The Boleyns (9 page)
For this only cause, I profess before God and in the word of a Prince, I have asked Council of the greatest clerks of Christendom, and for this cause I have sent for this Legate [Cardinal Campeggio] as a man indifferent only to know the truth and to settle my conscience …
Nothing would give him greater pleasure (he declared mendaciously) than to have his marriage declared good by the Law of God, if only his scruple could be resolved. The response was not what he either desired or expected:
… for some sighed and said nothing, others were sorry to see the king so troubled … Others that favoured the Queen much sorrowed that this matter was now opened, so everyman spoke as his heart moved him …
[177]
Meanwhile Anne, although partly out of sight, was by no means out of mind. She was, for good reason, the councillor most insistent that Henry persevere in his quest. She even briefed ambassadors, as she did with Stephen Gardiner and Edward Fox, who were sent to Rome in February 1528. The King, for his part, did his best to curb her impatience, insisting that he was doing his best and that these things take time. He wrote sweetly during their tactical separations, urging her to be sensible,
… Wherefore, good sweetheart, continue the same, not only in this but in all your doings hereafter, for thereby shall come both to you and to me, the greatest quietness that shall be in this world …
[178]
and then went on tactfully to discuss plans for their wedding!
By the end of 1528, however, her intransigence was serving a different political purpose. Discouraged by the reception of his ‘scruple’, and increasingly baffled by the complexities of Roman politics, Henry appears to have been on the point of giving up and reverting to his earlier suggestion that she become his mistress. It was this crisis of confidence which brought out the best in Anne. Tough and determined, she stiffened his resolve, and insisted that he persevere with his efforts to the bitter end. She did not know, any more than he did, that the Legatine Commission was a sham, and if she had known, that would not have deterred her. Her success can be measured by the fact that by 9 December 1528 she was not only back at court (after a strategic absence) but was again lodged grandly ‘near to the king’ according to the French ambassador. When the court moved to Greenwich for Christmas, she was given her own separate suite in the palace, but Catherine held pride of place.
[179]
There was lot still to be done.
THOMAS, EARL OF WILTSHIRE – THE WESTMINSTER YEARS
Sir Thomas had given up his treasurership of the Household upon his creation as Viscount Rochford in June 1525, but remained a favoured courtier. Over the next few years his position, both at court and in council, was determined by the developing relationship between the King and his daughter Anne, particularly when that turned decisively in the direction of marriage in the summer of 1527. Anne was naturally inclined to be pro-French, and as the Emperor’s opposition to the King’s suite for annulment became increasingly obvious during the autumn of that year, the whole logic of the Boleyn position shifted in that direction. Francis was naturally anxious to keep the English council in the same frame of mind, and by November the Duke of Norfolk was in receipt of a French pension of 437 crowns per year, while Lord Rochford received 262, a difference reflecting their ranks rather than their perceived usefulness.
[180]
Wolsey, of course, received far more, but the Cardinal’s influence was slipping. While he was still in France that summer he received news that the King was throwing lavish parties at New Hall at which the Viscount was a favoured guest, and even worse, that Henry’s regular supper companions included the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the Earl of Devon, and Viscount Rochford. Worse still he was listening to their advice.
[181]
When he returned from his mission in September he found the King closeted with Mistress Anne, and was forced to wait upon her convenience. It is unlikely, however, that these noblemen’s counsel would have differed significantly from his own. If the King wanted the Pope to annul his marriage, the diplomatic support of France was essential.
Francis had been constrained in January 1526 to sign the treaty of Madrid with his captor, surrendering his sons as hostages and giving up all his claims to Northern Italy. Wolsey was sceptical: ‘I cannot persuade myself,’ he wrote, ‘that the king of France is determined to perform the same …’, and he was right.
[182]
By May the League of Cognac had been signed, aligning the Papacy and Venice with France to put pressure on Charles to modify his terms. England did not at first join this League, because Wolsey was anxious to appear as an honest broker, to mediate the new treaty which was perceived to be necessary. Fighting broke out in Italy, and the Emperor showed no sign of yielding. In October Henry was constrained to offer the League 35,000 ducats (about £10,000) as a prop to its finances, but he did not join. It was not until December that Charles professed himself willing to participate in an international peace conference, and even then it was not clear that he was prepared to submit to English arbitration. Partly in order to rack up the pressure still further, a new Anglo-French treaty was signed in April 1527, which was celebrated at Greenwich with feasts, jousts and disguisings as though it were a great triumph.
