The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown (28 page)

Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter (1498/9-1538) and Henry Pole, Baron Montagu (1492-1539)

On 4th November 1538, Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, was arrested for treason. Arrested alongside him were his brother-in-law, Sir Edward Neville, and Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter. The latter's family (wife Gertrude Blount and son Edward Courtenay) were also arrested.

The three men were accused of conspiring against the King, of seeking to deprive the King of his title of supreme head of the church and of plotting with Cardinal Reginald Pole, the exiled brother of Montagu. Montagu's brother, Geoffrey Pole, had been imprisoned in the Tower of London at the end of August 1539 and had implicated Henry Pole during his interrogation on 26th October. Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury and mother of Reginald, Henry and Geoffrey, was interrogated on 12th November by William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, and Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely.

Neville was beheaded on 9th December 1538 and Geoffrey Pole was pardoned on the 2nd January 1539, after having attempted suicide several times. Montagu and Exeter were beheaded on Tower Hill on 9th January 1539, and Margaret Pole was eventually executed on 27th May 1541. Exeter's wife was released in 1540 and his son in 1553.

Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Countess of Kildare (d.1548)

Elizabeth died on an unknown date in 1548. Her elder son, Gerald, who had been on the run after forming the Kildare rebellion, returned to England after Henry VIII's death and was restored to his lands.

John Skip (d.1552)

Skip did not suffer because of his association with Anne Boleyn. He was made Master of Gonville Hall and Archdeacon of Suffolk in 1536, rector of Newington in Surrey and Archdeacon in Dorset in 1538, and Bishop of Hereford in 1539. In 1549, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer identified Skip as not fully supporting the new prayer book.
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Sir Nicholas Carew (c.1496-1539)

Carew was chosen to be in charge of the font at Edward VI's baptism in October 1537 and his wife was one of the ladies at Jane Seymour's funeral in November 1537. He was a royal favourite until his arrest on 31st December 1538. He was implicated in the plot which resulted in the executions of Montagu and Exeter. Carew was tried on 14th February 1539 and executed on 8th March on Tower Hill.

Matthew Parker (1504-1575)

Like John Skip, Matthew Parker did not suffer as a result of Anne Boleyn's fall, and was rewarded with various benefices and ecclesiastical preferments during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. In Mary I's reign, he suffered as a married clergyman and was deprived of his prebend of Ely and deanery of Lincoln. It appears that he sought refuge in Cambridge, where he concentrated on his theological writing. In 1559, during the reign of Elizabeth I, he was made Archbishop of Canterbury and was therefore involved in the synod called to work on Elizabeth's religious settlement. His time as archbishop is known for the vestiarian controversy.

He died on 17th May 1575 at Lambeth Palace. Parker is also known for his collection of more than 700 manuscripts which he bequeathed to Corpus Christi College. They are now housed in the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and in Cambridge University Library. The collection spans from the 6th century Gospels of St. Augustine to 16th century records relating to the English Reformation.
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Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1489-1556)

In the summer of 1536, Cranmer published his "Ten Articles". These defined the beliefs of the new Church of England, the Henrician Church which had been established after the break with Rome. This was followed by "The Bishop's Book". In 1541, Cranmer was chosen as the person to tell the King of Catherine Howard's colourful past, and was involved in interrogating her. In 1543, thanks to support from the King, Cranmer managed to survive a plot against him by clergymen. On 27th May 1544, his "Exhortation and Litany" was published.

Cranmer held the hand of the dying King on 28th January 1547, giving him reformed statement of faith instead of the last rites. He was one of the executors of Henry VIII's will and so was an important of the Lord Protector's administration. In 1549, the Act of Uniformity established "The Book of Common Prayer", which set out the new legal form of worship in England. Its being made compulsory in June 1549 led to the Prayer Book Rebellion. Cranmer was unaffected when Protector Somerset fell and was replaced by John Dudley. In 1552, the Act of Uniformity replaced the Book of Common Prayer with a more Protestant Book of Common Prayer.

