The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown (27 page)

Conclusion

The Anne Boleyn I have come to know though my research is a far cry from the Anne of popular fiction, but she is certainly no saint, angel or martyr, and does not deserve to be put on a pedestal. Anne was stubborn, ambitious, impatient, hot-tempered, driven, calculating, spiteful at times, and a woman who would not suffer fools gladly. On the other side of the coin, she was also fiercely loyal to her friends and passionate about supporting the arts, poor relief and education. In short, she was not the typical Tudor housewife. She was a "power player"
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who would have seen herself as Henry's partner, an equal, rather than his submissive consort.

Whatever her faults, Anne Boleyn was not the victim of her own pride, ambition and conceit. Rather, she was the victim of a paranoid and desperate man, and of a political coup. Her personality and the rash things she said made her enemies, but it was her situation that killed her, not her temper. If she had been more submissive to Henry, would it have saved her? Of course not. She still would have miscarried; she would still have been seen as a usurper, the religious divides would still have existed and Henry would still have doubted his marriage. He would probably have got bored of her sooner! I cannot see how Anne could have prevented the events of 1536 in any way.

Anne and her brother, George, were people who enjoyed the limelight. They captivated those around them with their magnetism, their wit and their charm. As my good friend Clare Cherry once said to me, those ten years in the sunlight of the Tudor court would have been preferable to them than a lifetime in the shadows. They died before their time, they died brutally; but, oh, how they lived! Their names and their stories are still being remembered and told nearly 500 years later, and they are captivating generation after generation. Their magnetism, it seems, stretches through the ages and grabs us. I am proud to be telling their story on a daily basis.

The Cast – After May 1536

Henry VIII (1491-1547)

Henry's third marriage was shortlived, with Henry losing Jane Seymour to puerperal fever in October 1537. He went on to marry Anne of Cleves in January 1540, but the marriage was annulled on 7th July of the same year due to an alleged existing pre-contract between Anne and Francis of Lorraine. Other reasons for the annulment included Henry's lack of consent to the marriage and the lack of consummation. On 28th July 1540, Henry VIII married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, but she was executed on the 13th February after it was found that she had slept with Sir Francis Dereham before her marriage to the King and that she had been having an affair with Thomas Culpeper during her marriage. Henry VIII married his sixth and final wife, the twice-married and -widowed Catherine Parr, on 12th July 1543. Catherine outlived the King, who died on 28th January 1547. He was laid to rest alongside his third wife, Jane Seymour, in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Henry's nine year old son, Edward, became King Edward VI and was crowned at Westminster Abbey on the 20th February 1547.

The Boleyn family

Although Thomas Boleyn fell from favour after the fall and execution of his daughter, he was a survivor and did not give up. He was active in squashing the rebellion of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 and he was present at Edward VI's christening in 1537. Eric Ives talks of how he buttered up Cromwell by lending him his chain and Garter badge at one point.
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By 1538, Thomas Boleyn was back properly at court and it was even rumoured that he would marry Margaret Douglas, Henry VIII's niece. However, he did not live long after Anne's fall, dying in March 1539, around a year after his wife. The fact that Henry VIII ordered masses to be said for Thomas's soul is clear evidence that Thomas was back in favour by then.

Elizabeth Boleyn died in April 1538 at Baynard's Castle and was laid to rest in the Howard Chapel of St Mary's Church, Lambeth. Elizabeth had been ill at the time of her daughter and son's arrests in 1536 so it may be that her death was due to that long-term illness.

Anne and George's sister Mary had married William Stafford in 1534 and had escaped the fate of her siblings by being away from court in 1536. Their Boleyn connections seem to have had no adverse effect on the Stafford couple, with William Stafford being chosen to receive Anne of Cleves in Calais in December 1539. The Staffords were in England from January 1540, when Stafford was listed as a Gentleman Pensioner and became an Esquire of the Body. Mary's daughter, Catherine Carey, was appointed as a maid-of-honour to the new queen Anne in April 1540, serving alongside her aunt, Jane Boleyn. In that same month she married Francis Knollys, a Gentleman Pensioner of the King's household. After the failure of the Cleves marriage both Catherine and Jane became ladies to the King's new wife, Catherine Howard. Catherine was able to avoid becoming embroiled in Catherine Howard's fall, but her stepfather was named as giving evidence regarding the Queen and her relationship with Francis Dereham.

