While parliament was debating the Appeals, Convocation began its discussions on the Aragon marriage on 26 March. After bishops Standish and Stokesley produced the verdicts of European universities favourable to Henry, the Lords dutifully declared for the king on 29 March, with only Bishop John Fisher opposing. On 2 April Cranmer, newly consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury, called on the Commons to give its view. It, too, declared for Henry. On the delicate point of whether Arthur’s marriage to Catherine had been consummated, the consensus was that it had.22
According to Hall, the news that Anne was with child was made known at Easter; but it is not clear whether he meant Palm Sunday (6 April) or Easter Sunday seven days later, or whether Easter was just an expression covering the first week or two in April – just as we say ‘Christmas time’ meaning the period around Christmas and not specifically 25 December. The Venetian ambassador reported the news on 12 April. Two days earlier Chapuys had deduced that Anne was ‘in the family way’ (after Henry had asked him three times, ‘Am I not a man like others’?). Chapuys added that on Saturday (12 April) Anne went to mass ‘in truly royal state’, acting as if she wore the crown already. Some preachers had even begun calling her the queen.23
Meanwhile, Henry had sent George Boleyn, Anne’s brother, now Lord Rochford, on an embassy to King Francis. Henry’s instructions to Rochford are worth reciting in some detail because they are the nearest thing we have to an official minute of the Anglo-French summit in Calais the previous November. They begin with a reference to ‘our previous meeting and the fraternal and familiar communication that we had concerning our affairs’ (Premier, a nostre derniere entreveue sur la fraternelle et familiaire communication que Nous eusmes ensembles de noz affaires venant aux nostres). A section follows on how the pope and the emperor have combined to thwart Henry’s most just cause, and then we get to the heart of the matter:
It is to have a male heir and succession, by which we will (God willing) establish the quiet repose and tranquillity of our realm and dominions (Cest davoir masculine succession et posterite, en la quelle Nous establirons (Dieu Voulant) le quiet repoz et tranquillite de nostre Royaulme et Dominions). Francis’s brotherly and clear advice, the best that there could be, had been to counsel us to delay or protract no longer, but with all haste to proceed effectively to the accomplishment and consummation of our marriage (Son fraternel plain et entier advis (et, a bref dire, le meilleur qui pourroit estre) fut tel, et Nous conseilla de ne dilayer ne protracter le temps plus longuement, mais en toute celerite proceder effectuellement a lacompliment et consummation de nostre marriage). On this advice and counsel which he gave us (Sur lequel son advis et conseil, que ainsi Nous donna) … We, for the firm confidence, hope and trust that we have in his truth and promise, confirming the perfect and infallible amity and perpetual alliance between us, have effectually proceeded to the accomplishment and consummation of the said marriage (Nous, pour la ferme confidence espoir et fiance, que Nous avons en sa verite et promesse, corrobore de la parfaite et infallible amytie et allyance perpetuelle dentre Nous, avons effectuellement procede a laccomplissement et consummation dudict marriage).
Henry was now looking forward to his heir, ‘which, please God will follow, and which to all appearance is in a state of advancement already’ (qui, au plaisir de Dieu, succedera, et comme bien cuidons est desja en bonne apparence de advancement). Henry was willing to take Francis into his confidence, and listen to his advice on the delicate matter of how best to publicly announce the marriage (il Luy plaise en toute diligence Nous donner et mander son bon conseil et advis fraternel, en quelle maniere et quant seroit le mieulx de le publier).24
This is, admittedly, the English version of what the two kings had discussed. However, it should be reliable enough. There would be no point in sending Rochford to France with directions like these if what had actually been agreed in Calais was something quite different.
Further instructions for Norfolk and Rochford followed later, this time in English:
And … after consulting with our good brother … how and in what sort to disclose to our people our marriage, which we had by his advice and council contracted and consummate, he sent us word that we should first unite and knit in one accord all the nobles of our realm, and so thereupon divulge the same.