On 8th August 1553 Cranmer performed the Protestant funeral rites when Edward VI was buried in the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey. While other reformed clergy fled the country now that the Catholic Mary I was in control, Cranmer chose to stay. Unfortunately, this led to him being imprisoned in the Tower of London and being found guilty of treason. Although he recanted four times, his execution was not cancelled. On the date of his execution he was given the opportunity to publicly recant at the University Church, Oxford. Instead of recanting, Cranmer opened with the expected prayer and exhortation to obey the King and Queen, and then renounced his recantations, saying that the hand he had used to sign them would be the hand that would be punished by the fire first. He was burned at the stake in Oxford on 21st March 1556.

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder (1503-1542)

Wyatt escaped Anne Boleyn's fall and the King made him an ambassador to the court of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. However, Wyatt got into trouble again in 1541 when he was charged with treason for making rude comments about the King and for dealing with Cardinal Pole. Wyatt was once again imprisoned in the Tower of London and this time he had no father to secure his release because his father had died in November 1536. This time, it was Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, who secured his pardon and release, but Wyatt had to agree to return to his estranged wife. In 1542, Wyatt was back in favour and had been restored to his office of ambassador. However, his return to favour was shortlived because Wyatt was taken ill after receiving the emperor's envoy at Falmouth. Sir Thomas Wyatt died on 11th October 1542 at Clifton Maybank House, the home of his friend Sir John Horsey, in Sherborne Dorset. He was laid to rest at Sherborne Abbey. His plain tomb can be found in the Wykenham Chapel of the Abbey.

Sir Thomas Wyatt's son, Thomas Wyatt the Younger, was executed on 11th April 1554 after leading a rebellion, "Wyatt's Rebellion" or "Wyatt's Revolt", against Queen Mary I. Although he was tried and found guilty on 15th March, his execution was postponed in the hope that he would implicate Mary I's half-sister, Elizabeth, in the uprising. Wyatt went to his death protesting Elizabeth's innocence.

Sir Richard Page (d.1548)

Sir Richard Page was released from the Tower of London by 8th July 1536 and in the October was accompanying the King to Welbeck to deal with the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion. By November that year he had been appointed as Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex. In 1539, 1542 and 1544, he received various grants, showing that he was in the King's favour; by 1540 he was lieutenant of the gentlemen pensioners. When the King went to France in July 1544 and Catherine Parr acted as regent, Page was appointed chamberlain in charge of Prince Edward's household at Hampton Court Palace. Page died in London in 1548. He was related to Edward Seymour's wife, Anne Stanhope, by marriage as he had married her mother sometime before 1534.
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Sir Francis Bryan (c.1490-1550)

Bryan had survived the coup against his relative, Anne Boleyn, by allying himself with the Seymours. In 1537 he was sent to Paris to secretly arrange the kidnap or assassination of Cardinal Pole, but it was suspected that instead he actually tipped Pole off. He acted as ambassador to Francis I in 1538 in Nice while Thomas Wyatt acted as ambassador to Charles V but was recalled due to his reckless gambling, drunkenness and all round bad behaviour. He never acted as ambassador to the French king ever again. Bryan sat on the jury which found his brother-in-law, Carew, guilty of treason in 1539. He was appointed vice-admiral in January 1543, but this was revoked in the February after he disobeyed the instructions of John Dudley, Viscount Lisle and lord admiral. In October 1543 he acted as ambassador to Charles V and in October 1546 he was given the freedom of the City of London. He was made knight-banneret in 1547 for his role in the expedition against the Scots as commander of the horse. In 1548, Bryan married Joan Butler, dowager countess of Ormond, and daughter of James fitz Maurice Fitzgerald, tenth earl of Desmond, making him a wealthy and powerful man. He died in Ireland on 2nd February 1550.
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Sir William Kingston (c.1476-1540)

In 1537, Sir William Kingston benefited from the dissolution of the monasteries when he was awarded the land and possessions associated with the abbey of Flaxley in Gloucestershire. In 1539, Kingston was appointed comptroller of the King's household and was also elected a Knight of the Garter. In 1540, he was chosen to inform Thomas Cromwell of the charges against him. After Cromwell's execution, he was able to buy Cromwell's property in Gloucestershire. He died at Painswick, in Gloucestershire, on 14 September 1540.
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William Latymer (1498/9-1583)

