I edited a source book on Anne Boleyn a few years ago, which
is being published in paperback on 28 August 2013. The hardback was called ‘Anne
Boleyn: In her Own Words and the Words of those who Knew Her’, which made it
very clear what the book contained but was not very catchy! I’ve just
discovered that the new paperback is being called ‘The Anne Boleyn Papers’.
Please do note that they are the same book.
Anyway, I always find it fascinating to read the original
sources relating to a person. It’s often too easy to rely on secondary sources,
which sometimes leads almost to Chinese whispers – the first historian’s reasoned
argument becoming absolute fact in the second historian’s work. A good example
of this is in my biography of Bessie Blount. Bessie’s childhood home is
unrecorded. From my study of the original documents, I suggested that she might
have lived at Bewdley. I have seen this recorded as fact in later works that
mention Bessie where, actually, a reading of the primary sources shows that it
is not quite so clear-cut. What we understand about major historical figures,
such as Anne Boleyn, is often based on layers of interpretation – some helpful,
some not.
On 2 May 1536 Anne Boleyn was arrested and taken to the
Tower of London. She never left the ancient fortress, being subjected to a
trial there before being executed on 19 May 1536. The arrest, condemnation and
execution of the queen was a major news item at the time and many
contemporaries recorded information and their own take on what was happening. Whenever I am researching Anne Boleyn, I
always look at the despatches of the Imperial Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, who,
although highly biased against Anne, records a lot of detail of real interest.
He wrote three despatches during Anne’s time in the Tower, which I have
abridged below to mark the anniversary of Anne’s imprisonment.
2 May 1536
Your Majesty recollects no doubt what I wrote at the
beginning of last month, in reference to my conversation with Master Cromwell
on this king's divorce from his concubine. Having since heard the Princess's
opinion and pleasure on this particular matter, which is that I should watch
the proceedings, and if possible help to accomplish the said divorce, were it
for no other purpose than for the King's honour and the relief of his
conscience, as she (the Princess) did not care a straw (said the message)
whether the King, her father, had or had not from a new and legitimate marriage
male children who might take away from her the succession to the Crown. Nor did
she wish for the King's divorce out of revenge for the many injuries inflicted
on her mother, the late Queen, and on herself. Those she had willingly forgiven
and forgotten for the honour of God, and she now bore no ill-will to any one
whomsoever.
In consequence of
this message from the Princess, I have since employed various means for the
accomplishment of the said affair, sometimes talking about it to Master
Cromwell, and to such others as seemed to me most fit for the purpose. I have
not written sooner to Your Majesty on this particular subject, because I was
naturally waiting for the issue of the affair one way or other; but it has
since come to a head much sooner and more satisfactorily than one could have
thought, to the greater ignominy and shame of the lady herself, who has
actually been brought from Greenwich to this city under the escort of the duke
of Norfolk, and of the two chamberlains—that of the Kingdom, and that of the
Royal Chamber—and allowed only four maid-servants in attendance. The reason for
all this, as the rumour goes, is, that she has for a length of time lived in
adultery with a spinet-player of her chamber, who has this very morning been
confined to the Tower, as well as Mr. Norris, this king's principal and most
favoured groom-in-waiting, for not having revealed what he knew of the said
adulterous connexion. Rochefort, the brother, was likewise sent to the Tower
six hours before. I hear, moreover, from certain authentic quarters, that
before the discovery of the lady's criminal connexion, the King had already
resolved to abandon her, for there were many witnesses ready to testify and to
prove that more than nine years ago a marriage had been contracted and
consummated between the said Anne Boleyn and the earl of Nortambellan
(Northumberland), and that the King would have declared himself much sooner,
had not one of his Privy Councillors hinted that he could not divorce himself
from Anne without tacitly acknowledging the validity of his first marriage, and
thus falling under the authority of the Pope, whom he fears.