This Henry confirmed he had done, Francis ‘being councillor, author and chief advisor’. Henry did nothing, he avowed, ‘than whereof our good brother was author unto us, though not of form and manner, yet of the substance and matter’. Henry then asked for Francis’s continued support against the pope.25
Francis’s backing for Henry in his Great Matter, and his attempts to persuade the pope to decide in Henry’s favour, were no secret in diplomatic circles. Naturally Francis could not openly urge the Boleyn marriage, so the French information service was set to work to deflect any suspicion. According to the Venetian ambassador to France, Henry had brought Anne to Calais with the intention of marrying, but Francis dissuaded him. For how long, he did not say. A similar story went back to Catherine in England. The Imperial diplomat, Dr Oritz, heard that Francis had reproved Henry for his conduct, but Oritz could not help wondering whether Anne might have ‘made the King of France come round to her opinion’.26
Francis himself, in a later meeting with the pope, maintained that he had pressed Henry not to go ahead with the marriage, or at least to delay it. Henry, said Francis, was adamant that Catherine was not his lawful wife, but he did promise that Mary would not be struck out of the line of succession. However, Imperial observers pointed out that whatever claims Francis made, French cardinals were now willing to support Henry not only in putting Catherine away, but also in declaring Mary illegitimate.27
Despite French denials, the evidence that Francis gave Henry advice, and, at very least, tacit encouragement to marry Anne during the Calais summit is overwhelming. Apart from Henry and Anne, no one stood to gain more from this marriage than Francis. He and Charles V, Catherine’s aunt, were the two most powerful monarchs in Western Christendom, co-existing in a state of near permanent rivalry. Making Anne Queen of England in Catherine’s place would create an irreparable rift between Henry and Charles, at least as long as Catherine lived. It would be devastatingly effective in destroying any chance of an Anglo-Imperial alliance against France. The imperialists knew the wily French king well, and had long suspected that he might make mischief for them in Henry’s Great Matter. Even during Wolsey’s lifetime, Charles feared that Francis might lend his support to Henry in the hope of setting Henry and the emperor against each other. This is exactly what happened. On 16 April (1533) an angry Chapuys told Charles how Francis had written to Anne ‘addressing her as Queen’, even though no coronation had yet taken place, and that Francis was looking on the wreckage of Anglo-Imperial relations with unabashed delight.28
This may be a suitable point at which to pause, summarise and reconstruct the events of late 1532 and early 1533. When Henry and Francis met at Calais, Henry secured his brother king’s support for his forthcoming marriage. The backing of a fellow monarch was just the boost that Henry needed to embolden him to take the decisive step, especially when senior councillors like Norfolk, Suffolk and even Wiltshire were full of misgivings. To deflect attention away from Francis’s involvement, the marriage did not take place in Calais as was widely expected, but was deferred until the English arrived home. It was also kept a closely guarded secret, just as Hall said. To keep the pretence up, something happened in January, probably some kind of confirmation ceremony, which, with government connivance, was understood to be the marriage proper. Anne’s pregnancy was then made known while the parliament and Convocation were debating the crucial constitutional and ecclesiastical legislation. It was all rather ingenious, and much of it, apparently, the brainchild of the French.
