Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession (18 page)

Anne had received almost everything that Catherine had possessed but she was still determined to show her rival just who the true queen of England was. Anne’s behaviour towards Catherine and her daughter is never attractive but it is, at least, understandable. For Anne to truly be queen, Catherine had to be only princess dowager and for Anne’s unborn child to be truly legitimate, Mary had to be a bastard. Anne was determined to erase any evidence of the ex-queen from court and her vindictive actions ensured that even Catherine made an unwilling contribution to her coronation. Chapuys heard a report that Henry:

‘Had been very much grieved that the arms of the queen Catherine had been not only taken from her barge, but also rather shamefully mutilated; and that he had rather roughly rebuked the Lady’s Chamberlain, not only for having taken away the said arms, but for having seized the barge, which belonged only to the queen, especially as there are in the river many others quite as suitable’.

For Anne, only Catherine’s barge would truly show the world she was queen and no other barge would do. This incident caused something of a disagreement between the royal couple and Henry may have been concerned about the diplomatic troubles that Anne’s actions might cause. The disagreement was not however serious and it was in Catherine’s barge that Anne made her ceremonial procession to the Tower on the first day of her coronation festivities.

Anne’s coronation was intended to be an extravagant display of the new order heralded by her marriage. Henry wanted to prove to the world that Anne was every inch the queen and, although it was often customary for kings to have a second coronation when they remarried, Henry intended that the celebrations would be Anne’s alone. The coronation was intended to be the biggest spectacle since Henry’s own coronation nearly twenty-five years before and, in order for the splendour to be fully displayed, the festivities were designed to take place over five days. Anne, at around six months pregnant, knew that she would face a gruelling series of ceremonies during the last days of May and the first days of June 1533, but she probably did not care as she considered her coronation the greatest triumph of her life and the high-point of her entire career.

On 29 May 1533, the mayor of London and representatives of all the crafts arrived by water at Greenwich, travelling in barges decked with colourful banners. Anne watched the company assemble from a window of the palace and at 3pm she made a stately appearance, walking confidently out to her barge. Once Anne was ready, the entire company set out for the Tower of London. Anne landed at Tower wharf and, as she landed, there was a great gun salute from the Tower, louder than anyone could remember. Henry came out to greet Anne ‘with a noble loving countenance’, before thanking the assembled company. He and Anne then retired to the royal apartments at the Tower, presumably to talk over the day’s events and for Anne to rest and prepare herself for the days ahead. An enormous crowd had come out to watch Anne’s procession and, while Chapuys claimed that the crowd ‘showed themselves as sorry as though it had been a funeral’, this was not the majority verdict and Anne herself was pleased with the numbers who had turned out to see her.

The next day was spent quietly in the Tower while Henry created 19 knights of Bath, a traditional ceremony at any coronation. Anne spent the day making the final preparations for her ceremonial entry to the city of London. On 31 May, Anne set out for Westminster in a grand procession. According to the account published by Wynkyn de Worde, first came the foreign ambassadors riding through the streets wearing blue velvet with white feathers. Next were squires, knights and most of the nobility, wearing violet clothes trimmed with ermine. Then there were the judges and the abbots. Following them rode the bishops and the favoured ambassadors of France and Venice. The lord mayor of London followed with other officials and then came Anne, sitting in a litter with a rich canopy held over her and dressed in all her finery. After her came her ladies, either following behind on their horses or riding in chariots and each displaying the wealth and finery deemed fitting for the occasion. As she left the Tower, Anne heard another gun salute and she must have been brimming with triumph as she travelled through the streets.

Anne’s route through the city had been deliberately chosen as a stage to demonstrate the glory of Anne and the Tudor dynasty. At Fenchurch Street, she stopped to watch a pageant given by children before travelling on to Gracechurch where she viewed a pageant on Apollo and the nine muses. She then travelled on to Leaden Hall where, perhaps, the most elaborate of all the pageants of the day was staged. A castle with a roof designed to reach to the heavens had been erected and, as Anne watched, a white falcon, representing her own falcon emblem, descended from the sky. As the falcon landed, a child stepped forward and recited;

‘Behold and see the Falcon white!

