Jane Whorwood
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Jane Whorwood ( Ryder; 1612 – September 1684) was a
Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...
agent during the
English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
. She managed circulation of intelligence, as well as smuggling of funds to sustain the Royalist faction. Whorwood was a close confidante of King Charles I, having helped to co-ordinate his attempts to escape captivity in the late 1640s.


Personal life

Jane was born in Westminster, in 1612. Her father was Scots courtier William Ryder, surveyor of the royal stables, and her mother was Elizabeth de Boussy, a laundress to
Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I. She was List of Scottish royal consorts, Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and List of English royal consorts, Queen of Engl ...
, queen consort of
James I of England James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 unti ...
. Soon after accompanying King James I in his return visit to Scotland, in 1617, her father died of undetermined illness. Two years later, her mother remarried to a more influential courtier, James Maxwell, himself also originally from Scotland. Jane married Brome Whorwood, four years her junior, in 1634. However, in 1642, at the outbreak of the Civil War, her husband fled England, leaving for continental Europe where he remained until 1645. Jane Whorwood and their children Brome and Diana resided in his family property, Holton House in the outskirts of Oxford city where the Royal court was established. But Whorwood travelled continuously as an active Royalist agent.


Support for the Royalist faction during the English Civil War

Composed of merchants and laundresses, the contact networks established by Whorwood's stepfather and mother facilitated her actions in favour of the Royalist cause. James Maxwell, her stepfather, had been a
groom of the bedchamber Groom of the Chamber was a position in the Royal Household, Household of the monarch in early modern Kingdom of England, England. Other ''Ancien Régime'' royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. In King ...
successively to princes
Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...
and Charles, whose accession to the throne would occur in 1625. Maxwell assumed the office of
Black Rod The usher of the Black Rod is an official in the parliaments of several countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. The title is often shortened to Black Rod, and in some countries, formally known as Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod or Lady Usher ...
in 1622 and, upon the dissolution of Parliament in 1629, acted as pawnbroker and private financier to Charles I. This enabled him to work closely with merchants with whom Whorwood would co-operate in smuggling funds for the Royalists during the Civil War. In one occasion, with the aid of a laundress, Whorwood arranged the smuggling of no less than 1,705 lbs (775 kg) of gold at once. The sum came from Royalist merchant Sir Paul Pindar, located in London, and was delivered into Oxford, concealed inside barrels of soap. In 1680, the Pindar family addressed a petition to Charles II describing these operations: "Sir Paul Pindar sent several sums of money in gold to Oxford (by the hand of Madam Jean Whorewood, yet living) in 1644, for the transporting of
he then He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
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and the late Queen, his mother, to France." Whorwood remained an active supporter of Charles I throughout most of the 1640s, being invested in gathering more funds, helping to create a network of Royalist contacts extending from London to Edinburgh, and covertly relaying intelligence amongst the king's supporters, as well as from and to the king himself. In addition, she was involved in co-ordinating Charles I's attempts to escape captivity, seeking for this purpose guidance from famed astrologer William Lilly, whose advice she requested in 1647 concerning the king's plans to flee Hampton Court where he was being held captive by Parliament. It was also Lilly who, in 1648, the year prior to
Charles I's execution Charles I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was executed on Tuesday, 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall, London. The execution was the culmination of political and military conflicts between the royalists and the ...
, provided her with the contact of a locksmith from whom to obtain files and aqua fortis to be used on the window bars of the king's chamber at
Carisbrooke Castle Carisbrooke Castle is a historic motte-and-bailey castle located in the village of Carisbrooke (near Newport), Isle of Wight, England. Charles I was imprisoned at the castle in the months prior to his trial. Early history The site of Carisb ...
, Isle of Wight. Charles was, however, unsuccessful in his attempt, leaving Whorwood to wait several weeks aboard a ship she had helped to obtain with the aim of sailing him to
Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...
.


