Kingston would report Anne's ramblings to Cromwell over the next few days and these words, spoken by a desperate and frightened woman, would lead to the arrest of Sir Francis Weston. They would also be used as evidence against her and the men concerned. We can wonder what would have happened if Anne had stayed silent in the Tower. Perhaps Weston would have been saved. However, there was no hope for Anne, George, Norris, Brereton and Smeaton. They were facing a certain death.
On the very afternoon that Anne Boleyn was arrested and taken to the Tower of London, the King's illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, visited his father. According to Chapuys, the King broke down in tears, telling Richmond "that both he and his sister, meaning the Princess, ought to thank God for having escaped from the hands of that woman[Anne Boleyn], who had planned their death by poison, from which I conclude that the King knew something of her wicked intentions."10 There had been rumours that Anne Boleyn had poisoned Catherine of Aragon, causing her death four months earlier, so did Henry really believe that his wife was capable of murder? Did he truly believe what he was saying or was he trying to justify what was going on? We will never know.
George Boleyn, Lord Rochford
George Boleyn was born around 1504, making him the youngest of the three famous Boleyn children. His father was courtier and diplomat, Thomas Boleyn, and his mother was Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey.
George's later fluency in French, along with his aptitude for poetry and translating, points to an excellent education. His "connaissance parfaite" of French, his interest in French literature and the "New Religion", and his close relationship with his sister in the 1520s and 1530s suggest that he spent part of his youth in France, possibly accompanying his father in diplomatic missions. George also spent time at court, quickly becoming a favourite with a king who enjoyed surrounding himself with intelligent, fun-loving and quick-witted young men. George Boleyn was the perfect Tudor courtier; he had charisma and brains, he was a sportsman and he was a talented musician and poet. His contemporaries listed him as a court poet along with Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.
George married Jane Parker, daughter of Lord Morley, in late 1524/early 1525. Although the marriage has been viewed as loveless, with George being portrayed as homosexual and his wife as a spiteful and jealous shrew, we just don't know what their relationship was like and it is unlikely that a zealous evangelical would have put his life and his mortal soul in peril by committing 'buggery'.
In 1525 George was appointed a member of the King's privy chamber and in 1529 he was appointed as ambassador to France at such a young age that it drew comment from Jean du Bellay, a French diplomat. Like his father, George became a trusted diplomat, carrying out many important embassies.
George Boleyn was a man on the rise in the 1520s and 30s, and he enjoyed a high profile career at Henry VIII's court. He was rewarded with grants such as the keepership of the Palace of Beaulieu in 1528, a knighthood in 1529, and, in the same year, the governorship of Bethlehem Hospital. So intimate was he with the King that Henry even trusted him to be the bearer of the love letters he wrote to George's sister, Anne.
George was active in pushing for Henry VIII's annulment. His signature can be found on the deposition signed by the Spiritual and Temporal Lords of England, which was sent to the Pope asking for his consent to the annulment and pointing out the evils which would arise from delay. As ambassador to France, he was also active in seeking French support for the annulment.
He carried on being a busy diplomat when Anne became Queen, even missing her coronation because he was in France. He was also involved in the League of Schmalkalden in 1535 and was a regular attendee of Parliament.
George was a zealous reformer and presented Anne with two beautiful manuscripts of works by French reformer Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples which he had translated himself. Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, spoke of how, when he met with George Boleyn in April 1536, the former avoided "all occasions of entering into Lutheran discussions, from which he [George] could not refrain". George obviously liked to share his religious beliefs and opinions!
3rd May 1536 - I Had Never Better Opinion of Woman
On 3rd May 1536, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer wrote a letter to King Henry VIII showing his shock and amazement at the arrest of his patron Anne Boleyn:
"Have come to Lambeth, according to Mr. Secretary's letters, to know your Grace's pleasure. Dare not, contrary to the said letters, presume to come to your presence, but of my bounden duty I beg you "somewhat to suppress the deep sorrows of your Grace's heart," and take adversity patiently. Cannot deny that you have great causes of heaviness, and that your honor is highly touched. God never sent you a like trial; but if He find you no less patient and thankful than when all things succeeded to your wish, I suppose you never did thing more acceptable to Him. You will give Him occasion to increase His benefits, as He did to Job.
