The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown (14 page)

We have no concrete evidence that Jane did betray George and Anne or that she was the sort of woman who spied through keyholes and lied, like the Jane of "The Tudors", so I, for one, am not jumping to conclusions and using Jane as a scapegoat.

4th May 1536 Cruelly Handled – Anne Boleyn in the Tower

As I have previously said, Sir William Kingston, the Constable of the Tower of London, was ordered to make regular reports to Thomas Cromwell regarding Anne Boleyn's imprisonment in the Tower. Obviously, Anne could say things that her enemies could use against her. For that reason her ladies in the Tower
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were appointed by Cromwell and ordered not to speak to Anne unless Lady Kingston was present to remember or record what was said.

The ladies chosen to serve Anne in the Tower were:

• Mrs Mary Orchard – Anne's former nurse and the only one who would have been sympathetic to Anne's plight and shown her love.
  
• Mrs Stonor (Margaret or Anne Foliot) – Wife of Sir Walter Stonor, the King's sergeant-at-arms.
  
• Elizabeth Wood, Lady Boleyn – Wife of Thomas Boleyn's younger brother, Sir James Boleyn of Blickling Hall, and therefore Anne's aunt. Although Sir James Boleyn had served Anne as her chancellor, he was a supporter of the Lady Mary.
  
• Lady Anne Shelton – Thomas Boleyn's sister and the mother of Madge Shelton. In her book on Anne Boleyn's fall, Alison Weir puts forward the argument that Lady Shelton may have turned against Anne after her daughter was used by Anne to keep the King happy (as his mistress). Anne had also forced Lady Shelton to treat the Lady Mary cruelly.
  
• Mrs Margaret Coffin (Margaret Dymoke, also referred to as Mrs Cosyns) – Wife of William Coffin, the Queen's Master of the Horse, and a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber. The Coffins were related by marriage to the Boleyns, but Mrs Coffin had been appointed to spy on Anne in the Tower. She was the lady chosen, along with Lady Boleyn, to sleep "on the Quenes palet".
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• Mary Scrope, Lady Kingston – Sir William Kingston's wife. She had served Catherine of Aragon and was friends with the Lady Mary.
  

Anne Boleyn may have had a Queen's household and sumptuous lodgings, but she was still a prisoner and was surrounded by women who had little sympathy for her. No wonder Anne complained to Sir William Kingston, saying:

"I think [much unkindness in the] King to put such about me as I never loved."
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Anne also complained of the treatment she had experienced at Greenwich, when she was arrested:

"Then she began to talk, and said I was cruelly handled a . . . . a Greenwich with the King's council, with my lord of Norfolk, that he said Tut, [tut, tut!], and shaking her head two or three times."
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In her ramblings, Anne also wondered if Henry was testing her:

"But s]he to be a Queen, and cruelly handled as was never seen; but I th[ink the King d]oes it to prove me;"
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and hoped that her bishops would speak up for her and the country pray for her:

"then she said I would to God I had my bishops, for they would all go to the King for me, for I think the most part of England prays for me and if I died you shall see the greatest punishment for me within these seven years that ever came to England."
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After pondering this, she then talked of her death, the good deeds she had done in her life and the cruelty of the King who had surrounded her with enemies in the Tower:

"And the[n, she said, shall I be in Heaven, for] I have done many good deeds in my days, but I think ]much unkindness in the] King to put such about me as I never loved... I would have had of my own privy chamber which I favour most."
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In another letter, Kingston reported that Anne wanted him to bear a letter from her to Cromwell which stated that it would not rain until she was delivered out of the Tower.
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John Strype commented that Anne was "thinking probably that God (who takes care of innocency) would vindicate her by giving or withholding the clouds of heaven."
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Anne's ramblings show her fear, her panic and hysteria, but they also show her trying to hold on to some hope and faith. She was hoping that the King was simply testing her, and she was trying to reassure herself that at least she had a place in Heaven if things continued to go wrong. Poor Anne.

5th May 1536 – Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Richard Page and Sir Francis Bryan

By 5th May 1536, two further arrests had taken place: courtier and poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, and Sir Richard Page, a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and a former favourite of Thomas Cromwell. There were now seven men in the Tower of London.

