ANNE BOLEYN
Anne Boleyn has arguably had more impact on the nation than any other queen of England, and yet she is remembered mainly for her death that she met on the scaffold on 19th May 1536, for treason and adultery.
Nearly everything we know about Anne Boleyn is in dispute. From her place and date of birth to her appearance. Whether she schemed to become Queen of England or ever really loved King Henry VIII, and if she was guilty of the charges brought against her.
Anne was most certainly born at Blickling Hall in Norfolk, the home of her grandfather Sir William Boleyn. Anne’s Chaplin, Matthew Parker, who became archbishop of Canterbury in 1559 to her daughter Elizabeth I, was adamant that she came, as he did, from Norfolk.
Some historians have advocated that Anne Boleyn was the elder Boleyn sister. Historian and fiction writer Philippa Gregory cast Anne Boleyn as the elder Boleyn sister in her book, The Other Boleyn Girl, that Hollywood made into a film. Despite this, Mary Boleyn’s grandson, Lord Hudson, stated that Mary Boleyn was the older of the two and he petitioned for the Ormonde Lands through her claim. If, however, Anne Boleyn had been the older sister then the Earldom of Ormonde would have passed to her daughter Elizabeth I, upon Anne’s father’s death.
There is some argument over whether Anne Boleyn was born in 1501 or 1507. If we believe Anne’s year of birth was 1507, then we must also think that Anne was only six years old when she was sent abroad to receive an education among Europe’s elite, which means she would have spent her time in the nursery as opposed to the court. In 1514, Anne wrote a letter home to her father. Its content and handwriting does not seem likely to be that of a seven-year-old. On 14th August 1514, Thomas Boleyn wrote to the Regent Margaret of Austria, who Anne had been serving, asking her to release his daughter. In the letter, Sir Thomas explains that Mary Tudor had requested for Anne to wait on her as Queen of France. Again, if we believe Anne was born in 1507, we have to think Mary Tudor asked for a seven-year-old to attend her. Based on this, it seems more probable that Anne Boleyn was born in 1501.
Nicholas Sander, a Catholic propagandist, is responsible for much of the black legend surrounding Anne Boleyn’s appearance, but one has to remember that he had never met Anne and was five at the time of her execution.
In 1585, Sander wrote in his book, The Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism, that Anne had a mole on her neck and that she wore high necklines to cover it, yet the two Hever Castle portraits of Anne and the picture in the National Portrait Gallery show Anne wearing low necks. Sander claims that Anne had an extra finger on her right hand. Historian and novelist Alison Weir endorsed this claim. In the 19th Century, writer Alison Strictland, going from Sander’s work, popularised this legend, but she states that it was Anne’s left hand that had an extra finger.
In 1876, excavation work was undertaken in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. The body of what is thought to be Anne Boleyn, a headless corpse, was exhumed from the chancel, from the spot where she was recorded to have been buried. The pathologist recorded that there were no extra finger bones. All in all, I think it is safe to say the legend of Anne Boleyn’s extra finger is likely no more than a tall tale. After all, one must also ask the question: if Anne Boleyn was as unattractive as Sander describes, how did she capture and hold the attention of King Henry VIII?
The traditional historical narrative tells us that the Boleyns were upstarts, set on climbing the ranks at court at any cost. These accusations rest on the fact that the Boleyns did rise to power and that their wealth was rooted in the merchant trade. In Thomas Boleyn’s lifetime, Catholic supporters of Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife, and Jane Seymour, his third accused Thomas and Anne of being cold and callous opportunists who saw no limits to their ambitions.
Tradition, however, leads us astray. Anne’s great grandfather, Geoffrey Boleyn, had become Lord Mayor of London in 1457 after making his fortune as a London merchant. Geoffrey’s wealth had made it possible for his son William Boleyn to marry Lady Margaret Butler, whose father was the Earl of Ormonde. Anne’s father had in turn made an equally advantageous marriage to Elizabeth Howard, whose father was Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk.
