Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession (17 page)
Henry regarded this title as a fact to be confirmed, rather than something that he hoped to achieve but, for the clergy, it was an unheard of thing to ask and they debated for some time. Finally, a compromise was reached on 11 February where the clergy agreed to acknowledge Henry as ‘Supreme Head of the Church of England, as far as the law of Christ allows’. This qualification rendered the title virtually meaningless but, for Henry and Anne, it was certainly a start in their moves against the Pope. That Henry should even have attempted such a thing shocked his contemporaries and Chapuys reported that ‘the clergy have been compelled, under pain of the said law of praemunire, to accept the king as head of the Church, which implies in effect as much as if they had declared him Pope in England’. Anne was thrilled at the step towards reform and divorce and she showed herself ‘as much delighted as if she had gained paradise’. For Anne, the praemunire manoeuvres were a sign that she soon would do.
Following the praemunire manoeuvres of early 1531, Henry became increasingly anti-papal in his outlook, supported by both Anne and her father. In 1531 and 1532, Henry was still attempting to persuade the pope to grant him a divorce and, while Anne and Thomas Boleyn may have hoped that Henry’s actions were a step towards reform, for Henry they were probably intended only to push the Pope into taking action on his behalf. Certainly, following the praemunire manoeuvres, advocates of the reform became more open about their beliefs in England. In March 1531, for example, a Lutheran preacher who was sentenced to be burned, insisted that he should be tried again by secular persons and both Norfolk and Thomas Boleyn were sent to interrogate him. Given the involvement of Thomas Boleyn, it is likely that it was Anne herself who persuaded Henry to see the preacher. When he was brought before Henry, he was presented with a roll containing the articles of his heresy. Henry read them and noticed that the first item was that the preacher had claimed that the Pope was not the Head of the Christian Church. At this, Henry said that ‘that ought not to be entered among the heresies, for it was quite certain and true’. Henry then released him. Chapuys believed that it was Anne’s influence that had secured the preacher’s release and he may be right. It is also clear that Anne’s influence was changing the opinions of the king and, in May 1532, Henry permitted a preacher to openly assert that the Pope was a heretic, something which was again attributed to the influence of Anne and Thomas Boleyn.
Throughout 1531 and 1532, Henry continued in his attempts to goad the pope into action. In early 1532, for example, he caused an Act for the Conditional Restraint of Annates to be passed by parliament. Annates were the first year of revenue belonging to the see of a newly appointed bishop and, traditionally, they were paid to the Pope. This could involve quite considerable sums and it is certain that Clement VII was anxious about the loss of this revenue. For Henry, this was a radical move and is testament to his frustration with the papacy. For Anne, Henry’s moves against the papacy must have seemed agonisingly slow and she constantly pushed Henry to take more decisive action. As the
Life of Fisher,
for example, notes:
‘She was greatly suspected, and in a manner notoriously knowne of divers persons to be an heretick, and therby verie likely to corrupt the kinge, being so extreamely blinded with their unlawfull doctrine as she was, which after came to passe in deed: for she was the only person that of a longe time durst break with him in such matters’.
Anne was the only person who dared urge Henry on towards a break with Rome and her pregnancy and secret marriage in early 1533 meant that a solution urgently had to be found. The death of the conservative and aged William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, in August 1532 provided them with the perfect opportunity to secure the divorce.
Henry had inherited Warham from his father and both he and Anne knew that the conservative archbishop was unlikely to be amenable to the radical solution that they had in mind. His death secured the way for a more reform-minded successor and the choice quickly fell to the unknown Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer had been appointed as one of the king’s chaplains in January 1532, almost certainly on Anne’s recommendation. He had previously been a member of Thomas Boleyn’s household and would have got to know Anne well during that period. Most importantly for both Anne and Henry, he also held strong reformist views and was, in fact, already secretly married when he accepted the post of Archbishop of Canterbury early in 1533. As soon as he was appointed, a request was made to the pope for the bulls confirming Cranmer’s appointment and Clement, anxious to do anything to appease Henry, unsuspectingly dispatched them in March 1533. Soon after they arrived, Cranmer repudiated his oath of loyalty to the Pope, allowing both Anne and Henry to be confident that the divorce was imminent.
