Anne Boleyn and Me Read online

  “And why, pray?” she asked.

  I told her, “Because you are so beautiful.” Papa has always said a jester must look innocent.

  It worked very well. “Bless the child,” Anne said. She patted my cheek and smiled at me. Then she went on to the Queen’s door with her flask of wine.

  She is not really beautiful. She has a slim figure, but her face is very pale, with a pointed chin. Rosanna says she is quick-witted, with a ready retort to any courtier who makes a flirtatious remark, and the men like her for that. She has jet-black eyes, as lively as a bird’s. She makes me think of a magpie; neat and smart and attracted to things that glitter. And I suppose the greatest and most glittering prize of them all must be the King.

  19th April 1526

  King Henry hurled a jug of wine at Papa today, causing him a deep cut above the eyebrow. Mama said nothing, just bathed the wound and put some knitbone ointment on it. This afternoon we heard that Henry has sent Thomas Wyatt away to Italy on some sort of diplomatic mission that will last for years. Rosanna laughed and said, “His Majesty must be getting desperate. He is not used to having his wishes refused.”

  Mama looked at her and shook her head. Neither of them would explain what Rosanna meant. But I met Mark Smeaton coming from the Queen’s chamber with his lute, and I asked him. He was happy to tell me. “The King wants Anne to be his mistress, and she has turned him down. So he is raging about like a mad bull.”

  I know what a mistress is. It is a woman who lives with a man as if the pair of them were married, only they are not. I am glad Anne has refused to do that. It would be dreadful for Queen Catherine.

  Mark laughed when I said this. “Anne has no sympathy for the Queen,” he said. “She is refusing to be the King’s mistress for just one reason. She wants to be his wife, and she will settle for nothing less.”

  That is nonsense, of course. Henry is married to Queen Catherine, and the Church does not allow marriage vows to be broken. They will be man and wife for ever.

  23rd August 1526

  Mama says I am a woman now. I was frightened when I found traces of blood and ran to her because I thought I was ill, but she told me it’s a very important part of growing up. I felt angry at first. Couldn’t I have had a choice about whether I wanted to grow up? I have always wanted to have the same freedom as my brothers, to run about and ride and shoot, but Mama shook her head today, and said women have more important things to do. Perhaps it will not be too bad. The ladies of the court ride horses and fly hawks and go hunting, I suppose. In any case, I cannot change my life, any more than I can stop the winds blowing or the sun shining, so I will enjoy whatever there is to enjoy.

  Rosanna has fallen in love with Diego Luiz de Frontera, the son of one of the Spanish attendants who came over from Granada with the Queen. She blushes and says it is not serious, but she cannot keep her eyes off him. He is very handsome, slim and broad-shouldered, with dark hair and eyes. I can see she is very happy.

  Poor Princess Mary will not be happy. The French king, Francis I, wants to marry again because his wife died two years ago, and he has offered his hand as a husband for Mary. King Henry is delighted and so is Cardinal Wolsey.

  The Queen, however, is not delighted at all. The French have always been enemies of Spain, so she does not want her daughter to marry their king. Besides, Mary is still only ten, and Francis is even older than the Emperor Charles. He could be her grandfather.

  20th February 1527

  Today is my thirteenth birthday – and I have been appointed a Lady of Court, to wait on the Queen! In a way it is nothing new, as I have always helped Rosanna and Mama, but I feel very grown-up, with my hair braided neatly under an embroidered cap, a present from Rosanna. Mama gave me a new gown, much more elaborate than any of my childhood dresses, and although I have always preferred boyish things, I must admit, this lovely dress is a pleasure. I specially like the slashed and embroidered over-sleeves that show the brocaded fabric underneath. They can be changed if they become soiled, as they are easier to clean than an entire gown. Mama gave me three pairs of sleeves, but my favourites are the pale-green silk ones, embroidered in blue and silver-white.

  How strange it is to feel like a court lady! Suddenly I am included in the gossip instead of being sent away like a little girl, and I am starting to understand how things are done. People who want a favour of the King used to ask Queen Catherine to put in a word for them, but now they ask Anne Boleyn instead, knowing she is the one Henry listens to.

  The Queen ignores all this. Since Christmas I have been going out with her and some other ladies almost every day, helping her to distribute charity among the crowds who flock to see her. Whatever her private worries may be, she is always serene and kind, and the common people adore her. They have probably heard the rumours about Anne, for gossip can never be stopped, but it has merely made them more protective of their true queen.

  10th April 1527

  We have been at Hampton Court all through the winter. I love this place. The frosty daylight shines in through all its great windows, and it is a joy to walk through its grounds and see the spring flowers blooming.

  A delegation is here from France to talk about Mary’s marriage to the French king. Their ambassador said an extraordinary thing. He asked whether Mary really is the King’s legitimate daughter. The courtiers who were listening dared not even glance at each other, they were so embarrassed. How can anyone doubt that Mary is the child of Henry and Catherine of Aragon?

  Rosanna explained later what the ambassador meant. Apparently the King is trying to claim that he was never legally married to Catherine. He has found a passage in the Bible that says it is unlawful for a man to marry his brother’s wife – and Catherine was of course married to Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, for a few months. Arthur then died, and Catherine waited for years before it was decided that she could marry Henry, who had always been her true love.

