The Meet Cute of Henry and Anne

In the midst a very terrible cold I missed the anniversary of the Chateau Vert production. On March 1, 1522 Anne appeared in a court masque in which she portrayed the feminine virtue Perseverance  and Henry was cast as Ardent (oh the historical irony) It was Anne's first recorded appearance at Henry's court and recorded by the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall, he wrote:

On shrouetewesdaie [Shrove Tuesday] at night, the said Cardinall to the  to the Kyng and ambassadors made another supper and after the supper their came into a great chamber hanged with Arras, and there was a cothe of estate, and many braunches, and on every braunch xxxii torchettes of waxe, and in the nether ende of thesame chamber was a castle, in which was a principall Tower, in which was a Cresset burning: and two other lesse Towers stode on every side, warded and embattailed, and on every tower was a banner.... Hall continues describing the scene and goes on to say "...this castle was kept with ladies of straunge names, the first Beautie, the second Honor, the thirs Perseueraunce, the fourth Kyndne, the fifth Constance, the sixth Bountie, the seueenth Mercie and eigt Pitie: these eight ladies had Millian gounes of white satting, euery Lady had her name embraudered with golde, on their heddes calles....Vnder nethe the basse fortresse of the castle were other eight ladies who names were, Dangier, Disdain, Gelousie, Vykydenes [unkindness] Scorne, Malebouche [sharp tongued] Straungenes, these ladies tired like to women of Inde.

 

Then entered eight Lordes in clothe of golde capes and all, and great mantel clokes of blewe sattin, thse lords were names Amorous, Noblenes, Youth, Attendance, Loyalties, Pleasure, Gentlenes, and Libertie, the kyng was chief of this compainie, this compainie was led by one all in crimosin sattin with burning flames of gold, called Ardent.

 

Hall continues describing a play fight where the men rescue the desirable womanly virtues from their wicked detainers. While there is no evidence that this is when Henry's relationship with Anne began, it is certainly their first interaction. Most historians, myself included, would agree that it was more likely that Henry was pursuing Mary Boleyn at this point and would alter his affections to Anne in 1526/7.** The scene was altered slightly and brought to life on The Tudors in 2005. Check out the video here!

 

 

 

*The Chronicle of Edward Hall www.archive.org/stream/hallschronicle

**The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, by Eric Ives

Reader Questions

Q: I recently finished reading a book on Henry VII. Did he and Elizabeth of York have a poor marriage?
A: Good question, it was definitely not a love match but a marriage of political expedience. Their marriage attempted to unite the warring houses of York and Lancaster. We do not know a lot about their marriage but they produced children and seemed to live in relative peace. When Elizabeth died on her 37th birthday Henry VII was deeply saddened. I think it is safe to assume that despite their arranged marriage Henry and Elizabeth grew to love each other.

Q: Was Thomas Cromwell related to Oliver Cromwell?
A: Yes, though not directly. Oliver was the great-great grandson of Thomas' sister Katherine. When Katherine married Morgan Williams they took the surname Cromwell because of it's prominence.

Q: Is there any evidence that Elizabeth I was hermaphrodite?
A: Absolutely not, the theory comes from a scientist Robert Bakan in the 1980s when he asserted that Elizabeth had testicular feminization. He used evidence such as her long hands, height and slimness to support his theory. A simple examination of the descriptions of Anne Boleyn gives us evidence that long hands and slimness were probably maternally genetic and Henry VIII was a very tall man at over 6ft tall when most men were only about 5'8 so Elizabeth undoubtedly inherited her height from the Tudors. The defect he believes she had is genetic and passed on from the mother. An examination of the women in Elizabeth's family show no evidence of this mutation. It is, in my opinion, an attempt to undermine Elizabeth's reputation as a strong female leader who was many years ahead of her court and their established gender norms.

Q: Can you recommend a good Mary I biography?
A: Mary I: England's Catholic Queen by John Edwards is good as is The Myth of Bloody Mary by Linda Porter.

Q: What happened to Perkin Warbeck?
A: He was hanged in 1499 after an attempted escape from the Tower with Edward, Earl of Warwick. For more information on Perkin's life and death check out the book The Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy by Ian Arthurson.

The Excommunication of Elizabeth I

On this day in Tudor History 1570, Pope Pius V issued his papal bull, Regnans in Excelsis. The document excommunicated Elizabeth and all those who remained loyal to her. Additionally, the document called for a Catholic uprising to depose Elizabeth in favor of her cousin and devout Catholic, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.The bull was issued after it became clear that Elizabeth had no intention of marrying into the powerful Catholic Hapsburg family and she began to assert her power as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
Despite being an attempt to return England and her Queen to Catholicism, the bull actually had the unintended consequences of increasing the harshness of recusancy laws against those still practicing Catholicism in England. These consequences included the trial, and even execution, of some Catholic priests, the issuance of deep fines against those who refused to attend services in the Church of England and the withholding of public office from Catholics. This backlash created a deeply marginalization of Catholics that would continue into the reign of the Hanoverians.

Read of the Week

I'll confess, I did not read this book this week. Nor even this month...I have whittling away at the mass amount of content in GW Bernard's The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church for a few months. The book is monumental; it is over 800 pages and has hundreds of footnotes. Unfortunately, besides it's stature its not an impressive book. The author charges straight into Henry VIII's divorce assuming that the reader knows all of the major players and background information leading up to the break from Papal authority. Bernard tears apart other historians and their theories in a way that reeks of historical unprofessionalism. His writing is pretentious and wordy; Bernard assumes that he is the most knowledgeable person on the subject of Henry's reforms. He attempts to dispel the widely accepted historical ideals that Anglican reforms were a product of Henry and his advisors' belief systems, that there were court factions attempting to control religious policy and that Anne Boleyn influenced Henry's ideas about religion. Bernard attempts to do this by exploring primary source documents and reading 'what they actually say' His mistake with this methodology is that he fails to take into account sarcasm, duress, self preservation or any other normal human emotion/reaction. He interprets primary sources at face value without considering contextual evidence such as location, place in the power structure and most importantly the position of Henry's opinion at that particular moment. The King's Reformation is a tough read, but it is admirable that the author attempted such a huge undertaking. I would not recommend this book for anyone who is not deeply familiar with Tudor history and has formulated their own opinions regarding the events of Henry's reformation as the author scarcely tries to hide his objective view points and biases, allowing them to color every page.

On This Day in Tudor History

On this day in Tudor history 1516 the future Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, was born at Greenwich. By this point Henry and Katherine had been married for nearly seven years and he was disappointed at the birth of a daughter after the stillbirths and neonatal deaths of Katherine's elder children including two sons. Despite this disappointment he expressed hope when he said, "We are both young; if it was a daughter this time by the grace of God sons will soon follow..."* Mary would be declared a bastard upon the divorce of her parents and would suffer a great deal under the pressure to conform to the Church of England and accept her father's every changing opinions and doctrines. Mary would ascend the throne upon the death of her brother, Edward VI, and be remember in history as Mary, Bloody Mary.

 

 

*This tract taken from Henry VIII: A King and His Court by Alison Weir