The major difficulty in obtaining the divorce had always been that Catherine, rather than allowing the case to be heard in England, had appealed to Rome. This was, of course, an entirely rational step for the queen to take, but for Henry and Anne it was infuriating. With the appointment of Cranmer, a more amenable Archbishop, it became imperative for Anne and Henry that the case be heard in England and in February 1533 an Act in Restraint of Appeals was passed rapidly in parliament. This was the last statute needed to engineer both the king’s divorce and the break with Rome and the wording of the Act was a clear statement of the way in which the king’s title of Supreme Head of the Church was now to be interpreted:
‘Where by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same, unto whom a body politic, compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of spirituality and temporality, be bounden and ought to bear next to God, a natural and humble obedience, he being also institute and furnished by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God with plenary, whole and entire power, pre-eminence, authority, prerogative and jurisdiction, to render and yield within this his realm, in all causes, matters, debates and contentious happenings to occur, insurge or begin within the limits thereof’.
The Act expressly stated that matrimonial causes should not be tried by appeal to Rome and that they must be heard within the Church of England. This was the final key statute required and, as soon as Cranmer’s appointment was confirmed, he was ordered by the king to try the validity of Henry’s marriage with Catherine.
In early May 1533, Cranmer travelled to Dunstable, four miles away from Catherine’s residence at Ampthill. Cranmer immediately summoned the queen to attend a church court in order to try the validity of her marriage. Catherine, understandably, refused to heed the summons, saying ‘that inasmuch as her cause was before the Pope, she would have none other judge; and therefore would not take me [Cranmer] for a judge’. Cranmer would have expected this response and this had also been anticipated by Henry who had already given the archbishop orders to proceed with the court regardless of whether the queen attended. Cranmer did just that and, on 8 May, gave final sentence in the court claiming that it had never been possible for the pope to dispense the marriage of Catherine and Henry due to Catherine’s marriage to Arthur. The marriage had therefore been invalid from the start, leaving Henry entirely free to contract another marriage. It is likely that it was Cranmer himself who informed Anne and Henry of his verdict and, as soon as the sentence was given, he hurried back to London in order to prepare for Anne’s coronation.
Even after the divorce had been pronounced, Henry always showed a commitment to the break with Rome and this may have been due to Anne’s continuing influence. In early 1534, Henry put the final touches to the statutes with the Act for the Submission of the Clergy and Restraint of Appeals and the Act of Supremacy. Both Acts ensured that all Henry’s previous actions against the Pope were contained in statute, and the Act of Supremacy sums up Henry’s own beliefs about his power over the Pope:
‘Albeit the king’s majesty justly and rightfully is and oweth to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and so is recognised by the clergy of this realm in their Convocations, yet nevertheless for corroboration and confirmation thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ’s religion within this realm of England, and to repress and extirp all errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses heretofore used in the same; be it enacted by authority of this present Parliament, that the king our Sovereign Lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accept and reputed the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England’.
Anne had never been a friend of the Pope and the fact that the aims of the reform movement and Henry’s divorce coincided must have filled her with joy.
Anne Boleyn played a major role in the reformation, by urging Henry on and by supplying him with reformist ideas. She would always have been pleased that her own advancement had coincided with the fall of the Pope in England, just as it had earlier led to the fall of the hated Wolsey. According to Henry’s chancellor, Wriothesley, Henry commanded that all the bishops and curates in England ‘should publishe and shewe to the people how the Pope hath usurped and taken upon him contrarie to Christen faythe, and that his authoritie and pardons should be extinct and putt downe out of this realme of England for ever more, and his name be blotted or putt out of the masse booke for ever’. Anne saw her marriage as leading to a great change for the better in England and, in April 1533, even before the divorce had actually been finally pronounced, Anne appeared publicly as queen for the first time. She was by then, not just Henry’s wife, but also his queen.
