The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown (25 page)

Anne Boleyn Had Threatened Cromwell

Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, recorded on the 5th June 1535 something Cromwell told him, "the Lady [Anne] telling him, among other things, that she would like to see his head off his shoulders."
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Cromwell had seen Cardinal Wolsey fall, partly as a result of Anne Boleyn's influence over the King, so some historians argue that Cromwell needed to get rid of Anne before she could bring him down.

However, historians such as John Schofield, point out that Anne's threat was made back in 1535 and that Cromwell had shrugged it off, saying " I trust so much on my master, that I fancy she cannot do me any harm".
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Chapuys was also sceptical, wondering if the threat was actually " an invention of Cromwell". We also know that Anne lashed out at people and said things in anger. For example, she said that she would "bring down the pride of this unbridled Spanish blood",
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in reference to Mary, and that "she wished all the Spaniards in the world were in the sea".
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These were empty threats borne out of frustration. Furthermore, Cromwell had no need to bring Anne down when he could just wait for the Conservatives and Henry VIII to do it for him. By spring 1536, Anne was losing her influence over the King anyway and wasn't so much of a threat as she had been in Wolsey's time.

Cromwell Took Responsibility for Anne's Fall

Cromwell boasted that he was responsible for the coup against the Boleyns. In a letter to the Emperor dated 6th June 1536, Chapuys related a conversation he had had with Cromwell in which Cromwell had said that "it was he who, in consequence of the disappointment and anger he had felt on hearing the King's answer to me on the third day of Easter, had planned and brought about the whole affair."
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Chapuys credited Cromwell's claim about being responsible for the plot; he was an experienced ambassador who had had many dealings with Cromwell. He did not doubt that Cromwell was to blame.

However, John Schofield points out that in the part of the sentence before Cromwell said that "he had planned and brought about the whole affair, he also said that he had been "authorised and commissioned by the king to prosecute and bring to an end the mistress's trial".
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Cromwell's plotting was due to orders from Henry and not of his own volition. Greg Walker puts forward the argument that Cromwell simply investigated the allegations made against Anne, rather than being the one to initiate them.
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Cromwell reacted to events rather than causing them, but may have wished to come across as "a clever Machiavell" to Chapuys, rather than a minister who had not spotted the Queen's immoral behaviour.

Two Birds With One Stone

As well as Anne, who had become a thorn in his side regarding foreign policy, Cromwell wanted to remove powerful and influential men who were affecting his own standing with the King. Sir Henry Norris was one of the King's closest friends and, as Groom of the Stool, had considerable influence over the King, and Sir William Brereton was causing problems for Cromwell in Wales. Eric Ives points out that Brereton reigned supreme in North Wales and Cheshire, having "a virtual monopoly" of royal appointments made in the region,
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and that he used his authority there to push his own agenda. Brereton had had run-ins with Bishop Rowland Lee, Cromwell's representative there, and he was obviously going to be a fly in the ointment for Cromwell's planned reforms in the Welsh borders. Brereton was also a corrupt character, having caused the hanging of John ap Griffith Eyton in 1534 after Eyton had been acquitted for causing the death of one of Brereton's retainers by the Star Chamber.

In bringing down Anne for adultery, Cromwell could get rid of Brereton and Norris too.

Cromwell and the Catholic Conservatives

As Cromwell began to work with Chapuys for a reconciliation between Henry VIII and the Emperor, and the restoration of Mary, he came to some kind of agreement with the Catholic conservatives. This group consisted of the Seymours, Sir Nicholas Carew, the Marquis and Marchioness of Exeter, the Countess of Kildare and Baron Montagu. In April 1536, Chapuys
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reported that the Conservatives had heard, probably from Cromwell himself, of a breach between Anne and Cromwell. They had also heard that Cromwell had been asked by the King to give up his lodgings to Edward Seymour and his wife so that he could visit Edward's sister, Jane, without being seen. I agree with Ives
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that Chapuys probably brought Cromwell and the Conservatives together when it became apparent that they were both working towards the same purpose.

