RISE AND FALL OF BOLEYNS
We explore how ambition and a lust for power helped lift a Tudor family and then lead it to destruction
On the morning of 19 May 1536, a woman mounted a scaffold that had been erected within the confines of the Tower of London: minutes later her head was struck from her body with a single blow from a French swordsman. This woman was no ordinary prisoner, but one who had until recently been revered as Queen of England: her name was Anne Boleyn. A decade earlier Anne had embarked on a courtship with the illustrious Tudor king, Henry VIII – a relationship that had altered not only the whole course of her own life, but also those of her family. The Boleyns had been raised to soaring heights before crashing to lows that were steeped in misery and despair – for Anne and her brother George, the result was death. The extraordinary rise and fall of Anne Boleyn and her family is one of the most controversial and intriguing stories of 16th century England; it is one that continues to enthral to this day.
Almost every aspect of Anne Boleyn’s life is controversial, including the year of her birth.
Now widely accepted to have been in around
1501, Anne was one of three surviving children born to Sir Thomas Boleyn by his wife, Elizabeth
Howard. Thomas was a man whose family roots lay in trade, though his grandfather, Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, had once been Lord Mayor of London. His father was a Norfolk landowner whose primary estate was Blickling, and Thomas himself, born in the mid 1470s, had risen to prominence steadily under the Tudors. He had attended the wedding of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon in 1501, been among the escort of Princess Margaret to Scotland in 1503, and created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Henry VIII in 1509. Thomas was well favoured by Henry, and was a frequent participant in all of the leisure activities of which the King was so fond. Thomas’s marriage to Elizabeth Howard had also been advantageous, for she was the daughter of the second Duke of Norfolk. The couple raised their children, Mary, Anne and George, primarily in the peaceful surroundings of Hever Castle in Kent, a property inherited from Thomas’s father.
During the early years of Anne’s childhood, her father was often absent. Thomas was a welleducated man who would later be the dedicatee of two books by Erasmus, and was also fluent in French. His skills had not gone unnoticed by the king, and for this reason he was often employed in diplomatic service abroad. It was during his time in Mechelen at the court of Margaret of Austria, the regent of the Netherlands, that Thomas spied a glowing opportunity for his daughter Anne. Margaret agreed to take the youngster into her household, and in the spring of 1513 Anne arrived to take her place. Margaret was delighted with her decision, and wrote to Thomas expressing that Anne was “a present more than welcome in my sight”. So much so, that “I am more beholden
“Almost every Anne Aspect of Boleyn’s life is controversial, including the year of her Birth”
to you for sending her than you can be to me for receiving her.” Anne blossomed during her time in Margaret’s service, continuing her education and perfecting her command of French, which she demonstrated in her letters to her father. She was extremely bright, and proved herself to be a skilled needlewoman who excelled in dancing and music and was fond of poetry. Anne had been in Margaret’s household for around 18 months when, in the autumn of 1514 her father – always ambitious – perceived a better opportunity for her elsewhere. Leaving Margaret’s court behind, Anne travelled to France to join the entourage of Henry VIII’S younger sister Mary, who had married the ageing King of France, Louis XII. Here she was reunited with her own sister Mary, who had accompanied the new Queen of France from England. The time that the Boleyn sisters spent as Mary’s ladies was, though, short-lived. After just three months of marriage, on 1 January 1515 Louis died, and it was probably in the middle of the following month that Mary secretly remarried Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. When the formerly disgraced couple returned to England in the spring, the Boleyn sisters remained in France where they joined the household of the new queen, Claude, wife of François I.
Anne spent the next seven years in France, during which time her personality took shape and she developed a grace and poise that were highly influenced by the sophistication of the French court. This was clearly in evidence when she returned to England in 1522, now a highly accomplished young woman. Before long a place had been found for both Anne and her sister in Catherine of Aragon’s household, and the sisters regularly participated in court entertainments.
Before long Anne’s sister had become embroiled in an affair with the king, and as a result her father’s favour continued to rise. In April 1522 he was appointed treasurer of the royal household, and further honours were soon heaped upon him. On 18 June 1525 Thomas’s ambitions appeared to have been recognised when he was raised to the peerage and created Viscount Rochford.
