Upon Wolsey's downfall, his palace at York Place fell into royal hands, with Wolsey handing it to Henry, along with Hampton Court Palace, in an effort to save himself. In addition to the rented house at Greenwich, and also the rooms he occupied at Greenwich Palace which enabled him to be on call to the King at short notice, George was now granted opulent rooms for his personal use at York Place. Financially, there is no doubt that George Boleyn benefited more than any other courtier from Wolsey's disgrace.
In September 1529, about a month prior to Wolsey's downfall, Eustace Chapuys became imperial ambassador to England in place of Don Inigo de Mendoza. Chapuys was born in the Duchy of Savoy somewhere between 1489 and 1492, was educated at the University of Turin, and became a doctor of civil and canon laws. He remained in England until 1545, when he was forced to retire due to ill health. With his legal background, Chapuys was the ideal person to advise and defend Catherine of Aragon during the annulment proceedings, and he continued to be a close ally to the Princess Mary after her mother's death. As envoy to Catherine's nephew, Charles V of Spain, and as a staunch Catholic, Chapuys was one of the Boleyns' bitterest enemies. It is, however, from Chapuys' dispatches that a vast amount of information regarding this period is drawn. It must always be borne in mind that Chapuys is biased and that all his dispatches were designed to show Anne and those who supported her in an unfavourable light. As George Boleyn was so closely affiliated to his sister and so diligent to her cause, he also came in for mild criticism from Chapuys. His letters often refer to meeting George, who he disparagingly refers to as "the lady's brother", when attending court. Shortly after his arrival in England, a dispatch of Chapuys to the Emperor dated 25 October indicated that he had met "a civil gentleman, named Bollen [Boleyn] sent by the king to conduct me to the Palace". This would have been just before George went on his first foreign embassy, and the likelihood is that he is the "Bollen" referred to.18 Later, in February 1530, Chapuys would again describe a meeting with George, referring to him as "exceedingly courteous".19 At least in the early days, it appears that Chapuys actually liked George.
It was in 1529 that Catherine of Aragon needed the help of a man like Chapuys, as matters relating to the annulment began to move on, albeit slowly. Henry summoned his Reformation Parliament, in which Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey's previous employee, took a significant role.
11 - The Reformation Parliament (1529-36)
In the aftermath of Cardinal Wolsey's fall, Henry VIII sought to assume direct control of the government, aided by a combination of advisers, including the Boleyns. With so many different voices advising him, Henry became indecisive, which resulted in a stalemate. Into this confusion stepped Thomas Cromwell. He appeared to be as evangelical as the Boleyns, as well as being intelligent, articulate and astute, and he had the loyalty of Wolsey's previous followers.
Thomas Cromwell was born in 1485 in Putney, London, and began working for Wolsey in August 1514. After studying law, he became a Member of Parliament in 1523. Cromwell assumed control of the group that had supported Wolsey, and with the help of the Boleyns, he was appointed royal councillor in late 1530. He would become Henry's chief minister in 1532 upon the resignation of Thomas More. It was to be Cromwell and Reformer Thomas Cranmer, who was lodging at Durham House in the household of Thomas Boleyn, who would do the most to push forward Henry's annulment, legalise his marriage to Anne Boleyn, and make the break with Rome. It would also be Cromwell who would do the most to destroy the King's marriage to Anne, with the reluctant help of Cranmer, a little over three years later.
When the Pope refused to help Henry VIII with his quest for an annulment, the King and his advisers turned to Parliament and Convocation. The "Reformation Parliament" is the name given to the Parliament which sat from October 1529 to April 1536. One historian has gone as far as describing this Parliament as "the most important Parliament in English history".1 It certainly changed English history, passing the main pieces of legislation which led to the English Reformation and which also made Parliament "omnicompetent", establishing that "no area involved in the government of the realm was outside its authority".2 It also passed legislation concerning economic, social, legal and administrative reform.
The Reformation Parliament was established on the theory that England was governed by one supreme head, namely the King, and that all jurisdiction in the land, including that of spiritual matters, belonged to the King. It naturally followed that no foreign power could dictate English public policy – specifically, the Pope. It established that only law enacted by a monarch within a sovereign state was binding; hence, this sovereign power was supreme and gave the King and Parliament authority over church law. By putting Thomas Cranmer's original ideas into effect, Cromwell gave Parliament legislative precedence over the Church of Rome. Previously, Parliament was merely an advisory assembly dependent on the Crown for existence; now, by giving Henry absolute power in England, Parliament was transformed into an established institution with the power to legislate. This actually had a side effect that was not anticipated by Henry, and possibly not Cromwell either: when Henry succeeded in achieving the statutory authority of Parliament over the church, he also acknowledged Parliament's authority over the Crown. Henry would no doubt be furious to learn that today's constitutional monarchy, in which the Crown has no real statutory power, was unwittingly initiated by him. As one of the most tyrannical and domineering monarchs in English history, a man who revelled in his power, this seems particularly ironic.