If the reports of the Queen be true, they are only to her dishonor, not yours. I am clean amazed, for I had never better opinion of woman; but I think your Highness would not have gone so far if she had not been culpable. I was most bound to her of all creatures living, and therefore beg that I may, with your Grace's favor, wish and pray that she may declare herself innocent. Yet if she be found guilty, I repute him not a faithful subject who would not wish her punished without mercy. "And as I loved her not a little for the love which I judged her to bear towards God and His Gospel, so if she be proved culpable there is not one that loveth God and His Gospel that ever will favor her, but must hate her above all other; and the more they favor the Gospel the more they will hate her, for then there was never creature in our time that so much slandered the Gospel; and God hath sent her this punishment for that she feignedly hath professed his Gospel in her mouth and not in heart and deed." And though she have so offended, yet God has shown His goodness towards your Grace and never offended you. "But your Grace, I am sure, knowledgeth that you have offended Him." I trust, therefore, you will bear no less zeal to the Gospel than you did before, as your favor to the Gospel was not led by affection to her. Lambeth, 3 May.
Since writing, my lords Chancellor, Oxford, Sussex, and my Lord Chamberlain of your Grace's house, sent for me to come to the Star Chamber, and there declared to me such things as you wished to make me privy to. For this I am much bounden to your Grace. They will report our conference. I am sorry such faults can be proved against the Queen as they report."1
From this letter we can see Cramner's shock at the events unravelling around him. However, he is still careful in his support of Anne. Whilst he supports her by saying that he "had never better opinion of woman", that he was "most bound to her of all creatures living" and that he was praying that she would show herself to be innocent, he also tempers this support of her by showing his allegiance to the King above all else. Cranmer's zeal for reform, and probably fear for his life, stop him from giving his full unswerving support to Anne Boleyn, the woman who helped to make him Archbishop of Canterbury. It must have been a very difficult letter to write. Diarmaid MacCulloch writes of how this letter and Cranmer's handling of the situation show his wisdom and courage, rather than his cowardice as some have said.2 Cranmer knew how to handle the King and when not to question the King's actions. Angering the King would not have helped Anne.
While Archbishop Cranmer was writing to the King, Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower of London, was writing to Thomas Cromwell. He had been charged with reporting everything that the Queen said to her ladies, who were acting as spies. In his letter of 3rd May 1536, Kingston reports Anne Boleyn's ramblings in the Tower as she tried to figure out why Norris had been arrested and what could have led to her own arrest. The letter was damaged by a fire in 1731, hence the missing parts:
"and this morning did talk with Mistress Coffin. And she said, Mr Norris did say on Sunday last unto the Queen's almoner that he would swear to the Queen that she was a good woman. And then said Mrs Coffin, "Why shoul
d there be any such matters spoken of", "Marry", said she, "I bade him do so: for I asked him why he did not go through with his marriage and he made answer that he would tarry a time. Then I said, You look for dead men's shoes, for if aught came to the King but good, you would look to have me. And he said if he should have any such thought he would his head were off.""3
Later in the same letter Kingston reported how the Queen said that "she more feared Weston".4She explained how she had reprimanded him for loving her relative, Mistress Shelton, and not his wife, and he "made answer to her again that he loved on in her house better than them both". When Anne asked who, he replied "It is yourself". The Queen then "defied him".5
Sir Henry Norris was already imprisoned in the Tower, but these words spoken by Anne may have been responsible for the arrest of Sir Francis Weston the following day.
Anne Boleyn and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
In 1529, Thomas Cranmer was called on to advise the King on his quest for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. It was at this time that Cranmer began lodging with Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne, at Durham Place, and he may well have acted as the family chaplain. His appointment to the office of Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533 was not only a reward for his work on the King's Great Matter, it was also a result of his close relationship with Anne Boleyn and her family.