The above is
certainly a most astounding piece of intelligence, and yet if we consider the
sudden change from yesterday to this day, and the King's sudden departure from
Greenwich to come here, there must still be a great cause for wonder. Not to
delay, however, the departure of the express bearer of this my despatch—from
whose lips Your Majesty may learn the details of the affair—I will abstain from
further particulars. Such are its greatness and importance under present
circumstances that I considered it my duty to despatch the express messenger at
once without waiting for the catastrophe. Should this be such as to warrant my
despatching another messenger, I shall not fail to do so...
18 May 1536 (addressed to de Granvelle)
I could not, if I wished, write to you more news of this
country than those contained in my despatch to the Emperor. I hope, however, to
be able to make up for the shortness of this letter by sending you in my next
the faithful account and true chronicle of the mien and language which the
English Messalina, or Agrippina [5], held during her imprisonment, in which
account you will, no doubt, find very remarkable things, as the lady under
whose custody and keeping she was has not concealed a single thing from me.
From the very
beginning of her incarceration the lady I allude to sent to communicate to me
certain facts concerning the Messalina, apart, among others, that she heard her
say that she could not imagine who could have made her lose the King's favour
and love save me, for she pretends that from the very moment of my arrival at
this court, the King no longer looked upon her with the same eyes as before. I
confess that I was rather flattered by the compliment, and consider myself very
lucky at having escaped her vengeance; for kind-hearted and merciful as she is,
she would without remorse have cast me to the dogs. Two other English gentlemen
have been imprisoned along with her, and it is suspected that a good many more
will share the same fate; for the King has been heard to say that he believes
that upwards of 100 gentlemen have had criminal connexion with her. You never
saw a prince or husband show or wear his horns more patiently and lightly than
this one does [6]. I leave you to guess the cause of it.
Owing to my last
illness, and also because I am waiting for the extremum actum fabulœ, and presume that George, the courier, must
have told you my prognostications with regard to the Messalina's fate, I will
not write more for the present.—London, 18 May 1536.
I have just heard
that yesterday, the 18th, the archbishop of Canterbury (Cranmer) declared and
pronounced by way of sentence the lady's daughter (Elizabeth) to be a bastard,
and begotten by master Norris, not by the King, which is equivalent to remove a
cog from the Princess's eyes. I hope, therefore, that whatever difficulties the
King may have hitherto made to have her declared true heir to the kingdom will
now be removed, and that he will now have her declared and sworn to as such,
and as his legitimate daughter born of a marriage legitimated propter bonam fidem parentum [7]. I have
also been informed that the said archbishop of Canterbury had pronounced the
marriage of the King and of his mistress to have been unlawful and null in
consequence of the King himself having had connexion with Anne's sister, and
that both he and she being aware and well acquainted with such an impediment,
the good faith of the parents could not possibly legitimize the daughter.
Though what I am
about to say on this subject may have no sufficient foundation, yet I feel
bound to inform you that many people here imagine that most of the
newly-created bishops will soon have their desert; for there is a report that,
by persuading the King's mistress that there was no necessity for the
confession [of her sins], they have encouraged her and made her more audacious
and licentious in the prosecution of her detestable and abominable vices; and what
is still more blameable on the part of the said bishops, they have taught her
that, according to their sect, it was allowable for a woman to ask for aid and
help in other quarters, even among her own relatives, whenever the husband was
not considered idoneous [8] or sufficiently able to satisfy her wishes.
Before her marriage
to the King, and in order to enhance the love she bore him, the Royal concubine
used to say that there existed a prophecy that about this time a queen of
England was to be burnt alive; but that, to please the King, she cared not if
she was that queen. After the marriage she often said in jest that part of the
prophecies had already been fulfilled, and yet she had not been condemned to
death by fire. One could very well repeat to her what was once said to Caesar: Venere idus, sed nondum prœterire, the
days have commenced, but have not yet ended.