Anne’s father Thomas Boleyn was a trusted courtier. In 1503 he was part of the envoy who escorted Princess Margaret, Henry VII’s daughter, to Scotland for her marriage to James IV. By 1509, he had risen to the rank of Squire of the Body, and he walked in Henry VII’s funeral procession.
The Tudors had won the Crown of England after years of civil war. Their claim was a shaky one that rested on an illegitimate line. Henry VIII was paranoid about the threat posed by rival aristocratic families, which gave men of low birth and rank an advantage at his court. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the son of a butcher who had been Henry’s priest, had risen to Lord Chancellor. Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith, was appointed to a post within Wolsey’s council.
In 1521, Anne Boleyn learned that her father had arranged for her to marry her cousin James Butler, his rival for the title of Earl of Ormonde, to settle their land dispute. In November 1521, Anne’s father wrote to Cardinal Wolsey pressing him about the matter of Anne’s marriage. This paints a different picture from the Hollywood films that portray a father who re-called his daughter from France to seduce the King of England.
Anne wrote in her book of hours, which is on display at Hever Castle, ‘le temps viendra’, meaning ‘the time will come’. This is often interpreted as meaning that the time would come when Anne would be Queen of England. However, Anne wrote this below a picture of the last judgement and drew a picture of an astrolobe, symbolising time. The saying itself is an abbreviation of a proverb: ‘a day will come that shall pay for all’. Anne believed in reform, and this saying refers to judgement and the idea of we reap what we sow. The book itself dates to 1450. Anne bought it home with her from France, so it’s highly likely she wrote this early on in her life, which says a lot about her personality.
Anne did, however, attract the attention of King Henry VIII, as she did many others at the English court. The French poet and scholar of the time, Lancelot de Carles, remarked of Anne: ‘for her behaviour, manners, attire, and tongue she excels them all’. Cardinal Wolsey’s usher George Cavendish wrote the same, and also said that Henry Percy, the son of the Duke of Northumberland, was interested in Anne, but that the King wanted Anne for himself. Sir Thomas Wyatt wrote some of the most enduring love poetry dedicated to Anne.
What is clear is that King Henry and Anne were friends. Remarkably for the time, considering the political-religious temperament, Anne felt comfortable and confident enough to share heretical books with Henry. This suggests that Anne trusted Henry and that they had a connection that went beyond that of a sexual nature.
Whether Anne loved Henry or Henry truly loved Anne, no one can know, but after years of legal wrangling with the Pope, Henry and Anne were married by Thomas Cranmer in a private ceremony in January 1533.
Anne’s spectacular coronation followed in June. She was crowned Queen of England with St Edward’s crown, traditionally reserved for reigning male monarchs.
On 7th September 1533, Anne gave birth to a daughter, who would become Elizabeth I.
Some historians have concluded that Anne was not up to being Queen because she didn’t close her eyes to Henry’s indiscretions like her predecessor had done, as if this were all a Queen should do. Anne had different ideas about being Queen of England, and they don’t marry up with that of a seductress schemer. Anne played an active role in reforming the church, and she supported the injunction that prohibited the display of relics and false miracles.
In July 1533, Anne and Henry set out on the summer Royal Progress. While staying at Sudeley Castle, Anne sent her chaplains to nearby Hailes Abbey to investigate the relic known as the Relic of the Holy Blood. The relic had made the abbey a favourite place for pilgrims. After a thorough search of the Abbey, the relic was found to contain, not the blood of Christ but the blood of a duck, killed that morning. Anne had the relic removed immediately.
According to Anne’s Chaplin Latimer, Anne kept an English Bible on display in her rooms for anyone who wanted to read it. In 1534, Anne restored Richard Herman to the membership of the English Society of Merchants, from which Wolsey had expelled him for his involvement in translating the New Testament into English. Anne also offered safe passage to England to French humanist reformers.
