Anne Hankford (c. 1431 – 13 November 1485) was the first wife of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond (c. 1426- 3 August 1515). She was the great- grandmother of Queen consort Anne Boleyn

Family and lineage

Anne Hankford was the daughter of Sir Richard Hankford and Anne Montagu. Her paternal grandparents were Richard Hankeford and Thomasine de Stapeldon. Her maternal grandparents were John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury and Maud Francis, daughter of Sir Adam Francis, Lord Mayor of London.

Marriage and children

She married Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond on an unknown date before 1450. He was the youngest son of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond and Joan de Beauchamp. The Irish called him The Wool Earl, due to his being one of the wealthiest of the King's subjects in the realm.[1]In addition to the possession of major lands in the Irish counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary, he owned 72 manors in England.[2] Thomas and Anne had two daughters:

• Margaret Butler (c.1454 –1539) married Sir William Boleyn, by whom she had issue, including Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, the father of Anne Boleyn, Mary Boleyn, and George Boleyn, by his wife Elizabeth Howard
• Anne Butler (born c. 1455) married Sir James St. Leger, by whom she had issue.

Death

Anne died 13 November 1485, in the same month of the restoration of the estates and title of Ormonde to her husband by King Henry VII's first Parliament. Thomas Butler and his brothers had been declared traitors by King Edward IV, who had had statutes made against them at Westminster.

Thomas Butler married secondly, Lora Berkeley, daughter of Sir Edward Berkeley, by whom he had a daughter.

In 1509, Thomas Butler was appointed Queen consort Catherine of Aragon's first Lord Chamberlain.[3]

Notes

References

• thepeerage.com Accessed December 18, 2007
• Tudorplace.com Accessed 16 October 2008
• Bruce, Marie Louise Anne Boleyn. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1972
• Fraser, Antonia The Wives of Henry VIII. Norwalk, Conn.: Easton Press, 1992