We don’t often think of the Mantuan Marchioness Isabella d’Este when we talk about British history. She lived in an independent Italian state that was more than 600 miles from London and ruled, with her husband, over its religious, political and domestic affairs. However, the culture-loving Renaissance ruler had a number of links with England, then governed by the Tudor monarchs. 

Isabella d’Este was born in 1474 and died in 1539, and so her life spanned the English rule of the Yorkist kings Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III, and the early Tudors, Henry VII and his son Henry VIII. Much of her role as Marchioness of Mantua was taken up with forging and maintaining alliances. Mantua was a small Italian state ruled by generations of the Gonzaga family, the latest Marquis, Francesco, Isabella’s husband. Their marriage had been arranged as a diplomatic match to strengthen the position of the smaller independent states of Gonzaga’s Mantua and Isabella’s Ferrara against growing powers from within Italy. Francesco was a hot-headed soldier who fought on behalf of both French and Papal forces. While he was away at war, Isabella played the part of negotiator and ambassador, smooth-talking foreign diplomats at weddings and positioning Mantua as a place of military and political strength. This activity was crucial, with Italy then at war with its own nations, and also with France. In addition, the Pope’s son, Caesar Borgia Duke Valentino, was pursuing his own bid for power by invading the homes of many of Isabella’s family and friends across the Italian states and seizing their homes and wealth. It may have been Isabella’s careful management of alliances, along with her own friendly correspondence with the tempestuous duke, that left Mantua untouched. 

Isabella d'Este, Metropolitan Museum, New York, Public Domain

In 1495, Isabella and Francesco found themselves allied with Henry VII’s England. On 14 March of that year, a new League was announced between the Pope, King of the Romans, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and the rulers of Venice and Milan. Henry VII was also a member of this League, demonstrating England’s new and increased power on the European stage. Henry had come to power in 1485 following a period of civil war in the country and Ferdinand and Isabella had worried that he would be abruptly removed. At the beginning of their negotiations in the 1490s, England was considered fragile, but by 1495 it was placed alongside these important European rulers to combat the power of the French in Italy. Ferdinand also had an interest in these Italian affairs in his capacity as King of Naples. Francesco Gonzaga was placed in charge of the League’s army of 25,000 men, deployed against the French armies. 

Relations between England and Mantua were settled, but there is evidence of at least one moment of antagonism caused indirectly between the countries. Isabella’s twentieth-century biographer Julia Cartwright wrote that in 1506, a close former courtier of Francesco’s, Baldassarre Castiglioni, was summoned to England to collect the Order of the Garter for his new master the Duke of Urbino. Angry at losing him from the court, Francesco refused Castiglioni entry into Mantua to say goodbye before leaving, although he did return in 1507 and maintained warm relationship with the couple, especially the ever-diplomatic and charming Isabella. 

In 1511, Isabella hosted political talks at the Ducal Palace in Mantua, an event attended by ambassadors from England, France, Spain, and Germany. The aim was to discuss how a peace in Italy could be achieved. Isabella’s diplomacy was often carried out at social occasions, and at a later meeting hosted by her in 1512, she put on a range of entertainments and diversions for the ambassadors. It is likely then that the English were treated just as lavishly by the Marchioness in 1511. By now, the country had a new ruler: Henry VII’s son, Henry VIII, who was now married to Katherine of Aragon and feeling his own way through European influences affecting his government.

Isabella was present with English ambassadors again in 1526. Catherine Lucy Fletcher discussed the nature of Renaissance diplomacy in her thesis titled Renaissance Diplomacy in Practice: The Case of Gregario Casali, England’s Ambassador to the Papal Court, 1525-33. She pointed out one dinner, held at Cardinal Cesarino’s home in Rome in January 1526. Isabella was joined by Cardinal Ridolfi, the Duke of Sessa (the Imperial Ambassador), and ‘the ambassadors of England, Ferrara and Mantua’. The sharp-eyed and diplomatically agile Isabella would have subtly promoted her state as one of strength, and no doubt Henry VIII, who loved expressions of Italian culture, would have been keen to learn more about her and her nation from his ambassadors once they returned to court. Isabella was now representing Mantua as a widow, Francesco having died in 1519.

