by David Loades
In spite of Wolsey’s rise to power, Sir Thomas remained a leading member of the council, and may well have been one of those most suspicious of the Bishop of Lincoln, as Wolsey had now become. In February 1515 Thomas Spinelly, in the Low Countries warned the bishop that a certain Don Diego, a ‘subtle fellow’ on an exploratory mission from Spain, would secretly visit the Duke of Buckingham and the Marquis of Dorset, who were known opponents of Wolsey. He would also be calling on Sir Thomas Boleyn.[51]
Perhaps because of the exposed position of his daughters, Sir Thomas had abandoned his opposition to improved Anglo-French relations, and supported Wolsey when he re-negotiated the peace of 1514 in April. This was necessary because the original treaty had been scheduled to expire one year after whichever of the kings died first – which would have meant January 1516. Consequently, in spite of Henry’s grumbling, a quarrel over the return of Mary’s jewels, and French meddling in Scotland, the peace was renewed.[52] Henry seems to have deluded himself that this gave him some control over Francis. If such was his thinking, then he was disabused in September when the French king crossed the Alps with a large army, and defeated the Swiss at Marignano – a victory which left the King of England both impressed and envious. In October he reconciled himself to Ferdinand, but this was a defensive measure only, and when he began to look for potential allies, he looked instead to the Swiss, whom he rightly believed to be anxious to redeem the defeat of Marignano. During the autumn and winter Richard Pace went backwards and forwards, but in the event Henry paid the Swiss a substantial sum and they acted in alliance with Maximilian rather than England. The campaign fizzled in the spring of 1516, and Henry began to rethink his French strategy. After all his main quest was for honour, which could be achieved just as well by peace as by war. With Wolsey’s encouragement he began to see himself as the arbiter of Europe, and when Pope Leo proposed a general truce as a preliminary to a great crusade against the Turks, he quickly moved into a position of support for his minister’s scheme to hijack the papal proposal in his own interest.[53] Sir Thomas Boleyn does not feature in all this diplomatic activity, although as a member of the council he must have been aware of what was going on. In March and November 1515 he was named again to the commission of the peace for Norfolk, and in December was granted the constableship of Norwich Castle in survivorship with Sir Henry Wyatt. In February of 1516 he sold the manor of Newhall to the Crown for £1,000, and acted as a canopy bearer at the christening of the Princess Mary on the 21st. All signs of favour, but not of much political significance.[54] More important, perhaps, Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond, died without lawful issue on 3 August 1515. This triggered a dispute over the inheritance between his cousin, Sir Piers Butler, and the two daughters of his brother and predecessor, John Butler, Anne St. Leger and Margaret Boleyn. Margaret was, of course, Sir Thomas’s mother. The Earl of Kildare wrote to Henry on 1 December, notifying him that the ladies had entered a suit as heirs general against Sir Piers, who was claiming as the male heir. On 12 December livery of the lands was granted to the petitioners, but that was not the end of the story.[55] Piers had assumed the title of Ormond, and the council in Ireland backed him. He had physical control of the Irish estates and was not prepared to concede. Meanwhile the English and Welsh estates had been placed under the control of a body of trustees, headed by the Bishop of London. The legal battle ground on, complicated by the fact that the English government could not afford to offend Piers, who on the basis of his Irish lands alone was a major magnate. Sir Thomas naturally used all his influence on his mother’s behalf, because he stood to inherit anything which she gained, but the issue was not resolved until February 1528, when Piers accepted the earldom of Ossory in lieu.[56] He appears to have retained control of most of the Ormond lands in Ireland.
While this was going on, there was trouble in Scotland, where John Stewart, Duke of Albany, had returned in 1515, and immediately set out to re-establish French influence against the Queen Mother, Margaret Tudor and her second husband, Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus. In 1516 he imprisoned her in Stirling Castle and took control of the Regency government in the name of her son, James V. Later in the same year she escaped and fled to England, seeking the support of her brother Henry VIII, and there she was joined by her husband. Henry was not reluctant, but he realised that he needed to provide ‘conduction’ for her, not least as a safeguard against attempts at kidnap or assassination. This duty was probably undertaken in relays by trusted courtiers, and of these Sir Thomas Boleyn was one. In May 1517 he was paid £10 for fulfilling this duty for forty days, although it is not quite clear when he undertook his stint.[57] Margaret shortly after returned to Scotland on the understanding that she would play no further part in the government, a condition only enforceable as long as Albany remained in the country. However, as negotiations for a general peace got under way in 1518, Francis recalled him as a good will gesture, and the Queen Mother resumed her thankless task of trying to manage the aristocratic factions, which did duty as Scotland’s domestic politics. Meanwhile, Sir Thomas was rewarded with other small gestures of favour. In May 1517 a recognisance which he owed to the Crown was cancelled and he was granted a license to export timber from his estate at Rochford in Essex. In November he was pricked a second time as Sheriff of Kent – not much of a favour in view of the expenses of the office, but he was selected ahead of such local worthies as Sir John Fogge.[58] Obviously he was not spending all his spare time in Norfolk. His wife, Elizabeth, was present at the christening of the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk’s daughter Frances on 17 July. At some time before 1519, Sir Thomas also recalled his elder daughter from France. Unlike her sister, Mary had not taken comfortably to the service of the French court. Perhaps she found the language difficult, or perhaps she was not sufficiently adept at fending off the attentions of the male courtiers. She acquired a reputation for easy virtue, and that was bad news from her father’s point of view, so at some time, probably in 1518, he called her home before any more damage should be done. Fortunately her reputation had not preceded her, and he was able to secure a place for her in the household of the Queen, Catherine of Aragon. This must have required considerable tact on Sir Thomas’s part, because the King’s favour was by no means an automatic passport to the Queen’s. Relations between the royal couple were strained on account of Henry’s liaison with Elizabeth Blount, which by the end of 1518 had resulted in her pregnancy. The Queen was expected to pay her own servants out of her jointure of over £4,000 a year, and had exclusive control over whom she appointed to her chamber, so Henry was in no position to plant the daughter of a favoured courtier.[59] Sir Thomas, however, was man with many diplomatic skills.
