ii. Similar writs to the different bishops, abbots, and lords; to the judges, serjeants-at-law, and the King's attorney, to give counsel; to the sheriffs to elect knights of the shires, citizens, and burgesses; also to the chancellor of the county palatine of Lancaster; to the deputy and council of Calais to elect one burgess, and to the mayor and burgesses to elect another."1
Although Anne Boleyn and the five men found guilty of adultery with her were all dead by the 8th June, these writs coming so soon after the setting up of the commissions of oyer and terminer suggests that Parliament was being called in order to deal with issues regarding the Queen, the King's marriage and the succession.
The King Thinks About Divorce
According to Chapuys, John Stokesley, Bishop of London, was approached on the 27th April to see if the King could "abandon" Anne Boleyn. Chapuys does not mention who consulted Stokesley, but he was told of it by Geoffrey Pole:
"The brother of lord Montague told me yesterday at dinner that the day before the bishop of London had been asked if the King could abandon the said concubine, and he would not give any opinion to anyone but the King himself, and before doing so he would like to know the King's own inclination, meaning to intimate that the King might leave the said concubine, but that, knowing his fickleness, he would not put himself in danger. The said Bishop was the principal cause and instrument of the first divorce, of which he heartily repents, and would still more gladly promote this, the said concubine and all her race are such abominable Lutherans. London, 29 April 1536."
Stokesley was not stupid, he was not going to endanger himself by working against the King and Anne.
28th and 29th April 1536
Something was definitely going on during April 1536. Commissions of oyer and terminer had been set up, writs for Parliament had been sent out and secret meetings were taking place.
On 28th April 1536, Thomas Warley wrote to Lord Lisle in Calais, informing him that the King's council had been meeting daily at Greenwich "upon certain letters brought by the French ambassador, who was at Court yesterday and divers other times."1
The imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, also noticed the goings-on, reporting to Charles V on 29th April:
"The day after the courier Gadaluppe left, the King sent for the French ambassador, and there was great consultation in Court. As I am told by one who is in the French ambassador's secrets, the King asked him to go in post to his master on certain affairs, which the ambassador agreed to do, and next day made preparations for leaving, then returned to Court on the day appointed, viz. Tuesday; but the Council, which was assembled in the morning till 9 or 10 at night, could not agree to the dispatch, and the ambassador was put off till Thursday."2
Although both Warley and Chapuys refer to meetings regarding the French ambassador, the frequency of the meetings and the secrecy surrounding the subject matter may suggest that something else was going on too.
In this same letter to Charles V, Chapuys writes:
"The Grand Ecuyer, Mr. Caro [Sir Nicholas Carew], had on St. George's day the Order of the Garter in the place of the deceased M. de Burgain (lord Abergavenny), to the great disappointment of Rochford, who was seeking for it, and all the more because the Concubine has not had sufficient influence to get it for her brother; and it will not be the fault of the said Ecuyer if the Concubine, although his cousin (quelque, qu. quoique? cousine) be not dismounted. He continually counsels Mrs. Semel [Jane Seymour] and other conspirators "pour luy faire une venue," and only four days ago he and some persons of the chamber sent to tell the Princess to be of good cheer, for shortly the opposite party would put water in their wine, for the King was already as sick and tired of the concubine as could be."3
It is hard to know whether Chapuys is simply repeating court gossip or whether he does actually know the facts, but it appears that Jane Seymour was being coached by the conservatives and that they were hopeful of success.
In a letter written on the same day to Granvelle (Nicholas Perronet, Seigneur de Granvelle, the Emperor's adviser), Chapuys reports that "Dr. Sampson, dean of the chapel, has been for the last four days continually with Cromwell."4 Dr Richard Sampson was a royal chaplain and was dean of Lichfield and also the Chapel Royal. He had supported the King in his efforts to get his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled, was a friend of Thomas Cromwell and also an expert on canon law, having graduated BCL at Cambridge. It is likely, therefore, that Cromwell was picking his brains about a possible annulment of the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. He did act as the King's proctor against Anne Boleyn in the annulment proceedings.5
Again, with hindsight, it is easy for us to see these meetings as suspicious and as the beginning of the end for Anne Boleyn, but they may have been about other matters. We may also be reading far too much into the events as well as into the words of Chapuys, a notorious gossip. What we do know is that there were moves against the Queen from 30th April and that just over three weeks later a Queen was dead, along with five members of the Boleyn faction.
