Blanche Herbert, Lady Troy

Blanche Milborne, Lady Herbert of Troy was the Lady Mistress in charge of the upbringing of Queen Elizabeth I, Edward VI and also of Queen Mary when she lived with the younger Tudor children. She was twice married, and widowed; first to James Whitney then Sir William Herbert of Troy Parva, an illegitimate son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and one of his mistresses. She had five children. Blanche Milborne died c. 1557 before Queen Elizabeth I’s accession.

Blanche Milborne was one of the eleven co-heiresses (a son and daughter died young) of Simon Milborne and Jane (Baskerville) of Burghill, Herefordshire. Her eldest sister, Alice married Henry Myles and they were the parents of Blanche Parry. The family had widespread gentry connections; Sir William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1st creation) married Ann Devereux, the niece of Simon Milborne’s mother, Elizabeth Devereux. Blanche was also connected to Queen Catherine Parr sharing Agnes Crophull as an ancestress making them second cousins.

Blanche Milborne married James Whitney of Whitney and Pen-cwm; her dowry was the manor of Icomb in Gloucestershire which had belonged to her father and was inherited by their eldest son, Robert. James Whitney died on 30 July 1500, leaving Blanche with Robert aged thirteen years, and James, Watkin and Elizabeth who were younger. Elizabeth's daughter, Ann Morgan of Arkstone, Herefordshire, married Henry Carey, later Lord Hunsdon by licence on 21 May 1545, and the son of Mary Boleyn.

Between July 1500 and August 1502 Blanche remarried, becoming the second wife of Sir William Herbert of Troy Parva, an illegitimate son of Sir William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and one of his mistresses, Frond verch Hoesgyn. It was a Welsh household; although Blanche was English she would have also been Welsh-speaking. Lewys Morgannwg states that she and her husband welcomed King Henry VII, his Earls and possibly his Queen to Troy House, Mitchel Troy near Monmouth in August 1502. Blanche and Sir William had two sons Charles and Thomas, both of whom were eventually knighted and served as sheriffs of Monmouthshire. (Sir William also had an illegitimate son, Richard.) Thomas married Anne Lucy of Charlecote.

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