The treaties which were signed in London on 2 and 4 October 1518 were Wolsey’s triumph. Leo X had proclaimed a general truce throughout Europe in 1517, and sent his legates out to whip up support for his crusade. Wolsey, by this time Cardinal Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor, was prepared to welcome Lorenzo Campeggio to England, but only on condition that he was joined in commission with him, and given equal status – that of Legate de Latere. This took several weeks to negotiate, and when Campeggio at length arrived, he found that his main mission had been sidelined.[60] Henry was fully supportive of the general truce – there was in any case no war going on in Europe at the time – but determined to convert it to his own purposes. He made polite noises in response to the Cardinal’s appeal, and pressed on with his own plan. This was for a new Anglo-French alliance, to be sealed with a marriage between his own two-year-old daughter, Mary and the even younger Dauphin, Francis, which was also to be an open treaty, to which all princes of good will were invited to adhere. In other words a general declaration of peace and reconciliation. The French king was easy to persuade, but Wolsey had to work extremely hard to win the acceptance of the Emperor Maximilian, and of the young King Charles of Spain. Charles had inherited his throne on the death of his grandfather Ferdinand in February 1516, and was having considerable difficulty establis
hing himself in his kingdom.[61] However, in spite of these preoccupations he agreed at length, and so did the Emperor. Indefatigably, Wolsey trawled Europe for other signatories, and swept in most of the lesser powers, from Denmark to Genoa. The result was a diplomatic tour de force, which sent Henry’s (and Wolsey’s) reputations soaring. He had at last secured the position to which he aspired – that of arbiter of Europe – and it had cost his exchequer less than a medium sized military campaign. His council, inevitably, was divided over this treaty, but no one was prepared to resist the combined enthusiasm of the King and the Cardinal, and they duly signed this grandiose declaration, Sir Thomas Boleyn among them. This is the only indication that we have of his direct involvement in the negotiations, but we may reasonably conclude that he used his good offices with Margaret of Austria to get the Emperor’s agreement. Maximilian was a sick man, and maybe was unwilling to commit his successor to anything so sweeping. However, it would not have required much persuading to convince him that he was committing him to nothing. Although a worthy statement of intent, and accepted by the Pope for that reason, such a treaty was bound to be at the mercy of circumstances. The solid core, the Anglo-French treaty was signed just two days later, and again Sir Thomas appended his signature, this time, we can be sure, with a good will.[62] Tournai was returned to French control, and his daughter Anne would now be safe at the French court for the foreseeable future.
By January 1519, Sir Thomas was back in France. The recent treaty had alluded to a meeting between the two kings, to take place within the next year, and it is reasonable to suppose that he was being sent to begin negotiations for that meeting. However, his mission had hardly begun when the news arrived of Maximilian’s death, and on 9 February he wrote that Francis would enter the ensuing election. This was a decision entirely consistent with the French king’s ambitions, but it did not bode well for the security of the peace treaty which he had signed less than six months earlier.[63] His principal rival was Charles, King of Spain and the late Emperor’s grandson and heir. Whichever of these two was successful, it was likely to lead to conflict. So Pope Leo thought, and he began the quest for a third candidate who might be able to take advantage of any deadlock in the Electoral college. He probably had in mind the Elector of Saxony, who had all the right credentials, but he did not name him, and when he wrote to Henry VIII about this possibility, Henry took it as an invitation to enter the lists himself. Success in such a venture would also, as he might have calculated, guarantee the security of the treaty of London. So in May he announced his intention to stand for election also, and with Wolsey’s encouragement Richard Pace set off on a canvassing tour of Germany.[64] Such actions must have made Sir Thomas Boleyn’s sojurn at the French court an uncomfortable one, but at least it could be agreed that no meeting between the kings would be possible while the election was pending, and that it would be better to postpone it until the following year. When the election took place on 12 and 13 June, it became apparent at once that Henry was not a serious contender. Francis was, but it soon appeared that he had been out-bribed by Charles, who had the great banking house of Fugger behind him, and the King of Spain emerged victorious. On the 14th, probably before the news had reached him, Francis wrote a friendly letter to Henry, informing him that his ambassador had stood godfather on his behalf at the christening of the new Duke of Orleans, and had performed at the ceremony ‘with all possible honour’.[65] When he learned of Charles’s success, Francis was deeply chagrined, but he could not blame Henry for his failure as the latter had failed to secure a single vote!
