Only Cranmer stood up for him writing to the king:
I heard yesterday in your Grace’s Council, that he [Crumwell] is a traitor, yet who cannot be sorrowful and amazed that he should be a traitor against your Majesty, he that was so advanced by your Majesty … I loved him as my friend, for so I took him to be; but I chiefly loved him for the love which I thought I saw him bear ever towards your Grace, singularly above all other. But now, if he be a traitor, I am sorry that ever I loved him or trusted him, and I am very glad that his treason is discovered in time; but yet again I am very sorrowful; for who shall your Grace trust hereafter, if you might not trust him?9
Neither the letters Cromwell wrote or Cranmer’s words would dissuade Henry from seeing the man condemned. The king had grown weary of waiting for Cromwell to find a way out of his Cleves marriage and the minister’s enemies had convinced the king that he never would. On 19 June an act of attainder was passed declaring Cromwell guilty with no recourse to a trial. All Henry wanted now was Cromwell’s account of his involvement in his marriage to Anne. In that he hoped to find evidence for annulment. Cromwell duly wrote down all his thoughts and feelings but nothing he did would save him from the executioner’s block.
Anne must have been shocked and dismayed to hear of Cromwell’s downfall and if nothing had alerted her to her precarious position before now she had every reason to become anxious. More of Anne’s ladies returned to Germany in June. William Paget accompanied them with a letter from Henry to Anne’s mother detailing how well they had served the queen but Anne’s circle was getting smaller and she had no support from any of the nobles at court. She complained to Harst, her brother’s ambassador, about Katherine Howard and knew that as Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn had been put aside for a lady-in-waiting so might she.
Others had also noticed Henry’s new infatuation and pondered what it meant for the queen. Richard Hilles wrote to a contemporary:
Before St. John Baptist’s day [24th June] it was whispered the King intended to divorce his queen Anne, sister of the duke of Gelderland, whom he had married publicly at Epiphany after last Christmas. Courtiers first observed that he was much taken with another young lady, very small of stature, whom he now has, and whom he was seen crossing the Thames to visit, often in the day time and sometimes at night. The bp. of Winchester provided feastings for them in his palace, but it was looked upon as a sign of adultery, not of divorce.10
When Anne received a message from the council that she was to retire to Richmond Palace she became frightened. Harst tried to comfort her and convince her it was for the best but was worried for her state of mind and sent to Cleves to inform them and ask that they wrote to her for support. This removal from court was seemingly ‘for her health, open air and pleasure’11 because there was plague in London. Henry promised to join her in a few days but of course he didn’t. He would have soon moved if the plague was really a problem ‘for he is the most timid person in the world in such cases’.12 Instead he stayed in the city where it was easier for him to visit the lovely Katherine most evenings. Anne waited anxiously at the beautiful red bricked palace of Richmond rebuilt after the fire of 1497, with its stunning gardens on the edge of the River Thames, close to a deer park and hunting grounds. Her surroundings may have been beautiful but she spent her first days here afraid for her life, anxiously awaiting news from the king.
Henry now tasked Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, with furthering the inquiry into the legality of his marriage. On 29 June he set out a memorandum for the council detailing the process and the points that needed to be examined. It mostly focused on Anne’s pre-contract to the Duke of Lorraine and the nonconsummation of the king and queen’s nuptials. Cromwell needed to be interrogated, documents assembled, the queen told and her permission gained for further inquiry by the church. The details that Henry had required from Cleves of the repudiation of Anne’s pre-contract, the ‘beer pot’ document, is noted in Letters and Papers in February but it seems this may be misleading as no attention was paid to it until now. It was signed in Cleves on 26 February 1540 with a beer pot seal so it must have arrived in the intervening months. Gardiner felt it ‘containeth no m(anner) of discharge at all, but rather ministerth matter of m(uch doubt.’13
On 6 July, Anne was rudely awoken in the early hours of the morning with a message from the king carried by Beard. She immediately sent for Harst to explain it to her. She was informed that her consent was needed for an inquiry into the validity of her marriage to be conducted by clergymen (thus taking the blame from Henry). The Earl of Rutland, Anne’s lord chamberlain, joined them and ‘did see her take the matter heavily’ so he ‘desired her to be of good comfort’14 and assured her that the king had her best interests at heart so she had ’cause to rejoice and not be sorry’.15 Anne took the news stoically and made no reply to Rutland but knowing the fate of her predecessors felt terrible fear for her future. The king needed a reply however and she gave Beard her consent but would not write anything down. Harst was beside himself with anger and refused to take any written acceptance to the king but as soon as it was light he rushed to court to find out what was going on. In an audience with Henry’s councillors he was assured that the inquiry was merely to quash rumours and Anne would be treated according to her position. He asked that proceedings be delayed until more ambassadors arrived from Cleves but of course Henry had no time for that.