[183]
The core of this treaty was a marriage agreement between Mary, Henry’s daughter, then aged eleven and one of the princes of the French royal house. Charles himself had facilitated this negotiation by abandoning his treaty claims on Mary in order to wed Isabella of Portugal during the previous year. The treaty also proposed another ‘summit meeting’ between Francis and Henry, in which Charles was welcome to join if he was so minded. A joint mission was sent to Spain, bearing these terms, and the prospects for peace suddenly seemed good. Then on 6 May this hopeful scenario was rudely disrupted when a mutinous Imperial army under the nominal command of the Duke of Bourbon took and sacked the city of Rome. This immediately changed the agenda. The release of the Pope from the Castel San Angelo became a top priority, or alternatively, as we have seen, the establishment of an interim government for the church. It was with these objectives in mind that Wolsey set out to meet King Francis on 2 July.
[184]
By which time the whole issue had become entangled with Henry’s search for an annulment of his marriage, and with the fact that his queen ‘identifies herself entirely with the Emperor’s interests’. Difficult international and domestic issues thus became interlocked, and Boleyn interest at court saw the former in terms of the latter. Unless Wolsey’s scheme for a temporary take over of the papal authority could be made to work, peace would best serve their interests too.
While Wolsey was in France, the King sent his secretary William Knight on an independent mission to Rome, bearing a draft bull for the Pope’s signature. This was the document which would have authorised him to marry a woman within the first degree of affinity, provided his existing marriage had been annulled.
[185]
It is highly unlikely that any of his council were privy to this initiative. In the first place, it spelled out the nature of the affinity from which he was seeking dispensation in highly explicit terms, which is unlikely to have been acceptable to Lord Rochford, and secondly it could not take effect until the major impediment was removed. In other words, as it stood it was useless. Henry’s attempt is more significant in terms of his relationship with Wolsey than in advancing his cause. The Cardinal did not know of Knight’s mission, and when he found out his attempt to abort it was overridden by explicit instructions from the King. Not only was the King’s ‘secret matter’ about to be divulged to the Courts of Europe, but the Cardinal now had good reason to fear that his mission to broach the possibility of a marriage with Renee, Francis’s sister-in-law, would be so much wasted breath.
[186]
The significance of Viscount Rochford’s place in the Royal councils now became apparent. He was the father of the woman whom Henry planned to make his queen, and Wolsey was not a party to that secret. He also picked up rumours that it was being said behind his back that he was less committed to the King’s Great Matter than he pretended. In early September he wrote to Henry:
Assuring your highness that I shall never be found but as your most humble, loyal and faithful obedient servant … enduring the travails and pains which I daily and hourly sustain without any regard to the continuance of my life or health …
[187]
Henry replied with soothing expressions of confidence and goodwill, but his deeds spoke louder than his words, and they were not reassuring.
In international terms, 1528 was occupied by the search for an annulment. The Anglo-French mission to Spain and Wolsey’s peace initiative having alike come to nothing, in January an English herald delivered a declaration of war to the Emperor at Burgos. This was a purely diplomatic move, as no hostilities followed, or were intended. It was symbolic of the anti-Imperial stance which the King was now taking up, and a means of putting extra pressure upon Charles to allow the pope to settle the marriage business. It had no effect. In March Wolsey was optimistic of a settlement, and in May an envoy was sent to Madrid. However, after waiting six weeks to see the Emperor, he found him non-committal, and by early November was back in France empty handed.
[188]
Meanwhile, in domestic terms it was the year of the great sweat. In June both William Carey and Sir William Compton died of the disease, and one of Anne’s ladies became infected, so that she was sent down to Hever, and Henry set off on his travels. In July both Anne and her father caught the illness, but recovered. Her frequent absences from the court, which we have already noticed, were as much caused by fear of infection as they were tactical in terms of her position, and it is often hard to tell which was which.