Francis, it needs to be stressed, was not trying to entice England away from the Catholic faith, or even into schism. His aim was to create an enduring antagonism between Henry and Charles. Fra
ncis would then seek to mediate between Henry and the pope, and try to persuade Rome to look more favourably on Henry’s marriage to Anne. Francis even wished, if rather vainly, that Henry would accompany him on his forthcoming visit to Rome, where he could meet the pope face to face and conclude an amicable settlement. Had Francis succeeded in his overall aim, he would have completed the isolation of Charles by driving a wedge between him and the pope as well as between him and Henry.29
Francis, however, may have underestimated the forceful mood of nationalism now current in England. Neither Henry nor Anne cared much for reconciliation with Rome any more. Though the schism was not yet a fait accompli, events were now moving inexorably towards it. Chapuys could only watch and fume helplessly. He reported to Charles the widespread English unhappiness with the new marriage, and how many people – angry with Anne and still loyal to Catherine – wished that Charles ‘would send an army’ to punish the schismatic king. Chapuys respectfully suggested that Charles could ‘hardly avoid making war’ on England in view of the great wrong done to Catherine. An undertaking would be easy, for England was ill-equipped in arms, and the affection of most of the people was with Charles.30
But Henry pressed on regardless, bolder and more bombastic towards Rome than ever. He warned the pope that St Peter was a ‘fisher, who, when he draweth his net too fast and too hard, then he braketh it’; so let St Peter’s successor take care to treat princes carefully, for they ‘be great fishes’ and will not abide any wrong done to them. On 23 May 1533 at Dunstable, Henry’s marriage to Catherine was formally declared to be contrary to divine law and invalid. Cromwell was not present at this ‘trial’, and he heard the news from two of his servants who were. On 1 June Anne was crowned Queen of England, and in what can only have been a calculated insult to Catherine and Chapuys, the Boleyn party commandeered Catherine’s royal barge to convey the new queen along the river from Greenwich to the Tower.31
Cromwell helped organise the coronation, but a much more starring role was played by Cranmer, who placed the crown on Anne’s head, anointed her and sat at the queen’s table. While Chapuys stayed away in disgust, the French ambassador conspicuously attended, and Francis continued his discreet but firm support for Henry. He ‘has always shown partiality’ to Henry, Chapuys reported gloomily. Francis was also ‘on good terms with the lady, to whom within the last week he has sent by esquire St Julien a handsome and richly decorated sedan chair, and three mules with harness and accoutrements in very good order’. The Venetian ambassador mentioned the same gift in his letters, which suggests that Francis was not even trying to keep it a secret.32
All that remained was for the long awaited son and heir to be born. The end of Anne’s controversial pregnancy was fast approaching, and already the expectant father had decided that the infant prince would be named Edward or Henry. And in view of all the indignities and insults suffered by the imperialists, surely Chapuys can be forgiven just a touch of schadenfreude when, on 7 September, Anne gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Henry managed to hide his disappointment well, and a royal christening for Princess Elizabeth was held three days later. Again Cranmer was allocated a leading role. Although the baptism itself was performed by Bishop Stokesley, Cranmer confirmed the princess and became one of her godparents. Like most councillors and dignitaries, Cromwell attended the service, though as with the coronation, the position he took was a comparatively minor one.33
The English euphoria of the first half of the year now subsided somewhat. Henry consoled himself with the knowledge that Anne was still young and more children would follow; but nothing could disguise the fact that he had desperately wanted and expected a son. The main purpose of the marriage had failed, and the longer Henry had to live without his heir, the likelier it was that sooner or later people would start to wonder whether this was a marriage blessed or cursed in heaven. Catherine remained much loved, while Anne never won the hearts and minds of the English people. To make matters worse, Henry’s relations with Francis were deteriorating as Anglo-French recriminations over the previous Calais summit began to set in.