But on 19 May 1536, Anne was taken to the Tower of London and beheaded for treason and adultery. Why?
In October 1535, Anne Boleyn was pregnant again, and her influence on Henry VIII was stronger than ever and inclined him towards greater spiritual freedom. Miles Coverdale published the Bible in English, which he had completed for William Tyndale, and he dedicated it to King Henry and Queen Anne.
On 7th January 1536, Katherine of Aragon died. Henry and Anne celebrated the news with a joust. Henry fell from his horse and lay unconscious for two hours. Anne’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, delivered the news to Anne that it was doubtful the King would live. Henry had made Anne Boleyn regent in the event of his death. The prospect of a Regent Queen Anne struck fear into the hearts of the Catholic faction at court.
When she heard the news, Anne Boleyn collapsed in public and miscarried a child that had the appearance of a male. The King recovered and was hugely disappointed by the miscarriage.
The Catholic lobby at court, who believed the King’s marriage to Katherine was legal, began to whisper that the King was a widower and free to choose a new wife.
Henry’s near-death experience bought back his fear God would not give him male heirs. After three years of marriage to Anne, he had one daughter and no male heir. Anne’s influence over Henry started to wane, and Cromwell’s became stronger, bringing Anne and Cromwell into direct conflicts.
On 11th March 1536, parliament passed a Bill for the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The King needed the wealth of the Church, but Queen Anne disagreed with her husband and Cromwell about where the revenue should go.
Anne had her Chaplin, John Skip, preach an audacious coded sermon on 2nd April 1536, Passion Sunday. His address was about Queen Esther (www.karenldavies.com/2019/04/skips-sermon). Esther was the Jewish wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), and her cousin Mordecai persuaded the king to retract an order for the annihilation of Jews throughout the empire. King Ahasuerus’s scheming minister, Haman plotted the massacre. The powerful sermon marked out Cromwell as the wicked Haman, Anne as Esther, and the King as Ahasuerus, receiving evil counsel.
Cromwell, aware that Haman had paid with his life, removed himself from the court, feigning illness, and plotted Anne’s demise. Ironically, the text for Skip’s address had come from the parable of the woman taken for adultery, and maybe this was what inspired Cromwell’s charges against Anne for adultery.
Cromwell saw an opportunity. Henry’s divorce from Katherine had left England isolated in Europe, but Katherine’s death was no longer an impediment to reconciliation with Spain. Until now, Henry, under Anne’s influence, had been seeking an alliance with the German protestants from as early as 1531. But Anne’s uncle the Duke of Norfolk and the Bishop of Winchester sought to influence the King after his fall, praying on his fears of civil war if he were to die without a male heir. They began to open his mind to the possibility of divorcing Anne, reconciling with Spain, and marrying again to father a legitimate heir. Norfolk was now father-in-law to the King’s illegitimate son, whom Henry had created Duke of Richmond in 1525, which had given the boy precedence over everyone, except for any legitimate son the King might have. Time was running out for Henry to father a legitimate son as he was almost 45. He would have to act soon. So when Cromwell laid charges of adultery against Anne, Henry turned on his wife and seized the way out.
In Kent, Lincolnshire, and the north of England, there was discontent over the new order for the Dissolution of the Monasteries that threatened to spill into violence. Instead of preparing to fight the rebels and the Catholic faction at court, Cromwell joined them. By getting rid of Anne, he appeased the Catholics and gave the King what he wanted – the chance to sire a legitimate heir. The men Cromwell accused of adultery with Anne, including Anne’s brother, were all supporters of the Queen and her view of how the New Religion should be administered. Cromwell wiped out the whole Boleyn faction in one fell swoop. It’s worth noting the accused men were already convicted before the Queen stood trial. The Queen’s fate was sealed.
