The Lisle Letters: Lady Honor Lisle’s epistolary influence by Jasmine Nicholsfigueiredo B.Ed., Simon Fraser University, 2004 M.A. English, Queen’s University, 2002 B.A. English, Simon Fraser University, 2001 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Jasmine Nicholsfigueiredo 2014 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2014 Approval Name: Jasmine Nicholsfigueiredo Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (English) Title: The Lisle Letters: Lady Honor Lisle’s Epistolary Influence Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Jon Smith Associate Professor Dr. Paul Delany Senior Supervisor Professor Emeritus Dr. Lara Campbell Supervisor Associate Professor Chair of the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Dr. Anne Higgins Internal Examiner Associate Professor Dr. Holly Nelson External Examiner Associate Professor Department of English Trinity Western University Date Defended: May 5, 2014 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Abstract This dissertation offers an original contribution to Tudor studies by examining The Lisle Letters as an illuminating example of how aristocratic Tudor women used the epistle to manipulate networks of obligation and gain socio-political influence. Women, such as Lady Honor Lisle, the primary subject of this study, fashioned letters to create and maintain communities of influence in order to assist their families, advance their social position, and bring various other projects to fruition. By using the lens of practice theory to examine the Lisle Letters, I will demonstrate that the relational aspects governing an individual’s agency, in the light of ever-changing variables – friends, kinship groups, societal knowledge, socio-economic status, and so on – are what allowed aristocratic women such as Lady Lisle to exercise influence, despite the fact they could not hold official positions of power, such as judge, magistrate, or Lord Privy Seal. I will argue that women’s involvement in the socio-political world was a perpetual process of negotiation and adjustment within a web of imbricated relations, and that mastery of this diplomatic process could put considerable power in a woman’s hands. The Lisle Letters highlight the importance of the epistle as a particularly important device of power accrual. The epistle, with its underpinning of obligation, its various styles, and its discursive conventions, allows us to consider how power was accessible outside of purely formal channels in a social (and political) context that attached great importance to written entreaties and the informal cultural rules surrounding them; it is because of such rules and conventions, that we discover, in the letter, a privileged tool for bridging the gap between formal and informal avenues of power. The Lisle Letters, for example, allow mistress and servant to traverse boundaries of gender and class by using the stylized rhetoric of patronage and the warm and more natural language of friendship. The various discursive styles allow for the boundaries between mistress and servant to be crossed by establishing intimate connections and trust – an area that has been little examined in epistolary scholarship. The letters further illustrate how the epistle could be used to create and maintain bonds across international borders – making connections and accruing influence to assist in a bid for upward mobility. The Lisle Letters also document Lady Lisle’s negotiations with one of the key power figures of the Tudor era, Thomas Cromwell, in the male public arena of the court. The letters show us not simply iv her personal strategies and tactics, but how she uses all of her resources, including the conventions of the epistle, to negotiate a better hand than the one she had been dealt. By examining the language of obligation and such rhetorical scripts as deference and assurance, we can see how women manipulated the epistle to create alliances and reinforce previous associations to bring their personal projects to fruition. Keywords: Lisle Letters; Plantagenet; Renaissance women; power; women’s agency; epistles v Dedication This work is dedicated to my mother Gabrielle Figueiredo and to my husband Morgan Nicholsfigueiredo. If it were not for their encouragement, wisdom, patience, and unconditional love, I would not have completed this scholarship. To my sister Nicole, my dear friend Dorritta Fong, and my mentor and friend, Sheila Roberts, for their countless hours of reading and advice, thank you. For my friends Elizabeth McCausland, Cindy Nichols, Robert McAdams, and Ryan Miller, I thank you for offering assistance and support throughout. Thank you to Paul Saunders, Jon-Paul Henry, Meg Stainsby, Jim McCarthy and Brian Swail for their editing expertise and guidance. To my Douglas College support network Christine Dewar, Susan Smythe, Calvin Wharton, Nancy Squair, Jaqueline Hoekstra, Kate Yoshitomi, and Barb Sekhon, thank you for always cheering me on. For the PhD student group, Jennifer Scott, Christine Lyons, Naava Smolash and Christina Alt (far, far away) it was wonderful to have your encouraging voices every step of the way. To the many SFU professors who have helped to guide me through this process I owe great thanks. Thank you to the Graduate Chair Dr. Jeff Derksen for his unflagging support and to the Graduate Assistant Christa Gruninger for always being so welcoming. I thank Dr. Carolyn Lesjak, Dr. Peter Dickinson, Dr. Julie Crawford, Dr. Tiffany Werth, Dr. David Chariandy, Dr. Mary Ann Gillies, Dr. Harvey De Roo, Dr. Tom Grieve, and Dr. Tirthankar Bose for their wonderful advice. As well to the supportive group from Queen’s University thank you to Dr. Edward Lobb, Dr. Maggie Berg, Dr. Marta Straznicky, and Dr. Elizabeth Hanson. To my nieces Katherine, Delaney, Elizabeth and my nephew Christopher, never give up; if you work hard enough you can achieve your dreams. Thank you to my entire family and all of my friends for their unflagging support throughout the years. vi Acknowledgements Completing this dissertation would not have been possible without the patience and support of my senior supervisor Dr. Paul Delany, to whom I am forever grateful. As well I am also indebted to Dr. Lara Campbell for her guidance and advice. I wish to thank my examiners, Dr. Anne Higgins and Dr. Holly Nelson for their thoughtful suggestions, and for helping to make the experience a rewarding one. vii Table of Contents Approval .............................................................................................................................ii Partial Copyright Licence .................................................................................................. iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................iv Dedication .........................................................................................................................vi Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ viii Introduction 1 Gender and Power ............................................................................................................ 4 Women and Politics .......................................................................................................... 7 Lisle Scholarship and the Lives of Women ..................................................................... 14 The Epistolary Tradition .................................................................................................. 23 Obligation and Reciprocity .............................................................................................. 25 Ars Dictaminis and the Familiar Letter ............................................................................ 28 Chapter 1. Mistress and Servant: The Familiar Letter............................................ 35 John Husee the Agent ..................................................................................................... 37 Tudor Service .................................................................................................................. 40 Husee’s Letters: Formal and Informal Negotiations ........................................................ 44 Illusions of Privacy .......................................................................................................... 46 On Crossing Boundaries: Mutual Interest or Romantic Liaison? .................................... 48 Husee’s Letters to Lady Lisle .......................................................................................... 51 Advice on Mothering ....................................................................................................... 53 Phantom Pregnancy ........................................................................................................ 58 Chapter 2. French Women and English Court Women: Creating and Maintaining Influence via the Epistle .................................................... 63 The Preferment Project ................................................................................................... 65 Calais and All Things French .......................................................................................... 67 Aristocratic French Friendships ......................................................................................