Page 34 - All About History - Issue 180-19

void. Instead, his marriage to Anne was affirmed In the following months as the King’s ardour for Anne sat beside her husband as they presided
to be good and valid. The following month Anne’s Jane Seymour grew, so too did the coolness with over the tournament. Yet the king left abruptly,
ultimate moment of triumph arrived, and it was which he treated Anne and her family. In April it causing Anne alarm and with good cause. The
one in which her family were there to share. On 1 had been expected that George would be following day she was arrested and taken
June, bedecked in a sumptuous dress of crimson admitted to the Order of the Garter, to the Tower, as were the five men
velvet lined with ermine, she was crowned in a but in a clear sign of how far they – including her brother – accused
magnificent ceremony in Westminster Abbey. She had fallen, another candidate alongside her. As she arrived at
was the second commoner to be made Queen was chosen. Unbeknown to the fortress in a state of utter
of England, and in a sign of the importance of Anne, her former ally Thomas shock, she asked Sir William
the occasion she was crowned with St Edward’s Cromwell was plotting her Kingston, the Constable,
Crown – usually reserved for the coronation of downfall and on 29 April laid “Do I go into a dungeon?”
male monarchs. All that remained was for her to his evidence – which most She was taken to the
produce a son. modern historians agree to Royal Apartments.
On 7 September Anne gave birth not to the have been falsified – before The imprisonment of the
long-desired prince, but to a girl, Elizabeth. In spite the king. Anne, he said, Boleyn siblings proved to be
of the disappointment of her sex, the baby was had committed adultery an upsetting and agitating
healthy and there was every reason to hope for with four men, including a experience for them both.
sons. Yet they were never to transpire, and several lowly born musician named Anne was placed in the
other pregnancies resulted in nothing but bitter Mark Smeaton. But there custody of the constable, who
disappointment. was worse, for Cromwell also made detailed reports of his
Anne proved to be a very different kind of claimed that Anne was guilty prisoner’s every word. Bewailing
wife and queen to her predecessor. Though of incest with her own brother. Thomas Cromwell turned her misfortune, on one occasion
against Anne and plotted
she distributed alms and gave money to other Henry was furious and ordered her downfall Anne cried, “Oh, my mother, thou
charitable causes, was both pious and a patron the arrest of all of those involved, wilt die with sorrow.” Her behaviour
of learning, she remained unpopular with Anne included. was erratic, and Kingston reported that
her subjects whose hearts lay with Catherine. The court celebrated May Day with all of the “one hour she is determined to die, and the next
Similarly, where Catherine had been obedient to usual revelry at Greenwich. George was the hour much contrary to that.” On 12 May the four
her husband’s will and turned a blind eye to his leading challenger at the customary jousts, and men with whom Anne had been accused of
infidelities, Anne was outspoken and was outraged
when Henry was unfaithful to her. The result was Anne was sent to the Tower
inevitable: by the end of 1535 Henry was tiring of on trumped up charges
his wife, and sought solace in the arms of one of
her ladies: Jane Seymour.
Following the example once set so successfully
by her mistress, Jane employed the same tactics
to the King’s advances. She refused to become his
mistress, and instead held out for marriage. Once
again, the game worked. On 29 January 1536 – the
same day as the funeral of Catherine of Aragon
who had died that month – Anne miscarried of
a child that showed every appearance of being
male. Chapuys observed that “she has miscarried
of her saviour”, and her perceived failure gave her
enemies an opportunity to move against her.

“when the cAse wAs

referred to the

pope in rome in

1529 the Boleyns

BecAme convinced

thAt wolsey wAs
working AgAinst

them”

34