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Lady Bridget Wingfield


Bridget Wiltshire (later, Wingfield, then Hervey, then Tyrwhitt; died January 1534) was a neighbour, close friend and lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England. She was the wife of Sir Richard Wingfield (widower of Catherine Woodville) and the daughter of Sir John Wiltshire of Stone Castle, Kent, a neighbour of the Boleyn family.

A letter written by Anne Boleyn to Bridget was used as evidence in the trial of the Queen for adultery, incest and conspiring against the life of the King. As Bridget had died, she could not refute the interpretation the prosecution placed on the Queen's words. The report also questioned the morality of Bridget: And note that this matter was disclosed by a woman called Lady Wingfield who was a servant of the said queen and shared the same tendencies. And suddenly the said Wingfield became ill and a little time before her death she showed the matter to one of those etc.

I pray you as you love me, to give credence to my servant this bearer, touching your removing and any thing else that he shall tell you on my behalf; for I will desire you to do nothing but that shall be for your wealth. And, madam, though at all time I have not showed the love that I bear you as much as it was in deed, yet now I trust that you shall well prove that I loved you a great deal more than I fair for. And assuredly, next mine own mother I know no woman alive that I love better, and at length, with God's grace, you shall prove that it is unfeigned. And I trust you do know me for such a one that I will write nothing to comfort you in your trouble but I will abide by it as long as I live. And therefore I pray you leave your indiscreet trouble, both for displeasing of God and also for displeasing of me, that doth love you so entirely. And trusting in God that you will thus do, I make an end. With the ill hand of

Your own assured friend during my life,
Anne Rochford

She married three times; her first husband was Sir Richard Wingfield, by whom she had ten children; he died in 1525. Her second husband was Sir Nicholas Hervey, and her third husband was Sir Robert Tyrwhitt.

Bridget was born on an unknown date, the daughter of Sir John Wiltshire, of Stone Castle, in Shurland, Kent, and Isabella Clothall. She became a member of Catherine of Aragon's household, sometime before 1520, as Bridget was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in France. Later, on an unknown date, Bridget became a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Catherine's successor, Anne Boleyn.


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