29th April 1536 - Sir Henry Norris and Dead Men's Shoes
Also on the 29th April 1536, Anne Boleyn argued with Sir Henry Norris, an argument which led her to instruct him to go to her almoner on Sunday 30th April and take an oath that Anne "was a good woman".1 It was an argument which caused gossip around the court and which may also have led to cross words between Anne and her husband the King.
Sir Henry Norris was Henry VIII's groom of the stool, a member of the Boleyn faction and a man who was courting Anne's cousin and lady-in-waiting, Madge Shelton. Anne asked Norris why he was taking so long to marry Madge and when he gave her a non-committal answer she rebuked him, saying, "You look for dead men's shoes, for if aught came to the King but good, you would look to have me"2, thus accusing Norris of delaying his marriage to Madge because he fancied her. A horrified Norris replied that "if he [should have any such thought] he would his head were off".
Anne's anger had caused her to speak recklessly. Not only had she said something very inappropriate for a married woman, let alone Queen; she had also broken the rules of courtly love and spoken of the King's death. The courtier was meant to proposition the lady; however, in this argument Anne had been the 'aggressor'. She had turned the courtly love tradition on its head and had also spoken words which could be construed as treason. That is why Norris was so horrified. It is also why Anne suddenly ordered him to go to her almoner and swear an oath about her character. This argument would haunt Anne in the Tower; her words were used against her by the Crown, not only to provide evidence of some kind of relationship between her and Norris, but also as proof that she was plotting the King's death with Norris and others.
Sir Henry Norris
Sir Henry Norris was born sometime in the late 1490s and was the son of Richard Norris and grandson of Sir William Norris of Yattendon and his wife, Jane de Vere, daughter of John de Vere, twelfth Earl of Oxford.1 Norris's family had a long history of serving the monarch – his great-grandfather, Sir John Norris, had been Keeper of the Great Wardrobe to Henry VI and his grandfather, Sir William Norris, had been Knight of the Body to Edward IV. Sir William Norris had been attainted after being involved in the Duke of Buckingham's rebellion against Richard III and had been forced to flee to Brittany, where he joined the forces of Henry Tudor and may even have fought at the Battle of Bosworth. Sir William had a command in June 1487 at Stoke and went on to become the Lieutenant of Windsor Castle. 2
Sometime prior to 1526, Sir Henry Norris married Mary Fiennes, daughter of Thomas Fiennes, eighth Baron Dacre. The couple had three children. Mary, their daughter, grew up to marry Sir George Carew, Captain of the Mary Rose which sank in 1545 along with its captain and many of its crew. Henry was born around 1525 and educated in a reformist manner alongside Mary Boleyn's son Henry Carey. Edward did not survive infancy, dying sometime around 1529. Norris was left a widower in circa 1530.
A Royal Career
Sir Henry Norris received his first royal grant
as a young man in 1515 and by 1517 we know that he was serving in the King's Privy Chamber. By 1518, he had obviously proved himself enough to be handling money for the King and he was probably made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber in September 1518.3 Just a few months later, in January 1519, there is record of Norris receiving a annuity of 50 marks. This shows the high regard that the King must have had for him. Norris was definitely on the rise and a royal favourite.
Norris's popularity and his loyalty to the King meant that he survived as Gentleman of the Privy Chamber when Cardinal Wolsey "weeded out" some of Henry's men in May 1519. We know that he attended the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Like the King, Norris was a sportsman, excelling at jousting, and was an attractive and popular courtier.
Sometime before 1529, Norris became Groom of the Stool, the man whose job was to "preside over the office of royal excretion".4 In other words, wiping the royal bottom! Although this sounds an appalling job, it was a position of high esteem and it did make Norris and the King very close friends. It was also a position of influence, in that the Groom of the Stool was often approached by petitioners who wanted him to influence the King on their behalf.