His son George also seemed set to follow in his footsteps: in 1516 George had joined the royal household as a page, and in around 1524 had been admitted to the King’s Privy Chamber. He would later emulate Thomas’s example by travelling to France to embark on diplomatic service. It may also have been around this time that a marriage was arranged for him with Jane Parker, the daughter of Henry, Lord Morley. Sadly, it was not a happy match.
In 1526 everything changed for the Boleyns.
The King had long since tired of Anne’s sister, and in February he appeared at a joust wearing a magnificent gold embroidered costume that – in the style of courtly love – sported the words ‘Declare I dare not’. Nobody was left in any doubt that he had a new love interest, but the object of his desire was as yet unknown. It was not long, however, before it became clear: Anne Boleyn.
Though with her swarthy complexion Anne was not considered beautiful by contemporary standards, Henry found her wit and charm irresistible. Neither was he the first to have been entranced by her, for she had earned other admirers including the poet Thomas Wyatt and Henry Percy, heir of the Earl of Northumberland. Anne had hoped to marry the latter, but the king’s chief advisor, Cardinal Wolsey, had broken off the match, earning him Anne’s enmity. But she now had an infinitely more powerful suitor.
“Anne was not considered Beautiful, But henry found her wit And charm irresistible”
Conscious of the way in which her sister had been discarded and highly ambitious like her father, Anne steadfastly refused to become Henry’s mistress. Unused to such a rebuff, this left him both surprised and intrigued. But instead of retreating and pressing his advances elsewhere, it instead served to heighten his passion for
Anne. He wrote her copious love letters in which he passionately poured out his feelings for her, declaring that “my heart shall be dedicate to you alone.” Anne though, had higher aspirations, and continued to spurn Henry.
In the spring of 1527 Henry’s feelings for
Anne proved to be the catalyst in what became known as the king’s ‘Great Matter’, as he began an investigation into the validity of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He had long since tired of his wife, and more crucially, Catherine had failed to provide him with a male heir: her only surviving child was a daughter, Mary. Henry became convinced that his lack of a son was God’s divine judgement on his marriage and was determined to have it annulled: what was more, Anne would be the ideal replacement. He was confident that if he were to marry her, Anne would provide him with
the son that he needed in order to secure his dynasty. Yet it was not destined to be a smooth or straightforward process.
The ‘Great Matter’ dragged on for more than five years, during which time Anne’s influence – and that of her family – grew, but she became increasingly frustrated. The king believed that Wolsey would be able to achieve an annulment for him, but when the case was referred to the Pope in Rome in 1529 the Boleyns became convinced that Wolsey was working against them. Anne’s father hated Wolsey as much as she did, and their faction plotted his destruction. In October 1529 he was stripped of his office of Lord Chancellor, and the following year he died at Leicester en route to the Tower and possible execution. When she heard the news, Anne celebrated the demise of her enemy.
The delay in Henry’s annulment left Anne feeling increasingly vulnerable as her position
remained insecure. However, Henry’s passion for her had not wavered, and he showered her with an abundance of rich gifts, including jewels, clothes, money and fine apartments. It was not for nothing that one source observed that she became “very haughty and proud”, and she was treated as queen in all but name. The fortunes of Anne’s family rose as a result of her relationship with the king, and in 1529 George was admitted to the Privy Council. In December meanwhile, Thomas was created Earl of Wiltshire, an ennoblement that was followed by a celebratory banquet at the Palace of Whitehall. The following year he was appointed Lord Privy Seal.
When an annulment did not prove forthcoming, with the support of the Boleyns and Thomas Cromwell – a former servant of Wolsey’s – Henry took matters into his own hands. He made the momentous decision to split from the Catholic Church and establish the Church of England with himself at its head, thereby enabling him to marry Anne. If Rome would not give him what he wanted, Henry was fully prepared to make his own rules. Many were appalled by the king’s decision, but Anne and her family were supportive and she herself was a great advocate of church reform. This only served to exacerbate her unpopularity amongst the English people, many of whom were sympathetic to the plight of Catherine of Aragon. Indeed, Anne was so widely disliked that a progress in the summer of 1532 had to be cut short because, as the Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys reported, “the Lady is hated by all the world.” Nevertheless, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before Anne was queen.
