, making an offering and gift of two fabulous chasubles from the royal collection. One of these survives and is in the private hands of St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Monmouth. It is not on public display.

While the abbot’s lodgings (at least in part) survive, you can view St Mary’s Priory from the outside, including the glorious fifteenth-century oriel window, known as ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth’s window’. The surviving priory church (much restored over the centuries) lies next door and can also be visited.

Raglan Castle (20 miles): If you haven’t already, you may want to follow in the footsteps of Elizabeth of York and Henry VII and visit the pinnacle of the 1502 progress, Raglan Castle, once Henry VII’s childhood home. You can watch my video about the Tudor history of Raglan here. To learn more about the opening times, check out the castle’s website here.

Sources

A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 10, Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1972.

‘Woolaston: Economic history‘, in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 10, Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds, (London, 1972) pp. 109-114. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol10/pp109-114 [accessed 17 March 2024].

Eleanor Pole, The History Jar by Susan Abernathy