Sir Henry Norris was one of the King's closest companions and he controlled access to the King's private chambers, and the King himself. No wonder Cromwell included Norris in his coup against Anne!
Sir Henry Norris also held the position of Keeper of the Privy Purse. This involved him looking after gifts that the King had been given, such as jewellery. Norris's high favour was also shown by the fact that he was appointed keeper of the manor of Placentia (Greenwich) and also of East Greenwich Park and Tower. When Sir William Compton died in 1528, Sir Henry Norris took his place as royal favourite. A popular and trustworthy man, he deserved this position. The King obviously trusted Norris because he gave him very important, and rather "delicate" jobs. For example, it was Norris who carried the King's secret letters and messages to Wolsey after the Cardinal's fall from Grace. The fact that Wolsey rewarded him with a precious cross containing a piece of the true cross of Christ, and a cross that Wolsey always wore next to his skin, shows that Norris must have treated the Cardinal with much respect, courtesy and kindness.
Other posts that Sir Henry Norris held include Chamberlain of North Wales (appointed in 1531), Master of the Hart Hounds and of the Hawks, Black Rod in the Parliament House, Graver of the Tower of London, Weigher of the Goods at the port of Southampton, Collector of Subsidy in the City of London, High Steward of the University of Oxford and steward or keeper of various parks, manors and castles. These positions, offices and lands meant that Norris was "wealthier than many leading nobles".5 Eric Ives writes of how Norris's annuities from the Crown added up to £542, his fees of offices to £328 12s. 3d. And earnings from farms and grants to £370 10s. This made a total of £1241 2s. 3d. which was then boosted to £1327 15s. 7d. from private sources!
Sir Henry Norris and the Boleyns
It is thought that Norris had been a member of the Boleyn faction since at least 1530, around the time that he was widowed. He had much in common with Anne Boleyn and her circle, being of a reformist persuasion. His servant George Constantine was described as "an active instrument in the hands of the early promoters of the Reformation"6 and in 15307 was actually apprehended for heresy by Sir Thomas More because of his "connection with Tindall, Joye, and other reformers, in translating and printing the New Testament abroad."8 When Constantine was questioned by More regarding the smuggling of heretical books and where funding for the operation was coming from, Constantine replied that the Bishop of London was their best supporter, "having expended large sums of money in the purchase of their Testaments, for the purpose of burning them"! The amused More ordered Constantine to be put in the stocks, rather than burned, but Constantine managed to escape the stocks and fled abroad. It was Sir Henry Norris who brought him back to the English court, along with a copy of Miles Coverdale's English Bible for Anne Boleyn.
Norris's favour with both the King and Anne Boleyn led to him accompanying them to inspect York Place, after it was surrendered to the Crown by Cardinal Wolsey. He accompanied them to Calais in autumn 1532 and was probably one of the witnesses at their secret marriage in January 1533. Eric Ives9 points out that Norris's son was educated by the French reformist scholar Nicholas Bourbon in the company of Anne Boleyn's nephew and ward Henry Carey. This fact shows that Norris shared the Queen's reformist sympathies and that he was close to the Queen.
It was in the 1530s that Norris started courting 'Mistress Shelton'. Margaret Shelton was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn's sister, Anne, and of her husband Sir John Shelton. This courtship came to nothing. Anne teased Norris about his lack of commitment to Margaret. She also reprimanded Sir Francis Weston for his interest in Margaret. Both these conversations were subsequently used against Anne in Cromwell's plot to oust the Queen and her circle.
30th April 1536 – A Royal Argument and the First Arrest
At 11 o'clock on the night of Sunday 30th April 1536, the King and Queen's upcoming visit to Calais was cancelled and arrangements made for the King to journey alone a week later. We know about this from a letter written by Thomas Warley to Lady Lisle in Calais:
"I wrote by Collins that the King would have been at Rochester tonight, but he has changed his mind, which was not known till Sunday at 11 o'clock, and will go to Dover next week."1
No reason is given for the change in the King's travel arrangements.
