Authors: Olivia Longueville
“Oh!” Anne gave a gasp of surprise. “If I am not mistaken, Charles d’Orléans, Count d’Angoulême, died in the end of the 15
th
century. He also was the father of His Majesty François I of France.” Her general emotional fatigue and anxiety were clearly embedded in her voice.
“Your father told me about that,” Percy confirmed.
Horror overcame her again, and a deep wrinkle marred her forehead. “In this case, it might be very dangerous for me because His Majesty King François knows me very well. I was raised at his court,” she said, her voice weak. “If I ever meet King François, he will undoubtedly recognize me.”
“Anne, you are going to Venice, not to France. Anyway, you must be extremely careful now.”
Anne’s lips stirred in a similitude of smile. “Very careful,” she echoed.
“If you have any other questions, you should discuss with Count Jean de Montreuil. Monsieur Jean knows that you lived at the French court for many years. I am sure that he is well aware of the risks and will do everything to mitigate them if he agreed to take you into his house,” Henry appeased her, aiming to ease her concerns. Henry Percy looked at his beloved ex-fiancée’s face. Once more, their gazes locked. “Anne, you must stay calm and be prepared for a long journey.”
“I will do my best to be calm,” she said.
In an hour, Anne boarded the ship to Calais, fleeing England. Her heart was tearing apart in pain as she didn’t want to leave her children. However, she was forced to escape because she would have been dead otherwise. At least if she were alive, she would be able to know how her children were doing. She felt endless gratitude towards Henry Percy and to her father whom she hadn’t expected would want to save his own daughter.
Anne Boleyn was dead. She no longer existed in the physical world. Yet, she was alive, having regenerated in an utterly different image. It was as though Anne had embodied herself a dying-and-rising Goddess Persephone, who ruled the changes of the seasons and the eternal cycle of nature’s death and rebirth. Anne died and was reborn. It was the moment of her death and resurrection.
As Anne boarded the ship, the Earl of Northumberland was leaving Dover for London. He was very happy that Anne had been saved. He also hoped that he would somehow figure out how to prove Anne’s innocence and how to show the king it was Cromwell and, possibly, the Seymour family, who had engineered Anne’s downfall and her further imprisonment. Anne was the only woman whom he had ever loved. It didn’t matter for him that they had never been married and that she hadn’t loved him in return. He wanted to help Anne as much as it was possible.
In the meantime, Lady Eleanor and two guards from the Tower of London, who helped Henry Percy and Thomas Boleyn to save Anne, were traveling to Northumberland to the residence of their master. Their carriage bumped into another carriage, which resulted in the terrible clash between two carriages that were moving at a high speed. The carriage with Henry’s people lost its balance on the bumpy road and flopped over. The clash was so strong that all the servants died on impact.
The death of Henry Percy’s people, including Lady Eleanor, was a doleful, tragic event because these people had risked their lives to release Anne Boleyn from the prison. Yet, it meant that there were fewer witnesses left who could confirm what exactly had happened at the Tower on the day of Anne’s execution. Now only Thomas Boleyn and Henry Percy knew the truth about Anne’s survival and escape from England.
December 1536, Château de Fontainebleau, France
King François I of France and his elder sister Marguerite de Navarre, the Queen of Navarre and the wife of Henry II of Navarre, sat together in the so-called
François I Gallery
at the Château de Fontainebleau.
The gallery, with its frescoes framed in stucco by Rosso Fiorentino, was the first great decorated gallery built in France. The François I Gallery was a strictly private place, and François kept the key to it always with him.
The King of France often spent many hours here locked away from the problems of the outside world, together with his sister Marguerite or his
maîtresse en titre
Anne Jeanne de Pisseleu d’Heilly, Duchess d’Étampes. The gallery was built to link the king’s chamber to the gallery of the Trinitarian monks’ chapel or the chapel of La Trinité.
Located in the forest which had been the hunting preserve of the Capetian kings of France, the Château de Fontainebleau was the largest French royal château. It was the magnificent Italianate palace which combined in its design the Renaissance and the French architectural traditions.