The Spanish Chronicle records Wyatt being apprehended at the May Day joust, although no other source backs up this date:

"It seems that the King sent Cromwell to tell him to have Wyatt fetched in order to examine him. When they arrived in London Cromwell took Master Wyatt apart, and said to him, "Master Wyatt, you well know the great love I have always borne you, and I must tell you that it would cut me to the heart if you were guilty in the matter of which I wish to speak." Then he told him all that had passed; and Master Wyatt was astounded, and replied with great spirit, "Sir Secretary, by the faith I owe to God and my King and lord, I have no reason to distrust, for I have not wronged him even in thought. The King well knows what I told him before he was married." Then Cromwell told him he would have to go to the Tower, but he would promise to stand by his friend, to which Wyatt answered, "I will go willingly, for as I am stainless I have nothing to fear." He went out with Richard Cromwell, and nobody suspected that he was a prisoner, and when he arrived at the Tower Richard said to the captain of the Tower, "Sir Captain, Secretary Cromwell send to beg you to do all honour to Master Wyatt." So the captain put him into a chamber over the door…"
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In Letters and Papers, there is a letter from Wyatt's father, Sir Henry Wyatt, to Cromwell in which he writes that he:

"Received his letter on the 10th, and thanks him for the comfortable articles therein touching his son Thomas and himself. Asks Cromwell when it shall be the King's pleasure to deliver him, to show him "that this punishment that he hath for this matter is more for the displeasure that he hath done to God otherwise," and to admonish him to fly vice and serve God better. Alington, 11 May."
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This shows that Cromwell had written to Sir Henry regarding his son and had offered him some comfort. Sir Henry is obviously grateful for that but is worried that his son's moral conduct would be his undoing. This was not to be the case. Sir Thomas Wyatt was not mentioned in the Middlesex or Kent indictments and was not tried with Weston, Norris, Brereton and Smeaton on 12th May. In a letter written on the 12th May to Lord Lisle, Hussey writes:

"Mr. Payge and Mr. W[y]at are in the Tower, but it is thought without danger of life."
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Hussey changes his mind in his next letter to Lord Lisle on 13th May, where he says that

"This day, some say, young Weston shall scape, and some that none shall die but the Queen and her brother; others, that Wyat and Mr. Payge are as like to suffer as the others."
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Thomas Cromwell wrote to Sir Henry Wyatt on 11th June reassuring him that his son was going to be released and there is a reply in Letters and Papers from Sir Henry Wyatt, on 14th June, saying that:

"On the receipt of Cromwell's letters declaring the King's pleasure, and his favorable warnings to his son to address himself better than his wit can consider, sent for him and commanded his obedience in all points to the King's pleasure, and the leaving of such slanderous fashion as hath engendered unto him the displeasure of God and of his master. Found it not now to do in him, but already done. Has charged him to follow Cromwell's commandments, and repute him as his father. Assured him that if he had not this sure printed in his heart, he would refuse him for his son. Begs Cromwell to continue the same to him, and he will not find it evil employed. Alington, 14 June."
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It seems that Cromwell had advised Sir Henry to speak to his son and warn him to mend his ways and here Sir Henry Wyatt confirms that he has followed Cromwell's orders. His son had escaped death by the skin of his teeth and Sir Henry was not going to let him forget it!

Sir Thomas Wyatt would have been the perfect scapegoat or fall guy in this coup, yet he escaped to live another day (or another six years!). It would have been easy for Cromwell or the King to frame him for adultery or to claim that Anne had not been a virgin when she married the King because she had already slept with Wyatt. So, why was Wyatt not a major part of the coup? How did he escape?

It is likely that his escape was mostly down to Cromwell, who had close ties with the Wyatt family. However, he would not have been able to secure Wyatt's release without the King's blessing. It appears that the King saw Wyatt as innocent, as someone who had not had much to do with Anne since he (Wyatt) had given up on her and let the King have her. Wyatt had distanced himself from Anne Boleyn and it looks like this saved him.

