Mary Lassells facts for kids
Mary Hall (née Lassells or Lascelles) was an English gentlewoman whose report of the 'light' behaviour in her youth of Henry VIII's fifth Queen, Catherine Howard, initiated the process which ended with Queen Catherine's execution.
Life
Mary Lassells was the daughter of Richard, or George, Lassells of Gateford, Nottinghamshire (d. 1520), gentleman. She was in the household of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk at Lambeth while Catherine Howard, later the fifth wife of King Henry VIII, was a young girl there under the lax guardianship of the Duchess, her step-grandmother. After Catherine became Queen, Mary's brother, the religious reformer John Lassells, suggested that his sister seek a place in her household. Mary refused, giving as a reason Catherine's former behaviour. John Lassells informed Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of Mary's comment while King Henry and Queen Catherine were on progress in the fall of 1541.
On 1 November 1541 Cranmer revealed these indiscretions in a letter to the King, who immediately ordered that Queen Catherine be confined to her apartments, and never saw her again.
Dereham, Manox and other members of the Dowager Duchess's household were arrested and interrogated by the council. On 22 December 1541 the Dowager Duchess's eldest son, William Howard, his wife, and a number of servants who had been witnesses to the Queen's misconduct were arraigned for misprision of treason 'for concealing the evil demeanour of the Queen, to the slander of the King and his succession'. All were sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods, although most were pardoned after Queen Catherine's execution. The Dowager Duchess, although included in the indictment, was not brought to trial as she was 'old and testy', and 'may die out of perversity to defraud the King's Highness of the confiscation of her goods', but like the others she was sentenced to imprisonment and forfeiture of lands and goods. On 6 February 1542 a bill of attainder against Queen Catherine and Lady Rochford received final reading, and on 13 February 1542 the Queen and Lady Rochford were executed on Tower Green. The King was of the view that there was as much reason to convict the Dowager Duchess of treason as there had been to convict Dereham. However the Council urged leniency, and she was eventually released from the Tower on 5 May 1542.
Mary Lassells married a Mr Hall of Lambeth.
Appearances
In Literature
- "The Rose Without a Thorn" by Jean Plaidy
- "Murder Most Royal" by Jean Plaidy
In Film
- Henry VIII (TV serial); portrayed by Catrin Rhys