Whereas Francis had hoped to mediate between Henry and Rome, Henry had now begun to damage relations between Francis and Rome. Henry was unhappy about discussions underway concerning a marriage between Francis’s second son and Catherine de Medici, the pontiff’s niece. According to Henry, Francis had promised that this marriage would not go ahead unless the pope decided in Henry’s favour in his case, so Henry was intensely annoyed when he heard that the Franco-Medici marriage plans were proceeding apace. Henry now feared that Francis, despite his previous assurances, might yet take the pope’s side against him.34
In October, however, Francis was still hoping to rub salt into Charles’s wounds by offering to reconcile Henry with Rome, but he was would do nothing prejudicial to the papacy. The pope now saw little prospect of any agreement. Back in England, Chapuys quoted Cromwell wishing that Henry had not ‘placed all his confidence in the King of France’. Whether this was a slip of the tongue or a deliberate leak, Chapuys had found out a bit more about the role Francis had played in the Boleyn marriage. Around the same time a courier arrived from Marseilles with a personal letter to Henry. Chapuys was not sure of its message, but whatever it was Henry flew into a rage when he read it. He exclaimed bitterly ‘that he had been betrayed, and that the King of France had not behaved in as friendly a spirit’ as Henry had expected.35
For his part, Francis claimed to be distressed by some of the aggressively anti-papal policy enacted in England, like the Appeals Act, since he met Henry at Calais. When the pope urged Francis to stop supporting Henry, according to one imperialist source, Francis replied: ‘Were I not at present in want of his friendship, that others may not forestall me, I would play him such a trick that he should for ever remember’. Francis wondered how Henry, ‘who presumes to be a wise man, can be such a fool as this to work for the queen’s cause’. Nor had Francis expected the sentence against Catherine at Dunstable. He was especially irked to hear of this, because it threatened to undermine his efforts to persuade the pope to decide in Henry’s favour. Another of the French king’s complaints was Henry’s appeal to a General Council of the Church. Francis feared this would only bring the pope and the emperor closer together, when he had spent most of the year doing his best to drive them apart. By now Francis was heartily wishing that he had never involved himself in Henry’s affairs at all.36
It may now be timely to review the role of Thomas Cromwell in these sensational events. When I began researching this part of Cromwell’s life, I was expecting to be quickly buried under piles of evidence showing him in league with Anne and her party, steering, tugging, manipulating and generally urging Henry to throw off the papal yoke, put Catherine unceremoniously away and marry Anne. The real story has turned out differently. The English schism was the outcome of Henry’s love affair, his goal of supreme power at home, and of contemporary European power politics. It was not primarily due to Cromwellian ambitions or machinations. There is no evidence that Cromwell was the one who suggested to Henry that he seek the support of King Francis in marrying Anne. If he had been the author of this innovative idea, so successful initially until Anglo-French relations began to sour, there would surely have been some reward for him, either a rapid promotion or even ennoblement; but he would have to wait another year and a half before becoming Henry’s Principal Secretary. Nor was Cromwell ever particularly keen on alliances with the French. His sympathies in foreign policy consistently lay with Charles V and the Imperialists.
So whose idea was it to enlist the help of the French? It could have been Henry’s, or possibly Anne’s. She had spent some time at the French court before she became Henry’s lover, and had developed a pro-French outlook. She also, as Chapuys gruffly noted, seemed on uncommonly good terms with the French king. However, in Henry’s own words already quoted, he did nothing ‘than whereof our good brother [Francis] was author unto us, though not of form and manner, yet of the subst
ance and matter’. This suggests that the initiative might have come from King Francis. Unfortunately, the evidence may not be fully conclusive.
To say all this is not to diminish Cromwell’s part entirely. Neither is it to forget the all-important Appeals legislation that he drafted and ushered onto the statute books. Here, however, he was acting as Henry’s loyal and competent servant, ‘paving the way’ for his master, but only because Henry was already ‘much bent upon it’, especially after he had won the support of Francis. Cromwell did not determine the way, and neither did he push, entice or drag Henry against his will along the way. As the Milanese ambassador once said of Henry: ‘His majesty chooses to know and superintend everything himself’. The Appeals was a constitutional framework, erected by Cromwell, to enable Henry to do what he wanted to do and had already resolved to do. Cromwell, therefore, played an important supportive role. But to claim that he masterminded the schism and then railroaded the breach with Rome through parliament is to exaggerate both his influence with the king and his prominence on the council at this stage in his career. Noteworthy, too, is Cromwell’s comparatively modest profile at Anne’s coronation and Elizabeth’s baptism. It would be a mistake to read too much into this: his rise to power was not yet complete, and besides, these were sacred services which he as a layman would not be expected to lead. Nevertheless, there remains a striking absence of any clear evidence that he was ever especially close to the Boleyns. It is quite possible that Anne did not particularly like Cromwell. She may not have forgotten that he was once Wolsey’s servant, and a loyal one even after the cardinal’s fall. However, the relationship between Anne and Cromwell is a subject that will receive more attention in Part 2. Suffice to say for now that Thomas Cranmer, not Thomas Cromwell, was the new queen’s favourite.37
The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell Page 9