The Death of Thomas Boleyn
Thomas Boleyn died on the 12th March 1539 at his home, Hever Castle, aged around sixty-two. His servant, Robert Cranwell, wrote to Cromwell the next day to inform him of his death:-
"My good lord and master is dead. He made the end of a good Christian man. Hever, 13 March."14
Thomas was laid to rest in a tomb in the family church of St Peter's in Hever, Kent. Visitors to the church today can pay their respects to Thomas and admire the incredibly detailed brass which shows him in the full robes and insignia of a Knight of the Garter, including the badge on his left breast and garter around the left knee. It is said to be one of the finest brasses in England and is beautiful. Near his tomb, set into the stone floor, is a simple brass cross marking the tomb of Thomas's infant son, Henry Boleyn.
Figure 38 - The tomb brass of Thomas Boleyn at St. Peter's Church, Hever, Kent
Figure 39 - St. Peter's Church, Hever, Kent
Thomas Boleyn Portraiture
Thomas Boleyn's brass and a small drawing of him in profile in The Black Book of the Order of the Garter ca.1534 are the only surviving images of Thomas Boleyn. However, art historian Roland Hui believes that a Hornebolte miniature of an unknown man from ca.1525 could well be Thomas Boleyn:
"As the unknown gentleman is not Charles Brandon, it was someone else drawn from the upper ranks of the King's court. The most feasible nobleman is Sir Thomas Boleyn, father of the future Queen Anne..."
The age fits, and we know that the Boleyns were linked to Hornebolte. Hui makes a convincing argument, but we won't know for sure unless more evidence is found.
Hui's theory can be read at:
http://tudorfaces.blogspot.com/2011/10/two-new-faces-hornebolte-portraits-of.html
The Real Elizabeth Boleyn
Elizabeth Boleyn is a far more shadowy figure than her husband and very little is known about her. She was born around 1476 and was the daughter of Thomas Howard, the Earl of Surrey and later Duke of Norfolk, and his wife Elizabeth Tylney. Her brother was Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, the man who presided over the trials of George and Anne Boleyn in 1536. The Howards were one of the premier families in England, having a long history of service to the monarch. Elizabeth's father had been attainted and stripped of his titles and lands after the Battle of Bosworth because he had fought on Richard III's side, but he managed to work his way back into favour and by 1497 had been restored as Earl of Surrey. In 1514, he was finally restored to the title of Duke of Norfolk.
Marriage and Children
Elizabeth married the up and coming Thomas Boleyn, son of another East Anglian family, in around 1499. We know from a letter written by Thomas Boleyn to Thomas Cromwell that, in the early years of their marriage Elizabeth gave birth on an annual basis. We have evidence of five children – Anne, George and Mary, and then Thomas and Henry who died in infancy and who are buried at Hever and Penshurst - but there may have been others whose graves were lost. We know, for example, that there are further tombs in Hever church but that at some point the floor collapsed and these are now hidden. Intriguingly, Elizabeth's Wikipedia page lists her as also having children called William, Margaret and Catherine (don't you just love Wikipedia?).
Elizabeth's Career
Traditionally, it is said that Elizabeth served as lady in waiting to Elizabeth of York, Catherine of Aragon and then her own daughter, but I have not found any evidence at all of her serving Elizabeth of York. Alison Weir challenges the idea that Elizabeth was one of Elizabeth of York's ladies, due to her series of pregnancies.15 Weir also does not believe that Elizabeth served Catherine of Aragon, saying that there is no evidence to back this up and that Elizabeth may have been confused with Edward Boleyn's wife, Anne Tempest, who definitely did serve Catherine.16 Elizabeth was, however, present at the Field of Cloth of Gold so may have been called on to serve the Queen at big state occasions, rather than on a permanent basis. We just don't know.
Elizabeth's Dubious Reputation
In her biography of Mary Boleyn, Alison Weir writes of the rumours that Elizabeth had an affair with the King, resulting in the birth of Anne Boleyn. If we were to believe these rumours, then it would mean, of course, that Henry VIII committed incest when he married and slept with Anne Boleyn. The sources Alison Weir17 cites for the story are:
• Friar William Peto – On Easter Sunday 1532, Princess Mary's confessor, Friar William Peto, preached a rather controversial sermon in the King's presence at Greenwich's Franciscan chapel, in which he compared Henry VIII to Ahab and drew comparisons between Anne Boleyn and Jezebel. After the sermon, it is said that Peto spoke to the King and warned him that "it was being said that he had meddled with both Anne's sister and her mother."
