The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown (10 page)

Sometime before 1529, Norris became Groom of the Stool, the man whose job was to "preside over the office of royal excretion".
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In other words, wiping the royal bottom! Although this sounds an appalling job, it was a position of high esteem and it did make Norris and the King very close friends. It was also a position of influence, in that the Groom of the Stool was often approached by petitioners who wanted him to influence the King on their behalf.

Sir Henry Norris was one of the King's closest companions and he controlled access to the King's private chambers, and the King himself. No wonder Cromwell included Norris in his coup against Anne!

Sir Henry Norris also held the position of Keeper of the Privy Purse. This involved him looking after gifts that the King had been given, such as jewellery. Norris's high favour was also shown by the fact that he was appointed keeper of the manor of Placentia (Greenwich) and also of East Greenwich Park and Tower. When Sir William Compton died in 1528, Sir Henry Norris took his place as royal favourite. A popular and trustworthy man, he deserved this position. The King obviously trusted Norris because he gave him very important, and rather "delicate" jobs. For example, it was Norris who carried the King's secret letters and messages to Wolsey after the Cardinal's fall from Grace. The fact that Wolsey rewarded him with a precious cross containing a piece of the true cross of Christ, and a cross that Wolsey always wore next to his skin, shows that Norris must have treated the Cardinal with much respect, courtesy and kindness.

Other posts that Sir Henry Norris held include Chamberlain of North Wales (appointed in 1531), Master of the Hart Hounds and of the Hawks, Black Rod in the Parliament House, Graver of the Tower of London, Weigher of the Goods at the port of Southampton, Collector of Subsidy in the City of London, High Steward of the University of Oxford and steward or keeper of various parks, manors and castles. These positions, offices and lands meant that Norris was "wealthier than many leading nobles".
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Eric Ives writes of how Norris's annuities from the Crown added up to £542, his fees of offices to £328 12s. 3d. And earnings from farms and grants to £370 10s. This made a total of £1241 2s. 3d. which was then boosted to £1327 15s. 7d. from private sources!

Sir Henry Norris and the Boleyns

It is thought that Norris had been a member of the Boleyn faction since at least 1530, around the time that he was widowed. He had much in common with Anne Boleyn and her circle, being of a reformist persuasion. His servant George Constantine was described as "an active instrument in the hands of the early promoters of the Reformation"
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and in 1530
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was actually apprehended for heresy by Sir Thomas More because of his "connection with Tindall, Joye, and other reformers, in translating and printing the New Testament abroad."
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When Constantine was questioned by More regarding the smuggling of heretical books and where funding for the operation was coming from, Constantine replied that the Bishop of London was their best supporter, "having expended large sums of money in the purchase of their Testaments, for the purpose of burning them"! The amused More ordered Constantine to be put in the stocks, rather than burned, but Constantine managed to escape the stocks and fled abroad. It was Sir Henry Norris who brought him back to the English court, along with a copy of Miles Coverdale's English Bible for Anne Boleyn.

Norris's favour with both the King and Anne Boleyn led to him accompanying them to inspect York Place, after it was surrendered to the Crown by Cardinal Wolsey. He accompanied them to Calais in autumn 1532 and was probably one of the witnesses at their secret marriage in January 1533. Eric Ives
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points out that Norris's son was educated by the French reformist scholar Nicholas Bourbon in the company of Anne Boleyn's nephew and ward Henry Carey. This fact shows that Norris shared the Queen's reformist sympathies and that he was close to the Queen.

It was in the 1530s that Norris started courting 'Mistress Shelton'. Margaret Shelton was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn's sister, Anne, and of her husband Sir John Shelton. This courtship came to nothing. Anne teased Norris about his lack of commitment to Margaret. She also reprimanded Sir Francis Weston for his interest in Margaret. Both these conversations were subsequently used against Anne in Cromwell's plot to oust the Queen and her circle.