Meanwhile, it had been agreed that the meeting between the kings would take place in the summer of 1520, probably at Guisnes on the borders of the Calais Pale, and the diplomatic preliminaries were put in place. There is no indication that Sir Thomas had failed to perform satisfactorily in his embassy; indeed he had done an exceptionally good job in keeping relations amicable in the run up to the Imperial election, but the decision was taken early in 1520 to replace him with Richard Wingfield. He was recalled on 21 February. This may have been on Wolsey’s initiative, but more likely because Henry had decided that he needed Sir Thomas as a part of his entourage for the impending meeting, and on 26 March he was appointed to be one of those to ‘ride with the king at the embracing of the two kings’. This was not only a great honour, but also an indication that Wolsey, who was responsible for the arrangements, appreciated just how great his favour was at that time.[66] So Sir Thomas attended the Field of Cloth of Gold. What he did there is not apparent, because he was at forty-three too old to take part in the ‘feats of arms’ which were part of the festivities. It is possible that he acted as interpreter for his linguistically challenged colleagues, but most probable that his function was the background one of political adviser. He also accompanied Henry to his meetings with the new Emperor both before and after the Field, and they were both more amicable and more fruitful in political terms. The encounter with Francis, for all its flamboyant embracing and declarations of goodwill, was primarily an exercise in social competition. The two kings, as one Venetian observer wrote, detested each other cordially.[67] Their meeting, however, must also have served as something of a Boleyn family reunion, because both Sir Thomas’s wife and elder daughter were among the ladies accompanying Queen Catherine, while Anne was among the attendants of Queen Claude. When the queens encountered, Anne must have been worked quite hard, because although Catherine’s own French was adequate, most of her ladies did not speak the language and none of Claude’s other servants (as far as we know) had a word of English. English was not yet the international language that it would eventually become, but it had become long since the language of the court, and of domestic business in general.
While engaged in this high social and political activity, Sir Thomas did not neglect his own interests. He had apparently been promised the office of Comptroller of the Royal Household, but Wolsey secured the office for Sir Henry Guildford. Whether this was the result of a misunderstanding, or evidence of some hostility on the Cardinal’s part is not apparent. He may have held the post briefly in 1520 before being persuaded, or compelled to step aside in Guildford’s favour. This could have been on the understanding that he received the reversion to the superior position of treasurer. That became vacant on the death of Sir Thomas Lovell in 1522, when Boleyn was duly appointed in his place.[68] At the same time he was pursuing the marriage negotiation between Anne and James Butler. James was resident at the English court at the time, but it was no use trying to put pressure on him, because it was his father who was in control, and in September 1520 the King himself wrote to the Earl of Surrey, the Lord Deputy in Ireland, urging the expediency of the match and offering to ‘advance the matter’ with Sir Thomas. Surrey replied to Wolsey on 6 October, agreeing about the advantages of the match, but referring to Sir Piers as the Earl of Ormond, which must have given the cardinal pause for thought.[69] Meanwhile, Margaret Boleyn, Sir Thomas and Elizabeth his wife were granted a pardon in September 1520 for the alienation of Fritwell manor in Oxfordshire, a parcel of the Ormond estate, which suggests that the legal status of the lands was still unsettled. As late as November 1521 Wolsey could write to the King about the desirability of the marriage, and offering to talk to him about the matter ‘on his return’, because he was in Bruges at the time.[70] Whether Anne herself had been consulted at this stage is unclear, because her residence in France might have made that difficult. It was a delicate matter to be entrusted to paper, and as far as we know she was not written to upon the subject. All that was about to change, because Sir Thomas was well enough aware that Wolsey’s negotiations in Bruges had resulted in a treaty with the Emperor committing Henry to war with France in 1522. In January, Francis wrote suspiciously to his envoys in England that ‘the English scholars have returned home, and also the daughter of Mr. Bullen’. Something was clearly brewing, and Sir Thomas had retrieved Anne about Christmas 1521.[71] There would now be a chance for her to express herself directly a
bout the Butler marriage proposal, and the indications are that she did not like what she saw.