Mary Boleyn died in July 1543 and it is not known where she was laid to rest. Stafford remarried in 1552, marrying a distant relation, Dorothy Stafford. The couple was forced into exile, along with Catherine and Francis and their family, when the Catholic Mary I came to the throne in 1553.

Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540)

On 2nd July 1536, Cromwell became Lord Privy Seal, after the resignation of Thomas Boleyn. On 8th July he became Baron Cromwell of Wimbledon. Cromwell's injunctions to the clergy caused unrest resulting in the Pilgrimage of Grace risings in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and other northern counties. However, these were quickly squashed by the King, and Cromwell continued his programme of evangelical reform.

In 1539, Cromwell negotiated the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves, sister of William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, in an attempt to form an alliance between England and Schmalkaldic League of Lutheran princes. Unfortunately, the King did not like Anne when he saw her and blamed Cromwell for forcing him to marry her in January 1540. The King's unhappiness and disillusion allowed Cromwell's opponents to rise up against him and push for his fall. They could never have moved against Cromwell when he stood high in royal favour, but he had failed the king and the king was not willing to protect him. At a council meeting on 10th June 1540, a group led by the Duke of Norfolk got Cromwell arrested and he was taken to the Tower of London. An Act of Attainder was used against him, meaning that he had no trial in which to defend himself. Nonetheless, he was kept alive until the Cleves marriage could be annulled on the grounds of non-consummation. He was executed on 28th July 1540 at the Tower of London and suffered an awful end with a botched execution. It is said that it took three blows to finish him.

Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk (c1484-1545)

Suffolk was prominent as the King's lieutenant in suppressing the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace in late 1536, and in 1537 he moved to Lincolnshire on the orders of the King. In December 1539, he led the party which met Anne of Cleves at Dover and was also involved in sorting out the annulment of the marriage in 1540. In the early 1540s, he was involved in Henry VIII's wars with Scotland and France, serving as the King's lieutenant in the North from 1543-1544 and then leading the siege of Boulogne in 1544. He died on 22nd August 1545 at Guildford. His cause of death is unknown. He was laid to rest in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 9th September 1545. Unfortunately, his sons, Henry and Charles, died of sweating sickness in July 1551.

Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor (1487/8-1544)

On 29th November 1538, Thomas Audley was made Baron Audley of Walden and was elected as a Knight of the Garter in April 1540. The 1539 Parliament's Act of Precedence gave him "precedence over all but dukes of royal blood in parliament, privy council, and Star Chamber."
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He survived the fall of Thomas Cromwell and was the Privy Council's expert on treason. He was involved in negotiating the annulment of the Cleves marriage and, later, in interrogating Catherine Howard. He was also a commissioner at the trials of Culpeper and Dereham and was Lord High Steward at the trials of Henry Pole, Baron Montagu, and Henry Courtenay, marquess of Exeter, in 1538. In 1541 he performed the same role at the trial of Thomas Fiennes, ninth Baron Dacre. On 21st April 1544 he resigned the great seal due to illness and died on 30th April 1544 at his home in London.

Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset (1519-1536)

After the executions of Anne and George Boleyn et al, Richmond was appointed Chamberlain of Chester and North Wales, and Constable of Dover Castle. He was in attendance at the opening of Parliament in June 1536 but became ill in early July 1536. He died on 23rd July 1536 at St James's Palace, probably of a pulmonary infection. He was laid to rest at Thetford Priory but was then moved to St Michael's Church, Framlingham, after the Priory was dissolved.

Eustace Chapuys, Imperial Ambassador (c1491-1556)

Chapuys was responsible for the Lady Mary submitting to her father in 1536 after she was bullied by members of the King's council. In 1536/7, he supported Dom Luis in his bid to be a potential bridegroom for Mary, but the marriage never took place. Chapuys began to suffer with gout in 1539, but this did not stop him being involved in the negotiations which led to Henry VIII and Charles V declaring war on France in 1543. Chapuys accompanied the King's men to France.

