by David Loades
Whether Mary had been in any way sympathetic to William’s nascent Protestantism we do not know. That could have explained the hostility of the Duke of Norfolk, and even of the Earl of Wiltshire to her marriage, but is unlikely to account for the animosity of Anne or of Lord Rochford. In fact very little is known for certain about Mary as a person. Her surviving letters are few, and almost all relate to business. She seems to have been a woman steered by her emotions rather than by her intellect, and that may have been why Henry tired of her in the summer of 1525. Although reputed beautiful she seems to have been somewhat vapid as a person, and the scholarly and artistic accomplishments of the French court made little impression upon her. Once Henry had discarded her, she showed few of the skills necessary for survival in that context, and depended first on the goodwill of Thomas Cromwell and after on the tolerance of the Duke of Norfolk. We do not even know how good she was as a manager either of men or of money, because the signs left in the records are ambiguous. It is perhaps significant that William’s career only appears to have gained momentum after her death. In the context of the Boleyn story she is important first as a foil for her sister, and secondly as the means by which the Boleyn genes were transmitted into the seventeenth century and beyond.
4
ANNE & THE GRAND PASSION – THE PARIS YEARS
Anne was the first of the Boleyn girls to leave home. Her father had got on exceptionally well with the Regent, Margaret of Austria, during his diplomatic mission to the Low Countries in 1512–13, and had managed to secure for his daughter a place as one of Margaret’s eighteen filles d’honneur. When he returned to England in the early summer of 1513 therefore, Anne was promptly despatched under the care of one of the Regent’s Esquires, Claude Bouton. The Regent’s first impressions were favourable, and she wrote: ‘I find her so bright and pleasant for her young age that I am more beholden to you for sending her to me than you are to me …’[126]
At twelve, Anne may well have been the youngest of her attendants, but Margaret had other young charges to care for and employed a tutor named Symonnet to look after them and teach them their letters. Anne began to write in French at the dictation of her tutors, and then wrote independently to her father, expressing all the right sentiments, but in a language which was more idiomatic than accurate. As Eric Ives has observed, she really did need to work on her written French, however fluently she may have spoken it. Sir Thomas had obviously set out some guidelines for her, and Anne responded:
‘… you desire me to be a woman of good reputation when I come to court, and you tell me that the queen will take the trouble to converse with me ... This will make me all the keener to persevere in speaking French well ...’[127]
The objective was clearly to give her a head start at the English court, and how long her sojourn in Mechelen was intended to last is uncertain. Probably the intention was to bring her home after two or three years, when she would have been ripe for the marriage market. The Regent’s court was the great exemplum of the Burgundian tradition, and the finest place in Europe to learn deportment.
So Anne would have learned a lot, apart from improving her French. The elaborate dances which occupied such an important place in court festivities and entertainments would have been on the curriculum. A court presided over by a woman was expected to make much of the courtly love tradition, and the chivalric traditions flourished there. The pageants featured imprisoned damsels, noble knights (to rescue them), wild men, mythical beasts and ships in full sail, each with its point to make in the subtle diplomacy of the renaissance.[128] So Anne would have learned the bass dance, that graceful staple of courtly revels, how to play a number of musical instruments, and how to conduct that game of artificial flirtation which was expected of all the maidens at the court. Margaret was a rigid chaperone, and was much concerned that these games did not get out of hand. They were to be played in strict accordance with the conventions, and any genuine by-play with the gentlemen of the court was strictly forbidden. At thirty-three the Regent was an old hand in these arts, and quite capable of expressing her views in graceful verse:
Trust in those who offer you service,
And in the end, my maidens,
You will find yourselves in the ranks of those
Who have been deceived …[129]
The remedy lay in a quick wit:
Fine words are the coin to pay back
Those presumptuous minions
Who ape the lover …
So Anne learned to flirt, not with her body, but with words and gestures in a manner which would have been well enough understood by those who approached her with tokens and looks of love. Margaret’s original training had been in France, where she had been sent at the age of three as the intended bride of Charles VIII. However, in 1491 Charles had decided to marry Anne, the heiress of Brittany, and at the age of eleven, Margaret had been returned to the Low Countries, where Maximilian had arranged tutors to continue her education.[130] Her background has therefore been described as ‘Franco-Flemish’, although there were no strains between the two cultures. Brief spells in Spain and in Savoy did nothing to disturb that orientation, and when she returned to the Low Countries as regent after the Archduke Philip’s death in 1506, she established her court at Mechelen in that mould. Her palace was resplendent with tapestries and with rich fabrics of all kinds, and the finest artists and calligraphers also displayed their work there. Music, both in its sacred and its secular forms was cherished, and the best composers of the day were patronised; so Anne would have learned the most discriminating taste in every aspect of courtly life, while preserving the ‘precious jewel’ of her chastity.[131] In her turn, she made an impression which lasted many years. Lancelot de Carles later recorded:
la Boullant, who at an early age had come to court, listened carefully to honourable ladies, setting herself to bend all her endeavour to imitate them to perfection, and made such good use of her wits that in no time at all she had command of the language …[132]
Altogether a better start for an ambitious damsel would be hard to imagine.