How she beginneth her wings to spread,

And for our comfort to take her flight

But where will she cease, as you do read?

A rare sight and yet to be joyed,

On the Rose, chief flower that ever was,

This bird to ’ light, that all birds doth pass’.

An angel then descended from the heavens holding a crown in its hands which it placed on the falcon’s head. Another child then recited:

‘Honour and grace be to our Queen Anne!

For whose case an Angel celestial

Descendeth, the Falcon as white as swan,

To crown with a Diadem Imperial!

In her honour rejoice we all

For it cometh of God and not of man

Honour and grace be to our Queen Anne!’

In case anyone remained in any doubt that the falcon was meant to represent the queen, a representation of St Anne sat at the foot of the castle. Anne was thrilled at the pageants in her honour and the public rejoicing at her accession that they contained. At Cheap, Anne also passed a fountain out of which ran three types of wine. She must have been exhausted when she finally arrived at York Place where she spent the night.

Anne may well have found it difficult to sleep as she mulled over the events of the day in her head. On the whole, she would have reasoned that the day had gone well and the vast majority of the crowds do appear to have been positive, if not specifically for Anne then at least for the spectacle that had been provided. There is some indication that the day was not entirely positive and that Anne did not make quite the impression that she had hoped for. In an anonymous account, clearly exaggerated in its hostility to Anne, the author claimed that very few members of the crowd uncovered their heads and cried God save the Queen as Anne passed. This was noticed by Anne and one of her servants told the mayor to command the people to be more respectful. The mayor answered that ‘he could not command people’s hearts, and that even the king could not do so’. Anne’s fool then called out to the crowd that ‘I think you have all scurvy heads, and dare not uncover’. This still did not have the desired effect and the crowd laughed mockingly at the sight of the letters ‘HA’ for Henry and Anne which adorned Anne’s banners. Whilst this was certainly not the behaviour of the majority of the crowd, it is clear that there were hostile observers and this may have marred the day a little for Anne.

Anne’s conduct was also not without criticism and she knew that she would be compared to Catherine in her first appearances as queen. It was customary at a coronation, for the Londoners to give the king or queen a gift of money and Anne was duly provided with a purse of 2,000 nobles. According to the hostile
Chronicle of Henry VIII
instead of distributing the money amongst the captain of the guard and his men as was customary, Anne instead kept the purse for herself, stowing it in her litter beside her. Anne also complained to Henry that evening when she arrived at Westminster, saying, ‘Sir, I liked the city well enough but I saw a great many caps on heads, and heard but few tongues’. It would have taken more than this to spoil Anne’s day and the next morning she rose knowing that she was to be crowned queen of England.

Anne was crowned by Cranmer in Westminster Abbey and the Archbishop himself provided his own account of the coronation in his letter to Archdeacon Hawkins. According to Cranmer, the bishops and abbots assembled at the Abbey and then walked in procession to Westminster Hall where they received Anne. Anne was:

‘Apparelled in a robe of purple velvet, and all the ladies and gentlemen in robes and gowns of scarlet, according to the manner used before time in such business; and so her grace sustained of each side with two bishops; the bishop of London and the bishop of Winchester, came forth in procession unto the church in Westminster, she in her hair, my lord of Suffolk bearing also before her a sceptre and a white rod, and so entered up unto the high altar, where divers ceremonies used about her, I did set the crown on her head, and then was sung Te Deum, & c. And after that was sung a solemn mass: all which while her grace sat crowned upon a scaffold, which was made between the high altar and the choir in Westminster church; which mass and ceremonies done and finished, all the assembly of noblemen brought her into Westminster Hall again, where was kept a solemn feast all that day’.

