Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession (22 page)
To Anne, the court must suddenly have seemed empty without Elizabeth but she was able to visit her daughter regularly and both Henry and Anne delighted in playing with their daughter and showing her off to the world. In April 1534, for example, they visited Elizabeth at Eltham and both were pleased with the fair-haired princess’s progress. Elizabeth resembled Anne facially but she had Henry’s colouring and, according to Sir William Kingston, one of the gentlemen present at Eltham, Elizabeth was ‘a godely child as hath been seen, and her Grace is much in the King’s favour as a godely child should be’. Both Anne and Henry had every reason to be delighted with their pretty daughter in April 1534 for, only the month before, she had officially been declared heiress of England by parliament.
Henry and Anne had always determined that their marriage should be the king’s legitimate marriage and that his marriage to Catherine had always been invalid. This meant that Mary, as the king’s daughter by a woman who was never his wife, could never be heiress of England. While this made perfect sense to both Henry and Anne, this was not the view held by much of England and most people saw Mary as the true heiress. Although Henry had Elizabeth proclaimed Princess of England at her baptism both he and Anne wanted to further safeguard their child’s position and, in March 1534 parliament passed the first Act of Succession, setting out that:
‘The said Lady Katherine shall be from henceforth called and reputed only dowager to Prince Arthur and not queen of this realm. And that the lawful matrimony had and solemnised between your Highness and your most dear and entirely beloved wife queen Anne shall be established, and taken for undoubtful, true, sincere, and perfect ever hereafter’.
Anne followed the progress of the Act closely and its terms finally enshrined her position in law. Under the terms of the Act, Henry’s heirs were to be sons born to him by Anne. In the absence of such sons, his next heirs were sons born to a later wife. Finally, in the absence of any sons, Henry’s heirs were to be his daughters by Anne, a tacit acknowledgment that Henry did not, as yet, actually have a son. The Act also made it high treason for a person ‘by writing, print, deed, or act procure to do, or cause to be procured or done, anything or things to the prejudice, slander, disturbance, or derogation of the said lawful matrimony solemnised between your majesty and the said Queen Anne’. This was everything that Anne had hoped for and Henry also caused parliament to pass an Act requiring everyone in England to swear an oath to be obedient to Henry and to his heirs by Anne.
Henry and Anne were determined to ensure that their marriage was recognised as lawful by everyone in the kingdom and during the parliament in March 1534, Henry ordered every lord, knight and burgess to swear the oath of succession. He also sent commissioners around the kingdom to take the oath in every parish. This was an unprecedented step for the king to take and, for the most part, measures taken to ensure that people swore were successful. According to the Chronicler, Wriothesley, for example, on the same day that the Holy Maid of Kent was executed:
‘All the craftes in London were called to their halls, and there were sworne on a booke to be true to Queene Anne and to believe and take her for lawfull wife of the Kinge and rightfull Queene of Englande, and utterlie to thincke the Ladie Marie, daughter of the Kinge by Queene Katherin, but as a bastarde, and thus to doe without any scrupulosity of conscience; also all the curates and prestes in London and thoroweout Englande were also sworne before the lorde of Canterburie and other Bishopps; and allso all countries in Englande were sworne in likewise, everie man in the shires and townes were they dwelled’.
While everyone was required to swear, not everyone did. Catherine and Mary, as expected by both Anne and Henry, refused. More worryingly for the couple, the influential John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Henry’s ex-chancellor, Thomas More, also refused to swear. For Anne, a refusal to swear was a direct challenge to the legitimacy of both her marriage and her child and all those who refused the oath quickly became her enemies. In April 1534 Anne would have reasoned that she was in a far stronger position than any of her enemies and she would have known by then that she would shortly bear a child and, hopefully, Henry’s longed-for son. In April 1534 Anne cannot have foreseen the dark clouds gathering on the horizon ahead of her.