THE MOST HAPPY
Even before Henry’s divorce from Catherine was pronounced, Anne and Henry knew that it would be necessary for them to openly declare their marriage to the world. Anne was anxious to be recognised as queen and both she and Henry wanted to ensure that their child would be legitimate. Henry’s marriage to Anne was the public symbol of his break with Rome and he wanted to ensure the world recognised exactly what he had done.
Although Henry had still not secured the final pronouncement of his divorce, Anne and Henry decided to publicly announce their marriage on Easter Saturday 1533. By April Anne would have been noticeably pregnant and they may have felt that it was necessary to demonstrate the true nature of their relationship to ensure that their child was unquestionably legitimate. After six years of waiting, Anne was anxious to show herself to the world as the queen she had become and she made grand preparations for her appearance on Easter Saturday, intending to outshine Catherine and display herself as every inch the queen. Anne probably also gained a private satisfaction at the shock shown by Catherine’s supporters at court and, certainly, Chapuys was astounded, writing:
‘On Saturday, Easter Eve, dame Anne went to mass in Royal state, loaded with jewels, clothed in a robe of cloth of gold friese. The daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, who is affianced to the duke of Richmond, carried her train, and she had in her suite 60 young ladies, and was brought to church, and brought back again with the solemnities, or even more, which were used to the queen. She has changed her name from marchioness to Queen, and the preachers offered prayers for her by name. All the world is astonished at it, for it looks like a dream, and even those who take her part know not whether to laugh or to cry’.
Anne’s first appearance as queen was carefully stage managed and she was pleased with the reception she received. Both Anne and Henry kept a close eye on everyone at court to ensure that sufficient respect was shown to her. For Anne, it was the culmination of all her hopes and ambition and she adopted the motto ‘the Most Happy’. In April 1533, Anne was secure in the king’s continuing affection for her and she knew that she would soon be the mother of his son. Everything was exactly as she hoped.
While Anne considered herself to be ‘the Most Happy’ her elevation to queen was certainly not accepted by everyone. Naturally, Catherine and Mary in no way accepted Anne’s marriage, as both Anne and Henry would have expected. Anne had also never been able to win the love of the people of England and, while the majority of people quietly accepted her marriage, most were privately unhappy about it. Some also actively opposed Anne and both she and Henry were determined to deal with open opposition fiercely. The state papers from 1533 are littered with examples of investigations into rudeness about Anne and her marriage and these provide something of a flavour of Anne’s unpopularity. In May, for example, a merchant from Antwerp was reported to Cromwell for selling insulting images of Henry and Anne painted onto cloth. These cloth images were intended as a deliberate provocation and Spaniards and Dutchmen in the crowd ‘jested and spoke opprobrious words against the king and queen’. In June, some English friars living in Antwerp were found to be publishing books against Henry’s marriage to Anne. A priest was also investigated in June for calling Anne a whore and a harlot and quoting a prophecy that a queen would be burned at Smithfield. A further priest is reported to have demanded to know ‘who the devil made Nan Bullen, that whore, queen?’ These incidents cannot have harmed Anne personally, but they certainly angered her and cast a shadow over her happiness. The fact that both Anne and Henry considered it a problem is clear from a proclamation issued by Henry in May offering a reward for information on people speaking out against his marriage.
Although the defiance angered Anne, she had other things to concern herself with in spring 1533 and both she and Henry threw themselves into the preparations for her coronation. For Anne, it was the mark of Henry’s love for her that he was prepared to crown her. Catherine of Aragon had been crowned with Henry on his accession and, for Anne, who already possessed nearly everything that her rival had once owned, the crown was the final triumph, excepting the birth of a healthy son. Henry was also determined that his son should be born to a consecrated mother and, given Anne’s advancing pregnancy, it was necessary for the preparations to proceed with speed.