  Everything has changed now. Henry is trying to wriggle out of his marriage so he can take Anne as his new wife. And the only way he can do this is to declare his marriage to Queen Catherine illegal. I have never seen Mama so furious. “What a way to treat her!” she fumed. “And after all she has done for him! She ran the country while he was away at his silly war with France, she beat the Scots, she has advised him wisely for all these years, she has brought him the love of the people – and he will throw all this away for some obstinate girl who will not give in to him? The man is insane!”

  17th April 1527

  Cardinal Wolsey has assured the French that Mary is indeed the King’s rightful daughter. I am glad. But I still do not want her to marry that old man.

  Meanwhile, there is scandalous news. King Henry has asked Anne Boleyn to be his wife! How can he? Obviously he thinks he can dissolve his marriage to Catherine, but that is hardly the point. His determination to marry Anne astounds everyone. He has had mistresses before, many of them – we are all used to that – but to take this girl as a wife seems extraordinary. She is no more than a court servant, like the rest of us. Her family has distant royal connections, but whose has not? My own family cannot be called aristocratic – after all, we are not even English. But Mama is from a titled Spanish family, and her uncle was for many years the Spanish ambassador. Anne’s father married Elizabeth Howard, of an old titled family, but he himself came of tradesmen. The whole court is buzzing with speculation about what will happen next.

  2nd May 1527

  The betrothal between Mary and the French king has been agreed. There was a banquet last night, and the dancing and drinking went on long afterwards. When the King was dancing with his daughter, he suddenly pulled off Mary’s jewelled cap and let the wavy length of her fair hair fall free, as if to show off her beauty. Everyone laughed and applauded. Poor Mary, though. I would not be in her place, bound to marry an old man whom she has never met.

  17th May 1527

  King Henry and Cardinal Wolsey are meeting at Westminster with William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to talk about the King’s marriage. Henry wants Cardinal Wolsey to put the question to the Pope for his decision, but the Cardinal was horrified at the whole idea. He cannot refuse the King’s request, though. Nobody can refuse the King anything – except the Pope, of course.

  Tonight I asked Mama what it says in the Bible about a man who marries his brother’s wife. She took down our own Bible and turned to Leviticus, and ran her finger down the pages. We stared at the close-printed lines by the candle’s light. Most of the chapters were about sacrifice and burnt offerings, but then she came to the rules by which a man must live if he is to be pure. “This is it,” she said. We read the words of chapter 20, verse 21 together:

  Qui duxerit uxorem fratris sui, rem facit illicitam, turpitudinem fratris sui revelavit absque liberis sunt.

  And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing; he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

  “You see?” Mama said. “Henry thinks he has sinned in marrying Catherine, who was his brother’s wife. And he fears that God’s punishment for that is to deny him a son.”

  I found the whole chapter very frightening. It showed a fierce and unforgiving God, greedy for blood and the smoke of burnt meat. Then I was scared again, this time by my own dislike of it. After all, the Bible is holy. We do not have the choice to believe or not believe. As a mere human being, I dare not imagine how the Lord God will judge our king, who only started to fear that he had sinned when his desires were moving elsewhere.

  2nd June 1527

  The Pope is in prison! Emperor Charles has been campaigning in Italy, and last month his soldiers went on a mutinous rampage and sa
cked the city of Rome. The men were unpaid and starving, we hear, but all the same it seems a terrible thing to do. The Holy Father is locked up in a fortress called Castel San Angelo, and the Emperor has done nothing to free him, merely apologized. We all think he has lost control of his army.

  Papa laughed when he heard. “So the King is out of luck!” he said. While Pope Clement remains imprisoned, he cannot judge on the question of Henry Tudor’s marriage. And Henry cannot marry Anne until the Pope agrees that his previous marriage is ended.

  The King is furious, of course. If the Pope cannot give a judgement on his case, then somebody must. He is sending Wolsey to France to set up a ruling council with the other cardinals in Avignon. Can they really act without Pope Clement’s authority? Most people think it is impossible, but preparations have started for Wolsey’s departure. George Cavendish will be with the party, and he is rushing about like a man demented, organizing horses and mules, baggage and equipment.

  Mama is equally busy with the provision of black velvet coats for the clerical gentlemen who will go with the Cardinal, and we are all stitching frantically, even I who am no kind of needlewoman compared with Mama. At least I can sew a straight seam nowadays. Anne Boleyn herself sews with us, and her fingers are very quick and neat. Until this business is decided, she remains one of the Queen’s ladies, of no more importance than the rest of us. But of course everyone watches her, and malicious gossip abounds.

  6th June 1527

  Henry has sent Anne away to her parents’ home in Hever. I suppose he feels it is time to remove her from being no more than a serving lady.

  22nd June 1527

  King Henry went to see Catherine today, and asked her to release him and retire from being queen.

