Lady Elizabeth Stafford (later Duchess of Norfolk) ( – 30 November 1558) was an English aristocrat. She was the eldest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Lady Eleanor Percy. By marriage she became Duchess of Norfolk. Her abusive marriage to Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, created a public scandal.
Family
Lady Elizabeth Stafford, born about 1497, was the eldest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, and Eleanor Percy (d. 1530). Her paternal grandmother, Lady Catherine Woodville was sister of Queen Elizabeth Woodville and hence sister-in-law of King Edward IV of England. Her paternal grandfather, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason in 1483 by King Richard III, and in 1521 her own father suffered the same fate when he was beheaded on Tower Hill for treason against King Henry VIII.
Early life
Elizabeth lived at home until at least 1508. According to Harris, Elizabeth's father saw that all his children received some education and her literacy is attested to by the fact that she was described by the poet John Skelton as an admirer, friend of the muses and his particular patron. Elizabeth came to court in 1509 as a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, and became the Queen's lifelong friend.
Marriage
Before 8 January 1513, when she was only fifteen and he was in his late thirties, Elizabeth became the second wife of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. He was the widower of Anne, daughter of King Edward IV.
Elizabeth had earlier been promised in marriage to her father's ward, Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland. The young Elizabeth and Westmorland seem to have been mutually devoted, and years later, in a letter to Thomas Cromwell dated 28 September 1537, Elizabeth recalled that:
Elizabeth's father initially attempted to persuade Surrey to marry one of his other daughters, but according to Elizabeth, 'He would have none of my sisters, but only me'.
Elizabeth brought Surrey a dowry of 2000 marks, and was promised a jointure of 500 marks a year, although Surrey apparently never kept that promise. In her later letters she asserted that she had been a dutiful wife, continuing to serve at court daily 'sixteen years together' while her husband was absent in King Henry VIII's wars, and accompanying him to Ireland when he was posted there in 1520–22. They had five children, and according to Graves, as late as 1524, when he became Duke of Norfolk, 'they appeared to be bonded by mutual love'.
However, in 1527 Norfolk took a mistress, Bess Holland, the daughter of his steward, with whom he lived openly at Kenninghall, and whom the Duchess described variously in her letters as a bawd, a drab, and 'a churl's daughter', 'which was but washer of my nursery eight years'. It appears the Duchess' anger caused her to exaggerate Bess Holland's inferior social status, as her family were probably minor gentry, and she eventually became a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn.
During the long period in which King Henry VIII sought to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled, the Duchess remained staunchly loyal to Queen Catherine and antagonistic towards her husband's niece, Anne Boleyn, with whom the King was infatuated. Late in 1530 it was noted that the Duchess was secretly conveying letters to Queen Catherine from Italy concealed in oranges, which Catherine passed on to the Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, and at one time the Duchess told Chapuys that her husband had confided in her that Anne would be 'the ruin of all her family'. In 1531 the Duchess was exiled from court at Anne Boleyn's request for too freely declaring her loyalty to Catherine.
According to Graves, the Duchess also quarrelled with Anne over Anne's insistence that the Duchess's daughter, Mary Howard, should marry Henry VIII's illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy. When Anne was crowned queen on 1 June 1533, the Duchess refused to attend the coronation 'from the love she bore to the previous Queen'.