Physical appearance

From this period, a key description of Jane Whorwood, of whom no portraits have been discovered, emerges. Following his observation of Whorwood while aboard the vessel on the coast of Wight, Parliament spy Anthony Wood noted in a report dating from 30 April 1648: "Mistress Whorwood is (…) a tall, well-fashioned and well-languaged gentlewoman, with a round visage and with pock holes in her face". Decades later, he would add to this characterisation: “…red haired, as her son Brome was (…) exceedingly loyal, understanding and of good judgement (…) the most loyal to King Charles in his miseries of any woman in England".


Relationship with the King of England

Ciphered letters sent between Charles I and Whorwood, indicated that she became the king's mistress during the summer of 1648, when Whorwood managed to gain access to the king's chamber in Carisbrooke Castle, the king having been granted parole from close guard to prepare negotiations with
Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. They communicated frequently, and sometimes exchanged several notes per day, letters were sent during July, which contained plans for intimate encounters. The king wrote to their accomplice William Hopkins in the same year: "You may freely trust Whorwood with anything that concerns my service, for I have had perfect trial of her friendship to me. I cannot be more confident of any". He noted that between April, and December 1648, (Thirty -Three) 33 letters were written to Whorwood and 18 was sent from her to him. She signed her ciphered notes as N, 390, 409, and 715, then signed the remaining as JW or Hellen. Despite his supporters' continuous efforts to restore his freedom, Charles I was brought to trial and executed at
Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall – also spelled White Hall – at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, with the notable exception of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, ...
, in London, on 30 January 1649.


Life after war

Whorwood underwent a brief period of imprisonment herself in 1651, under the
Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...
, along with a fine for having defrauded the Parliamentary Committee for the Advance of Money in her efforts to finance the Royalists. During that same year, Whorwood returned home to her increasingly violent husband, Brome. Then devoted to his mistress Katherine Allen, Brome subjected Whorwood to verbal abuse, serious injuries and a period of confinement in the tower of Holton House, which the three of them shared. In 1657, the year their son died while, incidentally, sailing to Isle of Wight, Whorwood left home permanently, fearing for her life. A longstanding legal battle for alimony followed the couple's formal separation in 1659, lasting virtually until their deaths. Brome, who became MP for the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
in 1661, one year after Charles II's Restoration to the throne, refused to comply with court and Crown orders to provide his wife with payments. Ultimately he only granted Whorwood a small portion of the monetary compensation she was legally entitled to, leaving her impoverished. Holton locals defended Whorwood in court on multiple occasions, testifying as to the abusive treatment and the extent of the violence she suffered while with her husband. Brome died in April 1684, and Jane Whorwood in September the same year, aged 72. On the subject of her own efforts to support the Royalists, wholly unrecognised during the Restoration period and overlooked thereafter, Jane Whorwood wrote, in 1648: "My travels, the variety of accidents (and especially dangers) more become a Romance than a letter."


Notes and references

:1.Fox, Chapter 5, para. 38 :2.Fox, Chapter 5, para. 2 :3.Fox, Chapter 8, para. 38 :4.Fox, Chapter 1, para. 1 :5.Fox, Chapter 1, para. 2 :6.Fox, Chapter 9, para. 38 :7.Poynting, pp. 128–40 :8.Fox, Chapter 8, para. 2 :9.Fox, Chapter 11, para. 11 :10.Fox, Chapter 11, para. 41


Sources

• Firth, Charles Harding (1885). Whorwood, Jane. ''Dictionary of National Biography''. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Fox, John (2010). ''The King’s Smuggler : Jane Whorwood, Secret Agent to Charles I'' indle version Gloucestershire: The History Press.
• Poynting, Sarah (2006). Deciphering the King: Charles I's Letters to Jane Whorwood. ''The Seventeenth Century'', 21 (1), 128–40.


External links


Profile
on Jane Whorwood at HerStoria.com, by John Fox.
• Same author o
Jane Whorwood: The King’s Smuggler
at HistoryToday.com.


on the intimate correspondence between Whorwood and Charles I, unearthed by Dr Sarah Poynting.



{{DEFAULTSORT:Whorwood, Jane Female wartime spies Women in the English Civil War 1612 births 1684 deaths 17th-century spies Cavaliers