In the Great Hall of the Tower of London, where Anne had celebrated her coronation feast three years earlier, she now stood accused. Her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, represented the King. Charles Wriothesley, an officer of the arms, was moved by Anne’s strength. He wrote: ‘She made such wise and discreet answers to all things laid against her, excusing herself with her words so clearly, as though she had never been faulty to the same.’
Lancelot De Carles recorded that her speech affected even the most hardened of her audience. But she was no match for Cromwell’s rough justice. Her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, passed the sentence and pronounced her punishment. No longer Queen of England, now a condemned traitor, she would be burned on Tower Green or else have her head smitten off at the King’s pleasure.
On 16th May, the day after Anne’s trial, Henry sent her old friend Thomas Cranmer to see her. Cranmer’s brief was to convince Anne to annul her marriage to Henry. Anne was at her most vulnerable, and she agreed to the annulment. Maybe she hoped for her life and wanted to protect Elizabeth’s but she hoped in vain.
Henry had what he wanted. With all three of his children now illegitimate, his illegitimate son, the Duke of Richmond, would take precedence over Elizabeth and Mary if he failed to get a son with Jane Seymour.
After such a show trial and the execution of five men, Anne could not be allowed to live. Henry had broken with Rome to marry her and then allowed himself to be a cuckold; letting her live would have made him look like a fool.
THAT UNWORTHY RIGHT HAND
I began researching martyrdom for my book because I wanted to understand why people were prepared to die for their beliefs.
In total 288 people were estimated to have burned for heresy in the reign of Bloody Mary. Several thousand died for their beliefs throughout Europe in the sixteenth century. Why? As I explored this topic, I realised that what people thought was as important as why they thought it.
To the sixteenth century mind, religion was at the centre of daily life. The hand of God was in everything – the harvest that failed, the sweating sickness that came on without warning, striking down some whilst sparing others, and the fire that purged and purified heretics.
It is essential to understand that the word religion means different things to different people. To some, it means worship and ritual, to others it is a set of moral ideas, and to others it is a personal commitment. To some it is all of these things.
Throughout the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church dominated Western Europe. The Pope ruled spiritually and temporally to a degree, as kings bowed-down to the Church. It was the richest and most powerful institution on earth. It had everything a Renaissance Prince had: palaces, great feasts, wild boar hunting, and a Papal army. Towering above the City of Rome, bristling with cannon, was the Castel Saint Angelo.
The Church taught doctrine and obedience, not spirituality, for it taught that through strict adherence to scripture, obedience, the practice of ritual and the purchase of indulgences, that a man could buy his way into the afterlife. The Bible was in Latin, a language ordinary man couldn’t read or understand. A German monk from Wittenburgh, called Martin Luther, couldn’t see any justification for this because there was no mention of a Pope, nuns, monks, purgatory, indulgences, penance, pilgrimages and prayers to saints in the Bible. This made Luther extremely concerned for the people who believed that they could buy their salvation. He realised that these things were man-made and not the word of God.
Martin Luther realised that salvation came not through the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church but through an individual’s relationship with God by faith alone. This was the beginning of the reformation.
It is important to understand that the Church’s story had been told for a thousand years. It was the only story people knew and it was what they had been taught to believe: if they followed its rules and performed its rituals, they would go to Heaven. Death was all around and this strengthened the Church’s power, which it exercised over people’s daily lives through Canon Law. It levied taxes called the tithe, and taught that non-payment of the tithe imperilled the soul. It taught that through persecution of the flesh – fasting, whipping, and abstaining from sex – that one could identify with the sufferings of Christ and be saved. Luther and other reformists of the day, who’d read the Bible, were appalled at the level of corruption and hypocrisy within the Church. In 1513 Pope Leo X succeed Pope Julias II. Within two years he’d emptied the papal treasury and was forced to halt work on his greatest extravagance yet, the St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. To re-fill his coffers he turned to one of Church’s proven methods for raising money, the selling of indulgences. This act amounted to charging people to enter heaven. It was a piece of paper, sold for money, that promised to pay the bearer on demand for the forgiveness of their sins, and it appalled Luther and the reformers of the day. To them the idea that salvation could be bought for a sum of money was hypocrisy at best and blasphemy at worse. The Bible said you cannot serve money and God, and the Church forbade money lending, citing that it was sinful, yet now it was charging for indulgences to raise money for its earthly pleasures. This was a step too far for the reformers and it made them evermore determined it their quest for enlightenment.
