George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier & Diplomat

by Ridgway, Claire

  When translating Les Epistres and The Ecclesiaste for Anne, George left the scriptural texts in their original French, a language in which the Boleyn siblings were fluent, but translated the commentaries into English. Les Epistres, which can be found in the British Library, is badly damaged, particularly by water. It is prefixed with a dedication, which until recently had led scholars to believe the translation was the work of Henry Parker, Lord Morley, who was George's father-in-law (See Figure 4). This erroneously led scholars to suppose that Morley enjoyed a close relationship with Anne. Recently, however, a passage prefacing the dedication, "moost lovyng and frynddely brother", was discovered by means of ultraviolet light. This led historian James Carley to the inevitable conclusion that the author of the translation was actually George Boleyn himself. This is supported by the presence on one of the pages of a cipher that was probably designed by Holbein, and is clearly one of George and Boleyn.9 (See Figure 1)

  The dedicatory letter to his sister which George prefaced to Les Epistres reads as follows:

  To the right honourable lady, the Lady Marchioness of Pembroke, her most loving and friendly brother sendeth greetings.

  Our friendly dealings, with so divers and sundry benefits, besides the perpetual bond of blood, have so often bound me, Madam, inwardly to love you, that in every of them I must perforce become your debtor for want of power, but nothing of my good will. And were it not that by experience your gentleness is daily proved, your meek fashion often times put into use, I might well despair in myself, studying to acquit your deserts towards me, or embolden myself with so poor a thing to present to you. But, knowing these perfectly to reign in you with more, I have been so bold to send unto you, not jewels or gold, whereof you have plenty, not pearl or rich stones, whereof you have enough, but a rude translation of a well-willer, a goodly matter meanly handled, most humbly desiring you with favour to weigh the weakness of my dull wit, and patiently to pardon where any fault is, always considering that by your commandment I have adventured to do this, without the which it had not been in me to have performed it. But that hath had power to make me pass my wit, which like as in this I have been ready to fulfil, so in all other things at all times I shall be ready to obey, praying him on whom this book treats, to grant you many years to his pleasure and shortly to increase in heart's ease with honour.10 11

  The above dedication from George to his sister, in addition to exemplifying the strength of the Boleyns' shared religious beliefs, demonstrates the depth of affection between Anne and George. It was written between September 1532 and January 1533, prior to Anne's marriage. It refers to her as the Marchioness of Pembroke, which was a title she did not receive until 1 September 1532, and it may well be that George translated the manuscript as a gift for her upon her being granted the honour, or as a New Year gift in January 1533. It covertly refers to a possible forthcoming marriage, "shortly to increase in heart's ease with honour", and Anne married Henry VIII on 25 January 1533. In the dedication, George sets out beautifully expressed compliments to his obviously much-loved sister. This highly intelligent young man incorporates in the dedication the type of self-deprecation that only the very clever would risk, knowing that it would be received by a recipient who could fully appreciates the false modesty. Be that as it may, George clearly demonstrates an anxiety as to whether his translation will please his sister. He does, however, include the proviso that if there are faults, she is to remember that it was she who asked him for the translation in the first place. The dedication refers to Anne's, "meek fashion", for which she was not particularly renowned, and claims that George is not giving her jewels and so on, since she has enough of them. It is possible to read this as a dedication by a younger brother to his sister which is not only caring and affectionate, but also written with a little jovial cheekiness. This dedication is the closest we come to a glimpse of the actual relationship between the two of them.

  We even have the actual text that George used for his translation. Although there are three surviving copies of the B text of Les Epistres, which was used for Anne's manuscript, James Carley points out that the copy held by the British Library (BL 1016.a.9) shows evidence of use.12 In a number of margins someone has inserted a picture of a pointing finger. There is also an error in the text that has been amended in the margin. However, in George Boleyn's translation this amendment forms part of the text, suggesting that George used this copy. George would then have sent the original manuscript together with his translation to the scribe. The transcribed manuscript is beautifully presented. The salutation to his sister is in blue ink, with a gold initial in a red frame. Alternate colours and patterns indicate textural divisions which are obviously carefully designed and highly individualised. It would have been magnificent when it was new.

