The Trial of Anne Boleyn

Today marks the 478th anniversary of the trial of Anne Boleyn. I have written quite extensively about today's nuanced, obviously pre-decided outcome and Anne's spectacular defense of herself. Read all about it here!

On This Day in Tudor History

On this day in Tudor History 1536 Cromwell continued his propaganda campaign against Anne Boleyn when he wrote to Bishop Stephen Gardiner saying:
"The Queen's incontinent living was so rank and common that the ladies of her privy chamber could not conceal it. It came to the ears of some of the Council, who told his majesty, although with great fear, as the case enforced. Certain persons of the privy chamber and other of her side were examined, and the matter appeared so evident that, besides that crime, "there brake out a certain conspiracy of the King's death, which extended so far that all we that had the examination of it quaked as the danger his Grace was in, and on our knees gave him laid and praise that he had preserved him so long from it" Certain men were committed to the tower, viz., Marks and Norris and the Queen's brother; then she herself was apprehended and committed to the same place; after her Sir Fras. Weston and Wm. Brereton. Norris, Weston, Brereton, and Marks are already condemned to death, having been arraigned at Westminster on Friday last. The Queen and her brother are to be arraigned tomorrow, and will undoubtedly go the same way...

I write no particularities, the things be so abominable that I think the like was never heard...."

Cromwell had already crafted opinion against Anne in England and his aim in writing to Gardiner was to spread these vile tales to France where the Bishop was serving as an ambassador. Notice how he essentially assures Gardiner that Anne and George will be condemned to death; not exactly a fair trial by peers eh? Stay tuned this week as we continue to count down the events leading up to Anne's execution.


**You can also read about the lives of Anne's accused lovers here!

John Skip's Passion Sunday Sermon

Happy (very belated, as I forgot to post this) Passion Sunday to all of my fellow Christians! Today marks a very important day in the fall of Anne Boleyn. On Passion Sunday 1536 Anne's personal almoner, John Skip, preached a controversial sermon on the stories of the Old Testament of Esther, Nebuchadnezzar and Solomon. Skip's sermon portrayed Henry VIII as both Ahasuerus who was being led astray by his wicked and scheming advisor Haman, and as Solomon who lost his righteousness by choosing whores over his legitimate wife Naamah.
The Letters and Papers contain a primary source account of the sermon, one that shocked all of those listening:


"A sermon preached by My. Skyppe<sic>, in the King's chapel, upon Passion Sunday, in the year of Our Lord 1536, on the text Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato [which of you convinceth me of sin?] defending the clergy from the defamers and from the immoderate zeal of men in holding up to public reprobation the faults of any single clergyman as if it were the fault of all. He insisted upon the example of Ahasuerus, who was moved by a wicked minister to destroy the Jews. He urged that a King's councillor ought to take good heed what advice he gave in altering ancient things, and that no people wished to take away the ceremonies of the Church, such as holy water, holy bread etc. That alternations ought not to be made except in cases of necessity....


The preacher insisted on the strict following of God's Word: That Christ chose ignorant followers, to teach men that nobility standeth not in worth but grace; and he cited the example of Solomon to show that he lost his true nobility towards the end of his life by taking new wives and concubines. He insisted on the need of a King being wise in himself, and resisting evil councillors who tempted him to ignoble actions, by the history of Rehoboam; observing that if a stranger visited this realm, and saw those who were called noble, he would conceive that all true nobility was banished from England. He warned them against rebuking the clergy, even if they were sinful, as rebukers were often rebuked, like Nebuchadnezzar, who was God's instrument to punish the Jews, but was damned for his labour. Against evil councilors who suggested alternation in established customer, he instanced the history of Haman and Ahasuerus. He then explained and defended the ancient ceremonies of the Church...."


The sermon, obviously approved by Anne, served to solidify her reformist views and to further break down her tenuous relationship with Thomas Cromwell. It was a thinly veiled threat, that assured all listening that she would prevail and condemned Jane Seymour, whom the King was known to be courting, as a whore. Skip was fined for his actions and was accused of "...preaching seditious doctrines on these words, and slandering the King's highness, his counselors, his lords and nobles, and his whole parliament."


