The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (94 page)
39
Cal. S
.
P. Span., 1536
-
38,
p. 125; RO, PRO31/8 f. 85 [
LP,
x.908, 965].
40
Cal. S. P. Span.,
1536-38, pp. 137-8 [
LP,
x.1069].
41
Narratives of the Reformation,
p
.
255.
42
Cal. S
.
P. Span.
,
1536
-
38,
p. 121 [
LP,
x.909];
Wolsey,
ed. Singer, p. 459.
43
Cal. S. P. Span
.,
1536-38,
p. 128 [
LP,
x.908]; de Carles, in Ascoli,
L’Opinion,
lines 788-808;
Lisle Letters
, iii.695 [
LP,
x.865].
44
LP
, x.902, xi.381. Not from St Omer: RO, PRO31/8 f. 85 [
LP
, x.965]. That the executioner was at the Tower for the Friday morning implies either that any messenger who left after the sentence on Monday had a quick journey to Calais and the executioner an equally prompt crossing, or that advance warning had been given.
47
J. A. Froude,
History of England from the Fall of Wolsey
(1912), ii.161-2, 167. Froude [p. 161] rejected all parallels between Henry VIII and Leontes in Shakespeare,
A Winter’s Tale
, but the parallels are there: E. W. Ives, ‘Shakespeare and History: divergencies and agreements’, in
Shakespeare Survey
, 38 (1985), 24-5.
48
Pollard,
Henry VIII,
pp. 276-7.
49
Muir,
Life and Letters of Wyatt,
p. 28.
50
Bernard, in
EHR,
106, 609-10. To say ‘some were guilty’ is to agree that others were unjustly condemned, and if so, why?
51
Wriothesley,
Chronicle
, i.36-7;
Cal. S. P. Span., 1536
-
38,
p. 129 [
LP,
x.908].
52
Du Bellay,
Correspondance,
ii.453 at p. 506 [
LP,
xi.860]; cf
LP,
xi.1250.
53
Cal. S. P. Span., 1536
-
38,
p. 128 [
LP,
x.908].
54
Wyatt,
Poems
, CXLIII; ‘grate’ = grating.
55
For this see the letters at p. 415 n. 28; the reference to George is from
Wolsey,
ed. Singer, p. 461.
56
Some of his offices were held jointly with his son, his land grant of Fobbing was entailed on his male heirs, and in Kent, Anne was his heir: RO SP1/102 ff. 155- 6;
LP
, v. g506(16). Retreat occurred re his Irish claims e.g.
St
.
Pap,
ii.436, 475-6 [
LP,
xii (1).1066, (2).963];
LP,
xii 2 964(2)1310 i (20), ii (9); he also disposed of some English property: ibid. xiii (1) 1080, g734(24).
57
LP,
xi.926, xii.(1)1199, 1207(20), 1227(4), xiii.(1) 680, 783; xi 139(i), (iii) xi.17, 1277, xii (2) 580, 722, xiv (2) 782, pp. 318-20, 322; xii. (2) 911, 1012, 1060;
Lisle Letters,
v.10 [
LP,
xiii (1) 24].
58
Ibid., v.184 [
LP,
xiii (1) 1419].
59
LP,
xiv( 1 ).854. The story that he lost most of his estate [ibid., xi.320] refers to the office of Privy Seal: see p. 362.
60
Wolsey,
ed. Singer, p. 460: ‘this day at dinner the queen said that she should go to Antwerp and is in hope of life.’
61
Wolsey,
ed. Singer, p. 461.
62
LP,
x.896; Kelly,
Matrimonial Trials
, pp. 250-9, considers a whole range of possible reasons, without being able to reach a firm conclusion. That divorce papers existed see
LP,
xiii(i).1225.
63
Wolsey
, ed. Singer, pp. 464-5; Wriothesley,
Chronicle
, i.41.
64
Cal. S. P. Span.
,
1536
-
38,
p
.
121 [
LP,
x.909]. Spelman says the divorce was on the ground of a pre-contract:
Reports,
i.59.
65
Wolsey
, ed. Singer, p. 459. Sergeant,
Anne Boleyn,
p. 266; M. L. Bruce,
Anne Boleyn
(1972), pp. 326-75; Starkey,
Six Wives,
pp. 580-1.
66
Kingston wrote [original spelling], ‘The kyng’s grace showed me that my lord of Cantorbury should be her confessar and was here thys day with the quene and not in that matter Sir the tyme ys short for the kyng supposeth the gentelmen to dy to morow.’ Starkey [
Six Wives,
p
.
58] punctuates: ‘and was here this day with the queen and not in that matter. Sir ...’ [i.e. not concerning her confession]. I accept the traditional reading: ‘and was here this day with the queen. And note in that matter, Sir, the time is short.’ Why should Henry explain his divorce difficulty to Kingston?
67
MacCulloch,
Cranmer,
p.158 points out that Cranmer was extremely unlikely to break the seal of the confessional.
68
25 Henry VIII, c.21. The only ‘confession’ required from Anne was an oath confirming her blood relationship to Mary.
70
Cal. S. P. Span
.,
1536
-
38,
p
.
121 [
LP,
x.909]. Divorcing Anne because he had married in defiance of the immutable law of God did, however, preserve Henry’s assurance that he had a hot line to the Almighty.