In September 1532 Anne partook in a glittering ceremony that saw her created Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Just four months later she and Henry were secretly married, by which time – having finally capitulated to his advances – she was already pregnant. In May Thomas Cranmer, whom Thomas Boleyn had once made the family chaplain and was now Archbishop of Canterbury, officially declared Henry’s marriage to Catherine to be null and
“if rome would not give him what he wanted, henry was fully prepared to make his own rules”
void. Instead, his marriage to Anne was affirmed to be good and valid. The following month Anne’s ultimate moment of triumph arrived, and it was one in which her family were there to share. On 1 June, bedecked in a sumptuous dress of crimson velvet lined with ermine, she was crowned in a magnificent ceremony in Westminster Abbey. She was the second commoner to be made Queen of England, and in a sign of the importance of the occasion she was crowned with St Edward’s Crown – usually reserved for the coronation of male monarchs. All that remained was for her to produce a son.
On 7 September Anne gave birth not to the long-desired prince, but to a girl, Elizabeth. In spite of the disappointment of her sex, the baby was healthy and there was every reason to hope for sons. Yet they were never to transpire, and several other pregnancies resulted in nothing but bitter disappointment.
Anne proved to be a very different kind of wife and queen to her predecessor. Though she distributed alms and gave money to other charitable causes, was both pious and a patron of learning, she remained unpopular with her subjects whose hearts lay with Catherine. Similarly, where Catherine had been obedient to her husband’s will and turned a blind eye to his infidelities, Anne was outspoken and was outraged when Henry was unfaithful to her. The result was inevitable: by the end of 1535 Henry was tiring of his wife, and sought solace in the arms of one of her ladies: Jane Seymour.
Following the example once set so successfully by her mistress, Jane employed the same tactics to the King’s advances. She refused to become his mistress, and instead held out for marriage. Once again, the game worked. On 29 January 1536 – the same day as the funeral of Catherine of Aragon who had died that month – Anne miscarried of a child that showed every appearance of being male. Chapuys observed that “she has miscarried of her saviour”, and her perceived failure gave her enemies an opportunity to move against her.
In the following months as the King’s ardour for Jane Seymour grew, so too did the coolness with which he treated Anne and her family. In April it had been expected that George would be admitted to the Order of the Garter, but in a clear sign of how far they had fallen, another candidate was chosen. Unbeknown to Anne, her former ally Thomas Cromwell was plotting her downfall and on 29 April laid his evidence – which most modern historians agree to have been falsified – before the king. Anne, he said, had committed adultery with four men, including a lowly born musician named Mark Smeaton. But there was worse, for Cromwell also claimed that Anne was guilty of incest with her own brother. Henry was furious and ordered the arrest of all of those involved, Anne included.
The court celebrated May Day with all of the usual revelry at Greenwich. George was the leading challenger at the customary jousts, and Anne sat beside her husband as they presided over the tournament. Yet the king left abruptly, causing Anne alarm and with good cause. The following day she was arrested and taken to the Tower, as were the five men – including her brother – accused alongside her. As she arrived at the fortress in a state of utter shock, she asked Sir William Kingston, the Constable,
“Do I go into a dungeon?”
She was taken to the
Royal Apartments.
The imprisonment of the Boleyn siblings proved to be an upsetting and agitating experience for them both. Anne was placed in the custody of the constable, who made detailed reports of his prisoner’s every word. Bewailing her misfortune, on one occasion Anne cried, “Oh, my mother, thou wilt die with sorrow.” Her behaviour was erratic, and Kingston reported that “one hour she is determined to die, and the next hour much contrary to that.” On 12 May the four men with whom Anne had been accused of
“when the case was referred to the rome pope in in 1529 Boleyns the Became convinced wolsey that was working Against them”