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1 2 3 4 5 anne 6 7 8 Boleyn 9 10 fatal attractions 1 ∂ 2 3 g.w. bernard 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS 5 NEW HAVEN AND LONDON 36R 3039_FM.qxp 1/18/10 9:48 AM Page iv

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3 Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of 4 Oliver Baty Cunningham of the Class of 1917, Yale College.

5 Copyright © 2010 G.W. Bernard 6 All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form 7 (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law 8 and except by reviewers for the public press) without permission from the publishers.

9 For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please 20 contact: U.S. Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.com 1 Europe Office: [email protected] www.yaleup.co.uk 2 Set in Sabon by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd 3 Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall 4 5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 6 Bernard, G.W. Anne Boleyn/George Bernard. 7 p. cm. 8 Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978–0–300–16245–5 (cloth: alk. paper) 9 1. Anne Boleyn, Queen, consort of Henry VIII, King of England, 1507–1536. 30 2. Queens—England—Biography. 3. Great Britain—History—Henry VIII, 1509–1547—Biography. 4. Great Britain—Kings and rulers—Biography. 5. Henry 1 VIII, King of England, 1491–1547—Marriage. I. Title. 2 DA333.B6B45 2010 942.05′2092—dc22 3 [B] 2009039203 4 5 A catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library 36R 10987654321 3039_FM.qxp 1/18/10 9:48 AM Page v

1 2 3 4 Contents 5 6 7 8 9 10 List of Illustrations vi Preface vii 1 Acknowledgements ix 2 3 1 ‘These bloody days have broken my heart’: 4 the fall of Anne Boleyn 1 5 2 Who was Anne Boleyn? 4 6 3 ‘Whose pretty dukkys I trust shortly to kiss’: 7 Henry VIII’s infatuation with Anne 19 8 4 ‘The King’s Great Matter’: Henry’s divorce and Anne 37 9 20 5 ‘The most happy’: King Henry and Queen Anne 72 1 6 She ‘wore yellow for the mourning’: Anne against Catherine 79 2 7 ‘I have done many good deeds in my life’: Anne Boleyn’s religion 92 3 8 Anne’s miscarriage 125 4 5 9 Conspiracy? 135 6 10 ‘A much higher fault’: 7 the countess of Worcester’s charge against Anne 151 8 11 ‘You would look to have me’: Anne’s lovers? 161 9 12 ‘Incontinent living so rank and common’: was Anne guilty? 183 30 1 Epilogue 193 2 Appendix: The Portraits of Anne Boleyn 196 3 Notes 201 4 Bibliography 223 5 Index 230 36R 3039_FM.qxp 1/18/10 9:48 AM Page vii

1 2 3 Preface 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 ost of us acquire our first historical impressions at an early age 4 from some vivid story or image. We learn about Alfred burning M 5 the cakes, for example, about the bloodthirsty and feuding medieval 6 nobility, about the ignorance and immorality of the monks and clergy of 7 the later Middle Ages—and about Bluff King Hal, about Henry VIII’s 8 lustful pursuit of a dazzling succession of court ladies. Such images are 9 powerful, leaving a lasting impact. Many of us go on to read historical 20 novels or watch historical films and plays, and acquire what seem clear 1 and utterly persuasive views of the past. Many have come across Anne 2 Boleyn in novels and films and have greatly enjoyed the ways in which 3 their writers and directors have told her story. 4 But a professional historian—someone who studies and teaches 5 history at university—will want to warn you that matters are not quite 6 so straightforward. My interest in Anne Boleyn began in much the same 7 way as anyone else’s: I was intrigued by the remarkable and dramatic 8 events that led to Henry VIII’s break with Rome, by Anne’s part in them, 9 and then by her extraordinary downfall. But as a professional historian 30 I wanted to test what I had been told. Those powerful images of Anne 1 that we have seen in films or read in novels may well not be the whole 2 story. On what are they based? How can we know that they are true? 3 Prompted by such curiosity, I set off on a voyage of discovery shared 4 with you here. It may well be that the destination turns out to be rather 5 different from that which you expect. Not the least of the challenges is 36R 3039_FM.qxp 1/18/10 9:48 AM Page viii