REBELS AND TRAITORESSES
For Anne, 1534 began well and she must have felt secure in her position as queen. However, she would also have been aware that, with both Catherine and Mary still maintaining their opposition, she could never be completely secure. Henry’s infidelity in the summer of 1533 must also have played on her mind and, while she still retained his support and affection, she certainly realised that his fervour towards her had abated in the first year of their marriage. Anne knew that in order to safeguard her position she needed a son and, as time moved on, troubles slowly began to mount up for her. By summer 1534, the honeymoon of Anne’s marriage and queenship was over.
Anne always expected opposition to her queenship from Catherine of Aragon and it would have come as no surprise when the older woman maintained her resistance following her demotion to Princess Dowager. Catherine was a woman as determined as Anne and the two women loathed each other. It is hard to excuse Anne concerning the campaign of vindictiveness that she waged against both Catherine and her daughter and she certainly contributed to making their lives miserable. Anne did at least act for her own self-preservation and to ensure the position of her daughter. This does not excuse her, but it does explain her actions. Henry, on the other hand, acted with calculated cruelty towards his ex-wife and eldest daughter and he was determined to crush their opposition. People simply did not defy Henry VIII and Henry displayed a ruthlessness towards the two women that he would later show towards Anne and her own daughter. Even Anne may have seen his conduct as the warning it was and it would only have made her more determined to ensure that her own position was secure, at the expense of Catherine and Mary.
Anne and Henry attacked Catherine soon after the annulment of her marriage was pronounced. While neither Anne nor Henry can have expected Catherine to acknowledge their marriage, they may have hoped that under enough pressure she would at least become less openly defiant. The first attempt to break Catherine’s position was made in July 1533, when Lord Mountjoy was sent to Catherine to inform her of her new title of Princess Dowager. According to Lord Mountjoy, they:
‘Found her lying on a pallet, as she had pricked her foot with a pin, and could not stand, and was also sore annoyed with a cough. On our declaring that our instructions were to her as Princess Dowager, she took exception to the name, persisting that she was the king’s true wife, and her children were legitimate, which she would claim to be true during her life. To our assertion that the marriage with Anne Boleyn had been adjudged lawful by the universities, the lords and commons, she said the king might do in his realm by his royal power what he would; that the cause was not theirs but the Pope’s to judge, as she had already answered the duke of Norfolk. To other arguments, that she might damage her daughter and servants, she replied she would not damn her own soul on any consideration, or from any promises the king might make her’.
Lord Mountjoy cannot have relished his commission to visit Catherine and, to his horror, when she was shown a copy of his orders, she scored through the words ‘Princess Dowager’ violently and replaced them with ‘Queen’. Catherine’s defiance infuriated Anne and Henry, but it cannot have been unexpected and they continued, throughout 1534 and 1535, to try to break Catherine’s will.
Henry and Anne were determined to keep Catherine in exile away from London and, soon after the return of Lord Mountjoy to court, Catherine was ordered to move to a house further from London. According to Chapuys, the move did not go according to Henry’s plan and, as Catherine travelled, crowds assembled to see her. They showed her great affection and ran after her litter calling her queen in defiance of the king. This was exactly what Anne and Henry did not want to hear and it only hardened their resolve towards Catherine and her daughter. In December 1533, they resolved to move Catherine again, this time to Somersham, a house surrounded by both a moat and marshes and, as Catherine had heard , ‘the most unhealthy house in England’. Catherine absolutely refused to go, even when the Duke of Suffolk arrived and dismissed the bulk of her household. When it became apparent that Suffolk had instructions to remove her by force, Catherine locked herself in her chamber and declared through a hole in the wall that the Duke would have to break down the door. Suffolk was forced to return to court leaving Catherine where she was. Once again, Anne and Henry were furious at Catherine’s refusal to admit the fact of their marriage and, in exasperation, they turned their attention to her daughter.
