The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown (8 page)

18th April 1536 – The King Tricks Chapuys

On Tuesday18th April 1536, the imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, was tricked into recognising as Queen the woman he called "the concubine".

Chapuys arrived at Greenwich Palace to meet with King Henry VIII and was greeted by George Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell, who brought him a message from the King. In the message, Henry VIII asked Chapuys to visit Anne Boleyn and kiss her hand. Chapuys excused himself because, as Eric Ives
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points out, "that was going too far, too fast", and, in Chapuys's own words, it "would not be advisable".
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He could not bring himself to kiss the hand of "the Concubine" and recognise her as Queen. So, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, conducted Chapuys to mass, carefully placing the ambassador behind the door through which Anne would enter. Anne Boleyn, who was accompanying her husband to mass, knew exactly where Chapuys was and so stopped as she entered, swung round to him and bowed. Chapuys was forced to do reciprocate and bow to the Queen. Henry and Anne had got what they wanted, recognition of Anne's status, albeit in a rather underhand way.

It is clear that in mid April 1536, just two weeks before Anne's arrest, Henry VIII was still pushing for Anne to be recognised as his wife and rightful queen. Does this show that he was still committed to Anne? Why force Chapuys into recognising a woman you're going to discard? Is this evidence that Henry VIII was not involved in plotting against Anne Boleyn or is it just proof of his fickle nature? There is no way of knowing.

Chapuys, Henry VIII and Cromwell

Later that day, after dining with George Boleyn, Chapuys met privately with the King to discuss a potential alliance between the Emperor and England. This was a meeting which had been set up by Thomas Cromwell, who seems to have been intent on negotiating a twin alliance, allying England with both the Schmalkaldic League and with Charles V.
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The only obstacle was Chapuys' condition that England should accept papal authority. Cromwell had worked on this, leading Chapuys to believe that Henry VIII might come to an agreement with France, instead of with the Empire, if Charles continued to be so demanding.

Unfortunately, at the meeting, Chapuys made it plain that for any alliance to go ahead, the Lady Mary would need to be restored to the succession. Although Cromwell had led Chapuys to believe that this would not be a problem, Henry VIII would not tolerate this idea. In his eyes, Mary was illegitimate and Elizabeth was his heir. Henry blew up, reacting "confusedly and in anger"
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and "reproached" the Emperor with "great ingratitude". He made it clear that his relationship with the Pope and his daughter Mary's future were nobody's business but his, and that he would not be told what to do by Chapuys and the Emperor. According to Chapuys, Cromwell and Audley "appeared to regret these answers"
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and when Chapuys spoke to Cromwell, the secretary was "mortified" by what had happened and was "hardly able to speak for sorrow". The stress of the situation led to him arguing with the King and then taking to his bed "from pure sorrow".
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The King was ruining Cromwell's negotiations!

The next day, 19th April, the Bishop of Tarbes reported to his master, Francis I of France, that the Duke of Norfolk had told him "that what he had said the last time they met was true, and that whatever overture the Emperor might make things would not be other than they have been hitherto. Replied that he had no doubt of this, knowing that the friendship between the Kings cannot be affected by any practice or overture of the Emperor." The King was keeping the Emperor and the French king on tenterhooks.

Anne Boleyn: A Liability?

In Cromwell's eyes, Anne Boleyn must surely have been becoming a liability and a serious threat. Cardinal Wolsey had fallen, due in part to the influence of the Boleyns; and according to Cromwell, Anne had once said to him in an argument that "she would like to see his head cut off".
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Although John Schofield points out that Anne's influence may not have been as strong at this time as it had been at Wolsey's fall, she was still a significant threat. Chapuys had commented on Anne's influence over the King in November 1535:

"The concubine, who long ago conspired the death of the said ladies [Catherine and Mary] and thinks of nothing but getting rid of them, is the person who governs everything, and whom the King is unable to contradict."

