Henry VIII in about 1526. Miniature by Lucas Horenbout. Scanned by Douglas Dowell.

In Shrovetide 1526 or spring of 1527, Anne's whole life was radically altered. Henry VIII fell head over heels in love with her. He was still energetic, very handsome, and athletic. He was putting on weight and his hairline was receding, but five years later his face would be described as "like an angel". As shown by Henry's love letters, Anne refused to become his mistress (Mary Boleyn had bestowed her favours upon him, and was discarded - a good example).

Henry may have been considering the validity or otherwise of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon in 1521 (he quoted the vital verse from Leviticus¹ in a treatise against Luther, which shows that the passage had caught his eye - if not necessarily in application to his own marriage yet).² Apparently, sexual relations between Katherine and Henry had ceased around 1524-1526. In 1525, Henry Fitzroy, the King's illegitimate son, was created Duke of Richmond and Somerset, Lord High Admiral and a Knight of the Garter. This might have been attempts to further Richmond as the alternative heir³ (although Princess Mary was sent to Ludlow, a traditional residence of the Prince/ss of Wales - perhaps emphasising her position as the legitimate heir).

Therefore, by 1526 or 1527, Henry had doubts about the validity of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon and had possibly tried to build up Richmond's position as the future heir. Thus matters stood when he fell for Anne Boleyn. In May 1527, he sought a divorce - or rather, an annulment.

This is not the place to discuss the theology of the annulment (Scarisbrick's biography of Henry VIII gives a great deal of attention to this), but in 1527 Imperial mercenary troops sacked Rome. Without a commander, the atrocities committed by the unpaid mercenaries were shocking then and now. The Pope fled to the Castel Sant Angelo. Charles V (the Emperor) had not ordered the sack of Rome, but did not object to having the Pope in his pocket. Katherine of Aragon was the aunt of Charles V, and he was not likely to let her be put aside.

For six years, all the parties concerned waited impatiently for the verdict - but Pope Clement VII did not want to offend anyone. Therefore, he procrastinated, now sending Cardinal Campeggio (thus giving Catherine of Aragon the chance to make dramatic history at Blackfriars).

The long delay ultimately caused the fall of Cardinal Wolsey. It is debatable to what extent Anne Boleyn was responsible; some argue that Anne Boleyn and her party persuaded the King to dispose of Wolsey; others that there was an alliance of Katherine of Aragon's adherents, Anne Boleyn's adherents, and the nobles all of whom wanted to eliminate Wolsey; and still others the King turned on his servant when he failed to get the marriage of Henry and Katherine annulled. Certainly it seems to better fit Anne's own sense of pragmatism that she should not (at least at the beginning) try to move against Wolsey; he appeared, after all, to be the best means of securing a divorce. She was (at least ostensibly) friendly with Wolsey in 1528. On the other hand, there are episodes and letters - quite apart from Cavendish's testimony - that indicate hostility. What seems most likely, though, is that at some stage - probably around November 1528 - Anne decided that Wolsey was an obstacle to the annulment rather than a help and so acted in co-operation with Norfolk, Suffolk and her father to oust him. Many take the view that Anne was secondary in this, but the contemporary testimony (as well as that of Cavendish) all points to a clear and vital role for her. Certainly, Anne's father was clear about her primacy, according to the French ambassador Jean du Bellay:

. . . he wanted to show me that he was not pleased that anyone should have failed to pay court to the lady [Anne], and also to make me accept that what he had said before is true, that is, that all the rest have no influence except what it pleases the lady to allow them, and that is gospel truth.⁴

Eventually, Wolsey was deprived of his secular offices, and eventually arrested him on a charge of high treason. He died in 1530 in Leicester Abbey, cheating his master and enemies of the chance to execute him.

The coup against Wolsey, however, did little to actually further the cause of the annulment. Neither a petition to Rome by the English nobility nor canvassing of the universities of Europe (who unsurprisingly declared according to political pressures) had any real impact. In the end, Anne Boleyn's future owed a great deal to Thomas Cromwell. Drawing on a number of different materials gathered by men such as Edward Foxe and Thomas Cranmer in the Collectanea satis copiosa and other works such as Tyndale's Obedience of a Christian Man, he was ultimately to put into effect the machinery to sever England from Rome altogether. Under threat of a mass indictment for praemunire (exercising foreign jurisdiction in England; the clergy were subsequently pardoned by Act of Parliament), the clergy acknowledged Henry as "singular protector, supreme lord and even, so far as the law of Christ allows, supreme head of the English Church and clergy".