Mary, who only turned eighteen in February 1534, must have seemed a much easier target to Anne. Throughout the years of the divorce, Mary had consistently supported her mother and Anne may have underestimated the strength of Mary and Catherine’s commitment to each other. The pair had not been permitted to meet since the summer of 1531 when Henry left Catherine, but they still found ways to communicate in secret. In September 1533, Catherine heard rumours that Mary was to become a target of the king’s anger and wrote to her daughter to fortify her for the struggle ahead. Catherine wrote:
‘Daughter, I heard such tidings today that I do perceive, if it be true, the time is come that Almighty God will prove you; and I am very glad of it, for I trust he doth handle you with a good love. I beseech you to agree to His pleasure with a merry heart; and be you sure that, without fail, he will not suffer you to perish if you beware to offend him’.
Catherine ended her letter telling Mary to obey Henry in everything, save only where she would offend God. Anne and Henry can have had no idea of just how hardened Mary’s resolve was. Henry always saw Mary as a disobedient child who needed to be brought to heel, but for Anne, following the birth of Elizabeth, it was more personal and Mary was every bit her daughter’s rival as Catherine was hers.
Henry’s attacks on Mary began soon after Elizabeth’s birth and, by 15 September 1533, her household servants had been ordered to remove her livery and replace it with that of the king. This was, essentially, a public announcement of Mary’s ‘illegitimacy’, and only Elizabeth, as the king’s legitimate daughter, was to be given her own household. Henry also sent a deputation of his council to order Mary to relinquish her claim to be Princess of England. The council members must have thought that Mary would be a more malleable target than her mother but, in this, they would be sadly disappointed. Mary greeted them imperiously and:
‘Without taking the advice of anybody, as no communication would have been permitted her, replied to the Commissioners, and likewise wrote to the King, that she would be as obedient to his commands as any slave, but she had no right to renounce or derogate from the titles and prerogatives that God, nature, and her parents had given her; that being daughter of the king and queen, she had a right to be styled Princess; and that her father might do with her as he pleased, she would do nothing expressly or tacitly in prejudice of her legitimacy, nor of the cause of her mother’.
Chapuys concluded that this treatment was due to Anne’s ‘importunity and malignity’ but, while Anne would have been well aware of, and approving of, the treatment meted out to Mary, it was Henry who was directly behind the attack on his eldest daughter. Anne would not have had the power to act in this way alone.
Mary’s anger infuriated both Henry and Anne and in early November 1533, Henry announced that Mary’s household would be broken up and that she would be sent to serve Elizabeth as one of her ladies. This was the ultimate humiliation for Mary, but she still would not be cowed and she moved to join Elizabeth in December. Anne would have been angered to hear that Mary still protested loudly and, upon arrival in Elizabeth’s household, Mary refused to go and pay her respects to the ‘Princess’, replying that ‘she knew no other Princess in England except herself and that the daughter of Madame de Penebrok had no such title’. Mary added, maddeningly for Anne, that, since her father acknowledged Elizabeth to be his daughter, she would call her sister, in the same way that she called Henry’s bastard son, Richmond, brother.
Such comments not only enraged Anne, but she also saw them as a direct challenge to her beloved daughter. Anne knew well that there was no one in England more dangerous to Elizabeth than Mary and she was constantly afraid that Henry’s heart would soften towards his eldest daughter. Anne was given direct control over Mary by the king and appointed her aunt, Lady Shelton, as Mary’s governess. This meant that Anne received direct information from Mary’s household and she was able to monitor Mary accordingly. She was determined that Henry and Mary should not meet and, in January 1534, when Henry visited Elizabeth without Anne, Anne obtained his promise that he would not see his eldest daughter and Mary was kept in her room. Anne was alarmed to hear that, as the king mounted his horse to leave, he looked up to the roof of the house and saw Mary kneeling on a terrace, looking towards her father. Instinctively, Henry put his hand to his hat to salute Mary and was eagerly followed by those accompanying him. Upon Henry’s return to court, Anne berated him for this, complaining that he did not keep Mary closely confined enough. She also reconsidered her earlier plans to have Mary brought to court and made to carry her train, for fear that the king’s affection for Mary should be reawakened.