  Heavens, what a rumpus! The Queen wept like a thing demented, and screamed at him that she was and always would be his legal wife. Henry emerged from her chambers looking ruffled and angry. I do not feel much sympathy for him. From what Mama has told me, Catherine went through years of hardship and neglect before he married her, and she would rather die than let him cast her off. She is sending a messenger to ask her nephew, the Emperor Charles, if he will help her. Since Charles is responsible for imprisoning the Pope, he can presumably talk to him and perhaps persuade him not to dissolve her marriage. The messenger is one of Catherine’s most trusted servants, a man named Felipez.

  24th June 1527

  Henry found out about the messenger. I expect one of Anne Boleyn’s supporters told him. He sent riders galloping after the man all the way to Dover, but when they got there Felipez was already aboard a ship that had sailed. So the Emperor will get to hear of his aunt’s plight. I cannot imagine that he will do much about it, though. He is too busy fighting wars.

  16th July 1527

  The question of Henry’s marriage has come to the notice of the English Parliament as well as to the Church. Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor, has told the King his marriage cannot be called illegal. John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, has said the same thing. Henry is not pleased.

  15th September 1527

  The French ambassadors are here for more negotiations about Mary’s marriage. It was a state occasion, so Henry and Catherine sat side by side to watch a masque performed by children, smiling as though nothing could be wrong between them. They still look a handsome couple, though both of them are bulkier in the body than they once were. I think they are still fond of each other, for Henry visits his wife in her chambers quite often. Perhaps this business about Anne will blow over. I hope so.

  16th December 1527

  The Pope has been freed. Nobody knows whether the Emperor spoke to him on Catherine’s behalf, and meanwhile King Henry has sent his secretary, William Knight, to Rome. They say he bears a message asking His Holiness to declare that Henry may marry any other woman, providing his marriage to Catherine is annulled.

  Cardinal Wolsey is back from his meeting with the Cardinals in Avignon, having achieved nothing. As the King’s closest adviser, he does not expect Henry to send messages to the Pope without consulting him, and he looks very displeased.

  1st January 1528

  On this New Year’s morning, Rosanna was married to her true love, Diego Luiz de Frontera, in the chapel here at Greenwich. Mama wept tears of happiness, and then she turned to me and said, “God willing, you will be next, Ellie.”

  I am nearly fourteen, well old enough to be married, but I still find it hard to take the idea seriously. There are constant flirtations among the courtiers, and I suppose it would be easy enough to show an interest in one of them, but they are so much the same as each other – well-dressed, amusing, expert in all the graces of court life, and delighting in malicious gossip. I can see why Mama married my father, a Frenchman who lived by his own skills and had no real respect for any of them. And why should I hurry? I enjoy my music, and play often for the Queen now – even for the King sometimes, though his changing moods can be alarming.

  As for Rosanna – she looked lovely, in a gown of white silk sewn with small pearls, and her dark hair loose. With Diego beside her, handsome in an embroidered doublet of black velvet, she seemed utterly blissful. They will have their own room now, but they go on serving the Queen in the same way. Does marriage really make such a difference? Yes, perhaps it does – but I still find it hard to imagine.

  24th February 1528

  The Pope has agreed to let Wolsey and one other cardinal hear the King’s case against Queen Catherine in England. The other cardinal will be Lorenzo Campeggio, who has to come from Rome. They say the poor man suffers dreadfully from gout, so his journey is likely to be a slow and painful one. The case will not be heard for a while, so perhaps the weather will be kinder by the time he sets out.

  At Henry’s command, Wolsey has made a public announcement about “the King’s great matter”, as it is being called. The common people in the cities and the countryside now know that their king is seeking to escape from his marriage to Catherine. But their loyalty is to the Queen. I was with her this afternoon when she rode out, and all along the way crowds gathered to wish her success over her enemies. Henry is scowling and angry. Mama says he fears that Catherine will stir up a rebellion against him. In the early days of their marriage he often turned to her for advice on what he should do, and he knows she is clear-minded and politically astute. She would do nothing to harm him, though. He is her husband and her lord, and she loves him.

  4th June 1528

  The sweating sickness has come to London. It is a bad outbreak, and everyone is thrown into a panic. The King is very afraid of this disease. I suppose because it killed his brother, Arthur. He has ordered that we must be ready to leave at any moment.

  14th June 1528

  One of the court ladies has fallen ill with the sickness, so we will leave tomorrow. Anne is still with her parents at Hever, so she at least will be safe. I do not know where the rest of us will go, but we are frantically packing.

  15th June 1528

  Papa is ill. When we got up early this morning, he was shivering, although his skin was burning hot. He tried to tell us it was nothing serious, but his teeth chattered as he spoke, and it was obvious that he could not manage two days of riding. Mama will stay with him, but I have been ordered to go with the royal party. Diego and Rosanna will be with us as well. I am scribbling this quickly, as we are almost ready to leave. My poor parents – I am frantic with worry about both of them.

  17th June 1528

  We are in a place called Tittenhanger, in Hertfordshire, at the house of the Abbot of St Albans. The King thinks we will be safe from the sickness here. My mind is constantly with Mama and Papa, left behind to cope as best they can. A lot of the servants are still there, so at least somebody will fetch water and food for them, but I am full of fear.