30th April 1536 – A Royal Argument and the First Arrest

At 11 o'clock on the night of Sunday 30th April 1536, the King and Queen's upcoming visit to Calais was cancelled and arrangements made for the King to journey alone a week later. We know about this from a letter written by Thomas Warley to Lady Lisle in Calais:

"I wrote by Collins that the King would have been at Rochester tonight, but he has changed his mind, which was not known till Sunday at 11 o'clock, and will go to Dover next week."
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No reason is given for the change in the King's travel arrangements.

Furthermore, on that same Sunday, Scottish theologian Alexander Alesius witnessed an argument between Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. This argument may well have been caused by the King hearing of Anne's words with Norris or by her trying to explain what happened:

"Never shall I forget the sorrow which I felt when I saw the most serene queen, your most religious mother, carrying you, still a baby, in her arms and entreating the most serene king your father, in Greenwich Palace, from the open window of which he was looking into the courtyard, when she brought you to him. I did not perfectly understand what had been going on, but the faces and gestures of the speakers plainly showed that the king was angry, although he could conceal his anger wonderfully well. Yet from the protracted conference of the council (for whom the crowd was waiting until it was quite dark, expecting that they would return to London), it was most obvious to everyone that some deep and difficult question was being discussed."
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The mention of a "protracted" council meeting sounds ominous and it is clear that Alesius's suspicions were aroused. Something was going on.

Also on 30th April, court musician and member of the Boleyn circle, Mark Smeaton, was taken to Thomas Cromwell's house in Stepney and interrogated. Within 24 hours he had confessed to making love three times to the Queen. It is likely that the note that Henry VIII received at the May Day joust, the next day, contained details of Smeaton's confession.

There is an intriguing story about Mark Smeaton and Anne Boleyn in The Spanish Chronicle (Cronica del Rey Enrico), also known as The Chronicle of King Henry VIII of England. This is a rather gossipy chronicle and one historical source to take with a rather large pinch of salt, but the story is interesting nonetheless.

It concerns a certain musician, a cupboard, a jar of jam, a bed and a certain queen. After reporting how Anne had fallen in love with Smeaton, the Chronicle goes on to say:

"One night, whilst all the ladies were dancing, the old woman called Mark and said to him gently, so that none should overhear, "You must come with me;" and he, as he knew it was to the Queen's chamber he had to go, was nothing loth. So she took him to an ante-chamber, where she and another lady slept, next to the Queen's room, and in this ante-chamber there was a closet like a store-room, where she kept sweetmeats, candied fruits, and other preserves which the Queen sometimes asked for. To conceal him more perfectly the old woman put him into this closet, and told him to stay there till she came for him, and to take great care he was not heard. Then she shut him up and returned to the great hall where they were dancing, and made signs to the Queen, who understood her, and, although it was not late, she pretended to be ill, and the dancing ceased. She then retired to her chamber with her ladies, whilst the old woman said to her, "Madam, when you are in bed and all the ladies are asleep, you can call me and ask for some preserves, which I will bring, and Mark shall come with me, for he is in the closet now."

"The Queen went to bed and ordered all her ladies to retire to their respective beds, which were in an adjoining gallery like a refectory, and when they were all gone but the old lady and the lady who slept with her, she sent them off too. When she thought they would all be asleep, she called the old woman, and said, "Margaret, bring me a little marmalade." She called it out very loudly, so that the ladies in the gallery might hear as well as Mark, who was in the closet. The old woman went to the closet and made Mark undress, and took the marmalade to the Queen, leading Mark by the hand. The lady who was in the old woman's bed did not see them when they went out of the closet, and the old woman left Mark behind the Queen's bed, and said out loud, "Here is the marmalade, my lady." Then Anne said to the old woman, "Go along; go to bed."

"As soon as the old woman had gone Anne went round to the back of the bed and grasped the youth's arm, who was all trembling, and made him get into bed. He soon lost his bashfulness, and remained that night and many others, so that in a short time this Mark flaunted out to such an extent that there was not a gentleman at court who was so fine, and Anne never dined without having Mark serve her."
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Now this story is quite hilarious until you stop and realise that this was some of the propaganda which helped to blacken Anne Boleyn's name. It is such a silly story and I cannot see that there is any truth in it. There is certainly no other evidence to back it up, unless you believe the poem by Lancelot de Carles, telling of the alleged witness statement from the Countess of Worcester.
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Elizabeth Browne, the Countess of Worcester, was one of Anne's ladies and she apparently told her brother, Sir Anthony Browne, that her own offence (possible adultery) was nothing by comparison to those of the Queen, who allowed members of the court to come into her chamber at all hours. Browne continued that if her brother did not believe her then he could find out more from Mark Smeaton. She then accused George Boleyn of having carnal knowledge of his sister, the Queen.

If this exchange between the Countess and her brother did take place and was then fed back to Cromwell, we can see how this, combined with Anne's ramblings in the Tower regarding Smeaton and Norris, could well have made Anne look guilty or have been enough ammunition and "evidence" for those conspiring against her.

Smeaton Mooning Over Anne

When Mrs Stonor, one of the ladies chosen to attend Anne Boleyn in the Tower, spoke to Anne about Smeaton being held in the Tower and having to wear "irons", Anne was quick to comment that "it was because he was no gentleman". She went on to tell of Mark mooning over her:

"I never spake with him since, but upon Saturday before May-day [29th April], and then I found him standing in the round window in my chamber of presence; and I asked why he was so sad? And he answered and said it was no matter. And then I said, You may not look to have me speak to you as I should do to a noble man, because ye be an inferior person. No, no, said he, a look sufficeth me; and thus fare you well."
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Anne's account suggests that Mark had a crush on her but that there was actually distance between them, and that she put him in his place by pointing out his inferiority. Clergyman and historian, John Strype, who published his "Ecclesiastical Memorials" in 1721 and who saw Kingston's letters and various records before they got damaged in the Ashburnam House fire of 1731, wrote that Smeaton was "some haughty person" who "thought the Queen gave him not respect enough. And so might take this opportunity to humble her; and revenge himself by this means on her; not thinking it would cost him his own life."
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Mark Smeaton's Confession

Those of us who believe that Anne Boleyn was 100% innocent of all the charges laid against her struggle to understand why Mark Smeaton confessed to sleeping with the Queen.

• Was his confession tortured out of him?
  
• Did he confess in an attempt to save himself? Was he promised a pardon if he confessed?
  
• Was Mark promised a swifter and more merciful death if he complied and confessed?
  
• Was he living in some kind of fantasy world? Did he actually believe that Anne loved him and that they had a relationship?
  
• Was it revenge for Anne rejecting him and humiliating him?
  
• Did he see sin where there was none and see himself as guilty of adultery for fantasizing about Anne?
  
• Was Smeaton tortured?
  

Unfortunately, we just don't know whether Mark Smeaton was tortured. He was taken to Cromwell's house in Stepney for interrogation and although I cannot see Cromwell having a racking room there, Smeaton could have been tortured psychologically. He was certainly the only one of the accused to be kept in irons in the Tower.

The Spanish Chronicle has Smeaton being tortured with a rope and cudgel:

"Then he [Cromwell] called two stout young fellows of his, and asked for a rope and a cudgel, and ordered them to put the rope, which was full of knots, round Mark's head, and twisted it with the cudgel until Mark cried out, "Sir Secretary, no more, I will tell the truth, " and then he said, "The Queen gave me the money. " "Ah, Mark, " said Cromwell, "I know the Queen gave you a hundred nobles, but what you have bought has cost over a thousand, and that is a great gift even for a Queen to a servant of low degree such as you. If you do not tell me all the truth I swear by the life of the King I will torture you till you do." Mark replied, "Sir, I tell you truly that she gave it to me." Then Cromwell ordered him a few more twists of the cord, and poor Mark, overcome by the torment, cried out, "No more, Sir, I will tell you everything that has happened." And then he confessed all, and told everything as we have related it, and how it came to pass."
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