After a dark night of the soul, Luther began to translate the Bible into German so that the word of God would be available to everyone.
In England there was a growing discontent with the Church’s corruption. The people that mumbled dissatisfaction were called Lollards, the word meaning mumblings, hence the Lollards Tower in the west churchyard of St Paul’s, where heretics were held. Amongst this group of people were some Cambridge scholars, who in 1518 use to meet in the White Horse Tavern, where intellectuals have long met to debate the issues of the day. The tavern was nicknamed Germany and its entrants Germans for their Lutheran sympathies. Among them were Thomas Cranmer, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Tyndale would go onto translate the Bible into English, and Mathew Parker who would go on to become Anne Boleyn’s private chaplain and Archbishop of Canterbury to her daughter Elizabeth I. Both William Tyndale and Thomas Cramner died as martyrs for the protestant cause.
Cranmer and the others who met in the White Horse believed that a man could come to God through faith alone and not through the Church. They believed that no earthy institution could stand between a man and his inward relationship with God, and they preached and proclaimed this new truth. It was this belief that inspired me to write this line of dialogue: ‘A man who possesses faith is no longer one man, your majesty, but two. He is a man in life and a man aware of the internal life that lies within him.’
Like Luther, Tyndale translated the Bible into English, but before he could finish his work, he was strangled and burned to death.
The revolutionary invention of printing gave these men an audience throughout Europe and it meant that the word of God was available to anyone who could read.
Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII’s chief minister, Archbishop of York, and Papal Legate and Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More ordered the burning of the English bibles.
In Germany, the former monk Martin Luther had married and had children, challenging the Church that these things of the flesh were the gift of God and the goodness of creation. Luther went on to have six children. He was quoted as saying that the woman washing nappies was doing something far more pleasing to God than the man saying his prayers. The idea that the activities of daily life were pleasing to God because they gave life meaning drastically altered people’s thinking.
In England, Henry VIII wanted to divorce the Catholic Katherine of Aragon and marry the Protestant Anne Boleyn. Luther’s marriage had secularised marriage, so when the Pope wouldn’t granted Henry a divorce, he turned to Protestant ideas. It was Thomas Cranmer and the men who’d debated reformists ideas in the White Horse Tavern who made the King’s case and secretly wed him to Anne Boleyn, and thus England became a Protestant nation for the first time.
In 1556, in the reign of Bloody Mary, Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon’s daughter, Thomas Cranmer was burned as a martyr. He was offered the chance to recant and made to watch while his two fellow bishops, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, were burned to death. Contemporary accounts report how Latimer said to Ridley, as the faggots were lit around him: ‘Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.’ Thomas Cranmer fainted.
Thomas Cranmer did in fact sign a recantation, and six months later was taken into the Church at Oxford to read it out to his congregation. Instead he revoked it, saying: ‘For as much as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished; for if I may come to the fire, it shall first be burned.’ When he did indeed come to the stake, he thrust his right hand into the flames and held it there, saying, repeatedly, ‘that unworthy right hand’.
So, why were these men willing to die for their beliefs? I think it was because their beliefs defined who they were from the inside out. To the sixteenth century mind, if you believed something strong enough, you should be prepared to die for it. These new men stated that they believed that the role of the Church was the to preach and teach, not to lay rule over peoples minds. What is clear is that through their death’s they demonstrated that they could not be bought. Each man knew the price for speaking out and they did it anyway and refused to recant.