The feast that followed Anne’s coronation was equally rich and Anne sat apart from the guests as she dined. The following day, Anne attended great jousts in honour of her coronation and then a second feast. Anne must have been exhausted but happy at the end of the festivities, and she knew well that her next triumph was only a few months away when she bore Henry a son.

Anne’s coronation was proof of Henry’s continuing love and obsession with her, and Anne felt secure in his affections. Due to Anne’s advancing pregnancy, the usual summer progress was curtailed that year and Anne spent much time with her ladies. Following her coronation, Anne was the happiest she had ever been and she watched her ladies dancing in her chamber and other pastimes. Anne was also pleased to find that she was still courted by the French king and, soon after her coronation, Francis sent her a rich litter and three mules as a present. Anne also spotted an opportunity to continue her persecution of Catherine in an attempt to prove that she was the legitimate queen and she asked Henry to send to Catherine to demand a rich triumphal cloth which Catherine had brought from Spain to be used as a Christening robe. For once, Anne did not get her way and Catherine refused, responding that she would not grant such a favour ‘in a case so horrible and abominable’. Anne must have been angered by Catherine’s refusal but she soon had other things to worry about.

Henry had never been faithful to Catherine during their marriage and he viewed her pregnancies as an opportunity to pursue his affairs. Anne may well have thought that things would be different with her as Henry had remained faithful for nearly six years while they waited for the wedding. However, by the summer of 1533, some of Henry’s affection had cooled. In August, there were rumours that he had a new mistress. By early September, Anne learned for herself that Henry had been unfaithful to her.

The name of Henry’s mistress in the summer of 1533 is not known, but it was an enormous blow to Anne. Anne may well have had strong feelings for Henry herself and she knew that, until she had a son, her security was entirely dependent on Henry’s passion for her. Unsurprisingly, Anne reacted angrily when she heard news of the affair and she was shocked with Henry’s response. Henry responded with an attitude of righteous indignation, something that must have further infuriated the queen. According to Chapuys in a somewhat gleeful report:

‘The king has taken from his treasures one of the richest and most triumphant beds which was given for the ransom of a duke of Alencon. It was as well for the Lady that it was delivered to her two months ago, for she would not have had it now; because, being full of jealousy, and not without cause, she used some words to the king at which he was displeased, and told her that she must shut her eyes, and endure as well as more worthy persons, and that she ought to know that it was in his power to humble her again in a moment more than he had exhalted her’.

Anne learned the hard way that Henry expected very different behaviour from a wife than he did from a mistress and the king refused to speak to her for two or three days after their dispute. Anne probably decided to wait until the birth of her son to raise the matter again with Henry, knowing that she would then be in an unassailable position. Both Henry and Anne were convinced that their child would be a boy and, in order to be certain, Henry employed a number of physicians, astrologers, sorcerers and sorceresses who all confirmed that this would be the case. Anne had always been lucky and, although she would have known, in reality, that there was an even chance her child would be a girl, she probably blotted this thought from her mind. She had decided to become queen of England and she was queen. She would certainly have reasoned that she could bear the king a son. Anne eagerly awaited the birth of her child and she was full of excitement and apprehension as she took to her chamber at Greenwich on 26 August 1533 to prepare for the birth.

Henry’s grandmother, the formidable Lady Margaret Beaufort, had prepared rules for the confinements of royal ladies and Anne, knowing the importance of emphasising her royal status, would have attempted to follow these. According to Margaret Beaufort, a queen should retire to her chamber about a month before the birth. The roof and walls of the chamber would be entirely hung with rich tapestries, with the exception of one window which was left unblocked to let in the light. Anne’s chamber was a stuffy and uncomfortable place in late August and September 1533 and this may explain why, in fact, she did not take to her chamber until just under two weeks before the birth. Anne would have been attended only by women as she waited for the birth and as tedium set in, she must have been anxious for her pains to begin.