**Excerpts taken from the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII and The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives.

The Death of Elizabeth I

On this day in Tudor history 1603, Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII and his infamous second wife Anne Boleyn, died at Richmond Palace. Elizabeth was sixty-nine years old and had been suffering from what Tudor expert David Starkey believes was severe depression. Elizabeth lost many of her closest advisers and friends over the course of three or four years and had fallen into a  "...settled and unremovable <sic> melancholy"* Elizabeth's 3rd cousin Robert Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, visited Elizabeth in her last days and wrote of her condition saying:

"When I came to court, I found the Queen ill disposed and she kept her inner lodging; yet she, hearing of my arrival sent for me. I found her in of her withdrawing chambers sitting low upon her cushions. She called me to her, I kissed her hand, and told her it was by chiefest happiness to see her in safety and in health, which I wished might long continue. She took me by the hand, and wrung it hard and said, 'No Robin, I am not well,' and then discoursed with me of her indisposition, and that her heart had been sad and heavy for ten or twelve days and in her discourse, she fetched not so few as forty or fifty great sighs. I was grieved at the first to see her in this plight, for in all my lifetime before I never knew her fetch a sigh..."**

On the 23rd of March Elizabeth counselors gathered round her bedside to determine who she would name as her successor. Elizabeth's decision to never marry and thus produce a Tudor heir to the throne meant that at her death, the direct Tudor line died out. Elizabeth was so ill that she could not speak; her adviser, Robert Cecil, asked if she wanted James VI of Scotland to ascend the throne following her death. Elizabeth gestured with her hands to assert that it was her wish that Mary Queen of Scots' son would become the next king of England. James had the most legitimate claim to the throne (He was the grandson of Margaret Tudor) and had been communicating with both Elizabeth and Cecil in the year before her death. Elizabeth died early the next morning from an unknown cause of death. Historian GJ Meyer believes it would have been one of the following illnesses: pneumonia, streptococcus, organ failure or lead poisoning from her make-up.Elizabeth's body was prepared for burial and laid in state for several weeks. Her funeral would take place on April 28th at Westminster Abbey.

Portrait of the aging Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts c 1595

 
Sources: Elizabeth I by David Starkey, The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by GJ Meyer, The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir.

*Weir
**Starkey 

The Boleyns' Irish Connection

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day being this week I wanted to write about Anne and her connections to Ireland. Anne herself was not ethnically Irish and it is unlikely that she ever visited the country but she certainly had familial connections to the island. Anne's grandmother Margaret Butler, wife to Sir William Boleyn, was an Irish noblewoman. Margaret was born in Ireland circa 1460 to Thomas Butler the 7th Earl of Ormond and his wife Anne. Thomas Butler was a friend and supporter of Henry VII and had dual seats in the English and Irish governments. He passed away in 1515 and left his estate to his daughters, Anne and Margaret. Sometime in the interim, Margaret had married William Boleyn, the fabulously wealthy son of Geoffrey Boleyn, Lord Mayor of London. Thomas' death gave the Boleyns a claim to the earldom of Ormond, one of the most powerful and wealthy aristocracies in Ireland (located in the productive region of Leinster) Ownership of this hereditary title had been in dispute for quite some time but matrilineal claims to property were not honored in early modern England. In order to solidify their claim, the Boleyns had attempted to marry Anne to Jamie, the Butler heir apparent, in the early 1520s but those negotiations fell through. Uncertainty about the earldom continued until December 8, 1529 when Henry VIII pressured Piers Butler (a distant cousin to the 7th Earl of Ormond) to renounce his claims to the earldom. Henry then recognized the Boleyn family's claim and styled Thomas Boleyn, Anne's father, Earl of Ormond and Whiltshire. The Boleyns would hold an estate in Ireland for nine years; in 1538 Henry revoked Thomas' title and recognized Piers Butler, an Irish lord and relative of the Boleyns, as the Earl of Ormond and the title once again reverted to the Irish aristocracy.