72
There is no evidence of any lengthy illness. He attended the opening of parliament, but on 8 July was reported by Chapuys to be seriously ill. He died on 23 July. Murphy,
Bastard Prince
, pp. 174-5; Loach,
Edward VI,
p. 160.
73
Wolsey,
ed. Singer, p. 461;
Cal. S. P. Span., 1536-38,
p. 131 [
LP
, x.908]. Her oath impressed even the hostile Chapuys.
75
Wolsey,
ed. Singer, pp. 460-1.
76
RO, C193/3 f. 80, dated 18 May.
77
Anne’s complaint is often taken to support the statements of Chapuys [
Cal. S. P. Span
.,
1536
-
38,
p. 131 [
LP
, x.908]] and de Carles [in Ascoli,
L‘Opinion,
lines 1150-65] that her execution was postponed from Thursday to Friday. Friedmann [
Anne Boleyn,
ii.290-2] attributed this either to delaying for the executioner or the decision to clear foreigners from the Tower and minimize the number of spectators by not publicizing the time. Starkey shares that view:
Six Wives,
p. 582. However, Kingston’s letter shows that when Anne complained, he was in course of writing that the time of execution still had not been fixed. Also Kingston’s concern was not to limit but to ensure a respectable audience: ‘If we have not an hour certain as it may be known in London, I think here will be but few and I think a reasonable number were best.’ The natural construction is that Anne and her ladies (and via one of the latter, Chapuys) had misunderstood procedures; Kingston always warned victims early on the day. Starkey is wrong to suggest that the letter belongs to Friday 19 May since the time of execution was not noon. Wriothesley [
Chronicle,
i.41] gives 8 a.m., Chapuys 9 a.m. [
Cal. S. P. Span., 1536
-
38,
p
.
130 [
LP,
x.908]], Antony Antony ‘about 9 o‘clock afore noon’ [see p. 418 n. 68]. Chapuys’ report about a delay was probably because the servant he sent to observe was, so Kingston said, excluded ‘honestly’ on the Thursday.
78
Chapuys reported that Anne spent her last night chattering
‘le plus plaisamment du monde’,
saying,
cum al.,
that she would be called ‘Anne the Headless’. Also that she said her fate was not divine judgement, except for her treatment of Mary: Friedmann,
Anne Boleyn,
ii.293 [
LP,
x.1070]. De Carles has her comforting her ladies [in Ascoli,
L‘Opinion,
lines 1183-1217]. Kingston implies she was with her almoner.
Chapter 24 Finale
1
For sources covering the execution of Anne see p. 419 n. 14 above. She was beheaded on a new scaffold ‘before the house of Ordnance’, i.e. on what is now the parade ground north of the White Tower:
Lisle Letters,
iii.698 [
LP,
x.919]; Antony Antony in Herbert,
Henry VIII
(1679), facing p. 385. The current scaffold site was invented to please Queen Victoria: G. Parnell, ‘Diary of a death at daybreak’, in
BBC History Magazine,
2 (2001), 14.
2
Lisle Letters,
iii.918 [
LP
, x.918]; Wriothesley,
Chronicle
, i.41;
Wolsey,
ed. Singer, p. 461 [but Antony Antony says that foreigners were present].
3
Plus most of the council:
Cal.
S.
P. Span., 1536
-
38,
pp. 130-1 [
LP,
x.908]; Wriothesley,
Chronicle
, i.41.
4
The story that Anne’s own ladies attended her on the scaffold appears to be derived from stories about her giving them keepsakes. See above, p. 406 n. 49.
5
See the imperial account (2a), p. 419 n. 14.
6
For Anne’s speech see also George Wyatt,
Papers
, p. 189;
Wolsey,
ed. Singer, p. 448; Hall,
Chronicle,
p. 819; Foxe, Acts
and Monuments
, v.134; Antony Antony, in Herbert,
Henry VIII
(1679), facing p. 385.
7
Lisle Letters
, iii.698 [
LP,
x.920].
8
Erasmus,
A Preparation to Death
(Redman, 1543), sig. fvij [see above, p. 270]. The text above is modified to read ‘overpowered’ for ‘overcome’ and ‘instant by instant’ for ‘instantly’.
9
Source after source stresses the suddenness and speed of the execution; the headsman ‘did his office very well’: Spelman,
Reports,
i.59. A French report was ‘before you could say a paternoster’: Hamy,
Entrevue,
p. ccccxxxvii. I am unaware of English evidence to confirm the executioner’s costume described in G. Abbott,
Lords of the Scaffold
(1991), p. 61.
10
LP,
xi.381. Thus Antony Antony and the imperial account; the Italian account suggests that the box was by the scaffold. The Crown redeemed Anne’s jewels and apparel from Kingston for
£
100: ibid., xi. 381A.
11
Cal. S. P. Span.
,
1536
-
38,
p. 129 [
LP,
x.908].
13
LP,
vii.611; x.785, 820, 870.
15
Lisle Letters
, iii.698, 702 [
LP,
x.919, 943], p. 173.
16
Ibid., iii.713 [
LP,
x.1047].
18
Lisle Letters
, iv.848a [
LP
, x.1000].
19
LP,
x.g.1256(4); BL, Royal MS 7F xiv, f. 100.
20
Oxford, Bodl. MS Jesus College, 73, f. 249. The original for this appears to be the now mutilated BL, Cotton MS Otho C x [
LP
, x.1134]. Cf. Herbert,
Henry VIII,
p. 573. I owe this Bodleian reference to the kindness of Professor Richard Hoyle.