It is easy for us to look at the words written by Archbishop Cranmer in defence of Anne Boleyn in May 1536, and at his subsequent actions, and see him as a spineless man who sat by and let an innocent woman and five innocent men go to their deaths. His subsequent actions certainly did not support Anne:
He helped the King find legal reasons for the marriage to be annulled, while acting as Anne's confessor.
He visited her on 16th May to obtain from her an admission that there had been an impediment to her marriage to the King and convinced her to give her consent to the annulment of the marriage, thus making her daughter, Elizabeth, illegitimate.
He may have misled Anne, offering her mercy in exchange for her compliance.
At dinner on 16th May, Anne Boleyn told Sir William Kingston that she was going to a nunnery and that she was "in hope of life". This suggests that Cranmer may well have offered her this chance of escape if she agreed to the annulment of her marriage. Perhaps Cranmer had been misled by Cromwell or by the King; we'll never know.
It is hard to judge Cranmer. He was a man running scared. He owed his position to Anne Boleyn, he had been friends with Anne and her family, he had close ties to the Boleyn faction and he must have had many sleepless nights wondering if he would be brought down too. He had to obey the King or risk losing his head, and we can only imagine the emotional pain he felt witnessing and being involved in the goings-on of May 1536. It is sad that it was Anne's friend who had a hand in annulling her marriage and bastardising Elizabeth, but he had little choice in the matter.
Sir Edward Baynton to William Fitzwilliam
Also around 3rd May 1536, Sir Edward Baynton, Anne Boleyn's vice-chamberlain, wrote to William Fitzwilliam, treasurer of the household:-
"This shalbe to advertyse yow that here is myche communycacion that noman will confesse any thynge agaynst her, but allonly Marke of any actuell thynge. Wherfore (in my folishe conceyte) it shulde myche toche the kings honor if it shulde no farther appeere.
And I cannot beleve but that the other two bee as f[ully] culpapull as ever was hee. And I thynke assur[edly] the on kepith the others conncell. As many .... conjectures in my mynde causeth me to thynk . . . specially of the communycacion that was last bet[wene] the qnene and Master Norres. Mr. Aumener [tolde] me as I wolde I myght speke with Mr. S[ecretorie] and yow together more playnely expresse my . . . yf case be that they have confessyd like wret... all thyngs as they shulde do than my n... ...at apoynte. I have mewsed myche at... ...of mastres Margery whiche hath used her .... strangely toward me of late, being her fry[nde] as I have ben. But no dowte it cann[ot be] but that she must be of councell therewith, [there] hath ben great fryndeship betwene the q[ene and] her of late. I here farther that the que[ne] standith styfly in her opjmyon that she wo... ...whiche I thynke is in the trust that she... ...ther two. But if yor busynes be suche... ...not com, I wolde gladly com and wayte... ...ke it requysyte. From Grenewy[che]... ...mornyng."6
The letter is mutilated, but we can see that he mentions Margery Lyster (née Horsman), one of Anne Boleyn's ladies-in-waiting, as being Anne's confidante. She would, therefore, have been someone who'd know what was going if Anne was having any affairs. Eric Ives7 points out that Margery was not arrested and, instead, moved into the service of Jane Seymour after Anne's execution, something that just would not have happened if the King had thought that Margery helped cover up his wife's affairs. The fact that none of Anne's ladies were arrested suggests that Anne was innocent.
Sir Francis Weston
It is thought that Sir Francis Weston was born around 1511 to Sir Richard Weston, a former Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer, and to his wife, Anne Sandys who had been one of Catherine of Aragon' s ladies.1 In 1521, Henry VIII gave Sir Richard the beautiful house and estate of Sutton Place, near Guildford in Surrey, and this became the Weston family home. In May 1530, Sir Francis Weston married Anne Pickering, the daughter of Sir Christopher Pickering of Killington, Cumberland. The couple went on to have a son, Henry, in 1535.