Henry and Isabella were certainly kept up to date with one another by mutual friends and officials. The Papal nuncio Francesco Chiericati was a close friend of hers, and wrote to Isabella during his travels to other nations as he carried out his role. Visiting England towards the end of 1515, he wrote to tell her about Henry VIII’s court in London, and spent Palm Sunday personally with the king. Henry too, admired the Gonzagas of Mantua, telling Chiericati that he had horses sent by Francesco in his royal stables and considered them equal to no other in quality. The marquis had also recommended one of his own musicians to Henry, who was then residing at court and entertaining the king and queen, and Henry offered to receive one of Isabella’s sons there, too. Chiericato wrote to Isabella of the king’s love of music, fashion and ceremony, providing details of the jewels and fabrics worn by the king and his singing and dancing. No doubt the fashionable Isabella read these letters with great interest, and the two rulers certainly had a number of things in common. Isabella was also known to be a keen and gifted musician and owned a variety of instruments in her ‘grotta’, a small room in the palace dedicated to the enjoyment of artwork, sculpture and music.  ‘Most illustrious madama’, wrote Chiericati, ‘here in England we find all the wealth and delights in the world. Those who call the English barbarians are themselves barbarians! Here we see magnificent costumes, rare virtues, and the finest courtesy. And, best of all, here we have this invincible King, who is endowed with so many excellent virtues that he seems to me to surpass all others who wear a crown in these times. Blessed and happy is the country which is ruled by so worthy and excellent a prince! I would rather live under his mild and gentle sway than enjoy the greatest freedom under any other form of government’. In 1528, Isabella was on a visit to her home state of Ferrara when she learned from another friend that Cardinal Campeggio had arrived in England to examine the marriage between Henry and his wife, Katherine of Aragon, as the king took the first steps in seeking an annulment. 

But Isabella d’Este’s mark on England goes further than chatting to ambassadors and exchanging pleasantries with Henry VIII. She is best known for collecting works of art from artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, as well as a number of original ancient sculptures being then unearthed in Rome. She personally commissioned work from the Renaissance Master Titian, who also painted the well-known portrait of Philip II of Spain, the husband of Mary I. She also possessed works by Andrea Mantegna, who was the Gonzagas’ favourite painter and responsible for a number of works painted on the palace walls and ceilings. On her death in February 1539, this impressive collection was broken up and some of them were brought to England. In 1632 Charles I purchased one of her statues of a cupid sculpted by Michelangelo, while two paintings, one of the Holy Family and another of St William in armour were taken to Hampton Court. Another portrait of Isabella, painted from life by Titian, was valued at £50 and also bought by Charles I in the seventeenth century.

Isabella d’Este’s relationship with England underlines the nature of Renaissance European politics, showing that each nation was in fact a jigsaw piece that slotted into place rather than a state ruled in isolation. She was interested in English culture and the expression of music, art and fashion at the Tudor court, and embarked on partnerships with English ambassadors, hosting Tudor dignitaries at her Mantuan home. Isabella and Henry VIII never met, but they had many things in common, and seemed to enjoy a mutual appreciation for one another from afar. Isabella was a remarkable woman who encouraged the progression of Renaissance culture and the arts, along with the roles of women as European leaders. She also understood that fighting was not the only way to win a battle in Renaissance Europe, and relationships between foreign states could also be forged with charm and a liberal twinkling of music and wine.

Find out more about Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga - in my book Power Couples of the Renaissance. It features relationship dynamics that went against accepted norms of the period and power-hungry couples who ruled, fought and spread the patronage of art, science and culture across the globe during one of the most tumultuous periods of history. Find it on the Pen and Sword Books website. 

