Born around 1483, Lady Anne Stafford was the daughter of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Katherine Woodville Katherine was a sister of Elizabeth Woodville, Consort of Edward IV, making Anne a first cousin of Elizabeth of York. Anne Stafford had two brothers, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, and Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire; and a sister, Elizabeth Stafford, Countess of Sussex. In 1483, King Richard III executed Henry Stafford for treason. Anne's mother remarried to Jasper Tudor. In 1503, Anne married Sir Walter Herbert. When Herbert died in 1507, Anne gave control of her jointure, which included Raglan Castle in Wales, to her brother, Edward. Anne went to live in her brother's household at Thornbury until her second marriage to George Hastings in 1509. In 1510, Anne was the subject of a sex scandal. Her brother had heard rumours that Anne was having an affair with Sir William Compton. On one occasion, Stafford found Compton in Anne's room. Compton was forced to take the sacrament to prove that he had not committed adultery. Hastings sent Anne to live in a convent 60 miles away from the royal court. There is no evidence that Anne and Compton committed adultery. However, in 1523 Compton took the unusual step of bequeathing land to Anne in his will, and directing his executors to include her in the prayers for his kin for which he had made provision in his will. Despite this scandal, Anne and Hastings apparently enjoyed a close, loving relationship. This was evidenced by a letter written to Anne by Hastings in 1525 which has been described as 'one of the most affectionate and charming letters of the period'.
Marriages and children
Anne Stafford married firstly, in 1503, Sir Walter Herbert, an illegitimate son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. The marriage was childless. She married secondly, in December 1509, George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon. They had five sons and three daughters:
Sir Thomas Hastings, who married, before October 1553, Winifred Pole, daughter of Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, and Jane Neville, daughter of George Neville, 4th Baron Bergavenny. There were no issue of the marriage. After Sir Thomas Hastings' death, Winifred Pole married Sir Thomas Barrington.
In two 2007 episodes of the Showtimetelevision series, The Tudors, Anne, portrayed by Anna Brewster, is presented as the 3rd Duke of Buckingham's daughter, and is involved not with Henry VIII but with a fictionalized version of the King's future brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. She is also shown as dying of the same sweating sickness that killed William Compton.
Anne is a character in the Philippa Gregory novel, The Constant Princess.
