On this day in history, 12th February 1590, Elizabeth I’s former childhood nurse and chief gentlewoman of the privy chamber, Blanche Parry, died. She was in her early 80s.
Blanche was buried in St Margaret’s Church Westminster, with funeral rites which were usually reserved for a baroness. She has a monument in St Margaret’s and also one in Bacton Church, her home village in Herefordshire, which bears an inscription of twenty-eight lines of verse recording Blanche’s service to her beloved Queen. This can be read in full at http://www.blancheparry.com/epitaph.shtml.
You can read more about Blanche in Sarah Rochel’s article “Mistress Blanche”.
She lived to a good age for those times, probably because she never married 🙂
She really did serve her Queen well, and Elizabeth must have loved her dearly, and missed her greatly.
This lady was of an age of Elizabeths mother, give or take, and if she was at court at the time of her birth, she must have had some knowledge of what was happening at these times, and maybe knew Anne herself. I wonder if when they were alone together if Elizabeth asked about her mother.. I like to think she did.