The beginnings of the Reformation are woven throughout the history of the early 1530s, but for ease of reference, the purposes and achievements of the Reformation Parliament have been consolidated into this chapter, with particular emphasis on the legislation passed while George Boleyn was in attendance. Everything of consequence which happened from late 1529 to 1536 must be considered in light of the decisions made by the Reformation Parliament, and the statutes enacted as a consequence of those decisions.
In the summer of 1530, the King had planned to demand large sums of money from the English clergy for supposedly conspiring in Wolsey's alleged offences. By January 1531, he had already begun a number of exemplary prosecutions. Henry was offered a £100,000 bribe by the clergy in return for a pardon for any complicity. Although the pardon was initially for complicity in Wolsey's offences, the King later offered a pardon for the church's general exercise of "illegal" spiritual jurisdiction. On 7 February 1531, the King became more specific, demanding that the church immediately recognise him as "sole protector and supreme head of the English church and clergy". There could be no doubt that it was the Boleyn faction that advised the King in this matter, as demonstrated by the prominent part played by George Boleyn. Although George, now Lord Rochford, was not officially called to Parliament until 5 February 1533,3 he maintained a prominent role in the Reformation from 1530 until his death.
Henry wanted his title of supreme head of the Church of England recognised without qualification, and it was George Boleyn, who he sent to persuade Convocation of the scriptural case for supremacy. The Convocations of Canterbury and York were the English church's legislative body which, like Parliament, was made up of two houses: the upper house of bishops and the lower house of general clergy. The Convocation of Canterbury ran at the same time as Parliament, and the King's articles were introduced to them on 7 February 1531, following which Convocation met on five consecutive days between 7 and 11 February. George Boleyn, by now a member of the Privy Council, was chosen by Henry to express his growing anti-papal sentiments and Parliament's arguments in favour of supremacy. He was sent to Convocation on the afternoon of Friday 10 February and delivered various tracts, one of which still survives today.4 George announced to the legislative body that the King's "supreme auctorite grounded on God's word ought in no case to be restrayned by any frustrate decrees of popish lawes or voyed prescriptes of humanr traditions, but that he maye both order and minister, yea and also execute the office of spiritual administration in the church whereo
f he ys head".5 Convocation did not want to deal with this 26 year-old envoy, they wanted to deal directly with the King but when they sent members of the lower house to see the King, they were turned away and instructed to deal with George. Henry, ever the coward, was happy to use the inexperienced young man as a buffer between himself and Convocation, and this was no doubt to the extreme satisfaction of the Boleyns. The position in which Henry was happy to put George can have done nothing to temper the young man's pride, and it is hard to imagine that Thomas Boleyn was unmoved by his son's extraordinary prominence at such tender years.
Convocation initially baulked at the idea of recognising Henry as head of the church, and eventually a suggestion was made, by one of Cromwell, Thomas Audley or even George Boleyn himself, to qualify the demand with the words "as far as the law of Christ allows". The following day, upon hearing the King's agreement to the limitation clause, the clergy agreed the amended wording, thereby accepting royal demands to recognise Henry as "Head of the Church of England, as far as the law of Christ allows". Although this was a victory for the Boleyns and their supporters, verbal acceptance by the clergy and actual compliance were two different matters, and any act of Convocation had to be agreed on by Parliament to be enforced.
By the end of May 1531, Henry warned the Pope that a continued insistence on him being summoned to a hearing in Rome would mean the destruction of papal authority in England. His threats had no effect on the Pope, who merely warned Henry that the case could no longer be delayed. Henry's fury at the Pope's unsympathetic stance was the catalyst for the final rupture between himself and Catherine in July of that year. Catherine's daughter had previously been taken from her as punishment for refusing to concede to the King's desire for the annulment, and now Catherine too was sent from court. Henry did not bid farewell to his wife of 23 years and never saw her again. His hardened resolve towards his wife and the Pope was to the enormous satisfaction of the Boleyns, who could eventually see an end in sight; however, it would be another 18 months before a marriage took place.
It was not until March 1532 that action was taken in Parliament to enforce Convocation's 1531 agreement to acknowledge Henry as head of the Church of England. On 18 March a petition entitled "Supplication against the Ordinaries" was presented to Henry. Its aim was the destruction of the clergy's independent legislative powers by alleging misuse of their spiritual jurisdiction. A party of leading courtiers - Norfolk, Exeter, Oxford, Sandys and Thomas and George Boleyn – was sent to the bishops and abbots. The clergy were well aware of the Boleyns' influence. The delegation of courtiers demanded submission of the clergy without any limitation or reservation. With the impending threat to strip the church of its powers, Convocation had no choice but to surrender. In a document entitled "The Submission of the Clergy", officially ratified on 16 May, Convocation recognised the King instead of the Pope as supreme lawmaker of the church.6 Therefore, by 1532, Parliament was the only valid legislative body in England. This was a great triumph for the Boleyn faction and an important step towards the eventual break with Rome.
The submission of the clergy was given as the reason for Thomas More's resignation as Chancellor in 1532. It had been More who replaced Wolsey in October 1529, but his faith would not permit him to accept Henry as head of the church over the Pope. Following his resignation, Cromwell steered Parliament to more decisive action with regards to the annulment.
