Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession (10 page)

In late 1527 Henry dispatched his secretary, Dr Knight, to Rome with secret instructions to request the king’s divorce and, also, to obtain a dispensation to allow him to marry a woman related to him in the first degree of affinity. This is the first clear indication that Henry had decided to marry Anne and the dispensation, which was necessary due to his relationship with Mary Boleyn, would allow the couple to marry quickly. The Pope granted an audience to Knight and provided him with the necessary dispensation. He did not however grant the divorce and Henry quickly sent Edward Foxe and Stephen Gardiner to Orvieto to press the Pope further.

Anne kept a keen interest in the progress of the various embassies in Rome and she followed Foxe and Gardiner’s progress with interest. She expected the ambassadors to contact her directly and, in a letter she wrote to Gardiner on 4 April 1529 regarding a later mission to Italy, she thanked him for the letter he had sent directly to her. She also expressed the hope that Gardiner’s 1529 mission would be more pleasant to her than his first ‘for that was but a rejoysyng hope, whiche causing [the lie] of it dose put me to the more payn, and they that ar parta[kers] with me, as you do knowe, and therefore I do trust that this herd begynn[ing] shall make a better endyng’. Gardiner and Foxe’s first visit to Italy was a difficult one and they found the Pope in a pitiful state, protesting his loyalty to Henry and begging the ambassadors to give him more time. Foxe and Gardiner continued to press him and Foxe was able to return to England in April 1528 with some good news for Henry and Anne.

Foxe sailed from Calais on 28 April 1528 and travelled straight to Greenwich. He arrived in the evening and Henry commanded him to go straight to Anne’s chamber. Anne was anxious to hear the news and, excitedly made ‘promises of large recompense’ to Foxe. Henry then entered the chamber and Anne left him alone with the ambassador for a few minutes. Foxe told Henry that the Pope was willing to satisfy the king as far as he was able and that he might be prepared to confirm a sentence of divorce given by his delegates in England. While this was not an absolute promise, it was the only progress in the divorce for almost a year and Henry called Anne in happily and instructed Foxe to inform her. Anne was overjoyed and the couple kept Foxe with them for most of the evening. Pope Clement VII was a timid man and in desperate fear of the emperor. After further pressing from Gardiner, he finally agreed on 11 June 1528 to send a papal legate, Cardinal Campeggio, to hear the case in England.

Anne and Henry were jubilant when they heard that Campeggio was to come to England. Cardinal Campeggio was no stranger to England and, as the Bishop of Salisbury, he had always been Henry and Anne’s choice for the role of papal legate. The couple would not have suspected that Campeggio had been given secret instructions by the pope to delay matters as much as possible and Campeggio’s progress towards England was painfully slow. By the end of June 1528, Campeggio had still not set out for England and Henry and Anne waited impatiently for news.

The summer of 1528 was a time of frustration for Henry and Anne as they waited for news of the legate. They also had other things on their minds when Anne found herself fighting for her life during that summer. In June 1528 there was an outbreak of sweating sickness in London which quickly infected much of the city. The sweating sickness was a terrifying disease. According to Du Bellay, the French ambassador, the sweat ‘is a most perilous disease. One has a little pain in the head and heart; suddenly a sweat begins; and a physician is useless, for whether you wrap yourself up much or little, in four hours, sometimes in two or three, you are despatched without languishing’. Henry, always terrified of disease, was in a state of high anxiety as the sweat began to ravage the city. Even his love for Anne was not enough for him to brave infection and, when Anne herself began to experience the signs of the sweat, Henry ordered her home to Hever while he fled twelve miles to be safe from infection. Anne would perhaps have been angered by Henry’s lack of constancy towards her but she was soon too ill to think of anything except survival.

