Biography of Anne Bourchier 7th Baroness Bourchier 1517-1571

Around 1498 [her father] Henry Bourchier 2nd Earl Essex 3rd Count of Eu and [her mother] Mary Saye Countess Essex and Eu [aged 24] were married. She by marriage Countess Essex, Countess Eu.

In 1517 Anne Bourchier 7th Baroness Bourchier was born to [her father] Henry Bourchier 2nd Earl Essex 3rd Count of Eu and [her mother] Mary Saye Countess Essex and Eu [aged 43]. She a great x 4 granddaughter of King Edward III of England.

On 9th February 1527 William Parr 1st Marquess Northampton [aged 15] and Anne Bourchier 7th Baroness Bourchier [aged 10] were married. They lived apart for the first twelve years of their marriage. She the daughter of Henry Bourchier 2nd Earl Essex 3rd Count of Eu and Mary Saye Countess Essex and Eu [aged 53]. They were third cousin once removed. He a great x 5 grandson of King Edward III of England. She a great x 4 granddaughter of King Edward III of England.

In 1528 William Herbert 1st Earl Pembroke [aged 27] and [her sister-in-law] Anne Parr Countess Pembroke [aged 12] were married.

In 1529 Edward Burgh and [her sister-in-law] Catherine Parr Queen Consort England [aged 16] were married. They were fourth cousins. He a great x 5 grandson of King Edward III of England. She a great x 5 granddaughter of King Edward III of England.

Around July 1534 John Neville 3rd Baron Latimer [aged 40] and [her sister-in-law] Catherine Parr Queen Consort England [aged 21] were married. She by marriage Baroness Latimer of Snape. They were third cousin once removed. He a great x 4 grandson of King Edward III of England. She a great x 5 granddaughter of King Edward III of England.

On 5th June 1535 [her mother] Mary Saye Countess Essex and Eu [aged 61] died.

In 1536 [her father] Henry Bourchier 2nd Earl Essex 3rd Count of Eu and [her step-mother] Mary Blount [aged 38] were married. She by marriage Countess Essex, Countess Eu.

On 13th March 1540 [her father] Henry Bourchier 2nd Earl Essex 3rd Count of Eu died. Earl Essex, Viscount Bourchier extinct. His daughter Anne [aged 23] succeeded 7th Baroness Bourchier. His second cousin once removed John [aged 41] succeeded 2nd Count Eu. Neither he or his descendants used the title.

In 1541 Anne Bourchier 7th Baroness Bourchier [aged 24] eloped with John Lyngfield.

22nd January 1543. Once [her husband] William Parr 1st Marquess Northampton [aged 31] and Anne Bourchier 7th Baroness Bourchier [aged 26] did live together both commenced affairs. She with John Lyngfield, prior of St. James's Church [Map], in Tanbridge, Surrey [Source. Wikipedia. However, there is no church of St James in Tandbridge?], by whom she had an illegitimate child named John Parr. He with Dorothy Braye Baroness Chandos and Knollys [aged 19]. To protect the interest of his subsequent children Parr pursued legislation to disinherit her child.

Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic Henry VIII 1543. 22nd January 1543. Cap. xliii. [o. n. 39]. Whereas lady Anne [aged 26], wife of [her husband] Sir William Parre lord Parre [aged 31], continued in adultery notwithstanding admonition, and, finally, two years past, left his company and has since had a child begotten in adultery, that the said child and all future children she may have shall be held bastards.

A Treatise on Adultery. The first of these cases is that of Lady Parr [aged 26], in the 34th Hen. VIII.; and the Act¹ states, "that for the last two years she had eloped from her husband, William Lord Parr [aged 31], and had not in that time ever returned to, nor had any carnal intercourse with him, but had been gotten with child by one of her adulterers, and been delivered of such child, which child being, as is notoriously known, begotten in adultery, and born during the espousals" between her and Lord Parr, "by the law of this realm is inheritable, and may pretend to inherit all, &c.;" and the Act therefore declares the said child to be a bastard.

Note 1. The Act, which is styled in the Lords' Journals, a Bill "to bar and make base and bastards the children which be, or shall be borne in adulteiy by the Lady Anne, wife of the Lord Parr," was read a first time on the 15th March 1543, bat it appears to have been altered by the Commons. — Lords' Journalls, I., 217. 223. 224. 230. 233. In the 6th Edw. VI., 1552, a Bill passed for annulling Lord Parr's (then Marquis of Northampton) marriage with Lady Anne Bourchier, and confirming his marriage with Elisabeth, daughter of Lord Cobham, and for the legitimation of the children that shall be had between them; but the Earl of Derby, the Bishops of Norwich and Carlisle, and Lord Stourton dissented. — Ibid, p. 409.418. The Statute of the 6 Edw. VI was, however, repealed in the 1st of Mary, 1555.

On 17th April 1543 William Parr 1st Marquess Northampton [aged 31] and Anne Bourchier 7th Baroness Bourchier [aged 26] were divorced by an Act of Parliament and their children declared illegitimate.

Around May 1547 Thomas Seymour 1st Baron Seymour [aged 39] and [her former sister-in-law] Catherine Parr Queen Consort England [aged 34] were married in secret only four months after the death of King Henry VIII of England and Ireland. They were sixth cousins. She a great x 5 granddaughter of King Edward III of England.

In 1548 [her former husband] William Parr 1st Marquess Northampton [aged 36] and Elisabeth Brooke Marchioness Northampton [aged 21] were married. She by marriage Marchioness Northampton. They were fourth cousins. He a great x 5 grandson of King Edward III of England. She a great x 5 granddaughter of King Edward III of England.

On 5th September 1548 [her former sister-in-law] Catherine Parr Queen Consort England [aged 36] died from childbirth having given birth to her daughter Mary Seymour six days before. She was buried at Sudeley Castle [Map]. William Harvey [aged 38] as Somerset Herald of Arms in Ordinary was the only herald to attend her funeral.

On 20th February 1552 [her former sister-in-law] Anne Parr Countess Pembroke [aged 36] died at Baynard's Castle [Map]. She was buried at St Paul's Cathedral [Map].

On 28th January 1571 Anne Bourchier 7th Baroness Bourchier [aged 54] died from a fall from a horse at Benington, Hertfordshire. Her first cousin twice removed Walter [aged 29] succeeded 8th Baron Bourchier. Lettice Knollys Countess Essex and Leicester [aged 27] by marriage Baroness Bourchier.

In May 1571 [her former husband] William Parr 1st Marquess Northampton [aged 59] and Helena Snakenbourg Marchioness Northampton [aged 22] were married. She by marriage Marchioness Northampton. The difference in their ages was 37 years.

On 28th October 1571 [her former husband] William Parr 1st Marquess Northampton [aged 59] died at Warwick Priory, Warwickshire [Map]. He was buried in the Chancel of St Mary's Church, Warwick [Map]. His funeral was paid for by Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland [aged 38]. Marquess Northampton and Earl Essex, Baron Parr of Kendal extinct.