In 1527, François invited the architect Gilles le Breton to start renovations on Fontainebleau. Gilles le Breton erected most of the buildings of
the Cour Ovale
, including
the Porte Dorée
, the southern entrance to the palace, and
the Cour du Cheval Blanc
, as well as
the chapel of La Trinité
. The gardens of the Château de Fontainebleau were breathtakingly beautiful. The gardens featured symmetrical and geometric planting parterres, plants in pots, fountains, a forest of pine trees brought from Provence, as well as the first artificial grotto in France.
The Château de Fontainebleau was the king’s jewel and an object of pride. François often came to stay at Fontainebleau, and he liked it so much that when he spoke of going there, he referred to it as “going home”. It was the king’s favorite royal residence.
Today the royal siblings mirrored each other in the colors of their clothing. François was dressed in a doublet of mulberry velvet with a snowy white slashing, black velvet Venetian pants, and a black taffeta shirt with a standing lace collar. His toque was mulberry velvet, plumed with one large, white ostrich feather. The sleeves of his doublet were covered with rubies and sapphires.
His sister Marguerite wore an extravagant French gown with a low square-shaped neckline and tight sleeves. The upper part of the gown was made from mulberry velvet with white slashing and the ample skirt from black velvet. The small skull-cap of mulberry velvet was splendidly embroidered with rubies and diamonds and set amidst her dark curls.
King François was reading a letter from his ambassador in France, Philippe de Chabot, seigneur de Brion, Count de Charny and de Buzançois, Admiral de Brion. His face was impenetrable as his eyes took in the contents of the letter. Marguerite realized that something awful had happened when she saw how François had angrily crumpled the sheet of paper.
Marguerite stared at him. “What happened, François?”
François and Marguerite were the children of Charles d’Orléans, Count d’Angoulême, and Louise de Savoie and great-great-grandchildren of King Charles V. They had always been very close and addressed each other by the first names. They adored each other.
They both were highly cultured, erudite, and learned people. François and Marguerite were proficient in Latin, Hebrew, Spanish, and Italian, and read philosophy and theology. They were fascinated by Italian Renaissance art. Always eager to acquire new ideas, they supported many of the illustrious writers and thinkers of the Renaissance era. These two royal siblings together were responsible for the celebrated intellectual and cultural French court, both being outstanding figures of the French Renaissance. François was a true Renaissance man; Marguerite was a true Renaissance lady.
Being married to the unintelligent Charles, Duke d’Alençon, Marguerite had started establishing her own power and authority upon her brother’s ascension to the throne in 1515. She joined her brother at court and remained a close companion and friend to him. Indeed, Marguerite always served and actively supported the interests of King François I, assisted the interests of political and religious clients, as well as defended and protected her family and household. When François was taken prisoner in Italy, Marguerite was instrumental in securing his eventual release.
After the death of her first husband, Marguerite married Henri d’Albret, the King of Navarre. Marguerite spent much time at François’ court and remained an active and driving force behind many of her brother’s decisions. She was also interested in spiritual aspects in addition to political ones, especially in new religious movements. François always trusted his sister and was truly interested in her opinion on political matters.
King François sighed heavily. After what seemed an eternity, the King of France finally turned to face his sister. With a sidelong look of sorrow, he spoke. “Anne Boleyn is dead,” he announced.
“Finally dead,” Marguerite echoed, regret creeping into her voice.
François shook his head as though he had tried to remove a feeling of unreality from his mind. “Marguerite, you cannot imagine how she died.”
“Did Henry hire a French executioner from Calais as initially planned?” she asked with alarm in her voice. She saw that François was shocked with what he read in the letter.
“Henry didn’t need to hire a French executioner.” François shook his head in disbelief because he still found it hard to accept how Anne Boleyn had been executed. He took a deep breath so that he might continue. “Henry burnt Anne Boleyn at the stake, like a common witch.” The king’s low, rumbling voice cut the air with a sharp edge of anger and bitterness. “What a kind-hearted and fair king we have in England.” He hadn’t meant to be so sarcastic, but those sharp words had been poised on the tip of his tongue like a drawn sword in his hand. He couldn’t help himself.