  The translation of The Ecclesiaste does not contain a dedicatory letter. It is probable that one did originally exist, and has been either lost or deliberately removed. The lack of a dedication makes it hard to determine who translated it. However, it shares the individualised characteristics of the Les Epistres translation, although it is even grander and more elaborate. It still has the original binding, and has complex illustrations. The colouring of the initial letter for each verse follows the characteristics of Les Epistres. Because of the individualised style and the strong similarities in technique, Carley attributes The Ecclesiaste to the same scribe who executed Les Epistres. As he points out, both books represent a quality of manuscript normally commissioned by royalty or the highest level of aristocracy.13 Only George Boleyn or someone of his calibre would have been able to afford to employ the same competent scribe and first-class artists on two separate occasions.

  Although George Boleyn was known and admired as a scholar even during his own lifetime, these are the only two translations that can definitely be attributed to him. However, in his scaffold speech he refers to being "a setter forth of the word of God", which suggests there were others which are now lost or which, like his poetry, are attributed to other people. Certainly Henry Parker, Lord Morley, was a prodigious translator for the King. It is highly probable that if he had lived, George would have become at least as well known for his translations as his father-in-law. The translations for which we know George was responsible prove that when it came to issues of religion, he was equally as active as Anne. When George went on embassy to France in 1534, Thomas Cromwell wrote in one of his remembrances that George was instructed by Henry VIII to deliver "a Book of Instruction" in French to Francis I.14 This may have been similar in content to those manuscripts that were owned by either Anne or her brother.

  Carley demonstrates that in various aspects of Anne Boleyn's life - the pious follower of religious reform, the gay frivolous courtier, the queen whose household was the centre of "elegant artifice" - the presence of her brother loomed large.15 He demonstrates this by proving beyond doubt that George was the translator of Les Epistres and The Ecclesiaste, and by the nature of George's dedicatory letter to his sister, which is full of courtly gallantry. Certainly, the influence of Anne's brother on her religious views and opinions is undeniable. The two surviving manuscripts show that George was much more than simply a reader of novelty religious literature. His evangelism was not a newfound trend that he discovered shortly before his death, or something that he used for political gain. He was an active participant from a much earlier point, and from his youth identified himself as well as Anne with the new theological idealism. In matters of religion they were a team, and they read cutting-edge texts by the forerunners of the Reformation.

  George's translation of Lefèvre's accompanying annotation reads:

  For faith which giveth the true fear of God, is it that doth prepare us for to keep the commandments well, and maketh us good workmen, for to make good works; and maketh us good trees for to bear good fruit, Then if we be not first well prepared, made good workmen, and made good trees we may not look to do the least of the commandments, Therefore Moses giving the commandments for the beginning
said: 'Hearken Israel, thy God is one god', which is as much as to say as, believe, have faith, for without faith God doth not profit us, nor can we accomplish nothing: but the faith in God and in our Lord Jesuchist is it which chiefly doth relieve us from the transgressions that be passed of the sentence of the law, and yieldeth us innocents, and in such manner that none can demand of us anything, for because that faith hath gotten us Jesuchrist, and maketh him our own, he having accomplished the law, and satisfied unto all transgressions, Then faith having reconciled us unto the Father, doth get us also the Holy Ghost, Which yieldeth witness in our hearts that we be the sons of God. Whereby engendereth in us true childerly fear, and putteth away all servile and hired fear. And then it sheddeth in our hearts the fire of love and dilection, by the means whereof we be well prepared for to keep the word of God, which is but love: and without the which it is aswell possible for us to keep the said commandments, as unto the ice to abide warming and burning in the fire. For our hearts (without this fire of the Holy Ghost) be over hard frozen and cooled, and overmuch founded and rooted in the love of ourselves.16