Sources:

https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/42803068/Fletcher_Renaissance_Diplomacy.pdf

Julia Cartwright, Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua 1474-1539 Volumes 1 & 2, Dutton, New York. 1905.

In the hot summer of 1582 in the northern Italian state of Mantua, a Scotsman was brutally murdered. It shook the sleepy Renaissance riverside community deeply, especially as Crichton was popular and rumours began to spread that the ducal family had been involved in the killing. But why? 

James Crichton was born in Scotland on 19 August 1560. He later earned the nickname 'The Admirable' and in February 1582 entered the service of the famous Gonzaga family. The Gonzagas had run Mantua as its lords, dukes and marquesses for centuries. The current ruler, Guglielmo Gonzaga, was the grandson of Francesco Gonzaga and Isabella d'Este, who had dodged Italian politics there at the turn of the 1500s, commissioning and collecting art and laying the foundations of administrative and military power. Crichton was just twenty-one when he began working with the Gonzagas, and it was noted he was fluent in languages including Italian, Latin, Spanish, French, German and Hebrew. We see him today as a polymath; someone who is expert across many different disciplines and he was also very learned in philosophy, theology, astrology and mathematics. He was also a poet, dancer and a singer and, the Gonzaga's secretary noted, was handy with a sword. 

Crichton began to become well-known at the Mantuan court for his intelligence and ability to win arguments with high-status men of religion over matters of philosophy and doctrine. Soon becoming a Scottish celebrity there, Crichton was liked by the duke and attracted the praise of the court, but also the glares of others jealous of his attention and influence. Sensing some hostility, Crichton complained of ill treatment towards him by Mantuan citizens and courtiers but Gonzaga told him that as long as he had his favour, no one would attack him physically or verbally.

Bildnis des J. Crichton by unbekannter Künstler (Production) - Leipzig University Library, Germany - Public Domain.

Gonzaga had a son, Prince Vincenzo Gonzaga, who was two years younger than Crichton, and heir to the dukedom. The two men got to know one another at court and would have spoken on occasion inside the Ducal Place, as the likeness of previous rulers of the state silently observed them from their portraits in the paintwork. Cherubs too, peeked down at the ceiling Andrea Mantegna had painted a hundred years previously. 

But at just after 1am on the morning of 3 July 1582 Vincenzo stood over Crichton's dead and bloodied body holding the weapons that had killed him, his sword and buckler. The following was Vincenzo's own version of events, written on 27 July.

'One of these evenings taking fresh air about the town, about one o'clock in the night, and having with me Messer Hippolito Lanzone, a gentleman of this town, in whose humours I found much gusto, I met by chance James the Scotsman [Crichton], and thinking that it was the Count Langosco, my groom-in-waiting, whom he resembled in stature, I went to knock him in jest, but, on coming near, observed it was not he, and, therefore, putting my buckler, which I had shouldered, before my face, I passed on, leaving the Scotsman suspicious, and he, seeing Lanzone, (in like manner having his buckler before his face), follow, tried to pass him at the wall side, and, having done so, drove into his shoulders his dagger to the hilt. Whereat both did take to arms but Lanzone being mortally wounded, he could not defend himself: therefore I, hearing the uproar, seizing hold of my sword, turned towards the noise, and the Scotsman not recognising me at first night, aimed at me a great cut and a thrust, which I parried with my buckler, and myself levelling a thrust at the Scotsman - which he tried to parry with his dagger, but through being impetuous could not - he got wounded in the chest, and having recognised me, commenced begging for his life. I left him and returned to my companion. who, I found, could hardly stand upon his legs; and when I would support him be fell before me dead.'

Learning that his family were disappointed in the prince, Vincenzo insisted that 'It has truly been a case of pure misdventure'. 