The King's marriage to her was also a stumbling block to any reconciliation with Rome and to the restoration of Mary. Anne was also pro-French, so if she did have any influence on the King with regards to foreign policy, then that would be the direction she'd be pushing him towards. Cromwell knew that Anne would never agree to Mary being restored; she had her own daughter's interests to look out for.

The King was obsessed with wanting a male heir; he was showing an interest in Jane Seymour; Anne was becoming a pain in the neck as well as a significant threat to Cromwell's foreign policy plans and, perhaps, even to his life. Perhaps it would be better if Anne just disappeared. Nobody knows for sure whether the plot against Anne started with the King or with Thomas Cromwell, but "on the third day of Easter, he [Cromwell] had set himself to arrange the plot (a fantasier et conspirer led. affaire)".
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It was, as historian Simon Schama says, "pure devilry, a finely measured brew: one part paranoia, one part pornography"
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- a plot that would see a Queen, four courtiers and a musician brutally executed.

22nd April 1536 – A Strange Letter from Cranmer to Cromwell

On the 22nd April 1536, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who had been away from court staying at his country residence, Knole House, wrote the following letter to Thomas Cromwell:

"Alas, Master Secretary, you forget Master Smyth of the Exchequer, who is near consumed with thought and pensiveness: even pity moveth me to rue the man (if I could) for his son's sake chiefly, and also for his own. I would give a great part of that I have to help him; and where I cannot myself, I make all my friends for him: so importune I am upon my friends from my friend his cause, I suppose more than I would be for mine own, or ever was: ruth and importunity of my friend maketh me so vehement against mine own nature. I have sent this bearer only to wait upon you until you have an answer of the King, and to put you in continual remembrance, for much business maketh you to forget many things, and yet I wonder that you remember so many things as you do. I was ever hitherto cold, but now I am in a heat with the cause of religion, which goeth all contrary to mine expectation, if it be as the fame goeth; wherein I would wonder fain break my mind unto you, and if you please, I will come to such place as you shall appoint for the same purpose. Thus He that made you, ever keep you. From Knol, the 22 day of April."
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The first part of the letter, referring to 'Master Smith', seems quite straightforward. Cranmer is simply reminding Cromwell of Mr Smith. Reverend Henry Jenkyns, the editor of Cranmer's correspondence, thinks this could have been "John Smith, father of the celebrated Sir Thomas Smith who about this time was distinguishing himself by his lectures on Greek at Cambridge."
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However, the part of about religion seems rather odd. Historian John Schofield
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puts forward the idea that what it may mean is that Cranmer had heard that Anne Boleyn was going to be set aside and replaced by the Catholic Jane Seymour. He may have feared that the cause of the new religion was under threat, as was his friend, Anne. Perhaps this is a coded message regarding Cranmer's concern and his need to talk to Cromwell urgently about it.

However, Eric Ives
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believes that Anne Boleyn may have had words with the Archbishop regarding his Lent sermon supporting the dissolution of the monasteries, pointing out that the dissolution would not help the poor. Was Cranmer changing his mind about his support of Cromwell's policy? Cranmer's biographer, Diarmaid MacCulloch believes so, taking Cranmer's use of the word "religion" as referring to the monasteries.
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Unfortunately, there is no reply on record. We will never know exactly what Cranmer was trying to say.

23rd April 1536 – A Warning Sign?

On St George's Day (23rd April) 1536 the annual chapter meeting of the Order of the Garter took place at Greenwich. A record of this meeting can be found in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10:

"On St. George's Day, 23 April 28 Hen. VIII., a chapter of the Order of the Garter was held at Greenwich, at which were present the King, the dukes of Richmond and Norfolk, the earls of Northumberland, Westmoreland, Wiltshire, Sussex, Rutland, and Oxford, lord Sandys, and Sir Wm. Fitzwilliam. It was determined to hold the feast on May 21, the earl of Northumberland taking the Sovereign's place, assisted by the earls of Rutland, Westmoreland, and Oxford, and Sir Wm. Fitzwilliam. Votes were taken for the election of a knight; and the next day, after mass for the dead, the King declared Sir Nic. Carew elected. He was installed when the feast was kept, on May 21. On this occasion the earl of Northumberland was seized with vertigo and weakness, so that it was feared he would not be able to take his part as deputy, but he recovered. The next day the hatchments of the deceased were offered up."
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As you can see, Sir Nicholas Carew was elected a Knight of the Garter at this chapter. His appointment was significant because Queen Anne Boleyn had put forward her brother George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, for the post. Her wish had been denied.