Arms of Anne Boleyn as Queen. © College of Arms. Scanned by Douglas Dowell.

In 1533, the Act in Restraint of Appeals would make it illegal to appeal to Rome; but the length of time this whole process took is a real indicator of Henry's uncertainty as to proceeding along these lines. His instincts were those of a religious conservative, not a reformer (unlike Anne). Anne either decided that it was necessary to hurry things along, or decided that with the death of William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the advent of Thomas Cranmer as his replacement (who would declare the marriage of Katherine invalid with or without Papal permission to do so), it was now safe to give way. She became pregnant around the first week of December 1532, and married Henry before his first marriage was annulled, on January 25, 1533 (the date November 14, 1532 has been generally discredited as the product of panegyrists who wanted to cast no slur on the name of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I). Cranmer convened his court at Dunstable on May 10, and declared Katherine of Aragon's marriage invalid. Anne was crowned on June 1, 1533. The 1534 Act of Supremacy would later make Henry the Supreme Head of the Church of England.

Anne herself, like her brother George, had evangelical leanings. It was she who presented Henry with both Tyndale's work and Simon Fish's Supplication of the Beggars. She was undoubtedly interested in translating the Bible into the vernacular, and was genuinely interested in church reform. Apparently, as it was illegal to possess a copy of the Bible in English, Anne kept a French Bible instead!

On September 7, 1533, Anne gave birth to the future Elizabeth I. While she was perfectly healthy, and seemed to indicate a long line of sons to come - and this was Henry's official line - it must have been a disappointment. The fact that Henry VIII did not attend Elizabeth's christening is natural; the fleshly parents were not generally present at the ceremony, the godparents taking precedence.⁵ However, Eustace Chapuys, the Spanish Ambassador and Anne's inveterate enemy, spoke for Europe when he said that this proved that God had abandoned Henry.⁶ There is evidence that Anne loved her daughter greatly, and it apparently caused her great pain when Henry forbade her to breastfeed Elizabeth. That December, Elizabeth was given her own household.⁷

The Princess - now Lady - Mary's troubles really began after Elizabeth's birth. As she refused to recognise her father as Supreme Head of the Church in England or Anne Boleyn as Queen, Mary was forced to wait on Elizabeth as her maid of honour, and her beloved governess Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was taken from her and replaced by hostile women setting out to make her life a misery.

There is considerable debate as to what degree Anne was responsible for Mary's persecution. Weir thinks that her hand was behind every indignity suffered by Mary.⁸ Warnicke, on the other hand, asserts that Henry was the author of Mary's cruel treatment, with Anne's comments (for example, she said of Mary, "She is my death and I am hers.") made in a temper; and Ives and Fraser mostly agree. She certainly tried to conciliate Mary several times during her reign as queen, although Mary rejected all overtures. It is also telling that Mary was still oppressed after Anne's execution, and gave way after that event. When she gave way, she was received at court with all due honours.⁹ Katherine of Aragon's treatment may be ascribed to Henry VIII for the most part. After all, the deaths of Katherine and Mary were in no way beneficial to her (see next section).

After the birth of Elizabeth, Anne became pregnant again very quickly. However, she miscarried in June or July 1534. The misfortune was kept strictly secret. We do not even know what the infant's sex was. By now, Henry had taken mistresses. Anne, understandably, found it hard to reconcile herself to the fact that he would take them whether she liked it or not. Anne knew that only a son would make her position unassailable. But in the meantime, she remained queen and it remained treason to acknowledge her as such; on June 22, 1535, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester was beheaded for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. This sent shockwaves throughout Europe. On 6 July, Sir Thomas More suffered. Fisher's death caused more consternation than Fisher's at the time.

Notes

¹ Weir, pp. 137-138

² "If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless." (Leviticus 20:21)

³ Weir, pp. 134-135

⁴ Cit. Ives, p. 152

⁵ Warnicke, pp. 169

⁶ Weir, p. 258

⁷ Weir, pp. 259-260

⁸ Weir, pp. 260-261

⁹ Warnicke, p. 172