The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown (3 page)

In 1524, Wyatt followed his father's example and started a career at court as Clerk of the King's jewels. In 1525 he was made Esquire of the Body and he went on to become an ambassador, undertaking many foreign missions for King Henry VIII. He served Anne Boleyn at her coronation in 1533 and was knighted in 1535.

Sir Richard Page (d.1548)

A gentleman of the privy chamber from 1516 and a man who started his court career in the employ of Cardinal Wolsey.

Sir Francis Bryan (c.1490-1550)

Sir Francis Bryan was born circa 1490 and was the first surviving son of Sir Thomas Bryan and Lady Margaret Bryan (née Bourchier). He was a cousin of Anne Boleyn, and had a reputation for liking rich clothing and for gambling. He was a popular courtier, skilled hunter and jouster, and lost an eye in a joust in 1526. Both Thomas Cromwell and the King referred to Bryan as "the Vicar of Hell".

Sir William Kingston (c.1476-1540)

Nothing is known of the early life of Sir William Kingston or of his first two marriages, but by 1534 he had married Mary Scrope, daughter of Richard Scrope and the widow of Edward Jerningham of Suffolk.
¹
From 1497-1509, he served Henry VII as a yeoman of the chamber and was a gentleman usher at the King's funeral. In the early years of Henry VIII's reign he served as a soldier and was knighted for his part in the Battle of Flodden. He served on the jury at the trial of the Duke of Buckingham in 1521and benefited from his fall. He represented Gloucestershire in the Parliaments of 1529 and 1536, and accompanied the King and Anne Boleyn to Calais in 1532. He was Constable of the Tower of London from 28th May 1524 until his death.

William Latymer (1498/9-1583)

William Latymer (Latimer) was the second son of William Latymer of Freston, Suffolk, and of his wife, Anne Bokinge. Latymer read canon law and arts at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he met Reformers like Matthew Parker. It is thought that Latymer was probably introduced to Anne Boleyn by Parker, who became one of Anne Boleyn's chaplains. In 1536 he was approached by Tristram Revell, a student of Cambridge, who wanted Anne's patronage for his translation of "Farrago rerum theologicarum". Latymer told Anne of the work but she refused to support it, probably because it was too radical for the vulnerable queen to be linked with at that time. In the spring of 1536, Latymer was in the Low Countries sourcing evangelical books for the Queen.

Henry Percy,
6th Earl of Northumberland (c.1502-1537)

Henry Percy was the eldest son of Henry Algernon Percy, fifth Earl of Northumberland, and of Katherine Spencer. He was brought up in Cardinal Wolsey's household and it was while he was there that he fell in love with Anne Boleyn on her return to the English court in late 1521. However, his father had already planned Percy's marriage to Mary Talbot, daughter of George Talbot, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury. In addition, Anne was meant to be marrying James Butler, son of Piers Butler of Ireland. As a consequence, Wolsey and Percy's father put a stop to the relationship between Percy and Anne Boleyn.

Percy married Mary Talbot in 1524 but the marriage was not happy. In 1532, Mary accused her husband of being pre-contracted to Anne Boleyn and Percy was examined by the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, He swore that there was no truth to the story.

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473-1554)

Thomas Howard was the eldest son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and of Elizabeth Tilney. He was the brother of Elizabeth Boleyn (née Howard) and so was uncle to Anne Boleyn. Howard's father and grandfather had fought on Richard III's side at the Battle of Bosworth but Howard was able to work his way back into royal favour by fighting for the Crown against both the Cornish rebels and the Scots in 1497. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1510, was created Earl of Surrey in 1514 and succeeded his father as Duke of Norfolk in 1524. In September 1514 he was prominent in leading the English army in defeating the Scots at the Battle of Flodden.

In the 1520s, he clashed with Cardinal Wolsey over foreign policy – he preferred war and Wolsey preferred diplomacy – and was involved with the Duke of Suffolk's and the Boleyn family's push for Wolsey to be removed from power. In the 1530s, Norfolk carried out diplomatic missions and advised the King on the situation in Ireland. As Lord Steward of England, he presided over the trials of Anne and George Boleyn, his niece and nephew in May 1536.