I have not the least
doubt that if His Majesty intends to treat and come to some sort of arrangement
with these people, some personage of authority and rank ought now to be sent,
and if he could but come before the closing of this Parliament, the affairs of
the Princess and other matters might be satisfactorily adjusted. Should the
said personage come before St. John's Day, he might assist, as I believe, at
the King's approaching marriage and the coronation of the new queen, which is
to be celebrated with great solemnity and pomp, the King intending, as I am
told, to perform wonders, for he has already ordered a large ship to be built,
like the Bucentaur of Venice, to bring the lady from Greenwich to this city,
and commanded other things for the occasion.
19 May 1536
...I cannot well describe the great joy the inhabitants of
this city have lately experienced and manifested, not only at the fall and ruin
of the concubine, but at the hope that the Princess will be soon reinstated in
her rights. I must say, however, that as yet the King has shown no intention of
bringing about the said reinstatement, but has on the contrary obstinately
refused to contemplate it, on the two different occasions that his Privy
Council has spoken about it. I hear, nevertheless, from many authentic
quarters, that even before the arrest of the concubine, and when speaking to
mistress Jane Seymour about their future marriage, the lady proposed to him to
replace the Princess in her former position; and on the King telling her that
she must be out of her senses to think of such a thing, and that she ought to
study the welfare and exaltation of her own children, if she had any by him,
instead of looking out for the good of others, the said Jane Seymour replied
that in soliciting the Princess's reinstatement she thought she was asking for
the good, the repose, and tranquillity of himself, of the children they
themselves might have, and of the kingdom in general, inasmuch as should the
reinstatement not take place, neither Your Majesty nor the English people would
be satisfied, and the ruin and desolation of the country would inevitably
ensue.
Such a wish on the
part of the said lady is very commendable indeed, and I purpose using all means
in my power in keeping her to her good intentions. I also mean to go to the
King about it, two or three days hence, and visit one by one the members of his
Privy Council, and if I can personally, or by means of my friends, influence
some of the lords and gentlemen who have been summoned for the next
Parliament—which is to meet on the 8th of next month—I shall not fail to do so,
for I really believe there will be a question of excluding the little bastard
from the succession to the Crown, and praying this King to marry again. It
should be observed that in the meantime, and in order to conceal from the
public his love for Jane Seymour, the King has made her reside seven miles from
this city, at the house of the Grand Squire [Sir Nicholas Carew], a rumour
having been previously spread among the public that the King has not the least
wish of marrying again unless he be actually urged to it by his subjects. Many
messages, moreover, have I already received from various members to the effect
that at the meeting of Parliament theby will uphold, at the peril of their
lives, the Princess' rights.
On the afternoon of
the very day on which the concubine was lodged in the Tower, as the duke of
Richmond went to his father, the King, to ask for his blessing, according to
the English custom, the latter said with tears, that both he and his sister,
meaning the Princess, ought to thank God for having escaped from the hands of
that woman, who had planned their death by poison, from which I conclude that
the King knew something of her wicked intentions.
On the 12th inst.
Master Norris, first chamberlain to this king, Master Obouston (Weston) who
used to sleep in the King's chamber, Master Bruton (Brereton), the gentleman in
waiting, about whom I wrote to Your Majesty by my secretary, were condemned as
traitors, and sentenced to death. Of these, only the last-named confessed
having slept with the concubine on three different occasions; all the others
were sentenced on mere presumption or on very slight grounds, without legal
proof or valid confession. On the 15th the concubine herself and her brother
(George), were tried by a tribunal composed of the principal lords of the
kingdom, and convicted of treason, the duke of Norfolk presiding over it and
reading the sentence to the culprits. I am told that the earl of Wiltshire
wished also to be present at the trial [of his daughter and son], as he had
been at that of the other four. Neither the concubine nor her brother were
taken to Westminster as the other criminals had been; they were tried within
the Tower, and yet the trial was far from being kept secret, for upwards of
2,000 people were present.
