March 2022

16 Buckden Roundabout March 2022 Kimbolton Country Fayre & Classic Car Show We are back! Determined to put on a great show. The 2019 Fayre raised over £20,000, our second highest ever, for a range of Rotary and Sporting Bears support- ed charities and good causes, local and national, with a focus on local children in need. This year, for the 29 th show, we are planning a spectacular event packed with new activities for all. In addition to hundreds of classic cars; already lined up, new exhib- its already booked are the Welsh Axemen & Stannage Stunt Team. You will see the displays in the main arena. Also new this year is a display of farm animals and by popular demand, we see the return of the Beagles. Children ’ s entertainment and dozens of other stalls and events, not of course forgetting the Galaxy Swing Band, Morris Dancers and also new to the fayre, the Barefoot Doctors will add to the en- joyment of the day. We look forward to seeing you again this year. The date for your diary is Sunday 10th July. Keep up to date by visiting our website - www.kimboltoncountryfayre.com or following us on Twitter @KimboltonFayre. ried in Paris in secret. According to Charles ’ s own grovelling letter of apology to the King, Mary had begged him, in tears, to marry her. Now the couple were in terrible trouble, joined without the permission, indeed with the express disapproval, of the King. Henry was furious. This was tantamount to trea- son, and Charles might have been imprisoned, or made to for- feit everything he owned. There was even talk of execution. Henry was not one to forgive easily, and many bitterly re- gretted incurring his wrath. Yet he relented and let Charles off with a hefty fine to be paid over several years. It seems, at least on this one occasion, that his affection for Charles, his boyhood friend, and for Mary, his sister, proved stronger than his anger, and his black mood passed. Henry attended the pub- lic, second wedding of his sister and his friend. Indeed Charles Brandon was unique amongst Henry ’ s close associates in keep- ing the King ’ s friendship (along with his head) for decades, throughout Henry ’ s life. Mary bore Charles four children, two boys who died young, and two girls, the elder of whom was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, but that is another tale. Mary died in 1533. Charles immediately turned his eye towards another ward. He was legal guardian to the orphan Katherine Willoughby, then 14 years old. Never one to brook delay, Charles let neither the disparity in their ages (Charles was then 49) nor Mary ’ s recent death stand in his way, and Katherine and Charles were mar- ried three months after Mary died. Katherine then became his fourth wife. His unseemly haste might have been caused by his desire to get his hands on Katherine ’ s family property. Despite Katherine ’ s shockingly tender age, the marriage seemed to have worked well. She brought a rich inheritance, and she grew up to be a woman of substance, respected for her wit, learning and adherence to the Protestant cause. She outlived Brandon by many years. They had two sons, Henry Brandon, born when Katherine was just 16, and Charles Brandon, named for his father, two years later. The older son, Henry, inherited the dukedom when his father died in 1545, and became 2nd Duke of Suffolk at the age of ten. In July 1551, an epidemic of the sweating sickness swept across England, starting in the West Country, galloping along the main roads to London and thence to the southern coun- ties, the Midlands and the North. This was to be the fifth and final epidemic of the “ English sweate ”, a fearsome disease which first appeared in 1485. No - one knows what caused the disease and attempts to identify it by DNA or RNA testing have so far failed. The disease was marked by an extremely rapid onset and progress— ” merry at dinner and dedde at supper ” as a contemporary chronicler wrote. The first symptoms were chills and uncontrollable shivering which lasted about three hours, followed by the hot, sweating stage, which ended in exhaustion and, in many cases, death. If you were still living 24 hours after the first onset, you would almost certainly survive. It seemed to affect men more than women, the young more than the elderly, English subjects more than foreign visitors, and the rich more than the poor. Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Wol- sey and Thomas Cromwell were all thought to have suffered from at least one bout, and Cromwell ’ s wife and two daughters both died of the sweat on a single day. In July 1551, Henry Brandon and his younger brother Charles were being educated at St John ’ s College, Cambridge. When the sweat broke out in Cambridge they fled to the Bishop ’ s Palace in Buckden. It was to be a flight from danger into trage- dy. Whether they brought the disease with them or caught it in Buckden, it is impossible to tell. On the 14th July, the 2nd Duke, Henry, died. His younger brother, Charles, succeeded him at the moment of his death, becoming the 3rd Duke of Suffolk. An hour or so later, he too died, making his tenure as Duke the shortest in English history. Their mother Katherine, who had herself been sick, arrived in Buckden just in time for the last few minutes of her younger son ’ s life. She was devas- tated by their loss. They were buried privately in Buckden, pre- sumably in St Mary ’ s church, and a month later a grand requi- em mass and commemoration were held. And so the title, Duke of Suffolk, having lasted just 37 years, became extinct with the passing of the last legitimate male Brandon—having its roots at Bosworth Field, it came to a sad end in Buckden. - Alec MacAndrew [I have searched the records of memorials in St Mary ’ s church and the tombs in St Mary ’ s churchyard, but could find no sign of the Brandon burial—if anyone has any information, please let me know.] Holbein ’ s portraits of Henry Brandon (left) and his brother Charles., 2nd and 3rd Dukes of Suffolk A Tale of Three Dukes