Jane Boleyn (née Parker, d. 1542)

Jane was the daughter of Henry Parker, the 10th Baron Morley, and of his wife Alice St John, from Great Hallingbury in Essex. She married George Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's brother, in late 1524 or early 1525. Although some historians and authors view the marriage as loveless, there is no evidence of this. Jane accompanied her sister-in-law and the King on their visit to Calais in 1532 and served Anne as a lady-in-waiting. In October 1534, Jane was banished from court temporarily after helping Anne in her attempt to get rid of a "young lady" who had caught the King's eye. Jane was also the person in whom Anne confided regarding the King's lack of sexual prowess.

The Executioner

Known as the "Hangman of Calais", the executioner beheaded Anne Boleyn with his famous "sword of Calais". Mary of Hungary
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referred to the executioner being from St Omer, as did The Spanish Chronicle,
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but the disbursements in Letters and Papers refer to "the executioner of Calais" being paid "100 crs., 23l. 6s. 8D" for "his reward and apparel".
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Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower of London, also referred to him as "the "executur" of Cales"
⁵
and The Chronicle of Calais referred to him as "the hangman of Caleis".
⁶

Although, in his novel "The French Executioner, C C Humphrey named the executioner as Jean Rombaud, this is simply because a "Jean Rombaud" was listed as the executioner in St Omer in the 1530s. We do not know who executed Anne Boleyn.

The Spanish Chronicle noted that the executioner was ordered "a week before"
⁷
Anne's execution, so before a trial had even taken place.

Timeline of Anne Boleyn's Fall, 1536

7th January -
Death of Catherine of Aragon

8th January -
Henry VIII, and possibly Anne Boleyn, celebrate news of Catherine's death by dressing in yellow.

24th January -
Henry VIII's jousting accident at Greenwich

29th January -
Burial of Catherine of Aragon. Anne Boleyn miscarries

10th February -
Record of Henry VIII showing favour to Jane Seymour

March 1536 -
Act for the Suppression of the Lesser Monasteries

1st April -
Chapuys meets with Catholic Conservatives and hears of their plans for Jane Seymour and a breach between Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell

2nd April -
John Skip preaches a controversial sermon

18th April -
Chapuys tricked into recognising Anne Boleyn as Queen

23rd April -
Sir Nicholas Carew elected to the Order of the Garter

24th April -
Commissions of oyer and terminer set up for offences committed in Middlesex and Kent

25th April -
King refers to Anne Boleyn as his "most dear and entirely beloved wife the Queen" and writes of his hope for a son

26th April -
Anne Boleyn charges her chaplain, Matthew Parker, with the spiritual care of her daughter, Elizabeth

27th April -
Writs issued summoning Parliament

28th April -
The King's Council recorded as meeting "every day"

29th April -
Chapuys records meetings between Cromwell and Dr Richard Sampson, an expert on canon law. Anne and Sir Henry Norris have an argument

30th April -
King and Queen's visit to Calais is cancelled. Anne and Henry argue. Mark Smeaton is taken to Cromwell's house to be interrogated. He confesses to adultery with the Queen

1st May -
May Day joust. Henry VIII rushes off with Sir Henry Norris and questions him

2nd May -
Sir Henry Norris taken to the Tower of London, Smeaton is already there. Anne Boleyn is arrested and taken to the Tower. George Boleyn arrested at Whitehall and taken to the Tower

3rd May -
Archbishop Cranmer writes to Henry VIII expressing his shock at finding out about Anne Boleyn's arrest. Anne speaks to her attendants in the Tower of her conversations with Norris and Sir Francis Weston

4th May -
Arrests of Sir Francis Weston and Sir William Brereton. Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, sends a message to her husband

5th May -
Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Richard Page are recorded as being imprisoned in the Tower. Sir Francis Bryan is ordered to London for questioning

6th May -
Date of a letter traditionally attributed to Anne Boleyn and written to Henry VIII from her prison in the Tower