  The quote emphasises the Reformist doctrine of justification by faith, of salvation being found only by faith in Jesus Christ. For Anne to have asked George for the translation of Les Epistres, and for George to have personally undertaken this monumental task, confirms their level of commitment to religious reform. It has been suggested that their interest was on a superficial level, more to do with being drawn to a trendy new idealism than genuine religious fervour, but their commitment is proved to be far greater than mere fashion. George spoke at length on the scaffold regarding his religious views and is unlikely to have spent the last minutes of his life doing so had he not been fully committed. The fact that George is responsible for these translations authenticates a passage in his scaffold speech uniquely recorded by a Calais soldier named Elis Gruffudd. Gruffudd was attached to Sir Robert Wingfield's household, and was in the Calais garrison in 1536. His source is unknown, but may have come directly from the executioner. Gruffudd's original account of the speech is in Welsh, but the translation reads:

  Truly so that the Word should be among the people of the realm I took upon myself great labour to urge the King to permit the printing of the Scriptures to go unimpeded among the commons of the realm in their own language. And truly to God I was one of those who did most to procure the matter to place the Word of God among the people because of the love and affection which I bare for the Gospel and the truth in Christ's words.17

  There can be little doubt that the Boleyns used their positions at court, and the protection that derived from the favour of the King, to promote their religious ideals. Sometime during 1528 Simon Fish, a religious controversialist, sent an evangelical and revolutionary 16-page pamphlet he had written to Anne Boleyn entitled A Supplication for the Beggars. It was a piece of religious propaganda promoting the abolition of the monasteries by emphasising the abuses of the ecclesiastics, and accusing the church of holding half of England's wealth. The pamphlet was a religious rant, including phrases such as:

  And what do all these greedy sort of sturdy, idle, holy thieves with these yearly exactions that they take of the people? Truly nothing but exempt themselves from the obedience of your Grace. Nothing but translate all rule, power, lordship, authority, obedience and dignity from your Grace unto them.

  George either noticed the pamphlet or was given it by Anne. According to Fish's wife, "this book her brother seeing in her hand, took and read, and gave it to her again, willing her earnestly to give it to the king, which thing she did".18 When George read it he obviously recognised its potential as a document that would be easily understood by the King, and one which would appeal to his mercenary nature and egotism. As George well knew, as early as 1528 this document amounted to heresy, and only Anne could have brought it to Henry's attention with a guarantee of impunity. As George foresaw, Henry was impressed with the pamphlet and had a personal meeting with Fish some two years later, during 1530.

  George's influence in the religious changes which swept the country in the mid-1530s has been largely overlooked. But his translations for Anne and the incident with A Supplication clearly demonstrate his influence over his sister and, through her, the King, when it came to reform. These elements also further authenticate his scaffold claim to be "a setter forth of the word of God". Anne may have been the mouth-piece due to her influence over the love-struck Henry, but her brother was alongside her throughout. Henry was by no means a natural Reformer, but if it suited his purpose, he allowed himself to be easily influenced. The King's lust for Anne meant that he was ripe for conversion, provided Reform meant getting what he wanted; the evangelical Boleyns had the intelligence to exploit their King's shallowness, for the greater good.

  We know that Anne used her positions as queen-in-waiting and queen to provide patronage to Reformers. It appears that she, George and their father financially supported Nicholas Heath, who became one of Thomas Cranmer's evangelical circle, at Cambridge University.19 Heath became the rector of St Peter's Church, Hever, the Boleyn family church, in 1531.20 Heath was later involved in embassies to the Lutheran Princes of Germany, and he worked closely with Archbishop Cranmer and Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, in overseeing the Bible translations which became the 1539 Great Bible. Heath later distanced himself from evangelicals, becoming Archbishop of York during Mary I's Catholic reign, but he seems to have been a keen evangelical in the 1530s, during which he was known and patronized by the Boleyns.