Marguerite gasped in horror. “Oh Lord! Oh my dear, dear Lord!” She exhaled sharply.
François grimaced. “At times, I tend to think that there is some devilish wickedness in Henry.”
“Henry really has a wicked heart.” Like François, Marguerite also didn’t like talking about the monarchs of other countries in such a way, but Henry Tudor did things which were too wild and too immoral. And, like her brother, she couldn’t refrain from expressing her opinion, especially knowing that it was only between her and him. “In addition, Henry is easily blinded by anger, and when he is angry he cannot think logically and see the truth.”
“It doesn’t matter how anger influences Henry. He had no right to use this dreadful method of execution for the anointed queen, even if he thought she was guilty,” François stated.
Marguerite sighed bitterly, filled with sorrow and anger. “Even a blind fool can see that she was innocent, especially given that their marriage had been declared null and void.”
With an impatient gesture, François pushed the erratic tangle of his chestnut hair from his face. “Lady Anne was an incredible woman. She was a woman very different from anyone I have ever met and certainly quite different from anyone in the English court and even the French court,” he said with genuine feeling. He swept his eyes over the gallery, fixing them on the painted frescoes of the stuccoed interior. “I will mourn for her death.”
“And so will I,” Marguerite replied. “I always liked Anne Boleyn, although I didn’t support Henry’s cruel abandonment of Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne.”
François shook his head in disbelief. “Marguerite, I could have never imagined that Henry could be such a barbarian.”
In King Henry, François found everything he detested in a king – Henry was a hedonist obsessed only with a quest of power and pleasure. They had always been rivals since the moment when the young kings of France and of England had a physical fight in Calais, during
the Field of the Cloth of Gold
, all those years ago. Later, in 1535, the French ambassador informed François that Henry’s feelings for Anne were cooling steadily as she hadn’t given him a son and as he learnt of the king’s new amorous conquests, he expected that Henry would probably divorce Anne, but he had never imagined the English king would overstep all the possible boundaries and burn Anne at the stake.
“It is such a turbulent moment for the Tudors. What Henry did is so…so…” Marguerite trailed off, trying to find a word.
“Monstrous,” François called out.
“Uncivilized,” she offered another word.
“Unfair,” he added.
“Even foolish from the political standpoint,” she commented.
An image flickered in his mind, little more than a vague impression – the King of France saw a charming, alluring, dancing seductress who appeared in front of him with a white mask on her face in Calais and gracefully danced with him. “Even though Anne Boleyn wasn’t recognized as the queen by at least half of Europe, she was an anointed and crowned queen,” the King of France said.
When King Henry expressed his willingness to divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn, François thought that the King of England would change his mind over time. However the years passed and Henry was stubborn and persistent in his intentions. As the French king’s relations with the emperor were highly strained, François was anxious to keep the friendship of the pope and to have an alliance with England. Thus, in 1531 he undertook some diplomatic steps to bring England and Rome together and raised the matter that Henry could finally receive the papal divorce he had so long struggled for.
François demonstrated his desire to support the marriage, and it was agreed that a meeting would be held in Calais in October of 1532. It was initially supposed that Marguerite d’Angoulême, François’ sister, and other French noblewomen would attend the meeting. However, much later Marguerite withdrew her consent, pleading ill-health as the reason for her absence.
Of course, it was a polite way to conceal Marguerite’s disapproval of Henry’s second marriage. In the end, it was decided that no ladies would be officially present on the French side, while the English were assumed to be represented by Anne and several English noblewomen, including Anne’s sister Mary Boleyn who was François’ former mistress, and Anne’s Aunt Dorothy Stanley Howard, the Countess of Derby, one of her supporters.
During their private meeting in Calais, François gave his implicit support to Anne for her marriage to Henry. François sent Anne wedding gifts and warm congratulations with the birth of Elizabeth Tudor, but he didn’t officially acknowledge Anne as the Queen of England while Catherine was still alive. He acted in that manner for political reasons, not because of his personal dislike of Anne. The controlling reality was that François had to maintain good relations with the pope as the king of the Roman Catholic country.