7th May -
William Latymer, Anne Boleyn's chaplain, searched on his arrival in England

9th May -
King had meetings with noblemen and gentlemen

10th May -
Middlesex indictment drawn up

11th May -
Kent indictment drawn up

12th May -
Trial of Norris, Smeaton, Weston and Brereton at special commission of oyer and terminer. Found guilty and sentenced to death

13th May -
Queen Anne Boleyn's household is broken up. Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, denies a pre-contract between himself and Anne Boleyn

14th May -
Sir Nicholas Carew moves Jane Seymour to Chelsea. Cromwell informs Wallop and Gardiner of the Queen's "incontinent living"

15th May -
Trials of Anne and George Boleyn. Both found guilty and sentenced to death

16th May -
Archbishop Cranmer visits Anne Boleyn

17th May -
Executions of Norris, Smeaton, Weston, Brereton and George Boleyn on Tower Hill. Cranmer declares the marriage between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn null and void

18th May -
Anne Boleyn's execution is postponed

19th May -
Execution of Anne Boleyn within the Tower walls

20th May -
Betrothal of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour

30th May -
Marriage of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour

4th June -
Jane Seymour proclaimed Queen at Greenwich

Anne Boleyn: From Courtier's Daughter to Queen

Anne Boleyn was born in around 1501, probably at Blickling Hall in Norfolk. She was the daughter of courtier and diplomat Thomas Boleyn, and his wife, Elizabeth Howard. The family moved to Hever Castle in around 1505 and it is there that Anne would have received her education. This is likely to have been Humanist in character as her father was very much a Renaissance man.

Thomas Boleyn's friendship with Margaret of Austria, the most powerful woman in Europe, enabled him to secure a place for Anne at the Habsburg court in Mechelen in 1513. Margaret's court at Mechelen was known for its culture and was the perfect climate for the intelligent and precocious twelve year-old Anne Boleyn. It was to have a huge impact on her life and her later love of illuminated manuscripts, art, music and the courtly love tradition stemmed from this time. In 1514, Anne was appointed to serve Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's sister, as she travelled to France to marry King Louis XII.

It is likely that Anne met Mary in France in late 1514. Mary Tudor returned to England after the death of her husband in January 1515 and her subsequent secret marriage to Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, in March 1515. Anne Boleyn remained in France, moving on to serve the new French queen, Queen Claude, who spent considerable time in Amboise and Blois. Like Margaret of Austria, Claude was a patron of the arts and Anne would have soaked up the climate of culture at her court, a court that was visited by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci. In the seven years she spent with Claude, Anne would have been heavily influenced by her pious mistress. She would also have been impacted by the behaviour and beliefs of women like Louise of Savoy, Marguerite of Angoulême and Renée of France, as well as by the new evangelical religious ideas.

Anne was recalled to England by her father in 1521 to serve Queen Catherine of Aragon and to marry her Irish relation, James Butler. This marriage match aimed to unite the Butlers and Boleyns and to put an end to their squabbles over the Ormond lands and title. Anne's first mention in the records of the English court show her participation in the Chateau Vert pageant of Shrove Tuesday 1522, in which she played Perseverance. It is unlikely that the King paid her any attention because he had fallen head over heels in love with her sister, Mary.

As the Boleyn-Butler marriage plans stalled, Anne met and fell in love with courtier Henry Percy, the heir of the Earl of Northumberland. Unfortunately, Percy's father and Cardinal Wolsey put an end to the relationship and Percy was forced into marrying Mary Talbot.

Poet Thomas Wyatt, who was already married, also fell in love with Anne but his feelings were unrequited, as shown by his poetry. In 1526, it became apparent that Anne had a new admirer - the King – and Wyatt was forced to withdraw from his pursuit of Anne. An infatuated Henry VIII sent Wyatt abroad on a diplomatic mission and bombarded Anne with love letters. Seventeen of these still survive today and give us an unique insight into Henry's feelings for Anne and the challenges the couple faced; for example, when Anne nearly died of sweating sickness.