• Sir George Throckmorton - According to Cardinal Pole, Throckmorton had heard the story from Peto. Throckmorton further recalled a conversation he had had with the King about Henry's troubled conscience over marrying his brother's wife: "I told your Grace I feared if ye did marry Queen Anne your conscience would be more troubled at length, for it is thought ye have meddled both with the mother and the sister. And your Grace said "Never with the mother."
• Elizabeth Amadas - Amadas was the wife of the royal goldsmith and a woman some believe to have been the King's mistress at one time. She asserted "that the King had kept both the mother and the daughter" and also alleged that "my lord of Wiltshire was bawd both to his wife and his two daughters."
• Thomas Jackson, a Yorkshire chantry priest – He claimed that Henry VIII had "kept the mother and afterwards the daughter."
• John Hale, Vicar of Isleworth - He said that "the King's Grace had meddled with the "Queen's mother."
• The Catholic writers Nicholas Harpsfield, William Rastell and Nicholas Sander - Harpsfield wrote that he "had credibly heard reported that the King knew the mother of Anne Boleyn." Lord Herbert wrote of Rastell asserting that Anne Boleyn was the fruit of an affair between Henry VIII and Elizabeth Boleyn. And Nicholas Sander gave quite a detailed account of the affair, which, according to him, took place while Thomas Boleyn was in France on an embassy.
• Adam Blackwood - Blackwood was a lawyer defending the reputation of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587, shortly after her execution.
Alison Weir points out that although there are many sources for this alleged affair between Henry VIII and Elizabeth Boleyn, the King denied it. She also comments that all the sources for the affair are "hostile" and the claims of Rastell and Sander simply don't add up because Thomas Boleyn "was not sent as ambassador to France until 1519". Weir also says that "Henry was probably less than ten years old when Anne was conceived"18 but that obviously depends on what you believe to be her birthdate. Henry VIII was indeed ten years old in 1501, but it is also claimed she was born in 1507, when he would have been sixteen.
Let's examine the sources and see just how credible they may be:
Friar William Peto
In The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives writes of how Friar Peto preached a sermon on Easter Sunday 1532 "telling Henry to his face that he would end up like the Old Testament tyrant Ahab (though he left unspoken the implication that Anne Boleyn was Jezebel)."19 Ives does not mention Peto talking to the King afterwards. However, I have looked up reports of this day in Letters and Papers, Alison Weir's reference, and also in the Spanish Calendar of State Papers. All I can find is a report from Chapuys stating that the sermon upset the King, and the following paragraph:
"And I hear that the King himself, happening to converse privately with the said friar after the sermon, heard from his lips what was not much to his taste, for the Provincial spoke openly to him about the royal marriage in contemplation, telling him in plain words that if he did not take care he would be in great danger of losing his kingdom, since all his subjects, high and low, were opposed to it."20
There is no mention of any scandalous relationships between the King and Elizabeth Boleyn or the King and Mary Boleyn. Even if there were to have been such comments,
Peto was head of the Observant Friars and as such was in agreement with the likes of Warham and More. These latter men opposed the King's proposed annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, viewing Catherine as his true wife and Anne Boleyn as Jezebel.
Historian G.W. Bernard writes of how Peto had told the King that "it was said that he [the King] had meddled both with Anne Boleyn's sister, Mary Boleyn, and their mother";21 he cites Nicholas Harpsfield as a reference. I searched through Harpsfield's book A Treatise on the Pretended Divorce Between Henry VIII and Catharine of Aragon; Harpsfield mentions Peto's sermon but not what Peto said to the King afterwards, although a few pages later he comments "Yea, I have credibly heard reported that the King knew the mother of the said Anne Bulleyne", meaning "knew" in a sexual way.22 It all sounds like gossip to me, a salacious rumour put about to blacken Anne's name during the time of Henry's quest for the annulment of his first marriage.