In September 1538, William Latymer became Master of the College of St Laurence Pountney in London. This was followed by him being given various benefices in Suffolk, Kent, London and Nottingham. In 1547, he voted for clerical marriage and then married a widow, Ellen English. He was a principal witness, along with John Hooper, in the case against Bishop Edmund Bonner in 1549. This case led to Bonner being deprived of his bishopric. In Mary I's reign, Latymer was deprived of his living due to his marriage. He survived by separating from his wife, but this was just an outward pretence. When Elizabeth I came to the throne, Latymer was chosen as one of her chaplains, and he went on to write his treatise or "Chronicklle of Anne Bulleyne". Latymer died at around the age of 84 in 1583. He was laid to rest on 28th August 1583 in Peterborough Cathedral. He left his wife, Ellen, and two sons: Edward and Joshua.

Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland (c.1502-1537)

Henry Percy managed to avoid being caught up in the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion of 1536. However, his brother, Sir Thomas Percy, was executed in 1537 after being involved in the rebellion and the 1537 Bigod Rebellion. His other brother, Sir Ingram, died in prison in the Tower of London. Percy died on 29th June 1537 in Hackney and was buried in the parish church there.

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473-1554)

After acting as Lord Steward at the trials of Anne and George Boleyn, Norfolk went on to be godfather to Edward VI at his christening in October 1537 and a commissioner at Queen Jane Seymour's funeral in November 1537. In 1539, he was chosen to go with the Duke of Suffolk to meet Anne of Cleves at her arrival at Dover. In 1540, during Cromwell's arrest in the council chamber, it was said that Norfolk tore the St George from around Cromwell's neck; certainly, he was very much involved in the plot against Cromwell. When the King's anger turned on the Howard family after Catherine Howard's adultery, Norfolk was fortunate in escaping punishment. He went on to serve the King in the war against the Scots in 1542 but his pro-French stance caused him problems when the King became keen to go to war with France. He served the King in France as lieutenant-general of the army, besieging Montreuil, but was rebuked by the King when he withdrew.

On 12th December 1546, Norfolk and his son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, were arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London after it was alleged that Surrey had displayed the royal arms and insignia in his own heraldry. Surrey was found guilty of treason on 13th January 1547 at a common inquest at Guildhall and Norfolk was attainted on 27th January. Both were sentenced to death and Surrey was executed on 19th January 1547. Norfolk was lucky; the King died before the former's scheduled execution date. As a consequence, in 1553, Norfolk was released and pardoned by Mary I, and died naturally at Kenninghall on 25th August 1554. He was laid to rest in St Michael's Church, Framlingham.

Jane Boleyn (née Parker, d. 1542)

Jane was left in a difficult financial situation after her husband's death and appealed to Cromwell for assistance. Her father-in-law, Thomas Boleyn, was forced to become involved and Cromwell helped her to obtain a position in Jane Seymour's household. After Jane Seymour's death, she served Anne of Cleves and was one of the senior ladies of the bedchamber who was questioned regarding Anne of Cleves's understanding of what constituted consummation. Her testimony obviously helped the King have his marriage annulled so that he could marry the young Catherine Howard. When Catherine Howard fell in 1541, she and Culpeper laid the blame for their transgressions at Jane's feet. Jane was questioned regarding her involvement in their affair. She was executed with Catherine on 13th February 1542 even though she had had a mental breakdown in the Tower. Her name became synonymous with betrayal and scandal, yet she was more likely a scapegoat.

Extras

You can find lots of extras at The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown website -
http://www.thefallofanneboleyn.com/

These include:-

• Interactive timeline
  
• Execution poetry
  
• Further Reading
  
• Notes and Sources for each chapter, plus full bibliography
  
• Printable timeline of the events of 1536
  
• Places – Details on all of the places mention in the book
  
• Q&A with Claire
  
• YouTube videos on Anne Boleyn