Was this a warning sign of the trouble to come? Maybe. Sir Nicholas Carew was an enemy of the Boleyn faction and he had also been mentoring Jane Seymour, Henry's new flame, in how to appeal to the King. The Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, wrote that "the Concubine has not had sufficient influence to get it for her brother,"
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seeing it as a sign that Anne Boleyn had lost her influence over the King. But perhaps Chapuys was reading too much into Carew's appointment. Henry VIII had promised the French King, Francis I, that Carew would be considered when a vacancy arose. Francis I's request to Henry VIII was made in May 1533
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and was referred to in a letter from Palamedes Gontier to Admiral Chabot in February 1535:

"Presented the letter in favor of the "Grand Escuyer" of England [Carew], to which he replied that the said place of the Chancellor of the Order was filled by the king of Scotland, and the number of 24 could not be exceeded. On the first vacancy he would remember the said Grand Escuyer."
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With the benefit of hindsight we see this as a warning sign of the events to come, as a sign that Anne had lost her influence with the King and as a sign that the Boleyn faction was losing favour. But perhaps we, like Chapuys, are reading too much into it. It is not known what Anne and George thought of this event.

Incidentally, Sir Nicholas Carew came to a sticky end. He was implicated in the 1538 Exeter Conspiracy, a plot to depose Henry VIII and to replace him with Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter and cousin of the King through his mother Katherine of York. Courtenay was executed on 9th January 1539 and Carew was executed on 3rd March 1539.

24th April 1536 – Legal Machinery

On 24th April 1536, Sir Thomas Audley, Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor and Thomas Cromwell's right hand man, set up two commissions of oyer and terminer at Westminster.

'Oyer and terminer' comes from the French 'to hear and to determine' and denotes a legal commission formed to investigate and prosecute serious criminal offences, such as treason, committed in a particular county. A grand jury in the county would first investigate the alleged offence and then approve a bill of indictment, if there was sufficient evidence. The case would then go on to the commission of oyer and terminer, the court with jurisdiction to try the offence(s).
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The two commissions of oyer and terminer set up by Audley were for offences committed in the counties of Middlesex and Kent and covered the crimes of misprision, treason, rebellion, felonies, murder, homicide, rioting, plotting, insurrection, extortion, oppression, contempt, concealment, ignorance, negligence, falsities, deception, conspiracy and being an accessory to these crimes.
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The job of the commission was to investigate alleged crimes and to determine if there was indeed a case. These commissions were not common-place; in fact, there were only seventeen set up during the whole of Henry VIII's reign.
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The fact that these commissions were so rare, combined with the fact that they were set up to judge offences in the counties of Middlesex and Kent – the counties of the grand juries which would later investigate the alleged offences of Anne Boleyn – suggest that the plot against Anne Boleyn was well underway at this time. These commissions surely could not have been a coincidence.
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Historian Eric Ives notes that Henry VIII's signature was not on the patent of the oyer and terminer. This may suggest that the commissions were ordered not by the King, but by Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Audley. Both Ives and Alison Weir explain how these commissions were usually only ordered after an arrest. For example, in the case of Sir Thomas More, an oyer was only issued after he had been interrogated for eight weeks. Nobody had been arrested for treason in April 1536, so why the commissions? Could it be that Cromwell and Audley wanted to move quickly before the King could change his mind? Before Anne could talk him round?