Alice (Boleyn) Clere (abt. 1490 - 1538)

Born about 1490 in England

Ancestors

Wife of Robert Clere Knt. — married before 1511 in England

Descendants

Died 1 Nov 1538 at about age 48 in England

Profile managers: Lindsay Tyrie [send private message] and Magna Carta Project WikiTree [send private message]

Magna Carta Surety Baron Descendant (see text). Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta

Biography

Alice was the daughter of William Boleyn^[1] and Margaret Butler.^[2][3] Her parents had lands in several counties and her birth county is not known. Nor is her birth date, but she was a younger child; her son John was born in about 1511;^[2][3] and her parents married by 16 November 1469:^[4][5] it has been guesstimated as about 1490. (The Oxford Shakespeare website estimates it as about 1487.^[6])

Alice appears to have been unmarried when her father made his 1505 will: she is referred to just as Alice whereas a married sister is referred to by her married surname.^[7][8]

Before 1511 (the approximate birth year of their son John) Anne became the second wife of Robert Clere.^[2][3] They had three sons, all named in their mother's will:^[6][9]

• John^[1][2][3]
• Richard,^[2][3] who died, age under 22, before his mother made her 1538 will^[6][9]
• Thomas,^[2][3] who was under age when his mother made her will,^[6][9] and who died on 14 April 1545 trying to save the life of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey at the siege of Montreuil^[6]

In 1520 Alice and her husband were in France, attending Queen Katherine of Aragon at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.^[2][3]

In 1528 Thomas Cromwell defended Alice when she was being sued for debt.^[6]

Robert Clere died on 10 August 1529.^[2][3] Under his will, Alice received a life interest in much of his property, along with plate worth £60 and other items.^[10]

In 1531 Alice is recorded as having had a licence to export corn, which she had sold on to John Parys of Norwich.^[11]

In the period 1533 to 1538 Alice was sued for allegedly falsifying mortgages on properties in Suffolk.^[12]

Alice died on 1 November 1538. She and her husband were buried at St Margaret's, Ormesby, Norfolk.^[2][3]

Alice's will was dated 28 October 1538 and proved on 23 January 1538/9.^[2][3] In it, among other provisions, she:^[6][9]

• requested burial at St Margaret's, Ormesby, Norfolk
• left £700 to her son Thomas, to buy a ward for his preferment (indicating he was under age) or else some lands, along with plate worth £60 and other items
• made children of her son John fallback legatees if Thomas had died
• left household items her sons Thomas and John and John's wife
• referred to her son Richard as having died under age 22 without issue
• made minor bequests to:
  • William Clere, probably William, son of her husband's first marriage
  • her nieces Elizabeth Shelton and Elizabeth Calthorp
  • my Lady Peyton, presumably Elizabeth, daughter of her husband's first marriage
• appointed Edmund Knyvet (husband of her niece Anne Shelton) and Nicholas Hare as executors

Her executors renounced their role and her son John was granted administration on 27 January 1538/9.^[9]

Research Notes

Not Governess to the future Mary I

The Oxford Shakespeare website says that in 1533 Alice was made a governess to the future Mary I, Alice's sister Anne (Boleyn) Shelton being in charge of the joint household of Mary and her sister the future Elizabeth I.^[6] The Preface to Volume VII of Letters and Papers of Henry VII says that Alice’s niece, the Anne Boleyn who married Henry VIII, instructed an unnamed sister of her father's, who had Mary in her keeping, to try and force Mary to renounce her title to the throne. The source for this is gossip, reported by Eustace Chapuys, the Holy Roman Emperor's Ambassador in London, that Queen Anne Boleyn had sent instructions to her father’s unnamed sister to box Mary’s ears if she did not agree. Volume VII suggests that this aunt of Anne Boleyn was Alice.^[13][14]

This identification is a mistake and is corrected in the Clere and Shelton entries in the index to Volume VIII of Letters and Papers of Henry VIII'.^[15][16] The Alice Clere index entry states, "The references to this lady [Alice] in the last volume are wrong. The aunt of Anne Boleyn spoken of in those places is Anne, lady Shelton [Alice's sister], whose husband, Sir John, was steward of Mary's household."

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Walter Rye (ed.). The Visitacion of Norfolk... Anno 1563... enlarged with another Visitacion... and also the Vissitation... Anno 1616, Harleian Society, 1891, pp. 74-75, Internet Archive
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), Vol. I, p. 6, ALSOP 12, Google Books
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: the author, 2013), Vol. I, pp. 115-116, ALSOP 13
4. ↑ Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, Vol. I, p. 385, BUTLER 11, Google Books
5. ↑ Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol.II, p. 55, BUTLER 12
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7} The Oxford Shakespeare website, transcript of will of Alice Boleyn (the National Archives, PROB 11/27/398) and accompanying introduction, PDF
7. ↑ The National Archives, ref. PROB 11/14/790, Discovery Centre catalogue entry
8. ↑ Nicholas Harris Nicolas. Testamenta Vetusta, Vol. II, Nichols and Son, 1826, p. 465, Google Books
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4} The National Archives, ref. PROB 11/27/398, Discovery Centre catalogue entry
10. ↑ Will of Robert Clere, the National Archives, PROB 11/24/84, transcript on the Oxford Shakespeare website, accessed 27 July 2022
11. ↑ 'Henry VIII: July 1531, 16-31', in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 5, 1531-1532, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1880), pp. 160-177, British History Online, accessed 30 July 2022
12. ↑ The National Archives, ref. C 1/789/6, Discovery Centre catalogue entry
13. ↑ 'Preface', in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7, 1534, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1883), pp. i-l, British History Online, accessed 30 July 2022
14. ↑ 'Henry VIII: February 1534, 11-20', in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7, 1534, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1883), pp. 68-85, British History Online, accessed 30 July 2022
15. ↑ 'Index: C, D, E', in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 8, January-July 1535, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1885), pp. 493-509. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol8/pp493-509 British History Online], accessed 30 July 2022
16. ↑ Shelton entry in 'Index: S, T, U, V', Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 8, January-July 1535, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1885), pp. 549-562, British History Online, accessed 30 July 2022

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was developed for the Magna Carta project by Michael Cayley on 30 July 2022 and was reviewed 1 August 2022 by Thiessen-117.

Alice (Boleyn) Clere is in a Richardson-documented trail from the Alsop Gateway Ancestors (Timothy, Elizabeth and George) to Magna Carta Surety Barons Roger le Bigod and Hugh le Bigod (Magna Carta Ancestry, vol. I, pages 6-9 ALSOP) which was badged in August 2022. See the trails HERE.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".

More Genealogy Tools