The same day the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Durham, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and the Earl of Southampton informed the House of Lords that there was reason to question the validity of the king’s marriage and to ask for an ecclesiastical inquiry. Receiving a positive reply, the convocation would begin the next day. A delegation of the Privy Council was sent to Anne to explain more fully the situation to her and they reported to the king that she was ‘content always with your majesty’.16 They were good to go ahead.
There was never really going to be any other result rather than what the king wanted and despite Harst’s protests about Anne’s mistreatment and the fact she was not called to give evidence nor shown any of the documentation and statements, the convocation of clergy took three days to find their marriage invalid on the grounds of Anne’s pre-contract to the Duke of Lorraine, on Henry’s lack of consent and lack of consummation in what Burnet described as ‘the greatest piece of compliance that ever the King had from the clergy’.17 Henry had had his back-up plan of ‘secret causes’ at the ready if they needed any more convincing but in the end he did not have to disclose what would touch ‘the honour of the lady’18 probably alluding to the fact that after Henry had run his hands over her body he perceived her not to be a maiden.
Anne may have been happy not to have had to attend and hear her private life exposed by witnesses including her own ladies and Henry’s doctors but Harst, in his correspondence back to Cleves, gave a picture of a lady not quite as acquiescing to the whole affair as Henry would have liked. Anne was no fool and knew the trip from the palace at Richmond to the Tower of London was not far. Henry may have executed Anne Boleyn but she was English and without support by the time of her fall, Anne was German and to upset Cleves and its supporters was another matter altogether. Still Anne could not risk making a fuss even though her life was in turmoil.
A parliamentary statement was made:
We consider your majesty not bound by the pretensed marriage, which is of itself nought and of no force, so your majesty, without tarrying for any judgement may contract and consummate matrimony with any other woman. The Lady Anne did of her own free will assent and has openly confessed that she remains not carnally known of the King’s body. She has also signified her confession by a letter subscribed in her own hand. And the Lady Anne shall not be named or called the King’s wife.19
It sounded so simple but Anne had in fact been distraught by the findings she was no longer queen of England. Some reports said she fainted on hearing the news that her marriage was over and Harst reported
during the deliberations and days of waiting she had cried and wept so violently it near broke his heart. As far as Henry was concerned ‘she was troubled and perplexed, in consequence of the great love and affection which she seemed to have only to our person’.20
On July 11 Anne wrote to the king:
Pleaseth your most excellent majesty to understand that, whereas, at sundry times heretofore, I have been informed and perceived by certain lords and others your grace’s council, of the doubts and questions which have been moved and found in our marriage; and how hath petition thereupon been made to your highness by your nobles and commons, that the same might be examined and determined by the holy clergy of this realm; to testify to your highness by my writing, that which I have before promised by my word and will, that is to say, that the matter should be examined and determined by the said clergy; it may please your majesty to know that, though this case must needs be most hard and sorrowful unto me, for the great love which I bear to your most noble person, yet, having more regard to God and his truth than to any worldly affection, as it beseemed me, at the beginning, to submit me to such examination and determination of the said clergy, whom I have and do accept for judges competent in that behalf. So now being ascertained how the same clergy hath therein given their judgment and sentence, I acknowledge myself hereby to accept and approve the same, wholly and entirely putting myself, for my state and condition, to your highness’ goodness and pleasure; most humbly beseeching your majesty that, though it be determined that the pretended matrimony between us is void and of none effect, whereby I neither can nor will repute myself for your grace’s wife, considering this sentence (whereunto I stand) and your majesty’s clean and pure living with me, yet it will please you to take me for one of your humble servants, and so determine of me, as I may sometimes have the fruition of your most noble presence; which as I shall esteem for a great benefit, so, my lords and others of your majesty’s council, now being with me, have put me in comfort thereof; and that your highness will take me for your sister; for the which I most humbly thank you accordingly.21
And she signed it ‘Your majesty’s most humble sister and servant, Anne the daughter of Cleves’.
Anne’s agreement to the annulment was announced in parliament and the same day the Duke of Suffolk, Earl of Southampton, and Wriothesley met with Anne and delivered the terms of her settlement. Henry would be ‘a perfect friend, content to repute you as our dearest sister’22 as long as she agreed to the terms. Her allowance would be £4000 a year in revenues from estates and lands across the country including Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn’s childhood home, with £500 income plus she could keep Richmond Palace and Bletchingley Manor in Surrey as her homes. She was allowed her jewels and dresses, hangings, furniture and plate and there would be money for keeping her household. Her role as ‘sister’ would give her precedence over all the ladies at court except the queen and the king’s daughters. It was a generous settlement and more than Anne had hoped for. ‘But where was Bletchingley?’ she enquired of the councillors fearful of being shunted off to a dank, dark dwelling as Katherine of Aragon had been. Bletchingley was about eighteen miles outside of London and had been forfeited to the crown on the execution of Sir Nicholas Carew. It was surrounded by parkland and so would be a suitable accommodation for the sister of the king, Anne was assured. There was a gift too of 500 marks for her compliance.