Sir George Throckmorton
In Letters and Papers, in the records for 1537, there is a report concerning Sir George Throckmorton and Sir Thomas Dyngley. In it, we read of a conversation between Throckmorton and the King:
"About six or seven years ago [Throckmorton] conversed with Sir Thos. Dyngley in the garden at St. John's about the Parliament matters. Dyngley wondered that the Act of Appeals should pass so lightly, and Throgmorton said it was no wonder as few would displease my lord Privy Seal. Told Sir Thomas he had been sent for by the King after speaking about that Act, and that he saw his Grace's conscience was troubled about having married his brother's wife. "And I said to him that I told your Grace I feared if ye did marry Queen Anne your conscience would be more troubled at length, for it is thought ye have meddled both with the mother and the sister. And his Grace said 'Never with the mother'."23
In the same report, we hear that Throckmorton gleaned the information regarding Henry VIII and Elizabeth Boleyn from Friar Peto:
"Explains his conduct since the beginning of the Parliament of 21 Hen. VIII. Just before that Parliament friar Peto, who was in a tower in Lambeth over the gate, sent for him and showed him two sermons that he and another friar had made before the King at Greenwich, and reported a long conversation he had had with the King in the garden after the sermon. He said he had told the King that he could have no other wife while the Princess Dowager lived unless he could prove carnal knowledge between prince Arthur and her; which he said was impossible, as she, who knew best, had received the Sacrament to the contrary, and she was so virtuous that her word deserved more credit than all the other proofs; that prince Arthur's saying that he had been in the midst of Spain was probably but a light word; and that the King could never marry Queen Anne as it was said he had meddled with the mother and the daughter. He moreover advised Throgmorton if he were in the Parliament house to stick to that matter, as he would save his soul."
So, Throckmorton is not a separate source for the scandal; he got his information from Friar Peto. Furthermore, G.W. Bernard believes that Throckmorton was just boasting to his friends and that he never spoke these words to the King.24
Elizabeth Amadas
In Letters and Papers, in the records for 1533, there is a collection of prophecies spoken by "Mistress Amadas". The eighth prophecy is:
"She rejoiced when the Tower was made white, for she said shortly after my lady Anne should be burned, for she is a harlot; that Master Nores was bawd between the King and her ; that the King had kept both the mother and the daughter, and that my lord of Wiltshire was bawd both to his wife and his two daughters."25
Now, I'm not sure that we can take that claim very seriously when it is amongst sixteen rather fanciful prophecies regarding Mouldwarp, dragons, blazing stars and the destruction of the King. Josephine Wilkinson points out that when Mrs Amadas was abandoned by her husband "she began to champion the causes of other discarded wives", like Catherine of Aragon. This would have naturally put her against Anne Boleyn and the Boleyn family.26 Wilkinson also believes that Amadas may have had a fling with Henry VIII at some point, so this prophecy may also be a case of sour grapes. Whatever the motive behind her words, we cannot take Amadas's words as proof of a relationship between Elizabeth Boleyn and the King without also believing her other fanciful claims.
Thomas Jackson, Chantry Priest
In June 1535, William Fayrfax reported to Thomas Cromwell of an indictment against "Sir Thos. Jakson, priest":
"Deposition by John Lepar and Brian Banke before Wm. Fayrefax, sheriff, co. York, against Thos. Jackson, chantry priest of Chepax, for saying: 1. That the King lived in adultery [with Anne Boleyn] before his marriage, and still lives so. 2. That he kept the mother and afterwards the daughter, "and now he hath married her whom he kept afore, and her mother also."27
I suspect that this priest, a Catholic who was obviously opposed to the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn, was simply spreading gossip which blackened the royal couple's names.
John Hale, Vicar of Isleworth
In 1535, John Hale, Vicar of Isleworth was reported as saying "the King's grace had meddling [sic] with the Queen's mother."28 Further objections against Hale included that he had "called the King the 'Molywarppe' that Merlin prophesied of, that turned all up, and that the King was accursed of God's own mouth, and that the marriage between the King and Queen was unlawful."29 The fact that he referred to the King as "Mouldwarp" suggests to me that he was simply repeating the prophecies of Elizabeth Amadas. In his own account to the council, Hale states that "the fellow of Bristow showed, both to me and others of Syon, the prophecies of Marlyon; for, by my truth, Master Skydmore showed me also the same, with whom I had several conversations concerning the King's marriage and other behaviours of his bodily lust." He is simply repeating hearsay. Hale also said "Moreover, Mr. Skydmore dyd show to me yongge Master Care, saying that he was our suffren Lord the Kynge's son by our suffren Lady the Qwyen's syster, whom the Qwyen's grace myght not suffer to be yn the Cowrte"; more hearsay concerning the paternity of Mary Boleyn's son, Henry Carey.