viii preface

1 that there is rather less evidence surviving from the early sixteenth century 2 than one would wish. I should emphasise that much must unavoidably 3 remain uncertain. In Green Road, East Ham, just along from West Ham 4 football stadium, the Boleyn ground, are the Boleyn pub, built in 1898, 5 and the Boleyn cinema, built in 1938. They are called after Anne Boleyn 6 because there was once (as illustrations show) a Tudor brick house with 7 typical chimneys here. It was owned by Richard Breame, a minor servant 8 of Henry VIII. And, so the story goes, this was one of the places which 9 Henry visited when courting Anne. There is no surviving evidence to that 10 effect; it is not impossible; but we lack anything like proof. 1 The greatest shortcoming of the surviving sources is that we are short 2 of information about what people thought and why they did what they 3 did. Consequently a good deal must be inferred from actions: a reason- 4 able proceeding, but one to be undertaken carefully and openly. 5 Historical playwrights, historical novelists and film directors are 6 perfectly free to use their imaginations to fill in the enormous gaps in our 7 knowledge, and if they do so to dramatic effect, that undoubtedly makes 8 for good reading and viewing. But precisely because such representations 9 can be powerful and make a deep impact, they risk embedding images 20 that are at best fanciful and at worst downright false. My approach is 1 rather to ask questions at every turn, always to show where our informa- 2 tion comes from, whether from a letter written by Anne herself (though 3 there are very few of those) or from a despatch by one of the foreign 4 ambassadors in England (notably Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambas- 5 sador from 1529), or from a near-contemporary narrative history (such 6 as those of George Cavendish, sometime servant and then biographer of 7 , or of the martyrologist John Foxe) and to share with 8 you my reasoning, and indeed my speculation, albeit I hope informed 9 speculation, on matters on which the evidence alone is tantalisingly 30 inconclusive or frustratingly absent. 1 2 3 4 5 36R 3039_FM.qxp 1/18/10 9:48 AM Page ix

1 2 3 Acknowledgements 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 t was in the middle of a class on the politics of Henry VIII’s reign that 4 it first occurred to me that Anne Boleyn might not have been entirely I 5 innocent of the adulteries of which she was accused. And many genera- 6 tions of students have since discussed and argued with me about Anne 7 Boleyn’s fate: I am greatly indebted to them. My late colleague T.B. Pugh 8 supplied me with references and first encouraged me to go further. As I 9 did so, in writing the articles in which I first sketched my claims (for 20 permission to draw on which I thank Oxford Journals and Cambridge 1 University Press) and more recently in preparing this biography, I bene- 2 fited from the advice and the questioning of many friends, including 3 Cliff Davies, the late Jennifer Loach, Penry Williams, Peter Gwyn, Jenny 4 Wormald, Steve Gunn, Greg Walker, David Katz, the late Geoff Dickens, 5 Rhys Robinson, Henry James, Wendy Toulson, Edward Wilson, Mark 6 Stoyle, Janet Dickinson, Anne Curry and John Painter. Both Peter Gwyn 7 and Mark Stoyle are due special thanks for undertaking the labour of 8 reading and commenting on successive drafts. At Yale University Press, 9 I specially wish to thank Robert Baldock, Tom Buhler and Beth 30 Humphries. The British Academy and the University of Southampton 1 financed research in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Vienna: I am very 2 grateful to the staff there for their most helpful assistance. An award by 3 the Arts and Humanities Research Council doubled the study leave given 4 me by my own university and so enabled me to complete this study. 5 36R 3039_CH01.qxp 1/18/10 9:41 AM Page 1