After receiving Anne’s letter Henry wrote back to her:
Right dear and right entirely beloved sister,
By the relation of the lord Master, lord Privy Seal and others of our Council lately addressed unto you we perceive the continuance of your conformity, which before was reported, and by your letters is eftsoons testified. We take your wise and honourable proceedings therein in most thankful part, as it is done in respect of God and his trust, and, continuing your conformity, you shall find us a perfect friend, content to repute you as our dearest sister. We shall, within five or six days, when our Parliament ends, determine your state after such honourable sort as you shall have good cause to be content, we minding to endow you with £4000 of yearly revenue. We have appointed you two houses, that at Richmond where you now lie, and the other at Bletchingley, not far from London that you may be near us and, as you desire, able to repair to Court to see us, as we shall repair to you. When Parliament ends, we shall, in passing, see and speak with you, and you shall more largely see what a friend you and your friends have of us. Be quiet and merry.23
Be quiet and merry indeed. Anne had agreed to everything and Henry could sigh with relief and now make plans to marry his next queen. But Anne wasn’t so complaint about everything. Henry asked that she contact her brother William, Duke of Cleves, to explain the situation but Anne did not think it appropriate that she wrote to him first nor did she really want to let her family know of the failure of her marriage for the shame and embarrassment it would cause her. But it had to be done and after a few days Anne finally penned her heartfelt letter.
My dear and well-beloved brother,—After my most hearty commendation. Whereas, by your letters of the 13th of this month, which I have seen, written to the king’s majesty of England, my most dear and most kind brother, I do perceive you take the matter, lately moved and determined between him and me, somewhat to heart. Forasmuch as I had rather ye knew the truth by mine advertisement, than for want thereof ye should be deceived by vain reports. I thought mete to write these present letters to you, by the which it shall please you to understand, how the nobles and commons of this realm desired the king’s highness to commit the examination of the matter of marriage between his majesty and me to the determination of the holy clergy of this realm. I did then willingly consent thereto; and since their determination made, have also, upon intimation of their proceedings, allowed, approved, and agreed to the same.25
She went on to tell William that Henry had adopted her as his sister and that he ‘as a most kind, loving and friendly brother useth me, was as much or more humanity and liberality, as you, I myself, or any of our kin or allies, could well wish or desire’.26 The Duke of Cleves was of course unhappy with the situation. He had been informed of the inquiry into the legality of the marriage but refused to accept the divorce. Anne had taken pains to also send a verbal message with her official letter via Olisleger’s nephew who was tasked to take the missive to Cleves. She was extremely anxious that her family would bear her no ill will. William for his part did not blame her and even suggested she could return to Cleves but Anne’s settlement depended on her staying in England and Anne also knew that by staying in England she had status, property and money while returning to Cleves would leave her with nothing.
On 17 July Anne’s household was changed. The servants who attended her were reduced from over 100 to 30. Many of her ladies were discharged and would ultimately go on to serve the next queen. Lady Lisle finally got her wish and her daughter Katherine Basset gained a place in Anne’s new household and would be joined by Dorothy Wingfield, Frances Lilgrave, Jane Ratsey and a Mrs. Sympson whilst Anne still kept two of the original ladies, Katherine and Gertrude, that had come to England with her. Sir William Goring was now her chamberlain, Wymond Carew her receiver and Jasper Horsey her steward at Richmond. Thomas Cawarden was made keeper and steward of Anne’s new residence at Bletchingley. Their fractious relationship would last for many years.
A warrant for payment of their wages included several ‘strangers’ who were men of Cleves still in Anne’s service including Gymmech Shenck, Groisbeck Vresvydour, Dr. Cornelis (Cepher), physician, Mathyew, secretary, Schoulenburg, the cook, Henry the butler and her footmen. Warner van Gymnych, her cup-bearer was earning extra by exporting 800 tuns of beer but others were not so happy with their wages.
Wymond Carew was earning £20 a year, £6 less than Jasper Horsey and he wrote to John Gate of the King’s Privy Chamber to complain and seek an increase.
I pray you learn of my lord Privy Seal whether I and my wife shall have the same allowance as Mr. Horssey
and his wife have, for I think myself no meaner than he. If his lordship seem not so to esteem me, get my brother Deny to despatch me hence, for the lady Anne of Clevelond is bent to do me displeasure. I think she has heard how I procured the knowledge of such letters as were sent to her, which of truth at the beginning she denied. She esteems my wife two degrees under Mrs. Horssey.
P.S.—She had a letter three days past from her Grace’s brother, and because she did not seem minded to send it to the King I asked her brother’s ambassador whether she had had any, and he said they were letters of congratulation from her brother. I further told him he should advise her to send them to the King. I was commanded by my lord of Suffolk to show the King’s Council what letters were sent to her, and I have moved her chamberlain so to do, who has so moved her.26
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