Despite his active involvement in the Reformation, George, Lord Rochford, was not summoned to Parliament until February 1533 at the age of 28. From then on, his attendance was highly impressive. For years he had helped popularise his sister's cause within the Privy Chamber, and upon his admission to Parliament he did the same with the younger peers, who were naturally more inclined to the idea of change. 1533 was an important year in Parliament. On 14 March 1533, the "Appeals Bill", prohibiting appeals to Rome on legal or other matters, was presented. The bill came before Convocation in April 1533, presided over by Thomas Cranmer, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. The bill was passed and the resulting act was entitled the Act Concerning Ecclesiastical Appointments and Absolute Restraint of Annates. It was this act that began the process of the transfer of authority from Rome to the King. At the time this act was passed, Henry's case for an annulment was still pending in Rome. Its passage meant that Parliament was sanctioned to seek a decision in England, and under pressure from the Crown, Convocation agreed that Henry's marriage to Catherine was invalid. Only a trial was needed to enforce this decision, and Cranmer presided over a special trial of the annulment proceedings at Dunstable Priory, Bedfordshire. On 23 May 1533, this court rubber-stamped Convocation's opinion, declaring the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine,7 and on 28 May 1533 Cranmer confirmed the legality of Henry's marriage to Anne, which had taken place secretly on 25 January 1533. Henry VIII's "Great Matter", his quest for an annulment, had been settled in England, not Rome, and was sanctioned by Parliament.
In 1534, during the fifth session of Parliament, George's attendance rate was prodigious, particularly bearing in mind the fact that he was on a diplomatic mission abroad for a total of two months, and was also Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports from June onwards. Despite these other onerous duties, he attended more sessions in Parliament than many other Lords Temporal. Out of the Lords Temporal attending Parliament, only the Earl of Arundel, the Earl of Oxford and the Earl of Wiltshire, George's father, attended more frequently than George: on 45, 44 and 42 occasions respectively, with George appearing 41 times. The average attendance was just 22 out of 46.8 George's high attendance demonstrates his commitment to his own career, as well as to Reform and to his sister's cause. His work rate from 1533 onwards, particularly from April 1534, was impressive. Never was there a year when attendance in Parliament had been more important, since it was in 1534 that the Acts of Succession and Supremacy were finally passed, as well as the Act Concerning Peter's Pence and Dispensations, which outlawed payments to Rome and gave the Archbishop of Canterbury the authority to grant dispensations. All Members of Parliament sitting at that time could safely say the decisions they made during that year changed the course of history.
The Act of Succession was passed in March 1534, and vested succession in the heirs of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. It required subjects to swear an oath, the Oath of Succession, renouncing any foreign authority and recognising Anne Boleyn as Henry VIII's wife, and their children as legitimate heirs to the succession. Refusal to take the oath was deemed treason in an updated Treasons Act. The Act of Supremacy was passed in November 1534 and came into force in February 1535, establishing the King's ecclesiastical authority. The Act of Supremacy declared, "Albeit the Kynges Majestie justely and rightfully is & oweth to be supreme hede of the Churche of England and so is recognysed by the Clergy of the Realme in their convocacions."9 This was the final break with Rome. It was no longer the church "in" England; it was now the Church "of" England. Parliament removed the authority of the Catholic church in England and replaced it with domestic authority, with Henry VIII as supreme head. Parliament, influenced by Cromwell and the rest of the Boleyn faction, in particular Thomas Cranmer, and Thomas, George and Anne Boleyn, had used domestic statute to supersede the law of the church.
The Reformation Parliament did not meet during 1535, but was recalled in February 1536. There was rebellion and dissatisfaction among certain peers, such as Lords Darcy and Hussey, following the executions of Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher the previous year. In 1536 steps were taken to make Parliament co-operate by forcing attendance of all members. Those members who did not attend had to appoint a proxy. Previously, in January 1534, the proxy vote for Lord LaWarr, an adherent to the old religion, was held by George Boleyn. This had probably been arranged by Cromwell, who is recorded as witnessing the document.10 11 As George had completely opposite views to LaWarr, he no doubt used the vote in total opposition to LaWarr's wishes. In 1536, less than three months before George's arrest, George once again held LaWarr's proxy vote; La
Warr had submitted a blank proxy, saying he "had a wyndoe for to put in whom yt shall please the kynges highnes to apoynt".12 The proud and ambitious Lord Rochford was undoubtedly delighted, but unfortunately for the Boleyns, a number of those peers who were either excused attendance at Parliament, or who simply did not turn up, later sat on the trials of Anne Boleyn and her brother; these men included Lord LaWarr. After George's death, LaWarr's proxy remained with Cromwell. This final session of Parliament saw the passing of the Act extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome, which made those giving any authority to the Pope (now known as the Bishop of Rome) liable to prosecution, and the Act for the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries, which began the process now known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries. This Parliament was dismissed on 14 April 1536, Good Friday, just under three weeks before George was arrested.
George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier & Diplomat Page 10