Anne also seems to have made herself useful, because on 30 June, not very long after her arrival, Henry VIII arrived at Calais at the beginning of the campaign which would culminate in the taking of Tournai on 23 September. His allies, the Emperor Maximilian and the Archduchess Margaret, needed to keep in touch with him, and English speakers were at a premium, so there is every chance that Mistress Boleyn was called into service as an interpreter. When Margaret joined the victors at Lille in September to celebrate their success, she was certainly accompanied by her ladies, and there Anne would have had a chance for a brief reunion with her father, who had accompanied the King.[133] At first Henry had every intention of renewing hostilities in 1514, but in the course of the spring he changed his mind. The Holy League was falling apart, because not only had Ferdinand defected, but the Pope was now pressing for peace. So a treaty was signed in August which had serious implications for Anglo-Burgundian relations. Henry’s sister Mary was committed to marry the fourteen-year-old Charles of Ghent, Maximilian’s grandson and Margaret’s nephew, by the terms of their alliance. Now she was suddenly switched to the fifty-two-year-old Louis XII. Her own feelings were not consulted, and Margaret was seriously offended. Sir Thomas Boleyn may well have felt that the court at Mechelen would be an uncomfortable place in future for a young English girl, and he took advantage of the creation of a new household for Mary to withdraw her. He wrote a somewhat embarrassed letter to Margaret on 14 August announcing his decision, and the Regent, as he anticipated, was not pleased.[134] What Anne thought of the new arrangement we do not know. She had been happy at Mechelen, but the thought of serving the new Queen of France, and one whose command of French was definitely inferior to her own, may well have been an exciting one. Unfortunately, we do not know how, or just when, the transfer was made, because only one Mistress Bullen features in the wedding list, and that was her sister Mary. It is possible that Margaret raised obj
ections, or put obstacles in the way of her departure. However, that is not likely and the chances are that Anne joined her sister in Paris at some time before Mary’s coronation on 5 November. Later memories of her presence are quite explicit, but no contemporary list survives to confirm it.[135]
Mary’s reign, however, was a brief one, and on 1 January 1515 she was a widow. For the time being, her household held together, and both the Boleyn girls would have had the chance to observe at close quarters the behaviour of the Duke of Suffolk as he played the game of courtly love in earnest with the nineteen-year-old dowager. What Mary Boleyn may have learned we do not know, but Anne almost certainly learned the difference between the conventional game and the real thing, especially when the ex-Queen actually got into bed with her lover. Charles Brandon was an old hand at courtly love. He had even played it with the Archduchess a couple of years before, but this time the chances are that he got more than he had bargained for.[136] The couple were secretly married, but is unlikely that either of the sisters was a witness to that clandestine occasion, because the fewer who knew about it the better. Meanwhile, as we have seen, Henry was genuinely annoyed, and it was May before he was sufficiently placated for them to return to England, and to a public renewal of their wedding vows. Whether Sir Thomas was responsible for what then happened in France, we do not know – he was reportedly unpopular at the French court, so perhaps it is unlikely – but his two daughters were transferred to the service of Queen Claude, the consort of the new French king, Francis I. Lancelot de Carles, writing in 1536, was quite clear in recalling that Anne, at least, was retained by the express wish of the Queen.[137] The two girls were of an age, and it is quite likely that Claude, who had a warm and gentle nature, was genuinely fond of her. Equally, with much future diplomatic business between England and France in prospect, and with many English visitors to entertain, either she or her husband might have thought it expedient to have some English speaking ladies on hand. Mary, as we have seen, left under something of a cloud about two or three years later, but Anne served for something like seven years, and that was as formative a period of her life as the year which she had spent at Mechelen, although in a rather different way.