Vincenzo Gonzaga, Rijksmuseum, Public Domain

Vincenzo, writing more than three weeks after the murder, said that it was a tragedy of mistaken identity and an overeager sword fight between three men in the darkness. Vincenzo was writing to soothe the anger of his father, and in his own testimony he left a man he had just stabbed in the chest, to go to his friend. Is it possible that these three high-profile men, at least two of them who were known to one another, did not recognise each other by their voices and shadows in the dark? And if it was a misunderstanding, weren't they all a bit eager to start stabbing before talking, to find out who everyone was? It sounded sketchy, and it wasn't long before Mantua's residents began to gossip over a possible premeditated murder, framed to look like an accident. 

Around a week after his explanation, Vincenzo asked his father, the duke, for permission to leave Mantua and visit Ferrara, the ancestral home of the d'Este family. Nervously, and knowing that his father was still angry over Crichton's death, Vincenzo asked whether 'I should come to kiss the hands of his highness, or whether it is better that I go straight away'. 

Another account, written in 1604 by Thomas Dempster, claimed that Vincenzo had acted deliberately, stating that the prince, 'either upon some spleen, or false suggestion, or to try the Scots' valour, met him in a place where he was won't to haunt, resolving either to kill, wound or beat him'. 

Crichton's body was buried in a modest grave in the church of San Simone, but the people of Mantua complained that it was as if he had been 'abandoned' by the Gonzagas he had previously served. His is a story not often told, but reveals the complexity of ambition and politics in Renaissance Mantua. 

Find out more about a Mantuan duo of the sixteenth century, Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga - in my book Power Couples of the Renaissance. It features relationship dynamics that went against accepted norms of the period and power-hungry couples who ruled, fought and spread the patronage of art, science and culture across the globe during one of the most tumultuous periods of history. Find it on the Pen and Sword Books website.

Source: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh.Volume 43, 1909. 

Reading's history is interwoven with the stories of families like the Vachells, Knollys' and Kendricks. But one Vachell couple dominated seventeenth century Reading, giving funds to the poor, helping to preserve the historic minster and becoming involved in the political and military events of the town.

Sir Thomas Vachell was born in around 1560 to Walter Vachell, of Sulhampstead Bannister. In 1610, he inherited the estate of Coley, near Reading, from his uncle who was also named Thomas. This elder Thomas had lived out his last years at Ipsden, a village near Goring-on-Thames, and died on 3 May 1610. He is buried at St Mary's, Reading Minster, probably in the vault commemorated with a stone slab we see today. 

The younger Sir Thomas was hard-working and respected, and accumulated a great deal of wealth and status, but most notably through inheriting vast estates from family members. He granted a licence to inherit from his uncle, in addition to Coley, his other lands and properties in Burghfield, Shinfield, Tilehurst, Reading, Sulhampstead Abbot, Sulhampstead Bannister and Mapledurham. In 1611 he was bequeathed his brother's property in Burghfield, and in 1628 acquired property in Yorkshire. He always seemed grateful for this boost in prestige and income, and often remembered his uncle in later legal documents. He married three times. His first wife was Alice Brooke, his second Sarah Lane of Northampton and finally, his third wife was Lettice Knollys. 

If the name rings a bell it is probably because of her more famous aunt of the same name, who triggered rage in Elizabeth I when she married the queen's favourite courtier and one-time possible husband, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester. The Knollys' influence however goes back to the time of Henry VIII after they had gained lands in Reading after the Dissolution of the Monasteries and continued to exert a high level of influence over the town. The couple married on 23 September 1616 at St Laurence Church, a beautiful twelfth-century building near Reading's Market Place. 

Thomas and Lettice seem to have had a happy marriage, although it was childless, as was all of Thomas' marriages. Therefore, Thomas approached his old age knowing he had no heirs left to leave his fortune to. 

