The Erased Princess

Henry VIII now had no legitimate children. None. The crown was left to heirs he did not yet have, the unborn children of his new queen, Jane Seymour.

Three weeks earlier, he had executed Elizabeth’s mother. Now an Act of Parliament erased Elizabeth herself — her title, her place in the succession, her legal identity as a princess. The household at Hunsdon, where both girls were kept in this period, was left without proper provision. Lady Bryan, Elizabeth’s governess, was forced to write desperate letters to Thomas Cromwell begging for basic fabrics to clothe the growing child: the list runs from gowns and kirtles down to smocks, kerchiefs, sleeves, even “begens”. The machinery of state had moved on. The toddler’s wardrobe had not.

In these same weeks, Mary was also writing from Hunsdon — hoping that with Anne Boleyn gone, Henry might forgive her. In May and June 1536 she begged for his blessing through Cromwell, asking to be allowed back into favour and to return to court, and within days of this Act a formal submission letter was being carried from Hunsdon to her father. She was wrong. Things were about to get worse.

Two daughters. One morning. One Act of Parliament. Both erased.

The site of Hunsdon House in Hertfordshire still exists as a private estate. Both girls lived there in 1536 — the almost‑three‑year‑old who would become Elizabeth I, and the twenty‑year‑old who would become Mary I. The woman who would one day rule England spent that summer being stripped of a title she could barely pronounce.

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