Alice Clere (died 1538) was the third daughter of Sir William Boleyn and his wife Margaret Ormond (otherwise Butler), the daughter and co-heiress of

Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond PC (1426 – 3 August 1515) was the youngest son of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond. He was attainted, but restored by Henry VII's first Parliament in November 1485, and the statutes made at Westminster, b ...

. Alice was thus the sister of

Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, 1st Earl of Ormond, 1st Viscount Rochford KG KB ( – 12 March 1539), of Hever Castle in Kent, was an English diplomat and politician who was the father of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, ...

, and the aunt of King Henry VIII's second Queen,

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...

Life

Alice married, as her second husband, Sir Robert Clere (c. 1453 – 10 August 1529) of Ormesby St. Margaret,

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, the son and heir of Robert Clere and his wife Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of Thomas Uvedale. In 1520, she was at the

Field of the Cloth of Gold The Field of the Cloth of Gold (, ) was a summit meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France from 7 to 24 June 1520. Held at Balinghem, between Ardres in France and Guînes in the English Pale of Calais, it was a ...

, a knight's wife listed as "Lady Clere". In 1533, Alice and her sister, Anne Shelton, were placed in charge of the household of the King's daughter, Princess Mary. Alice was also a senior member of Princess Elizabeth's household while she was living at

Hatfield Palace Hatfield House is a Grade I listed English country house, country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean architecture, Jacobean hous ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. It has been supposed that Alice Clere was the kinder of the two guardians appointed to Mary. Anne Shelton is believed to have been harsher. Alice died on 1 November 1538, leaving a will dated 28 October 1538 which was proved 23 January 1539. Both she and her husband were buried at Ormesby St. Margaret. Her monument was a slab in the chancel with a brass depicting her holding a heart in her hands.

Will

Alice Clere left the family estates to her older son John Clere. She bequeathed him "a bed of blue damask and yellow", a "heart of gold with a large diamond in it", and "a pair of beads of gold" (a rosary). Alice Clere left her younger son Thomas Clere "a salt of gold with a cover having a rose in the knop, and a pair of beads of gold" set with stones which had been gifts from

. To her niece Knyvett she left a "tablet of gold with the Salutation of Our Lady in it" with 8 rubies and 24 pearls, and she left an emerald ring to her niece Elizabeth Shelton.

Issue

* John Clere (c. 1511 – 21 August 1557) of Ormesby St Margaret and Norwich, married Anne Tyrrell, the daughter of Sir Thomas Tyrrell of

Gipping Gipping is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located around three miles north north-east of Stowmarket, in 2005 its population was 80. At the 2011 Census the popula ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

* Richard Clere. * Thomas Clere (died 1545).''Visitation of Norfolk in the Year 1563'', 2 (Norwich, 1895), p. 267.

Footnotes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clere, Alice

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

English maids of honour 16th-century English women 1538 deaths Year of birth missing People from the Borough of Great Yarmouth Court of Henry VIII People from Ormesby St Margaret with Scratby