The chief charge
against the concubine was her having had connexion with her own brother
(George) and other accomplices; having actually promised, to marry Norris after
the King's demise, her having received from, and given to, the said Norris
certain medals indicative that both were bound together and aimed at the King's
death; that she had poisoned the late Queen, and meditated doing the same with
the Princess. These charges she obstinately denied; others she answered
satisfactorily enough, though she confessed having given money to Ubaiston
(Weaston) and to several other gentlemen. She was likewise charged, as was her
brother, with having ridiculed the King, and laughed at his manner of dressing,
showing in many ways that she did not love him, and was tired of married life
with him.
The brother, as I
say, was charged with having had connexion with her; no proof of his guilt was
produced except that of his having once passed many hours in her company, and
other little follies. He answered so well that many who were present at the
trial, and heard what he said, had no difficulty in waging two to one that he
would be acquitted, the more so that no witnesses were called to give evidence
against him or against her, as is customary in such cases, when the accused
denies the charge brought against him. I cannot omit another charge in the
indictment, namely, that the concubine, his sister, had said to his wife that
the King was impotent. This, however, was not read in public; it was given to
him in writing, under protest that he was only to say yes or no, without
reading aloud the accusation; but to the great annoyance of Cromwell and
others, he (George Boleyn) read it aloud and said that he was unwilling to
engender or create suspicion in a matter likely to prejudice the issue the King
might have from another marriage. He was likewise charged with having spread
the rumour or expressed a doubt as to Anne's daughter (Elizabeth) being the
King’s, to which charge, however, he made no answer.
Both were tried
separately without seeing each other. The concubine was sentenced first to be
burnt alive, or beheaded at the King's pleasure. When the sentence was read to
her, she received it quite calmly, and said that she was prepared to die, but
was extremely sorry to hear that others, who were innocent and the King's loyal
subjects, should share her fate and die through her. She ended by begging that
some time should be allowed for her to prepare her soul for death.
After reading the
sentence to him, the brother said to his judges that since die he must he would
no longer plead "not guilty," but would own that he deserved death.
His last prayer to the King was that certain debts, which he named, should be
paid out of his personal estate.
Although the
generality of people here are glad of the execution of the said concubine,
still a few find fault and grumble at the manner in which the proceedings
against her have been conducted, and the condemnation of her and the rest,
which is generally thought strange enough. People speak variously about the
King, and certainly the slander will not cease when they hear of what passed
and is passing between him and his new mistress, Jane Seymour. Already it
sounds badly in the ears of the public that the King, after such ignominy and
discredit as the concubine has brought on his head, should manifest more joy
and pleasure now, since her arrest and trial, than he has ever done on other
occasions, for he has daily gone out to dine here and there with ladies, and
sometimes has remained with them till after midnight. I hear that on one
occasion, returning by the river to Greenwich, the royal barge was actually
filled with minstrels and musicians of his chamber, playing on all sorts of
instruments or singing; which state of things was by many a one compared to the
joy and pleasure a man feels in getting rid of a thin, old, and vicious hack in
the hope of getting soon a fine horse to ride—a very peculiarly agreeable task
for this king. The other night, whilst supping with several ladies at the house
of the bishop of Carlion (Carlisle), he (the King) manifested incredible joy at
the arrest of Anne, as the Bishop himself came and told me the day after.
Indeed, he related to me that, among other topics of conversation, the King
touched on that of the concubine; telling him: "For a long time back had I
predicted what would be the end of this affair, so much so that I have written
a tragedy, which I have here by me." Saying which, he took out of his
breast pocket a small book all written in his own handy and handed it over to
the Bishop, who, however, did not examine its contents. Perhaps these were
certain ballads, which the King himself is known to have composed once, and of
which the concubine and her brother had made fun, as of productions entirely
worthless, which circumstance was one of the principal charges brought against
them at the trial.