In the grant, Thomas was described as a parishioner of the church, and would have attended St Mary's for his daily worship and also lived close by. He was also involved in town business, in 1631 overseeing queries over the spending of funds from John Kendrick's will. Thomas would have known Kendrick, as they were both parishioners of the same church and prominent and wealthy residents of the town and council. In 1634 Thomas founded a set of almshouses in Castle Street for the benefit of six poor men. Made of brick, they were a set of tenements in one building with a common room at the centre. The residents went to the common room where one of them read prayers both morning and evening. Thomas allocated income from his lands in Shinfield to maintain the house. The almshouses were rebuilt after Thomas' death close by, after the first building became unstable. They can still be seen near the roundabout as Castle Street meets Castle Hill. 

Sir Thomas died at the age of 70, and was buried on 20 July 1638 in Reading Minster in the family vault he had built. A memorial service was also held on 30 August that year, with a procession organised from Coley to the church, made up of local dignitaries and Vachell family members. In his will, he bequeathed to his wife Lettice his 'hanginges, bedding, linen, brasse, pewter &c. in the house wherein I dwell att Coley'.  She also received three quarters of his plate, making her a wealthy widow, suggesting that her later union with Hampden may have been a love match. The last quarter he bequeathed to Tanfield, his nephew. Thomas' will gives us a view of the couple's home in Coley, which also contained a coach and coach horses, corn and grain in barns, and 'hogs and poultry about my house'. Lettice had a chambermaid called Margaret, who was part of a network of other household servants, including Simon West and Thomas Nicholls who served Thomas. Vachell also gave significant sums of money to his nieces and nephews, and allocated funds 'to the poor of Reading'. He also never forgot where he had received his wealth. Signing off, he asked that his executors erect a tomb at St Mary's 'for myself, my wife and my deceased uncle Thomas Vachell Esq. who lieth buiyed in St. Marie's Church in Reading'.

Lettice's next husband, John Hampden, was present at the Siege of Reading in 1643, and he suffered wounds sustained in the fighting. He died soon after their marriage, on 24 June that year, and Lettice was widowed once more. The home she had shared with Sir Thomas in Coley was used in 1644 as Reading's headquarters during the Civil War, indicating her personal involvement in the Royalist war effort there. As far as I can find, she retained the house until her death, and must have given permission for it to be used in this way by the king. Lettice was at Coley when she made her will in 1665 and died the following March, suggesting she was ill and knew she was dying. She chose to be buried with her second husband John Hampden, again more evidence that theirs was a romantic union and not a strategic marriage. Her funeral took place on 29 March 1666 and her will reveals her wealth and the state in which she lived in her widowhood. An abstract of the document was published in the Quarterly Journal of the Berkshire Archaeological Society in 1893, and is as follows:

I,  Leticia Vachell, alias Hampden, of Coley, widdow. I bequeath my body to the earth . . . to be buried at Hampden by my deare Husband; to my sister Anne Temple, £50; to my sister the lady Cecilia Knollys my ring with Foure dyamonds, which was given me for a Legacie by my Lady Pagett; to my niece Mrs. Margaret Hamond my Coach Horses, Coach Hamesse (&c.);  unto my nephew Mr. Robert Hamond my sute of Hangings of Forrest worke which are in the Dineing Roome; unto my neece Mrs. Leticia Hamond, my Goddaughter my tablett of Gold, Enameld and set with Rubyes and Ophalls, wherin is the picture of my Aunt the Countess of Leicester, my gold Fanne, coache, 16 chayres all of needle worke belonging to the dining Room and the Turkey Carpet (&c.); to my grand-child Mrs. Elizabeth Hamond my dyamond lockett; to my grand-child Mary Hamond my dyamond Ring, which was given me by her grand-father Hampden; to my grand-child Letitia Hamond my wedding Ring... to my neece Durham my olive-coloured Bed; to my faithful pastor Mr. Christopher Fowler... to Leticia Thisdethwaite my Table Dyamond Ring which I bought of her mother'.