  From his first introduction to court as an adult, George was particularly open in his support of religious reform. This, together with his intelligence, charm and linguistic skills, had the effect of distinguishing him from the run-of-the-mill young courtier, but it also turned many against him who continued to support the orthodox Catholic religion. It is easy to look back with hindsight and see that George Boleyn set himself up for a fall at a very early age. The imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, complained that Rochford insisted on entering into religious debate whenever he was being entertained by him,21 22 and George spoke passionately of his religious beliefs on the scaffold:

  I was a great reader and a mighty debater of the Word of God, and one of those who most favoured the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wherefore, lest the Word of God should be slandered on my account, I now tell you all Sirs, that if I had, in very deed, kept his holy Word, even as I read and reasoned about it with all the strength of my wit, certain am I that I should not be in the piteous condition wherein I now stand. Truly and diligently did I read the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but I turned not to profit that which I did read; the which had I done, of a surety I had not fallen into such great errors. Wherefore I do beseech you all, for the love of our Lord God, that ye do at all seasons, hold by the truth, and speak it, and embrace it; for beyond all peradventure, better profiteth he who readeth not and yet doeth well, than he who readeth much and yet liveth in sin.23

  Irrespective of the piety of the sentiments, many honourable people lost their lives as a result of Anne and George Boleyn's joint commitment to religious reform. It is unlikely either of them would have contemplated the deaths resulting from their commitment. Whilst neither of them can be proved to have actively supported the atrocities, they passively condoned them by making no stand against them. On the scaffold George Boleyn admitted being a wretched sinner deserving of death, but did not recount his many sins. Perhaps one of them was his determination to accept the deaths of innocent people as collateral damage in order to achieve the religious aims of himself and his sister.

  7 - Court Life

  Anne Boleyn was recalled from France in late 1521 due to negotiations taking place for her to marry James Butler, one of her Irish relations. The date on which she arrived in England is not known, but she was certainly at court by the beginning of 1522 since she attended a court pageant on Shrove Tuesday of that year, 1 March, at which she put her acquired French sophistication to use. Her sister Mary and her future sister-
in-law Jane Parker both joined Anne in playing parts in the elaborate "Château Vert" pageant. Prophetically, Anne played Perseverance and Mary played Kindness, while Jane played Constancy.1

  Jane Parker was lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon, and according to George Cavendish had been brought up in the court since childhood. It is likely, therefore, that she had already come into contact with her future husband; the fact that they were both in close attendance on the royal couple would suggest they knew each other fairly well.2 They were both good-looking, wealthy and well-placed, and there is no evidence to suggest that there was no attraction between them. In 1522, both George and Jane were about 17 or 18 years old. Whether or not issues of religion and politics caused later friction in their marriage, most teenagers do not allow such trivialities to get in the way.

  By 1522, Mary Boleyn had been at court nearly three years, but this was Anne Boleyn's first introduction to the English court. The Boleyn girls obviously knew their future sister-in-law for some time before she married their brother thanks to their pageant appearance and time at court. Were the young women friends? Jane, like everybody else, was aware that Mary had had, or was having, an affair with the King. That alone might have put a strain on their friendship, particularly as Jane's loyalties appear to have always remained with the Queen. But whatever Jane's views may have been, once she married into the Boleyn dynasty her loyalties as a woman would be expected to lie with her husband and his family.

  Prior to Anne's return to England, it is unlikely that the three Boleyn siblings had even been together since the Field of Cloth of Gold meeting in June 1520. By the time Anne came to England, Mary was well-known to the King, having probably already slept with him, and George was one of the King's favourite pages; Anne had some catching up to do. It is impossible to assess the dynamics of the relationship between the sisters, but whether or not they remained close, 1522 was the first time in nine years that all three Boleyn children were in a position to spend any significant time together.