Three days after the
concubine's arrest the Princess was removed to other quarters, most honorably
attended and escorted on the way, not only by all the officers of the little
bastard's household, but by several gentlemen and ladies, who had formerly been
in her mother's service and in her own, and who, on hearing the news, went
thither to congratulate her. Though the governess herself had no objection to
their remaining in the house, the Princess, following my advice, has declined
their services, and will retain no one near her person that is not previously
accepted and appointed by her father, the King. Indeed, my great fear is, among
others, that when the moment comes for the Estates to ask for the reinstatement
of the Princess in her rights and titles, the King is likely to answer that it
cannot be done unless she previously swears to, and conforms with, the
irritating statutes concerning the King's second marriage as well as against
Papal authority; which act of acquiescence, in my opinion, it will be extremely
difficult to obtain from the Princess, though my advice is that she ought to
agree to the whole of it so long as her conscience is not aggrieved, nor her
rights and titles impaired through it. Please Your Majesty to instruct me what
your wishes and intentions on this point are, that I may act accordingly.
Today lord
Rocheford, and the other four gentlemen above-named, were all beheaded in front
of the Tower. Notwithstanding the great efforts made by the resident French ambassador,
the bishop of Tarbes, and by another one, called the sieur de Vintemille
(Vintimiglia), who arrived the day before yesterday, to save the life of Vaston
(Weston), he suffered death like the rest. To make matters worse for the
concubine it was arranged that she should witness their execution from the
windows of her prison. Rochefort before dying declared himself to be innocent
of all the charges brought against him, though he owned that he deserved death
for having been contaminated with the new heresies, and having caused many
others to be infected with them. He had no doubt, said he on the scaffold, that
God had punished him for that, and, therefore, he recommended all to forsake
heretical doctrines and practices, and return to true faith and religion. Which
words on the mouth of such a man as lord Rochefort will be the cause of
innumerable people here making amends for their sins, and being converted.
The concubine
herself is to be beheaded without fail tomorrow, or on Friday, at the latest,
and I have my reasons for saying that the King is very impatient, and would
have liked the execution to have already taken place; for the day before Anne's
condemnation he sent the Grand Squire and many others in quest of Mistress
Seymour, and made her come to within one mile of his own residence, where she
is being splendidly entertained and served by cooks and officers of the royal
household. And I have been told by one of her female relatives, who dined with
her on the morning of the very day of Anne's condemnation, that the King sent
her a message to say, that at three, in the afternoon of that day, she would
receive news of the sentence, and so it was, for he despatched Master Briant
[Sir Francis Bryan] in all haste to give her the intelligence. So that to all
appearances there cannot be the least doubt that the King will soon take the
said Seymour to wife, some people believing, and even asserting, that the
marriage settlements have already been drawn up...
...After writing to
Your Majesty as above, I thought I might delay the departure of this courier
for 24 hours, in order to report the execution of the concubine, who was
beheaded this very morning at 9 o'clock within the Tower, in the presence of
the King's Chancellor, of Master Cromwell, and of many other members of the
King's Privy Council, besides a considerable number of other people, though no
foreigners were allowed to witness the execution. I hear that, although the
heads and bodies of those executed the day before yesterday have been buried, the
head of the concubine will be exposed on the bridge, at least for some time.
She confessed, and took the Sacrament yesterday. No one ever shewed more
courage or greater readiness to meet death than she did, having, as the report
goes, begged and solicited those under whose keeping she was to hasten the
execution. When orders came from the King to have it delayed until today, she
seemed sorry, and begged and entreated the governor of the Tower (Sir William
Kingston), for God's sake, to go to the King, and beg of him that, since she
was well disposed and prepared for death, she should be dispatched immediately.
The lady in whose keeping she has been sends me word, in great secrecy, that
before and after her receiving the Holy Sacrament, she affirmed, on peril of
her soul's damnation, that she had not misconducted herself so far as her
husband the King was concerned...
Every year flowers are delivered to the Tower of London to be placed on Anne's grave. A small token by which the sudden and violent death of one of the most vivid figures of the Tudor period is remembered.
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