She had servants who accompanies her in her widowhood, among them John Bushnell who served in Lettice's household with his wife, Margaret. She also gave funds for the benefit of the parishes of Reading and for the poor of the town. Between them, Thomas and Lettice were benefactors to the church and to the poor, with Thomas ordering the almshouses to be built while they were man and wife. As such, Lettice would have known of the plans and likely assisted in some way organising their construction and supplying funds while Thomas was away. They lived comfortably, travelled by coach wherever they went and were well-known in the town's administration and local government. They were also well-connected, not only with people like John Kendrick and other important personalities of seventeenth-century Reading, but to the powerful Knollys family of Elizabethan England. 

Liked this? You might also like The Legend of Caversham Castle, Queen Elizabeth I's Privy Council Cheese Dinner, and Lady Alice Dudley, Duchess Dudley.

Interested in Tudor history? You might also like my second book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, published by Pen and Sword Books, which explores the contributions couples made to their own times as well as how they influenced our own. Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester have their own chapter. Order your copy here. 

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Source: Rev P.H. Ditchfield, The Quarterly Journal of the Berks Archaeological and Architectural Society, Volume 3. Charles Slaughter, London. 1893.

Ellen Gethin is one of the women I loved researching for my book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses. She lived in Wales in the 1460s, and was married to Thomas Vaughan, a York-supporting soldier. They lived at Hergest Court in Herefordshire, and Ellen was sadly widowed after Thomas' death after the Battle of Edgecote in 1469, when he was rounded up with other Yorkists after the action and executed at 69 years of age. But Ellen also had her own legend, having supposedly killed her cousin with a bow and arrow, after seeking revenge for him, in turn, murdering her brother after a drunken brawl. You can find more about her story in the book, along with other women of the age who have not been fully recognised in the context of the Wars. 

On her death, Ellen was buried in a tomb inside her nearby church of Kington, Herefordshire. She was laid alongside her husband Thomas, and she commissioned an elaborate tomb complete with effigies of the pair to represent how they would have looked in life. 

Portrait of Ellen Gethin, Jo Romero, 2024

Soon after this description was recorded, Ellen and Thomas' tomb and effigy were disassembled and their parts taken to Hereford, to a stoneworker named Mr Benjamin Jennings. The sculptor carefully reconstructed the couple's missing limbs and replaced their faces. The report of 1847 does state though, that a lion was removed from Thomas' feet, 'because it accorded not with the rest of the work', which is a shame. Lions were a popular medieval and Tudor figure on effigies, symbolising loyalty to the crown. Crucially, because the previous damage to the tomb appeared to have been man-made rather than caused by accidental cracks or chips from centuries of wear, a railing was put up around it, 'which previously', stated our 1847 reporter, 'was not the case'.

Drawing of the tomb of Ellen Gethin and Thomas Vaughan from 1846, in Archaeologica Cambrensis, archive.org

An image of the tomb shows the result of Jennings' work. Fine details of the armour Thomas wore have been preserved, along with Ellen's gown and jewellery. I haven't yet been over to Kington to see the tomb for myself, but apparently you can see the joins where the older parts of the figures meet the Victorian restorations, which is useful. For something that Ellen clearly commissioned with such care to preserve the memory of her husband and herself, it is especially fitting that it was one of her descendants that paid for the nineteenth century restorations. Frances Harley, a Vaughan heir and sister of the Earl of Oxford, is said to have spent more than £70 in restoring the effigies and tomb in 1846, a considerable amount in Victorian money. 

Have you been to see the effigies? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Liked this? You might also like Medieval Residents of Reading, Thomas and Elizabeth Clerk, The Queens of the Wars of the Roses, and Warrior Women of the Wars of the Roses. 

To find out more overlooked women who lived through the Wars of the Roses and what their individual stories tell us about the conflict, Order your copy here at the Pen and Sword website.

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