[189]
In November, Henry broached his ‘scruple’ to the assembly of notables, and, disconcerted by the response, may have considered giving up his quest. However, by that time Cardinal Campeggio had arrived bearing the deceptive commission which Gardiner and Fox and worked so hard to achieve, and the King was clearly torn between hope and apprehension. At the end of October Campeggio reached the court, to find Henry insistent on swift action. This however, was precisely what the Cardinal was instructed not to allow. He engaged in lengthy discussions with the King, and became impressed by his grasp of the issues, if not by his conclusions. Even an angel from heaven, he wrote, could not persuade him that he was mistaken.
[190]
With Wolsey, his conversations were more practical – the annulment was a political necessity, and if it were not granted not only would the English Cardinal be finished, but England might well throw off the papal allegiance entirely. Such a prospect was too terrible to contemplate. Campeggio was, however, extremely reluctant to allow the issue to come to a trial, and suggested instead attempting to persuade Catherine to enter religion. This would not have offered a cut and dried solution, but a respectable body of theological opinion maintained that if a married person took vows, then that automatically ended their relationship, and that the other party was free to marry again. This had the obvious advantage that their child, Mary, would have remained legitimate, whereas an annulment would have bastardised her. It was also consistent with Catherine’s renowned piety, but the Queen turned a deaf ear to all pleas. Henry’s wife she was, and Henry’s wife she would remain.
[191]
There was no option but to convene the Legatine court, and let the issue be tried openly. What part the Boleyns may have played in all these manoeuvres remains shadowy, probably by intent. Anne was the recipient of a number of passionate letters from her beloved, and returned to the court for Christmas. Lord Rochford, as a member of the council, must have been aware of all the public and semi-public moves which were being made, but, equally aware of the hostility which his daughter was generating, probably kept as low a profile as was consistent with his position. If he expressed any opinions he did not write them down, or confide in anyone else who might have committed his thoughts to paper.
Meanwhile, Henry’s carefully devised strategy was in danger of falling apart because a different version of Julius’s brief had turned up in Spain. He had hitherto concentrated his arguments upon the inadequacies of that brief, as a means of avoiding the direct issue of papal competence, but the new version (of which Catherine had been sent a copy) remedied most of those inadequacies. This left Henry with the bleak alternatives of confronting the issue of authority head on, or giving up. He naturally tried to argue that the Spanish version was a forgery, which was a plausible thesis given that Charles would not surrender the original and no copy could be found in Rome.
[192]
English envoys were sent to the Curia to verify this notion, and when they were unable locate it, their case found some credibility. Unfortunately it was not enough to budge Clement, who was politically hamstrung, but it was sufficient to convince those who wanted to be persuaded, including Henry himself. By the spring of 1529, Henry was consumed with impatience, and quite unaware of the fact that Campeggio had secretly requested Charles to petition Clement to revoke the case to Rome, which he had in fact done, unknown to anyone in England.
[193]
On 29 May the King issued a licence for the case to proceed, and the Legates named Friday, 18 June for the commencement of the hearing. Campeggio knew, but Wolsey did not, that their ordeal would be a short one, because the case was bound, sooner or later, to be revoked. On the 18th Henry appeared by proxy, but Catherine turned up in person, only to challenge the judges and announce her appeal to Rome. Campeggio kept his counsel, and when three days later both the royal couple were in court, announced that they had overruled the Queen’s protest. She repeated her appeal and withdrew, declining all requests to return, whereupon she was pronounced contumacious.
[194]
It was the nearest that Henry was to get to success, because as the pleadings went on, Bishop John Fisher built up a formidable case on Catherine’s behalf, and tore the King’s representations to shreds. Henry had taken his courage in both hands in insisting that the court proceed, and now it looked as though he would be faced with defeat. He was spared that humiliation because on 13 July Clement yielded to Imperial pressure and revoked the case to Rome, citing Catherine’s appeal (of which he had been made aware) as the reason. Swiftly and secretly, Campeggio was appraised of that decision, and deliberately slowed down the proceedings with technical quibbles, which even Wolsey found baffling, and then announced on 31 July that since his court was a papal one, it would follow the Roman timetable and go into recession until October.
[195]
It never reconvened because long before then the papal letters of inhibition arrived, citing the King instead to appear in Rome.
