In the winter of 1532, Henry VIII met with Francis I, the King of France, at Calais, where he agreed to petition to Pope on Henry’s behalf, for a dispensation to marry Anne Boleyn. Upon his return to England, Henry and Anne were married in a secret ceremony. Anne became pregnant not long afterward and Henry and Anne were married in a public ceremony on January 25, 1533. In May of that year, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, convened a special court at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which was declared void. On May 25, 1533, Cranmer ruled that the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was valid.
The Birth of Elizabeth I
In the wake of these events, Catherine of Aragon was stripped of her title as the Queen of England and Anne Boleyn was declared Henry’s Queen Consort on June 1, 1533. On September 7, Anne gave birth to a baby girl who was christened Elizabeth, after Henry’s mother Elizabeth of York. In a symbolic rejection of the Catholic Church, Parliament validated the marriage of Henry and Anne with the passage of the Act of Succession.
At the same time, Henry’s daughter by Catherine of Aragon, Mary, was declared illegitimate, while his daughter by Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was legitimized. All adults in England were required to recognize the provisions of the Act of Succession with the swearing of an oath. Those who refused could be subject to life imprisonment. Additionally, printers and publishers who tried to spread rumours that the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn was illegitimate would be automatically found guilty of treason and put to death.
Henry VIII and the Church of England
At the same time, Parliament banned all appeals to Rome and threatened harsh punishments to anyone who introduced a Papal Bull to England. The Church in England was also barred from making regulations without royal assent. Following these developments, Pope Clement VII had Henry VIII and Thomas Cranmer excommunicated. He also declared Cranmer’s annulment void and Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn invalid. Pope Clement ordered the withdrawal of the Papal Nuncio to England and diplomatic relations between Henry and the Catholic Church were broken off.
Following this, several more laws were passed including the Ecclesiastical Appointment Acts, which required the clergy to elect any bishop appointed by the King, and the Treason Act, which made it punishable by death to refuse to acknowledge the King as the head of the Church of England. Following the excommunication of Henry and Cranmer, Parliament passed the Peter’s Pence Act, which stated that England had "no superior under God, but Your Grace," adding that Henry’s "imperial crown" had been tarnished by "the unreasonable and uncharitable usurpation and exactions of the Pope."
Even though Henry was now in control of the Church of England, Protestant reformers still faced persecution and many fled abroad where they encountered additional difficulties, particularly from the influential William Tyndale, who was eventually burned at the stake. The theological and practical reforms that would come to characterize the Anglican faith occurred under Henry’s successors.
In the meantime, Henry and Anne were not adjusting well to married life. Henry and Anne enjoyed periods of calm, but Anne refused to play the submissive role Henry expected of her. Anne’s passion and opinionated intellect made her attractive to Henry as a secret lover, but undesirable as a royal wife. Henry expected total obedience and strict observance of royal protocol from those who interacted with him at court.
Anne proved to be far too independent and Henry came to dislike her constant irritability and violent temper. Anne suffered a miscarriage in 1534 and Henry began to see her failure to give him a son as a personal betrayal. By Christmas of 1534, Henry was discussing with Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell whether it was possible to leave Anne Boleyn without returning to Catherine of Aragon.
At the same time, opposition to Henry’s religious policies was swiftly crushed in England. A number of dissenting monks were tortured and put to death. The most prominent resisters were John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, Henry’s former Lord Chancellor. More and Fisher refused to take the oath to the King and were beheaded on Tower Hill, within sight of the Tower of London.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries
In 1536, Parliament passed the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act, which contributed to continued resistance to Henry’s religious policies. Henry’s religious reforms resulted in the Pilgrimage of Grace. In October, 1536, Henry promised 30,000 rebels led by Robert Aske that they would be pardoned if they returned to their homes. Henry then invited Aske to a royal banquet. At the banquet, Henry instructed Aske to write down what had happened so that Henry could better understand how the uprising had started and gain an insight into the rebels’ grievances. Aske did this without question.
In the 16th Century, the King was regarded as God’s chosen leader and second in superiority only to God Himself. Aske did as Henry had requested because the King’s word could not be questioned. However, Aske’s description of the uprising and the grievances of the rebels were regarded as tantamount to a confession by Henry and his ministers. Henry saw the rebels as traitors and did not feel obliged to keep the promises he had made to them. When Aske’s followers realized that Henry had no intention of keeping his word, the rebellion flared up again and Henry ordered the rebellion crushed. Robert Aske and more than 200 other rebels were executed for treason.
Catherine of Aragon, Henry’s first wife died in January, 1536. When the news reached Henry and Anne Boleyn on January 8, the primary sources report that Anne and Henry decked themselves out in bright yellow clothing, which was the colour of mourning in Spain at that time. Henry also called for celebrations of joy following Catherine’s death. At the same time, Anne became pregnant again. If Anne did not give Henry a son, her life could be in danger, as Henry would be free to marry again and no one would be able to question the validity of the marriage.
Later that month, Henry was unhorsed in a jousting tournament. He was seriously injured and for a brief time, Henry’s ministers feared for the King’s life. The primary sources claim that when Anne was informed of Henry’s accident, the shock of the news was such that she suffered a miscarriage on January 29, 1536, the same day as Catherine’s funeral. The primary sources claim that Henry took the loss of Anne’s unborn child as a personal betrayal. Modern historians regard the loss of Anne’s child as the beginning of the end of the royal marriage.
Henry’s desire for a son and the sequence of Anne’s pregnancies has long attracted the interest of historians. Some modern historians have speculated that Anne gave birth to two stillborn children after the birth of Elizabeth in 1533, and before her miscarriage in 1536. However, most of the primary sources record only the birth of Elizabeth, a single miscarriage in 1534 and Anne’s miscarriage of 1536. While Anne was recovering from her final miscarriage, Henry claimed that their marriage had been cursed by witches. At the same time, Henry’s new mistress, Jane Seymour was moved into her new apartment and Anne Boleyn’s brother, George Boleyn was denied entry into the Order of the Garter.
The Death of Anne Boleyn
Five men, including Anne’s brother, George Boleyn were arrested on charges of incest, treason and adultery. They were also accused of having had sexual relations with the Queen. On May 2, 1536, Anne Boleyn was arrested for incest, treason and adultery. Despite the fact that the evidence against them was circumstantial at best, they were found guilty and sentenced to death. George Boleyn and the other accused men were executed on May 17, 1536. Anne Boleyn was put to death two days later, at 8 AM on May 19, 1536.
Henry ordered her sentence of being burned at the stake to be commuted to beheading. Anne was permitted the additional dignity being beheaded with a sword and a swordsman was brought to the Tower of London from Calais to conduct her execution. Following her death, Anne’s body was left on the scaffold for several hours until one of the servants of the Tower came and placed Anne’s body in an empty arrow chest. Anne’s remains were buried in an unmarked grave. The location of Anne’s grave was lost until the reign of Queen Victoria. After her remains were rediscovered, Anne’s body was reburied in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vinculas.
Sources
Ashley, Mike. British Kings and Queens. Robinson:London.1998
Scarisbrick, JJ. Henry VIII.New Haven: Yale University Press. 1997
Terry Long - I hold degrees in history and journalism. In addition to my contributions to Suite 101, I have also written for the Brampton Bulletin, the ...
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