Chapuys wanted to retire in 1544 but had to help his successor, Van der Delft, for some time. He was then sent to Bourbourg, near Gravelines, to negotiate until July 1545 when he was finally released from service. On his retirement, Chapuys lived in Louvain, where he founded a college, as well as a grammar school at Annecy. In 1555 he decided that his English pension should go towards setting up a scholarship for English students at Louvain. He died on 21st January 1556 and was laid to rest in the Chapel of Louvain College.
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Jane Seymour (c1508/09-1537)

In May of 1537, it was announced that Jane Seymour was pregnant. Henry VIII was ecstatic, ordering bonfires to be lit in celebration and showering his Queen with gifts and affection. It is said that Jane had a pregnancy craving for quail, so the King ordered the very best quail for her from Flanders and Calais. On 12th of October, after a long and difficult labour, Jane gave birth to Henry's longed-for son, a boy named Edward, at Hampton Court Palace. Within two days of her son's christening, on 15th, Jane became feverish and delirious. After her fever reached crisis point on 17th June, it looked like Jane would begin to recover. However, she started to go downhill again, passing in and out of consciousness. On 24th October 1537, Jane Seymour died. She was buried at Windsor Castle, in St George's Chapel.

The Lady Mary, formerly Princess Mary (1516-1558)

After submitting to her father, and accepting her illegitimacy in June 1536, Mary was rehabilitated back at court and stood as godmother at Edward's christening in October 1537. Mary was close to her father's sixth wife, Catherine Parr, even though their religious views were very different. During her brother Edward VI's reign, Mary opposed the new religious policies and continued to celebrate the mass. In 1550, she nearly fled England, but had a last minute change of heart.

In July 1553, Mary fought successfully for the Crown after Edward VI's named successor, Lady Jane Grey, was proclaimed Queen. Edward died on 6th July 1553 and Mary was proclaimed Queen Mary I on 19th July. Her first parliament declared her parents' marriage as valid and Mary as legitimate, and Mary quickly set about restoring England's relationship with Rome. She was met with opposition in 1554 when she decided to marry Philip II of Spain and the resulting rebellion, Wyatt's Rebellion, resulted in the executions of Thomas Wyatt the Younger, Lady Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley, amongst others. Mary married Philip on 25th July 1554. Mary suffered two phantom pregnancies but died childless on 17th November 1558. She was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. Mary is known for being the monarch who lost Calais and for her burning of Protestant martyrs, hence the nickname "Bloody Mary".

Princess Elizabeth (1533-1603)

The annulment of her parents' marriage and her mother's execution saw Elizabeth being demoted to Lady Elizabeth. Elizabeth went from pampered princess, the apple of her father's eye, to ignored bastard. Elizabeth was so forgotten that her governess, Lady Margaret Bryan, had to write a letter to Cromwell begging for him to intercede with the King as Elizabeth had outgrown all of her clothes and her household had no money to buy more. It was Catherine Parr who restored Elizabeth's relationship with her father; and before he died, he added both Mary and Elizabeth back into the line of succession. When Henry VIII died, Elizabeth lived with Catherine Parr and new husband, Thomas Seymour, but Seymour started acting inappropriately with Elizabeth, so she was sent away. Elizabeth lived happily through Edward VI's reign but had problems during Mary I's reign and was actually imprisoned in the Tower of London in March 1554 after Wyatt's Rebellion. She was released on 19th May 1554 but was placed under house arrest in Woodstock until October 1555, when she was allowed to return home to Hatfield.

Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth I on Mary I's death on 16th November 1558. She reigned until her death on 24th March 1603 and has gone down in history as The Virgin Queen and Gloriana.

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500-1558)

Charles V was involved in the Council of Trent, an ecumenical council which opened in 1545 and which began the Counter-Reformation. He worked hard to squash Lutheranism and outlawed the League of Schmalkaden. He suffered from epilepsy and gout. In later life, severe gout led to him having to be carried around in a sedan chair. He abdicated the majority of his titles to his son, Philip, in October 1555 and then retreated into seclusion in a monastery, surrounding himself with clocks. He died of malaria on 21st September 1558.