At the end of the day, Cromwell was a pragmatist. He could see that Anne was going down and could easily take him with her if he didn't join the other side. After Anne's fall, he then worked to free himself from the conservative faction by implicating them in plots concerning Mary.

Cromwell Gained from the Coup

Not only did Cromwell get rid of Anne, her brother, Brereton and Norris, he also gained financially and in prestige. He succeeded to Lord Privy Seal in July 1536, after Thomas Boleyn surrendered it, gained a stewardship from the fall of George Boleyn and the abbey of Lesnes from Brereton for his servant, Ralph Sadler.

Mark Smeaton's Arrest

On 30th April 1536. Mark Smeaton, a court musician and a member of the Boleyn circle, was apprehended and taken to Thomas Cromwell's house in Stepney. Not to the Tower of London, but to Cromwell's own home. According to The Spanish Chronicle, which has to be taken with a large pinch of salt, Cromwell "called two stout young fellows of his, and asked for a rope and a cudgel, and ordered them to put the rope, which was full of knots, round Mark's head, and twisted it with the cudgel until Mark cried out, "Sir Secretary, no more, I will tell the truth, " and then he said, "The Queen gave me the money. " "Ah, Mark, " said Cromwell, "I know the Queen gave you a hundred nobles, but what you have bought has cost over a thousand, and that is a great gift even for a Queen to a servant of low degree such as you. If you do not tell me all the truth I swear by the life of the King I will torture you till you do." Mark replied, "Sir, I tell you truly that she gave it to me". Then Cromwell ordered him a few more twists of the cord, and poor Mark, overcome by the torment, cried out, "No more, Sir, I will tell you everything that has happened". And then he confessed all, and told everything as we have related it, and how it came to pass."
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George Constantine, Sir Henry Norris's servant, wrote of how he'd heard that Smeaton was "grevously racked",
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although he didn't know if it was true. Whatever the truth of the matter, the fact that Smeaton was taken to Cromwell's home shows Cromwell's personal involvement in what was going on, although Greg Walker points out that Cromwell may have simply been acting on allegations made against Smeaton and Anne.

He Kept People Away from the King

Men like Archbishop Cranmer, who may have been able to talk the King around, were barred from seeing the King. Cranmer, who was at his country home in Kent, was called back to Lambeth but it was made plain that he should not try to see the King. Instead, he had to write to the King and try to defend Anne that way, although his letter cannot be seen as much of a defence and was tempered by an added postscript after his meeting with the Star Chamber.

It appears that George Boleyn may have travelled from Greenwich to Whitehall in an attempt to see the King, but was arrested and thrown in the Tower instead. The same is true of Anne's friends Sir Richard Page and Sir Thomas Wyatt, men who may have spoken up for her, given the chance.

Suspect 2 – King Henry VIII

The next suspect is the King himself and those who believe he was ultimately responsible cite the following reasons:

The King was the Master and Cromwell was His Servant

Historian Robert Hutchinson
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writes that it was natural that Henry VIII would turn to his minister to remove his unwanted second wife. Cromwell would not have dared to risk his life by moving against the Queen without the King's blessing; he was simply there to do the King's bidding. In a letter to Stephen Gardiner and John Wallop in Paris, Cromwell referred to "the King's proceeding", rather than to "my plan".
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It was Henry VIII who signed the death warrants and who stood by as his wife went to her death. Historian Derek Wilson writes of how Henry VIII behaved in his usual manner, giving orders to his ministers and then "retiring into the shadows" so that he could feign surprise when presented with the evidence against Anne.
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The King Wanted to Take a Third Wife

Chapuys had reported that after Anne's miscarriage in January 1536, the King had told one of his principal courtiers in secret "that he had been seduced and forced into this second marriage by means of sortileges and charms, and that, owing to that, he held it as nul. God (he said) had well shown his displeasure at it by denying him male children. He, therefore, considered that he could take a third wife, which he said he wished much to do."
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Chapuys also reported that after Catherine of Aragon's death, Anne had "cried and lamented...fearing lest she herself might be brought to the same end".
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However, historians like Eric Ives believe that there is no evidence that Henry was looking to replace Anne. He was still referring to Anne as his "most dear and most entirely beloved wife the Queen" and writing of his hope for "heirs male" as late as 25th April 1536.
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He was also still pushing for Anne to be recognised by Europe as his rightful wife and Queen. As we've hears, he even tricked Chapuys into recognising Anne as Queen, by bowing to her, on 18th April 1536. Why bother if he was about to replace her with Jane?

