- Elizabeth Stoner
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Elizabeth Stoner was a lady-in-waiting to each of Henry VIII of England's six wives, and was the 'Mother of the Maids', with responsibility for the conduct of the young maids-of-honour.[1] She was the wife of the King's Sergeant-at-Arms, William Stoner. She is remembered as one of the gaolers of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife.
In 1536 five women were appointed to serve Queen Anne while she was imprisoned in the Tower and to report to Sir William Kingston, the Lieutenant of the Tower, and through him to the King's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, all that the Queen said. These women included Elizabeth Stonor; Queen Anne's aunt, Lady Anne Shelton; Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, the Queen's aunt by marriage; Lady Mary Kingston, the wife of Sir William Kingston, the Lieutenant of the Tower; and Lady Margaret Coffin, the wife of Queen Anne's Master of the Horse.[2] Sir William Kingston described the five as "honest and good women", but Queen Anne said that it was "a great unkindness in the King to set such about me as I have never loved".[3]
References
- ^ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 15 (5th January), James Gairdner and R. H. Brodie (editors),1896
- ^ p.275, Joanna Denny, Anne Boleyn
- ^ George Cavendish, Wolsey, pp. 451-460
Categories:- Women of the Tudor period
- English ladies-in-waiting
- 16th-century women
- English women
- 16th-century English people
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