Although Henry had fled from Anne, he quickly wrote to her to reassure her that his love for her remained unchanged. Anne was probably too ill to understand the content of Henry’s letter when it arrived but it would have given some comfort to her when she regained consciousness. Henry wrote:

‘There came to me suddenly in the night the most grievous news that could arrive, and I must need lament it for three reasons: the first being to hear of the sickness of my mistress, whom I esteem more than all the world, and whose health I desire as my own, and would willingly bear the half of your illness to have you cured; the second, for fear of being yet again constrained by my enemy absence, who until now has given me every possible annoyance, and so far as I can judge is likely to do worse, though I pray God to rid me of a rebel so importunate, the third, because the physician in who I most trust is absent at a time when he could do me most pleasure; for I hoped through him, and his methods, to obtain one of my chief joys in this world, that is to say, that my mistress should be cured’.

Henry instead sent his second doctor to Hever, something which must have been pleasing to Anne given the king’s terror that he would succumb to the disease. He also added, demonstrating that his feelings for Anne were entirely unchanged: ‘I hope soon to see you again, which will remedy me more than all the precious stones of the world’. Anne and her father both suffered from the worst symptoms of the sweat at Hever, but both miraculously survived. While Anne would have been gratified, as she lay recovering, that Henry had been very merry at court when he was informed of the news of his love’s survival, she may also have remained angry at Henry for the speed at which he sent her away from court when she became ill.

Once news of Anne’s survival reached Henry he sent a letter to her desiring that she return to court. Anne, probably enjoying her recuperation and Henry’s obvious discomfort at her absence, delayed her return to London in spite of Henry’s increasingly desperate pleas. In one letter, Henry attempted to tempt Anne back by telling her that he had ordered Wolsey to arrange lodging for her at court. He also sought to reassure her of his diligence in attempting to obtain the divorce, writing ‘as touching our other affairs I assure you that there can be no more done; nor more diligence used, nor all manner of dangers better both foreseen and provided for; so that I trust it shall be hereafter to both our comfort’. He also refused to write the details of progress that had been made, instead stating that he would tell Anne when she arrived at court, ‘trusting it shall not be long so, for I have caused my lord your father to make his provisions with speed’. He signed his letter ‘written with the hand of him which I would were yours’. Anne wished this too, but she was not prepared to abandon her displeasure towards Henry quite so easily.

Anne remained at Hever for much of the summer. Henry continued to write his love letters to her however and she finally began to relent towards him, pleased at the effect that she had had on the king. In one letter, Henry wrote:

‘The approach of the time which I have so long awaited rejoices me so much that it seems already here. However, the complete fulfilment cannot be until the two persons meet, which meeting, for my part, is more desirable than any other earthly thing; for what joy in this world can be so great as to regain the company of her who is the most loved; knowing also that she herself wishes likewise, the thought of which gives me great pleasure’.

Henry told Anne that her absence had given him ‘the greatest pain at heart’ and he begged her to tell her father to hurry her back to court. Henry signed the letter ‘written by the hand of the secretary, who wishes himself to be with you privately, and who is, and ever will be your loyal and most assured servant’. Anne must have been pleased with Henry’s obvious devotion to her and she finally rejoined him at court for a doubtless happy reunion.

Anne was still not officially a part of Henry’s divorce and it was agreed that she would be kept in the background when Cardinal Campeggio arrived. She therefore retired from court sometime before Campeggio’s arrival in England in October 1528. Henry continued to update her with news of the legate’s progress, for example writing to inform her when Campeggio reached Paris and adding that ‘I would you were in my arms and I in yours, for I think it long since I kissed you’. He would also have sent a message to Anne when Campeggio finally arrived in London on 8 October 1528 and immediately retired to his bed with gout. This was a disappointment and Anne was back at court for Christmas. This time, Anne had her own apartment at court as she did ‘not like to meet with the queen’. Both Henry and Anne continued to place their hopes in the legate but they would have known, from the poor state of Campeggio’s health, that it was likely to be a long process.