1 1 2 3 ‘These bloody days have broken my heart’ 4 the fall of Anne Boleyn 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 n 30 April 1536 Mark Smeaton, a musician at Henry VIII’s court, 4L Owas arrested and interrogated. Maybe he was tortured. George 5 Constantyne, himself suspected of treason when testifying three years 6 later, declared that ‘the saying was that he was first grievously racked’, but 7 immediately added the qualification, ‘which I could never know of a 8 truth’.1 Tortured or not, Mark confessed that he had on three occasions 9 made love to Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s queen. That, quite understand- 20 ably, was enough to send him to the Tower. The arrests did not end there. 1 Henry Norris, chief gentleman of Henry’s privy chamber, the closest of 2 the king’s personal servants, was sent to join Smeaton in the Tower, after 3 Henry VIII had personally interrogated him the following day. Anne 4 Boleyn followed, after she had been interrogated by the king’s council, 5 together with her brother, George, Viscount Rochford. Several courtiers 6 were sent there too: William Brereton and Sir Francis Weston, both 7 gentlemen of the privy chamber, the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, and 8 Sir Richard Page, another courtier. Wyatt and Page were shortly set free. 9 But Anne, her brother, Smeaton, Norris, Brereton and Weston were all 30 indicted. 1 What had they done to deserve this treatment? Anne had allegedly 2 seduced them by her conversation, gifts and kisses. For three years and 3 more, Anne, ‘despising her marriage’ and ‘entertaining malice against 4 the king’, had been ‘following daily her frail and carnal lust’. ‘By base 5 conversations and kisses, touchings, gifts, and other infamous incitations’, 36R 3039_CH01.qxp 1/18/10 9:41 AM Page 2

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1 Anne had led several of the king’s close servants to be her ‘adulterers and 2 concubines’. 3 The indictment specified the charges. On 6 October 1533 and several 4 days before and after, Anne, ‘by sweet words, kisses, touches and other- 5 wise’, seduced Henry Norris to ‘violate’ her on 12 October 1533. They 6 had illicit intercourse at various other times, both before and after, 7 sometimes at his instigation, sometimes hers. On 2 November 1535, and 8 several times before and after, Anne had incited her own brother, 9 George, to have sex with her, ‘alluring him with her tongue in his mouth 10 and his in hers’ and also by kisses, presents and jewels. George on 1 5 November 1535, and on several other days before and after, made 2 love to his sister at Westminster, sometimes at his, sometimes at her, 3 instigation, ‘despising the commands of God and all human laws’. The 4 indictments against William Brereton, Sir Francis Weston and Mark 5 Smeaton were then set out in identical ways. On named dates, and 6 on several days before and after, Anne had seduced them, and on 7 specified dates between five days to a fortnight later, they had had sex, 8 sometimes at Anne’s instigation, sometimes at theirs: William Brereton 9 in December 1533, Mark Smeaton in April 1534 and Sir Francis Weston 20 in May 1534. In a parallel indictment the charges against these men were 1 identical—but the dates given were somewhat different, in four cases a 2 month later, in that of Brereton a month earlier. 3 In other words, having married Henry VIII in early 1533, Anne Boleyn 4 had then allegedly had sexual relationships with Henry Norris in 5 October or November 1533, with William Brereton in November or 6 December 1533; with Mark Smeaton in April or May 1534; with 7 Sir Francis Weston in May or June 1534; and with her brother in 8 November and December 1535. Not surprisingly, the five men, ‘inflamed 9 with carnal love of the queen’, became very jealous of each other, and 30 gave her secret gifts and pledges. In turn the queen could not bear it 1 when any of them talked to another woman, and encouraged them by 2 giving them great gifts. On 31 October 1535 (or on 8 January 1536) the 3 queen and the five men allegedly ‘conspired the death and destruction of 4 the king’, Anne often saying that she would marry one of them as soon 5 as the king died, and declaring that she would never love the king in her 36R heart.2 Such acts were regarded as treason, the greatest of crimes, for 3039_CH01.qxp 1/18/10 9:41 AM Page 3

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which the penalty was death. Accordingly, first the commoners Norris, 1 Smeaton, Weston and Brereton, and then on Monday 15 May Anne and 2 her brother, were convicted and executed. 3 All of this was unprecedented. Not surprisingly it has given rise to 4 heated debate. Many contemporaries were astonished. Thomas Cranmer, 5 archbishop of Canterbury, was ‘clean amazed’.3 And many, indeed most, 6 modern historians believe that all this is too preposterous for words. 7 Following the martyrologist John Foxe, who thought the charges, not least 8 that of incest with her brother, ‘so contrary to nature that no natural man 9 will believe it’,4 they assert that Anne and her alleged lovers could not 10 possibly have behaved like this.5 The only plausible explanation, such 1 historians believe, is that they were framed, and so they elaborate complex 2 theories about why and how that was done. But maybe that is too hasty a 3 response. Was there rather more substance to the charges for which Anne 4 and her friends paid with their lives? 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 36R