In 1532 Weston was made a gentleman of the Privy Chamber; in 1533 he became, with his father, joint governor of Guernsey. Records show that he was a favourite of both the King and Anne Boleyn, a friend of Lord Rochford (George Boleyn), a member of the rising Boleyn faction and a popular man of the King's court. He was also a talented lute player, a first class athlete and often played tennis, bowls and cards with the King. In 1530, the King paid him sixteen angels after Weston beat him at Tennis four times.2
At Anne Boleyn's coronation in 1533, Weston was made a Knight of the Bath, showing that he was a royal favourite and on the rise.
Quotes about Sir Francis Weston
George Cavendish, Cardinal Wolsey's gentleman usher and biographer, said of Weston:
"in active things, who might with thee compare?"
Thomas Wyatt, Weston's contemporary and a man who was also imprisoned, albeit briefly, in the coup against Anne Boleyn, said that Weston was "pleasant" and "well-esteemed".
Both Cavendish and Paul Friedmann,3 Anne Boleyn's biographer, wrote of how Weston received a number of grants and pensions from the King, showing what a favourite he was. Cavendish commented that Weston was "daintily nourished under the King's wing".
As well as praising Weston's athletic abilities, Cavendish also wrote about Weston's not so wonderful traits, describing him as
"Weston the wanton…that wantonly lived without fear or dread,…following his fantasy and his wanton lust" and said "hot lust kindled the fire of filthy concupiscence".4
Sir Francis Weston's Sexuality
If we are to believe historian Retha Warnicke, then Sir Francis Weston and the other four men arrested, tried and executed in the coup against Anne Boleyn were all known libertines; and libertines apparently progressed "from adultery and fornication to 'buggery' and bestiality".5 In Philippa Gregory's historical novel, "The Other Boleyn Girl", Sir Francis Weston and George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, were lovers. However, as far as I can tell from my research, there is no historical evidence to back up the idea that Weston was Rochford's lover or that he committed the illegal act of buggery. We cannot even prove that he was a ladies' man, although it is thought that he may have had an affair, or at least a flirtation, with Anne Boleyn's cousin, Margaret Shelton.
4th May 1536 – Further Arrests
On 4th May 1536, a further two members of the King's privy chamber were arrested and taken to the Tower of London: Sir Francis Weston and Sir William Brereton. Weston's arrest was predictable, coming after the Queen's ramblings about him telling her he loved her, but Anne had not mentioned Brereton and he was not close to her.
Sir William Brere
ton was a rather colourful character with power in Chester and North Wales. He was also close to Henry Fitzroy, the Duke of Richmond, and the Duke of Norfolk. Maybe his arrest was more to do with Thomas Cromwell's plans for reform in the administration of North Wales.
George Constantine, Sir Henry Norris's servant, had this to say of Sir William Brereton:
"By my troeth, yf any of them was innocent, it was he... And he tolde me that there was no way but one with any matter. For I did aske hym and was bold apon hym because were were borne within foure myles together, And also we wente to grammar scole together. And the same daye afore two of the clock was he in the towre as ferre as the best. What was layed against hym I know not nor never hearde."1
There were now five men in the Tower of London: Mark Smeaton, Sir Henry Norris, George Boleyn, Sir Francis Weston and Sir William Brereton.
Sir William Brereton
The William Brereton of "The Tudors" is a Jesuit priest hired by the Pope to assassinate Queen Anne Boleyn, and a man who gives a false confession, saying that he slept with the Queen, in order to bring her down. The real Sir William Brereton was nothing like this character. He was, in fact, a groom of the privy chamber and a man who protested his innocence in the coup against Anne Boleyn in May 1536.
Sir William Brereton (or Bryerton) was the sixth son of a leading, landowning Cheshire family. He was born between 1487 and 1490; his father was Sir Randolph Brereton of Malpas, chamberlain of the county palatine of Cheshire.1 Randolph became a knight of the body in 1513. William's mother was Eleanor Dutton, daughter of Piers Dutton of Halton. Brereton, like three of his brothers, entered royal service and by 1524 (perhaps even 1521)2 he had become a groom of the privy chamber.
The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown Page 9