Harpsfield, Rastell and Sander
When reading the claims of these men regarding Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, we have to take into account who the men were. Nicholas Harpsfield was a Catholic priest who was friends with Thomas More and his family. He wrote a biography of More, which he dedicated to his patron, William Roper, More's son-in-law. He also wrote A Treatise on the Pretended Divorce between Henry VIII and Catharine of Aragon. He was against Henry VIII's annulment and was a supporter of Catherine of Aragon.
William Rastell was a printer, judge and Catholic who was related to Sir Thomas More. He wrote a now lost "Life" of his uncle and saw Anne Boleyn as a Salome type,30 who put on a special banquet for Henry VIII to persuade him to execute More and Bishop Fisher.
Nicholas Sander was a Catholic recusant writing about Anne Boleyn while he was in exile during her daughter Elizabeth I's reign. He wrote:
"ANNE BOLEYN was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn's wife; I say of his wife, because she could not have been the daughter of Sir Thomas, for she was born during his absence of two years in France on the king's affairs. Henry VIII. sent him apparently on an honourable mission in order to conceal his own criminal conduct; but when Thomas Boleyn, on his return at the end of two years, saw that a child had been born in his house, he resolved, eager to punish the sin, to prosecute his wife before the delegates of the archbishop of Canterbury, and obtain a separation from her. His wife informs the king, who sends the marquis of Dorset with an order to Thomas Boleyn to refrain from prosecuting his wife, to forgive her, and be reconciled to her. Sir Thomas Boleyn saw that he must not provoke the king's wrath, nevertheless he did not yield obedience to his orders before he learned from his wife that it was the king who had tempted her to sin, and that the child Anne was the daughter of no other than Henry VIII."31
Sander goes on to describe Anne Boleyn as "rather tall of stature, with black hair, and an oval face of a sallow complexion, as if troubled with jaundice. She had a projecting tooth under the upper li
p, and on her right hand six fingers. There was a large wen under her chin, and therefore to hide its ugliness she wore a high dress covering her throat." He then writes of her being banished to France at the age of fifteen after having sexual relationships with her father's butler and chaplain. No other source describes Anne Boleyn in such a way; and she was in France serving Queen Claude when she was fifteen so the story about her scandalous behaviour at Hever is pure fiction. How, then, can we set much store by Sander's claim that Anne was Henry VIII's daughter? Sander was simply blackening the name of Anne Boleyn, the mother of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I who was the reason for him being in exile.
Adam Blackwood
Adam Blackwood was "a Scot, a Catholic, a lawyer and a poet"32 who wrote Martyre de la royne d'Escosse (The martyrdom of the Queen of Scotland) or The History of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587, a defence of the Queen's virtues and an attack on Elizabeth I. Blackwood wrote his book shortly after Sander wrote his, and he repeated Sanders' story about Anne Boleyn being Henry VIII's daughter. Blackwood also collected and contributed to a collection of poems known as de Jezebelis33 which painted Elizabeth as Jezebel and perpetuated the myth that she was the result of an incestuous relationship between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, father and daughter. Blackwood's work was simply propaganda aimed at defending Mary Queen of Scots's reputation and slandering the woman he viewed as her murderess.
Other Sources
I found another source for the myth: The Life and Death of the Renowned John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. The writer is stated as Thomas Bailey (1655), although the real author is said to be Dr Richard Hall, writing in the reign of Elizabeth I. In this book, Bailey writes of Cardinal Wolsey investigating a possible pre-contract between Henry Percy and Anne Boleyn and of Wolsey calling for the Countess of Wiltshire, Elizabeth Boleyn, to see what she had to say about this. According to Bailey, Elizabeth Boleyn "better liked of the marriage of her daughter with the said Lord Percy, than if the King should marry her" and Wolsey, guessing the reason for this, sent her to the King. Elizabeth Boleyn then, according to Bailey, said to the King:
The Anne Boleyn Collection II: Anne Boleyn & the Boleyn Family Page 19