Furthermore, on that same Sunday, Scottish theologian Alexander Alesius witnessed an argument between Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. This argument may well have been caused by the King hearing of Anne's words with Norris or by her trying to explain what happened:
"Never shall I forget the sorrow which I felt when I saw the most serene queen, your most religious mother, carrying you, still a baby, in her arms and entreating the most serene king your father, in Greenwich Palace, from the open window of which he was looking into the courtyard, when she brought you to him. I did not perfectly understand what had been going on, but the faces and gestures of the speakers plainly showed that the king was angry, although he could conceal his anger wonderfully well. Yet from the protracted conference of the council (for whom the crowd was waiting until it was quite dark, expecting that they would return to London), it was most obvious to everyone that some deep and difficult question was being discussed."2
The mention of a "protracted" council meeting sounds ominous and it is clear that Alesius's suspicions were aroused. Something was going on.
Also on 30th April, court musician and member of the Boleyn circle, Mark Smeaton, was taken to Thomas Cromwell's house in Stepney and interrogated. Within 24 hours he had confessed to making love three times to the Queen. It is likely that the note that Henry VIII received at the May Day joust, the next day, contained details of Smeaton's confession.
There is an intriguing story about Mark Smeaton and Anne Boleyn in The Spanish Chronicle (Cronica del Rey Enrico), also known as The Chronicle of King Henry VIII of England. This is a rather gossipy chronicle and one historical source to take with a rather large pinch of salt, but the story is interesting nonetheless.
It concerns a certain musician, a cupboard, a jar of jam, a bed and a certain queen. After reporting how Anne had fallen in love with Smeaton, the Chronicle goes on to say:
"One night, whilst all the ladies were dancing, the old woman called Mark and said to him gently, so that none should overhear, "You must come with me;" and he, as he knew it was to the Queen's chamber he had to go, was nothing loth. So she took him to an ante-chamber, where she and another lady slept, next to the Queen's room, and in this ante-chamber there was a closet like a store-room, where she kept sweetmeats, candied fruits, and other preserves which the Queen sometimes asked for. To conceal him more perfectly the old woman put him into this closet, and told him to stay there till she came for him, and to take great care he was not heard. Then she shut him up and returned to the great hall where they
were dancing, and made signs to the Queen, who understood her, and, although it was not late, she pretended to be ill, and the dancing ceased. She then retired to her chamber with her ladies, whilst the old woman said to her, "Madam, when you are in bed and all the ladies are asleep, you can call me and ask for some preserves, which I will bring, and Mark shall come with me, for he is in the closet now."
"The Queen went to bed and ordered all her ladies to retire to their respective beds, which were in an adjoining gallery like a refectory, and when they were all gone but the old lady and the lady who slept with her, she sent them off too. When she thought they would all be asleep, she called the old woman, and said, "Margaret, bring me a little marmalade." She called it out very loudly, so that the ladies in the gallery might hear as well as Mark, who was in the closet. The old woman went to the closet and made Mark undress, and took the marmalade to the Queen, leading Mark by the hand. The lady who was in the old woman's bed did not see them when they went out of the closet, and the old woman left Mark behind the Queen's bed, and said out loud, "Here is the marmalade, my lady." Then Anne said to the old woman, "Go along; go to bed."
"As soon as the old woman had gone Anne went round to the back of the bed and grasped the youth's arm, who was all trembling, and made him get into bed. He soon lost his bashfulness, and remained that night and many others, so that in a short time this Mark flaunted out to such an extent that there was not a gentleman at court who was so fine, and Anne never dined without having Mark serve her."3
Now this story is quite hilarious until you stop and realise that this was some of the propaganda which helped to blacken Anne Boleyn's name. It is such a silly story and I cannot see that there is any truth in it. There is certainly no other evidence to back it up, unless you believe the poem by Lancelot de Carles, telling of the alleged witness statement from the Countess of Worcester.4
The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown Page 7