Most of the evidence which we have for her years at the French court is either circumstantial or retrospective. Culturally there was little difference, but serving a girl who was almost constantly pregnant must have been a very different experience from attending the urbane and widowly Margaret. Having no family base in France, Anne must have been permanently resident in the household, which spent most of its time at Amboise or Blois on the Upper Loire.[138] This meant that in courtly terms her life was much less public than it had been before. Francis was a frequent visitor, and he brought his attendants with him, so it is not safe to assume that Anne was free from unwelcome attentions, but courtly love, as that would have been practised in a full court was not on the agenda. Nor were lavish entertainments as frequent as might be supposed. She may have taken part in the ceremonial journey which Claude and the Queen Mother, Louise of Savoy, made to welcome back Francis after his victory at Marignano in October 1515, and would certainly have been present when the Queen (in an interval between pregnancies) was crowned at St Denis in May 1516. However, she was most in demand, naturally, when there was a significant English presence, as in December 1518 when an English mission arrived to negotiate a marriage between Henry’s two-year-old daughter Mary and the oneyear- old Dauphin.[139] A magnificent banquet was held in the Bastille, when there was much dancing, and the ladies appeared at midnight, dressed in the latest Italian fashions. The next day there was a tournament, followed by more dancing, and Anne would have been in heavy demand as an interpreter. As we have seen, Sir Thomas was himself on mission in France in 1519, and although there is no direct evidence of the fact, he would have taken some time to spend with his daughter, whom he had scarcely seen for five years. She was now a poised and self assured eighteen-year-old. More obviously we know that Anne was called into service at that great Anglo-French junketing known as the Field of Cloth of Gold. She was among the Queen’s ladies, and must have played an ambiguous role in the ‘beauty competition’ which developed between her compatriots and the attendants of Queen Catherine. Richard Wingfield, who had recently taken over from Sir Thomas as resident ambassador, warned Henry of what to expect in that connection:
Your Grace shall also understand that the Queen here, with the King’s mother, make all the search possible to bring to the assembly the fairest ladies and demoiselles that may be found … I hope at the least, Sire, that the queen’s Grace shall bring such in her band, that the visage of England, which hath always had the praise, shall not at this time lose the same …[140]
The two queens and their entourages met for the first time at the jousts which were held on Monday, 11 June, where their competition was given edge by the favours of the jousters. The noble ladies were, we are told:
… all vieing with each other in beauty and ornamental apparel, and for the love of them each of the jousters endeavoured to display his valour and prowess in order to find more favour with his sweetheart …[141]
Neither Catherine, who was running to fat, nor Claude, who was thirty-one weeks pregnant, were parties to this game, but it is to be assumed that the Duchess of Suffolk and Mary Boleyn were on the English side, and Margaret of Angouleme (the King’s sister) and the daughters of Lorraine on the French side. In this glittering company, Anne passed quite unremarked, but she was certainly present, and Sir Thomas probably took advantage of the opportunity to present her to Henry VIII. There must have been something of a Boleyn family reunion.[142] Contemporary commentators, the Venetians in particular, preferred the French style of beauty, describing Catherine’s companions as neither very graceful nor very handsome, but Polydore Vergil writing later on the English side, disagreed. Such things are a matter of taste.
One of the things that Anne did do while in the court of France was to make the acquaintance of Margaret of Angouleme. Whether there was any real friendship between them is a matter for speculation. Similar tastes in religious matters would argue that there was, but the difference in their rank makes it unlikely.[143] That Margaret was aware of the young Englishwoman, and may have shown her some favour, is very probable, but the suggestion of intimacy in Anne’s later correspondence is almost certainly wish fulfilment. It used to be thought that Anne served some time in the Duchess of Alencon’s household, but recent research has demolished that thesis.[144] Anne stayed with Claude until the later part of 1521, when her father decided to call her home. Sir Thomas was aware, as Francis was not, of the terms of the treaty of Bruges which Wolsey had recently signed with the Emperor, which committed England to war with France in the summer of 1522. In January 1522, the King of France noted that she had gone, and that the English scholars studying in Paris had likewise departed. These, he rightly adduced, were signs of a deteriorating relationship. The court of France would soon be an impossible place for Anne to be, and although Queen Claude may have regretted it, her English bird had flown.
There was also, however, another reason for her recall. In August 1515, Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond, had died, leaving two daughters as his heirs general and a cousin, Piers Butler, as his heir male. One of these daughters was Margaret, Sir Thomas Boleyn’s mother. Livery of her share of the estate was granted within four months, and as far as the English lands of the earldom were concerned, appears to have been effective.[145] Ireland, however, was a different matter. Gerald FitzGerald, the Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy at the time, and the Council of Ireland, favoured Sir Piers, recognised him as Earl of Ormond, and made the Irish lands over to him. A legal tussle and a political row ensued, because Henry declined to recognise the soi disant earl, and the latter showed no inclination to give way. Then Sir Thomas’s brother in law, the Earl of Surrey, was appointed Lord Lieutenant, and in 1520 he came up with bright idea for solving the conflict. If Sir Thomas’s daughter, Anne, were to marry James Butler, Sir
Piers’ son and heir, then the present situation could be frozen and the two claims united in their children.[146] What Anne St Leger, Margaret’s sister, thought of this proposal is not known. Wolsey, in whose household James Butler was living, was enthusiastic, the King undertook to advance the proposal with Sir Thomas, and Wolsey was still writing from Bruges as late as November 1521, expressing his desire to talk it through with the King when he returned from his embassy.[147] Anne said that she would not agree to marry any man that she had never met, and that may have been an additional reason for her recall. It may also have been a sign of impending reconciliation that Piers was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland on Surrey’s recall in 1521, although the ambiguity over his status appears to have continued. The marriage, however, never took place. Either the young people themselves were opposed or, more likely, Sir Thomas went off the whole idea. Eventually Sir Piers lost patience and discontinued the negotiation, even threatening to resolve the conflict by violence.[148] It was eventually settled in 1529, when he conceded the title of Ormond and accepted that of Ossory instead, together with the Irish estates. The English and Welsh lands remained in the hands of Margaret Boleyn and Anne St Leger.