book 1, chapter 21 How the King, against the Pope’s Mandate, Secretly Married Anne Boleyn1
When the pontiff learned of what had happened in England and of the king’s hardened spirit, he was distraught and cast about for a remedy. He had already written insistently imploring the king not to be overcome by passion, nor to seek after innovations, nor to do anything against his first marriage with the queen while the suit was still pending. When the pope saw that this had availed him nothing, he wrote further, public letters in the form of briefs, sternly com- manding him, by his apostolic authority and under penalty of excommunica- tion, not to proceed any further until the case had been concluded.2 But Henry, burning with the savage fires of infernal love, would not abandon his wicked purpose, neither for the advice the pope had given as a father, nor for the warning he now gave as a judge—rather, each day he became yet more enflamed with his sinful desires. Seeing that the only thing lacking to abandon the queen and marry Anne was the decree of divorce, and that he had no hope of obtaining it from the pope, he decided to order Cranmer to provide it. He was sure he would comply, since that was why he had been made archbishop of Canterbury. And so as not to appear to marry a woman without rank or
1 Sander, De origine ac progressu, 89–99. 2 On December 23, 1530, a secret consistory met at Rome: “The Pope ordered then that the Cardinals should give their votes on the report made by the reverend Paulus de Capisuccis, in the Consistory of the 14th of the same month, concerning the matrimonial cause which was pending between the king and queen of England. The procurators of the Queen had asked that the Pope should forbid the archbishop of Canterbury, by a special brief, to take cognizance of this lawsuit, in case he should be applied to, as it had been reserved for the decision of the Sacred College of Cardinals. The procurators of the queen of England had likewise asked that the Pope should repeat and confirm in a brief all the inhibitions which the auditors of the Rota, to whom this cause was entrusted, had directed to all prelates of England. The same procurators had further petitioned that the Pope should forbid the king of England, whilst the lawsuit was pending, either to cohabit with any other woman, and especially a certain lady Anne, or to contract marriage; and in case that such a marriage should be contracted, to declare it null and void. Lastly, the same procurators had prayed that the Pope should forbid the said lady Anne, and all women in general, to contract, lite pen- dente, marriage with the king of England. After long deliberations it was concluded that all the afore-mentioned petitions were justifiable in law, and that the briefs should be granted.” lp, 4:6772.
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distinction, he first gave Anne Boleyn the title of marchioness, and then mar- ried her in secret.3 The king married her because he could not enjoy her unless he made her his wife, thanks to the resistance she cunningly offered to all of his advances and pleas,4 and they wed in secret because no judge had pronounced a sentence of divorce against Queen Doña Catherine. There was in the palace a cleric called Rowland (later made a bishop for the service he rendered), whom the king summoned to his chapel one morning before dawn. He told him that Rome had given sentence in his favor, so that he might wed any woman he liked. The churchman, supposing that kings do not lie, believed him and held silent, and then said, “I trust Your Majesty will have apostolic letters from His Holiness.” When the king made a sign in the affirmative, the cleric returned to the altar to perform his office, and there and then married the king and Anne Boleyn. But, stricken in his conscience and fearful of doing a deed repugnant to God, he turned once more to the king, saying, “The sacred canons command, and I think it most important, that the letters apostolic be read out before all present, and published.” Then the king replied, “I have the pope’s letters, but they are kept in my private study, where none but I may find or fetch them; but it is not seemly for me to leave this place at this hour to go for them.” The cleric thus reassured, he performed the ceremony, marrying Henry to Anne and giving him a second wife while his first yet lived, the bond to her husband unbroken by any authority.5
3 Henry made Anne marchioness of Pembroke in September 1532. Eric Ives, “Anne [Anne Boleyn] (c.1500–1536),” in odnb, 2:181–88, here 183. Henry and Anne were probably married in secret on January 24 or January 25, 1533, ha ving already cohabited for several months. The question of the date, and whether there might have been a prior ceremony the previous November, is discussed in MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer, 637–38. 4 In the margin: “Chapter 7.” 5 Rowland Lee (c.1487–1543), a loyal partisan of the king, was made bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in 1534. The story of Lee officiating at the clandestine marriage originates with Harpsfield, but there is little other evidence for it. Michael A. Jones, “Lee, Rowland (c.1487– 1543),” in odnb, 33:106–09, here 108–09. “The King was married to Lady Anne Bulleyne long ere there was any divorce made by the said Archbishop [of Canterbury]. The which marriage was secretly made at Whitehall very early before day, none being present but Mr. Norris and Mr. Henage of the Privy Chamber and the Lady Barkeley, with Mr. Rowland the King’s chaplain, that was afterward made Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. To whom the King told that now he had gotten of the Pope a lycence to marry another wife, and yet to avoid business and tumult the thing must be done (quoth the King) very secretly; and thereupon a time and place was appointed to the said Master Rowland to solemnize the said marriage. At which time Mr. Rowland being come accordingly and seeing all things ready for celebration of mass and to solemnize the marriage […] came