Campeggio finally rose from his sickbed in early 1529 and he quickly set about trying to fulfil his secret orders from the Pope, both to ‘perswade the Queen to a Divorce; and disswade the King from it, as having either way the end he propos’d: yet he fail’d in both’. Campeggio then tried to persuade Catherine to become a nun. This would have been an acceptable solution to both Anne and Henry and it would have allowed the king to remarry in the lifetime of his first wife. From Catherine’s point of view, it would have also have meant that the legitimacy of Princess Mary was unchallenged, something that she earnestly desired, but Catherine was a pious woman and could not bring herself to feign a vocation that she did not have. She had also been married to Henry for nearly twenty years and she was certainly in love with him and desperate to cling to her husband at all costs. Campeggio found both husband and wife unshakeable in their respective beliefs and commented of Henry that he was so convinced his marriage was void that ‘if an angel was to descend from heaven he would not be able to persuade him to the contrary’. It quickly became apparent to Campeggio that the matter would need to be tried.

While preparations were put in place for the trial, Wolsey continued to try to find arguments in favour of the divorce. Through his examination of the original papal bull of dispensation, he thought he had found a flaw in that the wording said that Catherine’s first marriage had been ‘perhaps’ consummated. Both Henry and Anne pounced on this triumphantly and Henry’s lawyers argued that if Arthur and Catherine had consummated their marriage then it could never be valid. Catherine always claimed that she had been a virgin at the time of her marriage but Henry was able to find plenty of witnesses to suggest the contrary. George Earl of Shrewsbury, for example, was happy to testify that he had been present when Arthur had been conducted to Catherine’s bedchamber and that he had always supposed that the marriage was consummated. A further testimony by Sir Anthony Willoughby was especially damaging to Catherine and he stated that Arthur had spoken to him on the morning after his wedding, saying ‘Willoughby, bring me a cup of ale, for I have been this night in the midst of Spain’. Arthur also later boasted that ‘it is good pastime to have a wife’. Catherine always insisted that her first marriage had been unconsummated and, given her deep religious faith, it seems unlikely that she was lying. Catherine’s attempts to fight the divorce must have infuriated Anne. Catherine further angered Anne when she produced a copy of a papal brief which was held in Spain and which overcame all the difficulties Wolsey had identified in the papal bull.

Henry and Anne were taken aback at Catherine’s production of the papal brief and an immediate search was made of the English records but no English copy could be found. Henry quickly declared that it must be a forgery and he ordered Catherine’s counsel to persuade her to send for the original from Spain. Henry briefed Catherine’s lawyers to tell her that ‘If we ourselves were judges in this matter, and should lawfully find that where ye might ye did not do your diligence for the attaining of the said original, surely we would proceed further in that matter as the law would require, tarrying nothing therefore as if never any such brief has been spoken of’. Catherine dutifully agreed to write to the emperor requesting the original but she was not fooled. As soon as the letter was dispatched to Charles, Catherine also sent her chaplain Thomas Abel with instructions to tell the emperor that he must under no circumstances give up the brief. Henry and Anne were furious, but there was nothing they could do and Anne once again retired from court when the legate’s trial was finally convened at Blackfriars in June 1529.

Both Henry and Catherine were cited to appear before Campeggio and Wolsey on the first day of the trial at Blackfriars on 18 June 1529. To everyone’s surprise, Catherine heeded the summons and sat in her chair on the opposite side of the hall to Henry. As the court was opened, Catherine stood up and walked over to the king, kneeling at his feet. Catherine knew that the Blackfriars court was in no way impartial and she immediately appealed to Rome for the case to be heard there. She also knew how to make her point and, as she kneeled before Henry, she made the speech of her life:

‘‘Sir’, quoth she, ‘I beseech you for all the love that hath been between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice and right, take of me some pity and compassion, for I am a poor woman and a stranger born out of your dominion. I have here no assured friends, and much less impartial counsel. I flee to you as to the head of justice within this realm. Alas! Sir, wherin have I offended you, or what occasion of displeasure have I deserved against your will and pleasure – now that you intend (as I perceive) to put me from you? I take God and all the world to witness that I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife, ever comfortable to your will and pleasure, and never said or did anything to the contrary therof, being always well pleased and contented with all things wherein you had any delight or dalliance, whether it were in little or much. I never grudged in word or countenance, or showed a visage or spark of discontent. I loved all those whom ye loved only for your sake whether I had cause or no, and whether they were my friends or my enemies. This twenty years or more I have been your true wife and by me ye have had divers children, although it hath pleased God to call them out of this world, which hath been no default of me’.