Anne Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier

2.1. Birth and Family

Born in 1517, Anne Bourchier was the only child of Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex, the 6th Baron Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier, and 2nd Count of Eu. Her mother was Mary Say, who served as a lady-in-waiting to Henry VIII's first Queen Consort, Katherine of Aragon. Anne's paternal grandparents were Sir William Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier, and Lady Anne Woodville, a younger sister of the English Queen Consort Elizabeth Woodville. Through various familial lines, Anne was related to three of Henry VIII's Queen Consorts: Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Katherine Howard, all of whom shared the same great-grandmother, Elizabeth Cheney. As the sole child of the last Bourchier Earl of Essex, and a contingent heiress of the Countess of Oxford, Anne was recognized as one of the wealthiest heiresses in England. The considerable Bourchier family wealth originated from the 14th-century marriage of Sir William Bourchier to Eleanor de Lovayne, who was a rich heiress in her own right. Anne had one known legitimate son, named John Parr.

2.2. Early Marriage and Inheritance

Anne Bourchier was married on 9 February 1527 to Sir William Parr, the only son of Sir Thomas Parr, Sheriff of Northamptonshire, and Maud Green. At the time of her marriage, Anne was approximately ten years old. This union was meticulously arranged by her ambitious mother-in-law, Maud Green. Anne later succeeded to the titles of suo jure 7th Baroness Bourchier and Lady Lovayne on 13 March 1540, following the accidental death of her father. However, the viscounty of Bourchier and the earldom of Essex, which her father had held, did not pass to her and became extinct upon his death. Her husband, William Parr, had been created 1st Baron Parr of Kendal in 1539.

3.1. Unhappy Marriage

From its inception in 1527, the marriage between Anne Bourchier and William Parr was fraught with unhappiness. Despite their marriage, the couple did not live together until twelve years later. Anne was described as having received a limited education, and she showed a clear preference for the tranquility of the countryside over the bustling and exciting environment of Henry VIII's royal court. Her first recorded appearance at court was not until 22 November 1539, when she was 22 years old, attending a banquet.

3.2. Adultery and Illegitimate Child

In 1541, a major scandal erupted when Anne Bourchier deserted her husband, William Parr, and eloped with her lover, John Lyngfield, also known as John Hunt or Huntley, who was the prior of St. James's Church in Tanbridge, Surrey. Following her elopement, Anne gave birth to an illegitimate child, also named John Parr. The birth of this child, conceived outside of her marriage, prompted Baron Parr to take immediate legal action to protect his own interests, fearing that the child might, in the future, lay claim to his estates. Following Anne's departure, William Parr also began a relationship with Dorothy Bray, who was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine Howard.

3.3. Annulment of Marriage and Legal Consequences

In January 1543, in response to Anne's actions, William Parr formally applied to Parliament, seeking a separation from Anne on the grounds of her adultery. Records from the Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of Henry VIII, dated 22 January 1543, document that "Lady Anne, wife of Sir William Parr Lord Parr, continued in adultery notwithstanding admonition, and, finally, two years past, left his company and has since had a child begotten in adultery and that the said child and all future children she may have shall be held bastards."

William Parr's sister, Katherine Parr, who was at the time being courted by King Henry VIII, used her influence in March 1543 to assist her brother. Consequently, on 17 April 1543, William Parr obtained an Act of Parliament that officially repudiated Anne and her child, declaring the child a bastard and legally unfit to inherit any property or titles. This act was formally styled in the Lords' journal as a Bill "to bar and make base and bastards, the child which be, or shall be borne in adultery by the Lady Anne, wife of the Lord Parr." This Act was first read on 13 March 1543. The Act, enacted in the 34th year of Henry VIII's reign, explicitly stated: "That for the last two years she [Anne] had eloped from her husband, William Lord Parr, 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 adulterors 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 declared the said child to be a bastard." This legislative action starkly demonstrated the legal vulnerability and diminished social status of women, particularly married women, during this period, as their marital and reproductive autonomy could be severely curtailed by law.

After this legal defeat, Anne spent the next few years living in exile at the manor of Little Wakering, in Essex, reportedly reduced to a state of poverty. In the same year (1543), William Parr initiated a courtship with Elizabeth Brooke, who was the niece of his mistress, Dorothy Bray, and a former Maid of Honour to Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard. William Parr was created 1st Earl of Essex on 23 December 1543. Ultimately, on 31 March 1552, a bill was passed in Parliament formally declaring the marriage between William Parr and Anne Bourchier to be entirely null and void.

4.1. Financial and Legal Affairs

Upon the accession of Queen Mary I to the throne, William Parr was arrested and committed to the Tower of London due to his involvement in John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland's unsuccessful plot to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne instead of Mary. After William Parr was sentenced to death on 18 August 1553, Anne Bourchier courageously went to court and intervened on his behalf with Queen Mary I, hoping to preserve their estates. Her intervention proved successful, and William Parr was subsequently released.

Furthermore, the bill that had previously declared their marriage null and void was reversed on 24 March 1554. Anne strategically utilized this reversal to her advantage, securing an annuity of 100 GBP in December of that year. In December 1556, she was granted another annuity, this time for 450 GBP. She remained at the royal court until the ascension of Elizabeth I. However, with Elizabeth holding William Parr in high favor, Anne likely recognized that her past history of adultery would not endear her to the new Queen. During this period, William Parr himself was fully restored to his previous standing, re-created Marquess of Northampton, re-elected to the Order of the Garter, and appointed a privy councillor, among other honors.

Anne also faced legal battles concerning her property. Sir Robert Rochester and Sir Edward Waldegrave held Benington Park, in Hertfordshire, as feoffees for her use. However, following Rochester's death in 1557, Waldegrave transferred the property to Sir John Butler. Anne responded by initiating a lawsuit against Waldegrave and Butler, which was heard in the Court of Chancery. Although she won the initial case, Butler petitioned for a retrial and continued to assert ownership of the park.

4.2. Children and Retirement

Beyond the illegitimate child born during the scandal, Anne Bourchier had several more children with John Lyngfield. However, like her first child, all of them were legally declared bastards due to their birth outside of a legally recognized marriage. Only one daughter, named Mary, is documented to have survived to adulthood. Mary married a man named Thomas York, and they had children, but their lives remained obscure. Author Charlotte Merton has proposed that Katherine Nott, who held an unspecified position in Queen Elizabeth I's household between 1577 and 1578, may also have been a daughter of Anne. Despite the ongoing legal challenges, Butler's petition to retry the case regarding Benington Park was apparently unsuccessful. Following Queen Elizabeth I's accession to the throne in November 1558, Anne retired to Benington Park, where she lived out the remainder of her life quietly.

4.3. Death and Succession

Anne Bourchier died on 28 January 1571 at Benington. Her former husband, William Parr, also died in the same year and was buried in the Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Warwick. Queen Elizabeth I covered the expenses for his funeral and burial. After Anne, William Parr had married two more times; however, only his third marriage, to Helena Snakenborg in May (after Anne's death), was considered legally valid. William Parr fathered no children by any of his wives, and his remaining modest fortune and estates passed to his cousins upon his death. Upon Anne Bourchier's death, the barony of Bourchier passed to her cousin, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex.