The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown (5 page)

Catherine then prayed, asking God's forgiveness for herself and also for the King who had done her so much wrong. She continued praying until the end, until her loving Father took her into Paradise. Catalina de Aragón, daughter of the great Catholic Reyes, Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, was dead. She had died not in some sumptuous palace surrounded by her loved ones, but in a small, dark, cold castle with her faithful staff in attendance. A sad end for a woman who had once been Queen of England and who had defeated the Scots as Regent.

Catherine of Aragon was laid to rest at Peterborough Abbey, now Peterborough Cathedral, on 29th January 1536. She was, of course, buried as the Dowager Princess of Wales, not as Queen, but her grave is now marked with the words "Katharine Queen of England".

Catherine of Aragon's will is recorded in Letters and Papers:

"Desires the King to let her have the goods she holds of him in gold and silver and the money due to her in time past; that her body may be buried in a convent of Observant Friars; that 500 masses be said for her soul; that some personage go to our Lady of Walsingham on pilgrimage and distribute 20 nobles on the way. Bequests: to Mrs. Darel 200l. for her marriage. To my daughter, the collar of gold which I brought out of Spain. To Mrs. Blanche 100l. To Mrs. Margery and Mrs. [Whyller] 40l. each. To Mrs. Mary, my physicians [wife, and] Mrs. Isabel, daughter to Mr. Ma[rguerite], 40l. each. To ray physician the year's coming [wages]. To Francisco Philippo all that I owe him, and 40l. besides. To Master John, my apothecary, [a year's wages] and all that is due to him besides. That Mr. Whiller be paid expenses about the making of my gown, and 20l. besides. To Philip, Anthony, and Bastian, 20l. each. To the little maidens 10l. each. That my goldsmith be paid his wages for the year coming and all that is due to him besides. That my lavander be paid what is due to her and her wages for the year coming. To Isabel of Vergas 20l. To my ghostly father his wages for the year coming. That ornaments be made of my gowns for the convent where I shall be [buried] "and the furs of the same I give to my daughter."
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8th January 1536 – Free from All Suspicion of War!

When a messenger arrived at Greenwich Palace with news of Catherine of Aragon's death, Henry VIII cried "God be praised that we are free from all suspicion of war!".
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Catherine's death meant that Henry no longer had a quarrel with the Emperor, Catherine's nephew, and that the French would have to keep him happy or risk him making an alliance with the Empire.
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According to the imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, Henry VIII celebrated the day after Catherine's death by dressing in "yellow, from top to toe, except the white feather he had in his bonnet".
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He then paraded to mass with his two year old daughter, Elizabeth, "with trumpets and other great triumphs". The chronicler Edward Hall, however, puts Anne Boleyn in yellow, writing that "Quene Anne ware yelowe for the mournyng"
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and making no mention of the King's attire.

The Catholic recusant Nicholas Sander, writing in Elizabeth I's reign, reported that "The king could not refrain from tears when he read the letter [Catherine's last letter to him], but Anne Boleyn, instead of putting on mourning on the day of Catherine's funeral, put on a yellow dress."
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But then Sander quotes Hall as his source, so he is certainly not a new source for this information.

Although some historians and authors have suggested that yellow was the colour of mourning in Spain, Catherine's homeland, I have never found any evidence of that being the case; white and black seemed to have been the only colours associated with mourning in Spain. In early Christian art,
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yellow symbolized renewal, hope, light and purity, so perhaps Henry, and/or Anne, were simply expressing their hope for a new start now that Catherine was gone - war was averted and Anne was carrying a child.

As well as being good news for the King, Catherine's death was also good news for Thomas Cromwell who was open to the idea of an English-Imperial alliance. Charles V's aunt, Catherine of Aragon, was now out of the way, so Charles could negotiate with Henry VIII without worrying about his aunt's opposition to Anne Boleyn. In a letter dated 8th January 1536, Cromwell wrote to Stephen Gardiner and John Wallop, the English ambassadors in Paris, to inform them of Catherine's death, adding the postscript:-

"P.S.—As the King had seen this letter he desired Cromwell to write somewhat more at length, viz.:—Considering the death of the Lady Dowager, and that as the Emperor has now no occasion of quarrel, he will seek the friendship of Henry, Gardiner is to keep himself more aloof and less ready for any modification of the King's requests, showing what advantages he may now have at the Emperor's hands, and tell the Admiral it will be good for them to hasten to an agreement before the King is pressed by the Emperor."
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It is clear that Henry VIII and Cromwell were ready to play France and the Empire off against each other.

24th January 1536 – Henry VIII's Jousting Accident

On the 24th January 1536, the 44 year-old King Henry VIII had a serious jousting accident at Greenwich Palace. Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, reported it in his dispatches, writing:

"On the eve of the Conversion of St. Paul, the King being mounted on a great horse to run at the lists, both fell so heavily that every one thought it a miracle he was not killed, but he sustained no injury."
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It could easily have been a fatal accident. From Chapuys' report, we know that both horse and rider fell. The mailed horse, which would have been a large horse due to Henry's height and weight, could easily have rolled on to the King and crushed him.

Dr Ortiz also recorded the accident in a letter to the Empress:

"The French king said that the king of England had fallen from his horse, and been for two hours without speaking. "La Ana" was so upset that she miscarried of a son."
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So, although the King survived the accident, it still may have had a major impact on him, his family and his reign. Dr Ortiz was of the opinion that the miscarriage Anne Boleyn suffered on 29th January 1536, just five days later, was due to the stress she suffered at hearing news of the King's accident. Chapuys concurs with this, writing that "the said concubine wished to lay the blame on the duke of Norfolk, whom she hates, saying he frightened her by bringing the news of the fall the King had six days before."
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If you believe that Anne Boleyn's fall was a result of her failing to provide the King with a son, that she "miscarried of her saviour"
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that day, then the jousting accident was definitely a factor in her fall.

An article in The Independent newspaper
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put forward the theory that Henry's jousting accident caused Henry to undergo a personality change. This article was based on the findings of three people - historian Lucy Worsley, Henry VIII biographer Robert Hutchinson and medical doctor Catherine Hood - in the History Channel documentary "Inside the Body of Henry VIII". This programme looked at issues concerning the King's diet and lifestyle, and the medical problems which saw Henry change from the handsome, young, sporty King with a 32 inch waist and 39 inch chest in his 20s, to a man who probably weighed 28 stone by his death in 1547, at the age of 55, and whose waist measured 52 inches and his chest 53 inches. As his health deteriorated, leaving him unable to do the sporting activities he enjoyed, his personality also changed and he became "plagued with paranoia and melancholy".
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Although Henry had a few health issues by the time of the jousting accident in 1536 – malaria, contracted at the age of 30, and varicose ulcers which began on his left leg in around 1527 – the major decline in his health and personality seems to have started in 1536. Worsley, Hutchinson and Hood concluded that the accident caused his personality change from sporty, virtuous prince to monstrous tyrant. They noted that "from that date the turnover of the wives really speeds up", that negative perceptions of Henry increased and that being unconscious for two hours suggests "major trauma", a frontal lobe injury which can affect a person's personality.

However, it is more likely that it was a combination of factors that led to the King's decline, both physical and mental, and it cannot be blamed on that one accident.

29th January 1536 – Burial and Miscarriage

On 29th January 1536, the day of Catherine of Aragon's funeral, Anne Boleyn suffered her second and final miscarriage. It was her third pregnancy
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– she had given birth to healthy baby girl, the future Elizabeth I, on the 7th September 1533, and then had suffered a late miscarriage in the summer of 1534 – and the loss of this baby must have been a devastating blow for both Anne and King Henry VIII.

Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, reported Anne Boleyn's miscarriage in a dispatch to Emperor Charles V:

"On the day of the interment [Catherine of Aragon's funeral] the Concubine had an abortion which seemed to be a male child which she had not borne 3½ months, at which the King has shown great distress. The said concubine wished to lay the blame on the duke of Norfolk, whom she hates, saying he frightened her by bringing the news of the fall the King had six days before. But it is well known that is not the cause, for it was told her in a way that she should not be alarmed or attach much importance to it."
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Nearly a month later, Chapuys referred again to Anne's miscarriage in a report to Charles V, passing on gossip he had heard:

"I learn from several persons of this Court that for more than three months this King has not spoken ten times to the Concubine, and that when she miscarried he scarcely said anything to her, except that he saw clearly that God did not wish to give him male children; and in leaving her he told her, as if for spite, that he would speak to her after she was "releuize." The said Concubine attributed the misfortune to two causes: first, the King's fall; and, secondly, that the love she bore him was far greater than that of the late Queen, so that her heart broke when she saw that he loved others. At which remark the King was much grieved, and has shown his feeling by the fact that during these festive days he is here, and has left the other at Greenwich, when formerly he could not leave her for an hour."

Although Chapuys claims that the King had only spoken to Anne ten times in the past three months,
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, this was more likely an exaggeration because we know that they celebrated Catherine of Aragon's death together. As for the King leaving Anne at Greenwich during Shrovetide, Eric Ives points out that the King had business (the Reformation Parliament) to deal with at Westminster and that Anne was recuperating after her miscarriage. We just cannot take Chapuys' words at face value, particularly when he disliked Anne so much.

The chronicler Charles Wriothesley recorded:-

"This yeare also, three daies before Candlemas, Queene Anne was brought a bedd and delivered of a man chield, as it was said, afore her tyme, for she said that she had reckoned herself at that tyme but fiftene weekes gonne with chield; it was said she tooke a fright, for the King ranne that tyme at the ring and had a fall from his horse, but he had no hurt; and she tooke such a fright withall that it caused her to fall in travaile, and so was delivered afore her full tyme, which was a great discompfort to all this realme."
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So, it appears that Anne lost a son and not the "shapeless mass of flesh" that Nicholas Sander wrote of in 1585. This was a normal miscarriage, a heartbreaking tragedy, but something which was a common occurrence in Tudor times and is still common today. It is so sad that this pregnancy did not go to term; a healthy son would have made Anne secure in her position as queen. J E Neale, writes of how Anne "miscarried of her saviour".
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Although this miscarriage is only one factor in her fall, it did make her vulnerable. Coming so quickly after the King's brush with death, it may also have panicked the King. He needed a son and heir to continue the Tudor line. Time was ticking, as was the 34 year old Anne's biological clock.

10th February 1536

Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, wrote to Charles V regarding Anne Boleyn's miscarriage, and regarding Catherine of Aragon's funeral and resting place, which he felt was not fitting for even "a simple baroness". The first mention of Jane Seymour is in this letter, in Chapuys' discussion of potential reasons for Anne's miscarriage:-

"Some think it was owing to her own incapacity to bear children, others to a fear that the King would treat her like the late Queen, especially considering the treatment shown to a lady of the Court, named Mistress Semel [Seymour], to whom, as many say, he has lately made great presents."
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It is not known exactly when Henry VIII started showing Jane Seymour favour or how serious this was. It may have simply been part of the courtly love tradition, but it was enough for it to be court gossip and to have reached Chapuys. Although some historians
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believe that Henry and Jane's relationship was "well-established" at this point and that Anne and Henry's marriage had irretrievably broken down, there is no evidence to support this theory. Anne had been pregnant up until the 29th January; in early February she would have been recovering from her miscarriage. It would have been typical of the time for Henry to have looked for a substitute, a flirtation, at this time. In fact, as Eric Ives
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points out, as late as 1st April 1536 Chapuys described Jane Seymour as the lady "whom he serves".
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This makes reference to the courtly love tradition of a knight serving a lady, and does not suggest a full-blown affair.