Henry and Anne were due to leave for Rochester, en route to Calais, on 2nd May, the day after the May Day jousting, but this was not cancelled until 11pm on Sunday 30th April, after the arrest of Mark Smeaton. Surely, if Henry had ordered Anne's fall then he would not have planned this trip?

The King's Behaviour

Chapuys wrote that "the King has shown himself more glad than ever since the arrest of the Concubine, for he has been going about banqueting with ladies, sometimes remaining after midnight, and returning by the river" and that "He supped lately with several ladies in the house of the bishop of Carlisle, and showed an extravagant joy".
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Chapuys thought this behaviour was odd and was rather cynical, commenting that "You never saw prince nor man who made greater show of his [cuckold's] horns or bore them more pleasantly. I leave you to imagine the cause."
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Henry VIII was devastated in 1541 when Catherine Howard betrayed him, weeping in front of his privy council when he found out the truth about her. Chapuys commented then that "this king has wonderfully felt the case of the Queen, his wife, and that he has certainly shown greater sorrow and regret at her loss than at the faults, loss, or divorce of his preceding wives", going on to say "In fact, I should say that this king's case resembles very much that of the woman who cried more bitterly at the loss of her tenth husband than she had cried on the death of the other nine put together, though all of them had been equally worthy people and good husbands to her: the reason being that she had never buried one of them without being sure of the next, but that after the tenth husband she had no other one in view, hence her sorrow and her lamentations. Such is the case with the King, who, however, up to this day does not seem to have any plan or female friend to fall back upon."
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Henry showed no surprise, shock or upset at the investigation into Anne or at her fall.

Henry VIII also became betrothed to Jane Seymour on 20th May, the day after Anne Boleyn's execution, and then married her on 30th May. This ruthless and rather unseemly behaviour does suggest that his love for Anne had dwindled long before her death and that he had been planning marriage to Jane for some time. Of course, you could equally say that the paranoid King was manipulated by Cromwell into believing that Anne was guilty and so felt that she deserved everything that she got; and that Cromwell and the Seymours had been working on him for a while.

Henry's Stamp

John Schofield
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believes Henry's involvement is proven by the lack of logic in Anne being condemned for adultery even though Henry's marriage to Anne was annulled. Cromwell, as a lawyer, would have wanted a logical, "watertight case", yet the case against Anne made no sense. The blackening of Anne's name and the complexity of the plot bear the stamp of a husband who wanted his wife dead. The plot was down to emotions such as jealousy, fear, resentment and hatred, not Cromwell's rational and legal brain.
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It would have been far easier for Cromwell to annul the marriage and send Anne to a nunnery. Instead, he had to build a very complicated and nonsensical case.

Henry Involved Himself in the Proceedings at the Start

After receiving news of Mark Smeaton's confession, Henry chose to question Sir Henry Norris on their ride to Whitehall from the May Day joust, offering Norris a pardon if he would confess.

Revenge

Anne and George Boleyn had, allegedly, ridiculed Henry VIII's clothes and his ballads, and had also discussed his sexual problems. George had even joked that Elizabeth may not be Henry's daughter. Their fall could, therefore, be seen as Henry VIII's ultimate revenge. It could also be said that Anne had made a fool of Henry and let him down. He had abandoned his wife of over twenty years for her, broken with his beloved Church, executed former friends and advisers, all to be with Anne and yet she had failed to provide him with a son.