Sir Francis Bryan Questioned

Also around the 5th May 1536, the courtier and diplomat Sir Francis Bryan, 'christened' the "Vicar of Hell"
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by Thomas Cromwell, was ordered to London for questioning. This was an interesting move because Bryan, although related to Queen Anne Boleyn and having benefited from her patronage in the past, was no friend of the Queen and was very good friends with Sir Nicholas Carew, the man said to be coaching the Lady Jane Seymour. Bryan was questioned, but not arrested.

Sir Thomas Wyatt

Sir Thomas Wyatt was born in 1503 at Allington Castle, Kent. His father, Henry Wyatt, was a Lancastrian who had been imprisoned during Richard III's reign. He was released on the accession of Henry VII, who rewarded him with many grants and titles. Wyatt's mother was Anne Skinner, daughter of John Skinner of Reigate, a woman famed for her hospitality. Henry Wyatt became a Privy Councillor under Henry VII and acted as an executor for the King's will on his death in 1509. He went on to serve the new king, Henry VIII and was made a Knight of the Bath at his coronation in June 1509.

Little is known of Thomas Wyatt's childhood, apart from the story of the lion. It is said that Wyatt, or his father, was raising a lion cub as a pet when it turned on Sir Henry as he entered Allington and knocked him to the ground. Thomas Wyatt had the presence of mind to grab his rapier and run it through the lion's heart. When Henry VIII heard of this story, he commented "Oh, he will tame lions".
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In 1516, Wyatt, along with his friend Thomas Poynings, served as a sewer extraordinary at Princess Mary's christening. Later that year he was sent to St John's College, Cambridge, which was known for Humanism. In 1520, Wyatt married Elizabeth Brooke, the daughter of Lord Cobham, and the couple had a son, Thomas Wyatt the Younger, in 1521. The Duke of Norfolk stood as a godfather at the baby's christening.

In 1524, Wyatt followed his father's example and started a career at court as Clerk of the King's jewels. In 1525 he was made Esquire of the Body and he went on to become an ambassador, undertaking many foreign missions for his master, King Henry VIII. These included one to France in 1526 and one to the Papal Court in Rome in 1527, this last an embassy to try to convince Pope Clement VII to annul the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In 1528 Wyatt was made High Marshal of Calais and in 1532 he was made Commissioner of the Peace in Essex. Wyatt was also one of the men chosen to accompany the King and Anne Boleyn on their visit to Calais in late 1532 and he served Anne at her coronation in the summer of 1533. He was knighted in 1535.

Thomas Wyatt and Anne Boleyn

It is thought that Wyatt fell in love with Anne Boleyn when she first arrived at the English court in 1522. He was unhappily married and it seems to have been love at first sight for Thomas. In his biography "The Life of Anne Boleigne", Thomas Wyatt's grandson, George Wyatt, wrote that when Wyatt saw Anne, "this new beauty", he was "surprised somewhat with the sight thereof" and that he "could gladly yield to be tied for ever with the knot of her love".
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At this time, though, Anne and Henry Percy were in love.

In 1524, Wyatt became clerk of the King's jewels and would have seen Anne at court because she was a member of Queen Catherine of Aragon's household. There is no real evidence that there was any relationship between Anne and Wyatt at this time, and in any case, by Shrovetide 1526 Anne had a new admirer; the King. At the Shrovetide joust, Henry VIII rode out "resplendent in cloth of gold and silver, richly embroidered with a man's heart gripped in a press and engulfed in flames. The motto read declare ie nose – "declare I dare not"." The King had a new love.

Some people believe that Wyatt's poetry is evidence of a relationship between Anne Boleyn and Thomas Wyatt. For example, his riddle poem "What wourde is that that chaungeth not" has the answer "Anna", and in "The Lover Confesseth Him in Love with Phyllis", he writes of "That Brunet" which is taken to refer to Anne. Further evidence (if you believe The Spanish Chronicle!) is the story of Wyatt visiting Anne at Hever, finding her in bed, declaring his love for her, kissing her and touching her breasts and then being disturbed by stamping from upstairs from another of Anne's lovers!
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